Movie theaters may have reopened across parts of the nation — though still not in New York City or Los Angeles, two of the biggest markets — but they’re far from back to normal. Safety measures have forced them to operate at a fraction of their original capacity, and concessions are still a no-no. Not even the breathlessly anticipated Tenethas been able to save them. There’s a chance the nation’s movie theaters may not survive the pandemic, which is why dozens of filmmakers signed a letter, urging congress to take action.
According to Deadline, directors like Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Sofia Coppola, Greta Gerwig, and many, many more joined with the Director’s Guild of America, the National Association of Theatre Owners and the Motion Picture Association, penning a joint letter that urges Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to come to the rescue. The letter asks redirect unallocated funds from the CARES Act to save what was once one of the most profitable businesses in America.
“The moviegoing experience is central to American life,” the letter read. “Theaters are great unifiers where our nation’s most talented storytellers showcase their cinematic accomplishments.” Moreover, it read, “theaters are economic force multipliers,” employing 150,000 exhibition industry jobs, plus countless more across distribution, marketing, production, plus retail where multiplexes are located.
The letter also states that 3 percent of theater companies and losses of more than 75 percent compared to this time last year. Without any aid, 69 percent of small and mid-sized movie theater companies will be forced to file for bankruptcy, and may have to close permanently. If that happens, 66 percent of theater jobs will be lost.
Other filmmakers who signed the letter include Wes Anderson, Judd Apatow, Noah Baumbach, James Cameron, Jon Chu, Alfonso Cuarón, Lee Daniels, Clint Eastwood, Barry Jenkins, Patty Jenkins, Rian Johnson, Richard Linklater, Steve McQueen, Seth Rogen, M. Night Shyamalan, Zack Snyder, Steven Soderbergh, Taika Waititi, Edgar Wright, and Michael Bay.
The full letter can be read below:
Dear Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, and Leader McCarthy:
Thank you for your leadership at this challenging time for our country. As you consider forthcoming COVID-19 relief legislation, we ask you to prioritize assistance for the hardest-hit industries, like our country’s beloved movie theaters.
No doubt you are hearing from many, many businesses that need relief. Movie theaters are in dire straits, and we urge you to redirect unallocated funds from the CARES Act to proposals that help businesses that have suffered the steepest revenue drops due to the pandemic, or to enact new proposals such as the RESTART Act (S. 3814/H.R. 7481). Absent a solution designed for their circumstances, theaters may not survive the impact of the pandemic.
The pandemic has been a devastating financial blow to cinemas. 93% of movie theater companies had over 75% in losses in the second quarter of 2020. If the status quo continues, 69% of small and mid-sized movie theater companies will be forced to file for bankruptcy or to close permanently, and 66% of theater jobs will be lost. Our country cannot afford to lose the social, economic, and cultural value that theaters provide.
The moviegoing experience is central to American life. 268 million people in North America went to the movies last year to laugh, cry, dream, and be moved together. Theaters are great unifiers where our nation’s most talented storytellers showcase their cinematic accomplishments. Every aspiring filmmaker, actor, and producer dreams of bringing their art to the silver screen, an irreplaceable experience that represents the pinnacle of filmmaking achievement.
As well as their critical cultural impact, theaters are economic force multipliers. In addition to the 150,000 employees working in cinemas nationwide, the industry supports millions of jobs in movie production and distribution, and countless others in surrounding restaurants and retailers that rely on theaters for foot traffic. Movie theaters are also leaders in employing underrepresented groups, including people with disabilities, senior citizens, and first-time job holders. Cinemas are an essential industry that represent the best that American talent and creativity have to offer. But now we fear for their future.
Theaters need specific relief targeted to their circumstances. We urge you to come together on a bipartisan solution that provides this relief, by reallocating unspent funds from the CARES Act toward programs designed for industries like movie theaters, or by enacting new proposals such as the RESTART Act. These solutions would fulfill Congress’s intent in helping severely distressed sectors of the economy and ensure that our resources are focused on the industries that need them the most.
Please fight for our country’s beloved and essential cinemas by including relief for them in any forthcoming COVID-19 legislation. Thank you for your leadership and for considering this request.
Streaming video is the best thing that’s ever happened to documentaries. People who would never have paid for a ticket to a theatrical nonfiction film are now, thanks to Netflix’s robust selection, scarfing down the stuff by the barrel. But where to start among the masses? Here are 25 of the best documentaries on Netflix right now to get you going, covering a variety of themes and real stories.
Even if you’ve already witnessed the madness of this real-life horror story over on Hulu, you should see it again on Netflix. Hulu’s Fyre Fraud feels like more of a thinkpiece directed at the millennials who were suckered into buying tickets to a luxurious music fest on a secluded island in the Bahamas. Netflix’s Fyre does a better job of placing you in the action, giving you a real feel for the chaos and an understanding of how so many people could’ve been roped into this doomed venture.
Beyoncé’s history-making Coachella performance was enough to temporarily rename the music festival Beychella last year, and now fans who couldn’t afford to see Queen Bee perform live get a backstage pass to the show with this doc. Are there killer performances, musical mash-ups, and dance routines? Sure. But what really makes this music doc stand-out besides the talent of its star is the intimate look fans are given into Beyoncé’s personal life, from her surprise pregnancy to her struggle to get in shape before the event and all the in-between madness and heartbreak.
To understand the enigma that was the Trump campaign, one must first understand the man behind the historic presidential run. Roger Stone is a well-connected lobbyist, a Republican political trickster responsible for the campaigns of former presidents like Richard Nixon and Ronal Reagan. He’s well-versed in navigating morally-murky waters to help his horse win the race, and we see him do just that in this doc, which follows the mogul over a five-year period as he crafts Trump’s winning-campaign.
One of the strangest, most tragic sports stories in history is that of professional wrestler Dave Schulz and his friend, John du Pont. Du Pont was heir to the multi-million dollar Du Pont family fortune and used his inheritance to fund a professional wrestling team with the hopes of competing in the Olympics and other prestigious sports events. Mark Schulz was a wrestler struggling to get out of the shadow of his older brother’s more promising career. The two were roped into du Pont’s scheme, training wrestlers for him, but the partnership quickly soured and led to du Pont murdering Dave Schultz before barricading himself in his family compound to avoid arrest. It’s chilling, bizarre, and all the more riveting because of it.
Another sports doc, this one about a rag-tag group of baseball players in Oregon, feels decidedly more fun than its wrestling counterpart. The doc follows the Portland Mavericks, a defunct minor league baseball owned by actor Bing Russell that played for five seasons in the Class A-Short Season Northwest League. Kurt Russell, Bing’s son, also played on the team and served as its vice president. The film charts the Maverick’s origins, from underdogs to anti-establishment heroes.
If there were a time to dig into this National Geographic-backed look at the LA riots of the early 90s, now is it. The film, which uses only raw footage to retell audiences of the brutal beating of Rodney King by white police offers in Los Angeles, feels eerily familiar to what we’re seeing on the news right now. Maybe we can learn from it, or maybe we just need to be reminded that systemic injustice has been going on for way too long.
This 2016 documentary from Ava DuVernay won an Emmy and was nominated for an Oscar during awards season two years ago. The film chronicles the justice system’s abuses against black people, making a case for institutionalized racism being a problem in America that’s only emboldened by the prison cycle. DuVernay boldly explores how prisons and detention centers are making a profit off of free prison labor, most of it done by black men which begs the question, is slavery really dead?
Let’s be honest, Taylor Swift could’ve delivered a glossy, stylized, superficial doc about her life to promote her latest album, and her rabid fanbase would’ve eaten it up. Instead, the pop star took a risk and gave filmmakers no-holds-barred access to her personal and professional life, offering up intimate interviews with herself and her family, detailing difficult struggles with body dysmorphia and eating disorders, allowing cameras inside her sexual assault trial, revealing her mother’s cancer diagnosis, and unearthing home video footage of her youth to create a fuller picture of herself. It’s a film that reveals the human underneath the icon. It’s bold, brutally honest, and some of Swift’s best work yet.
Few environmental warrior films do more for the cause than Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral. The doc rounds up a team of scientists, photographers, and divers from around the world to draw attention to an environmental crisis we’ve never seen before — the vanishing of the world’s coral reefs. It works on two levels: By giving us an underwater adventure that attempts to shed light on the mysteries of the deep and highlighting a problem we can see with our own eyes. There’s no denying this one, no looking away, and Orlowski’s crew takes full advantage of that.
’90s crime nostalgia is alive and well in this pseudo-doc from director Kitty Green. Everyone knows how tiny pageant queen JonBenet Ramsey died — bludgeoned to death in the basement of her family home — so Green is less interested in rehashing the investigation into the little girl’s death and more interested in reenacting her life and final moments. To do this, she enlists actors from the area where the family lived, all hoping to play JonBenet or her parents in an upcoming production. Over the course of the film, these thespians are forced to confront the reality of the Ramsey family’s situation which in turn helps viewers to take a look under the surface of this tabloid trauma.
This timely doc gives us a look at the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal that rocked the world of gymnastics just two years ago from the point of view of reporters at the Indianapolis Star in charge of exposing it. A cover-up spanning two decades and involving higher-ups at both US Gymnastics and Michigan State where Nassar served as a physician and professor, this revealing investigation into a sinister culture that’s hidden behind the success of its top female athletes makes you rethink everything you thought about the Olympic dream.
his marks the first documentary to come from Netflix’s high-profile producing deal with Barack and Michelle Obama. The film takes a hard look at what happened to a General Motors plant in Ohio when it was closed down during the 2008 financial crisis, causing 2,000 workers to lose their jobs and destroying the small town of Moraine, Ohio. Things only get more complicated when a Chinese billionaire comes to town to transform the plant into a glass-making facility, promising thousands of new jobs before cultural divides threaten to derail the whole thing. It’s a fascinating view of consumerism, the American workforce, culture clashes, and how people can connect with each other despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
In 1992, Sandi Tan, along with her friends, made Singapore’s first indie film. She wrote and starred in it, a project called Shirkers, her two girlfriends produced and edited it, and a man named George Cardona directed. Cardona vanished one day, taking all the film materials with him, and propelling Tan on a decades-long journey to find the truth. It’s an engrossing study in betrayal and the dangers of collaboration, and it works mostly because Tan approaches it from a true-crime mystery angle, stripping it of any nostalgia that might tint her lense.
This gripping documentary confronts some hard truths about religion: its power to unite and its power to divide. Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady follow three members of New York’s notoriously insular Hasidic community as they try to break free from their religion while holding onto their families and sense of belonging.
Bryan Fogel’s Academy Award-winning documentary Icarus wasn’t supposed to involve Russians and doping scandal and cover-ups. Fortunately for Fogel, when the filmmaker decided to test his mettle by competing in one of the toughest cycling competitions in the world and chose to dope to help his chances, he ended up meeting Russian scientist, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the director of Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory. The result is this nearly 90-minute film that chronicles Russia’s extensive history with doping and Rodchenkov’s fight for his life after he blows the whistle on the country’s bad practices.
It seems as though we’re all now more aware than ever of how utterly screwed any of us can be in an instant if the system places us in its crosshairs for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and not behaving in a way perceived to be “normal” in the immediate aftermath. Recent true crime documentaries like The Staircase, Making a Murderer and Serial have certainly played a part in illuminating this frightening and unfortunate slice of reality. We can now add Rod Blackhurst and Brian McGinn’s Amanda Knox to that list. Prepare to be terrified and infuriated as the filmmakers detail how an overzealous Italian prosecutor and a global tabloid press thirsty for a sensational story joined forces to wreck a young woman’s life, largely for their own benefit. As Daily Mail journalist Nick Pisa freely admits on camera — without any trace of remorse or shame — about his work covering the case, “A murder always gets people going… And we have here this beautiful, picturesque hilltop town in the middle of Italy. It was a particularly gruesome murder; throat slit, semi-naked, blood everywhere. I mean, what more do you want in a story?”
Netflix delivers another worthy installment in the true crime series with this truly bizarre tale of a naive, church-going family and the man who preyed upon them. The Brobergs lived in a small town in Idaho with their three young daughters when they met Robert Berchtold, a seemingly-nice family man who doted on the girls, in particular, a 12-year-old Jan Broberg. Over time, Berchtold began grooming Jan and manipulating her parents, engaging in sexual acts with both her father and mother to cause a rift in the family before kidnapping her and brainwashing her into compliance. This saga went on for years and as strange as it sounds, nothing can prepare you for hearing the first-hand account of how this sociopath destroyed this loving family.
This documentary features never-before-seen footage of Jim Carrey in character as Andy Kaufman on the set of his 1999 film Man on the Moon. Directed by Chris Smith, the film shows Carrey, who was a celebrated comedic actor at the time, going method for his dramatic role as the brilliant on-stage comedian. There’s plenty of behind-the-scenes drama on this one, including Carrey’s backstage antics while shooting the movie, but what’s really interesting about the film is watching the actor’s thorough process and how he’s approached his colorful careers.
We live in a world connected with most of our interactions happening online. It’s great but, as this doc shows, it’s also terrifying. Terrifying because the way our data changes hands so quickly and indiscriminately — as long as companies shell out the cash for it — skirts all kinds of privacy laws and moral boundaries. This doc, told from the perspective of a journalist attempting to get his search data, the enormous fight with big tech to do it, and how his journey connects to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that may have influenced multiple elections in the States and abroad, is full of fascinating information and shocking tell-alls that could bring this whole internet empire down if people finally decide to start listening.
This political doc made its way from Sundance to Netflix and we couldn’t think of a better time to watch it than leading up to the 2020 election. It follows the grassroots campaign of the right’s favorite punching bag, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, showcasing her charisma and approachability while also diving into more intimate parts of her life, like her relationship with her late father. It’s a feel-good story from Capitol Hill and really, we need more of that.
Before he scored his own MTV show, filmmaker Nev Schulman was exposing cons on the internet in this documentary, that basically introduces the term “catfish” to the cultural lexicon. The film captures Nev’s growing online-only friendship with a young woman and her family, exposing the secrets and lies they’re keeping along the way and reminding us all: you really can’t trust people.
Clocking in at 24 minutes, the Oscar-nominated Extremis really would only work as a short, as its subject matter is almost unbearably heavy. Following terminal patients, their families, and their doctors, the tearjerker zeros in on the decision that many people are forced to make: whether to end a life or keep struggling to hold on. Netflix’s first foray into short documentary, it’s raw insight that can be rough for anyone who has been in similar shoes or spent any time facing dire choices in a hospital.
The alternately revolutionary and dispiriting saga of a combative, unapologetic and astoundingly gifted soul singer, Liz Garbus’s doc is a powerful rendering of the struggles Nina Simone faced throughout her career: the ways she became trapped in downward spirals, first of spousal abuse and then of bipolar disorder; and of her desperate, all-consuming urge to affect change on the country during the Civil Rights era. What happened? Watch for yourself.
We’re not sure why watching human beings dangling thousands of feet in the air with no safety net or cable cord to tether them to Earth is so irresistible, but it is, and this doc about free climber Tommy Caldwell and climbing partner Kevin Jorgeson might be Netflix’s most bingeable adventure flick. The two men attempt to scale the impossible 3000ft Dawn Wall of El Capitan, the Everest for free climbers, and if you can stomach over an hour of near-fatal slips, trips, and falls, this is the doc for you.
Warning: Netflix’s The Bleeding Edge will seriously piss you off. It might also make you swear off doctors for the rest of your life. The film is a deep dive into the medical device industry and the dangers that lurk there for unassuming patients. Like the pharmaceutical industry, there are few laws regulating the creation and implementation of medical devices — think everything from birth control to orthopedic instruments — and the doc shows how this is negatively affecting millions of Americans every year from the women unknowingly sterilized by an IUD device to a doctor whose own ortho-device slowly poisoned him. It’s a frustrating watch, but a necessary one.
The NBA coaching carousel has been revving up as we move closer toward an offseason that promises to be unlike any we’ve seen in league history. Doc Rivers became the latest casualty this week when the Clippers announced that they were parting ways with him after seven seasons in Los Angeles.
Rivers’ track record in the postseason during his tenure there has been questionable, to say the least, but given his pedigree, it wasn’t long before his name started popping up in discussions surrounding some of the more highly sought-after vacancies around the league.
Most recently, he’s been linked to the Sixers job and is scheduled to meet with team brass on Wednesday, and according to the latest reports, Philly’s front office has narrowed their choices down to him and former Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni, with the expectation that they will announce their decision between them as early as the end of the week.
Other top candidates — including Mike D’Antoni and Ty Lue — also met with Brand and ownership, and the Sixers were ready to decide between those two until Rivers became available, a source told ESPN.
For the Sixers now, the focus is on Rivers and D’Antoni, a source told ESPN. A decision is expected this week.
Lue is thought to be first in line to assume Rivers’ position with the Clippers, although the team is still set to conduct formal interviews with other candidates, and that Philadelphia has moved on from him seems to indicate an expectation that he’s focused on that job opening. Los Angeles parted ways with Rivers after the Clippers blew a 3-1 series lead to the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals. It marked the second time during his tenure there that the team failed to close out a playoff series after being up 3-1, although the team apparently viewed this season as championship or bust for Rivers future in L.A.
YG has been hard at work on his upcoming album for the past much of 2020, one that will be the follow up to 2019’s 4Real 4Real. The rapper revealed his fifth album would be titled Laugh Now Kry Later earlier this year, but earlier this month he opted to change the title to My Life 4Hunnid. With just a couple of days left until the album’s arrival, YG has unveiled its tracklist.
Keeping things concise with just 13 tracks on the upcoming album, My Life 4Hunnid features appearances from Lil Wayne, Ty Dolla $ign, Gunna, Lil Tjay, Lil Mosey, Calboy, Tay2x, D3, and Chris Brown. The announcement follows the release of his “Out On Bail” song and vide,o which presents the Compton rapper fleeing from police officers. Fans can also expect to hear the songs “Laugh Now Kry Later!,” “FTP,” and “Swag” on the upcoming album.
You can view the artwork and tracklist for My Life 4Hunnid below.
Interscope
1. “Jealous”
2. “Blood Walk” Feat. Lil Wayne & D3
3. “Traumatized Interlude”
4. “Out On Bail”
5. “Rodeo” Feat. Tyga & Chris Brown
6. “Swag”
7. “Hate On Me” Feat. Lil TJay
8. “War Scars” Feat. Tay2x
9. “Surgery” Feat. Ty Dolla $ign & Gunna
10. “Thug Kry” feat. Calboy & Lil Mosey
11. “Traumatized Interlude #2”
12. “FTP”
13. “Laugh Now Kry Later!”
My Life 4Hunnid is out 10/02 via Def Jam.
Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
It’s safe to say Tuesday night’s presidential debate pleased just about no one — not fans of either incumbent Donald Trump, not fans of former vice president Joe Biden, and certainly not anyone who wanted a civil or at least non-noisy discussion. What everyone got instead was over 90 minutes of migraine-inducing crosstalk, with the sitting president constantly interrupting either Biden, who occasionally lost it, or moderator Chris Wallace. Another person who didn’t enjoy it? Chris Wallace.
Speaking to The New York Times the day after, the Fox News anchor — widely seen as one of the few genuinely bipartisan voices on the right-leaning news network — said he was “just sad with the way last night turned out,” calling it “a terrible missed opportunity.” He added, “I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did.”
The debate started off quietly, with both parties respecting the rule granting each one two minutes to speak, uninterrupted. That lasted about one volley. The infamously testy Trump quickly threw off the shackles of decorum, proceeding to interrupt either Biden or Wallace, by Slate’s estimate, at least 128 times. Wallace frequently had to chastise the president, ordering him to let Biden speak, but to no avail.
Wallace, who has been praised for standing up to Trump during rare non-softball Fox News interviews, was roasted online, but while he, too, deplored the end results, he didn’t think he was to blame.
“I’ve read some of the reviews, I know people think, Well, gee, I didn’t jump in soon enough,” Mr. Wallace said, his voice betraying some hoarseness from the previous night’s proceedings. “I guess I didn’t realize — and there was no way you could, hindsight being 20/20 — that this was going to be the president’s strategy, not just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate.”
Recalling his thoughts as he sat onstage, with tens of millions of Americans watching live, Mr. Wallace said: “I’m a pro. I’ve never been through anything like this.”
He added, “Generally speaking, I did as well as I could, so I don’t have any second thoughts there. I’m just disappointed with the results. For me, but much more importantly, I’m disappointed for the country, because it could have been a much more useful evening than it turned out to be.”
The debate was so poorly received, so trying on the patience and the ears, that the Commission on Presidential Debates put out a statement, saying that “additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates.” (They did praise Wallace, though, thanking him for bringing “professionalism” to a debate that sorely needed more of it.) Of course, you try to tame Trump.
HBO’s The Vow is cracking up to be the strangest and most talked-about documentary series since Tiger King. While its final episode doesn’t air until Sunday, there’s one twist in the story that happened after the filmmaker’s stopped filming: on Wednesday it was reported that one of its bigger stars is going to jail.
According to The New York Times, Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman was sentenced to six years and nine months for her role as a funder and leader in NXIVM, an alleged cult that has been accused of, among other things, coercing female members into sexual slavery. A number of its leaders, among them founder Keith Raniere and top recruiter Alison Mack, have been convicted of various charges and are awaiting sentencing. Bronfman is the first NXIVM higher-up to be sentenced.
Founded in 1998, Nvixm sold itself as a self-help group that, as per NYT, “purported to help people achieve their personal goals through ‘executive success’ workshops.” But as the years went on, it evolved into something darker, with leaders using it as a recruiting platform for a secret society referred to as either “DOS” or “The Vow.” A number of leaders and members are former television actors.
In an emotional hearing on Wednesday, nine victims of Nxivm spoke about how their lives had been destroyed by Ms. Bronfman. Some of them said Ms. Bronfman sued them relentlessly for years after they left Nxivm and even persuaded local prosecutors to initiate criminal charges against them.
Earlier Wednesday, one NXIVM devotee, former Battlestar Galactica actress Nicky Clyne — who is married to Mack, herself a former actress on Smallville — tried to defend the group. “It’s very unfortunate the way that the word ‘NXIVM’ has been applied and is now synonymous with the term ‘sexual cult,’ which I don’t even know how to define what that is,” Clyne told CBS’ This Morning. She and for other former NXIVM members even brought a formal petition to prosecutors, alleging prosecutorial misconduct against Raniere, who was convicted in July of racketeering, sex trafficking, fraud and other crimes.
“We’re not denying that certain things took place,” Clyne, who has never been charged with a crime, added. “There’s evidence that certain things happened. How they happened, why they happened and why certain people chose them — that’s a whole other conversation.” She added, “I wouldn’t trade my experiences for anything.”
Wrestling fans are fond of saying that WWE in particular does their best booking when they have to cancel things, think on their feet, and react quickly to circumstances. I’m not sure that idea holds much water anymore, in an era when Vince McMahon tearing up the RAW script hours before air has become the (rumored but widely accepted) norm. In any case, it’s definitely not true of the particular chaos that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to bring to the pro wrestling world.
Sunday’s Clash of Champions PPV was supposed to feature three women’s matches: Zelina Vega versus Asuka for the Raw Women’s Championship, Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler versus the Riott Squad for the Women’s Tag Team Championship, and Nikki Cross versus Bayley for the Smackdown Women’s Championship. When Baszler, Jax, and Cross were all quarantined, the division was left in disarray. Since Jax and Baszler are the current Champions, and the whole gimmick of Clash of Champions is that every match is for a Title, they just had to cancel the women’s tag mach.
Honestly, even if they’d been willing to do a non-title match, WWE breaks up female tag teams so fast that there’s hardly room for understudies. There are no more IIconics, Golden Role Models, Fire & Desire, Kabuki Warriors, or even Bliss Cross Applesauce (leaving aside that Nikki was also unavailable), and I don’t think many people would have been excited to see the Riott Squad fight Lana and Natalya on PPV.
Left without an opponent, Smackdown Women’s Champ Bayley issued an open challenge that was answered by… Raw Women’s Champ Asuka. We know Bayley and Asuka can work well together (if only because we’ve seen it more than once very recently), but it kind of just felt like there weren’t any other women backstage? Except of course for Sasha Banks, who was waiting to make her post-mach attack (which presumably still would have come if the challenger was Nikki Cross).
Then on Monday Night Raw, Retribution wasn’t around to cause their usual chaos, reportedly because they’ve also been quarantined due to COVID exposure. Now on the one hand, a couple of weeks off may be just what WWE needs to figure out how to redirect the widely mocked angle and move past fans’ initial negative reactions to the faction’s silly made-up names and cut-rate Bane masks. On the other hand, it might be the first step in Retribution being dropped all together, which wouldn’t bode well for the five wrestlers who got brought up from NXT for the angle.
Speaking of which, I hear a lot of people saying that the masks and silly names could be to those wrestlers’ benefit in the long run, because they can get repackaged under their own names after Retribution falls apart. It would be great if that’s true, but when I look at past NXT call-ups like Sanity, the Ascension, and AoP, it’s hard to get my hopes up.
Raw Underground was also left off the show, apparently because the COVID outbreak at the performance center left them without enough Superstars to crowd around that ropeless ring and make it look like a fight club. Considering Raw’s ratings without the Underground segment were better than they’ve been with it, it makes you wonder if we’ve seen the last of Shane McMahon’s little experiment.
This weekend is NXT TakeOver 31, and we’ll see how things go there. According to an interview with PWInsider, Triple H seems confident that it will be fine, and that they’re doing all they can:
As for right now, I’m very confident in that – that this Sunday’s card will [go on as announced], but this is a very sort of touch-and-go time, and at any given time, things can change, and you’ve seen that recently. The Performance Center is back functional. The talent is – you know, nobody can control this situation, and nobody’s going to be able to stop this pandemic, and COVID. We’re doing the best we can to keep our performers safe, our staff, our crew – everybody safe. So these situations where positives come up and we then go back and very, very extensively contact trace, and go back and quarantine those people – this is all for the safety and wellbeing of everybody.
And of course WWE isn’t the only wrestling company dealing with the effects of a pandemic. AEW’s Lance Archer has revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19, and there were a bunch more people conspicuously missing from last week’s AEW Dynamite, including Nick Jackson, the Butcher and the Blade, and Archer’s own manager, Jake the Snake Roberts. We’ll see who shows up tonight, on Dynamite and NXT respectively, but each of them seems to be just trying to come up with a full show each week.
Hopefully we’re getting closer to a day when things become normal again, when wrestling shows can tour before big live crowds, and roster members disappearing due to illness won’t stop happening, but it will stop seeming like a regular weekly event. In the meantime, here’s hoping both companies can get their current outbreaks under control, and go back to telling the stories they want to tell, instead of the stories they’re left with.
Even though Cardi B was the first female rapper to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 20 years, one of the few to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and the first to achieve multiple No. 1 singles, there are apparently still some listeners out there who don’t accept any of these milestones as markers of success. At least, according to Cardi herself, who recounted some of the more outlandish critiques she’s received online over the past two years in an interview with Sirius XM.
Per Cardi, some critics took her year-long break from releasing new music as evidence that Atlantic Records had shelved her album, calling her “a flop.” While some of those were undoubtedly Nicki Minaj fans, who are known to lash out at Cardi, any other female rapper they perceive as Nicki’s competition, and even Nicki’s collaborators, a quick browse of any comments section online is sure to reveal that her detractors aren’t quite living in the same reality as the rest of us.
“Throughout this [break] people was making rumors, like, ‘Oh, she’s having problems with her label, her label is shelving her, her label is tired of her, they’re getting more female talent,’” Cardi explained. “Then it’s like, no, they’re never tired of me.” She also pointed out the double standards involved in those criticisms and why they couldn’t force her to rush out another song she wasn’t in love with.
“There are male artists who will go two years without putting out a song and [the fans] don’t be like, ‘Oh, you’re irrelevant, it’s over for you’. Me, I didn’t put out songs for nine months and it’s like, ‘Oh, she’s irrelevant, she’s over, she’s a flop, we told you that’. And I’m like, ‘Yo!’ That type of shit started to get to me but I’m not gonna let that shit get to me to the point that I’m going to put out a song that I’m not really in love with.”
Considering her first new song since 2019’s “Please Me” with Bruno Mars was the No. 1 “WAP” with Megan Thee Stallion, a song that has launched a lexicon and dominated pop culture since its release, those folks who called her a flop might have to continue to indulge their wishful thinking.
Watch the full Cardi B interview with Sirium XM above.
Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
This bonus episode of the Frotcast is now live on Patreon. To hear the whole thing, sign up on Patreon at Patreon.com/Frotcast. I promise, you won’t regret it! Or maybe you will. Hell, I don’t know. Honestly, who can say these days.
This week on the Frotcast, everyone’s favorite, Jessica Sele is back, and she’s helping Vince and Matt discuss all the latest developments in the world of film and culture. For instance, Vin Diesel has a new single out, that he introduced on the Kelly Clarkson show. We discuss the way Vin Diesel has taught himself to speak in Mongolian throat singing, and how his social media posts full of ellipses actually mimic his true speaking voice. That leads us into a breakdown of the Vin Diesel/The Rock beef, Jessica talks about surfing as part of recovery, and Matt reveals that he has spent the past week watching all of Cobra Kai and the first three Karate Kid movies and now has some theories. In fact it turns out, Matt may have become radicalized by Karate Kid.
We finish things up with some of your emails and voicemails, and answer your question about which Hollywood star would be the best replacement for Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. As always, thank you for listening.
EMAIL us at [email protected], leave us a voicemail at 415-275-0030.
Look, watching politicians peacock their way across our TV sparks joy in no one right now — unless that politician is Katie Porter and she’s got a whiteboard in her hand.
The U.S. Representative and tenured law professor has gained a bit of a fandom for her use of props you’d be more to likely find in one of her classrooms. She sent the CDC Director home with his tail between his legs earlier this year (and scored a promise of free COVID-19 tests) when she whipped out her dry erase secret weapon, and she completely decimated USPS Postmaster Louis DeJoy over the price of a postage stamp. So you’d think Mark J. Allies, the CEO of a pharmaceutical company called Celgene, would’ve been a bit more prepared when he Zoomed into a House Oversight Committee meeting to defend his latest multimillion-dollar paycheck.
Porter began her questioning by writing a fairly innocuous number on her trusty whiteboard — 13 million. She then proceeded to drag Allies for taking home over $2 million in bonuses after the company decided to raise the price of a cancer treatment drug called Revlimid. And in case watching this guy stumble over his explanations for why he was taking home millions when so many people struggle to now afford that life-saving treatment just wasn’t entertaining enough, she broke that number down further, showing that Allies got half a million dollars just from tripling the price of that drug.
That’s called price gouging, folks, and the honorable Katie Porter is not having it — though Twitter seems to be pretty pleased watching her make Big Pharma’s insides shrivel up and die.
I know the Katie Porter bus is pretty crowded, but damn it I’ll stand if there is no place to sit. She is the Michael Jordan of dunking on CEOs and I am here for every second of it!
Here’s hoping Rep. Porter keeps wielding that whiteboard like a Congressional Captain America.
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