The video starts with Sudeikis giving a three-minute monologue, in which he offers some encouraging and funny words to get his team pumped up. From there, the band hits the pool and puts on quite the synchronized display for the judges. It’s an up-and-down experience: Things go off the rails, they salvage the routine and end up with a great score, then there’s a log in the pool… and I don’t mean timber.
Sudeikis fans who have been paying attention know there’s a bit of a pre-existing connection between the actor and the band. This summer, he explained how Foo Fighters’ “My Hero” inspired the second season of Ted Lasso. He noted the song was the “first time that I heard a song and I felt I saw a whole movie about that song. At least my interpretation of it. I’ve never spoken to Gus [Brandt] nor Dave [Grohl] or any of the guys in the band about what that song is about. Some of those themes are literally being used in season two of Ted Lasso.”
He then added, “Just the idea of false prophets or don’t meet your heroes or the idea that all statues have clay feet, I think is another example of that. People are human. I pay attention when a song becomes a muse, whether you end up using the tune or not. But yeah, I saw a beginning, middle, and end to a story in that song, for me. That was really profound at 21 years old, 22 years old, having just moved to Chicago to try this acting thing.”
Watch the “Love Dies Young” video above.
Medicine At Midnight is out now via Roswell/RCA. Get it here.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
This is a surprisingly star-studded — Ellie Kemper! Rob Delaney! Kenan Thompson! — addition to the Home Alone franchise, written by SNL veterans Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell. The plot remains the same: A 10-year-old boy gets left behind when his parents head off to Tokyo and he has to defend his house from various bumbling criminals. The reviews so far are… not great, but it might be worth a go if you’re looking for a nostalgia blast to the face or something to watch with younger kids. Order yourself a large cheese pizza first. Watch it on Disney Plus.
Believe it or not, it’s been 15 years since the first episode of Psych, and while the show went off the air in 2014, the enthusiasm of its fans (an online gang of kind-hearted pineapple enthusiasts known as Psychos) has yet to dim, creating a clear incentive for the concept to continue with what is now the third movie. And this time it’s all about Dule Hill’s Burton Guster as he works to clear some of the mystery standing in the way of his own happily ever after. From the looks of this, everyone is back and in top form, offering hope that the winning formula of the show may carry over from start to finish — something that hasn’t always been the case with the films. Though any amount of Psych is very welcome. Watch it on Peacock.
Netflix bet on dead with Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead, and that bet apparently paid off handsomely, which is a good thing because there’s already a prequel in the can. Matthias Schweighöfer returns to the franchise as Dieter, a then-bank teller who’s recruited by Nathalie Emmanuel (who promises “a life less ordinary”) to begin his heisting career. Of course, this prequel isn’t entirely devoid of zombies, but the focus is on those safes, which are cracking. Watch it on Netflix.
You like Turner and Hooch, right? Of course you do. Tom Hanks + a dog = good ’80s movie. OK, well, what if Turner and Hooch was set in the post-apocalyptic future… and instead of working as a cop, Tom Hanks is one of the last people on Earth and he travels the planet with his dog and a robot… and the movie was directed by the guy who did the awesome “Hardhome” and “Battle of the Bastards” episodes of Game of Thrones. It’s Finch time. Watch it on Apple TV+.
In the mood for a critically-acclaimed new drama? Good news: Passing is on Netflix. The film, shot in black-and-white and starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, is the directorial debut from Rebecca Hall. It tells the story of two women who live in New York, both of whom are Black but one of whom has lighter skin and passes as white, with twists and turns and tragedy unfolding throughout. It’s a heavier watch than some of the other options out there, but hey, you could use a little culture. Watch it on Netflix.
At long last, Dune is here. Denis Villeneuve’s science-fiction epic starring everyone you like (including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, and Jason Momoa) should probably be seen on the biggest screen possible. But it’ll still look darn good at home. Watch it on HBO Max.
Jeymes Samuel’s slick, stylish Netflix Western is a “pick your fighter” lineup of gun-slinging, swag-dripping Black cowboys ready to dust off the history books and give us a more accurate, diverse representation of the Old West. Jonathan Majors is having a hell of a year and here, he imbues the deadly Nat Love with some impressive comedic beats that make it easy to root for the vengeance-minded outlaw – unless, of course, you’re swayed by the prospect of Regina King riding a horse and f*cking sh*t up in every scene. (Who wouldn’t be?) Idris Elba, LaKeith Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz round out the main cast members with the most things to do on screen and all of the shoot-outs and train robberies and saloon fights are timed perfectly to an eclectic mix of Reggae/Dancehall bangers produced by Samuel and collaborator Jay-Z. This ain’t your grandpa’s Western, and really, that’s kind of the point. Watch it on Netflix.
Andrew Garfield is giving theater-kids everywhere a musical-thirst-trap performance in this Lin-Manuel Miranda-directed biopic that pays tribute to Jonathan Larson, the artistic genius who changed Broadway with his seminal musical Rent. This film examines Larson’s life before fans were belting out Season of Love though, with Garfield giving an award-worthy turn as a restless visionary who feels the suffocating deadline of turning 30 without having produced a great show. The supporting cast is terrific, Garfield is doing his best work, and Miranda infuses everything with a genuine sense of love and admiration that makes it hard not to root for this one. Watch it on Netflix.
Red Notice may be making its Netflix debut (after an initial theatrical drop last week), but there’s still a cost for admission outside your subscription fee; a requirement that you unplug your brain a little and let the reliance (or overreliance) on cliches, exotic locales, and movie megastar charms wash over you. If you want to do that owing to a desire for Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Nic Cage Stealing The Declaration Of Independence nostalgias, cool. You’re going to going to get a lot out of Gal Gadot having just so much fun with a villainous turn as a master thief while Ryan Reynolds and The Rock bumble, banter, and double-cross through a sort of buddy-cop routine while globetrotting in pursuit of McGuffin-y antiquities. Just don’t look for much more. Watch it on Netflix.
2. Last Night in Soho (VOD)
Working Title
Nostalgia can be dangerous, but if you’re nostalgic for when you saw Last Night in Soho in theaters, now you can watch it again at home (hopefully your ghost-free home). And if you never got around to checking out Edgar Wright’s retro psychological horror film starring Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Diana Rigg in her final role, here’s your chance. Watch it on VOD.
As odd as it is to have a movie about two of the greatest athletes of all time told centered on, not the women winning Grand Slams and Olympic gold medals, but their determined, driven father – King Richard works. It works because Will Smith exudes charisma and charm but he also brings a believable grit and weary defiance to the role of Richard Williams, the man who gave tennis not one, but two female legends. This is Serena and Venus’ story, told from the perspective of the man who believed in them when no one else did so, yeah, grab a box of tissues before you sit down to watch. Watch it on HBO Max.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
Are you in the mood for an intense survival epic and psychological horror story with plenty of coming-of-age touches? How about all of that with Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci starring as the adult versions of two female athletes who were irretrievably shaken by their experiences after a plane crash in the wilderness? Sure, that sounds like a stressful description, but it’s also a hell of a watch. Not to mention another reason not to hop onto an airplane these days. Watch it on Showtime.
It’s a mitzvah in a world like this to turn the other cheek, bite the tongue, and generally disregard the impoliteness, ridiculousness, and stupidity of others. But wow, what a lift. Perhaps that’s why it’s so freeing to see Larry David and a cavalcade of stars and familiar faces push against the minutiae of polite culture with serial honesty. Who else could reject someone’s plea to pray for a sick relative without getting stabbed or mock the fakery of gazing deeply into someone’s eyes during a toast when all you want to do is freaking eat? Larry is no hero. He’s an asshole, but he’s our asshole and he’s back for another round of Curb. Watch it on HBO.
Before his new Disney+ series drops, Jeremy Renner is rolling out this gritty drama that tasks him with doing what he does best on screen: busting heads and playing an unlikable a**hole. We kid (sort of). Renner’s Mike McLusky heads up a family of power brokers who keep the crime-infested city of Kingstown in check, a family that includes Dianne West and Kyle Chandler. Their unique, fairly violent version of checks-and-balances is quickly coming to an end though as McLusky predicts new gangs and powerful figures are poised to throw the town into chaos and start a bloody war. Bad for Hawkeye, good for us. Watch it on Paramount Plus.
Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell reunite for this Apple TV+ tragicomedy based on a popular podcast, which itself is based on a true story about a hapless middle-aged businessman and the charismatic, conniving therapist who manipulates him for nearly 30 years. Ferrell plays the first of the duo, a man named Marty who can’t order a deli sandwich without shaking in his boots. He’s inherited a garment business from his dead parents and his brash sister (the always terrific Kathryn Hahn) demands he visit a therapist to get a handle on his self-confidence issues before they tank the family business. Enter Rudd, still charming as hell but with a sinister layer hiding underneath that practiced likability. As Marty’s shrink, Dr. Ike Herschkopf, Rudd channels the vibes of both a cult leader and a conman, draining Marty of his money, his happiness, and his will to live over their decades-long friendship. It’s easy to find the lighter moments in this bizarre tale, but both Rudd and Ferrell play against type to bring a pervading sense of melancholy to the whole thing. The moral of the story? Be careful who your shrink is. Watch it on Apple TV+.
Mindy Kaling is back with a new show about, you guessed it, the sex lives of college girls. The show follows four students trying to navigate life and/or love and/or freedom on the campus of a prestigious university. There’s some heart in there and some coming of age and a whole lot of drinking out of red plastic cups. Feels like this one is worth a shot. Watch it on HBO Max.
This hyper-stylized quip and rip adaptation of the legendary anime of the same name delivers by way of its playful and creative presentation and the strength of its cast. Starring John Cho as a bounty hunter with a past, Mustafa Shakir as his partner in crime, Daniella Pineda as a rival bounty hunter trying to crash the party, and a friggin adorable corgi as a friggin adorable corgi, this crew is giving off fun ROGUES… IN… SPACE vibes similar to the Guardians Of The Galaxy and Firefly crews. All they need now is a few truly compelling villains to deliver on the show’s potential. Watch it on Netflix.
Narcos is back once again, with stories about real-life drug cartels and the DEA agents who are after them, many of whom have pretty tremendous mustaches, including, as pictured above, Scoot McNairy. The third season of the Mexico-based spinoff picks up where season two left off, with various cartels at war and a very young El Chapo starting to make a name for himself. It’s a good time. Violent and sad and intense in parts, but still, good. Watch it on Netflix.
Hulu is having so much fun adapting offbeat Marvel titles these days, as evidenced by the thoroughly enjoyable M.O.D.O.K., which gave us a better villain than we’ve ever seen in the MCU. Here, Jason Sudeikis, George Takei, and Olivia Munn voice a story about a Japanese snow monkey who somehow joins forces with an American assassin’s ghost, and they end up tearing up the Yakuza’s little underworld. This ain’t Ted Lasso, but it will do. Watch it on Hulu.
Big Mouth returns for a fifth season of hormone monsters, musical numbers, and talking pillows. Along with returning cast members Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Maya Rudolph, Jason Mantzoukas, Ayo Edebiri, Jordan Peele, and Richard Kind, season five also features new characters voiced by Pamela Adlon, Keke Palmer, Kumail Nanjiani, and Chloe Fineman. Watch it on Netflix.
Rosamund Pike somehow does not play a sociopath while starring in this sprawling adaptation of one of the most popular fantasy book series (by Robert Jordan) ever. Here, she portrays Moiraine, who’s a member of an exclusive, magical, all-ladies organization known as Aes Sedai. The story follows Moiraine’s dangerous quest with a group that contains the prophesied Dragon Reborn, who shall be the key to humanity’s fate. It’s epic and Thrones-y. Watch it on Amazon.
The Great? More like The Great Show. Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult are back as Catherine the Great and Emperor Peter III, respectively, in season two of the wickedly funny Hulu series. If you like scheming and backstabbing, this is the show for you. Watch it on Hulu.
Everyone’s favorite collection of monsters is back, once again, this time for a slightly delayed third season. Things left off with the Roy family in turmoil, as always, although this time from friendly fire, thanks to noted screw-up and amateur rapper Kendall making a big move. The new season should get ugly in the best possible way, so hop on board week-to-week if you’re already a fan or load up a binge and get caught up to see what everyone’s yammering about all fall. Watch it on HBO Max.
While promoting his new Hulu series, Dopesick, Michael Keaton stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday night where, naturally, the conversation shifted towards his competing presence in both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and whatever the DC Extended Universe is calling itself these days. Next year, Keaton will reprise his role as the Vulture in Morbius, and then later, he’ll suit up as Batman for the first time in 30 years in The Flash solo movie.
As for how Keaton straddles working in both film universes despite knowing very little about the lore, the answer is simple: He just stands there and nods. Keaton hilariously revealed to Kimmel that often the filmmakers will have to “brief” him on what’s happening with his characters, and after a while, they can tell he has no idea what’s going on by the look on his face. And Keaton readily admits it.
“I have no f*cking clue,” he told Kimmel. “I have no idea who’s who or why or where I even am.”
However, during the exchange, Keaton revealed an interesting tidbit. He’s shooting some “Vulture stuff tomorrow,” but naturally, even Keaton knows not to give away any specifics. Is it a last minute addition to Morbius or possibly Spider-Man: No Way Home? He doesn’t say, and honestly, probably doesn’t even know.
In the meantime, Kimmel is still trying to break his way into the MCU as Kraven the Hunter, and if Keaton isn’t going to be in No Way Home, then the late night host is defintely going to make a cameo. Or just edit himself into the latest trailer like he did below.
A couple days ago, Ed Sheeran teased that he had some sort of Pokémon Go collaboration coming up, but since all he shared was a graphic featuring his name and the game’s logo, it wasn’t clear what this partnership would involve. Now, though, more details have been revealed.
A post on the Pokémon Go website shared yesterday offers a rundown of everything that’s going on during the Sheeran event. From November 22 at 11 a.m. PT to November 30 at 1 p.m. PT, a “special Ed Sheeran performance” will be available through the app and songs will include “Perfect,” “Bad Habits,” “Overpass Graffiti,” “Thinking Out Loud,” “First Times,” and “Shivers.”
During that same time span, playing off of Sheeran’s love of Squirtle and Water-type starter Pokémon in general, Totodile, Mudkip, Piplup, and Oshawott will appear “somewhat frequently” in the wild. Furthermore, two rarer encounters will also be available: Froakie and a Squirtle wearing sunglasses (presumably in reference to the Squirtle Squad from the Pokémon anime, who debuted in the episode “Here Comes The Squirtle Squad” that aired in the US in 1998). This special variety of Squirtle was previously available in the game during the summer of 2018.
There will be a few other goodies beyond that as well, like an in-game = sweatshirt, so get all the details here.
Ed Sheeran is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Sometimes the best new R&B can be hard to find, but there are plenty of great rhythm-and-blues tunes to get into if you have the time to sift through the hundreds of newly released songs every week. So that R&B heads can focus on listening to what they really love in its true form, we’ll be offering a digest of the best new R&B songs that fans of the genre should hear every Friday.
This week is highlighted by Silk Sonic’s long-awaited album, An Evening With Silk Sonic. It delivers nine songs with help from Thundercat, Bootsy Collins, James Fauntleroy, and more. Elsewhere, Beyonce returns with “Be Alive,” her first single in over a year, and India Shawn lays off a beautiful project with Before We Go.
Silk Sonic — An Evening With Silk Sonic
Months after Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak announced their duo Silk Sonic and left the door open with their chart-topping single, their long-awaited album finally arrived. An Evening With SIlk Sonic packs nine songs and a beautiful display of showmanship into an album that also presents contributions from Bootsy Collins, Thundercat, James Fauntleroy, and D’Mile. “After Last Night” and “Fly As Me” are personal highlights from the project.
Beyonce — “Be Alive”
More than a year after she released her last single, “Black Parade,” Beyonce is back with another motivational track for the world. She arrives with “Be Alive,” a spirited and riotous track that finds itself on the soundtrack of the upcoming film, King Richard. Beyonce deeply desires to overcome life’s battles, just like the young characters in the movie who play a young Venus and Serena Williams.
India Shawn — Before We Go
Last year, India Shawn delivered impressive records like “Movin’ On” and “Not Too Deep” to the world, both of which increased excitement for a future project. That body of work has finally arrived with Before We Go. It’s a brief effort carried by seven songs and features from Unknown Mortal Orchestra, 6lack, and Anderson .Paak. “Don’t Play With My Heart” and “Superfine” are my favorites on this one.
Zyah Belle — Who’s Listening Anyway
The last time we heard from Zyah Belle was not too long ago as she connected with Tempest for “Say My Name.” Now, Belle is back with a new project in hand. Who’s Listening Anyway is out now and it’s a project she admits came after a rough time in her career. “I felt defeated,” she wrote on Instagram. “Too old. Let down by people who said they’d help but didn’t. I doubted my artistry. And ultimately I redefined my definition of success. I pushed through because I honestly can’t see my life without music.” Well, it ultimately paid off with Who’s Listening Anyway. “Sugawater” is my personal favorite here.
Nija — “On Call”
Grammy-winning songwriter Nija is on a roll right now. She returned with her latest single, “On Call,” and it’s a track that finds her admitting to her slightly-toxic ways. Nija tells a lover that she won’t commit to love with them, she’ll leave them “on-call” for quick moments of intimacy, something they’ll have to deal with for the foreseeable future. The track also follows her pair of 2021 singles, “Ease My Mind (Come Over)” and “Finesse.”
Ye Ali — Dangerous
Last year, Ye Ali brought us to the Private Suit for the third time. This year, he’s heading down a more Dangerous route. The singer-songwriter is back with a batch of ten songs that’s sure to spark some bedroom magic between you and that special someone. Seriously, it’s quite the steamy body of work with “Smoke & Small Talk” and “P & P” being two of the project’s strongest songs.
Johan Lenox — “You Up?” Feat. Ant Clemons
The name Johan Lenox is one you should know. He’s responsible for helping produce a number of records by Travis Scott, Big Sean, Ty Dolla Sign, Snoh Aalegra, and more. He’s also got a strong catalog of solo records that he looks to add to and improve with his latest drop “You Up?” with Ant Clemons. “The song has me trying to woo a potential lover with reminders that the planet is dying and this may be our last shot,” Lenox said about the song in a press release.
Parisalexa — Overdrive
A little over a year after sharing 2 Real, Parisalexa returns with another project, that being Finishline. It’s a bit briefer as it arrives with just six songs, but the singer’s strong vocals and impactful pen are both intact on the EP. “Lucky” and “Overdrive” provide impressive moments on the project that I’m sure you’ll enjoy.
Amber Mark — “Softly”
Amber Mark will be one of the first notable artists to release a project in 2022 as her official debut, Three Dimensions Deep is locked in for a January 28 release. With more than 2 months to go before it arrives, Mark returns with “Softly,” an island-driven track that finds her requesting a tender and gentle love from her companion.
Mack Keane & ESTA — “Open Up”
The Soulection crew delivers another sharp single to the world, this time by the way of Mack Keane & ESTA. The duo joins forces for the ethereal and levitating track, “Open Up.” It’s the inaugural single from Keane, whose effortless falsetto shines on the track, and it’s ESTA’s second track of the year as he recently joined Jayla Darden on “Exhausted My Options” with Sango.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Picture Sylvester Stallone in the winter of his life — still handsome, still barrel-chested, but now with a gray, Hemingway-esque beard framing his perfectly square, granite jaw. He is staring at a video screen while impulsively squeezing an exercise hand grip. But he is not the jovially cold-blooded Sly of cinematic legend. This Sly is in a philosophical mood. Whereas he was once tormented by redneck cops in First Blood, he is now troubled by life’s most profound existential questions.
“It’s like laying on your deathbed going, ‘Why I didn’t I just say I love everyone?’” he says. “‘Why didn’t I just get along? Why didn’t I make amends?’”
The punchline of this scenario is that Stallone’s soul searching occurs while watching one of the most enjoyably dumb blockbusters of the 1980s, Rocky IV.Written and directed by Sly at the height of his fame in 1985, Rocky IV grossed $300 million and endures as a Cold War memento and cheesy pop-culture quote machine. While it’s hardly a paragon of high art cinema, high art cinema is rarely as fun as saying (extremely Ivan Drago voice) “I muhst braaak you.”
The incongruity between Sly’s intense introspection and the movie he’s contemplating couldn’t be starker. But for Stallone, Rocky IV apparently signifies some unfinished business. Prevented from working on his next film by the pandemic, the restless 75-year-old turned in 2020 to his fifth directorial effort with the intention of reshaping the Rocky franchise’s slickest and most excessive installment as the work of an older, wiser and more patient filmmaker. He set about re-editing the film, subbing in 38 minutes of previously unreleased footage. Released on streaming platforms last week as Rocky IV: Rocky vs. Drago, Stallone’s professed goal was to inject his comic-book boxing movie with a little more real-life, flesh-and-blood humanity.
Fortunately for us, this re-editing process was captured with an iPhone camera held by Stallone’s friend and collaborator John Herzfeld, who turned the footage into a weirdly engrossing “making of” documentary currently available on YouTube. I’m dubious on whether Rocky vs. Drago actually improves on the original Rocky IV. (More on that later.) But the “making of” documentary, which I’ve watched several times this week, has definitely changed my perception of the movie as well as Stallone. It’s ultimately more compelling than either version of Rocky IV.
Starting with the original Rocky in 1976, Stallone wrote and/or directed many of his highest-grossing films himself. And the ones he didn’t direct were no doubt guided by him to a significant degree. But he’s rarely talked about as an auteur or even as a genre specialist whose peers in his prime in the ’70s and ’80s would have been far more lauded filmmakers like John Carpenter, James Cameron, and John McTiernan. In his own mind, however, Rocky IV is the product of a highly personal point of view, as evidenced by Stallone obsessing over it decades after the fact. In the documentary, we see him break down seemingly minor aspects of the movie like Orson Welles describing each frame of Citizen Kane.
And yet Stallone somehow never comes off as pretentious, even when he casually drops a reference to the 20th century Romanian-French absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco. (Surely, some enterprising critic will now liken the iconoclastic one-man army Rambo to the loner protagonist of Rhinoceros.) Instead, Sly is clearly working out something in his own life — specifically, his feelings about aging and mortality — by working over Rocky IV.
“Imagine getting a shot to re-edit your life,” he muses. “That’s the beauty of film.”
Back when Rocky IV was the third highest-grossing movie of 1985 — it was bested only by Back To The Future and Stallone’s own Rambo: First Blood Part II — it was savaged by critics as jingoistic hogwash, the very worst of Reagan era, anti-Russian propaganda. In the movie, Stallone once again plays Rocky Balboa, the lovable underdog from the streets of Philadelphia who becomes heavyweight champion of the world. Reconciled with one-time rival and now BFF Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), Rocky tries to talk his pal out of an exhibition match against a fearsome foe from the USSR, a walking stick of steroid butter named Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren).
Is it a spoiler at this point to divulge that Drago kills Creed in the ring? (If it is, apologies, but you’ve had literal decades to see Rocky IV before now.) At any rate, Rocky IV from then on is a revenge picture. The rest of the film is a collection of training montages set to C-list arena rock songs and flashbacks to other Rocky movies, culminating in one long, epic concluding match between Rocky and Drago that takes up nearly one-third of the film’s scant 91-minute running time. If you can’t guess who wins that fight, then you must be a commie bastard.
That was the logic in 1985, anyway. While Stallone proved with both Rocky IV and First Blood Part II that audiences craved action movies with heavy patriotic overtones completely devoid of nuance, the era’s professional cinephile class recoiled. “The Rocky series is finally losing its legs,” wrote Roger Ebert. “Rocky IV is a last gasp, a film so predictable that viewing it is like watching one of those old sitcoms where the characters never change and the same situations turn up again and again.”
Ebert was wrong about “the last gasp” part — Stallone won a Golden Globe for playing Rocky in Creed nearly 30 years after that review was written — but you sense watching the “making of” documentary that Stallone in a way agrees with Ebert. As he re-works the film, he continually expresses frustration at his brasher, younger self over not respecting the audience enough to simply let moments land without constantly bulldozing them with flashy editing and overripe melodrama. Stallone is surprisingly open throughout the movie about not being able to forgive his own aggressiveness back in the mid-’80s, when he was almost half as old as he is now.
“Why does wisdom come late?” he asks the camera rhetorically. This time, he lets the moment land.
Here’s the odd thing if you decide (as I did) to watch the “making of” documentary before Rocky vs. Drago: I had assumed that those 38 extra minutes were added to turn Rocky IV into a much longer and more reflective film, a sort of transformation of a B-movie into a raw, cathartic, dumbed-down version of John Cassavetes. But the new edit is only two minutes longer than the original! Sly basically took out half of the old film and replaced with a new half. The result is a movie that’s still dumb, just a different kind of dumb.
The most significant changes involve downplaying the USA vs. USSR gamesmanship that animated the original but is now politically incorrect. For instance, those scene-setting boxing gloves adorned by American and Soviet flags that open Rocky IV with a literal bang are gone from Rocky vs. Drago. What we get instead are more scenes that are meant to deepen the relationship between Rocky and Apollo, and (more strikingly) humanize Drago. In Rocky vs. Drago, he’s not the mere grunting Amazon of Rocky IV, but rather a muscle-bound innocent who rebels in small ways against his exploitive, political-minded handlers.
Frankly, I’m not sure any of this amounts to “improving” the film. Rocky IV is high-calorie comfort food that isn’t necessarily helped by replacing the sugar with Sweet & Low. Stallone’s most lamentable decision is to cut out all the scenes with Paulie’s robot, which grounds the movie inextricably in the time period in a way that the auteur must have found embarrassing but many fans no doubt find charming. (Who will fetch Paulie’s beers now?!)
What changed how I looked at Rocky IV wasn’t Rocky vs. Drago but watching Sly Stallone edit Rocky vs. Drago in the “making of” doc. After hearing him talk about the film, I’m inclined to view Rocky IV not as an allegory about the rivalry between Americans and Russians, but rather a meditation on Stallone’s own celebrity. As Rocky, he plays a pampered superstar who’s in constant danger of losing what once made him vital. All of the Rocky movies are about recovering that lost version of himself, the guy with the “eye of the tiger,” the Sly Stallone who dug down deep and wrote the first (and best) Rocky film.
In Rocky IV, he battles a towering behemoth with a funny accent who I’m now inclined to view as a stand-in for Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Austrian upstart who was just starting to challenge Sly as the world’s top action star in 1985. Though by the time of Rocky vs. Drago, Stallone’s enemy now seems to be his younger self. If the subtext of this Rocky movie is different, it’s that Stallone is now trying to drag his younger self not backward to his primal youth but forward to a more enlightened present. As he says in the documentary, “I’ve evolved, but the movie hasn’t evolved.”
For his first movie since Best Picture-winner The Shape of Water, director Guillermo del Toro enlisted an all-star cast to visit Nightmare Alley. Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel of the same name, the thriller stars Bradley Cooper as an “ambitious carny” (I’m sold already!) who “hooks up with a female psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who is even more dangerous than he is.” The rest of the ensemble cast includes Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, David Strathairn, and Willem Dafoe, who was born to be in a movie about carnies.
Del Toro told Vanity Fair that he was drawn to a carnival setting because “the carnival is almost like a microcosm of the world. Everybody’s there to swindle everybody. But at the same time in the carnival, the [workers] know they need each other. In the city, much less so.” He also said that he made sure to avoid “the clichés associated with the genre. I’m not going to do an artifact. I’m not going to do the Venetian blinds, and voiceover, and detectives walking with fedoras in wet streets. I wanted to do the universe of the novel, which is a little gritty, but also strangely magical. It has a very strange, mystical allure — and mythical. I was very attracted to that possibility.”
The Nightmare Alley trailer (watch above) looks pretty great, even if it won’t sell as many dildos as The Shape of Water. Nightmare Alley comes out on December 17.
Anytime a show pulls off as delightfully bawdy, indulgently violent, dizzyingly ridiculous a first season as Hulu’s The Great did, one naturally worries: Will the sequel be as good? Will more Pomeranians be tossed off balconies? Will more huzzahs be shouted? Will Nicholas Hoult once again unironically utter the wrong pronunciation of “touche”?
The answer to all is, thankfully, yes. (Well, except for the Pomeranians. All dogs are safe this time around.)
Season two of creator Tony McNamara’s not-entirely-accurate historical comedy picks up four months after a now heavily pregnant Catherine’s (Elle Fanning) attempted coup. Her husband Peter (Nicholas Hoult) has fortified a wing of the palace where chosen members of his court snack on fennel seed mousse and examine each other’s genitals while she plots to smoke him out with Molotov cocktails and ruthless wit.
The stand-off doesn’t last long — though it does take an exciting turn when Peter is forced to flee the palace and dine on river rats while under siege — but those hoping that Catherine, now firmly in power with both the military and church on her side, might finally relieve the former monarch of his head will be disappointed. Her vision of a new Russia is one built on ideals and progress, not bloodshed. Of course, that opens the door for Peter and his closest allies to launch their own stealthier version of political warfare from inside the castle walls, a tension-filled tug-of-war that seriously cramps Catherine’s plans to remake the country in her more liberal image.
Overthrowing a bloodthirsty tyrant with mommy issues is all fun and games and decapitated heads and dead lovers until one realizes that actually running a country is infinitely more difficult than pretending to laugh at your idiotic husband’s vapid jokes.
What’s worse? Catherine had a deadline looming over her planned overhaul – one year until the parasite she’s hosting in her womb, a thing she calls “the baby,” bursts free and challenges her right to the throne. It’s that threat of impending motherhood that pushes Fanning to deliver one of the best comedic performances we’ve seen on screen all year.
As a newly crowned Catherine the Great, she flits between an anxiety-riddled woman with conflicting feelings of apathy and affection for the thing growing inside her, and a visionary leader fighting against the stifling traditionalism of her court. She’s vicious ambition and the euphoric dream of a Russian utopia, all wrapped within the restricting corset of womanhood. Her advisors – friends like Orlo (Sacha Dhawan) and General Velementov (Douglas Hodge) quietly ruminate on how they could do a better job of stewarding the country while questioning the hormonal mood swings that accompany her “condition.” Her husband, a pesky cockroach with a penchant for throwing lavish parties and entertaining people with his doltish charisma, might soon find a way to ingratiate himself back to power. Her dreams of a more welcoming, educated, open-minded society are dying before they’ve even come to fruition and there’s a restless desperation behind Fanning’s quieter moments on screen that underscores that. Catherine’s never had more power, and her situation has never been more perilous.
But look, it’s not all doom and gloom and the odd stabbing death or two. McNamara’s script is filled with the same ridiculous humor and cutting commentary that made the show’s first season so damn fun to watch. The joy comes in realizing that both Catherine and Peter are two sides of the same monstrous, privileged coin. Hoult has the most fun playing that on-screen, taking Peter on a journey of self-realization that may end with the monarch bettering himself, but then again, probably not. He dons outrageous costumes with childlike glee, he see-saws between punishingly cruel outbursts and pitiful bouts of loneliness. More than ever, we come to understand how terrible his childhood was and how that trauma manifests in some of his worst personality traits. Similarly, unchecked authority is slowly starting to corrupt the best of Catherine. She’s always been vain, so sure of her own destiny that she destabilized a country to see it fulfilled, but that arrogance was masked by her good intentions, her grand plans for equality and freedom of religion and civility at court. Now that she’s actually implementing her vision and discovering all of the unexpected ways it clashes with the ingrained culture of her cadre of nobles, she’s less enlightened revolutionary, more patronizing despot.
A surprise appearance by Gillian Anderson midway through the season shakes up the sedimented status quo a bit as do the bigger roles for Catherine’s female cohort – Phoebe Fox’s Marial and Belinda Bromilow’s Aunt Elizabeth chew every scene they’re in, leaving us wanting for more. But this is Fanning’s show, and she delivers the best line readings, shouldering the responsibility of presenting Catherine as both admirably ambitious and disturbingly out-of-her-depth, with ease.
One could argue the second shot of vodka always goes down smoother. The same can be said for season two of The Great.
Young Dolph’s tragic death yesterday was not only a loss for the music community, but also for his hometown of Memphis. FOX13 Memphis noted yesterday, “Young Dolph is well known for handing out turkeys around Thanksgiving in Memphis through the Memphis Athletic Ministries charity, speaking to school children, and donating money to his former high school Hamilton High School.” Furthermore, his annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway was apparently supposed to take place yesterday afternoon at 2 p.m., FOX13’s Joey Sulipeck reported.
Young Dolph’s annual Thanksgivng Turkey Giveaway was scheduled for today at 2pm.
Dolph’s turkey giveaways in previous years took place at Memphis Athletic Ministries, the website for which notes it “exists to coach, grow, and lead the youth of Memphis by helping them discover their identity in Christ and their purpose in the community.”
During his 2018 giveaway, Dolph told Memphis’ ABC24, “This is the holidays. There’s more to it than just giving away turkeys. I’m here to flood the area and the city with positive vibes.” He added, “Ain’t nothing like family. When you come to Memphis, you get the family vibe. All of my partners, friends, they’re from my neighborhood. Everyone here is for the support, and it’s really just about capturing the positive vibe around the holidays.”
Jermia Jerdine, a beneficiary of the event, also noted, “He just able to give back to others. That really means something to this community. One thing he strives to do is to give back and be a blessing to others.”
In 2019, ABC24 noted that that year’s turkey giveaway was the rapper’s fifth.
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