Josh Trank has already been through a protracted studio battle with 20th Century Fox (for Fantastic Four), so one might imagine that bad movie reviews might not feel as jarring in comparison. That assumption would be correct, and Trank is ready to reckon with those Capone reviews while letting them roll off his back. In an interview with Hollywood Reporter, he sifts through the aftermath of a less-than-impressive VOD take ($2.5 million held up to a $20 million budget) and is simply happy that people are having strong reactions.
The film, which sits at 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, led our own Vince Mancini to declare, “Context is not the enemy.” Notably, there’s a scene where Tom Hardy, as the post-prison Al Capone, defecates in his own pants. But Trank is “very happy with the outcome,” because some viewers love what other viewers hate. Trank continued:
“That’s perfectly fine because everything in this movie is up front and center for you to see. Nothing is being hidden. It’s right there. But I’m glad that what people are reacting to are the most extreme elements of the movie. It’s getting a reaction. If you hate this movie, that’s perfectly fine because you’re reacting to something that’s pretty real.”
As long as people are paying attention, in other words, that’s better than being ignored, according to Trank. It’s not a new idea by any means, but it does seem useful right now when movies are struggling in the face of pandemic chaos. One might argue, though, that movies like Capone are much better off heading to streaming services than, as Vertical Entertainment did, forging out to VOD-land unattended. With The Last Days Of American Crimeearning 0% positive reviews but still sitting atop the Netflix charts, there’s certainly an audience for terrible movies. 2020 isn’t getting any less weird.
After previously postponing the event, Barcelona’s premier festival Primavera Sound announced they were canceling this summer’s festival in light of the pandemic. Primavera Sound was slated to celebrate their 20th year this summer and had even planned an LA debut in September. Instead of holding the festivals, Primavera Sound instead commemorated two decades as an organization by airing past performances. But the festival has also set their sights on the future: Primavera Sound has already confirmed its full lineup for 2021.
Now scheduled for June 2021, Primavera Sound’s first wave of lineup announcements was led by Gorillaz, Tame Impala, Charli XCX, Pavement, and The Strokes. Now, the fest has expanded on their original announcement and added a massive amount of artists to its bill. Taking place at Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona from June 2 to 6, Primavera Sound will feature performances by artists like Kehlani, Slowthai, Kurt Vile, Khruangbin, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, and more.
While the festival added a number of acts, a few musicians who were originally booked for 2020 don’t appear on the new lineup. Lana Del Rey, King Princess, Kacey Musgraves, and Brittany Howard were slated to play this summer, but don’t appear on the 2021 lineup.
Tickets for Primavera Sound are available starting 6/11, with all 2020 day tickets remaining valid for next summer’s festival. Find tickets here.
Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Over the weekend, Game of Thrones actress Sophie Turner, along with husband Joe Jonas, attended a Black Lives Matter protest in Los Angeles. “No justice, no peace,” she wrote on Instagram, where she responded to some of her follower’s comments, including one who asked why she was still protesting the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, after arrests have been made. “I mean they’ve been arrested and charge [sic] with murder so there [is] justice soooooo can we have peace now?” they wrote.
Turner wrote back:
“This isn’t just about those 4 cops, this is about Breonna Taylor, this is about Trayvon Martin, this is about Eric Garner, this is about the systemic racism that black people have faced for hundreds and hundreds of years. This is about changing the system. Justice will be done when society reflects our beliefs that we are all equal. Until then, there should be no peace.”
Well said.
In the days prior to the protest, Turner showed her support for the Black Lives Matter movement. “My heart is heavy. I stand in solidarity with those speaking out against racism and fighting for justice and equality. Silence is not an option,” she wrote. “While my voice is not one that needs to be heard, I want to highlight some of those we should listen to,” including Colin Kaepernick, Tamika D. Mallory, and Rachel Elizabeth Cargle.
One of the more unusual angles in WWE in recent memory belonged to three-time tag team champion Erick Rowan and a cage covered in burlap. From November 2019 until February 2020, Rowan would carry this mysterious cage to the ring, occasionally letting jobbers peak inside and/or be attacked by whatever was in there. Then, it was revealed in March that there was none other than a big, extremely fake-looking spider inside of it.
Alas, Drew McIntyre squashed the cage — and presumably the fake spider inside of it — on one of Raw’s final pre-pandemic episodes, and shortly thereafter, Rowan was released. He’s kept a low profile since, rebranding himself as Erick Redbeard, but otherwise he’s been quiet. That changed recently when he appeared on the Lewis Nicholls Show to discuss his wrestling career, and most importantly, just what his thoughts were on his final angle:
“I had the cage thing, whatever that was, but it kept me on television. Good or bad, it kept me on, and that’s what I always say to people; good or bad, you try to make the best you can with it. Sometimes, you can make good out of it, but sometimes, the writing is the writing, and I don’t know what happened. I really don’t.
I put stuff in there, just in case somebody peeked through. You never know if something is going to fall out. Nobody else told me to do it, but I put stuff in there just in case. One week I didn’t have anything, so I took a T-shirt and some duct tape and made a stuffed animal. Just stupid things so if someone looked through it, there was some sort of shape. I didn’t know what was going to be in there.”
When asked if he was disappointed in the payoff of the angle, Rowan simply said, “I plead the fifth.”
Most of the major music festivals around the world have been either canceled or postponed for months now. That said, Lollapalooza has stood as one of the final holdouts, as they had yet to announce a delay or cancelation. Now, though, the matter is out of their hands: The City of Chicago announced today that Lollapalooza (along with a host of other events scheduled for this summer) will no longer be allowed to go on as planned.
The festival organizers also shared a statement about the cancelation, writing, “We wish we could bring Lollapalooza to Grant Park again this year, but we understand why things can’t move forward as planned. The health and safety of our fans, artists, partners, staff and community is always our highest priority. Rest assured, we will be working hard behind the scenes to deliver Chicago a spectacular celebration of Lollapalooza’s 30th Anniversary in the summer of 2021, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you. It’s difficult to imagine summer without our annual weekend together, sharing the undeniable energy generated when live music and our incredible community of fans unite.”
The message goes on to note that between July 30 and August 2, Lollapalooza will host a livestream event that will include live performances, archival sets, and more.
The animated group Gorillaz fronted by Damon Albarn teamed up with UK rapper Octavian for another offering from their Song Machine series. The collaboration resulted in “Friday 13th,” a hazy and rhythmic earworm.
“Friday 13th” boasts and slow and easy groove with Octavian delivering much of the lyrics. “I been drinkin’ and smokin’ too much, that sh*t damages / Gimme a lot, I can do it myself, I can manage it,” Octavian sings. The track’s accompanying visual was all self-filmed at home during quarantine and reflects the track’s slow-burning nature with psychedelic visuals.
The single is the latest installment from Gorillaz’s series Song Machine. Before working with Octavian, Gorillaz teamed up with Peter Hook and Georgia for “Aries,” Fatoumata Diawara for “Désolé,” and Slowthai for “Momentary Bliss.”
Ahead of releasing “Friday 13th” the group showed their solidarity with Black Lives Matter. Gorillaz announced a new line of merch items with all proceeds benefitting the London-based black history education charity The Black Curriculum. “Gorillaz are enraged at the death of George Floyd and many before him at the hands of systemic racism and police brutality,” The band wrote. “It’s time to be the change and play an active part in the fight for justice and equality.”
Listen to “Friday 13th” above.
Gorillaz is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Lil Wayne is still releasing skate-oriented videos for his January album, Funeral. After releasing a social distance-friendly video for “Piano Trap” and “Not Me” in April, Wayne’s latest video takes an animated approach. “I Don’t Sleep” is filled with trippy, surrealist imagery, resembling a virtual skate tour through an LSD-washed alternate universe as Lil Wayne and guest rapper Takeoff of Migos reflect on their accomplishments and declare, “F*ck a bed, f*ck a spread, f*ck a sheet.”
Wayne’s new video returns his focus to promoting his music after he spent the last few weeks interviewing his peers and contemporaries for his Beats 1 Radio show, Young Money Radio. In various episodes, he promised YBN Cordae a guest verse on his next album, discussed Googling his own lyrics with Eminem, and got Drake to talk about fatherhood and the followup to 2018’s Scorpion. He also used the platform to clarify certain remarks he’d made about hashtag activism during an appearance on a live chat with Fat Joe. Speaking to Run The Jewels’ Killer Mike on Young Money Radio, he said observers “misinterpreted my words,” reiterating the need to go out and make change happen, not just tweet about it.
Watch Lil Wayne’s “I Don’t Sleep” video above.
Funeral is out now on Young Money Records. Get it here.
History tends to be one of those subjects you either find insanely boring or deeply fascinating. That often comes down to how the stories themselves are conveyed. Sadly, Dan Carlin — who can make any slice of history that he decides to pay attention to feel incredibly engaging — doesn’t have enough time in the day to narrate everything.
Still, we need to know what came before us. And right now feels like an especially important time to learn the lessons of the past. We’re living through an era that will be the subject of documentaries for years, maybe even decades to come. To fully understand this moment, requires added context that only studying history can provide.
The ten documentaries listed below will widen your lens and help you understand the past in new ways. Whether profiling a war, a movement, or offering a straightforward primer, they’ll allow you to dive deep into the moments that define our species and the revolutions that shape our world.
Let It Fall chronicles the decade leading up to the LA riots. It’s an examination of life in LA as institutional and racial tensions came to head with the Rodney King trial. It’s a sobering, in-depth look at a city on the brink that eventually explodes in a cultural and racial war on the city’s streets.
This is living history that resonates heavily, especially in 2020.
Some stories need to be retold over and over again. The story of the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, Ben Ferencz, is one of those. This documentary follows Ferencz as he recalls liberating fascist death camps in Europe as a soldier and then moves into his time as a prosecutor of the Nazi’s infamous and murderous Einsatzgruppen soldiers — the people directly responsible for countless murders during the Holocaust.
Finally, the film looks at Ferencz’s life after Nuremberg, wherein he championed “law not war” as he helped create the international criminal court for crimes against humanity. It’s a harrowing-yet-promising story of how one man can fight great evil — a story we definitely need to hear right now.
John Leguizamo’s Netflix show is part Broadway one-man-show, part stand-up, part family dramedy, and part Indigenous American history. Leguizamo blends thousands of years of oft-ignored Latin American and Indigenous American history with a tale of a father and son figuring out where they fit in a world that wants to erase them. It’s both funny and deeply meaningful.
We aren’t kidding when we say this show is ground-breaking and an essential watch for anyone looking for a hilarious way to get into lost and too often ignored pieces of American history.
This is a tough documentary that’s worth every minute of its run time. The Accountant of Auschwitz follows the trial of a 93-year-old man for crimes he committed when he was 23.
In short, Oskar Gröning was the person at the Auschwitz death camp who sorted through murdered people’s luggage for valuables and cataloged them. When the war ended, it was decided not to prosecute every single person culpable in the crimes of the Holocaust, until Germany changed the laws and started going after all of them. The documentary goes deep on the banality of evil while also asking if there is a statute of limitations on participating in genocide.
Comedian Kevin Hart is a hell of a teacher. His Guide To Black History is purely family entertainment that speaks to all generations. The conceit is easy, Hart expounds on the many, many Black Americans who’ve helped shape America and the world. These are people we should all be proud of and whose contributions to society we ought to know.
By making these stories straightforward, and comedic, Hart also makes them accessible for everyone. This is an easy watch that’ll fly by with plenty of laughs peppered throughout.
The rise, career, and fall of Adolf Hitler is an event in human history that’s been picked apart more than any other. With reason, of course — there are few people who changed the course of history more and murdered more people along the way. Hitler – A Career takes a deep dive into Hitler’s power, personality, and even thoughts through footage Nazi Germany shot of the despot when he was active.
It’s a fascinating time capsule into how one man can convince throngs of people to work against their best interests and how easy it really is to manipulate the masses by leaning on fear and pie-in-the-sky promises.
Ava DuVernay’s follow up to Selma is a bleak look at the life and times of African Americans stemming from the 13th amendment to the present day. It’s essential viewing for anyone who doesn’t understand how the justice system sets so many up to fail — centering on the constitutional nuance in the 13th amendment that allows slavery for the imprisoned.
The doc goes deep into the implications and real-world applications of the 13th amendment on people of color. DuVernay digs deep with activists, politicians, journalists, and artists to find out why we’re still adhering to an amendment’s clause that causes so much obvious harm. Unfortunately, the answers are not often what we want to hear.
Marsha P. Johnson was one of the loudest voices for gay and trans rights in America. The untimely death and possible murder of Johnson after 1992’s Pride parade was written off by police as a suicide due to clear and deeply-rooted bigotry against the Black community, gay community, and trans community in New York. Eventually, the case would be reopened and investigated as a murder, adding a true crime element to this doc.
As much as the murder acts as a hook, the backbone of this documentary is really Johnson’s life as an activist who lived through big moments in LGBTQI history from the Stonewall Inn Raids and following riots to the AIDS crisis. The doc will leave you in awe of Johnson and the massive amount of bravery it took to keep up those fights.
Bobby Sands staged a 66-day hunger strike that helped bring international attention to the ongoing British colocalization of Northern Ireland. Back in 1981, Sands was imprisoned by the British government but was refused the status of a political prisoner. In response, he started a fateful hunger strike, eventually dying from starvation in prison.
The film weaves Sands’ story with passages from his hunger strike diary that he kept in his prison cell throughout the protest. It’s a harrowing story of a person trying to get the attention of the world to help achieve a modicum of justice for his people and paying the ultimate cost
This one-hour long doc comes from Netflix’s ReMastered series which focuses on moments in American music history. This installment takes a look at the unsolved murder of Run DMC’s Grand Master Jay in 2002.
The film breaks down how Jay was murdered in front of six witnesses and then, somehow, went unsolved. After the murder, it becomes clear that the cops never really cared about investigating. That along with people’s unwillingness to snitch, led to this case continuing to be unsolved to this day. It’s a tragic story that touches on how the police continually fail BIPOC communities.
This week in the best new pop music, much of the narrative shifted away from new music and towards the ongoing demonstrations protesting police brutality and the murder of George Floyd. Many musicians opted to delay releases in favor of refocusing attention on uplifting Black voices. But other pop musicians this week continued with releases and donated proceeds to charity organizations. Nadia Rose shared an empowering anthem of self-love, Omi returns with an upbeat and spirited tune, and Bruno Major shared his soulful sophomore record.
The niece of famed UK grime rapper Stormzy, Nadia Rose’s latest slick single earned her inclusion in Uproxx’s best new pop list. “Too Bad” is a confident confession of self-love, with Nadia touting her positive qualities over a captivating beat. “Can’t handle me? That’s too bad,” she sings.
Omi — “Bring My Baby Back”
Known for infusing a reggae-inspired beat with cotemporary pop, Jamaican singer Omi returns with “Bring My Baby Back.” The undeniably buoyant track calls forth nostalgic images of pool parties and laid-back beach days, helping lift spirits even if it’s just for a few minutes.
Bruno Major — “I’ll Sleep When I’m Older”
Bruno Major released his sophomore record To Let A Good Thing Die Friday. And with it came the shimmering number “I’ll Sleep When I’m Older.” Upon the record’s release, Bruno Major said he stands in solidarity with the Black community: “After genuine soul searching, and confiding in friends, family, and colleagues, I have taken the decision to release To Let A Good Thing Die today. I do so in solidarity with the Black community, and in deep reverence to Black culture, without which my music would not exist. You have shown me the power of an artist is in bringing people together, whoever and wherever they may be. I hope that in ‘To Let A Good Thing Die,’ you will find 32 minutes of warmth. I am really, really proud of this album.”
Joy Downer — “Paper Moon”
As one of ten siblings raised in the Mormon Church, Joy Downer’s childhood was filled with musical inspiration. The singer kept true to her musical roots on her debut EP, Paper Moon. The EP’s title track is exemplary of the effort, with Downer’s airy and captivating vocals melting over subdued keys and building up to a triumphant eruption. All proceeds from the record purchased Friday through Bandcamp were donated to Black Lives Matter.
R3HAB — “Bésame (I Need You)” Feat. Tini and Reik
Producer/ DJ R3HAB linked up with Argentine actress/singer Tini and Mexican boyband Reik for the sultry single “Bésame (I Need You).” About the collaboration, R3HAB said: “Right after we started working on the song, it was clear what the sound of the track will be like. Tini & Reik brought the perfect energy, which you can hear throughout the entire song. ‘Besame (I Need You)’ is being released right in time to provide these necessary summer vibes to our fans.”
NZCA Lines — “Prisoner Of Love”
British synthpop group NZCA Lines shared “Prisoner Of Love” this week off their upcoming record Pure Luxury. The dance-ready single is immaculately layered, boasting wonky synths and driving keys over lead singer Michael Lovett’s musings.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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