The Shannara Chronicles
Season 1 Episode 4: “Changeling”
Directed by James Marshall
Written by Terry Brooks (novel), Alfred Gough, and Miles Millar
Starring Poppy Drayton, Austin Butler, Ivana Baquero, Manu Bennett, John Rhys-Davies, Aaron Jakubenko, Emilia Burns, Daniel MacPherson, James Remar, Marcus Vanco, and Brooke Williams, Jed Brophy, Mattias Inwood, James Trevena-Brown
MTV
Air Date: Tuesday, January 19, 2016, 10pm

Episode four of MTV’s The Shannara Chronicles, “Changeling,” brings some closure to the killer inside the walls of the castle and opens up a new journey for the three protagonists.

Read here below for a review of episode 1.4 of The Shannara Chronicles. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Nothing can stop the power of High School Musical 3: Senior Year, which again takes the top slot at the box office grabbing $15 million in its second week, out-earning newcomer Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

This Halloween weekend saw the debut of the Kevin Smith comedy Zack and Miri, starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as two broke desperate friends who resort to making a porn movie to earn money for their bills. Too bad Zack and Miri only managed to pull in $10.6 million, not nearly enough to push HSM 3 off the top.

Coming in at #3 is the horror sequel SAW V, also in its second week, coming in with $10.1 million this week. The Clint Eastwood drama starring Angelina Jolie, Changeling, which debuted with a limited-run last week, opened wide this weekend earning $9.4 million giving it the #4 slot.

Finishing up the Top 5 this week with $6 million was another newcomer, The Haunting of Molly Hartley, the horror feature about a girl with a horrible fate that awaits her when she turns 18.

Changeling
Directed by Clint Eastwood
Staring Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Geoff Pierson
Rated R
Release date: October 31, 2008

Clint Eastwood, the greatest working director today, continues to display reasons why his films have the potential and audacity to gather like a quiet storm and later evolve to form a massive natural disaster. Unlike any director today, Eastwood manages to go beyond the surface of the true story of a woman searching for her lost son in 1928 Los Angeles by digging deep into his subject matter’s heart and finding gold in the unlikeliest of places. Time after time, he manages to show his ability of exploring darker situations and scenarios that aren’t neatly placed on the table at first glance. Watch Million Dollar Baby or Mystic River if you need reference. As Changeling moves towards its climax we experience plot revelations that deal with children being plagued of hatred and corruption at an early age. Slowly the film expands to a full-sized portrait of a town that once produced dreams, to a town that toils with human emotions as a hobby.

Searching for her 9-year-old son Walter is Christine Collins, played fiercely by Angelina Jolie. Jolie’s ability to go through all of what Christine goes through is an act of endurance. Clocking in at 140 minutes, her performance could’ve easily succumbed to melodrama and repetitiveness, but Jolie plays each scene as if it were her last, giving new life and meaning to each of Christine’s soul-searching scenes.