By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago

With rent prices spiraling out of control, the average person has to figure out how to be thrifty enough to survive in this brutal economy if they want to maintain a comfortable quality of life. Personally, I freelance full time because it allows me to work from home and keep a flexible schedule. That lifestyle choice lets me stay home with my kids, saving a ton of money on child care. I’m also saving hand over fist on car maintenance and fuel costs because I don’t have a commute. In a past life, I remember dropping about 10 grand a year just getting to and from an office setting that made me miserable, so I don’t do that anymore, and my wallet thanks me for it.

Most importantly, I like staying home so I can actually enjoy what my rent pays for. I’ll stand in the vacant corner of the living room that we don’t quite know what to do with yet, simply because we’re paying for every single square inch and might as well use it. When my wife asks what I’m doing, I tell her I’m getting my money’s worth and enjoying my rent. While this behavior sounds a little silly, it’s nothing compared to what’s uncovered in the 2024 documentary, Secret Mall Apartment.

It’s Exactly What It Sounds like

If you’re wondering what Secret Mall Apartment is about, there’s no need to read between the lines. It’s about a collective of Rhode Island-based artists, led by Michael Townsend, who secretly lived inside the Providence Place shopping mall for four years without being discovered. What began as a creative solution to displacement ultimately became a long term, living art installation and a quiet protest against gentrification. Along the way, the documentary also makes a strong case for using art as a way to reclaim your life, which might be exactly the kind of inspiration you’re looking for right now.

It all started in 2003, when Michael Townsend and his friends Colin Bliss, Adrian Valdez Young, Andrew Oesch, Greta Scheing, James Mercer, Emily Ustach, and Jay Zehngebot needed a new base of operations after the dilapidated Eagle Square district, which functioned as a creative hub for local artists, was leveled to make way for the sprawling shopping center. Providence Place mall was never exactly welcomed by longtime residents, largely because it was seen as a development that would drive up costs and push lower income families out of the area.

While reluctantly wandering through the mall to see what all the hype was about, Townsend discovered a chunk of unutilized space where several structures intersected. That discovery sparked the idea to slowly transform it into a hidden apartment. With the help of his friends, they turned the space into a modest but functional living area of roughly 750 square feet. Using a Pentax Optio camera, they documented the entire process, from sneaking furniture into the space to tapping electricity from a nearby store. They even hauled in dozens of cinder blocks to construct their own wall and a locking door, all without drawing attention from security.

Technically Theft And Trespassing, But Also A Living Art Installment

Townsend was eventually discovered, cited for trespassing, and evicted from the secret mall apartment in 2007. Even so, it’s hard not to admire the initiative behind the whole thing. As the documentary makes clear, Townsend is the kind of person who sees art in everything, and transforming the space was simply another creative challenge. While living inside the mall, the group continued to work on ambitious projects under the radar, including contributing to an elaborate 9/11 memorial in New York City and creating large scale tape murals at children’s hospitals, more often than not working tirelessly for free.

Between these demanding projects, the group returned to their secret mall apartment to talk shop, plan their next ideas, and unwind by playing video games, watching TV, and simply having a place to exist without paying rent. The stunt itself is impressive, but it also functioned as a pointed commentary on gentrification. Providence Place was a massive development designed primarily for tourists rather than locals. After the construction of the 1.4 million square foot mall displaced a thriving underground art community, Townsend felt reclaiming 750 unused square feet was a fitting way to push back.

Secret Mall Apartment is a satisfying watch because the apartment represents more than just a clever place to live. It stands for reclaiming autonomy through unconventional means and tells a genuinely inspiring story about eight people who followed a strange idea because it felt like their calling at the time. Every person who lived in the secret mall apartment still works in the arts today. Meanwhile, the mall itself is currently under state receivership, which feels like an ironic footnote in a story about creativity outlasting corporate progress.

If you’re looking for a feel-good documentary that might spark something in your own creative life, or if you’re just looking for some thrifty interior decorating tips, you can stream Secret Mall Apartment on Netflix.

Bad Bunny Halftime
Kid In Show NOT 5-year-old Detained By ICE
… Child Actor

Published
February 8, 2026
7:33 PM PST

Some movies don’t need good reviews — they just need curiosity. And Hurry Up Tomorrow has that in spades. Despite landing with a 14% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, the divisive 2025 thriller has surged into Starz’s Top 3, cementing itself as one of the most talked-about streaming titles of the moment. Love it or loathe it, viewers are pressing play in huge numbers — and staying to see what all the fuss is about.

The film stars The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) as a fictionalized version of himself: a world-famous musician spiraling under the weight of fame, insomnia, regret, and a recent emotional fracture. Directed by Trey Edward Shults, the movie doubles as a companion piece to Tesfaye’s album of the same name — a choice that has fueled much of the backlash and the fascination.

Is ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ Worth Watching?

Collider’s Jeff Ewing stated that Hurry Up Tomorrow was an ambitious but uneven multimedia experiment that struggled to stand on its own as a feature film. Tied closely to Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye’s album of the same name, the thriller leaned heavily into mood and imagery, often feeling more like an extended music video than a fully realized narrative. Tesfaye delivered a solid, more confident performance than in past acting efforts, while Jenna Ortega stood out as the film’s emotional engine, bringing intensity and unpredictability to an otherwise underwritten role.

“Hurry Up Tomorrow has a lot going for it. As masterfully showcased in films like It Comes at Night, Shults exhibits a keen sense of vivid, memorable visuals in the film, and there’s clear technical prowess in its construction and design. Jenna Ortega gives a passionate, singular performance, and Tesfaye delivers some excellent and emotive moments despite shallow writing for his fictional on-screen persona. These factors aren’t nearly enough to save a movie in need of a far better script. Characters aren’t given sufficient depth, story beats are repetitive (we get it, you’re stressed walking out to perform), and it’s too late by the time it gets going in the final act.”

Hurry Up Tomorrow is streaming now on Starz.

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Release Date

May 16, 2025

Runtime

106 minutes

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Director

Trey Edward Shults

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Writers

Reza Fahim, Trey Edward Shults, The Weeknd

Producers

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Kevin Turen, The Weeknd, Harrison Kreiss

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Betting Big, Together

One Creator Goes Rogue

Super Bowl Sunday, Creator Edition

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 25 seconds ago

Starfleet Academy is Star Trek’s newest show, and it is aimed squarely at a younger audience than any live-action franchise show before it. Paramount’s goal with this series is quite simple: while appealing to older fans, they are hoping these young characters and their various onscreen antics will reach Generation Z, effectively growing what has become an older and somewhat stagnant fanbase. Unfortunately, these efforts are doomed for a simple reason: the humor in Starfleet Academy is written by Millennials who are patently terrible at writing for a Zoomer audience.

There has been extensive criticism of the language used in Starfleet Academy because these 32nd-century characters talk exactly like 21st-century Zoomers. Cadets constantly refer to each other as “bruh” and “b*tch,” instructors refer to annoying situations as “dumpster fires,” the digital dean talks about cadets getting hangry, and so on. Such dialogue is completely different than in any previous Trek show, and it’s paired with youth-centric plots about getting drunk, hooking up, and pulling pranks on rival students.

The Failed Defense of Starfleet Academy

Whenever anyone criticizes any of this, defenders will usually dust off one of two different arguments. The first (one even Robert Picardo has used) is that, because these characters are so young, we should expect them to speak and act very differently from the trained and seasoned Starfleet officers we have seen onscreen before. The second defense is that we should respect that Paramount is trying to appeal to a new audience, which is important because the primary Star Trek fandom ain’t getting any younger.

Historically, Starfleet Academy critics like myself have focused on the absurdity of the first defense; for example, it’s fine to have younger characters speak more unprofessionally than their older peers, but that doesn’t explain why these 32nd-century characters inexplicably talk like characters from the 21st century. Today’s Zoomers speak very differently from their parents and other older people, but that doesn’t mean they are dusting off slang from 1,100 years ago. However, it’s well past time we dissect the problem with the second defense: namely, that Paramount is doing all of this to create younger Star Trek fans.

Bursting Fanboys’ Bubble

The essential problem with Starfleet Academy’s writers trying to script Zoomer-style dialogue is that a Millennial-led writing staff will never be able to convincingly write like younger people. Pretty much any attempt to do this results in instant cringe. Unfortunately, most of the worst humor in this new Star Trek show comes from older writers trying to create convincing Zoomer dialogue by badly recycling Millennial humor and calling it a day.

For example, one of the clunkier lines from the first episode of Starfleet Academy is Darem’s “I’m Khionian, b*tch.” Ever ask yourself why this really sounds so out of place coming out of this young actor’s mouth? It’s because this kind of dialogue was popularized by Britney Spears (“it’s Britney, b*tch!”) back in 2007, before most Millennials quoting Britney had gotten their first smartphone.

Star Trek Does The Time Warp (Again)

In the most recent episode of Starfleet Academy, the digital dean, voiced by Stephen Colbert, uses the phrase “morning wood” before chuckling in pleasure at his own penis reference. For context,  morning wood jokes were at their (ahem) peak in the ‘90s, with Office Space featuring “the Morningwood Condominiums” and Beavis and Butt-Head featuring an episode called “The Mystery of Morning Wood.” Forget appealing to Zoomers, this gag was written by and for the same Millennials that laughed along with Beavis and Butt-Head, which is likely why that same episode has a bizarre punchline featuring a farting fish.

My point is simple: Starfleet Academy has a writer’s room full of Millennials (including Lower Decks legend Tawny Newsome), and they are trying to appeal to younger viewers by including what Millennials liked when they were younger. That’s why bad guys like Nus Braka speak like ‘90s action villains (“Payback’s a b*tch!”) and the good guys are nerds trying to win prank wars with bullies (it’s basically Revenge Of The Nerds in space). This is why Chancellor Ake is hundreds of years old and often acts like a child: she’s an eternal reminder of the Millennial mantra that adulting is hard, guys!

Star Trek’s Comeback Has Already Failed

This is why Starfleet Academy’s attempt to appeal to younger viewers is ultimately doomed to fail. Actual Zoomers will reject all of this Millennial humor in a heartbeat; in fact, it wasn’t that long ago that Zoomers on TikTok were relentlessly mocking Millennial comedy for being so old and out of touch. Meanwhile, older audiences (like the Millennial-hating Boomers who keep Paramount staples like NCIS on the air) will instantly reject youth humor of any stripe, especially when it involves characters vomiting glitter like a background character in an anime (yes, this really happened!).

As for actual Millennials, most of us are still put off by Starfleet Academy’s humor because it feels completely out of place in Star Trek. Literally no fan my age has ever taken a look at the franchise and decided everything would be much better if it were written by people who thought The Office was the funniest thing ever written. Unfortunately, all the writers of this new spinoff can give us is tired vulgarity and try-hard quirks that might have been funny back before the freakin’ housing crisis.

Paramount may still get the last laugh and attract a legion of young viewers, but that’s unlikely: recently, Starfleet Academy quietly slipped out of the Top 10 rankings on Paramount+. As it turns out, writing that pisses off both older and younger viewers is not the recipe for creating a winning new show. I’d love to point this out to the writing staff, but I dare not; after all, who knows what kind of sick, therapy-coded 30 Rock meme they would slap back with in response?

Super Bowl LX
Seahawks Win!!!

Published
February 8, 2026
7:48 PM PST

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show has perhaps been the most anticipated in recent history, and the Puerto Rican singer, rapper, and producer did not disappoint. The Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots game at Levi’s Stadium wasn’t actually Bad Bunny’s first time performing in the Super Bowl. He made his debut in 2020 as a guest for Shakira, performing his verse from Cardi B’s “I Like It.” Turns out the NFL did like it, very much.

Bad Bunny recently won Album of the Year at the Grammys, making history as the first Spanish-language album to win the category. The most-streamed artist of 2025 was also the first Super Bowl performer in its 60-year history to deliver a largely Spanish-language performance, which was crucial to Bad Bunny’s celebration of Latin America through the show. His performance was genuinely incredible; creative genius and culturally beyond significant. Bad Bunny perfectly represented the joy that comes from celebrating heritage and showed how the world could be better if we experienced that joy together, together meaning with guest performer Lady Gaga, which feels kind of rogue, right? But seriously, this performance will go down in Super Bowl history and, in my opinion, for good.

Bad Bunny’s Star-Studded Guest List Included Some of Music’s Biggest Names

Image via NBC

The rumors about who would join Bad Bunny in his Super Bowl halftime show have been circulating vigorously for some time, with the fan favorite arguably being Cardi B. It made total sense: she was guaranteed to be in attendance to support her boyfriend, Patriots star Stefon Diggs, so it would have been a waste not to have her on stage, given her previous collaboration with Bad Bunny on “I Like It.” Cardi’s presence in the show was perhaps less dominant than we expected. She featured in a non-singing role, but it was powerful in its own right. Cardi was an A-list face in a crowd rich with Latin stars, including Jessica Alba, Karol G, Pedro Pascal, and many others. The star-studded group was an incredible display of pride and how our favorite big names can have fun as music consumers as well as artists.

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Also teased in the set was Daddy Yankee when lines from “Gasolina” swirled through the sound system, but he never materialized. Still, it was genuinely heartwarming to hear tributes to Bad Bunny’s Puerto Rico sprinkled throughout the halftime show. But, Puerto Rico’s other pop Daddy did bless the stage. Ricky Martín belted “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii” absolutely beautifully. The “Livin’ la Vida Loca” star is an avid supporter of Bad Bunny, praising him earlier this week for his Grammy success: “You won without changing the color of your voice. You won without erasing your roots. You won by staying True to Puerto Rico.”

Bad Bunny’s performance also shared love for one of pop’s biggest players, Lady Gaga. Her appearance was anticipated by some, but her unveiling genuinely made me gasp. Her inclusion of “Die With a Smile” in the halftime show, which Gaga played herself in 2017, was a strong symbol of integration in the US. But I must admit that my feelings about the choice are mixed, but more on that later.

The Biggest Statements of Bad Bunny’s Love Letter to Latin America

Bad Bunny made his stance on current issues in the US clear in his Grammy acceptance speech, calling for “ICE out.” A strong theme of the performance was “bailar sin miedo” (dance without fear), which was an unnervingly straightforward wish. Quite simply, no one should live in fear, and we should all experience joy in dancing.

In “Monaco,” the Puerto Rican singer introduced himself not as Bad Bunny, but with his real name, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. This was a serious statement of identity. More than a stage persona, he presented himself as a person with a real identity. Bad Bunny continued to share the message of the importance of believing in yourself, and for him, it seems that means embracing all sides of who you are.

The most poignant symbolism of the halftime show was the wedding scene, a sign of union and celebration, and one that unveiled Lady Gaga. There was something truly beautiful about seeing Gaga being part of the representation of union, especially honoring Puerto Rico with a Flor de Maga. It is worth mentioning that until this point, though, the entire show had been in Spanish. Maybe it’s just my skepticism, but, but something about Lady Gaga’s appearance arguably diluted the show’s power for the sake of palatability. But her special appearance has quickly been hugely praised across social media and played a crucial role in how the US should be celebrated as a nation of many cultures that can joyfully integrate, coexist, and thrive.

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Bad Bunny wrapped up his performance with a huge party to “DtMF,” the title track of his Grammy Award-winning album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, released in January 2025. On the album, the track closes with a much more acoustic sound than the rest of the record, evoking a sense of community. The halftime show concluded with Bad Bunny’s most-streamed song, which, combined with its acoustic roots, felt like the perfect way to connect the biggest possible number of people to join in singing together and realizing they sound better in unison.

Last but certainly not least, Bad Bunny shares a statement: “God bless America,” listing many countries across the Americas. This confident, peaceful message of love, respect, and appreciation is the main takeaway of the Super Bowl halftime show. Finally, Bad Bunny showed the camera a football with “Together We Are America” written across it before scoring with it, perhaps the most crucial touchdown of the night.

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 48 seconds ago

There’s nothing like the television of the 80s. It’s the only decade in which Knight Rider could have become a hit. In 1985, Universal decided to replicate the success they stumbled into with a show about a supercar and a clandestine organization by making a show about a super-secret government prototype known only by its codename: Street Hawk.

Instead of a car, the short-lived series featured a motorcycle. If you can already see the problem, congratulations, you’re smarter than an ’80s studio executive. 

Knight Rider, But On A Motorcycle

Street Hawk is about a motorcycle riding vigilante by night, a cop by day, and a dirt bike racer whenever he can fit in the time, named Jesse Mach. That name sounds fake and made up, but the character’s played by Rex Smith, another name that sounds like someone had to settle after learning “Max Power” wasn’t available. Today, Rex is an accomplished Broadway performer, but back in the 80s, he was a blatant attempt by Universal to create a new David Hasselhoff. 

The motorcycle, also called Street Hawk, comes across as a third-generation photocopy of Kitt without the wit of Mr. Feeny’s voice. Instead, Jesse talks to his crime-fighting partner and the creator of Street Hawk, Norman Tuttle (Murphy Brown’s Joe Regalbuto), who also assumes control when the bike activates its super-speed mode, the Hyperthrust. Going at over 300 mph in the middle of the city, what could possibly go wrong? 

The military prototype also concealed a nose-mounted particle beam, amplified with machine guns and a rocket launcher after the first episode. If you’re wondering how a motorcycle can fit all of that within the chassis, you need to stop right there. Street Hawk is not the show to obsess over fine details; it’s a show to watch and wonder how did this get made?

A Missed Opportunity

Episode 2, the first to air after the TV-movie pilot, features one of Jesse’s friends coming into town on a mission to take out Street Hawk and steal the bike. Jesse’s friend is played by a young George Clooney, after he lost out on the lead role to Rex Smith. It’s the only time anyone chose Rex Smith over George Clooney. 

To the shock of no one, Street Hawk was an immediate flop. Viewers were starting to reject the cheesy, 80s vehicular adventures in favor of the new wave of crime dramas led by Miami Vice. Except for India, where Street Hawk was a massive hit, leading to street-legal reproductions of the bike becoming the hot new toy for men. 

As with its contemporaries, binge-watching Street Hawk can be hard, as every episode is essentially the same. Someone arrives in town, a different group is after the Street Hawk, there’s a chase on the motorcycle, Hyperthrust is activated, rinse and repeat. That formula, combined with the level of acting you’d expect from an action series in the mid-80s, makes this one of the greatest so bad it’s good shows of all time. 

Street Hawk is dated in all of the best ways. The fashion, the special effects, the concept, everything. In a world where every series from the million-dollar franchises down to the latest multi-camera sitcom is focus-tested within an inch of its life, it’s refreshing to watch a series that filmed the first draft.