With all of these Western dramas popping up and captivating the dads across the nation, it was only a matter of time before Jordon Peele decided to have a go. Sorry Taylor Sheridan, but you might have more competition.
Under Peele’s company, Monkeypaw Productions, he will be executive producing the currently untitled docuseries for Peacock that intends to “dismantle the whitewashed mythology of the cowboy,” that is seen so often in modern pop culture. Here is the official synopsis:
The untitled Black cowboy docuseries will rewrite a foundational piece of American history, unmasking the forces that erased the identity of the Black cowboy from frontier history and present. Stories of real cowboys will take viewers on a thrilling odyssey that connects to the heart of the resurgence of Black cowboy culture that we see today across music, art, fashion and film in a three-part series to premiere on Peacock.
This isn’t the first time Peele has ventured into television, he hosted the 2019 The Twilight Zone reboot for two seasons, nor is it the first documentary series to come from the Monkeypaw Productions. You can stream his last cowboy-inspired flick, Nope, on Peacock to prepare, but please try to keep your horses safely indoors.
Francis Ford Coppola has been through a lot in his 85 years on Earth. He’s made hit films, raised a small army of directors, and somehow managed to start his own marijuana brand, so he really doesn’t need to return to filmmaking if he doesn’t want to.
But the director has been brainstorming his next film for decades, so if he wants to self-finance a $120M epic featuring Adam Driver, who are we to stop him?? He isn’t fazed.
Coppola’s upcoming epic Megalopolis is set to premiere at Cannes this year, and while Hollywood might be on the fence, fans of the iconic filmmaker are ready to welcome him back with open arms. Here is everything we know so far about the upcoming film.
Plot
The story follows Adam Driver as Cesar, an “idealistic architect attempting to rebuild New York as an American Utopia.” Driver becomes entangled with Julia Cicero, daughter of the corrupt mayor, Frank Cicero, and the three clash over ideas for a more sustainable future after the city continues to crumble.
Coppola told Vanity Fair he was inspired by H.G. Wells’ Things to Come which he discovered as a child. “I wasn’t really working on this screenplay for 40 years as I often see written, but rather I was collecting notes and clippings for a scrapbook of things I found interesting for some future screenplay, or examples of political cartoons or different historical subjects,” Coppola said. “Ultimately, after a lot of time, I settled on the idea of a Roman epic. And then later, a Roman epic set in modern America, so I really only began writing this script, on and off, in the last dozen years or so. Also, as I have made many films of many different subjects and in many different styles, I hoped for a project later in life when I might better understand what my personal style was.”
Cast
The star-studded cast includes Driver alongside Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Fishburne and Kathryn Hunter. Jason Schwartzman, Coppola’s nephew, also appears, because nepotism is allowed in the case of very good movies.
Release Date
The movie will debut at Cannes on the evening of Thursday, May 16, but does not currently have a distributor. While it does not have a wide release date yet, Coppola hopes it will turn into a New Year’s Day classic. He told Vanity Fair, “It’s my dream that Megalopolis will become a New Year’s Eve perennial favorite, with audiences discussing afterwards not their new diets or resolutions not to smoke, but rather this simple question: ‘Is the society in which we live the only one available to us’”
Trailer
No trailer has been released yet, but the first image gives us a glimpse of Driver as Cesar:
Super Nintendo World opened in Universal Studios Hollywood in 2023. Now it’s taking a warp pipe to the other coast. The Universal Orlando Resort revealed details about the Mario-themed land coming to its new Epic Universe theme park in Florida in 2025.
The journey begins with a portal from Celestial Park to Super Nintendo World, which transports people (and Goombas and Shy Guys and Dry Bones) “through the iconic green pipe into the immersive land,” according to Universal. “As guests emerge from the pipe, vibrant scenery and exciting kinetic energy surround them as they are greeted by the familiar sights and sounds that they’ve experienced on their Nintendo game consoles.”
Highlights in Super Mario Land include Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, the towering Bowser’s Castle, the family-friendly Yoshi’s Adventure ride, and restaurant Toadstool Cafe (I suggest the Fire Flower Spaghetti & Meatballs). Super Nintendo World also features the debut of Donkey Kong Country.
The Mine-Cart Madness coaster sounds nuts:
Guests will hop into a mine cart and careen through the jungle to help Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong protect the coveted golden banana on this first-of-its-kind family coaster. Utilizing an unprecedented ride system, innovative technology and a unique coaster design, Mine-Cart Madness will send riders on a thrilling adventure where they will experience the jaw-dropping maneuvers that they’ve seen Donkey Kong and the mine carts perform in the video games – including getting blasted out of a barrel, seemingly jumping over gaps as they speed along a rickety track, and so much more.
Living with depression and anxiety is hard enough, but things are made much worse when the people we depend on minimize or discount the disorder. It’s prevalent for people dealing with depression to have parents or loved ones who say that they are just faking it for attention or that they just need to get out of bed and start living life.
Writer and performance artist Sabrina Benaim did an incredible job of explaining what it feels like to have your depression and anxiety invalidated by a loved one. In 2014, she delivered an award-winning piece at the Toronto Poetry Slam called “Explaining My Depression To My Mother,” which has made countless people with depression feel seen.
In the poem, she beautifully explains the difference between depression and anxiety.
Anxiety holds me a hostage inside of my house, inside of my head.
Mom says, “Where did anxiety come from?”
Anxiety is the cousin visiting from out-of-town depression felt obligated to bring to the party.
Mom, I am the party.
She also explains why her happiness is beyond her control.
Mom says, “Happy is a decision.”
But my happy is as hollow as a pin-pricked egg.
My happy is a high fever that will break.
Mom says I am so good at making something out of nothing and then flat-out asks me if I am afraid of dying.
No.
I am afraid of living.
Benaim’s powerful poem helped earn the Canadian team the top prize at the 2014 Toronto Poetry Slam. After her performance went viral, she became a vocal advocate for anxiety and depression, performing tours in the U.S., Australia and Canada. She has also published two books, “Depression and Other Magic Tricks” (2017) and “I Love You, Call Me Back” (2021).
Oh boy. For a few days, Justified lovers have been reckoning with the realization that Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins did not 110% adore each other during every moment on the set of the FX show. The horror. And not even Goggins posting a shirtless photo squashed the mental image of the actors who portrayed Raylan and Boyd wanting to maybe do this in real life.
Soap operas are fun? Hmm. The chatter kicked into high gear when Olyphant more than took the high road while fielding a Vanity Fair question on the subject. This began with Goggins admitting that the two “weren’t talking” near Justified‘s final scenes while adding, “I think we just needed to separate, like brothers… We just needed to take a break in order to come back together.”
In response, Olyphant explained that there were simply some frustrating moments when Goggins pushed back at scripts to ensure that Boyd Crowder stuck an authentic landing. The Deadwood lead also suggested that the friction could have been a means to leave the series without being sad at the end because it’s “easier” to leave without melancholy. Maybe? Whatever the case, these two are just peachy now, and Olyphant pointed towards a highlight of his Alien role being that he can go visit his friend. Via Vanity Fair:
“Bangkok’s really special. There’s a monster in [Alien], and the monster takes up a lot of screen time. That lets me go down to the beach. I got to go see my buddy Walton Goggins down there filming The White Lotus.”
It’s true: Bangkok is special. And how is Goggins doing in Thailand? He’s occupied with memorializing his current experience by lip-synching Radiohead’s “Karma Police.” People, he’s lost himself:
“Down the road… when I’m eventually asked …What was it like doing the WHITE LOTUS,” Goggins wrote. “This will be my answer. MIKE WHITE!! What an experience this is.” It’s best not to read anything into this, y’all. Simply form an appreciative queue.
Aside from her recent memoir and sharing videos of herself dancing on Instagram, Britney Spears has been staying mostly out of the spotlight lately. However, it seems Spears was just involved in an unfortunate incident that is generating some attention.
According to reports from TMZ and Daily Mail, Spears and boyfriend Paul Soliz were at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles on late Wednesday, May 1 and early Thursday, May 2. There was reportedly a disturbance that prompted somebody to call police. The claim was made that a woman matching Spears’ description was harassing and threatening hotel employees and guests. Officers arrived around 10:30 p.m. but left after seeing no signs of trouble.
Spears and Soliz then apparently returned to their hotel room, where they “partied and drank.” The pair reportedly got into an altercation that turned physical, and Spears “may have hurt her leg.” Paramedics were called following claims that Spears was “screaming and out of control in the hallway of her suite.”
Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey told Daily Mail, “Emergency services received a call at 12:42 a.m. with reports of an adult female injured. At 1 a.m., an ambulance arrived on the premises. I can confirm no-one was transported. Services left the scene at 1:17 a.m. The police department were not called.”
The publication notes Spears was “seen clad in her underwear, clutching a pillow and appearing distressed as she left the hotel.” They also shared some photos of the situation and went on to note that Spears “appeared to be topless and looked disheveled as she held the pillow to her chest,” and that a “man was seen wheeling a stretcher with the star’s belongings on it — with a fire truck also seen at the Hollywood hotel.”
Spears reportedly left the hotel with her security and without Soliz.
The beef between Drake and Kendrick Lamar is boiling like a hot pot dinner, and it’s perhaps inevitable that Azealia Banks would chime in to pick a side. Longtime fans of the controversial commenter wouldn’t be shocked by whose side she chose, but if you weren’t tapped in before, you might raise your eyebrows on discovering that she didn’t care for Kendrick Lamar’s “Euphoria,” preferring Drake’s “Push Ups” instead.
A few reasons she gave include Kendrick “wearing the same size” as her, “the tone and timbre of Kendrick’s voice,” her feeling that “the mix is muddy as hell,” and that the beat is “dumb trash.” Her conclusion is that “Drake won. That’s it.” In typical Azealia Banks fashion, though, she quickly lost the plot, arguing for a conspiracy theory that “Kendrick sent goons to have both diss tracks from Cole and Drake removed from DSPs.”
Real quick, though: Drake was threatened with legal action by the estate of Tupac Shakur, whose likeness he unethically reproduced using AI (Congress really needs to get on some sort of legislation about this instead of, like, banning apps and selling bombs). Cole removed his track after seeing some backlash to it, citing his internal discontent with how it all worked out.
Of course, Azealia Banks has always had it out for Kendrick Lamar, writing in a rant about Doja Cat taking her spot, “He be making the kind of rap music that allows white people to indulge in weird fetishization of ‘the Black struggle’.” Her position is also something of an about-face, considering she was just trashing Drake a few months ago for allegedly getting liposuction. Also, her quibbles with Drake aligned with much of what Kendrick said in “Euphoria,” but Azealia’s never much been one for consistency, right?
She, of course, is still best known for a song from over 13 years ago and her salty assessments of everything everybody else has done since sooo… She’s entitled to her opinion, but it certainly looks like she’s on the outs this time.
For a film that’s marketed itself as an erotic thriller (writer Justin Kuritzkes prefers that label over the “romance drama” descriptor) one teased by critics as the sexiest movie of the year, filled with combustible chemistry and wildly sensual imagery, Challengers serves up what, to some, might seem like a small amount of actual sex scenes. And for fans flocking to theaters fueled by claims that the movie does for churros what Call Me By Your Name did for peaches, that realization might be jarring.
Hollywood has long conditioned audiences’ expectations of intimacy and desire on the big screen. If one buys a ticket for the latest superhero team up, one expects to see attractive actors neutered by tightly-fitting spandex. (These are the movies that birthed the current “everyone is beautiful and no one is horny” cinematic trend.) But if one buys a ticket for a film starring two slicked-up submissive “little white boys” willing to tank their friendship and careers in order to exist in Zendaya’s orbit, one expects a bit more grand slamming. Because, after all, when it comes to sex, it’s one or the other, all or nothing, the difference between a PG-13 rating and an R label that speaks to the adults only crowd.
But while Challengers’ trailers promised threesomes set to the backdrop of a Rihanna BDSM song, its theatrical reality might’ve left fans with a painful case of metaphorical blue balls.And you know what? The film is all the sexier for it. If there’s one takeaway Challengers leaves us with after two hours of charged eye contact and heavy petting disguised as power plays and repressed Queer longing it’s this: Luca Guadagnino is pro-edging.
Whether he’s teasing us with a menage-a-trois attempt in a dingy motel room or dangling an over-the-clothes fondling session in a college dorm, the director understands that unrealized desire is often more exciting than anything that follows. Sex is everywhere and nowhere in Challengers. It spurs Tashi to cheat on her fiancé in a swanky hotel lounge. It sparks some adulterous contortionism in the backseat of a beat-up compact SUV. Hell, it even turns an Applebee’s parking lot into a hot hookup spot. It’s there on the periphery, acting as both threat and reward while a tennis prodigy masterfully manipulates the game to suit her needs, reminding audiences that foreplay is everything.
If we’ve forgotten that, blame the ’90s. Or, more accurately, those ’90s erotic thrillers that made bets on a teenager’s virginity and pushed women to murder their lovers, men to take up voyeurism as a hobby, and psychos to grope Reese Witherspoon on a high-speed rollercoaster. For so long, cinema conflated eroticism with provocativeness, assuming that, for a film to be sexy, it needed to shock by showing everything. Its characters needed to be motivated by carnal desires. Sex needed to be the point.
In Challengers, Guadaginino imagines a different definition for the erotic thriller, one that courts chaos by taunting audiences with the unseen. Did Tashi and Patrick hook up years prior? Did its male leads sexually experiment with each other as teens? Did these characters want to fuck up each other’s lives, or did they simply want to fuck? The questions are sometimes more interesting than the answers, and they’re asked not by zooming in on soaked bodies horizontally splayed, but with churros, bananas, dick-swinging sauna sit-downs, and sweaty Gatorade-chugging marathons.
Guadaginino is a savant when it comes to Queer imagery, littering his pro-throuple work of art with suggestive symbolism meant to arouse audiences and cause us to suspect the true motives behind its main characters’ actions. Sure, in 2024, a mainstream movie that serves up some polyamory certainly could have had less offensive towel-placements. But for anyone arguing that the Queer eroticism of Challengers is simply for show, a nod to audiences hungry to read into subtext that filmmakers are too lazy to explore, we respectfully disagree. To understand the dynamics of the relationship between Tashi, Art, and Patrick, we need to see the unfulfilled sexual tension that undercuts the close friendship these two men have enjoyed for years – long before a woman entered the picture. Patrick’s comfortability in terms of his own sexuality is at odds with Art’s more repressed nature, hence his friend’s need to tease and taunt him with penis-shaped foods and intimate touches. Patrick, like Tashi, is constantly pushing Art out of his comfort zone, he just chooses to use sex to do it. And for Art, that confusion Patrick stokes leads to resentment, something he unleashes in the film’s sauna scene. He knows his friend cares about him on a deeper level, even after so many years apart, and he uses that affection – something Patrick’s always shown Art – to cut him down a size before their final showdown.
Challengers is a film that vibrates with sexual energy – from its pulsing techno soundtrack to its intimate cinematography to the many innuendos its use of food and cigarettes and racquets inspires. It teaches us how to do sex right, without actually doing sex at all. If anything, the lack of sex in the film is proof that, while no one would argue against watching hot people banging it out on screen, movies can arouse without being so obvious about it.
In Challengers, everyone is beautiful and everyone is horny… that’s kind of the whole point.
There are exceedingly few all-time great athletes that don’t go through a period of decline to end their career, and navigating that stretch can be extremely difficult for players to deal with mentally. While everyone knows Father Time is undefeated, accepting that fact is quite hard for players who once were at the pinnacle of their sport.
For Shaquille O’Neal, the end of his career was something he had to grapple with as he went from being the league’s most dominant player to playing 20 minutes per night in Boston in his final year (2010-11). As he explained to JJ Redick on the Old Man and the Three podcast this week, that year messed him up feeling like he was “not ‘him’” and left him grappling with the truth that “Shaq’s not Shaq anymore.”
I loved every bit of this conversation with Shaq. Here he reflects on the end of his career. Full episode of @OldManAndThree drops tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/RyWKhyZcGP
Shaq says he felt like he was “robbing the people” by not being his old self, and that he told Boston to “f**king keep it” when they called him to say they owed him $1.5 million for next year. As for when he knew it was gone, it was when he had to start working hard to get up for a dunk. The problem for Shaq was, he’d never considered his basketball mortality before the end. Some players are able to step back and understand that a basketball career is finite, but as Shaq explained, he was so dominant for so long it never crossed his mind that one day it’d just go away.
It’s always really interesting to hear players talk about this point of their careers, because it is the most human experience that happens to an elite athlete. They spend years being able to do things almost no one else on the planet can do, but at some point they cannot reach that level anymore, which is something everyone has to grapple with at some point. However, it’s even more difficult for them to deal with because an athlete has so much of their identity into what they do and the sport they play that it can rattle them to their core, and it requires a lot of work to figure out what comes next.
The actress wore a “dangerous” dress that was covered in spikes, looking more like Sonic the Hedgehog than Furiosa the Imperator. According to People, it was an “embellished gold and silver minidress and matching headpiece, both adorned with giant spikes that resemble arrows. The look, styled by Ryan Hastings, is from Paco Rabanne’s spring/summer 1996 collection.”
I don’t know anything about fashion, but I do know more dresses should be hazardous to anyone who gets too close to the dress wearer. Anya is her own security guard. Is there anything she can’t do?!
You can see the look below.
Getty Image
Here’s the official synopsis for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga:
As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, which is directed by mad genius George Miller, rides eternal into theaters on May 24.
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