Spider-Man: Brand New Day may sound like a fresh start, but according to the report, Peter Parker’s latest MCU chapter is built on the same kind of exhausting, high-stakes struggle that has always defined the character. With his memory erased from the lives of people closest to him, Peter is left on his own, pushing through crime-fighting, a strange mutation, and a growing list of enemies.

The story finds Tom Holland back as Peter Parker during his final year at Empire State University, where he is still dealing with the fallout of being separated from MJ and Ned. Instead of settling into a calmer routine, he keeps throwing himself into full-time hero work, which only makes life harder once a mysterious government-wanted figure enters the picture. That character, played by Sadie Sink, is under the protection of Frank Castle, better known as the Punisher, portrayed by Jon Bernthal.

From there, the movie raises the intensity even more. The report says Spider-Man will also face Hand Ninjas, Tombstone, and the Hulk, adding to the sense that Brand New Day is drawing from a wide range of Marvel lore. Rather than reinventing Spider-Man, the film appears to be leaning into the character’s long-running pattern of pressure, sacrifice, and constant disruption.

That connection to earlier comic material is the point of the article’s reading guide, which highlights 10 essential Spider-Man comics for fans who want to follow the same mix of street-level danger and personal drama. One of the titles singled out is “Three-Way Collision,” from Amazing Spider-Man #564, presented as part of the broader comic foundation behind the movie’s tone and conflicts.

Source: menshealth.com

The post Fitness and Wellness Reading: 10 Spider-Man Comics That Echo Brand New Day Energy appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

That distant setting gives the series room to explore the familiar battle between light and dark without being trapped by existing lore. The review highlights how the creators use the format to do what some recent Star Wars projects have struggled to manage: tell a single, focused story with emotional weight. Nawaam is presented as a formidable villain from the start, while Lah Kara, the daughter of the sabersmith Lah Zhima, becomes the kind of young hero Star Wars has always embraced without leaning into childish storytelling. Her journey, the review says, gives the show its heart.

The series also earns praise for its action and visual ambition. Large-scale space conflict, lightsaber duels, and tense escapes are woven together rather than treated as separate set pieces, giving the story a layered momentum. The review notes that even a lone destroyer droid becomes a serious threat because the heroes must improvise around it, showing that restraint can be as effective as spectacle. While a few supporting characters are described as underdeveloped, the overall impression is that The Ninth Jedi understands what has always worked best in Star Wars and uses anime to amplify it.

As the review frames it, that makes the series part of a broader animation-driven revival for the franchise, alongside projects like The Clone Wars and Maul – Shadow Lord. In a period when the live-action side of Star Wars is facing setbacks, The Ninth Jedi is presented as a reminder that the franchise still has room to evolve in unexpected ways.

Source: polygon.com

The post ‘Star Wars: The Ninth Jedi’ Shows How Animation Can Reboot a Franchise appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Star Wars spin-offs often arrive under intense scrutiny, and according to the report, that pressure has only grown as recent franchise projects are quickly sorted into best-of or worst-of conversations. But Star Wars: Visions has already shown that the brand can deliver something more adventurous. The anthology series brought in top animation studios from around the world and let them tell stories with major creative freedom, whether or not those stories fit into official canon. Two shorts from Japanese studio Production I.G. proved especially popular, leading Disney and Lucasfilm to expand that corner of the galaxy into a new spin-off.

Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi continues the story of Lah Kara, a hopeful Jedi padawan searching for her father, Lah Zima. Her journey becomes even more complicated when she and her companions run into Nawaam, a ruthless warlord determined to take control of the galaxy one planet at a time. The report says Kara’s personal mission is kept in the background while this larger threat drives the action, giving the series a mix of emotional stakes and broader conflict.

Visually, the series is described as a standout, with hand-drawn animation that compares favorably to some of the biggest names in modern anime. Rather than leaning too heavily on familiar Star Wars iconography, the show uses lightsabers, starships, and echoes of the Skywalker saga as supporting details while focusing on its own characters and ideas. The report also notes that the fantasy elements are more pronounced here than in the films, including a planet populated by elf- and dwarf-like beings, which adds to the story’s mystical tone.

One of the most distinctive elements carried over from the original “Ninth Jedi” short is its approach to lightsaber color and meaning. That concept returns in new ways as the story moves forward, especially in later episodes that dig deeper into the characters’ inner lives and moral choices. According to the report, the show is at its strongest when it leans into those original ideas, even if some of its villain and super-weapon elements feel closer to classic franchise storytelling. Overall, The Ninth Jedi is presented as a bold continuation of one of Star Wars: Visions’ most admired concepts.

Source: collider.com

The post ‘Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi’ Expands One of the Franchise’s Most Celebrated Animated Stories appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

By Malene Birger marked its return to the runway after a six-year break with a Spring 2027 show that was as much about place and identity as it was about clothes. Creative director Emilie Martinsen-Kønigsfeldt invited guests to her parents’ green estate outside Copenhagen, where models followed a gravel path beside a pond, framed by lawns, trees, shrubbery, and garden sculptures in the late-afternoon light. The setting was chosen to underline the collection’s back-to-basics message and the brand’s desire to reassert itself in Denmark.

Martinsen-Kønigsfeldt presented the show alongside newly appointed head designer Sydney Roark, with the collection built around the idea of serving women from day to night. Details such as sun-print motifs, sun-shaped buttons, and Caribou’s “Sun” on the soundtrack reinforced that theme, while the palette followed the passage of time, beginning in white, shifting into warm golden tones, and ending in black. The result was polished and elegant, though the overall impression was intentionally restrained.

Rather than pushing into radical new territory, the collection read like a careful overview of the label’s recent and longer-term references. A tassel on the back of a high-collared raincoat recalled resort 2027, ponyskin echoed an earlier season, and backless scarf-like tops pointed back to the years when Maja Dixdotter designed for the brand. Mirror embroidery on an airy evening look nodded both to founder Malene Birger’s taste for sparkle and to Martinsen-Kønigsfeldt’s preference for refined embellishment.

There was also a whisper of ’90s glamour in the clothes’ fluid movement and easy, natural attitude, with a possible nod to the sheer shimmering dress once worn by Kate Moss. According to Martinsen-Kønigsfeldt, returning to Copenhagen’s calendar matters because the brand is Danish, has a long history, and wants to be present in its home market. The show reinforced that point, positioning By Malene Birger as part of the city’s ongoing fashion momentum.

Source: vogue.com

The post By Malene Birger Returns to Copenhagen With a Sunlit Spring 2027 Collection appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Tim Ream says the 2026 FIFA World Cup did more than put the U.S. team in the global spotlight — it helped deepen interest in soccer at home. Speaking ahead of the MLS All-Star game, the Team USA captain said the tournament offered a chance to connect with fans and inspire more people to pick up the sport, even though the team did not move beyond the knockout rounds.

Ream, who was 38 during the tournament, called captaining the national team on home soil one of the biggest honors of his career. He said the experience carried a unique kind of pressure, but he views that pressure as part of the privilege of representing his country at a World Cup. He also pointed to memorable moments from the event, including the opening match against Paraguay and the postgame scene in Seattle after the Australia match, when 70,000 fans sang together.

The defender also believes the sport’s popularity in the United States is still climbing. According to a 2024 survey referenced in the report, soccer had already edged past baseball as the country’s third-most popular sport, behind basketball and American football. Ream said the World Cup showed how quickly that interest can grow, and he sees the challenge now as keeping that energy alive across more cities and markets.

Beyond the tournament, Ream discussed how he has adjusted his training to stay in top shape as one of the older players in the game. He also said that criticism after a difficult match is part of being a professional athlete. As for bouncing back, he said rebuilding confidence starts with understanding that the scrutiny is part of the job, especially when playing for a national team under intense public attention.

Source: menshealth.com

The post Tim Ream on World Cup Pressure, Training Adjustments, and Soccer’s Growing U.S. Appeal appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

AI may feel like everyday technology now, but a little over a decade ago it was still mostly the domain of science fiction. That shift makes Alex Garland’s Ex Machina feel even more relevant today. The film, which is streaming on Netflix for only a short time longer, leaves the platform on Aug. 1.

Released 12 years ago, Ex Machina marked Garland’s directing debut after he had already built a reputation as a screenwriter on films such as 28 Days Later and Sunshine. According to the report, it remains one of his strongest and most thought-provoking movies. At its core, the film uses its futuristic setup to ask uncomfortable questions about humanity, while also offering a pointed look at how men see women.

The story centers on Caleb, a 26-year-old engineer who wins a company lottery and is sent to the isolated home of Nathan, the force behind a powerful tech company called Blue Book. Nathan brings Caleb in under strict confidentiality to evaluate Ava, a humanoid robot, through a Turing-test-style experiment designed to determine whether her AI is advanced enough to convince humans she is conscious. If she succeeds, she lives; if not, her code is altered for Nathan’s next project.

Much of the film unfolds through Caleb’s sessions with Ava, and the relationship between them gradually changes as Nathan watches from above. The report notes that the movie’s tension comes not only from the question of whether Ava is truly conscious, but from how each character projects meaning onto her. Caleb reads her through his loneliness and attraction, while Nathan’s behavior makes him impossible to trust. By the end, the film turns into a broader meditation on agency, control, and the dangers of technologies built to give men power over women.

That is part of why Ex Machina still resonates in a moment when AI chatbots and digital assistants are increasingly woven into daily life. The film suggests that people often humanize technology because they want to, not because the technology itself is offering anything in return. Even after Ava earns her escape, she remains unreadable — a reminder that the story’s most unsettling questions never really get answered.

Source: polygon.com

The post Why Ex Machina is still a vital sci-fi watch before it leaves Netflix appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Christopher Nolan has built one of the most closely watched filmographies of the 21st century, and a Letterboxd ranking offers a fresh look at how his 13 feature-length films stack up with users. The list uses each movie’s average score out of 5, and when two titles are tied, the one with more fan ratings lands higher. According to the report, the results may surprise viewers who have strong personal favorites among Nolan’s work.

At the bottom of the ranking is Following, Nolan’s 1998 debut, which earned a 3.5/5. The low-budget black-and-white thriller follows a young writer in London who starts trailing strangers for inspiration before being pulled into a criminal world built on deception, burglary, and voyeurism. The article notes that the film already contains many of the director’s recurring ideas, including memory, identity, and nonlinear storytelling, even if it lacks the scale and visibility of his later releases.

Also sitting at 3.5/5 is Tenet, the 2020 sci-fi action film that imagines a future shaped by environmental collapse and a device capable of reversing entropy. In the story, John David Washington plays a CIA agent known as the Protagonist, who is recruited by the secretive Tenet organization to stop Andrei Sator, played by Kenneth Branagh, from assembling a doomsday weapon. The report describes the film as one of Nolan’s most intricate time-bending experiments, built around “inversion” technology that lets characters and objects move backward through time while everything else moves forward.

The ranking reflects the range of Nolan’s career, from a scrappy first feature that helped establish his style to a large-scale blockbuster that pushed his fascination with time even further. While the article emphasizes that fans will likely disagree about the order, it presents the list as a snapshot of how Letterboxd users currently value the director’s films across his evolving body of work.

Source: collider.com

The post Christopher Nolan’s 13 Features Ranked by Letterboxd Scores appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Adidas is making a significant change at the top of its finance team. Harm Ohlmeyer, who has served as chief financial officer since 2017, will leave the role at the end of the year after nearly 30 years with the company. His departure follows a long run that included leadership posts across finance, sales, digital commerce and supply chain-related responsibilities.

According to the company, Ohlmeyer joined Adidas in 1998 and went on to hold a range of senior positions, including CFO of TaylorMade-Adidas Golf and senior vice president of finance for the Adidas brand and global sales. He later led the company’s e-commerce business, joined the executive board in 2017 and took on additional duties as labor director, with added oversight of supply chain and tech more recently. Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden and supervisory board chairman Nassef Sawiris both praised Ohlmeyer’s contribution, pointing to his financial expertise and his role in major strategic moves such as building the e-commerce business and the divestitures of TaylorMade and Reebok.

Taking his place will be Birgit Kretschmer, an Adidas alum who is returning to the company after six years as CFO at C&A. She will join Adidas’ executive board on Sept. 1 and is set to become CFO at the end of the year. Kretschmer spent 25 years at Adidas in a variety of leadership roles, including CFO of Adidas International BV, CFO of Western Europe, and senior vice president of corporate and operations finance, where she oversaw accounting, treasury and M&A activities as well as operational controlling. She was part of the finance leadership team from 2012 and sat in the company’s core leadership group between 2017 and 2020.

Gulden said Kretschmer is well suited to the job because of her long history with Adidas and her recent experience at a major fashion retailer. Sawiris also described her as a leader who understands the company, its business and the wider industry. Adidas said that by Jan. 1, 2027, its executive board will include Gulden, Kretschmer, Michelle Robertson and Mathieu Sidokpohou. The leadership update arrives as the company also reported strong second-quarter results for fiscal 2026, with sales rising 14 percent to 6.74 billion euros, its highest quarterly net sales on record and above market expectations.

Source: wwd.com

The post Adidas Brings Back Birgit Kretschmer as Harm Ohlmeyer Prepares to Exit CFO Role appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Keeping an eye on cholesterol is one of the most important parts of protecting heart health, but according to the report, the usual LDL blood test may not tell the whole story. Cardiologists are pointing to ApoB testing as a low-cost add-on that can help provide a more complete view of the particles linked to plaque buildup in the arteries.

The standard lipid panel estimates LDL levels, but that calculation can be less reliable in people with issues such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, or high triglycerides. ApoB testing takes a different approach by measuring apolipoprotein B, a protein found on plaque-causing particles, including LDL. Because each harmful particle carries its own ApoB, the test gives a direct count of those particles rather than an estimate.

What the research suggests

According to the report, a JAMA study used computer modeling to compare three common ways of guiding cholesterol treatment: LDL cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, and ApoB. In the simulation of 250,000 American adults at risk for heart disease, ApoB-guided treatment was associated with fewer heart attacks and strokes, longer life expectancy, and lower future healthcare costs. The study authors said those benefits came at a price that represented good value for U.S. healthcare payers.

Doctors quoted in the report said ApoB is especially useful when LDL and non-HDL numbers do not line up, or when triglycerides, obesity, or metabolic syndrome are part of the picture. It can also help fine-tune treatment for people already taking cholesterol-lowering medication, since a good LDL reading does not always mean the plaque-causing particle count is low. While the test is available and relatively inexpensive, it is not always covered by insurance, though coverage is improving as more guidelines from major heart organizations recommend it more broadly.

For people looking to get a fuller snapshot of their heart health, the report suggests ApoB is worth bringing up at the next doctor’s visit. In some cases, clinicians may also consider lipoprotein(a) as a one-time screening test to help assess plaque risk even further.

Source: menshealth.com

The post Cardiologists Say This Quick Add-On Test Can Give a Clearer Read on Cholesterol appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

The finale begins with the idea of a Rick estate sale after Rick’s death, which brings in alternate versions of the character eager to pick over what he left behind. That setup mostly serves as a launch point for Morty’s real obsession: sneaking into different funerals to see how other versions of his family respond to his death. What starts as curiosity quickly becomes a destructive fixation, especially once he finds a family that actually seems to care about him.

According to the recap, that emotional need is exactly what makes the episode so effective. Morty’s desire for affection pulls everyone into a spiral, with one alternate Jerry becoming increasingly unstable, Rick sliding back into the self-destructive version of himself, and the whole false family collapsing around them. The review also notes that Chris Parnell’s performance gives the alternate Jerry a sharper identity than many of the show’s other multiverse variants, helping the character stand out in a season that has already spent a lot of time with alternate realities.

By the end, the episode leaves almost everyone dead and undercuts any sense that Rick’s portal-gun ambitions meant anything at all. Still, the recap says the season finale works because it turns that failure into a final burst of dark humor and existential dread. With another Rick estate sale offering Morty a way home, the season ends not with triumph, but with the same hollow feeling the series has been building toward all along.

Source: ign.com

The post Rick and Morty Season 9 Ends on a Bleak, Funny High in “Field of Dreams” appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day may sound like a fresh start, but according to the report, Peter Parker’s latest MCU chapter is built on the same kind of exhausting, high-stakes struggle that has always defined the character. With his memory erased from the lives of people closest to him, Peter is left on his own, pushing through crime-fighting, a strange mutation, and a growing list of enemies.

The story finds Tom Holland back as Peter Parker during his final year at Empire State University, where he is still dealing with the fallout of being separated from MJ and Ned. Instead of settling into a calmer routine, he keeps throwing himself into full-time hero work, which only makes life harder once a mysterious government-wanted figure enters the picture. That character, played by Sadie Sink, is under the protection of Frank Castle, better known as the Punisher, portrayed by Jon Bernthal.

From there, the movie raises the intensity even more. The report says Spider-Man will also face Hand Ninjas, Tombstone, and the Hulk, adding to the sense that Brand New Day is drawing from a wide range of Marvel lore. Rather than reinventing Spider-Man, the film appears to be leaning into the character’s long-running pattern of pressure, sacrifice, and constant disruption.

That connection to earlier comic material is the point of the article’s reading guide, which highlights 10 essential Spider-Man comics for fans who want to follow the same mix of street-level danger and personal drama. One of the titles singled out is “Three-Way Collision,” from Amazing Spider-Man #564, presented as part of the broader comic foundation behind the movie’s tone and conflicts.

Source: menshealth.com

The post Fitness and Wellness Reading: 10 Spider-Man Comics That Echo Brand New Day Energy appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

That distant setting gives the series room to explore the familiar battle between light and dark without being trapped by existing lore. The review highlights how the creators use the format to do what some recent Star Wars projects have struggled to manage: tell a single, focused story with emotional weight. Nawaam is presented as a formidable villain from the start, while Lah Kara, the daughter of the sabersmith Lah Zhima, becomes the kind of young hero Star Wars has always embraced without leaning into childish storytelling. Her journey, the review says, gives the show its heart.

The series also earns praise for its action and visual ambition. Large-scale space conflict, lightsaber duels, and tense escapes are woven together rather than treated as separate set pieces, giving the story a layered momentum. The review notes that even a lone destroyer droid becomes a serious threat because the heroes must improvise around it, showing that restraint can be as effective as spectacle. While a few supporting characters are described as underdeveloped, the overall impression is that The Ninth Jedi understands what has always worked best in Star Wars and uses anime to amplify it.

As the review frames it, that makes the series part of a broader animation-driven revival for the franchise, alongside projects like The Clone Wars and Maul – Shadow Lord. In a period when the live-action side of Star Wars is facing setbacks, The Ninth Jedi is presented as a reminder that the franchise still has room to evolve in unexpected ways.

Source: polygon.com

The post ‘Star Wars: The Ninth Jedi’ Shows How Animation Can Reboot a Franchise appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Star Wars spin-offs often arrive under intense scrutiny, and according to the report, that pressure has only grown as recent franchise projects are quickly sorted into best-of or worst-of conversations. But Star Wars: Visions has already shown that the brand can deliver something more adventurous. The anthology series brought in top animation studios from around the world and let them tell stories with major creative freedom, whether or not those stories fit into official canon. Two shorts from Japanese studio Production I.G. proved especially popular, leading Disney and Lucasfilm to expand that corner of the galaxy into a new spin-off.

Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi continues the story of Lah Kara, a hopeful Jedi padawan searching for her father, Lah Zima. Her journey becomes even more complicated when she and her companions run into Nawaam, a ruthless warlord determined to take control of the galaxy one planet at a time. The report says Kara’s personal mission is kept in the background while this larger threat drives the action, giving the series a mix of emotional stakes and broader conflict.

Visually, the series is described as a standout, with hand-drawn animation that compares favorably to some of the biggest names in modern anime. Rather than leaning too heavily on familiar Star Wars iconography, the show uses lightsabers, starships, and echoes of the Skywalker saga as supporting details while focusing on its own characters and ideas. The report also notes that the fantasy elements are more pronounced here than in the films, including a planet populated by elf- and dwarf-like beings, which adds to the story’s mystical tone.

One of the most distinctive elements carried over from the original “Ninth Jedi” short is its approach to lightsaber color and meaning. That concept returns in new ways as the story moves forward, especially in later episodes that dig deeper into the characters’ inner lives and moral choices. According to the report, the show is at its strongest when it leans into those original ideas, even if some of its villain and super-weapon elements feel closer to classic franchise storytelling. Overall, The Ninth Jedi is presented as a bold continuation of one of Star Wars: Visions’ most admired concepts.

Source: collider.com

The post ‘Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi’ Expands One of the Franchise’s Most Celebrated Animated Stories appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

By Malene Birger marked its return to the runway after a six-year break with a Spring 2027 show that was as much about place and identity as it was about clothes. Creative director Emilie Martinsen-Kønigsfeldt invited guests to her parents’ green estate outside Copenhagen, where models followed a gravel path beside a pond, framed by lawns, trees, shrubbery, and garden sculptures in the late-afternoon light. The setting was chosen to underline the collection’s back-to-basics message and the brand’s desire to reassert itself in Denmark.

Martinsen-Kønigsfeldt presented the show alongside newly appointed head designer Sydney Roark, with the collection built around the idea of serving women from day to night. Details such as sun-print motifs, sun-shaped buttons, and Caribou’s “Sun” on the soundtrack reinforced that theme, while the palette followed the passage of time, beginning in white, shifting into warm golden tones, and ending in black. The result was polished and elegant, though the overall impression was intentionally restrained.

Rather than pushing into radical new territory, the collection read like a careful overview of the label’s recent and longer-term references. A tassel on the back of a high-collared raincoat recalled resort 2027, ponyskin echoed an earlier season, and backless scarf-like tops pointed back to the years when Maja Dixdotter designed for the brand. Mirror embroidery on an airy evening look nodded both to founder Malene Birger’s taste for sparkle and to Martinsen-Kønigsfeldt’s preference for refined embellishment.

There was also a whisper of ’90s glamour in the clothes’ fluid movement and easy, natural attitude, with a possible nod to the sheer shimmering dress once worn by Kate Moss. According to Martinsen-Kønigsfeldt, returning to Copenhagen’s calendar matters because the brand is Danish, has a long history, and wants to be present in its home market. The show reinforced that point, positioning By Malene Birger as part of the city’s ongoing fashion momentum.

Source: vogue.com

The post By Malene Birger Returns to Copenhagen With a Sunlit Spring 2027 Collection appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Tim Ream says the 2026 FIFA World Cup did more than put the U.S. team in the global spotlight — it helped deepen interest in soccer at home. Speaking ahead of the MLS All-Star game, the Team USA captain said the tournament offered a chance to connect with fans and inspire more people to pick up the sport, even though the team did not move beyond the knockout rounds.

Ream, who was 38 during the tournament, called captaining the national team on home soil one of the biggest honors of his career. He said the experience carried a unique kind of pressure, but he views that pressure as part of the privilege of representing his country at a World Cup. He also pointed to memorable moments from the event, including the opening match against Paraguay and the postgame scene in Seattle after the Australia match, when 70,000 fans sang together.

The defender also believes the sport’s popularity in the United States is still climbing. According to a 2024 survey referenced in the report, soccer had already edged past baseball as the country’s third-most popular sport, behind basketball and American football. Ream said the World Cup showed how quickly that interest can grow, and he sees the challenge now as keeping that energy alive across more cities and markets.

Beyond the tournament, Ream discussed how he has adjusted his training to stay in top shape as one of the older players in the game. He also said that criticism after a difficult match is part of being a professional athlete. As for bouncing back, he said rebuilding confidence starts with understanding that the scrutiny is part of the job, especially when playing for a national team under intense public attention.

Source: menshealth.com

The post Tim Ream on World Cup Pressure, Training Adjustments, and Soccer’s Growing U.S. Appeal appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

AI may feel like everyday technology now, but a little over a decade ago it was still mostly the domain of science fiction. That shift makes Alex Garland’s Ex Machina feel even more relevant today. The film, which is streaming on Netflix for only a short time longer, leaves the platform on Aug. 1.

Released 12 years ago, Ex Machina marked Garland’s directing debut after he had already built a reputation as a screenwriter on films such as 28 Days Later and Sunshine. According to the report, it remains one of his strongest and most thought-provoking movies. At its core, the film uses its futuristic setup to ask uncomfortable questions about humanity, while also offering a pointed look at how men see women.

The story centers on Caleb, a 26-year-old engineer who wins a company lottery and is sent to the isolated home of Nathan, the force behind a powerful tech company called Blue Book. Nathan brings Caleb in under strict confidentiality to evaluate Ava, a humanoid robot, through a Turing-test-style experiment designed to determine whether her AI is advanced enough to convince humans she is conscious. If she succeeds, she lives; if not, her code is altered for Nathan’s next project.

Much of the film unfolds through Caleb’s sessions with Ava, and the relationship between them gradually changes as Nathan watches from above. The report notes that the movie’s tension comes not only from the question of whether Ava is truly conscious, but from how each character projects meaning onto her. Caleb reads her through his loneliness and attraction, while Nathan’s behavior makes him impossible to trust. By the end, the film turns into a broader meditation on agency, control, and the dangers of technologies built to give men power over women.

That is part of why Ex Machina still resonates in a moment when AI chatbots and digital assistants are increasingly woven into daily life. The film suggests that people often humanize technology because they want to, not because the technology itself is offering anything in return. Even after Ava earns her escape, she remains unreadable — a reminder that the story’s most unsettling questions never really get answered.

Source: polygon.com

The post Why Ex Machina is still a vital sci-fi watch before it leaves Netflix appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Christopher Nolan has built one of the most closely watched filmographies of the 21st century, and a Letterboxd ranking offers a fresh look at how his 13 feature-length films stack up with users. The list uses each movie’s average score out of 5, and when two titles are tied, the one with more fan ratings lands higher. According to the report, the results may surprise viewers who have strong personal favorites among Nolan’s work.

At the bottom of the ranking is Following, Nolan’s 1998 debut, which earned a 3.5/5. The low-budget black-and-white thriller follows a young writer in London who starts trailing strangers for inspiration before being pulled into a criminal world built on deception, burglary, and voyeurism. The article notes that the film already contains many of the director’s recurring ideas, including memory, identity, and nonlinear storytelling, even if it lacks the scale and visibility of his later releases.

Also sitting at 3.5/5 is Tenet, the 2020 sci-fi action film that imagines a future shaped by environmental collapse and a device capable of reversing entropy. In the story, John David Washington plays a CIA agent known as the Protagonist, who is recruited by the secretive Tenet organization to stop Andrei Sator, played by Kenneth Branagh, from assembling a doomsday weapon. The report describes the film as one of Nolan’s most intricate time-bending experiments, built around “inversion” technology that lets characters and objects move backward through time while everything else moves forward.

The ranking reflects the range of Nolan’s career, from a scrappy first feature that helped establish his style to a large-scale blockbuster that pushed his fascination with time even further. While the article emphasizes that fans will likely disagree about the order, it presents the list as a snapshot of how Letterboxd users currently value the director’s films across his evolving body of work.

Source: collider.com

The post Christopher Nolan’s 13 Features Ranked by Letterboxd Scores appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Adidas is making a significant change at the top of its finance team. Harm Ohlmeyer, who has served as chief financial officer since 2017, will leave the role at the end of the year after nearly 30 years with the company. His departure follows a long run that included leadership posts across finance, sales, digital commerce and supply chain-related responsibilities.

According to the company, Ohlmeyer joined Adidas in 1998 and went on to hold a range of senior positions, including CFO of TaylorMade-Adidas Golf and senior vice president of finance for the Adidas brand and global sales. He later led the company’s e-commerce business, joined the executive board in 2017 and took on additional duties as labor director, with added oversight of supply chain and tech more recently. Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden and supervisory board chairman Nassef Sawiris both praised Ohlmeyer’s contribution, pointing to his financial expertise and his role in major strategic moves such as building the e-commerce business and the divestitures of TaylorMade and Reebok.

Taking his place will be Birgit Kretschmer, an Adidas alum who is returning to the company after six years as CFO at C&A. She will join Adidas’ executive board on Sept. 1 and is set to become CFO at the end of the year. Kretschmer spent 25 years at Adidas in a variety of leadership roles, including CFO of Adidas International BV, CFO of Western Europe, and senior vice president of corporate and operations finance, where she oversaw accounting, treasury and M&A activities as well as operational controlling. She was part of the finance leadership team from 2012 and sat in the company’s core leadership group between 2017 and 2020.

Gulden said Kretschmer is well suited to the job because of her long history with Adidas and her recent experience at a major fashion retailer. Sawiris also described her as a leader who understands the company, its business and the wider industry. Adidas said that by Jan. 1, 2027, its executive board will include Gulden, Kretschmer, Michelle Robertson and Mathieu Sidokpohou. The leadership update arrives as the company also reported strong second-quarter results for fiscal 2026, with sales rising 14 percent to 6.74 billion euros, its highest quarterly net sales on record and above market expectations.

Source: wwd.com

The post Adidas Brings Back Birgit Kretschmer as Harm Ohlmeyer Prepares to Exit CFO Role appeared first on toppoptoday.com.

Keeping an eye on cholesterol is one of the most important parts of protecting heart health, but according to the report, the usual LDL blood test may not tell the whole story. Cardiologists are pointing to ApoB testing as a low-cost add-on that can help provide a more complete view of the particles linked to plaque buildup in the arteries.

The standard lipid panel estimates LDL levels, but that calculation can be less reliable in people with issues such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, or high triglycerides. ApoB testing takes a different approach by measuring apolipoprotein B, a protein found on plaque-causing particles, including LDL. Because each harmful particle carries its own ApoB, the test gives a direct count of those particles rather than an estimate.

What the research suggests

According to the report, a JAMA study used computer modeling to compare three common ways of guiding cholesterol treatment: LDL cholesterol, non-HDL cholesterol, and ApoB. In the simulation of 250,000 American adults at risk for heart disease, ApoB-guided treatment was associated with fewer heart attacks and strokes, longer life expectancy, and lower future healthcare costs. The study authors said those benefits came at a price that represented good value for U.S. healthcare payers.

Doctors quoted in the report said ApoB is especially useful when LDL and non-HDL numbers do not line up, or when triglycerides, obesity, or metabolic syndrome are part of the picture. It can also help fine-tune treatment for people already taking cholesterol-lowering medication, since a good LDL reading does not always mean the plaque-causing particle count is low. While the test is available and relatively inexpensive, it is not always covered by insurance, though coverage is improving as more guidelines from major heart organizations recommend it more broadly.

For people looking to get a fuller snapshot of their heart health, the report suggests ApoB is worth bringing up at the next doctor’s visit. In some cases, clinicians may also consider lipoprotein(a) as a one-time screening test to help assess plaque risk even further.

Source: menshealth.com

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The finale begins with the idea of a Rick estate sale after Rick’s death, which brings in alternate versions of the character eager to pick over what he left behind. That setup mostly serves as a launch point for Morty’s real obsession: sneaking into different funerals to see how other versions of his family respond to his death. What starts as curiosity quickly becomes a destructive fixation, especially once he finds a family that actually seems to care about him.

According to the recap, that emotional need is exactly what makes the episode so effective. Morty’s desire for affection pulls everyone into a spiral, with one alternate Jerry becoming increasingly unstable, Rick sliding back into the self-destructive version of himself, and the whole false family collapsing around them. The review also notes that Chris Parnell’s performance gives the alternate Jerry a sharper identity than many of the show’s other multiverse variants, helping the character stand out in a season that has already spent a lot of time with alternate realities.

By the end, the episode leaves almost everyone dead and undercuts any sense that Rick’s portal-gun ambitions meant anything at all. Still, the recap says the season finale works because it turns that failure into a final burst of dark humor and existential dread. With another Rick estate sale offering Morty a way home, the season ends not with triumph, but with the same hollow feeling the series has been building toward all along.

Source: ign.com

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