Aurelia Butler

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    ‘Bird’ Review: In Search of Safety

    Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski star in a film about a preteen girl who longs for a stability she’s never experienced.Good parents are a rarity in Andrea Arnold’s movies. Instead, they tend to be neglectful and preoccupied, often for solid reasons: Arnold tells stories of working-class families, mostly British, mostly struggling to get by, mostly the offspring of parents who are, themselves, distracted and uninterested in their children’s lives. An early short film of Arnold’s, “Wasp,” has a mother locking her four children in the car while she tries to woo an old boyfriend in a bar. One of her best movies, “Fish Tank,” features a mother who punishes her daughter by telling her she should have gone through with her planned abortion instead of giving birth. The situation is pretty grim.By those standards, Bug (Barry Keoghan, covered in insect tattoos and grins) is a pretty good dad, if only because he talks to his kids. He has two of them, Hunter (Jason Buda) and Bailey (Nykiya Adams), and they live with him in a chaotic, ramshackle squat in northern Kent. Hunter is 14, born when Bug himself was 14; Bailey is 12, and getting fed up with her life. Her own mother (Jasmine Jobson) lives in another house with Bailey’s three stepsiblings.“Bird,” which Arnold wrote and directed, is really Bailey’s story, but Bug is a key part of it. At the start of the film, he brings home a toad in a plastic shopping bag. Bailey wrinkles her nose as he explains that the toad secretes a hallucinogenic, and all they have to do is get it to secrete the drug and then sell it and then, presto, they’ll be rich! He needs the money to live, but also because, he tells her, he’s getting married this weekend.Bailey is having none of Bug’s nonsense, but she doesn’t really know what to replace it with. She has no reference point for a different life and neither, you get the sense, does Bug. “Bird” is the story of children raising children. The complete absence of anything resembling structure is normal to them, but the feeling that the grown-ups are not really acting like grown-ups — that abuses and harms in their community are going unchecked — has gotten to the teenagers. Hunter has joined a gang of young teenage boys who call themselves “vigilantes” and will beat up a man, for instance, if he is abusing his girl.Bailey is on the verge of puberty, and waffling between anger and depression. One day, she meets a strange man who introduces himself as Bird (Franz Rogowski). He seems different from other adults, nonthreatening and quiet and gentle. Bailey only knows how to be abrasive, but she softens toward him, and they become friends. Where did Bird come from? Why is he here? She doesn’t know, and doesn’t care all that much: To her, he represents safety, though she is not sure why.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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    Ridley Scott on ‘Gladiator II,” Denzel Washington and Joaquin Phoenix

    It’s been 24 years since the director Ridley Scott scored one of the biggest hits of his career with “Gladiator,” a swords-and-sandals epic starring Russell Crowe that won the Oscar for best picture. Now 86, Scott still works at a prodigious pace, sometimes even directing two films in the same year.His latest is “Gladiator II,” which picks up two decades after Crowe’s character, Maximus, died heroically in the arena. In the years since, Lucius (Paul Mescal) — Maximus’s secret son — has been shuttled to North Africa where he, too, has become a capable fighter. But war waged by the Roman general Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal) will draw Lucius back to his birthplace, where the clever arms dealer Macrinus (Denzel Washington) will try to manipulate the young man to further his own ambitions.In October, I met Scott at his Los Angeles office, which was decorated with posters of some of his memorable films like “Alien,” “Blade Runner” and “The Martian.” True to form, while gearing up for the Nov. 22 release of “Gladiator II,” he was already deep into preproduction for his next movie (a Bee Gees biopic set to shoot in February) and had even begun storyboarding the one after that (a sci-fi adaptation).“I feel alive when I’m doing something at this level,” he said. “I don’t call it stress, I call it adrenaline. And a bit of adrenaline is good for you.”Here are edited excerpts from our conversation.Paul Mescal in “Gladiator II.” Scott said spotting talent is crucial to directing, and added: “To me, a casting director is as important as a good camera.”Paramount PicturesA sequel to “Gladiator” had been in the works for over two decades, making it by far the longest film you’ve ever developed. What made you want to see it through?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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    Banned From Atlanta: The Challenges of Young Thug’s Unique Probation

    The rapper was released from jail last week after a surprise guilty plea. For 15 years, a set of strict requirements will govern his life and music.One of the defining Atlanta rappers of his generation is no longer welcome in Atlanta.Following a surprise guilty plea last Thursday in a gang conspiracy and racketeering case that had already lasted nearly three years, the musician Young Thug, born Jeffery Williams, was given 48 hours to vacate the Atlanta metro area, as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, for the next decade.Once the chart-topping face of Atlanta’s ever-evolving music scene, Mr. Williams, 33, may now return only briefly, under strict circumstances: for the anti-gun and anti-gang presentations he is required to make to local youth four times annually, or for the weddings, funerals, graduations or medical emergencies of his immediate family members.Mr. Williams’s banishment from his hometown was just one of 12 special conditions that he agreed to as part of a plea deal that allowed him to be released from jail that very evening. But can an international hip-hop star pick up where he left off under a new set of strict provisions that could reshape his lyrics, persona and pool of collaborators?According to experts, the length and intensity of Mr. Williams’s probation could present complications down the line, given the requirements of his profession and the vagueness or subjectivity of some of the rules that now govern his life.The judge in the case — who was given full discretion to decide on a punishment because Mr. Williams’s lawyers and prosecutors could not agree on a sentence even if he pleaded guilty — decided on time served and 15 years of probation, with an additional 20 years of prison time hanging over Mr. Williams’s head if he violates the agreement.Along the way, Mr. Williams must agree to be searched at any time; take random drug tests; refrain from promoting gangs in any way; and avoid associating with known gang members, excluding his brother, the musician Quantavious Grier, who is known as Unfoonk; and Sergio Kitchens, or Gunna, a rapper signed to Mr. Williams’s label. (Both Mr. Grier and Mr. Kitchens took plea deals in the same case ahead of trial.)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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    ‘Elevation’ Review: A High Place

    Humans flee monsters who refuse to surpass 8,000 feet in altitude in this “Quiet Place” copycat.If certain movies are to be trusted, the apocalypse will occur when monsters swarm the Earth and hunt to kill people who are powerless to survive — unless they abide by one high-concept rule. Such is the story in “A Quiet Place,” a boffo hit franchise, and now “Elevation,” an action-packed copycat.The thriller begins by briskly conveying its premise: Three years earlier, bulletproof creatures emerged from hibernation to wipe out the majority of mankind. The predators — which locate victims by their carbon dioxide emissions, like killer air purifiers — refuse to surpass 8,000 feet in altitude, allowing for select communities of mountaintop survivors.We meet Will (Anthony Mackie), a gruff single father in an isolated alpine community, as he is forced to trek downslope in search of medical supplies for his son. Tagging along on the journey are Nina (Morena Baccarin) and Katie (Maddie Hasson), local tough ladies who swear, punch and effortlessly wield military-grade firearms.Directed by George Nolfi (“The Adjustment Bureau”), “Elevation” is distinctive not for its innovations in form or narrative — it’s got nothing new to offer — but for the anxieties and attitudes it telegraphs.“How do we take our place back?” Katie asks one evening, uncomfortably employing supremacist language. Nina’s reply: “If you study something long enough, you can figure out how to kill it.”Structured differently, “Elevation” might have congealed around themes of humanity and ingenuity in the face of danger. As is, its stance is defined only by aggression.ElevationRated R for language. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters. More

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    ‘Meet Me Next Christmas’ Review: An a Cappella Affair to Remember

    This Netflix Christmas rom-com inexplicably wants to remind viewers that the group Pentatonix still exists.You’d be forgiven if you were convinced in the early goings of “Meet Me Next Christmas” that the Netflix film is just a slightly more expensive Hallmark Christmas movie. combined with a wild-goose chase rom-com.Still, it’s not actually either of these things. This film, directed by Rusty Cundieff, seems to be a bewildering Christmas movie centered on reminding its viewers that the a cappella pop group Pentatonix still exists.After Layla (Christina Milian) is stuck in an airport during a holiday snowstorm, she hits it off with James (Kofi Siriboe), a suave stranger who might also be the man of her dreams. Knowing she’s in a relationship, James proposes that they don’t exchange any information, but instead meet one year later at a Pentatonix Christmas concert (the strangest version of the “Before Sunrise” premise if there ever was one).A year later, Layla, newly single, crisscrosses town for last-minute tickets to the show with the help of Teddy (Devale Ellis), a concierge whom she reluctantly begins to fall for.Their adventures play out with little charm, and the writing is often baffling, including the nonstop references to Pentatonix, who are also awkwardly featured in scenes throughout. (One can practically see their agent negotiating the contractual clauses onscreen.)In recent years Netflix has become a factory for B-rate Christmas movies, with the occasional cheap comfort to be found in its manufactured holiday romances. This bizarre concoction, not so much.Meet Me Next ChristmasNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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    ‘Pedro Páramo’ Review: A Ghost Story Lacking in Spirit

    In this grave adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s surreal novel, the living pray for salvation and the dead murmur regrets, but the filmmaking is oddly orthodox.The Mexican writer Juan Rulfo’s mystifying 1955 novel “Pedro Páramo” is, at least in the English-speaking world, most often invoked for its influence on Gabriel García Márquez. But admirers of the book (Susan Sontag famously among them) have long cited it as a masterpiece of spare surrealism.It is odd, then, that Netflix’s new adaptation, directed by the cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, is a rather orthodox work. Where this rich, metaphysical text might have come alive in dreamlike abstraction, Prieto and his screenwriter, Mateo Gil, instead content themselves with a prestige Western on terra firma — grave, good-looking and uninspiring.The story opens as Juan Preciado (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), our narrator, treks to the vale hamlet of Comala in search of its cacique, Pedro Páramo (Manuel García-Rulfo). He arrives to find Pedro dead and the village deserted, save for murmuring specters. From there, the movie becomes nonlinear, restlessly flitting around in time to chronicle how decades of yearning, anguish and the Páramo family’s sins eroded Comala’s spirit. What emerges is a lugubrious and at times frightening ghost saga in which the living fear hell and the dead bemoan past injustices.Yet for all its sprawling, “Pedro Páramo” also has a lot of talking. There are countless scenes of Pedro giving orders; only some of his stooges doing his bidding. The women, helpless and subordinate, mostly listen, except for Dorotea (Giovanna Zacarías), doomed to die penniless and then, from the grave, assist Juan in voice-over. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but at over two hours, this visual adaptation of Rulfo’s only novel rambles without much to say.Pedro PáramoRated R for violence and visions. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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    5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Vibraphone

    Are the vibes good? These tracks by Milt Jackson, Lionel Hampton, Roy Ayers and others, chosen by 12 musicians and writers, should convince you.We’re living in the era of “vibes.” But before that word was everywhere — before elections had “vibe shifts” and before a first date could be breezily ended because the vibes were just off — there was the instrument that started it all: the vibraphone.If you aren’t quite sure what that sounds like — well, there’s only one way to describe it. It’s vibey.Invented in the 1920s as an electrified variation of the marimba, the vibraphone is made out of tuned metal bars, which the player strikes with mallets; a tubular resonator that carries the sound; and a set of electronically controlled fans affecting how much vibrato goes on the notes (that is, how much they warble). Out of this complex contraption wafts a sound that is mellow and ethereal, but starkly rhythmic. After all, the vibraphone is a percussion instrument: Most vibraphonists who double on something else play the drums.The vibraphone has been a feature of jazz bandstands since about 1930, when a young Lionel Hampton — one of the first improvisers to master it — impressed Louis Armstrong by playing along with the trumpeter’s solos note for note. At Armstrong’s encouragement, he switched from being a full-time drummer to a vibraphonist. As its popularity grew, jazz musicians gave the instrument a nickname: “the vibes,” a term that came to signify not just the instrument’s metal bars and their vibrations but also the hazy, moody feeling that its sound produced.It is little wonder that, amid the revolutionary grooves of the 1960s, that term made the leap from jazz (and from Black American vernacular) to the general population. In the process, it gave us a slightly more musical way of describing everyday life.In the nearly 100 years since Hampton’s innovation, the vibraphone has traveled through the many shifts and stages of jazz and Black American music. These days, it’s being played by a broad range of musicians — from straight-ahead swingers to avant-gardists — a number of whom are quoted below. Read on for an array of vibes-heavy tracks, selected by musicians and writers. You can find a playlist at the bottom of the article, and if you have a personal favorite that wasn’t on the list, go ahead and drop it in the comments.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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    Shenseea’s Dancehall Music Makes Women ‘Feel Free’

    While touring the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston, Jamaica, on a Saturday in late September, Shenseea, the dancehall pop singer, paused at a glass case. Inside was the Grammy lifetime achievement award that Mr. Marley received posthumously in 2001.“Haffi get one,” she said in Jamaican Patois of her desire to win a Grammy of her own.Shenseea, 28, who was wearing a cropped turquoise halter top, a matching flowy skirt and Louis Vuitton slides, has already come closer than many. In 2022, she was up for album of the year for her work as a collaborator on Ye’s album “Donda.”The museum occupies Mr. Marley’s former home in the Jamaican capital, where Shenseea also has a residence. Though she was raised mostly in Kingston and grew up listening to Mr. Marley’s reggae music, she had never been to the museum before.“He made it so cool to be a rasta,” Shenseea said, referring to Mr. Marley’s association with the Jamaican spiritual movement Rastafarianism. She had left the museum and was sitting in the back seat of a white Mercedes-Benz, playing a string of breezy new songs she has yet to release. Mr. Marley, Shenseea continued, “showed the people that it’s OK to live your life the way you want to, even though it’s different.”The same could be said for Shenseea. Dancehall, a musical genre known for its suggestive lyrics and provocative visual style, was not a feature of her upbringing in a Christian household. “I wasn’t allowed to listen to dancehall music when I was young,” Shenseea said. “When I was in high school, that’s when I fell in love with it.”She is now among the brightest young stars of the genre, which blossomed in the 1970s in Kingston and is named for the dance halls that held parties in the city.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