Category: Viral
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The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.
ITEM NUMBER ONE — Come on
There was some exciting news floating around this week. More of a rumor than news, I suppose. Rumblings in the Hollywood trades indicated three interesting developments: One, there’s a Mad Max prequel idea in the air that is becoming more real with every day; two, the prequel would focus on Furiosa, the character made famous in Fury Road by Charlize Theron; and three, Jodie Comer is apparently in the running for the role. This last part is very important. It is time for us — all of us — to make Jodie Comer a huge freaking star.
There’s an argument to be made that Jodie Comer is already kind of a star. She’s won multiple prestigious awards, including an Emmy, for the role of Villanelle in Killing Eve, all of them deserved. She is so good as that character, in a way that makes it look much easier than it is. Villanelle is a sociopath and a killer who flips back and forth between dead-eyed menace and childlike glee. She struts around in designer clothes like a composed adult and flops on couches like an overwhelmed teen. There is range on display every episode, and that’s before you get to the accents. She’s an English actress who plays a Russian assassin who must occasionally pretend to be a person from somewhere else. She spent multiple episodes of the second season as a bratty American heiress. It’s almost like the show is just challenging her for fun. I fully expect her to do a deep Swedish accent before the season three finale.
But I’m not talking about “breakout performer in a buzzy cable drama” star here. That’s a launching point, not a destination. I’m talking about appearing in major movie franchises. I’m talking about toplining a big-budget movie. I’m talking about doing a comedy at some point and some people being all “But why is she doing a comedy?” and then nailing the role in a scene-stealing display of hidden talent, kind of like when Jason Statham was in Spy. The kind of star your parents know by name. The kind of star where people say “You wanna check out that new Jodie Comer movie?” instead of saying the movie’s actual title. That kind of star.
You know who else is on this trajectory, admittedly a step or two ahead of Comer? Another British actress: Vanessa Kirby, who made a huge splash as wild child Princess Margaret on The Crown and spun that into substantial roles in both Mission: Impossible — Fallout and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. There is a truly staggering array of punctuation in these titles, but that’s because they’re two of the world’s longest-running and most successful franchises. She’s in both of them now, in potentially important ways. The next step from here is a starring role in her own project. That’s the path I’m talking about.
In fact, maybe we handle this all at once. Maybe we cast both Comer and Kirby in a fun action-y movie together. Maybe they’re both cops. Maybe they’re both crooks. Maybe one of them is a notorious international jewel thief and the other is the Interpol agent tasked with tracking her down, sort of like Heat but with two very talented British actresses instead of two iconic Italian-American actors. I would watch that movie. I would watch that movie today, right now. I would be late filing this column, but it would be worth it.
Unless… I don’t actually know if Jodie Comer wants to star in big fun action movies. Maybe I’m projecting here. I’m known to do that. Maybe she wants to take challenging roles in awards-y dramas. Maybe she has her sights set on an Oscar. I would argue there’s both room and time for both things, and I would also argue that starring in a prequel as a character made famous by Charlize Theron — an actress who has done Oscar movies and also kickass action movies like Atomic Blonde — would be a pretty decent start.
Let’s get to work on this. Again, all of us. I just did my part. Now it’s your turn.
ITEM NUMBER TWO — Fred Willard was the greatest
Fred Willard passed away earlier this week, which stinks. Fred Willard was the best. He was one of those actors who never headlined a project but still made every project he appeared in a little bit better. Sometimes a lot better. Most of the characters he played appeared at first to be these square or aggressively normal guys who then revealed themselves to be complete maniacs. A substantial number of them should have been in prison. He was an assassin, a wild card who looked like a straight man, a guy you knew even if you didn’t know his name, one of those actors who, as soon as you saw their face pop up on the screen, made you lean forward a little bit and say “Oooo, I bet this part is gonna be good.” I don’t think I ever saw him miss.
You could pick any of a zillion examples to back up these assertions: his long history with the Guest-Levy mockumentaries, his dozens of nutty appearances on Kimmel, the list goes on. I’ll always remember his appearance on Review, the Comedy Central series that starred Andy Daly, himself another wolf in sheep’s clothing, comedically. I won’t try to explain the whole thing. You can — and should — watch it on Comedy Central’s website. The short version is something like this: Andy Daly’s character has a television show where he reviews life experiences submitted by viewers. In this one, he is tasked with reviewing “space,” and decides to bring his sweet 75-year-old ex-father-in-law to Space Camp for the thrill of a lifetime. Everything goes pretty well. Until… well, watch that clip.
It is so dark and so outrageously funny. The shock of it startled me into what I can only describe as a violent outburst of laughter the first time I saw it. It wasn’t even a laugh, I think, at least not in the way Webster would define it. It was more of a staccato series of mini-shouts. And it only worked because Willard played it so nice and sweet for every moment up until it happened. The man was a genius. The world is a little less funny without him in it, which is a bummer of intergalactic proportions. Add to that the fact that coworkers came out of the woodwork to say how nice and genuine he was and, man, yeah, just a bummer.
That said, if you’re looking for a legacy, you could do a lot worse than “somebody who was nice to people and beloved by huge groups of people and made friends and total strangers laugh for over 50 years,” so maybe it’s not as big a bummer as it appears on its face. That’s a good life. We would all do pretty well to shoot for that ourselves. Rest in peace, you wonderful goofball.
ITEM NUMBER THREE — Let’s check in with quarantined celebr-…
… aaaaaaand David Lynch is doing the weather. From a bunker. Every day. The Twin Peaks creator and delightful weirdo is posting very straightforward weather reports on his YouTube channel every morning. I’m not kidding when I say they are very straightforward. Each video is under one minute in length and features Lynch reciting the date, temperature in both Fahrenheit and Celcius, and your basic cloud/precipitation situation as he observes it by looking out his window in that moment. He’s been doing it since the 11th of this month. It’s oddly mesmerizing. Some of them are tinted blue for unexplained reasons. Maybe he just watched Ozark and wanted to try it. No one knows. I’m not going to question David Lynch.
Here are a bunch more. They’re soothing, in a way. I do not live in Los Angeles and therefore care very little about the weather there and I’m still watching them every day. It’s the most useless thing possible in an age when I can find out the weather in two clicks on a smartphone or one command shouted in the general direction of my Alexa. I hope he does them forever.
As The Verge notes, this is not Lynch’s first run as an amateur meteorologist. He did this before, decades ago, and is picking it back up again. A big part of me hopes he’s playing a long game here, like after 40-50 normal weather reports he pops up on screen and starts pretending like a volcano erupted and then does the rest of them as a basement-dwelling survivor of a massive natural disaster. Or maybe the long game is to play it straight forever while rubes like me look on waiting for the break.
Either way, useful service.
ITEM NUMBER FOUR — This is Squiggle erasure
Good news and bad news.
Good news first. The cringe-y, terrible, borderline-perfect song “L to the OG,” from Succession, is now available on Spotify. You know the song. The rap that hopeless failson Kendall Roy performed at the fancy celebration to honor his father, miserable old lion Logan Roy. It’s not the most important musical moment to come from the show or anything (that is and always will be the theme song and its cascading tinkly pianos), but it is very notable for being a moment of television so awkward that I simultaneously could not stop watching and wanted to escape by burying myself under the floor of my living room. The chorus, the baseball jersey, the salute. My heavens, the salute.
The people responsible for the performance, actor Jeremy Strong and composer Nicholas Brittell, sat down with Variety to discuss the song’s official release. Turns out the song has celebrity fans, too.
It became apparent when people were dressed for this thing as Halloween and I did get a text from Frank Ocean that said, “L to the OG” with a crying face emoji. I took it as the highest possible compliment because he’s one of my heroes. It was small props but it meant the world.
So there’s that. But there’s also this, the bad news: The official recording, while still containing a spoken intro, cut probably my favorite part of the whole performance. There is no mention of DJ Squiggle.
This is very upsetting. And disrespectful to DJ Squiggle. The man cooked up the beat for you, Kendall. He flew to Scotland to help you perform it. And now you just cut him out of the official recording? This is why no one likes you. Well, this and a few other things. You did kind of kill a guy. But I would argue that both of these offenses are the fruit of the same poisonous tree. It’s not how a true Techno Gatsby behaves, I’ll tell you that. Or maybe it is. I’m still a little unclear on what exactly a Techno Gatsby is and/or does.
I miss Succession.
ITEM NUMBER FIVE — Help
I watched Burn After Reading recently. It was a good decision because Burn After Reading is a great movie. It’s so powerfully stupid and yet kind of smart and the performances are all so great. Clooney, McDormand, Malkovich, all of them. But especially Brad Pitt. Especially Brad Pitt. His performance as a trainer and world-class doofus is something to behold. Every second he’s on-screen is a treat. It’s a masterclass in physical comedy, which is actually a little upsetting because no one that good looking should be that funny. It’s like how I get upset when I find out a famous person is also great at an impossible hobby, like golf. You don’t need that, too. It’s not fair.
I bring this up now for one simple reason: since I watched this movie, I have been unable to stop replying to things with the exact delivery of “Awwwhhhh, that’s cooool” that he does in the above clip. Not even out loud. Just in my head. I’ll see a headline and do it. Someone will let me pull out in traffic ahead of them and I’ll do it. It’s been almost a week and it’s showing no sign of slowing down. This will not do. Please, send help.
READER MAIL
If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.
Lisa:
Brian, please tell me you’ve seen the news about the upcoming movie Moonfall. I assume you have seen it but I don’t want to take the chance that you missed it. It is a Roland Emmerich movie about the moon crashing into earth. The movie about the moon falling into the earth is called “Moonfall.” It stars Halle Berry as an astronaut and Josh Gad as “a scientific genius.” I just about shouted when I saw the news. It looks so strange and so, so bad. I’m so happy for you.
Lisa, I am very aware of this and very excited about it for all the reasons you laid out. I’m getting very strong Geostorm vibes from this, which is a compliment I don’t throw around willy nilly. I love how literal the title is. I hope the character names are just as literal. I hope Halle’s astronaut character is named Veronica Cosmos. I hope Josh Gad’s scientific genius is named Ned Proctrator. I hope they blow up the moon with a big laser. I don’t ask for much.
AND NOW, THE NEWS
To Florida!
Residents of a Florida neighborhood are complaining about a loud and messy flock of peacocks that has taken up residence in the area.
I imagine you think you grasp how many peacocks we’re talking about here. “How bad can it be?” you’re probably saying. “Six or seven beautiful peacocks strutting around your neighborhood. It sounds lovely to me.”
Well, a couple of things. First of all, it’s not six or seven peacocks. It is fifty. Fifty peacocks. That is, in my opinion, too many peacocks. And it leads us to the second thing…
The peacocks are currently in their mating season, which residents said involves noise keeping them up all night and increased messes outside their homes.
Fifty horny peacocks screeching and pooping all night long. Technicolor feathers everywhere. This sounds like hell. It sounds like actual hell. And it gets worse, because…
Hillsborough County officials said the peacocks aren’t regulated as pets because no one has claimed ownership of them, but the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the birds also aren’t considered wildlife, so the agency doesn’t have jurisdiction over them.
It probably says a lot about me that the instant I read that paragraph, literally as soon as I reached the final period at the end, I muttered “diplomatic immunity” in a terrible South African accent like the bad guy from Lethal Weapon 2. I don’t know. I feel okay about it. Better than I would if I had 50 lawless peacocks engaging in nightly midnight orgies in my backyard, at least.
Admittedly a low hurdle to clear, but still.
The 1975’s long-awaited new album Notes On A Conditional Form is out today, and alongside its release, they’ve shared a video for “Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy).” The clip follows the exploits of a teddy bear who, like many folks right now, spends his time seated in front of his computer.
Healy told Apple Music of the song:
“This is the anomaly on the record for me. I don’t know where it came from. That was me f*cking around when the record was feeling really, really relaxed. It reminds me of all the kind of proper pop music that I grew up listening to, like Backstreet Boys. And it’s like an ode to early Max Martin, late-‘90s pop. I don’t think we ever do anything retro. We never do anything pastiche-y. But there’s definitely a reflection on a certain time of our musical upbringing. And that was very much part of that. And it’s got a great Temptations sample at the beginning, and kind of reminds me of Kanye or something.”
Speaking of Apple Music, the band also teamed up with them to share a behind-the-scenes video about the making of Notes On A Conditional Form.
Watch the “Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)” video above and read our review of Notes On A Conditional Form here.
Notes On A Conditional Form is out now via Dirty Hit. Get it here.
Tove Lo’s Sunshine Kitty was one of last year’s more fun pop albums, and now she has brought it into 2020. Today, she releases a deluxe version of the album — dubbed the “Paw Prints Edition” — and shares her new album-opener, “Sadder Badder Cooler.”
On the track, Tove Lo is done with a former lover, singing in the chorus, “I’m sadder, I’m badder, I’m cooler, yeah / than I was when I met you.” Elsewhere on the track, she sings about how she is over her past relationship: “You toast your friends ’cause I left / But you know I’m never coming back in / Once I walk out the door / Screw all loose ends in this war / It was all about the power play, babe / And I can’t do it no more.”
The “Paw Prints Edition” of Sunshine Kitty adds eight new tracks to the album, including remixes, live versions, and an English-language cover of Veronica Maggio’s Swedish single “Jag kommer” (now titled “I’m Coming”), which was released on Spotify back in March. She previously said of the song, “It’s the soundtrack to so many of my memories. I’ve always been so impressed with Veronica’s way with words. I could never write in swedish the way she can. It’s the perfect mix of poetic, ‘everyday romance’ and making the Swedish summer time feel epic and melancholic all at once.”
Listen to “Sadder Badder Cooler” above.
Sunshine Kitty (Paw Prints Edition) is out now via Universal. Get it here.
Did you know we’ve made it to Memorial Day weekend? No? Yeah, us either. Still, while we might not be celebrating with big barbecues and crowded beach days, there’s plenty on Netflix to keep up entertained indoors, at a safe social distance. Paramount’s The Lovebirds arrives to give us a fun rom-com murder mystery, along with a new reality competition series that should please any Great British Bakeoff fans.
For everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix this week of May 22, check out the listings below.
The Lovebirds (film streaming 5/22)
Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani star in this wild rom-com from The Big Sick director Michael Showalter. Originally, this thing was slated to premiere at SXSW before hitting theaters in April but since the COVID-19 pandemic has taken everything that brings us joy and made sitting in a crowded movie theater a deadly activity, Paramount shipped it over to Netflix. We’re not complaining, especially since this means we get to watch Rae and Nanjiani play a couple on the brink of a breakup who inadvertently get pulled into a messy murder mystery.
The Big Flower Fight (Netflix series streaming 5/18)
Speaking of joy, Netflix is giving us another palate-cleansing show a la The Great British Bakeoff with it’s floral cousin, The Big Flower Fight. If watching unnaturally nice Brits fret over the stiffness of their meringue peaks is your brand of ASMR TV viewing, then watching these English artists mold three-foot-tall orangutans out of wildflowers should also lull you into a false sense of normalcy.
Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:
Avail. 5/16
La reina de Indias y el conquistador
Public Enemies
United 93
Avail. 5/17
Soul Surfer
Avail. 5/18
The Big Flower Fight
Avail. 5/19
Patton Oswalt: I Love Everything
Sweet Magnolias
Trumbo
Avail. 5/20
Ben Platt Live From Radio City Music Hall
The Flash: Season 6
Rebelión de los Godinez
Avail. 5/22
Control Z
History 101
Just Go With It
The Lovebirds
Selling Sunset: Season 2
Trailer Park Boys: The Animated Series: Season 2
And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:
Leaving 5/25
Bitten: Season 1-3
Honestly, I didn’t really think I wanted to watch a documentary about Lance Armstrong. But, now that we live in a world with no sports and The Last Dance was over I did find myself at least more open to the thought of watching a Lance Armstrong documentary. And then I watched it and, yes, apparently I really did want to watch a documentary about Lance Armstrong because I was riveted. In Lance, Armstrong is at times charming, and at other times a raging asshole. Which creates a portrait that is insanely complicated and takes the viewer on quite an emotional ride in how we feel about this guy. Yeah, he was doping. But literally everyone was. But the way he threw people under the bus is unforgivable. But, then again, he did amazing work for cancer patients who, as we see in the film, explain how much good Armstrong really did for them.
In Marina Zenovich’s past films – which feature subjects like Roman Polanski, Richard Pryor, and Robin Williams – she had to create a film by talking to other people who were around them. This time, for te first time, she has the subject at hand ready and waiting. And it’s fascinating. And, yes, Armstrong has his version of events practiced enough that they feel like talking points at times, but Zenovich’s persistence with her questions breaks through that, often resulting in the two openly sparring over questions like, “What’s the worst thing you’ve done?”
Ahead, Zenovich takes us through what it’s like to get into Lance Armstrong’s head. And tells about the debate she had with her team about keeping in a scene in which Armstrong, talking about his darkest moments, in one of those “how can it get worse for him” moments, then on camera accidentally slices off a part of his finger with a potato peeler. Yes, the scene made the film.
First of all, I didn’t know I wanted to watch a three-hour documentary about Lance Armstrong. But I certainly did want that.
Oh, I love that.
As opposed to some of your prior films on Roman Polanski, Robin Williams, and Richard Pryor, this time you had the subject of the film willing and ready to talk.
Well, it’s funny you say that because it is really kind of like the first time. I’m always chasing people. Or they’re no longer around. So I think maybe that’s what spoke to me so much was having the ability to ask him. And he was very clear with me, “Ask me anything. Anything you want.” And I’m just like a kid in the candy store, surrounded by cinnamon bears, you know? I’m so excited because I get to be blunt, and I get to cuss, and I get to put him on the spot. It’s like, it’s a documentarian’s dream. And I guess you’re making me realize it, because I haven’t had that opportunity before. I do it with other people, but you always have to be somewhat careful. And with Lance, I was able to just kind of go for it. So it was a lot of fun for me.
There are scenes in the movie of people warning you Lance Armstrong would try to manipulate the narrative. Were you actually concerned about that? That he could somehow do that?
I wasn’t worried because I had final cut. So it’s like, that’s what it comes down to. But, I mean, he has a strong personality, but so do I. So I think both of us appreciated kind of going toe-to-toe. So I didn’t think he was going to try to manipulate, but having read books and having been told by people – and then having talked to people who were really burned by him – you can’t help but be a little wary. That’s kind of the push-pull of it. Because the thing is, he’s incredibly charming, and incredibly likable, and a lot of fun, and very funny, and incredibly light on his feet. And you get kind of caught up in his bubbling charisma. And so I could have that experience in the field, but then I’d come back to the editing room and be with people who hadn’t had that experience. Like my editor, like my co-producer, and assistant editor, who would call it as it was. Because part of my job is to play along and get sucked in, but be genuine and get what I want from him, but push him further. I mean, it’s an elaborate thinking match. But I appreciate what you said — I didn’t know that I wanted to watch something about Lance Armstrong.” I love that. It’s so compelling, isn’t it?
It is compelling because I had so many emotions I was not expecting. Because there are times where I felt he did get a little railroaded. Everyone was doping. And then there’s the time when he insinuated someone is a “whore” to get out of trouble, which is pretty unforgivable.
Well, we just kind of wanted to show his truth – but everyone else’s, too, like from Bobby Julich and Jonathan Vaughters when they meet him as a teenager, and Lance is a bit of a dick. But yet, what’s so fascinating about that is you’ve come up with people, and then that’s who you’re kind of stuck with. And I think I try to do this in all my movies: make people decide for themselves how they feel, and let them go on the journey that you’ve gone through as the filmmaker where you are going back and forth. Like, how can you make peace with this guy? He bullied people, but yet did so much for cancer. It’s complicated.
That was a remarkable part of your film. When you show cancer survivors who are saying he changed everything for them. And that’s what I meant. You think you made up your mind he’s a dick and then it’s like, well, okay, it’s hard to deny he did a lot of good there. Do you think if he would have been a nicer person in general throughout his championships that maybe he wouldn’t have faced the repercussions that he did?
Totally. But I don’t think he could have been the champion if he wasn’t that person that he was.
A lot of us have Michael Jordan on our minds right now because of The Last Dance. Watching your film felt like watching another ultra-competitive guy who could be tough on people – only it would be if Michael Jordan had his titles stripped away and had nothing to show for it. But in your film Armstrong swears he’s happy it turned out this way, though I’m not sure I buy that…
I believe it for his personal life. I don’t know if I believe it for his professional life, but I think that he really needed to kind of come clean to have a healthy life with his children and his fiance. But I think it’s been really hard for him, but I think he spent a lot of time in therapy with his family and by himself. You’ll appreciate this: he was willing to let me interview his therapist.
Oh wow.
Which I thought I’d won the lottery
Did that happen?
And she ended up not wanting to be interviewed, but he let me talk to her. And it was really, I just kind of imagined myself somewhat of a bit of a therapist myself. I felt like our sessions were like therapy sessions. And Lance told me the last day that I interviewed him. He was like, “You think I don’t like this, but I really like it.” And I think probably because he spent a lot of time in the last six, seven years, going through a lot of stuff. And it’s not like you go into therapy and it happens overnight. I mean, it takes fucking years, right? However he’s viewed, however people see him, I kind of give him credit for trying to process all of this and trying to come to terms with who he is and what he’s done and live his life. Has he completely come to terms with all of that? I think it’s in process.
What do you think his expectations were of doing this? Does he want to get back in people’s good graces? Because, like you said, he is this charming guy. And people love forgiving people once they admit to mistakes. Do you think that’s in his head? Why he’d agree to do this?
Maybe. I mean, when it’s describe in the film how he lost all his sponsorship, all that stuff, and then when Live Strong walked away from him? And it’s just, to think how low he went, and how he’s tried little by little. I remember when we were editing and we were looking for photos from, I called it the dark period – between everything happening and him going on Oprah to now – and there were a couple of years there where he didn’t really do anything. And it’s just kind of like, what do you do with yourself? How do you come back, even for yourself? And I think little by little he’s been doing that. I don’t know if he agreed to do this because he thought it would help. I don’t know. I mean, we never had that conversation. But I feel like he wants to come back. He’s doing his podcast. It’s very popular. But I was just very interested in the struggle of this man who did some good things, did some bad things, and let him try to come to terms with all of it.
There’s a crazy part in this where he’s talking about the lowest points of his life, then he starts peeling a potato and cuts part of his finger off and he’s bleeding profusely. I’m sure you felt bad that he did that, but at the same time you had to be like, well, this is going to make an interesting part of the documentary.
Well, it’s funny because we had debates about that scene. And some people in the office thought it should be cut. And I was like, “Are you kidding me? People want to see Lance Armstrong bleed! They want him to bleed!” Right?
I suspect that’s true.
And I mean, it spoke to so much. It spoke to him not knowing how to use that thing and pretending like he did. I mean, the guy was an athlete from the beginning. He didn’t know how to do any of that shit. It was all done for him by his mother, or by his coaches, or whatever. So, just to me, it spoke to so much. So we kept it in.
‘Lance’ debuts this Sunday night at 9pm EST on ESPN. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.
