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Welcome to Oscar night! The 96th Annual Academy Awards has arrived to honor the very best of 2023 cinema, ranging from animated wonders like Nimona and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse to live-action hits like Poor Things, The Holdovers, and Oppenheimer, the last of which boasts a whopping 13 nominations.

Who won big on Hollywood's biggest night? Poor Things took home four awards. Barbie won for Best Song, and Oppenheimer scored seven awards, among them Best Picture. Shockingly, the critically heralded Martin Scorsese drama Killers of the Flower Moon walked away empty-handed.

See all the winners for the 96th Annual Academy Awards, and check out our Oscar coverage for more, including highlights like John Mulaney's goofing on Field of Dreams and Ryan Gosling performing "I'm Just Ken."

Best Picture: WINNER — Oppenheimer

Other nominees:

American Fiction

Anatomy of a Fall

Barbie

The Holdovers

Killers of the Flower Moon

Maestro

Past Lives

Poor Things

The Zone of Interest

Best Director: WINNER — Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

Other nominees:

Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall

Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon

Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things

Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest

Best Lead Actor: WINNER — Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer

Other nominees:

Bradley Cooper, Maestro

Colman Domingo, Rustin

Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers

Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

Best Lead Actress: WINNER — Emma Stone, Poor Things

Other nominees:

Annette Bening, Nyad

Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall

Carey Mulligan, Maestro

Best Supporting Actress: WINNER — Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Other nominees:

Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer

Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple

America Ferrera, Barbie

Jodie Foster, Nyad

Best Supporting Actor: WINNER — Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer

Other nominees:

Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction

Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon

Ryan Gosling, Barbie

Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things

Best Adapted Screenplay: WINNER – American Fiction, Cord Jefferson

Other nominees:

Barbie, Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig

Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan

Poor Things, Tony McNamara

The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer

Best Original Screenplay: WINNER — Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari

Other nominees:

The Holdovers, David Hemingson

Maestro, Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer

May December, Samy Burch (Story by Samy Burch & Alex Mechanik)

Past Lives, Celine Song

Best Cinematography: WINNER — Oppenheimer, Hoyte van Hoytema

Other nominees:

El Conde, Edward Lachman

Killers of the Flower Moon, Rodrigo Prieto

Maestro, Matthew Libatique

Poor Things, Robbie Ryan

Best Live Action Short Film: WINNER — "The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar"

Other nominees:

"The After"

"Invincible"

"Knight of Fortune"

"Red, White and Blue"

SEE ALSO: 'The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar' review: Short film is Wes Anderson at his most creative Best Animated Feature Film: WINNER — The Boy and the Heron

Other nominees:

Elemental

Nimona

Robot Dreams

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

SEE ALSO: 'The Boy and The Heron' review: Hayao Miyazaki delivers a gorgeous and haunting new adventure

Best Animated Short Film: WINNER — "War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko"

Other nominees:

"Letter to a Pig"

"Ninety-Five Senses"

"Our Uniform"

"Pachyderme"

Best Costume Design: WINNER — Poor Things, Holly Waddington

Other nominees:

Barbie, Jacqueline Durran

Killers of the Flower Moon, Jacqueline West

Napoleon, Janty Yates and David Crossman

Oppenheimer, Ellen Mirojnick

SEE ALSO: How the 'Poor Things' design team created the film's surreal world Best Original Score: WINNER — Oppenheimer, Ludwig Göransson

Other nominees:

American Fiction, Laura Karpman

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, John Williams

Killers of the Flower Moon, Robbie Robertson

Poor Things, Jerskin Fendrix

Best Sound: WINNER — The Zone of Interest

Other nominees:

The Creator 

Maestro

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Oppenheimer

Best Original Song: WINNER — "What Was I Made For?," Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell, Barbie

Other nominees:

"The Fire Inside," Flamin' Hot

"I'm Just Ken," Barbie

"It Never Went Away," American Symphony

"Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)," Killers of the Flower Moon

SEE ALSO: Billie Eilish just dropped the ultimate Barbie angst tune with 'What Was I Made For?'

Best Documentary Feature: WINNER — 20 Days in Mariupol

Other nominees:

Bobi Wine: The People's President

The Eternal Memory

Four Daughters

To Kill a Tiger

Best Documentary Short Subject: WINNER — "The Last Repair Shop"

Other nominees:

"The ABCs of Book Banning"

"The Barber of Little Rock"

"Island in Between"

"Nai Nai & Wài Pó"

Best Film Editing: WINNER — Oppenheimer, Jennifer Lame

Other nominees:

Anatomy of a Fall, Laurent Sénéchal

The Holdovers, Kevin Tent

Killers of the Flower Moon, Thelma Schoonmaker

Poor Things, Yorgos Mavropsaridis

Best International Feature Film: WINNER — The Zone of Interest

Other nominees:

Io Capitano

Perfect Days

Society of the Snow

The Teachers' Lounge

SEE ALSO: 'The Zone of Interest' review: A chilling portrait of complicity Best Makeup and Hairstyling: WINNER — Poor Things

Other nominees:

Golda

Maestro

Oppenheimer

Society of the Snow

Best Production Design: WINNER — Poor Things

Other nominees:

Barbie

Killers of the Flower Moon

Napoleon

Oppenheimer

Best Visual Effects: WINNER — Godzilla Minus One

Other nominees:

The Creator

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Napoleon

No surprise here, but one of the biggest animated movies of all time is getting a sequel.

The only sort of interesting part is that the news was confirmed by Nintendo themselves. The company's official account on X (formerly Twitter) posted a personal message purportedly from Super Mario Bros. creator Shigeru Miyamoto confirming that a second animated Mario movie would come to theaters worldwide in April of...2026.

These things take time!

SEE ALSO: Nintendo Switch 2 release date delayed? The new rumored launch window Tweet may have been deleted

That's all there is to report about this, for now.

A follow-up tweet clarified that Nintendo would be working more closely with Illumination, the studio behind 2023's smash hit Super Mario Bros. movie, this time around, but it's tough to tell what that means at this point. It's safe to say it probably won't resemble the live-action movie from the early 1990s, though.

Nintendo shared this news because it's technically "Mario Day." As in, "March 10" when abbreviated kind of looks like "Mario." Get it? Given how much money last year's animated romp made, the only real surprise here is that the sequel isn't coming out sooner.

Do you ever feel hopelessly stuck? Like no matter what you do, you keep ending up in the same shitty place? That's the conundrum facing the heroine of Desert Road. After crashing her car in a remote desert, no matter what Clare Devoir (Kristine Froseth) does, she ends up back where she started. The pieces don’t fit together. Time is wimey. Sometimes the few folks she comes across seem to know her, even fear her.

A unique thriller that plays with time outside of a typical Groundhog's Day looping structure, Desert Road is an indie gem that you absolutely must seek out.  

SEE ALSO: 14 of the best time travel movies you can watch right now Desert Road offers an uncommon horror movie heroine.

Forget the sheepish babysitters or the brazen hussies of slasher films. Forget the meta-heroines, so familiar with genre movies that they can practically predict what should happen next, be it zombies, vampires, or Back to the Future-esque antics. What makes Desert Road's heroine remarkable is all the ways she isn't playing into the tired stereotypes; she's neither a clueless victim nor a terrorized damsel. 

Clare doesn't have some cryptic backstory that will play into the plot. She's not especially skilled at anything in particular — at least not if you ask her. She dreams of being a photographer, but when anyone calls her that she blushes. Photographers get paid for their work, but she takes pictures she won't let anyone see. 

Perhaps she is her own worst critic, her own worst enemy, a self-saboteur. But when it comes to being in a pinch, she's self-reliant. When her tire is destroyed, she capably changes it. At a nearby gas station, she's quick to suss out a scam from its sketchy clerk (Max Mattern). But even being clever and capable, she doesn't know what to do when she can't escape this eponymous desert road. Over and over again, she walks from point A to point B to point C and winds up at A again. How is it possible? What does it mean? Is she dead? Is she doomed? Is there any way out?

Desert Road is a lean, mind-bending thriller.

There is a sophisticated slipperiness to the storytelling here. Writer/director Shannon Triplett rejects the rules and the clichés of so many sci-fi tales that have come before. By the time the pieces start to add up, It’s hard to do anything but marvel with a dropped jaw.

Part of the horror here is that the scenario begins in such a mundane way. It’s easy to imagine yourself in a similar position, but the solutions are much harder to imagine. Thankfully, Clare is our grit-toothed guide, spitting out enough frustrated monologues to herself and pointed dialogues at others that we are able to follow with her as she maps out this tricky terrain. Froseth shoulders this journey with gumption and a captivating charisma that is edged with righteous fury. She's afire, and it's a thrill to watch her burn — or scorch others. 

Desert Road is spiked with terrific supporting players.

With a cast studded by some familiar faces but few big stars, there's an enthralling authenticity to the story, even in its inexplicable plot twists. Mattern, who plays the aforementioned convenience store clerk, exudes a fidgety energy that is both familiar and suspicious. It could be that he can’t be trusted. It could be that he's socially awkward. And within that ambiguity, it becomes hard to decide if Clare is paranoid or onto something as she badgers him. 

Elsewhere, a security guard here (D.B. Woodside in a steely mode) and a cryptic nomad there (Frances Fisher, giving crone mystique) makes the desert around her come alive in unexpected ways. But the most moving moment happens when she comes across an old man driving alone at night, played by Beau Bridges. His name is teased in the credits, but I'd been too entranced by the movie unfolding before me to note it — until I heard the familiar, soft drawl offering our heroine (and us) some roadside wisdom. The nature of this character is a spoiler, so instead of giving it away, I’ll just say that Bridges becomes a calming voice at the eye of storm. After building tension with this fantastic story, Bridges is an oasis in Desert Road.

Movies like this are why we go to film festivals. Sure, there are flashier headliners playing at SXSW 2024. But there's a distinctive pleasure in the feeling of discovery when watching a movie as imaginative, original, and ruthlessly riveting as Desert Road. It is a film resolute in its storytelling; it's evocative rather than explanatory. Its savvy casting and rejection of time-travel tropes makes for a movie with a dizzy spontaneity, so it's impossible to predict what'll come next. That's a rare enough treasure in movies nowadays, but even moreso in a time-travel tale post Groundhog’s Day, to which all others are inevitably compared. 

Simply put, Desert Road follows a path all its own, driving audiences along a journey that is twisted, tense, and supremely exciting. 

Desert Road was reviewed out of the film’s world premiere at SXSW 2024. 

When Instagram releases a new feature that is a direct copy of another app, its users fear the worst.

In a 2022 essay for Digital Trends, writer Cristina Alexander lamented the "TikTok-ification of Instagram" because it "takes away the type of content people love most about the platform: photos from friends and family, as well as content based on their interests."

"And it’s something I’m just about fed up with," Alexander wrote.

But the doomsaying rarely lasts forever. Alexander joins the ranks of Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, and a whole host of regular users — including myself — who have fallen into the cycle of hating it when Instagram makes a copycat change and then, after a few months, come around to it. 

Like it or hate it, Instagram's copycat strategy works — and its dedication to stealing features from other apps is helping to fuel its ability to overtake TikTok. 

Think of Instagram like Kirby in Super Smash Bros. He's a formidable foe on his own, but it's using his Copy Ability by swallowing his enemies and using their own powers against them that makes him so powerful. Instead of finding and using power ups or prioritizing his abilities, Kirby uses his enemies as his own, personal power ups. Instagram — and other Meta-owned apps — swallow their enemies, take on their features, and use them to win. Instagram used this strategy to remove Snapchat from its list of significant competitors, and TikTok is next.

For the first time since 2020, Instagram overtook TikTok in new app downloads in 2023, according to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower reported by the Financial Times, making it the most downloaded app in the world. In 2023, Instagram downloads grew 20 percent in comparison to TikTok's 4 percent.

This comes after Instagram launched Reels, a TikTok-esque feature that was originally panned by its user base but has now become a mainstay on the app. And it might be the inclusion of Reels that has helped launch the platform back to the top.

"Instagram has outperformed TikTok in adoption over the past few years, driven by the popularity of its Reels feature along with legacy social media features and functions," Abraham Yousef, a senior insights manager at Sensor Tower, told the Financial Times.

Instagram's successful copycat strategy might be the reason it is succeeding, but TikTok is facing a battle at all fronts.

President Joe Biden said that if Congress passes the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act" — which would ban TikTok and all other apps based in China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran from U.S. app stores — he'll sign it into law. Lawmakers argue that TikTok user data for U.S. citizens could be accessed by the Chinese state, but TikTok has consistently denied that claim.

The legislative push to ban TikTok led to multiple congressional hearings and, just last week, the app encouraged all of its U.S. users to call their representatives to "stop a TikTok shutdown." It comes two years after it was reported that Meta paid a Republican consulting firm to create public distrust around TikTok.

All the while, TikTok is becoming increasingly less fun and more focused on ecommerce. With the emergence of TikTok shop, it feels like every other video on the For You Page is a promoted or sponsored post. The TikTok experience is changing, and it might not be for the better. 

Just because fewer people are downloading the app, and many more are complaining about their experience on it, doesn't mean TikTok is fully failing, though. The app has higher engagement than its rivals, with users spending an average of 95 minutes on TikTok in comparison to 62 minutes on Instagram, 30 minutes on X, and 19 minutes on Snapchat, according to the Financial Times report.

We'll have to wait and see what a TikTok ban will look like, but one thing is certain — even if the app isn't banned in the U.S., the fight for users won't be over.

The rumors are true: You can change your read receipts on Instagram.

The feature rolled out recently and allows you to turn read receipts on or off for an individual chat or all chats, depending on your needs. For instance, you might want your read receipts off for your situationship who keeps sending you unsolicited memes that you do not find funny but you might want to keep read receipts on for everyone else, so they know when you've read your messages and you know when they've read yours.

How to turn all of your Instagram DM read receipts off Total Time

• 1 min

What You Need

• iPhone
• Instagram app

Step 1: Navigate to "settings and privacy."

To turn off read receipts for all messages, go to your main "settings and privacy."

Credit: Screenshot / Instagram

Step 2: Scroll down to "messages and story replies."

Scroll down to "messages and story replies" and click it.

Credit: Screenshot / Instgram

Step 3: Click "show read receipts."

You can toggle "show read receipts" on or off depending on if you'd like to show read receipts or not on all of your DMs on Instagram.

Credit: Instagram / Screenshot SEE ALSO: You can finally edit your Instagram DMs How to turn Instagram DM read receipts off for specific recipients Total Time

• 1 min

What You Need

• iPhone
• Instagram app

Step 1: Navigate to the DM you want to edit.

To turn off read receipts for a specific message, start at your individual DM with that person.

Credit: Instagram / Screenshot

Step 2: Click their name and navigate to "Privacy & safety."

Click their name at the top of your DM conversation. Under "theme," click "Privacy & safety."

Credit: Instagram / Screenshot

Step 3: Toggle "read receipts" on or off.

When you toggle "read receipts" on or off through a specific person's DMs, it will only edit that specific DM.

Credit: Instagram / Screenshot

Instagram announced these changes along with a whole host of other updated features to DMs in early March.

"People connect daily on Instagram through posts and stories, but especially privately through messaging, so we’re excited to be bringing these new messaging features to Instagram," the company said in a blog post about the updates. Users can also edit messages after they've already sent them, pin the messages they want to see at the top of their DM page, and more. The changes make direct messaging on the platform a lot more like texting on iMessage which, while none of he changes are particularly revolutionary, they are a welcome addition.

And with the power to edit read receipts, now you can be just that much sneakier — or more telling.

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: See hints and answers for March 10 SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Here's the answer and hints for March 10

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Sunday, March 10, 2024:

AcrossDream-conducive sleep stage

• The answer is REM.

Italian fashion label

• The answer is Prada.

Amazon, but not eBay

• The answer is River.

Unlocks

• The answer is Opens.

Washington NBA team

• The answer is Wizards.

Straw ___ (intentionally misrepresented arguments)

• The answer is Men.

DownBird in a Poe poem

• The answer is Raven.

Biblical garden

• The answer is Eden.

Where the invading aliens come from in H.G. Wells's "The War of the Worlds"

• The answer is Mars.

When a high schooler might take a limo

• The answer is Prom.

Ready for picking

• The answer is Ripe.

The Pentagon firmly discredited several claims that the U.S. government has covered up evidence of space aliens and extraterrestrial material following a sweeping new investigation.

A persistent theme in pop culture since the 1940s has been a belief that the government, or a secret program within it, has collected alien bodies and spacecraft and is attempting to reverse-engineer extraterrestrial technology, all while hiding the effort from Congress.

Most Americans associate the conspiracy theory with strange sightings of UFOs, short for unidentified flying objects: the things that can't be readily explained by nature, aircraft, or other existing technology. Over the past few years, the Defense Department has adopted a new term — unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP — to put daylight between the topic and the stigma that comes along with UFOs, sometimes stereotyped as tin-foil hat delusions.

At the prompting of Congress, the Pentagon released an initial unclassified version of a report on March 8. At the same time, NASA has been tasked with studying unclassified material in its own investigation.

SEE ALSO: NASA's finally talking about UFOs with Americans. Here's what they said. Tweet may have been deleted

The military study, led by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, covers 80 years of reports on government offices and special access programs, researching classified and unclassified records. It also includes the findings from interviews with about 30 current and former government employees who were supposedly involved in these activities or heard stories about them.

"We believe most of the individuals repeating these claims did so without malice or any effort to mislead the public," AARO acting director Tim Phillips said in a statement. "Many have sincerely misinterpreted real events or mistaken sensitive U.S. programs, for which they were not cleared, as having been related to UAP or extraterrestrial exploitation."

Here are a handful of the claims the Pentagon has busted as myths in the new 63-page report.

The military study, led by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, covers 80 years of reports on government offices and special access programs, researching classified and unclassified records. Credit: Tom Brenner / Bloomberg via Getty Images 1. Nondisclosure Agreements used for cover-ups

The Pentagon investigators said they didn't find any proof of NDAs or death threats associated with potential UAP information leaks.

2. A CIA official managed UAP experiments

Interviewed "whistleblowers" accused a former CIA official of moving extraterrestrial technology. That ex-official signed a memo saying he didn't oversee the relocation of extraterrestrial stuff or any experiments on off-world technology.

3. Aliens observed a technology test

One of the interviewees claimed to overhear a conversation over electronic communication between two military bases about a technology test that aliens were observing. After looking into the account, investigators surmised that the person misunderstood the conversation.

An F-117 Nighthawk flies over Death Valley, California. Credit: Jerod Harris / Getty Images 4. A military officer touched an alien spacecraft

An interviewee named a former military officer who allegedly around 1999 talked about a time he touched an extraterrestrial spacecraft. The former officer denied the claim on the record, saying the interviewee might have been confused about a story regarding an F-117 Nighthawk, a retired Lockheed stealth fighter aircraft. The former officer also said he didn't remember having that conversation with the interviewee.

5. An extraterrestrial technology test occurred

An interviewee said he witnessed the testing of extraterrestrial technology at a government facility. The investigators said the interviewee "almost certainly" saw a real technology test, but that the demonstration had nothing to do with UAP. They concluded this because the interviewee's account strongly correlated in time, location, and description with a known technology test.

6. White House looked into making alien info public

Two interviewees claimed the White House hired a Northern Virginia research institute to study the possible impacts of the United States, Russia, or China disclosing that they possessed extraterrestrial evidence between 2004 and 2007, during President George W. Bush's administration. The investigators confirmed that the study was indeed conducted for one day, but that the White House didn't request it.

A mysterious sighting in the sky was dubbed a UFO in the 1980s. Credit: P. Wallick / Classicstock / Getty Images 7. Experiments conducted on a spacecraft sample

The investigators acquired material from a private UAP-investigating organization and the Army that was alleged to have come from a crashed off-world spacecraft. They determined the sample was a man-made alloy of magnesium, zinc, and bismuth, with traces of other elements, such as lead. It "possesses no exceptional qualities," they said.

8. A program called 'Kona Blue' holds UAP information

Interviewees who believe the government is hiding information named a program at the Department of Homeland Security they thought was related to UAP, codenamed Kona Blue. If it had ever existed, Kona Blue would have been the reestablishment of an earlier Defense Intelligence Agency program begun in the 2000s for the purpose of performing UAP investigations, paranormal research, and reverse-engineering any acquired extraterrestrial technology. That former DIA program (with the unwieldy names Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program and Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program) was eliminated in 2012 for lacking merit, according to the report. Supporters of the original program proposed Kona Blue to Homeland Security, but it was never approved. In short, there is no Kona Blue.

9. A program reverse-engineers off-world tech

The scope of a secretive intelligence community program was expanded in 2021 to protect potential UAP reverse-engineering. But this program neither recovered prospective material to study nor reverse-engineered anything, according to the report. The program was disestablished "due to its lack of merit."

A persistent theme in pop culture since the 1940s has been a belief that the government, or a secret program within it, has collected alien bodies and spacecraft and is attempting to reverse-engineer extraterrestrial technology, all while hiding the effort from Congress. Credit: Photo 12 / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

So far the Pentagon hasn't verified any accounts that the government has extraterrestrial evidence or that any UAP sighting was indeed from another world. The investigators will release more findings through another installment of the report later this year.

Dune: Part Two's explosive ending has already set the stage for the next step in Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) and Chani's (Zendaya) story. That can only mean one thing: Dune Messiah.

SEE ALSO: 'Dune: Part Two' review: Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi masterpiece soars, then screams to a halt

While Warner Bros. has yet to green-light a film based on Frank Herbert's second Dune novel, Dune: Part Two's strong box office showing and reception from critics and general audiences alike could lead to a path for a Dune Messiah adaptation. The cogs are already in motion: Director Denis Villeneuve told The Hollywood Reporter that he is currently in the writing process. In an interview with Mashable, Dune: Part Two co-writer Jon Spaihts confirmed that Villeneuve was working on the screenplay and that the two have had discussions about the film. Although Spaihts himself has yet to work on a Messiah script in any official capacity, he's more than ready to jump in.

"The exciting thing about Messiah is a truly inevitable and tremendous time jump," Spaihts told Mashable. The book picks up years after Paul takes over the Imperium. By this point, the jihad in his name has claimed billions of lives. And as Spaihts puts it, "Heavy is the head that wears the crown."

Messiah's time jump offers us the chance to see a version of Paul who's grown further into his prescience, as well as more time with characters we didn't see much of in Dune: Part Two, such as a now-grown Alia Atreides (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh). It also continues to emphasize Herbert's cautionary tales about leader figures.

SEE ALSO: Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen is the most fun part of any 'Dune' movie he's in

"The function of Dune Messiah in the Dune canon is in some ways a repudiation of Dune," Spaihts explained. Yes, Herbert's misgivings about messianic figures are present in Dune, but the ending — including Paul's total rout of the Imperium — may leave room for heroic interpretations of Paul.

"I think Frank Herbert came away from [Dune] troubled a little bit that perhaps he had put too much of a real crown on his savior he was trying to warn people about," Spaihts continued. "So, Dune Messiah really is his reply to himself and his reply to Dune. It's like the second act of Into the Woods where everything falls apart, and the shadows of everything reveal themselves."

With its bleak themes and cliffhanger ending, it's clear Dune: Part Two is gearing up for Dune Messiah — perhaps even more emphatically than the end of Herbert's original Dune. "The lovely thing is that the way Denis has shaped the end of Dune: Part Two has set the table even better than the novel does for the coming machinations of Dune Messiah, where we'll see Chani and Princess Irulan clashing over the destiny of the Atreides family," said Spaihts.

These clashes within the Atreides family, as well as a Bene Gesserit conspiracy to rid the Imperium of Paul, mark a tonal shift from the fight over Arrakis — one that Spaihts can't wait to tackle.

"I'm very much excited to see that much more murky and nuanced political conflict," Spaihts said. "The landscape of battle is very different; it's much more palace intrigue in Dune Messiah than it is the open war of Dune: Part Two. So it will inevitably unfold as a very different film, with new flavors and new notes being played. And I think that's very exciting."

Dune: Part Two is now in theaters.

For over 10 years, the internet has asked, "Gay son or thot daughter?" A question previously reserved for your Twitter oomfs, now acclaimed actors are being subjected to it on the red carpet. 

At this year's People's Choice Awards TikTokker Harry Daniels imposed the question on Academy Award-nominated actress America Ferrera. In the now viral clip, Ferrara responds, "Oh my god? Both? I don't know." At the same event, Billie Eilish allegedly said, "There's…some, like, TikTokkers here" while subtly brushing them off. The videos led to a heated online conversation about the role of influencers on the red carpet. 

SEE ALSO: Here's why celebs might sport red buttons on the Oscars red carpet

Freelance film and television journalist Rendy Jones posted the Ferrera clip to X / Twitter with the caption, "Yall aren’t funny nor real journalists with any professionalism. Theres only a select few I can think of who earn their keep but most of yall? Ugh, gross." Their post received over 46,000 likes. 

Tweet may have been deleted

Then the quote-tweets from fellow journalists rolled in. For example, Tamara Fuentas, the entertainment editor at Cosmopolitan, wrote, "And this is why me and probably some other journos dread red carpets, which already were difficult to begin with. We're getting even less time because influencers have gotten spots for stuff like this. And we have to chase a soundbite instead of asking actual questions."

Tweet may have been deleted

Clearly, the question posed by Daniels is nonsense in pursuit of virality. It serves purely entertainment purposes — in stark contrast to questions from actual reporters that range from illuminating to relevant. 

On his native platform, TikTok, there’s a compilation of Daniels asking different celebrities, "Gay son or thot daughter." He captioned the video, "asking the real questions at the pcas 🙏." It has since garnered over 7.6 million views and nearly 700,000 likes as of print time. Opposed to critical responses to his bit from journalists on X, two of the most popular comments read, "Real journalism is back" and "you got america ferrera oh 😭😭."

With over 650,000 TikTok followers and counting, Daniels cultivated his social media following from singing at (not even with, or to) celebrities like Matty Healy and Oscar Isaac. His antagonistic persona is an odd one to bring to the award show circuit. Other TikTokkers-turned-media personalities' niches lend themselves better to the red carpet. For example, Reece Feldman, better known as @guywithamoviecamera, leveraged his social media knowledge when he was working as a production assistant on the fourth season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to become studios' "go-to TikTok consultant," which involves creating content at film premieres and award shows for the platform. Recently, he co-hosted MTV's Dune: Part Two red carpet.

YouTube's impact on the red carpet

You could say YouTubers paved the way for TikTokkers on the red carpet. Liza Koshy hosted the Met Gala red carpet in 2018 and 2019, and Emma Chamberlain has been Vogue's special correspondent since 2021. During YouTube's heyday, multi-hyphenate creators like Tyler Oakley and Zoella would make appearances as interviewers in press junkets.

But social media and online habits have changed in the years since. Instagram and TikTok has caused us to prioritize short-form video content, and it's no secret that young people consume their news online. They’re moving away from traditional media outlets and toward internet personalities. Reuters found that audiences across platforms want to consume the content of personalities over mainstream news outlets, and a study from Pew found that 43 percent of TikTok users regularly get their news on the platform. 

These influencers understand virality and what kind of content best engages with young audiences on social media. Studios see the power of digital trends to drive ticket sales — just look at Barbenheimer — and employ influencers to harness that power. But influencers serve a different purpose than journalists and shouldn't replace media in these spaces. 

Studios paying social media personalities like Daniels to do TikTok bits on the red carpet legitimizes behavior that would be deemed unprofessional for journalists and puts traditional media in competition with attention-grabbing theatrics for short-form, viral videos. 

TikTok's influence on entertainment journalism

While memes are a longstanding part of internet culture, and entertainment journalists have been utilizing the existing memes surrounding stars and movies to garner engagement — often to mixed results (see: this awkward junket interview with Madame Web's Dakota Johnson) — changes in entertainment news consumption make meme culture all the more powerful. For many casual consumers, entertainment news now exists in bite-sized videos on TikTok or one-line summaries posted by aggregators like Film Updates and Pop Crave on X. However, much of this content, like Daniels' video, isn't newsworthy, and aggregators often conflate these viral clips with headlines about upcoming releases and serious issues like abuse allegations. 

SEE ALSO: Everyone is thirsty for Pedro Pascal. Has the internet gone too far this time?

The problem doesn't just lie with the quality of content or where audiences are receiving it. It's also about the method by which audiences are consuming it. As influencers, they are paid by studios, while journalists work independently. Red carpets and press junkets might not be sites of hard-hitting news, but reporters losing any access to powerful people should always ring alarm bells about our ability to hold those in power accountable. 

Daniels' video also struck a nerve at a vulnerable time for media. There’s been an overwhelming number of layoffs impacting newsrooms in recent months, including at publications that cover the entertainment industry like the Los Angeles Times, Buzzfeed, and Vice.

Amelia Dimoldenberg, known for her Chicken Shop Date series on YouTube, is Oscar night’s official social media ambassador, and two FilmTok creators will host TikTok's red carpet livestream. The influencer-to-media-personality machine is by no means slowing down, highlighting a shift in how entertainment journalism is consumed and the challenges traditional media faces in this new landscape. But surely we can all do better than "gay son or thot daughter?"

TL;DR: Through March 10, this Smart Visual Ear Cleaner is only $27.99 with code ENJOY20.

If what matters is on the inside, then make sure you get a good look. Ditch the cotton swab and switch to an ear cleaner that lets you actually see what you need to scoop, and it even has soft spoons to get the job done.

The Smart Visual Ear Cleaner lets you take an HD view inside your ear while you scoop out wax with soft, specially designed ear scoopers that could feel a whole lot gentler than a rough cotton swab. And you can get the Visual Ear Cleaner plus the storage box for just $27.99 with the sitewide coupon ENJOY20.

Watch where you're going

Get a good view with a 360° wide-angle lens and 1080p full-HD resolution that streams directly to your phone. It may get a little dark in your ear, but this little camera has a built-in LED to keep things nice and clear. The 350mAh battery also means you can take your time and go slow working the wax out of your ear. A cable is included for charging. 

You aren't limited to the ear, either. This device could be used to examine your teeth, throat, scalp, or other body parts. Just be sure to clean it before storing it in the compact carrying case. Don't worry about running it under some water. This ear cleaner is IPX7-waterproof, which also means you can check out those chompers without fear of a little moisture. 

Journey down the (ear) canal

Give your ears a thorough cleaning. 

You have until March 10 at 11:59 p.m. PT to get the Smart Visual Ear Cleaner (storage box version) for $27.99 with code ENJOY20. 

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Opens in a new window Credit: Centralspot Smart Visual Ear Cleaner (Storage Box Version) $27.99 at the Mashable Shop
$39.99 Save $12.00 with code ENJOY20 Get Deal

TL;DR: Through March 10, get PDF Reader Pro for 20% off when you use code ENJOY20, bringing the price to $31.99. 

PDFs are common, but low-cost apps to help you work with them may not be. If you've ever sighed when you saw a PDF attached to an email, it might be time to ditch the unreliable apps and the shady PDF conversion websites and go for some reliable software that does it all in one. 

PDF Reader Pro is a one-stop app for PDFs, whether you need to read, edit, encrypt, scan, copy, merge, split, or convert your PDFs. And instead of paying full price, you can save an extra 20% if you get PDF Reader Pro for Mac or Windows during this limited-time sale. 

Edit, annotate, and more

PDF Reader Pro is a comprehensive PDF editing and management software that makes it a whole lot easier to work with PDFs. This app simplifies your work by letting you edit, annotate, read, merge, convert, and do so much more to PDF files, and it's all from one app. No more switching software whenever you need to do something else to such a common file type.

One of the standout features of PDF Reader Pro is its versatility. Users can easily edit text and images within PDFs, organize pages by merging, splitting, rotating, or cropping them, and batch process multiple files for efficiency. Worried about your privacy? Try out some of the security features like encryption and watermarking. It can even redact information, so you can put away the marker. 

If your office has a set of ancient faded copies of PDFs nobody wants to transcribe, you don't need to worry. PDF Reader Pro supports OCR (Optical Character Recognition), so it can read documents and turn them into editable, searchable PDFs. It does the transcription for you. Time to let that ancient master copy rest. 

Make PDFs your favorite file

No more groaning when you have to open up a PDF. With the right software, working with PDFs may be just as easy as working with a Word doc.

Until March 10 at 11:59 p.m. PT, get an extra 20% off these PDF Reader Pro versions:

• PDF Reader Pro for Windows, on sale for $31.99 with code ENJOY20

• PDF Reader Pro for Mac, on sale for $31.99 with code ENJOY20

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Opens in a new window Credit: PDF Technologies PDF Reader Pro For Mac $31.99
$59.99 Save $28.00 with code ENJOY20 Get Deal Opens in a new window Credit: PDF Technologies PDF Reader Pro For Windows $31.99 at the Mashable Shop
$59.99 Save $28.00 Get Deal

TL;DR: As of March 10, get a Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows at just $44.99 (reg. $219.99).

Though much divides students, working professionals, and business owners, they do share one thing in common: reliance on Microsoft Office tools. Whether it’s typing an essay in Word, organizing budgets in Excel, or organizing communication with Outlook, these apps are staples for everyday tasks and larger projects.

We’d like to put you onto a more affordable avenue than Microsoft 365 — a Microsoft Office Professional 2021 lifetime license for Windows. When we say lifetime, we mean it; enjoy unlimited access to the app suite for the course of your PC’s life. Elsewhere, this license costs $219.99, but right here you can get one for $44.99.

Includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and five other apps

Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows comes with eight apps. Instead of having to pay monthly or yearly to access them, you just have to purchase this license, download the suite to your PC, and use them as much as you need.

Open Word to create, edit, and format professional documents; Excel to analyze and visualize data with spreadsheets, charts, and PivotTables; PowerPoint to craft slideshow presentations with transitions; Outlook to manage emails, calendars, and tasks; OneNote to organize multimedia notes; Publisher to design publication materials, and Access to build large databases.

Make sure your Windows PC is equipped for download

Uniquely, this specific license type is not tied to your Microsoft account, but rather to your computer. This makes setup a little easier and solidifies the fact that you won’t be asked to renew or pay any recurring fees.

A couple of software and hardware requirements to note before purchasing: Your PC should have Windows 10 or 11, at least 1GB of RAM, and a minimum of 4GB of available storage on your hard drive.

Grab your officially licensed Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows lifetime license code on sale for just $44.99 (reg. $219.99).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Opens in a new window Credit: Retail King Microsoft Office Professional 2021 for Windows: Lifetime License $44.99
$219.99 Save $175.00 Get Deal

TL;DR: As of March 10, get these HD Digital Camera Binoculars for $97.59 with code ENJOY20.

Whether you're out camping, bird watching, or hiking, taking in the view with a good pair of binoculars is a simple pleasure. And unfortunately, it's not one you can usually share with the people who couldn't come along into the wild. 

If you want to capture some of those memories forever, try a pair of binoculars that double as a camera. These HD Digital Camera Binoculars can magnify your view, but they can also capture it in a photo or record it on video, and they're also marked down for a short time. Instead of paying $199, you can get them for an extra 20% off at just $97.59 with coupon code ENJOY20 through March 10.

Camera binoculars with 12X magnification

Every view is a sight you'll never forget when your binoculars can snap a photo. The HD Digital Camera Binoculars work both as traditional binoculars and as a digital recorder for photos and videos. Just using the binoculars, you can view up to 12X magnification, so birdwatchers can zoom in on a rare flock, and hikers can find a distant trail. If you want to capture what you see, just use the digital camera function to record. You can even view your photos and videos on the folding LCD screen. 

These camera binoculars are designed to be tough, so you shouldn't have to worry about braving the wild with them in your bag. They have an anti-reflective coating to help keep your view clear, and they're also waterproof, fog-proof, and dust-proof. Plus, they're somewhat shock-proof, but mountain climbers may still want to be careful. 

Views you can save forever

See the sights and take them home, too. 

Until March 10 at 11:59 p.m. PT, you can get a pair of HD Digital Camera Binoculars for $97.59 with code ENJOY20. 

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Opens in a new window Credit: Mesay HD Digital Camera Binoculars $97.59
$199.99 Save $102.40 with code ENJOY20 Get Deal

TL;DR: As of March 10, get the 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Pad for only $27.99 with code ENJOY20 — That's 20% off the sale price.

Smart devices make a lot of things easier, but packing might not be one of them. If you like to travel with multiple smart devices, that also means packing a charger for each one. If you've ever opened a pocket to find a USB-C tumbleweed, you know cables sometimes don't get along. 

If you're trying to pack light and keep your chargers organized, the 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Pad is a great pick. This three-part charging station folds, so it's super easy to pack and takes up very little room even when it's powering your devices. Plus, it's on sale for $27.99, but that price won't be around much longer. 

A traveler's charging station

Packing light doesn't have to mean leaving things behind. If you like to bring along all your smart devices when you travel, make sure to pack a charger that doesn't get tangled in your luggage. This folding wireless charging station can power three devices at once, but it can still fold into a super compact square for easy storage. 

This charger has three integrated modules for cell phones, headphones, and watches. It has a max output of 15W for cell phone charging, 5W for AirPods, and 2.5W for Apple Watches. 

Smart devices are expensive, so it's important to make sure they're safe while they charge. That's why this power station has built-in safety features like over-voltage protection, over-current protection, short-circuit protection, temperature control, and foreign object detection.

Charge three devices at once

Save space and keep your batteries full with a charger that might just be the easiest thing you have to pack. 

Until March 10 at 11:59 p.m. PT, you can get the 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Pad on sale for $27.99 with code ENJOY20. 

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Opens in a new window Credit: RochasDivineMart 3-in-1 Magnetic Wireless Charging Pad $34.99 at the Mashable Shop
$69.99 Save $35.00 with code ENJOY20 Get Deal

The best streaming deals to watch 'Dream Scenario' at a glance: BEST FOR MOST PEOPLE Max (With Ads) annual subscription $99.99/year (save $1.66/month) Get Deal BEST WITH NO ADS Max (No Ads) annual subscription $149.99/year (save $3.50/month) Get Deal BEST FOR CRICKET CUSTOMERS Max (With Ads) Free for Cricket customers on the $60/month unlimited plan (save $9.99/month) Get Deal BEST TRIAL DirecTV Stream Entertainment package $79.99 per month + free 3-month Max trial (save $15.99/month) Get Deal BEST NON-STREAMING OPTION Rent 'Dream Scenario' $5.99 at Prime Video Get Deal

Ready to queue up another A24 film for streaming? Dream Scenario, starring Nicolas Cage, has an official streaming date — and it's right around the corner.

Written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli, Dream Scenario first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival back in September 2023 to mostly positive reception. Regardless of the reviews, the comedy-horror flick is bizarre enough to be intriguing. If you missed its theatrical run, here's everything you need to know to stream Dream Scenario at home.

SEE ALSO: How to watch our favorite A24 films of 2023, from 'Beau Is Afraid' to 'Talk to Me' What is Dream Scenario about?

In Dream Scenario, Nicolas Cage plays Paul Matthews, a nondescript college professor who suddenly starts appearing in millions of strangers' dreams. At first, Paul is delighted by his random stardom, but before long, it takes a nightmarish turn. As the dreams start becoming more sinister, Paul's life heads down a similar downward spiral. He loses any grip on his own narrative and identity to the outrage-ready, entertainment-obsessed world.

As someone who has largely been meme-ified in popular culture, Cage found the role of Paul easy to relate to. "I couldn't get it if I had not gone through that experience," Cage continued. "I would not have been able to play this character authentically," he said in an interview with Mashable.

Here's the official trailer for the wild ride that is Dream Scenario:

Is Dream Scenario worth watching?

Dream Scenario might not have been a box office mega hit, but it did earn a 92% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That makes it one of the best Rotten Tomatoes scores of Nicolas Cage's career. However, audiences are on the fence — the audience score currently sits at 68% — with many criticizing the ending.

Mashable's own film critic Kristy Puchko noted that "Nicolas Cage is at the top of his game, again." And yet, "his director can't create a film worthy of him."

"While the first hour offers an intriguing premise, Borgli burns off possibilities and interest with his ghoulish plot developments that make for increasingly wonky metaphors. By the third act, he's flinging in lazy criticisms of everything from influencers to wellness culture and tech bros," she writes in her review.

Ultimately, if you're a Nic Cage fan, it's a must-see performance showcasing him at the top of his acting game. But don't be surprised if the latter half of the film disappoints you.

When is Dream Scenario coming to streaming?

Dream Scenario hit theaters back in November and is set for its streaming debut on March 15 on Max. While A24 films were previously streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime, a new multi-year output deal between A24 and Warner Bros. Discovery brings A24 films exclusively to Max for streaming following their theatrical debuts.

Best Max subscription deals

If you want to stream Dream Scenario at home, you're going to need a Max subscription — HBO's premium streaming service. Max offers three tiers of subscriptions, starting at $9.99 per month, as well as annual subscription options. Which plan is best for your streaming needs? We've broken down the best Max streaming deals below.

Best Max streaming deal for most people: Save 17% on Max With Ads yearly subscription Opens in a new window Credit: Max Max (With Ads) yearly subscription $99.99 per year (save 17%) Watch Now

You can easily just sign up for a month of Max to watch Dream Scenario for $9.99 and then cancel before you're charged for a second month. However, if you're in it for the long run, you can save 17% by opting for the yearly subscription instead. An annual plan will run you $99.99 per year, which breaks down to only $8.33 per month — that's $1.66 per month in savings.

Plus, with an annual plan, you'll be able to watch other A24 films as they jump from the theaters to Max. Note that you will have to endure some ads throughout your streaming sessions, but just think of them as built-in bathroom and snack breaks.

Best Max deal with no ads: Save 22% on a Max Ad-Free annual subscription Opens in a new window Credit: Max Max (No Ads) annual subscription $149.99 per year (save 22%) Watch Now

For those who can't deal with ads interrupting their viewing experience, there's also the Max Ad-Free or Max Ultimate tiers to choose from. The Ad-Free option costs $15.99 per month or $149.99 per year, which saves you 22%. If you're looking to splurge, the Max Ultimate subscription, on the other hand, offers the best viewing experience possible. Not only does it offer an ad-free viewing experience, but also 4K Ultra HD video quality, Dolby Atmos immersive audio, the ability to stream on two more devices at once, and 70 more downloads. Of course, you'll also have to pay a heftier fee of $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year (save 17%).

Best Max deal for Cricket customers: Free Max With Ads for customers on the $60/month unlimited plan Opens in a new window Credit: Cricket / Max Max (With Ads) Free for Cricket customers on the $60/month plan Watch Now

If you're a Cricket customer on the $60 per month unlimited plan and you haven't already claimed your free Max with ads subscription, head on over to the Max app or navigate to Max on a browser to get started. Just choose Cricket as your provider and use your Cricket credentials to login. Then you'll be able to watch Dream Scenario and plenty other A24 films for no extra cost. If you're a Cricket customer, but you're not on the $60 per month plan, you can change or upgrade now and secure the deal. Check out the terms and conditions on Cricket's website to learn more.

Best Max free trial: Get 3 months of Max with DirecTV Stream Entertainment package Opens in a new window Credit: DirecTV Stream DirecTV Stream Entertainment package $79.99 per month + 3 free months of Max Get Deal

There used to be multiple ways to score a free trial of Max, but sadly, most of them have disappeared. Currently, the only way to get a free trial of Max is to sign up for a DirecTV Stream package (starting at $79.99 per month). This cable replacement package gives you three free months of Max and other premium channels, so you can test the waters before committing to a subscription. If you're in the market for a cable replacement service, this could be the selling point for DirecTV Stream. However, if you're just looking to watch Dream Scenario and other films on Max, it's not the most affordable option by any means.

Other ways to watch Dream Scenario

Thanks to video-on-demand services like Prime Video and Apple TV, you can also rent or purchase the digital version of Dream Scenario and watch the Nic Cage horror comedy at home. In other words, if you don't feel like signing up for another streaming service, you don't have to. Renting is the cheapest way to watch the film, but be aware that you'll only get 30 days to start watching and just 48 hours to finish once you begin.

You can rent or purchase Dream Scenario on demand at the following digital retailers:

• Prime Video — $5.99 to rent, $12.99 to purchase for Prime members

• Apple TV — $5.99 to rent, $19.99 to purchase

• Vudu — $5.99 to rent, $19.99 to purchase

• Google Play — $4.99 to rent, $19.99 to purchase

• YouTube — $4.99 - $7.99 to rent, $19.99 to purchase

TL;DR: Save 10% on Hostinger web hosting with the exclusive discount code MASH10.

What do you want from your web hosting solution? Unlimited bandwidth? Daily backups? AI tools? All of those things are nice, but what most people really want is security and speed. And that's exactly what Hostinger delivers.

It also provides all the other things as well, so with Hostinger you get the necessary basics done exceptionally well, and the advanced features that make your life that little bit easier. We're talking about things like WordPress AI tools, AI website creation, and Google Analytics integration.

SEE ALSO: The best web hosting solutions for your business

Hostinger offers a number of different web hosting solutions, with something for everyone. And for a limited time, you can get up to 78% off this popular provider. This deal includes 24/7 customer support, free domain registration, and free website migration.

And it doesn't stop there, because you can save a further 10% on all Hostinger plans with the exclusive discount code MASH10. The only catch is that you need to sign up for at least 12 months.

Save 10% on all Hostinger web hosting solutions with the exclusive discount code MASH10.

Opens in a new window Credit: Hostinger Hostinger Web Hosting Save 10% with code MASH10 Get Deal

TL;DR: The 2024 Ultimate Candlestick Trading and Analysis Bundle is on sale for £23.38, saving you 92% on list price.

If you’re looking for a new way to invest in yourself in 2024, open yourself up to literal investing. It may seem intimidating, but taking a few courses may set you on the right path before you start putting your money into innovative ideas. Fortunately, you can now learn a valuable skill at an affordable price. This Candlestick Trading and Analysis Masterclass Bundle is now on sale for just £23.38 for a limited time.

This comprehensive bundle features eight courses with 14 hours of content on candlestick trading and analysis. Its title course The Ultimate Candlestick and Analysis Masterclass includes 24 lessons and two hours' worth of tips and tricks into the foundations of the topic. Each of the eight courses is taught by Travis Rose, a stock market day trading and investing professional who has been a full-timer in the field for over six years. His insight carries you through the course and he even includes his eBook, Master the Market, with the purchase of this bundle.

This ultimate bundle is designed for new traders and aspiring investors so you can learn step-by-step how to analyse candlestick charts. You’ll be introduced to candlestick basics, trade doji candlesticks, continuation candlesticks, reversal candlesticks, and so much more. Enjoy courses like Day Trading for Dummies, Day Trading with Tape Reading, Swing Trading Strategies for Big Stock Market Profits, and more.

Whether you’re trading stocks, forex, or futures, these same methods can be used across the board to improve your technical analysis skills.

Gain the skills many investors have with this Candlestick Trading and Analysis Course Bundle, on sale for just £23.38 for a limited time.

Opens in a new window Credit: Travis Rose Candlestick Trading and Analysis Masterclass Bundle £23.38 at the Mashable Shop Get Deal

What has A Quiet Place wrought? The alien-invasion horror hit that used silence to amp up tension in its rural setting was brilliantly executed. Because the movie's ravenous extraterrestrial creatures chase sound, the characters don't speak aloud, and even their audience feels the pressure not to scream. A Quiet Place's success with critics and audiences not only spurred a sequel (A Quiet Place Part II) and a prequel (A Quiet Place: Day One), but also opportunistic imitators, eager to take the muted gimmick to make their unaffiliated movies stand out. 

Last fall, writer/director Brian Duffield hit Hulu with a strikingly similar concept in No One Will Save You, in which Kaitlyn Dever stars as a country girl plagued by invading aliens while she doesn't say a word. With Christmas came John Woo's deeply dismal action dud Silent Night, in which Joel Kinnaman plays a vengeance-fueled anti-hero who, because of a scarring act of violence, is unable to vocalize — but for no apparent reason, no one else talks around him either. Now comes Azrael, a horror collaboration from Cheap Thrills director E.L. Katz and You're Next writer Simon Barrett. Despite the noteworthy talent attached, it too leans hard into this scream-free gimmick that can't make up for its flimsy storytelling. 

What's Azrael about?

Written by Barrett and helmed by Katz, Azrael stars Samara Weaving as the titular young woman who is not only named after the Angel of Death but is also part of a post-apocalyptic cult living deep in the woods, under a vow of silence. Blood-red text splashes across the screen to succinctly introduce the big rule of the cult: Don't speak; or else evil will come. 

In a rugged village, the cultists worship the wind that rips through their drafty church bedecked with crucifixes. They communicate with each other through stern glances and huffs of air. It seems a relatively peaceful place, save for their ritual of human sacrifice. Silence or not, something needs to be fed to the vampire-like creatures that shamble through the woods seeking human blood.

Selected by her community to be fed to the Nosferatu-looking ghouls, Azrael is bound to a chair, where she is left like that poor goat in Jurassic Park — a meal to be enjoyed tied up and alive. But this clever girl breaks her way free, not only setting the ghouls upon her traitorous community but also hunting them down so she might live. It's a tale full of graphic violence that's best described as gloppy, but the plot is achingly thin: Survive. 

Azrael feels like a short film stretched beyond its limits. 

Barrett and Katz have histories with horror anthology franchises ABCs of Death and V/H/S, which stitch together a collection of creepy shorts with some tenuous throughline or framing device. Azrael feels like it began as a short pitch that wasn't developed to its full potential before being unleashed on the world. 

Part of the problem is that the plot line is thinner than Weaving's well-groomed brows. Despite plopping in a boyfriend (Candyman's Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) for Azrael to try to rescue, a camp leader who has serious glower power (Katariina Unt), and a hapless passerby bewildered by her predicament, there is nothing substantial to this story. The lore around what happened to the world, what the creatures in the woods are, or how the cult came to be all are largely irrelevant. And frankly, that's fine. Those details don't matter to Azrael as she's just trying to get through the night, so they don't need to matter to her audience. But there's something crucial lacking here: character. 

Because Azrael has no dialogue, her actions become her primary character definition. And that leaves us with very little. She likes to kiss her boyfriend. She made him a bracelet from twigs. And she doesn't want to be eaten alive by forest vampires. It's relatable, but not much to get invested in. Azrael is a gesture toward a Final Girl archetype — sweet and resilient, but with no depth to make her come alive. 

Basically, Barrett and Katz take for granted the audience might want to understand the heroine they follow through a grueling night of mayhem and murder. Or maybe they thought casting Weaving would carry with it enough audience goodwill to paper over the lazily scripted protagonist. After all, genre fans lapped up every wicked smile, snarky rejoinder, and curse-laden rant Weaving delivered in The Babysitter, Guns Akimbo, and Ready or Not. But Azrael isn't like these movies.

This silent premise rob audience's of Weaving's sharp comedic timing and her undeniable charm as a foul-mouthed badass. It's not a frolicking collision of playful plotlines and ultra-violence. It's a grim and grisly religious pilgrimage that's gleeful in gore yet just not fun. 

The silent gimmick suffocates Azrael. 

In A Quiet Place, the family couldn't vocalize safely, but they did talk to each other through sign language. This gave the actors a way not only to express their character's thoughts, but also a grounded world from which to build the supernatural scares. In Azrael, the cult theatrically scowls or smiles or sighs heavily to get their points across. The result is a near-comical pantomime, reading as a crude reenactment of silent film acting. All the performances here rely on stricken faces, stern brows, or silent screaming. It's off-putting and goofy more than impactful or frightening. 

Perhaps Katz was striving for an atmosphere that felt far from grounded in the familiar, vibrating instead with raw emotion, heady atmosphere, and terror. But with no dialogue nor any defined characters to cling to, plus an episodic structure nakedly designed to favor sloppy slays over story, this religious horror flick feels horrid but humdrum. There's not enough for audiences to sink their teeth into. While full of blood and slicked with religious symbols, Azrael plays like an empty parlor trick — not even a cheap thrill. 

Azrael was reviewed out of SXSW 2024.

It's easy to feel invisible in a big city, what with so many people, so many apartments, and endless dramas unfurling before unblinking eyes. Sometimes, there's a comfort in such anonymity, even a certain level of safety. But sometimes you want to be seen, no matter the cost. The London-set thriller 7 Keys is a twisted tale of love, hope, and taking chances, centering on someone who is done being ignored. 

It all begins with a cruel meet-cute: Two strangers catch each others' eye after each has been stood up. Resilient and ready for a good time, Lena (Emma McDonald) brushes off any could-be embarrassment and embraces happenstance, introducing herself to the handsome lone man across the bar. 

With long wavy hair, a full beard, and a quietly dejected posture, Daniel (Billy Postlethwaite) looks like he was a part of an indie rock band that nearly made it, 15 years back. But now, he looks down at his phone, jittery and lost. That is, until Lena commandeers their night with an adventure that begins with a bit of breaking and entering, detours into heated sex scenes, and concludes somewhere electrifyingly wild. 

What's 7 Keys about? 

At first blush, 7 Keys seems like a romance. Lena and Daniel are a natural odd couple: She's outgoing, adventurous, and charismatic; he's timid and gentle, yet alluring. They hit it off over a dinner where they relish eating unsexy food. (Spaghetti was not made for date nights!) But when Lena seeks a kiss goodnight, she's jolted by his rejection. Aching to get closer to this man she decides she was destined to meet, she invents a dangerous game. 

Noticing that Daniel carries a ring full of house keys, she suggests they take a tour of London, hitting all his old haunts. Will they cross paths with his exes? Might they intrude on new residents just going about their lives? Could they uncover uncomfortable secrets about each others' pasts? Oh, you betcha. And as they make their way from one location to another, the stakes of this night shift from loneliness to life-threatening. 

7 Keys is a white hot thriller. 

Admittedly, the central plot twist here is pretty predictable to anyone who's ever heard a horror story about online dating. However, the plot's roughest edges are smoothed out by an atmosphere that embraces recklessness and sexual abandon. Sure, maybe certain characters should know better than to blindly trust someone they just met. But doesn't romance dare us to make potentially (disastrously) stupid choices? Hopeless romantic has always meant reckless romantic, hasn't it?

At first, Lena seems a bit of a manic pixie dream girl, gorgeous and eccentric, practically manufactured to pull the sheepish could-be beau out of his shell. As such, she revels in transgressions in their b&e spree, not only the home invasion, but little acts of metaphorically marking her new territory. She cavalierly snacks on these strangers' food. She slips into a red dress from the closet and role-plays with Daniel, apologizing as she imagines his ex-girlfriend might. Lena even aggressively marks the bed with her scent, wiping her fingers across her crotch, then along the center of its neatly spread sheets. 

A vicarious exhilaration surges in these scenes of sexual depravity, in which the new lovers remap the city as their personal pervy playground. Though initially reluctant, Daniel gets into the swing of things in the next location, tossing Lena so enthusiastically in the throes of passion that neighbors begin banging on the wall for them to quiet down. The thrill of getting caught is intoxicating to the lovers, as both have felt invisible for too long. 

Amid their frenzied sexcapades, they begin to reveal their inner selves to each other. Lena lets her guard down, exposing the vulnerabilities behind her scandalous party girl persona. Daniel begins to feel bolder in her presence. But a sinister secret is creeping in to spoil their hopes for a lovestruck future. 

McDonald and Postlethwaite are dynamos together. 

Though 7 Keys plays in SXSW's Visions slate, it would feel at home in the Midnighter section. Wilkinson has crafted a gnarly piece of work that begins with two figures familiar from rom-coms like last year's romp Rye Lane, losers at love desperate for attention and affection. But she warps this shared need into a scorching hot sexual connection that risks blinding both to who they are really dealing with. When fantasy and reality collide, 7 Keys tumbles into a messy climax where Wilkinson's low-budget production demands some creative choices. To her credit, abrupt symbolism plays well, as each apartment along the way was seeded with an element of the surreal. 

Sharply setting one locale apart from another is a wash of bold colored lights, distinguishing each with a sharp mood. One is inky in sultry reds, the perfect place for an illicit seduction. Another is hazy in warm yellow, where the two pretend they're a long-term couple coming home to get cozy. Another is sickly in neon green, perhaps warning of an end to the honeymoon phase of this romance? These bold colors envelope audiences with the heady expanse of possibilities of a night gone way off the beaten path. There's an excitement and anxiety that anything could happen. And, with a wicked grin, Wilkinson assures us that plenty will, for better and much, much worse. 

The terrific chemistry between McDonald and Postlethwaite is so intense it carries 7 Keys through its clunkier plot points. Their heat practically radiates off the screen. Together, they perform a dance of love, lust, fear, and loathing that is ruthless and riveting. It's hard to care much about telegraphed revelations or pernickety plot holes when there's so much oozing passion to enjoy. 

Simply put, 7 Keys is a lean and mean thriller, flushed with sex appeal, emotional explosions, and sick twists. If you're seeking something salacious and satisfying, give this one a turn. 

7 Keys was reviewed out of SXSW 2024.

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for March 10's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Wordle.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles used to be available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it. Unfortunately, it has since been taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

To seize and hold firmly.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no letters that appear twice.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter G.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. What's the answer to Wordle today?

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to Wordle #995 is...

GRASP.

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Reporting by Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.