- Formative Action Series Comes Roaring Back with “Gears of War: E-Day” (October 1, 2026)
As a hallmark of the Xbox 360 era, “Gears of War” was a franchise that really cemented the nitty gritty third-person cover shooter genre into the cultural video game zeitgeist. The muted earth tones of the first three games set the stage for a bloody and visceral world filled with war and monsters. When the series shifted to the Xbox One, the fourth and fifth entries explored new colors and environments, with the former having a darker color palette with starker contrast and the latter introducing a new bright icy setting.
“Gears of War” doesn’t hold the same gravitas as it did 20 years ago, but “Gears of War: E-Day” is the best the series has been in a long, long time. While its campaign is fairly by-the-numbers standard for a third-person shooter, the game’s cast is engaging enough to elevate it. The pacing can be a bit of a slog sometimes, but the fantastic movement, gunplay, and visuals make all-out firefights an experience to behold.
“Gears of War: E-Day” is a prequel to the series, exploring the fated “Emergence Day” where the primary antagonists, the vile Locust, suddenly burst from underneath planet Sera and slaughtered a quarter of the global population. The story follows series protagonist Marcus Fenix once again, this time 15 years younger than he was in the first Gears game, as they come to terms with this apocalypse and try to salvage what’s left. Tagging along are his best friend Dom and two new characters in Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes. Marcus and Dom surprisingly aren’t the stars here, as they don’t get nearly as much character background exploration as they do in later entries.
Being the new kids on the block, Mags and Lucas get the spotlight. Mags is a combat veteran whose mysterious chronic cough has you worried about what her ultimate fate will be, while Lucas is the young buck who’s overly curious and loves to spit random trivia about the surroundings during the group’s journey. These two inject much needed personality between Marcus and Dom’s frequent bouts of hardheadedness and masculine bravado.
Emergence Day covers three days in the Gears universe, but there’s quite a lot that happens during them. What’s impressive is how developer The Coalition is able to stretch those three days into a fully-fledged and realized campaign. Much of it is thanks to the excellent environmental design. Mainly taking place in the city of Kalona, you’ll be scouring the ruined streets and dilapidated buildings multiple times through the game’s six chapters. But each time, the levels and routes are smartly remixed with the surroundings looking decrepit as the story progresses. There are also separate areas like a forest and an underground cave that add more variety in between exploring Kalona.
“E-Day” heavily leans into its horror aspects more than any other entry in the series in a way that’s not scary like “Resident Evil,” but more unsettling as you can see the carnage around the city. Dead civilian bodies and Locust corpses completely litter the streets, showing how devastating Emergence Day truly was.
In terms of level design, most of the missions are linear corridor shoot outs, with tight spaces and cover to duck behind, creating a sense of tension as enemies shoot from afar as well as close in on you. However, there are a few open-zone missions where you have more freedom to explore ruined Kalona. Here, you can take on secondary objectives that act like side quests, which usually involve mowing down incoming enemies. They’re worth doing though, as they reward mods that help augment weapons.
Mods and collectibles are scattered throughout these sections, which incentivizes exploration. But the issue is that it bogs down the story’s pacing. These areas aren’t so big that they require fast travel or anything like that, but a faster mode of transportation would’ve definitely been appreciated other than simply running around.
The gameplay and movement in “E-Day” is better than ever before too. The shooting feels incredible, with every shot feeling satisfying as blood pours from Locust bodies and heads. The assortment of guns include snipers, shotguns, assault rifles, and pistols, so there’s plenty to choose from. The aforementioned mods you find and equip can be customized to fit your playstyle and make every gun feel different.
Perhaps the biggest change is that players no longer “roadie-run,” where characters run stiffly in a straight line with little horizontal movement. It’s been replaced with a normal and flexible run. While the roadie-run was a staple in the Gears series, giving it a heavier feel, this change allows for more versatile movement, making it easier to jump cover or get to higher elevation. This’ll certainly be polarizing to veterans, but it makes moving around feel much less rigid.
I played much of “E-Day” by myself, but I ran a few missions in co-op with a review buddy (with up to four players). Inviting friends is mostly a seamless process, especially if you’re both playing on the same platform (Xbox or PC). But sometimes cross-platform invitations can be tricky. My buddy played the Steam version while I was on Xbox. I was able to join his sessions without any issues, but he didn’t see my invitations when I sent them to him.
Performance may vary as well. In solo play, everything ran without a hitch, but when playing in co-op, some visual and framerate hiccups can occur, especially when multiple enemies are on the screen simultaneously.
“E-Day” also has competitive multiplayer in the form of Siege Horde and Versus modes. The former has up to three squads of four survive against waves of Locusts and tackle various objectives while the latter pits players against each other in a test of skill. Unfortunately, the servers weren’t online during this review period so I can’t comment on their finished status. However, these modes provide extra content and replayability aside from the single-player campaign, something that “Halo: Campaign Evolved” couldn’t offer earlier this year.
“Gears of War: E-Day” and its campaign is one of the best, if not the absolute best in the series to date. It feels modern and slick while retaining its core gameplay mechanics and refining them. Along with phenomenal art direction and environments, it’s a beauty to watch through too. The open-zone levels feel sluggish at times, but that doesn’t stop “E-Day” from being a bloody great time.
Microsoft provided a review copy of this game. It is available on October 6 on Xbox Series X|S and PC. Those who purchase the Premium or Collector’s Editions can start playing on October 1 through Early Access.
- The Unloved, Part 154: No Pets (October 1, 2026)
I was only about 7 or 8 when I caught my first glimpse of Tony Buba, as an extra wearing a sombrero in “Dawn of the Dead”. “I just wanted to be able to see myself in the movie.” Last year Alex Lei and I made a pilgrimage to Pittsburgh PA, more specifically to Braddock PA to interview Tony, not about my favorite movie since I was in 3rd grade (we saw the Monroeville Mall and the Christian Stavrakos’ bust of George Romero, before its well-publicized closure), but about Tony’s art, specifically some of the finest works of non-fiction and meta-fiction ever made in the country.
Tony was described as a regional filmmaker and given access to a lot of the world’s backrooms because of his talent and the eccentricities of his background (his last name alone granted him entry into a program when he was younger – evidently someone just had to know what a “Buba” looked like). While Tony was cataloguing the fortunes of Braddock, his brother Pat was making friends with Thelma Schoonmaker, which got him gigs editing “Casino” and “Heat,” which in turn lead to his final credits, working for Al Pacino on his Salomé project, having become the actor’s favorite editor.
Tony thus had a window into how Hollywood worked via his brother and chose to stay away. Even working for his oldest collaborator, George Romero, became more of a slog when his budgets increased. He didn’t want to just make fantasy; he wanted to apply it to the lives of every day people, to give Braddock the fullness of cinematic empathy.
It’s thus doubly shameful that Tony’s sole fiction feature is not just completely unheralded it’s basically completely unseen. Even die-hard fans of his haven’t seen it. I had to get a copy straight from the director’s hands. I want to dedicate this work not just to Tony’s tireless efforts to help Braddock in its many hours of need, but to his lovely wife Jan, whom we had the pleasure to briefly meet on our trip to their home, and to Pat, who died of cancer in 2018, and to everyone who can’t quit their Pittsburgh accent, the sweetest sound in the world. To everyone who traded better fortunes to help out where they can make a difference.
- Home Entertainment Guide September 2026: Disclosure Day, The Secret Agent, Backrooms, Toy Story 5, More (September 30, 2026)
10 NEW TO NETFLIX
“Boyhood““The Breadwinner““The End of the Tour““Knock at the Cabin““Oculus““On Chesil Beach““The Room Next Door““The Squid and the Whale““Sundown““Top Gun: Maverick“
12 NEW TO BLU-RAY/DVD
“12 Angry Men” (Criterion)
People often ask me which classic films they could use to introduce their teenagers or children to movies made before this century. I think two of the best “gateway” movies for classic cinema are “Rear Window” and Sidney Lumet’s masterful 1957 debut, a movie that has lost none of its power in the almost seven decades since its release. Criterion has given this masterpiece the 4K upgrade this month with a new digital restoration, accompanied by the excellent special features from the first physical release, including the original 1954 teleplay version on which Lumet’s adaptation was based.
Special Features
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
Television version from 1954 of 12 Angry Men, directed by Franklin J. Schaffner for the series Studio One, with an introduction by Ron Simon, curator at the Paley Center for Media
Production history of 12 Angry Men, from teleplay to big-screen classic
Archival interviews with director Sidney Lumet
Interview with screenwriter Walter Bernstein about Lumet
Interview with Simon about writer Reginald Rose
Tragedy in a Temporary Town (1956), a teleplay directed by Lumet and written by Rose
Interview with cinematographer John Bailey about director of photography Boris Kaufman
Trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by writer and law professor Thane Rosenbaum
“Backrooms“
There are two films from 2026 that people are pointing to as shifts in the industry: Curry Barker’s “Obsession” and Kane Parsons’s “Backrooms,” which got the physical media treatment from A24 this month. One of the company’s biggest hits, this horror hit stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, and Mark Duplass in the story of a liminal space found parallel to an ordinary furniture store. These movies signal a shift from the grief-driven horror of the ’10s and early ’20s to something that captures the non-stop anxiety of the current era, one in which we can never be quite sure what’s real. The Blu-ray includes some cool collectible postcards, but the real draws are the feature commentary from Parsons himself and 16 minutes of bonus footage.
Special Features
“Everything Must Go” Bonus Footage (16m)
Feature commentary with Director Kane Parsons, VFX Supervisor Edward J Douglas, Sound Designer Eugenio Battaglia, and Composer Edo Van Breemen
“Building the Backrooms” Featurette (26m)
VFX & Scene Breakdown with Kane Parsons (16m)
Prop Walkthrough with Kane Parsons (1m30s)
Two VFX Breakdowns with optional commentary (5m and 2m)
Six Collectible Postcards
“Disclosure Day“
Steven Spielberg’s latest blockbuster proved to be one of the most divisive films of the year. I stand by every word of my review linked above, but I also find the criticisms of the film fascinating in that so many of them boil down to a commentary on how cynical and hopeless people feel in the 2020s. One of the main criticisms of the film is a lack of belief that there’s anything in 2026 that could unite us, even proof of alien existence. Yes, Spielberg’s film is hopeful to an arguably illogical degree, but he’s always trafficked in hope, and no one can deny the craft on display in this film. We can fight about the screenplay, but I can’t dismiss how much this movie does well because of a few flat lines of dialogue or even a climax that plays more like movie magic than reality. The Blu-ray is a bit disappointing with some standard EPK stuff. Maybe it will get the Special Edition it deserves down the road.
Special Features
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY ATMOS AUDIO TRACK
Encountering the Unknown: Inside Disclosure Day – Steven Spielberg, Emily Blunt, and the rest of the cast uncover the filmmaking secrets and real-life inspirations behind the movie
Spielberg and Williams: A Legendary Collaboration
Trailers
“Go” (Arrow)
In the wake of the success of “Pulp Fiction,” dozens of independent filmmakers found their funding to make similarly twisty, funny action flicks about people doing bad things. Most of them were awful, but not Doug Liman’s explosive 1999 thriller about intertwining plots on one fateful December night. Future Oscar winner Sarah Polley plays a clerk who decides to try to rip off a drug dealer (a fantastic Timothy Olyphant), starting a series of events that spirals through a great cast of characters that also includes Katie Holmes, Jay Mohr, William Fichtner, and Scott Wolf. Liman directs this with such flair that it stands out from the crowd, another entry in one of the best years of the 1990s. Arrow Home Video treats the film very well, including a new commentary, new interviews, and the multiple special features from other physical releases, including a Liman short film that stars Melissa McCarthy (who even does a commentary on it). Like almost everything Arrow has been releasing lately, this is a must-own.
Special Features
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
Original lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary with critics Bryan Reesman and Max Evry
Archival audio commentary with director Doug Liman and editor Stephen Mirrione
From the Word Go, a brand new interview with screenwriter, co-producer and second unit director John August
A View Askew, a brand new interview with actor Desmond Askew
Archival making-of featurette
14 deleted scenes
God, John August’s 1998 short film featuring Melissa McCarthy, shot using the short ends of film stock from the production of Go with much of the same crew, presented in high definition for the first time on home video
Optional audio commentary on God with John August, Melissa McCarthy and editor Douglas Crise
Theatrical trailer
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ben Beach
Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by David Michael Brown and Michelle Kisner, and original production notes
“I Love Boosters“
In retrospect, Neon dropping Boots Riley’s latest surreal comedy in the heart of the Summer Movie Season might have been a mistake. The competition just for screens for it to play on had Riley himself doing his best to promote the film all over social media. If you did miss it, you owe it to yourself to check out one of the most original comedies in years, a sharp dissection of late-stage capitalism and an ode to the hustlers and survivors. Keke Palmer leads a remarkable ensemble that includes Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza Gonzalez, Don Cheadle, Demi Moore, and an unforgettable LaKeith Stanfield. The Neon Blu-ray also includes a commentary from the unforgettable Boots himself.
Special Features
HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
Audio commentary with Boots Riley
Never before seen cast interviews
“The Making of I LOVE BOOSTERS” documentary program
Blooper reel
“Minions and Monsters“
It’s slightly tragic that the best Minions movie to date appears to be the first one that Illumination and Universal could call a commercial disappointment. Don’t get it twisted: This still made an insane half a billion dollars worldwide, but it’s still less than half of 2015’s “Minions,” and less than any of the “Despicable Me” movies. What’s the deal here? Was it because “Toy Story 5” was still dominating the family box office? Is it just fatigue with the little yellow guys? Whatever the reason, anyone who has ever liked one of these movies should check out the 7th film in the hit franchise. It’s a smart, funny ode to the history of filmmaking that works for all ages.
Special Features
MINIONS TAKE ON HOLLYWOOD – Go behind the scenes of MINIONS & MONSTERS as the filmmakers and artists at Illumination reveal the inspiration behind its early Hollywood setting, from story and casting to period research and cutting-edge animation, while introducing a new generation of Minions.
CASTING MINIONS & MONSTERS – Meet the voices behind the wide array of characters as filmmakers discuss what talent brought to their respective roles and what they hope fans of the franchise take away from the film.
HOLLYWOOD SOUND – Step into the studio with composer John Powell as he crafts a score inspired by the sweeping sound and timeless style of Hollywood’s golden age.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN IRENE BLOB MONSTER SLIME – Using simple ingredients found at home, follow along with slime influencer Snoopslimes in this step-by-step guide to make your very own Irene blob monster slime to devour anything in its path!
MOVIE-MAKING MINIONS STYLE – Take a seat in the director’s chair and make your very own Minions-inspired monster movie with this simple how-to, using hand-drawn art and flipbook animation to recreate one of the earliest forms of filmmaking.
HOW TO DRAW -Follow along with head of story Nima Azarba as he teaches you how to draw the Minions, monsters, and more!
“Nouvelle Vague” (Criterion)
The Cannes 2025 response to Richard Linklater’s ode to Jean-Luc Godard and the making of “Breathless” was a bit conflicted with some thinking its tone a bit shallow and predictable given Godard’s depth and ambition. And then it came stateside, and the reputation seemed to shift. It even made this site’s top ten of the year. And now it’s earned a place in the Criterion Collection with a new 4k digital master, a new audio commentary with Linklater, and an incredible audiovisual dossier from Farran Smith Nehme. Every time that a great streaming movie gets a physical release, it’s a reason to celebrate, and this is one of the more impressive to date in the Netflix-to-Criterion pipeline.
Special Features
New 4K digital master, supervised and approved by director Richard Linklater and director of photography David Chambille, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
New audio commentary featuring Linklater
Le making of “Nouvelle Vague” (2025), directed by Lucie Saada
Interviews with Linklater and actors Zoey Deutch, Aubry Dullin, and Guillaume Marbeck
Within the Wave, an audiovisual dossier on the real-life figures depicted in the film, by critic Farran Smith Nehme
Linklater’s prerehearsal manifesto, read by Deutch
Selection of trailers from French New Wave films
Trailer
English descriptive audio
PLUS: Essays by critic Nick James and coscreenwriter Vince Palmo and an introduction by Linklater
“The Secret Agent” (Criterion)
This is another Cannes 2025 title getting the Criterion treatment 15 months after its acclaimed international premiere. Kleber Mendonça Filho’s thriller was easily one of the best films of 2025, nominated for Oscars for Casting, International Feature Film, Actor, and even Best Picture. Wagner Moura does the best work of his increasingly promising career as Armando, a professor forced into hiding under Brazil’s dictatorship. Criterion has gone all out for this one, including another full feature by Mendonça, the excellent “Pictures of Ghosts.” It also includes deleted scenes, a documentary about the making of the film, and a new video essay. It’s a great release.
Special Features
New 4K digital master, approved by director Kleber Mendonça Filho, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
Pictures of Ghosts (2023), a companion film by Mendonça Filho
Making-of documentary featuring interviews with Mendonça Filho, actor Wagner Moura, and other members of the cast and crew
New interviews with director of photography Evgenia Alexandrova and sound mixer Cyril Holtz
New video essay featuring Mendonça Filho
Deleted scenes
Archival material that inspired the film, with commentary by Mendonça Filho
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film programmer and curator Dennis Lim
“Shoah” (Criterion)
I don’t usually quote the official synopsis for a film, but this wording about the essential “Shoah” caught my attention: “The intellectual yet emotionally overwhelming Shoah is not a film about excavating the past but an intensive portrait of the ways in which the past is always present, and it is inarguably one of the most important cinematic works of all time.” You can’t say that about a lot of films but it’s undeniably true about Claude Lanzmann’s stunning historical document. I’ll quote Roger on this one too, from his original review in 1985: “There is no proper response to this film. It is an enormous fact, a 550-minute howl of pain and anger in the face of genocide. It is one of the noblest films ever made.”
Special Features
2K digital restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Three additional films by director Claude Lanzmann: A Visitor from the Living (1999, 68 minutes); Sobibór, October 14, 1943, 4 p.m. (2001, 102 minutes); and The Karski Report (2010, 49 minutes)
Conversation between Lanzmann and critic Serge Toubiana
Interview with Lanzmann from 2003 about A Visitor from the Living and Sobibór
Interview with Caroline Champetier, assistant cameraperson on Shoah, and filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin
All I Had Was Nothingness (2025), a new film by Guillaume Ribot, edited from previously unreleased footage and recounting the production of Shoah
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by critic Kent Jones and writings by Lanzmann
“Supergirl“
What happened to “Supergirl”? Just as it looked like the James Gunn era of the DCU was going to correct for the previous era with the success of 2025’s “Superman,” the franchise came crashing to the ground with this critical and commercial flop. A major superhero movie that can’t make over $130 million worldwide? That’s a movie that people really don’t want to see. And it led people to wonder if it was superhero fatigue or gender issues that forced the failure, when it’s also possible people just didn’t like this movie. To be fair, most people judged Milly Alcock innocent, and the DCU will likely rebound with next yerar’s “Man of Tomorrow”. It’s also worth noting that “Lanterns” is doing well on HBO and the right people seem excited about “Clayface.” And that the WB Blu-ray for “Supergirl” is pretty strong, especially the HD quality and audio mix, which are always top notch from WB.
Special Features
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY ATMOS AUDIO TRACK
The Making of Supergirl – Consider Supergirl a “Hero’s Journey” for Milly Alcock. She transformed throughout the process of leading her first feature film. We watch as a fly-on-the-wall during key moments of production.
Flying Off the Page – Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, written by Tom King with art by Bilquis Evely, was the jumping off point for DC to adapt Supergirl into a film. We follow the comic authors, screenwriter Ana Nogueira, and filmmakers, as they make the leap from page to screen.
Space is a Bad Neighborhood, Babe – Explore with Production Designer Neil Lamont, as he takes us through the many worlds that Kara Zor-El steps into on her journey to hunt down Krem of the Yellow Hills.
A Practical Legacy – There are so many aliens and unique looks in this film that are literally out of this world! Legacy Effects and Peter Swords King explain the creative process behind this diverse group of creatures.
Showdown at Evely Square – Production spent a month filming this action set-piece. From stunt training, to crashing tanks, to classic superhero flying moments, this breaks down the making of an incredible action scene.
The DC Dream: Lobo – Jason Momoa has been outspoken over wanting to play Lobo for years, and now his time has come. Go behind the scenes as he transforms into this iconic and chaotic character.
Mixtape for a Hero – What does Supergirl, as a character, sound like? Director Craig Gillespie and Composer Claudia Sarne answer this question as they discuss the score for the film.
You Are Here: A Supergirl Map of the Galaxy – If you want to know more about all the planets visited in the film, check out this piece, narrated by Ruthye herself, actress Eve Ridley, to learn some more details, and enjoy the alien aesthetic of the film up close!
Girl’s Best Friend – Krypto is Kara’s badly-behaved BFF and last connection to her home world of Krypton. We delve into their relationship and what makes it so special.
Krypto Saves the Day: Coastal Catastrophe – An animated short that tells the story of a fun day at the beach which goes sideways when some sneaky foes get between Krypto and his hot dog.
Deleted Scenes
“Tequila Sunrise” (Arrow)
Robert Towne’s 1988 thriller came along at the tail end of a wave of ’80s adult noirs, following movies like “The Postman Always Rings Twice” and “Body Heat,” flicks about beautiful people committing crimes when they’re not having sex with each other. The Oscar-winning writer of “Chinatown” never quite had the career as a director that he did as a writer, and this is an interesting curiosity, a movie that never quite lives up to its potential, but definitely works now as a bit of a time capsule. Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Kurt Russell star in a movie that Roger said, “weaves a tangled web, and there are times when we are not sure what is happening, or why.” Maybe new interviews with producer Thom Mount, 2nd AD Robert Roda, and actor Lala Sloatman could help answer those questions, or perhaps a brand new appreciation of Towne by Lucy Bolton. This is another case of Arrow giving a lavish treatment to a film that history has arguably forgotten, and bless them for it.
Special Features
NEW 4K RESTORATION FROM THE ORIGINAL CAMERA NEGATIVE
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
Original and newly restored lossless stereo and 4.0 audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Audio commentary by producer Thom Mount
California Dreaming, a brand new interview with producer Thom Mount
From Chinatown to Manhattan Beach, a brand new appreciation of Robert Towne by Lucy Bolton
Sunrise to Sunset, a brand new interview with 2nd AD Robert Roda
Sin City, a brand new interview with actor Lala Sloatman
Image gallery
Theatrical trailer
Collectors’ booklet featuring new writing on the film by Sean Hogan and Josh Nelson, and excerpts from American Cinematographer
Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
“Toy Story 5“
Two things can be true: Andrew Stanton’s Pixar sequel can be both the worst movie in this franchise and totally worth seeing. “Toy Story 5” is good; the only problem is that the other four movies are great. Still, a good Pixar movie is worth seeing at least once, and probably worth owning if you have little ones. Stanton wisely centers Joan Cusack’s Jessie this time, filling in her back story in as Bonnie becomes obsessed with the screen culture that is arguably destroying actual play time for millions of kids. It looks gorgeous, especially in 4K, and it’s undeniably sweet and clever.
Special Features
DOLBY VISION/HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
DOLBY ATMOS AUDIO TRACK
Audio commentary
The Toys Are Back in Town
Casting Playtime
50 Buzzes and The Great Escape
The Lost Toys
Gag Reel
Deleted Scenes
- Enshrouded in Darkness: Lance Oppenheim, Merritt Wever, and Skyler Gisondo on “Primetime” (September 29, 2026)
Blurring–or rather smudging–the lines between hunter and hunted, predator and prey, exploiter and exploited, director Lance Oppenheim’s “Primetime” derives its deliciously devilish thrills through emphasizing contrast. Whether it is imbuing spiritual weight to the earthiness of its story, oversaturating its ordinary compositions with piercing, revealing light, or contrasting a histrionic performance from an unhinged Robert Pattinson–who plays “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen–against an actor in a more understated register, the film exists in that uncanny valley between myth and unreality. Even the very concept of Hansen’s show, wherein he and his team would draw potential child molesters out, where he would then confront them and force them to confess to their twisted desires, feels incredulous that it was ever on air, and also par for the course for a nation that regularly resorts to spectacle and entertainment when it comes to trying to process sin and vice.
Straightforward as it may be in telling its story about the rise of Hansen’s show, the boundaries he pushed in the pursuit of higher ratings (“I’m gonna be bigger than “Lost!” he ambitiously exclaims to his producer, Andie [Merritt Wever]), and the show’s subsequent cancellation after an exposure gone wrong, its simplicity is complicated through how Oppenheim imbues a metaphysical heft into its narrative. “You’re cleansing the world of an ancient evil,” Hansen tells his protégé, Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo), an actor hired as a decoy to lure out the potential predators. Indeed, Hansen exists somewhere between a wolf in sheep’s clothing and a false prophet, framing his show as righteous when, in reality, he sees it as a way to gain more notoriety and power.
For Oppenheim, this tension is something he was excited to explore in his first feature film, after a string of successful documentaries. “There’s something so interesting and maybe somewhat tragic about the concept of a person who has essentially embraced the cultural lore around himself,” he shared.
With “Primetime” breaking out at the box office, introducing Hansen to a whole new host of viewers, Oppenheim, Wever, and Gisondo spoke with RogerEbert.com over Zoom before the film’s premiere in New York; this piece combines their interviews into one fluid conversation. They discussed the film’s unique spiritual temperament, chewing gum, child actors, and whether it is ever possible to truly offer help on the other side of a camera.
This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Merritt, one piece of audio that “Primetime” highlights is your voracious gum chewing. Tell me more about how that action helped you, if at all, understand Andie better?
Merritt Wever: I went through a hundred packs of whatever was sugar-free, but I definitely chewed so much that by the end of the day I was getting nauseous. That had a part of a storyline that I don’t think ended up making it into the film, but it was this idea that Andie was trying to be a better person and quit smoking. The Nicorette gum that she was chewing was to help her keep on the straight and narrow, but in the same way other characters made compromises and strayed, at one point there was an idea that by the end of the movie, she makes a specific choice to not make a change and goes back to being a smoker.
You’re not the first person to bring up gum chewing, though, which is making me wonder if A24 is pushing that as a talking point or if people are honestly responding to the smacking.
(Laughs) I was genuinely curious; I feel like it must have helped you tap into the physicality of Andie in a way.
It was helpful; it was something she could do when she was getting excited about something. She becomes animal- or monster-esque when she’s watching the stings go down. This movie has a lot to do with who’s the monster? Where’s the monster? They’re chasing a supposed monster out there outside of themselves, but these characters reveal themselves to have their own monsters inside them. So I think when we’re talking about the gnashing of the teeth in a movie that also has wolves and those kinds of elements, I wonder if this kind of chewing physicality lies within that world.
I’m thinking about what you shared during the Venice press conference where, before “Primetime,” you were “coming off a string of parts where I was playing people who really cared a lot about the right things, used a certain part of their heart over and over, and that part of my heart had kind of run dry.” What were these characters from past projects demanding of you and what made Andie feel cathartic?
MW: I think leading up to Lance’s film, the characters I played in some of those projects were incredibly compassionate or empathetic. They cared about the right things and loved people. I think using the same part of your heart repeatedly can wear it to the nub, and I found that when other parts came that would ask me to use that part of my heart, I felt like there was nothing left. I needed to regrow and generate that, which ironically meant jumping to a different register.
Andie is not using that part of her heart. If anything, there’s something slightly masochistic about her. She likes swimming in these waters. When the script came my way, it was still in flux, but the shape of the character never changed, which is that she’s a person who does a very specific kind of job with a specific kind of man, and she’s offered the opportunity to change her life and make a different choice, and she decides not to. She decides to double down on this way of life and embraces the material.
Lance and I played at different times with getting very explicit in the script about why she chose to double down, why she made her choice, but I think he wisely decided that the film did not need that. What I hope is that when people see the character, they feel like it makes sense and they can track how she made her decision, regardless of how explicit we ended up being.
I think what strikes me about your character is not that she’s necessarily less of a sociopath than Chris, but that her reach is far more limited.
MW: Yeah, at the end of the day, she has more responsibility, but less power. With her, I tried to play into the reality of cycles of harm. Hurt people hurt people, yes, but she’s not even treated as a person at times. She’s very much like a dog that is kicked at certain times by Chris, and she turns around and kicks the nearest dog around her, whether it is the so-called predators or Xavier Von Erck.
It’s not explicit in the story, but I remember talking to Lance early on and saying, “An interesting element here is that a lot of people who prey on children or who attempt to engage with children in this way are people who had that done to them when they were children.” In the limited amount of real estate I had, I might have been trying to bring this cyclical idea of harm, how violence gets passed down, that when you’re treated a certain way, that’s sometimes all you know and that’s how you choose to treat others.
Well, in one sequence where you get to throw it back to Chris is in that beat towards the end–which has garnered a lot of reactions–where you brutally enunciate the line “I will call the network, motherfucker.”
MW: Interestingly, you talk about the response to that scene because at the time we are chatting, I’ve only seen the film once at Venice, and that’s a very specific audience. It is why I’m excited to see the film tonight because I’ll be watching it with an audience in the US that has a very particular media and culture diet that is different from when I first watched it.
It feels like we shot a lot of different versions of Andie, because that’s Lance’s discovery process. When filming wrapped, I thought, “I’m not going to know who Andie ends up being until I see the final cut.” That is new for me; it felt like I was meeting her for the first time when I saw the film. Hearing people respond or gravitate towards anything I did to embody her is enlightening because I’m still in the process of being introduced to her.
Skyler, also at the Venice Press conference, there was an astute observation made that the coterie is composed of many former child actors, including Alex Winter, Jonathan Lipnicki, and, of course, yourself and Pattinson. Was this something that you clocked yourself or talked with Lance about in regard to what you might bring in from your own experience as a child actor onto this set?
Skyler Gisondo: So much of Dan’s journey as this aspiring young actor was easy to latch onto. There was that kind of quiet desperation of not being able to betray how badly you want this thing, and also the eagerness, a desire to express just how grateful he is for an opportunity, and the quickness to compartmentalize if anything doesn’t feel great, that felt relatable. I also remember the experience of being young and working with an actor you idolize, and that person feels ten feet tall, and you can’t even believe you are breathing the same air as them, let alone doing a scene with them. With Dan’s relationship with Chris, there’s so much of that. He’s just in awe of Chris and everything that he has.
I’m thinking now about the scene where Andie tells Dan, “We’re going to shoot the rehearsal.” Lance and David Bolen loved to keep things alive and discover things in the moment, coming from the doc world. So there were many moments where we did not rehearse. That scene had so many moving pieces. Lance had this vision of me coming in with the wind, as if I was coming in from some kind of storm. Merritt and I knew we had to hit this mark, but there were still a couple of beats of silence because there were moving parts. So I said, “Do we have time for a rehearsal?” and she was so dialed in to character that she said, “We’re going to shoot the rehearsal.” In a lot of these scenes, Dan’s incredulousness mirrored my own in a way that was helpful whenever I was completely surprised or just by a decision. If I ever was aware I was not an actor anymore, I could channel that.
I’ve heard you speak about how in Hollywood, if you break out doing one type of movie, you’re often typecast. It mirrored a lot of the struggle Chris was feeling at the start of the film about his work not being taken seriously, feeling like “To Catch a Predator” was stuck in a kind of limbo.
SG: As an actor, he’s so much out of your control. You just wait a lot; you spend a lot of time waiting for the phone to ring. I never thought about how a lot of the work I did prior to this was comedy; I just saw them as great opportunities to work with great people, and I wanted to leap at those opportunities. I don’t think I quite realized how big of a departure “Primetime” would be for me until I did it. I didn’t think I could do it, but Lance just had this unwavering belief that fueled my own confidence. Rob, being at the level he was at and yet still being willing to take swings and being so incredibly alive- that’s the kind of MO I want for myself going forth.
You’ve spoken about encountering Chris Hansen through memes and recreations. I think there’s a meta element to that when Dan adopts Hansen’s mannerisms. Tell me more about where you see that sequence fitting into this idea of meme-ification of someone like Chris. You’re, in essence, copying Rob’s impersonation of Chris Hansen.
SG: It’s crazy now to think on the page; it was not evident to me that Dan would also be doing the voice. It was clear that he was trying to take control in the way that Chris would, and I think that’s what unites these various “recreations,” this idea of wanting to grasp at control. I remember going to set, and it occurred to me that it could be a fun idea to mimic not necessarily Chris’ voice, but Rob’s impersonation of his voice. Rob was on set, and I flagged him down, and he was so excited by the idea and so generous with his time. I just asked him to read all of the lines in his voice, and so I was able to work with him on getting the sound down.
Merritt, you’ve spoken about this film being a curious period piece, and that the show came out at a time when the show predates a world where we had the internet on our phones. As someone who is in the public sphere, whose images and words can be manipulated and taken out of context, I’m curious about how the film’s ideas land for you when everything is threatened with virality.
MW: I have been very lucky professionally to be someone who’s able, sometimes more than others, to continue working without being particularly public.
That may shift for you in a couple of weeks’ time, though.
MW: I don’t know about the shift, but I do know that I’m trying to participate. I’m trying to be a player and be a good sport. So this is a question for almost two weeks from now (Laughs).
I’m curious what younger generations think of this film. The internet is something different now than it was when the show took place, particularly due to its accessibility. To have not just a camera in your pocket but your phone where you can upload and access those images … it is different to grow up in a world where you have to acknowledge that every time you leave your house, you could record someone or someone could record you.
hIn “Primetime,” people are trying to record other people’s supposedly worst actions and thoughts and desires and deeds. It very much explores what happens when media, the news, and law enforcement collide with human beings. But nowadays, it’s become second nature to turn the camera on ourselves and offer the public our own worst moments. It’s interesting: we don’t just share the best of ourselves with these little handheld cameras. We seem driven to also share the worst.
Lance, I want to ask about the spiritual register of this film. There’s, of course, a reference to the kind of demonic force Hansen encounters in India, which you bring to life. But I also think about how you and David Bolen frame the film’s opening moments, where Tony Revolori’s character falls prostrate before Hansen, as if he’s in a kind of twisted form of confession where Pattinson is playing a priest. Tell me more about the intentionality of that framing.
Lance Oppenheim: When you watch “To Catch a Predator,” especially the raw footage, it feels like everything you’re seeing is beamed from Mars, a different planet. These objects that seem so familiar, whether it is sweet tea, pepperoni pizza, or cookies … these ubiquitous items that could be from anywhere in the US, something feels off about them. As you said, these objects take on a doomed or spiritual significance. They have a lot of weight for people who enter the house, and essentially they leave the house with their lives having ended. You can watch the show and witness a series of little deaths. You see the life leave people’s eyes when they’re discovered on television.
In that regard, I was thinking about Chris Hansen as an archangel, or this spiritual figure who occupies this position of moral superiority. He’s tying himself to something ancient.
I like that he’s almost unaware of it in the movie, but something is happening to him. The more he does this show, the more spiritually something is changing inside of him and is, in some ways, being robbed of him. He’s entered into a Faustian bargain he isn’t even aware that he’s made.
I talked a lot about this with Rob, but the bracelet he wears in that film and then gives to Dan was our version of the ring of power in “The Lord of the Rings.” If you think about Frodo trying to throw the ring into Mount Doom at the end, that’s in part what I was drawing from too: this kind of operatic epic of mythological proportions. To use that as a touchpoint seemed very fitting for a person like Hansen, who has turned himself into a myth, meme, and has occupied for almost thirty years a lot of attention online and culturally.
I know that the “whale” Hansen references in the film is a gambling term, but it did make me think about the story of Jonah: how, in running away from Nineveh, he was swallowed by a big fish, yes, and perhaps looked at differently, was consumed by the enormity of what he was avoiding.
LO: I love that. One of my favorite movies of all time is Nicholas Ray’s “Bigger Than Life,” and that movie is essentially the book of Job. Chris is never dealing with one crisis at a time. That’s why the film includes things like this extramarital affair. Well before the events of the movie start, he’s doomed. He has already made decisions that are somewhat irrelevant to what he’s doing with his show. Yet because he is setting such a high moral standard for everything, he has to also be held to that. As he says in the film, “A man should be held accountable for the decisions he makes.”
I liked this idea of seeing the media culture around him attempting to snipe him and employ the same tricks that he does to other people, whether or not it’s justified. He even says, “This person I’m having this affair with is thirty years old …why are you coming at me with this?” I was fascinated by this idea that we could inhabit a time where I felt like the tabloid culture was nastier.
Skyler, I want to turn the spiritual register question to you because it’s not lost on me that you’re stepping into this role after having played Gideon in “The Righteous Gemstones.” It feels like the fear-mongering, the language of spiritual warfare Hansen adopts, can be attributed in part to the rhetoric of megachurch pastors too.
SG: That’s an interesting point. I think for Dan, in regard to his own spiritual life insofar as it exists in “Primetime,” there is no higher good–and perhaps no higher God–than his desire to be taken seriously as an actor. Rob and Lance have told me a version of the following line: “There used to be a pillory in every town and now there’s a television set in every home, and you’re on it and so am I.” So much of the movie for Dan is his relationship to wanting something so badly that he’s wanted for so long and it’s so close, but he has to reconcile with this idea that he’s doing this uncomfortable thing. This is not acting for him, but something else entirely because whether he’s comfortable about it or not, he is an arbiter and is doling out punishment.
Lance, you’ve said that artistically, you are drawn to people obsessed with fantasies and those who end up becoming entombed by them. That was true most recently for “Ren Faire” and dovetails well with this pair of projects you have coming out in “Primetime” and “You Can See Everything.” Why do you keep coming back to the well of this theme?
LO: I think a part of it is at least the fact that my parents are both real estate attorneys, and during the recession, I remember they were representing people whose homes were being foreclosed on. One of the people they were working with lived in a garage with all of their prized possessions, and they didn’t want to part ways with them. That really stuck with me as a kid, wanting to be buried with your things.
I have ambitions as a filmmaker, and I feel constantly defined by, in some ways, my ambition, and I hate that about myself. I find it in a weird way when I make these movies, especially this one, there’s obviously parts of myself that are in it. When I think of Chris Hansen, and I think about the Cameo that my wife had gotten me from him in 2024, well before I ever received a script. The feeling I had was like, “This is a guy who started as an investigative journalist in the mold of Mike Wallace, and yet now you could pay him $30, and he’ll pretend that you’re a potential predator and he’ll wish you a happy birthday.” While he’s doing that, he’s still doing investigations into this extremely serious subject. There’s something so interesting and maybe somewhat tragic about the concept of a person who has essentially embraced the cultural lore around himself. He’s so hyper-aware of it, and all of the work he does is absorbed into this hyper-performative version of himself. The man has become a meme; the person has become a persona.
He has lost some part of himself potentially in doing this work and spending so much time enshrouded in darkness. He’s spent more time doing that than spending time with his family; that’s the work of an enterprise journalist. You’re constantly on the road, you’re gone all the time … I was drawn to this idea of following the breadcrumbs of that feeling, and trying to depict that in interesting ways.
I like the idea that the world of the show felt closer to family to him. His spending time with Dan, his “fake son,” felt more real than the time he spent with his real children. His home feels even more artificial than the world of the show when he has this elaborate apparatus set up. With “You Can See Everything,” there are similar ideas, and part of what I hope to communicate when people see it is this idea of surprise. Nathan and I made this movie in secrecy, and we wanted people to have this experience where they had no context at all for what they were watching. The same cinematographer shot both films, and the composer worked on it too. There’s a level of immersion we’re striving for, where the people watching it would have the same feelings we had making it, being in the room, observing everything.
Your film has made me wonder about whether it’s possible to be free from the entrapment of a system you still participate in. As a documentary filmmaker, I’m wondering if you find yourself asking the same haunting line that closes the film: “What would have happened if I wasn’t there?”
I think about The Journalist and the Murderer, which is largely about the kind of vampiric relationship that exists in non-fiction storytelling. There was something therapeutic about seeing the kind of media culture of the time. There’s a war that was going on that was really confusing and people didn’t know why we were in it. The perfect receptacle came their way in the midst of that confusion, which was in the form of this television show. We’re in a time now where it feels like we’re in another war that’s really confusing, and that rage is still there; it hasn’t gone away, and Chris Hansen hasn’t gone away either.
He’s still doing the same show in a different context. Millions of people are doing it all the time with their phones. So when I think about that final line … in the context of the movie, I feel like there’s a multifaceted dimension to it. Critically, I didn’t want to end the movie with just that line but with Dan getting his card. It feels like this pyrrhic victory. He has achieved everything he’s ever dreamt of, but at what cost? It felt like a classic ode to some of the movies that I thought so much about when I was making this, whether it’s “Ace in the Hole” or “A Face in the Crowd” or “Demon Lover.”
As a documentary filmmaker, I definitely experience that question on an everyday basis. I remember when I was working on “Some Kind of Heaven,” I remember thinking of Reggie Kincer, who I am still very close with, and how he was doing psychedelics and prioritizing this alternate way of existing inside a very constructed universe there. I kept thinking, “Is the camera’s presence affecting him? Is it motivating him to be on psychedelics?” I remember there were a lot of times where we would put the camera aside and just talk with Anne, his wife, just to be like, “Are we helping or are we hurting? Should we get out of here? Or is there a path to catharsis in some way?” There’s something I selfishly love about the experience of making films, and I love being, especially with documentaries, being in worlds that I’m an alien invader in. I love when I don’t have any reason to be in a space, and yet I have to be hyper-present to get to know people and hopefully capture a truth that is essential, and that can speak to something that is a profound human drama.
- “Silent Hill: Townfall” Gets Fogged in by Frustrating Gameplay (September 29, 2026)
Konami’s “Silent Hill: Townfall” opens so promisingly. Sure, a first-person “Silent Hill” game feels very weird at first, but the atmosphere of the game’s setting, along with its early few hours of gameplay, place it atmospherically right in the heart of the series. It’s foggy, creepy, mysterious, and you can lock doors this time! A blend of stealth mechanics and puzzle-solving make the first two chapters of “Townfall” truly engaging. And then the air comes out of the tires.
Not only is the end of the third chapter of this game one of the more numbingly frustrating bits of stealth level construction I’ve come across in decades of gaming, but the game never really recovers narratively, losing much of its personality as the story diffuses across multiple POVs with increasingly unengaging emotional beats. No one is happier than this critic that “Silent Hill” is back as a prominent gaming franchise—three in three years, including last year’s “Silent Hill f“—but that excitement is now haunted a bit by this dip in quality.
“Townfall” takes place in 1996 in a fictional Scottish town called St. Amelia. You first play Simon Ordell (Jovan Adepo of “Babylon”), who wakes up in the water, climbing to a dock and then walking into what looks like a city that’s been abandoned after some sort of supernatural incident—in other words, very Silent Hill. There has been a lot of debate online about whether this is a “true” SH game, and that’s patently silly. It has a confused protagonist in a fictional, fog-shrouded town, evading nightmare fuel creatures and solving puzzles. So, yeah, it definitely is, even with the over-reliance on stealth and first-person POV. In fact, expanding what it means to be a “Silent Hill” game with a title that feels inspired by Guillermo del Toro and Hideo Kojima’s notoriously disappeared “P.T.” is a great idea. The execution is another matter.
As Simon begins his exploration of St. Amelia, we learn a few things about the place and his history. He’s seeking someone named Zoe Ellis, who was a nurse during a time of great crisis. There are signs and recordings about staying indoors and avoiding public spaces, hinting at a pandemic, possible riot-protests, or perhaps something more Lovecraftian. Of course, that’s about when the monsters come out, starting with a being that looks like it has a sideways axe blade in its face, and he likes to headbutt you with it. While you get a plank to use as a melee weapon relatively quickly, the game’s design clearly favors stealth. Not only are these enemies resilient to a plank that breaks after a few uses, but you’re given a handheld CRTV that reveals their location. The developers have said that this device is the main reason the game is in first-person: So you can see the CRTV in your left hand and use it to track enemies to sneak around them.
Simon is contacted by a mysterious man named Richard, who becomes the third point of a triangle with Zoe and our first protagonist. You will end up playing as all three, although the gameplay doesn’t vary much between characters. Zoe is even less stocked with weapons than Simon, and her enemies seem even more able to eradicate you with a single sighting; Richard’s chapter centers speedier bad guys but you get a shotgun to take em out in a way that almost feels like a different game.
For all three, “Townfall” relies on two elements: Stealth and puzzles. You’ll need to be a huge fan of the former to proceed through most missions. One enemy known as The Weight is a particular nightmare, and as he hunts Simon at the end of the third chapter, goodwill towards what “Townfall” did well for its first hours begins to leak. No one minds a well-done stealth mission in a survival horror game, but the first mission that includes The Weight is a soul-sucking drain, punctured by bad level design and inconsistent mechanics. The Weight will alternate from just standing in your way endlessly to wandering to the corner of the map only to spot you down the hall and begin chase. It’s almost impossible to determine when you’re sufficiently hidden. And if the character and level design were stronger, none of this would feel like such a chore. It’s a boring basement level that goes on forever. And then the game basically brings it back in the final chapter.
What will likely keep gamers, especially hardcore “SH” fans, pushing through the faulty mechanics and ultimately repetitive enemies—there’s a shockingly small variety of bad guys—is the storytelling. As it unfolds, the connections between Simon, Zoe, and Richard become clearer as all three seem trapped in this space between reality and H.P. Lovecraft’s nightmares. It’s all related to an investment by Richard’s company, Chapman Energy Group, and their cover-up of a fire that killed dozens of their workers, leaving Simon as the only survivor. Zoe was the nurse who treated him, and it gets much darker and weirder from there. Without spoiling, choices made in the real world by Simon, Richard, and Zoe have trapped them in this deadly space.
Within the frustrations, there are admittedly ingenious puzzle designs. Zoe’s major puzzle involves medical procedures on an unknown patient, including finding the right drugs in a medical centre occupied by monsters and even calibrating an X-ray machine. It’s an unexpectedly clever chapter, one of the strongest in the game. And Richard’s journey through CEG Headquarters late in the title includes some clever bits, especially one involving employee records that shows how great this series can be with dark humor.
A foggy town that seems to have emerged from Hell to help a protagonist process grief and guilt? “Townfall” is definitely a “Silent Hill” game and the market is better when its staple franchises like this one are robustly producing new titles—just look at how much attention the resurgence of “Resident Evil” has done for the industry. So while “Townfall” is a disappointment, it’s encouraging to see Konami actively expanding the legacy of their franchise. Sometimes when you swing for the fences, you strike out. But I still can’t wait to see the next at-bat.
The publisher provided a review copy of this title. It is now on PS5 and Windows.
