SPOILER Magazine March 2022

Almost Dead is a post-apocalyptic horror-drama adventure about triumph, growth, and the resiliency of the human spirit. With their cinematic comic book series which depicts vicious and visceral events in a raw yet beautiful way, Galaxy and Brehm have redefined the genre and nearly invented one of their own.

Infusing the perilous and unexpectedly exciting journey with absolute horror and an attention to detail that’s rooted in and dedicated to realism, the writers have established a nexus point between exhilaration and terror.

Meet your new sidekick gita is a first-of-its-kind hands-free robot that follows you and totes your gear.

OUR TEAM Editor-in-Chief Galaxy Print Editor Art Director Sara Hope Kent Klarks Design and illustration Supervisor Ronald Garcia Design Manager Zerologhy Copy Editor Ethan Brehm

Staff Writers The Greatest Writing Team in Our Universe Ethan Brehm Tom Tormey Matthew Mclachlan Vanessa Bellew Robert Napolitano David Grand Phuong Pham Natalie Reade Moses the “Gamer” Bjoern Kommerell Joshua Amber Social Media Manager Thor the all mighty Advertising Ads@SpoilerMagazine.com Sponsorship Sponsorship@SpoilerMagazine.com Press Please send all press releases to: Press@SpoilerMagazine.com Please send all review material to: Review@SpoilerMagazine.com Subscriptions For all subscription enquiries please contact: Sub@SpoilerMagazine.com Check out our website for details on how to get our DIGITAL EDITION Circulation Do you want this magazine at your local book store, comic book hangout, toy shop, or anywhere else for that matter?

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INSIDE OUR y UNIVERSE x a l a

by G Welcome to another amazing issue of SPO!LER! We give thanks this month to the wonderfully amazing Doctor Strange as we await the release of his upcoming film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (May 6), part of Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Slowly but surely becoming the character who’s grounding the MCU, especially with the absence of Tony Stark, the Sorcerer Supreme is now the guy we rely on to hold it down.

And who better to portray the magician than Benedict Cumberbatch?

Parlaying his magnificent set of releases in 2021 (including earning himself an Oscar nod) with an encore in Multiverse of Madness, the British actor continues to remind us why he was born to be Doctor Strange. He’s taken the character to another level and helped bring the cult comic book favorite to the mainstream. It’s like he and Doctor Strange are the same person. Maybe Benedict Cumberbatch really is a magician after all. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Inside these pages is a history of Doctor Strange, tracing his lineage through the comic books and onto the big screen, as well as an inside look at the costumes for the new movie in our “How It’s Made” section.

We’ve also interviewed a pair of stars from shows that definitely need more eyes on them. Harold Perrineau plays the main character in EPIX’s sci-fi/horror series From, about a mysterious small town that traps anyone who enters. Harold is one of the coolest dudes in this industry and he fills us in on what went into the series behind the scenes. Margarita Levieva stars as the lead role in the Netflix spy thriller In From the Cold, where she lives a double life as a US citizen who discovers that she’s really a highlytrained Russian agent.

We also chat with Gill Champion and Jay Bonansinga, the creatives behind The Devil’s Quintet—a novel from the mind of Stan Lee, conceived by the Marvel legend prior to his death in 2018. Gill was Stan’s right-hand man for years and is now the head of his brand POW! Entertainment. POW! has some exciting projects in the works, so stay tuned and follow them on social media.

Along with these features, we have our typical sections, such as “At the Con,” where this month we spotlight last year’s New York Comic Con. Photographer Bjoern Kommerell also returns for “In Focus” to give a behindthe-scenes look at his friend, actress Ellen Hollman, featuring exclusive portraits from his own portfolio.

Outside of the magazine, we’re readying for the production of our upcoming short film, which serves as a standalone prequel to our apocalyptic comic book series Almost Dead.

Redefining both cross-platform media and the zombie genre as a whole, our film and the comics that it preludes follow a girl who must do everything possible to ensure the survival of herself and her family during her trek through the east coast.

Stay tuned for everything we’re rolling out with in the upcoming months, including a special giveaway in April! Plug into both SPO!LER and Comic Con Radio across social media, tell your friends about our magazine, and share your favorite articles with them!

We can’t wait for you to dig into the pages of this issue. We’re constantly trying to curate content for all you amazing fans out there, hitting at all the things you love about this universe! So, stick with us. Exciting things are on the horizon.

Thank you once again for all your undying love and support. We couldn’t do this without you!

- Love You All

!"#"$% Galaxy EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @ComicConRadio march 2022|

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table of contents

FEATURES

28 Harold Perrineau exclusive interview

SPOILER MAGAZINE TABLE OF CONTENTS

86 Gill Champion & Jay Bonansinga Stan Lee’s The Devil’s Quintet

the watch

42 Margarita Levieva

12 Saturday Morning All Star HITS!

50 doctor strange A Brief History

18 Remember When We Killed ROBIN?

the base

24 At the Con New York Comic CON 2021

36 How it’s Made

58 In Focus with Bjoern Kommerell

68 at the movies

94 Comic Book Review

106 it came from the video store

Spotlight on Ellen Hollman

It’s Going to Take More Than Magic To Put Together a Super Suit

www.spoilermagazine.com | Follow us on Instagram: @SpoilerMedia

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Saturday Morning All Star Hits:Netflix

MY INTRODUCTION TO KYLE MOONEY WAS THE SAME AS most people’s. In 2013, the comedian joined the cast of Saturday Night Live as a Featured Player, notably appearing on Weekend Update in the season 39 opener (uncommon for a new cast member) with his own character Bruce Chandling, a decidedly insecure stand-up comic who leans on both abused wordplay and his accentuated Brooklyn cadence for laughs, of which he gets none. In these first glimpses, Kyle’s rhythm and astute ability to capture the essence of a character were mesmerizing. He was perfect for a show that was desperately looking for a new identity.

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Andy Samberg, along with his comedy team The Lonely Island, popularized the digital shorts format during his 7-season tenure (as well as helped a fledgling website called YouTube gain some early traction in 2005). These shorts had a rabid hype surrounding them that would have likely surpassed SNL itself at the time if it weren’t for the sketch show’s own Renaissance Era of sorts, featuring a cast of comedians who, along with Samberg, would largely become bellwethers in the comedy world throughout the next decade: Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Seth Meyers,

Kenan Thompson, Will Forte, and Fred Armisen. SNL was arguably as mainstream as it had been since the days of Eddie Murphy in the ‘80s. But with Samberg departing in 2012, and the rest eventually to follow, there was a dwindling quality and a sort of vacancy of voice that many people thought couldn’t be filled.

While Samberg’s music video shorts were often among the first and most anticipated of the night, with crossover successes such as “I’m on a Boat” or “Lazy Sunday” earning him household name status (and an Emmy Award), Mooney’s were typically relegated to the 10-to1 slot (also known as the last sketch of the night, reserved for the weird and outlandish). By episode 2, Kyle had begun a string of near-weekly skits capping off each night.

And then, just five episodes into the 39th season, my life would never be the same as I watched him portray a bewildered ice cream shop worker who has an existential crisis after a customer (played by fellow newcomer and longtime creative partner Beck Bennett) makes a perfunctory and trite dad joke.

After recovering from a fiveminute laughing fit from the comedian’s character eventually going into cardiac arrest—much to the confusion of everyone around him wondering why this all stemmed from a casual, and unfunny, joke— I spent the next few days thinking and rethinking about “The Ice Cream Sketch” and struggling to put my finger on the surrealistic near-antihumor that had so enchanted me. All I knew was I had never seen anything like it, except in my own conceptual and intangible imagination. I needed more.

Never before had anything, on SNL or otherwise, perfectly captured the spirit of the non-joke. It sent me down a rabbit hole of discovery of Good Neighbor, Mooney’s comedy team and discontinued YouTube channel(s). The videos feature the comedian’s array of quirky, cringe-worthy personas, including a self-proclaimed counterculture devotee/poser Chris Fitzpatrick, an ennui-riddled surfer Todd from the fictional news show Inside SoCal, and perhaps the most notable character, a meek crowd reporter who poorly feigns enthusiasm on various topics as he interviews real people who are actually enthusiastic on those very topics. His ability to amplify colloquial banalities with a hyperawareness that should very well defy their existence—all with a pinch of black comedy—has given Kyle a unique voice in the comedy world, and one that ironically never gets old.

Kyle’s content was addicting at worst, life-altering at best. He brought many of his characters over to SNL—along with collaborators Bennett, director Dave McCary, and writer Nick Rutherford—and revitalized an all-but-dormant digital shorts format, eventually popularizing the idea of “Cut For Time.”

In 2017, Kyle’s diehard fans rejoiced with the release of his screenwriting debut Brigsby Bear (co-written with childhood friend Kevin Costello), directed by McCary (also his debut), where the comedian stars as a young man recently freed from his childhood captors, only to become disillusioned with the fact that his favorite TV show was in fact made specifically for him by his fake parents. Everything from the askew tone to the irrevocable passion for nostalgia echoed the very essence of Kyle and Good Neighbor. Expectedly, the film was almost instantly a cult hit and earned Mooney’s earlier work some more notoriety for those who didn’t already have him on their radar. However, “Moon Beams” (I made that up) had to wait over four years for Kyle’s next personal project outside of the occasional film and TV appearance, and of course SNL. This past December, Kyle cocreated, co-produced, and starred in Netflix’s Saturday Morning All Star Hits! (SMASH!), a fictional Saturday morning cartoon block with a liveaction framework featuring overly enthusiastic co-hosts: twin brothers Skip and Treybor (both played

by Mooney) who operate in the airheaded realm between Bill & Ted and Cousin Cody from Step By Step.

Reuniting with McCary, who cocreated the show (along with Ben Jones) and directed the live-action segments, Kyle infuses SMASH! with the same love for nostalgia as Brigsby Bear, and with the same airtight lock on its comedic identity— something that’s always come so naturally to Mooney. A thrift store browser and VHS collector in his own right, Kyle manages to combine this spirit of retro oddities and ubiquitous pop culture mainstays, all while maintaining the same voice that’s inhabited his content since his earliest days.

Striking the perfect balance between parody and pastiche, SMASH! operates within its own little world, the titular Saturday morning block interrupted by ads for fictional products, music videos for fictional artists, and news bumpers for fictional stories about all these pieces inside.

As we almost forget that they’re portrayed by the same person, Skip and Treybor establish an intentional stylistic sameness—that is, until Skip gets a cameo on Thundercatsknockoff, Strongimals. His popularity turns into him sharing a title card with the cartoon (now called Skip and the Strongimals) and an eventual live-action film. His catchphrase, “Uh... Subs?” becomes a cultural phenomenon that shoots him to astronomical fame, leaving Treybor in the dust.

Other in-world shows include The Create-A-Crittles (spoof of Care Bears), Randy (spoof of Denver, the Last Dinosaur), and the disastrous failed pilot Lil’ Bruce (spoof of Bobby’s World), starring none other than Bruce Chandling. There’s also an aggressive homage to the nowcult TV special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue in the form of All Cartoon Stars Say Don’t Say Shut Up, which features characters from across all SMASH! shows propagandizing the dangers of saying, “Shut up!” Of course, each series is “In Association with GiK”—a play on ‘80s and ‘90s ultra-syndication giant DiC. march 2022|

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schemes void of any particular palette, only serving to mask their lack of diligence and to distract from the absence of actual quality.

But perhaps what’s most impressive is how these shows convincingly take themselves seriously as they celebrate limited animation, muddled plot points, and out-of-touch themes, almost as if Kyle is a tad out-of-touch himself. Mooney and company have responsibly created inspired shows that they too would want to watch.

The near-hidden satire allows these fictional shows to stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Muppet Babies, Inspector Gadget, and G.I. Joe—for what it’s worth.

If The Office made cringe humor mainstream, SMASH! continues to keep it sternly niche. For those who don’t know what’s going on, the bits won’t even seem like attempts at humor in the first place. I’ve always called Kyle Mooney this generation’s Andy Kaufman. He never opens the door for us to be in on the joke, but merely speaks to those already inside. SMASH! commendably never goes for the comedic kill, hiding its biggest jokes in plain sight. Where a normal comedian would eventually deliver a punchline in order to get an auditory response from the audience—or at least to relieve the tension—Mooney usually doesn’t

deliver one at all, keeping us in a constant state of suspended cringe, even to the end. There are times where those who aren’t familiar with his near-unclassifiable bizarro style will even realize that these are jokes to begin with.

Despite being released on Netflix all at once, episodes of SMASH! are better viewed one at a time— the anti-binge. Personally, I found that watching one per sitting, then waiting a few days, and then watching another one lent itself more to the desired immersion into the retro aesthetic. I was able to live with the experience of this fictional programming block and process what I had just watched before delving into the next chapter.

What makes SMASH! so refreshing amidst the prevalence today’s sideeyed gaze at the entertainment of our past is how anodyne its critique actually is. Showcasing a passion for material that served as the zeitgeist—even inspiration—for a whole generation of kids, Kyle simply acknowledges these oftburied flaws by almost burying them himself, yet for a different reason.

A Spinal Tap for an entirely new batch of media, SMASH! isn’t some austere social commentary, but an entertaining reflection on why we love bad things. And why we love Kyle Mooney.

kyle’s pre-snl youtube highlights:

Sporty

My Heat

Reptiles

Singing While Doin Chores

Smoking

Voices

Saturday Morning All Star Hits:Netflix

What at first starts as a straightforward home video recording of a retro programming block eventually transforms into its own saga. As early as episode 4 (of 8), SMASH! abandons the programming block’s regular shows in favor of unwrapping an even more random—yet just as cohesive—thread following both Skip and Treybor’s sibling rivalry and, unrelatedly, the disappearance of fictional actress Lottie Wolfe (Geraldine Viswanathan).

With the development of Skip and Treybor’s feud, SMASH! evolves into something spectacularly different, criminal for any other show but completely on-brand for Mooney. And as SMASH!, the programming block, slowly begins to sell out, its two previously happygo-lucky co-hosts shakily try to retain their carefree spirit all the while embarking on their own saga of newfound, albeit still limited, awareness and disenchantment.

Entries such as Create-A-Crittles and Randy get replaced with lessinspired shows like Crittle Littles and Intimate Compromise: Casino Nights Seductions: The Animated Series.

The clichés get more insufferable.

Perhaps they always were, but now they just begin surfacing in an obtrusive way, with more haphazard and suspect creativity (all by design, of course). Overusing tropes that were nothing but already overused, these new shows utilize tawdry character design and slapdash color

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BY TOM TORMEY

Batman:DC Comics;Warner Bros.

IN THE 1980S, YOU COULD PICK UP YOUR RECEIVER,

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turn the tab on your rotary phone, dial a 1-900 number, and within moments speak to anyone from lovely, lonely singles in your area (who were neither lonely nor local) to the Coreys: Corey Haim and Corey Feldman. Even He-Man, Hulk Hogan, and Freddy Krueger had 900 numbers you could call, for a price and with your parents’ permission of course. Needless to say, dialing costly, premium-rate numbers was all the rage and an easy way to drum up attention and business. It came as no surprise that, when DC Comics was considering killing one its most recognizable characters, they would do so via telephone. And it would be the voices of the fans that would make the ultimate “call.”

This isn’t the story of how DC editors decided Jason Todd’s fate. No. This is the story of how fans dialing a 900 hotline got Jason Todd killed.

Dick Grayson began fighting crime with Batman in 1940’s Detective Comics #38, his tenure as Robin marked by his endless optimism, which stood in stark contrast to the Dark Knight. Of course, readers had

no idea at the time that Dick would not be the last—or only—hero to inherit the title.

When Dick Grayson graduated from his nearly 40-year stint as the Boy Wonder to Teen Wonder, and later Nightwing, it was inevitable that someone would inherit the Robin moniker. 1983’s Batman #357 introduced the world to Jason Todd, the second Robin. Jason was depicted as a cheerful, redheaded young man, eager to fight crime alongside the Dark Knight.

Jason was in many ways a carbon copy of the first Robin until the sun events following DC’s megacrossover “Crisis on Infinite Earths” rebooted much of the DC Universe, including the character’s origins and personality. Jason went from relentlessly optimistic to reckless and wild. That all came to an end

during the “A Death in the Family” storyline.

Replicating Dick Grayson’s personality profile for Jason Todd initially worked on several levels.

It not only brought catharsis for the idea that the hero fans have known for decades was now being replaced, but allowed readers to once again have someone they could relate to, since most of them were demographically similar to Robin.

Dick even gave his blessing to Jason and handed him the Robin costume after Bruce Wayne was reluctant to do so. However, following the changes that resulted from “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” Jason became one of the most unlikeable characters in the DC Universe. (Oddly enough, today’s Robin, Damian Wayne, embodies many of the qualities readers were hesitant to accept when Jason held the title.)

Inspired by a 1982 Eddie Murphy sketch on Saturday Night Live where the comedian asked home viewers to call the show if they wanted to watch him boil a lobster on air, Batman editor Denny O’Neil had the idea for a similar call-to-action stunt within the pages of

a comic book. The “A Death in the Family” event, written by Jim Starlin and drawn by Jim Aparo, begins in 1988’s Batman #426 and concludes in 1989’s Batman #429. And starting with issue #427, advertisements ran in which fans were given a choice to call one of two 1-900 numbers.

One line was for those who thought Jason Todd should live, the other was for those who thought the character should die. Each call cost fifty cents.

In the event of either outcome, Starlin and Aparo preemptively wrote and drew two unique versions of Batman #428. Each version was radically different. In one, Jason got to live, but in the other, Jason did not survive. Fans were skeptical as to whether or not DC would actually kill off a Robin. Within thirty-six hours, the hotlines received over 10,614 phone calls. In the end, Jason Todd’s fate was decided by a mere 72 votes.

Unfortunately, Jason had to die!

For years, rumors circulated that one industrious fan programmed a computer to dial the number over and over again in favor of the character’s death. That claim lacks some credibility, but considering today’s technology, which would make the task much easier, it’s weird to theorize that it may have happened then. We’ve seen worse

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Batman:DC Comics;Warner Bros.

with people rigging their phones for shows like American Idol.

When news hit that Jason would meet his maker in the upcoming issue, thousands upon thousands of angry letters poured into the offices of DC Comics. Denny O’Neil had the perfect response to those who were complaining about Robin’s death: “We didn’t kill the Boy Wonder, the readers did.”

Despite the character getting introduced five years prior, Jason was bludgeoned to death with a crowbar at the hands of Joker. But with Dick Grayson having now assumed the Nightwing moniker, the public thought that this meant he would return as Robin. Well, that didn’t happen. In 1991, a third Robin was introduced: Tim Drake.

For decades, Jason remained dead. However, the unwritten rule known as the “Bucky Clause”—which states that no character stays dead except for Bucky Barnes, Jason Todd, and Uncle Ben—would be broken in Batman’s 2002 “Hush” storyline when an older, angrier Jason is brought back to life. How, you may ask? Well, Superboy-Prime punches the wall of an alternate dimension during the events of Infinite Crisis, thus causing a temporal ripple. So, despite whether or not you think some Jason-hating fanboy flooded the anti-Robin hotline back in the late ‘80s, both sides eventually got to witness the results they wanted.

I hope that clears things up. Jason has since assumed the title of Red Hood and has become one of DC’s most popular characters, proving that even death can’t stop this Boy Wonder.

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convention scene this past year at 2021’s New York Comic Con, which ran from October 7th through 10th in Manhattan. As the first convention following an empty 2020 pandemic year, NYCC fed the cravings that arose from the two-year drought.

Despite lower numbers than years past and the absence of many of the big brands that typically show out, it was great to be back at the Javits Center once again.

New York is the birthplace of comic books, and comic fandom lives and breathes in this city. Both Marvel and DC originated in Manhattan. Think of how many superheroes are fighting crime in the streets of New York— or a city inspired by it. When you attend New York Comic Con, there’s a certain rightness to it. Like going to an opera in Italy or playing golf in Scotland, comics are buried deep in the blood of New York.

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New York Comic Con, especially since its 2006 acquisition by ReedPOP, has since become a fixture in the fandom world as the east coast’s biggest pop culture convention with around a quartermillion attendees each year.

However, it hasn’t just changed the pop culture realm, but has made a huge impact on the city itself. Over the years, NYCC has transformed how New York is seen. The city is no longer just the liveliest place on Earth, but a destination—an important mecca—for our nerd universe.

Last year, being the first big fan event following the pandemic, things weren’t entirely back to form for New York Comic Con. The typical pop culture fare was supplanted with a larger-than-usual anime and manga sphere, including a couple events— such as a Dragon Ball panel—taking to the Main Stage. Some of the other guests included David Harbour, George Takei, William Shatner, Hayden Christiansen, John Cena, Jurnee Smollett, Kel Mitchell, as well as the cast from The Boys (Antony Starr, Chace Crawford, Erin Moriarty, Jack Quaid, Karen Fukuhara). WWE was well-represented as well, with signings from Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross, and Rob Van Dam, among others.

New York Comic Con / Amanda M Hatfield

comic con radio and spo!ler magazine returned to the

Comic Con Radio was fortunate enough to interview Darryl “DMC” McDaniels about his life and career, both in music and in literature, including his upcoming picture book Darryl’s Dream. We also got the chance to talk with the people at NASA and interview them about their future projects.

New York Comic Con didn’t just change New York, but each October it becomes New York. With Halloween right around the corner, NYCC is able to imbue the city with the holiday’s ethos, enabling the metropolis to get into the proper spirit, with last year being no different.

However, the convention has come a long way since 2006. Many who were there at the beginning know the story of the first Comic Con. The event, which was held in only one of the halls in the Javits Center, ended almost as soon as it began. The hall could only accommodate 10,000 attendants, but the turnout was so massive that the fire marshals had to shut it down due to overcrowding.

ReedPOP knew immediately that they had struck gold. Doubling the rental space for the following year, the convention grew once more.

And the enthusiasm has still not died down. Since 2014, NYCC has now become the biggest event of its kind in North America.

The pandemic didn’t stop New

York Comic Con, but merely slowed it down. For 2020, ReedPOP opted to roll out its series of Metaverse events, which were fantastic virtual conventions that fans were able to experience from their own home.

New York Comic Con partnered with MCM Comic Con to deliver as similar of an experience as possible under the circumstances. Guests were able to stream celebrity panels and meetand-greets, as well as purchase exclusive items from their favorite vendors, and there was even a virtual cosplay competition. ReedPOP

knows that fandom never sleeps, so they don’t either.

Over the years, NYCC has come to embody the toughness and determination of New York City, and this current situation is no different.

Despite not yet getting back to being the New York Comic Con we’ve always known and loved, it’s also the only convention capable of the resolve required to be the first to relaunch following a two-year absence. It takes a lot of guts and heart to put on any of these massive fan experiences, let alone one with this particular amount of weight underneath it.

It might take some time to return to full normalcy, as we’ve seen lately, but if we’ve learned one thing from New York Comic Con in 2021 it’s that fans will stop at nothing to express their love and enthusiasm for this universe that we’re so fortunate to inhabit. No matter the odds, the fans still made it happen.

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

Hollywood happier than Harold Perrineau. Sure, it could be due to his ageless looks or his massive résumé that would make any actor jealous. However, the New York native claims he’s always been this way, and often his roles have become informed by his own personality on the writers’ end as well.

The jovial actor has been featured in iconic projects such as Lost, The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, The Best Man, Zero Dark Thirty, Romeo + Juliet, Oz, and 28 Weeks Later, just to name a few. Now he’s starring in the lead role in From, a sci-fi/horror series on EPIX where he plays the sheriff of a mysterious small town that imprisons anyone who visits.

Harold is also one of the nicest dudes you’ll meet. Gracious enough to chat with Galaxy about his latest series, the actor also discusses the reversion of release trends in recent TV and examines how he’s persevered over the past 35 years in this industry.

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Harold Perrineau:Chris Reardon/From:EPIX

There may be nobody in

interview interview SPOILER: You’ve been doing so many interviews for your new show From. Does that get tiring?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: [laughs] Sometimes it gets tiring. But other times, we’re just having a conversation, so I’m definitely cool with it. I’m glad we’re having a conversation about something I actually like. From is a show that I actually like, so I’m glad to be having that conversation.

SPOILER: I love From. You guys get right into it with that story. There’s no wasting time.

HAROLD PERRINEAU: This is the landscape of TV right now. We don’t have a lot of episodes, only ten. So we have to get right to it. We don’t have time to build it. We want you to know what we’re about and what the show is about. And know that these stakes are really, really high so you don’t ever forget this is life and death.

Listen, you can die on this show, if you’re an adult, a child, a dog. We let you know how dangerous this town is.

SPOILER: What made you pick this project?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: Well, I don’t always get to pick stuff. Yeah, I’ve been out there for a long time, but there’s still an amount of grinding. And it’s because I’ve had a really varied career. So I don’t always get to pick. But with this one, my man Seth Yanklewitz, who’s a friend of mine, is the casting director, and he gave me a call and said, “Hey, I have this project. I think you are this guy. I wanna talk to the producers about you, what do you think?” He told me a little bit about the project and I said, “Yeah, cool! Who are your producers?”

And he said, “Jack Bender and Jeff Pinkner from Lost.” I was like, “Oh! Absolutely!”

But then they said, “Nah, we don’t want anyone from Lost.” [laughs] And Seth was like, “No, I still think you’re the guy.” So he went back and talked to them. Then I read this script.

The script is so good, man. I was into it right away. I was concerned for this character Boyd and wanted to know why he was so sad. The way that John Griffin wrote him, it’s like [this character] is walking around as a ball of pain. And after Seth talked to [Jack and Jeff], they

H A R O L D

P E R R I N E A U

were like, “Well, let’s all meet and have a conversation.” After we talked, I was really secure about how they would handle the show and they were really secure about how I would play the character. And then we had some fun.

SPOILER: You were on the show Z Nation.

I got so invested in your character, but then you left! You tricked us!

HAROLD PERRINEAU: [laughs] I still apologize for that to this day. They were like, “Everyone’s gonna think you’re the lead and then we’re gonna kill you!” I was like, “That sounds like fun!” So, I did it, and ever since people have been like, “Come on, dude!” [laughs] SPOILER: You’ve been on so many different projects. How does it affect you?

Do you have to make a lot of adjustments internally?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: It really just depends on the project. For some jobs, like The Matrix [Reloaded and Revolutions], I could turn that on when I got on set and I could turn it off when I got home. There is so much to that world that relied on being on that set, on the Nebuchadnezzar, and interactions with Morpheus and Trinity.

Those things depended on the cast and the characters.

But there are some other projects where I have things to walk around with, like with Boyd. Anytime anybody feels bad, they wanna do whatever they can to stop feeling bad as soon as possible.

And because we had to go through ten episodes, I did everything I could to stay in this place of feeling bad all the time. So it was really tricky when I went home. I have kids and I don’t want to put it on them, so sometimes it becomes a real magic show; you just gotta slide in and then slide out.

But that’s only when there’s something that’s overwhelming that my body doesn’t want to do nonstop—but the character needs it.

SPOILER: It seems like everything you’re in always does so well. Is there a formula to picking these projects or are you just really lucky?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: It’s not a formula.

And while luck is a big component of it,

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if you look at it, I’ve been doing this for a long time. And it really is a thing I love. I just stay in the game no matter what. There are a lot of misses in there too, but I still keep going. I had a number of years where nothing worked out, or it’s just a one-episode role. But I just stay on top of my craft and what’s happening out there. I stay connected to myself.

I remember old actors used to say, “Take everything!” And for a while I was trying to do that, but then that didn’t always feel good. That’s how I started getting really picky, picking things that I really responded to. And with that, I’ve gotten really lucky.

set up for next week. You’re already set up and tantalized. You can go back and rewatch and notice things you didn’t see the first time.

SPOILER: A lot of streaming shows now are moving back to the one episode per week release strategy.

HAROLD PERRINEAU: We’re doing it like old school appointment TV. It’s gonna be one episode every week for 10 weeks, every Sunday. It’s not a gigantic commitment, but it is a commitment to come back. And I like that. You watch the episode, and you have a whole week to talk about it—talk to your friends and come up with theories. You’re getting yourself

SPOILER: Who is Boyd Stevens?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: Boyd Stevens is the town sheriff. He’s a man of service. He takes pride and works really hard at it. He’s unwavering in his commitment to getting these people to safety. And if you get in his way, you’ll regret it. He’s a character of sometimes-questionable choices.

You wonder, “Do I like this guy?

Do I not like this guy?” And he’s struggling because he has a recent heartbreak that’s devastated him,

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Harold Perrineau:Chris Reardon/From:EPIX

SPOILER: Do you think being on a smaller platform like EPIX gives From more of a cult status?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: I think we’re at the right place. EPIX is a network that’s really emerging. They’ve got a bunch of great things on there, Godfather of Harlem, Chapelwaite.

They spend the money and they spend the time to develop really good projects. And I think with From, they’re willing to put in the effort to make it a really big deal. There are other networks where there is so much content that you end up being just another show that they put out. Especially networks that put out entire series all at once. It comes out and you either watch it or you don’t watch it, and they move on to the next one. At EPIX, they really dig our show and have been really supportive. Michael Wright, who runs the network, is really behind our show. He’s willing to spend the effort to get the word out.

and it’s the reason why he and his son aren’t connected anymore. And that’s on top of all the scary stuff that’s happening in the town as well.

There are two parts to this town that both have to work together.

Sheriff Stevens runs the township.

There’s another place called the Colony House, where their approach to this tragedy is a little more hedonistic—do what you enjoy in life, and try to stay alive, but enjoy your life. They don’t have the same kind of rules. And Sheriff Boyd has agreed to let them have their side, and we have our side. And you’ll see how the terror in the woods is handled by these two different approaches,

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SPOILER: You are so ageless. How do you keep yourself looking so young?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: [laughs] I don’t know, man! I got lucky with my genetics. Luckily for me, when I was young, I looked super young and I couldn’t really get any roles. I was dancing at the time. And so, when I got old enough to look like I could play someone who was 25, I was old enough to actually pull it off. I understood more. It gave me a little more insight into the characters that were of those ages. It’s been a real blessing for me.

both on their own and together. It’s an interesting social experiment. It’s stuff that we’re feeling, even these days—as coincidence. I don’t think it was written for this pandemic era, but it certainly fits. We all know what it feels like to be stuck in a place that you wanna get out of, but you can’t because there’s some evil thing that could kill you, but you can’t really see where it’s coming from.

SPOILER: We heard a lot of these sets were made just for this series.

who live in isolation. Can I do it? I certainly could. But I really like the interactions we all have, the different personalities that people have and how they coalesce with each other, or don’t. I love the clashing and the coming together, the joy and the anger. All the things that living has to offer. I love recreating those things on screen. You’ll find me in lots of ensemble pieces because I like the collaborative way that we work together. No one gets to say, “Hey, this show is great just because of me.” It’s a community effort.

SPOILER: Does that affect how you approach choosing your roles?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: It definitely does. There are roles that I can book now that I couldn’t book before. Guys who have a certain kind of gravity about them, a groundedness. Definitely dads or people who have been married for a certain amount of time or in a career for a certain amount of time. There’s a weight to these roles now.

SPOILER: Early on in your career, you played a lot of really happy characters.

HAROLD PERRINEAU: [laughs] It

HAROLD PERRINEAU: That’s exactly true. They built the entire set just for the series, and they built a town that is a town. The diner is a diner.

The walls don’t move or any of that stuff. It doesn’t have working gas, but it has all these pieces. And it really helps you as an actor to lock into where you are.

SPOILER: From has such a huge cast.

You tend to get a lot of those types of projects with large ensembles.

Is it different working with so many actors as opposed to a smaller cast?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: I like it because I like to reflect the world we live in. There aren’t many people

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was something my dad used to say to me, like, “Boy, every time I see you in something, you’re laughing.” I was like, “Am I??” It really was a thing.

Probably part of it was, I played a lot of guys who were more carefree and lighthearted. In The Best Man, Julius is carefree. The biggest problem was he couldn’t keep a secret [laughs]. But Augustus Hill in Oz, he wasn’t smiley, but he wasn’t as beat-up and grizzled as some of the other prisoners. I could get away with it. I think the writers probably took a lot of their impression of me and wrote it into the roles. I’m a light-hearted person. I try to enjoy my life and enjoy the people around me.

SPOILER: Do you ever get in your head about making a new project as good as the last?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: Galaxy, I’m gonna tell you the real truth. Every project I take, I go, “This time I’m gonna suck at it! There’s no way I can pull this off.” [laughs] I have an acting teacher I used to go to with every project, and after about the sixth time, she’s like, “Harold, every time you show up, you say the exact same thing: ‘There is no way I can do it, Barbara, I need your help!’” But I think that fear keeps me on the grind: I don’t know how to do it, but I’m gonna figure it out. I don’t wanna get to the place where it’s [not challenging], and then I wind up being bored.

SPOILER: What can fans expect from this series going forward?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: These guys are master storytellers. You can expect to get whatever it is you might be looking for in a horror/suspense. If you’re a real fan of the gore and the blood and guts, and jump scares, you can expect all of that. Or if you’re a fan of the peoplewatching; how people get through these things. I’m a big fan of going, “Oh man, if I were in that situation, how would I get through it?” And you

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can totally expect to find a character that resonates with your personality.

Like you said, there are a lot of people in this show, so that means there are a lot of personalities. A lot of humanity, and a really scary, desperate situation.

It’s pretty scary.

SPOILER: And it’s a different kind of scary.

HAROLD PERRINEAU: You find out early on that the people are trapped there. Every road leads back into town.

There’s no way out. And the monsters just look like normal people, and they don’t run at you—they walk. They don’t chase you because, where are you going? They got all the time in the world. That’s creepy.

SPOILER: Is there any scene from this series that stuck with you?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: The very first thing you see in this show, as a dad, you never wanna see. It sticks with me, and when I’m in that performance, I’m me. And when you see it, it’s harrowing and heartbreaking. I think about it, unfortunately, all the time. I literally pulled a gun on a dude in that scene and it wasn’t in the script—that was just my instinct [laughs]. The director said, “Keep it!”

SPOILER: Is there anything you wanna tell the fans before you go?

HAROLD PERRINEAU: “Thanks for participating in all of this. There’s none of this for me if you guys aren’t there. So, thank you for coming to check out From and telling your friends. I love you guys and I appreciate all that you do! And I’ll keep trying to push it if you guys keep coming through.”

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BY JOSHUA AMBAR

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (out May 6). And with new adventures come new robes more akin to the comic book look fanboys and fangirls have been dreaming of.

When dissecting trailers, TV spots, and merchandise—as fans regularly do—you can catch Doctor Strange sporting his more comic-accurate attire, equipped with the cross-like symbol stretched across his chest.

For the hardcore Marvel fans, they would know this is quite the representation of co-creator Steve Ditko’s original rendition of the wizard (yellow gloves pending, of course). However, this isn’t the only costume appearing in the film as the hero dons a red and black outfit that is slick, robe-less, and missing the famous Cloak of Leviathan. Could this be a variant of Doctor Strange from the same multiverse he is set to explore?

There is lot of speculation around

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this movie and the plot, but if there’s one thing that is getting the fans going, it’s the costumes. In order to bring heroes to life, a touch of movie magic is needed. And that evocation all comes down to the physical materials that are used for the outfit, its functionality, how it looks onscreen, and how it fits into the overall theme of the film.

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, costume designer Alexandra Byrne, who worked on the 2016 predecessor Doctor Strange, explains that she was trying to find realworld elements to build on mystical themes for Strange’s costume. When it came to the superhero’s blue robe, Byrne found inspiration from a Chinese children’s coat, created with ten layers of indigo fabric that was stitched through and lined up. The designer reveals that this gave the first layer a coated and waxed look.

“Oh, so that’s how I can achieve it,”

says Byrne, describing her epiphany from the breakthrough moment.

The Cloak of Leviathan, which is very much a character of its own, is made up of hundreds of different shades of red as well as multiple textures, fabrics, and materials stemming from the double-weave wool crafted in Japan, explains Byrne.

For a piece of clothing that looks simple enough to the untrained eye, a lot of work went into bringing it to the silver screen. “The cloak has so many processes. Some of it is frocked with velvet. It’s embroidered.

It has various piles in it,” says Byrne.

“Even after it’s all finished, then it goes to my textile department where it’s aged and degraded so it doesn’t look like a new piece of costume plopped on someone; it has a lot more shadow and character in it.”

Costume designer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,

Doctor Strange:Marvel, Disney/Ryan Meinerding/Karla Ortiz/Josh Nizzi/Andy Park

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH IS BACK AS THE HERO OF MYSTIC AND MAGIC IN THIS YEAR’S

Judianna Makovsky explains to CNN that costume design has come a long way since the days of X-Men: The Last Stand, which debuted in 2006. The designer details how the technology for costume creation has advanced due to new fabrics and new techniques such as fabric printing, laser cutting and etching, and even 3-D printing.

But when it comes to filming, it's all about the mobility and ease for the actor, resulting in the fabrics often becoming fabricated to look like different materials. “People think we’re using leather or spandex. Often most of the costumes are made with a stretch cotton that we can dye, and we can print on and give it a texture.

Make it look like Kevlar; make it look like something else,” said Makovsky.

In an article published by Fashionista, Byrne reveals that aesthetics isn’t the only factor in a costume. It’s all about the mobility of the heroes and how well the outfit can work for them.

One thing is for certain, Marvel’s Phase Four of their Cinematic Universe has been extremely comicaccurate when it comes to the super-suits worn by its heroes, and Doctor Strange’s attire is exactly that! When bringing in these iconic costumes, designers have to take into consideration the fans’ expectations and their emotional connection to these characters. Ann Foley, costume designer for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., also admits to Fashionista that these shows—and movies—belong to the fans: “These are their characters, so I really try to give the fans something to be excited about.” march 2022|

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

For Margarita Levieva, the toughest part of her career may already be behind her. Coming to America from Russia held its own set of challenges, especially when aspiring to become an actress. Involved in dance and gymnastics from a young age, Margarita first moved here as a child, eventually earning her degrees in economics and psychology. It wasn’t until after that when she started taking acting classes.

With early spots on shows such as Law & Order and Vanished, she eventually landed parts in films like Adventureland, The Lincoln Lawyer, and Knights of Badassdom. But it was her role in HBO’s The Deuce that really took her career to a new level.

Her latest series In From the Cold, where she stars as an ex-Russian spy now living a secret life in the US, almost feels autobiographical. The Netflix show released its 8-episode first season this January.

Margarita is generous enough to sit down with us to chat about the series and the amount of stunt work she’s put in—and the number of times she’s landed in the hospital because of it—but also reveals the insecurities she had when she first started out in this industry, and how she overcame them.

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erview erview SPOILER: I first became a fan of your work in The Deuce, but now you’re starring in In From the Cold.

Totally different. You’re an action star now!

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: I always have been! I just don’t think anyone knew it until now [laughs].

Margarita Levieva:Celebmafia/In From the Cold:Netflix/(cover image):In From the Cold:Netflix

SPOILER: Why did you choose to do In From the Cold? Did you audition for it?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: I did audition for it. It was one of those funny things where, as an actor in my position, I get offered things sometimes but not all the time. For this, I got a call from my manager and he pitched the project to me.

I thought, “This sounds so up my alley. Send me the script.” So, I read it and thought it was great, but then got to the end of the script and there was this sci-fi element to it, and I thought, “Oh s—t. Alright.” And then I read the script for episode 2 and thought, “I

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don’t know if I can do this,” because it sounded a little bit far out there with some of the elements involved. But I auditioned, just to see how it went. I started working on the character and thinking about the supernatural part of the story, and thought it was actually really cool, and I could tap into it emotionally on so many levels. And I was really excited to audition. I met the whole writing team before the audition, as well as the creator of the show Adam Glass.

There were many steps that led to me getting the job, but when I did, I let one of my friends read the script, and she was like, “Did they write this with you in collaboration?” [laughs] She said, “Because the voice and so many of the story elements just sound like they’re out of your life. It’s wild.” So, it was one of those perfect fits.

Obviously, it’s not all me, but so many parts of Jenny Franklin’s character and so many things that

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she goes through in this story, even including the supernatural stuff, I really identify with. It feels like such a gift because I’ve been acting for a long time and been in a lot of projects, many of which I’m really proud of and loved being a part of, but to get to play a character that is so multidimensional, and that allows me to tap into things that I carry inside of me which are unique to me—whether it’s having grown up in Russia and now being in America for a long time; pretty Americanized and also pretty Russian, which is something that Jenny deals with a lot. Being an athlete and a dancer and a gymnast, with the training that I got back in Russia—I felt like it was telling my story a little bit.

I keep up with a lot of people in this business and have friends on both sides—some they have made it really big, and some are still struggling. And I think that’s the problem with all artists. You’re like, “I have that great role in me, but I just never got the opportunity. If only people could see that in me.”

And I feel like this is one of those roles, to show people what I’m capable of.

SPOILER: Who is Jenny Franklin and who is her alter ego, Anya Petrova?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: I’m two people on that show, and I feel like we’re all two people in life [laughs].

But eventually Jenny and Anya are the same person. Anya is a young woman who, as a little girl raised in Russia, was trained by the Russian system, was beaten into something that she didn’t really want to be a part of. Her training, which was brutal, ultimately made her as good as she eventually became.

And Jenny Franklin is the person who escaped that life and the identity that Anya Petrova eventually took on in America.

Jenny, on the surface, is the opposite of anything that Anya

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ever knew or embodied. So, the thrilling part about this show itself, and even for me as an actor to play it, is telling a story about a woman who has two women inside of her, and going, “Okay, who’s the real her?

How much of her past is influencing her future and her present? How much can she really escape the past and go back to who she was and be forced to do things as she did them 20 years ago?” All of those questions that the show explores were part of the challenge and the adventure of taking on that role for me. Anya Petrova is the Whisperer, the spy.

Jenny Franklin is a mom—a “good citizen” of New Jersey [laughs].

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: It’s challenging figuring out the severity of the scenes.

The goal is always to get to the truth and make it as believable as possible. So I was like, “How am I gonna get this FBI agent to believe that I’m not who he really says that I am? And how am I gonna skirt that line of being a strong, assertive mom, and also not revealing the possibility that I could be a spy?” That was a very delicate dance.

And then with my daughter [on the show], I’m basically living through eight episodes of doing everything in my power to prevent her from getting hurt. But then, here I am hurting her myself. What is the truth in that? How do I find that and make that real, and not just something on the page?

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In From the Cold:Netflix

SPOILER: In the series, you’re asked to do a lot of challenging things.

What’s the biggest challenge for you?

SPOILER: Did you ever hurt yourself doing all these difficult physical things?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: I full-on hurt myself. I had to go to the hospital at one point because I did most of my stunt work, which is so fun! And I’m so grateful that I was allowed the opportunity. I had a great stunt double who was fantastic. And obviously, getting hit by a car and flying many feet, insurance reasons didn’t allow for me to do something like that [laughs]. But I did most of the fights you see on the show.

There’s a scene in a cemetery where I fight this young man, and when I went to punch him in the chest, he was wearing a protective breastplate, which I didn’t know at the time. But we kept shooting the coverage, and I kept hitting him

and wasn’t holding back, and didn’t wanna stop the scene and tell them that I was hurting my hand—possibly because of a little bit of pride getting in the way [laughs]. And by the time we were done with that scene, my entire hand was completely swollen.

It was purple and bruised up, and they were like, “We gotta take you to the hospital.”

There’s another episode when I’m in a hotel room and I have to punch a mirror. It was a breakaway mirror, but you’re still supposed to punch lightly.

And I punched a little too hard and I cracked my knuckles a bit [laughs]. I was proud. I felt like a real fighter.

And then emotionally, we were shooting during COVID in Madrid, where they were still pretty locked down. So we were in a bubble, testing every day. Working with such

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dramatic material, it was definitely taking a toll at one point.

SPOILER: Would you want to do more of this kind of genre in the future?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: Absolutely.

I was a rhythmic gymnast since the time I was three and danced my whole life. Acting is definitely a physical art form. But also getting to use some of the physical elements that I have excites me in a different kind of way, and I would love to do more of it. I love working with stunt teams. And our stunt team is so incredible and supportive. I have done stuff here and there in the past, but having to work so extensively on fight sequences and choreography, and to really feel that camaraderie—I worked so much with the stunt team on this project that, on the day of filming, I almost felt like I wasn’t as connected with the directors because I was more focused on my stunt team—we were a unit. We were this family. It was really special.

I love doing drama too. After I did this series, I did a miniseries for ITV that will be out this fall. It’s called Litvinenko. It’s very dramatic, it’s based on a real story. I play a real person. To tell a story that’s so powerful and relevant, I’m so proud of that job. It taps into a different muscle and I love that.

SPOILER: Is it harder to get these kinds of roles early on?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: For sure. I didn’t start acting until, one would say, later in life. Because I had immigrated to America and then didn’t speak English for a long time, and because I went to study economics in college because I had to do something very real with my life—or at least according to my family. So, the idea of being an artist or an actor or a dancer was unfathomable. I got my college education before I went to acting school, so it felt like I was starting

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late. And when I was starting out, as much as a part of me really wanted to get that massive break—that huge movie that would get me discovered—I kind of knew, even at that time, that it was gonna take a while for me to really develop and hone in my craft, and really trust myself as an actor. I trusted myself as a dancer, but it took a while for me to really feel like I knew what I was doing, because I had so much insecurity about not being from here. And feeling like I didn’t really deserve to be an actor because I didn’t start until after college. I had a lot to prove to myself first. I’m really grateful. I feel like the work I’ve done over the past 15 years was preparation for the work that I’m able to do now. And I hope I get to do a lot more of it.

SPOILER: Do you think there’s too much access to celebrities these days?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: When I grew up in Russia, with actors, we didn’t want to know anything about their lives. Nobody knew anything about their lives because their job was to transform. The theory was, the more you know about someone the less you can allow them to transform, even in your mind. You’d be coming

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in with preconceived judgment. But now, everything is so exposed all the time. It gets trickier.

I so appreciate my fans and love their support. I’m so grateful for them. But even with Instagram, DMs have become the new version of a fan coming up to you in the street and being like, “I really enjoy your work.”

SPOILER: Has In From the Cold been renewed yet for season 2?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: I think we’re still waiting. The big thing over at Netflix and other streaming services is not just about tuning into the show, but getting to the end. I think they’re just waiting for [everybody] to get to the end. It’s a process.

SPOILER: Have you ever been to a fan convention?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: I have. I’ve been to Comic Con in San Diego.

I was in this very trippy film called

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Knights of Badassdom [laughs]. It was their fantastic idea to send Peter Dinklage, who’s in the movie, with me, among many other wonderful people, Summer Glau, Jimmi Simpson, Danny Pudi—it was a fun project.

SPOILER: How did you like it?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: I loved that.

It’s so different than anything that I grew up in. Walking through that place is a thrill. I love how excited and passionate people are.

SPOILER: If you could choose Marvel or DC, which would it be?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: Oh, come on, don’t get me saying that! [laughs] It’s tricky. There are movies from both that I really love. But there are movies from both where I’m like, “Coulda done better on that one.” [laughs] SPOILER: What is your dream role?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: Al Pacino’s

role in The Godfather. No, I’m just kidding [laughs]. But if you’ve ever seen the French film Un prophète— if I could play the lead role, which is played by a man—I remember watching that movie and going, “Oh, I would die to do this!” I’m sure there are some Van Damme movies I could remake.

SPOILER: What’s one scene from In From the Cold that really pops out for you?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: The bathhouse fight scene is pretty epic.

SPOILER: Was that tough to film?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: It was only tough because that came after I hurt my hand, and there was talk of them not allowing me to do that scene. And I had worked for months prepping that fight. The choreography was so extensive—five different rooms, and we break so many things, and we’re fighting in

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the pool and the sauna and on the stairs. But I was like, “I have to do this scene.” So there was a lot of negotiation and persistence on my part to be able to do that on the day, which I did. I love that scene.

I also love the end of that scene. If you remember how I end up killing my opponent—spoiler alert—killing a woman by shoving tampons in her eyes. I read that and was like, “This is ridiculous. We have to change that.” And the genius that Adam Glass is, he said, “We’re gonna do something in this scene that we haven’t seen before.” And the stunt team just found a way to make that work. And it worked! I’m so proud of that last moment.

I also love the last scene of the season.

SPOILER: What made you want to do a lot of the stunts yourself?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: Adrenaline.

Again, I think just being an athlete— when I do anything physical, anything that makes me sweat a lot, I really enjoy that. In the first episode that I do, there’s a roll kick and I knock the gun out of the guy’s hand. It’s the first fight that I do.

Adam Glass saw that [type of] kick on YouTube and was like, “I think she could do that kick,” and they were all like, “We don’t know about that. That’s like, serious martial arts.” So, they told me about it and I said, “I wanna learn that kick. I wanna challenge myself.” And when I was able to actually do it that

first time—the high that I got. We thought for Jenny that she would know all these different fighting styles. And we incorporated all those elements, so I had to also learn that stuff. We did different things every day to get that into my muscular memory. To me, that’s just so thrilling.

SPOILER: What advice can you give someone out there who wants to follow a similar path as you to become an actress?

MARGARITA LEVIEVA: First and foremost, if you believe in hard work—there’s this idea of instant gratification, but I’m very old school and I do believe that things that are worthwhile take time.

Be true to yourself, excavate whatever you can to find out who you really are, and fight for that. Not compromising or trying to be anyone else, or comparing yourself to anyone else. Because that’s a big waste of time. I wasted a lot of time doing that unfortunately, especially when I first moved here. I thought I had to be someone specific to make it in America. And then I realized, “Oh, no, I just have to be seen for who I really am.” But that takes a while to get to. march 2022|

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things more impressive than taking lesser-known comic book characters and not only turning them into household names through massively popular standalone films, but creating entire franchises based around them. 2016’s Doctor Strange and its titular wizard superhero might be one of the most perfect examples.

While Strange definitely saw cult status during his heyday in the comics, his portrayal by Benedict Cumberbatch on the big screen has breathed life back into the character and his mythology. Now with the upcoming sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (out May 6), fans will finally get the follow-up they’ve been clamoring for for nearly 6 years, as well as a logical continuation of last year’s mind-bending Loki series and the massively successful Spider-Man: No Way Home, the latter of which briefly, yet prominently, featured the Sorcerer Supreme himself.

Doctor Strange:Marvel Comics;Disney/Patrick Dempsey:AFP via Getty/Johnny Depp:Shuttershock/Colin Farrell:Wallpaperaccess/Joseph Gordon-Levitt:Christopher William Adach/Ryan Gosling:NASA,Aubrey Gemignani/Jake Gyllenhaal:Frazer Harrison via Getty

the marvel cinematic universe has done few With the plot of Multiverse of Madness highly under wraps, it’s still known that Strange will venture to the multiverse in an attempt to thwart a new villain. He will be accompanied by reality-altering Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), aka Scarlet Witch, and colleague Wong (Benedict Wong). Chiwetel Ejiofor will also return as Strange’s former mentor Karl Mordo, as will Michael Stuhlbarg and Rachel McAdams.

Patrick Stewart, known for portraying Professor X in the non-

MCU X-Men films, was also cast in an undisclosed role. Modern-day comic book superhero America Chavez will get her big screen debut, played here

by Xochitl Gomez.

It’s also been reported that Cumberbatch will portray alternate versions of his character throughout the multiverse. Marvel has been planting seeds for this film basically since the release of its 2016 predecessor. Strange had an important role in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and its 2019 followup End Game, as well as a cameo

ACTORS ONCE IN CONSIDERATION TO PLAY DOCTOR STRANGE

Patrick Dempsey

Johnny Depp

Colin Farrell

Joseph

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Ryan Gosling

Jake Gyllenhaal

Jon Hamm

Tom Hard

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appearance in Thor: Ragnarok, but the multiverse concept has been slowly unpeeled ever since 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, complemented by No Way Home, and even hinted at in a post-credits scene in WandaVision.

At the risk of burying the lead, it’s also crucial to mention that this project sees the return of Sam Raimi in the director’s seat, taking the place of Scott Derrickson, who helmed the previous film, after he stepped down due to creative differences. With his last directorial effort being 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful, Raimi has spent almost a decade as a producer instead. But now, the man who once

Ethan Hawke

Oscar Isaac

helped change the horror genre in the 1980s and all-but-invented the modern superhero fare as we know it today will get his shot to show how he can impact the game yet again.

Multiverses and mysticism might be a far cry from radioactive spiders and web-slinging, but as we saw in No Way Home, maybe they’re not. Before a couple years ago, few would be convinced that those lofty elements could live together anywhere except for within the pages of a comic book. But if anyone can make them fit—and make sense—into the cinematic medium, it’s Sam Raimi.

The uniqueness of Doctor Strange has been inscribed into the character and his story from the beginning with his debut in 1963’s issue #110 of Marvel’s Strange Tales anthology series. Created by Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, Strange’s story was originally conceived as a five-page filler, sharing the split book with a main solo feature about the Human Torch. But then by issue #115, the character got an eight-page origins story, where the arrogant and highly talented neurosurgeon suffers irreversible damage from an automobile accident that puts his famously nimble hands permanently out-of-service. Now living life as a sort of recluse, he hears of a mystical hermit called the Ancient One who can heal any ailment. Not believing in magic himself, he’s desperate and seeks out the Ancient One. However, upon meeting him, the elderly mystic is apprehensive about taking on Strange as a student due to his pompous demeanor. But after the former surgeon goes to save him

Jared Leto

Matthew

McConaughey

from an assassination attempt by another student Baron Mordo, the Ancient One notices his sincerity and change of heart and decides to teach him about this world of magic.

In the early ‘60s, Marvel Comics was changing the game with their brand-new archetypes of superheroes, sprawling universes, and deeper character studies.

Stephen Strange is one of the forefront examples of the imprint’s penchant for pushing their medium’s creative sphere wider and wider.

While the concept for the character was thought up by Ditko, Lee took inspiration from the 1930s radio show Chandu the Magician when it came to writing his profile of the character, accompanying his spells with elaborate-sounding artifacts.

For Lee, this was all made up, but it had readers’ minds swirling with magical possibilities.

Ditko’s art contained surrealistic landscapes to go along with the cosmology, just prior to the psychedelic era really establishing itself later that decade. As a result,

Ewan McGregor

Joaquin Phoenix

Keanu Reeves

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several non-superhero genres such as Westerns and the adult-oriented sword-and-sorcery fare.

After a several-year hiatus—showcase quarterlies notwithstanding—Doctor Strange came back, starring in his solo revival series in the “tryout” title Marvel Premiere, beginning with issue #3 in 1972. It’s during this run, most prominently helmed by writer Steve Englehart and artist Frank Brunner, that Doctor Strange takes over as Sorcerer Supreme after being forced to shut down the Ancient One’s mind, thus killing his teacher.

Englehart and Brunner’s run would be nothing short of notable, introducing one of Strange’s most recurring adversaries, ShumaGorath, and revitalizing the titular hero to the point of warranting a second ongoing title. Following Marvel Premiere #14, the series was

Doctor Strange:Marvel Comics;Disney/Dr. Strange:NBCUniversal, Marvel

Doctor Strange saw wide popularity among college students at the time. This all paired perfectly with the character’s newest Strange Tales book-mate, Nick Fury, whose groundbreaking art by Jim Steranko, beginning with issue #151 in 1966, really complimented the abstract stylings of Ditko and Doctor Strange.

Around this time, Ditko also introduced the character Eternity, a cosmic entity and de facto leader of the Cosmic Powers of the Marvel Universe, in a 17-issue storyline called “The Eternity Saga.”

By 1968, Ditko had already been succeeded three times over as artist, Fury got his own solo series, and Doctor Strange took over Strange Tales outright, which was renamed Doctor Strange starting with issue #169. Roy Thomas was tasked with writing the new solo series, which lasted 15 issues until November 1969.

Ultimately, Doctor Strange found appeal, albeit one that was more transient and cult-like than widely accessible like, say, Fantastic Four or Iron Man. And during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Marvel began discontinuing several of their lesserpopular titles, Doctor Strange included, and started dabbling in

renamed Doctor Strange: Master of the Mystic Arts, which ran until 1987.

Following a revival of Strange Tales from 1987 to 1988—a split book with Cloak and Dagger—Doctor Strange got his own series once again, titled Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme, which ran from 1988 to 1996 and was written by Peter B. Gillis alongside artists Richard Case and Randy Emberlin.

Since then, the character has been the face of several limited series, and in the 2000s frequently appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man and The New Avengers, the latter of which he joins as a regular character. In a 2009 issue, after being forced to use dark magic, Strange eventually steps down from his Sorcerer Supreme status, where he is succeeded by Brother Voodoo. However, a few years later, following the Brother Voodoo’s death, Strange reclaims his position. But after becoming possessed by a demon, he joins forces with supervillain Doctor Doom, who eventually kills him.

With hype building for his upcoming film, Doctor Strange would eventually get a fourth volume in 2015—his first solo series in nearly 20 years—helmed by Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo, and also seeing the return of Brother Voodoo. Since then, he’s had two more subsequent solo series, with his most recent

being the eponymous volume 6, which ended in October 2020. Over time, history might prove that the cinematic medium—especially with its modern capabilities—is where the superhero fits best. Although, that was not always the case.

2016’s Doctor Strange movie was not the first live-action adaptation for the character. In 1978, CBS aired a 93-minute television film with hopes that it would get picked up as a series. Following much different origins for our superhero, the story also includes the characters Wong, supervillain Morgan le Fay, and Strange’s love interest Clea Lake.

Rather than a neurosurgeon, Dr. Stephen Strange (played by Peter Hooten) is a resident psychiatrist.

Stan Lee looked back fondly on his experience with the production and surmised that it was the movie’s airing opposite of Roots on ABC that led to its poor ratings.

Years later, filmmaker Charles Band held an option for an adaptation of Doctor Strange, but right before production, the option expired, forcing him to rewrite the script and rename the movie Doctor Mordid, which was released straight-to-video in 1992.

Several other Doctor Strange projects had been in development throughout the years, including

a 1986 script penned by Back to the Future writer Bob Gale, and another co-written by Stan Lee and Alex Cox (Repo Man), which had Strange venturing to the Fourth Dimension and ultimately facing Dormammu—who would eventually be the villain in the 2016 film. Wes Craven (Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street) was attached to write and direct an adaptation in 1992, David S. Goyer (who co-wrote the Dark Knight trilogy with Christopher Nolan) penned a screenplay in 1995, and even Michael France (GoldenEye,

Cliffhanger) signed on to write a script that would have potentially been directed by either Chuck Russell (The Mask, 1988’s The Blob) or Stephen Norrington (Blade). It was clear that studios understood the abstract source material at the very least, and wanted someone who could give it a fresh voice to match.

After rights got tossed around like a hacky sack, Marvel eventually got the rights to produce the project independently in 2005. Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) and Neil Gaiman (American Gods) pitched an idea to Marvel in 2007, which the studio passed on. And then finally, in 2014, a short list of directors was made, consisting of Mark Andrews (Brave), Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies), and horror filmmaker Scott Derrickson, who was ultimately chosen.

Derrickson brought on board past collaborator C. Robert Cargill (Sinister) to co-write the script with him. But Marvel also eventually hired big-time Doctor Strange comic book fan Jon Spaihts, then known for penning Prometheus, to handle the rewrites.

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Doctor Strange:Marvel Comics;Disney

Prior to Benedict Cumberbatch landing the title role, everyone from Tom Hardy to Jared Leto to Ryan Gosling to Oscar Isaac to Keanu Reeves was attached, with talks in earnest with Joaquin Phoenix, who soon backed out of the project.

Ultimately, Marvel landed on Derrickson’s original choice, who’s now become synonymous with the character.

The film was a huge success, earning the studio over $677 million worldwide, even receiving an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Critics and fans alike fell in love with the character and his world, which was, for many, totally new compared to what they’d seen thus far in the MCU or otherwise.

Now with the sequel, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the 28th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the studio has their most ambitious project so far. Following Spider-Man: No Way Home, which was equal parts inventive and carefree, this upcoming film should see the stakes raised a lot more all while utilizing the same clever narrative device.

Out of 2021’s four MCU additions, two of them revolved around brandnew properties (Eternals and ShangChi) and another was a spin-off of an existing character (Black Widow), not to mention TV’s WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and Hawkeye.

Conversely, 2022 is parlaying the successes of three of their best, if not most interesting, established franchises. Along with Multiverse of Madness, we’re getting awaited follow-ups for Thor: Ragnarok (Thor: Love and Thunder) and Black Panther (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). This is a fine time to be a Marvel fan. And for those who have followed closely to the canon, whether it be comic book or film, you are now getting rewarded tenfold. The best part? This is only the beginning.

Meet your new sidekick gita is a first-of-its-kind hands-free robot that follows you and totes your gear.

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BJOERN KOMMERELL HAS KNOWN ELLEN HOLLMAN FOR OVER 15 YEARS. THROUGHOUT THEIR FRIENDSHIP, the actress has told the photographer stories about her time and experiences in this industry. Recently landing the role of Echo in The Matrix Resurrections, Hollman was tasked with becoming a version of Trinity in the film, challenging herself to do some hefty stunt work in the process.

When I first met Ellen Hollman, I was immediately infatuated by her energy.

You would not necessarily think she would be such a badass when you see her at a red-carpet event, looking all gorgeous, supermodel-like in a sexy dress. Little do you know that she loves paintball shooting, jiu-jitsu, and does so many of the stunts in her movies herself.

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Ellen Hollman:Bjoern Kommerell

The Michigan native moved out to Los Angeles in 2004, but her time spent in the arts dates much further back than that. Her father a violist and her mother a painter, Ellen has a draw to artistic expression that’s innate. Now featured in a multitude of projects such as Spartacus, Love and Monsters, and the groundbreaking martial arts series Into the Badlands, the actress is earning the respect of everyone she comes across. And Bjoern is lucky enough to witness her passion and dedication firsthand:

In the last couple of years, while shooting so many TV shows, including NCIS: New Orleans and Into the Badlands, Ellen has started writing and producing movies.

On top of that, she also runs the nonprofit charity she founded called Visual Impact Now, which provides free eye exams and glasses to children and families who are unable to afford it. She is a total powerhouse!

Lucky me that we’ve known each other for over 15 years and she’s told me, over many glasses of wine, so many interesting stories about herself.

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Ellen Hollman:Bjoern Kommerell

There’s a cool story about how she got the part of Echo in the newest Matrix movie. While training jiu-jitsu at the 87eleven facility (home of the best stunt performers in the world), Chad Stahelski, creator and director of John Wick, called her over to him.

He was standing with Matrix director Lana Wachowski.

Lana said, “You got it, Ellen!”

To which Ellen replied, “What?

An audition?” But Lana said, “No, you have the part. Chad vouched for you.

You can do your own stunts, right?”

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There’s an action sequence in The Matrix Resurrections when she had to climb all the way up a rusty old ladder to the rooftop of a skyscraper in San Francisco... without cables, unrehearsed! She did all this while helicopters flew around her, shooting rubber bullets at her. And of course, there was an additional helicopter there filming the whole thing. Beforehand, she said to Lana, “I don’t think I can do this.” But when she saw the disappointment in the director’s face, she got all her courage together and went for it.

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She’s always putting herself in these risky situations. On the set of the TV show Spartacus, a sword almost cut her eye out during a fight! Ellen Hollman is truly a force of nature. march 2022|

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project space 13

DIRECTED BY: Michael M. Bilandic / CAST: Theodore Bouloukos, Jason Grisell, Keith Poulson No one does smart-dumb quite like Michael M. Bilandic. His droll, pseudo-philosophical ramblings not only serve as anti-pontifications, but always make roundabout sense simply because the person writing it does so with a sly vision, connecting themes where you’d least expect them to. Amidst ramblings on Woody Woodpecker and the color of the sky, the writer-director takes on pretentious performance art with his latest guerilla-style

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picture Project Space 13. Where most other filmmakers would make this microbudget art house movie an ostentatious think piece in its own right, Bilandic evades selfaggrandizement in favor of accessible banter and a thoughtful storyboard.

For those who loved his previous effort Jobe’z World and the way it lambastes the self-designated importance of pop culture and inflated celebrity, all under the guise of playful jest, you will likely find Bilandic’s shrunken gaze here just as appealing. Comically poking fun at the self-importance of inscrutable artwork, the director now sends up the exact same low-budget genre he likes to create in.

A shock value performance artist, Nate (Keith Poulson), finally lands a spot at a famous art gallery in the SoHo district in New York, where he will lock himself in a cage for 120 days straight, eating only insects fed to him by his small robot pal Zebos and getting slightly electrocuted once a

day to the bemusement of anyone who comes to watch. Problem is, New York has just shut down because of COVID, and the only people who witness his piece are the two renta-cops tasked with standing guard against the wave a riots sweeping the neighborhood.

Committed to his art, but also not wanting to squander his long-awaited moment to land a spot in a gallery he’s romanticized about for years, Nate continues his performance. The gallery’s owner Pieter (Jason Grisell) hires Ace (Theodore Bouloukos), an ex-military at odds with Nate, who continuously berates him and calls him Paul Blart, and the rookie guard Evan (Hunter Zimny), who’s far more passive, yet also finds Nate’s combativeness difficult to handle.

Bilandic manages to critique his antithetical characters while also showing their heart. And as they grow to understand one another, we also start to root for them as a team, perhaps even more so than

Project Space 13:Michael M. Bilandic,Circle Collective,MUBI/ Jobe’z World:Michael M. Bilandic,Jobewerks

AT THE MOVIES

as individuals. Familiarity may breed contempt, but only if you don’t consider sympathy as a viable option.

Perhaps bonding over eating insects once it’s all over may just be relief brought upon by the sheer glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel, but these three totally dichotomous individuals are able to find a real camaraderie by the end.

In the lead role, Poulson perfectly taps into the self-absorbed, angsty artist, finding the exact authenticity that lies just on the outer fringes of satire and stereotype. But all four actors are superb, each able to handle the long-winded monologues that Bilandic likes to include for his characters—perhaps showing his connection to the theater world.

Adding to his oeuvre of stories set during the witching hours of a single night, Project Space 13 sees an arc form between dusk and dawn for everyone involved. One that’s

As it turns out, the lockdown may be the only thing keeping Nate from realizing that people don’t really care; keeping him from ANY DISENCHANTMENT OR BRUSHES with reality. spurred by Bilandic’s fascinating and charismatic verbiage, here with an undertone of now-overlydebated COVID politics. A side-eyed indictment of creating chaos for the goal of feeling important and alive— whether as an artist or a rioter—the film draws the fresh line between safely finding a connection and trying to feel godlike by destroying property.

The filmmaker further explores the somewhat contentious ideas of authorship, validation, and the importance of an artist to his work.

There’s a fantastic scene where Nate asks Evan to take a picture using his

iPhone, which spirals into a debate on the authorship of that very iPhone picture.

Later on, as the flood of marauders sweeps the neighborhood and all surrounding stores get looted for all they’re worth, the gallery is the only spot that survives. Art prevails in the end. But that may only be because it’s art to begin with. Preventing the one person who’s interested in invading the building from coming inside, Ace and Evan incidentally stop him from also experiencing the art itself. As it turns out, the lockdown may be the only thing keeping Nate from realizing that people don’t really care; keeping him from any disenchantment or brushes with reality.

Oozing with his signature analog aesthetic (there’s a sculpture of cathode-ray tube TVs that’s part of Nate’s exhibit), neon-encrusted bias lighting, and washed nighttime exteriors—as if the moon itself were radiating iridescence—Bilandic is a director who sticks to his trademarks through and through and never tries to be too flashy, maintaining tonal control all while showcasing his endless imagination. One thing is apparent over the course of this economic narrative: Michael M. Bilandic is one heck of a storyteller.

Not the first to be set in a world of self-aggrandized art, where the line between importance and non-importance is ill-defined and inconsistent, Project Space 13 seems to mean more simply because it’s actually from that world. Almost entirely set in a singular location, it may not have the same kinesis of Jobe’z World and its travailing odyssey, but there’s a journey to be had here regardless. And an important message to be relayed no matter which side of the aisle you stand on: If a tortured artist can find peace inside a cage while being abused by a barely sentient robot, why can’t we find that same piece stuck at home with all the amenities one could ask for?

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a spotlight on michael m. bilandic

jobe’z world (2018) What separates the drugged-out underbelly of society from the celebrities who have the same vices, if not worse? How does society treat these two kinds of people differently? Do we give the same sympathy to both? These are the questions that writer-director Michael M. Bilandic poses with his 2018 no-budget odyssey Jobe’z World.

The filmmaker treats both parties the same throughout the movie, only painting their habitats and the public’s depictions of them as being vastly different. A cross between Pauly Shore and Dana Carvey’s Garth, the titular Jobe (Jason Grisell) is a former semi-pro rollerblader who now scrapes by as a drug runner in Manhattan where he spends his nights consorting with pseudo-cultured weirdos and the general nightcrawlers who can’t have a good reason to still be awake—let alone outside.

We’re allowed inside Jobe’z mind for his philosophical expoundings on life and outer space, all while he halfheartedly boosts his own manga, Celestial Steven, Space Raider.

One night after doing his normal rounds, he’s called back into work to deliver a powerful drug to insanely-popular actor Royce David Leslie (Theodore Bouloukos). The two men exchange a Melvin-andHoward moment as Jobe discusses his own dreams and seems to inspire the eccentric actor as well.

However, after a livestream later that night where Royce dies from an overdose on camera, wistfully mentioning his evening with Jobe in the process, the whole town is

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distraught from the loss and now on a manhunt for Jobe, who’s skating around incognito.

While mourning the loss of a cultural icon, the city itself seems to actually lose, or forget, its own culture and its appreciation for it—as though the zeitgeist was all resting on the shoulders of this one actor. Which begs the question: Is culture ever real to begin with or is it simply a result of our own need to find purpose in the secular? Or are those two concepts even mutually exclusive?

With the Safdie-esque art house cinematography from Sean Price Williams, Bilandic immerses us through low-angled close-ups without foregoing the essence of his surroundings, while also capturing this seedy and grimy world that preys on these lost souls. The hypnotic editing, camerawork, and captured performances help blend the realms of vérité and fiction. Lit at times like a ‘90s indie, Jobe’z World is coded with a love of cinema and surrealistic pop without ever coming close to full homage.

Grisell is so committed to his role as Jobe and taps into the dazed-andconfused trope without making his character seem stupid. Not only are we rooting for Jobe, but we trust that he’ll make the right decision—or at least deliberate on it sufficiently enough—as he journeys into the disillusionment of the world around him, struggling with whether to view that disillusionment as disparaging or a source of inspiration itself.

Even if the ending feels illogical on the surface, Jobe’z World takes the logical route nearly every step of the way. The director gives enough meta context without over-explaining his world and diluting themes about our relationship with media, especially the forms of entertainment that blur the line between artistic and populist due to how they appeal to both mainstream and underground conventions—arguably just like Bilandic’s movie does itself. Clocking in at a brisk 67 minutes, the film never overstays its welcome all while economically providing a full scope of its protagonist and his titular World.

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AT THE MOVIES

licorice pizza

DIRECTED BY: Paul Thomas Anderson / CAST: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper Adorned with waterbed salesmen and Fatburger grand openings, 1973 San Fernando plays like a nostalgic snow globe in Licorice Pizza as we travel back in time with writerdirector Paul Thomas Anderson who appears to be returning to his roots with an upbeat story and likable characters. “My Ding-a-Ling,” Chuck Berry’s unlikely—and only—numberone hit plays over the car radio, and we can’t help but recall his earlier tracks whispering through the air in the same fashion in American Graffiti (set in 1962, but coincidentally—or

not—released in ’73). An incidental companion piece to George Lucas’ magnum opus, the world of Licorice Pizza still radiates from the glow that was once New Hollywood excitement, now settling more into a sort of familiarity with the newish landscape. Amidst it all, two young “lovers” meet-cute at a photo shoot—it’s picture day at Gary’s high school. He’s 15. She’s 25.

Alana Kane (Alana Haim) works for the photography company and gets stopped by Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), who informs her of his career as an actor. We’re unsure how impressed Alana is with this information, but he doesn’t care. He invites her out for drinks that night.

She obliges.

Gary oozes with the kind of unfounded confidence every 15-yearold wishes he had. He knows if he plays the part, he’ll get the job, or the girl, or what have you. Gary is an opportunist with a knack for perseverance and never lacks

Licorice Pizza:United Artists

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enthusiasm. Perhaps his biggest strength is knowing when he’s reached the end of the line—a point so many of us can’t seem to recognize throughout our lives. We always stay at that job or with that girl for far too long. When something can no longer work out for Gary, he moves on to the next big endeavor. That is, except for when it comes to Alana.

Never an official couple, Alana and

When something can no longer work out for Gary, he moves on to the next big endeavor.

That is, except for when it comes to Alana.

The back-and-forth goes on for seemingly years, although the entire film is set in 1973. In that time, Gary auditions for acting gigs, starts up his own waterbed company, and opens a pinball arcade. Alana also dabbles in Hollywood and helps mayoral candidate Joel Wachs with his campaign. Anderson takes snapshots of the era, yet refrains from the episodic staccato, craftily putting them all together as a stream-of-conscious flipbook.

As with most of Paul Thomas Anderson’s work, the journey of Licorice Pizza is far better than the destination. For a character study, the film almost doesn’t say anything powerful enough to justify the intentional anticlimax. Seemingly averse to the idea of Chekhov’s

Guns and pertinent resolutions, the filmmaker is more concerned with reality. Yet, this is one of those movies that hopes to convey its romantic plot as void of the poeticism that we now expect as the result of life imitating art.

Considering the short timeframe, the story becomes less about disillusion—because that’s usually something that happens gradually over time—and more about the stupid things we do when we’re young and in love; about the naivety that closes us off from the real world and allows us to unconsciously disregard the more unspoken rules of society. Gary almost deliberately curates his own romance flick, guided by the hand of the industry around him.

A spiritual successor to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which depicts a fictionalized take on 1969’s Los Angeles and the real people that inhabited that scene, Licorice Pizza is more of a hybrid between real world references and complete fiction. While actual personalities like Jon Peters and Joel Wachs are pieces in this tale (portrayed by Bradley Cooper and Benny Safdie, respectively), characters like Jack Holden (Sean Penn) or Lucy Doolittle (Christine Ebersole) are composites or stand-ins for the likes of William Holden and Lucille Ball. Gary himself is loosely inspired by Anderson’s

Gary seem to always be cursed by timing. Gary has wanted her since the very moment he saw her, but she’s always been apprehensive because of their age difference. It’s less of an issue of legality than it is status for her (although the audience may see it slightly differently). How far can she truly go in life if her boyfriend is 15? The answer is “not far,” however, no matter if they’re official or not.

Attempting to have her cake and eat it too, Alana always keeps Gary within arm’s reach. Unfortunately, she’s easily impressed by people, and so she frees herself to be with other guys yet gets bitter when he’s with other girls.

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friend—producer and former child actor Gary Goetzman.

Almost literally merging the already-muddled area between fiction and truth, Anderson’s movie is one that’s very aware of its connection to the real world. The director initially sinks us into this universe with firsttime actors, Haim and Hoffman, among others. Big-time A-listers like Sean Penn and Bradley Cooper are then put in place to give the in-world A-listers they’re portraying a similar daunting presence. The director

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doesn’t use any overtly stylized tricks to his filmmaking, but tells this slice-of-life story in an incisive and captivating way, nonetheless. He fills in his universe, slowly but surely, with a scattering of memorably quirky characters and evocative locations, many of which are never used more than once.

The movie’s title refers to the eponymous defunct record store, eventually bought up by Sam Goody. Containing a very self-aware nostalgia, but not in a way that’s too far removed from its setting—much like American Graffiti’s decade-long retrospective of the pre-British Invasion ‘60s—Licorice Pizza very much feels like it could have been made in the mid-to-late 1980s.

Shot on film with an evocative texture that further embeds us into that early ‘70s period, the film’s bittersweet tone still echoes ‘80s classics like Say Anything or For Keeps—both of which are set in their present day.

For Licorice Pizza, there’s a sweetness and authenticity at its

core that goes beyond pastiche; it’s nearly self-aware that it is, in fact, a movie. Despite the lengthy runtime and a few plot contrivances, this is perhaps Anderson’s most accessible picture since his debut Hard Eight, and without question the San Fernando native’s most personal. He has a history of retooling honesty in a way that’s sometimes masked as hyperbole. But here, he finally finds that same honesty through utilizing real situations and, most of all, real people.

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Licorice Pizza:United Artists/Nightmare Alley:Searchlight Pictures

AT THE MOVIES

nightmare alley

DIRECTED BY: Guillermo del Toro / CAST: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette Old-timey carnivals and circuses have long enamored cinematic storytellers. Rich with imagery and invention, these menageries forced early showmen to become resourceful when selling tickets.

An act, whether it be magician or freak show, couldn’t just stand on its own. It had to have pizzazz; it had to be unique; it had to look great.

Of course, as Hollywood burgeoned with its own talents, many of the circuses saw a decline in quality as a result. Yet, the linkage between the two crafts has never been a difficult one to make. Recreating these evocative sets for film isn’t just an appealing challenge to most filmmakers, but a quest to immerse an audience into this world in a real way that can’t be replicated in person.

Set circa 1940, Nightmare Alley follows the career of a promising young mentalist, beginning with his early days learning the trade at

a second-rate carnival and seeing his career eventually lead to him becoming a marquee performer for New York’s elite—all told through the lens of our own modern-day visual auteur. Guillermo del Toro returns, once again, to his goldtrimmed, deco-inspired furnishings and brightly colored ornamentation, leaving it up to us to decide what’s truly opulent and what’s simply playing the part.

Bradley Cooper plays Stan Carlisle, a seemingly earnest man who eventually becomes blinded by his “powers” as a mind-reader. Of course, he’s not a real mind-reader, but has mastered the craft of deduction. Over the course of the film, Stan finds himself doing private séances for the rich and powerful, getting high off the emotional control he finds himself having over them. He gets insider secrets from upper-class psychiatrist Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), who may have a catastrophic hunger for emotional manipulation herself.

Equally sprawling and tightly wound, Nightmare Alley often wants to achieve too much with its straight-forward premise, and yet still builds up stakes and tension for Stan’s big con, letting the chips fall as they may. The film almost feels like two separate stories entirely: one set in a dark and somewhat offthe-grid circus, and another in New York’s high society. Del Toro makes the distinction, and almost never intersects the two worlds, setting a two-year gap between the narrative halves, which only prevents us from feeling the full weight of Stan’s trajectory.

Despite incredible performances from each actor, the characters themselves don’t always feel livedin. Cooper is certainly believable as our protagonist. Although, his drastic character shift doesn’t ever feel like two sides of the same coin, but two different coins entirely, thus two separate performances.

He goes from wide-eyed student to condescending prick in almost no time. Likewise, Lilith’s own twisted psyche never gets totally explored, perhaps by design. There are a couple of ancillary roles that feel fully formed, such as Willem Dafoe’s seedy carnival owner, Clem, and Richard Jenkins’ scumbag billionaire Ezra Grindle.

The best examples of unlikable protagonists throughout cinema feature main characters who are more oblivious to his or her flaws, suffering from either denial or delusion. Stan’s profile, however, is pushed a bit too far, his relentless calculability keeping the audience perpetually distanced as he possesses nary a glimmer

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of remorse. His amoral coding will undoubtedly prevent many viewers from warming up to the story at all. He’s simply too powerful to be pathetic. Even in the most celebrated cases for unlikable protagonists, such as Alex in A Clockwork Orange or Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, the themes underneath those characters are important enough to serve a greater purpose.

It’s unclear if del Toro is using Stan as a cautionary tale of the impact that abusive parents and selfrighteous hypocrites can have on the morally feeble, or if the director is attempting to relay an anti-religious message himself. Although, doing so through an unlikable protagonist may just be proving the very points that the director is running away from. Stan has no guidance except for that of his own hedonistic agenda. His self-seeking approach destroys everyone around him, and his desire to be a god himself leads to his own downfall. Stan spends so much time preventing himself from believing his own lies that he forgets to abandon the ones most deeply embedded inside his own soul; he falls victim to his own illusions. He’s the very abuser and self-empowered huckster that he’s spent his entire life hating. Yet it’s not clear enough if his fervent indictments of religion and a higher power are coming from the filmmaker’s mouth itself.

In his first story with no supernatural elements whatsoever, del Toro doesn’t have any actual monsters to offset his favorite recurring theme of “men are the real monsters.” Here, men are the only monsters. But Nightmare Alley, for how staunchly opposed it is to the mere implication of the supernatural,

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is still inscribed with a sense of spirituality as a guiding force, however contradicting that is to the director’s voice.

Taking notes from Tod Browning’s 1932 cult favorite Freaks (interestingly enough, released years before this film is even set), the script, written by del Toro and Kim Morgan based on the 1946 novel by William Lindsay Gresham, is filled with both cleverness and overambition. Certain details and dynamics are totally original, such as the subplot with Grindle, a terrible man who we end up sympathizing

There’s something so unique and special about the director’s style that it’s hard to imagine anyone else replicating this specific world with any more authenticity. with on a certain level. However, despite leaving in a handful of fun surprises for us to find, Nightmare Alley telegraphs its most poetic twists.

Underpinning his movie with captivating dialogue and a certain vulnerability, while also touching on the smooth noir staples found in the likes of Citizen Kane or Chinatown, del Toro has a grasp that sometimes feels a bit too short for how lofty the world is that he’s created. The main

character’s arc lacks a proper gravity to be worth the saga that’s being used to convey it—these are bad things happening to bad people. The one good person in the mix, Stan’s girlfriend Molly (Rooney Mara), never gets developed enough for us to feel her tragedy full-on. And still, this is all a story that’s worthy of being told, simply because of how unique and memorable it is.

There’s something so inventive and special about the director’s style that it’s hard to imagine anyone else replicating this specific world with any more authenticity. We’ve seen it done countless times before, but del Toro brings his own imagination and passion to the table. When we experience those scenes at the carnival, we feel like we’ve truly traveled back in time. And when we’re in 1940’s New York, we’re happy to visit despite the bleakness.

Regardless of thematic flaws, del Toro’s vantage point for this very tale is original and intriguing. A carnival tale lifted as high as possible without needing to be on the level of “The Rise and Fall of P.T. Barnum,” Nightmare Alley never strays from its admittedly fallible objectives. It won’t connect on the same personal level as Pan’s Labyrinth or the Best Picture-winning The Shape of Water, but this film sees Guillermo del Toro at his most meticulous and—dare I say it?—Hitchcockian. Carefully weaving together his saga with fine detail both visually and narratively, the director crafts something that, more than anything he’s done before, will be analyzed and overanalyzed for years to come.

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Nightmare Alley:Searchlight Pictures/Home Team:Netflix,Happy Madison

AT THE MOVIES

home team

DIRECTED BY: Charles Kinnane and Daniel Kinnane / CAST: Kevin James, Taylor Lautner, Rob Schneider

Turning a true story into an irreverent Adam Sandler comedy is an interesting choice to say the least.

For Netflix’s Home Team, those reallife events surround Sean Payton, the first NFL coach ever suspended after being implicated in a “bounty scandal” where players would get incentivized to injure those on the opposing teams.

Kevin James portrays the New Orleans Saints coach, just two years following his Super Bowl win in 2010.

He decides to spend his one-year suspension visiting his estranged son and ex-wife in Texas, eventually landing a spot as the offensive coordinator on his son’s middleschool football team, the Liberty Christian Warriors. The Warriors haven’t scored a single point all season, but with Payton’s help— along with the Saints’ playbook—they end up going undefeated.

Payton’s scandal is hardly on the table here. Instead, writers Chris Titone and Keith Blum opt for more

straight-forward comedy about football, with family drama serving as the decided upon weight for our protagonist instead of whether or not he’s actually guilty of the crimes in question.

Sean’s son, Connor (Tait Blum), barely knows his father and this could be a real chance for them to finally bond. Of course, it’s not that easy. Having to overcome Connor’s bitterness, the indifference of his young players, and the maintenance

of their know-it-all parents, Sean must learn how to reprogram himself a bit, despite still being within the realm of something he’s great at.

Candy for football nerds, the film enjoys discussing techniques and dissecting on-field plays, which might go over the heads of the casual fans, but never alienates them. The plot runs into some problems when trying to iron out all of its issues in one single scene towards the end rather than allowing

the emotion to bubble under throughout, but Home Team is still infused with a lot of authentic humor and heart.

A man for whom authenticity is never at a premium, Sandler doesn’t star in the film or write the script, but as producer with his Happy Madison imprint, his creative identity is all over this project. Aside from the slapstick and goofy non sequiturs, Home Team favors family-friendly sentiment and ragtag moral victories over the edginess—but not too much edginess—of comedies coming out in the mainstream as of late. Always in love with the small jokes, even helping to reinvent and popularize the idea of the small joke, Sandler ensures that the creatives he’s assembled have that same appreciation and willingness to execute.

In the directors’ chairs are brothers Charles and Daniel Kinnane, mostly known for their under-the-radar short films starring Kevin James himself. Here, their chemistry with the comedian is apparent, able to tap into his perfunctory quips and newfound sardonicism. James is excellent in his more contained role, grounding the film around him and giving us a more-than-sufficient character to root for.

Like any Sandler film, there are an array of silly, idiosyncratic characters planted throughout, such as a mordant hotel clerk who steals bagels (played by Sandler’s nephew Jared Sandler), a bike-riding assistant coach (played by James’ brother Gary Valentine) whose actual ability to ride a bike is in constant question, and Conner’s holistic stepdad,

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played by another Sandler regular: the perennially goofy Rob Schneider (“I’m doing some interesting things with saffron!”).

Remember when all a comedy had to be was funny? Where, if the plot was serviceable, but the laughs were plentiful, that’s all that mattered?

Harkening back to the ‘90s when movies like this would not only exist, but would be immensely popular, Home Team contains strands of films like The Mighty Ducks and The Big Green, never trying to be anything it’s not, and providing enough enjoyable moments to be well-worth the watch. It won’t break

Aside from the slapstick and goofy non sequiturs, Home Team favors family-friendly sentiment and ragtag moral victories over the edginess—but not too MUCH EDGINESS—of comedies coming out in the mainstream as of late. any rules or further its somewhatfloundering genre, but these are the kinds of harmless entries that should be welcomed. Sometimes all you need to be is safe and familiar.

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Home Team:Netflix,Happy Madison/The Fallout:Warner Bros.,HBO Max

AT THE MOVIES

the fallout

DIRECTED BY: Megan Park / CAST: Jenna Ortega, Maddie Ziegler, Niles Fitch Despite having a few flaws, Megan Park’s The Fallout, more than anything else, captures the utter fear and aftermath of a school shooting for those of us who have never lived through it. There’s the gut-wrenching scene early on where our lead, Vada (Jenna Ortega), visits the girls’ bathroom during class, running into her popular Instagram-influencer classmate Mia (Maddie Ziegler), who then both hear gunshots coming from outside the door. It’s here that our writer-director establishes the sense of realism in which she will mostly follow for the rest of the film.

Vada and Mia come from different social tiers, and weren’t friends prior to their happenstance restroom encounter. They soon find comfort and companionship in one another through their shared experience.

Mia essentially lives by herself and is going through the aftermath alone.

Vada theoretically has a support system, but finds it more cathartic to close herself off.

Vada comes from a normal, loving home, where her parents (Julie Bowen and John Ortiz) keep a seemingly balanced level of honesty and space. Likewise, she and her younger sister Amelia (Lumi Pollack) bicker as siblings do, but also have a deep love for one another. On the day of the shooting, Amelia calls Vada for advice after she gets her first period.

It’s why Vada is in the bathroom in the first place. It’s this relationship with Amelia that undergirds the film, as we begin seeing the events through the younger girl’s eyes instead and sympathizing with her the most— especially as we start questioning the integrity behind Vada’s emotional healing.

Depicting the self-absorption of teens without emphasizing it, the director keeps a steady and subtle hand with her themes, opening up her protagonist for judgement so we can better experience her journey The audience is nearly invited to muse about whether Vada, along

with Mia, is simply experiencing pure PTSD or exploiting the trauma as an excuse to act upon her alreadyexisting ennui.

This story could have very easily followed a character who was more directly impacted by the school shooting—such as the girls’ friend Quinton (Niles Fitch), who lost his brother—but instead Park recognizes that showing someone on the fringes of this devastation is not only perhaps a more unique

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finally seeing their unstable selfimages illuminated through these events.

While still brimming with an understandable level of youth, Ortega’s performance dominates the film. She commands each scene, whether she wants to or not, which is both a sign of Park’s trust in her screen presence and of her own future as an actress. She never does anything specifically noteworthy, yet has the magnetism to stretch from typical teenage angst to utter aloofness without divorcing us from her character entirely.

It’s also great to see Shailene Woodley here as Vada’s therapist in a pair of scenes, both executed with poise and precision. There’s something about watching a phenomenal talent in an ancillary role that brings a fullness to a movie. The actress completely avoids the cold, terse, even didactic stereotypes that always seem to riddle these kinds of roles. Woodley plays the whole thing as a realistic and fully fleshed-out character.

The Fallout covers a delicate topic with tact, but can’t always decide if it wants to play its fringe angle with a side-eyed glare or at face value.

Mixing stereotypes with grittiness, the movie will place Vada’s textbook

The Fallout:Warner Bros.,HBO Max/Weird Science:Universal

story to tell and one that shows the understated impact of a tragedy like this, but also one that has more narrative directions in which it can go. For someone like Quinton, you either spiral into depression or take this as an invitation to change the world. However, for someone like Vada and Mia—who didn’t even see the shooter’s face at all, nor did they know anyone who died—the “fallout” becomes more of a study on a person’s need to feel something in the face of feeling nothing, as well as the uncanny reaches of trauma.

Framed around a culture obsessed and driven by social media acceptance and interaction, The Fallout speaks on the lack of communication and openness that’s a reflection—nay, a result—of the preponderance of the need to posture online. And how we’re taught to believe that “managing emotions” means to suppress them; that simply speaking your mind with zero restraint is therapy enough.

Quietly, Park acknowledges how this social media landscape has a more drastic effect on girls than it does boys, with both male characters—motivated less by peer acceptance—having a relatively healthy reaction to the shooting. The two female characters, however, are

worrywart mother amidst a scene of emotional rawness, and it doesn’t always work. The same can be said about Park’s view of the shooting itself. One of Vada’s friends uses the incident as inspiration for his own actions against gun violence, but when asked why he thinks the shooter did it, he simply replies, “I dunno. Is there ever a reason?”

Well, Park clearly shows the toxic results of trauma for a well-adjusted individual, but only tangentially addresses that it’s people, not guns, that kill people. On one hand, that character’s insouciance falls in line with the film’s straight-forward approach, but there’s enough sprinkled in here and there to let us know that it’s at least on Park’s mind.

Taking notes from Bo Burnham’s 2018 sleeper hit Eighth Grade—a similar portrait of youngsters with too much access to the world at their fingertips—Park ladens her script with those same cringeworthy colloquialisms. Yet at times the replication of Gen Z vernacular comes off as inauthentic, too adlibbed perhaps, causing the plot to lose focus at times. This is not that kind of movie. Lower-concept dramas like Eighth Grade or Mid90s can afford that sort of slice-of-life, but Park’s slight deviations from

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Vada’s distinct arc expose some of the writer’s greenness. She’s never quite sure if she wants to use stippling or broad strokes to paint her portrait.

However, The Fallout is an allaround great picture, and one we will be talking about for some time.

Picking her spots for comedy, Park avoids truly spoiling her tone or shrouding her points. And as Vada’s story comes to a tentative end, the director is perfectly okay not cleaning up every corner of her life.

Because the end of this movie is when her healing can actually begin.

However, for someone like Vada and Mia— who didn’t even see the shooter’s face at all, nor did they know anyone who died—the “fallout” becomes more of a study on a person’s need to feel SOMETHING IN THE FACE OF FEELING NOTHING, as well as the uncanny reaches of trauma.

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weird science (1985) Perhaps John Hughes’ biggest achievement in 1985’s Weird Science is how he finds energy in the single-note premise. The pseudo-sex comedy about two high school outcasts (Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith) who use their computer to build their ideal woman (Kelly LeBrock) would have turned into a horny romp in anyone else’s hands. However, Hughes, who writes and directs, at least makes an earnest attempt to say something more, even if the message is undercooked. Sure, Weird Science is still horny, but like the best sex comedies—and other Hughes films that are essentially sex comedy-adjacent—it doesn’t solve its problems through sex, but with the lack thereof.

Finding ways to develop its protagonists and plot on its own terms, the film may find Hughes at his most incompetent, but also at his most free. Remaining myopic in his understanding of human behavior, the filmmaker still invents unique scenarios and takes risks that would result in a more perfect congruency in his follow-up, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Early on in Weird Science, when the story is still rooted in reality, the jarring fantastical elements (Kelly LeBrock manipulating people’s brains and materializing cars with the snap of her finger) keep the audience at an uneasy distance, causing the movie to lose its verisimilitude.

However, as the plot catches up with

the outlandish—with a mutant biker gang and a ballistic missile growing out of the floorboard—everything finally becomes cohesive. If thrown in abruptly, these later scenes would have felt just as unwelcome, but Hughes gradually builds to his nearabsurdist identity and highly specific tone, blending the magic realism of I Dream of Jeannie, the randomness of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the self-awareness of Ferris Bueller to create something original and, well, weird.

Hasty relationship development and nonsensical characters fail to reflect teenage life on the level that Hughes typically operates on. Luckily, Weird Science is held together by the natural personalities of its three leads rather than in how it’s constructed.

Hall shows his range yet again, proving that there’s always been nuance within the nerdy archetype.

LeBrock’s evolution from Manic Pixie Dream Girl to motherly protector is swift, and merely in the hands of her two 15-year-old gawkers. All the while, the English model thoroughly maintains her sternness and screen presence.

Remembered more for its high concept than its narrative quality, Weird Science still has a definite spark and creates a unique experience for those most familiar with either ‘80s sex comedies or Hughes’ oeuvre. Barely finding the actual story at times, there’s certainly a better movie underneath—perhaps one that takes its Frankenstein influence a little more literally— but the filmmaker’s talents allow his genre experiment to stand out amongst almost every other contemporary.

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the lost daughter DIRECTED BY: Maggie Gyllenhaal / CAST: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson

Being a parent is difficult. Inherently and understandably self-absorbed, children require so much attention, especially at the expense of your own. Yet, one could say we’re all truly self-absorbed until we have children.

They force us to think outside of ourselves and to finally live for someone else; to share all that we’ve learned throughout life and help them do the same. Of course, there will be thousands of times when we screw up trying to transition to our new reality, but the end result always leaves us better off than before— that is, if we take our responsibility seriously.

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s filmmaking debut The Lost Daughter, based on a novel by Elena Ferrante, tells the story of Leda (Olivia Colman), a 48-year-old woman vacationing in Greece, only to have the mistakes she made nearly 20 years ago come swarming back after she witnesses a young mother, Nina (Dakota Johnson), caring for her daughter.

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When her own girls were young, Leda (Jessie Buckley) left them to go find herself and reclaim her independence. Suffocated as a mother, she grew impatient with the needs of her kids, while also trying to navigate her own needs. Older Leda seems remorseful enough. She cries, gets panic attacks, and seems filled with general ennui. But still, we get the impression that she doesn’t quite regret her past mistakes enough.

Parenting is also an evolving journey, and one that continues well past the time our children are still living at home. And while The Lost Daughter doesn’t ever show Leda with her adult kids physically, we’re still able to feel the transformation of the 48-year-old version of her as a mother—one that can finally relate to her children.

The preponderance of flashback sequences informs us of the priority Gyllenhaal has placed on Leda’s life as a young mother, hoping to give

us a fuller spectrum of her character and aid us in feeling sympathy.

However, it ends up doing the opposite. The past events, while painting a richer picture, are far less captivating than the presentday ones, and also more infuriating for the audience who struggles to peel back the layers of Leda only to find rot. I’m sure our director weighed the pros and cons of telling her story out of order, but sometimes requiring the crowd

The Lost Daughter:Netflix

AT THE MOVIES

the doll and enabling her to cheat on her husband, just like Leda did all those years ago.

Gyllenhaal’s cinematic language and visual palette give her film an energy and emotional heart, but much of that energy is found in a gratuitously non-linear plot, and much of that emotion is a result of the brilliant performances and the depressing nuance derived from all the people left in the wake of Leda’s selfishness. There are some poetic marks throughout the movie, but the murky symbolism holds an air

to use their own deduction skills helps them feel more involved in the saga. Take Nomadland or Pig, both straight-forward, linear dramas with backstories told indirectly, and cleverly, rather than through handholding.

Leda’s status as a likable character wanes even more as she steals Nina’s 4-year-old daughter’s doll, thus causing turmoil for everyone in Nina’s family. Leda admires the young mother’s relationship with her daughter, but mostly she’s jealous.

Although Nina’s shady husband is an absent father, at least she has the support of her large extended family to look out for her and help her raise her girl. Even so, Nina seems to be a loving mother. The only way Leda can cause a disturbance in her seemingly idyllic life is by stealing

Leda learns that, whether in motherhood or alone on the beach, there will always be something or someone there to disrupt your tranquility— and sometimes YOU’RE the one doing the disrupting, never truly learning YOUR lesson until it’s too late. of pretense. For much of the story, the writer-director dabbles in the indistinct, only allowing us to see but half of the words on the page. When filling in the gaps becomes a chore, your audience questions your intent.

The Lost Daughter still does a great job building tension during its present-day scenes, but alas, as the plot resolves, that tension never amounts to anything worth remembering. The tilt that’s reached is anticlimactic at best.

Displaying the struggle between pathos and logos, The Lost Daughter has some truly promising ideas, but ultimately buckles under the weight of its filmmaker’s subjectivity.

Choosing to justify its protagonist’s actions rather than simply showing the results, Gyllenhaal winds up marring some of her themes in the

process. Leda learns that, whether in motherhood or alone on the beach, there will always be something or someone there to disrupt your tranquility—and sometimes you’re the one doing the disrupting, never truly learning your lesson until it’s too late. And ultimately, our director’s apprehension about making her an unlikable character only forces us to question her total grasp of the story being told.

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other notable releases Strawberry Mansion

Kimi

aThe Worst Person in the World

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SPOILER MAGAZINE SPOILER MAGAZINE

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

eternally present in the pop culture sphere. He forever changed the way we not only viewed comic books, but fictional stories, broadening the possibilities of narrative and depth of character.

Prior to his death in 2018, he and his right-hand man Gill Champion recruited The Walking Dead veteran Jay Bonansinga to tackle the Marvel Comics legend’s first novel, The Devil’s Quintet. The story follows a group of soldiers who are offered a deal with the devil that would give them superpowers, but would require them to act as his bounty hunters in return. It’s here where our protagonists come face to face with their own humanity and must make a crucial choice.

While reflecting on Stan Lee’s impact and his unparalleled vision, Jay and Gill chat with Galaxy and delve into some of the more granular aspects of building a superhero—or supervillain—story: the questions they’re forced to ask themselves while constructing the story’s foundation and figuring out the true anatomy of these characters and their limitations.

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Gill Champion & Jay Bonansinga:POW! Entertainment

The ripple effect of Stan Lee will be

erview erview SPOILER: What is this book about?

JAY BONANSINGA: When I was lucky enough to be brought on board on this project, I had a feeling it was going to be the most interesting ride of my life and career. And so far, it hasn’t disappointed. It began as a premise that Stan Lee created, and it was a little different.

GILL CHAMPION: It was. One of the things that Stan always wanted to do was write a novel. As the years went by, he was preoccupied with so many other things. But he was always infatuated with heroes and villains, and wanted to tackle this particular story. It’s probably a little different and darker than most of the Stan Lee projects we did at POW! that he was known for.

It started with a concept. We were determined to find the right person to begin collaboration with, and we were lucky enough to come across Jay. After meeting and conversing with Jay, Stan was thrilled, before he passed, that he was passing the torch of this particular project on to Jay. SPOILER: Was the story something that was close to Stan’s heart? Or was it more of an homage to ideas that he gave before he passed?

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GILL CHAMPION: Stan and I spent countless hours over the years talking about good and evil, and heroes and villains, and Stan always wanted to write this story about the ultimate villain. The devil is the ultimate representative of evil. Stan always wanted to have a hero too, and he was always attracted to stories that had to do with the military. So, taking these two elements and putting them together, Stan created the idea of The Devil’s Quintet. As the twilight was coming up on him, it was really something he wanted to put down in order to express some of his feelings about this particular journey, that he felt was very personal to him as well.

JAY BONANSINGA: I would also add that Stan was a genius at creating superheroes that were human and flawed and accessible to readers. People identified with his superheroes. Spider-Man is one of the prototypical human-sized superheroes. And this book is the ultimate version of that for me.

Because when you’re a soldier, especially a special forces soldier, you’re pretty much the superhero of the military. But you also go and do what they tell you to do. You’re kind of an employee. That was one

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of the first hooks that sunk into me about this premise: a bunch of incredibly elite, badass former Navy SEALs, and now they’re assassins for the government. Then they’re drawn into a Faustian bargain. For me, it resonated a lot. I have friends who were in the military. I had this one friend who would just help go through my past novels to make sure the military protocol was correct.

So, by the time I had this great opportunity, I had known quite a bit about military protocol. And it’s so eerie about how it jives with what a real soldier has to do in the modern world. And these characters talk about that. It’s a gumbo of different genres. It’s action, it’s military, it’s horror, it’s fantasy, it’s mordant humor. I just hope that Stan would have been as proud of this as I am.

GILL CHAMPION: I’m sure he would have. And hopefully he’s smiling down and not looking up [laughs].

JAY BONANSINGA: [laughs] GILL CHAMPION: The military always played such a strong role in everything we did. Stan would usually think of who the villain should be first. And in this case, we have the ultimate villain. Then you try to come up with superheroes that seemed that the odds are already so far stacked against them that, how could they ever become superheroes? The journey of this military quintet is probably one of the most fascinating journeys because it combines both fiction and nonfiction. It makes for an incredible story for multiple generations of fans that will want to read this book, and on a global basis because of Stan’s reach.

SPOILER: What’s the biggest advantage of doing this in novel form?

JAY BONANSINGA: There’s a thing that you work with in film and prose and fiction and comic books—something that I went

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from an undergraduate to a PhD working for [The Walking Dead’s] Robert Kirkman—and it’s called “tone.” I know this sounds like a cheesy cliché, but when I’m working on Devil’s Quintet, it feels like Stan is a North Star. Whenever I do something, I’m like, “What would Stan do?” There’s a Stan Lee tone.

You don’t see it in prose very often because he was a creature of the graphic comic book, but I had eight years and millions of words and eight complete books with Kirkman, absorbing the comic book feel.

Comic books are here and now.

They’re closer to film than they are to literature. And so, I immediately started thinking in present tense.

These soldiers are in the here and now.

It was very comparable to The Walking Dead field. Yeah, you can have flashbacks—and we do have them. But The Devil’s Quintet is really in-your-face, forward moving, and visual.

GILL CHAMPION: When you read the book, you become so engrossed with the characters. Reading is an imaginative process.

You can very well see it as if you’re reading a film script because the characters are so three-dimensional. You truly feel like you’re put in this as an observer in a visual journey. And that’s what really attracted me to Jay’s writing. You feel like you’re living it along with the protagonist and antagonist as well.

JAY BONANSINGA: In Stan Lee’s original premise, he describes the devil. Maybe one day, Gill, you guys will publish that premise. It’s so interesting. For a Jewish person, there’s not really a devil. Stan’s devil was almost Dickensian. So, I figured

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Gill Champion & Jay Bonansinga:POW! Entertainment

JAY BONANSINGA: That’s a great question. In terms of our early development of this, I think it was Gill who said, “Wouldn’t it be interesting if there was another quintet—a Vietnam-era quintet—but they didn’t work out?” I was like, “Oh, I love that!” So, we’re using that more than once—a sort of B story. There’s an aspect of the devil in this Stan Lee universe where he has a job to do. He may be the prince of darkness, but he is also a professional. He needs freelancers to help him track down people who have skipped on their own deals.

The devil can’t kill you, so he needs humans in this earthly realm to kill you.

for each character, their own version of the devil would be different. That’s how I started. That was a Stan Lee thing. I used that as the commander of the quintet, but it changes for everybody.

GILL CHAMPION: The interesting thing about Stan’s characters was that they were always flawed. A superpower is both a blessing and a curse. It’s something that’s such a strong part of wish fulfillment: “If I were a superhero, would I be able to be that person?” It comes along with both happiness and sadness. And the complexity of these characters is very understandable. In a comic book, you don’t get a chance to get that, although it’s an imaginative process. But here, Jay laid it out so that everyone gets to know all these characters. And that’s what’s just so amazing, and what separates this medium, and what makes this book different.

With The Exorcist or The Shining, those are stories that people identified with, and yet at the same time, scared the hell out of them.

That’s what we have here. It’s what Stan left as part of his legacy, and Jay’s taking that on to flesh it out.

SPOILER: How long did it take to come up with the whole story and all the intricacies?

JAY BONANSINGA: About a year. I’m in the middle of book 2 right now, but I’m already thinking in terms of book 3 and 4. It just keeps getting richer and richer. Good versus evil is an archetype; a classic conflict in story. The devil is the world’s greatest supervillain, and God is the world’s greatest superhero. The mechanical part of writing it was probably close to a year, but I started thinking about it a year before I wrote the book. I started working on the proposal with Gill’s help, and I started thinking about the arc of the story and where it’s gonna go.

I read extensively, not in terms of military protocol, but in terms of religion. There’s such a rich meaning to mine there in a superhero story when it comes to religion. It doesn’t matter if you’re religious or not, but in this book there’s all sorts of tips of the hat to the history of religion throughout the millennia.

Here’s a bit of a spoiler: They find that the devil can listen in to what they’re saying to each other. And through this Rube Goldberg, twisty story, they discover that if they can get to a church and get inside that enclosure, then the devil can’t hear them. That’s their cone of silence.

SPOILER: The intricacy of this story is found in the tension of whether or not these people choose to do this anymore.

JAY BONANSINGA: Right! It’s the tip of the iceberg. That’s what Stan Lee gave his artists. He gave them the tip of the iceberg, and then there’s so much to these characters and ideas that the stories tell themselves. When you’re writing something like this, you have to ask yourself fascinating questions like, “Do these characters know about other superheroes? Do they know about The Avengers?” And I had to ask myself that when I was working on The Walking Dead: “Have these characters seen Night of the Living Dead? Because of pop culture, do they know that they have to destroy the brains of these zombies?” My answer to that is usually yes. They exist in our universe. They know what a superhero is. It adds to the richness. This is a bad example, but

SPOILER: Why do you think the devil honed in on these five people?

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B O N A N S I N G A

it’s like if another person knows what an alcoholic is but they still drink and drink and drink, and eventually go, “You know? I’m an alcoholic.” You live in a universe where Spider-Man exists. But then when you become a superhero, it becomes even more terrifying in a sense.

SPOILER: It’s about free will—these choices humans make all the time, whether they have superpowers or not.

GILL CHAMPION: That’s really the crux of what it is. Every hero at some point has to make a decision: “Am I a hero or do I have villainy in me?” The antagonist always has to believe just as strongly in their beliefs. And that’s part of the battle. Both of these forces feel just as strongly.

SPOILER: And sometimes the humanity doesn’t fully come in until after they get the powers.

JAY BONANSINGA: Another question you have to answer in a story like this is, “If we don’t go along with the devil, will he just take these superpowers away? Can we use these superpowers against the devil? Can we use them to do good?” These are eternal questions.

I think of it as the Haunted House Syndrome. People are in a haunted house—why don’t they just move? [laughs] I mean, maybe they can’t afford a mortgage, but still! If there are these demons in there, why don’t they just move away? And so, you come up with clever little impediments. And we came up with a big one for this. We came up with the reason why the devil cannot just take those powers away, and maybe they can use them against the devil.

SPOILER: How long will this story keep going?

JAY BONANSINGA: There’s gonna be part 2, part 3, part 4. It’s very possible—I don’t know if I’m allowed to say this, but it will become a television series as well. All this stuff is in development. A story does, at a certain point, take over.

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It starts to breathe. These are human beings just like the rest of us. That was the genius of Robert Kirkman, to take something that was a trope—a zombie? When I first heard about it, I was like, “No, that will never work.”

And then I read the first issue of the comic book and I’m like, “It’s genius!”

And the reason it’s genius is because there’s just one thing that you have to suspend your disbelief about, and it’s that people could crawl out of the grave and want to eat you. But everything surrounding it is hyperrealistic. It’s real people dealing with real-life issues. And that’s a component here with The Devil’s Quintet. That’s what makes it great.

GILL CHAMPION: As we started working on the original treatment we thought, “Hey, this would make a great movie.” And as we continued to work with Jay, and saw the richness of the story and the depth of the characters, we now think that this will make a great series. We are in the process of, at least from book 1, becoming a series. And as we continue to publish the books, it will hopefully go on and live a life of many seasons. There’s so much potential in this and we’re hoping that the readers will get to this and share our enthusiasm.

SPOILER: The story is so great. It’s about the thing that terrifies us humans the most: making decisions.

GILL CHAMPION: Besides being entertaining and visual, I’m thinking it will make readers think a little bit about their own lives and their own choices.

And if we’ve done all that, then it will be very satisfying.

Reading was always important to Stan. That’s why he always tried to elevate the level of comic books to not only entertain and to look at the pictures, but to be able to read.

[Books] were always an important part of Stan’s life, and hopefully this book will be an important part of his legacy.

People will be able to sit down and read a book!

Gill Champion & Jay Bonansinga:POW! Entertainment

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Writer: Joe Kelly | Artist: Gerardo Sandoval & Victor Nava | Colorist: Chris Sotomayor Spider-Man like you’ve never seen him before! Peter Parker finds himself at the middle of the biggest, most wide-ranging adventure he’s ever had, and out of the gate it has turned him into a savage beast! Forget everything you know about Spider-Man. All rules and regulations are out the door and Peter Parker may never be the same! (from Marvel Comics)

off your brain for a few minutes.

Seeing a half spider/half man is nothing new for Marvel, but the artwork and coloring really make the concept pop. The way writer Joe Kelly represents the Savage Spider-Man’s speech is beautifully rendered, albeit tiresome after a short while. The story moves at lightning speed with little down time. Would I recommend this book? No, I would not and here’s why…

THE GOOD

THE BAD

what’s it about?

I’m not as up-to-date as I should be with a number of Marvel titles (in particular the X-books), so when I see a jumping-on point like an issue 1—and it’s a Spidey book—I’m going to check it out.

The two most complimentary things I can say about The Savage Spider-Man is the art is great and the story progresses smoothly at a swift pace. The manga influence in the visual style is noticeable and well executed. I enjoy when comic books embrace their silly side. This is a great book if you’re looking to turn

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As I said, I saw the “#1” on the cover and thought this would be a good issue to jump back into the Spider-verse. I was mistaken. This series continues where Non-Stop Spider-Man concluded—a series that, based on recommendations, I did not pick up. While the story moves at a breakneck pace, I don’t have a clue where it’s headed.

In all honestly, I wasn’t too sure what was even happening. This is not a good first issue. The art is well done, and the speech bubbles are well constructed, but tiresome after a short while (and

the book’s not that long). The antagonists of this series are eco-terrorists that want to save the world at all costs, which somehow includes turning everyone into savages. The villains are so generic and stereotypical that they’re rendered ineffective for the reader.

Spider-Man deserves better than this!

SCORE

6.0/10

Savage Spider-Man:Marvel Comics/Monkey Prince:DC Comics

SAVAGE SPIDER-MAN #1

COMIC BOOK REVIEW |

MONKEY PRINCE #1 Writer: Gene Luen Yang | Artist: Bernard Chang | Colorist: Janice Chiang

THE GOOD

what’s it about?

Introducing the newest hero in the DCU: the great sage, equal to the heavens, better than his predecessor the legendary Monkey King, even better than the Justice League—and definitely the Teen Titans (actually, all the heroes combined)—everyone put your hands together for… the Monkey Prince! Marcus Sun moves around a lot because his adoptive parents are freelance hench-people, so this month he finds himself as the new kid at Gotham City High School, where a mysterious man with pig features asks Marcus to walk through a water curtain to reveal himself as who he really is: someone who has adventured through The Journey to the West, can transform into 72 different formations, can clone himself using his hairs, and is called the Monkey Prince! (from DC Comics)

Gene Luen Yang is an incredible talent and it’s great to see him handling this title. I’ll tell anyone who’ll listen that I appreciate how comics can be used to teach about different time periods and cultures. That said, I also fully enjoy the silliness of comic books.

This issue embraces both its cultural aspects and its silliness, the latter of which I wish it doubled down on.

Having hench-people as parents is not an original concept, but one that is used well in this book. The idea that Marcus is scarred by seeing Batman manhandle his parents as a young boy is a really cool backstory. The integration of Chinese culture, from which this book draws inspiration, into the DC Universe is a great idea.

Bernard Chang’s art is excellent and unique. Marcus is easy to identify with and his pain and embarrassment is palpable. The Monkey Prince would make an excellent addition to the Teen Titans.

THE BAD

Okay, I know this is set in a world of monsters and meta-humans, but everyone in this book is a little too blasé about the impossible

circumstances going on around them. From the dismissiveness of the magical “burp clouds” that follow Marcus to the swift introduction and acceptance of Marcus’ powers is a bit much. Batman showing up in a high school locker room while a superpowered primate prince dashes about the room is apparently not enough to raise an eyebrow. I guess the citizens of Gotham have truly seen it all. There’s a lot of potential for growth with the Monkey Prince, but something tells me DC isn’t planning on doing much with him beyond this series. Even with heavy hitters like Batman and Damian somewhat shoehorned into the story, I don’t foresee a lasting future for this character. DC has a way of introducing heroes like this, and then having them take a backseat to their Trinity. Only time will tell and, hopefully, I’m mistaken.

SCORE

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Writer: Jeremy Adams | Artist: Fernando Parasin, Matt Ryan, & Brent Peeples Colorist: Jermoy Cox, Peter Pantazis, & Matt Herm responsibilities, is wonderfully showcased. Despite the artwork being handled by three different artists, it remains consistent throughout the book.

the BAD

what’s it about?

Having traveled to Gemworld by way of the second dimension, the Flash joins Justice League Dark and the princess of Gemworld, Amethyst, in a race against time to thwart Eclipso’s evil plans. (from DC Comics)

THE GOOD

This was a solid issue featuring Wally West, his kids, the Justice League Dark, and Eclipso—one of my favorite baddies! I haven’t picked up a Flash book in a while, but I couldn’t resist when I saw an Eclipso-possessed Detective Chimp attacking the titular hero. The bond between Flash’s children is really the highlight of this issue. Their love for one another and their father, combined with a healthy understanding of their powers and

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This issue feels right with Wally under the Scarlet Speedster’s cowl.

I’m ecstatic to see the character back to headline a Flash book. Although he does play second fiddle to his own children in this issue, I’m good with it. I am anxious to see where the family dynamic goes from here. Jeremy Adams shows a lot of potential and I would love for him to be able to see this through, and with a family of superheroes at the forefront. The Wests could easily be the Incredibles of the DC Universe.

I know speedsters heal fast, but the power representation of the Flash is a bit off balance here. In one sequence, Wally takes several gigantic punches to the face from Etigran, spits out pints of blood, and then rebounds right away. I know others will dismiss the family dynamic and the Flash not being quite able to headline his own title, but this is a very enjoyable issue.

SCORE

8.5/10

The Flash, DC vs. Vampires:DC Comics

THE FLASH #778

COMIC BOOK REVIEW |

DC VS. VAMPIRES #1 Writer: James Tynion IV & Matthew Rosenberg | Artist: Otto Schmidt | Colorist: Otto Schmidt

what’s it about?

DC vs. Vampires is a special standalone twelve-issue maxiseries that will pit the Justice League against a secret army of vampires, leaving our heroes unsure of who they can trust. (from DC Comics)

THE GOOD

If you enjoyed DCeased, you’re going to want to dive neck-deep into this series. Imagine a world in which your favorite DC superheroes are vampires or suspected of being

vampires. A world in which the most powerful metahuman team is being hunted by an ancient race of bloodsucking demons as a precursor for an all-out war with mankind hanging in the balance. Issue 1 of this twelve-issue series sets the bar high for suspicion and gore. If you loved Zan and Jayna, the Wonder Twins, growing up you may want to skip this book. You may never look at a blender the same way again. On that note, seeing seldom used characters from decades past, like the Wonder Twins or Andrew Bennett from I… Vampire, is a pleasant surprise. On a more personal note, this was the first comic that my 14-year-old son and I read together. He fell in love with it and we shared our thoughts on the book and the events within. I’ll never forget that incredible experience.

Thank you, DC!

We’ve had zombies, and now vampires overtake the DC Universe.

I can see how readers may tire of this, but as someone who’s always enjoyed an Elseworlds tale, this is right up my alley. The over-the-top silliness of this series, combined with stellar art and a slick plot, works beautifully for me. If you’re a fan of the old Abbott and Costello crossovers or the Evil Dead trilogy, this one’s for you.

SCORE

9.0/10

THE BAD

Admittedly, seeing Hal Jordan depicted as evil is getting as tired as seeing an evil Batman or Superman.

Yet, his cunning and ruthlessness is handled well, making the Lanterngone-bad trope as fresh as ever.

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Writer: James Tynion IV & Matthew Rosenberg | Artist: Otto Schmidt | Colorist: Otto Schmidt

what’s is about?

The war for the very survival of the human race has begun! A mysterious new vampire lord has already put a plan in motion to conquer the Earth, and the first step is—destroy the Justice League! But the World’s Greatest Detective might be Earth’s last hope, and it’s time for the BatFamily to hunt! (from DC Comics)

THE GOOD

If you’re a Batman fan or a fan of the Bat-family, then you need to rush to your local comic shop and grab this issue while you can. Bruce and his kin take centerstage as they attempt to solve the mystery of a Leaguer’s death. Their crafty dialogue is written so cinematically that I was

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inclined to read this book several times. Each time, I would laugh aloud at how the Robins talked to and treated one another. I seldom do this.

It is beyond evident that James Tynion IV, Matthew Rosenberg, and Otto Schmidt poured their hearts and souls into a book that some might dismiss because of how silly it seems like it would be. Instead of silliness, they give us one of the best written scenes between the Bat-family that I’ve read in ages, especially considering the way they handled Damian. Schmidt’s lines are smoother than ice and his colors pop right off the page. It’s refreshing to read a book by a major publisher that’s written and drawn so well, yet handled by such a small team (as opposed to the Flash book I also reviewed this month). DC vs.

Vampires #2 is without a doubt my book of the month.

THE BAD

This is going to be a stretch because I absolutely adored every page of this book. I can even appreciate the manner in which the vampires are systematically attempting to take out heroes and villains that could

DC vs. Vampires:DC Comics/Shadowman:Valiant Comics

DC VS. VAMPIRES #2

potentially pose a threat to their plans. Seeing Alfred written so well in this issue makes me realize how much he’s missed in the DC Universe.

I hope we get to the see Pennyworth grace the pages of Detective Comics sooner than later. After issue 1, I realized that a Batman and Jayna team-up is something I’d love to see more of. We unfortunately don’t see the two heroes together in this issue, but there’s ten more to go, so we still have time. The way the DC rules work in this universe is a little vague. For example, Hal’s ring shouldn’t allow him to kill, from what I understand, and future cover art depicts Supergirl as a vampire.

Wouldn’t a vampire explode if they bit a living solar battery? Maybe I’m overthinking this. Go out and enjoy this book.

SCORE

10/10

COMIC BOOK REVIEW |

SHADOWMAN #1 Writer: Cullen Bunn | Artist: Jon Davis-Hunt | Colorist: Jordan Bellaire

what’s is about?

From the bestselling master of horror Cullen Bunn (Venom) and bone-chilling artist Jon Davis-Hunt (Clean Room) comes a shocking supernatural odyssey. Jack Boniface is Shadowman, a powerful protector who keeps humanity safe from the demons that claw at the fabric of our reality. The forces of darkness are awakening and they are hungry for life. Will Shadowman be able to save us all, or will the darkness devour the world as we know it? (from Valiant Comics)

THE GOOD

After a delay caused by a global pandemic, Shadowman finally hit

the comic shelves early last year.

Though I was initially hesitant to pick up this first issue, I was pleasantly surprised by both its writing and artwork. I’m aware of Shadowman, but would be lying if I called myself a fan. I considered the superhero interesting, but not enough to pick up any of his previous books. If this new series is any indication of how entertaining the character is, I’m full of regret. I was expecting another typical origins story, yet this was neither typical nor heroic.

Fully embracing its horror angle, Shadowman #1 contains character designs, panel formatting, and colors that work on a level far exceeding my expectations. Often judging a book by how accessible it is to new readers, I give a lot of credit to the creative team who doesn’t simply give us the tired backstory format, but makes it easy to understand the characters, their dynamics, and their powers. I’ll definitely be back for more Shadowman!

to be done for me to understand the entirety of the big picture. My biggest gripe is that, although intrigued, I’m not entirely interested in the scope of the series as of yet. I feel as if I’m reading about a superhero who’s entered into the world of Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, which is not exactly a bad thing, but I’m not certain if that’s enough to get me to add to this my “pull list.” I’m definitely checking out issue 2 to see where Shadowman goes from here.

SCORE

8.0/10

THE BAD

While I do applaud the accessibility of the book for new readers, there is still a lot of explaining that needs

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Writer: Marieke Nijkamp | Artist: Oren Junior & Enid Balám | Colorist: Brittany Peer

THE GOOD

what’s is about?

Kate’s heading home! Or at least, back to New York. And as much as she wants to go back to where her friends—her chosen family—are, she’s changed since she was last on the East Coast. So, she’s picked up a pit stop case first. A confidence-booster to prove to herself she’s making the right decision and not going to backslide into her past just by changing time zones. Besides, the case is perfect: Swanky resort? Check.

Jewel heist? Check. Almost definitely 100% a trap? Check. Don’t miss this exciting new miniseries from New York Times bestselling writer Marieke Nijkamp and artist Enid Balám! (from Marvel Comics)

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This issue debuted in comic shops along with the premiere of the Hawkeye series on Disney Plus. Good marketing on Marvel’s part. If you’re familiar with Kate from the television series or her previous comic series, you’re going to love this. Having worked with middle school- and high school-age students for the last twenty-two years, I can tell that writer Marieke Nijkamp has a strong grasp on how to write YA. The action sequences have a nice pace and are drawn just as efficiently. Kate’s movements are fluid and work well with the panel placement. I’m with the scores of others who picked up this book after watching Hawkeye to completion, just to get to know Kate Bishop’s Marvel Universe counterpart better. I was genuinely intrigued by the character and this book satiated my interest. I really enjoy the subtlety of having several others in the book, from Cassie (AntMan’s daughter) to Clint Barton, only appearing via text messages, a clever and a nice replacement for the usual “splash page followed by several panels” cameo appearance we get with a premiere issue.

THE BAD

Hawkeye:Marvel Comics/The Scorched:Image Comics

HAWKEYE: KATE BISHOP #1

If you enjoyed Kate on Hawkeye and/ or are anxious to see what she’s done since the West Coast Avengers ended, you’re going to enjoy this book. Despite being impressed by both pacing and artwork, I’m not exactly blown away by the events that transpire or the arc that Kate’s about to enter. I found myself rereading dialogue between Kate and her sister because of how convoluted it was. But then I came to realize that I had, in fact, understood it the first time, but just didn’t find it particularly interesting. I can see this book being a big hit and finding an audience with many, just not me.

SCORE

6.5/10

COMIC BOOK REVIEW |

THE SCORCHED #1 Writer: Sean Lewis & Todd McFarlane | Artist: Stephen Segovia & Paulo Siqueira Colorist: Ulises Areola & Nikos Koutsis

what’s is about?

The first all-new issue of Todd McFarlane’s superhero team book!

There’s a threat so big that no single hero can stop it, and the formation of this new supergroup is the only thing standing in its way. Members will include Spawn, Redeemer, Gunslinger, Medieval Spawn, and She-Spawn, with many more heroes waiting in the wings! Join the battle in this first issue extravaganza as the forces of Heaven, Hell, and Earth collide! (from Image Comics)

THE GOOD

The Spawn Universe is continually expanding, and this series brings us the first Justice League-style team-up. The art, although varied between Segovia’s and Siqueira’s contributions, is beautifully rendered and makes for some amazing splash pages. I’ve enjoyed Gunslinger Spawn and he really shines in this book, stealing the show on multiple occasions. Big enough to warrant its price tag and long enough to cover enough story for two issues, there’s plenty of dumb fun here, with monsters and explosions, to keep

most diehard fans happy. There are a LOT of Spawns in this book and, to his credit, Sean Lewis tries his best to give each one his own voice.

If you’re a Spawn fan, love splash pages, witty dialogue, and non-linear storytelling, you’re going to love The Scorched.

THE BAD

The Scorched is McFarlane’s answer to the Justice League if the Justice League were made up of variants of only Superman. As I mentioned, Lewis tries his best to give each Spawn his own voice as they attempt to bring down, you guessed it, another Spawn. But it seems like a genuinely impossible task. The best rendered voice belongs to SheSpawn, and it’s clear she is emerging

as the leader of these hell-bound heroes. Despite limited dialogue contributed by McFarlane, you can hear his voice throughout the book.

He’s done some fine work in and out of the property, but Lewis seems like he’s trying to capture Todd’s voice and not his own. Hopefully, overtime, Lewis and The Scorched will shine on their own. Oh, and one more thing, I don’t know if this error was intentional or not, but at one point, Gunslinger Spawn says, “Hey… did you HERE that?” Is the word “hear” purposely misspelled or is it a simple error I’m blowing waaaaay out of proportion? Most likely the latter.

SCORE

7.5/10

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Writer: Benjamin Percy | Artist: Federico Vincentini | Colorist: Dijjo Limo & Frank Martin

what’s is about?

Death is not the end. Death is the omega. Week 2. If Wolverine’s future lies in the past, what does that mean for the present? The reciprocal series to X Lives of Wolverine, X Deaths of Wolverine is can’t-miss reading, chock-full of revelations for the best there is, as well as the fate of mutantkind. (from Marvel Comics)

THE GOOD

I did it! I finally did it! This is the first X-book I’ve picked up in over a decade. The convoluted nature of the multitude of X-books drove me away from the series entirely. I’ve tried to keep up with the comings and goings of the X-characters through multiple websites, reviews, and social media accounts—a daunting task to say the least. I’m not certain this was the best book to jump in on, but I don’t think I’m ever going to find that “right book.” That said, the art by Federico Vencentini and coloring by Dijjo Limo are the absolute highlights here. Not to discredit Benjamin Percy’s writing by any means, but each panel is so full of detail and life. I was initially

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disappointed that Wolverine, despite the title, isn’t featured much in this book. Yet I was engrossed with Moira MacTaggert from page 1. She’s beautifully drawn and wonderfully written. It’s actually a bit of a relief that this issue focuses on Moira and not Logan since I’d be even more clueless about what’s going on than I was already. With appearances by Mystique and Valkyrie, this was a solid issue and a lot of fun.

THE BAD

Like I said, if you picked up this Wolverine book expecting Wolverine, you’re going to be sadly disappointed. I was in love with the art, but something about the way the panels are organized forced me to turn the book, and my head, to get a clearer picture of what exactly was going on. Mystique is played like some overpowered, unstoppable force of nature in this story. I’m not sure if that’s usual for her—it wasn’t when I was reading back in the day.

I’m sure after the success of the First Class films, Mystique took on a new, more powerful presence in the comics. Jane Foster and Valkyrie

appear and disappear without much explanation. Mystique tangles with Valkyrie, which doesn’t make much sense since they’re not exactly equal in power. Jane should be able to destroy Mystique, but like I said, this isn’t the Mystique of the past. If you’re a fan of the X-books, you’re probably going to love this.

SCORE

8.0/10

X Deaths of Wolverine:Marvel Comics/ King of Spies:Image Comics

X DEATHS OF WOLVERINE #1

COMIC BOOK REVIEW |

KING OF SPIES #1 Writer: Mark Millar | Artist: Matteo Scalera | Colorist: Giovanna Niro

what’s is about?

The world’s greatest secret agent has six months to live. Does he die quietly in a hospital bed, or does he make up for a lifetime of bad decisions? He’s been propping up an unfair system for over forty years.

Now he knows where all the bodies are buried and has nothing to lose when he turns his guns on everyone who ever made a buck creating the mess we’re in right now. (from Image Comics)

THE GOOD

I have to say I’m one of the few people I know pulling for the success of the Millarworld on Netflix. Jupiter’s Legacy was an underrated gem that, if it had come out years ago, would

be lauded for its originality. The first few pages of King of Spies are a roller coaster of a ride—exciting and violent. Roland, our titular spy, is like James Bond minus the modesty. Mark Millar has a unique way of writing that’s so immensely engaging. I’ve never been an international super spy (that you know of), but find Roland, and his world, instantly relatable. The action sequences are amazing and colored beautifully. Roland is a man out of time, a spy in a world that seems to not need him anymore, and is quite literally running out of time with a terminal diagnosis. This was an amazing first issue and a series I’ll be watching with great interest.

THE BAD

Roland is a shoot first, ask questions never kind of spy. The dialogue can be a little heavy-handed and corny at times, something that may rub certain readers the wrong way.

However, I’m a teacher and father of two; corny comes naturally to me.

Roland is a great character, but can be a little hard to sympathize with.

We spend the first half of the book

seeing him gun down numerous baddies and fully embrace his misogyny. Then, in the latter half, we watch an aging Roland with a terminal diagnosis, determined to atone for his sins. He may be an intriguing character, however difficult to become invested in. I’m interested in seeing where Millar takes this story.

SCORE

8.0/10

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The Wililes:Force Majeure Productions,Brian Peck

BY ETHAN BREHM

IN 1990, THE YEAR BEFORE ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? debuted on Nickelodeon and two years before R.L. Stine published his inaugural Goosebumps novel, the young adult horror anthology film The Willies made its directto-video release. It’s no news that the ‘90s was the height of kids’ entertainment. And weird kids (like myself) were finally having a voice— not just one portrayed by Patrick Dempsey or Scott Baio; cool guys that studios once tried to have us believe were geeky too. No. These were real kids who looked and acted like us.

Writer-director Brian Peck, in the only film in which he does either, doesn’t just explore one aspect of inequity that adolescents face, but several. Two 30-ish-minute segments are framed within a story of three boys (played by Sean Astin, Jason Horst, and Joshua Miller) camping outside in a tent, telling each other scary/weird stories. They start off with three tales in rapid succession, each only lasting a few minutes, but then conclude with two longer ones.

The first, entitled “Bad Apples,” tells the tale of a young boy (Ian Fried) who’s picked on by a trio of classmates. He befriends a janitor

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(James Karen), who is actually a monster wearing human skin. Peck, who portrayed Scuz in 1985’s The Return of the Living Dead, reunites a couple of his costars in Karen and Clu Gulager.

If this segment looks and feels different than the rest of the movie, it’s because Peck first made it as a short film back in 1985, reincorporating it into this feature length anthology. Unfortunately, the lack of cohesion to the other vignettes and its cheap special effects inhibit the larger impact it may have had. Although any kid who was brutally picked on in school will undoubtedly find solace in this story.

As a director, we see how Peck’s talents have grown in five years with “Flyboy,” his second 30-minute short.

It revolves around Gordy Belcher

(Michael Bower), a sociopathic bug collector. Each day he steals a local farmer’s fertilizer, which he uses as a lure for flies. We watch closely as Gordy meticulously goes through his daily routine, catching flies in his room and then going down to the basement where he plays with them.

The ones that survive get put into a giant glass tank, and the ones that die get placed in the miniature town

he’s built for them, equipped with the likes of a malt shop and a church.

On the outside, Gordy looks like a kid who would get bullied all the time—and if you see his home life, he does—but to the kids at school, he’s the antagonist. In “Flyboy,” Peck speaks to both the bullies and the bullied with one single character.

Gordy toes the line between despicable and sympathetic in a way that wasn’t as common back then—let alone in a kids movie. And Peck’s ability to give us an objective portrayal of his protagonist is quite impressive.

Having an obvious lack of skill when it comes to writing dialogue, it’s the director’s visual storytelling that keeps this entire film alive, and it’s never more on display than in this final short. Perhaps Peck’s biggest achievement is how he moves along Gordy’s story with very little talking, composing each sequence with careful framing and kinesis.

The quietude of the bedroomto-basement sequence utilizes traditional, Hitchcockian mise-enscène to match the faint echoes of Norman Bates in Gordy’s character.

This also speaks to the talents of Bower, who’s perfect for the role and commands our attention with mere screen presence without having to say a word. His most notable role is that of Donkeylips on Nickelodeon’s Salute Your Shorts, where he’s also able to alternate between both sides of bullying with convincing duality (Bower won a Young Artist Award in 1991 for his performance in the series).

If Brian Peck had just released “Flyboy” by itself, our view of it over 30 years later would be much different. However, pairing it alongside his incongruous “Bad Apples” impacts its staying power, even if the two shorts are fairly complementary in content.

The Willies Is simply a film that cannot be made today. Not only do the aesthetics possess that inherent charm of the era, which no modern homage can ever properly execute, but the treatment of these child characters, despite being exaggerated, represents some level of valuable truth of the adolescent experience—whether it’s having bullies at school who pick on you simply because you’re smaller than they are, or bullies at home who never had a monster janitor to teach them a lesson as kids; now making bullies out of their own victimized

children. These days, you take away the school bullies because they’re offensive or the mean parents because they’re “unrealistic” and you’re left with no more of that catharsis for the child viewer (or the adult one).

The director is also never able to inspire his actors. Other than Bower and Astin, the performances are never given much direction. There always seems to be a disconnect with Peck for how people actually respond to things in real life—a necessity when making a horror movie. A young girl who eats a cookie with dead flies in it screams louder than any of the people who are actually about to die at the hands of a monstrous creature.

This ambivalence works for Bower’s character since Gordy is essentially mentally ill and manages to keep the audience on edge with his unpredictable aloofness. However, for everyone else, the results are almost catatonic for the film.

An overall enjoyable “Creepshow for kids,” Peck’s film thrives on production design, a nostalgic framing story, and the surprisingly impressive execution of its final short. With its two main features, The Willies still finds beauty in being a cautionary tale for bullies and a catharsis for the victims—even if they’re the same person.

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collector spotlight Justin and Liatra of Atomic Home Video have embraced the current age of nostalgia like few others. Their York, Pennsylvania shop consists of more than just VHS, but retro items of all kinds. Not only have they recently expanded to include more tapes, records, retro games, and toys than ever before, but they’ve put out some of their own videos as well, including a deluxe release of 1973’s Fantastic Planet—which comes with a 30-minute collection featuring some of director René Laloux’s best work—and a special edition of 1962’s Carnival of Souls, equipped with a pair of documentaries about the cult classic. Also released this past year was Trailer Trash Vol. 1, a collection of previews from 68 different movies, all mined from old VHS tapes.

Like the Wild West that was the physical media landscape of the ‘80s, Justin and Liatra are doing their own thing and having a blast in the process!

ETHAN: How would you best describe Atomic Home Video? What are some of the main features in the shop?

JUSTIN: I’d say it’s equal parts video store throwback, a place you can find out-of-print cult, horror, and nostalgia on vintage media, and a retro pop culture boutique. We’re at a medium-sized booth at an antique store, but we’ve managed to pack all of it into one space. We’ve got media of all kinds, movie memorabilia, video games, ‘80s and ‘90s toys and collectors items, vinyl and cassettes, books and magazines, vintage clothes, and more.

ETHAN: What are the origins of Atomic Home Video?

JUSTIN: We were planning on expanding our booth space at American Daydream, which beforehand was rather random and inconsistent. We conceptualized something that would not only further expand on our cornering of the nostalgia market, but would also be a fitting theme for the items we

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already had an inventory of—much of which consisted of VHS, DVDs, Laserdiscs, and retro games. When we were fortunate enough to come up on five original Blockbuster Video shelves for sale with relatively little effort, we knew the idea was meant to be.

ETHAN: Have you been collecting VHS since you were young? Or did it resurge after a hiatus?

LIATRA: I used to frequent Suncoast Video and Blockbuster like so many other kids of the ‘90s, and renting tapes was a weekly ritual for sure. I owned a fair amount of tapes, but it didn’t come close to the amount I rented. For the amount of times I rented certain tapes, I should have just outright bought them. As an adult, I didn’t get back into collecting VHS until about 4 years ago when I started to get nostalgic for and fall in love with physical media all over again.

JUSTIN: When I was a kid in the early ‘90s, I had two boxes of tapes: one at my parents’ house and one at my

Atomic Home Video

church. When I got back into VHS in the late ‘00s, I looked for many of the tapes I had as a kid. But since most of them were pre-recorded TV blocks, I was never able to fully replicate the boxes of eclectic goodness that shaped much of my childhood exposure to VHS outside of renting movies from the rental stores. Nevertheless, I actually found more nostalgia in finally getting my hands on all those horror movies and weird cult films with the crazy covers that my mom wouldn’t let me rent as a kid. Sometimes filling the lost nostalgia void is better than simply rekindling the nostalgic feels.

ETHAN: How many tapes are in your personal collection?

JUSTIN: I’ve never actually counted, since most of the tapes I own are scattered in different storage spaces. Some on my video shelf, some stacked near my VCR, some in drawers and some in boxes. If I had to guess, it’s over 1,000 in my personal collection, and probably around the same number of tapes for sale at the store.

LIATRA: My collection is intertwined with Justin’s now that we are engaged and live together, so his estimate of 1,000 is a conservative guesstimate.

ETHAN: What’s your favorite genre?

LIATRA: Horror and found footage.

JUSTIN: Horror and sci-fi, but I also have an affinity for music video tapes and random weird found footage type stuff. Anything that’s interesting or exclusive to VHS. ETHAN: Do you have a favorite tape in your collection?

LIATRA: My favorites would have to be my copies of Freddy’s Nightmares, Blood Diner, Spookies, Monster Squad, Truth or Dare? A Critical Madness, and Spooky World.

JUSTIN: Anything that is rewatchable for the rest of my lifetime. This includes my childhood nostalgia tapes, obscure releases of movies I like that never made it to DVD or Bluray, and unique mixes made by the collector community.

ETHAN: Rarest?

JUSTIN: I have this bizarro SOV anthology movie tape called Satan’s Storybook. It’s not super valuable, but I hardly ever see it pop up for sale anywhere. I’m missing the slipcover so if anyone has just the cover, hit me up. Beyond that, we’ve got Truth or Dare? A Critical Madness and Frankenhooker and stuff like that.

Never got into the super rare big box stuff. I like collecting VHS, don’t get

grandparents’ house. I would say, for a little kid, they were quite the eclectic assortment. There were Saturday morning programming blocks I recorded off of TV, a few music video tapes, a bunch of those public domain vintage cartoon compilations you would find near the cashier at the grocery stores and in dollar bins, and any Halloween or monster-related movies I could get my hands on. I switched to DVD around ‘99 and my tapes were sold at yard sales and donated to the march 2022|

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me wrong, but not about to drop hundreds on each one.

LIATRA: Same as Justin. We found Satan’s Storybook at a church rummage sale, of all places.

ETHAN: Any recent discoveries?

JUSTIN: Recently started picking up horror releases from Japan. The cover aesthetics are awesome, they have cool-looking Japanese subtitles, sometimes down the side of the screen, and many of them are housed in thick plastic protectors so the tapes themselves are mostly in pristine condition.

LIATRA: This year at VHS Fest, I purchased my copies of Freddy’s Nightmares. I love the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise so it’s been fun to revisit those.

ETHAN: Favorite box art?

JUSTIN: Anything foreign or a variant of the commonly seen North American releases. Also, the handdrawn covers on some of the rarer SOV tapes and releases from public domain distributors.

LIATRA: Maybe Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors, it’s almost a graffiti-like style of cover art featuring some fun faces we all know and love. I like the covers on the Video Violence tapes more than the films themselves.

Dream Warriors has the most classic, amazing cover, so I’ll always default to that one.

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ETHAN: Do you have any favorite distribution labels?

LIATRA: I like Wizard Video.

JUSTIN: I love the Something Weird Video releases. The fact that they were mail-order and had that amazing aesthetic has me hooked.

The colorful spines with the vintagelooking lettering are shelf-perfect in my personal opinion. Also, there were so many different releases, and they partially serve as the inspiration for my own cult distributor-style releases.

ETHAN: Favorite movie(s) about VHS? JUSTIN: The one Dan Kinem of VHShitfest made, Adjust Your Tracking remains the definitive VHS doc.

ETHAN: Weirdest find or the most so-bad-it’s-good?

LIATRA: I really love Spookies, which a lot of people rag on, as it’s an absurd and all over the place film altogether, but I have huge love for it.

JUSTIN: There’s this kids’ tape from the early ‘90s that I had, Goldilocks & the 3 Bears in 3-D. It’s like a bad acid trip, but in the best way. They put the camera on this circular dolly track and filmed this Willy Wonkaesque set in 3-D, which was super effective. Then there’s campy as hell music and dancing, and not-sovague drug references. I’m not sure if many people know about it, but if you’re into bizarro stuff, I highly recommend it, especially if you can find a copy with the 3-D glasses.

ETHAN: Which tape are you still on the lookout for—your holy grail?

LIATRA: I would love to own some footage of the defunct Dante’s Inferno dark ride from the formerly operative Williams Grove Park in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Anything from that park would be an absolute treasure to uncover. I grew up frequenting this amusement park and it would be the most special type of tape I could ever hope to find. Other than that, I would love to find an original release of Hausu.

JUSTIN: I’ve been looking for a decent copy of Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks, either the Magnum or SWV release. Hit me up if you’ve got one to spare!

ETHAN: I know Atomic Home Video has released several mixtapes and some public domain movies on tape, but there aren’t many labels that are doing it. Do you think there’s a solid market out there if, say, large distribution companies wanted to release new films on VHS? Why do you think more labels aren’t releasing small batches?

JUSTIN: There’s definitely a market that is currently growing rapidly. I foresee a near future where discbased media’s collecting popularity will flatline and VHS will rise to

become a marketable format for the cult horror and previously out-of-print movies that you see distributors such as Severin and Vinegar Syndrome releasing on DVD and Blu-ray. These companies already own the distribution rights to these movies that fetch a pretty penny on VHS in the collector market. It only makes sense that this demand will catch their eye sooner or later, and when they do inevitably start putting out new VHS releases, the demand for the format itself will also increase.

I’ve had arguments with DVD collectors about this, but my personal trajectory has VHS going nowhere but up and DVD starting to lose its digital appeal to streaming and the fact that digital artifacts look worse on a 4K TV than grainy, low-res VHS did on the previous generation of displays. Also, the artwork on DVDs is awful, so there’s that.

Even if I’m wrong, and DVD sales continue to dominate, there is definitely money to be made with the current and future demand of VHS collecting, and it’s only a matter of time until we start seeing those officially licensed releases start to pop-up alongside the disc-based ones.

Atomic Home Video

ETHAN: If you could have a VHS version of a modern movie, which one would it be?

JUSTIN: Not a movie, but after teasing us with the fake VHS box that the Stranger Things DVD/Bluray release came in, I think the show needs a proper official VHS box set release with segmented artwork on the spines and all.

LIATRA: I have ordered a few boots of some modern day films I love, like Midsommar and The Love Witch. It would be cool to get Hereditary on VHS as well.

ETHAN: Why do you like physical media? What’s the biggest benefit over streaming, if any?

LIATRA: Physical media is yours. march 2022|

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No one can take it away from you. It isn’t reliant on internet connection, Wi-Fi, streaming services, etc. You’re always able to access it, and the cover art on tape slips is one of my favorite parts of collecting. They’re each a little piece of art in their own right.

JUSTIN: It’s a tangible item. You can buy/sell/trade. The artwork makes your shelves look good. There are thousands of interesting movies and random content that you can’t find on the streaming sites or anywhere on the internet. It requires the end-user to be more involved in the acquisition of the content as well as the act of playing it, making it more fulfilling and engaging. Streaming is a passive activity, causing fleeting interest in the actual movie since you’re not holding the actual movie, admiring the artwork, being glad you found a copy, etc. I just feel like physical media leads to a deeper appreciation of the content itself.

ETHAN: Do you think VHS will make a comeback in the way vinyl has?

Why or why not?

JUSTIN: Yes, but not the same way.

Vinyl resurged because people regained an appreciation for the higher standard the quality of analog sound possessed over compressed digital audio. It’s sort of the opposite with VHS. However, as retro culture continues to increase in society’s

collective interests, lesser quality video could be seen as superior in certain ways. Many people are dusting off their old CRT TVs that have been sitting in their basements for the past two decades, either to hook up their NES or to put with their collections of retro stuff. And nothing looks more fitting on a CRT than a VCR sitting on top with a tape playing. We’ve reached a point in consumer society where video and audio quality is too good for our own good and 4K is starting to spoil the high standards. So people are looking back for the nostalgic feeling of watching a cropped grainy image versus looking at something so sharp that it surpasses what your own eyeballs are capable of. As far as artwork, aesthetics and physical collectibility, there are definitely parallels to be drawn with vinyl and part of the reason why it made its comeback.

ETHAN: Do you think physical media will ever truly die?

JUSTIN: No. As long as people want to own things in general, there will always be a media market for someone to capitalize on. Will the current big distributors inevitably throw in the towel when they’re no longer selling millions of units? Of course they will, but there will always be a big enough demand for tangible items that it will never fully die, even if it becomes strictly collector driven.

ETHAN: What would you want noncollectors to know, if anything?

JUSTIN: The investment is worth it. Don’t throw your money away on digital downloads and streaming.

Almost everything costs the same on physical, and you can resell to buy something you want more down the road. It’s a no-brainer.

ETHAN: Any tips for new collectors?

JUSTIN: Almost everything obscure or interesting increases in value.

Don’t buy too many Hollywood movies. Just because a movie is

good, doesn’t mean it’s collectible.

Watch out for tape mold. A cut box is only worth it if you can’t find the movie with the intact slip/box/ clamshell anywhere. Get yourself a fully working, quality brand VCR. Combo units and anything made after the late ‘90s is junk and will die on you. Don’t go too crazy at first and buy anything and everything. 99% of the VHS out there is worthless and common and nobody cares about it.

Join some tapehead groups and/or seek out other collectors to buy from or trade with.

ETHAN: What’s in store for Atomic Home Video in the future? Any fun ideas in the pipeline?

JUSTIN: I was thinking it would be awesome to start a VHS subscription service, where you fill out a questionnaire that matches your personal taste to the tapes you’ll receive, and every month you’ll get at least two or three surprise tapes in the mail. We could also include an original Atomic Home Video release and extra goodies in each shipment.

If you like our releases, 2022 will see even more mixtapes and cult movies than 2021. Also, we recently expanded our store space, so there will be many more used tapes, music, games, and toys coming for sale! Come check us out in 2022 for the ultimate selection of retro nostalgia items!

Check out Atomic Home Video on Instagram @atomichomevideo and in person at their shop in York, PA

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