Saved in the edit, Guy Ritchie's IN THE GREY feels spiritually connected to THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. in the best ways. His latest in a rapid fire release schedule filled with often uneven but sometimes underrated blockbuster-lite fare, the Jake Gyllenhaal picture is convoluted fun.

Head over to @mgrmagazine.bsky.social to see the premiere of the video for our new song “Slow Down, King.” It’s a song about our collective power. We will defeat and outlive the fascists. But we have some work to do ✊ merrygoroundmagazine.com/video-premie...

Philly based alt-country troubadours Labrador have a new album entitled THE ROSY RED WORLD, out June 5th! We have the bands first ever music video premiering on the site today, a bouncy classic rock'ish ditty entitled "Slow Down, King." Watch it here today: merrygoroundmagazine.com/video-premie...

It's our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring Hekt's cinematic and idealistic club record FOREVER and the chaotic and cathartic noise rock of My Wife’s An Angel's KEEP HONKING I’M ABOUT TO FUCKING KILL MYSELF! Read about both and then give them a listen over on @bandcamp.com!

The Mortal Kombat film franchise is “for the fans” in the same way that a cigarette break is for your mental health—a familiar, mild poison to alert the body that it is still alive. Merry-Go-Round Magazine urges you to just say NO to MORTAL KOMBAT 2.

It's our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring longstanding music writer @jasonpwoodbury.bsky.social's latest cornucopia of cosmic country, JASON P. WOODBURY AND THE NIGHT BIRD SINGING QUARTET, and Cashier's fuzzy, deeply-felt EP, THE WEIGHT. Read about both and then check them out on @bandcamp.com!

Rooted in both medical truths and American realities, Amy Wang's SLANTED is an outrageous and entertaining body horror parable that offers a commentary that shouldn't soon be forgotten.

Next week, @happyjusttoseeyou.bsky.social will release their excellent third album LAST WEEK'S HORSE, among the best of the year so far. We have one more taste of the record on the site today, a premiere of their final single, the daydreaming ballad "Everything I Am." Give it a listen today!

I can see that losing Paste is a major loss without having been familiar with it, but if you're an upstart games writer looking to get your stuff published I'd recommend @mgrmagazine.bsky.social . They're good people who want to help newbie writers and they've been doin it for over a decade!

It’s our Bandcamp Pick of the Week, featuring the squiggly art pop R&B of Choker’s HEAVEN AIN’T SOLD, out now via Jet Fuzz! Read about it, go give it a listen, and then check it out over on @bandcamp.com!

Desperate to score easy points from its unapologetic cheesiness, YOU, ME & TUSCANY is trying, perhaps too hard, to win you over. Not without shortcomings, the film has heart, and a currently bleak indie ecosystem needs that.

On his third album under the moniker, Jack Rutter pushes the Ritt Momney project to new levels both sonically and thematically, with songwriting that is constantly asking “why am I the way that I am?”

such a warm, sweet record <3 highly recommended if you're even slightly into early aughts glitch (fennesz, jan jelinek, murcof...) really glad I got the chance to highlight it for MGR!

This was a good one! If you missed it, check out Alexei’s conversation with @mgrmagazine.bsky.social editor, @bandcamp.com columnist, DJ, and publicist Ted Davis (@tddvsss.bsky.social)!

It's our Bandcamp Pick of the Week, featuring the rigid rhythms and digital imperfections of Liam Aldous's NO CITY COULD SOUND! Read all about it and then give it a listen over on @bandcamp.com!

LEVITICUS is more an exercise in despair than suspense, foregoing jump scares for atmospheric dread and coming out the other side somehow emotionally comforting beyond the horror.

FORBIDDEN FRUITS never quite feels as inventive or fun as its premise and marketing would imply, a disjointed movie that has plenty of potential but comes up well shy of becoming the campy horror classic that was promised.

Ian Tuason's UNDERTONE lingers, opening with a gentle, unexpected threat and never letting go. The initial festival buzz that it's one of the scariest American horror films of the last decade is warranted.

Not without a side of cheese, TRYING TIMES finds ways to minimize James Blake's shortcomings and deliver some of his best songs yet. Beyond the flaws, it has a music festival optimism that lands, and that's commendable in the year 2026.

It's our Bandcamp Pick of the Week, featuring Liz Cooper's confident art pop transformation NEW DAY, out now via Sleepyhead Records! Read about it and then grab a copy over on @bandcamp.com!

Where Andy Weir's original source material feels dynamic and gripping, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's adaptation of PROJECT HAIL MARY falls short, a competent and entertaining enough picture that works as a blockbuster but falls short of the novel's power.

Joyce Manor and Militarie Gun are at the peak of their powers right now, each night proving whey they're two of the best live rock bands doing it. We caught the show in Atlanta earlier this week and it was excellent, check out our review below! 📸 Jamie Godin

It's never a bad time to catch up with the Bargain Bin.

SXSW can feel overwhelming even in the best of times. MGRM writer Michael Fairbanks (@kingofburbank2) walks us through surviving the 2026 iteration of the Austin based festival, including catching buzzy films like OBSESSION, HOKUM, POWER BALLAD, and more!

In the Bargain Bin, I dust off some albums, revisit the past, and explore how music is forever etched into our lives! This month: Piled up DVDs in your bedroom. Fledgling jobs you hate. The release of rage. EAR PWR's SUPER ANIMAL BROTHERS III! Check it on @mgrmagazine.bsky.social!

@jackprobst.com is dusting off some albums, revisiting the past, and exploring how music is forever etched into our lives! This month: Piled up DVDs in your bedroom. Fledgling jobs you hate. The release of rage. EAR PWR's SUPER ANIMAL BROTHERS III. It's a tale from the Bargain Bin!

Now 20 years after it went off air, DEADWOOD is an especially fascinating artifact from the golden era of TV, remaining something of a knotty morality test. Longtime MGRM writer Dan Blomquist goes back to consider his writing about the show 10 years ago.

Julianna Riolino’s Thoughts Settle On The Sprawling ECHO IN THE DUST merrygoroundmagazine.com/julianna-rio... | via @mgrmagazine.bsky.social

From the seeming inevitability of PTA and ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER all awards season to the surrealness of Michael B. Jordan beating out an interesting (and more compelling) crop of Best Actor nominees, here are five takeaways from the 98th Academy Awards!

There's a new Bargain Bin coming next week! Stay tuned to this station: @mgrmagazine.bsky.social

Commendable in its messaging, I LOVE BOOSTERS unfortunately lacks the focus to reach the highs of SORRY JUST TO BOTHER YOU. While engagingly stylized and even sometimes quite exciting, it disappointingly lacks depth. Check out our review from SXSW '26!

It's our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring the blistering metal of Melpomene's A BODY IS A SUGGESTION and the house'y electronica of Debbie Sings' OH MY! Read about both and then check them out over on @bandcamp.com!

There is more to THE MOUNTAIN to think about or talk about than any Gorillaz album in the last 15 years, but it still never reaches the highs of their previous work. It's a messy exploration of grief riddled with tonal contradictions and strange instincts.

Next Sunday, the 98th Academy Awards will air, but they'll have a notable exclusion: Daniel Lopatin’s beautiful MARTY SUPREME score. One of the best of '25, the textured synth work becomes a dazzling and complex reflection of the emotional journey of Marty Mauser.

It's our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring @fanclubwallet.bsky.social's colorful pop album LIVING WHILE DYING, out now via Lauren Records, and a great stand-alone single from Telemarket entitled “Didn’t ask what’s on my mind,” with proceeds going to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund!

Despite a Change.org petition and protesters at the New Beverly, Quentin Tarantino's famed rep theater went ahead with a controversial double bill this weekend of DEEP THROAT & HOT SUMMER IN THE CITY, part of their throwback Eros programming in February and March. It was a deeply evil evening.

I gave some love to that totes great Big Bill record. Go America*! (* = Not the actual America; the one that now lives in the haze of conditionality and faded human decency.)

It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring the zany punk rock of Big Bill’s SICK MYTH, out now via TODO Records, and the quirky indie pop of cootie catcher’s SOMETHING WE ALL GOT, out today via @carparkrecords.bsky.social! Read about both and then listen today over on @bandcamp.com!

On ECHO IN THE DUST, you can sense Julianna Riolino's confidence growing. Both as a songwriter and especially as a performer, the varied and dazzling alt-country songs on her sophomore album exude a playful boldness. Check out our premiere of the deluxe version of the album today!

It's our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring the brilliant slow motion ambient country of Barry Walker Jr.'s PALEO SOL, out now via @thrilljockey.bsky.social, and the cool-as-fuck art punk of Sunday Mourners' A-RHYTHM ABSOLUTE! Read about both today and then check them out on @bandcamp.com!

Mary Lattimore and Julianna Barwick's collaborative record TRAGIC MAGIC is a conversation: At times delicate and sweet, occasionally restless, but always a constant, vibrant interchange of the ideas, both musically and philosophically.

After far too long away, I recently returned to @mgrmagazine.bsky.social for a couple reviews. Def. some good stuff here, and Velveteers especially is so great. Enjoy!

You could easily chalk it up to poor chemistry and strange miscasting, but for better or worse whatever Emerald Fennell traditionally brings to the table with regards to shock and awe pop filmmaking is lost in her drab version of WUTHERING HEIGHTS.

It's our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, looking back on two excellent 2025 alt rock records in Die Spitz's SOMETHING TO CONSUME, out now via @thirdmanrecords.bsky.social, and @thevelveteersband.bsky.social's A MILLION KNIVES, out now via Easy Eye Sound! Read about both and grab copies on @bandcamp.com!

Did you miss our roundup of the best shorts from this years Sundance? It includes shorts like Kate Renshaw-Lewis's BUSY BODIES, a looping meditation on our current mass industrialization in the Amazon age, and Leah Vlemmiks' AGNES, an exploration on aging!

I wrote about a few of my favorite films of 2025 over at @mgrmagazine.bsky.social!

From Steven Soderbergh's slick and snappy spy thriller BLACK BAG to Jafar Panahi's miracle of filmmaking and distribution IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, we humbly present to you the 25 best films of 2025!

"Why is this Irishman suddenly a specter of all-consuming death? Same reason a lot of SoCal Mexican-Americans naively voted Trump—those who believe they’ll be the next to be ingratiated into whiteness are destined to be swallowed whole by that beast."

Happy Bandcamp Friday! Check out our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, featuring the classic power pop trimmings of Beauty's I'D DO ALMOST ANYTHING FOR YOU, out now via Strange View, and the thundering slowcore of Trembler's TOTAL SORRY, out now via Rite Field! merrygoroundmagazine.com/bandcamp-pic...