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Maika Monroe has successfully ingratiated herself to horror fans in the years since rising to prominence with the indie hit It Follows. Part of her appeal stems from her impressive acting chops. She’s a great thespian with plenty of range. There’s also her willingness to continue to appear in genre fare after making a name for herself. That’s refreshing, seeing as many actors use the horror genre as a stepping stone and then pivot to more mainstream fare the first chance they get. Oh, and there’s the fact that Ms. Monroe chooses her roles really smartly. She has far more hits than misses on her CV. With a track record like that, it’s no wonder we’ve fallen under her spell.

Speaking of Monroe’s winning track record, Villains, one of her lesser-known (yet still critically acclaimed) efforts, is now available to stream for free.

From family shenanigans to R-rated humor, TV shows set in the 1990s blend nostalgia with cultural relevance for both old and new audiences. City on a Hill authentically showcases Boston's crime scene of the '90s, while Cruel Summer twists '90s nostalgia with modern storytelling. Everything Sucks! delivers a realistic portrayal of '90s high school life, while Clarice dives deep into a '90s crime drama with a female lead.

The sole purpose of rewatching some of the best TV shows of the 1990s is to bring the audience back to the nostalgia of the decade. However, there are some modern series set in the iconic era of grunge fashion, upbeat pop music and changing technology. While these shows are more contemporary, they focus on the social and historical issues that defined the time.

From nostalgic, family-centered shenanigans to R-rated comedies, they offer a combination of humor, drama,...

Stars: Bill Skarsgård, Maika Monroe, Blake Baumgartner, Jeffrey Donovan, Kyra Sedgwick, Noah Robbins | Written and Directed by Dan Berk, Robert Olsen

I’ve used Rakuten TV a few times now, and the service is on-point. Slick, easy to use and crystal clear in sound and picture, it’s a very cool service for the rental of movies. Available to use across various places, from Smart TV’s, Xbox One, PC’s, Chromecast and various other places, it’s well worth a shot if you’re yet to use it.

This occasion I watched Villains, a comedy drama with elements of home-invasion thriller and horror, it is a delightfully dark film that twists and turns you on a 90 minute journey as we follow two small-time crooks in love, Mickey (Bill Skarsgård) and Jules (Maika Monroe) who are, through some armed robbery jobs, on their way to Florida with a stash of...

Maika Monroe deserves to be a massive star. She first came on to my, and many folks’, radar with her tremendous turn in It Follows. More than just a scream queen in the making, Monroe had an X factor about her that suggested greatness. She again shows that in the new comedic thriller Villains, which teams her up with three other massively entertaining performances to craft a wholly surprising delight. Opening this week, the film easily could have been little more than a knock off of Quentin Tarantino’s work, but instead, it finds its own quirky wavelengths and delights from start to finish. The movie is a mixture of comedy, drama, horror, and thriller, all told with the allure of a crime caper. Jules (Monroe) and Mickey (Bill Skarsgård) are a couple hoping to rob their way to a new life in Florida. After holding up a gas station,...

"This is a hell of a predicament we've found ourselves in." Alter has unveiled a trailer for an indie thriller titled Villains, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this year. This twisted, freaky, bonkers film is about a pair of amateur criminals on the run who break into a home hoping to score a new ride. But they stumble upon a dark secret that two sadistic homeowners will do anything to keep from getting out. Uh oh. Starring Bill Skarsgård, Maika Monroe, Jeffrey Donovan, Kyra Sedgwick, Noah Robbins, and Blake Baumgartner. This trailer shows us some of what's waiting within, which is probably what you're expecting, but there's still more unanswered questions that only the film (perhaps?) will answer. Watch out. Here's the first official trailer for Dan Berk & Robert Olsen's Villains, direct from Alter's YouTube: Mickey and Jules are lovers on the run, headed southbound...

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for “Fosse/Verdon” Episode 4, “Glory.”]

Lest you doubt the musical theater credentials of the producers behind “Fosse/Verdon,” the FX limited series devoted to one of Broadway’s most infamous collaborations, know that in the writers’ room, there was a lot of singing — especially during the writing of Episode 4.

“I mean, a lot of singing, to the point where the assistants would look up from their desks, and then they’d look down and just shake their heads,” executive producer Joel Fields told IndieWire. “That entire final act wasn’t really written as much as it was sung into the draft.”

“Fosse/Verdon” Episode 4, “Glory,” tracks director Bob Fosse’s awards success after the release of “Cabaret” and his subsequent work on the Broadway musical “Pippin,” and leans heavily on that musical for its storytelling, especially in the final scenes, as Fosse’s suicidal fantasies intermingle with some of its key numbers.

It’s the home invaders who find themselves imperiled in “Villains,” the third feature collaboration for directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen. This black comedy thriller has a good cast to spark a scenario that’s intriguing enough to hold attention, if not quite clever enough to be a knockout. As an accessible, playful genre item with some familiar faces, “Villains” should have no trouble scaring up streaming and cable sales after premiering at the SXSW Film Festival.

An oddly naïf pair of felons, Mickey (Bill Skarsgard) and Jules (Maika Monroe) are introduced making their living — which is to say, donning animal masks to rob a convenience store. Bonnie and Clyde they’re not. Or perhaps they are, in that that real-life duo wasn’t particularly brainy or ambitious either, and seemingly low on alternative, law-abiding life skills. But like them, Jules and Mickey are in love, the kind of...

Glossy Hollywood automatons sleepwalk through family dynamics full of forced quirkiness, excruciating cuteness, and phony emotion. Absolutely cringeworthy. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

If you like spending the yuletide season with horrible people, have I got a movie for you. Christmas with the Coopers (called Love the Coopers in North America) is so awful, so cringeworthy, so full of forced quirkiness, excruciating cuteness, and phony emotion that it made me question my love for other movies about families gathering for a big festive meal, such as Home for the Holidays and The Family Stone. Coopers is so noxious that I suddenly wondered whether I had been wearing blinders when I fell in love with those movies, blinders that have now somehow dropped away. (I don’t think so. If I get a chance to revisit those movies,...

So good to see you, man. John Goodman stepped out for the red carpet premiere for upcoming flick Love the Coopers in Los Angeles on Thursday, Nov. 12, and the actor’s slimmer figure continued to turn heads. Goodman, 63, kept things casual in a pair of jeans, a pink button-down, and a black blazer, and was often literally running around the event, chasing his costar Blake Baumgartner on the red carpet, according to the Daily Mail. The former Roseanne star first debuted his fit figure early last month [...]...

Social media is filled with complaints about retailers jumping the gun on Christmas. Hey the jack-o-lantern’s not yet ripe when the tinsel and wreaths go on sale. Well at least this inspired one of the great double holiday flicks, The Nightmare Before Christmas. So, if the mall starts early, why not the attached (usually) multiplex theatres. Hollywood loves sending out movies at the end of the year set around the staples of the season. So, before you even think about grabbing the turkey (let’s not get ahead of this piece) for Thanksgiving, here’s a flick about a big, big family getting things set for the big Christmas Eve shindig. Now Mom’s a perfectionist, so everything has to be plotted out and just right. Of course, like most families, things are far from perfect. Doesn’t mean they can’t try their darndest in the new star-packed cinema stocking,...

What kind of title is Love The Coopers, anyway? Does it represent the bland sentimentalities of a Hallmark card hastily signed on the way to your parents’ house? Is it meant as a plea to audiences, a last-ditch effort to get you to care about its disparate collection of thinly constructed personalities? This overwrought family Christmas comedy is as devoid of nuance as its plain title suggests. Worse than that, Love The Coopers is overly familiar and exceedingly dull despite its warm, genial cast.

In the snowy suburbs around Pittsburgh, four generations of the Cooper family prepare for their annual Christmas gathering. Charlotte (Diane Keaton) and Sam (John Goodman) hope to keep their rocky marriage and impending divorce a secret long enough to host one last, happy family holiday dinner. Their son Hank (Ed Helms), meanwhile, contends with his own marital and parenting issues while keeping his unemployment a secret...