After showing off their upcoming dark adventure title Bye Sweet Carole a couple of times now, developer Little Sewing Machine has finally dropped a trailer for the game, which is expected for release next year. The trailer shows off the art style for Bye Sweet Carole that harkens back to the golden age of classical animation, while also displaying the game’s unique mood and atmosphere.
Created by Chris Darril, creator and director of Remothered series, Bye Sweet Carole focuses on Lana Benton. Urged by the terrifying Mr. Kyn, also known as “Old Hat,” Lana finds herself catapulted into a mysterious enchanted garden to deal with menacing and disturbing creatures. After discovering a number of letters from a certain “French,” Lana decides to follow the last known trail of Carole Simmons, a girl of the same age who apparently escaped from Bunny Hall, an orphanage in the nineteenth century. The building is now infested by colony of wild rabbits that are able to open a dimensional portal to the realm of Corolla.
Featuring a universe hand-drawn universe with the techniques from the greatest animation movies, Bye Sweet Carole will also see you using Lana’s ability to shapeshift into a rabbit and various forms to solve puzzles and overcome challenges.
Bye Sweet Carole is planned for release on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series and PC via Steam.
IndieWire exclusively shares that MUBI has acquired the rights to the latest button-pushing work from the filmmaker behind “The Maid,” “Nasty Baby,” and “Crystal Fairy.” The Park City premiere stars Silva as a version of himself, here a filmmaker staring down an existential crisis while adrift over his busted latest project, and comedian and social media sensation Jordan Firstman also as a version of himself, an outspokenly gay influencer who blows up the fictional Silva’s life.
This raunchy, sexually explicit satire of gay millennial life amused and provoked Sundance audiences with its graphic content, unapologetic drug use, and a narrative hairpin turn typical of Silva’s low-budget, genre-mixing indies. In a quote shared by MUBI, Bret Easton Ellis said the film is “like if Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Roma’ were made by ‘Female Trouble’-era John Waters.”
The Chilean filmmaker based “Rotting in the Sun” on his own experience vacating Brooklyn for Mexico City, where he lived in an architectural studio hoping to restart his career as a painter. “I just wanted to paint and chill,” Silva told IndieWire in an interview out of Sundance. “But I can’t escape the movies. Wherever I go, I see things that are cinematic.”
It was there he met social media star Jordan Firstman at the Plaza Rio de Janeiro, where Firstman told him he’d just rewatched “Crystal Fairy” the night before. The encounter makes it into “Rotting in the Sun,” though reset on a nude beach and after Silva’s character tries to drown himself. In the film, the pair start up a collaboration, only for Silva to go missing, setting Firstman on a quasi-detective journey to find him. Meanwhile, Silva’s housekeeper (“The Maid” star Catalina Saavedra) may have something to do with his disappearance — though “Rotting” has plenty more Ketamine-addled tricks in its arsenal.
“I found him hilarious and exhausting,” Silva said of meeting Firstman, who’s had roles in series including “Search Party” and “Ms. Marvel” and also works as a TV writer. “It was very much something I wanted to make fun of.”
MUBI acquired rights for “Rotting in the Sun” in North America, Latin America, UK/Ireland, Germany/Austria, France, Benelux, Italy, and Spain. The film will open theatrically in the U.S. on September 8 and stream on MUBI globally September 15.
“Rotting in the Sun,” produced by Jacob Wasserman, Hidden Content, and The Lift, in association with Robert Pattinson’s production company Icki Eneo Arlo, Spacemaker Productions and Caffeine Post, marked Silva’s fifth time back at Sundance, where he’s previously won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize and Directing Award.
After a traumatic year, an Indian-American teen just wants to spruce up her social status — but friends, family and feelings won’t make it easy on her.
Certificate:Suitable for ages 12 and up
Year: 2022
Duration: 4 Seasons
Available Seasons: Season 1 (10 Ep), Season 2 (10 Ep), Season 3 (10 Ep)
Audio: English – Audio Description, English [Original], European Spanish, French, Hindi, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese
Subtitles: Arabic, English, French, Polish, Ukrainian, Traditional Chinese
Status: Returning Series”Never Have I Ever” is a TV show produced by Kaling International and Universal Television. The show was originally broadcast on Netflix and premiered on April 27th 2020. So far there have been 4 seasons (comprising of 40 episodes) of “Never Have I Ever”. The most recent episode aired on August 12th 2022 and more seasons are expected in the future.
The real-life Candy Montgomery became a free woman thanks to Don Crowder, the cocksure personal injury attorney who would represent the Texas housewife in the murder trial of Betty Gore in 1980.
To portray such an integral character in the HBO Max limited series Love and Death starring Elizabeth Olsen and Jesse Plemons, David E. Kelley zeroed in on Tom Pelphrey, the actor best known for playing Laura Linney’s brother Ben in Netflix’s Ozark. The limited series also stars Lily Rabe as Betty, the woman whose husband Allan (Plemons) had an affair with Candy (Olsen).
Here, the actor who also starred in season one of Outer Range talks about why he took the role of the overly-confident attorney — and the sorrow he felt when he learned how the real Don Crowder took his own life 18 years after Montgomery was found not guilty.
DEADLINE What was the most alluring aspect of this project? Was it working for David E. Kelley? Did he let you know that your character would eventually shine later on in the story?
TOM PELPHREY He did let me know. They sent me the first four episodes when I was in New Mexico doing Outer Range. I planned to read one a night. I sat down and read all four in a row. I couldn’t put the scripts down. I was laughing. I was moved. I was so fascinated by the story because I’d never heard of it before. But at the time, Don was barely in the first four scripts. I was sort of confused. I was like, ‘guys, I don’t understand why David would want me to do this.’ We had a talk and he said, ‘I know you only got the four, but the trial starts in episode five and we’re really going to get to see Don.’ He was like, ‘do me a favor and just go look into this guy a little bit. You’re gonna love him as much as I did.’ I took him at his word. And he was right. Don really got his moment in the sun toward the end of the show. And then having David Kelley write your courtroom banter? I mean, is there anybody better at writing that kind of stuff than he is?
So you read everything you could learn about Don Crowder?
PELPHREY Yeah, I did. I mean, they gave us the source material. [It’s based on articles and the book “Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs” by Jim Atkinson and John Bloom]. David was extremely faithful to a lot of what was in the source material. But there was also a whole lot about Don that wasn’t in the show, like about his personal history and stuff. I really fell in love with the guy. It was the most fun I’ve ever had playing a character. And I think part of it was just the research I did into the man himself.
How did you shoot this when you were busy on Outer Range and Ozark?
It was in the middle of a crazy, little jigsaw puzzle. We finished the first season about Outer Range, and then I flew back east to do Ozark season four, and then flew immediately to Austin to Love and Death.
Did Don think highly of himself? I mean, he obviously had to have some sort of an ego to take on a case like this, right?
PELPHREY I think Don had a very healthy amount of confidence, for sure. On some level you have to have a bit of an ego, I guess, to think you could take on a murder trial when you’ve never done one before. But I also think there was a very real part of his personality that didn’t like somebody getting bullied or picked on. He saw the way that the police were handling the investigation and he saw it as overstepping.
How did you quite literally find Don’s voice, that accent?
PELPHREY I just tried to listen to people with a Texas accent. And as I was working on it, I settled into what I eventually did, and ran it past Jesse Plemons, who grew up in Texas. He said ‘you sound exactly like one of the guys I grew up with.’ Jesse grew up in a small town not too far outside of Austin.
There is one scene where we see Don getting ready for court, which includes seeing him in the shower and putting on his suit. He also wears a little smile. Why do you think that was important to the story?
PELPHREY Obviously the entire story is Candy’s, but once we get to the trial, David shifts us to the point of view of Don as the lead defense attorney. He switched the storytelling perspective because we can’t access Candy at that time. Like, literally and metaphorically, she’s checked out because she’s taking Serax. We see him get ready for court, and then he goes in to start questioning Candy. Lizzie’s performance is so powerful. Don forces her to look at the ax she used to kill Betty.
Was Don’s line of questioning and closing argument pulled directly from the court transcript?
PELPHREY Yes.
So he did say this was an American tragedy.
PELPHREY Yep. Obviously there’s a tragic element to it. Everybody’s repressing what they actually want or feel, and if the repression leads to a mother getting brutally murdered in her home, then yeah, that’s a tragedy. Like, there’s gotta be another way that we can do this, so it doesn’t end that way, you know?
So even the part where he shows the ax to Candy, that was something Don did in real life?
PELPHREY Yes, it was brilliant. Don was a personal injury lawyer. He had a real flare for the dramatic, but also had a deep understanding that a trial was literally about shaping a narrative. When you think of the personal injury stuff, it’s like, okay, it’s undeniable.They got hurt, but how did they get hurt? And does the jury feel for the [defendant] in a compelling enough way to rule in their favor? He quickly identified with Candy and obviously all the media attention that she was drawing. He was like, if we’re gonna win this, we have to win it in which the jury can have sympathy for Candy. That’s why he was constantly so upset that she was taking Serax to maintain her composure.
Do you think justice was served?
PELPHREY Yes. They tried her for murder one, and I do not believe she was guilty of murder one at all. I mean, that would imply that she planned what she did. There was ample evidence to suggest that whatever did happen that day, it certainly was not planned or premeditated. If they tried her on manslaughter, I think they would’ve gotten a conviction.
After playing him, did you want to know why Don killed himself? Did you think about that a lot?
PELPHREY It had a weird impact. It made me very sad to learn that. I really loved learning about this man. You know, he and his wife Carol had this big beautiful house in Texas and they would foster all the local kids. Anybody who was struggling, anybody who had lost their parents, anybody who maybe had a single parent who didn’t have a ton of time for their kids. Kids were constantly in and out of the Crowder house, and Don would help tutor ’em with their studies, coach the sports teams, get ’em active, get ’em working out. He was a really active member in a really positive way in the community. I read an interview with Carol after Don took his own life in the late nineties, and Carol said they had divorced but had remained best friends for the rest of his life. I don’t want to speculate as to why he might have killed himself, but I will say it surprised me and was upsetting.
This limited series really makes you like Candy. Was that your takeaway?
PELPHREY It was kind of hard not to like her. I think Elizabeth’s work is absolutely fucking incredible. She did such an amazing job of bringing that pain to life in such a way that was shocking … in the best way possible. Like, I didn’t see that erupting until it erupted, you know? I believe that’s the mechanism by which people can have a truth buried so deep that they’re not consciously acting on it. In moments of extreme duress, it can manifest itself. I think we take it for granted, how there’s a conscious mind and an unconscious mind and how it has different ramifications in our lives. I just think Lizzie did a masterful job of finding the depth of the character. That went a long way to getting us on her side.
Looking back on your career, what was the game changing role for you?
PELPHREY Ben on Ozark. It’s hard to quantify these things in reality, but I had a sense after Ozark that it was a level up. There were more offers, there was more doors open. It’s one thing to do good work. It’s another thing to get the opportunity to do good work on a good show. And, it’s another thing to get to do good work on a good show that everyone watches. And when you get those three things together? I mean, you put your head down, you always do your work, you try to show up prepared. You take all those things seriously. But man, there is an element of luck and timing to all this that is unquestionable, in my opinion.
Janelle Monáe has shared the track list for her new album The Age of Pleasure. It features contributions from Grace Jones, Sister Nancy, Amaarae, Doechii, Nia Long, Ckay, and Seun Kuti and Egypt 80. Check out the full track list below.
Monáe first announced last month with a steamy and sapphic video for the song “Lipstick Lover.” The Age of Pleasure is her first new album since 2018’s Dirty Computer; it’s due out this Friday (June 9). She previously released the opening track in “Float” February. Later this summer she’ll kick off a North American tour in support of the album in Seattle, Washington.
The album art for Janelle Monáe’s The Age of Pleasure
Janelle Monáe – The Age of Pleasure:
01 Float [ft. Seun Kuti and Egypt 80] 02 Champagne Shit 03 Black Sugar Beach 04 Phenomenal [ft. Doechii] 05 Haute 06 Ooh La La [ft. Grace Jones] 07 Lipstick Lover 08 The Rush [ft. Amaarae and Nia Long] 09 The French 75 [ft. Sister Nancy] 10 Water Slide 11 Know Better [ft. CKay] 12 Paid in Pleasure 13 Only Have Eyes 42 14 A Dry Red
Do you run up the stairs once you’ve switched off the light because something could be chasing you? Or are you more like me, fearing mania of the mind, or governmental conspiracy?
When I first watched Kubrick’s The Shining, I was fascinated by its psychological undertones. Jack Torrance is not scary because the Overlook Hotel is changing him; he is scary because he is an abusive alcoholic. The Shine is not a mere magical power; it is the ability to see beyond the sugar-coated façade of the world.
Sigmund Freud states that horror comes from the “uncanny,” diving into the darkest desires and fears of human consciousness. Psychological horror films are therefore an execution of our innermost thoughts. They access the hidden sin every person thinks of committing at least once in their life. We watch them to live vicariously through a killer, or a victim, or a sociopath.
Not only the fascination of the audience, but also of directors, cinematographers, and actors, make films such as Psycho, Taxi Driver, and The Night of the Hunter so intriguing. For example, the scream that tears from Janet Leigh’s throat in Psycho is so raw and disturbing that it promotes the audience to feel genuine fear and dread, instead of something artificial. This film does not adhere to the common relief felt by watchers that they are not in the character’s situation. In Taxi Driver, Robert de Niro’s character is almost constantly either in his confined cab or small apartment. This gives the effect of walls closing in one’s mind to render them crazed and leaves watchers wondering if they, too, could end up like the taxi driver. The Night of the Hunter displays a masterful use of expressionism to tell a metaphorical story. The corruption of religion and childhood innocence is shown through unusual camerawork, shadowing, and Robert Mitchum’s infamous tattooed “Love/Hate” knuckles, of course.
There is also an argument that unlike slasher horror, which is more graphic and therefore less tense and realistic, psychological horror is scarier as it makes the viewer’s mind wander, and contemplate on the world’s good and evil.
3 commonplace themes and tropes within psychological films also render this genre more disturbing:
Death
An obvious one, but very important. Death is something every human thinks about at least once in their life. It is inevitable, but when it is caused by murder or a freak accident, it is scarier. Another sub-trope of this is death being implied offscreen, which garners a much more mysterious atmosphere. An example of death being portrayed well is in The Shining when Jack Torrance runs at Dick Hallorann with the axe; this is especially chilling due to the theme of racism in the movie, as well as the loss of someone who could have saved Wendy and Danny.
Tension-building
Without tension, the story fails to scare the watcher. It must be carefully crafted in order to establish the psychological downfall of the characters. This is evidenced in Get Out, where we see through Chris’ eyes the microaggressions he faces daily as a Black person. The racism is scary in itself, but the masterful way in which director Jordan Peele builds tension really exacerbates the climactic killing of the Armitage family
The Metaphor of the Villain
The antagonist of the psychological horror will always metaphorically reflect the social issue/existence the film itself is attempting to subtly promote. John Ferguson in Vertigo is clearly, by modern standards, the toxic male. He uses obsession over women as his driving force, and is controlling and victimising. Vertigo could thus be seen as a social commentary on masculinity.
In conclusion, the psychological horror movie is the one we watch glued to our seats in an attempt to wring all the rich details and meanings and effects from its cloth. It is possibly the greatest film genre ever.
Here are my personal recommendations for 20 great psychological horrors: Psycho (1960), The Shining (1980), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Taxi Driver (1976), Get Out (2017), The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920), Shutter Island (2010), Vertigo (1958), Us (2019), Vivarium (2019), The Babadook (2014), The Blair Witch Project (1999), Black Swan (2010), Se7en (1995), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), The Fly (1986), Hereditary (2018), Misery (1990), Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
My name is Mia and I’m doing my college work experience at Raindance! I have a strong interest in writing my novel and illustrating, and love psychological horror films and Lady Gaga.
A stretch of Calgary’s popular 17 Avenue will be closed to all traffic starting this morning, and the closure will continue through the weekend.
The City of Calgary is closing 17 Avenue S.W. between 2 and 4 Streets to repair sanitary services starting at 9 a.m.
“A full road closure will be in place while work is underway, however, all businesses and residences will remain accessible for local traffic via 4 Street S.W.,” the city said in a notice to area businesses.
The roadway and south sidewalk of 17 Avenue S.W. will be closed to traffic, parking and pedestrians, but the north sidewalk will remain open.
Some patios will have to wait to open as road work ramps up on 17th Avenue
A detour will be available for businesses and residences on the south side of the avenue.
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Traffic will be diverted to 15 Avenue and 18 Avenue S.W., restricting parking on the north sides of both avenues.
Please follow detour signage in area. Pedestrian access will remain in place while work is completed
This work will ensure continued reliability of sanitary service for all properties in the area.
EXCLUSIVE: One Direction star Niall Horan is leading a new live performance series from music network Vevotitled Extended Play.
Later this month, some of Horan’s live performances including intimate versions of songs from his new album The Show will kick off the franchise, which describes itself as a “multi-song performance capture shot in existing locations that realize the vision of an artist’s project.”
The series, which will feature other artists further down the line, will begin in one space before moving to other locations as the singer’s sound develops. Horan has previously worked with Vevo to release studio performances of two of his tracks in 2019. He broke through with X Factor-formed One Direction last decade and has been making solo albums since 2017.
JP Evangelista, Vevo’s SVP, Content, Programming & Marketing, told Deadline Extended Play will “show appreciation for the art behind the song, and the moments that make the music.”
“We wanted to build a series where the world’s most talented songwriters and their fans could be transported back to the time – and location – that their favorite songs were created in,” she added.
“Our aim was to give audiences a look inside the inner workings of what truly makes an artist: we wanted them to forget the hustle and bustle of sold-out shows and the intense energy of recording studios, and instead shift their focus to the quieter times to foster a more intimate understanding of their craft.”
The vision for Extended Play was born from the recent trend for longform music content as “audiences flock back to the living room,” Evangelista added.
“One of the many beauties of Extended Play is the ability to weave single, one-off performances into a detailed longform piece of content that is completely cohesive and tells a clear story, which lends itself perfectly for the television,” she added.
Rohit Prasad, a senior Amazon executive, had an urgent message for ninth and 10th graders at Dearborn STEM Academy, a public school in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood.
He had come to the school on a recent morning to observe an Amazon-sponsored lesson in artificial intelligence that teaches students how to program simple tasks for Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated virtual assistant. And he assured the Dearborn students there would soon be millions of new jobs in A.I.
“We need to create the talent for the next generation,” Mr. Prasad, the head scientist for Alexa, told the class. “So we are educating about A.I. at the earliest, grass-roots level.”
A few miles away, Sally Kornbluth, the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was delivering a more sobering message about A.I. to students from local schools who had gathered at Boston’s Kennedy Library complex for a workshop on A.I. risks and regulation.
“Because A.I. is such a powerful new technology, in order for it to work well in society, it really needs some rules,” Dr. Kornbluth said. “We have to make sure that what it doesn’t do is cause harm.”
The same-day events — one encouraging work in artificial intelligence and the other cautioning against deploying the technology too hastily — mirrored the larger debate currently raging in the United States over the promise and potential peril of A.I.
Both student workshops were organized by an M.I.T. initiative on “responsible A.I.” whose donors include Amazon, Google and Microsoft. And they underscored a question that has vexed school districts across the nation this year: How should schools prepare students to navigate a world in which, according to some prominent A.I. developers, the ascendancy of A.I.-powered tools seems all but inevitable?
Teaching A.I. in schools is not new. Courses like computer science and civics now regularly include exercises on the societal impacts of facial recognition and other automated systems.
But the push for A.I. education took on more urgency this year after news about ChatGPT — a novel chatbot that can create humanlike homework essays and sometimes manufactures misinformation — began spreading in schools.
Now, “A.I. literacy” is a new education buzz phrase. Schools are scrambling for resources to help teach it. Some universities, tech companies and nonprofits are responding with ready-made curriculums.
The lessons are proliferating even as schools are wrestling with a fundamental question: Should they teach students to program and use A.I. tools, providing training in tech skills employers seek? Or should students learn to anticipate and mitigate A.I. harms?
“We want students to be informed, responsible users and informed, responsible designers of these technologies,” said Dr. Breazeal, whose group organized the A.I. workshops for schools. “We want to make them informed, responsible citizens about these rapid developments in A.I. and the many ways they are influencing our personal and professional lives.”
(Disclosure: I was recently a fellow at the Knight Science Journalism program at M.I.T.)
Other education experts say schools should also encourage students to consider the broader ecosystems in which A.I. systems operate. That might include students researching the business models behind new technologies or examining how A.I. tools exploit user data.
“If we are engaging students in learning about these new systems, we really have to think about the context surrounding these new systems,” said Jennifer Higgs, an assistant professor of learning and mind sciences at the University of California, Davis. But often, she noted, “that piece is still missing.”
The workshops in Boston were part of a “Day of A.I.” event organized by Dr. Breazeal’s program, which drew several thousands students worldwide. It offered a glimpse of the varied approaches that schools are taking to A.I. education.
At Dearborn STEM, Hilah Barbot, a senior product manager at Amazon Future Engineer, the company’s computer science education program, led a lesson in voice A.I. for students. The lessons were developed by M.I.T. with the Amazon program, which provides coding curriculums and other programs for K-12 schools. The company provided more than $2 million in grants to M.I.T. for the project.
First, Ms. Barbot explained some voice A.I. lingo. She taught students about “utterances,” the phrases that consumers might say to prompt Alexa to respond.
Then students programmed simple tasks for Alexa, like telling jokes. Jada Reed, a ninth grader, programmed Alexa to respond to questions about Japanese manga characters. “I think it’s really cool you can train it to do different things,” she said.
Dr. Breazeal said it was important for students to have access to professional software tools from leading tech companies. “We’re giving them future-proof skills and perspectives of how they can work with A.I. to do things they care about,” she said.
Some Dearborn students, who had already built and programmed robots in school, said they appreciated learning how to code a different technology: voice-activated helpbots. Alexa uses a range of A.I. techniques, including automatic speech recognition.
At least a few students also said they had privacy and other concerns about A.I.-assisted tools.
Amazon records consumers’ conversations with its Echo speakers after a person says a “wake word” like “Alexa.” Unless users opt out, Amazon may use their interactions with Alexa to target them with ads or use their voice recordings to train its A.I. models. Last week, Amazon agreed to pay $25 million to settle federal charges that it had indefinitely kept children’s voice recordings, violating the federal online children’s privacy law. The company said it disputed the charges and denied that it had violated the law. The company noted that customers could review and delete their Alexa voice recordings.
But the one-hour Amazon-led workshop did not touch on the company’s data practices.
Dearborn STEM students regularly scrutinize technology. Several years ago, the school introduced a course in which students used A.I. tools to create deepfake videos — that is, false content — of themselves and examine the consequences. And the students had thoughts on the virtual assistant they were learning to program that morning.
“Did you know there’s a conspiracy theory that Alexa listens to your conversations to show you ads?” a ninth grader named Eboni Maxwell asked.
“I’m not afraid of it listening,” Laniya Sanders, another ninth grader, replied. Even so, Ms. Sanders said she avoided using voice assistants because “I just want to do it myself.”
A few miles away at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, an education center that houses a full-scale replica of the U.S. Senate chamber, dozens of students from Warren Prescott School in Charlestown, Mass., were exploring a different topic: A.I. policy and safety regulations.
Playing the role of senators from different states, the middle school students participated in a mock hearing in which they debated provisions for a hypothetical A.I. safety bill.
Some students wanted to ban companies and police departments from using A.I. to target people based on data like their race or ethnicity. Others wanted to require schools and hospitals to assess the fairness of A.I. systems before deploying them.
The exercise was not unfamiliar for the middle school students. Nancy Arsenault, an English and civics teacher at Warren Prescott, said she often asked her students to consider how digital tools affected them and the people they care about.
“As much as students love tech, they are keenly aware that unfettered A.I. is not something they want,” she said. “They want to see limits.”
If you are an actor out there, the story of Evan Peters will be absolutely inspirational. He was a kid from Missouri who fell in love with movies and the characters he would see in them, and a chance meeting with a casting person gave him the impetus to beg his parents to let him move to Hollywood at just age 15. In his second audition he got the job, and eventually achieved his goal of meeting the Olsen twins (or at least one of them).
It hasn’t stopped for Peters since then in a young career that has already won him an Emmy for Mare of Easttown and a Golden Globe earlier this year for his acclaimed work as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story on Netflix. He is also a producer on the limited series with Ryan Murphy and was careful about his, and the show’s, approach to telling the story of this notorious killer. From adopting his physical attributes to staying in character throughout, Peters put his all into the part, but in this week’s episode of my Deadline video series The Actor’s Side he tells me it is going to be his last walk on the dark side of humanity for a very long time. You can’t blame him. Murphy has also put him in numerous seasons of American Horror Story as a variety of unsavory characters, even including another serial killer, and Peters feels it is time for a change.
He loved playing his Emmy-winning role of Det. Colin Zabel opposite Kate Winslet in Mare, a normal guy who met a tragic and shocking end, and he tells me he learned a lot from the experience of working with the veteran star. He even has already been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe playing Peter/Quicksilver in several X Men movies, as well as WandaVision, and there is much, much more to come.
To watch our conversation and get the “actor’s side” of things from Peters, click on the video above.
Join me every Wednesday during Emmy season for another edition of The Actor’s Side.
“Many imagine the Mediterranean as water, sea, and nature,” says Sara Mardini. “But for me, and for many others, it’s a graveyard. It’s literally a death sentence.”
Mardini narrows her dark eyes and smiles. The 27-year-old knows what she’s talking about. Seven years ago, she and her sister Yusra, both fleeing war-torn Syria, found themselves adrift on a barge on the stretch of sea between the Middle East and Europe, what the Italians call the marenostrum. There were 18 people on board, on a boat built for seven. When the engine failed, and the vessel started to take on water, Sara dove into the water. Yusra followed. They were both strong swimmers who dreamed of competing in the Olympics. Together they swam for hours, pushing and pulling the barge until they finally made landfall on a beach on the Greek island of Lesbos. For Sara, Yusra, and the others on the boat that night, the death sentence of the Mediterranean was commuted.
That night was just the beginning of the sisters’ odyssey. They traveled, by foot, by train, and by bus, across Greece, the Balkans, Hungary, and Austria, finally arriving in Berlin. Yusra realized her dream and competed in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics as a member of the refugee athletics team. Sara decided to return to Lesbos and began work as a volunteer in the Moria refugee camp, an “open-air prison” in the words of Human Rights Watch. There she welcomed migrants and distributed blankets while also working as a translator, listening and providing comfort where she could.
“I’d tell them: ‘I know how you feel’ because I’d had the same experience and I survived,” she recalls. “I’d say that again and again. It reassured them to know that I was a refugee, just like them.”
But Sara’s commitment would cost her. In 2018, at the age of 23, she was arrested by Greek authorities, accused of aiding illegal immigration. She spent 106 days in a maximum security prison in Athens, before being released on bail and allowed to return to Berlin. She is still awaiting trial.
Sara and Yusra’s story, fictionalized, was told by Sally El Hoseini in the Netflix drama The Swimmers, which starred Nathalie and Manal Issa and premiered in Toronto last year. A documentary focused on Sara, Long Distance Swimmer — Sara Mardini, from director Charly Wai Feldman bowed at Toronto’s Hot Docs fest in April. Earlier this year, Time magazine put Sara and Yusra on their list of the 100 most influential people of 2023, with a commentary written by Cate Blanchett.
“There is nothing wrong with pulling drowning people out of water or trying to save families from freezing, or ensuring pregnant women don’t go into labor on a rock, or even showing children that they can actually be children,” says Sean Binder, a volunteer, like Sara, who was arrested with her back in 2018 and who Feldman interviewed for the documentary. “I believe that everything we have done is right.”
Sara Mardini spoke with THR Roma in Berlin, the city that welcomed her five years ago, and where she waits while a 25-year sentence still hangs over her head.
We see stories of castaways off the Italian coast all the time in the media. Recently bodies washed up on the shore of the seaside village of Cutro. Yet NGOs on rescue missions are criminalized. Why?
Governments want to put an end to the rescuing of migrants, claiming that volunteers, activists, and NGOs encourage illegal crossings, which is simply not true. When I swam my way here in 2015, I had no idea if I would find anyone on the coast. In fact, there was no one at all when my sister and I, together with others, were shipwrecked in Lesbos. The other side of this story is that the European Union and various governments failed to take in the migrants they had promised to take. They claimed that they were at maximum capacity, so they closed the borders. They made up the story about refugees arriving because of the help provided by volunteers, when in fact they came because in 2015, the borders opened, but that too has changed.
Your story and that of your sister have inspired two films. You spoke at the U.N.. and your sister, Yusra, met Barack Obama. Has this changed you?
No, not at all. I am older, of course, and I have more experience, but I am still the same person who left Syria seven years ago, and that goes for my sister too. But we have become stronger and have more belief in the words we speak and the values we fight for. Unfortunately, it’s been seven years during which time we have been repeating the same words every day, demanding the same rights, defending the same people. We explain that people who come from Syria, Africa, or Iran are no different from people born in Europe: they are just born under different circumstances. It’s kind of sad that we still have to repeat this over and over again, but the day will come when there will be no discrimination, regardless of origin, language, and skin color. There are a lot of people in Europe who didn’t even know where Syria was before the war. But all you have to do is to Google it.
(from left) Yusra and Sarah Mardini were honored with the German Bambi Award in 2016 for their humanitarian work
Several governments insist that migration must be contained. Is that even possible?
Obviously, it’s not. The truth is that they’re not willing to do the necessary work to integrate people. It’s just a matter of viewpoints. If a French girl wants to study in Germany, technically that is also migration. But she can easily take the plane and she won’t encounter any problems because she has that right. The refugee doesn’t and therefore has difficulty integrating. For example, Muslim holidays here in Germany do not exist, we still have to go to work. Ramadan is not recognized. Many do not understand it, while for us it is a sacred month. European societies are simply not ready to take different cultures into consideration and provide the same rights for everyone. This is difficult for us.
You experienced war in Syria. Though it may seem like a simple question, we know it’s not. Can you tell us why you fled, how you ended up on that boat?
A simple answer to a simple question. I lost my home, the home I grew up in. I no longer had a place to live. From one moment to the next, I could no longer go to school or to the swimming pool. Living in a situation of war means that every time you say goodbye to your family and walk out the door, it could be your last. No one deserves to live in such circumstances. It is a basic human right to live in a safe place, to feel safe to be safe to be able to live your life, go out and follow your dreams. I don’t want to be afraid of dying every time I leave home: That’s one of the reasons we decided to leave. The other reason is that we wanted to swim. To pursue our passion and follow our dreams, like normal people.
What have you been charged with?
You can almost count them on one hand (laughs): Criminal association, money laundering, espionage, human trafficking, smuggling, fraud.
Espionage? Really?
For me, the most absurd accusation of them all is money laundering. We had no money to launder! What money? (laughs)
In an interview, you once said that millions take to the streets to protest in the name of climate, but that never happens for migrants.
Yes, I still get into arguments about this. When people protest for the environment, I ask myself, who are you doing it for? Is it only for the people who live in Europe? The fact is that the world is split in two, there are those living in survival mode and those living a normal life. When you live in an absolutely safe situation, you can be creative and you can fight for the environment. But if you live in a refugee camp, there is no clean water and you don’t even have a mattress to sleep on, you just don’t have the space. In a single tent, at times there are up to forty people – men, women, children. There are all sorts of skin diseases festering in these camps; doctors keep saying that they have never seen anything like this before. So, why don’t we fight for the people in these camps? Why, if we can protest for the environment, can’t we also fight for those who were forced to flee their countries and cross the sea? After all, there’s a close link between migration and the environment. More and more people are leaving their countries due to climate change.
Protestors supporting Sara Mardini in the documentary ‘Long Distance Swimmer: Sara Mardini’
In this film, you speak very openly about your fragilities and about being in therapy.
Well, in Syria it is not common to talk about mental health. I would like for people to understand that seeking help does not mean that you are sick or that you have lost your mind. It’s more like going to the dentist, it’s the same thing really. I think this is an important message for people who come from the Middle East.
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m ultra-sensitive. I cry over anything in a split second, but at the same time, I have this argumentative personality, this anger. Well, I think it’s okay to celebrate vulnerability. Mostly, I wanted to share the impact of my story and of being a prisoner without rights. You see, getting involved as a volunteer was the first thing I did after I escaped from Syria. I was only 21, at a time when I was so happy and I considered myself very lucky. Then suddenly someone comes and takes everything away, accuses me of these false claims, and puts me in prison for something I didn’t do. It’s natural to suffer. So I said to myself, why not talk about it? Why not show everyone what many don’t see? Which is that many volunteers give everything they can offer. There are some who think we are people who have time to waste, that we don’t know what to do with our lives, and that we’re looking for our soul mates in these camps. It’s all untrue. I met people who chose to volunteer instead of going on vacation, people who forgo a salary to help other people. Showing fragility is also a way of saying that volunteers deserve respect.
How is your legal case progressing?
It is now been four years since I was detained. During the first trial, which took place a few months ago, the misdemeanor charges were dropped. We are now waiting for the proceedings of the more serious accusations. It’s basically a waiting game, a very expensive one.
Editor’s Note: BuzzFeed does not support discriminatory or hateful speech in any form. We stand by the LGBTQ+ community and all fans who found a home in the Harry Potter series and will work to provide a safe space for fans. If you, like us, feel impassioned about trans rights, learn more or donate to an amazing UK-based charity here.
Christina Ricci wouldn’t want to know Misty Quigley in real life, but she has a protective soft spot for her “Yellowjackets” character. In this episode of “The Envelope,” Ricci delves into why she enjoys playing the impulsive outcast and what she values about the series’ unconventional exploration of trauma.
Ricci also reflects on her enduring connection to Wednesday Addams, recalls the two auditions that changed her life even though she didn’t land either part, and talks about how her acting career began as an escape from her unhappy childhood. Plus, if you want reading recommendations? She’s got you covered. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
Mark Olsen: Hello and welcome to another episode of “The Envelope” podcast, where we bring you revealing and distinctive conversations with the creative talents behind some of your favorite shows and movies. I’m one of your hosts, Mark Olsen.
Yvonne Villareal: And I’m your other host, Yvonne Villarreal. And I have to say, as a kid of the ’90s, I speak with authority when I say the early work of this week’s guest provided seminal moments to my generation. Mark, why don’t you fill our listeners in on who you’re talking to this week?
Olsen: I spoke with one of the stars of the breakout hit “Yellowjackets,” which just wrapped up its second season. And indeed, Christina Ricci has been a star since she was a child in the 1990s. From her debut in “Mermaids” to “The Addams Family” and “Now and Then” to “The Ice Storm,” “The Opposite of Sex” and “Buffalo 66,” she very much has grown up in front of audiences, moving on to movies like “Monster” and “Speed Racer.”
“Yellowjackets” is both a psychological horror story and a coming-of-age drama as it follows the saga of a girls’ soccer team stranded in the wilderness for nearly a year after a plane crash in the ’90s. Christina plays one of the survivors in the present day, alongside co-stars that include Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, Tawny Cypress, Lauren Ambrose and Elijah Wood.
Villareal: Christina is so good in capturing how Misty is both painfully endearing and also totally unhinged. And with her dry humor and eccentric energy, I can’t think of anyone better suited to play the adult Misty. It’s a casting that really plays off the pop culture nostalgia of her earlier roles.
Olsen: She had more than a few things to say about that, Yvonne, as well as the new series “Wednesday” that revives one of her signature roles. So let’s get to the conversation.
Mark Olsen: Christina, thank you so much for joining us today.
Christina Ricci: Oh, thank you for having me.
Olsen: I’m fresh off watching the season finale of “Yellowjackets,” where you star as Misty Quigley 25 years after surviving a plane crash as a teenager. There’s something just so engaging about the way that you play Misty. She’s got this spunky kind of grownup Nancy Drew appeal that also makes it really easy to forget that she’s clearly a psychopath with a pretty high body count. Is that division something that appealed to you about the character?
Ricci: Yeah, I guess so.I mean, what really appealed to me about the show and about all the characters in the adult storyline is this idea of — the show’s really about trauma and how trauma affects people. We come up against this all the time these days and this expectation of victims of trauma to be perfect, and we almost discount what people have gone through if they don’t come out a version of a victim that we expect or recognize. And I loved the variety of reaction and evolution that the young survivors had in becoming the adults. What we end up with, the different characters we end up with as adults from people who have gone through the same trauma, I think is really appealing.
And I, like, Misty — I think what you’re talking about, the qualities that you’re describing, are really her ability as a survivor to create happiness and interest and joy in her life on a daily basis to fight and counteract her real, deep, innate pain and misery that exists inside of her. I also understand why people like Misty and I’m glad people like Misty. I like Misty, you know?
Olsen: Is that something that’s important to you, to like a character? To hear you say that you like Misty is something I find really endearing.
Ricci: Yeah, it’s not important to me that I like a character. I find her entertaining. I like watching her. She’s not someone I would want to know in real life. I feel like I understand her, and I think once you understand a person, all their behavior is justified. I’m not an actor who feels that I have to like the character I’m playing in order to play them. I’ve never really played anyone truly awful, though, or evil, so I’m not sure. I actually have never faced that issue. Oh, you know what? The character in “Monster,” I really didn’t respect or like, but I played her anyway.
Olsen: Now, why is that? What was it that you didn’t like or respect —
Ricci: She was a coward. She was a coward who was so afraid and — you know what I mean? But again, I really don’t like judging people in general.
Olsen: Yeah.
Ricci: I didn’t like the way she behaved or the things that she did in that story because I found them to be cowardly and I couldn’t respect those choices. And I also found her to be a bit of a user. But again, I really don’t like judging or dismissing or condemning people, so I feel like she probably was that way because of what she had experienced in life. But we don’t know very much about that character before she shows up, so I could only go by her actions.
Olsen: As “Yellowjackets” was coming together and you learned that the cast was also going to include Juliette Lewis and Melanie Lynskey, and the show was going to play off the fact that the three of you were known as ’90s actors, was that meaningful to you? Was that a conversation that the three of you ever had?
Ricci: Well, no, that’s not really something that anyone said to us. I thought they were just getting really great actresses in their 40s. It never occurred to me that it was a casting gimmick until we started doing press. And I think when you’re part of a gimmick but you consider yourself to be a serious actress, you tend to not realize that that’s happening to you until later.
Olsen: Well, I would say, I wouldn’t categorize it as a gimmick. I think it just adds a layer to the story.
Ricci: Well, it helps with the marketing of the show, which I totally understand.
Olsen: With the two timelines in the show, the teenaged Misty, played by Samantha Hanratty — the two of you more than any of the other characters seem like you’re really in sync. You can see the connection between the teen Misty and the adult Misty more than some of the other characters. Did the two of you collaborate on that? Or how did that come to be?
Ricci: We had one meeting, one lunch, before we started shooting Season 1, and we talked about all the different notes that each of us had been given by the EPs [executive producers]. We just sort of traded notes. She’s very different personality-wise than I am, and it was interesting to hear the different notes they’d given her based on her real-life personality and what they wanted to sort of counteract, and what they’d given me based on my real-life personality that they wanted to counteract. And comparing those, I think we both got a much clearer idea of what they wanted.
Because there was a lot of questions in the beginning. When we did the pilot, there was a decision made that she was to be more clearly a sociopath and maybe more clinically follow that sort of diagnosis. But then once we got to Season 1, understandably, the idea of pigeonholing this character into that — I think it limits what you can do with her later on. So there was a decision to not have her be that anymore and certainly not to label her that way. So we were coming from a place, I think both of us, of a little bit — we were a little unclear exactly what we should be doing. So by trading notes in that way, I think we were really able to figure it out.
Olsen: I’m so taken with the fact that you, yourself, grew up in New Jersey; in the ’90s you played on a girls’ soccer team; and now here you are on this television show that’s based around a girls’ soccer team in New Jersey in the ’90s. Do you feel like that gives you any extra insights into the authenticity of that younger storyline? Have the producers ever drawn on your experiences?
Ricci: I tried to give, I was in the makeup trailer once with a couple of the first-season cast, of the younger cast, and they were complaining about having to hide, cover up tattoos with their uniforms. And I was like, “Well, you know, what we used to do with our uniforms?” And I tried to actually really give some advice having been a girl their age playing soccer in New Jersey. And nobody really wanted to hear it. So I tend to just keep my experience from that time to myself.
Olsen: It’s funny, in a number of other interviews, I’ve seen people asking you if you have any specific music choices, needle drops, that you’d like to hear in the show. And I’m wondering, have they used any of the songs that you’ve suggested?
Ricci: I have very specific music memories and attitudes about music that were very normal in 1996 but now are not very normal. So I don’t think anyone wants to hear from me. And I’m like that person that they choose a song and I’m like, “Oh my God, this song? Do you know how much I made fun of anybody who liked this song in 1996?” So people tend to not ask me, and I’ve learned to stay quiet.
Although I just want to say, because I don’t want that to be the last thing I say about it: There are so many great musical cues on the show that I really do love. I love Smashing Pumpkins, which they’ve used. I love — Radiohead, I was a huge fan of. Obviously I love Nirvana. So I love a lot of the music that they’ve chosen.
Olsen: But now, to me, what I was about to say was that one of the things thematically that I think really works about the structure of the show is that it explores whether or not people change. You see people in their younger selves and then, as you were saying, how they’ve kind of gone through this trauma, come out the other side and the way that they are or are not changed. How do you approach that with Misty? Do you think that Misty has changed, or is she still very much her teen self?
Ricci: Well, I don’t really know that I believe that anybody changes that much over time. I think who you are, fundamentally, I think stays the same. I think obviously you change in small ways that affect your life and affect you, but older Misty and young Misty have the same personality.
It’s just that there are different coping mechanisms. There are different perspectives on the world based on what she’s gone through. I think there’s a hypervigilance in older Misty that you don’t see in younger Misty, and that hypervigilance is probably the effect of not wanting to feel bad about anything that’s happened to her in her life, and a lot of that would be stuff that happened during this incident in 1996. But I think she’s still the same person.
Olsen: I think one of the things that people really enjoy about her is the fact that she’s this kind of little schemer and she’s this conniving caregiver. Some people describe her as the nurse from hell. In the second season there was a scene with younger Misty where they bring back up the fact that she had destroyed the black box recorder of the airplane, and that’s the whole reason why they’re stuck and no one could find them. And I have to admit, I had forgotten that fact. I’m wondering, for you, are there things about Misty that, like the black box, that you have to kind of remind yourself of the sort of deep mythology that the character has now?
Ricci: Yeah, I think there is a lot of mythology around her, but I think that in being the person who plays her, I have to take anything that could seem mythical and boil it down to something very mundane and human, you know? In your youth, people — and I did this, I would make mistakes, I would do something impulsively because of something I wanted, not realizing the consequences of those actions. And sometimes I’d really make horrible mistakes that had very negative effects.
In that moment when they show her before she destroys the black box and what leads up to it, you get that this is a very childish, selfish, “I finally have something I want and I don’t want to lose it” moment that is a mistake. It’s probably not a mistake she’d make as an adult. But part of Misty’s personality/mythology is acting on her childish impulses. So it’s informative for me for the character because it is one of the things that keeps her shunned from groups, keeps her from being able to truly make connections and make friends. She makes sort of disastrous choices impulsively based on her needs because her needs have never been freely met by anybody.
Olsen: Is that fun for you, to play someone — I mean, it’s striking that, yes, even as an adult, even as cautious and careful as she can be, there is something still really impulsive and at times very reckless?
Ricci: Yeah, but it is really fun to play somebody who’s so emotionally stunted. It’s basically like playing a child in an adult body, and that to me is really fun. It certainly makes me feel a little protective of her at certain times, which is interesting. And it makes me a little worried for her. She absolutely — I think she has very little self-awareness, which is also incredibly freeing because I think, as an actor, that’s sort of the first question you have to ask about the character you’re playing: How self-aware is this person? Because that question is at the base of your performance, I think.
Olsen: One of the great additions in the second season is Elijah Wood coming on as a character who becomes sort of a co-conspirator and a colleague with Misty. What was it like for you simply reuniting with Elijah as a performer? The two of you, of course, starred together in “The Ice Storm” back in 1997 when you were both much younger. What was it like reuniting with Elijah?
Ricci: It was great working with him. When we worked together, I think we were both 15 and we didn’t really hang out that much. We had separate tutors. He was great to work with even at that time, so professional, so talented. Now, I think now that we’re both adults, we’re able to socialize more or get to know each other more as peers. And we had a really great time this season working together. I think we make a really good team. We work in very similar ways, and he’s just so wonderful and smart and so good. He’s just great to work with.
[Clip from “Yellowjackets”: MISTY: You think I’m capable of murder? WALTER: Sure. You’re charming and impulsive, which are traits of most serial killers. Only, you pull it off. Look, my grandmother was convicted of killing my Grandpa Joe. Even though she got 30 years, she never failed to send me a birthday card. She was thoughtful like that. Like you! Look, all I’m trying to say is I like you, regardless of your extracurricular activities.]
Olsen: There’s a really fun “will they, won’t they” vibe between your characters, between Misty and Walter, and at one point, Misty refers to him as her boyfriend but it’s not clear if that’s just her being kind of delusional. How do you feel about the romantic prospects between the two of them?
Ricci: Well, I mean, I don’t know. She seems so much like a little girl and child, like I said, I can’t, I don’t know. It’s hard to imagine her in an adult relationship. And up until this point in her life, she’s never had one. I personally don’t know where all of it’s going with Walter and Misty. I love seeing them together on screen. I think their dynamic is so fun, really entertaining and endearing. I don’t know what’s going to go on, and I don’t really want to say anything because I’m not the writers. And anytime I do say anything, I’m always wrong. So I’m just going to hold my tongue and say I don’t know. I find them really entertaining.
Olsen: I’m wondering — the show is centered around this group of women and really explores female friendship, both in the younger storyline and in the adult storyline. And part way through the season, there’s a scene where young Misty pushes her friend off of a cliff. It really is a shocking moment in the show, even with everything that we already know about Misty.
[Clip from “Yellowjackets”: MISTY: Come on, bestie, you don’t actually think I’d do something like that, do you? CRYSTAL: You’re not, you’re not my best friend. You’re a psycho. MISTY: Wait, no, no, no, Crystal, Crystal, stop. Stop. OK? You can’t tell anyone. I mean it. OK? I’ll do whatever you want. I will flush the toilet for you and I’ll do all your chores, OK, you just, you cannot tell anybody. Please. CRYSTAL: Or what, you’ll poison me? MISTY: No. I’ll f—ing kill you. CRYSTAL: (screams)]
Olsen: When you’re reading a script and you come across a scene like that, what do you make of it? How does that impact how you are performing your adult Misty?
Ricci: Well, again, to me it’s like the black box thing. It’s a very impulsive, immature, not-thought-out, spur-of-the-moment reaction if she did indeed push her off the cliff. I believe, the way it was shot — to me, I was like, “Did she push her or did —?” Because there’s a feeling that ultimately what happens to her has something to do with the wilderness, quote unquote. But, you know, she did push. She pushed her. It’s like the same kind of mistake she keeps making.
Olsen: What did you make of the moment at the end of the season where Misty accidentally kills her adult best friend, Juliette Lewis’ Natalie?
Ricci: Well, yeah, it’s — again, it’s just, it’s really tragic. Tragic because she can’t handle these crazy needs and feelings and she’s so emotionally stunted and ends up again causing herself really horrible loss.
Olsen: But also with Natalie, it was not her intention. She wasn’t trying to hurt Natalie.
Ricci: Yeah, no, she’s trying to kill the other one because she thinks that she’s going to shoot Natalie, and it results again in a disastrous outcome.
Olsen: I know that you said you don’t like to make predictions for what’s going to happen next. I won’t ask you for your thoughts on Season 3, but —
Ricci: It’s just a trap. It’s a trap to say what you think might happen, especially when it hasn’t been written yet. You know what I mean?
Olsen: Mm-hmm. But now, as far as you know, what is the status of Season 3 with the writers strike that’s happening now? I imagine it’s on pause. Do you have any idea of what’s going be happening?
Ricci: You know, I don’t. I know that, justifiably, they will not be writing until there is a deal in place for the WGA [Writers Guild of America] in which all the writers are properly protected and compensated. And I think as a cast and as a crew, we all completely support our writers and the WGA striking. I don’t know how the strike will affect the timing of Season 3. I guess that’ll depend on how long it goes on.
Olsen: Christina, aside from “Yellowjackets” touching on some ’90s nostalgia, you’re also in Netflix’s series “Wednesday,” a huge hit that welcomes you back in this Addams Family world but as a new character. What was that experience like for you?
Ricci: I played Wednesday as a young person. This character, I never stop answering questions about. In every interview I’ve done since I’ve played that character, I’ve spoken about Wednesday the character. To have played someone who really, every day, is brought up to me really makes you have a certain sentimentality about that character and that time in your life and all those things. So it was really meaningful to me to be asked to be a part of the new iteration of that character. That really meant something to me and I was very grateful for that.
Olsen: What was it like with this character that you’re so well known for — that in some ways has become so tied to you in your life — what was it like to watch someone else play that part? Did you have any sort of conversations with Jenna Ortega about the character, about playing that part?
Ricci: I came on to the project two months before they were totally wrapped, and they shot for like nine months. So she’d been playing that character for about seven months before I showed up on set. So I did not speak to her about the character beforehand. And she’s such a capable, amazing actress. If anything, it was just fun to see her play that character with such dignity and self-respect and intelligence. She’s just perfect for the role, in my humble opinion.
Olsen: I’ve heard you say how for you, the character of Wednesday is someone that you see as kind of inspiring for children in that she’s someone who’s very true to her own self. And I’m wondering, as you yourself have grown and especially now that you’re a mother of two yourself, has your opinion on Wednesday as an inspiration for children changed at all?
Ricci: No, I feel very much the same way. And especially when you watch — I have an 8-year-old now, and watching him deal with peer pressure or trends or any of those things just makes me want to show him that character every day. I think that people in general wish that they had more of that self-possession that Wednesday has, and that refusal to let anybody else’s opinions change her or make her feel bad. That idea of just being a complete individual, not needing to belong to any groups or categories or look like anyone else, I think that is really important and I wish that it existed more.
Olsen: Do you think when you were playing Wednesday, did you feel really connected to that character? Did it feel important to you at the time?
Ricci: No, I mean, I was 10 and then I was 12, so nothing really felt important to me at the time. But I will say that I was relieved. I remember feeling a lot of relief to be playing a character like that instead of what, mostly as a little girl actor, people tried to make me do. I was sick of being told to smile and be more excited, enthusiastic.
Olsen: I’d read in another interview where prior to “Yellowjackets,” that you’d been sort of not taking as many acting roles, and in part you’d been going to a lot of fan conventions, and I would imagine that you’re confronted very strongly with what people think of you and what roles resonate with people from those conventions. What were those experiences like? Did you learn anything about your fandom or what people think of your roles from going to those conventions?
Ricci: Yeah, you know, it wasn’t that I wasn’t taking acting roles. It’s that I wasn’t being cast in things very much. And I was the sole supporter of my family, and so something that came out of necessity for me ended up being something really lovely in that I already knew how much Wednesday meant to people. I already knew because I’ve spoken about her in every single interview I’ve ever done in my career since playing her, and I played her when I was 10, so it’s been a real long time talking about her.
But it’s not also just Wednesday, I have to say. Having gone to those conventions and stuff, it’s really interesting how, people being people, find very specific and particular things that can really get them through hard times and get them through their lives and they identify with. It’s been really incredible to me as an actor to see all the different characters I’ve played that people hold really close to them. And really, what it made me feel more than feeling like, yes, Wednesday is very meaningful to a lot of people; she’s somebody that it makes so much sense that she’d be held up as a hero, as an icon, as all these things. But what those conventions really did for me more was help me to really value the work that we do as actors, as writers, as filmmakers and content creators.
Olsen: Do you even recall, still, even before “Wednesday,” before “Mermaids,” what it was that appealed to you about acting? What got you started so young?
Ricci: So, I always joke that I identify as a party pooper and a contrarian. As I’m sure you’ve noticed in interviewing me, I always have a contrary thought to anything that’s suggested. But here’s the party pooper part of this interview: I was in a very, very abusive house when I was a child. I was a very unhappy little kid, and I was searching for a way out of my everyday life. And the second that I realized that there was this thing that I was good at that might lift me out of this situation, it became very important to me that I use it to get out. And so this career for me, it was a refuge and an escape from what was a very unpleasant childhood.
Olsen: It’s astonishing for you to have recognized that at that age.
Ricci: Yeah. Ugh, you know, maybe it’s a reflection of how bad things were.
Olsen: And do you feel like it did that for you?
Ricci: Yes, absolutely. It absolutely did. I was taken out of my reality for six to nine months at a time on location making movies. Even the audition process, you know, my mother and I would get to leave our house in the afternoons and spend from after school until maybe 8 p.m. traveling to New York, auditioning and coming back. So it definitely lessened the intensity of what was going on in my home life as a child. And then, once I was actually booking movies and traveling, like being exposed to the world often does for people, ways out become apparent.
Olsen: That does not make you a party pooper at all, Christina.
Ricci: I just mean, like, “Here comes the downer moment.”
Olsen: No, but I appreciate your candor in speaking about that.
Ricci: Well, it’s hard for me to pretend it’s anything else. I didn’t really care that much about acting aside from that reason until I was much older and didn’t have that much to escape from. Do you know what I mean?
Olsen: Mm-hmm. And do you remember that moment when you realized, “Oh, I actually like this?”
Ricci: Yeah. It was when I started doing a lot of independent film. The reason I got “The Opposite of Sex,” which was one of the first independent films I did in the ’90s that kind of helped me have an adult career, I was cast because I was different. I was cast because I wasn’t being winky or cute about the material. And so, again, I think what I loved about independent film is that the people making the movies, the directors, the writers actually appreciated how different I was. And then once I realized I was being given that opportunity, I tried to return the favor by really committing and really learning about acting and understanding it on an emotional level.
This is a funny thing, but I’ve had two auditions in my life that were with really incredible actors. And the first one was with Kathy Bates for “Dolores Claiborne.” So, in this audition, I’m reading the lines. I think I had always had to fake emotion before as a child actor. And it was the first time that, reading the lines with Kathy Bates, I just became completely overwhelmed by the emotion of the scene. And that had never happened to me before. Kathy Bates, being so incredible, we got through the scene and she walked outside in the hallway with me and held me and said, “That’s acting.” And it really changed the way I thought about the art form. So that was the first time.
And then I had another audition when I was older with Daniel Day-Lewis for “The Crucible.” And again, in doing that scene with this incredible actor, the emotion of the scene so took over my body. My skin burned. I felt such rage. It’s something I don’t think I’d ever really allowed myself to feel in real life, and it was just connected to the words I was saying. And that again completely changed the way I viewed the art form.
Olsen: Wow, that’s incredible.
Ricci: Yeah, those two experiences were really, really amazing to me.
Olsen: It’s funny, you always hear people with these horror stories of auditions, like how hard they are.
Ricci: I’ve had lots of really terrible auditions too, but the terrible ones didn’t change my life.
Olsen: And now if I can, I want to ask just one question about “Mermaids,” your very first film. That movie has just such an amazing cast with Cher, Winona Ryder, yourself, Bob Hoskins. Is that the kind of thing where in retrospect, you realize probably what an amazing experience that was and what an incredible cast that was?
Ricci: Well, no, again. On the contrary, I had a family that was obsessed with movies, obsessed with film. My mother showed me all of Hitchcock’s movies before I was 10. My dad was obsessed with Scorsese. My brothers happened to be in love with Winona Ryder and we watched all of Winona Ryder’s films beforehand. My mother, the second she heard I was auditioning for “Mermaids,” she had a Cher movie fest, a little film festival for me, where we even watched “Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” which is a fairly obscure film of hers. Yeah, I knew all of these people, and I was really excited to be there and working with them.
Olsen: And your career now, you’ve been in independent films, studio films. You’ve been on Broadway. You’ve acted on TV. You’ve done producing. Do you have any further ambitions? What do you see for yourself moving forward?
Ricci: Well, I’m definitely going to be producing more. And I hope to direct something in the near future. And I just, as an actor, I just want to play really interesting characters.
Olsen: The last thing I want to ask you: I’ve heard that you are a very voracious reader, and I’m curious what you’ve been reading recently, if anything, that you’ve really enjoyed?
Ricci: I just read “Don’t Call Me Home” by Alex Auder. It really is such an incredible memoir. I couldn’t put this book down. It’s just beautifully written. There’s no actual magical realism in it, but it has that feeling. It’s just such a beautiful, beautiful story, dealing a lot with a mother-daughter relationship but also this very specific time and place and childhood. So I really love that. I’ve been reading different things. I read this book called “Trust,” which was interesting. I went back and I read those two books, “Circe” and then “The Song of Achilles” [by Madeline Miller]. I liked those very much.
Olsen: Do you read stuff as a sort of an escape from your work? Or especially when you have producer brain, are you thinking, “Oh, maybe I could make that”?
Ricci: Sometimes both. I mean, I tend to find I’ve been more successful with optioning IP [intellectual property] from articles than from novels. A lot of times, by the time I read a novel it was optioned when it was a galley, in galley form, you know what I mean?
Olsen: Yeah.
Ricci: But I have found articles that had led to some interesting books and some true crime stuff, and some true crime novels that are out of print and stuff like that. So it’s a combination. I tend to really like to read in airports and airplanes, and I do a lot of traveling. So if I happen to come across something that I think would make a really interesting project, then bonus.
Olsen: Well, Christina Ricci, thank you so much for your time today. This has been such a wonderful conversation, and I really appreciate you making time for us.
Ricci: Thank you. I really appreciate you talking to me and giving me this platform. So thank you.
While Marvel has unquestionably been the king of the box office over the last decade, the studio has still faced backlash from both Hollywood insiders and fans for the kind of movies they make.
The “Marvel-ization” of Hollywood has been a hot topic of debate amongst movie insiders and fans alike. For Marvel’s stable of stars, however, the debate is deeply personal.
Photo: Disney
In a recent interview with British GQ, Thor star Chris Hemsworth responded to the criticism that Marvel films have received from such luminaries as Quentin Tarintino and Martin Scorsese.
“That’s super depressing when I hear that,” Hemsworth said about the directors’ comments on MCU films. “There goes two of my heroes I won’t work with. I guess they’re not a fan of me.”
Cristism of Marvel’s Movies
Ever since Marvel’s ascent to the forefront of popular culture, detractors have decried the formulaic and SFX-heavy way the studio’s movies are made.
Photo: Indie Wire
Tarantino for his part, called out Marvel for failing to create “real” movie stars.
“You have all these actors who have become famous playing these characters,” the Kill Bill director said during an interview on the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast. “But they’re not movie stars. Right? Captain America is the star. Or Thor is the star. I mean, I’m not the first person to say that. I think that’s been said a zillion times…but it’s like, you know, it’s these franchise characters that become a star.”
Photo: Marvel
Meanwhile, Scorsese has long been public in his stance that Marvel films are not cinema.
“Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks,” he told Empire magazine back in 2019. “It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”
Mandatory Credit: Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock (10402464i)
Hemsworth’s Response
In his interview with GQ, Hemsworth firmly stated that he was thankful for his time in the MCU. He did, however, acknowledge that there may have been a downside for the industry as a whole.
“I’m thankful that I have been a part of something that kept people in cinemas,” he continued. “Now, whether or not those films were to the detriment of other films, I don’t know. I don’t love when we start scrutinizing each other when there’s so much fragility in the business and in this space of the arts as it is.”
While Hemsworth believes that the comments from Tarantino and Scorsese would indicate that the directors have no interest in working with him, the Thor star says he would jump at the chance to collaborate.
“In a heartbeat, I would leap to work with any of them. But I say it more to the broader opinion around that topic. I don’t think any of us have the answer, but we’re trying.”
Source: @MCU_Direct
Whether the introduction of the MCU was a good thing, or a bad thing, for Hollywood as a whole, there is no doubt that Marvel has shaped the future of the movie industry. What that means, is anybody’s guess.
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The Flash movie director Andy Muschietti is reportedly being looked at to helm Batman: The Brave and The Bold for James Gunn’s new DC Universe. With the DCEU coming to an end this year, Gunn and Peter Safran are busy working on the new DC Universe, which will be a fresh start for Warner Bros. Discovery in running an interconnected franchise based on DC properties. One of the last DCEU films on the release calendar is The Flash from Muschietti, starring Ezra Miller as Barry Allen.
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It appears that the Flash filmmaker is looking to stay with the DC franchise after 2023. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Muschietti is currently the top choice to direct Batman: The Brave and The Bold, which will be part of DC Studios’ Chapter 1, “Gods and Monsters.” This comes shortly after Muschietti teased his involvement with the Batman reboot, as he has been rumored for weeks to direct it; One Take News first reported Muschietti’s hiring. There is currently no script, and Muschietti has yet to sign a deal. At the time of this story’s publication, neither DC Studios nor Muschietti’s representatives have commented on the report.
Why DC Wants Andy Muschietti To Direct The Brave & The Bold
While Muschietti may not be signed on yet for Batman: The Brave and The Bold, it doesn’t come as a surprise that he has emerged as a top candidate to direct the reboot. Prior to The Flash, the filmmaker already had a solid working relationship with Warner Bros., as he directed both of the It movies, which were commercial successes for the studio.
His success with the It films is also a huge factor in why Muschietti was brought on to The Flash; he has already proven his talent to work within larger studio systems and handle valuable IP franchises. Then there is The Flash movie itself, a project that had been stuck in development hell for years and lost several directors before Muschietti finally signed on. He was able to get principal photography underway, and the movie is only a week away from being released.
It is likely that once The Flash has opened in theaters and when Warner Bros. is able to see how the film is doing, a proper deal will be finalized between them and Muschietti. What is also a huge upside for Muschietti is that if he directs Batman: The Brave and The Bold, he will already be experienced in having tackled the Dark Knight in a DC movie, with Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck’s versions showing up in Miller’s film. Hopefully, there will be some great news for Batman: The Brave and The Bold sooner rather than later.
The Meta Quest 3 will feature a next-gen Qualcomm chipset and promises twice the graphics performance of its predecessor. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg touted on his latest Instagram post that the Quest 3 is the company’s “most powerful headset yet.”
A blog post for the announcement notes that the Meta Quest 3 will be compatible with Quest2 games and will have a 40 percent slimmer optic profile compared to its predecessor, the Quest 2. Meta also notes that it has “completely redesigned” the Quest 3’s Touch Plus controllers to have a “more streamlined and ergonomic form facto.”
Meta also announced in a blog post that the Quest 2 and Quest Pro will receive a new software update, to increase the performance of both VR headsets. The company claims the forthcoming software update will see up to a 26 percent CPU performance increase, up to a 19 percent GPU increase for the Quest 2, and up to 11 percent for the Quest Pro.
Meta did not share too many details about its headset, but it did say that it will share more details at its Connect conference, which will be held on September 27. Though the announcement comes at an interesting time as less than a week from now, Apple is set to hold its annual WWDC 2023 keynote, with rumors heavily speculating that the iPhone maker will announce its own mixed reality headset.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
The Tribeca Festival announced “De Niro Con,” a three-day fan event this fall in celebration of Robert De Niro’s 80th birthday. Martin Scorsese gave a loving tribute to his close friend and collaborator, whom Mayor Eric Adams presented with the key to the city at a reception tonight.
The event at festival headquarters on Greenwich Street ahead of opening night was packed despite acrid smoke across the city from Canadian wildfires.
“Thank you for braving the Canadian winds,” said Jane Rosenthal, who founded the festival with De Niro, told the crowd that included Mark Ruffalo, Pam Grier and Matt Damon, a producer with Ben Affleck and Sarah Anthony of opening-night documentaryKiss the Future.
De Niro Con will take place from September 29-October 1 at Spring Studios in New York City with screenings, panels and talks by the actor’s longtime friends and associates.
Adams warned New Yorkers today to stay inside if they could to avoid the breathing air fouled by smoke from multiple forest fires on the Canadian border. It was a first for the city, where many on the streets were sporting masks.
The mayor anticipated a multi-day bad-air event, but the air seemed better Wednesday night than it was in the morning.
Scorsese, De Niro’s longtime friend and collaborator on 10 films, thanked the “good fortune that we somehow met at the age of 16 over 50-some-odd years ago. … But the point is that the good fortune is something that can’t be summed up in one sentence or, or in some platitude of any kind. I mean, if you can see the movies that says that says it because it’s based on trust and love. And that’s how those films were made, including the last the latest one,” he said, referring to Killers of the Flower Moon, which opens October 6 domestically.
He praised the festival, forged out of 9/11, and said De Niro has remained “devoted over the years to his craft, and the arts” in NYC, which is “the most vibrant, alive location.
“And Bob, it’s amazing. You did all this without having the keys until now.”
Said Mayor Adams: “You deserve this key to the City of New York because you have opened our hearts for years and for generations. We all grew up on you. I don’t care what ethnicity, what community — South Jamaica, South Bronx, Lower East Side. Doesn’t matter where you are. Everyone knew this New York taxi driver was able to drive this to new abilities that we are now. Thank you, brother, for this.”
De Niro said he was “honored to accept that recognition on behalf of my 8½ million neighbors.”
Up until recently, you could basically set your watch to any movie backed by the might of Disney turning out to be a box office success and nothing else, but the shine has seriously started to come off the Mouse House’s star in recent times for a number of reasons.
While the company has caught plenty of flak for dropping the acclaimed likes of Turning Red and Soul directly onto streaming – which did admittedly prove to be a blessing for the abominable Pinocchio remake – it can’t help but be noticed that Disney’s original fare has been stuttering among paying customers recently, and things could be about to get a lot worse.
Elemental releases at the end of next week, and it’s only tracking for a three-day debut of somewhere between $28 million and $38 million, which is hardly ideal for an animated escapade estimated to carry a budget of $200 million. If it wasn’t for Avatar: The Way of Water and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 shouldering most of the commercial burden, then Disney would have had its name attached to nothing but flop after flop dating back almost two years.
That’s not what you expect from one of the heaviest hitters in the game, and it’s something that needs to change.
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Scott Campbell
News, reviews, interviews. To paraphrase Keanu Reeves; Words. Lots of words.
Last night, Glamour hosted a special evening for its Women of the Year Advisory Board. Fig and Olive, in New York’s Meatpacking District, provided the backdrop for an unforgettable, intimate dinner in a private room that transported guests to a captivating ambiance evocative of the Mediterranean Riviera. The gathering of these influential women symbolized the collective strength and purpose that emerges when women come together.
The Women of the Year Advisory Board holds a significant place in the history of Glamour’s prestigious awards. Originally established in 1990 by one of Glamour’s former Editor in Chiefs, the visionary Ruth Whitney, at the inception of the awards, the board’s purpose was to bring together an exceptional group of women who could share their collective insights and perspectives on the most influential leaders of today and tomorrow.
In 2020, Glamour revived this cherished tradition, expanding the board to include a broader array of luminaries. “We come together a couple of times every year, and they help us understand what women we should be looking at, celebrating, and ultimately honoring. And this is our first in-person Advisory Board meeting,” said Glamour’s editorial director of the Americas, Samantha Barry.
This year’s Women of the Year Advisory Board boasts an impressive lineup of past and previous Women of the Year honorees and women representing the pinnacle of their respective fields—from sports to business, music, fashion, activism, and more.
Samantha Barry,Glamour’s Editorial Director of the Americas
Andrea Brimmer,Chief Marketing and PR Officer of Ally
Tory Burch,Executive Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Tory Burch LLC
Tarana Burke,Chief Vision Officer of the international “me too” movement
Yin Chang,Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Heart of Dinner
Moonlynn Tsai,Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Heart of Dinner
The dinner began with a heartfelt welcome from Barry, who stressed the significance of the occasion. “We were all last together at the Vice President’s house, and we’ve always expressed our desire to organize a dinner because the conversations we have on our virtual zooms are the most inspiring discussions I have all year. This is all thanks to each and every one of you and the contributions you make to Glamour,” Barry stated.
As the evening unfolded, conversations delved into a wide range of topics, including personal childhood anecdotes as well as pressing matters like paid leave, politics, and the education system. By the end of the event, board members departed with a Glamour gift bag containing products exclusively owned or founded by women including brands from the Glamour 100, a testament to our By Women initiative and the importance of supporting women-owned businesses.
Netflix and ACE Entertainment are teaming up for another project: a young adult romance movie, Love At First Sight , based on The Statistical Probability of Love at First Light by Jennifer E. Smith. The new movie will be released exclusively on Netflix on September 15th, 2023.
The movie adapts the novel of the same name, first released in 2011. Katie Lovejoy is writing the screenplay adaptation and worked on the second and third To All The Boys movies.
Vanessa Caswill serves as the movie’s director. She has largely worked on shorts and TV mini-series, including Gold Digger for Acorn TV, Little Women for PBS, and Thirteen for BBC America.
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Matt Kaplan is a producer on the movie, Aubrey Bendix is a co-producer, and the executive producers include Max Siemers, Matthew Janzen, Jennifer E. Smith, Christopher Foss, Mark Lane, and Haley Lu Richardson.
First Look at Images from Love At First Sight on Netflix
Courtesy of a Haley Lu Richardson fansite, they’ve managed to get hold of quite a lot of screens from the upcoming movie:
Picture: ACE Entertainment
Picture: ACE Entertainment
Picture: ACE Entertainment
What’s Love At First Sight on Netflix about?
Netflix provided us with a logline that gives us an idea as to what you can expect:
“Strangers Hadley and Oliver begin to fall for each other on their flight from New York to London, but is it misfortune or fate that separates them when they land? The probability of ever finding each other again seems impossible, but love — and London — may have a way of defying the odds.”
“Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan’s life. Having missed her flight, she’s stuck at JFK airport and late to her father’s second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon-to-be stepmother Hadley’s never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport’s cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he’s British, and he’s sitting in her row.
A long night on the plane passes in the blink of an eye, and Hadley and Oliver lose track of each other in the airport chaos upon arrival. Can fate intervene to bring them together once more?
Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver’s story will make you believe that true love finds you when you’re least expecting it.”
Book cover for The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight
Who is in the cast for Love At First Sight?
The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight Cast – Pictures: Getty Images
The main headline cast assembled for the movie includes (listed in the order in the picture above top left to top right, bottom left, and bottom right):
Haley Lu Richardson will play Hadley – known for Five Feet Apart and The Edge of Seventeen. Soon to appear as Portia in HBO’s The White Lotus.
Ben Hardy will play Oliver – known for X-Men Apocalypse and Netflix’s 6 Underground.
Jameela Jamil as the narrator – known for The Good Place (on Netflix globally) and She-Hulk.
Rob Delaney – known for the Prime Original Catastrophe and Deadpool 2.
Dexter Fletcher as Val – known for Rocketman and Eddie the Eagle.
Sally Phillips as Tessa Jones – known for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and the Bridget Jones movies.
Rounding out the cast includes:
David Rubin (Judy) as Dr. Harrison Doyle
Tom Taylor (The Dark Tower) as Luther Jones
Jessica Ransom (Horrible Histories) as Bridesmaid Bertie
Ibinabo Jack (Vera) as Bridesmaid Shanti
Where is the movie in production?
Filming has already concluded on the project. According to production notes on IMDb, the movie was filmed throughout early 2021, with cameras rolling between January and February. It’s been in post-production ever since.
The movie is filmed entirely in the United Kingdom, and certain scenes were filmed at Stansted Airport, one of the major London (sort of) airports.
When will Love at First Sight Release on Netflix?
In January 2023, as part of Netflix’s 2023 movie slate reveal, we learned that the YA romantic comedy would land sometime in September 2023.
We’ve since learned that the movie is scheduled to premiere on September 15th, 2023, according to the Netflix Media Center.
For more Netflix movies coming soon to Netflix, check out our big guide here.
Will you check out The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight on Netflix? Let us know in the comments.
Peacock will hold its very own Bullshit (BLSHT) Day, an immersive in-person activation experience to celebrate its comedy “Poker Face” on June 10.
BLSHT participants and fans will have the opportunity to “hit the road” like Natasha Lyonne’s character Charlie Cale. The “BLSHT Day” consumers will be able to score “Poker Face” themed items from the various participating L.A. locations and “call BLSHT and reap the rewards.” To receive the special themed products, fans will have to walk up to the checkout counters and call BLSHT.
The “BLSHT Day” hub will be at Westfield Century City Mall, featuring Charlie’s Barracuda, a lie detector experience and branded photo opportunities. Additionally at the Century City location, fans will receive a map of participating locations around Los Angeles. See below for the event’s participating venues.
The below venues will be participating from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.:
Civil Coffee: “A Different Kind of Buzz” — located in Sherman Oaks
Magpies: “Scoop of Lies” — located in Tarzana
Wanderlust: “Poker Face Planoffee Pie” — located in Santa Monica
Sorry Not Sorry: “Two Truths and a Fry” — located in West LA
Ggiata Deli: “On the Run Rainbow Cookie” — located in West Hollywood
Açaí, Por Favor: “Bowlsh*t” — located in West Hollywood
Amoeba Music: “Poker Face’s Cracking the Case Opener” — located in Hollywood
The below venue will be participating from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.:
Sqirl Kitchen: “Poker Face Chip” — located in Silver Lake
The below venue will be participating from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.:
Desert 5 Spot: “Let’s Taco’bout the Truth” — located in Hollywood
Ahead of the event, on June 9 Peacock will take over L.A. Live Plaza and distribute custom illustrated maps highlighting the “BLSHT Day” locations, and host a game of truth or lie, with the opportunity to score swag.
As smoke from Canadian wildfires blankets New York City, Broadway performances of “Hamilton” and “Camelot” was among those canceled Wednesday night (June 7).
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“Hamilton” organizers scrapped the show less than two hours before the 8pm ET curtain call on account of cast members calling in sick, Variety reports.
“Tonight’s performance of Hamilton will not go on as scheduled. The hazardous air quality in New York City has made it impossible for a number of our artists to perform this evening,” reads a statement posted to the official “Hamilton” socials.
Tonight’s performance of Hamilton will not go on as scheduled. The hazardous air quality in New York City has made it impossible for a number of our artists to perform this evening. Shows will resume as scheduled tomorrow. We apologize for the inconvenience and encourage you to…
Regular programming should resume on Thursday, the statement continues. “We apologize for the inconvenience and encourage you to visit your point of purchase for refund or exchange.”
Also canceled was “Camelot,” with producers confirming “all tickets will be fully refunded at the point of purchase.” Reps say they’re hopeful performances will restart for the weekend, adding that health experts “will continue to closely monitor the ongoing situation.”
We regret to inform you that tonight’s performance (Wednesday, June 7 at 8pm) has been cancelled.
Other local shows affected by the hazardous conditions including the free Shakespeare in the Park production of “Hamlet,” which cut short its final dress rehearsal and nixed the first two preview performances of the play, set for Thursday and Friday nights in Central Park’s Delacorte Theater.
As previously reported, the ongoing air-quality issues caused by smoke from fires north of the border upended Chris Stapleton’s planned concert in Syracuse, New York, while the New York Yankees game vs. the Chicago White Sox and the WNBA fixture between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx were postponed.
According to IQAir.com on Wednesday, NYC currently has the worst air quality in the world due to more than 400 wildfires burning across Canada and smoke covering much of the eastern U.S.
The National Weather Service reports that “hazardous air quality levels will persist across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic through Thursday before shifting westward into Ohio Valley on Friday.”
In the meantime, New York City Parks Department has canceled or postponed all indoor and outdoor recreational activities.
Due to today’s Air Quality Health Advisory, all outdoor and indoor recreational events have been cancelled or postponed. Please limit outdoor activity and stay inside when possible. Please visit https://t.co/VG9B3bgoql updates.
Sean Breathnach’s horror short, Don’t Open the Box, confirms the idea that if you open your door at night and there’s a mysterious package…Don’t Open the Box!
John Ryan Howard plays Mike, a father who is up late working at home. His first mistake was responding to the late-night doorbell ring and then taking the mysterious package at the front door into the house. At least he had enough sense to check on his daughter’s safety upstairs. Curiosity gets the best of Mike as he opens the package and potentially unleashes something sinister.
“…opens the package and potentially unleash something sinister.”
Don’t Open the Box is tight and efficient, running at just under four minutes. Filmmaker Sean Breathnach does a good job building suspense, creating his ominous visitor, and playing around with cool off-the-shelf special effects. It’s a good step for a filmmaker wanting to enter the horror genre. The film’s only weakness is that the story is about the narrative and lore of the box and doesn’t quite dive into the backstory or why this house was chosen. In the end, you really want something more than a straight-out narrative.
For screening information about Don’t Open the Box, visit the Irish Horror website.
On the June 8 episode of The Kardashians, viewers saw Kim Kardashian and Scott Disick met up for lunch for an honest conversation about dating. During the chat, Scott told Kim that he could see her dating “an older Italian businessman,” but Kim was skeptical about the “older” part. “They can’t be too old,” she admitted. “I don’t like the old thing. But I don’t like the really young thing, either.” The conversation took place weeks after Kim split from Pete Davidson, who is 13 years her junior.
Kim then brought up another couple with a major age difference: Cher, 77, and Alexander “AE” Edwards, 37. Kim and Scott’s lunch took place when the two started dating in the fall of 2022 (although, they’ve since broken up). “I would just be so insecure,” Kim said, of Cher being 40 years older than AE. “Maybe she’s secure or just has the lights off,” Scott suggested. Kim then admitted, “I pretty much have the lights off now,” referencing her own insecurities in the bedroom.
Kim Kardashian at TIME 100 event. (Shutterstock)
When a producer asked her about this in a confessional interview, Kim said it was true. “It’s so weird,” she said. “I can, like, walk out of a photo shoot with a hundred people working on set and I can walk out in a thong. But if [one person] is there with me I’m like, ‘Wait! Don’t! Turn the lights off!’”
Meanwhile, Kim also opened up to Scott about how difficult dating had been for her since divorcing Kanye West in 2021. “It’s behind doors. You can’t go out. It’s kind of awkward,” she shared. “And then if you are seen with someone and it’s starting to not work out, you almost have to try and make it work a little longer because you’re embarrassed that it’s so quick.”
Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson at the Met Gala. (Shutterstock)
In her confessional, Kim expanded on how intense the public pressure was when she started dating Pete in Oct. 2021. “The one thing I learned from my last situation was that the media made me feel like I was in a very serious relationship so quickly,” she explained. “I just want to sneak around a little bit. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to sneak.”
Kim also told Scott that she wasn’t interested in dating just one person, and told him that her friends had been trying to set her up with someone at the time. “We go to New York and we go to [redacted], which is my spot because there’s a private room downstairs,” Kim revealed. “Then on the Internet it’s like ‘Kim reconnects with Pete at [redacted]’ because it’s the place I used to go and have my secret dinners with Pete. He’s probably like, ‘I know what she’s doing!’”
Of course, Scott had to press further about this mystery man who Kim was being set up with. He knew she wouldn’t want to reveal his name, so they decided to refer to him as ‘Fred.’ Kim confirmed that Fred met her standards, and even admitted to texting him while doing her confessional interviews. “That’s a lot of smiling, young lady,” a producer pointed out, as Kim smirked at her phone. The producer then called Kim out for already texting someone new after claiming that she wanted to be single for two years. “No, I’m going to be!” Kim insisted. She has not been publicly linked to anyone since Pete, so it’s unclear what happened with “Fred!”
When it comes to protecting a smartphone or tablet, tech companies usually opt for, tough tempered glass or rely on third parties to sell protective cases. LG, on the other hand, decided to take it to another level by putting a whole tablet in a suitcase.
It’s called the StanbyME Go (yes, ‘Stan’, not ‘Stand’), a portable display that’s built into its own traveling case. The original product listing is on LG’s Korean website, so we’re going to rely on translations from other sources as well as the device’s own specs sheet to tell you more about it.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the StanbyME Go isn’t small. The screen itself is about 26 inches diagonally minus the bezel (exactly 680mm). When open, the whole setup measures almost 30 inches tall and 26 inches wide (729 x 670 mm). Closed, the suitcase comes out to roughly 26 x 17 x 4.5 inches (670 x 433 X 119 mm). And the whole thing weighs nearly 30 lbs (12.7 kg) so it is a bit hefty.
Propped up
The StanbyME Go supports three separate configurations. You can prop up the arm to have the display stand horizontally in landscape mode or rotate it vertically into portrait mode. The third is table mode in which the screen lays flat in its case so you can play chess on it or play music via a record player app. Opening the case turns the display on while closing the case turns it off.
The screen itself is an LED panel with Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) and a refresh rate of 60Hz. It’s not the most powerful tablet in the world, but the StanbyME Go does support HDR10 and Dolby Vision to bump up the quality a bit.
The device also has pretty decent audio. It sports two four-channel speakers with Dolby Atmos for immersive surround sound. LG is marketing the StanbyME Go as something you take everywhere, so it makes sense to equip the tablet with powerful drivers that can drown out ambient noise.
(Image credit: LG)
Notable features availability
Other notable features include direct voice recognition so users can give it commands and mobile screen sharing to transmit content from a smartphone to the StanbyME Go. It appears that you can play video games on the display. Peripherals like a PS5 controller can be connected via Bluetooth, but exact details on supported titles are not listed, as LG hasn’t provided any concrete details.
The one thing we found rather disappointing is the battery life. A report from Ars Technica says that the StandbyME Go will only last “three hours while in low-power mode and the volume [must be] set to 30.” In other words, not very long.
Currently, the LG StanbyME Go is exclusive to South Korea where it costs a little over a million Won, which is about $900 USD. It’s unknown if the company has plans to launch the device internationally although we did ask. If you really want one, you can purchase the StanbyMe Go right now through third-party retailer Yootoypia for $1,049.98 USD.
Jessica Williams (“Shrinking”), Paul Walter Hauser (“Black Bird”), Niecy Nash-Betts (“Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”), Camila Morrone (“Daisy Jones & The Six”), Giancarlo Esposito (“Better Call Saul”) and Joseph Lee (“Beef) gathered for Variety TV FYC Fest’s Supporting Actors Roundtable to discuss their roles on some of television’s most-loved shows. The panel was moderated by Variety’s Emily Longeretta.
They each shared their methods for getting into character, and subsequently, getting out of character.
In their most recent roles, these actors played serial killers or neighbors of serial killers, others a husband or a wife. One even played a restaurateur-slash-narcotics dealer. Whatever it may be, there’s a lot an actor can take away from the character they play on screen.
But first, these actors have to develop their character. For Nash-Betts, playing the neighbor of infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was challenging because not much was ever documented about her. It became Nash-Betts’ job to fill in the gaps.
“I just wanted to make sure people felt her pain, her frustration and her fear,” she said.
Morrone also felt a certain duty when taking on the role of Camilla in “Daisy Jones & Six.”
“It was my first book adaptation, and I felt a sense of responsibility, especially if you have a character that’s loved and well-rounded,” Morrone said. “I just wanted to make sure I brought out the most important elements that made her so lovable in the book and then adding a little something.”
As for getting out of character, this proved a little bit more challenging for the actors.
Nash-Betts was lucky enough to have her real-life daughter playing the role of Glenda’s daughter which helped ground her during shooting. Nash-Betts was also filming “Reno 911!” at the same time as “Dahmer” and that gave her another source of positivity to look to once she left set.
“I tucked Glenda in and held her tight. I didn’t live there because it was too painful. Thank God I had a funny movie to do at the same time,” she said. “Love and light, those are the two ways I got through.”
Niecy Nash-Betts speaks onstage during Variety’s TV FYC Fest. (Photo by Randy Shropshire/Variety via Getty Images)
Esposito has been practicing how to get in and out his character Gustavo Fring since his first appearance on AMC’s “Breaking Bad” and throughout the spin-off, “Better Call Saul.”
“I use the same practice to get into the character to get out — my yoga practice,” Esposito said. “That’s where spirit lived for me. To be able to listen to my own breath and give time and space, that to me is god and goddess.”
“People ask me, ‘When you’re Gustavo, what are you thinking when you take that deep breath and look at something?’” he said. “I laugh, because I’m thinking, ‘How am I going to kill you?’”
To depart from the head space of Gus, Esposito says he takes his own temperature by asking himself how he feels about the script, his character and what a director is asking him to do: “This allows me to go deeper, but also to not forget that I want to get out, that I want to be Giancarlo again.”
Leaving the character behind also took some practice for Williams, who plays Gaby on “Shrinking.”
“After I wrapped, I was sort of an asshole,” said Williams. “Gaby says exactly what she’s thinking. She was somebody I needed to turn off a little bit.”
But as much as they try to leave them behind, characters can become lessons learned. Morrone found that Camilla taught her how to be a stronger woman.
“I realized I could learn so much from this character. The way that she composes herself and looks at life,” she said. “I thought, ‘I could take a piece of this with me as I grow into a young woman. She brought a lot to my life. People always ask if you’ll miss a character, but I think we can all agree that a character never leaves you.”
“It was kind of a meta experience for me,” said Lee, who played George in “Beef.”
“I started therapy in the pandemic,” he said. “Being a Korean American, the term ‘boundaries’ is not a word. There’s no translation for that. So going through that arc with George and then eventually him trying to establish boundaries for the first time, it was a lot of healing for me when walking away from that character.”
Giancarlo Esposito, Camila Morrone, Joseph Lee, Paul Walter Hauser, Niecy Nash-Betts and Jessica Williams. (Photo by Randy Shropshire/Variety via Getty Images)
Voting is now underway for the ratification of the new DGA film and TV contract. Members were sent ballots tonight along with the memorandum of agreement, as well as an executive summary of the new deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The tentative agreement was approved last night by the DGA national board, which unanimously recommended that members ratify it. Voting must be completed by June 23.
“In this new agreement,” DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter told members, “we were able to win many significant advancements, including a number of important industry ‘firsts’ including: essential protections regarding AI, terms and conditions in non-dramatic SVOD programs as well as high-budget AVOD programs, Feature Director compensation for ‘soft prep,’ expanded paid post-production for Episodic Directors, a new foreign streaming residuals structure based on subscribers, and banning live ammunition on sets. We also obtained critical improvements in wages, streaming residuals, safety, diversity, and additional creative rights gains. What is particularly striking about the agreement is the breadth and depth of the achievements made, providing significant new benefits for members in every category.”
Key highlights of the agreement, she wrote, include:
Wages and Benefits: Won the highest general wage gains in more than 35 years including a 5% increase in the first year of the contract, 4% in the second year and 3.5% in the third year. In year two of the agreement, an additional 0.5% wage increase will fund a first-time new parental leave benefit for DGA members.
Global Streaming Residuals: Achieved significant increases in the residuals for dramatic programs made for SVOD by securing a new residual structure to pay foreign residuals based on number of foreign subscribers. The result is a 76% increase in foreign residuals for the largest platforms so that residuals for a one-hour episode will now be roughly $90,000 for the first three exhibition years.
Generative Artificial Intelligence: Secured agreement that the customary and contractual duties assigned to DGA-represented employees must continue to be assigned to DGA-represented employees covered by the agreement, and that GAI does not constitute a person.
Non-Dramatic Programs: For the first time, we established terms and conditions for directors and their teams on non-dramatic (e.g., Variety and Reality) programs made for SVOD. We have improved residuals for Directors, which will now be shared with Associate Directors and Stage Managers.
High Budget Dramatic AVOD Terms and Conditions: We achieved new terms, creative rights protections, working conditions and improved residuals – which include UPMs and Assistant Directors, for our members working in scripted dramatic projects made for free to the consumer streaming services such as Freevee, Tubi, and Roku.
Feature Directors: For the first time, we gained compensation for the months of “soft prep” Feature Directors currently perform for free prior to the start of the Director’s official prep period.
Episodic Directors: For Pay TV and SVOD, Episodic Directors won expanded paid post-production creative rights, and gained an additional guaranteed shoot day for one-hour programs. Together, these improvements will result in a 28% increase in the guaranteed minimum compensation for most Directors working on one-hour series made for Pay TV or High Budget SVOD from $50,764 to $64,960 over the term of the Agreement.
Reduction in Hours: We achieved a critically important reduction in the length of the Assistant Director’s day by one hour.
Safety: We obtained concrete safety advancements including a pilot program to require the employment of dedicated safety supervisors and risk assessment; expanded safety training programs for both directors and their teams, and the ban of live ammunition on set.
“In addition to these breakthroughs,” she wrote, “we have increased Studio transparency in residuals reporting that will result in greater enforcement and larger residual payments, made improvements in diversity and inclusion, added Juneteenth as a paid holiday and many additional gains for members in all categories.
“These accomplishments are thanks to a year and a half of research and preparation, and weeks of incredibly complex negotiations by an extraordinary team: Negotiations Chair Jon Avnet and Co-chairs Karen Gaviola and Todd Holland, our National Executive Director Russell Hollander, and our Negotiations Committee, made up of more than 80 members representing all categories. In addition, I want to recognize the heroic efforts of Creative Rights Chairs Thomas Schlamme and Nicole Kassell for their work in furthering the creative rights for our television directors. I am so proud of all of the phenomenal efforts of our members who participated in negotiations, alongside our excellent professional DGA staff, and I thank everyone involved for their dedication to achieving an excellent new contract for all DGA members.
“I am proud to present this agreement to you for your approval. In addition, we are scheduling a series of meetings for members to find out more about the new agreement and ask questions and will be sending that information shortly.
“This ballot represents your highest responsibility as a Guild member and the core of why the Guild has existed and remained strong for almost 90 years – to protect your economic and creative rights and freedoms. The Negotiations Committee and the Guild’s National Board unanimously – and enthusiastically – recommend that you vote YES for ratification of the Agreements.”
Shahid Kapoor and Amrita Rao in a still from Vivah.
Shahid Kapoor recalls how he could not relate to the world of ‘Vivah,’ in which his character falls in love with a woman from a small town.
Shahid Kapoor and Amrita Rao’s 2006 romance drama Vivah still remains one of the most loved films in Hindi cinema. Directed by Sooraj Barjatya, Vivah received rave reviews for Shahid Kapoor and Amrita Rao’s heartwarming on-screen chemistry and became a blockbuster upon its release.
However, in a chat with Radio Nasha, Shahid revealed that he could not relate to the world of ‘Vivah,’ in which his character falls in love with Amrita Rao’s Poonam who hails from a small town. Shahid said that while doing Vivah, “Half the time, I used to be like ‘What am I doing? What is happening? What is going on?” Shahid continued, “I was a big city kid. I wasn’t getting half the things that were happening. I was like jal (water)? What is this? And then we were doing songs which were sung in an older man’s voice. I was wondering how will I do this?”
Shahid shared that since he had a huge respect for Sooraj as a director, he decided to follow the filmmaker. “I just followed it. I said, ‘You tell me what to do and I’ll do it.’ He would tell me ‘Trust me Shahid, just do this’ and I did. I did it with all my honesty,” the actor said.
Meanwhile, Shahid Kapoor has been receiving criticism for his recent comments on marriage. The actor, who has been married to Mira Rajput for eight years now, opened up about his thoughts on marriage in a recent interview. The Bloody Daddy star said that he feels marriages are about women ‘fixing’ men and making them a ‘decent’ person.
Speaking with Film Companion, Shahid Kapoor said, “This entire marriage thing is about one thing: that the guy was a mess and the woman came in to fix him. So the rest of his life is going to be a journey of him getting fixed and becoming a decent person. That’s pretty much what life is about.”
Shrishti Negi, Senior Correspondent, News18.com, reports on the Indian film industry, with a focus on gender. Her areas of expertise are Bollywood, in…Read More
The Directors Guild of America spelled out further details of its new contract with the major studios on Wednesday, including details about its streaming residual formula and language on artificial intelligence.
The guild reached the tentative agreement on Saturday night with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The national board unanimously approved the deal on Tuesday, and forwarded it to the membership for approval.
According to the document, the deal provides for a 21% increase in streaming residuals on the largest platforms. That comes from a new formula that accounts for international subscribers, resulting in a 76% increase in the foreign residual.
The deal also states that generative AI is not a “person,” and that AI cannot take over the ordinary duties performed by DGA members. The language would still allow AI in the filmmaking process, however, provided that the producer consults with the DGA member beforehand.
“The Employers may not utilize GAI in connection with creative elements without consultation with the Director or other DGA-covered employees consistent with the requirements of the DGA Basic Agreement,” the agreement states.
The guild also will get two meetings a year with the AMPTP to discuss advances in AI technology.
The DGA had previously provided some of the details, including that the increases in minimums would be 5%, 4% and 3.5%.
The AMPTP may seek to apply all of the above provisions to the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike for more than five weeks, and to SAG-AFTRA, which began negotiating on Wednesday. Both guilds have said they will not be beholden to the terms negotiated by the DGA.
The DGA also got several gains that are specific to its members. TV directors were awarded additional paid time to collaborate on a second cut of a TV episode. And directors in streaming and pay TV were given an extra day to shoot one-hour shows.
The deal also sets terms for free streaming platforms, like Tubi and Freevee, with a residual equal to 2% of the “employer’s gross” after an initial window.
Also included are safety provisions that come in response to the shooting death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of “Rust” in 2021. The deal includes provisions for firearms training and a pilot program to have “safety officers” on set to conduct risk assessments. The latter provision builds on a deal worked out earlier this year in Sacramento, and expands the pilot to New York and Georgia.
The AMPTP has turned its attention to SAG-AFTRA, which has three weeks to negotiate a deal before the June 30 expiration of its contract.
Miles Morales star Shameik Moore revealed his weight loss goal to play a live-action Spider-Man.
Moore has played the young animated wall-crawler since his big-screen debut in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and is enjoying the spotlight yet again with the critically acclaimedAcross the Spider-Verse.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse star Shameik Moore is making his best case to play a live-action Spider-Man, declaring a super-powered weight loss goal on his personal Instagram.
Posting on his Instagram story the Miles Morales actor wrote, “Time to lose weight so y’all can see Miles more clearly.”
This is in line with what the actor has been saying on the Across the Spider-Verse promotional tour, telling Esquire in a recent interview that “I would love to play live-action Miles Morale.”
“There’s so much I want to do, man. Specifically in the film space—I would love to play live-action Miles Morales. I would love to create some original projects, and get my production company off the ground. I just want to get creative and funky with it. By the time I’m 35, I think I’ll be in a directing space for big projects.”
In that same conversation, he added that he hopes fans of the Spider-Verse movies “support [him] when it’s time to talk about this live-action Miles Morales movie:”
“I really hope people just love this movie. I hope it inspires everybody to pay attention to how they’re wearing their mask, and I hope they support me when it’s time to talk about this live-action Miles Morales movie.”
While Shameik Moore is an excellent animated Miles, he may ultimately not be the right choice to play the character in live-action.
At present, Moore is 28 years old, which may be a little older than what Marvel and Sony would be looking for in a live-action take on the hero.
Traditionally, Miles has been the mentee to an older Peter Parker, learning the ropes of what it takes to be a Spider-Man.
If Sony were looking to have Miles be the primary Spider-Man in their own Spider-Man Universe, then perhaps Moore could work. However, if the character is being primed to appear in the MCU under the tutelage of Tom Holland’s web-head, then a younger actor would be the logical choice.
Shameik Moore can be seen (or more appropriately heard) as Miles in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse which is playing in theaters now.
DC’s recently released anthology, DC Pride 2023, had such a popular outing that it is officially going back to press for a second printing, available July 11!
If you missed out on the initial run and would like to get a copy, be sure to contact your local comic shop today!!
‘DC Pride 2023’ Goes Back to Press!
Oscar Vega’s Stylish Artwork to Cover New ‘DC Pride 2023’ Printing Available 7/11
DC Pride 2023, DC’s 104-page anthology starring DC’s fan-favorite LGBTQIA+ characters, is going back to press! New copies of the sold-out DC Pride 2023 anthology are being rushed from the printer into local comic shops for a July 11 in-store date. Oscar Vega’s original variant cover will be featured on the new printing (shown above).
Praise for DC Pride 2023:
“From high fashion looks to cute smooches, the comics have never been queerer.” —Them.us
“Every page of this book is about being visible, being loud, and just being here in the face of adversity.” —The Beat
“With a grab-bag of stories, essays, pin-ups, and remembrances, this year’s anthology moves between the joyful and the angry, the playful and the bittersweet, all with grace, humor, and pure, queer fun.” —ScreenRant “DC Pride 2023 delivers a thoughtful, well-crafted piece of art that functions as a celebration, a statement, and a reminder that these characters, these creators, these stories, and indeed people of all identities deserve to hold their own space in our community.” —ComicBook
“Shows a grand fantasy that indeed colors our real world. That when people can live free in their truth, we all can emerge in a far more colorful and beautiful place.” —Forces of Geek
Includes an introduction by Phil Jimenez, a preview of the upcoming Bad Dream graphic novel starring Dreamer (written by Nicole Maines and drawn by Rye Hickman!), pinups by artists Angel Solorzano, Noah Dao, Babs Tarr, Maria Llovet, Brandt & Stein, Claire Roe with Triona Farrell, Travis Moore with Tamra Bonvillain, a tribute to trailblazing comics writer Rachel Pollack from Neil Gaiman, Tom Peyer, Jadzia Axelrod, and more.
With over 100 pages of original stories and content, DC Pride 2023 celebrates the bravest and the boldest of DC’s Super Heroes.
The 1.20 update for Minecraft is here, and with the Trails and Tales update comes a wide variety of new content, such as Hanging Signs. These are new types of signs that can be used to help give your base that little extra pizazz. But to make them, you’ll first need to grab some additional items first. This guide will detail everything you’ll need to know about making Hanging Signs–and actually hanging them, of course.
How to make Hanging Signs
To make a Hanging Sign, you’ll first need to get some stripped wood. To get Stripped Wood, you’ll need first craft an axe and approach a tree, and hit LT if you’re on Xbox, L2 if you’re on PlayStation, or Right Click if you are on PC. After you’ve stripped the wood, it’s safe to collect, but make sure you have at least six stripped logs. Hanging Signs don’t serve any significant purpose in Minecraft. They’re purely meant for cosmetic purposes and to show off to your buddies.
Make sure you strip the wood first.
But you can use Bamboo if you don’t want to make it out of wood. To craft it, you’ll need twenty-four pieces of Bamboo. Once you have all the bamboo pieces, you’ll need to turn them into Block of Bambo, and after that, they can be converted into Bamboo Planks.
Here’s how you craft Bamboo Planks
Following that, you have the foundation needed for the signs. You’ll need to craft two Chains. You’ll need two Iron Nuggets and one Iron Ingot to craft them all.
Here’s how you craft Chains
Now that you have all the materials needed visit a Crafting Table and place all of the Wood on the bottom two rolls and the two chains on the top two rolls. After you’ve done that, you’ll successfully craft some Hanging Signs.
Here is how you can craft a Hanging Sign.
How to place Hanging Signs
There are a couple of different ways to place Hanging Signs. The first is by having it hang from a block. You only need to look up and place it on a solid block. The sign will hang from the top as soon as you do that.
If it’s on the sign it has to be true.
But if you crouch as you place it, the chains will intersect, as shown in the picture below.
Here’s another way to place your Hanging Signs.
Another way to place a Hanging Sign is by placing it on the side of a solid block. If you want, you can also make the sign float this way. All you need to do is destroy the block it’s connected to, and it’ll still be there.
You can also place them on the side of solid blocks.
The last way to place Hanging Signs is by having them all hang off one another. First, place one as you usually would, then crouch and put another right underneath it. You can hang as many as you want as long as you have enough room for them.
What’s better than one Hanging Sign? Three Hanging Signs!
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“In all my career, I’ve never felt a room like you,” said Warwick Thornton, the First Nations Australian director, after the screening of his film “The New Boy,” a story of spirituality and survival set in 1940s, that was the opening night title of the Sydney Film Festival. “The energy you give back to these children…,” he said before tailing off.
It was a churning, heartfelt moment that contrasted with Thornton’s bouncy earlier appearance on stage, when he joshed about having told the eight untrained school-age kids in his cast never to look directly at the camera while on set. And how he had to reverse that advice for when they, along with producer Kath Shelper, dominated the red carpet at Sydney’s grand State Theatre. Smile and wave for the paparazzi.
The film had premiered last month in competition at Cannes and was overlooked for major awards. But the opening ceremony for the SFF’s 70th edition was the film’s more natural home. And the packed house was told how festival director Nashen Moodley had fought particularly hard to secure its showpiece status ahead of its commercial release a couple of weeks from now.
The Sydney festival is celebrating not only its 70th edition, but also the well-entrenched pro-diversity and social justice policies that have nurtured a First Nations filmmaker such as Thornton into the skillful and globally recognized talent that he has become.
One of the first elements of the Wednesday night proceedings was a message lasting several minutes from producer-director Rachel Perkins urging a “yes” vote in an upcoming referendum. The federal government is seeking support for a change to the constitution “to recognize the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice.” The overt political messaging would have been unthinkable at festivals in most countries. In Sydney, it was warmly applauded.
“A film festival is a gathering of diverse perspectives that offers a collective snapshot of the global zeitgeist, allowing us to delve deeper into our present reality,” said Moodley in notes before the event. “For 70 years, Sydney Film Festival has been privileged to capture and embody these moments, presenting a rich tapestry of stories that reflect our shared desire to understand the world we live in.”
Diversity is in evidence throughout the festival’s program strands, with the Australian selection particularly wide-ranging. It encompasses: Colin and Cameron Cairnes’ horror pic “Late Night With the Devil”; “The Dark Emu,” a documentary probe into a defunct publishing phenomenon; “The Big Dog,” a drama about domination fetishism; Sarah Snook in Sundance-selected “Run Rabbit Run”; and sold-out queer coming of age story “Sunflower.” “The Australian selection this year is particularly strong on emerging, new voices,” Moodley told Variety on the sidelines.
Sydney is also hosting a major showcase of the works of Sydney-based New Zealand director Jane Campion. Saturday will see her interviewed on stage by David Stratton.
The festival kicks off at a time when the mood in the Australian film industry is cautiously growing more optimistic. That reflects a decent post-COVID recovery at the box office and the sense that, even though Australian cinemas are dominated by Hollywood fare, audiences will turn out for the strongest local titles. Currently on-release title as “John Farnham: Finding the Voice” is the best performing Australian documentary feature of all time with a $3.01 million haul after three weeks.
“It is still very difficult to fund feature films. And there is a section of the audience that has not returned to cinemas (post-COVID),” said Kate Crozer, CEO of the South Australian Film Corporation. “But it is still possible to get things made. People need to be clear whether they are making something cultural or commercial. So, there is a sense of optimism.”
“The support for the more widely-defined arts is understandable. Music, theatre and live performances were brought to a standstill under COVID,” said Graeme Mason, the outgoing head of Screen Australia.
In comparison, film and TV came through the pandemic reasonably strongly, with emergency funding and viable disease protocols quickly put into place. The enduring, high level of production activity in Australia means that the country has an ongoing shortage of shooting studios, a deficit that both public and private sector initiatives are currently trying to fill.
Previous Australian governments have stood up to global tech giants forcing companies including Google and Facebook to pay for local news and threatening further regulation of algorithms. The current Albanese-led government, however, is taking its time over a decision how to implement local content spending requirements, expected to be introduced from mid-2024 for streaming companies such as Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+. One consideration is whether there should be different standards for Stan, a streamer owned by local broadcaster Nine Entertainment, or Foxtel, the Australian pay-TV leader that is now busily reinventing itself as a streaming platform.
Parts of the industry have called for a mandatory 20% of local revenue to be invested in Australian content, but sources at the Australian Directors Guild suggest that the government is dragging its feet and could choose a lower figure or even delay the regulation.
Alyssa Farah, a CNN political commentator and co-host of ABC’s “The View” who previously served as White House communications director during the Trump administration, voluntarily spoke with federal prosecutors investigating the January 6 Capitol riots in recent weeks, CNN reported Wednesday based on unnamed sources.
Farah, who resigned from her role as communications director following the 2020 election, has been outspoken against former President Donald Trump since becoming a media personality.
According to the report, the special counsel questioned Farah about Trump’s state of mind leading up to the Capitol riots, in addition to his knowledge of the false claims of election fraud he was touting following his loss to President Joe Biden.
Farah was reportedly surprised by the prosecutors’ particular interest in Trump’s mindset following the election.
Additionally, the prosecutors asked the former White House aide about former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ involvement in the Capitol attacks, as well as the efforts to coerce then-Vice President Mike Pence into overturning the election, according to CNN’s sources.
Last week, Farah said on CNN that she played a key role in getting former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who served under Meadows, to return to testify further before federal prosecutors on June 28 following previous interviews. Farah said she put Hutchinson in touch with Congresswoman Liz Cheney prior to her most recent revealing testimony.
“[Hutchinson] did her interview, she complied with the committee, but she shared with me ‘there is more I want to share that was not asked in those settings. How do we do this?’” Farah revealed. “In that process, she got a new attorney of her own. Congresswoman Cheney had a sense of what questions needed to be asked that weren’t [asked] previously. So that’s how this shocking testimony that people didn’t realize before kind of came about, and it didn’t come up in her earlier interview, some of those facts.”
Hutchinson said she witnessed Trump acting “furious” on the day of the riots, going as far as throwing dishes against a wall and physically tussling with his own security who refused to drive him to the Capitol building as the riots were starting.
Farah had previously spoken to the House Select Committee that was investigating the January 6 attacks prior to the federal prosecutors. During her testimony, she recounted an instance in which Trump seemingly acknowledged that he had lost the 2020 election about a week after it was decided.
“I popped into the Oval [Office] just to, like, give the president the headlines and see how he was doing,” Farah recalled, according to a transcript of her deposition released by the committee. “And he was looking at the TV and he said, ‘Can you believe I lost to this effing guy?’ And then just kind of moved forward. But in that moment I think he knew he lost.”
Another Showtime scripted original series has been shown the door.
The Paramount Global-backed premium cable network has canceled I Love That For You, the comedy inspired by star and co-creator Vanessa Bayer’s experience with childhood leukemia. The comedy, which ran for one season and had been one of the few remaining scripted series from the cabler’s previous executive regime, is expected to be shopped by producers Annapurna.
I Love That For You launched in May 2022 to warm reviews and wrapped its run a month later. The series co-starring Molly Shannon in a Saturday Night Live reunion with Bayer had been awaiting word on its future for nearly a year.
“I Love That For You has completed its run on Showtime. We want to thank Vanessa, Jeremy [Beiler, co-creator] and Jessi [Klein, EP], along with the incredible cast and crew for their hard work and wish them the best going forward,” a Showtime spokesperson said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
The comedy was one of the last remaining scripted originals that had been on the bubble after Paramount Global absorbed Showtime with Paramount+ following the departure of exec David Nevins, who oversaw the cabler as part of his portfolio. Showtime was then added to the purview of Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish favorite Chris McCarthy, who has installed his own executive team from MTV Studios and seen many of Nevins’ top lieutenants either leave or be shown the door.
McCarthy has been reviewing all of Showtime’s programming since arriving at the network and has canceled The L Word: Generation Q, American Gigolo, Let the Right One In and variety series Ziwe, while also selling off the centerpieces of head of originals Gary Levine and Jana Winograde’s current development slate. Levine remains on as a consultant after a 30-year run at Showtime and Winograde was pushed out after Three Women moved to Starz and King Shaka was dropped.
The gang is more dysfunctional than ever in the 16th season of FXX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia TV show. As we all know, Nielsen ratings typically play a big role in determining whether a TV show like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is cancelled or renewed for season 17. Unfortunately, most of us do not live in Nielsen households. Because many viewers feel frustrated when their viewing habits and opinions aren’t considered, we invite you to rate all of the 16th season episodes of It’s Always Sunny here.
An FXX dark comedy series, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia TV show stars Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, Charlie Day, Kaitlin Olson, and Danny DeVito. The show revolves around a gang of five underachieving and dysfunctional friends who run the unsuccessful Paddy’s Pub in South Philadelphia. They are bouncer Ronald “Mac” McDonald (McElhenney), janitor Charlie Kelly (Day), bartender Dennis Reynolds (Howerton), waitress Dee Reynolds (Olson), and Frank Reynolds (DeVito), an eccentric millionaire and neglectful father of Dennis and Dee. In season 16, Mac battles with allergies and long-distance dating, Charlie takes on his long-forgotten sisters, Dee fights for rent control and women’s athletics, Frank wrestles for his gun, and Dennis struggles to improve his mental health. Guests include Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Artemis Pebdani, Sandy Martin, Lynne Marie Stewart, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Jimmi Simpson, Nate Mooney, David Hornsby, Andrew Friedman, Bryan Cranston, and Aaron Paul.
What do you think? Which season 16 episodes of the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia TV series do you rate as wonderful, terrible, or somewhere between? Are you glad that It’s Always Sunny has already been renewed for a 17th season on FXX?
Check out our status sheets to track new TV series pickups, renewals, and cancellations. You can find lists of cancelled shows here.
“One more time: animation is a medium, not a genre. Animation is film,” Guillermo del Toro said last year. IndieWire couldn’t agree more, and yet animation — an art form that requires the most precise control of the cinematic medium — is continually disrespected.
Infamously, 2022’s Best Animated Oscars presentation featured several jokes about the nominees that, in the words of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, framed “the five Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Feature as a corporate product for kids that parents must begrudgingly endure.” The directing duo called upon the Academy to do better by animation. And this year’s ceremony largely delivered, with less jokes that belittled animation as kiddy stuff and a sterling speech from del Toro himself for his acclaimed stop-motion feature adaptation of “Pinocchio.”
Pixar and Studio Ghibli tend to spring to mind first when discussing great animation, but there’s a world beyond those two giants. Animated films have grown ever more artful and affecting as more and more folks realize that, the Oscars comments notwithstanding, it’s never just been a medium for children, with studios and indies alike creating stop-motion marvels, hand-drawn standouts, and CGI spectacles.
The genre has grown so much since we entered the current century, in fact, that it can be easy to forget the Academy Awards didn’t even recognize animation until 2001. As few as three movies were nominated per year until 2010, but since then animation’s increased prominence has been reflected in the race’s competitiveness.
Next year seems like it’ll be a banner time for the category, with some big contenders in the wings. There’s the smash hit “Super Mario Bros. Movie,” anime fantasy “Suzume,” Pixar and Disney entries “Elemental” and “Wish,” Netflix comic book adaptation “Nimona,” CGI action film “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” the long awaited sequel film to “Chicken Run,” and smaller titles like “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” or Cannes premiere “Robot Dreams.” That’s not even getting into the possibility of an American release for master of the artform Hayao Miyazaki’s next film, “How Do You Live?” That project currently only has a release date in Japan, for July 14, but rest assured we’re chomping at the bit to see it as soon as we can.
In honor of the release of one of those contenders, the exquisite “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” — co-written by genre champions Lord and Miller with “Shang Chi” screenwriter David Callaham — we’ve updated our list of the best animated films of the century, with a variety of new entries we’ve overlooked and the gems that have come out since our last update.
Kate Erbland, David Ehrlich, Christian Blauvelt, Steve Greene, Eric Kohn, Jude Dry, Chris O’Falt, Anne Thompson, Zack Sharf, Noel Murray, Jenna Marotta, Michael Nordine, Ryan Lattanzio, Alison Foreman, and Christian Zilko also contributed to this list.
60. “Encanto” (2021)
Disney’s animated movies have adopted the structure and feel of Broadway musicals off and on since “The Little Mermaid” in 1989 (if not earlier); but “Encanto” may be the studio’s most Broadway-like production. With its story-driven, free-ranging Lin-Manuel Miranda songs — framed by Germain Franco’s Latin-steeped score — and its plot largely confined to one magical house in a remote Colombian village, the film plays like an inventive evening at the theater, where the whole saga of a strange and sprawling family is squeezed into a small stage and a taut running time. Of course the main reason “Encanto” became a sensation — and why catchy numbers like “Surface Pressure” and “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” became instant classics — is because this tale of siblings jostling for the approval of their imposing elders resonates across cultures and generations. Like the heroine Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz), everyone has felt under-valued, and has wanted the chance to prove they can uphold their family’s legacy. —NM
59. “Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood” (2022)
“Apollo 10 1/2:” starts with what seems like a wild hook: a pre-teen boy gets approached by NASA to take part in a secret space mission, one that will bring him to the moon before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s famed landing. Ultimately that’s a set-up the film is largely uninterested in, with writer/director Richard Linklater spending the bulk of the film sifting through the protagonist’s memories of living in Houston, as voiced by Jack Black as an adult looking back. It’s less a narrative than an attempt by Linklater to capture what the world looked like in 1969, and the gorgeous rotoscoping conveys the slippery nature of this nostalgia better than a live-action portrayal ever could. —WC
58. “The Emperor’s New Groove” (2000)
“The Emperor’s New Groove” is a monument to how beauty can come out of disasters. The product of one of Disney’s most troubled development processes, for a musical epic “Kingdom of the Sun,” the film got retooled into a comedic parody of itself halfway through production, causing no end of behind-the-scenes drama. But the result is among the funniest Disney movies ever made: a farce about a selfish Incan emperor Kuzco (David Spade) turned into a llama and forced to rely on village leader Pacha (John Goodman) to get him back home. Featuring scene-stealing voice performances by Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton as villains Yzma and Kronk, it’s a fizzy delight, and one that’s quotable even years. The Pull the Lever Kronk scene? Funnier than most stand-up comedians’ entire careers. —WC
57. “Shrek 2” (2004)
One of the (increasingly less rare) sequels to improve upon the original, “Shrek 2” is essentially the first movie but funnier, more emotional, more action-packed, and ultimately more beloved. Taking the original cast and throwing them into the new setting of Far Far Away, where Shrek is forced to impress his new in-laws, “Shrek 2” provides the franchise with new great characters, like Fiona’s loving mother Lillian (Julie Andrews), her temperamental father Harold (John Cleese), the devious Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders), and breakout swashbuckling star Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas). “Shrek 2” gets a lot of comic mileage out of pitting these quirky characters against each other. And the soundtrack is banger after banger after banger, from opening theme “Accidentally in Love,” David Bowie’s “Changes,” and the Fairy Godmother’s legendary performance of “Holding Out for a Hero.” —WC
56. “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” (2022)
The first “Puss in Boots” movie was an underrated gem that proved way better than you’d expect from a “Shrek” spinoff starring Antonio Banderas’ womanizing feline. But the second is a marked improvement in itself, taking viewers on an exhilarating adventure as Puss journeys to restore the first eight of his nine lives with the mystical Last Wish, while having to contend with Goldilocks and her Three Bears Crime Family and a mysterious wolf out to murder him. The adventure is full of comedy and some surprising tearjerker moments, but the real star is the stylized, fluid animation, which makes every action scene a feast for the eyes. —WC
55. “Kung Fu Panda” (2008)
Two words: Jack Black. The “Super Mario Bros. Movie” star was born to be a voice actor, and his presence can single handedly elevate an animated film. He’s particularly great in “Kung Fu Panda,” where he plays Po, a nerdy panda who unexpectedly gets chosen as the Dragon Warrior of prophecy, and undergoes training to defeat the conquering Tai Lung (Ian McShane). The film is packed with action, comedy, and heartwarming moments, and it would be pretty good with another actor in the lead, but Black’s committed performance elevates it to one of Dreamworks’ best. —WC
54. “My Life as a Courgette” (2016)
If you’re asking yourself what the heck a courgette is, that’s French for “Zucchini.” If you’re asking how someone could have a life as a zucchini, “Courgette” is the nickname that the main protagonist of the film, a young boy sent to an orphanage following the death of his mother. But don’t let the silly title or the colorful claymation character designs fool you: this French-Swiss production is a surprisingly grounded and deep exploration of grief and learning to open yourself up to love again (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” director Céline Sciamma co-wrote the film with director Claude Barras). It’s a charming watch with an uplifting ending, but don’t be surprised if “Courgette” makes you cry before the credits roll. —WC
53. “The Breadwinner” (2017)
“Secret of Kells” studio Cartoon Saloon is behind “The Breadwinner,” an adaptation of Deborah Ellis’ 2001 novel, and “Secret of Kells” co-director Nora Twomey goes solo to helm this production. Set in a Taliban controlled Kabul, the film follows its protagonist Parvana, an 11-year-old girl, as she disguises herself as a boy in the patriarchal society in order to provide for her family after her dad is imprisoned on false charges. The emotional story ends on a note of hope, but it also doesn’t shy away from portraying the harshness of the world Parvana lives in, and the contrast between the gorgeous animation and the ugliness it depicts only amplifies the film’s resonance. —WC
52. “Ernest & Celestine” (2012)
Animated films are filled with odd couple pairings, and few are more memorable or lovable than the titular pair of French feature “Ernest & Celestine.” Celestine is a young orphaned mouse, and Ernest is a homeless grizzly bear. Together, the pair — who live in a world where mice and bears are fierce enemies — steal teeth from bears, and get into extremely fun crime capers in the process. Beyond the film’s virtues onscreen, it’s also notable historically for being the first film to use entirely Adobe Flash and tablets to create hand-drawn animation. Its English dub is also memorable for featuring the final film performance of Golden Age legend Lauren Bacall, who voices the caretaker of Celestine’s orphanage. —WC
51. “How to Train Your Dragon” (2010)
Based on Cressida Cowell’s popular children’s book, “How to Train Your Dragon” was a delightful surprise when it arrived in theaters in the spring of 2010, at a time when adventure movies aimed at kids were stuck in a bit of a rut. This funny, thrilling picture overcame a slow start at the box office to become a word-of-mouth hit; and it remains not just one of the best animated features of its era but also a timeless fantasy classic. Give credit to Cowell’s basic premise: about a misfit teenage Viking named Hiccup (voiced perfectly by the nerdy character actor Jay Baruchel) who befriends a rare dragon he calls “Toothless” and thus shakes up his tradition-bound community. Between the wonderfully exaggerated character designs, the foggy medieval island where the story is set, and the genuinely pulse-pounding action sequences, “How to Train Your Dragon” has a distinctive look and perspective, all in service of illustrating the idea that there may be other ways to deal with danger beyond defaulting to brute force. —NM
50. “The Secret of Kells” (2009)
The Cartoon Saloon team of Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey, and Paul Young have been a breath of fresh air in the animation business ever since they set up shop in 1999. The Irish studio’s debut feature “The Secret of Kells” showed moviegoers around the world what this crew could do. The story’s imagery recalls the look of the illuminated medieval texts handled by its young hero: a 12-year-old boy who falls under the sway of a charismatic monk and learns there’s more to courage and adventure than what he’s read about in books. “The Secret of Kells” bucked nearly every trend in animated films at the time: It’s hand-drawn instead of computer-rendered; it’s based on an ancient manuscript rather than a toy or a fairy tale; and it embraces ambiguity rather than settling into a simple “good vs. evil” duality. Even now, it feels like a minor miracle that this movie exists. —NM
49. “I Lost My Body” (2019)
The visionary French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s frequent screenwriting collaborator Guillaume Laurent wrote the surreal and profound novel “Happy Hand,” adapted by animation director Jérémy Clapin into “I Lost My Body,” a feature-length cartoon made for adults with adventurous tastes (including the International Critics Week jury at Cannes, which made history by making this the first animated film to win their top prize). As imaginatively fantastical as one might expect from the co-writer of “Amélie,” the movie tells the story of a severed hand, crawling across Paris looking for its original owner: a North African immigrant named Naoufel, whose quest for love and personal purpose in Europe has suffered several soul-crushing setbacks. Naoufel’s tale is told mostly in flashback, while in the present his hand heroically avoids various threats. Part action picture and part character sketch, “I Lost My Body” is primarily a poignant look at loneliness. —NM
48. “Belle” (2021)
This Japanese riff on “Beauty and the Beast” from unapologetically maximalist director Mamoru Hosoda takes place within a fictional metaverse known as “U,” and the film’s stunning anime renderings of the “Matrix”-like world are reason enough to see it. But the manic film has enough substance to justify its style, updating the classic fairy tale to tell the story of two people brought together by the anonymity of the Internet. With so many movies focusing on the divisive nature of social media (for good reason!), this one reminds us of the beauty that can be found when two people connect when they would have never met otherwise. —CZ
47. “Toy Story 3” (2010)
Even before that scene, “Toy Story 3” is one of the most moving animated films ever made. Once Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang not only face what appears to be certain doom but accept their collective fate, it becomes impossibly wrenching — and that’s coming from someone who never cries during the first 15 minutes of “Up.” Pixar’s semi-recent sequel overload may not inspire much confidence, but anyone who doubts their capacity for occasional greatness (like this writer) need only remember that the studio’s best movie was the third installment in a series that didn’t appear to need one in the first place. The next few “Cars” movies may leave us cold, but at least we’ll always have a friend in “Toy Story.” —MN
46. “Soul” (2020)
Pixar has carved out a niche for itself as a purveyor of colorful, kid-friendly stories with themes that can bring adults to tears. But for “Soul,” the studio seemingly dropped the pretense of making children’s movies altogether, choosing to tell the story of an adult having a midlife crisis who befriends a disembodied soul with a serious case of nihilism. The movie isn’t afraid to get dark in its portrayal of two characters struggling to find a reason to live, but it makes up for it with lots of thoughtfulness and a hefty dose of Pixar’s signature heart. The film is a masterclass in metaphysical world building, resulting in some of the most creative mythology the studio has ever developed. In the end, “Soul” makes a thoroughly convincing case for existence itself, reminding kids and adults alike of the joys of being alive. —CZ
45. “Coco” (2017)
Pixar’s Oscar-winning “Coco” was a long overdue moment for representation at the animated studio as it was the first project to feature Mexican characters in leading roles, but its power comes from not just being inclusive but from taking Mexican culture and heritage and making it so universal. The story follows an aspiring young musician named Miguel who gains access to the Land of the Dead in an attempt to find his great-grandfather musician and get rid of his family’s ancestral ban on music. “Toy Story 3” director Lee Unkrich and co-director Adrian Molina create such a vibrant, eye-popping Land of the Dead that to watch “Coco” is to get lost in its transfixing colors and imaginative world building. This hyper-detailed approach to the animation style demonstrates both a reverence for Mexican culture and an enthusiasm for making Mexican heritage connect to every viewer regardless of their background. —ZS
44. “Lilo & Stitch” (2002)
“Lilo and Stitch” is the next Disney animated film to receive the live-action remake treatment, and as unnecessary as those projects are, it feels downright disrespectful in this case, because directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois turned in a nearly perfect film the first time around. The film follows Lilo, a lonely and proudly weird Hawaiian girl, and Stitch, the alien experiment that lands on the island and becomes her pet, and it cycles between a lot of different modes: it’s a terrific hangout movie, as Lilo and Stitch wander around Kauaʻi causing havoc, and a great sci-fi movie, as an alien federation crashes down on Earth determined to lock Stitch up.
But the film shines most brightly when it focuses on Lilo and her sister Nani, and their struggles to support each other following the death of their family, which are presented with a depth and realism that very few films can match. Ask anyone who grew up with this film what their favorite line from a Disney movie is, and it’s likely they’ll answer with Lilo’s speech to Nani early on: “Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.” —WC
43. “Turning Red” (2022)
Pixar’s best film in years, “Turning Red” also made history by being the first movie from the company to be directed by a solo female director. Domee Shi, who first gained attention from the general public from her acclaimed short film “Bao,” brings a clearly personal touch to this story of a hyperactive 13 year-old Toronto girl, and her testy relationship with her Chinese family — which only gets worse when she develops the ability to become a gigantic red panda whenever she experiences intense emotions. And although some naysayers dinged it at the time for being “too personal” and appealing to a limited audience, the specificity Shi provides makes the film all the more relatable, as a deeply emotional story about growing up and seeing your parents as failable human beings for the first time. As an added bonus, no other film captures the appeal of boy bands like “Turning Red:” have you listened to that 4*Town single? —WC
42. “Finding Nemo” (2003)
Following her second sitcom’s swift cancellation, Ellen DeGeneres — a trailblazer for for women in the ’80s and the LGBTQ community in the ’90s — found herself in a professional lull in the early aughts. Then Pixar asked her to play a fish with short-term memory loss, Dory, who helps a nervous father (Albert Brooks) located his son (Alexander Gould), newly dropped in a dentist office aquarium (Willem Dafoe, Allison Janney, and Geoffrey Rush co-star as fellow sea life). “Finding Nemo” became the second-highest-grossing film of 2003, the same year DeGeneres debuted her hit talk show. Pixar claimed its first Best Animated Feature Academy Award, and the film remains the best-selling DVD ever. DeGeneres hosted the Oscars, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, racked up more than 75 million Twitter followers for her show, and was of course front-and-center for the sequel (“Finding Dory”). As for the lull? Fin. —JM
41. “ParaNorman” (2012)
The stop-motion animation geniuses at Laika got their start with 2009’s “Coraline,” a critically acclaimed adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” filmmaker Henry Selick. It was an outstanding debut film from the studio (see the “Coraline” entry on this list), but it was with follow-up project ParaNorman that Laika proved it was not only one of the most vital animation studios in operation but that it could also rival Pixar in terms of narrative and emotional originality.
Sam Fell and Chris Butler’s stop-motion fantasy horror film centers around a young boy who can communicate with ghosts as he tries to save his Massachusetts town from being destroyed by a 300 year old witch. For all the wacky supernatural hijinks that unfold over the film’s runtime, “ParaNorman” is most concerned with a reconciliation between the past and present. That an animated family movie even attempts to make sense of America’s lingering guilt for the murder of those charged with witchcraft makes “ParaNorman” a rare gift. “ParaNorman” rightfully earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature and set Laika on its way to becoming a stop-motion powerhouse. —ZS
40. “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” (2022)
Few Oscar winning directors show as much appreciation for the medium of animation like Guillermo Del Toro, who created no less than three animated series for Netflix. And his move to feature animation (which he co-directed with Mark Gustafson), is another winner. “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” is a fairly straightforward update of the classic story, not too dissimilar to the Disney one everyone is familiar with. But the story of the lying puppet feels completely new thanks to a few changes, including memorable new stop motion designs for the characters, a setting update to Fascist Italy during World War II, and a new ending that feels designed to provoke tears from audience members. —WC
39. “Song of the Sea” (2014)
The best fantasy films are able to ground the magical adventures in conflicts both real and personal. “Song of the Sea,” Tomm Moore’s followup to his acclaimed “Secret of Kells,” gets that balance perfectly. The film’s main plot is an imaginative and fun fantasy adventure, about a boy Ben (David Rawle) who discovers his sister Saoirse is a selkie, and the quest they go on to free faerie spirits from the evil Celtic goddess Macha. But the real stakes of the film lie in the relationship between Ben and Saoirse, which has been in total disarray following the death of their mother. Their reconciliation is what gives the animated film its emotional power, and what makes the gorgeously animated climax linger in your mind past the closing credits. —WC
38. “Sita Sings the Blues” (2008)
Nina Paley’s “Sita Sings the Blues” is a visual feast and an extremely personal attempt to make sense of and contextualize one of the most important works of Indian literature. The film is simultaneously an adaptation of and a commentary on the Ramayana, the epic Indian poem that tells the story of the prince Rama as he rescues his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana. Paley splits the movie into three narratives, each individualized through different animated techniques.
The more straightforward adaptation of the story is rendered in the style of Rajput paintings and includes a Greek chorus that interprets the poem’s meanings. Another storyline tells a similar narrative to the Ramayana but sets it in modern day, proving the text’s timelessness. The final story thread introduces a musical number by a more active Sita, who modifies the original text by making herself more self-reliant. By putting the power in Sita’s hands and making her more than a damsel in distress, Paley ultimately makes “Sita Sings the Blues” a radical redefinition of a sacred work. It’s as impressive as it is daring. —ZS
37. “Inside Out” (2015)
You’ve heard the tired joke already: after Pixar asked what if toys had feelings, they moved on to asking what if feelings had feelings? But that line undervalues what an emotional rollercoaster “Inside Out” is, and how perfectly Pixar used the film to capture something about the joys and bitterness of growing up. Amy Poehler and Phyllis Smith, in two of the greatest vocal performances in any Pixar film, are Joy and Sadness, two of the main emotions guiding the life of tweenager Riley. When they get knocked out of the control center guiding Riley, they’re forced to traverse their vessal’s mind to return, or risk Riley getting into serious danger.
It’s a fun setup for a buddy comedy movie, but it also manages to tug at a deeper message about how happiness and sadness need to coexist for a healthy life. And the main perfectly complemented by the real world story of Riley’s struggles with her family’s move, which feels deeply authentic and real. —WC
36. “Frozen” (2013)
Disney has long excelled at taking classic fairy tales — think “The Little Mermaid,” “Cinderella,” and “The Princess and the Frog” — and freshening them up to suit their Princess-driven agenda, but even the studio’s biggest hits have never been assured winners. Walt Disney himself cooked up an idea to build a film around the life of author and poet Hans Christian Andersen way back in the 1930s, envisioning a live-action and animated hybrid that interspersed stories from his real life with scenes from Andersen’s most popular fairy tales, including “The Snow Queen.” That project never got off the ground, and though Andersen’s stories went on to inspire other Disney hits and characters, from “The Little Mermaid” to “The Ugly Duckling,” the story of the Snow Queen remained a problem for Disney’s top creators, who could never quite crack the classic story.
That inability to untangle the icy figure for modern audiences (and younger-skewing viewers who would, understandably, be terrified of a leading lady who isn’t exactly an easy protagonist) kept the tale from being adapted for decades, despite numerous attempts over the years. Even Buck, who always approached the story with his own twists, swung out for years before Disney brass hit upon the idea that would finally make “Frozen” viable: what if its leading ladies were sisters? Aided by Lee’s scripting and directing finesse, indelible songs from Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, strong animation work that utilized stereoscopic 3D to bring a winter wonderland to life, and a vibrant voice cast (from Kristen Bell to Josh Gad, Idina Menzel to Jonathan Groff), the film became one of Disney’s biggest hits and a two-time Oscar winner to boot.
Despite the predictably dark shades of Andersen’s original story, building in a family dynamic that eschewed classic “good versus evil” divides and adding in lots of laughs helped the film fit the Disney mold and appeal to a wide audience. And that’s a good thing, because baked inside yetanother Disney Princess story is an essential story about finding (and loving) yourself and the people who matter most. (Plus, plenty of banging jams about just that very topic.) It was worth the wait. —KE
35. “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” (2009)
Before “The Lego Movie” and “Into the Spider-verse” made Phil Lord and Christopher Miller two of the biggest people working in animation, they made their feature directorial debut via a Sony adaptation of a plotless children’s book. It doesn’t sound like the material for a classic, but “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” is way better than you would think. Bill Hader voices main character Flint, a hapless inventor who unwittingly causes his small island town to begin raining meatballs and other food — to at first delightful, but increasingly apocalyptic results. The visuals and rubbery animation are consistently charming, the romance between Flint and reporter Sam (Anna Faris) is extremely cute, and most importantly, the film has the same wry and clever humor that Lord and Miller would make a career out of. —WC
34. “Moana” (2016)
Disney’s musical “Moana” conjures a gorgeous vision of Polynesia and its people in 3D animation with direction by Ron Clements and John Musker, but the songs stick, too. Even the blackest of hearts can’t resist the soundtrack from Lin-Manuel Miranda, Mark Mancina, and Opetaia Foa’i, with vocals hailing from New Zealand and Fiji, and instruments flung out of the South Pacific. Meanwhile, the central story of the title heroine, a feisty youngster sent on a perilous journey to rescue her people, is empowering for both the kids and the adults watching. “Moana” is packed with memorable creatures, from Dwayne Johnson’s protean Maui to Jemaine Clement’s over-the-top coconut crab hailing from the Realm of Monsters. The animation finds astonishing tactility in the lush locales, making for one of Disney’s most beautiful 3D-animated outings ever. —RL
33. “Anomalisa” (2015)
“Each person you speak to has had a day. Some of the days have been good, some bad, but they’ve all had one.” Even with all the other pain and beauty in Charlie Kaufman’s foray into animation, this simple reminder stands out as one of his most profound musings. We may lose sight of ourselves and the object of our affection when we become infatuated with someone new — especially during a business trip in Cincinnati — but there’s a painful honesty to the way Kaufman portrays those swooning early moments. David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh are both stellar in their voice-acting roles, but the decision to have literally every other character be voiced by Tom Noonan may be the film’s true stroke of genius — it makes it impossible not to see Lisa the way Michael does. The film itself is an anomaly, of course, one made all the more special by its rarity. Learn from Michael’s mistake and cherish it even after it’s over and you’ve returned to the mundanity of daily life. —MN
32. “The Triplets of Belleville” (2003)
It is the rare silent film that achieves such international acclaim and popularity as Sylvain Chomet’s “The Triplets of Belleville.” Drawn in the style of French comics, the figures either pour languidly into frame or bounce jubilantly, depending on their moods. The original score was both bopping and haunting, earning “The Belleville Rendez-vous” an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song (the film itself was also nominated for Best Animated Feature). The driving story of a devoted mother who will stop at nothing to help her son is told with such heart, soul, and humor, that the movie waltzed right into its rightful place in the animated film canon. —JD
31. “Isle of Dogs” (2018)
Set 20 years in the future in a fictional Japanese city known as Megasaki, Wes Anderson’s darling stop-motion feature is a fantastic take on a world that doesn’t actually exist, one strongly rooted in cinema over reality (you know, like a Wes Anderson film). That Anderson would seek to apply his world-building aesthetic to something as meticulous and controlled as stop-motion animation is one of the last great non-shockers of modern cinema. That it would be this cute, well, that’s a bit more surprising.
Smacking of all kinds of Anderson obsessions, from Akira Kurosawa to Ray Harryhausen’s Christmas television specials, “Isle of Dogs” follows a relatively simple story: a boy loves a dog, a canine flu breaks out, said dog is sent to “Trash Island” with the rest of the country’s pups, boy goes looking for beloved dog. Yet Anderson and his game cast of characters — voiced by a murderer’s row of stars, including Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Bob Balaban, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Courtney B. Vance, Fisher Stevens, Harvey Keitel, Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, F. Murray Abraham, Frank Wood, Kunichi Nomura, and Yoko Ono — liven up the wild adventure story with plenty of zip and wit.
While the focal point of the film is always spunky Atari Kobayashi and his faithful best friend Spots, Anderson’s nutty plotline allows for the introduction of whole packs of vibrant characters, canine and human alike. There are the other doggie denizens of ol’ Trash Island, the humans desperate to free them, and evil government types who have rejected all common sense (and human emotion) in the face of a maybe-not-totally-above-board crisis. Laced into the hairy tale are plenty of mysteries (conspiracies! exploding teeth! a secret puppy lair!), and Anderson never sacrifices storytelling for the cute factor, instead crafting a solid story with plenty of adorable moments to go around. Thrilling, sweet, and satisfying, it’s one of the best things Anderson has ever done, and a worthy addition to the always-awe-inspiring lineage of stop-motion wonders. —KE
30. “Millennium Actress” (2001)
The late great Satoshi Kon made a lot of incredible movies, and “Millennium Actress” is probably less well remembered than the eerily beautiful “Perfect Blue” or the head trippy “Paprika.” But of all of his films, his portrait of an actress’ career as a century-spanning epic might be the most emotionally resonant work of his career. Starting simply, with a pair of journalists interviewing reclusive former movie star Chiyoko Fujiwara about her life, the film blurs the line between Fujiwara’s life and the films she made, which span in settings from 1185 Japan to a futuristic space age. Kon loved to explore the relationship between reality and fiction in his work, and “Millennium Actress” touches upon these themes head-on, in ways both heartwarming and tear-jerking. —WC
29. “The Lego Movie” (2014)
Everything is awesome, indeed, in Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s blockbuster hit. The directing duo who surprised everyone with the hilarious “21 Jump Street” reboot did it once again with a branded toy commercial that was never supposed to be as good as it is. Universally praised for its biting humor and colorful visual style, the film deconstructed the bloated blockbuster formula and rebuilt it one hilarious brick at a time. Chris Pratt is perfect as the lovable Lego oaf who must destroy the aptly named Evil Lord Business (Will Ferrell), and sassy punk Wildstyle (Elizabeth Banks) is the sadly still rare capable and funny girl character. With inventive CGI mining the removable Lego appendages for laughs, “The Lego Movie” is one for the ages. —JD
28. “Your Name” (2016)
Makoto Shinkai has been making feature films since 2004, but he first really gained attention in the west with “Your Name,” which became one of the highest grossing Japanese films of all time. It’s easy to see why the movie — which is all about putting yourself in another’s shoes — struck such a chord internationally: it’s a perfect romance anyone can enjoy. Ryunosuke Kamiki and Mone Kamishiraishi play the two main characters, teenage strangers who suddenly begin swapping bodies and, as they live each other’s lives, slowly start to fall for each other, despite being separated by time and space. A lot of Shinkai’s hallmarks are in full effect here — the hyper-realistic and gorgeous backgrounds, star-crossed lovers, big emotional soundtracks, scenes where a guy and girl run through the city looking for each other — but they’re refined to perfection in “Your Name,” one of the best romances in the history of the medium. —WC
27. “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” (2022)
“Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” is a movie that feels as small as its one-inch talking shell hero and as gigantic as the world around him. Based on the series of shorts that director Dean Fleischer Camp and voice actor Jenny Slate released in 2010, “Marcel the Shell” feels very much like a Pixar film for millennial hipsters, with its storyline about Marcel’s friendship with a director Dean (Camp) and his quest to find his family again. And the film, and it’s gorgeous fusion stop-motion and live-action footage, manages to capture the best of Pixar: lovable protagonists, a sense of wonder and visual splendor, and excellent voice acting (from Slate and Isabella Rossellini as Marcel’s grandmother). There’s some layers of meta storytelling in the film (which also acts somewhat as a commentary on Camp and Slate’s real-life divorce) that enriches it, but it also works perfectly well as a straightforward story of family and reconnection. —WC
26. “Ratatouille” (2007)
With “Ratatouille,” Brad Bird salvaged a problem project and set a new standard for Pixar. Ostensibly a buddy comedy pairing a French rat (Patton Oswalt) with culinary talent and a wannabe chef (artist Lou Romano), the film was transformed into a loving tribute to cooking, art, and innocence by Bird. When cranky, cynical food critic Anton Ego (Peter O’Toole) takes one bite of the rodent’s eponymous dish, he’s transported back to childhood in sublime fashion. The Oscar winner, fortunately, has aged very well. It’s as deliciously absurd as a French farce, and animation wise, offers expressive rodents, exquisite Parisian eye candy, and mouth-watering cuisine. Restaurants and rats might not go together in real life, but, thanks to Bird and Pixar, they thrived “on the mother’s milk of caricature.” —BD
25. “Shaun the Sheep Movie” (2015)
Who would have thought that a “Wallace & Gromit” spinoff would end up being just as good — and, according to some well-meaning heretics, better — than the original series? Aardman Animation outdid itself with this quietly daring corker, which has a simple premise (Shaun and his fellow sheep cause much mischief during a day away from the farm) and wildly entertaining set-pieces. There’s essentially no dialogue — or at least none that can be discerned, as the sheep bleat in much the same manner as their real-world counterparts and the humans speak not unlike the grownups on “Peanuts,” which only draws more attention to the madcap, almost Chaplinesque goings-on. At this point it almost sounds like faint praise to describe an animated film as being just as entertaining for adults as it is for children, but “Shaun the Sheep Movie” makes good on that promise as few others do. —MN
24. “Howl’s Moving Castle” (2004)
Winning the Oscar for “Spirited Away” was a bittersweet pill for the pacifist Hayao Miyazaki, who was filled with anger over the U.S. invasion of Iraq. As a response, he channeled his energy into this beautiful, sorrowful, and complex anti-war film that proves life is worth living and that old age is hardly a curse. Set in a magical kingdom during a time of war, it centers on a bored hat-shop girl named Sophie who gets swept up in the excitement of Howl the wizard, only to be turned into 90-year-old woman by the spiteful Witch of Waste.
What begins as a journey to reverse the curse draws Sophie into becoming part of the resistance. The meaningless war, kept in the background, doesn’t lead to a story of good and evil, but a tragedy in which no one is to blame and all suffer. The animation itself is some of Miyazaki’s most complex, with stunning set pieces that feature a depth that’s part of the most technically demanding work of the master’s career. —CO
23. “Coraline” (2009)
Animator Henry Selick perfected his stop-motion technique on such films as Tim Burton’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” and “James and the Giant Peach,” filming puppets in multiple miniature environments, one frame at a time, with flexible still-camera-size digital medical cameras. His masterwork, magical gothic fairy tale “Coraline,” goes way beyond anything done before with stop-motion. Miserably lonely in her family’s ramshackle new house in the country and neglected by her workaholic parents, 11-year-old Coraline seeks refuge in a parallel universe where another set of fantasy parents play and cook and cultivate a fabulous garden. That set-piece was impeccably hand-crafted by artists over months of painstaking production with hand-made manipulated puppets and thousands of paper flowers.
The puppets are built on a delicate metal skeleton armature; they have plastic silicon skin and hand-made costumes and replaceable heads stored in trays with a range of expressions: scowls, smiles, pouty lips. Because Coraline was in almost every shot, the production went through 20 Coraline puppets. On a good day during three and a half years of filming on 50 or so black-curtained one-fourth-scale miniature sets at the gigantic Laika warehouse in Portland, Oregon, an animator would shoot ten seconds of footage. Selick’s team of artists, riggers, electricians, lighters, costumers, makeup artists, voice actors and animators crafted all the elements of the scene, from the 7-inch Coraline puppet and the smaller black cat to miniature trees, leaves and blades of grass and glowing black lights. Selick makes this world feel alive. —AT
22. “Up” (2009)
It has just two letters in its title, but “Up” is a big film about resurrecting childhood dreams, forging unlikely friendships, idolizing unworthy heroes, and never-ending grief. Released in 2009, the two-time Oscar-winner starring Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer features cinema’s most-indelible heaven-bound house since “The Wizard of Oz.” When crotchety Carl (Asner) is condemned to a retirement home, the former balloon salesman comes up with a grand plan to float away from his gentrifying neighborhood. He succeeds, bringing along an unintended passenger and foil, a chipper boy scout named Russell (Jordan Nagai).
The movie’s adorably-smooshed-looking characters and Crayola color palette make the opening sequence even more crushing, as pre-adventure Carl remembers his childhood sweetheart-turned-late-wife, Ellie. Watching them learn that they’ve suffered a miscarriage is sadder than the death of not just Mufasa and Bambi’s mother, but every animated, Disney-backed plot point to date. —JM
21. “Paprika” (2006)
Satoshi Kon isn’t widely known, so many cinephiles may not realize that the animator’s 2010 death (from cancer, at 47) represented a profound loss. Christopher Nolan and Darren Aronofsky have been inspired by his cinematic inventiveness; the roots of “Inception” can be found in Kon’s final film, “Paprika,” about a device that permits therapists to help patients by entering their dreams. But where Nolan needed to take pause in order to let his audience catch up with dialogue-driven exposition, Kon’s film effortlessly slips through levels of consciousness by creating his own totally understandable sense of time, space, dreams, and reality. If you’re unfamiliar with exactly how next-level Kon was as filmmaker, Tony Zhou’s video essay about his cutting patterns is extremely well done. —CO
20. “The Mitchells vs. The Machines”
Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe’s story of a family road trip interrupted by a robot apocalypse is one of the best non-Disney animated films in recent memory. The film combines delightfully cartoony animation and sharp humor with a surprisingly nuanced message about the way technology can unite and divide us at the same time. Phil Lord and Chris Miller have created their own brand of animation that allows them to jump around between intellectual properties while maintaining their distinct sense of humor, and their fingerprints as executive producers are all over this modern classic. 2021’s endless “Encanto” discourse kept “The Mitchells vs. The Machines” from getting the attention it deserves, but its timely subject matter means it will always be worth revisiting. —CZ
19. “Waltz With Bashir” (2008)
Ari Folman’s tortured masterpiece is a difficult thing to classify, and not just because an animated documentary sounds like such a contradiction of terms. No, “Waltz with Bashir” is such a strange bird because it exists on the highly contested border between reality and imagination — it doesn’t belong to fact or fiction, but rather the hazy middle ground of memory. First and foremost a performative act of remembering, the film follows Folman as he thinks back on his time as a 19-year-old soldier on the Israeli side of the 1982 Lebanon War and tries to shine some light into the voids that have since formed in the darkest recesses of his mind. Visiting his old war buddies, shooting their conversations on HD video, and then layering those encounters in a dream-like skin of Flash animation, Folman transforms a guilt-stained memoir into a singular portrait of history and all the ways in which it haunts us. Any number of films have been called “unforgettable,” but “Waltz with Bashir” examines what that distinction really means, and in doing so becomes one of the few films to genuinely earn it. —DE
18. “Kubo and the Two Strings” (2016)
A Kurosawa-inspired epic about the supreme power of storytelling, Studio Laika’s most ambitious stop-motion masterpiece blends peerlessly expressive puppetry with artful digital effects in order to craft a rare adventure that can resonate with audiences of all ages. “Kubo and the Two Strings” tells the story of a plucky but somber 11-year-old shamisen player (well-voiced by Art Parkinson, nevertheless typifying an unfortunately white-centric cast) who only knows his warrior father through the stories that his mother has passed down. When the boy is spirited away by the evil Moon King and sent on a quest to retrieve some magical armor alongside a talking monkey (Charlize Theron) and a forgetful beetle (Matthew McConaughey), our young hero becomes more closely acquainted with his dad’s memory than he ever imagined possible. Few films have spoken so eloquently to the role that parents can play in our lives; how they shape us before we got here and stay with us after they’re gone. Even fewer have used floating demon aunts voiced by Rooney Mara to do so. —DE
17. “WALL•E” (2008)
Define dancing. Andrew Stanton’s 2008 Pixar masterpiece works on multiple levels, seamlessly, all at the same time, while also paying heed to flat-out artistry and an emotional story that’s always earned. Alone for 700 years, waste-collecting robot WALL-E has thanklessly toiled to clean up a mangled splotch of Earth that, quite frankly, still looks worse for the wear. But while WALL-E has been alone for decades, his curiosity and humanity have only grown, and he happily engages with culture (musicals, obviously) and the few other creatures around him with a gentleness that’s so sweet it actually hurts. The only thing that WALL-E needs is someone to share it all with, but when EVE unexpectedly appears, it still sets into motion one of modern cinema’s most surprising — and rewarding — love stories.
But that’s not all it has to offer, as Stanton’s film lays out a cultural critique that’s still as relevant as ever, introducing WALL-E and EVE to a marooned human population who have let slip their own personhood in pursuit of cozy hover chairs and a “buy and large” sensibility that keeps them consuming but never connecting. That two robots can feel something in a universe devoid of emotion is a basic enough premise, but that “WALL-E” actually uses that inspire genuine feelings is the real trick. Illuminated by some of Pixar’s most stirring animation yet — 10 years later, and this thing still looks fresh out of the box — and a score from Thomas Newman that adds majesty and magic to every frame, the film hasn’t lost a step in a decade, it just keeps dancing. —KE
16. “The Congress” (2013)
Robin Wright stars as many versions of herself in Ari Folman’s half-animated fantasy “TheCongress,” which employs all sorts of visual derring-do to imagine a world where moviegoers and content seekers are no longer mere eyeballs — they’re drug addicts. Here, Robin Wright is convinced by her agent (Harvey Keitel) to hand over her likeness to Danny Huston’s “Miramount” producer. Her mind, body, and soul will be digitally scanned and preserved to be recast and reused ad infinitum in box-office schlock. The caveat is that the real, flesh-and-blood Robin can never act again.
Flashing forward a couple of decades, the film’s second half becomes a gloomy rabbit hole of grand animation of the likes of Mark Ryden or Hieronymous Bosch on acid, as Robin heads to a remote convention where all participants consume a drink that turns them and their world into whatever they want to be. “TheCongress” opens up the possibilities of filmmaking, and it’s as pro-cinema as it is anti-Hollywood. —RL
15. “World of Tomorrow” (2015)
Yes, this Don Hertzfeldt film is an animated short, but it also packs more ideas and emotional complexity into 17 minutes than most films do in two hours (including some on this list). It centers on a girl named Emily who is invited on a tour of the future by her adult clone. The juxtaposition of the purity of Emily’s childlike innocence and the bleak look at what the world becomes creates a crushing layer of drama, as she’s too young to understand what we do. Meanwhile, Hertzfeld’s deceptively rudimentary animation style is an array of colorful emotions pulsing with life. It’s impossible not to well with emotions watching this masterpiece, which tells a deeply philosophical tale that’s remarkable for its simplicity. It will be held up against Chris Marker’s “La Jetée” as one the greatest short films in the history of movies. —CO
14. “Persepolis” (2007)
Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel comes to life in “Persepolis,” Satrapi’s autobiographical coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the Iranian revolution. Although the film’s present day scenes are in color, the majority of the film is depicted in black-and-white, which is not only faithful to the graphic novel but also a stylistic choice which Satrapi felt would help show how Iran could be like any other country. The enduring charm of “Persepolis” is how relatable it is despite how very personal it is. Marji’s story is engrossing and an interesting slice of history, but it also speaks to how we struggle to connect with others and find ourselves. We can overlay our own experiences with every heartbreak and moment of happiness Marji experiences. “Persepolis” was the co-winner of the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, and has won its place as one of the most vital coming-of-age tales made this century. —JR
13. “Flee” (2021)
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s autobiographical therapy session of a movie was one of the most sparkling entries at the virtual 2021 Sundance. Amin, on the verge of marrying his boyfriend, recalls his harrowing journey as a child escaping Afghanistan at the end of the Soviet Union’s decade-long invasion. His parents, employed by the fallen communist government, escape with him and his siblings to Moscow, then split up to seek a better life in the West. The animation here helps bring to life events that would be extremely difficult (or at least very expensive) to recreate in live-action, let alone the need to obscure Amin’s real identity. But above all, these (deceptively) simple 2-D images lend an expressiveness to this story, pitching it somewhere between the memory of a child and a fable: You’ll never forget how Amin’s ‘90s light-up sneakers, their flickering red light falling on snow, almost give away his group of refugees trying to cross the Russian border illegally. —CB
12. “The Illusionist” (2010)
Sylvain Chomet’s first feature since the Academy Award-nominated 2003 film “The Triplets of Belleville” is an ode to Jacques Tati, with the film’s magician protagonist inspired by the French absurdist filmmaker and the lanky Monsieur Hulot. But the film, with a screenplay by his longtime writing partner Henri Marquet along with Chomet, works from an unproduced Tati script. Set in mid-century Europe, “The Illusionist” is a father-and-daughter story without a father or daughter, exactly, as the out-of-luck protagonist decamps from Paris to Edinburgh, where he meets an alluring girl whom he takes under his wing. “The Illusionist” makes the case for simple 2D animation used to tell a simple story, and the film’s mournful history as an alleged mea culpa from Tati to his estranged daughter gives “The Illusionist” a wistful, melancholy air rarely seen in American animated movies. —RL
11. “Rango” (2011)
Yes, the fact that Johnny Depp voices the titular character now strikes one as deeply, deeply unfortunate. But if you can get past that, “Rango” still holds up today as an excellent, and refreshingly weird, animated western. A loving tribute to movies like “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” or the movies of John Ford, “Rango” sees our heroic lizard get lost from his owners and wind up in the western town of Dirt, where he gets roped into becoming sheriff and is tasked with uncovering the mystery behind the drought affecting the landscape. The movie is perhaps most interesting for its unique animation process; director Gore Verbinski shot his actors in live-action, and based the CG animation on that footage, resulting in a unique, surprisingly grimy style totally its own. —WC
10. “Chicken Run” (2000)
Over 23 years later, “Chicken Run” is still the highest-grossing stop motion film in history, grossing over $227 million during its theatrical run. And that’s a well deserved honor, because this movie is a masterpiece. A co-production between Aardman Animations and Dreamworks, the film focuses on a group of British chickens attempting to escape their farm before they get cooked into meat pies. Led by the strong-willed Ginger (Julia Sawalha), the group engages in a variety of attempts to escape, giving the audience some classic Aardman slapstick comedy.
But beyond the surface charm, “Chicken Run” is a shockingly deep text: in the years following its release, many have examined the themes of feminism and Marxism hiding behind the story, like how George Orwell criticized Russian fascism in “Animal Farm.” In a landscape where western animated films are often the purview of gigantic corporations, it’s hard to classify any of them as truly “radical,” which makes the revolutionary spirit of “Chicken Run” something worth championing. —WC
9. “The Incredibles” (2004)
It’s likely no live-action superhero film will ever be able to hold a candle to the original “The Incredibles,” one of Pixar’s finest hours. Brad Bird’s family of ‘60s superheroes (which are not NOT inspired by the Fantastic Four) is perhaps the most vividly realized group of heroes in cinema history: Holly Hunter’s badass Elastigirl, Craig T. Nelson’s depressed Mr. Incredible, Sarah Vowell’s shy Violet, and Spencer Fox’s hyperactive Dash all pop off the screen with personality and humor. And the villain that pulls them out of retirement, Jason Lee’s bratty Syndrome, is the exact kind of campy, iconic villain the MCU can’t seem to produce across 30 movies. The action is exhilarating, the supporting cast is perfection (Frozone’s wife, you will always be famous!), and the family bonds are heartwarming: in a world of bland and emotionless “Eternals” and “Ant-Mans,” “The Incredibles” puts modern superheroes to shame. —WC
8. “The Wind Rises” (2013)
Hayao Miyazaki cemented his legacy as cinema’s greatest animator with this ineffably beautiful swan song, the “My Neighbor Totoro” director taking a hard left turn into historical melodrama for this story about “Zero” plane engineer Jiro Horikoshi (voiced with perfect flatness by “Neon Genesis Evangelion” creator Hideaki Anno). Everything about this film was highly unusual, least of all the fact that animated biopics are few and far between, let alone those about controversial World War II figures who went to their grave feeling vaguely responsible for millions of deaths; imagine if Brad Bird’s last movie was a Pixar toon about J. Robert Oppenheimer. Overcoming the misguided controversy that accompanied this film’s release, “The Wind Rises” endures as a peerlessly haunting ode to the creative process and the tortured life of our most beautiful dreams. —DE
7. “Wolfwalkers” (2020)
Cartoon Saloon’s third and final installment in the Kilkenny-based studio’s “Irish Folklore Trilogy” is its most expansive: an epic about the endless struggle between fanaticism and freedom. During Oliver Cromwell’s tyrannical reign, when Ireland suffered under English rule worse than ever before, the “Lord Protector” orders the extermination of all wolves on the Emerald Isle. The adventurous daughter (Honor Kneafsey) of an English hunter (Sean Bean) comes to realize that the English impulse to destroy the wolves, and anything “wild,” is about control and obedience — colonialism — when she encounters a young Irish girl named Mebh (Eva Whittaker), whose part of the wolfwalkers, people who can turn into wolves. Directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart give impossible levels of background detail despite telling a complex, action-driven story. Even if the narrative becomes a bit repetitive, there’s more than enough for your eyes to take in. —CB
6. “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” (2013)
When it comes to movies adapted from ancient folklore, it’s never wise to hold out hope for a happy ending — the storytellers of yore weren’t quite as gentle as the movie executives who followed in their wake. In other words, people raised on Disney movies might not be prepared for what’s in store for them at the end of Isao Takahata’s stunning “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya,” which is based on a 10th-century Japanese legend and builds to a degree of emotional devastation unseen in any animated film this side of Takahata’s own “Grave of the Fireflies.”
There’s a bittersweet sparseness drawn in to Takahata’s spare watercolor style, but the fairy tale story about an enchanted girl who comes from the moon and is raised by humble woodcutters is unforgettably fleshed out and full of life. But perhaps the saddest thing about this immensely sad masterpiece is that it stands as one of the last we got from the great Studio Ghibli. —DE
5. “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse” (2018)
Does the world need another Spider-Man movie? In the case of Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman’s inspired animated outing “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” the answer is a resounding yes. A new spin inside an old web, the film exists inside the so-called “Spider-Verse” — a multi-verse that doesn’t discount the current Tom Holland-starring live-action films and handily builds in tales from all over the long-running comic book series that could frame their own film — and still manages to carve out its own path.
Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore) is, like so many Spider-Men before him, a regular kid whose life is thrown into turmoil after a nip from radioactive spider. What’s always been compelling about Spider-Man, however, is that his (or her!) life is interesting enough beyond that spider bite, and Miles delivers on that with ease: whipsmart, on the cusp of the rest of his teenage life, and from a compelling complex family, Miles is fun to watch even without all the superhero stuff.
The superhero stuff, well, it’s pretty great, too. Vibrant, colorful, inventive animation pushes the heroics to blazing new heights (often literally) allows “Into the Spider-Verse” to tap into the nuttier aspects of being suddenly thrust into greatness (read: candy-colored psychedelic sequences that are as fun as they are thrilling). The introduction of a cadre of other Spider-People adds both humor and shocking stakes to a story that’s already built around Miles’ big heart and earnest desire to save the day, giving him plenty of new friends and the film a slew of zippy new players to indulge. Not just one of the most successful Spider-Man films of all time, not only a pitch-perfect exploration of the mind-bending implications of a multiverse, but a feature that happily carves out its own path while staying true to its rich history. —KE
4. “The Red Turtle” (2016)
Dutch animator Michael Dudok de Wit joined forces with Studio Ghibli for this wordless survival story, which morphs into a delectable fairy tale over the course of its trim running time, and never wastes a frame. When the movie was released, even its biggest fans tended to note that it traded plot for mood, but that doesn’t quite do justice to the visual mastery on display. Instead, “The RedTurtle” uses the form of a familiar story while reinventing it from the inside out.
The plight of a lonely castaway tossed onto a deserted island in the midst of a harrowing storm screams “Robinson Crusoe,” but once the man comes across the majestic creature of the title, his adventures take a series of unusual new twists. The island companion initially registers as an annoyance, until it dies. But when the turtle suddenly transforms into a woman, the ensuing adventure transcends its narrative traditions, and becomes a profound meditation on mortality and companionship. At once in tune with the magnetic imagery of Miyazaki’s studio and more concise in its vision, “The RedTurtle” has a complex, soulful nature that sneaks into the deceptive simplicity of its design, and puts it in a class of its own as one of the greatest animated movies in history. —EK
3. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (2009)
Wes Anderson’s live action films often — and intentionally — can feel like handmade dioramas, so it shouldn’t have been surprising that he’d gravitate toward stop-motion animation where literally everything in frame is put there by design and the hand of the artists can be felt with each flutter of fox fur. Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is less an adaptation of the beloved Roald Dahl novel than it is a jumping off point for the director to imagine his own story world that is a surprisingly adult and philosophical meditation on being human in the 21st century.
And the yet the film is a schmaltz-free, kid-friendly story that crackles with capers and humor deliver by wonderfully modulated comedic voice performances from George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Michael Gambon, Jarvis Cocker, and the scene-stealing serenity of Anderson’s brother Eric. —CO
2. “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (2023)
What is Miles really going up against? Nothing less than — pause to really let this part sink in — the canon itself. No, really, the very thing that Miguel O’Hara and Jess Davies and Gwen and Peter B. Parker and the rest of the Spider-Society are tasked with holding together is the canon. For comic book fans, the implications are clear: the canon is made up of all those accepted, classic, traditional stories, the backbone of the superhero universe, the stuff you don’t want to mess up or go against or break outright. Miles Morales, from his very creation both in the comic books and on the big screen, is a new twist on the canon. A Spider-Man who isn’t Peter Parker? Who is from Brooklyn? Who is mixed race? If you’re still clutching your pearls over the creation of these kinds of characters or review-bombing a film because it dared to cast a person of a different color or gender than you wanted or yelling about this sort of demented ideology on social media or whatever it is you do with your precious time on Earth, “Across the Spider-Verse” has got a hell of a message for you. Breaking the canon? It’s the only way to move forward.
There’s something beautiful and terrifying about getting exactly what you wish for. The stunning jewel in Hayao Miyazaki’s pocketful of masterpieces follows young Chihiro on a fantastical sojourn through a land of cursed animals, malicious witches, and amorphous blobs that devour humans with minimal effort. It’s the textbook Miyazaki blend of wonder and danger that makes this a modern fairy tale on par with the time-tested stories of Grimm and Aesop and the countless oral traditions that spin yarns of all that the wide world has in store.
What better lesson for a child moving through a strange, treacherous journey that heroes and villains can swap places in an instant, that a hand extended in good faith can be used for terror and that an evil enemy can one day be redeemed? No-Face, Yubaba and Zeniba, Haku: all rich stewards of a story that can be taken as a parable for young adulthood, our modern relationship to nature, the way we treat our elders, or all of those things in one. In tone, color, and thematic ideas, this is as kaleidoscopic as Studio Ghibli gets, all delivered with the grace and control of a storytelling master.
The ending is a perfect distillation of what it means to be transported to an unfamiliar, magical visual world and to be returned safely. You’re still in one piece, but there’s something changed that you can’t quite put a finger on. It’s the great promise of film, animated or otherwise, one rendered here with as much honesty as fantasy allows. —SG
The other day online, I caught the coolest thing. It was a clip from the Cannes Film Festival, where Martin Scorsese and the cast of “Killers of the Flower Moon” get this big out-of-control standing ovation that goes something like nine minutes. One of those cast members is Lily Gladstone. She’s probably not the first Blackfeet to be at Cannes—everywhere I set foot, I hear of other Blackfeet that have been there before me—but Lily may be the first one of us to have been at the center of a nine-minute standing ovation.
IN THE MAKING
I should say too that, while I know Lily enough to say hey, we didn’t grow up together in Browning or East Glacier on the reservation in Montana. She did, I didn’t. I’m from West Texas, where I also wasn’t the first Blackfeet. Another place I definitely wasn’t the first Blackfeet was the University of Montana, where I was just—breathe in to tumble through it—the James Welch Distinguished Native American Visiting Writer. And no way was James Welch the first Blackfeet in Missoula—we were there before Montana, before America—but he is how I first saw Lily Gladstone: in the excellent 2013 adaptation of his 1973 novel “Winter in the Blood,” which, at the time, felt kind of like where “Dance Me Outside” and “Pow-Wow Highway” and “Smoke Signals” and “Fast Runner” and all those Native films had been heading: stories that showed we were people, not just a disposable part of the setting in a film about “taming” the Wild West. We’d come a long way since 1922’s “Nanook of the North,” yes.
Kind of in a constellation around those films, too, there was stuff like “Thunderheart” and “Last of the Mohicans” and “The Indian in the Cupboard” and “Dances with Wolves”and “Apocalypto” and “Pathfinder” (2007) and “The New World” (2005) and Disney’s “Pocahontas,” where it was kind of cool to see Indian actors, hear some of the language, but . . . were those stories really about us? The documentaries more or less were—”Incident at Oglala,” “Reel Injun,” “500 Nations,” “Trudell,” so many more—and Tony Hillerman’s mysteries set on the Navajo Reservation were on PBS for the “Columbo” crowd, but . . . where were you going to catch any of that stuff?
A lot of coming-up Indian kids—okay, this coming-up Indian kid—we had maybe two and a half stations on an especially still day, and none of these films and documentaries, good or bad, were much happening yet in the late seventies, early eighties. All I had to reflect my face back at me in that small screen was the occasional Indian hitchhiker in “CHiPs,” or Billy Jack on some much-copied VHS tape. Yeah, sometimes there’d be a Saturday afternoon matinee with Burt Reynolds or Paul Newman in laughable redface, and all the John Wayne Indians were in constant rotation—that’s how America likes us: dying—and later I’d find Edward James Olmos playing an Indian in “Wolfen,” Armand Assante being an Indian eco-warrior in “Prophecy” (1979), Sonny Landham (yes!) as Billy Sole in the first “Predator,” and Lou Diamond Phillips telling me about the Sand Creek Massacre in “Young Guns,” but none of that was happening yet.
So, I did what you do: I abducted movie characters into my tribe.
Conan the Barbarian, that savage fighter from the frozen north? I could squint that “frozen north” into Montana, sure. And so Conan became, for me, Blackfeet. So did John McClane of “Die Hard.” It tracks: dude’s fighting impossible odds, he’s using guerrilla tactics, he’s getting beat up at every turn, and he’s joking his way through it all. That’s even more Blackfeet than Conan. John Rambo got pulled in as well, mostly because of that red bandana he Geronimos around his head when the chips are down. And, in those movies, the chips are always down—felt pretty familiar.
DIGITAL SERIES
Until I found possibly better role models, these were plenty. And, sure, Elvis could be Indian, why not? Wayne Newton, too. And Robbie Robertson of The Band, I didn’t even have to squint to make him Native. He just was, and is. And that band Blackfoot? Never mind if they were Blackfeet or not. They were Indian, and that was enough. More than enough.
All of which is to say: growing up in West Texas, with the media landscape being what it was, I kind of cobbled my own tribe together to try to figure out who I was going to try to maybe be. It’s what you do.
Fast-forward to 2017, then. I’m at the cineplex for some superhero fodder, when . . . seriously? Someone’s speaking Blackfoot in “Wonder Woman”? Eugene Brave Rock, yep. Sure, he goes by what I always got called on work crews and day labor, “Chief,” but still, wow. I was used to my people being in the indies, the documentaries—in “War Party” (1988)—but never the headliner stuff that the whole world shows up for. I mean, “Wonder Woman” had a character in it who’d been in “Fast and the Furious”!
Had we made it? Was this it? What we’d been scrabbling and protesting for since forever?
Not sure I’d go quite that far. To most of the viewers, Chief isn’t the star of the movie. To this viewer he is, of course—and he’d kill it behind the wheel of one of those Fast cars—but so was “Predator” a movie about Billy Sole, so was “Young Guns” about this Indian who could really sling some knives at you, so was “White Buffalo” really a Crazy Horse story.
Lily Gladstone, photo by Steve Hyde.
We’re getting somewhere, I guess I’m saying. We’re not the spooky ghost in “Scooby-Doo” anymore. “The Adventures of Pow-Wow” (1957) isn’t in syndication. Playing in redface, talking that Red English . . . it’s not so cool anymore. “The Lone Ranger” (2013) didn’t take up all the storytelling space, is what I’m saying. Or: we carved out some more space.
Check out your TV Guide if you don’t believe me. There’s “Reservation Dogs,” “Rutherford Falls,” “Mohawk Girls,” “Dark Winds,” “Spirit Rangers,” and on the big screen . . . well, we’re still usually sidekicks, supporting characters (“Wind River,” “Hostiles”).
But things are changing. Things are happening.
Or, I say “happening,” but what does it feel like we’re doing really?
Sneaking through.
Like, if they knew what we’re trying to do here, they’d for sure shut us down.
Until they do, though, there’s this lucky generation of Native kids, right?
I’m so thrilled for them.
Slouching through the living room, probably tracking mud across the carpet for the umpteenth time, they might look over to the television and see—
Their own face reflected back at them.
They won’t have to squint their heroes Indian. Their heroes will already be Indian.
I’m part of that audience at Cannes, clapping for Lily Gladstone.
And nine minutes isn’t going to be nearly enough.
Stephen Graham Jones
37,000 feet over Georgia
22 May 2023
Images from Lily Gladstone: Far Out There, directed by Brooke Pepion Swaney.
An updated strategy to guide how Calgary Transit delivers its service over the next 30 years has cleared its first hurdle at City Hall, as transit officials change gears with a goal of to make the service more frequent.
Transit officials were at City Hall on Wednesday to deliver the updated strategic plan to the city’s infrastructure and planning committee.
Developed in 2012, ‘RouteAhead’ is a 30-year strategic plan that outlines operating and capital investments and improvements to riders’ experience on Calgary Transit.
As part of the 10-year updates, transit officials are looking to shift the focus to a more frequency-based service to bolster the creation of what’s called a Primary Transit Network.
“The biggest thing that we’re trying to do is build the primary transit network, which really gives Calgarians that fast, frequent transit that runs early in the morning and late and night with buses and trains coming more often,” Calgary Transit planner Jordan Zukowski told Global News.
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Calgary’s proposed Primary Transit Network.
City of Calgary
The frequency goals laid out in the updated plan are a bus or a train every 10 minutes, 15 hours per day and seven days per week on the primary transit network. This includes CTrains, Max Line buses, and buses along major routes.
When it comes to local neighbourhood bus routes, the goal is every 30 minutes within the same time frame, with additional frequency when warranted.
However, transit officials note the change to a frequency-based network will require some route changes, and riders may have a longer walk to a bus stop, but most will have to travel less than five minutes to the stop.
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That aspect of the updated strategy raised concerns with some city councillors who are anticipating some pushback from residents.
“There will be some pushback on some of those routes,” Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp told reporters. “People are comfortable with these routes, and walking an extra ten minutes to a more frequent bus zone, as long as we can maintain that frequency, then we are doing what we set out to do.”
Transit officials told the committee that any route reviews, which would take place if the plan is implemented, would be data-driven.
“If there’s a bus stop that we see is very underutilized or not utilized at all, that’s maybe something that we would consider removing and that allows the bus to run a lot faster,” Zukowski said. “If we’re thinking of where are these bus stops that people are using a lot, where are they getting on a lot, those are key destinations that we want to keep people linked to.”
David Cooper, formerly a planner at Calgary Transit who now runs a consulting firm called Leading Mobility, said frequency based systems are used across the country and that it would with ridership on transit.
“Edmonton did this exercise in 2021 and their bus network has recovered 104 per cent of pre-pandemic ridership,” Cooper said. “We have a commuter-based service in pre-pandemic shape.”
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Impacts from the pandemic continue to plague staffing at Calgary Transit, according to the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 583.
The union’s president Mike Mahar said a frequency-based service won’t be achievable until more operators and mechanics are hired on, with current staff stretched thin.
“Even if they’re working, eight or 10 hours, they’re in a uniform for over 14 hours,” Mahar told Global News. “When buses are running late, or they’re not showing up. It’s the transit operator that’s the first forward-facing employee, so they hear the brunt of it from the customers.”
Calgary Transit director Sharon Fleming said transit is working on hiring up to 800 employees this year to get back to pre-pandemic staffing levels, with a goal of hiring more if the updated RouteAhead plan is implemented.
The plan still needs to go to council for a final approval.
Pending that approval, Calgary Transit officials will bring forward an implementation plan with operating and capital costs and proposed route changes for a decision by council.
“It’ll be a journey,” Fleming said. “This is an investment over time and we need to catch up with our infrastructure, our buses, our hiring, to go along with that frequency increase.”
Under pressure. Jenna Ortega cried while talking to Elle Fanning about the intensity of using social media as a young actress.
For Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series, published on Wednesday, June 7, the Scream 6 star, 20, and the Girl From Plainville alum, 25, spoke in depth about their experiences navigating Hollywood in the face of stardom at a young age — particularly when it comes to Instagram.
Though Ortega has been acting since she was a child — and has a starring role in the Scream franchise — it wasn’t until Wednesday premiered in November 2022 that the Netflix star noticed “a very obvious shift in my life, maybe three days after the show came out.”
For Fanning, who, like Ortega, has been in the spotlight since she was a young girl, social media “can get toxic,” she told the X actress — who immediately agreed.
“Yeah, it gets ugly,” Ortega shared, explaining that she was under intense pressure to build her following from a young age.
“When I was younger, they would take us to media training — Disney 101 or something like that — where they would say, ‘You’re going to post three times a day. This is how you build followers, engage, promote our show,’” she recalled. “You could go into an audition or meeting, and it was, ‘How many followers do you have?’”
It wasn’t just the industry that wanted perfection, Ortega noted. “Social media, what it does to anyone our age, it’s such a comparing game. It influences bandwagon mentality. It’s very manipulative. After the show, I’m really nervous to post or even say anything on there or even be myself because I feel like —“
“It could be misinterpreted,” Fanning interjected.
Jenna Ortega.Gregory Pace/Shutterstock
“Yeah. Because I naturally tend to be sarcastic or dry, it’s very easy for me to find myself in trouble. I want people to be able to get to know the people behind the camera and realize that people should never be put on a pedestal,” Ortega agreed, tearing up.
“And the more I’ve been exposed to the world, people prey on that and take advantage of that. They see your vulnerability and twist it in a way that you don’t always expect,” she said while crying, apologizing for her tears. “It’s so strange. Sorry, I didn’t mean to do this.”
The California native revealed that she struggles with how to “balance” her online presence, wanting to “be honest without jeopardizing [my] own health and safety,” she said. “It’s very easy to feel almost out of control.”
In striving to be “human and honest and authentic,” Ortega admonished the “gross” requirements from Hollywood.
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“Another thing about this industry is you get in front of a camera and people want you to be something else — where it’s ‘Have more energy’ or ‘Could you smile?’ and it just feels gross. And I don’t want to feel gross,” she explained. “I would rather people see me cry and do whatever than be something I’m not.”
Most employees learn of their termination in person or on Zoom — or in the age of virtual layoffs, through an email. Instead, former CNN CEO Chris Licht endured the sad irony of being fired in Central Park — the same place where he was offered the job.
According to the New York Times, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav invited Licht to the New York City park at 7 a.m. Wednesday morning to inform him of his impending termination, right around where Zaslav offered Licht the job just 13 months ago.
Hours later, Zaslav shared the news of Licht’s exit on a 9 a.m. editorial call. “I met with Chris and he will be leaving CNN,” the Warner Bros. Discovery CEO told staffers. “We’re in the process of conducting a wide search, internally and externally, for a new leader.”
Shortly following the call, Zaslav sent a memo to staffers elaborating on Licht’s departure, which was clarified as effective immediately.
“I have great respect for Chris, personally and professionally,” Zaslav wrote in the memo. “The job of leading CNN was never going to be easy, especially at a time of huge disruption and transformation, and he has poured his heart and soul into it. While we know we have work to do as we look to identify a new leader, we have absolute confidence in the team we have in place and will continue to fight for CNN and its world class journalism.”
Later on Wednesday, Licht broke his silence in a post-exit statement, which called his tenure “exciting but incredibly challenging.”
“This was an exciting but incredibly challenging assignment, and I learned a lot over the past 13 months,” Licht said in a statement to media. “I’ve been lucky enough to have had a successful, fulfilling career and I look forward to my next chapter.”
“Stranger Things,” “Wednesday,” and “Beef” became three of the biggest hits of the season by captivating audiences from the moment they began streaming. But any viewer who re-watched them can attest to the fact that all three shows remain captivating after the initial buzz has died down thanks to their impeccable attention to detail.
At IndieWire’s Consider This Event on June 3, artists from all three series joined IndieWire’s crafts reporter Jim Hemphill for a panel about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into our favorite television. Again and again, the panelists returned to the theme of going above and beyond to shape the smallest of details in their quest for perfection.
When you think about the sounds of “Stranger Things,” epic battle sequences and Kate Bush needle drops might be the first things that come to mind. But re-recording mixer/supervising sound editor Craig Henighan explained that he puts just as much effort into sounds that often go unnoticed. The way he sees it, any sound can be an opportunity to add an unsettling edge to a scene.
“Depending on the scene, if there’s lights that are flickering or buzzing, I look at what frequencies they’re at and even what key they’re in, making them a little bit more uneasy,” Henighan said. “Seeing what Michael (Stein) and Kyle (Dixon) are doing in terms of the score and seeing if I need to play off of that and either grind against it or if I actually try to flow into it.”
To find the music of “Wednesday,” composer Danny Elfman and co-composer Chris Bacon and music supervisor Jen Malone walked a delicate line to craft the perfect balance of original and existing music. While the three artists primarily worked separately, a scene of Jenna Ortega’s Wednesday Addams covering The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” on cello in the first episode prompted the teams to work together in search of a perfect arrangement.
“For ‘Wednesday’ we came on super early, because in the first episode we had the on-camera cello performance of ‘Paint it Black,’” Malone said. “So we had to get that created and really dial in,” music supervisor Jen Malone said. “We also had to get it to Jenna in time so that she could learn it — which she did phenomenal with.”
Bacon explained that he was not originally planning on composing music for that scene, but jumped at the chance to add additional orchestrations. He said that the attention to detail that went into the scene was one of the first indicators that he was working on a potential hit.
“One of the places where we indirectly collaborated was while Danny was finishing the score for episode thing, we had this ‘Paint it Black’ thing happening,” Bacon said. “It was originally solo cello, and then at the end we thought ‘maybe we should add orchestra to this.’ So that was a really fun thing where I got to come in and do that. There was a direct synchronization between the source and score. To me, that’s where I first thought ‘this show could really be something.’”
Elfman took a different approach, but his process of working through music with his longtime collaborator Tim Burton is no less laborious. The two men have worked together for nearly 40 years, so Elfman knew that he couldn’t rush things with Burton. They opted to let the music come to them naturally, cycling through countless ideas before organically settling on the sound of the show.
“I was working exclusively with Tim, because when I’m working with Tim he just likes to keep a closed circle. Like a tank that nobody’s allowed in,” Elfman said. “I also got involved very early, because Tim didn’t know for sure what the tone was gonna be. It just involved lot of experimenting and finding out what is ‘Wednesday’ musically. And Tim doesn’t like to be rushed. So I came on early, did a lot of ideas, and finally honed it down to ‘this feels like Wednesday.’”
For “Beef,” the process of writing music was always deeply intertwined with creator Lee Sung Jin’s scripts. Composer Bobby Krlic explained that the showrunner allowed him to sit in on early table reads, which helped him understand the show’s two main characters, Danny (Steven Yeun) and Amy (Ali Wong). Once he understood the tense relationship at the heart of the series, he could shape his orchestrations to two characters’ personalities.
“Danny, from the very first frame of the show, there’s all this tension all this anxiety,” Krlic said. “With Amy, her life felt much more about the façade of things, so we had softer things: glockenspiel and felt piano.”
Because Krlic was invited to get an early start on his score, the show’s editing team was able to use his music to shape their understanding of the characters. “Beef” editor Laura Zempel explained how Krlic’s score didn’t just add to the show’s narrative — it actively shaped her understanding of it.
“We got a batch of music from Bobby before we started cutting, and so Harry Yoon who started off on the pilot, he found that cue for Danny at the hardware store. And just bringing it in right away for him, it just tips the audience off to ‘Okay, there’s something going on beneath the surface with this guy. And I know that sort of set us off with the soundscape for Danny,” Zempel said. “With Amy, when Amy is comforting June in the pilot and telling her about the one time she felt happy, it’s this beautiful melodic piece from [Krlic]. And that sort of set Amy’s character apart. With ‘Beef,’ we were obsessed with the music and how it sounded.”
Watch the complete panel from IndieWire’s Consider This Event above.
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It turns out The Terminator is no match for James Cameron. In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new Netflix documentary “Arnold,” the actor and Cameron remembered clashing over the iconic “I’ll be back” line from 1984’s “The Terminator” (via Insider).
“Sometime in the middle of the shoot, we’re doing this police station scene. The line is, ‘I’ll come back.’ It wasn’t meant to be like a big moment at all,” said Cameron, who co-wrote “The Terminator” with Gale Anne Hurd. “It was literally meant to be, on its face, ‘No problem, I’ll come back.’ For some reason, Arnold didn’t say, ‘I’ll come back.’ I said, ‘Well, just say “I’ll be back.” Keep it simple.’”
Schwarzenegger admits in the documentary that he thought “I’ll be back” sounded “funny” because he was playing a cyborg and thought “I will be back” sounded more “machine-like” and appropriate. When Schwarzenegger made the suggestion, Cameron fired back.
“And he says, ‘Are you the writer?’” Schwarzenegger said. “And I said, ‘No,’ and he said, ‘Well, don’t tell me how to fucking write.’”
Cameron won the clash, and Schwarzenegger’s “I’ll be back” line went on to become the definitive moment of the “The Terminator” franchise and one of the most famous lines of movie dialogue in history.
Schwarzenegger now admits that Cameron was “absolutely right,” adding, “It became the most quoted movie line, I think, in the history of motion pictures. So this just shows to you who was right and who was wrong.”
Cameron and Schwarzenegger would reunite for the film’s 1991 sequel, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” Neither of them expected the original film to become such a classic, and Schwarzenegger said it “freaked out” Cameron that “The Terminator” became such a critical smash hit.
“What is successful box office-wise doesn’t mean that the critics will like it,” Schwarzenegger said. “So to have Time magazine, their critic, pick it as one of the top 10 movies was unheard of. It even freaked out Jim Cameron. All of a sudden, I was on a roll.”
A high school gym teacher grappling with her sexual identity is challenged on both a micro and macro level in 1988 England in “ Blue Jean,” a quietly complex portrait of compartmentalization and self-actualization.
In October 1987, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher gave a speech in which she bemoaned the state of education and said that “Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay.” This was just part of her critique of the state of education and the agenda of “extremist teachers” pushing “political slogans” and “anti-racist mathematics” who are cheating children out of a “sound start in life.” By May of 1988, a law was passed (Section 28) that would “prohibit the promotion of homosexuality” and would remain in effect in some form until 2003. Don’t worry if the law doesn’t sound familiar either – it was news to both the film’s director and star.
The film, which opens in limited release Friday, is the assured directorial debut of Georgia Oakley, who focuses her script not on the women who went out to protest as the House of Lords debated Section 28, but on one who was still coming to terms with her own identity. Jean (Rosy McEwen) is not terribly political, and, like most teachers, keeps her private life to herself. But she’s also one whose livelihood and passion (teaching) would be directly threatened by the law. Her journey in the film is a human one – there are mistakes, deep regrets, and casualties – and it’s her flaws that make her relatable. She is not, in other words, exactly an inspirational hero.
England, 1988 – Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government are about to pass a law stigmatising gays and lesbians, forcing Jean, a PE teacher, to live a double life. As pressure mounts from all sides, the arrival of a new girl at school catalyses a crisis that will challenge Jean to her core.
At the beginning, Jean leads a quiet life. She lives alone in an apartment and commutes to teach gym to high schoolers and coach the girls’ netball team. She loves her work and takes it seriously but keeps a distance from both the students and her fellow teachers, eating alone at lunch and declining persistent requests to go out for a pint after work. Some nights she meets up with her girlfriend, Viv (Kerrie Hayes), and a group of other lesbians at an underground bar. Unlike Jean, who is described as a deer in headlights, these other women are out and proud. When an older woman sneers at Jean and Viv eating together, Jean shrinks while Viv goes on the offensive. In the background, radio news broadcasts speak about the looming Section 28.
The message Jean takes from all of this is to hide. In her mind, this makes sense because teachers need to set boundaries with their students and co-workers. But then a new girl arrives at school, Lois (Lucy Halliday) who is also gay and Jean’s meticulously segregated life starts to crumble, especially after Lois sees her out with Viv and friends, and Jean retreats further into herself. Is it her responsibility to look protect or guide Lois through this aspect of her life? Jean will make a shocking decision before the end of the film.
Jean is both an introvert and a product of her environment – she doesn’t speak to her mother anymore and her more conservative, heterosexual sister’s attempts at supporting Jean mostly make her feel worse. She scolds Jean for exposing her 5-year-old son to Viv, even though she drops the kid off at her apartment without any warning. Jean is also scolded by Viv for telling her nephew that she’s “a friend.”
Oakley has said she wanted to present a protagonist “without glamorization or misrepresentation,” inspired by filmmakers like Kelly Reichardt and Chantal Akerman.
“Blue Jean” is a perfect film to debut during Pride. It’s a reminder of the very recent past and the generational effects of institutionalized homophobia.
“Blue Jean,” a Magnolia Pictures release in theaters Friday, has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association. Running time: 97 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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When Marvel decided to expand the MCU into television, the studio instantly became one of the most popular names in streaming. Beginning with WandaVision in January 2021, Marvel continuously pumped out new shows for a year and a half, ending with She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
During that time, Marvel released eight different streaming series, introducing a bevy of new characters, and stretching the studio’s output to its breaking point.
Following the poor reception for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, in addition to later Marvel film releases such as Thor: Love and Thunder and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, Disney decided to slow down Marvel’s release schedule.
Marvel Returns With ‘Secret Invasion’
With the release of Secret Invasion on June 21, Marvel is returning to the small screen in a big way.
Photo: Marvel
Secret Invasion will see super-spy Nick Fury return to an Earth that has been infiltrated by shape-shifting Skrulls. The former head of SHIELD is joined by allies Talos, Maria Hill, and Ross Everett. The series will also introduce Emila Clarke’s G’iah- Talos’ daughter who is resentful toward Fury for never finding a new home for her people.
See The New Trailer
In a new teaser trailer released today, Fury confides in Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes that “an invasion is here…and we don’t even know who the invaders are.”
Photo: Also Marvel
Rhodes explains to Fury that he is now the most wanted man on the planet, something the spy seems to take in stride.
Secret Invasion will revolve around the show’s central question — who can you trust?
New Character Posters
In conjunction with the new trailer release, Marvel also unveiled a series of character posters.
Photo: Marvel
While Marvel fans will have had to wait almost eleven months between MCU releases, Secret Invasion looks like it will mark Marvel’s return with a bang.
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The Flash #800: An oversize anniversary issue concludes writer Jeremy Adams’s acclaimed tenure, with special guests Mark Waid, Joshua Williamson, and Geoff Johns joining the celebration! As the Adams run races to the finish line, get a prelude to the new Dawn of DC chapter of the Fastest Man Alive’s adventures from the dream team of Simon Spurrier and Mike Deodato Jr.!
Positives
While the most recent anniversary issue of The Flash (#750) was a celebration of all the Flashes and the extended Flash Family, The Flash #800 focuses primarily on the current star of the title, Wally West. And in general, this anniversary issue is more focused. It features less stories, but they are some of the most notable creators that have produced Wally’s modern adventures as the Flash.
Fittingly, the issue opens with a story by Jeremy Adams, the outgoing writer and concludes with a story from the title’s new writer, Simon Spurrier. But it also includes a story from Mark Waid, who brought Wally through a fantastic coming-of-age story that brought Wally out from under Barry Allen’s shadow. It also features a story by Geoff Johns who wrote several issues of Wally’s previous title, as well as Joshua Williamson, who wrote the first hundred of the title’s current incarnation.
The popular opinion would that Gotham City or perhaps Metropolis would be the worst target for a supervillain to stage a crime spree. But Adams’ story shows us a group of minor supervillains discussing why Central City is the very worst. They tell tales of various villains seeing the Flash’s home city as an easy target, but quickly regretting it. From minor villains like Condiment King to major threats like the Joker, the Flash Family makes quick work of them all.
Positives Cont.
And that points to something that many writers have to gloss over to give us more varied Flash stories. The simple fact is that a speedster character is almost certainly going to defeat any non-speedster. Adams pokes a bit of fun at the inconvenient truth that writers have to make it plausible for non-speedsters to have a fighting chance against the Flash. Otherwise the only villains that would appear in the series would be other speedsters.
Adams’ story is a nice little coda to his run on the title. Adams’ run has returned a lot of fun and lightheartedness to The Flash. And so instead of trying to recap the events of his run, he encapsulates that feeling of fun into a single, short story. It’s this sense of fun that I will miss most now that he’s moving on to other projects.
Mark Waid’s story features Impulse, who has to rescue Wally and Max Mercury, who are trapped in a mirror dimension by Mirror Master. Given that this story features Bart and Max, and that the One-Second War storyline showed them setting off into the future, I have to wonder if DC has an Impusle/Max Mercury project in the works. Both characters have been somewhat underused in recent years – especially Max. So, it would be great to see them headlining a new mini or ongoing title.
Joshua Williamson’s story features Barry and Iris, as Wally narrates what they mean to him, and what they have taught him about the meaning of family. This is rather fitting, considering that Williamson’s run featured Barry as the star. It’s also great to see that Williamson’s story focuses on how happy Barry and Iris lives are right now.
Positives Cont.
Barry spent most of Williamson’s hundred-issue run trying to become the hopeful and optimistic hero he had previously been. And this story assures us that Barry has achieved this. And it goes further to show how Wally and his family also share in Barry and Iris’ happiness.
Geoff Johns’ contribution to The Flash #800 focuses on Hunter Zolomon, a.k.a. Zoom. Johns story is mostly a recap of Zoom’s origin and a teaser for his possible return. I wonder if this hints at a possible confrontation with Wally for Si Spurrier to recount in these pages. Or could it be that Johns will write the story himself in an upcoming miniseries. Either way, my curiosity is piqued and I look forward to reading that story when it surfaces.
Finally, The Flash concludes with Si Spurrier’s inaugural Flash story. During this story, Wally faces off against Mirror Master. But we see that an unknown being has enhanced the villain’s tech. Wally doesn’t have much difficulty escaping Mirror Master’s trap. But he finds that it’s awoken a new power in Wally, which he describes as “stepping sideways through overlapping layers of existence”.
This raises a number of intriguing questions that Spurrier will undoubtedly tackle in the months ahead. Who is this mysterious being? And what does it want with Wally? And how is Wally’s new power different from his existing abilities to travel through different dimensions and parallel Earths. It’s a fascinating starting point for a new direction for the title.
Positives Cont.
I also have to add that while I think DC does tend to go way overboard with variants, The Flash #800 was somewhat a more restrained cash-grab than #750 was. That issue had 10 variants of a $10 book book (not counting the more expensive ratio variants), while this issue had 8 variants of a $5.00 book (and two ratio variants). Still a bit expensive for completionist collectors, but nowhere as extreme as the earlier anniversary.
Negatives
Which brings us to the major drawback. Now matter how intriguing, a new direction wasn’t needed. Jeremy Adams run on The Flash has been utter magic, and he has stated that he still had further stories planned. While I’m sure that Spurrier’s run will prove excellent, I can’t help feeling that DC throwing a fantastic opportunity away by pushing Adams out in favour of Spurrier.
What DC should have done instead is to have let Adams continue on this title chronicling Wally’s adventures and created a second title featuring Barry for Spurrier to write. From what we know of his plans, it sounds like a story better suited to Barry than Wally, anyway.
I just hope that the change of writers does not prove as disastrous as when DC kicked Peter J. Tomasi and Dan Jurgens off the Superman titles and gave them to Brian Michael Bendis. Judging by Spurrier’s other work, it shouldn’t be quite that bad, thankfully. But, I will try to keep an open mind as Spurrier’s story unfolds. And as much trepidation as this gives me, it doesn’t diminish from the high quality of this issue.
Negatives Cont.
The issue ends with a blurb stating, “Join Wally and the Flash Family in a new #1, this September…”. The brief hiatus is due to the Knight Terrors crossover event. However, I don’t like the implication that DC is dropping the recently restored legacy numbering and rebooting back to #1.
But it wouldn’t be so bad if DC were to adopt the system they just started using with Batman. DC has started dual-numbering that title with Batman #135 also bearing the legacy numbering as #900. I would be okay with DC bringing out the next issue of this title out as The Flash #1/#801.
But the dropping of the legacy numbering is a problem that potentially belongs to the next issue. For the moment, The Flash #800 still bears the legacy numbering.
Verdict
While I still worry that DC was unwise to take Adams off this title, I will keep an open mind to Spurrier’s new direction. However, that doesn’t detract from the high quality of this issue. I look forward to seeing where Spurrier’s story will take us. But Spurrier does have some big shoes to fill and I hope he’s up to the task.
System Shock is unapologetically old-school, keeping the core of a nearly thirty-year-old game while mainly focusing on visual and presentation upgrades with a few quality-of-life additions around the edges.
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– English Audio Description
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