Month: March 2021

If you watched Judas and the Black Messiah, you’d probably come away with the assumption that either Daniel Kaluuya‘s Fred Hampton or LaKeith Stanfield‘s William O’Neal is the lead. One of those actors played the main character, so when Oscars time comes around, obviously one of them has to get the Best Actor nod for their standout performances, and the other would get Best Supporting Actor — or not.

In a move that has left social media very confused, both Kaluuya and Stanfield were nominated for Best Supporting Actor, which would seemingly suggest that Judas and the Black Messiah has no lead actor. It’s kind of a weird look when it comes to a film about one of the most prominent Black activists in America. Of course, submitting both Kaluuya and Stanfield in the supporting category could’ve been an intentional decision by the filmmakers, or even the actors themselves, so as not to elevate one over the other. But until we hear an official decision on the reason for Judas and the Black Messiah‘s missing lead, the confused Twitter reactions are pouring in.

Here’s how Kaluuya described playing Fred Thompson to Uproxx shortly after Judas and the Black Messiah’s release: “I had to step up and stand at my full height in order to reach the incredible spiritual heights that he reached. I did that. Then drop by drop a river is formed. I moved like that. Didn’t try and do too much too quick. Just little by little, and not beat myself and judge myself when I didn’t go in the right direction in the process of building an interpretation of Chairman Fred.”

And here’s Stanfield on the challenge of bringing humanity to FBI Informant Bill O’Neal: “You could see, even though he was attempting to try and be tough and not let his interior show, you could see, in little slivers in-between, what he didn’t say that he felt very guilty about what he did. You could see it in the [Eyes on the Prize] interview! ‘I felt bad about it, but I had to continue to play the role.’ The fact that he felt bad about it, that’s all I needed to know. Now I know that he’s a human being and, okay, now I can play you. I can’t play anyone that’s just not a human. But if you’re a human, I can play you.”

This year’s Oscars ceremony will air on April 25.

Last night was all about the Grammys, but movie fans have bigger news to digest now, as the nominees for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards have been revealed. There are some music breakouts there as well, and unsurprisingly, the composing duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are involved.

Reznor and Ross have a pair of scores nominated for Best Original Score, as both Mank and Soul (the latter of which they worked on with Jon Batiste) are nominated. Both films were also nominated for Best Original Score at the Golden Globes this year (and Soul won).

There are some noteworthy entries in the Best Original Song category as well: There’s “Husavik” from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga (sung by Will Ferrell and Molly Sandén, the latter of whom Rachel McAdams lip-synced in the film), HER’s “Fight For You” from Judas And The Black Messiah, Celeste’s “Hear My Voice” from The Trial Of The Chicago 7, Leslie Odom Jr.’s “Speak Now” from One Night In Miami, and Lauren Pausini’s “Io Sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead.

As Stereogum notes, Odom is also up for best Supporting Actor for portraying Sam Cooke in One Night In Miami, which makes him the third person (after Mary J. Blige and Lady Gaga) to be nominated in song and acting categories in the same year.

Check out the full list of nominees for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards here.

At every Grammy Awards ceremony, there are winners and losers.

Here, though, “loser” is a relative term. If you’re an artist who is doing so well that you’re at the Grammys at all, it’s hard to imagine that you’re anything but a winner. That said, if you’re particularly confrontational, “loser” might be what you call somebody who was nominated for an award and did not win that award. On the flip side, you could say that some artists didn’t lose: they won the right to keep their title of nominee (at the cost of not getting promoted to winner).

Then there are cases where you don’t need to glass-half-full the truth to declare somebody was a winner, whether they went home with a trophy or two or otherwise excelled during music’s biggest night. Last night’s Grammys ceremony was full of people who had different levels of success, so let’s get into who thrived and who didn’t quite do that, as well as who offered some of the evening’s biggest surprises.

Winner: Megan Thee Stallion

Meg had one of the best winning percentages of the night, taking home three of the four Grammys for which she was nominated — she won Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song (both for “Savage”), and Best New Artist, but didn’t claim Record Of The Year.

Outside of the awards themselves, Meg was notary-like with how she put her stamp on the evening. She and Cardi B made more modest-minded music admirers mad with a performance of “WAP” (more on that in a second). Even the Grammy Meg didn’t win, she kind of did win it. While Billie Eilish accepted the Record Of The Year trophy, she got behind the podium and mostly spoke about how Meg should have won it instead of her.

Loser: The structural integrity of “WAP”

It’s true that “WAP” was probably the biggest song of 2020. It’s also true that it wasn’t made for TV (or for any audible medium at all, according to Ben Shapiro). So, when it was revealed that Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion would be performing the hit during the Grammys broadcast, fans were ready to see a non-insignificant portion of the song left on the cutting room floor. That was true to the extreme. The lyric sheet for this version of the track looked like a brand new Madlibs book. I’m sure Cardi and Meg did all they could to bring “WAP” to the Grammys and they still delivered an entertaining few minutes of television, but the performance came across like they didn’t secure the rights to the song, so they got as close to actually performing it as they could without getting into legal trouble.

Loser: Jhené Aiko

As is tradition, the Grammys took a very long time. Even before the actual ceremony, there was the also-lengthy Grammy premiere ceremony, which the Recording Academy roped Aiko into hosting. Between that and the actual show, it was a long, grueling day for Aiko and she didn’t even end up winning any of the three Grammys for which she was nominated.

Thankfully, Aiko is an optimist. The hosting gig was a personal triumph for Aiko, as she wrote on Twitter, “i conquered a major fear of public speaking today by hosting the freaking Grammy Premiere Ceremony!!” She was even cool with not taking home a trophy, as she tweeted, “i know what its like to lose… do u? do u?! lol,” later adding, “what a crazy day! but its all good. love you all so much.”

Surprise: HER

In some ways, the Grammys are a popularity contest: If some no-name (not Noname) from the middle of nowhere made one of the year’s best songs, they’re probably not going to win a Grammy for it. The Recording Academy further proved that with their pick for Song Of The Year, as HER took home the prize over people like Beyonce, Roddy Ricch, Taylor Swift, Post Malone, Dua Lipa, and Billie Eilish. While HER is certainly a successful artist and “I Can’t Breathe” is an impactful song built on meaningful social justice themes, she’s not exactly a household name and her victory certainly left many viewers feeling like Michael Bluth:

Winners: Fans of normalcy

Over the past year-plus, pretty much every aspect has been entirely different than it was pre-pandemic. That includes The Grammys, but the fact that the ceremony even happened at all is a grounding force. Yes, the show wasn’t really like previous broadcasts in any way, but it was also as close to normal as any sort of live music event has been since early 2020. Considering the circumstances, the Recording Academy excelled with their broadcast. Delayed ceremony aside, one thing music fans have been able to count on towards the start of the year is finding out what music and artists the Recording Academy “secret commitees” deserve to be honored, for better or worse.

Losers: Fans of normalcy

That said, the whole thing was a bit weird, right? During performances, there were probably too many cuts to Trevor Noah and other artists in the room to forcefully drive home the point that everybody was actually there IRL. Those shots just hit different when it’s just one or two people side-stage instead of a big seated audience. Then, when the performances were done, the golf-level applause didn’t make the Grammys seem as epic as they usually do. Going the NBA route and piping in artificial fan noise wouldn’t have been a bad move.

The Recording Academy faced an impossible problem, but they still managed to put on a functional and entertaining show that offered plenty of highlights and made you forget this is an atypical Grammy year. Ultimately, though, it often felt less than grand, which, again, is really nobody’s fault.

Winner: Performance aesthetics

Sure, let’s flip this topic of Grammy normalcy around one more time. Usually, artists and their crews only have a few minutes to get an elaborate performance set-up onto the singular Grammy stage at the Staples Center. This year, though, the set-up made things different, arguably better. The multiple stages on-site allowed for performers to get their own look going in their own space, all with minimal time between performances. In an aesthetic highlight, Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dessner were all able to take to a mini cabin in a mystical-looking forest, for example, it feels like that something that gorgeous may not have been possible in a traditional Grammy year. Lil Baby’s cinematic performance that addressed police brutality definitely wouldn’t have been an eighth as impactful on a traditional stage.

Surprise: Jojo Rabbit

Taika Waititi himself would agree with this pick, as it seemed like he didn’t really expect the Jojo Rabbit soundtrack to win Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media over films like Frozen 2 and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga. Waititi offered a simple “Lol wtfffff” on Twitter in reaction to the news, and during his acceptance speech, he noted, “I guess they’re just giving Grammys to anyone now! I’ll take it, thank you.” He went on, “It was so long ago, I can barely remember anything about making that movie — but it seems like it’s never going to go away, and I’m happy about that.”

So, if you don’t remember the Jojo Rabbit soundtrack, it’s OK because Waititi probably doesn’t either.

Winner/Loser: Masks

Whether this is a winner or loser is a matter of perspective. Audience shots at awards shows are usually the most fruitful vine from which to pluck plump, dank memes of celebrities who didn’t expect the camera to be on them at a share-worthy moment. In that regard, music fans and internet jokesters lose. Masks could be seen as a major victory for artists who didn’t pick up a trophy, though, considering a wearable specifically made to cover the lower half of your face makes it a heck of a lot easier to hide your disappointment when you come away from a category empty-handed. Frustrated cursing no longer has to be under your breath!

Winner: The entire Carter family

The Beyhive would never let me hear the end of it if I declared Beyonce a loser, so thankfully, she had an amazing night. For years, she has been climbing up the all-time Grammy wins list, and she made history this year by picking up more trophies to become the woman and singer with the most Grammy victories.

That would have been enough to get her on this list, but that was just one aspect of a multi-pronged night for Bey. She and Megan Thee Stallion became the first women to win Best Rap Performance with “Savage,” and on top of that, her daughter Blue Ivy managed to become one of the youngest Grammy winners ever. Jay-Z was the only member of his immediate family to not directly win a Grammy this year, except even that’s not quite true since he has a writing credit on the “Savage” remix.

So, in what was perhaps the least surprising takeaway from the evening (or from any day, really), the Carter family is doing quite well.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

(Spoilers for The Walking Dead comics will be found below.)

In Issue #158 of The Walking Dead comics, Father Gabriel meets his demise during The Whisperer War. His character is still alive on the television series, but in this week’s episode, “One More,” there were several clever (and funny) nods toward his character’s comic-book death.

For the unfamiliar: in the comics, Gabriel is killed while keeping lookout from a water tower during The Whisperer War. From his vantage point on top of the water tower, Gabriel sees a horde of walkers rushing toward him, and so he tries to quickly walk down the water tower before he is trapped. On his way down, however, he slips, and in an attempt to catch himself with his foot on the ladder, Gabriel’s leg snaps. He’s left hanging on the ladder when along comes Beta, who guts his stomach like a fish. Gabriel’s guts fall out. The walkers at that point devour his upside-down-body from the waist down, so that all is left is a pair of legs.

Gabriel obviously lived in this week’s The Walking Dead, but there were clear references to his comic death. In fact, the title of the episode, “One More,” refers to “one more” stop on Maggie’s map, the last stop of which is a water tower, referred to twice in the episode. The episode in fact ends with Aaron and Gabriel looking into the sky beyond them at the water tower on the horizon, a sly nod toward Gabriel’s death site.

Meanwhile, earlier in the episode, Gabriel climbs on top of a roof, and Aaron asks him if he sees anything up there. Gabriel responds casually, “It’s just a ladder.” The “ladder” is a nod toward the final resting place for Gabriel in the comics (and for those who knew this, it amped up the dramatic tension in the episode).

Finally, when Gabriel is walking in the mud, he slips and and quickly falls down (as he did on the ladder in the comics), but here, Aaron kills the walker before it falls on Gabriel. However, Gabriel’s machete goes through the zombie’s guts, and his entrails fall out onto Gabriel, just as Gabriel’s guts fell out in the comics.

These are very clever nods to Robert Kirkman’s source material, although in the end, Gabriel lives another day. Hopefully, he will survive the remainder of the series, which enters its last season this fall.

‘The Walking Dead’ returns with the fourth bonus episode of the 10th season next Sunday.

This year is the 93rd Academy Awards. Through the first 92 ceremonies, only five women have been nominated for Best Director, with only one win (Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker). Put another way: Suicide Squad has as many Oscars as every woman nominated for Best Director combined. The Academy has a lot of work to do when it comes to gender and race inclusivity, but a small bit of positive history was made this morning when Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) and Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) were both nominated for Best Director, the first time two women have been nominated in that category at the same time… ever.

It was one of many historic firsts from the 2021 Academy Awards nominations, including:

-Riz Ahmed: the first Muslim actor to be nominated for Best Actor

-Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson: the first Black women nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling

-Zhao and Lee Isaac Chung: the first time two Asian filmmakers were nominated for Best Director in the same year

-Zhao made a lot of history:

–Judas and the Black Messiah: the first Best Picture nominee with an all-Black group of producers (Shaka King, Charles D. King, and Ryan Coogler)

-Steven Yeun: the first Asian-American to be nominated for Best Actor. From Variety:

In the Oscars’ 92-year history, few actors of Asian or South Asian descent have been nominated, and barely a handful have won, among them Ben Kingsley for Gandhi in 1982 and Haing S. Ngor for The Killing Fields in 1984. The most recent nominee was Dev Patel for best supporting actor for Lion in 2017.

Also, it’s not a first, but with her Best Actress nomination for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Viola Davis is now the most-nominated Black actress in Oscar history (her co-star, the late Chadwick Boseman, is one of eight actors to receive an Academy Award nominations after their death). It’s shameful that it took the Oscars this long to nominate two female filmmakers at the same time, along with all the other “firsts,” so hopefully over the next 90-plus years, this becomes the norm, not the exception.

For the full list of nominees, click here.

If Donald Trump was still on Twitter, he would have spent a whole week tweeting about nothing but Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s much-watched interview with Oprah Winfrey. For that, and many, many other reasons, we should be glad that his account has been suspended since January 8. But Jason Miller, an ex-advisor for the former-president, shared Trump’s thoughts on the Duchess of Sussex and why he’s on “team Piers” on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. They’re about what you expect.

“She’s no good… I said it and now everybody is seeing it,” Miller claims Trump told him about Markle. “You realize if you say anything negative about Meghan Markle you get canceled, look at Piers.” Piers Morgan exited Good Morning Britain (he was not “canceled”) after being called out for his “diabolical behavior” by co-presenter Alex Beresford. He left the show in a huff during a live taping — and for good later that day.

Here’s what Miller said that Trump had to offer:

Trump told Miller, “I’m on team Piers,” who frequently interviewed Trump during his presidency. “Piers Morgan is the best, he’s the greatest, and they went and tried to cancel him simply because he criticized Meghan Markle,” Miller said Trump told him.

Trump has previously called Markle a “nasty woman,” and after the couple recorded a video urging Americans to vote and “reject hate speech” ahead of the 2020 presidential election, he wished a “lot of luck” to Harry, “because he’s going to need it.”

(Via Deadline)

The Grammys made yesterday evening the biggest night in music, but while that was happening, one of the medium’s biggest stars, Courtney Love, shared a vulnerable post on Instagram. In it, she says that last summer, she nearly died.

She begins her post by explaining, “People, I’ve been sad, and extremely sick. Debilitated , in indescribable pain and in August at 97 pounds almost died in hospital from anemia( hemoglobin I had none ).” Love went on to note that after months of ineffective medical care for pain management, she eventually found her way to CBD oil, which she says has “removed ALMOST ALL the physical symptoms.”

She wrapped up by offering an update on her current condition, writing, “I’ve been basically bedridden . I thought I was broken for sure this time . But I’m ok ! So I’m just waking and I’m frail. I’ll be strong again soon ! Not as always because this is the period to be mellow and not waste energy on anger, etc .”

Find Love’s full post below.

“People, I’ve been sad, and extremely sick. Debilitated , in indescribable pain and in August at 97 pounds almost died in hospital from anemia( hemoglobin I had none )

I was stigmatized for being an addict for 9 months by many ill-equipped drs, backwards drs and quacks . While in debilitating acute pain .
Then I met the most empathic wise pain management dr . I’m so grateful !

But I’m so good now . And on CBD oil . Which has removed ALMOST ALL the physical symptoms . And all the pain .

I used to scoff at cannabis / THC . And I also am no fan of the narcotic effect , hate weed feeling.

This isn’t that . It’s wo man and nature supporting us . It’s magic . But gods own CBD is a miracle.

Thank you @woodyharrelson for back in the day showing me that chipping from popular mechanics in 59? ‘the 67 uses of hemp’

You were right !

I’m still 100 percent sober by the way . Page 133 of the big book if you have questions .

Bear with me as I start to try and have a blast and help others every pain free day !!! I’ve been basically bedridden . I thought I was broken for sure this time . But I’m ok ! So I’m just waking and I’m frail. I’ll be strong again soon ! Not as always because this is the period to be mellow and not waste energy on anger, etc .
Dropping the rock as we say . A new sort of strong with wisdom and more empathy than I had for people with physical illness .

Love you.”

The 93rd annual Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, April 25, which would tell aliens everything they need to know if they were touching down on planet Earth out of the blue: something went very, very amiss over the past year. The movie industry has struggled over the past year, but they’re still rallying to honor the best of the best, even though very few movies have arrived in theaters since January 2020. So… Birds Of Prey and Tenet for best picture?

Not quite. Expect Nomadland to score several nominations, given that it went in hard at the recent Globes ceremony, and other likely suspects will include several films that scored accolades on streaming, including Promising Young Woman, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, One Night in Miami…, Minari, and Judas and the Black Messiah. We’ll probably never see an other Oscars like this one (which might possibly never be more accurate a statement than during this year), and anything can happen this year. To that end, the nominations are being revealed by Priyanka Chopra Jonas (White Tiger) and recent SNL host (and husband to Priyanka) Nick Jonas. Here’s the full list of nominations (as updated) below:

Best Picture
The Father
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Director
Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round
David Fincher, Mank
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

Best Actor
Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins, The Father
Gary Oldman, Mank
Steven Yeun, Minari

Best Actress
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

Best Supporting Actress
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman, The Father
Amanda Seyfried, Mank
Youn Yuh-jung, Minari

Best Supporting Actor
Sacha Baron Cohen The Trial of the Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah
Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami
Paul Raci, Sound of Metal
Lakeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah

Best Adapted Screenplay
Sacha Baron Cohen and Co-Writers, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton, The Father
Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
Kemp Powers, One Night in Miami
Ramin Bahrani, The White Tiger

Best Original Screenplay
Judas and the Black Messiah (Will Berson, Shaka King, Keith Lucas, and Kenny Lucas)
Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)
Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
Sound of Metal (Derek Cianfrance, Abraham Marder, Darius Marder)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin)

Best Costume Design
Emma
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Mulan
Pinocchio

Best International Feature Film
Another Round
Better Days
Collective
The Man Who Sold His Skin
Quo Vadis, Aida?

Best Documentary
Collective
Crip Camp
The Mole Agent
My Octopus Teacher
Time

Best Animated Feature
Onward
Over the Moon
Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Soul
Wolfwalkers

Best Cinematography
Judas and the Black Messiah (Sean Bobbitt)
Mank (Erik Messerschmidt)
News of the World (Dariusz Wolski)
Nomadland (Joshua James Richards)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Phedon Papamichael)

Best Film Editing
The Father
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Emma
Hillbilly Elegy
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Pinocchio

Best Original Score
Da 5 Bloods
Mank
Minari
News of the World
Soul

Short Film
Burrow
Genius Loci
If Anything Happens I Love You
Opera
Yes-People

Short Film (Live Action)
Feeling Through
The Letter Room
The Present
Two Distant Strangers
White Eye

On her album Folklore, Taylor Swift does a lot of reminiscing, whether it’s in character or in her own voice. On one particularly lovestruck (perfect) song, “Invisible String,” she notes how much her own behavior has changed since falling in love with her now-partner, Joe Alwyn: “Cold was the steel of my axe to grind / For the boys who broke my heart / Now I send their babies presents.” Well, however short-lived the romance between Taylor Swift and Harry Styles was (1989 standout “Style” is reportedly about him), there seems to be zero, ahem, bad blood between the pair anymore.

At tonight’s Grammys, Taylor wasn’t just fake-smile happy for Harry when his cult favorite Fine Line track “Watermelon Sugar” picked up the award for Best Pop Solo Pop Performance. No, she stood all the way up and gave a standing ovation for his win and was nodding her head in approval! Even though he was besting her own track, “Cardigan,” in the category. Well that is definitely a different Taylor. Isn’t maturity a wonderful thing to possess? Or perhaps true love is what does the trick.

Either way, when fans noticed the interaction they had a wide variety of thoughts on the matter. Check out some of the best reactions below, and remember, odds are Taylor simply knew that Folklore was going to win Album Of The Year, so what did a smaller genre-specific category matter anyway? Mostly though, fans are thrilled to see this friendship has reached such a positive place. Can we get a collab now? Fine Line remixes?

As one of the big four categories, Record Of The Year is always a hotly contested race. This year, the field was very crowded with viable winners across all different genres. Contenders include the massive “Black Parade” by Beyonce, “Colors” by Black Pumas, the ever-ubiquitous 2020 hit “Rockstar” by DaBaby and featuring Roddy Ricch, “Say So” from Doja Cat, a newer track called “Everything I Wanted” by Billie Eilish, one of the early leadoff singles to her new album, Future Nostalgia, “Don’t Start Now” by Dua Lipa, “Circles” from Post Malone, and finally, “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion. So it’s safe to say almost anyone nominated in this category would make sense as a winner.

Considering the “Savage” remix already picked up a win tonight for Best Rap Performance, making Beyonce and Megan the first two women to ever win in that category, and the Houston rapper also won Best New Artist, another victory would’ve been huge for Meg. But after HER won Song Of The Year earlier in the night for her protest song collaboration with Tiara Thomas “I Can’t Breathe,” it seemed like anyone’s game. But, Grammy favorite Billie Eilish came through in the end, picking up her second win of the night. She spent the vast majority of her speech dedicating the award to Megan Thee Stallion. But don’t worry, Billie, Megan had a great night too. Check out the full winners list here and check out Billie’s speech below.