Month: May 2023

For everything Barry has said about the self-delusion of redemptive paths, the screwball soul of organized crime, and the messed up ways we seek and express love, it’s the show’s darkly comedic take on the Hollywood shuffle that thrills me most. And no character has embodied that dysfunctional dance better than Sarah Goldberg’s Sally Reed, a character that has been on a roller coaster from attention-seeking student to artsy “It” talent, to showrunner, pariah, teacher, and scheming acting coach. Through it all, Sally has also existed in the show’s central relationship, forming a powerfully mismatched duo with Bill Hader‘s Barry.

As we saw at the end of last week’s episode, though, something about that pairing still works for Sally, leading her to step, arm in arm with Barry into a whole new life of repression, routine, and the occasional dance with the bottle, violence, and the prospect of getting found out. So, why did Sally go with Barry and, perhaps more importantly, why has she stayed? Uproxx spoke with Goldberg (who Hader has praised for her ownership of the character) about those decisions, whether she judges her character, and what it feels like to walk away from the show.

What was your reaction when you found out that the show was going to come to an end after this season?

It was a mixed bag. I was obviously sad. And there are so many people I’m going to miss working with. But at the same time, I felt like the story was ready and the pitch of where they wanted to go with the story was so excellent and it felt like the right thing to do for the story. So there was an acceptance as well that, yeah, it’s time.

Sometimes actors will say they don’t want to judge their character, sometimes it’s just human nature to judge. How has your relationship with the character changed from the start of the show to where we are at this point?

I mean, I’ve always cared a great deal about Sally, and she gets a lot of criticism, but I’ve always felt like defending her. I’ve always thought you don’t have to like her, you just have to know her. And I felt in the beginning that she had all these qualities of vulnerable women I’ve met in Los Angeles. And she had ambition and tenacity and all these things, but maybe in too many scoops. And she would always set out with these great intentions, but push things too far, and tilt things too far until her Achilles heel I think was going too far in every direction.

And I’ve always had huge empathy for her. I’ve never really judged her. I mean, I think she makes bad choices, so I guess that’s judging her. But I’ve never really come at it from that angle. You try to see everything from their point of view and understand why someone’s making the decision that they’re making in that moment. And with all these characters that are morally dubious and often making the selfish choice or the wrong choice, it would always be about getting underneath why, what’s motivating that choice? Why are they behaving that way? And that was the fun, and the agility in the writing and with all these characters of figuring out what makes people tick. And so often they’re given the opportunity to better themselves and they’ve got a better path to take and they don’t take it. So that leads to endless fun and drama.

I know you’ve been involved in shaping the character too. Can you talk a little bit about just the decision that she makes as we go from episode four to episode five where she goes along with Barry and he and Sally create this whole other life? Is that something where you need to dig in a little to understand her reasoning for making that decision?

I think on first read, I couldn’t see the building blocks there, so we had to build her a clearer path. Which we tried to set up in episode two when she goes to see Barry in prison and the line she says, “I feel safe with you.” And I think her reasoning behind saying that is that Barry was the only person present when she was the most animal version of herself. And she’s committed this crime and has this overwhelming guilt and fear around what she did. And the only person who was there was him. And so there’s a relief in being with the person who bore witness and is accepting of her anyway and loves her anyway. And their love story has never been a love story, it’s always been a tragedy.

And I think in that moment, the closest they’ve ever been when they connect is in those moments right after she’s killed this guy. And I think that where we see her in episode two when she sees Barry and she says she feels safe with him, it’s rooted in the fact that they connected, their pact was forged in blood.

And by the time we get to the end of episode four, I feel like in episodes three and four, she’s suffered her final Hollywood humiliations. Like the failure as a teacher and then to be on set and have that experience where she pours her heart into a performance and thinks for one brief moment maybe she’s saved her career, maybe she’s just given the speech of her life and this director’s going to cast her in this movie and everything’s going to be okay… And to be squashed and told actually somebody prettier needs to say it like that. I think she’s really done. And so the news when Barry escapes, you’d think she’d be terrified, but I think she sees her exit strategy and just thinks, let’s get out of here. It’s not a healthy train of thought, speaking of judging, it’s not a healthy choice.

But like you’re saying though, it’s easy to have empathy because it feels like not just a commentary on the character, but also on the world. I mean, the world moves fast, especially in any industry that’s as competitive as Hollywood. I think it’s obvious that she’s lacking people in her life that can be an alternative to make her feel safe, even her family.

I know. She can leave home and search for some kind of solace or comfort, protection, security, anything, and is met with the opposite. And I like that we had that first episode going back to her home and meeting her parents because I think it also explains why Sally is the way she is. And she’s so verbose, almost to the point of belligerence at times. But once you meet her parents and realize nobody’s listening to her, nobody’s taking care of her, you can see where the origins of that person began.

So as we end episode five, Barry’s off to LA, Sally is still with him after, I guess it was eight years, and we get a sense of what we’re talking about here of why she went with him. But why has she stayed with him? And what is her mindset like at this point?

I think at that point she’s trapped in a lot of ways. And I think she’s developed a serious drinking problem. Understandably, I think. And she’s not well by the time we see her in the latest episode. And I think the one thing she has going is that she’s decided, for whatever reason, she’s going to give a performance as Emily. So in her workspace, when she’s got her wig and her nails and her accent, it’s like she’s still getting to act in a way. And I think there’s some tiny piece of solace in that.

But I think the rest of it, she’s really trapped. I think she’s afraid to go back to her old life because she doesn’t know what would happen. Would she be punished for what she did? And she doesn’t know how to face the crime that she committed, even though arguably it was self-defense. And so I think she feels trapped. I think that the feeling safe with Barry holds, it’s just she also feels miserable, safe and miserable. So she stays. She stays.

The scene with her and her co-worker in the bathroom, is that an extension of the performance that she’s doing, or is that just because she needs to feel danger and control something?

I think that there’s something in her in that scene where she’s testing how far she might go. I think that there’s a lot of rage boiled up in her, understandably after an abusive marriage. Now she’s in an abusive relationship again in a different kind of way. All the humiliation she experienced in Los Angeles and the trauma of the murder. I think she’s playing with fire in that scene where she doesn’t know how far she might go. And there’s a little aspect of her that wants revenge and vengeance for everything that she’s been through. And I think she’s punishing him and she’s testing herself.

But ultimately I think that her morality wins in that scenario and she’s never going to take it any further than that. Then she drops the accent, the wig comes off, she drops the veneer. And I think that’s a genuine moment where, yeah, I think she’s felt so much fear, I think that there is a desire to exercise some power in that dynamic and say enough is enough. And the way he treats her at work and she’s not going to have that kind of harassment again in her life.

The final season of ‘Barry’ continues on HBO Sundays at 10PM ET. Goldberg also co-created and can be seen on ‘SisterS,’ which debuts May 17 on IFC.

You’ve watched the Barbie trailer at least 50 times (no? just me?). Now, enjoy the trailer for the other big-event movie coming out on July 21st.

Directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer stars Cillian Murphy as the “father” of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer. The cast also includes Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife, biologist, and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer; Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves Jr., the director of the Manhattan Project; Robert Downey, Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission; Florence Pugh as psychiatrist Jean Tatlock; Benny Safdie as theoretical physicist Edward Teller; and Josh Hartnett as American nuclear scientist Ernest Lawrence.

Nolan recreated an atomic explosion without the use of CGI for Oppenheimer, which he called a “huge challenge.” That’s quite the understatement. He also said the film, his first since the pandemic-era Tenet, is “one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever taken on in terms of the scale of it, and in terms of encountering the breadth of Oppenheimer’s story. There were big, logistical challenges, big practical challenges. But I had an extraordinary crew.”

I haven’t been this stressed out by the sound of radiation meters since Chernobyl.

Oppenheimer opens on July 21st.

Taylor Swift played the final Nashville show of The Eras Tour last night (May 7), but for a while (a long while), it looked like the concert was in jeopardy.

As The Tennessean notes, Swift shows this tour have typically started at about 6:30 p.m. with the openers, then Swift goes on at around 8. at 7 last night, though, the concert venue, Nissan Stadium, issued a shelter-in-place warning due to severe thunderstorms.

It was extremely rainy over there, as fan videos like this one show:

As the delay continued, Swift assured fans she intended to take the stage, tweeting at 7:54 local time, “Even though we have one last show in Nashville tonight I just have to post these photos causeeeee… it’s been WILD. I got to announce Speak Now (my version) is coming on 7/7, got to perform ‘Nothing New’ with boss genius/baby angel face @phoebe_bridgers for the first time, and have been so moved by these beautiful, generous Nashville crowds!!!! I just can’t believe it. PS I know there’s talk of a rainy weather vibe tonight but I’m ready to play, see you sooon!!”

A bit over an hour later, things were looking more promising. The National Weather Service Nashville tweeted at 9:17, “I bring you good news, weather peeps. Ready for it? The storms are weakening considerably and there is currently no lightning threat for downtown Nashville. There will be showers in the area lasting into the overnight hours, but the strongest cells will be in areas further south.” Minutes later, Nissan Stadium tweeted, “Drop everything now! Meet me in the pouring rain! Shelter in Place has officially been lifted! Fans, please start safely making your way to your seats. Once production wraps up, Taylor Swift will hit the stage! #NashvilleTSTheErasTour.”

Despite the delay, Swift, being the dedicated performer she is, didn’t cut her show short, as setlist.fm indicates.

Not too long ago, famous lipstick wearer Lauren Boebert inadvertently reminded people that she has a GED while pushing back at the idea of student loan forgiveness. Over the weekend, Boebert voluntarily reminded everyone of that GED because it was a useful reference while she criticized Kamala Harris’ public speaking skills.

Of course, Boebert misses the point while believing that her GED is why people pile onto her on a regular basis. She has frequently trashed education to the point where she called to abolish the entire education department. And given that she only acquired her GED a mere few months before being elected to Congress, her interest in pursuing it probably had little to do with actual learning. She’s also stepped in on previous occasions by proposing a lot more time for lawmakers to read bills, so there’s that.

“The same people who will try and knock me for having a GED think this lady represents intelligence and eloquence,” Boebert tweeted. “Whoever paid for her education wasted their money.”

People were quick to come for Boebert, not because she has a GED but because of her behavior as an elected official. She’s frequently combative, hops to conclusions, and launches into false equivalencies at the drop of a rootin’ tootin hat. And she may be ignoring replies on Twitter, but users let her know that the GED is definitely not the issue here.

And less tweeting and more debt-ceiling talk resumes… soon?

Nearly a year after his tragic passing, Ray Liotta‘s cause of death has been revealed. TMZ reports that the Goodfellas actor died from “respiratory insufficiency, pulmonary edema — a.k.a. fluid in his lungs — and acute heart failure.” Liotta also suffered from “atherosclerosis — a thickening of the arteries caused by a buildup of plaque in the inner lining — something that often leads to diabetes and other health issues.”

Liotta was only 67 years old when he died on May 26, 2022, in the Dominican Republic, where he was filming a movie.

“I’m absolutely shocked and devastated by the sudden, unexpected death of Ray Liotta. He was so uniquely gifted, so adventurous, so courageous as an actor,” Goodfellas director Martin Scorsese said about his star. “Playing Henry Hill in Goodfellas was a tall order, because the character had so many different facets, so many complicated layers, and Ray was in almost every scene of a long, tough shoot. He absolutely amazed me, and I’ll always be proud of the work we did together on that picture. My heart goes out to his loved ones, and it aches for his loss, way too early.”

Liotta will posthumously appear in Fool’s Paradise, the directorial debut from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Charlie Day, and horror movie The Substance, alongside Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.

(Via TMZ)

When it comes to Australia, Azealia Banks isn’t feeling the love.

In a series of Instagram Stories shared yesterday (May 7), Banks wrote about how her recent single “New Bottega” was handled in Australia, claiming a “piss poor remix of my master track” was released over there instead of the preferred version. She writes more about the song and her record contract before going after Australia and its music industry more generally.

“I don’t think they realize how unimportant they are as far as music culture goes because they’re deluded with the idea that their whiteness makes Australia an A Market, when it’s truly a C-D market,” Banks said. “Brazil is a MUCH more important market for music than australia lmao. (this is mostly because Australia has an an extreme dearth of internationally appetizing talent outside of Kylie minogue , INXS & AC/DC, {tame impala is just cheesy to me, and wolfmother is excellent – but clearly an American rock tribute band}.”

She continued, “Australia doesn’t really have many music acts that anyone truly cares about on a global scale because they’re in a vacuum of off-brand British culture,” noting she thinks they have “actually created one of the most culturally stale white nations on the planet.”

Read Banks’ full posts below.

“Sidebar: I’m reading this article in the Guardian about the ever dwindling and insignificant Australian music industry and have SO MANY THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS, but the delusions of the Aussie music execs quoted in this article is f*ckkkng astonishing and making it clear to me how sheer jealousy, racism and desperation allowed @sweatitoutmusic to purposely sabotage a bonafide hit in lieu of their fragile fragile egos and DESPERATE attempts to try and steal my IP. The Australian music industry is so devoid of internationally appealing talent they literally harrased, threatened, menaced and corruptly stole my IP. Let’s take a deep dive.

the version of my song New Bottega, the Australians released as The final composition is actually a piss poor remix of my Master Track , and should not be titled ‘New Bottega’.

There’s no language stating that any ‘left over ideas’ do not belong to me. Because they essentially treated the fully mixed mastered single as a discard, when they had it in their possession the entire time, the song splits were not papered once done,
and they have nothing with my signature confirming ‘New Bottega’ as the song that qualifies the parameters of the initial contract.

They left it as ‘TBD’ which was stupid on their part. So they basically denatured my intellectual property, cherry picked what they wanted from it and fraudulently presented it to the world AS the song EYE wrote. And they released it, so that is the only version of the song they have claim to. My Sony atv deal explicitly states that I am not allowed to assign control of my publishing/vocals etc to any entity. Again I was very f*cking sick when I signed the deal and really just signed it so They would stop calling me at 2am and let me rest. The fact that they are steadfast on trying to have ownership over something that is going to make them no money without my involvement is asinine. They fact that they are so obsessed with owning my vocals but adamant about treating me poorly and adamant about not investing in such a massive song (the tik tok stats and best of year end lists literally proved that the product works, what’s the point in changing it?) is literal stupidity. Whatever remix they released is not ‘New Bottega.’ So they don’t have the right to title their remix track as such. ‘New Bottega’ is my intellectual property, and time has proven that these aussies have zero clue how to market this song, absolutely no knowledge of the big business that is American female rap, or how to engage with Azealia Banks and leverage the power of her already established international fanbase to their advantage… here I am LITERALLY telling them how to get my fans excited- and they re taking it an insult.

For the record. ‘New Bottega’ by Azealia Banks Is a hiphop record. It is not a dance record. Categorizing it as a dance record was their first wrong marketing move. Clearly -There is a cultural dissonance here. HipHop is the most profitable genre of music in the world right now. EDM is f*cking dead For people so thirsty to try and own the rights to my vocals , you’d THINK they had some huge money play to go along with all of the empty and baseless threats to sue me. (lmao, can’t sue me for not participating in promoting garbage.) if they were good crooks – they would have at least kept their racism under wraps long enough to have taken my photo and shot a video to have assets to promote their bullshit with) For all of the dsp c*cksucking @sweatitoutmusic did in effort to try and prove to me that their marketing strategy was better than mine – registering it as a dance song Was the most anti-algorithmic sh*t an algorithm dickrider could have done. F*cking stupidity.

Australia’s media /music /entertainment industry isn’t exactly heralded by the heads of government or anyone in the world as a coveted cultural export, I don’t think they realize how unimportant they are as far as music culture goes because they’re deluded with the idea that their whiteness makes Australia an A Market, when it’s truly a C-D market. Brazil is a MUCH more important market for music than australia lmao. (this is mostly because Australia has an an extreme dearth of internationally appetizing talent outside of Kylie minogue , INXS & AC/DC, {tame impala is just cheesy to me, and wolfmother is excellent – but clearly an American rock tribute band}

Australia doesn’t really have many music acts that anyone truly cares about on a global scale because they’re in a vacuum of off-brand British culture. Could be do to with it being geographically so out of the way and how aggressive, barbaric, oppressive and violent they have been in regards to the very existence of native black peoples that they’ve actually systematically stomped out their country’s own ability to develop its own music/arts culture – to instead look to England and the USA for ideas to regurgitate not realizing that the reason the Australian music industry and Australian culture is so trash is BECAUSE of their country’s historical post colonial obsession with I guess, trying to prove to England and the Monarchy that they -a legion of convicts/mentally insane social rejects – were in fact a proper white/Anglo-saxon society – using the massacre/ subjugation of black/indigenous peoples (manifest destiny bullshit) and theft of their land as a marker of national strength

But they have actually created one of the most culturally stale white nations on the planet.

The fact that these aussie music execs are COMPLETELY OVERLOOKING THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENTS PURPOSEFUL ETHNIC CLEANSING OF NATIVE PEOPLES AND THEIR INABILITY TO PRODUCE MUSIC ANYONE ANYWHERE CARES ABOUT IS F*CKING COMEDY .

Someone has GOT to tell the Australian music industry that Absolutely no one on earth takes it seriously. Like, they HAVE to understand how untalented/uncultured and unneeded they are to the greater global arts community, realize musical talent is just not in the gene pool, and redirect those funds to the aboriginal peoples of the continent and just pack their shit up and go back to Europe. LMAO. Y’all stomped all the blackness out of Australia – which is why your music exports suck and we don’t feel bad for you lmfaooooooo.”

Game 4 between the Suns and Nuggets featured some unbelievable individual performances, as Devin Booker and Kevin Durant each scored 36 points on hyper-efficient shooting to lead Phoenix to a win to even the series as they dueled with Nikola Jokic, who scored 53 points, all night.

The shot-making in the game was outrageous on both sides, with the stars of each team knocking down contested shot after contested shot, with each defense left scrambling to figure out what the answers were. The Suns happened to get more from their role players, headlined by Landry Shamet’s hot shooting, which proved to be the difference in sending the series back to Denver tied at 2-2, setting up a pivotal Game 5 on Tuesday night.

While the shot-making stands out, there is a bit of a lingering question as to whether the league will hand down any further punishment to Jokic after he got into an odd altercation courtside with Suns owner Mat Ishbia. After Josh Okogie crashed into the stands, the ball ended up in Ishbia’s lap and Jokic came running over to retrieve it and try to get the ball in with a man advantage. Ishbia and Jokic wrestled over the ball, with it popping into the row behind, and then Jokic gave a little shove with his elbow to the Suns owner, who flopped into his seat.

The referees reviewed the play and handed out a technical foul to Jokic, which Tony Brothers explained after the game was because Jokic “deliberately gave him a shove and pushed him down.” Given that language, the league will certainly look into it further and while unlikely — and something no one should want to see — it’s possible a suspension could be handed out.

After the game, Michael Malone and Nikola Jokic both pushed back at there being a technical given out in the first place, insisting it was “the fan” who initiated everything. Neither was aware it was the Suns new owner, but neither cared about that detail — with Malone saying “I don’t give a sh*t” when told that’s who it was.

As for Jokic, he felt the altercation was initiated by Ishbia, saying the league was supposed to protect the players and noting he thought a fan was supposed to get kicked out if they try to influence the game — which he felt Ishbia did by holding onto the ball and stopping Jokic from getting it to inbound it.

It was a truly bizarre moment in an otherwise thrilling game, and I must say, it would’ve been fairly hilarious to see what would’ve happened if the NBA had try kicking Ishbia out of the game in his arena. We’ll find out Monday whether the league has any further comment on the incident or punishment for either side, but one would hope the technical would suffice as enough punishment and we can get Game 5 at full strength. The star duel in this series has been phenomenal and watching Jokic go up against Booker and Durant has been a highlight of the postseason so far, and it’d be incredibly deflating to not get to see that continue in Game 5.

Last week’s Succession began with a Logan Roy jumpscare, and this week, the siblings began by attempting to not screw the entire media empire up. Well, except for Shiv, who was playing both sides by giving Lukas Matsson the inside scoops ahead of the takeover closure. Some damaging information about Matsson (who’s apparently not even a coder, via his head of comms) and his financials did slip out, but amid that valuable insight, everyone in this show was fighting.

Beyond Kendall’s semi-showdown with Matsson (and not everything came out there), three big arguments stood out, and viewers were both fueled and destroyed by them. First, we received a Rava sighting, and she read Kendall the riot act over what a terrible parent he is: “I was raising our daughter while you were f*cking running a racist news organization.” Rava might be the character on this show who’s most capable of speaking the truth.

Next up? Gerri telling Roman how it’s gonna be after he attempted to pretend that he didn’t really fire her, and if he doesn’t let her control her own narrative: “I will sue and go public… with the many, many pictures of your genitalia.”

And finally, we have the “scorpion” (Shiv) and the “snake” (Tom). The episode began with them enjoying breakfast amid their sexual reunion, but then Tom broke out the most subliminally toxic present he could manage.

The peace could never last. The scorpion ended up being foreshadowing for when those stingers came out in a balcony fight. Years of their pent-up anger spilled out with the betrayal and the almost-prison sentence in the mix, along with Shiv’s accusation of him “f*cking me for my DNA.” It was exhausting to witness, but break out the Emmys already.

HBO’s Succession airs on Sundays at 9:00pm EST.

The first half of Game 4 between the Suns and Nuggets saw the high level shot-making we expected from the stars of this series from the outset, with Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic both having it going for Denver, while Kevin Durant and Devin Booker stayed hot after a terrific Game 3 for Phoenix.

However, the late second quarter saw a stoppage of play for a review in one of the most bizarre scenes this season. After Josh Okogie crashed into the front row going for a loose ball, the ball ended up in the lap of new Suns owner Mat Ishbia. Nikola Jokic ran over to grab the ball and try to inbound it quickly while Denver had an advantage, so he tried to rip it out of Ishbia’s hands and then gave him a shove with his left elbow starting a mild kerfuffle.

The referees went to the monitor to review, and Jokic was given a technical foul for the shove — it was probably good it was Ishbia and not a random fan or else it could’ve become a real altercation — while a fan who was near the scene was ejected for something he said or did.

Ishbia, a former Michigan State basketball player, sells it with what might be the first owner flop in league history, but at the same time Jokic has to just chill out a little bit and not go trying to rip the ball out of a fans hands while they’re all just trying to get another player off the front row. We’ll see if the T ends up being significant, as the Suns finished the half up two thanks in part to the free point from Jokic’s altercation with Ishbia, but a player-owner scuffle was not on the bingo card for anyone coming into Sunday night.

Sunday’s AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Motor Speedway was not without excitement, as Denny Hamlin took the checkered flag over Kyle Larson and William Byron in a race with double-digit caution flags and some post-race fireworks.

Late in the race, Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson got into it on the track, with Gragson getting bumped up the track into the wall and then coming down the track to nudge Chastain — ultimately leading to Gragson having to come into the pits and bringing out the race’s 10th caution.

After the race, Gragson went over to talk with Chastain about the incident and things got heated. Gragson grabbed Chastain’s fire suit which led to Chastain throwing a right cross that landed on Gragson, whose efforts to return punches got broken up.

The dust-up happened in the middle of an interview with Larson about his second place finish, but he couldn’t help but get distracted by what he was seeing on the monitor in front of him, trailing off mid-answer to take in the fisticuffs with a big smile on his face.

Larson wasn’t the only driver who wanted to take in the spectacle, as race winner Denny Hamlin had reporter Bob Pockrass pull up the video to show him after his press conference.

I think a number of drivers were hoping to see Chastain end up on the worst of the fight, as Kyle Busch laid into Chastain earlier in the race after an incident of their own on track.

Chastain hasn’t endeared himself to too many in the pits, and he and Gragson work fairly closely as two Chevy drivers. They’ll have some things to work out after their rumble in Kansas and one expects that won’t be the last altercation we see Chastain get in given his driving style.