With 456 players involved at the titular deadly competition in “Squid Game,” viewers are sure to have a hard time keeping every character straight when they start binge-watching Season 2 at launch on Dec. 26. The good news is, not every one of those players is essential to the story of Gi-hun’s (Lee Jung-jae) return […]

Created by writer/director Hwang Dong-hyuk, the Emmy-winning “Squid Game,” Netflix’s most-watched series of all time, has returned for a second season. Season 1 of the South Korean survival thriller followed Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), a divorced father and gambling addict who joins the Squid Game in hopes of earning enough prize money to pay off his […]

M.T. Vasudevan Nair, celebrated Indian screenwriter, director and novelist, died on Dec. 25 at a hospital in Kozhikode after being admitted for breathing difficulties. He was 91. His contributions to Malayalam-language cinema and literature redefined storytelling in the southern Indian state of Kerala where he was born. Nair’s early exposure to traditional folktales and the […]

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains mild spoilers about “Nosferatu,” now playing in theaters. Robert Eggers’ fourth film — “Nosferatu,” in theaters today via Focus Features — is a bold, starry reimagining of F. W. Murnau’s 1922 masterful silent film of the same name. Lily-Rose Depp and Bill Skarsgård star as the gorgeous Ellen Hutter and grotesque […]

Sault, the prolific R&B-leaning collective helmed by songwriter-producer-multi-instrumentalist Inflo, never does anything the easy way. Their albums and rare concerts are all elaborate and self-financed; they don’t give interviews or even reveal their identities except in the credits of the albums, although it’s possible that not all of the contributors are credited. The group and […]

Oil prices edged higher in early Asian trading amid heightened geopolitical tensions.

With the Fed cutting rates, some savers say they are done moving money from bank to bank in pursuit of the best return on cash.

She’s defrosted and ready to take the field. This year marked the inaugural NFL Christmas Gameday live on Netflix, and Mariah Carey was there to kick off the games with a prerecorded performance of “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Watch her performance here. Carey’s performance aired ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh […]

There’s a haunting quality to Ecuadorian Oscar submission “Behind the Mist,” Sebastián Cordero’s intimate documentary on scaling Mount Everest. On one hand, Cordero’s twinning of mountaineering and filmmaking reveals spiritual similarities to both endeavors. On the other hand, his visual texture reveals hidden layers through its lo-fi aesthetic — one that emerges by necessity, given […]

Hudson Meek, a teen actor who appeared in Edgar Wright’s film “Baby Driver,” died on Dec. 22 in Alabama after falling from a moving vehicle. He was 16. “Our hearts are broken to share that Hudson Meek went home to be with Jesus tonight,” read a post on his Instagram account. “His 16 years on […]

Beyoncé showed out for her native Houston with her highly anticipated NFL halftime performance during the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans football game on Christmas Day. For her first live televised performance in four years, dubbed “Beyoncé Bowl,” the singer put on a meticulously confected and executed show, enlisting Post Malone, Shaboozey and her daughter […]

Gold edged higher in early Asian trade. In the short and medium term, gold may experience fluctuations and volatility as there is no overall driving force amid the holidays, Nanhua Futures said.

Chinese shares ended higher, supported by tech stocks, as investors await details of supportive measures after policymakers reiterated vows to prop up consumption and stabilize the property market.

Richard Perry, a prominent record producer who helped craft dozens of hits with a polished pop sound throughout the 1970s and ’80s, such as Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” died Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 82. His friend Daphna Kastner Keitel told the New York Times he died of cardiac arrest. Perry started out […]

UPDATED: Netflix’s rookie start as an NFL media partner didn’t draw any yellow flags. The streamer’s first Christmas Day game, Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, commenced at 1 p.m. ET, following two hours of pregame coverage. Next up was Baltimore Ravens-Houston Texans (starting at 4:30 p.m. ET), with superstar Beyoncé taking the field at […]

There’s officially a new companion in the Whoniverse. The first teaser for the second season of Disney+ and the BBC’s “Doctor Who” introduces Varada Sethu as Belinda Chandra, who assertively tells Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor: “You need to get me home!” The clip seems to tease an apocalyptic invasion of some sort, with spaceships and robots […]

Johnny Reardon, star of Hallmark holiday movies like this year’s “Believe in Christmas,” revealed in a Christmas Eve Instagram post that he has been recovering from tonsil cancer. The Canadian actor, who stars in the canine-themed detective TV series “Hudson & Rex,” wrote “Last night was my first night out after my recovery from tonsil […]

A film about a fantasist fish isn’t the most obvious subject for Christmas Day – except when it’s based on a children’s story by prolific British author Julia Donaldson and her longtime illustrator Axel Scheffler. “Tiddler” is the twelfth of Donaldson and Scheffler’s collaborations to be adapted by U.K. production company Magic Light Pictures and, […]

“Sonic the Hedgehog 3” outpaced the box office competition on Christmas Eve. The film unwrapped $7.5 million on Tuesday from 3,700 North American theaters. “Sonic 3” is projected to bring in $50 million between Wednesday and Sunday. So far, the animated threequel about a blue anthropomorphic speed demon has collected $60 million domestically. It opens […]