Many modern and popular parenting techniques place a high emphasis on attending to our kids' emotions.I give my daughter space when she experiences big emotional outbursts.I want her to learn that emotions are passing sensations.I could see the emotional monsoon coming from a mile away. That's why, as we approached the house, I gently warned my daughter that we would need to take her rainboots off before going inside. She continued splashing through the puddles in our driveway, either unable or unwilling to hear me. Sure enough, when we entered the garage and sat down to take off our shoes, a torrent of tears erupted."No, you're NOT taking my boots off!" she screamed. Days earlier, her daycare teacher informed me that she even refused to remove them during naptime.I briefly considered allowing her to wear the boots inside just to avoid the fight. But glancing down at our muddy footprints only strengthened my resolve.I breathed in, took her tear-streaked face in my hands, and explained why the boots needed to stay outside. More shrieks. I slipped off her shoes (narrowly avoiding a kick to the face) and carried her thrashing body into the kitchen, where I placed her on the ground. She curled into a ball, threatening to explode again at any moment."I love you," I reassured her, patting her back. "I'm sorry we had to take off the boots. We can put them back on later. Right now, I need to cook dinner. Can I give you a hug?""NO!" She spat. "I want my boots!" She scrambled back toward the door, slamming her tiny fists against it. "Give me my boots!" she wailed.Her outburst continued to escalate, but I started making dinner anyway.I ignored her and carried on with the evening to-dosModern parenting philosophies (like gentle parenting) would advise me not to leave her side. These "big emotions" deserve our utmost attention and investigation, according to gentle parenting experts. Many millennial parents have fallen into this "pendulum parenting" trap. We were raised to suppress our own emotions, so now we're over-correcting that mistake by giving our kids' emotions all the power.But here's the mistake I think we're making as parents in this gentle parenting era: we need to go beyond identifying the emotion and teach our kids how tomove pastit.We need to teach our kids how to move past their emotionsStopping everything to comfort a child for 45 minutes over something like rainboots or rice crackers does not increase their emotional competence. It's communicating that, despite whatever else is going on, their emotions reign supreme. Nothing and no one else matters; plans get lost in the wake.Oftentimes (especially when it comes to toddlers), emotions do not represent reality. So, instead of validating our kids' emotions, we validate their outsize reactions to trivial matters. Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Havard-trained neuroscientist, explains that the physical sensations of emotions pass after 90 seconds. Our feelings persist because we choose to dwell on whatever caused them in the first place. The solution is to acknowledge the emotions and allow them to move through us without continuing to react.All emotions will pass once I stop giving them my attentionI don't expect my daughter to understand or comprehend what took me years of therapy and practice to figure out. She's only 2, after all. But if I can show her that our emotions don't have all the control, I think it will save her a lot of heartache in the future.So when a toddler tornado hits, I get out of the way.After labeling her feelings and offering comfort (if she wants it), I give her time and space to express her emotions in a safe environment. But I don't add fuel to an already-raging fire by giving it more of my own energy and attention. Even the worst storms will eventually pass.Emotions are a sometimes delightful and sometimes distressing part of the human experience. But they are only onepart there's so much more to life, and the actions that we take in response to our circumstances (and feelings) matter more than anything else.

30 of the exocomet belts, as imaged in this study, showing the extreme variation in such belts. (Credit: Prof Luca Matra, Trinity College Dublin.)NewsletterSign up for our email newsletter for the latest science newsAstrophysicists have taken images of a large sample of exocomet belts for the first time, imaging the bands along with the tiny pebbles that orbit within. The images were published in a study in Astronomy and Astrophysics, showing bands of a variety of structures. The images reveal a remarkable diversity in the structure of belts, said Sebastin Marino, a study author and an astronomer at the University of Exeter, according to a press release. Some are narrow rings [] but a larger number of them are wide, and probably better described as disks rather than rings. Read More: How Are Exoplanets Discovered?Exploring Exocomet BeltsIn our own Solar System, comet belts are bands of comets and other objects that orbit the Sun. The Kuiper Belt is one such band, orbiting the Sun beyond the reach of Neptune. Formed from the remnants of the birth of the Solar System, the Kuiper Belt is basically a band of frozen leftovers.But the Kuiper Belt isnt the only band of frozen leftovers out there. Similar bands surround other stars, too, in solar systems other than our own. These exocomet belts are a lot like the comet belts in our own Solar System, featuring exocomets and other objects, frozen at temperatures of around negative 420 degrees Fahrenheit to negative 240 degrees Fahrenheit.Exocometary belts are found in at least 20 percent of planetary systems, said Luca Matr, another study author and an astrophysicist at Trinity College Dublin, according to the release. Surprising SizesSetting out to survey a large sample of exocomet belts for the first time and dubbing the survey REASONS (REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars) a team of astrophysicists imaged 74 exocomet belts of various structures. Some were narrower, some were broader, and some werent alone, belonging to systems with multiple bands.The power of a large study like REASONS is in revealing population-wide properties and trends, said Matr in the release.One of these trends, for instance, related to the broadness of the belts, which tended to be wide, not narrow like our own Kuiper Belt. Another related to the objects inside the belts: Older belts tended to contain fewer pebbles, which form when exocomets collide. Exocomets are boulders of rock and ice [] which smash together within these belts to produce the pebbles that we observe here, said Matr in the release. The number of pebbles decreases for older planetary systems as belts run out of larger exocomets smashing together. [] This decrease in pebbles is faster if the belt is closer to the central star.A Telescopic TeamTo image these exocomets, which also varied in age from young to old, the team turned to the ALMA and SMA telescope arrays. Comprising 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert in Chile and 8 radio telescopes on Maunakea in Hawaii, the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Submillimeter Array (SMA) were capable of capturing these exocomet belts in crystal-clear resolution, revealing their impressive range of sizes. Arrays like the ALMA and SMA used in this work are extraordinary tools that are continuing to give us incredible new insights into the universe and its workings, said David Wilner, another study author and an astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, in the release. The REASONS survey required a large community effort and has an incredible legacy value, with multiple potential pathways for future investigation.New insights could come from the same telescopes, or from others, like the James Webb Space Telescope. The REASONS dataset of belt and planetary system properties will enable studies of the birth and evolution of these belts, as well as follow-up observations across the wavelength range, said Wilner in the release, to zoom even further onto the details of these belts.Article Sources:Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:Astronomy and Astrophysics. REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars (REASONS)NASA. The Kuiper BeltSam Walters is a journalist covering archaeology, paleontology, ecology, and evolution for Discover, along with an assortment of other topics. Before joining the Discover team as an assistant editor in 2022, Sam studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Nature, Published online: 15 January 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00092-5Promoting mutually beneficial relationships between plants and soil microbes that enhance nutrient acquisition by plants could improve crop production without increasing inorganic-fertilizer use. A mutation that causes an amino-acid substitution in a channel called CNGC15 in the plant cells nucleus boosts the formation of such endosymbiotic relationships.

Researchers discovered long-lost computer code and used it to resurrect the early chatbot ELIZA.

Fields of Mistria developer NPC Studio has revealed its upcoming roadmap of future content, as well as what's coming to the game in its second major update in March.The March 2025 update for Fields of Mistria will introduce a new character named Caldarus and a mechanic that allows players to gossip with Elsie in order to discover a character's preferred gifts. More NPC dialogue and schedules will be added too. There are also several new unlocks, including spells and mines, as well as a Fire Seal quest and the next mine biome. Fields of Mistria's latest Roadmap is here!Our 2nd Major Update will be coming in March! Here's a look at everything we have planned for it, as well as what to expect from future updates! Details: https://t.co/ueEJKH6EaM pic.twitter.com/Nb5YS284oW Fields of Mistria Out Now in Early Access (@FieldsofMistria) January 17, 2025 More requests and museum rewards will come to the town, and the Renown level cap will be raised by 20 levels. Farmland expansions, new furniture decor, and cosmetics will also be included. As for what comes next after March, the studio is working on various other features such as marriage and children mechanics. However, the developer notes that the release schedules of these upcoming features are in no particular order.Continue Reading at GameSpot

If there are awards for good movies, such as the Oscars or the Golden Globes, then there has to be an equivalent for bad movies. These would be the Golden Raspberry Awards, also known as the Razzies, and they've recognized and "awarded" bad movies since the event was founded in 1981.

Project Title:Negative PlusDescription:In NP you play as Evander, an android who is a soldier for a global superpower. But he begins to question his role in this organization, and seeks out the mythical emotion processor that would let him hang up the sword and become a human like being, capable of emotions and love.Includes:FPS RPGInventory/Quests and component upgrades.<

Game File is a thrice-weekly newsletter about the culture and business of video games, written by longtime gaming reporter Stephen Totilo (Kotaku, Axios, MTV News, The New York Times). Subscribe here for scoops, interviews and regular updates about gaming with the authors nearly 8-year-old twins.For decades, Ive trekked to office buildings and hotel suites to meet with game developers and public relations people in order to play upcoming video games ahead of their release.Until last week, Id never brought my kids.But, when Nintendo invited me to do so for a meeting last week, it seemed like a fun idea.It mostly was.The game was Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, a Switch remaster that was not yet released last Friday when my twins, freshly turned 8, hopped on the train with me to head into Manhattan for our appointment.The original DKCR on Wii was a fairly hard game. Id forgotten. I shouldnt have.But what is parenting, if not a succession of twists that you an adult who thought youd prepared for everything should have seen coming?My kids have been gaming since age 5 , exclusively on Nintendo systems for the first two years, so I was focused on the excitement that they could meet real Nintendo people.No, I explained to them a few days prior to our meeting, the man who created Donkey Kong wouldnt be there. But Id interviewed him a bunch of times! (Cool points for dad?) And people who work with him would be there.Better: Wed get to play a game before it came out! This concept delighted them last September, when we played early review code of Astro Bot their first PlayStation game. At the time, my son surmised that a bonus area that was labeled in the game with a row of question marks hadnt been named yet, because we had Astro Bot early and the game wasnt done.Of course, this Donkey Kong game was a remaster, but my kids hadnt even been alive for the original. Itd be new to them.Things started well.The Nintendo people were welcoming. A rep greeted us in the lobby, escorted us up an elevator, and we were soon greeted by Nintendo officials. We went into a room that my daughter would later marvel had a lot of TVs and sat at a table where the game was paused. A few other families took their spots, too.Before we could play, a Nintendo rep began an obligatory presentation, explaining the game via a set of slides marked confidential that explained the controls for Donkey Kong and his pal Diddy. The rep promoted Nintendo Switch Online as a means to play other Donkey Kong games.Then we encountered reality.Co-op gaming experiences are a risk with my kids. The twins, eternally seeking balance, can easily get frustrated with each other when they have different ideas about what to do in the game theyre mutually controlling. DKCRHD triggered that tension within seconds.When my daughter, playing as Diddy, wanted to race ahead, my son, as Donkey Kong, wanted to hang back and explore. Naturally, as soon as he wanted to proceed, she wanted to hang back. The game isnt the hardest thing ever, but they usually take turns playing Nintendo games and have rarely played anything in co-op thats tougher than Kirby. Some of the jumps were tough. He cared about collecting things; she did not.My kids started getting testy with each other, and I started getting mortified.A Nintendo rep kindly floated the idea of switching to single-player mode. Yes, please!That went better. As my son played, I tried to get my daughter to chat with the Nintendo folks. Maybe they could learn something from each other, I hoped.She played Mario Kart, she told them. And Smash Bros. One of the reps asked who her favorite Smash characters were. She likes Zero Suit Samus, she said. And the lady who shoots things from her feet.Meanwhile, my son was learning how to make Donkey Kong hang from moss-covered ceilings. He was also trying to find the levels hidden KONG letters. It had become really important to him.Soon, he took a break and my daughter resumed playing. With time running short, she finally landed a tricky jump, exclaimed I did it! And we called it there.Success! They were happy. I exhaled.Whatd my son think of his first ever Donkey Kong Country game?I like it, but its really hard, he said. I liked the first level and how you have to go on the vines and stuff, and when you find the hidden areas.And my daughter?Hard but good, she said.Both liked the game. But what they really liked were the Donkey Kong-themed water bottles that had been placed at each familys gaming station. The kids hoped they could keep them. The Nintendo people said they could. Who am I to enforce no-swag ethics on my children?My daughter, giddy, marveled at the DK initials on her bottle.Theres this restaurant, she excitedly told me. And the commercials are like [she started singing that Burger King jingle ] DK, have it your way!Oh, thats BK. I said.No, she said confidently. Its DK.And that was about it. We headed to the Lego store afterward, didnt buy anything, then dropped into the Nintendo Store (he picked out a plush Fireball Mario and a Bullet Bill; she grabbed Kirby and Toadette).My kids said they had a good time meeting with Nintendo. They liked the game, loved the bottles. The brief squabble didnt even register. Theyd love to do it again.As for me, the evening was the latest reminder of another truth of parenting: Im just along for the ride. Better hold on tight.More from Game File:You are not good at gaming: My very silly meeting with Keita TakahashiExclusive: How Sony improved the PS5 dashboard

We may earn a commission from links on this page.Governments lie. They cheat. They steal. Sometimes the blame comes from within: corrupt individuals whod conned their ways into the halls of power with no moral compass beyond their own self-aggrandizement. Sometimes, the fault lies within ourselves: Were drawn to populist politicians who tell us what we want to hear even when we ought to know better.The 1970s, in particular, loom large in movies about government corruption, even in later films. Its not that no one had ever mistrusted the government before, but its the era when anti-government feeling truly entered the zeitgeist. Then, as now, people couldnt agree on much, but they could agree that political leaders werent to be trusted. From there, the 80s saw Iran-Contra, the 90s saw the Clinton impeachment, the 00s the Iraq Warand those are just the marquee scandals.The less said about the modern era of politics, perhaps, the better. But we may find it helpful to go back a bit in time, and/or overseas, to find movies that hold up a harsh mirror to government corruption.Seven Days in May (1964) John Frankenheimers follow-up to The Manchurian Candidate sees President Fredric March working on a nuclear disarmament deal with the Soviet Union, a development that doesnt impress a popular general played by Burt Lancaster. Hes planning a coup, one that's uncovered by Kirk Douglas over the course of the titles seven days. Its another trenchant look at the ways in which both personal charisma and military power can have undue sway over American politics. You can rent Seven Days in May from Prime Video. Seven Days in May (1964) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video The Conversation (1974) The Conversation isnt about Watergate or Vietnam, but it speaks as well as any movie to the well-earned political paranoia of the era. Gene Hackman (never better than he is here) plays surveillance expert Harry Caul, already desperately paranoid when he overhears a conversation he shouldnt about a potential murder. Though ostensibly about private peccadillos, the film was released in the same year as Richard Nixons resignation (aided by his own White House tapes), and is prescient about the growing surveillance state, but also deeply conflicted. Harry means well, and there are clearly benefits to the work he does, but there are also the very obvious privacy concerns, as well as the potential to misinterpret situations and entire lives based on out-of-context bits of information. Theres nothing broached here that were not still grappling with, over 50 years later. You can stream The Conversation on Paramount+ and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. The Conversation (1974) at Paramount+ Learn More Learn More at Paramount+ A Face in the Crowd (1957) If you only know Andy Griffith from Mayberry, prepare yourself for his greatest performance, one that's as chilling as it is prescient. Here, he plays Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, an alcoholic drifter whose folksy good humor and facility for the guitar land him a radio deal with the help of journalist Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal), who becomes his promoter and girlfriend. It all ultimately steers him into the world of politics, with Jeffries discovering much too late that shes created a monster. If you can imagine a politician telling his supporters everything they want to hear while sneering at them behind their backs, you might even say that the rise of populist Larry Rhodes foretells the Donald Trump era. You can stream A Face in the Crowd on The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. A Face in the Crowd (1957) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video The Parallax View (1974) Sitting squarely in the middle of the Vietnam War and sandwiched between the assassinations of the 1960s and Watergate, director Alan J. Pakula created a masterpiece of political paranoia that conveys a sense of mounting dread with each and every noir-inspired frame. Warren Beatty plays Joseph Frady, a journalist who gets caught up in an incredibly complex conspiracy after he witnesses the murder of a sitting senator and presidential candidate. Theres much more than simple assassination going on, but theres also more to Fradys quest for truth than simple heroism; unsettlingly, the movies thriller plot line conceals a believably complex world in which there are no easy answers. In a broken and corrupt system, even the best of intentions can make things much worse. You can rent The Parallax View from Prime Video. The Parallax View (1974) Learn More Learn More Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) What became Stanley Kubricks Dr. Strangelove began life as a drama: Based on the thriller novel Red Alert, Kubrick intended, initially, to play it straight. It wasnt very far into the screenplay-writing process, however, when the director realized that real-world concepts like the nuclear balance of terror and mutually assured destruction were better suited to farce than serious drama. The result is one of cinemas most perfect send-ups of government overreach, personality politics, and the behind-the-scenes dust-ups that have frequently had devastating consequences for humans without the privilege of their own quiet war rooms. You can rent Dr. Strangelove from Prime Video. Dr. Strangelove (1964) Learn More Learn More All the President's Men (1976) The Nixon administration served as the wellspring of 1970s cinematic paranoia, and it's fortunate that one of the best of the decade's thrillers is based on the true story of everything that went down when a couple of plucky Washington Post reporters (played here by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman) started sniffing around a seemingly innocuous burglary in Washington's Watergate complex. The resulting investigation, involving secret recordings, slush funds, and a secret informant known for decades only as "Deep Throat" revealed a criminal cover-up tied to the President himself. A fun throwback to a time when we were bothered by such things. You can rent All the President's Men from Prime Video. All the President's Men (1976) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) Clearly inspired by the paranoid thrillers of the 1970s, the Russo Brothers (and company) crafted a Marvel movie in the same spirit. The Disney-owned heroes typically fight to uphold, rather than upend, the status quo, so Winter Soldier is all the more impressive for seeing Cap as an outlaw. Working as part of espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D., Steve uncovers a massive government conspiracy (Hail Hydra!) tied to Cabinet member Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) that puts him on the wrong side of the law. Before it's over, he's hunted for having learned about a secretive surveillance operation with ties back to Marvel's version of Operation Paperclip, the real-life program that secretly brought German scientists (including Nazis) to the United States. Great Marvel movie or best Marvel movie? You can stream The Winter Soldier on Disney+ or rent it from Prime Video. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) at Disney+ Learn More Learn More at Disney+ Capricorn One (1977) What sounds like a sci-fi action movie about the first crewed mission to Mars quickly reveals itself to be something else entirely: a conspiracy theory born of Watergate but tying in, however inadvertently, to Moon-landing denial conspiracies. Starring Sam Waterston, James Brolin, Elliott Gould, Brenda Vaccaro, and O.J. Simpson, the movie finds the Mars crew pulled from the mission at the last minuteit seems that the government wants the boost that would be provided by a successful mission, but isn't at all confident that they'd actually make it. The empty craft is launched, the crew are essentially held hostage, and, when the capsule blows up on reentry to Earth, it quickly becomes clear that anyone who knows the truth has to be eliminated. You can stream Capricorn One on Tubi, Prime Video, Peacock, and Freevee. Capricorn One (1977) at Peacock Learn More Learn More at Peacock Wag the Dog (1997) Just before the Bill Clinton impeachment (and a suspiciously timed bombing in Iraq), and a few years before themes and obfuscations of the Iraq War, Barry Levinson made this all-star, Strangelove-esque satire about a Hollywood producer tasked with creating a fake war with Albania in order to conceal a Presidential sex scandal. Though a dark comedy, the films plot wouldnt be the dumbest reason weve gone to warnot by a long shot. You can rent Wag the Dog from Prime Video. Wag the Dog (1997) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Inside Men (2015) Korean filmmakers, in film and television, have had no trouble whatsoever with exploring both the excesses of capitalism nor government corruptionperhaps thats part of the appeal to American audiences saddled with an increasingly status-quo friendly Disney/Marvel hegemony. Here, writer/director Woo Min-ho manages to mine action from the story of a rising Presidential candidate who only gets as far as he does because a conservative newspaper and its biggest sponsor want him in the top job (big media colluding with candidates to swing an electionwho'd have thought?). The corrupt connections between corporate media and political candidates are problems that are hardly limited to the Korean peninsula. You can stream Inside Men on Tubi or rent it from Prime Video. Inside Men (2015) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Enemy of the State (1998) Its been suggested that Brill Lyle, Gene Hackmans character in Tony Scotts Enemy of the State, is so close in temperament to The Conversations Harry Caul that they might very well be the same character. Which is interesting, especially given that it caps Hackmans long run of political thrillersbut theyre also very different movies. This one is everything The Conversation isnt: big, loud, flashy, and more interested in action set-pieces than in saying anything coherent about surveillance. That doesnt mean that its not a lot of fun, with large helpings of that X-Files-ish style of heightened political paranoia that was soon to give way to actual events. Will Smith plays well-meaning lawyer Robert Clayton Dean, whos caught up in a wild conspiracy following the government-sponsored assassination of a political candidate. You can rent Enemy of the State from Prime Video. Enemy of the State (1998) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video They Cloned Tyrone (2023) A stylish and fast-moving genre mashup, They Cloned Tyrone spins plenty of platesand mostly manages to keep them from crashing down. John Bodega stars as Fontaine, a drug dealer in a world just this side of our own (theres definitely some Blaxsploitation influence in the dress styles). Following a showdown with one-time Pimp of the Year, Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), Fontaine is shot dead before waking up in his own bed with nothing, seemingly, having changed. Teaming up with Slick Charles and sex worker Yo Yo (Teyonah Parris), he leads the three of them into an unlikely web of a government conspiracy lead by Keifer Sutherland's appropriately named "Nixon," one that involves using poor Black men (think the real-life Tuskegee Experiment) as test subjects. You can stream They Cloned Tyrone on Netflix. They Cloned Tyrone (2023) at Netflix Learn More Learn More at Netflix The Manchurian Candidate (1962) A relatively early masterpiece from director John Frankenheimer, the film was a victim of its own tragically prescient timing: Released just a year before the assassination of President Kennedy, that real-life event overtook the movie and interest in revisiting it waned until a critical reevaluation decades later. On one level, the movie is a Cold War thriller about a Medal of Honor recipient brainwashed to serve as a communist agent. If thats all it were, it wouldnt be much more than a period piece; Frankenheimer and company, instead, take aim at the ways in which Americans are easily manipulated and distractedLawrence Harveys Raymond Shaw is able to go as far as he does because people are blinded by his military achievements. Meanwhile, Joseph McCarthy-esque demagogues use accusations to deflect from real dangers. It also boasts an absolutely chilling performance from Angela Lansbury as Shaws scheming and vaguely incestuous mother. You can rent The Manchurian Candidate from Prime Video. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Miss Evers' Boys (1997) The conspiracy surrounding the real-life Tuskegee Experiment continues to this day, inasmuch as discussions of the 40-year government medical study that used poor Black men as unwitting test subjects remain minimal. By the end, hundreds had been deceived about their medical treatments and conditions, and over 100 had died as a result of deliberately ineffective medical treatment, all in the name of medical research on syphilis. The film tells the story from the perspective of Nurse Eunice Evers (Alfre Woodard), based on the real-life nurse who became a trailblazer as one of the very first African-Americans to be employed by the U.S. Public Health Service, only to find herself in the role of collaborator. You can stream Miss Evers' Boys on Max. Miss Evers' Boys (1997) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max They Live (1988) John Carpenter's gloriously unsubtle satire of commercialism capitalism, American-style, finds a drifter (Roddy Piper) discovering, via a pair of sunglasses, that the world as we know it is a facade run by a ruling class that's concealed subliminal messages everywhere: messages like consume, breed, conform. You know, the stuff that we're really good at. Knowing the truth about the ultimate conspiracy, our musclebound protagonist isn't going to give in without a fight. You can rent They Live from Prime Video. They Live (1988) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Z (1969) Its the ending here that makes Z so darkly memorablewhich is not to say that the movie isnt a classic through and through. Costa-Gavras satire of government corruption was released smack in the middle of a period of military junta control in Greece, but also in a global period of political assassinations and wars of false pretenses. A magistrate investigates the political murder of a left-wing politician, only to come up against an increasingly absurd, but nevertheless believable, series of walls and obfuscations. You can stream Z on Max and The Criterion Channel or rent it from Prime Video. Z (1969) at Max Learn More Learn More at Max The X-Files (1998) The X-Files overarching mythology was always far too broad to ever really amount to anything coherent; its also hard to get too worked up over secret alien colonists (or something) when the real world poses so many more immediate threats. Still, theres no question that the show and its spin-offs exemplify a 90s style of anti-government paranoiaone that imagines political officials as being competent, focused, and forward-thinking enough to manage any number of conspiracies over the course of decades. Where X-Files, and this movie in particular, was surprisingly prescient was in its imagined world of conspiracies, one in which everyone wants to believe everything all the time. As a standalone, the first movie summarizes the X-Files experience fairly adeptly, with government agents concealing the existence of an ancient alien virus with the help of some nasty bees. Its most memorably goofy moment, in which Martin Landau reveals the truth about "FEMAthe secret government!" has evolved into an actual conspiracy theory over the decades because of course it has. You can rent The X-Files movie (sometimes subtitled Fight the Future) from Prime Video. The X-Files (1998) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Cabin in the Woods (2011) We know cabin in the wood-style horror movies, and we know how they're meant to work. So, while Cabin in the Woods initially looks like a Scream-style deconstruction of the genre, it quickly reveals itself to be something far more ambitious, veering from near-parody to apocalyptic stakes. A couple of slightly goofy government agents are watching everything that goes on with our horny and hunted campers, all of whom find themselves part of a bloody global conspiracyat least the ones who survive. You can stream Cabin in the Woods on Tubi or rent it from Prime Video. Cabin in the Woods (2011) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Dick (1999) A very silly but nonetheless surprisingly smart comedy about two big-hearted teen friends who are, perhaps, not the brightest (think a 70s-era Romy & Michele), Dick stars Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams as deeply naive D.C. residents who become entangled in the events surrounding the Watergate break-in. At first enamored with President Nixon (a perfectly cast Dan Hedaya), the two gradually come to realize that hes not the well-meaning charmer that theyve taken him for; their resulting revenge is deeply satisfying. Its often hilarious, but also serves as a pretty solid metaphor for the comedown that we face as a nation, and as individuals, when our political hopes are dashed. It's a reminder to not get too attached and, for my money, as good a movie about Watergate as you're likely to find. You can rent Dick from Prime Video. Dick (1999) at Prime Video Learn More Learn More at Prime Video Three Days of the Condor (1975) A superior paranoid thriller, as long as you're willing to buy Robert Redford as a nerd. Here he plays a bookish CIA analyst codenamed Condor who shows up to work one day to find that everyone in his office has been murdered. It seems their analysis of a thriller novel with real-world implications was getting a little to close to something. The ensuing cat-and-mouse game leads Condor into the heart of a government plot involving global oil suppliesthe assumption being that Americans would tolerate literally anything in the name of cheap gas. And where's the lie? You can stream Three Days of the Condor on Paramount+ or rent it from Prime Video. Three Days of the Condor (1975) at Paramount+ Learn More Learn More at Paramount+