There is a scene late in Dev Patel’s directorial debut, the ferocious and ferociously entertaining Monkey Man, where the filmmaker, star, and co-writer rips a guy’s throat out. In the realm of action cinema, that is of course nothing new. However, the way it occurs here is. When Patel’s Kid finds his hands otherwise occupied, the feral protagonist improvises by catching a switchblade between his teeth and slowly unfurling its knife. He then drags its nasty end from ear to ear across the neck of a man he is wrapped around. The moment is intimate, drawn out, and very, very…

What the heck is Sasquatch Sunset? Sure, we watched the trailer released earlier this year, but that didn’t help much. Outside of brief introductory text and quotes from critics, the wordless trailer introduces us to a group of Bigfoots in their natural wooded habitat. We watch them frolic in the woods, pound sticks on trees, and, yes, screw. Although Sasquatches have appeared in film before, they usually have a clear and definable purpose. They’re monsters in movies such as Willow Creek or slightly bigger pets in comedies like Harry and the Hendersons. But Sasquatch Sunset doesn’t seem to fit into…

The term “scream queen” gets thrown around a lot, even applied to actors who have only done a handful of horror films. But if any young performer deserves the title, it’s Samara Weaving. Not only does she star in the very gruesome post-apocalyptic horror-action movie Azrael, directed by E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills) and written by Simon Barrett (The Guest), which just premiered at SXSW 2024, but she’s been in The Babysitter, Scream VI, and Ready or Not, among others. In fact, when we ask Weaving at the festival whether she likes being referred to as a “scream queen,” she answers…

Even though Rachel Zegler has only been working in Hollywood since 2021, she’s already racked up quite the resume. From her first screen role as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s take on West Side Story to her recent turn as folk singer Lucy Gray Baird in the Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Zegler has more than proven her capabilities as an actor and singer. But even with her iteration of Snow White still yet to be released, the captivating performer already has her sights on another classic musical character. While promoting her new A24 disaster comedy, Y2K,…

AOL Instant Messenger. Nintendo 64. Sisqo’s “The Thong Song.” Nu Metal and all things Limp. If you understood any of the above words, chances are you remember the turn of the millennium with fondness, as well as a degree of cringe. But if you don’t know these ancient relics, you probably still recognize the youthful and eagerly game faces that director Kyle Mooney has cast in his directorial debut, Y2K. Either way, the former SNL alumni has bet heavily on cultivating retro good vibes for his house party of a horror-comedy, and after watching the film at its world premiere…

This article appears in the SXSW 2024 issue of Den of Geek magazine. Check out all of our SXSW coverage here. Grand Theft Hamlet is about as absurd a mash-up as its title would have you believe. It’s a documentary about Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, two actors left jobless at the height of the pandemic who decide to put on a live-streamed production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Grand Theft Auto Online.  Partway through the film, which was shot entirely in-game, as Sam is rehearsing the play’s famous “To be or not to be” speech on the beaches of Los Santos, a…

Pageantry. Screw ups. Touching tributes. Private beefs made public. There are plenty of reasons to watch the Oscars. But they all amount to partaking in, witnessing, movie history in its many forms — the high art, the gossip, the record-breaking moments when an arthouse director becomes a household name.  However, there are a lot of ways to set a record. There are big moments like Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King tying the record with 11 trophies or Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite becoming the first film not in English (or silent) to win Best Picture. And then, beyond…

Expectations are very high for Daisy Ridley‘s return to the galaxy far, far away. The actor is set to don the Jedi robes once again in a standalone film, which currently has the working title of Star Wars: New Jedi Order, but she’s no longer playing Rey as the fresh-faced student still figuring out her place in the galaxy or among the many generations of Jedi heroes who have come before her. The Rey we’ll meet in the upcoming movie has become the teacher who is now working to build a new Jedi Order. The movie, which is set to…

“Who is you?” Poor Things protagonist Bella Baxter asks the strange man who has found her in her secluded home. With a self-satisfied smirk and a dodgy, slurring accent, the man entertains Bella by first wearing a goofy hat and then by pinching her between her legs. So pleased is he with the liberties he can take with her body, that the man doesn’t seem to notice Bella’s childish behavior, the way she blows bubbles or speaks in the third person. All he’s interested in is how Bella seems excited by his presence. And so he saunters away with a…

The one thing that Academy Award haters and lovers can agree on is the long and fascinating history of Oscar snubs. It’s the “Predator handshake” topic that brings us all together. It happens every year: the wrong movie wins a certain award or fails to secure the nomination it deserves. Some would say it’s a big part of the awards show experience. Every now and then, though, the Academy Awards go above and beyond by implementing a “blanket snub.” It’s one thing for a great movie or actor to not get the win or nomination they’ve earned in the eyes…

Superstitious and cowardly, a criminal just watch Batman take down two of her armed and powerful comrades. Desperation drives her to take the one option left to her, the sole chance she has to escape the Batman’s wrath. Pointing a gun at the 10-month-old baby she and her colleagues kidnapped, the criminal shouts, “Back off, man! I’ll kill the kid.” When Batman does not respond, she yells louder, fearing that the Dark Knight doesn’t take her seriously. “Believe me man, I will! Believe me–” Bearing the weapon he took from another criminal, Batman shoots the criminal, killing her instantly. He…

If the golden era of the high school movie was the 1980s, packed with John Hughes’ tales of wistful outsider girls and horny nerds, then mid-late ‘90s was the reprise. This was the era of Valley Girls (Clueless), the make-over movie (She’s All That, Never Been Kissed), and of course modern updates of classic literature (Ten Things I Hate About You, also Clueless). Cruel Intentions fits into this category and takes it to the next level. It’s a teen high school movie full of shagging and spitefulness which has genuine consequences and treats its characters like adults, while allowing them…

This Love Lies Bleeding article contains spoilers. In Love Lies Bleeding, A24’s new neo-noir thriller from director/co-writer Rose Glass (Saint Maud), Kristen Stewart (Spencer) and Katy O’Brian (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) play Lou and Jackie, two women who fall frantically in love with each other after meeting at the ramshackle gym that Lou manages in a small, dying New Mexico town circa 1989. Jackie is a bodybuilder, on her way to Las Vegas for a national competition, who uses her formidable physique to both intimidate men and get what she needs from them; Lou is the daughter of the…

Love them or hate them, the Academy Awards remain a cornerstone of the movie industry and popular culture. Film fans everywhere tend to have a lot to say about the award show, even if it’s to get a few grievances about its existence off their chests. Through all of its ups and downs over the last 90+ years, that continued level of relevance is a testament to the power of the name “Oscars.” But for as popular as that shorthand name for the Academy Awards may be, its origin remains surprisingly obscure. In fact, until very recently, we only had…

This article is part of Collector’s Digest, an editorial series powered by: As one of the longest-running sci-fi franchises of all time, Star Trek has generated more than its fair share of merchandise. Before Star Wars and before the MCU, the ruler of geeky ephemera is easily Star Trek. In 2024, Star Trek is bigger than ever. Not only is it celebrating the 60th anniversary of the filming of the first episode ever — “The Cage” in 1964 — but this year is the 40th anniversary of one of the most pivotal films in the franchise ever, Star Trek III:…

George Miller knows a thing or two about iconic looks. After all, the Australian filmmaker defined the post-apocalypse on the big screen with his 1979 movie Mad Max and even more so with his 1981 follow-up The Road Warrior. The ragged black leather aesthetic continues to be shorthand for a bleak future, even today. (Just look at the upcoming Fallout TV series.) Miller added to his repertoire of amazing looks with 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. Charlize Theron’s scene-stealing Furiosa drew attention from Tom Hardy’s Max, with her mechanical arm, her greasepainted brow, and her shaved head. For the prequel…

Although conversation may have momentarily shifted away from Paul King’s wonderful musical Wonka and over to the short-lived waking nightmare that was Glasgow’s Willy Wonka Experience, this prequel to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory has now come to streaming, so we can enjoy the taste all over again. As we mentioned at the time in our review, and our chats with director Paul King and producer David Heyman, it’s a good hearted, funny, and joyful romp. Timothée Chalamet is charming and captivating; Olivia Colman is wonderfully larger than life; Hugh Grant is grouchy and funny; and Sally Hawkins as…

This article appears in the SXSW 2024 issue of Den of Geek magazine. Check out all of our SXSW coverage here. Seven years in the making, spanning centuries in the telling, Alice Lowe’s latest feature, Timestalker, is a strange beast. A dark comedy, a romance through the ages, a violent sci-fi, and an existential musing on the self, it’s an ambitious romp dressed in spandex and crinoline.  “When you make an independent film, you know there’s a chance you may never make one again,” says Lowe. “Any time one happens, it’s like a miracle. And I really just thought, God, if this was…

This article appears in the SXSW 2024 issue of Den of Geek magazine. Check out all of our SXSW coverage here. “A revenge ghost story with elements of a monster movie” is how Irish helmer Damian McCarthy describes his latest chiller, which is set to bring “plenty of scares and a few a few laughs” to SXSW’s late-night line-up. A supernatural horror centered around spooky trinkets, Oddity follows a blind medium (You Are Not My Mother’s Carolyn Bracken) as she uncovers the truth behind her twin sister’s death with the help of a terrifying wooden mannequin.  “She collects a lot of haunted items—she…

Damsel is the kind of Netflix movie that would feel right at home in the 2010s. It may be an original fairy tale of sorts, but it pulls from the same kind of girl power feminism that drove the “edgy” retellings of popular fairy tales like Snow White and the Huntsmen and Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters 10 years ago. On the surface, Damsel might seem like a fresh and exciting take on a centuries old story. A young woman (Elodie) marries a prince to help her kingdom, but instead of living happily ever after, she gets sacrificed to a…