Psychological thrillers have to be my least favorite genre of all time. Rarely does a movie get by on just dialogue before I give up. The Cellar started out as such, and I was getting ready to lose interest. As I got further, I learned to appreciate the film. It’s a tough call, but I was fully entertained by the story. I really should learn a lesson and sit through these types of films more often.

Let’s get into the review to find out my real feelings.

Synopsis

A young girl wakes up in a dim underground cell, with no memory of how she got there. As she fights to escape, sinister secrets resurface, blurring the line between reality and her own buried traumas.

The Rundown

This is what turns me off to psychological thrillers. The lines between reality and horror don’t quite fit in my humble opinion. Whether it hides behind a horror facade or just outright rushes a story to fit into a 90-minute film. The stories require a lot more time to explain without confusion. Everything becomes complex and a think piece instead of just plain enjoyment.

The Cellar is the film that made me second-guess all the movies I have ever written about, where I say there’s no love in reality, so horror movies are an escape for me. I like to be entertained, not just a lack of understanding. The film does move slowly, and sometimes it confuses you, but in the end, you can piece together the story. It becomes simplified as the movie progresses. It brings a sense of clarity.

Hello Darkness

The dark setting also gave the movie more “pop”. You would think a dark cellar is redundant; however, the film definitely becomes more interesting and eerie as we look past the characters and experience flashbacks. The film has almost a Silent Hill vibe when it comes to explanation. That isn’t a bad thing at all, seeing as I have a Silent Hill tattoo and a small obsession with the games.

This is honestly what I picked up on after about 20 minutes of the movie. It is almost as if the film is hard to piece together on purpose. The film is like a tapeworm slowly creeping into your brain. It stays there and takes over your mindfulness. The film makes you feel a certain level of paranoia because, of course, this story could easily be reality. We have always had a way of looking at extreme religious intent and walking away quietly due to their stature in the community.

In The End

I didn’t find too many problems with The Cellar. The director passed the test on the film. Though I was about to give up hope as usual, I am extremely glad I gave it a longer shot than most.  I would have missed out on a great film if I had told myself it wasn’t my interest, and being ready to talk down the entire film.  I can’t argue about the significance, and Jamie David Langland’s directorial debut is outstanding. I look forward to seeing more films under their name as time progresses.

Rapper RBX has sued Spotify, alleging that the Swedish audio company has failed to stop the artificial inflation of music streams for artists like Drake and is hurting the revenue other rights holders receive through the platform.

RBX, whose real name is Eric Dwayne Collins, is seeking a class-action status and damages and restitution from Spotify. RBX, along with other rights holders, receive payment based on how often their music is streamed on Spotify, according to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in L.A. on Sunday.

Spotify pays rights holders a percentage of revenue based on the total streams attributed to them compared with total volume of streams for all songs, the lawsuit said.

The Long Beach-based rapper said that rights holders are losing money on Spotify because streams of some artists are being artificially inflated through bots powered by automated software, even though the use of such bots is prohibited on the platform, according to the lawsuit.

For example, the lawsuit notes that over a four-day period in 2024 there were at least 250,000 streams of Drake’s “No Face” song that appeared to originate in Turkey, but “were falsely geomapped through the coordinated use of VPNs to the United Kingdom in attempt to obscure their origins.”

Spotify knew or should have known “with reasonable diligence, that fraudulent activities were occurring on its platform,” states the lawsuit, describing the streamer’s policies to root out fraud as “window dressing.”

Spotify declined to comment on the pending litigation but said it “in no way benefits from the industry-wide challenge of artificial streaming.”

“We heavily invest in always-improving, best-in-class systems to combat it and safeguard artist payouts with strong protections like removing fake streams, withholding royalties, and charging penalties,” Spotify said in a statement.

Last year, a U.S. producer was accused of stealing $10 million from streaming services and Spotify said it was able to limit the theft on its platform to $60,000, touting it as evidence that its systems are working.

The platform is also making efforts to push back against AI-generated music that is made without artists’ permission. In September, Spotify announced it had removed more than 75 million AI-generated “spammy” music tracks from its platform over the last 12 months.

A representative for Drake did not immediately return a request for comment.

RBX is known for his work on Dr. Dre’s 1992 album “The Chronic” and Snoop Dogg’s 1993 album “Doggystyle.” He has multiple solo albums and has collaborated with artists including on Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP” and Kris Kross’ “Da Bomb.” RBX is Snoop Dogg’s cousin.

Artificial intelligence continues to change the way that the entertainment industry operates, affecting everything from film and TV production to music. In the music industry, companies have sued AI startups, accusing the businesses of taking copyrighted music to train AI models.

At the same time, some music artists have embraced AI, using the technology to test bold ideas in music videos and in their songs.

A story that focuses on the feelings for long enough to forget the facts. Tu Maza Kinara lacks a B-plot, leading to a disproportionate time spent on the minutia, while ignoring directional story progression.Suraj (Bhushan Pradhan), a perfectionist, is shattered when an accident results in the death of his wife (Ketaki Narayan) and the psychological mutism of his daughter (Keya Ingale). His perfect life now has to make space for his daughter’s special needs. The film poses next to no challenges for the main character, removing, as a result, any scope of development. Rife with inconsistencies, the film shows ‘psychological deafness’ being cured by a hearing aid and Suraj teaching his previously speech-abled daughter to pronounce Aai and Baba. The cinematography for the songs is quite possibly the only saving grace for Tu Maza Kinara. A film that has exemplary colour grade and a capable cast suffers at the hands of poor direction and a story that goes nowhere.