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It is not really often that Actorle gets on my nerves, and thankfully, August 9 is not one of those days. With this Hollywood-themed daily puzzle site challenging you daily, one wakes up with nothing but fear, thinking if today’s the day when you won’t be able to get all the answers right.

Fortunately, as I said, August 9 is not one of those days. In fact, one of the challenges openly gave away the answer to the puzzle, hiding it in plain sight to be caught by those with a sharp eye. In case you are wondering which Actorle.com challenge it was, the following are all the solutions for the days you can go through and find for yourself.

Actorle Solution for Today The answer to Actorle on August 9 is Jason Schwartzman | Credits: Actorle/ Fandomwire

While I wholeheartedly wish the very first Actorle challenge was the one that...

When assessing a filmmaker’s uncompromising vision, debate still rages on whether a Director’s Cut is better than the original theatrical version. With sterling examples on both sides of the ledger – Blade Runner being all-time good, The Warriors being all-time bad – one great cult classic that terminally suffers from the Director’s Cut is Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly’s piercing psychological genre mash-up that is at its best when it poses provocative, open-ended questions rather than providing demystifying answers that undermine the movie’s puzzling surrealism.

The original Donnie Darko, released in theaters in October 2001, captured the hearts and minds of angst-ridden teenagers and young adult misfits everywhere, only to relinquish all the popular goodwill by releasing the absurdly silly Director’s Cut in 2004. Straight up, the original Donnie Darko never should have been tampered with and reedited for monetary gain. Going one step further, the Donnie Darko Director...

Exclusive: Manager and producer Brian Young has joined Range. Young most recently operated independently as a manager and produced The Brutalist.

He brings with him a roster of clients that includes the Oscar-nominated, BAFTA- and Golden Globe-winning The Brutalist director and co-writer Brady Corbet as well as Oscar-nominated The Brutalist co-writer Mona Fastvold, whose upcoming film, The Testament Of Ann Lee, co-written with Corbet and starring Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Abbott and Lewis Pullman, will premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.

Other clients joining him at Range include author and screenwriter Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho), whose novel The Shards is becoming a Ryan Murphy series at FX with Young serving as executive producer. Young also represents filmmaker Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko), the estate of Aaliyah alongside her brother Rashad Haughton, writer-director Evan Morgan (The Kid Detective) and actor-musician Shameik Moore

In addition to The Brutalist,...

Donnie Darko (2001) Explained: A Journey Through The Director’s Theory: A month after the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001, a fiction about the transformative power of small catastrophes reached American cinemas. In the plot, a troubled teenager escapes death when an airplane engine crashes into his bedroom. He then starts to have visions with a large bunny rabbit, which instead of presenting playful fantasy, involves him in a dark and criminal premonition.

The fear and distrust that permeated the scene at the time boycotted Donnie Darko’s debut, but word of mouth caught the attention of Pioneer Theatre in New York, which insisted on showing it for two years. Consequently, rejection gave way to catharsis, soon DVD sales soared and the newest generation of midnight films began deciphering enigmas in broad daylight.

Although director Richard Kelly’s script works with philosophical issues and uses references ranging...

Last week, the Toronto International Film Festival announced 11 galas and special presentations for global artists that the committee wishes to spotlight this year. The scheduling of these events are a reflection of “TIFF’s commitment to champion new perspectives and cinematic excellence to its diverse international public audience.” TIFF has now released the first-look images for a number of films that have been accepted into this year’s festival. Some of the notable titles are Christy, Frankenstein, Good Fortune and more. You can check out the full list of movies being screened at the event on their website Here.

One of the most anticipated releases is Sydney Sweeney‘s turn as boxer Christy Martin in the film Christy. David Michod directs the untitled Christy Martin sports biopic he co-wrote with Mirrah Foulkes. The project charts Martin’s rise to become the most iconic boxer of the 1990s. Dubbed the “female Rocky” by producers,...

Although there has been growing enthusiasm for rising horror auteurs like Jordan Peele, Robert Eggers, Mike Flanagan, and Coralie Fargeat, no filmmaker has elicited quite as extreme of response as Ari Aster. While Aster’s talent was evident from some of his early, disturbing short films, his work within features has raised the threshold for upsetting content. There’s certainly an art to being transgressive for the sake of attention, but Aster has woven in delicate stories about human fragility and developed consistent working relationships with some of the industry’s finest actors. It’s far too early to judge whether Aster is the heir apparent to filmmakers like Tobe Hooper or Wes Craven, but he has earned enough name recognition that any of his upcoming projects has become an event worthy of anticipation.

Aster’s aptitude for prolonged, uncomfortable sequences that get under the audience’s skin may now...

You were wrong if you thought summer is all sunshine and rainbows. This July, turn your fear into guaranteed goosebumps with a collection of horror movies packed with jaw-dropping twists and mind-bending experiences. Fawesome brings to you, from psychological nightmares to supernatural jump scares, seven horror gems that will take you through twisted timelines, blood-driven alleyways, and reckoning ghost forms. What’s best? They are all free from any subscriptions or paywalls.

Whether you find yourself awake tonight or dreaming of dreadful creatures, July on Fawesome has a scream-worthy list of horror movies that can petrify even the bravest horror fans. These unapologetic, blood-rushed, mayhem of sadistic creatures can slaughter your serenity. The best part is you can stream them for free without hitting paywalls and endless notifications!

These seven mind-bending horror films will fill your nights with ghastly nightmares and dark thoughts.

The Haunting (dir. Jan de Bont)

Starring: Liam Neeson,...

I first encountered Rebekah Del Rio as millions of others did — at the movies. I was away from Los Angeles, visiting my parents in Indiana, when a friend and I went to see director David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive” at Movies 6, a second-run house in nearby Mishawaka, where tickets cost a buck. With the exception of loving “The Straight Story,” I hadn’t been a David Lynch aficionado at all, having seen “The Lost Highway” in film school and stupidly dismissing it as an over-symbolic kooky piece of hoohah. (Boy was I wrong.)

I sat in that creaky seat, watching a dim projection on a tattered screen, and was instantly transported to another world — or should I say, back home to L.A. Beyond Naomi Watts and Laura Harring’s wonderful wig-swapping weirdness, what truly pulled me in was the scene where their two characters attend a late night performance...

Rebekah Del Rio, the American singer who memorably performed “Llorando” (a Spanish language version of Roy Orbison’s “Crying”) in David Lynch’s masterpiece “Mulholland Drive,” has died at the age of 57. According to the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office, Del Rio died June 23 at her home in L.A. A cause of death has not yet been revealed.

Born in 1967 in Chula Vista, California, she moved first to L.A. in 1989 and then to Nashville in 1994, where she signed to Irving Azoff’s label Giant Records. Over the years, she had also been signed to DreamWorks Nashville and indie label Baja Basement Records. Her work appeared on the soundtracks to films like “Sin City” and Tony Scott’s version of “Man on Fire.”

She also appeared in Richard Kelly’s gonzo cult favorite “Southland Tales,” where she provides vocals for a version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in a sequence...

The singer-songwriter Rebekah Del Rio, who achieved cinematic immortality in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, has died at the age of 57 in Los Angeles.

The performer, whose albums include 1994’s Nobody’s Angel and 2011’s Love Hurts Love Heals, first met Lynch in the 1990s. Her performance of “Llorando” in Lynch’s 2001 surreal fantasy came about after the iconic director heard her privately perform the Spanish-language cover of Roy Orbison’s “Crying,” leading to a scene Lynch conceived during Mulholland Drive’s transition from failed ABC TV pilot to Oscar-nominated film. (Watch it below.)

Following Del Rio’s appearance in Mulholland Drive, director Richard Kelly enlisted her to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” as “Vanessa Vera Cruz” in his wild 2006 opus Southland Tales. She additionally played the role of Pinky in the 2016 sci-fi film 2307: Winter’s Dream, could be heard performing in 2005’s Sin City, and composed music for the 2010 film Before We Say Goodbye,...

The singer-songwriter Rebekah Del Rio, who achieved cinematic immortality in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, has died at the age of 57 in Los Angeles.

The performer, whose albums include 1994’s Nobody’s Angel and 2011’s Love Hurts Love Heals, first met Lynch in the 1990s. Her performance of “Llorando” in Lynch’s 2001 surreal fantasy came about after the iconic director heard her privately perform the Spanish-language cover of Roy Orbison’s “Crying,” leading to a scene Lynch conceived during Mulholland Drive’s transition from failed ABC TV pilot to Oscar-nominated film. (Watch it below.)

Following Del Rio’s appearance in Mulholland Drive, director Richard Kelly enlisted her to perform “The Star-Spangled Banner” as “Vanessa Vera Cruz” in his wild 2006 opus Southland Tales. She additionally played the role of Pinky in the 2016 sci-fi film 2307: Winter’s Dream, could be heard performing in 2005’s Sin City, and composed music for the 2010 film Before We Say Goodbye,...

Rebekah Del Rio, a singer-songwriter who achieved cinematic legend with her performance of “Llorando” in David Lynch’s 2001 opus “Mulholland Drive,” died June 23 at her residence in Los Angeles. She was 57 years old.

Del Rio’s death was confirmed through the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office. No further details about her death are currently available.

Lynch was first introduced to Del Rio by their mutual CAA agent Brian Loucks in the mid-’90s. The singer was working under a country record deal in Nashville, Tenn., which she had landed off of her recording of “Llorando,” a Spanish-language cover of Roy Orbison’s “Crying.” Upon their meeting, Lynch asked Del Rio to perform the number and covertly recorded her. The performance became the basis for the Club Silencio scene, an addition by Lynch to his by-then-rejected ABC pilot “Mulholland Drive,” which he was reworking into a feature film.

The Silencio sequence...

Now updated for April 2025, here’s our pick of 35 genre films – horror, action, sci-fi and more – you can watch for free on Tubi UK.

Like any streaming service, particularly of the ad-supported variety, there’s a lot of filler on Tubi, the subscription-free platform which made its UK debut last July.

On there you’ll find an array of low-budget documentaries of spurious quality, landfill reality TV and how-did-this-get-made TV movies (Amish Abduction).

Look beyond those films, though, and Tubi is positively stuffed with genre and cult offerings – sci-fi, horror, comedy, martial arts, thrillers and more besides. Finding these can take a bit of hunting around, however, so to save you a bit of time, we’ve done some hunting for you. We’re nice like that.

Here’s our pick of 35 genre and cult films currently available to watch for free on Tubi in the UK. We’ll also...

In an age where streaming services dominate entertainment consumption, boutique Blu-ray labels are experiencing an unexpected renaissance, with industry leaders citing a growing hunger for tangible, curated film experiences that digital platforms cannot replicate.

Speaking at SXSW London’s “Why Boutique Blu-ray Labels Are Thriving in the Digital Age” panel on Friday, Louise Buckler, head of marketing at Arrow Films, and Chris Holden, managing director of Second Sight Films, outlined how their companies have carved out thriving niches in an increasingly digital landscape.

The boutique Blu-ray market has drawn frequent comparisons to the vinyl revival, with both formats appealing to collectors seeking physical ownership and premium quality. Recent data from the British Association for Screen Entertainment (Base) supports this trend, showing 4K Uhd Blu-ray format grew 21% year-over-year in 2024, moving 1.3 million units worth $38 million.

“I think they’ve been likened to vinyl, with the resurgence of vinyl,” said Holden, whose company...

Jason Schwartzman was supposed to lead the star-studded cast of Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko. He expressed interest in the script and agreed to play Donnie, but he eventually had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. It was at this point that Gyllenhaal got his hands on the script and was mesmerised by it. He once said that he pulled over to the side of the road to finish reading it.

Donnie Darko is one of those rare sci-fi psychological thrillers that leave the viewers with more questions than answers. However, the film received poor reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, following which Kelly found it hard to find U.S. distributors for the film. While its initial theatrical gross was a measly sum, the film went on to attain more money on reissues and a cult status.

Jake Gyllenhaal saved Donnie Darko after Jason Schwartzman had to drop out of it Jake Gyllenhaal,...

In recent years, Cannes’ increasingly standardized custom of drawn-out standing ovations — subject of sneers as well as sympathy — has received much attention: explained as sociology, critiqued as pathology. But as the 78th annual film festival gets underway, and the trend shows no sign of abatement, it’s worth considering the signal behind all the noise. The unrelenting, excessive applause isn’t just joyous. Underneath, it’s desperate, and a revealing indicator of the decline of what’s ostensibly being celebrated.

Which is to say, the ovations aren’t mere vexation. They’re damnation.

This extended cheering, reminiscent of rallies in authoritarian regimes, has been normalized and fanned by a couple of key institutional factors. First, at the conclusion of each premiere, the festival’s in-house production crew projects the faces of the director and their actors on the Palais’ big screen. The camera effect encourages everyone in the theatre to perform mania.

When I wrote my inaugural Critic’s Take some seven Cannes ago, it made sense to explore the apparent chasm between the films celebrated at cinema’s high temple — where austere and unsparing fare could feed the zeitgeist — and those that made inroads within the American industry, where hard auteurism had a tougher time cracking the mainstream, Palme d’Or or not.

Suffice it to say, I didn’t have a similar impetus this time around. How could I? Not when Cannes rides high on recent awards glories as festival honcho Thierry Frémaux relishes his kingmaker status; not when so many international distinctions have collapsed; and not when the very nature of a Palme d’Or has so strikingly shifted in the intervening decade.

Indeed, the cascading effects of streaming wars, labor unrest and widespread social shifts have fundamentally altered film culture. Since that first column, the theatrical market has continued to contract,...

Donnie Darko fans will soon have the chance to enter the Tangent Universe with the Donnie Darko House Party.

Following its sold-out debut last year in London, the immersive event heads to Australia to transform the Melbourne Pavilion into a full-spectrum, Halloween-themed rave for one unforgettable night on June 6.

The multi-room, interactive world inspired by Richard Kelly’s 2001 cult classic features intricately designed sets, high-tech audiovisual installations, and characters straight from the film’s hauntingly beautiful aesthetic.

“Frank is here… and I’ll be waiting for you,” said Frank the Bunny actor James Duval, who will be in attendance.

The 80s-style house party meets modern day rave will feature live music from Ebony Willis, Stockholm Syndrome, Wiser, and Zaftig.

Guests are encouraged to come in Halloween costumes and themed attire for the event, which includes a screening of the film, crafted to blur the line between reality and the movie’s time-bending world.

This article contains spoilers for "Until Dawn."

Most cinematic adaptations have a blatantly obvious and fairly mundane relation to the material they're adapting: Put simply, they're just another version of the source material. The best adaptations eschew that mundanity, putting a special spin on the story, world, or characters to make the adaptation unique, but even in those instances, the relation between adaptation and source is still fairly rote. For example, even though Denis Villeneuve's "Dune" films are distinctly his, they're still a version of Frank Herbert's novel. For another example, despite the many films and TV shows that make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe, those works do not typically connect to or cross over with the comic books they're inspired by.

Yet there have been experiments with multimedia franchises over the years, in which the works of disparate mediums are actually meant to tie-in together rather than remain separate.

After a successful collaboration with musician Arssalendo in 2022 for hybrid film Quattro Pareti which sits somewhere on the borderland between music video and short film, director Giada Bossi wanted to take their boundary blurring collaboration even further and dove into a visually stunning and emotionally raw exploration of youth, belonging and the wounds that shape us. To Call Home Always The Same Place (Chiamare casa sempre lo stesso posto) is a visual and sonic journey capturing the vibrant euphoria, simmering tensions, and profound introspection of adolescence. Shot in the Northern Italian region the Milan-based director calls home and fuelled by the collaborative inspiration and life-broaching conversations between herself and Arssalendo, Bossi has built a world simmering with authenticity. Split into a three-act narrative, each housing its own visual style and carefully crafted approach, To Call Home Always The Same Place reveals itself to the rhythm of Arssalendo’s music, transcending...

Back in 2001, a strange and haunting film called Donnie Darko hit theaters, starring a young Jake Gyllenhaal in what would become one of his most iconic roles. The movie didn’t make a huge splash at the box office right away, but over the years, it’s become a beloved cult classic.

If you’ve ever watched it and felt both amazed and incredibly confused, you’re not alone. Even director Richard Kelly admitted that the film wasn’t easy to make — or understand. At first glance, Donnie Darko feels like a mix of sci-fi, teen drama, and surreal horror, all wrapped up in a foggy ’80s dream. There’s a creepy guy in a bunny suit, time travel, an airplane crash, and lots of mysterious moments that leave your head spinning.

But the more you think about it, the more it starts to make sense, kind of. So, let...

David Cronenberg is back with his latest Cannes Film Festival premiere The Shrouds, a blend of body horror, grief, comedy, sex, high-tech graveyards and international intrigue starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger (in three roles), Guy Pearce and Sandrine Holt. Sideshow/Janus Films is opening the film – the first English-language foray by the distributor of Drive My Car and Flow — at three theaters: NYC’s Angelika Film Center and Film at Lincoln Center, and Los Angeles’ AMC Grove.

Cronenberg will be in-person with screenings hosted by Brady Corbet and Richard Kelly, with the iconic director traveling to San Francisco and Chicago later in the week ahead of a move to 250-plus screens, Sideshow’s widest expansion this early in a film’s run.

The director of The Fly, Dead Ringers and Videodrome has “long been one of my favorite filmmakers. It’s his most personal film. I loved it when I...

Drew Barrymore realized on-air that she starred in and produced Seth Rogen’s feature film debut, Richard Kelly’s 2001 sci-fi thriller “Donnie Darko.”

“Did we start together? Like, is a film that I was in … ?” Barrymore questioned Rogen, who appeared as a guest on her talk show “The Drew Barrymore Show” in promotion of Apple TV+’s “The Studio” on Wednesday.

“And you produced, right?” Rogen confirmed.

“Yes, very much so!” Barrymore said — before Rogen confirmed that he booked his very first feature film role in the modern horror classic. He played Ricky Danforth, a student who comes to blows with Jake Gyllenhaal’s Donnie towards the end of the film. Barrymore starred as Karen Pomeroy, an English teacher at the boys’ high school.

“‘Donnie Darko’ was the first movie I was ever in,” Rogen said as production pulled up a throwback still of the actor from the movie — to the actor’s chagrin.

Casting is an arduous process to ensure the right actor gets the right role, but sometimes, things don’t work out. The chemistry is off with the rest of the cast, the studio needs a bigger name, the director decided the character should have a shaved head but a bald cap killed his parents, etc. Sometimes, however, the reason is truly ridiculous.

[subtitle]5Mark Wahlberg Decided Donnie Darko Should Have a Lisp [/subtitle]

Wahlberg was initially cast as the lead in 2001’s Donnie Darko, but once director Richard Kelly found out his vision for the character included a pronounced lisp, he was out. It’s probably just as well, as Wahlberg was already straining credulity as a teenager in Boogie Nights four years earlier and Jake Gyllenhaal hadn’t yet become Taylor Swift’s most hated ex.

4 Ryan Gosling Changed Too Much for ‘The Lovely Bones’

Wahlberg later benefited from another actor-director misalignment.

While Jason Statham may owe his acting career to Guy Ritchie for giving him his start, critics felt differently after panning their third cinematic collaboration, Revolver. Torpedoed by ungodly expectations caused by Snatch and Lock,Stock and Two Smoking Barrels before it, Revolver is a much better movie than credited for, requiring repeat viewings to see through the style-over-substance charge the movie has been leveled with.

As Revolver celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2025, giving the film another spin is recommended for Statham and Ritchie fans. With a screenplay co-written by venerated French filmmaker Luc Besson, Revolver was unfairly dismissed during its initial release and deserves another shot. It may not be the best work by the talent involved, but there's no way Revolver should hold a lowly 13% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Jason Statham and Guy Ritchie's Collaboration, Explained

Rising to fame together in the late '90s, Guy Ritchie and Jason...

Pirates of the Caribbean star Keira Knightley’s panned action thriller has free streaming in its cross hairs. Loosely based on an incredible true story, 2005’s Domino finds Knightley taking the lead as a former model, who decides to ditch the catwalk in favor of bounty hunting.

Directed by the late, great Tony Scott, Domino is based partly on the life of Domino Harvey, the daughter of stage and screen actor Laurence Harvey, who did indeed leave fashion modeling behind to become a Los Angeles bounty hunter. Featuring an all-star cast that includes Mickey Rourke, Édgar Ramírez, Delroy Lindo, Mena Suvari, Mo'Nique, Lucy Liu, and Christopher Walken alongside Knightley, Domino is set to land on the free streaming platform Tubi from March 1, and you can check out the official synopsis below.

RelatedNetflix Reveals First Look at Keira Knightley & Guy Pearce in New Thriller

During a busy day for Netflix, the...

Los Angeles-based film and television studio Happy Accidents has partnered with Australian production companies Total Fiction and Screen Invaders on the genre-bending drama-comedy series “Gnomes” (6×30′).

The studio, which specializes in high-end content across multiple genres including films, scripted and unscripted series, documentaries and formats, has come aboard as co-producer and international distributor for the series. The project has been commissioned by Stan Australia and picked up by German broadcaster ZDFneo via Network Movie.

Described as “Gremlins meets Hot Fuzz,” the series follows two local police officers in a small town who must battle an army of murderous garden gnomes that come to life during the town’s inaugural Gnome-a-Palooza festival. The show will utilize a combination of practical effects and VFX to bring the miniature menaces to life.

Award-winning filmmaker Joel Kohn, who heads Screen Invaders, created the series and will produce alongside Total Fiction executive producers John Molloy and Richard Kelly.

Exclusive: Lydia West, Abbie Cornish and Brooke Satchwell are among high-profile acting talent leading Stan’s tenth anniversary slate, we can reveal.

The Australian streamer is today unveiling its latest TV series, films and acquisitions at a splashy showcase event held at Linseed House at the Grounds of Alexandria in Sydney. In total, it unveiled 14 originals — three scripted series, six features and five docs — along with a host of acquisitions.

On the originals front, Stan’s Chief Content Officer Cailah Scobie and Head of Originals Amanda Duthie are announcing the likes of He Had It Coming, Love Divided By Eleven and Whale Shark Jack, and a horror-comedy series, Gnomes.

He Had it Coming stars Lydia West (It’s a Sin), Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Ahsoka: Star Wars) and Liv Hewson (Yellowjackets). It follows Elise (West), an awkward English scholarship student who forms an unlikely alliance with fashion influencer Barbara (Liu Bordizzo) after...

Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola's decades-long passion project, was one of 2024's most divisive movies. It was either the greatest embodiment of the acclaimed director's artistic vision and refusal to compromise, or his searing, self-made indictment of those same things and his unchecked ego. Moviegoers either loved or hated it; there was no middle ground. That said, what most didn't realize was that Megalopolis isn't exactly new and that it's been done better by a movie that starred Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson roughly two decades ago.

19 years ago, Southland Tales hit cinemas and baffled everyone who saw it. Directed by Richard Kelly of Donnie Darko fame and much like Megalopolis, Southland Tales was a surreal satire of American culture, politics and life during its release. However, Southland Tales succeeded where Megalopolis failed by being even stranger than Coppola's latest work. It says a lot that casting The Rock as a...

Donnie Darko is an unforgettable 2000s cult classic, and it's hard to imagine the film as anything other than it is. But Jason Schwartzman (best known for playing Gideon in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) actually almost played Jake Gyllenhaal’s most iconic role. Donnie Darko is a 25-year-old independent production and writer-director Richard Kelly's debut feature. This, combined with how unconventional the story is, made it hard to finance the film initially. But igniting the interest of actors like Jason Schwartzman and Drew Barrymore (who plays Ms. Pomeroy) attracted investors.

The movie had financing and were ready to start production when Jason Schwartzman dropped out and Jake Gyllenhaal stepped in. Other than Schwartzman as Donnie Darko, another surprising casting possibility was David Hasselhoff as Jim Cunningham instead of Patrick Swayze. Ultimately, the final cast chosen for Donnie Darko was perfect for it. Although it still needed a push...

For the first 10 years of his movie acting career, Dwayne Johnson was hungry to earn his bonafides as a serious performer. Oh sure, he was more than willing to play to the cheap seats by starring in stuff like "The Scorpion King" and "Doom." But this was also the era in which the wrestling legend worked with "Donnie Darko" director Richard Kelly on his gonzo cult curiosity "Southland Tales" and gleefully preened in front of a mirror as an out-and-proud gay bodyguard in F. Gary Gray's "Get Shorty" sequel "Be Cool." Having yet to establish a clean-cut brand for himself, the 2000s saw The Rock taking the kind of risks he would shirk for a decade after finally making it big in the movies.

That extended to Johnson's action films as well. When The Rock showed up as Luke Hobbs in 2011's "Fast Five" (only one of the...

The ending is the most important part of a movie. It is what creates the effects and emotions the audience is left with. Some endings imprint themselves on viewers’ minds and some continue to amaze audiences no matter how much time has passed.

Movies with cliffhangers and shocking endings that keep the audience on the edge of their seats are hard to come by. With their twisted narratives and layered plotlines, these movies make the viewers question what they think they know. They progress subtly, until the final jaw-dropping scene changes everything and has one thinking about it for days.

The ultimate element of surprise can truly make or break a film. Sometimes, a movie’s performance can be judged on how impactfully it leaves one stunned. Hence, here is a list of movies that can potentially leave one scratching their heads; ranked from better to best.

10. Gone Girl (2014) Rosamund Pike...

When filmmaker Richard Kelly made his feature directorial debut "Donnie Darko" in 2001, it caused a stir in the arthouse world. "Donnie Darko" quickly accumulated a passionate cult who fell in love with its unbalanced hero (Jake Gyllenhaal) and its twisted time-travel plot. It was a combination psychological horror film and bizarro indie coming-of-age-in-the-1980s tale. Unsurprisingly, it only took a few additional years for "Donnie Darko" to become a regular staple on the midnight movie circuit, with fans dressing up as the film's enigmatic Frank the Bunny on Halloween.

The cult success of "Donnie Darko," however, seemingly went to Kelly's head as he appeared to become very, very convinced of his own importance as a new artistic voice in the indie film world. It took five years, but he eventually returned to theaters with the utterly gonzo "Southland Tales," an epic and ambitious film about the horrors of the George W. Bush administration.

While the thriller genre shares plenty of elements with similar varieties of movies like horror and drama, thrillers have the unique ability to draw audiences in and make them unsure who to trust. These films use unreliable narrators, multiple realities, and differing perspectives. Often, movies like this have an unforgettable twist that throws the very nature of the story into question. The line between life and death is also a theme frequently touched upon in the most mind-bending psychological thrillers that purposefully throw the audience off course to disorient and surprise them.

Some of the most disturbing psychological thriller movies blend different genres into the script to draw audiences in and make them question their realities. It becomes clear through subtle hints and foreshadowing that what the characters believe and what the audience sees isn't the full story and that something is going on behind the scenes. While it's typical...

Rue the Christmas blues no more — the Criterion Channel has you covered with plenty of great films to stream this holiday season thanks to the platform’s December lineup.

As announced on Wednesday, Criterion Channel starting December 1 will host a greatest-hits collection of “Pope of Trash” John Waters’ most iconic movies. Divine-starring classics such as “Multiple Maniacs” (1970), “Female Trouble” (1974), “Hairspray” (1988), and “Polyester” (1981) fit the bill, while you shouldn’t miss a camped-up Kathleen Turner as a murderous suburban matriarch in “Serial Mom,” a role her agents told her would ruin her career. Well, the rest is history. For a bonus, John Waters also provides interview commentary on a selection of some of his own favorite movies, including Ingmar Bergman’s 1958 “Brink of Life,” Samuel Fuller’s 1964 “The Naked Kiss,” and Barbara Loden’s influential 1970 classic “Wanda.”

Elsewhere, Criterion Channel celebrates five decades of Alfred Hitchcock’s career with a murderer’s row of all-timers,...

Now that they’ve set the year’s best film for a December 10 debut, the Criterion Channel have unveiled the rest of next month’s selection. John Waters’ films are inseparable from John Waters’ presence, making fitting Criterion’s decision to pair an eight-film retrospective (Multiple Maniacs to Cecil B. Demented) with his own “Adventures in Moviegoing” wherein the director extols virtues of Bergman, Chabrol, Barbara Loden, and Samuel Fuller. His own Polyester will have a Criterion Edition alongside the Bob Dylan doc Don’t Look Back, an iconic film in its own right and, I think, fitting companion to The Unknown with Lon Chaney, also streaming on Criterion. No Country for Old Men and Election receive likewise treatment; the latter appears in “MTV Productions,” a series featuring Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, The Original Kings of Comedy, and (coming close to Freddy Got Fingered for least-expected 2024 addition) Jackass: the Movie.

Robert Eggers puts another woman (Lily-Rose Depp) under assault in his sexy and frightening take on “Nosferatu.” The “Northman” and “The Witch” director first saw F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent vampire film when he was nine years old on a scratchy old VHS tape off a 16mm print, as he told moderator Guillermo del Toro at a DGA screening packed with Academy members and critics on Thursday night. Directors John Landis, Richard Kelly, and J.C. Chandor were among the attendees chatting up Eggers afterward.

“It had a magical quality,” said Eggers of the tape. “It stayed with me.” He went on to play Count Orlok in his own high school play of “Nosferatu,” and his background as a stage and production designer before becoming a feature director is on full display here.

Focus Features is releasing the gothic horror film wide as Christmas counterprogramming on December 25, which explains why “Nosferatu” was not presented at festivals,...

While many works of Richard Matheson ended up on the small screen, the author was a giant when it came to genre. From post-apocalyptic monsters to gremlins on a plane, Matheson fathered a treasure trove of speculative stories that have since inspired countless other writers, including Stephen King. King said of the late Matheson: “[He] fired my imagination by placing his horrors not in European castles and Lovecraftian universes, but in American scenes I knew and could relate to.” And of all his homegrown writings, Matheson’s short story “Button, Button” may very well be his most approachable. For everyone can understand the allure of immediate wealth, even if that windfall comes with strings attached. Matheson, however, wove this universal desire into a unique and uncanny moral quandary — one where the offer is not only too good to be true, it also has fatal consequences.

Matheson’s unsettling tale has led to a few adaptations,...

Having Donnie Darko explained involves unknotting the movies complex timeline and doing so reveals the hidden meaning of the film. Released in 2001, Donnie Darko was a lot of different things to different viewers. The film is simultaneously an early vehicle for future superstar Jake Gyllenhaal, the directorial debut of mercurial genius Richard Kelly, and a hybrid of teen drama, science fiction, small-town mystery, and fantasy. The meaning of Donnie Darko combines difficult-to-explain alternate universes with time travel and some truly surreal symbolism.

It's a very surreal and strange movie, and this is epitomized by its finale, but that doesn't mean there's no meaning behind Donnie Darko. The film uses a lot of 80s' pop culture detritus, which creates a foggy, nostalgic atmosphere, making the ending all the more confusing for first-time viewers. Add in vortexes and mysterious talking rabbits and viewers are left with many questions. Over two decades since its release,...

Pop sensation and actor Lady Gaga is no stranger to the macabre. With her fierce love for all things gothic and horror-inspired, she’s brought dark and edgy elements to both her music and on-screen performances, like Lady Gaga’s unforgettable role in American Horror Story. Whether it’s her iconic meat dress or a performance with fake blood at the 2009 VMAs, Gaga has always embraced her love for the eerie. But which horror and thriller films rank as her personal favorites?

Gaga’s admiration for legendary director Alfred Hitchcock is no secret. In her hit song Bad Romance, she famously references three Hitchcock masterpieces: Psycho, Vertigo, and Rear Window. Her love for these films is deeply ingrained in her artistic identity.

In a 2015 interview on The Tonight Show, she even described thrillers and horror as calming for her, elaborating on her affection for the genre. This appreciation for Hitchcock extends to her music,...

Pop singer and actor Lady Gaga is no stranger to the horror genre, having starred in two seasons of Ryan Murphy's "American Horror Story," and she's always been a fan of the creepier side of entertainment. After all, this is a woman who calls her fans her "Little Monsters," wore a dress made of actual meat, and had the world's coolest live performance at the VMAs in 2009 when she started pouring fake blood from her abdomen mid-song. Even her turn as a very different take on Harley Quinn in "Joker: Folie à Deux" is horror-tinged, and she has a fabulously fierce, fearsome sense of style that's clearly inspired by gothic and horror aesthetics, too. It's clear that Gaga loves horror, but which horror movies rank among her favorites? 

Over the years, Gaga has hinted at which horror films have influenced her the most, either by revealing on social media...

In 2012, filmmaker Andrew Dominik released the follow-up to his critically acclaimed film, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; its name, Killing Them Softly. Unfolding during the 2008 Presidential election, this film tells the story of a hitman hired to tie up loose ends following the robbery of a high-stakes Mafia poker game.

Related 10 Underrated Gangster Movies That Are Flawless From Beginning to End

There are plenty of underrated gangster films that are just as good as many of the iconic staples in the genre.

At the time of its release, Killing Them Softly became a misunderstood failure in nearly every sense of the word, one that earned the rarest of cinematic audience scores and almost burnt down all the goodwill its relatively novice filmmaker had made for himself. If Killing Them Softly is remembered for anything today, it's for being one of the final movies to feature...

Donnie Darko is a cult classic that jumps from one genre to the next at every turn of the film. At times, it feels like a coming-of-age story, while at other times, it operates as a comedy. However, the deeper-rooted story focuses on science fiction, drama, and horror. The narrative of the film Donnie Darko had audiences baffled and intrigued, keeping potential theories going to this day. Due to the peculiar tale and relatable angst, Donnie Darko spread like wildfire and invoked multiple watches. It even caused many fans to pass on their physical copies to their friends with the hopes of fresh eyes explaining or acknowledging theories about the film. Scored to stellar 80s music, the film will have you sucked in and dissecting the end over and over again.

28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, 12 seconds. That is when the world will end.

The film Donnie Darko follows a young boy...

This article contains references to violence and self harm.

Many filmmakers deliberately include last-minute twists to challenge viewers' imaginations and break traditional narrative structures. Media literacy skills and understanding typical narrative formats are essential for interpreting complex and confusing movies effectively. Directors like Christopher Nolan and David Lynch create films that require multiple viewings to fully absorb due to nonlinear storytelling and ambiguous endings.

Plenty of movies take winding story routes to ultimately click by the film's conclusion, but some throw in a last-minute twist that changes everything. This is rarely, if ever, an accident, as many filmmakers have made their names by making surrealist and nonlinear stories that push people to the brink of their imaginations. I enjoy movies like this and seek them out much of the time because they break the formula and mold of traditional narrative structure. However, it's important that the writers and directors of...

Harvey is the pièce de résistance of films featuring massive human-like bunnies

How does one go about choosing their favourite James Stewart movie? The great actor’s oeuvre spans a wide variety of genres and moods. For good ol’ fashioned Christmas cheer, it’s hard to go past It’s a Wonderful Life. For political drama, Mr Smith Goes to Washington. For repartee-filled romantic comedy, The Shop Around the Corner. For thrillers, there’s not one but three great Hitchcock productions: Vertigo, Rear Window and Rope.

These are all fine films (and we haven’t even mentioned his westerns yet), but I have a soft spot for a less well-known production, starring Stewart as a lovely drunkard whose best friend and constant companion is a giant invisible rabbit. If you’ve never heard of Harvey (the title of the film and the name of the rabbit) you may wonder whether you read that sentence correctly.

This post contains spoilers for "Donnie Darko."

Richard Kelly's "Donnie Darko" opens with a nightmarish conversation in the dark. An ominous-looking rabbit named Frank (James Duval) warns a young Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) about the world's imminent end — in 28 days, six hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds, to be precise. Although Frank looks more like a man in a rabbit costume than a tall bipedal rabbit, there is something eerily otherworldly about his presence, with the suit's soulless eyes adding a touch of the macabre. Since this fateful meeting, Donnie is guided by Frank towards a particular end, and the volatile, melancholy teen undergoes several rites of passage over the span of 28 days. Frank's mysterious influence over Donnie is just one baffling aspect of the film, as the mind-boggling nature of the events invites varied interpretations, often blurring the lines between reality and dreams, and ones where the two overlap.

It might...

Gyllenhaal shines in dark thrillers like Zodiac and Nightcrawler, proving his versatility in Hollywood. "Presumed Innocent" marks Gyllenhaal's TV debut, adding to his streak of acclaimed performances. Gyllenhaal's portrayal of complex characters like Louis Bloom in Nightcrawler showcases his brilliance as an actor.

Jake Gyllenhaal's latest project Presumed Innocent is yet another great thriller in the celebrated actor's filmography. Gyllenhaal has become one of the most recognizable movie stars on the planet who has surprisingly yet to win an Academy Award or an Emmy for his efforts. Presumed Innocent marks Gyllenhaal's television and streaming debut, which is shocking in and of itself considering the actor earned his first professional acting credit with 1991's City Slickers. Presumed Innocent's positive Rotten Tomatoes score continues Gyllenhaal's recent streak of starring in critically acclaimed movies, and now, television series.

I can still remember the first time watching Donnie Darko and being captivated...

Scott Turow wrote his first novel, Presumed Innocent, in 1987. Three years later, it was adapted into a movie starring Harrison Ford. Fast-forward over thirty years, and David E. Kelley, known for hit shows like The Practice, Alley McBeal, and Big Little Lies, is adapting the novel to the small screen for Apple TV+. This crime thriller features magnificent twists and turns and two powerful performances by Academy Award nominees Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Negga.

Presumed Innocent Plot

Presumed Innocent follows the story of a Chicago Prosecutor who finds himself a suspect in the middle of a horrific murder. The series explores sex, politics, and obsession as Rusty Sabich fights to keep his family and marriage together.

Jake Gyllenhaal and Bill Camp in “Presumed Innocent,” premiering June 12, 2024 on Apple TV+.

The Critique

David E. Kelley, a master of the thriller genre, takes on the challenge of breathing new life into a story we thought we knew.

Hollywood is bursting with "what if" scenarios -- "Sliding Doors" moments where actors, writers, directors, and craftspeople almost made a certain project, or almost walked away from a job that would become huge for their careers. With the benefit of hindsight, these situations are often fun to think about -- especially if, as in the case in today's example, A) the two people competing for a part were vying for a memorable role in a well-known movie, and B) they both went on to have great careers, so the thought exercise doesn't feel mean-spirited or just plain sad.

In an oral history of "Zoolander" published by Vanity Fair in 2021, "Zoolander" writer, producer, director, and star Ben Stiller explained how Owen Wilson nearly didn't end up playing Hansel, Derek Zoolander's rival-male-model-turned-friend, and identified the surprising actor who almost took the role instead:

"We wrote Hansel for Owen Wilson. But at a certain point,...

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