Scarlett Johansson is a very good actress, a pretty good singer, and, as it turns out, a horrible weatherperson. While promoting her new skincare line on Thursday’s episode of the Today show, the Asteroid City star joined Al Roker to inform viewers what they can expect in their neck of woods.
“Alright you guys, here’s the weather. You got this map here, there’s a little bit of blue, a little bit of pink,” Johansson started, sounding like me trying to BS my way through a science project in high school. “Oh my goodness, the 20s!” she exclaimed when she saw the below-freezing temperatures in the midwest. “This is Netflix and chill weather!” Sounds like stealth marketing for her Netflix film Marriage Story to me (please do not “Netflix and chill” while Marriage Story is on; that’s not fun for anyone involved.)
The weather duo got the giggles when Johansson pointed out that the east coast would have “milder highs.” She asked, “What does that mean?”
“That means it’s mild with high temperatures, nice and mild. It doesn’t mean that you get high and it’s mild,” he said, as both started cracking up laughing. “Different forecast.”
This is the third time Johansson has done the weather with Roker on Today, dating back to 2012. So much has changed since then. Let’s see. She bought a zoo and… that’s it, actually. But can’t that be enough?
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
Tár is a performance piece for Cate Blanchett, which is great because Cate Blanchett always deserves a place to do stuff like that. Here, she plays composer Lydia Tár, a kind of mad genius who is a few days away from a huge symphony performance and dealing with everything around her falling apart. It’s a psychological roller coaster and can be a heavy lift but if you want to see Cate Blanchett give it the full Cate Blanchett, buddy, Tár is the movie for you.
Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon play mismatched best friends — she loves the calm of California, he loves the chaos of New York — who swip-swap houses for a week for reasons that we could explain, but… you’ve seen a rom-com before. You know how this goes. The draw here is less the story than the star power, with a couple of our more charming faces shining bright. A solid watch for a quiet night.
Dave Franco and wife Alison Brie already have one on-screen project in the books – the unsettling thriller The Rental that will likely turn you off Air BnB for good. For their follow-up, the couple takes on a different genre – swapping horror for comedy – and a different, but no less cringeworthy, topic. Brie plays Ally, a successful TV producer who’s thrown a professional curveball and forced to seek solace in the one place she swore never to return: home. She reconnects with her ex Sean, rediscovers herself, and for a while, Somebody I Used to Know reads like a plot-by-numbers rom-com — until Sean’s fiancé pops up and wedding festivities begin and a possible throuple forms? Come for the secondhand embarrassment-fueled laughs, stay for the surprising amount of heart.
A horror-comedy set on an island where a fancy young couple has traveled to dine at a world-class restaurant led by a world-class chef who may have other things in store for them beyond your standard filets and Caesar salads. It’s… weird. But also surprisingly fun. Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult are out there — apologies for this awful pun but it had to be done — making a meal of it all. In a good way. Definitely in a better way than their characters do. It’s a good time. Just maybe don’t start it before dinner.
Lots going on here, all of it intriguing. We’ve got Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan and John Lithgow all starring in what Apple describes as a twisty neo-noir thriller where a con artist takes on a slew of Manhattan billionaires. That’s probably enough to get you excited, at least a little. You could do a lot worse, that’s for sure. The world needs more Julianne Moore.
Idris Elba is back once again as John Luther, the now-disgraced London cop who finds himself in prison for reasons that tie directly into the thing where he is now disgraced. This time… ahh, screw it. Let’s go ahead and quote the official blurb on this one, if only because it’s a lot of fun to read: “Haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath who now taunts him, Luther decides to break out of prison to finish the job by any means necessary.” Don’t you guys just hate it when that happens to you. Ugh, the worst.
Babylon bombed at the box office, but someday, it will find the audience it deserves. That day could be today if you watch it on Paramount Plus. Which you should. Damien Chazelle’s debauched chronicle of Hollywood’s transition from silent films to talkies is the rare three-hour movie that’s never boring. Babylon is full of glitz, glamor, cocaine, an S&M dungeon, and a pooping elephant. It’s also got Margot Robbie fighting a snake — what more could you want?
Boston Strangler tells the true story of the, uh, Boston Strangler, which you probably guessed from the title. It’s all right there. Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon play a pair of journalists and amateur sleuths who put the pieces together and uncover one of the country’s most notorious cases of serial killing. Looking for a period piece about a couple people hunting a murder in 1960s Massachusetts? Well, here you go. That was easy.
Director Suzanne Hillinger talks with Adult entertainers and anti-porn crusaders in this documentary about the rise and near fall of PornHub. From a near economic apocalypse for those performers to questions about who is to blame for the rise of illegal and horrific content on the site, Hillinger works to lay out the details of this story with great care.
Make it the love child of Chucky and the Terminator, drop it on audiences inundated by stories of automation and AI, and then make it fabulous. M3GAN lived up to the hype, dancing into the hearts of horror fans as the emotional support doll from hell. Now, as she sets her sights on streaming, we’ve been given a new promise: more carnage with an unrated version that’s set to pull off more ears and carve up more yuppy scum. It’s all we could have ever wanted short of a sequel that once again pits M3GAN against avenging aunt (and reigning Queen of elevated horror) Allison Williams.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
The mental health and comedy crossover of Ted Lasso was apparent in the show’s second season as Ted’s coping mechanisms started to falter, pushing him to get some help. Shrinking, which comes from the minds of Lasso producer Bill Lawrence and Lasso writer/co-star Brett Goldstein (as well as series star Jason Segel) begins in a similar place with its main character, played by Segel, realizing that his strategies aren’t working when it comes to managing grief, having a relationship with his daughter, and helping the patients who come to him for help as their therapist. What follows is an odyssey of personal rediscovery with plenty of awkward moments, incremental improvements, and a whole lot of charming grouchiness from Harrison Ford as a begrudging mentor type.
There’s a good chance one of your favorite funny people is in History of the World, Part II, Hulu’s follow-up to the 1981 comedy film History of the World, Part I. We’re talking Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz, Quinta Brunson, Andy Daly, Danny DeVito, Ayo Edebiri, Jake Johnson, Richard Kind, Johnny Knoxville, Jason Mantzoukas, Ken Marino, Kumail Nanjiani, Sam Richardson, Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, Carl Tart, Drew Tarver, Taika Waititi, and, of course, Mel Brooks. Pretty good cast! Hopefully, it doesn’t take another 40 years before History of the World, Part III comes out.
Reboots and long-delayed restarts scratch a nostalgia itch while usually falling short of equalling their past greatness, but somehow Party Down returns with its bite largely intact. The cast (anchored by Adam Scott) still plays well together, but it’s the story that sets this one apart with all the subtle ways these characters have and have not changed, marking the passage of time but not necessarily the rise of maturity.
Matthew Rhys returns as Perry Mason a little more than two and a half years after the character went from avenging private eye to avenging cub lawyer. Where’s he at now? Haunted and stuck on the fringes of the justice system again, working in civil litigation instead of criminal law, though that figures to change at some point as the season’s B story about a rich kid with big dreams and loose morals threatens to intercede with Mason’s life. As always, Rhys navigates this impeccably created world of 1930s LA, playing angles while striving to fight the good fight even if he gets pushed into a ditch or two in the process.
The first season of Abbott Elementary was a feel-good network sitcom that caught a massive wave of popularity and won a bunch of Emmys in a time when feel-good network sitcoms are kind of not supposed to do that. Credit for this goes to creator and star Quinta Brunson, who realized that an underfunded inner-city public school was exactly the right place to show us people with good hearts working inside a system that can be cold. Kind of like Parks and Recreation but in Philadelphia. The second season is underway and does not appear to be missing a beat. This is basically a miracle, all around.
Really just a lot going on here. We’ve got a climate-based series set in the future when the effects of centuries of pollution have ravaged the Earth a little bit. We’ve got eight interconnected stories about it all, strung together in an anthology. And we’ve got just a killer cast. Seriously, look at this collection of firepower: Meryl Streep, Tobey Maguire, Edward Norton, Kit Harrington, Sienna Miller, Eiza Gonzalez, etc. etc. etc. It’s crazy that we live in a world where this show isn’t the only thing we talk about, just based on everything in this paragraph. The future remains kind of wild.
An impressively bearded Bob Odenkirk is back with Lucky Hank, his follow-up to Better Call Saul.
An English professor at a middling university, Hank is sleepwalking through life, trying to dodge the consequences of being uncareful with his words with a student and aspiring writer. He’s also mildly participating in an outwardly happy marriage that needs to revolve around his career and nursing a 15-years-long estrangement with a father whose career achievements loom large.
Hank’s redeeming qualities are, at this point, well hidden as he frustrates, causing you to want to stab him, but it’s Bob Odenkirk, so you know at some point we’re going to see why people put up with a character that’s like a canker sore in loafers. That or he’s just going to be so good at being a prick that we can’t turn away, enshrining Hank besides such other beloved assholes as Greg House. Either way, this slow burn is well worth the watch.
To this show’s credit, they’re trying to switch up their formula by transforming Stalker Joe into Stalkee Joe. Sadly, that’s caused the series to lose a lot of bite because part of the fun was roasting Penn Badgley’s horrific character as he fumbled his way through violent crimes, often barely escaping by the seat of his pants. This season wraps up with his new persona, Professor Jonathan Moore, headed towards a possible reckoning, so will Joe truly get what he deserves? Viewers will know soon enough.
What’s the best way to get you to watch Swarm, the unsettling, nightmarish new thriller from Donald Glover and Janine Nabers, premiering on Amazon Prime Video this week? Would teasing that it’s a dark, seriously disturbed portrait of pop culture obsession that features a Beyonce stand-in work? How about if we said Dominique Fishback is deliciously deranged as Dre, a young woman willing to kill to get closer to her celebrity crush? Maybe the eerie use of Twitter’s bird-chirping notification in the show’s trailer, which feels like a Safdie brothers Gen-Z fever dream, will do the trick? No, really. What’s it going to take to convince you to watch this thing? Because we’ll do it.
Break out your biscuits and put on your custom-bedazzled Diamond Dogs silk bomber jackets because the best mustache on TV is back, baby. This might be the last season of Ted Lasso which is a bittersweet pill to swallow but it’s best not to dwell on all of the loose ends still in need of tying. Ted wouldn’t. Instead, let’s just enjoy these characters as long as we have them. And hope something awful (but not irreversible) and humiliating (but appropriately so) and devastating (but ultimately life-changing in a positive way) happens to Nate “not so great” Shelley.
The nice thing about The Mandalorian is that it delivers exactly what the people need and expect. Want to see — or at least, like, hear — Pedro Pascal do various space cowboy things with his lasers and ships? Done, no problem. Want to see little Baby Yoda — apologies, Grogu — make cute little faces and occasionally use the Force to defeat an enemy? Yup, that’s there, too. Want to see a slew of recognizable faces from season to season — Timothy Olyphant, Giancarlo Esposito, Carl Weathers, etc. — as well as a bunch of fun little callbacks to the Star Wars universe? Buddy, this show has you covered. There’s very little to complain about here on any major level. Sometimes that’s all you can ask for out of a big show like this. An adorable little green guy helps.
In a separate tweet, she explained the meaning behind the image:
“I saw a photo of a porcelain doll 3 years ago, holding her heart just like this and from then, I said this will be my album cover. That same day I also wrote ‘Heart On My Sleeve.’ The beginning of a scary and exciting journey for me. This cover represents so much for me, down to the color of my hair.. When I had the red hair 1.5 years ago, it was one of the darkest times in my life.. That’s why I never wore it again. It reminded me too much of the pain that I was going through in that moment and I didn’t want any reminders.
But now after healing, doing self work and shedding this skin of false perfection, I find the beauty in my pain. I find the beauty in my flaws and how in actuality, that’s what makes me perfect. I find beauty in all of the cracks that show people I’ve been broken down before, because I’ve gotten up every time. I wear my heart as my armor.
In Pieces is for the ones who behind closed doors are breaking and don’t know how much more they can take. In Pieces is for the ones who hold the people up around them while barely holding up themselves. In Pieces is for the people who continue to get stabbed in the back, heartbroken by the ones they thought they could trust, but STILL that doesn’t change their heart and how they love. In Pieces is for the ones like me, who wear their outer shell so well that you’d have no idea what they’re doing through. I hope this project brings healing to those who listen, as it’s been completely therapeutic for me and I can’t wait to share my heart with you, literally.”
Hollywood’s tallest silly little guy Alexander Skarsgård is prominently featured in the trailer for Succession season four. The actor, who plays tech mogul Lukas Matsson, will feel right at home: part of the final season takes place in Norway, near where he (and other various Skarsgårds) was born in Sweden.
“We shot up in the fjords, up in the mountains. It was spectacularly beautiful. It’s a company retreat, basically, an opportunity for relaxation but also hard negotiations about how to move forward,” Skarsgård told Entertainment Weekly, adding, “It was quite fun to get out of New York and shoot something on kind of Matsson’s turf.”
The Infinity Pool actor also discussed working with Kieran Culkin, his frequent scene partner. “Kieran’s extraordinarily fun to work with,” says the actor. “He’s a very lovely, sweet guy, and he plays that role phenomenally. He’s like a little terrier. He comes at you with a lot of energy in those scenes, and it makes it very easy, because there’s so much to play off of when you’re working with Kieran.” As for the line that Skarsgård thinks best sums up Lukas, he said it’s during his first episode on the show.
“I remember the first day, one of my first lines was, Jeremy asks if I want anything and I say ‘Privacy, p*ssy, pasta,’” says Skarsgård of [season three’s “Too Much Birthday”]. “I think that’s a terrific line, and that kind of sets the tone, and gives you so much information on who Matsson is.”
Braun lauded Quality Control co-founders Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “P” Thomas in a statement provided to Variety.
“I am so proud and honored to have Coach and P join Bang and me as our partners. QC is one of the most significant independent labels in the world, working with incredible artists who are, and remain to be, the voices of culture,” Braun said. “I’ll never forget riding around Atlanta over 20 years ago with Coach discussing our dreams and ambitions and how we said, ‘If they let us in the game, we are never going to give it back.’ Now, all these years later, we are joining forces to make these dreams a reality.”
While $320 million is a significant indication of how influential Quality Control has become, its true value can’t be quantified.
George State Representative Park Cannon hosted a ceremony at the Georgia State Capitol Building yesterday, March 15, to formally recognize QC, Coach K, and P as “the modern-day blueprint for success in the industry.” Cannon further cemented their legacy by making March 15 “QC Day” in Atlanta.
“You have been chosen to be honored on QC Day because you have worked diligently at your craft and brought millions of dollars in revenue along with notoriety to the City of Atlanta,” Cannon wrote, in part.
The official Quality Control Instagram account posted the full letter:
P posted photos from the ceremony, showing Lil Baby was in attendance:
Quality Control rocketed to success with Migos, and its roster has expanded to include such hitmakers as Baby, City Girls, and Lil Yachty.
Deadline reported that the rights to the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, released in 1984, have been acquired by A24. It will be restored in 4K following his Oscar nomination for Everything Everywhere All At Once for the song “This Is A Life.” With this announcement comes a promotional video in which Byrne picks up his dry cleaning to pick up his iconic oversized suit. He dances in the mirror, looking as energized as ever.
In October of last year, Byrne shared a Latin Pop Explosion playlist and praised Rosalía for her extravagant live performance. “[Rosalía’s] show had very innovative staging consisting of 8 dancers and a video cameraperson on stage,” he wrote in a blog post. “They mostly perform on a giant seamless which acts as a stage for the video screens. Making the video become part of the show. She seemed to be wearing no makeup- other than a little lipstick. Possibly because with all the sweating it might have become a mess? Her presence was very sincere and heartfelt – unusual for a pop show like this.”
Music fans these days are well known for being Incredibly loyal to their favorite recording artists but they are also known for being incredibly petty on their behalf. Just look at the audience from this Mod Sun concert in New York City; they gleefully chant “f*ck Tyga” at the behest of Travis McCoy, all because the Compton rapper has allegedly gotten cozy with Mod Sun’s ex, Avril Lavigne. TMZ also has another angle in which Mod Sun’s reaction can be seen.
Rumors that Lavigne and Tyga had linked up first circulated in late February after they were seen leaving a trendy Los Angeles restaurant together. Of course, some fans were baffled at the connection given the fact that just last year, Lavigne was engaged to Mod Sun, who confirmed that the couple had broken up shortly after the Tyga rumors surfaced. The musician was reportedly devastated by the breakup but fortunately — for him, at least — he’s got friends like Travie McCoy to cheer him up by razzing his ex’s new man.
Avril and Tyga, meanwhile, seemingly confirmed their relationship when they were seen sharing a kiss at a Paris Fashion Week show. So, don’t be too surprised if more “f*ck Tyga” chants break out at Mod Sun shows for the foreseeable future.
As James Gunn began his tenure as the new chief of DC Studios and began making clear that he’d be rebooting franchises following the past decade of the Snyderverse, he mentioned having a conversation with Ben Affleck about possibly directing a film for the now-burgeoning DC Universe.
“Met with Ben yesterday precisely because he wants to direct & we want him to direct,” Gunn tweeted in December. “We just have to find the right project.”
Met with Ben yesterday precisely because he wants to direct & we want him to direct; we just have to find the right project. https://t.co/Haz1APdlVN
That situation remained relatively quiet until early March when rumors started spreading that Affleck was in talks to direct The Brave and The Bold, which would introduce a brand new Batman for Gunn’s DCU. As the unconfirmed rumor spread, fans accused Gunn of being a “professional liar” because he mentioned in an interview that if Affleck did direct a movie, it would not be a new Batman film.
Turns out, Gunn was telling the truth because Affleck is not interested in directing The Brave and The Bold, or any DC movie for that matter.
“I would not direct something for the [James] Gunn DC. Absolutely not,” Affleck bluntly told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview to promote his new movie Air. “I have nothing against James Gunn. Nice guy, sure he’s going to do a great job. I just wouldn’t want to go in and direct in the way they’re doing that. I’m not interested in that.”
As for Affleck’s reluctance to step back into the world of superhero films, the actor is still haunted by his experience on the Justice League movie, which made him walk away from his Batman role. Via THR:
That was hard. And I started to drink too much. I was back at the hotel in London, it was either that or jump out the window. And I just thought, “This isn’t the life I want. My kids aren’t here. I’m miserable.” You want to go to work and find something interesting to hang onto, rather than just wearing a rubber suit, and most of it you’re just standing against the computer screen going, “If this nuclear waste gets loose, we’ll …” That’s fine. I don’t condescend to that or put it down, but I got to a point where I found it creatively not satisfying. Also just, you’re sweaty and exhausted.
“I don’t want to participate in this in any way,” Affleck ultimately decided about the DC Films. “And I don’t want to squander any more of my life, of which I have a limited amount.”
Vladimir Putin’s multiple massive drafts within a year already clued the world in to the enormous loss of life over in Ukraine, where soldiers are said to be walking into a meat grinder of grim circumstances. At this point, voluntarily signing up is tantamount to co-signing one’s death sentence, and things also aren’t going so great for Putin’s privately hired mercenaries, the Wagner Group, which recently complained that the Russian president stopped taking their calls and cut off their ammo supply.
Russia also recently moved on from simply recruiting from male prisons to drag in female counterparts, and let’s just say that a new clue has arrived to point out how desperate times are in this conflict (even more so than news of the so-called “Russian Walter White” being made to take the plunge. As Page Six relates, the Wagner Group is on Pornhub with ads that ask men to stop with the “whack off” routine and go get whacked. Or something like that:
In the commercial, a blonde woman wearing red lipstick is seen twirling an oversized lollipop in her mouth, while a husky female voice purrs in the background: “we are the f-king coolest private army in the world.”
“We are recruiting fighters from all regions of Russia… Don’t whack off, go work for PMC Wagner.”
Then a phone number appears on the screen, which is said to be associated with Wagner Group recruiters.
Well, they’re gonna win this thing now. Here’s a look at the purported ad:
ЗМІ звернули увагу на те, що ПВК “Вагнер”, власником якого є Євген Пригожин, почали рекламувати на популярному порносайті Pornhub (18+). pic.twitter.com/pXfiXq2jrI
In all seriousness, however, Russia recently suffered deadliest day since the Ukraine invasion began with over 1,000 of Putin’s guys losing their lives. And it seems that every political analyst agrees that Kremlin is now embracing their sunk-cost fallacy and won’t ever be able to cut their losses and retreat. It seems unlikely that anyone will see this ad and decide that signing up for Wagner Group is a smart idea or that women will be waiting in the wings, but that reality clear isn’t stopping them from trying.
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