Roseanne doesn't want to be lumped in with Louis CK and Chappelle
0 Comments
Read more
Almost five years after ABC canceled her comedy following her tirade of racist and anti-semitic tweets, Roseanne Barr is returning with the stand-up special Roseanne Barr: Cancel This!, premiering Monday on Fox Nation.
The special debuts the same day on the streaming service as a documentary on her career, Who Is Roseanne Barr?
Barr lost her television show, Roseanne, in May 2018. One of the tweets she posted that day called former President Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett an offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes.”
Barr followed up with an apology but it was too late: ABC canned her hours later.
Barr comes across as sanguine about the experience, which she blamed on taking the drug Ambien. She told the Los Angeles Times, “I’ve survived. I’ve come out on the other side of it, finally. But it was a witch-burning. And it was terrifying. It was. I would die many times. I guess you would call it the dark night of the soul. I felt like the devil himself was coming against me to try to tear me apart, to punish me for believing in God.”
“Oh my God, they just hated me so badly,” she continued. “I had never known that they hated me like that. They hate me because I have talent, because I have an opinion. Even though Roseanne became their No. 1 show, they’d rather not have a No. 1 show. During the initial call, I told them I thought [Jarrett] was White. I said I would go on my show and explain it. They wouldn’t let me. They decided I was a liar in my apology.”
Barr’s latest comeback special was filmed at the Cullen Theater in Houston, Texas. She had a brief 2019 tour with Andrew Dice Clay, but has largely stayed silent after that.
“Has anyone else here been fired recently?” she asked as the starting point.
That led to a defiant statement.
“I’m not going to let rich, privileged a— win!”
Almost five years after ABC canceled her
During the first few minutes of its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022, the sci-fi horror film Crimes of the Future elicited such strong reactions that many audience members walked out. Yet, soon after the screening, the film was applauded by several critics as a return to form for Canadian writer-director David Cronenberg.
For the better part of three decades, the filmmaker had severed himself from his fleshy horror movie roots in favor of psychological dramas. But Cronenberg was once dubbed “The Master of Body Horror,” earning the moniker in the 1980s after an incredible run of flesh curling classics like Shivers (1975), Rabid (1977), The Brood (1979), Scanners (1981), Videodrome, The Dead Zone (1983), The Fly (1986), and Dead Ringers (1988). And it appears that Brandon Cronenberg is carrying on his father’s legacy with modern takes on body horror like Possessor (2020) and Infinity Pool (2023).
After carving out a niche of his own with low-budget ’70s horror movies filmed in medical facilities outside of Montreal and Toronto, David Cronenberg rose to great acclaim in the 1980s among film critics and horror magazine readers alike. The Fly alone made him the hottest horror director of his day. By 1991, the genre at large was his oyster. What did Cronenberg choose to make next? Naked Lunch (1991), a loose adaptation of controversial Beat writer William S. Burroughs’ 1959 novel, which was widely banned and subjected to an obscenity trial in the 1960s.
Why would Cronenberg, at the absolute peak of his game, decide to tackle a surrealist and transgressive literary work which he himself described as “impossible” to adapt?
By the time Burroughs’ then-titled The Naked Lunch (1959) was published in France’s Olympia Press (since American publishers refused to touch it for a few years), Burroughs had already been lionized as “Old Bull Lee,” a semi-fictional alter ego from fellow Beat writer and friend Jack Kerouac’s classic novel On the Road (1957). But Burroughs had been a divisive figure in American literature since his first novel, Junky, was published in 1953. Some of this comes down to Burroughs’ disjointed writing style. While Kerouac and other contemporaries like Allen Ginsberg were never known for coherency or story plotting, Burroughs wore his incoherent babbling like a badge of honor.
Burroughs pioneered an experimental literary “cut-up” technique which entailed scissoring out lines of prose and reassembling them at random. It is no wonder that Burroughs’ narratives are nonlinear and virtually impenetrable, to say nothing of his lifelong drug addiction. In his 2014 profile feature on Burroughs for The New Yorker, Peter Schjeldahl said:
The drugs help account for the hollowness of his voices, which jabber, joke, and rant like ghosts in a cave. He had no voice of his own, but a fantastic ear and verbal recall… few readers have made it all the way through [Burroughs’] novels, but anyone dipping into them may come away humming phrases.
While his drug of choice would change over the years, one thing remained the same: Burroughs never wrote a page while clean and sober. Evidence of a drug-addled mind is apparent from even a quick skim through one of his novels.
Like Kerouac and Ginsberg, Burroughs’ work is almost painfully semi-autobiographical. This fact is more than a little troublesome in light of the real-life behaviors which often haunted Burroughs’ writing. There is his own rampant drug use, obscene descriptions of homosexual pedophilia, and the accidental fatal shooting of his common-law wife, fellow junkie Joan Vollmer, during a drunken game of “William Tell.”
So what exactly did the man who directed The Fly see in this nonlinear mess of a narrative from a pedophilic junkie who accidentally killed his wife? As it happens, Cronenberg wasn’t the only filmmaker interested in adapting Naked Lunch. He wasn’t the first either.
In 1971, Mick Jagger was attached to star in a musical film adaptation of Naked Lunch to be helmed by frequent Burroughs collaborator and guerilla English filmmaker Anthony Balch. An early screenplay adaptation penned by Burroughs was supposedly finished, complete with musical numbers, before the project was abandoned in the wake of a bizarre falling out between Balch and The Rolling Stones frontman.
After Jagger’s departure, Balch considered Dennis Hopper for Jagger’s role. Hopper was still reeling at the time from the disastrous release of his sophomoric directorial effort The Last Movie (1971). Hopper’s career had taken a nosedive after Easy Rider (1969) propelled him to a rock star status similar to Jagger only two years prior.
In lieu of this unmade musical adaptation, the closest Naked Lunch had ever come to the big screen before Cronenberg dusted off the novel in the early 1990s, was Balch’s experimental short film The Cut-Ups (1966) which he co-wrote with Burroughs. As its title suggests, Balch applied Burroughs’ literary “cut-up” technique to film by splicing reels together at random. Among its cacophony of proto-MTV music video quick cuts (which enraged English filmgoers at its short-lived London premiere) were shots of Burroughs reenacting scenes from his own novel.
In Hitchcock/Truffaut (1966), the acclaimed French New Wave director François Truffaut asked filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock why he had never attempted to adapt Leo Tolstoy’s 1869 literary epic War and Peace. In response, The Master of Suspense laid out his philosophy: film adaptations stand a better chance at success with lesser known fiction rather than tackling literary masterpieces. While Naked Lunch is certainly no War and Peace and Burroughs is no Tolstoy (even among his Beat Movement colleagues), adapting Naked Lunch for the big screen was a tall order. So why would Cronenberg even attempt it?
Cronenberg studied writing before he developed an interest in filmmaking. In the early 1960s, he switched majors at the University of Toronto from Honours Science (he was initially interested in anatomy) to Honours English Language and Literature. Cronenberg’s favorite writers included William S. Burroughs and Franz Kafka, who was played by Jeremy Irons in the author’s biopic which Steven Soderbergh directed the same year as Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch (a few years after Irons gave a double performance in Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers).
Burroughs, too, was heavily influenced by Kafka. All three writers share an uncommon attraction to the snares of anatomy, a subject which many readers and filmgoers find off-putting but which has gained a cult following among horror movie fans. In his 2014 article in The Paris Review, Cronenberg compares his body horror films to Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915), adding:
I woke up one morning recently to discover that I was a seventy-year-old man. Is this different from what happens to Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis? He wakes up to find that he’s become a near-human-sized beetle… Stories of magical transformations have always been part of humanity’s narrative canon. They articulate that universal sense of empathy for all life forms that we feel; they express that desire for transcendence that every religion also expresses.
Cronenberg’s lifelong fascination with anatomy was an itch that Burroughs and Kafka could scratch, leading him to attempt the impossible task of adapting Naked Lunch in the midst of a commercially successful career as a horror director.
Cronenberg was quoted as saying a literal adaptation of Naked Lunch would have “cost $400 million to make and would be banned in every country in the world.” So he made the shrewd decision to discard the narrative from the book (in so much as it has one) and use its dreamlike setting as a stage for the drama of Burroughs’ real life to play out instead. Speaking to the Baltimore Sun in 1992, Cronenberg said:
I talked to Burroughs at length while I was [adapting Naked Lunch]. I really, really wanted his blessing. So I did speak to him, for example, about using the [accidental] shooting of his wife Joan as a fictional incident in the film, which triggers off many things. [Burroughs] approved and basically said that he couldn’t separate his life from his art. He felt that all of his writings were one big work — which I could certainly relate to.
Cronenberg left certain elements from Burroughs’ Naked Lunch intact, especially as they relate to settings like the exotic North African Interzone. But he wisely dropped Burroughs’ explicit acts of homosexual pedophilia, opting instead for the exploits of characters like the one Julian Sands plays to be kept vague. Still, Sands’ supporting role as a slimy playboy stands out in a film which is populated by characters that are slimy in a much more literal sense.
Cronenberg cast Peter Weller in the lead role of writer and exterminator William Lee, an alter ego the Beat writer had frequently used in his work. After a psychiatric discharge from the Army in the 1940s and an equally brief stint as a private detective, Burroughs worked as a pest exterminator for nine months, his longest continuous period of employment. Detailing his experiences in his signature head-scratching prose from his 1973 memoir, Exterminator!, Burroughs said:
From a great distance I see a cool remote naborhood blue windy day in April sun cold on your exterminator there climbing the grey wooden outside stairs.
Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch concerns William Lee becoming addicted to his own bug poison, accidentally killing his wife, and falling down a government conspiracy rabbit hole. But make no mistake — this is not your garden variety, post-Watergate conspiracy thriller, although it does give Soylent Green (1973) a run for its money. This crackpot plot involves the mass production of “black meat,” a narcotic made from bug guts which is being smuggled through the Moroccan port city of Tangier by (who else?) giant bugs.
Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch is a grotesque amalgamation that is half Burroughs biopic, half Lynchian noir. Upon its release critics drew comparisons to Joel & Ethan Coen’s Barton Fink (1991), another surrealist tale of a tortured writer which was released earlier in the same year. But Naked Lunch has far more in common with David Lynch than the Coen Brothers. For all we know Cronenberg’s giant bug people could be in cahoots with the dwarf who moves and speaks in reverse in Lynch’s cult classic television series Twin Peaks (1990-1991).
Cronenberg’s set pieces for the film are sparsely decorated and filled with colors so vivid that they would pop right off the interiors like a soap opera or sitcom if not for The Empire Strikes Back cinematographer Peter Suschitzky’s clever use of venetian blinds, a staple of classic film noirs. Film critic Pauline Kael could just as easily have been talking about Naked Lunch when she described Lynch’s Blue Velevet (1986) as “hallucinatory clinical realism.”
Jazz musician Ornette Coleman and The Lord of the Rings composer Howard Shore’s original score for Naked Lunch alternates between jazzy and brooding cues much like Angelo Badalamenti’s scores for Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks. Cronenberg uses this soundscape to pay homage to the influence of jazz improvisation on Beat writers like Burroughs and Kerouac. As Coleman squeals on his saxophone like a dying bird throughout the runtime of Naked Lunch viewers hip to On the Road can almost feel Kerouac’s Dean Moriarty character foaming at the mouth watching bebop pioneer Charlie Parker blow his horn. “Blow, baby, blow!”
Naked Lunch failed at the box office, taking in only $2.6 million off a budget of $18 million. But it was embraced by most critics and received several awards, including “Best Screenplay” from the Boston Society of Film Critics. This honor, coming from the very city which banned Burroughs’ Naked Lunch novel and held its infamous obscenity trial in the 1960s, is an irony too delicious to have slipped past Cronenberg.
Roger Ebert gave Cronenberg’s film two and half stars out of four in the Chicago Sun-Times, saying he “admired [Naked Lunch] in an abstract way” but was “repelled by the material on a visceral level.” Ebert’s reaction is all the more appropriate considering that a key character which protagonist William Lee meets during his descent into conspiratorial madness is a bug who speaks with a mouth that is a dead ringer for an anus.
As such, there’s a lot of morbid, sick ugliness here, in the film and in Burroughs’ life. In that sense, the title is fitting. As Burroughs described it in his introduction to the novel, it’s “the frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.” It’s nourishing, but it’s not pretty.
During the first few minutes of its
Hello and welcome back to the Scene 2 Seen Podcast, I am your host Valerie Complex. On today’s episode we’re chatting with director-producer Dina Amer.
Amer is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist. She helped produce the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary The Square, in which the Egyptian Revolution was chronicled from the front lines. Growing up between the U.S. and Egypt, her work has focused on sharing nuanced, human stories with a global audience.
From documentary, she’s moved over to features and has debuted her first film, You Resemble Me, which tells the true story of Hasna Ait Boulahcen, a woman falsely accused of being Europe’s first female suicide bomber.
At the time, police had confirmed the 26-year-old Boulahcen was the woman who died when she blew herself up during a police raid on an apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis in the aftermath of the 2015 terror attacks in the city. The operation targeted the suspected ringleader, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
You Resemble Me‘s script was written after recording more than 300 hours of interviews with Boulahcen’s real family and inner circle and chronicles the effects of cultural and intergenerational trauma. The film follows two sisters on the outskirts of Paris. After the siblings are torn apart, the eldest, Hasna, struggles to find her identity, leading to a choice that shocks the world. Amer takes on one of the darkest issues of our time and deconstructs it in an intimate story about family, love, sisterhood, and belonging.
The film was nominated for the Giornate degli Autori Award at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, won the audience award at the 2021 Red Sea Film Festival, and was named best Middle Eastern/Israeli Film last year at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.
In addition to being a producer and director, Amer was an on-air correspondent for Vice, including on The Black Market, where she uncovered the human trafficking of Syrian refugees and explored the underground economy of illegal Egypt-Gaza tunnels. Her work has also been published in the New York Times and on CNN and the Huffington Post.
On today’s episode, she talks about her relationship to Hasna’s family, her time as a journalist, and what it was like to produce a documentary about one of the most impactful revolutions of our time.
If you like what you hear, be sure to review, like, and subscribe to the Scene 2 Seen podcast on Apple and Spotify.
Hello and welcome back to the Scene
The guests! The over-the-top fashions! The anticipation of winning the coveted Phonograph bronze statue! The 2023 Grammys (its 65th year) provided all of that, plus more. Beyonce Knowles Carter broke records with her coveted win of thirty-two Grammys. Harry Styles scored “Best Album of the Year” and “Best Pop Vocal Album.” And Sam Smith performed spectacularly onstage while making a bold fashion choice in red.
The night was definitely one for music history as so many artists were recognized for their talent. Lizzo, for her part, thanked Beyonce for her musical inspiration after winning the Grammy for “Record of the Year” after a close race with several well-known artists.
“Beyoncé, in the fifth grade, I skipped school to see you perform,” Lizzo praised Queen Bey in her speech. “You changed my life… so thank you so much. You clearly are the artist of our lives. I love you!”
Comedian Trevor Noah returned as the Grammy’s host for the third year and became a part of Grammy culture in his own right. He brings his own line of unique presence on stage.
“It’s just this live volcano that’s erupting in front of our eyes, and it’s beautiful to be a part of,” Trevor shared on Entertainment Weekly’s podcast, The Awardist, in January of this year
Continue below for the complete list of winners!
Record of the Year
“Don’t Shut Me Down” — ABBA
“Easy on Me” — Adele
“Break My Soul” — Beyoncé
“Good Morning Gorgeous” — Mary J. Blige
“You and Me on the Rock” — Brandi Carlile feat. Lucius
“Woman” — Doja Cat
“Bad Habit” — Steve Lacy
“The Heart Part 5” — Kendrick Lamar
WINNER: “About Damn Time” — Lizzo
“As It Was” — Harry Styles
Album of the Year
Voyage — ABBA
30 — Adele
Un Verano Sin Ti — Bad Bunny
Renaissance — Beyoncé
Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe) — Mary J. Blige
In These Silent Days — Brandi Carlile
Music of the Spheres — Coldplay
Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers — Kendrick Lamar
Special — Lizzo
WINNER: Harry’s House — Harry Styles
Song of the Year
“abcdefu” — Gayle
“About Damn Time” — Lizzo
“All Too Well (10-Minute Version) (The Short Film)” — Taylor Swift
“As It Was” — Harry Styles
“Bad Habit” — Steve Lacy
“Break My Soul” — Beyoncé
“Easy on Me” — Adele
“God Did” — DJ Khaled feat. Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend, and Fridayy
“The Heart Part 5” — Kendrick Lamar
WINNER: “Just Like That” — Bonnie Raitt
Best New Artist
Anitta
Omar Apollo
Domi & JD Beck
WINNER: Samara Joy
Latto
Måneskin
Muni Long
Tobe Nwigwe
Molly Tuttle
Wet Leg
Best Music Video
Easy on Me — Adele
Yet To Come — BTS
Woman — Doja Cat
The Heart Part 5 — Kendrick Lamar
As It Was — Harry Styles
WINNER: All Too Well: The Short Film — Taylor Swift
Best Pop Solo Performance
WINNER: “Easy on Me” — Adele
“Moscow Mule” — Bad Bunny
“Woman” — Doja Cat
“Bad Habit” — Steve Lacy
“About Damn Time” — Lizzo
“As It Was” — Harry Styles
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
“Don’t Shut Me Down” — ABBA
“Bam Bam” — Camila Cabello feat. Ed Sheeran
“My Universe” — Coldplay & BTS
“I Like You (A Happier Song)” — Post Malone & Doja Cat
WINNER: “Unholy” — Sam Smith & Kim Petras
Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
WINNER: Higher — Michael Bublé
When Christmas Comes Around… — Kelly Clarkson
I Dream of Christmas (Extended) — Norah Jones
Evergreen — Pentatonix
Thank You — Diana Ross
Best Pop Vocal Album
Voyage — ABBA
30 — Adele
Music of the Spheres — Coldplay
Special — Lizzo
WINNER: Harry’s House — Harry Styles
Best Dance/Electronic Recording
WINNER: “Break My Soul” — Beyoncé
“Rosewood” — Bonobo
“Don’t Forget My Love” — Diplo & Miguel
“I’m Good (Blue)” — David Guetta & Bebe Rexha
“Intimidated” — Kaytranada feat. H.E.R.
“On My Knees” — Rüfüs Du Sol
Best Dance/Electronic Music Album
WINNER: Renaissance — Beyoncé
Fragments — Bonobo
Diplo — Diplo
The Last Goodbye — Odesza
Surrender — Rüfüs Du Sol
Best Contemporary Instrumental Album
Between Dreaming and Joy — Jeff Coffin
Not Tight — Domi & JD Beck
Blooz — Grant Geissman
Jacob’s Ladder — Brad Mehldau
WINNER: Empire Central — Snarky Puppy
Best Rock Performance
“So Happy It Hurts” — Bryan Adams
“Old Man” — Beck
“Wild Child” — The Black Keys
WINNER: “Broken Horses” — Brandi Carlile
“Crawl!” — Idles
“Patient Number 9” — Ozzy Osbourne feat. Jeff Beck
“Holiday” — Turnstile
Best Metal Performance
“Call Me Little Sunshine” — Ghost
“We’ll Be Back” — Megadeth
“Kill or Be Killed” — Muse
WINNER: “Degradation Rules” — Ozzy Osbourne feat. Tony Iommi
“Blackout” — Turnstile
Best Instrumental Composition
“African Tales” — Paquito D’Rivera
“El País Invisible” — Miguel Zenón
“Frontiers (Borders) Suite: Al-Musafir Blues” —Danilo Pérez
WINNER: “Refuge” — Geoffrey Keezer
“Snapshots” — Pascal Le Beouf
Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Capella
“As Days Go By (An Arrangement of the Family Matters Theme Song)” — Armand Hutton
“How Deep Is Your Love” — Matt Cusson
“Main Titles (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness)” — Danny Elfman
“Minnesota, WI” — Remy Le Beouf
WINNER: “Scrapple from the Apple” — John Beasley
Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals
“Let it Happen” — Louis Cole
“Never Gonna Be Alone” — Jacob Collier
“Optimistic Voices/No Love Dying” — Cécile McLorin Salvant
WINNER: “Songbird (Orchestral Version)” — Vince Mendoza
“2+2=5 (Arr. Nathan Schram)” — Nathan Schram & Becca Stevens
Best Rap Performance
“God Did” — DJ Khaled feat. Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend & Fridayy
“Vegas” — Doja Cat
“Pushin P” — Gunna & Future feat. Young Thug
“F.N.F. (Let’s Go)” — Hitkidd & Glorilla
WINNER: “The Heart Part 5” — Kendrick Lamar
Best Melodic Rap Performance
“Beautiful” — DJ Khaled feat. Future & SZA
WINNER: “Wait For U” — Future feat. Drake & Tems
“First Class” — Jack Harlow
“Die Hard” — Kendrick Lamar feat. Blxst & Amanda Reifer
“Big Energy (Live)” — Latto
Best Rap Song
“Churchill Downs” — Jack Harlow feat. Drake
WINNER: “The Heart Part 5” — Kendrick Lamar
“Wait For U” — Future feat. Drake & Tems
“God Did” — DJ Khaled feat. Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, John Legend & Fridayy
“Pushin P” — Gunna & Future feat. Young Thug
Best Rap Album
God Did — DJ Khaled
I Never Liked You — Future
Come Home the Kids Miss You — Jack Harlow
WINNER: Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers — Kendrick Lamar
It’s Almost Dry — Pusha T
Best Latin Pop Album
Aguilera — Christina Aguilera
WINNER: Pasieros — Rubén Blades & Boca Livre
De Adentro Pa Afuera — Camilo
Viajante — Fonseca
Dharma+ — Sebastián Yatra
Best Música Urbana Album
Trap Cake, Vol. 2 — Rauw Alejandro
WINNER: Un Verano Sin Ti — Bad Bunny
Legendaddy — Daddy Yankee
La 167 — Farruko
The Love & Sex Tape — Maluma
Best Latin Rock or Alternative Album
El Alimento — Cimafunk
Tinta Y Tiempo — Jorge Drexler
1940 Carmen — Mon Laferte
Alegoría — Gaby Moreno
Los Años Salvajes — Fito Paez
WINNER: Motomami — Rosalía
Best Regional Mexican Music Album (Including Tejano)
Abeja Reina — Chiquis
WINNER: Un Canto Por México – El Musical — Natalia Lafourcade
La Reunión (Deluxe) — Los Tigres del Norte
EP #1 Forajido — Christian Nodal
Qué Ganas de Verte (Deluxe) — Marco Antoni Solís
Best Tropical Latin Album
WINNER: Pa’lla Voy — Marc Anthony
Quiero Verte Feliz — La Santa Cecilia
Lado A Lado B — Víctor Manuelle
Legendario — Tito Nieves
Imágenes Latinas — Spanish Harlem Orchestra
Cumbiana II — Carlos Vives
Best American Roots Performance
“Someday It’ll All Make Sense” (Bluegrass Version) — Bill Anderson feat. Dolly Parton
“Life According to Raechel” — Madison Cunningham
“Oh Betty” — Fantastic Negrito
WINNER: “Stompin’ Ground” — Aaron Neville with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band
“Prodigal Daughter” — Aoife O’Donovan & Allison Russell
Best Americana Performance
“Silver Moon” [A Tribute to Michael Nesmith] — Eric Alexandrakis
“There You Go Again” — Asleep at the Wheel feat. Lyle Lovett
“The Message” — Blind Boys of Alabama feat. Black Violin
“You and Me on the Rock” — Brandi Carlile feat. Lucius
WINNER: “Made Up Mind” — Bonnie Raitt
Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media
Elvis
WINNER: Encanto
Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Series, Season 4 (Vol. 2)
Top Gun: Maverick
West Side Story
Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (Includes Film and Television)
The Batman — Michael Giacchino
WINNER: Encanto — Germaine Franco
No Time To Die — Hans Zimmer
The Power of the Dog — Jonny Greenwood
Succession: Season 3 — Nicholas Britell
Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media
Aliens: Fireteam Elite — Austin Wintory
WINNER: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök — Stephanie Economou
Call of Duty: Vanguard — Bear McCreary
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy — Richard Jacques
Old World — Christopher Tin
Best Song Written for Visual Media
“Be Alive (From King Richard)” — Beyoncé & Darius Scott Dixon
“Carolina (From Where the Crawdads Sing)” — Taylor Swift
“Hold My Hand (From Top Gun: Maverick)” — Lady Gaga & Bloodpop
“Keep Rising (The Woman King) (From The Woman King)” — Jessy Wilson, Angélique Kidjo, & Jeremy Lutito
“Nobody Like U (From Turning Red)” — Billie Eilish & Finneas O’Connell
WINNER: “We Don’t Talk About Bruno (From Encanto)” — Lin-Manuel Miranda
Best Comedy Album
WINNER: The Closer — Dave Chappelle
Comedy Monster — Jim Gaffigan
A Little Brains, A Little Talent — Randy Rainbow
Sorry — Louis CK
We All Scream — Patton Oswalt
Best Musical Theater Album
Caroline, or Change — John Cariani, Sharon D Clarke, Caissie Levy, & Samantha Williams, principal vocalists; Van Dean, Nigel Lilley, Lawrence Manchester, Elliot Scheiner, & Jeanine Tesori, producers; Jeanine Tesori, composer; Tony Kushner, lyricist (New Broadway Cast)
WINNER: Into the Woods (2022 Broadway Cast Recording) — Sara Bareilles, Brian d’Arcy James, Patina Miller & Phillipa Soo, principal vocalists; Rob Berman & Sean Patrick Flahaven, producers (Stephen Sondheim, composer & lyricist) (2022 Broadway Cast)
MJ the Musical — Myles Frost & Tavon Olds-Sample, principal vocalists; David Holcenberg, Derik Lee, & Jason Michael Webb, producers (Original Broadway Cast)
Mr. Saturday Night — Shoshana Bean, Billy Crystal, Randy Graff, & David Paymer, principal vocalists; Jason Robert Brown, Sean Patrick Flahaven, & Jeffrey Lesser, producers; Jason Robert Brown, composer; Amanda Green, lyricist (Original Broadway Cast)
Six: Live on Opening Night — Joe Beighton, Tom Curran, Sam Featherstone, Paul Gatehouse, Toby Marlow, & Lucy Moss, producers; Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss, composers/lyricists (Original Broadway Cast)
A Strange Loop — Jaquel Spivey, principal vocalist; Michael Croiter, Michael R. Jackson, Charlie Rosen, & Rona Siddiqui, producers; Michael R. Jackson, composer & lyricist (Original Broadway Cast)
Best R&B Performance
“Virgo’s Groove” — Beyoncé
“Over” — Lucky Daye
“Hurt Me So Good” — Jazmine Sullivan
“Here With Me” — Mary J. Blige feat. Anderson .Paak
WINNER: “Hrs & Hrs” — Muni Long
Best Traditional R&B Performance
“Do 4 Love” — Snoh Aalegra
WINNER: “Plastic Off the Sofa” — Beyoncé
“Good Morning Gorgeous” — Mary J. Blige
“Keeps On Fallin’” — Babyface feat. Ella Mai
“‘Round Midnight” — Adam Blackstone feat. Jazmine Sullivan
Best R&B Song
WINNER: “Cuff It” — Beyoncé
“Good Morning Gorgeous” — Mary J. Blige
“Hrs & Hrs” — Muni Long
“Hurt Me So Good” — Jazmine Sullivan
“Please Don’t Walk Away” — PJ Morton
Best Progressive R&B Album
Operation Funk — Cory Henry
Drones — Terrace Martin
Red Balloon — Tank and the Bangas
WINNER: Gemini Rights — Steve Lacy
Starfruit — Moonchild
Best R&B Album
Watch The Sun — PJ Morton
WINNER: Black Radio III — Robert Glasper
Good Morning Gorgeous (Deluxe) — Mary J. Blige
Breezy (Deluxe) — Chris Brown
Candydrip — Lucky Daye
Best Music Film
Adele One Night Only — Adele
Our World — Justin Bieber
Billie Eilish Live at the O2 — Billie Eilish
Motomami (Rosalía TikTok Live Performance) — Rosalía
WINNER: Jazz Fest: a New Orleans Story — Various Artists
A Band, A Brotherhood, A Barn — Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Best Alternative Music Performance
“There’d Better Be A Mirrorball” — Arctic Monkeys
“Certainty” — Big Thief
“King’ — Florence + the Machine
WINNER: “Chaise Longue” — Wet Leg
“Spitting off the Edge of the World” — Yeah Yeah Yeahs feat. Perfume Genius
Best Alternative Music Album
WE — Arcade Fire
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You — Big Thief
Fossora — Björk
WINNER: Wet Leg — Wet Leg
Cool It Down — Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Best Rock Song
“Black Summer” — Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Blackout” — Turnstile
WINNER: “Broken Horses” — Brandi Carlile
“Harmonia’s Dream” — The War on Drugs
“Patient Number 9” — Ozzy Osbourne feat. Jeff Beck
Best Country Solo Performance
“Heartfirst” — Kelsea Ballerini
“Something in the Orange” — Zach Bryan
“In His Arms” — Miranda Lambert
“Circles Around This Town” — Maren Morris
WINNER: “Live Forever” — Willie Nelson
Best Country Duo/Group Performance
“Wishful Drinking” — Ingrid Andress & Sam Hunt
“Midnight Rider’s Prayer” — Brothers Osborne
“Outrunnin’ Your Memory” — Luke Combs & Miranda Lambert
“Does He Love You – Revisited” — Reba McEntire & Dolly Parton
WINNER: “Never Wanted to Be That Girl” — Carly Pearce & Ashley McBryde
“Going Where the Lonely Go” — Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Best Country Song
“Circles Around This Town” — Ryan Hurd, Julia Michaels, Maren Morris, & Jimmy Robbins, songwriters (Maren Morris)
“Doin’ This” — Luke Combs, Drew Parker, & Robert Williford, songwriters (Luke Combs)
“I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)” — Lori McKenna & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift)
“If I Was A Cowboy” — Jesse Frasure & Miranda Lambert, songwriters (Miranda Lambert)
“I’ll Love You Till The Day I Die” — Rodney Crowell & Chris Stapleton, songwriters (Willie Nelson)
WINNER: “‘Til You Can’t” — Matt Rogers & Ben Stennis, songwriters (Cody Johnson)
Best Country Album
Growin’ Up — Luke Combs
Palomino — Miranda Lambert
Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville — Ashley McBryde
Humble Quest — Maren Morris
WINNER: A Beautiful Time — Willie Nelson
Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album
Positano Songs — Will Ackerman
Joy — Paul Avgerinos
Mantra Americana — Madi Das & Dave Stringer with Bhakti Without Borders
The Passenger — Cheryl B. Engelhardt
WINNER: Mystic Mirror — White Sun
Best Improvised Jazz Solo
“Rounds (Live)” — Ambrose Akinmusire, soloist
“Keep Holding On” — Gerald Albright, soloist
“Falling” — Melissa Aldana, soloist
“Call of the Drum” — Marcus Baylor, soloist
“Cherokee/Koko” — John Beasley, soloist
WINNER: “Endangered Species” — Wayne Shorter & Leo Genovese, soloist
Best Jazz Vocal Album
The Evening : Live at APPARATUS — The Baylor Project
WINNER: Linger Awhile — Samara Joy
Fade to Black — Carmen Lundy
Fifty — The Manhattan Transfer with the WDR Funkhausorchester
Ghost Song — Cécile McLorin Salvant
Best Jazz Instrumental Album
WINNER: New Standards Vol. 1 — Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, Linda May Han Oh, Nicholas Payton, & Matthew Stevens
Live In Italy — Peter Erskine Trio
LongGone — Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride, and Brian Blade
Live at the Detroit Jazz Festival — Wayne Shorter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Leo Genovese & Esperanza Spalding
Parallel Motion — Yellowjackets
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album
Bird Lives — John Beasley, Magnus Lindgren & SWR Big Band
Remembering Bob Freedman — Ron Carter & the Jazzaar Festival Big Band Directed by Christian Jacob
WINNER: Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra — Steven Feifke, Bijon Watson, Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra
Center Stage — Steve Gadd, Eddie Gomez, Ronnie Cuber, & WDR Big Band Conducted by Michael Abene
Architecture of Storms — Remy Le Boeuf’s Assembly of Shadows
Best Latin Jazz Album
WINNER: Fandango at the Wall in New York — Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra feat. the Congra Patria Son Jarocho Collective
Crisálida — Danilo Pérez feat. the Global Messengers
If You Will — Flora Purim
Rhythm & Soul — Arturo Sandoval
Música De Las Américas — Miguel Zenón
Best Gospel Performance/Song
“Positive” — Erica Campbell; Erica Campbell, Warryn Campbell, & Juan Winans, songwriters
“When I Pray” — Doe; Dominique Jones & Dewitt Jones, songwriters
WINNER: “Kingdom” — Maverick City Music & Kirk Franklin; Kirk Franklin, Jonathan Jay, Chandler Moore, & Jacob Poole, songwriters
“The Better Benediction” — PJ Morton featuring Zacardi Cortez, Gene Moore, Samoht, Tim Rogers, & Darrel Walls; PJ Morton, songwriter
“Get Up” — Tye Tribbett; Brandon Jones, Christopher Michael Stevens, Thaddaeus Tribbett, & Tye Tribbett, songwriters
Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song
“God Really Loves Us (Radio Version)” — Crowder feat. Dante Bowe and Maverick City Music; Dante Bowe, David Crowder, Ben Glover, & Jeff Sojka, songwriter
“So Good” — Doe; Chuck Butler, Dominique Jones, & Ethan Hulse, songwriters
“For God Is With Us” — For King & Country & Hillary Scott; Josh Kerr, Jordan Reynolds, Joel Smallbone, & Luke Smallbone, songwriters
WINNER: “Fear Is Not My Future” — Maverick City Music & Kirk Franklin; Kirk Franklin, Nicole Hannel, Jonathan Jay, Brandon Lake, & Hannah Shackelford, songwriters
“Holy Forever” — Chris Tomlin; Jason Ingram, Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson, Chris Tomlin, & Phil Wickham, songwriters
“Hymn of Heaven (Radio Version)” — Phil Wickham; Chris Davenport, Bill Johnson, Brian Johnson, & Phil Wickham, songwriters
Best Gospel Album
Die to Live — Maranda Curtis
Breakthrough: The Exodus (Live) — Ricky Dillard
Clarity — Doe
WINNER: One Deluxe — Maverick City Music & Kirk Franklin
All Things New — Tye Tribbett
Best Contemporary Christian Music Album
Lion — Elevation Worship
WINNER: Breathe — Maverick City Music
Life After Death — TobyMac
Always — Chris Tomlin
My Jesus — Anne Wilson
Best Roots Gospel Album
Let’s Just Praise the Lord — Gaither Vocal Band
Confessio – Irish American Roots — Keith & Kristyn Getty
The Willie Nelson Family — Willie Nelson
2:22 — Karen Peck & New River
WINNER: The Urban Hymnal — Tennessee State University Marching Band
Best American Roots Song
“Bright Star” — Anaïs Mitchell
“Forever” — Sheryl Crow
“High and Lonesome” — Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
WINNER: “Just Like That” — Bonnie Raitt
“Prodigal Daughter” — Aoife O’Donovan & Allison Russell
“You and Me on the Rock” — Brandi Carlile feat. Lucius
Best Americana Album
WINNER: In These Silent Days — Brandi Carlile
Things Happen That Way — Dr. John
Good to Be… — Keb’ Mo’
Raise the Roof — Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Just Like That… — Bonnie Raitt
Best Bluegrass Album
Toward the Fray — The Infamous Stringdusters
Almost Proud — The Del McCoury Band
Calling You From My Mountain — Peter Rowan
WINNER: Crooked Tree — Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
Get Yourself Outside — Yonder Mountain String Band
Best Traditional Blues Album
Heavy Load Blues — Gov’t Mule
The Blues Don’t Lie — Buddy Guy
WINNER: Get on Board — Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder
The Sun Is Shining Down — John Mayall
Mississippi Son — Charlie Musselwhite
Best Contemporary Blues Album
Done Come Too Far — Shemekia Copeland
Crown — Eric Gales
Bloodline Maintenance — Ben Harper
Set Sail — North Mississippi Allstars
WINNER: Brother Johnny — Edgar Winter
Best Folk Album
Spellbound — Judy Collins
WINNER: Revealer — Madison Cunningham
The Light at the End of the Line — Janis Ian
Age of Apathy — Aoife O’Donovan
Hell on Church Street — Punch Brothers
Best Regional Roots Music Album
Full Circle — Sean Ardoin and Kreole Rock and Soul feat. LSU Golden Band from Tigerland
Natalie Noelani — Natalie Ai Kamauu
Halau Hula Keali’i O Nalani (Live at the Getty Center) — Halau Hula Keali’i O Nalani
Lucky Man — Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas
WINNER: Live at the 2022 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival — Ranky Tanky
Best Reggae Album
WINNER: The Kalling — Kabaka Pyramid
Gifted — Koffee
Scorcha — Sean Paul
Third Time’s the Charm — Protoje
Com Fly Wid Mi — Shaggy
Best Global Music Performance
“Udhero Na” — Arooj Aftab & Anoushka Shankar
“Gimme Love” — Matt B & Eddy Kenzo
“Last Last” — Burna Boy
“Neva Bow Down” — Rocky Dawuni feat. Blvk H3ro
WINNER: “Bayethe” — Wouter Kellerman, Zakes Bantwini, & Nomcebo Zikode
Best Global Music Album
Shuruaat — Berklee Indian Ensemble
Love, Damini — Burna Boy
Queen of Sheba — Angélique Kidjo & Ibrahim Maalouf
Between Us… (Live) — Anoushka Shankar, Metropole Orkest, & Jules Buckley feat. Manu Delago
WINNER: Sakura — Masa Takumi
Best Children’s Music Album
Into the Little Blue House — Wendy and DB
Los Fabulosos — Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band
WINNER: The Movement — Alphabet Rockers
Ready Set Go! — Divinity Roxx
Space Cadet — Justin Roberts
Best Spoken Word Poetry Album
Black Men Are Precious — Ethelbert Miller
Call Us What We Carry: Poems — Amanda Gorman
Hiding in Plain View — Malcolm-Jamal Warner
WINNER: The Poet Who Sat by the Door — J. Ivy
You Will Be Someone’s Ancestor. Act Accordingly. — Amir Sulaiman
Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording
Act Like You Got Some Sense — Jamie Foxx
All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks — Mel Brooks
Aristotle and Dante Dive Into The Waters of the World — Lin-Manuel Miranda
WINNER: Finding Me — Viola Davis
Music Is History — Questlove
Best Recording Package
WINNER: Beginningless Beginning — Chun-Tien Hsia & Qing-Yang Xiao, art directors (Tamsui-Kavalan Chinese Orchestra)
Divers — William Stichter, art director (Soporus)
Everything Was Beautiful — Mark Farrow, art director (Spiritualized)
Telos — Ming Liu, art director (Fann)
Voyeurist — Tnsn Dvsn, art director (Underoath)
Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package
Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined — Josh Abraham, Steve Berman, Jimmy Iovine, John Janick, & Jason Sangerman, art directors (Various Artists)
Big Mess — Berit Gwendolyn Gilma, art director (Danny Elfman)
Black Pumas (Collector’s Edition Box Set) — Jenna Krackenberger, Anna McCaleb, & Preacher, art directors (Black Pumas)
Book — Paul Sahre, art director (They Might Be Giants)
WINNER: In and Out of the Garden: Madison Square Garden ’81 ’82 ’83 — Lisa Glines, Doran Tyson. & Dave Van Patten, art directors (The Grateful Dead)
Best Album Notes
The American Clavé Recordings — Fernando González, album notes writer (Astor Piazzolla)
Andy Irvine & Paul Brady — Gareth Murphy, album notes writer (Andy Irvine & Paul Brady)
Harry Partch, 1942 — John Schneider, album notes writer (Harry Partch)
Life’s Work: A Retrospective — Ted Olson, album notes writer (Doc Watson)
WINNER: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) — Bob Mehr, album notes writer (Wilco)
Best Historical Album
Against the Odds: 1974-1982 — Tommy Manzi, Steve Rosenthal, & Ken Shipley, compilation producers; Michael Graves, mastering engineer; Tom Camuso, restoration engineer (Blondie)
The Goldberg Variations – The Complete Unreleased 1981 Studio Sessions — Robert Russ, compilation producer; Martin Kistner, mastering engineer (Glenn Gould)
Life’s Work: A Retrospective — Scott Billington, Ted Olson, & Mason Williams, compilation producers; Paul Blakemore, mastering engineer (Doc Watson)
To Whom It May Concern… — Jonathan Sklute, compilation producer; Kevin Marques Moo, mastering engineer (Freestyle Fellowship)
WINNER: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) — Cheryl Pawelski & Jeff Tweedy, compilation producers; Bob Ludwig, mastering engineer (Wilco)
Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical
Amy Allen
Nija Charles
WINNER: Tobias Jesso Jr.
The-Dream
Laura Veltz
Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical
Adolescence — George Nicholas & Ryan Schwabe, engineers; Ryan Schwabe, mastering engineer (Baynk)
Black Radio III — Daniel Farris, Tiffany Gouché, Keith Lewis, Musiq Soulchild, Reginald Nicholas, Q-Tip, Amir Sulaiman, Michael Law Thomas, & Jon Zacks, engineers; Chris Athens, mastering engineer (Robert Glasper)
Chloë and the Next 20th Century — Dave Cerminara & Jonathan Wilson, engineers; Adam Ayan, mastering engineer (Father John Misty
WINNER: Harry’s House — Jeremy Hatcher, Oli Jacobs, Nick Lobel, Mark “Spike” Stent & Sammy Witte, engineers; Randy Merrill, mastering engineer (Harry Styles)
Wet Leg — Jon McMullen, Joshua Mobaraki, Alan Moulder, & Alexis Smith, engineers; Matt Colton, mastering engineer (Wet Leg)
Producer of the Year, Non-Classical
WINNER: Jack Antonoff
Dan Auerbach
Boi-1da
Dahi
Dernst “D’mile” Emile II
Best Remixed Recording
WINNER: “About Damn Time (Purple Disco Machine Remix)” — Purple Disco Machine, remixer (Lizzo)
“Break My Soul (Terry Hunter Remix)” — Terry Hunter, remixer (Beyoncé)
“Easy Lover (Four Tet Remix)” — Four Tet, remixer (Ellie Goulding)
“Slow Song (Paul Woolford Remix)” — Paul Woolford, remixer (The Knocks & Dragonette)
“Too Late Now (Soulwax Remix)” — Soulwax, remixers (Wet Leg)
Best Immersive Audio Album
Aguilera — Jaycen Joshua, immersive mix engineer; Jaycen Joshua, immersive mastering engineer (Christina Aguilera)
WINNER: Divine Tides — Eric Schilling, immersive mix engineer; Stewart Copeland, Ricky Kej, & Herbert Waltl, immersive producers (Stewart Copeland & Ricky Kej)
Memories…Do Not Open — Mike Piacentini, immersive mix engineer; Mike Piacentini, immersive mastering engineer; Adam Alpert, Alex Pall, Jordan Stilwell, & Andrew Taggart, immersive producers (The Chainsmokers)
Picturing the Invisible – Focus 1 — Jim Anderson, immersive mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, & Ulrike Schwarz, immersive mastering engineers; Jane Ira Bloom & Ulrike Schwarz, immersive producers (Jane Ira Bloom)
Tuvayhun – Beatitudes for a Wounded World — Morten Lindberg, immersive mix engineer; Morten Lindberg, immersive mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, immersive producer (Nidarosdomens Jentekor & Trondheimsolistene)
Best Engineered Album, Classical
WINNER: Bates: Philharmonia Fantastique – The Making of the Orchestra — Shawn Murphy, Charlie Post, & Gary Rydstrom, engineers; Michael Romanowski, mastering engineer (Edwin Outwater & Chicago Symphony Orchestra)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6; Stucky: Silent Spring — Mark Donahue, engineer; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra)
Perspectives — Jonathan Lackey, Bill Maylone, & Dan Nichols, engineers; Joe Lambert, mastering engineer (Third Coast Percussion)
Tuvayhun – Beatitudes for a Wounded World — Morten Lindberg, engineer; Morten Lindberg, mastering engineer (Anita Brevik, Nidarosdomens Jentekor & Trondheimsolistene)
Williams: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Selected Film Themes — Bernhard Güttler, Shawn Murphy, & Nick Squire, engineers; Christoph Stickel, mastering engineer (Anne-Sophie Mutter, John Williams & Boston Symphony Orchestra)
Producer of the Year, Classical
Jonathan Allen
Christoph Franke
James Ginsburg
Elaine Martone
WINNER: Judith Sherman
Best Orchestral Performance
“Adams, John Luther: Sila – The Breath of the World” — Doug Perkins, conductor (Musicians of the University of Michigan Department of Chamber Music & University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble)
“Dvořák: Symphonies Nos. 7-9” — Gustavo Dudamel, conductor (Los Angeles Philharmonic)
“Eastman: Stay on It” — Christopher Rountree, conductor (Wild Up)
“John Williams – The Berlin Concert” — John Williams, conductor (Berliner Philharmoniker)
WINNER: “Works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery, Valerie Coleman” — Michael Repper, conductor (New York Youth Symphony)
Best Opera Recording
Aucoin: “Eurydice” — Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Barry Banks, Nathan Berg, Joshua Hopkins, Erin Morley & Jakub Józef Orliński; David Frost, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
WINNER: Blanchard: “Fire Shut Up in My Bones” — Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Angel Blue, Will Liverman, Latonia Moore, & Walter Russell III; David Frost, producer (The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
“Davis: X – The Life and Times f Malcolm X” — Gil Rose, conductor; Ronnita Miller, Whitney Morrison, Victor Robertson, & Davóne Tines; Gil Rose, producer (Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Odyssey Opera Chorus)
Best Choral Performance
Bach: “St. John Passion”— John Eliot Gardiner, conductor (English Baroque Soloists; Monteverdi Choir)
WINNER: “Born” — Donald Nally, conductor (Dominic German, Maren Montalbano, Rebecca Myers, & James Reese; The Crossing)
Verdi: “Requiem – The Met Remembers 9/11” — Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; Donald Palumbo, chorus master (Michelle DeYoung, Eric Owens, Ailyn Pérez, & Matthew Polenzani; The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; The Metropolitan Opera Chorus)
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance
Beethoven: “Complete String Quartets, Volume 2 – The Middle Quartets” — Dover Quartet
“Musical Remembrances” — Neave Trio
“Perspectives” — Third Coast Percussion
WINNER: Shaw: :Evergreen” — Attacca Quartet
“What Is American” — PUBLIQuartet
Best Classical Instrumental Solo
Abels: “Isolation Variation” — Hilary Hahn
Bach: “The Art of Life” — Daniil Trifonov
Beethoven: “Diabelli Variations” — Mitsuko Uchida
WINNER: “Letters for the Future” — Time for Three; Xian Zhang, conductor (The Philadelphia Orchestra)
“A Night in Upper Town – The Music of Zoran Krajacic” — Mak Grgić
Best Classical Solo Vocal Album
“Eden” — Joyce DiDonato, soloist; Maxim Emelyanychev, conductor (Il Pomo D’Oro)
“How Do I Find You” — Sasha Cooke, soloist; Kirill Kuzmin, pianist
Okpebholo: Lord, How Come Me Here? — Will Liverman, soloist; Paul Sánchez, pianist (J’Nai Bridges & Caen Thomason-Redus)
“Stranger – Works for Tenor” by Nico Muhly — Nicholas Phan, soloist (Eric Jacobson; Brooklyn Rider & the Knights; Reginald Mobley)
WINNER: Voice of Nature – The Anthropocene — Renée Fleming, soloist; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, pianist
Best Classical Compendium
WINNER: An Adoption Story — Starr Parodi & Kitt Wakeley; Jeff Fair, Starr Parodi & Kitt Wakeley, producers
Aspire —JP Jofre & Seunghee Lee; Enrico Fagone, conductor; Jonathan Allen, producer
A Concert for Ukraine — Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor; David Frost, producer
The Lost Birds — Voces8; Barnaby Smith & Christopher Tin, conductors; Sean Patrick Flahaven & Christopher Tin, producers
Best Contemporary Classical Composition
Akiho: “Ligneous Suite” — Andy Akiho, composer (Ian Rosenbaum & Dover Quartet)
Bermel: “Intonations” — Derek Bermel, composer (Jack Quartet)
Gubaidulina: “The Wrath of God” — Sofia Gubaidulina, composer (Andris Nelsons & Gewandhausorchester
WINNER: Puts: “Contact” — Kevin Puts, composer (Xian Zhang, Time for Three & the Philadelphia Orchestra)
Simon: “Requiem for the Enslaved” — Carlos Simon, composer (Carlos Simon, MK Zulu, Marco Pavé, & Hub New Music)
Best Rock Album
Dropout Boogie by The Black Keys
The Boy Named If by Elvis Costello and the Impersonators
Crawler by Idles
Mainstream Sellout by Machine Gun Kelly
WINNER: Patient Number 9 by Ozzy Osbourne
Lucifer on the Sofa by Spoon
If you missed this year’s Grammys presentation and its highlights, fear not, as it is available to stream on Paramount+.
What were your favorite 2023 Grammys moments? Favorite fashion piece or performer? Let us know in the comments.
The guests! The over-the-top fashions! The
With February 14 just around the corner, hopefully, you’ve got your romantic gestures at the ready…but on the silver screen, love turns to hurt as verbal plagues take over, killers are after virgins and good-looking success stories continue to be losers in love. Nina Romain looks at the darker side of l’amour.
Valentine’s Day should be celebrated by declarations of love. However, on the silver screen, flowery cards are creepy, declarations of love might as well by death threats, and chocolates are a sign of homicidal intentions.
Slasher “Cherry Falls” (2000) (tagline: “lose your innocence…or lose your life”) sees a small town plagued by a killer obsessed with murdering virgins. Red is a colour of blood, rather than romance. Although not set on Valentine’s Day, it’s a good example of cinematic love going wrong. In the small town, the slasher takes its name from, residents are hounded by a killer who is murdering virgins, so getting into your first sexual relationship (“popping your cherry”) is a survival mechanism.
So what should we be thinking of in the run-up to the most romantic day of the year?
Writer and director of the comedy feature “She’s the One”, (2020) Fredi Nwaka explains the (mis)adventures of his lovelorn hero, Treyvon, who is successful in life but a loser in love. Nwaka says:
“With Valentine’s Day coming up, everyone’s thinking about that special someone who is – or could be – in their lives, and that’s what Treyvon is worried about.
“He’s a successful, good-looking middle-aged bachelor and thinks he should be in love – but his life is of course completely fine just how it is! He’s got a fast car, a good city job, model looks, and even a good sense of humour. The only thing missing is that special somebody.”
Nwaka adds:
“How would Treyvon celebrate Valentine’s? We could see him going on another series of hopelessly-doomed speed-dates, in search of true love. Or he might meet the woman of his dreams – and then be shocked to discover her wild brood of screeching kids. Then he’d realise the path of true love never did run smooth.”
Much as hopeless romantic Treyvon might imagine, true love could involve getting away from it all with the one you love. “Mr Jones” (2013) sees a loved-up young couple trying to do just this when they escape the inner-city madness to live deep in the woods. Here they watch gorgeous sunsets while gazing besottedly at each other with voiceovers along the lines of “don’t you wish you could kiss your wife like you did the night you first met”?
But despite the beautifully-shot romantic walks together in the forest, there’s something waiting for the loved-up couple outside their isolated cabin at night, and it’s out to spoil the romance. (Possibly Treyvon would be safer staying in London).
A more obscure romantic-themed horror, “Pontypool” (2008), is set on a freezing cold Valentine’s Day in the titular snowy town, where shocked Jock Grant Mazzy starts his on-air shift by mentioning how a resident’s cat, called Honey, is missing. After sardonically discussing this as an example of how small-town his job is, Mazzy looks around the underground, grey studio decorated by a red paper heart and red cherubs on the studio walls while the doomed studio colleagues give each other Valentine’s Day cards. He starts to hear accounts that locals are acting violently and attacking each other. It becomes obvious that the madness they’re experiencing is being transmitted verbally, by anyone using any Valentine’s Day theme-based love talk.
Now under siege by zombies, Mazzy decides to try to stop this verbal plague by alerting residents so he goes on-air to warn anyone against using “terms of endearment such as ‘honey’ or ‘sweetheart’. He then remembers announcing earlier the name of the missing cat and realises his unwitting role in starting this nightmare.
So in the run-up to 14 February, enjoy the chocolates, but remember in horrors, gore and bloodletting is more to be expected than romance. Stay away from the woods and any small towns, especially those called Cherry Falls, ditch the sweet-talking, and get ready for a cinematic Valentine’s Day Massacre!
Nina Romain is living proof that small children shouldn’t be taken trick-or-treating in Alabama – they tend to end up obsessed with the creepier side of Halloween! Her horror microshorts tend to be shot half in the seedier side of Los Angeles and half in the darker side of the UK. Usually working behind the camera on horror-comedies, she is generally found finishing off her latest quirky lowbudget foundfootage microhorror, usually set somewhere picturesque off the beaten track…. She has plans to eat her own bodyweight in chocolate on 14 February and will probably unwisely dress up as a Serial Killer Fairy again in a costume party (right). After all, who says romance is dead? You can find her on www.girlfright.com or IMDB
With February 14 just around the corner,
Political polls come and go, the results often unsurprising in a polarized, tribal America. Yet early this week, one poll’s finding brought political nerds from the White House to Washington’s watering holes up short.
More than 6 in 10 Americans, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll published on the eve of President Biden’s State of the Union address, said that the president — widely credited by historians and nonpartisan analysts for having achieved more legislatively in his first two years than any president since Lyndon B. Johnson — had accomplished “little or nothing.”
Talk about a communications crisis for the White House.
Biden as a do-nothing president was of course the overwhelming sentiment of Republican respondents, 93% of them, which skewed the overall result. Yet more than 1 in 5 Democrats also dismissed the president’s record to date and, ominously, so did nearly two-thirds of those in the often decisive ranks of political independents. That left just 36% of all Americans saying Biden had done “a great deal” or “good amount.”
You could almost hear the groans from the comms folks in the West Wing. While some Americans don’t like what Biden has done along with a Democratic-controlled Congress, there shouldn’t be any argument that he’s done a lot. Right?
Right.
The Biden record: A nationwide COVID-19 vaccination program and economic relief. A $1.2-trillion infrastructure package, the largest in many decades. A program to rebuild a domestic semiconductor chips industry. New aid to veterans exposed to toxins. The first gun-safety law in three decades. A U.S.-led coalition to help counter Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Authorization for lower prescription drug prices, including insulin, for older Americans. A bipartisan law to protect democracy, by preventing efforts in Congress to overturn presidential election results.
There’s more, much more. So what gives? Why the disconnect between the reality and the perception of the Biden record? I turned to two go-to pollsters, one from each party.
Geoff Garin, a longtime pollster for Democratic candidates and progressive groups, wasn’t all that surprised by the Post/ABC poll finding. “We see in our research that a lot of voters simply are not aware of what Biden has been able to accomplish,” he told me, adding, “That is what high-profile speeches like the State of the Union and, more importantly, campaigns are for.”
But in the recent midterm elections, Democrats did not run on Biden’s record. Instead they emphasized — effectively, it turned out — Republicans’ extremism, abortion rights and protections for democracy. They distanced themselves from the president given his low poll ratings. So while they fared better in the elections than just about anyone expected them to, they did so at the expense of promoting the Democratic agenda. To the extent Democrats did boast about the administration’s first two years, “they claimed Biden’s accomplishments as their own,” Garin said, “without giving Biden much of the credit.”
“The other reality,” he said, “is that voters care less about legislation being passed than about concrete results.”
Biden himself acknowledged that dynamic in his State of the Union address, noting that many of the things he has achieved “are only now coming to fruition.” Thus, his latest refrain, “Let’s finish the job.”
Veteran Republican pollster Bill McInturff, half of the bipartisan duo that polls for NBC News, cited two reasons for Biden’s messaging problem: The distraction of other news. And tribalism.
“Three massive news stories during President Biden’s term — COVID, inflation, and the Russia/Ukraine war — have crowded out the usual attention a president might receive for his actions,” McInturff wrote in an email. “That and this hyper-partisan period are major barriers in getting credit for his administration’s actions.”
Americans who don’t like Biden might well be disinclined to give him any credit even if they know he’s gotten things done. Among the findings that McInturff passed along from an NBC News survey last month was this: A plurality of respondents, 42%, said Biden has “brought the wrong kind of change,” while 26% said he has “not really brought much change either way.” Fewer than a third, just 30%, said he’d brought the right change.
Despite this backdrop, Biden delivered his nationally televised State of the Union speech on Tuesday not defensively but opportunistically. He ballyhooed his achievements like a happy warrior — sharing credit with Republicans where appropriate, at other times drawing partisan contrasts with them like the candidate-in-waiting he is, and deftly parrying the knuckleheads who heckled him.
“I’ll see you at the groundbreaking,” he ad-libbed to those who opposed his infrastructure spending.
Expect to see Biden at a lot of groundbreakings in his term’s second half, given that it likely will double as his reelection campaign. Clearly, he has to get out of Washington a lot more if he’s going to run on a record that’s impressive but has yet to make an impression. (He won’t be adding to that record much, that’s for sure, now that the House is under Republican control and functioning as a graveyard for progressive initiatives.)
In the two days after his speech, Biden jetted to Wisconsin and Florida to spread the word about his achievements, generating local coverage about the jobs and other benefits his initiatives will bring to those swing states. (No, Democrats haven’t given up on winning in Florida. Yet.) In Baltimore recently, he crowed about plans to rebuild a 19th century tunnel essential to rail shipments, and at the Ohio-Kentucky border he took credit for what will be a new bridge over the Ohio River.
The president is flying high after good reviews for his Tuesday performance from pundits, politicians and quickie polls. He got extra points for the contrast between his can-do optimism and the vile negativity of some Republicans in the audience.
But when it comes to fixing his messaging problem, he hasn’t finished the job.
Political polls come and go, the results
Emily Ratajkowski wore a sheer dress to the opening of “The Ark,” Cult Gaia’s first NYC flagship store.
Emily Ratajkowski wore a sheer dress to
Netflix on Wednesday began its shared account crackdown in four new markets — Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain — as the streaming giant seeks to convert moochers into paying subscribers.
As part of the rollout, primary account holders will be required to set the location of their household, which is defined as people who live in the same location as the primary subscriber. Each member of the household will still be able to use their Netflix accounts while traveling and the company will not be requiring a verification code for members accessing their accounts from outside of the primary location, a Netflix spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.
That being said, the streaming giant will determine if a user is not part of a household — and, therefore, mooching off of an account — based on information like whether a device has used the Wi-Fi from the primary location at least once a month, the spokesperson added.
Should that be the case, those users will be prompted to create their own Netflix accounts or have the primary account holder add them to the subscription for an additional price, a feature Netflix has called “paid sharing.”
Users in the four regions impacted beginning Wednesday will be able to add up to two people outside of their households for an extra CAD$7.99 a month per person in Canada, NZD$7.99 in New Zealand, 3.99 euros in Portugal and 5.99 euros in Spain.
The rollout comes after Netflix initially updated its Help Center website last week with a post that led to confusion around how the streamer would be enforcing its account sharing crackdown in the U.S. Included in the updates — which have since been taken down — were requirements that devices not associated with the account, or accounts “persistently” being accessed outside of the household, would need to enter a four-digit verification code sent to the primary account holder.
Netflix has not yet rolled out paid sharing in the U.S. but is expected to do so in the coming weeks or months. The most updated language on the Help Center for the U.S. now reads, “A Netflix account is meant to be shared in one household (people who live in the same location with the account owner). People who are not in your household will need to sign up for their own account to watch Netflix.”
Netflix on Wednesday began its shared account
We’re getting the first look at Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in the Affleck-directed dramedy film Air about the creation of Nike’s Air Jordans.
Damon stars as Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike marketing executive who signed Michael Jordan for a deal with the company, leading to the development of the iconic shoe. Affleck directs and portrays Nike co-founder Phil Knight in the story surrounding Nike’s longshot effort to sign Jordan to its shoe company in the mid-’80s, an endorsement that seemed impossible at the time but which would become the most significant relationship between an athletic brand and an athlete and launched the global, multibillion-dollar contemporary sneaker industry. Sonny’s relentless quest to sign Jordan to what was then the third-place shoe company takes him to Jordan’s parents, and in particular his powerful, dynamic mother, as well as to former coaches, advisors, friends and those close to Michael. Jordan himself is a giant mythic figure hovering above the movie and never seen, while Sonny tries to reach him by gaining access to those close to him and around him.
Viola Davis also stars as Deloris Jordan, Michael’s mother, a fierce advocate for her son, who was instrumental in negotiating this unprecedented deal, and was committed to ensuring her son’s legacy. Additional cast includes Jason Bateman as Rob Strasser, Chris Messina as David Falk, Marlon Wayans as George Raveling, Chris Tucker as Howard White, Matthew Maher as Peter Moore, Gustaf Skarsgård as Horst Dassler, and Julius Tennon as James Jordan.
Air reunites Affleck and Damon, marking the first time Affleck has directed his longtime friend and collaborator.
The pic from Amazon Studios, Skydance Sports and Mandalay Pictures, is written by Alex Convery and produced by David Ellison, Jesse Sisgold, Jon Weinbach, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Madison Ainley, Jeff Robinov, Peter Guber, and Jason Michael Berman.
Air hits theaters on April 5.
Watch the trailer above.
We’re getting the first look at Ben
Jamie Lee Curtis is finally an Oscar-nominated actress, and “Michelle Yeoh is the reason,” she emotionally tells Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast. “Michelle Yeoh is the reason that for the rest of my life, you will say, ‘Oscar-nominated actress Jamie Lee Curtis.’”
Curtis, 64, is raw, unassuming and undeniably grateful for this time in her life and the five decades that have preceded it. Curtis is the daughter of two Oscar-nominated actors — Tony Curtis (1958’s “The Defiant Ones”) and Janet Leigh (1960’s “Psycho”) — and the wife of the brilliant British comedian and filmmaker Christopher Guest (who is working on the sequel to “Spinal Tap”). After 38 years together, what’s her secret to a long-lasting marriage? “I will not be in the sequel to Spinal Tap,” she jokes.
On this episode of the award-winning Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, Curtis opens up about receiving her first Oscar nomination, thanks to her performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” She discusses thinking about her parents when she heard her name called, her five decades in the Hollywood industry, and her two Amazon series that are in development. Listen below:
Written, directed and produced by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (better known as the Daniels), “Everything Everywhere All at Once” tells the charming tale of Evelyn (Yeoh), a Chinese laundromat owner who embarks on a quest to save the multiverse. In the A24 movie, Curtis plays Deirdre Beaubeirdre, an IRS inspector who is also represented in various multiverses.
“Everything Everywhere” has been nominated for 11 Oscars — including best picture (Daniels and Jonathan Wang), director (Daniels), actress (Yeoh), supporting actor (Ke Huy Quan), two for supporting actress (Curtis and Stephanie Hsu), original screenplay (Daniels), costumes (Shirley Kurata), editing (Paul Rogers), original score (Son Lux) and original song (“This is Life” by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski).
Curtis reveals how much she loves the movie industry, and it’s reciprocated. She smirks anytime she reads that an actor or director doesn’t want to do press. “Bullshit!” Curtis says. “They do when the project that they really want to get out to the world requires them doing the New York Times, or whatever it is. It’s the posturing of some separation of church and state — that one is art, and one is commerce and advertising. And the bullshit is that we’re all in this together. We cannot exist without you, you cannot exist without us. That makes us partners.”
When Curtis first began acting, people told her she should attend acting classes and receive more training. She reached out to Allan Rich, a once-blacklisted Hollywood figure who later found his niche in hundreds of roles, most notably “Serpico” (1973), “Quiz Show” (1994) and “Amistad” (1998). In her first meeting with Rich, she was asked to read a scene — to which he responded: “Okay, so you know how to act. You know how to be someone else. So you don’t need me. What you need is to expand your vocabulary. Watch movies, listen to music, go to museums, read, and expand the choices that will make you as an actor. You need to expose yourself to art.”
Curtis is an endless well of knowledge and anecdotes about her time in the industry. She tells the best stories — such as the time that John Ritter told her during a TV audition that she had “funny legs.” She credits that moment to her acclaimed performance as Helen, the wife of a secret spy, in James Cameron’s action-thriller “True Lies” (for which earned a Golden Globe statuette and her first SAG nom).
“There is no prerequisite to be in this business,” she says. “Hustle, talent, timing, hard work…boom! And if you have the acumen of a film degree, does that help you? Of course, but it’s not a requirement. It’s about something coming alive on the screen, and I don’t think you can teach that.”
Curtis refers to herself as an “unemployed actor” at the time of the interview, but that may not be for long. It was announced that she was nearing a deal with Amazon to team up with Nicole Kidman for an adaptation of Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta novels. Curtis will executive produce through her production company, Comet Pictures.
For the entire interview, a copy of the Dec. 21 issue of Variety magazine sat face down on the table. That issue was “The 100 Greatest Movies of All Time,” where the staff named “Psycho” the No. 1 film in history. The cover photo was of Janet Leigh, Curtis’ mother, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller. This was a rare opportunity to ask the esteemed performer about her family legacy.
Holding the magazine in her hands, Curtis gazes at the image of her mother in the infamous “shower scene.” Memories are flooding back, along with the love and adoration of one of the most revered women in cinema history, Leigh — who passed in 2004. After a long pause, Curtis looks up, and softly but passionately says, “She loved, loved her life.”
She continues reflecting, adding about her father, who passed in 2010: “She loved being Janet Leigh. He loved being Tony Curtis. They both came from such hard beginnings, tragic, impoverished beginnings. They were the first people I thought of the second my name was called. They popped into my head. They had that Golden Age of Hollywood; therefore, I always felt their careers were impossible to even come near. And when they called my name that day, all of a sudden, my parents became my colleagues. It evened it all out a little.”
Also featured in this episode is Joel Crawford, the director of the Oscar-nominated animated feature “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” from DreamWorks Animation. Crawford talks about watching his cast ensemble bring the beloved characters to life and how an off-the-cuff comment by actor Ray Winstone made its way into the movie. In addition, he discusses the animation medium, its growth over the years, and where he believes its future is heading.
And in the Awards Circuit roundtable, the team dissects the Grammy winners (and controversies), and also goes through the Oscar screenplay categories.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, produced by Michael Schneider, who also co-hosts with Clayton Davis, is your one-stop listen for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each week “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives; discussions and debates about awards races and industry headlines; and much more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or anywhere you download podcasts. New episodes post weekly.
See the latest film predictions, in all 23 categories, in one place on Variety’s Oscars Collective. To see the ranked predictions for each category, visit Variety’s Oscars Hub.
Jamie Lee Curtis is finally an Oscar-nominated
Last Updated: February 10, 2023, 09:02 IST
Ishq Mein Ghayal to premiere on Feb 13. (Photos: Twitter)
Ever since the trailer of Karan Kundrra’s upcoming show Ishq Mein Ghayal has been released, netizens have been comparing it to The Vampire Diaries or the Twilight series. It is because, in the show, Karan will be seen playing the role of a werewolf. In a recent interview, Kundrra also reacted to the comparisons and shared how certain scenes remind him of Damon from The Vampire Diaries.
“If it’s been a simple love story of a girl and two brothers then it could have been anything but now it’s a fantasy genre so we get a lot of comparisons with The Vampire Diaries or Twilight,” Karan told Pinkvilla.
“Sometimes if I am doing anything I suddenly remember that oh wait isn’t this something Damon would use to do. Then I would say to myself please put aside this character and bring your own legacy,” the actor added.
Besides Karan Kundrra, Ishq Mein Ghayal also stars Reem Shaikh and Gashmeer Maajani in the lead. During the interaction, Karan also talked about the show being a two-hero project and shared that all actors will bring a ‘great viewership’. “I am very clear that I have my own legacy so I will bring my own audience and Gashmeer will bring his own audience. Similarly, Reem has her own fan following and she will bring her own people. So we three will bring a great viewership that is my perspective,” Bigg Boss 15’s second runner-up said.
For the unversed, when Ishq Mein Ghayal trailer was released last month, it revealed that Karan will be playing the role of a vampire named Veer. The trailer also reminded netizens of the film series, The Twilight Saga. “Seems like pyar ki ek kahani a vampire-based serial used to come on…But there is a touch of twilight too,” one of the fans had written. Ishq Mein Ghayal will premiere on February 13.
Read all the Latest Movies News here
Last Updated: February 10, 2023, 09:02 ISTIshq
Calgary Independent Film Festival (formerly Phoenix Genre/Comedy festival) is a bi-monthly online celebration of the best of independent cinema. The festival’s goal is to present all forms of independent films to the general public. We accept all genres of films, including Horror, Action, Crime, Fantasy, Comedy, Romance, Science Fiction, Sports, Thriller, War, Western, Student, Covid, Women Empowerment, Documentary, Experimental, LGBTQ, Animation from all around the world. All the best films of each month “might” get into our annual online event, which occurs once per year in Calgary. During the yearly event, the festival brings together new voices in the industry professionals in filmmaking to encourage and support new, creative additions to cinema arts.
Calgary Independent Film Festival (formerly Phoenix
BET has announced the cable premiere of the documentary “Loudmouth,” which explores the legacy of social justice leader Reverend Al Sharpton. The documentary will premiere Feb. 25 at 4:30 p.m. on BET, BET Her, VH1, BET+ and Showtime at a later date.
“‘Loudmouth’ tells the story about how and why I had to be loud to call out the racism in a northern city like New York, where you were competing with the bright lights of Broadway,” Rev. Sharpton said in a statement. “In this crucial year, when we are fighting for racial justice in the voting booth and in the streets, I hope this film will inspire the next generation of Loudmouths to get off the sidelines.”
“Loudmouth” features never-before-seen footage of Rev. Sharpton on the frontlines, in the media and in the corridors of power, as well as chronicling how he has spent his lifetime in pursuit of providing a voice for the voiceless. From 1980s Brooklyn to 2020s Minneapolis, the veteran activist has worked to spotlight and reveal the truths of racial injustice and structural racism in America.
“Rev. Al Sharpton sits at the very heart of the battle over the national narrative around race. We are excited to have BET, who has been on the frontline of these efforts, program the cable premiere of this timely documentary,” said writer, producer and director Josh Alexander.
“Loudmouth” was produced by Alexander, Daniel J. Chalfen, Mike Jackson and Kedar Massenburg.
Watch the “Loudmouth” trailer below.
FX announced the Emmy-nominated limited series “Under the Banner of Heaven” will make its linear debut on March 7. The seven-episode series will also remain available to stream on Hulu.
The linear broadcast will begin with the first two episodes, “When God Was Love” and “Rightful Place,” starting at 10 p.m., and the subsequent episodes will air back-to-back each week. See below for the series’ schedule:
March 7 at 10 p.m. – “When God was Love” and “Rightful Place”
March 14 at 10 p.m. – “Surrender” and “Church and State”
March 21 at 10 p.m. – “One Mighty and Strong” and “Revelation”
March 28 at 10 p.m. – “Blood Atonement”
Inspired by the true-crime bestseller of the same name by Jon Krakauer, “Under the Banner of Heaven” details the events that led to the 1984 murder of Brenda Wright Lafferty (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her infant daughter in Salt Lake Valley, Utah. Mormon detective Jeb Pyre (Andrew Garfield) investigates the events that transpired within the Lafferty family, and slowly uncovers buried secrets about LDS religion.
“Under the Banner of Heaven” also stars Sam Worthington, Denise Gough, Wyatt Russell, Billy Howle, Gil Birmingham, Adelaide Cleens, Rory Culkin, Seth Numrich, Chloe Pirrie and Sandra Seacat.
BET has announced the cable premiere of
Netflix subscription is required to watch on Netflix
Great news! “My Dad the Bounty Hunter” is available to watch on Netflix USA!
Date Added: 9th February 2023
Want to keep forever? Try looking for ‘My Dad the Bounty Hunter’ on Amazon (paid link)
Description:
An intergalactic bounty hunter takes dad duty to new extremes when his two kids accidentally hitch a ride with him to outer space and crash his mission.
Certificate:
Suitable for ages 7 and up
Year: 2023
Duration: 10 Episodes
Available Seasons: Season 1 (10 Ep)
Audio: German, English – Audio Description, English [Original], Spanish – Audio Description, Spanish, French, Mandarin (Guoyu)
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
Episode Length: 28min
– English Audio Description
Cast: Laz Alonso, Yvonne Orji, Priah Ferguson, Jecobi Swain, Yvette Nicole Brown, Rob Riggle
Status: Returning Series”My Dad the Bounty Hunter” is a TV show produced by Dwarf Animation Studio. The show was originally broadcast on Netflix and premiered on February 9th 2023. So far there have been 1 seasons (comprising of 2 episodes) of “My Dad the Bounty Hunter”.
RATINGS:
Not yet rated
Not yet rated
Not yet rated
LISTS:
DISCUSS ON…:
Facebook 
Twitter 
Mastodon
Login or register for updates…
Netflix subscription is required to watch on Netflix
Where else can you watch ‘My Dad the Bounty Hunter’ on Netflix?
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages are Davis’ assessment of the current standings of the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any film or performance. Like any organization or body that votes, each category is fluid and subject to change. Predictions are updated every Thursday.
LAST UPDATED: Feb 9, 2023
Weekly Commentary: From the Feb. 8 Variety print issue:
“As to best picture, five films are seriously vying for the prize — “Banshees,” “Everything Everywhere,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár” and “Top Gun: Maverick.” “Banshees” has a great shot mainly because the award is decided by a ranked-voting system (aka the preferential ballot). In all other categories, the popular vote determines the winner.
The preferential system favors not the movies that are most loved (that is, with the most passionate admirers) but the ones that are most liked (having the greatest general appeal). While a first-place “most loved” vote is ideal — a contender needs 50% of the vote plus one to secure a win — it’s the second-and third-place “most liked” picks that push a title across the finish line. That explains upsets like “Green Book” (2018) over “Roma” and the ushering through of underdogs such as “Parasite” (2019) over “1917.”. If “Everything Everywhere’s” flying dildos are a bridge too far for voters, or “Maverick” is too lowbrow, an Irish tale of two buddies who have a falling out could be just what the Oscar doctor ordered.”
Coming up this week on the circuit: MUAHS Awards ceremony (Feb. 11), the Oscars nominee luncheon (Feb. 13), the Writers Guild of America Awards final voting opens (Feb. 13), and the DGA, PGA and Costume Designers Guild final voting will close (Feb. 17).
Updated winner predictions are below.
To see the ranked predictions for each category, visit Variety’s Oscars Hub.
*** = PREDICTED WINNER
Variety’s unmatched coverage gives its readership unbeatable exposure in print and online and provides inside reports on all the contenders in this year’s awards season races. In addition to predictions, the section includes — Awards Circuit Column, a weekly analysis dissecting the trends and contenders in the race; Awards Circuit Podcast, a weekly series featuring interviews with the top contenders in the awards race and an expert roundtable discussion with Variety’s leading editors and columnists; Awards Circuit Predictions Video Series, a deep dive into specific categories, led by the leading pundits.
Variety Awards Circuit section is the home
Earlier this week, we reported that John Cleese was rebooting what is, in the aggregate, probably the second-most illustrious comedy project of his long and legendary comedy career: Fawlty Towers. (The first, of course, being his long-running commercial campaign on behalf of Schweppes Tonic Water.) Now Cleese has revealed that the series won’t be returning to its old home at the BBC, and will instead (aided, presumably, by the help of co-producer Rob Reiner) be shopped elsewhere. Also, the word “woke” gets worked in there, although to the credit of Cleese—who’s settled pretty comfortably into the “they don’t let you say things like they used to” portion of his elder comedy statesman status—only in response to other people bringing it up.
This is per Deadline, itself reporting on an interview Cleese gave this week to GB News, a U.K. outlet that’s usually described in Fox News-ish terms. Talking about the rebooted Fawlty—which will see him return to the role of pompous hotel manager Basil Fawlty, now living in the Caribbean—Cleese stated he had no interest in working with the BBC on the series because, “You wouldn’t get the freedom.”
The interviewers then brought up a recent Guardian piece that alleged that the new series would be “an anti-woke nightmare,” which Cleese responded to in typically withering fashion:
They obviously know better than I do what’s going to be in it. Maybe they should write an episode for me that they would find acceptable. Might not be very funny, but I’m sure it would really please some of their readers. The idea that it’s all going to be about wokery hadn’t particularly occurred to me.
The Fawlty Towers revival was developed by Cleese and his daughter, Camilla Cleese, working with producer and Reiner associate Matthew George.
John CleesePhoto: Dave J Hogan (Getty Images)Earlier
Denise Khng’s short film, Motherland, is the story of a deteriorating family and a deeply buried truth.
Our story opens during a parent/teacher conference at school. Sarah (Lim Shi-An) sits outside the counselor’s office as her mother (Karen Tan Bee Lin) tearfully speaks to Mrs. Reema (Nora Samosir). Sarah’s mother lets Mrs. Reema know that Sarah is not the quiet, obedient child she knows at school. In fact, Sarah has a destructive temper at home. Surprised by the mother’s story, Mrs. Reema promises to speak to Sarah about her behavior and set things right.
“Sarah’s mother lets Mrs. Reema know that Sarah is not the quiet, obedient child she knows at school.”
There are a few revelations that come out that are not worth spoiling, but Motherland brushes the surface and then dives a few levels on the issue of abusive and dysfunctional families. The short film’s slow reveals expose deception, manipulation, and power plays between Sarah and her mother.
The short film is primarily a drama—tight and compact, focusing on three actors portraying their parts. The scenes are simple setups. Each actor brings the right emotions to their respective roles as one revelation leads to the next. We are juggling feelings and emotions as characters keep their card held close to the vest. Writer/director Denise Khng tells an incredible and intriguing story and perfectly manages the shifting motivations and pretenses of our lead characters. Of course, like many short films, the tension builds right to the end, leaving us wanting more in this commentary on the power struggle between parents and teenagers.
For more information about Motherland, visit Denise Khng’s official website.
Denise Khng’s short film, Motherland, is the
The death toll from twin earthquakes which battered southeast Turkey and northern Syria earlier this week has now surpassed 20,000, with the time left to find survivors running out.
It is already the deadliest natural disaster to hit Turkey since 1939, with the grim casualty milestone coming this evening and UN and WHO experts expecting it to rise further.
The response of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to the catastrophe has drawn harsh criticism, and tens of thousands of displaced people who escaped the immediate damage of the quakes now contend with bitter winter temperatures and a lack of supplies.
But despite the harrowing scenes of death and destruction seen the world over, stunning stories of bravery and fortune continue to emerge from the rubble.
More than 72 hours have passed since the quakes, and those still trapped under the rubble are thought to have little chance of survival, but each passing hour seems to bring another glimmer of hope as another child or family is rescued.
Here, MailOnline takes a look at some of the most inspiring and heartwarming tales of endurance and survival to have surfaced thus far.
Rescuers fed a young Syrian boy water from a bottlecap through a gap in the debris. They later managed to free him after 45 hours of agony
36-year-old Yilmaz Cetin is rescued from under the rubble after 77 hours of 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hit multiple provinces of Turkiye included Adiyaman, Turkiye on February 09, 2023
A rescuer cleans the face of baby boy Kerem Agirtas, a 20-day-old survivor who was pulled from under the rubble, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Hatay, Turkey, February 8, 2023
The White Helmet volunteers rescue a child from under rubble, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in Jandaris, Syria February 8, 2023
Strawberry the cat was freed from the rubble but clearly wanted to remain by his owner’s side
One agonising video captured yesterday showed a young Syrian boy named Muhammed Ahmed putting on a brave face despite being stuck under debris for 45 hours.
Rescuers had managed to reach the child, whose face was covered in dust and scratches from the building’s collapse, but were unable to extract him from the concrete and he was beginning to fade due to dehydration and utter exhaustion.
Refusing to let the boy waste away, the rescuers poured water into a bottle cap and slid it through a gap in the debris. Muhammed sipped the fluid down and despite his awful predicament flashed a little smile back up at his rescuers.
The touching moment between one desperate boy and his rescuers immediately went viral, and with good reason.
As the death toll continues to increase and analysts discuss the facts, statistics and figures related to the earthquake, the clip of a fatigued and injured Muhammed grinning innocently at his rescuers after 45 hours of suffering serves as a stark reminder of the human cost.
Hours after the earthquake demolished huge swathes of northern Syria, one gut-wrenching clip published Tuesday showed the moment a newborn baby was found under the rubble.
Muhammed sipped the fluid down and despite his awful predicament flashed a little smile back up at his rescuers
Emergency personnel carry 16-year-old Melda on a stretcher after saving her from the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay, southern Turkey, on February 9, 2023
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hugs a quake victim on February 09, 2023
Seven-year-old girl Ikra Tasci is rescued by Israeli army, Hatzalah United and Turkish rescue teams after three days under the rubble, 09 February 2023
The mother was buried when the devastating earthquake hit her home in Jinderis and reduced the building to nothing but bricks and mortar.
She went into labour moments after the horrific incident and tragically died just moments after giving birth.
The baby’s immediate family – both parents and four siblings – were also killed, but she was later discovered by other relatives who heard faint cries coming from the debris of the family home.
They dug with their bare hands to free the rubble and to their utter amazement found the baby, still alive, and attached to her dead mother via the umbilical cord.
Cutting and tying the cord they rushed the hours-old child to receive medical treatment in the neighbouring town of Afrin, where hospital manager Khaled Radwan took her in as his own.
When asked by the Daily Telegraph what the baby would be called, he replied, ‘Aya’ – which translates from Arabic as ‘miracle’.
A fitting name for a girl who started her life buried under tons of concrete.
A baby girl who was born under the rubble caused by an earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey receives treatment inside an incubator at a children’s hospital in the town of Afrin, Aleppo province, Syria
The baby girl, who was born while her mother was buried underneath the rubble of a five-story apartment building, has wounds on her back from the rubble she was buried under
People wait as rescuers carry out search operations among the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras, on February 9, 2023
Emergency personnel conduct a rescue operation to save a teenage girl from the rubble of a collapsed building in Hatay, southern Turkey, on February 9, 2023
A pair of videos have shown rescuers working to save not only humans, but also their beloved pets.
In Hatay, Turkey, a bunch of rescuers were seen frantically pulling at debris in an attempt to extract university student Kerem Cetin from a collapsed building.
But Kerem refused to let his rescuers save him without first ensuring his cat, a fluffy white and ginger mog called Strawberry, was safe and sound.
The red-helmeted rescuers duly turned their attention to the cat, who was lodged under rubble alongside his owner and wrapped in what looked to be a blanket.
It appeared the love Kerem had for his pet was mutual – when the rescuers managed to free the feline, he clawed and scratched at the blanket, seemingly reluctant to leave Kerem’s side.
Once he had been pulled out, however, he quickly calmed down and the rescuers delighted in the touching moment before returning to extract Kerem. Both were eventually rescued and sustained only minor injuries.
In the same city, a separate video showed a little white dog buried up to his neck in debris, looking on desperately for help. A search party noticed the hound and loosened the rocks around his body as they fed him water from their bare hands.
The mutt waited patiently and duly lapped up the water before he eventually being pulling free. He was evidently in no rush to escape and sat very happily in the arms of his rescuers.
A cat is rescued from rubble in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Hatay Province, Turkey, February 7, 2023
A search party noticed the hound and loosened the rocks around his body as they fed him water from their bare hands
Rescuers in Turkey extract a young girl from rubble in Kahramanmaras
Five-year-old Mir Berzan Bagis is rescued by search and rescue teams from under rubble of a collapsed building 73 hours after 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes hit Turkey’s Kahramanmaras, on February 09, 2023
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan dispatched his presidential plane to fly 16 babies, all of whom were found alive but alone in the aftermath of the earthquakes, to safety in the capital city of Ankara.
The plane was put on standby for rescue missions and other earthquake-related activities, including carrying medical teams and aid to regions of the country, in the aftermath of the tremors earlier this week.
It is also being used to transport critically injured people to Ankara for treatment.
All 16 babies on board the flight were found alone in the earthquake zones. They were collected by the foster mothers of the Ministry of Family and Social Services from the plane which landed at Esenboğa Airport.
From there, they were taken to Etlik City Hospital for treatment. All 16 are said to be doing well.
Heartwarming images show the infants in the arms of their rescuers on board the plane, wrapped in multiple blankets amid a cold snap in the country.
Babies rescued from the rubble of collapsed buildings in Kahramanmaras are transferred to Ankara by Turkish Presidential Plane
The babies were collected by the foster mothers of the Ministry of Family and Social Services from the plane which landed at Esenboğa Airport
All 16 babies on board the flight were found alone in the earthquake zones within Turkey
The babies, who are believed to be unharmed, will now be taken into care in the children’s organisation affiliated to the Ministry of Family and Social Services
The White Helmet volunteers pull out a child from under rubble as they rescue him, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in Jinderis, Syria
The tragedy may be localised to Turkey and Syria, but aid organisations and governments from around the world have flocked to the region to offer their support and lifesaving expertise.
One rescue effort, coordinated by British and German workers, saw a Turkish mother and her little boy extracted from the rubble of a building in Kahramanmaras, close to the epicentre of the disaster.
The pair had been trapped under a mountain of debris which looked more like a natural cave formation than the remnants of a building, such was the quantity of the rocks and stones that surrounded them.
But despite spending more than 72 hours unable to move, both were hauled to their freedom after an eight-hour rescue operation and have survived despite sustaining considerable injuries and severe dehydration.
A boy and her mother are rescued by German (yellow) and British (orange) rescue teams after an 8 hour operation in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, Thursday, February 9, 2023
Both suffered significant injuries and were dramatically dehydrated but are making their recovery
The pair had been trapped under a mountain of debris which looked more like a natural cave formation than the remnants of a building
There are many stories of human triumph and survival coming out of Turkey and Syria – but they are far outweighed by an eye-watering death toll of more than 19,000
Seven-year-old girl Ikra Tasci is rescued by Israeli army, Hatzalah United and Turkish rescue teams after three days under the rubbles of a collapsed building in the city of Kahramanmaras, southeastern Turkey, 09 February 2023
One little girl was found protecting her younger brother after they were trapped under the debris of their collapsed home following the series of devastating earthquakes.
Video footage captured the moving moment the two frightened young siblings were found by rescuers amid the rubble in Syria.
Seven-year-old Mariam and her younger brother Ilaaf were trapped in the debris for some 36 hours.
In the clip, she told the emergency worker: ‘Sir, if you rescue me and my brother, I’ll do whatever you want. But get us out of here.’
The children were stuck under rubble at their home in Besnaya-Bseineh near Haram, Syria.
The seven-year-old called Mariam, and her younger brother Ilaaf were trapped in the debris for some 36 hours
In the footage, Mariam’s younger sibling can be seen trapped under the concrete ruins as responders scramble to rescue the pair.
The girl then moves her arm over her younger brother’s head to protect him.
A photo was later shared of the two kids resting on a bed after they were rescued from their horrific ordeal.
Their father Mustafa Zuhir Al-Sayed said he, his wife, and their three children were sleeping when the earthquake hit.
He said: ‘Rubble began falling over our head and we stayed two days under the rubble.’They were all rescued from the devastated home.
The death toll from twin earthquakes which
Half the battle in pulling together a creatively successful true-crime documentary is, surely, finding the right story — one that can hold our interest and can, potentially, generate insights beyond the simple facts of the case. But the other half, the filmmaker’s approach, matters every bit as much. In narrating the famous tale of a bizarre ring of extortion that bloomed at Sarah Lawrence College in the early 2010s, “Stolen Youth” director Zach Heinzerling certainly has his subject. But with a startling rawness and directness, Heinzerling’s work makes a case for itself as an unusually sensitive and strong outing in its genre.
Those familiar with the case of Larry Ray, a parent of a Sarah Lawrence student who moved into his daughter’s housing at the Bronxville, N.Y., liberal arts college, may have learned about it from coverage in New York Magazine, which ran a lengthy feature on the story in 2019. One of that story’s co-authors tells Heinzerling’s cameras that reporting on Ray was surprisingly easy: “Everyone in his life is a player in this game, and he needs an audience.” As applied to a circle of unformed young people curious about the grown-up in their midst, the game Ray plays is one of domination, brainwashing them into needing his approval.
In this three-part doc, Ray is heard, in audio footage of various interrogations and debriefings, making demands of his student housemates or spinning wild claims about his own personal history. We’re told he impressed his daughter’s friends with stories of his exploits as a high-flying government agent; this repeated puffery, along with the schoolmates’ relative remove from the campus dorms in special housing, may account for why Ray was eventually able to convince them to pay for objects he claimed they broke, or that their parents and former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik (a Ray bête noire) were working in concert to poison them.
Ray was sentenced to 60 years in prison in January 2023, after the documentary was completed and sent out to critics. Viewers will walk away with little doubt that justice was done. What’s most striking about “Stolen Youth” is not its depiction of Ray’s executing his scheme but of that scheme’s very long tail. The final of three episodes shows Felicia Rosario, a Columbia medical school graduate introduced to Ray by her brother and drawn into his orbit, trying to shake off the brainwashing she endured. Looking through a list of abuses Ray claimed that she suffered — in order to convince Rosario that she needed his protection — the onetime aspiring doctor is lost. “It doesn’t feel real,” she says. “I don’t know what’s true.” And looking at pictures of her family, Rosario feels an emotional pull toward them, even as she had been told for years that they were trying to kill her, in cahoots with Kerik. “In Larry Land, these are all the bad people,” she says, ruefully.
It’s this tone of melancholy that distinguishes “Stolen Youth.” It’d be easy to gawk not merely at Ray’s crimes but at his victims; certainly, Rosario’s torching her career and her family ties in order to cement her bond with a near-stranger decades her senior is one that grabs our attention as well as our sympathy. But her attempt at moving past the years that were taken from her make for a thoughtful and stylish way to approach a narrative that, in less able hands, might have been gripping but scented with exploitation. Here, what was done to the kids of Sarah Lawrence matters, but so does how they work to overcome it — with varying degrees of difficulty. And it’s through watching what it takes to undo successful mind control that the power of the first half of the documentary’s subject matter, the crimes against these kids, grows all the more powerful: “Stolen Youth” makes the case, in the end, that pushing past Ray’s abuses will take everything they have.
It’s a baleful note, but not a hopeless one — change is hard, but not impossible. Ending here, gracefully and with a bit of sorrow, after having brought us through years of suffering and maltreatment, “Stolen Youth” stands out within its genre — it feels not just “true” but real.
“Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence” will launch all three episodes on Hulu on Thursday, February 9.
Half the battle in pulling together a
One of Intel’s newest mobile CPUs, the Intel Core i9-13980HX, has only been in the wild since yesterday and already it’s reclaimed its number one spot in the PassMark mobile CPU benchmark ranking.
As revealed by the PassMark test and reported on by VideoCardz, the Core i9-13980HX scored 54,483 points while the Core i9-13900HX has a score of 51,739 points. The two Raptor Lake-HX CPUs (which feature 24 cores and a TDP of 55W), have surpass the 12-core AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX Zen 4 processor, putting the latter in third place on the benchmark score list, and securing Intel’s place as the leading mobile processor maker.
According to the data, we can infer that the Raptor Lake-HX is between 9-14% faster than the 7845HX in single-threaded tests and are at least 11% faster in multicore performance. However, AMD is planning on a 16-core Ryzen 9 7945HX processor as revealed during its CES 2023 keynote, which would lessen that gap, especially since the Intel Core i9-13980HX only has eight performance cores, with 16 efficiency cores to back those up.
AMD does not use big.LITTLE architecture, so those 16 Ryzen 9 7945HX cores are all going to be running at full throttle.
These PassMark benchmarks are fascinating in what they reveal about the mobile Raptor Lake-HX mobile CPUs, and it’ll be even more interesting to see how well they do in more mainstream benchmarks like CPU-Z Validator and Geekbench.
If those tests are favorable enough, it could honestly put these two processors as some of the best processors on the market, mobile or otherwise. And even with the upcoming 16-core 7945HX from AMD, it might not be enough to even match the Raptor Lake chips, let alone surpass them.
Most likely the only way AMD could win this matchup is through the pricing of laptops that use its chips, but that’s up to those brands to set. Though normally there is a difference in cost between Intel laptops and AMD laptops, so it’s definitely possible.
One of Intel’s newest mobile CPUs, the
“Tulsa King” co-creator Terence Winter has stepped down as showrunner of the hit Paramount+ crime drama, TheWrap has confirmed. But he’ll remain credited as an executive producer on the show, starring Sylvester Stallone, and the search for a new showrunner is in progress.
Winter’s departure was due to a combination of unspecified creative differences and desire to focus on other projects, including an in-development streaming series with Martin Scorsese.
Co-created by Winter and “Yellowstone” mastermind Taylor Sheridan, “Tulsa King” follows mafia underboss Dwight Mancini (Stallone), who did 25 years in prison and loyally kept his mouth shut about his mob family. Fresh out of prison, he’s sent to Oklahoma to establish new businesses for the family, but ends up forming his own crew instead.
Alongside Stallone, it also stars Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, Jay Will, Max Casella, Domenick Lombardozzi, Vincent Piazza, A.C. Peterson, Garrett Hedlund, Dana Delany and Annabella Sciorra. The series premiered on Paramount+ in November to great reviews and fantastic viewership and was renewed for Season after only 3 episodes.
Alongside Sheridan and Winter, it’s also executive produced by Stallone, David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin, Allen Coulter and Braden Aftergood, and produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios.
“Tulsa King” was filmed in New York City and various locations over the Sooner State. The premiere date for Season 2 hasn’t been announced.
Deadline first reported the news.
“Tulsa King” co-creator Terence Winter has stepped
London-based world sales company Taskovski Films has acquired documentary “In Ukraine,” directed by Piotr Pawlus and Tomasz Wolski, which will world premiere in Berlinale’s Forum section.
The film looks at the lives of Ukrainians who stayed in their country after the Russian invasion or have returned home.
In a statement the directors said: “How to tell the story about war? How to face a topic that we are constantly informed about through television, radio and the internet? What can be offered to an audience who has seen explosions, fired rockets, drone shots, scenes of Russian tanks being shot down, CCTV footage capturing a hail of missiles, or Russian soldiers looting?
“’In Ukraine’ doesn’t show the war but its consequences. Through a simple concept that relies on anticipated shots shot with a static camera, we are looking at the collective. The main character is a country at war. The film rarely features dialogue. We tell the story through images, long shots, and wide frames. The viewer contemplates the reality, discovers it, and feels a closeness to the people who have to face the consequences of the war.”
The script is by Pawlus and Wolski; cinematography is by Pawlus; editing is by Wolski.
The producer is Anna Gawlita at Kijora Film. The co-producer is Indi Film and Arek Gielnik, and it is co-financed by Polish Film Institute.
Taskovski Films’ CEO Irena Taskovski said: “We have been attracted by the power of image presented in the film and the ability to share the emotions beyond the visible on screen. There are many ways to depict a war and ‘In Ukraine’ offers a compassionate insight into the daily life of the Ukrainian citizens inviting the viewer to discover it for himself. We are very pleased to collaborate with Kijora Film considering them one of the most inventive production companies in Poland today.”
Wolski’s latest feature-length documentary “1970” has been screened at more than 50 festivals worldwide and has won numerous awards. He is also an editor of “Babi Yar. Context” and “The Kiev Trial” by Sergei Loznitsa, “A Diary of a Journey” and “21xNY” by Piotr Stasik, and “Horse Riders” by Anna Gawlita.
Pawlus has worked on multiple documentaries, feature films and commercials in Poland and abroad, and has been awarded at international film festivals, including Gdynia Film Festival, Film and Music Festival Küstendorf, Koszalin Film Debut Festival Youth and Film, and 11 Go Short.
London-based world sales company Taskovski Films has
If you decide to settle in and watch “Your Place or Mine” to see the sparks fly between Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher, you’ll be initially disappointed. They’re not in the same room until the last 12 minutes.
The premise of this particular Netflix rom-com is two old friends switching homes for a week and snapping each other out of their ruts. Might they also fall in love? (Do many rom-coms not end that way?)
In this one, Witherspoon and Kutcher play opposites — he’s a rich consultant who lives in a chic but chilly New York apartment; she’s an earthy and protective single mom to a 13-year-old boy in Los Angeles. They hooked up 20 years ago but decided friendship was the better path.
These two talk every day, forcing the filmmakers to spend a fortune on split screens. It’s an intimate relationship over two decades as each supports and encourages the other. Someone asks him the obvious question — “If you like each other so much, why aren’t you guys together?” — and there is no really good answer. She offers another: “Uh, barf.”
A last-minute emergency triggers the film’s central action: Witherspoon needs to fly to New York but her childcare main option flakes, so Kutcher’s character decides to go to Los Angeles as backup. “You need help and I’m coming,” he tells her. They find themselves in each other’s homes, getting to know each others’ friends and generally shaking things up.
Written and directed by Aline Brosh McKenna, “Your Place or Mine” is cute and light from a creator known more for satires like “Devil Wears Prada” and “My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.” This Valentine’s Day, it hits the spot if you’re in the mood for pretty people acting insecure and clueless.
At first, though, the film meanders with an alarming lack of urgency, as if Brosh McKenna was happy enough just filling the screen with her two beautiful leads and putting them in pretty places. You might initially mistake it as a rom-com for real estate.
Eventually, each start to see the other as a project that needs fixing. Kutcher tries to loosen up his best friend’s son — snack on junk food, letting him watch scary movies and allowing him to try out for the hockey team, all things forbidden when mom’s around. He sees it all as an extension of work: “That’s what I do: I get in, manage things, no muss, no fuss.”
On the other coast, Witherspoon finds an old manuscript her best friend has hidden from her and decides she must try to get it published. She also flirts with a hunky publisher — Jesse Williams, smoldering — and breaks all logic when she doesn’t immediately fall into the cool, sensual piercing blue of his eyes and never wants to leave… Wait, where was I?
The film soon mines an interesting area, namely how much do best friends really know about each other? When Witherspoon’s character finds the book, she is in shock. “We tell each other everything,” she says. Replies a friend: “Obviously you don’t.” This is also a film that champions taking a chance, going for it and not playing it safe.
The film allows Witherspoon and Kutcher to show off their naturally funny sides, especially when they’re fishes out of water. But many of the scenes drag on and sometimes the exposition is chalky, like when Witherspoon says: “I have to finish this program before the end of the year so I can apply for that open senior accounting position at the regional school district.”
Some smaller roles give important jolts of quirky, like Zoë Chao as a slinky former flame of Kutcher’s character in New York and Tig Notaro and Steve Zahn in LA. Notaro’s wit is as dry as a cactus, while Zahn plays a loopy gardener who is credited for writing two oddball songs on the soundtrack.
Speaking of songs, the producers must have forked over tons of cash to the estate of Ric Ocasek. To establish Kutcher’s character as a fan of The Cars, no less than nine songs — including “Heartbreak City,” “Drive” and “You Might Think” — have been used. The film’s soundtrack could double as a greatest-hits album.
The film builds to — finally! — a scene when Witherspoon and Kutcher are in the same zip code and a nice flipping of the traditional rom-com airport scene on its head. That’s when the film answers the question can men and women just be friends with a strong: “Uh, barf.”
“Your Place or Mine,” a Netflix release, is rated PG-13 for “suggestive material and brief strong language.” Running time: 111 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
___
MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
___
Online: https://www.netflix.com/title/81045831
___
Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)
If you decide to settle in and
You may have noticed that Ben Affleck did, er, not seem to have a whale of a time at the Grammys this weekend.
Well, J.Lo herself nodded to all the ~discussion~ with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it meme. On her Instagram, she shared the new trailer for the movie Air — which, yes, is directed by and starring Ben.
However, at the beginning of the video, Jennifer threw in this meme:
Ah, the face of unbridled joy.
For what it’s worth, according to a seat filler at the Grammys, J.Lo showed Ben the memes mid-show — and his response was to say words to the effect of, “Oh god, this again.” The two were otherwise apparently “lovey dovey.”
Anyway, here’s a nice picture of him laughing with Adrien Brody at the Grammys:
Anybody looking to buy a gently used Hulu?
Disney CEO Bob Iger—whose company finds itself ostensibly about to be the sole owner of streaming service Hulu right around this time next year—is making noises that Disney might try to offload its majority share in the company, instead. This is per Deadline, which reports that Iger (who announced a big restructuring of Disney this week, essentially un-doing most of the stuff his successor/predecessor Bob Chapek altered at the company during Iger’s brief absence from the big office over the last few years) told reporters that it’s “not necessarily the case” that Disney is looking to buy all of Hulu for itself, despite assumptions that that was what was about to go down in the near future.
For as long as it’s existed—i.e., since October 2007, when it was launched as a joint streaming venture from NBC Universal and Fox owners News Corps, with an open invitation to other TV makers to buy in to the project—Hulu has existed in a weird space in the market. In the old days, that was because it was a sort of neutral zone between most of the major players, with Disney and Time-Warner both buying big chunks of the company as the years progressed, securing room for their own shows to get some streaming air without having to grant a monopoly on online content to Netflix. (Or, god forbid, build their own streaming services, viewed as a ludicrously expensive and wasteful endeavor.) But then Disney bought Fox, and all its shares in Hulu, in 2019, not long before it launched (the ludicrously expensive) Disney+, and now it finds itself in the weird position of basically owning two streaming services that sometimes seem to operate in direct competition with each other. (Despite recent efforts to more tightly bundle the packages together—also a Bob Chapek idea that’s presumably in danger of getting tossed in the garbage.)
The crux of Iger’s sales comments this week, meanwhile, are related to an agreement that exists right now between Disney (which owns 66.6 percent of Hulu) and NBCUniversal owner Comcast, which owns the rest, and which says that 2024 is the earliest that Comcast can sell its stake to the Mouse. (Or, apparently, vice versa; either way, somebody is going to end up sole owner.) There’s already been some disagreements about this deadline—whoever buys the other’s shares will have to pay “fair market value” for them, and the two giant companies have already startled quibbling about what that number might amount to—but most observers have assumed Disney would expand its majority share out to being the sole owner. (Especially as Comcast has recently started siphoning material that would have gone on Hulu off to its own Peacock.)
But, Iger says, nothing is set in stone. “Everything is on the table right now,” he told CNBC today, “So I am not going to speculate whether we are a buyer or a seller of [Hulu].” Iger says he’s “concerned about undifferentiated general entertainment,” which is a mouthful that presumably refers to the wide grab-bag of shows and movies that currently fills Hulu’s rosters, “particularly in the competitive landscape that we are operating in, and we are going to look at it very objectively and expansively.” In other words: Make an offer, maybe; Bob Iger might be looking to sell.
Disney CEO Bob IgerPhoto: Jerod Harris/Getty Images
Great news! “You” is available to watch on Netflix UK!
Date Added: 26th December 2018
Known expiry dates are shown above as well as on the Last Chance page.
Want to keep forever? Try looking for ‘You’ on Amazon (paid link)
History:
26/12/2018: 1 Season (2018)
26/12/2019: 2 Seasons (2019)
15/10/2021: 3 Seasons (2021)
09/02/2023: 4 Seasons (2023)
Description:
A dangerously charming, intensely obsessive young man goes to extreme measures to insert himself into the lives of those he is transfixed by.
Certificate: Suitable for adults only
Year: 2023
Duration: 4 Seasons
Available Seasons: Season 1 (10 Ep), Season 2 (10 Ep), Season 3 (10 Ep)
Audio: English – Audio Description, English [Original], European Spanish, French, Hindi, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese
Subtitles: Arabic, English, French, Polish, Ukrainian, Traditional Chinese
Episode Length: 49min
– English Audio Description
Cast: Penn Badgley, Victoria Pedretti, Elizabeth Lail, Tati Gabrielle, Charlotte Ritchie, Shay Mitchell, Jenna Ortega, James Scully, Ambyr Childers, Tilly Keeper, Amy-Leigh Hickman, Ed Speleers, Lukas Gage, Carmela Zumbado, Saffron Burrows, Dylan Arnold, Shalita Grant, Travis Van Winkle, Scott Speedman, John Stamos, Luca Padovan
Status: Returning Series”You” is a TV show produced by Warner Bros. Television, Alloy Entertainment, A+E Studios, Berlanti Productions, Warner Horizon Television and Man Sewing Dinosaur. The show was originally broadcast on Lifetime (United States) and Netflix and premiered on September 9th 2018. So far there have been 4 seasons (comprising of 40 episodes) of “You”. The most recent episode aired on October 15th 2021 and more seasons are expected in the future.
RATINGS:
LISTS:
DISCUSS ON…:
Login or register to get email updates…
This title is available on Netflix UK
Where else can you watch ‘You’ on Netflix?
Fun fact: The last time a Best Picture Oscar winner also scored a craft victory was Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” which took home awards for Paul Austerberry’s production design and Alexandre Desplat’s score in 2018. Which means that Best Picture winners “Coda” (no craft nominations) “Nomadland” (cinematography, editing), “Parasite” (production design, editing), and “Green Book” (editing) all left empty-handed as far as craft wins.
But look for the five-year craft drought to end if frontrunner “Everything Everywhere All at Once” wins Best Picture. As part of its Oscar-leading 11 nominations, it captured craft nods for costume design, editing, score, and song. It certainly has momentum on its side as the populist favorite. In addition to Best Picture, it’s a serious above-the-line contender for Best Director (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheiner, aka the Daniels), Best Original Screenplay (the Daniels), Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu), and Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan).
The maximalist sci-fi/action-adventure became A24’s first $100 million blockbuster and was enthusiastically embraced by audiences and Academy members alike (despite some voters finding it too confusing). It was “an instant classic,” as IndieWire’s David Ehrlich declared in his review. Thanks to its epic “‘verse jumping,” it captured the feeling of being overwhelmed by life better than any other film last year — armed with nihilism to help restore kindness to this Chinese family beset by generational trauma.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Allyson Riggs/A24
Yet the wildly imaginative crafts were integral to the visual and sonic success of the multiverse action and slapstick. Who will ever forget hot dog hands, butt plugs, and “Raccoonouille”? If anything, the Academy short-changed the film by overlooking cinematography, production design, makeup and hairstyling, sound, and VFX. But then that would’ve been quite a stretch, considering that the work displayed here by these first-time indie nominees (costume designer Shirley Kurata, editor Paul Rogers, and composers Son Lux) is quite offbeat compared to the more polished and expensive work that typically get Oscar recognition. That’s a testament to the Daniels’ hand-made, DIY approach that took root in their early shorts and music videos before gaining prominence with their breakout indie feature, “Swiss Army Man.”
The film’s best chance at a craft Oscar is editing, which would break another drought because it’s been 10 years since a film (“Argo”) last took both Best Picture and Best Editing honors. Amidst the flurry of the Daniels’ ideas, Rogers found cohesion in the chaos by staying focused on the big picture. This meant constantly tracking the emotional connection between mother and daughter combatants Yeoh and Hsu. Rogers and the Daniels carefully layered the bombastic editing choices onto Yeoh’s arc about overcoming failure, and martial arts styles and rhythms distinguished the extended fights. However, Rogers borrowed a collaborative process from his Parallax Post editorial company called “swarm editing” to independently tackle tricky scenes and then review the results as a group with the directors.
Competition: It’s a very competitive category with Eddie Hamilton of the high-octane “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Sound of Metal” Oscar winner Mikkel E. G. Nielsen for the black comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond for the delirious musical biopic “Elvis,” and Monika Willi for the psychological drama “TÁR.”
Prediction: Although “Top Gun” is the favorite for Hamilton’s virtuosity — assembling and cutting more than 813 hours of amazing aerial footage that put the audience inside the Navy jet cockpits with Tom Cruise’s Maverick — Rogers could win for the combination of complexity and emotional resonance.
Costume designer Shirley Kurata offered a plethora of colorful, exotic, and thrifty wardrobes, especially for Yeoh and Hsu. It was all about breaking free from destiny and reconciling their differences, and Kurata’s costumes contributed to their characters’ arcs. Among the highlights: Yeoh’s Chinatown-inspired “tax universe” look with vest and googly eye and her glam champagne ball gown, and Hsu’s white jumpsuit, Elvis costume and K-Pop Star look with neon floral teddy bear-sleeved cardigan.
Competition: Kurata goes up against two-time Oscar winner Catherine Martin (“The Great Gatsby,” “Moulin Rouge!”) for “Elvis,” “Black Panther” Oscar winner Ruth Carter for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” four-time nominee Mary Zophres for “Babylon,” and last year’s “Cruella” winner Jenny Beavan for “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.”
Prediction: Martin is the heavy favorite for “Elvis,” creatively breaking down the flamboyant wardrobes into ’50s teenage rebellion, ’60s Hollywood icon, and ’70s Vegas glam comeback, yet Kurata has a broader breadth of original wardrobes to work, which subvert Chinese stereotypes.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Allyson Riggs
Son Lux, the L.A. rock band (comprised of Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia, and Ian Chang), could win the category for their experimental, wall-to-wall score. They would join an elite group of trio composers (from “Soul,” “The Last Emperor,” and “Limelight”). Their music ranged from synthetic beats to Chinese opera. The trick was not getting swallowed up by the multiverse, so they chose certain melodies for specific relationships, creating the effect of flipping between TV channels. They also alternated styles, rhythms, and beats for the fights (which included playing with Chinese drums, tuned gongs, and shattered upright bass).
Competition: Son Lux must fight off the legendary John Williams (“The Fabelmans”) — who broke another record with his 53rd nomination and seeks his sixth win — Volker Bertelmann (“All Quiet on the Western Front”), “La La Land” multiple Oscar winner Justin Hurwitz (“Babylon”), and three-time nominee Carter Burwell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”).
Prediction: Bertelmann has a lot of momentum for the World War I action-adventure, which received six craft nominations (tying it with “Elvis”). The 90-year-old Williams is the sentimental favorite, despite renouncing his plan to retire. While Son Lux seems like a long shot on paper, the fact that they even got nominated by a very conservative music branch proves how vital their contribution was to “EEAAO.” Given the immense appeal of the film to the Academy at large, this could very well spill over into a surprise win.
Lott also took the lead on Best Original Song nominee “This Is a Life,” collaborating with guest vocalists Mitski and David Byrne, who contributed music and lyrics, respectively. For Lott, the song summed up the discovery of life being bigger than you could imagine. He envisioned it in two parts sung by two distinct voices. He composed the first draft of the song on piano, including the lyrics and melody, for Mitski to sing. Byrne followed up with the “countersong,” weaving a distinct melody and lyrics through Mitski’s lines to create a symbiotic pair. Finally, Bhatia and Chang, along with longtime collaborator Rob Moose, joined in to realize the final arrangement of the piece together.
Competition: This is even a bigger long shot for Son Lux, who face fierce competition from “Naatu Naatu” (Kaala Bhairava, M.M. Keeravani, and Rahul Sipligunj) from the Bollywood phenomenon “RRR,” Rihanna’s first nomination, “Lift Me Up,” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” and 14-time nominee and Governor Award Oscar winner Diane Warren for “Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman.”
Prediction: “Naatu Naatu” appears unbeatable, especially since it’s the only Oscar nomination for the wildly popular “RRR.” Apart from that, Rihanna’s comeback story has appeal in connection with this poignant tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman. But, again, Son Lux is riding a wave of momentum — though a win for song would be a shocker.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
If frontrunner "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
“Do you miss me? Please say yes!” both groups sing on “Di Que Sí”
Following the TikTok virality of Grupo Frontera’s song “Bebé Dame” with Fuerza Régida, the Mexican group is back for another collaboration, this time with Marca Registrada. On Thursday night, the bands released the Tejano song “Di Que Sí” with an accompanying video seeing both groups coming together.
Backed by the genre’s signature accordion sound, the song follows the bands’ lead singers crooning to a former lover about making a mistake and asking them to come back to their side: “I’ve gone several nights with no sleep/My bed was left with the smell of you/I miss you…Do you miss me? Please say yes!”
“Edgar Barrera sent us the song first, saying that it was made for us,” Registrada’s Fidel Castro told Billboard. “We had great chemistry with Frontera, and a nice friendship was born. Both groups are sure that this song is going to be a hit.”
This is Grupo Frontera’s first release of the year, following a slew of collabs, such as “Que Vuelvas” with Carin León, and both “Bebé Dame” and “911” with Fuerza Régida.
Marca Registrada also recently tapped Fuerza Régida to release “El Pickles,” and released Haciendo Magia, an album filled with collabs with the likes of Enigma Norteño, Gerardo Ortiz, and Edición Especial late last year.
“People just close their minds because they hear the instruments and they think it’s just some Mexican whack shit,” Fuerza Régida’s JOP told Rolling Stone about the uptick in popularity of Música Mexicana. “But they’ve got to sit down and really listen to the lyrics. When they listen, they’re going to understand: It’s the same culture. It’s the same thing, just from a different place.”
"Do you miss me? Please say yes!"
Session One of the 2023 Film Independent Directors Close-Up kicked off a jam-packed month of events–seven online and three in-person, see the full schedule here–last Wednesday, February 1 with the five brilliant directors of films nominated for Best First Feature at the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
The panelists shared a wealth of knowledge and critical pieces of advice that will be valuable for any first-time filmmaker looking to turn their idea into a completed project. After the conversation it was clear that there is no single path to success, but there are plenty of tools and strategies that can be utilized in the process. Drawing on personal experience can also be the most effective way to introduce yourself to the world.
The “Maiden Voyage: Best First Feature” discussion included directors Elegance Bratton (The Inspection), Jamie Dack (Palm Trees and Power Lines), John Patton Ford (Emily the Criminal), Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic (Murina) and Charlotte Wells (Aftersun). Moderating the discussion was award-winning producer Shelby Stone (The Chi). See below how they answered some of Stone’s most pressing questions…
The story a filmmaker chooses to tell with their first feature is something that will set the stage for the rest of their career. So it’s clearly a decision that can’t be taken lightly. While all five of the writer-directors would draw from their own life experiences in penning the script for their debut feature, one didn’t decide to do so until several drafts into the process.
“What better way to spark a conversation than to use my own experience,” Elegance Bratton said as he described his impetus to start writing The Inspection. The film directly reflects the hardships Bratton endured as a young man who was homeless for 10 years after being kicked out of his mother’s house when she found out he was gay. It wasn’t until he joined the Marines that he found purpose and meaning in life.
Jamie Dack drew on a relationship she had as a young woman with a man that was older than her for Palm Trees and Power Lines. Her perception of these situations had changed over time and this re-examination motivated her to start writing. “At the time of the relationships I really felt like I was an active participant. As I got older, I started to realize maybe that wasn’t exactly the case and there were ways in which I had been manipulated,” Dack explained.
Murina is a film heavily informed by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s time spent living a wild-child lifestyle on a sparsely developed, stark island as a teen with her family. She was free to roam wherever she desired, danger was always a present element. “I wanted to really write it from my 16-year-old self and remember the resilience that you inevitably lose over time,” the Croatian-born director stated.
The grief experienced after losing her father as a teenager drove Charlotte Wells to make Aftersun. She had many questions that had gone unanswered, and she wanted to explore this time in her life and see what she could resolve. “Memory became inextricable from the film itself and there are ways in which it became a lot more personal than I ever anticipated it being,” Wells explained. While the film was not intended to be fully autobiographical, it evolved into something truer to her life than she could’ve imagined when she started writing.
John Patton Ford was the only panelist who did not initially set out to make a personal film with his debut Emily the Criminal. It was more about simply getting something made! “It’s my life. I need to get a film made. It became personal only later after writing a couple drafts that it actually started to reflect something that I was feeling at that time,” Ford said on the evolution of the script. The fact that he was $100,000 in student debt and working any job he could get to survive were elements of his personal life that would later make their way into the script.
“How did you get your film across the finish line?” Stone asked.
“There is no single answer and it’s so frustrating. It’s frustrating to hear and it’s frustrating to say. At this point you want to be able to answer that question, but it is different for everybody,” Charlotte Wells explained, perfectly summing up the enigma that is completing a film. If one thing was clear after listening to the responses of our panelists however, it was that the key is connecting with the right people.
Elegance Bratton, Jamie Dack and moderator Shelby Stone all participated in the Film Independent’s Fast Track as a means to quite literally fast track their project by matching them up with the people needed to complete their films. Bratton said, “I applied to a lot of different labs and most of them told me ‘no’ multiple times until the Film Independent Producing Lab and Fast Track allowed the movie in. I got some great notes there, but more importantly I got 12 different offers.”
John Patton Ford’s path varied a bit as his pivot to focusing on writing only had allowed him to meet a well-established director who ended up sending his script directly to none other than Aubrey Plaza. She would serve as the star and producer for the film. Financing and pandemic delays still caused the project to take several years to complete, however.
Stone asked the filmmakers for their thoughts about pitching their projects. Most would agree that being able to “sell” your project in a pitch meeting is a vital skill for filmmakers. One of our esteemed directors, however, said they have yet to master it and found a different strategy.
John Patton Ford said he believes “the ability to pitch and articulate your ideas is just as important as your skills as a filmmaker.” On the other hand, Charlotte Wells feels that it’s something she still struggles with and got her project made by finding like-minded people instead. “I never acquired that skill with this film–even now… It was just a hard film to describe,” adding: “Find the people who you connect with so you can have a conversation about more than just your project.” For example, other filmmakers.
The Directors Close-Up series continues with events through March 1 leading up to the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards on Sunday, March 4. Passes are on sale now.
Film Independent promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work. To become a Member of Film Independent, just click here. To support us with a donation, click here.
Two Edmonton-area goaltenders shone as the Philadelphia Flyers outlasted the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 in a shootout Thursday night.
Sherwood Park’s Carter Hart made 34 saves for the Flyers while Stuart Skinner turned away 35 shots for his hometown Oilers.
The Flyers outplayed the Oilers in the first period and grabbed the lead on a goal by Kevin Hayes.
Evander Kane evened it up before the second period was two minutes old.
He took a drop pass from Connor McDavid and fired a shot in off the glove of Carter Hart. Kane had another great chance only ten seconds later, but Hart slid across to make the stop.
Travis Sanheim had a point-blank chance for the Flyers late in the period, but Skinner shot out his glove for the denial.
Read more:
Edmonton Oilers’ Mega 50/50 will boost Ben Stelter Fund: ‘This is huge’
Read next:
Part of the Sun breaks free and forms a strange vortex, baffling scientists
The Oilers briefly celebrated a lead when Zach Hyman stuffed in a rebound 7:24 into the third, but the Flyers successfully challenged for goalie interference.
Video review showed Warren Foegele bumped Hart as he drove through the crease. With 46 seconds left, Noah Cates appeared to have most of the net to shoot out, but Skinner reached out for a great blocker save.
Read more:
Edmonton Oilers motor to victory in Detroit with 5-2 win over Red Wings
Read next:
Exclusive: Widow’s 911 call before James Smith Cree Nation murders reveals prior violence
The teams traded chances in overtime with Skinner and Hart both coming up with big saves.
Morgan Frost and James van Riemsdyk scored in the shootout for the Flyers. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tallied for the Oilers.
McDavid extended his point streak to 14 games.
The Oilers, 29-18-5, will visit the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. The 630 CHED Face-off Show begins at 9 a.m., game at 10:30 a.m.
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Two Edmonton-area goaltenders shone as the Philadelphia
Why do we always remember the arguments? If there’s a family spat at the Thanksgiving table, it’ll be remembered long after grandma’s gravy recipe is lost to the ages.
Sharr White’s new play Pictures From Home drives that simple truth all the way home, and then makes so many return trips you imagine the ride could be made blindfolded. Given a loving production, the play opens tonight at Broadway’s Studio 54, with a trio of Broadway’s best – Nathan Lane, Danny Burstein, and Zoё Wanamaker – who couldn’t be more devoted to the sentimental memory play if it was about their own families. And Pictures From Home frequently pierces through its own nostalgia with an observation clear and crisp as a brand new Polaroid. Lots and lots of Polaroids.
Based on the unlikely source of photographer Larry Sultan’s wonderful 1992 photo book of the same title, which included then-new images along with aging scrapbook family photos, the biographical memory play, directed by Bartlett Sher, chronicles the multi-year endeavor in which Larry (played by Burstein) flies from his home in San Francisco to snap shots of his Los Angelino parents, dad Irving (Lane) and mom Jean (Wanamaker), as they go about the daily business of living.
Set primarily during the 1980s, when Larry has already (and very frequently) been pointing the camera at mom and dad for eight years, Pictures From Home sets its focus (at least initially) on the father-son relationship, prickly even without the annoyance of the camera’s click click click. Larry won’t stop until he makes a sort of breakthrough, getting past lifetimes of surface images and public faces to reveal the real man and woman who gave him life.
Burstein (Photo: Julieta Cervantes)
The project especially grates on the retired Irving, who at first mostly objects to the repetitive nature of the project but gradually comes out with what’s really bugging him: Larry’s search for an authentic Irving is a not-so-subtle doubting, and even rebuking, of the Irving who built a successful (and lucrative) career as a corporate go-getter. That Irving, Larry believes, is and always was a front, shallow and artificial as the 8×10 corporate headshot that Irving prefers to Larry’s warts-and-wrinkles-and-all realism.
As Larry’s photographs are projected (essentially by an unseen assistant character) onto a large wall of the family’s mid-century modern ranch home (designed with an appealing minimalism by Michael Yeargan, the details fleshed out by Ben Pearcy/59 Productions’ projection designs), the characters frequently break the fourth wall to make their cases directly to the audience. And each character attempts to deconstruct whatever photo is displayed (the photos are taken directly from Sultan’s book, so feature his real parents), with Irving almost sickened by the age and sometimes unpleasant disposition that bleeds through. Those, of course, are just the sort of images Larry is going for.
As the father and son bicker and argue over the issue, mom Jean mostly plays peacekeeper, at least initially. A close-up photo of herself, taken when she was busy and on her way to the real estate job that has made her the couple’s de facto breadwinner, tells a truth that she’s struggled to keep hidden from Irving: Unlike the men of the family, she has absorbed a sense of guilt over her very successful career, a guilt reinforced over the year’s by Irving: He’s called her top-dollar career a hobby once too often.
While the intimate and honest views of a family’s inner workings can’t help but touch our hearts at steadily paced moments, Pictures From Home is too blunt in its characterizations, with father and son especially, repeating their arguments and complaints with unstoppable frequency. Lane has the toughest job here, having to convince the audience that we don’t know who he really is, that we haven’t seen a version of this guy displayed and portrayed in everything from An American Family to (at its most extreme) Succession. The challenge proves a bit too tough even for the indefatigable and always appealing Lane, whose left to fill the holes with high-volume point-making.
By the play’s end, we can’t help but feeling sympathy for all concerned, characters and actors, but, sad to say, it’s the arguments we’ll remember.
Why do we always remember the arguments?
The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has brought life back to his longtime passion project, a biopic about the iconic rock band’s former drummer, Keith Moon.
Daltrey said in an interview with Vulture that he had recently finished a script for the movie, which had been nearly set to film last summer before Daltrey — with an aversion for a script written by Jeff Pope (“Philomena,” “Stan and Ollie”) — stepped in and halted production. Paul Whittington (“The Crown”) had been set to direct.
Daltrey then committed to writing the script. He said he would now like to get the film shot within two years.
“I’m very pleased with the script,” Daltrey, 78, told Vulture. “I want people to get an understanding of him and his life, and the complete genius he was. He had so much talent, that boy, but he became out of control for a lot of reasons. Mostly for lack of discipline. But once the drugs kick in, usually that disappears, doesn’t it?”
Daltrey said he had an actor in mind for the lead role of the film, which previously had the working title “The Real Me” — a song on the Who album “Quadrophenia.” Daltrey would not reveal who the actor was, however.
“I’ve got an actor in mind who’s a role model ,” Daltrey said. “He might be too old, but then again, Keith looked 50 when he died. He was 32, but he looked 54. I think the actor is about 40 now. I don’t want to jinx it and say his name. But there’s an actor who I’ve seen and when I look at him I go, ‘God, it’s Moon.’ It’s all to do with the eyes. The eyes are all important. You virtually wouldn’t need to say any dialogue because you could read it in his eyes.
“I mean, that’s a bit much, but you know what I mean. You can read so much in the face of Keith. He had such an incredible vibrancy,” Daltrey added.
The biopic about the legendary drummer has been in the works for more than a decade. Daltrey has said he first gave the project serious thought in the early 2000s.
“I got involved when Mike Myers wanted to play him,” Daltrey said. “We were trying to get the film off the ground. I think Mike, when he was younger, would’ve made a fabulous Keith. It’s a shame it never happened. I’m driven by this project. It came to me in a dream 30 years ago.”
Moon would have turned 76 last August. Daltrey revealed the script’s status after being asked by Vulture what Who song “always reminded him” of Moon, to which Daltrey answered “Who Are You” — the hit title song for their album released in August 1978, a month before Moon’s death from an overdose of Heminevrin, a drug that combats alcohol withdrawal.
“Mainly from the video we did with him for the song,” Daltrey said. “We were obviously having a lot of trouble with Keith at the time when we made that album. He wasn’t in the best of shape. He was indulging in quite a lot of naughties. It was a difficult time, but when we came together to do that video to promote the album, Keith joined in on the backing vocals and he was hysterical. There’s something about Keith that he … no matter how naughty he was, you’d have to love him. You’d just have to love him.”
“He was a rascal,” Daltrey added. “He used to rope his drum kit up. In the ’60s, when he first joined us, he would bring a length of rope and tie them all together because he would just go crazy. Then, once we started using backing tracks and the headphones, he had to tape them to his head because it could fly off.”
The Who frontman Roger Daltrey has brought
EXCLUSIVE: When AIDS first emerged in the United States in the early 1980s, Los Angeles became one of the cities immediately impacted. The new documentary Commitment to Life shows how L.A.’s gay community and allies mobilized to fight the disease despite a lack of funding, intense fear about AIDS, and an administration in Washington that would not confront the epidemic for political reasons.
The film directed by Jeffrey Schwarz (Tab Hunter Confidential, I Am Divine) holds its world premiere on Saturday at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Combining fresh interviews and archival material, Commitment to Life examines the critical role that AIDS Project Los Angeles played in raising money for research, helping those who had contracted HIV-AIDS, and educating gay people and others in the city about how to reduce their risk of exposure.
“We put out pamphlet after pamphlet after pamphlet about how it was transmitted,” former APLA executive director Bill Misenhimer explains in the exclusive clip above, “and what you needed to avoid.”
Leaders of the nonprofit, founded in 1983 by Max Drew, Nancy Cole Sawaya, Matt Redman and Erv Munro, quickly realized they could leverage a resource unique to Hollywood to fight the disease: a big community of stars. Elizabeth Taylor was the best-known personality who joined the battle, but so did many others, including Joan Rivers, Morgan Fairchild, Alison Arngrim from Little House on the Prairie, and Zelda Rubenstein, the diminutive actress who played the clairvoyant in the movie Poltergeist.
Rubenstein appeared in PSAs aimed at encouraging gay men to adopt safer sex practices. You can see an excerpt of those ads in the clip above.
“Commitment to Life reconstructs the virus’ devastating march and the city that rose to fight it,” according to a description of the film. “Like the virus itself, the story winds through gated communities and neighborhoods of color, government offices and university labs, hospital suites and studio soundstages to tell a story of courage and sacrifice — as well as one of discrimination and unequal treatment.”
Schwarz is director and editor of Commitment to Life; Aimée Flaherty and Schwarz produce. Ron Sylvester serves as executive producer, and Robert James Wood II as co-executive producer. Executive producer for APLA Health is Craig Thompson. Co-producer is Taki Oldham, associate producer Michael Stabile, and supervising producer for APLA Health is Craig Bowers. The composer is Allyson Newman, with the participation of Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles; the cinematographer is Adam Jason Finmann.
Commitment to Life features key interviews with Jewel Thais-Williams, co-founder, Minority AIDS Project; HIV-AIDS activist Phill Wilson; Karamo Brown, Queer Eye cast member & HIV/AIDS educator; Dr. Michael Gottlieb, physician and former APLA Board Member; Bruce Vilanch, writer and comedian; Jeffrey Katzenberg, former chairman, Walt Disney Studios and APLA Board Member; Bill Misenhimer, former APLA executive director; Robert Contreras, co-founder, Bienestar; Torie Osborn, former executive director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Rev. Steve Pieters, former field director of AIDS Ministry, Metropolitan Community Churches; and Bamby Salcedo, president, TransLatin Coalition.
Watch the exclusive clip above.
EXCLUSIVE: When AIDS first emerged in the
As Beyoncé fans anxiously waited online looking to secure tickets to Queen Bey’s upcoming Renaissance tour, the high price of ticket fees is once again a groan-inducing discussion among ticket-buyers as they have no choice but to swallow the hefty added costs if they want to see her show.
Some customers who bought VIP packages for the tour — already among the priciest and highest-quality experiences at the venue — saw service fees as high as $550 (about a 15% service fee) atop the $3,757 the customer already spent on their seat. The most expensive tickets, of course, will also catch the most eye-popping fees. Among the more affordable seats, one customer’s screenshot detailed a $43.90 service fee on a $162 ticket (about a 27 percent fee), plus another $8 for the facility charge.
An initial look at fees suggests the Renaissance Tour isn’t much worse than the usual on-sale for a tour of this size, with some of the prices fans have shared online reflecting somewhere between 15 to the upper 20-percents for fees on Ticketmaster. Rather, it’s just the latest in the most common complaint customers have as pay even more at checkout for what may have already been a major purchase.
Ticketing fees aren’t a uniquely Ticketmaster issue, and the fees for some tickets listed on resale platforms like StubHub and VividSeats have come close to 30 percent. But Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation Entertainment have faced increased scrutiny from federal regulators over allegations that the company functions as a live music monopoly.
Ticketmaster has repeatedly refuted allegations that it squashes competition. Regarding the fees in particular, Live Nation Entertainment president and CFO Joe Berchtold told regulators during a Senate judiciary hearing on the live music business last month that venues typically set the fees, and that Ticketmaster’s portion of service fees has fallen.
The fees have been a significant part of discussion from regulators and advocates looking to make the ticketing industry more fair and transparent for fans. During the Senate judiciary panel, several senators, including Amy Klobuchar, probed witnesses about the fees and what it would take to get them handled. Both Klobuchar and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have told Rolling Stone that the fees are gouging fans, and both questioned how Live Nation’s dominance in the industry have impacted fee costs.
The issue has even made its way to the White House. President Joe Biden has repeatedly called for a crackdown on “junk fees” across industries including the live music business; during his State of the Union this week, he pushed for the “Junk Fee Prevention Act,” which the Biden Administration first proposed last week. The Biden Administration has called for Congress to “reduce fees through legislation,” and to prohibit “excessive fees” and force ticket platforms to disclose when they’ve used “holdbacks” for shows to limit ticket supply. Biden also called for a widespread adoption of all-in ticket prices, which prevents ticketers from hiding fees until the end of a purchase. Several high-profile ticket services have championed that latter policy, noting that all-in ticketing could only work across the industry if all companies are mandated to practice it.
The Break Up Ticketmaster Coalition, which has been active for months calling for regulators to crack down on Live Nation and Ticketmaster (and in separate the two companies), celebrated Biden’s push this week as well.
“Fans, artists, competitors, and policymakers sounding the alarm about the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly’s abuses — including charging inexplicable, sky high fees — has warranted attention from the Biden administration,” the coalition said in a statement. “It’s time legislators and regulators bring transparency and accountability to the live events ticketing industry by curbing the use of these junk fees once and for all, and breaking up this monopoly to bring more competition to the live events industry.”
As Beyoncé fans anxiously waited online
About three days into his role as
New images from Fast X have been released, as director Louis Leterrier teases that the upcoming movie will have tremendous casualties.
We’re nearing the endgame of the Fast & Furious saga, and given how far the franchise has come from its humble beginnings, fans are expecting some big things from Fast X. Louis Leterrier, who took over the film from Justin Lin, teased to Empire Magazine that there will be some “tremendous casualties” this time around. Empire also released a handful of first look images from Fast X, which you can check out below.
The Fast X images include a look as Vin Diesel, who looks the same as ever as Dominic Toretto, as well as the first looks at Jason Momoa as Dante and Brie Larson as Tess.
“There’s a war brewing,” Louis Leterrier said. “It’s coming to an end, and it is a race to the finish. There will be some tremendous casualties.” The director also teased that “People are going to need to take sides. Alliances will need to be made. Good guys will become bad guys, bad guys will become good guys.” As far as bad guys go, we know that Charlize Theron will be pulling the strings once again as Cipher, but the newest baddie on the street is Dante (Momoa). “He’s an incredible new character,” Louis Leterrier said. “It’s 1,000 per cent Momoa… [Cipher and Dante] are bad news, but one is more afraid than the other. One is worse news than the other.“
The Fast & Furious movies have grown increasingly outlandish (they went to space in the last movie), but Louis Leterrier wanted to bring things back to Earth with Fast X. “I’m more practical than other directors, and I brought it back to earth,” Leterrier said. “We went for real stunts, which we’re enhancing with visual effects. We shot in LA, London, Rio, Portugal. We blew up Hummers flying around Rome. There’ll be some iconic imagery in this one. You will see: as long as Dom Toretto is behind the wheel of a car, there’s nothing he cannot do.“
A new trailer for Fast X will be released tomorrow, so be sure to check back on JoBlo for that. The Fast & Furious sequel is set for a May 30th release. Now that we’re nearing the end of the road, which members of the team won’t make it to the finish line?
New images from Fast X have been
Keke Palmer and Sacha Baron Cohen are teaming up for David O. Russell’s next film, “Super Toys.” The project is being shopped at the European Film Market in Berlin.
Set in the 1970s, the “Nope” and “Borat” stars will play groovy toy salespeople on a life-or-death mission to save themselves, their marriage and their 12-year-old daughter while traveling the roads of middle America.
“American Hustle” filmmaker Russell will write and direct his follow-up to last year’s box office bomb “Amsterdam.” Charles Roven is producing for Atlas Entertainment, along with Matthew Budman.
Palmer, fresh off her lauded performance in Jordan Peele’s “Nope,” has a number of other projects in the works. She’s set to star in and produce the action-comedy “Moxie” and will feature alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Kathy Najimy in “Sister Act 3: Kicking the Habit.” Her project “Being Mortal” is on indefinite hiatus after a female collaborator filed an inappropriate behavior complaint against co-star Bill Murray. Palmer is represented by 3 Arts Entertainment and Hertz Lichtenstein Young & Polk LLP.
Baron Cohen’s recent work includes “Luca,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” He’ll next star in Alfonso Cuarón’s upcoming Apple TV+ series “Disclaimer” with Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline. Baron Cohen is repped by CAA and Ziffren Brittenham. Russell is also repped by CAA.
CAA is handling U.S. sales for “Super Toys,” while Film Nation Entertainment reps international sales.
Deadline first reported the news.
Keke Palmer and Sacha Baron Cohen are
Finding one’s place anywhere, but perhaps especially in New York, is a challenging thing. I pondered this as I stood in a thick line straining to gain entrance to the standing-room-only opening screening of the New York Peruvian Film Showcase, taking place at the Instituto Cervantes in midtown Manhattan on September 16. For one thing, turning to a Spanish-run institution’s New York outpost, whose mission is nonetheless an important one to provide a home and showcase for Spanish-language culture internationally, always adds a curious post-colonial questioning to things. For another, although Latin American film has been flourishing in recent years, Peru is not the filmic powerhouse of, say, Mexico or Argentina, and yet it has increasingly become a dynamic, richly inventive source of cinematic acclaim, its output more modest yet at the same time, arguably packing major impact. And finally, most germane to this audience, perhaps, the emphasis on Peruvian film leans toward the narrative, rather than documentary. With all this in mind, it was perfectly apt that the opening night of the festival paid tribute to the late Peruvian-American documentarian Roberto Guerra, whose output was unduly cut short last January by pancreatic cancer, but who so brilliantly “lived the questions,” to paraphrase Rilke.
Guerra’s body of work is a continual examination of the creative process, of the tensions and passions in life that fuel art and vice versa, of the collaborative process, and of identity and an individual’s quest to sculpt and forge it beyond whatever happenstance of birth may have initially shaped them. Showcase Director Lorry Salcedo Mitrani’s Roberto Guerra, a Life, which screened at the tribute, aptly examines the Peruvian-American’s trajectory, interviewing Guerra’s brother, Humberto, and wife and filmmaking partner, Kathy Brew, and weaving throughout excerpts from Guerra’s films alongside photos that capture Guerra’s life in New York and growing up in Peru. An engineer by training, Guerra’s inquisitive nature and love of the energy of the present moment turned him to film.
Guerra’s initiation into the world of cinema in the 1960s began at a significant moment of change in Peru, when director Armando Robles Godoy was among the first Peruvian filmmakers to receive international recognition. Although working in narrative, Robles was freely experimental in his approach, and was influenced by European art cinema while clearly also owing a significant debt to the tradition of documentary filmmaking in Peru known as the Cuzco School. The documentaries of the Cuzco School explored indigenous themes and reflected Peruvian culture’s pre-Columbian roots, and ultimately engaged issues of social justice as in much of what would become the New Latin American Cinema movement. Godoy was an advocate for the training of a new generation of Peruvian filmmakers, and as such, Guerra worked with him on his 1966 film, En la selva no hay estrellas (In the Jungle There Are No Stars). But as a budding artist, Guerra was equally captivated by influences from abroad, and would become drawn to cinema vérité, and the exploration of the artistic life abroad, ultimately leading to a lifelong career and investigation of the creative process through documentary.
From Armando Robles Godoy’s En la selva no hay estralleas (In the Jungle There Are No Stars)
Throughout Guerra’s examination of the artistic process, he would almost unfailingly hone in on the collaborative nature of much artmaking. Collaboration was certainly reflected in his own film production partnerships, which were truly all-encompassing—of art, life and love. He began his own documentary career with his first wife, Eila Hershon, who succumbed to cancer, and later flourished artistically upon meeting and collaborating with Brew.
Initially, Guerra’s artistic endeavors, coupled with Hershon’s background as a painter, led them to explore art on film, focusing broadly on the creative process in the lives of artists in all media, running the gamut from painters Oscar Kokoschka and Frieda Kahlo, graphic designers such as Milton Glaser and Massimo and Lella Vignelli, and fashion designers Coco Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld. Unlike Guerra’s later work, these earlier films were for the most part more conventionally structured, perhaps due to their nature as broadcast commissions. And yet they had an insistent, slightly subversive curiosity and questioning of themes that would recur throughout Guerra’s career and find full, freer expression in his later work. Issues of feminism and the creative process, as read through the lens of a feminine, fertile spirit as well as the constraints and subversive upending of popular fashion, are first seen in the explorations of Chanel and Kahlo. Equally, the artist as outsider carefully crafting a unique, public identity as part of the creative process is seen throughout the work: Lagerfeld commenting on his own changing image and output throughout the years; archival footage of, and statements from, Chanel; and Glaser’s own appraisal of his development as an artist.
In Guerra’s later documentaries, his lens would increasingly focus on the collaborative nature of artmaking, discarding the romanticized notion of the artist alone in the studio. This perhaps aptly reflected his partnership with Brew, whose inquisitive spirit and media-arts expertise matched his and embodied the notion of a “great dyad” (as put forth by essayist Joshua Wolf Shenk in his recent book Power of Twos: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs). Guerra and Brew’s most recent work, Design Is One: Lella and Massimo Vignelli, returns to the Vignellis as one of Guerra’s early subjects, and garnered much acclaim on festival and theatrical runs. It is a fascinating look at the 50-year dynamic partnership of the Italian designers, who are responsible for so much that makes up our daily lives, with their powerful design and branding influence on everything ranging from furniture to logos to maps and far beyond. Guerra and Brew’s soon-to-be-completed documentary on Seward Johnson explores the very definition of art. It doesn’t shy away from the hard questions or easy glorification of artists, as they examined a populist artist who works in realistic, life-size sculptures. The filmmakers ask hard questions—of the arts community, of ourselves as audiences-about the very nature of what art is and who gets a shot at experiencing, defining and legitimizing it. In these documentaries, a loose style of observation, especially in artistic production, gives the artists ample time to speak for their own process, and allows plenty of other voices to weigh in, amplifying the fact that art does not exist, nor is it created, in a vacuum. It lives and breathes and is jostled by daily life in these documentaries, and ultimately flourishes there.
From Kathy Brew and Roberto Guerra’s Design Is One: Lella and Massimo Vignelli, a First Run Features release. Photo: John Madere.
It is also through Brew that Guerra, who left Peru as a young man, was ultimately persuaded to return in 2000 to examine his roots and explore Peruvian subjects. In several works-in-progress that were excerpted in Roberto Guerra, a Life, one sees promising, compelling explorations of artists working in Peru and of topical issues at play in the country. Beauty Behind Bars attests to the effects of the drug trade in Peru, as convicted female drug smugglers compete in a beauty pageant for convicts only. While the film doesn’t shy away from humor and the absurdity of the premise, it also attests to Guerra’s ongoing exploration of female self-determination and political questions about international drug trafficking. Other works-in-progress by Guerra focus on the terrorism that devastated Peru throughout the ’80s and ’90s and the creation of an artistic, public art project responding to it; and on an artist whose work reflects the significant Peruvian concept of Pachamama (an indigenous conception of Mother Earth) and recognizes the power of a feminine spirit in creative production.
The late Roberto Guerra shooting his and Kathy Brew’s documentary on the artist Seward Johnson. Courtesy of Kathy Brew
And so we look to Brew to continue Guerra’s legacy as we eagerly await the completion of these future films. Additionally, Brew, in partnership with UnionDocs, is establishing The Roberto Guerra Documentary Award to honor Guerra’s legacy in the field. It will be an annual prize given to a New York-based documentary filmmaker originally from a Latin American country.
Those of us who knew Guerra recall his wide and intensely curious owl-eyes, through frames like the focusing rings of a camera, watching, guiding, but mostly encouraging us to continue in the dynamic exploration of life in and through film, and the power of the collaborative, artistic spirit to endure.
Maria-Christina Villaseñor is a writer and independent curator based in New York. She writes frequently on Latin American film as well as on .film and video installation art, and is the author of William Kentridge: Black Box/Chambre Noire.
Finding one's place anywhere, but perhaps especially
It’s the ultimate honor: a spot in a Super Bowl commercial! Blues musician Gary Clark Jr. appears in Workday’s first-ever Super Bowl commercial alongside Joan Jett, Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol, and others as they attempt to teach people the best way to use the phrase, “You’re a rockstar!” Texan-born Gary, 38, burst his way onto the jazz scene with his 2011 debut EP, Bright Lights, which became the first EP to ever score a leading review in Rolling Stone, per his website.
Since then, Gary has been modernizing the R&B genre with his musical prowess. In 2012, his 2012 Blak and Blu album earned him a Grammy Award in the Best Traditional R&B Performance category for the track “Please Come Home.” Gary even branched out with his politically charged 2019 album, This Land. Read on to learn more about the impressive musician.
Gary made his Saturday Night Live debut as a musical guest on Feb. 16, 2019 and performed his single “This Land” ahead of the release of the This Land album. Gary opened up about how the 2016 presidential election influenced his album in a Feb. 2019 interview with Billboard. “At the time when I was writing this album, it was right around the election, so late 2016. It makes sense for me to pay attention to what kind of world is going on around me so I can tell my [two young] children what’s happening in it so we can figure out how to maneuver through this thing and make it the best that we can,” he noted.
Plus, he said a racist Texan neighbor “right in the middle of Trump country” also inspired his project in an interview with NPR. Giving the outlet more insight, he claimed his neighbor refused to believe he owned his house and repeatedly demanded to speak to the owner of the home. “There’s no way you can live here,” the neighbor allegedly told him.
Gary has shared the stage with Eric Clapton, B. B. King, the Rolling Stones, and more. Gary recalled looking up to Eric Clapton, 77, B.B. King, and more in a 2017 interview with UPROXX. “22 years ago, I was sitting watching TV. It was Austin City Limits with Eric Clapton and Jimmie Vaughan, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Robert Cray, doing a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan. I was sitting there with my guitar and I was like ‘I want to do that one day,’” he remembered. “To be here right where I’m at, playing these shows with [Eric] and Jimmie, I feel like this sense of accomplishment, but I also feel like I’m just getting started. For them to be so cool and welcome me in is like, I feel like the new kid so I’m trying to be cool and not say anything stupid.”
In terms of what it’s like playing with Eric, an English rock and blues artist, Gary said he follows his lead. “Honestly, I just kind of, I just fall back and I let him take control. He’s the captain, you know what I mean?” he asked.
Gary also performs the guitar solo on Childish Gambino’s 2016 song “The Night Me and Your Mama Met” from his album Awaken. Gary praised Gambino as praises Gambino as “the most forward-thinking artist of our time” in a 2017 interview with Roling Stone.
As mentioned earlier, Gary has dipped his toes into various genres of music, which allows him to be influenced by a range of musicians. “I like what what Big K.R.I.T. does. J. Cole. I like rapper producers. I like guys who can put the whole thing together and have a full-on vision and present that,” he told UPROXX. He also said he’s a fan of Kanye West, 45. “I like how he’s another one who pushes the boundaries, you know what I mean? ‘What’s that guy doing?’ The next thing you know people are like… it worked!”
He added, “Jay-Z is just swag, you know what I mean? Just attitude. Flavor. Nas. Let’s see, Run the Jewels, of course. Kendrick [Lamar], I think whatever is going on with him, we’ve just reached the surface of what he’s going to do, not even just as a musician but as a dude.”
and his band played in an episode of Friday Night Lights in 2010. His songs were also featured in movies like Trouble with the Curve and Deepwater Horizon. Gary has dabbled in acting, too, as he starred in the 2007 film, Honeydripper. He also appeared in 2022’s Elvis as Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup.
Gary Clark Jr. and his Australian-born supermodel wife Nicole Trunfio walked down the aisle in 2016 at the Colony Palms Hotel in Palm Springs, Calif. after dating for four years. At the time, they shared a 15-month-old son named Zion. Since then, they have welcomed two more kids: daughter Gia “Gigi” Leblane Clark, 5, and daughter Ella Wolf Clark, 2.
As seen above, Nicole announced the arrival of their third baby together on Instagram with a sweet black and white photo of her hand holding onto her newborn’s. “So in love with you … 02.21.2020 … 8.1lbs of yummy … welcome to this world my baby girl … your mummy and daddy and brother and sister love you so so so so much already. You are MAGIC … Thank you @garyclarkjr for this gift …. #luckynumber3,” she wrote in the caption.
Click to Subscribe to Get Our Free HollywoodLife Daily Newsletter to get the hottest celeb news.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ID-1mzRAew[/embed] More 'SNL' News: Gary Clark Jr. is an
The report comes as Musk is working to generate revenue for the company, which he has said is in dire financial straits despite the layoffs of thousands of employees and the suspension of payments for a number of services including rent on Twitter’s downtown San Francisco headquarters. Twitter’s advertising revenue in December was 70 percent lower than the previous year, according to data from Standard Media Index, an advertising research firm.
CCDH’s chief executive, Imran Ahmed, linked the drop off in ad revenue to the decision by Musk to restore the formerly banned accounts. “Our research shows that there is a depressingly banal answer to why Elon Musk would reinstate the accounts of self-professed Nazis, disinformation actors, misogynists and homophobes — it’s highly profitable,” he said.
Musk did not immediately respond to request for comment. Twitter’s communications department was eliminated in layoffs last year.
The CCDH uncovered multiple examples of advertisements from major national brands, including Amazon, Apple TV, the NFL and Fiverr, that appeared next to content from the 10 extremist influencers. In one instance, an ad for Wendy’s appeared next to a tweet by Stew Peters, an anti-vaccine influencer with 168,000 followers, where he referred to the vaccine as a “BioWeapon” and claimed people have been “murdered” by it.
In another example, an ad for the streaming service Peacock appeared next to a tweet from Anthime Gionet, an influencer known as Baked Alaska, who was recently sentenced for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. The ad appeared next to a tweet where Gionet asked his followers whether he should “say the n-word.”
Brand advertisements also appeared next to tweets about election fraud, vaccine conspiracy theories, false statements about Ukraine and bio weapons, and tweets denigrating women in business, CCDH said.
Twitter’s drop-off in advertising revenue has been attributed in part to concerns that such juxtapositions would damage brands. “A lot of brands are scared of Twitter given Elon’s rhetoric,” said Brendan Gahan, chief innovation officer at Mekanism, an advertising agency. “He’s created an atmosphere that makes Twitter feel very unsafe for brands.”
Twitter’s advertising products are also considered less sophisticated than Facebook’s or YouTube’s, he noted. “When you take into account the economic climate right now, dollars need to work harder than ever,” he said. “Twitter was not in a great position even before Musk, and Musk creating turmoil has just made it easier for brands to walk away and not come back.”
“We don’t condone hateful content or dangerous conspiracy theories,” a spokesperson from Fiverr said. “These campaigns have been removed, and our partners and teams have been alerted to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
After this story was first published, Fiverr announced it was stopping all advertising on Twitter.
The 10 influencers CCDH considered in its survey are Andrew Tate, Robert Malone, Andrew Anglin, Emerald Robinson, Rogan O’Handley, Peter McCullough, Stew Peters, Anthime Gionet, Rizza Islam, and Gateway Pundit. All had their accounts removed from Twitter for violating rules before Musk restored them.
To conduct its survey, CCDH created new accounts on Twitter and followed the 10. Then CCDH calculated the advertising value of those accounts by taking publicly available information about the numbers of impressions the influencers’ tweets received and annualized that number, along with the frequency that ads are served to users. It then multiplied that result by an industry benchmark of the cost for 1,000 impressions. The rates were provided by the social media analytics firm Brandwatch, which shows that Twitter ads cost an average of $6.46 per 1,000 impressions.
“Just 10 of these reinstated bad actors will generate billions of Twitter views, all of which Elon Musk can sell to household brands and advertisers, such as Apple, Amazon, and the NFL. Brands’ ads are appearing right next to Nazi-level hate and lies that can kill,” said Ahmed.
Nandini Jammi, co-founder of Check My Ads Institute, a nonprofit adtech watchdog organization, said that she agreed with the CCDH findings, though she noted that the $19 million in revenue generated is an estimate.
“Under Elon, the revenue model seems to rely on increasing rage-bait to create quick returns,” she said. “The takeaway from the report is that Twitter is generating massive amounts of revenue from the engagement these influencers are generating. The exact amount of revenue cannot precisely be known, because the digital advertising supply chain is so opaque, but we know it’s a lot of money.”
After threatening to “thermonuclear name and shame” advertisers who pulled their marketing dollars from the platform in November, Musk has been attempting to court them by offering free ad runs, lifting a ban on political advertising, and rolling out adjacency controls, which allow advertisers to limit their ads from appearing next to a list of up to 1,000 keywords.
In a deck sent out to large advertisers last month and viewed by The Washington Post, Twitter repeatedly touted the platform’s growth, claiming that daily active users were up 17.8 percent year over year.
Comment on this storyCommentElon Musk’s restoration of
With the streaming bubble bursting and entertainment companies retooling their vision for the future of television, it seems like every new day yields a polarizing series cancellation. From viewership stats to marketing pitfalls and budgetary concerns, TV series are seeing the plug pulled at a seemingly faster rate than ever before — in some cases, after production has been completed and even before they’ve had a chance to air.
For example, after outcry over recently canned series like “1899,” “First Kill” and “Warrior Nun,” Netflix’s new co-CEOS Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said they have never canceled a “successful show.” Platforms like AMC, Starz, Showtime and HBO Max have pulled shows despite having the majority of filming finished or nearly done so. And for Hulu, journalists and audiences raised disappointment following the cancellation of “Reboot.”
At the same time, some shows across networks and streamers are coming to a close; conversely, fan-favorites like “Abbott Elementary” or long-running staples like Fox Animation Domination’s slate are being greenlit for additional installments.
To help you keep it straight, we’ve broken down every TV show that’s renewed, canceled and ending in 2023. And we’ll be updating frequently, so check back often.
At the 2023 Winter Television Critics Association, ABC announced that “Abbott Elementary” would be back for a third season. We can imagine Janine’s already dedicated a new binder to planning the upcoming term out.
The bilingual comedy got a renewal for Season 3 in late January. The Eugenio Derbez vehicle, partially inspired by the 2017 feature “How to Be A Latin Lover,” will commence production this spring.
The football drama garnered an early Season 6 renewal. The status of its spinoff series, “All American: Homecoming,” is still up in the air.
Following the news that Showtime would be integrated with Paramount+’s premium service later this year (under the name Paramount+ With Showtime), the Jon Bernthal-starring reboot was one of several series to receive the ax.
AMC Networks is betting on Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe, with the Alexandra Daddario-led supernatural drama joining predecessor “Interview With the Vampire” for a sophomore installment.
The romantic comedy was renewed for fifth season in late January, joining other popular CBS programming like “Ghosts,” “Young Sheldon” and “The Neighborhood” in installments running through the 2024 TV season.
Bob’s Burgers was renewed for Seasons 14 and 15 in late January.
The Emmy-Award winning animated hit is created and executive produced by Loren Bouchard and was co-developed by Jim Dauterive. Nora Smith, Dan Fybel, Rich Rinaldi, Greg Thompson, Jon Schroeder, Steven Davis, Scott Jacobson, Holly Schlesinger, Wendy Molyneux, Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin and Kelvin Yu also serve as executive producers.
“Bob’s Burgers” currently ranks among the Top 10 comedies for the 2022-23 season, marking the show’s second consecutive season on the list.
Fret not, the title creepy doll (and M3gan’s nemesis) isn’t going anywhere. Along with “Reginald the Vampire” (see below), the horror show was renewed for Season 3 in mid-January.
The thriller-crime series starring Élodie Yung was renewed for a third installment in early February, with “Good Girls” executive producer Jeannine Renshaw joining creator-EP Miranda Kwok as co-showrunner. She takes over from Melissa Carter.
For five seasons, “Cobra Kai” has extended the universe of one of Hollywood’s most iconic fictional professional fighting tales, serving as a sequel to the original “The Karate Kid.” It’ll end with a sixth season.
The reboot of the long-running CBS procedural garnered a Season 2 order mid-January. The Joe Mantegna-led show became one of Paramount+’s top five original series and has driven the overall franchise to see an increase of nearly six times in month-over-month viewership. It reunites most of the original show’s cast members.
Alongside “Titans” (see below), HBO Max announced in late January that the series would conclude with Season 4. The decision to end both shows was not related to the change in leadership at DC Studios (co-led by James Gunn and Peter Safran), nor parent company Warner Bros. Discovery’s cost-cutting efforts.
A daytime favorite and the fastest-growing talk show of its kind, “The Drew Barrymore Show” was renewed through the 2024 TV season last month. The CBS syndicated show’s renewal comes as no surprise to fans of the actress, whose human-interest segments, bright personality and social media-savvy contribute to viewership success.
In addition to “Bob’s Burgers,” Fox renewed “Family Guy” for Seasons 22 and 23.
The Emmy-winning animated comedy currently ranks among the Top 10 comedies for the 2022-23 Season, marking the fifth consecutive seasons on the list. Per the network, “Family Guy” also ranks as Fox’s most-streamed program on record and continues the trend this season, averaging 5.1 million viewers.
Seth MacFarlane is creator and executive producer of “Family Guy.” Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin serve as EPs and showrunners, while Steve Callaghan, Tom Devanney, Danny Smith, Kara Vallow, Mark Hentemann and Patrick Meighan are executive producers.
CBS’ fire-fighting procedural starring Max Thieriot as a young convict seeking redemption was renewed in early January for Season 2. Since its premiere, the drama has averaged 8 million viewers per episode, making it the top new broadcast series of the season.
“The Flash” will end with Season 9, which is set to premiere on Feb. 8 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. Starring Grant Gustin as the title speedster, the show has spanned nearly a decade and more than 180 episodes. Based on the characters from DC, “The Flash” is from Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television.
No scares here! A Season 3 renewal of the beloved comedy is in the bag. From creators Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, “Ghosts” ranks as the No. 1 comedy series on Paramount+ and CBS’ most-streamed program.
The reboot series, which follows a new generation of New York private school teens who are taunted by a mysterious social media presence spilling their secrets, was canceled after two seasons, ahead of “Gossip Girl’s” extravagant Met Gala Season 2 finale. Though showrunner Josh Safran said he hoped to find a new home for the series at the time of cancelation, he admitted it would be an “uphill battle.”
The alternative history series concluded its two-season run this January. From David Weil, the drama — which followed a group of vigilante Nazi hunters in the 1970s — starred Al Pacino, Logan Lerman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and more.
“Hit-Monkey” is coming back with a vengeance at Hulu after being renewed for a second season in February.
Based on the Marvel comics character, the show’s first season follows a Japanese snow monkey joins forces with the ghost of an American assassin to avenge the slaughter of his tribe by killing their way through the Yakuza underworld. The second season will follow the pair to New York City.
Leslie Jones is slated to join the returning cast of Olivia Munn, Jason Sudeikis, Ally Maki and Fred Tatasciore in Season 2. “Hit Monkey” is created and executive produced by Josh Gordon & Will Speck and produced by 20th Television Animation.
Tatiana Maslany was set to star in and executive produce the psychological thriller based on the novel by Adrienne Celt, about “Lolita” author Vladimir Nabokov and wife Vera’s marriage. Despite shooting part of its first season, the show was scrapped by AMC as part of its strategic cost-cutting efforts and $400 million write down announced last year. However, its showrunner Rachel Caris Love is hopeful the series will land elsewhere.
The adult animated comedy show, from Shion Takeuchi (“Gravity Falls”) and about a young woman poised to take over a deep-state conglomerate secretly controlling the world, got an unsurprising (yet stinging) renewal reversal, which saw Netflix renege on its Season 2 commitment. The decision led to widespread fan outcries and is just one of many niche, revered shows on the platform to see the rug swept out from under it. Parts 1 and 2 of the first installment are still streaming on Netflix, though — be warned — the series ends on a cliffhanger.
The travel show starring James May was renewed for third season, per Deadline. After tackling Japan and Italy in Seasons 1 and 2, respectively, “The Grand Tour” presenter will take his gig to India.
Jennifer Hudson’s daytime talk show was renewed in January for a second season. The EGOT winner shared the news during a recent episode, tearing up as she told her studio audience, “Today is a major day of celebration.”
The unscripted series is executive produced by Mary Connelly, Andy Lassner, Corey Palent, Jennifer Hudson, Lisa Kasteler Calio, Graehme Morphy and Walter Williams III, with Shani Black serving as co-executive producer. Warner Bros. Unscripted Television produces the show in association with Telepictures and distributed in national syndication by Warner Bros. Discovery Content Sales.
The adaptation of the beloved Octavia Butler sci-fi novel was canceled at FX after one season, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The series centers on Dana (Mallori Johnson), an aspiring TV writer who moves to Los Angeles who begins to question her sanity when she is violently pulled back in time to a 19th-century plantation.
Just after viewers had to wait two and a half months NBC’s sci-fi drama to return after a mid-season hiatus for Season 2, “La Brea” was renewed for third season, according to the network.
Starring Natalie Zea, Eoin Macken, Jon Seda, Nicholas Gonzalez and Chiké Okonkwo, among others, the time-traveling drama follows Angelenos worst nightmare as a giant sinkhole opens in Los Angeles and absorbs all people and buildings in its sight. Now in a strange no man’s land, the unlucky new residents must unite together to survive.
Creator David Applebaum serves as executive producer and showrunner alongside Avi Nir, Alon Shtruzman, Peter Traugott, Rachel Kaplan, Chris Hollier, Adam Davidson, Bryan Wynbrandt, Steven Lilien, Ken Woodruff and Arika Lisanne Mittman, who also executive produce. To date, there is no official premiere date or trailer for the third season.
After rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and strong viewership numbers for the premiere and beyond, HBO’s adaptation of the Naughty Dog video game “The Last of Us” has earned a swift renewal for Season 2.
The post-apocalyptic drama, which stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, holds the record for HBO’s second largest debut — behind only “House of the Dragon” — since “Boardwalk Empire” premiered on the network in 2010.
The series, which is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television, is written and executive produced by Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”) and Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann. Other executive producers include Carolyn Strauss, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan and Rose Lam.
After Paramount announced that Showtime will be undergoing a rebrand and merging with Paramount+’s premium service in late January, “Let the Right One In” was one of the titles to be axed after its first season.
The adaptation of the 2008 Swedish movie tells the story of father daughter pair Mark (Demián Bichir) and Eleanor (Madison Taylor Baez), whose lives were transformed 10 years earlier when she was turned into a vampire.
This one’s a doozy: After facing abrupt cancellation at HBO Max, the 1970s set dramedy found a new home in Starz. About the rise of an erotic magazine geared toward women, the series was one of the first in an unsettling new TV trend of nearly completed productions to be pulled from release. Season 2 eventually finished filming and Lionsgate successfully sold the show to Starz.
The action series starring Justin Theroux, Melissa George, Logan Polish and Gabriel Bateman was canceled after two seasons on Apple TV+. Based on Paul Theroux’s bestselling 1981 novel, “The Mosquito Coast” centers on an idealist inventor who puts his family in jeopardy in order to escape the U.S. government, cartels and bounty hunters.
The YA adaptation starring Tony Hale was canceled after two seasons at Disney+. While announcing the news that the series, which was originally greenlit by Hulu before moving over to Disney+, would end, co-creator Phil Hay included a spoiler alert that “the kids stay friends forever.”
The CW reboot of the beloved tale will be ending with its fourth season, which will premiere Wednesday, May 31 at 8 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. PT. Starring Kennedy McMann as the storied teen detective, Season 4 will kickstart an investigation to find missing bodies dug up, stolen or risen from Horseshoe Bay’s cemetery.
The long-running procedural and second spinoff to the flagship “NCIS” is ending with Season 14. One of the rare dramas to have its leads — LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell — remain throughout the entirety of its run, the series has been a strong performer for the network since its premiere in 2009. The show’s finale is set to air on CBS and stream on Paramount+ May 14.
The sitcom, starring Max Greenfield and Cedric the Entertainer, will celebrate its 100th episode this season. A sixth season renewal was announced in late January.
Several weeks after the sequel series’ Jan. 17 premiere, “Night Court” was renewed for a second season by NBC.
The sequel series followed in the steps of the original series, which first aired in 1984 for nine seasons, as Melissa Rauch (“The Big Bang Theory”) assumes the role of optimistic judge Abby Stone, the daughter of the late Judge Harry Stone (Harry Anderson) who presides over the night shift of a Manhattan arraignment court.
The first season features a lengthy list of guest stars including Wendie Malick, Melissa Villaseñor, comedian Pete Holmes and skaters Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski.
“One of Us is Lying,” the first pilot Peacock ordered to series, was canceled in late January after two seasons.
Dario Madrona, who co-created the Spanish-language Netflix series “Elite,” served as the showrunner alongside executive producers John Sacchi and Matt Groesch of 5 More Minutes Productions and produced by UCP, a division of Universal Studio Group.
“Outlander,” beloved by many for its whirlwind romance and wide spanning time-traveling historical fiction, will be ending with its eighth season on Starz. While Claire and Jamie’s epic love story has run its course, fans will be elated to know that Starz has already greenlight “Outlander’s” prequel series, “Outlander: Blood of My Blood,” which went into development last summer.
The hard sci-fi series from “Westworld” creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy will return for Season 2. The show stars Chloe Grace Moretz as a young woman who uses a device to transfer her consciousness into a robot body in the far future, and is based on the books by William Gibson.
“Phineas and Ferb” on a TV list in 2023? You bet all one hundred and four days of summer vacation! At TCAs, co-creator Dan Povenmire announced that a two-season, 20-episode revival would be coming to Disney+. While all 2000s kids are thrilled about this one, a certain older sister is sure to be quaking with anger.
“Pitch Perfect” is the franchise that keeps on giving. “Bumper in Berlin,” which follows the music career of Adam Devine’s Bumper Allen after unexpectedly becoming a renowned star in Germany, was renewed for Season 2 on Peacock.
Starring Devine, Flula Borg, Sarah Hyland, Lera Abova and Jameela Jamil, the series takes place at 10 years the original “Pitch Perfect” movies.
Megan Amram serves as showrunner, writer and executive producer alongside executive producers Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman of Brownstone Productions, Paul Brooks and Scott Neimeyer of Gold Circle Films.
The action-packed drama was renewed for a fourth season ahead of its March 17 Season 3 premiere. The third season in Starz’s first series in the expanded “Power” Universe franchise follows Tariq St. Patrick (Michael Rainey Jr.), who is resolved to get back to his family and get out of the drug business for good before facing some new obstacles.
Brett Mahoney (“Empire,” “The Following”) serves as showrunner and executive producer for season 3 alongside executive producers Courtney A. Kemp, the creator and showrunner of the original “Power,” through her production company End of Episode, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson through G-Unit Film and Television and Mark Canton through Atmosphere Entertainment MM.
The Hulu comedy poking fun at Hollywood’s reboot-mania was canceled in late January after one season.
The series starred Rachel Bloom as a TV executive who successfully pitches the revival of her favorite 20-year-old sitcom, “Step Right Up,” and the clashes that follow between the cast, crew and writers. The ensemble included Judy Greer, Keegan-Michael Key, Johnny Knoxville and Calum Worthy as the original “Step Right Up” cast, Paul Reiser as the series’ creator, and Krista Marie Yu as Hulu’s VP of comedy who’s “new to humor.”
While creator Steven Levitan, a multiple Emmy winner for ABC hit “Modern Family,” was trying to find a new home for the comedy, he later confirmed the show is officially dead.
“Reginald the Vampire” was renewed for a sophomore installment at Syfy in January.
Based on the book series by Johnny B. Truant, the series is produced by Great Pacific Media Inc., Modern Story Company, December Films and Cineflix Studios. Harley Peyton, Jeremiah Chechik, Todd Berger, Lindsay Macadam, Brett Burlock and Peter Emerson serve as executive producers.
The CW will end its run of the drama-filled teen soap with a seventh season premiering Wednesday, March 29 at 9 p.m. ET and 10 p.m. PT.
Starring KJ Apa, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes and Madelaine Petsch, among others, “Riverdale” is based on the characters from Archie Comics. The series is from Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios, with executive producers Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Jon Goldwater.
The “Selling Sunset” spinoff, which follows the drama-loving realtors at The Oppenheim Group’s second office in Orange County, CA was renewed for two more seasons at the streamer after premiering just one season.
Produced by Done and Done Productions, Lionsgate, Adam DiVello, Sundee Manusakis, Suzy Ratner, Kristofer Lindquist and Skyler Wakil serve as executive producers. Production on Season 2 is slated to begin this winter.
Fox Entertainment renewed “The Simpsons” for Seasons 35 and 36 in late January.
The Emmy-winning adult-animated comedy has now surpassed its own record for the longest-running scripted series in television history and currently ranks among the Top 10 comedies for the 2022-23 season for the fourth consecutive time.
“The Simpsons” is a Gracie Films Production in association with 20th Television. James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean and Matt Selman are executive producers. The Gracie Films Worldwide Brand Division develops and produces the licensed content for the series.
The series’ fourth season has been scrapped at TNT, another tax write-off casualty under the new Warner Bros. Discovery regime, but there might still be hope. Tomorrow Studios, along with the network, is currently shopping the new season of the sci-fi series, along with a potential prequel and sequel in the works.
The network is underway to renewing all of its programs for the upcoming TV season. The legal drama starring Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin is Thursday’s No. 1 series and will be back for Season 2.
Phil Rosenthal’s food and travel series was renewed for Season 7 by Netflix in January, according to Variety. After the first season premiered in January 2018, Rosenthal has explored the tempting food scenes across Montreal, Seoul, Marrakesh, Chicago and London, to name a few.
It’s time to ready up the Vista Cruiser because “That ’90s Show” is all set to journey through the year 1996. The sequel to Fox’s “That ’70s Show” — following Callie Haverda’s Leia Forman — just received a second season order of an extended 16 episodes. Season 1 premiered on Jan. 19 and immediately reached Netflix’s Top 10 English TV list in 35 countries, with more than 41 million hours viewed.
Apple TV+ has ordered a third season of the drama series “Tehran,” with Hugh Laurie joining the cast for Season 3.
“The Terminal List,” the conspiracy thriller starring Chris Pratt, was confirmed for a Season 2 by Prime Video in early February. The streamer also announced an expansion of the franchise, based on author Jack Carr’s works, which will include an as-yet untitled prequel with Taylor Kitsch, who will star and executive produce. That series, billed as an “elevated espionage” tale co-created by Carr and Season 1 creator-showrunner David DiGilio, will focus on Ben Edwards (Kitsch) and his journey from Navy SEAL to CIA paramilitary operator, exploring the darker side of warfare and the human cost that comes with it.
Following the news that Showtime would be rebranded and merge with Paramount+, the platform quietly scrapped “Three Women,” a series adaptation of Lisa Taddeo’s nonfiction bestseller of the same name. The drama, which completed filming and was set to star Shailene Woodley, Betty Gilpin, DeWanda Wise and Gabrielle Creevy, is actively being shopped elsewhere. Billed as an “intimate, haunting portrayal of American female desire,” the project centered on three women “on a crash course to radically overturn their lives.”
Along with “Doom Patrol,” “Titans” is coming to a close with Season 4. The decision to end both shows was not related to the change in leadership at DC Studios (co-led by James Gunn and Peter Safran), nor parent company Warner Bros. Discovery’s cost-cutting efforts.
Based on the British reality show that became a sleeper hit (in and of itself inspired by a Dutch format), the Alan Cumming-hosted series was swiftly renewed for a Season 2 following a successful mid-January premiere. A reunion for the murder-mystery game show is set for Feb. 28, with none other than Andy Cohen hosting.
In February, Paramount+ announced that the animated series “Transformers: Earthspark” would be renewed for a second season. The season will follow the Malto family and Terrans on even higher stakes adventures packed with humor, heart and family.
The series is created and co-executive produced by Dale Malinowski (“Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”)and executive produced by Ant Ward (“Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) and developed for television by Claudia Spinelli, Nickelodeon’s senior vice president of Big Kids Animation. Production is overseen for Nickelodeon by Mikiel Houser, executive in charge of production, and for eOne by Kari Rosenberg.
The Neil Patrick Harris-starring rom-com was canceled after one season on Netflix. Created by Darren Star and Jeffrey Richman, the first season premiered its eight episodes on the streamer on July 29.
The series, which featured co-stars including Tisha Campbell, Brooks Ashmanskas, Emerson Brooks and Marcia Gay Harden, follows real estate agent Michael, who, after a devastating breakup with his partner of 17 years (Tuc Watkins) cautiously ventures back into the New York City dating scene.
The vampire-centric series was canceled in late January at Peacock after one season.
Created by vampire aficionado Julie Plec of “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Originals” and “Legacies,” the series gave new life to the YA Books by author by Richelle Mead, which was previously adapted in a 2014 film starring Zoey Deutch.
Snap, snap! The runaway hit will be back and spookier than ever in Season 2. After a chilling text-based cliffhanger, one of the streamer’s most popular series of all time will see Jenna Ortega return as the macabre Addams daughter.
The death of “1899,” the paranormal German sci-fi period mystery series, was one of the first to rock the TV world this year. It was canceled despite climbing interest (having surpassed show creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Freise’s first show, 2017’s “Dark”), leading to fan outrage.
Taylor Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” universe continues to expand with a Season 2 renewal for “1923,” starring Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford. The prequel series was the biggest show premiere on cable for 2022 and the biggest Paramount+ premiere ever in the U.S., drawing in 7.4 million total viewers across Paramount+ and linear previews.
Similar to “Invitation to a Bonfire,” the Courtney B. Vance series was pulled after one season, despite the fact that Season 2 episodes had already been shot. The drama, about a young Black man who got entangled in the Chicago criminal justice system, was part of the company’s strategic content write downs last year.
With the streaming bubble bursting and entertainment
Rihanna’s highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show will mark her return to the live music stage for the first time in nearly seven years. How is the global pop icon feeling about it? “It feels like [playing the Super Bowl] could have only been now,” she said during an Apple Music press conference ahead of the big show.
“When I first got the call to do it again this year I was like, ‘Are you sure? I’m three months postpartum. Should I be making major decisions like this right now? I might regret this,’” Rihanna said. “When you become a mom there’s something that happens where you feel like you can take on the world and can do anything. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world. As scary as it was, because I haven’t been on stage in seven years, there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all. It’s important for me to do this year. It’s important for my son to see that.”
Rihanna said the biggest challenge in creating her Super Bowl halftime show has been nailing down a setlist. The show will run 13 minutes, but Rihanna has a career that spans eight albums and 17 years. Cramming all of that material into 13 minutes has been “difficult,” she said.
“Some songs we have to lose because of that, and that’s going to be okay,” Rihanna continued. “We did a pretty good job at narrowing it down. There’s probably been about 39 versions of the setlist right now. We’re on our 39th. Every little change counts.”
Rihanna said her Caribbean culture will certainly be a huge part of the halftime performance, adding, “That’s a big part of why it’s important for me to do this show. Representing for my country, Barbados. Representing for Black women everywhere. That’s really important.”
Fans have been wondering if Rihanna’s Super Bowl show will mark a new era of music for her. The singer has not put out an album since 2016’s “Anti,” and her only major single since then was the ballad “Lift Me Up” from the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” soundtrack. Rihanna is Oscar-nominated this year for the song.
“Musically I’m feeling open,” Rihanna teased about new music. “I’m feeling open to exploring, discovering, creating things that are new, things that are different, things that are off, weird. Might not ever make sense to my fans… I want to have fun with music.”
Watch Rihanna’s full Apple Music press conference in the video below. The Super Bowl airs Sunday, Feb. 12 on Fox.
Rihanna’s highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show
Last Updated: July 23, 2020, 13:57 IST
‘Father Soldier Son’ poster
Father Soldier Son
Directors: Catrin Einhorn, Leslye Davis
Cast: Brian Eisch, Isaac Eisch, Joseph Eisch, Maria Eisch, Jordan Delano, Jaxon Eisch
There have been Indian films that have spoken about the valour of our military or police force. We have seen how families have rallied around after the man of the house is killed in action, and in what is seen as pure patriotism, a son is later sent to join the forces. A Netflix documentary, Father Soldier Son, helmed by Catrin Einorn and Leslye Davis – and produced with the help of the New York Times – follows an American family for almost a decade, documenting its tragedies and happier times. The narrative is excellent in a comfortable run time of 99 minutes.
American soldier, a doting father of two boys, Brian Eisch has to serve in treacherous Afghanistan. He is a divorcee, and his boys have to live with their uncle, seeing their father once in six months when he returns home on leave. It is not easy for the boys, both under 12, with a mother gone and a father serving the US Army in a far away land. But Brian is too much of a patriot who believes that he must fight for his country. But after an injury, he is forced to quit the army. With his leg amputated, he knows that he can never return to the battlefield.
He is disillusioned and finds it hard to get over his handicap. It is not so much about losing a leg as it is about trying to tame his patriotic instinct. And he is in a hurry to see his sons grow up so that they may uphold the family tradition of serving the country. While the younger son is okay with the idea, the elder boy is not too keen. He wishes to go to college. But Brian and his new girlfriend try and convince the son that life in the Army is gloriously rewarding.
A terrible tragedy intervenes that forces the family to rethink. But only for a while.
The documentary does meander at times, but happily stays away from moralising. The directors – who are journalists – give us a story that is gripping most of the time. There is no voiceover, and even the interviews ( a real bore in most of the documentaries) are kept to the very minimum. They are almost snippets which push the story seamlessly.
In the end, the elder son does enlist in the Army, but questions why he and his countrymen ought to be fighting a war in Afghanistan. What is the idea behind this conflict? Indeed a very relevant question! But the answer does not come. He has been asked to don the uniform, and he will do it. A very distressing moment in Father Soldier Son. Indeed so.
Rating: 4/5
(Gautaman Bhaskaran is author, commentator and movie critic)
Last Updated: July 23, 2020, 13:57 IST'Father
Sharon Levy has been elevated to chief executive officer of Endemol Shine North America, the Banijay-owned studio behind the Emmy Award-nominated “LEGO Masters,” “MasterChef,” “Wipeout” and upcoming Showtime series “Ripley,” starring Andrew Scott.
The announcement was made on Thursday by Ben Samek, CEO of Banijay Americas, as Endemol shifts from being a holding company to an independent production studio alongside the nine other Banijay-owned studios.
In her new role, Levy, who previously served as chief content officer since 2021, will manage all aspects of the business and its growth. She will also continue to lead all of the studio’s unscripted and scripted programming efforts from the company’s North Hollywood headquarters.
“Sharon is one of the most strategic executives in the business, someone whose creative vision is matched only by her market savvy,” Samek said in a statement. “Over the past five years, she has already positioned Endemol Shine North America as a major industry player and unleashed the creativity of her group. I look forward to supporting her as she leads her talented team to new heights.”
Levy added, “I’m very excited to take on the CEO role for the new Endemol Shine North America as we chart its course forward during an extraordinary time for the industry. I am thankful to Ben for believing in me and my exceptional team and giving us the responsibility and opportunity to redefine ESNA. With Endemol Shine North America now operating solely as a production studio, we’ll move more nimbly and be better positioned to meet the challenges of the moment. It’s a new era at ESNA, and we look forward to working with partners, old and new, to create great television.”
In announcing the promotion and company’s strategy shift, his first since being named CEO, Samek completes the restructure of Banijay’s businesses across the Americas, establishing the new Endemol Shine North America studio alongside fellow U.S.-based Bunim/Murray Productions, Truly Original, 51 Minds Entertainment, Authentic Entertainment and Stephen David Entertainment; Mexico-based Endemol Shine Boomdog and Banijay Mexico and U.S. Hispanic; and Brazil-based Endemol Shine Brasil and A Fábrica.
“Historically, Endemol Shine North America served a dual role as the parent company to our subsidiaries and as its own production label,” Samek said. “Reconstituting ESNA as a pure production studio that lives alongside the nine other studios that form Banijay Americas, each with its own leadership and goals, will afford us the opportunity to work more collaboratively and efficiently and represent ourselves more clearly to our industry partners.”
Since joining Endemol Shine North America in 2017 as president of unscripted and scripted TV, Levy has reconfigured the studio’s Los Angeles-based programming team to work more closely with Banijay’s myriad global production companies and created an original development slate that features projects from co-owned labels worldwide with marquis talent highlighted by Will Arnett, John Cena, Nicole Byer, Keke Palmer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, John Cusack, Steve Zaillian, Gillian Flynn and more.
Prior to joining Endemol Shine, Levy served as executive vice president of original series for Spike TV, where she oversaw the acquisition, creation and production of unscripted series, scripted series and documentaries, transforming the network’s brand identity with hits like “Ink Master,” “Bar Rescue,” “Auction Hunters” and “Deadliest Warrior.”
Last year, Levy helped spearhead a new partnership between Endemol Shine North America and EveryWoman Studios to expand the Propelle Program, an initiative designed to give rising female creators more opportunities in unscripted TV.
Sharon Levy has been elevated to chief
Photo: The CW — © 2023 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, February 8, 2023, ratings — New episodes: The Flash, Kung Fu, The Conners, Abbott Elementary, Not Dead Yet, A Million Little Things, Lingo, Tough As Nails, Name That Tune, and Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. Special: Super Bowl Greatest Commercials. Reruns: Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago PD.
Note: If you’re not seeing the updated charts, please try reloading the page or go here.
These are the fast affiliate ratings. The percentages represent the change since the previous original episode. (Percentages aren’t given for reruns or specials.) To see past ratings for a particular show, click the show’s link. The show pages are updated with the daily final ratings when they become available. Those pages include season averages to date.
What were you watching last night? Original network programming, reruns, cable, or something else?
Published: February 9, 2023Photo: The CW —
Viola Davis is set to receive the 48th Chaplin Award as she is feted by Film at Lincoln Center.
After securing EGOT status at the 2023 Grammys after she won the best audiobook, narration and storytelling recording award for her memoir, Finding Me, Davis will be honored at a gala evening on April 24 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City.
“Viola Davis brings her tremendous skill and fierce emotional intelligence to everything she does. The range of her accomplishments is remarkable — as an actor in film, television, and theater; as a producer opening doors for new voices; and as an inspirational memoirist. She is truly a force. We are honored to dedicate an evening to celebrating her achievements and talents at the 48th Chaplin Award gala,” Lesli Klainberg, president of Film at Lincoln Center, said in a statement on Thursday.
The Hope actress has netted four Academy Award nominations, and finally won her first Oscar in 2017 for best performance in the film adaptation of Fences. (She was a notable snub in the 2023 Oscar nominations for her starring role in The Woman King.)
Davis is also a five-time Emmy nominee, four of which she received for her portrayal of Annalise Keating in How to Get Away With Murder. Then, in 2015, she won the award for best lead actress in a drama series for her starring role in Peter Nowalk’s series.
Proceeds from the Chaplin Award Gala will support Film at Lincoln Center’s year-round cinematheque programs, contemporary film series, student programs, and film festivals such as the New York Film Festival and New Directors/New Films.
This year, Davis also received the Chairman’s Award at the Palm Springs Film Awards to recognize her work as an actor and producer for The Woman King. Her next film is AIR, an upcoming American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Ben Affleck and written by Alex Convery, to be released by Amazon Studios on April 5.
Additional credits include Widows, Suicide Squad, Ender’s Game, Prisoners, Beautiful Creatures, Doubt, Get On Up, Blackhat, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Knight and Day, Nights in Rodanthe, Madea Goes to Jail, Law Abiding Citizen, Disturbia, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Never Back Down, Far From Heaven, and others.
Davis and her husband Julius Tennon founded JuVee Productions, with an eye to supporting diverse creators and their narratives. The Los Angeles-based company produces film, TV and digital content across all entertainment platforms.
The Chaplin Award gala was first held in 1972, with namesake Charlie Chaplin the honoree. Since then, recipients have included Cate Blanchett, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, Federico Fellini, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, James Stewart, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sidney Poitier, Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro, Helen Mirren and Spike Lee.
Viola Davis is set to receive the
AMS Pictures has released the trailer for its new documentary “Karen Carpenter: Starving for Perfection,” which celebrates the pop singer’s life and music as well as details her untimely death after struggling with anorexia nervosa.
The Carpenters were a top musical act in the 1970s with songs such as “Close to You” and “We’ve Only Just Begun.” However, Karen’s chase for perfection and struggle with the at-the-time vastly misunderstood eating disorder led to her death at age 32.
Using unreleased recordings and celebrity interviews – including with Olivia Newton-John, Cynthia Gibb, Suzanne Somers, Kristin Chenoweth, Carnie Wilson, Bob James and Carol Burnett – the documentary sheds light on the singer’s short life and musical legacy.
The documentary was directed by Randy Martin (“The Inspiration Sessions,” “Barack Obama: The Man and His Journey”) and produced and written by Randy Schmidt (author of “Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter,” “Judy Garland on Judy Garland: Interviews and Encounters”). Brad Osborne (“Tom Petty: Won’t Back Down,” “Shania Twain: The Price of Fame”) produced and edited the film, and Carnie Wilson (of the pop band Wilson Phillips) and Andy Streitfeld (“I Was Lorena Bobbitt,” “A Defining Moment: Four Tuskegee Airmen and the Inauguration of Barack Obama”) executive produced the documentary. Osman Tello (“Murder Made Me Famous”) served as director of photography and Chuck Brown and Paul Ellison as editors.
AMS Pictures, a Dallas-based full-service multimedia production company, specializes in independent documentaries, and its work includes “I Was Lorena Bobbitt,” “#TextMeWhenYouGetHome” and “Cellmate Secrets.”
“Karen Carpenter: Starving for Perfection” will premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Feb. 10. Watch the trailer above.
AMS Pictures has released the trailer for
Facebook
Twitter
Mastodon
