Villa Air / ARK-architectureSave this picture!© Bilel KhemakhemHouses•Tunis, Tunisia Architects: ARK-architecture Area Area of this architecture project Area:  1500 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:Bilel Khemakhem Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project Manufacturers:  Trespa, Elements, QUICK-STEP, REVIGLASS, Saint Gobain Glass, Schüco, TOSHIBAMore SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. Villa Air is a distilled expression of contemporary architecture rooted in the Tunisian landscape. Set within a two-hectare plot in Morneg, this 1,500 m² residence unfolds as a meditative dialogue between built form and topography. The site, defined by its gentle slope and sweeping views, culminates in the striking silhouette of the Jbal Errsas mountain range—a natural horizon that anchors the architectural narrative. From the outset, the project embraces a central duality: the tension between gravitas and lightness, between groundedness and suspension. This dialectic, subtly embedded in the villa's name, structures the entire composition. Distributed across three levels, the house is articulated as a series of horizontal strata punctuated by bold cantilevers. These projections—remarkably slender at just 45 cm thick—embody both structural daring and environmental responsiveness, casting precise shadow lines that temper the Mediterranean sun.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!Rather than asserting dominance over the terrain, the architecture yields to it. The villa engages the land with measured restraint, allowing the natural contours to guide its form. A textured finish in earthy tones fosters chromatic continuity with the ground, while the massing cascades along the slope, suggesting a geological emergence rather than an architectural imposition. The principal façade distills the project's ethos: a calibrated composition of apertures that frames the landscape as a sequence of living tableaux. Each elevation is attuned to its orientation, choreographing a spatial experience that is both immersive and contemplative. Here, architecture acts not as a boundary, but as a lens.Save this picture!Materiality is approached with deliberate restraint. Pristine white volumes capture the shifting Mediterranean light, animating surfaces in a daily choreography of shadows. Travertine and timber introduce tactile warmth, while concrete elements — subtly tinted with sand pigments — ground the building in its context and enhance its material belonging. Internally, the spatial organization privileges continuity and flow. Circulations are not mere connectors, but choreographed transitions. Double-height volumes channel daylight deep into the core, while vertical pathways become elevated promenades offering ever-evolving perspectives of the surrounding landscape.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The architecture explores a central paradox: the reconciliation of intimacy with openness, of enclosure with exposure. This tension is resolved through a refined gradation of thresholds, where interiors dissolve into terraces and open platforms, softening the boundaries between inside and out. Twin infinity pools extend the architectural geometry toward the horizon, amplifying the sensation of lightness and spatial suspension. Water and sky converge in a silent dialogue, completing the project's aspiration to exist not merely in the landscape but in symbiosis with it. Villa Air stands as a testament to a site-specific Mediterranean modernism — one that privileges clarity, precision, and sensory depth. More than a functional residence, it evokes a poetic condition of dwelling: a place where form, matter, and perception converge in quiet resonance.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less About this officeARK-architectureOffice••• MaterialConcreteMaterials and TagsPublished on May 30, 2025Cite: "Villa Air / ARK-architecture" 30 May 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1030593/villa-air-ark-architecture&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Peace Garden at UNESCO | © INFGM Located within the headquarters of UNESCO in Paris, the Peace Garden by Isamu Noguchi emerges not merely as a landscape installation but as a profound meditation on postwar diplomacy and cultural synthesis. Commissioned in the mid-1950s, the garden symbolizes the United Nations’ commitment to peace through mutual understanding and cultural dialogue. Peace Garden at UNESCO Technical Information Artist1-2: Isamu Noguchi Location: 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris, France Client: Marcel Breuer / UNESCO Area: 2,400 m2 | 25,800 Sq. Ft. Project Year: 1958 Photographs: © INFGM and Flick Users, See Caption Details It should be a quiet, moving place. – Isamu Noguchi 3 Peace Garden at UNESCO Photographs © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © INFGM © bbonthebrink, Flickr User © Patrice Todisco © bbonthebrink, Flickr User © bbonthebrink, Flickr User © Dalbera, Flckr user © Dalbera, Flckr user Park View Park View Context and Commission Noguchi, a Japanese-American sculptor and designer, was a poignant choice for the task. His biography embodies a convergence of East and West, as well as a lifelong engagement with public space as a vehicle for social commentary. By the time of his UNESCO commission, Noguchi had already engaged with landscape-scale sculptures, memorials, and playgrounds. The Peace Garden offered an opportunity to distill these threads into a singular work situated at the crossroads of global diplomacy. His selection was shaped by the broader architectural ethos of the UNESCO campus, designed by an international team including Marcel Breuer, Pier Luigi Nervi, and Bernard Zehrfuss. The ensemble called for a complementary but ideologically rich intervention, a space that could resonate as much with symbolic gravitas as with formal clarity. This garden was Noguchi’s first realized landscape design, and its execution was made possible through a personal introduction from Marcel Breuer, the chief architect of the UNESCO headquarters. Breuer not only facilitated the commission but also supported Noguchi’s experimental vision, which would challenge prevailing notions of diplomatic landscaping. Notably, the garden was completed in 1958 and spans approximately 2,400 square meters. It was constructed by renowned Kyoto-based master gardener Sano Toemon, marking a cross-cultural collaboration between modernist sculpture and traditional Japanese craftsmanship. Design Philosophy and Symbolic Intent Noguchi approached the Peace Garden as both sculptor and spatial thinker. He resisted creating a traditional memorial or a didactic allegory of peace. Instead, he crafted a contemplative void, a space that, through its absence of overt narrative, invited personal reflection and multiple interpretations. Drawing on the vocabulary of Japanese rock gardens and Zen traditions, Noguchi created a space of abstract expression that nonetheless maintained universal accessibility. The garden is composed of roughly hewn granite stones, a central water basin, and minimal vegetation. Each element is carefully positioned, creating an orchestrated tension between natural materiality and deliberate composition. This spatial language evokes notions of impermanence, balance, and introspection. The garden does not dictate how peace should be understood; rather, it sets a stage for experiencing peace as a spatial and emotional condition. In Noguchi’s words, the garden was to be “a quiet, moving place” rather than a monument. While inspired by Japanese garden typologies, particularly the stroll garden (池泉回遊式), Noguchi chose not to replicate tradition. Instead, he abstracted and reinterpreted elements such as Mt. Horai rock formations, stepping stones, and a crouching basin. These forms subtly allude to symbolic motifs without prescribing a singular reading. Noguchi negotiated directly with the Japanese government to secure donations of ten tons of stone and plant materials including camellias, maples, cherry trees, and bamboo. This act itself underscored the garden’s role as a diplomatic gesture, embedding it with botanical references to Japanese identity while maintaining a universal design language. Material and Spatial Composition Set at the base of the UNESCO building, the Peace Garden establishes a counterpoint to the architectural massing surrounding it. Its recessed layout forms a kind of spatial cloister, shielding visitors from the city’s rhythm and inviting a slower, more inward pace. The materials, chiefly unpolished granite, gravel, and water, speak to both permanence and mutability. The granite stones, irregular yet intentional in placement, recall tectonic forms and ancient spiritual markers. The central water feature introduces subtle movement and sound, enhancing the sensory richness of the space. The garden’s compositional core is its sculptural use of stone, each placement a spatial decision echoing both tectonic memory and sculptural intentionality. Noguchi collaborated on-site with Sano Toemon, whose craftsmanship adapted in real-time to the artist’s rapidly evolving vision. According to Sano, it was only after intense on-site dialogue and shared experience that he could fully comprehend and execute Noguchi’s aesthetic strategy, a testament to the garden’s improvisational and relational genesis. Spatially, the garden is organized not around pathways but around moments. There is no linear procession or axial symmetry; instead, it offers a field of relationships. Voids and solids, shadows and reflections, horizontality and vertical interruptions all work together to create a space that must be experienced slowly and from multiple vantage points. The absence of overt hierarchy in the layout allows users to construct their own narratives. It is a non-prescriptive space in which silence, texture, and light become the principal mediums of meaning. Peace Garden at UNESCO Plans Floor Plan | © Isamu Noguchi Floor Plan | © Isamu Noguchi Peace Garden at UNESCO Image Gallery About Isamu Noguchi Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) was a Japanese-American sculptor, landscape architect, and designer renowned for his fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics. Trained under Constantin Brâncuși and deeply influenced by Japanese traditions, Noguchi’s work spanned sculpture, furniture, stage sets, and public spaces. His practice was rooted in a belief that art should be integrated into everyday life, often blurring the boundaries between art, architecture, and landscape. Notable for his minimal yet emotionally resonant forms, Noguchi’s legacy includes iconic works such as the Noguchi Table, the UNESCO Peace Garden in Paris, and the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in New York. Credits and Additional Notes Style: Stroll Garden, Contemporary Japanese Garden Main Contractor: Sano Toemon, in collaboration with Uetō Zōen Listening to Stone: The Art and Life of Isamu Noguchi by Hayden Herrera Torres, Ana Maria. Isamu Noguchi: Studies in Space. Tokyo: Marumo Publishing, 2000. pp. 96–109. Sasaki, Yōji. “What Isamu Noguchi Left Behind.” Japan Landscape, no. 16, Process Architecture, 1990, p. 87. Treib, Marc. Noguchi in Paris: The UNESCO Garden. San Francisco: William Stout Publishers and UNESCO Publishing, 2004. Overseas Japanese Gardens Database. “UNESCO Garden.” Accessed May 2025.

The Mission: Impossible franchise is built on intense Tom Cruise stares, convoluted plot twists and reveals, and incredible stunts. It is not, however, built on compelling stories. Most of the Mission movies are about rogue agents and ill-defined MacGuffins, a repetition that would be annoying if anyone cared about the plots. However, lack of plot clarity does not equate to lack of tension. Most of the movies feature excellent villains who make life difficult for Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and force him to do incredible feats, resulting in the stunts we all love so much. So as the franchise winds down (maybe) with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, let’s take a look at the best of the worst: the villains who literally drove Ethan Hunt up a wall or into a giant turbine or hanging from a biplane. Point of clarity, first. While the series does have some fun henchmen like Paris (Pom Klementieff) and some stories have shadowy baddies pulling the strings, such as duplicitous IMF director John Musgrave (Billy Crudup) or the Entity, we’re just looking at main bad guys here, the people who dare to match wills with Ethan Hunt. 7. Sean Ambrose (Mission: Impossible II) Mission: Impossible II almost killed the franchise in its infancy. It seemed like a good idea to bring on director John Woo, a Hong Kong auteur with just as much style as the first film’s director, Brian De Palma. Furthermore, Woo and screenwriter Robert Towne (a Hollywood legend who co-wrote the first movie) base their story on the Alfred Hitchcock movie Notorious, casting Thandiwe Newton in place of Ingrid Bergman as the untrustworthy spy who captures our hero’s heart. The combination proved disastrous. Woo’s melodramatic method clashed with underdeveloped characterizations, a problem particularly clear with M:I2‘s central antagonist, former IMF agent Sean Ambrose, played by Dougray Scott. The legend of how Scott, the first person cast to play Wolverine in 2000’s X-Men, lost the role because of an on-set injury has been told time and again, overshadowing the worse insult, that he’s quite badly used in this movie. Ambrose is intended to be Hunt’s dark double, so much so that he begins the film masquerading as Cruise’s character. But he never has the intensity nor the charisma of his enemy, too often coming off as a sulking man-child than anyone who could threaten Hunt, let alone the world. 6. Kurt Hendricks (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) Kurt Hendricks, aka Cobalt, is so much better in conception than in execution. Played by Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist, Hendricks is exactly the type of antagonist who should challenge Ethan Hunt. A true believer in a nihilistic ideology, Hendricks wants to spark a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia. That extremist belief gives the IMF no choice but to engage in the sort of over-the-top action that makes the franchise so special. The threat posed by Hendricks might send Ethan scaling the Birge Kalifa, but as a person, he’s a nothing onscreen. Nyqvist knows how to play menace, as demonstrated in his many genre roles in his native Sweden, or in American movies like John Wick, but he has nothing to do here but glower. Worse, he’s overshadowed by his minion Sabine (Léa Seydoux), whose personal connection to Hunt’s colleague Jane Carter (Paula Patton) gives her an edge that Hendricks never achieves. The main antagonist of Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning, the agent known only as Gabriel (Esai Morales) is set up as Ethan Hunt’s greatest foil. Not only does he apparently have espionage skills even greater than those of our hero, but he was directly responsible for Ethan joining IMF. We learn that Gabriel killed Ethan’s girlfriend Marie and framed him for the murder, which put him on the IMF’s radar. Worse still, Gabriel resurfaces as an acolyte of the all-powerful AI known as the Entity, giving him a driving ethos to match Ethan’s desire to save everyone. On paper there’s nothing wrong with this characterization. In practice it stinks. Dead Reckoning and especially The Final Reckoning suffer from a self-mythologizing that keeps dragging the movie back into the past instead of charging forward, and Gabriel embodies that backwards impulse. Gabriel is given some big moments of evil, directly killing fan favorites Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), and Morales has fun playing up the villain role, but Gabriel’s worst sin is boring the audience. 4. Jim Phelps (Mission: Impossible) Before we get further, we must be clear: Jim Phelps is a good villain. The fact that he ranks so low here is a testament to the strength of the other baddies, not a knock against Jim. One of the main protagonists of the original 1960s television series (albeit portrayed by Peter Graves instead of Jon Voight), Jim Phelps makes Mission: Impossible into a legacy sequel, connecting the classic series to a new set of heroes. However, Mission: Impossible has a bravery that most legacy sequels lack, turning the former hero into the new villain. Phelps initially seems to die in the attack that takes out most of Hunt’s team at the start of the movie, during a mission that IMF boss Kitteridge later reveals to be a “mole hunt.” However, Phelps returns late in the film as first Ethan’s ally and then his enemy, the true traitor that Kitteridge seeks. Voight brings plenty of gravitas to the role, but he struggles a bit with the stunts at the end—despite the fact that he was 57 when the movie was shot, a year younger than Cruise was when filming on Dead Reckoning began. 3. August Walker (Mission: Impossible – Fallout) Going into Fallout, the buzz was all about the mustache that Henry Cavill grew for the movie. Because he could/would not shave the facial hair for reshoots on Justice League, that movie’s director Joss Whedon had to digitally remove the ‘stache from Cavill’s face, resulting in an infamously absurd looking Superman. It seemed like a petty move at the time, but once we all saw Fallout, we got it. The mustache looks amazing and deserves to stay. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! The mustache is important because it sums up Cavill’s character August Walker. Described as a “blunt instrument” assigned to work with (read: spy on) Hunt for CIA Director Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett), Walker proves to be a force of nature who is just as destructive as our hero. Even before he’s revealed to be the malevolent John Lark, the man who the IMF sought in Rogue Nation, Walker proves a credible threat to Ethan. He’s ready to pummel our hero to death at any second—and he looks great doing it. 2. Owen Davian (Mission: Impossible III) For all of the death-defying derring-do in the Mission: Impossible franchise, it’s notable that the scariest moment comes not during one of Ethan Hunt’s feats, but in a line of dialogue. When arms dealer Owen Davian wakes up to discover he’s been captured by IMF, he ignores Ethan’s questions and blithely asks some of his own: “Do you have a wife, a girlfriend? Because you know what I’m gonna do next? I’m gonna find her… and I’m gonna hurt her.” It’s not so much the specific words that Davian says that send a chill down the spine. It’s the way that they’re delivered, completely without passion. Of course Davian is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, one of the greatest actors of his generation. Hoffman’s ability to play cool and controlled (and, in one memorable scene, play the ever-energetic Ethan Hunt disguised as Davian) elevates the otherwise mundane J.J. Abrams-directed third film. In fact, Hoffman brings so much to the part that it’s hard to notice how bland the writing of Davian is, a demerit that knocks him to second place despite the utterly mesmerizing performance. 1. Solomon Lane (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) Owen Davian may talk about killing Ethan’s loved ones, but Solomon Lane actually almost did it. The pure sorrow and terror on sweet Benji’s face when he reveals the bomb strapped to his chest tells us more about Lane’s capacity for evil than any of Davian’s monologues could do. In fact, Lane encapsulates everything about the franchise’s past baddies, perfecting everything they tried to do. He has Davian’s quiet menace, the espionage skills of Gabriel and Ambrose, and he has the twisted worldview of Hendricks. By the time he sends a bomb to the worksite of Ethan’s estranged wife Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan) out of pure pettiness, Lane even develops a personal animosity like Phelps. Much of the credit goes to Sean Harris, who uses his raspy voice and dark eyes to enhance the malevolence. So much of the Mission: Impossible franchise rests on Cruise’s gift of being earnest on camera, looking out from the screen with yearning blue eyes and a furrowed brow to convince viewers that he can do whatever he intends to do. Harris’ eyes do the exact opposite. When he looks out from the screen, we see pools of blackness, drowning us in nothingness. If Hunt is, as IMF Director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) memorably put it, “the living manifestation of destiny,” then Lane is truly the opposite; the living manifestation of nihilism.

After spending several months doing not much besides watching Tom Cruise movies, I now spend a lot of time wondering about Tom Cruise running. The Mission: Impossible star is a high-cadence runner. He’s famously short of stature, low to the ground and with short legs. But that build is perfect for cinema, because those arms swing and those legs churn and convey a viscerality, a violence, a constant labored activity that translates perfectly to the screen. What they convey is a man of action, a man summoning all of his energy and will in a single direction: to move as quickly as he can. What is he thinking about when he’s running? I like to think the answer is nothing. That Tom Cruise is able to empty his head when he runs, blanking out his career, his cultural meaning, his past and present personal relationships, and move in a state of pure being. Maybe he’s doing one of his infamous stunts, a run towards a large dangerous vehicle, or off the side of a cliff. Maybe that makes him run faster. Maybe he feels a drive toward oblivion (and for Oblivion), to make the ultimate sacrifice to cinema, resulting in a cultural afterlife even longer than eternal stardom allows. This, in many ways, has been Tom Cruise’s career-long relationship with action movies. They’re his port in the storm, a safe harbor, a place to go and find love and acceptance when there seemingly is none to be had elsewhere. When the press is digging into your religion or snickering about your failed marriages or accusing you of being awkward or crazy or scary, you can find refuge in a MacGuffin to track down, a bad guy’s plot to foil, a world to save. The challenge each writer and director must face is how to handle Cruise’s well-known persona. Do they lean in or subvert? And to what end? When gifted with perhaps the most charismatic, committed movie star ever, are you willing to grapple with this stardom, how it explains the actor at a given point in his career, and what our response to him means? Or do you run? The following is a ranking of Tom Cruise’s greatest action films. In the interest of gimmicky symmetry, we’ve once again capped ourselves at 26 titles. We didn’t cheat… much. The films below all contain shootouts, fistfights, corpses, and missile crises. Most importantly, they are (mostly) tense, suspenseful, violent, escapist popcorn, not to be confused with the other half of Cruise’s equation: the pool-playing, the bartending, the litigating, and the deeply felt character work with auteurs, intended to get him the ultimate prize, which has eluded him for nearly half a century. Let’s run the numbers. 26. Valkyrie (2008) Director: Bryan SingerWhere to watch: Free on Pluto TV, Kanopy, Hoopla You could make a decent argument that this piece of shit doesn’t even belong on this list. It’s mostly a plodding chamber drama about “good Germans” ineffectually plotting to not kill Hitler at the end of World War II. But there’s an explosion, a dull shootout, and a bunch of executions at the end, so it seems to qualify as an action movie. Making Valkyrie is one of the most baffling decisions in Cruise’s entire career. And yet it’s also one of the most important films of his career, one that arguably defines his late period, because it’s how he first met his future M:I steward Christopher McQuarrie. Run report: Ominously, Tom Cruise doesn’t run in this movie.   25. Oblivion (2013) Director: Joseph KosinskiWhere to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple Like Valkyrie, Oblivion technically qualifies as an action movie, but there’s little actual action or narrative tension to any of it. Cruise essentially plays the source code for a clone army created by a weird super-intelligence in space that runs Earth via killer droids, and the clones to service them. It comes out of a filmmaking period packed with sci-fi puzzlebox movies that were all atmosphere and often led nowhere, though this is probably the “best” example of that tiresome trend. The silver lining is that, like Valkyrie, this film led to Cruise meeting an important future collaborator: Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski. Run report: Cruise literally exercises by running on a giant sleek modern hamster wheel in this. It’s the physical manifestation of everything I hate about this film. 24. Legend (1985) Director: Ridley ScottWhere to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple This 1985 fantasy movie has its defenders, but I am not one of them. The action is completely disjointed and chaotic, a fractured fairy tale composed of an incoherent, weird/horny unholy union of J.R.R. Tolkien, Jim Henson, Peter Greenaway, Ken Russell, and a handful of psilocybin mushrooms. Legend looks like something pieced together by Jack Horner on a camcorder, so it’s hard to fault Cruise for looking clunky and uncomfortable. Who knows what a good performance in that role would look like?  Run report: A lot of odd almost skipping around in this, which adds to the “high school play” quality of the film. Cruise has a proper run toward the end, but it’s not fully baked yet.  23. The Mummy (2017) Director: Alex KurtzmanWhere to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple Rewatching 2017’s The Mummy actually made me slightly disappointed we didn’t get the Dark Universe Universal Pictures briefly promised us. The setup had potential: Cruise as Indiana Jones, with Jake Johnson as Short Round and Courtney B. Vance as the archetypal no-bullshit sergeant? Potential. But Alex Kurtzman’s take on Karl Freund’s 1932 Boris Karloff Mummy needed less plot and more screwing around. This is an instance where Spielbergian pacing actually ruins a blockbuster, because it entirely lacks Spielberg Sauce. It becomes a horror movie after the first act, with Cruise as a largely personality-free, mentally unsound Black Swan/Smile protagonist. Then they spend all this time with Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll, introducing this universe of monsters that never gets off the ground. No fun! Run report: Notable because co-star Annabelle Wallis did a ton of press speaking to how much thought Cruise puts into his on-screen running. She specifically said he initially didn’t want to run on screen with Wallis, because he doesn’t like to share his on-screen run time. He relented, to little effect.  22. Mission: Impossible II (2000) Director: John WooWhere to watch: Free on Hulu, Paramount Plus Folks, I rewatched this recently. I really wanted to love it because some close and valued colleagues sing its praises, and I love a good, hot contrarian take. Respectfully, I don’t know what the hell they’re on. The camera work in Mission: Impossible II is so berserk, it borders on amateurish. The series hadn’t figured out what it was yet, but not in an interesting exploratory way: This installment is more like trying on a pair of pants that are not your vibe. The idea that Ethan Hunt lost his team in Mission: Impossible and now he’s a broken lone wolf (plus Ving Rhames’ Luther and Thandiwe Newton’s Nyah), an agent with the weight of the world on his shoulders, is not a bad premise. But in the role that ruined his career, Dougray Scott is a wooden, toothless bad guy. And somehow, the stakes feel impossibly low, even with a world-killing bioweapon on the line. Mission: Impossible II does, however, get points for being far and away the horniest movie in the franchise. Run report: Unsurprisingly, Woo is great at filming running, and there’s a lot of clay to work with here: Cruise’s long hair flopping in the wind, slow motion, a rare mid-run mask-rip, the inevitable dove-release: It’s all good! A definitive ranking of love interests and partners in the Mission: Impossible movies 6. Claire Phelps (Emmanuelle Béart) in Mission: Impossible5. Julia Meade (Michelle Monaghan) in Mission: Impossible III and Fallout4. Grace (Hayley Atwell) in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning3. Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton) in Mission: Impossible II2. Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Fallout, and Dead Reckoning1. Jane Carter (Paula Patton) in in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol 21. American Made (2017) Director: Doug Liman Where to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple It’s a funny idea: What if Top Gun’s Maverick was a schmuck pilot turned drug-runner? It’s clearly Cruise reaching for a Blow of his own, but decades into this type of narrative, we know the beats by heart. American Made is sorely lacking in depravity. Cruise’s affected good ol’ boy Southern accent both has nothing to do with the film’s disposability, and explains everything. It’s a sanitized drug narrative in which we never see Cruise blow a line or fire a gun. We don’t even see his death on screen — Cruise dying in a movie is a big deal, and has only happened a few times. It’s almost like he knew this nothingburger wasn’t worth the distinction. Run report: Not much running, which is indicative of a larger problem with this film. But at one point, Cruise runs after a car with Caleb Landry Jones in it, and it explodes, in arguably the highlight of the film, for whatever that’s worth.  20. The Last Samurai (2003) Director: Edward ZwickWhere to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple The one’s a weird movie about a mercenary who, after participating in the genocide of Native Americans, goes native in 19th-century Japan, in the wake of the Meiji Restoration. But it’s a somewhat unusual approach to the standard Cruise narrative arc. In this, he begins as a broken, drunken husk, a mercenary arm of the growing American empire who belatedly regains his honor by joining up with some samurai. The aspects of that plotline which feel unusual for a Cruise movie don’t make up for all the story elements that have aged terribly, but they’re something.  Run report: Less running than you’d expect, but running with swords while wearing leather samurai armor. 19. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)  Director: Edward ZwickWhere to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple A lot of the films in the lower ranks of this list suffer from the problem of filmmakers settling, simply putting Cruise on screen and letting his iconography do the heavy lifting, sans interesting backstory or dialogue. In this sequel, thanks to Lee Child’s blunt dialogue, the deep-state rogue-army plotting in the source material, and Cruise’s typical level of meticulous fight choreo, it’s simply really entertaining, solid, replacement-level action. This sequel to 2012’s Jack Reacher gives the title troubleshooter (played by Cruise) a surrogate daughter and a foil in Cobie Smulders, which is great. But its primary sin is replacing Werner Herzog, the villain from the first movie, with a generic snooze of a bad guy. Run report: Some running and sliding on rooftops with guns, as fireworks go off in the night sky. Impressive for some action movies, a bit ho-hum compared to the bigger hits on this list.  18. Taps (1981) Director: Harold Becker Where to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple Fascinating film. A Toy Soldiers riff interrogating the military-school system, and suggesting that it’s probably not a bad thing that former American ideals like patriotic honor, duty, and masculinity are fading. It’s Cruise’s first major role (with George C.Scott, Sean Penn, and baby Giancarlo Esposito!), and you’ll never believe this, but he plays a tightly wound, thrill-addicted, bloodthirsty maniac. Run report: Great characterization via run here. Cadet Captain David Shawn is a hawkish conservative dick, and Cruise’s running reflects that. He’s stiff, carrying an automatic rifle that he looks like he’s going to start firing wildly at any minute.  17. Mission: Impossible III (2006)  Director: J.J. Abrams Where to watch: Free on Hulu, Paramount Plus In the last Mission: Impossible installment made before the filmmakers really figured out what the series was doing, J.J. Abrams assembles a mostly incoherent, boring clunker that has a few very important grace notes. It’s a film about Ethan Hunt trying to carve out a normal life for himself, with the great Philip Seymour Hoffman playing the bucket of ice water dumped on his domestic fantasy. Hoffman’s Owen Davian is the greatest bad guy in the Cruise filmography, and there’s really no close second. (I suppose, if there was a gun to my head, I would point to Werner Herzog in Jack Reacher, or Jay Mohr in Jerry Maguire.) There are many moments I could point to in Hoffman’s wonderful performance, but the one I’d recommend, if you want to feel something, is when Hoffman gets to play Ethan Hunt playing Owen Davian with a mask on for a few scenes during the Vatican kidnapping, roughly 50 minutes in. He was so fucking great.  Run report: A lot of running, but none of it is very good. No knock on Cruise, but Abrams is doing perfunctory work, shot poorly via shaky cam that has trouble keeping Cruise in the frame, from a perfunctory director making a perfunctory action film. There are two notable exceptions. “The Shanghai Run,” which we may have more on later, and Cruise running straight up a wall. A definitive ranking of Mission: Impossible villain performances 10. Dougray Scott in Mission: Impossible II9. Eddie Marsan in Mission: Impossible III8. William Mapother — that’s right, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV’s cousin! — in Mission: Impossible II7. Lea Seydoux in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol6. Sean Harris in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Fallout5. Jean Reno in Mission: Impossible4. Esai Morales/The Entity in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning3. Jon Voight in Mission: Impossible2. Henry Cavill in Mission: Impossible – Fallout1. Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Mission: Impossible III 16. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) Director: Christopher McQuarrieWhere to watch: In theaters The franchise potentially falls with a thud — or is it an AI-generated death fantasy that plays out entirely in Ethan Hunt’s head when he gets trapped in a digital coffin early in the movie? Either way, the resulting film is something the McQuarrie-Cruise collaboration has never been before: clunky and imprecise, a disjointed watch that delivers some high highs, but is unfortunately thin on story. McQuarrie seems unconcerned with character arcs, or any substantive grand narrative that might land in any meaningful way. This movie plays out like an aimless succession of beats, allowing boredom to creep in. That hasn’t been a part of the franchise since M:I 3. It’s a Simpsons clip show masquerading as a Mission: Impossible film, signaling that this iteration of the franchise is exhausted, with little left to say or explore. Perhaps there was no other way for this series to go out than on its back.  Run report: A run through the tunnels to save Luther, oddly reminiscent of the run attempting to save Ilsa Faust, followed by the run out of the tunnels, allowing Ethan to escape the film’s first trap (or does he?) A definitive ranking of Ethan Hunt’s “best friends/allies” (non-love interest/boss division) 17. Wes Bentley16. Greg Tarzan Davis15. Aaron Paul14. Jonathan Rhys Meyers13. Maggie Q12. Shea Whigham11. Hannah Waddington 10. Katy O’Brian9. Pom Klementieff8. Rolf Saxon7. Vanessa Kirby6. Keri Russell5. Simon Pegg4. Jeremy Renner3. Emilio Estevez2. Bogdan (Miraj Grbić)1. Luther (Ving Rhames) 15. War of the Worlds (2005) Director: Steven Spielberg Where to watch: Free on Hulu, Paramount Plus A curious movie I liked better on a rewatch than I did on my initial watch 20 years ago. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is often misremembered as Spielberg’s darkest movie, but I’d argue that War of the Worlds beats it: It’s a divorced-dad-anxiety horror movie that has the most nightmare-inducing, traumatic, post-9/11 visuals in the master’s oeuvre. It can be read as Spielberg wrestling with his relationship with his son Max, who would’ve been around the age of Cruise’s disgruntled, estranged son in the movie. War of the Worlds has issues: Cruise never works when he’s cast in a “just some guy” role, as he’s meant to be here, and the plot goes off the rails in the third act. But it has some of the best set pieces Spielberg ever directed. What will haunt me for the rest of my life is a scene where Cruise’s character is forced to essentially make a Sophie’s Choice between his son and daughter (a great Dakota Fanning), and lets his son go. The ominous music at the end when he’s magically reunited with his son is completely bizarre and unsettling, and I don’t think is meant to be taken at face value.  Run report: This is why Cruise is the king. He’s playing a supposed normal, everyday schmoe in this movie. When you focus on the running, compared to other roles, you can see he’s running like a mechanic who is still a little athletic, but doesn’t know where he’s going, or what is happening from one moment to the next. It’s building character through running. Incredible. 14. Knight and Day (2010) Director: James Mangold  Where to watch: Free on Cinemax; rent on Amazon, Apple Knight and Day is a sneakily important film in the Cruise action canon because it’s the first time a movie really puts Cruise into the role of the creepy, charismatic, psychotically intense, beleaguered, put-upon invincible cartoon character he became in the Mission: Impossible franchise as of Ghost Protocol. This movie is based around a funny idea: It’s basically a Mission: Impossible movie from the perspective of a clueless civilian. It helps that the civilian is phenomenal, physical, funny, and fucking ripped: Cameron Diaz plays the world’s hottest mechanic, and makes me wish she had gotten her own Atomic Blonde-style vehicle. Run report: Some co-running with Cameron Diaz here, which is as you might imagine, is good.  13. The Firm (1993) Director. Sydney PollackWhere to watch: Free on Paramount Plus It’s easy to put The Firm on a pedestal because of Sydney Pollack, the jazz score, the ’90s outfits, Gene Hackman, and every other significant gravitas-oozing “That Guy” as a mobster, shady lawyer, or Fed in a great “They don’t make them like that anymore” legal thriller. But what really stood out to me on a recent rewatch is this movie is two and a half hours about the now laughably quaint notion of rediscovering purity in the law. It isn’t much more than a story about a shady law firm that gets hit with mail-fraud charges, plus several deaths and a few smartly tied up loose ends. Run report: A clinic in Tom Cruise running, a draft-version highlight reel of his running scenes. In my memory, this contains some of his most iconic early runs, and it signals the moment when “Tom Cruise running” became a whole cultural thing.  12. Top Gun (1986) Director: Tony Scott Where to watch: Free on Paramount Plus Top Gun set the template for Tom Cruise’s on-screen narrative, and it took a decade before filmmakers were willing to start subverting that narrative again. This is straight-up hero porn, without any of the humbling that the sequel eventually dishes out. Tom Cruise as Maverick is the best pilot on Earth. He loses his best friend and co-pilot Goose, due to a combination of a mechanical failure and another pilot’s fuck-up. He then has to find the courage to fly with the exact same lack of inhibition he did at the outset of the film, which he finally does, based on essentially nothing that happens in the plot. Scott makes the wise decision to center the action (or non-action) of the film on pure Cruise charisma and star power, and it works. Run report: Believe it or not, Tom Cruise does not run in this movie.  11. Days of Thunder (1990) Director: Tony Scott Where to watch: Free on Paramount Plus Scott and Cruise’s Top Gun follow-up is essentially Top Gun with cars instead of jets — but yes, it’s marginally better. Why? Because this is a quintessential “We didn’t know how good we had it” classic. It’s the film where Cruise met his future spouse Nicole Kidman on set. Robert Duvall is swigging moonshine. It’s Randy Quaid’s last performance actually based on planet Earth. Plus there’s John C. Reilly, Michael Rooker, Cary Elwes, Fred Thompson, Margo Martindale, and a rousing Hans Zimmer score. Need I say more? Run report: They cut the climatic race off, but Cruise’s character Cole potentially gets smoked by 59-year-old Robert Duvall?! 10. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023) Director: Christopher McQuarrieWhere to watch: Free on Paramount Plus The metaphor that the Mission: Impossible franchise is a manifestation of Tom Cruise’s deep-seated need to save blockbuster filmmaking and the Hollywood star system has never been more overt. Cruise is literally up against AI, which is always a step ahead of him, dismantling his every gambit. It’s an update/remix of Ghost Protocol’s premise: The only antidote to the world-spanning AI known as The Entity is becoming a refusenik anti-tech Luddite in the spirit of John Henry, and using the raw materials of humanity to defeat an invincible machine.  Run report: Cruise running in confined spaces is a lot of fun, but the heavily CGI’d running up the side of a train losing its battle with gravity isn’t.  A definitive ranking of Mission: Impossible MacGuffins 8. Ghost Protocol’s Russian launch codes7. Fallout’s plutonium cores 6. Rogue Nation’s $2.4 billion Syndicate bankroll5. M:I2’s Chimera Virus4. Final Reckoning’s Sevastopol3. M:I’s NOC list 2. Dead Reckoning Part One’s cruciform key1. M:I3’s rabbit’s foot 9. Jack Reacher (2012)  Director: Christopher McQuarrie Where to watch: Free on Paramount Plus I loathe hyperbole: it’s a shortcut for unimaginative writers. I’ve never resorted to it in my entire life. So I hope you’ll take me at my word when I say that this movie is a fucking masterpiece. Amazon’s great Reacher series is made more in the image of Lee Child’s books, with a distinctive breakout lead in Alan Ritchson, who appears to have been designed in a lab to draw striking contrast to Tom Cruise in this role. But Reacher made us forget how good Jack Reacher gets. It’s a perfect elevated action programmer with a remarkable cast: David Oyelowo! Richard Jenkins! Rosamund Pike! A Days of Thunder reunion with Robert Duvall! Werner Herzog showing up in a completely brilliant, bonkers heel turn! McQuarrie made this one in vintage Shane Black ’90s style, with a dash of Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood. I totally get why Cruise decided to turn his career over to McQuarrie after this. I don’t understand why he didn’t let McQuarrie direct the sequel. Run report: There isn’t much running in this. At one point, Cruise is darting from shelter point to shelter point because a sniper is trying to pick him off, but that’s it. It’s because Jack fucking Reacher doesn’t have to run, which is simply good writing and filmmaking.  8. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)  Director: Christopher McQuarrieWhere to watch: Free on Hulu, Paramount Plus This film famously opens with Tom Cruise hanging from the side of a plane as it takes off. But to me, the key moment comes when he’s broken into the plane, attached himself to a package which isn’t named, but looks like a crate of rockets the size of a minivan. He gives a final raised eyebrow and shrug to a gobsmacked henchman, who watches helplessly as Cruise deploys a parachute and falls out the back of the plane’s cargo bay with a ton of atomic weapons, and no plausible way to land without killing himself and creating a Grand Canyon-sized nuclear crater in Belarus. This scene was practically drawn by Chuck Jones, which sets the tone for a film that repositions Ethan Hunt on the border of superherodom, in a film about Tom Cruise as the literal manifestation of destiny.  It also marks the return of Alec Baldwin, the first (but not last) M:I handler who carried over from one film to the next. Evaluating the handlers’ position in the franchise (see below) is challenging: They’re constantly shifting allegiances, at times working in service of Hunt’s mission, at times in direct opposition to it, either attacking him with governmental red tape, or colluding with nefarious forces. Run report: A lot of different looks when it comes to the running in this. Shirtless running, running with Rebecca Ferguson, running across the wing of a moving plane. It’s all good. A definitive ranking of the “most fun” M:I handlers 6. Theodore Brassel (Laurence Fishburne) in Mission: Impossible III5. Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett) in Mission: Impossible – Fallout and The Final Reckoning4. Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) in Mission: Impossible3. John Musgrave (Billy Crudup) in Mission: Impossible III2. Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins) in Mission: Impossible II1. Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin*) in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Fallout * One of my only lingering complaints about the M:I movies is that aside from Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, we don’t get enough big family continuity. The Fast & Furious franchise is an exemplar/cautionary tale of how found-family dynamics can be a great source of fun and emotion — and also tank the series, if creators keep piling on new recurring elements. It sounds like Baldwin didn’t want to stay on board, but I would love to live in a world where he didn’t jump ship — or where, say, Henry Cavill’s August Walker joined Ethan’s team at the end of Mission: Impossible – Fallout, as he would have if he’d had a similar role in an F&F installment. 7. Minority Report (2002) Director: Steven SpielbergWhere to watch: Free on Paramount Plus I’m guessing this placement on this ranking will upset some people. I’m surprised it’s this low in the rankings too — but that’s how good the next six films are. And honestly, Minority Report doesn’t hold up as the masterpiece I remember it being. It’s a very cool story. It marks the first fantasy-team matchup of Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. They’re adapting a paranoid Philip K. Dick story, and largely delivering on the promise that implies. Minority Report is an inventive, dark, weird future horror movie, made with Spielberg’s standard stunning visual economy. But among the perfect elements in this film, I have to call out some aspects that didn’t age well. Janusz Kaminski’s lighting effects feel like the whole movie is stuck inside an iPod halo. and this dutch-angled high melodrama, sauced with a dash of Terry Gilliam dystopian/gross wackiness, which lends the film a degree of occasionally atonal, squishy gonzo elasticity you’ve likely forgotten.   Run report: Mileage may vary on white pools of light, but running through them in futuristic uniforms is decisively cool.  6. Mission: Impossible (1996) Director: Brian De PalmaWhere to watch: Free on Hulu, Paramount Plus Because MI:2 and MI:3 struggle with tone (and long, listless patches), and because it’s actually Brad Bird that sets the template for the McQuarrie era of the franchise, you could argue the first Mission: Impossible is the strangest, most personal vision of what this series is and what it can be. DePalma is asserting himself with every practical mask and stylized shot. Your mileage may vary with that approach to what has become this Swiss set piece machine, I love it. A few things stand out nearly three decades on: Of course, how ridiculously young Cruise looks, but perhaps crucially, how collegial, intimate, and even tender the first act is before his first team is eliminated and the movie becomes a DePalma paranoid thriller. It’s an element we never quite get from Mission: Impossible again, one that brings the arc of the franchise into focus and explains Ethan Hunt if you extend continuity: He’s a character betrayed by his father figure and his government in the first film, and spends the rest of the franchise running from this largely unspoken trauma, determined to never let that happen again. In the wake of this, he reluctantly pieces together a life, semblance of a family, and all the risks that come with those personal attachments. In honor of my favorite set piece in any of the films, one of DePalma’s finest taught masterpieces: A definitive ranking of the top 10 M:I set pieces  Honorable Mention: The Sebastopol Extraction- (Tie) The Train Fights– MI:1 & Dead Reckoning 10. The Plane Door- Rogue Nation9. The “Kick In The Head” Russian Jail Break- Ghost Protocol8. The Water Vault Ledger Heist Into The Motorcycle Chase- Rogue Nation7. The Handcuffed Car Chase- Dead Reckoning6. The Red Baron Plane Fight- Final Reckoning5. The Burj Khalifa- Ghost Protocol4. Kidnapping At The Vatican- MI:33. The Opera House Hit- Rogue Nation2. The Louvre Halo Jump Into the Bathroom Fight- Fallout1. The NOC List Heist- MI:1 Run report: Fitting that this franchise opens with Cruise putting on a running clinic, as that first op falls apart, then of course his run away from Kittridge and the massive fish tank explosion.  5. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol  Director: Brad Bird (2011) Where to watch: Free on Hulu, Paramount Plus Nothing is working like it’s supposed to. Not the Impossible Mission Force, not the mask machine, not the radio comms, not the magnet gloves keeping Ethan Hunt tethered to the side of the world’s tallest building, not the Mission: Impossible franchise, and not Tom Cruise’s at-the-time fading movie stardom. But somehow, one incredible film made by a career animation director solves all of these problems, by stripping down, getting back to basics and reminding us what we always loved about these films and its star. It was supposed to be the beginning of a franchise reboot, with Jeremy Renner stepping in. Bird (and McQuarrie, in for a pass at the troubled screenplay and on deck to become Cruise’s Guy For Life) fights this decision off, gets away from trying to figure out the character Ethan Hunt and lets him be a superhero, more annoyed than concerned by the escalating difficulty of the impossible problems he has to solve. Through this, Bird correctly identifies the difference between Cruise and these other Hollywood candy asses: He’s a reckless warrior with a death wish who will do whatever is necessary to win, and he does. The team concept is back in full force with a genuinely showstopping stunt, and without the masks and tech, Cruise has to do it all with his wits, his hands, and his pure bravado. The series, and Cruise, never looked back.  Run report: Some of the most fun, imaginative set pieces built around running in this installment. A definitive ranking of who should replace Tom Cruise in the inevitable M:I reboot 10. Aaron Taylor Johnson9. Charlie Cox8. Sterling K. Brown7. Florence Pugh6. John David Washington5. Haley Atwell4. Miles Teller3. Jeremy Renner2. Aaron Pierre 1. Glen Powell 4. Top Gun: Maverick  Director: Joseph Kosinski (2022) Where to watch: Free on Paramount Plus It’s a death dream, it’s red meat nationalist troopaganda, it’s the greatest legacyquel ever made that no one asked for and you didn’t realize you desperately needed, it’s nostalgia porn, it saved the movie going experience post-COVID, it’s a finely calibrated joy machine. Cruise is downright mystical, shimmering in the sun’s reflection off the surf, dominating an endless football game with no rules that doesn’t make sense. He has actual chemistry with Jennifer Connelly, and he has the grace to cede the floor to his old nemesis — both in the first Top Gun and as a once contemporary Hollywood star/rival — the late Val Kilmer, to drive home the crush of time and destroy everyone in the theater, no matter how many times they went to see this monster hit that first summer back in theaters.  Run report: Immediately coming off of the stunning, emotional high point of the film, we get Cruise running in salt water soaked jeans shirtless on the beach. Are you not entertained? 3. Collateral  Director: Michael Mann (2004) Where to watch: Free on Paramount Plus An elemental, visceral faceoff that is radical in its simplicity of purpose. A film made by the second-best director on this list, and on a very short list of Cruise’s finest performances ever. He’s the salt and pepper terminator in a taxi, playing a pure evil bad guy, a classic Mann anti-hero samurai nihilist that also lives by a code and values being good at his job. Of course Cruise retains a kind of charm, but is also willing to get slimy and be deeply unlikeable and die on screen. Well worth the sacrifice.  Run report: Incredible running on display here. Once again he is running like a professional killer probably runs, almost always holding a gun, the hair matches the suit, so fucking bad ass.  2. Mission: Impossible – Fallout  Director: Christopher McQuarrie (2018) Where to watch: Free on Hulu, Paramount Plus As much time and energy as I just expended exalting Ghost Protocol, at a certain point you have to eschew poetic narratives and tip your cap, by the slightest of margins, to a fucking perfect movie. Ghost Prot is close, but you can feel its lack of a nailed-down shooting script at certain points towards its conclusion, as the action begins to wind down. McQuarrie becomes the first director in the franchise to get a second bite of the apple, and the result is a finely cut diamond. Fallout is about exhaustion and the impossibility of that manifestation of destiny idea from Rogue Nation. It makes the argument that you can’t actually save the day and save everyone without making any sacrifices forever, and because of that, sets up The Trolly Problem over and over again to try and get Ethan Hunt to compromise and/or give up. But, of course, he won’t, and neither, seemingly, will Cruise.  Run report: You can tell McQuarrie loves watching Cruise run as much as we do. He frames the runs in these wide shots and takes his time with them. It’s not conveying any additional information, a beat or two less would suffice, but the camera lingers and you get to just sit and appreciate the form and it really connects. It’s why he was the logical choice to take control of this franchise. He understands how a Tom Cruise action flick operates and what makes it special. And of course: A definitive ranking of the best runs in the franchise 10. The Opening Plane Run- Rogue Nation9. The Sandstorm Run- Ghost Protocol8. The Mask Rip Run- MI:27. Running through the alleys of Italy- Dead Reckoning6. Running Through the Tunnels for Luther (then out)- Final Reckoning5. Running down the Burj Khalifa- Ghost Protocol 4. Running from the fishtank explosion- MI:13. The Rooftop Run- Fallout2. The Shanghai Run- MI:31. The Kremlin Run- Ghost Protocol 1. Edge of Tomorrow  Director: Doug Liman (2014) Where to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple Edge of Tomorrow is the best Tom Cruise action film had to be made in his late period of action stardom. You need the gravity and the gravitas, the emotional baggage earned through those decades of culture-remaking roles, the toll that exerted effort took on him, and the time spent and time passed on his face. The late, largely perfect Mission: Impossible films that dominate the top 10 of this list do much of that work: They feint, they allude, they nod to the realities of stardom, of life and death. But Ethan Hunt is a superhero, an inevitability, so the outcome is never in doubt — until, perhaps someday, it is. But for now, the masterpiece from Doug Liman — a director who either hits dingers or strikes out looking, with no in between — is a movie that punctuated Cruise’s post-Ghost Prot action renaissance: Edge of Tomorrow, or Live. Die. Repeat. It’s the unlikely on-paper melding of Starship Troopers and Groundhog Day, but in practice it’s the action film equivalent of Jerry Maguire, a movie that relies on your history with Maverick, and Mitch McDeere, and Ethan Hunt, and uses it to dismantle and subvert Tom Cruise, the infallible hero.  Liman is at the top of his game, particularly in editing, which uses repetition and quick cuts masterfully to convey the long and slow transformation of a public relations major named Cage — who becomes trapped in a disastrous, endless intergalactic Normandy scenario — from a marketing clown in a uniform to an alien killer badass while he falls in love and saves the world. We watch as Cruise has all his bravado and bullshit stripped away by “a system” (maybe the single best Paxton performance?!) with no time for that, a woman smarter and stronger than he is and immune to his charms, and an invading force that tears him to pieces over and over again. We watch the five-tool movie star — robbed of all his tools — regroup, rebuild, and in the process, grow a soul. It’s the platonic ideal of what a great blockbuster action film can be, one that only could’ve been made by one of its most important, prolific, and talented stars.  Run report: A beautiful physical metaphor for this film is watching the evolution of Cruise’s ability to move in that ridiculous mech suit. 

First impressions can go a long way, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 makes sure that they count, leaning into the type of poignancy and gravitas that comes with the dark world its characters inhabit. Hinging on the tragedy of its people's circumstances, Clair Obscur's character introductions are a lens not just into the universal experience of living under the Paintress, but how they each respond differently to it. From its prologue alone, the level of depth that goes into its side characters shows how their respective attitudes might clash, or how they bond together in the face of the Gommage, endearing players to their individual struggles that make the death of the Continent that much more devastating.

What defined the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 experience for you? Was it being immersed in a reactive world where every action, from committing crimes to doing laundry, felt significant? Encountering well-realized characters with complex motivations and goals? Getting down in the mud with Henry but eventually going on to larger-than-life scenarios? Maybe even roaming the gorgeous landscape, taking in the sights, engaging in desperate combat against bandits and soldiers alike, and building out your version of Henry. With other aspects doubtless contributing, the answer could very well determine how much you enjoy Brushes With Death, the developer’s first story DLC for the title. We’ve seen the addition of Barber Mode, Hardcore Mode, and even Horse Racing via free updates, but what does the developer bring to the table in terms of new stories and quests? The answer: A significant amount, that too at a fairly low price, even if the stakes are non-existent and don’t really matter in the long run. "When you’ve crafted such an epic narrative spanning multiple cities and battles, culminating in incredible fashion, where could a DLC story slot in?" The story sees Henry running into a mysterious person tied to a tree in the woods, seemingly conversing with a painted skull. After intervening and keeping him from becoming wolf chow, the latter introduces himself as Voyta, a painter. He had his brushes stolen thanks to two shifty individuals and subsequently requests Henry to retrieve them in a non-violent fashion. And Henry, being the do-gooder that he is, obliges. However, the individuals in question have a different story about their encounter with Voyta, and it quickly becomes clear that there’s more going on than meets the eye. Why does he talk to the painted skull? Who does the skull belong to? Why does he want Henry to investigate some locations, and why does he become progressively more disturbed? How does he know about the Skalitz-born hero? Is this another deception or a play at something bigger? Over time, Voyta’s nature shifts from playfully coy to enigmatically conflicted, as if he’s fighting against something and doubtful about dragging you along for the ride. Naturally, you have to find out why, and maybe help him resolve some personal demons in the process. However, as intriguing as the mystery surrounding the painter may be, the emotional pay-off just doesn’t quite hit, especially when measured against the rest of Henry’s journey and the conflicts he’s embroiled in. This is a deeper issue with video games in general. When you’ve crafted such an epic narrative spanning multiple cities and battles, culminating in incredible fashion, where could a DLC story slot in? There isn’t a single right answer, but some developers work well at creating new tales with varying degrees of scale and drama to complement the main narrative. See The Witcher 3’s Hearts of Stone or Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty. "There’s plenty of gravitas – it’s just that the overall plot lacks weight. Credit where it’s due to the development team, though, for delivering some top-notch dialogue." Brushes With Death opts to tell a smaller, self-contained and personal story hinging on one man’s moral dilemmas. However, it would probably help if some of the “revelations” had any meaningful impact on your journey or if Henry’s involvement amounted to “more or less along for the ride.” When it comes to the actual steps in the questline, they’re pretty much what you’ve always done while wandering the gorgeous Bohemian landscape. Go from one location to the next, either delivering items, fighting bandits, collecting materials or talking to people. There is some nuance to these steps. One of the two aforementioned individuals can be challenged to a game. But if you get frustrated, and rightfully so, you can slaughter him and his buddy and take the items off their corpses. Whether you tell Voyta the truth later or lie about it is up to you, and your reputation is affected accordingly. Another quest step involves meeting an old lady. Her memory isn’t what it used to be, and you can either harangue her to focus or do everything that her deceased spouse would do to jog her memory. Even if the individual steps of picking Valerian flowers, repairing her dress, and reciting poetry (sometimes badly, depending on your stats) are nothing unique, it does make for a cute side quest and an additional wrinkle to the mystery. Of course, the follow-up steps of investigating three separate spots on the map are more in line with your average open-world exploration without anything special. There’s plenty of gravitas – it’s just that the overall plot lacks weight. Credit where it’s due to the development team, though, for delivering some top-notch dialogue. Henry’s exasperation and growing uncertainty with each step offer genuine moments of levity and intrigue, backed by the ever-incredible voice-acting. Voyta is also a compelling character, and the slow dropping of his walls to reveal more of what’s paining him is interesting to behold. Leveraging your skills to draw out responses is also notable if only to unravel his various layers. Brushes With Death also doesn’t rush its conclusion, offering a long enough questline and character arc to fully realize Voyta’s story. It doesn’t measure up to the base game’s very best by a long shot, but it’s not a terrible complement to everything else going on, even if I wasn’t completely sold on his burgeoning friendship with Henry. "Brushes With Death can take anywhere between seven to ten hours. While that means significant back and forth between locations, even while fast-traveling, and completing seemingly menial tasks, it also translates into plenty of interesting conversations and well-voiced characters." Also, on the plus side, the DLC offers a new cosmetic system – the ability to paint your shield. This may seem initially trivial, but the customization is fairly in-depth, as you select a pattern, two colors, a symbol category, and finally, a design. If you’ve ever wanted the image of Mutt carrying a fish with legs or the signature battle hare to be the last thing your enemies ever see, then there’s plenty of fun to be had. Best of all, it’s free, and you can change your shield’s design anytime. Brushes With Death can take anywhere between seven to ten hours. While that means significant back and forth between locations, even while fast-traveling, and completing seemingly menial tasks, it also translates into plenty of interesting conversations and well-voiced characters. It’s definitely worth picking up alongside Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, especially if you’re diving into the open-world action RPG for the first time. However, you might want to wait for the developers to issue some fixes since the latest patch introduced a few texture glitches. Though I didn’t find it particularly rampant during my time with the DLC, it was noticeable enough during some scenes. With how successful Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has been, and how the story effectively ends Henry’s journey, I’m interested to see what the other two DLCs – Legacy of the Forge and Mysteria Ecclesia – have to offer. If they can deliver some new mechanics that enrich the overall experience and maybe some notable, if ultimately inconsequential, stories, then it would only make for a better overall game, even if it’s the core that should demand your time and attention above all else. This game was reviewed on PC.

This article contains spoilers for Hacks season 4 episode 7. Hollywood changes people. But rarely has the glitz and glamor of Tinseltown changed somebody more quickly than Dance Mom on Hacks. In the fourth episode of the fourth season of this beloved comedy on HBO Max (Hey, we get to call it “HBO Max” again!), Julianne Nicholson’s unnamed character is introduced as a humble, middle-aged TikTok content creator from rural Alberta who just wants to dance…hence: Dance Mom. Recognizing that Deborah Vance’s (Jean Smart) late night show has a female demographic problem, her co-manager Kayla Schaeffer (Megan Stalter) identifies Dance Mom as a potential solution. Dance Mom might as well have been constructed in an Ellen DeGeneres laboratory to appeal to middle America. Her humble Canadian origins and inoffensive personality shine through in her first meeting with Jimmy LaSaque (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla as they show her around some major Los Angeles landmarks like Rodeo Drive, Sunset Boulevard, and, of course, the Ripley’s Believe It or Not on Hollywood Boulevard. “I feel like the Beverly Hills Chihuahua!” Dance Mom exclaims as she takes in all the beautiful people wearing makeup in the daytime. This is only her second time in the States, with the first being a trip to the Heinz (as in Ketchup) History Center in Pittsburgh as a child. It takes some convincing but Dance Mom agrees to try out for Deborah’s show. She’s then invited on to perform that same day after Deborah and lead writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder) alienate the studio audience with an argument. Thankfully, Dance Mom’s wholesome routine wins the audience back and she becomes a mainstay for the show, counterbalancing Deborah’s caustic sense of humor with a cheerful smile. Two episodes later Dance Mom is living in Adam Levine’s 12-bedroom mansion; has blown through $1 million in 48 hours on cars, clothes, and whippets; and has lost a crucial Old Navy brand ambassadorship. Oh, and she doesn’t have any kids by the way. The rapid rise and fall of Dance Mom represents the kind of fun a long-running comedy can have when it’s firing on all cylinders. Through three (very heavily-awarded and acclaimed) seasons, Hacks has its most important dynamic down pat. The creative push and pull between platonic soulmates Deborah Vance and Ava Daniels give Hacks all the energy it needs to drive multiple seasons of comedic storytelling. With the time it has left over for B-plots and C-plots, the show can afford to get experimental. While a less confident series might have spread the dancing Albertan’s degeneracy across a whole season, Hacks maximizes its impact with a two-episode whip cut. One day Dance Mom is respectfully declining sparkling water (“Not for me, too spicy”), the next day she’s yeeting a spent “Astro Gas” canister while yelling “Steve Nash!,” which is obviously the Canadian version of “Kobe!”* *It must be pointed out that someone on the Hacks writing staff really knows ball. Of course, the saga of Dance Mom wouldn’t hit quite as hard without the right performance. Thanks to Julianne Nicholson, series showrunners Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jen Statsky have found exactly that. Even before Hacks gave her the opportunity to lounge around Adam Levine’s place, Nicholson has been having a hell of a year. Hulu subscribers may recognize her Samantha “Sinatra” Redmond, the creative lynchpin of sci-fi/thriller Paradise. Before that, the Massachusetts-born actress won an Emmy for playing beleaguered mother Lori Ross in Mare of Easttown. As evidenced by her most notable characters’ hyper-regional specificity (Delaware County, Alberta, and a post-apocalyptic underground bunker), Nicholson is a versatile performer. Through many of her roles though, she brings a similar sense of impishness. Lori Ross, Sinatra, and Dance Mom all possess a child-like sense of frustration and disappointment to varying degrees, as though they woke up one day in adult bodies without their consent. In that way, Nicholson brings a welcome Carrie Coon vibe to the table. And anyone who knows anything about Den of Geek knows we don’t make that comparison lightly. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! Nicholson brings not only an offbeat gravitas to the role but a sense of pure joy at being able to cut loose. With only three episodes left to go in Hacks season 4, it remains to be seen how much further Dance Mom can fall. If this is it, however, one can’t say that Dance Mom didn’t go out her way: by doing a lot of drugs and dancing…but mostly the drugs. New episodes of Hacks season 4 premiere Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on (soon-to-be HBO) Max, culminating with the finale on May 29.

In this article:See more ▼Post may contain affiliate links which give us commissions at no cost to you.If you’ve always been fascinated by the dark romanticism of medieval aesthetics, then Gothic Fonts are your bread and butter. There’s something utterly captivating about these dramatic typefaces that transport us straight back to ancient cathedrals, mysterious manuscripts, and candlelit chambers. Gothic fonts aren’t just about looking intimidating or spooky (though they certainly excel at that). These typefaces embody centuries of typographic heritage, carrying the weight of history in every dramatic flourish and angular stroke. From the ornate Black Letter scripts of medieval scribes to modern interpretations that blend gothic sensibilities with contemporary design, these fonts are storytelling powerhouses. Whether you’re designing for a metal band, crafting invitations for a Halloween party, or building a brand that needs serious gravitas, gothic fonts deliver that perfect blend of elegance and edge that’s impossible to ignore. In this deep dive, we’ll explore the most bewitching gothic fonts of 2025, uncover what makes these typefaces so mesmerizing, and discover how to wield their power in your own designs. So dim the lights, light a candle, and let’s embark on this typographic journey into the shadows! 👋 Psst... Did you know you can get unlimited downloads of 59,000+ fonts and millions of other creative assets for just $16.95/mo? Learn more »The Most Darkly Divine Gothic Fonts of 2025 Not all gothic fonts are created equal – some whisper dark secrets while others scream medieval drama. I’ve curated a collection of the most striking gothic typefaces that are making waves in 2025. Here are the fonts that will add serious mystique to your designs: Cattedrale – Gothic Blackletter Cattedrale is a striking Gothic blackletter font with decorative elements and symbols. It embodies the classic blackletter style with a modern twist, perfect for creating dramatic and impactful designs with a medieval flair.Shillow Gothic Font Shillow is a decorative Gothic font that blends traditional Gothic elements with modern aesthetics. Its unique character makes it ideal for creating eye-catching headlines, logos, and display text with a touch of elegance and mystery.Get 300+ Fonts for FREEEnter your email to download our 100% free "Font Lover's Bundle". For commercial & personal use. No royalties. No fees. No attribution. 100% free to use anywhere. Blacker Gothic Blacker Gothic is a serif font that combines Gothic and old-style elements. It offers a timeless look with a hint of antiquity, making it suitable for projects that require a classic yet sophisticated typographic approach.Killuminati – Gothic Type Killuminati is a bold and dramatic Gothic typeface with decorative and serif elements. This display font combines blackletter styling with modern flair, perfect for creating intense, attention-grabbing designs with a dark edge.Swordstone – Gothic Typeface Swordstone is a decorative Gothic typeface with a mystical touch. Its unique letterforms evoke a sense of fantasy and ancient lore, making it ideal for book covers, game titles, or any design requiring a touch of medieval magic.Grenosa Gothic Font Grenosa is a serif Gothic font with decorative Victorian influences. Its elegant and ornate design makes it perfect for creating sophisticated logos, headlines, or decorative text in projects that require a touch of historical charm.Crestfallen – Gothic Font Crestfallen is a sans-serif Gothic display font with a unique, edgy character. Its bold and slightly distressed appearance makes it ideal for creating impactful designs in music, fashion, or alternative culture-related projects.Andalucya – Gothic Typeface Andalucya is a decorative Gothic typeface with a unique and intricate design. Its elaborate letterforms and ornamental details make it perfect for creating stunning headlines, logos, or decorative text in projects that require a touch of exotic elegance.Blatters – Gothic Font Blatters is a serif Gothic font with a horror-inspired twist. Its eerie and unsettling design makes it perfect for creating chilling titles, posters, or text for horror-themed projects or Halloween designs.Groundead – Gothic Font Groundead is a serif Gothic font with decorative blackletter elements. Its bold and slightly grungy appearance makes it ideal for creating impactful display text, logos, or titles in alternative, rock, or metal-themed designs.Wild Gothic – Experimental Blackletter Wild Gothic is an experimental blackletter font with a condensed and edgy design. Its unique and unconventional letterforms make it perfect for creating bold, attention-grabbing headlines or logos in modern, urban-inspired projects.Gothic – Modern Blackletter Font Gothic is a modern take on the traditional blackletter style. Its clean lines and contemporary feel make it versatile for various design projects, from branding to editorial layouts, while still maintaining a Gothic essence.Demons Gothic Demons Gothic is a decorative blackletter font with a dark and ominous feel. Its intricate design and death-inspired elements make it perfect for creating sinister and intense visuals in horror, metal, or gothic-themed projects.Quispe – Gothic Font Quispe is a decorative Gothic font designed for logos and headlines. Its bold and distinctive character makes it ideal for creating eye-catching branding elements or impactful titles in various design contexts.Rohesia – Gothic Font Rohesia is an elegant and ornate Gothic font with decorative elements. Its intricate design and refined details make it perfect for creating sophisticated logos, invitations, or decorative text in luxury or high-end design projects.Raven Hell Gothic Raven Hell Gothic is a sans-serif decorative font with blackletter influences and a Halloween theme. Its spooky and playful design makes it ideal for creating fun and eerie text for Halloween-related projects or horror-themed designs.Lawson – Gothic Font Lawson is a decorative Gothic font designed for logos and headlines. Its strong and distinctive character makes it perfect for creating impactful branding elements or eye-catching titles in various design projects.Modirgan Gothic Display Font Modirgan is a Gothic display font with horror and fantasy influences. Its unique and otherworldly design makes it ideal for creating captivating titles, posters, or text for fantasy, sci-fi, or horror-themed projects.Gentry – Gothic Uncial Font Gentry is a decorative Gothic Uncial font designed for logos and headlines. Its blend of Gothic and Celtic influences creates a unique and elegant typeface perfect for projects requiring a touch of historical or mystical flair.Metal Gothic – Logo Font Metal Gothic is a serif decorative font designed for logos and display text. Its bold and edgy character makes it ideal for creating impactful designs in metal, rock, or alternative music-related projects.Gonaro – gothic and display typeface Gonaro is a free Gothic display typeface with a modern twist. Its unique design combines traditional Gothic elements with contemporary aesthetics, making it versatile for various creative projects requiring a bold and distinctive typeface.Gothic Rapsody – Blackletter Font Gothic Rapsody is a decorative blackletter font with a funky twist. Its playful and unconventional design makes it perfect for creating eye-catching headlines or logos in projects that blend Gothic style with modern, quirky aesthetics.Monastic – Vintage Gothic Font Monastic is a vintage-inspired Gothic font with ornate and modern elements. Its unique blend of old-world charm and contemporary design makes it ideal for creating sophisticated logos, headlines, or decorative text in various design contexts.Stackwin – Display Gothic Blackletter Typeface Stackwin is a modern Gothic blackletter display typeface. Its bold and contemporary interpretation of traditional blackletter style makes it perfect for creating striking headlines, logos, or titles in projects that require a blend of Gothic and modern aesthetics.Shadows – Vintage Gothic Blackletter Typeface Shadows is a serif decorative typeface that combines vintage Gothic and blackletter styles. Its unique blend of modern and retro elements makes it ideal for creating eye-catching designs in projects that require a somewhat spooky font with a Gothic twist.Big Fat Gothic Blackletter Typeface Big Fat Gothic is a bold and imposing blackletter typeface. Its thick, dramatic strokes and traditional gangster old english style make it perfect for creating powerful headlines, logos, or titles in projects that require a strong, authoritative presence.Blackey Bold Decorative Gothic Blackletter Font Blackey is a bold, serif Gothic blackletter font with decorative elements. Its strong character and intricate details make it ideal for creating impactful headlines, logos, or titles in projects that require a blend of traditional and modern Gothic aesthetics. There are more old english fonts here.Old Charlotte – Bold Decorative Gothic Font Old Charlotte is a sans-serif decorative Gothic font with blackletter influences. Its bold and distinctive design makes it perfect for creating eye-catching headlines, logos, or display text in projects that require a strong Gothic presence with a modern twist.Gothic Byte – Blackletter 8Bit Typeface Gothic Byte is a unique blackletter typeface with an 8-bit pixel art style. Its innovative blend of Gothic and retro video game aesthetics makes it ideal for creating eye-catching designs in gaming, tech, or nostalgia-themed projects.Cambridge – Bold Decorative Gothic Font Cambridge is a serif decorative Gothic font with blackletter influences. Its bold and elegant design makes it perfect for creating sophisticated headlines, logos, or titles in projects that require a blend of traditional Gothic style and modern refinement. What Gives Gothic Fonts Their Mysterious Allure? Gothic fonts derive their haunting beauty from several key characteristics that set them apart from other typeface families: Angular, Sharp Letterforms The most defining feature of gothic fonts is their angular construction. Unlike the smooth curves of humanist typefaces, gothic fonts embrace sharp angles, pointed serifs, and dramatic contrasts. These harsh edges create an immediate sense of drama and formality that feels both ancient and powerful.Heavy, Dark Strokes Gothic fonts are known for their bold, dark appearance. The thick strokes dominate the white space, creating a dense, imposing texture on the page. This heaviness gives gothic fonts their famous “blackletter” appearance and contributes to their serious, authoritative presence.Ornate Details and Flourishes Many gothic fonts feature intricate decorative elements – from elaborate swashes to ornamental capitals that look like they were lifted from illuminated manuscripts. These details add layers of visual interest and enhance the font’s connection to medieval craftsmanship.Vertical Emphasis Gothic letterforms tend to be compressed horizontally and stretched vertically, creating a tall, narrow appearance. This vertical emphasis adds to their formal, cathedral-like grandeur and makes them particularly striking in headlines and titles.Where Gothic Fonts Cast Their Spell Gothic fonts possess a unique versatility that might surprise you. While they’re natural choices for certain niches, their dramatic flair can elevate designs across multiple industries: Music Industry Metal bands, gothic rock groups, and classical orchestras all turn to gothic fonts for their album covers, merchandise, and branding. These typefaces perfectly capture the intensity and drama that defines these musical genres.Gaming and Entertainment Fantasy games, horror films, and medieval-themed entertainment rely heavily on gothic fonts to establish atmosphere. From video game logos to movie posters, these fonts immediately signal adventure, mystery, and otherworldly experiences.Luxury Branding High-end brands often incorporate gothic elements to convey exclusivity, tradition, and craftsmanship. Think luxury watches, premium spirits, and boutique fashion houses that want to emphasize their heritage and sophistication.Event Design Gothic fonts are perfect for Halloween parties, medieval-themed weddings, academic ceremonies, and any event that calls for drama and elegance. They transform ordinary invitations into memorable experiences.Publishing and Literature Book covers for fantasy novels, horror stories, and historical fiction often feature gothic fonts. These typefaces help genre books stand out on shelves and immediately communicate their content to readers.When to Avoid the Gothic Touch While gothic fonts are undeniably powerful, they’re not suitable for every design context. Here’s when you might want to consider alternatives: Modern Tech Brands Unless you’re intentionally going for a retro-tech aesthetic, gothic fonts can feel outdated for contemporary technology companies. Clean, modern sans-serifs typically better reflect innovation and forward-thinking values.Children’s Products Gothic fonts can appear scary or intimidating to young audiences. For children’s books, toys, or educational materials, friendlier, more approachable typefaces usually work better.Medical and Healthcare In medical contexts, gothic fonts might undermine the sense of trust and cleanliness that patients expect. Clean, professional typefaces better convey competence and care.Fast-Casual Dining While gothic fonts work wonderfully for upscale restaurants or themed establishments, they might feel too formal or dramatic for casual dining experiences where approachability is key.Choosing the Perfect Gothic Font for Your Project Selecting the right gothic font requires careful consideration of several factors: Historical Accuracy vs. Modern Interpretation Decide whether you need authentic medieval character or a contemporary take on gothic style. Traditional blackletter fonts offer historical accuracy, while modern gothic interpretations provide more flexibility and readability.Legibility Requirements Consider how much text you’ll be setting in the gothic font. Ornate gothic typefaces work beautifully for headlines and logos but can become difficult to read in large blocks of text.Cultural Sensitivity Be aware that certain gothic fonts, particularly German blackletter styles, carry historical associations that might not be appropriate for all contexts. Choose fonts that align with your project’s cultural sensitivity requirements.Brand Personality Match Ensure the gothic font aligns with your brand’s personality. A playful, modern brand might benefit from a quirky gothic interpretation, while a luxury brand might prefer a more refined, traditional approach.Gothic Font Alternatives That Capture the Magic If full gothic fonts feel too intense for your project, consider these alternatives that capture gothic elements while remaining more approachable: Magic Fonts Typefaces like Cinzel or Cormorant Garamond incorporate gothic-inspired details while maintaining excellent readability. These fonts offer a subtle nod to gothic style without overwhelming the design. You can find all our magic fonts here. Modern Gothic Sans-Serifs Fonts like Impact or Bebas Neue capture the vertical emphasis and dramatic presence of gothic fonts in a clean, contemporary package. Decorative Display Fonts For special applications, decorative fonts with medieval or mystical themes can provide gothic atmosphere without the formality of traditional blackletter typefaces. The Future of Gothic Typography As we move deeper into 2025, gothic fonts continue to evolve. Digital design tools allow for more sophisticated interpretations of traditional forms, while contemporary designers push the boundaries of what gothic can be. We’re seeing increased interest in variable gothic fonts that allow designers to adjust weight, width, and ornamental details on the fly. This flexibility makes gothic fonts more versatile than ever before. The rise of dark mode interfaces has also given gothic fonts new relevance in digital design, where their dramatic contrast works particularly well against dark backgrounds. Common Gothic Font Questions Answered What’s the difference between gothic and blackletter fonts? Blackletter is a specific category within the broader gothic font family. While all blackletter fonts are gothic, not all gothic fonts are blackletter. Blackletter specifically refers to the dense, angular scripts used in medieval manuscripts.Are gothic fonts hard to read? Traditional gothic fonts can be challenging to read in large amounts, especially for modern audiences. However, contemporary gothic interpretations often improve readability while maintaining the style’s dramatic impact.Can I use gothic fonts for body text? Generally, gothic fonts work best for headlines, logos, and short passages. For body text, consider using a more readable font and reserve gothic styling for emphasis.What’s the most versatile gothic font? Fonts like Old English Text or modern interpretations such as Cinzel offer good versatility, balancing gothic character with practical readability across different applications.Embracing the Dark Side of Typography Gothic fonts offer designers a direct connection to centuries of typographic tradition and artistic expression. They remind us that type can be more than just a vessel for words – it can evoke emotions, tell stories, and transport viewers to different times and places. Whether you’re crafting a brand identity that demands attention, designing an invitation that needs to feel special, or creating a poster that must stop viewers in their tracks, gothic fonts provide a powerful tool for visual storytelling. The key to successfully using gothic fonts lies in understanding their history, respecting their power, and applying them thoughtfully. When used with intention and restraint, these dramatic typefaces can transform ordinary designs into extraordinary experiences. So go ahead, embrace the gothic aesthetic in your next project. Let these fonts whisper ancient secrets and cast their typographic spells. In a world of safe, sanitized design choices, sometimes what you need is a little medieval magic to make your work truly unforgettable.

This Duster review contains no spoilers. Would you look at that? Actor Josh Holloway and creator J.J. Abrams have reunited for the first time since Lost crash-landed onto ABC 20 years ago. I have slight memories of the series — I was more of a Heroes watcher — but never felt inclined to revisit. Nonetheless, I can understand the joy in seeing them collaborate on a new project after all these years. But this time, they’re trading vehicles and genres. Abrams and LaToya Morgan’s Max period crime thriller series, Duster, in which Holloway portrays a getaway driver tapped to be a mole by the FBI, bears a pulpy and cartoonish exterior, though its constant tonal whiplash prevents its engine from roaring as loud as it should. Jim Ellis (Holloway) is the quintessential getaway driver men don’t want to mess with and women want to be with. He’s a cool, alluring, charming dude whose business varies between wheelman, courier, and blackmailer. Most of his jobs are for his crime lord boss, Ezra Saxton (Keith David), who has the Southwest crime strip on lock and whom he’s loyal to thanks to the friendship his dad Wade (Corbin Bernsen) shared with him. Whenever he’s not under Saxton’s thumb, he’s a supportive uncle to his fellow courier driver ex-girlfriend Izzy’s (Camille Guaty) daughter Luna (Adriana Aluna Martinez). Although Jim leads a low-key lifestyle, it’s evident that he is going through a transition brought on by the unresolved death of his beloved brother, Joey who was also a wheelman in the past and died in an explosion.  Enter the driven and hard-working Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson), who makes it into the FBI as the first Black woman agent. Because it’s the ‘70s, all the white males within her unit, whether it be her peers or superiors, do their best to belittle her. The sole person she establishes a friendship with is Awan (Asivak Koostachin), a comic book-loving Navajo nation-based agent who is assigned as her partner.  Hayes and Ellis’ worlds collide, and she propositions him to be her mole for the FBI to take down Saxton and his entire crime syndicate. Unknown to her FBI allies, Hayes has additional motivations for wanting to bring Saxton down. Jim’s loyalty to his boss is frequently put to the test during the season’s perilous assignments, causing him to question his loyalty to Saxton. Hayes faces the same moral compass challenge as she is compelled to work outside the law and actively pursue information.  Despite the serialization of the plot, Duster bears a high-spirited eccentricity that works in its favor for most of the series. At least on Jim Ellis’ part, where it adopts the “mission of the week” episodic format. Every episode follows Jim going job to job for Saxton, which results in him either facing off against assassins or crime lords straight out of an ‘80s animation. Jim’s quests get unabashedly cartoonish to the extent that one episode features a stunningly animated dream sequence where Jim envisions himself in a Looney Tunes cartoon. When he’s not fighting in his orange Plymouth Duster, Jim’s wheelman missions involve him interacting with icons of 1970s pop culture, such as Colonel Tom Parker and Adrienne Barbeau. Abrams and Morgan’s use of campy worldbuilding is largely attributable to the charismatic supporting actors who confidently embellish their roles, as opposed to the straight-laced nature of the two leads. Jim’s smooth persona, in particular, bounces off quirky characters, resulting in strong comedic moments. Some of my favorite scenes are when Jim fights with his stepmother Charlotte (Gail O’ Grady), who despises him to no end even though they both have a close bond with Wade the patriarch. Duster‘s heart simply lies in how Jim and Nina navigate this kooky, crime world and their reliance on each other to thrive in their paths. Holloway’s smooth wit and personable bravado contribute to the show’s welcoming gravitas. Hilson on her part excels with a tough, self-assured backbone that adds so much charm to the conventional cop-criminal dynamic she and Holloway share.  It’s clear that Duster is a different engine from Lost, but Holloway hasn’t lost his star touch. The series thrives on being brainless, fast-food TV that is often wildly entertaining, accompanied by stylish and cool action sequences. Whether it be combat or car chase sequences with adrenaline-inducing practical crashes, it feels like a remnant of pulpy action thrillers with an adult edge not often around in modern television. Much of that credit is attributed to director Steph Green, who keeps the energy buoyed throughout each episode despite elements of the overarching investigation Nina and Awan feeling like a chore to get through.  Some episodes have trouble keeping a consistent tone. Mostly when it tries to make timely social commentary about workplace diversity, racial identity, and equality, especially within Nina and Izzy’s subplot. It’s a good attempt, if not absolutely necessary, especially since many studios are cutting back on diverse content in a Trump 2.0 administration. But it all contradicts the ridiculous scenes that follow, like Jim facing an assassin whose shtick is throwing projectile blades or a ceiling fan landing on a racist patron’s crotch. Duster is an all-around enjoyable and engaging historical thriller, supported by a warm, campy energy and wit, incredible action scenes, and strong performances from Josh Holloway and Rachel Hilson. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! The first episode of Duster premieres Thursday, May 15 at 9 p.m. ET on Max. New episodes debut Thursdays at the same time, culminating with the finale on July 3.

Corporations make a lot of stuff they want to sell you, and invest a lot of money, effort, and time into convincing you to not only to buy a product, but to buy a specific version of it. While there’s nothing wrong with pointing out the advantages of one product over another, sometimes marketers use specifically vague or deceptive phrases in order to convince you to choose the one they're offering up.The problem with these phrases is that they exist in a kind of gray area—they’re not outright lies, but they’re also not particularly transparent. When you see one of these eight terms printed on a product’s label, it's a good reminder to engage in some critical thinking about what it's actually telling you.FDA-approvedSeeing the phrase “FDA Approved” on a medicine’s product label probably gives you a certain sense of confidence. After all, the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t just approve everything! Getting that FDA stamp of approval must mean it’s safe and high-quality, right?But that’s not actually what “FDA Approved” means at all. The phrase specifically means “the drug is determined to provide benefits that outweigh its known and potential risks for the intended population.” It has absolutely nothing to do with quality, and it doesn’t even mean it’s low-risk—just that the benefits outweigh the risks. That’s useful information, but in marketing, the phrase is used as an indicator that you’re getting a superior product that you can trust to be safe, when all it really means is that it works, and the downsides are (probably) worth it.Genuine leatherThe word “genuine” is doing a lot of work here. You probably think it must be some kind of industry term, with all kinds of meaningful grading and quality testing behind it. But in the words of Lifehacker editor Beth Skwarecki, “‘genuine leather’ just means it’s...leather." It literally just means the thing you’re holding in your hand is, in fact, made of leather. It says nothing about the quality of that leather—good or bad.PatentedIf you watch Shark Tank, you probably have a high opinion of the patent process, and assume that if a product is patented—and shouts that information everywhere in its advertising—it must be innovative and unique. You’d better buy this version, is the implication, because no one else can replicate its patented magic.Eh, not necessarily. Sure, some patents do, in fact, protect innovative ideas. But patents can be issued for a lot of reasons—sometimes minor technical improvements, or new ways of combining ingredients or components. The U.S. issues hundreds of thousands of patents every year, and not all of them are meaningful in the sense of describing amazing breakthroughs or even unique applications. But the term conveys a certain gravitas to a product’s other claims around effectiveness, utility, and value, so marketers use it any time they can.Maximum strengthThe “it goes to 11” of marketing copy. This phrase always looks convincing— it's usually written in all caps at the top of the label to let you know that the product is not messing around, and that it is the most product you can buy.The problem is, what does “maximum” mean? Maximum compared to what? If it means compared to the other versions of the product, that doesn’t necessarily mean competing brands won’t be stronger. If it refers to some sort of legal or physical limitation on how powerful a drug or other product can be, then that same restriction applies to competing products as well. It’s a relative term that doesn’t mean anything unless you put in some research to understand what the reference points actually are.All-naturalEvery now and then, someone falls for the classic “dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO)” prank, agreeing that a dangerous chemical like DHMO should be banned after hearing about all the potential hazards it causes, like death if accidentally inhaled. DHMO is, of course, water (H2O)—dangerous under the right conditions, but also necessary for life. The point being, many chemicals are all-natural, technically speaking, and there’s no clear guidance from the FDA on what the term means. Most products are processed to such a degree that it’s impossible to determine what “natural” even could mean, so labeling something as “all-natural” doesn’t mean much.Doctor-approvedWhen shopping for health-related products of any kind, it can be persuasive to see one is “doctor approved” in some way. You might think this means that a major medical association has come together to recommend that product, or at least conducted some sort of study and determined that this product did the job best. It probably doesn’t mean that, though. While it often means that at least one doctor tested or reviewed the product, that doctor may have been on the company payroll, and either way the phrase doesn’t mean a more formal or official approval process of any kind took place.Clinically provenSimilarly, the phrase “clinically proven” can be deceptive because the clinical studies being referenced are often paid for by the manufacturer itself. While that doesn’t necessarily mean these studies are fake, it does call into question how objective the study and its designers were, and whether any independent bodies corroborate its findings.Worse, sometimes the studies being cited for the “clinically proven” claim don’t actually prove that the product works. Sometimes fine print hidden somewhere on a label or website will clarify this, but not always. Even if a study was reasonably well-conducted and independently organized, you need more than one study to have confidence that an active ingredient or specific formulation of something actually works as advertised.RecyclableIf you’re worried about the future of the planet, you might be seeking out products that lower your carbon footprint. Seeing that a product’s packaging is recyclable makes you feel better about using it, because you know that when you toss it away you’re not adding to a landfill.Except, often, you are. Companies sometimes use materials in their packaging that are technically recyclable, but practically not recyclable. In other words, the specific plastic or other material can be recycled, but aspects of the packaging itself—shape, size, and the stuff it contains—mean that it will be separated out and tossed into a landfill regardless. And sometimes the specific material used isn’t recycled universally—for example, HDPE plastic can be recycled, but not all recycling facilities accept it.