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      Jazz Onscreen, Depicted by Black Filmmakers at Last

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s NotebookJazz Onscreen, Depicted by Black Filmmakers at Last“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “Sylvie’s Love” and “Soul” understand the music and its place in African-American life, a welcome break with Hollywood history.Hitting the right notes: The pianist Joe (voiced by Jamie Foxx) playing in a combo led by a saxophonist (Angela Bassett) in “Soul.”Credit…Disney Pixar, via Associated PressDec. 29, 2020, 1:33 p.m. ETMidway through “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” the new Netflix drama based on August Wilson’s acclaimed stage play, the title character drifts into a monologue. “White folk don’t understand about the blues,” muses Rainey (Viola Davis), an innovator at the crossroads of blues and jazz with an unbending faith in her own expressive engine.“They hear it come out, but they don’t know how it got there,” she says as she readies herself to record in a Chicago studio in 1927. “They don’t understand that that’s life’s way of talking. You don’t sing to feel better, you sing because that’s your way of understanding life.”Time seems to roll to a stop as Rainey speaks. The divide between her words and what white society is ready to hear lays itself out wide before us. That, you realize, is the fertile space where her music exists — an ungoverned territory, too filled with spirit, expression and abstention for politics and law to interfere.But maybe this scene is only so startling because of how rare its kind has been throughout film history. The movies, with few exceptions, have hardly ever told the story of jazz through the lens of Black life.Now, inexcusably late, that is beginning to change.Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) views her music as a way to understand life.Credit…David Lee/NetflixPiloted by the veteran theater director George C. Wolfe, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is one of three feature films released this holiday season that center on jazz and blues; all were made by Black directors or co-directors. The other two are New York City stories: “Sylvie’s Love,” by Eugene Ashe, a midcentury romance between a young jazz saxophonist and an up-and-coming TV producer, and “Soul,” a Pixar feature directed by Pete Docter and co-directed by Kemp Powers that uses a pianist’s near-death experience to pry open questions about inspiration, compassion and how we all navigate life’s endless counterpoint between frustration and resilience.The films present Black protagonists in bloom — musically, visually, thematically — giving these characters a dimensionality and a depth that reflects the music itself. It calls to mind Toni Morrison’s explanation for why she wrote “Jazz,” her 1992 novel: She wanted to explore the changes to African-American life wrought by the Great Migration — changes, she later wrote, “made abundantly clear in the music.”The new films outrun many, though not all, of the issues dogging jazz movies past, which have historically done a better job contouring the limitations of the white gaze than showing where the music springs from or its power to transcend. White listening and patronage don’t really enter these new films’ narratives as anything other than a distraction or necessary inconvenience.A jazz musician lands in a relationship that ultimately works in “Sylvie’s Love,” starring Nnamdi Asomugha and Tessa Thompson. Credit…Amazon StudiosEarlier this year, the critic Kevin Whitehead published “Play the Way You Feel: The Essential Guide to Jazz Stories on Film,” a survey of jazz’s long history on the silver screen. As he notes, jazz and cinema grew up together in the interwar period. But in those years and well beyond, Whitehead writes, the movies consistently whitewashed jazz history: “In film after film, African-Americans, who invented the music, get pushed to the margins when white characters don’t nudge them off screen altogether.”It was true of “New Orleans,” a 1947 film starring Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday that was supposed to be about Armstrong’s rise but was rewritten, at the behest of its producers, to put a tale of white romance at the center. It was true of “Paris Blues,” a 1961 vehicle for Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier, based on a novel about two jazz musicians’ interracial love affairs; that key element, however, was more or less erased in the screenplay. Ultimately the movie is about the struggle of Newman’s trombonist, Ram, to convince himself and others that jazz is worthy of his obsession. He insists that a career as an improvising musician requires such singular devotion that he won’t be able to sustain a relationship.In the past few years, jazz has shown up onscreen most prominently in the work of Damien Chazelle. His “Whiplash” (2014) and “La La Land” (2016) tell the stories of young white men who, like Ram, are torturously committed to playing jazz and the feeling of excellence it gives them. In these movies, jazz is a challenge and an albatross. But in “Sylvie’s Love,” “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” and “Soul,” the music is more a salve: a river of possibility running through a hostile country, and — as Rainey says in Wilson’s script — simply the language of life.In “Whiplash,” Miles Teller plays a driven drummer being pushed by J.K. Simmons’s relentless teacher.Credit…Daniel McFadden/Sony Pictures Classics“Whiplash” focuses on the relationship between a demonic music teacher (played by J.K. Simmons in an Oscar-winning performance) and his most committed young student, Andrew (Miles Teller), who is driven by the desire to become a master drummer. The film offers a glimpse into jazz’s current afterlife in conservatories, where students learn its language through charts and theoretical frameworks, but most teachers give little attention to the spiritual or social makings of the music. Here again, we come up against the slightly misogynistic — and deeply depressing — idea that devotion to the music can’t coexist with romantic love and care: Andrew’s dating conduct is disastrous, and he proudly explains that it’s because of the music.“La La Land” follows a pianist, Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), who’s a few years out of music school. At the start, he’s seen dyspeptically punching the tape deck in his convertible, trying to memorize the notes on a Thelonious Monk recording as if they’re times tables. He views himself as a guardian of jazz’s past glories, and he’s committed to opening a club that will preserve what’s often framed as “pure” jazz. It’s a cultural legacy that, as a fellow musician played by John Legend gently reminds him, has not exactly asked for his help — though that doesn’t deter him.There’s a stark difference between these characters’ ways of relating to jazz and those of, say, Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha), the saxophonist in “Sylvie’s Love,” or Joe, the pianist in “Soul.” As Sylvie watches Robert play, she’s seeing him settle into himself deeply. There’s no gap between who he is on and offstage, except that he may be freer up there. Performing doesn’t become an unhealthy obsession; it’s life.While “Sylvie’s Love” hinges on a “Paris Blues”-like tension between art and romance, the two are ultimately able to coexist. Spike Lee’s “Mo’ Better Blues” (1990) and “Crooklyn” (1994) got halfway there, showing what it looks like for jazz musicians to have loving marriages. (Lee, whose father is a jazz musician, does not make it seem easy. But possible? Yes.) “Sylvie’s Love” takes that conflict and melts it away, as a great screen romance can.In “Soul,” Joe says that “the tune is just an excuse to bring out the you.”Credit…Disney Pixar, via Associated PressOn many levels, the most expansive and affecting of the new jazz films is “Soul.” A pianist and middle-school band teacher, Joe, is on the brink of death when his spirit sneaks into the Great Before, where uninitiated souls prepare to enter bodies upon birth. There he meets 22, a recalcitrant soul whom the powers that be have failed to coax into a human body.In his classroom, Joe (voiced by Jamie Foxx) preaches the glories of jazz improvisation, drawing on a true story that the famed pianist Jon Batiste, who ghosted the music that Joe plays, had told the movie’s director, Docter, and co-director, Powers. “This is the moment where I fell in love with jazz,” Joe says, recalling the first time he stepped into a jazz club as a kid. He caresses the piano keys as he speaks. “Listen to that!” he says. “See, the tune is just an excuse to bring out the you.”After an accident lands Joe in intensive care and his soul drifts out of his body, he and 22 hatch a plan to get him back to life. All souls, he comes to find out, need a “spark” that will touch off their passion and guide them through life. He knows immediately that his is playing the piano. That, he says, is his purpose in life. But one of the spiritual guides-cum-counselors that populate the Great Before (all named Jerry) quickly sets him straight. “We don’t assign purposes,” this Jerry says. “Where did you get that idea? A spark isn’t a soul’s purpose. Oh, you mentors and your passions — your ‘purposes,’ your meanings of life! So basic.”Their conversation is left wonderfully open-ended. But the point becomes clear, subtle as it is: Above meaning, above purpose, above any means to an end, there’s just life. Which is to say, music.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Night of the Kings’ Review: Telling Tales to a Captive Audience

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Night of the Kings’ Review: Telling Tales to a Captive AudienceAncient tradition fuses with modern struggles in a prison in Ivory Coast.Koné Bakary, center, in “Night of the Kings.”Credit…NeonDec. 29, 2020, 1:07 p.m. ETNight of the KingsDirected by Philippe LacôteDrama, Fantasy1h 33mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.As the new arrival at a violent prison, the young man at the center of “Night of the Kings” faces a tough crowd. He’s assigned the ceremonial duty of telling stories all night, while the convicts’ ailing capo, Blackbeard, fends off succession plots. Philippe Lacôte’s restless film — a rare United States release from Ivory Coast — braids together its struggles for survival to suggest an entire country fighting to emerge.Lacôte crosses the open-ended energy of griot traditions with the surging tensions of the prison’s close quarters. Given the honorary title “Roman,” the storyteller (fresh-faced Koné Bakary) stands up in a crowded main room to spin forth the origin story of Zama King, a gangster who roamed Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s largest city, during the country’s post-electoral chaos in the 2010s. Lacôte splices in clips of former President Laurent Gbagbo, who resisted his election loss.A chorus of inmates heckles and embellishes the burgeoning tale with pantomimes and song, while Blackbeard (Steve Tientcheu, the mayor in “Les Misérables”) broods over his decline. Zama’s back story eventually jumps tracks to show a C.G.I.-enhanced battle between a queen (the artist Laetitia Ky) and her brother. Denis Lavant even pops up as a character named Silence, with a bird on his shoulder.“It doesn’t even make sense!” one prisoner protests, and the movie keeps edging from compressed into sketchy, with Zama King oddly remaining a blank. But having also sat through two and a half hours of “Wonder Woman 1984,” I found myself daydreaming that the superhero’s time could be magically yielded to Lacôte to flesh out his evocative mythmaking.Night of the KingsNot rated. In French, Dyula and Nouchi, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. Watch through Angelika Film Center’s virtual cinema.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Wonder Woman and Her Evolving Look

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWonder Woman and Her Evolving LookShe remained steadfast in her decades-long fight for justice, but her costumes ranged from a golden-eagle emblem and skirt to a W logo breastplate and leggings.Wonder Woman’s costume has morphed over the years, as showcased in a cover for Wonder Woman No. 750, drawn by Nicola Scott.Credit…Nicola Scott/DCDec. 29, 2020Updated 10:25 a.m. ETIn a trailer for “Wonder Woman 1984,” the title hero is clad in golden armor. That image had fans’ pulses racing because in comic books, the metallic suit is what the heroine dons for major battles. Wonder Woman, who was introduced in 1941, is part of DC’s Holy Trinity of heroes that includes Superman, who debuted in 1938, and Batman, who premiered in 1939. Like the outfits of her fellow heroes, Wonder Woman’s costume has evolved over time and even occasionally received a complete makeover. Here are some notable looks from the Amazing Amazon over the years.1941Sensation Comics No. 1Credit…Harry G. Peter/DCThe very first image of Wonder Woman (who debuted in All-Star Comics before starring in Sensation and then her self-titled series) shows her in her original costume, with a golden eagle emblem on her chest and a flowing, star-spangled skirt. Diana — as Wonder Woman is known on Paradise Island, the home of her Amazon sisters — takes part in a competition to return the marooned pilot Steve Trevor to America. Spoilers: She wins! And she’s given the costume as designed by her mother, Queen Hippolyta. The outfit has changed over the years. Her skirt got shorter until it resembled the bottom half of a bikini. She also sometimes eschewed red boots for red sandals, which were secured by straps leading up to the knees.1968Wonder Woman No. 179Credit…Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano/DCIn 1968, during a visit to Paradise Island, Wonder Woman learns that her sisters are leaving for another dimension. Diana stays behind and performs the “awesome Amazon rite of renunciation,” forsaking her powers. She returns to Earth, goes mod and, under the tutelage of her blind mentor, I-Ching, learns martial arts in order to continue her fight for justice. This status quo lasted until 1972. It was overturned thanks in part to an intervention by Gloria Steinem, who had protested Wonder Woman’s depowering. Steinem went on to put the heroine, clad in her traditional costume, on the cover of the first issue of Ms. magazine that year.1981Wonder Woman No. 288Credit…Gene Colon and Dick Giordano/DCIn the aftermath of an adventure in Washington, D.C., where Wonder Woman was then based, representatives from a new charity approach her. They want the heroine to endorse their organization — the Wonder Woman Foundation — and to consider wearing a new breastplate with a stylized double W. She’s reluctant, but after discussing the idea with her mother, who encourages her to wear it, she comes to a realization: “The cause will make the ‘W’ stand not just for ‘Wonder Woman’ — but for women everywhere.” She dons it and declares: “It doesn’t look half bad, at that. Who knows? It might grow on me.”1986Wonder Woman No. 1Credit…George Pérez/DCA reboot in 1986 led to a retelling of Wonder Woman’s origin and her journey to America. This version of the heroine was younger and somewhat naïve but an even more ferocious warrior. Her revised look equipped her with more armaments, including a battle ax, a shield and a spear. Even her tiara was weaponized and made razor sharp. She once used it to behead Deimos, the Greek god of terror, who was threatening the world.1994Wonder Woman No. 93Credit…Mike Dedato Jr./DCIn 1994, Queen Hippolyta had a vision of Wonder Woman’s death and conducted a new contest for the title. (She also made sure that her daughter lost.) Diana emerged with shorter hair and a uniform that managed to show even more skin thanks to matching black bike shorts and sports bra. By 1995, she had returned to a modified version of her familiar look, with fewer white stars on the bottom half of her costume but a huge tiara and a larger WW emblem that extended to a wider belt. The ’90s were rough for DC’s trinity: Superman died in 1992, Batman had a severe spinal injury in 1993, and Wonder Woman died in 1997. Ah, comics.2001Wonder Woman No. 173Credit…Adam Hughes/DCWonder Woman’s golden armor has its roots in “Kingdom Come,” a 1996 story set in a future when new heroes run amok in the absence of Superman. In that tale, Wonder Woman uses the armor after tensions at a prison for out-of-control superpowered beings boils over. The armor was later introduced in her present-day adventures. In a 2001 story, an alien menace named Imperiex sets his sights on Earth. Wonder Woman and Queen Hippolyta answer the call to arms, but only Diana survives — for a time. As comic books have taught fans, nearly every character death is undone, and Hippolyta was later resurrected.2010Wonder Woman No. 600Credit…Don Kramer and Michael Babinski/DCThe year 2010 saw Wonder Woman reach issue No. 600 thanks to some creative comic book math that combined three volumes of her series to get to this mostly celebratory issue. “Mostly” because one of this stories revealed that Wonder Woman’s timeline had been altered. In this new reality, Diana had been sent away as a child to escape the destruction of Paradise Island and retained only hazy visions of her life as Wonder Woman. On the bright side, this new world order led to a new uniform — one that completely covered her legs! Other changes: Her red-and-gold gauntlets left a W-shaped impression on those unlucky enough to be struck by them.2011Wonder Woman No. 1Credit…Cliff Chiang/DCIn 2011, DC rebooted its entire line. The heroes were presented as younger, which erased several longstanding relationships, and many of them were clad in overly designed, armor-like costumes. Wonder Woman’s new look featured additions to previous uniforms (a choker and matching armband) and subtractions from those looks (goodbye, pants). The color palette was also more subdued: a deeper red breastplate (with muted stars), dark blue shorts and boots, and silver accessories (save for the golden lasso of truth).AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      This Year’s Standout Moments in the Arts

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      The Best of This Year in the ArtsThe Culture DeskLooking back on 2020 ��Natalie Seery/HBOAround the world, museums, theaters and galleries were closed, and concerts and festivals canceled; still, many artists continued creating indelible work.Here are our critics’ highlights → More

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      ‘Herself’ Review: She Does It All

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Herself’ Review: She Does It AllAfter fleeing her abusive husband, a woman figures out how to build a new home for herself and her daughters.Clare Dunne in “Herself.”Credit…Pat Redmond/Amazon StudiosDec. 29, 2020, 7:00 a.m. ETHerselfDirected by Phyllida LloydDramaR1h 37mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.When a housing authority can’t provide the residence you need, why not build one yourself? The option obviously isn’t widely available. But a concatenation of circumstances, and the kindness of an old family friend, gives Sandra, a mom fleeing an abusive husband, the chance to do just that in “Herself.”Clare Dunne, who co-wrote the screenplay with Malcolm Campbell, plays Sandra, who leaves her monstrously violent spouse, Gary (Ian Lloyd Anderson), taking her two young girls. Early on, the movie, set in Ireland, has a bit of a Ken Loach vibe, as the hard-working Sandra negotiates various unhelpful bureaucracies trying to set up a new domestic situation.The idea of building her own home is born out of some sessions with the computer search engine. The land and some moral support come from an aged woman Sandra looks after.A trip to the hardware store proves that the internet doesn’t give you all the instructions you need for such an ambitious undertaking as house-building. And an interaction with a rude clerk introduces her to an initially reluctant ally, a construction man, Aido (Conleth Hill), who’s acquainted with Gary. Not in a pleasant way. His sympathy for Sandra compels the overworked fellow to lend her a hand.Then it’s “It Takes a Village” time as Sandra’s friends and neighbors pitch in. Mini-montages of concrete-pouring and beam-raising ensue, accompanied by pop songs like Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings’ “New Shoes” and the David Guetta/Sia collaboration “Titanium.” The director, Phyllida Lloyd, who primarily works in theater, did oversee both the stage and film versions of “Mamma Mia!” after all.The presence of the resentful Gary looms, and Anderson’s performance makes the looming register. Even when he crouches down by Sandra’s car window to tell her he’s getting counseling, Gary exudes menace. He’s clearly poised to strike, and when he senses an opportunity, he does. And as the bad dominoes start to fall, Sandra starts coming apart.As a character, Sandra hasn’t a huge amount of depth — she’s mostly defined by traits, like anger and resilience. But that’s part of the movie’s point; her state is something to which the world has ground her down. And after a while the movie itself, for all its sporadically sunny moments, looks like it’s not going to let up on her. This is a feminist movie with a Sisyphean dimension that’s disquietingly universal.HerselfRated R for language and violence. Running time: 1 hour 37 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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      'Quantum of Solace' Star Gemma Arterton Regrets Playing Bond Girl in Sexist Movie

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      Columbia Pictures

      The ‘Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters’ actress admits she’s got a lost of criticism for playing Bond girl in the 2008, but claims that she only agreed to take the role because she needed the money.

      Dec 29, 2020
      AceShowbiz – Gemma Arterton has shared her regret about starring as Bond girl in “Quantum of Solace”. Like many other actresses before and after her, the role has become a major stepping stone in her career, but the British beauty isn’t proud of it.
      Now, more than a decade later, Arterton realized that Bond movies are sexist. Admitting that she’s got a lot of criticism for taking the role, she defended her decision at the time because she was as “poor as a church mouse.”
      “At the beginning of my career, I was poor as a church mouse and I was happy just to be able to work and earn a living,” she told The Sun. “I still get criticism for accepting ‘Quantum of Solace’, but I was 21, I had a student loan, and you, know, it was a Bond film.”
      “But as I got older I saw there was so much wrong with Bond women,” she acknowledged, before sharing what she would’ve changed about her character’s storyline, “Strawberry should have just said no, really, and worn flat shoes.”

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      Arterton played intelligence operative Strawberry Fields in the 2008 movie, the second film to star Daniel Craig as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Having just made her professional stage debut playing Rosaline in Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost” at the Globe Theatre in 2007 and scored her first feature film role in 2007’s comedy “St Trinian”, playing Bond girl in “Quantum of Solace” marks her breakthrough role, which also earned her an Empire Award for Best Newcomer.
      Making amends of her past decision that she regrets, Arterton set up her own production company Rebel Park in 2013, which aims to promote female talent and help secure equal pay in the film industry. She explained, “I have my own production company which is all about giving women an opportunity in film.”
      “It’s [the industry] getting better but it definitely isn’t there yet. I struggled with that a little bit at first but I’ll keep making suggestions to people,” she continued. “I look forward to getting older and wiser.”
      She went on sharing, “My role model is my grandfather. Even in his mid-nineties he gave the impression of being in his twenties. He was very sharp-minded and looked like Clark Gable with his mustache and hair. He was still sexy – a really hot guy. I secretly hope I’ve inherited his genes.”

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      M. Night Shyamalan Explains Why He's Not Fit for Marvel Movies

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      WENN

      The ‘Sixth Sense’ director insists Marvel wouldn’t want to hire him as a director for their superhero blockbuster because his filmmaking is ‘very quiet and tiny and introspective.’

      Dec 29, 2020
      AceShowbiz – M. Night Shyamalan has insisted his filmmaking is too “introspective” for a Marvel or DC film.
      “The Sixth Sense” director revealed that he has had “many conversations” with the major studios about making a superhero flick but feels that his style behind the camera does not lend itself well to the iconic superhero franchises.
      “I’ve had many conversations over the years about many of the superheroes with many of the studios that own them, and how I would wanna approach it,” he told ComicBook.com.

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      “And it’s one of those things that I think this is my style, if there was ever a situation I mean, I said, ‘I did it’. I made my comic book movie, but the minimalism, the insinuating, the not using CGI all of that stuff is a very different language. So, whenever we’ve had those conversations in the past about XYZ person, it’s your character or franchise. I get so nervous about like, ‘Hey, this is not what you would want me to do to make it very quiet and tiny and introspective.’ ”
      The filmmaker admits he wouldn’t want to turn any of his own movies into franchises although he feels his 2000 thriller “Unbreakable” lends itself best to a series.
      “You never say never but I don’t believe I’d ever make a sequel, but the Unbreakable script in its entirety, was essentially three movies,” he mused. “When I first outlined it, it was three movies in one go. And I was like, ‘This is impossible! I can’t write this in two hours.'”

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      James Corden Insists He Had a Blast Filming 'Cats' Despite Reluctance to Watch the Movie

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      Universal Pictures

      The ‘Late Late Night Show’ host claims he had the ‘best time’ filming the star-studded musical fantasy film although he hasn’t seen the critically-panned movie yet.

      Dec 29, 2020
      AceShowbiz – James Corden had “the best time” working on the “Cats” movie.
      The 42-year-old actor loved working on the much-maligned film – which was based on the award-winning musical of the same name – although he hasn’t actually seen it himself.
      James shared, “I haven’t seen it. Here’s what I’ll say about Cats… I had such a great time. I went to London, shot the song with a brilliant group of actors – Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, all these people – and I had a blast.”
      “So I think you have to be really careful not to judge whether something was valuable to you as to whether it was successful at the box office.”
      The film was widely panned by fans and critics, but James doesn’t have any regrets about his role.

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      The actor – who played the part of Bustopher Jones – told the “Smartless” podcast, “I’ve had really miserable times on things that are really successful. So I should never look upon that as a success.”
      “I had the best time (on Cats).”
      Meanwhile, James previously insisted he tries to take criticism with a “bag of salt,” explaining, “You’ve got to try to take the criticism with a pinch, no, a bag of salt.”
      “And that’s easier or hard depending on factors that are outside of your control, particularly the thinness of your skin, your frailties, at any one time.”
      Directed by Tom Hooper, “Cats” also starred Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, and Jennifer Hudson. While it got a Golden Globe nomination for one of the theme songs, it was deemed one of the worst movies of the year.

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      Meek Mill Insists His New Music Streaming App Will Be Different From Spotify, Tidal and Apple

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