“Will & Harper” isn’t just a film – it’s a rollercoaster ride through the heart of friendship, with comedy legend Will Ferrell and his longtime collaborator Harper Steele at the wheel.

Buckle up for a road trip that’s equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. Ferrell, playing himself, isn’t just along for the ride – he’s our guide through the uncharted territory of Harper’s gender transition.

Think “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” meets “Boys Don’t Cry,” with a hefty dose of Ferrell’s signature wit.

Harper Steele isn’t just the co-writer – she’s the beating heart of this story.

Her journey from SNL writer’s room to living her truth is raw, real, and revolutionary. It’s not just transition; it’s transformation.

Director Josh Greenbaum doesn’t sugarcoat a thing. He lets Will and Harper’s friendship do the heavy lifting, serving up a cocktail of laughter and tears that’ll leave you emotionally hungover.

The Steeles’ script? It’s a knockout punch of honesty. Every line crackles with authenticity, from gut-busting gags to soul-crushing confessions.

With visuals that’ll make your eyeballs dance and performances that’ll hijack your heart, “Will & Harper” isn’t just a movie – it’s a movement. It’s a rallying cry for the power of friendship to move mountains, change lives, and rewrite the rules of identity.

While the second-act pacing tends to meander, and the film occasionally strays near solipsism, it’s never enough to derail the film from its refreshingly earnest worldview.

Forget the tissue box – bring a whole damn roll. This cinematic sucker punch will have you laughing, crying, and reconsidering everything you thought you knew about friendship, long after the credits roll.

In a world of cookie-cutter comedies, “Will & Harper” is the whole damn bakery. Don’t just watch it – experience it.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Apollo 13: Survival is a documentary that grips you by the throat, even when you know how it ends.

Directed by Peter Middleton, this Netflix film masterfully revisits the harrowing space mission that captivated the world in 1970. Middleton doesn’t rely solely on the well-worn beats of the story but injects fresh life through expert editing and rare, never-seen-before footage.

From the moment the mission falters, you’re pulled into a tense, visceral experience that feels more like a thriller than a historical recap.

The strength of Apollo 13: Survival lies in its balance between the technical and the personal. The film toggles between the problem-solving frenzy of NASA’s Mission Control and the intimate moments of the astronauts and their families.

Interviews with Jim Lovell and his wife Marilyn are especially poignant, capturing the emotional weight of a wife watching her husband fight for his life 200,000 miles away. It’s a documentary that understands the human side of space exploration as much as the engineering.

Despite the flood of material already available about Apollo 13—including Ron Howard’s acclaimed 1995 feature film starring Tom Hanks—this documentary manages to create new suspense.

The use of real-time audio and footage from the mission, juxtaposed with tense shots of Mission Control, elevates it beyond a typical historical retelling. Even though we know the astronauts will survive, Middleton’s pacing makes it feel like they might not.

Apollo 13: Survival doesn’t just chronicle an event; it makes you feel the stakes all over again. It challenges the Hanks version by stripping away Hollywood gloss and letting the raw, unvarnished truth hit harder. It’s a stirring reminder that even in the most desperate situations, human ingenuity and determination can pull us back from the brink.

This is a space documentary that soars.

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As HBO’s latest show puts the Penguin front and center, with Colin Farrell taking the reins of Gotham’s most devious bird, it’s easy to see why fans are excited.

He’s iconic, of course—his grotesque figure, his crooked laugh, and his twisted mind make him a standout villain. We’ve seen plenty of portrayals of Oswald Cobblepot over the years, from Burgess Meredith’s waddling menace in the ‘60s to Danny DeVito’s horrifying, fish-munching interpretation in Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns.” And now, thanks to HBO’s deeper dive into his criminal empire, the Penguin is having his moment.

But let’s be clear: He will never top the Joker.

In the pantheon of villains, none have left as indelible a mark on cinema as the Clown Prince of Crime. It’s not just that the Joker is Batman’s archenemy, the yin to the caped crusader’s yang, though that helps. It’s that the Joker, through his various portrayals, has consistently tapped into something deeper—a chaotic madness that mirrors society’s darkest impulses.

And no villain, in any franchise, has been reinterpreted as successfully and provocatively as the Joker.

Cesar Romero’s cheeky Joker gave us the first taste in the campy ‘60s series. He was all bright colors and harmless hijinks, which, for the time, was perfectly fine. But it was Jack Nicholson’s portrayal in Tim Burton’s Batman that first brought the menace into focus, delivering a performance that was equal parts terrifying and humorous. He was the gangster with a twisted grin, a character you could laugh with even while he terrified you.

Then came Heath Ledger, whose take on the Joker in The Dark Knight is simply unforgettable. Ledger didn’t just play the Joker; he became the Joker, and in doing so, crafted one of the greatest performances in film history. He turned the Joker into more than just a villain—he was a force of nature, an embodiment of anarchy, a walking contradiction who didn’t want money or power, just chaos for its own sake. Ledger’s Joker asked us uncomfortable questions about human nature, about the thin line between order and disorder. And that’s why his performance resonates to this day.

Joaquin Phoenix’s turn in Joker took things a step further. His interpretation was less about the chaos and more about the fragile humanity behind the mask. Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck is a man crushed by society, a tragic figure who snaps under the weight of mental illness and neglect. It was a daring, divisive portrayal, and Phoenix deservedly took home an Oscar for it.

Sure, the Penguin is a compelling character, and this HBO series will likely add new layers to his story. Maybe it’ll give him the depth that Joker’s had across all these interpretations.

But there’s a reason Joker is cinema’s greatest recurring villain: he’s adaptable, complex, and eternally relevant. His very nature allows him to be reimagined over and over again, each portrayal reflecting the fears and frustrations of the time.

The Penguin? He’s fun, no question. But he’s still just the second most iconic criminal in Gotham.

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