The Smashing Machine is a biographical sports drama film starring Dwayne Johnson as former wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr.
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2025, where it won the Silver Lion.[3] It is set to be released in the United States by A24 on October 3, 2025. The film received positive reviews from critics, with Johnson’s performance receiving widespread critical acclaim, with many calling it the best of his career.
Taylor Swift on Friday announced a new theater event, “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” set to hit theaters Oct. 3 in coordination with the release of her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” which is due out the same day.
“I hereby invite you to a *dazzling* soirée, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl: Oct 3 – Oct 5 only in cinemas!”
She continued, “You’ll get to see the exclusive world premiere of the music video for my new single ‘The Fate of Ophelia’, along with never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage of how we made it, cut-by-cut explanations of what inspired this music, and the brand new lyric videos from my new album The Life of a Showgirl ❤️🔥.”
According to Variety, the 89-minute event will be shown in each of AMC’s 540 theaters, with non-AMC theaters also screening the event.
The show will also be presented internationally, according to Variety.
Anemone is a 2025 psychologicaldrama film directed by Ronan Day-Lewis, in his feature directorial debut, from a screenplay he co-wrote with his father, Daniel Day-Lewis, who also stars in the lead role. It features the latter’s return to acting for the first time since 2017’s Phantom Thread, alongside Sean Bean and Samantha Morton.
A thought-provoking documentary on the need for reforming math education to address societal issues like inequality, climate change, and political polarization, offering an empowering new approach.
With education under attack and misinformation on the rise, math is more than just numbers—it’s a language for reason, a foundation for truth, and a tool for democracy. Across the country, communities are coming together to explore how math literacy shapes everything from opportunity to civic life.
Counted Out examines the most significant crises of our time through an unexpected lens: mathematics.
In our current information economy, math is everywhere. The people we date, the news we see, the influence of our votes, the candidates who win elections, the education we have access to, the jobs we get—all of it is underwritten by an invisible layer of math that few of us understand, or even notice.
But whether we know it or not, our numeric literacy—whether we can speak the language of math—is a critical determinant of social and economic power.
Through a mosaic of personal stories, expert interviews, and scenes of math transformation in action, Counted Out shows what’s at risk if we keep the status quo. Do we want an America in which most of us don’t consider ourselves “math people”? Where does math proficiency go as students grow up? Or do we want a country where everyone can understand the math that undergirds our society—and can help shape it?
In the 21st century, fueled by technology, data, and algorithms, math determines who has the power to shape our world.
One Battle After Another had its world premiere in Los Angeles on September 8, 2025, and is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on September 26.
Plot
When an enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own.[6]
DreamWorks Animation announced a feature-length film based on Gabby’s Dollhouse in April 2024, with Crego and Steven Schweickart attached as director and producer, respectively. It was also announced that same month that Kraner set to reprise her role as Gabby. Filming began in July 2024 in Vancouver, British Columbia, with further casting running from February to May 2025. It will be the second live-action DreamWorks Animation film, following the 2025 remake of How to Train Your Dragon (2010), as well as DreamWorks Animation’s first live-action film that is not a remake.
Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie premiered in Melbourne on September 13, 2025, and is scheduled to be released by Universal Pictures in the United States on September 26, 2025.
Premise
Gabby goes on a road trip with her grandma GiGi to the urban wonderland of Cat Francisco. But when Gabby’s dollhouse, her most prized possession, ends up in the hands of an eccentric cat lady named Vera, Gabby sets off on an adventure through the real world and works together to get the Gabby Cats back together and save the dollhouse before it’s too late.[5]
Cast
Live-action
Laila Lockhart Kraner as Gabby,[5] a young girl who is a kitty enthusiast
Gloria Estefan as Grandma Gigi, the grandmother of Gabby
It had its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 5, 2025, in the Special Presentations section, which was then followed by a limited theatrical release in the United States on September 19, 2025, and will premiere globally on Apple TV+ on October 3, 2025.[2]
Premise
A bus driver has to navigate a bus carrying children and their teacher to safety through the 2018 Camp Fire, which became the deadliest fire in California history.[3]
Cast
McConaughey, Ferrera, and Greengrass at the premiere in Toronto
Xeno is an upcoming American science fictionadventure film[2] directed, written, produced, and edited by Matthew Loren Oates. The film follows a teenage girl who makes friends with an alien after it crashes nearby in the desert.
The film is scheduled for release in the United States on September 19, 2025.
Imelda Staunton, who portrays Lady Maud Bagshaw in the previous film, stated in March 2024 that a third and final film in the Downton Abbey franchise was being planned, with the main cast set to return. Following the announcement of several cast members reprising their roles in May, filming began that month and concluded in August. The official title was announced in March 2025.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is scheduled to be released by Focus Features on 12 September 2025.
Premise
Follows the Crawley family and the Downton Abbey staff as they enter the 1930s. When Mary finds herself at the center of a public scandal caused by her divorce and the family faces financial trouble, the entire household grapples with the threat of social disgrace. The Crawleys must embrace change as the staff prepares for a new chapter with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future. [2][3]
Paul Copley as Albert Mason, a tenant farmer under the Crawleys, father of Daisy’s first husband, William Mason and love interest of Beryl Patmore
Brendan Coyle as John Bates, the valet of Lord Grantham and husband of Anna Bates
Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Crawley, eldest daughter of Lord and Lady Grantham
Kevin Doyle as Joseph Molesley, the local schoolteacher at Downton, former footman at Downton Abbey and husband of Phyllis Baxter
Michael Fox as Andrew “Andy” Parker, former footman and current butler at Downton Abbey and husband of Daisy Parker
Joanne Froggatt as Anna Bates, lady’s maid to Lady Mary and wife of John Bates
Paul Giamatti as Harold Levinson, an American businessman and brother of Lady Grantham
Harry Hadden-Paton as Herbert “Bertie” Pelham, 7th Marquess of Hexham and husband of Edith
Robert James-Collier as Thomas Barrow, former butler at Downton Abbey, currently the housekeeper, dresser, and secret lover of Guy Dexter
Allen Leech as Tom Branson, the widower of Lady Sybil, Lord and Lady Grantham’s late youngest daughter, and husband of Lucy Smith, a distant cousin of the Crawley family
The Long Walk is a dystopianhorror novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1979, under the pseudonymRichard Bachman. Set in a dystopian alternative version of the United States ruled by a totalitarian regime, the plot follows the contestants of a grueling annual walking contest. While not the first of King’s novels to be published, The Long Walk was the first novel he wrote, having begun it in 1966–67 during his freshman year at the University of Maine, some eight years before his first published novel, Carrie, was released in 1974.[2]
It was collected in 1985 in the hardcover omnibus The Bachman Books, and has seen several reprints since, as both paperback and hardcover. In 2023, Centipede Press released the first stand-alone hardcover edition.[3] In 2000, the American Library Association listed The Long Walk as one of the 100 best books for teenage readers published between 1966 and 2000.[4]
Plot
Set in an alternative, dystopian version of the United States, the plot revolves around the Long Walk, an annual contest in which 100 young men walk continuously along a pre-arranged route (presumably on Route 1). Walkers must keep a minimum pace of 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h), and are issued verbal warnings by soldiers monitoring their progress if they fall below this speed for 30 seconds. A walker can lose one warning if he walks for an hour without earning another. If a walker receives three warnings and falls below the minimum speed for 30 seconds again, he is shot and killed by the soldiers. The Walk continues until there is only one survivor, who can have whatever he wants for the rest of his life as his prize.
Ray Garraty, from Androscoggin County, Maine, arrives at the start of the Walk on the Canada–Maine border, where he meets the other walkers, among them the sardonic McVries, the friendly Baker, the cocky Olson and the enigmatic Stebbins. The Major, the leader of the secret police force known as the Squads, starts the Walk. Throughout the first day, Garraty befriends Baker, Olson, and several other walkers such as Abraham and Pearson, growing particularly close to McVries and becoming intrigued by Stebbins. The men speculate on who will be the first walker to be eliminated. A walker named Barkovitch reveals to a reporter that he is in the Long Walk to “dance on the graves” of other participants, and later provokes another walker into attacking him, resulting in the latter’s death and Barkovitch being ostracized.
The novel’s main character and point-of-view character, a 16-year-old boy from Pownal, Maine (for which he is called a “hick”). He is described as tall and well-built with a “heavy shock” of “straw-thatch” hair and a faded army fatigue jacket. Garraty is bitter, naive and thoughtful, which makes him a good confidant for the other Walkers, and felt a compulsion to join the Walk that he struggles to understand. Although he has done farmwork, he is not an experienced athlete. His hobbies include dancing, reading, knitting and constellations; conversely, he dislikes beer and cities.
Peter “Pete” McVries (#61)
Garraty’s closest companion, a 16-year-old boy from Passaic, New Jersey. He is described as “awesomely fit” with black hair, a knapsack and a white scar across his cheek, which he received from his ex-girlfriend. McVries is sardonic and has a masochistic streak, often goading others into pushing him away even during the pains of the Walk. He saves Garraty multiple times in the game, also giving him advice. He carries a strong hatred towards Barkovitch, stating his only desire is to outlast him.
Stebbins (#88)
A loner who walks at the rear of the group, a 17-year-old boy and the illegitimate son of the Major. He is described as a “lean Buddha” with pale blue eyes and a “sickly halo” of blond hair, and wears an old green sweater, a blue chambray shirt, purple pants and tennis shoes (which he later swaps for moccasins). Stebbins is calm, playful and mocking, and often talks to Garraty in riddles. He is convinced that the Walk is rigged, and is scared at the prospect of it being a straight game.
Arthur “Art” Baker (#3)
Another participant who is close with Garraty and McVries. He is a young man from a large, lower-class family in Louisiana (for which he is called a “cracker”). He is described as appearing “young and beautiful” and “almost ethereal”, as moving with “deceptive leisure”, and as wearing a red-striped shirt. Baker is sweet and sincere, but is a con artist and a former night rider, and he has a fascination with his own death.
Henry “Hank” Olson (#70)
One of Garraty’s earliest companions, a young man of unknown background. He is described as an experienced smoker wearing his foodbelt slung low “like a gunslinger”. Olson is cocky and arrogant and humorous (“raring to rip”), but quickly becomes withdrawn and unresponsive, with Garraty believing that he has become a “human Flying Dutchman”.
Gary Barkovitch (#5)
A young man from Washington, DC. He is described as small and olive-skinned with a sharp nose and hooded eyes, and he sometimes wears a vinyl yellow rainhat; Garraty considers him to look like a “destructive child’s teddy bear”. Barkovitch is intense and adheres to a mysterious “Plan”, and threatens to “dance on the graves” of the other Walkers, but becomes paranoid and insane when they ostracize him. He and McVries have a heated hatred towards each other throughout the walk.
Abraham “Abe” (#2)
One of Garraty’s companions, a 17-year-old boy called a “rube”. He is described as disjointed and shambling, with reddish hair, Oxford shoes, and a jacket tied around his waist. Abraham is droll and somber and short-tempered, particularly when jibes are made at his intelligence, and entered the Walk partially as a joke.
Collie Parker
A young man from Joliet, Illinois. He is described as a big-muscled blond with a polo shirt and an insolent look; Garraty further describes him as a “leather jacket hero” and a “Saturday night tough guy”. Parker despises Maine and uses excessive profanity, and often attempts to flirt with the spectators despite considering them to be “pigs”.
Pearson
One of Garraty’s companions. He is described as a tall young man with glasses and pants that are too big for him. Pearson is morose and enjoys poetry, game theory and chess, and views the Walk as a competition that can be solved logically. For luck, Pearson has 99 pennies in his pocket, and moves one to his other pocket whenever someone dies.
Scramm (#85)
The predicted winner of the current Long Walk, a participant from Arizona with a pregnant wife. He is described as a shaggy young man with a crew cut, few remaining teeth, and a “moose-like” physique. Although dim-witted, Scramm is friendly and possesses a “simple dignity”. He has dropped out of school and works in a bedsheet factory.
Charles Blakey, an African American man living in Sag Harbor, is stuck in a rut, out of luck, and about to lose his ancestral home when a peculiar white businessman with a European accent offers to rent his basement for the summer.
In an attempt to mend their broken relationship, a man invites his estranged son to compete in a father–son fishing competition in San Pedro, Belize.[1]
A girl raised in Silicon Valley in the shadow of Steve Jobs’ successful return to Apple and his huge influence on her imagination, her aspirations, and her relationships.
The Chicago production of Hamilton began preview performances at the CIBC Theatre in September 2016 and opened the following month.[10] The West End production opened at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London on 21 December 2017, following previews from 6 December, and won seven Olivier Awards in 2018, including Best New Musical.[11] The first U.S. national tour began in March 2017.[12] A second U.S. tour opened in February 2018.[13]Hamilton‘s third U.S. tour began January 11, 2019, with a three-week engagement in Puerto Rico in which Miranda returned to the role of Hamilton.[14][15] The first non-English production opened in Hamburg in October 2022, having been translated into German.[16] As of 2025, no amateur or professional licenses have been granted for Hamilton.[17]
