Lauren Vanderveen

Lauren Vanderveen covers news for CinemaBlend, with a heavy emphasis on pop culture trends and streaming titles. She has also written reviews for AllMovie.com.
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Minx

The streaming series about the intersection between feminism and smut could endear even the most skeptical. And what it might lack in delicacy, it certainly makes up for in swagger.

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Love & Gelato

Love & Gelato is pretty corny but it’s the exact kind of sweetly innocent confection that will melt in your mouth. What’s more, the film offers a slightly more authentic ending than the average rom-com fare.

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Becoming Elizabeth

Becoming Elizabeth goes beyond mere court intrigue and makes a testimony to the influence of the powerful over the powerless. It’s assisted majorly by an eager and incredibly telling arrangement of sounds that stitches the lofty narrative together. In short, it’s a bold entry in the arena of historical dramas.

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Watercooler Guide: What You Need to Know about The Staircase

Our Watercooler guide to The Staircase will help you jump right into the conversation about HBO Max’s new true-crime series.

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Outlander: What We Talk About When We Talk About Assault

It’s no coincidence every major character in Outlander has experienced some form of assault. I’d argue that’s what the whole show is about.

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The Adam Project

The Adam Project is one of those movies you go into imagining big explosions and kids hilariously making life-or-death decisions (like Zathura, for example). And, to be sure it throws everything it has at the wall and then some: time-travel jiu jitsu soldiers, a stacked all-star cast, and lots of heart. 

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The Alpinist

Joie de vivre never looked so effortless as it does in The Alpinist. While the spectacular cinematography wows the senses, the beautiful character portrait at its core of an eccentric, backwoods mountain climber stirs the humanity in us all.

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The Best New Movies and TV Shows in February 2022

Love, history, and choices well off the beaten path are arriving on streaming platforms this month. See our picks in categories you won’t find anywhere else.

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The Best New Movies and Shows to Stream in December 2021

This month’s picks include big stars, highly anticipated returns, sci-fi epics, and an international Oscar contender—all for your streaming pleasure!

Lauren Vanderveen

Lauren Vanderveen covers news for CinemaBlend, with a heavy emphasis on pop culture trends and streaming titles. She has also written reviews for AllMovie.com.
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Robert Redford’s Impact: Four Films to Watch

He was “one of the lions,” as Meryl Streep put it, an American touchstone who changed filmmaking and opened the gates for new generations of storytellers, becoming a central force in independent cinema. To understand the impact his films have had – on previous generations, on our culture, on so many other films – we’ve

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The Back-to-College Binge Watch Playlist

Remember when you could sleep until noon, stumble to class in pajamas, and stay up until 2am watching weird art films? Fall is when many of us become wistful about that bumpy chapter of extended adolescence, when you start to discover who you truly are and make some truly regrettable choices.   In honor of all

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Eddington is a pandemic parable. But what is it trying to say?

Set in May 2020 in a fictional New Mexico town, Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix’s new film Eddington draws some parallels to two of the biggest breakout shows of the past decade: The Last of Us and The Walking Dead. It’s a story about a virus that’s less about death and more about exposing the living.

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A Watercooler Watch: Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything

Before social media and podcasts, there was one undeniable truth about news-making interviews: if a story mattered, Barbara Walters would be the one to tell it. Landing a one-on-one with her didn’t just mean publicity, it meant you had become part of a national conversation. But while the interview signified that you had made it,

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A Need-to-Know Guide to The Buccaneers

Was life in the Gilded Age all that gilded?  In the HBO Max series, penned by Downton Abbey’s creator Julian Fellowes, the focus is on the class divide between America’s old money aristocrats and new money industrialists, and the often exhausting rules of “society.”  Apple TV’s The Buccaneers, which just returned for its second season,

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A Watercooler Guide to The Phoenician Scheme: Wes Anderson’s Oil-Baron Fever Dream

Wes Anderson films are easy to spot, but not always easy to describe. Watching them feels like stepping inside a handcrafted diorama of history: symmetrical, stylized, and slightly sentimental. From the wry narration and sharp color palettes to his signature whip pans and deadpan dialogue, Anderson crafts cinematic worlds where emotions are bottled then uncorked

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A Need-to-Know Guide to And Just Like That…

It’s been a two year wait, but Carrie Bradshaw and her tribe of fabulous fifty-somethings are finally back with their third season. You’d be forgiven if you lost track of the Sex and the City sequel and its storylines. But with summer’s planes, trains, and automobiles and rained-in weekends, And Just Like That might be

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Bring Her Back

A psychological horror film with standout performances, Bring Her Back isn’t just about summoning the dead, it’s about confronting the parts of ourselves we lose in the process. The Philippou brothers have crafted a film that dares to ask whether the true horror lies in what we’re willing to do in the name of love.

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The Glory

An often-riveting South Korean revenge thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat, The Glory is also a thoughtful meditation on power, wealth, and the rigid hierarchies that make school bullying systemic — all around the world.

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What’s New to Watch?

As we recover from the Oscars, it’s a ripe time to re-up on some fresh content. This weekend is jam-packed with new series premieres, and if you’re not too busy with Ted Lasso’s return, we’ve got four new shows ranging from raunchy animation to sobering thinkpiece to vie for your attention this weekend.   Agent Elvis

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The Watercooler Guide to Shadow and Bone: Season 2

It has been almost two years since Netflix’s epic fantasy series Shadow and Bone captured 55 million viewers in its first month, hitting #1 in 79 countries around the world, including Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia, Spain, South Africa, and the U.S.  The much-anticipated second season finally arrives Thursday, March 16th, and fans can hardly wait.

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A Ted Lasso Catch-Up Guide

If your family group chat hasn’t already buzzed you about it, Ted Lasso is back on AppleTV+ tomorrow for its third and likely last season. Jason Sudeikis’s title character became an unlikely pandemic-era hero: a character with boundless goodness and optimism, far from our brooding Walter Whites and Don Drapers, or even cringe-comedy icons like

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The Most Memorable Lines of the Oscars

This year’s Oscars may have been long and missing the element of surprise, but it delivered on music performances, Kimmel comedy, and stirring speeches.  We’ve gathered the most memorable lines to sum up the highlights of the big event. “How could the Academy not nominate the guy who directed Avatar?  What do they think he

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The Magician’s Elephant

An uplifting family movie night film, The Magician’s Elephant is a richly animated adventure tale about the search for family, belonging and hope.

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Where to Stream the Oscar Nominated Films

The Oscars are fast approaching, and if you’re anything like us, you have more fun watching when you’re invested and have a favorite to root for. So, we’ve collected a list of ways to watch all the award heavy hitters in case you have some catching up to do. We’ve also linked guides and recommendations

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Oscar’s Weekend Watercooler Guide

Hard to believe it’s been an entire year, but the Academy Awards are finally back, so set your (sprung ahead) clocks for 8pm ET / 5pm PT Sunday nights — or as early as 1pm ET if you want to catch red carpet coverage. To get get up to speed on the contenders, see our

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The Watercooler Guide to Daisy Jones and the Six

If scoring a voyeuristic backstage pass to the drama and drugs of a world-famous 70s rock band sounds like a dream come true, then here is Guide to Daisy Jones and the Six, Amazon Prime’s limited series Daisy Jones and the Six is a must-see this March. The show stars Riley Keough (Mad Max Fury

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