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You Need to Watch 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' This Weekend

Well, you don't *NEED* to. Like, you won't die.
Image: LucasFilm

Looking for some stuff to catch up on this weekend? Whether it's TV, movies, books, or anything in between—VICE has you covered. Read on for our staff recommendations on what to take in during your downtime:

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Look, what do you want me to say here? It's the new Star Wars movie. Everyone on Earth is going to see this goddamn thing. Do you really want to be left out? Also, it's apparently very good. Remember when three Star Wars movies in a row were terrible? So do I. Aren't you glad we moved past that? Same. So when are you seeing The Last Jedi this weekend? —Larry Fitzmaurice, Senior Culture Editor, Digital

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Dark

If a German time-travel murder mystery sounds like your idea of a Friday night, then Netflix’s Dark is definitely for you. Whether you choose to watch all ten episodes with subtitles or in the wonky English-dubbed version, the complex, generational whodunit plays with Primer-level physics and a swelling fear of nuclear disaster in a way that will surely please those of us who are still depressed that Twin Peaks: The Return is over, Mindhunter went by too fast, and Stranger Things wasn't strange enough. Between a massive ensemble of characters, love triangles, and possible incest, and a nerdy John B. McLemore clock guy, massive underground cave network, and creepy subterranean bunker, you may find yourself wanting to pull an all-nighter trying to map everything out. But before you spin to Charlie Kelly levels of chart-making, know that Dark is going to leave a lot of things unanswered, and will likely prompt much bigger questions than you could have ever had to begin with. —Lauren Messman, Associate Editor

Birdboy: The Forgotten Children

Bird Boy: The Forgotten Children is an animated throwback to the hopelessness of being young and hating your school, parents, and hometown—but it's definitely not a kid's movie. The setting is an apocalyptic island so depraved that the few children who haven't conformed to its cruelty can focus on nothing but escape. The titular character, Birdboy, has escaped school and is on the lam from canine police officers who brutally murder every bird they see, just for being birds. The style Spanish directors Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero employ is enthusiastically emo, and any frame would look at home on a Hot Topic display rack. The pure awfulness of the world drives forward a compelling story about trying to escape tainted roots and start anew. While bleak, Bird Boy is also fantastical: a coming-of-age story for those who don't necessarily need a happy ending when there's as much wrong in the real world as in the animated ones. Birdboy: The Forgotten Children screens in select theaters in New York and LA this weekend. —Beckett Mufson

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Molly's Game

Poker princesses don’t wear pink in Aaron Sorkin’s father-daughter sports drama couched in an élite high-stakes poker "true story," but the color of the text on the title card still (inexplicably?) does. Though handsome cinematography and facile performances lend intrigue to the West Wing writer/director’s patronizing adaptation of Molly Bloom’s tell-enough, his questionable personal relationship to the real events depicted make a Zero Dark Thirty of yet another honest-to-greatness performance by Chastain. Come for the indefatigably Bond-worthy Idris Elba as Bloom’s own Atticus Finch and stay for a secondhand glimpse of Tobey Maguire’s latent sadism via a cannily diabolical Michael Cera. Anyway, I liked it. Use Duck Duck Go if you want to look up what really happened. —Emerson Rosenthal

All or Nothing: The Fearless Performances of Daniel Day-Lewis

There Will Be Blood, Dillon Freasier, Daniel Day-Lewis, 2007. Paramount Vantage. Courtesy of Everett Collection, via the Quad

The man, the myth, the legend concludes a four-decade career on Christmas Day with the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's thrilling Phantom Thread, but you can revisit the quintessential method actor's legacy of chameleonic performances at New York's storied Quad Cinema (now through December 24). A litany of Day-Lewis's best films, including In the Name of the Father, The Last of the Mohicans, My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, and Gangs of New York are on view, many in their original 35mm formats. Grab your Moviepass—graciously accepted at the Quad—because after watching Phantom Thread, you're going to wish you had also seen everything that came before it. —ER

An Evening of Art and Astrology at MoMA

Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Dwarf Galaxy NGC 1569. Courtesy of NASA

If Mercury in Retrograde's got you bummed, balance it out with some art and astrology at MoMA this Sunday. The evening is inspired by the museum's current exhibition, Charles White—Leonardo da Vinci. Curated by David Hammons, an exhibition that explores the artistic and astrological connections between two artists born over 450 years apart. Exhibition organizers will chat with astrologers and artists about creativity and community through the lens of the Zodiac and tarot, and afterwards attendees can wander MoMA's galleries for an after-hours, tourist-free look at the exhibition. Plus there'll be an open bar, so win-win. —Kara Weisenstein