When people rank Christopher Nolan‘s filmography, Insomnia almost always ends up near the bottom. It’s not because it’s a bad movie — far from it, actually. It’s just that it sits in the shadows of cultural juggernauts like The Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar, and Oppenheimer. What’s more, it’s the only feature that Nolan directed but didn’t write, and one of the few films in his catalog that’s a straightforward remake. In other words, it’s not exactly what comes to mind when someone brings up the subgenre that is Nolan films.

That’s unfortunate, because Insomnia deserves far more attention than it gets. While it lacks the time-bending puzzles and blockbuster spectacle that would go on to define the most entertaining films of Nolan’s career, it’s still an incredibly effective psychological thriller anchored by one of the finest performances of star Al Pacino‘s career. Arriving between the actor’s larger-than-life ’90s classics and his much less notable 2000s projects, Insomnia finds Pacino in a real sweet spot: He’s in an unusually restrained register here, turning in a nuanced portrait of guilt, exhaustion, and moral compromise that remains one of his most underrated performances to date.

An Internally Conflicted Al Pacino Carries ‘Insomnia’

Based on the acclaimed 1997 Norwegian thriller of the same name, Insomnia follows Los Angeles homicide detective Will Dormer (Pacino) as he travels to Nightmute, Alaska to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. The case quickly spirals soon after his arrival: Dormer accidentally shoots his longtime partner during a pursuit through some dense coastal fog. Rather than confess the truth, Dormer lets everyone believe the girl’s killer pulled the trigger.

That single split-second decision takes Insomnia from a by-the-book murder mystery to a psychological character study not unlike David Fincher‘s Se7en. It’s a part that needs more subtlety than spectacle, and — somewhat surprisingly, given his hammiest heights — Pacino delivers exactly that. He comes off as the most exhausted detective of all time, stumbling through the investigation with bloodshot eyes, bad judgment, and increasing paranoia. It’s incredibly convincing, and remains one of the best things he’s ever done.

And Pacino isn’t the only actor working against type. Robin Williams soon shows up as murderer Walter Finch, at a time when the star was still mostly associated with broad comedies and heartfelt dramas. (Another Williams-led psychological thriller, One Hour Photo, would come out later that year.) Our expectations make his turn as a soft-spoken killer even more genuinely unsettling. It’s exactly the right thing to bounce off of Pacino’s performance: two deeply flawed men attempting to rationalize their actions and excuse their moral failures.

‘Insomnia’ Deserves a Better Reputation, If Just for Pacino’s Performance

Image via Warner Bros.

As far as critical consensus goes, Insomnia was hardly a disappointment. It earned strong reviews upon release, with critics praising both Pacino’s and Williams’ performances. Even to this day, it remains one of Nolan’s best-reviewed films: 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, 78 on Metacritic. Nolan himself has recognized it as the most underrated movie he’s made. And yet… Insomnia still continues to be overshadowed by everything that came afterward.

Given the course Nolan’s career would take after 2002, it’s not hard to see why this movie gets less attention than the rest of his filmography. Nolan would go on to reinvent the superhero blockbuster, turn high-concept originals into major box office events, and eventually win the Academy Award for Best Director. Compared to what came next for him, a relatively straightforward psychological thriller would naturally get overlooked. That doesn’t make it any easier to justify, though.

Revisiting Insomnia today, you’ll find a film that’s still remarkably effective in its own right. Sure, it’s not Nolan’s flashiest or most “epic” work, but it’s absolutely one of his most mature. (Can you imagine Nolan putting out something like this today?) More importantly, it’s some of Pacino’s best work. If one can be so bold, he wouldn’t turn in anything this great again until his cameo in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood and his part as Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman, both 17 years later in 2019. That’s reason enough to include this title in your next marathon of Nolan rewatches.

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Release Date

May 24, 2002

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Runtime

118 Minutes

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Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce‘s wedding at MSG brought together an impressive guest list packed with celebrities, athletes, and close friends. While many high-profile names were in attendance to celebrate the couple’s union, a few invited personalities ultimately chose to skip one of the biggest events of the year. Here’s a look at some of the notable names who declined the glamorous celebration.

Singer-songwriter and ’70s music icon James Taylor, after whom the pop superstar was named, missed Swift’s nuptials to Kelce.

At a performance in Lenox, Massachusetts, over the Independence Day weekend, James revealed to the audience that he and his wife, Kim, had received an invite to the wedding of the year. However, he had to decline to keep with tradition. James had been performing annually at the Tanglewood Music Festival for 52 consecutive years, excluding event cancellations and COVID restrictions, and he wasn’t about to break his streak.

Despite missing the wedding, he shared his well wishes to Swift and Kelce, saying, “I do want to wish the couple all happiness and smooth sailing, and strength when it can’t be smooth.”

In a 2015 interview with Stereogum, James talked about his connection with Swift, saying, “She told me that her mom and dad had been really, deeply into my music and I got a real kick out of the fact that she’d been named after me.”

Charles Barkley Doesn’t Go To Weddings Or Funerals

Charles Barkley also got an invite to the Swift-Kelce nuptials, but he “politely” said no. The basketball legend’s refusal had nothing to do with the couple; it’s simply his policy not to attend two specific events. “I don’t go to weddings or funerals,” Barkley stated.

In an interview on 97.5 The Fanatic’s “Unfiltered with Ricky Bo and Bill Colarulo,” Barkley shared that he loves the Kelce brothers, Travis and Jason, and only met Swift one time. “But I did get an invite, and I politely declined because I thought it was going to be a cr-p show,” he said.

Admittedly, Barkley said he knew going to the star-studded affair was going to be “too much” for him. “I just want to hang out and play golf, and I don’t want to dress up and all that other stuff,” he said, adding that despite his decision, he appreciated the invite and thought it was “pretty special.”

Robert Pattinson Had Work Obligations

Robert Pattinson and his partner Suki Waterhouse have been friends with Swift and Kelce for years, and while Waterhouse was spotted at MSG for the wedding, Pattinson was noticeably absent.

As reported by The Blast, the actor had professional obligations lined up on the day of the couple’s wedding. At the premiere of his movie “The Odyssey,” Pattinson shared that he had been busy filming “The Batman: Part II.”

When he found out that he missed out on the couple’s lavish giveaways at the wedding, he jokingly asked, “What did I get?”

Ryan Seacrest Rescinded His Confirmation To Swift-Kelce Wedding

TV host Ryan Seacrest planned to attend the wedding and admitted that he was excited to go to the A-list affair. He confirmed he was going, but then had to backtrack a few days before the event.

Seacrest shared his reason on “On Air With Ryan Seacrest,” telling listeners that Disney brought him on for an Independence Day special that was taking place on July 3 and 4. While he did his best to fit both events into his schedule, he simply couldn’t make it work.

“I couldn’t have done both. And the actual wedding was in the afternoon. I went through the minutes,” he said. Nevertheless, he was honored to have been invited.

Prince William And Kate Middleton Met Privately With The Couple

Many of Swift and Kelce’s fans expected Prince William and Kate Middleton to attend the wedding, but they were a no-show.

In late May, Prince William was asked whether he was invited to the wedding, which he answered with a smile, saying, “No comment… I’m hoping, and I’m sure there might be an invitation around, but we’ll see.” Despite his refusal to reveal any information, many suspected that he and his wife were on the guest list. Speculation further intensified when he appeared on the Kelce brothers’ “New Heights” podcast episode, released on the morning of the wedding.

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Despite their absence on the couple’s big day, the royals reportedly met with them before their wedding, per PEOPLE. The private meeting allegedly took place in May when Swift and Kelce visited London.

By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated 1 minute ago

There’s a few things in life you can always count: Death, taxes, Firefly appearing on every list of best one-season sci-fi shows, and Spider-Man is Marvel’s most popular superhero. Every single Spider-Man movie has been a success and now Tom Holland’s first standalone in the webs is one of Netflix’s most popular movies. Spider-Man: Homecoming, thanks to the unique licensing deal Marvel has with Sony, isn’t trapped on Disney+ anymore.

Spider-Man: Homecoming Did Everything Right

Spider-Man: Homecoming is the first solo Spider-Man film in the MCU following his brief introduction in Captain America: Civil War. At the time, it was the most anticipated movie in the MCU. What no one saw coming was how Tom Holland would take the role already made famous by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, and make it his own. He did so well, that for the second time, all hopes for the future of the MCU rest on his next movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

If Spider-Man: Homecoming wasn’t as fun as it was, the MCU would have crashed and burned years ago. Taking a little bit from Miles Morales by turning Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) into Ganke, removing Uncle Ben completely, and replacing Mary Jane Watson the fashion model with MJ (Zendaya) the socially conscious hipster, Disney created a Spider-Man for a new generation. It’s hard to remember now how controversial these changes were, and even now classic comic book fans are still waiting for Ned to turn into Hobgoblin (which was only ever sort of true, it was a brainwashing technique used by Kingsley, the real Hobgoblin, because comics!). 

Part of what makes Spider-Man so popular is his rogue’s gallery. Michael Keaton’s updated version of Vulture as a tech scavenger/thief was an improvement over the original Adrian Toomes and whatever it was the “Brand New Day” era mob enforcer Vulture was supposed to be. Taking a former Batman and making him a bird-based Marvel villain was, as it turns out, inspired casting. Against all odds, Keaton’s most threatening moment comes when he’s out of costume, behind the wheel of a reliable, practical car. 

Spider-Man Saves The MCU

Spider-Man: Homecoming wasn’t an outlier, it was the first sign of how reliable Tom Holland’s Peter Parker was going to be in terms of box office, and quality. Three movies in, and not one of them is less than amazing. Spectacular even. Spider-Man: Brand New Day is about to hit theaters and so far, all signs point to it being the most successful Marvel movie since Deadpool & Wolverine. Once again, the fate of the MCU rests on Spider-Man. 

Ever since Avengers: Endgame Disney has struggled to reach their previous heights. The “Multiverse Saga” was a complete dud except for No Way Home and Deadpool & Wolverine, with even Multiverse of Madness and Fantastic Four falling flat on their faces. The younger audience is bored of superhero movies, which is why Tom Holland is Disney’s secret weapon.

Tom Holland Is The Most Important Marvel Star

As with every Peter and Mary Jane before them, Tom Holland and Zendaya started dating, but unlike the rest, the pair have been together over a decade and recently tied the knot. It’s impossible to overstate how popular they are among Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Tom’s “Umbrella” performance from Celebrity Lip-Sync Battle has been a social media viral hit for nine years, longer than anyone else has played Spider-Man and Zendaya has been fashion icon for even longer. If anyone can get the young’uns back into theaters for a Marvel movie, it’s those two. 

And it all started with Spider-Man: Homecoming. 9 years later, it’s still one of the best super hero movies of all time, and now that it’s on Netflix, the largest streaming service on the planet, it will still, somehow, find a new audience. There is no Marvel without Spider-Man, and without Tom Holland, we might not have a MCU right now.

Taylor Swift may have said “I do” behind closed doors, but the biggest mystery from her lavish wedding to Travis Kelce is only now beginning to unravel. 

While the newlyweds successfully kept cameras away from their ultra-private ceremony, wedding guests and insiders are slowly revealing new details about the bride’s breathtaking look. 

From a dramatic 25-foot train to a romantic lace veil, Swift’s bridal fashion is becoming one of the most talked-about moments from the star-studded celebration.

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Taylor Swift’s wedding gown has quickly become one of the biggest mysteries to emerge from the couple’s ultra-private celebration, with fans eagerly searching for even the smallest clue about what she wore down the aisle.

The singer and NFL star guarded nearly every detail of their Madison Square Garden wedding, leaving even the bride’s gown hidden from public view. 

That secrecy only fueled speculation, with AI-generated images circulating online before quickly being debunked as fake. 

Even authentic footage from inside the venue, first published by the Daily Mail, managed to avoid capturing Swift’s walk down the aisle. Now, those who attended the celebration are beginning to share some details.

“Taylor wore a big white dress that was off-the-shoulder and had a super long train. It looked to be 25 feet long,” one source told the Daily Mail.

Another guest described the gown as “fluffy and white,” while recalling that Swift’s lace veil looked “pure romantic perfection” as she glided toward Kelce.

Officially, however, only a handful of details have been confirmed. In a brief statement released Friday, Swift’s publicist said the bride and groom both wore matching custom Christian Dior Haute Couture created by the fashion house’s newest creative director, Jonathan Anderson. 

Swift Kept Her Bridal Fashion Surprisingly Understated

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Although the wedding itself has been estimated to cost around $20 million, Taylor Swift reportedly resisted one of modern celebrity weddings’ biggest trends: endless wardrobe changes.

According to insiders, the pop superstar wore just two dresses throughout the celebration. After exchanging vows in her custom Dior gown, she reportedly changed into “a more comfortable dress during the reception,” choosing comfort over multiple designer outfits.

The restrained approach stands out in today’s celebrity wedding landscape. Lauren Sanchez, for example, famously wore 28 designer looks during her wedding festivities with Jeff Bezos last summer, making Swift’s decision to limit herself to two bridal outfits feel unexpectedly modest despite the scale of the event.

Her accessories, however, remained every bit as luxurious. According to her publicist, the 36-year-old completed her bridal look with Cartier jewelry and custom Christian Louboutin heels.

Taylor Swift And Kelce Perfectly Matched On Their Big Day

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The coordinated fashion extended well beyond the bride. Sources said Kelce complemented Swift’s bridal look by wearing a custom white tuxedo with a matching white top hat, ensuring the couple embraced a unified aesthetic throughout the ceremony.

While the Grammy Award winner eventually changed into a second dress for the reception, her husband reportedly stayed in his formal attire for the rest of the evening, maintaining the polished look that defined the celebration.

Together, their matching Christian Dior Haute Couture designs showed the carefully curated style of a wedding that has captivated fans despite remaining almost entirely out of public view. 

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Speculations have swirled that Taylor Swift and Kelce filmed the celebration for a future documentary after cameras and production equipment were spotted around the venue.

However, an insider recently shut down those claims, telling Us Weekly there is “no truth” to reports that the newlyweds created a wedding film or documentary for public release. 

While the couple did document their July 3 celebration, the source explained, “They had it documented for themselves but are keeping it private.” 

While the insider did not rule out the possibility that some footage could be shared one day, the clip is said to be intended solely as a personal keepsake rather than commercial content for now.

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Before reports claimed Swift and Kelce had no plans to publicly release footage from their wedding, details suggested the pair’s commitment to privacy extended well beyond keeping the cameras’ final product under wraps. 

As TMZ reported, guests attending the lavish Madison Square Garden celebration were asked to follow a series of strict rules to protect the event’s intimate nature. 

In addition to a no-phone policy, invitees were instructed not to bring wedding gifts, as the newlyweds preferred that their loved ones simply enjoy the celebration. 

Attendees also adhered to a formal black-tie dress code and signed non-disclosure agreements before receiving full wedding details. 

NFL star George Kittle, who attended with wife Claire, even revealed he and other invitees had very little information before the event, joking that Kelce laughed when asked about the venue and that he half expected everyone to be flown somewhere else. 

Preparations for the celebration remained equally secretive, with crews working through the night as trucks unloaded décor, equipment, and boxes labeled “Garden Party” and “Mirror Ball” before the festivities began. 

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 30 seconds ago

Be honest: Have you ever been in a job interview, and when asked what your biggest weakness is, you want to say, “I just work too hard?” It’s the kind of thing that makes an interviewer want to kill you, but in Hollywood, veteran director Paul Verhoeven can get away with such a wild claim. That’s because he worked incredibly hard to create the stone-faced satire that transformed Starship Troopers into history’s most misunderstood sci-fi movie, and it’s available to stream on Netflix for audiences who are finally ready to get in on the joke.

Verhoeven Is A Master Of Satire

Before you start watching Starship Troopers, though, you might need a bit of context about its director. He’s made plenty of great films over the years, including Total Recall and Basic Instinct, but he is arguably best known for RoboCop.

That movie (which featured a corporate-controlled police department as a statement on the militarization of cops and the dangers of exploitative executives) was once considered the finest film satire ever made, and fittingly enough, the film that took its satirical crown away was Verhoeven’s own Starship Troopers.

Structured Like A Propaganda Video

What is Starship Troopers about, though, and where does the satire come into play with this sci-fi blockbuster? On paper, this is a pretty straightforward tale of teenagers who enthusiastically join humanity’s war effort against the alien “Arachnids,” leading to one cool action scene after another.

Look closely, though, and you’ll see the seams tearing in this easy narrative … humanity is deeply racist, and frequent propaganda spots help harness that racism into jingoistic praise of a military that can do no wrong, despite the implication that Earth actually started this devastating war. 

Interestingly, even the casting emphasized this satire: for example, Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, and Neil Patrick Harris are all good-looking young actors, so nobody thinks twice about their casting as carefree teens turned into bloodthirsty soldiers. However, the movie itself is presented like a propaganda film … the kind of thing that would be shown in-universe to help recruit more kids into the military.

The more you see the creeping fascism of our main characters and this universe as a whole, the more you realize these are the exact kinds of pretty people you’d cast to make evil stop looking so banal and start looking so sexy.

Appreciated Today As Smart Satire

Now that audiences are generally more media-literate, it’s easy enough to appreciate how smart Starship Troopers really is. But when it was first released, many editors of mainstream publications didn’t clock the satire and were extremely angry at Verhoeven for releasing a film celebrating fascism. 

Other critics thought the satire was functionally indistinguishable from an endorsement of these ideas, and countless fans didn’t care about these themes at all … they just wanted to see some “hoo-RAH” humans killing some evil aliens. There’s no wrong way to enjoy this cult hit, of course, but being able to appreciate the great action and fierce satire helps you get the most out of a movie that is always firing on all cylinders.

Destined To Be A Cult Classic

When Starship Troopers was first released in 1997, it wasn’t exactly a bomb, but not exactly a hit either … the movie had a budget between $100-110 million and earned $121 million worldwide which, after marketing, means it was likely a loss for the studio.

It resonated more with critics, though: on Rotten Tomatoes, it currently has a critical rating of 72 percent. Critics called the movie “fun” but complained about “the excessive gore and wooden acting,” both of which are part and parcel of the satire (though in a world where every other movie is Marvel-style slop, satire is increasingly hard to notice).

As for me, I contended that Starship Troopers is the rare literary adaptation that is far superior to the book it was based on. Robert Heinlein’s novel of the same name is a genuine sci-fi classic, but the author was so close to this universe that he never seemed to notice or care how fash-friendly slogans like “service guarantees citizenship” really are.

By contrast, Verhoeven’s adaptation serves as a commentary on the author and his work, all while delivering a killer action film that manages to be much smarter than most people watching it.

Now, I’m not saying that Starship Troopers is smarter than you, but I am saying you won’t know until you stream it on Netflix. Will you enjoy all of the knife-sharp (watch that hand, Jake Busey!) satire or just enjoy quoting great lines like “the only good bug is a dead bug?” Either way, this is one misunderstood sci-fi movie that you’ll never forget.

The current season of House of the Dragon is in full swing, sucking everyone back into the bloody politics of Westeros. The show is so good that it has almost made up for the stinker that was the Game of Thrones finale — almost. Indeed, the now-infamous Season 8 of what used to be the biggest show on Earth was so disastrous that it threatened to ruin the franchise’s legacy completely. Of course, A Song of Ice and Fire has endured, but many of us still feel frustrated at how mishandled the show’s finale was, especially everything concerning the White Walkers and the Night King.

Seven years later, the Long Night and its poor execution are still a sore subject for Thrones fans, who wish they could’ve experienced the threat of the White Walkers in all its icy glory. As it turns out, maybe they still can. The Harry Potter saga addressed one of its biggest shortcomings — a lack of worldbuilding beyond the main story — with the video game Hogwarts Legacy, a massive commercial and critical success that revitalized interest in the series and finally gave us a glimpse at the Wizarding World of the past. Game of Thrones could follow the same route, using a video game to explore the White Walkers’ history and finally do justice to these incredible villains.

‘Game of Thrones’ Failed the White Walkers

Image via HBO

It’s not an overstatement to say Game of Thrones completely butchered the White Walkers’ story. Season 8 tried to rush through the two main stories — the White Walkers and Daenerys’ (Emilia Clarke) Mad Queen arc — in just six episodes. In the process, it ruined both narratives, completely assassinating Dany’s character and delivering a Long Night that was incredibly underwhelming and poorly lit and staged. And it was such a shame, because the show did a great job setting up the White Walker threat for six seasons, only to drop the ball at the last minute.

It’s not like HBO doesn’t know how badly the show messed up with the White Walkers. In fact, the network even tried to make a show about the first Long Night, tentatively titled Bloodmoon. A Pilot was made, with big names like Oscar nominees Naomi Watts and Miranda Richardson in leading roles and a premise said to be set during the Age of Heroes. The plot hinted at revealing more about the secrets behind the White Walkers, with the suggestion that we’d actually get to see the first Long Night as an entire generation of Westeros in darkness, instead of the one night we saw on the show. Alas, the show never made it past the Pilot stage, and HBO unceremoniously cancelled it hours before greenlighting House of the Dragon.

And so, we’re back to square one. The White Walkers are still one of the World of Ice and Fire‘s biggest mysteries. The show did reveal a few hints here and there about their nature and origins, but chose to keep them in the dark for the most part. As for the promise of their corruptive and destructive power, we never saw that beyond Hardhome, with the show instead rushing to an all-too-convenient ending where killing the Night King magically destroyed the entire army. It might make some degree of sense, but it felt more like a cop-out.

A Video Game Can Finally Put the Spotlight on the White Walkers

Image via HBO

If the White Walkers are still as underdeveloped as they’ve always been, what better way to explore their lore than in a long-form project? A video game set in the Age of Heroes could do wonders for Westeros’ worldbuilding. You could play as a brother of the then-blossoming Night’s Watch, or perhaps a minor knight looking to make a name for themselves; you could even play as the legendary Last Hero, who contacted the Children of the Forest after facing hordes of giants, wights, and spiders. We all know the Long Night supposedly lasted an entire generation, providing a unique setting for the story: a world in perpetual darkness. Along the way, you could meet figures from the Age of Heroes’ legends: Bran the Builder, Lan the Clever, Garth Greenhand, Symeon Star-Eyes, and Durran Godsgrief, to name a few.

While Game of Thrones was always too busy setting up other villains and plot points, a video game centered on the Long Night would finally allow the White Walkers to shine. Since the first Long Night was actually a meaningful event that marked a before-and-after in Westerosi history, we could see these icy beings spreading throughout the continent unopposed; it would be the equivalent of the Season 8 intro, where the animation chronicled the White Walkers’ advance through Westeros. The show stopped them in Winterfell, but a game could see them go further south.

A video game also allows fans the chance to actually fight the White Walkers, which is too badass an idea to pass. Discovering their mysteries and uncovering their weaknesses would make for a brilliant narrative, but actually fighting them would be a long-awaited experience for any fan of the series. After all, seeing Jon (Kit Harington) fighting them during the iconic “Hardhome” episode was a highlight of Game of Thrones. In a game, you would slowly gain experience with every Walker kill, build an army, recruit allies, and eventually fight for Westeros’ salvation during the Battle for the Dawn.

George R. R. Martin Has Made a Name for Himself in the Gaming Space

Image via Bandai Namco Entertainment