Stellar Picks

Below find reviews of all the best movies, shows, books, games, and more according to Cosmic Circus contributors and writers.


EventsFilm FestivalsGamingMovie ReviewsReviewsStellar Picks

‘Resident Evil’ Review: A Masterful Adaptation | Fantastic Fest 2026

Resident Evil does not follow the video game’s exact plot. This has been a frequent complaint online. While that’s true, none of Paul W. S. Anderson’s movies followed the exact plotline. For the most part, almost none of the movies follow the story, and the only one that came close flopped two years ago. So what is a filmmaker to do? Zach

Read More
EventsFilm FestivalsMovie ReviewsReviewsStellar Picks

TIFF 2026 Film Review: ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’ is an Absolute Masterpiece

After Marvel Studios fumbled the production of Bassam Tariq’s vision for Blade with Mahershala Ali, the director and actor both left the long-gestating MCU project to do Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. The action movie then used Ali’s training for Eric Brooks to instead put him in a tormented character study about a single Muslim father trying to do right

Read More
EventsFilm FestivalsMovie ReviewsReviewsStellar Picks

TIFF 2026 Movie Review: ‘Fjord’ is a Necessary Exercise of Introspection

The metaphor is heard loud and clear in Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, this year’s Palme d’Or-winning picture, as the evangelical, conservative Gheorghiu family moves into a highly progressive (and liberal) neighborhood in Norway. If you didn’t click it because you didn’t meet Mungiu’s latest at its terms, it’s an apt parallel for the return of conservatism, which has become more prominent around

Read More
EventsFilm FestivalsMovie ReviewsReviewsStellar Picks

TIFF 2026 Movie Review: ‘Hope’ is Cinema at Its Purest

There isn’t a better way to open the 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival than with a special screening of Na Hong-jin’s Hope. This is the South Korean genre artist’s first feature in ten years, following the masterful The Wailing in 2016. It’s been a while, which made the prospect of a Cannes premiere all the more special for

Read More
Game ReviewsGamingReviewsStellar Picks

‘Star Wars: Zero Company’ Game Review: Clone Wars Era Play Focused on Strategy and Tactics

Since the day it was announced, Star Wars Zero Company was a gaming experiment that many had doubts about. For decades, Star Wars games have explored the galaxy through the eyes of various characters and stories and through the windows of many vehicles. Players have flown X-wings, fought through massive multiplayer battles, hunted Sith Lords or Jedi with a lightsaber, and

Read More
Game ReviewsGamingReviewsStellar Picks

‘Anomaly President’ Game Review: Politics Meets Roguelike Action

Anomaly President is one of those games that you see and immediately think is going to stress you out. The idea is simple enough to explain in a sentence, yet strange enough to make it difficult to compare directly with almost anything else on the market. In the game, during the day, you are a presidential candidate trying to win over

Read More
Concert ReviewsEventsReviewsStellar Picks

Twenty One Pilots BitterSweet Music Festival 2026 Concert Review

Twenty One Pilots is the most important band in my life alongside Linkin Park. I’ve been listening to them for way more than a decade. As a band, they’ve spent a lot of time building a world and an entire lore around their music. Their concerts have become extensions of that world. They are complete with recurring symbols, visual storytelling, audience

Read More
ReviewsStellar PicksTV & Streaming Series Reviews

‘Lanterns’ Premiere Review: A Thrilling Start for DCU’s First Green Lantern Mystery

After many years of false starts, constantly changing plans, and not-so-positive results in the form of a Green Lantern movie 15 years ago, DC’s Green Space Cops finally return to our screens. The Lanterns season 1 premiere is a much more confident approach that treats Hal Jordan and John Stewart as detectives first, superheroes second, and damaged people (each in their

Read More
Book ReviewsBooksGamingStellar Picks

‘Aliens: The Video Games’ By Mike Diver Book Review

The perfect organism. Spoken by Ash in 1979’s Alien, the Xenomorph is perhaps one of the best-designed creatures in horror. The creativity of authors, artists, and other visionaries have guided this franchise beyond just the films. Aside from the nine Alien films, nothing has been more immersive than the games based on this series for more than 40 years. That is

Read More