If you are A) a fan of candy, B) an aspiring supervillain who relishes the idea of eventually destroying a planet but wants to start small or C) into astronomy, you might want to invest in some of Etsy seller Vintage Confections’ “edible images planets lollipops.” A set contains ten lollipops, each fashioned after a different planet, plus the Sun and Pluto (moment of silence for our no-longer-planetary friend, please). As you can see, they look pretty (wait for it…) freaking sweet, plus they’re decorated with edible silver glitter to simulate stars, which is exactly the type of attention to detail I look for in my confectionary treats.

With the summer blockbuster season—and the releases of The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Prometheus, etc.—now behind us, we geek cinephiles will have to wait another several months until the next crop of big-budget nerd-oriented films hits the big screen. But while The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Wreck-It Ralph, Man of Steel, etc. still seem ages away, there are plenty of smaller films out there worth checking out in the interim. One of those is first-time director Jake Schreier’s indie sci-fi/comedy/drama Robot & Frank.

In the film, Frank Langella plays Frank, a retired jewel thief suffering from the early stages of dementia whose son (played by James Marsden) buys him a robot caretaker/butler (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard) to take care of him. Not content with the robot’s suggestions that he take up gardening as a hobby, Frank decides to teach the robot the tricks of his old trade and pull off a few more heists.

But the acting and the story, though superb, aren’t the parts of this movie that got me the most excited.

Robots, guys. Robots.

I don’t really need to tell you what’s going on with Kristen Stewart right now. If you have an Internet connection, you know. She cheated on Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson with Rupert Sanders, the married director of Snow White and the Huntsman. The scandal has given birth to a plethora of gossip rag covers, a few awkward TV interviews and speculation on how the final film in the Twilight franchise might be affected by the break-up of its stars.

I don’t want to talk about any of those things.

With everybody—from gossip hubs like Perez Hilton and TMZ to legitimate bastions of entertainment journalism like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter—keeping the public informed about the (possibly career-ruining, if reports can be believed) scandal, what gets me most curious about this whole thing is why people care so much.

It’s a sad day for stop-motion animation. The latest project from Henry Selick, the director behind Coraline, James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas (no, that wasn’t Tim Burton) has had his latest project canned by Disney.

In Ruby Sparks, the second film from the directing duo behind Little Miss Sunshine, Paul Dano plays Calvin, a twenty-something writer who wrote a best-selling novel while still in his teens and has since been struggling to overcome writer’s block and take control of his life. The only person he hangs out with—aside from his smarmy agent (Steve Coogan) and his therapist (Elliot Gould)—is his brother. His number one hobby is procrastination. He hasn’t had a girlfriend in years. But all that changes when he wakes up to find that he’s somehow managed to will fictional character Ruby Sparks—a painter, orphaned at a young age, dropped out of high school after an affair with a teacher, Calvin’s dream girl—into existence.

It’s an interesting premise, one that tackles writing and creativity in a meta sort of way (which I have a soft spot for) while also taking a look at a common trope: The Manic Pixie Dream Girl. 

History: It’s chock full of colorful characters and crazy random happenstances. But more often than not, when a historical character makes it to the big screen it’s in the form of a  cookie-cutter biopic. What gives? History is dynamic and exciting! As a history geek, I’d much rather see Napoleon fighting wizards and fairy kings than some boring Oscar bait biopic on the (actually not short!) Emperor. Here are ten examples from TV and film of history geekery done right. Your favorite not make it to the list? There’s a historical character (*coughArthurConanDoylecough*) you really want to show up on Doctor Who? Want to defend Anastasia? Get thee to the comments.

Last Tuesday, I saw Beasts of the Southern Wild in the afternoon and Brave in the evening. This resulted in A) me consuming far more popcorn than one probably should in a 24-hour period (but I don’t care, because it’s movie theater popcorn and I can’t be tamed) and B) me getting completely spoiled when it comes to seeing movies with well-rounded female protagonists.

Seriously. My tolerance for arm-candy love interests assigned token tasks over the course of a movie so they can help the main character and have something to do while they look pretty *coughTheAmazingSpider-Mancough* is now below zero, because these movies have given me two perfect examples of how it should be done.

Seeing as this isn’t a review of Brave, I won’t go on about how awesome a role model—or how awesome a character in general—Brave’s Princess Merida is. But seeing Brave and Beasts so close together really made me think about where Hushpuppy, the protagonist of the latter film, fits in with her fellow female protagonists.

Watching The Amazing Spider-Man, there was one adjective that kept coming to mind, and it wasn’t “amazing.” The Serviceable Spider-Man doesn’t have the same ring to it, though.

Maybe that’s getting off to an overly negative start. I didn’t think it was a bad movie, understand. But… look, going into this summer, I was really excited about the trio of superhero movies set to make their silver screen debuts. (The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises… not that you need reminding.) And sorry, Spidey, but assuming The Dark Knight Rises is even half as amazing as it looks, there’s only one of those three that I foresee slipping from my memory like star systems through Grand Moff Tarkin’s fingers, and it’s yours.

To start off, full disclosure: I’m a female geek who loves film history, documentaries and, to a lesser extent, comic book culture. So I’m pretty much predisposed to like any documentary called Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines. But I’m guessing that, if you’re reading this, O Mary Sue reader, you probably are too.

If that’s the case, you’ll be happy to hear that Wonder Women, directed by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, doesn’t disappoint. The film, which has been making the rounds on the film festival circuit (I caught it at the Seattle International Film Festival earlier this month), brings in Gloria Steinem, Lynda Carter, Lindsey Wagner, Jane Espenson and many more actors, producers, feminist and media scholars and plain ol’ Wonder Woman superfans to discuss the birth and evolution of the female superhero, from the creation of Wonder Woman (by matriarchy-obsessed bondage enthusiast, psychologist, and inventor William Moulton Marston) to the current post-Buffy/Ripley/Sarah Connor world.

Ever wish that you could play bananas like they were a piano? OK, in all likelihood that particular wish hasn’t crossed your mind before—but now that the idea’s been presented to you, look me in the eye (er, screen?) and tell me that doesn’t sound awesome.

Well, with MaKey MaKey (“An Invention Kit For Everyone”), doing just that is now possible, as is rigging up any number of objects (even people) to control your keyboard. By clipping everyday objects to the circuit board with alligator clips, you can… well, just check out the video below, unless for some reason you don’t want to see Super Mario Bros being played with a controller made of Play-Doh. (Why wouldn’t you?)