Japanese director Nobuhiro Yamashita (“Linda Linda Linda”) was represented by no less than three features at Montreal’s Fantasia Fest this year, including anime “Ghost Cat Anzu” and high school seriocomedy “Swimming in a Sand Pool.” The shortest, most outwardly simple yet also possibly best of the lot might well be “Confession,” a manga adaptation in which two mountaineering refugees from a blizzard spend a long, discomfiting night in a cabin. The fact that one of them has just admitted to murder means that that particular type of crime could well recur before dawn arrives. 

More or less a single-setting two-hander, this thriller proves a small master class in eking maximum value from a premise one might assume too limited to sustain more than a short’s length. It’s a sharply honed, pleasurably nasty cat-and-mouse thriller that could attract remake interest overseas. 

A brief prologue informs us that Sayuri (Nao Honda, seen in flashbacks) disappeared on a college hiking-club trek, her body apparently never found. She’d formed an inseparable trio with now ex-boyfriend Asai (Toma Ikuta) and Korean exchange student Jiyong (Yang Ik-june); since then, the two men have annually climbed the same mountain in her memory. 

Sixteen years later, that tribute has taken a dire turn — Jiyong is injured in an apparent fall amidst freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall. Having no idea how far they remain from reaching shelter, he decides he’d rather give up, saying “I deserve to die.” He admits to his old friend that he himself had strangled Jiyong to death, out of frustrated desire and jealousy, leaving her body in the wilderness.

Moments later it turns out that the desired mountaineers’ cabin is, in fact, just out of sight, around the corner. Asai manages to successfully wrangle his wounded friend inside, then light a fire. Once they’ve realized no one is going to expire in the cold, however, the awkwardness of that prior confession begins to sink in. Soon Jiyong begins to regret his candor, and Asai to fear his friend can’t let him live with the incriminating knowledge they now share. First expressed as mutual mistrust, then escalating violence, their death struggle is further complicated by an occasional hallucinatory quality. Despite his bum leg, Jiyong keeps disappearing and re-appearing with such jump-scare suddenness, we begin to wonder if what we (and Asai) are seeing is real, supernatural, or a paranoid delusion. 

While one might question why a lodge at this frigid elevation would be so spacious, and thus hard to heat, that interior is complicated and expansive enough to give Yamashita with plenty of opportunity for spooky atmospherics. Likewise, it provides characters space for unpleasant hide-and-seek games that turn into frantic attempts at inflicting or or evading grievous bodily harm. 

The two actors ably sustain separate journeys into hysteria, ones stylized enough that we aren’t much bothered by niceties of credible psychology or action. “Confession” retains a knowing self-consciousness about itself as a pulp contrivance, even as it succeeds in milking the situation for plentiful tension, jolts and black humor. There could have been a bit more shock value eked from the fadeout revelation, but until then you can’t fault the director for missing any opportunity in his taut progress. 

Making first-rate contributions to elevate this grisly little tale are D.P. Shinya Kimura’s elegantly moody widescreen compositions, and an unexpectedly big symphonic score by Masa Takumi that surges between long stretches of queasy quiet. 

What did American gymnasts Simone Biles and Suni Lee do first after leading Team USA to gold in the team all-around final? Discuss what TikTok sounds to use, naturally.

Biles, the eventual individual all-around winner, chose a crunching sound as she and her teammates mimed biting their gold medals in a TikTok video that has since amassed 120 million views. Lee, the Tokyo Olympics all-around winner, chose to lip dub Kanye “Ye” West’s “I guess we’ll never know” Grammys speech, drawing 43 million views.

The pair’s social media usage mirrors the larger trend of Olympic athletes meme-ing and becoming memes themselves. Compared to the quieter 2020 Tokyo Games, postponed due to COVID-19 and the least-watched Olympics ever for NBC, this iteration has no shortage of viral moments.

Here are some of the most popular Paris Olympics memes.

The muffin man

Olympians have turned to social media to share their experiences from the Olympic village — from the cardboard beds to the dining hall food. One athlete took the internet by storm with his love of one specific food item: the dining hall’s chocolate muffins.

Now nicknamed the “muffin man” by social media users, Henrik Christiansen is beloved online. The Norwegian swimmer, who has more than 400,000 TikTok followers, went viral for his love of the chocolate pastry. He has posted multiple videos about the baked good to popular sounds with captions that include “when bae is looking like a snack” and “muffin reigns supreme.”

“The way I saw the muffin and knew whose account I just scrolled onto,” a TikTok user commented.

Chef Gordon Ramsay even joined in on the fun, commenting, “I think I need to try one now…”

Christiansen has inspired his fellow Olympians, including American sprinter Gabby Thomas and swimmer Abbey Weitzeil, to review the muffin.

Pommel horse guy

At the Paris Olympics, the U.S. men’s gymnastics team broke a 16-year dry spell and earned bronze, thanks in part to pommel horse specialist Stephen Nedoroscik.

The glasses-wearing, Rubik’s Cube-solving gymnast spent almost 2½ on the bench waiting for his turn on the pommel horse. The NBC broadcast even included a countdown clock to his routine. During the hours of waiting, Nedoroscik won over the internet.

After the routine, social media conversation exploded and the gymnast was dubbed “Clark Kent” for his superheroic athletic abilities and calm demeanor.

“Obsessed with this guy on the US men’s gymnastics team who’s only job is pommel horse, so he just sits there until he’s activated like a sleeper agent, whips off his glasses like Clark Kent and does a pommel horse routine that helps deliver the team its first medal in 16 years,” one X user wrote.

One gym owner even told the Washington Post that Nedoroscik has increased boys’ interest in gymnastics. Nedoroscik also took home the bronze in the individual pommel horse event. No other male American gymnast earned an individual medal.

Turkey’s shooter

While most Olympic sharpshooters use futuristic-looking goggles and ear coverings, one shooter didn’t need any gear to get the job done.

The 51-year-old Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikeç rocked a regular pair of eyeglasses and a hand in his pocket. Dikeç stood out next to the decked-out athletes from competing nations. Nonchalant as can be, he ended up nabbing silver in the mixed team 10-meter air pistol event, earning the country its first-ever medal in shooting.

Since then, internet users have used juxtaposing images of Dikeç next to his competitors.

One X user captioned a split photo of Dikeç and a South Korean shooter wearing specialized lenses with, “Girls packing for a trip vs guys packing for a trip.”

Others have turned the moment into a generation meme, with the shooters with fancy gadgets representing Generation Z and the relaxed Turkish shooter embodying Generation X.

After Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis won the event, he copied Dikeç’s memed pose in celebration.

The bulge that cost a medal

While Sweden’s Armand Duplantis clinched gold in the pole vault, France’s Anthony Ammirati was left medal-less after his crotch caught on the crossbar.

Of course, social media immediately went to work discussing and meme-ing the situation.

“A french pole vaulter knocked the crossbar off with his pole…whoops,” one X user quipped.

Many described it as the best way to lose.

“Some consolation prize having your weapon cause you to lose the pole vault. Like a platinum medal, that,” an X user wrote.

The loss of the medal opened up new opportunities for Ammirati. Adult entertainment company CamSoda offered the athlete $250,000 for a 60-minute show.

Bob the cap catcher

When a swimmer’s cap fell into the pool, Paris sent a Speedo-clad worker to collect the headpiece. Viewers immediately grew obsessed with “Bob the cap catcher.” Many tweets refer to Bob as a “legend.”

“Ok maybe i do have a dream job,” one user wrote.

“My man Bob the Cap Catcher is the GOAT and I will die on this hill,” another declared.

Bob even gained a fan in Snoop Dogg. “That’s my guy,” the rapper, a special correspondent for NBC, said during the network’s broadcast.

‘Unfortunately, I was not chosen’

The memes don’t end with the Olympians. Athletes are revisiting their biggest fails on social media.

Along with some variation of the caption “Unfortunately, I was not chosen for the team,” users can be seen falling off diving boards or flying off the uneven bars.

Lee got in on the action, parodying the popular videos.

“Unfortunately i was selected for the olympics,” she wrote below a video of her balance beam fall on Monday.

Lady Parmesan

Olympic athletes can earn a lot of sponsorships. They often go the classic route: modeling sportswear brands. Italian gymnast Giorgia Villa had a more unconventional approach: eating cheese.

Villa, a part of the women’s team that took home silver, had an old sponsorship deal with Parmesan cheese maker Parmigiano Reggiano.

“I need the people to know that olympic silver medalist giorgia villa is sponsored by parmesan cheese and regularly posts pics of herself with giant wheels of cheese,” one X user posted alongside pictures of the athlete with wheels of cheese.

“It hurts to see people living your dream (being sponsored by parmesan cheese) (not an olympic silver medal),” another user responded.

TRAP is the latest thriller from suspense master M. Night Shyamalan. Josh Hartnett stars as Cooper, a seemingly nice father. Cooper takes his tween daughter to see her favorite pop singer. Cooper discovers the arena’s swarming with police and FBI agents. They’ve locked the concert down as an elaborate trap to catch a brutal serial killer called “The Butcher.” In fifteen minutes, the movie reveals that Cooper is the serial killer. An intense, often scary, roller coaster ride ensues. Cooper engages in an incredible battle of wits with a swarm of police.

By revealing the killer’s identity early, TRAP turns upside down Shyamalan’s usual formula of waiting until the end to deliver a big twist. This change enables the knife-sharp script to dish out a treasure trove of surprises the rest of the way, especially in the third act. Josh Hartnett delivers a knockout performance in the lead role. TRAP has only a few strong obscenities and profanities. Also, much of the violence is implied and offscreen. However, the scary ending alternates between some nice moral resolutions and a surprisingly dark, disappointing final twist.

(PaPa, BB, C, Ab, LL, VV, N, AA, MM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Mixed pagan, moral worldview as police and others heroically try to stop a serial killer and there is a beautifully done moment of redemption for a side character, but the movie also has a surprisingly dark twist that shows bad forces winning at another moment;

Foul Language:

Five obscenities (including one “f” word), one GD profanity, 18 light profanities (mostly OMGs);

Violence:

A man trips a drunk woman so that she falls hard down some concrete steps, a man is seen in scary peril several times, and a man is tasered in a long and intense scene, but most of the other violence is just discussed or unseen.

Sex:

No sex;

Nudity:

A man is shirtless in one scene in a non-sexual context;

Alcohol Use:

Woman is briefly shown stumbling drunkenly;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

A man uses deception and threats throughout the movie and has been living a double life as a serial killer while lying to his wife and children for many years.

TRAP is the latest thriller with a twist from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan (THE SIXTH SENSE, SIGNS). It centers on a seemingly nice and perfect suburban dad named Cooper (Josh Hartnett), who takes his tween daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to see her favorite pop singer, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) in concert. Cooper discovers the arena is swarming with police and FBI agents who have locked the concert down as a trap to catch a brutal serial killer called “The Butcher.”

The movie breaks the usual Shyamalan formula by not just having a huge twist near the end, but actually giving away a big surprise just 15 minutes into the movie. That’s when Cooper goes into a bathroom stall and looks intensely at a livestreamed video of a young man named Spencer, who’s chained up in a basement and screaming for help.

Cooper doesn’t offer help, because the movie reveals he’s actually the Butcher. So now viewers are taken along for a nail-biting ride, as Cooper tries to figure out how to outwit the cops and federal agents in numerous clever ways to try to make it out of the concert without being caught.

You may think that that’s the entire point of the rest of the movie, but it’s just the starting point for an incredible amount of twists that take the movie in new directions seemingly every few minutes, leaving viewers rattled as their expectations are upended over and over. Rather than having just one big twist, TRAP has at least a dozen of them. Some of these twists might seem far-fetched as they happen to some viewers. However, some stunning revelations and twists in the third act make everything come together.

Josh Hartnett had a few shots at stardom in the early 2000s that never quite took off at that time. He’s largely been off the radar for well over a decade. Here, however, he makes a tremendous comeback with what might be the best role of his career, as he perfectly crosses the lines between sweet family man and psychopath with ease. His too-large grin and gee-whiz attitude in his moments of trying to appear like an innocent, average dad bring some clever dark humor to the story.

Saleka Shyamalan is the filmmaker’s daughter and portrays the pop singer, Lady Raven. This might seem like an obvious nepotistic showcase, but she delivers a surprisingly strong acting turn. As her character’s drawn into the action in the third act, the young actress gives a smart and compassionate performance that helps keep the movie running strong.

Also, the movie’s pop songs fit the musical genre well. They sound like they could actually play on the radio alongside Taylor Swift. This helps give the movie some extra plausibility that was sorely lacking in the laughably bad songs in Harry Connick, Jr’s current movie FIND ME FALLING on Netflix. That said, the movie’s weak spots lie in two slow segments that drag out concert scenes unnecessarily for five minutes apiece. Despite these annoying scenes, the intensity of the main story overcomes this problem.

TRAP should be commended for having a minimal amount of obscenities. However, it does have one “f” word, a strong profanity and a bunch of light profanities. The movie is incredibly intense the further it delves into the serial killer’s battle against the police. However, much of the violence is implied and unseen. This is a truly impressive feat for a movie that’s sometimes full-on frightening.

TRAP has no sexual content or explicit nudity. However, it has a mixed worldview. Without giving anything away, the movie alternates between some nice moral resolutions and a surprisingly dark final twist. The mixed ending in TRAP makes the movie slightly excessive.