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Mozilla has removed the "Do Not Track" option from Firefox, but it's not because the company has abruptly abandoned all of its privacy principles. The setting was practically useless.

According to Windows Report which first spotted the change, Firefox browser settings with the latest Version 135 no longer have the ability to send websites a Do Not Track request. Instead there's a note saying Firefox no longer supports the option. Mozilla explained the change on the feature's help center page, saying "many sites do not respect this indication of a person's privacy preferences, and, in some cases, it can reduce privacy."

SEE ALSO: New service from Mozilla wants to protect you from data brokers

But this doesn't mean Firefox users are suddenly exposed to tracking from websites and third parties. Instead, Mozilla recommends an alternative signal called Global Privacy Control. GPC is an initiative founded by privacy-minded browsers including Mozilla, Brave, DuckDuckGo, and organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "GPC is respected by increasing numbers of sites and enforced with legislation in some regions," said the help center page. In some jurisdictions like California with the CCPA act, data privacy rights are legally protected.

In place of the Do Not Track setting with the latest version of Firefox, users can select the option that says, "Tell websites not to sell or share my data." This setting will turn on the GPC signal.

An intense struggle has unfolded in Washington between companies and officials over where to draw the line on selling technology to China.

Happy endings are nice and all, but even the most idealistic among us know they don't always last. Sometimes, the happy ending is just the start of a larger story that ends with someone weeping into a pint of ice cream alone on the couch, flipping channels in search of something to mend a broken heart, or at least distract from the pain for a bit.

In other words, sometimes what you need is not a love story but a breakup movie. We've compiled 31 of the best breakup movies to help you process your sadness, exorcise your rage, or encourage you to dust yourself back up and move the hell on.

Here are the 31 best breakup movies streaming and where to watch them. 

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

They say it's better to have loved and lost, but try telling that to someone still smarting from a breakup. This trippy love story follows Joel (Jim Carrey) as he tries to wipe his ex (Kate Winslet) from his mind, only to wonder if some of those memories may be worth keeping after all.

How to watch: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is streaming on Netflix and Peacock and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

2. Marriage Story Credit: Netflix

A clean break may be ideal, but it isn't always an option. In Marriage Story, Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) suffer through an ugly custody battle — and come out the other side with a new sort of relationship, one based not on sex and romance but shared parenthood.

How to watch: Marriage Story is streaming on Netflix.

3. High Fidelity

High Fidelity is the breakup movie you turn to when you've just had your heart crushed, and you've got a sneaking suspicion that at least some of it might have been your fault. But if Rob (John Cusack) can learn to grow up a little, maybe you can, too.

How to watch: High Fidelity is streaming on Disney+ and Hulu and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall

This film is nothing if not a promise that it'll get better. Sure, it sucks to lose your S.O., especially when she's a famous TV star whose face is plastered all over the place. But who's to say you can't rebound with an even cooler girlfriend to love, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall's Mila Kunis?

How to watch: Forgetting Sarah Marshall is streaming on Hulu and Max and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

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5. Midsommar

Because some breakups call for something a bit more dramatic than the usual sobfest. Some breakups come at the end of a relationship so grandly shitty, you need to travel to rural Sweden for a once-in-a-lifetime festival put on by an obscure death cult in order to really get your point across.

How to watch: Midsommar is streaming on Hulu and Max and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

6. Waiting to Exhale Credit: Randee St Nicholas / 20th Century Fox / Kobal / Shutterstock

Waiting to Exhale combines the visceral satisfaction of setting a cheating ex's car on fire with the comforting reassurance of close-knit friendship, and serves as a gentle reminder that better things lie ahead after all the pain and suffering.

How to watch: Waiting to Exhale is streaming on Disney+ and Hulu and and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

7. Celeste and Jesse Forever

It's a sad truth that two people can like each other very much, and still not be meant to love each other. Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg play a pair of high-school sweethearts who remain best friends after seven years of marriage, but feel the need to move on from each other romantically.

How to watch: Celeste and Jesse Forever is streaming on Disney+, Hulu, and Prime Video and available to buy or rent on Apple TV.

SEE ALSO: 10 Netflix movies that will make you cry 8. The Holiday

Remember, the only reason Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz get to stay in fabulous homes and flirt with Jack Black and Jude Law in this very charming movie is because they previously broke up with two other dudes who totally sucked.

How to watch: The Holiday is available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

9. The Souvenir

The Souvenir is an exquisite portrait of the doomed relationship between naive Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) and the mysterious Anthony (Tom Burke), acknowledging both how difficult it can be to disentangle from a toxic relationship, and the bruises it can leave behind.

How to watch: The Souvenir is streaming on Hulu and Max and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

10. Blue Valentine

Watching Blue Valentine while in the throes of heartbreak is like pressing down on a bruise — the pain is what makes it so satisfying. The film cuts between the tender start of Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy's (Michelle Williams) romance and its jagged end, to tearjerking effect.

How to watch: Blue Valentine is streaming on Tubi and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video

11. Casablanca

Few of us get goodbyes to love as epically romantic as the one between Rick (Humphrey Bogart) and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman). But wouldn't it be nice to imagine we did? They'll always have Paris, and we'll always have Casablanca to weep over when we're at our most tragically brokenhearted.

How to watch: Casablanca is streaming on Hulu and Max and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

12. Gone Girl Credit: Merrick Morton / 20th Century Fox / Regency / Kobal / Shutterstock

Gone Girl is about a disappearance, not a breakup — but it does have plenty to say about the hazards of modern marriage. Watch how Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy (Rosamund Pike) went from meet-cute to fairy-tale courtship to ... well, you'll see ... and you may decide you're better off single.

How to watch: Gone Girl is available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

13. (500) Days of Summer

Let Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) serve as a warning against looking back at past relationships with rose-colored glasses. It's only when he starts to see Summer (Zooey Deschanel) with clearer eyes that he's able to understand what went wrong, and move on to the next stage of his life.

How to watch: (500) Days of Summer is available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

14. Crazy, Stupid, Love

Crazy, Stupid, Love puts more than one of its characters through heartbreak, but its star-studded cast reminds you through swoonworthy smooches, grand romantic gestures, and one hilarious brawl that the right one is worth fighting for. (Just try to ignore the outdated gender roles.)

How to watch: Crazy, Stupid, Love is available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

15. Appropriate Behavior

Anyone who's tried to remedy a broken heart with petty confrontations and ill-advised hookups will recognize themselves in Shirin (Desiree Akhavan, who also wrote and directed) and her halfhearted attempts to get her life back together after she's dumped by her girlfriend (Rebecca Henderson).

How to watch: Appropriate Behavior is streaming on Tubi and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

16. Swingers

Swingers knows that what every freshly dumped person needs is a friend who'll take you out on the town, look at you in your sorry state, and remind us that you're so money and you don't even know it. If that friend has the charisma of a young Vince Vaughn, all the better.

How to watch: Swingers is available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

17. Closer

Here's a movie for those dark days when you find yourself wondering if love even exists, or if it's just a cruel joke designed to destroy peoples' lives. Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Jude Law, and Natalie Portman play four people who can't stop cheating on each other, with bitter results.

How to watch: Closer is streaming on Netflix and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

18. Legally Blonde Credit: Tracy Bennett / MGM / Kobal / Shutterstock

Reese Witherspoon's Elle Woods is a role model for anyone smarting over an unappreciative ex. Just do what she does: Work your butt off to win him back, discover exactly how awesome you are in the process, and realize you never needed him in the first place. What, like it's hard?

How to watch: Legally Blonde is available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

19. The Wedding Singer

Breakups are never fun, but it can be a consolation to remember that sometimes, they're for the best. Just ask Robbie (Adam Sandler) and Julia (Drew Barrymore), both engaged to the wrong people at the start of The Wedding Singer, and both about to find out that their true loves are each other.

How to watch: The Wedding Singer is available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

SEE ALSO: 20 best romantic comedies to fall in love with on Netflix 20. La La Land

Er, spoilers: Breakup movie king Ryan Gosling makes his third appearance on this list as Sebastian, whose passionate relationship with Mia (Emma Stone, also in Crazy, Stupid, Love) falls apart over their divergent dreams, but leaves both of them changed for the better in the end.

How to watch: La La Land is streaming on Disney+ and Hulu and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video. 

21. Call Me by Your Name Credit: Moviestore / Shutterstock

Most of the movie is about Elio (Timothée Chalamet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer) getting together, not splitting apart, but hanging over their entire romance is the poignant knowledge that it can't last forever. Put this one on when you're reflecting back on a brief but passionate affair.

How to watch: Call Me by Your Name is streaming on Netflix and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

22. The Break-Up

An exaggerated battle of the sexes between two exes (Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston) gives way to a bittersweet dramedy about damage that can't be undone, even between two people who loved each other once and might still.

How to watch: The Break-Up is streaming on Hulu and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

23. Birds of Prey Credit: C Barius / DC / Warner Bros / Kobal / Shutterstock

It's not easy striking out alone after an explosive breakup — but Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) serves as a reminder that all things are possible with a can-do attitude, some rad new friends, and a really, really good egg sandwich.

How to watch: Birds of Prey is streaming on Hulu and Max and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

24. The War of the Roses

Oliver (Michael Douglas) and Barbara (Kathleen Turner) duke it out for the house in this acerbically funny divorce comedy, and along the way serve up a cautionary tale about taking that understandable impulse to "win" the breakup way, way, way too far.

How to watch: The War of the Roses is available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

25. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

The thing about relationships is that even once they're over, they're still a part of the history you bring to your next romance, for better or for worse. That idea becomes literal for Scott (Michael Cera), who must battle his girlfriend's seven evil exes while dealing with a couple exes of his own.

How to watch: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is streaming on Hulu and Max and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

26. Kill Bill Credit: A Band Apart / Miramax / Kobal / Shutterstock

Kill Bill is for when you're in a post-breakup rage so potent, nothing but (cinematic) violence and bloodshed will do. Vol. 1 is the more action-packed of the two, to help you work out that anger, while Vol. 2 goes deeper into the feels — albeit still with plenty of super cool kills.

How to watch: Kill Bill, Vol. 1 is available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video. Kill Bill, Vol. 2 is also available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

27. Force Majeure

Being single can suck, but being coupled isn't always what it's cracked up to be, either. In Force Majeure, awkward fissures form in a marriage after a man makes a questionable decision in a moment of crisis. (If you hate subtitles, Downhill is the less-good English-language remake.)

How to watch: Force Majeure is streaming on Hulu and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

28. The First Wives Club

Perhaps the only thing more gratifying than watching a shitty ex get what's coming to him is watching three shitty exes get what's coming to them, served up with a smirk by the powerhouse trio of Goldie Hawn, Bette Midler, and Diane Keaton.

How to watch: The First Wives Club is streaming on Hulu and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video. 

29. Magic Mike XXL Credit: Warner Bros / Kobal / Shutterstock

Magic Mike XXL is only kind of a breakup movie (Mike gets dumped very early in the film), but it does do a great job of celebrating one of the upsides of a breakup: the freedom to join your bros on an epic road trip of sexual pleasure and self-discovery.

How to watch: Magic Mike XXL is available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

30. Her

Spike Jonze's Her is probably best saved for that post-heartbreak period of self-reflection. Joaquin Phoenix plays an about-to-be-divorced man who starts dating what is essentially a more advanced Siri (Scarlett Johansson), but finds that his new relationship has complications, too.

How to watch: Her is streaming on Hulu and available to buy or rent on Apple TV and Prime Video.

31. The Breaker Upperers

Need someone to dump your partner so you can avoid a messy confrontation? Call on Jen and Mel (co-writers/co-directors/co-leads Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami). For a reasonable fee, these fearless Breaker Upperers will impersonate police officers, play pregnant, or even fake your death to help you ghost an ex. Whatever the shenanigans, van Beek and Sami sparkle. Booming with wild humor and big heart, this New Zealand comedy is guaranteed to leave you cackling.* — Kristy Puchko, Entertainment Editor

How to watch: The Breaker Upperers is streaming on Netflix. 

(*) indicates the blurb appeared in a previous Mashable list.

UPDATE: Dec. 11, 2024, 5:00 p.m. EST This post was originally published on Feb. 9, 2023. It has been updated to reflect the current streaming options.

Folks who made unwanted purchases in Fortnite can still cash in.

Epic Games reached a $520 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over allegations that parents, gamers, and others were tricked into making purchases. Around half of that sum, $245 million, was set aside to refund customers affected by the in-game purchase allegations.

The deadline for applying for a settlement, however, is quickly approaching. You have to file by Jan. 10, 2025, which you can do on the FTC's website.

There are some stipulations to getting a refund. The FTC said, in a statement, that you could apply for a refund if any of these things are true:

• You were charged in-game currency for items you didn’t want between January 2017 and September 2022

• Your child made charges to your credit card without your knowledge between January 2017 and November 2018

• Your account was locked between January 2017 and September 2022 after you complained to your credit card company about wrongful charges

SEE ALSO: Fortnite is being forced to give out refunds, and you might qualify for one

You have to be at least 18 years old to file a refund claim. You can file that claim at www.fortniterefund.com/file-a-claim. To make the claim, you'll need a claim number or your Epic Account ID. Those who have a claim number should've received an email with the information. Again, the deadline to file a claim is Jan. 10, 2025.

The FTC said in a statement this month that it was sending out 629,344 payments totaling more than $72 million to folks who filed a valid claim by Oct. 8, 2024. The FTC is still reviewing claims made after Oct. 8 and onward.

The FTC had alleged that Epic Games made it easy for users to make unexpected charges, including by letting underage players rack up in-game purchases.

Check out the best Amazon deals of the day as of Dec. 12: OUR TOP PICK Fire TV Stick 4K Max + Luna Controller Cloud Gaming Bundle $79.98 (save $50) Get Deal BEST HEADPHONES DEAL Sonos Ace $349 (save $100) Get Deal BEST OUTDOOR DEAL Yeti Hopper M15 Soft Cooler $210 (save $90) Get Deal BEST SMARTHOME DEAL Amazon Echo Hub $124.99 (save $55) Get Deal BEST SPEAKER DEAL Bose SoundLink Revolve+ (Series II) $229 (save $100 + get $10 Amazon credit) Get Deal

The countdown is progressing — there's less than two weeks of shopping left before Santa graces us with his presence. But just because we're closing in on the big day doesn't mean you have to overspend. There's plenty of deals at Amazon to help you stick to your budget and we've rounded up some of our top picks to add to your cart on Dec. 12.

Here are our top picks for the best Amazon deals of the day. If none of these are your cup of tea, be sure to check out our picks from Dec. 10 and Dec. 11 as well. Many of those are still live, including a $100 Lyft gift card for only $85 and the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 at its best price ever.

Our top pick: Fire TV Stick 4K Max + Luna Controller Cloud Gaming Bundle Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max + Luna Controller Cloud Gaming Bundle $79.98 at Amazon
$129.98 Save $50.00 Get Deal

You don't need to buy a $500 gaming console to enjoy a high-end gaming experience. This Amazon gaming bundle gives you the essentials to get started with Amazon's game streaming service, Luna, for just $79.98. That's 38% off its usual price. The bundle includes the Fire TV Stick 4K Max and a Luna controller, which our friends at PCMag (also owned by Ziff Davis) called "an excellent gamepad that provides the optimal Luna game-streaming experience." The real standout is its separate WiFi connection, which helps reduce input lag as you play. While technically an optional add-on for the Luna gaming experience, they called it a "must-have." The Fire TV Stick 4K Max allows you to access popular games — all you'll need to get started is the Luna app and a Prime or Luna subscription.

Sonos Ace Opens in a new window Credit: Sonos Sonos Ace $349.00 at Amazon
$449.00 Save $100.00 Get Deal

The first Sonos headphones dropped earlier this year and they're a force to be reckoned with. It's unsurprising, given that the brand makes some of our favorite audio equipment. They're aesthetically a 10, boast exceptional sound quality and spatial audio, and have a stellar 30-hour battery life with ANC. While we wish the ear cup seal was tighter to improve noise cancellation, Mashable's Deputy Reviews Editor Miller Kern still said she would recommend the Sonos Ace to "true audiophiles who value incredible sound quality above all else." The price is a bit steep at $449, but they're back down to their Black Friday price of $349 as of Dec. 12. That's 22% in savings.

Check out Mashable's full review of the Sonos Ace.

Yeti Hopper M15 Soft Cooler Opens in a new window Credit: Yeti Yeti Hopper M15 Soft Cooler $210.00 at Amazon
$300.00 Save $90.00 Get Deal

If you've ever tried to haul a full-size hard cooler across a parking lot for a tailgate or worse, a beach, then you know how much of a struggle it can be. That's where the Yeti Hopper M15 Soft Cooler takes the cake. Ideal for everything from overnight camping trips to beach picnics to tailgates, this soft cooler is easy to tote around, even when it's packed to the brim. Speaking of which, it can hold up to 32 cans or 15 pounds of ice in its leak-resistant, puncture-resistant, closed-cell rubber-insulated shell. It's usually $300, but you can save $90 and pick it up for only $210 as of Dec. 12. That's $15 cheaper than it was on Black Friday.

Amazon Echo Hub Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Amazon Echo Hub $124.99 at Amazon
$179.99 Save $55.00 Get Deal

Instead of keeping smart device control locked inside of someone's phone in your household, Amazon created the Echo Hub. Think of it as our smart home's brain. It offers a full-featured control panel with instant access to all of your gadgets — smart lighting, cameras, switches, doorbells, thermostat, etc. Everyone can play music, stream videos, ask Alexa questions, dim the lights, adjust the temperature, or see who's on the other side of the door in one central spot in your home. As of Dec. 12, it's on sale for $124.99 — that's 31% off its usual cost of $179.99.

Bose SoundLink Revolve+ Opens in a new window Credit: Bose Bose SoundLink Revolve+ (Series II) $229.00 at Amazon
$329.00 Save $100.00 + get $10 in Amazon credit Get Deal

Bose is a powerhouse in the audio world and its SoundLink Revolve+ II is further proof. It's one of our favorite portable Bluetooth speakers because of its true 360-degree surround sound experience. The second-generation speaker bumps up the battery life from 12 to 17 hours, is a bit louder, has improved bass levels, and features a convenient handle on top for portability. It's usually $329, but as of Dec. 12, you can pick it up at Amazon for only $229 and get a $10 Amazon credit to spend on a future purchase.

None of these deals catching your eye? Check out Amazon's daily deals for even more savings.

SAVE $35.97: New to Spotify Premium? Sign up now and enjoy three months free. Experience ad-free music, offline playback, and more.

Opens in a new window Credit: Spotify Spotify Premium (3 Months Free) $0.03 at Spotify
$35.97 Save $35.94 Get Deal

If you’ve yet to sign out of your ex's Spotify account, now's the time.

As of Dec. 12, Spotify’s offering a limited-time deal where you can score three months of Spotify Premium for free. That’s a savings of $11.99/month, or $35.97 total. Once the three months are up, you’ll need to decide whether to continue your subscription or revert to the free plan.

SEE ALSO: When does Spotify Wrapped start tracking for 2025? What we know.

With an Individual Premium account, you can listen to music ad-free whenever and wherever you want. You’ll also get up to 15 hours of audiobook listening per month.

This deal is only available to new Premium subscribers, so if you've had a Premium account before, you'll need to use a different email address to take advantage of the offer.

Other Spotify Premium plans include Student ($5.99/month), Duo ($16.99/month), and Family ($19.99/month). The Duo plan is for two account holders living at the same address, while the Family plan covers up to six Premium accounts for people living together.

The ACLU is sounding the alarm on the nation's police forces increasingly leaning on artificial intelligence.

In a six-page white paper released Dec. 10, the nation's largest civil rights group warns that the implementation of popular generative AI tech, like chatbots and drafting tools, is an overstep of technological advancement and poses a threat to American civil liberties.

The organization specifically singles out the use of Draft One, a controversial generative AI tool that assists police officers in drafting reports based on body cam audio and relies on OpenAI's GPT-4 model. Several police departments around the nation have gradually tested AI tools over the last year, including Draft One. That number is on the rise, with cities around the U.S. pitching generative AI features as a solution to budget and staffing constraints.

SEE ALSO: What OpenAI's Sora means for the future of truth

Experts have criticized the implementation of this tech, citing the essential role police reports play across judicial decision making, from investigation and discovery to sentencing.

"The forcing function of writing out a justification, and then swearing to its truth, and publicizing that record to other legal professionals (prosecutors/judges) is a check on police power," wrote law expert Andrew Guthrie Ferguson in one of the first law reviews of AI-drafted police reports. The report is cited by the ACLU in its white paper.

The ACLU outlines four major areas of concern in its white paper, including the necessary accountability process of human-written reports Ferguson describes. In its analysis, the organization emphasizes the uncertainty stoked by biases and hallucinations inherent to the tech itself, and questions the transparency of these processes to the public at large — not to mention its data privacy implications. According to the organization, relying more on the interpretation of generative AI tools than human memory and a police officer's subjective observations is to the detriment of a fair judicial process.

If AI is the next frontier for police officers, the ACLU urges, it should be used only after human memory has been recorded. AI tools could transcribe audio-recorded verbal narratives created by the officers involved, the organization explains, which could be submitted in tandem for review.

But, contrary to the recommendations of civil rights groups, AI's leaders are steadily investing in police and military applications of their technology.

"Police reports play a crucial role in our justice system. They are central to the criminal proceedings that determine people’s innocence, guilt, and punishment, and are often the only official account of what took place during a particular incident," the ACLU writes. "AI report-writing technology removes important human elements from police procedures and is too new, too untested, too unreliable, too opaque, and too biased to be inserted into our criminal justice system."

The serial internet entrepreneur, who co-founded Twitter and created Medium, was turning 50 and feeling detached from friends. Maybe a new start-up could fix that.

SAVE $130: As of Dec. 12, you can snag a Blink Outdoor 4 wireless smart home security system for $129.99. That's a 50% discount or $130 off.

Opens in a new window Credit: Blink Blink Outdoor 4 (3-camera system) $129.99 at Amazon
$259.99 Save $130.00 Get Deal

You can never be too safe when protecting your home and loved ones, especially during the holiday season when package thieves and burglars are on the prowl. If you haven’t installed a smart security system yet, now’s the time to do it.

As of Dec. 12, the Blink Outdoor 4 (3-camera) wireless security system is available for $129.99 at Amazon. That’s $130 off the list price or a 50% discount.

SEE ALSO: Why a security suite is a must for young families

The Blink Outdoor 4 is Blink’s fourth-generation wireless smart camera and a powerful yet affordable home security solution. It has two-way audio, motion detection, night vision, and weatherproof housing that can withstand the elements.

You can enable person detection via the optional Blink Subscription Plan (sold separately), which also gives you cloud storage for your video clips, or you can store recordings locally on the included sync module.

With a two-year battery life and a quick and easy setup, the Blink Outdoor 4 is a hassle-free way to monitor your home. It’s also Alexa compatible, so you can use voice commands to view live footage on your Echo Show or Fire TV device.

SAVE UP TO $200: As of Dec. 12, Best Buy is offering extra savings on Apple products leading up to the holidays. Find all iPad models on sale, including the iPad Pro, for up to $200 off. Get the iPad Pro 13-inch for $1,099, saving 15%.

Best iPad deals Best iPad deal Apple iPad, 10th generation (A14 chip, 64GB, WiFi) $279 at Best Buy (Save $70) Get Deal Best iPad Air deal Apple iPad Air, 11-inch (M2 chip, 128GB, WiFi) $499 at Best Buy (Save $100) Get Deal Best iPad Pro deal Apple iPad Pro, 13-inch (M4 chip, 256GB, WiFi) $1,099 at Best Buy (Save $200) Get Deal Best iPad Mini deal Apple iPad Mini (A17 chip, 128GB, WiFi) $449 at Best Buy (Save $50) Get Deal

This year, Apple went all in on iPads, revamping the Air, Pro, and Mini models. The iPad Pro got the M4 chip before any MacBook, making it not just the speediest tablet we've ever tested, but giving it more processing power than many laptops. Plus, the Mini, which still comes in a delightfully compact 8.3-inch size, got an upgrade to the A17 chip and is now compatible with the Apple Pencil Pro.

So with Apple's big year in tablets, it's no wonder they're the darling of the holiday season. If you're looking to gift a tablet to yourself or a loved one this season, iPads are a no-brainer. Not only do they have laptop-level speed and performance, but they're versatile. iPads let you work, design, stream, and read all from one compact device.

In the post-Cyber Week haze, Best Buy has kept the good deals rolling with a special Apple shopping event, offering exclusive savings on devices. Today is the last day, so if you've had something in your shopping cart, now is the time to hit buy. There are exceptional iPad deals, and here are the best deals to shop now.

Best iPad deal Opens in a new window Credit: Apple Apple iPad, 10th generation (A14 chip, 64GB, WiFi) $279.00 at Best Buy
$349.00 Save $70.00 Get Deal Why we like it

The best iPad deal you can find at Amazon is on the brand's base model. The Apple iPad (10th gen) is the best iPad for most people. The 10.9-inch screen is just the right size whether you're working or streaming shows on-the-go. For illustrators and hobbyists alike, this iPad is compatible with the USB-C and first generation of Apple Pencil. The A14 chip, while a few generations behind, still provides performance prowess that won't disappoint.

During Best Buy's Apple event, you can find the most savings on this device. It's down 20%, bringing it to $279 for $70 off. So if you're looking to get an iPad on a budget, you can score one for under $300 with this deal.

More iPad deals

• Apple iPad Mini (A17 chip, 128GB, WiFi) — $449 $499 (save $50)

• Apple iPad Air, 11-inch (M2 chip, 128GB, WiFi) — $499 $599 (save $100)

• Apple iPad Pro, 11-inch (M4 chip, 256GB, WiFi) — $899 $999 (save $100)

• Apple iPad Pro, 13-inch (M4 chip, 256GB, WiFi) — $1,099 $1,299 (save $200)

• Apple iPad, 13-inch (M4 chip, 512GB, WiFi) — $1,299 $1,499 (save $200)

Apple Watch users just got precisely one new, added convenience with the latest watchOS update.

According to 9to5Mac, watchOS 11.2 hit the streets this week, and it can be downloaded by anyone with a modern Apple Watch now. Anyone hoping for a massive suite of cool new features will probably be disappointed, though, as this update is primarily focused on bug fixes. That said, there is one new thing you can do with your Apple Watch now.

SEE ALSO: Fitbit vs. Apple Watch: Which should you buy in 2024? SEE ALSO: Apple's iOS 18.2: Here's 4 new features to be excited about

Specifically, users who like to use the Camera Control app on watchOS to control their iPhone camera can now pause videos during recording from the watch. That's it. That's the big new feature that's coming with watchOS 11.2. It's not a huge one, but for those who enjoy using Camera Control, it's probably very welcome.

If you want to take advantage of this or any bug fixes or security updates, go to Settings, then General, then Software Update on your Apple Watch. Make sure you plug the watch in before updating, too.

The trailer for the upcoming action-comedy Novocaine sees Jack Quaid (The Boys, Star Trek: Lower Decks) taking all sorts of physical damage. Stab wounds, third-degree burns, gunshot wounds — the list goes on and on. Luckily for Quaid's character Nathan Caine, he can't feel a thing.

SEE ALSO: 2025 movie preview: All the films you'll want to know about

That's right: Nathan, who's otherwise just an average dude, cannot feel pain. But when the girl of his dreams (Amber Midthunder, Prey) gets kidnapped, he'll use that ability to fight past every evil henchman who stands in his way. In the trailer alone, we see him grabbing a gun out of a vat of hot frying oil and shoving glass into his hands to create makeshift claws. Gnarly stuff.

Novocaine hits theaters March 14.

SAVE $80: As of Dec. 12, the AncerstyDNA + Traits Genetic Test Kit is just $39 at Amazon. That's a 67% discount and $80 off the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: AncestryDNA AncestryDNA + Traits Genetic Test Kit $39.00 at Amazon
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The holiday season is a time for reflection, connection, and uncovering the stories that make us who we are. This year, AncestryDNA is offering an unbeatable deal to do just that — $80 off DNA kits.

As of Dec. 12, you can get an AncestryDNA + Traits Genetic Test Kit for just $39. That’s a 67% discount or an $80 price cut from the sticker price.

With this specific kit, you can get a closer look at how your DNA influences your traits (e.g., your ear wax type, your ability to smell certain scents, and even your food preferences). AncestryDNA claims the test can reveal more than 40 personalized traits and characteristics, and with the ethnicity estimates and inheritance maps, you can see how your traits relate to your genetic heritage.

All you have to do is send in a bit of saliva, and in a matter of weeks (six to eight), you'll get a detailed report on your ancestry and genetic traits. That’s a pretty good deal for less than 40 bucks.

SAVE $449.01: As of Dec. 12, get the Yeedi M12 Pro+ robot vacuum and mop for its lowest price yet at $549.99. That's a discount of 45% and its lowest price yet.

Opens in a new window Credit: Amazon Yeedi M12 Pro+ robot vacuum and mop $549.99 at Amazon
$999.00 Save $449.01 Get Deal

Let's be real: no one likes to vacuum. No one likes mopping, either. That's why robot vacuums are such a boon if you run a busy household and just don't have the time to keep running a traditional unit — and it's even better when it can mop, too. Cyber Monday may have come and gone, but you can still save big on an appliance that can take care of both needs for a major steal.

As of Dec. 12, get the Yeedi M12 Pro+ robot vacuum and mop for just $549.99 at Amazon. That's $449.01 off its usual price of $999, and a discount of 45%. It's also the lowest price we've seen for this unit.

SEE ALSO: The best robot vacuums in 2024

This compact robovac and mop offers powerful suction with both flat and outward-rotating bristles that keeps it from getting tangled up in hair and losing its cleaning efficiency. It comes with its own compact station for auto-empty, as well as a one tap self-cleaning option and an auto-refill with drain button for when you take advantage of the mop.

When it's finished sucking up all the dirt and debris in your floor, it can switch from carpet to floors that need to be mopped. It uses its special auto-lift mopping system to keep the mopping plates up out of the way when it detects carpet. And when it's time to use them, it offers great stain removal and powerful scrubbing with a 55mL water tank that can handle stains that have set in.

Whether you hate cleaning or you would prefer to take the day off and let a robot do all the hard stuff, this is a deal worth buying into before it's gone.

Another splashy superhero movie is hitting theaters, and with it, parents less versed in comic books might well be wondering if it's age-appropriate for their kids. After all, there's a world of difference between the violence seen in Shazam! and Logan. Maybe your child loves Harley Quinn on the Batman Animated Series, but are they ready for the sexual violence at play in Birds of Prey?

With so many superhero movies playing safely in the PG-13 sandbox, parents might miss when a rated-R movie slips through the MPAA's chokehold on Hollywood blockbusters. Or hey, maybe your kids are a bit older, and can handle some more mature content? I'm not here to make that call for you. After all, you know your kids better than I, random internet film critic.

I'm just here to let you know what's in store in Kraven The Hunter, with the lightest spoilers possible.

SEE ALSO: A parents' guide to 'Deadpool and Wolverine' What is Kraven the Hunter rated? Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Russell Crowe face off in "Kraven the Hunter." Credit: Jay Maidment / Sony Pictures

The latest in Sony Pictures Spider-Man spinoffs, Kraven The Hunter, is rated R.

For context, other R-rated superhero movies include Logan, Kick-Ass, Watchmen, Punisher: War Zone, and all the Deadpools 1-3, including Deadpool and Wolverine.

How violent is Kraven the Hunter?

Well, remember how the red-band trailer showed the titular anti-hero biting the nose off a guy and spitting it at another? That gives a good sense.

The violence in Kraven is often brutal, inventive, and bloody, employing hand-to-hand combat, a tiger tooth as a killing tool, and an array of very gruesome booby traps, including a bear trap to the face. Notably, director J.C. Chandor rarely lingers on the gore. But it's definitely a bloodier film than the Dark Knight trilogy.

What kind of sexual content is in Kraven the Hunter? Aaron Taylor-Johnson smolders in "Kraven the Hunter." Credit: Jay Maidment / Sony Pictures

Nothing notable.

While the movie centers on a murderous vigilante who plays by his own rules, Kraven as a character is very chaste. His relationship with lawyer Calypso (Adriana DeBose) is friendly, but only very, very vaguely romantic.

While the film is absent of sex, it has sex appeal. Kraven is a big fan of popping his top off, displaying his rippling abs. And the cinematography recurringly leers at the actor's brawny bod.

SEE ALSO: Kraven the Hunter is the horny antihero of our dirty dreams How much cursing is in Kraven The Hunter?

By my count, three uses of the F-word, including Calypso dropping a mother— you get the idea. Otherwise, the characters swear casually. But for a movie that involves a lot of gangsters, there are way less F-bombs than the average Martin Scorsese movie.

What should parents know about Kraven the Hunter? Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Fred Hechinger play brothers in "Kraven the Hunter." Credit: Jay Maidment / Sony Pictures

This Spider-Man spinoff is a gleefully violent and pretty gory action movie, involving a vigilante who takes justice into his own hands to kill bad guys. Along the way, drugs will be mentioned — as he battles a pair of nefarious drug kingpins. But most of the horrid crimes of his prey are kept offscreen, save for some poachers cruelly chopping the horns off slaughtered wildebeests.

Kraven the Hunter opens only in theaters Dec. 13.

Porn site Clips4Sale is back with its annual fetish of the year. Pegging ruled in 2023, and giantess stomped on 2024 — but what about 2025?

Chastity — the denial of pleasure — is growing in popularity, so much so that Clips4Sale can't keep it under lock and key.

SEE ALSO: Porn viewers wanted 'demure' tradwife content this year, Pornhub's Year in Review shows

"The past twelve months have been full of contradictions when it comes to sex and pleasure," Clips4Sale's blog states. "And from wellness influencers obsessed over semen retention to calls for a global sex strike, a fetish that mines an erotic charge through the renunciation of sexual release seems perfectly fitting." The site refers to several online trends here, both "no fap" (no masturbating, for supposed physical and mental benefits) and the newly-Western interest in the 4B movement (which calls for women to not have relationships, sex, marriage, or children with men).

Along with these trends comes real fears for Project 2025, a far-right wishlist for Trump in his second term. Project 2025 calls for banning porn and threatens abortion access — two outwardly unsexy measures. Perhaps it makes sense, then, that forced abstinence is the fetish du jour.

Credit: Clips4Sale What is the chastity fetish?

The core of the fetish, Clips4Sale states, is orgasm denial. Anyone of any gender can participate, and doesn't require a locked cage, but that's certainly a bonus. Chastity play can last for hours or longer, like a whole "locktober." On Clips4Sale the term has grown 193 percent since 2020, and 71 percent this year alone.

SEE ALSO: How growing up in purity culture impacts sex

Runners-up for the fetish of the year are gooning, or masturbating and edging for hours, and cuckolding, usually a man watching his wife have sex with another man. The latter was named one of Clips4Sale's 10 fetishes that defined the last 20 years — but in 2025, porn viewers will lock it up.

The Critics Choice Award nominations have been announced, and several much-talked-about movies have gotten a slew of nods. But there's also some astonishing commissions.*

Both the humanely hilarious Anora and the polarizing body-horror offering The Substance scored seven nominations. The universally praised drama The Brutalist received nine nominations, while the controversial musical Emilia Pérez and the epic Dune: Part Two earned 10. And tied for most nominations at 11 is the box office smash that is Wicked and the sensational (and slyly funny) thriller Conclave.

Notable snubs include Babygirl, Halina Reijn's torrid thriller that won Nicole Kidman the Volpi Cup out of the Venice International Film Festival, Problemista, Julio Torres' critically heralded comedy about the red tape of immigrating to America, and Love Lies Bleeding, Rose Glass' harrowing and gnarly thriller.

SEE ALSO: The 25 best movies of 2024, and where to watch them

Did your favorite movie of 2024 make the cut? Check out the Critics Choice Awards full list of movie nominations below:

BEST PICTURE

A Complete Unknown

Anora

The Brutalist

Conclave

Dune: Part Two

Emilia Pérez

Nickel Boys

Sing Sing

The Substance

Wicked

SEE ALSO: 'A Complete Unknown' review: Timothée Chalamet infuriates as Bob Dylan BEST ACTOR

Adrien Brody – The Brutalist

Timothée Chalamet – A Complete Unknown

Daniel Craig – Queer

Colman Domingo – Sing Sing

Ralph Fiennes – Conclave

Hugh Grant – Heretic

SEE ALSO: 'Queer' review: Daniel Craig tackles William S. Burroughs in hot, heart-wrenching romance
BEST ACTRESS

Cynthia Erivo – Wicked

Karla Sofía Gascón – Emilia Pérez

Marianne Jean-Baptiste – Hard Truths

Angelina Jolie – Maria

Mikey Madison – Anora

Demi Moore – The Substance

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Yura Borisov – Anora

Kieran Culkin – A Real Pain

Clarence Maclin – Sing Sing

Edward Norton – A Complete Unknown

Guy Pearce – The Brutalist

Denzel Washington – Gladiator II

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Danielle Deadwyler – The Piano Lesson

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor – Nickel Boys

Ariana Grande – Wicked

Margaret Qualley – The Substance

Isabella Rossellini – Conclave

Zoe Saldaña – Emilia Pérez

BEST YOUNG ACTOR / ACTRESS

Alyla Browne – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Elliott Heffernan – Blitz

Maisy Stella – My Old Ass

Izaac Wang – Dìdi

Alisha Weir – Abigail

Zoe Ziegler – Janet Planet

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE

Anora

Conclave

Emilia Pérez

Saturday Night

Sing Sing

Wicked

BEST DIRECTOR

Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez

Sean Baker – Anora

Edward Berger – Conclave

Brady Corbet – The Brutalist

Jon M. Chu – Wicked

Coralie Fargeat – The Substance

RaMell Ross – Nickel Boys

Denis Villeneuve – Dune: Part Two

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Sean Baker – Anora

Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, Alex David – September 5

Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold – The Brutalist

Jesse Eisenberg – A Real Pain

Coralie Fargeat – The Substance

Justin Kuritzkes – Challengers

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Jacques Audiard – Emilia Pérez

Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox – Wicked

Greg Kwedar, Clint Bentley – Sing Sing

RaMell Ross and Joslyn Barnes – Nickel Boys

Peter Straughan – Conclave

Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts – Dune: Part Two

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Jarin Blaschke – Nosferatu  

Alice Brooks – Wicked

Lol Crawley – The Brutalist  

Stéphane Fontaine – Conclave  

Greig Fraser – Dune: Part Two  

Jomo Fray – Nickel Boys  

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Judy Becker, Patricia Cuccia – The Brutalist

Nathan Crowley, Lee Sandales – Wicked

Suzie Davies – Conclave

Craig Lathrop – Nosferatu  

Arthur Max, Jille Azis, Elli Griff – Gladiator II  

Patrice Vermette, Shane Vieau – Dune: Part Two  

BEST EDITING

Sean Baker – Anora

Marco Costa – Challengers

Nick Emerson – Conclave  

David Jancso – The Brutalist  

Joe Walker – Dune: Part Two

Hansjörg Weißbrich – September 5

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Lisy Christl – Conclave  

Linda Muir – Nosferatu  

Massimo Cantini Parrini – Maria  

Paul Tazewell – Wicked  

Jacqueline West – Dune: Part Two  

Janty Yates, Dave Crossman – Gladiator II  

BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP

Christine Blundell, Lesa Warrener, Neal Scanlan – Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Hair and Makeup Team – Dune: Part Two

Hair and Makeup Team – The Substance  

Frances Hannon, Sarah Nuth, Laura Blount – Wicked  

Traci Loader, Suzanne Stokes-Munton, David White – Nosferatu  

Mike Marino, Sarah Graalman, Aaron Saucier – A Different Man  

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Mark Bakowski, Pietro Ponti, Nikki Penny, Neil Corbould – Gladiator II  

Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, Paul Corbould, David Shirk – Wicked  

Paul Lambert, Stephen James, Rhys Salcombe, Gerd Nefzer – Dune: Part Two

Luke Millar, David Clayton, Keith Herft, Peter Stubbs – Better Man  

Visual Effects Team – The Substance  

Erik Winquist, Stephen Unterfranz, Paul Story, Rodney Burke – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Flow

Inside Out 2

Memoir of a Snail

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

The Wild Robot

BEST COMEDY

A Real Pain

Deadpool & Wolverine

Hit Man

My Old Ass

Saturday Night

Thelma

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

All We Imagine as Light

Emilia Pérez

Flow

I’m Still Here

Kneecap

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

BEST SONG

“Beautiful That Way” – The Last Showgirl – Miley Cyrus

“Compress / Repress” – Challengers – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

“El Mal” – Emilia Pérez – Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Camille

“Harper and Will Go West” – Will & Harper – Kristen Wiig

“Kiss the Sky” – The Wild Robot – Maren Morris

“Mi Camino” – Emilia Pérez – Selena Gomez

BEST SCORE

Volker Bertelmann – Conclave

Daniel Blumberg – The Brutalist

Kris Bowers – The Wild Robot

Clément Ducol & Camille – Emilia Pérez

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – Challengers

Hans Zimmer – Dune: Part Two

To see who'll win Critics Choice, tune into E! Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, where the Critics Choice Awards will air live, hosted by Chelsea Handler.

*Full Disclosure: Kristy Puchko is a member of the Critics Choice Association, which holds the Critics Choice Awards.

It's that time of year again, folks. The Game Awards are upon us.

Geoff Keighley's hybrid awards show and announcement livestream is back in its usual mid-December slot. As always, it'll be a celebration of the best games of 2024 for part of its runtime, and a series of trailers for both known quantities and big surprises for the bulk of its runtime. Some of 2024's heaviest hitters like Astro Bot, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and Black Myth: Wukong are up for the big Game of the Year award, so you'll want to tune in to see who gets the big prize.

SEE ALSO: The Game Awards 2024 nominations: Which games are up for the gold? The Game Awards 2024: When time it starts and how to watch

In order to do that, you'll need to know when and where to go to see the actual event. The good news is that couldn' t be simpler. The Game Awards 2024 air at 7:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 12. You can watch the event on any of the official Game Awards social media feeds, but the simplest and best options will most likely be either YouTube or Twitch.

Enjoy the show, and don't get too mad if your favorite game doesn't win anything.

In November, Apple announced a new feature called Share Item Location, allowing users to share real-time coordinates of lost or misplaced items with airlines.

Now, United Airlines has announced it will start integrating this feature into its baggage process today, on Dec. 12.

The Share Item Location tool, which went live with iOS 18.2, works with supported Apple and third party accessories, as well as Apple AirTags. So if you have an AirTag in your baggage, and the baggage gets lost, you can open Find My on your iPhone, generate a Share Item Location link, and send it to the airline to expedite its recovery.

SEE ALSO: Apple Watch Ultra 3 might get this life-saving feature

In United's case, customers will be able to add this link to their delayed baggage report in the United app. According to United, this should help its customer service agents "to more quickly find delayed bags and reunite them with customers."

The company says the shared location will be disabled as soon as you get your bag back. Customers will also be able to stop sharing the location at any time, and location tracking will automatically expire after seven days.

To use the feature, customers will need to have an iPhone running 18.2 or later and, of course, have a Find My accessory (such as Apple's AirPods Pro 2, Chipolo One Spot, Apple's iPhone Wallet, etc) or an AirTag, placed into their luggage.

United is just one of many airlines that are joining the program. More than 15 airlines said they would start accepting Find My item locations as part of their customer service, including Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Eurowings, Iberia, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Turkish Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and Vueling. Apple says more airlines will be added "in the coming months."

During the dark days of lockdown, we all found ways to connect. Some of us ran Zoom quizzes with mates. Some of us hit play on the same movie as our family on the other side of the world. Some of us staged an immersive, independent, multi-location production of Shakespeare's Hamlet within the world of Grand Theft Auto Online.

The latter is exactly what filmmakers Pinny Gryllis, Sam Crane, and Mark Oosterveen did, filming the ideation, rehearsal, location scouting, casting, and eventual performance of the tragedy befalling the Prince of Denmark all within Rockstar Games' online universe. Grand Theft Hamlet is nothing short of a groundbreaking work of cinema, one that explores the connections between players in online multiplayer action-adventure games, embodies the difficulty of creative pursuits and making theatre, and just how important online spaces were to us during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

SEE ALSO: ‘Grand Theft Hamlet’ review: 'Grand Theft Auto' meets Shakespeare in hilarious, moving doc

In the film, we meet friends Crane and Oosterveen playing GTA online during the third lockdown in the UK. It was a bleak time. They're both theatre actors who found themselves out of work when venues closed (Crane was just about to start his run as Harry Potter in The Cursed Child on the West End). In the film, we never see them in real life — only as their avatars, running around stealing cars and generally causing chaos. During one fateful session, they stumble across an outdoor theatre, and naturally find themselves quoting Shakespeare to the empty crowd while standing onstage.

Crane and Oosterveen started capturing these moments in-game and posting short videos on YouTube, after which Gryllis also joined the game and encouraged them to up their efforts and make it into a large-scale project — Gryllis found a smartphone in her avatar's pocket which could film close up shots; you can see her character filming on her phone during some scenes. From here, the idea snowballs, and the trio start to produce a production of Hamlet just like you would in real life — only here, strangers might just wander through your rehearsal and shoot everyone. Respawning becomes part and parcel of the whole gig.

Grand Theft Hamlet joins the leagues of machinima

Though it's a landmark moment for mainstream cinema and video game overlap, Grand Theft Hamlet isn't the first work of machinima — the art of making narrative films within video games or using video game engines. Artists have dabbled in this arena for decades.

"Machinima has been around for a while. It was one of the kind of early things on YouTube," said Crane onstage at BAFTA, in London in October.

"There was a series called Red vs. Blue, it was very popular in the early noughties... [Machinima] has been around for a while, and I think there's interestingly been quite a resurgence in it in recent years, maybe as video games have got more sophisticated and visually more impressive. And also, I think generally, as video games as a cultural medium have gained a bit more respect, maybe amongst people beyond the traditional gaming audience as well."

Grand Theft Hamlet reminds viewers of high art/low art hypocrisy

While staging the production inside the game, Grand Theft Hamlet manages to expose age-old, insufferable, pointless high art vs low art snobbery by fusing Shakespeare with video games. Crane, Oosterveen, and Gryllis spoke about how people have forgotten how Shakespeare's plays were seen as entertainment for the masses in his time, while dismissing the sophistication, intricacy, and timely creativity of modern video games.

"It was considered low art for the masses in Shakespeare's day in much the same way not all but many people from the theatre establishment look at people who play video games and take them seriously and look down on that and think, 'What are you doing with that juvenile nonsense?' I think that is how Shakespeare was viewed," said Crane.

"Shakespeare was, in his day, originally, a very kind of rough, popular entertainment. It was kind of rowdy and a bit naughty, and rough, funny, sweary, and violent," said Oosterveen.

Grand Theft Hamlet is a truly independent, bedroom-made film

When people throw the word "independent film" around, there can be some grey areas. But Grand Theft Hamlet was quite literally made in Gryllis, Crane, and Oosterveen's homes.

"We had a screening at the IMAX last week for London Film Festival, which was just sort of surreal, because I was like, I made this in my bedroom on a Mac with Adobe Premiere," said Gryllis. "We had a capture card, which we captured everything in 4K you know, we didn't have sophisticated post production. It was really, really handmade and on quite a low budget. It was an experiment, but that gives you a lot of freedom, right?"

"We were filming everything. We were always recording. It annoys me a little bit, because a lot of people are like, 'Oh, you couldn't have possibly, that looks like it might be staged or set up. It genuinely happened, like we did have an argument, and it was a continuation of an argument we'd had the night before in real life, but it was still an argument," she said.

Gryllis also pointed out the incredible accessibility gaming provided her as a filmmaker who is deaf, with the technology empowering her where other mediums may not.

"Filmmaking still is really an inaccessible artform to a great number of people — women, it's getting a bit better, but not people who are excluded because of their disability. Gaming does provide you know, anyone can do that, anyone can jump into a gaming server and start filming and recording something and making a story and then editing it," she said.

"I, as a deaf person, had live captioning, when I was interacting with people, I was able to read the captions on my phone with Otter. I stopped making films completely in 2016 when I lost my hearing, because I thought well that's it, it's an audio visual medium, it's over for me. So it's been a really accessible form of filmmaking for me. And I think you'll see from the film, a lot of people who we met, I think, felt very included in the process — maybe they wouldn't have been in theater."

And speaking of the people featured in the film, really, the cast — they're a major part of what makes Grand Theft Hamlet so uniquely online and disruptive to an industry that's notoriously hard to get a foot in the door: acting.

Credit: TullStories Grand Theft Hamlet has a truly miscellaneous, marvellous cast

While I won't spoil exactly how Grand Theft Hamlet recruited its cast, one of the most intriguing elements of the film is how the band got together. Players show up and take auditions and rehearsals seriously, others stand silently by, intrigued by the project, others simply shoot everyone and leave — as is the GTA way. But from a production perspective, it was a challenge for the team to actually lock down, request and get permission for the cast to appear in the final film.

"You've obviously got access to these incredible characters but then it's that thing of they're wearing a mask because they're avatars. Some even had voice changers. We didn't include it in the film, but some of them talked through live translation software, which was actually a digital voice. So the only thing you've got to go on is their gamertag," said Gryllis.

"We made sure that everybody knew that we were recording our footage. We asked them is it OK, do you want to be in this documentary? Can we contact you through PlayStation, and again to verify that? So we had to do everything that you would have to do in a normal documentary. I certainly knew about that from my own background. Sometimes people said no, and there was a lot of kids on the server. We had to go and change servers quite a lot, actually, because we've got people underage that we couldn't include."

The team recruited characters both in game (you should watch the film for their brilliant techniques) and outside the game, from their contacts in theatre. "I think it's me that said it, there's a line in the film, but there's a Venn diagram of people who are into theatre and people into GTA, and there's this tiny, tiny overlap. That's not a joke," said Oosterveen.

NPCs served a higher purpose in Grand Theft Hamlet

If you've ever played GTA, you'll know the NPCs (non playable characters) are crucial to the game's environment — and it turned out, the same went for performing Hamlet within it.

"They sort of became a bit like a Greek chorus in that you could put onto them through filming and editing, almost like a mirror of the emotions of the main characters that I was filming. And they were really moving, they would really listen to you and respond," said Gryllis.

Especially in scenes where the performers get angry or have an argument (one is a real argument between Crane and Gryllis), you can see the NPCs in the game become intrigued, scared, and even cower during these exchanges.

"They're also a tool for us as performers learning about that world and seeing them as a lens to understand Shakespeare within that world. You see when we're trying to work out how to do 'to be or not to be', and discovering all these NPCs and a dive bar and the way they they talk to us and respond to us in the way they exist in that world," said Crane.

When you eventually do get to experience Hamlet within GTA through Grand Theft Hamlet, it's overwhelming, moving, and a one-of-a-kind production. I'm not going to tell you anything, because this is theatre. You just have to experience it for yourself.

Grand Theft Hamlet is out now in UK cinemas. It will release globally in 2025 before streaming on Mubi.