to 8 p.m. PBS will simulcast its televised Inauguration Day and Celebrating America coverage on the PBS NewsHour streaming platform. ET after the inauguration, featuring performances from Bruce Springsteen and Demi Lovato. to 4 p.m. ET. That last milestone will take place during the primetime Inauguration Day special Celebrating America, which will air on TV and stream online from 8:30-10 p.m. MSNBC starts its Inauguration Day coverage off at 9 a.m. Its live news channels include Pluto TV News, CBSN, CNN, NBC News Now, Sky News, Bloomberg Television, and Cheddar. ET on Good Morning America, which will be followed by seven full hours of inauguration coverage from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tom Hanks is involved! Photo: Getty Images

This Wednesday, January 20, will be a historic Inauguration Day, and not only because it will be the first one to take place two weeks after a deadly insurrection of the Capitol that was egged on by the conspiracy-laden rhetoric of the departing president. ET. ET. TV

PBS will air its PBS NewsHour coverage of Inauguration Day beginning at 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States of America, along with Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, in Washington, D.C., at noon ET on January 20. ET. ET, as a lead-in to Celebrating America at 8:30. NewsHour will also air live, anchored coverage of the Presidential Inaugural Committee’s Celebrating America primetime program from 8-10 p.m. ET. CBS will cover the Inauguration from 9 a.m. CNN starts its Inauguration coverage on Tuesday, January 19 at 4 p.m. ET. ET and doesn’t let up until Thursday, January 21 at 4 a.m. America’s first female vice-president will be sworn in! Platforms on the Roku Channel include  ABC News, Cheddar, NBC News NOW, and Newsy. to 4 p.m. FOX will air five hours of Inauguration Day coverage, from 11 a.m. ET. Related

Of Course Bruce Springsteen Is Playing Biden’s Inauguration Special

Lady Gaga Will Sing the National Anthem at the Biden-Harris Inauguration

Tags: ET, and will broadcast the Celebrating America primetime special with remarks from the President and Vice-President at 8:30 p.m. If you don’t have any of the above, Pluto TV has a number of free in-browser livestreaming options, with no sign-up required. ET, will broadcast Celebrating America at 8:30 p.m. NBC will air six hours of Inauguration Day coverage from 10 a.m. The inauguration itself will involve performances by Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, so all-in-all the mood will be celebratory, even if the crowds will be watching from a safe social distance at home. – An ABC News Special at 8 p.m. ET on a number of free streaming platforms, including Roku, PlutoTV, and Tubi. Biden, Jr. This inauguration ceremony will have the very first “virtual parade”! ABC will then air The Inauguration of Joseph R. ABC kicks off its Inauguration Day coverage at 7 a.m. ET, and Brian Williams will give in-depth analysis of the day’s events on The 11th Hour at 11 p.m. ET, and will follow this up with a CBS News Special: One Nation: Indivisible at 8 p.m. Streaming

The Roku Channel has a number of free options for inauguration coverage, beginning the night before on Tuesday, January 19 at 8 p.m. Here is how to watch the Inauguration Day events. ET. Cheddar will offer live Inauguration Day reporting from Capitol Hill from 7 a.m.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement that Spector’s “official cause of death will be determined by the medical examiner in the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.” A source told TMZ that Spector “died from COVID-related complications, after being transferred from his prison cell to a hospital,” as his symptoms worsened after he contracted the coronavirus in prison four weeks ago. Photo: Gabriel Bouys-Pool/Getty Images

Influential music producer Phil Spector died on Saturday, January 16, in a California hospital at the age of 81. Tags: Prior to his arrest, Spector was best known as a hit record producer who defined the girl-group pop sound of the 1960s with hits like the Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron” and the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby.” In 1970, he produced the Beatles’ Let It Be. Spector pioneered the lush audio aesthetic known as the “Wall of Sound,” along with his Wrecking Crew session musicians at Gold Star Studios. Spector was serving a 19-to-life sentence for the 2003 second-degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson in his California residence.

“We have now lost — I don’t want to tell you how many cats — because they don’t hear the Tesla crank and unfortunate things happen and it’s really devastating and tragic for everyone involved,” Spears said in the video. Tags: The Tesla, which Spears dubs “a secret cat-killer,” should be equipped with “noises that bother cat or animal ears when it cranks up, so that way, they know something’s happening and they aren’t caught off guard and things don’t end in a very tragic way.” Spears wrapped up the Instagram Story by addressing Musk directly, claiming that he owes her “a couple cats.” The precise number of cats in question is unknown. He is also, according to Jamie Lynn Spears, complicit in the death of several cats. Jamie Lynn Spears Updated the Zoey 101 Theme Song. Spears later took to Instagram again to clarify her comments, writing that she “did not run over any cats” and that, despite her strongly worded video, Tesla is “not to be blamed.” She also confessed that “user error is admittedly involved.” Musk has yet to comment. Related

Are You Ready? In a since-deleted video posted to Instagram, Spears blames Tesla and Musk specifically for their role in her pets’ deaths. Photo: WireImage

Elon Musk is many things: the wealthiest person on the planet, a father, bad at Twitter.

“It’s us getting together which doesn’t happen a lot and has never happened in front of other people since 2004, when we stopped,” Kudrow said. Photo: Getty Images

2021 so far has been an unpredictable, upsetting mess, but at least we know one thing for certain: the wildly expensive Friends reunion is moving forward, according to Lisa Kudrow. Related

Coronavirus Forces Friends Reunion Special to Go on a Break

Tags: “I pre-shot something for it already, so we’re definitely doing it,” Kudrow told Rob Lowe on his podcast. The reunion will air on HBO Max, with the release date TBD. The reunion will not feature any new scripted material, but will instead see the original cast reminiscing on old times. Kudrow also revealed that shooting will likely begin in “early, early spring” after production was delayed last year due to the pandemic.

“Let tomorrow be about solutions,” Oliver says. 2020 was a bad year for a number of reasons, but the trailer for the upcoming season of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver highlights some of the few good things that happened. The trailer for the upcoming eighth season of the HBO late-night show rattles off these highlights from season seven, before showing Oliver press a red button to blow up a giant “2020” structure. Or when Oliver scored a coveted piece of rat erotica. Tags: So expect more Adam Driver and furry smut. Turns out, they mostly happened on Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. “Today is about vengeance.” Season eight of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver premieres on Valentine’s Day. Like when Oliver received a FaceTime call and a naughty scolding from his crush, Adam Driver.

The follow-up to 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters will answer the age old question, “Who would win in a fight: Godzilla, King Kong, or co-star Millie Bobbie Brown?”

Related

All 15 Original Godzilla Movies, Ranked

‘You Just Screwed the Film Business’: Panic Over the Warner Bros. is bumping Godzilla vs. Originally designated for a May 21 theatrical release, Variety reported on January 15 that Warner Bros. But the pandemic is still, to use a scientific term, totally a thing, so this entry into Legendary Entertainment’s Godzilla series is getting a simultaneous release along with Warner Bros.’ other 2021 offerings, on HBO Max. News Sets In

Tags: Kong ahead two months to March 26, when it will be released both in cinemas and on HBO Max. Photo: Warner Bros./YouTube

Godzilla vs. Kong: Just the concept of two of the most legendary, physically huge movie monsters in film history duking it out on the big screen is enough to send a chill down your spine.

Best and most high fashion of all, she is doused in white feathers, structurally towering over Greek columns and statuary, as some sort of elegant haute snow-person. “If you love me,” she sings, “say it in the morning. J.Lo appears as a mermaid, both the on-land-turned-into-a-human kind and the “has a blue tail” kind. If you ever did a rewatch as a grown adult of the Australian mermaid series H2O: Just Add Water and thought to yourself, “This is pretty good, but it would have been better if Jennifer Lopez factored into this somehow,” get ready to live your ultimate fantasy. On January 15, J.Lo released the music video for her 2020 single “In the Morning,” and it’s a cosplayer’s dream board of fantastical aesthetics. She’s a fallen angel with a halo of golden curls, lookin’ like a fresco on the wall of a particularly classy Italian restaurant. Related

Wake Up From Your Thanksgiving Food Coma to J.Lo’s New Single ‘In the Morning’

Armie Hammer Exits Shotgun Wedding Due to ‘Vicious Online Attacks’

Tags: Not just in the evening, only when you want my body.” Her strange, strange, mermaid-angel-snowman-body.

Related

Sia Made a Movie Called Music (and an Album Too)

Sia Criticized for Not Casting Actors With Autism, Attacks Critics on Twitter

Tags: He threatens Kate Hudson when she “comes up light” with his drug money, and he looks unmistakably like himself, voice of Sonic Ben Schwartz, but now he has cornrows. In the new full-length trailer for Sia’s upcoming “cinematic experience,” Music, Ben Schwartz appears to play a menacing drug dealer. But this hair choice for this stock character played by this actor … James Franco in Spring Breakers and Gary Oldman in True Romance would like a word. They looked at Jean-Ralphio, and then at Ron Swanson in the one episode where he has cornrows as a “gag,” and then back at Jean-Ralphio, and said aloud or maybe in their head, “There’s something here.” There are other things to talk about in the trailer: The already-controversial casting of neurotypical dancer Maddie Ziegler as a nonverbal girl with autism, the unmistakable voice of Betsy Sodaro, the elaborate musical sequences, and a meaty lead role for Kate Hudson. Music will be in IMAX for one night only on February 10, and then be available for streaming on demand on February 12. Someone, somewhere along the creative process of Sia’s feature-length directorial debut, made the creative decision to give Ben Schwartz cornrows.

Photo: VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

The 2021 Oscars ceremony is just a little over three months away, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see more pandemic-related changes to this year’s awards season between now and then. The Best International Feature shortlist, and many of this year’s other Oscars shortlists, will be announced on February 9, with nominees to be announced on March 15. Which films are chosen by which committee is never publicly revealed. Sources

THR

Related

Oscar Futures: Nomadland Aces the Season’s First Test

Oscar Futures: The Fifth Awards Season of the Trump Era

The Year Hollywood Stopped Playing by Its Own Rules

SAG Awards Bump Date Again to Avoid Clash with Grammys

Tags: They are also expanding the shortlist from ten to 15 films. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Academy recently decided to switch up the selection process for their Best International Feature shortlist due to “concerns about their ability to protect the security of the process,” now that it has to take place online. In a nutshell, the selection process usually entails a volunteer preliminary committee choosing seven movies in person, to which the international film executive committee adds three movies, or “saves,” typically films they feel have been overlooked and deserve a shot at the award. However, according to THR, the Academy has decided that “holding the executive committee’s online deliberations via Zoom or a similar platform would leave them open to leaks or hacks.” Rather than risk having their debate exposed, this year’s process will allow the preliminary committee to virtually choose the entire shortlist, which, again, will have 15 slots instead of ten.

Jennifer Coolidge might be among the top five stylish blondes with impeccable comedic timing that came to mind when you found out Kim Cattrall really wouldn’t be returning for HBO Max’s Sex and the City sequel series as the iconic Samantha Jones, but she’s going to stop you right there. As the Legally Blonde 3 actress explained to Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live Thursday night, there’s no way she could step into Cattrall’s Manolos for And Just Like That … In fact, no one can, because Kim Cattrall is simply too “perfect” to replace. “You know, I was a huge, and still am a huge, Sex and the City fan,” Coolidge muses, when a viewer asks if she would consider playing Samantha Jones ‘or a character like her’ on the new series. I don’t see anyone being able to replace her in that part.” Concluded the Promising Young Woman actress, “It was just the perfect … yeah, I don’t think you can replace her.”

Additionally, the new show would have to figure out how to explain the existence of Jennifer Coolidge’s previously established SATC character Victoria, who invited the ladies to the launch of her (terrible) new handbag line and ended up destroying her own party after catching Samantha hooking up with Smith Jerrod in the kitchen. Related

A Complete Timeline of the Decades-long Sex and the City Feud

Just 4 Minutes of Jane Krakowski and Drew Barrymore Shamelessly Flirting

Wonder No More, Carrie: The Sex and the City Reboot Is Actually Happening

Jennifer Coolidge’s Spooky Advice for Emerson Grads Is Going to Be Tough to Beat

Tags: (Please refer to Sex and the City season six episode three, “The Perfect Present.”) Would Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte really risk another “I’ve discovered I’m Fendi” free-for-all just because Sam is no longer with us? “It’s one of those shows where you can watch the reruns and never get tired of them, but I have to say, I am such a Kim Cattrall fan.

Ross tries to frame this critique in such a way so that he might avoid the combined ire of both Chicago gay Twitter and New York gay Twitter. Kahmora has branded herself as a look queen (and after this ep I think we can confidently say that she’s not a dancing queen), but I posit that she’s also a funny queen. Both queens approach the song with the confidence and expertise of a seasoned performer who’s no stranger to a sold-out show, to a standing ovation, or to absolutely murdering a lip sync. RuPaul would have us believe there are no losers. Merchandise sales, booking fees, and social-media engagement make this discrepancy painfully clear. If it feels like you’re watching the same episode twice in a row that’s because, well, you are! Place your bets, people. sans Kahmora-based production delays). The judges are intrigued by her, and I mean … How could you not be? A serve! TamishaTamisha didn’t place in the pageant this week, but there’s no doubt she made her mark. She’s a Seventh-day Adventist for Christ’s sake! Attention isn’t doled out equitably, and not everyone can receive the coveted “lovable underdog” edit. Ultimately, Denali has the edge. Terms & Privacy Notice
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. Her verse (particularly ending on a belted high note) is VERY Jan-reminiscent, which will be thrilling for some and triggering to others. But the winner of this category has got to be Rosé. Rosé has a level of unimpeachable self-confidence that would probably be considered a personality disorder in other professions, but if you’re a Manhattan-based drag queen it’s basically a prerequisite to performing at Hardware. Luckily, this half of the queens couldn’t be more different, injecting some much-needed variety into what might otherwise be a redundant episode. RoséIt should be very obvious to everyone that Rosé intends to obliterate the competition this season, and lord help any queen that stands in her way. It serves her well this episode. The judges love it though: They praise her looks, her verse, just about everything except her final runway presentation. Email

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google
Privacy Policy and
Terms of Service apply. The fashion show was perfectly executed, her lyrics were delightful, and RuPaul said her runway was one of the best dresses of all time (which she made, by the way!). She seems like a sweetie, and she was perfectly willing to cede attention to some of the other queens who were more than happy to take up the screen time this time around. Michelle clocks her for “holding back” in the performance (whatever that means), but to me Tamisha was a standout. The nighttime/vampire runway goes off much smoother (i.e. As long as there’s no more dancing. Tamisha is here to stay, and I’m very pleased to see it. In the performance, she easily looks the best. Almost every werkroom conversation revolves around her, and it’s probably because she’s fucking fascinating. It’s Suspiria on poppers as Denali, Rosé, and Joey Jay fight each other for creative control. The one notable disadvantage to this split premiere style is that it can feel a little repetitive. Case in point: This week, we watch episode one’s “losing” team mount an impressive production number that even surpasses last Friday’s installment from the “winners.” Let’s dive in. The brilliance of having half a dozen other people do all the creative legwork for something and then just putting your name on it? Finally, it’s time for the girls to write verses and create choreo to Ru’s new single “Phenomenon.” I think this is my favorite RuPaul grift. Ultimately, Kahmora does make it to stage, and she does look good. Ru awards her the win, and you just can’t deny it feels correct. The consensus is clear: Be yourself, Joey! What can’t Tamisha do? Tamisha has competed in over 200 pageants, won 95 of them, and in the meantime had three biological children and dozens of drag babies. (Get it?)

KahmoraOh Kahmora. In the dance rehearsal, Denali, Rosé, and Joey Jay have each appointed themselves head choreographer. He cites Shangela and Miss Vanjie as evidence that Drag Race placement is not indicative of real-world success. Enter my favorite subplot of the episode: While the girls begin getting into drag for their first looks, Denali explains that, in Chicago, Kahmora is notorious for taking SIX HOURS to paint her face. They’ve also posed this meta question. Not helping matters is the fact that Joey essentially reused the same silhouette for three of her four looks this episode. The precision of her stunts come right on time and feel perfectly on brand for the Britney bop. She’s made sure of it. And, yes, there certainly are notable exceptions, but Ru also can’t deny that Drag Race’s elimination structure inherently creates a hierarchy within the show’s alumni, the consequences of which are plain as day. We’re off the races. RuPaul’s Drag Race
Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows! A bitch after my own heart. It breaks the stalemate, and the rest of the queens graciously cede to her authority. Her verse is the best of the group and the splits are the icing on top. Kahmora is quick with a clapback, and served up some quite memorable confessional moments. Her lyrics are perfectly serviceable, and the spinning trick is cute, but it’s just not enough to stand out amongst monsters like Tamisha, Rosé, or Denali. Next week, “losers” and “winners” will join together in what’s sure to be a thrilling spectacle/COVID-compliance nightmare. It’s a stunning McQueen-inspired garment that I’m sure Lady Gaga will be buying immediately and having shipped straight to her Chromatica P.O. The first three eps of this season have not just shown us dazzling production numbers, avant-garde fashion shows, and experimental psychological torture techniques. Yes you heard right: In the time it would take me to not watch Tenet twice, Kahmora would be just moving onto her eyeshadow. These eliminations can have far-reaching consequences for the queens, but at the end of the day, elimination order is an incredibly arbitrary designation. With the number finally locked, it’s time for the runway. If you were thinking this might pose a problem for a tightly scheduled TV show, you’d be right. However, Utica brings it where it counts. Joey JayWhen asked what she’ll be using as inspiration for her lyrics, Joey Jay says “I’m gay.” While not really an answer to the question, I can’t help but respect the himbo energy Joey is bringing to the confessional booth. There’s really nothing negative you can say about Denali’s presentation this week. Other daytime-look standouts include Rosé’s Moschino-inspired structured mini dress and Tamisha’s gorgeous red pantsuit. While the judges love her performance, they make sure to emphasize that they are not going to tolerate this wiglessness for much longer. I can’t say Kahmora did “well” this episode, but I can say that I loved it. The Elon Musk of drag. (Get it?) The judges praise Denali for her looks and the sheer variety of her self-expression. I mean, holding up an entire production because you’re still getting dressed? To some degree, it’s unavoidable. Box. Tags: RuPaul isn’t running a charity after all, he’s making a reality-TV show. Eventually the chaos becomes too much for Tamisha, who swoops in to save the day with some well-placed pointing and walking. Denali is clearly a ferocious performer and competitor, and definitely one to watch. Just not like that. With all critiques said and done, RuPaul names Denali and Rosé the top two of the week, and they are made to duke it out to Britney Spears’s “If U Seek Amy.” It is quite a spectacle. After the girls finish ogling each other, RuPaul comes in to issue a half-hearted apology for any trauma experienced in the Pork Chop Loading Dock and explain that they’ll be showing off two garments in a “Lady and the Vamp” fashion show. DenaliIn the werkroom, Denali says that losing last week only makes her want to push herself that much harder, and baby it shows. My favorite: “I wanna look so expensive that they go broke just looking at me.” This episode was a rough start for Kahmora, but she still has time to turn it around. Title holder, mother to the LEGENDARY Tandi Iman Dupree, and a fashion designer to boot. As Joey Jay points out, “This is Drag Race, not Drag Walk.” So true, bestie! And good thing she does, because it’s a bloodbath. Her performance is a nice tonal shift from the rest of the girls, and she sells her lyrics and wacky arm inflatable tube man-style choreo. And even though Tamisha has more dance experience than the three of them combined, she wisely opts out of these BFA twinks’ battle royale. No, really, keep an eye on her because I think she might break someone’s leg. UticaUtica didn’t make quite as much an impression on me this episode as she did episode one. (A losing battle, but I wish him the best.) “Crafty” look or not though, Rosé emerges victorious, and firmly at the top of this week’s crop. She’s giving Meghan Markle post-wedding but pre-move to Canada. However, I’m happy to see the show begin to take some responsibility for the queens’ wellbeing, and start to challenge some of these constructs. She’s crossed every “T”, dotted every “i”, and, with no ice skates to unbalance her, Denali is able to bring the full force of her Tonya Harding winner’s mindset to bear. Denali stunts in a sheer black ball gown, as does Tamisha once again in an Elvira-meets-Atlanta floor-length dress. RuPaul’s Drag Race
Phenomenon

Season 13

Episode 3

Editor’s Rating

4 stars

****

«Previous
Next

Photo: VH1

What makes a Drag Race loser? While I can sense some growing fatigue with the “kooky queen” trope among the fandom, I think Utica is the real deal.

They are such ambitious, innovative, and passionate creators who are committed to racial justice. “I’m elated these projects landed at Netflix. “I’m elated to work with Roger Ross Williams, Mara Brock Akil, and Chris Nee. But I’m really elated for the viewers, for the adults and children who will be captivated, informed, and transformed by these projects.”

Sources

EW

Tags: Kendi, reports Entertainment Weekly; the director of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research joins all three projects as executive producer. What a wonderful partner,” the author said in a statement Friday. Girlfriends creator Mara Brock Akil will executive produce and Music by Prudence Oscar-winner Roger Ross Williams will direct a “hybrid documentary/scripted feature’ based on Kendi’s 2016 non-fiction tome Stamped From The Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas In America, in addition to a “companion documentary” for young adults based on STAMPED: Racism, Antiracism and You, Kendi’s 2020 release with YA author Jason Reynolds, which translates the concepts of Stamped From The Beginning for younger readers. Antiracist Baby, Kendi’s 2020 children’s book with illustrator Ashley Lukashevsky, will, naturally, be formatted into “a series of musical animated vignettes aimed at preschoolers,” with Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins creator Chris Nee attached to produce. Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images

Netflix will be adapting three books by author, anti-racism activist, and historian Ibram X.

Dungeons & Dragons is also currently being adapted by Paramount into a feature starring Chris Pine and, according to THR, “eOne is now working with multiple writers to develop various projects set in the fantasy universe,” in addition to Kolstad’s series. For the uninitiated, the fantasy role-playing game, designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and first published in 1974, allows participants to create their own characters and engage across a variety of in-game adventures, from finding treasure to exploring strange new places to battling monsters, all under the oversight of a Dungeon Master, who serves as the director and storyteller of the game. Sources

THR

Related

Chaotic Wizard Chris Pine Will Star in the Dungeons & Dragons Movie

Joe Manganiello Wrote a Draft for His Very Own Dungeons & Dragons Movie

John Wick 4 Isn’t Even Out Yet, But John Wick 5 Is Already Confirmed

The World Needs a Hero, So John Wick Chapter 4 Is Coming in 2021

Tags: According to the Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment One and its parent game company have enlisted John Wick creator Derek Kolstad as the Dungeon Master of their upcoming live-action Dungeons & Dragons television adaption; he’ll reportedly “pen and develop” a series pitch based on the D&D universe. Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage

Less than a week after we heard tell of a possible Risk series in development from House of Cards creator Beau Willimon, another Hasbro game has struck out on a quest into the wilds of television development. So, if one of them doesn’t strike you as a critical hit, just go ahead and roll that 20-sided die on one of the other D&D projects headed your way.

Full Frontal was simply not having it and devoted a two-part segment to said Republicans aptly called “It’s a Little Too Late for Republicans to Denounce Trump.” Bee began the segment by rightfully shouting out Eugene Goodman, the Black Capitol police officer who effectively rerouted an angry mob away from the Senate floor. The tea on Poehler? Anne Hathaway Officially Rebrands as Annie Hathaway on The Tonight Show

Everyone has the right to be called by whatever name they want or desire, and Ann(i)e Hathaway is finally exercising that right. I read about the time when Anne Hathaway sent a poached egg back to the kitchen not once, not twice, not three times, but four times and thought, Atta girl. Aubrey Plaza Spills the Tea on The Late Show

Everyone loves a good bit of (fake) gossip, and Stephen Colbert is no exception. 3. And De Niro apparently likes to dress up as a mailman and deliver mail even though “he’s not qualified to do that.” Plaza’s pit stop on The Late Show served as a nice reminder that while Colbert has carved out a niche for himself as one of late-night’s most aggressively political hosts, he can still be entertaining outside of the political sphere. Late-night television was gifted this last little crumb of drama to dunk on Trump with as it transitions from the Trump era to the Biden years, and it seems that change is in the air. 1. Jimmy Kimmel Reconnects With His Old Friend “Freddie the Stoner”

One of the things I miss most about life before the panDemi Lovato is going to a party and meeting someone incredibly interesting that you almost certainly will never see again, or if you do it will be totally random and completely unexpected and a pleasant surprise. Apparently, when she was 14 she was in a commercial (of course she booked), and on her SAG card she chose to go by her real first name, Anne, instead of the nickname she goes by, Annie. On Tuesday, the actress formerly known as Anne stopped by The Tonight Show and revealed that she would prefer to be called Annie. NBC’s A Little Late With Lilly Singh returned this week for the first time since the pandemic began, with a brand-new writer’s room and a revamped quarantine aesthetic. Wow, an officer named “Goodman” saving the day? Things seem to be trending (YouTube pun absolutely intended) in a positive direction for Miss Singh! The World. I saw Anne Hathaway in The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement at an outlet mall with my cousins in OBX. So goodbye to Anne Hathaway, and nice to meet Annie Hathaway. 4. “She sleeps with a Justin Bieber doll in between her legs every night,” Plaza said, adding “What a creep” for good measure. 5. Samantha Bee Calls Out Complicit Republicans on Full Frontal

Back in the political sphere, the final days of the Trump administration are ending somehow with both a bang and a whimper, as Republicans quietly try and distance themselves from their riot-inciting, twice-impeached president. Brie Larson Sings Rude YouTube Comments on A Little Late With Lilly Singh

After almost a year off air, A Little Late is back and perhaps better than ever. I believe the actual Children of the Corn would have had the good sense to have denounce Trump well before he incited a deadly riot — they’re creepy, but they were not dumb. A rookie mistake. As someone of confusing name experience — my first name is *gasp* Derek, but I’ve always gone by my middle name, Chris — I do feel for Annie, but I must say, this change is a little tough for me. It’s Annie with an I, not Anne with an E. The studio audience has been replaced with “a Los-Angeles based home,” and Singh’s whole vibe now is much more relatable YouTuber than late-night show host, which is fitting giving her origin as, well, an incredibly successful YouTuber. “They were happy to support Trump when it was helping them cut taxes for the rich and fill the Supreme Court with these adults of the corn,” Bee quipped. Also, good for Miss Piggy for getting work done on her tail if that’s what she wants. Her body, her choice. Plaza, armed with a cup of tea (love to see an actor using her own props), started dishing on past costars like Amy Poehler, Zac Efron, and Robert De Niro, joyously spreading absurd and fake rumors about them. This week, Late Show aired a previously taped segment in which queer icon Aubrey Plaza spilled the proverbial tea on her former co-stars called “Tea at the Plaza,” of course. On Tuesday, Larson dropped by Singh’s hype house, and after receiving some helpful best-practices advice about YouTube from Singh (you gotta tell your viewers to like and subscribe after every vid!), Larson serenaded Singh with some musical renditions of her rudest YouTube comments. More From This Series

Seth Meyers Taking ‘A Closer Look’ at the Capitol Riot Won Late Night This Week

Christina Aguilera Ignoring the Melody Won This Very Musical Week in Late Night

Jeremy O. On Wednesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, I finally got a taste of that feeling again when Kimmel checked back in with Frederick “Freddie the Stoner” Miller, an affable young man who was on the show a year prior while waiting on line for the first cannabis dispensary in Michigan to open up. “Can we talk about my name for a second?” she said before launching into the saga about how Annie became Anne. Photo: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/YouTube

Well, well, well, would you look at that? But now, I have to say goodbye to all that, and so do you. 2. Congrats, Donald, you really earned that one. Plaza continued by noting that Zac Efron has “the smallest teeth [she’s] ever seen,” which will fall out of his mouth and down your throat if you ever are so lucky as to film a kissing scene with him. Let’s see which late-night clips stood out in this, Trump’s last full week as president. When asked how he wound up working at a cannabis shop, Freddie said his 30 seconds of fame on Jimmy Kimmel Live! One week after inciting a violent riot at the Capitol, Donald Trump made history becoming the only president to ever be impeached twice. “Feel free to call me anything but Anne,” she told Fallon. I defended Anne Hathaway’s performance as Fantine (she slays) in the (underrated) Les Misérables movie to my best friend in college and we didn’t speak for approximately three weeks (we’ve ultimately decided to agree to disagree). “I went on your show man, and the next thing I know I’m getting calls left and right from dispensaries,” Miller says. Since sharing his plan to sit on the couch, smoke a bowl, and watch the new Dracula on Netflix (he heard good things!) with Kimmel approximately a year ago, Freddie has been up to quite a lot, and, as fate would have it, now works as a Weed Ambassador for Cannavista Wellness in Buchanan, Michigan. last year changed his life for the better. As such, it makes sense that one of her first guests would be a fellow YouTuber like Brie Larson. Wow, dreams really do come true. It’s like Donny Hathaway, but with an Ann(e). You simply can’t make this stuff up! The entire show has been completely revamped while in quarantine, with a brand-new writing staff headed by Chelsea Davidson. Bee went on to call out not only the insurrectionists, but also the 147 members of congress who voted to overturn the election results. Harris Scamming Seth Meyers Into Saving Theater Won Late Night

See All

Tags: “I mean Jimmy, I was, like, unemployed living with my mom – God bless her,” Miller says before launching into what can only be described as the perfect stoner laugh. This was fun, because anyone worth their salt knows that before she became an Academy-Award winning actress, Larson was an aspiring musician whose fake band was the best thing about Scott Pilgrim vs.

Following Rodrigo’s release announcement, co-stars flocked to her Instagram post, with high praise abounding. This led many to believe that Bassett did something bad enough that his fellow actors took Olivia’s side in the fallout, and fans began to cast their votes for Team Olivia. Not likely, unless they started feuding soon after filming HSMTMTS, which does not make their friendship track record. Neither Rodrigo nor Bassett have directly addressed the ongoing rumors, but Bassett recently shared on Instagram that “Lie Lie Lie” was written about a friend who’d been lying behind his back for a long time. “I hope that it makes you happy / You can’t seem to get me off your mind, oh-oh-oh (Get me off your mind)”

When looking at the lyrics for “Drivers License,” it’s obvious that Rodrigo’s heart still only beats for one, and she see this person everywhere she goes. Finger-pointing ensues. Rodrigo has been very open about her feelings — through somber TikToks and the teary lyrics in “Drivers License” — while Bassett has done little to indicate that anything heartbreak-worthy has happened over the last few months, giving Olivia stans reason to shout, “Ugh, boys don’t care about the pain they cause!” The line above is what could be considered the definitive finger-point, claiming he’s not the only one who messed up in the situation. vv close to my heart. Rodrigo and Bassett both announced the release of their singles on January 4, sparking instant rumors about a possible connection between the two songs. Who was this deceitful friend? Photo: Joshua Bassett/YouTube

If you are still unaware of the Miley-Nick-Selena-eqse Disney love triangle brewing between High School Musical: The Musical: The Series castmates Olivia Rodrigo and Joshua Bassett, please climb out from under the rock you’ve been living. Her HSMTMTS counterpart Bassett first shared a clip of “Lie Lie Lie,” originally called “I Know,” in 2019, the day before the first season of the series premiered. Unless Bassett developed the habit of calling his bros darling, it’s safe to say that he’s referring to a girl. Since Rodrigo’s came out first, the narrative that the tracks could be related stuck, considering she draws a clearer line to Bassett by nodding to an older blonde girl, rumored to be singer-actress Sabrina Carpenter. If this was truly the last time this friend got to make a mockery of Bassett, then we may never know exactly who is doing all of the lying. She sings, “And all my friends are tired / Of hearing how much I miss you, but I kinda feel sorry for them / ’Cause they’ll never know you the way that I do.” So yes, she really can’t seem to get someone, possibly Bassett, off her mind. “And you’re acting, oh, so innocent / Like I’m the only one to blame”

The general assumption here has been that Bassett broke Rodrigo’s heart, making him the villain in this story. Given the timeline for the songs and the few details that both artists have provided on the subject, we are putting on our stan hats to take a deep dive into the potential reads of “Lie Lie Lie” when it comes to the current drama. When it came Bassett’s turn an hour later, only one cast member commented on his post, Joe Serafini. Is that girl Olivia? This saga penned its second chapter yesterday, with the release of Bassett’s single “Lie Lie Lie,” one week after Rodrigo’s release of the heart-wrenching hit “Drivers License.” Bassett’s punchy bop calls out someone in his life who spread lies about him, and the music video features the singer giving the finger to whom it may concern. Looking at the timeline for the two tracks, Rodrigo first shared a snippet of “Drivers License” in July 2020, with the caption “wrote this the other day. “You’ve been lying to yourself / Lie to everyone else / Only thinking ‘bout yourself / Darling, what the hell?”

Yes, darling, what the hell? Related

Joshua Bassett Releases Video for ‘Lie Lie Lie,’ Further Stirs the HSMTMTS Pot

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Drama

Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘drivers license’ Is Nothing New — of Course It’s a Hit

Tags: gonna call it drivers license I think lol,” right around the time fans began to suspect that Joshua and Olivia were no longer dating. That remains a mystery. Let’s look at it line by line. “It won’t work this time, time, time, time, time / I’ll kiss your ass goodbye, bye, bye, bye, bye / I’ll kiss your ass goodbye”

In a table-turning moment, Bassett is the one doing the ass-kissing, but for the last time. “So you’re telling them it’s all my fault / You’re the victim this time, oh-oh-oh”

In the context of this week’s drama, the “them” would be the HSMTMTS cast.

Neeson was always an accomplished performer, and at their best, his action movies have employed his talents more than his skills (think The Grey, or even Run All Night). More Movie Reviews

Acasa, My Home Shows the Poetry and Peril of a Life Off the Grid

The Gorgeous, Moving News of the World Features Tom Hanks at His Best

In a Year Without Live Performance, Regina King’s One Night in Miami Sings

See All

Tags: Neeson’s upturned eyebrows, anguished demeanor, and concave posture have always spoken of penance, or worry and hurt; that’s partly what gave such power to his reinvention as an action hero. The cartel soldiers pursue them, casually wreaking havoc and dropping bodies along the way. And truth be told, it’s a lot easier to imagine Eastwood in this movie than it is Neeson, whose gangly awkwardness doesn’t quite fit the part of a grizzled Arizona rancher. But this stuff can only go so far, and I’m curious to see what he does next. He’s not lacking in compassion; he’s just following the law. But the man has range, and I wish he’d get more chances to use it. Clint himself even makes a cameo appearance in The Marksman, via one of his older films showing on a motel room TV. But this also means that his character has a lot less emotional ground to cover over the course of the film, and the story of his guilt, and his growing rapport with Miguel, lacks drama; it all feels like a foregone conclusion, even within the mostly predictable framework of this action flick. And as a bare-minimum action flick, The Marksman is mostly serviceable. But while they’re waiting for the cops to arrive, some cartel goons show up and kill the mother. In The Marksman, the actor exudes the kind of weathered melancholy Eastwood adopted in his films from Unforgiven on. This is Neeson’s third movie in less than a year, and I’ve spent a somewhat ridiculous amount of time thinking about his career of late. Liam Neeson in The Marksman. Photo: Open Road Films

Despite the action-movie theatrics of the latter part of his career, Liam Neeson has begun in recent years to age gracefully in his parts — so gracefully that he’s finally become Clint Eastwood. The story turns on the guilt Jim feels over the incident: Sensing the corruption of the border police and realizing that Miguel will be in danger if he’s returned to Mexico, he grabs the kid and sets off in his truck to Chicago, where the child has family. The film follows Neeson’s sad-sack rancher, Jim, a former Marine, as he tries to protect Miguel (Jacob Perez), a young undocumented Mexican boy who has fled across the border with his mother (Teresa Ruiz), on the run from a drug cartel. It’s a film about an aging man who doesn’t know what comes next, starring an aging man who doesn’t know what comes next. Based on the evidence, however, he himself might not be all that sure. But it’s also a road movie about an old man and a young child getting to know each other, and the interactions between Jim and Miguel — going from testy silence to warm camaraderie — might have had more oomph with someone tougher, more confident, more Clint-y, in the older man’s part. Older actors — both male and female — always have to find new ways to be relevant, and very few of them actually succeed in doing so. The Marksman feels like a placeholder for the next act of Liam Neeson’s career. He’s at an interesting point, to be sure: a bit too old to be kicking constant ass, but still pigeonholed into the lucrative genre films that revived his fortunes a decade or so ago. There’s also a small-c conservatism that runs through The Marksman that might have worked better with Clint. It’s strictly good guys–versus–bad guys stuff: The villains are really, really awful, while Jim and Miguel are really, really decent. The director and co-writer, Robert Lorenz, is himself a longtime assistant director and producer for Eastwood; he also directed Trouble With the Curve, which starred Eastwood. When he first sees mother and child scurrying onto his property, Jim stops them and calls the border police.

(Moon Knight’s original enemy is Bushman, who was introduced in the first Moon Knight comic as a former partner of Moon Knight’s in the Sudan.) The series will mark Hawke’s second recent TV star turn, after he played abolitionist John Brown in Showtime’s miniseries The Good Lord Bird last fall. As much as it pains us to see, we guess someone has to antagonize Oscar Isaac. Photo: Bruce Glikas/WireImage

While you’ve been eagerly devouring the first episodes of WandaVision, Ethan Hawke is already looking down the line of Marvel television, preparing to join the Cinematic Universe in Moon Knight. Shooting is set to begin in Budapest in March, so the series is a ways out — but Marvel has a lot more planned to hold you over. Hawke will play the yet-unknown main villain in the upcoming Disney+ Marvel series, opposite Oscar Isaac as the titular hero, sources told The Hollywood Reporter. Related

Breaking Moon News: Oscar Isaac Tapped to Play Marvel’s Moon Knight

Ethan Hawke Bids Farewell to John Brown and The Good Lord Bird

Tags:

What does he do when he doesn’t know what to do? FLO’s process is to allow the place to speak to him. Are these racy letters? Chew on the pencils. For all their differences, they have this shared instinct to push back against the roles their society has assigned them — and, at every turn, they deal with men who insist they only want to help but do so at the expense of actually listening to what these Dickinson women are saying they desire most. Please advise in the comments … remember I, like Em at this juncture, and am still waiting for fame to find me; I am on a budget, TY in advance.) Just as I am thinking that her dedication to her craft is really putting me to shame, I watch her do … nothing! I don’t trust him. GASP. Probably nothing! Bold, but effective! (We even see this a bit in Mama Dickinson’s story, though it still feels a little removed from everything else that’s happening here — interesting and refreshing as it is to see a story line about a woman’s sexual appetites outstripping her husband’s.)

When this episode starts, Em is rising with the sun, wrapping herself in her writing shawl. This doesn’t seem like the sort of person Em would be in love with, am I wrong? She is not the only one who has been protesting a big life change to no avail! Before he leaves her, though, she explains the source of her plight: an editor. Anyway, he tells her that what she really needs to do is learn how to get lost — not by staring at blank paper while feeling like a failure, but REALLY lost, so she can get into that flow state. He says he waits for as long as it takes. Jonah Ryan, vice-president of the United States!). She tells him, in what strikes me as a very modern way considering everything, that she needs him to show her his affection more, that they need to rediscover their passion. At home, Vinnie is peacefully knitting some enormous blanket on the porch, testing out how “Lola” works as a nickname for “Lavinia,” when Shipley has her kidnapped (!) for an ambush proposal she clearly does not want!! Dickinson
The Daisy follows soft the Sun

Season 2

Episode 4

Editor’s Rating

4 stars

****

«Previous
Next

Photo: Apple TV+

In season one, all our episodes were built as sort-of origin stories for some of Em’s most iconic poems. Shipley has an idea. Terms & Privacy Notice
By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. (“They’re from Brooklyn,” he says. In order to achieve this aim, he abandons her in a hedge maze. And start being the sun.” Is that a little corny? Austin steps in to say he can solve at least one problem: He and Sue shall adopt the troublesome teens! FLO tells her that opinion is “a hideous distraction from the beauty of your craft.” This leads Em to ruminate on the dangers of fame, and again, it’s hilarious just to think she will be famous because one poem gets published in one newspaper one time! One that involved vandalizing her parents’ property AND spelling her name wrong! Somehow it does not sound douchey or pretentious? Shipley, as you might expect, has the opposite reaction to this — it is “totally improper,” he says, which turns him off as fast as it turns Vinnie on. Stare into space. It’s all about listening. Do I need one? “I gave my poem to him.” she says. “Refuse to be the daisy. Dismayed by his failure to aid his daughter, Papa Dickinson tells Austin he feels “useless as a father,” accurately pointing out that all his children are hanging by a thread. “I forgot that a girl needs to be fully blindsided by a wild prank” in order to get engaged, he tells her. This whole season we are definitely seeing a different Sue. But he does not, and so when he tells her, she is furious. Mama Dickinson, again, pleads with her husband to get these girls OUT of their house. While out birding, Em and her dad run into Austin, who is showing around Frederick Law Olmstead (played by the always-welcome Timothy Simons, a.k.a. We don’t know. Also, never a great sign when a man tells a woman, “you should be smiling.” I am blinded by the red flags as Em probably should be blinded by the sun she has been shouting at all afternoon. Twirl paper around. “And now it’s like I’m the daisy and he’s the sun, and without the warmth of his approval I can’t grow.” Ooof, been there. “I’m starting to feel kind of used,” he says … just like how he used to feel with LOLA. Hours pass, and all she has to show for it are two words: “The Sun.” She has writer’s block. “Submission,” Em wails about the whole process. Of course, we all know that NOT writing is a crucial part of the writing process, but Em is gutted: Waiting around for Sam’s approval or rejection of her poem has sapped her of all her creative spirit. “That’s no excuse,” she replies.) Papa Dickinson evades this conversation by going birding, and Em tags along. Remember how they conceived Vinnie in the middle of the day?! In my notes I write TALK TO YOUR WIFE BEFORE MAKING THIS DECISION YOU HANDSOME DOPE. I am nervous. By the time he does, Em sighs, “I’ll have shriveled up and died.”

Meanwhile, the teens have been up to no good digging a giant hole in the yard. Because when Em finally gets out of the maze by finding Sam, he tells her he loved her poem and he’s going to publish it, but in doing so he refers to her as “my little daisy,” which — ahhh nooo! Austin gushes that FLO is a major genius, and Em decides to ditch her dad and follow FLO around instead. He continues to ignore her as she tells him they are not engaged. etc. (I STILL don’t have one! She tries to express how she felt about being lost and, as seems to be his standard practice, he totally misses the point. This was a neat storytelling device, but I can see it getting a little bit tired, and I’m excited to see that this season is going into a looser, more experimental place. She and her dad have a sweet conversation about her creative vision in which he confesses he wishes he could help her, but “I’ve never had a vision like yours.”

Back at the ranch, Vinnie is getting off on the idea that her parents might know she’s breaking the rules by fooling around with Shipley in nothing but her petticoats. How does one do that? We’ve got “Nobody” (maybe her most famous poem? And what has SAM ever written, hmm?? Papa says it’s because they got old, but she doesn’t seem to be all that sold on that excuse. Maybe because we already know he is correct about how great his parks will be? I GUESS, but I found it really lovely in this moment here! He has some great hypersensitive-to-the-elements moments as he decrees one rock is making “EXACTLY the right statement” while a rosebush is “a disaster.” I love that the show allows some of the men Em meets to not suck — that there are guys who show up, take her seriously, aren’t creeps or monsters, etc. Email

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google
Privacy Policy and
Terms of Service apply. Maggie assures Em that Sam probably hasn’t read it yet. She defies doctor’s orders by staring at the sun to look for birds. She says, “Okay, but,” and he says “SHE SAID OKAY!” and kisses her deeply, and I think now she is engaged?!?? I’m also really into the parallels we’re getting with Em and Vinnie. She tries telling her mom later that she wants out, but her mom is not having it … too long a day stuck in the hole. At least top five?) presenting as a hallucination, and now we have “The Daisy follows soft the Sun” not materializing in its eventual poem form but brewing in Em’s consciousness as more of a concept, a way of seeing herself, which is sometimes — as is the case with Sam here — the opposite of how the people around her see her. Vinnie wants more intel, but he can’t bear to talk about it. (Love that in an editor.) “Once you’re famous, you’ll never be able to get lost ever again,” he tells her, which he does not realize lands as a cold hard threat. (Again really A-plus casting here, because Simons’s energy is so obviously menschy that at least I never worried, even when they got lost in the hedges, that this was going to take … a turn.)

Em tells FLO her about her creative block. Anyway, Austin spins the news as wonderful; Sue calls these orphans “living, breathing reminders of my terrible past.” Even though she is clearly in the right here, re: don’t adopt two teenagers without talking to your spouse first, she really comes off quite badly here, no? “My parks could save democracy itself, so, can’t rush them.” I love his matter-of-fact ambition! Tags: “Isn’t that an awful word? In other unhappy couple news: Papa Dickinson falls into that hole, and when Mama Dickinson realizes he’s trapped there, she seizes her only opportunity to force him to talk to her about why they don’t have sex anymore and jumps into the hole with him. VULTURE NEWSLETTER
Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows! Shipley feels like Vinnie is only interested in him for sex. Where can I get one? FLO and Em bond while he explains that he sees “absolutely no difference” between her art and his. Emily Dickinson, doubting her undeniable talents, just because of some guy she didn’t even know about a month ago! When you’re making art that will last for centuries, what’s a couple months, even years? Sharpen pencils. And I think the callback to Sam treating Em as a flower — that, earlier this season, he claimed to have plucked from oblivion — also works really well. FLO tells her to ignore the audience and to focus on the work itself, which is the gift. Like he controls me?” Maggie the maid, an MVP: “Some people get a kick out of that sort of thing.” Em’s insecurity is devouring her, and it is so human and wretched to see. That said, when he walks into her room, she is reading a letter from Sam about a lecture he attended, and again I wonder: Are Sue and Sam a thing?! Her moans of frustration are so loud they even garner her mother’s attention.

Photo: Zeitgeist Films

Acasa, My Home opens with a lovely image of telling dissonance. A massive fire in the park forces the government’s hand. Life becomes a debilitating series of social-worker visits, neighbor arguments, complaints about filth. A teenage boy wades among the reeds of a pleasant lake, surrounded by soft, bucolic light, while in the background the towers of a high-rise apartment complex loom, distant and ghostly. Gica, who serves as a kind of unofficial ranger for the park (or maybe he just thinks he does), is emotional, volatile, even a little manipulative — he is, in many ways, as much a child as his kids are. There’s an understated velocity to Ciorniciuc’s storytelling. We see the lakes and meadows surrounding it. The Enaches are free but also desperately poor. Shot over three years, Radu Ciorniciuc’s film follows Gica and his family as their existence is interrupted by the growing demands of the modern world. Seasons pass. Ciorniciuc seamlessly blends intimacy and lyricism with a clear-eyed honesty about what he’s depicting. We see the kids’ home: a rundown, homemade shack covered in sheets and rugs to keep the weather out. They wade into the river, under a sign that forbids swimming. We watch the kids cavort in the fields and streams, exploring and horsing around without a care in the world. We see Gica looking on curiously as dignitaries do their rounds. Initially intended to be the site of a reservoir but never actually filled up, Vacaresti Nature Park has stood there for decades, neglected by bureaucrats and slowly emerging as a rich marshland with startling biodiversity, the largest urban wilderness in Europe. They have no idea what to do with the tiny apartment they’ve all been forced into. Acasa clocks in at under an hour and a half, but we see Vacaresti transformed and the Enache family sent into an existential tailspin. More Movie Reviews

In The Marksman, Liam Neeson Idles in Place

The Gorgeous, Moving News of the World Features Tom Hanks at His Best

In a Year Without Live Performance, Regina King’s One Night in Miami Sings

See All

Tags: We spend nights with this family, everyone piled on top of each other in their tiny, cozy, trash-strewn home. At their new school, the kids can’t even spell their own names. But again, Ciorniciuc wants to tell a more complicated story. Occasionally, people from child services come, and the kids have to go and hide in the woods. Nor will they, if Gica has his way: When some volunteers show up at Christmas with gifts, he takes the books they’ve given the kids and uses them as kindling for the stove. It’s like the walls are closing in, both spiritually and literally. We see his children staring quizzically at the colorful backpacks of kids rolling through on school field trips. Years pass. The kids are remarkably adaptable, their curiosity about the world around them endless. The secret of this beautiful, bittersweet film about a group of people like no other is that, in the end, it’s all so shockingly relatable. It’s also the unofficial home of a man named Gica Enache, who with his wife and nine children — not to mention a few pigeons, chickens, dogs, cats, and pigs — has resided here for nearly 20 years, away from the world in a kind of impoverished, idyllic life off the grid. In the blink of a cinematic eye, officials — including the prime minister, and Prince Freaking Charles — are visiting, and efforts begin to turn this huge, forgotten swamp into something more meaningful. Gica, a diabetic who drinks and smokes constantly, doesn’t get to see his home demolished, because he’s in the hospital, hooked up to a drip; living off the grid, it turns out, isn’t exactly great for one’s health. But Acasa is not exactly a movie about paradise lost. They hang off light posts as if they were branches. Not long after, a drone shot — a technique overused in recent documentaries, but deployed carefully here — reveals the confounding reality of what we’re watching: an immense span of wilderness in the heart of the Romanian capital of Bucharest. In many ways, despite the unique circumstance of the Enaches’ existence, their story is the story of just about every family, as a parent’s grip on a child’s reality loosens and life finally begins to take over. Over and over in this poisoned pastoral, the lost dream of the idyll clashes with the sad workings of reality. His kids know no life other than the park. They stare at other kids, eager to make friends but unsure how. In the city is also where the Enaches’ oldest, the resourceful and charming Vali, finds his independence, striking out on his own and starting to butt heads with his father. Yuppies come to picnic. From Acasa, My Home. The boys wander the streets, trying to do the things they did in nature with the urban landscape. And yet, those buildings remain in the distance. Sure enough, Gica and his family are asked to relocate, to move into the city so the kids can go to school and so the Enaches can finally fall in line with how the rest of the world sees them: as poor and ignorant. He abandoned life in the city to live here, he says, because he was angry at “this wicked world,” and his anger has clearly not subsided. The most agonizing shots in the film might be those of a bulldozer carrying off the small, seemingly inconsequential pile of wood and rugs that was once this family’s home. Soon, his younger brothers join him in the water, cavorting among the ducks and cranes and otters, a whole bevy of wild children seemingly without a care in the world. And then we see an embankment and a highway, beyond which stretches an urban sea of concrete and steel as far as the eye can see.

His plan is immediately thwarted, however, when he meets the Incomparable’s sister, who hates Anthony’s guts. It’s a fun plotline to watch unfold, especially when certain characters who are definitely not Lady Whistledown claim to be Lady Whistledown for the money and glory. There are eight novels in the original Bridgerton book series, each one dedicated to the love story of a different Bridgerton sibling. Just me? The feeling is mutual and naturally, they fall madly in love. Daphne and her Duke might take a backseat. Oh, you know the friend. Colin Bridgerton’s travels might just change his perspective on a few very important things. If the show follows the structure of Season 1 and uses the second novel to anchor season two, we’ll definitely be spending lots of time with Anthony Bridgerton, the focus of The Viscount Who Loved Me, as well as continuing to unravel threads connected to the rest of the books. Kate is the toughest of critics — which is of course how Anthony and Kate end up bickering and bantering and fighting their desire for one another until they just can’t anymore. At the age of 33, Colin’s mother is really hounding him to settle down and even though he’d rather keep up his bachelor life and focus on secretly writing his travel diaries, he begins to see an old friend in a completely new way. Marina suffers from depression and eight years into their marriage, she attempts to drown herself. In the novels, readers don’t find out who is behind the scandal sheet until book four, Romancing Mr. Meet Edwina Sheffield and her older half-sister Kate. Okay.) There’s surely lots of drama to mine as the newlyweds mature and their family grows, but it’s still a good idea to prepare yourselves for a few other Bridgertons to step into the spotlight in season two. Oh, and like Lady Whistledown, dear reader, this author names all the names — so major book spoilers abound. So who is this Incomparable Anthony Bridgerton is trying to marry, and who is her sister who steals the most eligible rake in the ‘ton’s heart? He actively avoids it — it’s why he travels so much. The change makes sense though, since it gives Colin a deeper reason to swear off marriage for a while and a more urgent need to hit the road again. The race to unmask Lady Whistledown is sure to heat up. What more could you want, really? Photo: Netflix

I mean, duh. What are those threads and how might they play out on the TV series? At the end of season one, the eldest Bridgerton comes to the conclusion that he wants to get marriage over with, “remove love from the equation,” and just pick any woman to be his wife. Other than that, there isn’t much meat left to explore. It seems only right since the final image of the first season of Bridgerton was, in fact, a bee creeping on the windowsill like the deadly assassin it is. Photo: Netflix

Sure, we all know that perpetual wallflower Penelope Featherington is the anonymous gossip queen who has upended the ’ton in 1813, but not a single soul, save her publisher, knows her identity yet. I don’t mean to knock bees — we need bees! Like, can you even imagine what Lady Featherington is going to do? It’s all very Cinderella. That sends him into a boiling rage. Book Colin would never. The TV adaptation invented a few of its own characters and storylines so really anything could happen, but if you’ve read the Bridgerton series it’s easy to pick up on some nods to what goes down in later novels. Plus, Kate’s prickly and since she assumes she’ll never marry, she isn’t afraid to speak her mind. Anthony’s attempts to swear off love will be unsuccessful. The conclusion to Marina’s story line in season one of Bridgerton lines right up with Marina’s appearance in the novels, setting her up for what is to be a tragic end. Photo: Liam Daniel/Netflix

Like any good romance, season one of Bridgerton, Netflix’s adaptation of Julia Quinn’s steamy Regency-era novel series, gave us the happily ever after we were all rooting for. (What a charmer!) In the TV series, he makes that declaration after his heart has been completely destroyed by Siena Rosso, the opera singer he’s in love with but can’t really be with because of dumb class rules. — but fans of the Bridgerton novels probably gasped with alarm upon seeing that insect pop up in the finale. But since Daphne and Simon’s story wrapped up with an, ahem, satisfying ending, you might be wondering what a season two of Bridgerton would look like. In the novel, Anthony decides he’ll just figure out who the “Incomparable” of the 1814 social season is and marry her, which is just what every woman wants to hear. The show has definitely dropped hints to how much Edmund’s death affects Anthony, who had to take over the viscounty his father left behind when Anthony was only 18 years old. The series made Daphne more strong-willed and feminist than she is in the novel, so it’ll be fun to see what the Bridgerton writers do with Kate, who is already those things on the page. Get ready to meet the Sheffield sisters. The fear of bees and the fear of death at a young age follow Anthony around just as fiercely as his grief over his father. Honestly, all bets are off with Benedict Bridgerton. We deserve a steamy will-they-or-won’t-they, don’t we? We’ll have to wait to see if the TV series will have Benedict continue his relationship with Genevieve or simply use it as the first instance of Benedict opening himself up to love outside the ’ton in preparation for the arrival of Sophie Beckett. Marina’s story will get even more tragic, if you can believe it. Well, you probably want more Bridgerton and it seems safe to assume that you’ll be getting much more. Even if the show does speed up the timeline (or does a time jump at some point), the slow burn of this particular romance is what makes it so rewarding. Oh, this is going to be fun. That’s not in the novels. Photo: Netflix

In the novels, Marina shows up in the prologue of book five, To Sir Phillip, With Love. The two of them heading out into a field to maybe shoot one another? Anthony moves on from that pretty quickly. But instead of sticking to just Daphne’s story, the series pulled elements from other novels to expand the Bridgerton universe. Sophie is the bastard daughter of an Earl who winds up becoming a maid as her story unravels. What the series plans to do with Benedict remains mysterious to this reader. Simon coming at him by invoking his father? There is also the other major character dying to solve this mystery: Eloise Bridgerton seems absolutely devastated when she realizes her theory that Genevieve Delacroix (another TV series invention) is Lady Whistledown is incorrect, so she might get even more tenacious in her pursuits as time goes on. If the series does indeed turn a focus to Anthony and the events of The Viscount Who Loved Me for season two, I’d expect us to get deeper into Anthony’s feelings about his father’s death and how that loss has influenced every aspect of his life. YOU KNOW THE FRIEND. Edwina is apparently drop-dead gorgeous, and therefore every suitor is interested in her, and Kate is … well, at almost 21 she’s getting ancient and also she has brown hair which apparently WILL NOT STAND for some people. If Bridgerton decides to go all in with the Benedict/Sophie story, I’d expect to see Benedict lock eyes with a mysterious woman at the famous Bridgerton masquerade by the end of season two. In 1803, Edmund Bridgerton, by all accounts a very present and loving father, drops dead after an allergic reaction to a bee sting at the age of 38. However, don’t fret too much: The series made a bunch of changes and additions to the novels to make them more suitable for TV storytelling, so I doubt they’d ditch Daphne, Simon, and that spoon completely. That tidbit of info is particularly important because the first time Edmund was stung, so was Anthony, and allergies can be hereditary. Phillip saves her, but she eventually dies from the injuries. Darcy is more of a misunderstood slut than a misunderstood jerk, and there’s 150 percent more descriptions of orgasms. The late Edmund Bridgerton is mentioned several times throughout the first season — he and Violet’s great love story and healthy marriage set the standard for all of their children — but the show never dives into the details surrounding his death. In The Viscount Who Loved Me, Anthony has also decided to completely swear off love and simply make a sensible marriage match, but here it’s less because he’s been gut-punched by love and more because he is haunted by his father’s death. TV Colin and Book Colin are pretty similar: They’re both charming and flirty and secretly long to be taken more seriously by people. They pop up from time to time, especially when there’s a game of pall-mall to be had, and thanks to a second epilogue added to The Duke and I, we know they go on to have several children. Bridgerton, which takes place in 1824 — 11 years after Lady Whistledown first shows up (and 11 years after season one of Bridgerton takes place). That entire story line about Marina breaking Colin’s heart? The family is in shock because (1) they haven’t seen My Girl yet and don’t know that bees will ruin your life and your mascara, and (2) Edmund had been stung once before and was fine, but apparently allergic reactions don’t always show up the first time. (Anyone else now start sweating when they open their cutlery drawer? In the novel — Colin’s book is number four, Romancing Mr. The show may decide to hold off on fully going there so soon, but come on, we deserve some breadcrumbs, right? Seems healthy, right? (Violet was still pregnant with Hyacinth when Edmund died!) The biggest reveal of both the grief and pressure Anthony feels to live up to his father’s standards is his brawl with Simon after the Duke tells his friend and brother-in-law that Edmund would be “mortified” to see what he’s done as the head of the Bridgerton family. Darcy/Elizabeth Bennet but Mr. The drama! TV Benedict’s storyline in season one mostly dealt with him getting comfortable bucking the “traditional expectations of society” and pursuing both his art and a relationship with everyone’s favorite modiste Genevieve Delacroix, a tradesperson and not a member of high society. Apparently all of the men in Regency London have daddy issues. Book Benedict, whose story is the focus of the third Bridgerton novel, An Offer From a Gentleman, also harbors a secret love of drawing that blossoms into something more, and he falls in love with someone below his class. Below, find our best guess as to what scandal and drama awaits us in season two of Bridgerton, based on what we know from the novels. They both use travel as a way to fill a void in their lives. That’s probably because Edmund’s ghost looms much larger in the second novel, The Viscount Who Loved Me, which focuses on Anthony. The prologue is told from the perspective of Phillip Crane, who had married Marina eight years earlier, after his brother George, Marina’s loving fiancé, died in battle. It was a gutsy choice for the show to make that reveal at the end of season one. It’s been interesting, however, to see how TV Colin differs from his counterpart in the novels in one major way: Book Colin wants absolutely no part in getting married just yet. She becomes the person any suitor must impress to have a chance at winning Edwina’s hand. We can probably look to the books for some clues. Photo: Liam Daniel/Netflix

It’s hard to imagine a world in which Bridgerton doesn’t focus on Daphne and Simon since their love story — and chemistry — was the anchor of season one, but if we’re following the books, their story is pretty much wrapped up. In the series it seems like Queen Charlotte — who is not in the novels — is much more interested in finding out the truth than any of our other players, so perhaps this reward will come straight from the crown. Season one of Bridgerton mostly followed the first novel in the series, The Duke and I. Related

Who’s Who in Bridgerton: A Books-to-Series Character Guide

10 Romance Novels to Read After Binging Bridgerton

Bridgerton Is a Heady, Inviting Fantasy of Pleasure and True Love

Tags: It’s really about time Anthony Bridgerton met his match, and he does just that when Kate Sheffield shows up. Since the show went to all the trouble to insert George and Phillip Crane into this expanded Marina storyline, it seems as though they would see it through — although perhaps Marina’s suffered enough and they’ll spare her that fate. Daphne Bridgerton and Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, fall for each other, get married, have sex in an inn, have sex in the middle of a picnic, have sex on an easel maybe, have sex so many other places, and happily begin a family together. Bridgerton — Colin is traveling around and avoiding the London social season until 1824. Whichever way the series proceeds with outing Lady Whistledown, it’s safe to assume they’ll be fast-forwarding the novel’s timeline for several reasons (see below!), but most especially because now that we know, it’ll be pretty juicy to watch as other people discover what the ’ton’s most overlooked lady has been up to. There’s flirty croquet-like games and carriage crashes and, oh boy, some very steamy countryside hookups. This, of course, will assuredly lead to a gutting confrontation once Eloise discovers that her best friend Penelope has been actively lying to her this entire time. Bee prepared to learn more about the late Bridgerton patriarch, Edmund. Let’s assume that since the audience already knows who Lady Whistledown really is, at least a few characters will figure it out sooner rather than later. Anthony is certain he’ll die by 38 just like his father and he doesn’t want to complicate that with something like love. If the show pulls from the novels, one way characters could be more incentivized to out Lady W is thanks to a monetary reward Lady Danbury offers up to the first person who can reveal the gossip’s identity. It’s all very Mr. This series is based on romance novels and if people aren’t ripping bodices and burning with passion and declaring their heart’s deepest desires in pursuit of that happily ever after, what are we even doing here? Really, it depends on where the show is going with Eloise’s story line: Now that you know book five is her novel, you might be able to guess where (and with whom) she ends up in the books. Yup, we’re doing bee wordplay now.

Elizabeth Smart helped us find the light. But somehow, even in this economy, Dancer has delivered us a real shock. Nothing matters anymore and honestly most days I’m just relieved that the room I’m in isn’t currently on fire. “It draws us in whether we want it or not.” So, you see, the moth is a prisoner. Are they particularly hardy insects? “You know, moths don’t seek out the spotlight,” her disguised voice-over said. Was butterfly taken and this was the next best thing? Before her identity was revealed, Smart explained her costume choice in a now completely horrifying introduction video that had many guessing the celebrity underneath was actually Monica Lewinsky. Why not. Now, you might be asking yourself: Why a moth? Thursday night’s episode revealed that underneath the moth mask was none other than Elizabeth Smart. Nope. No, it is far, far darker than that, my friends. And though Smart survived her highly traumatic ordeal, going on to become an inspiration to trauma survivors everywhere, her celebrity status is just another form of captivity she’s learned to survive as best she can. Celebrities in elaborate costumes dancing for other celebrities who have to judge their performance and guess who they are based on their moves? 💡🥺RT if you guessed she was #MothMask on #TheMaskedDancer! pic.twitter.com/9xIZRbrj1z— The Masked Dancer (@MaskedDancerFOX) January 14, 2021

Though she’s currently an activist and best-selling author, your most visceral memory of her might be as the girl who got kidnapped when she was 14 and held against her will and sexually assaulted for nine months before being rescued. Sit with that for a minute and then tell me these shows aren’t exactly the prime-time entertainment we deserve. Photo: Michael Becker/FOX

It’s hard to imagine a show like The Masked Dancer — a spinoff of everyone’s favorite dystopian nightmare The Masked Singer — being any weirder than its premise. Sure. Spoiler warning for The Masked Dancer but I had to document the most insane 20 seconds in television history pic.twitter.com/JP5ZOKKzXU— Alexis Pereira (@MrAlexisPereira) January 15, 2021

Related

The Masked Dancer Twirling to a TV Near You in New Trailer

Wendy Williams’s Lips Are No Longer Sealed After Boot From The Masked Singer

Tags:

They shared the multitude of shady-ass things their therapist has said about their lifestyles, talked through a new joke they’re working on about Bigfoot’s dick, and detailed the intricacies of the Parade panties industrial complex. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Vulture (@vulture)

Thanks to the coronavirus, comedians are now trapped at home like the rest of us, so we decided that while we’re all self-isolating, we’d do something a little different from our usual “Follow Friday” column. More From This Series

Shantira Jackson Thinks Songs About Jane Is a Masterpiece

Marcella Arguello Doesn’t Need Your Puny Compliments

Spike Einbinder Is in Their Ugly Angel Phase

See All

Tags: They also had some great tips for millennials trying to improve their memes: “What comes to mind is: Memes of the past, it’s like all these words, blah blah blah. So welcome to our new version of the column, now titled “Follow (From a Safe Distance) Friday.”

This week, I wrangled up Gen-Z icons Annabel and Sabina Meschke (TikTok, Confronting Demons, coming out of the same hole at the same time) for a digital chitchat about how they’re holding up in the pandemmy. Instead of interviewing up-and-coming comedians we love on Twitter, we’re going live on Instagram every week to check in on some of our favorite people in comedy and get a firsthand look at how they’re handling the pandemic. Memes of today are like a pixelated frog and the caption is ‘soup time.’ So if I could teach millennials anything, it’s keep it simple, keep it soup time.”

You can find Sabina on Instagram at @sabinalily and on Twitter at @sabinameschke, and you can find Annabel on Instagram at @armsandlegs and on Twitter at @annabel_meschke.

For Ron Howard’s film to pull off the turnaround, it was going to have to convince liberal Academy members to pat themselves on the back for “reaching out to the other side,” and in wake of the insurrection at the Capitol, I don’t see that happening. Affleck has never been nominated for an acting Oscar, and he’s been making the rounds with gusto for his pre-COVID addiction drama, stopping by THR’s Awards Chatter podcast this week to present the case that his recent struggles have made him “a much, much better actor than I’ve ever been.” The two-time Oscar winner is working the comeback narrative hard, though he’ll have an uphill climb to get voters to reconsider a movie that feels like it came out eons ago. Current Predix

Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm; Ellen Burstyn, Pieces of a Woman; Olivia Colman, The Father; Amanda Seyfried, Mank; Yuh-jung Youn, Minari

More From This Series

Oscar Futures: The Fifth Awards Season of the Trump Era

Oscar Futures: Could the Globes Controversy Benefit Minari in the Long Run? Will her fellow filmmakers recognize King’s achievement, or will she be this year’s Noah Baumbach? Current Predix

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Mank, Minari, News of the World, Nomadland, One Night in Miami, Promising Young Woman, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Director

Even

Regina King, One Night in Miami
Making her feature-length directorial debut, King represents a fascinating test case for the directors branch. Chloé Zhao’s ode to magic hour notched a few auspicious wins this week, taking Best Film from the National Society of Film Critics, plus Best Feature and the Audience Award at the Gothams. plenty of opportunities to show off his silky-smooth vocals, including a show-stopping performance of “A Change Is Gonna Come” that closes out the film. Oscar Futures: Is It Time to Start Worrying About Mank? Not only does much of the film’s drama center on a philosophical dispute between the two men, King also gives Odom Jr. Up

Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah
As Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, Kaluuya has the kind of screen presence you can’t teach, and the film’s at its best when he’s given free rein to extemporize — it’s an utterly magnetic performance. Still, the part might not be meaty enough for Oscar; though Variety’s Clayton Davis applauds Fishback’s “understated and resonating work,” he notes it’s the kind of performance “you can blink and miss if you’re not looking for it.”

Down

Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
This feels weird to type, but: Did last week’s failed coup doom Hillbilly Elegy’s Oscars chances? See All

Tags: Current Predix

Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7; Chadwick Boseman, Da 5 Bloods; Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah; Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami; Paul Raci, Sound of Metal

Best Supporting Actress

Up

Dominique Fishback, Judas and the Black Messiah
Black Messiah doesn’t neglect the role women played in the Panther movement, and as Hampton’s partner, Deborah Johnson, Fishback gets more to do than the typical dutiful-girlfriend part. Up

Shaka King, Judas and the Black Messiah
The path from comedy director to Oscar nominee has been well-trod recently, with Todd Phillips and Adam McKay cracking the final five in each of the past two years. Up

One Night in Miami
Regina King’s Civil Rights chamber piece hits Amazon Prime this weekend, and reviews have been terrific, with A.O Scott dubbing it “one of the most exciting movies I’ve seen in quite some time … crackling with the energy of ideas and emotions as they happen.” This politically resonant, acting-powered drama could have the strength to be an all-around contender; at the very least, the film’s quartet of central performances seems assured of a SAG ensemble nod. The tiny Sundance indie may struggle for recognition this season, but in the words of my predecessor, it never hurts to be seen winning something — especially at the start of Globe and SAGs voting. That the movie is a true ensemble piece may hamper his chances in this category, though Ben-Adir did get a nice surprise at the Gothams, where he took home the Breakthrough Actor prize. Can King, who formerly helmed episodes of Shrill and High Maintenance, be next? Still, though she makes an effort to open up the story beyond its stage-bound origins, this remains an uncommonly intimate film, lacking the visual fireworks that the directors branch usually goes for. Kaluuya’s chance for a second career nomination seems secure, and if Black Messiah can nab that Best Picture nod, I think he’ll be a threat to take home the trophy. As always with these early awards, caution must be paid to sample size (the Gothams are voted on by like, five people), but add those trophies to Zhao’s mountain of Best Director laurels, and Nomadland looks to have solidified its status as the cinéaste’s choice in the Best Picture race. Photo-Illustration: Vulture and Photo by Fox Searchlight Pictures

Every week between now and March 15, when the Academy Award nominations are announced, Vulture will consult its crystal ball to determine the changing fortunes of this year’s Oscars race. (Also, now that he’s been mentioned in this column, maybe his publicist will stop emailing me.)

Current Predix

Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal; Kingsley Ben-Adir, One Night in Miami; Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Anthony Hopkins, The Father; Delroy Lindo, Da 5 Bloods

Best Actress

Up

Zendaya, Malcolm & Marie
Sam Levinson’s quarantine two-hander had its first screenings last weekend, and while pundits have been spotlighting both lead performances, it’s Zendaya who’s earning the most effusive praise. That’s not always a sure ticket to Oscar glory, though Moonlight and Parasite could tell you it’s not the death knell it once was, either. In our “Oscar Futures” column, we’ll let you in on insider gossip, parse brand-new developments, and track industry buzz to figure out who’s up, who’s down, and who’s currently leading the race for a coveted Oscar nomination. Billie Holiday; Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman; Frances McDormand, Nomadland; Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

Best Supporting Actor

Up

Leslie Odom Jr., One Night in Miami
If the ensemble nature of One Night in Miami means Ben-Adir’s Malcolm is slightly under-served in the screen time department for a leading actor, Odom Jr.’s Sam Cooke is likewise overqualified in the supporting race. “Good luck finding a more impressively acted scene this season that the one that ends with Zendaya’s character delivering a mic-drop reveal,” says THR’s Scott Feinberg, while Indiewire’s Anne Thompson agrees that the 24-year-old “runs away with” the film, predicting she “could steal the Best Actress Oscar.”

Up

Nicole Beharie, Miss Juneteenth
Since the Gothams gave career-achievement honors to both Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman, voters decided to spread the wealth in the acting categories, honoring Sound of Metal’s Riz Ahmed and Beharie, the Sleepy Hollow vet who’s been slowly gaining buzz for her work in this “gently beautiful” mother-daughter drama. You should never bet against an actor playing a recognizable historical figure, and here, we’ve got four of them. Even

Ben Affleck, The Way Back
He’s running! This is a different Malcolm than the one you’ve seen before — slighter, nerdier, and a bit of a party-pooper — and critics are hailing Ben-Adir as the standout member of the ensemble. Best Picture

Up

Nomadland
The tastemaker phase of awards season did not begin with Nomadland dominating — both the New York and L.A. Her strength here is in vibe and tone, and the way she wrings career-best performances out of her four leading men. critics notably went in different directions with their top picks — but it sure is ending that way. Current Predix

Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; Andra Day, The United States vs. While he has his supporters, I don’t think his style is singular enough to manage a lone director nod, so Black Messiah cracking Best Picture will be key. Current Predix

Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman; David Fincher, Mank; Regina King, One Night in Miami; Aaron Sorkin, The Trial of the Chicago 7; Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

Best Actor

Up

Kingsley Ben-Adir, One Night in Miami
As Malcolm X, the British newcomer gives the most talked-about performance in One Night in Miami.

If anything, it was relaxing. It was him rowing a boat, joyfully or something. And obviously quite naïve too. But I remember that very viscerally, that But I’m acting! Was there a moment that crystallized it for you, like, I’ve made it to the next level?JM: I’ll answer for her. He was the master of those long one-shots. I think it’s because you have such expressive eyes. He would’ve been 16 or 17. I think our plan originally was we were going to come out this fall. Palm Springs played Sundance last year. JM: It’s a little easier with film. You can convey so much without words, which is incredible to be able to do. John Magaro: Were you doing Sopranos by this point? [Chris Blauvelt], the guy who shot First Cow, studied under him, and he’s absolutely brilliant. CM: It was awesome. All the wedding stuff, we shot out in five nights and it was very madcap. I also think, and I’m no scientist, but the Spanish flu lasted for two years and everything shut down. So people are coming around to it now. I think quantum physics is probably a little more difficult than cooking oily cakes. You had to work with a cow. If each of you was a casting director, what would you cast the other as?CM: Ooh. I don’t remember what happened last week. You gotta keep going and building and trying new things. I do believe that we’ll come back. That felt like a change: “Oh wow, people are seeing this play.” As opposed to the plays I normally did, where it was just my friends and my parents. And then laugh all together, and gasp all together, and not know what they were watching, I now treasure that in a way that I could never have predicted. “We don’t need to know why.” Now, I know the Cauchy horizon has to do with a certain type of black hole and what it does to time, but that’s about as much as I can remember. CM: It’s so good, I was just blown away by it. You know, I’m trying to think if anyone said … No, I’m not going to do this game. The worst is in theater, right after you get off the stage and they’re like, “Woof.”

CM: We were having that discussion on set recently. Straighten his hair! Related

Cristin Milioti, Forever

Meet the Year’s Newest Moo-vie Star: Eve the Cow From First Cow

How to Make the Oily Cakes From First Cow

Tags: No one would have seen us. I feel like for both of you, things started to break out around a few years later. I think it was when you did Once, right? JM: Because they only played it in movie theaters. There’s much worse things that can happen. JM: Sometimes I feel like that in normal life. The other is my brother is in the commercial. I know obviously it’s always different, but it just seemed like everyone was in the same world. It means you should be arrested immediately and taken to actor jail. I was watching it and my mind would be like, I wonder if this feels like doing a play? No one was going to see us. CM: I think it’s kindred spirits. Cristin, I also heard a rumor that maybe you didn’t get paid?CM: I didn’t get paid? The dirt, the batter, the oil …

JM: The cow shit. At the center of it all is a young man speak-singing about the holidays in a manner reminiscent of Ben Gibbard, or possibly Conor Oberst. I would love to work with [Kelly Reichardt]. You know, meditation as you’re cooking. One of the reasons I’ve never left New York, even though I work in L.A. CM: It’s really hard to milk cows, though. Also you both had to work with animals.CM: That’s right. I was probably just pounding the pavement, doing downtown theater in weird old churches. I’m not a dessert guy. We would’ve been up against Wonder Woman and the Marvel … the Scarlett Johansson spider one. CM: Whoa! I feel a bit less than I did at the time, that Oh no. A movie like First Cow would’ve gotten blown out of the water by Dune and Wonder Woman and all those. By the way, I just watched First Cow the other night, and you’re astonishing in it. That guy grew up to be John Magaro, whose sensitive work in First Cow capped off a string of impressive art-house performances. The guy who shot that was Harris Savides, a brilliant cinematographer who has since passed away. The people not showering. JM: Do you think, if it was a Jeopardy question in three years, it would come back to you? And the minute they were like, “Moving on,” it was like I never knew it. I should take a step back and look at it with more objectivity, but I don’t know, maybe I’m afraid to do that. For an actor, which is the greater challenge?JM: God. You had to throw everything at the wall because you didn’t get a lot of takes. They did friend-and-family screenings and no one cared. And, to what John was saying earlier, you both got a chance to show different sides of yourselves onscreen.JM: That’s always the hope. I feel like I could smell that movie. But I do remember being confused. CM: And you want to see me rap at my wealthy father’s birthday party. I think people in our world are starting to finally get to it. He’s in the Christmas hat at the beginning. That was enormous. CM: Yes. CM: It is sad, though. Like when Gus Van Sant was doing that stuff with Elephant and Last Days, he shot all that. You both had this communal experience of seeing your movie on a big screen with a crowd. JM: Unbelievable. CM: The goat was lovely. I don’t ever want to do that again.”

JM: You know what I remember? And my wife is like, “Stop making stew.” But not really baking. Going back to the Walmart days, to be an “ethnic” face cast as an Old West character, I wouldn’t have put money down on that for my career. And I couldn’t pay my rent. The female version of that. JM: We wouldn’t be talking to you, Nate. I was doing so many plays at Off Broadway places that were like Playwrights Horizons and New York City Workshop, things that are [legit]. It’s a huge part of what my friends and I do here. It was a daze. This was a movie that was shot in 21 days, that probably needed … I don’t know, but definitely not 21 days. There would be no way. It’s funny, because like I said, it kind of came and went and came and went. We love it too much. I had to work with a goat. I came out of the stage door later and she went, “God, you were jumping around up there.” And I was like, “Oh no, this person represents me?”

How were you guys feeling about your place in the industry before you hit these projects?JM: It’s always like, keep going. To see the twists that it takes and to see them be like, “Oh!” all together. I had not read anything about the movie. JM: We were talking about Harris. Just being as twisted and demented and weird as possible. That’d be so cool. I’m on that show like, blink and you’ll miss me. That can’t be possible. I remember being like, “How is this possible that I did the thing that I said I was going to do?” I came to New York and I’m in plays and I’ve done a couple of weird indie films. I had a whole folder about Cauchy horizons, because there used to be a long monologue that I had that explained exactly what happened. all the time, is that I see everything. CM: I realized, being back [in New York], what a huge part of my life here is going to see live performance. That was none other than Cristin Milioti, in what would be an unintentional parody of the parts she was often saddled with before Palm Springs let her showcase her comedic freak flag. Take me back to 2008. I had worked with that director before on Rock Band commercials with Eric Andre in these little vignettes. I spent hours learning about it so that I would know exactly what I was saying and truly could explain it to Andy’s character. Dune was going to grind our bones to make its bread. When you’re a young actor, is that a blessing or a curse?CM: I’m literally in that sucker for two seconds, so I don’t know. He called me in for that Coke commercial. It’s been fits and starts. Although, I learned all that stuff in the way that my New Jersey public-school education prepared me to, which is to just cram and understand it for only the day that I needed to. I think weirdly we ended up being seen by more people than we would have. They were like, “Here’s your $200 and get out of here.”

The commercial ended up playing for years and years. I got to see the premiere of Palm Springs at Sundance with an audience of hundreds of people who knew nothing about it. And how can I not pay my electricity? When did you become aware? The two actors ran in the same New York theater circles at the time, and they’ve kept in touch; they’re around the same age, and have a lot of the same friends. And then when they came out, people still liked them, obviously, but you did lose that element of it.CM: I can only speak for Palm Springs. I’m trying to think of it in two parts. Huge franchise films. Photo-Illustration: by Vulture; Photos Getty

Besides the fact that they’re two of the best movies of 2020, First Cow and Palm Springs would not seem to have much in common with each other. Because there’s something about you when I watch you in things — and I hope this is okay to say — there’s a silent-film aspect to you. It immediately left me. My real blood brother. CM: The goat’s name in Palm Springs was Fishsticks, which I really liked. JM: I say this in every one of these things, but she’s retired now. But you saying that made me really think about our friends who primarily do theater and how devastating this thing has been for them. And everyone at Walmart and Coke was like, “He’s too Jewish! We were all out in the middle of the desert. CM: I mean, that happened to us with Palm Springs. Where were you guys in your careers at the time?Cristin Milioti: If it was 12 years ago, and I’m 18 now, I would’ve been 6. And while we maybe verbalize it [in Palm Springs], I do think that there’s a lot of not wanting to acknowledge that you’ve met someone who’s changing your molecules. One of the most beautiful parts of First Cow is the friendship between the two of you, and no one is ever like, “Hey man, I love you.” Everyone’s just stoically loving each other. JM: I get what you’re saying. And the woman who pops up in a silent, two-second-long cameo as the first girl that he ever kissed? JM: That they pulled it out of theaters? It felt like you guys were on campus together. CM: Yes, that’s what I mean. Where you’re like, “What are the odds that these two people would find each other?” And it’s an unspoken thing. He came to the theater that night and he was like, “I’m making more money than I’ve ever seen!” And we were all like, “Oh man, that’s so cool.” And then it started to air and he was like, “Everyone thinks that I have STDs … ”

JM: It’s the necessary evil of what you got to do. And John, you had to learn how to make oily cakes. All I knew is that people were saying, “Go see First Cow.” Oh my God, it was just so beautiful. Were you out in the desert? Love. And so, as both Magaro and Milioti made the publicity rounds this winter for their respective 2020 films — participating in what will undoubtedly be the weirdest awards season ever — we thought it was the perfect opportunity to reunite them over Zoom to talk all about their decade-old Christmas commercial. So you were paid for the day. I heard that it was summer and it was swelteringly hot.CM: I have two memories. That’s gotten easier. Did you win? And then he was with us, [shooting a commercial for] Coke and Walmart. I had just signed with a commercial agent and I think they asked me, “Do you know any teens?” He needed a summer job, so he did that commercial, and then he was like, “That sucked. CM: I mean, that’s not true. But because I worked with these frontier cookbooks, I started making a lot of stews. Like you’re an alien in a human suit, and you have to come to Earth to do some important stuff. I want to end with a more open-ended question. CM: Dune was going to crush us. What was it like for you guys? CM: I was done with that. What were you up to, John?JM: God, man. The milk was just pouring out. CM: But don’t you think that that’s good luck? I would see something, and it’d be like, “There’s John.”

JM: It’s so hard to say. Whereas my rube family and friends are like, “It’s slow.” It’s not quite their taste. And doing commercials. Cristin, what did your family think of Palm Springs?CM: They liked it. It took me two weeks to memorize, and I don’t usually struggle with that. However, buried deep in the recesses of their stars’ CVs, Vulture discovered a connection — the 2008 Coke and Walmart holiday ad “Stock Up on Joy,” which has been burned into multiple staffers’ brains since the dawn of the Obama era. But I’d like to see you in like, Succession, Jeremy Strong’s character. “John, you’re so good in this.”

JM: Well, no. JM: And you got, what, a Tony nomination? Do you guys have any especially strong memories of the shoot? But we got to play around so much because of that. One is of John. JM: If I can offer any advice to theatergoers, do not say, “Congratulations.”

CM: Never say “Congratulations.” That’s deadly. Make him look like a Gentile!” Somehow he convinced them that maybe, in some parts of the Mediterranean, I could celebrate Christmas. It’s also shot so romantically. Then we slowly came back, and there was theater and live performance and movies and everything. But I only had one day with the goat. Financially, it used to be a test, almost daily. She has a calf named Cookie. Even with First Cow, it came out and then the pandemic hit, so they had to pull it out of theaters. CM: Do you bake ever? CM: I do always feel like it’s just about to go away. But that was my first time in front of a camera or anything. That’s a stupid question. First Cow was at Telluride in 2019. Everything was just like, “We gotta go!” We were like Muppets running around from shot to shot. But so many people got to see it. No, I think I was walking dogs during the day and then I was doing a lot of very weird, Off–Off–Off–Off–Off Broadway theater that no one was seeing, when I was like, shrieking. CM: That’s right. I feel like suddenly you were in everything. I’ve done it once in my life and I loved it, but I also was like, “This is harder than it looks in cartoons!”

JM: I just have the magical touch, then. These movies are pretty far apart, stylistically. JM: Luckily, cooking wasn’t that hard. That was devastating and confusing, that I couldn’t make it all work. One is a meditative journey to the Oregon frontier; the other a zany, time-bending rom-com. Sorry, that doesn’t translate over Zoom. We wouldn’t be here. Things are a little more stable and more comfortable. They are out at sea. I’ll be like, “That actor was incredible, I loved this part.” When people can’t even find one scene …

JM: What’s the words you think are —

CM: “Congratulations.”

JM: There it is. The two actors explain how a certain Coke commercial led us into one of the weirdest awards seasons ever. CM: “Congratulations” is, you’re dead in the water. JM: I love to cook, but I don’t really bake because I’ve got to keep this figure. I know you, but I don’t know you super-well, and I’m like, “What is the thing that he most wants to play?” And I love unexpected casting choices, so what is the thing that I would never …

JM: For you I could be glib and say this general, archetype thing. The scenes where it’s night and I’m milking her, they were just the best. CM: Jizz. And also, “How did you memorize all those lines?” I had an agent that I worked with like 10 million years ago, who came and saw me in a play once. It was nice to have that opportunity. So I guess that’s why I would love to see you as an alien who’s trying very hard to be an assimilated human being. JM: Jizz. Is everyone telling you that? CM: And the cow shit. Me and Billy [Magnussen] and Noma [Dumezweni], it was on our show [Made for Love], and we were talking about, “What’s the worst thing you’ve heard after a play?” When you hear it, you know that someone has hated it so much that they can’t even find … When I go see plays, if it’s not for me, I try to think of at least five things that I liked. She was so calm. What about the cow? And it is devastating. Cristin, you mentioned in an interview with Vulture that you’re not a scientist, but you did have to learn about theoretical physics. JM: Was the goat a pain in the ass? But I do think we were in a situation where we never did get residuals. Not only plays, but concerts, drag shows, cabarets — everything. But I am curious if, having seen them both, there are any thematic parallels that you guys have picked up?JM: Friendship. JM: That helps me, to think about where I am now. The spot played in movie theaters over the Christmas season for years afterward, and it remains a nearly perfect time capsule of the late aughts: Madison Avenue channeling the handmade, analog vibe of the decade’s indie culture — floppy hair, collared shirts under sweaters, a cheery acoustic guitar. We have been lucky enough to have some film and a little TV. CM: I would say so. Like Vincent D’Onofrio in Men in Black? JM: Uh-huh. CM: I’d like to see you as an alien in disguise as a human. You do it and they pay you. CM: Not on your life. CM: I did not win, but I did get a nomination, yeah. But I do remember, I actually did a play around the same time with a guy who booked a huge Valtrex campaign. Because of course sometimes people in your life say things where you’re like, “How did you know that was going to be the thing that was going to hurt me the most?” And they mean it as a compliment but … I don’t even want to dredge those things up.

Photo: YouTube

Dear gentle readers: Oh, for real? She knows your secrets. Tags: Rico Nasty made her television debut last night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, exuding rococo vibes bound to make all of the Bridgerton ladies blush as she performed her single “OHFR?” from her newest album Nightmare Vacation. Not to be mistaken for the gossip Lady Danbury, Rico whispers into the telephone, keeping a tight lip concerning the ongoings of her estate. Related

It’s Rico Nasty’s World. We’re Just Visiting. Trust that whatever secrets flow from her lips as lethal as her bars. Donning pearls and perfectly coiled wig she busts it in front of a pianoforte and spills tea over teatime with the ladies.

Leaving 1D was, in part, necessitated by a struggle with anxiety, one that Malik needed a break from the spotlight to shake. “Outside” sells reconciliation by mixing R&B cadences and guitar riffs that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Modest Mouse song as Zayn floats from breathy low notes to a smooth falsetto, inching higher with each line before crashing at the end of the chorus and starting over again in the next verse with effective perseverance. Zayn’s first two albums were both disappearing acts of a sort: Where his fellow former Directioners have positioned themselves as savvy hybridizers —Harry Styles balancing pop and rock values on 2019’s Fine Line, and Niall Horan managing the same with folk-pop across 2017’s Flicker and 2020’s Heartbreak Weather — on Mind of Mine, Malik caught the “alternative R&B” slipstream behind Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange. If Malik never overtly explains where his head was while making this music and releasing it to even less fanfare than the last album, the sense that he has found a way to live that comforts him — and a way to write songs that leans into the strength of his voice and speaks coolly and quietly to the ups and downs of a high-profile romance — will suffice. Instead of distancing himself dramatically from the commercial failure of Icarus Falls and offering something radically different, as many artists are wont to react, with Nobody Is Listening, Zayn offers a subtle refinement of the sounds and ideas he has pursued through his solo career thus far. If avoiding a rollout for his last album didn’t suggest at least a casual disdain for the fame machine, naming the next release Nobody Is Listening does. He tapped Ocean’s co-producer Malay to devise a sound just as sultry and pliable, if less impactfully unique, one that would fuse with ’80s-style adult contemporary by the time Icarus landed two years later, a shift the second album handled quite capably. As yearning and pleading moments like “Better,” “Vibez,” and “Outside” give way to songs of reconciliation and appreciation, Nobody Is Listening loosens up. Opening with the stormy “Calamity,” a kind of comic-book recap of how our hero came to be in a bind, Nobody Is Listening mirrors Zayn’s journey from parting ways with longtime girlfriend Gigi Hadid to the reunion that has produced the couple’s first child, a baby girl born in September (and whose name has yet to be revealed, in keeping with the singer’s flair for secrecy). If Icarus Falls traced a man’s descent into darkness, cataloguing the fallout from a breakup in songs like “Insomnia” and “Entertainer,” the new music details what it took to put him back together again. Tags: Related

Zayn Releases New Single ‘Vibez’ Amid Everything Else

Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik Welcome a Baby Girl

What’s Up With Zayn’s Solo Career? The greatest of these approaches an effortlessness past Zayn albums have struggled to manage. The story is told in short, sweet, catchy tunes that mix quiet guitar and piano productions with the flavors of contemporary R&B, in the process achieving the same feeling of intimacy and honesty that made gems like “Pillowtalk” soar. anthem “Fuck You Tonight” also mirrors modern mainstream R&B’s nostalgic stripe, as the two singers commiserate about the patience that love requires. The videos for “Better” and “Vibez” depict the singer lounging in secluded places of comfort; the lyrics read like private talks between lovers. “When Love’s Around,” in collaboration with Syd of the Internet, borrows from dancehall music in a manner less jarring than Icarus’s Partynextdoor duet, “Still Got Time”; its nod to the 1997 Notorious B.I.G. If delaying the release for the better part of a year, going easy on public promotion, neglecting to service obvious highlights like “Tonight” and “Common” as singles (opting unwisely to affix the plight of Icarus to unremarkable tracks like “Too Much” and “Entertainer”), and then burying most of those singles deep in the back half of a 27-song opus housing leftovers from the last album didn’t suggest at least a casual disdain for the fame machine, naming the next release Nobody Is Listening does. Photo: zayn/YouTube

Zayn Malik was the first of the One Direction pack to leave, not, as boy-band lore often dictates, because he had designs on tracing the Bobby Brown/Beyoncé/Justin Timberlake path from success in a singing group to megastardom as a solo artist but, to hear him tell it in the 2015 Facebook post announcing his departure, to “relax and have some private time out of the spotlight.” His moves in the intervening years have suggested that he meant it; he’s only as present on social media as he needs to be and seemingly disinterested in the promotional theatrics that come with the job of being a pop star. Zayn’s new and third solo album, Nobody Is Listening, out today, arrived with just a week’s notice, absent the usual trail of photo shoots, interviews, and cross-branding exercises one endeavors when galvanizing a base to buy something. “Sweat” is the best ’80s revivalist track on a pop album since Dua Lipa’s “Cool” or the Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears.” The slow, plodding synth-pop beat suggests sex as much as the lyrics do; the drum break just before the chorus suggests great respect for Phil Collins’s “In the Air Tonight.” “Unfuckwitable” is a soulful falsetto workout cut from the same cloth as Beyoncé’s “Rocket,” but instead of cooing about the rush of making love, the source of Zayn’s joy is the ability to be happy keeping to himself. It seems the 28-year-old singer-songwriter is keeping as low of a profile as can be managed, a peculiar choice after 2018’s double album, Icarus Falls — a concept album likening a disintegrating relationship to the plight of the figure in Greek mythology who famously died flying too close to the sun — failed to expand on the international success of his 2016 debut, Mind of Mine. Zayn comes out of Nobody Is Listening a stronger man for his efforts, however seemingly minimal.

In this one, you’re a new, relatively weak vampire trying to find your place in it all. I’m quite excited to play it. TBD 2021

Maquette (PC, PlayStation 4)

A mind-boggling puzzle game of perspective, Maquette offers an ingenious premise where players manipulate scale models of their surroundings to change the world around them. All told? March

Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139 (PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One)

Yes, it’s really called that, and we’ll allow it because it’s a chance to revisit the start of the series that gave us 2017’s Nier: Automata, one of the best games of the last ten years. A sequel to a uniquely beautiful and challenging game, Silksong is hard not to be excited for. In the very good Ys VIII, Adol was shipwrecked, this time, he’s taken prisoner upon arrival in an occupied city with a monster problem. Solving that problem doesn’t look like a half bad way to spend your time. Spring

Card Shark (Nintendo Switch, PC)

This is a beautifully animated game about cheating at cards and pissing people off in 18th-century Europe. Of course, 2021 has its own unique circumstances complicating the math of game development — like in every other entertainment industry, the global pandemic pushed back many planned 2020 releases and left the 2021 calendar in disarray. That assassin is controlled by another player. In Darktide, Fatshark does the same thing, but in space. TBD 2021

Stray (PlayStation 5)

A vibrant cyberpunk world is lovingly rendered — and then relegated to the background. Its creators at Turtle Rock Studios, however, have finally released the game under a new name, in the hopes that players are still interested in gathering in groups of four and fighting off endless hordes of zombies. June 22

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One)

Perhaps the best sci-fi trilogy in video games, Mass Effect 1–3 cast players as Commander Shepard, the unlikely leader in what becomes a fight for the survival of the Milky Way. TBD

Tags: Rumors persist, however, and four years is a reasonable enough gap between releases for us to say that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Breath of the Wild 2, whatever it ends up being called, might happen this year. A remake of 2010’s Nier Replicant is a postapocalyptic work of science fiction that casts players as a boy on a journey to save his sister from a mysterious illness that causes mysterious writing to appear on her body. Mysterious and colorful, Solar Ash seems to retain its predecessor’s spare storytelling and somber mood, making it a standout in a crowded year. With lovely art and a contemplative spirit, Season bodes well for next-generation consoles as a space for quieter, more deliberate experiences. A terrific work of interactive storytelling, deserving of a wider audience. Because in Stray, you’re not anyone of consequence in this future. Count on this being a good way to while away an evening with some friends online. In Disco Elysium, you’re an amnesiac detective trying to solve a murder while also figuring out who you are. TBD 2021

12 Minutes (PC, Xbox One/Series X/S)

A thriller about a man trapped in a 12-minute time loop, 12 Minutes is an interactive drama where you can manipulate dioramalike settings in an attempt to solve the mystery. Hitman 3 (Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Stadia, Xbox One/Series X/S)

Like Clue in reverse, the Hitman trilogy of games drops players in picturesque settings absolutely stuffed with ways things can go horribly wrong for a very bad person and asks you to find the most satisfying option and make a clean getaway. As with most games by director Yoko Taro, expect there to be far more to it than that. TBD 2021

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (PC, Xbox Series X/S)

Ignore the Warhammer branding. All you need to know is that developer Fatshark made a pair of dark fantasy games called Warhammer: Vermintide where you and up to three others fought hordes of rat-men for reasons impossible to remember, and they were great fun. Either way, expectations are high. March 26

It Takes Two (PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/SeriesX/S)

Not to be mistaken for the Olsen twins film, nor the seminal Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock track, It Takes Two is the latest game from Hazelight, a studio that specializes in narrative games designed to be played with another person. No release date was given, and nothing further has been said since. January 20

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury (Nintendo Switch)

The failure of Nintendo’s Wii U resulted in quite a few excellent games never quite finding the audience they would have otherwise. It’s a safe bet that we absolutely are. February 2 (Playstation 4), Summer (Nintendo Switch, PC)

Hollow Knight: Silksong (PC, Nintendo Switch)

2017’s Hollow Knight is among the best games in recent memory, a Metroid-style adventure where you play as a little warrior-bug exploring the remains of a ruined bug-kingdom and piecing together what happened there. May 21

Back 4 Blood (PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S)

For years, the zombie survival game Left 4 Dead was the gold standard for first-person action games you can play with friends. TBD 2021

GhostWire: Tokyo (PC, PlayStation 5)

Ghostlike beings have overrun Tokyo, and you are the only one who can see — or fight — them. April 23

Deathloop (PC, PlayStation 5)

Developed by Arkane Studios, the team behind the excellent Dishonored games and Prey, Deathloop casts players as an assassin named Colt stuck in a time loop. Players assume the role of returning protagonist Ethan Winters as former Resident Evil hero Chris Redfield traps him in a village full of werewolves and other horrors. A whimsical and weird adventure to save the world with a small but passionate fan base finally gets a conclusion 16 years in the making. In the sequel, Silksong, you play as Hornet, a returning character from the original game, in a new land with its own mysteries to discover. TBD 2021

Halo Infinite (PC, Xbox One/Series X/S)

Halo defined a generation of video-game shooters, but spent the following one largely out of the conversation. Colt must find a way to take out his targets and escape the time loop, but there’s a twist: There’s another assassin stalking him. Holiday 2021

Untitled The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sequel (Nintendo Switch)

Last summer’s surprise announcement of a sequel to 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild might still be the best bit of video-game news we’ve gotten in the last year, but it was also frustratingly vague. And cats see all sorts of things. Then it went dormant for over a decade. A brain-bending and gorgeous application of an idea that looks like a pleasure to play through. Photo-Illustration: Vulture and Photos by Nintendo, Capcom, Square Enix, IO Interactive

Generally, the year after a new wave of consoles is a year of slowly realized potential, as new games are released for said new consoles — while not leaving the prior generation of hardware entirely in the dust. Even more delicious? February 12

Balan Wonderworld (Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S)

A Mario-esque game about children on an adventure through a world of imagination, Balan Wonderworld is mostly notable for its creators. TBD 2021

God of War: Ragnarok (PlayStation 5)

We haven’t seen anything from the sequel to 2018’s acclaimed God of War reboot in the three months since it was announced last September. Its absence may become a boon, as its style of wide-open combat scenarios has largely gone out of style but may prove a hit once more — should Halo Infinite tread the difficult line between adapting to the times and preserving what made the franchise popular in the first place. You’re a cat. TBD 2021

Season (PlayStation 5)

You’re a woman from a secluded community out to see the world for the first time — right before it’s all about to come to an end. March 26

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut (PC, PlayStation 5, Stadia)

One of the most compelling role-playing games in recent memory is finally coming to consoles after nearly two years on computers. A psychedelic slice of supernatural horror-action, GhostWire: Tokyo is the latest from Tango Gameworks, the studio founded by Shinji Mikami, the director of the acclaimed Resident Evil 4, and the makers of the excellent The Evil Within 2. You’re Raz, a young psychic in a secret program called the Psychonauts, who go on missions to defeat evildoers in their own minds. A smart fusion of pulp and Hollywood-inspired gloss, Mass Effect is an extraordinarily satisfying adventure, one worth visiting again or for the first time in 2021. While this is highly unusual for a game that will presumably arrive in time for the holiday season, the games industry is also notoriously secretive and adjusting to the effects of the pandemic — perhaps the game is on track; perhaps it will need more time. As such, nothing here is set in stone — expect announced dates and platforms to change as the year goes on — but we did try to limit this list to games that are highly likely to come out this year. Super Mario 3D World is one of those games, a surprising and eclectic mix of imaginative levels to play alone or with friends, now expanded and featuring online multiplayer. TBD 2021

Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2 (PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S)

This surprise sequel to a cult-classic computer game — itself an adaptation of a cult-classic tabletop role-playing game — was initially due in 2020, but has since been pushed to this year. TBD 2021

Shin Megami Tensei V (Nintendo Switch)

The Shin Megami Tensei games are often about demonic apocalypses wreaking havoc on modern-day Japan as demon hordes invade Earth via computers. While its marketing emphasizes brutal efficiency, the joy is in farce: exotic locales that are playgrounds of cause and effect, where the wicked can be murdered with slapstick comedy. TBD 2021

Resident Evil Village (PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S)

The first truly new Resident Evil game since the stunning reinvention of 2017’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Village trades the former game’s claustrophobic “Texas Chainsaw by way of Saw” aesthetic in favor of gothic largesse. (A bit on the nose, I know.) Little is known about the latest installment, but the series’s appeal — Pokémon but for adults, steeped in occult themes — makes every entry impossible to put down. TBD 2021

Psychonauts 2 (PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One/Series X/S)

After a long and tumultuous journey, the sequel to a beloved action-adventure game may finally arrive this year. Director Yuji Naka and art director Naoto Ohshima are creators of Sonic the Hedgehog and the cult classic Nights Into Dreams, and Balan Wonderworld appears to be an attempt to merge the accessibility of the former with the imaginative art of the latter. TBD 2021

Solar Ash (Playstation 5)

The second game from Heart Machine, the makers of the gorgeous and moody 2-D action game Hyper Light Drifter, brings the studio’s knack for evocative action games to the third dimension. It’ll be a promising year in video games. In it, players will learn of Vampire: The Masquerade’s urban horror setting, where secret societies of vampires are here, among us, making plays and staking out territory, making the wheels of history go round. In It Takes Two, a couple with their relationship on the rocks are transformed into dolls and trapped in a fantasy world, where the only way out is reconciling with one another. TBD 2021

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox (Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4)

The Ys games frequently follow an adventurer named Adol Christin, dropping him in all sorts of anime-esque scenarios that are largely excuses for excellent stand-alone action games. With actors like James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe lending their talents, 12 Minutes promises to be a gripping thriller and a buzzy work of narrative gaming.

She also opined on the recent insurrection at the Capitol, saying that President Donald Trump “doesn’t know that he’s inciting a riot … because he’s got delusions of grandeur.” But when the Black-aimed culture publication Complex wrote in a headline, “Lana Del Rey Doesn’t Believe Donald Trump Purposely Incited Capitol Riot,” she singled them out on Twitter. The next day, she explained her comments to host Annie Mac when debuting the title track on BBC Radio 1. Her initial comments preceded the announcement of two book projects, including a spoken-word poetry collection Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass, and an album, then set for September 2020. After a delay (which she attributed to the global slowdown in vinyl production), the album is now set to come out March 19, but it doesn’t feel like much else has changed. “Chemtrails” comes across as gilded as the insular world in which Lana Del Rey resides. In the middle of that defense video, she revealed the title: Chemtrails Over the Country Club. NFR! It’s one of her classic dreamy love songs, set amid the high-class decadence she frequents with an added layer of suburban duty. shined the most when it had stakes. “Yes, there are people of color on this record’s picture and that’s all I’ll say about that,” she wrote, going on to name individual friends. She’s going to need to listen to the rest of the generation she once supposedly spoke for — otherwise she’ll just continue speaking for herself. “Even if that means it’s kind of messy, like this, along the way.” The video was one of her multiple long-winded defenses after calling out a largely Black group of pop stars for expressing their sexuality in their music. That makes “Chemtrails” more interesting than the middle-of-the-road lead single “Let Me Love You Like a Woman,” but doesn’t mean it’s any more substantive. When Rolling Stone lauded the songs on that album as “epitaphs for the entire country,” it wasn’t an overstatement — whether remarking on romance or the state of the world, Del Rey finally used the wit and flair she always wielded for something clear, new, and essential. Related

Lana Del Rey Reveals, Immediately Defends New Album Cover

Moving Past That Cover, Lana Drops ‘Chemtrails Over the Country Club,’ the Song

28 Albums We Can’t Wait to Hear in 2021

Tags: “Whoever wrote this is a genuine piece of shit.” It was the same defense as before, in a slightly different package: that her critics didn’t understand what she had to say because they just weren’t listening to all of it. Almost immediately after debuting the cover art, featuring a vintage-styled photograph of her and her friends, Del Rey defended herself against alleged criticisms that the group pictured wasn’t racially diverse. (She’d also used that logic to lash out at the media before, when she targeted NPR music critic Ann Powers for a review of her 2019 album Norman Fucking Rockwell!)

On “Chemtrails Over the Country Club,” the song, Del Rey doesn’t have much profound to say. “We laugh about nothing as the summer gets cool,” Del Rey sings, encapsulating the space the song itself occupies. The way Antonoff’s production swells to take over the rest of the song also recalls previous album Norman Fucking Rockwell!’s epic standout “Venice Bitch.” But while that song built toward its fate, on “Chemtrails,” it just feels like a flourish, as gilded as the world Del Rey inhabits in the lyrics. Producer Jack Antonoff, who helms the new album, as he did her last, seems to have taken a few notes from his folklore and evermore collaborator Aaron Dessner; the track sounds as crisp as one of the musical “sketches” Dessner contributed to Taylor Swift’s projects. “It’s fucked up. But even Dylan lost his way, multiple times, throughout his career. Unlike Dylan, though, it’s not just going to take a good comeback album for Del Rey to reclaim her NFR!-era praise. Photo: Lanna Del Rey/YouTube

“So I just want to say, nobody gets to tell your story except for you,” Lana Del Rey said in a May 2020 Instagram video. You know I’m real,” she added in another. She wasn’t just channeling Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, she was challenging herself to meet the standards of the once-in-a-generation songwriting that her heroes set. She sways and lilts through the delicate rhythm, eventually finding her way toward a glitchy bridge that takes over the entire song. The titular chemtrails only color the scene — really, there’s nothing to escape, not the elementary-school obligations or the fine jewelry. “Thanks for the cool soundbite taken out of context,” she wrote in one tweet.

Head-to-toe Gucci, a sports car with suicide doors, private planes, and close contact with friends: DaBaby’s new music video, “Masterpiece,” is the ultimate flex. “I don’t know what went down at that Walmart,” DaBaby raps on “Masterpiece.” Real name Jonathan Lyndale Kirk, he was charged with carrying a concealed weapon but it was dismissed in March 2019 after a witness became “unavailable.” DaBaby has been putting music out nonstop. Sources

charlotte observer

Tags: The rapper and the singer-songwriter confirmed rumors that they were back on in December. The Charlotte rapper, 29, claimed the man, Jalyn Domonique Craig, was threatening his family with a gun in a store. His no. You should watch the music video for “Masterpiece” now because before you know it, it could have a TikTok challenge and a Jack Harlow remix. “I ain’t even gotta be funny when I’m telling no jokes, she still gon’ laugh at me,” he raps in the chorus. Elsewhere in DaBaby news updates: The 2021 Grammy nominee uses the single to briefly address his 2018 involvement in a shooting that left a man dead. Now, they’re just showing off. 1 album Blame It on Baby came out in April and in November he released My Brother’s Keeper (Long Live G), a moving tribute to his late brother. The “Rockstar” rapper dedicates this one to his “boo thing” DaniLeigh, who appears in the video.