Award-winning writer and editor Andy Kryza has spent more than 20 years publicly obsessing over pop culture, travel, kitsch, and sandwiches. A former film columnist for Portland-based alt-weekly Willamette Week, he served as a tenured senior editor at Thrillist, worked in the Swedish maritime industry, and writes for various magazines of good repute.  He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, daughter, dog, and cat. He spends most days hunting for the city’s best pizza and tacos while secretly hoping to bump into Keanu Reeves on the street.  
Andy Kryza

Andy Kryza

Contributor

Articles (114)

The best comedy movies of all time (updated for 2026)

The best comedy movies of all time (updated for 2026)

Updated February 2026: There’s been a drought of standout studio comedies over the last five to 10 years, which makes the Liam Neeson-starring remake of The Naked Gun even more of a comedic miracle. It joins both the 1988 original and director Akiva Schaffer’s previous spoof, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, on our list of the funniest movies ever. As a general rule, comedy doesn’t age well. It’s a medium highly dependent upon context, and what’s considered funny now might be met with blank stares 100 years from now. So when a movie can still crack audiences up decades or even a century down the line, that’s the sign of a classic comedy – and given how hard it is to pull off a truly timeless comedy, it’s really one of the most impressive accomplishments in cinema.  Perhaps it’s the degree of difficulty that’s made successful comedies so rare in recent years. Gradually, though, the laughter drought is starting to recede. In 2025, absurd farces like the rebooted Naked Gun and Tim Robinson’s Friendship found enthusiastic audiences, and the first quarter of 2026 has already brought the instant cult classic Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. Will they still have us LOLing years down the line? Hard to say. These 100 great comedies, however, have already stood the test of time. Recommended: 🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time🤣 The best comedies of 2024🥰 The greatest romantic comedies of all time
The best feelgood movies on Netflix to watch right now

The best feelgood movies on Netflix to watch right now

Sometimes, all you want out of a movie is to make you feel good. It’s a stressful world, especially these days, and the best way to snap out of a funk is to flop on the couch and throw something light and easy on Netflix. And the streamer has plenty of cinematic sunshine waiting to be injected directly into your nervous system.  It’s important to know what you’re putting on, however. Not every movie is designed to provide the dopamine rush to help ease your anxiety; some will make it worse. So before taking a hit of vitamin PG, peruse this list of musicals, romantic comedies and animated flicks comprising the 30 best feel-good movies currently on Netflix. They’re guaranteed to cure what ails you. Recommended: 🤣 The 100 best comedy movies💃 The 40 best musical movies👪 The best family movies on Netflix for all ages
The best documentaries to watch on Netflix

The best documentaries to watch on Netflix

When you think of documentaries on Netflix, you usually think of true crime. Indeed, the streamer has made a cottage industry from stories of murder and mystery, some which, like Making a Murderer and The Perfect Neighbor, represent the top shelf of the subgenre. But the platform’s now-vast nonfiction catalogue goes much deeper than that. If you’re willing to search, you’ll find everything from concert films to sports dramas, in-depth celebrity profiles to journalistic investigations to, yes, salacious tabloid fodder à la Tiger King. But why scroll when we’ve already done it for you? Here are the 30 best docs currently on Netflix.Recommended: 📹 The best documentaries of all-time🔎 The best true crime documentaries on Netflix🇳 The best movies on Netflix right now
The 50 best movies on Netflix right now

The 50 best movies on Netflix right now

It’s a worn-out joke at this point: you settle in to watch a movie on Netflix, and end up spending so much time trying to decide what to watch you give up and just look at TikTok or something until passing out on the couch. Hey, it’s funny because it’s true. But it doesn’t have to be.  Even as its status as the vanguard of the streaming revolution has taken a hit in recent years, the numbers show that Netflix is still king of the streamers, and boasts enough must-see movies that it’d take a busy person years to get through them all. To help you avoid the endless scroll, we’ve assembled this list sorting the great from the gunk. Whether you’re in the mood for a romcom, a historical epic, a thought-provoking doc or Jacob Elordi as an emo Frankenstein’s monster, you’re bound to find something that’ll entertain you tonight.  Recommended: 💻 The 40 best Netflix original series to binge👪 The best family movies on Netflix for all ages😬 The 20 best thriller movies on Netflix
The scariest horror movies on Netflix right now (updated for 2026)

The scariest horror movies on Netflix right now (updated for 2026)

Let the normies do their October horror marathons: for true fright fans, every season is spooky season, and anytime is the right time for a horror movie. Netflix has enough scary movies to fill your entire calendar. Unfortunately, there’s a difference between ‘horror’ and actually being horrifying, and not all of the streamer’s offerings are guaranteed to scare your pants off. If you don’t want to waste a night yawning when you should be screaming, we’ve pulled together this list of the best horror movies on Netflix. It’s a chilling mix of old reliables and modern classics, bloody blockbusters and indie shock-a-thons. All of them are sure to give you nightmares. Recommended: 💀 The best horror movies of all time🇳 The best movies streaming on Netflix💻 The best Netflix original series to binge
The 101 best sex scenes in movies of all time (updated for 2026)

The 101 best sex scenes in movies of all time (updated for 2026)

The prudes have inherited the movies. If you’ve followed the ongoing debate over sex scenes on social media over the last few years, then you’ll know that Gen Z has strong opinions on cinematic boning: they’re against it. The argument goes that sex scenes rarely add anything to the plot of a movie, nor develop characters. It’s a flawed viewpoint, but in fairness, given Hollywood’s general shift away from showing sexuality on screen, it’s entirely possible that younger folks have simply never seen a good sex scene.  Well, allow us to offer a counterpoint – 101 of them, to be exact. On this list of cinema’s greatest sex scenes, you’ll find multiple examples where a roll in the hay is meant to convey more than just mere titillation – it’s part of the story itself. In some cases, sex is a punchline. In others, it’s downright horrifying. Sometimes it’s supposed to make you uncomfortable. And sometimes, yes, it exists to be arousing. But there’s value in that, too. Written by Dave Calhoun, Joshua Rothkopf, Cath Clarke, David Ehrlich, Phil de Semlyen, Daniel Walber, Trevor Johnston, Andy Kryza, Daniel Walber and Matthew Singer Recommended: 🕯️ The steamiest erotic thrillers ever made🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time❤ The 100 best romantic films of all-time😬 The 50 most controversial movies ever made💪 The 100 best feminist films of all-time
The 100 best horror movies of all time (updated for 2026)

The 100 best horror movies of all time (updated for 2026)

Updated for 2026: Weapons, director Zach Cregger’s story of children gone missing in suburbia, proved him as the next great, original voice in horror. If it wasn’t obvious before, after Amy Madigan’s Oscar win for her portrayal of the unforgettable Aunt Gladys, we knew we had a new classic on our hands. Everyone is scared of something. It might be something specific, like spiders or heights or clowns, or something less tangible, like death or failure. But deep down, even the most posturing tough guy harbours deep-seated fears. Perhaps that explains why horror has grown into one of the most popular of all film genres. Even if a movie doesn’t necessarily touch on the things that personally scare us the most, allowing ourselves to be scared at all helps us confront and ease the anxieties and fears that keep us paralysed.   Of course, horror hasn’t always been a moneymaker. Not long ago, it was mainly a niche interest, ignored by mass audiences and shrugged off by critics. The recent artistic and commercial success of diverse films from Get Out to Longlegs to Sinners to Weapons to Final Destination Bloodlines have brought retroactive respect to a genre once synonymous with schlock. So if you’ve spent too much of your film fandom dismissing horror, consider this your guide to everything you’ve missed. Here are the 100 greatest horror movies ever made. Quick picks: 📍 Best slasher: Halloween (1978)📍 Best ghost story: The Innocents (1961)📍 Best zombie movie: Dawn of the Dead (1978
The best Netflix original series to binge (updated for 2026)

The best Netflix original series to binge (updated for 2026)

It’s been over a decade since Netflix dropped its first original series, the political thriller House of Cards, and effectively changed streaming forever. At the time, it seemed like a major gamble. Since then, many more streamers have come along with their own shows and momentarily seized the zeitgeist, but the conversation always seems to return to the Big Tudum, whether through culture-dominating smashes like Stranger Things, Wednesday and Squid Game, critically adored limited series such as Adolescence and Baby Reindeer or emerging YA phenomena like One Piece.  Of course, while Netflix has churned out some of the most talked-about shows of the past decade, it’s also produced just as many clunkers. That can make finding the programming most worth bingeing a bit challenging. But we’ve made it easy for you. Below, you’ll find our picks for the best Netflix original series available to stream. Sure, you probably already know that you need to catch up on Bridgerton or The Crown. But there’s enough in the streamer’s vast collection that there are always some hidden gems worth investing your time in. Recommended: 🎥 The best movies on Netflix right now🔎 The best true crime documentaries on Netflix👽 The best sci-fi shows streaming on Netflix
The best romcoms of all time (updated for 2026)

The best romcoms of all time (updated for 2026)

Updates for 2026: Behold: 30 more of the best romantic comedies ever made! We’ve expanded this list of the all-time greatest romcoms to 100 in order to include recent hits like The Idea of You, Rye Lane and The Worst Person in the World and previously overlooked gems like Crazy, Stupid, Love and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Love hurts. Love scars. Love also makes us act like total imbeciles. Indeed, love can be the most painful of emotions, but it’s also often the funniest. If you’ve ever found yourself in its grip, then you know the strange ways it can make you feel, and the weird things it’ll make you do. And even if you haven’t, well, there’s a whole genre dedicated to letting you know how silly it can be.  No wonder romantic comedy persists as one of the most broadly accessible genres in all of film. So why, then, has Hollywood seemingly stopped making them? At one point in time, romcoms filled cinema calendars. Now, they’re largely relegated to streaming – or, in the case of something like Celine Song’s Materialists, miscategorized. It’s perplexing, because not only are romcoms some of the most you can have with a room full of strangers, but isn’t love one of the most universal human experiences? Of course, not all love stories are the same. Some are farcical, others more sophisticated, some cynical, others straight-up crazy. Love contains multitudes, and so do romantic comedies, and we considered it all when putting together this list of the 100 best romcoms of all tim
The best Christmas movies of all time, updated for 2025

The best Christmas movies of all time, updated for 2025

It’s easy to be a Scrooge about Christmas movies, especially these days. Streaming platforms have shamelessly muscled into the Hallmark market, churning out quick, cheap holiday romcoms with C-list casts every year, hoping to land on something so irresistibly cheesy it briefly becomes a seasonal phenomenon. Put that cynicism aside, however, and most of us can admit that we all have at least one movie we return to every December – the one that allows us to embrace nostalgia unapologetically and lets us know that the most wonderful time of the year has arrived.  It doesn’t have to be schmaltzy and saccharine, either. Maybe it’s a golden era classic like It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street. Maybe it’s something more modern and goofy, like Elf or Home Alone. Maybe it’s raunchy and rude, like Bad Santa or Christmas Vacation, or just plain dark, like Black Christmas. That full range of yuletide cheer can be found on this list of the best holiday movies ever made. No matter what kind of Christmas movie you prefer, you’ll find one that warms your core like a cup of hot cocoa. RECOMMENDED: 🎅 The best new Christmas movies to stream this year🎶 The 50 best Christmas songs to listen to this month🎄 The best animated Christmas movies for the whole family🧝 The best Christmas movies on Netflix in the UK
The 100 best thriller movies of all time (updated for 2026)

The 100 best thriller movies of all time (updated for 2026)

Updated for 2026: Welcome to the canon, Uncut Gems! It took a few years to allow the then-united Safdie brothers’ high-stress rollercoaster to truly sink in, but once we stopped hyperventilating, it became clear that it’s one of the all-time great thrillers, even if ‘thriller’ seems, in its case, too weak a word. Will Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme eventually join it? Time will tell. What makes a great thriller? Well, let’s see. Are your palms sweaty? Your teeth clenched? Is your heart pumping and your leg shaking uncontrollably? If so, the chances are that the movie you’re watching is doing its job. When done right, a thriller provokes a physical response more than any other genre, bar horror. Exactly how it initiates those reactions, however, varies greatly. In the pantheon of the best thrillers ever made, you’ll find murder, political intrigue, espionage, conspiracy, manipulation, gaslighting, and, of course, lots and lots of crime. But as a category of movie, the thriller is also loosely defined – within the genre, you’ll find examples of science fiction, horror, heists, action, even comedy, along with the ever-nebulous ‘psychological thriller’ subdivision. In other words, the thriller contains multitudes. But the best of them will always draw you in, make you sweat and leave you breathless. Here are the 100 greatest thrillers ever made. Written by Abbey Bender, Joshua Rothkopf, Yu An Su, Phil de Semlyen, Tom Huddleston, Andy Kryza, Tomris Laffly & Matthew Singer RECOMMENDED
The 100 most romantic films of all time (updated for 2026)

The 100 most romantic films of all time (updated for 2026)

Romance may be dead in the real world, but in cinema, it’ll live forever. Whether it’s classic and stormy like Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, modern and subdued like Celine Song’s Past Lives or hot and horny like Heated Rivalry, love is simply too elemental of an emotion for filmmakers to ever abandon. Even if you’ve never, say, robbed a bank with your loved one or stood by your sweetheart as they transformed into a hideous monster, the best romantic films make you understand and sympathise with the decisions of those under love’s spell – because one way or another, we’ve all been there.   There are so many movies about love in all its complications that ranking the greatest of them is a major challenge. To help us curate this list, we chatted to more than 100 filmmakers, actors and writers, from The Notebook author Nicholas Sparks to Notting Hill director Richard Curtis to our own Time Out scribes. We even got Miss Piggy to chime in. Whether you prefer comedies or dramas, horror or sci-fi, we’re sure you’ll find the following list of the 100 greatest romantic movies ever speaks to your own heart as well. Written by Cath Clarke, Dave Calhoun, Tom Huddleston, Catherine Bray, Trevor Johnston, Andy P Kryza, Guy Lodge, Phil de Semlyen, Alim Kheraj & Matthew Singer Recommended: 😍 The 100 best romcoms of all-time😳 The 101 best sex scenes of all time🔥 The 100 best movies of all-time

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The world's most exciting filmmakers share their alternative Halloween movie recommendations

The world's most exciting filmmakers share their alternative Halloween movie recommendations

It’s one thing for a movie to scare a general audience. But a movie that can frighten, disturb and haunt a fellow moviemaker? Now that’s a real achievement. After all, those are the folks who know first hand all the tricks of the trade when it comes to scaring viewers – the cinematic sleights of hand, the narrative manipulations. If a film can suspend all that knowledge, and bring them into the moment enough to feel freaked out? Then that has to be a truly terrifying, upsetting experience. So we wanted to know: what movies have left some of the coolest current auteurs quaking in their director chairs? Everyone from Nosferatu’s Robert Eggers to Rian Johnson to Luca Guadagnino to the Oscars’ reigning Best Director Sean Baker provided responses. Not all of them are horror movies, either: you’ll find everything from intense character studies to absurdist provocations to classic Disney cartoons represented. Looking for something different to watch this Halloween? Take a tip from a few experts below. Photograph: StudioCanalIrréversible Irréversible – picked by Robert Eggers (Nosferatu) ‘Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible, Gerald Kargl’s Angst, Michael Haneke’s Piano Teacher and Bruno Dumont’s Twentynine Palms all left me pretty shaken after my first viewing.’ Photograph: Disney Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – picked by Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells) ‘I remember seeing Snow White when I was less than five, and I freaked out every time the Evil Queen came on. My dad told me I could
Everything we know about Marvel's bonkers-looking 'Loki' series

Everything we know about Marvel's bonkers-looking 'Loki' series

It's been nearly two years since the last Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Spider-Man: Far From Home, hit theaters. But as fans anxiously await the July 9 debut of the long-delayed Black Widow, Disney+ has kept the superhero train going with its comic-focused series. And next week, fans will get a big infusion of MCU hijinks with the debut of Loki. The six-episode series sees Tom Hiddleston reclaim the ornate headpiece of fan-favorite anti-hero Loki, a role he's inhabited for more than 10 years. The show looks bonkers, featuring alien worlds, time travel and an abundance of charmingly sinister banter from Hiddleston. But what exactly is this show about, and how will it affect the future — and the past — of Marvel's master plan? Here's what we know going in.  First things first, when does Loki debut? Loki debuts Wednesday, June 9 on Disney+. It runs six episodes, with one episode dropping each week through July 14. Ok, so what exactly is this show about? The show will follow Hiddleston’s Asgardian God of Mischief and frequent bad guy Loki as he falls in with the Time Variance Authority (TVA), a clandestine interstellar bureaucracy tasked with ensuring that the very fabric of space and time isn’t torn apart by heroes and villains’ tendency to jump back and forth in time.  From the looks of the trailers, it appears that Loki’s time-hopping shenanigans (more on those in a moment) has led him to cause a rift across multiple timelines and dimensions. Working with Owen
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ – everything we know so far

‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ – everything we know so far

After a two-year break, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has roared back to life, dominating Disney+ with an onslaught of hit shows, storming multiplexes with Black Widow and Shang-Chi, and hijacking the internet discourse with fan theories about the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home. Yet amid all the hype of Marvel’s Phase 4, the biggest questions hover around the hotly anticipated Black Panther 2. The Marvel blockbuster factory has completely changed the cinematic landscape since Iron Man debuted in 2008, but none became a bona fide cultural phenomenon quite like director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther.  The afrofuturist tale of noble warrior king T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and the technologically advanced hermit nation of Wakanda wasn’t just a $1.3-billion hit, it was a zeitgeist-seizing moment for blockbuster cinema, leading to a Best Picture Oscar nomination and three Academy Awards. Its focus on strong Black characters – including Marvel’s best villain in the form of Michael B. Jordan – made it the kind of tectonic paradigm-shifter that only comes every decade or so in blockbuster cinema.  A follow-up was inevitable, but things became infinitely more complicated with the unexpected death of series star Chadwick Boseman, who succumbed to colon cancer in August 2020. Marvel kept quiet about the future of the franchise as fans mourned.  Here’s everything we know about Black Panther 2 so far. Image: Marvel Studios When is Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s release date?  Black P
‘House of the Dragon’: Here’s everything we know about the ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel

‘House of the Dragon’: Here’s everything we know about the ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel

For the past two years, fans of prestige TV have been forced to spend their Sundays without the familiar comforts of torture, dismemberment, incest, dragons and deception. But soon, their hunger will be sated: In 2022, nearly three years after Game of Thrones aired its extremely divisive finale, the franchise will come roaring back with House of the Dragon.  HBO’s latest George RR Martin adaptation has fans salivating for more of what they loved about high fantasy’s most gloriously smutty big-budget hit. But will the first of six GoT spinoff series fulfill the prophecy of rekindling fans' goodwill after Game of Thrones whiffed its big finish? Here’s everything we know so far.  When will House of the Dragon be released?  The show’s release date has yet to be confirmed, though HBO has officially announced House of the Dragon is coming in 2022. The production, which is still underway, was previously shut down due to Covid, and the pandemic’s continued presence could be a reason for the network’s hesitancy in announcing an official date.  That puts House of the Dragon in a race to air with Amazon’s swords-and-serpents tentpole, Lord of the Rings, which is set to debut in September 2022. Both come pre-loaded with huge fan bases, and both share common elements such as dragons, golden wigs, broadswords and glowering. It’s a safe bet that House of the Dragon, however, will trounce LOTR when it comes to nudity: The Tolkien adaptation drew controversy when it announced it would include
An internet hero is Photoshopping Paddington Bear into a different movie every day

An internet hero is Photoshopping Paddington Bear into a different movie every day

We’re still a long way out from Paddington 3, but that fluffy paragon of kindness and decency from darkest Peru is never far from our thoughts. Paddington eternal because he is in the hearts of all who let him in. Similarly, he is in the feeds of all who tweet. He’s here to bring you daily joy if you just hit ‘follow.’ Some days, he’s romping in a meadow or scampering through a swamp. Others, he’s taking a stroll through the big city. Still others, he’s lurking behind a cloud of steam, staring blankly as an unsuspecting person in a hotel shower. I Photoshop Paddington into another movie until I forget: Day 224 pic.twitter.com/M9cKEXTg97 — Jaythechou (@jaythechou) October 19, 2021 No, this is not the official Paddinton Twitter, which delightfully traffics in daily affirmations and niceties without the leering voyeurism and threat of violence. We’re talking about the Twitter account @jaythechou, run by a graphic artist who has sworn to Photoshop Paddington into a different movie every day ‘until I forget.’  So far, the artist has amassed more than 230 different expert-level Photoshops, drawing 108,000 followers to images of the peacoat-sporting bear dropped into the action of Shang-Chi and Black Widow, placed him alongside Shrek and Donkey and even had him ride shotgun (and likely take some PCP) with Denzel in Training Day.  The account very directly recalls the Creepy Paddington memes of 2014, which inserted the bear into multiple horror films. We now know what tho
Everything we know about Doctor Strange’s trip to the ‘Multiverse of Madness’

Everything we know about Doctor Strange’s trip to the ‘Multiverse of Madness’

Marvel’s so-called Phase 4 has been pretty straightforward so far, which we fully understand is a ridiculous thing to say considering the most recent film in the 26-and-counting series is a millennia-spanning saga of demigods directed by Nomadland Oscar-winner Chloé Zhao.  Yet the post-Endgame era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been relatively grounded: both Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings kept the franchise’s shenanigans earthbound, while Eternals’s more cosmic inclinations were relatively blasé.  That’s about to change. December’s Spider Man: No Way Home is poised to rip the fabric of space, time and corporate synergy asunder by bringing back long-dead villains from previous generations of Spideydom. Thor: Love and Thunder will no-doubt continue goofball auteur Taika Waititi’s quest to transform the God of Thunder into a live-action Heavy Metal riff. And sandwiched between the two is what could be the most mind-bending, colourful and downright surreal offering yet: The long-awaited Doctor Strange sequel, In the Multiverse of Madness.  The film marks Benedict Cumberbatch’s first top-line Marvel outing since the hero’s 2016 origin story. And it could just prise open the MCU’s blast doors for a universe-shattering series of events that could ripple throughout the MCU. Here’s everything we know so far about Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Photograph: Marvel Studios When will Doctor Strange 2 be released? In the Multiverse of Madnes
Get ready for an extra-dark knight courtesy of Robert Pattinson’s ‘The Batman’

Get ready for an extra-dark knight courtesy of Robert Pattinson’s ‘The Batman’

It’s been four years since the big screen was graced by Batman (no, the Snyder Cut doesn’t count). That’s an eternity for fans of the world’s most famous vigilante, who have been spoiled with 11 very different films since Tim Burton’s 1989 blockbuster ushered in modern superhero cinema. Now, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel: Warner Bros is set to release the latest Caped Crusader adventure in early 2022.   ‘Light’ is a bit misleading. Anyone still bemoaning the dark-and-gritty reinvention of superhero cinema following Christopher Nolan’s game-changing Dark Knight trilogy take heed: The upcoming reboot, titled The Batman, looks to make Nolan’s Gotham City look like Sesame Street. Newly minted Bruce Wayne Robert Pattinson will navigate a noir-tinged, rain-soaked city where gangs of deranged clowns stalk the shadows, gangsters run amok and serial killers taunt the police with trails of carnage. This is a place where light seems too scared to shine. Adam West this isn’t. Here's everything we know about the hugely anticipated The Batman.    When does The Batman come out? After years in development, a long shoot in the UK and multiple Covid-related delays – including a diagnosis for Pattinson himself – The Batman is set to be released on March 4, 2022. Read our review of the film here. What is the runtime of The Batman? Eagle-eyed fans spotted the IMAX Melbourne website listing its runtime as 176 minutes. If that’s accurate, and there is no reason for an IMAX to lie to us,
Everything we know about Amazon’s massive ‘Lord of the Rings’ series

Everything we know about Amazon’s massive ‘Lord of the Rings’ series

It’s been 18 long years since Peter Jackson wrapped his beloved Lord of the Rings trilogy (and seven relief-filled years since he put his other trilogy to sleep). Now, after a prolonged period of Hobbitlessness, fans will finally return to Middle-earth courtesy of Amazon, whose own Dark Lord has emerged with a benevolent gift for us mortals in the form of a LOTR series based on JRR Tolkien's extended mythology. It comes with the slightly clunky name The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and it is going to be huge. Even with a teaser trailer out, the show remains shrouded in mystery, with media reports generally focused on the Smaug-sized price tag ($250 million for the rights, $465+ million for production). But with filming wrapped and a release date cresting the horizon of 2022, some details have emerged. Here’s what we know so far. What is the release date? The series will debut on Amazon Prime on September 2, 2022, and will span eight weekly episodes.  Has a trailer been released? Alongside the name reveal in January 2022, a teaser trailer was launched over Superbowl weekend (another event in which the winners get rings). It showcases some swooping Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings-esque shots over the Middle-earth landscapes, as well as the more CGI-heavy effects shots of his Hobbit movies. Front and centre is Morfydd Clark as the young Galadriel. What is the series about? For those who don’t know their Silmarillions from their Sarumans, Amazon’s series will tak
Wait, is ‘Die Hard’ a remake of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life?’

Wait, is ‘Die Hard’ a remake of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life?’

Questioning whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie (it is) has become the holiday version of ‘is a hot dog a sandwich?’ (it’s not).The debate has transitioned from Christmas dinner banter to the go-to blather of pub-bores everywhere. When something’s a ‘hot topic’ for three decades, it goes colder than yesterday’s hot chocolate. The debate is over. Time to discuss the yuletide merits of The Last Boy Scout.  However, last year Die Hard director John McTiernan finally weighed in on the topic, and in doing so threw a fresh log on the fire by saying that Die Hard’s tone was informed by Frank Capra’s beloved holiday fable It’s a Wonderful Life.  ‘Specifically, the Pottersville sequence,’ McTiernan told the American Film Institute. ‘Which is what happens when the evil banker gets to do what he wants in the community without George getting in the way to stop it. And it’s the clearest demonstration and criticism of runaway, unregulated cowboy capitalism that’s ever been done in an American movie.’ McTiernan’s comments struck a particular nerve in this writer because I’ve been saying this for years: Not only is Die Hard a Christmas movie, but it’s actually a stealth retelling of It’s a Wonderful Life. Just as Scrooged retold A Christmas Carol through the lens of ‘80s corporate television, Die Hard is basically Capra’s story filtered through an ‘80s action-movie fantasia. Here is irrefutable proof.  Photograph: 20th Century Studios John McClane is basically George Bailey with bloody f
Cinema’s funniest scenes – as picked by its coolest filmmakers

Cinema’s funniest scenes – as picked by its coolest filmmakers

Discovering that your favourite ‘serious’ filmmaker enjoys a good chuckle – even a lowbrow one – can be a shock: It’s like catching your wine-loving cousin shotgunning a Budweiser. Not only is finding out that Christopher Nolan is a huge MacGruber fan and Terrence Malick quotes Zoolander for fun, it makes us realise that maybe our guilty-pleasure comedy flicks aren’t so guilty after all.  With that in mind, we prodded our picks for the coolest filmmakers on the planet for their favourite comedic moments across cinema history. Among them were comedically inclined auteurs like Ruben Östlund, Cathy Yan and Edgar Wright, sure, but also more serious-minded artists like Barry Jenkins, Julia Ducournau, Denis Villeneuve, Paul Thomas Anderson and Lynne Ramsay. They shot back with a decades- and genre-spanning array of laugh-out-loud moments. We also discovered that Michael ‘Amour’ Haneke really, really loves hearing Steve Martin do a silly accent. Comedy, truly, is the great uniter. Read on: The 50 coolest filmmakers in the world right now The voice coaching scene in The Pink Panther (2006) – picked by Ruben Östlund ‘I had dinner with Michael Haneke in Vienna once and it all ended up with me showing him this scene on my mobile phone. It didn’t really pay off and everything became quite embarrassing. I guess it says something about how much I like this scene.’  ‘Taxi!’ in Tootsie - picked by Céline Sciamma
Here’s everything we know about ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ so far

Here’s everything we know about ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ so far

It may not feel like it, but it will be only a little over two years between the upcoming Spider-Man: No Way Home and its immediate predecessor, Far From Home. Sure, a lot has gone down in the intervening time, but maybe a bit of a pause was what the webslinger needed. However beloved a character is, zeal levels are going to be tough to maintain when they’ve been on the big screen ten times in the space of 20 years (excluding the six super-sparky versions in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse).  Yet now, nearly a month from the release of No Way Home, Spidey discourse is dominating the internet once again. And with a second trailer fueling fan theories about what’s to come in the next, excitement has reached a fever pitch. Here’s everything we know – or at least we think we know – about Spider-Man: No Way Home When is Spider-Man: No Way Home in cinemas? Frothy, fun and crammed to the gills with big-screen spectacle, Spider-Man movies tend to be the very definition of a summer blockbuster. This one, perhaps fittingly in a messed-up year, gets a rare spin in time for Christmas: it’s out on December 17 in the US and UK. Is there a Spider-Man: No Way Home trailer? Two, in fact. The second hit the internet on November 16 after a seemingly endless period of anticipation, with some sites speculating that the delay was the result of Sony and Marvel – who are the co-conservators to cinematic Spidey (more on that in a moment) – sparring over what could and couldn’t be shown in the previ
‘Squid Game’ season 2 gets a green light: Here’s what to expect

‘Squid Game’ season 2 gets a green light: Here’s what to expect

Like a down-on-his luck schlub being yanked toward a ledge, Netflix has taken the inevitable plunge: Squid Game – the global smash that became Netflix’s biggest hit of all time – is getting a second season, according to creator Hwang Dong-hyuk.  ‘There's been so much pressure, so much demand and so much love for a second season… I almost feel like you leave us no choice!’ Hwang told the Associated Press. ‘There will indeed be a second season. It's in my head right now. I'm in the planning process currently. But I do think it's too early to say when and how it's going to happen.’  At this point, very little is known about the future of Squid Game. Hwang himself seems surprised by the success of his dystopian passion project. But season 1 left a tonne of plot threads dangling like so many Tug-of-War players suspended over a chasm. Here are the biggest questions we have in advance of Squid Game season 2, plus some theories about where the show could go next. MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR SQUID GAME FOLLOW… you’ve been warned.  Photograph: Noh Juhan, courtesy of NetflixGganbus for life What will happen to Squid Game protagonist Gi-Hun? At the beginning of Squid Game, 456 hardscrabble characters are whisked off to a mysterious island and pitted against one another in a series of deadly playground games, beginning with a rousing round/massacre of Red Light, Green Light. By the end of the games, only one player still stood: Indebted gambler, deadbeat dad and kindhearted soul Seong Gi-Hun (