Entertainment
Sam Rockwell’s R-Rated, Hard Sci-Fi Thriller Is The Ultimate Ego Death In Space
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Just last week, I stumbled upon 2018’s Mute, not realizing that it was a spiritual sequel to a far superior film, 2009’s Moon. I’ll be reviewing that one soon, but I found it underwhelming, and everything I’ve read about Moon suggested that it’s a perfect hard sci-fi thriller, on par with classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Though both movies technically occupy the same cinematic universe, they’re standalone stories, but I still wanted the context. Turns out, you don’t need to see Moon to enjoy, or not enjoy, Mute.
In my mind, though, Moon is a modern classic with clear themes and stakes, while Mute, despite not being a total waste of time, struggles to find its identity and comes off as disjointed.
If You Believed, They Put A Man On The Moon
When Moon introduces us to Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), we get a full crash course in the nature of his work. He’s a lone employee working for Lunar Industries on the Sarang Station, located on the dark side of the moon, and he’s about to complete his three-year contract. He works as an operations technician specializing in mining an alternative fuel known as helium-3. On Earth, an oil crisis made mining for resources on the moon inevitable, but with the foundation already in place, it’s a pretty turnkey operation.
With constant reminders that external communications are down, Sam can only communicate with Earth through occasional video exchanges, but there is no live feed. He gets updates from his wife, Tess (Dominique McElligott), and his young daughter Eve (Rosie Shaw), but it’s not enough to fight off the intense loneliness he feels every single day. He finds companionship in a mobile AI named GERTY (Kevin Spacey), but the fact that his only tangible relationship is with a computer program doesn’t do his mental state any favors.
Sam begins to hallucinate, which eventually leads him to a crashed rover where he finds another unconscious astronaut. Here’s the kicker: the unconscious man appears to be Sam’s identical twin, and GERTY isn’t telling the full truth. Both Sams come to blows, accusing each other of being clones before it dawns on them that they’re both clones of the original Sam. Neither man knows how long they’ve been living like this, or how many other clones there are, either in hiding or actively working in secret on the space station.
As the Sams work together, alongside GERTY, to uncover the true nature of their work and identities, they experience ego death, crash out, and regroup on multiple occasions, wondering how much of their lives are actually real, and how much of it is a lie made possible through false memory implants created by Lunar Industries.
Ego Death … IN SPACEEE!!!
While it goes without saying that Sam Rockwell does a stellar job playing off himself in Moon, I feel like that’s the obvious thing to talk about, so I’m not really going to get into it here. What I found most fascinating about Moon is the very system in which the Sams operate. They make this startling discovery, go through their respective grieving processes, and then come up with an escape plan.
They search the entire space station looking for clues about additional clones, and they venture out on unsanctioned discovery missions in search of what they suspect is a signal jammer. GERTY is designed to be helpful to the Sams, but his primary objective is ultimately to keep the helium-3 train moving at full capacity so everybody on Earth can enjoy the fruits of their labor. What really stuck with me is how easily the Sams are able to learn the true nature of their situation. It gets to the point where they straight up ask GERTY why they’re able to roam around without consequence.
To me, that’s where the true terror lies in Moon. It’s a subtle idea that gets casually brought up throughout the film, but it hints at a much larger systemic issue taking place. Both men, who are clones of the same astronaut and have no clue how long they’ve been living as clones, or how many clones came before them, are able to crack the conspiracy with little to no resistance. This tells me that Lunar Industries has been playing this game long enough that it no longer cares what each individual Sam does because it doesn’t matter. GERTY is tasked with keeping them in check, sure, but it’s such an isolated mission in such a remote place that even if they escape successfully, then what?
The fact that these men are fighting for their lives, and it’s completely hopeless because the system in place that made this all possible in the first place is so much larger than them that their lives don’t even matter one bit, is probably the most subtly terrifying thing about this film. This is just a line in the books. Their lives are literally a writeoff.
The entire system in which Moon operates is an unthinkably oppressive one. The machine will keep running, and the resources will keep getting mined. It doesn’t matter if one clone crosses paths with another clone and devises a plan to escape back to Earth to be with his family. The system is designed so nobody makes it far enough to expose what’s actually happening on the dark side of the moon.
Time will continue to march forward, and there will be more Sams showing up to work and wondering why it’s getting harder and harder to communicate with their families back on Earth. It’s a truly horrifying look at just how much individuality we stand to lose when the powers that be decide that resources are more important than the humanity they’re supposedly trying to save.
As of this writing, Moon is streaming for free on Tubi.
Entertainment
Nintendo Switch 2 officially gets a $50 price hike in the US
After less than a year on the market, the Nintendo Switch 2 is going up in price.
The company announced in a press release on its website that the device is getting a price increase in every major region, including the United States. Customers in the U.S. will pay $50 more for the console, as its price is going from $449 to $499. Nintendo did not delve into specifics in the press release, citing only “changes in market conditions,” but this is almost certainly a response to the global memory shortage driven by high demand for AI data center construction.
Mashable Light Speed
That same memory shortage was the culprit behind recent price hikes on PlayStation 5 consoles and Motorola phones, among other tech products. Even if the reasoning is understandable, it must be stated that video game consoles rarely rise in price over time in a normal economic environment. The opposite usually occurs, typically after at least a few years on the market. Nintendo having to hike the Switch 2’s price less than a year after its June 2025 launch is fairly unprecedented, at least in recent memory.
Nintendo said the changes go into effect on Sept. 1 of this year, so if you want a Switch 2, that’s your deadline to get one for $450.
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Nintendo
Nintendo Switch
Entertainment
Christopher Nolan’s Latest Odyssey Trailer Looks More TV Drama Than Historical Epic
By Jennifer Asencio
| Published
The latest trailer for Christopher Nolan’s controversial The Odyssey was released on May 5, 2026, and revealed more of the director’s take on Homer’s epic. Like the other trailers and casting announcements, it drew equal parts controversy, criticism, and avid defenders.
This time, most of the action is focused on Ithaca, where Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and Telemachus (Tom Holland) deal with the numerous suitors trying to assume the throne by marrying the queen. Robert Pattinson lurks and smarms as Antinous, trying to woo Penelope, while cutaway footage shows the tribulations of Odysseus (Matt Damon) against Calypso (Charlize Theron), the whirlpool Charybdis, armored giants, and the Trojan War.
Ancient Accuracy Versus Anachronistic Angst
There are a lot of new problems with this trailer that echo issues people already have with Nolan’s vision. Previous complaints include ahistorical armor from a later Grecian period, boats that look more Viking longboat than bireme, and a plethora of miscast characters, such as Jon Bernthal as Menelaus and Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy.
One of the two main problems with the new trailer is Tom Holland. The actor who has been bringing Peter Parker to spectacular life in some of the rare good content from the Marvel Cinematic Universe looks like a lost child as Telemachus, and has been apparently directed to play the Greek hero that way. The parts of the trailer that aren’t Anne Hathaway angsting as Penelope feature Holland having plenty of angst of his own. Sure, Telemachus had some daddy issues, but Holland looks more like a kid looking for his mommy than a prince defending his father’s kingdom against overwhelming odds.
A large part of Holland’s failure in the new trailer is that the dialogue is extremely cringeworthy. At one point, Antonius actually says, “You’re pining for your daddy,” as though this is a CW teen drama and not a serious Homeric epic. “That world is gone!” Penelope cries with the appropriate amount of suffering and phony British accent.
The translation allegedly being used for the movie is based on the work of Emily Wilson, a feminist translator who felt that Homer’s epic didn’t have enough modern sensibilities. She simplified the poet’s gorgeous turns of phrase and literalized his abstract concepts, trying to take the focus away from the male point of view and focus on the women. Her translation has caused controversy among scholars. It is not confirmed that Nolan used this version to base his script on, but the quality of the dialogue is a poor rendition of modern Gen Z slang.
Follies In Formation
Another thing that stands out from this trailer is the battle scenes we are shown.
For one, Odysseus leads the Greeks in a very un-Grecian formation as he charges down a beach. The Greeks were known for their discipline and their deadly phalanx formation, not for charging into battle like a horde of barbarians. The scene looks more like a sword-and-board version of the opening of Saving Private Ryan than anything the Greeks would have actually done. That may sound like a nitpick, but the discipline of the Greek troops and their loyalty to their kings and to Greece is a huge theme of Homer’s duology.
The other is a ridiculous charge by a troupe of giants who are dressed in armor that looks like they salvaged it from the leftovers of a King Arthur movie than a Homerian epic. These silver-clad warriors look out of place and anachronistic in The Odyssey, another example of Nolan using spectacle and visual shorthand rather than something that actually reflects the source material.
Sure, the special effects look cool, with Charybdis a wide, gaping hole in the sea and the battle in Troy looking explosive. But so far, that’s the only thing The Odyssey has shown it has going for it. Between its snarky, modernized dialogue and its attempt to be a visual spectacle, the trailer looks more like Not Another Marvel Movie than it does a tribute to an important ancient epic.
While, I admit that I may be more sensitive to this vandalism of Homer because my family emigrated to America from Sparta, I can’t help but feeling affronted that my heritage as a Greek is being used by Nolan as a cynical Hollywood cash grab. This telling of Homer’s Trojan War sequel is looking more like a pageant of modernized filmmaking meant more to show that it, to paraphrase Ian Malcolm, could be done, regardless of if it should. Plus, the removal of the values Homer wrote about means that it is more like a presentist fanfiction than anything the Greeks may have written.
We will all find out when The Odyssey premiers in theaters on July 17, 2026.
Entertainment
Megan Fox’s Raunchy, R-Rated Comedy On Netflix Is A Mean Girl’s Worst Nightmare
By Robert Scucci
| Published
I have this nasty habit of watching movies with no rhyme or reason, falling into genre holes, and slowly digging myself out. I do this with actors and directors too, most recently stumbling upon Megan Fox’s Till Death (2021). It’s a home invasion thriller that plays it straight, but has so many funny moments thanks to its pacing and situational humor. Having never seen 2009’s Jennifer’s Body, I figured now would be a good time to check it out, since I now know she works well in the blood-covered baddie wheelhouse.
Jennifer’s Body has everything you could possibly want in a horror comedy. It leans into young adult tropes, giving it an inherent amount of campiness because every adult is beyond clueless. It’s high school, you know, the most important four years of your life, so for the kids involved, everybody is in a heightened state because they have little to no real-world experience, but they’re also in mortal danger thanks to a very peculiar series of events that occur in their community.
Throw a blood-sucking succubus into the equation, add gratuitous amounts of splatter for dramatic effect, and Jennifer’s Body ends up being way more fun than it has any right to be, thanks to Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried’s straight-faced commitment to the bit.
Besties Forever
Jennifer’s Body fittingly starts off more like Mean Girls than a horror flick when we’re introduced to our protagonist, Anita “Needy” Lesnicki (Amanda Seyfried), and her super popular bestie, Jennifer Check (Megan Fox). Jennifer is your stereotypical high school beauty queen who can have every underclassman groveling in her presence. Needy is much more reserved, dresses humbly, and likes to keep a low profile despite the fact that she’s best friends with the most popular girl in school.
Needy’s life changes forever when Jennifer decides to take her out to see the indie rock band Low Shoulder at a local bar. Their relationship dynamic goes like this: Jennifer wants to do something, Needy doesn’t, Jennifer bullies Needy into doing it anyway, and Needy reluctantly tags along.
A fire breaks out at the concert and destroys the venue, killing several people in the process, and the girls separate when Jennifer decides she wants to hang out with the band in their van against Needy’s advice. Needy goes home thinking Jennifer is going to do whatever Jennifer always does, but is horrified to learn that whatever happened between the fire and Jennifer’s return has changed her for the worse.
The next time we see Jennifer, she’s covered in blood, seemingly in a trance, before trying to bite Needy in the neck like a vampire. The next day at school, Jennifer looks totally normal, as if the previous night didn’t happen, complete with her usual glowing skin and on-point contouring. However, Needy sees through the illusion. Whenever Jennifer’s looks start to deteriorate, it means she’s hungry and needs to eat one of her classmates to preserve her beauty, starting with the captain of the football team, and chaotically spiraling from that point forward.
A Vampire Story With A Twist
What sets Jennifer’s Body apart from its contemporaries is its willingness to have fun, and to do it with style. While a $16 million production budget may not sound huge these days, it was enough to allow for some great practical effects. The movie is mostly set in a high school, so it’s reasonable to assume a decent chunk of that budget went toward making sure we got some top-notch gore.
There’s also a level of campiness that really drives things forward because this movie is basically Mean Girls meets The Lost Boys in terms of its sense of humor. Jennifer knows she’s transformed into something terrible, and while Needy knows something is clearly wrong, she has to use her smarts to figure out exactly how to break the spell that turned her into a blood-sucking monster with impeccable taste in fashion.
The plot line involving the band, and their recurring presence in Devil’s Kettle, Minnesota, keeps things lively, but also hints at a much more sinister undertone once you learn how connected they are to Jennifer’s sudden transformation from high school bombshell to salacious succubus. There’s really no fat on this movie. Every character and plot line that gets introduced serves a purpose rather than getting brushed aside and forgotten about.
In 2026, Jennifer’s Body feels like pretty standard horror comedy fare, especially after movies like The Babysitter (2017) and Little Evil (2017). Both films, along with plenty of others, latched onto a similar formula, but Jennifer’s Body is still one of the earlier examples of the modern mainstream horror comedy as far as I’m concerned. It’s gory, but not too gory. It’s sexy, but not over the top to the point where any mature teen watching with their parents would immediately want to crawl out of their skin. Most importantly, it’s fun.
Between the emotional manipulation and blood sucking, we’re still reminded that growing up anywhere is difficult, and friendship matters. Especially when the occult is involved and your best friend happens to be the person causing all the collateral damage. After all, you want to stay on Jennifer’s good side.
As of this writing, Jennifer’s Body is streaming on Netflix.
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