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      History Meets the Present on the ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ Album

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s PickHistory Meets the Present on the ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ AlbumThe songs inspired by Shaka King’s film about the 1969 police killing of the Illinois Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton mostly don’t appear in the movie, but they expand its story.“Judas and the Black Messiah” arrived with an ambitious soundtrack stocked with songs featuring a soulful, somber and retro aesthetic.Credit…Glen Wilson/Warner BrosFeb. 24, 2021, 12:10 p.m. ETJudas and the Black Messiah: The Inspired AlbumNYT Critic’s PickA movie’s message doesn’t have to end with the closing credits. Black filmmakers and musicians have been making the most of “inspired by” albums that are anything but afterthoughts; they boldly extrapolate from the story told onscreen. “Black Panther,” “The Lion King” and now “Judas and the Black Messiah” — the director Shaka King’s film about the 1969 police killing of the Illinois Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton — arrived with companion albums that connect fantasy and history to their repercussions in the here and now.“Judas and the Black Messiah: The Inspired Album” overflows with music and ideas: 22 tracks, many of them collaborative. With Hit-Boy as one of the executive producers (and the rapper on a track of his own), the album gathers past and current hip-hop hitmakers, with Nas, Jay-Z and the Roots’ Black Thought alongside Pooh Shiesty, Polo G, Lil Durk and BJ the Chicago Kid.Although the album is a compilation from dozens of rappers, singers, producers and songwriters, it has a coherent sound: soulful, somber and retro like the film’s closing song, H.E.R.’s “Fight for You,” which is steeped in Marvin Gaye’s mournful determination. Much of the album looks back toward 1990s hip-hop: relying on instruments and samples of full bands, laced with melodic hooks and firmly enunciating the lyrics.H.E.R. provides the movie’s closing song, “Fight for You.”Credit…Amy Harris/Invision, via Associated PressSome tracks directly address the film’s particulars. The album opens with an appearance by Fred Hampton Jr. in “Cointelpro/Dec. 4”: memorializing his father, reminding listers about Cointelpro (the F.B.I.’s illegal covert 1960s Counterintelligence Program aimed at civil rights groups and other perceived subversives) and firmly connecting political oratory to hip-hop; the track ends with a loop of the elder Hampton proclaiming, “I am a revolutionary!”Rakim’s “Black Messiah” delivers a terse, magisterial biography of Hampton over samples of a 1967 soul single, Them Two’s “Am I a Good Man.” In “Somethin’ Ain’t Right,” over bluesy guitar chords, Masego sings about corruption and Rapsody vows, “Cointelpro got the target on me/But we don’t stand down till the people all free.”But the focus inevitably widens to encompass the present. Polo G’s “Last Man Standing” — with bleak piano chords and a shivery vocal sample — bitterly connects thoughts of Hampton and the Black Panthers to deep-seated systemic racism, police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. Smino and Saba collaborate on “Plead the .45th,” sketching paranoia and resentment in brisk, jazzy phrases. Black Thought’s “Welcome to America,” with gritty vocal choruses from C.S. Armstrong and flashes of a gospel choir, is a vehement reminder of centuries of exploitation, remembering “every lost body crossed, tarred, feathered and tossed” and insisting, “This American cloth has never been soft/while history was running its course.”Memorial and news flash combine in “What It Feels Like” by Nipsey Hussle — who was killed in 2019 — and Jay-Z, a hip-hop march with foreboding piano, horn-section chords and hovering choral vocals. The song warns that success turns Blacks into targets: “You get successful, then it get stressful,” Hussle rapped. Then Jay-Z’s verse pivots from similar ideas — “You know they hate when you become more than they expect” — to the inadequate police response to the insurrection on Jan. 6: “You let them crackers storm your Capitol, put they feet up on your desk/And yet you talkin’ tough to me, I lost all my little respect.” Jay-Z was born December 4, 1969, the day Hampton was killed in a police raid. The history sounds personal.Various Artists“Judas and the Black Messiah: The Inspired Album”(Six Course Music Group/RCA)AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘My Zoe’ Review: Julie Delpy’s Provocative Family Drama

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘My Zoe’ Review: Julie Delpy’s Provocative Family DramaThe characters can be confoundingly self-involved, but Delpy finds unusual threads to pull you closer to them and their crises.From left, Richard Armitage, Sophia Ally and Julie Delpy in “My Zoe.”Credit…Blue Fox EntertainmentFeb. 24, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETMy ZoeDirected by Julie DelpyDramaR1h 40mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.The French filmmaker Julie Delpy is still best known as an actor, but she’s been building a varied and impressive filmography as a feature writer and a director since the early part of the century. Her new picture, “My Zoe,” in which she also stars, is an unusually compelling domestic drama with sharp ears, a sharp eye, and up to a point, sharp teeth.Delpy plays Isabelle, a geneticist living in Berlin with her young and adorable daughter Zoe. Her ex-husband, James (Richard Armitage), seems a perpetual and arbitrary thorn in her side, constantly needling her about visitation days and the competence of babysitters. The bickering doesn’t stop when disaster strikes. While their daughter has surgery to relieve the pressure on her brain caused by an aneurysm, Isabelle and James argue about their married sex life.[embedded content]Sounds like something to be appalled by. But Delpy writes these characters with such depth, and stages their interactions with such sensitivity, that you understand them without necessarily approving of them.The movie takes a likely unexpected turn from the conventional bad marriage story. Isabelle travels to Russia, appealing to a controversial medical researcher, Thomas Fischer (the frequent Delpy collaborator Daniel Bruhl), for a radical solution to a family tragedy.For nonspoiler purposes, let’s call that solution “the shiny object” — a project of dubious ethics, and little probability of succeeding, that nevertheless proves irresistible to all who contemplate it. As it happens, it proves irresistible to filmmaker Delpy as well. It’s in her embrace of it that the movie, so tart and assured up to a certain point, goes wrong. But Delpy is a sufficiently assertive cinematic voice that she’s well worth arguing — and maybe ultimately disagreeing — with.My ZoeRated R for language and themes. Running time: Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Tom Holland Blames His Fit of Giggles for Failing 'Star Wars' Audition

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      Instagram

      Admitting that he was once vying for John Boyega’s role of Finn, the ‘Spider-Man’ star recalls losing his cool in front of casting directors while trying to act with a woman playing a drone.

      Feb 24, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Tom Holland missed out on a role in “Star Wars” because he giggled all the way through his audition.
      The Brit was “four or five auditions in” for the part of Finn when he lost his cool in front of casting directors, while trying to act with a woman playing a drone.
      “I remember doing this scene with this lady, bless her, and she was just a drone,” Tom tells Backstage. “So I was doing all of this, like, ‘We gotta get back to the ship!’ And she was going, ‘Bleep, bloop. bloop, bleep, bloop.’ ”
      “I just couldn’t stop laughing. I found it so funny. And I felt really bad, because she was trying really hard to be a convincing android or drone or whatever they’re called. I obviously didn’t get the part. That wasn’t my best moment.”

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      John Boyega eventually landed the role of Finn.
      Holland, who went on to land the role of Spider-Man, admits the “Star Wars” audition wasn’t his only nightmare try-out.
      “I’ve read the wrong lines at the wrong audition before,” Tom shares.
      In the same interview, Holland admits he used to pull a little trick to draw more attention from casting directors during his early days of audition. “I would get something really wrong in the first take in the room, so that the casting director would be like, ‘You should try and do it a little bit more like this.’ And then I would do it how I’d actually planned on doing it, and it would show them that I was really good at taking direction,” he reacalls. “That’s a little trick that I used to do, just to kind of show people that I was malleable and able to work with others.”

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      'Spider-Man 3' Stars Unveil First Official Photos, Tease Fans With Hilarious Possible Titles

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      Columbia Pictures

      While Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon confuse fans with the so-claimed titles of the upcoming movie, the first-look pics fuel speculation about rumored ‘Doctor Strange’ crossover.

      Feb 24, 2021
      AceShowbiz – “Spider-Man 3” still has months to go before it’s completed in post-production, but the first official pictures have been uncovered to tide fans over the movie’s winter release. Making their way out via the cast’s social media accounts, they also came with possible titles of the film.
      Tom Holland, Zendaya Coleman and Jacob Batalon made use of their Instagram pages to share a pic of the movie and a title treatment each. The images show their characters, Peter Parker, MJ and Ned, entering a sort of basement of what looks like an old building. In one of the photos, Ned is seen working in front of his laptop with his two friends standing next to him and looking at his laptop screen.

      While the three images are similar to each other and appear to be taken on the same set, it’s not the case with the title treatments. Each of them reveals different title, “Spider-Man: Phone Home”, “Spider-Man: Home Slice” and “Spider-Man: Home-Wrecker”, which the stars all claimed to be the official title of the movie.

      “So excited to announce the new Spider-Man title. Can’t wait for you lot to see what we have been up to. Love from Atlanta,” Holland captioned his post. Zendaya wrote on her own, “So excited to announce the new Spider-Man title. So proud of this one…FOS is back!” Batalon, meanwhile, declared, “We’re so excited to share the TITLE of our new movie!! Swipe right for the big reveal!! also enjoy this exclusive still from the movie, just an extra gift from us.”

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      The hilarious possible titles aside, the photos have fueled the speculation about a possible “Doctor Strange” crossover. Fans have been guessing if the images show the three “Spider-Man” characters in the Sanctum Sanctorum, which has served as the personal residence of Doctor Strange.
      In related news, Holland appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Tuesday night, February 23 to talk about his upcoming movies, including “Spider-Man 3”. He managed to keep tight-lipped and avoid to spoil any secrets from the movie during his virtual interview with Jimmy Fallon.
      “It would be a miracle if they could have kept that from me,” he said when asked whether Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield would have cameos in the movie, though he admitted that he’s obviously read the script from beginning to end.
      The British actor, however, confirmed that his brother Harry Holland has a cameo in the movie, which came about after he played the part of a drug dealing “shaker kid” in “Cherry”. “We kind of had this idea that in every film I would be in, Harry would reprise his role as the shaker kid,” he spilled. “So he is back again in his own sort of, MCU Cinematic Universe as the ecstasy dealing shaker kid.”
      [embedded content]
      The yet-to-be-titled third Spider-Man movie is set for December 17 release in the United States.

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      Viggo Mortensen Kept Close Lid on Funding Issue During 'Falling' Production

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      WENN/Adriana M. Barraza

      During a chat on the ‘Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard’ podcast, the ‘Lord of the Rings’ actor opens up about having just enough money to cover two weeks of filming for his directorial debut.

      Feb 24, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Viggo Mortensen kept the cast and crew of his directorial debut “Falling” in the dark about funding issues after starting production with just enough money to cover two weeks of filming.
      “The Lord of the Rings” actor stars in and directs the new drama, about a man learning to live with his ageing father as he battles dementia, and he reveals no one, apart from his fellow producers, knew that funding was so tight when they started the shoot.
      “Falling took me two, three times [of pitching] really to finally get enough money,” he shared on the “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard” podcast.
      “When it came right down to it, I’d hoped for a seven week shoot, I ended up with five, and we started shooting knowing – or I knew, I didn’t tell the actors – that we had enough [money] for two weeks and we were gonna keep looking. You know, typical thing in movies.”
      Luckily, the rest of the funding came through just as the existing finances were running out.

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      “Two weeks in, my co-producer came over to me and said…, ‘You can finish the movie… You can finish shooting’,” he recalled.
      “I said, ‘Of course I’m gonna finish shooting…, it’s going really well’. He goes, ‘No, no, you have the money’, and I go, ‘Oh, oh!’ I’d completely forgot. But sometimes you have to just go for it.”
      Mortensen, who also wrote the screenplay for “Falling”, admits he had been yearning to make his own movies for years, but they were never picked up.
      “It wasn’t for lack of trying,” he admitted of waiting to make his directorial debut. “First time I think I tried to get a movie made that I wanted to direct from a screenplay I’d written once; it was about 25 years ago. I’ve tried many times with different screenplays I’ve written over the years.”

      “Falling” also co-stars Laura Linney, Lance Henriksen, and Sverrir Gudnason.

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      Robbie Williams Enlists 'The Greatest Showman' Helmer to Direct His Biopic

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      Instagram

      The former Take That member has found a director to step behind the lens for the upcoming movie ‘Better Man’ which is going to chronicle his life and career.

      Feb 24, 2021
      AceShowbiz – “The Greatest Showman” director Michael Gracey has signed on to direct a biopic about former Take That star Robbie Williams.
      The filmmaker co-wrote “Better Man” with first-time screenwriters Oliver Cole and Simon Gleeson, according to Deadline, and now the film, which will detail the pop superstar’s life and career highs and lows, including his substance abuse issues, has been given the go-ahead.
      Production is scheduled to begin this summer (21).
      Gracey tells Deadline he and Williams started talking about the film project shortly after the release of “The Greatest Showman”.

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      “As for how we represent Robbie in the film, that bit is top secret,” the director says. “I want to do this in a really original way. I remember going to the cinema as a kid and there were films that blew me away and made me say as I sat there in the cinema, ‘I’ve never seen this before’. I just want the audience to have that feeling.”
      “It’s so important when they watch this story, and look at the screen, that they literally think, ‘I’ve never seen this before’. All I can say is the approach is top secret, but the goal is to generate that feeling I just described. It’s this fantastical story, and I want to represent it in its harsh reality all the way to these moments of pure fantasy.”
      Gracey, who refuses to confirm or deny if “Angels” singer Williams will appear in the film as himself, insists the movie will be nothing like recent hit biopics “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Rocketman”.
      “Unlike some people, who were born prodigies or musical geniuses and you follow the narrative of the world catching up to their brilliance, this isn’t that story,” Gracey adds. “Robbie is that everyman, who just dreamed big and followed those dreams and they took him to an incredible place.”
      “Because of that, his is an incredibly relatable story. He’s not the best singer, or dancer, and yet, he managed to sell 80 million records worldwide. You can relate to the guy who doesn’t see himself as having any extraordinary talent, even though of course, he does. What he did have is the will, vision and confidence to say, ‘I’m going to pursue my dream’. For us as an audience, it’s a window into the world, of, ‘What if we just went for it and chased that impossible dream that so many of us put to one side.’ ”

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      ‘This Is the Life’ Review: A Valuable Part of Hip-Hop History

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Pick‘This Is the Life’ Review: A Valuable Part of Hip-Hop HistoryAva DuVernay’s 2008 documentary, now streaming on Netflix, is a personal love letter to a slice of Los Angeles’s 1990s hip-hop scene.Medusa is one of the hip-hop artists featured in Ava DuVernay’s 2008 documentary “This Is the Life.”Credit…ArrayFeb. 23, 2021This Is the LifeNYT Critic’s PickDirected by Ava DuVernayDocumentary1h 37mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Ava DuVernay’s 2008 debut feature, the documentary “This Is the Life,” is a refreshing portrait of a 1990s California hip-hop subculture that thrived separately from gangsta rap. DuVernay’s documentary, now available to stream on Netflix, is a personal project. She performed as part of the rap duo Figures of Speech at the Good Life Cafe — a South Central Los Angeles health food cafe that became a mecca for the underground rap community.Throughout the ’90s, the modest space’s open-mic nights fostered a bevy of young, raw, untainted lyrical voices telling stories of everyday life in L.A. DuVernay combines performer interviews with VHS footage and audio clips of their shows to retell a magical period in the hip-hop scene.In its intertitle graphics and visual typography, “This Is the Life” often mirrors VH1’s “Behind the Music” documentaries. When staging her interviews, however, DuVernay imprints unique compositions onto the familiar music-doc style by using the respondents’ spacious surroundings to frame them. To paint the cafe’s milieu, she identifies the institute’s stalwarts, such as supportive fans lovingly referred to as “Jean in the front row” and “Big Al.” Not only does DuVernay feature the cafe’s Black male M.C.’s like Abstract Rude and Chillin Villain Empire, she underscores the white, Latino and female artists who also appeared on the Good Life stage.[embedded content]The venue’s traditions are also outlined: No leaving gum on the floor; no leaning on the paintings; avoid the phrase “wiggidy wiggidy” in freestyles; and no profanity — meant to ensure a clean space and substantive rhymes. Audiences at the Good Life wanted to hear idiosyncratic freestylers using distinct techniques to tell unique stories. Rappers who failed to meet crowd expectations, in scenes akin to an amateur nightat the Apollo, were booed off the stage. In recalling the night the rapper Fat Joe bombed at the cafe, DuVernay creatively soundtracks the audio from the event over a time lapse of a chalk artist sketching the scene.Word of mouth inspired record deals for some Good Life performers. Jurassic 5, for instance, became gold record-certified in Britain. By 1994, the cafe had built such a reputation that artists like Ice Cube and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony came to listen. And it is claimed (by the rapper Abstract Rude) that those artists incorporated the underground style into their work. When DuVernay plays the Good Life M.C. Myka Nyne’s verse on Freestyle Fellowship’s “Mary” (1993) next to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony’s “Tha Crossroads” (1996), it’s a difficult assertion to dispute.Outside of the film’s director, however, few from the Good Life became household names. But in the illuminating “This Is the Life,” DuVernay not only fills in an important formative gap in California’s hip-hop history, she displays the inventive eye that would later lead to her future cinematic successes.This Is the LifeNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 37 minutes. Watch on Netflix.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Zack Snyder Not Getting Paid for 'Justice League' Director's Cut

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      WENN

      The ‘Dawn of the Dead’ director says he wasn’t paid for the upcoming ‘Justice League’ super cut as the filmmaker wanted creative control of his version.

      Feb 24, 2021
      AceShowbiz – Zack Snyder wasn’t paid for his director’s cut of “Justice League”.
      The filmmaker – whose own version of the 2017 comic book blockbuster is set to launch on HBO Max on 18 March (21) – was paid for his initial work on the project before stepping down as Joss Whedon took over, but he wanted creative control for the new release.
      “I’m not getting paid… I didn’t want to be beholden to anyone, and it allowed me to keep my negotiating powers with these people pretty strong,” he told Vanity Fair.
      Snyder has also revealed how Warner Bros. initially wanted the director’s cut version to be a case of releasing the raw footage on his laptop.
      However, he disagreed and pushed to be able to do his own vision justice rather than just putting out unedited material.

        See also…

      “I was like, ‘That’s a no, that’s a hard no.’ And they’re like, ‘But why? You can just put up the rough cut,’ ” he added.
      “I go, ‘Here’s why. Three reasons: One, you get the internet off your back, which is probably your main reason for wanting to do this. Two, you get to feel vindicated for making things right, I guess, on some level.’ ”
      ” ‘And then three, you get a s**tty version of the movie that you can point at and go, ‘See? It’s not that good anyway. So maybe I was right.’ I was like, ‘No chance.’ I would rather just have the Snyder cut be a mythical unicorn for all time.”
      Snyder has also admitted he couldn’t have done the movie in the way Whedon did and revealed he didn’t see his cut.
      “How am I supposed to introduce six characters and an alien with potential for world domination in two hours?” he argued. “I mean, I can do it, it can be done. Clearly it was done. But I didn’t see it.”

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