When Nicolas Cage was first approached about playing a slightly psychotic version of himself in the movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, he was more than a little hesitant about signing on. His fears only grew when he learned that the “Nicolas Cage” character in the movie would be …
Read More »'I Figured We Were All In': Ben Stiller on That Crazy 'Severance' Season 1 Ending
This post contains spoilers for the finale of Season One of Severance, which is streaming now on Apple TV+. The notes I took on my first viewing of the Severance finale, “The We We Are,” look like the scribbles of a madman, full of all-caps profanity, screaming at the characters …
Read More »Kim Wall's Life Was Overshadowed by Her Killer. A New Doc Hopes to Set Things Straight
In another reality, it could have been Erin Lee Carr in the submarine with Peter Madsen, the man convicted of the 2017 killing of Swedish journalist Kim Wall. Of course, in a sense, it could have been any female journalist in that submarine. But Carr, whose documentary Undercurrent: The Disappearance …
Read More »'Yellowjackets' Showrunners Talk Season One Finale and What's Next
This interview contains full spoilers for the season finale of Yellowjackets. The whole first season is now available on Showtime. And then there were six. Throughout its gripping cult phenomenon of a first season, Yellowjackets kept implying that only five characters made it out of the woods a year and …
Read More »Welcome to Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare
G uillermo del Toro has two smiles. The first is the kind of open-mouthed, mid-laugh, teeth-displaying, 100-watt grin you associate with childhood, when your enthusiasm about things is pure and knows no bounds. Spend any time with the Oscar-winning 57-year-old Mexican filmmaker, and you will see that smile many times. …
Read More »The Ultimate 'Sopranos' Insider's Guide to 'The Many Saints of Newark'
This post contains spoilers for The Many Saints of Newark, which is now in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, as well as for various plot developments on The Sopranos that are relevant to discussing the film. “I try to be good.” —Tony Soprano The Sopranos, you may have heard, …
Read More »Andy Señor Jr. on the 'Cuban Conversation' Behind His 'Revolution Rent' Documentary
It was never a question that Andy Señor Jr. was going to be the one to put up Rent in Havana, the first Broadway production to be performed on the island in decades. But first thing’s first: Figure out how he was going to explain to his family why he …
Read More »The Year of Magical Drinking: Mads Mikkelsen and Thomas Vinterberg on 'Another Round'
If you’ve heard about Another Round, the Oscar-nominated Danish film starring Mads Mikkelsen, you probably know about the Dance. It happens at the end of writer-director Thomas Vinterberg’s tragicomedy about four middle-aged high school teachers who attempt an experiment in magical drinking; entire features and paeans have already been written …
Read More »Netflix's 'Bling Empire' Is a Celebration of Culture — Clad in Couture
There’s a throwaway scene a couple episodes into Netflix’s new reality series, Bling Empire, where three of the cast members meet up to confer about recent events, while shopping for soup ingredients at a Chinese health food store. As the guys work their way through bins of deer antlers, sea …
Read More »Remembering Terry Jones: Monty Python's Secret Weapon
Farewell, Terry Jones — in Monty Python’s box of chocolates, he was always the crunchy frog. This man was a comic genius, the soul of Python — their most unselfish performer, their most wide-ranging mind, and their most stubborn arguer, which is why he ended up directing their movies. (Who …
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