Month: February 2021

The Oscar nominations haven’t been announced yet, but Chloe Zhao has already made award season history. The director of Nomadland, one of 2020’s best movies, has won 54 trophies for the Frances McDormand-starring film, including 34 trophies for directing, 13 for screenplay, and nine for editing, according to Variety. That’s 54 total, or 12 more than the previous title-holder (Alexander Payne for Sideways):

Zhao’s tally doesn’t reflect the additional 23 wins for the best picture, which she technically tacks due to her producing credit. The film’s win numbers have already surpassed Payne’s film and other big critical darlings like Schindler’s List from Steven Spielberg and L.A. Confidential from Curtis Hanson.

Zhao’s big wins include Best Director from Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Chicago Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Circle Awards, and the Alliance of Women Film Journalists; Nomadland also won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival. Zhao will likely add to her record-breaking haul at the Golden Globes, where she’s up for Best Director and Best Screenplay, and the Oscars. If she gets a Best Director nod — it would be a crime if she didn’t — Zhao would become the first Asian woman nominated in the category.

Nomadland debuts on Hulu on February 19. Zhao’s next film, Eternals for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is scheduled to be released on November 5.

(Via Variety)

Out of Sight is a good movie. This is not exactly breaking news, considering it came out in 1998 and has been a good movie for over 20 years, but sometimes it’s worth it to state the obvious. It should be a good movie. It has so many different things going for it. It starred George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, who are good actors. It was directed by Steven Soderbergh, who is a good director. It was based on a book of the same name by Elmore Leonard, who is a good author who writes books that are often adapted into good movies, and who was on a real heater in the late-1990s between this movie, Jackie Brown, and Get Shorty, all supremely rewatchable classics. But good ingredients don’t always make for good movies, so let’s start with that.

Another point worth making: There is no great reason to bring it up today. It’s not the anniversary of its release. It’s not like there’s another project coming out that makes it relevant in any way. That’s fine, though. Sometimes you don’t need an excuse to talk about things that are good. Sometimes you just want to talk about them, and so you send your editor a note that says something like “Hey, can I write about Out of Sight? It’s not tied to anything notable. I just want to write a couple of thousand words about how awesome it” and he says “Sure” and that’s enough. That’s all we’re doing here. It feels great.

The time has come to talk about Out of Sight.

1. The plot of Out of Sight, in short: An unlucky but smooth bank robber named Jack Foley (George Clooney) attempts to pull one last-ish big job in Detroit, but in the process, he becomes entangled with minimal-nonsense U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez). They circle each other romantically while also circling each other in a nationwide manhunt, with both circles twisting into pretzels as the robbery — theft of diamonds belonging to a crooked investment type (Albert Brooks) who Jack met in prison — approaches. Things go sideways repeatedly, sometimes in different directions at the same time, sometimes related to automotive fiascos, often involving Don Cheadle in one way or another. It’s a very good plot. There should be more movies like this.

2. Out of Sight, like most good movies, starts with a bank robbery gone awry and a prison break gone kind of awry. The bank robbery sets the tone for the whole movie, and for Jack as a character, by starting with him ripping off his tie and heaving it into the sidewalk as he exits a meeting, and then progressing in an impromptu fashion as he makes off with the loot without using a gun or knife or anything other than his charm and cunning. It’s a perfect crime except for the part where his car doesn’t start. He goes back to jail and piggybacks onto a prison break engineered by other inmates, which also goes perfectly right until Karen stumbles across the jailbirds emerging from their tunnel and pulls a gun on them and ends up locked in the trunk with Jack as his buddy, Buddy (Ving Rhames), drives off. It’s a very good start to a movie. More movies should start like this.

3. But these have all just been words to get us to the Trunk Scene, capitalized out of respect, which is where the movie goes from “fun caper with cool characters” to, and this is the technical term, “freaking cinema.”

The Trunk Scene is just a few minutes of George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez trapped in extremely close quarters, talking to each other, trying to figure out who the other person is and what exactly they want, with a mutual infatuation building as the minutes and miles pass. There’s a touch of the “if you and I met under different circumstances” stuff that you see in movies like this, and a surprising lack of menace considering the whole “felon taking a woman hostage” aspect of it all, but mostly it is just captivating scene involving two charismatic actors and one talented director working together to make something special. It’s also one of the more improbable meet-cutes in movie history. It’s fun to think of it like that.

4. We should pause here to discuss the 1998 of it all. It’s easy to look back at this movie and see these names — CLOONEY, LOPEZ, SODERBERGH — that we’re conditioned to see attached to blockbusters and A-list events and forget there was context at play. They were all still known quantities at the time, sure, but not the all-caps figures I referenced in the previous sentence. Clooney was coming off a disastrous turn as Batman in Batman & Robin and was facing real questions about whether he was a legitimate movie star or just some TV haircut. Lopez had starred in Selena and Anaconda but had yet to release an album or wear that green Versace dress to the Grammys that helped catapult her into superstardom. Soderbergh was still a critical darling who had yet to truly crossover to mainstream success. This movie was in some ways the launching point for all of them, even if it wasn’t a massive box office success, just for the foundation it put down. Clooney and Soderbergh made the first Ocean’s movie a few years later. Lopez became J. Lo, international megastar, about a year later. This was lightning in a bottle, but not necessarily a surprise. It’s one of those movies where you go back and watch it for the 20th time to write an article about it and you find yourself saying “Oh, right. That’s why all these people are stars now.” Those are good kinds of movies.

5. The dialogue in this movie is incredible. Almost all of it, all the way through, especially the scenes where Clooney and Rhames are facing off with Cheadle (Elmore Leonard was a master at writing scenes where cool tough guys refuse to give each other an inch), but especially in the Bar Scene, also capitalized out of respect, in which Jack and Karen bump into each other in Detroit and have a passionate tryst in the midst of… everything.

It’s so good, starting with her blowing off the ad bros who try to hit on her (“Beat it, Andy”), moving through the part of the conversation where they pretend to be other people to make it all seem even five percent more normal (Gary and Celeste, just chatting), and onto the love scene itself intercut with the rest of their conversation. The whole thing is just about as good as you can do with any sort of romantic scene — electric without veering into parody, sultry without being gratuitous — from beginning to end. A reasonable argument can be made that it’s the single sexiest thing that has ever happened in Detroit.

6. It’s easy to come away from this movie focused on the Clooney-Soderbergh aspect of it, if only because it set the stage for a partnership and style that has continued for two decades, but do not overlook how good Jennifer Lopez is in Out of Sight. The degree of difficulty is through the roof here. She has to play a character who falls in love with the man who takes her hostage, who sleeps with the target of her own ongoing investigation, and who, at the beginning of the movie, is dating a huge doofus, and she still has to come out of it looking both strong and competent. That’s some kind of trick. There are tons of little moments that help drive this home (whacking creeps with a retractable blackjack helps), but my favorite is the moment where she’s staking out the hotel lobby and spots him in the elevator.

Lots of stuff going on right there, an entire film’s worth of built-up inner conflict, almost all of it in one facial expression. What I’m saying here is that Jennifer Lopez is pretty good at acting and has been for a while. In hindsight, I suspect I could have just typed that sentence instead of typing two paragraphs and cutting a GIF from the movie. But then I wouldn’t have gotten to mention her character’s doofus boyfriend, and it would have made for an awkward transition to my next point…

7. Michael Keaton is in Out of Sight, briefly, which is good, because Michael Keaton should appear in more movies for an amount of time greater than or equal to “briefly.” All of them, if possible. Look at this guy.

And it’s even cooler because the character he’s playing is an uncredited re-appearance of his character from Jackie Brown, FBI Agent Ray Nicolette, which implies that the movies exist in the same Elmore Leonard universe even though they were made by different studios. Soderbergh explained how it all went down in the director’s commentary, with the short explanation being “because Tarantino and Keaton were cool about it.”

We called up Tarantino and asked him what he thought of the idea and he thought it was a great idea, and he was nice enough to bring me into his editing room and show me all of Keaton’s footage from Jackie Brown so I could get an idea of where Keaton was going with that part, to see if it really fit with what we were doing. We got hold of Keaton and he came down and did this just as a favor for nothing, which was really nice of him. To our knowledge this was a first, a character who appears in two completely unrelated movies played by the same actor. As far as all of us could determine nobody had ever done this before, which was part of its appeal.

It does raise a few questions, though, in large part because the character Ray spends most of his appearance talking to is Karen’s father, played by Dennis Farina, who also appeared in Get Shorty as Miami mob figure Ray “Bones” Barboni. If we want to assume that all three films are connected (and I really do), this implies that there were two dudes in Miami on opposite sides of the law who looked exactly like Dennis Farina. (I would have watched this movie.) If we want to throw Get Shorty out of the equation to clean up the confusion, well… there’s still an issue we’ll get to in a minute. I’m very excited about it.

8. But back to the robbery. Things twist and turn and twist again until everyone ends up in the home of Albert Brooks’s character, who is now wearing a wig, and we learned earlier had kind of backed out of the deal he made with Jack in prison about giving him a job once they were out, which is what led to the tie-slamming and impromptu bank-robbing that started the movie. Don Cheadle’s character, Snoop, and his crew blow up a safe to discover it contains only more toupees. The diamonds turn out to be in the fish tank. Jack and Buddy make off with the diamonds and are in the clear but Jack goes back in because he feels guilty about Snoop planning to kill everyone. You know all of this. The important thing is that it leads to…

I should note here that the ending of the movie is different from the book, in ways that are probably more satisfying. The movie Hollywoods it up a bit, with the classic “I’m not going back”/“Don’t make me do it” scene resulting in a gunshot to a meaty part of Jack’s leg and an arrest. Buddy gets away with the diamonds. The violent bad guys die. Everything works out pretty well for everyone, really.

9. Well, almost everyone. Things did not work out too great for Snoop’s goon White Boy Bob. They started out great, with Bob raiding the fridge and making off with a bunch of steaks, which he was happier about than the diamonds. (I get it, Bob.) But then he had to rush up some steps to confront Jack and, well…

Blammo. Good night, Bob. It’s worth noting here, if only because there’s really no better excuse to note it, that this is not the only time a beefy character in an Elmore Leonard-inspired project has tripped and died by falling on his own weapon. It also happened to a goon in Justified. The lesson here is that this scene is always funny. And that Elmore Leonard was the best. So two lessons, I guess.

10. The fun thing about it all is that it means the movie is bookended by failed robberies. And it’s also, kind of, bookended by prison breaks. Or at least there’s an implied second prison break, as Karen pulls some strings to get Jack transported back to jail with a felon named Hejira Henry, who has himself orchestrated many prison breaks, and who presumably — based on a handful of glances and a devious little smile by Karen — will use the long car ride to become friends with Jack and start to plan another. It’s kind of sweet, in a way, and it would be the end of this discussion if not for one thing…

Hejira Henry is played by Samuel L. Jackson, in another uncredited role. That’s cool enough on its own, but consider this: Samuel L. Jackson played an arms dealer named Ordell Robbie in Jackie Brown. Do you see where I’m headed here? It’s the thing I mentioned earlier in the section about Michael Keaton. It is established fact that Jackie Brown and Out of Sight exist in the same universe, thanks to Ray Nicolette. Ordell Robbie and Hejira Henry are, presumably, not the same person. This means that, in this world, there are two different criminals who look exactly like Samuel L. Jackson, one of whom likes selling automatic weapons and drinking screwdrivers and one of whom breaks out of jail a lot. This is fascinating to me. I feel pretty confident that no one on Earth has spent more time than me thinking about it. I have, to be clear, no regrets about any of it. Well, maybe one regret, which is that I appear to be ending a lengthy discussion about a terrific movie with a lunatic rant about Samuel L. Jackson character. Hmm. Let’s fix that.

Out of Sight is a good movie. Still. Always.

Haim showcased their confidence and refined songwriting last summer with their third studio record Women In Music Pt. III. The sisters are now revisiting the music by inviting other artists to reimagine some of the songs with remixes. Back in December, they shared a remix of their ’90s-inspired track “3 am” by Toro Y Moi and now, they’re gearing up for a collaboration with one of today’s biggest pop stars: Taylor Swift.

Taking a page out of the pop star’s book, Haim teased the collaboration in an extremely cryptic way. The sisters posed for promotional shots at a gas station and captioned the photo “one gasoline pump.” Behind them, a sign boasting the letter 13 can be seen, which has been widely interpreted as the unofficial marker of a Swift project.

Now, Haim has taken one step further to confirm the remix. The group shared a TikTok which plays an extremely brief snippet of the song. The TikTok shows the sisters sitting in a Jeep outside of a gas station. After hopping in the car, Danielle Haim turns up the stereo’s volume to blast part of the song’s chorus — on which Swift can be heard providing back-up vocals.

Watch the video above.

Women In Music Pt. III is out now via Columbia. Get it here and revisit our review of the album here.

Ted Cruz is flying back from Cancun after being busted while leaving a frozen Texas behind as he flew to sunny, warm Cancun. Now, he’s got some explaining to do.

What a pair of sentences that turned out to be, right? Well, here’s what’s gonna happen. Cruz caught wind of the (justifiable) outrage aimed in his direction, and he spent one night in Mexico. So, he decided to hop back on a Thursday afternoon flight and return to Houston. As MSNBC and Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman uncovered, he even tried to get on the United Airlines upgrade list for his flight. “Cru R” would point toward Ted’s full name, Rafael Edward Cruz, and he missed out on the upgrade, so he’s not only flying back, but he’ll be in coach. And he’ll have an audience when he touches down in Texas.

His ruined vacation seems like the tiniest price for Ted to pay, considering the long, sub-freezing temperatures that Lone Star State residents are still enduring. Millions of people remain without electricity, heat, and water, and Ted’s poorly aged tweets already led to backlash since he mocked California during its past power outages. He then uncharacteristically owned up to having “no defense” for his previous words, and he seemed to settle down, but that was apparently because he was packing for Cancun.

After social media postings made the truth known, and even Fox News correspondents confirmed that Cruz was in Cancun (while noting that a GOP source stated, “The photos speak for themselves”), Ted’s pretty screwed. He did it to himself, of course, so people are breathlessly awaiting his return to Houston. Reporters will surely be awaiting him outside the airport, and people are very excited to speculate on what ridiculous excuses he might make. From “[h]e merely accompanied his family for the night” to “The Green New Deal,” the possibilities are endless.

Here’s another nightmare scenario for some unfortunate traveler.

It won’t be long now….

And yes, of course Cruz has requested to be escorted out of the airport with high security. Sounds about right.

Magic forward Aaron Gordon will work with his nonprofit, the Gordon Family Giving Foundation, to donate $300,000 to launch a STEM summer program at the University of Central Florida starting this year and lasting through 2025.

The sum given by Gordon will not only help the university acquire the high-tech tools it needs to educate students about science, technology, education, and math disciplines, but also ensure that the program is free to all participants. That in turn allows the program, called {CodeOrlando}, to target “underserved and underrepresented” young people in the Orlando area.

“Potential is universal, but opportunity is not,” Gordon says. “We partner with local schools, industries and technologists to provide opportunity, support and encouragement for our students, and we are proud to have UCF as a partner for this important program.”

In addition to the daily coding camp, the {CodeOrlando} program will also provide scholarships to mentors in the program, and gives eighth through 12th grade students the means to work with new technology, tour engineering sites, meet with individual employees who come from similar backgrounds, and develop internship opportunities.

Gordon has previously worked with Facebook on the {CodeOrlando} program through Facebook’s CodeFwd initiative, donating $6,000 and organizing with Orange County Public Schools along with his mother, Shelly Davis, who runs the foundation. The new, more substantive partnership with UCF furthers work Gordon has pursued for years.

Amid another very fractured and bizarre season for amateur athletes, the McDonald’s All American Games have been canceled for the second straight year. But on Thursday, the nominees for the boy’s and girl’s teams were announced.

On the boy’s side, we already see names that have been on hype videos and NBA Draft breakdowns for years, from Paolo Banchero to Chet Holmgren. Many of these players could be in the NBA before long.

And while the girl’s side will make us wait a while longer before we see these young hoopers in the pros, talent like No. 1 recruit and UConn commit Azzi Fudd, as well as the South Carolina trio of commits, Raven Johnson, Saniya Rivers and Senia Feigin, will all receive this nod before beginning what are sure to be prolific college careers.

https://twitter.com/McDAAG/status/1362431115202416642?s=20

This year’s McDonald’s games will indeed not be played, as the organization also announced on Thursday, but athletes will again keep the recognition of being finalists, as will those ultimately named to the teams.

“While we’re disappointed we can’t hold in-person games this year, that does not take away from the accomplishments of this class and they will forever be a part of the legendary group of past and present McDonald’s All Americans,” selection committee chairman Joe Wootten said in a statement.

Despite only being 21 years old, model/influencer-turned-DJ Charly Jordan has been all over the world and learned her fair share of lessons along the way. Before Jordan amassed over four million followers on Instagram and five million TikTok fans, she was simply doing what she loved best — following her instincts while allowing various modeling opportunities to take her down new roads. Leaving the comfort of a daily routine behind and seeing the world.

“You can’t just take a plane and stay at a resort and drink and eat food that you’ve had a million times,” Jordan tells me over Zoom. “I know that not everyone is looking for those new experiences, people like to be comfortable — I’m just not like that.”

That hunger for new experiences has gotten Jordan into trouble. Like when she took a trip to Rwanda amid the COVID-19 pandemic — something she’s apologized for (on various occasions) without denying that the public backlash was justifiable. Jordan took her lumps and says she’s learned from the experience, while recognizing that life is a journey full of mistakes that challenge us to grow.

With our own feet itchy and collective hopes for the return of travel dialed up to 11, we asked Jordan to her favorite destinations and offer advice for a new generation of young travelers — eagerly awaiting their chance to see the world for the first time.

Let’s start off with a long one. What are three travel destinations you love and why? They don’t have to be your favorites, just what you’re feeling now.

That is a loaded question but I love it! Usually, people just ask me what my favorite spot is, but you gave me three! Each place is so unique and different, trying to pick a favorite is impossible.

Whistler, Canada

Just over an hour north of Vancouver, Whistler is one of the biggest ski and snowboard locations in the entire world. It’s a majestic ski town in the middle of the mountains. There are all these underground clubs and bars, and during the day you get to ski through the most beautiful high altitude perfect powder snow.

There are also these ice caves that have been around for upwards of 3,000 years, just these massive ice caves on top of these glaciers in Whistler, and you have to take a helicopter up there in order to go. When I was up there, and I know this sounds weird, it was the first time I ever heard pure silence in my entire life. My ears were ringing because they were so used to hearing something and it was completely silent on this glacier.

The ice cave is wild, it looks like Ice Age, just beautiful indented ice walls. I’ve never experienced anything like that, it’s probably the most unique experience I’ve had.

South Africa

When I went to South Africa, we went to work with cheetahs with cleft lips at Cheetah Experience Ashia. They were starting to inbreed with each other, because there weren’t other cheetahs and all of these baby cheetahs were being born with birth defects and couldn’t survive in the wild.

Also while I was there, I saw great white sharks, which was crazy because they are literally dinosaurs. It was the first time seeing them and that really stood out to me.

Kauai, Hawaii

Kauai is probably the most beautiful, green, majestic, spiritual, and soulful place I’ve ever spent time.

In Kauai, you have this long untouched coastline, called the Nā Pali Coast. It’s very remote and you have to hike in along trails or take a boat or jet ski to the beaches. I was super lucky and I literally cried when I first saw it. I don’t know how you look at something and it makes you cry but I was looking at all this nature, and I literally just started bawling.

I thought, “Wow, this is the epitome of experiencing all of the beauty that the natural world has to offer.”

What advice can you offer young or new travelers from your experience so far?

The whole first year that I traveled I just did road trips. I know that doesn’t sound super luxurious, but you have to start somewhere. There are usually so many incredible things around where you live that you really should start there first.

Here are some tips Jordan offered:

• Get comfortable being able to stay places you aren’t used to on budgets. Airbnb is awesome, but try hitting up people. Instagram was the main facilitator for my early travels. I would DM other people who were where I was going like “Yo,” to other people who take pictures and made videos and liked to travel. I’d meet up with people and do cool projects. It wasn’t just me by myself traveling. I was always meeting up with people.
• Obviously, have money saved up in your account. I had no real income when I was doing road trips all over Utah the first year. I was just taking pictures and meeting up with people. I’d find people and say, “Hey let’s take your car and go to this really cool hike and spend a couple of nights underneath the stars.”
• Remember that your carbon footprint is very important. Flying places and constantly going everywhere definitely has an effect on the environment. We can educate people on smaller things too, like avoiding single-use plastics, having a little less meat, or being more reliant on fruits and vegetables to help offset your personal footprint.
• Don’t get too comfortable. When you’re traveling you have to be ready for anything. You have to be able to take care of yourself. There are so many random things that happen when you travel. Make sure you meet up with good people. It takes a lot of personal judgment and you have to be discerning. You have to have a good head on your shoulders when it comes to the traveling and social media stuff. There are people doing things for the right reason and the wrong reasons.
• Surround yourself with good people. It’s also important to have good people around you when you travel. I went by myself for a long time, which was not a bad thing. But it’s really nice to be able to share those moments when you’re at these places and doing things with people you care about.

Can social media get in the way of “authentic” travel experiences?

I feel like I’ve learned so much and had so many incredible experiences and met so many different people. It has made me less sure of who I am, because I have seen so many incredible things and people. That can be humbling. There are so many amazing incredible individual lives everywhere. That’s why it’s been great to share my travel experiences through social media.

I didn’t come from the best situation. When I started traveling and doing Instagram, I was modeling. So I would fly out to Hawaii to shoot for a company. While I was there, I’d make my own travel content and people would see these beautiful pictures, and then I would go “home,” but literally didn’t have a place to live or didn’t know if I could afford my next meal.

I’ve always been very transparent. It’s not the most flattering thing on a social media platform for thousands of people to see me crying about how beautiful a place is. I share my thoughts and feelings and I think that the cathartic experience of being able to go through something with other people, even if they’re not there physically, is important. It’s better than being completely alone.

I like being alone and spending time with myself, but I don’t like being lonely. But if I didn’t have social media, I’d probably be taking pictures and videos anyway.

Where’s the next place you want to go?

To see the Northern Lights, probably in Iceland. I’ve wanted to go there for so long. Whether it’s Iceland or Lapland, anywhere I can see them, I’m going.

In hindsight, is there anything that you wish you could have spent more time on?

Oh, wow. I’ve got to say, it was originally… We got commissioned for four episodes. Halfway through we went and begged for a fifth episode, which they gave us really graciously and beautifully, with no fuss. So, I feel like I’ve done what I set out to do. There are a million things. This is a subject that is so complicated. There are a million other things to say, but actually, there are also a lot of other writers saying those things. This is not the only piece of work about AIDS and there are great love stories out there. If you want to see the ultimate love story between two men, go and watch Holding The Man from Australia. That’s the most extraordinary thing. If you want a film about activism, go and watch BPM. There’s a French film called BPM, which is extraordinary!

I’ve seen some of the coverage and it’s also sparking conversations and deeper dives into the subject matter. So it’s clearly a great wellspring of inspiration.

That’s what shocked us is the stories being told. The lives being remembered. And I’m getting messages from people telling me about friends I never knew about and the stories that we’ve never heard. There’s something that’s been very buried, I think, because a lot of people died in shame and in silence and the shame was wrong, obviously. I’m not saying it was a shameful death. I mean, it was considered to be shameful. We didn’t forget those people. We didn’t literally forget them, but I think we parceled them up and put the memory away. And there was a heavy weight put upon that memory. And I think we’ve helped release that. I think a door has been opened. That’s been a story we’re hearing again and again, and again. Bear in mind the drama, I expected it to disappear. A drama about AIDS in the middle of a pandemic. We were not hopeful about this show. We were quietly and determinately pessimistic. So, this reaction has been absolutely overwhelming. But also properly a privilege that people are starting to talk about lives that they lost. Boys that disappeared. Then that’s a really wonderful thing to happen.

In researching this, I know there are some personal elements and some biographical elements that you pulled from. And I know you did a ton of research on this. What’s the process like to go through and excavate your past a little bit and put that into this form?

Well, it’s kind of lovely. It’s why I’m a writer, let’s be honest. I know what you mean, and it is a work of excavation. It’s a work of remembrance. It’s also an honor to be the one writing the drama that gets to remember them. And I know there’s an awful lot of writers… I’m always very aware, a lot of writers would love to be in my position. I know how lucky I am. I absolutely know that. So, maybe it is excavating some trauma. Maybe it’s certainly excavating some pain, but I love that and that’s why I’m here. And also, frankly, I’m good at it. That’s how I got to be in this position. It’s what I do well.

You’re tapping into… Even if you’re writing science fiction. If you’re writing someone running away from the Daleks, you’re still tapping into your own feelings. You’re still remembering that time you were frightened. You still remember, specifically with something like Doctor Who, what frightened you in the dark or the monsters you thought were under the bed. A tap at the window. That’s Doctor Who tapping into very primal things sometimes. So, I think if you write well, you’re always tapping into that. And so, you actually want to go to that dark stuff. I want to find out. I mean, there’s a death in the third episode of a very central character [in It’s A Sin]. Before the death, there are some very tough scenes. There are scenes of dementia. Which are really deliberately tough, but I pushed it there. I pushed it to be that tough. I wanted to show how merciless the virus is, how cruel it is. How helpless people are in the face of it. So, that’s very strong stuff, but that’s actually me doing my job. I’m actually getting the virus right in those moments. So, that’s not particularly painful. That’s me kind of working well, to be honest.

One of the things that I thought was really fascinating about this was the constant focus between the tug of war between families and friends. And the idea of what going home meant. Can you talk a little bit about that as a central point to the story?

Well, it’s absolutely central because the home is the closet. That really is the point of it. And again, all the stories are decided by the virus in a way. That’s a virus that thrives on secrecy and shame and stigma and fear and ignorance. And so, that, in this, the heart of that becomes the family home. I mean, that’s extraordinarily dramatic. That when we say that, you go, “Wow, that’s a drama.” Actually, the place where they were born, where they were loved, creates the conditions in which they can die. And so their adult life, when they move away, they move to a flat, as we all do. Everyone leaves home at some point and you explore and you find yourself coming of age. And these people come out as well as coming of age. So, that’s joy and liberation and yeah, is setting the sex life into motion that terribly brings them down. So, the interconnectedness between home and your own adult life is unmissable. And it has to be a spine. It has to be. It’s what the virus thrives on.

It just decimates you watching how everything that they’ve become after leaving the home just gets stripped away, essentially.

Yes, it strips them of their life. It strips them of their independence and strips them of everything they ever were. That’s it. That’s why it takes place over a decade. Just one year wouldn’t have done. If I’d chosen the story of one person dying of AIDS, to me that would’ve felt like a cancer story. So, yeah, everything is virus-shaped in the end. The way it creeps in at the edges and then becomes central.

One thing that I’ve been very aware of is the way that it portrays the character’s lives and his choices. There’s not a heavy hand or a judgment there, and I think that is so important.

I think it’s vital not to judge your characters. A friend of mine is a frontline worker in AIDS and HIV. He called it sex-positive, which is a phrase I haven’t heard before. But he said, I mean, he complimented me. So, pardon me for passing on compliments. I have no choice. But he was saying that at no point is the sexual act itself seen as shameful in this. It might be the carrier of the virus, but sex itself is not demonized. It’s not shameful. It’s sex-positive. I like that phrase.

The scene with Ritchie talking to the camera in episode two is just so electric. And it’s also jarring because of the aversion to facts. Where did that come from?

I have no better answer for you on the speech to the camera than simply I thought of it. I just thought of it. I had an awful lot of exposition to get across. Part of my reason for writing the whole show was covering stuff that hasn’t been done in other HIV dramas. And one thing I thought had never been covered was the denial and the conspiracy theories and the false facts, which ran for years. There’s still plenty of those around now. So, I had to dramatize there and really, look, come and sit in my seat. Imagine if that had been a conversation in the pub. I don’t find it surprising when Ritchie turns and addresses the camera. I don’t find that brave. I don’t find that unusual. Drama is so flexible now and brilliant. We are truly living in a golden age. I sat and watched the first episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks last night. I thought it would be nonsense and I loved it. I actually sat there thinking, “God, that’s Star Trek as I would write it.” Lots of zombies on board the ship and a magical glue provides the solution. That’s my every episode of Doctor Who! [Laughs]

We are truly in a golden age. And so I think you can now be… you watch I May Destroy You. And you watch I Hate Suzie. You watch those shows, taking the imagination into the outer reaches of human experience. Or to the inner reaches of human experience. They’re going in. They’re digging so deep and finding so many truths. So, I think nothing of someone turning around addressing the camera. We are lucky to have had a million responses to this show. Not one person has said, “How can he address the camera?” We’re literate now. We’re living in a very literate age and it’s great.

It plays so well with his character also. That moment and the ballet moment in the headlights, in particular.

The ballet moment came from watching The Leftovers. I loved The Leftovers. Especially the first two series. Actually, I think I’m the only person who didn’t like the third series. Everyone loved that. I was like, “no, no, no, it’s ruined.” [Laughs].

But I loved the first two seasons. There were all these scenes at night, in car headlights in there actually. And there’s always something ineffable at work in The Leftovers. So, I used to watch it thinking, “I’ve got no idea what these people are thinking, but I absolutely believe that they’re thinking it.” They’ve gone beyond the viewer. They’re beyond reach and yet it’s true. It’s sincere. I used to sit there in absolute awe of it. And I used to sit there, I remember sending texts to my friend, Chris Chibnall, who now runs Doctor Who. Saying, “You’ve got to watch this show because there’s something ineffable and intangible about it that’s very brilliant and intellectual and correct.” And I want to write like that. And it literally led me to think of that ballet scene. It isn’t the same as anything that happens in The Leftovers. I will be in debt to that show because I think that moment’s lovely and I’m very proud of it. You take your inspiration from everywhere.

All episodes of ‘It’s A Sin’ are available to stream now via HBO Max.

Streaming services might not be able to keep us warm, but they sure as heck (for those who are fortunate enough to have an electrical grid intact, of course) will keep us less focused on the fact that snow and ice is blanketing a great deal of the country this weekend. With that said, we’re back to pick the best of what those platforms have to offer while weighing quantity and quality to pick a winner.

Once again, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon, Hulu, and HBO Max are all bringing a solid game (with Peacock holding onto a strong library with beloved series like The Office and Modern Family) for fresh original offerings. We’ve got a different winner here this weekend, though, than the usual. Much of the time HBO Max and Netflix walk away with the top honors for best offerings in one weekend, but this week, we’re gonna call it for Hulu (which has Frances McDormand in Oscar mode with Nomadland), although Amazon Prime has a very bingeable thriller series that will please The Undoing and Gone Girl fans. Netflix is still bringing in a solid amount of spunk (especially a dark comedy starring Rosamund Pike and Peter Dinklage), and HBO Max has a docuseries on a very notorious scandal.

In short, there’s a lot to be happy with here. We’ll discuss all of these top streaming services below, and then we hope you stream to your heart’s delight

Hulu

Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures film on Hulu) — Frances McDormand stars this tribute to the American West as a widow (Fern) who loses her house and travels (nomadically, naturally) in her van. Freedom and danger abound, and one of the goals here is to figure out what Fern’s looking for, and whether she can possibly find it, or whether wandering is an escape or a solution, or whether the virtue is in the journey itself.

Into the Dark: Tentacles (Hulu series) — The monthly horror-movie series returns with a psychosexual horror-thriller about love, or love gone wrong at least, when a young Los Angeles couple falls deeply in love, only to find that their intimacy takes an enormously dark turn. Happy holiday of love, y’all.

The New York Times Presents: “Framing Britney Spears” (FX on Hulu) — If you haven’t caught this one yet, please do. The seemingly unending saga of mega pop star Britney Spears’ controversial conservatorship is only one focus of this docuseries that aims to do a deep-dive on how Spears’ life and career has also been shaped by public perception and the press. It’s been a long twelve years for Britney under her father’s financial thumb, and that followed a few years of public chaos, which I’m sure you will never forget. Her fans rally in this series for her “freedom,” given that Britney has vowed not to work again until she can make her own decisions again

Netflix

I Care A Lot (Netflix film) — Rosamund Pike’s got the Gone Girl hair again, which sends out some palpable vibes to be certain. She portrays a court-appointed guardian for elderly wards, and she’s siphoning their assets in an elaborate racket. However, she meets her match in a gangster played by Peter Dinklage, who’s got his own game while representing a mark (Dianne Wiest), who has no living heirs or family but has ruthless designs of her own. Dinklage has got a stare that can bore straight into your soul, and Pike can be as cold as they come, so this movie should be a deliciously dark treat for all.

Animals on the Loose: A You vs. Wild Movie (Netflix interactive special) –Bear Grylls digs these interactive specials, in which he allows viewers to choose his fate in a Bandersnatch sort of way. How, exactly, did he end up in the above scenario, and is it real? I can’t even begin to guess the answer to either of those questions, but I imagine that he’ll be drinking his own pee at some point. In addition, expect Bear to help track down missing animals (including a hungry lion and a mischievous baboon) from a wildlife sanctuary. Chose well (or poorly) for him because, you know, he’s doing this to himself.

Amend: The Fight for America (Netflix docuseries) — This six-part docuseries will dive deep into the Fourteenth Amendment that’s promised liberty and equal protection for all since 1868. Along the way, expected to hear form luminaries including Mahershala Ali, Diane Lane, Samuel L. Jackson, Pedro Pascal, Yara Shahidi, and more. They’ll read speeches and writings from Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Andrew Johnson; and the series welcomes hosts Will Smith and Larry Wilmore for a powerful journey through U.S. history.

Behind Her Eyes (Netflix series) — This series follows a single mother who has an affair with her boss, who happens to be a psychiatrist, and then his wife ends up in her circle of friends. Naturally, this leads to a web of secrets and lies and so much drama, all from the producers of The Crown.

The Crew (Netflix series) — Kevin James has his own Netflix show, y’all. He plays a NASCAR crew chief who must step up when the owner steps down. James must resist all efforts to “modernize” his team, and there are members of The King Of Queens and Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 production teams behind this show, so all those Kevin James followers out there will know the drill.

Amazon Prime

Tell Me Your Secrets: Season 1 (Amazon Prime series) — Viewers of The Undoing are gonna dig this series for a few reasons, including the presence of Lily Rabe (who portrayed Grace’s best friend, Sylvia) as Emma, who’s a very Gillian Flynn-esque woman with a mysterious and troubling past. Two other mysterious and troubling characters — John (Hamish Linklater), a former serial predator and Mary (Amy Brenneman) is a grieving mother of a missing daughter — make up one neck of a mysterious and troubling triangle. The motives of all involved grow murkier as the season wears on, and this show is bingeable as heck.

The Boarding School: Las Cumbres: Season 1 (Amazon Prime series) — A mysterious man apparently kidnaps a student while wearing a crow mask, which leads his boarding school pals to vow to never get up. Apparently, there’s an old cult (the Crow’s Nest) that might be responsible, and what the students learn shake all of their faith in their educational institution.

Disney+

The Muppet Show: Seasons 1-5 (series on Disney+) — Every episode of this classic show are available for the taking, and thank goodness for Kermit the Frog as host (and showrunner!) of Jim Henson’s most famous creation. This will be the first time that the final two seasons of this series will be available to stream, so settle in and enjoy the adventures of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, the Swedish Chef, hecklers Statler and Waldorf, and the rest. Don’t forget Animal! And Miss Piggy rules.

Wandavision: Episode 7 (Disney+ series) — Halloween arrived in Westview last week, and there’s some suggestive Devil-related revelations that might change this whole show’s angle. We’ll have to wait and see how that plays out, but last week, Marvel fans were thrilled to tip their hats to Kevin Feige for what’s easily the best episode of the series so far. Watch out for that brutal Easter egg, though.

HBO Max

Allen V. Farrow (HBO documentary series, HBO Max on Sunday) — This four part documentary series begins this weekend to dig into a notorious and still-raging scandal of what, exactly, happened with Woody Allen and his family. That includes daughter Dylan Farrow’s allegations of sexual abuse against her father along with Allen’s relationship with Farrow’s daughter, Soon-Yi, and the custody trial that grew especially ugly. In the aftermath, a sprawling family fractured, and that divide continues to this day with continuing disputes that revolve around the allegations.

Last Week Tonight: Season 8 Premiere (HBO Series, Sunday On HBO Max) — Everyone’s favorite sarcastic and satiric late-night host finally returned last week (after blowing up 2020 and getting weird with poor, sweet Adam Driver), and not a moment too soon. John Oliver will break down exactly what’s wrong with our society in a way that only he can do, and let’s hope that he brings back that award-winning hoodie, so we can all get fancy with him.

Judas and the Black Messiah (HBO Max movie) — This selection’s from last week, but this Awards-tipped movie can’t stop with the talent. Starring Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, and Jesse Plemons, this film could be an awards contender. The story revolves around William O’Neal, who infiltrates the Black Panther Party in Illinois after being offered an FBI plea deal. His mission? To gather intelligence upon the head honcho, Chairman Fred Hampton.

The Carson Wentz era in Philadelphia has come to an end. According to a report by Adam Schefter of ESPN, Wentz, whose name has been on the trade block since the Eagles’ season has come to an end, is on his way to Indianapolis. Schefter reports that the return for Wentz is relatively meager — Philly will get a 2021 third-round pick, along with a pick in the 2022 NFL Draft that could become a first-round selection.

The Colts have been mentioned as a potential landing spot for Wentz ever since he hit the trade block, as the team’s head coach, Frank Reich, was in Philadelphia during Wentz’s breakout 2017 campaign as the team’s offensive coordinator. Ever since then, things have gone downhill for Wentz — his MVP-caliber season came to an end prematurely due to an ACL injury, his backup, Nick Foles, went on to lead the team to the Super Bowl, and he never found a way to get back to his pre-injury level.

Wentz struggled last season in Philly, completing 57.4 percent of his passes for 2,620 yards, 16 touchdowns, and a league-high 15 interceptions. He was eventually benched for rookie signal caller Jalen Hurts. Moving on from him was always presumed to be a bit of an issue due to his contract — he is about to enter the second year of a four-year, $128 million extension he signed with the Eagles. But in Indianapolis, he finds a team with a need under center after Philip Rivers retired, one of the best offensive lines and rushing attacks in the league, a handful of interesting pass catchers, and a coach who intimately knows what he’s capable of doing. Whether or not he’s still capable of reaching that level or anything close to it, though, remains to be seen.