Film tips

Sep 13, 2024 • 5 min read

Watching weird indie horror movies at home on Tubi can be a bunch of fun. So can going to the local multiplex to see the latest scary Hollywood blockbuster with other shrieking fans.

Watching weird indie horror movies at home on Tubi can be a bunch of fun. So can going to the local multiplex to see the latest scary Hollywood blockbuster with other shrieking fans.

Sep 30, 2024 • 3 min read

Sep 30, 2024 • 4 min read

Thailand is a perennial favorite for its tropical islands, mountainous north, and ornate pagodas. These startling landscapes are quite literally back in the limelight since Bangkok, Phuket, and Koh Samui have been confirmed as the filming locations for the third season of HBO’s White Lotus, tipping Thailand as the hottest destination for 2025. If past plots are anything to go by, you might feel more comfortable vacationing away from the hotels. These showstopping Airbnbs in Thailand are free from drama and high in red-carpet luxury.

Sep 24, 2024 • 6 min read

Few films drive home travel’s ability to help us understand one another as poignantly as Will & Harper. When Will Ferrell’s longtime friend and Saturday Night Live collaborator Harper Steele comes out as a trans woman, the two set off on a road trip from New York to Los Angeles to better understand her transition and, in turn, their friendship. “I love this country so much,” Harper says. “I just don’t know if it loves me back right now.” Over 17 days, a three-vehicle crew followed the pair and, with mounts on Harper’s Jeep and car-to-car shooting, captured 240 hours of footage. Here, director Josh Greenbaum reflects on the places that moved him and on navigating the country in a new light.

Sep 9, 2024 • 5 min read

"The Perfect Couple," Netflix's new murder-mystery drama starring Nicole Kidman, transports viewers to the truly picturesque island of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

After Tim Burton’s whimsical horror film Beetlejuice premiered in 1988, fans made many pilgrimages to the quiet Vermont town of East Corinth, which stood in as the fictional setting of Winter River. It was only fitting that the small town, which has a population of less than 1,500, got to reprise its role in the long-awaited sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, alongside Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder.

I will be the first to admit I am a huge chicken. When I watch horror movies, I do so at home with my hands partially covering my eyes. Yet somehow, I spent last weekend screaming my head off in 10 frightfully fun haunted houses at Universal Orlando's annual Halloween Horror Nights event.

One of the original Las Vegas casinos is about to take its final bow.  The Tropicana, which first opened in 1957, will be imploded on Oct. 9.

Koji, the mold that transforms soy beans and wheat into soy sauce and rice into sake, is so beloved in Japan that it has its own holiday. And lately, chefs have been finding new uses for the fungus, which has a fruity aroma and an ability to make “anything it touches better,” says Jeremy Umansky, 41, the owner of Larder deli in Cleveland. He uses koji for almost everything: to cure pastrami; to ferment Chinese-style black beans, which are ground and swirled into chocolate babka to embolden the chocolate; and to sprinkle over salads and fries in the form of what the restaurant calls Special K, a seasoning of dried ground koji. “It’s a harmonizer,” he says. Bartenders, too, are taking note. At Nancy’s Hustle in Houston, the bar manager, Zach Hornberger, 32, adds it to the nonalcoholic Silver Brining cocktail, a sweet-sour-salty mix of pickle brine, grapefruit and lime juices, koji and tonic. “It brings this umami background to beverages, and it plays well with citrus, taming the high acid notes and rounding the drink as a whole,” he says. At the restaurant Fête in Honolulu, the bar manager, Fabrice McCarthy, 41, infuses rum with shio koji (a slurry of koji, water and salt) and shakes it into a mai tai to add salinity — the effect, he says, is similar to how salted peanuts make you want to drink more beer. Ryan Chetiyawardana, 40, the owner of the bar Lyaness in London, experiments with koji in multiple forms — for one cocktail, he ferments parsnips with koji, which he says unlocks the sweetness and delivers “a huge tropical brightness.” While koji often plays a supporting role, at Paradiso in Barcelona, it wraps around the entire lip of the glass used for the Fleming, named for Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin, another influential mold. For this fungus-inspired cocktail, which includes grapefruit, tequila and miso, the manager of Paradiso’s research lab, Matteo Ciarpaglini, 30, one-upped a classic salt rim with a fluffy cloud of koji, its floral fragrance accompanying every taste. —

Beloved travel writer and TV personality Rick Steves revealed he’s been diagnosed with prostate cancer and will take a break from filming his travel show.

It's been four years since Disney first announced Splash Mountain would close at Disneyland and Walt Disney World to remove the culturally insensitive theming and make way for a new, more modern, more inclusive story.

Would you take a free trip to Epstein island? It’s a question that Zoë Kravitz’s debut film asks and also answers: perhaps yes, if you need a vacation badly enough. But you’ll also sorely regret it. The film follows down-on-her-luck cater waiter Frida (Naomi Ackie) who, after using her credentials to sneak into the gala at which she’s meant to be pouring Champagne, meets-cute with tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum, with a name more evocative of Elon Musk—consider him a conglomerate). King is re-assimilating to society following a narrowly-skirted cancellation for vaguely defined and sexually suspicious maybe-crimes. By the end of the night, she and her friend (always bring a buddy!) have been whisked aboard a private jet replete with halfway-handsome bachelors and a few other beautiful ladies, bound for King’s private island that, presumably, sits somewhere in the Caribbean.

“I was in Suva, the capital of Fiji, making a film, and our crew took over half of the Grand Pacific Hotel. One day after work, I came back and the pool was full of maybe 40 of the most beautiful men I had ever seen, flapping around in the water. I was like, ‘Who—what is happening?’ It turned out they were the Flying Fijians, the national rugby team, there for the World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup. It was just our film crew and their team sharing this hotel, so we became friends—always seeing each other in the hallways, hanging out by the pool with a boom box, playing cards, and drinking lots of beer. It was like I had a bunch of new cousins. I asked them to show me around Suva, and we went to many rugby games, but I'll never forget the intensity of the first time I saw the Flying Fijians play: I was jumping, shrieking, putting my hands over my eyes, and squeezing the arms of the people beside me. Compared to football, which is so start-and-stop, rugby has this constant movement and rhythm. The stands were full, and I could feel the hope for a win and the dread of a loss so palpably; in Suva, whether it's a good or a bad day depends on how their team played the night before. I could smell all this Fijian food, like rourou and whatever they were cooking in the lovo, wafting through the stadium, but I couldn't even eat. I was too nervous for the players. At each end of the stadium, hundreds of kids were peering through the gates, all wearing the white jersey of their favorite player. People who couldn't get tickets sat on a hillside picnicking and trying to get a glimpse of the game. It felt so important to everyone. Most of the people in the stadium were related in some way to a player because it's such a small island, so there's this familial pressure, like, ‘You'd better bring this trophy home, son, or we are going to have a problem tonight at the dinner table.’ They did win, in the end, and it was electrifying.”

Emily is still in Paris. In the first half of Emily in Paris season four, the intrepid PR executive continues her march through the City of Light’s cobblestone streets like a Energizer bunny ensconced in clashing patterns. She just can’t help herself. As in season three, Emily and her merry band of cosmopolitans take their antics to places new as well as old, both in and out of Paris—Claude Monet’s home an hour outside the city in Giverny is one, three Michelin-starred haute restaurant L'Ambroisie another.

Rachael Lillis, the original voice performer behind Pokémon characters Jessie and Misty, has died aged 46 after a battle with breast cancer.

It may not be a small world after all.