George Miller’s Mad Max prequelFuriosa: A Mad Max Storyhits theaters this week, but he’s already got his eyes on the next chapter in the universe.
Anya Taylor-Joy portrays Furiosa in the prequel, which tells the story of the young girl who was taken from her mother. The movie chronicles how Furiosa survives before meeting with Max in 2015’s Fury Road. It also seems like there is more story to tell, but will there be another sequel?
When Miller was asked if he has any ideas for more upcoming installments, he told Collider, “Yes we do,” before explaining that he had to flesh out Max’s story in order to write Furiosa. He said:
“Mainly because to tell the story of Fury Road , which happens over a very compressed amount of time, you could argue that the first act of Fury Road and the last act are almost playing in real time over three days in order to tell that story on the run. Picking up all the backstory, all the exposition on the way, everybody working on the film — not only the cars, but all the designers, all the prop makers, everybody — had to understand the backstory very intimately in order for it to be coherent.”
Because he had to plan out Max’s storyline, he was able to explore other plot ideas. “So, we had to write the story of Furiosa and the 18 years, as it turns out, before we meet her in Fury Road. We also had to write the story of the year of Max in the year before we encounter him in Fury Road. So, we have that story. We wrote that as a novella, Nico Lathouris and I, and so that’s the story we have yet to tell.”
While Miller says that story will be told, who knows when it will be. There was a 30-year gap between movie number three and number four, so we could be waiting quite a while here. By then, maybe Anya will feel ready to talk about it all.
“We enjoy it; it’s been a fun run,” the two-time MVP- and three-time Super Bowl-winning Chiefs quarterback said during a Thursday (May 23) appearance on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show. “I like to take some of the credit. I was the one who invited Travis to the first Taylor concert when the friendship bracelet — he was sitting in my suite. So, I feel like I was the matchmaker. I had some input in there as well. I was like, ‘Dude, just go for it. Just go for it.’ And you know Travis, man. He does it, and he’s a great dude, and I’m glad that it’s all worked out for the best.”
“I like to take some of the credit. I was the one who invited Travis to his first Taylor concert.”
Of course, Mahomes’ mention of “the friendship bracelet” is in reference to when Kelce initially shot his shot at Swift on the July 26, 2023 episode of New Heights with his brother, Jason Kelce.
“I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after the shows because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings,” the three-time Super Bowl champion said then. “So, I was a little butthurt I didn’t get to hand her one of the bracelets I made for her.”
He added, “If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets, and I received a bunch of them being there, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it.”
In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Anya Taylor-Joy is covered in dirt, oil, and the blood of various War Boys (if Trent and Atticus did the soundtrack for a Mad Max movie, there is a 99.8 percent one of the songs would be called “Dirt, Oil, and Blood”). But while promoting the film, she’s looked impossibly glamorous.
On Wednesday, Taylor-Joy wore what People described as a “red-hot Mugler mini dress” ahead of her appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The Ryan Hastings-styled outfit “featured slanted sleeves while the back had black horizontal lace-up straps, leaving her backside partially exposed.”
As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.
The George Miller movie, which also stars Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke, is out in theaters beginning tonight. It rocks.
Netflix has grown rather notorious for resurrecting series that were either close to cancellation or already in that category. The most resounding of that bunch? Cobra Kai found almost too much success after moving over from YouTube. Of course, the streaming service also renewed Neil Gaiman’s Lucifer (after being axed by Fox), the infuriatingly seductive You (which languished on Lifetime), and the downright confusing Manifest (which was nixed by NBC). Will the same happen for Loudermilk?
Nothing official has been declared yet on the Ron Livingston-starring grumpfest of a show, but the cancelled Audience Network series found a new (and younger-generation) audience on Netflix, and there are encouraging signs that new life shall come for the show about the ex-music critic who’s also a recovering alcoholic and unrepentant a-hole. Let’s get down to business on what we could expect from a fourth season renewal.
Plot
First, a question: would Sam Loudermilk be more or less misanthropic in 2024? That’s food for thought and definitely a question that should be posed by series co-creator Peter Farrelly, who hasn’t publicly addressed that vibe but has — in no subtle terms — addressed a potential Netflix pickup during an interview for Amazon’s Ricky Stanicky (starring John Cena and Zac Efron). When quizzed, Farrelly responded to ComingSoon about having “absolutely” high hopes for (at least) two more seasons of the sober-anger bear:
“Absolutely. Guaranteed. A hundred percent. I’m going to do two more seasons. I don’t know where yet, but we’re going to do it. The show’s too good. I have it mapped out for seven seasons. We always did. And we know where we want to go with it. The three-year break that we just got from the last one works right into it. Because the last episode, he sold his book, and now we cut to three years later — the book blew up. It’s a huge hit.
Would the book be a bigger hit much like (the current run of) Loudermilk itself? Yes. From there, Farrelly envisions Loudermilk keeping up with his recovery group but also buddying-up with Neil Young and other famous types. The Dumb and Dumber director reckons that this will turn into “sort of a cross between Loudermilk and a Larry Sanders show.” Will the cast be onboard? Farrelly previously let Deadline know that he “can easily pull the entire cast back together.”
Ideally, Farrelly would like the new season(s) to surface on Netflix, but presumably, he’d be open to get this made wherever possible.
Cast
Ron Livingston is the only Sam Loudermilk who would be acceptable. If the revival would happen, surely, Farrelly would bring back Will Sasso (as roommate/sobriety sponsor Ben Burns) and Laura Mennell (as neighbor/love girlfriend Allison Montgomery) as well as Anja Savcic (as Claire Wilkes).
Release Date
Farrelly’s anticipatory glee suggests that, if Netflix does decide to pull the trigger on a resurrection, that this would come together rather quickly (in 2025, even), given that he’s already got his fourth-season story plotted out. Still, there’s no guarantee that this will happen and when.
Trailer
Well of course there’s no trailer yet. Would you care to relive some vocal-fry criticism?
There’s a fun video circulating TikTok showing a Philadelphia teacher and her second grade student perform an epic dance battle set to the “Veggie Dance” from the popular kids Youtube channel “Grace’s Corner.”
The best part is that the young student has no idea the kind of moves his opponent has up her sleeve.
In the clip, we see 8-year-old Ahmad confidently showing off as the audience cheers him on. From the look on his face, he’s already won. Spoiler alert: he didn’t.
That’s because it was 2nd grade teacher Regina Laurie’s turn, and she was ready to “teach Ahmad a lesson.”
Laurie told Philadelphia ABC station WPVI, “He kept telling me, ‘Oh, Mrs. Laurie, you’re old. Look at your (gray) hair.’ So I said to myself, ‘I’m going to challenge this boy to a dance-off. I’m going to dance rings around this boy and he doesn’t even know it yet!'”
Watch her do exactly that below, in a video posted by @jiggythegod:
Viewers were blown away by Laurie’s moves, chiming in with comments like “left not a piece of crumb she ate” and “she in fact ate em up.”
Others simply applauded the lighthearted moment. One viewer even wrote, “it’s giving real life Abbott Elementary.”
This “Veggie Dance” battle is part of the school’s weekly lunchtime break called “Fun Friday,” where both kids and teachers can take a break from academia and simply feel some joy.
And clearly, as we can see from this dance battle, there’s more than one way to get schooled.
Graduations can be emotional no matter if it’s preschool, high school or college. Something about watching a loved one close one chapter to open a new one just does something to you. But sometimes people have a few more challenges getting across the stage that make it feel even sweeter.
One new mom, Kisha Rose Woodhouse, who goes by @kiisha.rose on TikTok, became pregnant and gave birth while finishing up her college degree. Clearly, determined to finish, Woodhouse walked across the stage at graduation with her baby on her hip. But that wasn’t what got people all choked up while seeing her video, it was Woodhouse’s partner who stood alone in the auditorium.
The man was visibly filled with pride from Woodhouse’s accomplishments when he began doing the Tautoko, also known as the haka. Immediately the auditorium fell silent as the man’s words and sharp movements filled the air. Seeing him perform such an emotional dance alone to honor his partner is enough to get just about anyone’s eyes to water.
Woodhouse was visibly overcome with emotion when she heard her partner start the traditional Maori dance. While originally the haka was performed as a war dance, it has become a dance performed for major occasions, celebrations and funerals.
“Honestly that moment felt so surreal, it was completely unexpected and the way he expressed himself through his haka really summed up the respect and love we had for each other throughout all the challenges we faced to finally get me up on the stage and earn my diploma. And on that note, our son came with me as he deserved the diploma just as much as I did (he did attend every class while being in my tummy!),” Woodhouse tells Upworthy.
With everything the couple has been through up until that moment, it’s no wonder they were both emotional. Their emotions and love can be felt through the video and it seems like just about everyone has something in their eye.
“I will never not cry when I see the haka. I think it’s inside us as humans to know that outward display of passion, emotion and strength moves our souls. Imagine releasing that energy in celebration, in mourning or in the face of fear. You would never know what it meant to not face your emotions,” one person writes.
“Performing haka alone, for her and their son, ALONE, in front of thousands. This is an existential form of love,” another says.
“Whoa, that haka gave me goose bumps. You could hear a pin drop. Definitely felt the wairua [soul] in that one. Well done mama bear ka pai [good]. Good on you, someone writes, complete with heart emojis.
One commenter had a front row seat, “I was there graduating that day too and this made my eyes water! So beautiful.”
It’s nearly impossible to watch someone perform the haka without something getting into both of your eyes as you feel their passion move through you. If you’ve never seen the haka performed, you may want to grab a tissue because this is one of the most beautiful acts of love people get to witness.
It’s been a weird few years for theU.S. economy as the COVID-19 pandemic threw the entire system into disarray and recovery from it took some unpredicted turns, for better and for worse. One thing we knew would be coming was inflation, and Americans have felt it at the checkout counter. Price increases on basic food staples as well as restaurant prices across the board have been painful reminders that, despite record unemployment and a booming stock market, everyday life has gotten ridiculously expensive.
But there are some signs things may be taking a positive turn, such as Target’s announcement that they will be cutting prices on thousands of items, including household essentials, in the coming months. Here’s what shoppers can expect:
Target has already reduced prices on approximately 1,500 items and will continue through the summer to drop thousands more. “Consumers will enjoy savings on everyday items such as milk, meat, bread, soda, fresh fruit and vegetables, snacks, yogurt, peanut butter, coffee, diapers, paper towels, pet food and more. These price reductions will collectively save consumers millions of dollars this summer,” the company shared in a press release.
More specifically, a pound of Good & Gather Unsalted Butter that was $3.99 will be $3.79, Good & Gather 5 oz. Organic Baby Spinach will drop from $3.29 to $2.99, and a 20-ounce package of Thomas’ Plain Bagels is going from $4.19 to $3.79. Just in time for summer, Aveeno SPF 50 Sunscreen (3 fl oz) will drop from $13.89 to $13.19.
Savvy Target shoppers know how to get the most bang for their buck on a Target trip by using their Target Circle Card, which gives them an additional 5% off purchases, and the company recently reintroduced Target Circle, its free-to-join membership program that applies deals automatically at checkout and features member-exclusive sales throughout the year like Target Circle Week and Target Circle Bonuses—personalized deals to help members earn rewards and get extra savings.
LinkedIn editor Cate Chapman calls Target’s price cuts a “sign of disinflation at work”—a hopeful sign, considering Target isn’t the only store to announce price drops . Walmart predicted months ago that a “deflationary environment” would mean lower prices on dry groceries and consumables and they were already seeing lower prices on grocery items such as eggs, apples and deli snacks.
Even already-low-priced grocery chain Aldi has announced lower prices on 250 items for the summer of 2024. “We don’t want food prices to hold people back from getting together with friends and family or spending time outdoors this season,” Dave Rinaldo, president at Aldi U.S., said in a statement.
People have reacted to the news of lower grocery prices with a mix of relief and annoyance at feeling like they were being price gouged. They have a point. In fact, President Biden had taken aim at corporations in November of 2023, saying, “Any corporation that has not brought their prices back down, even as inflation has come down, even as the supply chains have been rebuilt, it’s time to stop the price gouging.”
Whatever the reason for the lowered prices, feeling a little ease instead of squeeze at the checkout counter will be a refreshing change from the past few years.
During a recent livestream on Instagram, the rapper now known as Yasiin Bey appeared to take shots at some participants in a recent rap beef as he freestyled over one of the songs they battled with. Over the instrumental from Metro Boomin’s “Like That” beat, Bey raps, “Greedy, seedy, and creepy/ Corny, horny, and boring/ Bougie, goofy, and moody/ Foolish, ruthless, and clueless/ Variations on a petty Big 3/ A whole lot to look at, but not much to see.”
The mention of the Big 3 has fans thinking the verse is a disappointed reference to Drake, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar, after repeated mentions of their grouping as a unit on records wound up touching off the battle between them. It was on “Like That” that Kendrick first yelled “motherf*ck the Big 3,” sparking the conflict between them. After J. Cole dropped out of the feud for personal reasons, Drake and Kendrick’s back-and-forth became increasingly noxious to the point that even the fans who egged them on quickly became disgusted with the vitriolic rhetoric.
None of the old heads seem to be feeling that beef. I was already under the impression it wasn’t going to age well but im even more convinced of that now. https://t.co/zMjDzhCOIv
It probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that Bey was equally disgusted with the beef. Back in 2003, the April 9 episode of Chappelle’s Show featured musical guests Yasiin Bey (then known as Mos Def) and Talib Kweli — collectively known as Black Star. The two Brooklyn rappers performed a new song called “What’s Beef.”
Over the course of his verse, Bey decried various high profile rap beefs, contrasting them with more dire current events. He even name-checked the conflict in Gaza, which goes to show how long people have effectively ignored what Bey would consider “real” beef in favor of WWF-style rap antics. “Beef is not what Jay said to Nas,” he said. “Beef is when working folks can’t find jobs / So they try to find n****s to rob / Try to find bigger guns so they can finish the job.” Bey later released a solo version on a mixtape, Mos Definite .
20 years later, it seems his opinions about rap beef he expressed in that verse haven’t changed, even though his name has.
Of course it does: the Mad Max movies are undefeated when it comes to Outback freaks and their insane names. 1979’s Mad Max gave us Toecutter, Mudguts, and Grease Rat, while 1981’s Mad Max 2 and 1985’s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome added The Toadie, Lord Humungus, The Feral Kid, Aunty Entity (RIP Tina Turner), Dr. Dealgood, and Scrooloose to the crew. Director/writer/mad genius George Miller needed to take a 30-year break before coming up with Immortan Joe, Toast the Knowing, and The People Eater (I wonder what his deal is) for 2015’s Best Picture nominee Mad Max: Fury Road. And who could forget dear Pissboy in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga?
Pissboy plays a small but significant role in the aforementioned best scene in the exhilarating Fury Road prequel, which rides eternal into theaters this weekend. I won’t give away the specifics, but picture a truck. No, even bigger than what you’re imagining. The rig has hidden compartments and enough room for food, supplies (mostly gas and bullets), and stowaways. During a run on the Fury Road, the vehicle is ambushed by rogue raiders, who attack by land and air. There’s fiery explosions, deception, vegetables, small but meaningul character moments amidst all the frenetic action, and — this is the last time I bring him up, I swear — Pissboy.
If I had my notebook with me, I would have written “hell yeah” over and over again like Jack Torrance sharing his thoughts on all work and no play at his typewriter in The Shining. It’s the kind of magical movie moment that once it’s over, you can hear people in the theater shifting in their seats; everyone was so enraptured for the last 20 minutes, they forgot to move.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a different beast than Mad Max: Fury Road. It follows a more “traditional” plot structure: Furiosa (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) is out for revenge on the warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) who killed her mother (Charlee Fraser). Along the way, she teams up with War Rig driver Jack (Tom Burke, who reminds me of original Mad Max star Mel Gibson, minus… y’know). Furiosa is thrilling and funny and has multiple stunts that once again make you wonder how no one died during filming, but I still prefer Mad Max: Fury Road, a stone-cold masterpiece. Some of the CGI in Furiosa is distracting, and there’s unnecessary “fan service” to fill in the blanks between the films.
But these complaints are minor: Fury Road vs. Furiosa is like pitting Breaking Bad against Better Call Saul. They’re both great on different terms. Charlize Theron should be proud of Taylor-Joy and her younger counterpart Alyla Browne (who previously played young Tilda Swinton in Miller’s last film, Three Thousand Years of Longing) as Furiosa, and Chris Hemsworth gives the kind of goofy-yet-malicious performance that deserves Oscar buzz. Miller’s direction is as active as ever, even as he nears 80 years old, while Junkie XL’s score pulses and pounds with energy. I left the theater exhausted, but it was the good kind of exhausted, the way I feel after a workout.
In a recent interview with the Critics Choice Association, Miller was asked why the Mad Max films continue to resonate decades after the first film. “I don’t think you could come down to a fixed answer to that. But I think it’s a thing why I’m still sort of drawn to telling these kind of stories. They’re basically allegories. In the same way that the American Western you could argue is allegories. And indeed, certainly for everything from fairy stories to folklore, mythologies, even religious stories, where the story is in the eye of the beholder, wherever you are. Wherever you are in time or space,” he replied.
That’s all well and good, George, but there’s another reason why people love the Mad Max movies: they rock.
Of the five Mad Max movies, three are classics (Mad Max 2, Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga); one is half-great, half-good-but-could-use-less-kids (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome), and one is a strong introduction that feels somewhat slight compared to the insanity to come (Mad Max). The “worst” of the bunch (either Thunderdome or the original) is, what, a B+?
That’s a strong overall grade. If movie franchises with at least three films were The Citadel, Mad Max would be among the greenery, alongside Toy Story; Mission: Impossible; Lord of the Rings (the brilliance of the originals makes up for the middling Hobbit films); Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy; maybe Evil Dead; Rocky if the Creed movies count; and Paddington (I’m assuming Paddington in Peru will be a masterpiece).
Miller wants to return to the Wasteland, but if Furiosa is the heavy metal conclusion to the saga, the complete Mad Max franchise was anything but mediocre.
Nicole Kidman and David E. Kelley love to make addictive TV together. That much is evident from The Undoing and Big Little Lies, and with the former series (which still might see a third season), the pair grew accustomed to adapting Liane Moriarty’s source material. That vibe is still alive with Kidman and Kelley’s Nine Perfect Strangers for Hulu. The series also felt like an answer to The White Lotus, given that both shows involve satiric takes on travelers who are fairly wealthy and rather miserable.
We are here today, however, to only discuss the Nine Perfect Strangers variety of malaise, which involves communing with Kidman’s enigmatic “wellness resort” leader, Masha. The first season used Moriarty’s same-named novel for its backbone in what was presumably a limited series. Plans have changed, however. The show took off so marvelously that Hulu couldn’t resist granting the wish of another season. With that said, this show will have to do what Big Little Lies did and go off-book (although Moriarty was involved in writing that continued story) to continue Masha’s psychedelic-soaked adventures. Let’s get down to business on what we can expect.
Plot
Masha is definitely on the scene again, although the scene in question will not take place at Tranquillum House (located in fictional Cabrillo, California). Where is the next wellness-based location for this show? Kidman recently revealed to Deadline that “Swiss Alps and crazy!” are involved. What about a warm chocolate beverage? “And a lot more than that!” responded Kidman. So, warm beverages laced with Psilocybin, supposedly for therapeutic purposes? Got it. Maybe? Perhaps she will be able to get away with even more abroad.
Nicole Kidman teases Nine Perfect Strangers Season 2: “Swiss Alps and crazy! Hold on tight cause it’s going to get wild!” pic.twitter.com/DBQcj7Eq9b
As viewers will recall, Kidman ended up drugging her resort guests that included characters portrayed by Bobby Cannavale, Michael Shannon, Samara Weaving, Melissa McCarthy, Regina Hal, and Melvin Gregg. These unhappy characters were hoping to find some form of enlightenment or at least a method to ease their malaise-filled mind, body, and spirits. The first season finale wasn’t entirely clear on whether each character’s fates were real or actually fictional and dreamed up by McCarthy’s Frances in the book-inside-the-book, also referred to as Nine Perfect Strangers. Masha had also, curiously enough, supposedly gone free after her arrest and in a car with her dead daughter. And it’s still whack that nobody knew that Carmel was actually the cause of Masha’s previous near-death experience.
With that said, the season finale didn’t make clear whether Masha was having a similar experience, but we can assume that she is alive and sort-of-well, given that Kidman is leading the second season. We also know that an assortment of new guests will be attending the next ominous wellness escape.
Cast
Kidman is at it again. She will be accompanied by another ensemble cast including The White Lotus passive-aggressive-master-extraordinaire Mr. Murray Bartlett as well as Annie Murphy, Christine Baranski, Henry Golding, Dolly De Leon, Lucas Englander, Mark Strong, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Lena Olin, and Aras Aydin.
Release Date
The first season freaked people out in 2021, and renewal news came in 2023. Bet on 2025 for a second-season air date.
Trailer
Since nobody has hallucinated a real trailer into existence yet, enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at Kidman stepping into people’s souls. Hopefully, that’s what Masha will be doing again.
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