Movies, TV, music, and books we're into this week

Three Identical Strangers is the best documentary I've seen this year. It's the true story of triplets separated at birth when their mother put them up for adoption, all who end up living in New York and who randomly end up meeting each other and immediate recognizing that they're related. When they do, their lives are flipped upside down, and they take the U.S. by storm, touring and telling their story and appearing on hit TV shows.Everything seems to be going well, and they're happy to find that they have new siblings. But as they dig into the reasons why they were separated instead of being adopted together, an ugly mystery unfolds along with some nefarious motivations behind it all.It's not a feel-good flick by any means, but it's a perfect example of real-life proving to be stranger than fiction.

Staying true to the TV series the Teen Titans got their own 90-minute movie in the summer of 2018. Guest voices include Nicolas Cage acting as Superman (an inside joke if you know about Tim Burton's vision of "Superman Lives"), Kristen Bell, Will Arnett, and even Jimmy Kimmel.The whole movie is a meta-critique of the oversaturation of comic book hero movies and how Robin desperately wants in on that action.I saw TTGTTM in the theater and enjoyed every minute of it. Plus, if you can splurge for it, you can grab this title in 4K UHD, and it counts as a Movies Anywhere title, which is always a win.

My quest to catch up on the entire MCU in its chronological order this week brings me to Iron Man, our first experience of Tony Stark and the origin story of the infamous red, metal superhero. It's easy to criticise Robert Downey Jr as an actor, but I feel like he captures Tony Stark perfectly, and I'm quite happy to say Iron Man didn't disappoint as I feared it might. Onwards to the next chapter!

It's the right month to get spooky, and this weekend I'm looking forward to checking out The Haunting of Hill House, expected to be released October 12, 2018. It's a movie adaptation of a book with the same name, and it seems like it should be a solid retelling of the ol' haunted house story.This time it goes back and forth between present and past to reveal what happened to a family living under the roof. I'm not huge on jump scares and would much rather have a creeping terror, but I guess we'll have to wait and see which way it goes.

I'm not a comic fan and especially not of DC (sorry, Batman), but Teen Titans Go! is one of the funniest cartoons around. While many fans of the original, "very serious" series loathe the whole Go! humor, I find it hilarious. And yes, I watch it every weekend just like I was a kid mostly because like all classic cartoons whether its Looney Toons, Tiny Toons, or Ren and Stimpy the writing here works on levels for kids and adults.Luckily, if you do have kids or just like silly things seasons one through four are currently on sale for the next few days. Season four is 43 percent off dropping to $20 from $35 making it a great time to purchase (plus it has the wonderful four-part "The Day the Night Stopped Beginning to Shine and Became Dark Even Though it Was the Day" special).

So, I'm a bit embarrassed by this, but Greta Van Fleet completely passed me by for too long. I had heard of the band, but never thought to give them a listen until a recent road trip. And wow, I didn't know what I was missing.The first song I head was "Highway Tune", which was perfect for zooming down the interstate with the windows cracked. The driving guitar riff the bursts into your ears like a sledgehammer at the start of the song is catchy as hell. And frontman Josh Kiszka's vocals have such a Robert Plant quality to them that you could easily see this as a modern-day Led Zeppelin tune.In other words: I'm hooked.

The late Gary Stewart make his mark in the '70s thanks to smart songwriting and a vibrato voice, which are both pretty much crucial to making it big in the old outlaw country scene. This collection of most of his best stuff shows off why he maybe didn't quite make it big, sounding too country for diehard rock and roll fans and too rock and roll for diehard country fans.I like pretty much everything, so Stewart's music is a great bridge between the two genres. Single Again, Back Sliders Wine, and She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinking Doubles) are personal favorites thanks to a good mix of arrangement and lyrics.

I loved this book. Bearskin is the story of a college kid in Arizona who foolishly gets mixed up with a Mexican drug cartel and who then escapes to rural Virginia, in an attempt to avoid a very unpleasant demise. He takes a job as a caretaker of a wilderness preserve in the middle of nowhere, a sort of unofficial witness protection program, and everything seems good until he notices that poachers are coming onto the property and killing bears. As he investigates, he finds himself in another mess that threatens to expose his true identity to cartel enforcers.The story is solid, composed of a nice mix of literary description of the Virginia wild and some authentic-feeling action. The cast of characters is equal parts likable and terrible. And the writing is great. Considering this is McLaughlin's first novel, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on him. Bearskin is a must-read.

While games offer a virtual world to lose oneself in, nothing beats the imagination and creativity of a dungeon master in a traditional tabletop setting. This official Dungeons and Dragons guidebook is a must-read for anyone looking to dabble into tabletop game creation, allowing you to master the basics before starting on a storyline for a team of champions to achieve victory or fail spectacularly.