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Kyrie Irving is on his way back to the Brooklyn Nets. After missing the first 29 games of the season due to his decision to not get vaccinated and the team’s hesitancy to having him around as a part-time player, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports that Irving has begun ramping things up and will take to the floor for the Nets soon.

Further reporting from Charania and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN indicates that the team blinked in this stand-off. Irving cannot play in home games due to New York City’s mandate requiring the COVID-19 vaccine, but despite their initial opposition to the idea, the Nets have changed their minds and are now ok with Irving practicing at the team’s facility and playing in away games.

Wojnarowski added that Irving is still not vaccinated, and after a collection of decision-makers at various levels of the franchise discussed the idea, the Nets are ready to welcome him back into the fold.

Like numerous other teams around the league, the Nets have been hit hard in recent days by injuries and players entering the NBA’s health and safety protocols. As of this writing, the following players are in the protocols: LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre’ Bembry, Bruce Brown, Jevon Carter, James Harden, James Johnson, and Paul Millsap. Brooklyn is an Eastern Conference-best 21-8 on the season.

Time has been kind to The Matrix series.

The original was hailed as a masterpiece upon its release in 1999, but the early reception to The Matrix Reloaded and especially The Matrix Revolutions was not as kind. That’s changed over the years. No one is claiming Reloaded or Revolutions is better than The Matrix, but there’s been a prequel-like reevaluation of the sequels since The Matrix Resurrections was announced, and people have come around on them. If you want to claim that Reloaded has the best set piece of the franchise, I’m with you.

If the initial response to The Matrix was universally positive and Reloaded and Revolution was largely negative, there will be no consensus reached on The Matrix Resurrections. The first reactions are all over the place: some people are going to love it, others are going to hate it, and very few are going to walk out thinking, “That was fine.”

“The Matrix Resurrections, despite (and because of) its infinite goofiness, is the boldest & most vividly personal Hollywood sequel since The Last Jedi. a silly/sincere galaxy brain take on reboot culture that makes peace with how modern blockbusters are now only about themselves,” IndieWire‘s David Ehrlich tweeted, while Vox‘s Emily VanDerWerff added, “There was a point in the middle of The Matrix Resurrections where I briefly thought it was the best movie ever made, and, like, I haven’t convinced myself it’s NOT?”

Others were less kind:

Here’s a few more:

The Matrix Resurrections opens on December 22. Be sure to check out our interviews with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss.

It’s one of the oldest Hollywood clichés, an actor saying ..but what I really want is to direct. As such, it sort of follows that so many actors’ actual attempts at directing can be boiled down to one desperate plea: please take me seriously!

That The Lost Daughter feels distinctly not like that is part of what makes it stand out. Maggie Gyllenhaal, who has never exactly been a conventional actress (for the love of God, check her out in the brilliant final season of The Deuce), turns out not to be a conventional director either. The Lost Daughter, Gyllenhaal’s debut for Netflix, adapted by Gyllenhaal from Elena Ferrante’s 2015 novel, feels genuinely like an attempt to use her clout to tell a unique story, to scratch an itch that most of contemporary cinema simply can’t or hasn’t. If there’s anything from Gyllenhaal’s acting career that feels recognizable in the way she directs, it’s that same seeming lack of vanity. She doesn’t seem to be begging to be taken seriously; just doing her thing.

It helps that Gyllenhaal has cast another brilliant, unconventional actress as her lead: Olivia Colman, as a professor named Leda on extended holiday in Greece. You spend most of the movie wondering just what the hell is this lady’s whole deal is. Leda is somehow slightly mousy, fabulously awkward, and surprisingly brassy all at once, whether she’s fielding advances from her rental’s local super, Lyle, played by Ed Harris, or tersely refusing to change seats to accommodate a large family of vacationers from Queens. (At this point it feels like Ed Harris has been pulling off “wizened yet oddly youthful” for 40 years).

Leda is the very definition of an “odd bird,” but always in relatable or nearly-relatable ways; never in the conventionally-unconventional, try-hard characterizations we often see in indies and art films, where being sad, sullen or a victim is considered pure poetry. Leda is more like an arthouse Larry David, her eccentricities dialed one more degree towards pathological.

In service of helping us understand… just what the hell this lady’s whole deal is, we have flashback sequences, starring Jessie Buckley (Fargo, Taboo) as the young Leda. Clearly one of Gyllenhaal’s gifts as a director is in finding actresses as singular as herself. In Buckley’s storyline, we see Leda as a young mum, chafing against the prison of motherhood, trying to get her husband to see her as a sexual being while attempting to get the world to reckon with her as a real writer and translator. She seems to kill two birds with one stone when she meets a fellow writer played by Peter Sarsgaard at a conference, who seems thrilled both by her talent and her body.

Back in the present, Leda hides a doll from a little girl, and just when you think she’s about to give it back, the doll shows up again and again as a sight gag somewhere in her apartment. If they gave an Oscar for macguffins, the doll would win in a walk. It’s a sign of a good art movie that it isn’t afraid to be hilarious, and Olivia Colman belongs to that vanishly small group of actors — Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C. Reilly, Rose Byrne, maybe a couple more — who can do broad comedy and almost imperceptibly subtle comedy with equal facility, and shift seamlessly from every shade in between.

Colman, Buckley, Sarsgaard; I defy you to assemble a more perfect cast. Dakota Johnson is better than she’s ever been as Leda’s unconventional frenemy, Nina (they both seem to sense that the other is a version of themselves at a different age). And yet if there is a flaw in The Lost Daughter, it’s that after a solidly entertaining and occasionally very funny movie, it gives us an ending that tries to substitute symbolism for resolution. There’s a recurring flashback involving Leda eating oranges (she likes to take the peel off in one piece) and then in the finale, boom, there’s an orange. Symbolically, I can sort of see what Gyllenhaal was going for here, with young Leda noting that it’s called a “navel” orange because of the little belly button on the bottom.

Get it? That’s the place where the mother attaches to child in the womb! It’s the very connection with which Leda struggles! Of course, understanding that bit of lateral thinking doesn’t especially improve the linear conclusion of the story, which is ambiguous to an unsatisfying degree. It’s not that we needed Leda explained, just some basics of time and place. It’s also a bit of a shame that a movie that was otherwise very much not a “watch me do some art” film ends on its most “Look at me doing an art” scene. It’s disappointing, but not enough to negate all the great things that came before. Flaws aside, Gyllenhaal genuinely feels like a new voice as a storyteller, and not just an actor stretching, which is a rare thing.

‘The Lost Daughter’ premieres December 17th on Netflix. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can check out his film review archive here.

We’re heading into year three of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’re all ready to be done. That doesn’t mean we are done, of course. The virus and its various mutations don’t give a flying fig how we feel, and with a new variant knocking on our door, we’re still knee deep in mitigation measures to try to keep our healthcare system from sinking. That means vaccines, limiting group gatherings and, of course, masking in public places.

It’s hard to believe that there are still anti-maskers at this point in a viral pandemic, but here we are. And not only do some of these folks not want to wear masks, they don’t even want to see people wearing masks.

A mom on Twitter even went so far as to call out the popular children’s magazine Highlights for including illustrations that show children wearing masks. Bethany Mandel shared a photo of a page of the magazine that showed a child playing the piano on a stage and kids in the audience behind the piano wearing masks. She also shared the email she sent to the editor of the magazine.

My email to the editor of @Highlightspic.twitter.com/U1BzVoabpv

— Bethany S. Mandel (@Bethany S. Mandel)
1639576282

“Stop with the mask illustrations,” the subject line reads before the blunt opening, “Christine.” (Christine French Cully is the magazine’s editor-in-chief. I recall being taught to address professionals in a business letter with a bit more courtesy, but perhaps Mrs. Mandel’s education omitted such things.)

Then she voiced her complaint:

“I understand the objective here: to normalize masking young children. That is not a message I’m sending to my kids. Masks are a temporary situation and on their way out the door. Getting these magazines with mask illustrations is a reminder of the broken world we live in. We get your magazine to be an escape, not a reminder of the reality we’re forced to be living right now. I am planning to screen future issues, and if more of this content is present, we will be trashing them and canceling our subscription.

Best

Bethany Mandel”

If you think the complaint seems rather asinine considering we’ve been wearing masks for two years, you’re not alone. Many, many snarky comments followed, but Highlights responded with what is probably the most perfect reaction.

We want our readers to see themselves and their experiences in our magazines, so we’ve included masks and acknowledgements of the pandemic to help support kids. As one child wrote to us, u201cKids need to know that they are not alone.u201d Like you, we hope that this will be over soon.

— Highlights (@Highlights)
1639585283

In a tweet, Highlights wrote:

“We want our readers to see themselves and their experiences in our magazines, so we’ve included masks and acknowledgements of the pandemic to help support kids. As one child wrote to us, ‘Kids need to know that they are not alone.’ Like you, we hope that this will be over soon.”

Simple, straightforward and honest. Including a quote from a child reader was a beautiful move, as was creating a sense of solidarity in the last line.

Mandel may think her kids want a magazine that will let them escape reality, but that’s not what Highlights has ever been about. It’s about helping kids become “creative, caring, curious, and confident.” Part of being caring during a pandemic is wearing a mask to protect others. Part of being confident is dealing with challenges head-on, which is what we’re doing when we listen to infectious disease experts and follow their advice.

Seeing reality reflected in an illustration is not going to harm kids. Masks are not evidence of a broken world—they are evidence of our collective efforts to mitigate a deadly pandemic. If anything, they are symbols of hope, of humans doing what they can to protect one another.

So much of this comes down to what we are choosing to teach our kids. My own kids have remarked more than once how happy they are to see people wearing masks at stores, how it makes them feel like they’re surrounded by people who care and who are smart enough to follow the guidance of public health experts. Nobody likes wearing masks, but we understand why they’re necessary.

We all want this to be over. But that won’t happen if people keep ignoring the measures that can help us get there and denying the reality of where we are now.

In a new study that most dog lovers can probably confirm, owning a canine companion has been shown to “significantly” improve mental health during the pandemic. The survey polled current dog owners and potential dog owners, and what it found is that the current owners were less likely to be depressed and had a more positive outlook while navigating COVID restrictions.

“Dog owners reported having significantly more social support available to them compared to potential dog owners, and their depression scores were also lower, compared to potential dog owners,” according to Dr. Francois Martin of Nestle Purina Research. Via Study Finds:

“Dog owners had a significantly more positive attitude towards and commitment to pets. Taken together, our results suggest that dog ownership may have provided people with a stronger sense of social support, which in turn may have helped buffer some of the negative psychological impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the researchers report.

The report also cited dog walking as a stress-reliever and a source of “motivated self-care” as new variants of the coronavirus continue to prolong restrictions such as social distancing and remote work/schooling, which can be mentally taxing to navigate. But with a canine buddy creating the need to step away for a trip around the block, we can definitely see how having a dog around can be the self-care push people need during these unusual times. Plus, dogs are great to snuggle with while watching Netflix. That’s gotta be a factor, too.

(Via Study Finds)

Plenty of rappers love to celebrate Christmas and get into the holiday spirit. After all, what’s more hip-hop than flaunting your wealth while giving back to others? But perhaps no one has delivered a holiday-themed rap video that’s as committed to the bit as NLE Choppa’s “Drop Sh*t” video. The Memphis rapper, born Bryson Lashun Potts, is a “ratchet santa,” doling out gifts and decorating his tree with bills and guns — hey, no one can say he didn’t lean into the role. He’s already been known to treat friends to lavish gifts, like in his “Mmm Hmm” video, and he’s picked up a few heavy-hitting friends of his own along the way, like 50 Cent, whose show, Power, NLE recently contributed to the theme song for — along with Rileyy Lanez.

NLE was just another teen rapper from Tennessee, until he popped off last year with viral hits like “Shotta Flow” and “Camelot.” Since his big breakout, he doesn’t show any signs of slowing down, releasing the Cottonwood EP at the top of 2020 and a series of other collaborations and one-off singles throughout 2021. This holiday moment might just be the cherry on top of a breakout year for him. Check it out above.

Ever since rap’s inception, hip-hop and Christmas have gone together like bows and wrapping paper, but occasionally the combination can result in some unsettling pairings. After all, rap music often traffics in sexual or violent content that clashes horribly with the family-friendly environment the Yuletide season has come to represent. However, sometimes, it’s just really funny. Case in point: Jucee Froot‘s raunchy “Christmas List” video, in which she cosplays a sexy Grinch (I can’t believe I typed that either, gang), right down to the fuzzy fingers as her scantily-clad team of reindeer dancers frolics around a Christmas tree.

Her daughter’s also in the video, which lends another layer of heightened absurdism to the proceedings as Jucee reels off a Christmas list that will probably not only land her on the naughty list, but also send Santa to the doghouse for a week should Mrs. Claus peek over his shoulder while reading it. Imagine how bad Saint Nick’s back is going to hurt having to carry all those presents after sleeping on the couch. Shame on you, Jucee. Shaaame.

In all seriousness, though, fans of the unapologetic Memphis rapper have been patiently waiting for the follow-up to her debut album Black Sheep for over a year (just like kids on Christmas!), so this tidbit is a tantalizing appetizer that will hopefully presage some new music come the new year.

Watch Jucee Froot’s holiday-themed “Christmas List” video above.

The PDC World Darts Championship is back in full swing across the pond. Each year, 96 of the best darts players alive head to Alexandra Palace in London to earn the title of the world’s best, and while the best stuff usually happens later on in the tournament when the lesser-regarded players have been eliminated, an absolutely scintillating match between Scotland’s Willie Borland and England’s Bradley Brooks ended in the most dramatic way possible.

The pair of unseeded youngsters needed a fifth and final set in their first to 3 match to determine who would move on to play 15th seeded Ryan Searle. Both played well all game, and after Borland jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the leg, Brooks battled back to force a deciding fifth leg.

There, we got one of the coolest sports moments of 2021. Borland did not just register an ultra-rare nine-dart finish — which signifies that a player cleared the board in as few darts as possible in a game of 501 — he became the first player in the history of the tournament to have one in a match-winning situation.

Again, nine-darters are darts’ version of a perfect inning in baseball, so to get one at any point in a match is as rare as it gets. But to get it in this fashion is legitimately unprecedented. As a result, the Ally Pally exploded, and Borland got to say he won the match of the tournament.

As she gears up for the release of her debut album in 2022, Coi Leray has been stacking up the singles in a very busy 2021. The New Jersey rapper has been living up to the “next up” moniker with cuts like the TikTok hit “No More Parties” remix with Lil Durk, “At The Top” with Kodak Black and Mustard, and even a holiday remix of “Twinnem.”

Now she’s dropped her final single of the year in “Medicine” and the accompanying video. Produced by Emrld, LeRay uses the quick-hitting 80-second song to open up about the anxiety and depression that she’s felt despite becoming incredibly successful in a short time. She slides into the frenetic beat and bares her emotions. Leray shared a personal statement with fans on her Instagram stories about the song:

“Kind of been a rough year, even though I made millions, it came with a lot of depression. “Medicine” is the last song ima drop this year. This song is strictly for my fans. When I go in the booth and vent, just know I’m speaking from the heart and I meant every word in the song. Hope everyone has a great holiday and gets everything they ever dreamed of. This new year is going to be one of the biggest years of my life. I feel it. My album is going to be one of the biggest female artist albums in the world, I can promise you that. Xoxo -Coi”

Check out the video for “Medicine” above.

As the prison sentences for January 6 rioters continue to be handed out following the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol building in an insurrectionist effort to overturn the 2020 election, Robert Palmer of Tampa, Florida has officially landed the lengthiest jail term yet. After being picked up in March, Palmer was identified as one of the more aggressive rioters who repeatedly assaulted officers responding to the chaos that ensued from Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally. Palmer’s actions have earned him five years in prison.

Via NBC News:

Prosecutors said he threw a wooden plank the police, then picked up a fire extinguisher and sprayed its contents at a line of officers, throwing the canister at them after it was empty.

A few minutes later, prosecutors said, he picked up the fire extinguisher and threw it at them a second time and assaulted another group of officers with a metal pole, throwing it like a spear. He stopped the attack when an officer shot him in the abdomen with a rubber bullet.

Palmer was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkin, who according to Rolling Stone, has felt that sentencing for the Capitol rioters has been too lenient. “There have to be consequences for participating in an attempted violent overthrow of the government beyond sitting at home,” Chutkin said back in October.

However, if Palmer had a chance at a lighter sentence it went up in smoke after he reportedly claimed on his fundraising website that his actions during the January 6 riot were out of “self-defense.” He had previously taken responsibility for his actions and pleaded guilty in court. As the judge noted in Palmer’s sentencing, this called into question the sincerity of him saying he’s “really, really ashamed of what I did.”

(Via NBC News, Rolling Stone)