Category: News

During a discussion on whether he consciously writes “Nolan-esque” characters like Leonardo DiCaprio’s Cobb in Inception or Robert Pattinson’s Neil in Tenet, Christopher Nolan waded into the claims that Tom Hardy based his version of Bane on The Dark Knight Rises director. While Nolan denies that he intentionally tries to infuse himself into his characters, he is aware that it can happen without him even knowing it. Especially when actors like Hardy get involved. Here’s what Nolan told the Happy Sad Confused podcast after admitting that he’s been “teased” about the Bane connection in the past. Via Comic Book:

I think there is a slightly mischievous tendency on the part of actors to see in the filmmakers where as a writer, particularly writer/directors, were able to put a bit of themselves into something and then build on that. Tom Hardy maintains that Bane is somehow based on me, but in Tom’s mind there’s some very complex interweaving of impulses and influences that somehow I have a voice in. I think it’s certainly not conscious on my part.

Setting aside whether or not The Dark Knight Rises version of Bane is a send-up of Nolan’s real life personality, the director did reveal the secret to Hardy’s iconic performance: it’s all in the eyebrow. According to Nolan, while working out the costume design for Bane’s mask, Hardy had one simple request: “He sort of put his finger up to his temple and his eyebrow and said ‘Can you give me this to play with? Let people see this,’” the director recalled. “Sure enough you see there in the film, this kind of Brando-esque brow, expressing all kinds of just monstrous things.”

(Via Happy Sad Confused)

There are new music rollouts and then there is a Westside Boogie new music rollout, which twists the “bonkers” knob all the way up, then yanks it right off. On the way to his latest release, the Compton rapper has been building a hysterical, WWE-worthy backstory, complete with bullying fans and capping it off with a kidnapping, all in the interest of getting listeners involved in the recording process.

Earlier this week, Boogie posted a screenshot of his DMs to Instagram, excerpting an exchange with a fan using the handle @fortknoxlive. “We been waiting long enough…” menaces Mr. Knox. “If you don’t drop something THIS WEEK we gonna have a problem.” While Boogie dismisses the overly familiar messaging, fans in the comments echoed the sentiment, hungry for new tunes since it’s been over a year since a Boogie solo release — 2019’s Everything’s For Sale.

However, Boogie’s next post shows the plot thickening as a simple chore becomes a scene right out of a thriller. As the Compton rapper takes out the trash, a van pulls up and the occupant shoves him into the back before driving away.

In the latest post, the kidnapper is revealed to be @fortknoxlive himself, who ties Boogie to a chair in his garage to force him to record — and release — some new music. Across the bottom of the screen is a phone number for fans to text song ideas to help get him free.

As far as album promotion goes, this one is pretty immaculate. By incorporating fans’ ideas, Boogie gives them ownership of the project and helps make the experience more interactive — more investment equals a bigger payoff for both sides. And coming up with such a hilarious, narrative marketing scheme shows how invested he is himself — and gives us an entertaining and unique way to build hype for the new project. Let’s hope he’s got another few chapters of this thing plotted out because he’s raising the bar and I, for one, am all in. Even Boogie’s label boss, Eminem, is down.

If you too are impatient for new Boogie tunes, check out his features with Courtney Bell, Guapdad 4000, Reason, and LVRN’s Christmas album to hold you over.

As fictional chess prodigy Beth Harmon in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, Anya Taylor-Joy gives a powerhouse performance. Every steely stare, lowering of eyes, and crossing of arms is in the furtherance of battle, and it’s a damn intimidating sight to witness. Beth’s addicted to many things, including winning, and it’s a blast to watch her knock chess bozos out of the way on her way to becoming a straight-up master.

Every bit of Godless director Scott Frank’s limited series feels like a choreographed (yet grueling) dance, from Beth’s maneuverings all the way down to every costuming and set detail. Both aspects almost feel like additional characters on the show, and that’s why this featurette (which dives into those parts of the production) turns out to be a lot more interesting than most “extras” offered up by studios. Seeing Anya Taylor-Joy speak in an enormous blonde wig (that would look at home on Dolly Parton) doesn’t hurt, either. I wonder where that decision to have her do so came from, but it’s probably best not to dwell on it too much. Instead, we should focus on the actual wigs discussed in this featurette, along with the additional insight about Beth’s inner circle and those who impacted her most during her underdog rise to world champion.

This isn’t an extra episode, but it’s the closest thing we’ll see to one, and that’s definitely for the best. I don’t want to know if Beth succumbed once again to pills and alcohol after becoming a champion. I don’t want to hear that she ended up marrying Benny (and having his hat-babies) and eventually fell out with Jolene. Speaking of which Moses Ingram’s character gets a fair chunk of time here to talk about Jolene’s formative relationship with Beth. I’m so happy that the narrative went back to their enduring friendship, which is quite unlike the fleeting army of chess dudes who attempted to woo Beth. This featurette preserves everything about The Queen’s Gambit and immortalizes the process of zeroing in on what it costs to become a champion.

The Queen’s Gambit is available for streaming on Netflix.

Classic rock revivalists Greta Van Fleet generated plenty of positive attention with their debut album, 2018’s Anthem Of The Peaceful Army. Now the gears are turning on their next album, The Battle At Garden’s Gate, which is set to drop in 2021. Today, they’ve shared a preview of it with a new video for “Age Of Machine.”

The clip for the Zeppelin-esque song shows off artistic imagery, including the destruction of a marble statue. Press materials note that the clip is intentionally open-ended: “The video addresses the crumbling beauty around us, but leaves the final significance to the viewer — whether that narrative be focused on climate, industrialism, intimacy, self confidence, tradition, humanity itself, or otherwise. The only clear concept in the video is that the band chooses life.”

The band recently told Rolling Stone of the song, “Self-liberation, or this idea of letting go, or transcending. Is there an afterlife? I think I would rather cease to exist. Taking a big sleep or something. Your body goes back to Earth, and there grows a tree, and the tree gives off oxygen. That’s just it: We’re tripping the light fantastic. We’re cosmic.”

They also said of the album, “There are definitely Biblical references. Not just in the title, but throughout the entire album… This is a world with the ancient civilizations in it, just like our own parallel universe, really. It’s an analogy. Each song is a theme. A magnification of different cultures and civilizations inside of this world searching for some kind of salvation or enlightenment.”

Watch the “Age Of Machine” video above.

The Battle At Garden’s Gate is out 4/16/2021 via Republic. Pre-order it here.

Bob Odenkirk is best known for creating one of the greatest sketch-comedy series of all-time (Mr. Show) and for playing a crooked lawyer (Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, one of our favorite shows of 2020). He’s not known as an action movie star, which is why I’m very excited for Nobody, in which Odenkirk goes full John Wick.

Directed by Ilya Naishuller (Hardcore Henry) and written by (all three John Wick movies), Nobody stars Odenkirk as Hutch Mansell, a husband and father who fails to defend his family when their house is robbed. The humiliation he feels, and the pity he gets from neighbors and co-workers, unleashes something in Hutch. Something violent. “I get the sh*t kicked out of me in this movie,” Odenkirk told Entertainment Weekly. “I really wanted to go way far outside, like 180 degrees outside my comfort zone. Just commit to this guy, commit to his rage, and commit to his commitment to what he’s doing.” He added, “It’s not a clean, vengeful narrative. It’s almost like collateral damage causes him more trouble than his initial problems.” But don’t worry, no dogs are hurt… Probably.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

When two thieves break into his suburban home one night, Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) declines to defend himself or his family, hoping to prevent serious violence. His teenage son, Blake (Gage Munroe), is disappointed in him and his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen), seems to pull only further away.

The aftermath of the incident strikes a match to Hutch’s long-simmering rage, triggering dormant instincts and propelling him on a brutal path that will surface dark secrets and lethal skills. In a barrage of fists, gunfire, and squealing tires, Hutch must save his family from a dangerous adversary (Aleksey Serebryakov) — and ensure that he will never be underestimated as a nobody again.

Nobody comes out on February 26.

Colin Kaepernick is getting into the ice cream game. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback and social justice advocate announced on Thursday morning that he is teaming up with Ben and Jerry’s to create a new non-dairy flavor of ice cream that prominently features Kaepernick on the packaging.

The flavor is called “Colin Kaepernick’s Change the Whirled,” and all of Kaepernick’s proceeds from the dessert will go towards the Know Your Rights Camp.

In a statement released by Ben and Jerry’s, Kaepernick said “I’m honored to partner with Ben & Jerry’s on Change the Whirled. Their commitment to challenging the anti-Black roots of policing in the United States demonstrates a material concern for the wellbeing of Black and Brown communities. My hope is that this partnership will amplify calls to defund and abolish the police and to invest in futures that can make us safer, healthier, and truly free.”

As Kaepernick’s tweet indicates, the ice cream is slated to hit stores sometime in 2021. While Kaepernick has not appeared in an NFL game since 2016, he’s pursued a number of off-field interests in recent years. In 2020, this has included the announcement of a pair of docuseries — one on Netflix titled “Colin in Black & White” written by Ava Duvernay and Michael Starrbury, and one on Disney in conjunction with his Ra Vision Media.

Chance The Rapper and Jeremih‘s Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama holiday album is finally coming to streaming services and to hype the anticipation, Chance has released a new song, “The Return.” Produced by Smoko Ono and Beat Butcha, the song features a mellow beat evoking holiday classics of old with a piano and bass combination that leaves plenty of room for Chance to get busy lyrically. “Look, it’s Mister ‘Christmas Bonus,’” he rhymes. “Mister ‘Made His Brothers Bands,’ Mister Nicholas Jonas.” There is some stupendous wordplay here, giving Chance the — ahem — chance to reset the narrative after the lukewarm reception of his last album.

Meanwhile, Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama: The Gift That Keeps On Giving — as the retail version of the album is now called — will apparently feature a tracklist mashed up from both “discs” of the 2017 SoundCloud reissue, Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama: Re-Wrapped. While fan-favorite tracks like “Are U Live” and “Ms. Parker” will come from disc two, “Joy,” “Snowed In,” and “Stranger At The Table” come from disc one. “The Return” and “Who’s To Say” are two new Chance The Rapper tracks which will bookend the compressed runtime.

The retail version of Merry Christmas Lil’ Mama arrives as Chance’s collab partner Jeremih recovers from a stint in the hospital with a bad case of COVID-19. It’s due out this Friday, 12/11. You can pre-save it here.

Dallas police have arrested a man they suspect killed local rapper Mo3, according to TMZ. Homicide detectives received a tip from a witness, leading to a 21-year-old man named Kewon Dontrell White who police believe is the man seen fleeing the scene of the murder in surveillance video. They say White appeared to be tailing Mo3, with evidence placing him near the rapper on the day of the shooting — and the day before. White was transferred to federal custody — apparently, there was a previous case on him — and he’s been charged with possession of a firearm in addition to murder.

Mo3 was a burgeoning star on the Dallas rap scene and seemingly one hit away from becoming a national star at the time of his death. He was reportedly shot multiple times while fleeing on foot after a car chase on the freeway. A bystander was also hit and hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. Video of the shooting quickly circulated on social media depicting another bystander attempting CPR on the wounded Mo3, who was hit in the back of his head. Incidentally, the rapper had survived another shooting last year. Since then, his career had been on the upswing, with the collaborative mixtape Badazz MO3 alongside Boosie.

Christmas music gets a lot of attention around this time of year. Mariah Carey is back near the top of the charts, and the list of artists who have released original holiday tunes or covers of Christmas classics includes Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, 100 Gecs, Finneas, Phoebe Bridgers, and Justin Bieber, among others. Hanukkah can get lost in the holiday music shuffle, though, but now Dave Grohl is doing something about it: Grohl (who is not Jewish) is teaming up with Greg Kurstin (who is) for “The Hanukkah Session,” for which the pair will cover eight songs by Jewish artists, one for each night of Hanukkah.

Sharing a video announcing the series, Grohl wrote, “With all the mishegas of 2020, @GregKurstin & I were kibbitzing about how we could make Hannukah extra-special this year. Festival of Lights?! How about a festival of tasty LICKS! So hold on to your tuchuses… we’ve got something special coming for your shayna punims. L’chaim!!” In the video, Grohl says, “This year, instead of doing a Christmas song, Greg and I decided to celebrate Hanukkah by recording eight songs by eight famous Jewish artists, and releasing one song each night of Hannukah for you.”

This year, Hanukkah begins tonight at sunset, so expect the first song from the series to be released soon.

The James Harden trade saga is continuing to run its course. While the former league MVP has reported to Houston, he’s made it clear that he wants the Rockets to send him elsewhere, with the Brooklyn Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers reportedly on the list of places where he’d like to go.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Harden has expanded his list of potential destinations. The report indicates that he would be willing to go to either Miami or Milwaukee, potentially joining forces with the defending Eastern Conference champions or the team expected to win the conference during the upcoming season.

A trade to Miami wouldn’t be too hard to figure out, as the Heat have a number of players it can include in a deal for Harden (or any other superstar), although it is very fair to wonder if a package centered around guys like Tyler Herro and Kendrick Nunn would pique Houston’s interest compared to what other teams can offer up. Milwaukee is much more difficult to see a path forward — the team parted with a ton of draft capital in its acquisition of Jrue Holiday, they don’t really have the kind of young cornerstones that the Rockets apparently want, and unless they’d part with one of Giannis Antetokounmpo or Khris Middleton, making this work financially is quite difficult. This also ignores that things have been frosty in the past between Antetokounmpo and Harden over the former’s back-to-back MVP awards.

All of these teams would appeal to Harden’s desire to go to a team that has a chance to compete for a ring. Whether he ends up going to one of them any time soon or if Houston really is willing to wait this out remains to be seen.