Unwinnable

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A screenshot from the trailer for Alien Romulus, featuring a dimly lit space hallway and three human shadows staring pensively into a dark entryway

I Can’t Lie to You About Your Chances, but You Have My Sympathies: Alien: Romulus (2024) and the Plague of Legacy Sequels

By Orrin Grey • December 12th, 2024

Those who are familiar with my film opinions will know that I don’t have a high regard for legacy sequels – to put it mildly.

Current Issue

Exploits Feature

A Garfield Christmas

By Sara Clemens • December 2nd, 2024

A Garfield Christmas had an honored place on my 1980’s VHS compilation of Christmas specials. Why? One word: Grandma.

Here's the Thing

Key art from Farming Simulator 17 shows a large tractor sitting in a freshly mowed field.

Fighting Depression With Farming Simulator

By Rob Rich • December 13th, 2024

It wasn’t until recently that Rob figured out why Farming Simulator became his go-to game during a particularly rough mental patch.

Forms in Light

A beautifully symmetrical photo taken from the inside of a machiya looking out onto a verdant green garden.

Change and Resistance

By Justin Reeve • December 12th, 2024

Nothing stays the same for long, regardless of how much resistance there may be along the way, whether in terms or tradition or basic beliefs.

A screenshot from Nickelodeon Barnyard where we see three farm animals on top of a barn, a cow pulling a chicken back in a gian slingshot and a... weasel? I think? helping?

Where are the Games for Children?

By Joshua M. Henson • December 11th, 2024

There is no greater void in the current market than games intended for children.

Noah's Beat Box

A close-up photo of three insulin syringes.

Fear and Loathing in Whitechapel

By Noah Springer • December 11th, 2024

I was somewhere deep in Whitechapel, south of Shoreditch, sitting in the ER for the fourth hour in a row, when the drugs began to take hold.

Casting Deep Meteo

Totally Generic

A screencap from The Lord of Rings: The Rings of Power shows Numenor in the slanted sunlight of golden hour, featuring a monumental stone elf carved from a cliff face.

11 Alternative Shows I Thought of While Watching Rings of Power

By Natasha Ochshorn • December 6th, 2024

I spend a lot of my time watching the show imagining what I would do differently.

A screenshot from the trailer for Down by Law in black and white featuring Tom Waits driving a car, looking in the rear view mirror anxiously

Tom Waits, Movie Star

By Joel Blackledge • December 5th, 2024

Waits himself cheerfully admits that his whole persona is an act.

Rookie of the Year

Three baked good-themed stuffed animals from the Cookeez Makery smile empty-eyed into the distance.

Easy-Bake Coven

By Matt Marrone • December 5th, 2024

These stuffed-pancakes and stuffed-cakes are soft, pillowy demons designed to replace – with an ostensibly innocuous twinkle – not only all baked goods . . . but all of us.

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