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  • The Year Hollywood’s Overdogs Became Underdogs

    The Year Hollywood’s Overdogs Became Underdogs

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    It’s not a secret that 21st-century film has been dominated by sequels and superhero adaptations. Every year since 2004, other than Avatar in 2009, an IP blockbuster was no. 1 at the domestic box office. But something shifted by the end of 2022: The enthusiasm surrounding the superhero genre finally started to wane after a lukewarm response to big-ticket Marvel and DC installments like Black Adam and Thor: Love and Thunder.

    Then, in 2023, cinephiles got a little treat: a double billing of two big-budget, non-sequel, non-superhero features made by auteurs who, by all accounts, had ample creative freedom over their projects. Barbie, while still technically based on IP—though presented with a unique take on the subject matter—was the highest-grossing film of the year, with Oppenheimer joining it in the top five. What made it all the more satisfying for some viewers was the schadenfreude in watching Marvel Studios and the superhero genre at large have one of its worst years in recent memory, with disappointments both critically and commercially in titles like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, and The Flash.

    Barbenheimer represented film success in ways both novel and old-fashioned: On the one hand, a billion-dollar women-led comedy about existentialism, and on the other, a $900 million dialogue-heavy historical biopic. Before the Barbenheimer meme became a viral phenomenon, these were films difficult to imagine being this successful—even for someone like Christopher Nolan, with his box office pedigree. The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee described Oppenheimer’s ticket sales as “a staggering amount for something of that ilk, a talky, three-hour awards movie treated by audiences like a superhero epic.” Maria Teresa Hart, author of the nonfiction fashion doll history book Doll, told Vox earlier this year that “Barbie is one of those things where the more feminine something is, the more discredited it can be. Barbie feels like the underdog.”

    It’s easy to look at the success of Barbenheimer and feel inclined to declare that “cinema is back” (coincidentally, just one year after Top Gun: Maverick “saved” cinema). After largely unrivaled IP dominance for a solid 15 years, films made by highly regarded, Academy Award–nominated directors somehow feel like long shots in today’s theatrical landscape. Now, make no mistake: Christopher Nolan has been a box office lock since at least 2008’s The Dark Knight, and Barbie was mining one of the most recognizable pieces of intellectual property yet to be adapted for the screen in live action. They were both made with at least $100 million budgets and star-studded ensemble casts and were released in the middle of summer. Their success was not completely an accident or a surprise. Yet, as Inverse’s Kayleigh Donaldson wrote, Barbie and Oppenheimer “fit into an increasingly rare niche” by telling a contained story separate from a sprawling cinematic universe. Because of this, it felt like a victory for a certain type of film fan to watch comparatively different types of blockbusters in Barbenheimer succeed while a behemoth like Marvel faltered, even if they were all coming from powerful places within the film industry.

    Widen the scope, and this same sentiment could be applied to other star filmmakers who saw varying degrees of success this year: David Fincher, Ridley Scott, and Martin Scorsese. In Fincher’s case, his kinetic hit man thriller The Killer received a limited theatrical run before getting unceremoniously dumped on Netflix, reaffirming the odd dark horse status of some of Hollywood’s best working directors. Still, The Killer racked up tens of millions of viewing hours according to Netflix and spent weeks at the helm of the platform’s Top 10 list, demonstrating a demand for cerebral filmmaking on even the most mainstream of streaming services. Scott’s big-budget Napoleon was similarly propped up with “Isn’t it great this movie was actually made?” hype despite centering on one of the most famous historical figures of all time. Like Fincher’s film, Scott’s Napoleon gives off an air of a rank outsider from a bygone era that was lucky to be produced in the year 2023. And as with Fincher, audiences have mostly rewarded Scott’s efforts—even if it’s still about $30 million short of breaking even on its substantial budget, it’s made a respectable $170 million globally, and the film should drive subscribers to Apple TV+ when it debuts there at a later date.

    Scorsese, always a lightning rod in exhausting film debates due to his comments on Marvel films, has weirdly gotten a reputation as an artsy, eat-your-vegetables type of filmmaker despite being one of the most recognizable directors in America. Killers of the Flower Moon is a three-and-a-half-hour chronicle of wretched Native American genocide, but it’s not an inaccessible film—it’s compellingly helmed by two bona fide movie stars on a $200 million budget. A recent viral snippet from a podcast compared Scorsese’s work to “going to the DMV” because his films are long and “tedious.” The suggestion that Scorsese, a well-established mainstream filmmaker, puts out movies that wouldn’t classify as a typical hit isn’t an isolated one; there’s an implication that if you’re not making an IP project, you’re making something subversive. Superhero movies have gotten so big that nearly every other production looks small in comparison. Films that would’ve been considered overdogs in most periods of movie history have gradually become underdogs—films we ostensibly feel the need to root for and make space for in the age of IP.

    Could indisputably successful films like Barbie and Oppenheimer make a dent in the Marvel machine, or even portend a sea change in a film industry that’s grown reliant on a shrinking range of movies? Boxoffice Pro chief analyst Shawn Robbins told CNN in July that “it’s going to be hard, if not impossible, to duplicate the Barbenheimer craze.” But that doesn’t mean studios won’t try—or even that they aren’t trying already.

    While Nolan pretty much has a blank check in perpetuity, especially after switching over from Warner Bros. to Universal, there’s already a doll hunt for the next Barbie. The New Yorker reported in July that Mattel has 45 films in various stages of development, including projects based on characters like He-Man and Polly Pocket. Even though a wave of toy adaptations already occurred in the late 2000s and early 2010s, which saw diminishing returns for movies like G.I. Joe, Transformers, and Battleship, the success of Barbie has execs deducing that it’s time to reopen the toy box. This doesn’t even include the next genre of IP that feels like it’s about to completely take over Hollywood: video game adaptations. The billion-dollar Super Mario Bros. Movie finished second to Barbie at the domestic box office this year and has already led Nintendo to announce a Legend of Zelda live action film. In film and television, 2023 also saw successful adaptations of Five Nights at Freddy’s, The Last of Us, Gran Turismo, and Twisted Metal, and a Borderlands film is slated for 2024 along with a second Sonic the Hedgehog sequel.

    If the lesson you were hoping studios would take away from Barbenheimer was that audiences are sick of superheroes, then maybe you’re satisfied. For the first time, it feels like there’s an end in sight for Marvel’s reign, with one of its major upcoming releases, Blade, stuck in development hell, on top of numerous other crises the studio dealt with this year, as reported by Variety. But if you were optimistic that Hollywood would shift its focus away from franchise filmmaking and adapting children’s IP altogether, you’d be wrong. “Lena Dunham’s Polly Pocket” doesn’t exactly conjure up the feeling that we’re about to enter another Golden Age of Hollywood, and it doesn’t inspire hope that it doesn’t seem to have dawned on studio execs that the success of Barbie can be simply explained by Greta Gerwig having the space and money to execute her vision rather than just by putting a famous doll on a movie screen. (Although maybe this is what Gerwig wanted—her next two films will be based on another children’s IP, The Chronicles of Narnia, and she is reportedly looking to become “a big studio director.”)

    The Barbenheimer phenomenon won’t significantly move the needle in terms of what kinds of films will get made in the future because, ultimately, those films just did what they were supposed to do. It was a fun respite from superhero films, and it was genuinely touching to see people so excited for an old-school double feature, but truthfully, they weren’t particularly risky films. When you put money and stars into a carefully crafted film and support it with a viral advertising campaign, you’ve got a hit on your hands. But perhaps the problem is that too many viewers continue to conform to the studios’ pursuit of box office profits. Barbie, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Killer, and even Napoleon to a degree were successful because they were captivating, meticulous, and original films. As filmgoers we should advocate for those artists to get their art financed and distributed on the basis of creating great art, without playing the box office game. Still, we don’t need to point to box office success as proof that there’s value in a diverse array of films—the artistic value is already there.

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    Julianna Ress

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  • How to get the Shard of Dawn Aspect in Diablo 4’s Midwinter Blight event

    How to get the Shard of Dawn Aspect in Diablo 4’s Midwinter Blight event

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    The Shard of Dawn Aspect is a brand new Legendary Power added in Diablo 4’s Midwinter Blight holiday event. It features a complex buff: Night’s Grasp.

    This new power increases your movement speed and attack speed under certain conditions, but can be very difficult to understand when reading the tooltip. Thankfully, we’re here to help.

    In this Diablo 4 guide, we’ll show you how to get the Shard of Dawn Aspect and explain how the Night’s Grasp buff works.

    How to get the Shard of Dawn Aspect in Diablo 4

    Image: Blizzard Entertainment

    You can buy The Shard of Dawn Aspect from Gileon’s shop in Kyovashad in the Fractured Peaks for 10 Midwinter Proofs.

    In order to get Midwinter Proofs, you’ll need to exchange one of three currencies at the Collection Table in town: Blighted Fragments, Lost Heirlooms, and Red-Cloaked Trophies.

    You’ll find each of these currencies out in the world of the Fractured Peaks during the Midwinter Blight event. Hop onto your horse and ride around killing enemies (which typically drop Blighted Fragments) and destroying the Frigid Husk ice statues (which drop Lost Heirlooms).

    The most efficient way to farm these items is in a new event called Blighted Revelry. As you ride around, look for an event where a bunch of little freaks are jumping around in a circle around a broken cart. Kill the little freaks and interact with the cart to start the event. Protect the cart until the fire gets large enough to unfreeze the Frigid Husks nearby. Use this method to destroy all five Frigid Husks to spawn the Red-Cloaked Horror. Defeat this big goat boss to finish the event, get some loot, and pick up the Red-Cloaked Trophy.

    Back in town, you can convert 300 Blight Fragments, 30 Lost Heirlooms, or one Red-Cloaked Trophy into 1 Midwinter Proof. Once you have 10 Midwinter Proofs, you can buy the Shard of Dawn Aspect from Gileon.

    If you need more Midwinter Proofs for cosmetics or if you don’t yet have enough for the Aspect, just head back out into the Fractured Peaks to explore (and maybe do the “Secret of the Spring” quest while you’re out there), kill monsters, and collect the currencies that you can exchange for more Proofs.

    How Night’s Grasp works in Diablo 4

    A look at the Shard of Dawn Aspect in Diablo 4’s Midwinter Blight event

    Image: Blizzard Entertainment

    The Shard of Dawn Aspect reads like stereo instructions if you haven’t progressed far enough into the Midwinter Blight event. And even then, it’s hard to understand. Let’s break it down.

    After 30 seconds of Night’s Grasp, gain Dawn’s Haste, increasing your Attack Speed by 25-35% and Movement Speed by 20% for 12 seconds. While empowered by the Midwinter Ward, killing an enemy reduces Night’s Grasp’s duration by 1 second.

    There are three buffs mentioned in that description, but it only tells you what one of them does.

    First, let’s talk about Night’s Grasp. This is a buff that appears on your character when you’re in combat and wielding the Shard of Dawn. However, it doesn’t do anything. All it’s there for is to denote that you don’t have the Dawn’s Haste buff currently active on you. But once you’ve had Night’s Grasp on you for 30 seconds, you’ll gain the benefits of Dawn’s Haste, which increases your attack speed and movement speed for 12 seconds. Once Dawn’s Haste ends, Night’s Grasp returns and the cycle starts over again.

    Dawn’s Haste is a pretty slick buff, as attack speed is desirable for most generator/spender builds and movement speed is valuable for all builds. To wit, you want to lower that 30 second window if at all possible. That’s where the Midwinter’s Ward buff factors into the Shard of Dawn, as it reduces the 30-second cooldown between Night’s Grasp and Dawn’s Haste by 1 second each time you kill an enemy.

    Midwinter’s Ward is a buff that you can acquire from a special totem inside Kyovashad, next to Gileon’s shop. However, you’ll need to upgrade your Midwinter Tribute level to Tier 3 before it even appears in town. To gain Tribute experience and level up, all you need to do is exchange the Midwinter Blight currencies for Midwinter Proofs at the Collection’s Table. Once you’ve leveled up all the way to Tier 3, you’ll be able to acquire the Midwinter Tribute buff, which lasts for about six minutes and also gives you some bonus damage against Blightfiends and the Red-Cloaked Horror.

    Finally, it’s worth noting here that the Shard of Dawn Aspect does not appear in the Codex of Power. Instead, you’ll need to repurchase it for 10 Midwinter Proofs every time you want to apply it to a new piece of gear. So make sure you choose your gear piece carefully when applying the Aspect at the Occultist.

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    Ryan Gilliam

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  • ‘The Pelican Brief’ | Denzel and Julia Roberts’s Legal Thriller

    ‘The Pelican Brief’ | Denzel and Julia Roberts’s Legal Thriller

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    Filed under:

    Bill is joined by Chris, Sean, and Amanda to rewatch the 1993 American legal thriller starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington

    By

    Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Amanda Dobbins




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    Bill Simmons

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  • Overwatch 2’s Mauga is part of an evolving way of adding new heroes to the game

    Overwatch 2’s Mauga is part of an evolving way of adding new heroes to the game

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    Overwatch 2’s new hero, the dual-minigun-wielding Samoan tank Mauga, officially launched earlier this week with the game’s eighth season. Before that, Blizzard Entertainment added Mauga to the roster for an early preview weekend, which coincided with this year’s BlizzCon.

    Mauga’s early access weekend was more than just a fun surprise for Overwatch fans; it was also a test for Blizzard. The tank hero was buffed, debugged, and tweaked in response to that hero preview, resulting in a more powerful (and hopefully balanced) addition to the game’s hero lineup.

    Lead hero designer Alec Dawson said in an interview with Polygon ahead of Mauga’s release that the Overwatch development team hopes to do similar player tests with future heroes. Dawson also talked about some of the lessons learned during Mauga’s preview weekend, and how the Overwatch team is evolving its approach to adding new heroes to the game.

    This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

    Polygon: For Mauga, you did a kind of unprecedented test of a new hero nearly a month in advance of their launch. Can you tell me about what led to the decision to do that?

    Alec Dawson: If you look at the team overall, and how we’ve been trying to treat development over the course of the last [couple] years, it’s really been to open up a lot more of it, engage more with the community, and try to make sure that relationship is as transparent as possible. With Mauga in particular, we had an opportunity: BlizzCon was coming back. We wanted to do something big, especially for all the folks at home, and we thought it’d be a great time to show them Mauga early, and also collect feedback on Mauga before he actually gets launched as well.

    We think it’s something that worked out really well, and we’re looking forward to do it in the future again with future heroes.

    How did it go?

    I think overall we were really happy with the weekend, and there were some things we wanted to tune up, especially around Mauga’s survivability. We saw when he gets in there, gets in close and is in the right situation, he can be incredibly lethal. We saw players utilizing his ult very well early on, too. But there were some things on the survivability front, in terms of his frontline presence — being a tank. So we upped that [survivability] before launch. There were even small bugs that we were able to catch, especially with how quickly he was setting enemies on fire. So we’re able to fix that and get that sorted. We also got to see that first-time user experience across millions of players [and] how they’re playing with Mauga, what were some of the shortcomings there.

    Image: Blizzard Entertainment

    One of the biggest things was Overrun, and players not feeling as capable with this ability where he runs at you and then he jumps up and does the big, big stomp.

    When we look at it all, Mauga’s performance over the weekend, obviously it was in a very different structure than we’re used to. But we want to make sure that those [new hero] releases launch on the side of strong and making sure those launches can be as exciting as possible. Make sure they’re making up for some of the time that you may have on heroes that you’ve been playing for hundreds or thousands of hours, that your first-time experience isn’t gonna be something that’s detrimental to the rest of your team, something that you can pick up pretty quick.

    Thinking about the addition of Lifeweaver in season 4 and how a lot of changes were rolled out, in terms of his healing and and damage output over the following weeks, it seems you’ve also really buffed Mauga quickly. When you put in a new hero like this, what’s your comfort level with where they are? You really don’t know millions of people are thrown at it, right?

    I think in the past we’ve been conservative about certain things. And there are still things we’ll be conservative about, specifically gameplay mechanics. With the preview we were a little conservative on how much sustain we were giving Mauga, because too much sustain can just feel like, Hey, this character is never going to die. I think we’ll also be conservative in the future, if you know we’re making a second Widowmaker, for example — some sort of sniper, or one-shot mechanic. Things like that we’ll be a little softer on.

    Lifeweaver and BOB stand atop a petal platform in a screenshot from Overwatch 2

    Image: Blizzard Entertainment

    With Lifeweaver in particular, we knew there was a lot of healing in the kit, and we knew there were also things you’re taking away some player agency from your teammates [with Life Grip and Petal Platform]. Those are some of the things we’re a bit more conservative on at launch because we knew those are going to be some of the pain points. But overall we saw we could have gone a little bit more aggressive for Lifeweaver’s launch. Since then, we’ve learned a number of things about how we want to launch heroes and how we want to release them. Doing these previews is just another step in that learning.

    Previously, the hero balance cadence was seasonal and midseason adjustments, and obviously you would patch things if there was something outstandingly broken. How how have you and the team adjusted your reaction window to balancing heroes?

    I think with a hero launch, or even a hero rework, we want to be very active into that first week to two weeks. With Roadhog, it was by the end of the week we had buffs ready for Roadhog to go [out]. So we wanna be very responsive, and if there’s anything else that’s, like, outstanding, we’re gonna come in and make any adjustments that need to be made.

    Speaking of BlizzCon, I know it’s early to talk about the next Overwatch hero, Venture, but I wanted to see what kind of feedback you got to that hero’s reveal and how you’ve been ingesting that in terms of continuing work.

    A lot of work has happened since that video clip was recorded, so it’s really interesting to look back; that was a while ago when we did that playtest. But it’s just been exciting for the team. We saw fan art go up everywhere, and a lot of excitement around Venture, and just people talking about them as the next damage hero for 2024. That was really invigorating for the whole team.

    Artwork of Venture, a new damage hero coming in Overwatch 2 season 10, and their drill weapon

    Venture, a new damage hero coming in Overwatch 2 season 10
    Image: Blizzard Entertainment

    What we showed of gameplay was so short, so there’s not necessarily a ton to take away from what people saw. At the same time we saw excitement, and that for us was really great to see, and makes us feel a lot better about how early we can show some of these things. Because I think it’s gonna be something that we continue to do as well.

    Mauga obviously came with BlizzCon, but say you do a hero test for Venture. Do you have a sense of when you would roll that out?

    We’re still figuring out the exact timeline for it. I think you can expect somewhere in that month beforehand, where it gives us enough time to make adjustments before the launch and is close enough where [it aligns with] other teams working on a hero. Those are still some conversations we’re having on the team [in] exactly how we want to execute on that. But we know we want to do it.

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    Michael McWhertor

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  • Rogue Trader is the perfect vehicle for Warhammer 40K’s satire

    Rogue Trader is the perfect vehicle for Warhammer 40K’s satire

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    Games Workshop retail staff have a rough job, from low pay to consistent unreasonable targets from upper management, so it’s with all the love and respect that I tell you about the animated lad that my 14-year-old friends and I used to make fun of for liberal use of the phrase “If a Space Marine walked in here right now…” It was always accompanied by wildly enthusiastic gesticulation meant to convey the absolute unit-tude of said Space Marines (8 feet tall in Warhammer 40,000’s lore). I bring this up because it perfectly sums up the thorny issue behind marketing these yoked stormtroopers: Space Marines are very expensive for something so small, forcing Games Workshop to make the legend of these tiny plastic soldiers tower over the reality.

    And what a legend it is. The Horus Heresy book series currently consists of over 60 fat paperbacks worth of lore. There’s far too much nuance to unpack here, but it’s fair to say that when writers spend that long exploring something, they have to take it quite seriously, especially if they want to keep their readers hooked. To be clear, 40K is a fascinating, fun, creative, vast, and often extremely clever setting. But it’s also — at least as recently as 2021, according to its parent company — explicitly, intentionally satirizing the very faction that the vast majority of its lore seems so fascinated with. “Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be,” wrote the novelist Dawn Powell. As 40K grows and grows, it’s becoming more difficult to deny that the portrayal of the Imperium is at least somewhat aspirational.

    Image: Owlcat Games via Polygon

    A quick primer: Humanity’s overwhelming presence in the 40K setting takes the shape of the Imperium of Man, where staunch xenophobia, mindless zealotry, and outright hostility toward social or technological progress are among the highest virtues — a literal “cult of tradition”. Ordinary folk live in cramped “Hives,” toiling away until death, at which point they’re repurposed as tasty, nutritious “corpse starch.” The Imperial Guard, humanity’s most numerous military force, is best known for employing the Zapp Brannigan maneuver, i.e., throwing endless bodies at a problem until it sorts itself out. As such, individual human life is less than worthless. Terra’s more elite military are the Space Marines. As 2000 AD’s Judge Dredd is to law enforcement, so are the Space Marines to the concept of the Ubermensch — a grimly satirical warning about the pursuit of perceived physical perfection and ultimate strength.

    Of the 36 playable factions in 40K, around half (17) are of the Imperium in some capacity, with a further nine being their direct foil in Chaos, leaving just 10 to split between the multiple nonhuman species that populate this mind-bogglingly huge universe. Sci-fi can vary wildly in flavor, but a unifying thread is that great science fiction is almost insatiably curious. 40K absolutely shines when it mocks the staunch anti-curiosity of its human protagonists. But as the company has gradually grown to value sales over artistic intent, that lack of curiosity too often seems to be adopted by Games Workshop itself.

    The Rogue Trader selects from a series of dialogue options regarding how to deal with a rebellion on her voidship in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader

    Image: Owlcat Games via Polygon

    This fantastic look at the timeline of 40K, and how it moved from satire to something almost resembling celebration, puts it like this: “As the setting grew more mainstream, Space Marines’ [portrayal] as noble warrior monks became more and more prominent, resulting in a world where these abused, intolerant, mass-murdering child soldiers are only ever portrayed from the Imperium’s point of view,” and, in the vast majority of official artwork, “as genuine heroes.” Even the official website categorizes nonhuman armies as “the Xenos threat.” Look a little closer, and it’s easy to see the inherent satire in images of Primarch Roboute Guilliman with a Christ-like halo of light shining from the background. But unless you know what you’re looking for, this stuff looks suspiciously like the very propaganda that it’s making fun of.

    This isn’t to say, of course, that modern-day Games Workshop has lost its sense of satire, and most certainly not its sense of humor. As we’ve seen time and time again in the games industry, shareholders misunderstanding or just straight-up not valuing the creative process is a depressingly prevailing theme — it’s easy for nuance to get crushed under the pursuit of easy profitability. The rule of cool sells plastic, not difficult themes. Plus, 40K is a wargame. In a setting that requires constant conflict, factions that think in absolutes become necessary. But that’s where video games like the recent, excellent CRPG Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader come in. It’d be a massive anticlimax to end a game of 40K with a conversation before it even starts, but as the setting is allowed to spread its wings in a new genre, some of that classic satire begins to flourish again.

    The Rogue Trader and her party speak to a ranking official in a hall on a voidship in Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader

    Image: Owlcat Games via Polygon

    40K is, above all else, ridiculous, and Rogue Trader has fun with it without losing any of the campy grindhouse stuff that grimdark excels at. Characters speak in rich, baroque prose, at once excellently written and almost indecipherable to anyone not already indoctrinated into their bizarre religious neo-feudalism. You don’t even have to leave your own ship to encounter dehumanizing class structure, and each of your erstwhile associates is comically nefarious enough to be the main villain in any other setting. In Baldur’s Gate 3, for example, the evil path requires a deliberate, long attempt to stray into monstrous territory. Here, you can have several crew members executed in the first few hours without breaking character.

    Rogue Trader isn’t even the first game to pull this off recently. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, despite a rocky launch, is shaping up as an excellent successor to the Vermintide series, and portrays the horrific satire of existence in 40K’s horrendous hive cities masterfully. Loading screen quotes are such pointed satire you’d have to have accidentally super-glued your eyes shut building models to miss them, with lines like “A small mind is a tidy mind,” “Blessed are the intolerant,” and “Duty is vital, understanding is not.” It seemed only a few short years ago that the glut of Warhammer games felt like a punchline. Now, the scope and breadth these games offer are starting to feel like a better medium to portray the most complete version of 40K than the tabletop game itself.

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    Nic Reuben

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  • Joe Hisaishi Is Studio Ghibli’s Unsung MVP

    Joe Hisaishi Is Studio Ghibli’s Unsung MVP

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    Many factors contribute to Hayao Miyazaki’s mastery of the animated medium. His imaginative worlds. Their impeccable art design. A unique blend of nature, magic, and technology, all of which fascinate the 82-year-old creator, who has just released his maybe-final film, The Boy and the Heron.

    That list leaves out one very important yet underrated piece of Miyazaki’s success: a collaborator who not only hasn’t won an Oscar, but has never even been nominated for one. Composer Joe Hisaishi, who’s worked on all 11 films Miyazaki has directed since 1984’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, is Studio Ghibli’s unsung MVP.

    I will admit up front that I know almost nothing about music theory. I’m just a naive listener who’s passionate about these soundtracks. Watch this video if you want to understand more about the actual composition principles that help Hisaishi’s scores resonate.

    But from my uneducated perspective, the 73-year-old Hisaishi’s greatest strength is his versatility. Even though many of Miyazaki’s protagonists occupy similar roles, he makes very different movies, from close character studies to delightfully strange fantasies to sprawling environmentalist sagas. And Hisaishi—whose real name is Mamoru Fujisawa; his pen name is inspired by Quincy Jones—manages to keep pace with those changes in direction, using each soundtrack to reflect the genres at hand.

    “When I look back I’m amazed that I could write music for these very different films,” Hisaishi told The New York Times recently.

    His music can convey an epic scope, as it does throughout Princess Mononoke and Castle in the Sky. It can be playful, as in Howl’s Moving Castle’s “A Walk in the Skies” and Porco Rosso’s “Flying Boatmen.” It can be romantic, as with “The Flower Garden” from Howl’s and the opening song from The Wind Rises.

    And while Hisaishi’s work is often slower and focused on character, he can also score an action scene with the best of them. “The Dragon Boy” from Spirited Away is fast-paced and frantic, building and building and building until an ultimate crest and denouement.

    The Ghibli soundtracks offer a wide variety in both substance and style. Some of Hisaishi’s pieces rely mainly on a lone piano, like the powerful “Ask Me Why” from The Boy and the Heron. For others, he calls on choirs. He also evinces an electronic influence, especially in his earlier work on Nausicaä and My Neighbor Totoro.

    All the while, he terrifically fuses Eastern and Western influences. Hisaishi’s music “connects with people, regardless of their culture, and that’s really powerful,” James Williams, the managing director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, told The New York Times last year. “What Joe has done is somehow retain that integrity of Japanese culture, brought in that Western tonal system and found a way for the two to retain their identities in perfect harmony.”

    That nimbleness allows Hisaishi to tap into the emotions of so many varied characters, which he describes as his chief goal when scoring Miyazaki’s films. “It’s about emotion, something the character might be feeling,” Hisaishi told the Times.

    Thus he offers the melancholy of Spirited Away’s “One Summer’s Day” and the hopefulness of Kiki’s Delivery Service’s “A Town With an Ocean View”—pieces that both score the opening adventures of two young girls yet diverge in mood as they parallel the heroines’ opposing outlooks on life.

    “A Town With an Ocean View” might not be my absolute favorite Hisaishi track—it’s near the top, but if I had to pick just one, I might lean toward the wistfulness and grandeur of Nausicaä’s opening theme—but I consider it the most emblematic of what makes his work so appealing. When it starts to play in Kiki’s, the titular witch is just arriving in said town, enthusiastic about exploring the world and in awe of all the new sights and sounds around her. The peppy, vibrant music perfectly captures this open-minded, inquisitive, coming-of-age sensation.

    In a sense, all of Miyazaki’s movies channel this desire for exploration. If there’s another common thread among Hisaishi’s compositions, it’s an ability to convey this feeling of curiosity and mystery, as at the start of Kiki’s, in Spirited Away’s “A Road to Somewhere,” and throughout much of The Boy and the Heron.

    Miyazaki’s creations shine because they fill viewers with a sense of wonder and blend the fantastical with the personal, and Hisaishi’s soundtracks are a crucial component in balancing the two poles. “San and Ashitaka in the Forest of the Deer God” is almost religious in its invocation of awe, yet it also keeps the characters centered in a key moment in the Mononoke tale.

    I admit I have a personal bias toward Hisaishi because of my connection to his music. At our wedding last year, my wife walked down the aisle to Howl’s Moving Castle’s “Merry-Go-Round of Life.” And mere days after pitching this piece to my editor, I discovered that Hisaishi was my top artist for 2023 on Spotify Wrapped.

    There’s a reason for this ranking: My wife and I moved this year, and we used a Ghibli playlist as background accompaniment while packing, unpacking, painting, and building new furniture. (We joked while listening that we were the “Very Busy Kiki” the track references.)

    After all that listening, I can say with confidence that Hisaishi’s music works outside the context of the films too. There’s a reason that so many YouTube videos of Ghibli music collections have millions of views. Hisaishi’s pieces have—and this is a very technical music term—good, relaxing vibes. He’s also done plenty of accomplished work beyond these soundtracks: other film scores, solo albums, a concert tour.

    Yet it is his partnership with Miyazaki for which he is best known, and it’s in Miyazaki’s movies that his melodies resonate strongest. Hisaishi and Miyazaki really are animation’s answer to John Williams and Steven Spielberg. (Except unlike Hisaishi, Williams has five Academy Awards and 53 nominations. Give Hisaishi his proper due, Academy voters!)

    At this point, I am half inclined to just keep listing tracks that work so wonderfully. I’ve barely even touched on Totoro or Castle in the Sky or half of the beautiful melodies in Spirited Away. But there’s a new task at hand, because the Boy and the Heron soundtrack is now available. My favorite so far is either “A Trap,” which is fast and tense, or “Sanctuary,” which swings the other direction: slow and calming. But it’s still early. I have a lot more listening to do.

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    Zach Kram

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  • ‘Bandsplain’ x ‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’ LIVE

    ‘Bandsplain’ x ‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’ LIVE

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    Rob Harvilla, Chris Ryan, and our intrepid host Yasi Salek converge onstage at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles, California, to do a live draft episode in honor of Rob’s fantastic new book 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s. A heartwarming and funny evening from start to finish that we are so happy to share with all of you.

    Follow Rob on Twitter at @Harvilla

    Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisRyan77

    Host: Yasi Salek
    Guests: Rob Harvilla, Chris Ryan, and Rob’s mom
    Producers: Jesse Miller-Gordon, Jonathan Kermah, and Justin Sayles
    Audio Editor: Adrian Bridges
    Theme Song: Bethany Cosentino

    Subscribe: Spotify

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    Yasi Salek

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  • Taylor Swift is TIME’s Person of the Year

    Taylor Swift is TIME’s Person of the Year

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    Taylor Swift was named TIME’s 2023 Person of the Year and, in conjunction with that honor, gave a rare interview for the profile. Nora and Nathan talk about why she might have decided to give the interview (1:00), some of the major revelations that came from the piece (15:58), and what it means for her future music that she’s in a very happy moment in her life (48:21).

    Hosts: Nora Princiotti and Nathan Hubbard
    Producer: Kaya McMullen

    Subscribe: Spotify

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    Nora Princiotti

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  • Fortnite’s new map is too bougie for me

    Fortnite’s new map is too bougie for me

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    Gone are the days of scrounging up loot at dilapidated taco joints and rusty playgrounds in Fortnite. Epic Games released a massive new update to the battle royale game this week as part of Chapter 5 Season 1. The patch literally blew up the OG map with a meteor, replacing it with an entirely new, much fancier map. Instead of rough locales like Greasy Groves or Tomato Temple, players now explore palatial manors like Lavish Lair or the manicured vineyards of Pleasant Piazza. Fortnite is basically a fancy European vacation now, and it feels a bit outside my personal budget.

    Developers stuffed the new map with luxurious points of interest. Another example: Grand Glacier, a hotel nestled on a snow-capped mountain that looks like it’s straight out of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. If the mountains aren’t your thing, you can head over to the Ritzy Riviera, a picturesque shore-side town with villas nestled into a sloped hillside. At places like Classy Courts, decrypted playgrounds with broken concrete have been replaced with manicured hedges.

    Image: Epic Games

    Call me a traditionalist, but I like to do dumb shit in Fortnite. I personally play as Kakashi from Naruto, and style him with an Among Us backpack as I regale other players with emotes like the Gangnam Style dance. Part of what made me fall in love with Fortnite was the garishness of it all. It’s a bright, cartoony game where you can go fishing with Ariana Grande, then turn around and scuffle with Goku. In the new season, a lot of that whimsy is still there: Peter Griffin is now a skin, and appears as an NPC you can fight. But that tone doesn’t seem to be reflected in the map, which forms a central part of the game.

    It isn’t that previous maps were lacking in high-end locations. Prior to the return of the OG map, Chapter 4 Season 4 added the cyberpunk-inspired Mega City and the sweeping Japanese estates of Kenjutsu Crossing. While Kenjutsu resembles the more elaborate locales in the current iteration of the game, some of those additions still evoked a sort of surrealism: Mega City’s sci-fi elements felt true to the less realistic elements of Fortnite.

    All that said, locations are subject to change with each update. So it’s possible that further meteors or other ill fates might befall some of these fancy locales and bring back some of the good old Fortnite charm — rough hedges and all.

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    Ana Diaz

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  • ‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’: The Sun-Soaked Magic of Sublime’s “Santeria”

    ‘60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’: The Sun-Soaked Magic of Sublime’s “Santeria”

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    60 Songs That Explain the ’90s is back for its final stretch run (and a brand-new book!). Join The Ringer’s Rob Harvilla as he treks through the soundtrack of his youth, one song (and embarrassing anecdote) at a time. Follow and listen for free on Spotify. In Episode 110 of 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s—yep, you read that right—we’re covering Sublime’s “Santeria.” Read an excerpt below.

    All the way up to the mega-huge self-titled Sublime record in ’96, the album that comes out two months after Bradley Nowell dies, Sublime are never famous in real time. When you listen to Sublime, the dudes singing and playing for you, those dudes aren’t famous yet. They don’t know that they’re gonna be famous. They don’t know that the ’96 Sublime record is gonna sell 6 million copies in America. It’s a little heartbreaking, listening to Sublime, what you know that they don’t. Sublime’s first official-official album comes out in 1992. It’s called 40oz. to Freedom. We got a super-important Sublime collaborator, Marshall Goodman, a.k.a. Ras M.G., playing drums on a lot of it because Bud Gaugh’s got his own problems. This record’s famous—it sells 2 million copies in America—but it doesn’t blow up right away. Or, really, it doesn’t blow up fast enough to do Bradley Nowell any good.

    This song is called “Badfish.” This is a top-tier Sublime hit, actually. This is maybe, probably, presumably a song about Bradley battling heroin addiction. “Badfish” is also the song that makes me think, if only for a split second, of Jimmy Buffett. Bradley and Jimmy. The clown princes of Margaritaville. Two barefoot bards of good-time partying, all libido and id and conspicuous overconsumption, but with a not-so-hidden soulfulness, a grace to them even at their bawdiest. Shrewd songwriters with hidden depths. Bradley and Jimmy—and Jimmy’s still present tense too—they don’t specialize in super-sad songs that deceive you by sounding all happy; they write happy and anthemic songs where the shrewd undercurrent of sadness somehow only amplifies the happiness, the anthemicness. The pain, the struggle driving “Badfish” doesn’t make it sound painful. The struggle just makes it sound better.

    Yasi really likes that line: Ain’t got no quarrels with god. The use, the deployment of the word quarrels there. Yes. Great word. But don’t skip over Ain’t got no time to grow old. That’s—OK, that one’s a little painful.

    Despite the fact that, again, Sublime are very much not huge or even “successful” yet—they’re not even on a major label yet—even so, 40oz. to Freedom has Greatest Hits energy. It feels monumental if only in retrospect. “Badfish” and “Ball and Chain” (love that one) and “Let’s Go Get Stoned” and “Don’t Push” are all back. Sublime’s covers of “Hope” by the Descendents and the Grateful Dead’s “Scarlet Begonias” are here, and this is the only record I’m aware of that covers both the Descendents and the Grateful Dead. “Smoke Two Joints” is here. “Smoke Two Joints” is a cover, also. “Smoke Two Joints” was written and recorded by the Toyes, a reggae band that started in Hawaii but later moved to Oregon. Tough break. Great song, great cover. When Bradley Nowell sings, “I smoke two joints before I smoke two joints / And then I smoke two more,” you believe him. But then again, you believe him when he sings anything.

    This might be my favorite song on 40oz. to Freedom, if you want the truth. Ask him how he knows about hamburgers and Elijah Muhammad and the welfare state. Go ahead, ask him: He wants you to know why he knows. The song is called “KRS-One.” It is probably the best quote, unquote rock song about a rapper, ever. Just the delicacy of this song. The sweetness. The earnestness. Bradley just loves listening to KRS-One and wants to shout out everything he’s learned about by listening to KRS-One. And I love listening to him talk about why he loves listening to KRS-One; I even love when Bradley slips back into reggae patois while he does it.

    He knows. He knows you know he just sang the words, We don’t want to pay no money fi hear the same old sound. He sells the fi there, somehow, maybe. Or maybe not. Or maybe you could also ask, Who’s “we,” Bradley? in the line Watch and we’ll take hip-hop to a higher ground. But even here, there’s a difference between wrapping yourself in the flag of KRS-One, so to speak, and simply waving KRS-One’s flag on KRS-One’s behalf. Not that this is the song on this record that unnerves everyone. At first, 40oz. to Freedom isn’t a disaster, exactly, but it doesn’t sell a ton. It doesn’t push Sublime to the next level. It doesn’t work, really, and it especially does not help Bradley Nowell in his very public battle with drugs. The next Sublime record is called Robbin’ the Hood. It’s from 1994, it’s four-track recordings, it’s lo-fi in the extreme, it’s experimental, it has a theoretically visionary sample-heavy beat-tape vibe, it’s got Gwen Stefani for less than two minutes, and it features several interludes from a schizophrenic gentleman named Raleigh that unfortunately last way longer than two minutes. There’s a lot going on, and pretty much all of it is baffling, but it’s all more intriguing than maybe you remember. Here’s a little throwaway tune called “Lincoln Highway Dub.”

    Huh. That sounds familiar. I may actually not get around to “Santeria” here today. Is that OK? Are people gonna get pissed at me? They might. Sublime’s biggest songs are so huge, are so ubiquitous, that I never need to hear them again, externally, because they’ve been stuck in my head for 30 years. In a broader sense, I’m never not listening to Sublime. I don’t know if there’s any point to elaborating on that, but—OK. So, look: Robbin’ the Hood is not designed to push Sublime to the next level, to put it mildly. What pushes Sublime to the next level, in August of 1994, is that a famous DJ named Tazy Phyllipz plays “Date Rape” on the famous L.A. rock station KROQ, and the phone lines blow up, and soon “Date Rape” is the biggest song on KROQ, which means that rock radio stations nationwide pick up on it, which is how I hear it in fuckin’ Ohio, and that’s what pushes Sublime to the next level. Yeah, this is a story of a single DJ at a single radio station plucking a random song from obscurity, and that song blows up in a manner so absolute that we even remember the DJ’s name now.

    Sublime get signed to a major label, to the MCA subsidiary Gasoline Alley, but also Bradley goes to rehab. Sublime start recording in Redondo Beach with David Kahne, who’s worked with Fishbone and Tony Bennett (separately), but that flames out, so they also record with Paul Leary, he of the Butthole Surfers, at Willie Nelson’s Pedernales Studios in Austin. Sublime nail down their biggest, most enduring hits—“Santeria,” “Wrong Way,” “Doin’ Time,” “What I Got”—but they also leave a trail of destruction and consternation. Sublime’s self-titled album comes out in July 1996, and those songs slowly but surely make Sublime super-famous, finally, but Bradley is already gone, and we’ll spend the rest of our lives listening to Bradley singing about himself in the present tense.

    To hear the full episode, click here. Subscribe here and check back every Wednesday for new episodes. And to order Rob’s new book, Songs That Explain the ’90s, visit the Hachette Book Group website.

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    Rob Harvilla

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  • All Ahamkara Bones locations in Destiny 2’s Warlord’s Ruin dungeon

    All Ahamkara Bones locations in Destiny 2’s Warlord’s Ruin dungeon

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    Ahamkara Bones are the collectible for the Warlord’s Ruin dungeon in Destiny 2, and are an essential part of the “In the Shadow of the Mountain” quest.

    In this Destiny 2 guide, we’ll go over how to find all of the sets of bones so you can complete the “In the Shadow of the Mountain” quest and the “Heed the Whispers, O Vengeance Mine” triumph, and boost the drop rate for your Buried Bloodlines Exotic sidearm.

    If you’re having any trouble getting to the locations described herein, check out our guide on how to complete the Warlord’s Ruin dungeon in Destiny 2.

    ‘In the Shadow of the Mountain’ quest steps

    Unlike previous dungeons, where you can get all of the collectibles in one run, the collectibles in Warlord’s Ruin must be collected across three different runs. Once you beat the dungeon for the first time, you’ll receive the “In the Shadow of the Mountain” quest, which will require you to get 30 Dark Ether Tinctures, 3 Blighted Wishing Glass, and four Ahamkara Bones.

    How to get Dark Ether Tinctures in Destiny 2

    You get Dark Ether Tinctures by killing special Screeb-like enemies called Thieving Wretches, which will spawn in three locations:

    • The first is on the bridge before the first encounter.
    • The second is found in the maze after defeating the first boss.
    • The third is found on the mountain side after defeating the second boss.

    These enemies can respawn, so you can farm them to get enough Dark Ether Tinctures.

    How to get Blighted Wishing Glass in Destiny 2

    You get one Blighted Wishing Glass per encounter completion from the loot chest. Once you complete that quest step, you’ll have to collect the next 3 bones and more Dark Ether Tinctures and Blighted Wishing Glass. Once you complete that step, you’ll have to do it again until you collect all ten bones.

    Ahamkara Bones 1 location

    Across the bridge inside the first fort, before an arresting Knight assails you.

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    The first set of Ahamkara Bones is found directly before the first boss. Once you enter the fort, continue forward. You’ll see a door where you must remove a corruption level one. Directly behind this door is the first set of bones.

    Ahamkara Bones 2 location

    Image of the second Ahamkara Bones in Warlord’s Ruin

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Across from imprisonment, after ascending through the ceiling.

    After you escape the prison, continue forward until you jump through the ceiling into an orangely lit area. Walk forward, and the door blocked by corruption level one will be on your right. Remove the corruption and collect the second set of Ahamkara Bones.

    Ahamkara Bones 3 location

    Image of the third door in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    At the top of the summit, face back from the cliff and find shelter.

    After the second encounter, make your way until you reach the outside again and see this view. Continue to the left, and instead of jumping down to the left to make your way to the room with the large Taken orb, continue straight.

    A guardain walks through a snowy landscape in Destiny 2 Warlord’s Ruin dungeon.

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Climb up until you see a small hallway in the left wall of the mountain. The third corruption level one door will be in the small hallway, and behind that door will be the third set of Ahamkara Bones.

    Ahamkara Bones 4 location

    Image of opening

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    In the snowfallen maze, through the broken wall, seek the banner of Kings.

    After you break out of the prison, make your way through until you reach a hole in the wall that you must walk through to progress.

    Image of the left turn

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Make a right (where you’ll have to jump over a stacked spike trap), then a left. The corruption level two door will be directly in front of you.

    Image of the door to Ahamkara Bones in Destiny 2 Warlord’s Ruin dungeon.

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Remove the corruption and collect the fourth set of Ahamkara Bones.

    Ahamkara Bones 5 location

    Image of the path needed for 5th bone

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Cross into the Tempest, through the portcullis, at the sewer’s mouth.

    Before the second encounter, get to the doorway where you find the first secret chest.

    A guardian approaches a sewer in Destiny 2.

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Turn to the right and follow the snowy path until you reach a sewer entrance. Right through the sewer grate is the next corruption level two door. Remove the corruption and collect the fifth set of Ahamkara Bones.

    Ahamkara Bones 6 location

    Image of 6th bone area

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    At summits base, find shelter off the beaten path. Too far, and the Taken will descend upon you.

    After defeating the second boss, progress forward until you reach a group of enemies as you start to head outside. It’ll look like the area pictured above.

    Image of 6th bone area in Destiny 2 Warlord’s Ruin dungeon.

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    After you defeat the enemies, head into the cubby pictured above. There is where you’ll find the corruption level 2 door and the sixth set of Ahamkara Bones.

    Ahamkara Bones 7 location

    A guardian walks down a tunnel in Destiny 2 Warlord’s Ruin dungeon.

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Within the maze, stride panning a pitfall, light calls through the window.

    After the prison section, get to the point where you see a pile of barrels below the hole that you must jump up through.

    Image of hallway

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Jump up through the hole, exit the circle room, and take the left.

    Image of door as guardian walks toward in Destiny 2.

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Head down to the end of the hall and dispel the corruption level three door to collect the seventh set of Ahamkara Bones.

    Ahamkara Bones 8 location

    Image of 8th bone jump

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    The Taken roil at cave’s bottom sends you to scurry over boulders into a ruined alcove.

    Once you get to the room with the large Taken Blight, make your way through until you can look up and see the end. Below will be a platform that you’ll have to jump down to.

    Image of 8th bone door

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Once you jump down, dispel the corruption level three door and collect the eighth set of Ahamkara Bones.

    Ahamkara Bones 9 location

    Image of 9th bone area

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    Within a tunnel on the broken cliffs, brace the Taken storm.

    After the Taken Blight room, there will be a section where you’ll have to jump around a smaller Taken Blight. Make your way to the room highlighted in the image above. The final level three corruption door is in that hallway; dispel it and collect the ninth set of Ahamkara Bones.

    Ahamkara Bones 10 location

    Image of final set of bones

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    After defeating the final boss, this set of Ahamkara Bones is found directly beside the loot chest.

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    Jacob VanderVat

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  • Emerald Fennell explains why Saltburn’s ending had to be so… naked

    Emerald Fennell explains why Saltburn’s ending had to be so… naked

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    Saltburn has shaped up as one of 2023’s most divisive love-it-or-hate-it movies. Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to her 2020 writer-director debut, Promising Young Woman, is radically different from that movie in look and tone, but her talent for pushing boundaries and demanding a response is still front and center, and Saltburn is the kind of button-pusher that generally either thrills people or makes them angry. Critics have responded both ways: “Superficially smart and deeply stupid,” Mick LaSalle grumps in the San Francisco Chronicle, while Entertainment Weekly’s Maureen Lee Lenker calls it “a triumph of the cinema of excess, in all its orgiastic, unapologetic glory.”

    And one of the most divisive elements is the ending, which can be read equally as sly art or rank titillation, depending on how you feel about full-frontal male nudity. Polygon dug into it in an interview with Fennell shortly before the movie’s release.

    [Ed. note: End spoilers for Saltburn follow.]

    Image: Prime

    In the movie, hungry social climber Oliver (Barry Keoghan) gradually becomes close to his rich, popular Oxford classmate Felix Catton (Priscilla co-star Jacob Elordi), who brings Oliver to his immense family estate, Saltburn, and introduces him to his family. Felix’s elitist, removed parents, Sir James Catton (Richard E. Grant) and Elspeth Catton (Rosamund Pike), make a hollow show of welcoming Oliver. But Felix’s jaded sister, Venetia (Alison Oliver), clearly sees him as a new toy, and Felix’s vicious, jealous cousin Farleigh (Archie Madekwe) sees him as a rival and an unwelcome upstart.

    As it happens, Farleigh is right — Oliver is lying about virtually everything that brought him together with Felix. He invented a family tragedy to make himself a tragic and dramatic figure. A series of flashbacks shows how Oliver engineered their early relationship by pretending to be penniless when he had plenty of money, and by sabotaging Felix’s bike in order to “help” when it broke down.

    The later parts of their relationship are even darker: Felix appears to die in an unclear accident, and Venetia appears to kill herself out of grief. But further flashbacks show that Oliver murdered both of them, out of fear of being ejected from Saltburn, and resentment for the way they’ve both rejected him. It’s also clear that he sets Farleigh up to be disinherited, then poisons Elspeth after James dies, all in order to inherit Saltburn himself.

    And in the final scene, Keoghan dances through the estate, stark naked and triumphant, waggling his ass to Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s “Murder on the Dancefloor,” and presiding over a sad little row of memorial stones with the family members’ names on them, dredged up from the estate’s waterways to form a kind of ritual audience for his dance.

    “The movie always ended with Oliver walking naked through the house,” Fennell tells Polygon. “It’s an act of desecration. It’s also an act of territory, taking on ownership, but it’s solitary.”

    Oliver (Barry Keoghan) and Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), in tuxes, sit together on a small stone bridge over a pond with Venetia (Alison Oliver) standing nearby in Saltburn

    Photo: Chiabella James/Prime Video

    As viewers watch the scene, Fennell wants them to notice Oliver’s path through the house, which is a reversal of his entry to the house earlier in the film. When Felix introduces Oliver to Saltburn with a small tour, it’s an invitation to a place that doesn’t belong to him. And when he does his dance, he’s following that same path in reverse, this time boldly claiming the space instead of shyly tiptoeing into it.

    “The nudity is an act of ownership,” she says. “It wouldn’t be the same if he’s just walking through the house in his pajamas. It’s that he’s walking through his house. It’s his fucking house, and he can do whatever he wants to with it. And that’s what makes it thrilling and beautiful.”

    The original script had Oliver symbolically claiming the house by walking through it, but Fennell says something about the scene as she’d planned it didn’t sit well with her. “It just became apparent as we were filming it that the naked walk was not really going to have the feeling of triumph and joy, elation and post-coital success [I wanted]. It felt lonely and sort of empty. It speaks to Barry that when I said to him, ‘I don’t think it can be a walk, I think it needs to be a dance,’ — that’s the thing about Barry as a performer. He profoundly understood and completely agreed, and knew it had to be that way. There really wasn’t another way we could do it, given the film we’d just seen. To me, it feels like the ultimate sympathy for the devil.”

    Fennell has already talked about how Saltburn simultaneously has sympathy for everyone in the film, and for no one — there are no outright villains in the story, in her opinion, just people with understandably flawed ways of looking at the world. That perspective helped her sympathize with Oliver at the end, which she hopes the audience will do as well, even though he’s an unrepentant murderer.

    “We have to be on his side at the end,” she says. “It’s crucial that the more violent he is, the more cruel, the more he plays them at their own game, the more we love him, even though we loved them, too. We have to feel at the end, like, ‘Yeah, yeah, get it.’ The way Oliver gets it is the way the Cattons would have got it in the first place. How do people build these houses? How do they make these houses? They’re built by violent means and got by violent means. So that’s where it ends as well.”

    Saltburn is in theaters now.

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    Tasha Robinson

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  • The Aggressive Majesty of ‘May December’ and Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’

    The Aggressive Majesty of ‘May December’ and Beyoncé’s ‘Renaissance’

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    Netflix

    Sean and Amanda are joined by Wesley Morris to talk Todd Haynes’s new film and ‘Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé’

    ‌

    Sean and Amanda are joined by Wesley Morris to unpack their feelings about Todd Haynes’s May December. They discuss the complicated nature of the performances, hypothesize its potential for awards season, and much more (1:19). Later, they talk about their shared love for the newest concert film, Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, and highlight their appreciation for its impressive technical feats (55:13).

    Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins
    Guest: Wesley Morris
    Producers: Jack Sanders and Bobby Wagner

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / RSS

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    Sean Fennessey

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  • Candy Cane Lane, Netflix’s May December, and every new movie to watch this weekend

    Candy Cane Lane, Netflix’s May December, and every new movie to watch this weekend

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    Happy December, Polygon readers. Christmas movie season is here, and there are tons of new Christmas movies slated to come out over the next month.

    This week, there are four in that category: the critically acclaimed The Holdovers, Eddie Murphy’s Candy Cane Lane, Netflix’s Family Switch, and the horror movie It’s a Wonderful Knife. But that’s not all that’s new this week: Carol director Todd Haynes has a buzzy new movie out on Netflix, there’s a second movie with musical numbers named Leo dropping on Netflix in as many weeks, and big franchise reboots Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and The Exorcist: Believer make their streaming platform debuts.

    That’s only touching the surface — December is usually a busy time for new movies to watch at home, and this year is no different. Let’s dig into it.

    New on Netflix

    May December

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Photo: Francois Duhamel/Netflix

    Genre: Drama
    Run time: 1h 57m
    Director: Todd Haynes
    Cast: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton

    One of our great modern filmmakers is back with another thorny story — this about an actor (Natalie Portman) studying a woman (Julianne Moore) she is going to play in a film. The woman (based loosely on convicted sex offender Mary Kay Letourneau) is known for her scandalous relationship with her husband (Charles Melton), who she first met when he was a minor. Melton has already won multiple awards for his portrayal of the husband, and as it’s a Todd Haynes movie, you can expect a sumptuous, at times uncomfortable watch led by fantastic performances.

    Leo

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Vijay dances with hundreds of people in a warehouse in Leo

    Image: Seven Screen Studios

    Genre: Thriller
    Run time: 2h 39m
    Director: Lokesh Kanagaraj
    Cast: Vijay

    No, you are not seeing double. Yes, last week, Netflix premiered its “Adam Sandler as a talking lizard” animated musical Leo. This week, the Tamil box-office hit Leo, a remake of David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, lands on the platform.

    Both Leos on Netflix prominently feature musical numbers, but they couldn’t be more different movies. In this one, a coffee shop owner and family man (Vijay) dispatches a group of killers at his business, making him an overnight sensation. This raises the interest of a gangster, who believes the man is his long-lost son.

    Leo is the third movie in director Lokesh Kanagaraj’s LCU, after Kaithi and Vikram. There are a few repeat characters in this one, but neither of the previous movies are necessary to understand it (but they are both better, so I’d say they’re worth checking out).

    Family Switch

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    (L-R) Ed Helms as Bill, Brady Noon as Wyatt, Emma Myers as CC and Jennifer Garner as Jess in Family Switch.

    Photo: Elizabeth Morris/Netflix

    Genre: Sci-fi family comedy
    Run time: 1h 41m
    Director: McG
    Cast: Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers

    It’s Freaky Friday, squared! From McG (Charlie’s Angels), this spin on the body-swap trope adds a dash of Christmas to the formula and has all four members of the principal family swap bodies.

    American Symphony

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

    Jon Batiste performing on stage in American Symphony.

    Image: Netflix

    Genre: Documentary
    Run time: 1h 44m
    Director: Matthew Heineman
    Cast: Jon Batiste, Suleika Jaouad

    This documentary follows two artists in love facing a difficult situation: One, award-winning musician Jon Batiste, is writing a symphony, while his partner, bestselling author Suleika Jaouad, is being treated for cancer.

    New on Disney Plus

    Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Disney Plus

    Indiana Jones looks panicked as he drives a cart with Helena and Teddy in the backseat in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

    Image: Lucasfilm

    Genre: Action-adventure
    Run time: 2h 34m
    Director: James Mangold
    Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen

    Harrison Ford’s final outing as Indiana Jones sees the whip-wielding archaeologist adventurer embark on one last intrepid expedition with his estranged goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) as they race across the world in search of an ancient artifact before a Nazi rocket scientist (Mads Mikkelsen) gets his nefarious hands on it.

    From our review:

    Mangold is a very fine director capable of helming solid crowd-pleasers (Ford v Ferrari, Walk the Line) and even breathing new life into the dying X-Men franchise with Logan. But Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny looks anonymous. Its visual style is drab in a way that drains the film of any personality. When Indiana Jones makes his way through boobytrapped caves in torchlight in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the contrast between the outside world and this creepy tomb evokes a singular wonder. But virtually every scene in darkness here is scantily lit and hard to see. And like many a modern blockbuster, Dial of Destiny leans on rapid cuts that heighten the pace of Indiana’s brawls with the Nazis, but the choreography is barely discernible.

    New on Hulu

    A Compassionate Spy

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

    Stylized graphic of Theodore Alvin Hall nametag in “A Compassionate Spy.”

    Image: Magnolia Pictures

    Genre: Documentary
    Run time: 1h 41m
    Director: Steve James
    Cast: Tom Goodwin, Mickey O’Sullivan

    Legendary documentarian Steve James (Hoop Dreams) turns his camera toward the story of Theodore Hall, a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and gave information to the Soviets about the development of The Bomb. The documentary uses interview footage with Hall and his wife, as well as reenactments and archival footage.

    New on Prime Video

    Candy Cane Lane

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

    Eddie Murphy in a cheery Christmas sweater

    Image: Prime Video

    Genre: Christmas
    Run time: 1h 57m
    Director: Reginald Hudlin
    Cast: Eddie Murphy, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jillian Bell

    It’s a very Eddie Murphy Christmas on Prime Video. He’s a man determined to win a Christmas home decoration contest, and he makes a deal with an elf (Jillian Bell) that has unforeseen consequences on his town.

    New on Paramount Plus

    The Lesson

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

    Richard E. Grant sits at a dinner table and looks severe in The Lesson.

    Image: Bleecker Street

    Genre: Thriller
    Run time: 1h 43m
    Director: Alice Troughton
    Cast: Daryl McCormack, Richard E. Grant, Julie Delpy

    A young writer (Daryl McCormack) agrees to tutor the son of his idol (Richard E. Grant). But all is not as it seems, as dark secrets threaten to tangle the writer in this family’s web.

    Earth Mama

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

    A pregnant woman (Tia Nomore) sits on the floor with two young children as they read and play in Earth Mama.

    Image: A24

    Genre: Drama
    Run time: 1h 37m
    Director: Savanah Leaf
    Cast: Tia Nomore, Erika Alexander, Doechii

    A pregnant single mother in the Bay Area hopes to reclaim her two children from foster care in this moving drama from first-time feature director Savanah Leaf. It’s one of the best movies of the year.

    New on Peacock

    The Exorcist: Believer

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Peacock

    Two possessed, scarred and bruised children sit back to back on the floor and glare at the camera above them in The Exorcist: Believer

    Image: Universal Studios

    Genre: Horror
    Run time: 1h 51m
    Director: David Gordon Green
    Cast: Leslie Odom Jr., Ellen Burstyn, Ann Dowd

    After a short theatrical run, David Gordon Green’s new entry in the Exorcist franchise arrives at home. It’s a bizarre twist on the franchise, per our review:

    Up until this most recent movie, the title The Exorcist carried some weight. While its role as a representation of quality was up for debate, its mark as a sign of ambition was not. Since the original Exorcist, the series has provided some of American cinema’s best and most interesting artists with space to ruminate on faith and evil. Believer lacks the ambition that’s meant to define an Exorcist movie. This is the most profound statement the movie has to offer, seemingly by accident: If the result of moving past God is that everything in the world will feel as empty and pointless as The Exorcist: Believer, we should cling to faith forever.

    New on Shudder

    It’s a Wonderful Knife

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

    Jane Widdop smiles with twinkly lights in the background in It’s a Wonderful Knife

    Image: RLJE Films

    Genre: Horror
    Run time: 1h 27m
    Director: Tyler MacIntyre
    Cast: Jane Widdop, Justin Long, Joel McHale

    It’s a Wonderful Life meets the slasher genre in this Christmas movie about a girl who wishes she’d never been born, only to discover how many lives that would truly cost.

    New on Starz

    Joy Ride

    Where to watch: Available to stream on Starz

    (L-R) Stephanie Hsu, Sherry Cola, Ashley Park, and Sabrina Wu in Joyride.

    Image: Araquel/Lionsgate

    Genre: Comedy
    Run time: 1h 35m
    Director: Adele Lim
    Cast: Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu

    What if someone took the 2017 comedy Girls Trip and combined it with the soul-searching drama of Return to Seoul? You might get something like Joy Ride, the new comedy about a four Chinese American friends who bond through their shared adventure to track down their birth mothers.

    New on MGM Plus

    Bottoms

    Where to watch: Available to stream on MGM Plus

    A group of high school girls in Bottoms.

    Image: Orion Pictures

    Genre: Comedy
    Run time: 1h 31m
    Director: Emma Seligman
    Cast: Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Marshawn Lynch

    Teen girl comedies are back in a big way, and Bottoms is a standout of this year’s crop. A trio of comedic powerhouses star in this movie about high school girls who start a fight club to try and impress the popular girls at school they have crushes on. Chaos ensues.

    From our review:

    Bottoms is strongest when it fully indulges that satire. Part of the high school’s hype strategy for the big football game involves plastering the halls with heavily sexualized shirtless posters of the star quarterback. A classroom scene inexplicably involves one of the students standing in a cage. After a particularly climatic moment, a sad montage plays out, set to none other than Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated,” a needle drop so ridiculously 2000s that it transcends time and space.

    Marlowe

    Where to watch: Available to stream on MGM Plus

    A man (Liam Neeson) standing in a forested area in front of a dark sedan dress in a brown pinstripe suit, dark red tie, and a gray fedora.

    Image: Quim Vives/Briarcliff Entertainment

    Genre: Neo-noir crime thriller
    Run time: 1h 49m
    Director: Neil Jordan
    Cast: Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Jessica Lange

    Liam Neeson (Taken) plays Raymond Chandler’s iconic down-on-his-luck detective in a feature length adaptation of the 2014 Philip Marlowe novel The Black-Eyed Blonde by John Banville. Hired by a glamorous heiress (Diane Kruger) to ascertain the whereabouts of her ex-lover and bring them back, Marlowe quickly finds himself entrenched in an investigation that goes far deeper (and potentially far deadlier) than a lover’s quarrel.

    New to rent

    The Holdovers

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    Paul Giamatti gesturing towards a tree in a large room in The Holdovers.

    Image: Focus Features

    Genre: Comedy drama
    Run time: 2h 13m
    Director: Alexander Payne
    Cast: Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa

    A strong late awards-season contender, The Holdovers has been beloved by every single person I’ve seen watch it. It’s about three people left at a New England boarding school for Christmas in 1970 — an uptight teacher (Paul Giamatti), the school’s head cook (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), and a sulking student (Dominic Sessa).

    Freelance

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

    (L-R) John Cena, Juan Pablo Raba, and Alison Brie in Freelance.

    Image: Relativity Media

    Genre: Action comedy
    Run time: 1h 48m
    Director: Pierre Morel
    Cast: John Cena, Alison Brie, Juan Pablo Raba

    Taken director Pierre Morel moves to a more comedic mode here, in this movie about a former Special Forces officer (John Cena) and a journalist (Alison Brie) who travel to a fictional country together to interview the nation’s dictator.

    Five Nights at Freddy’s

    Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Peacock

    Five Nights at Freddy’s signature animatronics — Foxy, Chica, Freddy Fazbear, and Bonnie — lurk in the darkness in the movie spinoff

    Photo: Patti Perret/Universal Pictures

    Genre: Supernatural horror thriller
    Run time: 1h 50m
    Director: Emma Tammi
    Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio

    The massive hit video game series finally gets a horror movie adaptation, and Universal is going with the 2021 release model of simultaneous home and theatrical releases. Will it work for them? Only time will tell, but what it means for you is that you can watch a movie about the infamous, creepy pizza restaurant and its cursed animatronic animals either at home or in theaters.

    From our review:

    The movie’s funniest line is unintentional, when Mike earnestly explains, “I’m having a hard time just processing everything that’s happened,” as if he’s working through a tough breakup rather than a series of increasingly bizarre animatronic attacks. He’s right, though. For a movie with such a simple, appealing premise, Five Nights at Freddy’s is a lot to process.

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    Pete Volk

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  • Grand Theft Auto 6: All the news we’ve heard about Rockstar’s next game

    Grand Theft Auto 6: All the news we’ve heard about Rockstar’s next game

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    After more than a decade, Rockstar Games will finally deliver a sequel to Grand Theft Auto 5, the multi-generational open-world crime spree that has sold more than 190 million copies. In December, GTA fans will get their first official look at the next Grand Theft Auto in trailer form, Rockstar has confirmed.

    While Rockstar hasn’t given the next GTA game a proper name yet, it’s almost assuredly going to be titled Grand Theft Auto 6 (or Grand Theft Auto VI). And we know some details about GTA 6, after an unprecedented leak of the game in 2022. But thanks to Rockstar’s secrecy and the enormous task of following up one of the biggest games of all time, much about GTA 6 is still shrouded in mystery.

    Here’s everything we do know about Grand Theft Auto 6 so far.

    When does GTA 6 come out?

    Rockstar hasn’t announced a release date yet for GTA 6, but parent company Take-Two Interactive might have revealed a release window for the next Grand Theft Auto game. In August, Take-Two told investors the company plans to see a “significant inflection point” during its 2025 fiscal year, which has been interpreted by analysts to mean that GTA 6 will be released sometime between April 1, 2024 and March 31, 2025. Obviously, that’s a pretty big window, but it could point to a 2024 release for GTA 6.

    While GTA 6 may be targeting a 2024 launch, Rockstar is famous for delaying its biggest games in the name of polish. Its last major release, Red Dead Redemption 2, was publicly delayed three times. And back in 2013, Grand Theft Auto 5 saw a significant delay, slipping from its original spring release date to its ultimate September 2013 launch.

    In other words, even if Rockstar gives us a release date or window by the end of 2023, history tells us that nothing is set in stone.

    When does the GTA 6 trailer come out?

    Rockstar co-founder and president Sam Houser has only confirmed an “early December” release for the first GTA 6 trailer. It may or may not coincide with The Game Awards 2023, which streams live on Dec. 7. It’s more likely that Rockstar will release the trailer on its own schedule, without competing with a bunch of other game announcements.

    Where does GTA 6 take place?

    According to a massive leak of early gameplay videos and early reporting on the game, Grand Theft Auto 6 will be set in Vice City, the GTA version of Miami. That location was previously explored in 2002’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and that game’s 2006 prequel Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. Those entries were set during the mid-1980s, but GTA 6 will reportedly tell a modern-day, Bonnie and Clyde-inspired story featuring two leads named Jason and Lucia, based on early gameplay videos. Lucia would be the GTA series’ first female lead playable protagonist in a mainline game.

    Wait, what GTA 6 leak?

    In 2022, more than 90 videos of the in-development version of Grand Theft Auto 6 were published online at the message board GTAForums. The hacker responsible claimed to have accessed the videos — some 50 minutes in total footage — directly from Rockstar Games’ internal Slack.

    The videos show robberies, gunplay, open-world driving, a police chase, a crowded nightclub scene, and conversations with full voice acting. The game footage was clearly not intended to be shown publicly, with debug programming elements visible on-screen at the time.

    One of the longer videos showed the female player character robbing a diner, as well as threatening staff and customers, who react in fear to having a gun pulled on them. Then she and her male accomplice get in a shootout with police before jumping in the police patrol car and driving off. The game’s graphical treatment is quite realistic, but still consistent with GTA games’ style.

    How long has GTA 6 been in development?

    Reportedly since 2014, though Rockstar did not officially acknowledge the game’s existence until February 2022.

    What platforms will GTA 6 be released on?

    TBD, but PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X are a safe bet. Unlike previous Grand Theft Auto games, which saw staggered releases on consoles versus PC, it seems more likely than ever that Rockstar would release all versions of the game on the same day. But given Rockstar’s track record, the PC version could lag behind PlayStation and Xbox releases.

    There’s also another platform coming that could be home to Grand Theft Auto 6: Nintendo’s Switch successor. Rockstar has embraced the Switch with releases like L.A. Noire, Red Dead Redemption, and Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy — The Definitive Edition, so don’t rule out an eventual release of GTA 6 on Switch 2.

    How much will GTA 6 cost?

    Rockstar and publisher Take-Two haven’t announced a price point, but it seems likely that Grand Theft Auto 6 will carry a $69.99 price point, increasingly the standard for AAA video games with big budgets.

    Don’t worry about those unfounded rumors that GTA 6 will cost $150, or will be priced per hour, based on misinterpreted comments from Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick. There may be higher-priced premium or collector’s edition versions of GTA 6 that cost more than the industry-standard $69.99, but hold your horses (and your pre-orders) until Rockstar makes it official.

    What happens to Grand Theft Auto Online when GTA 6 comes out?

    Rockstar hasn’t said, but given the massive popularity of GTA Online, which is also sold as a stand-alone experience, it will likely continue. Rockstar may have more grand ambitions for an online mode for GTA 6, and it may run two versions of the online experience for each game. The future of GTA Online is one of the biggest open questions — not to mention Rockstar’s trickiest needle to thread — when it comes to discussing GTA 6. Rockstar may very well keep those plans under wraps for the foreseeable future.

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    Michael McWhertor

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  • Dragon’s Dogma 2 arrives March 2024, looks fantastic

    Dragon’s Dogma 2 arrives March 2024, looks fantastic

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    Dragon’s Dogma 2 will be released on March 22, 2024, reviving Capcom’s sword and sorcery action-RPG franchise after a decade-long break. Capcom revealed the release date and new gameplay details during a digital showcase on Tuesday.

    Hideaki Itsuno, director of Dragon’s Dogma 2, and Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, the game’s producer, showed off new features coming in the sequel. That includes a huge new addition to the bestiary, the Talos, a massive brass warrior who emerges from the sea. Developers showed varying approaches to taking the Talos down: by leaping onto it from a cliff’s edge, and fighting it while holding on for dear life, à la Shadow of the Colossus; riding birds toward the Talos to close the distance to it; and attacking it from afar using ranged weapons and spells.

    Capcom also showed off a new vocation, the Trickster. That Arisen-only character class can use a censer in battle to conjure illusions, causing enemies to fight each other, and to support a player’s pawns to make them more effective in battle. The Trickster, a “devious vocation,” can manipulate the battle from the sidelines rather than fight directly.

    The Trickster joins Dragon’s Dogma 2’s previously confirmed vocations: Fighter, Archer, Thief, Mage, Magick Archer, and Mystic Spearhand.





    • Image: Capcom






    • Image: Capcom






    • Image: Capcom


    Capcom also showed off its update character creator, which players can use to customize their Arisen and main Pawn. The developer is using new photogrammetry technology to increase the photorealism of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s player-created avatars, developers said.

    Finally, developers also teased a bit of the game’s story, which they said was set in a world parallel to that of the original Dragon’s Dogma. As an Arisen, players will find themselves caught between the beliefs and plots of two rival nations. Vermund, the human kingdom, is at the center of a power struggle for the throne, with a false Arisen installed by the queen regent Disa. In Battahl, the humanoid beasts there treat Pawns as a source of misfortune. But both nations view dragons as a threat to their survival.

    Dragon’s Dogma 2 is coming to PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The original Dragon’s Dogma was released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2012, followed by the expansion Dark Arisen the next year.

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    Michael McWhertor

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  • ‘I don’t want to revisit myself at 25’: The story behind Netflix’s bold Scott Pilgrim anime

    ‘I don’t want to revisit myself at 25’: The story behind Netflix’s bold Scott Pilgrim anime

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    By now most people know the secret behind Scott Pilgrim Takes Off: Scott Pilgrim — well, he takes off. He’s gone, for most of the narrative, leaving the players as we know them to pick up the pieces and figure out what happened to him. What happens to them in his absence is usually a total flip of what we’ve come to expect: Think Gideon introducing Lucas to the slowburn anime he’s been watching for a while (or maybe just a few days).

    Bryan Lee O’Malley, who wrote the original comic and co-created the Netflix anime reboot with BenDavid Grabinski, knows that sort of remake is something audiences have come to expect. “I mean, it’s in the air, right? We’re all seeing remakes and reboots of everything,” O’Malley says.

    When Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was in development he says he and the team looked at everything new in this vein they could, from The Matrix Resurrections to Spider-Man: No Way Home. But just as frequently he turned elsewhere for inspiration — Dragonball Z, Cowboy Bebop, Keep Your Hands off Eizouken!, or even Elden Ring. But none of these were quite the main catalyst, even something like Evangelion, which he calls “a good comparison, but not necessarily an influence.”

    The real reason O’Malley wanted to make this story was simply: It was the only way he could see revisiting the world of Scott Pilgrim.

    [Ed. note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.]

    Polygon: Starting off: I’m curious to hear a little bit about how you did justice by Matthew Patel, the lowest ranking evil ex.

    Image: Netflix

    Bryan Lee O’Malley: Our first spark of idea was to kind of take Scott Pilgrim out of the picture after the first episode. And that naturally led to the process of: Then what happens to Matthew? What does Matthew get? And then what do the other exes think about it? So yeah, it really appealed to me right away, and to be like, Oh, then Matthew should win, and Matthew should become the boss. Because we’re going through all these different reversals of fortune; so someone goes from the top to the bottom, and someone has to go from the bottom to the top. And yeah, giving Matthew kind of his flowers was so much fun.

    Were there any characters in particular — like Matthew, or just generally — that you felt most excited by like, OK, if we open up this world without Scott in it, what can you do?

    I was excited to take on kind of all the exes; that was one of the biggest appeals to me of revisiting Scott Pilgrim, was just — I felt like I gave them short shrift in the books a little bit. I was making it up as I went along, and I was locked into Scott’s perspective. And I was younger and didn’t really know that much about other people like that! I certainly didn’t know about movie stars, or rock stars, I didn’t really know the details of how they lived; I just saw them in magazines, or whatever or in movies.

    So now I’ve lived a little more, I’ve been in LA for a long time, and met lots of different types of people. And I think that just feeds back into kind of giving these characters a little more pathos, a little more depth and nuance — and pathos also in the sense of, like: pathetic; they’re also losers. And that was always really fun for me.

    One of the things BenDavid told me was you were approached to adapt this, and you were wrestling with, Well, I’ve changed since I did this story, what does that mean? And I’m curious what sort of things you were really thinking about as you’re getting approached for this series that so many people love and so many people cherish and it hits different for you now.

    Well, I mean that’s the initial fear. Netflix, and our producers, Jared [LeBoff] and Edgar Wright had approached me, we had talked about it a little bit — doing a series — and they were kind of keen on on doing it much more like the books initially. And for me that just made me kind of recoil. Like I don’t want to revisit myself at 25, necessarily. And it’s all there! It’s all on the page. So why would I want to relive that? Why would I want to perfect something that was so messy; it just seems like an impossible task.

    Because the messiness is such a part of it. It’s part of the joy of it, is it’s messy, it’s complicated. It’s irreducible. So when faced with writing X number of TV episodes, I just thought, how the fuck am I gonna do that? I just had no idea, so it was really not until that dinner with BenDavid that that we just kind of started spitballing — not professionally; just kind of joking around [wondering], What can we do with these characters? And then a lot of those jokes we were like, Oh, actually, that would work. So you know, the joke of “Scott dies at the end,” or “Matthew becomes the boss” — those all just became something that we can really work with.

    Ramona swinging a hammer, Scott nearby looking scared, while a fist punches the top of the hammer

    Image: Netflix

    At what point did it become clear to you that if we’re revisiting this, and we’re taking Scott out of it, and we’re giving everybody space to be a little bit more themselves, a little bit more nuanced — at what point did it kind of become: Oh, Scott might be the bad guy?

    Well, I mean, that’s definitely part of the initial discussion. That’s a perception. I don’t really see Scott as the bad guy. But these days — this is a terrible thing to say in an interview — the perception definitely on Twitter and stuff kind of turned over the last maybe five years where now it’s like, “He’s a bad character!” “It’s a toxic relationship!” and all this kind of chatter.

    And I think all that stuff is true. But I don’t think that people in the 2000s didn’t think it was true. Like, I think the younger generation is, like, We discovered that Scott is bad. But, you know, it says on the very first page he’s dating a high schooler; no one’s supposed to think that’s a good thing. I think in the 2000s, I took it for granted that people would be like, Oh, he’s terrible, but it’s funny. So now you kind of have to be a bit more explicit — it’s just the way our culture works, the way online works. Like, if you don’t outright condemn something, then the absence of condemnation is seen as a tacit approval.

    So yeah, it was never a tacit approval. It was a tacit condemnation. But definitely in the show in the modern era, yeah, we have a scene where [we show] Scott, it’s not a good thing to date a high schooler. So — throw them a bone?

    I’m curious how you interpolated but also synthesized a lot of those conversations that are happening around this property into this, since it feels like this show is so in conversation with those.

    I’ve absorbed all those things over the years; I didn’t disappear after Scott Pilgrim finished. So in a lot of ways, I kind of want it to feel like Scott Pilgrim is back from the dead. You thought it was gone, but it’s back. But not only is it back, like it never left, it’s also been paying attention to you. It’s grown up alongside you.

    Ramona standing with Stephen, Knives, Wallace, Young Neil, and Kim behind her, and Scott poking out of her bag

    Image: Netflix

    And we had to kind of cater to so many different audiences: someone like you, who read it a long time ago, and kind of has a memory of it, of what it felt like. But also someone who just read it last week for the first time, or someone who just discovered the movie, or somebody who hasn’t seen any of it. So it was just this really complex, but invigorating challenge of: how do we make this feel fresh, and also layered — and also hopefully staggering to some people who have thought about the book, but maybe not to this degree?

    Did you find yourself being surprised by your reaction to revisiting this and reframing it in any way? Were there any characters who you felt ring a little differently or sit a little differently with you?

    I don’t think I have a strong memory of how it hit back then. But it was really just a fun process, writing them and, and discovering these things and challenging ourselves to find new ways into everything.

    I got to write the great scene where Knives and Kim sit down and play music together. And it’s not something I could’ve done in the comic, a) because it’s music. And then just the logistical challenge of making that happen, and making it feel organic and real, was very satisfying. And then that final scene, like just made plays magically for me. It was cool to discover those things by virtue of the collaboration with all these different artists and stuff. And that was that was the big new thing. It’s just letting other people in and letting their they all have their own different kinds of love for the series. And that shows, I think.

    Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is now streaming on Netflix.

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    Zosha Millman

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  • Gelila Bekele and Telling Tyler Perry’s Story

    Gelila Bekele and Telling Tyler Perry’s Story

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    Bakari Sellers is joined by director Gelila Bekele to discuss her journey from modeling to filmmaking (1:10) and her new documentary chronicling the life of Tyler Perry, Maxine’s Baby (6:49).

    Host: Bakari Sellers
    Guest: Gelila Bekela
    Producer: Donnie Becham Jr.
    Executive Producer: Jarrod Loadholt

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts

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    Bakari Sellers

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  • Remember when Frozen helped solve the Dyaltov Pass incident?

    Remember when Frozen helped solve the Dyaltov Pass incident?

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    A decade later, Frozen is still a pretty incredible looking movie. Despite accusations of Disney Face and a slew of movies that have aped its art style, Disney’s landmark 2013 film remains a pretty astounding display of digital animation prowess. Among the many fantastic looking elements, perhaps the most impressive is the snow. But Frozen’s snow has done more than simply look pretty — the technology that Disney used to make it helped solve the decades-old mystery of Dyatlov Pass.

    For those who don’t know, the Dyatlov Pass incident is a hiking tragedy that happened in Russia’s Ural Mountains in 1959. A group of nine people were discovered dead a few weeks after pitching their tent in the snowy slopes. What was particularly haunting about the bodies, however, was the state in which they were found [Ed. note: This description is a little graphic]: Several seemed to have been dragged many feet from the campsite, while others were even further away. Some were discovered in various states of undress, injury, and disfigurement, missing eyeballs or tongue, and with cracked ribs and skulls. The bodies were also, bizarrely, lightly irradiated. In other words, it seemed like a graphic and grisly massacre, but no one could provide an explanation that exactly fit the facts.

    That mystery made space for decades of fantastical theories to crop up, including Yetis, aliens, wild animals, infrasound, the Soviet military, or (most boring and plausible) an avalanche. But for years, the avalanche theory was considered an insufficient explanation. In the initial investigation, and several subsequent ones, researchers found none of the typical evidence that might suggest an avalanche had been triggered. But in 2019, a group of physicists determined that an extremely small avalanche could technically be possible in that area.

    Image: Walt Disney Animation Studios

    The next question for researchers was whether or not an avalanche of that size could really cause the kinds of injuries the nine victims were found with — and that’s exactly where Frozen comes into play.

    When Johan Gaume, head of the Snow Avalanche Simulation Laboratory at EPFL, a Swiss federal technical institute, saw Frozen, he was immediately impressed with the way the snow in the movie moved. So impressed, in fact, that he met with Disney to talk about the animation technology they used to create it. Gaume then augmented the code slightly in order to create a more realistic model for how an avalanche of that size might look and behave, and more importantly how it might impact and injure a human body.

    Between the Frozen code, his own simulations, and some old crash-test data from General Motors, Gaume and his team determined that a small avalanche actually could be enough to create the kind of blunt-force trauma injuries suffered by the victims of Dyatlov’s tragedy. According to their research, an avalanche of that size, in those specific conditions could do things like break ribs or cause serious head injuries, or even enough soft tissue damage to result in death — unlike most avalanche victims, who tend to die of asphyxiation.

    Queen Elsa stands looking worried on the frozen balcony of her frozen palace, surrounded by frozen walls and frozen bannisters, in… what was that movie called again? Chilly, or something like that?

    Image: Walt Disney Animation Studios

    But while Gaume’s model does give some compelling support to the avalanche theory, it can’t quite account for all of Dyatlov’s Pass’ mysteries. For instance, why were the bodies irradiated (possibly due to thorium present in some camping lanterns, but unconfirmed) or what happened to the eyes and tongues of certain members of the group (possibly scavenged by animals, though there aren’t many other signs that point to that on the bodies). Another of the ongoing mysteries is why exactly the bodies were so far from the camp or why they were undressed — though various kinds of panic and hypothermia could potentially account for that.

    But at the end of the day, we’re still one step closer to figuring out the answers that have eluded researchers for years, and it’s all because of Frozen.

    Honestly, Disney should lean into it. Frozen 3 and Frozen 4 are on the way — what’s keeping the House of Mouse from realistically modeling radiation spread, katabatic winds, and possibly the alpine speed of a Yeti?

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    Austen Goslin

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  • Five things to know before watching Disney’s Wish

    Five things to know before watching Disney’s Wish

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    At Polygon, a lot of us are fans of sitting down to a movie with as little up-front information as possible, for the feeling of discovery. But sometimes, it helps to know a few things going in, whether it’s an interesting fact about the movie’s history, or just knowing how many end-credit scenes to wait for. Here are five things we think you should know about Walt Disney Animation Studios’ new animated feature Wish before watching.

    Does Wish have a post-credits scene?

    It does! It’s a brief, wordless sequence that doesn’t have any plot relevance, so you can decide for yourself whether it’s worth staying to watch. Like a lot of other elements in Wish, it’s mostly intended as a visual celebration of Disney’s 100-year anniversary. In the scene, a character with a lute plucks out a simple acoustic version of Disney’s signature ballad “When You Wish Upon a Star,” which segues into Disney’s updated CG animated anniversary logo. There isn’t a lot to it, except as another way the movie taps into Disney history. But if you’re sitting there at the end of the movie feeling the kind of nostalgia Disney intended you to feel, it might bring on the warm fuzzies.

    Why does Wish’s animation look different from other Disney movies?

    Wish is expressly intended as a salute to Disney history, which is why it’s packed full of visual references to past Disney movies. Part of that project had the directors, Chris Buck (Frozen) and Fawn Veerasunthorn (Raya and the Last Dragon story head), trying to digitally approximate Walt Disney Animation’s classic 2D hand-painted look. For this film, they used a digital approach previously tested on the experimental Disney short Paperman.

    You can read more about the animation development process and the software used to render it in our behind-the-scenes look at Wish’s animation.

    Where can I hear the songs from Wish?

    Image: Walt Disney Animation Studios

    Possibly anticipating piracy and deciding to just get all the video-play payout for themselves, Disney has released the Wish soundtrack in an official playlist on YouTube. There are quite a few songs, so if these were all actual clips from the movies, you’d be able to watch a significant chunk of Disney’s Wish free online. Instead, these are lyric videos. If you’re the kind of person who likes to listen to a musical’s songs ahead of time (we don’t understand you, but we know you’re out there), or you’re previewing the movie for younger viewers, or you come out of Wish with a particular song you want to revisit, that’s the easiest way to do it.

    As of press time, a few of the songs were also on Spotify on Disney’s channel, but the whole album hadn’t been uploaded yet.

    Who wrote the songs in Wish?

    Disney fans may notice that Wish’s songs don’t have that Broadway-number, singalong quality common to so many Disney musicals, and that they’re more like radio-ready modern pop. That’s because the lyrics were written by Grammy-nominated pop artist Julia Michaels, who’s previously written songs for Justin Bieber (“Sorry”), Ed Sheeran (“Dive”), Gwen Stefani (“Used To Love You”), and Britney Spears (“Slumber Party”), among others. The music is by Michaels and indie-rock producer Benjamin Rice. They gave Wish a much glossier pop sound than most Disney movies, somewhat akin to the radio remixes of Disney soundtrack songs that have been common since the Disney Renaissance.

    Why do some of Wish’s characters look so familiar?

    Oof. So you may wind up wondering why the protagonist, Asha (Ariana DeBose), has a squad of seven pals backing her up — characters who mostly don’t have a lot to do, but are almost always together throughout the movie. Those characters are an extended gag from Disney history: They’re modeled after the dwarfs from Disney’s first animated movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Not only are their outfits color-coded after the dwarfs, they each have characteristics specific to the Snow White characters.

    The “seven dwarfs” reference characters in Disney’s animated movie Wish — from left to right, Hal, Safi, Dahlia, Simon, Gabo, Bazeema, and Dario — stand in a crowd scene together, looking concerned

    Image: Walt Disney Animation Studios

    The seven dwarfs from Disney’s 1937 animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs all crowd onto a wooden balcony together

    Image: Walt Disney Animation Studios

    How to tell which Wish character is which dwarf? The fastest way is to check the first letters of their names. Dahlia (Jennifer Kumiyama), Asha’s best friend with the little round glasses and a tendency to lead the group, is Doc. The paranoid, constantly complaining Gabo (Harvey Guillén) is Grumpy. Smiley but not very assertive Hal (Niko Vargas) is Happy. Simon (Evan Peters), the big guy who’s dazed and half-conscious for much of the movie, is Sleepy. Safi (Ramy Youssef), whose only characteristic is that can’t stop sneezing, is Sneezy. Dario (Jon Rudnitsky), the big-eared guy whose job is saying clueless things, is Dopey. And Bazeema (Della Saba), the introvert who keeps disappearing early in the movie, is Bashful. None of this is spelled out in the movie, but once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

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    Tasha Robinson

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