Inside Pulse

Before watching A Yard of Jackals (Patio de chacales), it might be a help to have a quick historical familiarization as to what was happening in the country of Chile in the ’70s. On September 11, 1973, the military led by General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the government of socialist president Salvador Allende. Pinochet stayed in power until 1990. Allende killed himself during the military coup. Pinochet and the military junta ruled the country harshly.

I’m part of the mob that’s not happy that The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs is being cancelled by Shudder. It’s even more frustrating that they yanked off the “normal season” and gave him only 4 double feature specials for 2026. He has been the face of Shudder for almost a decade. He lured me into subscribing. Who knows what the bean counters at Shudder are thinking. Perhaps they are imagining that they can just put up the movies without dealing with a host. Joe Bob Briggs does two things.

You know that feeling when you’re scrolling through a casino lobby and suddenly Batman’s staring back at you? Or maybe it’s the Ghostbusters theme playing, or some character from a show you binged last month. It happens constantly. Pop culture and pokies have become this weird but totally natural pairing, and once you start paying attention, you see it everywhere. The thing is, this isn’t some random trend.

If you are old enough to remember the Iraq War, you’ll mostly recall how long it went. The military started recalling soldiers who thought they’d retired years before. Those already enlisted found themselves being cycled back into the warzone so they’d rarely saw their families. Many of the veterans would have trouble getting full-time jobs because employers feared their new employee might get another 9 months overseas.

During a summer in the mid-70s, my family came up to Boston for our summer vacation and got a big surprise. My cousin Bill's parents converted their basement ga

Land 25 headshots in the Gears of War: E-Day multiplayer beta and there is a banner waiting. Reach level 20 and the reward is a character skin. Other challenges unlock weapon skins, emblems and titles, with some items carrying over when the full game arrives. The prizes themselves are nothing new. Older titles were full of extra characters, stages and costumes. What has changed is how clearly the route to those rewards is laid out.

Over the years people have gotten way too serious about how historically accurate a film is. There are podcasts dedicated to “setting the record straight” about movies that somehow have strayed from the biographies declared “truth.” Even movies that are based on historical novels get this fine-tooth treatment that is normally reserved for Superhero films. Just think of all the people whining about how Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey isn’t historically true.

During the ’80s, the art house spread beyond the boundaries of New York City, Boston, Los Angeles and other major cities. While many chains were building six-plex cinemas, the art house owners took over abandoned single or twin screens away from the shopping malls. Many of the art houses popped up in college towns where they could appeal to students who wanted more than a steady diet of Hollywood blockbusters. These were kids who wanted to feel a bit sophisticated.

Do you remember the summer of Barbenheimer? That was the time when people would buy tickets for both The Barbie Movie and Oppenheimer for a cineplex double feature. What did the films about a posable doll and the man who was part of the creation of the atomic bomb have in common? Not much except they both made amazing amounts at the box office. Barbie did better.

Anyone who’s spent real money on a physical media collection knows the frustration: you finally track down a pristine 4K UHD copy of a beloved film, pop it in, and watch it on a screen that barely does it justice. Screen size isn’t just a spec sheet number anymore — it’s the difference between a movie night and an actual event. For collectors and pop-culture obsessives, getting this right matters more than most people realize.