Season two of SundanceTV’sTrue Crime Story: Smugshot will premiere on August 14, 2025 at 10pm ET/PT. The second season kicks off with an episode that follows the strange story of the abduction of a young couple who went missing after a romantic picnic.
The true crime docuseries was created by documentary filmmakers Amy Bandlien Storkel and Bryan Storkel (The Pez Outlaw, Bitconned, The Legend of Cocaine Island) who serve as executive producers. Amy Bandlien Storkel, Bryan Storkel, Rebecca Stern, Jonathan Ignatius Green, and Donnie Eichar direct the six-episode season. Producers include Karen Bowlin, David Ricksecker, Sam Findlay, and Justin Levy.
A scene from SundanceTV’s ‘Smugshot’ season 2
“In True Crime Story: Smugshot, the crimes range from petty to devastating, but the series of events surrounding the crime are always surprising. Whether in pursuit of revenge or riches, status or glory, freedom or fame, each of these lawbreakers clings to their entitlement in spite of having more to lose than to gain,” reads SundanceTV’s synopsis. “At times quirky and funny, at others outrageous or disturbing, these are the stories of people who thought they could, or should, get away with it.”
Season two’s episodes include a deep dive into the theft of a priceless Salvador Dali from Rikers Island and the twisted relationship between a young couple and a retired doctor in Malibu that led to a fight over the doctor’s fortune. The new season also devotes an episode to the strange story of Anthony Cursio’s daring armored car robbery and escape in an inner tube.
New season two episodes air on Thursdays at 10pm ET/PT.
Nathan Olsen in ‘Alone’ season 12 (Photo Credit: The History Channel)
There are only five participants remaining after The History Channel’s Alone season 12 episode five, with one tapping out and one passing out as the episode ends. The six still in the competition as episode five begins are all featured, although Baha’s only seen briefly battling the rain.
South Africa’s Great Karoo Desert is one of the most inhospitable settings for a season of Alone, and an unexpected rainstorm finds the survivalists battling the elements and struggling with their shelters. The following recap is filled with spoilers, so read on only after viewing the episode.
Nathan Olsen: Age 52, Buhl, Idaho
Day 9, 11:31am – It’s 67 degrees and Nathan’s happy his figure-four deadfall worked. He was hoping for a mouse but caught an elephant shrew. Nathan believes it’ll be good catfish bait. He’s not worried about his shelter yet because it doesn’t normally rain during this time of year.
After casting his shrew, Nathan takes a bath with his bar of soap. (It’s one of his 10 items.) A butterfly lands next to him as he dries off in the sun.
4:06pm – Nathan pulls in a catfish worth about 3,200 calories. He’s learned catfish won’t eat another catfish, so bait like the shrew is the way to go.
Day 12, afternoon – It’s cold and windy as Nathan finds warthog signs while digging wild tulips. The sky looks ominous, and Nathan is surprised that it might rain soon.
Kelsey Loper in ‘Alone’ season 12 (Photo Credit: The History Channel)
Kelsey Loper: Age 35, Winnett, Montana
Day 10, 10:29am – Kelsey makes a ponytail holder using material from her bow wrist guard and then heads out fishing. She’s got warthog jerky but knows she needs to fish to get some fat. She’s got about five or six days left of jerky, and even if she doesn’t eat after that, she can make it to day 30. Fishing is one of Kelsey’s strengths; she grew up on a lake and has fished in Costa Rica and Alaska.
Kelsey pulls in a smallmouth yellowfish, and The History Channel confirms it’s one of Africa’s strongest fighting fish.
2:52pm – It’s a small fish, so Kelsey cooks all of it, happy to have omega-3 fatty acids added to her diet.
3:38pm – Kelsey notes the clouds are moving by fast, but she doesn’t think it’s going to rain. Her camp is in a dry riverbed, but she’s not worried.
7:41pm – She eats her delicious fish with a utensil she carved out of bluebush. Her confidence is boosted, and she thinks her boyfriend wouldn’t be surprised she’s thriving.
Day 12, 9:36am – Kelsey starts work on a bench so she can watch ducks. She admits it’s hard mentally to just sit at camp all day. This is busy work to keep her mind off things, noting that Alone is 80% mental, 20% skill. The dark clouds are moving in, and she hopes it doesn’t rain.
Day 13, 1:21am – All of her stuff is soaking wet due to a heavy rainstorm sweeping through the area. The dry riverbed is now a real river, and she’s not sure what to do. She needs to hold out through the night, but the ground is saturated. Even with a fire, it will take forever to dry out. Her duck bench is going to be used to hang clothes and bedding out to dry.
8:22am – Kelsey admits she wasn’t worried about being in a dry riverbed until they just received three inches of rain. (THC says the area usually gets .4 inches per month.) The water rushed down to her since the land couldn’t absorb it. Fire’s not an option. She moved her shelter onto the bank during the storm, and now she gets to work setting up a quick, permanent shelter.
Day 14, 7:29am – Kelsey reports it rained all night and it’s still drizzling. It’s 41 degrees and she can’t believe this is supposed to be the dry season.
Douglas Meyer in ‘Alone’ season 12 (Photo Credit: The History Channel)
Douglas Meyer: Age 57, Kannapolis, NC
Day 11, 12:17pm – Douglas made a lure out of threads from his shemagh and cuts a groove around his pole, so his string won’t slip. Fishing makes him think of his dad, his fishing partner and role model. They discovered his dad has cancer just a month before Alone started. And if he wins, he can devote more time to his dad.
Douglas is tired and has only consumed wild mint tea and his pemmican rations. He’s down 14 pounds since day one. He’s unable to catch any fish and heads back to camp.
3:53pm – It’s turned cold, and you can see Douglas’ breath. A front’s moving in, but Douglas still doesn’t expect rain. He hopes that he can start catching food every day to help his mental and physical well-being. Douglas jokes that at 57 he’s “too old for this sh*t.”
Day 12, 4:38pm – Douglas is bundled up in his shelter and at first, he thinks it’s sprinkling, but it turns out to be ice.
Day 14, 9:18am – Everything’s wet and he hasn’t had a fire in 18 hours. He can’t find any dry tinder and doesn’t think the storm’s moving on yet. Douglas has been thinking about his father and is worried about what’s happening while he’s on Alone. He thinks maybe the storm is a sign that he should leave and head home.
Douglas is the fifth person to tap out. The last three days have been rough, and he’s looking forward to seeing his wife, dogs, family, and his dad. Leaving now means he’ll get to spend Father’s Day with his dad.
Africa is beautiful, but Douglas knows he needs to do the smart thing. He only found out about his dad’s illness a week before he arrived in Africa. Douglas is proud of what he did on Alone and will head home happy with the experience. He did the best he could and feels the experience was an expression of gratitude for his dad.
Sadly, The History Channel says Douglas’ father passed away before he made it home. The episode is dedicated to his memory.
Baha Mahmutov: Age 50, Wharncliff, Ontario, Canada
Day 12, 7:02pm – His tarp isn’t waterproof and he’s getting soaked on one side.
Katie Rydge in ‘Alone’ season 12 (Photo Credit: The History Channel)
Katie Rydge: Age 45, Emerald Beach, AUS
Day 12, nighttime – She holds her shelter down as the rain pours in.
Day 13, 12:54pm – Everything’s wet and she explains that the lightning and thunder were right on top of her. She’s motivated to work on her shelter and thinks after this clears out, the temperature will go down. Katie’s going to weave saplings around the frame of her shelter and heads out to collect more sticks. Everything’s on pause now because she needs to work on her shelter. Tonight’s meal will be vegetarian again. She’s only eaten one fish and plants since day one.
Katie loves weaving and found a website showing an Aboriginal woman weaving pandanus leaves. She called her and got “adopted” into an amazing family of female weavers. Katie hopes every woman who weaves will appreciate her shelter.
Dug North in ‘Alone’ season 12 (Photo Credit: The History Channel)
Dug North: Age 53, Nashua, NH
Day 11, 8:37am – Dug points out that the gum from acacia trees is used as adhesive on the back of postage stamps. He heads out to fish and looks for bait under rocks. THC reminds us that poisonous snakes live under these rocks. The clouds are moving in which might cause the fish to be more active. His bed is currently on the ground because he’s not worried about rain right now. After he gets more calories, he’ll work on a better shelter. He spots a yellow scorpion (a rough thicktail) and explains it’s very poisonous and would cause him to tap out.
Dug grabs his shovel and finds a fat grub to use as bait. He tosses out his line and confirms he can see fish in the water. However, they’re not biting so he moves to a new location. A short while later, he catches a small catfish and thinks the tables have turned.
Day 12, 11:44pm – The rainstorm is getting more intense. He’s shocked and says, “Dry season, my a**!”
Day 14, 10:41am – Dug says his catfish dinner from the previous evening seems fine in his stomach. The air is damp, and the wind makes it feel cold. He describes it as a radical change from day one.
Dug knows he must think about a permanent shelter since the rain has been so persistent. Being wet at night is dangerous, so he needs a roof and a place to get warm. He sets up a ring of stones for a water purification fire. Dug is feeling good about his chances of staying for a long time since he’s got good plants and fish that are biting.
He’s decided on a dome for his shelter, which is set up in an area with large rocks for the foundation. It’s further from the water than his temporary shelter. He accidentally spills his water and then describes his daily plans as shelter building, boiling water, and then fishing in the afternoon. As he’s working, it starts to lightly rain again.
Alone season 12 episode five ends with Dug saying he’s tired and then collapsing while showing us around his new shelter area.
Chris Hemsworth (the Thor franchise) continues his quest to live a healthier life in season two of National Geographic’s Limitless with Chris Hemsworth, Limitless: Live Better Now. In the first season, Hemsworth explored how to reduce stress, eat healthier, build muscles the right way, and improve his memory.
Season two finds the popular actor on stage with Ed Sheeran and climbing a 600-foot dam as he finds new ways to, as the season two title suggests, live better. The three-episode series premieres on August 15, 2025 on Disney+ and Hulu, and on August 25 on National Geographic.
“Making this series has been a life-changing journey. I’ve discovered so much about my own health, resilience, and what it really means to live well,” said Chris Hemsworth. “I hope this next chapter inspires audiences to step outside their comfort zones and embrace challenges, because the impact it’s had on my life has been truly profound.”
The series was created by Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel of Protozoa, and is produced by Protozoa, Nutopia, and Wild State for National Geographic. Executive producers include Hemsworth, Aronofsky, Handel, Tom Watt-Smith, Peter Lovering, Arif Nurmohamed, Jane Root, Ben Grayson, Brandon Hill, Bengt Anderson, and Simon Raikes.
Poster for National Geographic’s ‘Limitless: Live Better Now’ with Chris Hemsworth
LIMITLESS: LIVE BETTER NOW EPISODES
“BRAIN POWER”
Inspired by the benefits of learning a new skill, which aids memory and cognitive function, Chris Hemsworth takes up drumming. When he is invited to join Ed Sheeran onstage at a stadium concert, Chris has just months to master the instrument and conquer his nerves to perform in front of 70,000 fans. It’s a challenge that pushes him beyond his limits.
“RISK”
Chris Hemsworth pushes his limits by attempting to climb a 600-foot Alpine dam in the Swiss Alps. Inspired by his children’s carefree risk-taking, Chris learns from experts how exposure therapy and Flow — a state of hyperfocus — can improve mental and physical health, showing how taking risks as adults can lead to a happier, healthier life.
“PAIN”
Chris Hemsworth sets out to confront his chronic pain in a bold, immersive journey through South Korea. Guided by pain expert Dr. BJ Miller, he explores ancient healing traditions and cutting-edge science. Chris faces “pain valley” in the final test, a brutal gauntlet of Special Forces trials that will push him to his limits.
Limitless: Live Better Now Synopsis – “Filmed across six countries over two years, Chris tests his limits by drawing from cutting-edge science and the wisdom of elders to push himself like never before. With no previous experience, he learns to play the drums for a live performance with GRAMMY Award-winner Ed Sheeran in front of 70,000 fans; scales a dizzying 600-foot climbing wall in the Swiss Alps to break out of his comfort zone and embrace risk; and takes part in South Korean Special Forces training, enduring electrocution and pepper spray to confront his long struggle with chronic pain and reconfigure his response to it — all to uncover tools we can use today to live healthier, happier lives.”
Poster for DreamWorks Animation’s ‘The Bad Guys 2’
Looking for something to do while in San Diego for the 2025 SD Comic-Con? DreamWorks Animation is hosting an advance screening of the animated sequel The Bad Guys 2, and we’ve got a limited number passes to share.
The screening will take place on Saturday, July 26 at 5pm at AMC Mission Valley. Tickets (and seating) are available on a first-come, first-served basis. To secure your pass, visit https://gofobo.com/BadBiz(password: BadBiz)
“Everyone’s favorite felons are back, and this time, they’ve got company,” reads DreamWorks Animation’s synopsis. “In the new action-packed chapter from DreamWorks Animation’s acclaimed comedy smash about a crackerjack crew of animal outlaws, our now-reformed Bad Guys are trying (very, very hard) to be good, but instead find themselves hijacked into a high-stakes, globe-trotting heist, masterminded by a new team of criminals they never saw coming: The Bad Girls.”
The original film’s voice cast returns, with Oscar winner Sam Rockwell back as Mr. Wolf, SAG award nominee Marc Maron as safecracker Mr. Snake, SAG award nominee Craig Robinson as Mr. Shark, Grammy winner Anthony Ramos as Mr. Piranha, and Emmy winner Awkwafina as Ms. Tarantula. Emmy nominee Zazie Beetz voices Governor Diane Foxington, BAFTA winner Richard Ayoade is Professor Marmalade, Emmy winner Alex Borstein is Police Chief (now Commissioner) Misty Luggins, and Lilly Singh is sensationalist reporter Tiffany Fluffit.
Newcomers include Oscar nominee Danielle Brooks as Kitty Kat, Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova as Pigtail, and Emmy nominee Natasha Lyonne as Doom.
The Bad Guys 2 opens in theaters on August 1, 2025.
Sule Thelwell, Soy Kim, and Christine Heesun Hwang join ‘XO, Kitty’ (Photo Credits: Jan Dreyer, Netflix, Sam Prickart / Provides Provided by Netflix)
Netflix’s third season of XO, Kitty has wrapped up production, with the streamer announcing details on three new cast members. Sule Thelwell (Saint X) joined as a series regular, playing Marius. Soy Kim (Sorry, Not Sorry) and Christine Hwang (Law and Order: SVU) are recurring guest stars, playing Yisoo and Gigi.
Netflix’s production news did not include a target premiere date for the new season. The streamer also hasn’t released an official season three synopsis.
Anna Cathcart leads the cast as Kitty Song Covey. Returning stars include Minyeong Choi as Dae, Gia Kim as Yuri, Sang Heon Lee as Min Ho, Anthony Keyvan as Q, Regan Aliyah as Juliana, and Hojo Shin (upped to a series regular) as Jiwon. Peter Thurnwald is back as Alex, Philippe Lee is Mr. Moon, Jocelyn Shelfo is Madison, Michael K. Lee is Professor Lee, Sasha Bhasin is Praveena, Joshua Lee is Jin, JHan Bi Ryu is Eunice, and Sunny Oh is Mihee.
XO, Kitty is a spinoff of the popular To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before films, based on Jenny Han’s bestselling books. Han created the spinoff and serves as an executive producer. Valentina Garza is the writer, executive producer, and showrunner. Additional executive producers include Matt Kaplan and Bradley Gardner.
Netflix’s season two synopsis: “Teen matchmaker Kitty Song Covey is back in Seoul for a new semester at KISS. She’s single for the first time in a long time, and ready for a fresh start: no more meddling, no more drama. Maybe just some casual dating. Emphasis on casual. But she has more to worry about than her love life, as a letter from her mother’s past sets her on a wild journey, and new faces at KISS bring change. As secrets unravel and bonds are tested, Kitty will learn that life, family, and love are more complicated than she ever imagined.”
Sylvester Stallone and Samuel L. Jackson in ‘Tulsa King’ (Photo Credit: Brian Douglas/Paramount+)
Samuel L. Jackson will star in the first Tulsa King spinoff, NOLA King*. Jackson’s character, Russell Lee Washington Jr., will be introduced in the upcoming third season of Paramount+’s Tulsa King starring Sylvester Stallone.
NOLA King is executive produced by Samuel L. Jackson, Taylor Sheridan, and Sylvester Stallone. Additional executive producers include David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, David Hutkin, Bob Yari, Michael Friedman, and Keith Cox.
“Samuel L. Jackson brings unparalleled presence and global appeal, making him the perfect choice to maximize the momentum of one of our biggest hits and transform it into a hit franchise,” said Chris McCarthy, Co-CEO of Paramount Global and President of SHOWTIME/MTV Entertainment. “Building on the breakout success of Sylvester Stallone’s Tulsa King, audiences will now experience the full force of Jackson’s dynamic, layered performance, supercharging one of Paramount+’s flagship series.”
Tulsa King premiered in November 2022, followed by season two in September 2024. Season three will arrive in September 2025.
“NOLA King follows Russell Lee Washington Jr. (Jackson) who, after befriending Dwight Manfredi (Stallone) during a ten-year stint in federal prison, is sent to Tulsa by New York’s Renzetti crime family to take Dwight out once and for all. Inspired by what Dwight created in Tulsa and impressed with the possibilities of second chances, Washington returns to New Orleans, the home he abandoned forty years ago, to rekindle his relationship with his family and friends, and to take control of the city he left behind,” reads Paramount+’s synopsis. “In so doing, he incurs the wrath of his former employers in New York, and makes himself vulnerable to old NOLA foes, both criminal and cop.”
The spinoff is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios.
“Chris McCarthy came to me with a game-changing idea: to elevate my show beyond a mob boss series, creating a dynamic, family-driven franchise,” said Sylvester Stallone. “I was immediately on board. Sam Jackson is the only choice to anchor this new adventure in NOLA and David Glasser and 101 are the perfect partner to bring it to life.”
(*Update: The series has been renamed Frisco King and the action has been moved to Texas.)
Daniel Sunjata and Kaitlin Olson in ‘High Potential’ episode 13 (Disney/Mitch Hasseth)
ABC’s fall 2025 primetime lineup includes Monday Night Football, the return of America’s Funniest Home Videos and High Potential, and the series premiere of the new 9-1-1 spinoff, 9-1-1: Nashville. The networks’s fall schedule also includes Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and the reality competitions The Golden Bachelor, Dancing with the Stars, and Shark Tank.
Returning ABC dramas and comedies include 9-1-1, Grey’s Anatomy, Shifting Gears, and Abbott Elementary. Will Trent, The Rookie, American Idol, The Bachelor, and Celebrity Jeopardy! will return in 2026, along with the just-announced reboot of Scrubs.
ABC Fall 2025 Premiere Dates:
SATURDAY, AUG. 23
7:30 p.m. – “College Football” (North Carolina Central Eagles at Southern University Jaguars)
MONDAY, SEPT. 8
8:00 p.m. – Monday Night Football (Minnesota Vikings at Chicago Bears)
TUESDAY, SEPT. 16
8:00 p.m. – Dancing with the Stars (simulcast on Disney+)
10:00 p.m. – High Potential
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 24
8:00 p.m. – The Golden Bachelor (two-hour premiere)
10:01 p.m. – Shark Tank
Details on 9-1-1: Nashville: The newest entry into the franchise, 9-1-1: Nashville, is a high-octane procedural about heroic first responders, as well as their family saga of power and glamour set in one of America’s most diverse and dynamic cities. The all-new series stars Chris O’Donnell, Jessica Capshaw, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, LeAnn Rimes, Hailey Kilgore, Michael Provost, Juani Feliz, and Hunter McVey.
Ryan Murphy, Tim Minear, and Rashad Raisani are executive producers and writers, with Raisani serving as showrunner. Additional executive producers include Chris O’Donnell, Brad Buecker, Brad Falchuk, and Angela Bassett.
‘Assassin’s Creed’ showrunners David Wiener and Roberto Patino (Photo Credits: Neilson Barnard Getty Images / Courtesy of Netflix)
Netflix has finally officially announced movement on an Assassin’s Creed live-action series. The streamer and Ubisoft made a deal in 2020, and development of a series has been in the works since then.
The series was created by Emmy nominees Roberto Patino (Westworld, Sons of Anarchy) and David Wiener (Halo, Homecoming) who will serve as showrunners and executive producers.
“We’ve been fans of Assassin’s Creed since its release in 2007. Every day we work on this show, we come away excited and humbled by the possibilities that Assassin’s Creed opens to us,” stated Wiener and Patino. “Beneath the scope, the spectacle, the parkour, and the thrills is a baseline for the most essential kind of human story—about people searching for purpose, struggling with questions of identity and destiny and faith. It is about power and violence and sex and greed and vengeance.
Wiener and Patino continued, “But more than anything, this is a show about the value of human connection, across cultures, across time. And it’s about what we stand to lose as a species, when those connections break. We’ve got an amazing team behind us with the folks at Ubisoft and our champions at Netflix, and we’re committed to creating something undeniable for fans all over the planet.”
Additional executive producers include Gerard Guillemot, Margaret Boykin, Austin Dill for Ubisoft Film & Television, and Matt O’Toole.
Netflix offered this description of the upcoming series: “Assassin’s Creed is a high-octane thriller centered on the secret war between two shadowy factions—one set on determining mankind’s future through control and manipulation, while the other fights to preserve free will. The series follows its characters across pivotal historical events as they battle to shape humanity’s destiny.”
Netflix’s official announcement didn’t indicate when production is expected to begin, or when the series might premiere.
“When we first announced our partnership with Ubisoft in 2020, we set out with an ambitious goal to bring the rich, expansive world of Assassin’s Creed to life in bold new ways,” said Peter Friedlander, Netflix’s Vice President, Scripted Series. “Now, after years of dedicated collaboration, it’s inspiring to see just how far that vision has come. Guided by the deft hands of Roberto Patino and David Wiener, the team has carefully crafted an epic adventure that both honors the legacy of the Assassin’s Creed franchise and invites longtime fans and newcomers alike to experience the thrill of the Brotherhood as never before.”
Poster for ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ (Photo Credit: Columbia Pictures)
Almost 30 years ago, Scream brought back the near-dead slasher genre by infusing it with a hip, teen vibe to it. Shortly thereafter, the original I Know What You Did Last Summer entered the teen slasher chat. Well, recently Scream has been enjoying a nice little renaissance with a couple of new movies, so it only figures that there’d be a new I Know What You Did Last Summer, too, right? Yes, unfortunately, that is right.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is about five friends who, on the Fourth of July, inadvertently cause an accident in which an innocent person is killed. In order to preserve their futures (see: save their skins), the group makes a pact amongst themselves to never speak of their involvement again. But, the next year, one of them gets a suspicious note saying only (yep, you guessed it) “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” And then, one by one, the friends get killed in brutal and violent ways.
From there, it just becomes your run-of-the-mill slasher movie.
If that sounds familiar, that’s because it is. This I Know What You Did Last Summer is pretty much the same exact story as the original I Know What You Did Last Summer. Except, in this one’s universe, the original series of murders did take place, so these murders seem like a copycat version. And this gives the later group of victims a chance to enlist the help of the last spree’s survivors, Julie James and Ray Bronson (Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze, Jr. reprising their roles from the nineties).
The problem here is that where Scream is smart and witty enough to lean into the self-referential side of the narrative in order to force things to make sense, I Know What You Did Last Summer just seems kind of silly, like the whole town buried the past so, in turn, they’re doomed to repeat it. And that sins-of-the-father concept doesn’t quite land.
It seems that director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Do Revenge) is trying to tap into the nostalgic nineties aspect of the franchise, but in doing so, I Know What You Did Last Summer just becomes a parody of itself. It doesn’t help that the script, written by Robinson along with Leah McKendrick (M.F.A.) and Sam Lansky (his first produced screenplay), is pretty much a carbon copy of the original film, only with more archetypical characters and hefty doses of brainless dialogue (one character actually says “what the f*ck, Bro?” to the killer right before he’s done in). The few surprises that are in the movie all depend, again, on the nostalgia felt towards the original film. It doesn’t really stand on its own. It all feels more like a comic parody than an actual horror movie.
Now, when I Know What You Did Last Summer is just being a plain old slasher movie, it’s not bad. Slasher movies are generally derivative by nature anyway, and the kills in this one are fairly effective. They’re not really scary, but they’re suspenseful and tense enough, and definitely bloody as all heck. So, as a slasher, I Know What You Did Last Summer doesn’t completely fail. Unfortunately, to get to the gory kill scenes, the viewer has to sit through the corny stuff.
The big question with I Know What You Did Last Summer is whether or not it’s supposed to be a comedy. It doesn’t seem like it is. Most of the humor feels unintentional, but it’s still humorous. And the viewer is not laughing with it, they’re laughing at it. Which isn’t always a bad thing for a horror movie, but in this case, it is. It’s too ridiculous to be scary, but it takes itself too seriously to be an all-out comedy. So, there it sits, somewhere in the middle, just waiting for someone to put it out of its misery.
GRADE: D+
Rating: R for language throughout, brief drug use, bloody horror violence, and some sexual content
Release Date: July 18, 2025
Running Time: 1 hour 51 minutes
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal in ‘Eddington’ (Photo Credit: A24)
When it comes to writer/director Ari Aster, the only thing that it seems movie fans can expect is to expect the unexpected. From Hereditary through Midsommar right up to Beau is Afraid, it’s hard to tell what the auteur is going to do. And that trend continues with his newest movie, Eddington.
Set in May of the year 2020 in the town of Eddington, New Mexico, Eddington finds the small community in the midst of a political struggle between the progressive mayor Ted Garcia (The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal) and the town’s conservative sheriff, Joe Cross (Beau himself from Beau is Afraid, Joaquin Phoenix). Since it’s an election year, and since Joe opposes every idea Ted has, Joe decides to run against him. The political discourse splits the town in half, and everyone’s secrets are about to be revealed.
Now, there is one more thing that viewers can expect from an Ari Aster movie, and that’s that it will not be brief. The running time of Eddington is about two and a half hours, so there’s way more to the story than simple political campaigning. And since it’s set in the volatile social climate of May of 2020, the big issues being dealt with are COVID and Black Lives Matter, and you can guess which side of the fence both Ted and Joe fall on in regards to masking and protesting.
It’s less clear what side of the fence Ari Aster falls on, though. Eddington is probably the most serious satire ever committed to film, and both political sides come off as looking cartoonish and stereotypical. Joe’s anti-masking rants and the conspiracy theories of his mother-in-law, Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell from The Penguin) sound just as ridiculous as Ted’s COVID precautions and the civics-class verbal regurgitation of the teenage BLM protesters. Whichever side the viewer leans to politically, Eddington is bound to trigger, because Aster makes both sides look a bit ignorant.
Politics aside, Eddington does get messy. Not narratively messy, but guts and gore messy. There’s plenty of murder and mayhem, and plenty of blood and betrayal. As the movie goes on, it gets more and more outlandish and far-fetched. By the end, it’s absolutely clear that Aster is poking fun at these topics, just in case anyone had been taking the inherent messaging of the characters a bit too seriously. And at that point, everything turns into a grindhouse revisionist spaghetti western.
Ari Aster is at the period in his career where he’s hip and happening enough to be able to command a top-notch cast, and so, Eddington has one. In addition to Phoenix and Pascal, the ensemble includes Emma Stone (Poor Things) as Sheriff’s Joe’s wife, Austin Butler (Elvis) as a weird self-help guru/cult leader, Michael Ward (The Book of Clarence), and Luke Grimes (the Fifty Shades of Grey movies) as Joe’s deputies, Matt Gomez Hidaka (Silo) as Mayor Ted’s son, and Amélie Hoeferle (Night Swim) as one of the socially conscious BLM protestors. All of these feel like bit parts in a world that belongs to Ted and Joe, but there are no small parts in Eddington. These characters all have limited screen time, but they’re pivotal and important to the dense, well-crafted story.
It’s unclear if Eddington actually has an opinion, and that may be Aster’s point. It functions as a nice little time capsule of mid-2020, when the country as a whole was in turmoil, and it concentrates its focus on the microcosm of one tiny little town that, even in the middle of the New Mexico desert, is still affected heavily by the world around it. People are going to see what they want to see in Eddington. Some will see it as right-wing propaganda, some will see it as leftist rhetoric, and still others will just see it as simply a compelling revisionist western. And the true beauty of Eddington is that everyone will be right.
GRADE: B+
Rating: R
Release Date: July 18, 2025
Running Time: 2 hours 28 minutes
Studio: A24
