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Emio: The Smiling Man is a dark and captivating murder mystery
★★★★ | Why the long face? Tested on Release date Publisher Developer Nintendo Switch 29.8.2024 Nintendo Nintendo Mages Inc. One of my favorite movies of all time is Memories of Murder. Based on a true story, it charts the lives of detectives in Korea on the hunt for a serial killer. As the years pass, that hunt becomes more desperate, as they realize how little their chances become to catch the suspect. Emio: The Smiling Man, has the same mosaic feel to it. A sense of time passing, and what a gaping hole those who’ve gone leave behind. Especially when left without closure. It begins with a murder that goes unsolved, and another that opens old wounds decades later. The setting is that of a sl
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Helsinki International Film Festival 2024 – the films you must see
The Helsinki International Film Festival, or Love and Anarchy, is back. This year, the lineup comes packed with Cannes favorites and indie darlings, each worth your time. While the program and speaking events also provide an uncomfortable and unwelcome emphasis on the acceptance of AI in filmmaking, the movies themselves are nothing to scoff at. Happily, the selection proves a panacea to these depressing realities with biting satire and deeply humane stories that captivate and inspire in equal measure. Here are the films you shouldn’t miss at the festival this year. Emilia Perez My favorite film from Cannes. A miracle in and of itself: Emilia Perez is the story of transitioning, forgiveness,
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a delightfully gruesome legacy sequel
★★★★ | Scared sheetless Beetlejuice was Tim Burton’s second film. Yet it might be his most recognizable one. It doesn’t have the heart and melancholy of Edward Scissorhands, nor is it as artfully constructed as Ed Wood. But it encompasses everything that makes Burton, well, Burton. Some thirty-odd years later, at the height of this god-forsaken legacy sequel craze, Burton returns to Beetlejuice. I was worried, to say the least. The original means so much to me. It’s an island in time. It ignited my love for Burton, a crush for both Winona Ryder and the hysterical Catherine O’Hara. As a film, it’s pure Burton, and, for a time, all that I was, too. The first ten or so minutes are a rough landi
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Astro Bot is a joyous genre masterpiece
Tested on Release date Publisher Developer PlayStation 5 6.9.2024 Sony Interactive Entertainment Team Asobi ★★★★★ | No notes Super Mario 64 is one of my favorite games of all time. When it came out, it single-handedly sold people on the Nintendo 64 and ushered in a new generation of platformer fans. Astro Bot is in the same league. This is a joyous revival of everything we love about platformers. It is a brilliant, genre-defining masterpiece that sets the bar for everyone else. It captures the pure simplicity of gaming. The threadbare plot is so charming that you don’t need anything else. The main draw is the gameplay, which is refined to perfection. Everything around it is a bonus. A charmi
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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II is a gloriously dark spectacle
★★★★ | Billions and billions of corpses Tested on Release date Publisher Developer PlayStation 5 9.9.2024 Focus Entertainment Saber Interactive I barely finished my preview from Gamescom when the review codes for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II came in. Which works just fine, as I couldn’t wait to throw myself back into the hellish landscape of the grimdark future. After a grueling ten-plus hours in the ultraviolent campaign, my initial expectations proved true. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II is a brilliant addition to the Warhammer saga. It has its problems, and some of them are noteworthy, but for the most part, this is a solid, beautifully crafted action epic. Everything from my prev
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Slow Horses: Season 4 is another hugely entertaining win for Apple
★★★★ | Thoroughbred Slow Horses is one of the consistently best shows on streaming. If regular television was still a thing, it would be the best thing on that. For four compelling seasons, the misfits at Slough House have kept things brisk, fun, and always entertaining. While the latest isn’t the best season in the series, it’s yet another reminder that Apple’s streak of picking winners remains unbroken. This time, Slow Horses makes things more difficult for itself by breaking the team up for most of the season. After River’s visit to his grandfather’s house goes tragically wrong, it’s up to the team to pick up the pieces. Meanwhile, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) has to deal with the new First
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Jared Petty of Limited Run Games on the business of joy
I love physical media. I believe in its importance as a cultural commodity, but also because we have to preserve our art. Nobody else will do that for us. People are quick to forget, and many would see film, music, and games reduced to single-use items. So I jumped at the opportunity to meet with Jared Petty, senior manager of digital publications at Limited Run Games, a company that for years now has stood by their mission statement: Forever Physical. During our talk, we touch on topics of game conservation, the joy of collecting, and what goes into building a good collector’s edition. The interview is edited for clarity. Why physical media matters Jared Petty, why should we care about Limi
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Alien: Romulus is like a speed run of previous Alien films
★★ | Alien: Redundant Alien: Romulus is a well-made film with no personality of its own. It is an exhausting series of best-of set pieces reminiscent of a clip show. Set during the period between Alien and Aliens, Alien: Romulus scraps the ending of Ridley Scott’s first film so that it can rehash iconography from an established classic. It’s a weird choice that sets the film up on a sour note. If it needs a callback even before the opening credits, what are we even here for? The first twenty minutes promise a far better movie than what follows. Set on a perpetually darkened mining planet, it’s a tantalizing glimpse into the lives of the working class in the far reaches of space. Our leads, R
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CRKD makes accessories collectible again
There’s an idea that I reject, which says you have to tone down your style as you get older. As if somehow our personality diminishes as we mature. I never understood that. As I hurtle past my mid-thirties, I’m every day more comfortable with the things I like, and I don’t see why I should hide that. Given the chance to meet with Alex Varrey at CRKD, the accessories manufacturer making waves with their stellar Nitro Deck series, I didn’t hesitate to jump in. I’m a huge fan of any controller or gear that makes my life easier. The problem is, most don’t do that. At least, not for an autistic gamer like myself. My issues are twofold: I have large hands, meaning I can’t handle small controllers.
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The Rings of Power returns with a more confident second season
The first season of The Rings of Power was better than I expected, despite some notable stumbles. At the time, its greatest failure was a lack of personality to call its own. It is with relief and pleasant surprise that season two isn’t just a stronger and more assured continuation, but an even greater departure from the Peter Jackson films altogether. In taking greater liberties with the source material, The Rings of Power proves itself a more emotionally honest and true adaptation than anticipated. Without the burden of setup, season two charges out of the gate with shocking bravado. We witness Sauron’s first attempts at taking over Mordor, his failures, and how he ended up meeting Galadri
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Interview: Naoki Yoshida wants to take players on a journey
It’s late on a Thursday evening at Gamescom, and everyone is tired. But you couldn’t tell that from Naoki Yoshida, the producer and creative mastermind behind Final Fantasy XIV, which celebrated the launch of its latest expansion, Dawntrail, this summer. I reviewed the wonderful new chapter of the saga earlier in July, and wrote about the effect that Yoshida’s game had on me last year, when I visited the 10th anniversary Fan Fest in London. I’m usually not a fan of MMO’s, as they simply take too much time, and the amount of content is too overwhelming for me. But Final Fantasy XIV is different. It’s a beautifully written saga of hope, forgiveness, friendship, and overcoming even the greatest
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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 makes you feel small
Into the grimdark Scale is a hard thing to get right. Just because something is big, doesn’t mean it feels big. You have to have context, and a point of view that helps us empathize with our hero. Most games — and films — lose that in their hurry to make things “epic”. Sitting down to test Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, I felt nervous whether the game could achieve this sense of scale. After all, Warhammer 40,000 is all about scale – and your infinitely small part in all things. I shouldn’t have worried: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is a brilliant action horror game that captures the horror of Warhammer 40,000 beautifully. For the uninitiated, Warhammer 40,000 takes place tens of thou
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Only Murders in the Building Season 4 is classy, breezy fun
★★★★ | Murder, she podcast Ever since its inception, Only Murders in the Building has struck the fine line between classy, slapstick, and often unnerving. Like the best murder mysteries, it captivates because beneath all the silliness, there’s an undercurrent of genuine danger. In season 4, returning to Disney Plus on August 27th., that danger is more present than ever. We pick up immediately where we left last season, with Sazz, Charles’s stand-in and friend, shot by a mystery assailant. Ever oblivious, Charles believes his friend has bolted off to a more interesting engagement. Yet he can’t help but worry. Even an airhead like Sazz would let themselves be known at some point, right? It’s s
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Star Wars Outlaws is a terrific adventure game for everyone
Tested on Release date Publisher Developer PlayStation 5 30.8.2024 Ubisoft Massive Entertainment ★★★★ | Shine on you crazy diamond Happy-go-lucky scamps Star Wars is for everyone. It is many things on top of that, but most importantly it’s a fantasy that anyone can enjoy. That’s why it’s so important that Star Wars can look and feel like anything; Its mythology is so vast it can take whatever shape it desires. In Star Wars Outlaws, those elements all feel familiar. They come from franchises like Uncharted and Way of the Samurai. No matter where you look, you will find tried and tested gameplay elements. This is not a bad thing. After all, Star Wars began as a love letter to Flash Gordon and
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Four gems from Espoo Cine 2024 you can still see
Espoo Cine 2024 is still in full swing until September 1st, and there’s a wealth of great films to choose from. For those with a limited schedule, here are five great films you can still catch on the last week of the festival. The Girl with the Needle A haunting and devastating folktale that is equal parts reality and mythic tragedy. This painfully realistic depiction of women’s rights (or lack thereof) stunned me at Cannes, and it has lost none of its power in the months since. It follows the spiral of Karoline, a woman impregnated by a wealthy man, left alone in the streets of a society that does not care for her. As she discovers the underworld of others like her, things go from bad to wo
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House of the Dragon: Season 2
★★★★★ | And Thenn what happened? It’s hard growing up in the shadow of a more successful sibling. Especially when that sibling redefined prestige television for over a decade. House of the Dragon is a great show, yet it can’t escape comparison to Game of Thrones. Not that the series makes it any easier for itself. The opening theme is the same as in its predecessor. There’s the same prophecy which kept audiences guessing season after another. Now, in season 2, we even get glimpses of the future, which to us viewers is pure nostalgia. Like its characters, House of the Dragon lives in the shade of legends, and no matter what it does, there lies the question: “But is it Game of Thrones?” After
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Rebel Moon – Chapter One: Chalice of Blood
★ | More is less I revisited Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece, The Seven Samurai, at Cannes earlier this year. At three and a half hours, it’s a vast story, yet it doesn’t feel a minute too long. Every second of it serves a greater purpose, each giving space to character beats that resonate 70 years later. Zack Snyder’s director’s cuts of Rebel Moon, parts one and two, have a combined runtime of six and a half hours. They are proof that longer rarely means better when you have nothing to say. The first version of this disaster was dull and lifeless. This second cut, a full hour longer, is worse. It’s every bit as unimaginative, childish, and insipid as its shorter sibling. Except now, it comes s
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Trap is two M. Night Shyamalan movies for the price of one
★★ | The title did warn us Trap is a film of many successes, and just as many failures. It has a superb first half that is as impressive as anything M. Night Shyamalan has made in the past. The fact that an odd, non-IP thriller is even in theaters in this day and age is a minor miracle itself. If the film was a good half-hour shorter, it would easily be among Shyamalan’s finest. But it isn’t, and it isn’t. The first half, set inside a crowded sports arena during a pop concert, is exceptionally strong. Shyamalan builds the concrete hell into its own world with intricate detail. By the time the show starts, he envelops us into the paranoia and tension beautifully. Cooper (Josh Hartnett) plays
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The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
★★★ | Das booty I like Guy Ritchie’s movies, and I want to root for him at every turn. Even if the picture itself is more run of the mill than befitting his talents. Such is the case with The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. A film with plenty of good acting that never settles for the right tone. It’s too sombre and po-faced to be a British version of Inglorious Basterds. Yet it’s also too glib to be The Guns of Navarone. The story is a patchwork of fact and fiction, spun together from unearthed documents of clandestine World War II missions. The reality is stranger than fiction: In the midst of the war, a group of untraditional agents set out behind enemy lines to sabotage Nazi U-boats to
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The Instigators is nearly the perfect buddy comedy
★★★★★ | I like them apples I love movies that are unassuming. The kind that know what they are, and are excellent at it. The Instigators is one of these movies. It knows precisely how long, and what it needs to be. There isn’t a wasted minute, nor a plot point that isn’t necessary. It doesn’t make a lick a sense, and it’s often so freewheeling it forgets about characters entirely. But does that matter if you’re having fun? I say no, it doesn’t. Because I never thought about these things while watching the film. It was only after that pesky logic tried to get in the way. A lot happens in The Instigators, yet it feels like a small movie. Our heroes are screw-ups who’ve barely left the neighbor