After a near-record-breaking more-than-one seasons on Disney Plus, Loki very much seems to be over. 3u3c4l

It was a good run. We had some laughs along the way. Distracted by a comic book hero trapped in a Wes Anderson-inspired sci-fi bureaucracy, fans were constantly sideswiped by feelings-charged storytelling, culminating in a finale that totalled our collective emotional Chrysler LeBaron. Against all odds, in a cinematic universe built as a narrative pyramid scheme in which every story has to set up three spin offs before the end of its runtime, Loki simply ends: Quiet, redemptive, with the grace and elegance to make you believe that this was always what this story was building to, even the parts in Thor: The Dark World.

But denouement isn’t a phenomenon to which MCU fans have been acclimatized. If you finished Loki and need a chaser, there are plenty of options. You could read Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology and learn about how Loki’s self-sacrificial relegation to the cosmic tree league mirrors the actions of Odin. If you feel like you’re going to miss Loki too much, you could watch a video of a horse giving birth — the mythological Loki gave birth to a horse, and nothing will help you get work through the character’s absence more than having a good idea of what that would have looked like. 

Or you could check out one of the following three options, any of which would pair nicely with the Loki finale “Glorious Purpose.” 

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Between walking against cosmic forces hellbent on changing his outfit, and the decision to sacrifice himself and become a space tree, Loki’s final moments didn’t just inspire tears. They also made a specific, insufferable group of movie fans mutter “Hugh Jackman did that in 2006.”

The Fountain was a wild movie. Made by Darren Aronofsky back before people got serious about handing him lots of money, it was a project built on enthusiasm and creativity. Viewers spend a lot of time getting uncomfortably close to Rachel Weisz’s face, and looking at the inside of a baboon’s head. It wasn’t for everyone. Some people loved it.

And it feels like a good bet that the people behind Loki were among that number. Told out of order across a thousand years, The Fountain tells the story of a man coming to with self sacrifice as a means of creation. Like “Glorious Purpose” and its bizarre, visually poetic choice to let its hero grab time itself in his hands, it abandons logic in favor of story, leaving the literal interpretation of events up to the viewer. Importantly, it also concluded with a man floating in space, becoming a tree in order to preserve existence. Bonus points: Clint Mansell’s haunting, cello-heavy The Fountain score pairs like fine popcorn and exquisite lager with Natalie Holt’s unreal, stunningly beautiful string compositions for Loki.

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This one is cheating. There’s no wrong reason to watch Groundhog Day. It’s the time loop movie so ubiquitous that you can’t talk about time loops without bringing it up. 

And there’s a good reason for that. Sure, other shows and movies like 12:01 and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time had used the idea of a sisyphean trudge through an endlessly repeating day before, but the Bill Murray comedy knocked the genre out of the park, somehow managing to balance wacky hijinks and suicidal depression without ever seeming muddled. Like Loki, it doesn’t bother with exact labels — a “Centuries Later” title card would have fit pretty naturally in the movie — and sees its hero excelling not through excellence, but through hard work, resilience, and untold years of exhausting loneliness. 

Any YouTube video about kintsugi 3t154p

You probably know about this already. There’s this artform in Japan that over-the-top, metaphor-addicted screenwriters really like to talk about in their award-eligible scripts: kintsugi. You’ll get why they like it in a second.

It’s the process of taking a broken ceramic object and piecing it back together, using tiny amounts of gold to hold the cracked pieces in place. The result is striking, and it makes for great narrative shorthand for the beauty of redemption: Something was trash. Now look how it shines.

It’s also pretty inescapably the inspiration behind a couple of designs in Loki — He Who Remains’ handheld time device, but more importantly, Loki’s crown in the final moments of the series. Charcoal gray with cracks running through it, it seems held together by veins of gold. It’s like the timeline, and like Loki himself: Shattered, worthless, until it’s put back together as something more beautiful.

Mark Margolis was an instantly recognizable presence onscreen. He’s best known for his role as Hector Salamanca on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, but Margolis – who died on Friday at age 83 – had been stealing the show from his more famous co-stars since the 1970s. He was a consistently engaging figure, and his versatility led to him being perfect in both comedies and gritty dramas.

Margolis was never a household name, but rather a household face. He was recognizable, even if you didn’t know his name (a definitive “that guy”). Given his proximity to classic films and TV shows, however, there are several fans who may be curious about Margolis’ net worth, and how much he was worth at the time of his death.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Margolis had a net worth of $2.5 million. Given that he didn’t partake in ments or endorsements, it’s safe to assume that most of his money came from his acting roles. Margolis got his start in the most prestigious way imaginable. He studied under Stella Adler at the Actors Studio, and was later trained by Lee Strasberg, which is another way of saying he had the two most revered acting teachers of all-time before he turned 20. 

He made his screen debut in Going in Style (1978), but it was his appearance in Scarface (1983) that brought him to the attention of moviegoers worldwide. Margolis played Alberto the Shadow, a Colombian hitman who runs afoul of the titular gangster, which began a long trend of roles in which he played ethnicities other than his own. Margolis continued to land ing roles in notable films like The Bedroom Window (1987), Glory (1989) and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), but it was a ing turn in the low-budget thriller Pi (1998) that proved to be a career-changer. 

Pi was the directorial debut of Darren Aronofsky, who would go on to cast Margolis in several more films, including Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Fountain (2006), The Wrestler (2008) and Black Swan (2010). The latter two were box office successes that were nominated for multiple Oscars. 

Margolis joked about his working relationship with Aronofsky during a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I started with him on his first movie, the $60,000 Pi, when he was unknown,” he explained. “I chased him for three months because he kept lying to me about when I’d get my money. I finally threatened to call his mother, who was craft services on the film. Then he finally paid me.”

Margolis dabbled in television throughout the 1990s, but it wasn’t until he was cast on Breaking Bad that he landed his signature role. As Hector Salamanca, the leader of a Mexican cartel, he drew universal praise from fans and a Primetime Emmy nomination for Best Actor in a ing Role, before reprising his role in the acclaimed prequel series, Better Call Saul.

Several of Margolis’ former collaborators, including Aronofsky and Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston, have released statements praising the late actor. “Mark Margolis was a really good actor and a lovely human being,” Cranston wrote on Instagram. “Fun and engaging off the set, and intimidating and frightening on set. His quiet energy belied his mischievous nature and curious mind… I miss him already.”

How you doing this Saturday, Star Wars fans? Enjoying the first-ever entry in the franchise to come from Studio Ghibli that just started streaming today? Yes, while Disney Plus drops a fun new addition to the saga — starring Grogu, no less — those with long memories are recalling the TV series that Lucasfilm seemingly wants us to forget about. Elsewhere in the galaxy, theorists are pondering whether Din Djarin could best a Jedi in a lightsaber fight.

Wait, whatever happened to this Star Wars streaming series? 5922d

We have plenty of highly anticipated Star Wars shows coming to Disney Plus in 2023, but one that’s been in the works for years now seems to have gotten lost in the franchise’s outer rims. As Redditors have realized, we haven’t heard a peep about that Lando Calrissian spinoff show for ages now. With both Billy Dee Williams and Donald Glover believed to be reprising their roles, this sounds like it could’ve been a fun project, especially as we’re still waiting on more from the Solo side of the saga.

Could Din Djarin and his Darksaber beat a Jedi in a duel? 1x2a47

Everyone knows the Mandalorian is the king of the Star Wars universe these days, having almost singlehandedly relaunched it after The Rise of Skywalker, but is Pedro Pascal’s space daddy really badass enough to beat a Jedi in a duel? That’s the big question that the fans have been debating today. Sure, Djarin is the current wielder of the fabled Darksaber, one of the most legendary sabers in history, but would he be as skilled with it as a formally trained Jedi Knight? Discuss.

A 2022 Netflix hit you’ve already forgotten about earns itself a reappraisal 4b313j

Netflix churns out so many original genre films every year that it’s hard to them even just a few months after their release. That’s the case with Black Crab, the Swedish action thriller starring Noomi Rapace that landed on streaming back in March. It slid into Top Ten lists everywhere at the time, but pretty much the entire internet had forgotten its existence until a subset of subscribers defended the post-apocalyptic flick, arguing that it deserved to make more of an impression.

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X-Men icon Hugh Jackman and The Mummy vet Rachel Weisz are two stars who’ve made many a people-pleasing hit in their careers, but the Darren Aronofsky-directed The Fountain is not one of them. Nevertheless, this high-concept epic romance film from 2006, which sees the duo play lovers who keep encountering each other in different incarnations throughout history, is finding new love on streaming right now as it hitches up the charts on Disney Plus.

Return tomorrow, folks, for another fountain of the latest sci-fi news around.

Interest in Netflix’s live-action Witcher universe is declining by the hour as more fans come to with the truth that there might be no return for Henry Cavill’s Geralt of Rivia, but the streaming mogul is still determined to see this venture through. The latest spinoff to come off Andrzej Sapkowski’s work is Blood Origin, which will deal with the creation of the first Witcher and the cataclysmic event known as the Conjunction of the Spheres that shook the very foundations of the Continent and forever changed its destiny.

As the company prepares for the launch of the four-part limited show, which was originally supposed to include six episodes —and that alone should tell you volumes about the kind of mismanagement that might be going on behind the curtains— the petition to bring back Cavill and fire the creative team es 200,000 signatures.

An unlikely and all but forgotten surreal fantasy flick finds enlightenment on streaming lb2r

Death is the road to awe, or so experimental filmmaker Darren Aronofsky would have you believe in his 2006 cult classic, The Fountain. The movie that was originally supposed to be made with a $70 million budget and star Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in this love story across time and space, but Aronofsky ultimately had to make do with half of that and cast Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz in the lead roles. The Fountain may be a half-realized vision, but the movie has nevertheless turned into a cult classic over the years and is now finding new life in streaming.

The Witcher: Blood Origin is a prequel that’s… kind of exciting? 471n

Netflix wants to ride on the Witcher hype train for as long as possible, and through any means necessary. While the main show has had its ups and downs, and its future is now in an ambiguous state following Henry Cavill’s departure, Lauren S. Hissrich is still overseeing a number of different side projects, and the latest of them is coming out in a little over a month. Blood Origin will depict the story of the Continent more than a thousand years before Geralt’s time.

More specifically, the limited show will depict the creation of the first Witcher and the downfall of the Elven kingdoms of Aen Seidhe, and the latest trailer heralding its imminent arrival teases a lot of blood-pumping action.

Petition to bring back Henry Cavill to The Witcher is gaining more traction every day 64344o

It’s strange to think that Henry Cavill is the one who has decided to leave Geralt hanging, and yet, no one in the community —literally not a single person— is blaming him for what’s happening to their favorite fantasy adaptation. It seems that the majority of the fans recognize the writers, or at least parts of the creative team, as the true delinquents in this conundrum, and you needn’t look any further to see their rage manifested than the petition to have Netflix remove them and reinstate Henry Cavill. The appeal has now ed 200,000 signatures and is well on its way to hit another goalpost.

Will it be enough to get Netflix’s attention, though? And will they do something about it? I guess that’s a question that only time will answer, provided that we have the right of the matter in the first place.

Having broken through to the mainstream and established himself as a fast-rising talent well worth keeping an eye on through his second feature Requiem for a Dream, expectations were high for Darren Aronofsky’s follow-up The Fountain, but things didn’t get off to a great start when the studio pulled the plug due to budget overruns.

Originally set to star Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, Warner Bros. balked at the projected $70 million price tag, an exorbitant amount for an existential sci-fi fantasy packed with symbolism and subtext. Seven weeks before the start of shooting, Pitt dropped out, and after Russell Crowe turned down the chance to step in, The Fountain was placed on ice.

Two years later, and with the production costs halved to $35 million, Aronofsky finally called action with Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz in the lead roles, only to find box office disaster waiting on the other side. The Fountain earned a meager $16 million from theaters, while reactions were split on the filmmaker’s ambitious, unwieldy, ponderous, and pretentious epic.

In a surprising turn of events, though, the R-rated romantic drama that spans centuries has become one of the biggest hits on Disney Plus this weekend. Per FlixPatrol, The Fountain is the 21st top-viewed title out of every feature available on the Mouse House’s platform, something we definitely didn’t see coming.

It has at least gained a cult following in the 16 years since its initial arrival to a largely bewildered reception, but labeling it as a misunderstood masterpiece may be a step too far even for The Fountain‘s hardiest band of fanatics, but it isn’t entirely without merit.

When you watch a lot of movies, every once in a while you’ll come across one that baffles you, and the range of reactions to this encounter are pretty fascinating. These types of movies aren’t simply the mindtrip types of movies like Inception or Memento that are labyrinthine in of their plot progression but are fairly clear by the end in what they’re about. Truly confusing movies, the type where you’re left wondering what the hell you just watched and what the point of it even being made could have been, can create responses anywhere from anger and resentment towards seemingly pretentious filmmakers to delight in the abstract, personal meaning a viewer can derive from something deliberately vague or opaque. I watched Upstream Color recently. It’s the new film from director and indie hero Shane Carruth who is known for his 2004 microbudget science fiction film Primer. Upstream Color played at this past Sundance Film Festival and was met with almost universal praise from the critics who reviewed it. What was also universal was the confusion surrounding what had happened in the movie, what it was supposed to mean, what it was all about, and this was largely considered a positive. When I watched it, I felt like a moron, but I also kind of liked it the way other people did even if it made me like myself less. I envied and resented Shane Carruth. I went through a range of emotions that one tends to feel any time some heralded piece of art is put before them. It was annoying and exciting. So I thought I’d consider other movies that have had a similar effect on audiences. Here are 11 confusing movies that are sure to stupefy and bewilder the best of us.

Like Wolverine, Hugh Jackman is himself a bit of a strange animal. At times it seems like he’s been fashioned in a laboratory, designed by engineers looking to make the most perfect modern-day star performer possible. He sings, dances, acts, is funny and presumably a nice guy. Oh, and he can also can kick ass. He’s routinely tremendous in pretty much everything he does these days. It’s as if he’s so seemingly perfect that part of us want to see him really mess something up to reassure ourselves that he is human and fallible like the rest of us. He’s almost so perfect that it’s boring. You know? The person who does everything right can get dull. With the exception of work in the likes of Movie 43 and Real Steel, minor, forgettable pieces of work in which he was certainly not the reason they weren’t great, Jackman is the type of actor who clearly puts a ton of work into his characters but not quite so much that it looks like he’s working really hard when he’s playing them. He balances this work out with what seems like a natural charisma and showmanship that results in the type of magnetism that separates star actors from character actors. It’s why he initially stole the show in X-Men from the first time we encountered him as Wolverine, to the point where he has spawned two solo movies including the newly released The Wolverine. Looking at his filmography, it also feels as though he’s just beginning to get going when it comes to movies. Here are the 5 of the best roles Hugh Jackman has inhabited on screen for us so far. Continue reading on the next page…

After the critical and financial success of his previous film, Black Swan, writer/director Darren Aronofsky is in quite a good position to choose what his next project will be. After departing from The Wolverine, people have been wondering what he could possibly want to do instead. Well, it turns out that both Disney and Warner Bros. would like to get him involved with films of theirs. Disney would like him to direct Maleficent, a film that would tell the story of Sleeping Beauty from the villain’s point of view. Linda Woolverton (Alice in Wonderland) has been hired to write it while Angelina Jolie apparently has an interest in the lead. Tim Burton was originally supposed to direct, but ended up leaving the project. On the other hand, Warner Bros. has asked him to helm a film based on the story of Moses. Not much is known about the film other than that it would focus on the Exodus (the movement of the Jews out of Egypt). Either of these projects could end up being something special with this Oscar-nominated director in charge. He’s already done amazing work with films like Requiem for a Dream and his underrated masterpiece, The Fountain, so it’ll be very interesting to see which film he chooses to do next, whether it’s one of these or something else entirely. One thing’s for sure, Aronofsky is a director who’s not afraid to take risks, so chances are the next project he chooses will be something fascinating yet again. (Source: The Film Stage)