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There are tons of ways AI can help you in day-to-day life. AI can help you generate emails, get advice about work or other aspects of life, and so on. But it can also help with smaller tasks that you might not even think of using it for — like, for example, your grocery shopping. 

Curious about how you can use AI to make a better grocery list? Here are some ideas:

Use photos to add items to your list

Remember: AI models are multimodal, meaning photos in your prompt can become text. That can come in handy when making your shopping list.

Plenty of people still prefer to write their shopping lists using a good ol’ paper and pen — and it makes sense. After all, when you share a list with multiple people, sometimes it just makes sense to keep a list on the fridge or somewhere else in the kitchen rather than try and move to digital. At the end of the week, when you’re about to go buy what's on your shopping list, you can use an AI app to digitize your list so you can easily access it and tick things off on your phone.

AI object and text recognition has gotten very good over the years, and many AI services, like ChatGPT, can read even scratchy handwriting. That can let you take a photo of your physical list, and have it make a digital list for you, which you can then copy into another app, like Reminders, if you so choose.

Let AI break add recipe ingredients to your list

Even cooler than simply taking a photo of your list is having AI automatically create a list with all the ingredients you need. Because of the fact that AI can read many web pages, all you need to do is send the link to an AI chatbot like ChatGPT, and have it create a list for you. You could even have it change the amounts you need based on how many people you’re cooking for or how many servings you want — eliminating the need to do all that math manually. 

Use AI to create entire meal plans and shopping guide

Zoom out one step further — what if you don’t want to meal plan in the first place? AI services can help you there too — and they do so very easily. Simply ask a service like ChatGPT to help you meal plan. Give it any dietary restrictions, the number of meals you want planned, and how long you want to spend cooking those meals. You could even give it ingredients you already have. It’ll plan out those meals, and you can then have it tweak the list based on your input.

When you’re happy with the meal selection, tell it to make a full list (including amounts) of all the ingredients you need to make the meals, and you’re good to go. Of course, you’ll want to double-check the ingredients to make sure you don’t buy stuff you already have.

Use AI to streamline your shop

What if you already have a list, but you simply want it organized by section to ensure that you’re as efficient as possible? That’s easy. Copy and paste your shopping list straight into an AI service — ChatGPT perhaps — and ask it to organize the list based on which section of the supermarket each item is in. It may not have an internal map of your local grocery story, but it will at least lump everything into broad categories.

Could it get easier than that?

Sleep is really important. Plenty of us don’t do what it takes to get enough sleep — not to mention the fact that a large portion of people have sleep disorders that they don’t even know about. We’ve had sleep trackers and sleep-tracking tech to help us get a better understanding of our sleep for some time now, but AI could help supercharge the tech.

In fact, there are already plenty of AI-powered sleep apps already available. Curious about whether or not AI might be able to help you sleep? Here are some of the best AI-powered sleep apps.

SEE ALSO: Apple Watch Series 10 introduces a new sleep apnea feature Sleeptracker-AI

Sleeptracker has long been a favorite for tracking sleep and gaining a better understanding of it, but in recent years, the company has been leveraging AI tech to improve on what the app can offer. Sleeptracker is used in conjunction with a hardware tracker, which is placed under your mattress, and can track sleep of two people, with sensors on each side of the bed. The AI part of the app comes from the fact that Sleeptracker has trained its algorithms on data from over 1 million smart devices, combined with over 70 research studies, and vetted by Stanford Sleep Medicine and UCSF. The underlying tech was developed by Fullpower-AI, and it’s considered one of the more accurate sleep-tracking systems out there.

SleepScore

SleepScore, by SleepScore Labs, is another much-loved sleep-tracking system, and another of the most accurate ones. SleepScore was developed by ResMed, and it uses the microphones and speakers on your phone to analyze your movements and your breathing patterns. SleepScore Labs also has another app, called “Do I Snore or Grind,” and it uses the same tech to detect how regularly you snore or grind your teeth.

Nightly

Nightly leverages AI a little more than some of the competition. Nightly tracks your sleep, to be sure, but it also plays AI-generated sounds designed to help you sleep better, and based on your environment, how your day went (based on your input), and more. It has various white noise sounds and beats that Nightly says will help users get deeper sleep, and more. 

Sleep Cycle

Sleep Cycle is built around tracking your sleep with AI-powered algorithms, and actually using that information to help you feel better when you wake up. When you set an alarm in the app, it’ll use your sleep cycle information to wake you up at the point of your lightest sleep, helping ensure that you start your day feeling great. It also uses ambient sounds to detect your sleep, so you don’t need to wear anything or use other devices, if you don’t want to. 

Pillow

Pillow is designed to take some of the guesswork out of sleep-tracking. It leverages AI to process a massive range of data points around your sleep, and if you use it with an Apple Watch, you don’t need to do anything to start tracking — it’ll automatically track your sleep when it thinks you’re sleeping. It’ll even record audio when it detects you snoring, and use machine learning to give you a detailed sleep analysis after each night.

I really like to cook, but I don’t love planning my meals. It can be time-consuming, and I normally end up falling into the old recipes that I’ve made dozens of times. That, in turn, can often mean letting ingredients I bought for last week’s meals go to waste, not to mention the fact that it makes cooking a little less exciting.

But you don’t have to let those ingredients go to waste, and with AI in your kitchen, it’s easier than ever to plan meals and generate new recipes. That’s right — AI can generate completely new recipes for you to try out.

SEE ALSO: Where's the AI in these 'AI-powered' products for your home? An explanation.

Here are the best AI recipe generators:

Mr. Cook

The big selling point of these AI recipe generators is the ability to input ingredients you already have, which Mr. Cook does very well. On top of that, however, it also acts as a kind of recipe organization tool, allowing you to upload handwritten recipes or import recipes.

You can plan your meals, and input preferences, dietary restrictions, and more, so you can ensure that recipes perfectly fit your needs. You even have it suggest ingredient substitutions, allowing you to cook new recipes that you might not otherwise be able to, or want to, eat.

ChefGPT

ChefGPT lets you generate recipes based on ingredients in your pantry. But it won’t generate any old recipe — it lets you select difficulty levels and create meal plans rather than individual recipes. ChefGPT can integrate with your shopping list too, making the process of planning, shopping, and cooking simple and streamlined. 

DishGen

Along with generating recipes with your ingredients, DishGen puts minimizing food waste front and center, and lets you filter recipes by those that are human-verified, which can help you get a better idea of which recipes might be high-quality. Even better is the fact that DishGen will help you tweak recipes on the fly, so you can ensure it fits your taste around things like spice levels.

Let’s Foodie

Let’s Foodie can generate recipes based on your ingredients, but it can also make recipe recommendations based on previous recipes you have liked, and plan your meals. It also lets you exclude specific ingredients that you can’t eat or simply don’t like. 

MealPractice 

Last but not least is MealPractice, which allows you to input ingredients you have. It also makes meal-planning a little more social, allowing you to follow users that might have similar tastes to you. You can select preferences around the types of protein you want to use, whether you want something healthy or not, and so on.

It’s important to have a home with a look you love. The difference between coming home to a poorly organized setup, versus one that looks intentional and put together, can be huge. But not everyone can afford to spend cash on an interior designer.

Thankfully, with AI, you don’t have to spend that money. There are tons of great AI interior design apps to help you get the most out of your home, both when it comes to shopping for furniture and other items to round out your living space, and when it comes to maximizing the space with the items you already have.

SEE ALSO: IKEA's new furniture line attempts to take gamers out of the basement

Here’s a look at the best AI interior design apps:

Homestyler

Homestyler is one of the most-loved AI interior design apps, not only leveraging AI tech, but also augmented reality (AR), to help you visualize a design in your actual space. You can upload images of your space to place furniture, decorations, and more in, and  you can choose from a variety of styles, including Glam, Contemporary, Bohemian, and more.

Specific to AI is the fact that you can have the built-in AI Designer generate ideas of its own using your uploaded images, and based on your filters around style. You can even upload floor plans, and switch from interior designer to exterior design, so you can design every aspect of your home. 

Room Planner

Room Planner is a little more minimalistic than some of the others, but that also means it’s a little easier to use, and takes less time to get to actual ideas. You can have the app maintain your room’s color-scheme, ensuring that you won’t have to start from scratch when it comes to decorations and furniture. It’s also free, and lets you generate as many images as you want. The service is in beta, so it might generate some weird ideas from time to time, but because it’s free, it’s hard to have a big issue with that.

Dreamhouse AI

Dreamhouse AI is one of the more powerful options on this list, and while it’s not free, it is considered to offer some of the best designs. The service has a very user-friendly interface, and makes it easy to get up and running quickly, with high-quality designs and inspirations you can use to create your space.

The service has a monthly and yearly plan, and if you’re moving into a new home, it’s worth signing up for a month to get ideas for all the rooms in your new home — after which you can simply unsubscribe.

REimagineHome

Perhaps you’d prefer to use a web-based app than one on your phone, in which case REimagineHome is the way to go. This service also lets you upload images of your space, and allows you to stage bare rooms, or redesign rooms that are already furnished. 

Coohom

Most of the AI interior design apps so far can generate great ideas and inspirations, but what if you want ideas using furniture you already have? Coohom has a huge library of furniture that you can match to what you own, or at least find something pretty close — so you don’t have to try and imagine what your furniture will look like in a space. You can even import 3D renders from other sources. The software is a little more advanced than others, and there’s a bit of a learning curve — but if you’re willing to spend some time learning how to use the software, you might get more personalized results.

Over the past decade or so, as AI has become more common in the background, it got a lot more common for consumers with smart homes to build smart security systems on their own – rather than having to pay high fees to established old-school security companies. 

Given the fact that home security has become so much more democratized, you can bet that AI features are coming to those systems too. In fact, there are plenty of AI-based features that have already started rolling out to home security devices, ensuring that home security systems are more advanced and more helpful than ever. Here’s a look at some of the most common of those features – and how you can take advantage of them.

SEE ALSO: Google Home just massively expanded its capabilities  Object and person recognition

Object recognition is getting a whole lot more advanced. Over the past few years, security companies have been building better facial recognition into their cameras, ensuring that you always know who's at the door near your home. Those systems are going beyond that too, able to recognize objects like packages on your doorstep, vehicles parked in your driveway, and even license plates from suspect cars.

These features have tangible benefits; not only will you be able to know who's at your home and, but you'll be able to eliminate false alerts due to the movements of trusted individuals, ensuring you only get notifications when the system detects someone it doesn’t recognize. No longer are systems constantly sending notifications just because they detect a tree moving in the breeze. Object recognition ensures that they can filter out movement that's irrelevant to home security.

The majority of smart security cameras offer object or person recognition of some kind, especially when it comes to common objects like packages and people that a camera sees regularly.

Video analytics and summaries

Analytics from security cameras can go beyond simply detecting objects and people. Video analytics can allow cameras to better recognize when someone might be behaving suspiciously around your home. For example, cameras could identify that someone is carrying a weapon or something they might use to break into your home, then notify you of that behavior. Generative AI will allow those notifications to be richer and more helpful as well, thanks to the fact that it can help systems create summaries of activity that's detected with specifics about what the cameras saw.

Google has started leveraging AI for these analytics and summaries in the Google Home platform, and it's likely that others will follow suit, with Google more widely rolling out the feature to more cameras and systems.

Advanced automations

Smart home automations can be incredibly powerful as they allow you to set up your home to work without you needing to actually do anything. AI will help make those automations easier to set up and run more efficiently, largely through natural language recognition, which will allow you to set up automations with a simple command. For example, you could tell your smart home system to "always lock the door five minutes after I leave." This could be done without you having to scroll through menus, set up individual devices, and so on.

A feature like this is already rolling out as part of Google Home with certain Nest devices. It runs on the Help Me feature in Google Home, which allows you to text describing the automation you want to set up. The feature is expected to widely roll out by the end of 2024.

Better voice control

Smart security systems are often controlled with voice commands, allowing you to arm a system or camera using a service like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa. Google has announced that it's supercharging the Google Home platform with AI features based on Gemini, which will allow you to find out information about your smart home using the devices that you already have set up. The example that Google gives is that you'll be able to ask Gemini if the kids left their bike in the driveway, after which Gemini will be able to use a security camera that you might have set up in the driveway to find the answer to your question. This is another feature that Google has shown off and is expected to roll out widely by the end of 2024.

Connections is the latest New York Times word game that's captured the public's attention. The game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for November 1's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable What is Connections?

The NYT's latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications' Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

Tweet may have been deleted

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

Tweet may have been deleted

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for November 1 Here's a hint for today's Connections categories

Want a hit about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Slow pace

• Green: Beers

• Blue: Cheesy carbs

• Purple: Types of effects

Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow: Progress Slowly

• Green: Ways to Order a Beer

• Blue: Cheesy Corn Snack Unit

• Purple: ___Effect

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections #509 is...

What is the answer to Connections today

• Progress Slowly: CRAWL, CREEP, DRAG, INCH

• Ways to Order a Beer: BOTTLE, CAN, DRAFT, TAP

• Cheesy Corn Snack Unit: BALL, CURL, DOODLE, PUFF

• ___Effect: BUTTERFLY, DOMINO, HALO, PLACEBO

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for November 1

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.

Oh hey there! If you're here, it must be time for Wordle. As always, we're serving up our daily hints and tips to help you figure out today's answer.

If you just want to be told today's word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for November 1's Wordle solution revealed. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for November 1 Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once. 

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What's the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website's creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn't any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle's Hard Mode if you're after more of a challenge, though.

SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for November 1, 2024 Here's a subtle hint for today's Wordle answer:

A number bigger than 3 but smaller than 10.

Does today's Wordle answer have a double letter?

There are no reoccurring letters.

Today's Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with...

Today's Wordle starts with the letter S.

SEE ALSO: Wordle-obsessed? These are the best word games to play IRL. The Wordle answer today is...

Get your last guesses in now, because it's your final chance to solve today's Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today's Wordle is...

SIXTH.

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for November 1

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Wordle.

The Daily Mini Crossword is one of the many popular daily word games available on Mashable. Powered by Arkadium, the mini crossword offers a speed round of puzzle fun with clues that are sure to challenge experienced crossword enthusiasts.

But there's no need to let the challenge get in the way of your enjoyment! If moments are turning to minutes after getting stuck on a clue, find the answers you need to progress right here.

And when you're done, check out the many other word games you can play on Mashable, including a full-size crossword.

Also, if you get stuck on any other daily word games, such as Wordle, Connections, or Strands — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle hints and answers for November 1 SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

Here are the clues and answers to Daily Mini Crossword for Friday, November 1, 2024:

AcrossSubway alternative

• The answer is Cab.

Kind of bear

• The answer is Polar.

Crop up

• The answer is Arise.

Gestured greetings

• The answer is Waved.

____ Zeppelin

• The answer is Led.

DownPinkish orange

• The answer is Coral.

Breathing

• The answer is Alive.

Has foundation

• The answer is Based.

Furry foot

• The answer is Paw.

Wine choice

• The answer is Red.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to the latest Mini Crossword.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

Sketchy.

SEE ALSO: Mini crossword answers for November 1 Hurdle Word 1 answer

DICEY

Hurdle Word 2 hint

Clever in a funny way.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for November 1 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

WITTY

Hurdle Word 3 hint

Up to.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for November 1 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for November 1 Hurdle Word 3 answer

UNTIL

Hurdle Word 4 hint

A cause of muscle pain.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for November 1 Hurdle Word 4 answer

CRAMP

Final Hurdle hint

To legally take in a child to raise.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

ADOPT

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Connections: Sports Edition is a new version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.

Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the "common threads between words." And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we've served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.

If you just want to be told today's puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for October 28's Connections solution. But if you'd rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable SEE ALSO: Hurdle hints and answers for November 1 What is Connections Sports Edition?

The NYT's latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication's sports coverage. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.

Tweet may have been deleted

Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there's only one correct answer.

If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.

Tweet may have been deleted

Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.

SEE ALSO: NYT's The Mini crossword answers for November 1 Here's a hint for today's Connections Sports Edition categories

Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:

• Yellow: Where to line up

• Green: Pitching success

• Blue: BOOMSHAKALAKA

• Purple: Playing field for armchair quarterbacks

Featured Video For You Connections: How to play and how to win Here are today's Connections Sports Edition categories

Need a little extra help? Today's connections fall into the following categories:

• Yellow - Football positions

• Green - Strikeout

• Blue - Slang for dunk

• Purple - NFL video games

Looking for Wordle today? Here's the answer to today's Wordle.

Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today's puzzle before we reveal the solutions.

Drumroll, please!

The solution to today's Connections Sports Edition #39 is...

What is the answer to Connections Sports Edition today

• Football positions: CB, P, TE, WR

• Strikeout: K, PUNCHOUT, SO, WHIFF

• Slang for dunk: HAMMER, JAM, SLAM, STUFF

• NFL video games: 2K, BLITZ, FEVER, STREET

Don't feel down if you didn't manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we'll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

SEE ALSO: Mini crossword answers for November 1

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to today's Connections.

Olivia Rodrigo surprised trick-or-treaters on Halloween for a fun segment on "Jimmy Kimmel Live".

It’s already powering remarkable visual innovations, like in the new movie “Here.” But boosters think that’s just the beginning.

The Mini is a bite-sized version of The New York Times' revered daily crossword. While the crossword is a lengthier experience that requires both knowledge and patience to complete, The Mini is an entirely different vibe.

With only a handful of clues to answer, the daily puzzle doubles as a speed-running test for many who play it.

So, when a tricky clue disrupts a player's flow, it can be frustrating! If you find yourself stumped playing The Mini — much like with Wordle and Connections — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

Here are the clues and answers to NYT's The Mini for Friday, November 1, 2024:

AcrossWith 5-Down, rhyming Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection

• The answer is Wabi.

Sneaker bottoms

• The answer is Soles.

Typeface similar to Helvetica

• The answer is Arial.

Piece of grass

• The answer is Blade.

Personal items checked by bouncers

• The answer is IDs.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle hints and answers for November 1 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for November 1 DownDisney ___

• The answer is World.

Pen name

• The answer is Alias.

Pearl in a pearl necklace, e.g.

• The answer is Bead.

Bit of land in the ocean

• The answer is Isle.

See 1-Across

• The answer is Sabi.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to the latest Mini Crossword.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure is the latest entry in the Life is Strange series — it's a direct follow-up to the original game that came out in 2015.

The game expertly showcases the original protagonist, Max, and her personal growth, while introducing a likable cast of new supporting characters. The story starts off incredibly strong, but the pacing feels rushed towards the end and the conclusion may not satisfy some players. Additionally, the gameplay mechanics feel a bit underwhelming.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure plot

Life is Strange: Double Exposure is set 10 years after the original game, with Max Caulfield returning as a photographer for Caledon University.

Credit: Deck Nine

Due to the events of the previous game, Caulfield no longer uses her time-rewinding powers. However, after her friend Safi is mysteriously murdered by a gunshot, she develops new powers that allow her to switch between timelines. Max alternates between her original timeline and another where Safi was never shot and utilizes clues from both to find out who killed Safi.

It’s an incredibly strong foundation and the mystery surrounding Safi’s death is a real page turner up until the last few chapters, which felt rushed and the ending was a bit unsatisfying. Without spoiling anything, the first three chapters kept my attention, but when all of the details started coming together, I couldn’t help but feel like the idea of Safi’s death was a sort of bait and switch.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure characters

Life is Strange: Double Exposure’s cast is quite small, which lets other supporting characters get their time to shine.

Credit: Deck Nine

For example, Max can see both versions of Safi’s best friend, Moses, when switching between the two timelines and how he reacts to certain events. This allows players to experience different facets and emotions of these characters, creating fully realized personalities.

Max shows strong character growth, too, learning from her actions 10 years ago during the events of the original game. She wants to avoid a repeat of what happened before, when her own selfish motives led to innocent people getting hurt. This is demonstrated throughout the game with her words and actions.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure mechanics

Shifting between timelines sounds like a really interesting gameplay mechanic on paper, but it feels underutilized in Life is Strange: Double Exposure.

Credit: Deck Nine

In the game, Max shifts timelines to complete simple tasks, like entering a room that’s locked in one reality but open in another. It doesn’t really get too much deeper than that. There was one scene where Max had to save a person from falling into a frozen lake as it was cracking, so she shifted the crumbling bed of ice with the other timeline’s undisturbed one. 

It was a very cool implementation of Max’s new powers, but those possibilities were only shown through cutscenes and not actual gameplay. I feel like the developers could’ve come up with some more different ideas to incorporate Max’s powers with gameplay.

Throughout the game, you’ll be presented with different choices and dialogue options on how to proceed. Some are more impactful than others. For example, Max finds out a character is planning on filing a restraining order on Safi, and she has the option to tell Safi about it. Whether the player chooses to tell Safi about it has ramifications during later chapters. This adds significant replayability to each playthrough, allowing you to experience different outcomes.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure graphics

The graphics in Life is Strange: Double Exposure are great, especially its art direction.

Credit: Deck Nine

It has a cartoon-ish look that avoids looking juvenile, and the facial expressions are the best the series has seen thus far. It’s vibrant with colors, and the contrast between the two timelines reflects the mood of each one. In the one where Safi is still alive, there’s a warm yellow hue to it, while the one where she's dead has a somber blue coloration. It’s a simple yet effective technique that can affect the mood.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure music and audio

The music and audio in Life is Strange: Double Exposure is good, but it wasn’t something that I paid particular attention to throughout the game. However, the game uses some licensed music from real-world artists like Tessa Rose Jackson & Feel for songs like “Wake,” “Illusion,” and “So This Is Lonely,” which stand out in the soundtrack.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure difficulty

Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a narrative adventure game, so it doesn’t have any difficulty options.

Credit: Deck Nine

However, there are plenty of good accessibility options, such as softening the white bloom that occurs when shifting timeline, making the gameplay experience smoother.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure performance

Life is Strange: Double Exposure performed well on Xbox Series X. There were no hard crashes nor performance issues — and load times were reasonable. However, there were some issues with textures popping in when cutscenes were loading in, making for some weird visual glitches.

Is Life is Strange: Double Exposure worth it?

Life is Strange: Double Exposure is a worthy follow-up for those who enjoyed Max’s original adventure. Without giving away spoilers, the game hints at future sequels, which occasionally undermines its story potential. This focus detracts from Double Exposure’s impact, leading to a somewhat underwhelming ending.

However, Max’s personal growth felt satisfying and the cast is likable. While the gameplay mechanics involving Max’s time powers could’ve been more fleshed out, the story was enough to keep my attention until the end. At $50, Life is Strange: Double Exposure is worth it for die-hard Life is Strange fans, but casual players can wait for a discount.

Instagram can be a great way to promote your side hustle, whether that's dog-walking, tutoring, creating UGC, selling vintage clothes, or another moonlighting endeavor. 

But it can also be a complex platform to get right, with many features, many post types, and a frustratingly mysterious algorithm. So we've compiled a few tips to make your Instagram presence as great as the business itself.

Set up an Instagram Business account

One of the first choices you'll make is whether to make a new account for your side hustle or, if you have one, use your existing personal account. There are benefits to both approaches: Creating a new account can make your business look more streamlined and legit. Plus, you'll be able to start fresh by targeting the exact type of followers you want as your customers. 

There's one big advantage of using your personal account: existing followers. If you go that route, though, you might need to revamp your profile and delete — or archive — photos that aren't aligned with your brand. For example, if you're starting a babysitting business, you'll probably want to send your party pics to the archives — unless they're from your little cousin's Bluey-themed bash. 

Either way, you'll want to set up an Instagram Business account, which you can do under "Edit profile" in the Instagram app. (The Instagram help website has the full instructions.) You can also link the account to your business's Facebook page if it has one.

Embrace some light branding

No need to go wild on this one — we know it's a side hustle, and we know you're busy. Still, a little branding magic can go a long way, including:

• A simple, eye-catching logo

• A color palette (this can be as simple as picking three colors and sticking to them as much as possible)

• If you're using text in your posts, one or two go-to fonts

Nail your Instagram bio

Your Instagram bio is a prospective customer's first impression of your business, so make sure it's good! Here, you'll want to provide basic information about your business. Some suggestions:

• The goods and/or services you provide

• Where you're located — and, if you're selling physical products, where you ship

• Your credentials (for example, a tutor might mention that they have a degree in education)

• Contact information (an email address, for example)

• A cute, pithy slogan

Links are also important to consider — to your professional website, your portfolio, and such. Instagram allows you to add five links directly, or you can opt for a service like Linktree if you have more.

Keep the posts flowing

Now that your account's scaffolding is set to go, it's time to post. There's no "ideal" number for how often you should post — it depends on your business and audience — but a good rule of thumb is 3-5 times per week. Use these posts to introduce yourself, show off your product, and explain what your business offers. For example, a dog trainer might make a post detailing the services they offer, a post introducing themselves and their credentials, and a post showing off a perfect "sit" from a canine client.

Don't just concentrate on grid posts, either. Stories and Reels are also key ways to engage potential customers. Stories are a great place to share real-time updates — the dog trainer might post a fresh, positive review or a video of a pup in the middle of a training session, for example. Reels provide an opportunity to hop on trending audio and memes, increasing your chances of going viral and getting lots of eyeballs on your business.

Plus, once you reach 10,000 followers, you'll be able to use the "swipe up" feature on your Stories, which will bring users directly to your website. Don't forget us when you get there!

Two spiral galaxies are on the precipice of a messy scuffle — a type of merger known as "galactic cannibalism," with the larger galaxy stripping stars off the smaller one. 

The galaxies, IC 2163 on the left and NGC 2207, are about 114 light-years away from Earth, located in the Eridanus and Canis Major constellations, respectively. NASA and its space agency counterparts have combined data from the James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope to learn more about such cosmic collisions.

The result: The snapshot that appears at the top of this story, the highest-resolution image yet of the galactic pair, revealing new insights into galaxy evolution and star formation. 

"Both galaxies have high star formation rates, like innumerable individual hearts fluttering all across their arms," according to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which runs both telescopes.

SEE ALSO: Astronomers just found a galaxy way too advanced for its time The James Webb Space Telescope reveals where cold dust glows throughout the galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 in the mid-infrared light range. Some of the pink dots may be faraway supermassive black holes known as quasars. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI

So far the two galaxies have only brushed against each other, with IC 2163, the smaller of the two, shifting slightly behind the other millions of years ago. You heard that right: This stuff moves slower than a horror film victim, screaming instead of fleeing from impending doom. Galactic collisions, for all their violence, occur over several hundred million years.

As many as 25 percent of galaxies are merging with others right now, and likely even more are affecting neighboring galaxies with their gravity. These interactions and exchanges of material often result in intense bursts of star formation, strongly implying the connection between galaxy mergers and the births of stars, according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Combining data from Webb and Hubble has benefits for scientists because the observatories detect light at different wavelengths. To get the full picture of a cosmic object, it helps to have the full range of its electromagnetic spectrum, NASA says. Hubble senses visible light, while Webb picks up invisible light at infrared wavelengths. In short, a lot of dust and gas in space obscures the view to extremely distant and inherently dim light sources, but infrared waves can penetrate through the clouds. 

The Hubble Space Telescope provides a view of galaxies IC 2163 and NGC 2207 in ultraviolet light, showing their star-filled arms in bright blue and their cores in orange. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI

Evidence of the previous scrap between the galaxies appears in the shock fronts, where material from the galaxies has crashed into each other, represented in the image at the top of this story in bright red lines and distorted arms. 

"Even more tendrils look like they’re hanging between the galaxies’ cores," according to the institute. "Another extension 'drifts' off the top of the larger galaxy, forming a thin, semi-transparent arm that practically runs off screen."

And it seems the confrontation has already supplied the galaxies with star formation fuel. The areas of bright blue, captured by Hubble in ultraviolet light, and pink and white, mainly caught in mid-infrared by Webb, are star-forming regions. 

Some super star clusters peek out in the highest spiral arm that wraps above the larger galaxy on the right. Other bright spots are mini starbursts — locations where new baby stars are churned out rapidly. All around the core of the smaller galaxy on the left is evidence of new stars burning brightly. 

This pair of galaxies makes roughly two dozen new stars, each about the size of the sun, every year. That's about eight times more than the Milky Way's rate. The duo has also hosted about seven supernovas, cataclysmic star explosions, over the past few decades. That might not sound like many, but that's high compared to the average two per century in our home galaxy. 

Over eons, the galaxies may continue having these sorts of dalliances, before ultimately merging. It's hard to know how exactly it will unfold, but scientists think their cores could eventually converge into one. The process will wind down after the interacting regions run out of fuel for making new stars. 

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For small business owners, time is one of the most valuable – and limited – resources. Running a business often means juggling multiple tasks, from customer relations to finances, marketing to production, and about 101 other things. Fortunately, recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) are revolutionizing time management, allowing small business owners to automate tasks, streamline workflows, and reclaim valuable time. Here's a closer look at how AI is transforming the way small business owners and solopreneuers manage their time.

Automating routine tasks to reduce daily workload

One of the biggest time-sucks when running a business is completing routine, repetitive tasks. AI tools like Microsoft Co-Pilot and Zapier excel at automating these tasks, from scheduling emails and posting on social media to taking care of data entry and generating reports. By leaving the repetitive tasks to the robots, you can free up hours of your time to focus on the strategic aspects of your business.

For example, Microsoft Co-Pilot can automatically draft replies to common customer emails, as well as integrate with your calendar. The AI can take a look and suggest meeting times, draft agenda points, and create follow-up tasks discussed in meetings, saving you from having to worry about every detail.

AI-enhanced project management for task prioritization

Prioritizing tasks effectively can be challenging, especially for small business owners juggling several projects at once. AI-enhanced project management tools such as Asana, Trello, and Monday.com use machine learning to analyze past data and project statuses to recommend the best order for completing tasks.  

For instance, in Asana, AI can analyze your tasks and deadlines to suggest the best order to complete them. This ensures that the most urgent and impactful tasks are completed first. This intelligent prioritization takes the guesswork out of what to do next and reduces the mental fatigue of running your business.

Improving decision-making with AI-driven data insights

Small business owners often need to make quick, data-informed decisions. However, analyzing data manually can take hours, especially if you don't have a dedicated analytics team. Tools like Microsoft Power BI and Tableau use AI to process large datasets, generate insights, and visually present trends. With AI-generated recommendations, business owners can make more informed decisions in less time.

Boosting communication efficiency with AI-powered assistants

AI assistants like Microsoft Co-Pilot, Google Assistant, and other virtual agents can handle a range of communication tasks, from responding to emails to scheduling meetings. They can even handle basic customer service queries. AI tools are great for these tasks as they can respond quickly, work around the clock, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks. With AI handling scheduling requests and reminders, business owners are less likely to miss important meetings or deadlines.

Streamlining finances with AI in bookkeeping and expense management

Financial management is an important part of running a business, but it's also complicated and time-consuming – especially if you don't have a financial background. AI-powered tools like QuickBooks and FreshBooks streamline the bookkeeping process by automating tasks like expense categorization and cash flow tracking. 

For example, QuickBooks can automatically categorize transactions or alert you when cash flow dips below a certain threshold. It can also generate and send invoices based on recurring payments. 

Simplifying customer relationship management (CRM)

Customer relationship management (CRM) is important for business growth, but keeping track of customer interactions and feedback can be overwhelming. AI-powered CRM tools like HubSpot and Salesforce offer intelligent insights into customer behavior, automate follow-ups, and recommend the best times and methods to reach out, so you can nurture relationships more efficiently. These recommendations can drive customer engagement without the need for hours of manual CRM management.

Enhancing marketing with AI for targeted and efficient campaigns

Building and managing marketing campaigns requires creativity and time. AI tools like Jasper, Canva, and Hootsuite can streamline the marketing process by generating content ideas, designing on-brand visuals, and automating social media posting. Additionally, the AI analytics within these tools give you insights into campaign performance, so you know which ads and posts resonate most with your target audience.

Enhancing team collaboration and productivity

For small business owners managing remote teams or freelancers, collaboration can be a challenge. AI-driven platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams streamline communication by automating reminders, assigning tasks, and integrating with other business tools, ensuring that everyone stays aligned without the need for constant check-ins.

Juror #2 sets an incredibly high bar for itself, as a movie that lives in the shadow of 12 Angry Men. However, its struggles to differentiate itself from the Sidney Lumet classic yield intriguing contradictions. This is an appropriate outcome for a film so torn over notions of American justice, with which it wrestles by imbuing a familiar plot with a significant wrinkle: What if one of the 12 jurors realizes they might be responsible for the murder at hand?

Despite its growing pains, Juror #2 gradually grows more gripping and self-assured, taking the form of solid, mid-budget adult entertainment with a lot on its mind and heart — the kind of movie Hollywood seldom green-lights in 2024. If it really is the last thing Clint Eastwood ever directs (he is, after all, 94 years old), then it's one hell of a swan song, despite Warner Bros.' insistence on a paltry 50-screen release.

SEE ALSO: 42 movies you'll want to see this fall

With its sense of careful, classical composition and emphasis on performance, Eastwood's courtroom drama represents a kind of American filmmaking being left in the past, which is oddly fitting too. The past is where the movie's subconscious resides, both as a tale of festering guilt and as a work that gazes lovingly upward at lofty American ideals that may no longer exist. Juror #2 reveals cracks in its own nostalgia through its riveting drama, and even through its own political flaws.

What is Juror #2 about?

On the surface, Georgia magazine writer Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) seems to have it all, from the white picket fence to a doting, pregnant wife, Allison Crewson (Zoey Deutch). Their dynamic is fun and easygoing, and they even spend Halloween dressed up as the subjects of Grant Wood's painting American Gothic, an idyllic piece of Americana. Their only seeming speedbump en route to parenthood is the minor inconvenience of Justin's jury duty summons. The trial in question offers a stark contrast to Justin and Allison's picturesque domestic bliss: A tattooed drug pusher, James Sythe (Gabriel Basso) — the character's name evokes the grim reaper — is accused of bludgeoning his girlfriend, Kendall Carter (Francesca Eastwood), to death, and tossing her corpse off a shallow bridge.

The crime scene photos are gut-churning, but as a picture of the events is painted by diligent public defender Eric Resnick (Chris Messina) and ambitious assistant D.A. Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) — another sharp, exacting name — Justin quickly realizes that he was at the same bar as Sythe and Kendall that rainy evening. He also recalls hitting something with his SUV in the darkness, right by a deer crossing, which led him to think little of the event at the time. Now, with the facts laid out before him, he isn't so sure, and with Sythe's innocence hanging in the balance, his decisions become paramount.

Jonathan Abrams' screenplay establishes the movie's premise quickly and with ruthless efficiency. In fact, Justin's realizations and his acceptance of his role in Kendall's death unfold rather quickly, to the point that something feels off about the movie's pacing. However, as Justin tries to convince his fellow jurors to rethink their stances — at first, he's the only holdout in a sea of guilty verdicts — a surprisingly deft balancing act emerges, wherein the drama of Justin's remorse, and his dilemmas over how to proceed, become increasingly entwined with the nature of the law itself, and with its in-built presumptions. Granted, the case itself feels legally dubious at times; rare are the moments when it feels like anyone, let alone these specific jurors, might ignore its enormous holes. However, this only makes the movie's argument more pointed, about what truly informs an individual's factual reality. 

The "what if?" hanging around Justin's neck like an albatross isn't one of whether he was responsible — he's sure of this up front — but rather, what might happen should he come clean, and what his alternatives to doing so might be. As he seeks legal advice from a lawyer friend, Larry Lasker (Kiefer Sutherland), his conundrum becomes excitingly complicated, paving the way for unexpected personal drama. Not only does Justin have his wife and unborn child to care for, there are also elements of his past — hinted at through dialogue, but eventually revealed through flashbacks and Hoult's heartrending personal confessions — that would, in theory, cast aspersions on his own character and idyllic façade, a fear made all the more pressing by how sure co-jurors seem of Sythe's morality.

SEE ALSO: John Oliver takes a disturbing deep dive into racism within the U.S. jury system

Justin, therefore, must sway 11 other individuals without tipping his hand. The film becomes a thrilling game of oration and of navigating fiery, idiosyncratic personalities. However, Eastwood never allows his story to become decoupled from larger concerns about the ethics of the law, and to what degree "innocent until proven guilty" truly holds when the accused, the attorneys, the jurors, and even judges don't exist in vacuum. "To the justice system!" Resnick toasts midway through the film, somewhat tongue-in-cheek. "It isn't perfect, but it's the best we've got."

Juror #2 is in a tug-of-war with 12 Angry Men.

Watching Juror #2 in no way requires homework, but familiarity with Lumet's landmark legal drama (or the teleplay on which it's based) makes it all the richer. There are, of course, overt plot similarities at the outset. Like Henry Fonda's upstanding Juror No. 8, Justin is initially the only "non-guilty" voter, while his 11 co-jurors seem convinced otherwise. Although Justin's motives are deeply personal — he knows the truth, and hopes to alleviate his own guilt — he takes a similar, step-by-step approach to Fonda's character, asking the group to re-examine the evidence and their own biases before making a life-changing decision.

However, where 12 Angry Men is largely confined to the deliberation room over a single day, Juror #2 spans several days, nights, and locations. While this distinction is merely logistical, what it does with this departure ensures that Eastwood's spiritual successor soon establishes its own identity. It has a wider purview, not only of the night of the crime — via numerous flashbacks that exhibit minor differences, depending on who's telling the story — but of the trial itself, and its political entanglements. Killebrew, for instance, is running for District Attorney, and a guilty verdict favors her career.

The departures are mischievous too, from a storytelling standpoint. Several characters, including a retired detective and fellow juror named Harold (J.K. Simmons), begin looking into the case independently, and the question of how close they might come to discovering Justin's involvement becomes a recurring throughline. However, the film's thematic expansions prove thorny as well. In updating the make-up of the jury from 12 white men to a mix of men and women of different ethnicities, the film seems to overlook the ensuing racial entanglements, rather than folding them into its story.

None of the jurors are particularly excited to be there — a key starting point, as they (and the audience) are slowly convinced of how important their roles might be — but the two most adamant advocates of a guilty verdict happen to be Marcus (Cedric Yarbrough) and Yolanda (Adrienne C. Moore), the only two Black members of the jury. Not only are they utterly, even viciously convinced of Sythe's guilt, they also place immense faith in the justice system without question. Yolanda is also afforded little interiority when it comes to her decision-making. While 12 Angry Men never quite got into racial specifics, its stray shot of the accused (John Savoca) and the charged language used by Lee J. Cobb's hot-headed Juror No. 3 ensured that the specter of racism was ever-present. It is, therefore, more than a little strange that a modern movie set in a Southern U.S. state might not even consider the broader picture of how one's experiences as a non-white person might differently shape their worldview when it comes to systems of legal justice.

On the plus side, Marcus becomes a greater focus of the film as things play out, so his reasoning feels more justified. But what's especially interesting about his character is that not only is he the ostensible analogue of Cobb's adamant third juror in 12 Angry Men, but there's something distinctly Cobb-esque about him too. The actors could be related for all we know; their eyes are sunken and thoughtful in strikingly similar ways, and Yarbrough layers his temper with nuance and humanity, in the exact same way Cobb was known for doing.

In fact, eyes may be the most important element of Juror #2.

Clint Eastwood paints Juror #2 with subtle, masterful brush strokes. Nicholas Hoult and director Clint Eastwood on set. Credit: Claire Folger / Warner Bros.

That the film lays its cards on the table within its first 30 minutes might seem surprising. However, it eschews all elements of mystery for a distinctive purpose. There's no doubt in Justin's or the audience's mind about what actually happened, so the drama is born from the uncertainty of what Justin might do next — and whether it'll be effective. The factual truth lies in the details, but the film's emotional truths are just as lucid, and they're often conveyed through performance. 

Juror #2 may be a wordy film, but its dialogue is seldom expository, other than in scenes recounting the case. Each actor's posture, their hesitance, and the turning of their mental and moral gears makes their characters' motives crystal clear, even as the film's own moral outlook grows murkier and more uncertain. You can tell exactly what a character is thinking just by observing their gaze, from the way they look at other people in the room, to the fleeting moments in which they avert their eyes, thinking silently to themselves. This is part of what makes the movie so enrapturing. The only time this technique is interrupted is when Eastwood and cinematographer Yves Bélanger pull purposefully from film noir, and use blinds and other physical elements to obscure Justin's eyes in shadow. Uncertainty of plot, and of fact, briefly becomes the same thing as uncertainty of personal truth. 

As the film nears its conclusion, Eastwood sprinkles more moments of doubt along the way, ensuring that anything remotely didactic about Juror #2 swiftly melts away. Hollywood movies about American systems tend to feature a saccharine optimism (à la The Report, which finds hope in the concept of justice even in a film about military torture). However, Juror #2 takes a more cynical bent, if a more realistic one, not only about the ways in which justice can be miscarried, but also the personally driven reasons the U.S. justice system often takes the shape it does.

And yet, Eastwood stresses the vital importance of personal duty within that system without ever getting lost in jingoistic notions. When the jurors feel uncommitted to their roles at first, the filmmaking is noncommittal too, unfolding at an unobtrusive distance and with mechanical proficiency. But as the drama becomes more personal, and more intimate, his aesthetic approach becomes imbued with a ferocious vitality. 

The camera presses in on characters like Justin — and even on Allison, as if to question what, if anything, she knows — practically interrogating them, as it seeks to solve questions that may be unanswerable, in a system rife with imperfections, but one that strives to be "more perfect." Juror #2 is old-school in its filmmaking, but it embodies a new school of thought for Eastwood, one briefly hinted at in Flags of Our Fathers but clarified with a newfound introspection and vulnerability. Deep-seated symbols and ideas become fluid, making space for captivating drama that both pays homage and paves its own path: a constant tussle between old and new.

Juror #2 opens in theaters Nov. 1.