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During the opening ceremony of the Fantasia International Film Festival, Her Private Hell director Nicolas Winding Refn was awarded a Cheval Noir Career Achievement Award for his contributions to cinema. He made an impassioned plea on the importance of a festival like Fantasia and genre cinema as a whole:

“In the mid-90s, when I began, we really couldn’t make genre movies; we had to make important movies. But we were like, f— that! How do you piss off your parents? Make a horror movie! How to tell the politicians to f— off? Make something violent! A little fun, some sexy stuff? It’s the best thing in the world! Genre is cinema!”

“Genre is cinema” may be the truest statement the Danish provocateur has ever made, which is why it felt so painful to follow such an electric and impassioned speech with one of the least impressive movies Refn has crafted. A movie that attempts to provoke and elicit strong reactions out of us but isn’t nearly as aesthetically and thematically interesting as it should be.

With characters soaked in bisexual lighting and neon colors, one would think that Refn would want to continue in the trajectory that has defined his eclectic body of work. But dying for twenty-five minutes before being brought back to life gives him a new outlook on the world, as he’s not only stated at Fantasia but during its Cannes world premiere as well.

In a way, the harrowing event he experienced mirrored a lot the character he portrayed in Hideo Kojima‘s Death Stranding, which he acknowledged during the Q&A session following the screening. Unfortunately, this shift in his thematic and aesthetic conventions yielded a movie that has nothing tangible to say about any of the images it presents or the movies it references.

Plot and critical reception of Her Private Hell

One even wonders why Her Private Hell received such vitriolic reactions at Cannes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a very good movie, but it’s also not the kind of movie that will piss people off. People may be inclined to walk out of it, not because of its strong and explicit violence, both physical and sexual (none of them go as far as some of Refn‘s previous movies), but because of how boring it is. It attempts to morph the giallo into a cyberpunk/futuristic visual language while sprinkling in a dash of Hong Kong-inspired action, but none of these elements coalesce into anything meaningful or significant.

An astute moviegoer might notice his inspirations (Roger Vadim, Mario Bava, Seijun Suzuki, and even Kojima), but there isn’t a single one that feels decidedly singular or meaningful enough to yield a reaction from us. Oh, sure, there are plenty of scenes where the audience may be inclined to react, but once they see how little payoff it has, they might not react to them at all.

It’s even difficult to describe what Her Private Hell is about because Refn now prefers to throw the “three-act” structure out of the window and create movies that don’t necessarily adhere to preconceived audience expectations.

In fact, when pressed on this during a Q&A moderated by film critic Katie Rife the following day, Refn scoffed at the idea of a movie having an “ending,” simply stating, “What is an ending?” While some might have laughed at such a response worthy of David Lynch‘s greatest moments, it does reveal how one has to watch Her Private Hell; which is about letting yourself be absorbed by the hallucinatory images of Refn‘s storytelling and try to see the parallels he makes between the stories of Elle (Sophie Thatcher) and Private K (Charles Melton).

A perplexing and uninteresting film from Nicolas Winding Refn

Even then, the viewing experience of Her Private Hell remains perplexing. And from a purely thematic viewpoint, it isn’t a movie worth parsing or spending your time attempting to find meaning in what’s on screen.

It’s also very loud. Perhaps too loud. Definitely the loudest movie I’ve watched in a cinema since Christopher Nolan‘s Tenet. Unlike that movie, however, the sound isn’t a character but a deterrent. Refn is convinced he must make the audience suffer agonizingly to get a reaction out of us, but, again, there’s not much here that warrants any form of reaction. Sure, some of it is violent, and a lot of it is painfully unpleasant.

In fact, Her Private Hell might be extremely misogynistic and depicts many difficult scenes with such a regressive attitude. Again, he’ll present something provocative but never do anything with it. What changed for Refn after he died? He’s still doing the same old stuff, but with nary a thing to excavate beyond the graphic violence and depictions of alpha masculinity. That treads on similar ground to Refn‘s most well-known movies, the Pusher trilogy, Drive, and Only God Forgives. It’s violence for the sake of violence, à la Michael Winner, but without any point behind said violence.

Even the cast can’t save Her Private Hell

None of the performances from a star-studded ensemble is any good, either. Sophie Thatcher, Kristine Froseth, and Havana Rose Liu are all accomplished actors in their own right and have always been pretty great in everything they do. The latter, in particular, has such a magnetic screen presence and old-school appeal that it feels perfectly suited to Refn‘s vision for elevating her innate talents.

Charles Melton was recently nominated for an Emmy for his career-best work in the second season of Beef. Their talents are all wasted. If you like to see them howl like wolves, I’ve got the movie for you. Even when viewed through a giallo lens, their respective portrayals never seem fully in tune with the unwieldy, dense image-making at play.

Only Pino Donaggio‘s ethereal music gives Her Private Hell its only signs of life. At 84 years old, the Italian composer, mostly known for his collaborations with Brian De Palma (which, according to Fantasia’s Mitch Davis, is ongoing, as he’s working on his latest movie), delivers one of the most stirring and affecting scores of his entire career, one that words can barely describe. As someone who repeatedly listens to Donaggio’s Carrie and Blow Out soundtracks, Her Private Hell is destined to be relistened to on repeat in my household. However, I will never watch the movie again.

Also check out: Fantasia Fest 2026: Our Five Most Anticipated Films

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If you feel like your favorite morning news or talk show is frequently trying to sell you something, you’re right.

Shopping segments within the program content of NBC’s “Today,” ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “CBS Mornings” have grown in recent years. Using QR codes on the screen, viewers are taken directly to dedicated e-commerce sites where they can put in their orders, with the program getting 20% or more of the revenue generated.

The segments typically feature a contributor or expert presenting household items, fashion or personal care products, alongside the host viewers know and trust. While hosts typically don’t do the actual pitching, their presence provides a seal of approval that helps drive a purchase.

The segments are also a staple of talk shows and syndicated programs such as “The View,” “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” “Entertainment Tonight” and “Inside Edition” and have spread to local TV stations. Ownership groups have signed deals with companies that match them up with brands looking for exposure that goes far beyond what they get with a 30-second commercial.

“This is the savior for media, if they really focus on it,” said Brian Meehan, co-founder of Knocking, a Connecticut-based company that specializes in embedding e-commerce into TV and digital content.

That may seem bit hyperbolic, but there is little doubt that TV outlets are looking for help as they navigate the upended media industry.

Streaming has pulled viewers away from traditional television, driving down ad revenues. Since 2022, ad spending on broadcast and cable TV has dropped 23%, to $51 billion in 2025. Consumers bypassing or canceling their cable subscriptions are cutting into the fees stations receive from pay TV providers.

As a result, both networks and TV stations have had to make significant cuts in their news operations to maintain profit margins. The daytime syndication business has declined dramatically as well, with NBCUniversal exiting the market and canceling “Access Hollywood” and “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”

Networks and stations don’t reveal how much they earn from the shopping segments, which typically run four minutes, but insiders say it’s well into the eight-figure range.

Bill Hague, executive vice president for the media research firm Magid, said more TV stations are turning to the segments to help fill the additional hours of local news they are programming instead of syndicated talk shows.

“Why invest in syndication when you can have the same audience and more revenue tied to it?” Hague said, adding that the company’s research shows consumers don’t believe the practice diminishes the quality of a newscast.

Jeff Rossen, a former consumer reporter for NBC News, recently pitched online shopping deals for Tegna’s TV local stations. The products he demonstrated sold briskly, likely helped by the credibility and trust he has accrued as a journalist.

That authority matters to viewers. NBC says its research shows that 94% of “Today” viewers trust the product recommendations made on the program.

Morning shows, with their mix of hard news, entertainment segments and lighter fare, have always had more latitude in what they present. But the current dire circumstances of the TV business explain why there is little pushback.

“If helping me buy a better blender also helps pay for an investigative reporter, I’m fine with it,” said Andrew Heyward, a former CBS News president who has consulted for TV station groups.

Heyward said consumers have gotten accustomed to editorial content being a gateway to online shopping. The New York Times gets a cut of sales linked to its Wirecutter product review site.
Book reviews in the Los Angeles Times are linked to Bookshop.org, and the newspaper gets a commission for any sales.

Amazon and other web platforms have made e-commerce account for 21.8% of all U.S. retail purchases, according to the Department of Commerce.

Direct selling on traditional media goes back decades. In 1978, a Clearwater, Fla., radio station accepted 112 electric can openers from an advertiser who could not afford to pay for commercial time. Station owner Bud Paxson had a newscaster auction the inventory over the air and it sold out quickly, leading to a regular show called “Suncoast Bargaineers.”

In 1982, Paxson moved the concept to a local Tampa cable outlet, called it Home Shopping Channel and, after a few years, took it national as Home Shopping Network. HSN soon had celebrities pitching their own product lines, a technique that is now occasionally used by the morning shows.

Candi Carter, whose Cistus Media handles e-commerce for Tegna, said viewers have long been accustomed to seeing products touted inside of programming content, going back to the days of Oprah Winfrey’s “favorite things” segments.

“Brands do it for visibility,” Carter added. “They don’t have to pay a product integration fee and they get revenue from the sales.”

The broadcast networks experimented with direct selling to viewers over the years. NBC even put its name on ShopNBC, a cable channel it co-owned in the 1990s. But the concept was not mastered until NBC’s “Today” introduced “Steals and Deals” in 2010 as an occasional segment that grew over time.

The program now has 30 contributors who present wares in about 350 shopping segments each year. They are available across digital, social, newsletters and mobile platforms after they air on “Today.”

ABC’s “Good Morning America” started its own version in 2011, brazenly calling it “Deals and Steals.” The network now has daily segments on both “GMA” and the afternoon hours “GMA 3” and “The View.” Network contributor Tory Johnson has handled “Deals and Steals” since its launch and has long been one of the most familiar faces on “GMA.” Other contributors, such as former fashion magazine editor Lori Bergamotto, have been added over the years.

Meehan recalls the biggest hurdle to launching the segments at ABC was the language explaining the arrangement to viewers — making it clear that the network stands to benefit.

“It came down to the attorneys just saying, ‘ABC may receive promotional or financial consideration,’” he said. “It took a long time to go through that process.”

CBS News, historically cautious about any endeavors that could tarnish its legacy as a journalism organization, was the last of the traditional networks to get into e-commerce in 2022 after COVID-19 lockdowns depressed ad revenues. The division was also under pressure to improve its financial performance as Shari Redstone, then-chair of parent Paramount, was intent on improving the company’s balance sheet ahead of a sale.

“Shop CBS” segments, as they’re called, are presented multiple times a week on “CBS Mornings” and “CBS Saturday Morning” and have become key revenue drivers for the struggling news division. Any resistance from producers or on-air talent recedes once they learn how much money e-commerce takes in, according to one veteran at the division not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

While ABC and NBC broker their e-commerce deals in-house and through some of their contributors, CBS turned to Knocking to develop its segments. The company makes deals with product suppliers looking for in-program exposure, supplies the on-air talent that does the pitching with the network’s hosts and builds the websites that handle the transactions.

While on-air network journalists appear in the segments, they are not asked to do the selling. When CBS News signed on with Knocking, the division insisted the talent and producers involved be able to test the products before putting them on air. When they can react with enthusiasm, it’s a big help.

“When ‘CBS Mornings’ co-host Nate Burleson puts on a massager and he’s like, ‘Ooh, wow, this feels like real human hands,’ — none of that is scripted,” said Meehan.

Still, programs are putting their credibility on the line by selling the products. There is little margin for error or customer dissatisfaction, as disgruntled viewers will tune out.

Meehan said Knocking does its best to mitigate that possibility by accepting returns up to six months after purchase.

“A bad experience will hurt both the product or service being featured, and the broadcaster,” Heyward said. “All the parties have a vested interest in honesty, and in a good user experience.”

If you love movies, chances are you’ve read a review or two before deciding what to watch. Most people keep things pretty simple—they talk about the acting, the storyline, or whether the film is worth your time. But then there’s Letterboxd, a popular social platform where movie lovers log, rate, and review the films they watch. While plenty of reviews are thoughtful and insightful, others take a… much more chaotic approach.

That’s exactly what the Letterboxd Reviews With Threatening Auras account celebrates. It rounds up the platform’s funniest, most unhinged, and wonderfully cursed reviews—the kind that make you stop mid-scroll and wonder what was going through the reviewer’s mind. These definitely aren’t your standard “Loved it, 4 stars” takes. They radiate such a bizarrely threatening energy that it’s almost impossible not to keep scrolling to see what wild review comes next.

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We’ve all been there—sitting through a film, hoping it gets better, only for the credits to roll and leave you wondering what on earth you just watched. But if there’s one silver lining, it’s the internet’s reaction afterward. Sometimes the reviews are so funny, dramatic, or brutally honest that they’re more entertaining than the movie itself.

Whether it’s an accidental masterpiece of comedy or a hilariously savage one-liner, people have a remarkable talent for putting their thoughts into words. The truth is, movie reviews come in all shapes and sizes. They vary depending on who’s writing them, where they’re published, and what they’re hope to achieve. Some are designed to help you decide what to watch on a Friday night, while others dig deep into themes, symbolism, and filmmaking techniques.

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One of the most familiar formats is the capsule review. These are the short reviews you’ll often spot in newspapers, magazines, streaming platforms, or entertainment websites. Usually just one or two paragraphs long, they quickly summarize the story, highlight a few strengths and weaknesses, and end with a clear recommendation or star rating. They’re ideal for people who don’t want spoilers or lengthy analysis—they simply want to know whether a movie is worth their time. Writing one isn’t always as easy as it looks, though. Condensing an entire film into just a few sentences while still being informative takes real skill. That’s why some of the best capsule reviews manage to say more in 100 words than others do in 1,000.

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Professional critics often take a different approach. Publications such as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and major newspapers publish what are commonly known as trade reviews. These aren’t just personal opinions; they also consider a film’s broader impact, commercial appeal, performances, direction, cinematography, and where it fits within the industry. Their reviews are often read by moviegoers, filmmakers, studios, and even award voters. While audiences don’t always agree with the critics, these reviews provide a structured, informed perspective that goes beyond simply saying whether a movie was enjoyable. They aim to explain why a film succeeds—or why it falls flat.

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Then there are academic film reviews, which take things to an entirely different level. These aren’t written for casual viewers but for students, researchers, and people who study cinema professionally. Rather than focusing on entertainment value, they examine symbolism, storytelling techniques, historical context, editing, cinematography, and cultural influence. It’s less about asking, “Was this movie good?” and more about exploring what the film is trying to communicate and how it fits into the history of cinema. They can be dense, detailed, and surprisingly fascinating, often revealing layers that the average viewer might never notice. Even a blockbuster superhero movie can become the subject of serious academic discussion.

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Of course, not every review is carefully researched. Some of the most popular today are instant reaction reviews—the videos, podcasts, TikToks, or tweets people post immediately after leaving the theater. They’re fast, emotional, and completely unfiltered. You can usually tell within seconds whether someone loved the movie or absolutely hated it. Because there’s no time to overthink anything, these reactions often feel refreshingly genuine. Sure, opinions may change after a second viewing, but that’s part of the fun. They capture that immediate emotional response we all have after watching something memorable, whether it’s excitement, disappointment, confusion, or complete disbelief.

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And then there’s arguably the internet’s favorite category: user reviews. Platforms like Letterboxd, IMDb, and Rotten Tomatoes have given everyday movie lovers a place to share whatever is on their minds. Some people write thoughtful essays that rival professional critics, while others somehow manage to steal the spotlight with a single sentence. One review might offer a heartfelt personal story about how a film changed someone’s life, while the next simply says something so absurd that thousands of people can’t stop laughing. Because anyone can contribute, there’s an endless variety of voices, personalities, and senses of humor. That’s exactly what makes scrolling through user reviews so addictive.

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In recent years, these reviews have taken on a life of their own. Thanks to social media, the funniest ones are regularly shared far beyond the platforms where they were originally posted. Sometimes the review becomes more famous than the movie itself. A perfectly timed joke, an oddly specific observation, or an outrageously dramatic reaction can spread across the internet within hours. It’s a reminder that people aren’t just reviewing movies anymore—they’re entertaining each other in the process. For many film fans, reading the reviews afterward has become almost as enjoyable as watching the movie itself.

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And that’s exactly where today’s collection comes in. Instead of looking at traditional movie criticism, we’re diving into the wonderfully chaotic world of Letterboxd, where movie lovers often express themselves in the most unpredictable ways imaginable. They aren’t polished critiques or carefully balanced opinions; they’re pure internet gold. Keep scrolling, Pandas, and see which review made you laugh the hardest—or left you wondering what on earth the reviewer had just watched.

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