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Alien: Romulus (2024)

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Popular reviews this week

Deadpool & Wolverine 2024

scarlet ★★★★ 151

only four stars because they didn’t have hot sweaty gay sex😪

Zoe ★★★½ 35

this is gonna ruin the tour.

Borderlands 2024

ConnorEatsPants ★½ 30

About 35 minutes into the film, my son Samuel detonated an explosive device he had strapped to his chest, killing himself instantly.

Karsten ★★★★

you gotta wonder if m night shyamalan has ever had a conversation with a human being

ram<3 ★★★½ 14

american psycho (taylor’s version)

Reece ★★★★ 73

before the movie, M Night came out on stage and shared that he came up with this ENTIRE movie solely to give his singer daughter her very own concert film. he then proceeded to spend 30 minutes individually thanking a multitude of crew members by name, the entire cast AND supporting cast (even actors with legit 2 lines), and told all aspiring filmmakers in the crowd to follow their dreams. M NIGHT. THE MAN YOU ARE. 

(and yes, the movie is thrilling but mostly so silly and fun, see it with friends and get ice cream after)

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Fantasy Filmfest

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Diese Filme vervollständigen das Programm des 38. Fantasy Filmfest:

New films at DCA Cinema from Friday 16 August

Prepare to be scared as Alien: Romulus arrives at DCA Cinema this week. This new sci-fi horror takes the iconic Alien franchise back to its roots, following a group of young space colonisers as they come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. Remember: in space, no one can hear you scream.

LICHTER Filmfest Frankfurt International

HIGH RISE CINEMA

The cinema spectacle returns!

Regent Street Cinema

How's that for a slice of fried gold? SHAUN OF THE DEAD is coming to Regent Street!

Can you believe it's been twenty years since Shaun of the Dead came out?

Open Air: Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

Giuseppe Tornatores Klassiker erzählt vom Filmvorführer Alfredo, der den kleinen Jungen Totò in die Geheimnisse seines Berufs einführt. Zum Abschluss unseres Open Airs zeigen wir diese grosse Liebeserklärung ans Kino. 

Adelaide Film Festival

Trailer: The Substance | AFF Film Club

Coralie Fargeat directs this bloody, hilarious satirical feminist body horror starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid.

Traz a Pipoca: Como é adaptar um livro pro cinema? com Pietra Quintela e Paula Pimenta

No Traz a Pipoca de hoje Bruna Scot e Renata Boldrini recebem a atriz Pietra Quintela e a escritora Paula Pimenta, que contam tudo sobre a adaptação de Princesa Adormecida para o cinema. Paula traz os detalhes de como uma autora mantém o roteiro fiel ao livro, já Pietra fala sobre os desafios de interpretar uma personagem conhecida e amada, além dos bastidores do beijo entre Rosa e Phil.

Electric Picture House

Autumn of classic cinema in Wotton-under-Edge

This autumn, the Electric Picture House Cinema in Wotton-under-Edge will be playing a range of classic cinema titles alongside its usual programme of new releases. During September and October, the venue will feature selected titles from the 2024 touring programme of Cinema Rediscovered, the Bristol Festival dedicated to the rediscovery and revival of great films.  

Palace Cinemas

Festival Favourite 'Iris and the Men' is a Feel-Good Delight

The Palace Movie Club is delighted to extend members and their guests a special offer to attend an opening week screening of one of the favourites from this year's Alliance Française French Film Festival, Iris And The Men. After the smash-hit international success of Antoinette In The Cévennes, writer/director Caroline Vignal and the fabulous Laure Calamy reunite for this comedy about reignited desire in the modern age, a joyous and conversation-starting delight ✨

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Join Discovery, the new community for book lovers

Trust book recommendations from real people, not robots 🤓

Blog – Posted on Friday, May 01

The best book review sites for enthusiastic readers.

Book lovers, stop us if you’ve heard this one before: you’ve just finished a mind-blowing book and you need to hear some discussion about it. What do you do? Dive straight into the limitless realm of the Internet and search for book review sites, of course. 

Or here’s another scenario: you’ve finished reading a novel and now you’re searching for something to fill the void. Maybe you want more of the same, or maybe something completely different to switch things up. You’ll probably also scour the Internet for ratings and trustworthy recommendations. 

Fortunately, there are endless review blogs and book review sites that you can peruse. Un fortunately, not every one of them features a wide enough variety to help you. But don’t worry: we’ve got you covered with ten of the best book review sites to satisfy the bookworm in you. If you want to cut to the chase and get a personalized pick for a book review site in 30 seconds, we first recommend taking this quick quiz:

Which review community should you join?

Find out which review community is best for your style. Takes 30 seconds!

Then read on for the full explanation of all of the best book review sites out there!

1. Goodreads 

It’s impossible not to mention Goodreads when discussing book communities: it’s the Facebook of book reviews — the ultimate social media platform for bibliophiles. If you’ve somehow managed to go this long without stumbling upon this omnipresent site, here’s the run-down: you can use Goodreads to organize, display, and discuss your virtual bookshelf with other users. 

Goodreads recommendations are based on your listed interests. You can follow authors and book influencers ranging from Celeste Ng to Bill Gates . This allows you to see all their reviews, which vary from compact one-liners to critical analysis, and watch the new reviews roll in. For a quick verdict, just take a look at the star rating that they give the book. 

Also if you like to browse lists, Goodreads compiles the best and most popular books for every genre. There’s also the annual Goodreads’ Choice Awards to celebrate each year’s new releases, where you can cast your vote or peruse the list of contenders to find a new book to read. It’s a site for every kind of reader, with abundant ways to comment and interact. 

2. LibraryThing

This is the OG of all online book catalogues and discussion boards — take a look and you’ll see that it’s an oldie but a goodie. Of course, the basic functions of LibraryThing are rather similar to Goodreads: there are millions of books that readers can add to their lists, as well as review with star ratings.

While the interface harks back to the earlier days of the world wide web, LibraryThing has a secret weapon that’ll appeal to all readers, especially modern ones: their Zeitgeist . This page displays the latest crème de la crème of the whole site, from the most popular books to the hottest reviews , which you can also write with the help of a good book review template . Just a glance shows that the readers here know how to read between the lines and wield their words!

So if you’re hoping to read or share some in-depth literary thoughts with fellow sharp-minded users , LibraryThing is the site to browse. (You can even access it without creating an account!) 

3. Reedsy Discovery 

Now, if you’re searching for some hidden gems to peruse, Reedsy Discovery ’s got your back. While our blog features everything from classics to contemporary hits, Discovery’s specialty is indie publications, many of which are accompanied with succinct comments from experienced reviewers . There’s no better way to broaden your horizon! 

Moreover, if casual and creative reviews are more your cup of tea, then rejoice: the burgeoning community of readers on Discovery can leave comments, one-line reviews, and video reviews (calling all Booktubers!) on just about any book. It’s a fun and interactive way to geek out over your favorite reads and discover all the coolest new titles you won’t find anywhere else.

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4. LoveReading 

Though it’s UK-based, this prolific site caters to audiences around the world. LoveReading is strictly a reviewing site, with a base of staff writers and carefully selected contributors, so you know the reviews are top-notch. The staff often give quite personal reading experiences in their reviews, which make their recommendations very endearing, like they’re from a close friend. They even offer you presents — well, if you think of giveaways as presents! 

LoveReading covers books from every genre you can think of. They also have weekly, monthly, and yearly list features to keep you up to date with the latest stellar releases, so you’ll never be in want of something to pore over. 

5. The Millions 

In search of reviews that really dive into the themes, metaphors, and overall executions of interesting and highbrow books? The Millions has got you covered. 

Written by a collection of seasoned critics, these reviews are speckled with memorable quotes, elegant analysis, and plentiful comparisons to other works — which means extra reading recommendations for you! If contemporary and literary fictions are your go-tos, then The Millions is the site for all your lit nerd needs. 

6. SFBook Reviews 

Those who think quantity and quality don’t go hand in hand, you clearly haven’t encountered SFBook Review . The five reviewers on the team here share two common and important goals: firstly, to follow the outpour of new titles in the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres every year, and secondly, to give thoughtful reviews to as many of them as possible.

This team knows their SFF niches inside out, so their verdicts are very credible. Still, their reviews are quite friendly and personal — they discuss other related books and share their reading experiences to help you make your own reading choices. 

7. Bookpage

Bookpage features all kinds of genres: from children’s books to nonfiction, from the works of household names to debut authors, and so much more. Their format is neat and straightforward — they bring you the volumes they think are most worthwhile, recommending them to you by summarizing and concisely commenting on the prose, the theme, and the plot of each chosen book.

In addition to this, Bookpage also features author interviews and articles that unearth the deeper themes and purposes of certain books. If you’re a true book lover seeking like-minded literary aficionados, this may be the perfect place for you.

8. Book Riot 

Avid readers, you’ve probably stumbled upon Book Riot more times than you can remember. While it’s not a site that individually assesses titles, it has lists for everything — from timeless literary giants to the top books in each genre. What’s more, Book Riot has lots of thinkpieces that dive deep into the way certain titles make readers feel — be it exhilarated, motivated, or enraged — and that’s really all you need to know when deciding to embark on a new reading adventure. 

Additionally, if you’d rather listen to discussions and reviews rather than read them, you'll be happy to know that Book Riot has a range of podcasts for you to choose from. 

9. NetGalley 

NetGalley is another platform bringing you new and unconventional recommendations. They specialize in connecting authors who are publishing to readers who’d like to preview and put in their two cents. While the database of books available here are not the most expansive, those that are featured are certainly worth your time. 

Readers can benefit most from NetGalley via their book recommendation site, Bookish , where the staff reviewers update you with their recent reads and in-depth thoughts on those reads. Along with that, Bookish also has book club kits, equipped with comprehension questions and discussion points, to help readers explore stories mindfully. 

10. BookBub

While it’s very similar to Goodreads, BookBub focuses more on connecting readers to books that might suit them specifically — which is partly why you’ll see plenty of bargains and deals promoted on the site.

Because of this promotional value, BookBub has quite a strong author community. Diana Gabaldon and Gillian Flynn , for instance, are constantly recommending books on their accounts. So if you’d like to tag along with your favorite author, this is an excellent website to visit. The only drawback of BookBub is that they only have community reviews from users based in the US, and you have to sign up in order to read them. 

With these ten sites, you’ll be sure to find your little community of fellow book lovers regardless of what your interests are. Here’s to exciting TBR lists and nourished minds!

If you want to try your hand at reviewing, we’ve got a little guide to help you out ! On the other hand, if you want to plough away at your books, why not consider the Kindle Cloud Reader ?

Continue reading

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Books We Love

Npr staffers pick their favorite fiction reads of 2024.

June 17, 2024 • At work: hardworking news journalists. At home: omnivorous fiction readers. We asked our colleagues what they've enjoyed most this year and here are the titles they shared.

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Summer BWL Nonfiction

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20 new books hitting shelves this summer that our critics can't wait to read

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What happens at the end of the universe?

August 13, 2024 • Today, we're bringing you the final installment of our space summer series ... with the end ... of EVERYTHING. Will the universe end in a huge cosmic unraveling? A slow and lonely dissolution? Or a quantum-level transition that breaks the laws of physics? Theoretical astrophysicist Katie Mack breaks down three possible scenarios for how the universe as we know it will finally come to an end.

Did the U.S. need to drop two atomic weapons on Japan in order to end World War II?

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'it ends with us' is a melodrama with serious undertones.

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The beauty and entitlement of traveling as a tourist.

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Reflections on James Baldwin's magnificent life from those who knew him

August 2, 2024 • Writer James Baldwin is remembered by his family, a scholar, a journalist and a playwright on his 100th birthday.

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On the centennial of his birth, James Baldwin remains relevant today

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This year’s longlist for the Booker Prize is here

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Blindsided by 'The Most': This is a superb novel of a marriage at its breakpoint

July 30, 2024 • The story takes place in Newark, over the course of a single day in 1957, which we experience from the two spouses' alternating points of view. Jessica Anthony's novel deserves to become a classic.

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A bookstore named for James Baldwin is counting down to his 100th birthday

July 28, 2024 • James Baldwin died in 1987. Baldwin & Co. is a Black-owned bookstore and community hub in New Orleans. "His literature, his perspective, his insight ... have changed my life," says owner DJ Johnson.

Picture This

To learn 'the truth about dragons,' go on a quest through this kids' book.

July 27, 2024 • A little boy must go on a hero's quest — through woods full of oak trees and a bamboo forest — to discover "The Truth About Dragons" in Julie Leung and Hanna Cha's Caldecott Honor children's book.

PICTURE THIS: THE TRUTH ABOUT DRAGONS

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Year of Global Elections

These dictators are different. 'autocracy, inc.' explains how.

July 24, 2024 • The dictators of today aren't united by ideology, writes Anne Applebaum: They operate like companies, focused on preserving their wealth, repressing their people and maintaining power at all costs.

Jon M. Chu directs Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande on the set of Wicked . Universal hide caption

Movie Interviews

'wicked' director jon m. chu says creativity isn't magic — it's hard work.

July 24, 2024 • Chu takes his inspiration from his dad, a Chinese immigrant who worked both the front room and the kitchen of their family-run restaurant: "The guy that in the back of the kitchen, that was my hero."

Someone Like Us Penguin Random House hide caption

'Someone Like Us' is a fresh, idiosyncratic novel about immigrating to the U.S.

July 24, 2024 • Dinaw Mengestu's ingenuity and eloquence as a writer are on display in this novel about an Ethiopian American man who returns home only to learn that his father has just died.

A cuttlefish swims on seagrass. Cuttlefish can change the color and texture of their bodies. cinoby/Getty Images hide caption

Dancing yeti crabs, morphing cuttlefish, other stories from the deep sea

July 24, 2024 • As a kid, Sabrina Imbler loved the ocean. They'd swim and snorkel, following around parrotfish in the water. Later, they tried to learn everything they could about the brightly-colored tropical fish – how some create a mucus cocoon at night to protect it from parasites, or how they help keep coral reefs healthy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during a meeting in Beijing on Oct. 18, 2023. Sergei Guneyev/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Expert on dictators warns: Don't lose hope -- that's what they want

July 23, 2024 • Autocracy, Inc. author Anne Applebaum says that today’s dictators — including Putin and Xi — are working together in a global fight to dismantle democracy, and Trump is borrowing from their playbook.

Autocracy, Inc

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Who is Batman's Most Influential Artist?

Alongside the storytelling front, Batman has benefited from some of the best artists in the 80-plus years in DC Comics. The hero has so many iconic looks since his inception, but who is the Caped Crusader's most influential artist considering how fans see him today? Frank Miller made the tank-like, grungier Batman popular, but Neal Adams before him illustrated a Dark Knight that looks striking today in any context. The lithe-muscular build and blue-and-gray suit have become a vintage for the hero. Jim Aparo also deserves a shoutout, who also opted for a more lean-muscle build but with sharper, angular pencils that made him more menacing. In the 21st century, it's impossible to ignore Jim Lee, whose sleek, stylish character designs practically became a default for Batman across DC media/merchandise.

What's the Best Batman Comic Arc Since 2010?

As DC Comics' cash cow, it's not surprising that there have been many "event" storylines in Batman comics. Even if they don't all go over well in terms of critical reception, plenty do stand out. Comic book story arcs from the '90s like  Knightfall  and hits from the '00s like  R.I.P.  that partly tied into  Final Crisis  are landmarks, but what are the best arcs since 2010? There were some blockbusters from early in the decade, as Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's run spawned exciting storylines like  Court of Owls  and the two Joker-centric arcs — Death of the Family  and Endgame .

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5 Sites Like Rotten Tomatoes to Find Average Ratings and Reviews for Anything

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Why I Don't Use Goodreads on My Kindle (and You Shouldn't Either)

Gpt-4 vs. gpt-4o vs. gpt-4o mini: what's the difference, how i use google maps to make my vacations better.

Rotten Tomatoes is great for movies, but what about the rest? These sites track reviews from top critics to find the best-reviewed books, music, gadgets, games, and cryptocurrencies.

With so many newspapers, magazines, websites, and YouTube channels, there are reviews everywhere and about everything. Rotten Tomatoes solved the problem for films by aggregating all reviews for a movie and assigning it an average rating. You can now use the same system for a bunch of other fields, and in turn, discover what you should try next.

1. Book Marks (Web): Rotten Tomatoes for Books

Book Marks started as a side project by the folks at Lit Hub, and has turned into its own entity. It's one of those fuss-free sites to find books to read , giving you a quick idea of what several critics think of a book.

The team at Book Marks scours 70 different publications known for their literary reviews (newspapers, magazines, and websites). Each book gets its reviews sorted into Rave, Positive, Mixed, and Pan, to give you an overall understanding of how it was received. For each review, you'll find a notable blurb as well as a link back to the full review.

Apart from a robust search engine, Book Marks also makes it easy to discover books worth reading. For instance, the Biggest New Books section is a hand-picked collection of trending books receiving awards and many reviews. You can also sort books by fiction, non-fiction, and other sub-genres. And you can check out the latest releases as well as the Best Reviewed books to find your next novel.

2. Any Decent Music? (Web): Rotten Tomatoes for Music

Any Decent Music? (ADM) collects reviews about the latest albums from the 50 top publications around the world, but mostly from the USA and the UK. The idea is to become the Billboard charts for the most critically acclaimed music and artists at any moment.

The site succinctly explains its philosophy in a small blurb. The Recent Releases chart is where you need to concentrate. It brings together critical reactions to new albums and is updated daily. Albums qualify with five reviews and drop out after six weeks.

Once they're out of Recent Releases, you'll find the albums under other headings once you click Customise Your Chart. Here, you can set the duration (last 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, or all time) and choose among popular genres. A drop-down menu at the top of the site gives you a much larger selection of genres. Another similar menu lets you sort reviews by publication.

Apart from this simple rating system, ADM lists a few fresh and upcoming albums you should check out, the latest music album reviews, and an all-time top-ten list. Kendrick Lamar is ruling the roost there. With its use of real-world reviewers and lack of algorithms, Any Decent Music is one of the best ways to discover music recommended by real people .

3. RecoRank (Web): Rotten Tomatoes for Tech Products and Gadgets

You'd think that with so many technology and gadget reviewers, there would already be something like Rotten Tomatoes for tech, right? Well, there wasn't, so developer Tavis Lochhead made one during the lockdown. RecoRank is functional, beautiful, and gets the job done.

Search the site for a tech product you're already interested in, or browse through categories to find the best-rated products. There is a robust filter system to add the specifications, price, or rating level you're looking for.

Each product shows you an overall aggregate rating, as well as the list of reviews on YouTube and websites it's sourced from. The product page also includes a price tracker to see its price fluctuations on Amazon. There's really nothing more you could want.

Also, if you have the time, scroll to the bottom of the page for RecoRank's Secret Content section. It has a few best and worst lists, popular comparisons between products, and the "best deals" section to find top-rated tech that's available at a deep discount.

4. OpenCritic (Web): Rotten Tomatoes for Video Games

You must have heard of Metacritic, the review aggregator website for video games. It takes all reviews and presents an average, which some people thought wasn't the best way to represent how video game journalism currently works. OpenCritic offers a different take to provide a more holistic view.

The review aggregate of Top Critics will give a game one of four recommendation levels: Mighty, Strong, Fair, and Weak. OpenCritic's claim to fame is to use non-rating cues from reviewers. For example, even if a game has ranked 7/10, it can understand verdicts like Eurogamer's "Essential" and GameXplain's "Loved" to get a better sense of the game's rating.

The site itself keeps it simple for those who want to know a game's overall rating and read its reviews from various trusted publications. The annual Hall of Fame shows you the best games of the year, and you can further sort and browse by platform or genre.

5. Keysheet (Web): Rotten Tomatoes for Cryptocurrency

You can't escape conversations about cryptocurrency, and you might have thought about investing in it yourself. But how do you find reliable information in a nascent field where a lot of people have their own agendas? Keysheet is trying to fix that by rating cryptocurrencies, wallets, and other services around the industry.

You can't really get a traditional "review" of cryptocurrency like you can with games or books. So how does Keysheet work? The website has a panel of experts who are contributors to major crypto projects or are well-established voices in the community. The site tracks their blog posts, tweets, and other publications to find out what they think about any coin or product, and assigns a percentage.

For you, the reader, all this boils down to a simple interface. Click a coin to see its rating, filter the reviews by positive or negative, and choose which experts you want to read. Apart from coins, Keysheet also reviews products like cryptocurrency wallets , rewards programs, and other tools. You'll also find guides with expert advice in case you're out of your depth.

Rely on Experts, But Also Check User Reviews

These review aggregators are a fantastic way to quickly find a consensus among various critics. Plus, given that these sites take it seriously as to who they allow as experts and who they don't, you're assured of a certain quality.

That said, you shouldn't rely on expert reviews alone. There can be a considerable gap between the time the review was written and the time you are checking these sites. Opinions change, other products come in, and longevity does matter. It's a good idea to always check user reviews as well. Don't rely solely on them either, and make sure you  filter out fake reviews on Amazon  too. A healthy balance between experts and common users will lead you to the right choice.

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The Best Sites and Apps to Track Your Books, Movies, Music, and Video Games

I rang in 2024 the same way I have ever since 2011: By setting my annual reading goal on Goodreads. I don't read nearly as much as I used to—blame kids, the loss of a daily commute, emotional fallout from a global pandemic, what have you—but I still want to give myself a bar to clear, even if it's a lot lower than it used to be (this year I'm aiming for 35 books, which might sound like a lot or a little, but keep in mind I'm counting the books I read aloud to my kid).

A few years ago in the Guardian, writer Rachel Sigee pondered the question of why so many of us frequent sites like Goodreads and Letterboxd to log our media consumption, and came up with an answer that seems obvious in retrospect: It’s dopamine .

Yes, the same addictive brain chemicals that cause our neurons to fire every time our phones light up with a notification are what keep us marking our progress in the books we’ve read or assigning a star rating to every movie we’ve watched or tracking the hours we’ve poured into a particularly immersive video game. Or (and this is where things get slightly insidious), to build lists of all the things we want to—or feel we “should”—read, or watch, or play.

It’s worth considering (as Sigee does) whether it is healthy to “gamify” what is essentially a leisure time activity in this way, and as a hardcore media logger, I will admit to sometimes feeling a sense of exhaustion at contemplating the lengthy lists of all things media I want to consume that I will probably never get around to. Unless I figure out a way to live forever and also abandon my job and family responsibilities. But I’m also not going to stop doing it. Even before technology presented methods to make it easier, I intermittently have kept lists of, say, the movies I watched with my then-girlfriend, now spouse. Like scrolling through photos in my phone, just seeing the name of a film on that list would trigger my memories of where we were when we saw it or the conversations we had afterward. So much of daily life is ephemeral; keeping a record of a given day—even if it’s just something as inconsequential as finally watching Weekend at Bernie’s (a surprisingly weird movie) can give you an anchor to cling to. So with all that high-falutin’ nonsense aside, here are some of the best sites and apps around to help you start keeping track of your own media habits: books, movies, video games, and music.

The best apps to log your reading

Goodreads is by far the most widely used book tracker, but there are alternatives if you don’t want to serve up yet more of your data to corporate owner Amazon.

Goodreads. You know about this one. Goodreads has been around for going on two decades now, and since its acquisition by Amazon in 2013, the site has amassed a membership of some 90 million readers eager to catalog what they’ve read and provide status updates on what they’re reading. In many ways, it set the standard for these types of social cataloguing apps, allowing you to customize your books into various shelves, write and read reviews, befriend and follow other users, make recommendation lists, and more. It’s not perfect—the UX is basically unchanged from the site’s infancy, the design is cluttered and unintuitive, and the mobile app is incredibly slow—but you probably use it anyway.

Use Goodreads on the web or download the mobile app for Android or iOS .

LibraryThing. Founded in 2005, a year before Goodreads, LibraryThing has always been that site’s slightly stuffier, more serious competitor. Originally run via paid subscriptions, it has since switched to a free-for-all model, but still aims to deliver the goods without inundating you with ads. While it offers many of the same social features as Goodreads, it’s definitely tilted more toward the serious business of keeping track of and cataloging your own reading.

Use LibraryThing on the web , or downlod the app for Android or iOS .

Other options to consider: Libib , BookSloth , and The Storygraph

The best apps to log the movies you’ve watched

When it comes to tracking your movies, there’s a clear winner (which also happens to be one of my favorite sites on the internet). Letterboxd. This app- and web-based movie tracking social network has amassed a user base of more than 20 million film fans, and with good reason: It’s incredibly easy to search and log every movie (and, more recently, a growing number of TV shows) you’ve ever seen, add dates watched (I recently found a stack of old ticket stubs and logged a bunch of films I saw in the theater 15 years ago), pen reviews, and follow other users. You can build lists based on any esoteric, hyper-specific qualifier you can think of . Plus, there’s a view that shows you the posters of every movie you’ve logged on one screen, which is neat. ( Stop by and say hi! )

Get started on Letterboxd via the web or download the mobile app for Android or iOS .

SIMKL. This lesser-known Letterboxd competitor has many of that site’s features and strengths, with one big bonus: Its database also includes a ton of TV series and anime (until recently, Letterboxd generally eschewed TV entirely, save for a few “event” miniseries like WandaVision ). You can mark an entire series as watched, or keep track of which episodes you’ve seen and how many you have left, making it that much easier to manage the glut of streaming series you’re trying and failing to stay on top of. But the coolest feature is the Chrome extension that integrates with your streaming service watch history , allowing you to log your viewing history in SIMKL without ever leaving Netflix.

Use SIMKL on the web or download the app for Android or iOS .

Another option to consider: Trakt (originally geared toward tracking your TV consumption, it can also be used to track your movies and like Simkl, integrate with your smart TV, phone, or computer to log media automatically)

The best sites to log your video games

There doesn’t seem to be a definitive video game alternative to the likes of Letterboxd or Goodreads—and though I’ll discuss comparable options to those services below, neither has reached the same level of awareness. Perhaps that’s because...

Your system probably does it for you. Most modern consoles make the need to log your games obsolete because they already track what you play and when, though you may need to fiddle around in your system menus to find it. The Nintendo Switch, for example, keeps tracked of the games played by each user profile, but if you want the really granular details, including exactly how much time a particular game was played on a particular day, you’ll need to download the associated Nintendo Switch Parental Controls app . Here’s how to see your hours played per game on PlayStation 5 and Xbox .

If you want a more complete accounting than just the amount of time sunk into a given title, though, you’re better off with a separate service.

Backloggd . Backloggd is the closest thing I’ve found to a “Letterboxd for video games,” (hence the name, probably). Currently only available via web (though an app is reportedly in the works ), the site allows you to catalog games as completed (along with whether you “mastered,” or “abandoned” them, or a few other options), backlogged (meaning you own them but haven’t played them yet), the games you are currently playing, or add games to a wishlist. You can log “playthroughs” (the dates you actually played a game), review games you’ve marked played, and browse other users’ profile pages and follow them if you choose. The site is continually adding new features, but it already offers most everything I’m looking for.

Get started on Backloggd on the web (there's no app version).

Grouvee . This one seems to have taken Goodreads as its inspiration. You can mark games as played, currently playing, backlogged, or wishlisted; write (and read) reviews; and mark your dates played. What sets this site apart is the ability to add status updates for games in progress, which is a nice touch if you want to keep track of when you beat a particular level or boss or what have you.

Get started on Grouvee on the web (no app version is available).

Board Game Geek . If you're a gamer, but of the board game variety, you need to know about Board Game Geek. One of the largest and most established board game communities online, the site allows you to rate the games you play, read others' reviews, and find new games to play, with each game's page offering stats like how challenging it is to learn and how long it might take to finish a round.

Get started with Board Game Geek on the web or via the Android or iOS apps.

Other options to consider: GG , Completionator (which allows you to import your Steam library), and HowLongToBeat .

The best app to log the music you love

Like video games, there isn’t nearly as robust a music-logging infrastructure out there—again, probably because services like Spotify and Amazon Music mostly keep track of that for you. Still, there is at least one music-lovers social network out there worth considering.

Last.fm . If you want a no fuss way to aggregate and track all the music you stream, Last.fm is a great choice. The app integrates with most major streaming services (including YouTube, Spotify, and Pandora, though you'll have to jump through extra hoops to use it with Amazon Music or Apple Music) to log everything you listen to and when. Via the desktop and mobile apps, you can see your own listening history, track what your friends are streaming, and access weekly and yearly roundups (who needs Spotify Wrapped?).

Get started with Last.fm on the web or download the mobile (Android, iOS ) or desktop apps (sorry Windows users—the desktop app is Mac-only).

Musicboard. Musicboard bills itself as “a social platform that allows you to keep track of all the music you listen to and grow your passion for music with friends” and, sure, it does that. You can use it to create a profile, keep track of the albums and songs you’ve listened to, write reviews, and follow other users. There are cool tools to show off your listening history, track forthcoming releases, and (if you’re willing to pony up $3.99/month for a paid subscription) view super granular stats about your listening habits.

Get started on Musicboard on the web or via the app, on Android and iOS .

Discogs . More a tool to help you manage your personal music collection than a real-time tracking or social app—though the site does include community forums, alongside editorial content geared toward helping you find new music—this longstanding site is nevertheless a great way to keep track of all of the physical and digital music you own. Once you've created your account, you can go about building your collection—and you won't just be able to add, say, a particular album, but the exact version of the album you own, so you'll be able to keep track of all of the different-colored versions of Taylor Swift vinyl releases you've amassed. THe site's layout favors an abundance of information over ease of use, so it can be a little overwhelming at first, but once your onboard, it will provide an at-a-glance assessment of everything you own, and what it might be worth.

You can get started on Discogs on the web or via the app, available on Android and iOS .

Or just use a spreadsheet (or a notebook) to track everything

The most versatile, low-effort way to keep track of anything you’re reading or watching or playing is, of course, to just log it away manually in a spreadsheet (or a notebook, if you’re into that tactile, “real objects” shit). This is certainly a valid method— we love spreadsheets around here —but you’ll sacrifice the visual and/or social sharing aspects of other app-based options. Maybe you’re OK with that—let’s be honest, there’s a good chance you are the only one who cares about your media habits anyway. Personally, I like the incentive of things like keeping up with a Goodreads reading challenge or filling out my Letterboxd diary to keep me on track; past pen and paper attempts have failed to stick, resulting in years of lost data. And while sites and apps come and go, there’s no chance your notebook is going to stop working.

Updated on Jan. 5, 2024 to add new options for tracking your music and games.

Movie Reviews & Criticism: Websites

• Find Books & Articles

MOVIE REVIEW QUERY ENGINE

The Internet's largest database of movie reviews for over 100,000 titles. The continually growing site provides a searchable index of all published and available reviews, news, interviews, and other materials associated with specific movies.

The unique combination of reviews, news, and user discussion—all accessed through MRQE’s search portal—allows any user to read and add to the Internet’s most comprehensive collection of opinion about film. MRQE.com is commonly abbreviated as MRQE and pronounced “marquee.”

Movie Reviews from RollingStone.com

Independent film.

• Filmmaker Magazine The magazine of independent film.
• Independent Film Channel The home of offbeat, unexpected comedies.
• Indiewire The leading news, information, and networking site for independent-minded filmmakers, the industry and moviegoers alike.

American Film Institute

• American Film Institute's 100 years... AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies documented AFI's celebration of cinema's centennial. Each special honors a different aspect of excellence in American film.

Internet Resources - Movie Reviews

• Rotten Tomatoes Movies, Movie Reviews, Critic Scores, Showtimes and Movie Trailers - The Ultimate Movie Database!
• IMDB - Internet Movie Database It's a huge collection of movie information. "[At IMDB] we try to catalog every pertinent detail about a movie, from who was in it, to who made it, to trivia about it, to filming locations, and even where you can find reviews and fan sites on the web. We then do our best to present this information in a manner that is easy to search and access."
• Roger Ebert - movie reviews Movie reviews, essays, interviews and the Movie Answer Man from film critic Roger Ebert and contributors.
• Metacritic Movie Reviews, TV Reviews, Game Reviews, and Music Reviews

More film criticism online

• The New York Times: movie reviews & trailers
• Los Angeles Times - Movie & DVD Reviews
• Reelviews.net Online movie reviews by American film critic, James Berardinelli . (*Lots of pop-up advertising)
• The Village Voice - Movies Reviews and news. The nation's first and largest alternative newsweekly, the Voice maintains the same tradition of no-holds-barred reporting and criticism it first embraced when it began publishing more than fifty years ago.
• The Hollywood Reporter - Movies This is the definitive interpretive voice of the entertainment industry.
• Variety.com - Film Film industry news & reviews. Recognized and respected through out the world of show business, Variety is the premier source of entertainment news.
• NPR.org Reviews of new movies, classic and art films, foreign films, and popular movies.
• Film Journal International, Movie Reviews Film Journal Int'l is a trade publication and website covering the motion picture industry, with special emphasis on theatrical exhibition. Film Reviews are from the Hollywood Reporter.
• Filmsite.org An award-winning website for classic film buffs, students, moviegoers and anyone else interested in the great movies of the last century. Detailed plot synopses, review commentary and film reference material are just some of the features available on the site.

Film Awards

• Academy Awards Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• AFI - Films of the Year American Film Institute
• British Academy of Film Awards British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)
• Directors Guild Awards Directors Guild of America
• Golden Globe Awards From the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
• Independent Spirit Awards Celebrating the best of independent film.
• Razzie Awards The Golden Raspberry (RAZZIE) Awards honors the worst in film.
• Screen Actors Guild Awards The only televised awards shows to exclusively honor performers, it presents thirteen awards for acting in film and television.
• Hawaii International Film Festival - HIFF The Hawai'i Int'l Film Festival is dedicated to the advancement of cultural exchange and media awareness in the Pacific Rim. HIFF's programming has two particular mandates: to be a festival of record for emerging films from Asia and the Pacific, and to present the top festival films from around the world, annually screening films from over 45 countries.
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Book Review: ‘The Future Was Now’ is a brilliant look back at the groundbreaking movie summer of ’82

This cover image released by Flatiron shows “The Future Was Now: Madmen, Maverick, and the Summer Sci-Fi Abducted Hollywood” by Chris Nashawaty. (Flatiron Books via AP)

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The moments are seared into the pop culture pantheon. And our collective consciousness.

A friendly alien taking Henry Thomas’ character Elliott on an airborne bike ride with the full moon as a backdrop in “E.T.” Carol Anne (Heather O’Rourke) in “Poltergeist,” getting out of bed, staring into a pulsating TV screen, turning to her family and warning: “They’re here.” Arnold Schwarzenegger’s titular hero Conan the Barbarian succinctly listing for his compatriots what is best in life: “To crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And hear the lamentation of their women.”

Former Entertainment Weekly film critic Chris Nashawaty walks readers through the significance (and making) of each of the films, as well as five other science fiction/fantasy classics — “Blade Runner,” “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior,” “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” “The Thing” and “Tron” — that, incredibly, were released within two months of each other in the summer of 1982.

In the ultra-entertaining and informative “The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982,” Nashawaty makes the case that the octet of flicks altered the trajectory, not only of the auteurs at the helm, but of Hollywood filmmaking.

“The summer of 1982 was the moment when sci-fi, fantasy, and splashy blockbusters ripped from the pages of comic books would grow up,” Nashawaty writes. “These films could no longer be nonchalantly dismissed as kids’ stuff.

“They became the harbingers of a new era and eventually the most dominant force in popular entertainment.”

His thesis is solid, sure. But it’s not what makes “The Future Was Now” a great read. The behind-the-scenes intrigue does that.

Nashawaty digs deep into the history of how these groundbreaking films got — and were — made. Perhaps most fascinating is the tale of burgeoning cinema maestro Steven Spielberg leading his young charges through the filming of the now-classic “E.T.” and more or less taking over the production of “Poltergeist,” a much different kind of film that now is considered to be a landmark in the horror genre.

Add in the complex origins of the “Star Trek” and “Mad Max” sequels, plus Ridley Scott’s odyssey in transforming a Philip K. Dick novel into the big-screen cult classic “Blade Runner,” and you’ve got a must-read for any cinephile.

The summer of ’82 paved “the way for our current all-blockbusters-all-the-time era,” Nashawaty writes.

But the real treat is having a front-row seat as the author’s painstaking research and expert recounting bring to life how these silver-screen gems came to be.

AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews

The 8 biggest differences between the 'It Ends With Us' book and movie

• Warning: This article contains major spoilers for "It Ends With Us."
• The Blake Lively movie is an adaptation of Colleen Hoover's novel of the same name.
• The central story remains the same, but there are some notable changes from the book.

The book-to-screen adaptation of one of BookTok's most popular reads , "It Ends With Us," was released in theaters on Friday.

Based on Colleen Hoover's 2016 novel of the same name, the film stars Blake Lively as florist Lily Bloom, whose chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (played by Justin Baldoni) sparks an intense connection.

As Lily begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents' relationship, a figure from her teenage years also reenters the picture: Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), her first love.

As with any book-to-screen adaptation, there have been changes — some big, some small.

"Every change that we made was christened by Colleen herself, and none of the changes were made lightly," screenwriter Christy Hall told Business Insider in an interview.

"But this is, I feel like this is the absolute best offering that we could give," she added.

Here are eight of the biggest differences between the "It Ends With Us" book and the movie.

All of the characters have been aged up in the movie.

In Hoover's book, Lily is 23 years old and a recent college graduate when she first meets 30-year-old Ryle.

Her other love interest, Atlas, is described as two-and-a-half years older than her.

But in the film, the characters are played by actors significantly older than them — Lively is 36, Baldoni is 40, and Sklenar is 34.

Hoover has previously said that she "messed up" by making the characters in the book too young.

She has said that her involvement in the movie allowed her to correct her mistake.

"Back when I wrote 'It Ends With Us,' the new adult (genre) was very popular," she said, per Today . "You were writing college-age characters. That's what I was contracted to do. I made Lily very young. I didn't know that neurosurgeons went to school for 50 years. There's not a 20-something neurosurgeon."

Lily and Ryle's initial courtship looks a little different in the movie.

In the book, readers see Lily and Ryle's will-they-won't-they romance play out over several months after they reconnect when Ryle's sister, Alyssa (Jenny Slate), gets a job in Lily's flower shop. Lily sprains her ankle one day, leading Alyssa to call on her brother for help.

Ryle repeatedly pleads with Lily to agree to a one-night stand. While Lily initially is steadfast in her refusal to be another one of Ryle's girls, she eventually decides to go for it. However, an exhausted Ryle then falls asleep in Lily's bed.

This leads to frustration on both sides, which comes to a head on the night of Alyssa's birthday. The two agree to compromise and have a trial run of a relationship. They go to bed together but don't sleep together.

Things play out a little differently in the movie. After Ryle and Lily are reintroduced at the flower shop, the pair join Alyssa and her husband Marshall (Hasan Minhaj) on a night out in Boston involving watching a Bruins game, karaoke, and bowling.

Some flirting ensues and at the end of the night, Lily agrees to kiss Ryle after he says that it's all he needs from her to stop him pursuing her further. After this, the pair continue to flirt and end Alyssa's birthday as in the book.

Lily's journal entries addressed to Ellen DeGeneres are completely omitted.

It would be an understatement to say that former TV staple Ellen DeGeneres has a significant role in the book, with Lily harboring an obsession with the TV host.

Once Atlas begins hanging out at her house after school, the two teens bond over watching the show together, and a quote from DeGeneres's "Finding Nemo" character — "Just keep swimming" — becomes their way to comfort each other during difficult times.

All of this is downplayed in the movie, however, with almost all references to DeGeneres removed .

There's a different reason Atlas is homeless in the movie.

In both the book and the movie, Atlas moves into the abandoned house backing onto the Bloom property after being kicked out of his mom's house.

In the book, Atlas tells Lily that he's also a victim of abuse; his stepfather burned him with cigarettes, and his mother didn't stand up for him. When he tried to return home after running away, his mom told him to stay away as it would upset his stepfather too much.

However, the book doesn't mention the abuse Atlas has suffered at the hands of his stepfather. Instead, when Atlas confronts Lily in the restroom of his restaurant, it's implied that his mom, like Lily's, was abused by her husband.

Ryle's proposal to Lily comes later in the movie.

In the film, Ryle's proposal comes on the same day Alyssa gives birth. Ryle realizes that he wants to spend his future with Lily and gets down on one knee to propose to Lily in the hospital room.

Book readers will know that the night that Alyssa's baby is born ends differently for the couple.

Already married at this point in the book — they elope to Vegas — Lily returns home to a seething Ryle who has read through all her teenage journal entries. His verbal and physical attack on her at this point becomes her breaking point, and she takes refuge at Atlas's house.

Atlas's restaurant has a different name in the movie but still links back to his and Lily's relationship.

Atlas's restaurant in the book is named Bib's, which stands for Better in Boston. This phrase is written on the souvenir magnet Atlas gave Lily when they were teenagers.

The restaurant has been renamed Root in the movie. However, it's still an homage to Lily, as audiences see a flashback in which a teenage Lily teaches Atlas about the importance of plant roots.

Lily learns of Ryle's traumatic childhood from Alyssa rather than Ryle himself.

The revelation that Ryle accidentally shot and killed his brother when they were young children is one of the book's most shocking twists.

Ryle opens up about the traumatic incident, which he says causes his rage-filled episodes after he physically abuses Lily.

Feeling sympathy for him, Lily decides to forgive him, and the two discuss how Ryle can work through his anger.

In the film, Alyssa fills Lily in on the Kincaid family's dark secret only after Ryle's third and final attack on Lily. By this point, the pair have separated.

In the movie, Lily and Ryle know that they are going to have a daughter.

In the book, Lily doesn't know the gender of her baby until she's holding her newborn in her arms, which makes her decision to ask Ryle for a divorce moments later even more poignant.

It's not until it dawns on her that she has a daughter who could grow up watching her mother be abused by her father that she decides to end the generational cycle of abuse.

This realization leads to the film's emotional climax, in which Lily breaks Ryle's and her own hearts to protect her daughter.

In the film, both of them know that they are going to have a daughter beforehand, which plays down the emotional gravitas of the scene.

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‘The Good Half’ Review: Only Half Good

Nick Jonas and Brittany Snow play siblings coordinating funeral logistics for their mom in this drama, a cross between “Terms of Endearment” and a Hallmark movie.

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By Natalia Winkelman

“Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it,” Joan Didion once wrote. In “The Good Half,” that place is Cleveland, where 20-somethings with names like Renn, Leigh and Zoey frequent karaoke bars and banter about movies.

Renn (Nick Jonas) is a struggling writer in Hollywood flying back for his mom’s funeral. He is prone to avoidant behavior, the screenplay, written by Brett Ryland, shows and tells us, and his homecoming is a big deal. On the plane, he meets Zoey (Alexandra Shipp), a ray of sunshine who likes ’90s action movies and quotes “Scarface.”

In his fourth narrative feature, the director Robert Schwartzman (brother to Jason) takes us deep into young adult land. Over several days, Renn and his sister Leigh (Brittany Snow) coordinate post-loss logistics while rolling their eyes at Rick (David Arquette), their bellicose step-father. Breaking up the sibling repartee are periodic flashbacks to happier times with Mom (Elisabeth Shue).

When, and to which female listener, Renn will confront his demons is the question that drives “The Good Half,” which feels caught between “Terms of Endearment” and a Hallmark movie. Wry gags, like a hoarder priest, butt up against heartfelt exchanges. Snow, as the daughter who always played second fiddle, brings real feeling to her role — suggesting that she may in fact be the good half of this insipid drama.

The Good Half Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters.

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It Ends With Us Took a Controversial Approach to Domestic Violence. The Movie Doesn’t Shy From It.

It does make one key blink-and-you’ll-miss-it change..

On Friday morning, Sony announced that its Colleen Hoover adaptation It Ends With Us had done very well in previews , and that the movie’s opening weekend box office was looking so darn good it might even challenge the summer juggernaut Deadpool and Wolverine for the No. 1 spot. That would be a fun Barbenheimer -ish girls-against-boys story, elevated by the fact that the movies’ respective stars—Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds—are married. The promotional campaign for It Ends With Us has leaned into the female-ness of Hoover’s audience: The trailer for the film , which is a romantic drama about a woman who had an abusive father and who falls in love with a very handsome but (it turns out) abusive neurosurgeon, featured the song “My Tears Ricochet,” a real scorned-woman weeper by Lively’s friend Taylor Swift. Some theaters are showing the film as a “girls’ night out” promo .

Meanwhile, online, the cast members of It Ends With Us —Lively, who plays the story’s heroine, Lily Blossom Bloom; Jane the Virgin ’s hunk Justin Baldoni, who plays Lily’s abusive husband, Ryle Kincaid, and directed the film; Jenny Slate, who plays Lily’s best friend, Allysa; and Brandon Sklenar, who plays her first love, Atlas Corrigan—are seemingly either ginning up some kind of fake drama for PR purposes or are actually mad at one another over creative differences that popped up during the production and promotion of the movie. ( Nobody really knows , which means that if it’s fake, the gambit is going perfectly.)

All of this momentum means a lot of unsuspecting people are about to get CoHo’d. The frankly baffled tenor of some early reviews of the It Ends With Us movie shows how firmly women’s culture is still siloed off from the mainstream. Anyone who’s at all familiar with Colleen Hoover would already know that consuming her books puts you at serious risk of whiplash. And there are a lot of us who are familiar with Colleen Hoover: The most popular author of the 2020s, she’s sold 50 million copies worldwide . It Ends With Us is the most popular of them all, the bestselling novel of both 2022 and 2023 — despite the fact it came out in 2016. (Even now in 2024, it’s back atop this week’s New York Times bestseller list.)

How did Hoover become so dominant? As Laura Miller wrote for Slate in 2022 , the “queen of BookTok” publishes across a huge range of genres, interspersing ample clichés and clunky inventions (“Lily Blossom Bloom”? “Atlas Corrigan”?) with stories of trauma that are so stark and upsetting you read the page twice to make sure you got it right. (Hoover used to be a social worker and had an abusive father, much like Lily Bloom.) Reading a CoHo (as her fans, the CoHorts, call her) is not like cracking a more traditionally constructed romance novel, where you know that a happily ever after is on the way. Colleen Hoover might do almost anything to you, so you better be ready.

The herky-jerky approach of Hoover’s books has led to some confusion in the past. In early 2023, Hoover’s plans to put out an adult coloring book based on It Ends With Us drew intense criticism. (A coloring book? About domestic violence?) She canceled the launch, calling herself “tone-deaf” on Instagram. (She kept the Olive and June collab, which put her name on nail polish themed to her books; you can buy colors called “Lily Blooms,” “Atlas,” and “Corrigan.”) Already, think pieces about the apparent mismatch between the movie’s marketing and its very serious subject matter are out there, with more surely to come.

The movie hews quite closely to the book, aside from sprinkling in some topical references (Lily joking that Ryle looks like a “crypto bro,” or Ryle proposing to Lily by asking, half-seriously, if she wants to “wear a white dress and have my babies,” an apparent reference to tradwife culture) and omitting some of the book’s more regrettable gimmicks. We do fine without young Lily’s habit of writing diary entries addressed to Ellen DeGeneres, the book’s bizarre multiple mentions of the strength of “ marine-grade polymer ,” and the fact that the smoking gun that sets Ryle off the last time he abuses Lily before she leaves him is a magnet that teen Atlas gave teen Lily that refers to how everything is “Better in Boston.” In the book, Ryle figures out that Atlas’ restaurant is named “BiB” because it’s a reference to this saying, which was a shibboleth between the two teens when they were yearning for escape from their small town. Some credit is owed to whoever read the book and decided the movie should instead use a little heart tattoo on Lily’s collarbone—a reference to a trinket Atlas carved her, from an oak tree they talked about once, all of which inspired movie Atlas to call his restaurant “Root”—as the telltale clue that brings everything to a head. At the very least, this swap elevated the aesthetics of Lily’s character—a witchy, dreamy, overalls-wearing thirtysomething obsessed with nature, basically a walking Taylor Swift album cover—and demoted the supposed romance of Boston, the mystique of which plays way too big a role in the book given that we are talking about … Boston.

People around BookTok and Romancelandia have been debating whether the representation of domestic violence in It Ends With Us is “bad” for readers for a long time —so long that some CoHorts have dreaded the advent of this movie, for the way that it would inevitably revive a debate they see as exhausting. Among the common critiques: Ryle is written as way too attractive before Hoover flips the switch and shows him as abusive. The book lauds Lily for getting away from him, which may make people blame domestic violence victims who don’t manage this, rather than blaming the abusers. It also makes getting away look way too easy: Not only does Ryle’s sister, who’s Lily’s best friend, immediately support Lily in her choice, but Ryle himself, at the end of the book, readily agrees to give Lily a divorce, immediately after she gives birth to their daughter, Emerson. Ryle, in both the book and the movie, is a character who inspires a surprising amount of empathy, for an abuser. That’s because his core, Walk Hard –esque trauma is that, as a child, he accidentally shot and killed his brother. (Maybe Colleen Hoover’s real “message” is Everyone: Lock up your guns . On that, we can all surely agree.)

And then there’s the fact that this serious story about abuse is also a romantic love triangle, something that may surprise non-book-reading moviegoers shocked by Ryle’s dark turn in the second act of the movie. Will Lily pick this handsome neurosurgeon, who may or may not get over his childhood trauma and stop hitting her when he gets triggered by jealousy of her old flame? Or will she go with the good guy she met in adolescence, who somehow went from being a teen kicked out of his house by his mother to eight years in the Marines, to, via an unknown source of funding, becoming the chef and owner of the best new restaurant in Boston? Yes, Lily is abused and grew up watching her mom get abused, but she’s also beloved. She has Allysa, and her mom, and Atlas for backup. When Atlas hugs Lily on the street, as they say goodbye in the movie, he utters words straight from the book, words destined to be highlighted by 21,048 other Kindle users: “In the future … if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again … fall in love with me.” (Book readers know: She will.)

The very fact that Lily, a resident of abortion-friendly Massachusetts—everything is Better in Boston!—decides to keep that pregnancy, which she discovers in the emergency room after her husband tries to bite her tattoo off , and manages to both have this wanted baby and divorce her unwanted husband, is another bit of unreality. In the film, the characters are older, and the script inserts a scene with Lily worrying about her biological clock, which makes this choice make a bit more sense. But still—when Blake Lively cuddles that little baby and kisses her head and says, “It ends with us,” then repeats, “It ends with us,” you could be forgiven for groaning a bit. Good thing Lily Bloom’s mother is ready and willing to do child care! Lily has a quirky, and bizarrely successful, flower shop to run.

The movie does make one more key change, though you could be forgiven for missing it. In the book’s final scene, Atlas and Lily run into each other on the street, and Lily lets Atlas know that she is divorced and available by dropping a reference to a custody arrangement: She and Ryle are still sharing the child. In the movie, Lily tells him: “It’s just the two of us.” This, Baldoni has said, was a change he and the screenwriter made in conversation with No More , the advocacy group they worked with, and was a way for the film to face up to the question of whether Lily really should have shared custody with Ryle, given his serious anger issues and propensity to violence. But the choice also makes movie Ryle into an abuser who knows he’s not good for his family and fades off into the sunset—a different kind of hero, but a hero nonetheless.

The change might sit oddly with readers, given that in the second book in this series, It Starts With Us , which follows Lily and Atlas’ romance as it develops from the end of It Ends With Us , there is co-parenting galore. But, while writing Starts , Hoover did seem to have taken some of these critiques of the first book to heart. In that book, Lily mentions again and again her luck in having a support system to lean on to make it as a single mom, and Ryle does not go gently into that good divorce. He’s jealous and controlling and omnipresent, and stops being at all attractive to Lily, becoming, instead, the biggest problem she has.

You can say a lot about Colleen Hoover, but it’s rare for a writer adjacent to romance to take a onetime love interest and make him so distasteful. But that’s Colleen Hoover for you—she’ll try anything, for good or for ill. If this movie does as well as it’s projected to do, we will surely be seeing It Starts With Us on our screens in a year or two. Maybe by then, a few more viewers will know what they’re in for.

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