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So-called agentic artificial intelligence doesn’t require a human to tell it what to do. At least, that’s the idea.

Using a VPN (or virtual private network) on your PC is a good way to reclaim some of your online privacy. But if you're downloading any random VPN app in the Microsoft Store just because it's 100 percent free, you could be risking the safety of your device and personal data. You have to be careful — free VPNs can be doing some really sketchy stuff behind the scenes.

The good news is that some trustworthy premium VPNs do offer free subscription tiers or trials for users' most basic needs. While these options come with fewer features, servers, and support options than the providers' paid subscriptions, they're covered by the exact same airtight privacy and no-logs policies. You know — the whole point of getting a VPN in the first place.

I've tested all of the top VPNs previously for Mashable, and after conducting new testing on Windows devices, I'm ready to recommend the best free VPNs for PC users in 2024.

SEE ALSO: The best VPN services of 2024, tested and reviewed

Proton VPN is the top pick for most people: It doesn't place data or time limits on its free users, and transparency and digital safety are core tenets of its business model. For new users who aren't very familiar with VPNs, I also endorse TunnelBear: Its app is simple (and adorable), and it gives you 2GB of data per month plus country-level server selection with a free account.

As an honorable mention, CyberGhost VPN's 24-hour trial gives you full, free access to its gigantic server network, which is capable of skirting geo-restrictions on regional content — a decent short-term solution for fans of international TV shows. I felt like it was important to include here because so many people seek out VPNs for this secondary use case, but I want to stress that its track record isn't quite as proven and pristine as the competition. Maybe that matters to you; maybe you just want to binge the latest season of Love Island UK.

Will the e-reader future be in glorious e-ink color?

Probably, but the question of how soon was top of mind as I tested the Kobo Libra Colour, the first color e-reader from a major brand. (Color e-ink e-readers and tablets like the Pocketbook Ink Pad Color 2 and BOOX Tab Ultra C have been around, but generally at a higher price point with a more sluggish performance).

I should also disclose my bias upfront: As a lifelong reader and someone who majored in English, I am unfortunately hardwired to have a superiority complex about preferring physical books. And though that will likely forever be a part of me, I’d be lying if I said that the Kobo Libra Colour didn't help me read in moments I would’ve been scrolling through my phone, and significantly upped my annotation game. 

SEE ALSO: Amazon Kindle vs. Kindle Paperwhite: Which one is for you?

However, along with the Kobo Clara Colour, the Libra is the brand’s first crack at a color e-reader, so it’s not without its flaws. Whether or not they’re enough to dissuade you from picking it up largely depends on what you want out of your e-reader, so let’s jump into the specifics. 

How much does the Kobo Libra Colour cost?

If this e-reader put a premium price tag solely because it offers color e-ink, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Luckily, this isn't the case, and at $219.99, it feels more than competitively priced with Kindle's offerings. Here’s how it breaks down: 

• Kobo Libra Colour: $219.99, $289.99 with Kobo Stylus 2 (sold separately for $69.99)

• Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition: $189.99

• Kindle Scribe with Basic Pen: $339.99

We’ll get more into performance and hardware differences below, but cost-wise alone, the Kobo Libra sits just over $30 more than the Kindle Paperwhite (which we admittedly love but has no color or tablet-like abilities) and $120 less than the Scribe (which has the writing abilities of the Kobo Libra without the color). Plus, the Kindle Scribe’s Premium Pen is a better analog to the Kobo Stylus 2, but the addition of the better pen brings the Scribe’s price up to $369.99, making the Kobo a full $150 cheaper.

SEE ALSO: New iPad mini might be coming soon

Honestly, my expectations were that the Amazon Kindles would be a better value: for starters, Kindles don’t offer color e-ink yet, and it’s no secret that Amazon treats its books side of the business as a loss leader. But Kobo surprised me, restraining itself from overpricing a color e-reader and making it more than competitively priced with Kindles. 

Along with the e-reader itself, Kobo sent me the Kobo Stylus 2, which as I mentioned above, costs $69.99. They also sent me the Kobo Libra Colour Sleepcover, which retails for $39.99 and worked as an excellent kickstand in both portrait and landscape mode.

Kobo Libra Colour specs

The Kobo's competitive cost falls in line with what it's offering beyond the color display. The basic overview of what this e-reader offers includes:

• 7-inch E Ink Kaleido 3 screen

• 300 PPI (pixels per inch) for black-and-white content

• 150 PPI for color content color content

• 32GB of storage

• Bluetooth compatibility

• Dark mode available

You might notice that the color screen isn't made by Kobo, which is why you can find the exact same Kaleido 3 on other e-ink devices — however, as I mentioned up top, they're usually more expensive, and generally, Kobo seems to offer the most streamlined e-reader experience.

As for a comparison with the rest of the specs, the Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition has a 6.8-inch 300 PPI display with 32GB of storage and an estimated 10 weeks of battery life. It's nearly identical, but Kindle does have one over Kobo here: in the roughly two and a half months I used the Kobo (about 10 weeks), I charged it twice.

SEE ALSO: Google Pixel 9 Pro XL: The longest battery life we've ever recorded

That said, I didn't give the battery its best chance — in most cases, the WiFi and Bluetooth were on when I read, mostly because I was trying to use the device as I would normally, and realistically, that would not include optimizing its battery life. Depending on the time of day my brightness could be at 75 percent or 5 percent, so that fluctuated greatly too. Though I wish it lasted a little longer, about five weeks of continuous use under those conditions is still pretty decent.

How much color do you get with the Kobo Libra Colour?

The display is arguably the draw of this particular e-reader, so naturally, it's garnered some mixed opinions.

Online, you'll find folks who say the technology still isn't there with the Kaleido 3 screen, with the colors appearing washed out and grainy. Defenders of the Libra Colour will say you shouldn't expect iPad-level performance and that finding the right brightness setting goes a long way.

Personally, I find myself falling more into the defender camp, but rather than try to describe why, I figure some pictures might help me make my case. For starters, the highlights and annotations looked great:

The highlighter colors are vivid and distinct. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

Before we get more into the next pictures, I need a second to sing the praises of how nice highlighting and switching highlighter colors felt, especially with the Kobo Stylus 2. Writing notes in the margins, on the other hand, was just OK: Some lag (which I'll get more into below) and truly subpar palm rejection soured the experience, but I appreciated that all my highlights and annotations were saved in one long list.

As for how the display looked beyond annotations, book covers on the lock screen came through clearly, even when in the direct sun:

The picture came through clearly at full, 50 percent, and 0 percent brightness in the full sunlight. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

Even compared to the cover of the physical book, I could play around with the brightness of the Kobo to get a relatively accurate recreation.

The Kobo at a low brightness doesn't look great next to the original text. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable Bumping up the brightness to about 60 percent helped the color pop more without becoming washed out. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

Obviously, the display isn't one-to-one with the color saturation of the real thing, but I was still pleasantly surprised. The above side-by-side honestly feels like the least favorable comparison I was able to draw out of the Kobo — most times, when I saw my lock screen with the title of whatever book I happened to be reading at the moment, I was impressed.

With that said, devout graphic novel readers or fans of full-color manga might prefer to stick to an iPad if they want the most vibrant color possible. I saw the comparison of the Kobo offering newspaper-esque color ink, and that feels fairly apt — if you expect that level of color saturation, you won't be let down.

The “screen door” display

Of course, most of the time, when you're reading an e-reader you won't be seeing color. So how does the Kobo stack up with black and white material?

As I mentioned above, the resolution is the same that you'll find on a Kindle Paperwhite. However, some people find the Kobo's display leans warm whereas they prefer the truer black-and-white display of a Kindle. I didn't have a Kindle to compare, but I felt like I was able to adjust the warmth of the screen to my preferences easily.

Adjusting the brightness and screen warmth is easy. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

However, if you've spent any time on r/Kobo, you'll know a particular gripe of e-reader enthusiasts is that Kobo has the "screen door" effect. The effect is what it sounds like — there's a faint grainy quality to the "page" that again, gives an almost newspaper-like look to the display, where a Kindle might look more akin to a standard tablet display.

A close up on the slightly grainy Kobo display. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

To be clear, this doesn't really affect the sharpness of the words themselves. Some folks online mentioned that this graininess made them return their Kobo altogether. While it didn't bug me at all, I can see where having the other preference would turn me off from this e-reader. My advice? Go with a Kindle if you know you like a razor-sharp display.

The tablet features aren't there yet

Even though some features were promising, I have to agree with what Mashable’s Alex Perry said about the Kindle Scribe last fall: e-readers just aren’t comparable to tablets yet.

When using the notebook feature on the Kobo, you can pick from over 35 page formats, five different pen types, five pen sizes, four highlighter colors, and 10 pen colors. While I appreciate that the tablet-like functions allow the Libra to offer more ways to use its color e-ink than the Clara Colour, compared to an iPad or on its own merit, writing on a Kobo isn't nearly as fluid for note-taking or drawing. Plus, as I mentioned above, the palm rejection sucks.

In other words, it's hard to see the use case where someone would turn to their Kobo as the place to jot down their to-do lists, meal plans, or Cornell notes over a tablet or a notebook.

The color comes through decently, but the actual drawing experience still needs improvement before its fit for more much than this. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

The other major issue that keeps the Kobo from being a viable notebook replacement is the display's occasional ghosting issue. While I really didn't notice a lot of ghosting throughout testing, it cropped up randomly when I was messing around with the notebook features: once, when I was using the resize tool, and another time when I was using the Kobo stylus to erase some text I'd written.

Ghosting defeated the purpose of the resize tool. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable Believe it or not, I'd erased the word testing. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

I was especially surprised by the erasing ghosting — I'd erased plenty of annotations in highlights in e-books with the Kobo stylus and found it to work incredibly well. My guess is that the Kobo's system isn't powerful enough to support to smooth notebook experience it tries to offer.

Kindle vs. Kobo: Pros and cons

I've already pointed out some key differences between the two e-readers throughout this review, but there are a few more factors to take into consideration beyond the display and battery life.

Library book support

If you read a lot of library books, the Kobo might be for you for one simple reason: integrated Libby (formerly OverDrive) support. On a Kobo, you can place holds, check out, and download library books directly from your device, which is way more convenient than checking out books via the Libby app like you have to with the Kindle. If you happen to prefer using the Libby app, it syncs with the Kobo without issue.

You can borrow library books directly from the Kobo store. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

That said, I'd still appreciate the option to add more than one library card at a time to the Kobo, especially as the Libby app supports that exact functionality.

EPUB files

Kindles can't read EPUBs, Kobos can. What that means is that it's much easier for you to access and download files to the Kobo from outside the Kobo store. Whether that be an article or a short story, adding an EPUB file is as easy as uploading it to your Google Drive and seeing it show up directly on your Kobo.

I was skeptical that this process would be one of those features that in theory sounds simple and actually requires an hour of troubleshooting to set it up, but I was able to grab a PDF of an essay without a hitch and watch it load up on my home screen.

Pocket integration

Speaking of articles, as an avid Pocket user prior to any e-reader use, I was stoked when I found out that the app is integrated with Kobo e-readers.

The color display added a nice touch to the tile view screen. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable I could perform basic Pocket functions directly from the Kobo. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

The syncing process between my Pocket app and the Kobo was basically seamless, whether I was saving articles from the browser on my laptop or from my phone. I could favorite, archive, and delete articles directly from the Kobo, and the color display added a nice touch when I was viewing everything I'd saved.

The major downside was that the Pocket app didn't support any annotation, so I couldn't mark up any articles the same way I'd enjoyed doing with books and EPUB files. Still, considering that Amazon doesn't offer this kind of Pocket integration at all, this felt like a minor gripe.

Amazon's catalog

Where Amazon does have a huge advantage is its catalog. As Deputy Shopping and Reviews Editor Miller Kern mentioned in her comparison between the two brands, Kindle's catalog is simply bigger. This is especially apparent as Kindle Unlimited, the brand's subscription service, offers over 4 million digital titles to Kobo Plus's 1.5 million.

You can also buy e-books directly from your Kindle, while Kobo requires you to scan a QR code to buy them on a phone or computer.

Honorable mentions

A few more rapid-fire odds and ends that might sway you to one e-reader over the other: the Kobo Libra Colour has page-turning buttons, which Kindle doesn't currently offer (RIP, Kindle Oasis). These buttons work without a hitch in landscape, portrait mode, or even upside down, and can be programmed to suit what makes the most sense for you.

The page-turning buttons could be used in the default or inverted mode. Credit: Bethany Allard / Mashable

Speaking of design, I liked that the Kobo's on button was on the back of the device so I couldn't never accidentally lock the device (the Kindle's sits on the bottom, and is much more prone to that issue).

SEE ALSO: PS5 Pro: It looks like a sketch of the design just leaked

Finally, I appreciated that the stylus magnetically attached to the Kobo and the sleep cover they sent me — sometimes, if I placed it wrong on the button side it would rest on the button and turn a bunch of pages, so a fix for that in a future generation would be great to see. However, it was easy to troubleshoot by placing it on the left side of the tablet while reading, and keeping it on the case when I wasn't using the device.

Is the Kobo Libra Colour worth it?

I'll keep it short and sweet: the Kobo Libra Colour is definitely a first-generation product with a few issues to work out, especially with its notebook feature. However, if you love using your library card, marking up your books, appreciate a color display, and prefer page turn buttons to a full touch screen experience, you'll likely be happy with the Kobo Libra Colour.

For folks who want the best unlimited subscription service, don't like a newsprint-like look, and prioritize the most vibrant colors possible when reading comics or manga, you'd likely be better off with a Kindle or a traditional tablet until Kobo (or another brand) improves on the color e-reader.

Kobo Libra Colour $219.99 at Amazon
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No one seems to know the exact hue of the iPhone 16 Pro models' rumored "Desert Titanium" colorway.

On X, popular leaker Majin Bu claimed that Apple is scrapping the iPhone 15 Pro models' "Blue Titanium" for "Desert Titanium" on the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Tweet may have been deleted

Bu called it a "dark gold" color.

Back in February, Bu said that Desert Titanium is similar to the Gold colorway that was featured on the iPhone 14 Pro, but "deeper and heavier."

The gold model on the iPhone 14 Pro is the third one from the left. Credit: Apple Tweet may have been deleted

However, other leakers seem to have a slightly different perception of the new Desert Titanium variant that Apple will likely reveal at the Sept. 9 Glowtime event.

SEE ALSO: What to expect from Apple event 2024: iPhone 16, Apple Watch 10, and more Desert Titanium: Is it bronze? Is it beige?

Bu isn't the only bean spiller who claims they have the scoop on Apple's new color.

In late August, a leaker with the moniker Sonny Dickson dropped a picture of iPhone 16 Pro dummy models on X, with the far-right color catching followers' eyes.

Tweet may have been deleted

"Is that Brown??" @brunomfviegas asked.

"The new brown or bronze gold color looks hideous," @thatJohann said.

"Oh my god bronze gold beautiful," @HjeinK1805 said.

Dickson's leak appeared to suggest that Apple's Desert Titanium iPhone 16 Pro models will be draped in some sort of bronze-like hue.

It doesn't stop there. Zac Hall from 9to5Mac claimed that the new Desert Titanium color has more of a beige-like color, according to "a new piece of reliable data."

Tweet may have been deleted

Further adding credibility to his claims, Hall said that his source "correctly identified the natural gray titanium color of the iPhone 15 Pro prior to being announced last year."

In July, a leaker from Weibo, a China-based social media platform, claimed the iPhone 16 Pro models will come in some sort of rose-like color.

So which is it?

It's likely that leakers are proclaiming different hues for the same colorway due to varied perceptions of color, different lighting conditions, and different color terminology. For example, one color may be "brown" to you, but "earthy mocha" or "rich chestnut" to someone else.

Based on the rumors, it looks like Desert Titanium is somewhere in the bronze-esque, beige-like, dark-gold-ish territory. Nailed it!

(It's worth noting, though, that leakers appear to agree on the other three colors set for the iPhone 16 Pro models: white, black, and gray.)

We'll find out which leaker was spot on when Apple officially reveals the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max models at the Glowtime event on Sept. 9.

A robotic orbiter just took its first closeup pictures of Mercury's poles, passing about 100 miles above the planet in space as the probe harnessed the small world's gravity.  

Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, is perhaps the most overlooked of the rocky worlds in the solar system. Hot and harder to reach than Saturn, it hasn't enjoyed the level of study that other worlds have, but a joint mission of NASA's European and Japanese counterparts seeks to change that. 

The BepiColombo mission just completed its fourth of six planned flybys on Sept. 4 before ultimately entering orbit around the planet to begin its science mission in late 2026. All three of the spacecraft’s monitoring cameras were switched on for the close approach, beaming back tantalizing new images.

SEE ALSO: Mission control is trying 'restlessly' to save a spacecraft to Mercury BepiColombo sees Mercury's south pole at 2,000 miles away from the planet after a close approach on Sept. 4, 2024. Credit: ESA / JAXA / BepiColombo / MTM

The altitude of the flyby was actually lower than originally planned — a late change to the spacecraft's trajectory to compensate for earlier difficulties. During a maneuver on April 26, the electric propulsion module, which runs on solar energy, didn't provide enough power to the thrusters, according to the European Space Agency. About 11 days later, engineers had restored the spacecraft's thrust almost to its previous level, but still at 10 percent lower performance. 

"A team of experts is restlessly working on understanding the root cause of the problem and further impact on the remainder of the trajectory," Camille Bello, a spokesperson for ESA, told Mashable then. 

Mission controllers said a new revised trajectory — and closer flyby — will allow BepiColombo to reach Mercury with the lower level of power. But the tradeoff means the spacecraft won't enter orbit around Mercury and begin its science observations until November 2026, one year later than expected. 

A revised trajectory for BepiColombo means the probe won't begin orbiting Mercury for its science observations until November 2026, one year later than expected. Credit: ESA graphic

BepiColombo approached Mercury from the side facing away from the sun, with Mercury’s cratered surface becoming increasingly brighter as the spacecraft sped past.

The mission's many years of complex flybys are necessary because of just how difficult it is to get to Mercury. To enter orbit around the planet, the spacecraft needs to be flying slow enough to be reeled in by Mercury's gravity. Too fast and it will skip right past it. The trouble is, as the spacecraft gets closer to the sun, it picks up speed like a bicycle going downhill. 

Putting the brakes on in the vacuum of space is no easy feat. The careful choreography of swinging around planets is a way for the spacecraft to burn off energy without carrying the excessive amounts of propellant required in order to slow down the vehicle. Too much fuel would render the spacecraft too heavy to rocket off Earth in the first place. 

In a Mercury flyby on Sept. 4, 2024, the BepiColombo spacecraft gets closeup views of peak ring basins, such as the one within the Stoddart crater in this image. Credit: ESA / JAXA / BepiColombo / MTM

Launched in October 2018, BepiColombo set out to study Mercury's magnetic field, polar craters filled with ice, and the enigmatic "hollows" on the surface. The planet's crust is covered in ancient lava flows, pitted by space rocks over the past 4 billion years or so.

During BepiColombo's fourth flyby, the spacecraft got detailed views of so-called peak ring basins, craters with inner rings of peaks on an otherwise flat bottom. An example of this is seen in the Vivaldi crater, pictured at the top of this story, where there is a visible gap in the ring of peaks. Mission scientists say the gap is the result of volcanic lava later flooding into the crater and resurfacing it.

"Mercury’s peak ring basins are fascinating because many aspects of how they formed are currently still a mystery," said David Rothery, a professor of planetary geosciences at Open University in the United Kingdom, in a statement. "The rings of peaks are presumed to have resulted from some kind of rebound process during the impact, but the depths from which they were uplifted are still unclear."

BepiColombo spies a rugged part of Mercury during a flyby on Sept. 4, 2024, from a distance of about 110 miles from its surface. Credit: ESA / JAXA / BepiColombo / MTM

Scientists believe that by broadening their knowledge of Mercury's composition, atmosphere, and magnetism, they can better understand how Earth-like terrestrial worlds came to be.

Only two previous spacecraft, both NASA missions, have flown to the Swift Planet, nicknamed as such for being the fastest world in the solar system. It travels about 29 miles per second. 

Mission controllers are proceeding with the remaining two flybys, one in December and another in January 2025.

TL;DR: Live stream Sinner vs. Draper in the 2024 US Open semi final for free on 9Now or TVNZ+. Access these free streaming platforms from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The story of the US Open has been the progress of Jack Draper. The youngster has surprised everyone by making it through to the semi-final stage. Can he reach another level and make it to the final? It's not going to be easy, as the top seed stands in his way.

If you want to watch Sinner vs. Draper in the 2024 US Open for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

How to watch Sinner vs. Draper in the 2024 US Open for free

Fans can live stream the 2024 US Open for free on these platforms:

• Australia — 9Now

• New Zealand — TVNZ+

These streaming services are geo-blocked, but anyone from around the world can access these sites with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to secure servers in other countries, meaning you can unblock 9Now and TVNZ+ from anywhere in the world.

Access free live streams of the 2024 US Open by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in Australia or New Zealand

4. Visit 9Now or TVNZ+

5. Watch Sinner vs. Draper in the 2024 US Open semi final for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Year Subscription + 3 Months Free) $99.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but leading VPNs do tend to offer deals such as free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can access free live streams of Sinner vs. Draper without actually spending anything. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it gives you enough time to watch every US Open match before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for the US Open?

ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream the US Open for free, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including Australia and New Zealand

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is always secure

• Fast connection speeds

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95 and includes an extra three months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee.

Live stream Sinner vs. Draper in the 2024 US Open semi final for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

There's a moment in Rebel Ridge where ex-Marine Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) ends a phone call to his adversaries with a threat that would send a chill up anyone's spine. He takes a beat, looks at a cop he's holding captive, and asks, deadpan, "I put too much sauce on that?"

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

The audience, like Terry, knows there's only one right answer: Nope, you used the exact right amount.

The same goes for Rebel Ridge, which is filled to the brim with cinematic sauce. Packing shades of Rambo's First Blood, as well as director Jeremy Saulnier's other films, like Blue Ruin and Green Room, Rebel Ridge is a monster of a thriller that thrives on perfectly calibrated tension — and on dissecting the injustices at the heart of America's justice and policing systems.

What's Rebel Ridge about? Don Johnson and Aaron Pierre in "Rebel Ridge." Credit: Allyson Riggs / Netflix

Rebel Ridge opens with a foreboding image: A police car prowls behind Terry as he bikes toward the town of Shelby Springs. With Iron Maiden blaring in his ears, he doesn't realize he's being tailed until the cops ram him off the road.

While unspoken, the threat of police brutality against Black men hangs over the ensuing traffic stop. Terry spends much of the sequence trapped in the back of the cop car, while white officers Evan Marston (David Denman) and Steve Lann (Emory Cohen) roam around freely, looking down at Terry from the outside. There's a real sense of claustrophobia from Terry's perspective, highlighting a power imbalance that only grows more skewed as the scene plays out.

SEE ALSO: Netflix Geeked Week 2024 trailer teases 'Arcane,' 'Squid Game,' and a ton more

Marston and Lann find $36,000 in cash in Terry's bag, some of which Terry intends to use to post bail for his cousin Mike (C.J. LeBlanc), who's headed to prison for weed possession. Terry explains that the rest of the money will help him and Mike start a boat-hauling business. The cops confiscate the cash anyway, claiming that it's drug money. Without the cash, and with the clock ticking until Mike's prison transfer, Terry tries to bring his case to police chief Sandy Burnne (a spectacularly slimy Don Johnson). But as it becomes clear how corrupt Sandy and his cronies are, Terry realizes that the only way he'll get his money back is by taking matters into his own hands.

Rebel Ridge is a tight thriller about corruption. AnnaSophia Robb and Aaron Pierre in "Rebel Ridge." Credit: Allyson Riggs / Netflix

As the Shelby Springs police department quickly learns, Terry is a force in his own right. In a sequence that's as suspenseful as it is darkly humorous, the cops discover that Terry was a martial arts instructor for the Marines, and that he could probably take any of them out in two seconds if he was so inclined. Lucky for them, he's not... yet. Early action scenes involving Terry see him trying to de-escalate conflict and avoid collateral damage, a choice that's on par with his training. Don't expect any Green Room-level box cutter shenanigans from Saulnier here, although there's still much pleasure to be had in Terry's cool, efficient style of combat.

Over the course of Rebel Ridge, though, the powers that be in Shelby Springs will push Terry to more extreme measures. The police department, rife with racism, antagonizes him at every turn. Indifferent officials at City Hall turn away from his pleas for help. Only law clerk Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb) is willing to help — especially when her work on Mike's case begins to uncover a town-wide conspiracy.

SEE ALSO: The 20 best action movies on Netflix right now

From here, Saulnier spins a tale that goes beyond Terry's attempts to help Mike, showing how everyone in Shelby Springs is impacted by — or complicit in — the cops' scheming. Basically, if you didn't know much about civil asset forfeiture before watching Rebel Ridge, you're going to know a lot about it by the end of the film — and be livid about it!

Terry and Summer's thorough unspooling of Shelby Springs' dark secrets builds nicely to spurts of explosive action, including a pulse-pounding shootout at a police station. There isn't as much fighting in Rebel Ridge as trailers may have you believe — this is definitely a quality over quantity situation — but they're informed so much by the investigative work that came before them that they still pack a mighty punch. Plus, as we see right from Terry's first interaction with the cops, Saulnier has a knack for wringing the most tension from any dialogue-heavy scene, so that every exchange will send you to the edge of your seat.

Aaron Pierre delivers a star-making performance in Rebel Ridge. Aaron Pierre in "Rebel Ridge." Credit: Allyson Riggs / Netflix

At the heart of Rebel Ridge is Aaron Pierre's remarkable performance, one that's part action hero, part negotiator. He's the very definition of commanding as the often soft-spoken — but never meek — Terry. A taut intensity burns through his every word, unleashing itself when Terry finally gets physical with the people who have wronged him. Even then, Pierre's execution of Rebel Ridge's action is remarkably calm and calculated. He's a one-man army who won't be denied.

Pierre is also strikingly funny when he needs to be. Take the aforementioned sauce line, or a moment when he fakes Sandy out with a truce proposal, then hits him with a no-nonsense, "nah." If overdone in another performer's hands, these badass one-liners could risk undermining Rebel Ridge's exquisitely built tension. Instead, Pierre's delivery both breaks the tension just enough for a laugh, yet continues to build it with the promise that Terry is not a guy to be messed with. This is a star-making performance, pure and simple, and Pierre — who's done remarkable work in projects like The Underground Railroad — deserves to go straight to the stratosphere following this film.

So too, does Rebel Ridge, which checks all the boxes any thriller aficionado could possibly want, and then some. Full of action and crackling dialogue that'll leave you buzzing, and enough real-world issues to leave you fuming, Rebel Ridge cements itself as one of standout action films of the year.

Rebel Ridge is now streaming on Netflix.

Pachinko Season 2, episode 3 shifts gears in a major way, as Sunja (Minha Kim) and her family flee to the Japanese countryside in order to escape the bombing of Osaka. There, they live and work on a rice farm (as opposed to the sweet potato farm in Min Jin Lee's original novel). But as shooting for this stretch of the season got underway, production encountered an unlikely challenge: the rice itself.

"The amount of meetings we had on rice is pretty funny," Soo Hugh, creator and showrunner of Pachinko, told Mashable.

SEE ALSO: 'Pachinko' showrunner Soo Hugh on how Season 2 gives Isak the farewell he deserves

Originally, Hugh thought production could use fake rice plants for the farming sequence, which she describes as one of her favorite moments in the book. However, procuring enough fake rice plants to fill an entire farm would have been far too costly. The Pachinko crew would have to work with the real rice plants at the Korean rice farm where shooting took place.

These real plants presented their own logistical issues. Sunja and her family are on the rice farm for months, meaning the show's version of the rice farm would have to play out different seasons.

Minha Kim and Lee Minho in "Pachinko." Credit: AppleTV+

"When Sunja, Hansu [Lee Minho], and her family first arrive, you'll notice they arrive in winter, so there can be no rice there," Hugh explained. "But then when we cut back to them, it is now the first part of spring, so the rice is supposed to just start growing. Later on, we go through the whole cycle of the rice farm. At the end of that sequence, it's the harvest."

Since Pachinko wasn't shooting over the course of an entire year, production had to grow out rice fields of varying heights. So as the series shot in Toronto in March of 2023, a crew flew out to Korea to begin cultivating seeds. That way, by the time the shoot in Korea started at the end of May, the rice fields would be camera-ready.

However, that cultivation process wasn't without its challenges, either. "We had a lot of weather issues where the rice ended up actually growing too fast. We were so worried that we weren't going to get enough rice, and then, because of the rains, we had an overabundance," Hugh said.

Luckily, the abundance of rice you see onscreen in Pachinko Season 2 didn't go to waste. On top of starring in one of the best shows of 2024, the rice ended up being harvested for real by the owners of the farm where shooting took place.

"Someone out there is eating Pachinko rice," Hugh said.

Pachinko Season 2 is now streaming, with a new episode every Friday.

TL;DR: Live stream Philadelphia Eagles vs. Green Bay Packers for free on 7plus. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers are set to meet in São Paulo in the NFL's first game in South America, and you can watch all the action without spending anything. This is a big moment for the NFL in an untapped market, so you won't want to miss a second.

If you're interested in watching Philadelphia Eagles vs. Green Bay Packers for free, we have all the information you need.

When is Eagles vs. Packers?

Philadelphia Eagles vs. Green Bay Packers starts at 8:15 p.m. ET on Sep 6. This fixture takes place at the Arena Corinthians in São Paulo, Brazil.

How to watch Eagles vs. Packers for free

Philadelphia Eagles vs. Green Bay Packers is available to live stream for free on 7plus.

7plus is geo-restricted to Australia, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Australia, meaning you can bypass geo-restrictions to access 7plus from anywhere in the world.

Access free live streams of the NFL by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in Australia

4. Visit 7plus

5. Live stream Philadelphia Eagles vs. Green Bay Packers for free from anywhere in the world

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The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but top VPNs do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By making the most of these deals, you can access free live streams of the NFL without actually spending anything. This is obviously a quick fix, but it gives you enough time to watch Philadelphia Eagles vs. Green Bay Packers before recovering your investment.

What is the best VPN for the NFL?

ExpressVPN is the best service for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream the NFL live, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including Australia

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A one-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $99.95, saving you 49% on list price. With this limited-time deal you'll also get an extra three months at no additional cost, a whole year of unlimited cloud backup for free, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Live stream Philadelphia Eagles vs. Green Bay Packers for free from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

TL;DR: Grab UPDF Pro for just $49.99 with promo code TAKE10 through September 8 and enjoy lifetime access to a powerful PDF editor that works on all platforms.

Opens in a new window Credit: Superace UPDF Pro: Lifetime Subscription $49.99
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Dealing with PDFs shouldn’t feel like pulling teeth, but it often does. Whether you’re tweaking a contract, filling out forms, or just trying to make quick edits on the go, you need a tool that’s flexible, easy to use, and works wherever you are.

That’s where UPDF Pro comes in, offering you a seamless way to edit any document across all your devices. You can get a lifetime subscription for just $49.99 (reg. $149.99) through September 8 when you enter promo code TAKE10 at checkout.

Perfect for both personal and business use, UPDF Pro gives you full control over your PDFs on Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android, in case you need to make edits while you’re out of the office or want to quickly update a document from your phone. With UPDF Pro, you can edit text, images, and links, annotate with comments, highlight, and even organize pages with just a few clicks.

What sets UPDF Pro apart from other services is its lifetime access at an unbeatable price, with no recurring fees and no hidden costs — just a one-time payment for a tool that makes managing PDFs easy.

So, whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who deals with PDFs regularly, UPDF Pro could be a game-changer.

Normally $149.99, you can get a lifetime subscription to UPDF Pro on sale for $49.99 with promo code TAKE10 through September 8.

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TL:DR: The mbeat Bluetooth Hi-Fi Turntable with two bookshelf speakers is on sale for just $209.97 (reg. $299).

Streaming music is as easy as telling Alexa what to play. But there's something undeniably special about the warm, rich sound of vinyl. The xmbeat® Bluetooth Hi-Fi Turntable offers an elevated way to enjoy your favorite tunes, whether you're prepping Sunday breakfast or entertaining guests.

It's currently on sale for just $209.97 (reg. $299) and comes with two bookshelf speakers. With its retro charm and modern features, this turntable brings a homey, nostalgic vibe to any situation.

At the heart of the mbeat is a commitment to high-fidelity sound. The solid metal platter, designed with a sub-platter system, helps dampen unwanted resonance and noise, ensuring that every note is crisp and clear. The adjustable counterweight and anti-skating force are essential for accurately tracking record grooves without distortion, making sure you hear your music just as it was meant to be heard.

Equipped with a moving magnet cartridge that comes pre-fitted and aligned out of the box, the turntable delivers clean, articulate sound. This is enhanced by a built-in preamplifier, making your vinyl collection sound better than ever. Plus, the Bluetooth transmitter lets you enjoy your records on wireless speakers or headphones, blending vintage warmth with modern convenience.

The included 18W speakers ensure that your music fills the room with rich, powerful sound. And if you want to take your vinyl on the go, the record-to-PC feature allows you to digitize your collection easily.

Grab this beautiful equipment before holiday party season starts.

Get the mbeat Bluetooth Hi-Fi Turntable with two bookshelf speakers on sale for just $209.97 (reg. $299) through September 25.

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Opens in a new window Credit: mbeat mbeat® MB-PT-28 Bluetooth Hi-Fi Turntable with Bookshelf Speakers $209.97
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TL;DR: Through September 29, you can get a lifetime subscription to Matt's Flights Premium Plan for just $79.97 and save a ton on domestic and international travel.

Many of us dream of exploring new destinations near and far. However, the passion for travel can be met with resistance in the way of funding. There's only so much money you can make and save and spend on getting to those locations. But there are ways to ensure you have cheaper flights so you can stretch that travel budget further.

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TL;DR: Get a lifetime subscription to Autio on sale for just $129.97 through September 29 and explore the world with thousands of location-specific audio stories, even offline.

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Planning your next road trip or weekend getaway? Make every mile more meaningful with Autio, the app that turns your travels into immersive experiences.

Through September 29, for a one-time payment of $129.97 (reg. $299), a lifetime subscription to Autio unlocks over 23,000 location-based audio stories that bring the places you visit to life.

Imagine driving through a small town and suddenly hearing a fascinating story about its history, or cruising along a scenic route while learning about the landmarks you're passing by. Autio transforms your road trips into journeys of discovery, offering a unique way to explore new destinations. With expert narration by celebs like Kevin Costner and Phil Jackson, each story is crafted to enrich your travel experience, turning every trip into an adventure.

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The best deals to watch 'The Watchers': BEST DEAL FOR MOST PEOPLE Max (With Ads) annual subscription $99.99/year (save $1.66/month) Get Deal BEST DEAL WITH NO ADS Max (No Ads) annual subscription $149.99/year (save $3.50/month) Get Deal BEST DEAL FOR CRICKET CUSTOMERS Max (With Ads) Free for Cricket customers on the $60/month unlimited plan (save $9.99/month) Get Deal BEST NON-STREAMING DEAL Rent 'The Watchers' on demand $4.49 at Prime Video (save $1.50 as a Prime member) Get Deal BEST BUNDLE DEAL Disney+, Hulu, and Max $16.99 per month (with ads), $29.99 per month (no ads) (save up to 38%) Get Deal BEST FOR STUDENTS Max Student $4.99 per month for 12 months (save 50%) Get Deal BEST WAY TO WATCH FOR FREE DashPass annual subscription (free Max with ads) $96 per year (save 20%) Get Deal

If you're looking for a satisfying horror thriller to kick off spooky season a bit early, look no further than the latest Shyamalan blockbuster The Watchers. The movie was produced by M. Night Shyamalan and written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan (the famous director's 25-year-old daughter) in her directorial debut.

The Watchers is "a hell of a scary good time," according to Mashable's film editor Kristy Puchko. Dakota Fanning leads a strong ensemble alongside Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, and Olwen Fouéré. And as of Aug. 30, it's officially streaming.

Here's everything you need to know about how to watch The Watchers at home — including some of the best streaming deals that might let you catch the flick for free.

What is The Watchers about?

Based on the novel of the same name written by A.M. Shine, The Watchers follows a young artist named Mina (Fanning), whose life is derailed when she ends up stranded in a vast forest in western Ireland. When she finds shelter in a bunker alongside three strangers (played by Barbarian's Campbell, Outlander's Finnegan, and The Northman's Fouéré), she unknowingly becomes a captive performer for unseen creatures — aka the watchers. No one knows who they are, what they look like, or what they want. All that is known is they do not want their performers breaking out.

Judging by the trailer alone, viewers are in for a spooky atmosphere and plenty of jump scares:

Is The Watchers worth watching?

The Watchers didn't dominate at the box office, but it didn't completely bomb either, grossing just shy of $33 million globally. Against a $30 million budget, according to The Numbers, it at least broke even. Box office numbers don't always tell the whole story, though.

The film also received largely negative reviews from critics, earning a sad 32 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Mashable's own film critic, however, had mostly positive things to say about Ishana Night Shyamalan's directorial debut.

"Admittedly, the final act loses momentum in its eagerness to explain all the finer points of the movie's lore...Still, The Watchers is a sharply satisfying horror thriller thanks to a crackling cast, unnerving sound design, stomach-churning creatures, and an emotional story that offers far more than cheap thrills."

Audiences are torn, with the Rotten Tomatoes score currently hovering slightly above the 50 percent mark. In other words, you may hate it or you may love it — but it's worth watching to find out.

Read our full review of The Watchers.

How to watch The Watchers at home Fanning stars in the M. Night Shyamalan-produced 'The Watchers.' Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Less than a month after its theatrical debut, The Watchers became available to watch at home via video-on-demand sites like Prime Video and Fandango at Home (Vudu). You can purchase the film for your digital collection or rent it for 30 days. Within those 30 days, you'll have just 48 hours to finish the film once you start watching. After that, you'll lose access.

As of June 28, you can purchase and rent the film at the following retailers:

• Prime Video — buy for $18.49, rent for $4.49

• Apple TV — buy for $19.99, rent for $5.99

• Fandango at Home (Vudu) — buy for $19.99, rent for $5.99

• YouTube — buy for $19.99, rent for $5.99

Is The Watchers streaming?

As a Warner Bros. film, The Watchers made its streaming debut on Max starting Aug. 30 — joining the likes of other recent theatrical releases such as Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Civil War, and Dune: Part Two. Max subscriptions start at $9.99 per month, but we've rounded up a few ways you can save some money on your plan below.

Best Max streaming deals to watch The WatchersBest Max streaming deal for most people: Save 17% on Max with ads annual subscription Opens in a new window Credit: Max Max (with ads) yearly subscription $99.99 per year (save 17%) Watch Now

While a monthly Max subscription would run you $9.99 per month with ads, you can save 17% (or $1.66 per month) by paying upfront for a year. An annual plan with ads goes for $99.99 per year, which breaks down to just $8.33 per month. If you're in it for the long haul, you might as well keep more money in your pocket.

Best Max deal with no ads: Save 22% on a Max Ad-Free annual subscription Opens in a new window Credit: Max Max (No Ads) annual subscription $149.99 per year (save 22%) Watch Now

If you'd rather not have ads interrupting your viewing experience, you have two options: Max Ad-Free and Max Ultimate. You can opt for an annual Max Ad-Free or Max Ultimate subscription and save 17% compared to a monthly subscription. The Ad-Free tier is $16.99 per month, while the Ultimate tier is $20.99 per month. With a yearly plan, however, those prices drop to just $14.17 per month ($169.99 per year) or $17.49 per month ($209.99 per year).

Note: While both tiers offer an ad-free viewing experience, the Ultimate tier takes things a step further with 4K Ultra HD video quality and Dolby Atmos immersive audio.

Best way to get Max for free: Sign up for a DashPass annual plan Opens in a new window Credit: DoorDash / Max DashPass annual plan with Max (with ads) $96/year (save $83.76) Get Deal

Earlier this month, DoorDash partnered with Max to offer those on the annual DashPass plan free Max with ads subscriptions. If you're already on an annual DashPass plan, head over to the "Manage Max Subscription" page in your DoorDash account to activate your free subscription. If not, you can sign up for the DashPass annual plan for just $96 per year ($8 per month) and unlock access to the streaming library for free. That's a $99.99 value for zero dollars. Plus, with your DashPass plan, you'll also have access to free food delivery.

Read more about terms and eligibility requirements on the DoorDash FAQ page.

Another way to get Max for free: Free Max with ads for customers on the $60/month Cricket unlimited plan Opens in a new window Credit: Cricket / Max Max (with ads) Free for Cricket customers on the $60/month plan Watch Now

If you're a Cricket Wireless customer on the $60 per month unlimited plan, you can also get Max with ads for free, so long as your account remains in good standing. Just head over to Max and select Cricket as your provider to log in. You'll be able to watch The Watchers and plenty of other Warner Bros. releases at no extra cost. Check out the terms and conditions on Cricket's website to learn more.

Best Max deal for students: Save 50% on Max with ads monthly for one year Opens in a new window Credit: Max Max Student $4.99 per month for 12 months Get Deal

College students can score half-priced Max subscriptions (with ads) for an entire year with Max's new student discount. That means you'll pay only $4.99 per month instead of the usual $9.99. Just verify your student status with UNiDAYS, then head back over to Max and redeem your unique discount code to stream for 50% off.

Best bundle deal: Get Max, Disney+, and Hulu for up to 38% off Opens in a new window Credit: Disney+ / Hulu / Max Disney+, Hulu, and Max $16.99 per month (with ads), $29.99 per month (no ads) Get Deal

Last month, a new bundle deal emerged, offering streamers access to three top apps for one low price. This new deal includes Max, Disney+, and Hulu with ads for just $16.99 per month (reg. $25.97) or ad-free for $29.99 per month (reg. $48.97) — that's up to 38% in savings. Obviously, this isn't the cheapest option overall for watching The Watchers, but it will definitely get you the most bang for your buck in the streaming world.

Director Lana Wilson (Miss Americana) had never visited a psychic before shooting Look Into My Eyes, her A24-produced documentary about a group of New York clairvoyants. Her perspective is one of gentle inquiry, but the film eventually reaches far beyond mere curiosity, yielding a deeply resonant work about the ways in which people cope with everything from grief to climate nihilism.

Even if you see spirit-channeling mediums as scammers and bullshit artists, it's hard not to come away changed. Look Into My Eyes neither seeks to expose nor reaffirm the profession, but rather, through suggestion and implication, it explores these people and what they do. In the process, it comes to an empathetic understanding of why — even if the subjects themselves can't see the bigger picture.

It's also incredibly self-reflexive. The movie not only frames psychic readings as a kind of art form, but it also begins to subtly mimic and embody their emotional scope. As it progresses, Wilson's aesthetic approach begins to morph, molding her storytelling lens in potent ways, resulting in one of the most unexpectedly affecting documentaries this year.

What is Look Into My Eyes about? Credit: A24

The film begins, as most traditional documentaries do, with a series of talking-head interviews. However, its approach to this filmmaking norm is distinctly non-traditional. Instead of cutting away to montages or stock footage for broader context, it stays locked in on each of these segments in long, unbroken close-ups, allowing these secondary subjects — those who seek out psychic readings — to unburden themselves across the table from various self-proclaimed mediums. Some of these clients search for solutions to everyday problems, like a lack of motivation in the face of a rapidly changing world. Others speak strangely and obliquely of traumatic events in their past; a middle-aged nurse recalls having seen a young girl die from a gunshot wound to the head 20 years prior, casually asking her psychic, "How is she?" It would be downright eerie if it weren't so conversational in tone. 

SEE ALSO: 'Eternal You' reveals how AI chatbots aim to resurrect the dead

The production spent months scouting prospective subjects with street-side offers of lengthy readings before pairing them up with each psychic, none of whom were given information on their clients prior to meeting them. This behind-the-scenes decision making is never shown, but the invisible selection process is part of the movie's sleight of hand. The trick therein doesn't create fiction, but rather, unearths and accentuates the existing, deep-seated drama in people's lives. The frame lingers on loaded questions like "How is she?" just long enough for us to process them before it moves quickly on to the next client, the next clairvoyant, and the next warm, intimate, low-lit space (courtesy of cinematographer Stephen Maing). However, for nearly its first half hour, it barely shows us the faces of its many psychics. Wilson doesn't yet let us look into their eyes, but builds its context through their point of view. These numerous head-on close-ups of clientele eager for answers, willing to shell out cash for some semblance of closure, is the everyday reality of each psychic as seen through their own eyes. All we see of them initially, as they perform their readings, are brief profile shots that shroud them in shadow and mystery.

This makes it seem as though the movie's subjects are people who seek answers from psychics and their ilk. That may even be initially true; some of these interviews come full circle to a place of moving catharsis. However, the purpose of this is to quickly find the value in what these psychics do, presenting it in emotional terms as their clients thank them or break down in tears. This helps immensely when the movie suddenly flips its switch and depicts the rare readings gone wrong, where a few of the psychics' interpretations (of vibes, or spirits, or what have you) lead to perplexed expressions from their clients. Given the positive outcomes the movie does present, that they finally get something wrong feels deeply unfortunate, rather than a chance at mockery.

From there on out, the psychics themselves finally enter the spotlight as the documentary's true subjects. The camera follows these vivid characters home, and to work, and through their most mundane and familiar trials, humanizing them in ways that render the question of "Is what they do real?" both highly irrelevant, and entirely besides the movie's point.

The question it raises instead feels almost accidental, but entirely prescient: To what degree are psychic readings a kind of performance art?

Look Into My Eyes likens psychic readings to art and therapy.

The way the film unfurls information is nearly comical on paper. As each psychic introduces themselves in their private spaces — particularly memorable is a gay white man from the South, whose apartment is cramped and messy — it isn't long before they begin talking about movies, followed by theater, music, and other art forms in which they're deeply invested. Some of them are former or current playwrights. Some like to sing. Others enjoy putting on costumes, while a few of them even continue to audition for roles on TV, having studied acting in grad school.

At no point does the film explicitly comment on this, but it comes up like clockwork during nearly every interview, and is usually telegraphed by the classic film posters on each psychics' wall. One woman, a Queens native who claims to channel the spirits of people's pets (both living and dead) regales the audiences with tales of how John Waters' cinema helped her find herself as an outsider. Another psychic reminisces about watching his favorite movie with his departed brother, and breaks down in tears. Before long, even the amusing predictability of each interview leads to something emotionally revelatory.

Do these psychics see a connection between their love of cinema and performance art and their proclivity for spiritual readings? Some do — one likens it to her improv background, and compares the emotional impulses of both forms — but for the most part, Look Into My Eyes gestures towards the possibility of them being drawn to psychic readings as a means of expression, but doesn't force a didactic conclusion about why. The logistical reality of what they do isn't nearly as vital, in the film's purview, as its emotional reality, which is therapeutic — for their clients, and in many cases, for themselves.

As is the case with actual therapy, there's a racial component to some of the readings too, making the case that the personal experiences and outlooks of each psychic (much like that of therapists) can assist in better understanding clients or patients. One white psychic conceives of a Black woman's trauma only through the lens of pop culture, while a middle-aged Black psychic connects with her young Black client through a more nuanced understanding of his place in white America. Similarly, a Chinese American woman adopted by white parents seeks spiritual answers about belonging, and she finds them at the table of an Asian American psychic who was similarly adopted. Several of these psychic-clients pairings feel fated, and while it's hard to know how much of this was coincidence and how much was research and planning by the production, the outcomes feel both unexpected and satisfying for both parties across the table.

Are the readings themselves accurate? Some might be, though they're usually general enough to depend on interpretation, like a Nostradamus prophecy. If you go into Look Into My Eyes as a believer in clairvoyance, you'll likely have that belief reflected back to you, just as skeptics might latch on to the more performative aspect of these readings, or the few which happen to be wrong. However, seeing the way each psychic's story plays out, between the search for meaning in their own lives and the ways in which they try to make sense of the world, renders any sense of journalistic investigation moot. Look Into My Eyes is pure sensation.

The film is also a mischievous bait-and-switch by Wilson, who uses its visual and narrative transformations to turn the psychics' lenses back on themselves — and the movie's lens on itself as well.

Look Into My Eyes is a cinematic psychic reading.  

The film eventually evolves into an intimate sit-down with several mediums in private spaces as they unburden themselves; this neatly mirrors its lengthy prologue, the initial half hour or so in which various clients do the same. During that extended introduction, the psychics are rarely seen or heard, and since the camera meets their clients' gaze, it essentially embodies the psychics' own POV, granting them a sense of narrative control.

But the moment Wilson begins focusing on the psychics as subjects in front of the camera — the instant the lens probes further and deeper than a profile shot — that sense of control at the table, during their readings, is all but stripped away. They become not only the movie's central subjects, but in its visual parlance, they become akin to their clients, lost in search of answers to painful questions in their personal lives.

Some came to the profession as a means to channel and deal with the deaths of people they loved. Others don't even fully believe in the veracity of what they do, but they continue to do it anyway, as though it were a spiritual mission. Like their initial presentation, the filmmaker herself is never seen and is only heard on occasion, but through the mere suggestion of her presence, it becomes hard not to wonder how she feels about each subject, and to what degree she might be judging them, or even manipulating them. At one point, a young psychic turns out to know the deceased person for whom a client requests a reading, and both parties are fascinated by the sense of cosmic coincidence, but the question of whether this was planned by Wilson on some level continues to linger.

In this manner, Look Into My Eyes becomes akin to a psychic reading itself in the most emotionally intimate way, practically forcing believers and skeptics alike to understand something fundamental about the act of clairvoyance, without necessarily lending credence to either belief or skepticism. The psychics speak constantly about the emotional impulses they feel during these readings, which they in turn intuit. Whether strictly "real" or not, this is a kind of wordless understanding that emanates from within them, and is rooted in their own lived experiences. And so, by turning the film's dynamic on its head — by "reading" the psychic subjects, as it were — Wilson practically forces viewers of all stripes to similarly intuit emotional information about their inner lives, based on visual cues and suggestions. The film practically urges us to follow the same emotional logic they employ, which leads them to grand conclusions about people's fate, and their place in the world.

Do the movie posters in the background, on the psychics' walls, mean everything — or nothing at all? No bit of dialogue in Look Into My Eyes pushes viewers towards an answer one way or another. The film features no insert shots of objects or environmental details that suggest either sincerity or irony in its filmmaking. The only context it offers is the people themselves, and how deeply they feel. In the process, whether or not Wilson believes her subjects remains obscured. The movie never tips its hand. It has no tell. Rather, it remains tethered to its subjects for most of its runtime, continuously looking into their eyes so that we might make instinctive connections with them, and better understand their grief and isolation, through a filmic interpretation beyond words.

Look Into My Eyes opens in select theaters Sept. 6.

Out the gate, the cast alone for His Three Daughters demands notice: Carrie Coon, who deserved — but did not receive — an Oscar nomination for her performance as the combative twin sister of Gone Girl; Elizabeth Olsen, who has been awing critics since long before WandaVision with her turns in indie dramas like the cult-focused Martha Marcy May Marlene; and Natasha Lyonne, '90s cool girl icon turned Emmy-nominated Orange Is the New Black star turned rumply but riveting detective in Poker Face.

Each not only boasts a heady screen presence, making their heroines instantly feel like the kind of women who know how to handle themselves, but also possesses a dynamic range that intrigues immediately. Where might their latest role fall on the scale of damage and determination? (Their best characters offer plenty of both.)

Such powerhouse talent packed into one movie is enough to satisfy on performance alone, especially when these compelling actors are pitted against one another in His Three Daughters, a ruthless, humane, and darkly funny story of grief and letting go. And yet this family drama, sharply written and directed by Azazel Jacobs (French Exit), cuts even deeper with clever crafting.

What's His Three Daughters about?

In a lived-in but tidy two-bedroom apartment in Lower Manhattan, three estranged sisters are reluctantly reunited as their terminally ill father ebbs into his final days, which involve in-home hospice care. These sisters couldn't be more different, both in attitude and in how they're handling the impending death of the dad they shared in the apartment each has called home. (Sam Levy's cinematography often keeps the walls and narrow doorways in frame, constantly reminding us just how close — and almost suffocating — these quarters are.)

Coon kicks things off as Katie, a ruthlessly rational Brooklyn mom who begins the film with a breathless yet steady monologue explaining how the sisters must wall back their emotions and grievances to focus on the task at hand: giving their dad the most peaceful end possible. "Things from the past don't matter," she says firmly. "Not right now."

There's a rich New York sense of neurotic humor in Katie's opening speech, which is full of passion in its subtext but purposefully bled of throbbing emotion. This speech is not just a setup that she is a dam aching to break, but also a setup to the film's first sophisticated joke. The punchline is the reaction shot from Lyonne, whose weary expression screams "fuck you" though her lips never move.

Rachel (Lyonne), a Lower East Side stoner who makes her money through sports betting, lives in this apartment with their father. Yet when her sisters invade, she sidesteps, letting them make demands, lay down rules, and dominate the conversation with the hospice workers who come daily to give care and advise. While Katie and youngest sister Christina (Olsen) take turns watching over their father in his room at the end of the hall, Rachel ducks into her own room to get high or hang out with her maybe-boyfriend Benji (Jovan Adepo).

Where Katie is brisk and business casual and Rachel is laden in New York sports gear and pot smoke with the husky yet relaxed voice to match, Christina has a bright smile, near-teary eyes, and the kind of flimsy casual wear that could cost $1 or hundreds. The baby of this group lives across the country, somewhere that reflects her sunny attitude and allows her to indulge in seeing her favorite jam bands, like The Grateful Dead.

Where Katie enters their dad's room with a purpose (getting the DNR order sorted) and Rachel avoids it, Christina goes in shiny and with a song on her lips. Naturally, when tossed together, these forces collide in passive aggressive barbs, whispered resentments, caustic assumptions, and plenty of hurt feelings.

Coon, Lyonne, and Olsen are superb and nerve-racking in His Three Daughters.

Thanks in part to Coon's rapid-fire monologue at the top, His Three Daughters feels like a stage play adapted to the screen. The claustrophobic setting of the apartment adds to this feel, trapping the characters in a fraught floor plan that means there's no way to escape to the outside world without emotional encounters at their dad's door, in the tiny kitchenette, or in the living/dining area that often becomes the stage for sister showdowns.

While Coon crisply sets the pace and the heady sense of theatricality through her punctuated stoicism, Lyonne brings misfit energy that infuses the film with New York authenticity. Whether shrugging off her sister's bad attitude or joking around with the building's security guard, she exudes that defiant individualism that defines the city. His Three Daughters offers pockets of private moments, in which each sister escapes the identity of herself among her sisters to give us a glimpse of who they are beyond these four walls. For Kate and Christina, this comes in the form of calls to their husbands and children. For Rachel, it's a walk through her neighborhood, where her smile comes out of hibernation and her shit talk is understood as affection. It's a role Lyonne was born to play.

Olsen's role might have been the one over shadowed, as Christina is the gentlest of the three, given the least cutting dialogue. However, Olsen weaves a nuance into the youngest sibling, whose breeziness is a radiant but thin façade. "Just because I don't complain doesn't mean I don't have issues," Christina asserts in a hard moment. And just like that, the bright baby sister is given depth that reaches into her love of jam bands, her choice to live across the country, and her unflappable warmth in the face of their father's death.

There's no one way to grieve, and His Three Daughters puts several — all heart-wrenching and all-too-familiar — on display.

His Three Daughters rejects treacle and tragedy porn in favor of giving death some dignity.

Perhaps one of the most compelling choices Jacobs makes (outside of casting), is keeping audiences out of the room of the daughters' father, Vincent (Jay O. Sanders). The camera will never peek through the door or cross the threshold. The film is not so much about their father, but about how they see him, and what legacy he leaves behind in the "three crazy bitches" he raised — as Rachel puts it with a crooked grin.

By keeping us out of that room, Jacobs rejects making a spectacle of dying and gives the father and his daughters a private life outside the film. Still, we see plenty of who they are through how they're coping. Katie needs a project to channel her nervous energy, even if that means targeting Rachel unjustly. Rachel is deep in avoidance, doing all she can to look away from the inevitable. Christina is endlessly seeking positivity, to the point of proving toxic to her siblings. Even Benji gets a showcase of grieving, delivering a speech about who Vincent was to him. It's an oration so full of righteous rage and the pain of loss that it rattles even Kate and Christina from their poses of composure — and could make Adepo a dark horse Best Supporting Actor contender. (He's sensational in this small but blistering role.)

I've written before about how grief is an ugly business. It's cruel and unfair and can cause us to lash out cruelly and unfairly. Three Daughters neatly puts such chain reactions on display while avoiding making a ghoulish meal of its characters' pain. The center of the film is grief, but its purpose it to show how three sisters were able to rediscover each other through this grim moment. It's a motherfucker, but grief can teach us who we are, not just as individuals, but also to one another.

In a tightly written drama binding us to a humble home and an imminent death, Jacobs and his cast unfurl a powerful story of love and loss that is ultimately hopeful. While a third-act flight of fantasy may prove polarizing — arguably breaking from the rest of the film's logic — for me, it deepened the sense of absence, giving audiences a grander understanding of who the eponymous heroines lose when they lose Vincent.

His Three Daughters is a simple but elegant drama that grapples with the ugliness of grief and comes out with as happy an ending as a shattering death might bring. It's chaotic, charismatic, and ultimately cathartic. Don't miss it.

His Three Daughters is in theaters starting Sept. 6.

UPDATE: Sep. 5, 2024, 2:24 p.m. EDT "His Three Daughters" was reviewed out of its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival in this article, originally published on Sept. 9, 2023. This review has been updated to include information about the film's theatrical release.

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These words will likely take you back to childhood.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

The answers all relate to a classic children's story.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today's spangram is ThreeBears.

NYT Strands word list for September 6

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