“This land will be home to the villains that you know and those that you loathe, which means ‘happily ever after’ … it may feel like just a distant dream,” said Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, which include the company’s theme parks and Disney Cruise Line.

The announcement by D’Amaro was one of a slew of expansion plans at Disney parks worldwide revealed at a D23 fan club event in Anaheim, California. Among the developments: A “Monsters, Inc.” land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the first animatronic of Walt Disney himself and even more cruise ships.

The villains area is “going to be a fearless new vision for what a Disney experience can be,” he said near the end of the presentation, which lasted more than two hours and 45 minutes.

This bad-guy expansion land will feature two new attractions, which were not described Saturday evening, as well as dining and shopping, he said, without specifying where the villains area would be located. No timeframe for the villains construction was announced.

In other Magic Kingdom developments, the park will add two “Cars” attractions to its Frontierland as well as a new nighttime parade called “Disney Starlight.”

“We’re leaving Radiator Springs behind and we’re heading off to the wilderness,” D’Amaro said. One “Cars” ride will be a race rally across the frontier, and the second will be geared to young children. Construction will begin in 2025.

“This is going to bring some new energy to Frontierland,” he said, and delve into “what it means to explore the American wilderness.”

The new parade, set to debut next summer, will be led by the Blue Fairy from “Pinocchio” and include characters from films including “Encanto,” “Frozen,” “Peter Pan” and others.

The session was attended by 12,000 people at Anaheim’s Honda Center. It included a live orchestra on stage and, between announcements, performances by Meaghan Trainor, Rita Ora, Shaboozey, John Stamos, Pentatonix, Billy Crystal and the Deadpool character. Ke Huy Quan, who rose to fame as Short Round in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and grew up to win an Academy Award in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” had a stint as the guest conductor of the orchestra.

Disney Cruise Line orders 4 new ships, announces ‘Hercules’ show on Disney Destiny

The “Monsters, Inc.” land at Hollywood Studios will include a suspended roller coaster, a Disney parks first, that tours through the laugh factory. Construction starts next year, D’Amaro said.

Saturday’s session included updates on previously announced plans for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which will be home to attractions tied to “Encanto” and  the “Indiana Jones” films.

Construction on the replacement attractions for Animal Kingdom’s Dinoland will begin this fall, D’Amaro said, and they are all expected to debut in 2027. The area then will be known as Tropical Americas.

The Indiana Jones ride, set to take over the space of the current Dinosaur attraction, will be different from other Indy rides in Disney parks, Bruce Vaughn, chief creative officer at Walt Disney Imagineering, said Saturday.

“It takes place in an ancient Mayan temple that Indy has recently discovered, and he’s heard rumors about a mythical creature that lives deep within this temple,” he said.

Animal Kingdom visitors will cross from Discovery Island into Tropical Americas where they will see a new town named Pueblo Esperanza and the home of the “Encanto” attraction, Vaughn said.

In the ride based in the animated house of the Madrigal family, “Antonio has just received his special gift — the ability to communicate with animals — and his room has transformed into a rainforest,” Vaughn said.

These projects were announced last year but considered “in the works.” In a 2022 D23 session, executives teased about plans for “beyond Big Thunder,” the Frontierland roller coaster at Magic Kingdom. D’Amaro did not say Saturday if that area would be the location of the new “Cars” attractions.

Walt Disney Co. has pledged to spend $60 billion over 10 years on attractions worldwide. Industry watchers have speculated about moves at Walt Disney World as Universal Orlando’s expansion — Epic Universe theme park — is slated to open in 2025. Some experts have predicted a fifth theme park for Disney World, but there was no mention of a new park on Saturday.

In a quarterly earnings call with market analysts last week, Disney executives said its theme parks had seen “demand moderation” in recent months. The result was small revenue growth. They said that trend was expected to continue in the near term.

Disney Cruise Line orders 4 new ships, announces ‘Hercules’ show on Disney Destiny

Among the other Saturday announcements from Disney were:

• Disney Cruise Line will add four more ships beyond what had previously been announced, bringing the total to 13. Timeframe: between 2027 and 2031.

• The Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run ride at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will get a new story tied to the theatrical release of “The Mandalorian and Grogu” movie in 2026.

• The revised version of Test Track will debut at Epcot in 2025.

• A Spaceship Earth lounge is planned for Epcot for next year. The previously announced pirate-themed tavern for Magic Kingdom also will open in 2025.

• The “Zootopia: Better Zoogether” show in the Tree of Life Theater at Animal Kingdom will arrive in winter 2025. The Tree of Life Theater currently is home to the “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!” 3-D film.

• At Disneyland, “Walt Disney — A Magical Life” show will feature an animatronic version of Walt Disney. It will rotate with “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln.”

• Disney California Adventure is adding rides based on “Coco” and the second and third films of the “Avatar” series.

• DCA’s Avengers Campus will get two new attractions, Avengers Infinity Defense and Stark Flight Lab.

• Disney Adventure World in France will be home to a “Lion King” ride (art concepts show a log ride and drop) and a “Frozen” land.

• Shanghai Disneyland will be home to a Spider-Man themed “high-energy thrill coaster.”

D’Amaro assured the group that these plans were not in the blue-sky category.

“Plans are drawn. Dirt is moving,” he said. “I just want to be clear about this: We are doing everything you’re going to hear tonight.”

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Threads account: @dbevil. X account: @themeparks. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.

Here’s our roundup.

“Girl You Know It’s True”: One of the biggest music scandals to rock the industry came in the shocking reveal that the two lead singers of the late ‘80s/early ‘90s pop group Milli Vanilli lip-synched all their songs, never singing one friggin’ note. That confession further tarnished the rep of the Grammys, which anointed the duo with its best new artist trophy, an honor later revoked. Director/screenwriter Simon Verhoeven’s entertaining biopic looks at how greed and fame fueled the calculated, infamous rise of the German group made up of two attractive Munich club dancers, the late Robert Pilatus (Tijan Njie) and Fab Morvan (Elan Ben Ali). Framed as sort of a rags to excessive riches story and as a well-deserved slap to the two-faced music industry, “Girl You Know It’s True” is executive produced by many involved in this public hoodwinking. But while that gives you pause the resulting film doesn’t let either singer off the hook — showing how they became drug-snorting, bed hopping divas that demanded sushi (and flew into a rage if they didn’t get it) along with one red Ferrari. But it is sympathetic to their plight as well, showing how they, like so many pre-packaged performers (cooked up in this case by producer Frank Farian — played well by Matthias Schweighöfer in a Spicoli-like wig) were lucrative puppets in a hit-making machine that celebrates bouncy tunes and hot looks over actual singing talent. “Girl You Know It’s True” doesn’t always work (the fourth-wall breaking narration hits a false note and the industry skewering and racist reactions to the two could have been even more pointed) but even at 2 hours, this one is as catchy as, well, a Milli Vanilli song. Details: 3 stars out of 4; available to rent and stream Aug. 9.

“Twilight of The Warriors: Walled In”: A few decades back, martial arts movies were supremely popular, side-kicking their way into American theaters and onto VHS and DVD. Today, the deluge has turned into more of a trickle. Director Soi Cheang throws it back to that heyday with this seamlessly edited, action-stuffed Hong Kong epic that’s visually arresting and massively exciting. Already a huge hit in Hong Kong, it’s a summer find that lands in theaters this week. it sets itself in Kowloon Walled City, a decaying, large-scale Hong Kong slum where a refugee named Chan Lok-kwan (the lithe, acrobatic Raymond Lam) lands after being hoodwinked by triad leader Mr. Big (martial arts superstar Sammo Hung) over an ID card. Lok-kwan jets off with a bag of Mr. Big’s blow and catches the eye of Cyclone (Louis Koo), a barber/gangster with cred and connections to a decades-old grudge match. Cyclone gets him a job and sets him on a path for a new life. The plot gets far more tangled than that and draws in past vendettas and secret legacies. It serves as a bouncy functional diving off point into a pool of tightly choreographed brawls that are guaranteed to make you blurt out “ow, ouch.” They’re spectacular, vigorous sequences in what’s a very stylized production (the underworld look is incredible to behold) that rockets to a massive showdown that might just make you applaud in your seats. See it on the big screen. Details: 3½ stars; in theaters Aug. 9.

“The Last Front”: These days, a good, old-fashioned World War I-set thriller can be hard to come by. Director/screenwriter Julien Hayet-Kerknawi comes to the rescue with this intense, visually striking first feature that feels an awful like a Western. Rather than tell a soldier’s story (a staple of this genre), he focuses on the Lamberts, a Belgian farm family. Grieving widower Leonard Lambert (“Game of Thrones” Iain Glen) reluctantly leads the charge against the Germans as they advance on his farm where he lives quietly with his dreamy son and uptight daughter. An unfortunate encounter with the drunken, rage-fueled lieutenant Laurentz (Joe Anderson, in full-blown hissable mode) thrusts Leonard into helping all villagers as his grief turns into fury. “The Last Front” does grab you but it isn’t subtle by any means — even when it depicts artful scenes in nature as a sharp contrast to the blood men spill in battle. But it’s done with such conviction and passion, you won’t mind. Details: 3 stars; in select theaters Aug. 9.

“This Closeness”: A quick trip to Philadelphia for a high school reunion leads an attractive but seriously self-absorbed Gen-Z couple, Tessa and Ben (Kit Zauhar and Zane Pais) to rent a sliver of a room in an apartment. Their host (Ian Edlund) turns out to be introverted and socially awkward, traits that both annoy and fascinate this couple stuck in a rut. Zauhar is also writer and director here, and her very funny, squirmable sophomore feature gazes at how we wall ourselves off from each other even when we happen to be together. During Tessa and Ben’s brief stay, jealousies, hookups, slights and arguments happen and point to personality fractures in all parties involved. Zauhar is a dexterous actor and an astute observer of frayed, worn-down relationships and how they come loaded with baggage that tends to get unloaded in an unhealthy way. Her bit involving the hot-and-cold frustration over a malfunctioning air conditioner is ingenious, and serves as a perfect metaphor for her bickering couple. She’s the real deal, and I can’t wait to see what the New York-based filmmaker comes up with next. Details: 3 stars; available to watch for free on MUBI.

“Starve Acre”:  A few years back, A24 gobsmacked us with one of the strangest Icelandic folk horror yarns ever. It was about a cute but unsettling half-human lamb. If you thought that one — called simply “Lamb” — was weird, just wait till you get a load of director/screenwriter Daniel Kokotajlo’s ‘70s-set brain messer featuring an ominous bunny. It’s beyond weird, and I mean that as a compliment. Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark star as a none-too-happy British couple living on his family’s rugged, isolated land — rooted in a nasty bit of back history — way out in the country. When their boy starts doing odd “Omen”-esque acts, they begin to worry — for good reason. Then the unexpected happens, shifting the entire film. Based on a novel by Andrew Michael Hurley, “Starve Acre” is bizarre from start to bloody finish. If you like literal-minded, meat-and-potatoes horror films, avoid it. But if you dig moody oddities with a dash of humor and a Gothic look that puts you ill at ease throughout, grab it. Details: 3 stars; available to rent on multiple platforms.

“The Abandon”: If funds and time are tight, it’s never wise for a filmmaker to shoot at a variety of locations. It’ll only create more headaches. Director Jason Satterlund and screenwriter Dwain Worrell wisely keep most of their action contained to the inner walls of a strange cube where wounded soldier Miles Willis finds himself trapped. A claustrophobic story such as this one relies heavily on ingenuity and good acting to make you care. The ever-game Jonathan Rosenthal does just that. His performance is a very physical one since he gets battered about while the cube starts to slowly close in on him. Miles isn’t alone, though, and communicates with another (Tamara Perry) without ever seeing her. She, too, is stuck for no apparent reason. Questions, suspicions and surprises swirl about as each tries to figure out if they can trust the other. “The Abandon” succeeds on a variety of levels, as a taut survival thriller, a kicky sci-fi film and an emotional drama (I was surprised how this one got to me at times). It also hits you with a “what the hell” finale that swings open the door for a sequel. Bring it on. And the meantime, let’s hope Rosenthal and Satterlund get the notice they deserve. Details: 3 stars, available now to rent.

“Detained”: In this over-the-top but satisfying neo-noir that cribs heavily from “The Usual Suspects” playbook, a disoriented hit-and-run suspect Rebecca (Abbie Cornish) finds herself relentlessly interrogated by two badgering detectives (Laz Alonso and Moon Bloodgood) over a crime she can’t remember committing. Did Rebecca really mow someone over? Or is she just being framed? Director and co-screenwriter Felipe Mucci keeps us guessing throughout in this implausible, unhinged shocker that’s recklessly enjoyable and well-acted. Beware, though, it does go overboard with a couple of “surprise” reveals. Those can be easily forgiven since this is a finely tuned ride ideal for toss-the-brain-aside weekend consumption. Details: 2½ stars; available to rent now.

“Duchess”: Clunky,  junky and devoid of any nutritional value, director/co-screenwriter Neil Marshall’s inept crime thriller wants to meld a Guy Ritchie caper with a Jackie Collins novel, and it winds failing at both. Charlotte Kirk stars as a brash London pickpocket who falls for a hot guy (Philip Winchester) involved in illicit activities, including diamond trafficking. Kirk’s character Scarlett/Duchess provides lackluster voice-over narration in a derivative bore that jets back and forth to the Canary Islands and London. The blah fight scenes get pointlessly gory and the romance is a yawner  It’s a star vehicle for Kirk who isn’t able to convince us why we want to spend any time with Duchess. The camera certainly cozies up to her, worshiping her body to excessive levels. It’s hard to imagine that this came from the same filmmaker who gave us “The Descent.” Details: 1 star; available to rent Aug. 9.

Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.

“Familiar” is relative here. The setting and story of the real-life three-man hip hop sensation Kneecap in Northern Ireland’s West Belfast doesn’t court a lot of immediate comparisons — though bits of “8 Mile,” “Straight Outta Compton” and the kinetic visual zap of “Trainspotting” inform writer-director Rich Peppiatt’s feature. In 2017, five years before the Gaelic language was recognized legally in the North of Ireland, Kneecap’s Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap, along with DJ Próvaí, unleashed a torrent of anti-British, anti-colonialist, pro-drug and pro-hedonism-in-general lyrics in unsuspecting venues, largely in that historically disallowed Irish tongue.

The backdrop of “Kneecap,” inevitably, is the Emerald Isle’s political warfare and Belfast’s “Troubles” (ridiculous word, considering the size of the troubles) in particular. The movie’s freely but creatively fictionalized version of events addresses the usual somber Belfast clichés in its opening seconds, jamming newsreel snippets of bombed buildings and exploding cars into a one-off quickie, just to get it out of the way. Director Peppiatt manages a shrewd balancing act throughout “Kneecap,” treating much of it for dark humor and exuberant myth-making while playing the human stakes realistically when it counts.

Bap’s offstage name is Naoise Ó Cairealláin; he plays himself in “Kneecap,” as does his best mate and fellow rapper Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, aka Mo Chara. They’re easy, engaging screen performers. A tick or two up from there, so is the music teacher and Irish-language activist JJ Ó Dochartaigh, aka DJ Próvaí, likewise as himself. There’s a lot to juggle narratively within the film’s brisk, roughhouse 100 or so minutes, including a subplot dealing with Bap’s fugitive father, wanted for various IRA-implicated car bombings and played by Michael Fassbender.

This is all recent, roiling history, since Kneecap and its international popularity with dissident-loving, screw-the-establishment-backing millions worldwide became a thing a mere three years before COVID. (Kneecap’s next Chicago concert date, heading toward a sellout, is Sept. 27 at Concord Music Hall.) There’s a well-judged amount of rehearsal and concert footage in the film, with impish English-language subtitles darting here and there mid-song, with more conventional subtitling for dialogue scenes.

If “Kneecap” has a somewhat pushy sense of broad comedy or, in the final third, some predictable dramatic beats, its visual invention wins the day, because it’s so comfortably allied with the songs of protest and release. It moves like a streak, without a speck of solemnity, even when it’s focusing on the beauty of the language — whether describing sex, “stealing 20 from yer Da” for cocaine, or drug dealing (which these guys did). Or the more searching, poetic aspects of lives lived under siege.

You can enjoy “Kneecap” without thinking about the politics that made Belfast what it is, and isn’t, today. But that’s not really the way to watch anything so innately, inescapably political.

“Kneecap” — 3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for pervasive drug content and language, sexual content/nudity and some violence)

Running time: 1:45

How to watch: Now in theaters

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

Take, for instance, “The Instigators,” a buddy crime comedy that, after a limited theatrical rollout last week, lands this week on Apple TV+.

The movie is better than it has any right to be thanks largely to the chemistry of stars — and ol’ Boston pals — Matt Damon and Casey Affleck.

It’s better for the supporting work of talented Hong Chau and, to a lesser degree, by big-name bit players including Michael Stuhlbarg, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina and Paul Walter Hauser.

Last but not least, “The Instigators” benefits — greatly — from having a well-above-average director in Doug Liman, who long ago directed Damon in “The Bourne Identity” and keeps this romp engaging and moving along to, well, let’s say an acceptable ending.

Set in Beantown, “The Instigators” first introduces us to Damon’s Rory, a former Marine who hasn’t seen much go right in his life, in a session with psychiatrist Dr. Donna Rivera (Chau). He won’t reveal much to his caring doctor but does mention that he’d had the thought of ending his life in a year if things didn’t turn around for him.

“And when did you come up with this plan?” she asks.

“It was about a year ago.”

Desperate to generate a little more than $32,000 to address a situation with his son, Rory meets with gangster Mr. Besegai (Stuhlbarg), who wants to rip off Boston Mayor Miccelli (Rob Perlman) on what surely will prove to be his re-election night. Long on the take, Miccelli is expected to be greeted with bags of cash at his waterfront victory party.

For the job, Rory has been recruited by unspectacular Besegai lieutenant Scalvo (rapper and singer Jack Harlow), as has Cobby (Affleck), an ex-con we meet using a neighborhood kid to pass the breathalyzer on his motorcycle so he can start it.

Rory’s quiet, primarily talking only when asking one of his many logistical questions, while Cobby is a chatterbox, commenting, sarcastically, on this, that and the other. Both men frustrate Besegai and Scalvo, the latter also being a constant irritation to the former.

What could go wrong with this operation?

Well, it should come as no surprise, plenty, and soon enough Rory and Cobby are on the run, both from criminals — such as Booch (Hauser), who works for Besegai associate Richie DeChico (Molina) — and the cops — namely Frank Toomey (Rhames), who has an off-the-books relationship with Miccelli and is turned loose by him after the lads swipe something they’ll come to learn is of great value.

Before long, Dr. Rivera is roped into the affair, more or less agreeing to be taken hostage by Rory to provide some medical care to Cobby. She then proceeds to try to re-engage with Rory as a counselor, which is witnessed with bewilderment — and genuine curiosity — by Cobby, who takes an interest in this highly intelligent woman.

Damon scores some laughs as the criminal newbie, but “Manchester by the Sea” star Affleck is more consistently funny cracking-wise, even as he does it at a relaxed pace that befits the actor’s talents.

While Damon is more connected to Affleck’s brother, Ben Affleck — and “The Instigators” is the second movie to be produced by Damon and Ben Affleck’s company, Artists Equity, following last year’s “Air,” which featured both actors — Damon and Casey Affleck have an obvious comfort with each other even if their characters don’t. (The latter appeared in 1997’s “Good Will Hunting,” which, of course, helped to establish Damon and Ben Affleck as stars.)

Rory and Cobby constantly annoy each other, a dynamic with the possibility of becoming annoying but doesn’t.

When you stir Dr. Rivera into the mix, Chau more or less serves the same purpose as Selena Gomez in the hit Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building,” where she shakes up the dynamic of longtime partners-in-comedy Steve Martin and Martin Short. Chau doesn’t fit neatly with Damon and Affleck, which is fun.

It’s too bad Chau — an Academy Award nominee for her work in 2022’s “The Whale” whose credits also include “Downsizing” (2017) and “The Menu” (2022) — isn’t in more scenes. She adds something to each she gets.

And she gets many more than Stuhlbarg (“A Serious Man”), Molina (“Chocolat”) and Hauser (“Richard Jewell”), each of whom lends his gifts to only a few minutes of “The Instigators.” We are especially left wanting more of the impactful Stuhlbarg, intimidatingly bearded, as a career criminal at his wits’ end.

Rhames (“Pulp Fiction”) has a bit more to do, but he, too, is underutilized.

The aforementioned screenplay is the work of Chuck MacLean (“City on a Hill”) and Casey Affleck, who’ve known each other for years. MacLean is said to have written an early draft years ago, the script changing significantly when Affleck joined him to work on it.

It sounds as if the story told in “The Instigators” continued to evolve through shooting, Liman encouraging the cast to offer ideas and improvisation during the filming. It certainly has that feel.

Liman, whose credits also include 2005’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and 2014’s excellent “Edge of Tomorrow,” also was at the helm for this year’s guilty-pleasure, straight-to-Prime Video remake of “Road House.” If something has a chance to work, he’ll make it work.

As fun as it is, “The Instigators” certainly isn’t all it could have been. But while it may be rough around the edges, without the people involved, it could have been downright rough.

‘The Instigators’

Where: Apple TV+.

When: Aug. 9.

Rated: R for pervasive language and some violence.

Runtime: 1 hour, 41 minutes.

Stars (of four): 2.5.

About 400 people showed up at Miami’s O Cinema Wynwood and, for Igor Shteyrenberg and Marc Ferman, that was a success.

A decade later, the founders expect about 10,000 people to take part in this year’s Popcorn Frights, which runs Thursday, Aug. 8, through Sunday, Aug. 18, at two Fort Lauderdale movie houses and online via the festival’s website.

The 10th anniversary festival offers a lineup that ranges from new foreign and indie horror films to 1980s Hollywood slasher classics. And in a decidedly non-frightening twist, admission for most films is free.

“It’s our 10th anniversary, we wanted to give back to the community,” Ferman says.

Technically, the all-volunteer festival is using a pay-what-you-want pricing model: When booking tickets online, you’re given the option to pay as much or as little as you’d like. Donations are happily received but, the organizers stress, you don’t have to pay anything. That is, except for admission to a handful of special screenings.

Those who don’t want to miss anything can buy a ticket that guarantees seating for every screening — it costs $66.60. (Drop the zero to get the joke.)

For Shteyrenberg and Ferman, the open-door policy keeps with the philosophy of an event in which every dollar made has always been reinvested in the festival or given to the community.

“By opening these doors so widely, we hope to inspire the next generation of storytellers and creatives in South Florida,” Shteyrenberg says.

Screenings will take place at Savor Cinema and Paradigm Cinemas: Gateway Fort Lauderdale. The communal experience is the best way to see a film, but they also want to put on a festival that can include everybody, Shteyrenberg says. Hence the online programming.

“Popcorn Frights is deeply committed to promoting diversity and inclusivity, and our hybrid festival model is also an important testament to this core mission,” he says. “By offering multiple ways to engage with the festival, we’re able to bring together a diverse community of fans from different backgrounds and circumstances.

“Just as importantly, this inclusivity helps enrich the festival experience and creates a space where all voices can be heard and celebrated.”

Back when Shteyrenberg and Ferman began Popcorn Frights, they were frustrated by what they saw as other festivals’ lack of interest in genre films. To find good genre film festivals, according to Shteyrenberg, South Florida film fans had to travel to places like New York, Los Angeles or Austin.

The pair wanted to create a festival that was unabashedly about horror and rooted in community. As the festival has grown, Ferman and Shteyrenberg have worked to make it about more than 11 days of programming.

In addition to serving as one of the event venues, the Gateway theater now serves as the home of the festival’s year-round programming. In July, it hosted a Popcorn Frights screening of a remastered version of “The Shining.”

Over the years, the festival has also raised money for people affected by Hurricane Irma and the Surfside building collapse, as well as for Wynwood businesses during the 2016 Zika virus outbreak. The festival also “stood against (Florida’s) ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill that affected many of our friends and fans,” says Shteyrenberg.

Through all that, they’ve kept it defiantly indie.

“Popcorn Frights stands as one of the few truly independent festivals in the state, beholden to not a single foundation, organization, sponsor or financial entity,” Shteyrenberg says. “This freedom and autonomy have allowed us to push the boundaries and elevate the creativity of our programming each year, resulting in unique, truly one-of-a-kind events and experiences that have attracted thousands of fans.

“In an era where festival programming is often driven by corporate and business interests, what you find at Popcorn Frights is a purity and natural excitement that are rare in today’s festival landscape.”

The festival receives thousands of submissions from all over the world, according to the producers.

“What we aspire to find is the most twisted, hilarious, intelligent, horrifying and no-holds-barred badass cinema on this planet,” says Shteyrenberg.

For “Nightmare on Elm Street” fans, there will be an “Up All Night With Freddy Marathon.” Additionally, Tony Todd, who played the title role in 1992’s “Candyman,” will be on hand to receive the Popcorn Frights Golden Skull Award and give a special introduction to the film screening.

All in all, there should be no shortage of jump scares. Shteyrenberg says that during a frightening, polarizing time, “a good, healthy scream inside the safety and comfort of a theater” might be something people need. “After all, horror films don’t create fear. They release it.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Popcorn Frights

WHEN: Aug. 8-18

WHERE:

• Savor Cinema, 503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale
• Paradigm Cinemas: Gateway Fort Lauderdale, 1820 E. Sunrise Blvd.
• Online at watch.eventive.org/popcornfrights

COST: RSVP with pay-what-you-want pricing model. Some films have a fee, including “Candyman: Special Presentation” for $12. A $66.60 full-festival pass guarantees admission and reserved seating to all screenings, plus access to additional events.

INFORMATION: 305-573-7304; popcornfrights.com

This story was produced by Broward Arts Journalism Alliance (BAJA), an independent journalism program of the Broward County Cultural Division. Visit artscalendar.com for more stories about the arts in South Florida.

Growing up, before Blockbuster became the default, the nearest video store for me was a couple towns over, where the titles were listed in alphabetical order in a binder. You’d page through, pick a movie and then wait to see if it was in stock — a brief moment of uncertainty created an exhilaration all its own.

The convenience of streaming altered that process for the better, or so we tell ourselves. But studies have found that physical media still has a hold on us in quantifiable ways. “In five experiments, people ascribe less value to digital than to physical versions of the same good,” according to research conducted by Özgün Atasoy, who is a business school professor at the University of Warwick in England. He told me he and co-author Carey Morewedge “wanted to explore whether there is something psychologically unsatisfactory about digital goods compared to physical goods and, if so, identify what might be missing.”

The rise of streaming — the absolute and complete dominance of streaming — means retailers including Target and Best Buy are phasing out the sale of DVDs. Some audiences will greet that news with a shrug. Others will see this as yet another ominous sign that the industry is spinning down the drain, because finding a movie to watch on streaming has never come with the same anticipatory thrill of browsing and buying physical media.

Once a major source of revenue after a movie’s theatrical run, studios have become blatantly unenthusiastic about their DVD business (if it even exists). Ironically, the British-based retail chain HMV is reporting that despite a years-long decline, more customers are buying DVDs again. Among the factors cited: An overall frustration with titles coming and going from streaming platforms, and the regular increase in subscription prices. Maybe you also have doubts about the sustainability of streaming platforms as a business long term. It’s entirely possible that one or more of these services eventually just … collapses.

What researchers like Atasoy have found is that for many of us, the “difference in value comes down to feelings of ownership.” DVDs and other physical goods aren’t abstract concepts that exist in a cloud, but tangible objects, “which enhances the sense of control and ownership. This psychological ownership is a positive feeling that people are willing to pay more for.”

Talking about this column with my editor Doug George, he joked: “Should you need more images of VHS tapes or a real-live VCR machine, I might know where to find them: Middle shelf of the back room of my basement in a green Hefty tub.”

What compelled you to keep them around, I asked?

“Well, that’s a really good question. I almost never watch them. I think the bulk of that box is tapes I recorded some time way back and now they feel like artifacts. We’ve dug them out like once or twice over the years to show my daughters vintage Dave Letterman, some old TV commercials, old MTV. But 90% of it should just get tossed. Or maybe 100%.”

No, don’t throw them out!

“Do not send this stuff to the landfill. It has value and it’s useful — share it with your neighbors,” said Brian Morrison, who came up with the concept of volunteer-run, repurposed newspaper boxes called Free Blockbuster, where people can both offload and acquire movies. It’s a concept borrowed from the Little Free Library organization, but for VHS tapes and DVDs.

Here’s how the idea came about: “A friend of mine who works in the movie business was moving to New York and she had a big collection of DVDs she wasn’t going to bring with her. At the same time, LA Weekly, our free weekly newspaper, shut down physical distribution, but they didn’t take the boxes away. They left them on the street and they became commercial blight. And the third thing was, a friend of mine made a short film reminiscing about his time working at Blockbuster; I also worked at Blockbuster in high school. So I thought: We can take these movies, put them in old newspaper boxes, paint them blue and yellow and call them Free Blockbuster.”

A map of locations across the country can be found at FreeBlockbuster.org. In Chicago, there used to be a box set up in Logan Square, but the Tribune was unable to locate it. There’s another one in Bronzeville; alas, it contained only scraps of garbage as of last week.

“I think there is sometimes an expectation there will be a circulating selection, but it doesn’t work out that way,” Morrison said. “Also, this happens all the time, that someone has taken a sizable number of items from the box. More than their fair share. Which we can’t fault people for — we’ve been programmed to hoard stuff and all of this is free. So if you want to take a bunch of DVDs, which are basically worthless, out of a community box and try to sell them on eBay, I’m sorry, I feel for you. But it’s not worth worrying about, even though that question comes up a lot: What if someone steals everything? And my reply is: You can’t steal it, it’s free. Policing this is not your job. This is a community service. This is a gift you’re giving to your community.”

There’s a box in northwest suburban Elmwood Park that’s going strong and is shepherded by Don Shanahan, a film critic and editor-in-chief of Film Obsessive. His experience suggests Free Blockbuster works best when one person, or a group of people, commits to being consistent and enthusiastic custodians. Shanahan said titles move out of the box “like hotcakes,” so he refills the box once a week. “I could do it more frequently if I wanted to. I’ll do themes like Christmas in July, horror films in October and Oscar winners and nominees in March.” His stock of movies is supplied by “donations from local residents, shipments from downsizing faraway friends of mine who love the physical media cause I’m supporting, free overruns from the Elmwood Park Library and gifted extras from fellow film critics like myself.” He even has “a few donated DVD players that could go in the box “for people who need the devices to go with the movies.”

I asked Morrison if he had any theories about why we don’t get that same feeling of anticipation scrolling through a streaming app. “Streaming platforms are not designed to help you find something you want to watch, they’re designed to keep your attention and largely push you to things they’ve spent money on recently. It’s not about showing you the thing you want, it’s about showing you the thing they invested in.

“I always say Free Blockbuster is not about nostalgia, it is about the future,” he added. “I grew up in the video store era and on Friday nights, going to the video store was a thing to do as a family — to go to that place and run around and pick things up and say ‘What about this?’ That process was fun. Way more fun than scrolling through Netflix or Amazon. The greatest illustration of this now is when there are children or young adults who did not grow up going to Blockbuster and they still love visiting the box, looking through it and picking something out, holding it in their hand and reading the back. It’s the thrill of discovery.”

If studies show people are willing to spend more money on physical media, why aren’t studios taking advantage of that?

“They’re huge companies and things in the corporate world happen really slowly, so they’re not really nimble enough to react on a year-to-year basis,” Morrison said. “And media executives are out of touch because they’re living in a different economic strata than the rest of us. So for a kid in Chicago who doesn’t have the ability to pay for every streaming service, maybe having a media collection that you know you have access to is really valuable. I don’t think executives see that. And they’re also terrified of being old and out of touch. For the past few years, everyone said physical media is dead and streaming’s the new thing, and they don’t want to go back to ‘dead’ media.

“Streaming is a tool and we got really excited about the tool, but now we’ve overapplied the tool,” he said. And then Morrison got philosophical, which is exactly the kind of free association movies are supposed to inspire. “Convenience has been used to sell us any number of things, but what does even that mean? It’s easy and it’s quicker. But I still have a garden where I grow my own tomatoes. I can go get tomatoes at the grocery store much easier and quicker than I can grow them. But I enjoy growing the tomatoes. So this idea that we’re all supposed to want to do nothing all the time, like the idle rich? I don’t know if I subscribe to that.”

Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.

NEW YORK (AP) — After 10 days in theaters, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is already the highest-grossing R-rated movie ever, not accounting for inflation.

In its second weekend, the Marvel Studios blockbuster starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman continued to steamroll through movie theaters, collecting $97 million according to studio estimates Sunday. That raised its two-week total to $395.6 million, pushing it past the long-reigning top R-rated feature, “The Passion of the Christ,” which held that mark for 20 years with $370 million domestic.

Worldwide, the Shawn Levy-directed “Deadpool & Wolverine” has quickly amassed $824.1 million in ticket sales, a total that already surpasses the global hauls of the first two “Deadpool” films. The 2016 original grossed $782.6 million worldwide; the 2018 sequel collected $734.5 million.

The weekend’s primary challengers both struggled.

M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, “Trap,” managed a modest opening of $15.6 million at 3,181 theaters for Warner Bros. The film, starring Josh Hartnett as a serial killer hunted by police at a pop concert, didn’t screen for critics before opening day and scored lower in reviews (48% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) than Shyamalan’s films typically do. Audiences gave it a C+ CinemaScore.

With a budget of about $35 million, “Trap” didn’t need a huge opening, but may struggle to break even.

“This is a soft opening for an M. Night Shyamalan suspense crime thriller,” wrote David A. Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter for Franchise Entertainment. “The writer/director’s movies out-earn other original thrillers by a wide margin, and that’s true here, but this start is not on the level of recent Shyamalan films.”

The live-action “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” adapted from the classic kids book, also didn’t make much of a mark in theaters. The Sony Pictures release debuted with $6 million. It, too, got dinged by critics (28% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), though audiences (an A- CinemaScore) liked it more.

More details were revealed in the ensuing weeks, sometimes via Universal’s official podcast, sometimes presented as the back stories of the event’s original houses.

We’ll know more, probably, before HHN begins Aug. 30. For now, here are clues about what to expect in all 10 houses in one place.

• A Quiet Place – In a location where screams are standard fare, a shhhhhhh theme stands out. This house will be based on two “A Quiet Place” movies, which feature minimal dialogue and invisible creatures with super-hearing. How might that work?

“We haven’t seen how the guests interact with the house yet. So, really it’s kind of this contract with the guests as they go through. It’s like, ‘OK, if you make a noise, they will get you,” Charles Gray, senior show director, said in a Discover Universal podcast.

“I think it’ll be almost like a role-playing game,” Gray said. “Like, if you’re in it, if you’re really buying into this idea, you’re going to have a lot of fun.”

• Major Sweets Candy Factory – Sweets already hit the streets in an HHN scare zone in 2022. The house, set in October 1955, seems to feature the Major, who is suspected of murder, his business partner Miss Treats and a new character named Taffy. A Universal podcast, styled as a radio show with laugh track, throws in children on a field trip (school bus alert), secret ingredients, the missing McGrew family and weapons such as a “blood-soaked machete” and a baseball bat with steel spikes.

• Monstruos: The Monsters of Latin America – It’s got campfire lore (or is it campfire fact?) in the form of La Lechuza, the whistling El Silbon and the fanged, clawed, Tlabuelpuchi plus an ill-advised round of escondite. There’s a barn, a big bird, bosque, bloodiness and cowboy boots and, according to the podcast backstory, a cemetery, innards and the “horrid smell of death.” (Universal Studios Hollywood had a Monstruos house at its HHN last year)

• Universal Monsters: Eternal Bloodlines — It’s like ladies night, HHN style, with a story of Dracula’s daughter seeking revenge on the Van Helsing family plus She-Wolf, the Bride of Frankenstein and a mummified Egyptian princess.

• Goblin’s Feast – This house appears to be populated by orcs, trolls, elves, hobgoblins and a witch with pointy teeth and cracked black lips. A goblin family prepares for a holiday feast, but there are detours through a pub and a burial forest.

• Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – Scenes are inspired by the 2024 film of the same name, running from the ‘Busters’ containment facility to the New York City sewers.

• Insidious: the Further – Meet the Red-Faced Demon, the Bride in Black, KeyFace and the Man Who Can’t Breathe from the “Insidious” film series, which dates back to 2010. Also planned: multiple red doors.

• Triplets of Terror – Details are scarce for this house, but the “Barmy triplets birthday bash” involves re-creating their family’s murders, according to Universal social media.

• The Museum: Deadly Exhibits – “A folklore museum’s newest exhibit, the Rotting Stone, has released an evil spirit that decays everything,” according to the official HHN website.

• Slaughter Sinema 2 – The first house announcement was back in May during a Horror Nights panel at a Spooky Empire event. It’s a sequel to a 2018 house, and it will feature eight new (yet fictional) films, including “Heavy Metal Hell 3-D.” Six years ago, the Sentinel called the Sinema house “cheesy by design” in a good, popcorn-scented way.

More HHN notes

• Among the five scare zones will be Demon Queens, Swamp of the Undead and Torture Faire.

• The stage show is title “Nightmare Fuel: Nocturnal Circus,” and it will feature pyro, aerialists and “pulse-pounding rock rhythms,” Universal says.

• For the first time, Universal is offering a preview to the general public. Tickets for Premium Scream Night, set for Aug. 29, are selling for $350 for the limited capacity event, which includes food and non-alcoholic beverages plus access to all 10 haunted houses with shorter wait times and staggered entry.

• Among the HHN merchandise: Lil’ Boo travel tumbler (and plush pillow), T-shirts for each house and a redesigned Chucky popcorn bucket.

• Halloween Horror Nights runs on 48 select evenings Aug. 30-Nov. 3. For tickets and more information, go to halloweenhorrornights.com/orlando.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Threads account: @dbevil. X account: @themeparks. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.

FRIDAY

Uneasy riders: South Florida’s newest team, the Florida Freedom of the Professional Bull Riders league, will make their home debut this weekend during their inaugural homestand at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise. Featuring teenage phenom John Crimber, the No. 1 pick in the recent PBR draft, the Freedom will compete at 7:45 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2:45 p.m. Sunday. Tickets start at $20+, or $99+ for a three-day pass. Visit Instagram.com/flfreedompbr or pbr.com/teams/florida-freedom.

A new dish: Fort Lauderdale chef Paula DaSilva (once of Gordon Ramsay’s reality-TV competition “Hell’s Kitchen”) continues her monthly culinary series Paula’s Food Diaries at Burlock Coast Seafare & Spirits in Fort Lauderdale with an August menu featuring a favorite dish by celebrity chef and friend Aarón Sánchez. Debuting this weekend, Sánchez’s Cobia Tiradito ($23) is composed of thinly sliced cobia paired with Creole tomatoes, crispy hominy and an array of seasonings, dressed in a tiradito sauce made with yuzu juice and white soy sauce. It will be available at Burlock Coast, the waterfront restaurant at The Ritz-Carlton in Fort Lauderdale, through Aug. 31. Visit BurlockCoast.com.

Power trip: Teatro Avante’s 38th annual International Hispanic Theatre Festival of Miami at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts offers performances of “Disonancia” (Dissonance), prolific Havana-born playwright Abel González Melo’s compelling treatise on the lasting effects of authoritarian regimes on society. Performances (in Spanish with English supertitles) will be at 8:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $29-$34+ at ArshtCenter.org.

Weekend laughs: Comedian and South Florida native Brittany Brave, most widely known locally as a sassy Hits 97.3 radio personality, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday on the Box 2.0 stage at the Boca Black Box Center for the Arts in Boca Raton. Tickets cost $28+ at BocaBlackBox.com. … Cult-fave comic and sports podcaster Sam Morril (also an unrepentant Knicks fan) has performances at the Miami Improv at 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday, and 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets cost $30+ at MiamiImprov.com. … Veteran stand-up and talk-show fixture Steve Byrne will be at the Dania Improv in Dania Beach for performances at 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $22+ at DaniaImprov.com.

Weekend beers: Friday is International Beer Day, unlike every other day. Here are some ways to celebrate: NOBO Brewing Co. in Boynton Beach recently unveiled Dragon Fruit Imperial Blonde Ale with extra dragon — it checks in at 12% ABV. Visit Instagram.com/nobobrewing. … Funky Buddha Brewery is offering the IPA Maximum Effort, a marriage of blood orange and fiery habanero, on draft in the Oakland Park taproom. Visit Facebook.com/FunkyBuddhaBrew. … Tarpon River Brewing in downtown Fort Lauderdale will bring back its beloved Watermelon Wit for the first time in five years on Saturday, which is — as you know — National Watermelon Day. Visit Facebook.com/tarponriverbrewing.

Summer haze: Funky SoCal groovers Slightly Stoopid and Dirty Heads will unfurl their infectiously sunny soundtrack at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach on Friday at 6 p.m. (doors open at 4:30 p.m.). Common Kings and The Elovaters complete the bill. Tickets start at $45.15+, with $1 from every ticket sold going to the Maui Food Bank. Visit LiveNation.com.

Sunday worship: Twenty-five years after they formed on Long Island, emo heroes Taking Back Sunday will perform at Revolution Live at the Backyard in Fort Lauderdale on Friday at 7 p.m., on a bill with openers Citizen. The tour supports the album “152,” which was released in October. To the surprise of no one, the all-ages show is down to resale tickets starting at about $100+. Check availability at JoinTheRevolution.net.

Weekend movies: Some favorite female actors will be found on FLIFF screens this weekend: Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“Veep,” “Seinfeld”) delivers a powerful performance in A24 Films’ emotional fairy tale “Tuesday,” playing the mother of a teenage daughter as they face Death, in the form of a talking bird. The film will be shown at Savor Cinema in downtown Fort Lauderdale from Friday to Sunday. … Cinema Paradiso in Hollywood devotes its screen all weekend to “The Fabulous Four,” which follows a bachelorette celebration in Key West among friends played by Bette Midler, Susan Sarandon, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Megan Mullally. (The Daily Beast pronounced it “chintzy but pleasingly familiar — and very funny.”) For information on both films, visit FLIFF.com.

Two nights of Jonas: The forever-young Jonas Brothers bring the tour supporting their 2023 Jon Bellion-produced release “The Album” to Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood for performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets for both shows are available, starting at $55+. Visit MyHRL.com. 

Electric vehicle: A performance by Miami-based, Latin-funk fusionistas Electric Piquete is the centerpiece of Friday’s Art After Dark events at the Norton Museum of Art in downtown West Palm Beach. Art After Dark, with docent tours of the museum and art workshops (this week by guest teaching artist Gregory Dirr), runs from 5 to 10 p.m. Electric Piquete performs from 6 to 8 p.m. Art After Dark tickets cost $10, or $5 for students. Visit Norton.org.

SATURDAY

Saturday tributes: Nationally touring Taylor Swift simulator Rikki Lee Wilson will perform from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday at Galuppi’s in Pompano Beach. General admission tickets cost $20, or $10 for children age 12 and younger. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Visit Galuppis.com. … Turnstiles, Tony Monaco’s popular homage to Billy Joel, will return to The Funky Biscuit in Boca Raton at 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets start at $30+ for general-admission standing room. Visit FunkyBiscuit.com. … Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale will host The Linkin Park Tribute from Orlando and Miami-based Lavola’s excellent tribute to Radiohead on Saturday. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $15+. Visit JoinTheRevolution.net.

Emo night: More than just another night of sing-alongs, Emo Night Karaoke will allow you to sing your heart out to your favorite teary-eyed anthems in front of a live band. Taking place on Saturday at West Palm Beach music venue The Banyan Live (8199 Southern Blvd.), the 18-and-older event begins at 9 p.m., with doors opening at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $15. Visit TheBanyanLive.com.

Something different: In Margate on Saturday, Tribe Tea Lounge, “where the art of tea meets the magic of community,” will host TribeCon, with a gaming tournament, a $100 cosplay contest,  food trucks, DJs, vendors, raffles and more. The fun runs from 5 to 11 p.m. Admission is $5 in advance, $10 at the door (and includes a free drink). Tribe Tea Lounge is at 1448 N. State Road 7. Visit Instagram.com/tribetealounge.

SUNDAY

Fashionable brunch: Alert Lady Whistledown! Thrōw Social in downtown Delray Beach will be the setting for the Bridgerton Brunch on Sunday, a celebration of the Netflix cult hit that promises decadent dishes, stylish sips, photo ops, live music, games and a best “Bridgerton” outfit contest. There will be two seatings: 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and 2 to 4:30 p.m. Seats start at $50+ for a single spot at the bar and $100+ for a table for two. The most luxe option is a cabana for up to 10 people for $600+. Visit Facebook.com/throwsocialdelray.

Pure Kane: Platinum-selling country star Kane Brown brings his In The Air Tour to Hard Rock Live in Hollywood at 8 p.m. Sunday, with scattered seats starting at $65+. Dylan Schneider (“Bad Decisions,” “Ain’t Missin’ You”) opens. Visit MyHRL.com.  

LOOKING AHEAD

Sweet dreams are made of this: Funky Buddha Brewery and Wilton Creamery will again collaborate on the popular Ice Cream and Beer Pairing on Thursday, Aug. 8, with five beers presented alongside five small-batch ice cream servings. Tickets cost $25 plus a 20% gratuity. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. Visit FunkyBuddha.com.

Let’s get rocked: Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Def Leppard will bring their stadium-scale hits to the intimate confines of Hard Rock Live in Hollywood on Friday, Aug. 9. Scattered tickets remain, starting at $259+. Visit MyHRL.com. 

‘Girls’ night out: Influential podcaster, TikToker and author Drew Afualo and sister Deison will be at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 9, on the “Two Idiot Girls Live” tour supporting Drew’s patriarchy-smashing manifesto “Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve.” Tickets to the all-ages appearance cost $30.50+. Visit JoinTheRevolution.net.

Garden memories: The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach hosts its annual Obon Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 10-11. The traditional Japanese festival and holiday honors the spirits of ancestors, who make a brief return home to visit their living relatives. Tickets are on sale:  $16 for adults; $10 for children (free for museum members). Visit Morikami.org.

Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.

At the end of 2020, there began a wave of films that spoke to the COVID-19 pandemic, either explicitly, or through the limits of their production. Some films addressed the quarantine and lockdown and the way that our lives changed, while others simply told stories with just a few people in a single location, easier to film safely.

But four years out from the onset of the pandemic, there are now films that speak to the 2020 pandemic by taking on another pandemic, a century ago, the 1918 influenza pandemic. “Coup!,” written and directed by Joseph Schuman and Austin Stark, is a sprightly class satire set during this era, though the issues it tackles feel all too timely, which is something all good period pieces should strive to do.

The 1918 setting throws questions of race and class into stark relief in this story, which is unhindered by the complex political issues of 2020. But one of the film’s antiheroes, Floyd Monk (Peter Sarsgaard) speaks plainly as to what the 2020 pandemic taught us when he tells his employer’s wife, Julia (Sarah Gadon), that, “nature has a way of creeping into the modern world, bringing out the beast in some and the beauty in others.” Many would agree that the turmoil and fear of the pandemic and lockdown revealed some of our basest human instincts and tendencies, in ways with which we are still grappling.

Monk’s employer is one Jay Horton (Billy Magnussen), a wealthy trust fund kid and proud muckraker. He’s holed up with his family and servants at their palatial estate on Egg Island, waiting out the pandemic, while hammering out fiery newspaper columns demanding the government shut down businesses to protect the working class from the spread of influenza. We meet Monk as he assumes another man’s identity and makes his way to the island to present himself as the Horton family’s latest personal chef.

But while Monk cooks up vegetable-forward meals for the staunchly plant-based Horton, he also seizes the opportunity to foment rebellion among the household, starting with the staff. A diverse group made up of an African American governess (Skye P. Marshall), a Turkish driver (Faran Tahir) and an Irish housekeeper (Kristine Nielsen), Monk himself is a veteran of the Spanish-American War with a vaguely Louisiana accent; he has no purchase for the rules of Horton’s home, especially when the lord of the manor is such an obvious hypocrite.

The writer rattles off missives condemning the Wilson administration and falsely positioning himself at the center of protests in New York City, all while ensconced in luxurious isolation, waited on hand and foot. Monk instantly chafes at the hierarchies imposed in the Horton home, and when the island is cut off from ferries and grocery stores are closed, the household becomes dependent on the cook to provide. As the home devolves into something like “Lord of the Flies,” our hedonistic interloper uses this opening to become a usurper.

“Coup!” is a clever metaphor using this one home to represent a microcosm of society and the 1918 pandemic to speak to our current realities that see a lower and middle class becoming resentful of the hoarding and hierarchies established by a ruling class — especially an intellectual ruling class who speak out of both sides of their mouth, arguing for progressive causes and workers’ rights, while enjoying the spoils of their own privilege.

Sarsgaard and Magnussen are two terrifically embodied actors who are quite skilled at what they do, and which they do here specifically very well: Magnussen the pompous, self-important rich boy, Sarsgaard the earthy, sly, seductive trickster. The wonderful thing is that the actors could swap roles and both would still excel. Gadon plays the feminine foil to both actors with ease.

Shot by Conor Murphy with a woodsy glow that evokes the luxury of the grand manor’s interiors and infused with sepia-tinted vintage quality that indicates the period setting, there’s a richness and warmth to “Coup!” that belies the rather cynical and cutting nature of the story. While there are few elements of the narrative and extra characters that are left at loose ends, and therefore feel extraneous, they aren’t necessary for the communication of the central themes and ideas of class warfare and hypocrisy. Anchored by typically strong performances from Magnussen and Sarsgaard, “Coup!” is a tasty morsel of social commentary about the problems that continue to plague our world.

‘COUP!’

3 stars out of 4

No MPA rating (some sexuality and violence)

Running time: 1:38

How to watch: In theaters Aug. 2

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC