Month: July 2021

Space Jam: A New Legacy, the most inexplicably controversial movie of the year, comes out this week, 25 years after the original film. Out is Michael Jordan, in is LeBron James — and a less “sexualized” Lola Bunny, who made her Looney Tunes debut in Space Jam. “I had no idea that people would be that up in arms about a bunny not having boobs,” director Malcolm D. Lee told EW about the uproar over the character’s new design. “We had all these other women who were like, ‘Oh, you can’t be strong and have big boobs?!’ Sure you can, but we’re talking about a cartoon bunny not women!”

This is a movie about cartoon animals playing basketball.

Anyway, EW also spoke to Zendaya, who sounded equally taken aback by the dreaded “discourse” surrounding Lola (she voices Bugs’ female counterpart in A New Legacy). “I didn’t know that was going to happen either! I definitely know we love her, but I didn’t know it was going to be as much of a focus as it was,” the Euphoria actress said. “But I understand, because she’s a lovable character. She’s very important, so I get it.”

“She’s special to a lot of people and their childhoods and they’ve been able to grow up with her, so I get that sense of protection. I was like, listen, just as long as I did what the director and the producers and everybody wanted me to do, I’m just here to offer my services. [Laughs] No, but I felt really grateful just to have the opportunity.”

Everyone needs to chill out and focus on what really matters: Porky Pig’s rapping.

Space Jam: A New Legacy opens in theaters and on HBO Max on July 17.

(Via EW)

If there is one game that has never shied away from crossovers it is Fortnite. The massive battle royale may be known for memes, dancing, and piñata t-shirts, but it also has one of the most insane video game universes we’ve ever seen. The developers at Epic have done their best to keep a semblance of continuity inside the Fortnite universe, which means that Travis Scott, that really buff cat man, The Avengers, and Rick and Morty all share a universe with one another in Fortnite.

Now entering the fold is LeBron James. The Space Jam: A New Legacy promotional tour is never ending and when James said he would be playing for the Tune Squad this summer he wasn’t kidding. One of the big pushes for James and Space Jam has been in the gaming world, as they look to get as many kids excited about the movie as possible. They’re in Candy Crush, he has his own arcade game, and now you can play as him in a Tune Squad jersey while playing Fortnite.

That said, there’s more to this pack than just the Tune Squad jersey. Players can also dress up James in a Taco Tuesday t-shirt or as a king, and give him a pair of LeBron 19’s to wear. This all sounds pretty fun for anyone that’s a big fan of James, and because this is Fortnite that means you can probably make him floss too.

The LeBron James items will be available in the Fortnite shop starting July 14. Any fan of him should definitely check it out, or maybe the haters can go out there and dunk on everyone that’s using a LeBron James skin. Just be ready for the possibility of having your day ruined by a child decked out in a Tune Squad jersey that doesn’t even know LeBron James was drafted to Cleveland in 2003.

Phoebe Bridgers’ 2020 “tour” in support of Punisher was decidedly minimal, as it just consisted of livestream performances from various rooms in Bridgers’ home. Now, though, she announced that this fall, she will get to tour for real. She’ll be hitting the road for her “Reunion Tour” in September and October, and for most of the September shows, Bridgers will be joined by recent Saddest Factory signees Muna.

Fans are excited, as after the announcement, “phoebe” was trending on Twitter. To be fair, though, today is also actress Phoebe Tonkin’s birthday, and British designer Phoebe Philo announced her return to fashion today with her own brand, both of which also have something to do with the trend.

Whatever the case, check out the full list of tour dates below.

09/03 — St Louis, MO @ The Pageant
09/04 — Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo Festival
09/05 — Louisville, KY @ Iroquois Amphitheater
09/07 — Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre *
09/08 — Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre *
09/10 — Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
09/11 — St Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre *
09/12 — St Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre *
09/14 — Madison, WI @ The Sylvee *
09/15 — Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre *
09/17 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE Outdoors *
09/18 — Columbus, OH @ Express Live *
09/19 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore *
09/20 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz *
09/23 — Dover, DE @ Firefly Festival
09/25 — New York, NY @ Governor’s Ball Festival
09/26 — Boston, MA @ Leader Bank Pavilion *
10/02 — Austin, TX @ ACL Festival
10/03 — New Orleans, LA @ The Orpheum Theater
10/04 — Birmingham, AL @ Avondale Brewing Company
10/09 — Austin, TX @ ACL Festival
10/16 — Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre
10/21 — Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre
10/24 — Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Festival
10/26 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem

* with Muna

It’s no secret that the sneaker world is driven by exclusivity. Sneakerheads take to Twitter every weekend to openly discuss how they caught yet another “L” on the Nike SNKRS app, thanks to a limited release. But rather than building resentment, those complaints simply stir up an already frothing fanbase. Size exclusivity, bots, and exploitive resellers keep the energy around copping a fresh pair at a fever pitch.

If exclusivity is the wave you’re on, it’s tough to beat customs — completely unique kicks made using “blanks” from big brands. For sneaker lovers, it’s a chance to flex your style and individuality at once; for creatives, these hand-painted (and sometimes hand-stitched) sneaker remixes offer a great way to get your work into the ether and build an audience. Artists trade designs and techniques on sub-Reddits and via Instagram. Over on TikTok, there are currently more than 168 million views under the hashtag #sneakercustoms.

In the booming community of sneaker customizers, Nicolle Knight, aka Katty Customs, has to be recognized as one of the best in the game. Her designs are so intricate and seamless that they look factory-made. At the same time, they also tell a story, capturing and reflecting the personality of whomever she’s designing for. Look no further than the pair of Jordan 1s she designed for Sneakerheads star Allen Maldonado, wrapping the iconic silhouette in various animal prints to represent Maldonado’s multi-faceted talents as an actor, producer, writer, long-distance runner, and entrepreneur.

Or consider these Louis Vuitton hightops she did that conjure luxury in ways large and small.

To learn more about customs in general and Katty’s approach to designing bespoke kicks for everyone from Giannis Antetokounmpo to Chris Brown, I chopped it up with her this week. Check our full convo below.

***

Fill me in on your sneaker story. How did you get into sneakers and what made you want to start customizing them?

I got into sneakers back in 2009. I had run into this guy named Mike Norris. He owned a store on Melrose. When I walked into his store, I saw the shoe customizations that he was doing and I was blown away. At the time, I was designing clothes. I was making custom clothing like letterman jackets and cardigan sweaters and things like that. And I was showing him my stuff, and then I was asking him, “Do you need any help in the shop? Do you need any assistance? Because I really love what you do.”

He told me, “no.” Bu he gave me pointers on how to make my brand look better, just teaching me a few little things. So I kept going to his shop. Once a week I was always going there because I would always be out that way. And I just kept asking him, “You need to hire me. You need to hire me. You need to hire me.” Just joking around with him.

Finally, he was like, “You know what, forget it. You’re hired.”

From there, he literally taught me how to customize sneakers, what kind of paint to use, how to prep them. Just all the little fundamentals. That’s pretty much how I got my start, just working at his store back in those days. But back then, custom sneakers weren’t even popular like that. The only reason why we would customize shoes was if a big company like MTV or somebody needed custom shoes for the background dancers because they’re going to do a dance at an award show or something. It was never people coming in and randomly saying, like, “Okay, I want my shoes to be this colorway or that colorway.”

But nowadays, it’s like everybody is asking me for it on a normal basis because everybody wants to be different.

Why do you think celebrities and the average consumer loves custom shoes so much? Why are custom shoes hotter now than they’ve ever been?

I think custom shoes are hot now because everybody wants to be different. Everybody wants to stand out and everybody wants to be the one that only has that shoe. Especially when it comes to celebrities, and even just people like us, we want to be different. We want to walk into a place and for people to be like, “Where did you get those shoes? How did you get those shoes?”

If it’s just from a store, a few hundred people got those shoes too. But when you have a customizer who could do something really different — it’s amazing, and you stand out. Now it’s like, “Okay, how can I get those? Who made those?” Sometimes celebrities and people will keep you a secret. They keep the customizer a secret because they don’t want someone else to go and get the same thing. That has happened to me before.

What is the quintessential sneaker silhouette or the one you feel the most inspired by as a natural canvas? Because I imagine each pair kind of has its pros and cons based on the key design that is already in there.

The perfect canvas is a Jordan 1. If it’s not a Jordan 1, then an Air Force 1, for sure. A low top, Air Force 1 low, and Jordan 1 high. Those are the perfect canvases for shoes.

And what makes those ones work better than others?

For some reason, it gives me a lot of ideas on where I could put colors. I’m really into bright and bold colors. So looking at Air Force 1s or a Jordan 1, kind of makes it easier for me to come up with a concept on what to do. Even if I wanted to do some extensive art, I could do it on those shoes. It’s like my brain just gravitates to those. It’s a perfect canvas for me to just get all my ideas out onto the shoe.

Other shoes like Jordan 12s or something else, I may sit there and think for a little bit like, “Okay, well now, where would I put this and put that?” Now, granted, I do think before I customize any shoe, but the AJ1 and AF-1 are the easiest.

What pair are you most proud of? Do you have any favorites?

Yes, absolutely. I’ve done a pair for Chris Brown that I absolutely love, I did two pairs, well, I actually did five pairs for him, but two of the pairs I really love. And then there is this other pair that I’ve done for an art exhibit, Sneakertopia. It was a Jordan 1 and what I did was I put all of the retro Jordans that I love onto one shoe. So it was a Jordan 1 shoe, but then I drew a Jordan 11 on there, a Jordan 12, a Jordan 13. I drew all of the Jordans on that Jordan 1. And I called it the “What the Jordan 1?”

Is there anybody who you’ve collaborated with or made a pair for that you felt starstruck by?

Yes, the collaboration with Allen Maldonado. I was surprised when I started working with him because it was just amazing that he had a show called Sneakerheads on Netflix. And I told him, I hit him up like “Look, you need to come out with your own exclusive shoe. You need to. You need to just go ahead and drop that.” And he agreed to it and it worked well for us. So I think that was truly amazing. That was really one of my favorite partnerships.

Are there any sneaker designers or other customizers out there you take inspiration from?

Mike Norris, that’s the guy who mentored me. When I saw his art — he’s also an artist, so it wasn’t just always on sneakers, he did art for everything, including murals — he’s an amazing artist. His attention to detail is magnificent, which is why I have so much attention to detail in my work. It’s like it has to be perfect, and he taught me that. Also, there is this guy called Quonito. I love his color choices. I always tell him that we have the same type of vision when it comes to sneakers.

I’m absolutely in love with his custom work and it’s super clean. He hand-paints them, too.

What would you say are the biggest challenges of customizing sneakers?

Making it look perfect, making it look like it’s store-bought and not hand-painted. Because when painting shoes you could sometimes see the brush strokes inside the paint when it dries. My goal is to make the shoes look factory and not hand-painted. I’m really big on precision. I really need the shoes to be perfect before it gets to the customer. And then on top of that, making sure the shoes don’t crack or peel. It’s really, really, really important to know how to prep the shoes before customizing because if you don’t do it right they won’t come out right.

Then when the customer is wearing it, it’s going to crack and peel. And now it feels like the customer may have wasted their money on a pair of customs because they can’t wear them because the shoes keep cracking and peeling off.

Where do you want to take Katty Customs going into the future? Would you like to expand into a full apparel brand? Do you want to focus on shoes? Do you want to maybe step into designing your own?

My idea for my brand is to come out with my own signature sneaker. Also, I definitely, still work on my clothing brand. But most of all, I want to be able to teach classes all over the world. I want people to know that you too could take your talent and the things that you love to do for fun and make it lucrative for you. This is something that I’ve done for fun. And then it just ended up being lucrative for me. I ended up getting paid for something that I love to do. I was working in the dental field at first. And I saw that I was making more money customizing shoes than I was doing in the dental field. So I ended up quitting my job and was like, “I’m out of here.” And really just put my focus on my craft.

And when I quit, I didn’t know everything about customizing shoes. I just knew how to do it. But when I put my focus into it, I started to learn more things about customizing shoes. Doing more research. And it was just like, “Wow, this is where I need to be because this is my passion.”

Art is my passion. Drawing is my passion. Painting is my passion. That’s something that I’ve been doing since I was five. So I definitely want to teach classes all over the world. Just to show people that they too could become the person they never thought they could be. Just by doing the talent that God has given them.

Is there any shoe you won’t touch?

Crocs. I won’t touch Crocs. It won’t hold the paint well. Granted, you could dye the shoes, but I want to throw some art on it. I want to do something crazy. So that material, Crocs, I would not touch. But anything else I can work with.

Because of the pandemic, a lot of industries have had a chance to self-reflect and kind of reset. Is there anything that you would like to see in the sneaker world or just fashion in general, going forward?

In the sneaker world, I would like to see more women out there in the corporate world. I also want to see people at Nike or Adidas give customizers like us a chance to actually design shoes for them, people who really know how to put colors together and really help bring our ideas to life, instead of taking our ideas. Because there have been a few shoes that I’ve done in the past, and then I have seen it be released two, three years later.

I don’t mind, but at the same time, it’s like, “Okay, I see you guys have scouts going out to look at customizers’ pages or something,” because customizing has been coming up big lately. Because for my Instagram, as soon as I get on and I go on a search feed, it’s nothing but sneakers, and it’s all custom sneakers. And maybe a few non-custom sneakers, but it’s all custom.

So I’m sure they have scouts out there that just go out and see what’s cool and what’s not cool, what people gravitate towards and not. So I just want to see more people like myself, the actual customizers, be involved with really big companies to create shoes.

It would be cool if they’d pay more attention to us on that.

And pay you guys!

And pay us. Yeah, for sure. I would like to see more collaborations instead of with celebrities, but with real sneaker artists. I think that’d be pretty dope.

A few things you need to know first, presented via bulletin point to get us all to the action as quickly as possible

• Shark Week started on Sunday
• There was a one-hour program titled “Jackass Shark Week Special”
• How in the world it took us all the way until 2021 to combine Jackass and Shark Week — two of America’s greatest traditions — I’ll never understand
• There are new members of the crew, one named Jasper and one named, I swear this is true, Poopies
• Poopies got bit by a shark

Okay, now we provide the context. The structure of the Jackass Shark Week special went something like this: Johnny Knoxville, recording from a shark-free balcony in Los Angeles, sent the crew — Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Jasper, Poopies — videos from the internet of idiots screwing around with sharks. Just a bunch of the dumbest things you’ve ever seen anyone do in the presence of an apex predator, all openly courting disaster they somehow avoided. Then, a shark scientist who was with them said something like, “Yeah, this is a bad idea and no one should do it.” And then the guys would do exactly what they were warned not to do, but with extra flair. I think this, with no additional context, will sum things up nicely.

So there was that. And there were lots of other needlessly dangerous things happening for our enjoyment, like humans eating chum and puking, and Jasper sitting in the ocean in an inner tube with his whole butt hanging out the bottom as sharks circled him below, and Steve-O testing what other bodily fluids besides blood might lure sharks. It was lovely. It was basically a solid hour of dudes daring sharks to bite them and the dudes somehow emerging unscathed. Or, at least, mostly unscathed.

This brings us to Poopies, who has a real name (Sean McInerney), but whatever. Poopies was tasked with recreating the now-iconic “Jump the Shark” scene from Happy Days, in which Henry Winkler — as The Fonz — leaps over a shark while waterskiing and eventual inspires a pop culture phenomenon where the phrase comes to be shorthand for a show starting to get weird when it runs out of ideas. You know all of this. And it’s not really the point. The point is that Poopies was set up with a wakeboard and a ramp with a slew of riled-up sharks beneath it and strict instructions to not fall into the water after landing.

So… whoops.

This all resulted in a chaotic and completely predictable series of events, which can best be expressed by a series of four screencaps.

“Poopies got bit.” This sentence has been rattling around in my brain since I heard it last night. It’s really locked in there. There’s a real chance I’ll be on my deathbed many years from now and instead of some comforting words for my family or a profound reflection on society, I’ll just mumble “Poopies got bit” and flatline. There are worse legacies to leave behind.

Anyway, the good news here is that Poopies was only bitten on his hand and he didn’t lose any fingers and the crew was able to get him out of the water before the blood turned the sharks too bite-crazy. And Poopies, to his credit, took it about as in-stride as one can take getting bitten by a shark while recreating a scene starring The Fonz and being called “Poopies” dozens of times on a popular basic cable television special, saying, “I knew there was a chance I was gonna get bit by a shark, but I didn’t think it was gonna happen. I don’t blame the sharks at all. I mean, I was in their living room, and it was dinnertime.”

Well said, Poopies. Well said.

Once upon a time, hip-hop was largely considered to be “for the children,” to paraphrase ODB. Then those kids grew up and had children of their own. Fortunately, some of them got really cool jobs like being toy designers at Fisher-Price, so they could transfer the simple joy of early hip-hop to their kids and ensure that the above-mentioned axiom remains true for another generation.

The children’s toy company is set to release a new collector’s line of its Little People figures featuring rap pioneers Run-DMC. The figures will be available for purchase at Amazon today, with the price set at $14.99. In addition to featuring all three members, the toys break Little People tradition with DMC’s figure eschewing the line’s usual “give me a hug” pose for his signature crossed arms stance.

These are pretty cool for any longtime fan who wants to share their interest with their toddlers and get them hooked on hip-hop culture early — or, you know, just for sticking on a shelf for display. You can find more information on Fisher-Price.com. And speaking of collector’s items, Run-DMC may be one of the most collectible groups in hip-hop history, with a ton of fun things from comics to limited-edition vinyl to their name.

The Milwaukee Bucks got on the board in the 2021 NBA Finals on Sunday with a comfortable 120-100 win over the Suns in Game 3 to make it a 2-1 series and give themselves a chance to send it back to Phoenix all square at 2-2. Leading the way for the Bucks, for the second straight game, was Giannis Antetokounmpo, who followed up his 42-point, 12-rebound effort in a Game 2 loss with 41 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists in Game 3, becoming the first player since Shaq to post back-to-back 40/10 games in the Finals.

To do so, Giannis has absolutely dominated in the paint, the common thread for all of his great nights, but what’s most important not just in these last two games but for most of the playoffs is how he has seemed to harness his aggression and balance it with patience.

For a long time, the book on Giannis was to show him bodies, form a wall, and dare him to shoot over it. Over time, seeing that kind of look over and over would lead to frustration and he would start to press rather than making the right play, either forcing up an ill-fated jump shot or barreling into traffic, head down, where defenders were often waiting to accept a charge as he ducked into their chests. He was predictable and his fiery, competitive spirit would get turned against him, as teams would bait him into trying to score in isolation.

The Bucks would play into it too, far too often just throwing him the ball and clearing out, asking him to create for himself over and over again. This postseason, Giannis has shown a more diverse offensive game, not necessarily in the types of shots he’s making but the manner in which he’s getting those shots. There’s still a tremendous creative load placed on his shoulders, but there has been a concerted effort to put him in actions as a screener and cutter, working off of Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday to leverage their creative skills to free Giannis up for some easy baskets.

Just take the cut-up of highlights from his Game 3 performance and look at the variety of ways he scores.

There’s side pick-and-rolls with both Holiday and Pat Connaughton, a middle pick-and-roll with Middleton, put-backs on the offensive glass, a straight post-up (but against a clear mismatch in Devin Booker), and then a face-up drive on Jae Crowder who gets left on an island. In none of these clips do you see Giannis ducking his head and trying to force something up over multiple defenders. It’s smart offense, and when the Bucks are able to do that, it applies so much pressure on the defense that they start to break down.

Those early plays where Antetokounmpo catches it at the elbow and then quickly gets it back into the hands of one of his guards to set a screen and get into a pick-and-roll is what creates the one-on-one situation later against Crowder. The Suns aren’t as quick to send help because he’s been consistently getting them into actions with his passing and scoring off the ball so well that they can’t risk putting themselves into rotation too soon.

That gives Antetokounmpo the look he wants and rather than trying to draw Crowder out and build up a head of steam or backing him down, he moves quickly and decisively, which is a huge step for Giannis.

In Game 2, far more of Giannis’ points came from self-creation, due in part to the lack of success from Holiday and Middleton scoring, which made them lesser threats that allowed the Suns to shift more attention to Giannis in pick-and-roll coverage, but that latter point was still at play. He was decisive in his movements and attacked single-coverage when it presented itself, rarely falling into the trap of pulling the ball out and over-dribbling, which allows the defense to reset and show him more bodies and more help.

There were times in this postseason where it looked like the old Giannis problems might rear their ugly heads again, namely early in the Brooklyn series where Blake Griffin was able to bait him into charges and trying to pull the ball back out and isolate from outside the three-point line. Since then, though, we have seen a shift in Antetokounmpo’s game to be quicker and more decisive with the basketball.

It’s calculated aggression, attacking when there’s a clear advantage and doing so within the flow of the offense.

There are plenty of questions the Bucks must answer in this series if they’re to come back and win a championship, but as of this moment, they almost all involve the rest of the roster beyond Giannis. Will Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton consistently provide the scoring support Antetokounmpo needs? Will the role players be able to hit enough open shots? Will the thin backcourt rotation hold up? Can they find answers defensively for the Suns pick-and-roll attack?

All of those will determine whether the Bucks win the Finals, but that there isn’t a question right now about whether Giannis is going to give them enough is quite the turnaround from the last few exits. That’s not to say those have all been on him, but as the two-time MVP, he was the focal point for a lot of criticism about not being a playoff player and having enough holes in his game to be gameplanned for in a way an elite superstar shouldn’t be able to.

This postseason, he’s shut down those thoughts by showing up constantly in big moments and delivering in a way some thought he might simply not be able to because he is so reliant on getting to the rim to score.

There was an idea that against the best teams who could throw enough size and enough bodies at him, he’d eventually see his impact diminished. That’s no longer the case and it’s less about him adding to his physical skillset, but instead adapting his approach to how teams have tried to attack him. There are still moments where he can fall in love with the jump shot, but they seem more fleeting, like one-offs, than something you can coerce him into doing over and over. His mental strength has caught up to his physical prowess, finding the delicate balance of being patient without being passive while being aggressive without being stubborn. The result is a terrifying prospect for the league.

There’s a new entry to Secretly Canadian‘s SC25 singles series out today: My Morning Jacket‘s Jim James is covering “Seasons” by Steve Miller Band, and Madison McFerrin has reimagined Here We Go Magic’s “Over the Ocean.”

As a reminder, the Bloomington, Indiana-based indie label is currently doing a year-long celebration around their 25th anniversary. Part of that venture includes SC25 rereleases, or, a collection of 12 albums re-issued in limited editions. There’s also the SC25 Singles series, which features “25 new, rare and unreleased songs, covers and collaborations from artists both within and outside the Secretly Canadian family.” Profits will help fight homelessness in Bloomington, with Secretly Canadian aiming to raise a quarter of a million dollars for area organization New Hope For Families.

The Jim James and Madison McFerrin covers follow several previous SC25 offerings: NNAMDÏ’s rendition of Kacey Musgraves‘ “Lonely Weekend,” a cover of Jens Lekman’s “If I Could Cry (it would feel like this)” by Stella Donnelly, Beach Fossils’ cover of Kelly Lee Owens‘ “L.I.N.E.,” Porridge Radio covering Scout Niblett’s “Wet Road,” Skullcrusher’s rendition of Damien Jurado‘s “Cloudy Shoes,” and Green-House’s cover of Bill Evans’ “Peace Piece.”

Learn more about the SC25 Editions series here, and listen to the new Jim James and Madison McFerrin tracks below.

Tilda Swinton’s career is fascinating. I would argue that no one has seamlessly transitioned between indies and blockbusters better than her. I mean, look at Swinton’s 2019: she appeared in the second highest-grossing movie ever, a Jim Jarmusch zombie comedy, Armando Iannucci’s re-telling of a Charles Dickens novel, Joanna Hogg’s BAFTA-nominated The Souvenir, and you can hear her voice in Uncut Gems. This year, she’ll play the Fairy with Turquoise Hair in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio movie for Netflix and she’s the lead role in Memoria, the latest mind-bending film from director Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives).

“We will see her walking a lot, like a ghost,” Weerasethakul said about working with Swinton. “I wrote this movie with her in mind knowing that she is an actress who needs no explanation. In fact, it was she who showed me this character. The experience was very significant and I really appreciate that.” You can watch the Memoria trailer above.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

From the extraordinary mind of Palme D’or winning director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and starring Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton, comes a bewildering drama about a Scottish woman, who, after hearing a loud “bang” at daybreak, begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome while traversing the jungles of Colombia.

Memoria, which also stars Jeanne Balibar, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Juan Pablo Urrego, and Elkin Diaz, debuts at the Cannes Film Festival on July 15, followed by a theatrical release later this year.

Last Week Tonight is on hiatus, but that doesn’t mean John Oliver has to stop obsessing over octopuses, which is exactly what he did in a new web exclusive video uploaded to the show’s YouTube account on Sunday night. In the 10-minute segment, Oliver goes hard on his love of the tentacled sea creature, and he even dropped a grammar lesson on why the proper plural form is “octopuses” not “octopi.”

During the lengthy love letter to octopuses, Oliver also called out Craig Foster, the subject of the Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher. Considering there were countless jokes about how that guy was basically in love with an octopus, you’d just assume Foster is the ultimate octopus fan. Nope. Oliver trashed him for not being into octopuses enough. That’s how hard the Last Week Tonight host goes for his tentacle friends. Via The Wrap:

“Look, look, America — and to some extent, the world. All I’ve been trying to say with this piece — and in a way, my entire life — is that octopuses are cool,” Oliver wound down his 10-minute tribute. “Cats have dominated the internet for far too long and it is past time that octopuses get their turn. That’s it. That’s my whole argument here: Octopuses are great. I don’t have some big call to action, I’m not going to bring out a giant octopus mascot –although, f— that is a good idea, I should get on that.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Oliver has randomly displayed his octopus fever. Following the 2020 presidential election, Oliver celebrated Trump losing by showing people dancing in the streets while he rattled off random, and surprisingly true octopus facts like, “if octopuses take ecstasy, they’ll hang out and party with other octopuses.”

(Via Last Week Tonight)