One of the most important films of the year is exclusively available on Apple TV+, with no physical media release in sight. — For the very first time, a streaming service has won Best Picture. Sunday night, Apple TV+ walked away from the ceremony with the coveted top prize in hand for Coda, a remake of a French film. …

MGK’s latest effort is a mixed bag of innovation and sanitized radio pop. — Back in August, Machine Gun Kelly released the first single from an album titled Born With Horns. “Papercuts,” a single that sprinkled the guitar-driven pop-punk sound he’d debuted with the album Tickets to My Downfall with hints of Nirvana-esque grunge, was a promising track. The musical stylings suggested that the…

And I can’t tell which, but either way, I dug it. — Teen slashers are kind of having a moment right now. Christopher Landon’s Happy Death Day films as well as Freaky have reinvigorated the subgenre, with help at the box office from Michael Myers. Psychopaths killing young men and women with bladed weapons are in again as the nostalgia of the…

There’s a raw energy that permeates the entirety of Toby Kane and Brian Masek’s musical experiment “Ghost and a Guess.” Recorded remotely with the help of regional musicians during the pandemic, the effort feels like an escape from the stresses of being a citizen of Earth in current times. …

A short story about addiction. — Friday, December 17th, 1993–4AM The last hit had been too much. He had gone too far. The room had stopped spinning, and was now just fading in and out from existence. A lump caught in his throat, and he began to cough into a clammy, clenched fist. …

A story of humor and horror. — As the barn door creaked open, the Old Gods beneath it stirred. “Shh! Harold, you’re going to get us caught!” “Would you calm down, you dumb sumbitch?” Harold peered into the old barn and nothing peered back. He motioned for Dale to follow him in. His companion reluctantly obliged, wiping…

In a post-apocalyptic world, a young girl tries to get her father to safety. — As Kori dragged her father up an exit ramp and into the city, she noticed the silence. It wasn’t the same ominous silence that had followed them on the journey here. Rather, it was a peaceful silence, occasionally punctuated by the call of a bird or the chirp of a…

The 1992 film starring Brad Pitt and Kim Basinger is a disaster, but the idea has potential to be great…if you fix the gender politics. — Have you seen the (almost) cult classic Cool World? If you haven’t, I wouldn’t blame you. It’s mostly known for being that Who Framed Roger Rabbit? rip-off starring Brad Pitt and a misogynistic attitude that hasn’t aged particularly well — if it was ever in vogue to begin with. No…

I had a blast at Grandpa’s, but I might have been the only one… — When my grandfather passed away, I was obviously devastated. He meant a lot to me. He was an artist and a poet, and he instilled a love of art in me from a very young age. We would sit and discuss Tarantino and Scorcese films, listen to his extensive music…