Category: News

Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon went down on Thursday night during the Houston Rockets’ 125-105 loss to the Sacramento Kings. While attempting to prevent De’Aaron Fox from driving to the rim, Gordon pulled up in pain and eventually sat down on the ground before leaving the game in the third quarter.

One day later and the Rockets reportedly got a piece of news that could have implications for more than just themselves. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Gordon suffered a groin strain that is expected to keep him out for at least the next month of action.

Gordon is averaging 17.8 points per game for the Rockets, which are losers of their last 14 games and have the second-worst record in the Western Conference. But as Wojnarowski pointed out, Gordon was mentioned as a potential trade target for a handful of teams in the lead-up to the deadline, and him suffering the sort of injury that would keep him out through March 25 seriously hurts Houston’s chances of being able to move him and receive maximum value back.

Gordon is in the first year of a four-year extension worth more than $75 million, and his ability to score on the perimeter and act as a secondary ball-handler is the kind of thing that could make him valuable for teams that could use reinforcements. At the very least, perhaps teams can take solace in knowing another Rockets stalwart is available, as the team is reportedly ready to move on from P.J. Tucker in the lead-up to the deadline.

It’s been a minute since Ted Cruz played himself, but good news, the King of Self-Owns is back. Outside of making some noise over Dr. Seuss being “canceled,” which resulted in the Texas senator getting roasted by Jimmy Kimmel and Daisy Ridley (again), things have been relatively quiet for Cruz after his disastrous decision to fly to Cancun while the citizens of Texas were left to literally freeze to death in their homes after a massive winter storm. However, Cruz apparently felt the need to tap into his “Freedom!” yelling speech from CPAC by… challenging Joe Biden to come and take his barbecue grill?

In what he thought was a clever move, Cruz tweeted an odd meme that features a grill and the Texas motto “Come and Take It” in response to Biden’s Thursday night speech where he predicted that most Americans should be able to safely have Fourth of July barbecues this year thanks to his administration’s robust vaccine distribution plan. For the record, this is great news, and really should not have been controversial. Instead, Cruz joined other Republicans in treating a July 4th cookout as some sort of political act of defiance instead of a nice thing that Biden genuinely hopes everybody can do.

You can see Cruz’s tweet below:

Naturally, it didn’t take long for the dunks to start piling in as people were genuinely confused by what it is Cruz is complaining about. They also didn’t waste an opportunity to bring up his disastrous trip to Cancun.

(Via Ted Cruz on Twitter)

President Biden marked the year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic by delivering his first prime-time address Thursday evening from the East Room of the White House

The speech was a solemn commemoration of the lives lost in the pandemic and the struggles Americans have faced for the past year. But the speech also marked a turning point as Americans are finally beginning to see the light after a long, dark night caused by the virus.

Biden summed up the succinctly with one line: “Finding light in the darkness is a very American thing to do.”

At the beginning of the speech, Biden showed how far we’ve come since last March when the country suffered under chaotic leadership.

“A year ago, we were hit with a virus that was met with silence and spread unchecked, denials for days, weeks, then months,” Biden said. “That led to more deaths, more infections, more stress, and more loneliness.”

He signaled the difference in empathy between him and his predecessor by brandishing a card he carries in his pocket that contains an updated number of Americans who’ve died from the virus. It now stands at over 527,000.

Biden noted the number of deaths was greater than two world wars, the Vietnam War, and 9/11 combined.

Much like he did on the campaign trail, he showed he understands what the average American has been going through over the past year. “The things we used to do that always filled us with joy have become things we couldn’t do,” he mourned. “It broke our hearts.”

President Joe Biden addresses nation on first anniversary of Covid shutdown

www.youtube.com

He then described a path forward marked by truth, faith in science, and continued vigilance to fight the virus in the final stretch.

“We know what we need to do to beat this virus; tell the truth, follow the science, work together,” he said. “You’re owed nothing less than the truth.”

He took time to tout his administration’s achievements in fighting the virus. While normally, this type of gesture by a sitting president would be seen as political grandstanding, a plurality of Americans believe his administration has done a good job.

The latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey, found that sixty-two percent of Americans approve of how Biden is handling the pandemic.

“Now, because all the work we’ve done, we’ll have enough vaccine supply for all adults in America by the end of May,” he said. “That’s months ahead of schedule.”

Biden also proudly proclaimed he was going to “beat” his original goal of getting 100 million shots in people’s arms in his first 100 days in office, by having it done in just 60.

The president also announced he has directed states to make all adult Americans eligible to receive coronavirus vaccines no later than May 1.

Finally, Biden gave Americans the shot in the arm they really need by providing a date by which he believes a sense of normalcy will return.

“If we do our part, if we do this together, by July the 4th there’s a good chance you, your families, and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day,” the president said.

He called it a day we could declare “independence from this virus.”

He ended the speech with a call to remain vigilant in the final months of the pandemic by getting vaccinated, washing your hands, and wearing a mask.

“I promise you, we’ll come out stronger,” Biden said. “With a renewed commitment to one another, to our communities, and to our country. This is the United States of America … from the bottom of my heart, I believe this, that there’s nothing we can’t do when we do it together.”

One of the scariest things about being trapped in a situation with a dangerous person is how many people don’t notice. Abusers, kidnappers, traffickers, and the like often monitor and control a person so tightly that asking for help seems impossible.

There are countless stories of people managing to slip someone a note saying they need help or signaling in some other way that they’re in an unsafe situation. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way that they could quickly, yet discreetly, alert people that they were in trouble without flagging the person putting them in danger?

There is. It’s the international signal for help, and it’s going viral for all the right reasons.

A video shared by Indian restauranter Harjinder Singh Kukreja shows several scenarios in which a person needs help and signals with a simple hand gesture we all need to learn to recognize—or if necessary, use ourselves.

In the video, a woman on a balcony, a man at the door during a delivery, and a girl walking down a hallway with a man all give the signal without their abuser knowing.

The Signal for Help campaign was launched by the Women’s Funding Network, the world’s largest philanthropic network for girls and women, last April. With the coronavirus pandemic getting into full swing, it was clear that people were going to be spending a lot more time on video calls and people in abusive situations were going to be spending a lot more time with their abusers. The Signal for Help initiative was a way to discreetly communicate via video call that you were in a dangerous situation without having to say a word.

As we saw in the first video, the signal is useful for more than just Zoom calls. The only issue is that this signal only works if people recognize it and know what it means. That’s why people are sharing the video and encouraging others to do the same.

What’s great about the signal is that it can be done discreetly. Since it only requires one hand, it’s more convenient than the American Sign Language sign for “help,” which requires two hands. It’s simple, subtle, and swift enough to be easy to use in lots of different circumstances (as we see in the videos) but also distinct enough that those who know it will recognize it instantly. It’s even something we can teach young children.

We know that domestic violence is a going concern, especially during the pandemic when people are trapped at home with their abusers. We also know that human trafficking is a billion-dollar global industry and that victims are sometimes being transported in broad daylight. The more tools we have for getting people help the better, but first we need to know when someone actually needs help.

Learning and sharing this hand sign far and wide will help spread awareness, enable more victims of violence to ask for help in a safe way, and hopefully even save lives.

The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards (Sunday, CBS 8:00 p.m.) — Trevor Noah is promising a full-on show (rather than a pandemic-Zoom show) with a hopefully grand return to in-person hosting. This year’s nominees include Beyoncé, Dua Lipa, Roddy Ricch, and Taylor Swift, and expect performances from Swift, Billie Eilish, Cardi B, BTS, and more. Please join us for live coverage as it happens.

Cherry (Apple TV+ movie) — Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is currently hard at work while web slinging for another MCU movie, but he’s bridging the gap with some diversified projects. That might be an understatement, for this is Tom Holland like you’ve never seen him (far beyond the buzz cut) before, and interestingly enough this is happening while Holland reteams with the Russo Brothers for an adaptation of Nico Walker’s debut novel. This certainly isn’t Spider-Man territory, to say the very least. Cherry‘s an autobiographical story about Walker’s time as an Army medic during the war in Iraq, followed by undiagnosed PTSD that led to falling into the belly of the American opioid epidemic and bank-robbing sprees. Obviously, this is dark stuff but with a satiric edge.

Cold Courage (AMC+) — Two Nordic women find themselves drawn together during the investigation of a series of London-set murders. The story’s based upon Finnish journalist Pekka Hiltunen’s bestselling novels and aims to unite the two aforementioned women (a psychologist who favors underdogs and a graphic artist who’s fleeing from her abusive stalker). The two women want to right wrongs that are committed by the powerful, and a charismatic politician is promising to sort-of Make Great Britain Great Again. This show is dropping three initial episodes with subsequent weekly followups.

The One (Netflix series) — Those who are obsessed with dating apps and need motivation to stop might enjoy this series, which imagines that DNA matching is the key to finding the perfect partner. This sounds like it carries a similar vibe to AMC’s Soulmates but with a flashier polish with results as equaly messy. Married people are gonna retroactively take the DNA test, right? Oh god, yeah. At that point, maybe don’t fall into that trap, but do check out this series. It’s guaranteed to be anything but boring.

Last Chance U: Basketball (Netflix series) — The Emmy-winning franchise returns with a no-holds-barred, somewhat gritty look into community college basketball. The players all want to rise to the next level and achieve dreams, but first, those damn personal demons and warring emotions happen on and off the court, all while the East Los Angeles College Huskies set their sights upon an unprecedented California state basketball championship.

Dealer (Netflix series) — It’s a bloody gang war with subtitles, and it’s happening in the South of France, which sounds wild enough, but this show also revolves around two filmmakers, including a music video director who’s filming a drug gang leader with far too much charisma and not enough predictability inside, and he also wants to bust into the rap scene. This series hopes to thrill you with a fast pace and a found-footage feel.

Supermarket Sweep (Sunday, ABC 8:00 p.m.) — Leslie Jones and every bit of her enthusiasm will host contestants in this revival of the grocery-shopping game show.

Batwoman (Sunday, CW 8:00 p.m.) — Ryan’s worsening condition makes her question the no-killing code when the possibility of avenging her mother’s in full view. Meanwhile, Alice learns some valuable information from Tatiana.

The Walking Dead (Sunday, AMC 9:00 p.m.) — The bonus episodes of Season 10 continue with Maggie, Gabriel, and Aaron on the hunt for food and supplies for the Alexandria crown. While poking around, they end up discovering a stash, but then they begin to lose faith in each other.

Allen V. Farrow (Sunday, HBO 9:00 p.m.) — This four part documentary series continues this weekend to dig into a notorious and still-raging scandal of what, exactly, happened with Woody Allen and his family. This week, the bitter 1993 custody battle deepens the primary rift. Later, Ronan Farrow publicly supports the #MeToo movement, and Dylan comes forward with her story.

Shameless (Sunday, Showtime 9:00 p.m.) — Frank and Liam are attempting to rename the latter’s middle school while Debbie escapes her responsibilities, and Ian and Mickey are far too responsible.

Charmed (Sunday, CW 9:00 p.m.) — Harry and Macy dig into an ancient magical artifact while Abby’s looking for an unseen force, and Maggie’s absorbed with school matters.

Last Week Tonight: Season 8 Premiere (Sunday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — Everyone’s favorite sarcastic and satiric late-night host returned a few weeks ago, and not a moment too soon. Can’t wait to see who he skewers this week.

Another year, another viral video of a very hungry person being pseudo-sexually serviced by the Salt Bae. The new clip, posted last night by Twitter user @YouAdoreeShay, shows the Salt Bae doing his Salt Bae thing and feeding a piece of freshly cut (and salted) steak to a woman who just as seductively receives. The scene, which went down at Bae’s Boston restaurant Nusr-Et, is now making the rounds across Twitter as people (mostly jealous dudes) feel deep empathy for the man sitting next to her.

To describe dude’s expression as pained is putting it lightly. But who’s to say who he’s actually jealous of? Maybe he just wants someone to feed him steak in a suggestive manner.

This isn’t the first time the internet has freaked out over the power Salt Bae seems to hold over meat-lovers. Last year, a video went viral after an angry boyfriend lost his cool at Nusr-Et while a woman twerked for a smiling Gökçe. Nusret Gökçe is probably going to get punched before long, but let it be a reminder to us all that tenderness and passion are qualities in high demand. Also, that good food is sexy.

Check out some of the reactions below. Brace yourselves for “meat” jokes.

You might recall a couple of years ago that there was a trend going around where basketball players would drive around a random neighborhood looking for hoops and then film themselves hopping out of their cars and dunking on said hoops and driving away before anyone was the wiser.

It was a very entertaining internet phenomenon while it lasted — I mean, who doesn’t love a good dunk, especially when it involves an NBA star? It’s great content. But it’s also something that lends itself more specifically to something like dunking than, say, shooting a jump shot.

Duncan Robinson found that out the hard way when he attempted to surprise a couple of young hoopers and knock down a long jumper. To hear him tell it, none of it when according to plan.

A humbling experience for @D_Bo20 pic.twitter.com/isVxewRyqR

— The Long Shot (@TheLongShotPod) March 12, 2021

The best part is that the kids didn’t even recognize Robinson, but to add insult to injury, he air-balled the shot on top of it. That’s a far cry, of course, from his usual tract of knocking down three-pointers for the Heat. But regardless, it makes for a great story about coming to humbling realization of just how famous, or in his case, not famous you are.

Years after the show’s final episode aired, The Office remains one of the most popular sitcoms ever made. And now, to add to the other honors it’s received, we have at least one documented case of someone using an image from the show to attempt unemployment fraud. A picture of Jim Halpert. Yeah, it’s weird.

Reports trickled out on Thursday from a Michigan state legislature meeting that someone, for reasons no one seems to understand, tried to use a picture of John Krasinski on a driver’s license in order to obtain unemployment benefits. In a virtual hearing that was described as “testy” by reporters who witnessed it, Michigan’s House Oversight Committee interviewed Liza Estlund Olson, the acting head of the state Unemployment Insurance Agency, who testified about mounting issues with the state’s services amid a pandemic.

Though it was not one of the reasons the hearing was called in the first place, Olson wanted to show off some of the difficulties her department has dealt with in recent months as unemployment skyrocketed amid the pandemic. Which is how the world now has the actual image of a Michigan license with Jim from The Office on it.

According to the Detroit Metro Times, the photo that circulated is something that was actually caught by the unemployment office. Though no one really seems to understand what benefit would come from using a photo of Office Jim on a license in this case.

As confirmed by the Unemployment Insurance Agency on Thursday, a fake ID was submitted to Michigan’s unemployment department by a man who curiously swapped their ID photo for a photo of Halpert in an effort to attempt to fraudulently gain unemployment benefits.

OK — so it is unclear how photoshopping a photo of a fictional character onto a driver’s license would actually fool anyone, or why it would work, especially if the document contained the man’s real name, address, and other personal information.

And, of course, there’s always a quote from The Office to fit the situation.

If anything, the incident would make some Office superfans wonder about the health of the Dunder Mifflin office amid a pandemic. One actor from the show has joked that he’s bringing the Buffalo office back, but if you believe claims out of Michigan, Jim just might be in between gigs.

Matt Berninger sometimes involves himself in musical endeavors outside of The National, but he went solo in his biggest way so far last year when he dropped a full solo album, Serpentine Prison. Today, he returns with a deluxe edition of the album, which adds six new tracks to the proceedings.

The majority of the new tracks aren’t originals, but covers, as Berninger took on the Velvet Underground’s “European Son,” Bettye Swan’s “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye,” Morphine’s “In Spite Of Me,” and Eddie Floyd’s “Big Bird.” Aside from those, there are also two new originals: “Let It Be” (which Berninger shared last month and which is not a Beatles cover) and “The End.”

Berninger previously told Uproxx that the process of creating Serpentine Prison actually began with covers, saying, “I wanted to do a bunch of covers just so I could get outside of my comfort zone. Then in that process with Booker [T. Jones], I sent him a few originals — there was one I wrote with Walt Martin, ‘Distant Axis,’ that he really, really was into. And that’s when he said, ‘Let’s start focusing on the originals.’ We ended up doing 12 originals and six covers in 14 days.”

Stream Serpentine Prison (Deluxe Edition) below and revisit our interview with Berninger here.

Long Weekend, opening in theaters this week, is, according to writer/director Stephen Basilone, “a rom-com with a twist.” It’s a tricky film to describe, because basically the entire trick of it is that it comes on as a movie you’ve seen and then gradually reveals itself as something different. It’s a unicorn disguised as a horse — a movie we’re forced to describe in abstractions to keep from spoiling.

Long Weekend is such a smart, off-beat riff on love, and on movies about love, that I never would’ve guessed that it’s also autobiographical. Yet Basilone, a veteran TV writer (Happy Endings, Community, The Michael J. Fox Show, The Goldbergs) assures me that this is the case. His film stars Finn Wittrock as Bart, a down-on-his-luck writer coming off a break-up, who meets a mysterious stranger named Vienna, played by Zoe Chao.

Down-on-his-luck-failing-artist-coming-off-a-traumatic-break-up is a stock romance premise at this point, basically going back to Romeo and Juliet (which was already a “classic” premise in the 16th century). But it’s a stock-premise that Basilone was living. He says the film was inspired by a time in his life when he was coming off a divorce, getting over a life-threatening illness, and the deaths of his mother and grandmother. As if that weren’t enough, some cursory Googling reveals that his divorce was from Orange is the New Black actress Lauren Morelli, who started shooting the show just months after their wedding and soon realized that she was gay.

Being able to experience the joy of a new romance amidst all of this was what inspired Basilone to create Bart and Vienna in Long Weekend. Yet even amidst great trauma and great joy, any intelligent person has to realize that they’re not the first person ever to experience these feelings. I mean there’s nothing cornier than falling in love.

Basilone utilizes the fantastic to explore new love in ways that haven’t already been done to death, all the while subtextually assuring us that, “Yes, I know you think you’ve seen something like this before, but this is different…” It’s an incredibly deft dance, but Long Weekend manages it shockingly well.

And now he faces an equally stiff challenge: selling a movie that succeeds by being slightly different, mostly in ways that it would spoil the movie to explain. All while opening it in theaters at a time when most people aren’t quite sold on returning to movie theaters quite yet. I spoke to Basilone this week about why he seems to love a challenge.

—

I guess the obvious question, these days at least, is when did you guys shoot this, and how much did COVID affect getting all together?

Well, I finished writing it about four years ago, this time around 2017. We shot it in July, August 2019. We were relatively safe. Most of the edit was done by the time we all headed inside. The difficult part was doing remote color correction, final mixing, and doing ADR, where we had to send skits around, and I had to zoom with people while they were huddled away in their closet doing ADR (additional dialogue recording), which was very bizarre but still fun. It was just the getting to the finish line before we sent it out, which was the most complicated, but that was in April, May. It was nice to have, it gave me a little bit of structure, even if it was just sitting in my chair, talking to people. I think weirdly, fortuitously, the timing that this is coming out is nice and appropriate, even though I don’t know who’s going to theaters, but I’m excited about it.

Do people do less ADR now?

I think it depends. I think the technology has gotten good enough that you just notice it less. But I know in TV, we’re always doing something just to like, “Oh, we just need to pace up this scene.” Or, “We need to get some information that didn’t come across in this other joke,” or whatever. There wasn’t much here, but most of it that was there, was just doing that, taking a cut out of a scene and just making a gap for it. It wasn’t a ton, but it was enough to keep us busy.

What was your inspiration for the story?

It came out of a period that Bart’s character, or Finn’s character, is very much a conduit for myself. It’s autobiographical. I had just gone through a divorce, and I had just gotten over being sick for the better part of a decade. My grandmother and my mother had died, and while my mother was in hospice, I met somebody who was a real bright spot in an otherwise very sad and heavy period. It was this weird dichotomy of spending all day in a hospital then occasionally at night going out and having this very hedonistic experience, of sneaking into college parties and feeling like a teenager making out in my stepdad’s car. It was just a nice reminder that there’s light in even in the darkest of situations, and that you can find hope and a bit of romance, even when you’re not expecting it, and when everything else circumstantially is bad. Just, life is long and we’re very fragile, but also incredibly resilient.

What was your sickness for a decade?

I had this chronic immuno disease called ulcerative colitis. If you ever want a tour of Los Angeles’ greatest bathrooms, I can give it to you. At my height, or I guess my valley, I weighed 88 pounds and was knocking on the door to the great beyond. But, I made it through, and everything’s groovy.

This is the kind of movie that doesn’t work if the leads don’t pull it off. What was the casting process like?

I could not agree with you more. If you don’t buy into their romance, you don’t buy into their chemistry, if you’re not in Finn’s headspace, it does not work at all. I was lucky enough in all the ancillary roles that those were all friends. It was like the greatest hits of all the shows I’ve worked on, which was lovely that people came out and were willing to give their time. It just made the set very comfortable, and also just so talented. But Zoe was like… I knew her through friends of friends. As soon as she read for it, she was based in New York at the time, and as soon as she read it, I said, “That’s it. I will fall on my sword for this.”

She just brings such levity and nuance, and also emotion and depth to the performance. If you don’t have that, it’s not going to work. Then Finn — so I’m, I believe the technical term is, a big, big fraidy cat. I don’t like scary shit. I knew Finn’s worked from Beale Street and The Big Short, and what else? Oh. Stupid and Futile Gesture, but I was not familiar with his stuff, the big splashy stuff, that he’d been nominated for Emmys for [Ed. note: American Horror Story]. He was somebody that a producer suggested, and I was like, “Sure.” As soon as I met with him, he was just so pleasant, calm, excited, had just great thoughts and seemed like a great collaborator. Then as soon as the two of them read, they immediately had the chemistry where I thought, we might be able to pull this sucker off. It was that way the first day. The first day we shot was the first scene. It was just Bart alone. Then the scene with Wendi, that was all well and good, but it was just getting the machine oiled and running. Then the second day, Zoe came in and we did a lot of that cute bedroom montage stuff. Then as soon as we just started rolling the cameras, you could just see it. Everybody got very excited, because they were just coming alive with each other.

You mentioned Bart’s headspace, and the audience being inside of it. The movie seems like it’s aware of the audience’s expectations for a movie like this, with Bart referencing the manic pixie dream girl and whatnot. Why do you think that acknowledging those expectations was important for the story?

I think it’s important for the story for a couple of reasons. A, because I am aware of my station, of being a straight white dude, yet wanting to tell a personal story, and cognizant of where we are societally, I also just wanted to tell a story that hopefully goes against all of the cliché male jerk off fantasies. Also, I don’t know, I just think, when I’m with my peers, you speak in cultural touchstones. You reference things, you make jokes about things, and I like that. You can’t do that too much, then it’ll start to feel dated, but I think because that’s the way I speak, that’s the way I’m going to put it in my writing. To not call that out, I think, would almost feel like a dearth in the story. Also, I just think it was a little bit of a safeguard. Like, “I know. I know what you’re thinking, but hold on, hang on, there’s more to this than that. I understand what you think this may be, but stick with me. There’s more to it.”

Initially, in the script and what we shot, Vienna has more to say about that. She talks about, “Do you think that negates the fact that I’m a person with wants and needs, and desires?” How dare you think that, “Oh. I’m just here to fucking save you.” But I think ultimately my producers are like, “We don’t need all that. Let’s just get to it faster.”

I think that’s largely the trick of the movie, that it’s coming at you in the guise of something you think is conventional, and then gradually revealing that it’s not. But in terms of that, how do you sell this movie without spoiling it in that way?

Initially, when I was cutting this, we had several different editors for a myriad of reasons, because an editor who was a friend works with Zoe Lister-Jones, a lot of times, she was running off to do The Craft in their limited amount of time. Then, everybody just brought a new layer to it, and it’s made it sharper and tighter. But the first day there, I was working with a woman named Libby Cuenin. Now, we were talking about just moving that reveal, the [REDACTED] reveal up, because initially it was 45 minutes in. But it was just like, “What are we watching?” If we don’t know what the movie is, you’re like, “What? This is a nice ride, but what’s happening?”

We just wanted to move that up as much as possible. I think to Sony’s credit, they didn’t want to give away the reveal, but I was like, “You know what? In all honesty, I assume whoever markets this is probably going to give that away.” The real reveals are later on anyway.

It’s more about the intrigue, and it’s more about Bart’s journey, the reality of who this person is, “Is this real,” all those things. Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I think it is more fun, if you don’t know much going into it. That’s the way I feel about most movies. I love reading a review, but I don’t do it until after I see a movie. Because… what was the name of that? You remember the “We’re smart sharks movie?” Deep Blue Sea or something?

Deep Blue Sea, yeah.

There’s that scene, where Sam Jackson gives that rallying cry monologue and then the shark just comes and fucking eats him out of nowhere? I remember reading a review, that was the best part of the movie, and that was given away in a review. After that, I was like, “I’m done with this.” I like going into it as much of a blank slate as possible.

I mean, my instinct was to not spoil the [REDACTED] angle in a review, but then I was also like, “How do you tell people that this movie isn’t what they assume it is?”

I know. It’s been interesting, because just for press stuff, Sony’s been avoiding that, but in the reviews, there’s only so much they can do. They can’t control that narrative. Some people have spoiled it thus far. I don’t know. I mean, I personally like it when you go in knowing enough to be excited, but not enough to be expecting things, because your mind does that subconsciously anyways.

I feel a lot of the time, the goals in making a movie and the goals and selling and marketing a movie are directly at odds.

Yes, exactly. I mean, it’s like, sometimes it’s a bummer when you’re watching a trailer. Like, “That’s trailer looks good, but why do I need to see the movie?” Sometimes, my favorite trailers are the ones that are just tone poems to some degree.

I mean, now I’m asking you to do the thing that I just said is at odds with making a movie, but what’s the what’s the pitch for this movie?

The pitch? The pitch is a rom-com with a twist. It’s the movies I like. I like all rom-coms, I’m a big softie, who doesn’t like scary things. I love You’ve Got Mail. It’s great, but the things I really respond to are the things that subvert and add another layer to the genre, like in Eternal Sunshine, Groundhog Day, or Stranger Than Fiction, About Time, or even to a lesser degree, Beginners. Those are the things that I really love and stick with me more. It’s a rom-com in that vein. It’s a character study. There’s a reason why the main character is named Vienna. It’s definitely a bit of an homage to the Linklater Before Sunrise trilogy. I think it’s just a rom-com with the twist, that hopefully, serves as a little bit of a break in the storm from this last fucking, garbage, chaotic year.

‘Long Weekend’ hits theaters on Friday, March 12th.