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New Austin-themed Monopoly board immortalizes the city's popular places

Mr. Monopoly shows off a chance card dedicated to Austin Food Adventures.

Photo courtesy of Top Trumps USA

Every Austinite would probably have a different Monopoly board if they tried to make one for the whole city. After a yearlong survey, game maker Top Trumps USA has presented its definitive take on the challenge. It unveiled Monopoly: Austin Edition, a new collector's board game, at a press release Friday, October 23.

The "Austinized" game board is laid out just like a regular Monopoly board, but the properties have been changed to reflect Austin landmarks and businesses. Photographs add extra flavor, and a few game elements other than properties have been updated to show a little more Austin character.

For example, even though "chance" and "community chest" cards keep their names as game mechanics, the storytelling changes: players can take a recommendation from influencer/blogger Austin Food Adventures on a Chance card or get booked on Austin City Limits on a Community Chest card. They can also own a food truck deed or pay a "tailgate tax," a variant on the "luxury tax" in the original game. Railroad crossings are replaced by places to paddleboard, kayak, or scooter.

Businesses represented as "properties" on the board include Zilker Belts, Retro Boat Rentals ATX, Thinkery, the Comedy Mothership, Auntie's House, Busty's Bar & Jukebox, Bird's Barbershop, Austin Pickle Ranch, Tecovas, Torchy's Tacos, Schlotzsky’s Deli, Terry Black's BBQ, Wanderlust Wine Co., El Arroyo, and Kerbey Lane All Day Cafe. Neighborhoods and landmarks include downtown Austin, South Congress, Barton Springs, the Capitol, and more.

Notably absent are the city's staple music venues — was it because responses were too divided between The Mohawk, Stubb's, the Continental Club, Antone's, and any other of the city's many live music destinations? Austin City Limits did make the properties list along with its Community Chest card. There are also no properties named for highways, bridges, or hotels, though players may understandable want an escape from those ubiquitous real-life Austin landmarks.

Monopoly: Austin Edition This board is way more colorful than the original.Photo courtesy of Top Trumps USA

Top Trumps started engaging the Austin community in July of 2025, when it first announced the game. It gathered feedback for a year via emails, direct messages on Instagram, and posts with the tag #MonopolyAustin.

"Austin has a culture unlike anywhere else, and from the beginning, our goal has been to create a game that feels authentic to Austin," said Top Trumps spokesperson Josie Cole in a press release. "The community provided fantastic input about the places and organizations that help make this city special, and we're incredibly excited to finally reveal what made the board."

Schlotzsky's president Donna Varner also spoke about the business being included.

“For more than five decades, we’ve been proud to serve generations of Austinites, and we’re honored to be recognized among the local icons that help define this city," Varner said. "We love that MONOPOLY brings people together, and we’re excited to celebrate that same spirit of connection, community and family that has always been at the heart of Schlotzsky's Deli.”

It is unclear whether this Austinized version of the game exists to gloss over the implications of gameplay or to winkingly raise questions through it. The goal of the original, satirical game is to buy up property, extract rent, price opponents out, and win through privatization. The inventor of the game, Elizabeth Magie, made it to criticize exactly those systems. Presumably the Austinites nominating places like Barton Springs or Austin City Limits, a program on PBS, wouldn't be so happy to see those deeds snatched up in real life.

The Top Trumps online store page doesn't seem too interested in pointing out the irony. Novelty is key.

"Gather your fellow property tycoons, choose your strategy and get ready to experience Austin one deal at a time," it says. "In a city known for doing things differently, expect a Monopoly game with plenty of Texas personality."

Collectors who want to support local businesses when they purchase the game, which is licensed to Top Trumps under Hasbro, will be able to find it at local gift shops; the release says Top Trumps is "planning to work with" them on distribution. The game is also available to purchase online for $39.99.

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Movie Review

Cultural miscommunication is infuriating and illuminating in Fjord

Photo courtesy of Neon

Sebastian Stan is Mihai, a father of five, in the Norway-set film Fjord.

In modern society, where fear of “the other” has made many people into insular creatures, it has become easy to get locked into one point of view. The new film Fjord will be a challenging one for many viewers, as it puts forth a situation that confronts narrow-minded thinking and forces even those who think they’re open-minded to re-evaluate their own biases.

Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and Lisbet (Renate Reinsve) are a married couple who have just moved back to Lisbet’s home country of Norway. They have five children, all of whom were born in Romania, Mihai’s home country. The family, which is part of an unspecified Evangelical Christian sect, runs into issues almost right away when their oldest daughter, Elia (Vanessa Ceban), shows up to school with bruises on her body.

A well-intentioned but perhaps overzealous Child Protective Services system gets put into motion, resulting in the children being removed from the home while Mihai and Lisbet are being investigated. The parents, while acknowledging some minor physical punishment, deny doing anything that would cause bruising, and the possible failings of the system mostly get ignored despite a lack of hard evidence.

Written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, the film is an infuriating watch due to its depiction of a system that seems to be oblivious to its own faults. But it’s also illuminating, as the cultural and linguistic divide that exists between the characters in the film could just as easily be applied to those viewing it. Misunderstandings arise as people switch between Norwegian, English, and Romanian, and interpretations of different words or phrases play a crucial role in how people and actions are perceived.

But the film is about much more than just language mix-ups. Mungiu is purposefully vague about Mihai and Lisbet’s religion, but it’s clear that it leans conservative. This puts them at odds with a liberal society in Norway, and more than one character voices their disapproval of the family’s beliefs. The film is framed in such a way, though, that it’s those who are seemingly most progressive who can’t get over their own prejudices, with Mihai and Lisbet rarely being able to object to how they’re being treated.

The cold and forbidding landscape adds to the drama of the film, especially when Mungiu includes side stories from Mihai and Lisbet’s neighbors about, for example, a rebellious neighbor daughter or their ailing father. While those elements don’t impact the plot much, they add complexity to the film as a whole and demonstrate that some characters are more than who they seem to be on the surface.

Stan, who’s had notable roles in recent years in A Different Man and The Apprentice, puts in another solid performance that is less showy. With a bald head and stoic-but-firm demeanor, he brings depth to a potentially unlikable character. Reinsve, coming off the success of Backrooms, is the emotional center of the film and demonstrates chemistry with Stan after co-starring in A Different Man. The supporting cast is all solid, especially the actors portraying lawyers, who bring to life a system that seems much different from that in the U.S.

Fjord does not play out like a typical American film would if it were depicting a similar situation, and by holding back where more western storytellers wouldn’t, it allows viewers to make up their own minds on who is right or wrong. Many things go unspoken in the film, and the debate on what should happen with Mihai, Lisbet, and their family continues even after the film ends.

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Fjord is now playing in select theaters.

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