Author Archives: Carol Edwards

Assuming the rumors are true, Google’s answer to Apple One bundled service subscriptions also includes annual smartphone upgrades.

Get your salt shakers ready, because none of this is yet confirmed. But in the midst of the Pixel leak deluge we’ve watched unfold in recent weeks, This Is Tech Today’s M. Brandon Lee has a detail-filled Twitter thread that runs through a number of new details, the highlight of which is Pixel Pass.

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“This appears to be a blend of the iPhone upgrade plan where you can get a new phone every year and the Apple One subscription,” Lee writes. He adds that the services side of the rumored Pixel Pass subscription includes YouTube Premium, Google One, and Play Pass. You also get some kind of extended warranty and some involvement from Google’s phone service option, Google Fi.

Based on a screenshot included with Lee’s tweet — the source of which isn’t clear, it should be said — Pixel Pass subscribers won’t be locked into Fi. Customers will also have the option of signing up through the Google Store to get a carrier-unlocked phone that works with any provider.

The only catch is that this offer may be available for U.S. customers only.

The thread also contains some details on color options for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, as well as info about a second-generation wireless charging Google Pixel Stand and some pricing speculation based on a leaked sweepstakes sheet. So it’s worth a closer look for Pixel users. But Pixel Pass is the big reveal here, assuming it’s real.

The past few days have delivered a pile of surprising and unintended Pixel reveals. On Friday, a video surfaced detailing the entire Pixel 6 assembly process. Then, just hours later, screenshots from an apparent accidental posting on a retail website brought new information about the upcoming smartphone’s cameras, battery, and more.

There’s still more than a week to go before Google is likely to make any of these details official. The big reveal event is set for Oct. 19. So stay tuned for more soon enough.

I gotta admit: I was already exhausted by the baggage of Far Cry 6 before I even picked up the controller to review it.

Having played every game in the franchise to date —while following the near decade-long discourse critiquing its flawed politics, ideological cowardice, and colonialist mindset — I admittedly came in with some assumptions about what to expect.

I expected Far Cry 6 to be (like nearly every other recent title in the franchise) dumb, mindless, well-polished AAA fun, with a vapid story that uses the aesthetics of real-world issues to overinflate its own sense of self-importance. Yet to my utter shock, Far Cry 6 flipped nearly every one of those expectations on its head — at times to its benefit but more often to its detriment.

I’m not prepared to call Far Cry 6 a great game by any means. As far as gameplay, it’s actually one of the least polished Ubisoft titles I’ve played in a while. Yet unlike the franchise’s recent predecessors, Far Cry 6‘s story at the very least has a pulse. Hell, it even offers some nuanced takes on the lose-lose nature of revolutions, as guerilla warrior Dani (or Danny, depending on gender preference) grapples with the inherent ugliness, corruption, and impossibility of saving your country from the perceived comforts of authoritarianism.

But before diving into why it’s still #complicated with Far Cry 6, let’s recap how this franchise became such a battleground for the contentious, never-ending debate over politics in video games.

To grossly oversimplify: Over the years Ubisoft has placated the “keep politics out of games” camp of fans by insisting that its titles explicitly inspired by real-world political conflicts don’t actually make any political statements. The publisher has also simultaneously tried to appease critics of this mealy-mouthed excuse by claiming that while its games weren’t “political” per se, they still weren’t wholly “apolitical” either, even admitting in 2019 to a desire to do better next time.

But when “next time” came in the lead-up to Far Cry 6‘s release, Ubisoft reverted to the same old tired doublespeak. First, the publisher assured fans that the game makes no political statements about Cuba (the country its fictional setting is inspired by) or the recent civilian uprisings that are heavily mirrored in the game’s story. Then, just days later, narrative director Navid Khavari finally admitted that OK, yes, it is obviously a political game.

Despite its myriad flaws, ‘Far Cry 6’ breathes life back into a franchise many were ready to dismiss as dead on arrival.

Are you exhausted yet?

After sighing through half of Far Cry 6‘s familiarly uninspired formula, I suddenly found myself getting won over by the game as at least a step in the right direction. Despite its myriad flaws, Far Cry 6 breathes life back into a franchise many like myself were ready to dismiss as dead on arrival.

For starters, it’s the first Far Cry game to feature a protagonist who’s native to the “exotic” country’s conflict (unless you count Far Cry 5‘s version of Montana as “exotic” or white American settlers as “native” — which you should not). That is obscenely overdue progress for the franchise, and so is finally being able to play as a woman who actually says stuff. My heart still can’t help but root for those steps toward a better Far Cry (and for lady Dani, truly one of the best protagonists in the series’).

(Editor’s note: Far Cry 4 also featured a protagonist who was native to the game’s setting in Ajay Ghale. The difference there was Ajay was born in Kyrat but raised in America, and he was therefore not native to the conflict in the country where he was born.)

On a deeper level, though, the Caribbean island of Yara also isn’t the maddeningly apolitical “both sides” Trumpian America of Far Cry 5.

Sure, the game very strategically evades naming exactly which political ideology Yara’s fascist dictator, Anton Castillo (played by Giancarlo Esposito, Hollywood’s favorite Black Danish-Italian American actor cast in every Afro-Latino role) ascribes to. There are at best only hints of Fidel Castro’s communism to be gleaned from reading between the lines of Castillo’s propagandist speeches about building a Yaran “paradise” together, or by squinting hard enough at the billboards with glorified scenes of harsh manual labor.

But these characters are not the usual pan-Latin stereotypes I’m accustomed to seeing in AAA games like Cyberpunk 2077, kept on the sidelines of a protagonist’s story just to shout the occasional colorful Spanish expletive. I’m not Cuban, nor Hispanic, so I very much cannot speak to the “authenticity” of the country’s portrayal. But I am Brazilian, and felt at home in the beautiful chaos of the different guerilla groups, each with its own fired-up leader espousing her own unique vision for saving this country they shit-talk as much as they adore.

Far Cry 6 certainly perpetuates the franchise’s masterful avoidance of saying literally anything about any specific political ideology, and that’s a huge problem. But through the story’s focus on human conflicts between the guerillas, it does make a different but equally important statement: The personal is always political.

Politics isn’t something that happens between governmental leaders alone. Politics play out among the people, through the everyday lives of folks trying to live under said ideologies. A central queer relationship in the game highlights this well, when it’s rocked by the unavoidable reality that the trans partner faces far greater risks if he stays in Yara. (Content warning note: That trans character does get misgendered by a villain at one point, though there is no deadnaming like in Last of Us 2.)

Far Cry 6 even wrestles with the inherent traumas of the Latin-American diaspora.

In the beginning, Dani is attempting to escape the island to pursue the “dream” of low-wage employment in the U.S. But as Clara (leader of Libertad, the main revolutionist group) helps her realize, “The American dream doesn’t come in my color.” Even if it did, Far Cry 6 makes you sit with the impossible choice many would-be immigrants face: Is it better to let little pieces of yourself die every day for security in a hostile foreign country, or to die fighting for the survival of the hostile country where you were born?

Political threads in ‘Far Cry 6’ still leave *plenty* to be desired.

Unlike most other Far Cry games, many missions don’t end in success here. You fail as much as you win, since victory too often comes with the loss of those all-too-human characters you grow to love. The game map even reflects this zero-sum game, with snapshots of each fascist leader you kill and celebratory captions about their deaths — next to the far greater number of Polaroids of your fallen guerrilla friends, captioned only with a solemn “descanse en paz” (rest in peace).

Don’t get me wrong: Far Cry 6‘s political threads still leave plenty to be desired.

Slavery is mentioned often and even brutally depicted on missions where you free citizens from labor camps. But their pain is only used as gruesome backdrop to emphasize Castillo’s evil, with the story never bothering to give a voice to the nameless enslaved people.

The issue of imperializing foreign governments interfering with the island’s politics is also a central theme of one villain’s plotline, but the writing strategically does not blame America for its real-world actions. Instead, it casts the corporate politician in question as Canadian for some reason. (I mean, come on Ubisoft!)

Even when its politics are present and poignant, there’s always that inherent catch-22 of Far Cry’s high-minded aspirations clashing with its nonsense. Khavari described it in his blog post as the brand’s DNA of “mature, complex themes balanced with levity and humor. One doesn’t exist without the other, and we have attempted to achieve this balance with care.”

But the reality of those wildly conflicting tones creates the exact opposite effect, if you ask me.

There’s no way of getting around the deeply unsettling friction between Far Cry 6‘s serious political commentary being undercut by its silly, compulsory Far Cry-ness. I mean, how am I supposed to feel about taking my varsity sweater-wearing, gold-toothed crocodile companion named Guapo to attack soldiers — who just so happen to be beating enslaved people in a labor camp to a pulp?

Well let me tell ya, I don’t feel good about it, and not in the productive “I’ve learned something uncomfortable but necessary” kind of way. Unlike the balance struck in a title like Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, the famed 2010 game’s beloved zombie DLC, the ridiculous, hyper-reality comedy doesn’t serve as telling satire. In Far Cry, it’s instead deployed as sugarcoating to make the medicine go down easier, but it doesn’t even do that either

To the credit of those who clearly worked hard to write a Far Cry story that actually counts for something, balancing those tones in a franchise like this one feels like an impossible task. Despite impressive moments of actually pulling off that tonal dissonance, the end result is still an experience that doesn’t do service to either side of the equation, the disparate strands of the series’ DNA detracting rather than contributing to one another.

The game wants to be everything at the same time, throwing whatever it can at a wall and only then slapping good stories onto that mess. Rather than achieve the aspiration of being everything at once, it winds up feeling like a whole load of nothing overall. Guapo the crocodile (bless his heart) is not in the same game as the enslaved people in Yara’s labor camps. Unlike the hopes of its narrative designers, the two coming together doesn’t make for a well-rounded experience. Instead, it comes off as several different games happening simultaneously, thrown into the same stew for no discernable reason.

The risk of the attempt is far more exhilarating than getting just one more perfectly boring game.

Far Cry 6‘s story is still too cowardly, in the ways one might expect of a AAA game caught in the crosshairs of hostile, toxic fandom. But it also does lots of interesting, surprising things. too. Many of those surprises aren’t necessarily successful, or as impactful as they could be. But the risk of the attempt is far more exhilarating than getting just one more perfectly boring game.

Yet another part of me wonders — or rather, worries — if some of this disconnect between the story versus the “fun” aspects doesn’t speak to a more harsh, fundamental truth about the politics-in-games debate: What if you really can’t have both? What if the trolls were kind of right, and mindless fun needs to be separated from explorations of serious political issues?

Now, in my heart of hearts, I don’t believe this to be true. Games like Papers, Please showed how it can be done on a micro indie scale, and The Last of Us showed it on a blockbuster scale. But when it comes to the kind of smooth-brain, no thoughts, frictionless bigness of Ubisoft’s approach to fun in games, I think we’re gonna need more halfway successes like Far Cry 6 before we figure it out comfortably.

What Far Cry 6 is trying to do is new. One might say Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs series also tried to marry mindless video game fun with politics, too. But what sets Far Cry 6 apart from other games is just how sincere its attempt at politics feels. This isn’t Watch Dogs, where the “politics” reads more like trying to pretend you’re “with the times” because it’s bad press to be otherwise.

But the marriage remains an estranged one, and I do not envy the people who are presumably building Far Cry 7 even now the monumentally difficult challenge of making it a whole, tonally cohesive experience.

Many times throughout Far Cry 6, characters describe guerilla warfare as “fun.” It’s portrayed as a game. A game with high stakes and real consequences, sure. But it’s still a game. Every time that language was used, I’d think back to the horrifying protest videos I saw on social media back in July 2021 under the #FreeCuba hashtag. My stomach turned at the notion of characterizing even fictionalized, Cuban-inspired people in a desperate fight for their survival, for enough food to eat, for freedom from labor camps, and to express dissent without getting kidnapped, as “fun.”

Neither I nor Far Cry 6 have the answer to the conundrum of what role politics should play in video games. But at the very least, it’s a game that makes the never-ending fight to figure it out feel worthwhile.

There’s not a whole lot to report here, so let’s just get to it.

It’s been a relatively quiet pandemic-era weekend for New York Comic-Con, but waves were made on Sunday when the annual fan event became the stage for our first real look at Wonka. The upcoming musical re-telling of Roald Dahl’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory stars Timothée Chalamet in the role of eccentric candy magnate Willy Wonka.

And that’s what our first look brings: Chalamet in full costume, looking pensive, while a movie camera sits in the foreground. It’s not a fully revealing body shot, but it’s more than enough to give curious fans a sense of what this new take on Wonka will look like.

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That’s it! No trailer, no footage. No sense of what the character will actually be like in this take, just what he’s going to be wearing. The movie is currently set for a March 2023 release, so it’ll likely be some time before we get any of that.

But in case there were any doubters left, Wonka really is coming and here’s all the proof you need.

Nevermind the fact that Animaniacs premiered in 1993. In this, our first look at Season 2 of Hulu’s reborn Animaniacs, we get a parody take on the Thundercats opening theme song where the title of the show is “80s Cats”. Why? Why not!

This is what Animaniacs does. Wherever you fell with Hulu’s 2020 revival, the 13 episodes making up Season 1 were certainly true to the spirit of an afternoon cartoon series for kids that embraced adult references and mature humor. Season 2 should deliver more of that, and pretty darn soon.

Animaniacs returns to Hulu on Nov. 5.

It’s the year 2021 and MySpace has somehow found itself in the Saturday Night Live cold open.

With the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen in the news after her testimony in front of Congress on Tuesday, SNL decided to seize the moment and excoriate the old, out-of-touch Senators for asking Haugen tech-dumb questions.

The punchline at the end involves an appearance from cast member Pete Davidson playing the “OG social media king” Tom Anderson from MySpace.

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The SNL live audience erupted in cheers at the moment Davidson appeared on screen portraying Tom in his classic MySpace avatar with his white t-shirt, face turning toward the camera, standing in front of a whiteboard.

“I’m Tom from MySpace,” Davidson says. “Remember me? I was harmless.”

Really? MySpace was harmless?

Listen, I get it. It’s a joke on a comedy show. A Tom appearance apparently gave the in-studio audience what they wanted and it all fit the sketch. If that was it, so be it.

But the idea that MySpace was the “good old days” of the internet is an idea that exists in earnest.

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It’s some bizarre reimagining of time where a social media company was not chasing profits, selling users out, and retiring after they made a modest sum of money.

And it’s wrong as wrong can be.

One of the most common points of criticism for Facebook and the other modern day social media platforms revolves around user data. These companies collect information about you and lure advertisers in with all of that money-making information.

MySpace collected your data for ads too. You filled out those profiles, provided the company with your personal information, a lot of you even poured your hearts out on that website with even a lot more than your name, age, and location.

What did Tom from MySpace do with your precious personal data? He handed it all over Rupert Murdoch, the guy who runs Fox News, for a $580 million payday.

Funny enough, after a slew of subsequent acquisitions over the years, your MySpace data (or whatever’s left of it — we’ll get to that in a moment) sits in the hands of an advertising tech company called Viant.

As for what kind of access advertisers had to your data: It was enough that they could personally identify each individual by their full name with only a user ID.

And remember those stories about Facebook workers spying on its users? MySpace employees did that too.

It’s not just data privacy, either. Many of today’s ills on social media can actually be traced back to Tom’s creation.

Where do you think toxic social media culture came from? MySpace was one of the earliest instances of a web platform creating problematic internet celebrities. Jeffree Star, the controversial makeup artist who has been accused of sexual assault, is the perfect example of someone who is a somebody thanks to MySpace.

With the Senate’s latest Facebook hearing being about child safety on its platforms, SNL‘s “Tom from MySpace” punchline is even more outlandish. When it comes to the harm social media does to young people, MySpace is the OG.

For years, MySpace had issues with sex offenders using the platform to prey on children. There were stories about teens being assaulted in real life by adults they met on the platform. Tackling the issue on MySpace was one spearheaded by Connecticut’s attorney general at the time, Richard Blumenthal. If that name sounds familiar it’s because Blumenthal is currently a sitting U.S. Senator, the one who went viral for misunderstanding the term “finsta” at the recent Facebook hearing.

MySpace was also full of models posting the same type of problematic body image content one could find today on Instagram. Are we seriously going to pretend a site known for its emo and scene kid users didn’t have issues with self-harm? Young suicidal girls on the platform were a huge media issue at the time, as well. In one well documented case, a 49-year-old mother faced trial over her bullying on MySpace which allegedly resulted in the suicide of a 13-year-old girl.

Of course, depression and self-harm weren’t MySpace problems. But the idea that these issues did not exist with MySpace is divorced from reality.

In 2020, when one of those tweets about how great MySpace was went viral, Vice pointed out how we — the former MySpace user base — were just younger then and choosing to reminisce on only the fond memories.

Nostalgia has an amazing way of changing the way we remember things from the past. In the SNL sketch, Davidson went on as Tom from MySpace saying how they barely maintain the website, and you should “come on by and check out your friend’s band from 20 years ago.”

But here’s the weird part: Have you been to MySpace in recent years? SNL clearly hasn’t because you can’t even do that! In 2019, MySpace said “screw your nostalgia” when its current owners rebooted the platform and deleted 12 years worth of photos, music, and more.

Today, you can go to Facebook or Twitter or any modern social media platform and request a nice archive of all your data — posts, photos, videos, etc. — so you can access them offline regardless of what happens to those platforms. MySpace didn’t even care to give you a heads-up that it was trashing your memories. Your friend’s band from 20 years ago better still have copies of their recordings because their music on MySpace is long gone.

MySpace shouldn’t get a pass because current platforms are worse off, or because certain issues didn’t exist yet in MySpace’s heyday. Tom took his money and fucked off, relinquishing any responsibility for the monster he created. That’s not a thing to admire.

Tom from MySpace was not your friend. In fact, Tom from MySpace sold you out.

By now, stories about racist AI and facial recognition leading to false arrests have become way too commonplace.

Those examples of bias aren’t even getting into implications in other areas of our lives, such as with the issues of healthcare algorithms discounting certain diseases in marginalized groups. The Biden administration is aware of the impact these evolving technologies are having. In fact, in a recent op-ed published in Wired, the White House made mention of those examples and more while calling for a “Bill of Rights for AI.”

“Powerful technologies should be required to respect our democratic values and abide by the central tenet that everyone should be treated fairly,” reads the piece written by White House Office of Science and Technology Policy science advisor Eric Lander and its deputy director for science and society Alondra Nelson. “Codifying these ideas can help ensure that.”

Lander and Nelson point out that there really are no rules or safeguards governing the uses of AI technology. The two point out that there are certainly issues where the tech is being abused but there’s also a huge problem with unintentional biases.

For example, a company selling its facial recognition system to law enforcement may not intend for its product to falsely identify an innocent person as a perpetrator, but its creation is doing so. The fact that developers unintentionally used flawed data to rush out a product doesn’t really matter much to the people who face real world harm as a result.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has officially put out a “public request for information” for experts who work in the field or utilize AI technologies. They are also urging anyone who’d like to have a say about the matter to reach out via email to ai-equity@ostp.eop.gov.

In its summary of the issue, Axios pointed out that the U.S. Bill of Rights, a 230-year-old document that’s 652 words, is still the subject of tenacious debate.

The White House team acknowledges that it’s going to be a challenge though. Yet AI and facial recognition technology need to be held to a standard.

“Developing a bill of rights for an AI-powered world won’t be easy, but it’s critical,” they write.

If your holiday wish was for a picture-perfect tale about celebrating our individuality while trashing someone’s house with their own red wine and decorations, consider Robin Robin a wish granted.

Created and directed by Dan Ojari and Mikey Please through Wallace and Gromit studio Aardman Animations, Robin Robin is a truly wondrous and impressively ambitious stop-motion film made for the holidays — but it’s just as easily enjoyed year round. Premiering at the BFI London Film Festival and coming to Netflix in November, the 30-minute film is one that will likely find itself firmly planted in holiday viewing lineups for folks of all ages.

Having fallen from her nest in the egg, Robin (Bronte Carmichael) has been raised by a family of mice. Led by their loving mouse dad (Adeel Akhtar), the family scurries into houses perfecting the art of stealth, pilfering crumbs of food and paraphernalia — if you loved Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox in this respect, you’ll love this as well. Not quite having the delicate touch of her family members, Robin struggles with her abilities in stealth and questions her place.

As a stop-motion film, Robin Robin is both incredibly beautiful and super playful in the medium. Crafted not of plasticine but of needle felt (a material not known for its malleability), this production is magical in its ambition — from a splattering snowball fight to an explosive fireworks display and a fast moving icy river. Every last frame of Robin Robin is a feast for the eyes, especially when there’s a literal feast being covertly ransacked by animals onscreen.

If you look closely at each scene, you can spot little Easter eggs — for example, the mouse family home, with its tree root bunks and leaf blankets, is filled with tiny bits and pieces humans would throw away, like the Grinch’s house but less brimming with banana peels and general hatred. Plus, it’s all beautifully scored by English duo The Bookshop Band, with a handful of truly memorable songs.

Christopher Robin star Carmichael is delightful voicing Robin, a character so determined to become a “real” mouse like her family that she fashions adorable mouse ears from her feathers. Not content to steal mere crumbs when she could aim for a whole juicy sandwich to prove her worthy of mousehood, Robin tries to infiltrate a house on her own, meeting new characters (both helpful and hungry) along the way — namely voiced by Gillian Anderson and Richard E. Grant.

Of course, you need a villain somewhere in this sweet tale. Anderson is perfectly chilling as classic bird/mouse nemesis Cat, without being too scary for young’uns. Lurking in her house of doom, she gets a nervously funny song about fitting in…her belly that is. “It’s what’s inside that counts” quite literally for Cat.

But stealing the entire show (and aiming for a certain “magic shiny wishing star”) is Grant as Magpie, collector of all things shiny and newfound friend to Robin. At the first screening of Robin Robin, the room absolutely erupted amid Magpie’s version of Robin’s song about the rules of stealing, grown-ups and kids alike. And Magpie gets his own song about loving THINGS which is reminiscent of Jermaine Clement’s Bowie-like “Shiny” as the villainous crab in Moana, combined with…well…Mr Burns’ “See My Vest” from The Simpsons. You’ll hear it.

Robin Robin is an ambitious, beautiful, technical triumph, a moving story of celebrating our individual strengths and differences, and a delightful tale that should be installed firmly on your holiday viewing rotation for life.

Robin Robin lands on Netflix on Nov. 27.

Saturday Night Live Weekend Update hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che are hardly hurting for targets here. Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, R. Kelly and Bill Cosby, Fox News and… well, Fox News is singularly terrible, it doesn’t need a pairing.

But the biggest beneficiary of this Weekend Update’s rapid-fire barrage of one-liners is none other than Mitch McConnell. The U.S. Senate’s obstructionist minority leader gets an extended torching, with Jost scoring two big laughs as he paints an exaggerated picture of the Kentucky Senator’s penchant for evil doings.

Surely you’ve heard by now that Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West are divorcing. So when Kim hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time, a sketch parody of The Bachelorette had to crank up the fun factor to 11.

In this sketch, Kim faces a crew of in-some-cases-questionably eligible bachelors as she selects who’s going to head outside to the hot tub and move on in the competition. There’s just one twist: With the exception of SNL cast member Kyle Mooney, the entire crew of would-be bachelors is a who’s who of very famous, very conventionally attractive, and very rich men.

These aren’t SNL cast members playing roles. That’s actually John Cena, and Chace Crawford, and Jesse Williams, and Chris Rock, and and and. Just a pile of guests. Amy Schumer even sneaks in and has a moment with Kim. The loser of the sketch is never in doubt (sorry to Mooney’s Zeke), but the eye candy-laden journey that gets us there is why you’re watching.

The 2000s yielded some iconic films. Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, and the Ice Age franchise all trace their storied histories to the heady first decade of the new millennium. But you surely haven’t forgotten about these movies, nor have you forgotten about My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Training Day, or Miss Congeniality. All are streaming on HBOMax, and none of them belong on this list.

This list is about the 2000s movies that, for one reason or another, haven’t stayed as fresh in our collective consciousness as, say, I Am Legend. Perhaps they were small budget movies that got overshadowed by the Star Wars prequels. Maybe they were middling movies you loved but never watched again, or they would have been award-winners had they not premiered in the same year as Slumdog Millionaire. Whatever the case may be, each of the movies on this list is sure to spark joy as you remember that they exist and, hopefully, that they deserve a rewatch.

1. Matchstick Men (2003)

Nicolas Cage is a Los Angeles con artist whose life gets turned upside down when he finds out he has a 14-year-old daughter. Directed by Ridley Scott, this dark comedy is both funny and thoroughly absorbing. Sam Rockwell is an absolute gem (when is he not?) as Cage’s protégé, and Alison Lohman shines as Cage’s young daughter. Matchstick Men wholeheartedly deserves a rewatch and will certainly charm you as effortlessly as its characters do their marks. You know, there were a surprising amount of con-artist comedies in the early 2000s, including Heartbreakers, Catch Me If You Can, and Matchstick Men. Scamming regular people was obviously a much funnier concept before the 2007 housing market crash!

How to Watch: Matchstick Men is streaming on HBO Max.

2. The Town (2010)

In 2010, Ben Affleck looked in the mirror and said, “I am going to make a Boston movie that is SO Boston.” Enter The Town, the Affleck-starring, -written, -directed, and -produced crime thriller about a group of Boston-born bank robbers planning to rob Boston’s Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. It may sound comical, but The Town is a surprisingly excellent film loved by critics and audiences alike. Part of its success comes from its impressive ensemble cast: Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Titus Welliver, Pete Postlethwaite, and Chris Cooper, to name a few. Come for the iconic (and sometimes clichéd) Boston accents, but stay for the tense, well-written plot — your new favorite crime thriller awaits!

How to Watch: The Town is streaming on HBO Max.

3. Blue Crush (2002)

It’s the new millennium, baby! Women can surf now! This fluffy sports flick stars Kate Bosworth, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sanoe Lake as female surfers who clean hotel rooms during the day and surf Hawaii’s famous waves at night …even earlier in the day. Bosworth’s character was close to going pro until a harrowing accident halted her progress. Can she regain her confidence in time for an upcoming competition? There’s nothing new about the plot — you’ve seen this movie before — but the surf sequences are fresh and exhilarating. The movie feels like a breezy summer day: warm, bright, and fun. You might also squeal with delight when you see Bosworth’s love interest, Matthew Davis, who you’ll recognize exclusively as Warner Huntington III from Legally Blonde. But this time, he’s a good guy, we promise!

How to Watch: Blue Crush is streaming on HBO Max.

4. Changeling (2008)

For a meaty drama that hasn’t aged a day, look no further than Changeling, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie in an uncharacteristically delicate role. This poignant film tells the true story of Christine Collins, a woman in 1920s Los Angeles whose son has gone missing. When the LAPD announces they’ve found the boy, she claims they’ve brought back the wrong kid. Unfortunately, the LAPD disagrees. What follows is the heart-wrenching saga of a mother who will stop at nothing to get her son back, and the powerful forces conspiring to keep her quiet.

Changeling is absolutely astounding, in large part because the events that unfold — the gaslighting, sexism, and emotional abuse Collins endures — actually happened. Screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski meticulously included newspaper clippings and court documents with each scene of the screenplay. As a result, Changeling could legally be designated “a true story,” instead of “based on a true story” like so many other historical dramas. Stirring and unforgettable, with a magnetic performance from Jolie, Changeling is a must-watch whose themes still resonate today.

How to Watch: Changeling is streaming on HBO Max.

5. Romeo Must Die (2000)

Romeo Must Die is a kung fu/hip-hop adaptation of Romeo and Juliet starring Jet Li and Aaliyah. We’ll give you a moment to let that sink in. The 2000s were quite a time to be alive! Instead of feuding families, this insane and enthralling movie gives us warring Chinese American and African American gangs in Oakland, California. While the plot can get a bit slow, what we’re really here for are the astounding martial arts sequences paired with an electrifying hip-hop and R&B soundtrack. The juxtaposition, though fairly common now, was downright provocative at the time, cementing Jet Li’s performance as his breakout role for American audiences. Aaliyah also received praise for her work, which was both her acting debut and the only one of her films released in her lifetime.

How to Watch: Romeo Must Die is streaming on HBO Max.

6. The Brothers Grimm (2005)

Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in a middling adventure movie about 18th-century brothers battling supernatural forces? Yes, we’re interested, thank you! The Brothers Grimm positions the titular pair as traveling con artists (!) who perform fake exorcisms for cash — until they come across a very real, and very dangerous fairy tale curse. We cannot call this a good movie, per se, but we’ll happily label it a ridiculous and delightful watch. It’s the perfect encapsulation of early 2000s movie-making, when entertainment was in, deeper meaning was out, and Hollywood would make a movie about literally anything as long as a big name was attached. It’s a solid pick for those nights when you want to turn your brain off and watch something easy and fun. Keep your eye out for a pre-Game of Thrones, pre-fame Lena Headey!

How to Watch: The Brothers Grimm is streaming on HBO Max.

7. Volver (2006)

If you spent the 2000s watching entertaining fluff like the aforementioned Brothers Grimm, you probably weren’t paying attention to powerful foreign films. Let’s right that wrong, shall we? Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, Volver tells the story of a fierce family of women living just south of Madrid. A glowing Penélope Cruz anchors the group as Raimunda, a working-class mother who will do anything to protect her daughter, a girl secretly speaking with the ghost of her grandmother. Volver was hugely successful for an international title, garnering critical acclaim as well as BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Academy Award nominations. Both a comedy and a drama, this sincere and moving story will make you feel deeply and smile widely, a winning combination.

How to Watch: Volver is now streaming on HBO Max.

8. Robots (2005)

For a throwback watch that will entertain the kiddos, look no further than 2005’s Robots. Ewan McGregor, Robin Williams, Halle Berry, Stanley Tucci, Dianne Wiest, Mel Brooks, Jennifer Coolidge, Jim Broadbent, Amanda Bynes, and more — we can’t list names forever! — star in this high-energy animated sci-fi adventure about, you guessed it, robots. Rodney Copperbottom (McGregor) is an idealistic young inventor who becomes a local hero when he uses his skills to repair damaged or outmoded robots. The company that was trying to sell upgrades to these busted robots at a major premium? Well, suffice it to say, they’re pissed. The movie’s strength comes from its imaginative depiction of a robotic world (its transportation system is basically a Rube-Goldberg Machine), making Robots an enchanting pick for family movie night.

How to Watch: Robots is streaming on HBO Max.

9. Love and Basketball (2000)

When Gina Prince-Bythewood set about writing Love and Basketball, she claims she was aiming to create the Black When Harry Met Sally. What she built instead was an enormously successful cultural touchstone that has handily earned its own place in cinema history. Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps are Monica and Quincy, lifelong neighbors, best friends, and basketball fans. The film follows their journey from childhood playmates to lovers to pro-ball players, each facing their own set of obstacles along the way. With powerful performances from its two leads, Love and Basketball is a confident and tender film. It is both a gripping sports drama and a compelling romance — a movie with something for everyone!

How to Watch: Love and Basketball is streaming on HBO Max.

10. Rat Race (2001)

Rat Race is a classic farce: Its premise is ridiculous, its jokes are outrageous, and it will likely elicit a few groans — but that doesn’t mean you won’t love it! Based on the ‘60s hit It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Rat Race kicks off with an eccentric billionaire (John Cleese) challenging six teams of people to race from Las Vegas to Silver Springs, New Mexico in hopes of finding the $2 million he’s stashed there in a duffel bag. The ensemble cast here absolutely rises to the occasion, with Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., Wayne Knight, Jon Lovitz, Kathy Najimy, Breckin Meyer, Amy Smart, and Seth Green all fighting tooth and nail to be the first to reach the cash. It’s silly, it’s over-the-top, and a few of the bits are dated, but Rat Race was a beloved comedy in the 2000s — and it can still warm your heart some 20 years later.

How to Watch: Rat Race is streaming on HBO Max.

11. Constantine (2005)

Before he was John Wick, but after he was Neo, Keanu Reeves was Constantine, an exorcist with both a bad attitude and the ability to see half-angels and half-demons living in secret as humans. Seems like the latter might have something to do with the former, huh? Based on the DC Comics series Hellblazer, Constantine is a dark fantasy thriller filled with religious iconography and superhero vibes. Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, and Djimon Hounsou lend their prodigious talents to the film, with Swinton particularly in her element as an androgynous half-angel. Though the movie has suffered from the inevitable comparisons to the superior Matrix trilogy, Constantine is a solid watch for horror lovers and fantasy fans alike.

How to Watch: Constantine is streaming on HBO Max.

12. Insomnia (2002)

Remember that brief period when Robin Williams played against type by taking a few roles as the villain? Enter Insomnia, the Christopher Nolan psychological thriller which pits Al Pacino’s slowly-unraveling detective against Williams’ creepy killer. This riveting film is unpredictable and atmospheric, its foggy, Alaskan backdrop a reflection of the characters’ own moral ambiguity.

Receiving universal praise, Insomnia is the perfect pick for those nights when you want a movie you can really sink your teeth into.

How to Watch: Insomnia is streaming on HBO Max.

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13. Igby Goes Down (2002)

In the 2000s, most of us were too busy watching Lord of the Rings a thousand times to notice the indie comedy-drama Igby Goes Down. Kieran Culkin is Igby, a disillusioned teen who rebels against his old money, East Coast family and finds himself wrapped up in New York’s artsy underground scene. Claire Danes, Jeff Goldblum, Amanda Peet, Ryan Phillippe, Bill Pullman, and Jared Harris round out the cast, with Susan Sarandon, as Igby’s self-absorbed mother, giving a particularly memorable performance. If you missed this funny and touching film the first go around, don’t wait a second longer. You might also notice something as the film pans across the NYC skyline: Igby Goes Down is one of the last movies to show the World Trade Center towers intact.

How to Watch: Igby Goes Down is streaming on HBO Max.

14. Gigli (2003)

Let’s put our cards on the table: Gigli is an objectively terrible movie. Clumsy, confusing, and downright offensive, Gigli is widely considered to be one of the worst movies of all time. It has a 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. 6%!!! A year ago, we would never have even glanced at Gigli as a contender for this list, preferring it to fade into the ether like a bad nightmare, but unfortunately this is the movie where J.Lo and Ben Affleck met. And since we are living in the darkest timeline, and J.Lo and Ben Affleck’s recent reunion is the single shining light propelling us forward toward hope, this awful movie has suddenly become relevant again.

In Gigli, irritatingly pronounced JEE-lee, Affleck and Lopez team up to kidnap the brother of a federal prosecutor. But that’s not why you’d watch this movie! You’d watch this movie to see the very first Bennifer sparks twinkle mischievously into the universe. Alas — you might not even get that: Critics at the time complained about the lack of chemistry between the two leads! It’s truly astounding how bad this movie is! Watch Gigli, or don’t (maybe don’t), but we would not have been doing our journalistic duty if we hadn’t noted its current availability on HBOMax. You’re welcome, and also we’re sorry.

How to Watch: Gigli is streaming on HBO Max.