How to Decide What to Watch
It's become an adage of the modern age to say that the more streaming options there are, the harder it is to decide what to watch. Our critic David Sims has a solution: 'As a way to avoid decision paralysis, I always have at least one movie-viewing project going, a way to check boxes and spur myself toward new things to explore—be it running through an influential director's filmography, checking out the cinema of a particular country or era, or going one by one through a long-running series,' he wrote recently.
In today's newsletter, spend time with our critics' suggestions for how to organize your movie-watching, find what's right for your mood, and expand your mind.
On Movies
Your Summer Project: Watching These Movies
By David Sims
Twelve franchises, genres, and filmographies to dig into
Read the article.
The Blockbuster That Captured a Growing American Rift
By Tyler Austin Harper
The novel that inspired the film Jaws was decidedly populist. The movie took a different turn.
Read the article.
Six Binge-Worthy Movie Series
By Stephanie Bai
Spend some time with a good movie—or two, or three.
Still Curious?
Five movies that changed viewers' minds: Our writers and editors on the films that shifted how they see the world
25 feel-good films you'll want to watch again—and again: In 2020, our critic offered suggestions to soothe the anxious mind.
Other Diversions
What's brilliant about the new Superman movie
Why can't Americans sleep?
'I fought plastic. Plastic won.'
P.S.
I asked readers to share a photo of something that sparks their sense of awe in the world. 'I find air travel deeply vexing and stressful, but I have never lost my sense of awe about flying, and the beauty of our planet,' Elizabeth Miller, 60, from Cabin John, Maryland, writes. 'I took this photo with my iPhone while flying in a commercial airliner over the Caribbean in January.'
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Time Magazine
an hour ago
- Time Magazine
How the National Park System Is Faring Under the Trump Administration
Peak travel season to the United States' national parks is fast approaching, with locations such as Yellowstone and Grand Canyon set to welcome masses of visitors. But it's also a testing time for the National Park Service (NPS), amid President Donald Trump's second term, with rising concerns over diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) changes, entry fees, and staff shortages. [time-brightcove not-tgx='true'] While there are 63 national parks, the NPS, in total, manages 433 sites across more than 85 million acres. The locations amassed a record 331 million visitors last year. In 2023, visitors spending in communities near these sites resulted in a $55.6 billion benefit to the nation's economy and supported over 400,000 jobs, according to the NPS. Trump showed some support for national parks during his first term, signing the Great American Outdoors Act, which dedicated up to $1.9 billion per year for five years to fund deferred maintenance projects identified by the NPS and other parks departments. 'From an environmental standpoint and from just the beauty of our country standpoint, there hasn't been anything like this since Teddy Roosevelt, I suspect,' he said during the bill-signing ceremony at the White House. The Trump Administration's Secretarial Order 3388, signed later on in 2020 raised concerns, with critics saying it lessened the effectiveness of the Great American Outdoors Act. When former President Joe Biden entered office in 2021, his Administration revoked the order. Advocates are now noting a sharper turn in Trump's second term, voicing concerns over budget cuts, environmental protections rollbacks, and more. Trump's eagerness to change Alcatraz Island, a designated national park, and reopen it as a functional prison is also causing alarm. Retired national parks superintendent Bob Krumenaker says it's hard to know where to begin, when asked to voice the key issues. 'The staff is being decimated right now. The morale is as bad as it has ever been,' he says. 'The big issue is it would appear that this Administration… [is] systematically destroying the workforce and the values of the National Park System that are really important to American people.' The potential impact of Trump's Big, Beautiful Bill Trump's signature spending bill, which he has dubbed the 'Big, Beautiful Bill,' has been noted for tax cuts which target Medicaid funding, food benefits, and clean energy incentives. It also includes a significant expansion to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) budget. Overall, it's predicted to add around $3 trillion to the national debt. But a lesser known aspect of the spending bill claws back $267 million of previously committed funding for national park staff. The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) says these cuts are occurring 'in their moment of greatest need.' Kristen Brengel, NPCA's senior vice president of government affairs, says it is 'inconsistent' how in 2020 Trump signed the 'Great American Outdoors Act,' but now showcases such different priorities. 'It's sad to me that Congress one year understands and recognizes that the parks actually need even more staff, and now we're at such a deficit with staff. The Administration submitted a President's budget that seeks a [big] cut to the park services operation,' she says. More concerning than the spending bill to Krumenaker is the budget the Administration has proposed for FY26, which suggests 'devastating cuts' to the NPS and stands to cut the workforce by over 5,000.'Operational funding would see a 31% reduction. Facility operations would be reduced. Resource stewardship would be reduced tremendously,' he says. 'What people don't understand is that the National Park System returns a lot of money to the American economy… so in the guise of saving money and being efficient, it couldn't be more wrong.' Workforce decline In an early action on Valentine's Day this year, the Trump Administration fired around 1,000 NPS workers, but Brengel and the NPCA says this is only the beginning of workforce shortages at national parks. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) driven layoffs prompted legal action, including a lawsuit filed April 28 by a large coalition of unions, local governments, and nonprofits. The NPCA released a report on July 3 that found there has been a sharp decline in staffing levels across the National Park System since January. 'Since the Trump Administration took office, the National Park Service has lost 24% of its permanent staff, a staggering reduction that has left parks across the country scrambling to operate with bare-bones crews,' the report stated. 'When you try to imagine the people going to our national parks, mostly in the summertime, and you think about the staff shortage, it just raises a lot of concern in terms of resource protection, public safety, and ongoing maintenance,' Brengel says. 'This just means there are fewer people protecting these places. The expertise and institutional knowledge that has been lost is hugely problematic.' Experts also argue that seasonal hiring is lagging far behind the numbers needed to fill the gaps. From her discussions with park superintendents, Brengel says she has learned that most are trying to make it work for this summer, but they are concerned about the future. Former regional director at the NPS, Kym Hall, says that this has resulted in people taking on extra jobs they're not trained to do. 'I think it's absolutely inappropriate,' she says, arguing it gives the impression that 'people are interchangeable pieces on a chessboard.' Potential increase in fees for foreign visitors On July 3, Trump signed a new Executive Order titled 'Making America Beautiful Again by Improving Our National Parks.' It calls on the Department of the Interior to increase fees for foreign visitors and give U.S. residents priority access in any permitting or reservation systems. This includes an increase in the year-long America the Beautiful pass, which grants access to public lands across federal agencies. A budget brief for NPS released in May states: 'In 2026, NPS will establish a surcharge for foreign visitors that is estimated to generate more than $90 million to keep national parks beautiful.' The Executive Order also directs the interior department to use these funds to 'improve services and affordability for United States residents visiting national parks.' 'There could be a billion-dollar revenue opportunity without discouraging visitors,' Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said during a House Committee on Natural Resources oversight hearing in June. Currently, 106 parks managed by the NPS require entry fees. Brengel says that this directive is not actually uncommon and it could perhaps have positive effects, so long as it does not provide a significant barrier to entry or discourage visitors. DEI challenges Trump has made various strikes to dismantle DEI initiatives since returning to the White House. This directive has significantly impacted the history included on the NPS website and throughout the parks themselves. In March, it was reported that in light of the Trump Administration's efforts to dismantle DEI, the NPS had taken down web pages dedicated to transgender activists and LGBTQ+ history. The NPS reportedly removed online pages once dedicated to transgender activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. In a March 27 Executive Order titled 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,' the Trump Administration alleged that the Biden Administration had 'pressured National Historical Park rangers that their racial identity should dictate how they convey history to visiting Americans because America is purportedly racist.' Following this, references to Harriet Tubman were temporarily removed from a National Park Service webpage about the Underground Railroad before being restored. On May 20, Secretary Burgum also ordered that all national parks and other public lands must post notices encouraging people to report 'any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.' The Center of American Progress argued in a report that this was a 'blatant attempt to erase history' and could 'degrade the integrity and educational value of our parks and may discourage visitation.' 'These are America's classrooms. We are the stewards of American heritage,' says Krumenaker, pointing to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial and the Japanese American internment sites that are part of the National Park System. 'These are the places that tell the story of who we are as Americans—the majestic things that the Trump Administration supports, but also the stories of when we have not fulfilled our own ideals, so we can learn from them.' Experts point to the 'exhibit redesign' of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, which is managed by the NPS, as an example. Hall says it used to provide a 'more balanced' story about Jefferson that included his history as a slave owner and the story of Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman in the Jefferson household. Overall, the Administration's understanding of the parks' 'importance' to the American people is 'lacking,' Krumenaker argues. 'If their assaults continue, I think it will change the National Park System irreparably for the future generations.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
50 years after Jaws, will B.C. ever see more great white sharks?
Fifty years after Steven Spielberg's Jaws set the template for the Hollywood summer blockbuster movie, the spectre of a great white shark attack still looms over anyone who goes swimming in the sea. Jaws was released on June 20, 1975, and the film is set in New England as a vicious great white shark kills summer beachgoers, and a police chief takes on the scary task of tackling it. Scientists say B.C.'s waters are still too cold for the great white shark to proliferate on Canada's West Coast, but that they could become more common as the Pacific Ocean warms due to climate change. Still, they say over a dozen sharks call B.C.'s waters home, and measures to protect them from hunting are resulting in more of them recovering in population. "Sharks are part of what brings natural balance to ecosystems by exerting this top down predation pressure, so species never get out of control," said Andrew Trites, a professor at the University of B.C. Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. "We are seeing a recovery of sharks, I would say probably worldwide, but particularly in North America." Among the most common sharks that call B.C. home is the spiny dogfish, which Trites says many fishermen have accidentally caught in the Salish Sea. LISTEN | How Jaws shaped the movie industry — and our perception of sharks: Danny Kent, curator of fishes at the Vancouver Aquarium, says another common shark is the sixgill shark, which divers may have encountered in the Howe Sound region. But the curator says many sharks in B.C. waters thrive on the open ocean, and not close to land. "I think most people would be lucky to see [a shark] just cause they're not often seen," he said. "They might be common, but not commonly seen." Other sharks that inhabit B.C. waters, according to Kent, include the salmon shark, the mako shark and the thresher shark. Another is the basking shark, a 12-metre long shark that is one of the largest fish in the world. Kent said basking sharks used to be plentiful in B.C. waters, feeding on plankton. "They were almost completely eradicated and ... almost nobody ever sees them anymore," he said. "And, you know, if we started seeing them coming back, I think that would be a good sign, just like we're seeing other marine mammals coming back that haven't been around for a while." Trites said the great white is very uncommon in B.C. waters, and even though their prey of seals and sea lions are recovering in population, the ocean on Canada's West Coast is simply too cold for them to become a regular feature. "The great white is really, really rare — although maybe it'll become more common in another 50 years when we do another anniversary for the movie Jaws," he said. "Maybe [then], we can talk about great whites, because what is changing is the waters are warming."
Epoch Times
2 hours ago
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‘The Road That Made America': Traversing the Wilderness
America has always been defined by its great migration trails. The 19th century had the National Road and the Oregon Trail. In the 20th century, Route 66 was, in John Steinbeck's words, 'The Great Mother Road.' These routes moved Americans west to new homes. These are well remembered today. Yet the oldest of the great migratory routes, and perhaps the most influential, is largely forgotten today. James Dodson explores this road in 'The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim's Journey on the Great Wagon Road.'
