Month: June 2021

The first reactions to Black Widow are in, and critics seem to be just as blown away by Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh‘s performances as they are by the fact that Marvel movies are finally back after the pandemic delayed the film’s release by more than a year. Granted, Marvel’s Phase 4 officially kicked off with the January premiere of WandaVision on Disney+, but Black Widow is the first full-fledged Marvel movie since 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, and people are here for it, as well as the idea of Florence Pugh’s character carrying the torch from here.

“Although there’s some excellent action, what pulled me in was the really powerful themes & character moments the film presented,” writes Jacob Fisher from Discussing Film. “Easily Scarlett’s best performance as Nat, and Florence Pugh is brilliant as Yelena.”

“Yelena will be a new fan-favorite after #BlackWidow, too,” writes Alisha Grauso. “Florence Pugh knocked it out of the park. She and Scarlett Johansson are phenomenal together as two ‘sisters’ used and abused by a system they need to break.”

“Marvel movies are back! #BlackWidow is a tense, action-packed spy thriller that truly completes Natasha’s story in a visceral & emotional way,” writes Erik Davis. “Florence Pugh CRUSHES it & is an instant MCU icon.”

In case you can’t tell, Johansson and Pugh give standout performances in the spy thriller, which is a recurring theme in the Black Widow reactions. While there’s definitely an argument to be made that Marvel shouldn’t have waited this long to finally give Johnasson her own solo movie, the consensus seems to be that director Cate Shortland has not only done right by Natasha, but she’s prepped MCU fans for Pugh to be a worthy successor.

You can see more Black Widow reactions below:

Black Widow smashes into theaters and Disney Plus with Premier Access on July 9.

Once you’ve reached the summit of pop culture iconography, where do you go from there? It’s a question Annie Murphy is ready to answer with her upcoming comedy series, Kevin Can F**k Himself. The show drops on AMC this month and features Murphy as the put-upon sitcom housewife who’s reached her metaphorical breaking point. Well, metaphorical and, at times, literal. There’s a lot of glass smashing happening in the first four episodes screened for critics.

It’s a major departure for the relentlessly optimistic over-priviledged heroine she played on Schitt’s Creek, the Canadian comedy show that catapulted to viral meme-making status seemingly overnight. (Really, the rise of Schitt’s Creek has a streaming deal on Netflix and a devoted fanbase wielding their word-of-mouth recommendation power to thank for its phenomenal ratings. For its record-breaking Emmys sweep, look to its talented cast and the genius of its creator, Dan Levy.)

Alexis Rose was a posh, globe-trotting socialite who was deeply selfish, yet oddly charming and able to make the best out of any bad situation. Allison is an exhausted, frustrated, underappreciated housewife whose dreams are constantly being snuffed out by the childish antics of her husband and his friend group to the point where she begins to daydream about violently murdering him. Schitt’s Creek was a warm, welcoming town filled with brightly lit cafes and Goop-approved apothecaries. Kevin Can F**k Himself bounces between the color-saturated fantasy of those familiar sitcoms and the grittier, grimier reality of what life is like for the women who always seem to be relegated to their backgrounds.

It’s a show unlike any you’ve seen before and it all rests on the capable shoulders of Murphy, who proves she’s up for the challenge of reinventing herself on screen and she’s got the talent to do it.

We chatted with her about how terrified she was to say yes to the show, getting justice for Erinn Hayes, and why she’ll never look at a sitcom the same way again.

I hope you know that you can never kind of do a traditionally titled TV show again.

Oh, no. I’ve graduated from sh*t to f**k. Now there’s nowhere to go.

What were some of the sitcoms you went back to when this show was originally pitched to you?

I wasn’t a huge sitcom watcher. I did [watch] Home Improvement for one very particular reason, and that reason is Jonathan Taylor Thomas. [laughs] What comes to mind is Everybody Loves Raymond. And of course, Kevin Can Wait can’t not come up. I watched that infamous scene where Erinn Hayes is so unceremoniously written off the show, in a matter of two lines. It was like, ‘Oh, I miss mom.’ ‘Yeah. I wish she hadn’t died. Let’s go to the baseball game.’ So I feel like I channeled a little bit of what I assume must have been Erinn Hayes’ great frustration in a few of my glass smashing [scenes].

The show really deconstructs the sitcom fantasy but when does that illusion shatter for Allison?

I think that starts to change when she realizes that a house that she can no longer afford isn’t going to fix her life. I feel like, she has for such a long time blamed herself for not having the house that she wants, the husband she wants, the job that she wants, the life that she wants. But it’s in the moment where she realizes that she’s been basically gas lit for 10 years, she realizes that it isn’t at all even close to entirely her fault. There’s someone else that’s been really holding her back and really chipping away at who she is.

Kevin, as so many sitcom husbands before him, comes across as a fairly harmless idiot but there are moments when you get the feeling something more sinister is going on with him. Is that intentional or do I just hate him that much?

You do start to question, “Is he just a doofus or a calculated manipulator?” And the answer is both. He’s the big, giant doofus, but he’s also very calculated in his manipulation and his control. I think the moment that things really clicked for me, even though we read the script so many times and shot the thing, it wasn’t until I saw that first transition from multi-cam to single cam. You really see the toll that all of “jokes” have taken on this woman, and how they have reduced her to a fraction of who she used to be, how truly miserable she has become.

How much of the appeal of this role came because of how different this character is to who you played on Schitt’s Creek?

I had the best time in the world playing Alexis. I had so much fun, and I loved that character. So I think it wasn’t that I needed to get away from her. It’s just that I needed to kind of prove to myself that I could do other things. I really wanted to give myself a challenge and Allison was a really big challenge. I was just terrified going into it, thinking that I made a terrible mistake and that I wasn’t ready for it. But it proved to be a really wonderful experience. And I’m so glad that Allison followed Alexis.

What terrified you?

Coming off a show that was such an ensemble piece, one that became so beloved, and then all of a sudden it’s like, you’re the number one on the call sheet and it’s a role that is so far from Alexis. So I really was wrestling with imposter syndrome for a while. And then they were like, ‘Oh yeah. And do this accent.’

Boston accents are no joke.

I still think that the people of Massachusetts, we owe them all like five or ten dollars, just as a small token of our apology.

You also had to tap into some rage, some darker emotions that I don’t think Alexis ever dealt with.

Yeah, Alexis got miffed. She didn’t get angry. I’m a pretty rose-colored glasses person, or I pretend to be. So I was like, ‘Ooh, a dark side? How am I going to figure that out?’ It turns out, I am very angry and very frustrated and I do a lot of shoving it down. I think especially after the last year, just being a human being on this planet, you’re more likely than not suppressing a little rage and sadness and frustration. So it turns out I didn’t have to dig too deep to channel the proper glass break.

A season-long therapy session.

[laughs] If people just had like some breakaway glass in their lives, I think the world would be a much more pleasant place.

I hate the term “cancel culture” but we are living in a time when we’re starting to question things we might have found funny or acceptable in the past. Where does this show fit in that bigger conversation?

I mean, I think so much of the point of the show is starting to analyze and question and point out what it is that we have been laughing at all these years. It’s really hard. When I have gone back to watching sitcoms with this new lens on, it is truly astonishing to see how much misogyny and homophobia and racism you’re being told to laugh at. So my brain is now … the switch is flipped and I can no longer just toss on a sitcom without getting too riled up about it. There’s no going back.

People watching this might ask, ‘Well, why doesn’t she just leave if she’s that miserable?’ What’s the answer?

That’s actually a question that I was stuck on for a while after I’d read the script. But you ask a woman in an abusive relationship ‘Why don’t you just leave?’ and the answer is not easy. It’s not easy to leave. Maybe you’re financially dependent, maybe you have a family. Maybe you don’t want to uproot your entire life, maybe you’re scared to leave. Maybe you think that if you do leave, he’ll find you anyway. So I think Allison is not functioning at her peak rational capacity, but I do think that Kevin not existing is the only way that she feels she’ll be able to achieve some sort of happiness.

There’s a clear endgame based on the show’s title. Is this a story that might have a long life or do you think it can be told in just a couple of seasons?

I personally don’t think this is a show that I think should go on for 8 seasons, because the goal is really set at the beginning. I know that there will be many twists and turns along the way, but it’s not something that I think should be drawn out over the course of however many seasons, just so people can make money. And I’m lucky to know, for a fact, that I am working with people whose minds don’t think like that and they want to tell this story and do the story justice.

I ask because I’m still thinking about Mare of Easttown and questioning whether that show really needs a second season.

See, that’s a tricky one because I just thought it was so perfect. I could watch Kate Winslet all day period, but I thought she was so breathtaking as Mare.

So you’re Team #MoreMare then?

Yeah, I think … I think I could do one more season.

Today Vanity Fair has the first look at a new documentary on The Beatles created by famed directory, Peter Jackson. The news that Jackson was going to be culling through 55 hours of Let It Be studio footage first broke in January of 2019, and Jackson has clearly been busy in the intervening two and a half years. Last December he released a sneak peek of the documentary, which will be titled The Beatles: Get Back, and now the film has a release date along with new details.

The Beatles: Get Back is a 21-day diary of the band recording the record its named for, and it will debut on Disney+ this November, debuting in three two-hour episodes over three days during Thanksgiving weekend, November 25, 26 and 27. The film uses the footage originally shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s vérité for the 1970 documentary, Let It Be, which premiered a month after the band broke up. Jackson told Vanity Fair he was hesitant to direct the movie when approached, and didn’t want to have any part in making another Beatles “breakup” movie. But when he saw the footage, everything changed. “What I found is that I was laughing continuously. I just was laughing. I was laughing and laughing and laughing, and I didn’t stop.” His perspective is reportedly a new one on the band’s eventual ddemise.

Check out the full feature on the documentary here and look for it on Disney+ this fall.

Less than a month after their last heated exchange reportedly prompted the president of ABC News to call an emergency meeting to urge the ladies of The View to stop with the “personal attacks,” Whoopi Goldberg and Meghan McCain had another blowout on Thursday morning. While the show has been unusually calm as of late, and at times even jovial, that all ended when the conservative McCain criticized the media for giving Biden a pass after he snapped at reporters following his G7 meeting with Putin.

“Just because Trump was so bad, it doesn’t absolve Biden’s bad behavior,” McCain said. “What he just did was 100 percent Trumpy. I would just like a little intellectual consistency. If Trump had done that, we would be screaming at the top of our lungs one way or another.”

However, the situation quickly devolved when Whoopi pointed out that Biden went back to the press pool and apologized for the outburst, which is something that Trump has never done. Unfortunately, McCain was not in the mood for nuance.

“With all due respect, I don’t care if he’s apologizing. He just embarrassed himself,” McCain said, which prompted Whoopi to respond, “I don’t care that you don’t care!” before completely losing it on McCain. “You can be how you always are!” Whoopi said as the show cut to commercial.

In a surprising move considering that McCain looked to be on the verge of tears after getting dressed down, the two hosts actually apologized when the show returned to commercial, according to Mediaite. “I didn’t need to say what I said, and I apologize,” Whoopi said. “That’s not the way I want to behave at work. I apologize, Meghan.” McCain said she’s sorry, too, and the show went on.

(Via Mediaite)

The most popular man in Phoenix is headed to a playoff game. According to Zach Lowe of ESPN, Devin Booker and the Suns have learned the name of Nick McKeller, who became a meme among Phoenix fans for getting into a fight at a playoff game against the Nuggets. After taking it to the Denver fan with whom he scrapped, McKeller held up four fingers and screamed “SUNS IN 4.”

That ended up coming to fruition — the Suns swept the Nuggets — and after tweeting that he needed to learn the dude’s identity, Lowe reported that the efforts were successful, and now, McKeller is getting some gear and tickets to one of the Suns’ upcoming Western Conference Finals tilts against either the Los Angeles Clippers or Utah Jazz.

It didn’t take long for Booker’s representatives at CAA to find Nick McKellar, a lifelong Suns fan who now lives in Denver. Booker and the Suns are going to send McKellar a signed Booker jersey and provide him tickets to a conference finals game, both Booker’s reps at CAA and McKellar told ESPN.

While the NBA has been trying to crack down on incidents involving unruly fan behavior, Lowe reports that McKeller and eyewitnesses to the incident all stated he only fought back in self-defense.

Cordae isn’t just a critically acclaimed, hit-making young artist on the rise — he’s also an outspoken activist and advocate for social change in America and the world. Last year, he was arrested at a sit-in protest of Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s home to push for Cameron to file charges against Breonna Taylor’s killers (a felony charge against him was dropped) and now, he’s partnered with Disney Dreamers Academy and ESPN’s The Undefeated to stand up for education by funding scholarships for HBCU students.

His efforts are being fueled by his participation in the upcoming compilation project Liberated / Music For the Movement Vol. 3, set to be released June 18 in honor of Juneteenth, the Black American holiday celebrating the official end of slavery in the United States. The Music For The Movement series, sponsored by The Undefeated, celebrates Black history and accomplishments of Black American activists, artists, and athletes, spawning records like Tinashe’s cover of “I’m Every Woman.”

Cordae, who appears on the track “What’s Life” with Common, committed to donating his proceeds from the track to funding scholarships for HBCU students. The Undefeated and Disney Dreamers Academy matched his donations. Cordae explained his decision in a press release. “So many people need the money more than I do,” he said. “I feel as though when you’re in such a blessed position, it’s important to pay that forward to be a blessing to others. It’s especially important to me to invest in our youth and the future. Young people are the future of our society and the world, so we must do all we can to ensure they are properly positioned to succeed. If I can spark the brain of a few future world leaders and geniuses, I’ll die a happy man.”

Liberated / Music For the Movement Vol. 3 also features Chloe Bailey, Kamasi Washington, Lucky Daye, and Yara Shahidi, and is due 6/18 on Hollywood Records.

Cordae is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Dexter revival will bring the show’s serial killer back to the East Coast (so no more lumberjacking in the Pacific Northwest, thank goodness), and the generally accepted view is that most, if not all, of the O.G. cast members won’t be in attendance. That’s the right call for several reasons (including these characters being either dead or well aware of Dexter’s real calling), and although many hold out hope that Jennifer Carpenter’s Debra will return in flashbacks, James Remar (who played Dexter’s dad, who gave him his code) threw cold water (truthfully or not) on the hope of any old faces in the revival beyond Dexter himself.

Naturally, anyone who starred in Dexter will field such questions, and that includes Julie Benz, who was Dexter’s unaware-of-his-murder-addiction girlfriend, Rita, for four seasons before becoming a Trinity Killer victim. Benz previously declared that being killed off the show was the worst thing to happen in her career, yet this week, she told TV line that there’s no coming back for Rita, not even in ghost form:

“I think Dexter has moved way past Rita. It doesn’t make sense for her to be on his mind as a ghost because she was only his cover. He didn’t internalize her, so there are no plans for Rita to show up. I would obviously do it in a heartbeat if they asked. But I’ve always said Rita shouldn’t make an appearance in his head because she didn’t know the real him. She didn’t know the Dark Passenger.”

This makes sense, given that Rita’s death propelled Dexter into a new phase of how to cope with his Dark Passenger. Besides, it would be a hell of a lot more fun to see Debra come back and give Dexter sh*t for that watery grave, and she should also tell him how silly that hurricane survival maneuver was. Fans have hoped that Debra, who obviously died during the show’s finale episode, would somehow make it back for the 10-episode revival, even if it’s some zombie-Vision thing in his mind. Seriously, the striped-shirt evidence must mean something, so let’s see some snarky Debra (in a teaser) already.

The Dexter revival will likely arrive in late 2021.

(Via TV Line)

After a week of cryptic teases and colorful previews, Tyler The Creator has announced the official release date of his next album, Call Me If You Get Lost. The album title comes as no surprise after it was prominently featured in much of the mysterious early rollout, but the release date may, as it’s less than two weeks away, on June 25. The announcement came complete with a crisp, retro-styled website with the videos for “Side Street” and “Lumberjack,” as well as a link to pre-purchase box sets including a CD, a poster, a T-shirt, and a commemorative box.

The marketing around Call Me If You Get Lost appears to ditch Tyler’s Andy Warhol-inspired Igor persona in favor of “Tyler Beaudelaire,” but maintains much of the retro feel of that album’s rollout, with videos shot to resemble Super 8 tapes and styling influenced by 1970s couture (check out those vintage trunks in the “Lumberjack” video). Meanwhile, a press release for the album promises that the hotline set up to preview the music from the album will remain active and periodically update with new snippets leading up to the release. In addition to the box set CDs, the website for Call Me If You Get Lost features cassette tapes of the album, sticking with the retro theme.

Check out the album cover and link to the pre-order website above.

For the second time in a handful of years, the New Orleans Pelicans are dealing with questions about the long-term future of their former No. 1 overall pick. According to a new report by Shams Charania, William Guillory, and Joe Vardon of The Athletic that comes one day after the team ended Stan Van Gundy’s tenure as head coach, some in Zion Williamson’s camp would like it if he no longer played for the franchise.

While it is unclear if Williamson shares this sentiment, the report indicates that that general discontent exists in those close to the All-Star forward on the heels of a 31-41 campaign in which the team didn’t even make the play-in tournament.

For months, sources from all NBA corners have pointed to the Pelicans as a heap of dysfunction. There was a growing unease between Van Gundy and his players, and Van Gundy and the New Orleans front office, which came to a head Wednesday with the veteran coach and organization agreeing to part ways with three years left on his contract. Most of the attention, however, from numerous sources across the league, has centered on Williamson’s family members’ thinly veiled unhappiness with the Pelicans, and whether those feelings seeped into the player’s own views.

It’s not hard to see why the Pelicans, of all teams, would be ultra sensitive to rumblings of discord in the camp of a young star. The team is less than two years removed from trading Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers after years of questions regarding whether or not he could achieve his on-court goals with the team. Unfortunately, the report indicates a number of things — trading J.J. Redick, Van Gundy’s style of coaching, the organization’s perceived inability to “live up to what they felt should be the standard for a star like Williamson” — have caused the youngster and those around him to have some frustrations.

Williamson is under contract for the next three seasons, while the Pelicans will assuredly do everything in that time to make sure he and those around him are happy, namely by putting together a roster that can compete for a championship. But for now, some seeds are being planted that appear to indicate unease surrounding one of the brightest young stars in the league.

It’s been a whirlwind week-plus in the world of Sinéad O’Connor. Last Monday (June 7), the musician said she was retiring from the music industry. Shortly after that, she changed her mind. Now, O’Connor has again flip-flopped, as today, she has once more announced her retirement from music.

In a tweet from her personal account, she noted that she will transition to writing, but will release one more album next year, which she does not plan to promote: “On Sunday I begin my new life as a writer, having been in two minds about retiring from the music business. Below is my retirement announcement. My last album, No Veteran Dies Alone will be released in April 2022. There will be no promo. Thanks for all the fun and love.”

That tweet also featured screenshots of an more extensive message from O’Connor, in which she notes that her decision to leave music came after “consultation with [her] medical team.” Her letter concludes, “I sincerely thank my fans and supporters for the love they’ve shown me all down the years, as well as my co-workers. We’ve all had a great adventure: now it’s time for the next one : ).”

Read O’Connor’s full note below.

“This to announce that having been in two minds about retiring I have now, in consultation with my medical team, and on their advice, decided to go ahead and retire so that I may now focus on my new career as a writer. I am happy to have left on a good note, that is, standing up against the intellectually Lilliputian far right, white power movement in this country, without consideration for how absolutely any white people at all, might be upset by my doing so.

It would have been morally and spiritually criminal of me to stay silent. No matter how anyone might wish I had. I literally owe my life to foreign residents in this country. And to black and brown people in Ireland and all over the world: historically and in the present: sitting down and staying silent would have made me complicit: just as it makes anyone else who stays silent, complicit. All it takes for evil to triumph is that good people do nothing: it’s not in my nature to do nothing. If the likes of [Irish activist Gemma O’Doherty] and Waters and Rye consider it their right to spew online, defamation, racism and dishonest, uneducated, perverse, right wing propaganda, they have to be able to cope with strong responses. Whether from their exes or anyone else who knows them or doesn’t know them. Their online activities are hurtful and demeaning and damaging to the people of Ireland. And to all foreign residents and visitors. And what is good for the goose is certainly good for the gander. Racism triggers and deserves angry responses And I am fiercely unapologetic. No matter who is hurt: these online racists don’t care whom they hurt. So why should I?

As I said, I owe my life and soul to black and brown and Muslim immigrants to this country: and to black musicians and activists all over the world, throughout history and in the present: I will be closing my Twitter page in the next few days so that I can begin to enjoy being a private citizen. And enjoy my new life as a writer: I sincerely thank my fans and supporters for the love they’ve shown me all down the years, as well as my co-workers. We’ve all had a great adventure: now it’s time for the next one : ).”