Month: May 2024

If given the opportunity to remake their own movie, most actors would pick one of their bad films, not a beloved Oscar winner. But Ryan Gosling has proven time and time again that he is not like most actors, he’s a Nice Guy. And a Fall Guy.

But the actor gave a surprising answer when The Wall Street Journal asked which of his films he would like to “do over.” You would think he would pick something from his early days before he was an established actor, but he landed on one of his biggest projects.

“La La Land. There is a moment that haunts me,” Gosling told the outlet. “We’re dancing, Emma [Stone] and I, and I didn’t know this would become the poster for the movie. We were supposed to have our hands up, and I thought it would be cool to put my hand [more flat] even though everyone told me it wasn’t cool. I was sure it was cooler.”

Gosling said that the choice haunts him to this day; it’s been immortalized on the poster. “Now when I look at it, and I have to see it all the time, you know what would’ve been cooler… [the intended pose],” he admitted. “It just killed the energy that way. I call it La La Hand.”

The interviewer noted that in the dance world, the pose is called “hamburger hands” to which Gosling replied, “Hamburger hands Gosling over here.” Maybe next he’ll work on Hamburger Helper’s newest ad campaign.

Check out the full interview here.

What if a distraction starts to become a destination? What is real and unreal? Is our destiny to be who we are or someone else? Someone more? I Saw The TV Glow, a new A24-produced suburban horror film (with an outstanding soundtrack) from writer/director Jane Schoenbrun explores those questions, teenage loneliness, the draw of screens, and the unifying power of art and thrill of finding someone to share it with.

The film, which is now in limited theaters now before going wide on May 17, is also a deeply personal story from an openly trans filmmaker who tapped into a very specific time in their life to to tell this story, with Schoenbrun telling Deadline that they wrote the film early on in their transition.

“The beginning of transition, I think for a lot of trans folks, is a really bewildering time where everything you’ve come to accept as reality is sort of being thrown into flux, and it’s both this incredibly beautiful and courageous leap of faith, and at times can feel completely uncharted, like you have no roadmap for what your life is and where you’re going.”

As one of the stars of the film, Justice Smith plays Owen, a teenager in the ‘90s who finds comfort in a monster-of-the-week style supernatural TV show (ala Buffy) called The Pink Opaque. Owen shares that interest with a friend in Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), but when she disappears, questions surface about whether the world of the show is actually real. To say much more would spoil a film that our Josh Kurp called, “one of the most original, thought provoking, and The Adventures of Pete & Pete-referencing films you’ll see all year” (the ’90s reverence is far beyond surface here). I will say, however, that the film does span a large swath of Owen’s life and it does focus on the choices we make and the question of whether it’s worse to give in to our imagination or give up on it.

Below, we spoke with Smith in a loose interview that we both agreed felt more like a vibe-y conversation about philosophy than a typical junket chat. ‘90s nostalgia is touched upon as is SpongeBob, but also the nature of making art in an age of disposability and the value of finding things to geek out over at a time when everything is chaos.

It feels like it’s the ’90s moment, where people are very reflective of it, very nostalgic for it. So what does that mean for you as someone who was experiencing it at the tail end?

Yeah, I remember there was this big wave of kids my age being like, “I’m a ’90s kid.” I’m like, we were five in the year 2000.

That’s how I feel about the ’80s, I remember parts, but it’s not really the same experience (as living through all of it).

I will say, the first five years of the aughts had so much bleedover from the ’90s that it wasn’t fully immersive ’90s like culture, but it was the transition period, which I think is why people my age identify with it so much. Or maybe it’s just that the ’90s has a cool factor. When I think of the ’80s, I don’t think cool. I think loud. I think expressive. The ’70s, I think of chill. I think of groovy, I think of weed. But the ’90s, I feel like it’s like the aesthetic was admirable. ’90s fashion is coming back. I mean, I’m wearing a COOGI sweater right now. ’90s fashion has a grip on us right now, and ’90s movies were incredible. ’90s hip-hop was the best era of hip-hop. So I think the ’90s just did a lot of things right.

It also feels like the last era that you can get your hands around. Things were a little bit more, not in control, but it was before the explosion of content, before the internet really took full bloom and we kind of had an expanded view of the universe. Maybe there’s a kind of nostalgia for that, when things were simpler, like we all have with childhood.

Yeah, I think that’s definitely it. Yeah. The internet has made these decades less defined. Everything is more gradual and less succinct, and I think there are pros and cons, obviously to having access to so much information all the time. But I think one of the cons is that culture is almost shifting too quickly. Every week there’s something trending, and it’s hard to define a period of 10 years with a certain aesthetic. Although the year 2000 to 2010 has a specific aesthetic, and the 2010s, I watch a lot of influencers who reflect on what the 2010s actually felt like and looked like. I never defined it for myself, but it was really specific. I mean, a lot of that culture was online culture. It was like when the internet was defining itself as a culture, you know what I mean?

Yeah, because it feels so co-opted now, the space is so polluted now by every corporation having its own personality and everything like that.

Yeah, capitalism is crazy right now. Everything is kind of bleak and recycled.

Obviously, you don’t have the experience of what it was like to drop a movie in 1995, but knowing how things work, and knowing how quickly culture moves now, to your point, is there a longing for something that you’ve never known? Do these things feel disposable to you in a way that feels unfair? I know, like me personally, when I do an interview, 15, 20 years ago, if I did an interview with you, it would be in a magazine, and it would be on a stand for a month, and people would read it for a while. And now it’s on a website, and then there’s another post, and another post, and another post on Twitter, and it’s gone.

Yeah. People click on it and then they forget about it.

Yeah, and to be honest, it bothers me. But that’s an interview. When you’re putting months and months of time into a movie that’s going to go up, and in a week there’ll be another movie, and another movie. Does that disposability of culture bother you?

Yeah, it was a hard thing to adjust to. I really thought in my young 20s, I still believed this idea that if you work hard, you reap the benefits, and that’s just not really true. It’s like, we live in a day and age where it’s like you work hard, you finish something, and then it’s onto the next thing. It’s not about finished product. It’s about resume. It’s about how many products are on the shelf. It’s about quantity, more than it is quality. And again, it’s the internet. There’s so much fucking content.

It’s just an engine that constantly needs to be fueled.

Yeah. Everything can’t really have a spotlight, because if everything has a spotlight, then nothing does.

It’s an engine that needs to constantly be fueled but sometimes you wonder if it’s a hunger that exists in the market, or is it just a hunger that exists in the C-suite.

Yeah, I think it’s in the C-suite. No, I think it’s a hunger of the C-suite. I think it’s driven by money, as is everything. And I think that it’s also that our attention spans have been shortened and shortened gradually over time with social media, and I think that ultimately makes the market hungry for more and more content. So I think it’s all feeding each other. They’re all cogs in this larger machine.

With this and the focus that this character has on the importance of this show to him, I am curious about whether you had a show that you really attached to when you were younger, and also curious if you feel in general that maybe we’re sometimes too hard on ourselves for the shows that we loved when we were younger?

I liked a lot of darker fare, like Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark, and Don’t Look Under the Bed. And even lighter, darker fare like Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy, or Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s like children’s goth, children’s horror – I was always drawn to that kind of stuff. At the same time, I had this unhealthy obsession with SpongeBob Squarepants, where my whole room was decorated with SpongeBob paraphernalia. And I mean now you’re seeing so many millennials reflect on how SpongeBob is the basis of their humor.

It really defined humor for a generation. And I mean, it still holds up. I watch those fucking first three seasons, the ones I grew up with, to this day from time to time, and I’m like, this shit is still funny to me. And that’s not always the case when you watch your old childhood favorites. A lot of times, just like in the movie, a lot of times you revisit and it’s not what you remember. It doesn’t evoke the same feelings, but SpongeBob holds up. And as a kid, it’s like liking SpongeBob was gay, liking SpongeBob wasn’t cool. And then it is so amazing to see how many people my age on TikTok, and Instagram, and stuff, all their reference points are SpongeBob quotes. I love that. It’s like we were all watching it. It’s unifying.

Does this movie provoke any kind of existential question within yourself about… I don’t want to give too much away, but the question of whether it’s worse to lose yourself to your imagination or lose your imagination is explored in the film.

I realize I didn’t answer the second part of your last question, but I feel like that kind of has to do with this, where I don’t actually think there’s anything wrong with obsessing over media, obsessing over a show, or a movie, or a book that just calls you, that you really connect to. Because I think that a lot of times as people, when we’re shaping our identities, specifically in our youth, we need reference points. And there’s a reason why we’re attracted to things that we’re attracted to. And we don’t always live in safe environments to explore all that our identities can be. And media can be a lightning rod of experimentation. It can expedite the process of identity.

And connection.

Sure, yeah, connection as well. But I think that the power of art is seeing yourself represented. It doesn’t even have to be literally, it can be in a cartoon sponge or whatever. It could be in a vampire slayer, like Buffy or something, or whatever it is. But you find elements of that character, of that world that just ring out parts of you, authentic parts of you. And I think that’s really important to self-formation.

If I turn this camera around, it’s just a whole wall of stuff that I’m sparing you from having to see – Batman statues, Indiana Jones, Thundercats. So obviously, I’m very much in line with the things that I grew up with, things that I love, but I’m also conscious that there is a danger sometimes in falling too far down that rabbit hole, and closing yourself off to other art, and new things, and new experiences, and new characters, and new worlds. Is that ever a concern: finding too much comfort, too much comfort food in the media that we love? Is that ever a concern, in your opinion?

I think that’s a really good question. I think that anything in excess can be dangerous, but I don’t know why I’m leaning towards the solace of fantasy. The solace of escapism.

I think sometimes it’s that it’s a chaotic world and whatever gets you through the night, to quote an old song.

Exactly. Whatever helps you. I don’t think the world is that safe of a place. And so, it is all of our individual journeys to parent ourselves and to find our safe spaces, and find the things that regulate us. That is our responsibility as individuals. And so, if that for you is Batman, or if that for you is a film, or a TV show, or a movie, then so be it. If that calms you, if that helps you get through the day, helps you get through life, I think that is the beauty of art. That is why people have been making art since the beginning of time. I think the imagination is a beautiful thing. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with living in it.

‘I Saw The TV Glow’ is in limited theaters right now and goes wide release on May 17.

Back in February, we saw genre-hopping rising star Audrey Nuna team up with Teezo Touchdown on “Starving,” kicking off the singer-songwriter’s 2024 with a bang. She continues to delve into that spacey sound on her latest single, “Jokes On Me,” which dropped today with a video that finds her donning an astronaut-chic outfit and doing some soul-searching in the desert.

Nuna explained the song in the press release as being “about going through ups and downs with someone to realize in the end that the irony is pointing right back at you.” She also detailed its origins, recalling, “I wrote this song in Joshua Tree around close friends. The melody and words were inspired by the guitar chords that were playing. We were all sitting around in a dark home studio set-up and the melody was a one-take. Being around people that I could feel vulnerable with allowed the song to happen naturally.”

In addition to dropping new music, Audrey Nuna has also been exploring her love of fashion with the SYKY platform. The result, “Glamour as Armour,” is available for purchase now exclusively on SYKY.com and appears on the cover art for “Jokes On Me.” You can watch Audrey Nuna’s “Jokes On Me” video above.

The NBA is going to take a look at everything that went on with Patrick Beverley in the aftermath of the Milwaukee Bucks’ season coming to an end on Thursday night in Indiana after a loss to the Pacers. Beverley threw a basketball twice at a fan in the stands — allegedly because the fan screamed “Cancun on 3” — and in the locker room after the game, he refused to speak with ESPN producer Malinda Adams because she does not subscribe to his podcast.

Emotions run really high after you get eliminated from the playoffs, but it’s pretty universally believed that Beverley crossed a line here — he presumably did not know about the later incident at the time, but Charles Barkley called for a suspension due to the run-in with the fan. And on the most recent episode of his podcast, Draymond Green expressed his belief that this is going to be a tough situation for Adam Silver to navigate.

“Pat keeps having these instances after they lose in these playoff games — that one might’ve been crazier than the [Chris Paul] push,” Green said. “Because it opens up an entirely different can of worms. Adam’s gonna have a problem on his hands with this one, because it’s about as close as you can get to going in the stands. That is forbidden for us.”

Green then expressed his belief that Beverley handled the situation with Adams poorly, in large part because he wants to try and take the opposite approach because he appreciates the way the NBA supports podcasts within its ecosystem. He then addressed Beverley directly and essentially told him to chill out.

“Pat, you can’t keep having these moments, man, at the end of these losses,” Green said. “You’re starting to look like the kid that’s gonna grab the ball and say, ‘I’m going home, I can’t play, we’re outta here, we’re leaving the park, it’s my ball.’ Come on, Pat.”

What do Trix, Cookie Crisp, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Reese’s Puffs have in common? A handful of things: They’re all types of breakfast cereal (duh), they’re all made by General Mills, and now, they all have K-pop titans Tomorrow X Together on their boxes.

How To Buy Tomorrow X Together’s Limited-Edition General Mills Cereal Boxes

Some of the group’s members shared comments about the partnership. Soobin, who will grace the Trix box, says, “What I love about the collaboration with General Mills is the unique and adorable characters of each cereal. My favorite is the Silly Rabbit from Trix. I think it’s a great match for me!” Hueningkai, who landed on the Cinnamon Toast Crunch box, says, “I think MOA will be delighted to see us featured in the General Mills packages on the store shelves! I hope everyone starts their day energetically with TXT limited edition cereals.” Lastly, Yeonjun, who’s on the Cookie Crisp Box, says, “I’m excited about the collaboration because General Mills is a brand that everyone can enjoy together. I hope many people will like the TXT limited edition, too!”

Beyond that, Beomgyu is featured on Lucky Charms, Taehyun on Honey Nut Cheerios, and a TXT group photo can be found on Reese’s Puffs boxes exclusively in Walmart stores. The boxes feature cutout standees, and all group members are represented across the various cereals.

The limited-edition boxes are in stores now, as is the group’s latest EP, Minisode 3: Tomorrow.

It’s no secret that JJ Redick has NBA coaching aspirations. The current top game analyst for ESPN and host of various podcasts interviewed for the Charlotte Hornets vacancy this offseason and has made it known that he wants to be a head coach at some point, following the player to broadcaster to coaching pipeline that others like Steve Kerr and Mark Jackson have taken.

The question, of course, is what team would be willing to bring in a young coach with little experience on the bench, but clearly has a strong understanding of the game. It would be almost a necessity for Redick to go into a situation where he had the respect and co-sign of the best player on the team, as that would go a long way into getting buy-in from the rest of the squad since he does not have a past track record to point to in order to command that kind of immediate respect.

One of Redick’s current podcasts is “Mind the Game”, in which he and LeBron James sip wine and discuss the finer points of basketball. It just so happens that the Lakers head coaching job has come open after the team fired Darvin Ham on Friday, and Redick was immediately listed as one of the top candidates for the vacancy.

Dave McMenamin also noted Redick was a “real candidate” on the Dan Patrick Show this week, and Charania noted Redick is one of the “hottest candidates on the market.”

We’ll see if the Lakers are willing to make that leap with Redick, but it would be pretty incredible if he parlayed a podcast with James talking about X’s and O’s into the Lakers head coaching job. That’s not to say it couldn’t work, Redick is clearly a very smart basketball guy, but it would be a very 2024 way to get a highly coveted coaching job.

For someone with a refined comedic palate, Jerry Seinfeld sure knows how to pick movies. He’s starred in classic films like Bee Movie and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, so he knows what’s funny and what’s not funny. Unfortunately, most critics believe his latest flick Unfrosted is simply Not Funny.

The movie, both starring and directed by Seinfeld, follows the riveting origin story of Pop-Tarts, the preferred breakfast snack to eat with one hand. Making movies about breakfast products might seem like a good idea to marketing execs and enemies of oatmeal, but not to people who enjoy good movies.

Unfrosted has been panned by critics, with some calling it “one of the decade’s worst movies.” Keep in mind that Bee Movie was released in 2007. Here’s what other critics are saying about the movie, which is now available on Netflix.

Collider‘s Ross Bonaime wrote:

Considering we’re in a world where Barbie can make $1.4 billion and become a commentary on feminism and the patriarchy, or Tetris, Air Jordans, and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos can get their own halfway decent biopics, it’s a shame Unfrosted doesn’t try a bit harder. Again, even a film like Weird managed to make its jokes and cameos work as part of a larger story, whereas Unfrosted always puts the story itself on the back burner.

The Wrap‘s William Bibbiani called the film “unfilling:”

If you thought Jerry Seinfeld’s funniest moments were in his American Express ads, then Unfrosted is the film for you. The detached and generic jokes all play out with a bright, rhythmless conformity. There’s a non-stop cavalcade of celebrity cameos which aren’t funny because for the most part, the whole joke is that they’re celebrity cameos. The humor is thuddingly blunt and the punchlines constantly call attention to themselves, which robs them of their punch. There’s a scene where Jerry Seinfeld’s bathrobe is accidentally blown off but apparently the gag wasn’t obvious enough so there’s also a reaction shot from a plastic squirrel. Please laugh.

The Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw was a little kinder:

There’s a steady stream of excellent gags, creating a rising crescendo of silliness similar in effect to Seinfeld’s own distinctive falsetto-hysterical declamation at the moment of ultimate joke-awareness… As a whole, it’s not exactly a masterpiece, but amiable and funny in a way that’s much harder to achieve than it looks.”

IndieWire‘ David Ehrlich called Unfrosted “painfully stale:”

Seinfeld used to say in his standup that Pop-Tarts can’t go stale because they were never fresh to begin with. As a one-liner, that was kinda funny. As the entire comedic ethos behind a 90-minute film, not so much.

The Chicago Suns Times‘ Richard Roeper was unimpressed:

[Unfrosted] is one of the decade’s worst movies. I’m surprised … Seinfeld, one of the sharpest and most observant comedic minds of his generation, didn’t halt production halfway through, call time of death and apologize to everyone for wasting their time. Unfrosted is so consistently awful it makes the aforementioned Flamin’ Hot seem like The Social Network. If there was a thing called the IMDB Witness Protection Program whereby you could get your name taken off the credits of a particular project, this would be that project.”

The Daily Beast‘s Nick Schager noted:

With no inspired perspective on its subject matter, the film proves a soggy attempt at deriving humor from a breakfast-wars premise that seems better fit for a five-minute Saturday Night Live sketch—and doesn’t come close to matching the genuine madness of the Pop-Tarts Bowl’s death-by-consumption showstopper.

All in all, please remember: the best Pop Tart flavor is brown sugar cinnamon.

It has been five years since Rapsody released Eve and her fans were getting antsy for a new album. Fortunately, she announced in March that her fourth studio album, Please Don’t Cry, is coming soon. She began the rollout with the single “Stand Tall” and an intimate conversation with actress Sanaa Lathan, demonstrating just what kind of inspirational and vulnerable material would appear on the album. Today, she continues the rollout with another new single, “3:AM,” a romantic late-night jam featuring none other than neo-soul godmother Erykah Badu.

In addition to releasing the usual set of lyrics videos and visualizers, Rap also shared a live performance video taken from Erykah Badu’s annual birthday bash concert in Dallas. The lyrics find the North Carolina native addressing a longtime lover and how he helps make her feel safe. “Not afraid to show my insecurities like Issa / Love makin’, booty clappin’ like Netty and Ceile / Netflix askin’ if we still watchin’ TV,” she rhymes. Meanwhile, on the chorus, Ms. Badu croons, “I remember late nights with you / What you like in the mornin’?”

Watch Rapsody’s ‘3:AM’ live performance video with Erykah Badu above.

Please Don’t Cry is due on 5/17 through We Each Other / Jamla Records / Roc Nation Records.

When I got invited to try out PLAY — Iceland’s newest budget airline — back in February, I was thrilled. Iceland was always on the ol’ travel bucketlist but felt out of range due to the hefty price of a plane ticket. Flying across the North Atlantic Ocean to the island of fire and ice isn’t necessarily within a budget traveler’s means. UNTIL NOW…

[dramatic music begins]

PLAY has leveled the playing field.

Founded in Reykjavík in 2019, PLAY operates a fleet of Airbus A321NEO and A320NEO aircraft, offering streamlined, no-frills service between Iceland, North America, and Europe. What does this mean exactly? It means that you get what you pay for, without all the frills that may come with other airlines’ routes to Iceland — keeping your costs in check.

Seat assignments, baggage, snacks, and drinks (even water) are extra add-ons. We’ve all seen Spirit and Frontier — we know the deal. Wifi isn’t even an option, so you’d better have your OOO responder on. The first seven rows with extra legroom don’t have footrests either, so your long-haul flight over the ocean can… be a little uncomfortable.

PLAY’s slogan, “pay less, play more” is pretty straightforward. As a low-cost airline, you won’t see any first-class cabin on the aircraft. No beds or lounges. Instead, PLAY offers four bundled fare types to work within travelers’ budgets.

• PLAY Basic – Offering the bare essentials. Pay only for your airfare and taxes. You’re only allowed one personal item.
• PLAY Basic Plus – For those that need a little bit more baggage but still want to travel light. Costs include airfare, taxes, one personal item, one carry-on bag, priority boarding, and seat assignment in the back half of the aircraft.
• PLAY Value – For travelers wanting to add more value to their trip. Included are your airfare, taxes, one personal item, one carry-on bag, one checked bag (up to 44lbs), priority boarding, and seat assignment in the back half of the aircraft.
• PLAY Flex – The ultimate flexible, low-cost ticket. This bundle has everything you need to make your trip comfortable and worry-free. Included are airfare, taxes, one personal item, one carry-on bag, one checked bag (up to 50lbs), priority boarding, seat assignment anywhere on the aircraft, and flight change flexibility.

PLAY currently only operates out of five major cities in North America: Toronto, New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Boston. If you don’t live near these hubs, then you could always consider using a positioning flight with a different airline to get you there. That’s exactly what I did. I reside in Asheville, NC (which never has direct flights anyway) so I flew from Asheville > Atlanta > Baltimore.

As an Icelandic-owned company, PLAY is certainly still getting its footing in the United States. PLAY’s Baltimore employees didn’t honor anyone’s original seat assignments or priority boarding status. It was… a little chaotic. Still, once on the plane heading to Iceland, the flight attendants looked like they just got off a European runway. Style counts for something in the world of airlines!

Flying out of Iceland back home to the United States was a completely different experience. All PLAY staff were primed up and not only knowledgeable, but passionate about working for PLAY. Anyone who had originally paid for priority boarding was boarded first and the gate agents and flight attendants looked and acted like they were on top of any questions. It was a breath of fresh air, yet it stood out that PLAY is solid in its home hubs of Iceland and Europe, but has staff training gaps to fill in the United States.

So is PLAY worth it?

It depends. On you, your budget, and how much space you need. If you’re manifesting yourself to Iceland or Europe this summer and you’re ballin’ on a budget, then most definitely. If you can sleep on a long flight even when wedged beside strangers — you got this. With the four tiers of PLAY airfare, you can definitely fly across the ocean to make your summer dreams come true for as much as half the price of competitive airlines’ routes. Just make sure to pack your own snacks, water, and know that you’re paying less so you splurge on other parts of the trip.

The Los Angeles Lakers are once again in the market for a new head coach. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Lakers decided to follow up their first-round exit from the playoffs by firing Darvin Ham, who was hired in the lead-up to the 2022-23 campaign. Wojnarowski reported that Rob Pelinka informed Ham of the decision over the phone.

Shams Charania of The Athletic floated a list of potential candidates, which includes a number of high-profile former head coaches who are (and could be) on the market, along with an intriguing name in ex-player and co-host of the “Mind the Game” podcast with LeBron James, JJ Redick.

After a lengthy playing career, Ham got into coaching, and spent more than a decade as an assistant with the Lakers, the Atlanta Hawks, and the Milwaukee Bucks. A frequent name on potential head coaching list for years, Ham finally got hired by the Lakers in the aftermath of Frank Vogel’s ouster. His tenure did include some highs — the team was above-.500 in both of his seasons at the helm, they made the Western Conference Finals last year, and they won the In-Season Tournament this past December — but he frequently came under criticism, particularly for his rotations.

The decision to fire Ham comes on the heels of the Lakers getting a rematch with the team that eliminated them from the postseason last year, the Denver Nuggets. They ended up losing in five games.