Last week, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that Ben Simmons “resumed light on-court workouts” in the hope of a “potential return” for the playoffs, but did not give any indication about Simmons’ status for the remainder of the regular season at that time.
On Monday, Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash gave the latest official update on Simmons, and said the star guard will not suit up the rest of the regular season or during the play-in tournament.
Ben Simmons did more at practice today, but is still far from playing. Nash ruled him out for the rest of the regular season and the play-in.
At 40-38, the Nets are tied with the Charlotte Hornets for the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference. Charlotte owns the tiebreaker, though, which pushes the Nets to 10th. They’re a game back of eighth and 2.5 back of seventh. At the moment, Brooklyn would have to win two play-in games to even qualify for the playoffs and open the door for Simmons’ debut.
It’s been an unfortunate season for Simmons. Hopefully, whenever he does take the court, he’s back to full strength and can play like the All-Star we’re accustomed to watching.
The Nets will keep at their playoff push on Tuesday when they welcomes the Houston Rockets to town. They’ll hope to snap a two-game slide and get back on track, aiming to climb into the top eight of the East, where they’d be just one win away from the playoffs.
While the obvious Grammy headlines are things like who won the big awards or who put on the best performances during the ceremony, there are usually some more peculiar takeaways to be had as well. For example, at yesterday’s 2022 Grammys, a 26-year-old song from a Super Nintendo Kirby game won an award, making it the first Nintendo song to ever do so. In similarly unexpected news, an unofficial album made up of songs inspired by the Netflix series Bridgerton also won a Grammy last night.
The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear (aka Barlow & Bear) was nominated in the Best Musical Theater Album category against works by legends like Andrew Lloyd Webber and Burt Bacharach but managed to win anyway.
A Recording Academy feature from shortly before this year’s Grammys notes the album was spawned from the “TikTok musical” trend that was popular in the early days of the pandemic, meaning it’s made up of songs originally created on TikTok. They also note it’s “the first musical of its kind to receive a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. ”
The Academy also notes Barlow and Bear — at 23 and 20 years old, respectively — were the youngest-ever nominees for (and are therefore now the youngest ever winners of) a musical theater Grammy.
The Recording Academy feature offers more context about how the album came to be (including quotes from Barlow and Bear), so check it out here. Also find the full list of this year’s Grammy winners and nominees here.
The indie world was rooting for Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast last night as she attended her first Grammy Awards ceremony for two nominations: Best Alternative Music Album (with last year’s colossal Jubilee) and Best New Artist. Though she didn’t win either, it was a feat for her, someone who has been gradually rising from playing basements to selling out five nights at Philly’s Union Transfer and playing Ellen, to be at such an elite, massive event such as the Grammys.
Plus, a major perk of the awards show is the ability to meet some of your favorite celebrities and musicians. Zauner accomplished what millions of people would do anything to accomplish — she met the legendary K-pop group BTS. During the show, she tweeted a photo of her with the band; it quickly spiraled into her most viral post, currently approaching 100,000 retweets. The replies are overflowing with BTS fans — known as the BTS army — supporting Japanese Breakfast and encouraging fellow BTS fans to stream Jubilee.
Army stream Jubilee!!!! out on every streaming platform and their sophomore album. pic.twitter.com/UcmnkK8Jmh
It’s a complaint you hear more than ever these days: Hip-hop has lost its way and it isn’t about the bars anymore. Of course, that depends on who you ask. While some veterans of the rap game certainly lament that things aren’t the same, one of the culture’s most iconic figures is taking a different view. In a new interview with Billboard about his upcoming, Q-Tip-produced, Def Jam-backed 14th album, LL Cool J explained why he thinks bars matter “more than ever” in hip-hop today.
“[Bars matter] more than ever because every Snapchat, every TikTok, Instagram photo or every tweet is words,” he observes. “People love words. You have to be precise with your speech nowadays. Words are more important now than they ever been probably because the whole world is living in a giant transcript. If you’re going to say something, it has to mean something.”
The rap luminary also relates this concept to his own upcoming project, saying, “The songs that I wrote on the new record that’s coming have meaning. It’s coming from a whole other place. I think that it’ll hopefully touch people in a way that they can’t ever imagine. I don’t even think people can imagine or understand what this is.” Of his executive producer, he offers high praise; “I think [Q-Tip] quarterbacked a masterpiece, b,” LL says.
The “Rock The Bells” rapper also talks about revitalizing the defunct music festival named for his 1985 hit. The festival will return under LL’s banner (also called Rock The Bells media) on August 6, bringing such iconic acts as Ice Cube, Rick Ross, Fat Joe, and more to Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in LL’s native Queens, New York. “The energy and the goal has always been to elevate hip-hop culture and classic hip-hop culture and not allow all of these talented artists that we have be pushed to the sidelines just because at the current moment they might not have a song at the top of the Billboard charts,” he says of his Rock The Bells media venture. “That doesn’t mean that they’re not valuable. I found that so many people want this. [Fans] want to celebrate the culture, but they want it done in the right way. So the same way that The Stones get treated, Paul McCartney gets treated, and Bob Dylan gets treated, I wanted to see these artists treated that way.”
Prequels are weird. This is, perhaps, not the most professional or articulate way to open a discussion about the final season of one of television’s best shows, one that is part of a much-celebrated televised universe that dates back to the Bush administration, one that has maintained its distinctive style while galloping between genres and timelines, but, like… still. It’s true. It’s especially true when it comes to Better Call Saul, the Breaking Bad prequel that is still on the air with its original cast 14 full years after the original began, and which is about to kick off its sixth and final season later this month.
There’s a lot to unpack here, in a lot of ways, but it’s probably best to start by getting to the point: The new season, through the first two episodes released to critics, is good. I suspect this information does not surprise you. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have been doing this — doing it well — for a while now, and the result is a confidence in their storytelling and visual style that feels comfortable to watch even when the action is steeped in menace. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a television show — or movie, for that matter — be so enjoyable while continuously building dread. Everyone here knows what they’re doing and is going to do it regardless of what you expect. I said something similar in my review of the new season of Atlanta, which feels right, in a way. The shows are very different on their faces but not so different in their bones. It’s cool that they’re both back.
An example will help, with as few spoilers as possible: It takes a lot of stones to come back after two full years off the air, after a season finale that closed with an assassination attempt gone awry and the show’s moral center starting to break bad herself, and slip a wordless five-minute montage set in a completely different time period into your season premiere. Find me another show that can pull that off. I’m serious here. Please, find me one. This show is about to end and I need other good stuff to watch. It’s going to become a problem.
But let’s rewind, briefly, if only to fill in some spots that have gone blank in the 24 months since the season five finale ended. When the credits rolled on that episode, the following things had just happened:
Gus Fring and Mike Ehrmantraut had tried to assassinate Lalo Salamanca at his compound, with an assist from a double-cross by Nacho
Lalo had thwarted the attempt by going full John Wick meets Spider-man on the killers, complete with hot grease flinging and gunplay, and had faked his death upon his escape to make everyone think the operation was a success, continuing his run as one of television’s most charismatic and terrifying villains
Jimmy McGill had started his transition into Saul Goodman, finally officially, with the colorful suits and ties to match
Kim Wexler had started going to the dark side a bit, complete with plans to ruin her ex-boss Howard and Jimmy-style finger guns
Also, Lalo had just done this, which was not as much an important plot point as it was, like, my favorite thing that has ever happened on television.
AMC
It was a lot. Today, the day this review goes live, is April 4. The new season premieres two weeks from today. You should probably at least consider a season five rewatch in the interim. The last few episodes, at minimum. You should do this in part because you’ve probably forgotten some important stuff and in part because Better Call Saul — like Breaking Bad before it — loves to drop little references and callbacks to its own history, and while you can follow along just fine without catching all of them, they do add to the experience in a really fun way.
And you’ll want to find fun anywhere you can in all of this because large chunks of it are going to be stressful. This is one of the things I mean about prequels being weird. The fact that we’ve seen Breaking Bad and know what happens to most of the characters on this show already — Saul meets Walter While and everything goes to hell and he becomes Gene the Cinnabon Man; Mike dies; Gus loses about 45 percent of his face and then dies; etc. — makes the things we don’t know more nerve-wracking. What happens to Kim Wexler, who plays a huge part in Jimmy’s life and the action in the show and is never mentioned or seen once in Breaking Bad, even though the timelines are starting to squeeze together? What happens to Lalo, who is now out hunting Gus and Nacho and is briefly referenced but never seen in Breaking Bad? Will there still be lots of stakeouts where characters hold up binoculars to look at the action in the distance? Spoiler on that last one: Yes, there will be.
AMC
This final season is going to be split into two parts, with the first seven dropping from April through May and the last six rolling through in July and August. We are still over four months away from getting the answers to all of these questions, probably, although I suppose there’s a chance Kim could just up and move to Monte Carlo in the third episode and settle that part of it. (Let me pretend for now, please.) There’s going to be a part of you that just wants to hunt these answers, to speculate and look for clues and yell about it all if the show doesn’t provide them in the time or fashion you want. That’s fine, for the most part. It’s one of the things that makes watching a show like this one fun. Let’s get all the way in there for one last go-round, you know? Cover the wall in your living room with pictures of characters and unhinged handwritten notes and connect them all with strings of red yarn and thumbtacks. I would never take that kind of joy away from you.
But please, when that part of your brain starts yelling “JUST TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS TO KIM, JESUS CHRIST, COME ON,” try to pull back a little. The show is and has been too good for too long to let the loud part of your brain take control now. There’s a beauty to what’s happening here, to watching smart people make something cool, to watching something wholly unique and original play out before your eyes at its own pace, to settling in and letting the story come to you instead of trying to rush out ahead of it all the time. Don’t lose sight of the whole thing in a maniacal hunt for a handful of specific pieces. Don’t ruin a good thing for yourself. That’s what I’m getting at here.
Enjoy the ride while you can, people. There’s only so much of all of this left.
The first part of the final season of Better Call Saul premieres on AMC on Monday, April 18
While you might think all of your friends are powering through Bridgerton season 2 or the new hit competition series Is It Cake? (really), the reality is that everybody is watching anime right now.
Last week, during the AnimeJapan contention in Tokyo, Netflix revealed it would launch 40 new anime titles this year alone. That’s a new title every week for the rest of the year, by the way. The Hollywood Reporter sat down with producer Kohei Obara, who oversees all of Netflix’s anime acquisitions.
According to Obara, Netflix users are devouring all of the anime titles on the streaming service:
The popularity of anime has been rising quite a bit in recent years. Anime has been big here in Japan for over seven or eight decades, ever since Osamu Tezuka created the first anime title. But in recent years, its popularity has been growing a lot internationally. At Netflix, more than well over half of our subscribers globally have watched anime in the past year, which is an incredible number. In Japan, at least 90 percent of our subscribers have been watching anime. In Japan, it’s always been very big, but the popularity has been rising on a global basis quite a lot as well.
When asked about what exactly caused the boost in popularity, Obara says it’s because of the wide range of genres. “We’re trying to diversify the programming by getting into, say, lean-back content, romantic dramas, and things that are different from what we’ve usually been pursuing.” Netflix’s most popular anime shows at the moment include the dark fantasy series Devilman Crybaby and the comedy series The Way Of The Househusband.
“The way anime titles resonate is quite diverse and unique in a way, where you never know what will hit. But that’s sort of how we feel about anime’s capacity and potential on the service right now — that any show could actually become a global hit,” Obara says.
Instead of looking to just make viral hits, Obara says they want to actually listen to what the viewers want to watch, so they will keep coming back for more. “We’re not just trying to snatch up the best shows out there with a chunk of cash. We’re trying to establish really warm and organic relationships with studios, artists and creators. Of course, we want to come up with the best titles, but we want to do it in a healthy, well-paced manner that will help the industry grow and stay sustainable”
If you’re looking to be ahead of the curve in terms of the Next Big Thing, maybe you should check out the anime section of Netflix after you’re done watching all of the many true-crime docuseries the service has to offer.
Kanye West has reportedly pulled out of his headlining Coachella set. According to TMZ and Variety, West decided to drop out of the festival at the last minute, with few details offered as to why. However, the last few months have made it pretty plain that Kanye’s been going through a lot; his divorce with Kim Kardashian was finalized as he sort of imploded on Instagram, lashing out at Kim’s new beau Pete Davidson, as well as anyone who publicly criticized his erratic behavior.
It could also be the result of Billie Eilish refusing to apologize to Travis Scott, who Kanye said would be joining him onstage at the festival. Eilish stopped a recent concert to ensure a fallen fan received medical aid; fans interpreted her comments during the incident as sniping at Travis Scott, who reportedly continued performing during his headlining Astroworld set as more than 300 people were injured during a crowd crush. 10 people died, sending Travis into a state of quasi-exile after he was removed as a Coachella headliner. Kanye’s set would have been Travis’ first time on a major stage since Astroworld. Kanye threatened to pull both himself and Travis unless Eilish apologized to Travis, drawing disapproval from some Astroworld victims’ families.
Incidentally, this isn’t even the first time Kanye has pulled out of headlining Coachella; in January 2019, he declined to headline the festival over a dispute regarding an unfeasible stage design. Instead, performed on a nearby hilltop, bringing his Sunday Service choir and debuting “Water” at the second weekend of 2019’s festival. This year, a petition on Change.org to have Kanye removed from Coachella over his bullying behavior received almost 30,000 signatures.
Meanwhile, Page Six reported that Kanye said he was “going away to get help,” which could also explain his last-minute withdrawal from performing. As he attacked Pete, Kim, and comedians like DL Hughley and Trevor Noah on social media, some fans worried about his mental health. If it’s true that he’s taking a break to get well, we can only wish him the absolute best.
Is it unfiltered talking head interviews from an artist’s inner circle, narrating their rise to fame and filling in the gaps with unheard tales of tragedy and triumph? Is it hundreds of hours’ worth of archival footage that transports fans back to the tour buses and motels and the chaotic marathon of on-the-road, small-town gigs? Is it the artist themselves taking control of the camera to give us a more intimate, insightful look into their creative process — the highs, the lows, the sacrifices, and the perks of fame?
Is it a combination of all of these?
Whatever that magical “it” factor is, all of the docs on this list — from tranquil recording sessions to cinematic road trip movies to dramatic reenactments to reels of film that have been hidden away for decades — have it in some form or other.
There’s a kind of mythos surrounding The Beatles, their meteoric rise, and their complicated break-up. Much of that is fueled by the untimely death of their founding member, John Lennon, but more still stems from the group’s prolific lyrical output — something that’s on full display in Peter Jackson’s biographical epic, Get Back. The three-part six-hour-long documentary is a musical odyssey, one that peels back the veneer of nostalgia and gives us a raw, moving, and at times unbearably intimate look at the four lads whose influence is still being felt, decades after their initial peak of stardom. Subdued and unstructured but made with purpose, the series gives us a glimpse of these figures with episodes of genius on full display — like when Paul riffs on his bass and produces one of the band’s biggest hits in just a few minutes. The best moments come when we get an unedited look at the strife, tension, and profound connection these musical icons shared, though.
Billie Eilish: Happier Than Ever, A Love Letter to Los Angeles (2021)
Run Time: 65 min
Billie Eilish has had a prodigious career. That’s not hyperbole, it’s simply a fact. She’s ticked off everything from Grammy wins and Oscars trophies to headlining the world’s major music festivals and being interesting enough that not one, but two documentaries have attempted to distill her star power to something us mere mortals can understand. In this doc, which stands as Billie’s love letter to her hometown, director Robert Rodriguez throws animation into the mix, creating a kind of hybrid doc/album concept film that’s both beautifully straightforward and deceptively insightful.
Go all the way back to the consequential summer of 1969 as Roots crew drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson brings the incomparable Harlem Cultural Festival to life with his Oscar-winning Summer Of Soul. Filled with a collection of performances from iconic musicians like Stevie Wonder and Gladys Knight, this doc doubly rewards viewers by diving into the intersection between current events and music, showcasing the power of music and an event that has been shockingly under-remembered until now.
The only female artist who’s had a bigger breakout than Billie Eilish is this Disney star whose catchy-as-hell breakup track, Driver’s License catapulted her to the top of the charts during a pandemic that had us all feeling a little blue. This doc shares some of the same qualities that made that song, and its accompanying music video, such a hit. There’s a barren feeling to all of the deserts and flatlands Rodrigo drives through while on her way from the recording studio where she created her debut album Sour, back home to California. There’s also a vintage, grainy filter imposed on all of the vistas she stops at along the way, performing some of the album’s biggest hits to intimate crowds and fan gatherings. It’s a vibe – and a worthy entry into the music doc space from an artist who’s just getting started.
Of the two stellar albums Taylor Swift dropped in 2020, Folklore was the one with the least fanfare surrounding it — a record Swift quietly unveiled that guided fans even deeper into the fantasy-like wood she’d escaped to during quarantine. And with this doc — an intimate, no-frills recording session in a rustic cabin by a lake, somewhere north of New York City – Swift doubles down on this new era of her career she’s knowingly entered into. This is a doc about Taylor Swift, the songwriter – not the pop star or tabloid target. Stripped down and raw, the doc merges some home videos of Swift recording the album years earlier with frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff and newcomer (to the Swift scene) Aaron Dessner with live performances from Swift, held in between chats that dive deep into her musical knowledge and her artistic process. It’s illuminating in the best way and Swift has never been better.
Before Lin Manuel-Miranda was creating Oscar-nominated bops for Disney flicks and winning Peabody awards for history-making Broadway musicals, he was just a guy on a street corner in the Heights, freestyling with his friends. This doc, which leans heavily on archival footage of Miranda and fellow Freestyle Supreme members like Thomas Kail, Christopher Jackson, and others, charts the rise of the group whose on-stage trick is to take audience suggestions and turn them into feature-length raps and bops and skits for our entertainment. There’s some incredible talent on display here as we see the group perform at fringe fests and basement cellars, but somehow, knowing the success each of these guys will one day find makes viewing their humble beginning even more exciting.
In 1972, Aretha Franklin gave a two-night performance of some of her biggest hits in a crowded Baptist church. Decades later, we finally get that footage. Filmed by Sydney Pollock, this is Aretha Franklin before people universally recognized her as an icon. Her voice is unparalleled, her energy infectious, her talent obvious, but this doc shows the synergy between her religious upbringing and the music she would bring to the world. It might just move you to tears.
Of the two Blackpink docs circulating the streaming world, this Hulu entry highlights the girl group’s undeniable stage presence, weaving concert footage from their most recent internet-breaking performance, “The Show” with older clips from when they were just beginning their reign as the queens of KPop. There’s a bit of commentary from the women as they reflect on their bond and how they’ve gotten this far, but the strongest moments are when fans get to watch them in their element, killing intricately choreographed numbers and serving up some of the best live shows we’ve seen yet.
The most fascinating music docs tell the stories of stars before they became them. Plenty of entries on this list fit the bill, but none do it like this hybrid film that mixes archival footage and glimpses of Madonna’s old stomping grounds in Detroit with dramatic reenactments of the artist’s earliest days in New York. The journey is gripping, from mourning her mother and hoping to escape the dreariness of her hometown, to hitting the scene in Queens during a musical rebirth when fashion and art, and street culture were colliding to form a creative environment unique enough to turn a talented former dancer into a pop music behemoth.
Music fans have likely heard the name Frank Zappa, but few truly understand just how unique and idiosyncratic his career truly was. This doc aims to rectify that, combing through hundreds of hours of archival footage supplied by Zappa’s estate to paint a picture of the sometimes-acclaimed, sometimes-controversial musician that we simply haven’t seen before. From his early beginnings worshipping the musical oddities to spoofing hit Beatles records to fighting American censorship, Zappa was an individual in every sense of the word, which makes charting his musical journey all the more interesting.
Quinton Brock is on a lifelong mission to change rock music forever, making progress with catchy anthems like “To The Moon” and endearing ballads such as “Touch.” In February, he unveiled the surfy “There For You,” which is first and foremost concerned about its playful atmosphere and vibe. The riffs are simple but fun and exuberant, buoying the song along as he sings, “I’m just making sure you know / that I’m there for you / if you’re down and need rescue.”
The song focuses on this feeling of togetherness and trust in the face of struggle. Today, the Brooklyn-via-Buffalo artist released the music video to go along with it. It’s as laid-back as the music is — Brock strums on his blue Fender, dances, lies on the ground — it’s intimate and home video-like, imbuing it with a sense of nostalgia.
Nostalgia is one of the driving forces of Brock’s whole aesthetic. In 2020, he told Uproxx that when he thinks “of rock music, I think of Converse, the Ramones, Julian Casablancas — all these great artists […] I really wanted to make sure that everyone knows that was the shoe that was chosen, that classic Black converse.” By bringing back old styles and blending them with new elements, Brock is achieving something intriguing and original.
Get ready for another breakup-album era from Jaskier because Netflix showed off a look at The Witcher Season 3 production, and the infamous Bard is nowhere in sight. Yep, it’s true. The streaming service thoughtfully provided an update on the title curmudgeon, Geralt of Rivia, who’s apparently doing his thing with both Ciri and Yennefer, yet their only company seems to be a tiny horse that ain’t Roach.
To add further insult to Bard injury, Netflix wrote, “Our family is back together again.”
There’s also no Jaskier love coming forth from the official Netflix season synopsis:
“As monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent compete to capture her, Geralt takes Ciri of Cintra into hiding, determined to protect his newly-reunited family against those who threaten to destroy it. Entrusted with Ciri’s magical training, Yennefer leads them to the protected fortress of Aretuza, where she hopes to discover more about the girl’s untapped powers; instead, they discover they’ve landed in a battle field of political corruption, dark magic, and treachery. They must fight back, put everything on the line — or risk losing each other forever.”
Sigh, we’re all going to pay for this by having another banger stuck in our heads. Yet we can all likely trust that the story has been crafted in the way that’s ultimately best for fans of the video games and books. The show overperformed in the first season and, during the sophomore round, convincingly switched up the loner aspect of everyone’s favorite monster hunter. Speaking of which, after that gut punch of a Roach episode last season, Cavill himself provided an important horsey update on Instagram.
“Reunited with my equine friend Hector today,” Cavill wrote. “After a good ride out through the mountains, Hector showed off some of his new rearing skills. He’s showing some promise.”
Roach lives! Well, one of many Roaches. In all likelihood, The Witcher will keep ’em coming.
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