Category Archives: Blog

What: M3GAN 

Where to watch: Vudu 

Premiere date: January 24, 2023 

She danced her way into our hearts. She gave us the best cover of David Guetta’s “Titanium.” And she’s now the crowned queen of queer horror. M3GAN is the internet’s new It Girl, and if you haven’t seen her in action, you can now stream the first must-see of 2023 at home.

If you’re ready to watch the name that put Chucky to absolute shame, here’s everything you need to know about M3GAN.

Where can I watch M3GAN? 

M3GAN is now available to rent or buy on Vudu. 

What is M3GAN about? 

Following the tragic loss of her parents, nine-year-old Cady (Violet McGraw) moves into her aunt Gemma’s (Allison Williams) home where surprises await. Gemma is a toy roboticist and she’s right in the middle of building her new invention — a lifelike doll with artificial intelligence, called M3GAN. M3GAN is the perfect companion for any child, flawlessly designed to be your personal BFF — or so everyone thinks. 

M3GAN has a few tricks up her sleeve. And if you’ve wronged her, that might just be your last day on earth. So buckle up for a hilariously horrifying ride of a killer doll who’ll keep surprising you until the film’s very last frame. 

What have people said about M3GAN? 

M3GAN‘s become an instant icon with box office numbers to make her an inarguable hit. Suffice to say, everyone loves her.

On the film, Mashable’s Film Editor Kristy Puchko writes “This killer toy/creepy kid flick is more than meets the eye. With a thoughtful character design connected by two terrific performances, [director Gerard] Johnstone has made a newly minted horror icon with M3GAN.” 

“Like the slashers who’ve stalked before her, she’s got a perturbing panache that’s enhanced by its subversive girliness. Her dance scene isn’t just a throwaway moment of meme-able mayhem, it’s an element of what makes M3GAN stand out; she is a little girl’s dream toy and a parent’s worst nightmare. She is complicated, compelling, and creepy as hell… Simply put, if you love horror movies, you owe it to yourself to see M3GAN.” 

So if you’re ready to dive into all things M3GAN, click the button below to rent for just $19.99 or buy for $24.99.  

With the technology used in Robots and AI continuing to advance each day, it’s easy to forget just how far we’ve come. So where are we now and what does the future look like for us? We sat down with the director of MIT CSAIL, Daniela Rus to discuss the future of robotics and AI as well as a glimpse behind the curtain into the CSAIL robotics laboratory.

An astonishing majority of the 2023 Oscar nominees in acting categories received their first-ever Oscar nominations today.

There are 20 spots across four acting categories — Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress — and this year, 16 of those spots went to first-time nominees.

Oscar frontrunners Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Banshees of Inisherin scored four acting nominations each, all for first-time nominees. For Everything Everywhere All At Once, these are Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, and Jamie Lee Curtis. For The Banshees of Inisherin, they are Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, and Barry Keoghan.

The entire Best Actor lineup is made of first-time Oscar nominees, including Farrell, Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Bill Nighy (Living), Paul Mescal (Aftersun), and Austin Butler (Elvis). Other first-time nominees include Hong Chau for The Whale, Brian Tyree Henry for Causeway, Andrea Riseborough for To Leslie, and Ana de Armas for Blonde.

The large number of first-time nominees is a breath of fresh air. They give us a chance to celebrate industry veterans like Yeoh, Quan, and Fraser, as well as younger actors with fewer feature films under their belt like Mescal, Hsu, and Butler.

Of the four nominees who have already been nominated for Academy Awards — Cate Blanchett (TÁR), Judd Hirsch (The Fabelmans), Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), and Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans) — only Blanchett has ever won. Because of this, it’s possible we’ll seeing a lineup of four first-time Oscar winners come the 95th Academy Awards.

Indian action epic, RRR stunned many online today, when it did not land any major Oscar nominations. This occurred despite gaining awards momentum from critics’ top tens lists (Mashable’s among them), various critics association accolades, and being nominated for Best Non-English Language Film at the Golden Globes.

Yet, RRR was not eligible to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, as India submitted Chhello Show (Last Film Show) for consideration instead. Last Film Show made the Oscars shortlist for International Feature, but did not land a nomination in that category or any others.

However, as evidenced by the German film All Quiet on the Western Front‘s nine nominations, it’s possible for an international film to receive nominations outside the international category. We also saw such cross-category acclaim in 2022 with Drive My Car‘s Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations, as well as in 2020 with Parasite‘s Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay wins.

Since the Academy is rewarding major blockbusters such as Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick, it could have been entirely possible for RRR and director S. S. Rajamouli to have joined the mix. Notably, he’s scored Best Director nods across various critics guild honors as well as the Critics Choice Awards.

Ultimately, though, the Academy only recognized RRR in one category: Best Original Song, for M.M. Keeravani’s rousing banger “Naatu Naatu.”

This nomination is still historic, as it marks the first time a song from an Indian film has been nominated for an Oscar. Also, “Naatu Naatu” won this same award at the Golden Globes, setting it up for success at this year’s Oscars. Best of all, the song’s inclusion means we’ll likely see a live performance of “Naatu Naatu,” which will certainly get Oscars attendees (and viewers at home) to throw on their dancing shoes.

Perhaps the biggest shock of this year’s Oscar nominations — aside from many snubs — was the inclusion of Andrea Riseborough in the Best Actress category for her performance in To Leslie.

The shock does not come from the quality of the performance — Riseborough is a tremendous actor — but rather from the circumstances surrounding the nomination.

To Leslie, in which Riseborough plays a single mother who wins the lottery, is a low-budget independent film that made $27 thousand at the box office. Distributor Momentum Pictures does not have the kind of money to mount an awards season campaign, and Riseborough was notably missing from Oscar bellwethers like the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations.

So how did Andrea Riseborough get an Oscar nomination for To Leslie?

Riseborough’s nomination is the result of a word-of-mouth social media campaign by stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Edward Norton, and many more.

According to a timeline by Vulture, the campaign unofficially kicked off on Jan. 10, two days before Oscar voting began. Paltrow hosted a screening and posted about To Leslie to her 8.2 million followers. Norton tweeted about Riseborough’s performance as well.

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The number of celebrities highlighting Riseborough’s performance multiplied in the following days, with supporters including Susan Sarandon, Helen Hunt, Melanie Lynskey, and Alan Cumming. Tweets about the film often included the phrase “a small film with a giant heart,” prompting its fair share of memes and speculation about the coordinated phrasing.

Oscar voting closed on Jan. 17, just seven days after the social media push for Riseborough began in earnest. However, the campaign clearly did its job: Riseborough scored a nomination for To Leslie (the film’s sole nomination) after what is surely the shortest and least conventional Oscars campaign in history.

To Leslie is available for rent or purchase on Youtube, Apple TV, Prime Video, and more.

What: Everything Everywhere All At Once 

Where to watch: Paramount+, Showtime, The Roku Channel, and Prime Video.  

When to stream: Now! 

If you’ve heard of Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s masterpiece, Everything Everywhere All At Once, through Twitter praise and nonstop award nominations — this is your cue to finally watch the film. The touching tornado of a story about chasing kindness across any dimension is available to stream. And if you’re curious about the film behind those 11 Oscar nominations, here’s everything you need to know. 

Where can I watch Everything Everywhere All At Once? 

Everything Everywhere All At Once is streaming on multiple platforms including Paramount+, and Showtime which can be added as a bundle if you’re already subscribed to The Roku Channel and Prime Video. 

What is Everything Everywhere All At Once about? 

The Wang family lives life simply. They run their laundromat. They’re trying to catch up with their taxes. And they’re looking forward to celebrating Chinese New Year. But their hectic day is thrown into spin when the family’s matriarch, Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), finds herself in the epicenter of a multiverse adventure. Existence as we know it is being threatened by a mysterious — and fashion-forward — foe.

It turns out that there are multiple lives Evelyn could have lived, and it’s her mission to sweep through them and connect the dots as to who may be causing this abrupt shift in the space-time continuum. Like Marvel’s Dr. Strange, it’s up to Evelyn, a middle-aged mom, to save the day and put the universe back on its track. As she hops across each dimension, we’re swept along with her in an adventure that’s as exhilarating as it is deeply emotional. 

Everything Everywhere All At Once also stars Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, and Jamie Lee Curtis. 

What have people said about Everything Everywhere All At Once? 

If the 11 Academy Award nominations still don’t have you convinced, Everything Everywhere All At Once was one of 2022’s biggest breakout films landing a top spot on multiple “Best Films of the Year” lists including Mashable’s. 

Mashable’s Film Editor Kristy Puchko writes: “The absolute best movies that 2022 has to offer, Everything Everywhere All at Once boasts a little bit of everything, from a deeply poignant mother-daughter tale to a gleefully silly thread involving a quirky one-hit wonder, to a romantic scene featuring hot dog fingers and a sprawling battle involving butt plugs. It’s the weirdest, most wondrous movie on this list, awing critics and audiences alike to not only earn months-long word-of-mouth buzz and resoundingly positive reviews but also a box office record, becoming A24’s highest-grossing film to date.” 

Puchko continues “Filled with heart, humor, and absolute chaos, Everything Everywhere All at Once is not just great fun — it offers an essential catharsis for a world that is mercilessly overwhelming.” 

To stream Everything Everywhere All At Once, click those links below to subscribe to Paramount+ or Showtime for less than $10.99/month (with a sweet free trial). 

HBO Max has released a trailer for the upcoming Harley Quinn Valentine’s Day special, giving us a look at Harley and Poison Ivy’s romantic plans getting thoroughly derailed by an excellent railing. They clearly don’t have the same sexual hangups as Batman.

Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special follows Harley and Ivy’s first Valentine’s Day as a couple, with the duo’s relationship still going strong by the end of season 3. While Ivy is content keeping the celebrations low-key, Harley is thrilled at the opportunity to do “cheesy shit” with her girlfriend, and determined to make it “the best VD ever!”

This apparently involves making Ivy orgasm so hard that she loses control of her powers and makes everyone start fornicating in the streets.

“Oh, you can’t possibly be mad at me for getting you off too good,” Harley says in her own defence. “That is not a thing!”

Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special premieres Feb. 9 on HBO Max.

The latest iOS update, iOS 16.3, began rolling out to iPhone users on Monday. With this update, Apple brings some small but noteworthy changes and new features to the app. The company is also providing users with a new wallpaper option in honor of Black History Month.

Let’s take a quick look at some of the features iOS 16.3 is bringing to your mobile device.

The biggest new feature is the Security Keys option, which allows users to require a physical security key when setting up a new device or resetting their passwords. The physical security key would replace the verification codes sent to your existing devices as part of the two-factor authentication process. According to Apple, the feature will only work with third-party hardware that is FIDO certified.

If you ever find yourself needing to use Apple’s Emergency SOS with Satellite option, the latest update provides a new way to do so. Users will need to hold down the side button plus one of the volume control buttons and then release the buttons after a short countdown. This new feature seems to address the issue of accidental use of the Emergency SOS feature.

In addition to these changes and new features, Apple is including a new iPhone wallpaper as part of its Black Unity collection to celebrate Black History Month.

The new iOS 16.3 also brings support for the new Homepod 2, which hit stores next month.

A full list of other assorted updates and bug fixes from Apple in iOS 16.3:

• New Unity wallpaper honors Black history and culture in celebration of Black History Month

• Security Keys for Apple ID allow users to strengthen the security of their account by requiring a physical security key as part of the two factor authentication sign in process on new devices

• Support for HomePod (2nd generation)

• Emergency SOS calls now require holding the side button with the up or down volume button and then releasing in order to prevent inadvertent emergency calls

• Fixes an issue in Freeform where some drawing strokes created with Apple Pencil or your finger may not appear on shared boards

• Addresses an issue where the wallpaper may appear black on the Lock Screen

• Fixes an issue where horizontal lines may temporarily appear while waking up iPhone 14 Pro Max

• Fixes an issue where the Home Lock Screen widget does not accurately display Home app status

• Addresses an issue where Siri may not respond properly to music requests

• Resolves issues where Siri requests in CarPlay may not be understood correctly

If you have an iPhone 8 or newer, you can check for the update by going to Settings on your iPhone, tapping General, then hitting Software Update.

Missing smuggler Tess (Anna Torv) after episode 2 of The Last of Us? Craving more information about the character? Well, you’re in luck. The Last of Us co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann dig into their scrapped plans for showing Tess’s past on HBO’s official The Last of Us podcast. While the discussion is devastating, it is also illuminating.

“There is something we had talked about, and we wrote it but never shot it. It was a little bit of the backstory of Tess, and the fact that Tess had a kid,” Mazin reveals. “She had a husband and she had a son, and they were infected, and she had to kill them. She killed her husband, but could not kill the son.”

In this backstory, Tess locked her infected son in her basement rather than kill him outright. “Theoretically, he’s still a Clicker,” Mazin says.

“We had a cold open where the camera pushed on this door and you hear this pounding coming from this basement, and then we cut out,” explains Druckmann. “Later, Tess would tell the story of how she couldn’t kill her son.” Mazin and Druckmann ultimately decided that the scene didn’t fit, but even the knowledge of Tess’s backstory informs her arc in episode 2 in a powerful way.

Tess spends much of episode 2 protecting Ellie (Bella Ramsey), whose immunity to cordyceps may lead to a vaccine for everyone else. While Joel (Pedro Pascal) is cynical and believes Ellie will succumb any day now, Tess is “brave enough to dare to hope,” says Mazin. For Tess, if Ellie is the key to the cure, there’s a chance no one will have to lose people in the way that she did again.

For this reason, Mazin says, Tess goes into “mother mode” in this episode — a description that hits harder with the knowledge that Tess had a child. With hope in sight, she will do whatever it takes to keep Ellie alive. As we see at the end of the episode, this includes sacrificing herself to a horde of Clickers so that Joel and Ellie can escape.

Right before she dies, Tess tells Joel, “Save who you can save.” As Mazin and Druckmann point out in the podcast, she’s reminding him that he can’t save his daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker), who died at the very start of the episode. However, he can save Ellie. Perhaps there’s an extra layer to this as well: Once she’s infected, Tess realizes she doesn’t have much time left. She chooses to save who she is able to save — Joel and Ellie — by sacrificing herself. And in saving them, she still has some hope that maybe, just maybe, they can save the world.

The Last of Us is establishing a pattern of opening its episodes with flashbacks. The entire show opens with a guest on a 1968 talk show detailing the horrific potential for a Cordyceps outbreak — potential which becomes reality in 2003. The show’s second episode, “Infected,” opens with a vignette showing the reaction to the very start of the Cordyceps outbreak in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The sequence harkens back to the scene in the very first episode where Joel (Pedro Pascal), Sarah (Nico Parker), and Tommy (Gabriel Luna) hear about unrest in Jakarta over the radio. Now, we know the true source of the unrest: The Cordyceps outbreak started in Jakarta because of mutated fungus in a flour and grain factory.

Not only does the Indonesia opening establish a concrete point of origin for the outbreak that isn’t in the game — it also marks the first time The Last of Us franchise explores how Cordyceps affects a country outside the United States. On HBO’s The Last of Us podcast, the show’s co-creator and Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann explains that the game version of The Last of Us is a love letter to Americana. Because of this, “we made the conscious choice to never leave the United States,” he says.

However, the show took a different direction. Co-creator Craig Mazin elaborates on this in the podcast. “We knew we wanted to give a little bit more of an origin story [to the Cordyceps outbreak]. We wanted to see what it would really be like at the very, very beginning,” he says. “We wanted to show also that it was global, that this wasn’t just happening in America. This was the world.”

Originally, Mazin and Druckmann planned for a montage showing how Cordyceps was ravaging several different places across the world. However, the budget wouldn’t allow for it, so they went for something much more contained: a sequence between an Indonesian mycologist (Christine Hakim) and military officer (Yayu A.W. Unru) who realize the scope of the threat before them.

These scenes may not boast the zombie-like horror of the Clickers, or the frightening prospect of a darkened museum, but they are full of a chilling sense of dread. From the moment the mycologist first picks Cordyceps tendrils out of a corpse’s mouth, we know that the apocalypse is near. And so does she.

In a tense one-take shot that gradually zooms in on the mycologist, she reveals that the only solution to this crisis is to bomb any impacted areas. As Mazin says in the podcast, “there’s nothing you can do at that point that is going to make this better other than the unthinkable.”

It’s a heartbreaking moment, especially when the mycologist requests that she be brought back home to be with her family as the world comes to an end. Like the talk show in episode one, where John Hannah’s mycologist drives home the lack of pharmaceutical solutions for fungal infections of this kind, the Indonesia sequence also reminds us of the incredible threat Cordyceps presents — only now, instead of a hypothetical, it’s a reality. And the only defense against it is destruction.

The Last of Us is now streaming on HBO Max with new episodes airing weekly on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.