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Phyllis Nagy On Her Terrific New Film, ‘Call Jane,’ And Why It’s Probably Not What You Think It Will Be

Call Jane (which premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival), considering the subject matter, probably isn’t quite what you think it is. At least, for one, I wasn’t expecting a movie about a suburban Chicago woman, Joy (Elizabeth Banks), facing the prospect of death from congestive heart failure if her pregnancy does not end, who seeks out an abortion from an underground network called the Jane Collective (run by Sigourney Weaver’s Virginia) to be this … well, purposely absurd at times, creating comedic moments in a movie where we probably wouldn’t expect many comedic moments. But, as director Phyllis Nagy tells us, this is the tone she was hoping for.

This is Nagy‘s first time directing a theatrical feature (in 2005 she directed Mrs. Harris for HBO), and since her Oscar nomination for writing the screenplay for 2015’s Carol, it sounds like there’s been a frustratingly long list of false starts leading to this moment. But, seven years after Carol, Nagy has her film and it’s a great one.

Nagy explains below, but there are a few things she wanted to convey with this movie. One is obviously the contrast between then and now, as we await a Supreme Court decision that could make underground networks like the Jane Collective all too needed again. Call Jane ends in triumph, as Roe v. Wade is decided, and then we come to our own reality where that same decision is on the brink of being overturned. Nagy also has an interesting thing she does with the men in this movie. As she says, she didn’t want to demonize them. And Chris Messina as Joy’s husband and Cory Michael Smith as Dean, the abortion doctor, really are handled in a fascinating way.

The last time I talked to you it was the morning you got nominated for an Oscar for Carol. It was one of those reaction interviews, which I actually really love doing, because everyone’s in the best mood.

I remember that day. I was trying not to be in too good a mood because there were others in the film who weren’t nominated. Right?

We talked about that, but you were still very happy.

Okay, good.

I’m surprised it’s first your feature film as a director.

I mean, things work in a funny way. Don’t they? There was a feature that I dearly wanted to do, and I have been retained as writer and director on a couple of them. And over the course of the last, I’d say three years prior to taking on Call Jane, things fell apart: bad luck, COVID, the Korean-Japanese diplomatic situation, believe it or not. That’s a long story for another day.

Oh, wow. Okay.

Yeah. So it wasn’t for lack of trying. And I think at least a couple of those things will come to fruition, in the light of this being out there. And, hopefully, people will see it and say, “Oh yeah, she can really do that.” Well, maybe not. You never know.

Well, my opinion doesn’t mean much, but you certainly can. This movie is great. I just wouldn’t say anything if I didn’t think that.

You see a lot of movies. You know.

I do.

Anybody who sees a lot of these movies has an opinion that’s, how do I put this diplomatically, more interesting to me than perhaps somebody who only watches one movie a year. I think that’s a fair thing to say. That’s not to discount the person who watches one movie a year.

Though, if someone was only going to watch one movie a year and they picked this one, that would be flattering.

Yeah. That would be great. But I mean, just in big, broad general terms it’s always interesting to me that people who watch a lot of movies, who’ve seen all the good and all the bad and everything in between, their opinions are interesting to me. So I’m not a person who thinks critical discourse is not valuable. Well, that’s a tactful way to say that.

I’m still having trouble putting into words how I felt at the end of this movie. Because it ends on this positive note of Roe v Wade being decided, but then it hits you, we might be headed back to this. So I feel good about how the movie ended, but then bad about actual life.

And I think that’s what the ending should make people feel like. I mean, on the one hand, these two ladies have pushed a rock up a hill and helped to create a situation where something looked possible. But listen, getting equal pay, shouldn’t be as hard. Now, we know from the comfort of what, 50 years later or something, none of that happened. It still hasn’t happened. And so, burning up those cards and being overwhelmed with the names and the last menstrual period – which is what LMP is, somebody asked me that the other day, which is why I mentioned it. And it’s overwhelming, and it’s happening again. Our whole world is going up in flames.

And so, the ending is triumphant, but it’s also not. It’s, wait a minute. We have work to do. So somebody, a friend of mine, called it a call-to-arms. And I think that’s fair, too. Not literal arms. I mean that metaphorically. But yes, it is. Can you call it like a, feel good, feel bad movie all at once? I’m not really sure. But that duality, which I think is present in the film, in its themes, in the way it’s shot, in the things that we’re looking at. I think that’s fair. It’s both things at once. And hopefully one day, we will not be there anymore. But listen, we’ve had hundreds of years of this, so I don’t know. What are the odds?

I kept thinking about these types of networks. After this coming Supreme Court decision, which is all but certain to overturn a lot of things, there’s going to be at least a lot of states where these networks are going to have to exist again. Not everyone has the money to fly to New York or California.

That’s right. I mean, that’s what people were saying at the time of the Janes. And even before we started shooting it, there were kind of feminist organizations saying, “Well, wait a minute, rich women could go to Europe, apparently.” And I said, “Well, wait a minute. What is your definition of a rich woman?” These days, it’s even more narrow. Middle class people can’t just up and fly to Stockholm. I mean, I don’t even think I could at this point. It’s so expensive. So I’m terrified, but I also know that New York and California and various states that are like those states will have something in place. You can be sure, because everybody is mobilizing.

Or Illinois…

Right. Or maybe it’s Chicago, but it’s a hell of a lot easier getting to Chicago than it is to wherever. But it is scary. And it’s already having a catastrophic effect on women in Texas and certain other states. So I don’t know what’s going to happen. The Supreme Court probably will chip away at this, maybe not totally, in June, but that’s even worse. We just see an erosion of this, as we’re seeing with other things like voting rights.

I’ve been following this pretty closely and the most disturbing thing about the Supreme Court, when they had the arguments, it sounded like John Roberts wanted to do what you’re saying, like, “Can we reach a compromise and chip away?” And the other conservative justices sounded like they just wanted to go all in.

It’s going to be bad. I mean, I suppose if there is a silver lining to something so draconian, is that a total cutting us off at the knees will mean an uprising. I don’t know what form that’ll take, but people will mobilize much more quickly if they do not have an excuse to hide behind the chipping away. Well, you can still blah, blah, blah. Which is why I think the chipping away is more devastating. It gives allegedly good-minded people an excuse.

You do this great job in the movie of showing so many women go through this. There’s a lot of movies you just say, oh, if people will only watch this, they will maybe understand more. And I truly believe this with this movie, but I’m also so defeated. I don’t believe anyone who thinks the other way is going to sit down and give this a shot…

Yeah. I hope they do. If they do, it’s because it’s not judging them in a condescending way. So hopefully, somebody will at least watch it and say, “Women have a hard time with this.” Not that that’s going to change anything.

You have this kind of montage of Joy being told these different techniques on how to do this herself, like “falling down the stairs.” And it’s kind of almost played in such a, I don’t want to say a comical way, but such an absurd way. It’s all these absurd suggestions were actually what people were told to do.

That’s exactly what was meant. So you got it. I mean, the film does have a tone that encompasses both the comic and the serious, because I just think that’s how life is. And that sequence in particular that you’re talking about, the doctor saying, “Do you think you’re suicidal?” And falling down the stairs. Of course, it has a particular tone. And I think the movie can relax people into going with it, and then all of a sudden, boom, you have a 10-minute scene of an abortion, which is … You know?

Yes.

Right? And it goes down because of what surrounds it, I think. So I’m glad. That’s absolutely right. I mean, at least it’s what I meant. I think other interpretations, people will have, probably equally valid, but yes, I did intend that tonal shift.

Everyone is so great in this movie and I don’t want to be the guy singling out a man in the movie, but your casting of Cory Michael Smith as Dean, the “abortion doctor,” really encapsulates so much about the allies at the time. Basically, “Yeah, I’ll be on your side. I’m going to make a lot of money off of it.” But he also plays it in a way where you don’t think he’s an evil person either. There’s something so good about the way you presented that character.

Yeah. He’s such a dupe! You know? Women are really just running circles around him. He keeps being taken in. But he’s sweet in it. You know? It’s like, “Yeah, I like you. I like older girls.” I mean, I think there’s a tactic to that and to Chris Messina.

Oh, I love Chris Messina.

He’s fantastic. Oh, and John Magaro. Yeah. So one of the things, this was in my script, the men are not being demonized in a way that you might expect. This is the ’60s, and I grew up at the end of the ’60s. I was living in New York. I was a kid, but I saw all sorts of different kinds of men. Right? Hippies and Yippies and coexisting with women in a way that isn’t that behind the fence kind of menace. So I’m glad you didn’t hate Dr. Dean. You understood that tactic.

Well, I didn’t hate him because, he’s obviously in it for the money, but at least the way you portray him, he’s not treating anyone particularly poorly. And he’s very good at what he does.

Yeah. Yeah. It makes sense. There’s an emotional sense to it. And he’s not harming anyone. And he’s right, he’s actually better than a lot of the other people that were there performing these procedures who weren’t doctors. So yes, right.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

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The Final Season Of ‘Game Of Thrones’ Was Somehow Still One Of 2021’s Most Pirated Shows

The Game of Thrones series finale aired in May 2019. Reaction was — to put it charitably — mixed. But despite the response to the final episode / season (even George R.R. Martin isn’t a fan), the HBO show remains massively popular; there are numerous spin-offs in development and it was one of the most tweeted-about shows in 2021.

Thrones was also one of the most pirated shows of last year. Not the entire series, but the final season. Somewhere out there is a guy who got a computer virus from illegally downloading season eight of Game of Thrones. He got what he deserved.

A report from Akamai (via the Wrap) revealed the most pirated movies and shows of 2021. The movie list was topped by Godzilla vs. Kong and Zack Snyder’s Justice League, both of which were released on HBO Max (the only theaters-only film in the top 10 is F9), while Loki and WandaVision ranked #1 and #2 on the TV side. Thrones placed at #6, ahead of The Flash season seven and Vikings season six, despite season eight coming out nearly three years later. I bet I know one of those pirates.

Here’s the full list:

Most Pirated TV Shows
1. Loki Season 1
2. WandaVision Season 1
3. Rick and Morty Season 5
4. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Season 1
5. The Walking Dead Season 10
6. Game of Thrones Season 8
7. The Flash Season 7
8. Vikings Season 6
9. True Beauty Season 1
10. Superman & Lois Season 1

Most Pirated Movies
1. Godzilla vs. Kong
2. Zack Snyder’s Justice League
3. Black Widow
4. F9
5. Mortal Kombat (2021)
6. The Suicide Squad
7. Cruella
8. Wonder Woman 1984
9. Raya and the Last Dragon
10. Jungle Cruise

(Via the Wrap)

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Howard Stern Doesn’t Agree With Joe Rogan But Is Happy He Can ‘Get Paid’ And Doesn’t Want Him Cancelled

In recent months, Howard Stern has been a relentless critic of Joe Rogan, and anti-vaxxers in general, as the delta and omicron variants caused two back-to-back surges of COVID cases while 20 to 30% of the country is still refusing to get the vaccine. However, despite Rogan being a prominent pusher of vaccine misinformation, Stern offered a very surprising take on Neil Young threatening to pull his music if Spotify doesn’t get rid of Rogan.

“I’m against any kind of censorship,” Stern said. “I really am. I don’t like censorship. I don’t want to see Joe Rogan cancelled.”

While Stern admits that he and Rogan are “no longer friendly,” the shock jock has nothing but admiration for Rogan’s skill at attracing an audience even though he pumps them full of conspiracy theories and dangerous quack cures. Via Mediaite:

“I am for any performer who can get any money and get paid,” Stern said about Rogan’s $100 million deal for Spotify to host his podcast. “I’m happy for any young man or woman who can get paid in show business because so many people do not get paid. So those that can, god bless. It ain’t easy. It’s not an easy road. And attracting an audience is not easy.”

Again, Stern’s comments are interesting considering he’s delivered more than one angry rant about Rogan. Just a few months ago, Stern blasted Rogan for pushing ivermectin and flat-out said anyone who’s still questioning the science of the vaccines can stay home and die.

“We have no time for idiots in this country anymore. We don’t want you,” Stern said in September. “Don’t take the cure, but don’t clog up our hospitals with your COVID when you finally get it. Stay home, don’t bother with science, it’s too late. Go f*ck yourself, we just don’t have time for you.”

(Via Mediaite)

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A Classic ‘South Park’ Song Was Performed By A Big Fat 30-Piece Orchestra

My best friend in the late 1990s and early 2000s was named Kyle. It was a rough time for him, because whenever me and the other losers in our posse wanted to get under his skin, we would start singing “Kyle’s Mom’s a B*tch” from South Park. Was it wrong of us to copy Cartman and call someone, let alone someone’s mom, a “b*tch”? Probably, but it was a different time; kids saying the b-word on TV was still a novelty (also, the song’s catchy). But things are different in 2022 — now our crass comedy songs are played by orchestras.

Ahead of the season 25 premiere of South Park, Comedy Central has released a 30-piece orchestral version of “Kyle’s Mom’s a B*tch” featuring vocals from Nikki Renee Daniels, Tamar Greene, Jeff Kready, and Elizabeth Stanley. “I was thrilled to get to reimagine these South Park classics in a more traditional orchestral concert setting,” arranger Stephen Oremus told the Hollywood Reporter (they previously performed the theme song and “Gay Fish”). “It was so much fun getting to blow them up and give them such proper classical renditions. I called some of the best musicians and singers I knew — friends and colleagues who I have worked with on Broadway and TV, and we got to make music and dress up and laugh our asses off for a few days.”

The time has come for the orchestra to perform “What Would Brian Boitano Do.” That’s what Brian Boitano would do. You can watch the video above.

South Park returns on February 2, and nearly every old episode is on HBO Max.

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Japanese Breakfast Turns In A Simple And Gorgeous Cover Of Yoko Ono’s ‘Nobody Sees Me Like You Do’

Earlier this month, Ocean Child: Songs Of Yoko Ono, a covers album curated by Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, was announced. He got a great roster of artists involved with the project, including David Byrne, Jay Som, Sharon Van Etten, The Flaming Lips, and Japanese Breakfast, that latter of whom shared her cover of “Nobody Sees Me Like You Do” today. The cover lets Michelle Zauner’s vocals shine, as the lovely rendition features just vocals and piano.

Japanese Breakfast previously covered the song during her May 14, 2020 livestream concert, the proceeds from which benefited her touring band and crew.

Gibbard previously said of the project, “This is an artist whose output has run the gamut from avant-garde to bubblegum pop, often across a single album. For years, it has been my position that her songwriting has been criminally overlooked. She has consistently created melodies as memorable as those of best pop writers. As a lyricist, she has always written with poignance, sophistication and deep introspection. Some of her best songs have been covered and compiled here by a generation-spanning group of musicians for whom her work has meant so much. It is my sincere hope that a new crop of Yoko Ono fans fall in love with her songwriting due in some small part to this album we have put together.”

Listen to Japanese Breakfast’s cover of “Nobody Sees Me Like You Do” above.

Ocean Child: Songs Of Yoko Ono is out 2/18 via Canvasback Music/Atlantic Records. Pre-order it here.

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

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Eminem Partners With Peloton To Host A Boxing Class Set To His Music

Look, say what you want about Eminem‘s late-career output, but one thing the man does still do well is creating the perfect gym playlist music. So, he’s probably the perfect artist to join Peloton’s Artist Series, unleashing his catalog for artist-specific workouts such as “Eminem Core Strength,” “Eminem Thunder 45,” and “Eminem Bike Bootcamp.” In addition, though, the boxing enthusiast will be hosting a boxing class, as he announced on his Twitter feed.

Eminem’s classes will just be the start of Peloton’s planned boxing programming, which the company is offering free to new members for two months. According to Peloton’s press release, “The Peloton Eminem Artist Series Kicks off on January 28 with a special one-night Boxing event,” with three live boxing classes which will all be released for replay on-demand afterward. Then, throughout the weekend, a series of live cycling and other training classes with the platform’s roster of trainers will premiere featuring Em’s most motivational tunes.

Eminem’s interest in boxing has been evident throughout his career, with his song “Phenomenal” appearing on the soundtrack of the Antoine Fuqua boxing drama Southpaw — in which Em was at one point set to star. You can see a full class schedule on Peloton’s site.

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Melania Trump’s Crypto Hat Auction Could Be A $90,000 Casualty Of The Crypto Crash

Melania Trump‘s adventures in cryptocurrency are off to a rough start. After dipping her toes in the NFT waters last month by selling an image of her “cobalt blue eyes,” the former First Lady hit a significant snag this week when she attempted to auction off a white hat (above) that she wore during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the White House in 2018. While part of the proceeds will go to providing foster children with computers, tablets, and internet access, the rest would go into Melania’s pockets.

There’s just one small problem, Melania is only accepting bids in Solana, which like most of the crypto market, took a huge hit in the most recent crash. Via The Washington Post:

Melania Trump’s hat auction may have become unlikely collateral damage in the crisis, a prime example of what happens when risk-taking intersects with terrible timing. The only cryptocurrency accepted on Trump’s website is Solana (SOL), which has been one of the hardest-hit, falling more than 40 percent over the previous week. The Solana blockchain (a distributed database that stores a secure and decentralized record of digital transactions) also had an outage on Friday and Saturday, further adding to its free fall. Had this auction taken place in December 2021, Trump would have been accepting bids in Solana during a surge in which its value had increased 11,150 percent since the beginning of the year.

The Solana price crash could cause Melania a nearly $90,000 loss, should the auction close at its current price. According to the Post, the auction was already frowned upon, given that most former first ladies go into philanthropic endeavors and don’t sell their formal attire for a profit. Taking a bath on the hat auction is just further embarrassment for Melania.

(Via Washington Post)

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Yep, Ted Cruz Tweeted About ‘Fight Club,’ And Of Course, He Received Some Swift (Cancun) Comeuppance

Man, Ted Cruz never learns. When he tweets about TV or movies, it never ends well for him, and he (a lawmaker) should have realized this after completely bungling the meaning of Watchmen while framing “rabid environmentalists” as the real supervillains. He (of course) did not learn, as the noted The Princess Bride superfan proved while feuding with Cary Elwes, and now, Ted’s wading into David Fincher territory.

Yes, the much maligned senator from Texas tweeted about Fight Club. Granted, this didn’t happen out of the blue. The Brad Pitt and Edward Norton-starring picture popped up in the news after China censored the 1999 film and gave it a new ending to counter the story’s radical ideology. (SPOILER ALERT.)

China (after 23 years) decided that the incel-esque, terroristic lead character (and that alter ego) were too much for anyone to handle watching, so Chinese streaming giant Tencent Video whipped out a new outcome, which ends the film before climactic anarchy (explosions and credit-card chaos) in favor of a “happy” title card that sees Norton’s character apprehended and institutionalized.

Cruz is now suggesting that 20th Century Fox somehow caved to pressure here. “The second rule of Fight Club,” Ted tweeted, “[I]s ‘we will do and say whatever the Chinese communist censors tell us to do and say.’”

No one (beyond Chinese authorities) is arguing that the film should have been edited this way. It’s right in line with Chinese censors’ usual M.O. (they ever recently, as Variety notes, somehow edited Bohemian Rhapsody to eliminate all gay references). The studio appears to have nothing at all to do with this, but Ted’s attempting to twist the situation to fit the far-right agenda on China, when really, it’s China being China with their standards. And Cruz got lit up for tweeting about pop culture again and not proving a point.

Did the Cancun stuff come up? Of course, and so did Ted’s groveling to Tucker Carlson.

Just gonna leave this here in parting… again, Ted will never learn.

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A Former ‘Jeopardy’ Champion Says He Has Lost Over 200 Pounds Over The Course Of The Pandemic

While many of us have opted to use the extra time at home we’ve had during the COVID-19 pandemic to watch Squid Game and decide for ourselves whether sipping on a can of Flamin’ Hot Mtn Dew is truly as horrible as it sounds, Joshua Swiger has opted for a different path. As Fox News reports, the former Jeopardy! champion has turned what has been an emotionally trying time into an opportunity to focus more on himself and his health. Over the past year and a half, he has shed more than 200 pounds.

Swiger appeared on Jeopardy! in January 2020, where he won $16,400 during his first appearance. That triumph occurred just weeks before the country—and the world—went into a global lockdown. Yet Swiger had no idea that even bigger wins were on the horizon for him.

Swiger, who told Fox that he had been “morbidly obese” for 20 years, had tried—and failed—to lose weight on his own several times over the preceding decades. So in July 2020, he met with a doctor to discuss his possible candidacy for bariatric surgery, believing that was his last and final hope for dropping weight from his then-400-pound frame. As part of the surgery routine includes the prospective patient attempting to lose weight on their own before going under the knife, Swiger once again attempted to lose weight on his own. Only this time he learned more about nutrition and physiology ahead of time, so went in armed with more information.

“I was able to stick with it long enough to see consistent results,” Swiger said. “Instead of losing 20 or 30 pounds and then giving up when things got difficult, I learned to just hang in there and keep going and eventually, start losing the weight again.”

Because of the pandemic, Swiger was also out of work. He had run his own private tour company, which was forced to shut down when quarantine procedures went into effect. While it wasn’t an ideal situation, Swiger admitted that running his own company was stressful, and he often turned to food for comfort. With that stressor removed, focusing on his health goals became easier.

“When I gave up on doing it my way, that’s when I learned how to do it the right way,” Swiger said. He opted to adopt a low-carb lifestyle, because “that’s the easiest place to cut calories out. Because you need some fats and you absolutely need protein, but you can get by without carbs. I don’t necessarily say everybody should do low-carb, but that’s what worked for me.”

Cut to: January 2021. Swiger never underwent that surgery, because he didn’t need to. Establishing new eating patterns and sticking with them was the key for Swiger, who has now lost more than 200 pounds.

He has also made a change in profession: Swiger now works as a personal trainer, helping others to learn about nutrition and find out what works best for their individual bodies.

“There’s somebody out there who weighs more than I did who’s going to be an even bigger success than me and I can’t wait to help that person,” Swiger told Fox News.

Swiger has been documenting his journey on Instagram and YouTube.

(Via Fox News)

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A Former Federal Prosecutor Thinks Rudy Giuliani Should Be ‘Very Worried’ That Authorities Will Throw The Kitchen Sink At Him

Listening to Rudy Giuliani speak today, it would be hard to imagine that the disgraced attorney could mastermind what to eat (or drink) for breakfast, let alone a massive conspiracy to overturn the results of a very legitimate presidential election. But as authorities continue to gather information about Team Trump’s attempts to capsize the results of the 2020 presidential election, at least on paper, most of the roads appear to be leading back to Rudy, even though he himself admitted that he didn’t investigate the election fraud claims before very publicly slamming them. And at least one prominent legal expert thinks the former New York City mayor should be “very worried.”

As Raw Story reports, CNN’s Erin Burnett welcomed former federal prosecutor Shan Wu onto her show, Out Front, to talk about the massive fraud that was reportedly planned in submitting fake electors to Congress in order for Trump as the winner of the 2020 presidential election that, as you probably remember, he did not win. And how Giuliani may have been more than just the face of these attempts to certify Trump as president, but the mastermind.

Wu said that Giuliani “should be very worried, legally” about his involvement in this subversive plot. “[Giuliani] says that he wouldn’t ‘associate himself with anything false,’ and there he is doing exactly that. And these evidences coming out that he was in charge of this, his own representations of his role sounds like he is a mastermind, a key player. That’s going to be a big problem for him here.”

While Wu admitted that there could be some defenses Giuliani might put up, from a legal perspective, he maintained that “overall, if the Department is looking at this and they charge, they are going to charge the whole kit and caboodle. And I would be very surprised if he is not charged, frankly, if this continues.”

You can watch the full segment below.

Also: Do they serve scotch in prison?

(Via Raw Story)