Third ActAbout Third Act
A third act is where a story decides what it's actually about. We started this magazine because most movie coverage skips straight to the verdict and misses that part.
Third Act launched in 2021 as a weekend newsletter written by two friends who couldn't agree on anything except that most film writing had stopped being useful. One of us wanted to talk about blocking and sound design. The other wanted to know whether a movie was worth the babysitter money. We decided the answer was to do both, honestly, in the same piece.
We review what's in theaters and what's streaming. We track which services are worth paying for in a given month, because the math changes constantly and nobody enjoys doing it. And we write about physical media — not as nostalgia, but because a disc you own is a movie that can't be pulled from a catalog the week before you finally sit down to watch it.
What we do and don't do
We don't review a movie we haven't watched start to finish, in one sitting, the way it was meant to be seen. We don't run access journalism — junkets, set visits, and embargoed interviews are not how we spend our time. When we recommend a product, a disc, or a subscription, it's because someone on staff paid for it or watched it start to finish first; sponsored coverage is always labeled as such and kept separate from criticism.
- Reviews run within a week of a film's theatrical or streaming release.
- Star ratings are assigned by the credited critic alone — not averaged, not committee-edited.
- Streaming guides are re-checked and updated monthly as prices and catalogs change.
- Corrections are posted at the bottom of the original piece, not quietly edited away.
The masthead
- Desmond Cray — Film Critic. Covers theatrical releases and festival premieres. Previously wrote for two newspapers that no longer exist.Reviews
- Nora Albrecht — Streaming & Industry Writer. Tracks pricing, catalogs, and the business side of where movies actually live now.Streaming
- Priya Chandrasekaran — Physical Media Editor. Has a spreadsheet for her disc collection and is not sorry about it.Shop & Collecting
- Owen Marsh — Staff Writer. Writes the longer essays and features on craft, history, and exhibition.Essays & Features
Get in touch
Pitches, corrections, and complaints about our star ratings can be sent to our editors. We read everything, even the complaints about our star ratings.