Below find reviews of all the best movies, shows, books, games, and more according to Cosmic Circus contributors and writers.
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 by his family after
Read MoreThe 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 the world after Donald
Read MoreSince 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 even commanded armies on
Read MoreAnomaly 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 voters, while at night,
Read MoreTwenty 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 rituals, meaningful moments, and
Read MoreAfter 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 own way) before either
Read MoreThe 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 where Aliens: The Video
Read MoreThe prison film has been done to death. It’s no surprise why. For those who have avoided brushes with the law to the extent of incarceration, there’s a certain morbid curiosity about the lives of those in lock-up. From Oz to The Shawshank Redemption and everything in between, stories from behind bars have been wrung dry for all their worth. Or so it would seem.
Read MoreAfter years of focusing on the heritage of Altair, Ezio, and Connor, which Desmond had to bear on his shoulders, with Edward Kenway, the story went in a different direction in both Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced and Black Flag. Edward was never an Assassin, nor did he have any connections to the Order. His decision to join them and take up the creed was a
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