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I like to purchase and download MP3s directly on my phone, but this is a challenge with video game soundtracks. Why, when buying music in a browser has been around for decades, is this still a problem?

Want to add a little unpredictability to your Python code? The random module is the quickest way to do it. From generating numbers and shuffling lists to simulating real-world randomness, it's one of those small but useful modules every Python programmer should know. Let's dive in!

As the automotive world charges toward electrification, one icon continues to roar defiantly against the current. The Ford Mustang remains America’s last great muscle car standing, a living link to the golden age of V-8 power, rear-wheel drive, and unfiltered performance. While its rivals have either gone electric or disappeared altogether, the Mustang carries the torch for traditional American muscle.

Multiview is one of the best features to hit some of our favorite streaming services. It allows users to watch multiple sports or news stations simultaneously. While this technology is still slowly arriving for more services, Amazon recently introduced a new immersive and customizable viewing experience for Prime Video. I hope YouTube TV copies it, and fast.

This was another busy week in tech, with the big release of Ubuntu Linux 25.10, Synology walking back its hard drive compatibility restrictions, Microsoft testing a new Start Menu for Windows 11, and much more. Here are the biggest stories you might have missed.

Call it escapism, call it wanderlust, call it living vicariously through the lives of kick-ass covert spies and kung-fu masters—our love for action movies is primal.

If you regularly use speakers on your PC and feel like something’s missing, there’s a good chance it’s the bass. That’s because true, full-bodied bass requires a specialized speaker called a subwoofer, and without one, you’re seriously missing out.

Have you ever called the "terminal" a "shell" or the "command line"? While you're not wrong for doing so, there are distinct differences between these terms. I'll dive into those differences and where the terms originated; how many can you get correct?

The Unihertz Titan 2 is a BlackBerry-inspired smartphone that is limited not by its ambition, but by its size. It makes for an intriguing pocket computer, but as a phone, it stretches the definition of portable—along with the hands and pockets that hold it.

In the age of on-demand everything, it’s no surprise that we can get "dates" (and I use that term loosely) hot to go with the tap of a button. Thanks to the best hookup apps, finding a sexy new friend can be just as easy as ordering a pizza. As for the quality, well, that’s probably the same too — hit or miss, depending on the time of day, where you're located, and how hungry you are.

Fortunately, you’ve got me, your resident dating app expert (though I prefer modern-day Carrie Bradshaw), to guide you. I've personally vetted all of the best dating apps to separate the contenders from the pretenders. I also consulted a panel of sex and relationship experts to make sure my picks are solid.

What to know before you swipe

My number one rule is to be brutally honest about what you’re looking for. You’re here for a good time, not a long time — so own it. That also means staying in your lane; don't go looking for a one-night stand on an app like eharmony.

"Hookup apps help prevent situations where people are on mainstream dating sites with the intention of having a casual hookup but are unclear about these intentions," Suzannah Weiss, resident sexologist for Biird and author of Subjectified: Becoming a Sexual Subject, tells Mashable. "They also give women a space to be openly sexual creatures without judgment."

And here's a little insider secret I picked up from Alexander Liebisch, the CEO and founder of TinderProfile.ai: Timing is everything. He found that people messaging on Tinder's "free tonight" feature after 10 p.m. on a weekend had a 45 percent higher chance of hooking up.

SEE ALSO: 10 free dating apps to try for cuffing season 2025

So, whether you're looking for a one-night stand, a regular FWB situation, or just a space to explore your sexuality, I've got you covered. Based on all my hands-on testing and expert consultations, I’ve broken down the best hookup app for every type of person and mood.

Recent updates to this guide

• Hinge: Hinge just keeps getting better, so I’ve bumped it up higher on my list. Its user base is growing, and my own recent tests on the app have been surprisingly positive.

• Sniffies (added September 2025): I've added Sniffies, the map-based app for queer men, because it's been gaining a lot of traction. (It got a little too spicy for Apple and was pulled from the App Store, so it's now technically a website.) Don't say I didn't warn you about the NSFW content.

• FetLife (added September 2025): FetLife is my new favorite "Honorable Mention." It's not your typical hookup app; it's more of a social network for the kink community (and, oddly enough, the best hookup app for gamers). Just remember: it's a community, so don't treat it like Tinder.

Why some popular hookup apps didn't make the cut

You might notice a few well-known hookup apps are missing here. That’s intentional. Part of my job is to swipe through the good, the bad, and the downright sketchy so you don’t have to. An app doesn't get my recommendation just because it's popular; it has to be effective, safe, and actually worth your time.

The apps below were left out for a combination of reasons, from having what I consider an ancient interface to user reviews and Reddit threads complaining about everything from bots to questionable billing practices.

BeNaughty and Fling.com: On the surface, sites like BeNaughty and Fling.com look like they'd be a good time, but the user feedback I read (and I read a lot) paints a different picture. Reddit threads are filled with complaints about these platforms being overrun with what seem to be bots and fake profiles. One user reported that, within a minute of making the payment, they received over 20 messages. That's a major red flag in my book. Multiple users have also reported confusing "trial" offers that lead to unexpected, recurring subscriptions, sometimes from affiliated sites they didn't realizing they were signing up for — a common trick on adult websites.

Kasual: Unlike the others, Kasual doesn't seem to be an outright "scam," but based on user feedback, it’s not very effective either. The biggest complaint is that the app feels like a ghost town, with a small and inactive user base, especially if you're not in a major city. Many users report that matches rarely reply or that conversations go nowhere, feeling forced or like people are just there to pass the time. While the platform itself seems legitimate, a dating app without enough active people is like a party with no guests. For that reason, I can't recommend it.

Apps I've cut from the list

• Plenty of Fish (removed January 2025): POF went through a rebrand recently, and honestly, I'm not impressed. My latest tests showed they got rid of key features like free messaging for non-matches, and I kept running into the same old profiles. At the end of the day, it just doesn't offer anything special that other apps aren't already doing better, so it's off the list.

• Match (removed August 2025): I know some people say they've found casual hookups on Match, but that's not what it's for. Match is where you go to find a serious, long-term relationship, and I still recommend it for that. But for a hookup? You're just fishing in the wrong pond, so I've removed it from this guide to avoid any confusion.

Sexting can open up a whole new frontier for your sex life. In my experience, it’s an exciting form of digital foreplay that builds anticipation like nothing else. But you can't just slide into someone's DMs on a random dating app and start a spicy conversation (unless you're on a site like AdultFriendFinder, where that's the whole point). Real sexting requires more thought, especially when it comes to your privacy.

SEE ALSO: A beginner's guide to sexting

As Mashable's resident dating app expert for the last three years, I've tested dozens of platforms to find the best and most discreet apps for the job. My highest priority is always user safety. I spoke with security expert Gary Orenstein, who stressed that for sharing intimate content, "privacy features cannot be optional — they’re essential." He recommends looking for apps with three key features: end-to-end encryption, disappearing messages, and screenshot detection.

After all, if you believe in safe sex, you should practice safe sexting, too. Based on my hands-on testing and these expert criteria, I’ve picked the best sexting apps that will keep your chats private.

Recent updates to this guide:

We regularly test new apps and dating platforms. For our most recent update to this guide in October 2025, we made the following changes:

• Confide: We've once again named this the best overall sexting app, replacing Signal as the top pick. We still recommend Signal as the best free secure messaging app. On balance, we think Confide's security and privacy tools give it the edge.

• Lovesense Remote: We added Lovesense Remote as the app that's "Best for Group Sexting." Lovesense Remote is also a fun way for couples (and polyamorous folks) to incorporate sexting and Bluetooth sex toys to their love life.

• FetLife: We named FetLife "Best for Niche Kinks & Fetishes." This social networking platform is popular in the kinkster community and can be a good way to connect with sexy new friends.

I don’t know when it started, because it definitely wasn’t always like this, but Grindr has a serious problem. You can’t do a single damn thing on the app without being smacked in the face with an ad, and it’s absolute hell.

Does it really cost a minimum of five long seconds (in some cases, many, many more) to get a little bit of action in 2025? Yes, it does. But, it doesn’t have to… if you’re willing to let the Grindr gods take a peek into your wallet. 

For $14.99 — a steep price for a weekly app subscription, I have to say — users can get rid of every unwanted Grindr ad for one whole week. On top of that, you’ll unlock access to 600 additional profiles in your area, enjoy unlimited album views without the hassle of them vanishing after a few hours, send as many expiring photos and albums as you like, and tons more.

But, for a little over $2 a day, is paying for Grindr XTRA for the week really worth the money, especially when there are so many other dating apps? Prior to testing the feature for myself, I was sure I’d say no. But the answer isn’t as black and white as you’d think.

Opens in a new window Credit: Mashable Grindr XTRA Check pricing Learn More What Is Grindr XTRA?

Grindr XTRA is basically Grindr’s way of saying, “We know you’re desperate, so how about you pay us to make this hellscape slightly less miserable?” What do you get in return for coughing up the cash? First, sweet, sweet freedom from those endless ads clogging every corner of the app, which is a major bonus. It makes the app actually, dare I say, usable. This is the most beneficial aspect of getting Grindr XTRA, full stop. 

You’ll also get the ability to create multiple albums, mark recently chatted people (so you don’t accidentally message the same guy twice), and the ability to send three expiring photos each day. 

Multiple albums are a nice perk, though their usefulness feels a little limited to me. Since Grindr only allows one video per album, the feature really only shines if you’re juggling lots of photos or sending different sets to different people.

As for recently marked profiles, this one’s pretty killer. It saves you from déjà vu (and from coming across as desperate), like when you think, “Oh, this torso pic looks really hot,” click over for a quick “Hello,” and then realize you definitely messaged the same guy at 3 a.m. a couple of weekends ago. And, personally, when it comes to expiring albums, I don’t have much of a use for ‘em. I’m an out gay man, and I don’t really care who sees my dick anymore. Every Chicago gay on Grindr already has. It’s whatever. But, if you’re the type that likes to keep your nudes sensitive, this is a massive step up for privacy. You’ll never have to worry again about whether or not some rando you chatted with once saved your nudes to a private album in their smartphone.

SEE ALSO: 10 free dating apps to try for cuffing season 2025

Like I mentioned, you’ll also have a bigger grid of guys to scroll through (an absolutely incredible perk), a golden ticket to the global Explore feature (useless unless you’re planning to go on a Dublin trip next month and/or prefer long-distance sexting), and a few shiny extras like read receipts (so you know exactly who’s ignoring you) and saved phrases (so you don’t have to type what you’re into 600 times over).

Another handy feature is the ability to filter profiles more effectively based on what you’re looking for. The free version of Grindr doesn’t let you use filters nearly as well as it once did. 

Back in the day (yes, I’ve been single long enough to remember), you could set an age range, pick a tribe (jocks, bears, twinks, etc.), select a “looking for” category (hookups, relationships, dates, and so on), add tags (bondage, anon, couples, whatever) to actually narrow in on your ideal person. The results would still show just as many profiles as you’d see without filters at all. 

Now? The free version only spits out three to six profiles when you try to get specific. With Grindr XTRA, you’ll see the same full range of profiles whether you’re using filters or not. This is great if you’re interested in something super specific, like bottom non-binary bear trade who is into fisting (or ff, if you know, you know) and tentacles.

How Much Is Grindr XTRA?

Grindr XTRA is currently available under four price points, which may vary by location:

• One week: $14.99

• One month: $22.99 (savings of 64%)

• Three months: $49.99 (savings of 74%)

• Twelve months: $149.99 (savings of 80%)

What’s the Difference Between Grindr XTRA and Grindr Unlimited?

Because of course, Grindr XTRA isn’t the only paid Grindr subscription the app offers. Go figure. Grindr Unlimited is the cream of the crop when it comes to Grindr, offering every single aspect of what you’d get with Grindr XTRA, plus everything else in the kitchen sink. You’ll have the ability to see every single profile that has viewed you, unsend messages after post-nut clarity, browse the grid without being seen in incognito mode, see when someone is typing a message, and, of course, see unlimited profiles using unlimited filters. 

The catch? It starts at $9.99 for one day. For a full month, though, that would set you back $22.99, with savings of 64% total. Three months is $49.99 with a savings of 74%, and 12 months is $149.99 with a savings of 80%. We don’t know what kind of money you’re working with, but if you can afford to pay for your hookup apps and you’re that horny, you do you, baby.

Is paying for Grindr worth it?

Here’s where things get tough: I honestly do not know how to answer this question for you. My wallet and brain both tell me no, but, the user experience Grindr XTRA has to offer? It’s incomprehensibly good. And I can’t help but feel like there’s a little conspiracy behind why that is.

Unpaid-for-Grindr is a borderline unusable app in 2025, but it does technically work just fine for free users. It’s not that you need to pay for Grindr to use it effectively. The problems with using Grindr for free in 2025 are the following:

• Ads are overwhelming

• The app crashes constantly

• Messages slip through the cracks

• The search function is almost useless

I’ve noticed all of these issues popping up over the past few years at different points in time, and I’m hardly the only one. I fear Grindr did this on purpose — make the app a true piece of shit so we’re left with no other option but to purchase a week-long Grindr XTRA subscription in our horniest of moments, realize once again how incredible the app can be, and then, poof, the week is over. Your only choice? Re-up for another week of Grindr XTRA or suffer through all of the ads once again. It’s kind of like a drug for insufferably horny gay men like myself.

But, again, is Grindr XTRA worth it? While I don't usually say this, I could go both ways. Sometimes, yes, depending on the circumstances. Are you touring a new city alone for a week and want your whole cake and to eat it, too? Then, sure — pay for a week-long Grindr XTRA subscription for a little over $2 a day. Go buck wild on your Berlin trip. Are you home on your couch when Pornhub is just a few clicks away in your Safari app? Maybe don’t pay for Grindr XTRA this time. Let it be a little treat every once in a while. Everybody deserves a little treat every once in a while.

So, should I get Grindr XTRA?

I think that if you’re here and you read everything I had to say about Grindr XTRA, you’ll realize it absolutely has its perks, with my personal two favorites being absolutely zero ads and the ability to filter out the wazoo. But, once upon a time, these weren’t “perks”. This was just how gay dating apps were supposed to function. If Grindr would actually fix the unpaid user experience instead of squeezing every penny out of the gay community, we could go back to using Grindr the way the gay gods intended. No one should have to cough up cash just to make a hookup app function the way it’s supposed to. Just some food for thought.

But, here’s the hard truth we all have to swallow: I bought Grindr XTRA, and my experience was nothing less than perfect. 

In the future, I do hope the Grindr experience goes back to the way it used to be, but that seems unlikely. So, here’s my verdict: When you take that solo trip to Rome, New York City, or Ibiza, pay for Grindr XTRA for a week, and only a week. You’ll hate yourself for paying, but you’ll hate Grindr even more if you don’t.

Opens in a new window Credit: Mashable Grindr XTRA Check pricing Learn More

Watching sports used to be easy — after flipping a few channels, you'd likely stumble across the biggest games by pure chance. Now, between regional blackouts, exclusive streaming rights, and astronomical cable bills, tuning into live sports has become quite a headache.

Whether you've cut the cord or are still weighing your options, you can still catch all of the games, matches, and races you desire — it just may take a few different subscriptions. We've done some of the heavy lifting for you and dissected the top live sports streaming services to help you decide.

Which streaming service is best to watch live sports?

Streaming services give you the sports coverage you want, but on your terms. However, there are so many to choose from that it can be a little difficult deciding which ones are the best fit for you. When making your selection, here are some of the essential things to keep in mind:

• Which sports are most important to you? If you’re a die-hard college football fan and don’t really pay attention to any other sports, you may be solid with just ESPN and Fox One. Only care about hockey? You can just subscribe to your regional sports network and forget about the rest.

• Which channels do you need? Figure out which networks are non-negotiable for you to watch the sports you want. NFL games, for instance, air on CBS, FOX, NBC, and ESPN, while NBA, MLB, and NHL games mostly air on regional sports networks as well as TNT, TBS, ABC, and ESPN.

• Are you looking for a cable replacement? Some streaming services on this list are a cable replacement first and a sports service second. YouTube TV, for example, offers access to a bunch of live channels, on-demand movies and shows, as well as sports. These kinds of options are great if your whole family is going to be using them, or you just want a comprehensive TV plan for yourself. Otherwise, they can be pretty expensive.

• Is your team in-network? By far, the most annoying thing about streaming live sports is the prioritizing of in-network games. If you’re a fan of a local team, you shouldn’t have as much to worry about. But if you’re a fan of an out-of-market team, your life will be significantly harder — particularly for NFL games. You’ll probably have to splurge on NFL Sunday Ticket if you want access to all games, regardless of the network.

• How much are you willing to pay? Cable replacement services are extremely pricey — especially if you want access to regional sports networks. If you don't need all of the extra bells and whistles that come with services like Fubo and YouTube TV, you can save a lot of money by opting for several casual streamers like ESPN and Peacock instead.

How to watch league-specific sports

If you really only care about watching a specific team or league, you might not need to sign up for an entire cable replacement service. Individual leagues often offer dedicated streaming services. Of course, these services also have their own pros and cons, but we'll leave it to you to decide. Here's a brief breakdown of the league-specific streaming services you can choose from.

NFL

• NFL+ — mobile only, in-market games only for $6.99 per month or $49.99 per year

• NFL Sunday Ticket — out of market games only for $47.25 per month or $378 per year with YouTube TV, $60 per month or $480 per year without YouTube TV

MLB

• MLB.TV — out of market games only for $29.99 per month or $149.99 per year

NBA

• NBA League Pass — out of market games only for $16.99 per month or $109.99 per season

MLS

• MLS Season Pass — every regular and post-season game for $14.99 per month or $99 per season

How to watch live sports without cable

While there are at least a baker's dozen streaming platforms (and counting) to watch live and recorded sports, each has its perks and drawbacks. There's no point in canceling your cable plan if you can't watch your favorite teams live, right? We've done some of the grunt work and sorted out which streaming services can get you access to the live sports you crave. Check out our top picks to help you decide what to spend your money on.

Astronomers have captured a radio image showing two black holes orbiting each other for the first time, just six years after the release of the first-ever photo of a single black hole. 

The discovery confirms that pairs of supermassive black holes really do exist — something scientists have suspected for decades but never directly seen until now.

The system lies at the heart of a brilliant space object called quasar OJ 287, about 3.5 billion light-years from Earth. Quasars, a portmanteau for "quasi-stellar objects," are extremely bright galaxy cores powered by black holes feasting on surrounding gas and dust. OJ 287 has long stood out because its brightness rises and falls every 12 years. That pattern was a clue that two giant black holes might be circling one another like in a cosmic do-si-do.

The new observations are among the sharpest radio images ever made to explore what’s happening deep inside a quasar — and offers evidence that both black holes may be producing their own powerful jets of energy.

"The image of the two black holes was captured with a radio telescope system that included the RadioAstron satellite," said Mauri Valtonen of the University of Turku in Finland, in a statement. "In recent years, we have only been able to use Earth-based telescopes, where the image resolution is not as good."

SEE ALSO: NASA astronaut class appears to be first without Black recruits in 40 years

Black holes rank among the most mind-boggling objects in the cosmos. They are regions in space where gravity is so intense that nothing, not even light, can escape. About 50 years ago, astronomers weren't entirely convinced these invisible giants were even real. 

Today, black holes aren't just accepted, they're being photographed by a collection of enormous, synced-up radio dishes. In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope produced the first-ever image of a black hole, located 53 million light-years away in the galaxy Messier 87. Three years later, the same group captured another historic image: the black hole at the center of our own Milky Way, called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* for short.

This new history-making radio image is part of a broader OJ 287 study led by Valtonen, which appears in The Astrophysical Journal. The host galaxy is thought to have one enormous black hole — about 18 billion times the weight of the sun — and a smaller companion roughly equal to 150 million suns in mass. As the smaller one orbits, it periodically crashes through the larger black hole’s disk of gas and dust, creating predictable bursts of light.

The first hints that something weird was happening in OJ 287 emerged in the late 1800s, according to the paper, when the quasar appeared unexpectedly in early sky photographs — long before scientists even knew black holes existed. 

In the 1980s, Finnish astronomer Aimo Sillanpää noticed its repeating light pattern and proposed the idea of two black holes. Since then, researchers around the world have tracked the system, trying to map out the pair’s motion. More recently, scientists have calculated how they think the pair ought to appear. 

The black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, was imaged with the Event Horizon Telescope, a virtual, Earth-size telescope. Credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration

The confirmation of this duo came from a powerful radio telescope network that included the Russian RadioAstron satellite, which operated until 2019. Its antenna once orbited about 120,000 miles from Earth, about halfway to the moon. When combined with ground-based radio dishes, this setup achieved extremely high resolution. 

The approach differed from how the previous images of black holes were made, which used the Event Horizon Telescope, a virtual Earth-sized telescope that links radio dishes around the world. Instead, the new OJ 287 image used a space-based technique that "achieved a much longer observing baseline, and hence a higher-resolution image," said Daniel Reichart, a University of North Carolina professor and one of the study's co-authors. 

The method has its drawbacks: It uses longer radio wavelengths that blur as they travel through space, making it impossible to see a black hole's edge. The tradeoff, Reichart explained to Mashable, is that the Event Horizon Telescope "has a slightly lower resolution, but a higher fidelity," delivering clearer images. But with the space-based technique, the team was able to see enough detail to separate the two black holes within OJ 287. Without that resolution, the pair would otherwise appear as a single light.

"For the first time, we managed to get an image of two black holes circling each other," Valtonen said. "The black holes themselves are perfectly black, but they can be detected by these particle jets or by the glowing gas surrounding the hole." 

The team also saw something new: a twisting jet from the smaller black hole, which seems to whip back and forth as it moves through its orbit. Future studies may observe the jet changing direction over time.

Aquarius and Bacurau director Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent weaves a complex, time-jumping political crime thriller, focusing on one man's experience of persecution. 

Mainly set in the late '70s in the Brazilian writer/director's hometown of Recife, Pernambuco, but moving fluidly between the past and present, the film predominantly takes place in the tumultuous years of Brazil's military dictatorship. It's a heavy topic explored with humanity, boasting such a compelling script, impeccable acting, and striking 1970s aesthetic that it's impossible to look away.

SEE ALSO: Alex Garland and Wagner Moura on creating an anti-war war film with 'Civil War'

In the lead, Narcos and Civil War star Wagner Moura gives a tremendously interior performance as a man justifiably paranoid in his mission to escape his country's authoritarian regime. There's a reason Moura took Best Actor at Cannes, with Mendonça Filho snatching Best Director; The Secret Agent sees both dive headfirst into the complexities of rampant corruption and desperately searching for a way out.  

The Secret Agent flicks between past and present to craft a complex narrative. Wagner Moura in "The Secret Agent." Credit: Victor Juca

Over three acts superbly edited by Eduardo Serrano and Matheus Farias, Mendonça Filho's film runs on multiple timelines in the past and present. In 1977, we meet Armando (Moura), who's going by the alias Marcelo, a man newly arrived in a residential complex in Recife during the annual Carnival period. A small Kodak box fits all of his possessions, and he gives little away about himself. The apartments are run by vigilant matriarch Dona Sebastiana (Tânia Maria), and Armando is welcomed with open arms. Among omnipresent Carnival celebrations, Armando is warmly introduced by his septuagenarian guardian to his neighbours. They're also political refugees, though not all enjoy using the term. There's Thereza Vitória (Isabél Zuaa), who has fled the Angolan Civil War with her partner; there's single mother Claudia (Hermila Guedes) whose past beyond her dental profession remains her own mystery to bear. Many live under threat of death, like our protagonist.

Meanwhile, corruption runs rife through the city streets, as do careening cop vans full of crooked officials, hooting, hollering, and unabashedly lawless. The most prominent in The Secret Agent is police chief Euclides (Robério Diógenes) and his bodyguard-like sons Arlindo (Ítalo Martins) and Sergio (Igor de Araújo), who enter the story by being pulled out of Carnival when a man's severed leg is found in a dead shark — and this is by no means the limit of the violence ahead in The Secret Agent.

Featured Video For You Alex Garland and Wagner Moura on creating an anti-war war film with 'Civil War'

Slowly, the film reveals the seriousness of Armando's situation: he's a widowed university professor, specialising in electrical engineering, who is fleeing persecution amid the country's military dictatorship. In his past, standing up to corporate greed and corrupt government bureaucracy has left him vulnerable and robbed him of his beloved wife Fátima (New Bandits' Alice Carvalho). Getting out is no easy feat, as corruption, surveillance, and sinister men orbit Armando at every turn — including two unnervingly unflappable hitmen, Bobbi (Ferrari's Gabriel Leone) and his stepfather Augusto (Roney Villela), on his trail. 

As well as Dona Sebastiana, others work under the radar to help those persecuted escape the country, such as Elza (Vermelho Monet's Maria Fernanda Cândido), who offers a form of witness protection, promising passports in a few days. A placement within the city's Identification Institute is Armando's best chance of finding physical proof of his mother's identity before he leaves Brazil with his young son, who lives with his grandparents. 

In the present, two young investigators in São Paulo listen to cassettes of recorded conversations from Armando's time, and we're left wondering where exactly their research is leading. Here, and through Mendonça Filho's use of archival photographs, the film becomes a fictional artifact in itself, a story worthy of study and examination. But it's the lived-in performances by the actors themselves that bring this unstable historical period to life, with Moura out front. 

Wagner Moura gives a tremendous performance in The Secret Agent.

Tasked with multiple roles across time periods, Moura earns every inch of his Cannes Best Actor award in The Secret Agent. The role was specifically written by Mendonça Filho for him, after all. A classic hero brave enough to challenge powerful, corrupt entities while rightly fearing for his life and his family, Armando predominantly internalises the level of serious threat constantly weighing on him. Moura's subtlety and frustration imbues our protagonist with a deeply human valiance, one that makes us as viewers want to protect him at all costs. 

Embodying a true ensemble affair, The Secret Agent sees Moura surrounded by bold, outlandish performances, all the way from iconic German actor Udo Kier as expat tailor Hans to Greta star Diógenes as the city's corrupt chief of police. Notably, Armando finds sanctuary with his father-in-law Sr. Alexandre (a wonderful performance by Bacurau's Carlos Francisco) who owns the local Cinema São Luiz, showing Brazilian films alongside American horror films like Jaws and The Omen that cause outright hysteria in audiences. Here, and through Evgenia Alexandrova's exquisite cinematography, you can feel Mendonça Filho's reverence for cinema as a filmmaker, critic, and curator — and its importance in turbulent times. In fact, The Secret Agent is a perfect pairing with the director's 2023 documentary Pictures of Ghosts (Retratos Fantasmas), which traces cinema in his hometown of Recife.

The Secret Agent runs on a striking '70s aesthetic.  Ítalo Martins, Robério Diógenes, Wagner Moura, and Igor de Araújo in "The Secret Agent." Credit: Victor Juca

Despite the paranoia and corruption that pervades the narrative, Mendonça Filho's film is a stunning '70s affair. Shot in anamorphic Panavision, it's nothing short of a feast for the eyes (before it's not). Each scene comes awash with the decade's signature oranges, browns, and yellows, with production designer Thales Junqueira's meticulous work on full display. Architect Chu Ming Silveira's iconic, egg-shaped, yellow public phone booths known as Orelhões (or "Big Ears") form a vital part of both the storyline and city landscape, while costume designer Rita Azevedo finds glorious authenticity in period-specific outfits.

Despite the political upheaval on the ground, Mendonça Filho also reverently and accurately captures the visuals of Recife, with Armando taking in gorgeous cityscapes from the Cinema São Luiz projection room, bathed in sunlight, and the street scenes often focusing on the members of the community caught up in the chaos. There's also a little magical realism thrown in for unexpected measure, and composers Mateus Alves and Tomaz Alves Souza pull everything together with an immersive, atmospheric score.

Ultimately, Mendonça Filho's film explores a time of political corruption, violence, and warranted paranoia through a human lens, with the director saying in a press statement, "The challenge was to make a film about the logic of that time without ticking all the boxes of the dictatorship movie." With Moura's powerful performance framed by a reverent, authentic aesthetic, The Secret Agent is a deeply humanised look at a historical moment of authoritarianism and government corruption. It's a must-see.

The Secret Agent was reviewed out of BFI London Film Festival and will be released in the UK and Ireland Feb. 20, 2026. The film hits cinemas in New York on Nov. 26, and Los Angeles Dec. 5, with nationwide release to follow.

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Grief is many things, uniquely indescribable and specific to us all. For British author Max Porter, in his lauded, no-bullshit, deeply personal novella, it’s a thing with feathers. Specifically, a giant, hulking, wheezing crow ready to read your inner pain to filth as clichéd, unoriginal.

In his formidable debut feature, director Dylan Southern adapts Porter's book into a moving drama that gnaws on loss through the hallmarks of horror. It's by no means the first film to lean on terror to explore grief — Pet Sematary, The Babadook, Talk to Me, the list is long. However, with a raw, anguished performance by Benedict Cumberbatch and production design that makes walls literally bleed ink, The Thing with Feathers will pluck at your heartstrings while threatening to devour them.

And for a film involving a massive talking bird, it's a shockingly accurate depiction of bereavement.

The Thing with Feathers channels the horror and grit of Max Porter's book.  Credit: BFI London Film Festival

Using magical realism to convey the inexplicability of loss, Porter's novella practically caws to be visualised — and Southern's adaptation could not be more aware of this.

The plot is human and simple: An illustrator and his two young sons are faced with life after their beloved matriarch suddenly dies. Characters in the story do not have names beyond their proper nouns — Dad, Boys, Mum — and where the book uses a polyphonic perspective structure, the film concentrates on one viewpoint per act for a fluid arc. Cumberbatch is Dad, now "Sad Dad," who privately struggles while keeping his two young Boys (twins Richard and Henry Boxall) fed, bathed, and picked up from school at the very least. However, one dark and stormy night, a colossal, gruff-voiced Crow descends upon this house of mourning, as the personification of grief (hence the title). And he refuses to leave "until you don’t need me anymore," which is... when?

SEE ALSO: 'A Private Life' review: Jodie Foster is magnifique in comedic Parisian mystery

Where Porter's writing most brightly shines through Southern's film is in this crucial character of Crow (impeccably voiced by David Thewlis). An onyx-winged, glossy-eyed creature of seemingly eternal origin, Crow is an otherworldly, rasping presence whose status as friend or foe remains in constant flux.

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Behind the film's bold creature design and animatronics, and Eric Lampaert's physical performance, Thewlis is nothing short of marvellous as the voice of Crow. Both terrifying and hilarious, the lugubrious creature "finds humans incredibly dull except when grieving," and persists in mocking "Guardian-reading" Dad when he's not completely terrorising him (and us) with jump scares. Crow's croaking dialogue is predominantly a splintered and spat-out stream of consciousness, freely associated words making strange sense through the lens of death and loss. The character is much more crass and explicit in his ramblings in the novella, with the film version sticking to more PG utterances, but George Cragg's razor-sharp editing echoes Porter's fragmented writing style. 

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The film's surrealist sequences between Crow and Dad are its strongest, with one scene using horror elements to see Cumberbatch pursued by his avian assailant through a regular ol' supermarket. Probably one of the best scenes sees Dad's guard completely down while being mocked by Crow in his own living room, as the feathered presence ditches Dad's "white widower music" for a more gravelly Screamin' Jay Hawkins. The camera circles the two in a raw, urgent dance, and Cumberbatch lets it all go.

What's undeniably missing from the film is Porter's inescapable olfactory descriptions, with the novella so descriptive you can practically smell the "rich smell of decay" and "sweet furry stink" off the pages. It's a tough ask of filmmakers to convey scents through the screen, and we get glimmers of it — Dad's brother Paul commenting on the "Tracey Emin's kitchen" state of the house, for one. But where the film does one-up the book is in the pure talent of Cumberbatch.

The Thing with Feathers is as much a film about grief as it is about fatherhood. Credit: BFI London Film Festival

While The Thing with Feathers' primary emotional theme is grief, the film's exploration of fatherhood is just as multifaceted, brutal, and magical. Dad and the Boys are surrounded by reminders of Mum, in drawers, in wardrobes, in splintered memories, and Dad becomes instantly aware of how much he relied on his wife for "everything." As the Boys begin to act out in their own young grief, tension in their now-silent house reaches a boiling point for the forever-changed trio.

In the novella, which Porter wrote after the death of his father, the author writes of such specific aspects of grief they're frankly staggering. He describes Dad as a "trader in clichés of gratitude," a facade which Southern softens for the film but makes plain through a few scenes. Deleting the voicemails of concerned friends like Amanda (Vinette Robinson), family members like his brother Paul (Sam Spruell), and other — as Porter dubs them — "orbiting grievers," Cumberbatch's Dad doesn't allow himself to grieve in front of others, especially the Boys, instead burying his anguish until they're tucked up in bed.

Constantly surrounded by his new solo-parenting reality, Dad isn't as buoyed by imagination as the Boys are. Together, these two build "worlds full of life, full of possibility" while they're forced to process something not even their go-to grown-up is able to understand. Spiralling through torment and hinging on surrendering to total despair, Dad begins to replicate Crow-like behaviour, with vocal "krrraaa!"s and agitated movements that Cumberbatch embodies convincingly. Giving it everything he's got, the actor undergoes a full-bodied emotional upheaval throughout the film, unsuccessfully attempting to "keep things as normal as possible" for the Boys and always accompanied by the looming presence of Crow.

The Thing with Feathers is a barrage of wild sound and production design. Credit: BFI London Film Festival

The power of art to convey what words cannot runs through the whole film, taking on a literal presence. Dad's profession is a comic illustrator, with his drawing style a violent array of charcoal and ink drawings sketched with urgency and desperation. Southern extends this artistic form off the page and down the walls of the house, which results in some of the film's most striking visual sequences.

Suzie Davies' impeccable production design moves Dad and the Boys' melancholy home through a sense of ruin and abandonment, of dark creative impulses leading to neglect. Blood and ink become one in some genuinely brutal scenes. Paired with this is an absolutely maddening triumph of abrasive foley work, with sound designer Joakim Sundström crafting visceral dread (and many a jump scare) through the omnipresent flurry of flapping wings, incessant cawing, scratching charcoal sticks. All this functions alongside Dad's soundtrack of everyday parenting, of scraped burnt toast, metal spoons clanging on ceramic bowls, and juvenile resistance. It's all punctuated by Zebedee Budworth's melancholy score of plucked staccato strings and haunting a capella, and the effect is all-consuming.

It's this constant flux between reality and fantasy that both Porter's novella and Southern's adaptation obsess over, and it's a strangely accurate representation of just how surreal and, well, fucked-up daily existence can be after a sudden loss. Stranger than fiction is the order of the day, every day, and confronting such pain can feel like being haunted by a giant winged geezer. You just learn to live with Crow.

The Thing with Feathers was reviewed out of BFI London Film Festival, where it is showing Oct. 11 and 12. The film will release in UK cinemas on Nov. 7 and U.S. cinemas Nov. 28.