Month: November 2020

It’s been a rough couple of months for the Houston Rockets. The Lakers bounced them out of the second round in Orlando in five games, during a series in which they never really looked competitive, and the fallout started almost immediately. Mike D’Antoni parted ways with the organization, and not long after, Daryl Morey left for a new challenge in Philly.

Trade rumors started amping up after that, involving both Russell Westbrook and James Harden, with whispers about the Sixers possibly trying to make a move for the former MVP and scoring champ, although Houston’s front office was quick to call it a “non-starter.”

This week, those rumors started to gain traction once again, with the latest being that Russell Westbrook reportedly wants out of Houston. With things seemingly unraveling around them, it would follow that the organization might start seriously entertaining offers for Harden, although Shams Charania of The Athletic says Harden remains “locked in” with his incumbent team for the coming season.

Houston’s James Harden remains committed to the Rockets and is “locked in” for the season, sources tell @KellyIkoNBA and me.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 12, 2020

Of course, things can obviously change quickly, especially with free agency looming and teams looking to retrofit their rosters for the coming season. Depending on what the Rockets can get back in a potential Westbrook trade, they’ll face some difficult decisions about how to move forward. Harden has three years left on his contract, with a player option for the final year.

Right now, the goal is to gauge Westbrook’s trade value and figure out what the ripple effects might be from there. Harden’s future with the franchise just might hang in the balance.

The Los Angeles barely had time to celebrate their 2020 championship before it was time to turn their attention to what remains an uncertain future. After much jockeying back and forth between the league, the owners, and players’ union, they’ve agreed to start the 2020-2021 season on Dec. 22, which will make this offseason one of the shortest on record.

Ideally, the league wanted to wait to resume next season until they could have a plan in place to get fans safely back into arenas, but the financial implications ultimately won out, which still leaves plenty of logistical questions about what the games will look like when they return to the court.

Although there’s been talk about allowing small numbers into stadiums and instituting temperature checks and social distancing requirements, some teams aren’t taking any chances. The Laker, for instance, announced on Wednesday that they will not be allowing fans into Staples Center when the new season tips off next month. Here’s more from the team release:

Of course, that’s not to say fans won’t be permitted at some point as the season progresses. The news comes as COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the country. Vaccine trials from Pfizer have shown promising results, although it still could be a while before one goes through the process of being approved and brought into wider circulation. For now, it seems clear other teams will take similar precautionary measure until it is safe to do otherwise.

Earlier in the day on Wednesday, a report indicated that both James Harden and Russell Westbrook had approached the Houston Rockets with some concerns about the direction of the franchise. Less than one day later and a member of that dynamic duo reportedly would like to leave the franchise altogether.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Westbrook would like for his tenure with the team — which has lasted one season following his trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder last summer — to come to an end.

Charania wrote that “Westbrook has informed team officials that he has been uneasy about the team’s accountability and culture, and has a desire to return to his prior, floor-general role in Oklahoma City.”

Westbrook and the Thunder parted ways last offseason following 11 seasons. After the team opted to trade Paul George to the Los Angeles Clippers, Westbrook was sent to Houston to compete for a ring alongside his old pal, Harden. The deal meant Chris Paul and a collection of draft picks went to Oklahoma City in return.

Westbrook had his ups and down last season. He really struggled to get used to his new digs, but following the Rockets’ decision to embrace center-less basketball, he thrived, attacking the rim with aplomb and looking like the best version of himself. While he struggled during the NBA’s Orlando Bubble following a bout with COVID-19, Westbrook averaged 27.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, seven assists, and 1.6 steals in 35.9 minutes per game. It is unclear where he would like to go, but whatever team acquires him will have to take on his monstrous contract — Westbrook is owed about $41 million next year $43.8 million in 2021-22, and has a player option worth $46.7 million in 2022-23.

Tame Impala began the year with his impressive album The Slow Rush — his first release in five years. Since then, the musician, real name Kevin Parker has delivered a number of covers and remixes, among them new versions of “Borderline” with Blood Orange, “Guilty Conscience” with 070 Shake, and more. He’s also covered Lady Gaga’s “Perfect Illusion,” which he helped-co-write, and John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy.” Now he’s added another cover to the list, jumping on BBC Radio 1 to show off his twist on Nelly Furtado’s 2006 hit “Say It Right.”

Parker takes the upbeat, Grammy-nominated track and strips it down, resulting in a delicate and breezy cover. He performed the track, alongside two keyboard players, from the trio’s hometown of Perth, Australia. He also performed “Is It True” and “Breathe Deeper” from his The Slow Rush album during their BBC Radio 1.

Last month, Parker took over an empty Perth stadium to perform “Is It True” and “Elephant” in partnership with FIFA 21, with the former appearing on the video game’s soundtrack. He also shared the tentative dates for a 2021 tour supporting The Slow Rush, with the hope that he will be able to perform in person next year, just like things used to be.

You can watch the performance in the video above.

Lucille Bridges has passed away at the age of 86.

Lucille Bridges was the mother of Ruby Bridges, the first Black child to go to school in the newly integrated school system in Louisiana in 1960. At six years old, little Ruby Bridges had to be accompanied by a team of U.S. marshals and walk through crowds of angry white adults screaming racist hate at her just to go to school. She learned in a classroom with a kind teacher who was kind, but with zero other students because none of the white parents of the white kids would allow them to go to class with her.

The more you read of Ruby Bridges’ story, the more mind-blowingly awful it becomes. The viciousness of people’s hatred was palpable. The videos of the rabid mobs of outright racists yelling at a first grader are heartbreaking. The fact Ruby Bridges says the only time she felt scared was when a woman showed her a black baby doll in a coffin is both disturbing and at testament to Ruby’s innate courage.

I grew up hearing Ruby Bridges’ story and looking at the experience through her eyes. It’s hard to imagine how resilient she had to be. Seeing racist hatred through the eyes of a first grader is awful enough.

But seeing Ruby Bridges’ experience through Lucille Bridges’ eyes makes it so much worse.

Until you’re a parent, you don’t truly understand how much pain you experience on your children’s behalf. As a parent, you feel what your children feel. Their joy is your joy. Their pain is your pain. When my own kids are suffering, I suffer right along with them. It just comes with the territory.

But you also have an instinct to protect your children from harm. You know they have to go through difficulties to grow, but you still try to protect the from genuine danger.

So to imagine what it must have been like for Lucille Bridges to walk her little girl through the screaming racists hoards is unfathomable. The fear and frustration she must have felt for her child, as well as for herself. The anger she must have swallowed. The pride and dignity she had to pull forth and put on display. The sheer, unrelenting exhaustion of it all.

Then add to that wondering if she and her husband were doing right by Ruby. We all worry about the decisions we make for our children. In hindsight it’s easy to see the Bridges’ courage and conviction as vital threads in the now iconic civil rights movement, but in the moment it had to have been a grueling decision. Ruby’s father had reservations about it—it was Lucille who insisted that Ruby get the opportunity for equal education—and not just for her, but for all Black children. She knew the importance of what they were doing. And not only was she willing to do it, but she was able to instill into Ruby the character qualities she needed to be able to withstand it all.

My Story: Mrs. Lucille Bridges (The Power of Children)

www.youtube.com

Ruby Bridges shared a short tribute to her mother in her announcement of her passing on Instagram. She wrote, “Today our country lost a hero. Brave, progressive, a champion for change. She helped alter the course of so many lives by setting me out on my path as a six year old little girl. Our nation lost a Mother of the Civil Rights Movement today. And I lost my mom. I love you and am grateful for you. May you Rest In Peace.”

Rest in peace and power, Mrs. Bridges. Thank you for your leonine heart that pushed us forward as a nation and served as an example of strength and bravery to us all.

The Crown has proven itself, over the course of three seasons so far, to be frustratingly addictive even for viewers who otherwise don’t invest energy in thinking about royals. It’s Netflix’s crown jewel, jam-packed with talent, a prestige sheen, and production values out the bum (as the Brits say), but yes, it’s essentially a soap opera about the monarchy. So, I still feel a little bit aghast to be seduced by the lavish and voyeuristic aspects of the show. Yet one really needn’t feel guilty about enjoying it. The show gives an admittedly fictionalized peek behind the stuffy curtain to see exactly how the most upper-crusty of Brits interact, and it’s a weirdly relaxing watch. Get ready, though, because The Crown‘s fourth-round takes some sharp detours. Bye-bye, comfort, and hello, chaos.

Granted, we’ve seen some mayhem along the way, as with Vanessa Kirby’s rage-filled incarnation of Princess Margaret. With time, Helena Bonham Carter’s Margaret grew content with her place among the royal hierarchy and found amusement where possible. Yet in the late 1970s, Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) isn’t handling his similar situation well. With the introduction of two movers and shakers, it quickly becomes apparent that the Windsor fairy tale is about to crumble, and Downing Street’s not doing so hot either.

Welcome to the era of Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin) and Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson), neither of whom fit in with the long-standing, carefully-crafted veneer that they experience in their dealings with the royal family. Things get dark, which is to be expected, given what the world already knew about Diana’s soul-deep unhappiness despite (and partially due to) the public’s embrace of her refreshing ways, but boy, the show does not shy away from the strategic and tactical decisions that made the Iron Lady such a deeply unpopular figure.

Telling the tales of these two polarizing women, and how they measured up against the public’s perception of Queen Elizabeth, was a careful needle to thread. That’s especially the case because The Crown has never explicitly taken a pro- or anti-monarchy stance, but there are shades of judgment now, and the monarchy was never quite the same following this era. While this transformation goes down, Olivia Colman’s resolute portrayal of The Queen (which followed a slightly breezier but still stoic take by Claire Foy) continues, but it’s telling to see where she lands on the Diana-Thatcher spectrum. If the show wanted to play by Goldilocks standards, Diana could be considered “too soft” and Thatcher “too hard” with Elizabeth falling in the middle as some sort of “ideal.”

That would be too easy, though. Viewers of this show are well aware of Diana’s ultimately tragic, 1990s fate (while fleeing from paparazzi in Paris). The show doesn’t go there this season, but what Diana endures isn’t pretty. Her coping mechanisms, likewise, are self-punishing ones and fueled by Charles’ behavior as a scorn-filled spouse and total cad. In sharp contrast, Diana’s embraced by the public for her decidedly un-Windsor ways, which only perpetuates the cycle. It’s impressive, really, how the show finally allows the British royals to show their asses, and it took Diana to make it happen. Not that she wanted it to be that way, but The Crown does not hold back while pointing the finger at how wolves were allowed to descend, and the Queen let it happen.

While it’s difficult in 2020 to feel sorry for any reality-based figure — due to current events with massive economic repercussions — who sits in a so-called “gilded cage,” The Crown gets the job done with Diana. She’s utterly miserable and left without much recourse, all in the name of royal succession. For her, the fairy tale collapses as soon as it began, which happens in lockstep with the Thatcher-fueled disillusion of the British people. An episode where Thatcherism’s effect on the poor arrives on the Queen’s doorstep feels difficult to watch but impossible to ignore. And Elizabeth’s response to a growing (and justifiable) movement against Thatcher results in remarkable maneuvering on the monarch’s behalf.

The Elizabeth-Margaret Thatcher dynamic (since the Diana-Charles one becomes quite grueling) actually turns out to be the most entertaining relationship of this season. Of course, the set up — both being female leaders who are the same age — is there to be f*cked with. Both women realize that they’re held to different standards than men. They will be accused of being difficult or argumentative in positions where men would be called “strong leaders.” And yes, their advisors and spouses very well expect the women to tear each other apart for sport. That doesn’t happen. Instead, we get a chess game that isn’t quite as freshly compelling as literal chess-drama The Queen’s Gambit, but it’s still invigorating to witness. The Queen is tasked with keeping up a certain set of appearances, while Thatcher can make more outwardly visible moves, but Olivia Colman has a ball while secretly jousting and adhering to the rule that the Queen’s never supposed to take a political position (but you know she does).

History tells us that Elizabeth’s reign has endured fourteen prime ministers thus far. Thatcher arrived smack in the middle of that order, so we know that Thatcher’s presence has an end date, but before that happens, England reaches pressure-cooker status. Seeing these two women learn to agree to disagree, and disagree to agree, is quite something. Thankfully, this is never played up in a sexist way, although politically speaking, it’s clear that England’s wretched position during this era will ease up, further down the line. However, Diana’s presence had an enduring effect upon the monarchy, and they don’t come off looking so great.

Look, all seasons of The Crown are very watchable, but Season 3 did dial back on dramatic momentum by being just fine but a bit of a placeholder. Some of the interpersonal focus, for example, focused on the Duke of Edinburgh’s masculinity crisis that was fueled by space-race envy. Giant rockets = penises, right? That was a silly story arc with very little consequence, but with Season 4, the stakes are higher across the board and the bingeworthiness returns. Spectacular performances go down. Corrin is heartbreaking during many moments, and Gillian Anderson is reaching out for an Emmy. She must have gone hoarse due to pulling off Thatcher’s distinctively authoritative (and some might even say authoritarian) tones. Yet there are moments where Britain’s first female prime minister is allowed, behind closed doors, to show emotion. It’s a startling contrast from her public persona, and this season feels resoundingly “human” while underscoring the inhumanity of some leaders’ behavior.

This season of The Crown‘s an intense one and driven by conflict, but it’s not all serious. There are, after all, silly parlor games to be witnessed at Balmoral. And Margaret’s still bringing the bawdiness, thank goodness, yet history pushes England forward, relentlessly at times, to vanquish the overall fairy tale of the Windsors as two more seasons beckon from the horizon.

Netflix’s fourth season of ‘The Crown’ streams on November 15.

Michael Bay may make the bro-iest action movies, arguably in history, but he’s often managed to attract a diverse group of non-bro-y actors. His last movie, the pricey Netflix thriller 6 Underground, starred goofball Ryan Reynolds, while his second-ever blockbuster, The Rock, co-starred an even-more-wigged-out-than-usual Nicolas Cage — hot off his Oscar win for Leaving Las Vegas, no less. His latest get is a good one, too: nice guy and occasional weirdo Jake Gyllenhaal.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, the acclaimed actor is in talks to headline Ambulance, the latest powder keg of Bayhem. It sounds a touch smaller than the usual Michael Bay extravaganza, though its plot seems no less ridiculous. THR describes the plot like this: “The project is described as a three-hander that tells of two brothers that steal an ambulance that is already in a heightened state with a female paramedic and a patient who is in critical condition.” Gyllenhaal would play one of the brothers, with Dylan O’Brien circling the other. Eiza Gonzalez is also in talks.

It’s currently unclear who would be paying for it. Bay got Netflix to put up 6 Underground’s hefty budget after burning through arguably too many Transformer episodes, which got increasingly bizarre and, with The Last Knight, finally stopped making money. Will Bay tap into Gyllenhaal’s recent yen for wacky roles, some of which feature him singing about music? Here’s hoping.

(Via THR)

Let Him Go, in select theaters this past weekend from Focus Features, is an odd one. The producers clearly saw Kevin Costner and Diane Lane playing Ma and Pa Kent in those Superman movies and thought Costner/Lane as a married couple from the great plains was worth another 90 minutes or so. I can’t say I blame them, Costner/Lane do make effective avatars of homespun Americana, effortlessly evoking prairie populism and moral rectitude with one wizened squint towards the horizon, like Diane Arbus shooting a Viagra ad.

Which is to say: Let Him Go is strong on people and place. Costner and Lane play George and Margaret Blackledge, living on a farm in sixties Montana with their son, stepdaughter, and grandson, hooking us with setting. But soon as the story kicks in, it sort of falls apart. Let Him Go, adapted by director Thomas Bezucha from a Larry Watson novel, is a bit of a tweener, unable to find a balance between realism and genre pulp, playing like a weird mishmash of Yellowstone, Taken, and Tyler Perry. It comes off as not quite exciting enough for genre movie and not quite believable enough for cinema.

The Blackledges are a big happy family until one day, George and Margaret’s son falls off his horse and breaks his neck and dies. As if the heartbreak from a dead son wasn’t tragedy enough, they soon lose their new stepdaughter, Lorna (Kayli Carter) and grandson too (a big fat adorable baby) when Lorna goes off to live with her new husband, Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain). Margaret’s unease with Donnie is confirmed when she’s driving by one day and sees Donnie beat both his new wife and stepson.

Much as in a Tyler Perry movie where no character is ever forced to make a truly difficult decision and the audience need not ever ponder where they should stand, Let Him Go is almost entirely without nuance or subtext. When Lorna gets a new husband, we don’t like him already for taking away Margaret’s grandson. Before we can even process that, he’s also revealed to be a wife-beating child abuser, thereby absolving us of any empathy or uncertainty whatsoever. Well shucks, it sure is nice not to have to think!

At Margaret’s behest (she’s the stubborn one, you see) she and George eventually set out after Lorna and Donnie, who have mysteriously packed up and left town one night. George, a retired lawman, eventually tracks them to North Dakota, where they’ve gone to live with Donnie’s family, the Weboys, who are, according to the locals, not to be trifled with. But trifle they do, and George and Margaret eventually meet Blanche and Bill Weboy (Leslie Manville and Jeffrey Donovan) who immediately announce themselves as EVIL with shark-toothed smiles and lengthy Bond-villain monologues. It must be so disconcerting to meet someone who immediately starts vamping around the kitchen spilling whiskey and delivering their entire life story, can’t say it’s ever happened to me. The Blackledges, meanwhile, can’t even feign politeness. Which seems like both a strategic error on their part and not that interesting for us to watch.

White hats and black hats work better in a shoot-em-up. Let Him Go instead requires us to sit through less than believable conversation. It eventually gets to the shooting (and worse), but by then we’ve sort of lost interest. It’s a shame, because Kevin Costner and Diane Lane do look great as a cowboy couple, our idealized rural mom and dad. Turns out Let Him Go is better as a catalogue than it is a movie.

‘Let Him Go’ hit theaters November 6th. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Rising Dallas rapper Mo3, whose real name is Melvin Noble, has died on Wednesday. The Dallas Police Department has confirmed that the rapper was shot while driving on Robert L. Thornton Freeway in Dallas, Texas.

According to CBS 11 News in Dallas, Mo3 was driving northbound on the freeway around 12pm local time when a car pulled up next to him. The suspect then stepped out of the vehicle with a gun and approached Noble’s vehicle. Officers say Noble stepped out of his car and began running southbound on the freeway before the gunman shot at him multiple times, with at least one round hitting him. TMZ reports that the fatal wound was a shot to the back of Mo3’s head.

An innocent bystander was also injured in the wave of gunshots, but they were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. News of Mo3’s death comes after a graphic video circulated on social media, showing Mo3 laying on his back while a bystander performed CPR.

This was apparently not the first time Mo3 was shot in recent months. Back in December, he had survived a bullet injury in his hand. Seconds after the shooting, Mo3 had taken to his Instagram stories to show his wound and assure people he was alright.

Mo3’s musical career was on a steady rise before his tragic death. He had just finished a stint of successful shows which had recently seen a sold-out crowd in Indianapolis. Mo3 was associated with Boosie Badazz’s label Bad Azz Music and the two even teamed up earlier this year for the 15-track LP Badazz MO3.

(via CBS 11 News and TMZ)

Hugh Grant has more range than he’s sometimes given credit for. You can currently see him being incredibly serious — and incredibly good — on the HBO’s The Undoing, opposite fellow Paddington baddie Nicole Kidman. But in the public eye, he’s still known as the type he’s played in Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and others: witty, self-deprecating, stammering, and cartoonishly British. It’s a role he often leans into in his talk show appearances, even when — as on Tuesday night’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert — he was talking about what it was like to suffer through COVID-19.

As the pandemic seems to be exploding into another wave in the U.S., we could all use some levity, even gallows humor. Grant provided it. He surprised Colbert by revealing that he, and his wife, actually tested positive for the virus in the early days. He started off seriously but quickly turned to amplifying his Hugh Grant-ness.

“It started as just a very strange syndrome where I kept breaking into a terrible sweat. It was like a poncho of sweat. Embarrassing, really,” Grant recalled. “Then my eyeballs felt about three sizes too big and this feeling as though some enormous man was sitting on my chest — sort of Harvey Weinstein or someone.”

This was early days, mind you, back during the last winter, so when Grant realized he was one of the people who’d lost his sense of smell — as some who tested positive did — he was confused. “I thought, ‘I don’t know what this is,’” he said. “And then I was walking down the street one day and I thought, ‘I can’t smell a damn thing.’ And you start to panic.”

Grant said he then started smelling everything he could find. “I started sniffing flowers, nothing,” he said. “And you get more and more desperate. I started sniffing in garbage cans. You know, you want to sniff strangers’ armpits because you just can’t smell anything.”

“I eventually went home and sprayed my wife’s Chanel No. 5 directly into my face,” he added. “Couldn’t smell a thing. But I did go blind!”

It’s classic Hugh Grant. It just happens to be about a highly contagious pandemic that has made 2020 one of the worst on record. But we need some quality humor now, so thank you, Hugh.

You can watch the full interview above. The stuff about COVID starts around the 3:20 mark.