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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine shouldn’t have worked. The franchise was founded on ideas of exploration, “Wagon Train to the stars,” as creator Gene Roddenberry put it. It originally focused on a trio so iconic that producers worried that fans would reject Patrick Stewart and LeVar Burton on the bridge of a new Enterprise. Deep […]

The post The Best Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Episodes, Ranked appeared first on Den of Geek.

They say everyone has a story worth telling, but Melissa G. Moore really has a story worth telling.

Moore is the daughter of Keith Hunter Jesperson, a real-life serial killer known as The Happy Face Killer who murdered at least eight women during the early ‘90s. She has shared details of her unique upbringing on talk shows, books, podcasts, and more. Now her life is getting the scripted television treatment on Paramount+ with the Jennifer Cacicio-created, Michael Showalter-directed series Happy Face.

“I’ve told my story in all these mediums, but the one thing that’s been missing is what it’s really like to experience what I experienced,” Moore says. “It’s one thing to say ‘this is what happened to me,’ it’s another thing to give them the emotional elements.”

Happy Face indeed spares few details about what it’s like to be the child of a killer. Primarily set after Jesperson has been discovered, convicted, and imprisoned, the eight-episode series stars Annaleigh Ashford as Moore as she endures ongoing harassment from her father and works to ensure that the Happy Face Killer’s victims receive justice. 

“I’ve been really lucky throughout my career to have played a few real-life people, and that was really helpful jumping into this incredible story,” Ashford says. “The best part of getting to play this character is that the real Melissa has such a beautiful and authentic heart. That’s a real gift—to play someone who really cares about others before she cares about herself.”

Dennis Quaid steps into the role of Keith Jesperson, dubbed the Happy Face Killer due to his penchant for scribbling smiley faces in correspondence with authorities. Jesperson is currently 69 years old and continues to torment his daughter from behind bars in Oregon State Penitentiary with unwanted letters. 

“[Happy Face] shows what it’s like to have these letters still coming into my mailbox, him watching my Instagram, strangers reaching out to me, just the emotions of what that’s like, and the emotions of what my children go through, having a grandfather who’s a serial killer,” Moore says.

Moore credits Ashford and Quaid’s performances with helping her better understand her own dynamic with her father.

“They got the emotional entanglement, how toxic it was,” says Moore. “There was always going to be a part of me that wishes that this wasn’t true, that I really did have a dad. Dennis knows that my desire is to have a father and how my real father plays on that as manipulation.”

“One of the things that Dennis did so beautifully was he was able to play both people. He was able to play the man before the crime and the man after the crime,” Ashford adds. “It was a thrill to act with him. I feel like we had a really natural parental chemistry.”

In unpacking Moore’s trauma, Happy Face walks a familiar true crime tightrope by examining the dark psyche of a killer while still respecting the humanity of his victims. 

“I want to tell my story, but when I tell my story, I’m also giving attention to my serial killer father,” Moore says of the dilemma. “But I’m also giving attention to the victims of my father and the victims’ family members. I have to respect them. What you’ll see in this series is sometimes, victims’ family members want autonomy; they want privacy. Sometimes, my wishes are in conflict with their desires. There are very complex and delicate conversations that I have privately with survivors.”

Family ties loom large in Happy Face—not only in the twisted entanglement between a killer father and an innocent daughter but also in the far more healing relationship among Moore, her husband Ben (James Wolk), and their children, Hazel (Khiyla Aynne) and Max (Benjamin Mackey).

“It’s about family,” Ashford says. “When things are darkest, there always has to be light. I think that’s something special about this show.”

The first two episodes of Happy Face premiere Thursday, March 20 on Paramount+.

The post Exclusive First Look at Happy Face: A Real Life Serial Killer Story from a New Perspective appeared first on Den of Geek.

This week, fantasy fans welcome back Prime Video’s Wheel of Time for its third season, comedy fans in the UK welcome the fourth and final run of excellent televangelist sitcom The Righteous Gemstones, and drama fans welcome the arrival of the brilliant Adolescence on Netflix. That last one is a tough but compelling watch from […]

The post UK TV Premiere Dates: 2025 Calendar appeared first on Den of Geek.

They say everyone has a story worth telling, but Melissa G. Moore really has a story worth telling.

Moore is the daughter of Keith Hunter Jesperson, a real-life serial killer known as The Happy Face Killer who murdered at least eight women during the early ‘90s. She has shared details of her unique upbringing on talk shows, books, podcasts, and more. Now her life is getting the scripted television treatment on Paramount+ with the Jennifer Cacicio-created, Michael Showalter-directed series Happy Face.

“I’ve told my story in all these mediums, but the one thing that’s been missing is what it’s really like to experience what I experienced,” Moore says. “It’s one thing to say ‘this is what happened to me,’ it’s another thing to give them the emotional elements.”

Happy Face indeed spares few details about what it’s like to be the child of a killer. Primarily set after Jesperson has been discovered, convicted, and imprisoned, the eight-episode series stars Annaleigh Ashford as Moore as she endures ongoing harassment from her father and works to ensure that the Happy Face Killer’s victims receive justice. 

“I’ve been really lucky throughout my career to have played a few real-life people, and that was really helpful jumping into this incredible story,” Ashford says. “The best part of getting to play this character is that the real Melissa has such a beautiful and authentic heart. That’s a real gift—to play someone who really cares about others before she cares about herself.”

Dennis Quaid steps into the role of Keith Jesperson, dubbed the Happy Face Killer due to his penchant for scribbling smiley faces in correspondence with authorities. Jesperson is currently 69 years old and continues to torment his daughter from behind bars in Oregon State Penitentiary with unwanted letters. 

“[Happy Face] shows what it’s like to have these letters still coming into my mailbox, him watching my Instagram, strangers reaching out to me, just the emotions of what that’s like, and the emotions of what my children go through, having a grandfather who’s a serial killer,” Moore says.

Moore credits Ashford and Quaid’s performances with helping her better understand her own dynamic with her father.

“They got the emotional entanglement, how toxic it was,” says Moore. “There was always going to be a part of me that wishes that this wasn’t true, that I really did have a dad. Dennis knows that my desire is to have a father and how my real father plays on that as manipulation.”

“One of the things that Dennis did so beautifully was he was able to play both people. He was able to play the man before the crime and the man after the crime,” Ashford adds. “It was a thrill to act with him. I feel like we had a really natural parental chemistry.”

In unpacking Moore’s trauma, Happy Face walks a familiar true crime tightrope by examining the dark psyche of a killer while still respecting the humanity of his victims. 

“I want to tell my story, but when I tell my story, I’m also giving attention to my serial killer father,” Moore says of the dilemma. “But I’m also giving attention to the victims of my father and the victims’ family members. I have to respect them. What you’ll see in this series is sometimes, victims’ family members want autonomy; they want privacy. Sometimes, my wishes are in conflict with their desires. There are very complex and delicate conversations that I have privately with survivors.”

Family ties loom large in Happy Face—not only in the twisted entanglement between a killer father and an innocent daughter but also in the far more healing relationship among Moore, her husband Ben (James Wolk), and their children, Hazel (Khiyla Aynne) and Max (Benjamin Mackey).

“It’s about family,” Ashford says. “When things are darkest, there always has to be light. I think that’s something special about this show.”

The first two episodes of Happy Face premiere Thursday, March 20 on Paramount+.

The post Exclusive First Look at Happy Face: A Real Life Serial Killer Story from a New Perspective appeared first on Den of Geek.

They say everyone has a story worth telling, but Melissa G. Moore really has a story worth telling. Moore is the daughter of Keith Hunter Jesperson, a real-life serial killer known as The Happy Face Killer who murdered at least eight women during the early ‘90s. She has shared details of her unique upbringing on […]

The post Exclusive First Look at Happy Face: A Real Life Serial Killer Story from a New Perspective appeared first on Den of Geek.

They say everyone has a story worth telling, but Melissa G. Moore really has a story worth telling.

Moore is the daughter of Keith Hunter Jesperson, a real-life serial killer known as The Happy Face Killer who murdered at least eight women during the early ‘90s. She has shared details of her unique upbringing on talk shows, books, podcasts, and more. Now her life is getting the scripted television treatment on Paramount+ with the Jennifer Cacicio-created, Michael Showalter-directed series Happy Face.

“I’ve told my story in all these mediums, but the one thing that’s been missing is what it’s really like to experience what I experienced,” Moore says. “It’s one thing to say ‘this is what happened to me,’ it’s another thing to give them the emotional elements.”

Happy Face indeed spares few details about what it’s like to be the child of a killer. Primarily set after Jesperson has been discovered, convicted, and imprisoned, the eight-episode series stars Annaleigh Ashford as Moore as she endures ongoing harassment from her father and works to ensure that the Happy Face Killer’s victims receive justice. 

“I’ve been really lucky throughout my career to have played a few real-life people, and that was really helpful jumping into this incredible story,” Ashford says. “The best part of getting to play this character is that the real Melissa has such a beautiful and authentic heart. That’s a real gift—to play someone who really cares about others before she cares about herself.”

Dennis Quaid steps into the role of Keith Jesperson, dubbed the Happy Face Killer due to his penchant for scribbling smiley faces in correspondence with authorities. Jesperson is currently 69 years old and continues to torment his daughter from behind bars in Oregon State Penitentiary with unwanted letters. 

“[Happy Face] shows what it’s like to have these letters still coming into my mailbox, him watching my Instagram, strangers reaching out to me, just the emotions of what that’s like, and the emotions of what my children go through, having a grandfather who’s a serial killer,” Moore says.

Moore credits Ashford and Quaid’s performances with helping her better understand her own dynamic with her father.

“They got the emotional entanglement, how toxic it was,” says Moore. “There was always going to be a part of me that wishes that this wasn’t true, that I really did have a dad. Dennis knows that my desire is to have a father and how my real father plays on that as manipulation.”

“One of the things that Dennis did so beautifully was he was able to play both people. He was able to play the man before the crime and the man after the crime,” Ashford adds. “It was a thrill to act with him. I feel like we had a really natural parental chemistry.”

In unpacking Moore’s trauma, Happy Face walks a familiar true crime tightrope by examining the dark psyche of a killer while still respecting the humanity of his victims. 

“I want to tell my story, but when I tell my story, I’m also giving attention to my serial killer father,” Moore says of the dilemma. “But I’m also giving attention to the victims of my father and the victims’ family members. I have to respect them. What you’ll see in this series is sometimes, victims’ family members want autonomy; they want privacy. Sometimes, my wishes are in conflict with their desires. There are very complex and delicate conversations that I have privately with survivors.”

Family ties loom large in Happy Face—not only in the twisted entanglement between a killer father and an innocent daughter but also in the far more healing relationship among Moore, her husband Ben (James Wolk), and their children, Hazel (Khiyla Aynne) and Max (Benjamin Mackey).

“It’s about family,” Ashford says. “When things are darkest, there always has to be light. I think that’s something special about this show.”

The first two episodes of Happy Face premiere Thursday, March 20 on Paramount+.

The post Exclusive First Look at Happy Face: A Real Life Serial Killer Story from a New Perspective appeared first on Den of Geek.

With a career that stretches back to 1984, Keanu Reeves has had many iconic roles. He was the warm-hearted doofus Ted “Theodore” Logan in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. He was Neo, the would-be One who knows Kung Fu from The Matrix. He was the Baba Yaga in John Wick. But Reeves’ most defining role […]

The post Constantine Is the Role That Changed Everything For Keanu Reeves appeared first on Den of Geek.

They say everyone has a story worth telling, but Melissa G. Moore really has a story worth telling.

Moore is the daughter of Keith Hunter Jesperson, a real-life serial killer known as The Happy Face Killer who murdered at least eight women during the early ‘90s. She has shared details of her unique upbringing on talk shows, books, podcasts, and more. Now her life is getting the scripted television treatment on Paramount+ with the Jennifer Cacicio-created, Michael Showalter-directed series Happy Face.

“I’ve told my story in all these mediums, but the one thing that’s been missing is what it’s really like to experience what I experienced,” Moore says. “It’s one thing to say ‘this is what happened to me,’ it’s another thing to give them the emotional elements.”

Happy Face indeed spares few details about what it’s like to be the child of a killer. Primarily set after Jesperson has been discovered, convicted, and imprisoned, the eight-episode series stars Annaleigh Ashford as Moore as she endures ongoing harassment from her father and works to ensure that the Happy Face Killer’s victims receive justice. 

“I’ve been really lucky throughout my career to have played a few real-life people, and that was really helpful jumping into this incredible story,” Ashford says. “The best part of getting to play this character is that the real Melissa has such a beautiful and authentic heart. That’s a real gift—to play someone who really cares about others before she cares about herself.”

Dennis Quaid steps into the role of Keith Jesperson, dubbed the Happy Face Killer due to his penchant for scribbling smiley faces in correspondence with authorities. Jesperson is currently 69 years old and continues to torment his daughter from behind bars in Oregon State Penitentiary with unwanted letters. 

“[Happy Face] shows what it’s like to have these letters still coming into my mailbox, him watching my Instagram, strangers reaching out to me, just the emotions of what that’s like, and the emotions of what my children go through, having a grandfather who’s a serial killer,” Moore says.

Moore credits Ashford and Quaid’s performances with helping her better understand her own dynamic with her father.

“They got the emotional entanglement, how toxic it was,” says Moore. “There was always going to be a part of me that wishes that this wasn’t true, that I really did have a dad. Dennis knows that my desire is to have a father and how my real father plays on that as manipulation.”

“One of the things that Dennis did so beautifully was he was able to play both people. He was able to play the man before the crime and the man after the crime,” Ashford adds. “It was a thrill to act with him. I feel like we had a really natural parental chemistry.”

In unpacking Moore’s trauma, Happy Face walks a familiar true crime tightrope by examining the dark psyche of a killer while still respecting the humanity of his victims. 

“I want to tell my story, but when I tell my story, I’m also giving attention to my serial killer father,” Moore says of the dilemma. “But I’m also giving attention to the victims of my father and the victims’ family members. I have to respect them. What you’ll see in this series is sometimes, victims’ family members want autonomy; they want privacy. Sometimes, my wishes are in conflict with their desires. There are very complex and delicate conversations that I have privately with survivors.”

Family ties loom large in Happy Face—not only in the twisted entanglement between a killer father and an innocent daughter but also in the far more healing relationship among Moore, her husband Ben (James Wolk), and their children, Hazel (Khiyla Aynne) and Max (Benjamin Mackey).

“It’s about family,” Ashford says. “When things are darkest, there always has to be light. I think that’s something special about this show.”

The first two episodes of Happy Face premiere Thursday, March 20 on Paramount+.

The post Exclusive First Look at Happy Face: A Real Life Serial Killer Story from a New Perspective appeared first on Den of Geek.

They did it with baking. They did it with sewing. They did it with pottery. Can they do it with chess? By adding enough double entendres, excitable co-presenters and ludicrously overstated stakes, can they turn another largely non-verbal hobby that people occupy themselves with of an evening into a workable television format? No they can’t, […]

The post Chess Masters: The Endgame Proves That No, Chess Is Not a Spectator Sport appeared first on Den of Geek.

They say everyone has a story worth telling, but Melissa G. Moore really has a story worth telling.

Moore is the daughter of Keith Hunter Jesperson, a real-life serial killer known as The Happy Face Killer who murdered at least eight women during the early ‘90s. She has shared details of her unique upbringing on talk shows, books, podcasts, and more. Now her life is getting the scripted television treatment on Paramount+ with the Jennifer Cacicio-created, Michael Showalter-directed series Happy Face.

“I’ve told my story in all these mediums, but the one thing that’s been missing is what it’s really like to experience what I experienced,” Moore says. “It’s one thing to say ‘this is what happened to me,’ it’s another thing to give them the emotional elements.”

Happy Face indeed spares few details about what it’s like to be the child of a killer. Primarily set after Jesperson has been discovered, convicted, and imprisoned, the eight-episode series stars Annaleigh Ashford as Moore as she endures ongoing harassment from her father and works to ensure that the Happy Face Killer’s victims receive justice. 

“I’ve been really lucky throughout my career to have played a few real-life people, and that was really helpful jumping into this incredible story,” Ashford says. “The best part of getting to play this character is that the real Melissa has such a beautiful and authentic heart. That’s a real gift—to play someone who really cares about others before she cares about herself.”

Dennis Quaid steps into the role of Keith Jesperson, dubbed the Happy Face Killer due to his penchant for scribbling smiley faces in correspondence with authorities. Jesperson is currently 69 years old and continues to torment his daughter from behind bars in Oregon State Penitentiary with unwanted letters. 

“[Happy Face] shows what it’s like to have these letters still coming into my mailbox, him watching my Instagram, strangers reaching out to me, just the emotions of what that’s like, and the emotions of what my children go through, having a grandfather who’s a serial killer,” Moore says.

Moore credits Ashford and Quaid’s performances with helping her better understand her own dynamic with her father.

“They got the emotional entanglement, how toxic it was,” says Moore. “There was always going to be a part of me that wishes that this wasn’t true, that I really did have a dad. Dennis knows that my desire is to have a father and how my real father plays on that as manipulation.”

“One of the things that Dennis did so beautifully was he was able to play both people. He was able to play the man before the crime and the man after the crime,” Ashford adds. “It was a thrill to act with him. I feel like we had a really natural parental chemistry.”

In unpacking Moore’s trauma, Happy Face walks a familiar true crime tightrope by examining the dark psyche of a killer while still respecting the humanity of his victims. 

“I want to tell my story, but when I tell my story, I’m also giving attention to my serial killer father,” Moore says of the dilemma. “But I’m also giving attention to the victims of my father and the victims’ family members. I have to respect them. What you’ll see in this series is sometimes, victims’ family members want autonomy; they want privacy. Sometimes, my wishes are in conflict with their desires. There are very complex and delicate conversations that I have privately with survivors.”

Family ties loom large in Happy Face—not only in the twisted entanglement between a killer father and an innocent daughter but also in the far more healing relationship among Moore, her husband Ben (James Wolk), and their children, Hazel (Khiyla Aynne) and Max (Benjamin Mackey).

“It’s about family,” Ashford says. “When things are darkest, there always has to be light. I think that’s something special about this show.”

The first two episodes of Happy Face premiere Thursday, March 20 on Paramount+.

The post Exclusive First Look at Happy Face: A Real Life Serial Killer Story from a New Perspective appeared first on Den of Geek.

From returning elder statesmen to the next wave of artists and producers fusing musical genres, Austin is packed this year with pioneer performers. With EDM, electropunk, country, grunge, indie, goth, rap, hip hop, Americana, R&B and more… music lovers can experience a rainbow of categorization-defying styles. With so many acts spanning the festival’s venues, we’ve […]

The post The Biggest Bands and Artists at the SXSW 2025 Music Festival appeared first on Den of Geek.

A film festival without documentaries is like a day without sunshine. Thankfully, South by Southwest has always brought the goods when it comes to non-fiction filmmaking.

The 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival is filled with compelling documentary features receiving their World, North American, or U.S. premieres. From the pastoral and thought-provoking Arrest the Midwife to the chilling Age of Disclosure to a Marc Maron project that asks Are We Good? – here are the docs to watch this year in Austin.

Arrest the Midwife

What does it fully mean to have the freedom of choice when it comes to childbirth? That understanding is going to be examined in Arrest the Midwife, a new documentary from director/producer Elaine Epstein. The same filmmaker who gave the world the Sundance and Emmy-nominated doc State of Denial, Epstein’s Arrest the Midwife picks up where the media fallout left off after three homebirth midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities were arrested in upstate New York. Their detainment ignited a media firestorm and a wave of legislation, as well as a debate about just what freedom of choice, and maternal health, really means.

The Python Hunt

You might not know this, but Florida can be a really WEIRD place. Case in point: this new doc about a group of amateur bounty hunters who compete in a 10-night, government-sanctioned contest to see who can remove (read: kill) the most Burmese pythons, invasive snakes that threaten the Everglades ecosystem. Filmmaker Xander Robin, the director behind the very weird 2016 horror fantasy Are We Not Cats, sheds light on this most Floridian of conservation efforts.

Remaining Native

Thanks to recent works such as Reservation Dogs and Sugarcane, pop culture is finally gaining awareness of Indian boarding schools, a particularly shameful chapter in American history. Emmy-nominated Haudenosaunee director Paige Bethmann, who recently made the list of DOC NYC’s 40 under 40 documentary filmmakers to watch, continues that conversation with Remaining Native.

Bethmann’s film focuses on 17-year-old Ku Stevens, whose running feats continue the work of his grandfather, who escaped from a boarding school decades earlier. As he works to make a collegiate running team and distinguish himself in his sport, Stevens refuses to let the country forget what happened to his family. Remaining Native chronicles everything from Stevens’ achievements to investigations of artifacts stolen from Native peoples.

The Spies Among Us

The Spies Among Us offers one of the more timely entries at SXSW. Directors Jamie Coughlin Silverman and Gabriel Silverman follow a former victim of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, as he confronts his one-time tormenters. The Spies Among Us cuts through rhetoric about dictatorship to remind viewers of the fundamental cost. Fearless but empathetic, The Spies Among Us should be essential viewing for anyone worried about the world today.

The Age of Disclosure

The Age of Disclosure offers an irresistible premise. Director Dan Farah speaks to 34 members of the American government, including high-ranking officials in the military and intelligence community, about the existence of aliens. The film purports to reveal an 80-year effort by U.S. leaders to hide findings about non-human intelligent life, even battling against other nations to protect their information.

While that concept alone makes The Age of Disclosure a can’t miss, and materials for the film play up the ‘90s paranoia of the concept with an aesthetic that recalls The X-Files, Farah has more than sensationalism in mind. The Age of Disclosure also promises to explore the impact of government secrets on the populations they’re supposed to represent. 

Are We Good?

Marc Maron might be the most influential comedian of our generation, and yet most people can’t name one of his bits. That’s because Maron, whose stand-up and acting career goes back to 1987, rose to prominence with his podcast WTF?. Part comedy insider chat show, part therapy session, WTF? revealed Maron as a shockingly vulnerable and insightful interviewer, someone who unlocked the central appeal of standup comedy.

For Are We Good?, director Steven Feinartz traces Maron’s life and career. The film touches on everything from his childhood and early career to the public explosion of his very personal podcast to the loss of his partner, indie filmmaker and SXSW legend Lynn Shelton. Are We Good? promises to be classic Maron: raw, moving, and hilarious. 

Dear Tomorrow

Since 2009, Danish filmmaker Kaspar Astrup Schröder has explored odd corners of the world, as in his parkour documentary My Playground (2009) or 2018’s Fantasy Fantasy, about two girls with autism. For Dear Tomorrow, Schröder returns to one of his favorite locations to tell the story of lonely Japanese men.

Dear Tomorrow focuses on a mental health hotline that helps men in crisis, showing not only the difficult circumstances under which these professionals work but also the incredible size of the loneliness epidemic. Bleak as that sounds, Schröder always finds a human, empathetic core for his stories. Dear Tomorrow continues in that vein, honoring their dignity and never allowing the men to become mere statistics on a government chart.

The post SXSW 2025 Documentary Preview: The Biggest Doc Premieres from Austin appeared first on Den of Geek.

The best Saturday Night Live hosts remind us how important that role is. Through ups and downs, one of the best reasons to tune into SNL is to see what that week’s host will do. Some hosts quickly discover that they are not fit for the unique world of live sketch comedy. Others exceed all […]

The post The 12 Best Saturday Night Live Hosts Ever appeared first on Den of Geek.

A film festival without documentaries is like a day without sunshine. Thankfully, South by Southwest has always brought the goods when it comes to non-fiction filmmaking.

The 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival is filled with compelling documentary features receiving their World, North American, or U.S. premieres. From the pastoral and thought-provoking Arrest the Midwife to the chilling Age of Disclosure to a Marc Maron project that asks Are We Good? – here are the docs to watch this year in Austin.

Arrest the Midwife

What does it fully mean to have the freedom of choice when it comes to childbirth? That understanding is going to be examined in Arrest the Midwife, a new documentary from director/producer Elaine Epstein. The same filmmaker who gave the world the Sundance and Emmy-nominated doc State of Denial, Epstein’s Arrest the Midwife picks up where the media fallout left off after three homebirth midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities were arrested in upstate New York. Their detainment ignited a media firestorm and a wave of legislation, as well as a debate about just what freedom of choice, and maternal health, really means.

The Python Hunt

You might not know this, but Florida can be a really WEIRD place. Case in point: this new doc about a group of amateur bounty hunters who compete in a 10-night, government-sanctioned contest to see who can remove (read: kill) the most Burmese pythons, invasive snakes that threaten the Everglades ecosystem. Filmmaker Xander Robin, the director behind the very weird 2016 horror fantasy Are We Not Cats, sheds light on this most Floridian of conservation efforts.

Remaining Native

Thanks to recent works such as Reservation Dogs and Sugarcane, pop culture is finally gaining awareness of Indian boarding schools, a particularly shameful chapter in American history. Emmy-nominated Haudenosaunee director Paige Bethmann, who recently made the list of DOC NYC’s 40 under 40 documentary filmmakers to watch, continues that conversation with Remaining Native.

Bethmann’s film focuses on 17-year-old Ku Stevens, whose running feats continue the work of his grandfather, who escaped from a boarding school decades earlier. As he works to make a collegiate running team and distinguish himself in his sport, Stevens refuses to let the country forget what happened to his family. Remaining Native chronicles everything from Stevens’ achievements to investigations of artifacts stolen from Native peoples.

The Spies Among Us

The Spies Among Us offers one of the more timely entries at SXSW. Directors Jamie Coughlin Silverman and Gabriel Silverman follow a former victim of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, as he confronts his one-time tormenters. The Spies Among Us cuts through rhetoric about dictatorship to remind viewers of the fundamental cost. Fearless but empathetic, The Spies Among Us should be essential viewing for anyone worried about the world today.

The Age of Disclosure

The Age of Disclosure offers an irresistible premise. Director Dan Farah speaks to 34 members of the American government, including high-ranking officials in the military and intelligence community, about the existence of aliens. The film purports to reveal an 80-year effort by U.S. leaders to hide findings about non-human intelligent life, even battling against other nations to protect their information.

While that concept alone makes The Age of Disclosure a can’t miss, and materials for the film play up the ‘90s paranoia of the concept with an aesthetic that recalls The X-Files, Farah has more than sensationalism in mind. The Age of Disclosure also promises to explore the impact of government secrets on the populations they’re supposed to represent. 

Are We Good?

Marc Maron might be the most influential comedian of our generation, and yet most people can’t name one of his bits. That’s because Maron, whose stand-up and acting career goes back to 1987, rose to prominence with his podcast WTF?. Part comedy insider chat show, part therapy session, WTF? revealed Maron as a shockingly vulnerable and insightful interviewer, someone who unlocked the central appeal of standup comedy.

For Are We Good?, director Steven Feinartz traces Maron’s life and career. The film touches on everything from his childhood and early career to the public explosion of his very personal podcast to the loss of his partner, indie filmmaker and SXSW legend Lynn Shelton. Are We Good? promises to be classic Maron: raw, moving, and hilarious. 

Dear Tomorrow

Since 2009, Danish filmmaker Kaspar Astrup Schröder has explored odd corners of the world, as in his parkour documentary My Playground (2009) or 2018’s Fantasy Fantasy, about two girls with autism. For Dear Tomorrow, Schröder returns to one of his favorite locations to tell the story of lonely Japanese men.

Dear Tomorrow focuses on a mental health hotline that helps men in crisis, showing not only the difficult circumstances under which these professionals work but also the incredible size of the loneliness epidemic. Bleak as that sounds, Schröder always finds a human, empathetic core for his stories. Dear Tomorrow continues in that vein, honoring their dignity and never allowing the men to become mere statistics on a government chart.

The post SXSW 2025 Documentary Preview: The Biggest Doc Premieres from Austin appeared first on Den of Geek.

This article appears in the new issue of DEN OF GEEK magazine. You can read all of our magazine stories here. In 2016’s The Accountant, Ben Affleck played Christian Wolff, a man on the spectrum whose genius with numbers made him the go-to “accountant” for criminal organizations looking to launder money or find out who’s stealing from them. […]

The post The Accountant 2: How Gavin O’Connor and Ben Affleck Beat the Odds appeared first on Den of Geek.

A film festival without documentaries is like a day without sunshine. Thankfully, South by Southwest has always brought the goods when it comes to non-fiction filmmaking.

The 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival is filled with compelling documentary features receiving their World, North American, or U.S. premieres. From the pastoral and thought-provoking Arrest the Midwife to the chilling Age of Disclosure to a Marc Maron project that asks Are We Good? – here are the docs to watch this year in Austin.

Arrest the Midwife

What does it fully mean to have the freedom of choice when it comes to childbirth? That understanding is going to be examined in Arrest the Midwife, a new documentary from director/producer Elaine Epstein. The same filmmaker who gave the world the Sundance and Emmy-nominated doc State of Denial, Epstein’s Arrest the Midwife picks up where the media fallout left off after three homebirth midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities were arrested in upstate New York. Their detainment ignited a media firestorm and a wave of legislation, as well as a debate about just what freedom of choice, and maternal health, really means.

The Python Hunt

You might not know this, but Florida can be a really WEIRD place. Case in point: this new doc about a group of amateur bounty hunters who compete in a 10-night, government-sanctioned contest to see who can remove (read: kill) the most Burmese pythons, invasive snakes that threaten the Everglades ecosystem. Filmmaker Xander Robin, the director behind the very weird 2016 horror fantasy Are We Not Cats, sheds light on this most Floridian of conservation efforts.

Remaining Native

Thanks to recent works such as Reservation Dogs and Sugarcane, pop culture is finally gaining awareness of Indian boarding schools, a particularly shameful chapter in American history. Emmy-nominated Haudenosaunee director Paige Bethmann, who recently made the list of DOC NYC’s 40 under 40 documentary filmmakers to watch, continues that conversation with Remaining Native.

Bethmann’s film focuses on 17-year-old Ku Stevens, whose running feats continue the work of his grandfather, who escaped from a boarding school decades earlier. As he works to make a collegiate running team and distinguish himself in his sport, Stevens refuses to let the country forget what happened to his family. Remaining Native chronicles everything from Stevens’ achievements to investigations of artifacts stolen from Native peoples.

The Spies Among Us

The Spies Among Us offers one of the more timely entries at SXSW. Directors Jamie Coughlin Silverman and Gabriel Silverman follow a former victim of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, as he confronts his one-time tormenters. The Spies Among Us cuts through rhetoric about dictatorship to remind viewers of the fundamental cost. Fearless but empathetic, The Spies Among Us should be essential viewing for anyone worried about the world today.

The Age of Disclosure

The Age of Disclosure offers an irresistible premise. Director Dan Farah speaks to 34 members of the American government, including high-ranking officials in the military and intelligence community, about the existence of aliens. The film purports to reveal an 80-year effort by U.S. leaders to hide findings about non-human intelligent life, even battling against other nations to protect their information.

While that concept alone makes The Age of Disclosure a can’t miss, and materials for the film play up the ‘90s paranoia of the concept with an aesthetic that recalls The X-Files, Farah has more than sensationalism in mind. The Age of Disclosure also promises to explore the impact of government secrets on the populations they’re supposed to represent. 

Are We Good?

Marc Maron might be the most influential comedian of our generation, and yet most people can’t name one of his bits. That’s because Maron, whose stand-up and acting career goes back to 1987, rose to prominence with his podcast WTF?. Part comedy insider chat show, part therapy session, WTF? revealed Maron as a shockingly vulnerable and insightful interviewer, someone who unlocked the central appeal of standup comedy.

For Are We Good?, director Steven Feinartz traces Maron’s life and career. The film touches on everything from his childhood and early career to the public explosion of his very personal podcast to the loss of his partner, indie filmmaker and SXSW legend Lynn Shelton. Are We Good? promises to be classic Maron: raw, moving, and hilarious. 

Dear Tomorrow

Since 2009, Danish filmmaker Kaspar Astrup Schröder has explored odd corners of the world, as in his parkour documentary My Playground (2009) or 2018’s Fantasy Fantasy, about two girls with autism. For Dear Tomorrow, Schröder returns to one of his favorite locations to tell the story of lonely Japanese men.

Dear Tomorrow focuses on a mental health hotline that helps men in crisis, showing not only the difficult circumstances under which these professionals work but also the incredible size of the loneliness epidemic. Bleak as that sounds, Schröder always finds a human, empathetic core for his stories. Dear Tomorrow continues in that vein, honoring their dignity and never allowing the men to become mere statistics on a government chart.

The post SXSW 2025 Documentary Preview: The Biggest Doc Premieres from Austin appeared first on Den of Geek.

A film festival without documentaries is like a day without sunshine. Thankfully, South by Southwest has always brought the goods when it comes to non-fiction filmmaking. The 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival is filled with compelling documentary features receiving their World, North American, or U.S. premieres. From the pastoral and thought-provoking Arrest the Midwife […]

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A film festival without documentaries is like a day without sunshine. Thankfully, South by Southwest has always brought the goods when it comes to non-fiction filmmaking.

The 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival is filled with compelling documentary features receiving their World, North American, or U.S. premieres. From the pastoral and thought-provoking Arrest the Midwife to the chilling Age of Disclosure to a Marc Maron project that asks Are We Good? – here are the docs to watch this year in Austin.

Arrest the Midwife

What does it fully mean to have the freedom of choice when it comes to childbirth? That understanding is going to be examined in Arrest the Midwife, a new documentary from director/producer Elaine Epstein. The same filmmaker who gave the world the Sundance and Emmy-nominated doc State of Denial, Epstein’s Arrest the Midwife picks up where the media fallout left off after three homebirth midwives serving Amish and Mennonite communities were arrested in upstate New York. Their detainment ignited a media firestorm and a wave of legislation, as well as a debate about just what freedom of choice, and maternal health, really means.

The Python Hunt

You might not know this, but Florida can be a really WEIRD place. Case in point: this new doc about a group of amateur bounty hunters who compete in a 10-night, government-sanctioned contest to see who can remove (read: kill) the most Burmese pythons, invasive snakes that threaten the Everglades ecosystem. Filmmaker Xander Robin, the director behind the very weird 2016 horror fantasy Are We Not Cats, sheds light on this most Floridian of conservation efforts.

Remaining Native

Thanks to recent works such as Reservation Dogs and Sugarcane, pop culture is finally gaining awareness of Indian boarding schools, a particularly shameful chapter in American history. Emmy-nominated Haudenosaunee director Paige Bethmann, who recently made the list of DOC NYC’s 40 under 40 documentary filmmakers to watch, continues that conversation with Remaining Native.

Bethmann’s film focuses on 17-year-old Ku Stevens, whose running feats continue the work of his grandfather, who escaped from a boarding school decades earlier. As he works to make a collegiate running team and distinguish himself in his sport, Stevens refuses to let the country forget what happened to his family. Remaining Native chronicles everything from Stevens’ achievements to investigations of artifacts stolen from Native peoples.

The Spies Among Us

The Spies Among Us offers one of the more timely entries at SXSW. Directors Jamie Coughlin Silverman and Gabriel Silverman follow a former victim of the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police, as he confronts his one-time tormenters. The Spies Among Us cuts through rhetoric about dictatorship to remind viewers of the fundamental cost. Fearless but empathetic, The Spies Among Us should be essential viewing for anyone worried about the world today.

The Age of Disclosure

The Age of Disclosure offers an irresistible premise. Director Dan Farah speaks to 34 members of the American government, including high-ranking officials in the military and intelligence community, about the existence of aliens. The film purports to reveal an 80-year effort by U.S. leaders to hide findings about non-human intelligent life, even battling against other nations to protect their information.

While that concept alone makes The Age of Disclosure a can’t miss, and materials for the film play up the ‘90s paranoia of the concept with an aesthetic that recalls The X-Files, Farah has more than sensationalism in mind. The Age of Disclosure also promises to explore the impact of government secrets on the populations they’re supposed to represent. 

Are We Good?

Marc Maron might be the most influential comedian of our generation, and yet most people can’t name one of his bits. That’s because Maron, whose stand-up and acting career goes back to 1987, rose to prominence with his podcast WTF?. Part comedy insider chat show, part therapy session, WTF? revealed Maron as a shockingly vulnerable and insightful interviewer, someone who unlocked the central appeal of standup comedy.

For Are We Good?, director Steven Feinartz traces Maron’s life and career. The film touches on everything from his childhood and early career to the public explosion of his very personal podcast to the loss of his partner, indie filmmaker and SXSW legend Lynn Shelton. Are We Good? promises to be classic Maron: raw, moving, and hilarious. 

Dear Tomorrow

Since 2009, Danish filmmaker Kaspar Astrup Schröder has explored odd corners of the world, as in his parkour documentary My Playground (2009) or 2018’s Fantasy Fantasy, about two girls with autism. For Dear Tomorrow, Schröder returns to one of his favorite locations to tell the story of lonely Japanese men.

Dear Tomorrow focuses on a mental health hotline that helps men in crisis, showing not only the difficult circumstances under which these professionals work but also the incredible size of the loneliness epidemic. Bleak as that sounds, Schröder always finds a human, empathetic core for his stories. Dear Tomorrow continues in that vein, honoring their dignity and never allowing the men to become mere statistics on a government chart.

The post SXSW 2025 Documentary Preview: The Biggest Doc Premieres from Austin appeared first on Den of Geek.

Late last year, it was reported that director Luca Guadagnino is developing a new film adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 novel, American Psycho. Ellis has cast doubts on that report by suggesting it’s more of an idea than a committed project, but the news sparked mixed reactions. Guadagnino tackling this relevant text through a […]

The post 25 Years On, American Psycho’s Ending Is Still Misunderstood appeared first on Den of Geek.

Whether it’s in your living room on a flatscreen, in bed on a tablet, or at your desk on a laptop, watching television is usually a relatively private experience. That’s not the case at South by Southwest.

The 2025 SXSW Film and TV Festival is filled with small screen series getting their public debut on big screens. Some are appropriately huge like the star-studded Apple TV+ comedy The Studio, while others are lowkey indie and international pilots looking for a home. Here are all the shows you’re going to want to keep an eye on from this year’s festival.

#1 Happy Family USA

When the Hussein family’s neighbors start to see them as enemy #1 in the aftermath of 9/11, they only have one option: to become #1 Happy Family USA. Patriotism! Smiles! Fitting in! This satirical adult animated series, created by Ramy Youssef with South Park producer Pam Brady and A24, mines the early 2000s Muslim-American experience for sharp, absurd comedy. It’ll make its world premiere at SXSW before launching the first of two already-commissioned seasons on Prime Video in March. 

Government Cheese

The ambitious, unconventional Chambers family were doing just fine in 1969 San Fernando Valley without patriarch Hampton while he served his jail time. Now, he’s a free man hoping to shake off his criminal past, reunite with his wife and sons, and make sense of what appear to be episodes of divine intervention in his life. 

Created by acclaimed music video director Paul Hunter and screenwriter-producer Ayesha Carr, Government Cheese is a surrealist dramedy based on Hunter’s short film of the same name, which will stream on Apple TV+ in April. The 10-episode series stars Silo and Lawmen: Bass Reeves’ David Oyelowo as Hampton Chambers, with Simone Missick (Luke Cage’s Misty Knight) as his wife, Astoria. Expect strangeness.

Happy Face

The Dropout, Dirty John, Dr. Death … behind every hit true crime TV show is a podcast telling the same story, but without pictures and with more ads for Mailchimp. Eight-episode Paramount+ series Happy Face is based on the pod of the same name by Melissa G. Moore, a creator with a unique perspective on real-life serial killer Keith “Happy Face” Hunter Jesperson by dint of being his daughter. Starring Dennis Quaid as Jesperson and Annaleigh Ashford as Moore, it lands on March 20.

Spy High

You remember that one teacher with eyes in the back of their head? In 2010, a Philadelphia school district decided to go one better. Using webcams in school-issued laptops, they were alleged to have spied on students in their bedrooms at home, leading to an accusation that 15-year-old Blake Robbins was selling drugs. Robbins brought a lawsuit against them and successfully won damages, and Mark Wahlberg’s production company is here to tell the story in this four-part Prime Video docuseries.

The Studio

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) got into the film biz because he loves movies, but now that he’s the head of Continental Studios, he’s worried that his job is to ruin them. Thanks to bottom lines, in-fighting execs, and narcissist creatives, it’ll certainly ruin him in this 10-episode industry satire coming to Apple TV+ on March 26.

From longtime collaborators Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad, Knocked Up, This is the End), The Studio stars Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s Catherine O’Hara and Agatha All Along’s Kathryn Hahn, with Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, The Batman’s Paul Dano, and star cameos aplenty (Rogen and Goldberg are connected, so expect to see appearances by Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, and more). Can The Studio reach the same cynical depths as Robert Altman’s 1992 classic The Player? It can try! With any luck, it’ll fare better than HBO’s superhero movie satire The Franchise, which didn’t last longer than a season.

Dates in Real Life

From Norway comes the dramedy Dates in Real Life, a sideways look at dating in the age of technology. Dates in Real Life stars Gina Bernhoft Gørvell as Ida, a woman who thought her virtual relationship with her boyfriend was fulfilling—that is until she sees him in person with another woman. Her virtual reality shattered, Ida must figure out how to relate with others face-to-face. Creator Jakob Rørvik goes beyond banal observations for his award-winning series. 

Mix Tape

Jim Sturgess is no stranger to the intersection of romance and music, having starred in the 2007 Beatles jukebox musical Across the Universe. Now, music is set to take him someplace even more exotic than across the universe: a 1989 house party in Sheffield.

A collaborative effort among Canadian, Australian, Finnish, and Irish producers, Mix Tape follows two teens who bond over their love of music and then meet again 20 years later to reflect on what could have been. 

Bulldozer

Amid a successful career in casting, voice acting, and playing background roles in sitcoms (perhaps you remember “Vanessa’s Friend” in Curb Your Enthusiasm season 9?), Joanna Leeds takes center stage by creating and starring in comedy pilot Bulldozer. 

Assisted by notable performers like Nat Faxon, Harvey Guillen, and Mary Steenburgen, Bulldozer depicts one passionate, if misguided, woman trying to find love while lurching from crisis to crisis like some kind of…motorized construction machine. 

Stars Diner

Fun fact: the statistic that 90% of restaurants fail in their first year is a myth. Truthfully, “only” 17% of restaurants close after year one. But what are the statistics for restaurants that happen to be situated next to a massive volcano that could end all life in Fresno, California?

That’s the situation facing the employees of Stars Diner. This indie TV pilot is directed by Fidel Ruiz-Healy and Tyler Walker and features Natalie Palamides (who stopped by last year’s SXSW to promote fellow indie TV project The Broadcast).

The post SXSW 2025 TV Preview: The Studio, Happy Face, #1 Happy Family USA, and More appeared first on Den of Geek.