Aurelia Butler

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    How to Escape a T-Rex in ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’

    The director Gareth Edwards narrates a harrowing sequence from his film.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.Don’t you hate it when you’re trying to escape by raft from an island riddled with dinosaurs and you manage to wake up a sleeping T-Rex in the process?That scenario becomes one of the signature moments in “Jurassic World Rebirth,” the latest in the long-running dino thriller franchise.In the scene, a family becomes trapped on an island where the setting is lush and the creature threats are plentiful. One family member, Teresa (Luna Blaise), finds a raft but also encounters a certain snoozing theropod nearby. The raft, per the instructions written on the side of it (seen in a close-up shot), must be opened on land.“This was something we added in the edit,” Edwards said, narrating the scene and discussing the close-up, “because we did a test screening and the audience was just like, why would you inflate it in front of a T-Rex?”Next, the filmmakers used the opportunity to make a dino disappear before the viewers’ eyes. The T-Rex is in the background of the shot, but then is hidden from view once the raft inflates on its side. When the raft gets turned flat in the water, the dinosaur has disappeared. “You sort of get this David Copperfield moment,” Edwards said.In discussing where the sequence was shot, Edwards said, “What you’re looking at is two main locations. One is in Thailand and it’s really actually a lake. We use it as a river, but it’s this big lake within a quarry. And then, once the rafting begins proper, it becomes this location in the U.K. called Lee Valley, which was essentially built for the London Olympics in 2012.”Only one of these locations was warm.“In London, in the rapid section,” Edwards said, “it’s freezing cold. And the actors, they were very tolerant, but we had to do take after take after take as you can imagine. And slowly through the day, I could see the look in their eyes. They wanted to kill me.”Read the “Jurassic World Rebirth” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

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    Superhero Movies Dominated the Box Office, but Not the Top 100 List

    The notable exceptions — “The Dark Knight” and “Black Panther” — stood out among the many sequels and spinoffs.Any way you look at the last 25 years in film, there’s no denying that superhero movies have been a vital part of 21st-century big screen entertainment. Many refer to the release of “Iron Man” in 2008 as the official kickoff of what would become the moneymaking engine that resulted in a steady stream of blockbusters, sequels, phases and cinematic universes unto themselves. And yet “Iron Man,” and most of its successors, plucked from Marvel and DC Comics alike, are conspicuously absent from The New York Times list of the 100 best films from the 21st century so far, as voted on by influential directors, actors and other notable names in Hollywood.For some, this may not be at all surprising. Audiences will buy tickets to the next Marvel movie, and perhaps even enjoy it for whatever combination of cinematic spectacle, fan nostalgia and actual solid filmmaking it offers, but many would be more loath to grant it the prestige of a top film.But it’s also worth considering how years of oversaturation of superhero stories on movies and TV have worn on even the most loyal fans, causing superhero fatigue and casting a shadow over even the acclaimed films that have come out of the genre. It’s difficult to consider the individual merits of films that primarily serve as cogs in the larger wheels of their franchises.Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” which along with “Black Panther” is one of the two superhero movies that made the list, is acclaimed for bridging the gap between prestige filmmaking and comic book material. It doesn’t hurt, too, that the film looks the part of your typical award-winning drama, with a grim, realistic tone and showcasing well-loved serious actors like Christian Bale and Gary Oldman.“The Dark Knight” and “Black Panther” are prime examples of the idea that there can be more to superhero movies than camp, spandex and CGI. The two stand out for their nuanced philosophical musings: “The Dark Knight” questions the line between chaos and control, and the significance of the hero as a symbol of justice in a world where justice is not always synonymous with law and order.And “Black Panther” was not simply the first major Black superhero film of the century, featuring Black leads, Black culture and a beautiful Black utopia, but an examination of how the diaspora created a rift between Black Africans and African Americans. And both films starred now-departed actors giving career-defining performances: Heath Ledger and Chadwick Boseman.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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    Lawrence Power Wants You to Pay Attention to the Viola

    Lawrence Power’s instrument has been overlooked throughout its history. He has made a career of changing that.Hector Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” is full of wandering. In his memoirs he wrote that, through this symphony with viola obbligato, based on the mood of Lord Byron’s poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” and inspired by the composer’s unfruitful time in Italy, he sought to make the viola “a kind of melancholy dreamer.”The violist Lawrence Power has spent his whole career playing “Harold in Italy.” But, he said in an interview, he has always been “completely uncomfortable and just confused by the whole piece.” It’s essentially a symphony, but completely different from a conventional one, with a viola solo part that drifts in and out of the action. Berlioz “obviously had something in mind to have the viola separate from the orchestra,” Power said, guessing that the composer “had something theatrical in mind.”In a dramatized performance of “Harold in Italy” with Aurora Orchestra at the Southbank Center in London late last month, Power leaned into that wandering, theatrical spirit, something that has also become a hallmark of his recent work. After whistling the piece’s idée fixe, or recurring theme, while strolling from a raised platform amid the ensemble, Power recited searching sections of Berlioz’s memoirs and wandered through the auditorium, playing sections of the obbligato part with a distant, slightly aloof expression.This is just another idiosyncratic project by Power, somebody who has championed the viola for the past 25 years, with a particular focus on new work. He’s not alone: Viola soloists often have to become champions for their instrument, which has been underappreciated throughout its history.“There’s no defined idea of what a viola is,” Power said.Kalpesh Lathigra for The New York TimesWe 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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    Michael Madsen, Actor Known for ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill,’ Dies at 67

    He had the air of a timeless Hollywood bad guy who seemed to have stepped out of a 1940s film noir. “I’m a bit of a throwback to the days of black-and-white movies,” he said.Michael Madsen, a sledgehammer of an actor who became one of Hollywood’s reigning bare-knuckled heavies thanks to indelible performances in Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” and “Kill Bill” series, as well as in the critically acclaimed mob film “Donnie Brasco,” died on Thursday at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 67.The cause was cardiac arrest, said his manager, Ron Smith.Mr. Madsen never achieved true leading-man status like his soul mates Charles Bronson and James Gandolfini — but perhaps, measured by volume, he did. A tough guy’s tough guy, he seemed ubiquitous in his 1990s heyday, one of those guy-who-was-in-everything actors, like Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán.His Internet Movie Database entry cites 346 acting credits. By comparison, Mr. Bronson, a longtime marquee-topper known for star vehicles like the “Death Wish” series, had 164 when he died in 2003 at 81.With a whiff of Mickey Rourke, a hint of Sylvester Stallone and a linebacker’s physique, Mr. Madsen had the air of a timeless Hollywood bad guy who seemed to have stepped out of a 1940s film noir.This point was abundantly clear to the actor himself.“Maybe I was just born in the wrong era, man,” he said in a 2004 interview with The Guardian. “I’m a bit of a throwback to the days of black-and-white movies. Those guys back then, they had a certain kind of directness about them. A lot of the screenplays, the plots were very simplistic — they gave rise to a type of antihero that maybe I suit better.”If the role called for a sprinkle of sadism, Mr. Madsen was your man, as showcased in “Reservoir Dogs” (1992), Mr. Tarantino’s breakout thriller about a crew of slick-suited thieves bungling a diamond heist in the bloodiest possible fashion. He was part of an ensemble cast that also included Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn and Steve Buscemi.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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    Crumbl’s Benson Boone ‘Moonbeam Ice Cream’ Cookies Are a Hit

    With help from social media, Crumbl’s Benson Boone-inspired Moonbeam Ice Cream has received an extended run.If the singer Benson Boone were a cookie, he’d taste, in this reporter’s opinion, unpleasant. The flavor would be cloyingly sweet and frosted with notes of lemon, berry and an unnameable processed aftertaste that lingers on the tongue as if you’ve just woken up and have yet to brush your teeth.Or, at the very least, that’s what a Crumbl cookie inspired by one of Mr. Boone’s songs tastes like.Still, that hasn’t stopped people from popping into the nearest Crumbl — of which there are more than 1,000 locations across the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada — to purchase Benson Boone’s Moonbeam Ice Cream Cookie, a collaboration between the sweet treat company and the artist.Mr. Boone, a singer who quit “American Idol” in 2021 and found mainstream fame soon after, is perhaps best known for backflipping off pianos in tight jumpsuits while performing his hit “Beautiful Things.” (Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief executive, borrowed the particular blue, sequined suit Mr. Boone wore for the 2025 Grammy Awards while he serenaded his wife at her birthday party earlier this year. He did not do a backflip.)Benson Boone is perhaps best known for backflipping during performances.Mario Anzuoni/Reuters“Mystical Magical,” another song by Mr. Boone, was the inspiration for the cookie thanks to the lyric “you can feel like moonbeam ice cream, taking off your bluejeans.”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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    Alternate Juror at the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Trial: ‘I Understand’ the Verdict

    A Manhattan man who did not deliberate but heard all 28 days of testimony said in an interview that he was not persuaded by the prosecution’s case.An alternate juror in Sean Combs’s federal trial said in an interview that he agreed with the jury’s verdict, which found the music mogul not guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Combs was convicted of two counts of a lesser charge, transportation to engage in prostitution, and remains detained while he awaits sentencing.“I understand how my fellow jurors came to that conclusion,” the alternate, a Manhattan man named George, said in an interview on Thursday with The New York Times.As an alternate, George was not present for the deliberations by the jury of eight men and four women who reached the verdict, though he was seated in the jury box for the entirety of the case, and said he took some 350 pages of notes.He described the panel as a collegial group that ate lunches together and followed the judge’s rules not to discuss the case until they had been told to decide on a verdict.The jury reached its verdict on Wednesday morning after about 13 and a half hours of deliberations.The jurors in the case were granted anonymity by the judge to protect their privacy in a high-profile trial. The Times is publishing only George’s first name because of his concern that he might face harassment. No other jurors have spoken publicly about the case.To corroborate George’s identity, The Times examined public records and his social media accounts, and questioned him about his answers to the judge during the public jury-selection process. He also shared an image of the juror badge given to him by the court.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’s Winning Defense: He’s Abusive, but He’s Not a Racketeer

    In defusing much of the government’s case, lawyers for the music mogul did not dispute that he did bad things. They disputed that they matched the crimes he was charged with.Over 28 days of testimony, federal prosecutors called witnesses who gave compelling accounts of harrowing violence, acts of intimidation and voyeuristic sex in hotel rooms with oceans of baby oil. Sean Combs, they said, was the ringleader.Investigators detailed for the jury raids at Mr. Combs’s mansions in Miami Beach, Fla., and Los Angeles, where they carted away several AR-15-style guns and illicit narcotics. People who worked for Mr. Combs, the music mogul known as Puffy Daddy or Diddy, testified that they had procured drugs for him or had witnessed his physical abuse of a former girlfriend.In the face of this evidence, the defense presented a case that lasted less than half an hour. Mr. Combs declined to testify, and no other witnesses were called. The rapid turnaround was startling after six weeks of trial.But in retrospect, the defense’s compact case was a sign that Mr. Combs’s lawyers felt confident the government had not done enough to convince a federal jury that Mr. Combs was, as charged, the boss of a criminal enterprise.That confidence had appeared to waver on Tuesday afternoon, when eight of Mr. Combs’s lawyers somberly huddled near their client after jurors said they had reached a verdict on all but the racketeering charge. But those same lawyers turned jubilant on Wednesday after the jury declared Mr. Combs not guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy — the two most severe charges against him.While Mr. Combs’s convictions on two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution could result in his spending years in prison, sex-trafficking or racketeering convictions would have carried potential life sentences.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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    Reacting to the Sean Combs Verdict

    Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicOn Wednesday, the eight-week trial of Sean Combs came to a close with a mixed verdict. Mr. Combs was found guilty on two counts of transporting people for prostitution and was acquitted of the remaining charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.The result was widely seen as a victory for the music mogul, who was facing the possibility of life in prison if convicted on all charges.On this week’s Popcast, a conversation about the strategies of the prosecution and the defense throughout the trial; how Mr. Combs has molded tragedy into tales of triumphing over personal adversity throughout his career; and about what avenues of public rehabilitation might now be available to him. Guests:Joe Coscarelli, New York Times music reporterConnect With Popcast. Become a part of the Popcast community: Join the show’s Facebook group and Discord channel. We want to hear from you! Tune in, and tell us what you think at popcast@nytimes.com. Follow our host, Jon Caramanica, on Twitter: @joncaramanica. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. More