Comic book fans know that Tom Hardy’s current Venom run for Sony and Marvel isn’t his first (wildly successful) rodeo in the nerd realm. Back in 2012, he also tore through a little Warner Bros/DCEU film called The Dark Knight Rises, in which he portrayed the nearly unstoppable villain, Bane. Of course, that appearance was slightly tragic because Hardy’s face didn’t get any, you know, face time, unlike with Venom, where he at least underwent a transformation from his handsome self. During the ongoing pandemic, though, it seems that Bane is making a comeback.

The Hollywood Reporter reveals how Bane’s signature item of clothing is now flying off online shelves. Perhaps people are engaging in a little bit of wishful thinking, since the comic-book origins of the mask involve protective/pain-killing gas, which is what makes Bane such a force with which to be reckoned. Or maybe nerds simply think it looks cool? Regardless, several costume sites are out of the item, which is seeing demand on Etsy as well, even though this mask doesn’t provide medical-grade protection:

David DeJac, spokesman for Costume.com, told The Hollywood Reporter that Bane masks have been sold out since early this month. “Looking at sales figures, the adult mask had quite a sales spike in April and early May, which is unusual for this time of year,” said DeJac, adding that a few children’s masks are still in stock.

This spokesperson noted that people are really only buying the mask right now (not the whole costume), so it’s not like they’re planning ahead for Halloween. Yet this mask definitely won’t fly for military personnel (yep, there’s been an actual statement, even if it’s a little jokey), and don’t expect this thing to reliably protect against coronavirus. Still, Twitter can’t stop wondering whether the supervillain was onto something back in 1993, when he first surfaced in the Batman: Vengeance of Bane series.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

Games that reimagine the hero-villain dynamic are always intriguing, and Wunderling is the latest title to put players in the shoes of the “bad guy” and explore what that really means. It’s a title that — like the song “Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle” — asks what the other bit characters are doing while the player-controlled hero is blasting through a platformer and causing havoc.

In the case of the Retroid release, which hit the Nintendo Switch this spring, the game casts the heroic-looking carrot as clearly evil and the witch he’s chasing down as the real hero. No one of those characters, not even the filmmaking cow, are playable. Instead, it’s the small yellow minion driven into the ground that gets a single ability that changes everything.

Wunderling starts as a game where you can only jump, and you never stop moving. You can’t even change direction until you hit something, but it certainly makes the most of its single ability right from the start. And thankfully there’s a bit of nuance to that single action thanks to the Switch’s pressure-sensitive buttons. Pressing down longer keeps your Wunderling in the air longer, which isn’t always a good thing. It feels intuitive, and after a while you get into the game’s flow and work through the various obstacles put in your way. For an indie title the controls feel solid, and using the pressure sensitivity adds another bit of challenge even before the additional abilities like flying and whatnot start adding up.

The game has some clear Mario inspiration to it, but it’s far sillier than a straight platformer homage. There’s a Fake News element of the game in the witch declaring the carrot an invader not to be trusted, which is clever, but who actually is good and evil doesn’t really matter here. Your task is to get through levels, collecting abilities and completing tasks before you explode or die, the latter of which you’ll do a lot. Thankfully, there are limitless little Wunderlings to control until you get the hang of things. The biggest frustration, in fact, might be long portions of play that get wasted if you hit a spikey ball or overshoot a landing and fly helplessly into water.

As your Wunderling’s controls become a bit more complicated, so does the game itself. It’s a good thing, certainly, and the constant movement is an interesting challenge of planning and some conveniently-placed in-level checkpoints. One interesting mechanic here is the yellow orbs you collect as you run through levels. Run out of orbs to collect due to backtracking or struggling to get past an obstacle and you die. Minions are only special for so long, you see. There’s an economy at play that requires a bit of strategy, which means there isn’t much time for wandering around levels to discover secret tapes and other bonuses ready for your return visits.

The game is light on challenges outside of the bonus items you can customize your Wunderling with. There’s no real incentive to do so other than the challenge of finishing the levels — there are a lot of items to customize with but they don’t add any abilities and some tend to make the Wunderling blend into the background. Unless you really feel the completionist urge there’s little reason to go back and collect everything up other than your love of the game’s catchy soundtrack. That does make for a title that’s fairly quick, but given the low price point it’s not a crazy ask to give the game’s challenges a try. It’s a fun chance to play as a low-level goon, and the end result is something considerably more powerful than the simple character you start with.

For the decades-long history of Gorillaz, Damon Albarn and the character he voices, 2-D, have not really co-existed. More recently, though, the two have started to become their own separate entities in the Gorillaz universe. In the recent “Momentary Bliss” video, for example, the pair appears in the same room while recording the track. Now the pair have taken this even further during a new Jimmy Kimmel Live! performance of “Aries.”

As Kimmel noted while introducing the performance, this is the first time Albarn has ever performed a duet with one of the animated Gorillaz members. The two appeared separately, as though they were doing a socially distanced performance over Zoom, and they sang the song together.

Lyrically, the song is thematically appropriate for these quarantine times: “I’m standing on a beach in the distance / And even though you’re far away, can you see my red light? / It’s waiting to turn green / ‘Cause I feel so isolated without you / I can’t play a happy tune on my own, so stay by my side / High or low tide.”

Watch Gorillaz perform “Aries” on Kimmel above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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Since Lorde finished promoting her 2017 album Melodrama, she has kept a decidedly low profile (although she popped up on The Late Show a few months ago). Over the past couple years, however, she has kept her fans updated via the occasional email, with one dispatch coming in 2018 and another a year later. Now she has blessed digital inboxes across the world again with another lengthy message, and it includes promising album updates.

She begins:

“Well hello there. I realised the other day it had been a minute since we chatted, and I was missing you. Do you wear your hair long or short now? Did you take your piercings out? You’ll probably be pleased to know my hair is big and long again. I think after Melodrama came out I said I wouldn’t put out another record until my hair was long– both because hair takes time to grow, and I knew I needed time, and because I knew the next record would require the longest and wildest hair yet.”

She goes on to say that she returned to the studio with Jack Antonoff towards the end of last year, and that she is happy with the results of those sessions. She also suggests that it might still be a while before she has a new album on the way:

“I started going back to the studio again in December, just for something to do, and to my surprise, good things came out. Happy, playful things. I felt my melodic muscles flexing and strengthening. Jack came over to work in the studio in Auckland, and I went to LA. It flowed. A thing started to take shape. And then, of course, the world shut down. We’re still working away — Jack and I FaceTimed for over an hour this morning going over everything. But it’ll take a while longer. […] I want nothing more than to feed you treats, pop perfect morsels straight into your little mouths. But as I get older I realise there’s something to be said for the pleasant feeling of waiting for something of quality to become available to you. […] I can tell you, this new thing, it’s got its own colours now. If you know anything about my work, you’ll know what that means. […] The work is so f*cking good, my friend. I am truly jazzed for you to hear it.”

Lorde also wrote about the psychological impact touring has on her, but that she’s looking forward to doing it again:

“I knew I needed a break from touring at the end of the last cycle. I was finding the combination of brutal stage fright and having no fixed home and no connection with what I ate or where I lived extremely grim. […] I wasn’t sure if I’d tour again for a long time. And I still don’t know what touring is gonna look like for me, sensitive sweet pea plant that I am. But I know now how excited I am to get back out there. I want to be playing festivals again — hearing my intro music, watching the band walk onstage. […] Who knows when it’ll be safe to do those things, but I’m craving them, and I wanted you to know.”

Read Lorde’s full email below.

“Well hello there. I realised the other day it had been a minute since we chatted, and I was missing you. Do you wear your hair long or short now? Did you take your piercings out? You’ll probably be pleased to know my hair is big and long again. I think after Melodrama came out I said I wouldn’t put out another record until my hair was long– both because hair takes time to grow, and I knew I needed time, and because I knew the next record would require the longest and wildest hair yet. In many cultures and religions throughout history, long hair has been viewed as a source of power and a link to the spiritual world, and I can certainly say that I have never felt more spiritually rich, and in touch with the voices that guide.

(Yes I’m a f*cking herb. Sue me!!!)

I hope you and your friends and family are staying safe. It’s a wild time. I don’t know how many times I’ve said that in the past two months.

New Zealand is creeping back to normal. Shops and restaurants are open again. I’ve seen some friends. I feel so grateful for such calm, sensible leadership by our government, now more than ever. I know you may not be afforded that where you live, and I hope you’re taking it one day at a time and trying not to feel too destroyed by the news. I’m thinking of you all the time.

It’s that time of year in New Zealand where it’s cold and clear. The light is bright and stark, with lots of contrasting shadows. The sky is the dark bright blue which signals approaching winter.

The cars are back on the roads, which is a bit of a weird thing. The quiet streets had given me a glimpse at a different city, one where I could hear the sparrows in the huge London plane trees at rush hour. Maybe one day we’ll be back there again. I don’t know.

The first three months of this year started as a blur, and began to sharpen. It was summer, a time of year which is usually so clarifying and special to me, but I was grieving hard for Pearl, carrying it everywhere with me. I found a note in my phone from November which said:

I eat a grief sandwich

I wear a grief coat

I see a grief film.

If you know how it feels to lose someone close, I’m sure that makes sense to you. Everything about you becomes a grief thing! The dreamy warm time of year I normally love so much — the beaches and the green fields — it all felt hollow without my boy beside me.

I started going back to the studio again in December, just for something to do, and to my surprise, good things came out. Happy, playful things. I felt my melodic muscles flexing and strengthening. Jack came over to work in the studio in Auckland, and I went to LA. It flowed. A thing started to take shape. And then, of course, the world shut down. We’re still working away — Jack and I FaceTimed for over an hour this morning going over everything. But it’ll take a while longer.

I’ve been looking at some of your notes online, and I can feel the (extremely sweet, EXTREMELY flattering) desperation creeping back into your voices. You need it! The thing can’t come soon enough! I understand– I want nothing more than to feed you treats, pop perfect morsels straight into your little mouths. But as I get older I realise there’s something to be said for the pleasant feeling of waiting for something of quality to become available to you. You could have something of lesser quality much faster, but as the high quality thing comes into fruition, a warm feeling grows inside you. Do you know what I mean? I get this feeling when I make bread, or put my seedlings in after the last frost, or even when I wait for a particular package to arrive. Waiting, the thing that felt so pointless and annoying when I was young, is now this kind of delicious activity. In my opinion, the greatest treat I can give you is work that will last ten, twenty, thirty years. And that kind of work takes time. So if you can, I’d like for you to try tuning in to the time spent waiting for something of the highest quality to arrive. Enjoy the sensation as it builds. When the moment comes, our wave will crest super f*cking high.

I can tell you, this new thing, it’s got its own colours now. If you know anything about my work, you’ll know what that means.

I knew I needed a break from touring at the end of the last cycle. I was finding the combination of brutal stage fright and having no fixed home and no connection with what I ate or where I lived extremely grim. I needed to make some food, grow some stuff, go to the beach a bunch, finally acknowledge (and kick) my social media addiction. I wasn’t sure if I’d tour again for a long time. And I still don’t know what touring is gonna look like for me, sensitive sweet pea plant that I am. But I know now how excited I am to get back out there. I want to be playing festivals again — hearing my intro music, watching the band walk onstage. I want to devastate. I want to see a huge line of you outside my hotel. I want to hug you all, and hold your hands. I want to do interviews, talk about the record over and over until I know it inside out. I want to do photoshoots, make videos. I want to eat summer foods in beautiful countries — ice cream and tomatoes and anchovies. I want to use my gift, and watch it grow. Who knows when it’ll be safe to do those things, but I’m craving them, and I wanted you to know.

One of my favourite things about when we meet is the hug we almost always share. You say, ‘Can I hug you?’ in a wavering voice, and I reach out my arms and hold you close for 10 or 15 seconds. Our hands rest on each others’ backs. In those few seconds I can feel all the love and care you have for my work, all the time you’ve spent listening and watching and decoding. And you can feel how deeply I care about you, how hard I try to make everything perfect so that I meet your hopes where they are.

When it’s safe, I can’t wait to hug you again.

The work is so f*cking good, my friend. I am truly jazzed for you to hear it.

Okay, that’s all for now. It’s mid afternoon, and really warm. I’m going to put on my new shirt and walk down to the water. Fish and fennel salad for dinner. I hope this finds you well.

L xxxxxx.”

Jerry Stiller was known to millions as Frank Costanza on Seinfeld or one-half of the Stiller and Meara comedy team, but to Ben Stiller, he was, simply, Dad. The actor dropped by The Tonight Show on Tuesday, where he talked about his famous father, who died last week from natural causes at the age of 92. “He was a very, very supportive dad,” Stiller said. “I remember the first job I had was a play in New York, The House of Blue Leaves… He would do what they call second acting. He’d come in during the second act… He’d do that all the time, because he just wanted to watch and enjoy it.”

The Night at the Museum star also talked about the first time he did LSD. He was 16 years old at the time, and “I got freaked out, scared, and my first instinct was, ‘I’m going to call my parents.’ Because every kid calls his parents on LSD, right? But maybe that speaks to our relationship too,” Stiller told host Jimmy Fallon. He continued:

“I think his first thought was ‘acid — he drank battery acid.’ And I said, ‘No, LSD,’ and I could hear the silence on the other end of the phone, because I think he [had] that feeling of like, ‘I failed as a parent.’ And the next thing he said was, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ And he started to talk me down, even though he knew nothing about drugs. He said, ‘I know what you’re feeling. When I was 10 years old I smoked a Pall Mall cigarette and I was sick for two days.’”

Slightly different experiences, but it’s the thought that counts. Watch the interview above.

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