Jennifer Garner showed her support for publicist Meredith O’Sullivan at the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles’ (BBBSLA) “The Big Night Out” Gala held at NeueHouse Hollywood.
Jennifer Garner showed her support for publicist
Alec Baldwin has filed a cross-complaint in regard to the on-set shooting death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, alleging in a lawsuit filed Friday that the blame lies with three of the film’s crew members, as well as the man who supplied ammunition to the set.
Baldwin named Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, David Halls, Seth Kenney, PDQ Arm and Prop, LLC (“PDQ”) and Sarah Zachry collectively as “cross-defendants” in a suit originally filed against him last year by Mamie Mitchell, the film’s script supervisor. In his suit, he claims that he relied on the four of them to do their jobs and that Hutchins’ death was a result of their negligence and, as a result, Baldwin says has experienced “immense grief” and suffered an “emotional, physical and financial toll.”
“The negligence of Gutierrez-Reed, Halls, Kenney, PDQ, and Zachry has caused Baldwin substantial harm,” Baldwin’s complaint reads. “Over the last year, Baldwin has suffered substantial damage as a result of the events on October 21. He has suffered physically and emotionally from the grief caused by these events. Not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about, and suffer from, the events that happened that day. Baldwin has also lost numerous job opportunities and associated income. For example, he’s been fired from multiple jobs expressly because of the incident on Rust and has been passed over for other opportunities, which is a direct result of the negligence of Cross-Defendants Gutierrez-Reed, Halls, Kenney, PDQ, and Zachry.”
“More than anyone else on that set,” the actor’s attorney, Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel, wrote, “Baldwin has been wrongfully viewed as the perpetrator of this tragedy. By these Cross-Claims, Baldwin seeks to clear his name and hold Cross-Defendants accountable for their conduct.”
Baldwin “demands a trial by jury” and seeks “compensatory, nominal, statutory, and punitive damages where applicable to Cross-Complainant in an amount to be determined at trial, including any damages arising out of Plaintiff Mitchell’s claims in this lawsuit.”
On Oct. 21, 2021, Baldwin was holding a Colt .45 revolver when it went off during preparation for a scene near Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has asserted that he pulled the hammer back, although not far enough to cock it, and then released it – causing the gun to fire. He has stated that he did not pull the trigger.
The Colt .45 should have contained dummy rounds, which contain neither projectile nor charge, but it was loaded instead with one live round, which passed through Hutchins’ body and lodged in the shoulder of director Joel Souza.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office recently completed its criminal investigation, and local prosecutors are currently considering whether to file charges against Baldwin or any of the other crew members. The cross-complaint is what amounts to a detailed and lengthy exoneration of Baldwin prepared by his civil attorneys. It includes text messages and photos from the Sheriff’s investigation.
The document faults armorer Gutierrez-Reed for having “failed to perform her job carefully and as a result, a live round was loaded into a gun that she had negligently failed to identify.”
The suit alleges that “Gutierrez-Reed failed to check the bullets or the gun carefully, Halls failed to check the gun carefully and yet announced the gun was safe before handing it to Baldwin.”
Baldwin also accuses David Halls, the first assistant director, of failing to check the gun carefully and faults him for declaring the gun to be “cold” as he handed it to Baldwin, on-set lingo stating that the rounds did not contain any charges.
In addition, the cross-complaint faults Sarah Zachry, the propmaster, for failing to adequately supervise Gutierrez Reed and failing to maintain a safe set. Baldwin also accuses Seth Kenney, the supplier, of showing a “cavalier disregard for proper separation between live and dummy ammunition.” All four have previously denied culpability. Gutierrez-Reed has sued Kenney for supplying her with live ammunition that closely resembled dummy rounds, which Kenney has denied.
Mitchell, who is represented by Gloria Allred, alleges in her lawsuit that she was four feet away when the gun went off and that she suffered painful ringing in her ears in addition to emotional trauma. She says that Baldwin intentionally “cocked and fired the loaded gun even though the upcoming scene to be filmed did not call for the cocking and firing of a firearm.”
Baldwin has tried to throw out the suit, arguing that on-set accidents are the exclusive domain of New Mexico workers’ compensation system.
A Los Angeles judge denied his motion on Nov. 1, 2022.
Alec Baldwin has filed a cross-complaint in
YouTube has a new Live Q&A feature to help you host dedicated question and answer sessions during livestreams.
Here’s how it works: when you start a Q&A as a creator, your prompt shows up as a pinned message at the top of your stream’s chat, and then viewers can submit their questions. When you find a question you want to discuss, you can pin it so that it’s featured and everyone knows what you’re responding to. To move on, you can pin another question, and it will replace what’s at the top of the list. When you’re done with the Q&A session, you can go back to a standard chatroom.
This dedicated Q&A tool could be a useful way for creators to have conversations directly with their audiences. Before now, they’d just have to field questions as they flood in the chat, but viewers who wander in mid-way through a Q&A might not know what’s going on or what question the streamer is responding to. Giving streamers the ability to pin prompts and questions might make those Q&As run more smoothly.
As YouTube continues to improve its livestreaming platform to compete with Twitch, the company has added a number of features to make its chats more enticing for streamers. Those additions include Super Chats, which let viewers pay to have a pinned comment, and Super Thanks, which is basically a tip. Live Q&A doesn’t directly help a streamer earn money, but if a viewer feels heard in a Q&A, they might toss the streamer some money down the line.
YouTube has a new Live Q&A feature
The best slippers for women are indoor essentials year-round, but they’re especially needed in the colder months. While fuzzy socks and throw blankets might help ward off the toe-chilling effects of cold floors, nothing is quite as effective at keeping your feet cozy as house shoes—and now’s the perfect time to buy a pair for yourself (and everyone else in your life).
Whether you’re in the market for shearling house shoes for lounging around in comfort, styles that accommodate wide feet, or a new pair of Ugg slippers to work into your winter ’fits, there are plenty of cute options out there. Can’t wait to plunge your feet into the coziest footwear you’ve ever had the pleasure of wearing? Same—and we found the very best slippers for women below. (Your winter boots need never know.)
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
The best slippers for women are indoor
Actor Alia Bhatt’s girl squad, which includes sister duo Anushka Ranjan and Akansha Ranjan Kapoor, has never failed to dish out major friendship goals. Thanks to the shutterbugs, the gang has often been seen letting their hair down and catching up at some of the most happening spots in the city. And often, actor Aditya Seal, who married Anushka last year, has been spotted hanging out with the girls. Needless to say, he is elated with the arrival of Alia and actor Ranbir Kapoor’s baby girl.
In an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, Aditya says that he only wishes the very best for the little bundle of joy and that she has brought in more love and bliss for the couple, who tied the knot in April this year. “My only wish is that the little angel brings a lot more happiness into both their lives. Alia and Ranbir seem to be so in love and now with the baby, it’s only going to grow,” he shares.
On the work front, Aditya shared screen space with Ranbir on the song Har Bachcha Hai Rocket from the recently released film, Rocket Gang. Happy to have collaborated with his buddy, Aditya says, “I’ve always looked up to Ranbir as a performer. I haven’t met any better. But he’s so friendly that you’re not nervous around him. Even as a dancer, he’s so smooth that no matter what you do, he’ll still look a lot more effortless.”
The Indoo Ki Jawani and Forbidden Love actor is rather inspired by Ranbir’s body of work and the choices that he has been making as an artiste. Talking about it, Aditya says, “I feel Ranbir has been very experimental with his choices and that is the first quality that I respect. He’s done a Wake Up Sid, a Rocket Singh: Salesman Of The Year and a Rockstar to an Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani and a Tamasha… that’s an unnatural range for an actor to have and he has excelled in all. I too would love to experiment with roles because I enjoy the challenge and it keeps me motivated.”
Rocket Gang sees Aditya flaunt some amazing dancing skills and he is overwhelmed with the response that his peers in the film industry have showered on him. In fact, south superstar Ram Charan recently gave its trailer a thumbs up on social media. “After seeing the trailer, they realised that there hasn’t been a film catering to kids and young adults in a while. They were pleasantly surprised with it. I met Ayushmann (Khurrana; actor) paaji at a Diwali party and he had a lot of positive things to say about the trailer and the audience that we are targeting. And it was a surprise and an absolute honour for all of us when Ram Charan spoke for Rocket Gang,” Aditya states.
The dance-based film marks the directorial debut of ace choreographer Bosco Martis. While Aditya feels grateful to have been directed by him, he adds that he was ‘a task master’. He elaborates, “He used to make us practice a lot. Any free day that we had also went into practice. Bosco wants what he wants but he will give you time for it. He’s not unrealistic about his demands but he demands the absolute best.”
The actor, who will next be seen in Amar Prem, remarks that working on the film has proved to be quite fruitful for his career. “Whatever I’ve done in the film was very new to me. There was a section in a song where I did some aerial dancing. I was suspended 15-20 feet up in the air with absolutely no harness. I was only relying on a piece of cloth and my strength to stay put. Even the other kinds of dances I did in it was very new to me. When I look back at it, I feel like I’ve gained a lot more than what I gave to the film. Working on Rocket Gang made me a lot more confident in my work, art and craft,” he says.
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Actor Alia Bhatt’s girl squad, which includes
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Cast, Character Quiz
Thanksgiving dinner is a highlight of the holidays—but the hours of prep work to make it happen certainly aren’t. Thanks to the best Thanksgiving meal delivery services, though, it’s possible to enjoy all of the good stuff (namely perfectly cooked turkey and decadent side dishes) with almost none of the stress of cooking and cleaning.
Sure, it might sound shocking at first—shouldn’t Thanksgiving dinner be a DIY situation? But folks, another way is possible. When you order your meal online, there’s no chance of forgetting an ingredient and frantically searching for a grocery store that’s open. Heat-and-eat options also ensure that you won’t drastically dry out (or worse, undercook) your turkey, while meal kits allow you to put an elaborate menu for two on the table with minimal effort. And there’s flexibility, too. Many retailers allow you to order turkeys and sides à la carte, so your own family recipes can make a cameo alongside prepared dishes.
Whether you hate cooking or you could just use some extra help in the kitchen, we suggest you give the best Thanksgiving meal delivery services a shot this November. After all, this isn’t a holiday for working—you deserve to sit back, watch the parade, and take a nap right after dinner wraps up. These are the options you can’t go wrong with for Thanksgiving 2022.
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Thanksgiving dinner is a highlight of the
Love has been pouring in across the globe from fans and celebrities around in honor of the late, Kevin Conroy. Conroy passed away on November 10, 2022, at the age of 66 and was best known for voicing the iconic Batman in multiple animated series and films. The news was first revealed when Diane Pershing posted on her on her facebook page.
Very sad news: our beloved voice of Batman, Kevin Conroy, died yesterday. He’s been ill for a while but he really put in a lot of time at the cons, to the joy of all of his fans. He will be sorely missed not just by the cast of the series but by his legion of fans all over the world.
Below are pictures of Kevin with Loren Lester who plays Robin another with me and and Tara Strong who is in the later episodes of Batman cartoons. And then finally, one of Kevin and me in front of the huge audiences we used to get when we did our panels. RIP, friend.?
Stunned by the loss of this brilliant actor. Words can't express my admiration and respect for the man. I loved him like a brother.#RIPKevinConroy ? pic.twitter.com/THlaZ2uTSh
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) November 11, 2022
Rest in peace, our Dark Knight @RealKevinConroy
You defined the Batman for an entire generation and Gotham will never be the same. pic.twitter.com/gupGy9fjw1— Rocksteady Studios (@RocksteadyGames) November 11, 2022
Bruce imagined him, Andrea found him and, once found, Kevin kicked the door open for all of us to bring to you the amazing characters of DCAU.
Kevin, my friend, my colleague, my hero. We will all miss you terribly. You are a singular soul. Thank you. Now rest #Batman #KevinConroy pic.twitter.com/yrNC8Mfjnt— Clancy Brown (@RealClancyBrown) November 11, 2022
My Batty is gone. One of the finest human beings I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. ?#RIPKevinConroy pic.twitter.com/7ZY6Mh2Kv0
— Grey DeLisle (@GreyDeLisle) November 11, 2022
Warner Bros. Games is devastated by the passing of Kevin Conroy, the iconic voice of Batman in many of our game franchises, including Batman Arkham, Injustice, LEGO DC games, MultiVersus and many more.
— Warner Bros. Games (@wbgames) November 11, 2022
Like for so many of you, Kevin was our Batman. He was loved beyond measure, and he felt it. There was nothing he loved more than to stand up & yell out to a crowd that had gathered to meet him, “I am vengeance… I am the night… I AM BATMAN!” Well, maybe one thing… pic.twitter.com/Pq2lKDQzZR
— Susan Eisenberg (@susaneisenberg1) November 11, 2022
I don’t have the words. Not today. My heart is broken. There will never be another. He IS #Batman. #RIPLEGEND pic.twitter.com/hJcUVEVeWm
— tara strong (@tarastrong) November 11, 2022
His final Batman credit is listed on IMDb as the upcoming TV series Batman: Caped Crusader, which is currently filming. He was set to play Thomas Wayne in the show, which is slated for a 2023 premiere.
You will sadly be missed by all but your legend will live on. Condolences goes out to all of his family and friends.
Love has been pouring in across the
We’re all cheering for the George Clooney and Julia Roberts reunion in Ticket to Paradise, but it’s also got us feeling nostalgic, which brings us to Ocean’s Eleven. The 2001 crime comedy pairs Clooney and Roberts as ill-fated couple Danny and Tess, whose relationship has deteriorated during his prison stay. Once his time is up and he’s a free man once again, Danny plots an epic heist, targeting a casino conveniently owned by Tess’s new boyfriend (Andy Garcia). Even if you’re not amused by the quick plot or pulled in by the all-star ensemble, you can’t argue with Clooney and Roberts’ chemistry — watch Ocean’s Eleven for them alone.
Photo: Everett Collection
By Greta Bjornson We’re all cheering for the George
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Alec Baldwin has filed a lawsuit Friday accusing the armorer and crew members on “Rust” of negligence, saying they were responsible for handing him the loaded gun that fired and killed the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, in October 2021.
Baldwin in his suit, as obtained by The New York Times, named the armorer tasked with handling the weapons on set, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, first assistant director Dave Halls, the individual in charge of props, Sarah Zachry, and Seth Kenney of PDQ Arm & Prop, which supplied the ammunition and guns to the film set. Baldwin specifically accused Gutierrez-Reed of failing to check the gun or the bullets of the gun carefully, as well as Halls for not checking the weapon before he had announced that it was a “cold gun” and handed it to Baldwin. It also says Zachry failed in her duties as prop master by not ensuring the safety of the weapons and ammunition on set.
“This tragedy happened because live bullets were delivered to the set and loaded into the gun,” the lawsuit said, according to the New York Times.
Lawyers for Baldwin, Gutierrez-Reed, Halls and Kenney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An attorney for Zachry could not be reached for comment.
The allegations against the “Rust” crew members is part of a cross-complaint that follows a lawsuit filed against him and other members of the crew last year by the film’s script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, claiming that the shooting caused her emotional distress. That lawsuit is ongoing, and a judge earlier this month declined to dismiss Baldwin as a defendant in the case.
Baldwin as part of the lawsuit says he has lost work and other opportunities as a result of the shooting and is asking for indemnification from legal damages stemming from Mitchell’s case.
“Hutchins lost her life, and her young child lost his mother,” the lawsuit as obtained by the Times reads. “Producer Joel Souza was shot in the shoulder and has suffered physical and emotional pain. Though by no means comparable, Baldwin must live with the immense grief, and the resulting emotional, physical, and financial toll, caused by the fact that Cross-Defendants’ negligent conduct, assurances, and supervision put a loaded weapon in his hand and led him, Hutchins, and everyone else on set to believe that his directed use of the weapon was safe.”
The deadly “Rust” shooting took place on October 21, 2021 in which Baldwin held a gun that discharged and contained a live bullet, ultimately killing Hutchins and injuring the film’s director Joel Souza. Last month, the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office turned over its final investigative report to the state’s district attorney, which is reviewing the material and is determining whether to press criminal charges. The Sheriff’s office has yet to release any findings of its final report.
However, Baldwin’s lawsuit cites some evidence that was released earlier this year by the Santa Fe County Sheriff, including photos that claimed Kenney’s company had kept weapons and ammunition in “disarray.” It also cited an FBI report that found that live bullets had been found in multiple places on set, including in a bandoleer that Baldwin was wearing on the day of the accident.
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The actor names Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, first AD
After listening to Midnights — an already record-breaking album from Taylor Swift, who may have done this whole songwriting and performing thing once or twice before — you may immediately feel inclined to compare it to albums and songs of Swiftdom past.
There are much more interesting ways to reflect on new music from the person who has brought us, as artists do, a fair share of hits and misses over the years. Which is hard to do, I know, considering so much of Midnights relies on acknowledging what has come before — though maybe not in the way you expected.
The era of Swift we have entered accomplishes two things simultaneously: The artist calling out herself, but also calling out the listener. You. The deeper you submerge yourself in this music the more you ultimately begin to think about who you left behind, who you’ve been thinking about. Your regrets. Your secret wishes for revenge.
Isn’t the point of absorbing a story — a song, a poem, any form at all — to find and extract the elements that speak to you personally?
(Not that it isn’t fun for a certain segment of Swifties to speculate about the significance of every other word, you know who you are.)
I’ve said before that Swift’s music has this particular way of speaking to me in moments I need my own thoughts mirrored back to me, and Midnights is no exception. In its sound, it’s quite unlike most of what Swift has released before — but in its words, it’s the level of depth and honesty we’ve come to expect from her, though perhaps a notch or two up in its intensity.
And it’s that unapologetic vulnerability that makes it relatable.
The lyrics say a lot of things, yet so pointedly point at someone like me specifically to say, “Hi, you’re not broken because you think about your past, what could have been but never was, everyone does it, embrace it.”
Because even though most of us will never write songs about the dumb choices we made when we were younger or the people who hurt us or the people we hurt more (and also, the selves we wounded along the way), Swift’s words are universal whether you want to admit it or not.
Perhaps the sound won’t vibe with you, maybe you’re tired of hearing her lyrics through the lens of the famous and rich, but it’s possible you’re also forgetting that these songs were written by a real person who has felt real pain just like you have.
The difference between you and her, us and them, is that one party doesn’t have millions of eyes on their emotions and the other always will.
If Midnights is an ode to the things that never were, used to be, aren’t anymore, or are different now, then what we must take away from the album itself and the additional tracks released to accompany it isn’t that the past is bad, but instead that our futures depend on reflection.
Whether that soul-searching happens at noon or at midnight, it is the key to unlocking who we might become.
Who we were is nothing but a step toward growing into who we want to be. Not overnight, but over a lifetime.
When you listen to this album, think about what was, if only to better understand where you are.
Then decide what’s next, and pursue it.
After listening to Midnights — an already
Noriaki Tsuchimoto is a towering figure in Japanese documentary cinema, but only known by name and reputation in the West. Beyond festival screenings, his films rarely show here. That is about to change, however. Following a program held at the Open City Documentary Festival in London, the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York will host a retrospective dedicated to Tsuchimoto’s work; the series runs from November 12-27. Before this rare opportunity occurs, it’s time to take a hard look at just what makes his documentaries special.
With a body of work spanning six decades and over 100 movies, Tsuchimoto’s career can be roughly divided into three parts: the early shorts directed for Iwanami Productions; the series of films dedicated to Minamata disease; and the later documentaries on Afghanistan. Each phase of his career has movies worth watching. And as with any artist, his focus and aesthetic changed over time.
Tsuchimoto’s entry into the world of cinema was a matter of happenstance and being in the right place at the right time. Though born in Gifu Prefecture, he grew up relatively poor in Tokyo. At the end of World War II, he lived with relatives in Setagaya Ward, next to Toho studios. During these final days, citizens would stand guard for potential nocturnal air raids. It was at this time Tsuchimoto would keep watch with film crew, including cameraman Keiji Yoshino. Tsuchimoto would strike up conversations with Yoshino pertaining to craft. Years later, the cameraman would recommend Tsuchimoto to Iwanami Productions, a company that specialized in making promotional and educational films for companies. Starting in 1956, Tsuchimoto worked as a location manager before getting a crack at directing as a freelancer.
For such an industrial outfit, Iwanami allowed for formal experimentation from its filmmakers, many of whom were, ironically, leftists subverting the content and messages they were given by the company. In this way, Iwanami’s creative permissiveness can be likened to the Centre Office of Information in Britain, another pragmatic entity where daring creation flourished. Such radical technique Tsuchimoto expressed in one of his efforts for the company: An Engineer’s Assistant (1963). Although made for Japanese National Railways (JNR) to promote train safety after a wreck killed 160 people, the color short ultimately follows a fireman on a steam train. Reminiscent of Artavazd Peleshian’s train movie End (1992), Engineer’s Assistant is a montage-based actioner comprised of accumulated details: the loaded hand signals of a train conductor; a graphic transition from an emergency flare to a rising sun; the heavy breathing on post-sync sound as an engineer’s assistant runs through a simulated accident. What Tsuchimoto conveys is the precision of movements performed so routinely that they become ritualized, exuding a mechanized professionalism straining against a tight schedule. The engineer and the assistant are one with the train.
At this time, filmmakers working for Iwanami would often meet up, forming what has been called the “Blue Group,” to discuss and analyze projects that they were working on. It was a casual setting for the crew to hang out, commiserate and workshop. Yoichi Higashi and Shinsuke Ogawa—the other major figure in post-war Japanese documentary cinema—were also part of this group.
The following year, Tsuchimoto made On the Road: A Document. Far more subversive than Engineer’s Assistant, the movie ended his relationship with Iwanami. Commissioned by the Metropolitan Police, the movie was supposed to demonstrate proper traffic safety. The finished product was far from the mark and ultimately shelved for four decades. One can see why: In direct opposition to the backers, Tsuchimoto worked with a drivers’ union to record the plight of cabbies. Pushing montage further than Engineer’s Assistant, Tsuchimoto’s objective is not to explain but to evoke, that of a mood and atmosphere pervading post-war Tokyo: a chaotic hodgepodge of half-built buildings, incessant construction, and haphazard traffic in lane-less thoroughfares. What Tsuchimoto ultimately conveys is a sense of isolation and alienation at the heart of living in the city at the time. At one point he fixes his camera on a Cryon plastered on the façade of a building. The scrolling text announces the death of a four-year-old girl and the critical condition of her mother, and then nonchalantly moves on to the weather—the tragic news is just a part of everyday life in Tokyo.
The next year, 1965, Tsuchimoto made for TV The Children of Minamata Are Living, the first in a decade-spanning series on the city and the disease. What he found while filming in Kumamoto Prefecture were families resistant to media coverage and suffering since 1956, when the first cases of mercury poisoning were publicly recorded. Chisso Corporation, a powerhouse chemical company, had been dumping an organic compound of the element directly into the sea, tainting fish (the area’s main industry) in the process, which fishermen would catch and innocent people would eat. Tsuchimoto was so shaken up by the experience that he questioned whether his movie would further add to the people of Minamata’s misery. Producer Ryutaro Takagi convinced Tsuchimoto to reconsider, leading him to make Minamata: The Victims and Their World (1970), a high achievement in his career. The movie documents the many people affected by Chisso’s actions, such as a boy afflicted with ataxia (lack of muscle control) asking the filmmakers about the waters in Tokyo. In fact, Tsuchimoto is more of a presence here than in his prior works, appearing on camera and asking questions in voiceover. It’s part and parcel with confidence in his filmmaking, a sense of pacing and rhythm that perhaps wasn’t as mature in the PR films. As with Engineer’s Assistant and On the Road, sound and image aren’t in sync, which Tsuchimoto puts to creative use. Consciously selecting the appropriate combination of audio and visual, he creates a quietly dislocating, disorienting effect that makes one more aware of what is being seen and heard. Never once does Minamata feel sentimental. Rather, Tsuchimoto offers it as a sobering document made of a patchwork of imagery, sprinkled with title cards that stitch the shots together, providing context for the events depicted onscreen. The movie climaxes with outrage as victims, who have purchased stock in Chisso, attend a meeting to confront board members with the admission of their responsibility. Here, in contrast to the rest of the footage, the camera is battered around as it gets swept up with the angry mob rushing the stage to corner the corporate suits.
None of the volcanic ire in Minamata’s finale seeps into The Shiranui Sea (1975), for this installment in the series—one of the longest at two-and-a-half hours—is more reflective and episodic, with fade-to-black scene transitions. In a way, it’s an extension and refinement of the earlier documentary. Tsuchimoto returns to a few of the victims first seen in Minamata. Onscreen, he asks how his film crew should film them, allowing for empathy and communal, participant filmmaking. Sometimes the director’s response stands for the viewer’s own, such as questioning a public medical doctor’s lack of first-hand encounters with full-blown Minamata disease victims as unconscionable. And other times, he has the artistic instincts to remove himself from the scene, such as a moment between a teenage victim and a doctor at the site where the disease was first discovered. The girl starts to cry at one point, not knowing what she can do with herself. The doctor speaks to her directly and honestly, while still retaining an air of comfort. This is a crucial moment in the film that gets to the heart of why Tsuchimoto’s cinema is worthy: It documents a heartrending conversation at a respectful distance, allowing the moment to happen and emotion to filter into the scene.
In the following decade, Tsuchimoto would branch out by visiting and shooting footage in Afghanistan. Co-directed by Hiroko Kumagai and Abdul Latif, Afghan Spring (1989) documents a transitional period in the country’s history. As Soviet forces leave, the movie depicts a moment of respite for Afghanistan before the Taliban would take power and wreck the country anew. Afghan Spring offers a cross-section of people and places, hopscotching from Kabul and Herat to Hadda and Jalalabad; the crew visits the home of a rebel leader looking after a village, farmers tilling arid fields, and a museum curator safeguarding precious artifacts. The movie is a snapshot of the Afghan people and their mindset, as they offer the film crew their thoughts on war, marriage, and refugees returning from Iran after many years.
After NATO and the US invaded the country in 2001, Tsuchimoto returned to his footage shot in Afghanistan, re-editing it into two short works, some of his last: Another Afghanistan: Kabul Diary 1985 and Traces: The Kabul Museum 1988 (both 2003). The former both provide context on the history of Afghanistan from an outsider’s perspective and depicts developments happening at the time: a successful campaign for education and literacy; and the issuance of deeds—the first in the country—after the new government’s land reformation policy. The latter is important for preserving to film art and artifacts once housed in the museum but destroyed when looted in the ‘90s.
Amid his long, variegated career, Noriaki Tsuchimoto’s approach remained elastic, bending to the contours of the subject matter at hand. Along with Shinsuke Ogawa, he would continue to pursue matters of interest with an abiding determination. Publishing Of Sea and Soil, an essential dossier devoted to the filmmakers, Stoffel Debuysere and Elias Grootaers wrote,“They made films that convey a material understanding of the world they document, films not on a subject but with a subject.” It’s this horizontal relationship that makes these directors endure. Subsequent filmmakers have taken it as a model on which to base their approach. Kazuo Hara, arguably Japan’s most important living documentarian, continues to make movies about and with people on the margins of society, including Minamata Mandala (2020), a six-hour feature on the very disease that was Tsuchimoto’s life’s work. John Gianvito has publicly acknowledged Tsuchimoto’s influence, especially when it comes to the ethics of representation. “Perhaps this sounds a commonplace, an obvious and simple requisite for the documentary filmmaker,” Gianvito wrote, “but it is only deceptively so or we would encounter it more frequently.” Tsuchimoto paid attention, and the quality of his attention was rich. In the end, he shared wealth.
Tanner Tafelski is a freelance film critic based in New York City and the editorial director for Kinoscope, a streaming platform for arthouse cinema. If he isn’t watching a movie, he’s reading crime fiction.
Noriaki Tsuchimoto is
Tommie Hanks was 27 years old when he was reported missing in action during the Korean War in 1950.
Tommie Hanks was 27 years old when
SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from all of Season 5 of “The Crown,” now streaming on Netflix.
As handsome as the sharp-jawed British actors bringing it to life, “The Crown” has been nothing short of dazzling, luring curious viewers like me into Peter Morgan’s reimagining of the impossibly tangled web that is the British monarchy. Five seasons in, the Netflix drama’s ability to shock and awe with its immense budget, top- tier acting, and nigh impeccable production design is a well-worn fact — and also a lifesaver, given how blunt it’s now become.
In the six years and 21 Emmy wins since its debut, the show’s managed to distract millions from the fact that each season has been less subtle than the last. Season 5, which dropped on Nov. 9, is far from the first “Crown” installment to lean too heavily on metaphors to sell its themes. (Remember Season 1’s “Act of God,” in which a deadly fog represented Winston Churchill’s indecision paralysis, or something?) This new season is, however, an especially egregious offender, with Morgan’s scripts hammering their most obvious themes home with clattering thuds, pushing allegory after allegory with vanishingly little nuance.
Season 5, hinging on Queen Elizabeth (now Imelda Staunton) feeling more like an outdated relic and the contentious divorce between Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and Prince Charles (Dominic West, doing his best despite being wildly miscast), features shaggy scripts that never met a metaphor they didn’t want to catapult straight into viewers’ faces. As typically good as actors like Debicki, Lesley Manville (Princess Margaret) and Olivia Williams (Camilla Parker-Bowles) are at adjusting to their inherited roles, it’s almost as if Morgan doesn’t quite trust them (and/or the audience) to understand exactly what’s going on at all times. In telling the stories of some of the most repressed, private people on the planet, “The Crown” constantly makes them spell everything out. Subtext is dead; long live tortured metaphors.
Need convincing? Here are the new season’s five most jarring metaphors and allegories, ranked from least to most ridiculous.
SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers from
Elon Musk is planning to dismantle Twitter’s decade-plus-old verification program, designed to increase trust in the social network by providing a visual signifier that high-profile accounts are, in fact, who they say they are.
Going forward, Musk’s $7.99/month Twitter Blue subscription will the only way to get the “verified” blue check-mark — except that the identities of the users who pay for that are not actually going to be verified by Twitter.
“Far too many corrupt legacy Blue ‘verification’ checkmarks exist, so no choice but to remove legacy Blue in coming months,” Musk tweeted Thursday in reply to a user who asked why her “legacy” verification status was now showing up as a Twitter Blue verified account.
“Blue check will be the great leveler,” Musk tweeted on Wednesday, after he abruptly canceled Twitter’s rollout of separate “official” labels for high-profile accounts, which were supposed to replace Twitter’s legacy verification.
Entrepreneur and multibillionaire Mark Cuban tweeted at Musk that the change “killed the most valuable part of Twitter, the ability to quickly and easily find information from sources I have chosen to trust.” Cuban added, “I just spent too much time muting all the newly purchased checkmark accts in an attempt to make my verified mentions useful again.” Musk replied, “It’s working for me. That said, we can definitely make the verified mentions tab more usable.”
Twitter first introduced verified accounts in 2009, in order to help users identify that celebrities, politicians, companies, entertainment brands, news organizations and other accounts “of public interest” are the real deal and not impostor or parody accounts. Since Twitter Blue “verification” launched Nov. 9, numerous parody and fake Twitter accounts have cropped up.
For now, the blue check-mark can mean two different things: either that an account was verified under the previous verification criteria (i.e., that it’s an active, notable and authentic account), or that the account has an active subscription to the new Twitter Blue subscription service. Clicking on a Twitter account’s check-mark badge will pull up a message that explains which “verified” status it has.
Musk, the world’s richest individual who is CEO of Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX, completed the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter two weeks ago and laid off 50% of the staff one week ago
In his first email to Twitter employees on Wednesday (Nov. 9), Musk said remote work would no longer be allowed and that staffers would be expected in office for at least 40 hours each week, Bloomberg News reported. “Sorry that this is my first email to the whole company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message,” Musk wrote in the memo. “Frankly, the economic picture ahead is dire, especially for a company like ours that is so dependent on advertising in a challenging economic climate. Moreover, 70% of our advertising is brand, rather than specific performance, which makes us doubly vulnerable!”
Musk continued, “Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn,” adding that the company needs “roughly half of our revenue to be subscription.”
Meanwhile, more Twitter execs have resigned. Lea Kissner, Twitter’s chief information security officer, wrote in a tweet that they have left the company. In addition, chief compliance officer Marianne Fogarty and chief privacy officer Damien Kieran have quit, the Verge reported.
An attorney on Twitter’s privacy team, in a post on the company’s Slack system that the Verge obtained, wrote that the legal team is asking engineers to “self-certify” compliance with FTC regulations and other privacy laws. “Elon has shown that his only priority with Twitter users is how to monetize them,” the Twitter lawyer, whom the Verge did not identify, wrote. “I do not believe he cares about the human rights activists. the dissidents, our users in un-monetizable regions, and all the other users who have made Twitter the global town square you have all spent so long building, and we all love.”
Elon Musk is planning to dismantle Twitter’s
Twitter faces changes – and exits – by the minute in the hands of new owner Elon Musk, who purchased the social media site for $44 billion.
It’s not the first time the bird app has switched features up, though. Twitter has seen its share of comings and goings before Musk muddied the waters further. It attempted, for instance, to popularize a story feature similar to that of Snapchat and Instagram through users’ profile icons. Those were called Fleets. Then, Twitter adopted Instagram’s close friends story feature, repackaging the function as the Twitter Circle, where Tweets can be set for viewing only by the user’s selected group of “closest” follower friends.
And Twitter has faced competition before from various platforms sparked specifically by political leanings — such as former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social and Jason Miller’s Gettr, the latter of which was billed as “The Marketplace of Ideas.” Kanye West made a bid to purchase Parler, a more conservative-minded outlet owned by Candace Owens’ husband George Farmer. Rumble, backed by Peter Thiel as well as “Hillbilly Elegy” author and senator J.D. Vance, has surged in popularity amongst those searching for a more conservative version of YouTube.
So with the options out there and mounting reasons to ditch your Twitter account, here are alternatives to Twitter you can use if you’re looking for another social media platform.
For those who will miss their Twitter Spaces, Clubhouse mimics the format that Twitter used for the audio conferences. The space function allows profiles to come together to speak on different subjects, denoting who is speaking by highlighting their profile icon. The live, open forum podcast format allows for collision conversations that may not happen on a more structured, text-only platform.
Although Discord does not have a Twitter-like look nor a single server, the platform might fulfill users’ desire for professional and social circles that foster conversation while keeping up to date with the latest news. Similar to Mastodon and Facebook groups, Discord holds different servers where groups create their own rules and culture, so the app is inherently private, unlike Twitter. However, you can search for servers based on your interests here.
Tumblr traces trending topics just like Twitter does. There is also a staff picks section. Most of the posts involve visual content more than words, but pictures are worth a thousand words. Hashtags permeate the caption-like feature of the posts, and you can leave notes, which are kind of like comments, on posts. There are also reposting, liking and sharing features.
If you’ve been in the weeds of Musk’s Twitter takeover, you’ve likely heard of Mastodon, a decentralized social media that has experienced massive growth since the $44 billion Twitter acquisition was finalized. While Mastodon has a Twitter-like look to it — and users post toots in place of tweets — all the content isn’t housed on a single server like Twitter. Instead, Mastodon’s platform links together a slew of servers — which can each be considered social networks in their own right — that are governed by different groups or users.
Though the set-up has created headaches for many new users who have struggled to find a server with people who share their interests, Mastodon encourages users to share the information from the server they join with followers who have similar interests.
Facebook has always served as an outlet for opinions far and wide. The posts combine photo and visual components with wide caption fields. Users can dedicate entire posts to photo albums. After purchasing Instagram so that the two social media platforms now fall under the same parent company, Meta, Facebook also has the story function that Instagram cribbed from the Snapchat app. Other helpful features include status updates, pages, Facebook groups and the beloved Marketplace, which competes with Craigslist for secondhand retail.
Though Bluesky has not been formally launched, all eyes are on the social media alternative created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. The platform is anticipated to be decentralized, similar to Mastodon, and distinguishes itself from Twitter by claiming user data will be controlled by users and free of governmental or corporate influence.
In October, the company announced that it had 30,000 signups for the app, tweeting, “thanks for the overwhelming interest, we’ll do our best to get you in soon.”
Cohost advertises “posting, but better.” The new social media platform aims to target people who like sharing things on the internet – but without all the side snags of blaring ads that pop up right where you’re about to click or the omnipresent algorithmic force behind the curation of the content each user sees. The yet-to-be launched app acknowledges “borrowing liberally” from other sites with the idea that no platform has perfected the recipe yet. Other core values include sharing the same space with both like and unlike-minded individuals, and acknowledging the restrictions metrics pose on creative content cultivation. Cohost also seems to cater to individuals as cogs in their larger machine, though they denounce the toxic focus on “getting engagement” as a driver of traffic.
Twitter faces changes – and exits –
In the place of his more characteristic touch is a confident, faithful, and occasionally synthetic-sounding accompaniment provided largely by Aniello as his one-man band. (Sam Moore of Sam & Dave makes two welcome appearances as a guest vocalist.) Since 2012’s Wrecking Ball and its grab-bag follow-up High Hopes, Aniello has proven to be Springsteen’s most focused studio collaborator, seemingly pushing him to explore a specific element on each release. On 2019’s Western Stars, it was a wistful, melodic side of his solo songwriting, embellished with lush orchestral arrangements that felt like completely new territory. On 2020’s warm plate of comfort food Letter to You, it was the live-in-the-studio sound of the E Street Band: a familiar atmosphere that encouraged Springsteen to dig back into his catalog for abandoned songs he had yet to record with his bandmates.
On Only the Strong Survive, as Springsteen tells it, the focus is his voice. In an introductory video, he is practically shouting with excitement about the fruits of this exercise. (“I’m a good old man,” he says, cracking himself up.) You can hear what’s got him so hyped. From a gravelly whisper to a full-throated croon, a giddy roar to an anguished howl, the material allows him to explore the range of his late-career delivery, the same way his Broadway show could swerve between vulnerability and self-effacing humor without losing its narrative thread. There’s a jolt of comic desperation as he bellows “I live with emptiness” to kick off “7 Rooms of Gloom” and a sense of profound tenderness as he tells us it’s “gonna be all right” in “Nightshift.” He makes the nostalgia of “Soul Days” feel like a recollection of his formative years in Asbury Park, while it’s easy to imagine the regret of “I Forgot to Be Your Lover” situated between his own tortured chronicles of couples drifting in and out of each other’s lives.
On a record whose unrelenting brightness veers as close to Vegas as Springsteen has ever allowed himself—even 1992’s Human Touch, another largely upbeat collection with a similar set of influences, feels downright gritty by comparison—these moments of purpose help earn its place in his ongoing winning streak of studio work. It’s got character, and more than that, it’s got energy: Springsteen has never sounded quite so lighthearted, so unburdened, on record. It’s easy to think of a few ways he could have made this music feel more essential to his body of work—say, enlisting his E Street bandmates to help flesh some songs out—but at this stage in his career, he seems more driven by the act of creating itself: lighting a spark and watching as it grows, knowing someone, somewhere, could find a little hope in its light. After all, he reminds us, that’s what these songs provided for him.
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In the place of his more characteristic
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of actor, Kevin Conroy. Known for being the beloved voice of Batman in the animated history of the character. Conroy died Thursday, at the age 66 after a short battle with cancer. Being a fighter through and through and still pushed himself until the very end. Conroy was the best iteration of Batman in the history of the DC franchise. With a voice befitting of an intelligent billionaire, detective, and superhero rolled into one.
Courtesy of GT Marmots/PR, Inc.
He was a noted stage, film and television performer and rose to unparalleled voice acting fame as the title character of the landmark series the Batman: The Animated Series from 1992-1996. He would establish never-to-be-broken records as the quintessential voice of Batman, bringing the super hero to animated life in nearly 60 different productions. Which included 15 films, highlighted by the acclaimed Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, 15 animated series, spanning nearly 400 episodes and more than 100 hours of television. As well as two dozen video games. Conroy was also featured as a live-action Bruce Wayne in the Arrowverse’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event.
Below you will find scenes from the crossover featured as an older Bruce Wayne:
In recent years, Conroy was a notable fixture on the Con circuit, greeting fans with the same warmth, respect and enthusiasm they reserved for him.
Courtesy of Andrea Romano’s Twitter
“Kevin was far more than an actor whom I had the pleasure of casting and directing – he was a dear friend for 30+ years whose kindness and generous spirit knew no boundaries,” said Emmy Award winning casting/dialogue director Andrea Romano. “Kevin’s warm heart, delightfully deep laugh and pure love of life will be with me forever.”
Courtesy of Mark Hamill’s Twitter
“Kevin was perfection,” recalled Mark Hamill, who redefined the Joker playing opposite Conroy’s Batman. “He was one of my favorite people on the planet, and I loved him like a brother. He truly cared for the people around him – his decency shone through everything he did. Every time I saw him or spoke with him, my spirits were elevated.”
Born on November 30, 1955 in Westbury, New York. Raised in Westport, CT, Conroy began establishing himself in the acting community. While under the tutelage of John Houseman at The Julliard School is where he studied alongside the likes of Christopher Reeve, Frances Conroy and his roommate Robin Williams.
He began his career following his love of the theatre, keeping him on stage in both New York and at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. The actor received rave reviews for his starring performances in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Public Theater, Eastern Standard on Broadway, Arthur Miller’s The Last Yankee, and in the title role of Hamlet at the 1984 New York Shakespeare Festival. In addition, he performed in films and television, most notably in the mid-1980s when he had recurring roles on Dynasty, Tour of Duty and Ohara. He had successful runs on soap operas such as Search for Tomorrow and Another World and guest roles on the popular series Cheers, Murphy Brown and Spenser: For Hire and Matlock.
Courtesy of GT Marmots/PR, Inc.
But it was his incomparable, nuanced performance as the voice of Batman that put Conroy on the map and the fans’ radar when Batman: The Animated Series debuted on September 5, 1992. Voicing in the TV series Batman Beyond and Justice League/Justice League Unlimited as the Dark Knight. He also starred in films ranging from Batman: the Killing Joke and Batman: Gotham Knight to Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero and Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman and more than two dozen video games.
“Kevin was a brilliant actor,” Hamill said. “For several generations, he has been the definitive Batman. It was one of those perfect scenarios where they got the exact right guy for the exact right part, and the world was better for it. His rhythms and subtleties, tones and delivery – that all also helped inform my performance. He was the ideal partner – it was such a complementary, creative experience. I couldn’t have done it without him. He will always be my Batman.”
“Kevin brought a light with him everywhere,” said Paul Dini, producer of Batman: The Animated Series, “whether in the recording booth giving it his all, or feeding first responders during 9/11, or making sure every fan who ever waited for him had a moment with their Batman. A hero in every sense of the word. Irreplaceable. Eternal.”
Conroy is survived by his husband Vaughn C. Williams, sister Trisha Conroy, and brother Tom Conroy. Memorial services are currently pending.
It is with great sadness that we
The devil works in public relations in “ Spirited,” a new spin on “A Christmas Carol” starring Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds. With songs by “The Greatest Showman” duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, big ensemble dance numbers choreographed by Chloe Arnold and special effects galore, “Spirited” it is a maximalist affair that spares no expense in its heart-on-sleeve efforts to entertain. The sincerity isn’t necessarily a bad thing: If you’re going to make a holiday-themed musical on Apple’s dime, you might as well go all out, right?
You’d also think that if you’re going to make a big movie musical, a genre that it seems every top filmmaker dreams of getting a chance to do, that you wouldn’t feel the need to have someone make a joke about it every time another character is about to burst into song. But that is the paradox of “Spirited,” which wants to be everything to everyone. The most egregious sin, though, is the fact that no one seems entirely sure of how to shoot a big, choreographed dance number effectively. At times, it feels like you’re watching a live show that wasn’t rehearsed with camera movements and cuts beforehand, doing a disservice to the songs, the dancers and sets.
And yet, though “Spirited” comes up short as a musical, it is still pretty enjoyable. Perhaps that’s because it is just so stuffed with everything else: If one part doesn’t totally work, there’s plenty else in the four-quadrant buffet to sample. In addition to the committed leads, there are comedy gems from Christmas Past (Sunita Mani), Christmas Yet-to-Come (Loren Woods with Tracy Morgan’s voice), Pasek and Paul’s easily digestible pop ballads and Octavia Spencer’s lovely singing voice.
Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell and Octavia Spencer launch their musical version of “A Christmas Carol,” as Reynolds admits he is no singing and dancing match for Hugh Jackman. (Nov. 8 / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Ferrell has already written his Christmas movie legacy with “Elf,” which is somehow turning 20 next year. Others might have cashed in after a holiday home run like that, but Ferrell seems to have exercised some discernment before jumping into another seasonal romp. Then Sean Anders, who directed him in “Daddy’s Home” and its sequel, came to him with this idea to re-imagine “A Christmas Carol” from the ghosts’ point of view. He would be the Ghost of Christmas Present, who is one part of a big operation that every year finds Scrooge-y humans to change with their hauntings. “Present” as he’s called, is long due for a retirement which the company’s HR department tries to remind him. (It’s just used for a joke, but it is also a crushingly depressing idea that this heavenly operation for good has HR at all).
But Present still doesn’t feel like his work is done and he sets his sights on Reynolds’ Clint Briggs, a media consultant who has made a fortune peddling hate, controversy, misinformation and outrage for his clients, who range from pop stars and presidents to the National Association of Christmas Tree Growers. We meet him presenting to this latter group in a song-and-dance about bringing back Christmas that’s part Professor Harold Hill singing “Ya Got Trouble,” part Chicago’s Billy Flynn talking about how they both reached for the gun. Reynolds does a good job, too, though he is more of the Rex Harrison “talk on key” school than a classical Broadway guy like his friendly foe Hugh Jackman.
Start your holidays on a high note. Spirited is in theaters Nov. 11 and streaming Nov. 18 on Apple TV+ https://apple.co/_Spirited
Clint is going to be a tough case for Present, though, as an “unredeemable.” Because this movie is constantly apologizing for itself, Broadway veteran Patrick Page, as Jacob Marley, while explaining to Clint what’s about to happen says that, yes, it’s “Like the Dickens book, the Bill Murray movie and every other adaptation no one asked for.” But they try anyway with Ferrell playing the wide-eyed innocent to Reynolds’ smarmy schemer — a comedic combo that may be familiar but is also still funny and the two stars seem game for anything.
After a brief theatrical run, “Spirited” will live on Apple TV+ starting on Nov. 18, which is a good thing for families looking for some fun holiday viewing options. Parents will get to sample the PG-13 movie before deciding on who gets to watch and everyone can take a popcorn break over the 2-hour runtime, which even that you’ll forgive because, it’s the holidays and Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds literally singing and dancing for you.
“Spirited,” an Apple TV+ release in theaters Friday and streaming Nov. 18, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for language, some suggestive material and thematic elements. Running time: 127 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
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MPA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr.
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The devil works in public relations in
The Bat signal will burn brighter over the citizens of Gotham City this evening to honor the memory of Kevin Conroy, the beloved actor, writer, and voice of Batman. Diane Pershing announced Conroy’s passing, the voice of the DC character Poison Ivy, and publicist Gary Miereanu confirmed the sad news. Conroy passed after “a short battle with cancer,” according to Miereanu.
You can read Pershing’s heartfelt post about Mr. Conroy below:
More to come…
The Bat signal will burn brighter over
Today’s trailer roundup includes The Witcher: Blood Origins, HBO Max’s 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and My So-Called High School Rank.
The Witcher: Blood Origin debuts on Netflix December 25. More than a thousand years before the world of The Witcher, seven outcasts in the elven world unite in a blood quest against an unstoppable power. The cast includes Sophia Brown, Laurence O’Fuarain and Michelle Yeoh.
The 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will stream on HBO Max and air November 19 at 8 p.m. ET on HBO. This year’s inductees include: Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Duran Duran, Eminem, Eurythmics, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie and Carly Simon.
My So-Called High School Rank premieres on HBO Max November 29. The documentary chronicles the creation of a musical theater production at Granite Bay High School in Sacramento, CA, inspired by students’ stories of the constant pressures to achieve a top-rank in every part of their lives to get ahead in today’s fierce college admissions process.
Today’s trailer roundup includes The Witcher: Blood
Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna in the Roku Channel’s ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.’
Rock and Roll musicians always make interesting subjects for biopics, and often win Oscars like in the case of ‘Ray’ or Bohemian Rhapsody.’
We’ve already seen the release of director Baz Luhrmann‘s ‘Elvis’ earlier this year, and Naomi Ackie will play Whitney Houston in ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody,’ opens in December.
Meanwhile, ‘Weird: The Al Yankovic Story‘ premieres on The Roku Channel November 4th and stars Daniel Radcliffe as Yankovic, and Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna.
In honor of the new film, Moviefone is counting down the top 20 Rock and Roll biopics of all time. Since the term “Rock and Roll” can cover several different genres of music, we are only including movies about musical artists who were known for performing popular music within the rock genre, including jazz, blues, country, rap, etc.
Without further ado, let’s begin!
“Notorious” is the story of Christopher Wallace (Jamal Woolard). Through raw talent and sheer determination, Wallace transforms himself from Brooklyn street hustler (once selling crack to pregnant women) to one of the greatest rappers of all time: The Notorious B.I.G. Follow his meteoric rise to fame and his refusal to succumb to expectations – redefining our notion of “The American Dream.”
Los Angeles teenager Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips) becomes an overnight rock ‘n’ roll success in 1958, thanks to a love ballad called “Donna” that he wrote for his girlfriend. But as his star rises, Valens has conflicts with his jealous brother, Bob (Esai Morales), and becomes haunted by a recurring nightmare of a plane crash just as he begins his first national tour alongside Buddy Holly (Marshall Crenshaw).
“Born into poverty. Destined for stardom. He lived the American dream.”
72
1 hr 48 minJul 24th, 1987
“Their Music Made Them Famous, Their Lives Made Them Infamous”
75
1 hr 48 minMar 22nd, 2019
The drama tells the story of John Lennon‘s (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) teenage years in Liverpool and the start of his journey to becoming a successful musician. The story also examines the impact on his early life and personality of the two dominant females in his childhood.
Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning ), two rebellious teenagers from Southern California, become the frontwomen for the Runaways — the now-legendary group that paved the way for future generations of female rockers. Under the Svengali-like influence of impresario Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), the band becomes a huge success.
20th Century Fox
Singer Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek), guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee), drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) and bass guitarist John Deacon (Joe Mazzello) take the music world by storm when they form the rock ‘n’ roll band Queen in 1970. Hit songs become instant classics. When Mercury’s increasingly wild lifestyle starts to spiral out of control, Queen soon faces its greatest challenge yet – finding a way to keep the band together amid the success and excess.
An exploration of the life and music of Miles Davis (Don Cheadle).
A drama based on Jimi Hendrix’s (André 3000) life as he left New York City for London, where his career took off.
The story of Joy Division’s lead singer Ian Curtis (Sam Riley), from his schoolboy days in 1973 to his suicide on the eve of the band’s first American tour in 1980.
January 1978. After their success in England, the punk rock band Sex Pistols venture out on their tour of the southern United States. Temperamental bassist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) is forced by his band mates to travel without his troubled girlfriend, Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb), who will meet him in New York. When the band breaks up and Sid begins his solo career in a hostile city, the turbulent couple definitely falls into the depths of drug addiction.
Universal Pictures
Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles (Jamie Foxx) went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.
In the late 1960s, the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson (Paul Dano and John Cusack) stops touring, produces “Pet Sounds” and begins to lose his grip on reality. By the 1980s, Wilson, under the sway of a controlling therapist, finds a savior in Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks).
The story of Elton John’s (Taron Egerton) life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his influential and enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell).
The life story of Elvis Presley (Austin Butler) as seen through the complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks).
Singer Tina Turner (Angela Bassett) rises to stardom while mustering the courage to break free from her abusive husband Ike (Laurence Fishburne).
Universal Pictures
A chronicle of James Brown’s (Chadwick Boseman) rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history.
A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash’s (Joaquin Phoenix) life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins.
The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison (Val Kilmer).
In 1987, five young men, using brutally honest rhymes and hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in the most dangerous place in America into the most powerful weapon they had: their music. Starring O’Shea Jackson Jr. as O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson, Corey Hawkins as Andre “Dr. Dre” Young, and Jason Mitchell as Eric “Eazy-E” Wright.
The Weinstein Company
Six actors (Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw) portray six personas of music legend Bob Dylan in scenes depicting various stages of his life, chronicling his rise from unknown folksinger to international icon and revealing how Dylan constantly reinvented himself.
Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna in the
Just like that, Manu Cornet’s time at Twitter was over. The prolific cartoonist and software engineer watched his services disconnect and laptop go blank in a meeting on Nov. 1. Less than a half hour later, he learned he was out, an early cut among the 3,700-plus Twitter employees who lost their jobs this month.
Cornet’s time at Twitter was brief but well llustrated. With dozens of cartoons, Cornet depicted the feeling inside as Musk acquired the company. As the person behind some of the tech world’s best-known cartoons — including an all-timer on big tech org charts — Cornet was perfectly placed to document the wild 2022 Twitter experience.
Just like that, Manu Cornet’s time at Twitter
In hindsight, it’s hard to imagine a better time, over the last few years, to be Nielsen than in the fall of 2022. After a decade of fighting tooth and nail to maintain some fleeting relevance in a world where streaming was rapidly coming into dominance, the ratings company finally had both the tech, and the positioning, to try to answer a question it was uniquely suited to answering, and which millions of people cared about: Who won the big ol’ medieval TV fight, huh? House Of The Dragon or Rings Of Power?
Today (per Variety), Nielsen released another piece of that slowly revealing puzzle, showing off the streaming data for both shows from the week of August 15 to October 10, the last week the company currently has data on. (Oh, you know we love that slow-burn drama in prestige TV country; two more weeks, presumably, until the complete picture becomes clear.) And while the data shows that Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings show tended to win any given week in streaming—keeping in mind that House Of The Dragon was splitting its online viewership with folks actually watching it on HBO—there’s also an interesting trend that develops over several weeks. Namely, that streaming viewership of Rings Of Power fell off pretty strongly after its first two weeks of availability, while viewers for House Of The Dragon tended to go up.
Admittedly, both series only had those individual directions to go in; House Of The Dragon had a slow start on streaming, before picking up momentum as it headed toward its finale. Rings Of Power, meanwhile, had a huge surge with the release of its first two episodes, then a pretty major drop off. Even then, it picked up again as its own end-point got closer; a chart of the comparative performances looks like a trough for Rings, vs. a rising slope for House.
Does that mean the Game Of Thrones spinoff handled its middle chapters better, while Rings got lost among the Harfoots? Did viewers get drawn back in by the Tolkien adaptation’s gestures toward forthcoming plot reveals, luring them back ahead of the finale? Is there a correlation between ratings and how shitty Paddy Considine looks in any given episode of TV? These are the answers only Nielsen can give. Nielsen has all the power, now.
Matt Smith and Emma D’Arcy in House
November 10, 2022 · 3:02 PM
Coming to Netflix tomorrow, Friday, November 11:
IS THAT BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU?!?
Director:
Elvis Mitchell
World Premiere:
New York Film Festival 2022
Select Festivals:
Montclair, AFI Fest, Indie Memphis
About:
A definitive narrative of the Black revolution in 1970s cinema, from genre films to social realism.
November 10, 2022 · 3:02 PM Coming to
A worker miraculously survived after he fell into a vat of molten aluminium at a factory but managed to pull himself to safety.
The 25-year-old electrician fell into a furnace filled with 720C (1,328F) molten aluminium while he was working at the factory in St Gallen, north-eastern Switzerland.
The young man was immersed in the molten metal up to his knees but managed to brave the pain and pull himself out of the furnace.
A 25-year-old electrician survived falling into this furnace in Switzerland filled with molten 720C aluminium
The accident happened in St Gallen City, north-eastern Switzerland. The city’s police said it was investigating how it happened
He had been carrying out work with a colleague on the furnace holding the aluminum on Wednesday evening.
The man fell into a circular opening at the top of the furnace.
Two emergency Swiss air rescue doctors and paramedics looked after him at the factory.
He was then helicoptered to hospital with extensive burns.
St Gallen City Police are investigating how the accident happened.
It’s not the first time an accident has happened in a factory.
Earlier this year a packaging company pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety regulations after a grandfather picked up his own severed hand after it was chopped off in an industrial accident – and carried it for doctors to save.
Christopher Wright, 59, had the limb packed in a bag to be taken to hospital with him, where it was reattached in an 11-hour operation.
Christopher Wright, 59, (pictured with wife Elaine) lost his hand in an industrial accident when he was dragged into a machine he was operating and his employer has now been fined £115k
Mr Wright was taken to hospital where his hand was reattached in an 11-hour operation
His hand horror was revealed as his employers were fined £115,000 after being found to be in breach of health and safety laws.
Despite having the hand reattached, Christopher has been left with lifelong pain – and struggles to cuddle his granddaughter.
Engineer Christopher was working at a packaging factory when his hand was pulled inside a machine.
Christopher was working for Riftward Limited, trading as Playford Packaging, in Wrexham when the accident happened two years ago.
In the same year, a young woman was left with permanent injuries after her right arm was dragged into a rolling machine at a salt factory.
Courtney Herbert, 18, was left in agonising pain after her arm was trapped in the machinery at the Pacific Salt factory in Whyalla, South Australia, on April 17, 2020.
Courtney Herbert was left in agonising pain after her arm was trapped in the machinery
The incident was more than two years ago but she still regularly has bouts of pain from the incident
Ms Herbert was taken to hospital to receive surgery and left with damage to her tendons.
Pacific Salt, which is the producer behind the famous Olsson’s Salt, was taken to the South Australian Employment Tribunal following the incident and pleaded guilty to breaching the Work Health and Safety Act.
She had been brushing excess salt from a conveyor belt when her shirt became caught, dragging her arm into the roller.
Court documents revealed the desperate measures Ms Herbert’s colleagues resorted to with one grabbing a nearby spanner to release the tension of the roller so she could pull her arm out.
Another worker frantically turned off the machine to stop the conveyor belt crushing her arm.
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British network ITV has ordered Changing Ends, an autobiographical scripted comedy based on stand-up and presenter Alan Carr’s life.
Gavin & Stacey and Alan Partridge producer Baby Cow Productions is making the six-part comedy, which Carr is co-writing with Simon Carlyle (Two Doors Down). It will follow Carr’s life in Northampton, England in the 1980s, growing up as the son of a fourth division football manager.
Carr will star as himself in the present day, with Oliver Save (Belfast) taking on the role of a younger Alan. Further casting will follow closer to the show’s broadcast.
ITV said the series would be “told with warmth and wit” and would be more “than just a trip down memory lane, it’s a love letter to a time and a town where things weren’t always so inclusive.” Carr, who is known for his talk show Alan Carr: Chatty Man and his stand-up comedy, has often talked about growing up gay in the East Midlands, living at home with his former footballer father.
Carr and Carlyle are executive producers along and Simon Carlyle. The director is Dave Lambert. The Exec producers are Baby Cow’s Sarah Monteith and Rupert Majendie and Danny Julian.
For Baby Cow, the series comes after it earlier this year launch Channel 4 comedy-drama Chivalry and debuted co-founder Steve Coogan’s live show Alan Partridge Live: Stratagem, which we revealed would be streaming on Prime Video in several international territories.
British network ITV has ordered Changing Ends,
Major layoffs are hitting Facebook and Instagram owner Meta Platforms Inc. as the company says it will lay off about 11,000 employees, or about 13 percent of its global workforce.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the decision in an email to staff Wednesday morning.
“Today I’m sharing some of the most difficult changes we’ve made in Meta’s history,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I’ve decided to reduce the size of our team by about 13% and let more than 11,000 of our talented employees go. We are also taking a number of additional steps to become a leaner and more efficient company by cutting discretionary spending and extending our hiring freeze through Q1.”
The Facebook boss said that he wants “to take accountability” for the shift, and he went on to explain the rationale for the cuts, citing a misreading of COVID-induced digital trends, macroeconomic concerns, and Apple’s move to cut off user data from third parties.
“At the start of COVID, the world rapidly moved online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth. Many people predicted this would be a permanent acceleration that would continue even after the pandemic ended. I did too, so I made the decision to significantly increase our investments,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected. Not only has online commerce returned to prior trends, but the macroeconomic downturn, increased competition, and ads signal loss have caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”
Zuckerberg added that the company is slashing its employee base and implementing the freeze because it wants to operate more efficiently, focusing investment on a small number of core areas and reducing costs elsewhere, like in its real estate footprint, perks, and, yes, employee base.
In a securities filing Wednesday, the company said that its 2022 expense outlook of $85 billion-$87 billion remains unchanged and includes the costs associated with the restructuring. It added that the company continues “to refine our 2023 expense budget and now expect 2023 total expenses to be in the range of $94 billion-$100 billion, lowered from $96 billion-$101 billion previously.”
“The updated range reflects our plan to add fewer employees in 2023 than we previously expected as we are significantly slowing our hiring trajectory through the beginning of 2023,” the filing continues.
To that end, Zuckerberg said in his memo that recruiting will be impacted particularly hard by Wednesday’s layoffs “will be disproportionately affected “since we’re planning to hire fewer people next year. We’re also restructuring our business teams more substantially.”
The filing also says that losses in Meta’s Reality Labs division (the unit that focuses on the metaverse) will “grow significantly” in 2023.
The major cuts at Meta follow similar cuts at Twitter, which slashed thousands of employees after Elon Musk completed his acquisition of the platform, and at Snap, which cut 20 percent of its staff and also refocused on a few core areas earlier this fall.
Major layoffs are hitting Facebook and Instagram
“Once I got into the business, I realized how much I loved telling stories through the art of costume design,” says The Woman King costume designer Gersha Phillips. “It was really interesting how much you can tell about a character and how important the costume design is for the production and for the storytelling.”
The Woman King, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, tells the story of the Agojie warriors in the Kingdom of Dahomey. Inspired by true events in the 1820s, the film stars Viola Davis as Nanisca, the leader of the all-female unit of warriors known as the Agojie, as she trains the next generation of recruits and prepares for battle against an invading army.
Having assisted costume designer Ruth Carter on her research for the female warriors in Black Panther, the Dora Milaje, Phillips was excited to work on the project depicting their real life inspiration. “It was nice to go on the journey and actually figure out just how many other amazing women warriors there were from Africa,” she says.
Phillips says one of the most important aspects of the costume design was to create an accurate representation of the outfits worn by the real Agojie. “At the beginning I thought I was going to make all my fabric and print it all ourselves, which was impossible,” she says. Using African artisans, like a block printer in Gambia and weavers from Northern Ghana, she was able to keep the costuming as historically accurate as possible. “They used the resist dye method,” she says, “and used indigo a lot so we tried to replicate that.”
Certain aspects of the costumes were designed to differentiate rank between the warriors, which Phillips was able to do by basing everything off of Nanisca. “The thing we would do to elevate her was to just add more things,” she says. “She had her own private set of jewelry, custom made by our team, and her belts and accessories would always have grass on it, which is something that would show rank.” The rest of the warriors had less accessories, but Phillips and her team had each actress choose their own symbols for their wristbands and belts. “Some were Dahomey specifically, and some were West African.”
Click the video above to watch the full discussion.
“Once I got into the business, I
Carrying his legacy. After Chadwick Boseman‘s 2020 death, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler decided that his Marvel character would also die and a new Black Panther would be born in Wakanda Forever. (WARNING: Spoilers ahead.)
“You consider everything, when something like that happens, it’s like ‘I don’t think I can come back and make another one, I don’t think I can do this. I don’t think there should be another one.’ You go through all of the extremes,” Coogler said on the November 4 episode of “Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther Podcast.”
The director considered recasting T’Challa briefly, but he knew it would be unfair to any actor joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe and having to follow Boseman, who died of colon cancer at age 43 in August 2020.
“For somebody else to be him, for us in the world that we created, we wouldn’t have believed it. No matter how good the actor was, it would’ve been lacking the necessary truth for us to do a good job,” he explained.
Thus, it was decided that T’Challa would die offscreen in very similar way to Boseman. In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, audiences learn that the king didn’t tell his family he was terminally ill until it was too late. His sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright) was in the lab trying to recreate the heart-shaped herb, which gave him the superhuman powers of the Black Panther in the 2018 film. However, she didn’t have enough time to figure out the right chemical composition and her brother died.
T’Challa’s younger sister is the true star of the film. “Where we started was this idea of who would be the most affected by his loss,” Coogler told Variety in the Wednesday, November 9, cover story. “Shuri had never known a day without him. He’d always been there, so she would be the most unmoored by him passing away.”
She isn’t just the leading lady — Shuri is the new Black Panther. However, it took the scientist a little while to accept that she was meant to take over her brother’s mantle.
After T’Challa’s funeral, the film skipped ahead one year. Shuri still refused to acknowledge her grief. She was determined to break tradition, refusing to become the Black Panther. She wasn’t even sure she believed in all of Wakanda’s spiritual tales about the ancestors and the afterlife.
Her beliefs were tested when her mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) was killed by Namor (Tenoch Huerta). Overwhelmed by grief and determined to avenge her mom’s death, Shuri went back to recreating the heart-shaped herb and finally makes it work. She refused to be buried in sand as is traditional, instead opting to stay in the lab just in case she needed a defibrillator. She allowed Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) to make the mixture and keep watch over her as she went through the transformation.
After drinking the purple liquid, she passed out and went to see the ancestors. This was where T’Challa visited his late father in the 2018 film. Shuri believed she’d see her mother — but Ramonda wasn’t the last one to take the herb. That was Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), who makes a surprise appearance to test the new hero. She wanted to avenge her loved ones, much like him. Was she just like the villain?
Shuri came out of her dream-like state shaken and angry, believing the herb didn’t work. When she lashed out and pushed over a mannequin, it went flying with strength far beyond what she expected. She is the Black Panther now.
She built a new suit and led the Wakandans into battle at sea with Namor and his people. Shuri wrangled Namor away from water and into a desert to dry out the villain, who lives in the ocean. However, while flashing back to Killmonger’s confrontation, she also remembered her mother telling her to show the world who she really is. She decided not to kill Namor, instead showing him mercy and allowing him to yield.
It seemed like Shuri was the only one left to become the Black Panther, but the end of the movie revealed that she has another living family member — T’Challa’s son.
He and Nakia had a child in secret, and he is the reason the spy has stayed in Haiti since Thanos’ attack. Nakia didn’t want to raise him in the spotlight of the royal Wakandan family. The little boy is called Toussaint in Haiti, but he revealed a secret to Shuri: His real name is Prince T’Challa, son of King T’Challa of Wakanda.
Shuri didn’t seem angry that she was left in the dark (even Ramonda knew of the child before her death). Instead, she seemed overjoyed that her brother’s legacy would live on.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is in theaters now.
Carrying his legacy. After Chadwick Boseman‘s 2020
"If you skip the last five minutes,
Dave Chappelle will indeed be delivering live comedy this weekend on Saturday Night Live, regardless of the news cycle.
This Saturday’s episode of the long-running NBC comedy series marks the comedian’s third time hosting. On Thursday, SNL released promos touting Chappelle’s appearance, including one clip that appeared to poke fun at the social media backlash surrounding the recent announcement of his return.
After Chappelle announces that he is hosting with musical guest Black Star, castmember Ego Nwodim is seemingly confused and asks, “Wait, we’re doing it live?” When Chappelle confirms that they are, she responds, “With you?”
Chappelle responds, “Obviously,” leading Nwodim to fire back, “In this news cycle?” Upon the Chappelle Show star’s confirmation, Nwodim pointedly responds, “Interesting.”
In a different spot, Chappelle quips that he will be hosting “in an episode that’s so Black, it’s gonna be on BET.”
Chappelle’s selection spurred criticism in light of his controversial jokes centered on the transgender community from his 2021 Netflix special The Closer. The New York Post reported this week that some SNL staff writers have chosen to sit out the episode, citing an unnamed source, although the comedian’s representative told the outlet that there has been “no evidence of a boycott.”
It was widely reported that SNL writer Celeste Yim, who uses they/them pronouns, had recently posted a message to their Instagram stories that seemingly referenced Chappelle’s planned appearance. “I’m trans and non-binary. Transphobia is murder and it should be condemned,” read Yim’s message, according to a screenshot shared to Reddit.
All three of Chappelle’s SNL hosting appearances will have aired less than a week after a national election, with his most recent taking place Nov. 7, 2020.
Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. on NBC.
Dave Chappelle will indeed be delivering live
The beauty of Octavia Butler’s Kindred is how the novel frames empathy and care for others as forces powerful enough to move people through space and time. But the first trailer for FX’s upcoming series based on the book makes it seem like this take on Kindred’s going to be much more focused on scaring viewers with the horrors of time-traveling while Black.
Kindred tells the story of writer Dana (Mallori Johnson) and her partner Kevin (Micah Stock), an interracial couple, after she’s just moved into a new home in Los Angeles. While both Kevin and Dana are excited to begin the next chapter of their lives together in a new city, the unshakable unease Dana feels as she tries to settle in LA soon reveals itself to be much more than just a feeling. In Butler’s book, Dana realizes that she’s somehow being pulled back and forth through time and space from her present in LA to an antebellum plantation, and in the trailer, that realization’s something that prompts Dana to question whether she’s losing her mind.
The trailer works not to give too much of the show’s premise away, but those familiar with the book will recognize the brief shots of slave owner Thomas Weylin (Ryan Kwanten) and his son Rufus (David Alexander Kaplan) and understand how their stories are part of what’s pulling Dana back in time. It’s interesting to see how much emphasis showrunner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has put on the psychological horror elements of FX’s Kindred. But what remains to be seen ahead of the adaptation’s December 13th premiere on FX on Hulu is how its story might enhance or deepen Butler’s work, something that’s much easier said than done.
The beauty of Octavia Butler’s Kindred is
Fire of Love and The Territory landed a field-leading seven mentions, including best feature, in the Cinema Eye Honors nominations, which were announced Thursday.
The CEH organization, which celebrates nonfiction work on screens big and small, also nominated All That Breathes (six noms), All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (four noms), Navalny (three noms) and A Night of Knowing Nothing (four noms) for its top honor.
Meanwhile, in the directing category, an unprecedented five of the six nominees are women: Laura Poitras (All the Beauty and the Bloodshed), Rebecca Huntt (Beba), Margaret Brown (Descendant), Sara Dosa (Fire of Love) and Payal Kapadia (A Night of Knowing Nothing). The sixth nominee is Shaunak Sen (All That Breathes).
Poitras, with her noms for feature and direction, ties Steve James for the most CEH noms of all time, with 13.
Alex Pritz has the most individual noms this year, with five for The Territory.
HBO leads all distributors with 16 noms, while Hulu has 12 and both Nat Geo and Neon have 11.
The 16th annual Cinema Eye Honors Awards ceremony will be held Jan. 12 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria.
A full list of nominees follows.
All That Breathes
Directed and Produced by Shaunak Sen
Produced by Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Directed and Produced by Laura Poitras
Produced by Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov
Fire of Love
Directed and Produced by Sara Dosa
Produced by Shane Boris and Ina Fichman
Navalny
Directed by Daniel Roher
Produced by Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Directed by Payal Kapadia
Produced by Thomas Hakim, Julien Graff and Ranabir Das
The Territory
Directed and Produced by Alex Pritz
Produced by Darren Aronofsky, Gabriel Uchida, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett and Will N. Miller
All That Breathes
Shaunak Sen
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Laura Poitras
Beba
Rebeca Huntt
Descendant
Margaret Brown
Fire of Love
Sara Dosa
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Payal Kapadia
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Amy Foote, Joe Bini and Brian A. Kates
Fire of Love
Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput
Moonage Daydream
Brett Morgen
Riotsville, USA
Nels Bangerter
Three Minutes: A Lengthening
Katharina Wartena
All That Breathes
Aman Mann, Shaunak Sen and Teddy Leifer
A House Made of Splinters
Monica Hellström
In Her Hands
Juan Camilo Cruz and Jonathan Schaerf
Navalny
Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris
The Territory
Alex Pritz, Darren Aronofsky, Gabriel Uchida, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett and Will N. Miller
All That Breathes
Ben Bernhard
Cow
Magda Kowalczyk
A House Made of Splinters
Simon Lereng Wilmont
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Ranabir Das
The Territory
Alex Pritz and Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau
Users
Bennett Cerf
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Soundwalk Collective
Descendant
Ray Angry and Rhiannon Giddens/Dirk Powell
Fire of Love
Nicolas Godin
Nothing Compares
Linda Buckley and Irene Buckley
The Territory
Katya Mihailova
Users
Dave Cerf
All That Breathes
Niladri Shekhar Roy, Sound Designer, and Susmit “Bob” Nath, Sound Design Consultant
Fire of Love
Patrice LeBlanc, Sound Designer, and Gavin Fernandes, Re-recording Mixer
I Didn’t See You There
Tom Paul, Lead Sound Designer & Re-recording Mixer, and Andrés E. Marthe González, Supervising Sound Editor
Moonage Daydream
Samir Foco, John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone, Sound Designers
The Territory
Rune Klausen and Peter Albrechtsen, Sound Designers
Dear Mr. Brody
Gary Walker, Visual Effects; John Mark Lapham, Collages; Sam Klatt, Graphics & Compositing
Fire of Love
Lucy Munger, Animation; Kara Blake, Graphic Artist; and Rui Ting Ji, Hand-drawn animation & Illustrations
Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues
Hectah Arias, Animation and Graphics
Moonage Daydream
Stefan Nadelman, Animation
My Old School
Rory Lowe, Animation Director, and Scott Morriss, Lead Animator
Bad Axe
Directed by David Siev
Beba
Directed by Rebeca Huntt
I Didn’t See You There
Directed by Reid Davenport
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Directed by Payal Kapadia
Nothing Compares
Directed by Kathryn Ferguson
The Territory
Directed by Alex Pritz
In Flow of Words
Directed by Eliane Esther Bots
Last Days of August
Directed by Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian
Long Line of Ladies
Directed by Rayka Zehtabchi and Shaandiin Tome
The Martha Mitchell Effect
Directed by Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy
Nuisance Bear
Directed by Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden
Shut Up and Paint
Directed by Alex Mallis and Titus Kaphar
All That Breathes
Directed by Shaunak Sen
The Balcony Movie
Directed by Paweł Łoziński
Fire of Love
Directed a by Sara Dosa
Last Flight Home
Directed by Ondi Timoner
Mija
Directed by Isabel Castro
My Old School
Directed by Jono McLeod
Navalny
Directed by Daniel Roher
Nothing Compares
Directed by Kathryn Ferguson
Sr.
Directed by Chris Smith
The Territory
Directed by Alex Pritz
After Sherman
Directed by Jon-SesrieGoff
Brotherhood
Directed by Francesco Montagner
Hidden Letters
Directed by Violet Du Feng and Zhao Qing
Into the Ice
Directed by Lars Henrik Ostenfeld
Master of Light
Directed by Rosa Ruth Boesten
Aftersun
Directed by Charlotte Wells
Dry Ground Burning
Directed by Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós
Dos Estaciones
Directed by Juan Pablo González
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp
The Rehearsal (Season One)
Directed by Nathan Fielder
All That Breathes
Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Nan Goldin
Bad Axe
Chun Siev
Beba
Rebeca Huntt
Fire of Love
Katia and Maurice Krafft
Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down
Gabby Giffords
I Didn’t See You There
Reid Davenport
In Her Hands
Zarifa Ghafari
Last Flight Home
Eli Timoner
Mija
Doris Muñoz
My Old School
Brandon Lee
Navalny
Alexei Navalny
Nothing Compares
Sinead O’Connor
Sr.
Robert Downey Sr.
The Territory
Bitaté Uru-eu-wau-wau and Neidinha Bandeira
The following were previously announced on Oct. 20 during the annual Cinema Eye Fall Lunch in Los Angeles.
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes
Directed by James Jones | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
Directed by Rory Kennedy | Netflix
Four Hours at the Capitol
Directed by Jamie Roberts | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
George Carlin’s American Dream
Directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
Playing With Sharks
Directed by Sally Aitken | Disney+
The Beatles: Get Back
Directed by Peter Jackson | Disney+
Black and Missing
Directed by Geeta Gandbhir and Samantha Knowles | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey
Directed by Rachel Dretzin | Netflix
LuLaRich
Directed by Julia Willoughby Nason and Jenner Furst | Amazon Studios
Mind Over Murder
Directed by Nanfu Wang | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
We Need to Talk About Cosby
Directed by W. Kamau Bell | Showtime
How To with John Wilson (Season Two)
Nathan Fielder, Michael Koman, Clark Reinking and John Wilson, Executive Producers | HBO
Origins of Hip Hop
Peter Bittenbender, Mark Grande, Slane Hatch; Supervising Producers: Amira Lewally and Phoenix Skye Maulella, Executive Producers | A&E
Prehistoric Planet
Jon Favreau and Michael Gunton, Executive Producers; Tim Walker, Series Producer | Apple TV+
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (Season Two)
Tom Barry, Adam Hawkins, Eve Kay and Stanley Tucci, Executive Producers; Robin O’Sullivan, Series Producer | CNN
Women Who Rock
Jessica Hopper, Rachel Brill, John Varvatos, Derik Murray and Jesse James Miller, Executive Producers | EPIX
The World According to Jeff Goldblum (Season Two)
Jeff Goldblum, Jane Root, Sara Brailsford, Keith Addis and Arif Nurmohamed, Executive Producers, Ben Jessop, Series Producer | Disney+
37 Words
Jessica Congdon and Dave Marcus | ESPN
The Beatles: Get Back
Jabez Olssen | Disney+
Four Hours at the Capitol
Will Grayburn | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
How to Survive a Pandemic
Adam Evans and Tyler H. Walk | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
How To with John Wilson (Season Two)
Adam Locke-Norton | HBO
We Need to Talk About Cosby
Meg Ramsay | Showtime
Four Hours at the Capitol
Jamie Roberts | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy
Coodie Simmons and Danny “DNA” Sorge | Netflix
Playing With Sharks
Michael Taylor, Judd Overton, Nathan Barlow and Toby Ralph | Disney+
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (Season Two)
Andrew Muggleton | CNN
Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Come Off
Sam Jones and Jesse Green | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
Crumb
Directed by Terry Zwigoff
Produced by Lynn O’Donnell and Terry Zwigoff
Edited by Victor Livingston
Cinematography by Maryse Alberti
Music by David Beddinghaus
Sound by Scott Breindell
Anastasia
Directed by Sarah McCarthy
The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone
Directed by Maya Newell
The Joys and Sorrows of Young Yuguo
Directed by Ilinca Călugăreanu
Keys to the City
Directed by Ian Moubayed
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Directed by Laura Poitras
Good Night Oppy
Directed by Ryan White
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song
Directed by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfire
In Her Hands
Directed by Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen
Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues
Directed by Sacha Jenkins
Moonage Daydream
Directed by Brett Morgen
Nominations by Film
*denotes the film is also recognized in the non-competitive Unforgettables category
7
Fire of Love*
The Territory*
6
All That Breathes*
4
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed*
A Night of Knowing Nothing
3
Four Hours at the Capitol
Moonage Daydream
Navalny*
Nothing Compares*
2
The Beatles: Get Back
Beba*
Descendant
A House Made of Splinters
How To with John Wilson (Season Two)
I Didn’t See You There*
My Old School*
Playing With Sharks
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (Season Two)
Users
We Need to Talk About Cosby
1
37 Words
After Sherman
Aftersun
Bad Axe*
The Balcony Movie
Brotherhood
Black and Missing
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes
Cow
Crumb
Dear Mr. Brody
Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
Dry Ground Burning
Dos Estaciones
George Carlin’s American Dream
Hidden Letters
How to Survive a Pandemic
In Flow of Words
In Her Hands*
Into the Ice
jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey
Last Days of August
Last Flight Home*
Long Line of Ladies
Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues
LuLaRich
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
The Martha Mitchell Effect
Master of Light
Mija*
Mind Over Murder
Nuisance Bear
Origins of Hip Hop
Prehistoric Planet
The Rehearsal (Season One)
Riotsville USA
Shut Up and Paint
Sr.*
Three Minutes: A Lengthening
Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Come Off
Women Who Rock
The World According to Jeff Goldblum (Season Two)
Recognized in Unforgettables category
Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down*
Nominations by Distributor
Note: Number of Nominations does include Unforgettables
30
HBO
17
National Geographic Documentary Films
16
Neon
8
Netflix
7
Participant
Picturehouse
6
Disney+
Sideshow
5
Cinema Guild
CNN
Showtime
3
Film Collaborative
Magnolia Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures
2
A24
Apple TV+
Cinephil
Hulu
Icarus Films
IFC Films
Independent Lens
The New Yorker
POV
1
A&E
Amazon Studios
Cargo
EPIX
ESPN
Grasshopper Films
Greenwich Entertainment
MTV Documentary Films
New York Times
Sony Pictures Classics
Super LTD
Fire of Love and The Territory landed
Rauw Alejandro has been known to spin off in unexpected directions. The Puerto Rican star, recognized for his quick-footed, anti-gravity choreography, has danced his way through a dizzying mix of genres: Risque, racy raps on his two-part EP Trap Cake, thudding old-school reggaeton on Afrodisiaco. Last year’s Vice Versa was his biggest triumph yet, a sharp sophomore effort that somersaulted between pop, drum ‘n’ bass, and Brazilian funke while delivering the mammoth hit “Todo De Ti,” which is nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year at this year’s Latin Grammy Awards. Such success left his rabid base of screaming fans wondering one thing: Where would Rauw go next?
The answer, it turns out, is another planet. His third album Saturno is a transmission from some brave new world in outer space, built on silvery synths, slick dancefloors, and Eighties and Nineties techno glitter. It’s not totally unexplored territory: The album fits into pop’s post-pandemic fascination with euphoric club sounds, roving in the same universe as The Weeknd’s Dawn FM and Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia. But Rauw has found a spot in the cosmos that’s distinctly his, shaping Saturno into an electro-lit, nocturnal haven that also runs on reggaeton. Rauw picks up influences from across Puerto Rico, and adds leftover pop stardust from “Todo De Ti,” rocketing listeners into the expanses of his imagination.
The main strength of Saturno is that it shows just how adept Rauw is at world-building. Little skits and interludes, such as “Rauleeto,” made up of voicemails from Rauw’s friends wondering where he’s gone, shape a neat plotline about the artist getting lost in some unknown galaxy. The album’s aesthetic identity is full of edgy blue aliens, cyberpunk suits, and pearly spacecrafts. He’s good at piecing sonic moods and colors into cohesive concepts, maximizing sleek visuals, intricate choreography, and deep-rooted references to bring stories alive. One of the best examples might be “Punto 40,” a revival of a Nineties hit by Puerto Rican duo Baby Rasta Y Gringo. Rauw actually brings Baby Rasta onboard for a verse, and also pulls in the track’s original producer, the legendary DJ Playero, who makes cameos elsewhere on Saturno. It’s reggaeton futurism that acknowledges the music’s history; it’s also a nod to how reggaeton and electronic genres have been in conversation with one another for decades. On the slippery standout “Cazadores,” Rauw tips his hat to the rapper Arcangel and his style of perreo galactico, a nickname for spacey, 2000s-era reggaeton.
The allure of electronic sounds has only gotten stronger over the last few years, with artists from Bad Bunny to Farruko stretching the possibilities of EDM inspiration. Rauw himself has carved out different avenues into such styles in the past, first powering the 2020 track “Química” with voltaic house production from DJs the Martinez Brothers and experimenting with drum ‘n’ bass fireworks on last year’s standout “¿Cuándo Fue?” Saturno is a little smoother, feeling like a more refined version of something he’s been after for a while. Songs such as “Dime Quien???” and “No Me Sueltes” are kinetic, purposeful, and confident in their pop direction; if anyone is worried that it’s all too glossy for the scene he inhabits, Rauw doesn’t seem to care. Just in case, though, he gets Playero back for “Dejau,” a quick reminder that these kinds of experiments often expand rather than dilute what we hear in the genre.
Rauw, who co-produced the album with frequent collaborators like Mr. NaisGai and Tainy, constantly finds new avenues into his music: He’s joined by a harem of female voices — and a Susana Estrada sample — on “Mas De Una Vez,” and incorporates explosive techno breaks on “Verde Menta.” His tendency to be self-referential feels playful, rather than repetitive, as he riffs on past releases and sounds that have surrounded him (the catchy “Corazon Despeinado” starts with the line “Chica, que dices?,” borrowed from his girlfriend Rosalia’s “Saoko”). But if there’s one part of the album that feels airless, it’s the lyrical composition. Rauw has been playing the come-hither lothario for so long that it can border on cringe, like on “Que Rico Ch**ngamos.” The song works when its understood as an extension of its his overtly sexual “2/Catorce;” on its own, it feels flat. For someone bursting with concepts and audiovisual ideas, there’s so much more thematically for him to try.
“De Carolina,” another Playero special, is far more dynamic, with the lyrics stretching beyond his standard fare and paying homage to his home. It would serve as a worthy introduction to any extraterrestrial beings ready to party on Saturn; back home, the thrilling, bass-heavy mash-up of influences makes it exciting to guess where Rauw’s sonic wayfaring might take him in the future.
Rauw Alejandro has been known to spin
Prior to the advent of streaming, documentaries had a reputation for being, as Jerry Seinfeld put it at the 2007 Oscars, “incredibly depressing.”
Politics, the environment, warfare, and the farming industry were all topics routinely explored by documentary filmmakers for several decades. But Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Apple, and Disney have effectively altered the nonfiction landscape by seeking out documentaries that have mass appeal, which has in turn helped them build their respective audiences. Netflix has a knack for determining what will appeal to viewers. “Tiger King,” “The Last Dance” and “The Tinder Swindler” were all released on the streaming service.
Given the ongoing worldwide pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, America’s school shooting crisis, the yearly uptick in extreme weather events, it’s not exactly a surprise that viewers are attracted to nonfiction content that isn’t didactic. It makes sense that factual features and series about celebrities, sports, and music are all the rage. Ironically so are true crime documentaries focused on serial murderers, fraudsters and crypto criminals.
Recent examples of docus absent of political and eco-related issues include Peter Jackson’s “The Beatles: Get Back,” Ryan White’s “Good Night Oppy” and Amanda Micheli’s “Halftime.”
“Anytime there’s been either a war or some form of depression or recession, people turn to Hollywood for entertainment,” says Imagine Documentaries co-head Justin Wilkes. “Because docs have become so mainstream over the last number of years, it only makes sense that people are looking to docs to be entertained or uplifted and feel better
about themselves.”
Veteran documentary filmmaker Dawn Porter (“John Lewis: Good Trouble,” “Trapped”) has spent the past several years making films about various urgent issues including mental health, abortion and politics, but in 2020 the helmer decided she wanted a break.
“I, like many doc filmmakers, am a news addict, but I found myself needing to watch something else,” Porter says. “I needed to not have this constant terror about my fellow Americans being willing to descend into fascism.”
Not only did Porter want to watch upbeat content, but she also wanted to work on a project that was lighthearted. So, two years ago, she began filming MGM’s “Cirque Du Soleil: Without a Net,” a doc that chronicles the circus company’s move to reboot its flagship production, “O,” more than a year after an abrupt global shutdown.
“Everybody loved going to work every day,” says Porter. “How often does that happen in documentary? Part of the reason for that was the hard things that were going on with [Cirque Du Soleil] were business hard. They weren’t, ‘Oh my goodness, we are not going to make it’ hard. So, my crew and I could really just lose ourselves in their story. It was such a welcome relief.”
While streamers and networks alike aren’t clamoring to program factual fare that will leave audiences angry or petrified, they are still distributing docs that explore pressing social issues. But instead of those issues being thrown in viewers faces, subject matters including racism, political upheaval, and climate change are often sprinkled into many of today’s documentary features and series. More often than not, a celebrity is used to lure viewers into a story that has a few Debbie Downers to swallow.
Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down,” which grapples with the Constitution’s Second Amendment and Ron Howard’s “We Feed People,” about celebrity chef José Andrés and his nonprofit World Central Kitchen are two of several docus this year that used a celebrity lens to take a deep dive into hot button political issues.
“I would one hundred percent say and argue that ‘We Feed People’ is a social-issue film,” says Imagine Documentaries co-head Sara Bernstein. “It’s a story about the importance of food relief in the world, but the vehicle to get into that story is a recognizable personality and that’s Jose Andres, which is great for the project and great for the issue.”
Even docus solely focused on a celebrity such as Kathryn Ferguson’s “Nothing Compares,” about Sinead O’Connor, Derik Murray’s “Sidney,” about Sidney Poitier and Alek Keshishian’s “Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me,” about the star take on weighty subject matters including sexism, racism and mental health.
“So many of these platforms need to be able to cut through to the consumers,” says Wilkes. “So, to have a recognizable name that they can put on the side of a bus and a billboard is critical right now. That’s why you’re seeing these name brand docs coming out because when you can put The Beatles or Jose Andres on the side of bus, the marketing value of that is exponential.”
Chris Smith’s “Sr.,” about the life and career of Robert Downey Sr. and Sacha Jenkins’ “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” are among the celebrity-driven docs vying for awards consideration this year.
Wilkes categorizes “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues,” which Imagine produced, as an upbeat title.
“It’s ultimately a film about issues of race,” he says. “But through those issues of race we are also able to paint a portrait of somebody who was genuinely an inspiring, happy person who created a lot of happiness in the world based on the music that he made.”
But not every documentary being produced these days features a recognizable face. Those that don’t often employ storytelling tactics to draw viewers including exquisite and unique imagery (“Fire of Love,” “All That Breathes”) and/or suspenseful, on-the-ground storytelling (“Navalny,” “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom,” “Retrograde”.)
“The days of just, ‘Here’s a really big problem, audiences pay attention,’ are sort of gone,” says Porter, who is currently making a four-part docuseries about the Supreme Court for Showtime. “We, as documentary filmmakers, have to do more than that. We have to say we are going do something thoughtful that does not cause you to just throw up your hands in despair.”
One streaming executive who isn’t afraid of audience anguish is Sheila Nevins.
As the head of HBO Documentaries for 38 years, Nevins was influential in elevating the documentary form and bringing to light uncomfortable subjects including the rape of soldiers within the U.S. military and clerical sex abuse. Despite the shifting nonfiction landscape Nevins, currently the head of MTV Documentary Films, is still hunting for docus that are impactful, but not necessarily happy.
“The world is depressed,” says Nevins. “It would be nice to do a doc that was a musical. It would be nice to do something in which you feel like you’re going to wake up tomorrow and it might be a good day. But I don’t think docus serve that function right now.”
Ondi Timoner’s “Last Flight Home,” about her father’s decision to make use of California’s End of Life Option law and Patricia E. Gillespie’s “The Fire That Took Her,” about a woman doused in petrol and set on fire by her crazed ex-boyfriend are among the handful of feature docus MTV has qualified for Academy Awards consideration this year.
While “Last Flight Home” makes a case that all states should authorize end-of-life options, “The Fire That Took Her” wrestles with how the medical and legal systems have failed victims of domestic violence
in America.
“Depressing with a purpose can be happy,” says Nevins. “If the docu is about somebody that you didn’t accept before and you accept now, who lives a very sad life, but now you have empathy for him, I would say that’s a happy doc.”
Prior to the advent of streaming, documentaries
Liudmyla Faradzheva looks at photos of her son each day and messages him whenever they have a chance.
Originally from Odesa, Faradzheva hasn’t seen her 21-year-old in more than a year. He’s back home in Ukraine fighting for their country.
Faradzhava says she’s touched to see Canadians wear poppies, reminding younger generations about the fallen soldiers and veterans who sacrificed so much for them to enjoy a relatively good and free life.
“You can sleep in your bed, calm, all night without the sounds (of) alarm(s), like you must run somewhere (and) hide,” Faradzheva, who arrived in Manitoba four months ago, told Global News on Thursday.
Read more:
Where to pay your respects in Manitoba on Remembrance Day
Read More
This year, Remembrance Day highlights a painful reality the Ukrainian community has been experiencing for nearly nine months.
Refugee Lesia Yaroshenko sees how the Ukrainian children at Winnipeg’s Chief Peguis Junior High, where she works, are holding their first Remembrance Day on Canadian soil close to heart.
“For them, the war and those who are in the military service, it’s not something from the past and from faraway lands and from the TV screen. For them, it’s their personal story,” Yaroshenko said.
“Those pictures remind us of what we see every day in the news from Ukraine and what we receive from our friends and relatives from Ukraine, so it really hurts.”
This year, Ralph Brown School, an English-Ukrainian bilingual school in Winnipeg, incorporated Ukrainian music into its annual Remembrance Day assembly, along with references to a book called My Name is Not Refugee by Kate Milner.
“We were very mindful of how we were planning it with our Ukrainian families,” principal Trevor MacVicar told Global News.
“We were very mindful not to include images of airplanes and the bombs,” he said, adding he hoped students found the ceremony meaningful.
“If we don’t talk about it, we don’t understand it, and if we don’t understand it, it’s a scary thing.”
Ukraine observes Defenders Day on Oct. 14 — a public holiday since 2015 that honours members of the Ukrainian armed forces — along with Victory Day in May, which commemorates the end of the Second World War.
For Yaroshenko, Russia’s invasion into Ukraine felt like a remote possibility until it happened in February.
As people all over the world feel the effects of the war, she wants Canadians to realize how connected they all are.
“What I want people to think about is being grateful for every day of the peace and freedom, not to take it for granted,” she said.
The poppies pinned close to people’s hearts remind Yaroshenko of her husband still overseas serving in the Ukrainian armed forces.
“I’m hoping he joins us here.”
— with files from Drew Stremick
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Liudmyla Faradzheva looks at photos of her
Kanye West asserts that he will deprive himself of many pleasures for a month, including sex, conversation, and pornography. I’ve decided to cleanse my body for a month—a verbal fast. No drinking. There will be no movies for adults. The disgraced rapper, who is 45 years old, wrote on Twitter on Thursday that there would be no intercourse.
All glory to God. Amen, he remarked. However, my Twitter is still active. However, a few minutes later, he sent a series of tweets in which he called out personal trainer Harley Pasternak throughout a text conversation between them.
The designer of Ye then continued by stating that one cannot be anti-Semitic if they are aware that one is of the Semitic race. As a result of Elon Musk’s purchase of the social media company for $44 billion, West was released from Twitter jail. However, because of the current string of anti-Semitic comments, the hip-hop star has been banned from using Twitter.
After NBC dropped a bombshell report alleging that West had used anti-Semitic rhetoric in the workplace for years and had bribed an employee to keep quiet about it, West made a swift announcement the next day.
West is said to have reached a settlement agreement with a former employee who witnessed many times when the Yeezy CEO lauded Adolf Hitler or Nazis during business meetings. According to the individual’s allegations, West engaged in the arrangement. According to the news site, West has refuted the charges stated in the settlement.
Despite this, NBC News has also conducted interviews with six other individuals, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, and they all claim to have overheard West, in the course of his professional life within the last five years, either mention conspiracy theories concerning Jewish people or praise Hitler.
In addition, a rumor published by CNN a week ago indicated that West originally intended to title his album 2018 Hitler, but he ultimately decided against it for whatever reason.
Microsoft has begun the rollout of iCloud photo library integration within Windows 11, in the form of an update to the Photos app.
The announcement (opens in new tab) on the Windows Experience Blog from Dave Grochocki, Principal Product Manager Lead for Windows Inbox Posts, follows the company’s initial unveiling of the feature at its Surface event in October 2022.
Once users receive the update, they should download the iCloud for Windows app from the Microsoft Store to link their accounts.
Windows integrating with Apple’s own cloud storage solution is surely one of the first signs that the notion that Microsoft and Apple devices ought to be separate ecosystems is thawing.
As previously reported by The Verge (opens in new tab), iCloud photo library integration follows Apple Music appearing as an app in the Microsoft Store (although Windows users will have to wait until next year), and a native Apple TV app is also said to be coming soon in preview.
Microsoft claims that the decision to integrate the two platforms was made with user experience in mind.
“We know that many Windows customers have photo and video collections on their iPhones (opens in new tab) that they would like to be able to view on their PC,” wrote Grochocki.
“This iCloud Photos integration will make it easier for those with an iPhone to have direct access to all their cherished memories in one organized place and is another step in our continued efforts to make experiences on Windows 11 seamless.”
The new feature is similar to Microsoft’s recent decision to allow photo libraries on Android phones to be used with Microsoft 365 on the web. That integration works similarly, in that an additional app is required to link photo libraries across platforms.
Microsoft has begun the rollout of iCloud
During a roundtable discussion for the Variety Streaming Room, presented by MNTN, titled “TV Ads 2.0: How the Connected Age Gives TV Advertising A Second Life,” television executives talked at length about how their jobs have evolved in light of viewer attention gravitating toward streaming services and further away from traditional broadcast TV.
Television executives Andrea Zapata, Executive Vice President of Ad Sales Research, Measurement and Insights for Warner Brothers Discovery; Mark Douglas, President and CEO of MNTN; Dan Callahan, Senior VP of Data Strategy and Sales Innovation for Fox; Kristen O’Hara, Vice President of Agency and Brand Solutions for Google and YouTube; Matt Sweeney, Chief Investment Officer at Group M; and John Lee, Chief Data Officer for Advertising and Partnerships at NBCUniversal, joined Variety co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton for a conversation that covered topics like advertising-supported video on demand, streaming television and more.
On the topic of the brand advertising market, Douglas offered a frank perspective on where the industry currently is, saying: “The amount spent by brand advertisers is not growing, but the amount of inventory is growing substantially. So the only way around that is to bring more advertisers into the market, because if we just focus on more inventory from the same advertisers, there are going to have to be winners and losers.”
With advertising itself, O’Hara remarked that emotional gravitation is still what marks a successful advertisement above anything else.
“One of the things that we have seen in research we’ve done recently is on the notion of telling great stories. That’s four times more important to viewers than any sort of predictability in terms of scheduling, or cadence, or structure,” O’Hara said. “It’s all about just whether it resonates or not, and it’s what’s capturing the hearts and minds of people?”
During a roundtable discussion for the Variety
Throughout “Lower Decks,” the Cerritos has occasionally run into other California-class vessels, each bearing the name of a dinky city or tourist town far outside of the state’s better-known metropoles. So far, audiences have seen the U.S.S. Merced, the U.S.S. Solvang, and the U.S.S. Carlsbad. The finale of the show’s third season featured a grand support fleet of nothing but California-class ships, and the state’s residents likely got a good chuckle over the fact that there are ships named the U.S.S. Pacific Palisades, the U.S.S. Fresno, the U.S.S. West Covina, the U.S.S. Inglewood, and the U.S.S. Anaheim. This author was born in Santa Monica, CA, and felt elated that there was also a U.S.S. Santa Monica.
In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, McMahan admitted that choosing the right California towns after which to name his fleet was something of a chore. Production on “Lower Decks” takes place in southern California, so the writers on the show no doubt had a lot of opinions on the matter. When asked how much of the California class had been planned, McMahan said:
“I don’t have a list. I only have a list of the ones that we’ve been seeing as we’re going. And I would love there to be lots of state name ships. I’ll tell you, there was a lot of discussion about what cities made it into the California class that we rattle off at the end there, which was really fun. I also liked having the Van Citters ship come in because I love John Van Citters, who’s been such an ally and such an amazing partner on the show. So it is fun, naming ships, but it’s also very stressful. I never want to mess it up.”
Throughout "Lower Decks," the Cerritos has occasionally
Kaagaz
Director: Satish Kaushik
Cast: Pankaj Tripathi, Monal Gajjar, Mita Vashisht, Amar Upadhyay, Satish Kaushik
What I really liked about Kaagaz, now streaming on ZEE5, was Pankaj Tripathi’s performance. Honestly, I had been a tad bored with his style that had remained much the same in film after film: his soft dialogue delivery, his unassuming mannerisms and even his looks. Whether he played a villain or a parent, his tone and volume were uniformly the same. But in Kaagaz – helmed by Satish Kaushik (who also portrays a lawyer in the movie) – Tripathi’s Bharat Lal unleashes a wide gamut of emotions which range from the subtle and soft to the fiery. As a father of two children and husband (wife essayed by Monal Gajjar), he is sweet, but later on, when he stands cheated and helpless, he transforms into a man of steel with a never-say-die attitude; his dialogue delivery and demeanour matching this transformation.
Kaagaz is a satire narrated with sincerity and passion, and takes on the bureaucracy by its horns, so to say. The film is a movingly powerful reflection of how India’s poor continue to be treated even today – almost 74 years after the country won its independence from decades of foreign dominance, first by the Mughals and then British. In a way, India’s poor, most of whom live away from urban conglomerations, remain as poor as they were and still face the brunt of a largely unfeeling and corrupt administration.
Bharat Lal’s problems begin when he gets egged on by friends and wife to expand his small band outfit. The group plays different instruments at marriages and even funerals. So, Lal decides that he must add to his little shop, and goes to a bank seeking a loan. The bank is fine with granting him one, but he must produce some security. Lal remembers that he has a small piece of land adjoining his uncle’s at a distant village. But when he reaches his uncle’s place, he is shooed away and told that he has been declared long dead. On paper.!
This has been one of the biggest banes in India; people “bumping off” their relatives by getting a declaration from the local administrative office. A piece of paper (Kaagaz) that literally turns a man into a corpse!
And then begins, Lal’s tryst with his unbelievably shocking destiny. He bangs many doors, gets the media to write about his plight, even meets a politician (Mita Vashisht) and in the end forms a political party. All this while, and it takes years, his band gets disbanded, his income and savings hit rock bottom and his family suffers in silence.
Kaagaz looks at the way justice is meted out in this country, and how the poor and those without any political influence are relegated to a life of hurt and humiliation.
The movie does well in bringing this out, but where it falters is in the manner it seeks to narrate the story. It is so exaggerated that it begins to look silly. A greater control over the script may have made Kaagaz into something more authentic. It goes beyond the realm of parody, and a tighter leash on characterisations and scene conceptualisations could have gone a long way in turning Kaagaz into a more worthwhile watch.
Rating: 2.5/5
(Gautaman Bhaskaran is a movie critic and author of a biography of Adoor Gopalakrishnan)
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here
KaagazDirector: Satish KaushikCast: Pankaj Tripathi, Monal Gajjar,
EXCLUSIVE: David Iacono (The Flight Attendant, The Summer I Turned Pretty) has been tapped for a key recurring role opposite George Rexstrew, Jayden Revri and Kassius Nelson in Dead Boy Detectives, HBO Max’s upcoming drama series based on the DC Comics characters created by Neil Gaiman. The series hails from The Flight Attendant’s Steve Yockey, Doom Patrol’s Jeremy Carver, Berlanti Productions, and Warner Bros. Television.
The eight-part series is described as a fresh take on a ghost story that explores loss, grief, and death through the lens of Edwin Payne (Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Revri), two dead British teenagers, and their very alive friend, Crystal Palace (Nelson). So, it’s a lot like a vintage detective series — only darker and on acid.
Iacono will play David the Demon, a powerful and threatening demon who torments Crystal and the Dead Boys.
Additional series stars include Briana Cuoco as Jenny the Butcher, Ruth Connell as the Night Nurse, Yuyu Kitamura as Niko, and Jenn Lyon as Esther. Michael Beach, Joshua Colley and Lindsey Gort recur.
Yockey wrote the pilot episode and serves as showrunner, with Beth Schwartz as co-showrunner. Yockey, Schwartz, Jeremy Carver, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, and Leigh London Redman are executive producers on the series. Lee Toland Krieger directed the pilot.
The role reunites Iacono with Yockey, with whom he worked on HBO’s The Flight Attendant, reprising his role as Eli Briscoe in Season 2. He most recently wrapped production on season two of Amazon’s YA coming of age series The Summer I Turned Pretty, reprising his fan-favorite role of Cam. He also was recently seen reprising his role of Faust Aquino on the third season of Showtime’s City On A Hill. He’ll next be seen in a starring role in Tubi and Village Roadshow’s upcoming noir thriller Cinnamon, alongside Damon Wayans, Hailey Kilgore, and Jeremie Harris. Iacono is repped by Take 3 Talent Agency.
EXCLUSIVE: David Iacono (The Flight Attendant, The
The Oscar prospects for Fire of Love, The Territory, and All That Breathes got a significant boost today with the announcement of the nominations for the 16th Annual Cinema Eye Honors.
Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love and Alex Pritz’s The Territory tied with a leading seven nominations apiece, while All That Breathes, from director Shaunak Sen, was recognized in half a dozen categories. Fellow Oscar contenders All the Beauty and the Bloodshed — the Venice Golden Lion winner directed by Laura Poitras — and Payal Kapadia’s A Night of Knowing Nothing earned four nominations apiece.
In the marquee category of Outstanding Nonfiction Feature, six films will go head to head at the Cinema Eye Honors: All That Breathes; All the Beauty and the Bloodshed; Fire of Love; Navalny — Daniel Roher’s documentary on Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny; A Night of Knowing Nothing, and The Territory [see the full list of nominees below].
Pritz, making his feature documentary debut with The Territory, earned five individual nominations – more than anyone else – including Outstanding Cinematography and Outstanding Debut, although he missed out on an Outstanding Direction nomination. In that latter category, five women are nominated: Poitras (All the Beauty and the Bloodshed); Rebeca Huntt for Beba; Margaret Brown for Descendant; Dosa (Fire of Love), and Kapadia (A Night of Knowing Nothing). The only male director nominated was Sen for All That Breathes.
The nominations highlight a remarkably strong year for HBO. The premium cable platform led all distributors and broadcasters with 30 nominations overall, followed by 17 nominations for National Geographic Documentary Films, 17 for NEON/Super LTD, eight for Netflix and seven apiece for Participant and Picturehouse.
The Cinema Eye Honors was founded in 2007 to celebrate “outstanding artistry and craft in nonfiction filmmaking.” The 16th annual edition of the awards show will be presented on Thursday, January 12 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.
Below is the full list of nominations:
Outstanding Nonfiction Feature
All That Breathes
Directed and Produced by Shaunak Sen
Produced by Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Directed and Produced by Laura Poitras
Produced by Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov
Fire of Love
Directed and Produced by Sara Dosa
Produced by Shane Boris and Ina Fichman
Navalny
Directed by Daniel Roher
Produced by Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Directed by Payal Kapadia
Produced by Thomas Hakim, Julien Graff and Ranabir Das
The Territory
Directed and Produced by Alex Pritz
Produced by Darren Aronofsky, Gabriel Uchida, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett and Will N. Miller
Outstanding Direction
All That Breathes
Shaunak Sen
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Laura Poitras
Beba
Rebeca Huntt
Descendant
Margaret Brown
Fire of Love
Sara Dosa
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Payal Kapadia
Outstanding Editing
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Amy Foote, Joe Bini and Brian A. Kates
Fire of Love
Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput
Moonage Daydream
Brett Morgen
Riotsville, USA
Nels Bangerter
Three Minutes: A Lengthening
Katharina Wartena
Outstanding Production
All That Breathes
Aman Mann, Shaunak Sen and Teddy Leifer
A House Made of Splinters
Monica Hellström
In Her Hands
Juan Camilo Cruz and Jonathan Schaerf
Navalny
Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris
The Territory
Alex Pritz, Darren Aronofsky, Gabriel Uchida, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett and Will N. Miller
Outstanding Cinematography
All That Breathes
Ben Bernhard
Cow
Magda Kowalczyk
A House Made of Splinters
Simon Lereng Wilmont
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Ranabir Das
The Territory
Alex Pritz and Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau
Users
Bennett Cerf
Outstanding Original Score
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Soundwalk Collective
Descendant
Ray Angry and Rhiannon Giddens/Dirk Powell
Fire of Love
Nicolas Godin
Nothing Compares
Linda Buckley and Irene Buckley
The Territory
Katya Mihailova
Users
Dave Cerf
Outstanding Sound Design
All That Breathes
Niladri Shekhar Roy, Sound Designer, and Susmit “Bob” Nath, Sound Design Consultant
Fire of Love
Patrice LeBlanc, Sound Designer, and Gavin Fernandes, Re-recording Mixer
I Didn’t See You There
Tom Paul, Lead Sound Designer & Re-recording Mixer, and Andrés E. Marthe González, Supervising Sound Editor
Moonage Daydream
Samir Foco, John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone, Sound Designers
The Territory
Rune Klausen and Peter Albrechtsen, Sound Designers
Outstanding Visual Design
Dear Mr. Brody
Gary Walker, Visual Effects; John Mark Lapham, Collages; Sam Klatt, Graphics & Compositing
Fire of Love
Lucy Munger, Animation; Kara Blake, Graphic Artist; and Rui Ting Ji, Hand-drawn animation & Illustrations
Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues
Hectah Arias, Animation and Graphics
Moonage Daydream
Stefan Nadelman, Animation
My Old School
Rory Lowe, Animation Director, and Scott Morriss, Lead Animator
Outstanding Debut
Bad Axe
Directed by David Siev
Beba
Directed by Rebeca Huntt
I Didn’t See You There
Directed by Reid Davenport
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Directed by Payal Kapadia
Nothing Compares
Directed by Kathryn Ferguson
The Territory
Directed by Alex Pritz
Outstanding Nonfiction Short
In Flow of Words
Directed by Eliane Esther Bots
Last Days of August
Directed by Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian
Long Line of Ladies
Directed by Rayka Zehtabchi and Shaandiin Tome
The Martha Mitchell Effect
Directed by Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy
Nuisance Bear
Directed by Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden
Shut Up and Paint
Directed by Alex Mallis and Titus Kaphar
Audience Choice Prize
All That Breathes
Directed by Shaunak Sen
The Balcony Movie
Directed by Paweł Łoziński
Fire of Love
Directed a by Sara Dosa
Last Flight Home
Directed by Ondi Timoner
Mija
Directed by Isabel Castro
My Old School
Directed by Jono McLeod
Navalny
Directed by Daniel Roher
Nothing Compares
Directed by Kathryn Ferguson
Sr.
Directed by Chris Smith
The Territory
Directed by Alex Pritz
Spotlight
After Sherman
Directed by Jon-SesrieGoff
Brotherhood
Directed by Francesco Montagner
Hidden Letters
Directed by Violet Du Feng and Zhao Qing
Into the Ice
Directed by Lars Henrik Ostenfeld
Master of Light
Directed by Rosa Ruth Boesten
Heterodox
Aftersun
Directed by Charlotte Wells
Dry Ground Burning
Directed by Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós
Dos Estaciones
Directed by Juan Pablo González
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp
The Rehearsal (Season One)
Directed by Nathan Fielder
The Unforgettables (Non-Competitive Honor)
All That Breathes
Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Nan Goldin
Bad Axe
Chun Siev
Beba
Rebeca Huntt
Fire of Love
Katia and Maurice Krafft
Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down
Gabby Giffords
I Didn’t See You There
Reid Davenport
In Her Hands
Zarifa Ghafari
Last Flight Home
Eli Timoner
Mija
Doris Muñoz
My Old School
Brandon Lee
Navalny
Alexei Navalny
Nothing Compares
Sinead O’Connor
Sr.
Robert Downey Sr.
The Territory
Bitaté Uru-eu-wau-wau and Neidinha Bandeira
The following were previously announced on Thursday, October 20 during the annual Cinema Eye Fall Lunch in Los Angeles.
Broadcast Film Nominees
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes
Directed by James Jones | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
Downfall: The Case Against Boeing
Directed by Rory Kennedy | Netflix
Four Hours at the Capitol
Directed by Jamie Roberts | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
George Carlin’s American Dream
Directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
Playing With Sharks
Directed by Sally Aitken | Disney+
Nonfiction Series Nominees
The Beatles: Get Back
Directed by Peter Jackson | Disney+
Black and Missing
Directed by Geeta Gandbhir and Samantha Knowles | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey
Directed by Rachel Dretzin | Netflix
LuLaRich
Directed by Julia Willoughby Nason and Jenner Furst | Amazon Studios
Mind Over Murder
Directed by Nanfu Wang | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
We Need to Talk About Cosby
Directed by W. Kamau Bell | Showtime
Anthology Series Nominees
How To with John Wilson (Season Two)
Nathan Fielder, Michael Koman, Clark Reinking and John Wilson, Executive Producers | HBO
Origins of Hip Hop
Peter Bittenbender, Mark Grande, Slane Hatch; Supervising Producers: Amira Lewally and Phoenix Skye Maulella, Executive Producers | A&E
Prehistoric Planet
Jon Favreau and Michael Gunton, Executive Producers; Tim Walker, Series Producer | Apple TV+
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (Season Two)
Tom Barry, Adam Hawkins, Eve Kay and Stanley Tucci, Executive Producers; Robin O’Sullivan, Series Producer | CNN
Women Who Rock
Jessica Hopper, Rachel Brill, John Varvatos, Derik Murray and Jesse James Miller, Executive Producers | EPIX
The World According to Jeff Goldblum (Season Two)
Jeff Goldblum, Jane Root, Sara Brailsford, Keith Addis and Arif Nurmohamed, Executive Producers, Ben Jessop, Series Producer | Disney+
Broadcast Editing Nominees
37 Words
Jessica Congdon and Dave Marcus | ESPN
The Beatles: Get Back
Jabez Olssen | Disney+
Four Hours at the Capitol
Will Grayburn | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
How to Survive a Pandemic
Adam Evans and Tyler H. Walk | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
How To with John Wilson (Season Two)
Adam Locke-Norton | HBO
We Need to Talk About Cosby
Meg Ramsay | Showtime
Broadcast Cinematography Nominees
Four Hours at the Capitol
Jamie Roberts | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy
Coodie Simmons and Danny “DNA” Sorge | Netflix
Playing With Sharks
Michael Taylor, Judd Overton, Nathan Barlow and Toby Ralph | Disney+
Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (Season Two)
Andrew Muggleton | CNN
Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Come Off
Sam Jones and Jesse Green | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
Legacy Award
Crumb
Directed by Terry Zwigoff
Produced by Lynn O’Donnell and Terry Zwigoff
Edited by Victor Livingston
Cinematography by Maryse Alberti
Music by David Beddinghaus
Sound by Scott Breindell
The Oscar prospects for Fire of Love,
“Fragments of Paradise” celebrates the life of Jonas Mekas, co-founder of New York’s Anthology Film Archives, who left a lasting legacy on the New York film world. Directed by KD Davison, the film premieres among nearly 200 films at the DOC NYC festival in theaters and online.
“Fragments of Paradise” premieres Saturday, Nov. 12 at DOC NYC.
"Fragments of Paradise" celebrates the life of
Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort and Flock Freight teamed up and enlisted Blue’s Clues actor Steve Burns – yes, that Steve Burns – to define shipping loads in an unexpected campaign that will start your morning with a laugh you didn’t know you needed.
**Please note there are some… well a lot of curse words ahead (I mean it is a Ryan Reynold’s advertisement).
Just to reminder you before you watch, Burns, became famous when he played the investigator role (which later had different hosts) on a popular children’s show called Blue’s Clues. In this new 60-second ad, which went live across all platforms today, Burns is put on a new case to find out how much a “f*ckload” is. In order to find out some more information, Burn’s heads over to Flock Freight, a technology company, which is has the tag line as the experts in shipping any “kind of load.”
Shot in what feels like a documentary (mockumentary), the Burns goes into Flock Freight to speak to Jill Lyons, the “executive,” about the logistical inefficiencies behind supply chain constraints. “The world needs answers,” Burns commented on the creative on Instagram. “We will not rest.”
The idea which was developed by Ryan Reynolds’ creative company, Maximum Effort who is behind some of the smartest, funniest advertisements including roping in his sister-in-law for a Mint Mobile commercial, interviewing himself to promote Maximum Effort, and even getting his mother involved for Aviation Gin, and Reynold’s recently got AriZona iced tea involved, click here to see that ad.
So fan would expect nothing less than seeing Reynold’s team up with Burns (especially after Burn’s return to social became viral after years of being off-air). In the advertisement, in addition to speaking to Jill Lyons — Burns investigates the logistical inefficiencies behind supply chain constraints, only to find that these are primarily caused by a sh*tload – or, a f*ckload – of empty space in trucks on our roadways. Only the trusted experts at Flock Freight can help Steve understand these burning questions.
To get help with this issue, Burns heads over to Flock Freight here he learns the company uses proprietary technology to match locations, schedules, and compatible shipments to find the best options to pool freight among billions of possible combinations and fill trucks’ empty spaces solving the inefficiencies.
Check it out in full below (prepare to laugh):
The spot will run on social, digital and streaming TV, including MNTN.
Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort and Flock Freight teamed up
View gallery
![Bethenny Frankel looks amazing in a black and white floral one-piece swimsuit as she goes for a solo stroll on the beach in Miami. 20 Jun 2022 Pictured: Bethenny Frankel. Photo credit: MEGA TheMegaAgency.com +1 888 505 6342 (Mega Agency TagID: MEGA870389_009.jpg) [Photo via Mega Agency]](https://hollywoodlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/MEGA870389_009.jpg?w=293)
Bethenny Frankel, 52, dropped a major bomb about Sonja Morgan, 58, during the first episode of her ReWives podcast. Bethenny revealed to her guest, The Handmaid’s Tale actress Elisabeth Moss, that Sonja was nearly fired from The Real Housewives of New York City during season 10, until Bethenny caused a big fight between Sonja and Tinsley Mortimer at a sushi restaurant during the seventh episode of the season.
“One of the producers, I will not say who, in the car said, ‘I think we have to let Sonja go,’ ” Bethenny explained. “She was just a disaster and it was all about the bidet and the lingerie, and it was just all this stuff. And there was a scene at a restaurant called Cherry, a sushi restaurant, where I just lit a match about her and Tinsley.”
Bethenny continued, “Tinsley started out living in Sonja’s townhouse, and basically [was] a nobody who had been arrested and by up to that point, she had a rich guy selling flowers and Sonja’s poor and bankrupt.” The SkinnyGirl founder recalled how she “said something to stir up” the lingering drama between Sonja and Tinsley at the dinner, which caused the two women to go at it. “It lit up Sonja and she launched and she did not get let go,” Bethenny said. “That is an absolute fact. I have the receipts.”
Elisabeth, a bonafide Real Housewives super fan, was shocked about Bethenny’s claims, and asked if Sonja or any of the other women knew about this. “The girls wouldn’t have cared. They wouldn’t have believed it,” Bethenny said. “But the producers will back it up. A thousand percent.”
“Sonja was going to be fired, and I said to the producer in the car, ‘Give me one night.’ And that was the night Sonja resurrected herself,” Bethenny further claimed. “I don’t even think Sonja knows that. She would totally believe me — she trusts me. But that did happen. It’s totally true.”
On her ReWives podcast, Bethenny is re-watching old seasons of the Real Housewives shows to discuss the biggest moments in the franchise. On the first episode, she brought Elisabeth Moss on to revisit the infamous “Scary Island” incident during season 3 of RHONY, where the whole cast fought with Kelly Bensimon. Bethenny claimed that she also helped Alex McCord avoid being fired on that season, too.
View gallery Image Credit: Steven Bergman/AFF-USA.COM / MEGA Bethenny
The remaining Twitter staffers after last week’s layoffs will have to show up at the office, new owner Elon Musk said in his first company-wide email.
Less than a week after canning 3,700 staffers — almost half of its workforce — Musk took another hack at the company’s loose work culture, which included a permanent work-from-anywhere arrangement, by recalling everyone to their desks, Bloomberg News first reported. Now, they are expected to show up for at least 40 hours per week, starting immediately.
Remote work was one of the first issues Musk discussed when he said he would buy Twitter for $44 billion earlier this year. He previously eliminated “days of rest” from Twitter staff calendars, a monthly, companywide day off introduced during the pandemic.
The email late Wednesday warned the platform’s workers to prepare for “difficult times ahead” and said remote work was allowed only if Musk personally approved it.
Musk said there was “no way to sugarcoat the message” about the outlook for the economy and how a potential slowdown would hit an advertising-dependent company like Twitter, according to Bloomberg News.
Public companies, including social media rival Meta Platforms, have already seen ad dollars weaken and many are braced for further declines in the fourth quarter, after the midterm elections, which was forecast to see a record $9 billion poured into campaign ads.
The email was sent out a day after the rollout of the new Twitter Blue, the subscription service that lets anyone buy a blue checkmark for their account for $7.99 per month. Subscribers immediately created slews of fake celebrity accounts and sparked vast confusion online.
Musk told workers in the email that he wants to see subscriptions account for half of Twitter’s revenue.
In the second quarter, the last Twitter reported as a public company, it posted a 2% gain in advertising revenue of $1.08 billion, while subscription and other revenue plunged 27% from the prior year to $101 million. Last week, Musk tweeted that activists who pressured advertisers to paused or back away from the platform were responsible for a “massive drop in revenue.”
“The road ahead is arduous and will require intense work to succeed,” Musk wrote in his email. In a separate note, Bloomberg reported, he added that “over the next few days, the absolute top priority is finding and suspending any verified bots/trolls/spam.”
His Twitter feed on Thursday morning had a poll asking users, “Are you seeing far fewer bots/scams/spam?” The vote had “Yes” leading 52.1% to 47.9% around 10 a.m.
Musk also retweeted a post by Yoel Roth, head of Trust and Safety at Twitter, that claimed success in combating “hateful conduct.”
“We’ve not only mitigated the recent surge in harmful behavior, but have reduced impressions on this content in Search by ~95% relative to even prior baseline levels,” Roth said. “We’re continuing our work to make Twitter safer every day.” Comments on the post ranged from accusations that the company is just “hiding what you dislike” to questions about how it was able to reduce the content so fast so quickly, and “what were you doing before?”
The remaining Twitter staffers after last week’s
Steven Spielberg is still shocked by Warner Bros. releasing big budget films via HBO Max amid the pandemic.
The Academy Award winner slammed the day-and-date HBO Max releases in 2021, with acclaimed films like “In the Heights,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Dune,” “King Richard,” and “The Matrix Resurrections” debuting on the streamer the same day as in theaters.
“The pandemic created an opportunity for streaming platforms to raise their subscriptions to record-breaking levels and also throw some of my best filmmaker friends under the bus as their movies were unceremoniously not given theatrical releases,” Spielberg told The New York Times. “They were paid off and the films were suddenly relegated to, in this case, HBO Max. The case I’m talking about. And then everything started to change.”
Spielberg continued, “I think older audiences were relieved that they didn’t have to step on sticky popcorn. But I really believe those same older audiences, once they got into the theater, the magic of being in a social situation with a bunch of strangers is a tonic. Those audiences, I believe, left the theater if the movie was good and said, ‘Aren’t you glad we went out tonight to see this picture?’ So, it’s up to the movies to be good enough to get all the audiences to say that to each other when the lights come back up.”
Spielberg said that if he made 2017 political thriller “The Post” post-pandemic, he might have considered partnering with AppleTV+ or Netflix for the film to reach “millions of people.” “
“We thought that was an important reflection for a lot of people to understand what was happening to our country,” Spielberg said of the historical drama surrounding the release of the Pentagon Papers during the Nixon administration. “I don’t know if I had been given that script post-pandemic whether I would have preferred to have made that film for Apple or Netflix and gone out to millions of people. Because the film had something to say to millions of people, and we were never going to get those millions of people into enough theaters to make that kind of difference. Things have changed enough to get me to say that to you.”
The “Fabelmans” director noted that there is “no question” that “big sequels” and Marvel, DC, and Pixar films “still have a place in society,” especially as being theatrical draws among the likes of animated movies and horror films as a whole. “Hopefully comedies come back, because you can’t laugh as hard at home as you can in an audience,” Spielberg added. “I found it encouraging that ‘Elvis’ broke $100 million at the domestic box office. A lot of older people went to see that film, and that gave me hope that people were starting to come back to the movies as the pandemic becomes an endemic. I think movies are going to come back. I really do.”
But, according to the “Jaws” helmer, it’s up to directors to negotiate with studios to make sure their films launch in theaters, as well as streaming platforms.
“I think there has to be a concerted effort on the part of movie directors to demand that the streaming services footing the bill for most of these films give their movies a chance to be exhibited theatrically and not just in four theaters to qualify for awards,” Spielberg said. “It’s going to have to come from all of us — the WGA [the Writers Guild], the DGA [the Directors Guild] and eventually the Academy.”
He continued, “When you’re first starting out, and a streaming service gives you a chance to direct your first movie, of course the streaming service is going to call the shot, but I don’t know anybody that wouldn’t like their movies to be shown on a big screen. I don’t know anyone that would say, ‘No, I’d rather it be shown on an iPad or in a living room.’”
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"Their movies were unceremoniously not given theatrical
