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By Anna Menta Dropping a baby on the concrete

Awards

5 Key Takeaways — Brendan Fraser, RRR – The Hollywood Reporter

How much should Oscar-watchers read into the results of Sunday night’s 28th Critics Choice Awards?

One school of thought says “not much.” After all, the Critics Choice Awards are determined by the Critics Choice Association, an organization comprised of some 500 broadcast, radio and online critics and entertainment journalists based primarily in the United States — including, full disclosure, yours truly — whereas the Oscars are determined by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an organization comprised of some 10,000 people based all around the world who actually work on movies. In order words, there is zero overlap.

Another school, of thought, however, suggests that the choices of Critics Choice voters might still influence Academy members, who are currently voting — and will continue to do so through Tuesday — to determine their Oscar nominees, and who have demonstrated a tendency, particularly as the organization has grown larger and younger (meaning more voters are busy with their careers and don’t have time to watch as many movies as older voters), to rubber-stamp the choices of awards groups that precede them.

Here are my five takeaways from the Critics Choice Awards.

1) Brendan Fraser got the shot of adrenaline that he needed

For his transformative performance in The Whale, Fraser got a lot of love at the fall film fests — but his film itself was poorly reviewed (it’s at 66 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and, perhaps not coincidentally, his buzz had died down quite a bit by the end of the year. He was overlooked for the major critics awards and lost at the Gothams (to Till’s Danielle Deadwyler) and the Golden Globes (to Austin Butler for Elvis). And after the Globes, many with whom I spoke felt like sentiment and momentum had shifted towards Butler.

But Fraser prevailed on Sunday, and made the most of his moment in the spotlight. From the moment his name was called, he was visibly emotional (something that voters notice, since they like to vote for people who they think genuinely appreciate their support), and also on-message: He thanked Darren Arofnosky for bringing him back from “the wilderness,” noted that “it took me 32 years to get here” and told people who are struggling that “if you, too, can have the strength to just get to your feet and go to the light, good things will happen” — all of which I see as an effort to remind people, as subtly as possible, that he has put in his time and, unlike some of his competitors, may never get another shot like this one.

One thing to keep in mind: seven of the last 10 winners of the best actor Critics Choice Award went on to win the corresponding Oscar — but two of the three who did not were, like Fraser, sentimental choices of the critics (Michael Keaton for Birdman and Chadwick Boseman for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) who then lost at the Oscars to non-sentimental choices (Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything and Anthony Hopkins for The Father, respectively).

2) Everything Everywhere All at Once was clearly the critics’ choice

Some seven weeks after winning the best feature Gotham Award and less than 24 hours after collecting the best film Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award (the latter in a tie with Tár), Everything Everywhere All at Once proved to be the clear favorite of the CCA. (It came in with a field-leading 14 noms, three more than any other film, so this wasn’t exactly a shocker.)

Though its leading lady, Michelle Yeoh, lost best actress to Tár’s Cate Blanchett, and the film itself lost best ensemble and best comedy to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, it still bagged five wins, three more than any other film. After being awarded best original screenplay, best editing and best supporting actor (Ke Huy Quan), it was a surprise winner for best director (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, aka “Daniels”), at which point it became all but certain that it would win best picture, too, which it did.

Only five of the last 10 best picture Critics Choice Award winners have gone on to win the corresponding Oscar (Boyhood, La La Land, Roma, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and The Power of the Dog all failed to repeat), and, consistent with those figures, I can see things going either way for Everything Everywhere in the best picture Oscar race.

As was the case with last year’s best picture Oscar winner CODA (which, incidentally, lost the best picture Critics Choice Award to The Power of the Dog ), there’s an underdog aspect to Everything Everywhere (an indie that became an unlikely blockbuster) and the people who worked on it (who have faced adversity throughout their careers and yet still seem lovely) that makes it impossible to root against them.

Unlike CODA, however, Everything Everywhere is a challenging and polarizing film, which could cause it problems on the preferential (ranked-choice) ballot that the Academy employs for the best picture Oscar. And the film plays least well with older people — they tend to get lost in the multiverse of it all — who still have a disproportionate presence in the Academy.

But if the Academy does not go for Everything Everywhere, then what would it go for instead? I could see The Fabelmans or Top Gun: Maverick doing well on a preferential ballot — but the only other ceremony that employs a preferential ballot is the PGA Awards, meaning we won’t see if/how a preferential ballot could impact their chances until Feb. 25.

3) Quan and Bassett are looking locked

When Troy Kotsur, who won last year’s best supporting actor Critics Choice Award (and Oscar) for his performance in CODA, came onstage Sunday night to present the best supporting actress Critics Choice Award, it offered a reminder of what a slam-dunk looks like. Indeed, Kotsur won virtually every honor for which he was eligible from the beginning through the end of last awards season.

To my eye, the woman to whom he presented a Critics Choice Award, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s Angela Bassett, and the man who took home the best supporting actor Critics Choice Award, Everything Everywhere’s Ke Huy Quan, look an awful lot like slam-dunks, too. Like Kotsur, they gave very strong performances, and they also have irresistible narratives not unlike his own: They’ve been around for a long time; they’ve experienced ups and downs and bullshit that they never should have had to endure; but they stuck it out and they’re still here, not only surviving, but thriving.

That’s pretty hard to resist, and I have a hard time imagining anything or anyone derailing the Oscar trajectory of either.

4) Globes winners tank at Critics Choice

Less than a week after dominating at the Golden Globe Awards — another awards show for which journalists determine the winners — The Banshees of Inisherin went 0 for 9 (plus its two male stars were both MIA due to COVID) and The Fabelmans went 1 for 11 (winning only best young actor/actress for Gabriel LaBelle) at the Critics Choice Awards.

Also with disappointing Critics Choice showings: Babylon went 1 for 9 (best production design), Elvis went 1 for 7 (best hair/makeup), Avatar: The Way of Water went 1 for 6 (best visual effects) and Top Gun: Maverick went 1 for 6 (best cinematography).

5) Look out for RRR

RRR, the period piece-musical-action-thriller from India that has proven to be a giant phenomenon all around the world, took home an impressive two Critics Choice prizes: best foreign-language film and best original song for “Naatu Naatu,” the same tune that was awarded the corresponding Golden Globe and was instrumental in netting the film the best music/score L.A. Film Critics Association Award.

Make no mistake about it: RRR is in serious Oscar contention — not for best international feature (India really screwed the pooch by submitting another film instead), but certainly for best original song, and quite possibly for best picture (remember that there are a guaranteed 10 slots and that the Academy has never been a more international organization) and best director (S.S. Rajamouli already won the best director New York Film Critics Circle Award).

RRR is being distributed in the U.S. by Variance Films, the same company that was behind Drive My Car, the Japanese film that wound up with picture, director and screenplay Oscar noms last year on top of a best international feature nom. And the same dogged publicist who handled that film’s awards campaign, Josh Haroutanian, is handling RRR’s.

On Saturday at the Ross House, a screening venue in Mount Olympus, I saw first-hand the enthusiasm that dozens of Academy members have for the film. Like them, I braved horrendous rain just to be there, which I see as a testament to the buzz for the film; unlike them, I was there not for the screening or a post-screening reception with Rajamouli and his cousin/composer/“Naatu Naatu” songwriter M.M. Keeravani, but to record a podcast with Rajamouli that will post on Monday.

While my sound guy was setting up, I realized that the film was approaching its “Naatu Naatu” showstopping sequence, so I asked Rajamouli if he would mind delaying the start of our conversation by a few minutes so that I could watch the audience’s reaction. He happily consented, so we snuck in to the back of the theater and, sure enough, people were visibly gobsmacked throughout the number, and broke into applause at its conclusion.

Does this mean RRR will be nominated not only for best original song, but also for best picture and best director, as it was at the Critics Choice Awards? Of course not. But, particularly because the film cannot be nominated for the best international feature Oscar, I wouldn’t be surprised if either or both of those nominations end up happening.

How much should Oscar-watchers read into the

Music

Season 1, Episode 1, Premiere

Natasha Mumba and Merle Dandridge in The Last Of Us

Photo: Shane Harvey/HBO

Disclaimer: Your humble recapper is not, in any sense, a gamer. I wasted little of my youth in 1980s arcades and dabbled briefly in Plants Vs. Zombies on early iPads, but the nearest I get to MMORPG is morning Wordle over coffee. Perhaps that makes me more qualified to cover The Last of Us, the luxe series based on the 2013 PlayStation hit that follows a grizzled survivor of a fungal zombpocalypse as he smuggles cross-country a Very Important Girl who may hold the key to humanity’s future. I have zero stake in how faithful the series is.

But I do enjoy action and undead body counts set against an entropic wasteland. So, as a scrupulously gritty and unpredictable action yarn, The Last Of Us is off to a smashing start. The 80-minute pilot unfolds with a savvy balance of simmering dread and well-choreographed violence, and Pedro Pascal is a solid choice—brawny, melancholy—to shepherd us through a hellscape of fungal flesh-eaters, outlaws, and fascist soldiers.

To be honest, the bar is low—even if the budget’s not. HBO wants to lay out a hundred million bucks to prove it can transmute joystickery into prestige TV? Fine. Time will tell if The Last Of Us can transcend genre limitations to become more than a slick synthesis of Children Of Men, the Walking Dead franchise, and any other zombie/dystopian title you care to mention.

The true reference point is HBO’s 2019 sleeper hit, Chernobyl, passion project of Craig Mazin, who partners here with Last Of Us game creator Neil Druckmann. Both executive produce and write the nine-part first season, maintaining a strong emotional through-line for reluctant hero Joel Miller (Pascal), who—spoiler alert—loses his daughter in a spectacular 30-minute prologue. Chernobyl is a meticulous and grimly compelling account of the 1986 nuclear disaster that revealed not only deadly flaws in the power plant design but also systemic political corruption in the Soviet Union. It was an exposé of government failing the public in a time of crisis—and resonated quite naturally when the pandemic hit a year later.

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The Last Of Us is also a moral and societal test in the aftermath of disaster. As fungal infection robs people of their personhood and reduces them to targets for violence, the uninfected must protect their own humanity from mutating into mindless animal reflex. Characters crawl across the ruins of the past, unsure where they’re going—backwards or forwards. A watch that Joel wears is busted; the time is out of joint.

Before we get to that broken future, Mazin and Druckmann push us further back. At the top of the pilot it’s 1968, and a Dick Cavett-like talk show host interviews two scientists about pandemics. One scoffs at the danger posed by viruses. We’ll survive those, he says. It’s fungus we must worry about. After jokey banter from the host, the Scots egghead name-drops a few fungi we should watch out for, including Cordyceps. He speculates that a human-infecting fungus could emerge if the world’s temperature rises. Fungi infect and take over insect hosts but can’t survive the heat of the human body. However, what if the microorganisms were forced to evolve due to climate change? Then we’d have “billions of puppets with poisoned minds,” the scientist says, “permanently fixed on one unifying goal: to spread the infection to every last human alive.”

The camera cuts to the audience, still and expressionless as they listen as one passive organism. (One senses Mazin—who directs with bleakly intimate cinematography by Ksenia Sereda—drawing a subtle comparison between fungal infection and mass-media consumption.)

Our story shifts to Austin, Texas, 2003. It’s blue-collar, single dad Joel’s 36th birthday and his teenage daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) is making him breakfast. Joel and brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) work in road construction. As they load the truck and prepare to drop Sarah off at school, she sneaks into Joel’s bedroom dresser and grabs a watch and money; she’s getting the watch fixed for his birthday. Sarah also discovers and fiddles with a fierce-looking folding knife (similar type of weapon another young woman wields later).

It’s an ordinary day: Sarah attends classes, stops at a repair shop, and later visits the elderly neighbors, the Adlers, who are fond of the girl. Into this gentle suburban scene, Mazin and Druckmann slip a deft bit of dreadful foreshadowing: As Sarah scans a shelf of DVDs, in the blurry background the dementia-afflicted grannie starts to twitch and spasm. Moments later, the family dog, Mercy, stares worriedly at the old woman and whines.

Joel comes home late and exhausted. After playfully barbed banter with Sarah—who presents him with the watch—they settle in to screen a fictional ninja movie called Curtis And Viper 2. Sarah falls asleep. Joel gets a call from Tommy, who says he’s in jail after a bar fight with some rando who started freaking out and swinging at a waitress. Joel puts a still-sleeping Sarah in bed and drives out to bail his brother out.

Three hours later, Sarah wakes up and the world is going to hell. She hears distant explosions. Helicopters are flying way too low. Mercy is frantic and refuses to go back into the Adlers’ house. Where’s dad? When Sarah enters the Adler house (don’t go there, Sarah!), she is confronted with a dead-eyed grannie chowing down on her daughter-in-law’s brains, while her son bleeds out just feet away. Sarah runs, grannie sprints after her, and outside on the lawn, Joel and Tommy roar up in the truck. Joel takes out the old lady with a monkey wrench to the skull.

At this point, the episode lifts sequences from the game: the quietly tense scene of Joel, Tommy and Sarah driving at night, passing burning buildings and people stranded on the side of the road begging for a ride. As they try to leave the city by driving through it, chaotic panic rises, with mobs of desperate people blocking roads as the infected pounce, cars smashing into each other, and finally, most terrifyingly, a jumbo crash-lands a few blocks away. A flying hunk of debris crashes into the car and Sarah is knocked momentarily unconscious.

When she comes to, Joel and Tommy are okay, but they have to leave the car and continue on foot. Sarah’s ankle is injured, so Joel carries her. Tommy, armed with a long gun, says he’ll meet them down by the river. Joel and Sarah arrive, but they are confronted by an armed soldier in body armor. The soldier radios back to HQ, and clearly gets the order to execute, assuming that Sarah’s injury is a bite. Joel begs him not to, but the soldier fires and Sarah receives fatal wound to the abdomen. Before the soldier can finish off Joel, Tommy takes him out. Sarah dies in her sobbing, blood-stained father’s arms.

Now it’s twenty years later. Boston. The city is unrecognizable, overgrown with vines, weeds, moss, and endless acres of crumbled buildings and rusted cars. Beantown is a bombed out, militarized quarantine zone. Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome without the leather and Tina Turner. A young boy staggers through the wilderness at the edge of the city. He has a cut on his knee. Cut or bite? Either way, he’s euthanized by soldiers and thrown in the back of truck to be burned in a mass pyre.

That’s where we catch up with Joel, now 56 and a hardened survivor (is there any other type?) who does various grunt work in the quarantine zone (QZ)—tossing bodies on the fire, shoveling up ashes, flushing the sewers. Workers are paid in food ration cards. Joel takes a break from watching a public execution of lawbreakers to deal pills to a soldier.

So odious is life under martial law, an antifa militia has formed: the Fireflies. This rebel outfit conducts an ongoing street war with the occupying army, a.k.a. FEDRA. They are also holding a mysterious young teen, Ellie (Bella Ramsey, credibly American) in one of their safe houses, chained to the radiator. Firefly leader Marlene (Merle Dandridge) knows the girl’s significance, but the rest of the Fireflies are kept in frustrated ignorance. As Marlene woodenly explains to her lieutenant, Kim (Natasha Mumba), by way of a reality check: “We are in a war against a military dictatorship to restore democracy and freedom.”

Not every bit of dialogue in the Mazin-Druckmann script sings, but it’s decent stuff compared to the bland, expository filler you get in the game, where half the lines are banal small talk along the lines of, “You okay?” “We can rest here,” or “Let me get the plank so we can cross.”

Joel’s (platonic) partner in crime is the equally tough Tess (Anna Torv, magnetic and edgy as always), who we meet being interrogated by the lowlife gangster Robert (Brendan Fletcher). A surprise explosion (from a nearby battle between Fireflies and FEDRA) allows Tess to escape. When the battered but still determined Tess shows up at Joel’s apartment, she explains the plan: find Robert, get their stolen car engine and money back, and kick his ass. Then Joel can head to Wyoming to find Tommy, who hasn’t been responding via underground radio.

When they go and confront Robert (an extended stalk-and-kill sequence in the game), they find him and several of his goons already wasted in a bloodstained hallway. Robert tried to sell a dud car battery to Marlene and the deal went south. Marlene is bleeding out from a shot in her side. Kim has an ear blown off. They make a deal with Joel and Tess: get Ellie across town to the State House and into the hands of a squadron of Fireflies, and in return they get ammo, supplies, and a car to get them out of the QZ.

There’s definitely no “meet cute” between Ellie and her new bodyguards: They have negative-zero parental instincts toward the stone-faced, defiant teen who keeps her switchblade close and is quick with a “fuck you” to any stranger she meets.

Joel takes Ellie to his apartment to rest before nightfall. As he confers with Tess outside in the hallway, Ellie leafs through a book of hit pop songs, finding a paper with a code inserted in the pages. The clever girl soon figures out the radio broadcasts smuggling code: Songs from the ’60s mean nothing new; ’70s means new contraband has arrived; and ’80s means something bad. Neither Joel nor Tess knows why the girl is so important. She used to be in FEDRA military school, but was busted out by Marlene, who knew the girl’s mother.

Rain is pouring as Joel, Tess, and Ellie head out. They navigate their way outside the barrier, hauling themselves up through secret holes and a raggedy culvert…until they come face to face with a young soldier Joel sold pills to earlier. This expertly orchestrated scene pulls together all the emotional strands of the episode. When the soldier checks them for infection, Ellie’s test flashes red, the soldier freaks out, and she impulsively sinks her switchblade into his leg.

Joel immediately flashes back to the soldier who shot Sarah twenty years ago. He goes into a berserker rage and pummels the soldier’s face to red mush. Ellie looks on, horrified but fascinated. Tess and Joel are of course alarmed that Ellie tested positive—should they kill the girl?—but Ellie shows a bite on her arm and says it’s three weeks old. It takes only a day or two for people to turn. Trauma, inhuman violence, fear of infection, fragile trust—it’s all there.

As the trio make their way to the Massachusetts State House in darkness and rain, the camera cuts back to Joel’s apartment. The radio comes to life with Depeche Mode’s “Never Let Me Down Again.” A tune from 1987. Code for “trouble,” which comes as no surprise. “I’m taking a ride with my best friend,” the lyrics go, “I hope he never lets me down again.” Here’s Joel’s chance to move forward, to start time again. He can never get Sarah back, but he can help another girl who may be the key to saving them all.

Stray observations

The world building is impressive, but I have epidemiological questions. We had more mask vigilance around Covid-19 than these folks do while burning or head-stomping the infected. In the game, Joel and Tess slip on gas masks around spore clouds. How are airborne Cordyceps spores not…everywhere?
In her grammar class, Sarah glances over at a fellow classmate, whose left hand is jerking either weirdly or as a nervous tic. Nice pre-outbreak touch.
Sarah jokes that she dealt drugs to pay for Joel’s repaired watch, ironically twisted when twenty years later, he’s selling pills.
The faded pink T-shirt Sarah wears pre-infection is for a fictional touring band: Halican Drops. Just one of many details ported over from the game.
The book in which Joel stashes his radio signal key is Fred Bronson’s The Billboard Book Of Number One Hits © (conveniently) 2003.
The fungal expert who chills us to the bone in 1968 is played by fine Scots thespian John Hannah. His undead genre bona fides? Playing ne’er-do-well playboy Jonathan Carnahan in The Mummy franchise.
How much HBO cash does it take to turn Calgary into a quarantine zone? Apparently more than building Westeros in Northern Ireland. The annual budget is reportedly more than that of each of the first five seasons of Game Of Thrones. Inflation much?
Gamers may know the answer: What happened to Joel’s wife and Sarah’s mother? Dead? Left them? Something for a later episode.
Bumper sticker on Tommy’s truck notes a Desert Storm combat vet. Hence his excellent marksmanship.

Natasha Mumba and Merle Dandridge in The

Docs

Where The Road Leads (Ovuda ce proci put)

The title of writer-director Nina Ognjanović’s offbeat drama, Where The Road Leads (Ovuda ce proci put), has several meanings. It might be referring to the mysterious young man who shows up in the out-of-the-way Serbian village to everyone’s shock. It could be about the highway that’s disrupting the townspeople’s lives. Maybe it has a more metaphorical meaning. No matter how one interprets the title, there’s no forgetting the journey in store.

The film starts with Jana (Jana Bjelica) racing through town. Why? Because she wants to save the foreigner’s life, who no one seems to know a thing about. Smash cut to 6 AM. Here, the main townsfolk and their way of life are introduced. 6:20 AM. Jana overhears important information.

When the stranger, Novi (Zlatan Vidovic), shows up, the town erupts into chaos. The first reason for this is that the construction of the highway that’ll bias their already forgotten land creates a power outage. Or did the arrival of this unknown figure cause it? There are those in the village who believe that. Is that why people might be trying to kill Novi? Is Jana doomed to run in her life in never-ending circles?

“…[a] mysterious young man…shows up in the out-of-the-way Serbian village to everyone’s shock.”

Where The Road Leads cuts to and fro, including “the day before,” teasing information over its 1 hour and 21-minute runtime. The precise editing by Rastko Ubovic means the narrative never becomes confusing or frustrating. In fact, if this were told in a more conventional manner, it might not be all that engaging. But, as it stands, the movie is a surreal drama that proves most captivating.

For starters, Bjelica is absolutely amazing as the young Jana. Her desperation to leave nowheresville is palpable, as is her genuine concern for how people treat Novi. Vidovic is charming and disarming, instantly allowing audiences to be on his side. The two share excellent chemistry, making Jana’s belief in this man as her potential path to a better life all the more believable. The rest of the cast is just as good, especially with doling out the occasional witty banter.

Beyond the cast, Where The Road Leads stands out thanks to the direction. Ognjanović and director of photography Vladislav Andrejevic use subtle camera movements to help viewers navigate the town. The opening sequence, wherein Jana is running through town to save Novi, doubles as a tour of the main locations without anyone realizing it at first. A slow push-in when Jana eavesdrops signifies the importance of what she hears. The wide-open shots of the surrounding terrain Novi and Jana hike through represent what lies beyond the borders of the small community Jana feels trapped in.

Where The Road Leads is filled with drama, heart, and a wicked sense of humor. The leads are impeccably cast, while Ognjanović’s command of tone and the visual style is excellent. Everything is all the more impressive, considering this is the director’s first full-length title (the same goes for Jana Bjelica). If one is in the mood for something a little odd and very engrossing, seek this out immediately.

For more information, follow the Where The Road Leads Instragram.

By James Callery For Mailonline

The title of writer-director Nina Ognjanović’s offbeat

An investigation into the cause of death began on Friday after the child was discovered in northeast Paris on Thursday night, the capital's prosecutor¿s office said

Global

Girl, three, dies after getting shut inside a washing machine in Paris

Girl, three, dies after getting shut inside a washing machine: French father’s horrifying discovery while searching for his daughter

An investigation into the cause of death began on Friday in Paris
The prosecutor’s office has not confirmed a report that she was found alive
The father and another family member are reported to have made the discovery at around 10:30 pm

Published: 08:32 EST, 13 January 2023 | Updated: 18:08 EST, 15 January 2023

Paris authorities launched an investigation on Friday after the death of a three-year-old girl who was found in the washing machine of her family’s apartment.

The child was discovered in northeast Paris on Thursday night, the capital’s prosecutor’s office said.

The drama unfolded after the father had dinner with his 37-year-old wife and one of their other children, Le Parisien reports.

At the end of the meal the parents became worried about the girl’s absence, it added.

An investigation into the cause of death began on Friday after the child was discovered in northeast Paris on Thursday night, the capital’s prosecutor’s office said

The whole family then set out to search for her, in the apartment and outside, and asked their neighbours for assistance.

The girl had just turned three less than a week ago, according to the publication, which added that the discovery was made at around 10:30 pm in the apartment, located in Paris’s 20th arrondissement.

Once they had found the daughter, the father immediately called the emergency services for medical assistance, according to Le Parisien, who said the child was already in critical condition when rescued.

She was declared dead shortly after 11:30 pm, the newspaper reported.

According to the declarations of the father, aged 48, the door of the washing machine was closed when the family members found her.

The household appliance was not switched on, Le Parisien reports.

Initial details suggest that it could be linked to suffocation and there were no signs of violence on her body, according to reports.

The autopsy has not yet taken place.

Pictured: Paris’s 20th arrondissement (file photo). The girl had just turned three less than a week ago, according to Le Parisien, which added that the discovery was made at around 10:30 pm in the apartment

A source said the parents had five children, including the deceased.

‘The eldest is 18 years old, then there are the sons between 7 and 16 years old and finally the victim’, they added, noting that the parents were also unaware of what their other children were doing during dinner.

A special unit for the protection of minors is heading the probe.

In July, a seven-year-old boy in Spring, Texas was found dead inside a washing machine just hours after his parents reported him missing.

At around 5.20 am, the parents of Troy Khoeler filed a missing persons report with police, Lt Robert Minchew of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said.

When police officers arrived at the home of Jermaine Thomas and Tiffany Thomas, the couple said the boy had been missing since around 4 am.

After the parents took part in a brief interview for the missing persons report, deputies found there were ‘signs’ indicating that they should search the house in its entirety for the boy.

They then discovered his body in a washing machine in the garage.

Jermaine Thomas was charged with capital murder and Tiffany Thomas was charged with injury to a child by omission.

Trending

Anger Has Been Expressed After Reports That Shakira Cut In Front Of A Huge Line While Carrying Her Children

According to reports, Shakira infuriated other parents when she and her children cut through a line that had been waiting for almost 90 minutes to enter a Halloween attraction.

The Hips Don’t Lie singer, who is 45 years old, allegedly skipped ahead of other families waiting in line for more than an hour to get on the Tower of Terror rollercoaster in Barcelona, according to several news agencies in Spain that made their claims over the weekend.

According to a local journalist who spoke with Socialité, Shakira and her two children, Milan, 9, and Sasha, 7, and a security officer sneaked into the club without anyone noticing.

A journalist by the name of Silvia Taulés observed that Shakira didn’t bat an eye when people yelled at her for skipping them in line, even though she did so.

Which kind of behavior should she model for her children? The reporter went on to say more. This intelligent learning of how to skip ahead of the line teaches them to do so even when it’s not essential.

Taulés also posted photographs to Twitter showing the halftime performer from the Super Bowl at the venue with her children. Page Six has contacted Shakira’s representatives but has yet to receive a response from them.

The Colombian superstar is having a rough year because of her breakup and custody fight with Gerard Piqué, a player for Barcelona FC who she shares two children with. Piqué is 35 years old. The former couple issued a joint statement in June, saying, “We regret to confirm that we are splitting.”

At this time, we respectfully request privacy for the sake of our children, the protection of whom is our highest responsibility. I want to express my gratitude for your consideration and regard. The football player is currently dating Clara Chia Marti, a 23-year-old public affairs student.

Tech

Andrew Callaghan Posts Video Apology for Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Independent filmmaker and media personality Andrew Callaghan, who gained prominence for his comedic man-on-the-street Channel 5 interviews on YouTube and a new HBO documentary “This Place Rules,” has shared a video apology to further address allegations of sexual misconduct, first levied against him in early January.

The nearly five-minute video, posted on a YouTube channel credited to Callaghan on Sunday afternoon, features the 25-year-old speaking to the camera, responding to the allegations against him and sharing that he plans to seek professional treatment to address his previous behavior.

“I hadn’t realized I had had this pattern that had affected multiple people. I’d like to apologize for my silence. When this stuff first came out, I was in a state of denial and shock,” Callaghan stated. “I was denounced by my closest collaborators and my name was printed in 40 different news outlets, next to the words ‘sexual misconduct.’ I just kind of spiraled into a mental health crisis. I’m okay now, but I don’t really think this is about me. This is about the people I’ve affected. So I just want to express my complete sympathy, support and respect for anyone that I’ve done wrong by. I really want to do better and be fully accountable for everything that I’ve done.”

Earlier in January, a woman named Caroline Elise alleged that Callaghan had stayed at her house and “wore [her] down” with requests to have sex. “It’s even more hard to have to relive the trauma that I endured every single day by seeing this man as a social justice warrior, as someone who cares about human rights, get a platform,” Elise said in a TikTok. “You shouldn’t be supporting him.”

Another woman named Dana came forward a few days later, alleging that Callaghan had pressured her into having sex: “I told him to stop. I told him to get off of me multiple times,” she said in a video posted to TikTok.

“I’ve always taken ‘no’ for an answer, as far as consent. I’ve never overstepped that line. But I think I want to have a more nuanced and important conversation about power dynamics, pressure and coercion,” Callaghan says in the new video. “For a long time, I was behaving in a way that I actually thought was normal. I thought that going home from the bar alone made you a loser. I thought that persistence was a form of flattery… I want to be fully responsible for not having a fluid understanding of consent.”

Callaghan also states that several stories about him online are “not true” and “missing important contextual information.” He also shares that he plans to begin therapy sessions and the 12-step program for Alcoholics Anonymous, taking a “serious step back from public life.”

“Not to blame alcohol, but I truly believe alcohol was a contributing factor to my poor decision-making,” Callaghan says.

Callaghan’s video concludes with an apology to his collaborators and friends: “You guys don’t deserve this and I love you guys. That said, If you never want to watch Channel 5 again, I understand.”

Callaghan had previously responded to the allegations against him through a legal representative, who stated that “repeated requests for money” had been made. “Andrew vows to be better in this regard, while reminding his audience that while even one concerned partner is too many, there are always multiple sides to a story,” a statement issued Thursday reads.

Watch Callaghan’s apology below.

Independent filmmaker and media personality Andrew Callaghan,

Video

Brendan Fraser Breaks Down In Tears While Accepting Best Actor at Critics Choice

Brendan Fraser could not contain his emotions after winning Best Actor at the Critics Choice Awards for his performance in “The Whale.” The 54-year-old actor, more than three decades after his movie breakthrough in “School Ties” and “Encino Man,” scored his first major victory of this awards season for his powerful role as an obese Idaho teacher.

“If you, like a guy like Charlie, who I played in this movie, in any way struggle with obesity,” he said, weeping, “or you just feel like you’re in a dark sea, I want you to know that if you, too, can have the strength to just get to your feet and go to the light, good things will happen.”

Great comeback stories were in the air on Sunday night. In fact, Fraser hugged supporting actor winner Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”) on his way to the stage. Some interesting history exists between the two: Quan, a popular child actor in the 1980s, was one of Fraser’s early costars in the 1992 comedy “Encino Man.”

Accepting his award, Fraser broke down in tears while referencing his character from “The Whale,” as you can see in the video below.

Fraser also called out his collaborators on “The Whale,” including director Darren Aronofsky and costars Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, and Sadie Sink.

The actor was facing major competition in the Best Actor lineup, including from Golden Globe winners Austin Butler for “Elvis” and Colin Farrell for “The Banshees of Inisherin,” in addition to Bill Nighy for “Living,” Paul Mescal for “Aftersun” and Tom Cruise for “Top Gun: Maverick.”

And after his win, Fraser reunited once again for a big hug with his friend and fellow winner Quan, as captured in this video.

Fraser has also been nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award, another precursor to the Oscar nominations, which will be announced on January 24th.

From ‘The Whale’ to ‘Babylon,’ How Production Designers Created Power and Emotion Using Single Locations

Brendan Fraser could not contain his emotions

Entertaintment

Janelle Monae Turns Heads at Critics Choice Awards with See-Through Dress

Janelle Monae won the SeeHer Award at the Critics Choice show this weekend — and it seems she wore something that was pretty on theme … ’cause everyone got an eyeful.

The actress/singer hit the red carpet Sunday at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel in L.A., where she was one of the clear standouts of the night in terms of fashion … wearing an elegant black dress that appears to be from Vera Wang’s Spring 2023 collection.

Of course, while she looked great … what really turned heads was the fact that her gown was see-through, especially upstairs — where she didn’t seem to be wearing a bra.

There were other somewhat revealing cutouts in the dress — around the pelvis area — that made it a total stunner … and Janelle pulled it off with style. She’s naturally a knockout, but a lot of people were kinda shocked she went out there like this … showing off the bod!

Eventually, she accepted her award for the night — which was meant to honor artists who offer up representation and authenticity in their roles and performances and work … and Janelle does both in film and in her music. She acknowledged as much in her speech.

JM identified her pronouns (she/her, they/them) … and made a point to shout out any LGBT kids at home who might live with families who don’t accept them. She said, “I see you.”

Great message and all … but still, folks might’ve been a little distracted. In a good way. ?

Movies

Review: Spellbinding ‘Saint Omer’ straddles truth, fiction

First, the real-life facts of the case, more shocking than you’ll find in most fiction: In November 2013, a mother took a train from Paris to the northern French coast, along with her 15-month old daughter. She checked into a hotel, walked down to the water at night, fed the hungry child, and left her to drown at high tide.

That mother, Fabienne Kabou, went on trial in 2016, where she acknowledged the killing and spoke of sorcery and witchcraft, but added: “Nothing makes sense in this story.”

Sitting in that courtroom was French documentary filmmaker Alice Diop. Like Kabou a woman of Senegalese descent, Diop had been fascinated by the case since she’d seen a grainy surveillance photo in a newspaper and felt that “I know her so well, I recognize myself.” She spent days sitting in the courtroom, staring at the woman in front of her, seeking to understand the impossible.

What emerged from that experience is the spellbinding “Saint Omer,” Diop’s debut feature, but really a film that exists somewhere in the space between documentary and scripted narrative, between truth and fiction. Most crucially, it’s a film so original in approach that one feels only Diop could have made or even conceived of it.

Whether it answers the question that an empathetic defense lawyer asks the jury to consider — not whether, but WHY — is less clear. But the film, which Diop co-wrote with Amrita David and Marie NDiaye, peels back so many layers by merely asking it — layers of race, gender, motherhood, and the lasting effects of French colonialism, for starters — that in the end, you’ll likely feel an answer isn’t really the point.

Diop begins with a mercifully brief scene on a dark beach, a woman walking, holding something, while the waves in the distance grow louder. The scene turns out to be a dream, experienced by Rama, a French novelist and professor, also of Senegalese descent. Rama is a proxy for Diop; she has developed an obsession with the infanticide story, and wants to base her next novel on it.

Soon Rama (a soulful Kayije Kagame), like Diop, is traveling to the coast and settling onto a bench into a wood-paneled courtroom (the film set was next door to the real courtroom) where defendant Laurence Coly, a fictional stand-in for Kabou, is facing a methodical but incredulous judge (Valérie Dréville).

Laurence is not the kind of defendant anyone expects — and that’s part of what’s both fascinating and troubling. She is highly educated, a fact that seems surprising to the media and to others. Even Rama’s book editor back in Paris tells her he’s heard Laurence speaks in a “sophisticated“ way; Rama retorts that she speaks like any other educated woman.

Laurence’s mother in Senegal, we learn, was obsessed with her education and upward mobility, and wouldn’t let her daughter speak the native Wolof language, only French. “Her obsession with my success tortured me,” she testifies. (In a heartbreaking moment, her mother, attending the trial, buys every newspaper she can, so proud is she that her daughter is generating headlines.) As for her father, he severed ties and stopped funding her studies in France when she switched from law to philosophy.

Lacking resources to survive, Laurence finally had to stop her studies and move in with an older white boyfriend, Luc, who hid their relationship from his own family. When she became pregnant, keeping the child against Luc’s wishes, she withdrew completely from the world. When Luc is on the stand, the judge draws out how this supposedly devoted father didn’t even attend the baby’s funereal — it was too far, the man complains. “It was very abstract to me.”

All the testimony is taken from the official record, brought to life by Guslagie Malanda as a maddeningly serene and utterly riveting Laurence, and a supporting cast of theater actors. The spectators are played by local townspeople, and the proceedings were filmed in chronological fashion, all contributing to a documentary-style feel.

But unlike a documentary, we’re witnessing it all though Rama. She’s horrified not only by the crime but by the prejudices, large and small, directed at Laurence — some that she herself experiences, as a woman, as a woman of color, as an academic in a white world — and as a daughter, with a mother who often treated her selfishly.

There’s another parallel between Rama and Laurence: Rama is pregnant.(Diop herself was mother of a small child during the trial, and has said the experience helped her healing process with post-partum depression). In bed one night with her partner, Rama tells him: “I’m scared I’ll be like her.” It’s her mother she is talking about, she clarifies. Or is it?

“I hope this trial will give me an answer,” someone says at the beginning of the film. If you think it’s Rama, or the judge, you’re wrong. It’s Laurence herself, admitting to a stunned courtroom that she has no tidy explanation up her sleeve.

Likewise, Diop refuses to wrap her film with a neat bow. In fact, she doesn’t even tell us what sentence, if any, Kabou received (there’s Google for that.) But in her unique way, she has taken us further into the emotional, social and moral crevices of this real-life case than any documentary could. And we’re much the better for it.

“Saint Omer,” a Super release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America “for some thematic elements and brief strong language.“ Running time: 122 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

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First, the real-life facts of the case,

Film

BFE Quiz Night IX: Redemption Island

17 hours ago

It’s episode 9 of Quiz Nights under the BFE banner, as we assemble for yet another go around the trivia stratosphere with some top notch quizzletainment with some previous last-place finishers in BFE Quiz Night 9: Redemption Island. Quizmaster Ian welcomes back Griff from the Paul & Griff Show, Brandon from Namely 90s, Kirsti from Canada, Debbie from just down the street, and Georgia from the BFE, each of whom hope to shed their L and find redemption the second time around. Join us for 5 rounds of quizzing fun around the greater cinematic industry. This month’s categories are:

Casting Calls: We give 3 actors, you tell us which film it is
Location Scouting: We name the setting (real or fictitious) and you tell us where it’s set
Sequences: Can you figure out what ties the films together and tell us what comes next?
Caveman Film Reviews: Can you describe a film using only monosyllabic words and no names or words from the film’s title
The Eliminator – Kind to many, savage to some, the game is never over with THE ELIMINATOR still to come

If you want to join us on a future quiz night, please get a hold of us on our Twitter account (@bestfilmeverpod) and let us know that you’d like to be on our waiting list.

January 15, 2023

17 hours agoIt's episode 9 of Quiz

HBO’s ‘This Place Rules’ Host Andrew Callaghan Responds To Sexual Misconduct Allegations – Deadline

UPDATE: Andrew Callaghan is addressing the sexual misconduct allegations and apologizing for his behavior.

He continued, “I’m okay now, but I don’t think this is about me. This is about the people I’ve affected. So I just want to express my complete sympathy, support and respect for anyone that I’ve done wrong by. I really want to do better and be fully accountable for everything that I’ve done.”

Watch his complete response in the video posted below.

PREVIOUSLY, January 12: Andrew Callaghan, the host of HBO’s new documentary This Place Rules, has issued a statement regarding allegations of sexual misconduct that were made in early January.

The accusations against Callaghan were related on TikTok by a woman named Caroline Elise, who claimed he lured her into a consensual sexual liaison. He allegedly did so by wearing her down with requests.

“It’s even more hard to have to relive the trauma that I endured every single day by seeing this man as a social justice warrior, as someone who cares about human rights, get a platform. You shouldn’t be supporting him.”

She later updated her call to action urging other women to come forward if they experienced something similar. Reports indicate another woman did.

Today, a statement attriibuted to Callaghan’s legal representative was issued by a public relations firm. The statement alleges a request for money was made before going public with the claims.

“Andrew is devastated that he is being accused of any type of physical or mental coercion against anyone. Conversations about pressure and consent are extremely important, and Andrew wants to have these conversations, so he can continue to learn and grow. While every dynamic is open to interpretation and proper communication is critical from all those involved, repeated requests for money should not be part of these conversations.

With that, balanced communication is paramount to any relationship dynamic and Andrew vows to be better in this regard, while reminding his audience that while even one concerned partner is too many, there are always multiple sides to a story.

Andrew is fully committed to working with the appropriate professionals to better understand himself and ways he can grow and improve as a human being, especially with his growing platform and the vulnerabilities it brings.”

Deadline has reached out to A24, a producer of Callaghan’s documentary, for comment.

HBO released Callaghan’s documentary This Place Rules on Dec. 30. The film follows Callaghan as he travels across the U.S. in the months preceding the Jan. 6 confrontation at the Capitol.

January 15, 2023