Um, excuse me SIR;.,,.; I am on my knees🥵

That's how possessive Jake Lockley is probably.

Best New Movies on Netflix in March 2021

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The month of March signals a grim milestone with it being roughly one year since COVID-19 shut movie theaters down around the world. And 12 months later, going to a cinema remains a risky proposition. However, the comfort of Netflix is still providing a safe alternative for the quarantine-bound.

Here’s a handful of new cinematic gems coming to a streaming service near you.

Batman Begins (2005)

March 1

Christopher Nolan‘s Batman origin story breathed new life into the Dark Knight in 2005 after Batman & Robin killed the movie franchise eight years earlier. Christian Bale, who gained more muscle than he probably needed for the role, turns in an excellent performance as both the troubled billionaire and the Caped Crusader. Along for the ride are Michael Caine as the definitive version of Alfred Pennyworth on the big screen, as well as Liam Neeson as Ra’s al Ghul, Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon, and Katie Holmes as love interest Rachel Dawes. Featuring plenty of twists and turns, a few spooky scenes with the Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), and a deep-dive into the mind of a haunted man on a mission to save his decaying city, Batman Begins plants many of the seeds of brilliance that would fully bloom in its follow-up.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)

March 1

Hitting its 10-year anniversary in a few months, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s Crazy, Stupid, Love. still feels like a rom-com from a different era. With its laid back demeanor, and generally laconic grooving on a plot about a player (Ryan Gosling) helping a middle-aged divorced schmuck (Steve Carell) get back on his feet, this goes down more like a star vehicle from five decades ago. Yet the piece is as effortlessly appealing as Gosling’s too-cool-for-school energy, elevating the movie over screenwriter Dan Fogelman’s more recent dramedies, such as This is Us. Plus, hey, it’s also the first movie to realize Gosling and Emma Stone have like crazy good chemistry.

Dances with Wolves (1990)

March 1

Kevin Costner’s Oscar winner is somewhat haunted by its little gold statues for Best Picture and Director, which it won over Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. However, there is still an excellent Western here that captured audiences’ imaginations in 1990 for a reason. The story of a U.S. Cavalry officer who becomes enamored with and then assimilated by a community of Lakota Native Americans, Dances with Wolves has a sweeping majesty that’s as immersive as John Barry’s score. It can be rightly criticized for embracing “white savior” tropes, but Costner’s movie still has the good grace to put performances like Graham Greene’s front and center.

The Dark Knight (2008)

March 1

Fans critical of Heath Ledger’s casting as the Joker quickly switched to praising the late actor when The Dark Knight hit theaters in 2008. A true agent of chaos, this Joker puts Bale’s Batman and his allies through a gauntlet of capers, assassination attempts, and pain. Even district attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), the city’s very own white knight, can’t resist the Joker’s corrupting influence as the clown lays siege to Gotham. A story about how far you’ll go to get justice, and how long a functioning society can withstand that pressure, The Dark Knight plays more like a serious crime drama (with Batman flying off rooftops on occasion, of course) than a traditional superhero romp. At a time when superhero movies were still better known for punching and tights, Nolan sought to say something more with the genre. 

Rain Man (1988)

March 1

Barry Levinson’s 1988 road trip drama cleaned up at the Oscars when it was released, bagging Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman. It’s often held up as creating the stereotype of the “autistic savant,” but this drama which sees selfish douchebag Charlie (Tom Cruise) travel across America with Raymond (Hoffman), the brother he didn’t know he had but who is now unexpectedly the sole inheritor of their father’s fortune, still stands up as a character piece that tugs at the heartstrings. If nothing else, it’s a highly quotable cultural phenomenon and a showcase of actors at the top of their game.

Training Day (2001)

March 1

Here is a film so good that its influence still lingers over pop culture to this day, even if no one quite remembers why Denzel Washington is saying King Kong ain’t got shit on him. Back in 2001, it catapulted Washington to his second Oscar, this time in the leading man category thanks to the role of Alonzo, a crooked cop who takes rookie Jake (Ethan Hawke) under his wing and (seemingly) into his vices. It’s a gritty crime thriller anchored by two strong performances, including Washington at his showiest. In fact, he’s so good at elevating this movie that it sometimes feels like director Antoine Fuqua and screenwriter David Ayer have been unsuccessfully trying to duplicate it ever since.

Audrey (2020)

March 14

Audrey Hepburn so effortlessly inhabits the screen that for generations of movie lovers, she seemed unreal—a symbol of style and glamour whose feet were never meant to touch earthly clay. This, however, misses the remarkableness of her life’s journey, from starving conditions under Nazi occupation in the Netherlands during her adolescence—informing her unique frame for the rest of her life—to eventually using those unspoken memories of atrocity as the foundation to become a human rights activist late in life. In between, she had a brief Hollywood career stacked with high fashion and a shockingly high quotient of classics. In fact, she became a new image for femininity in the mid-20th century. Audrey is a somewhat rose-tinted documentary about all of this, but for those who would like to know more, it’s a lovely place to start.

Philomena (2013)

March 22

A sweet, powerful, and decidedly underrated gem, Stephen Frears’ Philomena provides a gentle touch to the true life story of Philomena Lee, a woman who spent 50 years looking for the child she was forced to give up to adoption. But even “forced” is perhaps too easy a word since in her native Ireland, she was more or less incarcerated at a convent after becoming pregnant at the age of 18, with nuns sending the child away to parts unknown without her consent. Philomena now tracks the final months of her search as an older woman through the prism of a two-hander between Judi Dench as Philomena and Steve Coogan as Martin Sixsmith, the journalist who told her story and inspired the film. It makes for a surprisingly warm and affectionate road movie.

At Eternity’s Gate (2018)

March 31

At Eternity’s Gate is far from the only film about the life of Vincent van Gogh and it isn’t the best (shout out to Lust For Life, Loving Vincent, and that one episode of Doctor Who), but it’s still worth a watch—especially for fans of the Dutch painter. With Willem Dafoe as van Gogh, Oscar Isaac as Paul Gaugin, and Mads Mikkelsen as “The Priest,” the 2018 biopic would be worth it for the performances alone. But director and artist Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Basquiat) further elevates what is a pretty straight-forward story (albeit with a controversial ending) about the painter’s final, prolific days in the French countryside into a visually vivid and emotionally affecting tale about the joys and struggles of creative compulsion.

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Best Films of 2019: Honorable Mentions

Is Tumblr even the best platform for this anymore, in 2020? Not sure, but it’s habit now.

I’ve got my top 50 tallied up and you can find that here. In the meantime, here’s some films that didn’t make the final cut but that I figured deserved a shoutout regardless. Check it out:

Aquarela dir. Viktor Kossakovsky

Few films are so simple in concept but so overwhelming in execution. Aquarela sets out to be nothing more or less than a documentary about water, at its most dangerous and awe-inspiring: crashing waves, frozen lakes, and gigantic cliffs of ice are presented without commentary or artifice, letting the images speak for themselves with the occasional help of a harsh metal soundtrack. A kind of pure cinema experiment in gorgeously captured natural imagery (in 96 fps to boot!) that is reverent to the power of water almost to the point of fear. It might be said that the potential outstrips the product here - it’s slow, not totally audience friendly, and some sequences are more mundane than others - but when that combination of sound, image, and scale hits it really hits.

Buoyancy dir. Rodd Rathjen

A Cambodian boy, eager to find work, gets scammed into slave labor on a Thai fishing boat, under the leadership of a sadistic captain. Apparently meant as a sort of awareness-raising project on abusive labor practices in Thailand, this Australian production ends up more memorable as a taut and empathetic thriller. More than anything a triumph of casting - amateur actors Sarm Heng and Thanawut Kasro are captivating as the boy and his captain, and lend a great deal of credibility to the single-boat potboiler premise with their surprising chemistry. It’s a modestly-scaled affair and in some ways obviously a first feature, but the commitment to mood and setting make this worth seeking out (even if the humanitarian angle gets a bit lost in the shuffle).

Ford v Ferrari dir. James Mangold

Dad Movie material of the highest caliber. Commits the sin of dragging itself out over the more mundane parts of the story (the will-he-or-won’t-he between Miles and Shelby is almost entirely not worth the time), but wins you back with engagingly muscular racing sequences that dominate much of its second half. Bale and Damon are their reliable selves as the lead duo, and there’s some charming support work from Tracy Letts, Josh Lucas, and Ray McKinnon that lets the setup go down smoothly. A well-executed but bloated film, essentially, but at least one that delivers where it counts. It’s good enough that the idea of a just slightly better version is especially tantalizing. Perhaps with a different director... Michael Mann, say?

Kumbalangi Nights dir. Madhu C. Narayanan

Hands down the best-looking Indian film I saw this year, and probably one of the best soundtracks from anywhere. Ultimately a very sweet family drama about four brothers navigating a non-traditional family unit, full of sweet moments and charming performances. The most memorable element of the film, however, is Fahadh Faasil’s turn as the bushy-mustached antagonist, the overbearing brother-in-law who manages to be both cartoonish and genuinely menacing. Faasil ends up providing the film with a weird energy throughout, and facilitates one of the most breakneck genre switch-ups I’ve ever seen in the last half hour(!) of the film, which I still can’t decide is genius or simply derailing. A very curious movie that I’m still not sure what to do with months later.

The Lighthouse dir. Robert Eggers

More stylistically ambitious than The Witch, but trades in that film’s relative narrative and thematic clarity for something a little harder to grasp. Mostly a good trade, I think - as this moved along I was really swept up in the shadows, the sounds, and Willem Dafoe’s facial expressions, and the film kept ramping up the weirdness in a satisfying way. Appropriately, the film does feel a bit like a bender - you end up losing track of much of the big-picture plot as it goes on, but you’re occasionally pulled into these moments of sharp sensory clarity (the Hark! speech being the most memorable example) that seem to block out everything else. You get a bit blindsided with an ending that doesn’t seem to follow from the rest of the film, but in the meantime it’s an incredible showcase of atmosphere.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night dir. Bi Gan

I give this film a lot of credit for two things: the hour-long, seemingly impossible unbroken take that everyone loves to talk about, and the fact that it raked in money as a holiday release in China despite the fact that obviously most people would not actually enjoy this (the proto Uncut Gems). As with Kaili Blues, the story here is vague and dreamy - something about a funeral, a lost love, some criminal interests - and not especially concerned with legibility. Plus, the first stage of the film drags on so long that the long take that makes up the second half almost feels like a different movie altogether. Still, Long Day ends up being such a showstopper that it makes me feel bad that I’m not on Bi’s wavelength. Or maybe he’s tricking me too, just like all those Chinese cinema goers?

The Moneychanger dir. Federico Veiroj

A rather nuts-and-bolts historical drama set among financial criminals in 70s Montevideo, a kind of deadpan, low-rent South American cousin to The Wolf of Wall Street. Lives and dies by Daniel Hendler’s performance as the titular cambista, a man so cowardly and resigned to moral compromise he makes Jordan Belfort seem like a man of principle, as well as that of Dolores Fonzi, who plays his coldly practical wife. Some interesting historical commentary here, focusing on Uruguay’s position between Brazil and Argentina making it ideal as a shady dealing site, and the effects of seemingly mundane corruption among the financial class that spill out into the general population. Perhaps a bit too committed to its even, clinical tone, but a funny and enlightening film regardless.

Promare dir. Hiroyuki Imaishi

It took me a while to warm up to this one. Definitely feels like it’s taking too many pages out of other Imaishi/Nakashima creations (Gurren Lagann and Kill La Kill are all over this), and I’m still not convinced the environmental and immigration undercurrents are actually executed effectively. However, it does showcase a lot of Imaishi’s usual strengths: extravagant, energetic action sequences, breathless pacing, great music choices, and vibrant character designs. In many ways it’s pure candy, and I guess that’s appropriate for Studio Trigger’s feature film debut. Unquestionably worth checking out for the Trigger faithful - and if you want some almost-there gay representation in your smash-bang mecha fare, maybe this will scratch that itch too?

Queen & Slim dir. Melina Matsoukas

As impressed as I am that anyone got a major studio to put out a film literally just about cop killers, I can’t help but think that this film should have been better, and could have been with just a few tweaks. On the plus side: one of the most gorgeous films of the year (Matsoukas puts her music video sensibilities to fine use on the big screen), great turns from Kaluuya, Turner-Smith, and Bokeem Woodbine, and one of the most impressively raunchy sex scenes in American multiplex fare in many years. The narrative it presents is still essentially worthwhile, and it brushes up against the radical more than accidentally, but it pulls itself down with clumsy Both Sides equivocating and allowing the title characters to slip too cleanly into martyrdom. Want to see what comes next.

Triple Frontier dir. J.C. Chandor

A thoroughly pulpy concept - a bunch of ex-special forces buddies get together to rob a drug lord - brought to life beyond expectations by a talented cast and crew. Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, and Pedro Pascal are especially good here (especially Affleck, in his best showing in years), and Chandor and Mark Boal’s detail-oriented approach to the material pays off in a deliberately paced but always tense thriller. Surprisingly in-the-reeds procedural obstacles - how do we get to this house? how do we move this large pile of cash? - set up for the film’s best set pieces, and the ensemble has a great macho rapport that carries over even into the film’s bleaker second half. Perhaps benefiting from low expectations, but this is one of the key overlooked Netflix finds of the year.

just went to see tros. major spoilers ahead

[[MORE]]

so i’m gonna try to go through this as in order as i can

- rey doing the avatar pose with the rocks orbiting her was super cool. as was her training with leia

- her getting distracted (and becoming somehow angry) by kyle ron staring at his grandads melted skull? not so much

- leia in general i think they handled pretty well. i even was okay with her death, though it did feel rushed. either way any glimpses of our beloved carrie warmed my heart

- i fuckin love bb8’s little sidekick. him being narratively incredibly important? felt forced

- lando? YES!!

- the weird rey doing force lightning? NO!!!

- i just have so many issues with this ‘dyad connection’

- stop trying to make more jedi powers. first the connection, then healing, then the lightning tree?? seriously?

- speaking of which, sith rey was way overdone. i could have understood her appearance in the first place, hearkening back to the dark cave luke went into on dagobah. but once again, it was played into the ground. and the teeth? seriously? (yes it was very attractive but that’s beside the point. evil versions are always hotter)

- kyle ron just kept pissing me off. but that’s a whole nother post entirely. i would’ve liked the helmet kintsugi for purely aesthetic reasons if it had any emotional impact at all. kintsugi is repairing a broken object and making it more beautiful for its having been put together again, and the love put into fixing it. none of that fit with the weird reforging of his helmet. he didn’t even do it himself palpatine’s little slaves did it. it looked cool but felt wrong

- hux being the traitor because he just ‘wants him to lose’? made absolutely no sense whatsoever and came completely out of left field. unless i’m just missing something. which i definitely could be

- rey getting completely distracted on the way to get the knife and letting her friends get captured? dumb. stupid narrative decision. it felt dishonest to the rest of her characterization up until now

- and it made for another weird connection scene with ofc i didn’t enjoy. vader’s helmet has great symbolic importance. it being left on that planet just to tell kyle ron that rey was on his ship? another stupid narrative decision!!

- also what the fuck was zorri and the whole spice runner being a secret thing? are we in dune? like let’s shoehorn in a backstory that has no emotional impact because there was no buildup or investment whatsoever. yes i understand they were trying to draw han solo parallels but it was just- once again- awkward and forced

-jannah just rubbed in our faces all the lost potential of finn leading a storm trooper rebellion from the inside. we were ROBBED

- if they had played with the c3po losing his memory storyline it could’ve had much more potential. but once again there was no emotional impact because it was badly written and awkwardly placed just to give us another ‘cute’ character. which yes. i fell for. i love babu. sidebar: i just looked up that characters name and they were voiced by moaning myrtle??

- the scenes on the destroyed death star. the fight looked beautiful, it was well shot and the set was amazing. i loved the giant waves, everything. but han? seriously? at least they didn’t try to make him a force ghost. that’s literally all i can be thankful for. leia reaching out to him could’ve had that very same narrative outcome of him throwing away the lightsaber. and it would’ve made so much more sense

- merry popping up everywhere without pippin was both sad and jarring for me personally

- and then we get to the final battle

-i’ve been drawing a lot of parallels between storylines in the movie and from the thrawn trilogy

- admit it, Exegol doesn’t sound half as cool as Mount Tantus

- cloning tanks, secret super powerful fleet, all of that was in thrawn but done much better

- i absolUTELY hated the view palpatine gave rey of the battle scene. it was done in the return of the jedi, it was done in the last jedi, it just felt overdone

- i’m not even going to talk about the reveal of rey’s identity. it’s just fucking stupid. her choosing to call herself a skywalker would have been just as impactful, if not more, if we’d kept her parentage a non plot point

- also don’t think that i didn’t notice the parallels to the alien at the festival asking her last name to the lady on tattooine. since when have last names ever been so stressed in star wars. it just felt awkward

- whats with the red storm troopers? yet another awkward detail added for #aesthetic with no reasoning behind it whatsoever?

- and onwards we go- to whatever the fuck happened when kyle joins rey in front of palpatine. this isn’t harry potter. he isn’t a dementor. it’s just- completely out of place. like wtf

- i am 100% convinced the weird chanting ‘audience’ was just rows upon rows of empty cloaks palpatine was animating because he’s a fucking drama queen. like if not, where did he get that many people? who are they? are they more force ghosts in inappropriate places?

- speaking of, i guess i could see what they were trying to do with the whole ‘i am all the sith/jedi’ thing, but it really didn’t make any sense, even with the ‘be with me’ thing rey was doing at the beggining of the movie. yet another new jedi power. ugh

- my brain personally has disassociated the re*lo kiss from the scene completely. it feels like something out of a different movie. there’s no lead up, it feels like two completely different characters than the ones we’ve been watching these past three movies

- we could’ve just had him die killing palpatine, or shielding her or giving her the chance to kill palpatine by sacrificing himself

- and no, i don’t count the part where she healed him any sort of lead up to the kiss. it felt just as awkward and forced as the rest of the directors/writers trying to redeem the relationship. no. emotional. impact. and the parallels they tried to draw between him and rey? also didn’t work

- the lightsaber trick did look really cool i enjoyed that a lot. i also surprisingly enjoyed kyle ron out of armor. he looked a lot more... real? in fact he looked so much like a different character i was even kinda emotionally invested in him in that scene. maybe i have a weak spot for ‘strong’ characters being vulnerable? or beat up angsty people? both? either way i actually enjoyed watching him onscreen those like five minutes. adam driver’s a good actor. ain’t his fault his character was written badly

- what’s with their bodies disappearing?? are we pulling a voldemort here? only yoda did that and he’s special. also leia’s body waiting to vanish until kyle died? i understand what they were getting at but it just doesn’t make sense

- that all being said, finn and poe’s screen time was lovely. they work so well together. that hug after the battle, thank you oscar isaac it was so gay. finn’s hair looked amazing, them being generals together felt so right, it had such potential

-the sandstormpilot hug was also amazing. poe kept grabbing rey’s hand and finn tearing up and- i’m gonna pretend they’re all together and everything is good with the world. they just make such an amazing team i love them so much

- most of the filmography and settings were gorgeous. the recreation of the podrace was eh, but rey wrecking the TIE fighter was better than that entire scene and pretty much made up for it in my mind. also since i’m in that scene, the scare of losing chewie was just plain cruel. it wasn’t a good plot twist, it didn’t work, it was just mean

- why did rey get a sentinel lightsaber?

25 Best Movies on Hulu Right Now (September 2019) | ScreenRant

Hulu has a lot of great movies - here are the 25 best films on the streaming service. In an age of options, less feels like more. While Netflix has an ever-expanding library, Hulu offers a more focused collection of great movies. Because volume isn’t the objective, Hulu succeeds in curating a batch of excellent films.

There are the iconic classics like The Matrix and Seven, the arthouse darlings like Sorry to Bother You and Let the Right One In, and the pure entertainment gems like The Fifth Element and Shrek. Hulu keeps it simple, and offers something for everybody. Here are the 25 best movies that you can watch on Hulu right now.

Related: The 25 Best Films on Netflix Right Now

Before we start, first a disclaimer. modern streaming libraries are like carousels, always moving and always changing. The films in this list are available on Hulu at the time of writing. We’ll be updating this top 25 list frequently, so keep an eye out for Hulu’s latest and greatest offerings. Also, the list isn't ranked from worst to best, so a lower number is not meant to denote higher quality. It's just a list of 25 great movies.

Last updated: September 5, 2019

25 Detroit

While it slipped through awards season without much hype, Detroit remains one of 2017’s best films. Rotten Tomatoes awarded it an 84% for its “gut-wrenching dramatization of a tragic chapter” in American history. Director Kathryn Bigelow tackles the 1967 incident in Motor City with aplomb, deftly guiding a sprawling cast (led by John Boyega and Will Poulter) through a maze of tension, bigotry, and survival. Detroit streams exclusively on Hulu.

24 The Fifth Element

One of the most unique sci-fi films of its decade, director Luc Besson's 1997 hit The Fifth Element served to launch the career of future Resident Evil franchise lead Milla Jovovich into the stratosphere, and is now on Hulu. Bruce Willis stars as Korben Dallas, a 23rd century cab driver who ends up unwillingly thrust into a quest to save the Earth when Leeloo (Jovovich) jumps off into a building into his flying vehicle. The two are opposed by Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman), a brash villain working on behalf of a great cosmic evil.

23 Seven

One of the most respected crime thrillers of the 1990s, Seven has style to spare, and was one of the films to first establish David Fincher as a director be reckoned with. Seven stars Brad Pitt as brash young detective David Mills, who partners up with soon to retire detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) in order to try and catch a serial killer who bases his murders on the seven deadly sins. Hauling in over $300 million at the box office on a $33 million budget, Seven was both a critical and commercial smash, and deserves to be revisited on Hulu.

Read More: 15 Awesome Facts You Didn't Know About Seven

22 The Matrix

One of the biggest pop culture phenomenons of its time, 1999's The Matrix put sibling directors The Wachowskis on the map. The Matrix's quite brilliant premise is that the world and everyone in it is in fact a computer simulation powered by the very humans that dwell there, after a catastrophic war between mankind and machines. One day, Thomas Anderson aka Neo (Keanu Reeves), a mild-mannered computer programmer by day and hacker by night, is woken up to the sad reality of his situation by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), leaders of a human resistance effort seeking to expose The Matrix to the public. Sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions are also available on Hulu.

21 Basic Instinct

While 1992's Basic Instinct is most remembered for a particularly scandalous scene involving Sharon Stone, the movie as a whole is quite the enthralling neo-noir suspense thriller. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, Basic Instinct stars Michael Douglas as detective Nick Curran, who makes the mistake of becoming romantically involved with murder suspect Catherine Tramell (Stone). Well, depending on one's definition of romance. One of the biggest hits of the 1990s, Basic Instinct made over $350 million, and is a Hulu pick definitely aimed at adults.

20 Lethal Weapon

Directed by 1980s mainstay Richard Donner, 1987's Lethal Weapon still stands as one of the quintessential examples of how to do a "buddy cop" action movie right. Mel Gibson stars as Martin Riggs, a suicidal sergeant with a short fuse and nothing to lose. Riggs gets partnered up with by the book lawman Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover), leading to a slowly blossoming friendship, and one of film's most beloved duos. Lethal Weapon would spawn three successful sequels, and a TV reboot that aired on FOX. All are currently available on Hulu too.

Read More: Where Are They Now? The Cast Of Lethal Weapon

19 An American Werewolf in London

There are many iconic movies about vampires, ghosts, witches, and demons, but unfortunately, the werewolf tends to come up short in that department, starring in more stinkers than hits. Arguably the best werewolf movie of all time is 1981's An American Werewolf in London, directed by John Landis, and now on Hulu. Boasting amazing practical creature effects that hold up today, the film tells the story of David Kessler (David Naughton), an American backpacking in Europe that ends up surviving a werewolf attack that kills his best friend. Unfortunately, it's not too long before David realizes he's now cursed to kill during the full moon.

18 Ocean's Eleven

While director Steven Soderbergh might be better known for his award-worthy dramas, sometimes he stops being quite so serious, and creates the laid back chill of 2001's Ocean's Eleven. A critical and commercial ($450 million worldwide) hit, Ocean's Eleven manages to be both a thrilling heist caper and an amusing bit of ensemble fun, perfect for Hulu subscribers. Said ensemble boasts some huge names, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, and Bernie Mac.

17 Hellraiser

Any dedicated horror fan has surely had their soul torn apart multiple times by Hellraiser's Pinhead (Doug Bradley) by this point. Director Clive Barker (adapting his own novella) crafted one of the most enduring tales of terror to come out of the 1980s, spawning one of the longest-running horror franchises out there as well. Hellraiser may only have a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it's a certified classic of the genre, and needs to be watched by anyone who enjoys a good fright flick. Direct sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser II is also part of Hulu's roster.

Read More: The Real Life Inspirations Behind 11 Horror Movie Icons

16 Frank

To some, Michael Fassbender is a young Magneto. To others, he’s a two-time Academy Award nominee. To a select few, he’s the gonzo pop musician and eponymous hero in Frank, the offbeat artist who became more famous for his oversized paper-mâché mask than his music. Directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Room), Frank earned a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score and remains a cult classic to adventurous Hulu viewers looking for a changeup in their visual diet.

15 Annihilation

One of Screen Rant's favorite movies of 2018, Annihilation is a visionary sci-fi film written and directed by Alex Garland, who previously made his directing debut with the equally arresting Ex Machina. Natalie Portman stars as Lena, one of the only survivors of an expedition into a realm called "The Shimmer," which serves as home to places and creatures beyond anything known to the natural world. Sporting an 89% RT score, Annihilation just arrived on Hulu, and also stars Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, and Oscar Isaac.

14 Training Day

Directed by Antoine Fuqua, Training Day features Denzel Washington in arguably his greatest role, alongside an equally game performance by Ethan Hawke. Washingston stars as Alonzo Harris, a highly decorated but also highly corrupt narcotics officer, tasked with showing new recruit Jake Hoyt (Hawke) the ropes. Alonzo is a villain through and through, but damn is he fun to watch at work. Surprisingly, Training Day only holds a 72% on RT, despite earning Washington an Oscar and Hawke an Oscar nomination. Regardless of the lower rating, Training Day is still one of the best films on Hulu.

Read More: Ethan Hawke is (Sort Of) Right About Superhero Movies

13 Spaceballs

Made back in the days when director Mel Brooks could seemingly do no wrong, Spaceballs is a hilarious parody of the original Star Wars trilogy. While it wasn't quite a critical hit, Spaceballs has earned itself a gigantic cult following in the decades since its release, and features terrific comedic performances from greats like Bill Pullman, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Joan Rivers, and even Brooks himself as the wise sage called Yogurt. Stream it on Hulu and get ready to laugh.

12 A Quiet Place

While John Krasinski might always be best known for playing Jim on iconic sitcom The Office, 2018's acclaimed sci-fi/horror film A Quiet Place demonstrated that he has just as much talent behind the camera. Directed, co-written by, and starring Krasinski, A Quiet Place centers on a family living in the aftermath of an apocalyptic alien invasion. The invading creatures are deadly, and hunt by sound, meaning that the Abbott clan has to spend most of their life in silence. Unfortunately, things eventually go wrong, and the monsters come calling. Krasinkski's real-life wife Emily Blunt co-stars in this prime Hulu pick.

11 Unbreakable

While 2019's theatrical arrival of director M. Night Shyamalan's latest film Glass didn't exactly set the world on fire, that doesn't diminish the greatness of its predecessors, the first being 2000's Unbreakable, recently added to Hulu. After surviving a deadly train crash without a scratch, mild-mannered security guard and family man David Dunn (Bruce Willis) comes to discover that he possesses powers beyond normal men, and that he's destined for greatness as a superhero. Guiding him down this path is Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a mysterious man with secrets of his own.

Read More: M. Night Shyamalan's Films Ranked From Absolute Worst To Best (Including Glass)

10 Punch-Drunk Love

The fourth feature to be directed by perennial critical darling Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002's Punch-Drunk Love offered a showcase for comedy icon Adam Sandler's then-unknown dramatic chops as Barry Egan, a desperately lonely man with severe rage issues. Sadly, said chops have only been glimpsed a few times since, with Sandler mostly content to stick to his usual wheelhouse of slapstick comedies like Grown Ups. Still fans of Sandler the actor will always have this critically acclaimed film to remember him by, and stream on Hulu.

9 Airplane

Continually considered one of the funniest films in history, 1980 spoof comedy Airplane throws joke after joke at the audience with reckless abandon, and while all of them don't necessarily hit for everyone, most of them likely will. Granted, Airplane does contain some material likely to be viewed as a bit problematic by current standards, but when seen through the lens of when it was made, it's clear these jokes weren't intended to be malicious. Airplane might be best known for taking Leslie Nielsen, then primarily a dramatic actor, and turning him into a comedic force to be reckoned with. Anyone who hasn't experienced Airplane needs to take this flight while it's on Hulu.

8 Shutter Island

Directed by Martin Scorsese and starring his modern muse Leonardo DiCaprio, 2010's Shutter Island centers on U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, who's sent to investigate a mysterious disappearance at a mental hospital on the titular island. Unfortunately for Teddy, nothing is what it seems, and the mystery threatens to swallow him whole. The star-studded cast also includes Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Max von Sydow, and Michelle Williams. Those looking for a thriller designed to keep them guessing should definitely stream Shutter Island on Hulu.

Read More: 10 Amazing Martin Scorsese Movies Everyone Forgets About

7 Shrek

The film that put Dreamworks Animation on the map, 2001's Shrek stars Mike Myers as the titular ogre, a creature gruff on the outside but caring on the inside. Despite not wanting to do anything but hang out in his swamp, Shrek is compelled to go on a quest to rescue Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) by the villainous Lord Farquad (John Lithgow). By his side is Donkey (Eddie Murphy), a fast-talking animal who can't help annoying Shrek with his constant chatter. Shrek spawned a franchise of three sequels and multiple specials, and is worth checking out on Hulu.

6 Rosemary's Baby

Although director Roman Polanski is quite rightfully disgraced nowadays for being a convicted rapist, but that doesn't mean his classic films are suddenly any less great. One of the best is 1968's Rosemary's Baby, a deservedly revered entry into the horror canon. Mia Farrow stars as the titular character, a young woman who sees her life get more and more unraveled after she and her husband move into a mysterious New York City apartment building. Before long, she begins to suspect that every single person in her orbit might be involved in a demonic conspiracy. Those who haven't seen it owe it to themselves to meet Rosemary's Baby on Hulu.

5 Vice

A biopic about former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney was always going to be a controversial, divisive prospect, especially one directed by Adam McKay with a sharp satirical edge. In the end, 2018's Vice ended up earning mostly praise from critics, and multiple Oscar nominations, including one for Christian Bale's eerily accurate performance as Cheney. Bale famously put on lots of weight for the role, and is almost unrecognizable at a glance. Vice's all-star cast also includes Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, and more. Vice is worth a stream on Hulu, especially during these current politically-charged times.

Read More: Christian Bale’s 10 Greatest Roles, Ranked

4 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

The Star Trek multimedia franchise has so far produced 13 feature films, but arguably the most iconic of those came early on, with 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, now on Hulu. For better or worse, The Wrath of Khan changed gears from the metaphysical, exploratory adventure that was Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and did its best to turn Star Trek into more of a space action vehicle. Thankfully, it succeeded with most, and William Shatner's Captain Kirk yelling KHAN! at Ricardo Montalban's titular villain has become the stuff of legend.

3 Sorry to Bother You

One of the most uniquely creative movies of 2018, director Boots Riley's debut is a thought-provoking look at American race relations, framed through a dystopian comedic lens. Sorry to Bother You stars Lakeith Stanfield as Cassius "Cash" Green, who gets a job as a telemarketer, only to discover that putting on his "white voice" is what gets the money rolling in. Sorry to Bother You is a film not really suited to being summed up in a paragraph, but its 93% Rotten Tomatoes score kind of speaks for itself. Check it out on Hulu.

2 Heathers

A darker than dark comedy, Heathers was written by Daniel Waters and directed by Michael Lehmann, and sports a huge cult following, which is sure to only get bigger via Hulu. Winona Ryder stars as Veronica Sawyer, a high school student who runs afoul of former friends the Heathers, a trio of rich, popular girls that rule teen society with an iron fist. After being wronged by them, Veronica makes the mistake of teaming up with outcast bad boy J.D. (Christian Slater) in order to get revenge. Sadly, J.D.'s idea of revenge is straight up murdering his enemies.

1 Let the Right One In

Released in a decade where vampire cinema was dominated by the sparkly Twilight, director Tomas Alfredson's Swedish hit Let the Right One In was exactly what the classic creature needed to remind audiences that despite their affliction, vampire movies don't have to suck. Lina Leandersson stars as Eli, an ageless vampire with the appearance of a child, and Kare Hedebrant plays Oskar, the bullied young boy she enters into an unexpectedly sweet relationship with. The film was later adapted stateside by Matt Reeves, with Chloe Grace Moretz in the Eli role. That version is sadly not available via Hulu.

Next: 10 Best Shows You Didn’t Know Were On Hulu

source https://screenrant.com/hulu-best-movies/

// Google search Lainey Gossip The Best Films of the Decade (2010s): Part I December 19, 2019 at 6:24 PM by Sarah John Wick movie poster 352687 After months of consideration, and getting so deep in the weeds that the words “best”, “film”, and “decade” have lost all meaning, here it is: my list of the best films of the decade. This list, which was supposed to be 20 films and ended up at 32, is a combination of quality, influence, and gut feeling, but all are films that stand out when looking back on the cinema of the 2010s. As always, this list is alphabetical, not ranked. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) An Iranian-Western-vampire genre mashup, Girl is strange, creepy, feminist, and at times, achingly romantic. This is also the first film on the list that marks a decade trend of women claiming genre spaces to do brilliant, inventive work. A Hidden Life (2019) Terrence Malick has wrestled with themes of human suffering, perseverance, and religious fervor throughout his career, and A Hidden Life is his most perfect expression of beatific suffering yet. It’s also a timely story about standing up to Nazis, which gives Life an immediate resonance Malick’s films don’t usually carry. A Simple Favor (2018) Satirizing everything from Cool Girl thrillers to the true crime craze to mommy bloggers, A Simple Favor is a black comedy that also works as a (completely batsh-t) mystery. This movie has everything: secret twins, incest, a series of increasingly insane plot twists, and some of the best contemporary artistic design of the decade. The Act of Killing (2012) Co-directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn, and an anonymous Indonesian, The Act of Killing is a portrait, made terrifying by the relative mundanity of these men’s lives today, of some of the men who led death squads during the Indonesian killings of 1965-66. The men recreate their atrocities as classic film scenes, until one man pretends to be a victim in a scene and then simply cannot go on. It is a testament to the power of cinema, and of stories to evoke empathy, even where you believe no feeling can exist. The Avengers (2012) I can hear you, Black Panther hive, and believe me, I thought about it. But the fact is, there is no Black Panther without The Avengers. This is the film that started it all, and it had an immeasurable impact on Hollywood, setting records previously thought impossible, giving audiences a once-in-a-generation experience, and popularizing the blockbuster cinematic universe. That it holds up as an entertaining, thrilling adventure is almost just a bonus. The Babadook (2014) Jennifer Kent’s debut feature film is either a horror movie about a haunting, or it’s a domestic drama about grief and mental illness. Either way, this is one of the creepiest, most unsettling genre films of the decade, and it also gave us one of the most memorable sound effects since a tyrannosaurus rex roared. Blue Ruin (2013) This is not the sleek, sexy revenge of typical Hollywood thrillers. Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin is bleak, brutal, and spare, with a protagonist shattered by trauma and whose revenge is uncoordinated, sloppy, and carries an inter-generational price. This is the best case against backwoods justice since Reba McEntire sang, “That’s the night the lights went out in Georgia”. Carol (2015) A romance that is at once universal and achingly specific to the roadblocks and repressions of queer women in the middle 20th century, Carol typifies Todd Haynes’ rich, detailed style and intimate sense of drama. Romantic, intimate, and infuriating, Carol captures how simple it is to fall in love and how hard it is to be in love, especially when society does not accept you. Compliance (2012) A gut-wrenching, almost impossible to watch psychological thriller/horror movie, Compliance begs you to fact-check its “based on a true story” narrative (it’s terribly, awfully true). No film this decade better captures both the ease with which people surrender their civil liberties to authoritarians, and the ease with which people will stand by and do nothing as a woman is abused. Compliance is as infuriating as it is chilling. The Duke of Burgundy (2015) An erotic S&M fantasy set in a world with no men, The Duke of Burgundy is a lavish exploration of sex, intimacy, and power exchange. Writer/director Peter Strickland uses fetishism to examine a deteriorating relationship and the particular poignancy of a love affair coming to an end. There have been a lot of breakup movies this decade, but none as unique as The Duke of Burgundy. Get Out (2017) A horror comedy that works equally well in either genre, and works even better on second viewing, Get Out is an immediate genre classic. It gave us a new way of thinking of the black experience in America, and also the insidious supremacy of white liberalism. This is one of the sharpest social observations of the decade, and also a really damn good horror movie. The Guest (2014) Stylish, sexy, and violent, The Guest mashes up horror and superhero tropes into a story about a super-soldier gone rogue, who will stop at nothing to cover his tracks. It’s easy to get lost in the aesthetics, but The Guest has something to say about the toll of America’s endless war, and bad men who only pass as good because we’re socially conditioned to accept them. The Handmaiden (2016) Park Chan-wook adapts Sarah Waters’ novel, Fingersmith, into an erotic thriller set in colonial Korea. Using shifting perspective and a twisty, layered crime plot, Park tells a story of colonialism, class, gender, and love that is sexy, smart, romantic, and surprisingly funny. Inherent Vice (2014) Any one of Paul Thomas Anderson’s three feature films this decade could have made this list, but in the end, I chose the film that is the MOST Paul Thomas Anderson. Like if you asked me what PTA’s whole deal is, I would point you to Inherent Vice. Shaggy, strange, and risky, Inherent Vice is a cinematic psychedelic trip that invites multiple viewings. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) The Coen Brothers also had a couple contenders this decade, but Inside Llewyn Davis is exceptional for the prickliness of its lead character (played by a breakout Oscar Isaac) and the mundane lyricism of his story. This is not a tale of transformational genius, this is a tale of mediocrity and near misses featuring Llewyn Davis, one of contemporary cinema’s greatest cynics. John Wick (2014) Keanu Reeves experienced another career renaissance with John Wick, giving us an immediately indelible, impossibly cool character with the titular John Wick. Sleek, stylish, and with a laughably, yet incredibly effective, streamlined story, John Wick is a high-water mark for American action cinema. Part 2 coming soon…  Tags: Movie Reviews and Previews PS I Still Love You trailer stills 352677 PS. I Still Love You Peter Kavinsk…oh HI John Ambrose! It’s here! The first trailer for PS I Still Love You, the sequel to To All The Boys I’ve Loved Befor December 19, 2019 at 5:27 PM by Lainey Sebastian Stan on the set of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in Atlanta, December 19, 2019 352688 Sebastian Stan Year In Review: Hotness Maintained Sebastian Stan caps off his Year In Hot by appearing in Men’s Health. He is there, ostensibly, to ta December 19, 2019 at 8:02 PM by Sarah Related on LaineyGossip No Related Articles Need a Distraction? by TaboolaSponsored LinksYou May Like Bushmans River Mouth Woman Was Playing on This Free Slot Machine App, When All Of A Sudden She Won Big Download on the App Store | Neverland Casino How South Africans Make A Fortune With Online Trading in 2019. Read Now homefinancetoday South Africans Are Making A Fortune With Online Trading. Read How ThinkBig 4 Reasons To Invest Online! Convert Trading into Constant Income. Vici Marketing The Cost of Apartments for Sale in Dubai Might Totally Surprise You Apartments for Sale | Search Ads King Price Car Insurance Decreases Your Premium Each Month As Your Car Loses Value King Price Car Insurance Quotes Here's What Auto Insurance Should Cost in Bushmans River Mouth Auto Insurance | Search Ads The 10 Most Legendary Investors Who Have Ever Lived trendingstock.today ContactTermsPrivacyCookiesArchivesFAQsPressPartnersView Desktop SiteCookie Settings © Copyright 2004-2020, Lainey Gossip Entertainment Inc.

Dune Opening Sequence Puts Focus on Zendaya and Arrakis

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“It is pure cinema,” actor Josh Brolin says while describing the look of Denis Villeneuve’s long-anticipated Dune adaptation. “There’s an aesthetic to this film that’s just different.”

When a performer talks so glowingly about a movie they’re appearing in, especially during a prerecorded sizzle which kicks off an extended preview of said blockbuster, journalists might assume they’re indulging in a bit of hyperbole. Yet when paired with more than 15 minutes of Dune footage, including the upcoming epic’s opening sequences, that bit of high praise rings surprisingly true.

Presented in breathtaking digital IMAX—as seemingly all of the film’s desert sequences are shot in—our initial brush with Dune’s ambitions is stunning. Arguably not since Lawrence of Arabia have desert landscapes been filmed with such romance and awe-inducing ambition. At a glance, the sci-fi adventure’s opening on sandy vistas echoes Star Wars, yes, but Villeneuve appears to be reaching for something grander and more majestic in his artfulness. Could the film be every bit as sweeping as Frank Herbert’s influential (and allegedly unfilmable) novel, even as it makes tweaks to the source material?

It seems possible. 

Arrakis and the Fremen

Beginning with a crash course in the brutal realpolitik of the planet Arrakis—the lone rock in the known universe to produce a highly coveted narcotic called “spice melange”—the early moments of Dune are not presented from the perspectives of either House Atreides or House Harkonnen (the ostensible good guys and villains of the Dune saga). Rather we view both through the gaze of Arrakis native Chani (Zendaya).

Zendaya narrates the opening scene by saying, “My planet Arrakis is so beautiful when the sun is low. Rolling over the sands, you can see the spice in the air.” She then pauses as darkness descends on the screen. “At nightfall the spice harvesters land.”

Across brutally real sand swept landscapes, we see digital red spice floating in the air. The material is a byproduct of Arrakis’ unique desert ecosystem, and it produces hallucinogenic experiences that extend a user’s lifespan. But as helpfully explained by the Dune movie in the first few minutes, the spice also allows navigators of the Spacing Guild to enter the drug-fueled headspace necessary to “find safe paths between the stars.” Without spice, interstellar travel is impossible. It is therefore the most valuable substance in the galaxy.

Hence the rest of Chani’s narration about the outsiders who bring their clanking metallic machines out at night.

House Harkonnen

“They ravage our lands in front of our eyes,” Zendaya says. “Their cruelty to our people is more than I can stand.” The ravagers in question are in the employ of House Harkonnen, an obscenely rich family situated at the top of an intergalactic feudal system. As filmed by Villeneuve in their hovering dragonfly-like aircraft and in tight fascistic formations when armed for battle and transportation, Harkonnen forces look like brown shirt variations on Stormtroopers in Star Wars. This is of course by design. After all, Herbert’s Dune was a major influence on George Lucas (and just about every space opera written since 1965).

And yet, as framed in the 2021 film, there is something newly subversive about the message. Fans of the novel will note that much of the book is framed from the vantage of Princess Irulan, the daughter of the Padishah Emperor, who many years later is looking back at this story as a significant sea change in the dynamics between the universe’s patrician class. In Dune ’21, however, our narrator is one of the Fremen of the Arrakeen desert, nomads who are stepped on by the elite of every stripe. Hence images of Chani and other Fremen shooting at, and blowing up, Harkonnens’ spice harvesters.

The implications of Arrakis being an allegorical stand-in for the Middle East, and the spice representing the oil that great powers will kill over even in the face of political destabilization, is more pronounced here than even in the novel. As star Timothée Chalamet also said during our presentation, “[Dune] really is a story of civilization. It is about planet Earth and the clash of cultures.”

House Atreides

Perhaps that’s why the soldiers of House Atreides, the heroes of the film, also look faintly like Stormtroopers, both from history and Star Wars. Or as Chani says of them in Dune, “Who will our next oppressors be?”

Much of the rest of the opening is about introducing us to Paul Atreides (Chalamet) and life on his home planet of Caladan, which in Dune appears luscious and green but perpetually damp and overcast—so a little bit like Villeneuve’s native Canada. It’s there we learn Paul is having prophetic dreams about Chani and the Fremen people his father, Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac), has been tasked with ruling over in the Harkonnens’ absence—the Emperor has ordered House Harkonnen to vacate planet Arrakis.

With a visual aesthetic which appears to mirror both western and eastern noble houses on Earth, the Atreides live in splendor on Caladan. Fans of the novel will also be happy to hear a portrait of the past duke and a statue of a certain bull are present. Despite such opulence, teenage Paul is already being trained for leadership, even over the breakfast table by his mother, the Lady Jessica (a superbly aloof Rebecca Ferguson). 

Lady Jessica, the Bene Gesserit, and “The Voice”

The scene is also our first introduction of Lady Jessica’s order the Bene Gesserit. Something of a cross between Jedi and a coven of intergalactic witches, the Bene Gesserit’s powers are made explicit much earlier on screen than on the page, with Jessica urging Paul to practice “the Voice” and command her to give him her water glass.

After several attempts, Paul almost finds the proper Bene Gesserit inflection. For a moment, it sounds like Chalamet’s voice has been stretched into a needle across the audio track—or the noise made by a violin string pulled too tight—and overlaid with Ferguson’s own vocals. Functionally, his command for Jessica to hand him the glass is the same “Jedi Mind Trick” we’ve come to know fondly from countless Star Wars movies, but in Dune it feels more ominous and witchy.

Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto 

If the scene is our introduction to one side of Paul’s family tree, we soon meet the other via Oscar Isaac’s proud Duke Leto. Standing before legions of his black uniformed warriors on another gray day, he along with Paul, Jessica, and aides Gurney Halleck (Josh Brolin) and Thufir Hawat (Stephen McKinley Henderson) await the arrival of a royal imperium ship, which travels all the way to Caladan to seal a foregone formality: House Atreides will take over control of spice production on Arrakis from the shady House Harkonnen.

“We are House Atreides,” Isaac roars. “There is no call we do not answer, there is no faith that we betray! The Emperor asks us to bring peace to Arrakis! House Atreides accepts!”  His men then chant the “Atreides!” name like it’s their religion. The sequence is somber but strangely grand in its bleakness and sense of dutiful resignation by the Duke.

Hans Zimmer and the Music of Dune

As the music swells, an unsettling alien-sounding affectation emerges in the score. Hans Zimmer, who also participated in our Dune preview, similarly hinted at the otherworldly music he’s conjured here.

“I don’t really want to call Dune a science fiction movie,” Zimmer said, “but nonetheless whenever I saw a movie about empires far, far away, other planets, et cetera, I always heard trumpets and french horns, and cellos playing. And I’m thinking, ‘Wow, they’re all these amazing civilizations in different galaxies in different times, and they have the same instruments as we do.’ So I thought it’d be interesting to go and invent our own instruments.”

With sounds that appear to meld the buzzing synths of electronic-sounding harmonicas and the vocal wails of traditional Middle Eastern music, Dune sounds decidedly unlike other Hollywood sci-fi spectacles.

The Sandworm

… And it again somehow looks original, too. This is confirmed by every moment we’ve seen of Dune set in the deep desert, including one of the major scenes from the movie’s first act. It’s already been teased in trailers: The moment where Paul and Leto first lay eyes on one of the massive sandworms that prowl Arrakis’ deserts.

In the scene, Leto and Paul are taking their first survey of the deep desert, alongside Freman leader Dr. Kynes (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). To many it appears like a wasteland, yet for Paul it looks strangely inviting.

It’s Leto who first spots the sandworm from their aircraft. They’re flying above a newly Atreides-acquired spice harvester, which is now a sitting duck for the enormous worm. So Leto makes the courageous call to try and rescue the entire crew of spice harvesters by rushing them onto his own aircrafts.

Yet as Paul exits the back of the ship to help lead spice harvesters out of harm’s way, his feet touch sand for the first time and his nostrils finally inhale spice. Suddenly, he’s lost in reveries. Again he dreams of Chani and a future among the dunes. But as he falls to his knees the worm grows ever closer, with its mouth appearing to be miles in diameter as it closes around the very land the Atreides aircraft and harvester are resting on. If you’ve seen the first trailer, you know how this impressive sequence ends.

But as experienced on an IMAX screen, it appears much like the sandworm itself: gargantuan, godlike, and, yes, like a piece of cinema that in spite of its familiar source material seems removed from anything we’ve ever seen at a movie theater. Whether or not Dune ultimately handles the weight of its sizable ambitions, one thing is already certain: this isn’t a spectacle to be experienced from your couch.

Dune opens in theaters and on HBO Max on Oct. 22.

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