Eliana Willis

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    in Television

    Mike Tyson and Netflix Are Sluggish During a Hyped Fight

    Tyson looked slow and unsteady in a dull loss to Jake Paul. For many, Netflix’s latest live programming was hindered by buffering.The anticipated boxing match between Jake Paul, the 27-year-old social media influencer, and Mike Tyson, the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion, ended in unspectacular fashion on Friday night as boos rained down from the crowd at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.Paul was declared the winner after eight dull rounds during which Tyson looked slow and exhausted. Many fans watching at home were just as displeased: Netflix, which was airing the fight as part of its expansion into live programming, experienced a variety of technical difficulties.Here are three takeaways from the event:A Made-for-Streaming SpectacleThe night’s final match was not one to remember, but it capped days of spectacle.During their weigh-in on Thursday, Tyson slapped Paul across the face, explaining later that Paul had stepped on his foot. After the fight, Paul and Tyson seemed to forgive each other in the ring. “That was a good slap, I liked that,” Paul said.Paul had entered the ring after a dramatic walkout during which he and his brother, Logan, approached in a slowly moving car. Paul, who has compiled an 11-1 record since his first professional boxing bout in 2020, easily won the fight by landing effective punches that broke through Tyson’s defense. Tyson, who last fought an official match in 2005, fell to 50-7.Netflix took advantage of the event to show off for its more than 280 million subscribers. People dressed as characters from “Squid Game,” whose second season releases next month, were shown ringside. After one of the night’s earlier fights, Netflix played a trailer from Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz’s upcoming movie, “Back in Action,” which will premiere in January.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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    ‘Chicken Shop Date’ and the Art of Talk-Show Flirtation

    Banter can be funny and sexy at the same time, as the web series shows. David Letterman and Teri Garr knew that. If only today’s late-night hosts did.Seduction is woven into the relationship between interviewer and subject. To get someone to open up, you need to build trust, ask nosy questions, charm, prod. It’s a delicate dance.The internet hit “Chicken Shop Date” takes this idea and runs with it. Its host, the flamboyantly unimpressed British comedian Amelia Dimoldenberg, invites celebrities with something to promote out on a date. Part of the joke is that the encounter takes place in the least romantic of places, brightly lit fast-food joints. Yet over the past decade, she has consistently produced entertainingly charged conversations.In tightly edited meet-cutes with Jack Harlow or Jennifer Lawrence or, most recently (and famously), Andrew Garfield, Dimoldenberg has done more than anyone to resuscitate the dying art of talk-show flirtation.Network late-night hosts today are all scrupulously respectable married men (along with an introverted single woman, Taylor Tomlinson). They are more likely to stare into the eyes of a beautiful actress and gush about her movie than chat her up. Popular podcasters like Joe Rogan or Andrew Schulz are just as sexless, more comfortable with amiable banter among straight dudes than awkward tension with the opposite sex.It wasn’t always so. Johnny Carson and Angie Dickinson once dated, and you could tell when she went on his show. Faced with a beautiful actress, Craig Ferguson tended to rip up his notes and put his Scottish accent to work, bantering lasciviously. My favorite romantic comedies as a kid were not at the movies, but on “Late Night with David Letterman.” Letterman was not above cheap leering, but more than his predecessors, he sought formidable counterparts for flirty comic repartee. An on-air prank call to the office across the street from his studio led to a riveting monthly segment with a sharp-witted book publicist, Meg Parsont, that went on for years and came off like a courtship from some bizarro-world reality TV show.Dimoldenberg belongs to this tradition but also breaks from it. She is a casually arch woman on the internet, not a besuited man on television, and pushes the performance of romance (and comedy) further. She asks some standard questions (“Snog, marry, avoid?”), but she seeks out chaos, awkwardness and a certain prickly playfulness.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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    in Theater

    Murder as Family Tradition in ‘Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists’

    Tiago Rodrigues’s play is intentionally a work of provocation, but it is also stylized to create a helpful distance from events and ideas.When the booing started, and the yelling, and then the exodus of audience members, the fascist had been orating for quite a while, spewing hatred of the usual groups: women, migrants, vaguely defined minorities. The picture of presentability in his suit and tie, he sneered at constitutional restraints.“Those who voted for us have a dream for this country,” he said. “That Constitution isn’t going to be the thing to stop us realizing that dream.”It’s not a sentiment likely to win approbation from any audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in a deep blue corner of this deep blue city. But it may have been even more nettling on Wednesday night, when the headlines were filled with President-elect Donald J. Trump’s appointments to his incoming administration. In any case, it was around that line that the jeering from the crowd began.Which meant either that Tiago Rodrigues’s play “Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists” was working as the provocation it’s designed to be, or that after more than two hours without an intermission, people were unwilling to endure a poisonous monologue by a despicable character that went on and on. And on.“Wrap it up!” someone shouted, which was not exactly ideologically pointed. Others hurled obscenities, seemingly venting anger about real-world politics. The disturbance never approached gale force, however; an opera audience, more acquainted with expressing outrage, might have summoned greater energy.What superb timing, though, for this strange, contemplative, enticingly titled play to arrive in New York, as part of BAM’s Next Wave festival, in association with L’Alliance New York’s Crossing the Line Festival. For many of us, theater is secular church. Performed in Portuguese with English supertitles at the Harvey Theater, this is a service well worth attending.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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    Billy Bob Thornton Reflects on Life and ‘Landman’

    You would think a performing arts hall in Connecticut named after Katharine Hepburn, in a quiet seaside town like Old Saybrook would be safe. You would think a crowd of mostly ex-hippie gray-hairs, who had paid to sit in plush red chairs, hear you sing and have you sign their “Bad News Bears” posters, would be free of hecklers.You would be wrong. And now Billy Bob Thornton, on tour with his rock band the Boxmasters, was going to have to invite a man who had just called him a “condescending jerk” — except he hadn’t shouted “jerk” — to come up and sit on the edge of the stage with him and work this out, man to man. He was going to have to explain, as he has surely gotten tired of explaining, that he isn’t who you think he is.“I can tell you people that I know personally, who will walk by every fan and not even look at them,” he said from the stage. “I stand by the bus and I sign every person’s picture. I talk to everybody. I take a picture with everyone.”It was, in the end, a perfectly pleasant conversation, but one might assume that at 69, a man of Thornton’s acclaim and accomplishments wouldn’t feel the need to plead his case at all. Again wrong. While he was reluctant to talk about the incident when we caught up by phone a few weeks later, he is otherwise open about his insecurities and his feelings of being misunderstood, just as he is open about his disappointments — particularly his disappointments with Hollywood.If Thornton has appeared to pull back from Hollywood a bit in recent years, that is by design. The once up-and-coming filmmaker who wrote, directed and starred in the Oscar-winning “Sling Blade” had already given up writing and directing movies years ago because of how studios treated him just after that 1996 film — something he is “still pissed off” about, he said. He still loves acting but is increasingly selective: His role in the new Taylor Sheridan series “Landman,” premiering Sunday on Paramount+, is one of only a handful of major roles he has taken since “Bad Santa 2,” from 2016.In the new Taylor Sheridan series “Landman,” Thornton plays a guy who is basically Thornton if he had a job putting out fires, figurative and literal, on a West Texas oil field.Emerson Miller/Paramount+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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    Late Night Feels Queasy About America’s Next Health Czar, R.F.K. Jr.

    Stephen Colbert urged viewers to keep an open mind about the pick, “because that’s how the worm gets in.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Take Your VitaminsOn Thursday, President-elect Donald J. Trump said he would nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic known for some strange encounters with animals, to be his secretary of health and human services.Stephen Colbert advised his booing audience to keep an open mind, “because that’s how the worm gets in.”“So, R.F.K. Jr. is now in charge of our health, exactly what everyone voted for. Surely, this will lower the price of eggs.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“And who better to be in charge of health and humans than a guy whose brain was partially devoured by a worm?” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Unpasteurized whale juice for everybody!” — JORDAN KLEPPER“Wow, this is exciting news. We are making things in America again, specifically, Patient Zeros.” — JORDAN KLEPPER“If you’ve been feeling under the weather since the election, don’t worry — pretty soon, everyone else will be sick, too.” — JORDAN KLEPPER“Trump originally wanted a doctor in that role. Turns out the late, great Hannibal Lecter isn’t a real person, so.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“There are many theories as to why Trump is naming a battalion of bozos to do these very important jobs. Some believe he’s testing the Republican Congress to see how far he can push them. Some say he’s doing this strategically to weaken certain sections of the government. Or, and this is the theory that I believe, he’s dumb.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Yesterday’s Bad News Continued Edition)“President-elect Trump announced yesterday on Truth Social that he is picking Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general. Even crazier: Gaetz’s girlfriend just got Class President.” — SETH MEYERS“When asked about President-elect Trump selecting Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz as his nominee for attorney general, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said it was not on her ‘bingo card.’ As for what’s on Matt Gaetz’s bingo card: B-17.” — SETH MEYERS“OK, senator, that is your first mistake right there. Now that Trump’s been re-elected, we all get new bingo cards with none of those boring numbers like B-14 and N-7. Mine has, let’s see, ‘Trump/Putin, matching tracksuits,’ ‘Chief Justice Kid Rock’ and ‘Deport Ricky Martin.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“For everyone who didn’t have that on your bingo card, maybe throw out the bingo card, ’cause it’s a whole new bingo now. Instead of numbers, it’s just going to be symbols from the Zodiac killer.” — SETH MEYERSThe Bits Worth WatchingJimmy Fallon presented Michael Bublé with his new album, “Holiday Seasoning,” as an early Christmas gift on Thursday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutChristian Borle, left, as Jim Bakker and Katie Brayben as Tammy Faye Bakker in the musical “Tammy Faye” at the newly renovated Palace Theater in Manhattan.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesA new Broadway musical about Tammy Faye fails to capture her campy persona. More

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    in Theater

    Review: Tammy Faye Was Over-the-Top. This Musical Makes Her Small.

    “Tammy Faye,” a bland, tonal mishmash of a show opening on Broadway, seems afraid to lean into what made the televangelist so distinctive.“Tammy Faye,” the new Broadway musical about the televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, kicks off with a projection of a set of eyes in close-up, mascara running down in a dramatic streak.It’s a visually arresting reference to the real-life Bakker, whose electrifyingly made-up eyes, encased in clumped lashes, gave her a look of perpetually startled innocence. Not for nothing, there have been two films titled “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” — a documentary narrated by RuPaul in 2000 and a 2021 feature for which Jessica Chastain won an Academy Award for best actress. Together, they represent what Tammy Faye, who died in 2007, is now famous for: camp iconification and performance of the self.But after that teasing introduction, Tammy Faye’s signature Kabuki facade barely figures in the disjointed, strangely bland musical that opened on Thursday at the newly renovated Palace Theater. It is laudable that the show’s composer, Elton John; lyricist, Jake Shears (of Scissor Sisters); book writer, James Graham; and director, Rupert Goold, tried to go behind the mask of this complicated, outsize woman, whose public persona was shaped by and for television. The problem is that they ended up making her smaller than life.Brayben won an Olivier Award for her performance in the original production in London.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesThe show, which originated two years ago at the Almeida Theater in London, is a straightforward look at the rise and fall of Tammy Faye (Katie Brayben, who won an Olivier Award for her performance in the original production). The climb begins when she encounters Jim Bakker (Christian Borle, leaning hard on his comic skills) in the 1960s. The couple share a sunny vision of proselytizing Christianity, delivering their message through playful puppets rather than fiery sermons. We follow them as they take to the airwaves and pioneer the use of television to spread the gospel and raise a lot of cash. By the 1970s, they have their own satellite network, PTL, on which they host a popular program.And then the wheels fall off the wagon, as the Bakkers are swayed by money, sex and, in Tammy Faye’s case, pills.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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    in Theater

    ‘King Lear’ Review: Kenneth Branagh’s Latest Finds the Wrong Tone

    Kenneth Branagh’s production of the Shakespeare classic speeds through the material and can’t quite figure out its tone.Kenneth Branagh’s “King Lear,” which opened Thursday night at the Shed, is a tragedy that doesn’t seem to know why it’s so tragic. The production’s fleet and feathery interpretation of how one man’s decline rains down misfortune on everyone around him undercuts the gravity of the classic, demoting it into a mere trifle.The play, as many may recall from high school English classes, opens with Lear (Branagh) offering to split his kingdom among his three daughters according to who will flatter him the most. While his two older daughters, Goneril (Deborah Alli) and Regan (Saffron Coomber), comply, his favorite, Cordelia (Jessica Revell), refuses. Lear casts her off with nothing to her name. But the king, accompanied by his jester (also Revell) and a loyal disciple in disguise (Eleanor de Rohan), is eventually driven to madness as he receives what he sees as disloyal treatment at the hands of his sycophantic daughters. Meanwhile, Goneril and Regan scheme against each other for power and for the hand of Edmund (Dylan Corbett-Bader), a wily creep willing to betray his own family for his advancement. Perhaps needless to say, most of these characters are dead by the final scene.Each new production of “Lear” offers its own take on whether the play’s tragedy branches from the titular royal’s psychosis, dementia or a broken ego. In Branagh’s production — he is a co-director with Rob Ashford and Lucy Skillbeck — the king doesn’t come across as feeble in any way. In fact, he’s fit as a fiddle. This Lear hops, crawls and gambols across the stage, even running off into the audience stands at the Griffin theater, meant to stand in for England in the New Stone Age. And despite Branagh’s cartoonish wails and babbles, this production never seems to believe Lear is ever truly ensnared by madness; there’s still a mild sense of cogency to Branagh’s performance throughout that colors him more as a wacky dad with hurt feelings than as a weakened ruler.The show’s breakneck pacing, too, makes it sometimes read more like a light comedy. All considerable five acts are indelicately stuffed into a speedy two hours, without intermission. Though I don’t begrudge a shorter “Lear” — the lengthy play does often meander its way to its protagonist’s demise — this production bolts mercilessly through the dialogue with a cadence that doesn’t allow much space for nuanced emoting, silences or scene transitions to let the story’s depths sink in.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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    Season 2 of ‘Bad Sisters’ Is Still Stylish and Thrilling

    There is a sense, however, that the most important events in this offbeat Apple TV+ drama happened in Season 1.Season 2 of “Bad Sisters” (two episodes of which are available now, on Apple TV+) arrives after a two-year break, but the plots and pressures are driven completely by the action of the first season. The Garvey sisters are still recalibrating their lives after the secret murder of one sister’s monstrous husband, J.P., a slimy abuser who deserved every bad thing that came his way. But secrets are only ever buried alive — and as any fan of the lurid knows, it’s not the crime, it’s the cover up.When the season begins, Eva (Sharon Horgan, also a creator and executive producer) has a menopause coach and a pep in her step. Ursula (Eva Birthistle), a nurse, is now thoroughly divorced and co-parenting. Bibi (Sarah Greene), the one with the eye patch, and her wife are preparing for fertility treatments, while Becka (Eve Hewson) has a bro-y new boyfriend. And Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), whose now-dead husband was the source of so much suffering, is getting married to the handsome Ian (Owen McDonnell), who even gets along well with her teenage daughter, Blanaid (Saise Quinn).The central villain of Season 1 has been dispatched, so there’s a new antagonist; this time instead of a smarmy rapist, it’s a pushy busybody named Angelica (Fiona Shaw), identified onscreen as “the Wagon.” That’s Irish slang for … uh … a woman everyone really likes and respects and gets along with. As with Season 1, the true evil is not one individual but rather misogyny.“I’m a woman of the church,” Angelica tells her brother, Roger (Michael Smiley), the neighbor who helped Grace and is haunted by his role in the crime. “I’m in the guilt industry. I know guilt when I see it.” She has plenty to turn her attention to, then, and she wastes no time. Guilt is a constant companion here, a mechanism for control both in broader society and on an individual basis, and we see characters sacrifice more and more of themselves to managing its burden.A lot of what made Season 1 such a thrill is intact here: The show remains pointed and stylish, and the chemistry among the sisters — and their not-quite-matching, not-quite-not-matching costumes — is its most exciting, endearing element. But “Sisters” can’t escape the sense of rehash, the fact that all the most important things have already happened, the biggest bombs have already detonated, the most chilling secrets have already been exposed.Despite a huge, brutal twist early in the season, these additional episodes aren’t deeper or more special and specific than the first season’s. The opening credits this go-round use the same song as the first but set up a new macabre Rube Goldberg machine, and that’s kind of how the whole season feels, like a code you already have the key to.Season 2 has eight episodes, and new installments arrive on Wednesdays. More