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Global

An official business motion to study building a fence around Galt Gardens in Lethbridge has been voted down by city council.

If passed, the motion would have directed administration to explore costs and other considerations for a potential wrought iron fence around Galt Gardens, that would serve as a permanent park boundary.

The motion was voted down 5-4.

“I wanted to be able to make sure that it went out to the community and we’d be able to get some information back,” said Mayor Blaine Hyggen, who put forward the motion.

Co-sponsored by Coun. John Middleton-Hope, the motion says “inappropriate social behaviours have become commonplace in (Galt Gardens).”

The mayor envisioned a potential fence closing the park at night to enhance safety.

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According to Hyggen, the idea was put forward after hearing from the community.

“It was in conjunction with other business owners and other public members that have stated to me they want this park to be available for all and they didn’t feel safe to go into that park,” Hyggen said.

Members of the homeless community often use Galt Gardens.

Many of the councillors who opposed the motion were concerned about the impact a fence could have on those people and others in the area.

“You’re just going to end up displacing people, putting them in people’s yards and alleys,” said Coun. Ryan Parker, who voted against the motion.

“We need some kind of solution in that area, but I don’t think a fence is the ultimate solution.”

Those feelings were shared by about 100 protesters who stood outside city hall before Tuesday’s council meeting, speaking against the motion.

When it comes to the local vulnerable population, advocates say the problem can’t be moved around.

“It’s all about services and what we need, not just trying to get them to leave,” protester Chris Rowley said.

Any new ideas to deal with issues at Galt Gardens will have to wait.

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Council is now on summer recess, with the next scheduled meeting not until Sept. 19.

&copy 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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An official business motion to study building

Tech

It’s time for your daily dose of Quordle hints, plus the answers for both the main game and the Daily Sequence spin off. 

Quordle is the only one of the many Wordle clones that I’m still playing now, around 18 months after the daily-word-game craze hit the internet, and with good reason: it’s good fun, but also difficult.

What’s more, its makers (now the online dictionary Merriam-Webster) are also keeping it fresh in the form of a new variant called the Daily Sequence, which sees you complete four puzzles consecutively, rather than concurrently. 

But Quordle is tough, so if you already find yourself searching for Wordle hints, you’ll probably need some for this game too. 

I’m a Quordle and Wordle fanatic who’s been playing since December 2021, so I can definitely help you solve Quordle today and improve your game for tomorrow. Read on for my Quordle hints to game #548 and the answers to the main game and Daily Sequence. 

SPOILER WARNING: Information about Quordle today is below, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know the answers.

Your Quordle expert

Your Quordle expert

Marc McLaren

Marc is TechRadar’s UK Editor in Chief and has been playing Wordle and Quordle for more than a year. He’s authored dozens of articles on the game for TechRadar and its sister site Tom’s Guide, including a detailed analysis of the most common letters in every position. His Wordle streak recently reached the 500 mark and he’ll be inconsolable if he loses it. Yes, he takes it all too seriously. 

Quordle today (game #548) – hint #1 – Vowels

How many different vowels are in Quordle today?

• The number of different vowels in Quordle today is 4*.

* Note that by vowel we mean the five standard vowels (A, E, I, O, U), not Y (which is sometimes counted as a vowel too). 

Quordle today (game #548) – hint #2 – total vowels

What is the total number of vowels in Quordle today?

• The total number of vowels across today’s Quordle answers is 8.

Quordle today (game #548) – hint #3 – repeated letters

Do any of today’s Quordle answers contain repeated letters?

• The number of Quordle answers containing a repeated letter today is 0.

Quordle today (game #548) – hint #4 – total letters

How many different letters are used in Quordle today?

• The total number of different letters used in Quordle today is 14.

Quordle today (game #548) – hint #5 – uncommon letters

Do the letters Q, Z, X or J appear in Quordle today?

• Yes. One of Q, Z, X or J appears among today’s Quordle answers.

Quordle today (game #548) – hint #6 – starting letters (1)

Do any of today’s Quordle puzzles start with the same letter?

• The number of today’s Quordle answers starting with the same letter is 0.

If you just want to know the answers at this stage, simply scroll down. If you’re not ready yet then here’s one more clue to make things a lot easier:

Quordle today (game #548) – hint #7 – starting letters (2)

What letters do today’s Quordle answers start with?

• I

• T

• C

• P

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE THEM.

Quordle today (game #548) – the answers

Quordle answers for game 548 on a yellow background

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today’s Quordle, game #548, are…

How did you do today? Send me an email and let me know.

Daily Sequence today (game #548) – the answers

Quordle Daily Sequence answers for game 548 on a yellow background

(Image credit: Merriam-Webster)

The answers to today’s Quordle Daily Sequence, game #548, are…

Quordle answers: The past 20

  • Quordle #547, Tuesday 25 July: HAIRY, ROWDY, QUARK, LIMIT
  • Quordle #546, Monday 24 July: STUFF, HIPPO, LIVER, BLINK
  • Quordle #545, Sunday 23 July: ENTRY, GIDDY, STAMP, VOMIT
  • Quordle #544, Saturday 22 July: BEFIT, JIFFY, ARENA, TOUCH
  • Quordle #543, Friday 21 July: ROUND, TEPID, LIVER, IRATE
  • Quordle #542, Thursday 20 July: ENTER, TRULY, USUAL, CIVIL
  • Quordle #541, Wednesday 19 July: WORST, KAYAK, HENCE, ZEBRA
  • Quordle #540, Tuesday 18 July: DEBUT, HOARD, SILLY, UPPER
  • Quordle #539, Monday 17 July: LUPUS, ALIVE, SALLY, ABLED
  • Quordle #538, Sunday 16 July: STEAM, SALTY, SLOOP, TRUSS
  • Quordle #537, Saturday 15 July: CYCLE, FALSE, FRILL, HEAVY
  • Quordle #536, Friday 14 July: LIBEL, CABLE, WREAK, SCOPE
  • Quordle #535, Thursday 13 July: BASTE, QUERY, SNAIL, PEARL
  • Quordle #534, Wednesday 12 July: VOICE, MANGA, FROTH, BLOAT
  • Quordle #533, Tuesday 11 July: MODEL, AISLE, LIMBO, TULLE
  • Quordle #532, Monday 10 July: FILET, DULLY, IRATE, NOSEY
  • Quordle #531, Sunday 9 July: AXION, OFFER, DREAD, SADLY
  • Quordle #530, Saturday 8 July: BAGEL, SPITE, MAYBE, RADIO
  • Quordle #529, Friday 7 July: CLOUT, SMEAR, GAILY, ANGRY
  • Quordle #528, Thursday 6 July: HUNCH, LEFTY, ABBEY, RECUR

Quordle FAQs: Everything you need to know

What is Quordle?

Where Wordle challenges you to guess a new five-letter word each day, Quordle presents you with four puzzles to solve. And rather than complete them in turn, you do so simultaneously. You get nine guesses, rather than the six for Wordle, but the rules are otherwise very similar. 

It’s played online via the Quordle website and you can also get to it via the Merriam-Webster site, after the dictionary purchased Quordle last year. 

As with Wordle, the answers are the same for every player each day, meaning that you’re competing against the rest of the world. And also as with Wordle, the puzzle resets at midnight so you have a fresh challenge each day.

The website also includes a practice mode – which I definitely recommend using before attempting the game proper! – and there are daily stats including a streak count. You also get Quordle Achievements – specific badges for winning a game in a certain number of turns, playing lots of times, or guessing particularly hard words.

Oh, and it’s difficult. Really difficult.

What are the Quordle rules?

The rules of Quordle are almost identical to those of Wordle.

1. Letters that are in the answer and in the right place turn green.

2. Letters that are in the answer but in the wrong place turn yellow. 

3. Letters that are not in the answer turn gray…

4. …BUT the word you guess appears in all quadrants of the puzzle at the same time, so an A could turn green in one square, yellow in another and gray in the final two. 

5. Answers are never plural.

6. Letters can appear more than once. So if your guess includes two of one letter, they may both turn yellow, both turn green, or one could be yellow and the other green.

7. Each guess must be a valid word in Quordle’s dictionary. You can’t guess ABCDE, for instance.

8. You do not have to include correct letters in subsequent guesses and there is no equivalent of Wordle’s Hard mode.

9. You have nine guesses to find the Quordle answers.

10. You must complete the daily Quordle before midnight in your timezone.

What is a good Quordle strategy?

Quordle needs to be approached in a different way to Wordle. With four puzzles to solve in nine guesses, you can’t blindly throw letters at it and expect to win – you’ll stand a far better chance if you think strategically.

That’s the case in Wordle too, of course, but it’s even more important in Quordle.

There are two key things to remember. 

1. Use several starting words

Firstly, you won’t want just a single starting word, but almost certainly two or three starting words. 

The first of these should probably be one of the best Wordle starting words, because the same things that make them work well will apply here too. But after that, you should select another word or possibly two that use up lots more of the most common consonants and that include any remaining vowels.

For instance, I currently use STARE > DOILY > PUNCH. Between them, these three words use 15 of the 26 letters in the alphabet including all five vowels, Y, and nine of the most common consonants (S, T, R, D, L, P, N, C and H). There are plenty of other options – you might want to get an M, B, F or G in there instead of the H, maybe – but something like that should do the trick.

If all goes well, that will give you a good lead on what one or sometimes two of the answers might be. If not, well good luck!

2. Narrow things down

Secondly, if you’re faced with a word where the answer might easily be one of several options – for instance -ATCH, where it could be MATCH, BATCH, LATCH, CATCH, WATCH, HATCH or PATCH – you’ll definitely want to guess a word that would narrow down those options. 

In Wordle, you can instead try several of those in succession and hope one is right, assuming you have enough guesses left. It’s risky, but will sometimes work. Plus, it’s the only option in Hard mode. But in Quordle, this will almost certainly result in a failure – you simply don’t have enough guesses.

In the scenario above, CLAMP would be a great guess, as it could point the way to four of the seven words in one go.

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It's time for your daily dose of

Entertaintment

EXCLUSIVE: Despite all the champagne popping over at Warner Bros and Universal over the bananas box office success of Barbie and Oppenheimer, distribution executives continue to sweat over a possible lengthy SAG-AFTRA strike which is already blowing up the fall release calendar. We told you first last week this was going to happen. All major motion picture studios are assessing release date changes, the longer SAG-AFTRA strike goes on. Many want their stars to promote these films.

Sources tell me that studio executives are hoping to huddle with the National Association of Theatre Owners in an effort to get the word out there to SAG-AFTRA how a lengthy strike could really due to damage, not just to the motion picture business, but to exhibition itself after cinemas ate dirt during Covid. The news comes as No. 1 theater chain AMC is running out of cash. Cinemas can’t go through this again.

We told you that Oscar bait-adult demo titles that squarely hinge on actors’ promotions are the first titles to move off the calendar, which we saw immediately with MGM’s Zendaya, Luca Guadagnino directed Challengers last week heading from Sept 15 to the last weekend of April, and out of its Venice opening night premiere. To date, it’s the only major studio movie to get pulled from a festival.

Focus Features’ Ethan Coen road comedy, Drive-Away Dolls, I hear, won’t be making its way to the fall film festival troika of Venice, TIFF and Telluride. Festivals have expectations for talent to show up, and in the case of Drive-Away Dolls, Coen is a co-writer too and the WGA strike is going on. Focus Features’ The Holdovers and Sony’s Dumb Money can respectively have their directors Alexander Payne and Craig Gillespie do press at TIFF as they aren’t billed as writers on their films.

While Searchlight’s Emma Stone, Yorgos Lanthimos bender, Poor Things, dodged from Sept. 8 to Dec. 8, even with a star-less Venice Film Festival premiere, note the studio has launched big pics at Venice before for awards season and rode that wave to an early December launch, read 2010’s Black Swan.

Separately, Drive-Away Dolls is eyeing a move off its Sept. 22 release date, largely because it’s dated against awards bait title, Dumb Money, which will have the gas of TIFF behind it. New date for the Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal caper is TBD. If you glance at the Comscore calendar, Focus has Oct. 6 on hold for an untitled feature.

Now what’s up with Legendary/Warner Bros.’ Dune: Part Two. We told you it wouldn’t be shocking if the feature moved off its golden Nov. 3 theatrical release date. Denis Villeneuve got stiffed with Warner Media’s theatrical day and date experiment, which prevented the movie from being the Star Wars blockbuster it could have been; the pic still one of the highest grossing movies during the 2021 pandemic at $402M WW and several Oscar wins.

As of today, Dune: Part Two is not moving, but you if Zendaya with 200M social media followers can turn Challengers into a counterprogramming success, then she can certainly help in trumpeting the feature take of the Frank Herbert novel. Of course, it stands to reason that Villeneuve and Legendary are going to wait this sci-fi spectacle out; why would they allow it to become distribution collateral damage again?

I hear Legendary, which is the pilot seat here on the pic’s fate, is in wait and see mode, and has until September before Dune 2‘s next leg of marketing has to go.

If Dune: Part Two moves where does it go? I hear there are three spring options, and you just have to look at the release calendar: March, April or a break in the summer connected to a possible Cannes Film Festival launch. Warners already has the following dates on hold in regards to where Dune: Part Two could go: March 15 where Legendary has their next Godzilla/King Kong movie, April 19 which they have on reserve for an event title, or June 21 which is an untitled open slot for the Burbank lot.

But again, if AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA see eye-to-eye by Labor Day weekend, Dune: Part Two could stay exactly where it is on the calendar.

What about Wonka (Dec 15), Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (Dec. 20) and Color Purple (Christmas Day) moving to 2024? Still way too soon to call; but if these tentpoles are vulnerable to changes, so are others.

At this point in time we’re hearing there’s no truth to Apple Original Movies Killers of the Flower Moon (Oct. 6) and Napoleon (Nov. 22) getting qualifying theatrical runs over a wide release, their theatrical distribution handled by Paramount and Sony.

Legendary and Focus Features provided no comment on today’s news.

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EXCLUSIVE: Despite all the champagne popping over

Movies

It’s a “Barbie” world. We’re all just living in it.

After a year and a half of hype, a whirlwind press tour and stellar advance reviews, Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” finally hit theaters this past weekend, smashing box-office records with a $162 million debut, the biggest of the year. That’s the highest-grossing opening weekend ever for a film directed by a woman, and though Gerwig had high hopes for “Barbie,” she can’t quite believe how well her unique spin on the Mattel doll has connected with a mass audience.

“I wanted to make something anarchic and wild and funny and cathartic,” a gob-smacked Gerwig told me over the phone on Tuesday, “and the idea that it’s actually being received that way, it’s sort of extraordinary.”

Few blockbusters these days have as much on their minds as “Barbie”; it is actually, to borrow a quote from “Clueless,” “way existential.” Underneath its candy-coated exterior, “Barbie” tackles issues like sexism and self-determination with aplomb, while never forgetting to supply its stars Margot Robbie (as Barbie) and Ryan Gosling (as Ken) with surprisingly witty jokes, some of which border on the arcane. (Who would have expected a punchline about the ’90s rock band Pavement in the “Barbie” movie?)

Gerwig is just happy she got away with all of it. “I think it was a particular ripple in the universe that allowed it to happen,” she told me from her home in New York City, where Harold, her 4-year-old son with Noah Baumbach, her co-writer on “Barbie,” interrupted the call to bring Gerwig’s press cycle to a definitive close. “He made a cake for me that was pink and had a ‘B’ on it, and he said, ‘This is how we say goodbye to Barbie,’” Gerwig said with a laugh. “I thought, ‘Oh, you’re done.’”

Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.

This interview contains spoilers for “Barbie.”

You just had one of the most consequential weekends of your life. How are you feeling?

I’m so grateful. I’m so amazed. I’m at a loss for words, really. I’ve been in New York City and spent Thursday and Friday just spot-checking different theaters, listening to the levels and making sure the picture looked nice and trying to relinquish control, which is difficult. But honestly, it’s been amazing to walk around and see people in pink. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine something like this. It’s just … it’s … sorry, I’m just disintegrating into noises.

What specific things helped you get a grasp on how much the film was resonating?

I think part of the reason I was so fixated on volume levels was because it was a thing I could concentrate on. But mostly, it’s been running into people on the street who are excited and happy and exuberant, because so much of this movie was an attempt to create something that people would want to experience together. So it’s the little things.

My producer David Heyman sent me an email from someone who lives in a tiny Scottish town, and there’s a movie theater there that has been struggling, and they had sold-out shows all weekend for “Barbie.” He was like, “The town is showing up!” And my brother and his sons and his wife all went in Sacramento and sent a picture, then they sent a text saying their oldest son was going back the next day with his friends. These 15- or 16-year-old boys from Sacramento are sending me texts saying, “It was great! We loved the Porsche joke!” Those are the things that feel so amazing. I’ve never quite had anything like this.

The thing I keep hearing from people in Hollywood is “I don’t know how she got away with it.” When a theatrically released movie is made at this budget level, anything idiosyncratic or challenging often gets whittled down by studio notes. How were you able to preserve your sensibility the whole way through this process?

I was originally meant to just write it with Noah, and then we finished the script and that was the thing that made me want to direct it. It felt so clear to me: If they didn’t want to make that [version], I didn’t need to make it. Margot, as the producer and star, was really the first person to line up and say, “I want to do it her way.” And then as we started adding collaborators and gathering more cast, suddenly there was a large number of people who were excited to do something that was this, excuse the pun, out of the box.

Part of me thinks that because it was all so idiosyncratic and so wild, it was almost like no one really knew where to start taking it apart. Like, where are you going to start hacking away at how strange it was? Maybe because there was this sense of sheer joy behind it, it was this hard thing to say, “Oh no, we don’t want that thing that’s sheer joy.” People wanted it to exist, in all its weirdness.

Even the movie’s inciting incident is pretty heady. I’m trying to imagine how the executives reacted when you told them, “Well, things really kick off when Barbie starts having irrepressible thoughts of death.”

I know! We had the idea of the movie starting off like this whirligig, and that line becomes something where she almost breaks the movie. And what do you do after you’ve broken the movie? Her character tries to just keep the movie going normally again, but there’s no way to do it. But yeah, I don’t know that anyone totally knew what the tone of this was going to be until it was all done. I mean, within the group of people who were deeply making it, we knew, but it was truly an act of faith for everyone else.

The first time I ever screened the movie for an audience, that line — “Do you guys ever think about dying?” — got a big laugh, and everybody who had been holding their breaths for a year and a half finally exhaled. The way it played was something I could always kind of hear in my head and see in my mind’s eye but outside that group that was there, it was a little bit of white-knuckling.

It’s been reported that Mattel executives flew to the London set to try to convince you to take out the scene where Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), a teenage character from the real world, calls Barbie dolls sexist and fascist. True?

I will say, that’s always sounded so dramatic: They were coming anyway, so it wasn’t like, “Stop everything, we all have to go to London!” But with that scene in particular, my awareness of Barbie as a thing in the world completely corresponded with me knowing the arguments against Barbie. I didn’t think there was any way to do this without giving that real estate and having well-articulated, correct arguments from a really smart character given to Barbie against Barbie. Also, I grew up with a mom who was kind of against Barbie, so that’s how I knew all that. If you don’t give voice to that, then you’re nowheresville.

It wasn’t like I ever got the full seal of approval from [Mattel], like, “We love it!” I got a tentative, “Well, OK. I see that you are going to do this, so go ahead and we’ll see how it goes.” But that’s all you need, and I had faith once it was in there and they saw it that they would embrace it, not fight it. Maybe at the end of the day, my will to have it in was stronger than any other will to take it out.

That scene leads to one of my favorite unexpected jokes, when Barbie protests that she can’t be a fascist because she doesn’t control the railways or the flow of commerce.

There were several jokes where I was like, “This might be for three or seven people, but I will keep it in for them!” Here’s something else that will stick with me: When I was checking in on different screenings this weekend, there was another joke like that: “Remember Proust Barbie? That did not sell very well.” And there were, like, two people in this screening who died at that joke. I was like, “Yes! It was for you, and you got it. I’m so glad that I was here to see that work in the wild.”

When people ask whether “Barbie” is for kids or adults, those lines remind me of how when I was young, if I didn’t understand a joke that my parents laughed at, it sparked my curiosity.

I’ve never had such a sharp delineation in my mind between things that were made for adults and things that were made for children. I had parents who, blessedly, took me to and showed me lots of things, and sometimes there was even a double pleasure in things that were beyond me because it felt like a window into a world I was just starting to piece together. I always liked that feeling, so I thought it didn’t seem like a hindrance to a younger audience enjoying it.

One of the scenes that gets the biggest audience reaction is America Ferrera’s monologue about the tightrope that women have to walk in this society. What did you want out of that moment?

I always hoped that America would do this part, and I feel so lucky that she said yes. Over the course of a long time prepping it, we really embroidered it with her own specificity and talked about her experiences and her own life, and three takes in, I was crying. Then I looked around, and everyone was crying — even the men were tearing up. I suddenly thought that this tightrope she’s explaining is something that is present for women in the way that she’s describing it, but it’s also present for everybody.

Everybody is afraid they’re going to put a foot wrong and it’s all going to come crashing down, and in that moment of doing that monologue, she was giving people permission to step off that tightrope. I don’t think I realized until then that’s what that moment was for. She had a piece of the puzzle in her as an actor and collaborator and artist that explained it back to me.

Did you anticipate the degree to which right-wing pundits are bashing the movie as being “woke” and burning their Barbies?

No, I didn’t. Certainly, there’s a lot of passion. My hope for the movie is that it’s an invitation for everybody to be part of the party and let go of the things that aren’t necessarily serving us as either women or men. I hope that in all of that passion, if they see it or engage with it, it can give them some of the relief that it gave other people.

When did you know you’d figured out the final scene of the movie, where the now-human Barbie marches up to a real-world receptionist and announces that she’s there to see her gynecologist?

I wasn’t really certain until I was in rehearsals and reading it with Margot. I had a feeling of what I wanted it to be, but then she did it, and there was something so incredibly winning and hilarious and empathetic about the way she said that last line. I was like, “That’s it!” It’s so utterly sincere and silly at the same time.

In your mind, is this movie the start of a franchise, or do you feel “Barbie” is a complete story with a definitive ending?

At this moment, it’s all I’ve got. I feel like that at the end of every movie, like I’ll never have another idea and everything I’ve ever wanted to do, I did. I wouldn’t want to squash anybody else’s dream but for me, at this moment, I’m at totally zero.

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It’s a “Barbie” world. We’re all just

Latest News

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Barbie,” now playing in theaters nationwide.

America Ferrera’s epic “Barbie” monologue left the entire set in tears, Greta Gerwig recalled in a new interview with The Atlantic. Even the male cast members were left emotional, which the director reasoned was because they have their own speech to make.

“When America was giving her beautiful speech, I was just sobbing, and then I looked around and I realized everybody’s crying on the set,” Gerwig said. “The men are crying, too, because they have their own speech they feel they can’t ever give, you know? And they have their twin tightrope, which is also painful. There’s something about some of these structures that are just, you know, ‘Somebody make me stop!’ That’s sort of, I suppose, the feeling behind Ken.”

Ferrera previously revealed to Vanity Fair that it took two full days to film the monologue, in which her character Gloria, a Mattel employee, inspires Barbie to get back on her feet by railing against the many double standards women face on a daily basis.

“It was probably 30 to 50 full runs of it, top to bottom,” Ferrera said about filming the monologue. “By the end, [co-star Ariana Greenblatt] recited the monologue to me because she had memorized it because that’s how many times I had said it.”

“Neither one of us went into it feeling like it’s got to grow and crescendo to this big moment where you burst into tears or you’re laughing so hard you cry,” Ferrera added. “There were no targets to hit. It was much more a moment-to-moment drop in. Truly, every take was very different. There were takes that leaned into anger. There were takes that leaned into laughter. It really did, over the course of filming, find a shape. It was about just staying as present in the moment and just seeing really where the words would take it.”

In her interview with The Atlantic, Gerwig also touched upon the film’s ending. After Ken introduces Barbie Land to the patriarchy, Ferrera’s character and Margot Robbie’s Barbie team up to rally the rest of the Barbies to fight back. The film ends with Barbieland in somewhat of a hybrid state between Ken’s patriarchy and Barbie’s feminist utopia.

“We’re all still figuring things out — that’s part of it,” Gerwig said. “But the only thing I could ever give anyone is that they’re all still in the mess. Maybe it’s a little better for the Kens. You don’t want to tell people how to watch things, but at the end of the movie, the production design incorporates some of Ken’s fascinations into Barbie Land. Like, the perfection is not as beautiful as the thing that started blending everything together. I remember when we went to shoot the finale, when we all walked on set, we were like, This is the most beautiful it’s ever been.”

“Barbie” is now playing in theaters nationwide from Warner Bros.

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SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for “Barbie,”

MCU

The onset of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been a hot-button issue among Hollywood luminaries. While directors such as Martin Scorsese, Quinten Tarantino, and Francis Ford Coppola have often derided the Marvel films and the affect that they had on the movie industry, other Hollywood veterans including Samuel L. Jackson, Natalie Portman, and Nic Cage have defended the films.

While Marvel films may be divisive, there is no controversy surrounding the artistic value of Christopher Nolan’s films. The Dark Knight director is wowing critics and audiences alike with his current film Oppenheimer.

Christopher Nolan

Photo: THR

Challenging Robert Downey Jr.

Interestingly, the film stars Marvel stalwart Roberty Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in perhaps his most important post-MCU role.

When casting Downey, Nolan challenged the actor to put down his movie star charisma and play a more grounded character. Nolan was amazed by the performance.

Robert Downey Jr. Oppenheimer

Photo: Universal Studios

“And to watch him just sort of go back to that geniuses as an actor. Just finding the truth in another human being and presenting it, and the things he does in the film, I think a lot of his fan base is going to be extremely surprised. It’s really cool to see somebody who’s achieved such greatness as a movie star, that pivot completely and stretch themselves in a way that a lot of people haven’t seen him do.”

“One of the Greatest Casting Decisions”

While Nolan may have wanted Downey to play a different kind of character for Oppenheimer, he had nothing but praise for the actor’s role in the MCU.

Iron Man

Photo: Marvel

“When [Jon] Favreau had the insight to cast him as Iron Man, I mean that’s … one of the greatest casting decisions in the history of movies. And you look at what that did and where that went with everything.  I think that was Jon just knowing what an incredible actor, what incredible potential it was from Downey. And then the movie star charisma, that wonderful charisma comes into play,” he said.

Source: polygon.com

It is nice to hear a director of Nolan’s character praising the MCU, and especially recognizing Downey Jr.’s importance.

Could Downey Jr. Return to the MCU?

As for Tony Stark himself, while Iron Man sacrificed himself at the conclusion of Avengers: Endgame, Downey Jr.’s MCU journey may not be over yet.

Iron Man

Source: digitalspy.com

With Avengers: Secret Wars on the horizon, rumors continue to persist that Downey Jr. could return. While nothing has been confirmed, I know Marvel fans would love to see Tony Stark again on the big screen.

Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon! Also, thanks for reading!

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The onset of the

DCU

As a fan of spooky things, and also fun, I of course love the Disney Parks’ Haunted Mansion rides. I want to go on more of them. I hear the ones in Paris and Shanghai and Tokyo are really cool. For fans of these rides, specifically the Disneyland one, Justin Simien’s Haunted Mansion movie has plenty of “Oh hey, it’s that from the ride!” moments. Katie Dippold’s script offers a surprising amount of tragedy to go along with the ghosts, which surprised and delighted. There’s even quite a few scare moments that just stay on the family side of the line. And yet, they felt like it needed to mostly be a weird comedy, too. Some of it worked, some did not.

If you’re someone like my mother, you might have asked “Why would they make another Haunted Mansion movie?” To which I’d reply, “Well, the 2003 Eddie Murphy version was notoriously terrible and people still love the theme park ride.” And it seems like this is the raison d’etre. After years of toying with whether they’d give Guillermo del Toro the keys to the spookiest house in Disney’s neighborhood, the company instead decided to play it very, very safe and effectively just retread a lot of the same ground as the first movie. A family moves in, ghosts haunt them, they have to “find a way out” out of the situation.

Disney

The family in question is Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase Dillion) who buy and move into the Gracey Mansion in Louisiana when they find it for cheap on Zillow. Uh oh, it’s very haunted, so they need some help. The seemingly exorbitantly wealthy single mother then assembles a Dream Team of ghost hunters, including the priest Kent (Owen Wilson), psychic medium Harriet (Tiffany Haddish), and professorial haunted house expert Bruce (Danny DeVito). However, chief among them is physicist-turned-tour guide Ben (LaKeith Stanfield) who had invented a spectral energy camera, prior to a personal tragedy. They have to figure out why the ghosts are so aggressive, and why ghosts follow them home.

In addition to all of these people are some of the ride’s more famous ghosts. We have the psychic-in-a-crystal-ball Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis) who helps them, and the Hat-Box Ghost (Jared Leto) who is the movie’s main villain. Want your Black Widow husband killing ghost? She’s there. The portraits of the two guys killing each other in a duel? Here too. Long hallways, stretching rooms, hitchhiking ghosts, all in attendance. And some of them provide legitimately good scares, the likes of which I wasn’t expecting in a Disney movie.

Blue and white ethereal ghosts gather in the Haunted Mansion trailer
Disney

I’d love to say the movie works all the time. Stanfield gives a remarkably grounded, touching performance as a man dealing with profound grief. All good ghost stories have to have an element of sadness, and this one doesn’t shy away from that. The ghosts are never played for laughs, either, which I think is incredibly smart. The Haunted Mansion ride is fun-spooky. It needs to keep that kind of “ooh!” For the most part, this movie does that. And we learn about the ghosts and their history and how to end this weird curse. The plot and emotion are all there.

However, the biggest issue is they hedged their bets by making it a studio comedy. Haddish, Wilson, and DeVito all have chops for days, and some of what they have to say and do is really funny. Especially Wilson, who has some legitimately funny moments. But did we need them? Did this movie need to be a comedy full of improvised or extended jokes? We also get a number of big-name cameos doing especially silly things. Honestly, it felt like Simien (who directed Bad Hair previously) and Dippold (who wrote 2016’s Ghostbusters) had battling sensibilities that ended up both coming out in the finished film. I know I’m a horror guy first and foremost and others’ mileage may vary, but it just felt unbalanced.

Four members of the Haunted Mansion cast looking cautious in the large ballroom of the house.
Disney

I also need to point out some truly bizarre product placement. Every movie has product placement, but because this movie takes place in an old house, it’s harder to have new products just sitting around. So at various points in the movie, one of the characters will say a store or business by name. I don’t know if I’ve ever noticed it to this degree. It happens at some truly inappropriate times and pulled me right out of the story.

Haunted Mansion is not a train wreck or anything. It’s enjoyable enough. Family horror was something I grew up with and I miss it. I don’t think Hocus Pocus 2 was good at all, and this is much, much better than that. I think it could have been very good if it had let some of the zanier comedy fall by the wayside and embrace the family drama and spooky thrills. Stanfield is doing some amazing work here and I think that alone needs recognition. But I think the movie is not funny enough to warrant so much attempted comedy, especially when the ghost elements work so well on their own. Let the grim, grinning ghosts socialize without lame attempts at comedy getting in the way.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.

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As a fan of spooky

Comics

As August 2023 approaches, Peacock has announced the lineup of TV shows and movies coming to the platform in the upcoming month. And that includes one of the biggest movies of the year thus far.

On August 3, The Super Mario Bros. Movie will be available to stream via Peacock. The record-breaking box office hit was a major commercial success, but what is the animated movie actually about? The original games were never exactly about their stories in the first place; the movie sees a pair of entrepreneurial brothers whose family plumbing business is struggling, but such mundane concerns are quickly forgotten when they go down the wrong pipe in the sewers, are transported to the Mushroom Kingdom, and must save the princess. GameSpot’s Phil Owen wrote in his review earlier this year that “more than just another cartoon comedy, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a surprisingly great action flick.”

Coming to Peacock on August 17 is Season 2 of Killing It, a sitcom exploring class, capitalism, and a man’s quest for the American Dream. In this sitcom revolving around class and capitalism, we follow Craig Foster, a Miami bank security guard struggling to make ends meet. Co-parenting his pre-teen daughter, Vanessa, with his ex-wife, Camille, Craig yearns to fulfill his dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. However, a chance encounter with Jillian, a ride-hailing driver involved in state-sponsored python hunting, alters his course. Determined to achieve the American Dream, Craig embarks on a comedic and wild journey, overcoming challenges from criminals, untamed nature, and corporate America. The show stars Craig Robinson, Claudia O’Doherty, Rell Battle, Scott MacArthur, Stephanie Nogueras, Wyatt Walter, and Jet Miller.

A variety of older movies hit the service on August 1, including 21 Jump Street, 8 Mile, Jerry Maguire, Minions, Animal House, Pineapple Express, and Neighbors.

Below is a list of all the content coming to Peacock in August. You can also check out our lists for Disney+, Hulu, Prime Video, and Max. August will be a more expensive month for Peacock viewers–a price hike goes into effect for both new and existing subscribers.

New to Peacock August 2023

August 1

  • 2012, 2009
  • 21 Jump Street, 2012
  • 8 Mile, 2002
  • Admission, 2013
  • Along Came Polly, 2004
  • The Best Man, 1999
  • The Best Man Holiday, 2013
  • Bowfinger, 1999
  • Casa de mi Padre, 2012
  • The Change-Up, 2011
  • Colombiana, 2011
  • The Croods, 2012
  • Dazed and Confused, 1993
  • Deep Impact, 1998
  • Definitely, Maybe, 2008
  • Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, 2012
  • Enough, 2002
  • Fanboys, 2009
  • For a Good Time, Call…, 2012
  • Greenberg, 2010
  • How to Train Your Dragon 2, 2014
  • The Interview, 2014
  • It’s Complicated, 2009
  • Jerry Maguire, 1996
  • Marmaduke, 2010
  • Minions, 2015
  • National Lampoon’s Animal House, 1978
  • Neighbors, 2014
  • The Nutty Professor, 1996
  • Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, 2000
  • Our Idiot Brother, 2011
  • Over the Hedge, 2006
  • Pineapple Express, 2008
  • R.I.P.D., 2013
  • The Replacements, 2000
  • Safe House, 2012
  • Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, 2010
  • Self/Less, 2015
  • Sex Drive, 2008
  • Shark Tale, 2004
  • Shrek Forever After, 2010
  • Ted 2, 2015
  • There’s Something About Mary, 1998
  • Tower Heist, 2011
  • Wanderlust, 2012
  • What Happens in Vegas, 2008
  • When Girls Ride, 2023
  • Zack and Miri Make a Porno, 2008
  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • American Ninja Warrior, Season 15, New Episode (NBC)
  • Below Deck: Deck Down Under, Season 2, New Episodes (Bravo)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ – China v. England (Spanish)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ – Haiti v. Denmark (Spanish)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ – Portugal v. USA (Spanish)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ – Vietnam v. Netherlands (Spanish)
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 14 (Peacock Original)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Snapped: Killer Couples, Season 17, New Episode (Oxygen)
  • Watch What Happens Live, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • World Para Swimming Championships – Day 2

August 2

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • America’s Got Talent, Season 18, New Episode (NBC)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ – Argentina v. Sweden (Spanish)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ – Jamaica v. Brazil (Spanish)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ – Panama v. France (Spanish)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ – South Africa v. Italy (Spanish)
  • Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge Best Builds, Season 1, New Episode (NBC)
  • Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge, Season 1, New Episode (NBC)
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Watch What Happens Live, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • World Para Swimming Championships – Day 3

August 3

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • The Big D, Season 1, New Episode (USA)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ – Morocco vs. Colombia (Spanish)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ – South Korea vs. Germany (Spanish)
  • Hart to Heart, Season 3, Episodes 9 & 10 (Peacock Original)
  • LA Fire & Rescue, Season 1 New Episode (NBC)
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 15 (Peacock Original)
  • LPGA Tour & Ladies European Tour – Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open – Round 1
  • The Northman, 2022
  • PGA TOUR – Wyndham Championship – Round 1
  • Pro Football Hall of Fame Game – Cleveland Browns vs. New York Jets
  • The Real Housewives of Orange County, Season 17, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • The Super Mario Bros. Movie, 2023
  • Temptation Island, Season 5, New Episode (USA)
  • Watch What Happens Live, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • World Para Swimming Championships – Day 4

August 4

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • IndyCar – Practice 1 – Nashville
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 16 (Peacock Original)
  • LPGA & Ladies European Tour – Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open – Round 2
  • PGA Tour – Wyndham Championship – Round 2
  • Project Runway, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Project Runway: After Show, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • USA Track and Field – Memphis Ed Murphy Classic
  • Watch What Happens Live, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • World Para Swimming Championships – Day 5

August 5

  • Dateline, Season 31, New Episode (NBC)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (Spanish) – Round of 16
  • IMSA Lamborghini Super Trofeo – Road America
  • IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge – Road America
  • IMSA WeatherTech Championship – Road America
  • IndyCar – Practice 2 & Qualifying – Nashville
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 17 (Peacock Original)
  • LPGA Tour & Ladies European Tour – Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open – Round 3
  • NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – Michigan
  • PGA TOUR – Wyndham Championship – Round 3
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • U.S. Classic Gymnastics – Senior
  • World Para Swimming Championships – Day 6
  • WWE SummerSlam

August 6

  • Chasing Gold: Paris, Season 1, New Episode (NBC)
  • Earth Odyssey with Dylan Dreyer, Season 5, New Episode (Litton)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (Spanish) – Round of 16
  • Furry Friends Forever: Elmo Gets a Puppy, 2021
  • IndyCar Race – Nashville
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 18 (Peacock Original)
  • LPGA Tour & Ladies European Tour – Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open – Final Round
  • Making Waves, 2023 (Hallmark)
  • MLB Sunday Leadoff – Chicago White Sox at Cleveland Guardians
  • NASCAR Cup Series – Post Race – Michigan
  • PGA TOUR – Wyndham Championship – Final Round
  • U.S. Classic Gymnastics – Senior
  • World Para Swimming Championships – Day 7

August 7

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • Celebrity Prank Wars, Season 1, New Episodes (E!)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (Spanish) – Round of 16
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 19 (Peacock Original)
  • Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake, Season 1, New Episode (Bravo)
  • The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Season 15, New Episode (Bravo)
  • The Real Housewives of Atlanta: After Show, Season 1, New Episode (Bravo)
  • The Real Housewives of New York City, Season 14, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Watch What Happens Live, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • When Calls the Heart, Season 10, New Episode (Hallmark)

August 8

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • American Ninja Warrior, Season 15, New Episode (NBC)
  • Below Deck: Deck Down Under, Season 2, New Episodes (Bravo)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (Spanish) – Round of 16
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 20 (Peacock Original)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Snapped: Killer Couples, Season 17, New Episode (Oxygen)
  • Watch What Happens Live, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)

August 9

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • America’s Got Talent, Season 18, New Episode (NBC)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge Best Builds, Season 1, New Episode (NBC)
  • Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge, Season 1, New Episode (NBC)
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 21 (Peacock Original)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Temptation Island, Season 5, New Episode (USA)
  • U.S. Women’s Amateur Golf Round of 64
  • Watch What Happens Live, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)

August 10

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • The Big D, Season 1, New Episode (USA)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (Spanish) – Quarterfinal
  • LA Fire & Rescue, Season 1 New Episode (NBC)
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 22 (Peacock Original)
  • PGA TOUR – FedEx St. Jude Championship – Round 1
  • The Real Housewives of Orange County, Season 17, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Temptation Island, Season 5, New Episode (USA)
  • U.S. Women’s Amateur Golf Round of 16
  • Watch What Happens Live, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)

August 11

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (Spanish) – Quarterfinal
  • IndyCar – Practice & Qualifying – Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course
  • Indy NXT Race –Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 23 (Peacock Original)
  • PGA TOUR Champions – Boeing Classic – Round 1
  • PGA TOUR – FedEx St. Jude Championship – Round 2
  • Premier League Match
  • Project Runway, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Project Runway: After Show, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • U.S. Women’s Amateur Golf – Quarterfinals
  • Watch What Happens Live, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)

August 12

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • Big Sky River: The Bridal Path (Hallmark)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (Spanish) – Quarterfinals
  • IndyCar Final Warm-Up & Race – Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 24 (Peacock Original)
  • PGA TOUR Champions – Boeing Classic – Round 2
  • PGA TOUR – FedEx St. Jude Championship – Round 3
  • Premier League Matches
  • Pro Motocross – Unadilla
  • Race Day Live – Unadilla
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • U.S. Women’s Amateur Golf Semifinals

August 13

  • AIG Women’s British Open
  • A Safari Romance, 2023 (Hallmark)
  • Earth Odyssey with Dylan Dreyer, Season 5, New Episode (Litton)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 25 (Peacock Original)
  • MLB Sunday Leadoff – Detroit Tigers at Boston Red Sox
  • NASCAR Cup Series Post Show – Indianapolis
  • PGA TOUR Champions – Boeing Classic – Final Round
  • PGA TOUR – FedEx St. Jude Championship – Final Round
  • Premier League Matches
  • U.S. Women’s Amateur Golf Championship Match

August 14

  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 26 (Peacock Original)
  • Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake, Season 1, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Premier League Match
  • The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Season 15, New Episode (Bravo)
  • The Real Housewives of Atlanta: After Show, Season 1, New Episode (Bravo)
  • The Real Housewives of New York City, Season 14, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Watch What Happens Live, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • When Calls the Heart, Season 10, New Episode (Hallmark)

August 15

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • American Ninja Warrior, Season 15, New Episode (NBC)
  • Below Deck: Deck Down Under, Season 2, New Episodes (Bravo)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (Spanish) – Semifinal
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 27 (Peacock Original)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Snapped: Killer Couples, Season 17, New Episode (Oxygen)

August 16

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • America’s Got Talent, Season 18, New Episode (NBC)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (Spanish) – Semifinal
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • U.S. Amateur Golf – Round of 64

August 17

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • The Big D, Season 1, New Episode (USA)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • DP World Tour & LPGA Tour ISPS Handa World Invitational – Round 1
  • The House, 2017
  • Killing It, Season 2, All 8 Episodes (Peacock Original)
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 28 (Peacock Original)
  • PGA TOUR – BMW Championship – Round 1
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Temptation Island, Season 5, New Episode (USA)
  • U.S. Amateur Golf – Round of 32

August 18

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • Chris Fleming: Hell, 2023 (Peacock Original)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • DP World Tour & LPGA Tour ISPS Handa World Invitational – Round 2
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 29 (Peacock Original)
  • PGA TOUR – BMW Championship – Round 2
  • Premier League Match
  • Project Runway, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Project Runway: After Show, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • U.S. Amateur Golf – Quarterfinals

August 19

  • 2023 World Track & Field Championships – Day 1
  • A Safari Romance, 2023 (Hallmark)
  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • DP World Tour & LPGA Tour ISPS Handa World Invitational – Round 3
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (Spanish) – 3rd Place Match
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 30 (Peacock Original)
  • PGA TOUR – BMW Championship – Round 3
  • PGA TOUR Champions – Shaw Charity Classic – Round 2
  • Premier League Matches
  • Pro Motocross – Budds Creek
  • Race Day Live – Budds Creek
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Stand Up to Cancer (NBC)
  • U.S. Amateur Golf – Semifinals

August 20

  • 2023 World Track & Field Championships – Day 2
  • DP World Tour & LPGA Tour ISPS Handa World Invitational – Final Round
  • FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ (Spanish) – Final
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 31 (Peacock Original)
  • MLB Sunday Leadoff – Seattle Mariners at Houston Astros
  • NASCAR Cup Series Post Show – Watkins Glen
  • Never Too Late to Celebrate, 2023 (Hallmark)
  • PGA TOUR – BMW Championship – Final Round
  • PGA TOUR Champions – Shaw Charity Classic – Final Round
  • Premier League Matches
  • U.S. Amateur Golf – Finals

August 21

  • 2023 World Track & Field Championships – Day 3
  • Black Pop: Celebrating the Power of Black Culture, Season 1, New Episodes (E!)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 32 (Peacock Original)
  • Luann and Sonja: Welcome to Crappie Lake, Season 1, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Premier League Match
  • The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Season 15, New Episode (Bravo)
  • The Real Housewives of Atlanta: After Show, Season 1, New Episode (Bravo)
  • The Real Housewives of New York City, Season 14, New Episode (Bravo)
  • When Calls the Heart, Season 10, New Episode (Hallmark)

August 22

  • 2023 World Track & Field Championships – Day 4
  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • American Ninja Warrior, Season 15, New Episode (NBC)
  • Below Deck: Deck Down Under, Season 2, New Episodes (Bravo)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • LIGA MX Soccer – Chivas vs. Tijuana
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 33 (Peacock Original)
  • The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Season 15, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Snapped, Season 32, New Episode (Oxygen)

August 23

  • 2023 World Track & Field Championships – Day 5
  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • America’s Got Talent, Season 18, New Episode (NBC)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • PGA TOUR – Tour Championship – Charity Event
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)

August 24

  • 2023 World Track & Field Championships – Day 6
  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • America’s Got Talent, Season 18, New Episode (NBC)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • Downton Abbey: A New Era, 2022
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 34 (Peacock Original)
  • LPGA Tour – CP Women’s Open – Round 1
  • PGA TOUR Championship – Round 1
  • The Real Housewives of Orange County, Season 17, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Temptation Island, Season 5, New Episode (USA)
  • U.S. Gymnastics Championships – Men’s Competition

August 25

  • 2023 World Track & Field Championships – Day 7
  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • The Comeback, 1978
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 35 (Peacock Original)
  • LPGA Tour – CP Women’s Open – Round 2
  • PGA TOUR Championship – Round 2
  • Premier League Match
  • Project Runway, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Project Runway: After Show, Season 20, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • U.S. Gymnastics Championships – Women’s Competition

August 26

  • 2023 World Track & Field Championships – Day 8
  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • IMSA – VIR #1 – WeatherTech
  • IndyCar Race – World Wide Technology Raceway
  • Indy NXT Race – World Wide Technology Raceway
  • La Vuelta a Espana Cycling – Stage 1
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Episode 36 (Peacock Original)
  • LPGA Tour – CP Women’s Open – Round 3
  • NASCAR Cup Series Race – Daytona
  • Notre Dame Football v. Navy (Live from Ireland)
  • PGA TOUR Championship – The Ally Challenge – Round 2
  • PGA TOUR Championship – Round 3
  • Premier League Matches
  • Pro Motocross – Ironman
  • Race Day Live – Ironman
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Super Motocross – Race Day Live – Ironman – Round 28
  • U.S. Gymnastics Championships – Men’s Competition

August 27

  • 2023 World Track & Field Championships – Day 9
  • IMSA Lamborghini Super Trofeo – VIR
  • IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge – VIR
  • Korn Ferry Tour – Albertsons Boise Open – Final Round
  • La Vuelta a Espana Cycling – Stage 2
  • Love Island USA, Season 5, Final Episode (Peacock Original)
  • LPGA Tour – CP Women’s Open – Final Round
  • MLB Sunday Leadoff – Los Angeles Angels at New York Mets
  • Napa Ever After, 2023 (Hallmark)
  • PGA TOUR Champions – The Ally Challenge – Final Round
  • PGA TOUR Championship 2023 – Final Round
  • Premier League Matches
  • U.S. Gymnastics Championships – Women’s Competition

August 28

  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • La Vuelta a Espana Cycling – Stage 3
  • The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Season 15, New Episode (Bravo)
  • The Real Housewives of Atlanta: After Show, Season 1, New Episode (Bravo)
  • The Real Housewives of New York City, Season 14, New Episode (Bravo)
  • When Calls the Heart, Season 10, New Episode (Hallmark)

August 29

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • American Ninja Warrior, Season 15, New Episode (NBC)
  • Below Deck: Deck Down Under, Season 2, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • La Vuelta a Espana Cycling – Stage 4
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Real Murders of Orange County, Season 3, New Episode (Oxygen)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Snapped, Season 32, New Episode (Oxygen)

August 30

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • America’s Got Talent, Season 18, New Episode (NBC)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • La Vuelta a Espana Cycling – Stage 5
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)

August 31

  • Access Hollywood, Season 27, New Episode (NBC)
  • America’s Got Talent, Season 18, New Episode (NBC)
  • Days of Our Lives, Season 58, New Episode (Peacock Exclusive)
  • Diamond League Track & Field – Zurich
  • LPGA Tour – Amazing Portland Classic – Round 1
  • La Vuelta a Espana Cycling – Stage 6
  • Los 50, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)
  • The Real Housewives of Orange County, Season 17, New Episode (Bravo)
  • Secretos de Sangre, Season 1, New Episode (Telemundo)

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors.
GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

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Festivals

It’s not as if New Orleans necessarily needs to gift the world any more culture than it already has. But the birthplace of jazz music, Gullah cuisine and writers ranging from Anne Rice to John Kennedy Toole is quickly becoming—in addition to its many other virtues—something of an indie film hotspot. From platforming local creators to providing a can’t-miss stop along the international auteur circuit, NOLA’s film festival scene is in the middle of an epic flex.

Chief among these, the city’s namesake New Orleans Film Festival has been bringing the best independent cinema to the ochre shores of the Mississippi River since 1989. This week, Film Independent’s Festival Visions series—our ongoing spotlight of the best programming picks from regional and specialty festivals nationwide—continues, with an online showing of the LGBTQIA+ short documentary House of Tulip, screening online and for free, July 27-28.

Visit our events page for more details and find our Festival Visions Q&A playlist on YouTube.

To learn a little bit more about the NOFF and its place in the cultural tapestry of the Big Easy, we spoke to New Orleans Film Society Artistic Director Clint Bowie. The 2023 New Orleans Film Festival will happen later this year, November 2-12.

 

NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL

Please tell us a little bit about the city of New Orleans and what the local film scene is like.

Bowie: The area, located on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Houma, Choctaw and Chitimacha people, is home to a truly vibrant and diverse independent film culture. This community shows up in a big way at the festival, welcoming guests from out of town and cheering on their fellow artists showing new work. There’s really no other city like New Orleans, and the film community here matches that unique and exceptional quality, from Oscar nominees like Lauren Domino and Josh Penn, to rising auteurs like Zandashé Brown and Nicholas Manuel Pino. It’s a city ripe with talent, and it’s heartening to see how supportive the community is.

When did the New Orleans Film Festival begin? Who started it and when?

Bowie: New Orleans Film Festival was started in 1989 by a group of film enthusiasts looking to bring more independent films to the region. Since that time, the festival has grown into a year-round entity that not only mounts NOFF annually, but also invests in regional storytellers through a suite of development programs and grants with an emphasis on serving those who have been historically denied access to arts funding.

Does your festival have a specific focus or specialty?

Bowie: Over half of our lineup is dedicated to platforming stories from artists based in the region we’re in, the American South. We feel it’s important to support stories about the region that are being made by makers from the region. Artists often reveal what the media doesn’t: resilient communities that embrace progressive ideals, value cultural strengths, communities connecting across differences, fighting for social justice and espousing an increasingly intersectional view of what it means to be Southern. That’s important to us, and we want to ensure that these authentic stories are given the appropriate context to be experienced.

A scene from the 2019 New Orleans Film Festival (source: New Orleans Film Society)

Talk about your programming philosophy. Are there any past films you’re especially proud to have showcased?

Bowie: We program with values at the fore of our process—that extends to who is involved in that process. Our programming team comprises 16 programmers and four programming fellows, and we approach the selection process as a collective, with small groups tackling individual categories alongside volunteer screeners, who provide additional feedback to the process. No single voice is louder or more powerful than anyone else’s. A few years back, we codified a list of priorities and values to serve as a programming roadmap for where to turn when we get lost, and this document is publicly available on our website for all potential submitters to read before deciding to share their work. Every year, the lineup represents a journey we’ve all been on together—I’m so deeply proud of the way my fellow programmers approach the work and bring so much of themselves into the process. That, to me, is why I’ve continued to do this for 15 years.

What has been your favorite festival memory at New Orleans or any other film festival?

Bowie: So many… I am constantly reminded of the power of watching Garrett Bradley’s film TIME premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020; it was definitely one of the most moving filmgoing experiences I’ve ever had. I had a similar reaction to viewing the film Blackbird at the Crossroads Film Festival in Jackson, Mississippi, back in 2015, in a room full of people who were connected in some way to the film, shot in nearby Hattiesburg. There was such pride in the room, it moved me to tears. But outside of crying in darkened theaters, I’ve also been fortunate to forge some lasting relationships while at film festivals with people I’ve met in line to screenings, over drinks at receptions and in shuttles to and from film events. I have festivals to thank for so many friendships that I hold dear.

Advice for filmmakers to make the most of their festival experience.

Bowie: Talking to strangers is never easy, but it’s how to get the most out of a film festival. Whether it’s introducing yourself to a fellow filmmaker, staying after a panel to meet the speakers, or starting a conversation with someone in the filmmaker lounge, film festivals offer lots of opportunities to build your community and expand your film’s audience. But if often requires that first proactive introduction to someone you don’t already know.

What is the attendee experience like?

Bowie: We try to make NOFF a very warm and nurturing space—for artists to be themselves and for audiences to experience cinema in deep, meaningful ways. It’s a place where we hope all filmgoers can see themselves and their stories represented on screen in a nuanced way, where community is built, and where connections and memories are made.

Film Independent promotes unique independent voices, providing a wide variety of resources to help filmmakers create and advance new work. Learn more online and become a Member of Film Independent today.

Keep up with Film Independent…

(Header photo sourced from The Arts District of New Orleans)

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Film

Geoff Rickly is an artist who is constantly expressing himself. He rose to fame in his early 20s as the singer of post-hardcore band Thursday, and his energetic stage presence brought the quintet a wave of buzz as both intellectual rockers and an essential live act. Although Thursday broke up in 2011 after a string of critically-acclaimed records, Rickly has taken up vocal and songwriting duties in groups like No Devotion and United Nations — and even reunited Thursday a couple of times, including a recent run opening for My Chemical Romance’s arena tour and playing standalone shows and festival dates.

But Rickly’s newest project is a novel with plenty of grounding in the real world. “Someone Who Isn’t Me,” out today from Rose Books, is an autofiction dive into his struggles with heroin and treatment, and his deconstruction of self along the way. Rickly spoke with Variety about why this was a story he had to tell, the recent popularity of the emo scene, and the future of Thursday.

Your prose feels like a natural extension of your lyrics. How did you land on this style of writing for “Someone Who Isn’t Me”?

I had a friend who said, “The way you’re writing is, in a way, quite out of fashion with the modern literary movement,” which is very restrained and has a sort of quiet precision — the Rachel Cusk school of writing. And I love all that stuff. But he said, “I understand why you had to write this book in this style if you’re going to have a character of Geoff from Thursday: There’s got to be some sort of a dialogue with the lyricism.” I tried to do that through whether or not he was high. If he’s high, the character of Geoff is in the lyrical mode. When he’s in withdrawal, he pulled it back.

What made you want to tell this story through a novel?

Novels are the art form that I lose myself in the most. Pretty much from the time I started touring, it became novels, novels, novels as the way I passed time on tour. So I always wanted to take a stab at it, but I just never thought I had a story that felt interesting enough to be an entire book. At first, I thought maybe there could be a new Thursday album to come out of it. I have never been a fan of memoirs, but the more I wrote about it, I thought, “It’s going to be too obvious in the way that I’m writing about it,” so I thought, OK, I’m just going to make it really uncomfortable, make the character named Geoff.

What made you want to be so open and honest about your struggles?

I have an interesting relationship with vulnerability. I think people would say the best art that I’ve made is from some of the most vulnerable aspects of my life. There are things about my viewpoint on the world that were so raw and naked on display, talking about things that were so uncomfortable, and they just resonated in a way that I thought, “OK, it’s time to put everything into it.” With fiction, I could say, “Well, it’s not really me, it’s a character of me,” and nobody knows how true or not true this is. So many things I wrote and said, “That’s too much, I went too far — I’ll take it out later.” I just went back to it in the end and thought in for a penny, in for a pound.

There’s been a resurgence in the emo music scene, with the When We Were Young festival making headlines and groups like Paramore and My Chemical Romance going on arena tours. As the leader of a band who made an impact on that scene, why do you think it’s having such a pop culture moment?

I’ve read a lot of cultural commentary about how culture is stuck and instead of doing new forms, we’re repeating franchises, like blockbusters, right now. I think some people would see our wave as one of the very last waves that happened. So it’s sort of fresh and people like that it’s the newest thing that we’ve got, even though it’s 20 years old now. A lot of this music is still very vital and it feels like it it never fully cracked the mainstream the first time, but it became incredibly influential for rappers and pop artists.

Even the two biggest bands that broke through, My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, they weren’t that big at the time. The very last My Chemical Romance tour, we went on it with them and it was playing places that Thursday had headlined when we were at our biggest. So it had to get digested by culture, where Taylor Swift is writing stuff that’s almost like emo, and Paramore has become part of the pop mainstream. It took a little time for it to bubble, and now I think that’s part of why it’s come back so big. The mainstream never really got a taste of it the first time.

Is there potential for Thursday to record new music together?

Thursday may have more music to come, but do we have full albums? I’m not going to push myself to write a Thursday album at this point in my life because I don’t want to fake it. I have a great catalog of work with this band that I love. I’d rather have anything that we add from here on is a true entry into that catalog, rather than an older guy pretending he’s still got the same amount of vulnerable pain and heartbreak that he did when he was a kid.

I’m always open to inspiration. If something great comes along, we’ll put it out. And if it doesn’t, we won’t, and I’m at peace with either of those things. That being said, I do want to get into more of a habit of writing with Thursday, just as an artistic practice that we can all enjoy because we stayed together for 26 years. We should let ourselves write and not judge the results, not discontinue the practice.

Beyond Thursday, what new projects are you hoping to focus on next — No Devotion? United Nations? Another book?

No Devotion is the one thing I know we’ll keep making because we just love it so much. I’m not holding out hope that someday people will discover it and be like, “Holy shit, how do we sleep on this band?” But it doesn’t matter — I love this band, so that’ll definitely keep going. United Nations, I’ve been starting to think like we should bring that back. I really enjoyed that band — it’s so carefree and fun.

I will keep writing, but I don’t know when another book will come because it took me five years to write this one. Five years, five hours a day, five days a week — something like six or seven thousand hours of writing. It’s an unbelievable amount of work, so I might take a year off from writing, just because I really feel called to make more music right now.

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Geoff Rickly is an artist who is

TV

The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The ride is set in a large, creaky mansion that is rumored to be haunted by the ghosts of its former residents. Riders are led through a series of rooms, each of which is decorated with creepy props and features a different ghostly encounter. Some of the most famous scenes in the ride include the Ballroom, where a group of ghosts are dancing, the Conservatory, where a casket floats in mid-air, and Madame Leota’s Séance Room, where a disembodied head floats in a crystal ball. Someone at Disney decided this was enough substance to turn this into a feature film. Not sure why.

Disney’s Haunted Mansion film, helmed by Justin Simien and penned by Katie Dippold, is a horror-comedy ride based on the famous Disneyland attraction. However, the ride this film takes you on is less of an enchanting journey and more of a haphazard tour through a dilapidated amusement park. The movie stars Lakeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny Devito, and Chase Dillion. 

Haunted Mansion begins with Ben Matthais (Stanfield) at a party where he meets his future wife Alyssa (Charity Jordan). He’s an astrophysicist and she gives ghost tours throughout New Orleans. Years later, he’s slumped over drunk at a bar, seemingly given up his science career to run the ghost tours himself as Alyssa isn’t around anymore to do them.  On the other side of town, Gabbie (Dawson) and her son Travis (Dillion) arrive at an old mansion ready to move in. Her son feels something ominous in the air, while Gabbie walks through the house as if the cobwebs, broken floors, and scary paintings with moving eyes aren’t a problem. However, the pair discover the place is haunted when a suit of armor follows them around the house. This incident sends them running for the hills. 

Father Kent (Wilson) arrives at Ben’s home to ask for help on behalf of mother and son. It seems Ben created a special camera that sees spectral energy and they need it to help prove the presence of paranormal activity in her home so she can be rid of it. After being paid, the former scientist meets the duo at the home and of course thinks they are crazy. After finding nothing suspicious, he returns to his home where he witnesses the apparition of a Mariner who won’t leave him alone no matter where he goes. Now he has to return to the mansion where Gabbie, Travis, Father Kent, local Medium Harriet (Haddish), and historian Bruce Davis (Devito) are also forced to stay. The group must put their heads together and figure out what’s causing this ghostly infestation before they are trapped in there forever. 

RELATED: ‘Haunted Mansion’ Trailer Gathers The Gang In The House That Comes Alive After Midnight

Haunted Mansion starts with promise, offering laughs and clever quips that promise a light-hearted romp through a spooky narrative. It tries to be existential as the story touches upon the theme of grief and the lingering effects it can have on individuals. However, this thematic exploration isn’t a priority in the script which leads to a missed opportunity for emotional depth. The initial charm from the start of the film is replaced by a conventional and predictable storyline that feels hurried, thus creating a narrative jumble that seems thrown together rather than carefully constructed.

Credit should be given to Darren Gilford’s production design as it is a faithful replica of the iconic ride. Gilford’s designs are aided by the generous use of practical effects, which do conjure up a spectral atmosphere similar to what visitors would see during the Haunted Mansion tour. Although not always seamless, the special effects also offer a nostalgic homage to the original ride that can be a fun experience for audiences familiar with the theme park’s version.

Lakeith Stanfield, renowned for his dramatic roles, is an odd choice for the lead in this family-oriented film. He’s acting like he’s in The Shawshank Redemption rather than a Disney comedy. He doesn’t even pretend to be enjoying himself here, while in contrast, Rosario Dawson and Chase Dillion deliver performances that strike the right chord for the film’s tone. Their chemistry is genuine and their relaxed approach brings a playful air to the narrative.

Also, the choices of wigs are bizarre and off-putting. Despite Dawson and Stanfield having perfectly fine hair, they are saddled with synthetic wigs that gave me more of a laugh than any of the comedic one-liners throughout the film. Bad hair is a distraction instead of an enhancement and audiences are beginning to notice these details. Good hair and wigs matters!

Disney’s Haunted Mansion is a fair enough choice for a family night in, experienced from the comfort of your couch, where the flaws are less glaring and the price of admission for Disney+ is cheaper. It has its moments, especially if you are a fan of the original Disneyland ride. However, the $15.99 ticket price for a movie theater experience in New York City feels steep for a movie that struggles to consistently deliver the laughter and chills one would expect.

Title: Haunted Mansion
Distributor: Disney
Release date: July 28, 2023
Director: Justin Simien
Screenwriter: Kate Dippold
Cast: Lakeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny Devito, and Chase Dillion
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 2 hr 5 min

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The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride

What to Watch

Virgin_River_n_S5_E1_00_06_33_21R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E1_00_31_07_17R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E2_00_12_00_18R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E4_00_29_05_18R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E4_00_37_24_01R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E5_00_21_50_02R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E5_00_23_18_07R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E5_00_37_58_07R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E7_00_23_41_18R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E9_00_28_52_07R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E7_00_38_58_18R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E7_00_34_47_06R.th.jpg Virgin_River_n_S5_E7_00_25_53_05R.th.jpg

Season Five of Virgin River features surprising new relationships, a shocking break-up, a difficult court trial, a heartbreaking goodbye, and a wildfire that threatens the town, bringing some people of Virgin River together while tearing others apart. Issues of motherhood push Mel to make a big decision about her future at the clinic while her pregnancy unexpectedly sparks an emotional connection to her past. To further prove himself to Mel, Jack squares off with some long-overdue confrontations–with his own demons, and of course, Charmaine. And as Doc and Hope’s respective impairments throw their identities into question, the doctor and the mayor must find solace in their community, in their young new family, and in each other

Developed by Sue Tenney based on the books by Robyn Carr, Virgin River centers on a nurse practitioner (Breckenridge), who moves to the remote California town of Virgin River and finds that life there isn’t as simple as she expected.

Series regular cast also includes Tim Matheson, Annette O’Toole, Colin Lawrence, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Zibby Allen, Sarah Dugdale, Marco Grazzini, Mark Ghanimé, Kai Bradbury and Kandyse McClure.

Additional cast includes Lauren Hammersley, Teryl Rothery, Nicola Cavendish, Gwynyth Walsh, Christina Jastrzembska, Stacey Farber, Jenny Cooper, Lucia Walters, Steve Bacic, Libby Osler, Keith MacKechnie, Barbara Pollard, Trevor Lerner, Ellie Harvie, Darcy Laurie, Sandy Robson, Lexa Doig, Chase Petriw, Emma Oliver, Michelle Addison, Miranda Edwards and Gabrielle Jacinto.

Netflix Sept. 7

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Awards

Snap, still wrestling with softer ad sales amid stiff competition in the digital advertising sector, saw its top line drop 4% in the second quarter of 2023 — and while it managed to beat Wall Street earnings estimates, the Snapchat owner’s stock fell on a weaker-than-expected Q3 outlook.

For Q2, the company reported revenue of $1.07 billion and a net loss of $377 million million, or an adjusted loss of 2 cents per share. It was the second quarter in a row of revenue decline, after Snap sales were off 7% in Q1. For the most recent quarter, Wall Street was expecting the social media and messaging app company to post revenue of $946.7 million and an adjusted net loss of 4 cents per share.

At the same time, Snapchat’s user base continues to grow: In Q2, the app added 14 million daily active users on average in the quarter to hit 397 million (up from 383 million DAUs in Q1 and an increase of 14% year over year).

In discussing its Q3 guidance, Snap said, “From a revenue perspective, our business remains in a period of rapid transition as we work to improve our advertising platform, while forward visibility of advertising demand remains limited.” The company estimated third-quarter revenue will be flat to down by 5%, and that adjusted earnings will be between negative $50 million and negative $100 million. That reflects “estimated infrastructure costs” per daily active user of $0.79 to $0.84 in Q3, as Snap said it is investing in machine learning, AI and other infrastructure “to improve the performance of our ad platform, drive deeper content engagement and bring innovative product experiences to our community.”

On the poor Q3 outlook, Snap shares were down more than 17% in after-hours trading.

Amid the ad-sales struggles, Snap has tried to diversify revenue through Snapchat+, the $3.99/month subscription service that provides exclusive early-access features. In late June, the company said it had topped 4 million paid subscribers one year after launch, equating to an annualized run rate of about $192 million.

“We are excited by the progress we have made delivering increased return on investment for our advertising partners, growing our community to 397 million daily active users, and reaching more than 4 million Snapchat+ subscribers,” CEO Evan Spiegel said in announcing the Q2 results.

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Snap, still wrestling with softer ad sales

Music

Theatre fans! You only have a few more chances to see Kander and Ebb’s New York, New York  before it leaves the Broadway stage. The musical is is set to close at the St. James Theatre on Sunday, July 30. New York, New York hit the Broadway stage for previews on Mar 24, 2023 and officially opened on Apr 26. The news of the show closing signals an abbreviated end to the 1940s set musical. Deadline announced the news of its impending arrival in August 2022.

The show is based on the 1977 Martin Scorcese film of the same name which starred Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli. Although the characters from the movie don’t make the transfer into the Broadway adaptation, four Kander and Ebb songs were used in Scorsese’s film including the show’s titular track.

The Broadway cast features the talents of Colton Ryan as Jimmy Doyle, Anna Uzele as Francine Evans, Clyde Alves as Tommy Caggiano, John Clay III as Jesse Webb, Janet Dacal as Sofia Diaz, Ben Davis as Gordon Kendrick, Oliver Prose as Alex Mann, Angel Sigala as Mateo Diaz, and Emily Skinner as Madame Veltri. Producers include Sonia Friedman (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Ferryman) and Tom Kirdahy (Inheritance).

New York, New York scored nine nominations at this year’s 76th Tony Awards including by not limited to Ryan for ‘Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical’ and Susan Stroman for ‘Best Choreography’, but the flashy musical only brought home one award which was given to Beowulf Boritt for ‘Best Scenic Design in a Musical.’

The news of its closing follows the previously-made announcement of a  strike that was about to be called into effect by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) against The Broadway League and Disney Theatrical. According to Playbill, the strike has since been averted after the parties came to a temporary agreement.

Are you planning on seeing New York, New York on Broadway before it closes? Keep up to date with Hidden Remote for more theatre-related news and coverage. 

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Theatre fans! You only have a

Docs

Nina Romain looks at the upsides and downsides of being trapped in time

With this famous oneliner, Bill Murray’s character Phil Connors nervously introduces the start of arguably the most well known time loop. Currently running till August in the Old Vic as a musical, Groundhog Day proves there’s still an audience happy to see more of the 1993 take on what it would be like being imprisoned in the same day.

Everyone has their favourite time loop film, whether it’s rom-com fantasy classic Groundhog Day, or science fiction themed Edge of Tomorrow (2014) which sees Tom Cruise’s soldier trapped in time surrounded by aliens – and also features a heroine called Rita.

So what would you do if you were trapped in a timeloop? Embrace the craziness, by eating unlimited amounts of cake as Phil does (cheerfully boasting “I don’t even floss”), driving recklessly on train tracks, and sleeping with anyone possible? 

Or would you fight aliens on a daily basis, as Cruise does, to save the day? Or would you work on becoming a better person as Phil eventually does, learning new skills to become a musical genius and talented ice carver? What’s the attraction in these movies – the chance to be king for a day (literally) or to know better than the characters what’s happening?

Timeloop films can also come with serious social themes. One example is 2020’s short Two Distant Strangers where a young man, Carter James, tries to get home to his dog Jeter, but each time he does, he is attacked by a racist police officer and dies. Despite this he keeps trying and discovers that the officer is also aware they are both trapped in a time loop, with the corrupt cop saying creepily: “See you tomorrow, kid” as he reaches for his gun again. Undeterred, James’ final determined line: “Gotta get home to my dog” is both inspiring and desperately sad. 

Unsurprisingly, Twilight Zone looked at this plotline in the 50s, first in Rod Serling’s “Judgement Night,” in 1959. This storyline follows a man trapped on the doomed ship Queen of Glasgow, which sinks each night at the same time with all passengers. Writer Richard Matheson later used the same theme in 1963’s “Death Ship”, a modern day take on the Flying Dutchman ship myth. This episode was set in the “darkest nightmare reaches” of deep space (and was to take place, entertainingly, in the far-off future of 1997).

Run Lola Run (1998) is set around the heroine Lola attempting to save her boyfriend’s life by obtaining a large sum of money, with three different timelines as she races through Berlin. Another female hero, Tree, in timeloop-slasher Happy Death Day (2017) is trapped in a cycle of having to solve her own murder. Billed as Groundhog Day meets Scream, with a comedic action edge, Tree has to work out who is stalking her in a campus filled with killers wearing babyface masks. 

Well, on the other side of the screen, maybe life is too short to worry about such philosophical time loop conundrums; so maybe you can just enjoy your favourite time loop flick, while, like Phil Connors, refusing to floss. Again.

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Nina Romain looks at the upsides and

Global

Unseasonably stormy weather moved eastwards across northern Italy as intense rain and 100km/h (62mph) winds battered the region.

In some places, tennis ball-sized hailstones injured people, damaged cars and uprooted trees.

A 16-year-old girl was killed when a tree fell on the tent she was sleeping in at a summer camp near the city of Brescia, while a middle-aged woman died after also being hit by a falling tree in Lissone, north of Milan.

The mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, said: “I have never seen anything like this… We can’t deny it any longer – climate change is changing our lives.”

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Unseasonably stormy weather moved eastwards across northern

Tech

WrapPRO is free this week. See the inside scoops, expert analysis and exclusive data subscribers get daily. Click here for more information.

“Bridgerton” spin-off series “Queen Charlotte” has entered Netflix’s all-time most popular shows list.

Debuting on the streamer’s most popular English series list at No. 10, the romantic drama has logged 80.3 million views to date. With “Wednesday” Season 1 still sitting atop the list, the first and second installments of “Bridgerton” remain on the list in the fourth and eighth spots, respectively. “Queen Charlotte” follows “The Witcher” Season 1, which holds down the ninth spot on the list.

In terms of this week’s viewing, “Sweet Magnolias” Season 3 and the second installment of “The Lincoln Lawyer” locked down the top spots on the English TV list, in the first and second spots, respectively, with a tie for a viewership of 4.6 million. The first season of “The Lincoln Lawyer” also appeared on the ninth spot on the list with 2.1 million views. “The Witcher” Season 3 returned to the list at No. 3 with 4.2 million views, while “Too Hot to Handle” Season 5 came next in fourth place with 4.1 million views.


On the movie side, “The Out-Laws” held down the No. 1 spot on the English films list with 12.1 million views, while documentary “Unknown: Cave of Bones” came in second place with 6.5 million viewers. John Boyega and Jamie Foxx-led “They Cloned Tyrone” debuted to the third spot on the list with 6.3 million views and animated flick “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” came in forth place in terms of this week’s viewership. 

“Bird Box Barcelona” also made a splash as this week’s most-viewed title with with 19 million views. The thriller adaptation remained atop the Non-English films list for the second week in a row, ahead of Turkish film “Love Tactics 2,” which took the No. 2 spot with 5.2 million views. Other new additions to the list include Mexican film “The (Almost) Legends,” which debuted to the fourth spot on the list with 2.8 million views, as well as French drama “Gold Brick,” which took fifth place with 2.7 million views.

In terms of Non-English TV, K-drama “King the Land”nabbed the top spot on the list with 4.7 millions views, ahead of Japanese series “Burn the House Down,” which took second place with 3.5 million views, and Indian thriller “Kohrra,” which debuted in the third spot on the list with 2.4 million views.


Jennifer Lopez in "The Mother"

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Love is in the air!

Season 2 of Netflix’s Heartstopper is right around the corner, and the streamer released a trailer on Tuesday to hold fans over until the August 3 release date.

In the trailer, Nick (Kit Connor) is ready to tell the world he finally has a boyfriend, but he’s nervous about finding the right time to come out. Charlie (Joe Locke) isn’t in any rush, telling Nick that he should come out when and how he wants to.

Meanwhile, Tao (William Gao) and Elle (Yasmin Finney) are trying to work out if they can ever be more than just friends. Tara (Corinna Brown) and Darcy (Kizzy Edgell) are also facing challenges of their own.

With exams on the horizon, a school trip to Paris and a prom to plan, the gang has a lot to juggle as they journey through the next stages of life, love and friendship.

Watch the full trailer above.

Produced out of the UK, the show’s Season 1 was a runaway success for Netflix and has already been commissioned for two more seasons. The coming-of-age romantic comedy drama follows Charlie and Nick, who meet at secondary school and quickly discover that their unlikely friendship is blossoming into an unexpected romance.

In addition to the teen cast, Stephen Fry and Olivia Colman are also returning for Season 2. Creator Alice Oseman returns for Seasons 2 and 3 and See-Saw Films is producer.

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Love is in the air! Season 2 of

Entertaintment

“Jeopardy!’s” Tournament of Champions has a bigger problem on its hands than trivia this year.

Starting with a Reddit post made on Friday by 13-time “Jeopardy!” winner Ray Lalonde, several prominent contestants have pledged not to return to the series to compete in the Tournament of Champions in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America, as the series employs WGA members.

Lalonde, an IATSE member who works in scenic design, wrote that that there were “credible reports that the producers are making contingency plans to start filming the next season of the show with old and/or recycled material if the WGA strike remains unresolved.” Lalonde then went on to praise “Jeopardy!” writers for their work and their current efforts to secure a new deal with the studios, before making a promise to support them.

“As a supporter of the trade union movement, a union member’s son and a proud union member myself I have informed the show’s producers that if the strike remains unresolved I will not cross a picket line to play in the tournament of champions,” he said.

“My hope in saying this publicly now is to perhaps influence some future decision to proceed without the writers and to encourage any others in the community who feel the same way to speak out as well,” he said at the end of his post. “A few small voices may not change any minds but we can try.”

At least part of his hopes were answered, as some of his fellow “Jeopardy!” contestants joined him in expressing their support of the WGA and promising not to cross picket lines. “Ray, thank you for taking this stand. If you are out, I am out,” wrote Ben Chan in the Reddit thread, while Hannah Wilson said, “I’ll stand with you, Ray! A TOC with all recycled clues doesn’t sound like much fun to play in, anyway.”

“The writers make the clues; the clues make the show. The clues in the Tournament of Champions have typically been some of the best of the best clues the show has had to offer,” added Luigi de Guzman. “Ray: Thank you for being so thoughtful and honest. I wasn’t sure whether of if I should say anything. I am grateful that you were brave enough to stand first.”

Troy Meyer, Suresh Krishnan and Cris Pannullo also seconded Lalonde’s sentiments on Reddit, and Dan Wohl made a proposition for a tournament of their own: “If the strike does end up torpedoing the postseason (including the Champions Wild Card which I was ecstatic to qualify for but will certainly never cross the picket line for), maybe we can organize some kind of alternative online trivia contest/event with as many Season 39 champs as possible and somehow make it a fundraiser for the WGA.”

Another player who was meant to appear in the Tournament of Champions is Ike Barinholtz, the actor and writer who recently won “Celebrity Jeopardy!,” though his involvement in both unions prevents his participation.

Sony Pictures Television, which produced “Jeopardy!,” did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.

(Pictured above: Ike Barinholtz)

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“Jeopardy!’s” Tournament of Champions has a bigger

Movies

Biopics are an endless genre in Hollywood. It seems just about every week there’s a new, usually inspiring film released that’s about a real person…or inspired by a real person. Everyone from scientists to athletes to singers to, honestly, notable figures in any profession can be fodder for a film.

Over the weekend, a new biopic premiered: Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy as physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. But there was a bigger film that was also released this weekend: Barbie, starring Margot Robbie. It beat Oppenheimer at the box office.

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MCU



Nick Fury just saved the President’s life, but it happened only after the spymaster learned that his friend James Rhodes, was a Skrull.

So, yeah, that’s a fair demonstration of how his Secret Invasion is going.

Will Fury’s cold streak continue? Let’s talk about Secret Invasion Episode 1-5, which won’t take long because I HATED it!

Did I Miss an Episode?

Gravik the Super Skrull uses plastic bags as weapons. Weird, right?

Image: Marvel

We start this episode with a Skrull rebellion – no, not that one.

All Gravik’s loyal soldiers are in open revolt over what just happened.

Specifically, the entire world just learned that shapeshifting aliens walk among us. Also, the President lived.

The President always looks confused on Secret Invasion

Image: Marvel

The sole purpose of the assault on the President’s caravan was the assassination. It failed.

The formerly loyal Skrulls are happy because their former leader, Talos, died in place of the President.

For his part, Gravik is livid that the President survived and blames his troops.

Just before you die, I want you to know I never liked you.

Image: Marvel

One of his confidantes blames him for assigning Varra to betray Fury, which anyone competent would have known she would never do.

Also, Gravik failed to kill Fury during the encounter. In short, he didn’t demonstrate great leadership in the previous episode.

Do you know what’ll fix that? Violence.

War Machine has sharp teeth.

Image: Marvel

Yes, Gravik kills his top ally in plain sight of other Skrulls…and it won’t be the only time in the episode.

Gravik has just turned into a remorseless killing machine now, which makes him wholly uninteresting as a character.

Also, we already watched something similar with Karli in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Anyway, for whatever reason, Gravik blames Varra for his self-owns. He instructs his minions to kill her…but not before telling them they don’t matter.

Gravik would do well as a Wall Street CEO.

Still, throughout this entire segment, I’m confused more than anything.

G'iah welcomes a new Skrull

Image: Marvel

We hadn’t witnessed a single sign of discontent on New Skrullos. Now, the entire compound has lost faith in Gravik.

I haven’t seen a fanbase quit on somebody this quickly since Mark Sanchez butt-fumbled.

Change of Plans

Gravik isn't very nice

Image: Marvel

Apparently, the Skrull masquerading as James Rhodes didn’t hear about the rebellion. She is still quite loyal to Gravik.

Otherwise, she’d rightfully hang up on his phone call and block his number.

I say this because Gravik calls with impossible instructions about how to proceed.

War Machine advises the President

Image: Marvel

Gravik wants the Skrull to save the President less than an hour after requesting his assassination.

Also, the new instructions call for fake Rhodes to reveal the location of New Skrullos and that it’s allied with the Russians.

This strategy will lead to an attack on New Skrullos, which is what Gravik wants. That dude takes a peasant revolt hard.

Nick Fury is sad

Image: Marvel

Once the Skrull reaches the hospital, Nick Fury is there waiting and points a gun at him.

Before that, Fury warned the semi-conscious President not to trust Rhodes. Did the President hear him? Who knows. It’s that kind of episode.

We do learn that fake Rhodes has leaked the video of fake Fury (aka Gravik) murdering Maria Hill.

That probably hurt

Image: Marvel

I’m cracking up at the thought of how a newsroom would handle this information.

First, a shapeshifting alien and Nick Fury save the President. An hour later, they receive a video of Fury killing a famous ally of The Avengers.

Nick Fury is sad

Image: Marvel

Wouldn’t one of the people idly wonder if maybe shapeshifting was involved with the latter event? I guess we’re not supposed to think about that.

Fury is officially wanted by the law…and I mean pretty much every law force on the planet.

He Was a Skrull?

Sonya Falsworth prepares to interrogate a Skrull

Image: Marvel

We cut to Tony Curran as…somebody. Technically, he appeared in a grainy video in the first episode, but this is…weird.

We’re talking about one of the best actors in the world…absolutely wasted in Secret Invasion.

I say this because Sonya Falsworth shows up at his office, shoots him in the knee, and then kills him.

Sonya Falsworth is smug

Image: Marvel

These actions carry virtually zero emotional resonance because we don’t even know the character. He’s Falsworth’s boss, which we learn through context.

I dunno. Somebody might have said it during the first episode or earlier in the episode as well, but it’s lazy.

Anyway, the character we don’t know is a Skrull, and Falsworth kills him, thereby becoming the official Nick Fury of Great Britain. Congrats?

Sonya Fallsworth holds a gun weird on Secret Invasion

Image: Marvel

Back at the Skrull compound, the revolt finds newfound momentum. Remember the Skrull who showed up at the gate in the first episode?

Yeah, he decides that Gravik is “nothing but a monster” and attempts to kill the villain. Other Skrulls help, and, well, they’re all dead now.

If you’re a Skrull and survived this episode, consider yourself one of the lucky ones.

Khaleesi really needs a nap on Secret Invasion.

Image: Marvel

Speaking of which, G’iah meets with Nick Fury in a quick scene to remind us that she’s not her father.

Fury informs her that he’s leaving for Finland, which happens to be where the tomb of the unknown S.H.I.E.L.D agent is.

For her part, G’iah chooses violence and heads to Varra’s house. Don’t worry, they’re a team now.

Please stop telling me marriage stuff about Nick Fury!

Image: Marvel

Oddly, they reintroduce themselves, which makes no sense since we learned in the series premiere that Varra helped the children, including G’iah.

Maybe Skrulls cannot tell anything about one another when they’re in non-Skrull form?

Anyway, the ladies get into a gunfight, which they win. Congrats!

Setting the Table for a Big Finish

Sonya Falsworth tortures evil Skrull scientists

Image: Marvel

Elsewhere, Sonya Falsworth is off having her own grand adventure.

She has finally tracked down the husband/wife Skrull science team and proceeds to torture them both.

The male half suddenly pulls a gun on his wife in a desperation move. He then threatens to kill her, which causes Sonya to shoot him in the face.

Talos has had a bit of a day on Secret Invasion.

Image: Marvel

Seriously, episode five is When the Skrulls All Die.

In Finland, Nick Fury disguises his face using S.H.I.E.L.D. tech and sneaks into the country.

There, he meets Sonya and leads her to a weapon cache. Fury is ready for the final battle.

Lord Palmerston! Pitt the Elder!

Image: Marvel

So, he throws on his eye patch and girds for battle.

None of it makes a lick of sense, nor is it entertaining. This was a shockingly bad episode and quite possibly the worst Marvel episode on television to date.

Nick Fury saves the President's life on Secret Invasion

Image: Marvel

I had enjoyed the first four episodes well enough, but the story collapsed this week. Hopefully, Marvel saves it next week. I have concerns, though.

This episode’s weaknesses are so glaring that I cannot help but think the behind-the-scenes turmoil at Marvel played a significant factor.

Nick Fury and the Flowing Trenchcoat

Image: Marvel

The storyline was haphazard, the action scenes felt forced, the editing was brutal, and at least three characters died without being fully fleshed out.

Secret Invasion needed to include several more episodes, and at a staggering price of $212 million, that should have been possible.

This episode likely hides a more engaging story about everything that went wrong during its filming.

 

 

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DCU

Summary

  • James Gunn’s DC Universe is committed to avoiding the issues of superhero movie fatigue by focusing on quality rather than quantity.
  • The DC Universe has already planned its upcoming slate, ensuring an interconnected and cohesive storyline across film, television, animation, and gaming.
  • The DC Universe’s approach of splitting into chapters with an overarching theme can prevent unnecessary sequels and ensure each movie fits into the larger narrative.

James Gunn recently addressed whether there are too many superhero movies, and the new DC Universe has all the tools to avoid several comic book movie problems. With major superhero films like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Flash struggling at the box office, it can be easy to conclude that there is comic book adaptation fatigue. However, the amount of superhero films and shows released every year may not be a problem by itself.

During an interview for the Inside of Youpodcast with Michael Rosenbaum in June 2023, James Gunn addressed the superhero movie fatigue issue, and what could be the reason behind so many recent poorly-reviewed or unsuccessful superhero projects. According to Gunn, “people have gotten really lazy with their superhero stories,” noting how superhero projects can sometimes be made just because of how popular or successful the IP is. Gunn, who will direct Superman: Legacy and is co-CEO of DC Studios, went on to discuss other problems with current superhero films, suggesting that the new DC Universe might avoid those issues.

10 James Gunn’s DC Studios Will Not Overextend The DC Universe

In the same podcast interview where James Gunn discusses the problem with current superhero movies, the DC Studios’ co-CEO revealed that they are “not going to overextend [themselves] at DC.” Gunn added that DC Studios “will be very careful” with their releases, “making sure everything is as good as it can possibly be.” Gunn’s comments suggest that the new DC Universe will focus on the quality of each new DC movie and TV show, and not just the number of releases. Balancing the commercial aspect of a superhero franchise with the creative side of it is a tricky challenge, and many blockbuster IPs have failed at it.

9 James Gunn’s DC Universe Has Already Been Planned

Amanda Waller, Jaime Reyes, and Peacemaker in the DC Universe

DC Studios has announced part of the DC Universe’s upcoming slate, which is officially titled Chapter 1: Gods & Monsters. The current DC Universe slate includes both TV shows and movies, with Gunn’s Superman: Legacy being the first theatrical entry in this new franchise. According to James Gunn, during the DC Universe slate reveal, the DCU will tell an interconnected story across film, television, animation, and gaming. In other words, the new DC Universe has already been planned. The previous DCEU, as well as superhero franchises like FOX’s X-Men, struggled with the lack of planning and a clear goal. After Justice League, most DCEU movies were not interconnected at all.

8 DC Universe’s Chapters Structure Can Avoid Superhero Sequel Problems

James Gunn and a timeline of the DC Universe

James Gunn’s DC Universe will be split into chapters, and the Gods & Monsters name suggests that each chapter will have an overarching theme. This is an interesting approach to the superhero movie saga structure that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has followed since “Phase 1.” Having chapters that follow an overarching storyline can help the DC Universe avoid unnecessary sequels. If the DC Universe sticks to its original plans, a movie might not receive a sequel just because it did well at the box office – it would have to fit into what the next DCU Chapter is doing.

7 Superman: Legacy Is About Clark & Lois (& Not Just About A Superhero)

Rachel Brosnahan David Corenswet Superman Legacy

When addressing the many DC Universe characters that will be in Superman: Legacy, James Gunn made sure to point out that the upcoming Superman reboot is still focused on Clark Kent and Lois Lane. According to Gunn, these superheroes – namely Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, Mr. Terrific, and Metaphormo – are there to serve Superman: Legacy’s story and highlight the superhero aspect of Clark Kent’s life. This creates an interesting parallel with Clark’s civilian life at the Daily Planet. Such an approach means that Clark Kent will be the heart of the story and that Superman: Legacy will not be just about Superman and his powers.

6 James Gunn Is Aware Of Superhero Movies’ Third Act Problem

Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania

During the Inside of You podcast, James Gunn mentioned how superhero movies’ third acts sometimes lack “rhyme” or “a reason to what’s happening.” While it is obviously soon to say whether the DC Universe’s movies will avoid a similar problem, the fact that James Gunn is addressing this common superhero film criticism is a good sign. Recent superhero movies tend to end on a massive third-act battle, which usually involves a lot of CGI and non-stop action. As a result, what should be completely different stories – Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Flash, for example – end up having similar conclusions.

5 The DC Universe’s Slate Will Explore Different Genres

Split Image: Swamp Thing comics cover; Superman comics cover

James Gunn has also discussed how recent superhero movies are lacking a variety in genres, as in something that combines the superhero movie genre itself with other styles. Gunn mentions how he is a fan of “comedic superhero movies” or any other stories that combine comic book adaptations with other genres. While it is soon to say what tone each DC Universe movie and TV show will have, the current DC Universe slate suggests that it will explore different genres. For example, Booster Gold can be a comedic character study, whereas the Swamp Thing movie will surely be a horror story.

4 The DC Universe Is Acknowledging Its Comic Book Inspirations

Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow

One of the biggest problems with superhero movies, especially the marketing associated with them, is how the comic books that inspired those projects are rarely acknowledged. Of course, each superhero film draws inspiration from decades-worth of stories, as the DC and Marvel characters have been around for a long time. Still, James Gunn has revealed which comics are inspiring some of the upcoming DC Universe properties, directly or indirectly. For example, Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman was listed as an inspiration for Superman: Legacy, whereas Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow is obviously inspired by Tom King’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow comic book.

cast on animated creature commandos in dc universe

Superhero movies have enormous box office potential. As a result, the most important Marvel or DC heroes are usually reserved for the big screen, which can lead to stories becoming big theatrical events just because they can be box office successes. The new DC Universe is balancing live-action movies with other media. For example, the animated Creature Commandos show is set to be the DC Universe’s first release, and a live-action Waller series is set to premiere in the same year as Superman: Legacy. Another example is the live-action Lanterns show, which will feature Hal Jordan and John Stewart, two of the most important DC Comics characters.

2 The DC Universe’s Creators Are So Far Big Names

Logan James Mangold Swamp Thing Movie Tease

While not many DC Universe directors and writers have been announced yet, the current creators attached to DC Universe projects are so far all big, experienced names. James Gunn himself is directing Superman: Legacy, although it is unclear whether Gunn will direct other DC Universe properties in the future. Andy Muschietti, who directed The Flash and had already worked with blockbuster IP films, will helm Batman: The Brave and the Bold. James Mangold, who directed Logan and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, is attached to Swamp Thing. Superhero movie creators usually have to deal with studio interference, but having established directors attached helps avoid that problem.

1 James Gunn’s DC Universe Won’t Be DC’s Only Franchise

Robert Pattinson in The Batman and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker, DC Elseworlds projects

Perhaps the biggest problem with superhero movie franchises is the movies and TV shows can become too repetitive. For example, the “MCU formula,” which traces back to Iron Man’s incredible success, can be noticed in many Marvel movies and shows. Likewise, after Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, many franchises tried to emulate The Dark Knight’s tone. The superhero movie genre thrives in its differences, not similarities, and the idea of a cinematic universe can play against this. Fortunately, DC Studios’ DC Universe will not be DC’s only franchise. DC will continue to have non-DC Universe releases, or DC Elseworlds, such as Joker: Folie à Deux and The Batman – Part 2.

Source: Inside of You

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Summary James Gunn's DC Universe is

Comics

Although the mostly mixed reviews and fan criticisms of Capcom’s controversial tactics with microtransactions and the lack of content in Exoprimal would lead you to believe that this title had a rocky start, it appears that a massive number of players enjoy shooting at swarms of dinosaurs and are having a great time either way.

According to the official Exoprimal Twitter (see the tweet below), the dino-shooting co-op game has successfully reached “over one million players” in its first few weeks. To commemorate this early milestone, all players will receive a free additional skin for the Skywave exosuit.

How to Claim Free Skywave Skin in Exoprimal?

The bonus skin will be included in the next title update coming August 16, marking the beginning of Season 1 in Exoprimal. This update will automatically add a skin for Skywave as a bonus gift for reaching one million players, which will be selectable from the Hangar menu as usual.

Related: Exoprimal is Better Than You Might Think | Early Impressions

The upcoming update, which officially starts the first season, will bring more content to the game, such as the announced Savage Gauntlet mode, which will finally enable real PvE end-game, but also 10 completely new Alpha Variant versions of all existing Exosuits in the game, which will bring new weapons and an additional twist to all existing classes in the game.

There is no doubt that Exoprimal will continue to develop and grow, and it seems that the team at Capcom really listened to audience feedback, which gives us hope that Exoprimal can become a much better and more complete title over time.

For more Exoprimal here on Prima Games, check out the best exosuits in Exoprimal, ranked, find out if Exoprimal character creation is good, and how to earn Spear Stopper Trophy/Achievement.

About the Author

Nikola “Nick” Jovanovic

Nick has been a Prima Games Staff Writer since May 2022, an old-school gamer, and a gamer journalist with over 25 years of expertise. Our resident micro-influencer from Serbia! When he’s not driving through Belgrade, he’s probably racing in Gran Turismo or Forza, playing some strange JRPG games or just watching pro wrestling.

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Although the mostly mixed reviews and fan

Festivals

This post was written by Dhruv Anish.

A baker who uses Hebrew-inspired cake designs to fight anti-Semitism in Budapest. An IBM consultant turned snail farmer in Vienna. An ex-con who ditched crime to pursue culinary excellence in San Francisco.

Documentary filmmaker Kevin Longa looks to uncover the untold stories of unique people who make food from around the world to spread the message of uniting the globe through food. Using little more than a DSLR and a lavalier microphone, Longa traveled around the world, filming 70 episodes across 21 different countries as a part of his documentary series, TASTE.

Longa’s love for filmmaking began as a child growing up in California, using his family’s Sony camcorder to record rudimentary short films that he believes laid the foundation for the guerrilla style he utilized while creating TASTE. After graduating from UCLA in 2013, Longa traveled to Southeast Asia with a classmate, documenting the journey with his friend’s Canon EOS 5D. He was instantly captivated by the array of intriguing delicacies in each country, using his camera to capture fascinating dishes such as edible tree starch in Brunei and fried tarantula in Cambodia.

‘TASTE’Credit:

As he started spending time in kitchens interviewing the culinarians behind these delectable dishes, Longa discovered that the stories of the chefs beyond the plate were much more interesting than the plates themselves. He began his documentary journey, interviewing everyone from street vendors to high-end restaurateurs, exploring food’s rich cultural significance.

Then, Longa took to Europe, conversing with noteworthy culinarians like Zdeněk Pohlreich, the “Czech Gordon Ramsay,” and Jacob Loop, the self-proclaimed “food hooker” of Copenhagen.

Filming, editing, and distributing a food series is no easy task. Coupled with the fact that Longa was operating on a small budget meant that he had to do everything single-handedly, making him a lean one-man film team. This decision created obstacles for Longa every step of the way.

A woman sitting next to a man hold camera, 'Taste'‘TASTE’Credit: Kevin Longa

From production-related hassles, including receiving a renewed passport from a man on a motorcycle in Hồ Chi Minh City just minutes before a flight, to being mugged for his camera in a river near Auschwitz to logistical hurdles like translating and transcribing hundreds of hours worth of footage in a breadth of different languages to tirelessly promoting a Kickstarter campaign to fund production for the project, Longa found that his low-end setup had its share of advantages in the chaos of filmmaking.

For one, the interviewees were much more relaxed with his simple DSLR and microphone than they would have been in front of the extravagant camera and crew Longa had initially envisioned for the project—and had usually worked with while at UCLA. Additionally, a one-man team meant more flexibility in terms of transporting gear and equipment across continents.

Two men looking at food in a outdoor garden, 'Taste'‘TASTE’Credit: Kevin Longa

While the road ahead is uncertain, Longa is committed to telling the stories of food—the medium he says is a gateway into human history, a form of edible anthropology—and the unsung heroes who use it to contribute to our global identity.

Although he still manages a one-man team, Longa is looking for similarly-intrepid, innovative creatives to join the TASTE team and explore the transcendental power of food together. He has relocated to NYC and is currently seeking an entrepreneurial business development teammate who will help establish the commercial film production side of TASTE.

This post was written by Dhruv Anish.

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This post was written by Dhruv Anish.A

Film

While Greta Gerwig reportedly had to pursue Ryan Gosling for a full year before he signed on to feel the Ken-ergy in Barbie, the film’s casting directors just revealed that a whole roster of other A-listers also applied to Beach.

“Barbie Girl” will not be in Barbie movie

Bowen Yang, Dan Levy, and Ben Platt (who went on to star in Barbenheimer’s small-but-mighty cousin Theater Camp) were all up for secondary Kens—roles that eventually went to Simu Liu, Ncuti Gatwa, Kingsley Ben-Adir, and more—but had to turn them down due to logistical concerns. Per the casting directors, Lucy Bevan and Allison Jones, prospective actors had to spend three months in London (where much of the movie was filmed) due to COVID restrictions, which put the above out of the running, according to Vanity Fair.

Still, “they were, I’m not kidding, really bummed they couldn’t do it,” according to Jones.

Yang, Levy, and Platt were not competing for any particular Ken, per se. While each of the many Barbies in the film has her own specific identity—i.e. President Barbie, Doctor Barbie etc.—the Kens are all just… Ken. Still, Gerwig wanted to imbue each with his own personality—something she often gleaned from speaking to the actors before sharing the script. “She really wanted to get to know them as people. That was very important to her,” said Bevan.

She continued: “They were definitely really different, but they had to feel like a cohesive group. You wanted to cast people who were really going to get on and be great and enjoy it.” Enjoy it, in this case, means being silly and goofy, not Zooming in shirtless for an audition, which apparently happened somewhat frequently. “We were like, ‘No, no, it’s not about that. You don’t have to do that,’” said Bevan. (No word on whether any of the official Kens were a part of this special group.)

Another actor who was apparently heartbroken to turn down a part in the film was Jonathan Groff, who almost played runaway audience favorite Allan (a part that eventually went to Michael Cera). “Dear, dear Jonathan Groff was like, ‘I can’t believe I’m typing this, but I can’t do Allan,’” said Jones.

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While Greta Gerwig reportedly had to pursue

TV

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera is in a good mood after Tuesday’s lineup announcement managed to stave off the impact of the SAG-AFTRA strike, something which could have been “devastating” to the event, he says. In the end, the only U.S. film that skipped the Lido is Luca Guadagnino’s Zendaya-starrer “Challengers,” which Barbera says was against Guadagnino’s wishes.

And though it remains to be seen how many U.S. stars will make the trek, Barbera, in a conversation with Variety, vowed that the Venice red carpet won’t be bare.

Did you see the possible impact of the actors’ strike coming?

Not before it was officially called. The day after it was called, conversations started about the negative repercussions it could have on festivals. At first, it seemed it was going to be devastating. Everybody was panicking. Even more than us, it was all the producers, the studios, the streamers. For the first few days there was total silence, we were unable to speak to anyone. We understood that the situation was very complex and threatening. There was a real risk that all the American movies could be pulled. I had closed the lineup, so you can imagine with what spirit I faced the following week. I was ready to throw everything up in the air and rethink everything.

Then, luckily, I started  getting positive signals. First from Searchlight [which is behind Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things”], who said: “We want to support the festival and release the film. Too bad Emma Stone won’t be able to come. But we are confirming our participation.” The same happened with Netflix [which has David Fincher’s “The Killer” and Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” among other titles.] They said, “Our titles are in. The only problem is Bradley Cooper, who is not just the director but also the protagonist. He doesn’t want to go against SAG. He’s super tormented. He’s not sleeping at night. He will make the right decision. But for the other films, no problem.” So, that was reassuring. The following days there were no defections from anyone else. The real ongoing discussion was with Amazon over “Challengers.”

Tell me about that discussion, starting from the fact that Luca Guadagnino pushed very hard to go to Venice, right?

I should not speak for Amazon, MGM and Warner Bros., but I will tell you briefly how things went. They were the ones who panicked the most. They suffered the most from the strike, and they are the ones with whom I had the most back and forth. The one who was in touch with them daily was Luca, who was furious and did everything to try to convince them not to make the wrong choice. He fought like a lion, up to the bitter end. Last Thursday, I got a call from Sue Kroll [Amazon Studios head of marketing] telling me, “Unfortunately, I have to tell you that the upshot of this infinite discussion is that we have decided to postpone the film’s release to spring 2024.”

Let’s delve into the stars on the red carpet situation. Who will be able to come?

The stars who will certainly not be coming to Venice are the ones in Bradley Cooper’s film [“Maestro”], the Lanthimos film [“Poor Things”] and the Fincher, because those are streamer or studio films. All the others, which are indie movies, starting with Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” [which stars Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz] all the way up to Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” [with Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi] and Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” [which stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Vera Farmiga, among other talents]. All the other films are asking SAG for waivers. SAG right now is giving priority to waivers for productions, but I’m told they will be taking these into consideration very shortly. I hope there are no problems because the films are truly independent, so theoretically all the actors in these films will be able to come. Of course, this will only be confirmed when we have the waivers list.

So we are also talking about Michel Franco’s “Memory” with Jessica Chastain and “In The Land of Saints and Sinners” with Liam Neeson, among others?

Yes, I know these films have already asked for waivers.

Have you had any direct contact with SAG-AFTRA?

No, it’s being done through the production companies.

The issue that’s raging right now is the presence of movies by Roman Polanski and Woody Allen, and there is some clamour also about Luc Besson. What’s your response?

Luc Besson has been recently fully cleared of any accusations. Woody Allen went under legal scrutiny twice at the end of the ’90s and was absolved. With them, I don’t see where the issue is. In Polanski’s case, it’s paradoxical. It’s been 60 years. Polanski has admitted his responsibility. He’s asked to be forgiven. He’s been forgiven by the victim. The victim has asked for the issue to be put to rest. I think that to keep beating on Polanski means seeking a scapegoat for other situations that would deserve more attention. That aside, there is a cultural debate underway about Polanski with less rigid positions being taken. I am on the side of those who say you have to distinguish between the responsibilities of the individual and that of the artist. Also, I am a festival director, not a judge. I judge the artistic qualities of films. And from this perspective, I don’t see why I should not invite Polanski’s film to Venice.

I don’t think Polanski will be coming, but I heard it’s likely that Allen will. Can you confirm?

Yes, I’m not sure he will be doing press, but Woody Allen is coming to the film’s premiere for sure.

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Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera

What to Watch


The next chapter of Tommy Egan’s story touches down on Starz in a little over a month.


That’s right, folks. Power Book IV: Force Season 2 debuts Friday, September 1.


In what the streaming service describes as a “Christmas in July” gift to fans, photos of the fresh episodes have been released.


The decision is a nod to Tommy canceling Christmas for those who cross him.


The photos tease the conflicts on the menu for the latest season of the Power spinoff, showcasing the talented ensemble.

Preparing for What's Next - Power Book IV: Force


The series stars Joseph Sikora (Power, Ozark) as Tommy Egan, Isaac Keys (Get Shorty, The Oath) as Diamond Sampson, Lili Simmons (Banshee, Ray Donovan) as Claudia Flynn, and Shane Harper (Hightown, A Teacher) as Vic Flynn.


The cast also includes Kris D. Lofton (Ballers, Snowfall) as Jenard Sampson, Carmela Zumbado (You, Chicago PD) as Mireya Garcia, Manuel Eduardo Ramirez (Snowfall, Queen of the South) as Miguel Garcia, Miriam A. Hyman (The Chi, The Laundromat) as US Attorney Stacy Marks, and Adrienne Walker (Law & Order: Organized Crime, FBI) as Shanti ‘Showstopper’ Page.


Rounding out the cast is Anthony Fleming III (Prison Break, The Beast) as JP, Lucien Cambric (Chicago P.D., The Chi) as D-Mac, and Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) as Walter Flynn.

Hands Up, Tommy - Power Book IV: Force


“After cutting ties in New York, Tommy Egan’s newfound family and ruthless drug game enticed him to stay in Chicago,” the logline teases.


“The explosive second season begins with Tommy on a mission to avenge the death of Lilliana, his former nemesis turned business partner.”


“With the Flynn organization weakened, he’s more determined than ever to take over the Chicago drug world, but with CBI split down the middle, Tommy and Diamond first must maintain their edge over Jenard.”


“As their factions feud in the streets, Tommy capitalizes on another rivalry between the Serbs and Miguel Garcia, the most formidable drug lord in Chicago.”

New Relationship - Power Book IV: Force


“After setting off a chain reaction of violence in pursuit of his ambition, Tommy must race to stay ahead of the men who are coming for what’s theirs, a federal task force that’s closing ranks, and a sadistic supplier with a direct line to the Cartel,” Starz teases.


“All the while torn by the promise of a second chance with his blood family, Tommy must decide what he is willing to sacrifice to finally ascend the throne of a kingpin.”


It’s undoubtedly an exciting logline, and the first photos are welcome because we’ve been awaiting updates on our favorite characters for too long.

Diamond Plans - Power Book IV: Force Season 1 Episode 10


What are your thoughts on the stills?


Are you ready for the next chapter?


Hit the comments below.


Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

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The next chapter of Tommy Egan's story

Awards

Pazuzu, is that you?

It sure seems like it in the first trailer released to the public for “The Exorcist: Believer.” This had already played at CinemaCon in April and absolutely terrified the audience. Now, viewers can get a jump on their Halloween season themselves. Watch it below.

Most notable about this entire sequel is the fact that it’s the first time Ellen Burstyn has returned to play Chris MacNeill, the D.C. housewife terrorized when her daughter was possessed by a demon in the original “The Exorcist” in 1973. For all the subsequent sequels (and a prequel), she was absent as the franchise went in other directions. But in director David Gordon Green’s take on this material, produced by Blumhouse, he seems to be doing what he did with his 2018 “Halloween”: take an iconic star of the original film and let us see how those terrifying events shaped her life in the decades after.

Of course, Jamie Lee Curtis had appeared in multiple “Halloween” sequels. So Burstyn’s appearance in an “Exorcist” movie after half a century is even more astonishing. And what’s unique is that it seems she’s being brought in to serve the role Max Von Sydow played in the original: as an exorcist herself. We see in the trailer that she’s spent a lifetime researching the occult, following the events in which her daughter Regan (Linda Blair) was possessed by the demon Pazuzu. Now she needs to help two girls who seem possessed as well, at least one of them by a demon who may be Pazuzu.

“We’ve met before,” Burstyn says, as one of the girls creepily hisses “Mother…” at her.

Mind you, Burstyn is 90. Her casting in this is really a singular gift, and something that instantly generates that much more interest in “Believer.” She had been nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars for her turn in the original film (and won a year later for “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”) and was, along with Von Sydow especially, representative of director William Friedkin’s early take on “elevated horror.” That original film, slow and contemplative long (sometimes pretentious) sections, was a blockbuster by fusing its extraordinary horror with elements of art cinema. Hard to imagine Burstyn, after a 60-year career, would return to her iconic role if there wasn’t something particularly ambitious about this script.

Watch it below. Universal opens “The Exorcist: Believer” on October 13. The new cast includes Leslie Odom Jr., Lidya Jewett, Olivia Marcum, Ann Dowd, Okwui Okpokwasili, Jennifer Nettles, and Raphael Sbarge. A follow-up titled “The Exorcist: Deceiver” is now confirmed to be released Easter weekend, April 18, 2025.

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Pazuzu, is that you? It sure seems like

Music

The dual Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes have not put a stop to the Venice Film Festival. The event may be a little less glamorous—no beautiful movie stars arriving in water taxis—but the festival has nevertheless garnered an impressive collection of movies with big-name directors for its lineup. The festival kicks off on August 30 and will feature films from Ava DuVernay, Bradley Cooper, and, um, Woody Allen.

Steve Carell on the genius of the minions

Yes, the 80th annual Venice Film Festival has attracted some of the most notable filmmakers alive, though some have become less notable for their films than for the controversies attached to their names. Both Woody Allen and Roman Polanski have films premiering in Venice out of competition. Allen, who has faced renewed scrutiny over allegations that he molested his daughter Dylan Farrow in the 1990s, will debut his 50th film, the French language feature Coup De Chance. Allen is expected to attend the festival, per Deadline. Polanski, who was charged with rape of a minor, will screen his film The Palace. Meanwhile, Luc Besson, who was cleared of rape charges earlier this year, has his new film DogMan screening in competition.

Controversy is not the only thing on the lineup at Venice. Sofia Coppola, David Fincher, Yorgos Lanthimos, Pablo Larrain, and Cooper are among those screening new films in competition. DuVernay will make festival history as the first African American filmmaker to screen in competition with her new film Origin, per Deadline. Out-of-competition screenings include Wes Anderson’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Harmony Korine’s Aggro Dr1ft, and Richard Linklater’s Hit Man.

Announcing the list of films today, festival chief Alberto Barbera said that the 2023 lineup had been confirmed before SAG-AFTRA officially went on strike, per Deadline. Only Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers pulled out in the wake of the work stoppage; the rest of the American films invited “have been confirmed and will be present in the festival.” Babylon and La La Land director Damien Chazelle will serve as jury president. You can check out the full list of films below.

VENEZIA 80 COMPETITON

Comandante, dir: Edoardo de Angelis (opening night film)
The Promised Land, dir: Nikolaj Arcel
DogMan, dir: Luc Besson
La Bête, dir: Bertrand Bonello
Hors-Saison, dir: Stéphane Brizé
Enea, dir: Pietro Castellitto
Maestro, dir: Bradley Cooper
Priscilla, dir: Sofia Coppola
Finalmente L’Alba, dir: Saverio Costanzo
Lubo, dir: Giorgio Diritti
Origin, dir: Ava DuVernay
The Killer, dir: David Fincher
Memory, dir: Michel Franco
Io Capitano, dir: Matteo Garrone
Evil Does Not Exist, Ryusuke Hamaguchi
The Green Border, dir: Agnieszka Holland
Die Theorie Von Allem, dir: Timm Kroger
Poor Things, dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
El Conde, dir: Pablo Larrain
Ferrari, dir: Michael Mann
Adagio, dir: Stefano Sollima
Woman Of, dirs: Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert
Holly, dir: Fien Troch

OUT OF COMPETITION

Fiction

Coup de Chance, dir: Woody Allen
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, dir: Wes Anderson
The Penitent, dir: Luca Barbareschi
L’Ordine del Tempo, dir: Liliana Cavani
Vivants, dir: Alix Delaporte
Daaaaaal!, dir: Quentin Dupieux
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, dir: William Friedkin
Aggro Dr1ft, dir: Harmony Korine
Hit Man, dir: Richard Linklater
The Palace, dir: Roman Polanski
Snow Leopard, dir: Pema Tseden
Society of the Snow, dir: J.A. Bayona (closing film)

Short
Welcome to Paradise, dir: Leonardo Di Costanzo

Non-Fiction

Hollywoodgate, dir: Ibrahim Nash’at
Amor, dir: Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri
Ryuichi Sakamoto Opus, dir: Neo Sora
Frente a Guernica (Version Integrale), dirs: Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi
Enzo Jannacci Vengo Anch’io, dir: Giorgio Verdelli
Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros, dir: Frederick Wiseman

Series

D’Argent et de Sang (episodes 1-12), dirs: Xavier Giannoli, Frederic Planchon
I Know Your Soul (episodes 1&2), dirs: Alen Drljevic, Nermin Hamzagic

Special Screening

La Parte del Leone: Una Storia della Mostra, dirs: Baptiste Etchegary, Guiseppe Bucchi

HORIZONS EXTRA

Bota Jone, dir: Luana Bajrami
Forever Forever, dir: Anna Buryachkova
The Rescue, dir: Daniela Goggi
In the Land of Saints and Sinners, dir: Robert Lorenz
Day of the Fight, dir: Jack Huston
Felicita, dir: Micaela Ramazzotti
Pet Shop Boys, dir: Olmo Schnabel
Stolen, dir: Karan Tejpal
L’Homme d’Argile, dir: Anais Tellenne

HORIZONS

A Cielo Abierto, dirs: Mariana Arriaga, Santiago Arriaga
El Paraiso, dir: Enrico Maria Artale
Behind the Mountains, dir: Mohamed Ben Attia
The Red Suitcase, dir: Fidel Devkota
Tatami, dirs: Guy Nattiv, Zar Amir Ebrahimi
Paradise Is Burning, dir: Mika Gustafson
The Featherweight, dir: Robert Kolodny
Invelle, dir: Simone Massi
Hesitation Wound, dir: Selman Nacar
Heartless, dirs: Nara Normande, Tiao
Una Sterminata Domenica, dir: Alain Perroni
City of Wind, dir: Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir
Explanation for Everything, dir: Gabor Reisz
Gasoline Rainbow, dirs: Bill Ross, Turner Ross
En Attendant la Nuit, dir: Céline Rouzet
Housekeeping for Beginners, dir: Goran Stolevski
Shadow of Fire, dir: Shinya Tsukamoto
Dormitory, dir: Nehir Tuna

VENICE CLASSICS

Non-Fiction

Bill Douglas My Best Friend, dir: Jack Archer
Le Film Pro-Nazi d’Hitchcock, dir: Daphne Baiwir
Thank You Very Much, dir: Alex Braverman
Landrian, dir: Ernesto Daranas Serrano
Un Altra Italia Era Possibile, Il Cinema Di Guiseppe De Santis, dir: Stefano Della Casa
Michel Gondry Do It Yourself, dir: François Nemeta
Ken Jacobs From Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art, dir: Fred Riedel
Frank Capra: Mr America, dir: Matthew Wells
Dario Argento Panico, dir: Simone Scafidi

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The dual Writers Guild of America and

Docs

The indie feature film Two Lives in Pittsburgh, which has won several awards at various film festivals, has announced that acclaimed director Stephen Chbosky has joined the project as an executive producer. Chbosky, who is a Pittsburgh native and a celebrated writer and director of films such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Wonder, and Dear Evan Hansen, says that he was impressed by the film’s message of empathy and understanding.

Two Lives in Pittsburgh is a drama that follows a traditional blue-collar guy who struggles to accept his child’s exploration of gender while dealing with his mother’s illness. The film aims to spark a compassionate and unifying dialogue during polarization and culture wars. The film’s writer and director, Brian Silverman, says that having Chbosky on board is a tremendous honor and a validation of the project’s significance.

The film also showcases the authenticity and diversity of Pittsburgh and its people. Silverman, who grew up in Pittsburgh, cast several local actors who used authentic Pittsburgh accents for their roles. The film was shot entirely in and around Pittsburgh, and almost all of the production budget was spent with local businesses and vendors. The film’s soundtrack features Pittsburgh artists like Evan Mulgrave, Shamar, and Bjordan. The filmmakers even chose the color palette to reflect Pittsburgh’s aesthetic.

“…a traditional blue-collar guy who struggles to accept his child’s exploration of gender…”

The film has already won the Audience Award for Narrative Feature at the Dances With Films Festival, the Best Narrative Feature at the Indie Spirit Film Festival, and the Best LGBTQ+ Feature at the IndieFEST Film Awards1. It has also been selected as one of the Centerpiece Selections for the OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival and a First Five Film for aGLIFF2. It will be screening over the summer at several other film festivals, including the Three Rivers Film Festival3, the largest annual film festival in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

The film seeks distribution and hopes to reach a wider audience with Chbosky’s involvement. Chbosky recently wrapped production on the Vince Vaughn comedy “Nonnas” and has a long and successful career in the entertainment industry. Chbosky says he was drawn to Two Lives in Pittsburgh because of its timely and relevant story. He says: “Finally, a movie that tries to bring two sides together. This film is a piece of good for the world right now.”

Gaining recognition across the country, the film recently won the Audience Award for Narrative Feature at the Dances With Films and Best Narrative Feature at Indie Spirit. It has been chosen as one of four Centerpiece Selections for the OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival, and is a First Five Film for aGLIFF. It will be screening over the summer at:

  • The Valley Film Festival, August 2-6, North Hollywood, CA
  • OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival, August 10-17, Durham, NC
  • Cinequest Film & VR Festival, August 15-30, San Jose, CA
  • Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, August 18-24, Williamsville, NY
  • aGLIFF/Prism Film Festival, August 23-27, Austin, TX

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The indie feature film Two Lives in

Global

A second former senior Mountie is allegedly caught up in an investigation into Chinese interference operations in Canada.

Kenneth Ingram Marsh, a B.C.-based private investigator and former commander of an RCMP international organized crime unit, has been named as a co-conspirator in the allegations along with former Mountie William “Bill” Majcher.

Few specifics about the case are known, but it allegedly involved the targeting of an individual for intimidation on Canadian soil. On Friday, the Canadian Press named Marsh as a second man involved in the case, but did not identify him as a retired Mountie.

Marsh, who is also known as Kim Marsh, declined to comment when reached by Global News on Monday. Marsh has not been charged, and the allegations against Majcher and Marsh have not been tested in court.

“I’m sorry, I can’t talk to you. You must understand that, I’m unable to talk. Thank you,” Marsh said before hanging up the phone.

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Marsh hung up before Global News could explain the reason for the call, and did not respond to multiple subsequent detailed requests for comment.

Majcher, a retired RCMP investigator, was charged on Thursday with two counts of breaching the Security of Information Act — Canada’s official secrets law. According to the Mounties, Majcher “used his knowledge and his extensive network of contacts in Canada to obtain intelligence or services to benefit the People’s Republic of China.”

“Both of these acts were, in our perspective, committed to contribute to the Chinese government efforts to identify and intimidate an individual,” said Insp. David Beaudoin, with the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET), in an interview with Global on Friday.

The name of the alleged target of the intimidation operation is not yet known. While much attention in recent months has been devoted to foreign interference in Canada’s politics, hostile foreign powers have been repeatedly accused of attempting to intimidate and coerce diaspora populations in Canada for years.

Asked to confirm that the Kenneth Marsh named in the allegations was a former Mountie, a spokesperson for the RCMP’s Quebec division declined to comment.

“Although charges were laid on July 20 in this file, there is an ongoing investigation. In that regard, we currently cannot disclose any details with regards to other subjects,” wrote Cpl. Tasha Adams in a statement to Global News.

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Marsh and Majcher have worked together multiple times after they left the national police force, according to Marsh’s memoir that refers to Majcher as his “Mountie friend.”

The allegations against Majcher stem from 2014 to 2019. Majcher retired from the RCMP in 2007, while Marsh retired in 1999.

The 60-year-old Majcher, who is based in Hong Kong, appeared in a Quebec court virtually Friday to face charges of one count of conspiracy and one count of “preparatory acts for the benefit of a foreign entity.”

In his 2022 memoir, Cunning Edge, Marsh refers to Majcher as a “Mountie friend” who worked with him on an “enjoyable caper” tracking down a Canadians’ assets in Costa Rica. Marsh wrote that after Majcher left the RCMP, he worked for a financial firm in Hong Kong that “put deals together and took companies public.”

Subtitled “A 45-year Journey Conducting Global Undercover Investigations,” Marsh’s book explains how Majcher hooked him up with Russian millionaire Vladimir Antonov, who at the time was attempting to purchase Saab from General Motors. Marsh said he produced a “due diligence” report for Antonov into “all his holdings and people” at a cost of $500,000 for Marsh’s company, but stopped working with Antonov after the report was submitted.

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In 2011, Antonov and a business partner were charged with embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from a bank they controlled in Lithuania. Antonov was later found guilty of bank fraud charges in Russia and was sentenced more than two years in jail.

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“The last time I met with Antonov was in London in early 2012. He still had his sense of humour, relating the following to me: on the day of his arrest, he had flown into the UK and was clearing customs when he learned about his problems in Lithuania,” Marsh wrote.

“He said ‘I went from my private plane to my private cell.’ That made us both chuckle.”

Marsh’s memoir stated that he and Majcher worked another “caper” together in 2013 while Marsh was on the hunt for funds smuggled out of Libya by the family of former dictator General Muammar Gaddafi.

“Fortuitously, Majcher had been dealing with an Ivory Coast national on a deal … This was the perfect scenario, as Majcher would need a visa, which would be facilitated by his business associate,” Marsh wrote.

“While there, Majcher would be my second set of eyes and ears.”

Speaking to the online outlet The Bureau last week, Marsh alluded to the possibility of becoming enmeshed in the case, saying he has come to the “attention” of a law enforcement investigation into Chinese interference.

“I think that the focus of the investigation is to stop and investigate what the Chinese are doing here … There’s no doubt they are coercing Chinese nationals who are here either as citizens or permanent residents. And they have, along the way, been assisted by private investigators,” Marsh is quoted as saying.

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“I believe, and others maybe, who have access to sensitive information, believe that’s the focus of the investigation. And somehow I’ve been lumped into this … which is pretty frustrating.”

When asked if Marsh was saying he did nothing wrong, Marsh responded that he thinks he’s “a good Canadian citizen.”

“I think that if Canadians knew the whole story that they would be aghast,” Marsh is quoted as saying.

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A second former senior Mountie is allegedly

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In one of the big deals announced out of Canada’s Fantasia Film Festival, XYZ Films has boarded North American sales rights to “New Life,” John Rosman’s feature directorial debut which is hailed by Fantasia itself as “one of the major discoveries of Fantasia 2023.”

“New Life” stars Sonya Walger (“For All Mankind,” “Lost”) and Hayley Erin (“Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists,” “General Hospital”) and Tony Amendola (“Annabelle,” “Curse of Llorona”).

XYZ Films has also dropped the film’s first teaser, shared in exclusivity with Variety, ahead of “New Life’s” world premiere on Aug. 8 at Fantasia, North America’s biggest genre festival. 

“New Life” is also written by Rosman and produced by T. Justin Ross, producer on Shudder’s record-breaking hit “The Mortuary Collection” and the Judy Greer-led “Aporia,” also premiering at Fantasia, and Mike Marchlewski.

The film is executive produced by David Lawson Jr., producer of the Independent Spirit Award-nominated Sundance darling “Something in the Dirt” and the critically acclaimed sci-fi horror “The Endless,” among others.

“With ‘New Life,’ John has created a tense, gripping thriller that blurs its genre roots in ways that completely upended our expectations,” said XYZ Films’ Senior Vice President of Sales & Acquisitions Pip Ngo. “We can’t wait for audiences to experience the same sense of surprise and delight (and horror) that we felt watching it the first time.”

“New Life” indeed works on multiple levels: as a woman-hunt thriller rising to the sudden horror of potential global apocalypse, both of which drive the story of two women discovering a new life that, however harrowing, represents some new kind of freedom.

Leaning into the movie’s entertainment value, the teaser captures the first and second. Walger plays a fixer, Elsa Gray, one of her company’s best, contracted to bring in dead or alive Jessica Murdock, a young woman on the run after a terrible event whose details, unspecified for much of the film, has left her bloodied and battered when “New Life” begins. 

Jess hides away in a pickup truck that takes her to the pine forest mountains of the Pacific Northwest, heading for the Canadian border as Elsa closes in. 

But the massive surveillance operation launched to find her hints there’s more to her case. “Does Jessica know?” Elsa asks her boss. Know what? As the film spirals to climax, Jessica climbs some stairs, caught in the teaser’s major moment of excruciatingly drawn-out tension, to a sight that will give her an answer.

For more clues, briefly glimpsed, watch the trailer.

Meanwhile, Elsa fights her own personal struggle with ALS, diagnosed six months before. “As their two unique stories inextricably link, and a trail of bodies begin to mount, the stakes of the pursuit soon rise to apocalyptic proportions, the synopsis reads.

“‘New Life’is the result of so many talented people dedicating their time and energy to transform this film into something bigger than was ever on the page,” said Rosman. “To have an incredible company like XYZ Films recognize our work, and join the team, is a win for all of us, and truly in spirit with how this indie movie was made.”

“New Life” will have its European premiere at London’s FrightFest, the UK’s premiere genre film festival, following its Fantasia launch.

“New Life is one of those rare thrillers that transcends its genre. The power of its story not only comes from its haunting cinematic moments, but from the conceptual terror that accompanies them,” said producer T. Justin Ross. “It’s this unique character-driven horror that helped us build an incredible coalition of cast, crew, and partners who are the best at what they do to tell this story, and we’re thrilled to add XYZ Films to that list.”

In addition to “New Life,” XYZ Films is also representing Yeva Strelnikova’s “Stay Online” and Teresa Sutherland’s “Lovely, Dark, and Deep” at the 27th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival.

Variety caught up with Rosman, an Emmy-Award winning journalist for public media, whose stories appearing on outlets such as NPR and PBS, in the run-up to Frontières and “New Life’s” Fantasia world premiere at Fantasia.

New Life
Credit: XYZ FILMS

There’s one large part of “New Life” which the teaser doesn’t have space to take in: Elsa and Jess are linked not just by the woman-hunt but both are battling their own personal worlds end. Could you elaborate very briefly, if that’s not an oxymoron?

Something interesting to me during the writing process, and then later working with our actors — Sonya Walger (Elsa) and Hayley Erin (Jess) — was finding ways to make their separate stories, one big story. To me, at the risk of sounding insufferable, there’s a central theme of grief in the movie. How the characters navigate the stages of it within their own “personal world’s end,” and what they do with the information they get, when they get it, ends up creating the stakes of the film and why we might see one character as more heroic than the other.

Another singular aspect to “New Life” is its constant recourse on the soundtrack to maybe the greatest folk-rock song of all time: Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone.” It has literal reference to Jess, but a metaphorical one to Elsa. The film also seems to pick up a typical Dylan ambivalence: That Miss Lonely’s fall is kind of new freedom. Scrounging her next meal, no direction home, Jess, for example, has found a new freedom. “I wanna see the world,” she says enthusiastically. Could you comment?

Bob Dylan is the greatest. The way he explores the idea of freedom in that song is both nuanced and vast, a story you can picture and some feeling barely out of reach. Just having his work play in our movie breathes so much life into some of those ideas you mentioned. The hope is that it also gives us some insight into Elsa — who she might have been before being defined by work — and how she’s trying to hold on to such a little thing like a song as her world flips upside down.

Why are you helping me?” Jess asks a man who drives her towards the border. “It has good people,” bartender Molly says of her small town. It’s striking that your vision of normal people, their solidarity, is really quite upbeat…

Ha! I do believe people are naturally good, and want to help each other. I know that’s maybe Pollyanna-ish in what feels like the age of increasingly worse news cycles. But, I feel it’s better than the alternative. 

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In one of the big deals announced

Tech

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter began removing its name from its corporate headquarters Monday, blocking two lanes of traffic as a large crane plucked letters off the sign. The crane departed by midafternoon leaving the task half-finished — only the blue bird logo and the “er” remained, next to a ghostly outline reading “@twitt.”

Some will see that as an apt metaphor for state of business at the social media platform. In changing Twitter’s famous blue logo to a black-and-white “X,” part of a sweeping rebrand that has alienated longtime users and left marketing experts perplexed, owner Elon Musk is trading a bird in the hand for the promise of a wide-ranging “everything app,” one analysts say may never materialize.

He is leaving behind a symbol of silliness, outrage and celebrity that meant something to hundreds of millions, even earworming its way into the dictionary.

“It has become a verb. That’s the holy grail,” said Forrester research director Mike Proulx. “This is a brand that has secured a place in our cultural lexicon. Musk has wiped out over 15 years of brand equity in the Twitter name.”

Twitter begins rebrand to ‘X,’ removing bird from company logo

Twitter’s chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, said on the platform that the logo swap heralded larger shifts at the company as it transforms into a sweeping venture, encompassing commerce and an online payment system like the one Musk helped pioneer two decades ago at PayPal and a predecessor, X.com.

Yet marketing experts said that the move was an unnecessary gamble on a hazy future, coming from a platform with wide brand recognition. Though Twitter has weathered a year’s worth of bad news — its ad revenue is down 50 percent, alternatives are springing up, and regulators are circling — they said it would not make sense for the company to dodge by changing its handle, as some saw Facebook’s rebrand into Meta after the release of a trove of internal documents from whistleblower Frances Haugen.

“For most users and advertisers and folk in the tech world, the product itself is the problem,” said Boston College communications professor and branding expert Michael Serazio. “Putting a new name on it doesn’t change that in any material way.”

While striking, the letter X is hardly original when it comes to branding. Google has dubbed its start-up lab “X,” and Meta has trademarked a stylized version of the letter for its own social media.

The best argument, according to the marketers and many of Musk’s fans, is that what he is building will eclipse Twitter and the name change will force people to consider it as an entirely new venture, perhaps even one that deserves new investment and a shot at going public on the stock market.

Yaccarino declared that “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity,” including payments and the buying and selling of “goods, services, and opportunities” that will be “powered by AI.”

But that lofty vision is also an uphill climb.

“How many times has that worked in the past, where there is a big rebrand based on an original product failing? Where they rebranded to a larger strategy and pulled it off?” Serazio asked. “None come to mind.”

As Musk has welcomed back users banned from Twitter for breaking the platform’s rules against hate speech, the freewheeling discourse has sent some to new and unwieldy places, such as Mastodon and Meta’s Threads.

That atmosphere is an awkward fit for a company that hopes to persuade users to send money back and forth for unseen goods and services.

Then there are the security challenges that go with protecting such payments. Twitter’s security is so suspect that whistleblowers have said half the employees could make changes to the code without being detected or tweet as any user.

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating the company for lapses that may have put it in violation of prior agreements to protect user data.

U.S. and global finance regulators have more people and more power than the FTC, and they will be watching Musk closely.

“What the name change does is signal a new direction‚” said Forrester’s Proulx. “But to wipe the slate clean and start over, it takes time, money and people — three things that the company does not have right now.”

The identity switch follows other radical shifts Musk has pushed through since buying the global conversation platform for $44 billion in October.

Musk got rid of about three-fourths of Twitter’s staff, threw out rules against organized disinformation campaigns and personally engaged with accounts previously suspended for hate speech.

To drive more users to pay $8 a month for a premium experience that includes wider distribution and the ability to edit tweets, Musk imposed limits on the regular interface, most recently paring back the ability to send direct messages.

The Pew Research Center reported in May that a quarter of Twitter users said they did not expect to be using the platform in a year, further reducing the value of advertising.

A rebrand will probably make such a separation easier for those on the fence.

“I’ve been reluctant to leave Twitter entirely, but I have to tell you I won’t have a problem leaving X,” tweeted Hugo Award-winning science fiction author John Scalzi, a power user who has tweeted more than 170,000 times.

Linda Chong contributed to this report.

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Comment on this storyCommentSAN FRANCISCO — Twitter

Video

Elon Musk’s plans to rebrand Twitter faced a substantial snag when the removal the company’s former name from its San Francisco headquarters was stopped by police on Monday.

The stoppage was due to “unauthorized work” on the part of the company, according to an alert sent by the local police department. The social media company failed to alert security or the building’s owner about the construction, which led to the initial call. It was later concluded that no crime had been committed.

Workers were able to remove the first six letters of the original “@twitter” logo. As it stands, the X building — formerly known as Twitter’s headquarters — only has the “er” remaining.

Users of the site were quick to call attention to the gaffe. The lingering “er” has been called “a perfect allegory for Elon’s management skills” and a funny joke.

On Monday, Musk officially rebranded his social media company as X. In this new iteration, the company will join Musk’s X-based company, SpaceX, and the iconic Twitter birds will be eliminated. “Everyone should be proud of the pace of innovation over the last nine months — from long-form content, to creator monetization, and tremendous advancements in brand safety protections,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in an internal note seen by TheWrap.

The change has been largely mocked online, with users doing everything from comparing Musk to Superman villain Lex Luther to learning the hard way that the company’s recently rebranded XVideos are not safe for work.

It also continues a baffling string of decisions that started when Musk acquired the social media site in late 2022. Under Musk, the site has implemented several criticized practices such as an $8 a month blue check system; removing the blue checkmark status for non-paying customers, making it difficult to determine which accounts are official or not; lifted the ban on controversial figures like Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson and Kanye West; removing the ability to search posts without an account; and adding a temporary limit on how many posts unverified users could see in a day.


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Elon Musk’s plans to rebrand Twitter faced

Entertaintment

Come on, Barbie, let’s go make (more) box office history.

Greta Gerwig’s plastic, fantastic “Barbie” added $26 million on Monday, resulting in the best Monday gross in Warner Bros. history. The prior studio record was held by (wait for it) Christopher Nolan’s 2008’s superhero epic “The Dark Knight,” which earned $24.6 million (not adjusted for inflation).

Nolan, of course, has been intertwined with “Barbie” because his latest film, the R-rated historical drama “Oppenheimer,” shares a release date with the very pink blockbuster. The contrast between the two movies, which are backed by auteur directors and feature sprawling, A-list casts, has fueled the phenomenon known as “Barbenheimer.”

“Oppenheimer,” too, enjoyed a great turnout on Monday, picking up $12.6 million and bringing its domestic tally to $95 million. The movie, starring Cillian Murphy as the theoretical physicist who led the development on the atomic bomb that was used to end World War II, will hit $100 million by Tuesday. That’s remarkably quick for a three-hour-long period piece that consists mostly of scientists and politicians talking in rooms. It speaks to the power of Nolan as a brand name, no matter the genre.

“Barbie” also cracked the top 15 Mondays of all time without falling on a holiday weekend. The PG-13 fantasy comedy, starring Margot Robbie as the famous doll, has generated $188 million to date and will immediately cross the $200 million mark. “Barbie” has amassed $194.3 million at the international box office, bringing its global total to $382 million.

“Barbie” holds the distinction as the biggest opening weekend of the year with $162 million, besting “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($146 million). It also marks the biggest debut ever for a film directed by a woman, overtaking Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s 2019 blockbuster “Captain Marvel” ($153 million).

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Movies

Last Updated: July 25, 2023, 20:06 IST

Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani recently starred in Satyaprem Ki Katha.

Satyaprem Ki Katha starring Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani released on 29th June, 2023.

Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani’s recently released film Satyaprem Ki Katha has been earning rave reviews and the box numbers are proof. The film witnessed tremendous acceptance across all age groups and families, resulting in great word of mouth ensuring a solid upwards growth.

With all the love and great positive word of mouth from the audience, the film has now collected around Rs 125 crores at the ticket worldwide. With this, the film has emerged as a surprise hit of the year.

Moreover, Satyaprem Ki Katha has proved itself as a complete entertainer that garnered love from the family as well as the young audience. Having brought a pure love story well studded with mesmerizing visuals, the blockbuster pairing of Kartik and Kiara, an album of the year with amazing songs, and a larger-than-life canvas, the film is a perfect cinematic wonder that is still running successfully in the theaters.

SatyaPrem Ki Katha marks Kiara and Kartik’s second collaboration after Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. Besides Kiara and Kartik, the film also stars Supriya Pathak Kapur, Gajraj Rao, Siddharth Randheria, Anooradha Patel, Rajpal Yadav, Nirrmite Saawaant, and Shikha Talsania in key roles. The movie is jointly produced by Nadiiadwala Grandson Entertainment and Namah Pictures.

News18 Showsha gave the film 3 stars and stated, “SatyaPrem Ki Katha is a complex and emotionally charged movie that intertwines the themes of family dynamics, love and sexual violence. It delves into the challenging and often painful experiences of its characters, exploring the impact of trauma on their relationships and their journey towards healing. Amidst the turmoil, a love story emerges, exploring the power of love and the strength of the human spirit.”

Satyaprem Ki Katha also marks a massive collaboration between NGE and Namah Pictures. Interestingly, Sajid Nadiadwala and Shareen Mantri Kedia with Kishor Arora & director Sameer Vidwans won a National Award for their respective feature films. Satyaprem Ki Katha was released in theatres on 29th June 2023.

Aditi Giri

Aditi Giri, Senior Sub-Editor at News18. She is a Bollywood and Biryani enthusiast. She loves talking to your favourite BTown celebrities, and brings …Read More

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Last Updated: July 25, 2023, 20:06 ISTKartik

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On the Shelf

War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

By Mikhail Zygar
Scribner: 432 pages, $30

If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.

Mikhail Zygar was the founding editor in chief of TV Rain, Russia’s lone independent news television station until it went into exile in 2022, and the author of “All the Kremlin’s Men” and “The Empire Must Die.” But when Russia invaded Ukraine, his friend Nadia, who is Ukrainian, stopped speaking to him, considering him an “imperialist,” never mind that he wrote much of that first book at her home.

On the one hand, Zygar knows that’s unfair. “It is a mistake to blame everyone who has a Russian passport, and it might be counterproductive,” he said in an interview from London, where he’s doing press for his new book, “War and Punishment: Putin, Zelensky, and the Path to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine.”

When I asked whether it was fear for his personal safety or the inability to pursue independent journalism in Russia that led him to move to Berlin last year, he says those reasons were both secondary. “I felt a sense of moral obligation,” he explains. “You could not live in Hitler’s Germany; you cannot live in Putin’s Russia. It’s just impossible.”

And yet he doesn’t strongly protest Nadia’s reproach. “I will never argue with a Ukrainian before the war is over,” he says. Indeed, the first sentences of his book take Nadia’s side: “This book is a confession,” he starts, saying that every Russian who let Putin continue down his path bears some responsibility for the war.

Mikhail Zygar indicts Russia’s deep-seated culture of imperialism in his new book, “War and Punishment.”

(Nadya Alexandrova)

But Zygar at least feels he has taken up arms: “The goal of this book is to fight imperialism.” To change the future, the author believes we must understand the past. He opens his book in the 1600s, well before Russia or Ukraine were countries with set borders and identities, and he writes entirely in the present tense as he journeys through the centuries.

“I think it’s important to try and imagine those historical figures as real people, as today’s politicians,” he explains. “They were humans like us, not monuments made of bronze.”

While there’s plenty of Ukrainian history in the book, Zygar says there are more complete histories of that country. “I’m not writing about Ukraine, I’m writing about Russia,” he says. “It’s like writing a crime story through the eyes of the criminal. It’s the history of Russian crimes.”

The long, detailed and complicated history may confound Westerners, but Zygar’s target audience is Russians, people who have been “brainwashed” for hundreds of years.

“They have to understand that imperialistic propaganda is the reason for this war,” he says. “We need to stop trying to understand Putin’s motivations — there’s no history that can justify his brutality. Destroying the imperialist idea is the only possibility for Russia to become a decent, democratic nation. That’s going to take a lot of time.”

Zygar, who has been labeled a “foreign agent” by Putin’s government, won’t be doing a book signing in Moscow any time soon, but he says the book will be smuggled in digitally. “The only way any independent work is seen in Russia now is that way, through social media or YouTube and other sites,” he says. “I’m much more privileged than my colleagues in the Soviet era, when people had to copy books by hand to pass around.”

The cover of Mikhail Zygar's "War and Punishment" includes close crops of Vladimir Putin's and Volodymyr Zelensky's eyes.

The government has not yet banned his previous books, simply slapping stickers on them reading, essentially, “Don’t buy this. It’s written by a foreign agent.” That, of course, has boosted sales. “Everybody wants to read the dangerous books before they’re completely forbidden,” he says.

For all its historical scope, the book is largely focused on the post-Soviet era, with characters ranging from Boris Yeltsin to Paul Manafort. Zygar says he is always asking himself “What if” questions. “There were a lot of possibilities to have a different history and different outcome,” he says, noting that in 2000 Putin wanted Russia to join NATO. “What if that idea had been accepted — there was a chance to prevent him from becoming this bloody dictator.”

He also argues that President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was an inspiration for Putin’s subsequent strongman behavior in Ukraine. And he believes the now-cornered leader is buying time, hoping Donald Trump gets reelected. “He thinks if Trump wins it can save him,” he says. “Do they have a Plan B? I don’t think so.”

He quickly adds, though, that the West doesn’t bear the blame for the war. “The biggest blame goes to Putin, then the Russian system and the oligarchs.”

Nor does he blame only leaders. In the first paragraph of “War and Punishment,” he writes: “Regrettably Russian culture is also to blame for making all these horrors possible.” And throughout the book, he examines the views and influence of cherished Russian literary lions such as Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Joseph Brodsky.

“In Russian society, even liberal Russians who oppose the war have a tendency to say please don’t touch our special culture, please don’t touch Pushkin, he is our saint,” Zygar says.

Zygar calls not for cancellation but for reckoning, just as the British have reexamined Rudyard Kipling and other imperialists. “If we want to heal ourselves from the disease our nation is suffering from, then we need to be honest with ourselves,” he says. “We have to admit that the idea of Russian exceptionalism and greatness can be poisonous and that great Russian literature is to partly blame.”

The landscape in Russia has shifted even since Zygar finished writing, most recently with the Wagner mercenaries’ semi-rebellion. “This war is making the decay of this regime happen much quicker and Putin is not the same person he used to be,” Zygar says.

A post-Putin era may arrive sooner rather than later — and the country may be destabilized or even slide into civil war, Zygar says — but nothing would change his call for a reset on Russia’s understanding of itself.

“I don’t believe Russian is doomed to be a dictatorship, that an empire is the only way,” he says. “I believed in the true possibility of change during the protests in 2012, but I was wrong. We’ve had a lot of chances. I hope they are not gone forever.”

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MCU

One of the stars Barbie first appeared in Avengers: Infinity War, but there’s a good reason why audiences didn’t recognize her. 

When Margot Robbie’s Barbie leaves the pink plastic world of Barbieland for reality, much of her story involves a human mother and daughter, the latter played by young actress Ariana Greenblatt. 

While Barbie is a huge role for Greenblatt, it’s far from her first major blockbuster as she cameoed in the MCU’s Avengers: Infinity War.

Barbie Actress’ Forgotten Role in Avengers: Infinity War

Warner Bros.

In Barbie, fifteen-year-old Ariana Greenblatt plays Sasha, the daughter of America Ferrera. 

But in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, Greenblatt played a younger version of Gamora, the daughter of Thanos. 

Ariana Greenblatt as young Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War
Marvel

Just like Zoe Saldana, the young actress was painted green and sported red highlights in her hair. 

Thanos and young Gamora in Avengers Infinity War
Marvel

Not only is this a far cry from her look in Barbie; but at the time of filming for Avengers, she was only nine years old. 

Greenblatt played young Gamora in the flashback scene where Thanos annihilates half of her planet, all while teaching her his twisted philosophy of balance. 

After Thanos kills Zoe Saldana’s Gamora in exchange for the Soul Stone and succeeds in snapping away half of all life, he’s transported to an orange-hued dimension. 

It’s here where he sees Ariana Greenblatt’s Gamora once more and who asks:

Young Gamora: “Did you do it?”

Thanos: “Yes.”

Young Gamora: “What did it cost?”

Thanos: “Everything.”

Greenblatt recently reflected on working with Thanos’ Josh Brolin and “being painted green” for her Marvel Studios role to Elle, saying:

“Being painted green at 5 in the morning and in front of this guy who’s in this little gray mo-cap suit with dots all over his face, it really was out of this world and I was just obsessed with it.”

Ariana Greenblatt’s Breakout Barbie Role

The fact that Ariana Greenblatt’s filmography already contains two major pop culture blockbusters – and before the age of sixteen – is a huge accomplishment, but Barbie and Infinity War aren’t her only credits. 

In addition to Stuck in the Middle and In the Heights, she starred alongside Adam Driver in 65. 

While Infinity War is sure to always be a resume highlight, Barbie may be Greenblatt’s biggest role yet, particularly since she’s older and looks like herself instead of the green-skinned Gamora. 

Actress Ariana Greenblatt
Ariana Greenblatt

Barbie also allowed Ariana Greenblatt to showcase more of her acting chops as her character, Sasha, enjoys a full arc and proves pivotal to Margot Robbie’s Barbie. 

So while an Avengers: Infinity War cameo was the actress’ first big role, it’s possible that Barbie won’t be her last. 

Barbie is playing in theaters worldwide.

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Entertaintment, Streaming Services, Television, TV

From the world of “The Boys” comes Gen V”. Prime Video has released the official teaser trailer for the highly anticipated Amazon Original series and things are about to get a lot bloodier.

The series will debut exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories around the world with three episodes on Friday, September 29, followed by weekly episodes, leading up to the epic season finale on Friday, November 3.

Set at America’s only college exclusively for young adult superheroes (run by Vought International), Gen V explores the lives of hormonal, competitive Supes as they put their physical, sexual, and moral boundaries to the test. The official teaser gives audiences a peek into life at Godolkin University, which explores the training of the first generation of superheroes to know about Compound V, and that their powers were injected into them, rather than God-given. These young, competitive heroes put their physical and moral boundaries to the test, competing for the school’s highly coveted top ranking. They quickly come to learn that ambition comes with sacrifice, and the difference between right and wrong is not as clear as they once believed. When the university’s dark secrets come to light, the students must come to grips with what type of heroes they are going to become.

The series cast includes Jaz Sinclair, Chance Perdomo, Lizze Broadway, Shelley Conn, Maddie Phillips, London Thor, Derek Luh, Asa Germann, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sean Patrick Thomas, and Marco Pigossi. Gen V also features guest stars Clancy Brown and Jason Ritter. We will also be seeing appearances from members of The Boys cast such as Jessie T. Usher, Claudia Doumit, Colby Minifie, and P.J. Byrne reprising their roles.

Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters serve as showrunners and executive producers.

Watch the official trailer below:

Similar to The Boys we see a gory and violent set of events of course filled with humor. In true Eric Kripke fashion, there will be blood. Since this is a university for superheroes, one thing you can count on is a variety of different characters, with unique powers. Making this university experience all the more exciting.

Gen V premieres on September 29th.

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From the world of "The Boys" comes

DCU

Harley Quinn‘s Season 4 looks to be including an extensive roster of DC characters for the show’s fourth set of episodes on Max.

Audiences are days away from getting to experience the fourth season of Warner Bros.‘ hit Max animated series based on the now iconic Harley Quinn.

The series just released its Season 4 trailer, and Harley looks to be quite busy. The teaser shows her teaming up with the Bat Family to try to take on heroics, Poison Ivy’s problematic new job under Lex Luthor, a ticked-off Clayface, and more.

Confirmed DC Characters for Harley Quinn Season 4

Harley Quinn – Kaley Cuoco

DC Comics

Harley Quinn, aka the titular character, will, unsurprisingly, be partaking in her own show.

It seems Season 4 will see her attempting to be more of a hero than she ever has before.

Poison Ivy – Lake Bell

Lake Bell, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Poison Ivy is one of the show’s leading characters, and by the end of Season 3, Harley Quinn’s lover.

While the show’s creatives strongly emphasize that the two will remain together, Season 4 will undoubtedly test their bonds, with Harley being a hero and Ivy leading the Legion of Doom.

Dick Grayson/Nightwing – Harvey Guillén

Harvey Guillén, Nightwing, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Dick Grayson’s Nightwing, formerly the first to go by Robin, was gone from Gotham before returning to the area for the show’s Season 3.

The hero can be a little intense and judgmental, and he had a rough start with Batgirl. It’s hard to imagine the hero having much patience at all for Harley Quinn’s new interest in heroics.

Damien Wayne/Robin – Jacob Tremblay

Jacob Trembley, Robin, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Damien Wayne is everyone’s favorite asshole, Robin. He first encountered Harley Quinn in Season 1, and the two have crossed paths several times after.

Barbra Gordon/Batgirl – Briana Cuoco

Briana Cuoco, Batgirl, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Batgirl holds an unexpected friendship with Harley Quinn. The two’s dynamic will likely be a key aspect of the titular character’s new focus on being a hero.

King Shark – Ron Fuches

Ron Fuches, King Shark, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Harley’s good friend King Shark will, unsurprisingly, be returning. The last time viewers saw him, he was on a date with Tabitha—that was before Clayface ruined the moment.

Frank the Plant – J. B. Smoove

J. B. Smoove, Frank, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Frank the Plant is a wisecracking plant that is one of Poison Ivy’s oldest friends. He’s even been her roommate for decades now.

Frank is considered one of Harley Quinn’s posse, alongside Clayface, Doctor Psycho, King Shark, and Ivy.

Clayface – Alan Tudyk

Alan Tudyk, Clayface, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Clayface is a failed actor, who, thanks to a terrible pottery accident, became what he is today. The villain has been a part of Harley Quinn’s gang since the very beginning.

While Clayface and Poison Ivy are friends, it does seem like they get into a bit of a brawl in Season 4.

The Joker – Alan Tudyk

Alan Tudyk, Joker, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

While Joker and Harley may be separated, it doesn’t look like that will ever stop him from popping in and out of Quinn’s eventful life. Season 3 even saw him become Mayor of Gotham City.

Doctor Psycho – Tony Hale

Doctor Psycho, Tony Tale, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Doctor Psycho is a key leading villain who has been a part of Harley Quinn’s crew since the beginning. He is an incredibly intelligent and selfish person who is very intent on self-preservation.

Lex Luthor – Giancarlo Esposito

Giancarlo Esposito, Lex Luthor, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Lex Luthor was a background presence for most of the show, but his role multiplied in size by the end of Season 3 when he asked Poison Ivy to lead his new Legion of Doom. If the Season 4 trailer is any indication, the two’s partnership will play a key role in the next batch of episodes.

Superman – James Wolk

James Wolk, Superman, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Superman showed up a handful of times throughout the show to put a damper on several villainous plots. Most recently, his relationship with Lois Lane was put in the spotlight for the series’ Valentine’s Day special.

Wonder Woman – Vanessa Marshall

Vanessa Marshall, Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Wonder Woman has gotten into a few skirmishes with Harley Quinn and her team in the past, as will happen for most supervillains. It looks like the Amazonian will cross paths with the titular character once again, but this time while Quinn is trying to be a hero.

Bane – James Adomian

James Adomian, Bane, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Bane is a member of the Injustice League who has had a rough history with Harley Quinn. Though, by the end of Season 3, the two seem to be on better terms than they ever have before.

Commissioner James Gordon – Christopher Meloni

Christopher Meloni, Jim Gordan, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Understandably, James Gordon is a man always stressed out and on the edge—it’s hard to blame him.

In Season 3, the character was on a quest to both capture Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy and become Mayor, both of which he failed to do.

Nora Fries – Rachel Dratch

Rachel Dratch, Nora Fries, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Harley Quinn‘s take on Nora Fries sees her cured after the sacrifice of her husband, Mr. Freeze, in Season 2. From there, she’d eventually start an interesting relationship with Swamp Thing.

In Season 4 Fries looks to be a key ally to Poison Ivy, working alongside her under Lex Luthor.

Black Manta – Phil Lamarr

Phil Lamarr, Aquaman, Black Manta
DC Comics

Black Mantis has briefly shown up throughout the show’s run consistently. His trademark hate for Aquaman is as strong as ever, as is his disdain for Doctor Psycho’s racist comments.

Snowflame

Snowflame, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Snowflame is a cocaine-powered supervillain who will be appearing for the first time in Season 4. Though, his role doesn’t seem to be anything more than a cameo or gag.

Livewire

Livewire, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Livewire previously played a notable role in Season 2 of the show, where she helped team up with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn.

Metallo

Metallo, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Metallo is still a member of the Legion of Doom, so he’ll be returning to the show with the group. The last time fans saw the deadly robot was during “The 83rd Annual Villy Awards”.

Sinestro

Sinestro, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

The infamous yellow lantern, Sinestro, is back, though it looks like his role will be as small as it usually is. The villain has previously popped up alongside the Legion of Doom and even showed up to the premiere of James Gunn’s A Hard Wayne’s Gonna Fall.

Reverse Flash

Harley Quinn, Reverse Flash
DC Comics

Reverse Flash has only previously appeared in small visual cameos, and it looks like that trend will continue for Season 4.

Toyman

Toyman, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Toyman is another member of the Legion of Doom, who also was among the many villain attendees at the 83rd Annual Villy Awards. He became particularly uncomfortable when Catwoman accused everyone in the room of consistently overlooking the villain’s accomplishments.

Solomon Grundy

Solomon Grundy, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Solomon Grundy popped up several times in the past alongside the Legion of Doom and even attended Poison Ivy and Kite-Man’s wedding.

Gorilla Grodd

Gorilla Grodd, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Gorilla Grodd, a classic Flash villain, is a member of the Legion of Doom in the series. This version of the character isn’t afraid to dress nicely either, as he wore a tux to the 83rd Annual Villy Awards.

Cheetah

Cheetah, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Cheetah has briefly appeared at the many villain gatherings throughout Harley Quinn and was even among those in attendance for James Gunn’s big movie premiere.

Captain Cold

Captain Cold, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

The ice-cold big bad hasn’t done anything notable in the show besides standing alongside his villainous cohorts. Perhaps that will change in Season 4?

Parasite

Parasite, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

Parasite is another Legion of Doom member who actually got smacked down by Aquaman in an early episode—though clearly not for good.

Captain Boomerang

Captain Boomerang, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

In Season 3, Captain Boomerang was confirmed to be a member of the Suicide Squad in Harley Quinn‘s universe. For the show’s Valentine’s Day Special, he succeeds in catfishing Clayface.

It looks like he will be one of Harley Quinn’s first targets as a fresh superhero.

Pharaoh

Pharaoh
DC Comics

Pharaoh, an extremely niche DC Comics character, is making his first appearance in Season 4, where it’s likely he’ll only be used as a background cameo.

Man-Bat

Man-Bat, Harley Quinn
DC Comics

While Man-Bat has appeared alongside the long list of cameoing villains in their previous appearances, he’s also cropped up elsewhere. He was even an inmate in Arkham Asylum before Harley Quinn underwent her big villainous transformation.

Will There Be More Harley Quinn?

While Season 4 isn’t out just yet, fans are already wondering if there will be any more episodes to look forward to.

While nothing is official yet, the show’s director, Christina Manrique, hinted that the series has already been renewed for a fifth season. Alongside a picture of Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, Manrique noted that she was “back at WB as of last week.”

With Season 4 right around the corner, it’s a little late to be directing new stuff for it. So either it’s a new season, or fans could be surprised by another special akin to the Valentine’s Day one earlier this year.

After all, there are still ideas the filmmakers previously noted they wanted to include in the show that doesn’t look to be present in Season 4. This includes bringing Red Hood, Power Girl, and Black Canary aboard.

Harley Quinn Season 4 hits Max on July 27.

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Comics

PrimeVinister|7m ago|Review|0|

“Exoprimal looks amazing, tells an interesting tale and packages its combat well. However, it’s currently a bit light on content and variety.”

-Stuart Cullen, TechStomper

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PrimeVinister|7m ago|Review|0|▼InfoAdd Alt Source"Exoprimal looks amazing, tells

Festivals

The annual seven-day event returns  November 13 – 19, 2023; there are no entry fees, and artists worldwide are invited to submit through September 22, 2023.

The accordi @ DISACCORDI – International short film festival, since 2000 one of Italy’s leading short film events packed with screenings, exhibits, workshops, and entertainment, returns November  13 – 19, 2023. accordi @ DISACCORDI has announced that submissions are now being accepted.

The accordi @ DISACCORDI entry submission process runs until September 22, 2023. Entries in fiction and documentary short films, short animated, experimental and research short films are accepted free of charge from filmmakers, professionals, and enthusiasts around the world. Once received, entries are reviewed to determine if they will be selected for the Festival’s Official Competition, which is announced in October.

The format of the festival, structured in a wide and diversified program, provides that the screenings of the presented works are accompanied by close meetings with their authors, producers, actors in the presence of lovers of the seventh art, professionals in the film industry, industry experts and cultural operators in an informal atmosphere. Over the years the event has been enriched by a rich program of cultural activities consisting of laboratories, seminars, conferences and workshops with universities and schools; exhibitions, masterclasses, special events, focus on recent film productions of countries or geographical areas and on issues of pressing current events. The entrance to cultural events is free of charge. Special attention is devoted to the competitive section on environmental issues on eco-sustainability, respect for and protection of the environment, good ecological practices and climate change.

Visit the accordi @ DISACCORDI – International short film festival website for additional information on submissions.      www.accordiedisaccordi.it/en

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The annual seven-day event returns  November

Film

RED SEA SOUK CALL FOR PROJECT MARKET AND WIP SHOWCASE

IS OPEN

 APPLY HERE

Deadline for Applications: August 18, 2023

 

The Red Sea Souk will take place at the Ritz Carlton in Jeddah, December 2—5 alongside the Red Sea International Film Festival. The Call is reserved solely for projects and films by directors of Arab or African nationality/origin. The Project Market will present a selection of ten to twelve projects in development or in production. The WIP Showcase will present a selection of five to six films in post-production.

All selected film teams (director and producer) will benefit from:

  • Invitation to attend and present their projects/films at the Red Sea Souk
  • Specific workshops
  • Official project and film-in-progress presentations to a high-level international industry audience
  • One-to-one meeting sessions

All selected projects of films in the Project Market will compete for 3 jury-granted awards offered by the Red Sea Fund:

  • Red Sea Souk Development Award: 35,000 USD cash prize
  • Red Sea Souk Special Mention Award: 25,000 USD cash prize
  • Red Sea Souk Production Award: 100,000 USD cash prize

All selected films in post-production (WIP) will compete for 2 jury-granted awards offered by the Red Sea Fund:

  • Red Sea Souk Post-Production Award: 30,000 USD cash prize
  • Red Sea Souk Special Mention Award: 10,000 USD cash prize

 For more information, please visit:

https://redseafilmfest.com/en/project-market/

https://redseafilmfest.com/en/work-in-progress-showcase/

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RED SEA SOUK CALL FOR PROJECT

TV

An element of financial fantasy has always coursed through the Sex And The City universe. Even before the film franchise whisked our well-heeled foursome of Carrie Bradshaw, Miranda Hobbes, Samantha Jones, and Charlotte York-Goldenblatt to private Mexican villas and opulent Abu Dhabi resorts, the O.G. HBO series had a weekly columnist at a second-tier New York newspaper affording a studio apartment on the Upper East Side—here, as with Monica Gellar’s unfathomably sprawling West Village two-bedroom, the phrase “rent controlled” is frequently flung around to soften viewer skepticism—all while maintaining a lifestyle of urban ease well outside her tax bracket.

Samuel L. Jackson says he would have won an Oscar if it wasn’t for those meddling executives

You rarely saw Carrie Bradshaw on public transit. (Her real-life proxy Sarah Jessica Parker, however, is delightfully an MTA regular.) Her meals were regularly consumed at restaurants, her oven instead relegated to designer-sweater storage. And she canonically owned a shoe collection worth $40,000, a pecuniary stretch even when she was making a mythical “$4 a word” while freelancing at Vogue.

But that personal finance portfolio got considerably, well, bigger after Mr. Big came into the picture, and even more so when he left it. (In case you’ve skipped the franchise expansion, John “Big” Preston suffered a Peloton-related heart attack in the premiere episode of the Max spin-off series And Just Like That….) “I don’t want you to write a thousand words about purses. I want you to give a hundred thousand dollars … due to tragic circumstances, your pockets recently got deeper,” Carrie’s erstwhile Vogue editor Enid Frick (Candice Bergen) tactlessly tells her at a fundraising event in a season-two episode of AJLT, a sum at which our now wealthy widow barely bats an eye.

Carrie now has champagne problems

And, tragically, it’s those very deep pockets that have rendered Bradshaw—the socially aspirational but emotionally messy everywoman that once had fans proudly dubbing themselves “a Carrie”—unrecognizable from the character we’ve known for a quarter of a century. All of that passive income has made Mrs. Preston quite passive, indeed, our Cosmo-loving gal now dulled by champagne problems.

The original series at least criticized Carrie’s frivolous spending habits, most notably in the season-four episode “Ring A Ding Ding,” when she was forced to buy back her apartment following her break-up with Aidan. After getting turned down for a loan—apparently, a closet full of Manolo Blahniks isn’t actually considered an “asset”—and tearing up a generous check from her then-ex Mr. Big, “broke friend” Carrie basically wealth-shames Charlotte into handing over her hefty 2.17-karat engagement ring to pawn for a down payment.

Sarah Jessica Parker
Photo: Craig Blankenhorn/HBO Max

The show offset some of that spendthrift vice by giving early Carrie scrappy virtues. Especially in the first few seasons, which were laced with interview segments of Carrie’s various column subjects, her professional grind was more apparent—her nights spent out at trendy restaurants and industry events seemed less pure social indulgence than article research and inspiration. Now, thanks to that Big inheritance, Carrie 2.0 doesn’t actually need to work and even as the spin-off accessorizes her life with podcast shows and book tours, she approaches her career with a blasé leisureliness that seems foreign to the person who once had less than $1,000 in her savings. (Her response to said podcast getting canceled and its entire production team fired due to her simply not wanting to read vagina-related ad copy on air? “And just like that … I freed up my entire week.”)

Before becoming grossly entrenched in the one percent, the working creative often clashed with the upper class. In the fittingly titled season-two SATC episode “The Caste System,” Carrie attends a high society cocktail party as Big’s plus one. “Oh god, I hate Park Avenue. It’s like being in a foreign country,” she tells him. “Just think of me as your passport, baby,” he retorts. Back then, Carrie was simply a tourist in Big’s moneyed world—a complicated K-K-Katie with c-c-curly hair uncomfortably on the arm of a rich, WASPy Hubble of a man, much more at home out on the terrace sharing a cig with her tattooed performance-artist buddy who just happened to be the party’s cater waiter.

Unabashed and unironic wealth

In And Just Like That…, however, Carrie has fully relocated from everywoman relatability to that world of absurd affluence. It’s fitting that the gaudy, bejeweled swan clutch that Big bought her in “The Caste System”—the same “just wrong” handbag on the arm of every other white-and-wealthy woman at that Park Avenue affair, the same purse that made Carrie realize, to her horror, that Big didn’t actually know her at all—pops up in AJLT in the form of an insane JW Anderson pigeon purse, which Carrie now wears unabashedly and unironically. She has become yet another rich white woman, the exact type of person she once mocked.

The Carrie of yesteryear was not entirely down to earth, but she at least was somewhat grounded. However, where she once feared having to vacate her beloved Upper East Side studio because of insufficient funds, she can now buy and sell a multimillion-dollar condo within mere days and it’s barely a plot point. Where she would once skip out on eating dinner to afford issues of Vogue (“I felt it fed me more”), she now bumps elbows with Anna Wintour herself at the Met Gala (and conveniently has an entire Vivienne Westwood gown in her closet when her first-choice fashion look falls flat). Where she once not only befriended but proudly identified as the creative class, she now encloses herself in a gated community of profuse money and privilege. (It’s not a shock that Carrie’s closest new friend in AJLT is Seema Patel—the show’s attempt at filling the Samantha Jones absence—a Birkin bag-swinging, private-driver-having luxury real-estate broker.)

The Real Housewives Of New York City just debuted six new personalities, each one of them, like Ms. Bradshaw, equipped with a well-stocked wardrobe, a hefty bank account and some plush New York real estate. But even their clearly drummed-up daily dramas, no doubt intensified by producers, feel more authentic and relatable than the glossy trappings of Carrie’s new-money life. Once upon a time, Carrie Bradshaw was real. Now she’s just really rich.

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An element of financial fantasy has always

What to Watch


By Josh Sorokach

Barbenheimer mania ran wild over the weekend, but don’t you dare sleep on Matt Johnson’s hidden gem BlackBerry. Now streaming on VOD, the enthralling Canadian indie centers on the rise and fall of the pop culture relic known as the BlackBerry. Often referred to as “the world’s first smartphone, the device was immensely popular in the early 2000s, with its addictive nature earning the product the nickname “Crackberry.” Both Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton shine as co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, but Howerton’s exuberantly volcanic, unhinged performance may be the actor’s best work yet… which says a lot. It won’t get the buzz of a Barbie or an Oppenheimer, but BlackBerry is one of the most enjoyable films of 2023.

Photo: Everett Collection

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By Josh Sorokach Barbenheimer mania ran wild over the

Awards

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan has seen the disparaging responses to “Barbie” from various conservative male figureheads — from Ted Cruz to Ben Shapiro to Piers Morgan — and finds the whole thing “pretty pathetic.”

Joined by fellow MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin on “The Mehdi Hasan Show,” Hasan admitted on Monday’s episode that he is “semi-enjoying watching the male conservative meltdown over the ‘Barbie’ movie,” but that it makes him question where the conservative movement as a whole went awry.

“These are grown men losing their minds over a movie about a doll. What has happened to the conservative movement?” he bemoaned. “There was a time when conservatives had substantive things to say about taxes, regulation, defense, foreign policy. But now it’s just, ‘Barbie this, Dr. Seuss that.’ Bud Light, Mr. Potato Head, the skin color of the Little Mermaid. It’s ridiculous, it’s childish. It’s pretty pathetic, actually.”

Mohyeldin jumped in agreeing and said that such behavior is actually “beyond pathetic” and that it’s an effort from the likes of Cruz and Shapiro to “inject themselves into every aspect of culture and somehow make it a point of friction between the right and the left.”

“They always do it with this kind of arrogance — this sense that they somehow speak for the masses and have the pulse for what Americans really care about or what they want. Everyone else is out of touch but Ted Cruz and Ben Shapiro. They know what’s up,” Mohyeldin said.

The Egyptian commentator then looked to the staggering box office numbers behind “Barbie,” which as TheWrap reported Monday, drew in $162 million domestically.

“So once again, Ted Cruz, Ben Shapiro, the others who have been burning their Barbie dolls the past few weeks in protest? They are once again wrong,” Mohyeldin said. “Americans were excited to see this movie. And you know why, Mehdi? They know it’s just a movie to enjoy and not some sinister ploy to brainwash the masses.”

“It’s always projection, Ayman, with the right, because there is a movie out at the box office right now that I was just talking about called ‘Sound of Freedom,’ which is all about enraging and getting the base worked up. But ‘Barbie’ isn’t that,” Hasan concluded.

Watch the interview segment from Monday’s “The Mehdi Hasan Show” in the video above.


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MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan has seen the disparaging

Music

There were no hard feelings after Gosling previously apologized for copying the pop star’s “Permission to Dance” outfit

After Ryan Gosling gifted Jimin with Ken’s guitar as a peace offering for breaking the Barbie cardinal rule, the BTS member took to social media on Monday to let the world know that there are no hard feelings between the two.

“Hi Ryan and hi Ken, it’s Jimin,” the Face singer said in an Instagram video while brandishing Ken’s signature black acoustic guitar. “Congrats on your big release. My fans are excited to see your video so thank you so much. I could see that you look great in my outfit.”

“Thank you for this guitar. I really love it and I look forward to watching Barbie,” Jimin added. “Go Barbie!”

Last week, ahead of the film’s premiere, Gosling apologized for accidentally copying Jimin’s Western-style outfit from his “Permission to Dance” music video.

“I noticed that your ‘Permission to Dance’ outfit is the same as my Ken outfit in the upcoming movie Barbie. I have to give it to you — you wore it first,” Gosling previously said in a video shared on the official Barbie Twitter. “You definitely wore it best, and there’s an unspoken Ken code that if you bite another Ken’s style, you have to give them your most prized possession. I hope you’ll accept Ken’s guitar as my humble offering. And besides, Ken doesn’t really play anyway, so… it’ll be much better in your hands.”

Trending

The guitar features in Ken’s rendition of “Push,” the song by Matchbox Twenty in a particularly low moment for his character’s narrative and his relationship with Barbie. Gosling’s “Rush” was part of a Best Weekend Ever iteration of Barbie the Album, which also include a duet between Brandi Carlile and her wife Catherine of Indigo Girls’ “Closer to Fine.”

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There were no hard feelings after Gosling