Although we mainly focus on reviews of movies and TV or streaming series, we have a wide array of reviews here at Cosmic Circus. This includes concerts, tech and other products, travel, games, books, and comics.
Refer to the Stellar Picks archive to find some of our top-rated movies, shows, books, games, and more!
John Carney can’t necessarily be described as “one-trick pony,” even if he makes virtually the same film over and over again. The Irish filmmaker has carved a niche in music-driven dramedies ever since 2007’s Once. That niche became mainstream following his best film, Sing Street, which is widely regarded as one of 2016’s best. If you think he’s run out of
Read MoreBack in 2014, the indie gaming scene changed with the release of publisher Yacht Club Games’ now-hit game Shovel Knight. That game was originally funded during the rise of the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. While that game had some development delays, it was very successful. It established exactly what Yacht Club Games was capable of, even if it took years to fulfill
Read MoreColleen Hoover has been on an upward trajectory in the realm of cinema. With It Ends With Us, Regretting You, and now Reminders of Him, the author turned screenwriter has shown a strong presence in theaters for three years straight. Reminders of Him is the first film adaptation to feature Hoover as a writer adapting her own work, and the film benefits from it,
Read MoreThe world of Ben 10 is one of my favorites. Even though the franchise has existed in a strange place inside pop culture, especially after the bad reboot, it was fantastic during its peak. It shaped an entire generation of superhero cartoons, sold loads of toys and games, and somehow still never truly disappeared. Even when new animated versions divided people,
Read MoreStar Wars has returned to the big screen after seven years. With the release of the controversial The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, which finished the then Skywalker Saga, Lucasfilm took a back seat on the movies as they focused on the then new Disney+. By far its biggest success was The Mandalorian series, which spanned three seasons and some spin-offs,
Read MoreFor years, Prime Video’s The Boys built its reputation as a superhero satire and often crossed lines that most superhero stories would never even consider. Heads exploded, politicians became puppets, and corporations weaponized celebrity culture. With each season, superheroes slowly transformed into terrifying symbols of unchecked power and terror. What started as a violent, funny parody of comicbook universes eventually evolved
Read MoreIt would be fair to say that the Sony Spider-Man Universe (SSU) hasn’t had a particularly great run ever since the release of Ruben Fleischer’s Venom. Apart from those trilogy’s box-office successes, each live-action installment (the Spider-Verse films are innocent) was critically and commercially reviled and became the subject of ironic memes rather than actual fan engagement. J.C. Chandor’s Kraven the Hunter might have killed
Read MoreIt would be futile for me to give you a succinct plot summary of Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters. The movie is the rapper-turned-filmmaker’s sophomore effort in the world of cinema following Sorry to Bother You and, most recently, a digression inside the world of television with the limited series I’m a Virgo. It would also be futile for me to
Read MoreI recently had the pleasure of playing the new exploration game Duck Side of the Moon, both developed and published by Starbrew Games. You’ll take on an adventurous space faring duck named Doug, as you try to fix his ship while trying to find a new homeworld. After crash landing on an alien world, you’ll make new friends and do relaxing
Read MoreFollowing her filmmaking on Paramount Pictures’ Rosemary’s Baby prequel, Apartment 7A, with Christian White and Skylar James, writer-director Natalie Erika James returns with a new horror project. Independent Film Company and Shudder’s science fiction supernatural horror drama film, Saccharine, follows a young woman in medical school. She becomes terrorized by an apparition after experimenting with an unapproved weight-loss procedure—pill supplements apparently
Read MoreIn a world dominated by more webcam choices than you can possibly ever research, where does one begin to make the right choice? As the years go by, the technological differences between companies grow ever slimmer, meaning that regardless of your choice, you can’t possibly make a bad one. Right? Now, if you’re like me, you know that’s probably true, but
Read MoreEvery so often it’s difficult to write a review like this, especially when it’s a release I had heavily anticipated for over six months. When you play the demo of an upcoming roguelike deckbuilder (the loosest of the definition), you’re blown away by the entire package so much that you immediately throw it onto your wishlist. You go back time after
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