What’s New to Stream on Netflix for May 2021

Crossing the Streams is a series of columns spotlighting all the offerings hitting the big streaming services each month. This time we’re checking out the new Netflix arrivals for May 2021, including new movies from Zack Snyder, Alexandre Aja, Joe Wright, and more!

Keep reading to see what’s new on Netflix for May 2021!

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Netflix Pick of the Month for May 2021

Zack Snyder’s best film remains 2004’s Dawn of the Dead, so his return to a world overrun with zombies was always going to be anticipated. Happily, the trailer for Army of the Dead (premieres May 21st) suggests he’s delivered another blast of undead action with a somewhat lighter tone. The film sees a group of thieves head into a zombie-occupied Las Vegas to pull off an epic heist, but brain munchers and human villainy threaten them at every turn. Am I irked that it steps on my plans to write a spec script about a heist in Las Vegas on the night of the Purge? Sure, but I’m still looking forward to enjoying the mayhem unleashed by Snyder, Dave Bautista, Hiroyuki Sanada, Garret Dillahunt, Tig Notaro, and others.

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New Netflix Movies, Plus a Bonus Series!

Director Alexandre Aja made his name with gory horror gems (High Tension, 2003; The Hills Have Eyes, 2006) before delivering a terrific creature feature (Crawl, 2019) that reached his biggest audience yet. His latest, Oxygen (premieres May 12th), looks to be a more methodical and focused thriller as it follows a woman (Melanie Laurent) who awakes in a cryogenic chamber with no clue what brought her there. I’m guessing her co-star Mathieu Amalric has something to do with it.

The success of Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon (1981) and The Silence of the Lambs (1988) has led to decades worth of thrillers pairing a law enforcement agent with an intensely smart villain, and that trend continues with I Am All Girls (premieres May 14th). South African filmmaker Donovan Marsh made several films before getting his Hollywood break with 2018’s Hunter Killer, but as that didn’t quite pan out his follow-up is another smaller-budgeted affair. This one follows an investigator who “teams up” with a serial killer to catch a sex trafficker of children.

The long-delayed The Woman in the Window (premieres May 14th) finally arrives this month, and it brings with it a pretty stacked cast. Amy Adams headlines as an agoraphobic woman who witnesses a violent crime. AJ Finn’s source novel sounds like a Rear Window riff — rarely a bad thing — and with Joe Wright and Tracy Letts adapting (as director and writer, respectively) we’re more than a little interested in experiencing its secrets. Add in a supporting cast that includes Gary Oldman, Anthony Mackie, Julianne Moore, and Brian Tyree Henry, and you have a must watch.

Finally, Jupiter’s Legacy (premieres May 7th) may not be a new movie, but it is a new series tackling superheroes with a now familiar edginess. The show explores a world where superheroes have existed for decades and the world’s most powerful crime-fighting team is now made up of tired people in their waning years. Flashbacks reveal their origin and the interpersonal relationships while the present day sees fractures in family and ideals leading to unexpected conflicts, morality questions from the media, and death.

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A Julia Roberts Double Feature

Remember John Grisham adaptations? The early 90s began a decade’s worth of big screen movies bringing the man’s novels to life, but then 2004’s Christmas with the Kranks opened and the gravy train ended. Ten feature films in eleven years, and then… nothing. Eighteen novels since, but no new adaptations. It’s weird. Anyway, The Pelican Brief (1993) is one of the truly solid films made from his books and stars a powerhouse pairing of Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. The plot is terrific and fast-moving, the great Alan J. Pakula directs with precision, and the supporting cast is equally killer with Sam Shepard, John Heard, Tony Goldwyn, William Atherton, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and more helping deliver a smart, entertaining thriller.

And a complete 180 degrees around from that legal thriller is one of the best romantic comedies out there — yeah, I said it — as Roberts and Hugh Grant star in the endlessly wonderful Notting Hill (1999). Very funny, filled with well-drawn supporting characters, Roberts and Grant at the top of their game, a still-beautiful season-changing sequence, and a beautiful ending. I will always highlight this movie when it lands on a streaming service as it is always worth watching and re-watching.

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The Oldest New Arrival on Netflix

It’s not news, but Netflix is not the best streamer when it comes to older films. And to be clear, “older” in this instance means anything pre-2000. The oldest Netflix arrival for May 2021 is Oliver Stone’s Scarface (1983) starring Al Pacino as a Cuban gangster. The 80s were a different time, people! Is it a good movie? That’s subjective, but it is a lot of movie as Pacino chews any piece of scenery that’s left standing and Stone embraces the excess of it all with a 170-minute running time. Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, F. Murray Abraham, and more are along for the ride, and if you’ve only seen it via the poster on a dorm room wall then it’s worth a watch.

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The Complete Netflix List for May 2021

Release Date	Title	Note
5/1	Aliens Stole My Body
	Angelina Ballerina: Season 5-6
	Back to the Future (1985)
	Back to the Future Part II (1989)
	Back to the Future Part III (1990)
	Barney and Friends: Season 13-14
	Best of the Best (1989)
	Dead Again in Tombstone (2017)
	Due Date (2010)
	Fun with Dick and Jane (2005)
	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
	Green Zone (2010)
	Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)
	JT LeRoy (2018)
	The Land Before Time (1988)
	The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure (1994)
	The Lovely Bones (2009)
	Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (2012)
	Mystic River (2003)
	Never Back Down (2008)
	Notting Hill (1999)
	Open Season (2006)
	The Pelican Brief (1993)
	Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
	Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
	S.M.A.R.T Chase (2017)
	Scarface (1983)
	Sitting in Limbo (2020)
	Stargate (1994)
	State of Play (2009)
	The Sweetest Thing (2002)
	Under Siege (1992)
	Waist Deep (2006)
	The Whole Nine Yards (2000)
	Your Highness (2011)
	Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)
	Zombieland (2009)
5/2	Hoarders: Season 11
5/4	The Clovehitch Killer (2018)
	Selena: The Series: Part 2	Netflix Original
	Trash Truck: Season 2	Netflix Family
5/5	Framing John DeLorean
	The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness	Netflix Documentary
5/6	Dead Man Down (2013)
5/7	Girl from Nowhere: Season 2	Netflix Original
	Jupiter's Legacy	Netflix Original
	Milestone	Netflix Film
	Monster	Netflix Film
5/8	Mine	Netflix Original
	Sleepless (2017)
5/11	Money, Explained	Netflix Documentary
5/12	Dance of the Forty One	Netflix Film
	Oxygen	Netflix Film
	The Upshaws	Netflix Original
5/13	Castlevania: Season 4	Netflix Anime
	Layer Cake (2004)
5/14	Ferry	Netflix Film
	Haunted: Season 3	Netflix Original
	I Am All Girls	Netflix Film
	Jungle Beat: The Movie	Netflix Family
	Love, Death & Robots: Volume 2	Netflix Original
	Move to Heaven	Netflix Original
	The Strange House	Netflix Film
	The Woman in the Window	Netflix Film
5/16	Sleight (2016)
5/18	Sardar Ka Grandson	Netflix Film
5/19	The Last Days (1998)
	Sabotage (2014)
	Small Town Crime (2017)
	Who Killed Sara?: Season 2	Netflix Original
5/20	Hating Peter Tatchell (2021)
	Special: Season 2	Netflix Original
	Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011)
5/21	Army of the Dead	Netflix Film
	Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous: Season 3	Netflix Family
	The Neighbor: Season 2	Netflix Original
5/22	Sam Smith: Love Goes - Live At Abbey Road Studios
5/25	Home (2015)
5/26	Baggio: The Divine Ponytail	Netflix Film
	High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America	Netflix Documentary
	Nail Bomber: Manhunt	Netflix Documentary
5/27	Black Space	Netflix Original
	Blue Miracle	Netflix Film
	Eden	Netflix Anime
	Soy Rada: Serendipity	Netflix Comedy
5/28	Dog Gone Trouble	Netflix Family
	Lucifer: Season 5 Part 2	Netflix Original
	The Kominsky Method: Season 3	Netflix Original
5/31	Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story
	The Parisian Agency: Exclusive Properties
ETA Unknown	AlRawabi School for Girls	Netflix Original
	Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir (2021)
	Halston	Netflix Original
	Mad for Each Other	Netflix Original
	Master of None - Season 3	Netflix Original
	Racket Boys	Netflix Original
	Ragnarok: Season 2	Netflix Original

Follow all of our monthly streaming guides.

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Show Me the (Fake) Money: The Art and Artifice of Prop Currency

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay about how prop money works.

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Movie magic, by and large, is about faking things. Faking explosions, faking identical twins, faking dinosaurs, you name it. And usually, when it comes to on-screen fakery, the more believable something is the better. But there’s one notable exception: money.

The fake money you see in films has to walk a fine line. It has to look real enough to seem authentic to the audience. But it can’t be so real that the filmmakers get slammed with counterfeit charges.

The video essay below offers a quick primer on how realistic prop money can look without breaking the law. Filmmakers are required to follow a long laundry list of rules to avoid jail time for forgery, including everything from the size of the bills to tweaking federal emblems. As the essay keenly points out, sometimes prop masters are penalized for doing too good of a job when it comes to replicating money.

A great example of this (not mentioned in the video) comes from William Friedkin‘s To Live and Die in L.A., which begins with a scene of the film’s villain printing forged bills. The sequence feels very real, in part because Friedkin (as he’s wont to do) consulted with real counterfeiters.

As relayed in Nat Segaloff’s Friedkin biography Hurricane Billy, despite the production’s burning of the near one million dollars of prop money, some of the counterfeit cash found its way into circulation. The FBI got involved when a crewmember’s son tried to buy some candy with the bills, which included three intentional “errors” to distinguish it from real currency.

All to say: money shots are a serious business. And prop masters deserve credit where credit is due.

Watch “How Real Can Movie Money Look?“:

Who made this?

This video essay on movie prop money is by Toronto-based filmmaker Johnny Vong, who is behind the channel This Beautiful Fraud. You can subscribe to This Beautiful Fraud on YouTube here. Christine Holloway is this essay’s narrator.

More Videos Like This

• Here’s another sample of This Beautiful Fraud’s work: an investigation into the phenomenon of why modern filmmakers like Denis Villeneuve, Brandford Young, and David Fincher underexpose their films.
• And here’s their love letter to the morbidly poetic vampire movie Let the Right One In.
• Here they are singing the praises of Jacques Tati‘s aesthetically pleasing comedies.
• For another video essay on how prop money for movies works, here’s Insider with their own breakdown on how fake money is made.
• And, in a similar vein, here’s Insider once more with a look at Morley cigarettes, the notorious brand of fake cigs that pops up time and time again in film and television.
• If all this prop talk has you hankering for some less…legal money copying, here’s a video from Vice on one of the counterfeiting capitals of the world: Lima, Peru.

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“Night of the Living Late Show” Sees ‘Creepshow’ Go Out on a High Note

The second season of Shudder’s Creepshow anthology series has come to an end after just five episodes. Don’t worry, though, as a third season has already been greenlit. Each previous episode has featured two story segments, but the finale features only one — “Night of the Living Late Show” — and while it may not be the best the series has to offer it’s definitely the most expensive-looking. (Yes, I’m still talking about the Creepshow series.) Like the season’s actual best segment, “Public Television of the Dead,” the finale ties in existing horror films and characters to deliver something of a fun little love letter to genre fans.

“Night of the Living Late Show”
Director: Greg Nicotero
Writer: Dana Gould

Simon (Justin Long) is a man with a passion for movies. Well, for at least one movie in particular anyway. His new invention, the Immersopod, is designed for film fans like himself as a virtual reality home theater system — it literally puts the user into the movie. It’s an idea worth billions, but profit is far removed from his immediate goal as instead it’s lust that drives his interests. More specifically, it’s his lust for Silvia Tortosa as Countess Irina Petrovska in 1972’s Horror Express. Simon enters the film, fanboys out over Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing (understandably), and then starts making moves on the Countess. What he neglects through this entire adventure, though, is his real-world wife Renee (D’Arcy Carden). A woman scorned, as they say…

Dana Gould’s second foray into the world of Creepshow after 2019’s “Skincrawlers” sees him staying behind the camera as the segment’s writer. The man’s well-known love of the genre comes shining through as Simon’s appreciation for Horror Express — a legitimately fun and creepy little horror/thriller set aboard a train hurtling through a snowy landscape — and his geeking out over meeting Lee and Cushing is all of us. Simon’s error, and the segment’s morality lesson, becomes a cautionary tale about obsession taking precedence over real-life connections and responsibilities. For him it’s boning a fictional Countess while neglecting his actual wife, for others it could be videogames, films, yoga, or gender reveal parties. Don’t let your hobbies take over your life, people.

Series shepherd and frequent director Greg Nicotero clearly realized that this finale, an extended entry running ten to twenty minutes longer than the usual, would take a bit more oomph, and it’s evident in the finished product. The one constant throughout the Creepshow series has been its insanely low budget as evidenced by some truly cheap looking segments. It’s not always a bad thing as some stories deliver without bells and whistles, but “Night of the Living Late Show” would have been absolutely sunk without more money behind its effects.

Long’s immersion into Horror Express, while far from flawless, looks pretty damn good. Sharp editing, stand-in sets and actors, and the f/x work to complete the illusion, and it all makes for an appealing piece of tech that any movie lover would jump at the chance to own. The device itself may just be a stylized tanning bed, but it’s believable enough as “an escape pod for life.” The couple’s house is also several steps up from the usual soundstage locales typically called home by the series, and the end result is arguably the best-looking segment in the series’ short history.

Gould’s script is powered off its concept and ends with a suitable comeuppance for a show built on the EC Comics mold, but even with its extended running time it stumbles some in the details. Simon is ecstatic in describing his VR, but he neglects to mention that the user can actually (and inexplicably) interact with a film’s characters — they can essentially alter what happens in the movie. His character is equally slim in detail as he’s little more than an obnoxious horny dude. By contrast, Renee is more of a fully fledged character as we see her doubting her life choices, trying to mend her relationship with a father who never liked Simon in the first place, and even stepping up to go toe to toe with the other woman.

“Night of the Living Late Show” is a strong episode and a suitable finale for Creepshow‘s second season. It does waste several minutes with its intro/outro animation featuring the Creep in VR versions of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, but the episode itself is an entertaining tale for horror fans. The season’s continued shift away from stories that “feel” like Creepshow remains an odd choice, but it may have found a different niche as the two best segments of the season instead lean heavily into existing genre fare. That’s hardly something you can build an anthology series off of, but for now at least, it’s at least enough to bring fun into the fold and leave us looking forward to a season three.

Follow all of our Creepshow coverage!

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Justin Theroux Can’t Outrun Capitalism in Moralizing Adventure Series ‘The Mosquito Coast’

Welcome to Up Next, a column that gives you the rundown on the latest TV. This week, Valerie Ettenhofer reviews The Mosquito Coast, an Apple TV+ adaptation of an award-winning adventure novel.

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The world has changed significantly since Paul Theroux’s award-winning adventure novel The Mosquito Coast hit shelves in 1981, and the same goes for Peter Weir’s film adaptation starring Harrison Ford released five years later. Fortunately, the latest telling of the story — a limited series streaming on Apple TV+ based on the book — has also been changed significantly to fit the times. One thing hasn’t changed, however. The lead character’s guiding force is still a deep-seated disgust with American consumerism.

Developed by Luther creator Neil Cross and journalist Tom Bissell, the new adaptation follows Allie Fox (Justin Theroux), a man manically committed to a life off the grid. He takes his son Charlie (Gabriel Bateman) on day trips to siphon used cooking grease that can be turned into biofuel, calling it the homeschool version of a PE class. He rushes into the room of his teenage daughter Dina (Logan Polish) to wrestle a secret cell phone out of her hands. He’s not simply an intense environmentalist. There’s another, shadier reason he wants his family out of the government’s crosshairs.

By the end of the first episode of The Mosquito Coast, Allie has uprooted his family, including the two kids and wife Margot (Melissa George). He insists they’re going on an adventure, even as they head toward Mexico with a pair of what seem to be US officials in pursuit. On the surface, it’s the story of an idealistic environmentalist leading his family to a new land, but as the Foxes travel deeper into unfamiliar territory, the series sets up culturally complicated moments that chafe against its simplified initial characterizations.

Allie might be an idealist, but he’s also a pushy and purposely unlikeable character — almost everyone he meets calls him an asshole. And his proclaimed views often directly contradict his actions. In fact, the first few episodes of the series are forceful and forced, overflowing with edgy, apolitical speeches about American corruption and waste. But they’re also action-packed, so it’s easy for viewers to sail through the tightly plotted series until it evolves from a straight-faced drama into something of a wryly ironic allegory. By the end, those preachy early monologues will seem like a part of the show’s design.

The Mosquito Coast is well-directed and relentless, packed with arresting visuals and enough action to keep viewers engaged despite some early missteps. The Foxes’ trip is endlessly dangerous and increasingly grim, even as Allie continues to treat it as an educational family vacation. The series may not have the lightest narrative touch, but it’s an adventure show filled with all sorts of obstacles for the family to deal with, ranging from wild snakes to mummified bodies to desert shootouts.

Balancing between a savvily self-aware allegory and a misguided piece of cultural commentary, The Mosquito Coast toes a lot of lines. Much of the plot is set in and around a version of Mexico where cartel associates lord over opulent mansions and where dirt-covered street kids will sell anyone out for scraps. These are tired cultural tropes, but they also might be a fitting backdrop for a story about modern American hypocrisy and self-centeredness. Early in their journey, the Foxes take water and weapons from the corpses of migrants, and that bleak moment sets the tone for a series about a group of people that, despite their self-proclaimed distaste for capitalism, can’t stop taking what they think they’re owed.

As the series gets into a groove, its thematic originality is tempered by a familiar family dynamic. At times, The Mosquito Coast seems like a clone of Netflix’s Ozark, complete with an eye-rolling older daughter and a quietly messed-up younger son. Depending on what the scene calls for, Margot is either a self-sacrificing mother who dreams of normalcy above all else or the mastermind behind every dangerous decision. Allie is all boundary-pushing attitude, and Theroux plays him with a wide-eyed intensity that perfectly matches his unpleasant personality.

Fans of the novel or the 1986 film adaptation will find a scant resemblance between those versions and this one. Vitally, the Foxes’ central catalyst has changed — the series continually references something one or both parents did in the past that motivated them to hide from the government, though the details of those circumstances are only ever half-explained. The new impulse is all about family, which makes the havoc the Foxes wreak along their journey, and that blistering ending — also changed from the book — more personal and less sociopolitical.

The Mosquito Coast is not without problems, among them a muddled backstory and a tendency to rely on overused cultural cliches. Yet taken as a whole, the show does something undoubtedly bold, infusing a fast-moving action-adventure story with the type of layered, capitalist-critical commentary that’s rarely explored to this degree.

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‘Chaos Walking’ Trips All Over Itself and Never Gets Back Up

Apologies in advance for reminding you of its existence, but remember 2016’s Passengers? It was a much-ballyhooed science fiction “original” anchored by two massive franchise stars, and it pretty much stinks for multiple reasons including a tone-deaf narrative and a chemistry-free pairing at its center. That film inexplicably managed to make a few bucks in theaters despite this, but the similarly messy and top heavy new film from Doug Liman never stood that same chance. A sci-fi action/adventure “about” the sexes and headlined by stars from the two biggest film franchises in the world, Chaos Walking trips over its metaphorical dick so often you’d think it was a Ron Jeremy blooper reel.

It’s the year 2257, and Todd (Tom Holland) is living a simple life with his two dads on a farm outside the small, Appalachian-like community of Prentisstown. Humans had hoped to settle on this planet decades prior, but war with an indigenous species called the Spackle left their numbers decimated and all of the women deceased. Well, that’s the story passed down by Mayor Prentiss (Mads Mikkelsen) and his enormous coat anyway, but the men have more on their mind than just the absence of females — and all of it is on display in a colorful, chatty swirl around their heads. Their every thought is made audible and visible in the air, and while a select handful have learned how to control it most carry “the noise” everywhere they go at all times. Into this bubbling pot of amateur incels drops Viola (Daisy Ridley), and soon all the men of Prentisstown are hunting for her with only Todd standing in their way.

Chaos Walking is an adaptation of the first book in a YA trilogy by Patrick Ness, but don’t hold your breath waiting for the other two to hit the screen — that won’t be happening. The real-world pandemic holds a big part of the blame, of course, but it’s difficult to imagine the film having been a big franchise starter under even the best of circumstances. While ostensibly science fiction, the bulk of its action (and inaction) unfolds in drab communities more at home in a western. A brief encounter with the Spackle intrigues, but the film seems far more interested in cliched human interactions and generic action beats. And not for nothing, but a budget like this should have resulted in far more memorable sci-fi visuals.

The “noise” around men’s heads is creatively captured through wispy hues and crafty sound design, but for all its technical marvel the concept fumbles its execution. The men try to cover their thoughts and feelings, the latter frequently derided as being too feminine, with mundane checklists and repetition. So far so good, but their thoughts never feel remotely like the real mental maelstrom swirling around in our minds at any given point. They’re never random or two-steps removed and instead always feel narrative inspired in their focus. Similarly, while the title Chaos Walking refers to the supposed chaos in a man’s head, laid out for all to see and hear, it’s a remarkably sanitized “chaos” on display. Not that anyone would want to hear the unfiltered vulgarities and lustful abuse running through these guys’ heads, but variations on “She has a high voice, it’s nice” and “Yellow hair, pretty” are far removed from believability.

That’s not to say that realism is (or should be) the goal of a sci-fi action film. It’s more a criticism of a script (by Ness and Christopher Ford) that kicks off with an admittedly intriguing premise before choosing not to pursue any of its more interesting ramifications. Chaos Walking also isn’t all that interested in offering explanations or answers — what caused this? why does it only affect human males? why did they use up so much of their space ship’s interior for horses? did that dog really have to die so viciously? — and while it teases some engaging topics they go nowhere. The relation of the sexes, the politics of colonization, and their perspective on the planet’s native species (Viola tells Todd that it’s people who are the aliens here) are all potentially fascinating avenues broached and then ignored.

Holland and Ridley are both reliably solid here, and while they’re lacking in real chemistry it’s somewhat by design as the far more mature Viola is anything but interested in Todd. Mikkelsen is a standout — surprise — with a severely underwritten dystopian villain who’s just a few rewrites away from being interesting on the page. Equally underwritten, but unable to recover, is David Oyelowo‘s evangelical Aaron. As it stands there’s just not enough room in the villain pool for both. Credit is due to Demian Bichir and Kurt Sutter as Todd’s guardians, though, as they manage to deliver the film’s only warmth and humanity.

The bulk of the film’s issues rest with a script that can’t quite decide how much of its story to share, and that carries over into Liman’s direction. He can do compelling, immensely entertaining genre fare as evidenced by Edge of Tomorrow (2014), but that gem had Christopher McQuarrie behind the typewriter. Rather than be a thrilling sci-fi adventure or an entertaining franchise starter, Chaos Walking manages far less. On the plus side, though, it’s a solid reminder that sometimes talented, successful people fail too.

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‘Without Remorse’ Would Be Unmemorable Without Michael B. Jordan

Tom Clancy may have died eight years ago, but new books (from lower profile writers credited in small print) and film/TV adaptations have continued at a steady pace. The middling Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014) was the last feature to bear Clancy’s name while his eponymous hero has found more success on the small screen with Amazon’s Jack Ryan series. The streamer picked up the latest film adaptation, Without Remorse, from Paramount after theatrical plans were scuttled, but fans hoping for anything resembling the source novel are out of luck. This is a streamlined origin story for Clancy’s second most popular character, but while the film stumbles its star shines — basically, you come for Clancy, but you’re staying for an intense and charismatic performance by Michael B. Jordan.

John Kelly (Jordan) and his fellow Navy SEALs undertake a should-be-simple-but-we-know-it-won’t-be mission into Syria under the team’s leader, Lt. Commander Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith), and a shady CIA agent named Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell). Things go sideways as it comes clear that Ritter was holding back information, and three months later Kelly is back in the States with a pregnant wife and plans to retire with a job in the private sector. Plans change when two of his fellow SEALs are murdered and an attack on his own home leaves him wounded and his wife dead. Ritter and Secretary of Defense Thomas Clay (Guy Pearce) reveal that it was Russians getting revenge for what happened in Aleppo — and declare the score even (!) — but Kelly isn’t feeling all that forgiving. And the wheels of vengeance keep turning…

Clancy’s novel is a dense, character-rich story tackling violent threats both foreign and domestic, but Without Remorse tells a far simpler tale for the screen. Writers Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples pump up the action beats while minimizing the narrative into a fairly straightforward revenge story with the most obvious villain reveal since Benedict Cumberbatch said “My name is Khan.” Thankfully, both Jordan’s performance and director Stefano Sollima‘s execution of those action set-pieces almost make up for the otherwise flat script.

Sollima brought a similar eye for kinetic action sequences to his television series Gomorra (2014-2016) and Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018), the latter of which was also scripted by Sheridan. Big shootouts bookend the film with the second laying waste to an apartment building, and other highlights include a plane crash, an intense and fiery interrogation, and a prison brawl. The prison fight is especially thrilling as it takes place in a cramped cell and is preceded by an amped up Kelly preparing by overflowing his sink, soaking his shirt, and wetting his ripped torso.

Jordan’s performance is the heart, soul, and muscle of the film, though, as he shifts from soldier to widower to avenger and beyond. The actor is a producer on the film and initially signed on for a two-picture deal — Without Remorse is intended to be followed by an adaptation of Clancy’s Rainbow Six — and he’s as committed here as he is with the higher profile Creed films. Kelly — the man who becomes John Clark (previously played by Willem Dafoe and Liev Schreiber) — is the fist and gun to Jack Ryan’s analytical brain, and it’s easy to envision further adventures with him. (Hell, now that they’re both at Amazon it’s also easy to see an eventual team-up.) It’s a shame then that the script doesn’t feel as invested in the character. Lip service is paid to the expendability of soldiers, both here and abroad, but rather than carry real weight on the subject it’s used mainly to point the film and its characters toward that intended sequel.

Speaking of those supporting characters, there’s no denying the caliber of talent brought on to bring them to life. Pearce is always reliable, and while Bell can’t quite fill Henry Czerny’s shoes as Ritter he does good work as a duplicitous prick. Turner-Smith is a standout with this ninety-degree turn from her character/genre in Queen & Slim (2019), and it’s a smart play making her Admiral Greer’s niece in an extra bit of continuity across the Clancyverse. Two of them will be welcome faces in the yet to be greenlit Rainbow Six.

Without Remorse ultimately lands above the likes of Shadow Recruit and The Sum of All Fears (2002) but well below the 90s trifecta of The Hunt for Red October (1990), Patriot Games (1992), and Clear and Present Danger (1994). It feels less like a Tom Clancy thriller and more like any number of generic action movies, and while that probably won’t surprise anyone, with the talents involved it was reasonable to expect more than just another story about a dead woman fueling an armed man’s grief.

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‘Bridesmaids’ Perfected Gross-Out Humor

“It’s coming out of me like lava!” wails Melissa McCarthy as she sits over a china sink in a designer gown halfway through Bridesmaids. In hindsight, that might have been the moment the 2011 film was deemed worthy of comedy classic status.

Written by Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig and directed by Paul Feig, Bridesmaids is massively successful for a number of reasons, including its stellar cast, its Oscar-worthy script, and its relentless laugh-out-loud humor. It was also revolutionary, confidently boasting an ensemble cast of all women in a genre that was, at the time, extremely male-dominated. And one of its most important scenes allowed women to claim the usual boys club of gross-out comedy as their own.

Bridesmaids follows the best-friendship of Annie (Wiig) and Lillian (Maya Rudolph), a lifelong bond that is put to the test when Lillian announces she is engaged to be married and then invites the chic and fashionable Helen (Rose Byrne) to be a member of her wedding party. From that point on, Annie and Helen engage in a battle to prove themselves the better friend. 

One of the film’s best scenes takes place when the gang of bridesmaids goes for their dress fittings. The event goes south when it becomes evident that the ladies have accrued a pretty nasty case of food poisoning from a restaurant that Annie took them to right beforehand. They become violently ill and wreck the luxurious bridal shop in the process.

What makes this scene so powerful is not just that it takes a genre that is typically male and demonstrates that that doesn’t have to be the case, but it also takes a kind of scene that is often frivolous and transparent and makes it integral and pivotal to the plot. It’s not a throwaway moment set up just for shock and laughs. In fact, it works to strengthen the central tensions of the film while allowing its characters to develop further. 

At the core of the scene is Annie and Helen’s feud. In fact, the scene itself can easily be interpreted as a metaphor for their relationship. Annie does something unconventional — she takes the bridesmaids group to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant — in an attempt to upstage Helen. But that, of course, ends up backfiring when everyone becomes deathly ill, and Helen smirks in victory. 

Feig uses fast-paced editing to emphasize the absurdity of Helen and Annie’s cutthroat relationship. As soon as the spectacle breaks out in true chaos with Megan (McCarthy) relieving herself in the sink while Rita (Wendi McLendon Covey) vomits in and around the toilet, the film cuts back to Annie and Helen as they’re quietly brimming with malicious subtext. Annie attempts to convince her rival that she isn’t also sick, refuting the assumption it was the food at her restaurant choice — which only Helen abstained from eating — that made the others sick. Cutting between this interaction and the scene of pandemonium likens Annie and Helen’s relationship to one of total lawlessness and tumult. 

The scene also allows some subtle development of the supporting characters, who might have been ignored in another comedy. It makes sense that Megan is the one who uses the sink as a toilet because she is the main source of crude humor in the film. In essentially every scene, she takes things a little too far. During Lillian’s engagement party, Megan makes shocking sexual comments about a fellow partygoer. Later, on an airplane, she attempts to seduce an air marshal. She can always be counted to make a fool of herself and push the limits of what audiences can take. This makes it all the more impactful, though, when she later winds up being the only one who is really there for Annie after things go downhill. The character isn’t just there for comic relief, despite how the other members of the wedding party seem to view her.

And then there’s the relationship between Rita and Becca (Ellie Kemp), which develops throughout the film as one of a mentor and a clueless mentee. This dynamic is articulated in the scene when Becca vomits on Rita’s head. Such a simple gesture tells us so much about Becca’s hopeless nature and Rita’s worn down, experienced demeanor. Out of all of the bridesmaids, Rita is the one with the most life experience. When explaining why she wants to go to Vegas for the bachelorette party, she tells stories about her sons that are straight out of a horror movie. “I cracked a blanket in half,” she explains to a horrified Annie and Lillian upon her entrance into the film. So, if anyone’s going to get their head coated in vomit, it’s her. And, if anyone’s going to puke on someone’s head, it’s Becca. She’s the one whom Rita later berates for only having ever slept with her fiancé — who, to Rita’s horror, can only do it with the lights off. After they’ve both showered. Separately.

And then there’s the grand finale of the scene. With vomit splayed all over the once-white walls of the bridal shop, the dress salesperson in tears, it seems the worst of it has to be over. But amidst the disarray, Lillian’s situation is the most precarious. While the other women try on their potential bridesmaid dresses, Lillian is putting on a French designer dress just to see how it feels. During Annie and Helen’s squabble, Lillian re-enters the scene with a look of sheer horror on her face. “It’s happening,” she says, and she races out and across the street in search of a bathroom. But she ends up having to use the street as a bathroom. This moment not only fits with her character, as she’s the level-headed one who always takes the damage-control route, but it also emphasizes the high stakes of the film. Lillian is the bride. Every disaster ultimately happens to her detriment. 

At its core, Bridesmaids is a movie with a lot of heart, and one that ultimately teaches us the importance of friendship and being kind to others. This central message and other substantial themes might make it seem as though the film’s moments of pure comedy are simply for entertainment — or that they are secondary to the main story. Particularly with the dress-fitting and food poisoning bit, which could have just existed to make us cringe and laugh out loud at the same time. But that isn’t the case. Instead, the seemingly throw-away humor scene tells us more about the characters than any other part of the film. And it doesn’t hurt that the scene also helps to prove women can do gross-out humor as well as men — if not even better.

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Farce and Fiction: What Makes a Great Movie Within a Movie

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay celebrating the best meta-movies within movies.

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You gotta admit, it’s always a treat when there’s a movie within a movie. After all, who doesn’t love a fake trailer?

Meta-movies tend to act as bite-sized Hollywood satire, a quick way to take potshots at genre conventions, aesthetics, and marketing techniques. A one-off gag is all well and good. But at their best, meta-movies can tell us a fair amount about the fictional world that they’re a part of.

To give an example: the fake teasers that precede 2008’s Tropic Thunder lampoon everything from awards-hopeful Oscar bait (“Satan’s Alley“) to overwrought action franchises (“Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown“), clearly establishing the satirical gait of the actual film to follow. These fake trailers also introduce us to our key players, a gaggle of actors whose in-universe film choices tell us what we need to know about their Hollywood status.

As the video essay below emphasizes, the best meta-movies are the ones that transcend mere throwaway genre satire and wriggle their way into the narrative itself. The essay makes a distinction between “fictional movies within movies” and “movies predominately about the making of fictional movies.” So don’t expect to see any appearances from Living in Oblivion‘s low-budget indie film or The Player‘s “Habeas Corpus” or the titular movie in Hail, Caesar!. Instead, you’ll find a thorough and delightfully celebratory breakdown of meta-movies that add a little spice to the films that they’re a part of. 

Watch “The Best Movies Within Movies“:

Who made this?

This video essay is by the New York-based Patrick (H) Willems. Willems has been making content on YouTube for the better part of a decade. You can find Willems’ own directorial efforts and their video essays on their channel here. You can also find Willems on Twitter here.

More Videos Like This

• For another sample of Willems’ work, here’s their video on why Dick Tracy is arguably the most marvelously bonkers comic book movie ever made.
• And here’s Willems on why baseball is the best cinematic sport.
• Willems gained a degree of notoriety for making short re-imaginings of existing films through the quirky lens of Wes Anderson. Here’s his take on what it would look like if Anderson had directed an X-Men movie. There are adorable center-framed shots, personalized stationery, and plenty of other well-observed details that amount to one killer parody.
• And finally here’s Willems on why the formula of the music biopic is a little broken.

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Stay Behind the White Line with Our Pick of the Week

Streaming might be the future, but physical media is still the present. It’s also awesome, depending on the title, the label, and the release, so each week we take a look at the new Blu-rays and DVDs making their way into the world. Welcome to this week in Home Video for April 27th, 2021!

This week’s home video selection includes the third Thin Man, a spaghetti western classic in 4K, a recently crowned Best Picture winner, and more. Check out our picks below.

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Pick of the Week

Quick Change [Warner Archive]

What is it? A trio of bank robbers struggle to get away with the loot.

Why see it? Bill Murray only directed a single film, this one, and it is a comic masterpiece. He co-directed it with Howard Franklin, who also wrote the film, and it’s an absolute gem of a movie. Murray is introduced as a clown, the crying on the inside kind, obviously, and along with Geena Davis and Randy Quaid he executes a perfectly plotted bank robbery. The fun continues, though, as they try to escape a city that keeps throwing oddballs, bad luck, and eccentricities in their way. This movie is hilarious, eminently quotable, and finally on Blu-ray.

[Extras: None]

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The Best

Another Thin Man [Warner Archive]

What is it? Nick and Nora are at it again.

Why see it? Few franchises are bursting with quality like The Thin Man series of films from the 30s and 40s. Yes, the earlier titles are the best of the bunch, but even later ones manage charm and laughs. This third entry in the series is one of the great ones as the happily married couple — and new parents — find themselves enmeshed in another murder mystery. The dialogue is fast and snappy, the characters are lively and colorful, and the mystery is another wonderful, breezy romp through seedy suspects and cocktail concoctions.

[Extras: Short, cartoon]

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly [4K UltraHD, KL Studio Classics]

What is it? Three men pursue a fortune in the wreckage of the Civil War.

Why see it? Sergio Leone’s filmography includes several westerns, a few of which should be labeled as classics, but this 1967 effort is arguably his best among them. Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach take on the title roles, Ennio Morricone delivers the unforgettable score, and Leone goes out of his way to highlight the beauty and ugliness of the old west from landscapes to grizzled faces in closeup. At over two and a half hours long it’s a film that never grows tiresome, and even on rewatch it delivers more than enough thrills, character, and excellence to make each watch a fresh one.

[Extras: New 4K, commentary, documentaries, interviews, deleted scenes]

Nomadland

What is it? An unhoused woman goes where the jobs are in America.

Why see it? Chloe Zhao’s affectingly honest look at today’s reality for far too many citizens of the United States just won the Academy Award for Best Picture this past weekend, and that’s a good thing as it’s the best film of 2020. Frances McDormand stars as a widow who lives in her van and travels throughout the year where the work is, from an Amazon warehouse to other communities. She has friends and acquaintances along the way, but there’s a trauma hanging over it all. We the people need to do so much better for those around us.

[Extras: Featurette, Q&A, deleted scenes]

Switchblade Sisters [Arrow Video]

What is it? A girl gang wreaks havoc!

Why see it? The great Jack Hill (Spider Baby, Foxy Brown) directed this girls gone wild romp about warring gangs and violent brawls on the city streets, and it’s a 70s style blast. The dialogue is exaggerated and over the top, the banter is crassly humorous, the fights are nasty and bloody, and it’s all in service of exploitation. Arrow’s new Blu-ray looks damn good and comes with numerous extras that shine a light on the film’s production and lasting legacy. But yes, you’ll want to flip around that cover art to the original on the backside.

[Extras: Commentary, documentaries, interviews]

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The Rest

Battle Hymn [KL Studio Classics]

What is it? A man seeks atonement in the face of war.

Why see it? Rock Hudson stars as a military man who moves towards religion after taking on the burden of accidentally killing dozens of children in a bombing mission, but fate pulls him back to conflict as Korea heats up. There’s a visible pain in Hudson’s performance as a man weighed down by guilt and trauma, and it works well to build him into a man capable of stepping up when necessary. The film blends his drama with some solid set-pieces to deliver an entertaining tale of war and humanity.

[Extras: Commentary]

Deep Blood [Severin Films]

What is it? A shark stalks the Florida waters!

Why see it? Shark attack cinema is a sub-genre close to my heart, but when entries are bad they’re very bad indeed. This 1990 effort from Joe D’Amato shows very little effort at all and actually commits the cardinal sin of animal attack flicks in that it’s incredibly boring. The characters are all dull, the script is flat and uninteresting, and the shark sequences are a lazy mash up of outside footage and characters flopping around in the water. The end is also so anticlimactic as to be almost impressive in its lack of thrills.

[Extras: New 2K scan]

A Lovely Way to Die [KL Studio Classics]

What is it? A bodyguard falls for the woman he’s guarding.

Why see it? Kirk Douglas is the main reason to watch this light-hearted caper as he’s clearly having a blast here. He plays a cop who takes on a bodyguard position with the recently widowed Sylva Koscina, but his efforts to protect her are complicated by lust and deceit — his and hers, respectively. Douglas feels a few years too old for the sexy shenanigans, but he does good work showing his action chops alongside a pretty simple plot.

[Extras: Commentary]

The Time Travelers [Scorpion]

What is it? Scientists travel into the future!

Why see it? This mid 60s sci-fi romp displays more than a little creativity with its story about three scientists and a sidekick who open a portal into the future and then walk right through it. Fools! It’s a future Earth devastated by man’s idiocy, and while mutated humans roam above the normies huddle in style below alongside some creepy looking robots. It’s silly at times, but the visuals and characters are entertaining enough to keep things moving quickly with both thrills and spills.

[Extras: None]

Werewolves on Wheels [Code Red]

What is it? A biker gang tangles with evil!

Why see it? This is a fun slice of 70s action/horror pairing biker hijinx with a religious cult, and the outcomes involves, you guessed it, freaking werewolves! It makes for some entertaining action set-pieces as the various genre elements come together with energy and a clear love for these miscellaneous exploitation strands. The film does a good job hitting each of the elements — the bikers, the cult, and the werewolves — and then bringing them together. The early 70s man, what a time.

[Extras: None]

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Also out this week:

The Cellar [Vinegar Syndrome], Donnie Darko [4K UltraHD Arrow Video], Irma Vep [Criterion Collection], Last Gasp [Vinegar Syndrome], Rush Week [Vinegar Syndrome], Vanquish

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20 Things We Learned from ‘The Slumber Party Massacre’ Commentary

Welcome to Commentary Commentary, where we sit and listen to filmmakers talk about their work, then share the most interesting parts. In this edition, Rob Hunter celebrates Chloe Zhao’s historic Best Director win at the Oscars by revisiting another classic directed by a woman, The Slumber Party Massacre.

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This might surprise you — and it should anger you — but Chloe Zhao’s recent Academy Award for directing Nomadland marks only the second win for a female director. That’s bonkers, so in the spirit of highlighting more female filmmakers we’re taking a look at another rarity, a slasher movie directed by a woman. The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) was directed by Amy Holden Jones, and the two sequels were directed by two other women.

It remains a big deal, and while Jones only directed three more features she remained busy as a writer with credits as diverse as Mystic Pizza (1988), Beethoven (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), and The Relic (1997). Not too bad for someone whose first credit was as Assistant to the Director on a little film called Taxi Driver (1976). Keep reading to see what I heard on her commentary track for The Slumber Party Massacre!

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

Commentator: Amy Holden Jones (director), Debra De Liso (actor), Michael Villela (actor)

1. The houses are located on Mountain View Ave. in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles, and Jones scouted them while living nearby in Venice. It was also pretty close to New World Pictures and producer Roger Corman.

2. Corman insisted they use Sleepless Night as the title while trying to convince homeowners to let their properties be used “so that people would think it was a classy thriller.” He’s always been a smart man.

3. Composer Ralph Jones is the director’s brother. “He recorded the entire score on a small Casio synthesizer.”

4. Jones was hired as director having only read the prologue to Rita Mae Brown’s script and having never seen popular slashers of the time like Friday the 13th (1980). She discovered its degree of violence and sex later, but she worked to add scares and humor herself as “I don’t think her script was funny at all.”

5. As with an early topless scene, Jones points out that the shower sequence was a requirement from Corman. She shot it very by the numbers just to tick the boxes.

6. Jones had worked in editing and as a documentary filmmaker, but this was her first feature.

7. She suggests horror movies were looked down upon back then but that they’re now much more respected. “I was pilloried at the time for doing this, but now if you go and you do Turistas you’re an artiste.” This will be news to John Stockwell.

8. Villela recalls that he shaped his character’s look and movement after a peacock. “It was all peacock.”

9. Brinke Stevens pops into the commentary recording just as her character is about to bite it. “This was my very first death scene in a movie.”

10. A guy is seen riding up on a motorcycle at 16:25, and while they can’t quite agree as to who it is — a production manager, a member of the electrical crew — Jones admits she at first thought it was Joe Dante. It is very clearly not Joe Dante.

11. Villela created a whole backstory for his killer character well beyond what’s mentioned in the film. He also stayed somewhat in character during filming which helped creep out the young women. “It was my first acting job.”

12. De Liso is a teacher, and she mentions that once in a while students will approach her mentioning that they’ve recently watched the film. “Your students must go ‘woo hoo!'” adds Jones as Kim (De Liso) does a topless scene. “They do kind of look downward now when they talk to me,” adds De Liso.

13. They filmed for three weeks.

14. Jones recalls how Corman would occasionally deny their daily request for a generator, adding “You can make do, Amy, I remember that I had a scene once and we just circled the cars and turned on the headlights.” She needed them for interior shots though, so happily the electricians would scale the utility poles and tap into the public power. “When we ran enough lights you could see the street lights in Mar Vista dim,” says Jones.

15. Jones directed three more features after this, and unlike this experience, she says each of them featured a “difficult” actor or two. Her biggest success remains 1987’s Maid to Order, a romantic comedy, and she mentions that had she wanted to continue making rom-coms she’d probably “still have a directing career.” All four of her films made a profit including her final movie, a thriller called The Rich Man’s Wife (1996) with Halle Berry.

16. The glass lamp at 47:10 belongs to Jones, and she also included it in her follow up film, Love Letters (1983). She still has it.

17. Jones points out that despite the film being slammed for its “violence against women,” most of the women here are killed off-screen while the guys get some bloody onscreen demises.

18. Jim Wynorski’s Cheerleader Massacre (2003) was originally planned as a fourth film in the Slumber Party franchise. A fan remix exists adding Ralph Jones’ score from this film and a connective prologue, and it can supposedly be found online.

19. The original ending had the killer killed in the living room, but Corman dug the film and gave Jones a little extra cash to write and reshoot a bigger ending. It was the right call as this end not only castrates the killer (by snapping off his drill bit) but also allowed Jones to emulate something she learned on Taxi Driver. She rewatched Martin Scorsese’s classic while rewriting this ending, and the constant yelling in pain in that film’s finale struck a chord with her. “It’s very unnerving.”

20. Villela recalls uttering “mama” during his final death scene, but Jones nixed it for fear of it garnering the killer some sympathy.

Best in Context-Free Commentary

“This is classic Roger Corman, you have to get nudity within the first two or three minutes.”

“We certainly ran with Rita’s drill metaphor.”

“For what it is, it’s a great title.”

“We sure had a lot of girls in hot pants.”

“There we have the insert boob.”

“It’s not like we were trying to do Barry Lyndon here.”

“If you don’t get the humor of this, you’re dead.”

“I lost my penis.”

Final Thoughts

The participants here all remain proud of the film and what they accomplished, but they do mention how more than a few of the cast members went on to distance themselves from The Slumber Party Massacre. The commentary features some anecdotes and general thoughts, but it does dip into silence and/or pointing out what’s happening on screen on occasion. Still, while occasionally rough it’s a fun listen for fans of the film and filmmakers.

Read more Commentary Commentary from the archives.

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Is Sharon Carter a Skrull?

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Explained is our ongoing series delving into Marvel’s grand new bromance between Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes. In this entry, we’re looking one more time at The Falcon and the Winter Soldier finale and asking, is Sharon Carter a Skrull? Yes, prepare for SPOILERS.

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Something is up with Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp). She’s a Skrull. She has to be. I need her to be.

Whenever I complete a Marvel Cinematic Universe project, my first actions are to re-rank the films (and now, the shows) to my preference via Letterboxd as well as the mid-credits and post-credits stingers. For me, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier ranks somewhere toward the bottom-middle or top-bottom, and a large reason for that revolves around its atrocious mid-credits stinger, which absolutely plops to the bottom of that list, hovering just above Thanos’ non-sensical declaration in Avengers: Age of Ultron: “I’ll do it myself.”

From her first moment in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sharon Carter radiates breaking bad vibes. As she explains it to the boys, following the events of Captain America: Civil War, Sharon went underground. Her country was after her, and her friends abandoned her. She found a new life on Madripoor, the fictional Southeast Asian island where no-goodniks flee when they want to wallow in their villainy. The hotspot destination is a big one from the comics and is destined to feature prominently in future MCU projects.

Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) were dragged to Madripoor by their untrustworthy frenemy Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl). They were under the impression that he could connect them with the diabolical Power Broker. This mysterious criminal puppet master supposedly set up the Flag-Smashers with a newfangled Super-Soldier serum before they betrayed them for their own revolutionary reasons. Zemo failed to make the meeting happen, and Sam and Bucky needed their butts miraculously saved. Sharon Carter to the rescue.

For the rest of the season, Sharon creeps on the sidelines. Through her dubious, unnamed connections, she helps Sam and Bucky track the whereabouts of both the Flag-Smashers and the new Captain America-gone-rogue, John Walker (Wyatt Russell). Her candidacy as a potential Power Broker seemed obvious, a perfect red herring. Surely, we thught, the Contessa (Julia Louis Dreyfus) or a surprise guest-appearance from Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (The Incredible Hulk‘s William Hurt) or Justin Hammer (Iron Man 2‘s Sam Rockwell) would fill those wretched shoes.

Nope! As revealed in the season finale, Sharon Carter is the Power Broker. While the audience learns the truth during a standoff between Sharon, head Flag-Smasher Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman), and mercenary Georges Batroc (Georges St-Pierre), Sam and Bucky are never made aware. They go about their lives, building boats together and hosting glorious cookouts.

In the mid-credits stinger, for her seemingly helpful role in apprehending the Flag-Smashers, the United States government finally pardons Sharon Carter of her illegal actions during Captain America: Civil War. Not only that, but they also offer to reinstate her as a CIA operative. She happily accepts.

As Sharon leaves the courthouse, she makes a phone call. In full volume in front of dozens of strangers, she instructs the unknown individual on the other end to “start lining up our buyers.” She may no longer have access to the Super-Soldier serum, but her new old job will grant her access to government secrets and prototype weapons. Dun dun dunnnnn!

Except, we already knew she was the Power Broker. Her evil smirk to the camera in the mid-credit sequence only confirms our disappointment in her heel turn. That’s not a reveal; that’s a no-duh. And it’s a no-duh that frustrates and upsets.

Look, it’s not like I adore Sharon Carter as depicted in the MCU. Her character is barely realized. In the comics, Sharon is an essential supporting player and a romantic interest to Steve Rogers. In the films, she’s a love interest, kinda. Her first and only kiss with Steve was mostly executed to serve Sam and Bucky’s story, their go-get-em-tiger smiley-nods of approval uniting their jealous rivalry for Steve’s affection.

To understand Sharon’s descent into Power Broker status, we have to believe that Steve Rogers never checked in with her. That doesn’t track with what we know about Steve. He would not have left her high and dry after Captain America: Civil War. He rallied his crew for Avengers: Infinity War, and she would have been involved in some capacity. In fact, Sharon Carter was supposed to be in that film, sleeping in Steve’s bed, but MCU mastermind Kevin Feige apparently put the kybosh on it.

Once the decision was made to climax Avengers: Endgame with Steve and Peggy Carter (um, Sharon’s aunt), Feige probably didn’t want to confuse those romantic messages. Mistakes were made; maybe that kiss never should have happened. But it did. And Steve’s a gentleman. Not free from sin, but he would not have ignored Sharon to the point where she would break bad so spectacularly.

As I see it, there are two options, and both lead directly into two distinct Disney+ storylines: Armor Wars and Secret Invasion. Number one, Sharon Carter is now a proper villain. She’s enraged at how she was discarded, and her years in the wild sharpened her cynicism. The other person on the phone during The Falcon and the Winter Soldier‘s mid-credits stinger is Justin Hammer. With Tony Stark dead, he’s closer than ever to achieving supremacy as an immoral arms dealer. The only person standing in their way is War Machine, James Rhodes (Don Cheadle). As Sam and Bucky protected Steve Rogers’ legacy, so will Rhodes regarding the wobbly Stark brand.

Number two, Sharon Carter is not Sharon Carter. Sharon Carter is a Skrull. Secret Invasion is a prevalent comic book storyline involving a global Skrull takeover. As shape-shifters, the aliens infiltrate critical roles within all major governments and super-powered teams. In the original storyline, this clandestine attack is revealed when the sometimes Daredevil companion Elektra is exposed as a Skrull. One after another, various heroes are revealed as having fallen victim to a Skrull swap. Panic sets in, and paranoia runs wild throughout the Marvel universe.

The MCU does not have an Elektra (unless they decide to incorporate the Netflix shows as rumored, but I’m still skeptical on that front). Feige needs to pepper his universe with Skrull suspects before his Secret Invasion series can kick-off. Sharon Carter acting squirrelly is a red flag, and her revelation as a Skrull would be a little shock that could lead to bigger shocks. Hawkeye is a Skrull! Smart Hulk is a Skrull! Resurrected Gamora is a Skrull!

The person Sharon is chatting to in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is the already rumored Olivia Colman or Emilia Clarke. They’re arranging their chessboard, waiting to strike so they can control the planet with as little fuss as possible. They want the war to be over before it starts.

I can hear some of you, “But wait, aren’t the Skrulls good guys?” Skrulls aren’t good or bad. They’re a people, like us poor Terrans. So far in the MCU, we’ve met some friendly Skrulls in Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) and his clan. They’re buddy-buddy with Nick Fury and Carol Danvers, but some of his compatriots are less chummy. Remember, as explained in Captain Marvel, the Skrulls are on the brink of extinction. Eons of war have decimated their numbers and made them desperate. They need a home, and Earth sure looks nice in places.

Sharon Carter, as a Skrull, works. It doesn’t forgive all the flaws found within The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but it does decode the logical leaps her character takes. Even better, Sharon Carter as a Skrull makes me feel okay about Steve Rogers. The OG Captain America would not have left Sharon hanging in the wind. I refuse to believe it.

For a franchise that has recently made strides to manufacture its villains with recognizable, understandable motivations, a mustache-twirling Sharon Carter lands with a thud. As part of an alien race willing to do anything to halt their species’ eradication, Skrull Sharon Carter sits nicely next to Baron Zemo, Thanos, and Killmonger. They’re baddies with a point. Let’s, please, give Sharon Carter a point.

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What Robert Zemeckis Can Teach Us About the Moving Master Shot

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay about how director Robert Zemeckis is the master of the moving master shot.

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Let’s be honest, long takes get all the glory. And, to be fair, there is something delightfully audacious about a well-executed oner: the intense staging, the impossibly fluid camera, all the different moving parts. Continuous shots are difficult to pull off, which is, in part, why they drum up so much praise and hype. Heck, there are even full, feature-length films entirely structured around the spectacle of a single shot (or the appearance thereof): Rope (1948), Russian Ark (2002), Birdman (2014), and 1917 (2019), to name a few.

But did you know that continuous shots have a sneakier, more practical cousin? That’s right, it’s time to talk about the moving master shot. What is the moving master? Well, it’s exactly what it sounds like: a master shot (a.k.a. a long shot that captures all or most of the action in a scene) that moves around a lot. The benefit of the moving master is that you are able to obtain a lot of coverage without a scene feeling too static. Effectively, by just moving the camera and the performers around, you can achieve a multitude of coverage with far fewer set-ups (a.k.a. the positioning of the camera and lights for a specific shot). As you can imagine, this saves a lot of time. And on a professional film set, saving time means saving money.

One of the masters of the moving master is Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis. The video essay below looks to Zemeckis’ filmography to demonstrate both the practical and storytelling benefits of using this technique.

Watch “Shooting Moving Masters Zemeckis Style“:

Who made this?

This video essay about Robert Zemeckis and the moving master shot is by writer, director, and video essayist David F. Sandberg (of Shazam! fame). His output includes no-budget horror films shot in his own house, starring his wife and frequent collaborator Lotta Losten. You can follow Sandberg on Vimeo and on Twitter. You can also subscribe to him on YouTube here.

More Videos Like This

• Back in April of last year, when all of this “global pandemic” business was new, Sandberg made a short horror film about the terror of being stuck in your house.
• And here’s another thoughtful breakdown from Sandberg on the most powerful special effect in cinema: a cut. Here’s his breakdown of how directors use editing to hide seams, imply impact, and other neat little tricks that our monkey brains don’t catch.
• Here’s director Gil Bettman via Indie Film Hustle with a quick lesson on how to shoot a moving master shot.
• Moving masters are great. But if you’re looking for a broader breakdown, you should check out StudioBinder’s massive round-up of camera movements.

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The Ending of ‘Mortal Kombat’ Explained

Ending Explained is a recurring series in which we explore the finales, secrets, and themes of interesting movies and shows, both new and old. This time, we explain the ending of Mortal Kombat (2021).

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When a new movie in the Mortal Kombat franchise comes out, most people assume that it is going to contain an epic showdown between Outworld and Earthrealm, (otherwise known as, you guessed it, a Mortal Kombat). The reality of Simon McQuoid’s newest addition to the Kombat Cinematic Universe, though, is a little different.

McQuoid’s film provides some background of the classic Mortal Kombat tale, while also indulging in its modern-day continuation. To make a long story short, the rivalry upon which the franchise is predicated starts in 17th century Japan, when Sub Zero (Joe Taslim) kills a family that belongs to the rival Shirai Ryu clan. He messes up, though, and accidentally leaves the bloodline intact by failing to kill Hanzo Hasashi’s (Hiroyuki Sanada) baby. 

Flash forward to the present. Cole Young (Lewis Tan), a floundering MMA star and descendent of Hanzo, is sought out by Jax (Mehcad Brooks) because they have the same marking. Jax explains to Cole that people are after him because of the markings. And he doesn’t know why. So, Cole is tasked with finding ex-special forces badass Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) so that she can take him and the few others with the same mysterious markings to their mission. And what is this mission, you ask? Oh, only to defeat the evil forces of the Outworld – which includes a man named Sub Zero who literally freezes people’s limbs off and turns them into weapons. Piece of cake, right?

Wrong. It turns out that the Outworld is pretty intent on winning their tenth Mortal Kombat tournament in a row, and they’re not afraid of breaking the rules to do it. But the Earthrealm crew splits up to defeat the Outworld, which ends up being a lot more effective than trying to take them on as a crew. In the final showdown, Hanzo – now known as Scorpion – joins his descendant Cole as they take on Sub-Zero in an icy cage match. Together, Cole and Scorpion defeat Sub-Zero and send him to Hell (from which he will almost certainly return in future sequels).

In the final scene of the movie, some sense of normalcy has been restored. But Cole makes it clear that he isn’t going back to his normal life anytime soon. He quits his job in the MMA arena and tells his ex-boss that he is heading out to Hollywood. The film ends with a shot of the poster for Citizen Cage, starring Johnny Cage. Seems like we’ve got a brand new character to look forward to in the imminent sequel.

As soon as Mortal Kombat’s trailer came out, fans were commenting on the strange absence of Johnny Cage, who has always been an integral part of the franchise. The character is a martial artist who becomes an action star who does his own stunts. When people start to doubt that he is actually pulling off those outrageous movie stunts, he joins the Mortal Kombat tournament, but, of course, gets himself wrapped up in a universe he is not quite prepared for.

The beloved character’s tease isn’t the only part of Mortal Kombat that hints at a sequel. After Sub-Zero and Scorpion’s epic showdown, Earthrealm enemy Shang Tsung (Chin Han), declares that next time, the combat isn’t going to be man-on-man. It’s going to be army-on-army. “Death is only another portal,” he says, if we weren’t convinced. And, while that’s what a lot of people expected would be going down in the film, it certainly makes for pretty solid sequel bait.

Ultimately, Mortal Kombat is a nudge at what’s to come. Ironically, it actually doesn’t have any mortal kombat in it. And, while that might be disappointing for some fans, it can put others’s minds at ease. That simply means that there is going to be a whole lot of follow up to this installment of the series and that the story is far from over. We are bound to see many more epic showdowns between Scorpion and Sub-Zero, as well as Sub-Zero’s army, who vanish into black smoke after they’re “killed,” which suggests that death for the Outworld isn’t quite as permanent as the Earthrealm would like it to be. 

In addition, as he was the protagonist of this film, we are likely going to see Cole rise up to be the very best of the very best. We are also going to be introduced to a whole lot of new characters and we haven’t seen the last of Johnny Cage. Of course, the meantime should bring an endless supply of fan theories to keep us occupied. One thing is abundantly clear: the world of Mortal Kombat is only just getting started.

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