For movie lovers, films are more than entertainment — they’re a source of inspiration for daily life, including how we design our homes. If you’ve ever dreamed of bringing the magic of your favorite movies into your living space, a movie-themed home makeover is the perfect project.
Whether you prefer a full room transformation or subtle design details, your favorite films can guide your home improvements. From subtle design details to full cinematic spaces, here are creative ways to give your home the Hollywood treatment. Whether you love classic dramas, sci-fi thrillers, or whimsical comedies, these ideas will help turn your home into a space worthy of the big screen.
1. Create a Home Theater Room
A personal home theater is the dream of many film enthusiasts. Even without a dedicated room, you can transform a corner of your living area into a cozy, cinematic space.
Home Theater Essentials:
Dark-colored walls for a true theater atmosphere
Large flat-screen TV or projector and screen
Comfortable seating such as recliners or sectional sofas
Blackout curtains to eliminate outside light
Movie posters or framed film art as decor
A popcorn machine or snack bar for the full experience
For added impact, incorporate design details inspired by your favorite films or genres.
2. Harry Potter-Inspired Reading Nook
A reading nook inspired by the world of Harry Potter brings a touch of magic to any home.
You don’t need a castle to create a cozy, enchanted space.
Ideas for a Harry Potter Nook:
Dark wooden bookshelves filled with classic novels
Faux brick wallpaper or stone-effect details
Warm, ambient lighting with lantern-style lamps
House banners or symbols from your favorite Hogwarts house
Antique-inspired accessories like globes, hourglasses, and quills
This is ideal for a bedroom corner, under-stair space, or lounge area.
3. Sci-Fi Inspired Living Room
Fans of films like Blade Runner, Star Wars, or Tron can design a living space with sleek, futuristic style.
Sci-Fi Living Room Tips:
Neutral or monochrome color palette (black, grey, white, silver)
Clean lines and geometric furniture
LED strip lighting or color-changing smart bulbs
Glass, chrome, or metallic furniture finishes
Abstract art or space-themed wall prints
Smart home features such as voice-controlled lighting complete the high-tech feel.
4. The Holiday Cottage-Style Makeover
For those who enjoy romantic comedies and cozy spaces, a cottage-inspired makeover like the English home from The Holiday brings rustic charm to your home.
Cottagecore Makeover Elements:
Neutral tones with floral or vintage accents
Distressed, vintage-style furniture
Exposed wood beams or faux alternative
Cozy throws, blankets, and layered textiles
Soft lighting with candles or table lamps
This look works beautifully in bedrooms, living rooms, or kitchens.
5. Superhero-Themed Gaming or Entertainment Room
Superhero fans can showcase their passion with a gaming or entertainment room inspired by Marvel, DC, or other franchises.
Superhero Room Makeover Tips:
Bold color schemes using reds, blues, golds, or blacks
Wall-mounted posters or framed comic book art
Floating shelves for collectibles and action figures
Gaming chairs or comfortable seating for movie marathons
Themed lighting such as neon signs or backlit shelving
This is ideal for a spare room, basement, or entertainment corner.
6. Great Gatsby-Inspired Dining Room
Inspired by The Great Gatsby, an Art Deco dining area adds sophistication and glamour to your home.
Art Deco Dining Makeover Ideas:
Geometric patterns on walls, floors, or accessories
Deep jewel tones like emerald green, navy blue, or burgundy
Metallic finishes in gold, brass, or chrome
Statement lighting such as chandeliers or pendant lights
Luxurious materials like velvet upholstery and marble accents
Perfect for hosting elegant dinner parties with style.
7. Pixar-Inspired Kids’ Room
Children who love Toy Story, Up, or other Pixar classics will enjoy a playful, movie-themed bedroom makeover.
Pixar Kids’ Room Makeover Tips:
Wall decals or murals featuring favorite characters
Toy Story-inspired bedding and soft furnishings
Decorative balloons or clouds inspired by Up
Display shelves for Pixar toys and collectibles
Bright, fun lighting to create an imaginative space
A perfect way to make their room both playful and personal.
Final Thoughts
A movie-themed home makeover allows you to bring your love for cinema into your living space. Whether you prefer a full room transformation or subtle design details, your favorite films can guide your home improvements.
From building a personal home theater to recreating iconic movie styles, the possibilities are endless. Start small, plan your theme carefully, and enjoy turning your home into your very own Hollywood-inspired retreat.
On Truth & Movies this week, we discuss new releases Jurassic World Rebirth and The Shrouds, and speak to David Cronenberg about his latest film. Finally, for film club it’s a Club Little White Lies members’ pick – we revisit 1983’s Videodrome.
Joining host Leila Latif are Hannah Strong and David Jenkins.
Truth & Movies is the podcast from the film experts at Little White Lies, where along with selected colleagues and friends, they discuss the latest movie releases. Truth & Movies has all your film needs covered, reviewing the latest releases big and small, talking to some of the most exciting filmmakers, keeping you across important industry news, and reassessing great films from days gone by with the Truth & Movies Film Club.
Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filiberto Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguolla, who would be known professionally as Rudolph Valentino, was born on May 6, 1895, in Castellaneta, Italy. Valentino’s Italian father, Giovanni, a veterinarian, died when the actor was only 11 years old. His mother, Marie, a French national, raised the boy and his three siblings on her own.
Valentino was a poor student who relied on his good looks and charisma to get by. Eventually, he attended an agricultural school in Genoa, Italy, where he graduated. With difficulty finding employment in both Paris, France, as well as his native Italy, he decided to head across the Atlantic Ocean. He arrived at Ellis Island in New York City on December 23, 1913. He was 18 years old.
Rudolph Valentino as a boy (circa 1905).
Valentino’s early days in New York City were filled with suffering and misery. Due to performance issues, he was unable to hold down a job long-term. This included being a busboy at the restaurant Murray’s, which was on 42nd Street. Nevertheless, he befriended his co-workers, and they would always sneak him free food.
Eventually, Valentino found work as a dancer. First through restaurateur Joe Pani, who hired him and Joan Sawyer to dance the tango at his nightlife hotspots Castles-by-the-Sea, the Colony, and the Woodmansten Inn. Once he was better established, he went to work at Maxim’s Restaurant-Cabaret.
Relationship with Blanca de Saulles
While working as a dancer, Valentino became involved with Blanca de Saulles. She was the wife of a wealthy businessman and real estate magnate, John de Saulles. Although it has been debated, it is believed that they were in a platonic relationship. This is because he testified on her behalf in court that her husband had been unfaithful.
In an act of defiant revenge, Mr. de Saulles had Valentino arrested on a trumped-up vice charge. With no real evidence to charge him, he was released after a few days in jail on a $1,500 bond. Subsequently, the charges against him were dropped. In the ensuing days, Bianca unloaded a pistol on her ex-husband over custody of their son on August 3, 1917.
Rudolph Valentino at 17 years of age.
Heading West
To avoid any publicity or testimony in the de Saulles murder trial, Valentino left town and headed west. He joined a theatre company in Utah and soon was in a production of Robinson Crusoe, Jr. with Al Jolson, which was headed to Los Angeles.
After a brief stint in San Francisco starring in the play Nobody Home, Valentino and his friend and fellow actor, Norman Kerry, headed back to L.A. Their goal was to try to break into the movie business. Kerry and Valentino were roommates at the Alexandria Hotel at 501 South Spring Street before Valentino went out on his own, renting a room on the Sunset Strip.
Silent Movies and First Marriage
While living on the Sunset Strip, Valentino began to appear in movies. His first on-screen appearance in Hollywood was merely as an extra in the 1917 movie Alimony. Deemed too exotic looking to be a leading man by the Hollywood Brass, Valentino began to find steady work as the “heavy” in bit parts in many movies. Examples of this were Eyes of Youth (1919) and Passion’s Playground (1920).
On November 6, 1919, Valentino married actress Jean Acker. Acker was a lesbian involved with a silent actress and the eventual proprietor of the Garden of Allah Hotel. Valentino met Acker at a party two months before their wedding. They soon began to see each other socially, before engaging in a “lavender marriage.” These marriages, which involved homosexual stars, were typically arranged by the studio to hide their sexual orientation from the public.
Rudolph Valentino on the set of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” (1921).
Valentino, who was unaware of Acker’s sexual orientation, was locked out of his hotel room on his wedding night by his bride before the marriage could be consummated. Valentino tried in vain to “win her back” by writing Acker love letters. Eventually, he gave up and filed for divorce.
Metro Pictures
While en route to Palm Springs, Florida, Valentino read a copy of the Vicente Blasco Ibáñez novel The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The book immediately captured Valentino’s imagination. After a bit of research in the trade rags, he learned that the rights to the book were owned by Metro Pictures.
Valentino traveled to New York City and went to Metro’s headquarters. When he arrived, he learned that the studio executive, June Mathis, was trying to find him to cast him as Julio Desnoyers in the picture. Mathis was the second most powerful woman in Hollywood after Mary Pickford. Subsequently, Valentino was signed to a salary of $350 per week for the movie. However, he did not get along with the movie’s director, Rex Ingram, and Mathis was forced to moderate between the pair.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) became a smash hit at the box office, earning over $1,000,000. As a result, Valentino was cast as the leading man in the Alla Nazimova vehicle Camille (1921) at Metro. The costume designer for this film, Natacha Rambova (born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy), became romantically involved with Valentino soon after filming began.
Rudolph Valentino and Alla Nazimova in a publicity picture for their movie ‘Camille’ (1921).
Upon release, Camille was considered too avant-garde for audiences and did poorly at the box office. Valentino made one more film for Metro, The Conquering Power (1921), which was a hit at the box office. Once the movie was released, Valentino quit the studio as they had refused to give him a pay raise.
Famous Players
Not long after leaving Metro, Valentino signed with Famous Players-Lasky. He talked Mathis into joining him at the studio. The pair had developed a close bond during the making of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Valentino even thought of her as a second mother. Part of her arrangement with Famous Players was that she would continue to write and develop projects for Valentino.
“She (Mathis) discovered me, anything I have accomplished I owe to her, to her judgment, to her advice and to her unfailing patience and confidence in me.”
– Rudolph Valentino
Producer Jesse L. Lasky recognized the star power in Valentino. As a result, he cast him as the lead in his new picture, The Sheik (1921). The movie was a huge hit, earning over $1,500,000 at the box office on a budget of $200,000. He followed this movie up with Moran of the Lady Letty (1922) with Dorothy Dalton. He also appeared in Beyond the Rocks (1922), which co-starred Gloria Swanson.
Natacha Rambova and Rudolph Valentino at Union Station in Los Angeles (August 1925).
Marriage Scandal
After completing the filming of the movie Blood and Sand (1922), Valentino married Rambova on May 13, 1922, in Mexicali, Mexico. Although he was divorced from Acker at the time, it had been less than a year since the marriage had been dissolved. California law at the time did not recognize a divorce as being official until a year after the paperwork had been filed. Subsequently, Valentino was arrested for bigamy. Famous Player refused to help Valentino in any way, including posting bail for his release from jail.
After a group of friends pooled their money to get Valentino out on bail, he and Rambova lived in separate apartments in New York City. They officially and legally remarried at the Lake County Courthouse in Crown Point, Indiana, on March 14, 1923.
Between his arrest for bigamy and his remarriage to Rambova, Valentino was involved in a pay dispute with Famous Players. This resulted in him going on strike at the studio. At the time, Valentino was making $1,250 per week and felt he was underpaid, as Mary Pickford earned over $8,000 per week. The average American made $2,000 per year at this time. Valentino even refused to accept the paychecks that were his until the dispute was resolved.
Famous Players, who were still reeling from the Fatty Arbuckle scandal, offered Valentino $7,000 per week. Before Valentino had officially accepted the offer, Variety announced the deal was done. This angered Valentino, who summarily rejected it. Valentino, at this point, was over $80,000 in debt and refused to return to Famous Players. He needed to find work outside of the movie business.
Rudolph Valentino and Agnes Ayres in a publicity picture for ‘The Sheik’ (1921).
Mineralava Dance Tour
Valentino signed with a new manager in late 1922, George Ullman. He presented Valentino with the opportunity of doing a dance tour sponsored by Mineralava Beauty Clay Company. This would have marketing synergy for his female fans across the country. Valentino agreed, and the tour was announced on January 23, 1923.
The tour, which featured Valentino dancing with Rambova, began in February, lasting 17 weeks and going through 88 cities nationwide. The pair also judged beauty contests, which were sponsored by Rambova’s stepfather Richard Hudnut, who produced cosmetics. Each winner was brought to New York City on November 23, 1923, with one being crowned the ultimate winner at Madison Square Garden. David O. Selznick produced a short film about this event entitled Rudolph Valentino and his 88 American Beauties.
Falcon Lair and Ritz-Carlton
It was during this period that Rambova took control of Valentino’s career. Valentino returned to the movie business when he received a joint offer from Ritz-Carlton Pictures and Famous Players for $7,500 a week. He accepted the offer at the behest of Rambova and agreed to make two movies for Famous Players and four for Ritz-Carlton.
The two movies he made for Famous Players, Monsieur Beaucaire and The Sainted Devil, both released in 1924, were commercial failures. His first movie for Ritz-Carlton was to be The Hooded Falcon (1924), with a screenplay by June Mathis. Rambova thought the script was terrible and asked that it be rewritten. Furious, Mathis refused and didn’t speak to Valentino for two years. Rambova then took over scriptwriting duties on the movie, while Valentino shot the movie Cobra (1925). As the months dragged by, the pre-production budget for The Hooded Falcon ballooned out of control. As a result, Ritz-Carlton opted to terminate his contract.
Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova during their Mineralava Tour (1923).
While working on pre-production for The Hooded Falcon, Valentino built a lavish estate at 1436 Bella Drive in Bel Air. He dubbed his new home ‘Falcon Lair.’ The 4,700 square foot home was built on a four-acre lot by legendary architect Wallace Neff for $175,000.
Final Roles and Death
Around the time Valentino was making the movie Cobra for Ritz-Carlton, he was approached by Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks to join them at United Artists, for $10,000 a week. However, this was to be without Rambova and her now-notorious meddling.
Valentino accepted the deal, but it caused problems in his marriage. So much so that when the shooting began on The Eagle (1925), Rambova decided to take a “marital vacation” from Valentino. The marriage wouldn’t recover, and they divorced later that year.
After traveling to Europe to promote The Eagle, Valentino returned to Hollywood to film The Son of the Sheik (1926). Valentino didn’t want to make the movie, but he was nearly destitute and needed the cash in order to pay his mounting debts. At the premiere on July 9, 1926, Valentino reconciled with Mathis.
Valentino began to feel in poor health while filming Son of the Sheik, and it continued to worsen over the following months. Eventually, he collapsed at the Hotel Ambassador on Park Avenue in New York City on August 15, 1926. Valentino was admitted to the New York Polyclinic Hospital, where he was diagnosed with appendicitis and gastric ulcers.
Natacha Rambova and Rudolph Valentino at their home in Hollywood Hills (1924).
After surgery, he developed peritonitis, and his condition worsened. The doctors knew he was going to die. Yet, they let him believe he would recover fully. On August 23, Valentino fell into a coma and died a few hours later. He was only 31 years old.
Funeral
Mobs of people, reportedly north of 100,000, swarmed the streets of New York City during his funeral on August 30, 1926. Over 100 mounted police officers were used in restoring order during this calamitous riot. Valentino’s funeral mass was held at Saint Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church. However, a second funeral was held at the Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills when his body returned via train to California.
Since Valentino was young when he died, he had no burial arrangements made. Mathis decided to let Valentino be interred in the crypt she had purchased for her now ex-husband. This would be a temporary solution until a final one was available. However, Mathis died of a heart attack in 1927, before these arrangements could be made. She was buried in the crypt next to the one where Valentino’s remains were housed. Both are still interred next to each other, nearly 100 years later, at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Valentino’s estate, including Falcon Lair, was left to his brother, sister, and Rambova’s aunt Teresa Werner. The property and his belongings were auctioned off to pay his debts. Tobacco heiress Doris Duke owned and lived in the home from 1952 until she died in 1993. The house was eventually razed in 2006.
Have you ever heard of The Wilhelm Scream? It might just be the most famous sound effect in the history of Hollywood. Sound effects are among the most critical yet often overlooked elements that contribute to a successful movie. Even early filmmakers realized the important role that sound effects played in drawing an audience “into” a film and making them suspend their disbelief.
However, since this process usually tends to happen subconsciously, sound effects often don’t get the same respect that other film elements might garner. There are a few people, for example, who mention them in the same vein, while praising a film’s cinematography or musical score.
However, in the history of cinema, there’s one definite “star” in the category of sound effects. It’s one that even the casual movie-goer should have no trouble recognizing. You can hear it in literally hundreds of films, and it’s become sort of an in-joke within the movie industry. It goes by the name of TheWilhelm Scream. Yet how exactly did this sound effect become so popular, and where did it come from?
Ben Burtt
Let’s start by talking about the gentleman who made The Wilhelm Scream famous. His name is Ben Burtt, and he’s one of Hollywood’s top sound men. Having worked on dozens of movies, he’s been responsible for the sound design of the Star Wars movies, the Indiana Jones movies, as well as most of the other films directed by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. He also created sound effects for many of Pixar’s films.
Along the way, Ben Burtt has been nominated for twelve Academy Awards and has won four times. Burtt is also the person who is responsible for the lightsaber hum in the Star Wars films, which is a film projector idling combined with feedback from a broken television set. Burtt is also the man behind Darth Vader’s breathing, which is Burtt himself wearing an old Scuba regulator.
In the late 1950s, which was way back before Burtt became incredibly successful in his chosen field, he was just like any other kid who loved going to the movies. While there, he became aware that he had a knack for remembering different sounds. He also noticed that all the movies made by Warner Bros. had a very distinctive scream as part of their soundtracks.
The “Wilhelm’s” Origins
Usually, this distinctive sound was uttered by some poor unfortunate cowboy who may have fallen from a great height or had been shot by an arrow in an Indian attack. Burtt remembered one film in particular: The Charge at Feather River, released in 1953 and directed by Gordon Douglas.
Original Movie Poster for ‘The Charge at Feather River’ (1953). Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.
This particular film featured the same cry of anguish no less than three different times. One of the characters was named “Private Wilhelm.” It was just his bad luck to be hit in the leg by an arrow. This prompted him to let loose the scream which would one day be heard around the world.
When Burtt grew up, he embarked on a successful career in the movie business. However, he never forgot that particular scream. Having access to the Hollywood stock sound effects libraries, he began to do some research. Lots of movies had used the scream he remembered, but Burtt was interested in finding the very first one. This turned out to be from the Warner Bros. western Distant Drums (1951) with Gary Cooper.
“Man Being Eaten by an Alligator”
Looking through the original sound effects for Distant Drums, Burtt came across a reel with a very unassuming title: “Man Being Eaten by an Alligator.” The reel was edited into a scene that featured a soldier being attacked by an alligator. This was straight from the stock footage library.
When Burtt played back the reel, he realized he had struck Hollywood gold. There was the famous scream he knew so well, as well as the sound effects coach giving cues to the actor who recorded it. Even though it was uncredited, some people claim the scream belonged to Sheb Wooley, who went on to record the novelty hit song “Flying Purple People Eater” in 1958.
Burtt called the sound effect “The Wilhelm Scream,” which was based on the character’s name in Charge at Feather River. Additionally, as a sort of private joke, Burtt soon began to include it in every film that he worked on. It would go on to become his signature.
A hapless character about to be eaten by an alligator in ‘Distant Drums’ (1951). But not before letting loose with the first instance of “The Wilhelm Scream”
The “Wilhelm” in Star Wars
Here are three instances from the original Star Wars films where you can hear the legendary Wilhelm Scream:
Star Wars (1977). Just before Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia swing across the chasm in the Death Star, a stormtrooper is shot and falls in.
The Empire Strikes Back (1980). In the battle on the ice planet Hoth, a rebel soldier screams when his big satellite-dish laser gun is struck by laser fire and explodes.
Return of the Jedi (1983). During the battle on Jabba the Hutt’s ship, Luke slashes an enemy with his lightsaber. The bad guy lets loose a Wilhelm as he falls into the Sarlac pit.
“The Wilhelm Scream” in Other Films
Soon, other Hollywood sound designers picked up on what Burtt was doing and started inserting the Wilhelm into their movies too. It soon became Hollywood’s audio version of “Kilroy Was Here”:
Now, the “Wilhelm Scream” is everywhere. At last count, over 200 films feature it. In addition to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series, here’s just a partial list:
Aladdin, Batman Returns, Beauty and the Beast, Blades of Glory, The Fifth Element, Gremlins 2, Hellboy, Hercules, Howard the Duck, A Goofy Movie, Kill Bill, Vol 1, King Kong (2005), Lethal Weapon 4, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Return of the King, Pirates of the Caribbean, Poltergeist, Reservoir Dogs, Sin City, Small Soldiers, Spaceballs, Team America, Tears of the Sun, Them, Titanic, Wallace and Gromit, and Willow.
If you still don’t think you recognize the famous “Wilhelm Scream”, try watching this series of clips from YouTube:
This trend can also be traced in recent television series. In Apple TV+’s Severance, biocorp giant Lumon manufactures brain chips that allow users to “sever,” or switch on and off between, their work and personal lives. Grieving widower Mark Scout (Adam Scott) is compelled by the science as an opportunity to forget his wife’s passing for eight hours a day, rendering a version of himself that is not only a productive worker, but also lives relatively pain-free. The procedure is not without its down sides. The severance chip, activated by a spatial boundary, ultimately affects a temporal dissonance: office-bound ‘innies’ experience life as a continuous workday – “A weekend just happened? I don’t even feel like I left,” notes Britt Lower’s Helly R – while their ‘outies’ miss whole chunks of time. The show realizes this discrepancy in episodes that take place in “real time,” like in the first season’s whirlwind finale, or entirely within the warped linearity of the severed floor, as in the second season’s première, in which the time elapsed since the events of the first season is deliberately misrepresented to audiences and innies alike.
As with Invention and The Shrouds, the functionality of the tech at the root of Severance’s sci-fi conceit is echoed by the televisual technology that produces the show. Historically broken up by ads, episodes, and seasons, television – perhaps even more so than cinema – relies on time as its organizing principle and primary medium. “The major category of television” wrote theorist Mary Ann Doane in 1988, “is time.” The literally mind-bending technology of Severance, employed in the case of its protagonist to mitigate grief, splices time in the same mode as, well, a TV show.
In some ways, this reflexive pattern harkens back to the earliest days of moving image culture, when the technology’s newness often saw it put in conversation with modern anxieties over accident, disaster, or death. Early films like, for instance, the aforementioned comic trick film, The Big Swallow – in which a man approaches a camera photographing him and, in an act of irritation or amusement, eats it whole – played on the film apparatus’ ability to capture or depict nonexistence. Where the film might be assumed to end with a black screen, as the camera itself is swallowed, we’re instead shown the tripod and photographer disappearing into darkness, suggesting that film has somehow been able to capture an afterlife, even after its own demise.
The effect of film’s ability to represent death has been the subject of much criticism and foundational theory. In 1951, French critic André Bazin suggested that film’s ability to capture and then repeat the unrepeatable moment of death – as in the documentary he was reviewing, Myriam Borsoutsky and Pierre Braunberger’s Bullfight – might both “desecrate” the finality of loss, while also rendering it “even more moving.” That ambivalence is then affirmed in these recent works where the sci-fi technology marshalled to counteract their characters’ grief does little more than complicate it. Mark Scout’s inability to recall the loss of his wife leads him to turn his back on her by the end of the second season. Invention’s Callie, after operating the healing machine, is moved to helpless tears rather than some deeper sense of peace or comprehension. The Shrouds ends ambiguously, with Karsh seeming to move on from his wife while, of course, continuing to see her everywhere.
But the lack of resolution is what makes these recent works such effective meditations on what moving image technology knows of – or owes to – death. Over the past few years, images of devastation have proliferated across mobile platforms, streamers, and big screens alike. Fears that such images might render viewers desensitized to grief or violence are counteracted by projects that explore visual mediums as tools for facing the fallout of death head on. If there is no treatment for grief, cinematically, it’s perhaps only because such treatment is necessarily ongoing, always unresolved. As technology continues to advance into realms some might call post-human, these recent works affirm that it can still remain a tool for exploring the most human thing: life and our responses to its ending. By inviting viewers to see film and television as a kind of “GriefTech,” these works underscore the blinding inevitability of loss without turning from it. That is: we only truly lose if we refuse to keep looking.
You’re probably going to see a bunch of reviews describing F1: The Movie as predictable and formulaic. Many will call it predictable, but that’s lazy because sports movies are always predictable. Others will call it formulaic, which is also lazy (all movies are formulaic), but also because they can’t resist bad puns (in case you don’t know, the F in F1 stands for formula). Ironically, F1 is formulaic. I don’t say that because it follows the standard racing movie formula (and it does). I say it because it’s The Naturalon wheels.
Brad Pitt stars in “F1: The Movie” (2025)—photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
Synopsis
In F1: The Movie, young Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt) was going to be the best there ever was. After showing off a bit, he suffers a near-fatal, life-changing injury. For a couple of decades after that, he disappears, occasionally racing in random places, and finally gets another shot at the biggest stage in racing – the F1 circuit with the APX team. Once there, he has to contend with the resident and younger star Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris).
As the season progresses, Hayes wins over the fans and the racing team while also having to contend with a meddlesome journalist. In addition, one of the team’s owners wants to force another owner, Ruben Cervantes (Javier Bardem), to sell his stake (as long as they don’t win a race, the sale will happen).
Near the end, and riding high, Hayes suffers another injury that appears to be his permanent end, but he grits his teeth and performs in the final race. Sound familiar? Would you be surprised at all if it were revealed that Hayes scratched a lightning bolt on the side of his car and named it Wonderboy? Before you scream SPOILERS!! at me, I did warn you in the first paragraph. And unless you’ve never seen a sports movie, don’t act surprised.
Sports movies are always about underdogs. They always feature someone being redeemed. They always feature some form of rival. And, they nearly always end with the underdog winning unless it’s Rocky Balboa’s first title fight or the Mystery, Alaska hockey team playing the New York Rangers. And even in those cases, they still won while losing. People generally don’t like that there was no joy in Mudville.
So don’t pretend there’s a chance F1: The Movie ends with Hayes and/or Pearce dying in a fiery crash and Ruben forced out and bankrupt. Besides, there are plenty of good things about this movie that provide a reason to watch.
One of those reasons is Brad Pitt. He’s very easy on the eyes, confirmed by Pearce’s mother (Sarah Niles), when she first lays eyes on a large poster of Hayes and mildly grosses out her son with her comments. But Pitt can also be relied on to always deliver a good, if not great, performance. Some might complain that Pitt always just plays himself, to which I reply – yeah, exactly. Isn’t that like complaining about pizza always being pizza?
You know who else is easy on the eyes and gives a great performance? Damson Idris. Pearce is cocky, arrogant, entitled, and wildly talented. He’s essentially younger Hayes, which is another staple of sports movies like this, including…wait for it…The Natural.
Brad Pitt and Damson Idris star in “F1: The Movie” (2025). Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
Further Discussion
Idris delivers a performance that nails all of those character traits, then nails Pearce’s character growth through Pearce’s very strong story arc. It’s so well done, you’ll go from wanting someone on the pit crew to hit him with a wrench to kinda, sorta rooting for him to win the last race. Don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler. Hayes and Pearce both participate in the races, and only one of them has to win to save Ruben’s ownership. You’ll be rooting for both of them in the end, I promise.
You know who else is easy on the eyes and gives a great performance? Kerry Condon. She plays Kate McKenna, a former aerospace engineer and the team’s technical director. McKenna is the brains behind the team and the design of the car. She’s also the love interest, but the screenplay doesn’t turn her into the wide-eyed damsel pining for Hayes.
Perhaps the best scene of the film features McKenna expertly handling her two head-butting drivers in a friendly game of poker to determine which driver gets to be the primary driver in an upcoming race. It’s the kind of scene and performance that confirms why she was nominated for an Academy Award (The Banshees of Inisherin).
You know who else is easy on the eyes and gives a great performance? Just kidding, I’ll stop now. And, yes, Javier Bardem gives a great performance; not sure about the other part. Sorry, Javy, you’re no Brad Pitt.
Kerry Condon stars in “F1: The Movie” (2025). Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
Conclusion
You know what else is easy on the eyes and performs great? All of the racing stuff and not just the racing scenes themselves (which are very cool). While the story is completely fictional, the filmmakers went to great lengths to showcase much of what goes into an F1 racing team. The technology alone is staggering for what seems like such a simple sport – to drive a car really fast.
From wind tunnels, to racing simulators, to an operations room and team that looks like it’s going to launch rockets to the moon, to the various components of the cars, it’s mind-boggling to realize it’s all done to gain a few seconds of time. And for the low, low cost of a $50-150 million per year.
F1: The Movie does all the right things. Not only does it check all the boxes of a good summer blockbuster: good action, beautiful people, and excellent visual effects. It checks all the boxes of movies that you’ll watch multiple times – good storytelling, well-developed characters, smart dialogue, and excellent performances. I knew next to nothing about F1 before this film, and now I’m far more interested in the entirety of it.
Rating: Ask for the low, low cost of zero dollars back.
It’s become a cliché to say that David Cronenberg’s The Fly remains one of the most heartbreaking films of the 1980s, a film which culminates in an investigative journalist having to put down her scientist boyfriend for being too overzealous with his toys. With his ruminative latest, The Shrouds, Cronenberg once more makes a play for the heartstrings in what must be one of the most nakedly moving and revelatory films within his canon.
There is, of course, a lot of ironic levity too, as seen in an opening sequence in which melancholy widowed tech magnate, Karsh (Vincent Cassell, made up to look exactly like the filmmaker), decides to dive into the dating scene once more, organising a lunch with a match formulated by his dentist in a restaurant that’s adjacent to a graveyard. The joke is, it’s his restaurant. And his graveyard. And what’s more, his late wife, Becci, is buried there – would you, dear date, like to come and see her decaying corpse in 8K resolution via live-relay videofeed?
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Karsh is the founder of GraveTech, a company who have, in tandem with a Chinese firm named Shining Cloth, developed a new type of burial shroud which allows the bereaved to be in constant contact with the recently departed. Ever the romantic, Karsh is just itching to dive into his plot next to Becci so they may enter the eternal rest together, but in the meantime, he’s can zoom in on her desiccating skull and wondering what those little nodules growing on her bones might be.
Explorations of grief on film are ten a penny and so often lean on maudlin sentiment to achieve their intended goal. The Shrouds offers something that’s at once more nuanced, more complex and more radical, as Karsh finds himself having to deal with the fact that someone may be sabotaging his system to use it as a surveillance tool, something one of his operatives and ex-brother-in-law Maury (Guy Pearce) may have a hand in. This central conceit of man attempting to discover the provenance of strange broadcast images and being swept into a world of political intrigue is a fulsome call-back to 1983’s Videodrome, and as a film about a husband’s conspiratorial obsessions with his dead wife, there’s quite a bit of 1991’s Naked Lunch in there too.
On a production level, this is just precision filmmaking of the highest stripe, and there’s a heartbeat-like rhythm to both the syntax and syncopations of the dialogue, and the beautifully judged shot/reverse shot edits. Howard Shore delivers another one of his gorgeous synth scores, this one with an aptly funereal vibe, and long-time production designer Carol Spier threads the needle between a world of pristine modern innovation, and Japanese minimalism.
The Shrouds is a new type of cinematic love story, one that deals with our abiding connection with the dead through dreams and realistic innovation rather than having to lean on such timeworn crutches as ghosts and fantasy. Like much of his late work, there are a certain set of demands placed on the viewer, but if you’re willing to take what Cronenberg is giving you and tap into the film’s rich emotional mainframe, then the gifts (and heartbreak) will be plentiful.
The curtain rose on a new age of Hollywood cinema in 1927, when The Jazz Singer shattered the silence of motion pictures with Al Jolson’s famous ad-lib: “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!” That moment was more than the dawn of the ’talkies’—it heralded the maturation of Hollywood’s studio system. Cinema Scholars looks behind the curtain at the vertically integrated juggernaut that would dominate American entertainment for over a decade.
“It was a factory, yes. But what a factory—stars for assembly lines, scripts for blueprints, and dreams for exports.”
— Bette Davis, reflecting on the studio era
Jack Robin (Al Jolson) sings ‘Blue Skies’ to his mother (Eugenie Besserer) in “The Jazz Singer” (1927). Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
Between 1927 and 1939, Hollywood wasn’t just making movies—it was manufacturing a mythology. Underneath the glitter and gloss lay a ruthlessly efficient machine, run by a handful of powerful studios known as the “Big Five”: MGM, Paramount, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and RKO. Together, these companies controlled production, distribution, and exhibition, ensuring that the stars on the silver screen were as carefully cultivated as the orange groves Los Angeles was paving over.
Rise of the Studio Titans
Louis B. Mayer of MGM once quipped, “I don’t make art—I make pictures to make money.” And indeed, the major studios operated like corporate kingdoms, each with its stable of stars, directors, writers, and technicians all under (or handcuffed to) long-term contracts.
MGM, the undisputed king of the 1930s, boasted “more stars than there are in heaven.” With a house style that emphasized glamour and polish, it churned out hits like Grand Hotel (1932), The Thin Man (1934), and The Wizard of Oz (1939). Meanwhile, Warner Bros. cultivated a grittier image, favoring gangster films and socially conscious dramas like The Public Enemy (1931) and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932).
Behind every star was a carefully maintained image, orchestrated by publicists and studio heads alike. Judy Garland was the girl next door. Greta Garbo was the elusive goddess. Clark Gable was the King of Hollywood. Scandals were buried, teeth were capped, and waistlines were cinched.
Gretta Garbo and John Barrymore star in “Grand Hotel” (1932). Photo courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Talkie Revolution and Artistic Shifts
The transition to sound sent shockwaves through the industry. Silent film stars like John Gilbert and Clara Bow saw careers falter, while new voices—literally and figuratively—rose to prominence. Technological changes forced studios to reinvest in equipment, rewrite production norms, and retrain actors and directors for a medium where voice and dialogue now mattered.
Yet the upheaval brought creative breakthroughs. Directors like Ernst Lubitsch and Frank Capra harnessed the power of sound to explore new genres. Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934) helped establish the screwball comedy, while Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise (1932) showcased the sophisticated wit that defined pre-Code Hollywood.
Production Code and the Morality Police
By 1934, under intense pressure from religious groups as well as conservative watchdogs, the Motion Picture Production Code—commonly known as the Hays Code—was fully enforced. Overseen by Joseph Breen, the Code clamped down on depictions of sex, crime, and anything resembling social subversion.
Gone were the risqué innuendos of Mae West. In came the moral rectitude of wholesome family fare. Yet even within these constraints, filmmakers inevitably found creative ways to push boundaries. Gone with the Wind (1939), with its fiery heroine and burning Atlanta, danced on the edge of controversy.
“We had to say everything without saying anything at all. That was the art.”
— Ernst Lubitsch, on working under the Code
Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert star in “It Happened One Night” (1934). Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures.
The Star Machine in Full Swing
The studio system’s most potent invention was the star. The studios discovered talent, gave them new fabricated names (Archibald Leach became Cary Grant), shaped their public personas, and sometimes orchestrated their personal lives. Actors like Bette Davis battled studio control fiercely. Davis once stated:
“Until you’re known in my profession as a monster, you’re not a star”
Davis fought Warner Bros. in court for the right to reject roles—though she lost the case, she won something more valuable: respect. Her performances in Jezebel (1938) and Dark Victory (1939) cemented her place among the elite.
The Business of Dreams
The Depression did little to stop the march of movies. Hollywood thrived. Films were cheap escapism for the public and big business for the studios. In 1939—the year often considered the greatest in Hollywood history—audiences were treated to The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, Ninotchka, and Wuthering Heights.
The year truly symbolized the zenith of the Hollywood studio system. It was the end of the beginning. War loomed. Television whispered on the horizon. And antitrust lawyers were sharpening their knives.
Jimmy Stewart stars in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939). Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures.
A Machine Facing Its Reckoning
Though the studio system would survive the next decade, its foundations had been laid bare. In 1938, the U.S. government filed an antitrust suit against the Big Five and the Little Three (Universal, Columbia, and United Artists), challenging their monopolistic grip. The eventual Paramount Decree of 1948 would dismantle vertical integration, but the seeds were sown in the late ’30s.
Still, in those heady years between 1927 and 1939, Hollywood stood as a glittering empire—a blend of artistry, industry, and illusion. It was a dream factory, yes. But what dreams.
“They owned everything: the cameras, the theaters, even the lives of the people in the pictures. But they gave us magic, too.”
— Olivia de Havilland
Top Milestones in the Studio Era (1927–1939)
1927 – The Jazz Singer premieres, introducing synchronized sound to film.
1929 – The first Academy Awards are held; Wings wins Best Picture.
1930 – Hays Code introduced (but not enforced until 1934).
1934 – Enforcement of the Production Code begins under Joseph Breen.
1935 – Merger of Fox Film and Twentieth Century Pictures forms 20th Century-Fox.
1938 – The U.S. government files antitrust suit against major studios.
1939 – Peak year of Hollywood’s Golden Age with Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz
Join us for Part 2, 1939–1945…and Hollywood at War!
It is true that strict laws are decreed in the workplace against sexual harassment in the US but it still continues to happen even today. A 2025 Traliant survey found that 46% of employees had seen harassment in the last five years and 24% who reported it had been harassed themselves.
According to Sexual Harassment Law Firm CA, workplace sexual harassment is any unwelcome behavior or conduct that is sexual in nature and creates an intimidating, offensive, or hostile workplace.
You must learn to protect yourself if you are being a target of sexual harassment in your workplace. If you have been sexually harassed at work, you may be able to make a range of claims for damages. It is never right to tolerate inappropriate conduct. Document each and every incident carefully, and take time to understand your company’s policies, to whom you should report sexual harassment incidents, and who can be your support during this time.
Let’s start with self-empowerment to make your workplace safe and respectful.
Understanding Sexual Harassment
Sexual offenses transform the office into a toxic space. There could be advances, suggestive comments, or gestures from a fellow worker or a superior.
Such acts unsettle and harm your mental wellness plus working capacity. Anyone, not necessarily someone above the victim, can perpetrate verbal, physical, or visual harassment.
The smallest insinuations build a very overpowering atmosphere. Recognizing such a factor should mean recognizing when a boundary has been crossed.
Documenting Incidents
When abuse occurs at a workplace, one needs to document the incident of such abuse so that the offender may be held accountable for their acts. The record shall indicate the precise date, hour, and site of occurrence. Detailed descriptions of the crime, spoken words, and names of possible witnesses can later be a means of drawing up a pattern of conduct.
Keep your notes in order, whether they are in a journal or on a computer. Keep up to date with the occurrences. Also, any emails or text messages that appear to relate to the harassment should be kept.
Documentation provides a platform not just for the allegations but also for feelings of empowerment. Keep in mind that a clear record is the first step toward staying secure and well at work.
Reporting the Behavior
Reporting the behavior to management may seem difficult, but it is necessary to protect your rights.
Search for the company policy against harassment. Find out to whom you should direct your report: your immediate supervisor, an HR representative, or an ethics officer.
Have written documentation ready when reporting. Provide a full or brief account of the incident, including dates, places, and whether any witnesses were present.
Indicate how the behavior affected you personally and those close to you or around you. Legal protection exists to safeguard you.
If this system does not protect you or makes raising a concern impossible, then justice must come into existence outside the organization. You and your coworkers have a right to decent working conditions.
Seeking Support and Resources
Healing from workplace harassment must be supported with assistance and solutions. Some trusted friends and family members are good people to provide support for you. Talking to someone about your negative experience gives you some peace of mind.
Seek a counselor or therapist who takes care of workplace issues with the ability to offer coping strategies tailored to your situation.
There are therapeutic small groups or even online forums that allow you to meet and mingle with other victims. You are not alone.
If there is an Employee Assistance Program in your company, check for resources and counseling under strict confidentiality. Above anything else, take care of your present self.
Knowing Your Rights and Protections
Know your rights in the protective measures against sexual harassment at the workplace. It is your right to work in an environment free of harassment. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prevents sex discrimination and harassment. Several other federal laws are also in place to prevent harassment.
Learn your organization’s harassment policy, as the document will outline your possible path of reporting and what procedure will follow.
Retaliation following an assertion of harassment is unlawful; maintain documentation of all occurrences. You can file a charge with either the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or your corresponding local human rights agency.
Your well-being is important and you have the right to defend yourself when you feel that your rights are being violated.
These Roger Corman 1950s movie posters are a testament to his storytelling and marketing genius.
We love Roger Corman, who died last year at the age of 98 after a spectacular Hollywood career that helped launch such luminaries as Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Charles Bronson, and James Cameron, among many others.
After studying industrial engineering at Stanford University and serving in the United States Navy, he got a job as a story reader in which he rejected most scripts — but saw the potential in one that became 1950’s The Gunfighter, with Gregory Peck.
When his boss got all the credit, Corman resolved to make his own films — which he churned out quickly, on the cheap, with verve and panache. He was masterful at marketing them, especially to rebellious teenagers, as the following posters illustrate.
Apache Woman (1955)
American Releasing Corporation – Credit: C/O
The second Roger Corman movie that he directed, after Five Guns West, which was also released in 1955, Apache Woman is about a government agent, Rex Moffett, sent to put down an Apache Rebellion. He soon crosses paths with the titular character, the half-Apache Anne Libeau (Joan Taylor).
The film is notable for helping launch the career of Lloyd Bridges, who played Moffett. But it’s also notable for a clever bit of branding by Corman: Note how often he uses the words “woman,” “girl” or “teenage” in his titles, to catch the attention of teenage boys looking for something at the local drive-in.
Day the World Ended (1955)
American Releasing Corporation – Credit: C/O
Roger Corman movie titles were never short on hyperbole, as Day the World Ended Reminds us.
The film is about a scientist who, like many other heroes of 1950s films, faces off against a radioactive being. (Anxiety and curiosity ran high in the years after the first use of the atomic bomb.)
The film is notably narrated by a man who soon go on to become one of the most trusted journalists in America, Chet Huntley, known for NBC’s The Huntley-Brinkley Report.
It Conquered the World (1956)
American International Pictures – Credit: C/O
It Conquered the World is about an alien from Venus who wants to take over the Earth and Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves) a human scientist who wants to help the alien because it believes it can save humanity from destroying itself. (A similar idea pops up in Netflix’s 3 Body Problem).
The film marked an early appearance for Graves, the future star of Mission: Impossible, though he had already appeared in a notable role in 1953’s Stalag 17.
Naked Paradise (1957)
American International Pictures – Credit: C/O
The first of eight (!) Roger Corman movies released in 1957, this one concerns an ill-fated sailing trip to the Hawaiian Islands and stars Beverly Garland as the alcoholic Max, a young woman who ends up determined to turn her life around.
Garland also appeared in the Roger Corman 1950s movies Not of This Earth, It Conquered the World, and Gunslinger.
Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957)
Allied Artists – Credit: C/O
Roger Corman was a master of inexpensive creature features — in the terrific 2013 book Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman: King of the B Movie, author Chris Nashawaty shares Albert Ruddy’s account of how Corman once gave him a budget of $50 to create a monster for the movie The Beast With a Million Eyes.
He ended up combining an aluminum mop, a syringe, and slimy green paint to create the creature.
Ruddy’s ingenuity would lead to a long and fruitful career that included producing The Godfather, arguably the greatest movie ever made.
Not of This Earth (1957)
Allied Artists – Credit: C/O
Part of the genius of Roger Corman was packaging his films as double features. Not of This Earth played with Attack of the Crab Monsters, which must have made for a very scary evening.
The very 1950s movie is about an extraterrestrial humanoid who seeks to steal human blood because of a deadly blood disorder that is depopulating his home planet, Davanna.
Teenage Doll (1957)
Allied Artists – Credit: C/O
Once in a while, a Roger Corman movie poster is a masterpiece of understatement. Just read the text of this one and try to contain your curiosity: What happened to the unfortunate young woman of the title?
As Nashawaty wrote in Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses: Roger Corman: King of the B Movie: “Is she dead, or has she just been ravaged? Corman knows, and he isn’t saying. And if you want to find out, you’ll have to pony up for a ticket.”
One of the many 1950s movies that dug into “kids gone wild” paranoia.
Rock All Night (1957)
American International Pictures – Credit: C/O
When you think of rebellious rock music, you probably don’t think of The Platters, the beloved crooners and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees whose lovely hits included “Only You” and “The Great Pretender.” But Roger Corman had the good sense to make them seem like the soundtrack to shocking scenes of depravity in the poster for Rock All Night.
The film is one of many Roger Corman 1950s movies that is a lot more sedate than its raucous poster suggests.
The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957)
American International Pictures – Credit: C/O
You can forgive the poster for The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent for not including the full title of the film, about a group of Viking women led by Desir (Abby Dalton) who go out to sea in search of their missing men and encounter, you guessed it, a giant sea serpent.
The film was a bit of a leap for Corman: He announced that he would budget it at $300,000, about triple his typical budget at the time, because he wanted to invest in the sea serpent effects.
And let us save you a Google: $300,000 in 1957 dollars is equal to about $3.3 million today, which is still a breathtakingly small budget for a film, even in the era of computer-generated images that were unavailable to Corman and his team.
Sorority Girl (1957)
American International Pictures – Credit: C/O
Notably for its fairly respectable poster, this film (also known as Sorority House or The Bad One — Corman was happy to change a film’s name for different markets) is about poor little rich girl Sabra Tanner (Susan Tanner) who lashes out at her classmates.
Her dangerous tendencies have calamitous repercussions for her sorority sisters — and for Sabra.
Machine Gun Kelly (1958)
American International Pictures – Credit: C/O
This gangster biopic also featured Susan Cabot, but is better known for the actor who played its lead: Charles Bronson, who would go on to action movie icon status for films including The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Once Upon a Time in the West, and the Death Wish series.
Besides launching Bronson as a movie star, the film was also notable for earning some of the best reviews of any Roger Corman movie. Corman said in his memoir, How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, that it was “a major turning point in my career.”
Even more impressive, it’s one of five Corman-directed films that were released in 1958. That’s down from the eight he directed in 1957, but still: wow.
She Gods of Shark Reef (1958)
Credit: C/O
Corman’s filmmaking efficiency is legendary, and one way he saved money was to shoot two films back-to-back at the same location. Such was the case with She Gods of Shark Reef, which was shot in Kaua’i at the same time as the aforementioned Naked Paradise.
The film concerns weapons theft, murder, and a shark-infested tropical island — as well as some lonely pearl divers who live in a secret, all-female village.
Liked This List of Eye-Popping 1950s Movie Posters?
Credit: Paramount
You may also like this list of behind the scenes stories of Airplane!, which notes that the film’s directors, Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, cast the film with actors they had seen playing serious roles in 1950s movies. We have to wonder if they caught Peter Graves in It Conquered the World.
