Aurelia Butler

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‘The Interview’: Bill Murray Says He’s Not the Man He Used to Be

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In Bill Murray’s new movie, “The Friend,” currently in theaters and based on the beautifully bittersweet novel by Sigrid Nunez, he plays Walter, a writer and professor who is best friends with Iris, played by Naomi Watts. Through an upsetting course of events, Iris, who lives in a modest apartment in Manhattan, winds up having to take in Walter’s Great Dane. Not exactly ideal for her or the dog, and not exactly thoughtful of Walter.Witty and charismatic but also self-centered and responsible for real damage, Walter shares much in common with many of Murray’s late-career roles. I often think of the dramatic parts that he has specialized in since the late ’90s (consider the melancholy men of a certain age in “Rushmore,” “Lost in Translation,” “On the Rocks,” “St. Vincent” and so on) as being akin to alternate-world versions of the comedy characters that made him a star. Because Peter Venkman in “Ghostbusters” or Phil Connors in “Groundhog Day,” to pick just two of his most memorable comedic creations, could also be selfish and mean but, in the end, got away with it. Not so with Walter and his ilk. It’s as if Murray’s latter-day characters are suffering the karmic payback owed to his earlier ones.A similar balancing act — between charm and callousness, buoyancy and bad moods — has surfaced in Murray’s offscreen life too. Yes, he is a globe-trotting avatar of joyful surprise, known for his party crashing and playful high jinks, but directors and co-stars like Geena Davis, Lucy Liu, Richard Dreyfuss and Harold Ramis have said Murray was, to put it very mildly, not easy to work with. And in 2022, a female staff member working on the film “Being Mortal” claimed that Murray, who is 74, behaved inappropriately with her on set. She said that he straddled her and kissed her through masks, which they were wearing as part of Covid-19 protocols. The production was shut down, and eventually they reached a settlement.Given all this, Murray, enigmatic and mercurial, is a hard one to figure out. But on a rainy day in late March, at a hotel in downtown Manhattan, I had a chance to try.Listen to the Conversation With Bill MurrayThe actor talks about his new film “The Friend,” his jerky past and what he doesn’t get about himself.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppYou know, at The Times earlier today, your co-star in “The Friend,” the dog, was having his photo taken. He is a striking dog: 150 pounds, a Great Dane. His name is Bing. Bing! He lives in Iowa, and after a nationwide search he was chosen as the dog of the moment. He wasn’t wearing a tight sweater or anything. He was just the most capable dog. More

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    in Movies

    ‘The Interview’: Bill Murray Says He’s Not the Man He Used to Be

    In Bill Murray’s new movie, “The Friend,” currently in theaters and based on the beautifully bittersweet novel by Sigrid Nunez, he plays Walter, a writer and professor who is best friends with Iris, played by Naomi Watts. Through an upsetting course of events, Iris, who lives in a modest apartment in Manhattan, winds up having to take in Walter’s Great Dane. Not exactly ideal for her or the dog, and not exactly thoughtful of Walter.Witty and charismatic but also self-centered and responsible for real damage, Walter shares much in common with many of Murray’s late-career roles. I often think of the dramatic parts that he has specialized in since the late ’90s (consider the melancholy men of a certain age in “Rushmore,” “Lost in Translation,” “On the Rocks,” “St. Vincent” and so on) as being akin to alternate-world versions of the comedy characters that made him a star. Because Peter Venkman in “Ghostbusters” or Phil Connors in “Groundhog Day,” to pick just two of his most memorable comedic creations, could also be selfish and mean but, in the end, got away with it. Not so with Walter and his ilk. It’s as if Murray’s latter-day characters are suffering the karmic payback owed to his earlier ones.A similar balancing act — between charm and callousness, buoyancy and bad moods — has surfaced in Murray’s offscreen life too. Yes, he is a globe-trotting avatar of joyful surprise, known for his party crashing and playful high jinks, but directors and co-stars like Geena Davis, Lucy Liu, Richard Dreyfuss and Harold Ramis have said Murray was, to put it very mildly, not easy to work with. And in 2022, a female staff member working on the film “Being Mortal” claimed that Murray, who is 74, behaved inappropriately with her on set. She said that he straddled her and kissed her through masks, which they were wearing as part of Covid-19 protocols. The production was shut down, and eventually they reached a settlement.Given all this, Murray, enigmatic and mercurial, is a hard one to figure out. But on a rainy day in late March, at a hotel in downtown Manhattan, I had a chance to try.Listen to the Conversation With Bill MurrayThe actor talks about his new film “The Friend,” his jerky past and what he doesn’t get about himself.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppYou know, at The Times earlier today, your co-star in “The Friend,” the dog, was having his photo taken. He is a striking dog: 150 pounds, a Great Dane. His name is Bing. Bing! He lives in Iowa, and after a nationwide search he was chosen as the dog of the moment. He wasn’t wearing a tight sweater or anything. He was just the most capable dog. More

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    Pedro Almodóvar Inspires a New Roche Bobois Collection

    Roche Bobois reintroduces classic pieces that reflect the Spanish filmmaker’s palette.This article is part of our Design special report previewing Milan Design Week.Known for palettes that are as flamboyant as his characters, the Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar uses color as an actor with its own dramatic energy. Recently, he teamed up with Roche Bobois, also renowned for its splashy color sense, to modify classic works from the French furniture company’s catalog that will be introduced in Roche Bobois’s Milan showroom during the city’s Design Week.The Lounge sofa, for example, a precursor of the company’s modular Mah Jong seating that was originally designed in 1971 by Hans Hopfer, is being reissued in an edition of 50 for this occasion. Each sofa will feature iconic images from Almodóvar movies and film posters, and will be signed and numbered by the director.Also on view will be the 11-year-old Bubble sofa, designed by Sacha Lakic. Bubble will be shown in four new colors — sky, moss, sun and fiery red — that are heroes of Mr. Almodóvar’s most recent film, “The Room Next Door,” a meditation on friendship and death starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, which was released late last year. (The sofa itself has a cameo in that movie, popping up in a scene set in a gym.)A rendering of Roche Bobois’s updated Lounge sofa, which is being reissued in a limited edition and has the bright colors and iconic images from Almodóvar movies and film posters.A sideboard from Roche Bobois’s Rondo collection has been updated with new door panels featuring designs inspired by film posters and Almodóvar’s own still-life photos. The director also designed rugs and cushions that have movie poster motifs, including the floral pattern representing “Volver” (2006), the heavily mascaraed eyes from “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” (1988) and the deadly stiletto signifying “High Heels” (1991).Apart from the limited-edition Lounge sofa, the collection will be available for purchase in mid-September, in Roche Bobois stores.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Tracy Chapman Wants to Speak for Herself

    “I haven’t really done press in a long time,” Tracy Chapman said as she settled onto a bench in the courtyard of San Francisco’s stately Fairmont Hotel earlier this week, wearing a black beanie over her pulled-back, gray-flecked dreads.Over the past decade, the singer and songwriter has remained nearly silent, though the past two years have brought renewed fervor for her tenderhearted folk music. In 2023, Luke Combs released a smash cover of her 1988 debut single, “Fast Car,” and the two performed a deeply stirring duet at last year’s Grammys. Still, Chapman has remained resolutely out of the public eye, passing on interviews about the second life of “Fast Car” and declining to show up at the Country Music Awards, where it took song of the year, making her the first Black woman, and Black songwriter, ever to win a CMA.But Chapman, 61, agreed to this interview because she wants to talk about something she is particularly excited about: the vinyl reissue of her multiplatinum self-titled debut, which arrived on Friday. “This is an opportunity for me to be able to say why I wanted to do this project and what it means to me,” she said, “instead of letting the chatter speak for myself.”Flowers bloomed around her in rich shades of lilac and orange, but Chapman was attired in unobtrusive neutrals: a pale pink button-up under a black zip-up sweater beneath a casual, blazer-like jacket. (“The key to your comfort is to have layers,” she said of her longtime home city’s fickle climate.) Over an hour, she spoke about the album, and also much more — like that emotional Grammy performance (afterward, she “was weepy for weeks”), her penchant for notebooks (she recommended Roland Allen’s “The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper”), her disinterest in streaming music and the current state of that elusive shadow her best songs have always chased: the American dream.Tracy Chapman onstage in 1999. Her self-titled debut album arrived 11 years earlier, when she was 24.Frank Micelotta/Getty ImagesFor a figure who has become better known for her reserve than her public statements, Chapman was remarkably warm and open, quick with an easy, amiable laugh. She is a thoughtful and considered talker, speaking in full sentences that sometimes pause for long parenthetical asides, yet always close cleanly, returning to her original point.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Faces New Sex-Trafficking Charge Ahead of Trial

    Weeks before the music mogul is scheduled to stand trial, prosecutors added a more serious charge involving a woman they refer to as “Victim-2.”Federal prosecutors have amended the indictment against Sean Combs, who is scheduled to stand trial next month, to include a second major sex-trafficking charge, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed on Friday.The new charge relates to a woman described by prosecutors as “Victim-2.” They allege that she is one of three female victims whom Mr. Combs coerced into sex.Before, Mr. Combs had been charged only with sex trafficking “Victim-2” under a less serious charge that makes it illegal to transport a person “with intent that such individual engage in prostitution.” The new indictment adds a second count of a more serious sex-trafficking charge that carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.Mr. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, which include a count of racketeering conspiracy, and has vehemently denied sex trafficking anyone. His lawyers have argued that the conduct the prosecutors are targeting involves consensual sex.In a statement released on Friday in response to the new charges, the Combs defense team said: “These are not new allegations or new accusers. These are the same individuals, former long-term girlfriends, who were involved in consensual relationships. This was their private sex life, defined by consent, not coercion.”Jury selection in the trial, which will be held at Federal District Court in Manhattan, is scheduled to start in late April. Opening statements are scheduled to start on May 12.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Miley Cyrus’s Apocalyptic Pop, and 9 More New Songs

    Hear tracks by Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Brandi Carlile, Wet Leg and others.Every Friday, pop critics for The New York Times weigh in on the week’s most notable new tracks. Listen to the Playlist on Spotify here (or find our profile: nytimes) and at Apple Music here, and sign up for The Amplifier, a twice-weekly guide to new and old songs.Miley Cyrus, ‘End of the World’Miley Cyrus has announced that her album “Something Beautiful,” due May 30, will be a “pop opera” and a “visual experience,” with a film to follow in June. One of its early singles, “End of the World,” is a luxurious pop extravaganza with songwriting collaborators including Jonathan Rado from Foxygen and Molly Rankin and Alec O’Hanley from the group Alvvays. A pumping beat, stacked-up guitars, orchestral underpinnings and a platoon of backup vocals abet Cyrus as she calls for one last, desperate chance at pleasure. “Let’s pretend it’s not the end of the world,” she urges. She probably didn’t know she’d be singing through an economic crisis. JON PARELESBruce Springsteen, ‘Rain in the River’Bruce Springsteen was hoarse and howling when he recorded “Rain in the River,” now released as a preview of “Tracks II: The Lost Albums,” an 83-song collection from his archives that will be released in June. It’s a booming, arena-scale cry of anguish with Springsteen’s guitars pealing, droning and spinning gnarled leads. His character gets spurned, told that “Your love means no more to me than rain in the river.” What happens next is ambiguous — and possibly fatal. PARELESElton John and Brandi Carlile, ‘Little Richard’s Bible’Layers of fandom inform “Who Believes in Angels?,” the new duet album by Elton John and Brandi Carlile. Carlile grew up as an ardent fan of John’s songwriting and flamboyant gay identity, while the producer Andrew Watt, who collaborated on the songwriting (along with John’s longtime lyricist, Bernie Taupin), spurs longtime musicians to rediscover their youthful spark. The album’s two opening tracks pay tribute to songwriters that John admired: Laura Nyro and, in this song, Little Richard. John, now 78, sings about Little Richard’s swings between carnality and faith, with high harmonies from Carlile, and he pounds out piano chords as a lifetime rock ’n’ roll believer. PARELESWet Leg, ‘Catch These Fists’A deadpan near-spoken vocal, bristling bass and guitar riffs and a beat that stomps its way into the chorus: those were the ingredients of the English indie-rock band Wet Leg’s 2021 smash, “Chaise Longue.” The group deploys similar elements in “Catch These Fists,” but trades the drolleries of “Chaise Longue” to contend with a more fraught situation: an unwanted pickup attempt at a club. “I know all too well just what you’re like,” Rhian Teasdale tells the suitor. “I don’t want your love — I just wanna fight.” PARELESThe Hives, ‘Enough Is Enough’The swaggering Swedish punks the Hives are back — so soon! — with the first single from an album due Aug. 29 called “Play It Again Sam.” The quintet paused after its 2012 LP “Lex Hives” until 2023, when it returned with “The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons.” (“It was like a slow, 10-year-long panic,” the frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist joked then. “It was never an outright panic because we continued to be so immensely popular worldwide.”) “Enough Is Enough” rides four chords and a wave of frustration to a delightfully tuneful bridge. In the video, Almqvist is the king of the ring — until he takes a punch that lands him in the hospital. Like his powder keg of a band, he rallies. CARYN GANZWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Best Movies and Shows Coming to Netflix in April: ‘Black Mirror,’ ‘You’ and More

    “Black Mirror” and “You” are back this month, alongside a bunch of promising new titles.Every month, Netflix adds movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of April’s most promising new titles for U.S. subscribers. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)‘Pulse’ Season 1Started streaming: April 3Fans of frenetic, bloody scenes of emergency room traumas have been well served lately, first with the Max hit “The Pitt” and now with Netflix’s new medical drama “Pulse.” Created by Zoe Robyn (who runs the show alongside the veteran writer/producer Carlton Cuse), “Pulse” has Willa Fitzgerald playing Danny, an E.R. resident at a Miami hospital, who is promoted to a position of authority after an H.R. complaint is lodged against a colleague, Xander (Colin Woodell). While trying to rally the skeptical staff in the middle of several escalating crises — including a hurricane and its aftermath — Danny reflects via flashbacks on her messy personal and professional relationship with Xander.‘The Clubhouse: A Year With the Red Sox’Starts streaming: April 8The Boston Red Sox finished the 2024 baseball season at 81-81, missing the playoffs for the third straight year. But they had stretches when they showed real promise, thanks to a core of talented young players like Jarren Duran, Rafael Devers and Brayan Bello. The latest docuseries from the producer and director Greg Whiteley (“Last Chance U,” “Cheer”) covers the Sox’s highs and lows last year, from spring training until game 162. Whiteley is known for getting intimate access to his subjects, and “The Clubhouse” is no exception. Baseball is full of big personalities, and this series gets up close and personal with them. Whiteley’s crew catches the complex preparations that go into every game, along with the mental and emotional struggles modern athletes endure when they make mistakes.‘Black Mirror’ Season 7Starts streaming: April 10Season 6 was a bit of a departure for the satirical science-fiction anthology “Black Mirror,” with more folklore-focused episodes and fewer stories about futuristic technology. Season 7 gets back to basics, with episodes that ask the kind of unsettling, ripped-from-the-zeitgeist questions the series’s creator, Charlie Brooker, is known for. What if a lifesaving medical intervention were available only as a subscription service? Could super-advanced computing programs alter our memories? Can A.I.-aided replications of pop culture be as satisfying as the originals? These ideas and more are explored by casts that include Rashida Jones, Issa Rae, Paul Giamatti, Peter Capaldi and Cristin Milioti. The season also includes the first “Black Mirror” sequel, in a feature-length episode that revisits the world of the Season 4 fan-favorite “U.S.S. Callister.”‘You’ Season 5Starts streaming: April 24The TV adaptation of Caroline Kepnes’s “You” novels comes to an end with Season 5, completing the saga of Joe (Penn Badgley), a handsome and charming young man who has a habit of becoming dangerously, murderously obsessed with women. The show began as a twisted riff on romantic comedies, imagining what those stories might be like if their Prince Charmings had a secret violent streak. But as Joe has met other sociopaths and tried to control his impulses, “You” has evolved into a pitch-dark serial-killer thriller, depicting a world teeming with predators. The final season begins with our antihero married and seemingly secure, but it does not take long before some new characters — including a quirky bibliophile (Madeline Brewer) and a ruthless corporate schemer (Anna Camp) — provoke Joe into resuming old habits.‘The Eternaut’ Season 1Starts streaming: April 30In 1957, the Argentine comic book writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld co-founded the anthology magazine “Hora Cero,” for which he began writing the adventures of a time-traveling, dimension-hopping, alien-fighting, scuba-mask-wearing Everyman. One of the first sustained attempts at a mature, science-fiction comics series, “The Eternaut” became a favorite of genre connoisseurs; and for decades, movie and TV producers have tried to adapt it. Netflix and the writer-director-producer Bruno Stagnaro have finally gotten the job done with a series that begins with an apocalyptic event — a freakish, deadly summer snowfall, descending on Buenos Aires — and then follows an ordinary guy, Juan Salvo (Ricardo Darin), as his simple fight for survival turns gradually into something more epic.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    A 270-Year-Old Scottish Folk Fiddle Makes Its Carnegie Hall Debut

    The ornately decorated fiddle belonged to the dance master who taught Robert Burns. At Carnegie, it will cap “Scotland’s Hoolie in New York.”Of course there will be bagpipes on Saturday, the eve of Tartan Day, when Carnegie Hall will host a lineup of stars. Among the luminaries of Scottish traditional music will be Julie Fowlis, who was featured in the soundtrack to Disney’s “Brave”; and Dougie MacLean, the singer-songwriter whose “Caledonia” has became an anthem for Scottish sports fans.The event, “Scotland’s Hoolie in New York,” will also be the Carnegie Hall debut of an aging celebrity who flew into New York on Tuesday, accompanied by a personal bodyguard, before taking up residence at a high-security location on the Upper East Side. This V.I.P., unannounced on the program, is likely to bring goosebumps to listeners during the final performance of Robert Burns’s “Auld Lang Syne.”The surprise guest, considered a national treasure in Scotland, has never been seen wearing tartans. The dignitary in question is a 270-year-old folk fiddle, covered in what looks like full-body floral tattoos, which belonged to the dance master William Gregg. It was Gregg who taught a 17-year-old Burns dance steps. And it was Gregg whom the young poet sought out, as he later wrote, “to give my manners a brush.” While there is no direct evidence that Burns played this fiddle, its sound would have been on his mind when he composed the jigs, reels and gracefully tripping strathspeys that continue to resound in any space where Scottish music is celebrated.Reminiscent of Turkish or Persian art, the fiddle’s decorations remain something of a mystery. Kieran Dodds for The New York TimesToday, the instrument is among the most popular items on show at the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum, and it is a Scottish national treasure, said Suzanne Reid, the conservator for the National Trust for Scotland who accompanied the Gregg fiddle on its trans-Atlantic journey. She was nervously monitoring the humidity levels at Freeman’s Hindman auction house, where I was granted a brief private audience.“It is an integral part of Scottish identity,” the accordionist Gary Innes, who organized the Hoolie, said in an interview. “To have it played in the most famous concert hall built by a Scot” — Carnegie Hall’s construction was funded by the Scotland-born Andrew Carnegie — “is very special. It brings people together.” (Innes will also perform in the Hoolie with his folk-rock band Manran.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More