Big Shiny Robot

It’s hard to believe that it’s finally here. After years of web comics, graphic novels, and a TV series, Heartstopper is finally coming to an end with a feature-length film. Rest assured, it’s a happy ending (as we have been promised by author Alice Oseman since day one), but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been numerous twists and turns to get here that left hearts broken and spirits raised. But the bigger question is, how does it all turn out in a new format the series has never taken?

Film criticism and analysis is justified for all sorts of productions – lowbrow parodies included. Somehow Scary Movie returned. The sixth installment of the franchise is its first entry in over a decade and the first in 25 years with a Wayans steering the ship. While reviews have been a bad tomato, that didn’t stop audiences from checking it out as it grossed over $105 million worldwide in its opening weekend (breaking the all-time franchise record).

The supernatural/horror/thriller/tragedy film, Obsession, is a unicorn. One of one. It is defying the laws of box office gravity as in its first three weeks of release it has gone up … up and UP. In fact, it is the first movie since E.T. to do this and that film came out in 1982. Obsession is not unimaginative in the slightest.

It really is a shame how with the era of media consolidation and ‘STAN-ing’ we’ve lost the ability to give truly bad reviews to anything that will upset the general audience. It’s why there is so much contemporary “art” made in the last decade or so that is just okay, not fantastic. Sure, many are just looking for validation of their consumption choices.

I think I read somewhere that 73% of all homicides are due to sweet karate and kung fu fights in side alleys, underground bloodsport arenas, and other decrepit city locations. 17% of coroner reports list cause of fatality as a totally rad, merciless removal of some part of the human anatomy entirely by hand, like the full spinal column or still-beating heart. This is why my uncle Vinny totally had to register his hands as lethal weapons. I digress.

Earlier in 2026, it was reported that one-third of U.S. video game industry workers say that they lost their jobs over the past two years.

Everybody’s Fly: A life of Art, Music, and Changing the Culture by Fab 5 Freddy with Mark Rozzo. Published March 10, 2026 by Viking. 336 pages. I don’t think there will be a “next thing”. The proliferation of the internet means culture has split off and any new scene, movement or ‘ground zero’ will be a copy of an A.I. copy of a copy. The idealist in me does wonder that if there were another shift in creative leadership (stewardship?), Fab Five Freddy would definitely be involved.

I’m sure author George R.R. Martin gets a lot of “how’s the book coming,” “when’s the book coming,” “what’s going on with Arya / Tyrion / whoever” questions all the time. I mean, we know he does. This past week, an article dropped in the Hollywood Reporter and it came up again. What’s the skinny on completing The Winds of Winter? (the sixth book of the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire) And what if Martin shuffles off this mortal coil?

Salt Lake City, UT – The Utah Film Critics Association met on Saturday, January 17, 2026, for its annual meeting to vote on the year’s finest achievements in filmmaking for 2025. Winners spread across multiple films this year, with Sinners claiming four awards, Sorry, Baby securing three, and both Warfare and Weapons earning two each. Sorry, Baby was the big winner, taking Best Picture alongside Best Achievement in Directing and Best Screenplay for Eva Victor.