Edebiri, Ayo

Subterms

    Latest story

    113 Shares28 Views

    Sundance Film Festival 2025: Standout Movies, Moments and Performances

    by

    The movies and performances most likely to make an impact in the year ahead, including an ode to 1970s New York and Josh O’Connor going full cowboy.Just as the Sundance Film Festival is in flux, likely soon to leave its longtime home of Park City, Utah, so too is the state of film — and indie film in particular. Yet the industry and its most ardent fans still came to the mountains for America’s most important event in independent cinema to schmooze, ski and see lots of movies, hoping to find this year’s “A Real Pain,” the breakout hit from last year’s slate. Sometimes it can feel like you’re wading through too much muddy snow to find the bright spots, and the 2025 festival, which ended on Sunday, definitely felt less shiny than in years past. But below are some standout moments that might influence the year ahead in culture.Eva Victor in “Sorry, Baby.”Mia Cioffi Henry/Courtesy of Sundance Institute1. One new name to know: Eva VictorThere’s a particular kind of Sundance movie that centers on a young woman who perseveres with wry humor and grit despite something terrible happening to her. Often, it takes place on a college campus. This year’s exemplar was “Sorry, Baby,” which was among the funniest, saddest and most exciting films of the week. Victor, 30, first found success in the Brooklyn comedy scene, but this is her feature directorial debut. She also wrote and stars in the tender project (alongside Naomi Ackie and Lucas Hedges).Rebecca Hall and Ben Whishaw in “Peter Hujar’s Day.”Courtesy of Ira Sachs2. Queer cinema is still ascendant (but still very male)Indie film has always been a genre through which teenagers who feel like outsiders learn to discover themselves, but this year’s roster felt especially crowded with L.G.T.B.Q. projects. Although the three with the most buzz were — for better or, mostly, for worse — about handsome white men: “Twinless,” in which two guys (one straight, one gay) meet in a bereavement group for people who’ve lost their siblings; “Plainclothes,” featuring Tom Blythe and Russell Tovey as a duo (one a closeted cop, one his target) grappling with temptation and intimacy; and “Peter Hujar’s Day,” Ira Sachs’s ode to 1970s-era New York, following the titular photographer (Ben Whishaw) as he narrates his quotidian schedule to his friend the writer Linda Rosencrantz (Rebecca Hall), based on Rosencrantz’s 2022 book of the same name.Josh O’Connor and Lily LaTorre in ”Rebuilding.”Jesse Hope/Courtesy of Sundance InstituteWe 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

    More stories

    • 163 Shares199 Views

      in Television

      Best Red Carpet Fashion At the Emmys: Jennifer Aniston, Ayo Edebiri & More

      by

      For people who like to look at clothes, there have lately been many opportunities on red carpets and off. Movie stars were in the spotlight at film festivals in Venice and Toronto. New York Fashion Week brought industry players and followers to parties, front rows and the city’s streets. Pop stars had their night at the MTV Video Music Awards.On Sunday, it was the TV world’s turn with the Emmy Awards. The event took place less than a year since the last Emmys ceremony in January, but the shorter-than-usual interim did not affect the spectacle of the red carpet.Actresses like Selena Gomez, Quinta Brunson and Sheryl Lee Ralph radiated sleek sophistication in black dresses that hugged curves and showed skin. Actors like Andrew Scott, Lionel Boyce and Dan Levy, who hosted the ceremony with his father, Eugene, chose modern interpretations of classic penguin suits. Over-the-top costumes worn by a group of contestants from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” amped up the camp.The fashion on the red carpet at the 76th Emmy Awards ran the gamut, but these 16 looks were among the most notable — for good reasons and bad.Jennifer Aniston: Most Familiar!Frazer Harrison/Getty ImagesA career spanning more than four decades has taught the actress, a star of “The Morning Show,” a thing or two about red carpets. Among them: It is hard to go wrong with a simple silhouette like that of her columnar, beaded Oscar de la Renta gown.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

    • 138 Shares189 Views

      in Television

      Did You Find These Easter Eggs in ‘The Bear’ Season 3?

      by

      Subtle, and not so subtle, culinary references are sprinkled throughout the show’s third season.In its third season, “The Bear,” a television show known for its dedicated hyperrealism, did not disappoint fans looking for real-world culinary references. As Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) and their team of former sandwich professionals hustled for a Michelin star or two at their newly opened fine-dining spot, Easter eggs dotted the show. We’ve compiled a short list, with help from restaurant industry professionals, of the most true-to-life nods and hidden surprises:In certain corners of Reddit, it is rumored that the entire show is loosely based on the life of the chef Curtis Duffy, an owner of Ever restaurant in Chicago. But, while the creators have dined at his restaurant, “If they were studying me, I didn’t know it,” he said.The photos of the restaurant critics posted in the Bear office are of actual people, including the New Yorker writer Naomi Fry, the “How Long Gone” podcaster Chris Black and Sue Chan, who runs the culinary events and marketing agency Care by Chan. On the show, Marcus, the pastry chef played by Lionel Boyce, makes a “caviar sundae.” A similar dish was served at the renowned, now-closed restaurant 108 in Copenhagen, a culinary hotbed to which “The Bear” has referred numerous times.In flashbacks to Carmy’s time at the French Laundry, Thomas Keller’s restaurant in the Napa Valley, a sign beneath the clock reads, “Sense of Urgency.” “That sign sits under every clock in every restaurant Thomas Keller has,” said Nick Fitch, a co-owner of Alston Hospitality Group who spent 12 years working the dining room at the French Laundry and Per Se.The Pilot G2 Gel Roller Pen, with a .07-millimeter tip that Carmy uses to furiously scribble throughout the season (and to write his list of “non-negotiables”) caught the eye of Greg Ryan, a co-owner of Bell’s in Los Alamos, Calif. who worked in the dining rooms at Per Se and the French Laundry for more than five years. “When I was an expediter, those were just the pens you had,” he said. “They work well on receipt paper, don’t smudge, have a fine tip and write super-smoothly.”Much has been made of Mr. Keller’s chicken-trussing demonstration — “If you ask him his favorite dish, he’ll say roast chicken,” said Mr. Fitch — but a photo of his handprint cast in concrete also makes an appearance in the season’s first episode. According to Mr. Fitch, the handprint was initially in the kitchen at the French Laundry but was extracted during an extensive renovation and moved outside, along with handprints from Corey Lee, a former French Laundry chef de cuisine, and Claire Clark, a former pastry chef at the restaurant.Joel McHale, who plays Chef David, said on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” that he was “portraying” Mr. Keller. “I don’t think he’s as awful as I was, but he does whisper at his employees,” Mr. McHale said. Others have speculated that the character is based on Daniel Humm, the chef at Eleven Madison Park. Will Guidara, a producer on “The Bear,” was a business partner of Mr. Humm’s until the two had a tense public split. Mr. McHale said in a GQ interview this week that “David is apparently based on Thomas Keller and Daniel Humm,” and added, “There wasn’t any material. I’ve never met them.”In Episode 2, Carmy calls a dish of sea bass topped with potato chips a “Boulud nod,” as in Daniel Boulud, the renowned chef who created crisp paupiettes of sea bass in Barolo sauce. That dish uses thinly sliced potatoes as a crust for a skinless fillet, and Mr. Boulud has in turn credited a mullet dish made by Paul Bocuse as his inspiration.The tip-versus-service-charge conversation among the Bear’s staff touches on a hot-button issue that’s playing out all over the country. Many restaurateurs, most famously Danny Meyer, have tried to create a better system, with mixed results. In California, a recently passed law seemed to make restaurant service charges illegal (as part of a bid to reduce hidden fees), but then a second bill was passed, allowing restaurants to keep those fees if they are presented clearly.In Episode 7, Chef Marcus asks Carmy about a photo of Mr. Keller with Mr. Boulud and the chef Nobu Matsuhisa as much younger men. All three went on to become world-renowned chefs. Mr. Matsuhisa has opened restaurants on five continents, and popularized the now-famous dish of miso black cod at Nobu, his restaurant in TriBeCa.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

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      ‘The Bear’ Season 3: Tastes Great, Less Fulfilling

      by

      It’s still TV’s best and most beautiful series about work and creation. But the new season is a tease.This article discusses scenes from the beginning through the end of FX’s “The Bear” Season 3, now available in full on Hulu.No one loves a mixed review. The final moments of “The Bear” Season 3 confirm this, as Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), the doe-eyed maniac at the center of the dramedy, receives an alert for the make-or-break Chicago Tribune review of his ambitious, cacophonous restaurant. He has imagined a million versions of it — absolute raves, devastating pans. Now it’s here.We don’t get to see the review, only a Mad Libs rush of contradictory words, out of context: “Brilliant.” “Complex.” “Confusing.” “Innovative.” “Stale.” “Talent.” “Disappointed.” Carmy, alone with his phone and the verdict, lets fly the season’s last words, a hearty curse.Sorry, Chef: Sometimes the truth is mixed. It is for the third season of “The Bear,” in which one of the most brilliant shows on TV attempts a complex, at times confusing, elaboration on its themes. The 10 episodes are often innovative in execution but sometimes stale in their repetition of established conflicts. It’s an astonishing display of talent. But it is likely to leave anyone hoping for narrative momentum disappointed.“The Bear” does not lack confidence. The premiere, “Tomorrow,” is a bravura scene-setter that is as much an overture as an episode. Picking up the morning after the Season 2 finale — in which Carmy successfully soft-launches the Bear but sabotages his romance with Claire (Molly Gordon) — it’s an impressionistic tour of his manic consciousness.There is very little dialogue; mostly this episode, written by the series creator Christopher Storer, tells its stories in a series of quick cuts set to a mesmerizing score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It dips into the near and remote past, flashing on scenes from the previous seasons, sneak-peeking moments from later in Season 3 and fleshing out events from Carmy’s history. At times it’s hard to tell what’s present and past as you tumble about in his perseverating mind.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

    • 88 Shares159 Views

      in Television

      Nikki Haley Appears on ‘Saturday Night Live’

      by

      Ayo Edebiri hosted in a show that focused much of its energy on politics, along with Taylor Swift conspiracy theories and a “Dune” popcorn bucket.“Saturday Night Live” resumed its election-season tradition of bringing on political candidates to play themselves, inviting Nikki Haley for a cameo in its opening sketches this weekend.Haley, who has tried to make use of comedy and popular culture as she trails former President Donald J. Trump in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, appeared in a segment that was presented as a CNN town hall event with Trump (played by the show’s resident Trump impersonator, James Austin Johnson).Johnson fielded questions from other “S.N.L.” cast members, explaining how he planned to beat President Biden and would “stop Taylor Swift from infiltrating the Super Bowl.” The town hall moderators then introduced a question from an audience member “who describes herself as a concerned South Carolina voter.”That voter turned out to be Haley, the former governor of South Carolina (as well as an ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration). “Yes, hello,” Haley said to Johnson. “My question is, why won’t you debate Nikki Haley?”“Oh my God, it’s her!” Johnson said. “The woman who was in charge of security on Jan. 6. It’s Nancy Pelosi.”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

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      See Golden Globes Winners Celebrate Their Big Moment

      by

      What Winning a Golden Globe Looks LikeLily Gladstone, Paul Giamatti, Billie Eilish and stars from “Succession,” “Beef” and “The Bear” are captured in their moments of glory.The Los Angeles-based photographer Erik Carter was backstage at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, where he photographed Golden Globes winners for The Times.Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion PictureDa’Vine Joy Randolph, ‘The Holdovers’“I hope I’ve helped you all find your inner Mary. Because there’s a little bit of her in all of us.” — Da’Vine Joy Randolph, in her acceptance speech. She played Mary, the mourning mother, in Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers.”Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy‘The Bear’From left: Abby Elliott, Jeremy Allen White, Lionel Boyce, Ayo Edebiri, Liza Colón-Zayas (foreground), Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Matty Matheson and Edwin Lee Gibson.“There are so many people I probably forgot to thank. Oh, my God, all of my agents’ and managers’ assistants! To the people who answer my emails. Y’all are real ones. Thank you for answering my crazy, crazy emails.” — Ayo Edebiri, in her acceptance speech for best actress in a TV comedy.Best Original Song, Motion PictureBillie Eilish and Finneas, ‘What Was I Made For?,’ from ‘Barbie’“It was exactly a year ago, almost, that we were shown the movie and I was very, very miserable and depressed at the time. Writing that song kind of saved me a little bit. A year later and here we are, and it’s really surreal. I feel incredibly, incredibly lucky and grateful.” — Billie Eilish, in her acceptance speech.Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, DramaLily Gladstone, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’“This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented.” — Lily Gladstone, in her acceptance speech.Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for TelevisionSteven Yeun, ‘Beef’Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy‘Poor Things’From left, the director Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef and Mark Ruffalo.Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or ComedyPaul Giamatti, ‘The Holdovers’Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for TelevisionAli Wong, ‘Beef’“I really need to thank the father of my children and my best friend, Justin, for all of your love and support. It’s because of you that I’m able to be a working mother.” — Ali Wong, in her acceptance speech.Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Supporting RoleElizabeth Debicki, ‘The Crown’Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series, DramaKieran Culkin, ‘Succession’“Thanks to ‘Succession,’ I’ve been in here a couple of times. It’s nice, but I sort of accepted I’m never going to be onstage, so this is a nice moment.” — Kieran Culkin, in his acceptance speech. More

    • 113 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The Bear’ Wins Best Comedy at the Golden Globes

      by

      Globe voters said “Yes, chef,” to “The Bear,” which beat out “Ted Lasso” and “Abbott Elementary” to win best comedy.One quibble: Is “The Bear” even a comedy? Any episode of the restaurant-set FX series has more agita and fewer jokes than most dramas. Some scenes and some entire episodes, like the most recent season’s standout, “Fishes,” can only be watched through fingers. But “The Bear,” created by Christopher Storer, also has a softish heart — among other organ meats — and a half-hour running time, enough to land it in this category.The first season, which saw Jeremy Allen White’s troubled chef, Carmy, inherit the restaurant from his dead brother, was a surprise hit despite its grubby milieu and absence of bankable stars. (Apologies, Oliver Platt.) It made an immediate internet pinup of White and a darling of his co-star, Ayo Edebiri, who plays a driven upstart chef. The second season saw the eatery morph from an Italian beef joint to a Michelin-courting sensation. It focused more on the camaraderie among the staff even as it broke a few characters away for special episodes, and it was praised for its realistic depictions of work, grief, Chicago, high-end food and friendship.A nominee last year for best comedy, “The Bear” yielded a surprise best lead actor win for White as the aggrieved Carmy. Repeating his win in the same category this year was less of a surprise.“I can’t believe I’m in this room with all these people I’ve loved so much, admired so much for so long. It’s unreal. I love this show,” he said.White’s co-star, Edebiri, won her first Golden Globe for best actress in a TV comedy.“Everybody at ‘The Bear,’ that’s my family,” Edebiri said in her breathless acceptance speech. “I love you guys so much. It’s an honor to work with you and grow alongside you.”“All of my agents, managers, assistants, the people who answer my emails, y’all are real ones,” she added. “Thank you for answering my crazy, crazy emails.”Lionel Bryce, who plays Marcus, spoke on behalf of the show’s cast and crew accepting the award. “Most importantly, thank you to the entire restaurant community,” he said. “We played these characters for a couple of hours a day for a couple of months out of the year, but this is your reality, the highs and the lows. So thank you for embracing us.” More

    • 75 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      ‘The Sweet East’ Review: All-American Girl

      by

      Starring Talia Ryder and Simon Rex, this shape-shifting satire about modern American subcultures is a curious, and occasionally delightful, object if you can handle its flippant treatment of taboos.“The Sweet East,” a shape-shifting satire about modern American subcultures, is a curious — occasionally delightful — object. Its doe-eyed leading lady, Lillian (Talia Ryder), is like the reincarnation of her ostensible namesake, the silent film star Lillian Gish. Both are blank canvasses filled out by different kinds of American dreams. Not the gooey, aspirational sort, but the delusional kind that makes you question humanity’s worth even though you can’t look away.Echoing Gish’s most well-known role, as the victimized naïf in D.W. Griffith’s infamous Ku Klux Klan epic “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), this Lillian consorts with white supremacists, too — if only for a spell before she moves on to the next part.Treating taboos with the flippancy of an eye-rolling teenager, “The Sweet East” tracks the high schooler Lillian’s journeys around the northeastern seaboard. The film is directed by the veteran cinematographer Sean Price Williams (“Good Time”), who shot the film as well and employs grainy B-movie aesthetics.Mileage is sure to vary on the film’s picaresque antics. Lillian falls in with what Williams and the screenwriter Nick Pinkerton see as the most mockable crews: brain-fried anarchists in Washington, D.C.; a sexually repressed Muslim brotherhood in rural Vermont; navel-gazing filmmakers (Ayo Edebiri and Jeremy O. Harris) in the Big Apple. This latter group casts Lillian as the star in their upcoming period movie about the construction of the Erie Canal, which features a meta heartthrob-du-jour played by Jacob Elordi.Pinkerton’s cheeky script flattens when it’s up against the crust-punk radicals and the jihadists; and at its strongest when skewering a neo-Nazi intellectual (Simon Rex) angling to make Lillian his child bride. This weirdly eloquent figure is played marvelously by Rex, who hits the right balance between sincerity and absurdity that other parts of the film sometimes bungle. Maybe it’s low hanging fruit that the white supremacist character is the best comic fodder, but the film’s trolling is stranger and more esoterically inclined than its selection of political punching bags would seem to warrant.The Sweet EastNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters. More