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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny made its world premiere at Cannes, and the first batch of reviews are pretty synonymous: This franchise belongs in a museum. While Harrison Ford‘s age is the obvious elephant of the room (there were concerns he was too old for the part when 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull whipped into theaters), the biggest issue is making an Indy adventure that doesn’t feel outdated even with today’s CGI advances. These are films that were a product of their time, and it’s hard to recapture that magic.

Director James Mangold helmed this fifth and probably final installment, and for the most part, he appears to have at least cleared the low bar set by Crystal Skull. However, anyone expecting Mangold to deliver a Logan-esque finale for the swashbuckling archaeologist are going to be in for a disappointment.

Here’s what the critics are saying:

Owen Gleiberman, Variety:

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is a dutifully eager but ultimately rather joyless piece of nostalgic hokum. It’s the fifth installment of the “Indiana Jones” franchise, and though it has its quota of “relentless” action, it rarely tries to match (let alone top) the ingeniously staged kinetic bravura of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” How could it?

David Ehrlich, IndieWire:

It goes without saying that James Mangold is no Steven Spielberg, just as it would be wildly unfair to hold any Hollywood director to that standard. On the contrary, there’s something kind of admirable about the fact that Mangold found the chutzpah to close the book on the Bearded One’s signature franchise. What he didn’t find was a compelling reason to re-open that book in the first place. Not only is “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” an almost complete waste of time, it’s also a belabored reminder that some relics are better left where and when they belong.

Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline:

The latest Indiana Jones is also anything but artisanal: it could give late-vintage Fast and Furious a very, very speedy run for its money when it comes to spectacular (and spectacularly ludicrous) SFX stunts. It serves them up, however, in the same gleeful spirit that Steven Spielberg brought to Raiders of the Lost Ark way back in 1981, when CGI was just a pup, with a satisfying sprinkling of call-backs to moments in the earlier films. Where new tech really comes into its own, however, is undoing the weathering of the years on Ford’s handsomely old face.

Nicholas Barber, BBC:

The good news is that it isn’t a disaster. It’s a respectable, competent addition to the series. The bad news is that a disaster might have been more worthwhile. The Dial of Destiny takes a sudden, bold and sure-to-be divisive swerve into wacky uncharted territory in its last half-hour, but otherwise it’s like fan fiction, a tie-in video game, or a branded theme-park ride, in that it’s content to tick off everything you’ve seen in other Indiana Jones films already, but with little of Spielberg’s sparkle.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian:

It’s the first Indiana Jones film not to be directed by Steven Spielberg – James Mangold is now at the helm – but despite that, this one has quite a bit of zip and fun and narrative ingenuity with all its MacGuffiny silliness that the last one (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) really didn’t.

David Fear, Rolling Stone:

There are needs being met here, but they aren’t storytelling-based so much as stoking-the-fanbase and meeting-the-bottom-line ones. Ford still has the fortitude to play the part. But just having him show up to crack whips and crack wise in the name of bringing back that old Indy thrills-spills-chills magic isn’t enough of an excuse to have him don the fedora one last time. “Things move forward,” one character tells Jones. “And sometimes, they move backward.” Someone may have turned the dial a little too much on the latter’s side this time around.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter:

This is a big, bombastic movie that goes through the motions but never finds much joy in the process, despite John Williams’ hard-working score continuously pushing our nostalgia buttons and trying to convince us we’re on a wild ride. Indy ignores the inevitable jokes about his age and proves he can still handle himself in a tight spot. But Ford often seems disengaged, as if he’s weighing up whether this will restore the tarnished luster to his iconic action hero or reveal that he’s past his expiration date. Both the actor and the audience get a raw deal with this empty exercise in brand redemption.

John Nugent, Empire:

For this first Spielberg-less outing, all the hallmarks of the series are there as you’d hope them to be, lovingly preserved like archaeological treasures: there is an ingenious and elaborate booby-trapped cave system, there is a throwback map sequence, and there are plenty of Nazis, ready for the punching. But there is also some sadness and regret, a man out of time, finally running out of time, and surveying the ruins of his life; a tone that sometimes feels unusually sombre for this kind of blockbuster.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny whips into theaters on June 30.

It’s the playoffs and the Nuggets are up 2-0 over the Lakers, but it seems all anyone can talk about this week is Ja Morant and his ongoing inability to avoid being caught on camera showing off guns. Not only are sports commentators weighing in (that’s their job, after all), but even rappers like GloRilla and Vic Mensa are also sharing their thoughts. The latest hip-hop artist to contribute to the discussion is Lil Wayne, who had a much more patient outlook than many observers.

Appearing on Showtime’s All The Smoke podcast hosted by Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson (two of Morant’s finest forebears in the “NBA troublemaker” category), Wayne gave a considered, empathetic take, putting himself in Ja’s shoes and lending him the benefit of the doubt. Here’s the blockquote:

The best I could do is remember when I was younger and my homies, my squad, my n****s around me, at the age where they don’t have money. I’m the one with the money, and I don’t even know how much money I’ll end up with, but I’m the one with some money in my pocket — I know I got a bright future.

My homies, they ain’t on a payroll. They my homies, they live good when they with me. When I gotta go to work and all that, they gotta go back to being who they gotta be. So I’m saying that to say, they in them streets and I was aware of that. So if I was going through something at that point in time, something public what slime going through, I could imagine the rebellious attitude I would have if my homies is egging that attitude on.

In response to the oft-made point that Ja comes from a decent family, not the gritty streets he appears to want so desperately to appeal to, Wayne had one question: “Do y’all know that boy? ‘Cause I don’t.”

I know him from dunking and jumping, and I only started knowing him when I started paying attention to him in his last year of college. He come from a town with 3,000 people. Like, what? What y’all expect? Y’all gave him $200 million. I just said, a town with 3,000 people. You expect him to be responsible? Now we tripping. That’s magic. ‘Cause I could tell you now, I come from a real well-raised, beautiful mother, nice, you know what I mean? My mama would bust her ass to make sure everything around me was nice, and I still was a knucklehead. I shot myself. And that young man, I could imagine if I came from a f*cking place with 3,000 people and I became who I am.

Morant himself issued a statement earlier this week, saying, “I know I’ve disappointed a lot of people who have supported me. This is a journey & I recognize there is more work to do. My words may not mean much right now, but I take full accountability for my actions. I’m committed to continuing to work on myself.”

And while folks blame everything from Ja’s choice of friends to his love for rap music, let us not forget that the US is a nation with more guns than people, where many states continue to refuse common-sense legislation to prevent the frighteningly common mass shooting incidents that have plagued us since a national ban on assault weapons was repealed. So, let’s keep some perspective, yeah?

Joel Edgerton really has become one of the most fearless actors working today. Not just that he goes for it in every performance, but also in that he takes on roles that a lot of actors might balk at. (Which is why it was almost jarring to see him back as Uncle Owen in Obi-Wan Kenobi, a character without a deranged past who just wants to protect Luke.) Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener is a perfect example of this, and. frankly the perfect kind of director for an actor like Edgerton.

In Master Gardener, Edgerton plays Narvel Roth, a man who is obsessed with gardening, to the point that when he finds perfect soil he will smother himself in it just to get a better smell. He works on a Louisiana estate run by Norma (Sigourney Weaver), who expects Narvel to make sure the garden is tended, to train others to take care of the garden, and to have sex with her. Narvel is put in charge of training Norma’s niece, who has a Black father, Maya (Quintessa Swindell), who is battling a heroin addiction. And, despite the age difference, Narvel and Maya develop a relationship. But, Narvel is hiding a secret about his past: that he used to be in a white supremacist militia and acted as their assassin. And the only reason he’s not currently in prison is because he testified against his former gang. As he tells Maya, he was taught at a young age to hate people not like him and he was really good at it. The way Paul Schrader frames this character, it’s not what you usually see in a story like this. It’s not a story about redemption. It’s unclear if Narvel even wants redemption.

Playing a character as heavy as Narvel Roth, it makes sense why Edgerton enjoyed playing Owen Lars again so much for Obi-Wan Kenobi. Seriously, he seemed absolutely delighted talking about his experience going back to Star Wars. And he maintains, without being cast as Owen way back in 2002’s Attack of the Clones, he doesn’t think the two of us would be talking on this day.

So, does Paul Schrader call you? Do you call him? How does this happen?

I have no idea, to be honest. I’d love to find out! But I remember getting a phone call from someone saying that Paul wanted to talk about it. And I was like, “Are you sure, man? You really want to talk to me?”

Well, why wouldn’t he want to talk to you? He’s like a gutsy director and writer and you’re a gutsy actor. You do these parts a lot of people wouldn’t do.

I think it sort of made sense once I started talking to Paul because he was looking for someone that you would believe had a white nationalist, violent background. I think he perhaps saw me as sort of a masculine figure but also had a sympathetic enough aspect that we would start to wrestle with our questions of whether we feel like this person’s evolved into the softer second aspect of his life. Which is hiding away as a horticulturist and for, excuse the pun, turning over a new leaf. I did think, okay, yeah, I am a suitable person for this.

The last time I talked to you was for The Underground Railroad, and we talked about this then, too, but a lot of actors wouldn’t have taken that role. With this one, a lot of actors wouldn’t want to have to wear the tattoos that Narvel has. You seem rather fearless as an actor.

Yeah, it was interesting because I really thought a lot about Underground Railroad when I was doing this because you start to really question or research the idea of racism and white nationalism, or white supremacy, or whatever you want to label it, and look at the different aspects of it. In Underground Railroad, part of the questioning was about the economics of the slave trade, the trade aspect where Ridgeway fit into that. There’s a really key moment in the Master Gardener where Paul has my character say to Maya, young Maya, who she gets entangled in a relationship with, where he expresses that he grew up with people who had certain ideas.

Right, that he was taught to be racist at a very young age. Basically, if parents are teaching a kid to be this way, they will think that.

It’s true. I’m very much a believer in that we are blank canvases and other people paint their ideas on us and we question them or not. Even if we don’t question them, and then later we come to a point of questioning, I think that’s valid. So, I was really interested in the character being complex in that regard. So, I don’t see it as a kind of thing I’m reluctant to do at all. In fact, it gives me something to really think about and to challenge myself with. I will say that even I’m challenged, as an actor, challenged by the evolution of Narvel’s character and whether or not he deserves…

Oh, I’m sure a lot of people are thinking, “Does this guy deserve retribution at all?”

And Paul Schrader loves to rock the boat, or shake the tree, or chastise, or provoke.

Yes, he has a tendency to do that.

I remember asking him in our initial conversations, “How do you see the relationship with Maya and Narvel? Is it there to be enticing and exciting for the audience?” He said, “Absolutely not.” He wanted the audience to be as challenged and confronted by both my relationship with Sigourney’s character and with Quintessa’s character. That made me more excited. I kind of knew that that would be his answer, anyway.

Had you ever met Paul Schrader before?

No. Never.

What movies of his made you want to work with him?

Well, the big one for me, and cause it really relates to this is First Reformed.

Oh, that movie’s incredible.

Every now and then I’ll see something written about a movie or a trailer for a film that’s coming up on the horizon. I don’t know about you, but it’s very rare that I’m like, “Wow, can’t wait for that movie to come out. Can’t wait.” I was living just around the corner from where I am now on Lafayette Street (in NYC), and the Angelica Cinema is right around the corner. So, First Reformed was about to come out and I would’ve been one of the first people to go to one of the first sessions when it opened. I was so impressed by that movie. No offense to other directors, but maybe there’s an assumption that directors get to a certain age, or actors get to a certain age, and they stop being as challenging or as kind of thought-provoking. Not that a lot of directors never even start their careers provoking…

Because isn’t that Tarantino’s argument why he wants to stop after his next movie? He doesn’t want to lose his fastball? I don’t think Schrader has.

No. I remember reading an article about Bob Dylan when he talked about he felt like some of his greater creative ideas came when he was younger. But it’s not necessarily true. I definitely don’t think it’s true with Schrader. Dylan was recognizing potentially that something we all maybe feel is that you do your best stuff when you are younger. Maybe it’s also because I think that when you are young, you’re in touch with the real world. When you get successful, you start to move up into the hills of Hollywood, or you hide away behind the gates of your house. Wealth puts you in a different place away from regular human beings. Right?

Like comedians who aren’t as funny anymore after they become millionaires.

Also, the struggle, the life, the school of hard knocks creates great creativity out of people, too. Once you’ve got the Porsches, and the money, and things to boot, staff on payroll? Maybe there’s not the hustle anymore. I don’t know what it is, but Schrader certainly hasn’t lost it. And this is interesting, it was an event that happened to him about four or five movies ago where he got the cut taken away from him by a studio and he was like, “I’m never going to let that happen again.” He started making movies out of budget. Nobody could wrestle the edit off him, that he could say whatever he wanted to say. I think ever since that moment, he’s been happy again.

I really enjoyed you coming back as Uncle Owen in Obi-Wan Kenobi. You didn’t have to play a deranged guy. But that seems challenging, too, because the audience still needs to like you, even though you hate the main character and we like him.

Well, I really wanted to use that opportunity, because I think everybody frowns on Uncle Owen for being this sort of guy that’s just like, “No, no, no, no, no. You can’t do this and you can’t do that.” But I’m a parent, now. How do you hold it against anybody who wants to protect a child? Now, if you are the child, you feel like you’re being constrained. But as a parent you would never, ever live down the regret of not being a protector. I think that’s worth saying “no” for. Being frowned upon.

He makes a lot of sense. In real life if a priest kept coming over to your house saying your 10-year-old kid needed to go to war, “Absolutely not. What are you talking about?”

Yeah. It’s just like the movie. We need him to go to war because the movie’s going to be fun, it’s not fun if you stay on this moisture farm. We’re not sticking around for the credits. But also, part of the fun of going back to Star Wars was, also, I felt like when I did Star Wars when I was 25 or whatever, I had no idea what I was doing. I was nervous. I was scared that I’d get fired. I felt like I was just lucky to get the job because they happened to be shooting in Australia. Now, after all these years, I thought, who am I to frown upon this? Sort of going back to do a couple of episodes in this series when it’s a reunion.

It’s a reunion with a company that essentially kind of let me open a bunch of doors that led to the fact that I’m even having this conversation with you now. It’s like the stepping stones of an actor are that way leads onto way, and there’s a randomness to it along with a bit of hard work and intelligence and whatever. But the pure chance aspect of it, and the luck that you have along the way, and the people that help you onto the next step, that very significantly is Lucasfilm for me. So, I was like, of course I’m going to go back. Of course I had the best time and I remember thinking that, even though it wasn’t necessarily the greatest challenge for me, there are other things that you get to do as an actor, which are like, you don’t always have to bend your brain in a press. That was a wonderful experience and I’m really happy that I did it.

It’s funny you say you were lucky that you got that role in Attack of the Clones, but I feel now they’re lucky. Lucasfilm is lucky because now, “Oh, we hired Joel Edgerton way back then.” So, everyone got lucky.

Well, I think they created me and in a way I was happy that I’ve gone on to continue working and that I could then come back and feel more confident as an actor to fit back into that puzzle.

‘Master Gardener’ opens in theaters on Friday, May 19th. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Welcome to our Yellowjackets Sting Meter. We’ll measure the erratic, unexplainable behavior of the show’s main lineup, ranking them according to how dangerous, deadly, and certifiably insane they appear in each episode. Who’s a whacky worker bee, and who gets crowned Mad Queen of episode eight’s “It Chooses”? Let’s find out.

“Does a hunt that has no violence feed anyone?”

It’s the question left lingering in Lottie’s brain at the end of this season’s seventh episode, and one that finds its answer in episode eight’s “It Chooses.” We’ve seen Yellowjackets‘ group of teenage castaways go to great lengths in order to survive. They’ve killed animals, feasted on a dead teammate, and invented deities to pray to. But until now, their choices were passive and reactive. They made the most of what little luck they had and picked the best of some bad options.

What happens though when these girls wield their sacrificial mysticism and starvation-fueled depravity against each other? In this week’s episode, we find out. And while the survivors go on their first group hunt in the past, their adult selves are unearthing some harsh truths in the present — in Lottie’s sharing shack of all places.

Queen Bee — Lottie Matthews

Charlotte Matthews is not well, in the past or in the present. After inviting Shauna to use her face like her own personal punching bag, Lottie’s tenure as the group’s sole woo-woo witch doctor is in jeopardy. She’s peeing blood and rambling about making use of her corpse should she die. She doesn’t; obviously, but her sorry state forces the rest of the girls to embrace the darkness that’s been lingering just outside the cabin walls all winter. In the present, Lottie’s gone full Jim Jones. She’s ignoring her own problems — vivid hallucinations and imaginary therapists — and instead, offering a deadly solution to the issues plaguing her old friends, though Shauna, Van, Tai, Misty, and Nat aren’t super receptive to her methods. (We can’t imagine why.)

Nat

Juliette Lewis still feels a bit lost in the present timeline. Her older Nat seems to be a more devout follower of Lottie’s cult than even Lottie herself at this point, but to what end, we’re still not sure. Perhaps Adult Natalie will be the one to make the shocking decision to drink the Kool-Aid, thus completing the sacrificial cycle she started in the past. We’ll let that chilling thought rest and instead praise Sophie Thatcher’s performance in this episode. Nat’s been stuck in limbo as an antagonist to Lottie’s spiritualist leadership and as a love interest for a sidelined character but in “It Chooses,” she finally breaks free of both. Forced to sacrifice herself for the good of the group, she escapes into the wilderness, finds help from Javi, and ends up offering his life in exchange for her own. It’s a brutal twist made all the more heartbreaking because of the bond Nat and Javi shared, not to mention Travis’ early-in-the-episode declaration that she’s a good person.” Is anyone a good person on this show?

Shauna

In the present, Shauna’s understandably spooked about the whole “police found the dismembered body of my ex-lover” development and her paranoia triggers a sharing shack confessional that upends the careful truce the adult Yellowjackets have struck. There’s an epiphany that happens in this episode: Shauna isn’t a very good criminal. Sure, she can butcher a body like it’s her business, but everything that comes after — the secrecy, deception, and evasion necessary to get away with a crime isn’t her strong suit. She’s all pent-up rage and spontaneous decision-making and her sloppiness is endangering the people she cares about most. In the past, the physical manifestation of her anger has cost the group its leader and tempted them to embrace their own sinister natures. Someone cue up Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” because hi, it’s her, Shauna Shipman is the problem.

Akilah

So much happened in this episode. Teen girls went hunting one of their own. A young boy tragically drowned. A cult leader invited her friends to play Russian Roulette with freshly-brewed euthanasia medication. And yet, the revelation that poor Akilah has been carrying a dead mouse in her pocket all season still felt like the most shocking bombshell of the night. This is what Ratatouille would look like as a horror movie.

Misty

You can either give specific instructions for how deep to dig a grave in order to bury the body of a friend’s f*ck buddy, or you can pick up a shovel and do it yourself. Misty learned this week which option is guaranteed to keep her out of jail. While she’s dealing with the incompetence and performative morality of her fellow murderers in the present, in the past, Misty is nursing Lottie back to health. It’s not her fault Lottie suggested cannibalism as a means of survival, thus setting the group on their current path of eating each other in order to survive. But, it’s not not her fault either … What was that? Javi’s death you say? Yeah, that was all her.

Van

In the past, the cracks start showing when Van (a seething, almost rabid-looking Liv Hewson) leads the charge to hunt and kill Natalie. In the present, Van’s pissed no one told her about the murder party – although to be fair, she hasn’t sent out her terminal cancer invitations yet either – so she tosses Shauna’s keys into the woods which kicks off this whole Jonestown reenactment. Lottie might be right. Something is broken in Van and she probably doesn’t have enough time to fix it, so doing what she can to help the friends she’ll leave behind is the next best thing.

Tai

Tai’s sleepwalking episodes are back and personally, we blame the belt soup.

Coach Ben

Coach Ben goes on a walkabout at just the right time and manages to find a cave system Javi likely used to stay alive during the coldest months of the winter. Whatever you do, Ben, stay there!

Jeff

Poor Jeff. He took one look at Adam’s dismembered body and hallucinated Shauna with electric carving knives for hands musing about grating someone’s skin off like a rind of pecorino. He’s too soft for this world.

Citizen Detective Thread

• Is Walter going to help Misty, or turn her into the police? To that end, how much are we betting that Walter becomes the group’s next sacrifice to the wilderness?
• Is the cave system natural, or some kind of man-made structure?
• The hunt’s definitely going to end up splitting the group into factions, right?
• Just how deep did Natalie dig that hole?

In a truly wild twist this week, it turns out that Ukraine’s social media manager for their Defense account is a huge Busta Rhymes fan. The new update gave people a breakdown of how they’re handling the Russians in their ongoing war — taking down three new tanks, twelve armored combat vehicles, thirteen artillery, and 520 more “eliminated personnel.”

“‘Woo-hah, got you all in check!’ -Busta Rhymes,” the post read. “Total combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022, to May 16, 2023.”

While the majority of those in the replies were others from Ukraine following the updates, some scattered fans tagged Busta to get his attention for the reference to his 1996 song, also called “Woo-Hah!! Got You All In Check.” It was also the rapper’s debut solo single, which could possibly add to why the country chose that reference… Like, there’s more defense to come, or something?

Others pointed out that it was also interestingly timed. “Should have waited a few more days for @BustaRhymes birthday,” another user wrote.

Upon a deeper dive, the account usually accompanies their updates with some sort of pop culture quote. They’ve recently included everything from How I Met Your Mother‘s “Legendary” line to Babe Ruth. There’s even one of “Now I have a machine gun ho-ho-ho” from Die Hard.

Check out Ukraine’s Busta-themed post above.

Andy Rourke, the former bassist of The Smiths, has died at age 59 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. Guitarist Johnny Marr shared the news to social media today, May 19.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Andy Rourke after a lengthy illness with pancreatic cancer,” he wrote. “Andy will be remembered as a kind and beautiful soul by those who knew him and as a supremely gifted musician by music fans. We request privacy at this sad time.”

Rourke played with a handful of iconic acts, recording with Sinéad O’Connor and The Pretenders as well as performing on some of Morrissey’s solo material and joining the supergroup Freebass alongside Peter Hook, Gary Mounfield, and Gary Briggs.

Fans are reacting with sharing the legendary musician’s best bass lines, whether that’s the jaunty flourish on “This Charming Man” or the intense ripple in “How Soon Is Now.” A fan-favorite is “Barbarism Begins At Home,” which sheds light on the way The Smiths’ music, despite often being labeled as stereotypically depressing and glum, has an unmatched element of effervescence that balances beautifully with the dismal content of the lyrics. Videos of them performing on stage in the ’80s, all looking fully immersed in this gleeful sound, is proof of that magic.

If there is one thing that we love here at Indiecast, it is festival posters with absolutely chaotic energy. So Steven and Ian were psyched this week to see the lineup for Riot Fest in Chicago, which is topped by big-time bands like Foo Fighters, Death Cab For Cutie and Queens Of The Stone Age. But the real action takes place further down the list — where else can you see Ani DiFranco, Mr. Bungle and Insane Clown Posse in the same place? Also, apparently Corey Feldman is also appearing at this festival? Simply incredible.

From there, Steven asks Ian about the state of music in 2023. Specifically, is this a weak year for consensus album of the year candidates? Caroline Polachek and Boygenius are early contenders, and there are artists on the horizon (PJ Harvey, Rihanna, Jenny Lewis) who might contend. But this year feels like we might be at the end of something. What is it, though?

After that, there’s a discussion about the legacy of The Cure, who are back on the road this month. (Steven also wrote about them this week.) Why is this band so central to the history of modern indie and alternative rock? What is their best work, and where should a newbie get started?

In Recommendation Corner, Ian talks up the British post-punk band Mandy, Indiana, while Steven stumps for two other British acts, the soft-rock singer-songwriter Westerman and the art-rock combo Bar Italia.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 139 here and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.

Disney is removing dozens of TV shows and movies from Disney+, including Willow, which has been on the streaming service for less than six months, and Howard, the documentary about one of the key figures in the Disney Renaissance, Howard Ashman. Some Hulu shows are affected, as well, so if you were planning on watching Y: The Last Man, now’s your chance.

The content culling — which will happen as soon as next week — comes after a recent earnings call where Disney CFO Christine McCarthy told investors, “We are in the process of reviewing the content on our DTC services to align with the strategic changes in our approach to content curation.” It’s a cost-cutting move for Disney; McCarthy said the company expects “a write-down in the June quarter of $1.5 billion-$1.8 billion from removing content from its streaming platforms,” according to Variety. “By writing down the value of the content assets, Disney can remove that from its balance sheet and reduce its tax bill.”

Here are the shows and movies being removed from Disney+:

America the Beautiful
Among the Stars
Artemis Fowl
Be Our Chef
Better Nate Than Ever
The Big Fib
Big Shot
Black Beauty
Cheaper by the Dozen (2022)
Clouds
Diary of a Future President
Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings
Earth to Ned
Encore!
Foodtastic
Harmonious Live!
Howard
It’s a Dog’s Life With Bill Farmer
Just Beyond
Magic Camp
The Making of Willow
The Mighty Ducks
Marvel’s Hero Project
Marvel’s MPower
More Than Robots
The Mysterious Benedict Society
The One and Only Ivan
Own the Room
Pentatonix: Around the World for the Holidays
Pick of the Litter
The Princess
The Real Right Stuff
Rogue Trip
Rosaline
Shop Class
A Spark Story
Stargirl (2020)
Stuntman
Super/Natural
Timmy Failure
Turner & Hooch
Weird but True!
Willow
Wolfgang
The World According to Jeff Goldblum

And on Hulu:

Best in Dough
Best in Snow
Darby and the Dead
Dollface
Everything’s Trash
Little Demon
Love in the Time of Corona
Maggie
Pistol
The Premise
The Quest
Y: The Last Man

(Via Variety)

Rihanna has had a strong past few months. Just the possibility of her presence stopped Pedro Pascal in his tracks, she’s climbing her way up the RIAA ranks, there’s a great new wax figure of her, she made the Forbes billionaires list, and it was announced she’s starring in a new Smurfs movie. Yes, times are good, and now they’ve gotten even better: Rihanna’s currently getting a lot of attention for her revealing new maternity shoot, much of which is topless.

In an Instagram gallery shared yesterday (May 18), Rihanna wrote, “here’s a little series I call ‘Rub on ya titties.’ in honor of my first pregnancy, embracing motherhood like a g, and the magic that this body made! Baby RZA… he in there not having a clue how nuts his mama is, or how obsessed he was bout to make me #maternityshoot2022 #tobecontinued.”

The photos were taken in a tropical-looking environment and feature Rihanna in a barely-there bikini, topless in some shots but covering her breasts with her hands in all of them. As Rihanna noted, the pics are also from 2022, when she was pregnant with her and ASAP Rocky’s first child, RZA.

As of this post, in the approximately 13 hours since the gallery was shared on Instagram, it has racked up about 9.9 million likes.

Check out the photos above.

Earlier this week, TMZ premiered a new documentary, TMZ Investigates: Britney Spears: The Price Of Freedom. The doc made a lot of claims, which Sam Asghari addressed, and now Spears herself has spoken up, too, via a new Instagram post.

The post features a photo of a reflective-looking woman with the text, “Thinking about when I was a teenager and I’d ride in the trunk of my friends car to a party at a gravel pit, sleep just fine on a hard floor and eat McDonalds whenever I wanted, and now I have a 13-step skincare routine, get to bed by 9:30, work out daily and eat mostly plants.”

Spears’ caption starts, “Considering what happened to me during the conservatorship and how hard I work everyday to be a better person since it’s been over !!! The concern and just effort on TMZ’s part of being the trashiest news channel for news !!! Damn I’m flattered !!!”

She continued, “These men who I have no idea who they are, are talking about me as if they have any right at all to do so !!! My girlfriend called me and said ‘because I know you I was laughing at these men and what they were saying’ !!! But she also said it was really disturbing how incredibly conniving and foolish it was !!! The media has always been cruel to me and most people probably wouldn’t even comment on it but I do think some people might believe this and I care !!! I almost feel like my life in the business has always been that girl at school who was bullied and laughed at !!! But in my case there is no superior person to set it straight !!!”

Spears also gave an update on her upcoming book, writing, “I think some people are wanting to hear my story … either through a book or what have you ??? I’ve had to stop a couple of times !!! It may take me a year, maybe longer who knows … to share my story !!!”

Find Spears’ full post below.

“Considering what happened to me during the conservatorship and how hard I work everyday to be a better person since it’s been over !!! The concern and just effort on TMZ’s part of being the trashiest news channel for news !!! Damn I’m flattered !!! These men who I have no idea who they are, are talking about me as if they have any right at all to do so !!! My girlfriend called me and said ‘because I know you I was laughing at these men and what they were saying’ !!! But she also said it was really disturbing how incredibly conniving and foolish it was !!! The media has always been cruel to me and most people probably wouldn’t even comment on it but I do think some people might believe this and I care !!! I almost feel like my life in the business has always been that girl at school who was bullied and laughed at !!! But in my case there is no superior person to set it straight !!! My dad was supposedly the one who was supposed to protect my mind and heart from things of this matter but he was the main one who was secretly loving it !!! I think some people are wanting to hear my story … either through a book or what have you ??? I’ve had to stop a couple of times !!! It may take me a year, maybe longer who knows … to share my story !!! My great grandmother told me two things that I will never forget !!! People come here for two reasons … either for a lesson or a blessing and she said ‘Dear sweetheart the real key to happiness is to forget every fucking thing that ever happened ‘ !!! It’s a new day y’all !!!”