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As Kristen Wiig once sang during a Björk impression on SNL, “Welcome Iceland, there is no sunlight. You are on fire, a demon taaakes your faaaaace…”

Which is to say, there is an uncanny quality to the landscape of Iceland that makes anything shot there feel slightly otherworldly. It’s a setting that naturally lends itself to horror and fantasy. With Lamb, A24’s new movie from director Valdimar Jóhannsson, co-written by author and Björk collaborator Sjón, it’s a little hard to tell where the otherworldliness of the setting ends and the otherwordliness of the story begins.

Lamb, winner of the “prize of originality” at Cannes, is a movie that exists in a kind of middle realm, between folklore and reality. Trying to describe Lamb without spoiling it is a bit like trying to make sense of an ancient proverb, where you can tell that it’s an expression of a recognizable human feeling, it’s just been filtered through so many different languages, time periods, and realms that you now have to squint to understand.

Attempting to divine exactly what the hell kind of movie you’re watching is a big part of Lamb‘s appeal, perhaps the appeal. This quality, however, creates something of a marketing conundrum. Experiencing art is best done with no expectations; selling art necessitates creating them.

A24’s trailer for Lamb amplifies some of the film’s most unsettling qualities, creating something that’s arguably art in its own right. It also seems to advertise a horror movie, which Lamb is decidedly not, frequently unsettling though it may be. It’s more just charmingly “off,” in some ineffable way.

Speaking to star Noomi Rapace (who was born in Sweden and raised partly in Iceland) and Icelandic director Valdimar Jóhannsson was a similar experience. I had many questions, about the many animal stars of Lamb, the logistics of trying to film them, about what it was like delivering live lambs on camera, etc. But best laid plans often had a way of devolving, into Rapace helping Jóhannsson translate some arcane observation into English, or them both attempting to recount a famous Icelandic ghost story. Which turned out to be probably far more enjoyable than it would’ve been if they’d both been able to speak perfect English or tell the story perfectly lucidly.

There’s a vague spookiness to the way Scandinavian and Nordic people describe the world, even when their English is nearly indistinguishable from a native English-as-a-first-language speaker, as Noomi Rapace’s is (she even played a Brit in Prometheus). Like when she says of a pregnant sheep, “You can see that their pain is approaching.”

It was the ideal conversational companion to Lamb. Sometimes it’s the groping to articulate a feeling that can’t quite be articulated, the space between feeling and conveying, that resonates as much as the sentiment itself.

—

So did you get to deliver a real lamb for this?

NOOMI RAPACE: Several. That’s on my CV now. If you ever need a baby lamb delivered, just call me.

How did that come about?

RAPACE: I was shooting a movie in New Orleans, so I didn’t have any time at all to practice. I landed in Iceland on Sunday and on Monday my hands were inside of a mother sheep, pulling out a lamb. But I did, I watched a farmer do it twice before, and then he was standing next to the camera if something would go wrong. But to be honest, I had just had to jump in. I grew up on a farm, so I was used to physical work and it’s like, you can’t really be emotional. You just need to switch on your practical mind and just do it, you know?

Was there a consultant whose job it was to figure out when the sheep were about to give birth for you?

RAPACE (to Jóhannsson): We had the farmer, right? He kind of, I remember him going and touching the belly of the sheep and saying when she was ready

VALDIMAR JÓHANNSSON: You can see it easily, based on how they behave.

RAPACE: They start moving around in a strange way. You can see that their pain is approaching.

But, logistically, did you have the environment all lit and staged ready for the birth to happen?

RAPACE: It was natural light. The cameraman was ready, and I was waiting in my trailer for the knock. And then it’s like “Okay, a lamb is coming” and just running down to the barn and like jumping in and there he was. And you know, it was crazy, seeing this little creature coming out and opening his eyes for the first time and standing up and breathing, it was so magical and scary at the same time. Life is so powerful and fragile.

JÓHANNSSON: And that was the reason why we were shooting in two [separate chunks]. I think, because when we came in, I think it were only like 10 sheeps who could give birth in that area. Because the sheep cannot travel around Iceland because of the restrictions.

So Noomi, you were raised both in Sweden and Iceland. And Valdimar, were you raised all in Iceland?

JÓHANNSSON: Yes.

When Swedish and Icelandic people make jokes about each other, what are the things that they joke about?

RAPACE: We like each other! I mean, it’s more Icelandic people and Danish people that have some issues. And Swedes and Norwegians have some. I have this Norwegian movie coming out next week or something, two weeks, called The Trip, and we were just at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas and I had both movies there. I got that question, about Icelandic and Swedish people, but we’re good, we like each other. I mean, I’m both. But Swedes and Norwegians, we have a way more complex relationship. Would you agree with me?

JÓHANNSSON: Yeah, I think that is right.

What’s the Denmark/Iceland conflict?

RAPACE: We can trace it back to the times of the Vikings, right? My grandmother, she told me that you had to learn Danish in school. You had to have second language.

JÓHANNSSON: You learned Danish. Even now. So, there there’s a little bit…

RAPACE: You were adapted against your will.

JÓHANNSSON: Exactly.

So the animals are obviously important characters in the movie. Were they cooperative as actors?

JÓHANNSSON: Yes. It took so much time doing every scene when we were working with the animals, but it worked. The actors have to wait and luckily Noomi’s a very patient person.

RAPACE: It was so hard for me. Honestly, there were days when I was like “does this end, this waiting game?” Mostly for the cat. The cat was the worst. The cat was the total diva on set. They didn’t want to play when you want them to play. And then as soon as we said cut, he did exactly what we want him to do. I was like, “what is wrong with you, Carlos? We were waiting half an hour.” Long waiting game always for the lambs to fall asleep, all the space in the house. And then finally the lamb was asleep and they handed over the lamb to me and we were like, (whispering) “camera, action.” And then the lamb immediately woke up and was like “baaaaahhh.” Everyone out, starting again.

Were there different trainers for each animal group?

JÓHANNSSON: We had two and we also had a lot of farmers. And sometimes we also brought in some people if it was needed.

The trailer for the movie, it’s really cool, but it sort of looks like a horror movie. Do you have feelings about how the movie is marketed and how they should try to sell it?

JÓHANNSSON: I really like the trailer. I think it’s very interesting. And I think they know what they’re doing. But, it also depends on, because now we have been meeting a lot of the audience, some people feel it’s like a horror film, but others think it’s just an action film. I say they can choose.

RAPACE: What did you think?

The only movie that it reminded me of was Border, the Swedish movie, which I loved. I don’t know how you describe that genre. Do you have any thoughts on how you would describe that?

RAPACE: Let me just say that, Vince, ’cause I was asked to do Border and I couldn’t do Border because I was trapped in another contract. Then one of the producers on Border is also producer on Lamb. So when I couldn’t do Border, he came to me with Lamb. So, maybe we are creating our own genre, starting with Border.

JÓHANNSSON: Border for me, I would not say it’s a horror film.

It’s like… a folkloric realism kind of thing.

RAPACE: Yes, and also very matter of fact. You’re not adding any extra weight, you’re not making it spooky or weird. It’s very in daylight, it’s right here. It’s one little obstacle, that one [supernatural] thing that is true. But others still like, they’re doing coffee and they eat mac and cheese.

This movie, it’s hard to sell without spoiling. Do you have any thoughts on what you tell people what this movie is about to keep from ruining any secrets?

RAPACE: It’s a love story. It’s a story about healing and motherhood and that you would do anything to… if you lose the one thing you can’t lose — a child, for me — it would be… I have a son and I can’t even go there, you know? If he would be taken away from me, I don’t know what I would turn into. I think that desperation and need to find something to hold onto, you’re allowed to do anything.

So what was the place where the filming was done? Was it all in the same place?

RAPACE: Yeah. In a valley up in the north part of Iceland.

What is that place like?

RAPACE: (to Jóhannsson) You grew up there, right? I mean close by.

JÓHANNSSON: Yeah, close by. Probably like one and a half-hour away. What was so nice about it was there’s nothing almost around, a few farms, but you could shoot like 360 degrees and you can see out of every window from the farm and it had been a farm for like 20 years. So we could just make it the home that we wanted to for Maria and Ingvar. It was a perfect location.

RAPACE: But it was a lot of energies there. It was like a very old tale. Do you remember the neighbor’s farm? My grandmother told me there was, with the guy who forced his bride to marry him. It was a lot of stories around there, like old myths and stuff.

JÓHANNSSON: Yeah, yeah, it’s a very famous, probably the most famous ghost story in Iceland.

So what was the ghost story?

RAPACE: It’s a man who wants to marry a girl, but she didn’t want to marry him, right? And then…

JÓHANNSSON: Oh, no, he’s going to pick her up…

RAPACE: On his horse. Yeah.

JÓHANNSSON: And then on the way, when he’s picking her up, he is going over a frozen river and the…

RAPACE: Oh yeah! And the ice breaks, and then he drowns.

JÓHANNSSON: And then he comes to pick her up, and when they’re going away from the farm, his hat…

RAPACE: He doesn’t have the back of his head.

So did you have the setting in mind for the movie first or the story?

JÓHANNSSON: Probably the setting, because I made like a sketchbook with a lot of photos and paintings and drawings. I knew that I wanted to make a film with sheep farmers. It’s just also how the location somehow should be.

RAPACE: You work very much from a visual. You have an image, you have a photograph, you have a painting, and then that kind of guides you. Other directors I work with kind of maybe starts with a psychological construction.

I mean, it works. You don’t need too many words in this movie to make it work. Is that helpful for you, as an actor, to not have the burden of memorizing a lot of lines for a movie?

RAPACE: I don’t mind memorizing. I’m quite fast with that. But it was, on most of the films I’ve done, I feel like they’re too heavy on dialogue. We don’t need it. You’re kind of feeding the audience with information by talking instead of doing, and it was so liberating working with Valdimar. It’s like, you know, we don’t need to say much. And funny enough, Vince, Valdimar thinks it’s too much dialogue in that. The next one he’s doing, it’s going to have less dialogue. So, but no, then you start to embrace and welcome other ways of communicating. If you do a scene where there’s a lot of talking, you know, they’re going to cut between that line, to that line, to that line. People can be in it like 70%. But if it’s not dialogue, you need your whole body. Like the way I lift this cup will tell the story. If I’m slow, if I’m shaking, you will read into every little detail in my body language.

JÓHANNSSON: I always imagine that it’s probably more difficult for the actors that way, not to talk. Because you have to tell me something just with a hand gesture.

—

SPOILERS REVEALED BELOW THIS LINE, CONSIDER YOURSELVES WARNED

When you have a half-human, half-animal character you naturally wonder, like, how did that come about kind of a thing.

JÓHANNSSON: Yeah. Well, you know, at least the farmer was inside when it was happening. [presumably, when the creature was born]

RAPACE: I mean, like that Christmas scene in the beginning, I think Maria feels that there’s a dangerous energy, something approaching. She’s standing looking out of the window, she knows that something is there and she shakes it off and they have dinner. They have the Christmas dinner, but that’s when that shape gets I guess maybe raped or something.

JÓHANNSSON: Could be.

RAPACE: Could be. I mean, they are very stressed and it’s not a lovemaking act for sure.

‘Lamb’ is available in theaters everywhere on October 8. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Current Jeopardy! champ Matt Amodio has been a non-stop record-breaking machine, and his latest feat was so impressive that former champ Ken Jennings couldn’t help but react. During Monday’s episode, Amodio’s unique play style shattered the ceiling for the highest earnings in a single day as he continues to light the Jeopardy! charts on fire and take out everyone in his path. Via Yahoo! Entertainment:

The contestant finished last week with his 33rd consecutive win, replacing James Holzauer as the second winningest player in the game’s history. He followed up that record-breaking performance by setting a new single-day money total, thanks to a very brave Final Jeopardy! wager.

Amodio, who had $41,800 more than the next highest contestant bid a whopping $37,000 on the last clue. The correct answer garnered him $83,000, his biggest one-day winnings yet.

The impressive one-day haul caught the attention of Jennings who took to Twitter to voice a simple, practically speechless “whoa.” After seeing Jennings’ tweet, Amodio couldn’t believe his latest move earned him praise from the former champ.

“Whoa. I made Ken Jennings say ‘whoa,’” Amodio tweeted in disbelief.

But that humility quickly turned to his trademark cockiness as Amodio switched gears moments later and fired off a cheeky reply while quote-tweeting Jennings.

“Now if only I could get that Ken Jennings smell out of the #Jeopardy winner’s podium,” Amodio playfully tweeted as his hot streak continues to have no end in sight.

(Via Yahoo! Entertainment)

In the video for FaZe Kaysan’s debut single as a producer, plenty of FaZe Clan showed out to help support their newest member’s foray into music. After dropping the single, “Made A Way,” a few days ago — which Kaysan co-produced with Wondagurl — today the emerging producer has shared a video to accompany it. In the clip, Kaysan and Lil Durk start off driving around LA, before meeting up at a mansion in the Hollywood Hills for a multi-course feast. They link up with fellow FaZe members at the house, like FaZe Banks, FaZe Swagg, FaZe Temperrr, FaZe Rug, FaZe Adapt and FaZe Rain.

Later on, after plenty of clinking wine glasses and feasting, Future joins up for an evening and delivers his verse while a party slowly begins to build. Though the video doesn’t stray too far from the typical rap video script, we do get a few nods to Kaysan’s gaming background with shots of him at his computer, and the presence of his other Faze members. It sounds like this initial song is just the start for him, too, and he’s already performed live for the first time as an opener for Jack Harlow at the FaZe Clan Summer Tip Off in Las Vegas this summer.

Check out the clip above and keep an eye out for more from Kaysan coming soon.

If you’re wondering why the Easter Bunny above has such a perplexed look on his face, it might be because he was just forced to strip by First Lady Melania Trump—or because he’s watching two adult men and their families cut a line of thousands of people in order to have their picture taken with their President Dad at The White House’s annual Easter Egg Roll.

Of the many bombshells former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham is dropping in her new book, one of the most embarrassingly juvenile—but totally expected—gems is how, in 2017, the adult children of then-president Donald Trump cut the line at the annual Easter Egg Roll in order to get a picture taken with their dear ol’ dad. According to Business Insider, Grisham says that Don Jr. and Eric Trump cut the line “ahead of the other children in attendance and made sure their own kids and not the kids of the general public were in the photos with the president and first lady.”

“Some of the children and their parents had stood in long lines for an hour or longer to get a spot with the president,” Grisham continued, “and they were relegated to the background. I would go on to develop positive relationships with most of the Trump children, but that was a generally obnoxious and entitled display that did not appear to surprise [Melania Trump].”

Grisham claims that despite the former president’s terrible sons being terrible as usual, she felt the event was a success—which she credits to Melania. According to BI, Grisham says that Melania kept the crowd size smaller than usual so that parents weren’t waiting in line for hours on end (good move, guys!) and that she was also laser-focused on tiny details… like the Easter Bunny’s wardrobe. When he hopped out in a plaid vest, Melania reportedly deemed it “tacky” and “then and there, only minutes before he was to hop out onto the White House lawn, Melania Trump made the Easter bunny strip,” Grisham writes.

Grisham’s book—which both the former president and First Lady have condemned as horsesh*t—is titled I’ll Take Your Questions Now, which is ironic considering Grisham never held a single press conference during her time as White House press secretary.

(Via Business Insider)

Chris Hayes has officially had it with Fox News. On Tuesday, Mediaite reports, the host of MSNBC’s All In torched the competing—and controversial—network for its dangerous coverage of COVID-19 and the importance of getting vaccinated. After sharing footage of an anti-vaccine rally in New York City that ended in Union Square with “protestors” knocking over a mobile COVID testing site, Hayes surmised that the message being sent there was: “Stop talking about COVID. Stop reminding us this thing is real and dangerous and we have to do something about it. I don’t want to hear it. Shut up, shut up, shut up.”

So what’s fueling this kind of stupidity? Well, Tucker Carlson for one—or, as Hayes calls him: “Vaccine Public Enemy No. 1.” But even more so is the carelessness with which Fox News allows both its anchors and guests to spout opinion over fact when it comes to COVID. “Do not underestimate how many lies are being pumped into people watching these shows,” Hayes warned his viewers, adding that: “Media Matters ran the numbers. They shared a new study with us… that shows that Fox News pushed a claim undermining vaccines during 99 percent of the days in the past six months.”

While anyone who is critical of Fox News probably would not be surprised by that statistic (or if they are, would only be surprised that it wasn’t 100 percent), one of Hayes’ biggest issue with the network’s anti-vaccine rhetoric is its hypocrisy. As he explained:

“Of course, what makes all this so deeply cynical, aggressively cynical, is that while Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News is the source of so much of this—they have been running one of the most destructive disinformation campaigns I’ve ever seen—Rupert Murdoch himself was among the first in line to get a vaccine back in the UK back in December of last year. [He] strongly encouraged people around the world to get it.

Not only that, Fox News also has a vaccine mandate stronger than the one proposed by President Joe Biden. They are requiring any unvaccinated employees to be tested every day! And, of course, while many of their on-air hosts were rambling against COVID restrictions, they were broadcasting their shows from the safety of their own homes…

So, inside Fox News, everyone takes this seriously. They’re in on the joke, I guess? They understand the science is quite solid. They understand the methods for preventing infection, severe illness, hospitalization, and death; for methods for maintaining a safe workplace are all pretty clear. When they go on air, they undermine that exact message.”

You can watch the full clip above.

(Via Mediaite)

In 2019, Pharrell invited some of today’s top stars to take the stage in his Virginia Beach hometown for his Something In The Water festival. The event was canceled in 2020 and 2021, but in 2022, things will be a little different. The musician has decided to move the festival away from Virginia Beach, citing the city’s “toxic environment” in a letter to officials.

Pharrell’s letter comes as a response to Virginia Beach City Manager Patrick Duhaney’s memo to the musician dated September 26, which detailed his “immense disappointment” in learning Something In The Water would be moved from the city. In Pharrell’s response to Duhaney, the musician explained that much of his decision to move the festival is due to the city’s response to his cousin’s murder by a police officer who did not have their body camera turned on:

“I love the city of Virginia Beach. I’ve always loved the city of Virginia Beach and most importantly our people. It’s a part of my beloved 757.

When we did the festival, it was to ease racial tension, to unify the region, bring about economic development opportunities and broaden the horizons of the local business community. We achieved those things! I wish the same energy I’ve felt from Virginia Beach leadership upon losing the festival would have been similarly channeled following the loss of my relative’s life.

I love my city, but for far too long it has been run by — and with toxic energy. The toxic energy that changed the narrative several times around the homicide of my cousin, Donovan Lynch, a citizen of Virginia, is the same toxic energy that changed the narrative around the mass murder and senseless loss of life at Building Number 2.

I sang about a room without a roof, but I am tired of kindly and politely being shown the door.

Until gatekeepers and the powers-that-be consider the citizens and the consumer base, and no longer view the idea of human rights for all as a controversial idea… I don’t have any problems with the city, but I realize the city hasn’t valued my proposed solutions, either.”

Read Pharrell’s full letter here.

Stephanie Grisham was Donald Trump’s press secretary from July 2019 to April 2020. In that time, she didn’t hold a single press conference, an ignoble first in White House history. It’s for that reason — and many others, like how she was a willing participant in the Trump administration — that Stephen Colbert wants you to ignore her tell-all book.

“There’s a new tell-all from former White House press secretary and Morticia Addams’ divorced sister, Stephanie Grisham. Stephanie Grisham worked in the White House for four years, and as press secretary, she famously never gave a single press conference. But now she’s spilling all the tea in her new book, I Just Recently Gained a Spine,” Colbert said during the monologue of Tuesday’s episode of The Late Show. That’s not the actual title, obviously, but Colbert doesn’t want to help Grisham “sell a single copy of her tell-all about the time she told us nothing.” So he spoiled all the “juicy details.”

“In the book, Grisham uses a lot of colorful language to describe the administration, calling it ‘a clown car on fire running at full speed into a warehouse full of fireworks.’ Or as Fox News would put it, ‘a brave band of flaming harlequins rushing patriotically into the explosive jaws of danger.’ Just a reminder: She knew all about the fiery clown car and she still called shotgun for four years.”

Colbert also discussed Trump wearing Grisham’s makeup during a visit to Saudi Arabia and the time failsons Donald Jr. and Eric and their families cut the line at the White House’s annual Easter egg roll. “They cut a bunch of little kids in line so they could be first to get a picture with their own dad, like he’s a character at Disney World,” he joked.

You can watch The Late Show monologue above.

With the news that her father will soon be removed as her co-conservator, Britney Spears has been more openly expressive on social media. She celebrated her newfound freedom by posting near-nudes while on vacation, and she recently directly thanked the #FreeBritney movement for calling attention to her legal case. Her independence is definitely a departure from what she experienced while her father acted as her conservator, as a new report states Jamie Spears was actively pushing religion on her during the early stages of her legal battles.

A report from TMZ details how Jamie, a born-again Christian after a stint in a rehab center early in Spears conservatorship, was trying to center the singer’s life around religion. TMZ alleges that Spears was diagnosed with a mental illness by medical professionals, but her father was convinced she could be helped by devoting herself to religion.

TMZ’s report states Jamie and his business partners would walk around with a bible in hand during the first year of Spears’ conservatorship, delivering lines of scripture. On top of that, Spears’ team only allowed her to read “religious material,” and there was a major disdain for anyone in her life who wasn’t considered to be a “good Christian.”

Part of the religious push on Spears was spearheaded by her management company, TriStar Entertainment, the CEO of which was also a fervent born-again Christian. Per a deal made by Jamie with TriStar, the company was getting five percent of Spears’ overall profits. But when the singer refused to continue performing in 2019, TriStar made an agreement with Jamie to still receive a $500,000 minimum annual salary, a deal which Spears’ legal team said accounted for a 260 percent raise. Spears’ legal team took action against the business deal in 2020, seeking over $300,00 from the entertainment company, the amount Spears’ team felt TriStar was overpaid.

The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor fans received a real treat from Mike Flanagan a few weeks ago with Netflix’s Midnight Mass. Have you watched it yet, and if not, what are you waiting for? Flanagan, who has called this his favorite project so far, hit another home run, further cementing his status as a modern horror master. As the series’ charismatic priest, Hamish Linklater will spook the hell out of your soul while charming you (and making you laugh during key moments) at the same time. In short, his character shakes up an isolated community that lives on spooky Crockett Island. A lot of supernatural shenanigans are afoot, but human nature proves to be scarier. And the show’s been sitting in the Netflix Top 10 list for weeks (although no one can hope to compete with Squid Game). Already, there’s a followup coming, too.

Wait a second, there’s already another Mike Flanagan (and Trevor Macy) series in the works with Netflix. That would be The Midnight Club (based on the Christopher Pike book), which finished up casting in February. And now there’s yet another project on the horizon, which would be based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. The limited series will be called The Fall of the House of Usher, and Netflix isn’t saying too much (no projected date, no casting, zilch), yet, other than it’ll be based on multiple Poe offerings.

Limited series are the name of the horror game, man. With any luck, Netflix can bump this out for 2022 Halloween season, and by that time, we might already know about several Squid Game competing series, too.

Now that he’s begun work on The Flash, Michael Keaton has been noticeably more pumped about returning as Batman after 30 years, and he brought some of that enthusiasm to The Late Show on Tuesday night. While promoting his new Hulu series, Dopesick, Keaton proudly informed Stephen Colbert that his Batsuit still fits after the late night host asked if it needed to be “let out.”

“Svelte as ever,” Keaton responded. “Same dimensions. Same fitting.”

While also agreeing with Colbert that his performance in Tim Burton’s Batman is the “gold standard,” Keaton jokingly offered some assistance to all of the other Batmen that followed.

“I don’t know how many there are, like 77 Batmans,” he quipped. “They should form their own union.”

Jokes aside, Keaton has never been shy over the years about admitting that he stopped following the movies after he passed on Batman Forever, so it was pretty notable when he took a moment to specifically praise one Batman actor: Will Arnett. Keaton has never gushed about any of the other Batman films, but he made it a point to tell Colbert how much he loved The Lego Batman Movie. Christian Bale never got a shout-out like that.

Keaton’s return is obviously a huge get for The Flash movie that has been stuck in development hell for several years now. Although, Keaton reprising his role as The Dark Knight was looking iffy there for a while. Before his casting was officially confirmed, the actor made it very clear in interviews that if the COVID situation wasn’t looking good, he wasn’t putting the tights back on, which is completely understandable. Fortunately, Keaton felt safe enough to return, and he recently admitted to The Hollywood Reporter his reason for coming back.

“Frankly, in the back of my head, I always thought, ‘I bet I could go back and nail that motherf*cker.’”

We’ll take that action.