Barrons : How Global Conflict Led to a Surprising Plan to Make Apple Chips in a

How Global Conflict Led to a Surprising Plan to Make Apple Chips in a Desert
The new wave of U.S. chip manufacturing reflects a paradoxical new reality: Geopolitics are colliding with economics, and what’s good for one is pressuring the other.

Your next iPhone won’t be stamped Made in America. But pry open the casing in 2025 and you may see semiconductor chips that were etched into silicon in the Arizona desert.

While it will be scorching outside, the Phoenix “fab” gearing up to produce Apple’s (ticker: AAPL) chips will be cool, clean, and cutting-edge. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) is plowing $40 billion into the project, aiming to crank out 600,000 wafers a year. Apple CEO Tim Cook, at a “tool in” ceremony last year, said Apple would be “proud” to be the fab’s biggest customer.

That’s no coincidence. Apple is TSMC’s largest source of business, worth billions in annual revenue. Apple is looking for chip security, among many companies seeking to shore up supplies amid rising geopolitical tensions and fears over disruptions.

War breaking out between Israel and Hamas is just the latest worry for multinational companies. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and escalating tensions between the U.S. and China are fragmenting global trade. Disruptions in chip supplies from the pandemic remain fresh. A global race is now on by companies and governments to secure supplies of chips that are critical to both their industrial strength and their militaries.

No company is caught in the crosscurrents more than TSMC. Producing the vast majority of advanced semiconductors in Taiwan, TSMC is the lifeblood for tech’s new applications like artificial intelligence and advanced military weaponry. Taiwan, of course, is a geopolitical flashpoint between the U.S. and China, which claims the island as its territory, while the U.S. has indicated that it would defend the island in the event of an invasion or attack.

Both for its security and customers like Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple, TSMC is building several plants overseas, with Arizona as a prototype. “Arizona is the first trial of our overseas megasite development,” said TSMC Chairman Mark Liu at a conference in Taiwan in September. The buildout is a “learning process,” he added, expressing confidence that it will be a “very successful project.”

Behind the scenes, Apple played a role in luring TSMC, according to some analysts, who said the iPhone maker leaned on the chip maker in a way only it could.


“It was like the Godfather made an offer you couldn’t refuse,” says Dan Hutcheson, vice chair of TechInsights, a semiconductor research firm. Apple threatened it might go elsewhere for chip supplies if TSMC didn’t come through with a U.S. plant, he said. And Cook “was instrumental” in getting former President Donald Trump to promise U.S. financial support.

TSMC, in a statement to Barron’s, said that “many factors” went into building in Arizona, adding, “The U.S. government also supported our decision to invest here.” Apple declined to comment.

Making Chips in the Desert
Fueled by concerns about China, the U.S. has adopted the most friendly industrial chip policy in a generation. The 2022 Chips and Science Act included $39 billion in grants for manufacturing and 25% tax credits for construction. States such as Arizona, Texas, New York, and Ohio are also throwing in subsidies, aiming to capture economic gains from a chip revival.

TSMC is now leading a wave of U.S. manufacturing, including companies like Intel (INTC), GlobalFoundries (GFS), and Samsung Electronics (005930.Korea), which are vying for billions in subsidies. More than $200 billion of investment has been committed by chip makers, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.

Yet places like Arizona—water-thirsty and far from TSMC’s highly efficient production in Asia—are hardly ideal for new fabs. “In Taiwan, TSMC is treated almost like royalty,” says Kirk Yang, chairman of Kirkland Capital, based part-time in Taiwan. “In Arizona, they’re just one of the good guys.”

A spokesperson for TSMC said that it would be more expensive to build in Arizona than Taiwan, “largely due to higher costs associated with construction and facility operations.”

So far, it has been a slog. Construction is going slow with mass production now expected to start in late 2025, nearly a year behind schedule, according to JPMorgan Chase (JPM) analyst Gokul Hariharan. Labor problems have piled up as TSMC vies with Intel and other tech companies expanding in the state. Difficulty with tool installation, uncertainty over subsidy payments, and weak demand for advanced processors are also contributing to delays, according to Hariharan.

Indeed, TSMC is building in Arizona amid a global chip downturn. Industrywide sales are expected to fall 10% from 2022 levels to $515 billion this year, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. A recovery is expected next year, with AI stoking demand. But growing U.S. restrictions of chip exports to China are weighing on the market, with China accounting for 36% of sales for U.S. chip companies.

All of it is taking a toll on TSMC’s finances. Along with a new fab in Arizona, TSMC is building plants in Germany, Japan, and mainland China. The company is aiming for $92 billion through 2025 in capital expenditure, according to consensus forecasts. Its capex as a percentage of sales has risen and is denting free cash flow, which is expected to fall 22% this year to $12.3 billion before recovering to $20.5 billion in 2024.

Some analysts say that TSMC decided to build in Arizona more for political than economic reasons. “It was not a business decision,” says Needham analyst Charles Shi.

The business case makes more sense now that tensions with China have risen, pressuring customers like Apple, Nvidia, and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to branch out from Taiwan. But TSMC may be slow-walking construction in Arizona because it’s struggling to fill capacity in Taiwan, Shi says. The company now has global capacity for 16 million to 17 million wafers but may have trouble selling it all without a big sales revival. “That’s why they’re not really in a hurry to turn on Arizona,” he says.

One skeptic on the economics of Arizona appears to be Morris Chang, TSMC’s founder and former chairman. In a podcast last year, he described the Arizona plant as an “expensive exercise in futility.” TSMC’s foundry in Camas, Wash., built in 1997, still produces chips at 50% higher costs than in Taiwan, he noted, adding that he expects the Arizona chips to be “noncompetitive” in world markets. He could not be reached for comment.

Chip experts say that TSMC’s Arizona fabs will be costly to run. Handel Jones, a veteran industry consultant, calculates a 30% cost premium per transistor in Arizona compared with Taiwan, even after production has been optimized. Tools, materials, and equipment costs are comparable, he says, but TSMC’s operating efficiency, or chip yield per wafer, will remain higher in Taiwan, where the company has woven decades of expertise and quality control into its plants.

“In Taiwan, the technicians and engineers are highly trained, so you have a high level of equipment throughput, uptime, and fewer defects,” he says.

One other competitive advantage for TSMC’s home country is the weak Taiwan dollar, according to Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Biden administration official. “It’s hard to overstate how undervalued the Taiwan dollar is on most measures,” he says, noting that it remains weaker than it was in 1997. A weak Taiwan dollar suppresses local labor costs and ramps up profits for goods sold in U.S. dollars. That has long been a structural advantage for TSMC in Taiwan, Setser says.

The Price of Security
TSMC might not be in Arizona at all if the company weren’t a global choke point for chips. Almost all of its chips are made in Taiwan, accounting for 54% of global production and 80% of advanced chips, according to Morgan Stanley. Companies like Apple and Nvidia depend on TSMC for leading-edge chips, which go into things like iPhones, computers running AI apps, and self-driving electric cars made by Tesla (TSLA). Military contractors rely on TSMC for chips in things like drones, guided missiles, and communications gear.

TSMC aims to be the Switzerland of semis—a neutral player in a global tech arms race. The problem is that Taiwan is a geopolitical tinderbox. If China invades the island or disrupts supplies, manufacturing of leading-edge electronics, including aviation, communication, and military applications, would be disrupted, at the least.

“There are legitimate concerns about the ability of the U.S. to protect TSMC in the event of a military escalation,” says Setser. “The Chips Act was a strategic hedge against an invasion of the island.”

Concerns about Taiwan have led to massive investment in U.S. chip making. Micron Technology (MU) says it will spend up to $100 billion on a “megafab” for memory chips in upstate New York. Qualcomm (QCOM), GlobalFoundries, Intel, and Samsung are building foundries in the U.S. Ideally, the investments will lift U.S. chip production from roughly 12% of the world’s total today, a goal of the Chips Act.

Near term, the buildout is a boon for manufacturing; fabs going up in Arizona, Ohio, Texas, and other states are fueling demand for everything from water infrastructure to electrical work. TSMC’s Arizona complex is now one of the largest construction sites in the U.S., with 12,000 workers on the 1,000-acre campus. Long term, the semi tooling industry stands to win big, including companies like KLA (KLAC), Lam Research (LRCX), Applied Materials (AMAT), and ASML Holding (ASML).

“We’re making our supply chain less efficient because of geopolitics, and the winners will be the agnostic pick-and-shovel plays—the machine and tooling subsectors,” says Marko Papic, chief strategist of investment firm Clocktower Group.

If the goal of all the investment in U.S. chip manufacturing is security, it has a long way to go.

One roadblock is that TSMC and Taiwan aren’t abandoning their “silicon shield” strategy. By making Taiwan indispensable to global chip supplies, the country gave the U.S. and other countries strong economic incentives to defend the island. The strategy, originating in the 1970s, is even more powerful today, as chips have become indispensable to global commerce and weaponry.

TSMC still plans to produce its most advanced chips in Taiwan. One way to see that is in the race to cram the most transistors on a chip. Transistors are measured in nanometers, the size of a few atoms, with billions of transistors etched into each chip. More than 90% of global chip capacity below 10 nanometers is in Taiwan, and TSMC is on its way down to 2-nm production, leading the global industry.

Few of the announced U.S. fabs will match Taiwan for years, says TechInsights’ Hutcheson. Samsung is planning 4-nm production in Texas in 2024 and 3-nm chips in 2025. Intel is ramping up 3 nm now, aiming for 2 nm in 2025. Yet TSMC has produced 3-nm chips at high volume in Taiwan since early 2023 and is gearing up to start 2 nm next year. In Arizona, the first fab will start with 4 nm and a second will add 3 nm in 2026, putting Arizona a generation behind Taiwan.

America will still be a pit stop on a global chip tour. Most silicon wafers come from Japan. After wafers are processed in a foundry, individual chips need to be cut, attached to other “chiplets,” and connected to circuit boards. All of that happens in a global web of plants. TSMC controls much of the market for advanced packaging in Taiwan. The U.S. is far behind, though Intel is scaling up packaging in Arizona and has a plant under way in New Mexico, which could handle some of TSMC’s Arizona chips.

Taiwan is also a hub for “masks,” or design patterns for chips, says Mike Mayberry, former chief technology officer of Intel. “If you want a new product, you need new masks, and that’s done in Taiwan. It’s another example of a single point of failure.”

Security concerns aren’t the only force driving TSMC outside Taiwan. TSMC is riding a huge wave of demand for advanced chips, and the company is outgrowing Taiwan as a production hub, straining its energy, water, and engineering resources. “They really dragged their feet on expanding globally, but eventually you run out of room in Taiwan,” says an industry executive.

Apple’s Geopolitical Bet
Making chips in the desert could raise costs for its customers, including its biggest one, Apple. Yet even Apple may have no choice but to pay more for chips and other components as it bows to geopolitical pressures.

Apple is now adjusting its global production network to bolster security. The company plans to shift some iPhone assembly to India and Vietnam, lessening its reliance on Foxconn (2354.Taiwan) in China. Domestically, Apple says it is investing $430 billion in research and development, manufacturing, and other initiatives through 2026.

If Apple, worried about Taiwan, had to lean on TSMC to make chips in the U.S., that would be in character, says Mayberry. “Apple is a commanding presence and can push suppliers around a lot,” he says. “TSMC is a big supplier, too, so you can’t make them do anything you like. I’d guess that Apple saw the political winds and said we need more of a U.S. presence.”

Apple probably won’t buy core processors from Arizona for future generations of iPhones; those will almost certainly remain in Taiwan. Jones estimates that Apple will still source 90% of wafers from TSMC’s fabs in Taiwan. But Apple could source chips for things like headphones, Air Tags, older-generation iPhones and iPads, cameras, and power management.

A big order might also come for 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth chips. Apple has tried for years to use its own modem chipsets, replacing those made by Qualcomm. The fabs in Arizona could produce them, says Needham’s Shi. “Apple can pull a lot of wafers out of Arizona for connectivity, even if Arizona stays one generation behind Taiwan,” he says.

Who Will Pay for Security?
Arizona does have benefits, including inexpensive land and seismic stability, which is critical for chip making. TSMC says that it will recycle most of the water it needs and will have flexibility to scale up production, with capacity for up to six fabs. The foundries will have leading-edge equipment, including “extreme ultraviolet lithography,” or EUV, machines for etching transistors onto wafers. An EUV is “very expensive and specialized,” says Mayberry. “You wouldn’t waste that on something that sells for peanuts; you’d use it for something that commands a premium—whether it’s a graphics chip for Nvidia, a central processing unit for AMD, or chip for Apple.”

Other customers are likely to be auto makers looking for chip security after pandemic-fueled disruptions. “The auto companies really want onshore supply,” says Jones, noting that chip suppliers like Mobileye Global (MBLY), Qualcomm, and NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) could source from Arizona.

Near term, TSMC will subsidize overseas production with profits from more-efficient fabs in Taiwan, says Shi. That’s one reason TSMC raised prices on chips in 2022 and 2023. But a chip glut may be building as global production ramps up; that could pressure prices and margins.

The wild card is friction with China. “The scale of Arizona tells me that TSMC and its customers so far do not think the threat from China is that material,” Shi says. A rise in tensions would probably accelerate an exodus from Taiwan, however, for all but leading-edge processors.

How profitable will it all be? The chip industry aims to hit $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2030, nearly double current levels. Strong demand for AI and other emerging tech could soak up fab capacity, regardless of higher operating costs or where it’s built.

TSMC and Apple, the industry’s titans, are expected to generate $37 billion and $109 billion of net income in 2025, respectively, up substantially from this year. Gross margins for TSMC could improve as the company’s capex levels off. But the price for geopolitical security is rising for everyone. Chip makers, consumers, and investors will ultimately bear the cost.

FT : The strange death of corporate Britain

The strange death of corporate Britain
Pension and insurance companies have dumped UK equities, reducing the ability of companies to raise capital and expand

Corporate Britain is dying. But it is not a natural death. By forcing inherently uncertain long-term pension promises to become — at least notionally — certain, huge damage has been inflicted on UK capital markets and done to the country’s corporate sector. It is too late to undo the damage of opportunities foregone. It is not too late to stop inflicting more harm in the future.

I have written several columns on UK pension arrangements, the most recent in June. Present and prospective public sector pensioners and the current generation of private sector pensioners enjoy secure, income-related pensions. Younger generations of private sector workers will rely on uncertain returns from their own (mostly inadequate) savings. It is huge generational inequity. Yet, argues Michael Tory, co-founder of advisory firm Ondra and a co-author of a recent pamphlet on pensions from the Tony Blair Institute, the damage to capital markets and the corporate sector is an equally big issue.


The ratio of price to earnings of the FTSE 100 has collapsed, from roughly 17 times in 2006 to 11 times today. Investors’ valuations should reflect the present value of expected cash flows. Cash flows can be divided, on a rolling basis, into the actual dividends and buybacks made, or expected over the subsequent 10 year period and the cash flows thereafter — or the “terminal value”. A company that creates more value than it is distributing is building terminal value, while a company that distributes more than the value it creates is depleting it. According to Tory, the terminal value of UK corporations has collapsed from $1.6tn in 2006 to $0.9tn today. Yet, while the terminal value of UK large corporates is shrinking, that of their US equivalents rose more than 300 per cent and even that of German and French companies rose over 50 per cent. 

As Warren Buffett said, “In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” It has duly weighed UK corporates and found them emaciated.


Why has this happened? The answer starts with the dumping of UK equities by UK pensions and insurance companies. The share of their portfolios invested in UK equities has shrunk from more than 50 per cent to 4 per cent in the past three decades. Companies have also been forced to make £250bn in pension contributions to fill fictitious deficits. Just how fictitious was shown by the £1tn fall in their liabilities after the recent jump in interest rates. The shrinkage of the investor base has dramatically reduced the amount of capital raised by UK corporates.

All this has reduced corporates’ ability to invest and so grow. The resulting decline in the prospects for growth in earnings and so capital gains has then forced higher payouts, which have further reduced cash for investment. The shrinkage of the UK investor base has also increased the claims of non-UK investors. In 2004, 65 per cent of distributions stayed in the UK. By 2022, this was roughly 25 per cent. This, then, is a self-reinforcing vicious cycle of corporate self-liquidation.

None of this matters in fantasy financial economics, in which national borders are irrelevant, investment can be funded from anywhere in the world and markets are rational and far-sighted. But, in reality, US companies benefit hugely from favoured access to American capital markets, just as US investors benefit from superior connections to American corporates. Location matters. As UK businesses come to be increasingly owned by foreigners, the interests of the UK will come second.


A revival of UK capital markets is essential. This will require the recreation of large pools of local equity capital, which would enjoy the advantages of familiarity and contacts that come with residence. Such funds should not be forced to invest in the UK. But they should be able to see — and seize — local opportunities far better than outsiders.

Part of the answer is consolidation of surviving defined benefit funds. A tested solution — the Pension Protection Fund — is already established and proven. It has a successful consolidation record, with more than 1,100 funds absorbed so far. It can kick-start the process. Another part of the answer is a move towards collective defined contribution funds, in place of today’s plethora of smaller funds, of which there are over 3,000, according to Citi. Again, consolidation is essential.

The onslaught on the UK’s pensions sector and capital markets is among the greatest intergenerational injustices of all. Today’s prosperous old have destroyed the intergenerational pensions compact, by imposing the ludicrous aim of absolute security. In the process, they have also starved the capital markets, and so the corporate sector, on which their children and grandchildren will depend. This is a tragedy. It is also a call for immediate action.

FT : The nuclear dispute driving a wedge between France and Germany

The nuclear dispute driving a wedge between France and Germany
The two nations have opposing ideas about atomic energy, threatening the EU’s transition away from fossil fuels

Near the French village of Fessenheim, facing Germany across the Rhine, a nuclear power station stands dormant. The German protesters that once demanded the site’s closure have decamped, and the last watts were produced three years ago. 

But disagreements over how the plant from 1977 should be repurposed persist, speaking to a much deeper divide over nuclear power between the two countries on either side of the river’s banks.

German officials have disputed a proposal to turn it into a centre to treat metals exposed to low levels of radioactivity, Fessenheim’s mayor Claude Brender says. “They are not on board with anything that might in some way make the nuclear industry more acceptable,” he adds.

France and Germany’s split over nuclear power is a tale of diverging mindsets fashioned over decades, including since the Chernobyl disaster in USSR-era Ukraine. But it has now become a major faultline in a touchy relationship between Europe’s two biggest economies.

Their stand-off over how to treat nuclear in a series of EU reforms has consequences for how Europe plans to advance towards cleaner energy. It will also affect how the bloc secures power supplies as the region weans itself off Russian gas, and how it provides its industry with affordable energy to compete with the US and China. 

“There can be squabbles between partners. But we’re not in a retirement home today squabbling over trivial matters. Europe is in a serious situation,” says Eric-André Martin, a specialist in Franco-German relations at French think-tank IFRI. 

France, which produces two-thirds of its power from nuclear plants and has plans for more reactors, is fighting for the low-carbon technology to be factored into its targets for reducing emissions and for leeway to use state subsidies to fund the sector.

For Germany, which closed its last nuclear plants this year and has been particularly shaken by its former reliance on Russian gas, there’s concern that a nuclear drive will detract from renewable energy advances.

But there is also an economic subtext in a region still reeling from an energy crisis last year, when prices spiked and laid bare how vulnerable households and manufacturers could become.

Berlin is wary that Paris would benefit more than its neighbours if it ends up being able to guarantee low power prices from its large nuclear output as a result of new EU rules on electricity markets, people close to talks between the two countries say.

Ministers on both sides have acknowledged there is a problem. “The conflict is painful. It’s painful for the two governments as well as for our [EU] partners,” Sven Giegold, state secretary at the German economy and climate action ministry, tells the Financial Times. 

Agnès Pannier-Runacher, France’s energy minister, says she wants to “get out of the realm of the emotional and move past the considerable misunderstandings that have accumulated in this discussion”.

In a joint appearance in Hamburg last week, German chancellor Olaf Scholz and French president Emmanuel Macron made encouraging noises over their ability to break the latest deadlock: a disagreement over the design of the EU’s electricity market. Ministers had been due to agree a plan in June but will now meet on October 17 to discuss the reform, aimed at stabilising long-term prices.

But the French and German impasse on nuclear has already slowed down debates on key EU policies such as rules on renewable energy and how hydrogen should be produced. Smaller member states are becoming impatient. The delay on the market design is “a big Franco-German show of incompetence again”, says an energy ministry official from another EU country who requested anonymity. 


“We have the problem with the competitiveness of the whole continent and we are focusing on how to get a competitive advantage [against] each other,” says Jozef Sikela, the Czech energy minister who chaired EU energy ministers’ meetings during last year’s gas crisis. “This way will not help us, it will not move us forward.”

Divisions run deep
Today’s deep disagreement over nuclear power was not always so stark.

France first laid out its intention to build up civil and military nuclear programmes in 1945. In the 1960s and ’70s there were even ideas about communal European nuclear plants.

The big accelerator for France was the 1973 oil crisis, which prompted a wave of reactor construction that gave it its current fleet of 56.

“Germany had some coal reserves, France had nothing,” says Bernard Accoyer, a former conservative politician in France and the head of a pro-nuclear lobby group.

The feat of engineering that followed is still a source of French national pride, although a series of outages at several reactors operated by state-owned EDF last year caused severe embarrassment and lost France its crown as the region’s top power exporter.

“Nuclear energy is part of France’s vital interests. The French would rather leave Europe than turn their backs on nuclear,” quips one senior French official.

Germany had its own reactors, including Soviet ones in the Communist east. But an anti-nuclear movement began to emerge in the 1970s when farmers and winegrowers in the south-west led opposition to a plant in Wyhl, also on the Rhine. 


That movement, nourished by fears of the atomic bomb, spawned what would later become Germany’s influential Green party, which today is a part of Scholz’s three-way coalition.

“Germany was at the frontier of the cold war and everybody knew the country would become ground zero in the event of a nuclear war,” says Arne Jungjohann, a political scientist.

After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, that sentiment took root more deeply. Children in then West Germany were told not to play in sand and people ran inside when it rained out of fear of radiation levels. In some parts of Germany, certain types of mushrooms — and the wild boar that eat them — are still contaminated from the accident. 

The 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan proved a point of no return. Former German chancellor Angela Merkel, who had initially pushed back plans by a previous Social Democrat and Green government to phase out nuclear power, announced closures that finally took place this year. 

“Before Fukushima . . . I was convinced that it was highly unlikely that [an accident] would occur in a high-tech country with high safety standards,” Merkel, a trained physicist, said in a speech three months after the accident. “Now it has happened.”

The government in Paris looked on aghast, former conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy recalled.

“I tell her — but Angela, what’s going on? How can this be?” he told a recent parliamentary hearing, in an account of their phone call. “She says, but Nicolas, have you not seen Fukushima? And I said — but where is the tsunami going to come from in Bavaria?”


Present-day public opinion in Germany is complicated. One survey in April found that less than a third of respondents backed shutting down the country’s nuclear plants. 

But across the river from Fessenheim, Stefan Portele, a father of four and resident of Breisach in the state of Baden-Württemberg, is relieved that the French plant is now offline. 

“It’s not safe. As long as nothing happens it’s fine, but if it does it’s a problem for millions of people,” he says. “This is still a region with the possibility of earthquakes. You never know. There hasn’t been one, but one is enough.”

On the French side, there is incomprehension, especially in the face of recent German decisions to re-fire coal power plants following the energy squeeze caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.

“Germany used to buy this nuclear power and now it is polluting us all the way here with coal,” says Dominique Schelcher, chief executive of the Système U supermarket chain and owner of Fessenheim’s store. 

The Fukushima disaster provoked some wobbles on nuclear power in France too. After a parliamentary pact with the Green party, socialist president François Hollande sought to trim reliance on the sector, which eventually led Fessenheim to be closed in 2020. The decision was endorsed by Macron after he came to power in 2017.

But by 2022, Macron had performed a volte-face and doubled down on the technology, announcing a €52bn plan for at least six new reactors and the extension of the lifespan of other sites.

Not seeing eye-to-eye
German objections to France’s pro-nuclear strategy partly reflect an ideological stance felt especially strongly by the Greens — including the vice-chancellor Robert Habeck, whose ministry for economy and climate action leads negotiations on energy matters.

Giegold, who works in the ministry, says it is “totally wrong” to claim that Germany is “leading a European crusade against nuclear power”. He says he does not dispute France’s right to generate atomic energy, only the right to use EU funds to do so. “We can finance together what we agree [on] with each other,” he says.  

But other Green party figures in Berlin privately voice concern about the safety of France’s ageing fleet. 

One person familiar with the government’s thinking pointed to the EDF shutdowns last year to fix so-called stress corrosion issues and said that the country’s nuclear safety agency was “doing its job”. 

He added, however, that he feared one day “politicians [could] over-rule the nuclear safety agency”, arguing that the world has experienced a serious nuclear accident roughly every 25 years and that “the 2030s will be a dangerous decade”.

Germans also fear the French are playing a dirty game on subsidies. Prices in the EU’s electricity market are dictated by supply and demand, with power flowing to where demand is greatest. But national subsidies, which need to get the green light from Brussels, play a role in incentivising new investments, including in renewable energy. France has been pushing to be able to use some of these instruments more broadly on its existing nuclear assets as well as any new plants.

It wants, for example, to have greater access to “contracts for difference”, which set a minimum price guarantee for power providers but also a ceiling above which the state can recover any revenue. That could then potentially be reverted back to consumers and businesses on their power bills, helping to keep prices low.

“The entire debate is not so much a debate on nuclear technology, but more about industry policy and gaining advantages from cheap energy for its own industry,” says Markus Krebber, chief executive of RWE, Germany’s biggest power generator in terms of output.

A German idea mooted by Habeck for a state-subsidised electricity tariff for energy-intensive industries has similarly raised eyebrows in France and beyond, as it would also give Germany a competitive advantage.

Pannier-Runacher, the energy minister, says France is now trying to debunk “fantasies” that have arisen over what it is trying to achieve. French officials say this includes concerns they have heard from German counterparts that France could try to lure German manufacturers to the country with its more favourable energy regime, a stance they reject.

The misunderstandings took a turn for the worse this year despite previous attempts by Macron and Scholz to put on a show of unity, including at a meeting at the Élysée Palace in January. That resulted in a joint declaration with a specific embrace of hydrogen produced from “low-carbon” sources — a byword for nuclear — which was welcomed in Paris.

But weeks later negotiations over EU legislation on “green” hydrogen production, and whether nuclear power could play a role, met with objections from Berlin. It opened a period of stand-offs that included the French pulling support for new rules governing renewables in the EU at the last minute, citing a lack of recognition for the role of nuclear fuel.

The episode at the start of the year was a wake-up call over how complicated it would be to strike deals when Germany was governed by a fractious coalition, officials in Paris say.

In recent months, France has created a nuclear alliance backed by 14 countries, including Czechia, Poland and Hungary, and Pannier-Runacher says the issue is not “just a Franco-German problem”.

But France is disproportionately reliant on nuclear production compared to most EU countries, and the state-owned operator of its fleet, EDF, has a dominant market position.

A way forward?
France began to lobby for nuclear to be added to various texts under negotiation in multiple EU meetings this year in a way several countries found excessively pushy, according to EU diplomats and officials.

French diplomats raised their concerns on the omission of nuclear or “low-carbon” power in texts concerning everything from agreements for energy supplies with third countries to deals on what industries should be prioritised in the bloc’s “net zero industry act”.

“It was really a 360-degree strategy,” says one senior EU official.

The European Commission says that it maintains a stance of “technology neutrality” and will not intervene, as power policies are national prerogatives. But France and other countries with nuclear fleets, such as Finland and Czechia, say that by prioritising renewable power the commission is disregarding other low-carbon options.

“There is a lot of legacy regulation, which from the start has been biased against nuclear power,” says Atte Harjanne, parliamentary leader of the Finnish Greens, a rare pro-nuclear Green party in Europe. “There is a lot of work to make any new regulation technology neutral, but you are already lagging behind.”

The commission had not foreseen a growth in nuclear power returning to Europe and had assumed that it would be stable and decline as countries pushed towards the EU’s goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

But the realisation of how massive the expansion of available decarbonised electricity will need to be to feed everything from cars to households had “foster[ed] its renaissance”, the senior EU official says.

Vehemently anti-nuclear states such as Austria and Luxembourg still argue that investment in expensive nuclear power plants takes away from greener and cheaper renewables, noting that France was the only EU country not to hit its renewables targets in 2020. 

Last Tuesday, Macron and Scholz raised some hopes that the blockage on the electricity market reform at least could be resolved, with the French president flagging “very encouraging discussions” and a potential deal by the end of the month.

It is still not clear what that could entail, however.

Henning Gloystein, director for climate, energy and resources at Eurasia Group, says that if both Germany and France entered into a tit-for-tat on energy subsidies, each allowing the other to support their industries with low prices, “it’s possibly the death of the EU wholesale power market as most consumption would be locked into fixed prices”.

In the longer term, nuclear advocates are hoping that a more serene debate can emerge over the technology. 

Pascal Canfin, a liberal French MEP who is close to Macron, says policymakers will have to acknowledge that while nuclear is “not green”, “it is clearly part of the solution, so we should not exclude it from financing and so on”.

“When I interview for media and describe my view in Finland, I get private messages [from German Greens] saying you have a point,” Harjanne, the head of the pro-nuclear Finnish Greens, says.

But in Fessenheim, a cartoon in the mayor’s office gives a flavour of the lingering divisions. It shows on one bank of the Rhine the nuclear plant and on the other a coal power station and wind turbines with groups of French and German workers each saying: “They don’t understand anything!”

Business Of Fashion : The Party May Be Over, but LVMH Has Moves to Make

The Party May Be Over, but LVMH Has Moves to Make
This week, softening sales growth at the French giant was the latest sign that the post-pandemic luxury boom is over, but chairman Bernard Arnault may be able to play the weak market to his advantage.

This week, sector bellwether LVMH reported softening sales growth, the latest sign that the luxury goods boom is over as shoppers sober up from post-Covid, YOLO (“you only live once”)-fuelled euphoria, and inflation and high interest rates weigh heavily on discretionary spending.

Sales at LVMH’s critical fashion and leather goods division, which includes key megabrands Louis Vuitton and Dior, grew just 9 percent in Q3, missing estimates by over two percentage points. The result was sharply down from the 21 percent jump the unit generated in the previous quarter and a far cry from the heady days of record revenue growth as the division roared out of the pandemic.

The news sent LVMH shares tumbling to their lowest level since the start of the year and dragged down stock prices at rival luxury players including Richemont, Kering and Burberry.

But a closer look at the results suggests that LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault has a few moves up his sleeve and may be able to play the sales miss to his advantage. Here are a few takeaways from the French giant’s latest disclosure:

1. Luxury’s Party in the USA Is Over

Nowhere has the softness been more pronounced than in the US, where pandemic-era stimulus checks contributed to a major surge in luxury spending from aspirational consumers.

With China mired in slow growth, the US market has been critical to luxury sales momentum in recent years. Some luxury players, particularly Kering, moved to tap surging demand with a deeper push into the US, including new stores in second-tier cities, particularly in the American South.

But demand has since dried up and LVMH’s latest results offered no sign that US sales, which grew just 2 percent in Q3, were on the mend, raising the spectre of empty stores from Austin to Nashville.

2. Loewe, Celine: Mega-Labels in the Making

Despite a poor Q3, LVMH clearly has moves up its sleeve, however. For a group whose key fashion and leather goods portfolio has long been dependent on Louis Vuitton and Dior, the latest results revealed just how far the company has come in turning some of its smaller projects into multi-billion-dollar businesses, notably Hedi Slimane’s Celine reboot and Jonathan Anderson’s reinvention of Loewe.

LVMH doesn’t break out figures for its brands, but market sources suggest Slimane’s Celine now generates more than €2.5 billion in annual revenue, while Anderson’s Loewe is close to crossing the €2 billion mark. Tellingly, management called out Celine and Loewe, as well as long-standing powerhouses Louis Vuitton and Dior, for their “strong performance” in a call with analysts following the results.

The industry is currently swirling with speculation on a new round of designer musical chairs, including what star ex-Gucci designer Alessandro Michele might do next. With the right creative configuration and level of marketing spend, could LVMH leverage its deep pockets to out-muscle competitors weakened by the challenging market and re-energize Givenchy or Fendi, thereby adding to its stable of mega-brands?


3. A Silver Lining: M&A Opportunities

Of course, future growth drivers could also come from M&A. And while the latest drop in LVMH’s share price isn’t exactly great news for Arnault’s net worth, the sector-wide depression in stock prices could open up compelling opportunities for M&A for the cash-rich group, with key targets cheaper than ever.

Richemont’s Cartier, for one, has long been on Arnault’s wishlist and likely remains so, despite his $16-billion takeover of the US jeweller Tiffany, which lacks Cartier’s true luxury credentials. Could this be the time to make a play? Of course, Britain’s Burberry, without a controlling shareholder, is technically for sale every day of the week. And the Prada family may be tempted to sell. Stay tuned.

Miss Tweed : Richemont may need to step in to help Farfetch

Richemont may need to step in to help Farfetch

During Milan and Paris Fashion Week, everybody was talking about Farfetch. The company’s stock market value collapse and mounting losses have become major sources of concern. More than 500 Italian boutiques depend on Farfetch’s marketplace to offload stock and many brands and department stores such as Harrods and Bergdorf Goodman use its proprietary technology for their online business.

When it was launched in 2008, the London-based company aimed to revolutionize online retail and help fashion embrace the new digital world order. Today, it’s the fashion and luxury industry that needs to help it and some major players such as Richemont.

In three years, Farfetch’s stock market value has plunged from a high of $21.6 billion to $574 million. A spectacular drop. And the share price seems to be continuing to fall. “The drop in share price is what is driving the narrative around the company now,” said the head of an investment fund that believed in Farfetch many years ago and still has a sizeable stake.

This month, Forbes ranked Farfetch No. 1 on the list of potential retail bankruptcies this year. Several CEOs and managers of fashion brands told Miss Tweed that they were uncomfortable about signing a deal with Farfetch due to its perceived precarious financial situation.

Industry players are concerned Farfetch’s troubles could have ripple effects throughout the entire ecosystem. There is a systemic risk as there is for banks. If one big bank goes under, this puts the whole financial system under huge pressure. The same goes for Farfetch since it’s the biggest marketplace for fashion and luxury goods. Many small brands and retailers depend on it.

Some industry sources told Miss Tweed that Farfetch was trying to borrow more money to replenish its coffers. They also said Farfetch bought a big piece of land in Portugal to build a new campus for its engineers, but construction work has been put on hold due to the company’s financial difficulties. Farfetch has declined to comment for this report.

It’s also possible that Farfetch will be delisted and is forced sell some assets to pay down debt. Richemont may to have to step in and put out a statement clarifying its position and intentions vis à vis the company. It’s the only strategic shareholder who can help, as we explain further. Richemont and Farfetch may not be technically “married,” but they have agreed to align their interests – for better and for worse. Richemont cannot run away from its responsibilities. The Swiss group declined to comment for this report.

RICHEMONT PARTNERSHIP
The two companies are to become more integrated after the complex agreement they signed last year becomes effective. The European Commission is due to approve it by Oct. 20. Once the transaction gets the regulatory green light, the Swiss luxury group will use Farfetch’s technology for all of its watch, fashion and jewelry brands including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chloé, IWC and Vacheron Constantin, and put these brands’ products on the marketplace.

Cartier is the world’s No. 1 jeweler and is estimated to generate more than €10 billion in annual revenue, around 8 percent of which comes from online sales. Farfetch is to get an estimated 7 percent cut of the revenues that Richemont brands will generate online using its technology.

Farfetch will also re-platform Richemont’s Yoox-Net-A-Porter (YNAP) and should get a cut of the online fashion retailer’s revenues. But it has also invested significant sums in these partnerships. Hence, it’s not clear how profitable they will be for Farfetch.

In August last year, Farfetch agreed to buy 47.5 percent of YNAP from Richemont and committed to acquiring a further majority stake if it became profitable in three to five years from the time the deal was completed – which is roughly now.

If Farfetch is struggling, how it is going to be able to sort out YNAP, let alone buy control of it? Richemont was keen to get YNAP off from its balance sheet and rely on Farfetch to sort it out. Richemont Chairman Johann Rupert was hoping Farfetch CEO and founder José Neves would remove this painful thorn from his side. The South African billionaire may end up with a much bigger wound.

As Miss Tweed reported in 2020 and 2021, Richemont has run YNAP to the ground and the company has been losing around €200-€250 million every year. In 2022, Richemont took a €2.7 billion write-down on its value based on Farfetch’s share price at the time,which was around $10. Farfetch shares closed on Friday at $1.63.

With the company’s stock market price in the doldrums, Richemont could take a further hit. Not only does it need to inject cash into YNAP as part of its agreement with Farfetch, it may have to prop up Farfetch as well.

As part of the YNAP deal, the Swiss group is providing a $450 million 10-year credit facility to finance YNAP’s losses depending on certain conditions. Also, once the deal is completed, Richemont is to get a stake of around 11.5 percent in Farfetch in exchange Richemont’s 47.5 percent stake in YNAP. Using Friday’s closing share price, the value of that stake is around $90 million.

This particular transaction values the whole of YNAP at around $190 million. Richemont is to inject $290 million in cash into YNAP, as part of the agreement with Farfetch. This means Richemont is actually paying more in cash than the total value of YNAP – at current Farfetch share prices.

On the fifth anniversary of this transaction, the Swiss group should also receive $250 million, expected to be settled in Farfetch shares. If it had been made today, that would represent a good chunk of the company’s share capital.

SAVING FARFETCH
If Richemont does not step in, who will? LVMH’s Bernard Arnault does not believe in online retail, having lost enough money as it is with various Internet ventures, including 24S, the luxury multi-brand online boutique that works with the group’s Parisian department store Bon Marché.

Chanel and Kering are small minority shareholders in Farfetch and are expected to remain passive, knowing they will likely be further diluted. Industry observers do not see either of them rushing to Farfetch’s rescue. Chanel – like Hermès – does not sell any handbags online and Kering has its own proprietary online technology, having severed ties in 2018 with Yoox, its previous provider. Another strategic minority shareholder in Farfetch is Chalhoub Group, the luxury goods distributor specialized in the Middle East. It is unlikely to step in as well. And there is Chinese online giant Alibaba with which Richemont and Farfetch have a joint venture in China. That is not going too well either, industry sources say, as there is regular friction between Farfetch and Alibaba managers. But Alibaba needs Farfetch to reassure Western luxury brands about doing business in China.

LACK OF FOCUS
So why is Farfetch’s share price so low? The company is worth less than its debt of $917 million as of June 30. On its balance sheet, at mid-year, it had liabilities, including current and financial liabilities, employee benefits, provisions and others totaling $2.9 billion. At the end of the second quarter, Farfetch had cash of $454 million. The company’s earliest debt maturity is 2027. Alibaba and Richemont hold $600 million in 2030 convertible notes, which could at their option be put in mid-2026. The company has no other short-term debt – as of now.

In the six months to June, Farfetch’s profit after tax of $796.4 million last year became a loss of $455.61 million this year. The full-year figure could be more than $600 million. Some analysts expect the company will lower its guidance again when it reports third-quarter results in mid-November.

MARKETPLACE
Farfetch has consistently missed expectations nearly every quarter and more importantly, it has gone in too many different directions in the past four years, industry analysts say.

When it was launched in 2008, Farfetch was originally a marketplace for multi-brand stores. Its purpose was clear: make all the stock held by stores around the world accessible to as many consumers as possible. Back then, there was a contest for the store of the week and each boutique provided entertaining videos and stories that gave the website a warm and friendly personality. Consumers enjoyed browsing the Farfetch marketplace and discovering new fashion designers. Today, there are so many brands that it’s difficult to find out information about any of them, and there is not much editorial content left on the website either.

As more and more brands started selling on Farfetch on a concession basis, the stores’ names were removed. In parallel, Neves invested in the development of several different types of technologies: e-commerce solutions for brands and the Store of the Future, with gimmicks such as digital mirrors that could tell you what was in stock and could be fetched from storage. They were trialed at Browns’ boutique in London’s East End, which Farfetch has since closed. Clothes tags contained RFID chips so that they could be registered in a client’s mobile app and Browns could use this data to suggest various designs to the customer.

When he started Farfetch, Neves’ main argument was: our business model is great, we don’t own any stock. Then he surprised everyone in 2019 by acquiring New Guards Group (NGG) which back then had an enterprise value of $675 million. The idea was to sell the brand’s products on the marketplace. That meant that from now on, Farfetch was going to own stock.

NGG has the license to manufacture and distribute nine fashion brands including Off-White, Palm Angels and Opening Ceremony. It owns a controlling stake in all of them but Off-White, which belongs to LVMH.

However, as Farfetch’s financial resources have started to dry up, the company has had to cut its investment in NGG’s brands. This caused friction with NGG co-founders Davide De Giglio and Andrea Grilli who abruptly left in June. Neves canceled Off-White’s 10-year anniversary show that was supposed to take place in New York in September in homage to its founder Virgil Abloh, who died of a rare form of cancer in November 2021.

NGG’s performance has also been hit by the current downturn and adding to its woes, consumers are moving away from streetwear – its core business. LVMH has the right to take back NGG’s license in January 2026. Off-White is the crown asset, generating €300-€350 million in sales. It has some 70 boutiques and more than 300 points of sale.

Last year, Off-White’s underlying profitability, or Ebitda, was around €100 million. It’s not clear how much Farfetch could raise if it sold NGG. Without Off-White, the company does not quite have the same aura and weight on the fashion market. Being part of a portfolio of brands with Off-White as the flagship is not the same as without. Off-White opens doors for its sister brands.

NGG’s total revenues last year reached more than €620 million. In 2019, many investors and analysts criticized Farfetch for buying NGG, but it turned out that this was actually the only unit generating profits within the company. This year, NGG’s overall sales are expected to be lower.

Neves has acquired several specialized online retailers that are losing money: Stadium Goods in running shoes in 2018, Violet Grey in beauty in 2022. Last year, Farfetch bought Reebok’s European business and pledged to invest in the construction of a €200 million logistics center for the sports brand. You wonder how it will finance that.

Some people close to the company say Farfetch bought the Reebok business to compensate for the potential loss of income if NGG loses the Off-White license in early 2026 should LVMH decide to get it back which is likely. Farfetch has been firing staff from NGG – even though the company is profitable – and hired more than 140 people to help manage its Reebok project in Europe, a source close to the company told Miss Tweed on condition of anonymity.

Reebok is a much more mass-market brand and relies on a much wider distribution network than NGG’s fashion brands. This year, Farfetch was originally expecting to make €400 million in revenue from Reebok, but some industry sources believe that figure will turn out to be much lower.

In the past six months, business has worsened in many segments of the market, not just in streetwear. Trading has also proven difficult in beauty. At the end of August, Farfetch shut down the beauty division of the marketplace after finding it too hard to attract shoppers. Violet Grey continues to operate on its own.

It’s clear that Farfetch has overstretched itself. The company needs to narrow its focus. It must also reassure its partner brands and boutiques that it will still be around a few years from now. Richemont would be wise not to remain silent for too long as the more time passes, the more Farfetch’s share price plummets and its cost of capital rises as people grow concerned about its financial situation and the noose tightens around Neves’ neck.

FT : Israel-Hamas war unleashes wave of antisemitism in Europe

Israel-Hamas war unleashes wave of antisemitism in Europe
Jews on the continent fear they could become a target of Muslim anger

Over the past week, Jews living in Germany’s capital Berlin have been waking up to a chilling sight — Stars of David sprayed on the front doors of their apartment blocks.

Police say there have been just three such incidents. But for many, they are a painful echo of the 1930s, when Nazi stormtroopers marked out Jewish-owned businesses and urged the public to shop elsewhere.

The graffiti reflects a big uptick in threats and insults directed at Jews in Germany in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 terror attack, when gunmen killed more than 1,400 Israeli civilians and soldiers and kidnapped dozens more. Palestinian activists celebrated the attack by handing out sweets on the streets of Berlin.

Felix Klein, government commissioner for Jewish life in Germany, said the country’s Jews had been “appalled by the antisemitism on display from Muslim groups and hard-left organisations”.

Such inter-ethnic tensions may get worse as the violence ratchets up. Israel has told 1.1mn residents in the north of Gaza to leave their homes ahead of an expected full-scale ground invasion, while Israeli forces continue their bombardment of the densely populated strip. Palestinian health officials say more than 2,300 people — many of them women and children — have been killed in the enclave since the bombing began.

As the conflict deepens, Jews across Europe fear they could become a convenient target of Muslim anger over Israel’s military operation in Gaza.

Tensions are running particularly high in France, home to a large Muslim population and the biggest Jewish community after Israel and the US. Flare-ups in the Middle East conflict have frequently triggered a rise in antisemitic incidents.

On Saturday, French interior minister Gérald Darmanin said there had been 189 threats and 65 arrests for antisemitic remarks or acts in France since the upsurge in violence in Israel and Gaza. Pharos, an online platform that allows people to report hate speech, has been alerted 2,449 times.

“Most of the incidents are graffiti of swastikas or slogans like death to the Jews, and calls for [Palestinian uprising],” Darmanin told France Inter radio on Thursday. “And then more serious actions, like people arrested at schools or synagogues with weapons, or a drone flown over a Jewish cultural centre.”

In Sarcelles, a northern suburb of Paris with a large Jewish community, rabbi René Taieb said many Jewish parents had kept their children away from school on Friday, in response to a big increase in antisemitic threats on social media.

“In certain schools in Val-d’Oise [a department north-west of Sarcelles], out of 600 students, not even 60 showed up,” said Taieb, who leads a 40,000-strong Jewish community in the region. “The teachers themselves did not want to bring their children to school.”

That fear will have intensified after a man killed a teacher in a knife attack at a school in northern France on Friday, in an incident that President Emmanuel Macron said showed the “barbarism of Islamist terror”.

Although the attack has not been identified as antisemitic, Jewish leaders in France and government officials have made a connection with the conflict in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

“According to our intelligence, there is a link unfortunately between what has happened in the Middle East and this act,” Darmanin said. “We see it because there have been despicable calls to take action.”

Robert Ejnes, executive director of Crif, the council of Jewish associations in France, said all past escalations in the Arab-Israeli conflict tended to have repercussions for Jews in Europe, even though there was often no clear logic behind the attacks.

“I find it difficult to find the link between support for the Palestinians and attacks on synagogues,” he said. Instead of attacking Israelis, supporters of the Palestinian cause were turning “against French Jews”.

In the UK, the Metropolitan Police said that between September 29 and October 12 there had been 75 reports of antisemitic offences, up from 12 in the same period in 2022. Incidents reported to police increased sevenfold year on year, from 14 to 105. Three Jewish schools in north London closed temporarily for security reasons.

Anxiety is also running high in Italy’s Jewish community. Public places have been defaced by antisemitic graffiti, including swastikas and slogans praising Hamas. The words “Jewish murderers — in the oven” were scrawled on the walls of a hospital in Milan.

Ruth Dureghello, a former president of Rome’s Jewish community, said she feared the situation could deteriorate as Israel intensified its military response to the Hamas attacks.

“In the beginning, all the world was with Israel — there was no way to be on the other side,” she said, adding that the perspective is “already changing”.

Across Europe, authorities stepped up security at synagogues, Jewish schools and other institutions.

Darmanin said the French government would “deploy the financial and human resources as long as necessary to help reassure Jewish people in France”.

The French government has also banned all pro-Palestinian protests amid concerns they could “disturb public order”. Despite the ban, large crowds gathered in Paris on Thursday, some chanting “Israel murderers” and “Macron — accomplice”. The protesters were dispersed by police using tear gas.

Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, called for a ban on Samidoun, a “solidarity network” for Palestinian prisoners that organised the celebrations in Berlin after the Hamas attack. Authorities in Berlin have banned pro-Palestinian protests, a move that some rights groups have condemned as an infringement of free speech.

Anti-Israel sentiment in Germany has been most conspicuous in schools, especially in cities with large Muslim populations such as Berlin. Klein said some children were coming to lessons draped in Palestinian flags and spraying anti-Zionist graffiti on the walls. Those who spoke up for Israel “often experience hostility and pressure” from fellow pupils.

But he said what was most worrying was the profile of the people behind the pro-Hamas protests and celebrations. These were not Syrians and Iraqis who arrived as part of the big refugee influx of 2015-16 but “families who’ve lived here a long time and have German passports”.

“It shows we now have parallel societies emerging here in Germany and integration has, in some respects, failed,” he said.

Wired : The 40 Best Movies on Netflix This Week

The 40 Best Movies on Netflix This Week
From The Pale Blue Eye to El Conde, here are our picks for the best streaming titles to feast your eyes on.
NETFLIX HAS PLENTY of movies to watch, but it’s a real mixed bag. Sometimes finding the right film at the right time can seem like an impossible task. Fret not, we’re here to help. Below is a list of some of our favorites currently on the streaming service—from dramas to comedies to thrillers.
If you decide you’re in more of a TV mood, head over to our collection of the best TV series on Netflix. Want more? Check out our lists of the best sci-fi movies, best movies on Amazon Prime, and the best flicks on Disney+.


El Conde

This is a wild one—a Chilean black comedy satire reimagining dictator Augusto Pinochet as a centuries-old vampire who is just done with it and now craves his own final death. Not bizarre enough? As director and co-writer Pablo Larraín's farce continues, it incorporates Vampire Pinochet's children, the exorcist nun they hire to kill their father for the inheritance, a Russian vampire butler, and—in a gloriously deranged twist—Margaret Thatcher. Shot in black and white, and almost entirely in Spanish, El Conde sits somewhere in the space between high schlock and high art. It's absolutely not going to win everyone over, but if you're craving something different from cinema's norms, you can't get much more different than this.
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The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

Ignore its 41-minute runtime and set aside any arguments over whether its brevity "counts" as a movie—this fantastic outing sees Wes Anderson adapt a Roald Dahl work for the first time since 2009's Fantastic Mr. Fox, and the result is just as brilliant. Rather than stop-motion, as with Mr. Fox, this is a live-action affair headlined by a top tier performance from Benedict Cumberbatch as the eponymous Henry Sugar, a bored rich man who gains a strange power and ultimately uses it to better the world. With a broader cast including Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley, and shot with all of Anderson's trademark aesthetic sensibilities, this really is a wonderful story. And, if you're still bothered by the short run time, take solace in the fact that this forms a tetraptych with The Rat Catcher, The Swan, and Poison; 15-minute shorts with same cast, directed by Anderson, and all adapting other Dahl tales in his signature style.
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Apostle

After bringing Indonesian martial arts to the wider world with his The Raid duology, director Gareth Evans switches genre to horror with this disturbing period piece set on a remote Welsh island in the early 1900s. Dan Stevens plays Thomas Richardson, a faithless missionary who infiltrates a cult on the island to rescue his kidnapped sister. Entwined in the lives and strange practices of the cultists and their firebrand leader, Malcolm Howe (Michael Sheen), Thomas soon realizes the god being worshipped isn't the one from his own lost scripture. Yes, it's all a bit Wicker Man in places, but Apostle balances its gore and scares with slow-burn tension and a terror borne of its isolated setting that will have you thinking twice before you next venture into the countryside.
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You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah

We're glossing over the "nepo baby" factor here—producer Adam Sandler takes a backseat supporting actor role here, allowing his two real-life daughters the spotlight—as this earns a pass by being a great teen comedy on its own merits. Stacy Friedman (Sunny Sandler) is obsessing over her upcoming bat mitzvah, insisting that it has to be perfect to set the course for the rest of her life, while older sister Ronnie (Sadie Sandler) provides backup in trying to convince their parents to throw a lavish party. Unfortunately, Stacy's current life is far from perfect, chasing both acceptance from the popular kids at school and the affections of clueless Andy (Dylan Hoffman), who barely notices her. After an attempt to impress him leads to social disaster, Stacy is enraged when BFF Lydia (Samantha Lorraine) dates him instead, and soon everyone's lives are spiraling out of control in the kind of deranged, cruel ways only teenagers can manage. Director Sammi Cohen perfectly captures the heightened melodrama that paints everyone's teen years, while delivering emotional moments at all the right points.
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Eldorado: Everything The Nazis Hate

Centered on the eponymous Berlin nightclub, this documentary explores the lives of LGBTQ+ people during the interwar years, from the roaring 1920s through the rise of the Nazis and into the horrors of World War II. With a blend of archival footage, recreations, and first-person accounts, director Benjamin Cantu paints a picture of gleeful decadence, the Eldorado as an almost hallowed ground where performers and patrons alike experimented with gender expression and were free to openly display their sexuality. It's an ode to what was lost, but with an eye on the bizarre contradictions of the age, where openly gay club-goers would wear their own Nazi uniforms as the years went by. Everything the Nazis Hate is emotionally challenging viewing in places, but it serves up an important slice of queer history that many will be completely unaware of.
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The Pale Blue Eye

Based on the novel of the same name by Louis Bayard, this historical mystery is set in 1890, with retired detective Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) called in to investigate the death and mutilation of a cadet at West Point Military Academy. Needing an insider's perspective, Landor enlists the help of another cadet: a macabre young fellow named Edgar Allan Poe (an exquisitely creepy Harry Melling). As their inquiries continue, the unlikely pair uncover links to strange rituals and secret societies, while the body count rises. Beautifully gothic and with plenty of twists, The Pale Blue Eye is bolstered by a fantastic ensemble including Gillian Anderson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Toby Jones, and Timothy Spall, all elevating what could be a silly genre mashup ("Young Poe: The Detective Years," anyone?) into a captivating, spooky affair.
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The Fear Street Trilogy

Spread over three time periods—1994, 1978, and 1666—the Fear Street trilogy is one of the most clever horror releases in Netflix’s catalog. The first installment introduces viewers to the cursed town of Shadyside, where a string of bloody killings has labeled it the murder capital of America. Soon, a group of genre-typical teens are drawn into a horrific legacy dating back to the 17th century, dodging serial killers, summer camp slayings, and vengeful witches along the way. The trilogy, originally released over the course of three weeks, emphasizing its connected nature, transcends its origins as a series of teen-lit novels by Goosebumps creator R. L. Stine, with lashings of gore and a tone drawing on '80s slasher flicks that delivers some genuine scares over the three films. Director Leigh Janiak masterfully walks a tightrope between lampooning and paying homage to horror classics—it’s impossible to miss contrasts to the likes of Scream, Halloween, and even Stranger Things—but it’s all done with such love for the form that Fear Street has established itself as a Halloween staple. It’s a bit too self-aware in places, but definitely one for the shouldn’t-be-as-good-as-it-is pile.
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Oxygen

A woman wakes up in a cryonics cell after a few weeks in suspended animation. She doesn’t remember her name, age, or past except for a few disturbing flashbacks. But one thing she knows—courtesy of an annoying talking AI—is that she has just over an hour before she runs out of oxygen. Can she get out of the coffin-shaped chamber quickly enough? Oxygen is as claustrophobic a thriller as it gets, and manages to find that rare sweet spot of being static and unnerving at once. The actors’ strong performances help the film win the day, despite a ludicrously far-fetched ending.
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Marry My Dead Body

Wu Ming-han (Greg Hsu) is not a great guy. A homophobic police officer, his life—and prejudices—are changed when he picks up an unassuming red envelope while investigating a case. Now bound under “ghost marriage” customs to Mao Mao (Austin Lin), a gay man who died under mysterious circumstances, Wu has to solve his “husband's” death before he can get on with his life. Directed by Cheng Wei-hao, better known for his thrillers and horror movies, Marry My Dead Body sees the Taiwanese director bring his supernatural stylings to this ghostly absurdist comedy for a film that transcends borders.
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Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop

Cherry struggles with speaking to other people, preferring to share his feelings through haiku. Smile is a vlogger who always wears a mask, afraid to reveal her braces to the world. Both young people are terrible at communicating, until a chaotic meeting at a mall draws them together, and they begin to bring each other out of their shells. This feature directorial debut from Kyōhei Ishiguro (Your Lie in April) is a charming slice-of-life romcom that transcends its teen romance trappings. Its gorgeous animation, stunning color palette, and eye-catching pop art aesthetic are further bolstered by a genius soundtrack that blends Cherry’s haiku with hip hop influences. True to its title, Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop is an effervescent, joyful affair that will bring a smile to the face of even the most jaded viewer.
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Someone Great

A breakup movie that is really about the joy of female friendship and the pain of growing old, Someone Great is powered by three great performances from Gina Rodriguez, Brittany Snow, and DeWanda Wise. Rodriguez stars as Jenny, a journalist who simultaneously lands her dream job in San Francisco and breaks up with her boyfriend of nine years. To lift her out of her gloom, Jenny enlists her two best friends for one last adventure in New York City. Although the film sets itself up as a series of comic capers (like Superbad or Dazed and Confused), it really finds its heart in the relationship between the three leads and their mutual support as they attempt to muddle through life—it's like picking up with the cast of Booksmart and finding out they've really gotten into drugs in the intervening 13 years.
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Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead

How much does Akira Tendo (Eiji Akaso) hate his soul-crushing, meaningless, abusive office job? Put it this way: He considers the zombie apocalypse an improvement. Freed from the shackles of workaday monotony, Akira and a handful of fellow survivors are now free to do everything they ever wanted—so long as they can avoid becoming undead flesh-eaters themselves. Adapted from the manga by Haro Aso (creator of Alice in Borderland) and Kotaro Takata, this raucous zom-com is packed with gloriously stupid moments—zombie shark fight!—but with a central theme of learning how to truly live for yourself, it has plenty of heart too.
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They Cloned Tyrone

Drug dealer Fontaine (John Boyega) got shot to death last night. So why has he just woken up in bed as if nothing happened? That existential question leads Fontaine and two unlikely allies—prostitute Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris) and pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx)—to uncovering a vast conspiracy centered on a Black-majority town called The Glen, where people are kept mollified by hypnotic rap music, dumbed down with drug-laced fried chicken and grape juice, and preached into obedience at church. But who’s using the town as a petri dish, and why is there a cloning lab buried underground? This lethally sharp satire from writer and debut director Juel Taylor masterfully blends genres, from the use of visual motifs and dated clichés from 1970s Blaxploitation cinema to its frequent steps into sci-fi territory and laugh-out-loud comedy. But it’s the powerhouse performances from its central cast that mark this as one to watch.
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The Raid

Rama (Iko Uwais) is a rookie officer in Indonesia’s Brimob—think SWAT—and he’s about to have a very bad day. As part of a 20-man squad set to raid an apartment building controlled by criminal kingpin Tama (Ray Sahetapy), Rama and his colleagues have to fight through floor after floor—but Tama controls the tower’s power and has a legion of hardened criminals at his disposal, making every step a fierce struggle. With its groundbreaking (not to mention bone-breaking) fight choreography, stunning stunt work, and phenomenal cinematography, director Gareth Evans’ ferocious action epic set a new standard for the genre back in 2011. More than a decade later, it’s as fresh and exciting as ever—catch it before the remake.
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Matilda the Musical

The classic family fable returns to the screen, via the Broadway and West End stages, in this musical update. You know the story—precocious schoolgirl Matilda (Alisha Weir) uses her newfound telekinetic powers to outwit the sadistic school principal Agatha Trunchbull (a deliciously wicked Emma Thompson) with only the kindhearted Miss Honey (Lashana Lynch) on her side—but here it's bolstered with toe-tapping numbers from Tim Minchin and some phenomenal choreography. With an appropriately dark sense of humor throughout, channeling the mischievous spirit of the source material, this new Matilda will charm a whole new generation of delinquents.
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Nimona

Shapeshifter Nimona can become anything she wants, a gift that causes people to fear and shun her. If society is going to treat her like a villain, she's going to be one, so she decides to become the sidekick of the hated black knight, Ballister Blackheart. Unfortunately for the aspiring menace, Blackheart isn't quite the monster he's made out to be, and he instead tries to rein in Nimona's more murderous tendencies as he seeks to clear his name of a crime he didn't commit—and face down his old friend Ambrosius Goldenloin in the process. Adapted from N. D. Stevenson's groundbreaking graphic novel, Nimona is more than just another fanciful fantasy—it's a tale of outsiders and exiles, people trying to do right even when their community rejects them, and the joy of finding their own little band along the way. After an almost decade-long journey to the screen, this dazzlingly animated movie has become an instant classic.
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Pray Away

An exploration of the origins of the “conversion therapy” movement—a harmful and medically denounced process through which religious groups try to “cure” homosexuality—may not make for light entertainment, but this searing look at the practice and its roots is darkly compelling. Director Kristine Stolakis speaks with key founders of the movement and survivors of the often brutal treatments that arose over nearly half a century and offers insight into both. Pray Away is a difficult watch at times—especially for LGBTQ+ viewers—but it shines an important light on the movement and the damage it causes. A bold debut for Stolakis.
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The Boys in the Band

Set in New York City in 1968, The Boys in the Band is a snapshot of gay life a year before Stonewall brought LGBTQ+ rights to mainstream attention. When Michael (Jim Parsons, fresh from The Big Bang Theory) hosts a birthday party for his best frenemy Harold (Zachary Quinto), he’s expecting a night of drinks, dancing, and gossip with their inner circle—until Alan, Michael’s straight friend from college, turns up, desperate to share something. As the night wears on, personalities clash, tempers fray, and secrets threaten to come to the surface in director Joe Mantello’s tense character study. Adapted for the screen by Mart Crowley, author of the original stage play, this period piece manages to be as poignant an exploration of queer relationships and identities as ever.
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The Trial of the Chicago 7

If you’re not an American boomer, the juxtaposition of the city of Chicago and the number 7 might mean little to you, but the formula stands for one of the causes célèbres of the ’60s. As anti-war, civil rights, and hippie activists involved in the protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, the Seven (theoretically eight) were picked as convenient scapegoats after the unrest was crushed at the behest of Mayor Richard Daley. The trial happened at the very end of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency—with the US reeling from the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr and Vietnam still devouring thousands of young people—and it came to encapsulate the tensions tearing the country’s social fabric asunder. Director Aaron Sorkin takes a lot of liberties with historical facts (and leaves out some hilarious bits, like poet Allen Ginsberg’s testimony, which would have made for a showstopper), but The Trial of the Chicago 7 largely succeeds in conveying the sense of generational score-settling the court battle came to signify.
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Zombieland

Zombie movies often take themselves too seriously—but “serious” isn’t something the Zombieland franchise can be accused of. Released in 2009, Zombieland reenergized the horror-comedy genre with a loose-knit group of survivors—college student Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), talented zombie slayer Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), and supersmart sisters Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin)—searching for sanctuary from the undead. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick’s wry and self-aware script plays gleefully with the constraints of the zombie apocalypse, wringing laughs from Columbus’ narrated survival rules and Tallahassee’s obsession with Twinkies. But it’s an incredible cameo by Bill Murray as himself that elevates the whole film. Clever, funny, and just the right level of gory, Zombieland is a blast.
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For the Love of Spock

Directed by Leonard Nimoy's son Adam Nimoy, this looks at the life and career of the famed Star Trek actor and the pop cultural impact of his role as the highly logical science officer of the USS Enterprise. The documentary merges classic on-set and behind-the-scenes footage with interviews from Nimoy’s original Trek castmates, as well as actors and creators influenced by him—including Zachary Quinto, who played a younger Spock in the rebooted movie series—and even personal family photos, for an in-depth look at Nimoy’s career. Despite having begun as a Star Trek anniversary project, For the Love of Spock evolves into a celebration of Nimoy's life beyond the bridge of a famous spaceship. It's not just fan service for Star Trek fans—this also examines the sometimes rocky relationship between the elder Nimoy and his son, making for an even more personal and sometimes difficult viewing experience for those who are only familiar with Spock the character, rather than Nimoy the man.
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Kill Boksoon

To her friends, Gil Bok-soon (Jeon Do-yeon) is a successful events executive and dedicated single mother to her daughter, Jae-yeong (Kim Si-a). In reality, she’s the star performer at MK Ent—an assassination bureau, where her almost superhuman ability to predict every step in a critical situation has earned her a 100 percent success rate and killer reputation. The only problem: She’s considering retiring at the end of her contract, a decision that opens her to threats from disgruntled enemies and ambitious colleagues alike. While its title and premise not-so-subtly evoke Tarantino's Kill Bill, director Byun Sung-hyun takes this Korean action epic to giddy heights with some of the most impressive fights committed to screen since, well, Kill Bill.
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Okja

Before winning Oscars and cementing his name in the Hollywood firmament for Parasite, Bong Joon-ho had something of a sideline in creature features. While 2006’s The Host remains worth hunting down, this 2017 saga of genetic engineering and animal exploitation may be the director’s best foray into the genre. After helping raise an enhanced “super pig” in rural South Korea, young Mija (Ahn Seo-hyun) is distraught when the American company behind its creation, Mirando, comes to take it back. Falling in with a group of Animal Liberation Front activists, Mija travels to Mirando’s headquarters in New York in a desperate effort to rescue her unlikely animal friend. Darkly satirical in places, Okja manages to explore themes of animal exploitation and environmental conservation without feeling preachy.
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Cargo

In a world already ravaged by a zombie-like plague, Andy Rose (Martin Freeman) only wants to keep his family safe, sticking to Australia’s rural back roads to avoid infection. After his wife is tragically bitten, and infects him in turn, Andy is desperate to find a safe haven for his infant daughter, Rosie. With a mere 48 hours until he succumbs himself, Andy finds an ally in Thoomi (Simone Landers), an Aboriginal girl looking to protect her own rabid father. But with threats from paranoid survivalists and Aboriginal communities hunting the infected, it may already be too late. A unique twist on the zombie apocalypse, Cargo abandons the familiar urban landscapes of the genre for the breathtaking wilds of Australia and offers a slower, character-led approach to the end of the world.
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Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

The modern master of the macabre brings the wooden would-be boy to life like never before in this exquisitely animated take on Pinocchio. In a stop-motion masterpiece that hews closer to the original 1880s tale by Carlo Collodi than the sanitized Disney version, Guillermo del Toro adds his own signature touch and compelling twists to the classic story that make it darkly enchanting—expect a Blue Fairy closer to a biblically accurate many-eyed angel and a Terrible Dogfish more like a kaiju. It’s the decision to transplant the tale to World War II that’s most affecting though. Cast against the rise of fascism, with Gepetto mourning the loss of his son, the film is packed with complex themes of mortality and morality that will haunt audiences long after the credits roll. If that doesn't sell you, perhaps the fact that it won Best Animated Feature at the 2023 Academy Awards will.
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The Land of Steady Habits

Anders Hill (Ben Mendelsohn) thought he wanted a change from his stifling life in a wealthy suburb of Connecticut. Now rashly divorced from Helene (Edie Falco), the woman he still loves; regretting his decision to retire early; and struggling with his adult son Preston’s (Thomas Mann) battles with drug addiction, Anders is spiraling. The Land of Steady Habits could be another maudlin look at a rich man’s midlife crisis, but writer and director Nicole Holofcener—adapting Ted Thompson’s novel of the same name—keeps the lead on the hook for his own downfall while infusing Anders’ journey with dark humor and a strange warmth.
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Call Me Chihiro

An idyllic slice-of-life movie with a twist, Call Me Chihiro follows a former sex worker—the eponymous Chihiro, played by Kasumi Arimura—after she moves to a seaside town to work in a bento restaurant. This isn’t a tale of a woman on the run or trying to escape her past—Chihiro is refreshingly forthright and unapologetic, and her warmth and openness soon begin to change the lives of her neighbors. Directed by Rikiya Imaizumi, this is an intimate, heartfelt character drama that alternates between moments of aching loneliness and sheer joy, packed with emotional beats that remind viewers of the importance of even the smallest connections.
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The Sea Beast

It's easy to imagine that the elevator pitch for The Sea Beast was “Moby Dick meets How to Train Your Dragon”—and who wouldn’t be compelled by that? Set in a fantasy world where oceanic leviathans terrorize humanity, those who hunt down the giant monsters are lauded as heroes. Jacob Holland (voiced by Karl Urban) is one such hero, adopted son of the legendary Captain Crowe and well on the way to building his own legacy as a monster hunter—a journey disrupted by stowaway Maisie Brumble (Zaris-Angel Hator), who has her own ambitions to take on the sea beasts. However, after an attempt to destroy the colossal Red Bluster goes disastrously wrong, Jacob and Maisie are stranded on an island filled with the creatures, and they find that the monsters may not be quite so monstrous after all. A rollicking sea-bound adventure directed by Chris Williams—of Big Hero 6 and Moana fame—it secured its standing as one of Netflix’s finest movies with a nomination for Best Animated Feature at this year's Oscars.
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Troll

This gleefully entertaining giant-monster movie eschews tearing up the likes of New York or Tokyo in favor of director Roar Uthaug’s (Tomb Raider 2018) native Norway, with a titanic troll stomping its way toward Oslo after being roused by a drilling operation. The plot and characters will be familiar to any fan of kaiju cinema—Ine Marie Wilmann heads up the cast as Nora Tidemann, the academic with a curiously specific skill set who is called in to advise on the crisis, while Kim Falck fits neatly into the role of Andreas Isaksan, the government adviser paired with her, and Gard B. Eidsvold serves as Tobias Tidemann, the former professor chased out of academia for his crazy theories about trolls. But the striking Nordic visuals and the titular menace’s ability to blend in with the landscape allow for some impressively original twists along the way. Although Troll could have easily descended into parody, Uthaug steers clear of smug self-awareness and instead delivers one of the most original takes on the genre in years.
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White Noise

The latest from director Noah Baumbach has him reteaming with his Marriage Story lead Adam Driver for another quirky look at disintegrating families and interpersonal angst—albeit with an apocalyptic twist. Driver stars as Jack Gladney, a college professor faking his way through a subject he’s unable to teach and struggling to work out family life with his fourth wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig), and their four kids from previous relationships. Neurotic familial squabbles prove the least of their worries when an “airborne toxic event” hits their town, sending everyone scrambling for cover with exponentially disastrous results. While the contemporary Covid-19 parallels are none too subtle, keeping the 1980s setting of Don DeLillo’s original novel proves an inspired choice on Baumbach’s part, one that accentuates the film’s darkly absurd comedy. By setting a rush for survival amidst big hair and materialist excess, White Noise serves up some authentic moments of human drama amid the chaos.
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

Daniel Craig reprises his role as detective Benoit Blanc in this brilliant follow-up to 2019’s phenomenal whodunnit, Knives Out. Writer-director Rian Johnson crafts a fiendishly sharp new case for “the Last of the Gentlemen Sleuths,” taking Blanc to a Greek island getaway for a reclusive tech billionaire and his collection of friends and hangers-on, where a planned murder mystery weekend takes a deadly turn. While totally accessible for newcomers, fans of the first film will also be rewarded with some deeper character development for Blanc, a role that’s shaping up to be as iconic for Craig as 007. As cleverly written and meticulously constructed as its predecessor, and featuring the kind of all-star cast—Edward Norton! Janelle Monáe! Kathryn Hahn! Leslie Odom Jr.! Jessica Henwick! Madelyn Cline! Kate Hudson! Dave Bautista!—that cinema dreams are made of, Glass Onion might be the best thing Netflix has dropped all year.
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The Wonder

Florence Pugh dazzles in this not-quite-horror film from Oscar-winning director Sebastián Lelio. Set in 1862, English nurse Lib Wright (Pugh) is sent to Ireland to observe Anna O’Donnell, a girl who claims to have not eaten in four months, subsisting instead on “manna from heaven.” Still grieving the loss of her own child, Lib is torn between investigating the medical impossibility and growing concern for Anna herself. Amid obstacles in the form of Anna’s deeply religious family and a local community that distrusts her, Lib’s watch descends into a tense, terrifying experience. Based on a book of the same name by Emma Donoghue, The Wonder is a beautiful yet bleakly shot period piece that explores the all-too-mortal horrors that unquestioning religious fervor and family secrets can wreak.
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Drifting Home

Kosuke and Natsume are childhood friends whose relationship has grown strained as they approach their teenage years. When the apartment complex where they first met is scheduled for demolition, they sneak in one last time, seeking emotional closure. Instead, they and the friends who joined them are trapped by torrential rain. After the mysterious storm passes, the world is changed, with the entire building floating on an ethereal sea, and a new child in their midst.

Adolescent feelings and magical realism collide in this sumptuously animated movie from the makers of A Whisker Away (also available on Netflix and well worth your time). Director Hiroyasa Ishida (Penguin Highway) may not be up there with the likes of Hayao Miyazaki in terms of name recognition in the West, but Drifting Home should put him on your radar.
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All Quiet on the Western Front

Hopped up on nationalism and dreams of battlefield glory, Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) is an eager young recruit for the German army during the last year of the First World War. His romantic view of the conflict is shattered on his first night in the cold trenches, surrounded by death and disaster, and dealt a tragic blow with the meaningless loss of a dear friend. It's all downhill from there in this magnificently crafted adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's groundbreaking novel, one of the most important pieces of anti-war literature of the 20th century. Paul's journey is one of naivete crushed by the relentless machinery of war and state and an awakening to the way soldiers are chewed up in the name of politicians and generals. Director Edward Berger's take on the material is the first to be filmed in German, which adds a layer of authenticity to a blistering, heart-rending cinematic effort that drives home the horror and inhumanity of war. Often bleak, it is an undeniably brilliant piece of filmmaking.
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Enola Holmes 2

The original Enola Holmes (2020) proved a surprisingly enjoyable twist on the world's most famous detective, focusing instead on his overlooked sister, Enola. No surprise, then, that this follow-up is just as exciting a romp through Victorian London. Despite having proved her skills in the first film, Enola struggles to establish her own detective credentials until a missing-person report leads her to a case that has stumped even Sherlock and pushes her into the path of his archnemesis, Moriarty. Snappy action, clever twists, and bristling sibling rivalry from Stranger Things' Millie Bobby Brown and The Witcher's Henry Cavill as the Holmes siblings make for fun, family-friendly viewing. It even crams in a touch of vague historical accuracy by making the 1888 match girls' strike a key part of Enola's latest adventure.
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RRR

One of India’s biggest films of all time, RRR (or Rise, Roar, Revolt) redefines the notion of cinematic spectacle. Set in 1920, the historical epic follows real-life Indian revolutionaries Alluri Sitrama Raju (Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.) but fictionalizes their lives and actions. Although they come from very different walks of life, their similarities draw them together as they face down sadistic governor Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson) and his cruel wife, Catherine (Alison Doody). No mere period fluff, RRR is a bold, exciting, and often explosive piece of filmmaking that elevates its heroes to near-mythological status. Director S. S. Rajamouli deploys brilliantly shot action scenes—and an exquisitely choreographed dance number—that grab viewers’ attention and refuse to let go. Whether you’re a longtime fan of Indian cinema or just looking for an action flick beyond the Hollywood norm, RRR is not to be missed.
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I Lost My Body

An award winner at Cannes in 2019, this tale of burgeoning young love, obsession, and autonomous body parts is every bit as weird as you might expect for a French adult animated film. Director Jérémy Clapin charts the life of Naoufel, a Moroccan immigrant in modern-day France who falls for the distant Gabrielle, and Naoufel’s severed hand, which makes its way across the city to try to reconnect. With intersecting timelines and complex discussions about fate, I Lost My Body is often mind-bending yet always captivating, and Clapin employs brilliantly detailed animation and phenomenal color choices throughout. Worth watching in both the original French and the solid English dub featuring Dev Patel and Alia Shawkat, this one dares you to make sense of it all.
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The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Aspiring filmmaker Katie Mitchell (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) has a strained relationship with her technophobic father Rick (Danny McBride)—not helped by his accidentally destroying her laptop right as she’s about to begin film school in California. In an effort to salvage their relationship, Rick decides to take the entire Mitchell family on a cross-country road trip to see Katie off. Unfortunately, this road trip coincides with a robot uprising that the Mitchells escape only by chance, leaving the fate of the world in their hands. Beautifully animated and brilliantly written, The Mitchells vs. the Machines takes a slightly more mature approach to family dynamics than many of its genre-mates, with the college-age Katie searching for her own identity while addressing genuine grievances with her father, but it effortlessly balances the more serious elements with exquisite action and genuinely funny comedy. Robbed of a full cinematic release by Covid-19, it now shines as one of Netflix’s best films.
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Don’t Look Up

Frustrated by the world’s collective inaction on existential threats like climate change? Maybe don’t watch Don’t Look Up, director Adam McKay’s satirical black comedy. When two low-level astronomers discover a planet-killing comet on a collision course with Earth, they try to warn the authorities—only to be met with a collective “meh.” Matters only get worse when they attempt to leak the news themselves and have to navigate vapid TV hosts, celebrities looking for a signature cause, and an indifferent public. A bleakly funny indictment of our times, bolstered by a star-studded cast fronted by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, Don’t Look Up is, somewhat depressingly, one of the best portraits of humanity since Idiocracy.
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Dolemite Is My Name

After the credits roll on Dolemite Is My Name, we guarantee you'll be 10,000 times more likely to go out and stage a horndog nude photo shoot for your next cult comedy record. The only person having anywhere near as much fun as Eddie Murphy, playing real-life club comedian/singer Rudy Ray Moore, is Wesley Snipes, goofing around as the actor-director D'Urvill Martin. With the help of a madcap crew, they make a truly terrible 1975 Blaxploitation kung fu movie based on Moore's pimp alter ego, Dolemite. A brash showbiz movie with a heart of gold, it has shades of The Disaster Artist and music legend biopics. Yet with the cast flexing in Ruth Carter's glorious costumes—the suits!—and a couple of triumphant sex and shoot-out scenes, it's a wild ride, whether you know the original story or not.

WSJ : A Recession Is No Longer the Consensus

A Recession Is No Longer the Consensus
In WSJ survey, economists lower recession probability below 50% and say Fed is finished raising interest rates

Economists are turning optimistic on the U.S. economy. They now think it will skirt a recession, the Federal Reserve is done raising interest rates and inflation will continue to ease.

In the latest quarterly survey by The Wall Street Journal, business and academic economists lowered the probability of a recession within the next year, from 54% on average in July to a more optimistic 48%. That is the first time they have put the probability below 50% since the middle of last year.

The median probability was 50%, in effect a coin flip.

“The probability of recession continues to recede in the U.S. as the banking turmoil subsides and strong labor market resilience and rising real incomes support consumer demand,” BMO economists Doug Porter and Scott Anderson said in the survey.

Fueling the optimism are three key factors: inflation continuing to decline, a Federal Reserve that is done raising interest rates, and a robust labor market and economic growth that have outperformed expectations.

Economists on average expect gross domestic product, the value of all the goods and services produced in the country adjusted for inflation, to increase 2.2% in the fourth quarter of 2023 from a year earlier. That is a sharp upward revision from the average 1% growth forecast in the last survey.

Economists trimmed their forecast for next year, to 1% from 1.3% in the July survey, but expect the economy to keep growing in 2024 and 2025 and the unemployment rate to rise but hover just above 4%—a historically low level.

Economic growth and job creation are expected to be weak in the first half of 2024. Economists predict GDP will increase at an anemic 0.35% annual rate in the first quarter and 0.6% in the second. They expect employers will add 42,500 new jobs a month on average in the first quarter and 16,700 new jobs in the second, a sharp slowdown from the expected 138,800 a month in the final quarter of this year as businesses feel the pinch from high interest rates.

Nearly 60% of economists said the Fed is done raising rates in its current cycle of interest-rate increases, after lifting short-term borrowing costs to a 22-year high in July of 5.25% to 5.5%. About 23% expect the final increase to come in November and 11% in December.

Roughly half of economists expect the Fed will start cutting rates in the second quarter of next year as economic growth cools, and the unemployment rate—which was 3.8% in September—rises to 4.3% by June.

Still, taken together, the latest forecasts suggest confidence in the Fed’s ability to achieve a so-called soft landing, in which inflation falls without a recession. An overwhelming 82% of economists said the Fed’s current interest-rate target range of 5.25% to 5.5% is restrictive enough to bring inflation back to the Fed’s 2% goal over the next two or three years.

Economists expect inflation as measured by the consumer-price index, which was 3.7% in September, to tick down to 2.4% by the end of next year and 2.2% by the end of 2025.

“Over the past several months, the case for a soft landing has undeniably strengthened,” said Deutsche Bank economists Brett Ryan and Matthew Luzzetti in the survey. “However, headwinds such as depleted savings, tightening credit conditions, slowing income growth and return of student debt payments will weigh more appreciably over the next year,” they added.

Economists give Fed Chair Jerome Powell relatively good grades for his handling of monetary policy. Nearly half gave him a solid B, while 20% gave him an A, and 20% a C. Their main criticism was Powell’s view that inflation would prove transitory in 2021, and as a result the Fed’s slow start to increasing borrowing costs.

The economic picture isn’t all rosy. Economists warned in the survey that recent developments could cast shadows on the U.S. economy’s prospects in the coming months, such as the impact of the conflict between Israel and Hamas on energy prices.

Some 81% of economists also said the recent run-up in bond yields to their highest levels since 2007 increased the probability of a recession, though not by enough to offset other factors making such a downturn less likely.

Economists also expect yields will ease in the coming months. On average, they expect the 10-year Treasury yield to close at 4.47% at the end of this year, and fall to 4.16% by June 30 of next year. The 10-year Treasury yield closed at 4.63% on Friday, down from 4.783% a week earlier.

The survey of 65 economists was conducted Oct. 6-11. Not every economist answered every question.