It’s not even the end of February and there’s already a strong contender for best TV show of the year: True Detective: Night Country. The HBO show, shifts to Alaska this season, is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed series so far in 2024, with more viewers turning in each week to find out how and why a group of scientists ventured semi-naked out into the freezing cold to be slaughtered by a mysterious force.
Part of the reason for the show’s renewed popularity is the presence and performance of Jodie Foster, one of the most respected movie actresses of the last five decades, who is starring in her first TV series since 1974’s Paper Moon. While Foster isn’t a TV veteran, she’s established herself in the thriller genre with such films as The Accused and The Silence of The Lambs, both of which netted her Academy Awards for Best Actress. For fans of Foster and Night Country, here are three of the actress’ best thrillers that don’t involve Hannibal Lecter.
It’s a testament to David Fincher’s career that Panic Room, an above-average thriller that would be a highlight on any other director’s résumé, ranks low on The Killer helmer’s filmography. It’s still well worth watching, if only to see Foster in her 2000s prime as Meg Altman, a recently divorced woman who, along with her diabetic teenage daughter, Sarah, gets trapped in the titular enclosed space by a mysterious group of home invaders headed by a pre-Joker Jared Leto.
Panic Room lasts 112 minutes, and almost every minute is filled with a sense of dread and suspense. Fincher flexes his usual stylistic muscles with the aid of great camera work by Conrad Hall and Darius Khondji and a memorable score from Howard Shore, but its Foster, especially in her scenes with Stewart, who really makes the movie worth a watch. Often playing scenes with only herself, Foster is never less than mesmerizing to watch, something that has continued throughout the years and is currently on display in Night Country.
Panic Room can be rented or purchased at digital vendors like Amazon Prime Video.
When The Brave One was released in 2007, it was promoted as a loose remake of the Charles Bronson 1970s revenge classic Death Wish, with Foster assuming the role of an urban vigilante. In the movie, Foster stars as Erica Bain, a radio host who witnesses her fiancé get brutally beaten to death in New York City. Fueled with rage, Erica arms herself with an illegal gun and wages a one-woman war against crime.
The Brave One isn’t for everyone, and its gun-happy politics haven’t aged too well, but it doesn’t exactly condone Erica’s criminal activities either. Foster was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance, and it’s easy to see why — you buy Erica’s grief and need for violence to ease her pain. It’s not a pleasant movie, but The Brave One is never boring, and that’s largely due to its lead actress.
The Brave One can be rented or purchased at digital vendors like Amazon Prime Video.
A bank robbery, some stolen diamonds, and a secret dating back to World War II — these are the elements that fuel Spike Lee’s twisty thriller Inside Man, and that form the basis for one of the best suspense movies of the last 20 years. Denzel Washington stars as Detective Keith Frazier, who is assigned to negotiate with a group of bank robbers headed by Dalton Russell (A Murder at the End of the World‘s Clive Owen), who opens the film by proclaiming he’s committed the perfect heist.
This isn’t an ordinary bank robbery, though, as Jodie Foster’s Madeleine White arrives on the scene, having been hired by the bank’s ultra-rich owner, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), to protect contents in a safe deposit box hidden deep inside the bank. Is Dalton after those contents? And if so, what secrets do they contain? Foster takes a rare supporting role in Inside Man, but her few scenes stand out as some of the film’s best. It’s the kind of performance that’s measured in impact, not minutes, and Foster makes a considerable impression every minute she’s on screen.
Inside Man is streaming on Peacock.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.