Month: March 2022

Shelley Duvall was famously (and regrettably) nominated for Worst Actress by the Razzies for The Shining when she should have been up for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. But so it goes for actors and actresses giving award-worthy performances in Stephen King movies — and all horror movies, for that matter.

In an interview with The Kingcast podcast, the horror author discussed the performance in a movie based on one of his stories that he felt should have received Oscar consideration. “One of the other ones that’s really great… was Cujo. I thought, again, this is the sort of conversation that you get into with people about awards season, and who gets nominated and who doesn’t get nominated. Dee Wallace should have been nominated for an Academy Award, and in my opinion, she should have won it,” he said. “She was just passed over.”

Cujo — about a mother (Wallace) protecting her son from a rabid St. Bernard that didn’t f*ck me up when I saw it as a pre-teen, nope, definitely not — was released in 1983. Let’s see who was nominated for Best Actress that year: Shirley MacLaine (the winner) and Debra Winger for Terms for Endearment, Jane Alexander for Testament, Meryl Streep for Silkwood, and Julie Walters for Educating Rita. By that point, Streep had already been nominated for four Oscars, winning twice — her spot should have gone to Wallace. She’s the mom from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, for christ’s sake!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the latest installment of Me Complaining Oscar Snubs From Decades Ago. Thank you for your time.

(Via ScreenRant)

Did you ever think you’d see the day when there would be enough Batman movies for a ranking list? With Matt Reeves’ The Batman opening this weekend, there have now been 10 movies about the zorro-esque aristocrat in a mask who fights for the common man, not counting animated versions (Lego Batman) and spinoffs like Catwoman, Joker or Birds of Prey — the Harley Quinn movie (Harley Quinn is the Joker’s girlfriend; the Joker is the evil clown who fights Batman, for those of you who haven’t been keeping a mental spreadsheet of such things).

Robert Pattinson will be the sixth actor (West, Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney, Bale, Affleck) to play Batman. Reeves will be the sixth director (Leslie Martinson, Burton, Nolan, Schumacher, Snyder) to helm a live-action Batman movie. There are now identifiable Batman eras. Do you like your Batman with murder or no murder? A weirdo or a boy scout? Glib and funny or intense and brooding? Someone should design a Myers-Briggs test to match you with your ideal Batman.

With so many different approaches to Batman having been attempted, we thought why not dance with the devil in the pale moonlight and try to rank our favorite? Because the only thing the internet appreciates more than a numbered list is the opportunity to fight about our favorite cape daddies. Keep in mind, tastes are subjective, so if you disagree with me on any of these it’s probably because you are wrong.

10. Batman Forever

Year Released: 1995

The Principals: Joel Schumacher directing, Val Kilmer as Batman, with Nicole Kidman and Drew Barrymore as love interests and Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones as villains.

I really wanted to be one of those smart critics with a brilliant, bespoke take about how the much-maligned Joel Schumacher Batman movies are actually better than you remember, full of sardonic wit overlooked by contemporary critics and the ultimate reflections of America’s obsession with blah blah blah. Then I tried to actually rewatch Batman Forever. It’s clear from the very first frames that something isn’t quite right here.

Batman Forever opens with a “gear montage,” of Batman suiting up, which leads into a shot of the Batmobile, this iteration of which looks a bit like a big veiny dildo on wheels.

It’s first lines are:

ALFRED: Can I persuade you to take a sandwich, sir?

BATMAN: …I’ll get drive-through.

It feels like a fast-food commercial, and… it sort of was one? Batman Forever allegedly cost $100 million to make, and yet the whole thing feels cheap, like a disposable plastic toy come to life. Schumacher made no effort to make his sets look like anything but sets, and his big visual idea seems to have been “canted angles” (which he may have taken from the villain scenes in 1966’s Batman, which were allegedly shot with Dutch angles to convey that the characters were “crooked”). Pretty much every scene opens with the camera cocked sideways, and having to tilt your head does not improve the plasticky sets or bizarre tone — which finds neither the goth camp of the Burton Batman movies nor the grounded realism of the Nolan Batmans. Schumacher’s efforts land somewhere between “half-assed” and “community theater” with an occasional jolts of bracing horniness.

It’s strange, because if you had told me in 1995 that the director of The Lost Boys and Falling Down was doing a Batman movie starring the guy from True Romance and Tombstone I would’ve thought it sounded like the greatest idea ever. Kilmer on paper seems like a fantastic Batman — he has the perfect eyebrows and lips for it, and he’s a great actor with classic action movies on his resume. In practice his Batman is a weirdly bland boy scout; even worse than Clooney’s glib version. At least that was a take.

The only time the Joel Schumacher Batman movies are interesting is when they’re horny, and Batman Forever is far less horny than Batman & Robin. (Nicole Kidman’s psychiatrist character showing off her cleavage to seduce Batman, to whom she’s attracted because she has psychopath fetish, is the only interesting scene).

9. Batman (1966)

Year Released: 1966

The Principals: Leslie H. Martinson directing Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin; Cesar Romero, Lee Merriwether, Burgess Meredith, and Frank Gorshin.

Any Gen Xer or younger who thinks their generation invented irony or post-modernism needs to watch this swinging sixties version of Batman, in which Adam West does deadpan puns for 90 minutes and fights off a rubber shark in the first act. Vigilantes?? This Batman rejects the label. He and Robin are “fully deputized agents of the law!”

This generation’s sense of camp is somewhat opaque to us now, but Batman seems clearly intended as some kind of knowing, wink-wink nudge-nudge parody, which kids could naively enjoy while their chain-smoking parents smirked appreciatively at the drollness of it all before going out for an eight-martini steak dinner.

Burgess Meredith, aka the original trainer from Rocky, plays Penguin, with Cesar Romero as the Joker (a role for which he refused to shave his mustache) and Lee Merriwether replacing Julie Newmar as a very pointy-boobed Catwoman. Burt Ward played a dopey, maybe-gay Robin who wasn’t smart enough to get any of Batman’s jokes.

This was the era when everything in the Batman universe had a “bat” label and/or pun, like the batcopter and batladder, the latter of which dangled from the former while the pastel-clad Batman punched a shark (“hand me down the shark repellent bat spray, Robin!”). The matter-of-fact goofy labels on everything feel like a particular inspiration for Wes Anderson.

The whole vibe reminds me of Tarantino’s conception of pre-hippie Hollywood’s halcyon days that inspired Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, or of a sketch being performed at the Playboy Mansion to loosen everyone up before the hot tub. Which is to say, some knowingly goofy pantomime that existed largely as a way to kill some time before everyone got drunk and fucked. There aren’t actual bikini go-go dancers in it, but it feels like there are? The go-go dancers are implied? Was that a thing?

Anyway, this is a movie where it seems like everyone involved was having a lot of fun. Not that much of it actually translates to us the viewers, mind you, especially almost 60 years later, but it does look like the sixties were a sexy fun time.

8. Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice

Year Released: 2016

The Principals: Zack Snyder directs Ben Affleck as Batman and Henry Cavill as Superman; with Amy Adams as Lois Lane and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.

I don’t know if this one even belongs on the list, as I’ve always thought of it primarily as a Superman movie rather than a Batman movie. I did like the idea of Zack Snyder directing Ben Affleck as a ‘roided-out, over-the-hill Batman, and perhaps I’m in the minority here, but I quite enjoyed at least the first two-thirds of Man of Steel.

Yet six years later, the only things I can remember about Batman V. Superman are that it had a dream sequence within a dream sequence (double dream!) and the heroes bonding over both their moms being named Martha. Otherwise it was just a long, dull commercial for future DC movies. Which honestly makes me a little nostalgic for Batman movies as-commercials-for-McDonald’s. Say what you will about the Schumacher Batman movies, at least they weren’t 156 minutes long.

7. Batman & Robin

Year Released: 1997

The Principals: Schumacher back as director; George Clooney as Batman and Chris O’Donnell as Robin; Uma Thurman and Alicia Silverstone as Poison Ivy and Batgirl; Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, plus an early version of Bane.

Schumacher’s second Batman movie opens with an even sillier version of the gear montage from the first one, now with gratuitous closeups of butts and codpieces (angles canted, of course). That leads into an action set piece so goofy it makes the old Adam West Batman TV show look like Heat by comparison. Batman and Robin try to steal back some giant, cartoony jewels from Arnold’s Mr. Freeze (see above), who’s trying desperately to shoehorn every groan-worthy catchphrase however many screenwriters this movie actually had could think of. It truly must be seen to be believed, making absolutely no concessions to the laws of physics, with Batman and Robin literally floating from place to place as if being controlled by a kid playing with dolls, all while fighting bad guys dressed like evil hockey players.

On the one hand, Batman & Robin is a tonal disaster and the acting is more grating than your average high school play. On the other hand, it is extremely horny, and it’s hard not to begrudgingly respect Schumacher for fitting so much horniness into an otherwise nonsensical half-assed kids movie. The conceit of Poison Ivy was that she was a femme fatale, a budding eco-terrorist who could inspire so much lust in men that they would kill each other or themselves just for a taste. And suffice it to say, this was wildly believable as embodied by 1997 Uma Thurman (even taking account the awful Mae West accent she uses the entire movie). During a wild charity gala sequence, Poison Ivy takes the stage in a giant gorilla costume for a pseudo-burlesque dance sequence, during which she coquettishly reveals a nipple, shot in close-up — a papier mache gorilla nipple!

That scene along bumps this one a couple spots up on the list, a bizarre porno for 8-year-olds. It’s wild. And yet also, kind of boring and shitty.

6. The Batman

Year Released: 2022

The Principals: Matt Reeves directs Robert Pattinson as Batman, with Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Paul Dano as The Riddler, Colin Farrell, and John Turturro.

Adding to the “things that sounded good on paper” theme of the first part of this list, I really liked the idea of a stand-alone, not-part-of-the-DCEU Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson as a weird goth Bruce Wayne. Robert Pattinson has the ideal jawline to play Batman, and between him and Zoe Kravitz, there are times when The Batman feels like a movie about sharp jawlines. Unfortunately, The Batman is also two hours and 56 minutes long, far too much screen time to be filled with sculpted jawlines alone. Warner also managed to hire the only mainstream blockbuster director with even less of a sense of humor than Christopher Nolan, Matt Reeves.

Perhaps you enjoy Reeves’ Planet Of The Apes films. Many people I normally agree with do. While I grant Reeves a rich visual vocabulary, I find his Apes movies oppressively joyless, which in retrospect probably should’ve been a clue as to how I’d find The Batman. The Batman uses as its main musical cues the traditional “Ave Maria” and Nirvana’s “Something In The Way,” the worst song on Nevermind and a perfect Nirvana song for people whose favorite thing about Nirvana was Kurt’s self-pitying heroin hangovers. (Someone please make the “Drain You” of Batman movies, I prefer my cynicism drenched in sarcastic cheer).

The Batman starts out attempting something like a film noir, a Chinatown or a The Crow about the real power behind the city, starring Batman. Yet it lacks both the coherence of Chinatown and the earnestness and camp flair of The Crow, and really any sense of exuberance or joy whatsoever. It skips Batman’s origin story for once, which in theory is admirable, but in practice just leaves more room for The Batman‘s leaden yet somehow frantic plotting. God, I’m so sick of baroque plotting.

A good film noir breathes. It’s anchored in time and place. The characters are recognizable types. In The Batman, Italian gangsters who control the city, 1940s-like, coexist with a social media-famous killer, 2020s political debates, and multiple characters who grew up in 1920s orphanages. It’s a lot of things at once, all of them GRRRR DARK SAD but not especially coherent or believable.

A film noir Batman sounded like a cool idea, the same way a 70s Deniro homage Joker was kind of a cool idea. Yet even more so than Joker, The Batman can’t seem to commit to its own idea. Despite the sheen of art cinema it eventually throws in all the old corny Batman clichés anyway, complete with a post-credits sequence that might as well have been a big middle finger reading “f*ck you for sitting through the credits, you dumb asshole.”

I’d actually kind of respect it if I hadn’t just sat through a Batman movie longer than The Godfather.

5. The Dark Knight Rises

Year Released: 2012

The Principals: The third Christopher Nolan-directed, Christian Bale-starring Batman, with Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, and Michael Caine.

I think most of us can agree that The Dark Knight Rises was the weakest of the Nolan-Bale trilogy, right? Probably three Batman movies is a lot to ask of any director.

In the broader context of Batman movies in general, The Dark Knight Rises still pretty good. I just think most of us were getting pretty tired of endless twists, motiveless villains who get caught on purpose, and armies of inexplicably suicidal henchmen by this point. At this late stage I mostly remember Bane being unintelligible, way too many endings, and an overbearing score that made most of the action sequences feel like music videos.

Which is a bit of a shame, because Nolan had gotten pretty good at shooting action by this point, surprising considering he started his career as one of the foremost offenders of hacked-together shaky cam action. TDKR was also 165 minutes long, which is, again, way too long for a Batman movie. Sorry, guys, I love a lot of Batman movies but Batman is not Apocalypse Now. I honestly shouldn’t even have to elaborate on this point, if your protagonist is a guy who wears a cape and punches people two and a half hours plus is too long.

Still, for all his tics, and all the tropes Nolan popularized that other directors ripped off and did poorly, it’s undeniable that Christopher Nolan is real movie director. He understands themes, his compositions are spectacular (in the true sense of “spectacle”), his actors always bring their A-games, and his scenes tend to work even when the story is overplotted and/or full of holes if you stop to think about it.

4. The Dark Knight

Year Of Release: 2008

The Principals: Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhardt, Maggie Gyllenhaal.

I know, I know, CONTROVERSIAL TAKE here, but if you can stop shouting for a moment, I’ll defend the indefensible by saying that while The Dark Knight was almost certainly my favorite Batman movie when I was leaving the theater, it’s a brilliantly-made movie that doesn’t have a ton of rewatch value for me these days.

The action scenes were easily a high-water mark for superhero movies up until that point, and Christian Bale and Heath Ledger are a basically perfect Batman and Joker. But again, the motiveless killer and army of inexplicably-loyal-to-the-point-of-human-sacrifice henchman don’t really do it for me. The frenetic pacing and busy plot are things that worked well enough in the moment but don’t hold up that well in retrospect.

3. Batman Returns

Year Of Release: 1992

Principals: Tim Burton directing Michael Keaton as Batman, Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, Danny DeVito as the Penguin, Christopher Walken.

Batman Returns is admittedly one of the weirdest blockbusters ever made, but unlike Schumacher’s Batman movies, it’s fascinatingly weird. It was written by Daniel Waters, who also wrote Heathers and Demolition Man, another one of my favorite weird action movies from the early 90s, and Batman Returns feels like a high-water mark of 90s goth-camp culture. After all, it brought together two titans of 90s art student kitsch — Waters and Tim Burton.

No other Batman movie balances camp silliness and goth noir as well as Batman Returns. It has scenes that are hilarious, scenes that are borderline disturbing, scenes that are absurd, and scenes that are costume-freak sexy. The scenes between Batman and Catwoman are arguably the only legitimately sexy scenes in the Batman universe (though Schumacher’s Batman movies are enjoyably horny at times), with real sexual chemistry (“mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it”) and two characters who seem like they’re seconds from f*cking every time they’re onscreen. With all due respect to Heath Ledger’s memory, Danny DeVito as Oswald Cobblepot is easily my favorite Batman movie villain. “It could be worse, my nose could be gushing blood” edges out “wanna see a pencil disappear?” for the best line.

Batman Returns is also a strangely great satire of political optics with an underrated performance both by Christopher Walken as Max Schreck, with Andrew Bryniarski (aka Lattimore from The Program) perfectly cast as Max’s large son, Chip, in his brief scenes. Oswald Cobblepot’s penguin funeral is truly surreal and the whole film is strangely unforgettable, even if most of us probably left the theater scratching our heads at the time it came out. In many ways it’s the opposite of The Dark Knight, a movie that’s maybe too weird the first time you see it but seems to get better with every rewatch. I love Batman Returns.

2. Batman Begins

Year Of Release: 2005

The Principals: Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy.

Trying to decide between Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and Batman Returns is the hardest part of this ranking by far — they all have things about them that I love and other things about them that I don’t. Batman Begins is, in my opinion, by far the strongest of the Nolan Batman movies from a story standpoint. It had a few twists, as all Nolan movies do, but it didn’t try to do too much and it didn’t try to make the whole world or the whole universe the stakes of every scene. If I could beg the people who make superhero movies for one thing it would be to stop having the heroes have to save the entirety of existence in every movie. It’s exhausting. Cable news has done the same thing. If everything is the most dangerous thing in the world, eventually nothing is.

Anyway, Batman Begins was an ideal introduction to Bale-Batman, and Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow is an underrated villain — essentially, a guy who gets you way too high and then goads you into bad trips, but on an industrial scale. I love the idea that a supervillain is the Bad Drug Friend.

The biggest shame of Batman Begins is that for as strong as it is on story, it was firmly ensconced in the “shaking-makes-it-more-realistic” era of Christopher Nolan action scenes. Batman might be doing something really cool, but all we’re going to see is breaking glass, a close-up of someone’s lapel, a blurry something, and then a shot of Batman snarling. My dream would be for present-day Christopher Nolan to remake Batman Begins, and he has to let a third party supervise the sound mix.

1. Batman

Year Of Release: 1989

Principals: Tim Burton directing, Michael Keaton as Batman, Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale, Jack Nicholson as the Joker, Robert Wuhl, soundtrack by Prince.

It’s easy to forget how weird Batman was in 1989. Producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters (also known as Barbra Streisand’s one-time boyfriend, since parodied by everyone from Kevin Smith to Paul Thomas Anderson in Licorice Pizza, in which Peters is played by Bradley Cooper) had developed it for 10 years before it actually came out, and it’s hard to imagine anyone less crazy and prone to bizarre wild hairs than Jon Peters could’ve made it.

When he was hired, Tim Burton had had just one feature released, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, in 1985. Shooting on Batman didn’t get the go ahead until after the success of Beetlejuice three years later. Michael Keaton, meanwhile, was a slightly-built comedic actor with poofy hair, known for such films as Johnny Dangerously and The Dream Team (Pierce Brosnan and Tom Selleck were apparently considered for the role, among many others — part of me still wants to see the Tom Selleck version of Batman). Batman itself was a sixties TV show about a chipper boy scout in a blue suit who drove a convertible.

Imagine telling a financier that you want to turn a kids TV show into a dark, PG-13 adult drama starring the little poofy-haired guy from Mr. Mom directed by the guy from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure with Jack Nicholson and a soundtrack by Prince. We should all write a thank-you letter to cocaine.

Almost every single creative choice in the development of Batman seems like a wild longshot, but by some weird alchemy they kind of balance each other out. Keaton is a shockingly effective mix of unassuming, wild-eyed, guarded, and fierce, and Tim Burton still feels like the ideal director to balance the schlock, camp, noir world of Batman while still making it feel real. I’m not even a Burton fanboy, but his are the only Batman movies to have jokes in them without being jokes themselves. The story breathes. It has just one big action set piece, the Joker’s free-money parade, but it doesn’t need more. The script builds up to this one big action scene, and then the scene delivers.

If there was one movie that laid the groundwork for the current content ecosystem of psuedo-kids entertainment actually aimed at adults, it was Batman. (I actually tried to watch it with my 8-year-old stepson and he made me turn it off because it was too scary). Yet whereas Marvel mostly makes violent-but-sanitized war propaganda with cutesy dialogue, Batman was an eerie drama about a weird guy and a broken villain directed by an art school goth. There’s a wit, a level of craft, and a sweetness to the 1989 Batman. Other directors’ Batman movies might’ve had one or two of those at the same time, but never all three.

Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

We did it, folks, we’ve survived February 2022. More importantly, we’re all playing Elden Ring and it’s really really good. Rejoice, Tarnished! But 2022’s games aren’t stopping there, so Noah and Noelle from Recon are here to help you all sort through the never-ending series of games threatening all our free times and wallets this year.

2022’s games onslaught continues with a year jam-packed with everything from massive RPGs to games where you play as a cat. Noelle is looking forward to the next game that’ll terrify her and all the while, everyone is joined in hands trying to will Hollow Knight Silksong into existence. It’ll happen one day, guys. In the meantime, new games aren’t the only ones that matter. I’m starting to think Noah’s right: what about our Halo Infinite challenges?!

So many games these days just don’t end thanks to DLC, expansions, and updates that just keep adding more features and mechanics. Others, like Cyberpunk 2077, are getting a second chance to make a better first impression in 2022. This steady stream of additions to existing games has been changing how we think about new releases for a long time. Everything old can be new again!

We do love new games though and even more than that, we love the possibility and rumors of them. Is there any possibility for a sequel to Among Us? Will Noelle get to play God of War: Ragnarok this year?! Only time will tell if these things will come to pass, but one thing’s for sure: 2022’s video game schedule is looking pretty packed right now. So make that wish list and check it twice alongside some of our recommendations on the latest episode of Recon!

Last week marked the fifth week the Encanto smash “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” had spent in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was also the final week of the song’s chart-topping run (for now, at least): On the new Hot 100 dated March 12, “Bruno” has lost its top spot to Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves,” which ascends to No. 1 for the first time.

It was a long road for “Heat Waves” to get to No. 1. In fact, it was the longest road ever: It finally topped the Hot 100 in its 59th week on the chart, which shatters the record for longest climb to No. 1, besting the 35 weeks it took Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” to do so.

The band’s Dave Bayley wrote and produced the song himself, which makes “Heat Waves” the first such No. 1 hit since Pharrell’s 2014 chart-topper “Happy.” It’s also just one of a handful of songs to ever debut at No. 100 on the chart before rising to the very top. Additionally, the song is both the band’s first No. 1 hit and their only song to ever actually chart on the Hot 100.

Bayley spoke with Uproxx for an interview a few months ago and said of the song, “With ‘Heat Waves,’ it was coming to terms with the fact that it’s OK to understand, appreciate, and know that you’re missing someone — that it’s actually probably quite healthy. That you should let yourself do that, you shouldn’t try to bury it the whole time. It’s kind of like a eureka, euphoric moment. Or it can be.”

Mary Wollstonecraft is considered by many to be the founder of feminism. Her book, titled “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” was groundbreaking for challenging the notion that women existed for the sole purpose of pleasing men, and its philosophy is still the heartbeat pulsing through the women’s movement.

Wollstonecraft died only days after giving birth in 1797, but not before bestowing one last piece of advice to her baby girl. And it’s wisdom that every daughter deserves to hear.

“Death may snatch me from you, before you can weigh my advice, or enter into my reasoning: I would then, with fond anxiety, lead you very early in life to form your grand principle of action, to save you from the vain regret of having, through irresolution, let the spring-tide of existence pass away, unimproved, unenjoyed. — Gain experience — ah! gain it — while experience is worth having, and acquire sufficient fortitude to pursue your own happiness; it includes your utility, by a direct path. What is wisdom too often, but the owl of the goddess, who sits moping in a desolated heart.”

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According to The Marginalian, the words come from another book Wollstonecraft had been brewing as a follow-up novel to Vindication, meant to take on a more personal tone. Her words indicate that Wollstonecraft knew the end could be approaching, making her message all the more bittersweet.

In our modern era, this passage might not seem all too radical. Gain experience, pursue your own happiness. Got it, we’ve heard it before. But the fact that Wollstonecraft encouraged self-mastery to her daughter—in a time when a woman’s fate was decided wholly by men—is what makes it so remarkable. Wollstonecraft inherently knew the value of empowering women, and wanted her daughter to have the same inner knowing.

She also wanted her daughter to come into this world with the knowledge that she is, and always will be enough. She writes how remembering that will help ensure a happy life.

“Always appear what you are, and you will not pass through existence without enjoying its genuine blessings, love and respect.”

Wollstonecraft’s words—and her feminist principles—would continue to live on through her daughter, Mary Shelley, who went on to write “Frankenstein,” giving the world its first taste of science fiction.

Scholars have noted how Shelley’s iconic novel is, in its own right, a feminist novel. Primarily for the way Shelley criticized how females and femininity had been devalued by a male-driven science community in patriarchal society. I mean, the bride of Frankenstein was torn to pieces … so …

Like her mother advised, Shelley rebelled against convention in favor of pursuing her own path. And not just in her career, either. In fact, both mother and daughter had passionate counterculture romances that warranted a rather spicy double biography.

The Marginalian adds that little Mary Shelley learned to read by tracing the letters of her mother’s gravestone, and really only came to know her mother through her work. It’s a bittersweet, yet touching image. The words of her late mother clearly resonated and shaped her identity.

It seemed Wollstonecraft’s dying wish was to instill within her daughter a fiery independence that couldn’t be squelched. If that’s the case, she succeeded, and her words continue to inspire women everywhere to enjoy (even fight for) the genuine blessings of being exactly who they are.

Just when you think the well of “Encanto” covers has run dry, guess again. There truly is no limit to the amount of bizarre and creative entertainment to be found on the internet.

Musician Jon Pumper hilariously reimagines the iconic “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” song by delving into a subject that continues to baffle ’90s kids and enrage astrologers to this very day: Pluto losing its planetary title.

Not to open up old wounds, but who can forget the day that our solar system went from having nine planets, to a measly eight? Pluto might have been demoted to “dwarf planet” (which in retrospect, still sounds pretty cool, right?), but people did not take its abdication lightly. Made for some pretty great memes though.

And hey, if you don’t recall any of the story, Pumper sums it all up pretty well in “We Don’t Talk About Pluto,” which feels like something between a “Weird Al” Yankovic video and an episode of “The Magic School Bus.”

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Pumper’s song waves its geek flag proudly with its pop culture references, and the musical composition matches the original perfectly, which I think we can all agree are quintessential components to a successful parody.

The consensus was pretty unanimous: people gave the video a 10/10.

“You did so good with this from the lyrics to the visuals and even nailing the overlapping choruses at the end,” one person wrote in the comments.

“We need more educational songs like this that are actually good,” another person noted.

Even those who came in skeptical had a change of heart.

“Really enjoyed this. I was afraid it wouldn’t flow but it did. And I love when you combined all the lines in the end and was clear,” said one person.

Can you believe that some youngsters don’t even know about this blemish in history? Sadly, it’s true. Just take it from this person:

“The kids I babysit don’t believe me when I say there used to be NINE planets. Now I feel old.”

But it turns out that maybe Pluto will get the last laugh after all, at least if this person is right:

“Fun fact: Some scientists are fighting to get Pluto back on the team, and he might be bringing enough friends, including some moons and asteroids, to bump the total amount of planets up to 150+!”

Either way, this zany video has given the infamous dwarf planet the respect it deserves.

By the way, Pumper clearly has a knack for teaching. You can check out his YouTube channel to find a plethora of fun piano tutorials here.

The people of Australia have dealt with Mother Nature’s worst over the past two years. Devastating drought, terrible wildfires and now catastrophic floods throughout Queensland and New South Wales. The waters have reached nightmarish heights and residents can’t evacuate fast enough, leaving many trapped and stranded on rooftops.

And yet, even in times of disaster, compassion perseveres.

A nonprofit group called Sikh Volunteers Australia provided free food and drinking water to families affected by the crisis, in an effort to show support and boost morale.

The task would not be easy. Four team members would have to drive 34 hours—over blocked bridges and flooded highways—to make it to the community of Lismore.

But faith would get them to their destination and once there, a warm, soothing dish was made of rice and soya curry “spiced to perfection,” according to SVA co-founder Jaswinder Singh in an interview with SBS News.

The curry was chosen both for its uplifting taste and nutritional value. Singh told Australian Community Media (ACM) it provides “a perfect balance of nutrition of protein, carbohydrates and other nutrients,” adding that, “we have been told that there is a food crisis from the last two days in those areas. So we want the people to eat healthy and get their energy back.”

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A video posted to the Sikh Volunteers Australia Twitter account shows just how much food was prepared. Multiple industrial sized pots and giant mixers, along with pounds upon pounds of potatoes. We can also see how focused and dedicated the volunteers are to put love and care into the comfort food.

Food preparation in progress for flood affected areas pic.twitter.com/yu8Gwme4UV

— Sikh Volunteers Australia (@AustraliaSikh) March 2, 2022

Australians have been touched by the incredible generosity and have reached out to share their gratitude across social media.

“Sikh Volunteer Australia are angels on Earth,” one person wrote.

Another noted how this is not the first time such kindness has been bestowed, commenting that “every time there is a disaster the Sikh community steps up. Every. Single. Time. Thank you so much for all you do.”

Providing food to groups in need is something the Sikh community often makes headlines for, but it’s an act that goes hand in hand with the religion’s principles. Langar is a long-practiced custom meant to create a communal kitchen for anyone in need, regardless of background, status or beliefs.

But there is one additional key ingredient that makes langar so special: As the food is prepared, divine words are chanted to ensure the food is blessed with good will.

After being on road for nearly 34 hours, Finally the SVA team has reached Lismore and is serving the affected communities. We have set up on 60 Ross Street Goonellabah. Anyone need support with food, may come to this location pic.twitter.com/MtcahkGD0O

— Sikh Volunteers Australia (@AustraliaSikh) March 2, 2022

Singh tells Manning River Times that taking the food on the road is giving the tradition a modern twist.

“The only difference is instead of serving the langar at the gurdwara [place of worship], we are taking it onto the vehicles and taking it onto the doorstep of the people in need,” he told MRT.

During times of crisis, human beings looking out for one another provides vital nourishment … in more ways than one. Thank you to the Sikh community for showing incredible empathy and authentic altruism.

To continue doing their fantastic work, Sikh Volunteers Australia is accepting donations through its website.

Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill (formally known as the Parental Rights In Education bill) continues to work its way through the state’s legislature, all while SNL‘s Kate McKinnon treated it as ridiculously as the backlash to the controversial bill would demand. The state’s mask-hating governor, Ron DeSantis, has continued to defend the bill’s content (as the bill’s nickname goes, it would prohibit “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity”), and the fallout has been, well, huge.

People wondered why Disney, which obviously has a huge presence in the state that houses Disney World, hasn’t said jack about the bill. Also, criticism landed upon how the conglomerate has donated to politicians who support the bill (a move denounced by Abigail Disney), and finally, CEO Bob Chapek has explained why people who were waiting for a statement only heard the sound of crickets. Via The Hollywood Reporter, Chapek asserted that corporate statements can be “counterproductive”:

[Y]ou deserve an explanation for why we have not issued a statement. We are going to have a more fulsome conversation about this at the company-wide Reimagine Tomorrow Summit in April, but I will preview that discussion now as it is so timely.

As we have seen time and again, corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or minds. Instead, they are often weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame. Simply put, they can be counterproductive and undermine more effective ways to achieve change.

The “counterproductive” descriptor probably isn’t going to do much to convince LGBTQ+ Disney employees. To that end, Chapek declared that he “want[s] to be crystal clear” in that “I and the entire leadership team unequivocally stand in support of our LGBTQ+ employees, their families, and their communities.” He added that Disney’s working to be more inclusive. That, uh, is apparently part of why Minnie Mouse recently wore a pantsuit, but Chapek did concede that “the very need to reiterate that commitment [to inclusiveness] means we still have more work to do.”

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Pamela Anderson has been taking back her narrative lately after she was recently portrayed in the Hulu series Pam & Tommy. The actress/model recently announced she would be working with Netflix to share her own story in her own words. Now, Anderson will be making her Broadway debut in the iconic musical Chicago.

Anderson will play Roxie Hart from April 12th to June 5th at the Ambassador Theater in New York City. “From Baywatch to Broadway. I am inspired by the unexpected,” Anderson said of the role. “This is it, and I will not hold back anymore. I am letting go. I am ready to see what I’m capable of. For Chicago, I’ll be putting all my cards on the table. I am doubling down — on me.”

The actress has been keeping a low profile over the last few years, playing a few cameo roles in various TV shows and movies. The world has found a renowned interest in Anderson after Hulu’s miniseries brought her life (and scandals) to light. In true Anderson fashion, her Chicago character Roxie Hart is known for her fair share of scandals (well, murder) and how she chooses to change the narrative surrounding the death of her lover.

Anderson added that playing Roxie will be a ‘sweet escape’ for the star. “Playing Roxie Hart is a dream fulfilled. Performing Fosse, you don’t have time to get in your head. You can’t dance, sing, and think at the same time. There is freedom, a unique joy in knowing it’s all about the work. Playing Roxie Hart is a sweet escape for me.”

Making the theater experience as immersive as possible is rarely a bad thing. Unless, of course, you bring live bats into the equation, which is exactly what happened during a showing of The Batman in Texas on Friday. While Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz brought some long overdue sexiness to superhero films, a winged creature had other plans as it flew around the ceiling of an Austin theater, eventually prompting management to pause the film and offer refunds as it struggled to get the little guy out.

However, while those efforts were initially unsuccessful, some theatergoers were actually on board with the live bat action and stuck around to finish the film. Via KXAN:

“Local animal control was immediately contacted, and they have been overseeing the situation to ensure guest, associate and animal safety,” Heidi Deno, the general manager for Moviehouse & Eatery told KXAN.

The theater offered to give refunds, but a majority of the crowd opted to stay and watch the film, “bat and all,” according to the KXAN viewer who took the video.

As for how the bat got in, the theater believes it was a prank and will be stepping up its security and bag checks to make sure nobody else smuggles in a live bat and tries to make it watch Batman, which is admittedly, kind of funny. That said, nobody get the same idea for Spider-Man because spiders are the devil. Don’t even think about it.

You can see video of the live bat in action below. (WARNING: There’s an f-bomb dropped at the beginning.)

(Via KXAN)