Category: News

Benedict Cumberbatch and Kristen Dunst are getting some of the best reviews of their respective careers for their performances in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog — and they never spoke to each other on set.

In the Netflix film, Cumberbatch plays Phil Burbank, a cruel rancher who torments his brother’s wife, Rose (Dunst). “I didn’t want to be really mean to Kirsten, but I needed to stay in character,” he told NME. “So I didn’t speak to her on-set. She was the same. We were the negative to each other’s positive. [We were] repelled by each other.”

Method acting isn’t for everyone, but it worked for Cumberbatch (who gave himself nicotine poisoning three times) and Dunst: The Power of the Dog has a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score (94 percent “Fresh” rating) and has been called one of the best movies of the year by multiple publications, including Slate and IndieWire.

Here’s the official plot summary:

A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother’s new wife and her teen son — until long-hidden secrets come to light.

The Power of the Dog, which also stars Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie, Genevieve Lemon, Keith Carradine, and Frances Conroy, is out in theaters now and hits Netflix on December 1. You can watch the trailer below.

While there are certainly no shortage of toxic and tumultuous romances in Hollywood, it seems safe to say that, at least in recent years, none have been quite so dramatic as the one shared between movie stars Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. In fact, Depp and Heard’s four-year-long relationship is so now so notorious (and convoluted), Discovery+ is actually creating a full-length, two-part documentary in an attempt to make sense of it all, Deadline reports.

The upcoming documentary, titled Johnny vs. Amber, will follow the “celebrity court case of the decade” from both Depp and Heard’s sides in an attempt to remain unbiased and discover the truth between countless claims. The first part of the documentary highlights Depp’s side, and explores why he now believes he was married to a “Machiavellian liar who would stop at nothing to protect her image.” The second half explains Heard’s point-of-view, recounting the story of “how the actress married the man of her dreams only to see him turn into a violent drug-fueled monster.” During both segments, the documentary will present extensive archived footage and audio, as well as exclusive interviews from lawyers on either side and people close to the couple.

The documentary is being made by All3Media indie Optomen, with Nick Hornby, Fran Baker, and Matt Reid executive producing. As for why Johnny vs. Amber is being made now, Hornby says he feels it plays and important role in helping people understand domestic violence.

“Through the tapes, home videos and text messages shown in court, these films give viewers a rare and important insight into a marriage that went tragically wrong, and to better understand the hugely important issue of domestic violence.”

It looks like Lil Wayne has made good on his promise to feature on Cordae‘s upcoming sophomore album, according to a teaser of the music video posted by Hit-Boy, who produced the track. Hit teased the new song with a tweet featuring a clip taken during the video’s shoot from just off-camera, in which Cordae and Wayne wear matching peacoats and rap to the camera surrounded by a crew of men in outfits nodding to the Black Nationalist movements of the 1970s.

Lil Wayne first expressed interest in appearing on Cordae’s new album back in May of 2020, when Cordae appeared as a guest on Wayne’s Young Money Radio podcast. Wayne told Cordae, “All you gotta do is text me the song, I’ll murder it and send you the finger so you know it’s dead.” At the time, Cordae was just working on songs for the project, saying, “I’m like 50 songs in. I’m just trying to cut it down.”

A year — and a name change — later and Cordae seems to be gearing up for the eventual release, dropping a freestyle to Drake’s “Way 2 Sexy” telling fans they are “not ready” for it, dropping a new single, “Super,” showing off his sharpened pen game, and appearing on Desus & Mero to kick off his press promotion. Judging from the snippet shared by Hit-Boy, it’s going to build on the blueprint laid down by his debut The Lost Boy, with a renewed focus on both bars and smooth production from some of the most notable names in the game.

As promised, HBO Max will soon deliver a Magic Mike-themed reality series, so hold onto your pants, or they’ll fall right off. Aptly titled Finding Magic Mike, the show hails from producers Steven Soderbergh and Channing Tatum, so maybe this will keep the latter from randomly busting out his moves in a gas station (not that this is a bad thing, obviously). This is a reality series in every sense of the word, apparently, since it zeroes in on a bunch of dudes who want to recapture their own mojo, so they go to a stripper bootcamp and let it all hang out.

From the looks of the above trailer, that’s exactly what they do. They’re also falling all over the place and just generally enjoying life, which is something that everyone should remember to do every now and then. Also, the audience members feel like as much of a cast as the actual contestants here, so it’s a good time for everyone involved. Tatum does not materialize in this trailer, but one expect guest judges aplenty, including Whitney Cummings, Nikki Glaser, and Nicole Scherzinger. And maybe we’ll see some of Ginuwine’s “Pony,” too? There are no promises there, but remember, Jenna Dewan may have done it better. Here’s the official logline:

Ten regular guys who have “lost their magic” are put through the paces of a Magic Mike Live bootcamp, baring their souls – and more – as they learn to perform sexy and daring dance routines with one being crowned the real Magic Mike. The winner will pocket a cash prize.

Finding Magic Mike will make you sweat (maybe) on December 16.

If you haven’t seen what’s happening with our friends up in western Canada, it’s not great. After enduring a record-breaking heat dome and deadly wildfires this summer, residents of British Columbia are now dealing with massive flooding and mudslides. A state of emergency has been declared after a massive storm—an “atmospheric river” that officials have called a once-in-a-century event—dumped a month’s worth of precipitation in 24 hours.

An entire town of 7,000 people was evacuated, and areas of other cities have been evacuated as well. The entire city of Vancouver got cut off from the rest of Canada, with every roadway and train line blocked or destroyed by water or mud. It’s unprecedentedly bad.

Thankfully, we’re seeing stories of helpers and heroes emerging from the disaster.

There are so many good people.

Huge gratitude for the Sikh community’s commitment to seva (selfless service). #BCFlood #BCStorm @Tarnjitkparmar https://t.co/sdrnyjGGgl

— Christine Boyle (@christineeboyle) November 17, 2021

The Sikh community is known for its sewa, or selfless service, and natural disasters provide plenty of opportunity for demonstrating such service. Volunteers from Surrey’s Dukh Nivaran Sahib Gurdwara have cooked more than 3,000 meals for people stranded by the storm.

“So many people stuck there and they have no food,” Narinder Singh Walia, the gurdwara’s president, told CTV News. “We are trying to reach them with food and blankets and other stuff.”

Not only did the Sikh community come together to prepare the meals, but they also arranged for a helicopter to deliver the meals to areas cut off by road and train—a much-appreciated act of service, especially for the truckers who are unable to get home.

A huge shout out to the Sikh community from Kamloops. They brought fresh cooked meals for all stranded truckers. They are preparing/delivering these to all, in need. Community ❤

— M.G. Duggan Tweeting Trucker🇨🇦🇮🇪 (@ve6dpa) November 17, 2021

Neerha Walia of the Gurunanak Food Bank told CTV News that they were in contact with local authorities and churches to get the food, blankets and other supplies where they were needed. She also said they were renting a plane on Thursday to go to the hard-hit towns of Merritt and Kamloops.

In the meantime, a steady stream of donations is pouring into the gurdwara as community members look for some way to help out.

People helping people in selfless service is what it’s all about. Thanks to the Sikh community for continually showing us how it’s done.

Lil Nas X has basically taken over pop culture at this point. He’s got inescapable music, he’s in commercials, he’s on billboards, he even took over an entire episode of Maury to extend the pregnancy gag from the rollout of his excellent debut album Montero. His cultural ubiquity is beginning to rival even that of the vaunted Marvel Cinematic Universe — so naturally, he wants a piece of that too, in one of the most iconic roles yet to be cast.

Replying to a fan account’s post with a photo of current and prior motion picture Peter Parkers Tom Holland and Andrew Garfield, Nas joked, “the rumors are true i will be playing miles morales.” Morales is, of course, another Spider-Man from an alternate universe who was recently transplanted into the mainstream Marvel universe (comics are weird, y’all). Considering the plot of the upcoming Spider-Man film, No Way Home, in which a magic spell gone wrong brings visitors from multiple alternate universes to the modern MCU we all know and love (yes, even you haters, stop pretending, man, no one is impressed), it’s well within the realm of possibility that Miles could be one of those visitors. This gives Nas’ “announcement” a non-zero chance of being true.

Look. I know that Lil Nas X is an incorrigible prankster with a wild sense of supremely unserious, internet-bred humor and that very little he says can ever be taken seriously. But, to borrow a phrase from the late, great Stan Lee himself — what if?

Either way, we’ll find out when Spider-Man: No Way Home hits theaters on December 17.

Big Sean and Hit-Boy brought their What You Expect EP single “What A Life” to the Tonight Show stage on Thursday with a thrilling, elegant performance. Decked out in matching tailored suits and enjoying a luxurious meal in a stately lounge, the dynamic duo is presented with a mic for Sean and a beat machine atop a grand piano for Hit-Boy. While the performance begins while they’re still seated, they smoothly slide from their well-appointed booth to a makeshift stage in the center of the room, where Sean goes for broke and Hit shows off his finger drumming skills.

The new project, which finds the two frequent collaborators paired up for a full five tracks that demonstrate the breadth and depth of their chemistry, is also the first of Big Sean’s new label venture independent of his past association with Kanye West’s GOOD Music. The timing of its release turned out to be opportune as well, as Ye’s appearance on the Drink Champs podcast just days later found Sean’s onetime mentor throwing him under the bus by saying that signing Sean to GOOD was the “worst thing” he ever did. Sean laughed off his old boss’ digs, although he did point out that Ye still owes him millions from their initial deal.

Instead, Sean and Hit focused on the positive, following up with more videos from the EP, including “The One” and “Chaos,” showing that they’ll both be just fine without help from the mercurial Mr. West.

Watch Big Sean and Hit-Boy’s late-night performance of “What A Life” above.

Seth Meyers has no love for Paul Gosar. The conspiracy theory-lovin’ Congressman was a main topic of Meyers’ “A Closer Look” segment on Thursday, and with good reason. On Wednesday, Gosar became the 24th person in American history—and the first in more than a decade—to be censured by the House of Representatives and stripped of his committee assignments for tweeting a violent anime video in which he’s seen murdering Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez then going after Joe Biden.

Gosar, whose own sister called him a “sociopath” and whose entire family seems to be disgusted by him, wasn’t about to go down without a fight though. He attempted to defend himself by saying that, “No matter how much the Left tries to quiet me, I will continue to speak out. If I must join Alexander Hamilton, the first person attempted to be censured by this House, so be it. It is done.”

Meyers brushed off the Hamilton comparison and spoke for most people when he said he’d be terrified to hear Gosar rap. But what he really loved about Gosar’s comments is “when these idiots try to sound smart and adopt a defiant tone by using dramatic language like, ‘So be it. It is done.’ You don’t sound like a Founding Father—you sound like Cousin Greg.”

Meyers directly addressed the Republicans who are complaining that this censure is a waste of time by pointing out that“This whole thing would have been much easier and taken up much less time if you’d just been willing to step forward and say, ‘It was a deeply stupid tweet.’ But, to be fair, he is a deeply stupid man.” He went on to say:

“While Democrats were focused on signing a widely popular infrastructure bill into law, these lunatics were defending the insane behavior of one of their most unhinged and reckless members. [Louie] Gohmert offered perhaps the dumbest defense, claiming he tried to freeze the video to see the violence but couldn’t find it… Then there was Matt Gaetz, who tried to dismiss the video in question as just a cartoon while neglecting to mention that it was specifically doctored to make AOC the target of violence.”

Between defending Gosar and attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, Meyers lamented that “This is what the modern Republican party is. There’s no behavior too grotesque for them to defend, as five years of Donald Trump proved.”

You can watch the full segment above.

The amount of Gecs the world has is growing at an exponential rate. 100 Gecs formed in 2015, then in 2019, they released their debut album, 1000 Gecs. Last month, they confirmed they have a new album, 10000 Gecs, dropping early next year. They teased a new song last week, and now “Mememe” is here.

It should come as no surprise, but the video they shared for the song is pretty bizarre. It’s shot largely with a strong fish-eye lens, often from the perspective of inside of a mouth. In the clip, Dylan Brady and Laura Les dance around a park as they don wizard costumes and sing the song. As for the song itself, it doesn’t stick to one genre for all that long, as it moves between pop-punk, ska, industrial, and electronic sounds. As the duo tends to do, though, they combine these disparate elements into a surprisingly cohesive and delightful whole.

The band releases the song as they’re in the midst of wrapping up their current tour, which they started in October. They’re playing The Observatory in Santa Ana, California tonight, then they’ll be in Los Angeles tomorrow, then they’re taking a break before December shows in Philadelphia and New York City.

Watch the “Mememe” video above.

There’s apparently no bad blood between Scarlett Johansson and Marvel following her Black Widow lawsuit that led to some tense statements from both the actress and Disney, Marvel Studios’ parent company, in the press. During a star-studded red carpet event on Thursday night where Johansson was the recipient of the American Cinematheque Award, the actress was supported by her fellow Avengers. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, and Samuel L. Jackson were in attendance for the event in Johansson’s honor, which saw Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige reveal that the actress’ time with Marvel was not over yet. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Feige went on to praise Johansson’s skill as an actor-producer, a first for the MCU, saying how she helped bring in director Cate Shortland and shape the film as an ensemble “with equally fantastic” actors. “That’s what a smart producer does. She is a very, very smart producer,” said Feige before confirming an unannounced project.

“We are already working with Scarlett on another non-Black Widow related top-secret Marvel Studios project with her as a producer,” he said.

As for the elephant in the room, Johansson spoke freely about the Black Widow lawsuit, which she feels was a necessary move not just for her, but her fellow actors.

“I feel mostly very fortunate that nobody will have to go through what I went through and that it’s made, I think, a positive impact in the industry and hopefully for artists and creatives’ lives and livelihood,” Johansson told THR.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)