Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases. This review comes from the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.

Everybody working in genre movies these days wants their own long-running franchise. The financial success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has brought in billions worldwide for Disney and Marvel Studios, has become a kind of holy grail for other film studios, which keep trying to design their own series of interconnected films, generally with limited success.

The latest arrival on the scene comes from an unexpected source: Indonesia, where the studio Bumilangit is openly out to create a “Bumilangit Cinematic Universe,” drawing on a library of more than a thousand comics characters to create an interconnected superhero world. The first installment in the intended series, Gundala, lays out the company’s intentions: it’s a crowd-pleasing action film, full of martial-arts battles and special effects, and it’s packed with bizarre storylines that run right up to the edge of comedy. As a kickoff, it’s a winning effort.

WHAT’S THE GENRE?

Superhero origin story. It takes nearly the full run of the film before the title character, lightning-powered martial-artist hero Gundala, is actually named. But that’s because the name is tied into a bigger history and a bigger narrative. Even by the end of the story, he isn’t fully aware of it. He’s just come into his powers, after all, in a world that seems to lack superheroes until he arrives.

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Young Indonesian slum-dweller Sancaka learns early in life that attempts at heroism get people killed and that it’s best to suppress his urges to help the helpless. His father, a union organizer, is murdered as part of a brutal crackdown on factory workers demanding fair wages. His mother disappears, apparently abandoning him. He winds up homeless on the streets of Jakarta where attempts to defend people weaker than himself nearly get him beaten to death. He learns martial arts and self-defense from another young street-dweller, but he also learns a few indelible moral lessons. His idealistic father had a saying: “If we see injustice and do nothing, then we’re no longer human.” But as Sancaka grows up, he embraces a new mantra: “Mind your own business.”

At the same time, it’s hard to avoid the violence in Jakarta where corruption reigns supreme, and the population mostly seems to consist of roaming bands of thugs armed with sticks. (As a prepubescent boy, Sancaka fights gangs of kids armed with sticks. In adulthood, mostly what changes is that the sticks get bigger, the antagonists get bigger, and the fights get more elaborate.) Most of the local politicians are under the sway of the ruthless mob boss Pengkor who brutally murders anyone who openly defies him.

But eventually, Sancaka lets himself get drawn into a community battle involving his pretty neighbor Wulan and her younger brother. That turns into a larger fight, inevitably involving bands of thugs who have to be dispatched with increasingly creative martial-arts techniques and Sancaka’s newfound lightning powers. From there, Sancaka runs up against Pengkor’s schemes, and the two men head toward a final face-off.

WHAT’S IT REALLY ABOUT?

Like so many would-be franchise-starters, it’s about putting pieces on the board. In a Q&A after a screening at TIFF, writer-director Joko Anwar said Gundala is the first film in a planned initial cycle of eight, which will be made through 2025. The eighth of those films, Patriots, is planned as an Avengers-style crossover, bringing the heroes together. He says Bumilangit Studios has the rights to more than 1,100 Indonesian comics characters who are going to be used to build a vast interconnected universe.

Gundala reveals those intentions in the usual franchise fashion: by overstuffing the story with setups that may not pay off for years. In one subplot that’s barely connected to the main story, one of Pengkor’s allies sets out to resurrect an ancient evil who’s familiar with Gundala and who references the “great war” that’s coming. A secret superheroine named Sri Asih pops up at a crucial moment, much like Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman. A number of loose ends toward the film’s close seem potentially designed to provide more heroes or villains. As Anwar explained during the Q&A, Gundala’s strength as a hero is in his charisma and his ability to unite people. His origin story is compelling, but he’s also being used as a rallying point to pull together a future band of heroes.

Photo courtesy of TIFF

IS IT GOOD?

It’s certainly stylish. At the Q&A, Anwar discussed how the film was shot across five cities and 70 locations over the course of 50 days — a shooting schedule so tight that, at times, he had to use motorbikes to zip from one set to another because he had to oversee multiple sets simultaneously. As a result, the many martial-arts battles were typically rehearsed once, then shot in one take, typically in about two hours per battle scene. The rush doesn’t show on-screen, though: the fight scenes are slick and intense, with an escalating sense of danger and a fair bit of variety. Anwar’s camera gives the combatants just enough distance to make it possible to follow the fights. There’s a minimum of camera trickery here, and a lot of startlingly adept, balletic physical action.

The cast is personable and relatable. Muzakki Ramdhan, the young boy who plays Sancaka in childhood, is particularly effective, both as an actor and as a budding martial artist. Abimana Aryasatya, who plays him in adulthood, is alternately soulful and hard, and he proves equally adept with physical action and the few forays into Stephen Chow-style martial-arts comedy — particularly as Sancaka’s friends start testing his superpowers, mostly by hurting him to see whether he shrugs off blows to the head or heals rapidly afterward. The film could use a little more of that style of humor. It’s mostly unrelentingly grim, with a clear message about the desperate situation of struggling honest workers in Jakarta. It keeps the stakes high, but it’s still a surprise and a relief whenever the film cracks a wry smile for a second.

For American audiences trained on Marvel movies, the biggest stumbling point with Gundala will inevitably be the pacing. There’s a lot of focus on essentially unimportant side characters here, and a fair bit of various groups quietly musing at length about authority, morality, corruption, and responsibility. There is an astonishing number of odd subplots, too, ranging from a secret society of assassin orphans to a serum that selectively destroys fetal brain tissue, ensuring that affected infants will be born with no moral center. There’s a murderous violinist, a Javanese sorcerer, a severed head preserved in a block of glass, and a defiant hotshot legislator who wants to fight back against Pengkor. All this business may sound hilarious and bizarre, and it is, but it does inevitably draw the focus away from Sancaka’s story, which sometimes seems secondary next to the political chicanery and the bigger picture of the franchise’s intentions.

WHAT SHOULD IT BE RATED?

There’s an awful lot of violence against children in this movie and a fair bit of death, but it’s not particularly gory or intense. It’s primarily a martial-arts action-adventure. PG-13 will do it fine.

HOW CAN I ACTUALLY WATCH IT?

Gundala had its Indonesian premiere in August. The producers are currently seeking international release deals.

J.J. Abrams and his production company Bad Robot Productions have signed a deal with AT&T-owned WarnerMedia, the company announced today. The deal is reportedly worth $250 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The partnership means that Bad Robot will produce original series and films for WarnerMedia and its various divisions, including HBO and Warner Bros. Pictures. It also marks the first time that Bad Robot’s video games and digital divisions will also operate under one roof.

It’s unclear if the deal limits Abrams to only directing and producing films and series for WarnerMedia properties, but his ongoing projects at Paramount Pictures (Bad Robot’s former feature home) and his Star Wars work are still continuing. Bad Robot will still be able to sell projects to third-party suppliers, the deal stipulates, but it’s likely these will be series or films that WarnerMedia passes on. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in the current Star Wars trilogy, is due out on December 20th.

While Abrams being a part of the WarnerMedia family means that people might see more directorial projects from him at Warner Bros., it’s also a big win on the streaming front. WarnerMedia is gearing up to launch its streaming competitor to Netflix and Hulu, called HBO Max. It’s reportedly going to rely heavily on prestige series from HBO (Abrams’ Bad Robot is currently one of the production companies behind Westworld), licensed series like Friends, and a slate of new originals.

Having Bad Robot and Abrams attached to new shows and streaming-exclusive films is critical to securing new subscribers and staying competitive as the streaming wars heat up. The Abrams deal is similar to Netflix signing overall deals with creators like Game of Thrones’ David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy, and Grey’s Anatomy’s Shonda Rhimes. Amazon, too, has signed expensive deals with showrunners, including Westworld’s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.

Both Abrams and Bad Robot have been among the most sought after names in Hollywood. Abrams was reportedly courting deals from Amazon, Apple, and Netflix alongside WarnerMedia just a few months ago, according to THR. Rumors suggested Abrams’ deal with WarnerMedia was going to come with a $500 million price tag attached. Although the new reported deal is about 50 percent less, it’s unclear if Abrams will secure additional revenue through his upcoming producing, writing, and directorial deals.

“[WarnerMedia CEO] John Stankey has a powerful vision for the future of WarnerMedia and is committed to storytelling that connects people around the world,” Abrams said in a press release. “We are excited and gratified to be a part of this new chapter under his and [Warner Bros. Pictures CEO] Ann Sarnoff’s thoughtful leadership.”

WarnerMedia and Bad Robot have been in business together to some degree since 2006, when Bad Robot first inked an overall TV deal with Warner Bros. The deal was renewed in 2012 and 2015. This new deal runs through 2024, at which point the race to secure Abrams may just pick up again.

One of the most successful teams in Dota 2 is moving into a new field: team ownership. Today, e-sports organization Team Liquid announced that its championship-winning Dota 2 squad will be leaving the organization to form their own.

“After four years under the Team Liquid organization, our Dota team has decided to pursue this new dream: to build a team of their own,” wrote Liquid founder Victor “Nazgul” Goossens. “While it fills me with great sadness to part ways with the best Dota roster we ever could have dreamed of, I am proud of the unforgettable years we have spent together, which include innumerable championships, records, and memories.”

Liquid’s Dota division was formed in 2012, but the core of the current squad began taking shape in 2015 and is most notable for winning the 2017 edition of Dota 2 championship The International, pulling in more than $10 million in prize money. It followed that up with a fourth place performance in 2018 and finished as runner-up in this year’s edition of the tournament, which featured the largest prize pool in e-sports history.

“We are about to start our own project,” team captain Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi explained in a video posted on Team Liquid’s site. “It comes with a lot of uncertainty, but we are very ambitious people and it’s been one of my passions that I’ve had to set aside.” He added that “we will give you guys updates as soon as possible.”

While it may be surprising news, given the success of the team, particularly financially, it makes sense that the Dota 2 squad would want a greater degree of ownership over their careers. The news comes at a time when e-sports organizations are increasingly becoming large, multifaceted business.

As for Team Liquid, Goossens says that the organization plans to remain in Dota 2, though there are no concrete roster announcements yet. “We are here to stay,” he wrote. “It is hard to predict the future and it is by no means a given that we find the right fit immediately when we look for a roster, but I can definitely say that we love this game and want to be a part of it.”

Analogue’s console clones are fascinating pieces of tech. They’re modern spins on classic retro consoles that let you play your favorite original SNES or Sega Genesis games on a modern HDMI television. But what about players who want to experience those games the way they were originally meant to be played, be that on a classic CRT television or PVM display? Well, for those players, Analogue is introducing a new DAC (digital-to-analog converter), simply called the Analogue DAC, which promises the highest level of analog audio and video in a simple plug-and-play setup.

Setting up the DAC is simple: just plug the HDMI output for your Analogue console into the DAC and then hook up your analog input of choice. The DAC offers an HD-15 VGA-style port for video output and two RCA stereo audio ports for audio output, but Analogue says that the DAC will support RGB, Component, S-Video, and Composite (assuming you’ve got the right analog adapter). There’s also a USB-A port for passing power through to the Analogue console you’re using, so you don’t have to take up a second outlet just for the DAC.

Analogue says that it’s engineered the entire DAC in house to convert the digital output into an analog signal, promising “reference quality analog outputs” that are better than any other system or setup on the market. And while serious retro gamers may appreciate the accuracy of playing games on the original TV hardware, there are some practical benefits, too: you can finally use Analogue’s modern consoles to play games that specifically relied on CRT TVs to work, like light guns.

The market for the DAC will likely be a niche one. It only works with Analogue’s two most recent consoles, the SNES-cloning Super NT and the Sega Genesis-alike Mega Sg, although the company promises that future consoles will support it, too. You’ll also need to actually own an older TV or monitor to really benefit from it, and you must be willing to shell out the $79.99 to actually use it. Plus, there’s the fact that one of the biggest draws of Analogue’s consoles is playing old games on modern TVs, not paying extra to play them on older ones.

But if you’re a true retro gaming connoisseur and you have already bought into Analogue’s hardware, the DAC looks like the best way to get that proper old-school experience.

EA has announced that it’ll be launching a closed technical trial for its upcoming Project Atlas cloud streaming service tonight at 10PM PT / 1AM ET, allowing anyone with an EA Origin account to sign up and potentially gain access to a test of EA’s in-progress cloud gaming service. The trial will start tonight and run for two weeks.

Players selected for the trial will be able to play four games: FIFA 19, Titanfall 2, Need for Speed Rivals, and Unravel. According to a Medium post published this afternoon announcing the trial from Ken Moss, EA’s chief technology officer, the company is looking to see how games perform in real-world scenarios, particularly in regard to things like latency and jitter.

Per Moss, “EA is working on leveraging AWS and the public cloud” to make sure servers are as close to players as possible, which should help with those issues. The mix of games is also intentional, letting EA test different genres, graphical demands, and multiplayer lag across a variety of different titles.

Additionally, Moss points out the streaming technology here will eventually allow for EA games to be played on a wide range of devices, including “smart TVs, OTT streaming devices, PC or Mac laptops, tablets, and smartphones,” although the company hasn’t said what platforms the trial will run on. EA is planning to test cross-platform play, though — players in the cloud gaming trial will be able to play and interact with players on the regular PC versions of these games. Testers will also be able to sync game progress from the cloud trial to the retail PC versions once the trial ends.

There are still no details as to when EA might actually launch a Project Atlas-based cloud gaming service as a product, or any real details of what games would be available or how access to the platform would be priced. But while EA’s trial is both an early step and limited in scope, it does put the company ahead of competitions like Google’s Stadia and Microsoft’s xCloud by offering regular customers the chance to try out the service for themselves in a real-world scenario.

Google did so with its Project Stream test last year, which it used to gather feedback for what would become Stadia. But so far, neither Google nor Microsoft’s cloud gaming platforms have been available to the public outside trade shows. Google is scheduled to officially launch Stadia some time in November.

Presumably, we won’t have long to wait to find out more about how well EA’s service works, though, given that the test should be live for at least a few lucky players later tonight.

Update September 9th, 8:20PM ET: Clarified that EA is positioning the trial as a technical test, and not an official beta of a commercial product.

Spotify is adding the ability to share whatever it is you’re listening to with a snap on Snapchat — long after other platforms like Instagram already got this same type of integration. So long as Snapchat is installed on the same device you’re using Spotify on, you’ll now see it appear in Spotify’s share menu.

When chosen, Snapchat will automatically create a snap that includes song info and album art for the currently playing track. This can then be sent to your individual Snapchat friends or to your story. You can share individual songs, albums, playlists, or podcasts.

If you receive a Spotify share on Snapchat, you can just swipe up to start listening to whatever song was just sent your way. Direct sharing, which has become hugely popular on Instagram, was late in coming to Facebook Stories as well; the feature launched just last month. Snapchat sharing is rolling out “soon” for Spotify on Android and iPhone.

Aside from clearly not being a top priority for Spotify, Snapchat will also soon face new competition beyond Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook is working on a new app called Threads that’s focused on sharing with close friends instead of a wider audience of online followers.

For almost 25 years, Sony has made PlayStation controllers with an X as the main button. But according to a tweet from the Playstation UK account, that button should not, in fact, be called the X button. Apparently, it is actually supposed to be referred to as the “cross” button.

This bothers me. The button has an X printed on it. I feel like that should end the debate right there.

And the X — sorry, cross — button and I already have something of a troubled history, so it won’t be easy for me to call my enemy by a different name. Approximately 50 percent of my Final Fantasy VII playthroughs consist of me cursing the *pauses, takes a deep breath* cross button *exhales* because it backs me out of menus instead of allowing me to select something. (The button I should press for that is the circle, which, thankfully, Sony isn’t telling me to call the “ring” or something.)

Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks “cross” is wrong. In a Twitter poll run by the main PlayStation Twitter account, 81 percent of respondents said it should be called the “X” button. “Cross” got third place in the poll behind “+ rotated 45 degrees.”

The main PlayStation account has not weighed in with an official opinion, only posting the poll. Since the ruling came from PlayStation UK, saying “cross” might just be a UK thing, like calling chips “crisps.”

Given that 1) I don’t live in the UK, and 2) “cross” got a lower number of votes in the Twitter poll than a joke answer, I will continue cursing the button using its proper name: the X button.

More people are streaming music through services like Apple Music and Spotify, and the record industry is seeing a major lift.

Revenue made from streaming services in the United States grew by 26 percent in the first six months of the year, according to trade group Recording Industry Association of America, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. That makes for a revenue of $4.3 billion, according to research conducted by the group, which represents approximately 80 percent of the music industry’s overall revenue.

Although this included both paid subscriptions and ad-supported streams, the report also found that paid subscriptions grew by 31 percent, accounting for 62 percent of the industry’s total revenue. Spotify has more than 100 million subscribers, and Apple Music boasts 56 million paid subscribers. The record industry in the US saw an 18 percent increase in revenue — hitting $5.4 billion — in the first six months of 2019.

It’s not just streaming that’s helping the industry see a boost, though: physical media sales also jumped. Both vinyl and CDs saw increases in sales, growing 5 and 13 percent, respectively. CD sales made up roughly $485 million of the industry’s revenue over the first six months of the year, and vinyl sales brought in an additional $224 million.

Even with the notable increases in physical media purchases, it’s clear that streaming is a dominant force for the industry in the United States. More artists have embraced streaming platforms, too. Taylor Swift, Drake, and Ariana Grande are some of the top performers on services like Spotify, according to the study. Even Tool recently made their music available on streaming platforms for the first time. Still, artists are only paid a fraction of every stream.

Apex Legends developer Respawn included a rather unique request in an invite to its upcoming season 3 preview for the battle royale game: skilled players only. It wasn’t a strict requirement, of course. More of a polite “will you consider this.”

“Competition will be high and we ask that you send your best Champion of the Arena to battle it out with players who’ve climbed up ranked mode over the last six months,” reads the invite from Respawn’s public relations team.

That can mean a few things. For one, it could mean that the entire event, or least most of it, will be focused on the competitive aspects of season 3, and increasingly high-octane competition is Apex Legends’ selling point and what’s keeping its diehard players sticking around. The game is perhaps the best balanced battle royale title on the market, and I’ve found its ranked mode, while excruciatingly difficult at times, much more fair than the modes offered by other games like Overwatch.

Secondly, there’s a good chance there are going to be streamers, gaming celebrities, and other types of high-skilled players at the event, all competing in the same lobbies. That was true of the Apex launch event I attended back at the beginning of the year, although I can’t recall a distinct moment when I was killed by a streamer. (I almost definitely was.) So it would make sense for Respawn to warn outlets against sending people who don’t play the game regularly or who have never dabbled in its more competitive offerings. There’s not a lot of fun to be had for a reporter who’s getting stomped by Shroud while a crowd of developers looks on.

Lastly, it’s become a bit of a meme these days that game journalists can sometimes be bad at games. Whether its hordes of online detectives digging into the difficulty choice of an Astral Chain reviewer, or a toxic dustup over the ethics of cheating at a game as difficult as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, it’s fair to say there’s a lot of ill will toward game writers who can’t prove they’re True Hardcore Gamers. Those are just recent examples, too; there’s a long history of gaming fans waging war against publications that dare to write negatively about a game, with demands that a writer prove their bona fides before speaking up.

That said, Respawn would appear to be more in the right here than those participating in past incidents. Apex Legends is definitively a competitive game that requires you take it seriously. When you don’t, you’re not only depriving yourself of the experience the developers intended, but you’re also making it harder for your teammates to have a good time.

The game relies strictly on three-person squads — outside the limited-time event last month, there are no solo or duo playlists. Approaching the game with a competitive mindset is almost required to have fun at this point, especially considering the player base is composed mostly of likeminded individuals who want to win at all costs.

Thankfully, the request is a nice one. “Send your best Champion of the Arena” is a lot better than “don’t send someone who sucks.” We’re definitely taking note.

Apple has released a trailer for its upcoming Apple TV Plus original series Dickinson. It’s a half-hour anachronistic comedy show starring Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit, Pitch Perfect 2 and 3) as the eponymous poet Emily Dickinson.

Per Apple’s capsule description, “Dickinson audaciously explores the constraints of society, gender, and family from the perspective of rebellious young poet Emily Dickinson.” The show was created by Alena Smith, who previously worked on The Affair and The Newsroom.

The brief trailer gives a very different perspective on Dickinson, who was traditionally portrayed as a shy recluse, until scholars began questioning that image of her and exploring how it came from a revisionist, agenda-driven archivist. Instead, Dickinson will be showing off the poet “getting turnt” in a far more modern fashion, depicting Emily as a rebellious free spirit who disappoints her parents and apparently… joins a circus?

This trailer doesn’t emphasize the comedy. But based on the music (“I Like Tuh” by Carnage feat. iLoveMakonnen) and the style of the trailer (a rock n roll lute-playing, devil-horn finger poses, and dubstep dance scenes), Smith is apparently adding some anachronistic modernizations in the spirit of recent historical dramadies like TNT’s Will or Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite.

Dickinson is the fourth Apple TV Plus show the company has showcased with a full trailer, joining For All Mankind, The Morning Show, and the animated Snoopy in Space. There’s still no word on how much Apple TV Plus will cost or when these shows will be available to stream.

The world of Borderlands has invaded Fortnite’s island. The latest update for the battle royale game features a new crossover event with the upcoming shooter Borderlands 3. That includes expected additions, like a Psycho skin and Claptrap backpack you can purchase, along with free rewards like weapon wraps and sprays.

More interesting, though, is an entirely new area that’s popped up near Paradise Palms that’s based on Pandora, the strange planet where the Borderlands series takes place. The area appears as a rift zone — a new kind of temporary space introduced in season X — and it looks an awful lot like Borderlands, complete with cel-shaded visuals for Fortnite characters. If you stay in the zone long enough without taking any damage, you’ll start generating a shield.

Fortnite has become a popular home for film crossover events, including blockbusters like Avengers: Endgame and John Wick: Chapter 3. But this marks the first major collaboration with another video game. (Unless you count the brief life of the Infinity Blade.) Outside of the crossover event, Fortnite is also getting a fairly large update; the most notable addition is the new Shield Bubble item. You can check out the full patch notes right here.

The Borderlands 3 event will last until September 10th, just a few days before the game’s September 13th launch date.

You can now skip the Netflix intros that you only watch at the start of a season with your Chromecast. This feature has been available on desktop and mobile devices for a while, but it’s only now debuting for Chromecast users, as pointed out by a tipster at Android Police.

Currently, the skip button works by appearing within the controller interface on the phone app. That makes sense because the Chromecast doesn’t add any new input functionality to the screen it’s attached to, unless paired to a Google Home.

For some reason, you can only use this feature — which is still rolling out — with a Chromecast that’s connected to an Android device. An iOS version of the “skip intro” feature will certainly be added at some point.

Welcome to Cheat Sheet, our brief breakdown-style reviews of festival films, VR previews, and other special event releases. This review comes from the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. It has been revised to reflect the film’s release on Netflix on May 18th, 2018.

It’s difficult to find funding, distribution, or even an audience for short films these days. Anyone can shoot a short and put it up online, and the competition from amateurs and free content is brisk enough to make any professional think twice about making a short for any reason except inspiration or fun. But for first-time filmmakers proving their talents, a well-received short film can open some doors and make funding for a feature easier to find. It worked for Neill Blomkamp, whose debut District 9 started as a short called Alive In Joburg. It worked for Damien Chazelle, who initially made Whiplash as a short proof-of-concept film, complete with J.K. Simmons playing the role that would win him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the feature-length version of the story. More recently, it worked for the directors of Prospect, which started out as a short film and recently became a terrific full-length that was recently picked up for release after a celebrated festival run.

But the downside to turning a well-received short into a feature is that if the short has enough pass-around value to go viral online, viewers who eventually see the feature-length version may compare the two unfavorably. That’s a problem for Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling’s new Netflix movie Cargo, a zombie feature that expands on their hit 2013 short of the same name. The short version is memorable, effective, and tremendously efficient, telling an emotional little horror story in just over seven minutes, credits included. The 105-minute feature version eventually arrives at a similar conclusion, but the extra material doesn’t necessarily add that much to the story. For people who’ve seen the short, the long version can feel like it’s just marking time, stretching out the narrative until it’s time for the familiar punch. (So be warned, the short is linked above, but watching it will basically spoil the full-length movie.)

What’s the genre?

Zombie survival horror. The film has a few new twists on the genre — among other things, it doesn’t feel particularly political, or like a commentary on humanity. Inevitably, it has a character who’s more of a monster than the zombies are, but that isn’t specifically the point of the story.

What’s it about?

Andy (Martin Freeman) and Kay (Susie Porter) are a couple navigating a zombie outbreak in the Australian interior. As the film opens, they’ve clearly been through some trauma, but they’ve commandeered a houseboat where they’re keeping their infant daughter Rosie safe. They don’t agree about where to go next — Andy wants to stick to the river and head for a military base, Kay points out that they’re out of supplies and need to head overland to restock — but everything about their relationship suggests quiet devotion and dedication. Then a series of incidents leaves Andy traveling alone overland with Rosie strapped to his back, trying to dodge infected attackers and find a safe haven in spite of a ticking clock.

Meanwhile, a young Aboriginal woman named Thoomi (Simone Landers) is in the opposite position, trying to protect her infected father, who she can mostly control by feeding him wildlife, keeping him gagged, and keeping a close watch on him. But her community is actively hunting and eliminating the zombies, so she’s isolated herself from them. In the early going of Cargo, the story periodically finds her for short blinks, tracking what she’s up to. Then she and Andy start crossing each other’s paths, and changing each other’s story.

What’s it really about?

Human connection. In this story, the connections are mostly familial, touching on the responsibility inherent in marriage, or between children and parents. But somewhat inevitably for a zombie story, Cargo becomes a movie about found family, and how it can be poisonous or crucial, depending on the people involved and their willingness to harm or help each other to further their own goals.

Courtesy of Netflix

Is it good?

At this point, there have been so many zombie stories that one of the primary markers of quality in any new canon entry is whether it has anything new to say, or finds any new spins on the genre. Ramke, who scripted both the short and the feature, has a few fresh ideas. For one, she doesn’t give her zombies a name — Andy and Kay don’t even refer to the walking-dead issue, they just talk practical strategies, which feels like something parents might do out of instinct, and also feels a lot more natural than trading exposition or theories about the undead. For another, Ramke’s zombies seek dark places to hibernate, which often includes literally burying their heads in the dirt to shut out the light. For a third, the stages of this particular outbreak include producing an immense amount of resinous, amber-colored goop from the eyes and mouth, which saves a lot of rotting-face makeup effects, while still producing a startling and distinctive look.

But these are largely cosmetic effects. (In the case of the face-goop, literally so.) And a great deal of Cargo is extremely familiar, with characters dodging the shambling undead, dealing with bites and the progression of the disease, and watching other people with a wary mixture of need and distrust. A more significant difference, though, is how much time Cargo spends with people who are calmly contemplating their own suicide, and sometimes carrying it out. In Ramke’s world, the Australian government is still active enough to bombard the outback with infection kits, which include wrist restraints, a bite guard, a map of known infected areas, a simple watch with a 48-hour countdown (from first bite to full-blown monsterism)… and a simple, effective suicide device. Given how many zombie stories are basically elaborate wish-fulfillment video games about blowing away targets, hoarding supplies, and finding a safe spot, Cargo’s quiet acknowledgement that suicide might be a kind option for the infected feels revelatory and even dangerous.

And the film gets plenty of pathos out of Andy’s relationship with Rosie, a generally sweet and tractable kid who’s too young to understand any of what’s going on, but not too young to respond warmly to displays of affection. (Four different babies played Rosie, so it’s impossible for a casual viewer to know which one’s in a given scene, but Ramke and Howling capture a couple of moments between Andy and Rosie that are downright magical, all the more so because the audience knows they’re spontaneous and undirected. Much as John Krasinski’s horror hit A Quiet Place draws on the profound vulnerability of a newborn in a monster-filled world, Cargo makes it constantly clear that Rosie’s life hangs on Andy’s choices, in a situation where those choices are vanishingly few.

Freeman isn’t the most emotionally expressive actor out there. He has a certain range, and projects from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to The Office to Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy to Black Panther have made use of his notable talent for playing brittle, fussy, endlessly put-upon characters. But while he’s solid at expressing shock and concern, he tends to bring across most other emotions with a taut, distant smile or mild frown that expresses a layer of resignation above everything else he might be feeling. That approach mostly works well here, as he plays a man who’s tamped down all his emotional responses as he tries to project confidence and cheeriness for his family.

But occasionally, it doesn’t seem like enough. Cargo’s biggest flaw is that it feels too even-keeled and mild to give viewers the proper sense of alarm or desperation. And to some degree, that feels like an artifact of it coming out of a short film that covered the most necessary bases of the story. The directors spend long stretches of Cargo on characters tramping around the outback, surveying their surroundings, or otherwise standing still. Andy meets characters who don’t add much to the story, or he spends too much time engaged with crucial characters who don’t express much nuance. The pacing is meant to be quiet and thoughtful, but that means it sometimes drags. It’s easy to feel that the directors are going for a sort of elegiac Australian end-of-the-world story like On The Beach, or a poetic outback story like Walkabout, but the tone doesn’t provide the sense of urgency the story is meant to have.

And Thoomi and her side story do add to the narrative, but not everything they add is positive. She seems to live in a parallel world that has nothing to do with Andy’s understanding of reality, and the mild sense of magical realism her people bring to the story sometimes feels a bit suspect, like yet another case of treating native tribes as mystics and noble savages. The presence of 40-year Australian film stalwart David Gulpilil as the “clever man” of Thoomi’s tribe is a grounding element, but he’s not really allowed to be a character, so much as he is a symbol. Thoomi and Andy become important to each other, but neither really understands or connects with the other in any but the shallowest ways, and the way she feels like a plot device more than an integral part of the story is a significant flaw. That’s the problem with turning a strong short into an entire feature — not every element is going to seem necessary to the new version, since it wasn’t necessary for the old one. Possibly everyone is better off just picking one version or the other to watch, and sticking with that.

What should it be rated?

There’s certainly blood and gore, but it’s fairly brief and toned-down for a zombie movie. PG-13 at worst.

How can I actually watch it?

Cargo is now live on Netflix.

I’ve played a lot of Star Wars games, but none have made me feel like a Jedi Knight quite like Beat Saber, a VR rhythm game from developer Hyperbolic Magnetism that launched on Steam and the Oculus Store a few weeks back. At its core, Beat Saber is a classic rhythm game, similar to Guitar Hero or Thumper, where colorful blocks fly down the screen toward you, synced to the beat of the song. But instead of mashing buttons on a plastic guitar or navigating with a controller, Beat Saber has you smash them out of the air with two glowing blades that look suspiciously like lightsabers.

And it is a blast.

Mechanically, Beat Saber is a joy to play for anyone who’s ever imagined picking up a lightsaber and heading off to battle, with the blades sparking and sizzling in front of you. The blocks don’t just vanish when you hit them — they fly apart in a shower of sparks and bounce around the level, complete with just the slightest touch haptic feedback to let you know you hit it. You earn more points by making more precise cuts, and there’s the usual combo system that adds multipliers for hitting consecutive streaks of blocks correctly. And as an added wrinkle, you have to physically dodge giant, glowing walls in order to continue playing, forcing you to duck and dip throughout your VR space.

It’s the way that the elements of Beat Saber come together that makes the game so great. Somehow, the music and the beat combine with the slicing of the blades to make you feel like you’re really a Jedi warrior. Sure, you may not be facing down Darth Vader, but the constant flurry and shifting strikes that Beat Saber demands turns what could be hapless flailing around into what feels like the skillful swordplay of a fencing master. It’s a lot like how nailing a good Guitar Hero solo had the ability to make you feel like a god of rock, and it’s much more convincing than the actual VR Star Wars game out there.

There are three modes in Beat Saber right now. Arcade has you swiping down blocks with both the red and blue blades, with specific directions that you’ll need to slice in. There’s also an easier mode that just lets you swing away with reckless abandon without needing to concern yourself with what angle you’re approaching the blocks from. And there’s a single blade mode, which hews closest to the actual swordplay of Star Wars. Each mode has its strengths, with the no-arrows and single-blade mode serving as good warmups to prepare for the more demanding arcade mode.

As an early access game, there’s still clearly more work to do — there are only a handful of tracks right now (although fans have already taken to creating their own with more recognizable tunes), and Hyperbolic Magnetism has already said that they’d like to add a single player challenge mode and an official level editor down the road, too.

But even as it stands, Beat Saber is a fantastically fun time for anyone who’s ever dreamt of taking up a lightsaber.

Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian is quick, charming, and — according to Solo co-writer Jonathan Kasdan — pansexual. In an interview with HuffPost, Kasdan said there’s a “fluidity” to both Glover and Billy Dee Williams’ portrayals of the beloved character. “I mean, I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie,” Kasdan says. “I think it’s time, certainly, for that, and I love the fluidity ― sort of the spectrum of sexuality that Donald appeals to and that droids are a part of.”

While GLAAD defines pansexuality as attraction “to all gender identities, or [attraction] to people regardless of gender,” in this case, Kasdan is applying it over-generously. The film’s trailers have prompted discussion over Lando’s flirty banter with Han, and even a potential attraction between Lando and his droid co-pilot L3-37 (Phoebe Waller-Bridge). But this act of retroactively making characters queer off-screen — which we’ll call the Rowling Rule — panders to audiences without actually offering real change. It’s a tiresome pattern in which fans are teased (the popular term here is “queerbaiting”) rather than rewarded with concrete representation.

Kasdan is hardly the first to do this. Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling has a habit of declaring extra tidbits about her characters that can’t be explicitly found anywhere in her novels, like Dumbledore being gay. (Despite both he and his supposed love interest Gellert Grindelwald getting extra screentime in the Fantastic Beasts series, filmmakers so far have chosen to skip this important plot point.) Thor: Ragnarok cut a scene that would have confirmed Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie as bisexual. The canonically queer Wonder Woman got a male love interest in her latest on-screen blowout starring Gal Gadot.

Even within the Star Wars universe, Amilyn Holdo, portrayed by Laura Dern, is written as queer in the novels rather than in film. The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams has promised to include inclusivity in his Star Wars films. Fans will have to wait until Episode IX to see if he makes good on his promise, however, or else be left to dreaming up Finn and Poe ships on their own.

The assertion that Lando is pansexual — because he seems to be interested in a female droid — is a piss-poor shot at representation that still manages to reinforce hetero relationships as default. And Kasdan’s assertion that Lando “doesn’t make any hard and fast rules. I think it’s fun” falls into a long, damaging tradition of conflating pansexuality with promiscuity. Embracing sexual attraction to whomever catches your interest isn’t about being a rule-breaker. Portraying it as such is lazy shorthand for “wild and free” thinking.

Kasdan’s eagerness to represent the LGBT community is a lovely thought, but it’s just that: a thought. Real representation means crafting considered, nuanced characters whose sexuality is treated as respectfully on-screen as it is off. If creators want to do right by LGBT fans, they can start by picking them up off of the cutting-room floor.

Hulu is launching a refresh of its mobile app over the next week. The update will give subscribers finer control over the way the streaming service presents recommendations and suggested shows. Users will be able to tell Hulu to stop suggesting content they have zero interest in watching. “You’ll be able to tell us when our recommendations in your Home experience don’t hit the mark,” Richard Irving, Hulu’s VP of product, said in a blog post. “By selecting this action, you’ll remove the series, movie or sports league from being recommended to you again.”

If you want to go a step further, now you’ll be able to remove items from your viewing history, too. When that happens, Hulu’s recommendation engine will essentially forget that you — or “someone using your profile” — ever watched the show or movie in question. Netflix already has this feature (which I somehow never realized), so it’s nice to see Hulu implementing it. You’ll be able to remove shows when they show up in “keep watching” in the Home tab, or directly from your Watch History section.

Hulu’s also adding a portrait player, so you don’t always have to watch the service in landscape. The app now supports HDMI output for iOS devices and offers an “enhanced” Chromecast experience.

There are also several improvements for Hulu’s live TV customers. On its mobile apps, Hulu is introducing a new icon in the main navigation bar that immediately takes you to live TV on the last channel you had on. The straightforward, more traditional programming guide that’s already available on Hulu’s TV apps is now coming to smartphones as well. The company also says it’s rolling out the revamped desktop web experience to all live TV subscribers next week; the rest of Hulu’s subscribers will get it over the summer.

When the original Deadpool arrived in theaters, it was a breath of fresh air. Comics fans may have already been familiar with the smart-assed “merc with a mouth,” but in the context of modern superhero movies, both the character and the self-referential style of the 2016 film were a subversive delight. Deadpool's creators clearly knew how silly superhero movies had become, recognized that audiences also knew it, and mixed it all up into an R-rated romp that brought in more than $780 million worldwide, while costing just a fraction of the price tag on an average DC or Marvel tentpole.

But studios and filmmakers learned the lessons of Deadpool quickly, with James Mangold’s Logan embracing the visceral intensity an R-rating can allow, and Marvel practically lampooning itself with Taika Waititi’s hilarious Thor: Ragnarok. We now live in a post-Deadpool world, and with the element of surprise no longer part of its arsenal, the inevitable Deadpool 2 has to go about the more traditional business of crafting a sequel that delivers on fan expectations, while also giving them just enough of a fresh twist that the entire thing doesn’t feel completely cynical. The result isn't as novel as the original, or as effortlessly kinetic, but it is nevertheless a joke-packed action film that continues to deliver on the character's potential, while opening up the door to an even bigger series of sarcastic superhero adventures.

Warning: mild spoilers for Deadpool 2 below.

Even though the film is about a character who's all swagger and almost no smarts, Deadpool 2 heads in an unexpected direction early on: it makes Deadpool — also known as Wade Wilson — doubt himself. After a personal setback, Wade (Ryan Reynolds) begins to question the point of the superhero business, and it's only after Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) bring him in as an X-Men trainee that he begins to come around. Deadpool is Deadpool, however, and his arrogant bravado is able to turn even the simplest mission into a complete and utter disaster. Soon, Wade is rendered powerless and thrown into prison alongside a young pyrokinetic mutant named Russell (Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s Julian Dennison). With his healing abilities gone, Wade would prefer to wallow in his angst and simply fade away, but when a time-traveling cybernetic soldier named Cable (a grim Josh Brolin) arrives from the future with murder on his mind, Wade is drawn into donning the Deadpool mask once again. This time, however, he decides to recruit some allies to fight alongside him in his own superhero group: X-Force.

Some members of X-Force have already been highlighted in the film’s trailers, but those quick two-minute clips don’t reveal that the X-Force shenanigans make up some of the film's strongest moments. (Atlanta’s Zazie Beetz, as Domino, is particularly memorable.) Where the original movie was able to upend all expectations about what a superhero film should be, Deadpool 2 upends expectations about superhero team-ups. And coming off the heels of Avengers: Infinity War, the satire couldn’t be more perfectly timed. It’s no spoiler to say that the X-Force sequences are hilarious, unexpected, and utterly outrageous at times, displaying a freewheeling willingness to cross every line imaginable, in ways that provoke as many cringes as laughs.

The meta jokes the first film delighted in are all there and accounted for — Deadpool calls out DC movies, The Goonies, Batman, and Ryan Reynolds’ own less-stunning career performances, among countless others. But they don’t pack quite the same punch this time around. They’re expected at this point, table stakes for the Deadpool character, and many of them have already been spoiled in the movie’s many trailers. Instead, Deadpool 2 feels most confident when it gleefully does the exact opposite of what the audience expects — or, in many cases, what the audience wants — while snarking and smirking the entire way.

Photo: Twentieth Century Fox

It’s a mission statement that the film delivers early, in a James Bond-esque credit sequence that literally incorporates the imagined reactions of an outraged audience into the visuals themselves. It plays almost as a dare for the audience to play along, and whenever the film is able to zig when the audience expects a zag, it simmers with palpable energy. What detracts from the proceedings is that sometimes Deadpool 2 does exactly what viewers should expect, resulting in a movie that feels decidedly uneven at times. One moment the character, and the film, are actively surprising the audience, squeezing out laughs at a rapid clip. Other times, it’s like watching yet another Deadpool commercial or TV spot, with his bro-humor schtick growing less interesting with every passing quip. Deadpool, it seems, is hilarious in doses, and the constant marketing barrage has the side effect of making the actual film feel a little less special.

But Ryan Reynolds certainly delivers in the title role. Deadpool continues to feel like the character Reynolds was destined to take on, and he’s able to deftly combine a self-effacing sense of humor with his now-familiar nasal delivery to create as character that’s nearly impossible not to like, no matter what horrible things he says or does (and there are a lot of those). Reynolds is even able to generate real audience sympathy for Wade in some surprisingly touching moments. Josh Brolin as Cable pulls off a similar trick; he’s a menacing half-cyborg most of the time, but by the end he’s actually summoned some vulnerability as well. That trick of combining ironic humor with a touch of authentic human emotion was key to the first film, and the same holds true in Deadpool 2. Rounding out the lead trio in the film is Beetz’ Domino, who is able to give Deadpool a run for his money from nearly the moment she shows up on screen — and it likely won’t be long before audiences start clamoring for a Domino spin-off film.

Photo by Joe Lederer / Twentieth Century Fox

It does feel like something is missing from the overall mix, however, and that’s likely due to the difference in visual style between the two films. In the original, first-time feature director Tim Miller was an action dynamo, his whirling dervish of a camera creating action sequences filled with so many absurd stops, starts, and operatic slow-motion moments that they seemed to be mocking modern action filmmaking itself. The approach felt intrinsically tied to the Deadpool character; if the performances and script were a knowing wink and nod, why shouldn’t the directing be as well? Deadpool 2’s David Leitch, on the other hand, has already developed his own kinetic style of action directing, in movies like Atomic Blonde and John Wick. His approach gives the action scenes and fight choreography in Deadpool 2 an undeniable sense of energy and fun, but for the most part the movie plays things straightforward. As a result, Deadpool 2 never feels quite as giddy as Miller’s film.

As far as complaints go, that isn’t a deal breaker — particularly not when Deadpool 2 does so many things right. After its uneven second act, the film barrels towards the finish line with nary a missed note (save for a standard-issue throw-down between two CG characters; despite Deadpool cracking wise about it, a tedious CG fight is still a tedious CG fight). To top it all off, the film ends with some truly fantastic post-credits scenes that play with the format and arguably surpass the credits scenes of most recent Marvel films.

That’s the big takeaway from Deadpool 2: this little-franchise-that-could is able to do some things better than even the mighty Marvel Studios can. And despite the periodic weaknesses, it’s nearly impossible to walk out of this film without wanting to see where Ryan Reynolds is going to take this character next. Deadpool proved that audiences were hungry for a superhero as self-aware as they are; Deadpool 2 proves that character can actually ground an ensemble. With filmmaker Drew Goddard (The Martian, Cabin in the Woods) tackling an X-Force movie next, there’s going to be an entirely new playground for Deadpool’s snarky schtick and silliness — and it’s likely going to be there for many years to come.

Deadpool 2 opens on May 18th.

The slow, steady march of Monster Hunter continues with news that a live-action film based on the Capcom game series is in the works. According to Variety, the film will go into production in September, and it’s being helmed by director Paul W. S. Anderson and will star Milla Jovovich — both of whom worked on the long-running Resident Evil movie series, which is also based on a game from Capcom. The new movie will reportedly feature a $60 million budget and is being filmed in South Africa.

The news continues a busy year for Monster Hunter. In January, Capcom released the ambitious Monster Hunter World with the intention of taking the series’ incredible popularity in Japan and turning it into a global phenomenon. And it’s been a success: the game sold close to 8 million copies, making it the best-selling Monster Hunter to date. Meanwhile last week, the developer revealed plans to bring the series to the Nintendo Switch with the English-language debut of Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, which comes out in August.

There’s no word yet on when the movie is expected to hit theaters, but according to the report, it’s being envisioned as a series, and not just a single film.

NBC’s talent show The Voice is partnering with trivia app HQ for a special game on Monday, May 14th at 11:30 PM ET, 8:30PM PT. Players will have a chance to win $50,000 and a trip to the TV show’s season finale on May 21st in Las Vegas.

HQ’s trivia host Scott Rogowsky will make an appearance on Monday night’s episode of the talent show, (which airs at 8:00PM ET) NBC says that the episode will contain hints for that night’s trivia game. Monday night’s HQ game will likewise contain some cross-promotion: Voice coaches Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton will join Rogowsky later that night.

The trivia app has hosted special games before — In March, it partnered with Warner Bros. with a Ready Player One game, and last month, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson hosted a special game with a $300,000 prize.

Since the app debuted last year, it’s become incredibly popular, hitting 1 million concurrent players during a game in January. HQ is an innovative product: it’s a TV show, mobile game, and ad platform, all rolled into one app, and these cross-platform partnerships help demonstrate its advertising potential, with branded games tailored to the personalities or properties that it partners with.

Eurovision has pulled out of China, ending its contract with the local Chinese channel that airs the show, after that broadcaster censored an Irish music video that featured an LGBTQ love story.

The European Broadcasting Union, which puts together Eurovision and licenses out broadcasts, said in a statement to The New York Times that censoring an LGBTQ love story was “not in line with the EBU’s values of universality and inclusivity and our proud tradition of celebrating diversity through music.”

The Chinese broadcaster, Mango TV, censored the video for Ryan O’Shaughnessy’s “Together,” which features two male dancers holding hands. It also did not show Albania’s “Mall” performance because of the performers’ tattoos, according to state-run media outlet the Global Times. (Tattoos are also banned from appearing on TV in China.) An image of the LGBTQ rainbow flag during Switzerland’s performance was also blurred out during Wednesday’s semi-final show.

The move comes just as the Eurovision finale is about to air from Lisbon on Saturday. Fans of the show in China, where it’s moderately enjoyed for its pageantry and spectacles, will have to miss the grand finale.

Homosexuality isn’t illegal in China, but it is still strongly stigmatized. Although an independent broadcaster did the censoring in this case, that decision was likely passed down from the government, which has released strict guidelines on what content is acceptable to show. Last summer, a government-affiliated group called China Netcasting Services Association began requiring two auditors for each piece of audiovisual content online to check if sites were adhering to “core socialist values,” which included a rejection of homosexual content. Last month, the Beijing International Film Festival dropped Oscar-winning film Call Me By Your Name, which is about a gay summer romance that takes place in Italy in the 1980s.

China’s version of Twitter, Sina Weibo, banned all content containing homosexuality from its platform in April. But after a weekend full of online protests, Weibo has reversed its decision, clarifying that it’s not targeting gay content anymore.