VOIR, a new documentary series from Netflix, will be celebrating cinema with a series of visual essays next month.

Discussing the impacts of film’s most powerful images, we hear a variety of voices in the trailer speaking about how those moments impacted their film viewings while a montage of classic movie clips are reflected in a looming eyeball.

We see classic scenes flash by on the screen from films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Godfather Part II, In The Heat of the Night, and Amadeus. The docuseries is sure to be a delight for cinephiles everywhere.

The series is executive produced by Fight Club director David Fincher and The Empty Man director David Prior. VOIR will explore the personal connections we have to the stories we see on the big screen, ranging from intimate personal histories to insights on character and craft and exploring why cinema holds a special place in our lives, according to Netflix’s synopsis.

“Film lovers examine the cinematic moments that thrilled, perplexed, challenged, and forever changed them in this collection of visual essays,” the description went on to say.

By now, Fincher is something of a household name in terms of heavy-hitting Hollywood directors. Though he made a rocky feature-length directorial debut with the critically-derided Alien 3 after previously helming a number of short films and music videos, Fincher has since established himself as one of the most seminal directors of his generation, bringing us a number of cherished films including 2010’s The Social Network, 1995’s Se7en, 2007’s Zodiac, and 2020’s Mank, among many other critically hailed films.

Prior is a lesser-known director, but his 2020 supernatural thriller The Empty Man has garnered a cult following after a lackluster box office and critical reception. It has since been regarded as underrated by some critics upon its home media release.

The VOIR docuseries is set for release on Netflix Dec. 6.

TikTok trends come and go fairly quickly. Dances, ratings, costumes, and pranks all seem to appear and disappear at lightning speed. One trend, however, is hopefully here to stay.

A gesture called the “signal for help” was created in April of last year by the Canadian Women’s Foundation. It was made to help combat potential reports of abuse during the pandemic. If someone was in danger, they could flash the hand signal and let someone know they’re in trouble.

The gesture got picked up on TikTok and videos explaining its significance and tutorials on how to use it were viewed millions of times. You can see how to make the signal below.

How To Make The TikTok Help Hand Gesture

Recently, a 16-year-old girl used the hand gesture to escape a kidnapping. Authorities in Kentucky say a missing North Carolina girl used the gesture in the passenger seat of a car through the window.

Someone saw the gesture and recognized it from TikTok and called 911. Despite not being familiar with the gesture themselves, Sheriff’s deputies pulled over the car and realized the girl had been reported missing by her parents two days earlier.

Deputies arrested James Herbert Brick, 61, and charged him with unlawful imprisonment. He also faces a child pornography charge.

The girl said she wasn’t related to Brick and that she went with him to Ohio where he had family, but they left when the family found out she was a minor.

Laurel County Sheriff’s Office public affairs officer Gilbert Acciardo told the New York Times that the girl also made the gesture to deputies.

“I don’t think any of us realized what that was,” he said. “But we certainly do now.”

Acciardo said authorities think Brick didn’t know she was doing the gesture and thought she was simply waving at other cars. He said it’s a great thing for victims to know in a dangerous situation.

“This is probably the best thing I’ve seen come along in the 48 years I’ve been a patrol officer,” he said.

Would you have recognized the hand gesture from TikTok? Tell us in the comments!

HBO’s Music Box series has received lots of praise from viewers and music fans alike for its fascinating and thought-provoking music documentaries unafraid of touching on unusual or unexpected corners of the music world. In fact, the first in the series Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage looked at Woodstock ’99, an event as forgotten as it is mocked. 

The trailer for the next in the series has dropped and is getting a lot of music fans very excited. This documentary, called Jagged, takes a look at Alanis Morissette, specifically the creation and release of her third studio album, 1995’s Jagged Little Pill. The album has sold over 33 million copies worldwide and led Morissette to become the first Canadian artist to achieve double diamond sales status. It was nominated for nine Grammy awards and won five of them, including Album of the Year. Since then, the album has often been called one of the best in history, with Rolling Stone ranking it number 69 on its list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

What set Jagged Little Pill apart at the time was its angst. It was much rawer and more emotionally honest than Morissette’s previous work. The album fused post-grunge and pop-rock sounds with grounded lyrics to create an album that resonated with millions of people. In an era where mainstream rock acts were expected to be performed by men and mainstream pop music was expected to be saccharine, Morissette blazed a trail that opened the door for many future performers. 

The documentary is directed by Alison Klayman, who has worked on popular documentaries like Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry and 2019’s The Brink. It features never-before-seen archival footage of the album’s creation and its promotional tour. It also includes a brand new in-depth interview with Morissette as she discusses the album’s creation, the struggles she had promoting it, and how its success affected her. 

The Music Box series is produced by Bill Simmons, the man behind the popular wrestling documentary Andre the Giant and the child actor documentary Showbiz Kids. It will be broadcasting new episodes each Thursday, with future episodes focusing on the rapper DMX, instrumentalist Kenny G, disco pioneer Robert Stigwood, and Juice WRLD. 

Jagged will debut on HBO on Thursday, Nov. 18. Once it has finished broadcasting, it will be available to stream at any time on HBO Max. 

An upcoming family film will be added to your must-watch list this December, and the animated movie is sure to be a significant success. With bright colors, adorable animals, and a storyline that’ll draw you in — Back to the Outback has an all-star cast, and an incredible new trailer released this afternoon.

The film stars Isla Fisher as Maddie — a sweet snake, Tim Minchin as Tom — the koala everyone sees as cute and adorable, Eric Bana as Chaz — a zookeeper, Guy Pearce as Frank — a hairy spider, Keith Urban as Doug — a cane toad, Jacki Weaver as Jackie — a crocodile, and Miranda Tapsell as Zoe — a thorny devil.

The synopsis for the film is as follows:

“Tired of being locked in a reptile house where humans gawk at them like they’re monsters, a group of Australia’s deadliest creatures plots a daring escape from the zoo.”

Hijinks ensue as the sweet but deadly creatures plan their escape and run into the adorable, but not sunshiny, character most children and their families flock to the zoo to see. The juxtaposition of the characters will make you laugh and hit home that differences make us who we are, and we should find the beauty and the joy in them.

You can see Back to the Outback on December 10th in select theaters and on Netflix.

Photo via that_other_hannah_/Instagram

An online beef between fashion company Torrid and popular plus-size model slash TikToker That Other Hannah is heating up online. 

@that_other_hannah is known among many TikTokers as an advocate for plus-size women. The majority of her TikTok page is dominated by videos examining, reviewing, and sometimes rating brands for their plus-size clothing options. Many of her videos see Hannah comparing the small size options of brands like H&M, Forever 21, and Target to their plus-size options, revealing to viewers who may be unaware of the vast difference between the clothing produced for different sizes. 

The TikToker recently found herself embroiled in online drama, however, after a video of her reacting to Torrid’s most recent line of plus-size clothing went viral.

In response to the launch of the plus-size brand’s fall line, Hannah created a video. She captioned it with a straightforward plea, tagging the fashion brand and asking “can we talk? Please? I want to help.”

In the video, Hannah notes that she roasts Torrid “all the time.” It is not because she hates the brand, however. In fact, Hannah says she desperately wants the brand to succeed, particularly after it debuted on the stock market, tying its ultimate success or failure to the entire plus size fashion world.

She chooses to continue dragging the brand through her videos, according to Hannah, due to its consistently frustrating fashion choices. The video goes on to flip through several items included in Torrid’s fall launch, including several tent-like tops, “the same shapeless, cold-shoulder top with florals that they give us all year round,” and a genuinely unfortunate fleece jacket. 

After cycling through several outfit options, the camera shifts back to focus on Hannah. She notes that she roasts Torrid “because I care,” before “respectfully” asking the company “what the fuck” it thinks it’s doing. 

Following the stir her first video riled up, Hannah posted another Torrid-centric video a few days later. Noting that “many people were angry” over her review of the fashion company’s latest line, Hannah admitted that her tastes are “subjective.” She added, however, that there are “things that are ‘on-trend’ in fashion at this current moment, and none of the plus-size retailers that carry above a size 28—like Torrid—are participating in those trends.”

She also accuses the company of “willfully excluding fat women from being able to participate” in current fashion trends. Torrid is the primary company that plus size women shop at, Hannah notes, a privilege which qualifies them for critique. 

The video that really put Hannah on Torrid’s radar came a few days later, in early October, when she dueted a video from Torrid’s CEO, Liz Munoz. In the stitched video, Munoz announces that she is headed on a cross-country trip to visit different Torrid locations. She then cycles through various outfits while Hannah reacts. Via caption, Hannah wrote “Liz, I love you but this ain’t it.”

Within a few hours of Hannah’s TikTok going up, Torrid’s original TikTok had turned comments off. The stitched video on Hannah’s page also went promptly viral, rocketing to more than a million views. A few follow-up videos see Hannah blasting the brand for how it reacted to criticism, particularly as compared to other plus-size companies. 

All of her viral Torrid videos eventually lead to Hannah attending a virtual meet and greet with Munoz in late October. She told fans of her intention to attend, and promised them a recap once the event was over. She delivered spectacularly, posting several videos the following day with her takeaways. In a nutshell, she found the live-streamed event to be a “hot mess.”

Within a few days of her recaps of the Torrid event going viral, Hannah uploaded a very different video to her page. In this video, she is wiping tears from her eyes as she explains that she has to “leave social media for awhile.” According to her TikTok, someone contacted her job after watching her Torrid videos, and accused her of “making fun of someone with cancer” and using her LinkedIn profile to harass and bully people. 

Hannah noted that all of the accusations levied by the stranger are “not true,” and reminded viewers that “Torrid is a multi-million dollar business, and I am an individual. Me making videos about Torrid is not the same thing as somebody reaching out to my job and trying to get me fired.”

Thankfully, Hannah didn’t get into any trouble over the incident. Still, it shook her, and she admitted via an Instagram post that she intended to leave social media for a while and was unsure when, or if, she would be back.

Torrid finally responded directly to the incident following significant backlash to Hannah’s tearful video. In a statement posted to the brand’s Instagram, Munoz wrote that Torrid is a “brand that champions community” and claims that it desires feedback from its consumers.

“We will not tolerate harassment and condemn bullying of any kind, internally and externally,” the statement goes on to say. “We always welcome respectful conversation and would not and have not taken action against anyone for sharing an opposing opinion, including contacting an individual’s employer.”

The comments on Torrid’s Instagram post are almost universally negative, with several big names in the business—like model Tess Holliday—chiming in to drag the company for its role in Hannah’s harassment. Torrid has yet to make another statement addressing the situation. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Hannah, for her part, seems to be handling the sudden attention relatively well. Despite her tears and initial threat to leave social media, she has continued to upload videos responding to confused commenters and clarifying her role in the situation. Her most recent video went up only hours ago, and addresses previous comments she’s made about the company. 

We reached out to Hannah.

Marvel’s Eternals is a groundbreaking entry in the MCU in multiple ways. We’ve known for a while that the movie would feature the franchise’s first openly gay superhero, in Brian Tyree Henry’s Phastos, but another first that’s mostly slipped under the radar until more recently is that it also includes Marvel’s first deaf lead, too — namely, speedster Makkari, as played by The Walking Dead‘s Lauren Ridloff.

In fact, there are so many heroes rolling around in Eternals, that it’s hard to keep track of them all. But Ridloff is on hand to introduce you to them in this new promo for the film. As you can see via the tweet below, this promo showcases Ridloff educating viewers — and her co-stars to boot — on how to say the names of the heroes, as well as their key characteristics, in ASL (American Sign Language).

Kumail Nanjiani Reveals Pics Of The First Time The Eternals Cast Met

All together, the Eternals are ten in number and can be split into two groups – the fighters and the thinkers. The one with combative powers are Ikaris the “Powerful” (Richard Madden), Thena the “Fierce” (Angelina Jolie), Gilgamesh the “Strong” (Don Lee), Kingo the “Influential” (Kumail Nanjiani), and Makkari the “Daring”.

Meanwhile, the ones with more intellectual abilities are Ajak the “Leader” (Salma Hayek), Sersi the “Selfless” (Gemma Chan), Phastos the “Innovator”, Sprite the “Youthful” (Lia McHugh) and Druig the “Independent” (Barry Keoghan).

It’s interesting that Eternals is coming in the very same month as Disney Plus’ Hawkeye, which has been confirmed to depict Jeremy Renner’s Clint Barton as hard-of-hearing. It’ll also feature Alaqua Cox as new heroine Maya Lopez/Echo, who’s set to get her own spinoff series. That’ll make her the MCU’s first deaf solo superhero. So Marvel is certainly making waves in this area all at once.

But first Chloe Zhao’s Eternals opens in theaters this Friday, November 5.

With the final season of Netflix’s Money Heist just around the corner, the streaming network has released a new trailer for Part 5 Vol. 2 of the saga, which you can view above.

The trailer showcases both epic and action-packed scenes for the coming conclusion to the series.

The show represents one of Netflix’s biggest successes following its acquisition of the high-concept Spanish drama back in 2017. Prior to the monumental success of Squid Game, Money Heist originally was the streaming platform’s most-watched non-English language series. Both shows have generated a surge of interest in red jumpsuits for Halloween costumes as well, which is integral to each show, interestingly.

The show’s Part 5 Vol. 1 was released at the beginning of September, with the first glimpses at the final five episodes being released in early October with Netflix’s TUDUM event.

In the trailer, we see Alvaro Morte’s The Professor slowly driving past a crowd of demonstrators, then enter a building surrounded by special forces units. Following the death of Ursula Corbero’s Tokyo—its main character and breakout star—we learned in the previous promo that The Professor will be taking over as the new narrator.

We see the remaining members of the team in dire straits, struggling to survive and appearing to be cornered by the special forces team.

In the previous promo, The Professor is heard saying “In the last few hours, I’ve lost people very dear to me…And I won’t let anyone else fall because of this heist.”

We’ll have to see how it all unfolds when Money Heist Part 5 Vol. 2 hits Netflix on Dec. 3.

A Pokémon YouTuber has hit the jackpot scoring one of the most expensive Pokémon TCG cards in history from a vintage card box during a live stream over the weekend.

YouTuber Lee “Leonhart” Steinfeld opened on stream a box of first edition base set Pokémon cards and within one of the final packs in the box, the content creator pulled the most sought after card from the box, the shadowless first edition Charizard.

If you want to see him open the pack it takes place around 1:22:00 of the live stream. Understandably, Leonhart was in shock when he pulled the card from the pack warning that he might faint, but luckily that didn’t happen.

A first edition shadowless base set Charizard is nothing to joke about. Earlier this year, one of the cards graded at a PSA 10 was sold for $75,000 during an auction. While Leonhart’s card could potentially garner this kind of price, nothing is for certain as it is determined greatly by the PSA scoring if he chooses to grade the card.

Grading a card takes into account a variety of features from the condition of the card, which is probably great as it is pack fresh, but also uncontrollables like centering and other factors.

Pokémon cards have seen a massive influx in both interest and price over the last 24 months thanks to content creators and likely the pandemic. This trend will likely continue as older cards become rarer to find and collectors are forced to the resale market rather than purchasing a vintage box for themselves.

Just what cinematic universe, exactly, is Morbius supposed to take place in?

That’s a question nobody but MCU boss Kevin Feige and Sony’s shepherds of their counterpart SpideyVerse can answer and, truth be told, both parties are probably delighting in the obscene amount of misdirection currently going on. Mystery builds excitement, after all, and Feige knows that better than anyone, what with Spider-Man: No Way Home continuing to dominate entertainment channels across the internet.

Superhero fans are a crafty bunch, however, and have already dedicated considerable time towards trying to suss out why Michael Keaton is taking a vacation from the MCU to appear in Morbius.

New Morbius Promo Teases Iconic Spider-Man Villains

Is the Vulture’s presence here intended to be as a cameo or brief, inconsequential part, or is Morbius laying the foundations for something far, far bigger in scope? Here’s what the internet has to say…

Morbius hits theaters next year, Jan. 28, just several weeks after Spider-Man: No Way Home. Will the latter serve as a setup for the former and explain away Keaton’s continuity-spanning influence? We’re going to assume the answer to that is a big fat yes, but what about you? Sound off with your own theories in the usual place below!