Aurelia Butler

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    ‘Am I OK?’ Review: When It’s Time to Grow Up

    Dakota Johnson stars in an expansive friendship comedy about coming out in your 30s and finding yourself.The appeal of the late bloomer movie is rooted in its parent genre: the coming-of-age story. Our heroine begins a little naïve and learns some hard but good lessons, maybe falls in love. Sometimes a mentor provides wisdom before leaving her to stand on her own two feet. In a traditional coming-of-age story, the protagonist is usually very young, so that world is full of possibility. Anything could happen next.But with a late bloomer, the world’s possibilities have been shut down a little, and that shifts the tone. Decisions about career, friendships and family have already been made; the stakes of change are higher. That means a late bloomer story could be a comedy, or it could feel more melancholy, even like a tragedy. There’s an inherent realism in a film like “All of Us Strangers” or “Her” or “20th Century Women” that’s bracing and invigorating.Depending on your age, Lucy (Dakota Johnson), who is 32, may not feel old enough to be termed a late bloomer. But she certainly feels like she is. The protagonist of “Am I OK?” has settled into a quiet, unchallenging Los Angeles life. She’s the kind of person who stares at a diner menu full of options and then orders the same meal — veggie burger, sweet potato fries, black iced coffee — every time. She spends most of her free time with Jane (Sonoya Mizuno), her childhood best friend, and keeps her life ripple-free. She’s never been in love. At the end of dinners with Ben (Whitmer Thomas), the guy she’s ostensibly dating, she shakes his hand.By her own admission, Lucy is nervous all the time, “scared of everything.” Worse, she says, she’s not sure if she’s ever been happy, or what even makes her happy. She has built herself a comfortable box to live in, as long as nothing changes.Her box is about to cave in. One day, Jane announces that she’s moving to London for work, and Lucy suddenly feels unmoored. A feeling that’s been growing inside her is now too strong to ignore: Lucy knows she’s attracted to women. And she’s especially attracted to Brittany (Kiersey Clemons), the peppy new masseuse at the spa where she works as a receptionist.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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    Diane von Furstenberg, a Fashion Lioness in Winter

    Diane von Furstenberg’s friends like to tease that, had she been on the cinematic Titanic, she would have found a way to hoist up Jack from the freezing water and onto that wooden door. Three days later, Jack in tow, she would have sashayed into a soignée New York dinner party wearing that 56-carat blue diamond necklace.The woman has a strong will.I realized that the first time I met her in 1975, when I was a cub reporter at The Washington Star. At 28, Ms. von Furstenberg was already a sensation with the phenomenally successful $86 wrap dress; she had conjured it after seeing Julie Nixon Eisenhower on TV defending her father during Watergate, wearing a DVF wrap top and skirt.The tycooness, on a visit to D.C. to promote her brand, was in a rush to get to the airport and asked if I could come down to her car for the interview.I felt like I was climbing into a cage with a panther. I got into the back of a black limo and there she was in a dark mink coat, her long dark hair with a henna sheen spilling over her shoulders, her legs sheathed in black fishnets. She was nibbling from a box of dark chocolates on her lap. In her sultry Belgian accent, she offered me one. Her voice, as her late friend, Vogue’s André Leon Talley, said, “wraps itself around you like a cozy, warm cashmere muffler.”That half-hour in her limo was a revelation. In an era when we were instructed by male “experts” to dress and act like men to get ahead, Ms. von Furstenberg insisted on living a man’s life in a woman’s body. Her message was bracing: Meet men as equals but don’t imitate them. Ambition and stilettos can coexist.I immediately tossed out all my hideous dress-for-success floppy ties.I caught up with Ms. von Furstenberg recently to talk about a new Hulu documentary, “Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge,” on her vertiginous, glamorous life, a life darkened by the Holocaust, AIDS, her bout with tongue cancer and her periodic business woes.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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    Julia Fox: The Popcast (Deluxe) Interview

    Subscribe to Popcast!Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTubeThis week’s episode of Popcast (Deluxe), the weekly culture roundup show on YouTube hosted by Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, features an interview with the actress and downtown New York icon Julia Fox, speaking on a range of topics, including:Her appearance in the recent Charli XCX music video, “360,” with a slew of other “It Girls”Being the anti-“It Girl”Making decisions after starring in the movie “Uncut Gems,” along Adam Sandler, to right-size her fameHow motherhood has changed her relationship to adventureUpcoming acting projectsHow being transparent about her wild teen years shapes how she presents nowWhat she learned, good and bad, from her relationship with Kanye WestHer new song, “Down the Drain”Pop songs made by It Girl icons Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Addison Rae, Kim Kardashian, Farrah Abraham and Naomi CampbellTrying on different creative costumes, from acting to TV hosting to musicHer favorite magazines and online mediaWhat she learned from her infamous viral apartment tour videoSnack of the weekConnect 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. More

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    With ‘The Watchers’ and ‘Trap,’ the Shyamalan Family Scares Together

    Saleka and Ishana Night Shyamalan are collaborating with their father, M. Night Shyamalan, on the thrillers “The Watchers” and “Trap.” The release dates are a happy coincidence.The Shyamalan family is very close. How close? During a video interview with the sisters Saleka, 27, and Ishana Night Shyamalan, 24, their dad, the “Sixth Sense” director M. Night Shyamalan, called Ishana on the phone. The sound interrupted Ishana speaking about the differences between her and her father’s filmmaking process.“I’m like, you know we’re on this call right now,” she said with a laugh, ignoring the ring.Given this familial bond, it makes sense that the Shyamalan siblings are both on the cusp of major career moments this summer made in collaboration with their father. Ishana’s feature directing debut “The Watchers,” with Night as one of the producers, releases June 7, while Saleka, a musician, portrays a pop star in and wrote original songs for Night’s latest, “Trap,” due Aug. 9. The fact that both projects are emerging around the same time is coincidental, Ishana and Saleka said, but they are happy to share in the celebration.“I feel like in some ways we’ve always done that, since we were growing up, experience things together,” Saleka said. “So it feels right even though it was unplanned.”Dakota Fanning, who stars in “The Watchers,” with Ishana on set.Jonathan Hession/Warner Bros.In an era where discourse over nepotism in Hollywood runs hot, the Shyamalans wear their name proudly. (Their mom, Bhavna Shyamalan, is the owner of a fitness studio and the vice president of the M. Night Shyamalan Foundation.) Fans noticed that there was a poster for “The Watchers” in the “Trap” trailer. The sisters did acknowledge the advantages that come with their lineage, but they have tried to make up for that with discipline. “It’s really about meeting that privilege and honoring that with as hard a work ethic as we can, by being as kind people as we can and holding ourselves to the highest standard possible,” Ishana said.But no matter what they chose as professions, Saleka said, their dad was probably going to be nearby. “He’s just a super involved parent,” she said.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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    At the Tribeca Festival, Vision and Vibe

    The festival favors abundance, which can make it easy for cinema fans (and critics) to miss the loveliest trees for the sheer breadth of forest.Early in the animated film “Boys Go to Jupiter,” premiering at this year’s Tribeca Festival, an indie electronic beat kicks in. Like a music video rendered on Kid Pix, the sequence that follows finds the mulleted Rozebud (voiced by the singer Miya Folick) tending to neon citrus trees while crooning a melody as catchy as it is ethereal. The film, from the artist Julian Glander, belongs to a subset of Tribeca movies that use music in startling and adventurous ways. Their soundscapes conjure vision and feeling, as well as that ineffable thing sometimes called vibe.Running from Wednesday through June 16, the Tribeca Festival — it dropped “film” from its name in 2021 — is big on vibe, for better and for worse. This is an event that embraces virtual reality, artificial intelligence and immersive installations, that pairs its screenings with concerts and its concerts with visuals, that touts buzzword-friendly panels about brands, innovation or brand innovation. Spilling across downtown Manhattan and a little into Williamsburg, Tribeca favors multimedia abundance, which can make it easy for cinema fans (and critics) to miss the loveliest trees for the sheer breadth of forest.My favorite Tribeca selection also ranks in my top films of the year so far: Nathan Silver’s fidgety and finely tuned “Between the Temples,” a sensational Jewish love comedy about a dispirited cantor (Jason Schwartzman) and his adult bat mitzvah student (Carol Kane). I caught it at Sundance, and feel a sacred duty to spread the word. But I primarily dedicate my Tribeca time to sampling world premieres — movies that haven’t played at other festivals and need a nudge to break out.A scene from “Boys Go to Jupiter,” directed by Julian Glander.Julian GlanderIn my hunt for gems, I often have luck in the Viewpoints section, designed to house films that push the boundaries of form and perspective. It was there that I made contact with the otherworldly “Boys Go to Jupiter,” a memorable standout, and not only because of Rozebud’s earworm. Following a cast of slackers and crackpots in suburban Florida, the video game-like musical comedy marries gummy 3-D graphics and stoned-guy humor with sly commentary on hustle culture and the gig economy. The ensemble of avatars is voiced by a corps d’elite of quirky comedians like Cole Escola and Julio Torres.Glander’s film would pair nicely with “Eternal Playground,” a Parisian drama that follows Gaspard (Andranic Manet), a middle school music teacher. Shot in sumptuous 16 mm, this labor of love from the filmmakers Pablo Cotten and Joseph Rozé opens just before the bell rings for summer break, although Gaspard won’t be leaving the premises: He and five childhood pals have resolved to secretly camp out in the vacant school while classes are out for summer. A French New Wave-inflected love letter to the schoolyard, “Eternal Playground” accompanies the crew as they sing, romp, reminisce and memorialize a late friend.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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    Luther Vandross, Pop Perfectionist, Didn’t Want You to Hear These Albums

    Early records reveal that his sumptuous voice and longing lyrics were there from the start. Out of print since 1977, “This Close to You” will be available Friday.Nile Rodgers’s very first professional recording session, in the late 1970s, got off to a bumpy start. He wasn’t the only guitarist booked to work with Luther, a group fronted by Luther Vandross, but Rodgers was the youngest, making him an easy target when Paul Riser, the Motown veteran arranging the session, noted something he didn’t like.“He heard some things that were not correct on the chart,” Rodgers said, and “assumed it was me.” After an expletive-peppered exchange, Vandross stepped in and smoothed out the discord. From then on, Rodgers and Vandross were good friends and collaborators. (Rodgers said Vandross taught him everything he knows about “gang vocals,” the thrilling, unison shout-singing that made zesty singles like Chic’s “Everybody Dance” become enduring dance-floor staples.)The session yielded “This Close to You,” a long out-of-print album originally released in 1977, which will hit streaming services on Friday. Vandross’s short-lived group also cut the self-titled “Luther” (1976), which was rereleased in April. Both albums, made for Cotillion Records, are receiving new attention ahead of the 20th anniversary of his death.“Luther” includes the only known recording by Vandross of “Everybody Rejoice,” his composition for “The Wiz,” which returned to Broadway this year. JaQuel Knight, the choreographer of the revival, singled out the climactic number as one of the few songs that has a life of its own outside the context of the musical.“Besides ‘Ease on Down the Road,’ it’s probably the biggest song in the production,” he said, before singing some of the triumphant hook. A documentary about Vandross’s life premiered earlier this year at Sundance and will be released in 2025.But Vandross, an eight-time Grammy winner who worked his entire career to resolve the tensions between celebrity and privacy, between a desire for crossover pop success and a sublime ability for orchestrating in the background, may have preferred that the records never again saw the light of day.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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    5 Minutes That Will Make You Love South African Jazz

    The country has a rich, original relationship to jazz, with American techniques layered into regional traditions and rhythms. Explore 50 years of recordings picked by musicians, poets and writers.We’ve spent five minutes each with stars like Shirley Horn, Sarah Vaughan, Max Roach and John Coltrane. We’ve traveled together to New Orleans, and to the outskirts of the avant-garde. But we haven’t jumped past the boundaries of the United States. Let’s change that.Perhaps no country outside North America has as rich, or original, a relationship to jazz music as South Africa. In the 1950s and ’60s, as the apartheid government enforced an increasingly brutal code of racial hierarchy, South African musicians, poets, artists, radical clergy and organizers found in this music a symbol of Black cosmopolitanism, interracial experimentation and free thought — all anathema to the regime.Taking the swinging bravado of American beboppers as their model, young musicians in the mixed neighborhoods of Sophiatown, Johannesburg, and District Six, Cape Town, found their own uses for the techniques of jazz, layering them into regional traditions. In Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape, the vocal tradition of isicathamiya and the steady, Zulu and Xhosa dance rhythms of the regions exerted strong influence. In Cape Town, improvisers picked up on the carnival music of the townships’ Coloured population, a mix of Malaysian, Indian, Dutch, Khoisan and Black African heritages.Many of the country’s greatest musicians wound up in exile, and figures like Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Dorothy Masuka, Johnny Dyani and Abdullah Ibrahim became de facto ambassadors for their country’s repressed population. But back home, the music continued to develop in the hands of figures like Kippie Moeketsi, Robbie Jansen and Dolly Rathebe.After apartheid crumbled — three decades ago this spring — a new wave of musicians, in the so-called “born free” generation, came to jazz with their own set of questions, curious to feel out the meaning of the tradition when its ideals were no longer illicit. Since then, South African society has continued to evolve, and so has the music. (Not covered on this list: the amapiano boom that’s swept the world of late, and that’s definitely worth another five minutes of your time.)Below you’ll find a sampling of South African recordings from the past 50 years, picked out for you by a mix of musicians, poets and scholars. You can find a playlist at the end of the article, and be sure to leave your own favorites 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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    As Ukraine Rebuilds Its Identity, Folk Songs Are the New Cool

    At first sight, it looked like a typical party in a nightclub. It was mid-March in central Kyiv and a hundred or so people were wiggling on the dance floor of V’YAVA, one of the Ukrainian capital’s most popular live music venues. The hall was dark, lit only by bright blue and red spotlights. Bartenders were busy pouring gin and tonics.But the lineup that night, in a concert hall that typically hosts pop artists and rappers, was unexpected: four Ukrainian folk singers, filling the room with their high-pitched voices and polyphonic choruses, accompanied by a D.J. spinning techno beats — all to a cheering crowd.These days, Ukrainian folk music “is becoming something cool,” said Stepan Andrushchenko, one of the singers from Shchuka Ryba, the band onstage that night. “A very cool thing.”More than two years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, folk music is enjoying a surge of popularity in the war-torn nation. Faced with Moscow’s efforts to erase Ukrainian culture, people have embraced traditional songs as a way to reconnect with their past and affirm their identity.“It’s like a defensive measure,” said Viktor Perfetsky, 22, who started traditional singing classes after the war broke out. “If we don’t know who we are, the Russians will come and force us to be what they want us to be.”Members of the Ukrainian band Shchuka Ryba rehearsing for an upcoming concert.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