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    What to Watch This Weekend: An Experiment from Comedy Weirdos

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    Perhaps you would enjoy “Knuckles,” a Sonic the Hedgehog spinoff that outpaces its origin story.Wendy Whipple (Stockard Channing) and Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba) in “Knuckles.”Paramount Pictures/Sega, via Paramount+What if I told you that midway through “Knuckles,” the new Paramount+ limited series based on the character from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, there’s a mini rock opera featuring vocals from Michael Bolton? If that piques your interest, then you will find many things to enjoy in this show, which frequently feels less like an exercise in I.P. expansion and more like an experiment from comedy weirdos. There’s some strange sauce at work in “Knuckles,” which makes it overcome its crassly commercial origins to feel like a worthwhile watch for those in need of a quick and zany distraction.At its core, “Knuckles” is a spinoff of the two “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies about a blue alien who can go fast. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” (2022) introduced Knuckles, a bright red echidna, sometimes called a spiny anteater, voiced by Idris Elba, who starts out as Sonic’s foe but turns out to be an ally. You don’t actually really need to know much of anything about the “Sonic” movies or Sega video games to enjoy “Knuckles,” however. There’s occasionally mention of Sonic lore, but it just serves as a backdrop to a bizarre buddy comedy.“Knuckles” finds the titular character teaming up with Wade Whipple (Adam Pally), a lowly deputy sheriff of the town where Sonic and his pals reside. Wade wants to win a bowling tournament. The deadpan Knuckles believes his quest worthy and promises to turn Wade into a “warrior.” (The theme song is Scandal’s very catchy “The Warrior” from 1984.)So, yes, “Knuckles” is mostly about a man and an animated egg-laying mammal with super strength venturing from Montana to Reno in order to bowl. Along the way they are pursued by some bad guys (Scott Mescudi, a.k.a. the rapper Kid Cudi, and Ellie Taylor) who want to trap Knuckles, but they also stop to have Shabbat dinner at Wade’s childhood home. There, Wade’s mother, played by Stockard Channing, teaches Knuckles about Judaism and the filmography of Julia Roberts.And then there’s the “low-budget rock opera,” directed by Lonely Island’s Jorma Taccone, in which Wade enters a musical dream sequence dressed as Knuckles in a fuzzy mascot suit. He is accompanied by a chorus of dancing owls led by Julian Barratt of the British comedy group the Mighty Boosh. It’s a deeply absurd episode that feels right in line with the rest of Taccone’s work, especially the underrated film “Hot Rod” (2007).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Luther: The Fallen Sun’ Review: Psycho Filler

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      A smoldering Idris Elba is no match for the preposterousness of this feature-length Netflix continuation of the popular BBC crime thriller.Movies have never quite figured out what to do with Idris Elba. Imposing, charismatic and dauntingly intelligent, Elba has so far been most memorable on television — his intense, thoughtful style feeding on the intimacy and character-building patience of episodic storytelling.Over five seasons on the BBC show “Luther” (2010-19), he played the titular London copper as a troubled, morally conflicted genius with an aversion to rules and an ongoing infatuation with a slinky psychopath (brilliantly played by Ruth Wilson). All wounded eyes and wool overcoat, Luther lumbered wearily from one grisly crime scene to another, losing loved ones and nabbing a series of increasingly implausible adversaries. Throughout, the character was a magnetic constant; the show’s problem was always finding villains worthy of him.And that’s exactly where “Luther: The Fallen Sun” (directed by Jamie Payne and written by the show’s creator and sole writer, Neil Cross) trips, falls and never recovers. The inexplicable choice of a smirking Andy Serkis as the murderous David Robey, a cyber-sicko with limitless resources and incalculable mental issues, elicits more chuckles than chills. Decked out at one point in a velvet blazer and turtleneck, hair teased into the likeness of a dead stoat, Robey is less demented sadist than disco king. The scene where the diminutive devil — hopping and hooded like the killer in “Don’t Look Now” (1973) — fights the towering Luther on a subway platform is nothing less than ludicrous.Body-mass differential aside, Luther and Robey are further hindered by a plot so dashed-off and indistinct that very little makes sense. Picking up generally where season five ended, with Luther heading to prison for his persistent vigilantism, this feature-length revival (streaming on Netflix) locks him up and gets him out with mystifying, head-spinning ease. Robey, seemingly assisted by a shadowy pod of followers, is busily hacking webcams and smart devices, recording shameful secrets and blackmailing their owners. For those who prefer to die rather than be exposed, Robey stages elaborate kill scenes, live-action tableaus that unfold with a pulpy majesty. In a movie that starts at fever pitch and rarely relents, these grisly interludes, captured by Larry Smith’s glowering camera, offer strangely haunting respites from the plot’s general chaos.Lacking dialogue to deepen the characters or reinforce their motivations, “Luther: The Fallen Sun” whooshes past in a rush of serial-killer clichés: an underground lair, a torture room, a masked maniac. Anonymous losers sit glued to computer screens, but the movie is so headlong and fragmented it’s unclear exactly what they’re watching or how Robey’s sleazy schemes are realized. It’s as if Netflix has tried to shoehorn an entire season of television into a little over two hours.The result might be more richly cinematic, but it’s infinitely cruder, with characters so underwritten that their possible demise excites no more than a shrug. Brief sightings of the wonderful Dermot Crowley, who returns as Luther’s melancholic superintendent, have a steadying effect, as does Cynthia Erivo as Luther’s fed-up superior. But it’s Elba himself, huddled miserably inside that overcoat in a rain-soaked Piccadilly Circus, that elicits a nostalgic thrill. Call me a pushover for tormented heroes and soulful tailoring.Luther: The Fallen SunRated R for flaming bodies, forced suicides and frightful hair. Running time: 2 hours 9 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      ‘Three Thousand Years of Longing’ Review: Desire, Once Upon a Time

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      George Miller directs a visually sumptuous, grown-up fairy tale with Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba. It jumps across time but too often just stumbles.There are storytellers, and then there is Scheherazade, the savvy bride who in “One Thousand and One Nights” entertains her husband, the king of Persia, by telling him stories. The king has a nasty habit of killing his wives, so to keep her head Scheherazade practices narrative interruptus: Each night, she relates wondrous tales without finishing them, keeping him hooked on her cliffhangers so that she can live another day. For her, storytelling is life.The stakes are far lower for Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton) in George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing.” A self-described narratologist, Alithea has meaningful work, reputational standing, a movieland dream house and a potential new chapter in a mysterious being (Idris Elba). She is also a storyteller. But unlike Scheherazade, Alithea risks nothing meaningful when she spins this yarn, a problem for a movie that insists on the importance of storytelling. Despite Miller’s talent and feverish enthusiasm, and the gravitational pull of his stars, the movie’s colorful parts just whir and stop, a pinwheel in unsteady wind.The movie begins with a promising, characteristically energetic Miller-esque whoosh of swooping cameras, brisk editing, pops of colors and a sense of urgency. Things are about to happen! Except — as Alithea explains — everything to come has already occurred. “My story is true,” she says, adding: “You’re more likely to believe me, however, if I tell it as a fairy tale.” And so, with a melodious once-upon-a-time voice, she revs up an elaborate story about a loquacious genie called, well, Djinn (Elba). Soon enough, the story skips back in time, she frees him from a bottle, he offers her three wishes and she reacts warily until she doesn’t.Any movie with Elba and Swinton has its appeal, and the same holds true of “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” which pulls you in every time they’re together onscreen. It takes flight with Alithea en route to a conference in Istanbul. Things quickly get weird, and a certain je ne sais what perfumes the air when she meets a peculiar fellow at the airport and encounters an even odder, ominous-looking stranger at the conference. During a lecture on storytelling, Alithea sits before huge images of modern gods like Batman and Superman, a display that gestures toward the continuity between new myths and those of the ancient world. And then she faints.Certainly, Miller — whose fables include the Mad Max series — is keenly interested in the power of stories. But in “Years of Longing,” he has tethered himself to hopeless, uninvolving source material. That would be a self-reflexive, tediously long story by A.S. Byatt titled “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye,” which also centers on a single, middle-aged British academic who (eventually) travels to Turkey, meets a genie, is offered three wishes and experiences several life-altering changes. Filled with literary allusions and deep thoughts, it is serious stuff, no doubt, but it’s also about a white woman getting laid by an exotic Other.Race doesn’t factor into the original story, or maybe it does; I was so bored I admittedly resorted to skimming chunks of it. Whatever the case, the casting in the movie adds complications because of the way that cinema concretizes ideas. Actors don’t only play parts; they give those ideas flesh, histories, social and cultural meanings. Djinn is a captive to whoever releases him from the bottle; he’s a fictional creation, and this is a fairy tale. Yet it’s also a story in which a sexualized Black man is, at least initially, held captive to the desires of a lonely white woman who wants what he’s got — provocative terrain the movie ignores.“Three Thousand Years of Longing” — it was written by Miller and his daughter, Augusta Gore — has more life than the original story, but it still drags. After Alithea unbottles Djinn, the two face off in her hotel room, where after some awkwardness and silliness (enter a wee Albert Einstein), they settle into matching hotel bathrobes, and he recounts the stories that shaped his previous 3,000 years. As the movie’s title announces, these are suffused with longing. The first involves the Queen of Sheba (Aamito Lagum), another turns on an enslaved girl (Ece Yuksel) and yet another on an unhappy wife (Burcu Golgedar).All the stories have their appeal, and Miller, working with a predictably stellar crew, seems to have an enjoyable time playing with his digital tool kit. Yet his exuberance and delight are most evident — and most infectious — at the granular level. Although several of the tales are heavily populated, teeming with intrigues and swarming with minions, the movie charms most successfully with the beauty and wit of its filigreed details: the gleam of its polished surfaces, the hues of its variegated palette and the inventiveness of its smaller delights, like the bewitching musical instrument that plays itself with its own nimble hands.Despite these flashes of playfulness, the stories blur rather than build. They’re overlong, for one, and because Djinn often narrates their characters’ words, thoughts and deeds, they rarely come alive. Much like the figurines in old-fashioned automaton clocks, they enter at the appointed time, execute clever bits of business and exit, leaving no impression other than admiration for clockmaker’s skill. Worse, they take you away from Alithea and Djinn. And while the last half-hour is lovely — it’s here that you see the movie, and feel the tenderness, that Miller himself clearly yearns to convey — by then, alas, the clock has almost run out.Three Thousand Years of LongingRated R for fairy-tale violence, nudity and sex. Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Idris Elba, a Gamer, Was Keen on Joining ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’

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      When Idris Elba takes on a new role — whether it’s fictional like Stringer Bell on “The Wire” or historical like Nelson Mandela in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” — he usually has some degree of reality on which to base his performance.That was not the case with his latest character, a surly red cartoon echidna named Knuckles.As Elba explained in a video interview on Tuesday, “I’ve never met any short, fluffy guys with big fists. I’m sorry, that’s not my experience. Maybe you have, but I haven’t.”To a generation of gamers, Knuckles is best known as the rival of Sonic the Hedgehog, the high-velocity star of the long-running Sega franchise.The hit 2020 film based on the game, with Ben Schwartz voicing Sonic and Jim Carrey as his human nemesis, Dr. Robotnik, successfully translated the video-game series into a movie franchise that blended live action with animation.A sequel, “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” which Paramount will release on Friday, brings back the characters and conflicts while adding more familiar faces from the games, including Knuckles, a powerful fighter with unlikely physical proportions and a particular grudge against the hero.Elba, whose expansive film résumé includes action (“Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw,” “The Suicide Squad”), animation (“Zootopia”) and even one motion-capture Andrew Lloyd Webber musical (“Cats”), said that getting to play Knuckles was “mind-boggling.”Knuckles, voiced by Idris Elba, in “Sonic the Hedgehog 2.”Paramount Pictures/Sega of AmericaThat’s partly because Elba, 49, is a dedicated fan of video games, and partly because he (like the author of this article) is the father of a 7-year-old son, and he was eager to make some movies they could share as a family.As Elba explained, “You and I remember those first early games and now here we are — our sons are like, ‘Wow, I can see “Sonic 2” with my dad.’ That’s special.”(Even so, when I mentioned that my son and I have also bonded over video games, Elba warned: “Is he into Minecraft and Roblox? Be careful. Be aware. You might lose your child.”)Elba spoke further about his history as a gamer and the range of inspirations for Knuckles, including the actor’s own parents. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.Were you a gamer before you made this film?One hundred percent. I literally have my Switch in my bag. When I started off, I had a Commodore 64 [a 1980s-era home computer]. Dude, that’s how far it goes back for me. And then when I could afford one, I had a Sega Genesis. And I’ve pretty much had every single console since then. I’m a grown man now, but I still play FIFA and driving games.I started out on a Commodore 64, too. It had a reputation for having software that was incredibly easy to pirate.Well, it’s funny you say that. I remember you could take a blank tape and dub a game onto it. And you had to take the tabs off the cassette so you didn’t record over it. [Exaggeratedly serious voice] But of course, all my games were authorized purchases, I bought them all.How did the role of Knuckles first come up for you?I’ve done voices in animation and I like doing things for a younger audience. But when my agent called with this, he didn’t even get to finish his sentence. I was like, yes, absolutely.You have a whole body of work that your 7-year-old son can’t see yet. Was it important that you do something you could share with him?[Laughs] There’s a lot of stuff my kid won’t be able to see until he’s an adult, and then he can judge me. My daughter’s 20, and she’s lived with me doing earlier work like “Finding Dory.” So it is a really satisfying feeling for my son to see me do something, too.“Sonic” is the rare film of Elba’s that his 7-year-old can watch: “It is a really satisfying feeling for my son to see me do something.”Michael Tyrone Delaney for The New York TimesWhat did you and the director Jeff Fowler discuss about Knuckles in your first meeting?We did try out some voices to figure out what he might sound like. He looks sort of menacing — [exaggeratedly flexes arms] rarrrr. I actually wanted to try to play him with a squeaky voice. I thought that might be funny. But they didn’t think that was funny and that idea got nixed immediately. [Laughs] But we did try different voices, cadences, accents. Knuckles isn’t a big talker, but when he does speak, he’s very blunt.You recently made the western “The Harder They Fall.” Was a villain like Rufus Buck still in your head when you were figuring out Knuckles?Not “The Harder They Fall,” but my character in the Marvel world, in the “Thor” films, Heimdall, there’s a sense of symmetry between those two voices. Look, I’ve got a deep voice and I could just use my voice as it is. I didn’t consciously want to sound like Heimdall too much. But probably, yeah, they sound exactly the same. [Laughs]It felt like you had a specific idea for where Knuckles came from and how you wanted him to sound. How would you explain it?The first thing that we observed was, he comes from an ancient world — he’s a warrior from his tribe and English is not their first language. He doesn’t have a sense of humor in the same way Sonic does. He’s very dry and matter-of-fact, and he uses English just to get his point across and move on. He hasn’t got time for niceties. We used that construct as a way to start to develop what he sounds like.Have you encountered people in real life who are very focused and intense about their goals, but perhaps need more help in personal situations or don’t fully grasp sarcasm?I work in an industry where there’s a lot of instructions being passed left and right — do this, do that — and often the efficient people are the ones who are like, Hey, let’s just get this done. My parents are West African — they moved from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to London in the early ’70s. So when English isn’t your first language and the culture’s different — the English sense of humor, it goes over a lot of people’s heads — I’ve been witness to that.Growing up in London, did you feel like its culture and customs came more organically to you than to your parents?I was born there, so I didn’t recognize that until I was old enough to understand that English culture was not their culture. I remember feeling that. My mom would say, “Back home in Africa, we do things like this.” And I’d never dare say it, but I used to think, We’re not in Africa — we’re in England. That was the beginning of my understanding of that culture clash. But I’ve been to Africa a few times, and I remember going to Sierra Leone and recognizing all this cultural stuff that I’d seen all my life but didn’t know where it had come from. And there it was, in the origin of my parents. It was fascinating.Do you prefer a voice-only role like Knuckles to your other past performances that have involved motion capture?Not necessarily. Motion capture is such a fascinating art and discipline on its own. In this one, there would be no benefit to having any of my facial features for Knuckles. It wouldn’t make any sense.Knuckles is a visitor from an ancient world, and that reminded Elba of his parents’ experience as immigrants in Britain: “The English sense of humor, it goes over a lot of people’s heads — I’ve been witness to that.”Michael Tyrone Delaney for The New York TimesSo you haven’t necessarily soured on it after your experience with “Cats”?Thank you for leaping from hedgehogs to cats. I see what you did. From a performance perspective, it is an incredible experience, being a feline. That’s something I’ve experienced and never have to again. That box has been checked.Paramount has been candid that they’d like to do even more with Knuckles, including another “Sonic” movie and his own TV series. Was that part of the appeal for you?It is now. Honestly, when I got it, I didn’t even know that would be on the table. I thought I was just doing one movie. But now, the fact that I can probably get to play more Knuckles and maybe even spin off into his own world is great.There is another film franchise that people would love to see you participate in, that we’re all waiting expectantly to hear about. Is it still a possibility for you?[Silence]You know which one I mean? The spy with the gun?I’m not sure what you’re talking about.He’s got a famous code name with digits —He’s got digits? Knuckles! Knuckles has digits. No guns.Is it safe to say we won’t be breaking any James Bond news in a conversation about Sonic the Hedgehog?Noooooooo. No. I’m sorry to disappoint.Putting that aside, would it surprise you if, many years from now, the roles you are best known for are, say, Stringer Bell, Nelson Mandela and Knuckles?I think for any actor, the dream is to be able to play different roles and not be pigeonholed, and I feel like I’ve been lucky to have that as a career. But it is interesting. I was on a radio show, and they were like, [booming radio announcer voice] “He’s played Luther. He’s done ‘Beasts of No Nation.’ And now: He’s Knuckles.” It’s like, uh, maybe you could say he’s played a seal in “Finding Dory” and a buffalo in “Zootopia,” he’s played a cat. And now he’s Knuckles. That lineup seems a bit more apt. To go from Nelson Mandela to Knuckles is a bit of a reach. More

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      ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’ Review: Keep Up! Bada-Brrring!

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      Jim Carrey’s reprised role as a villainous weirdo helps this fast-paced, family-friendly video-game-movie sequel maintain a refreshing silliness.Introduced by Sega at the start of the 1990s, the zippy blue hairball Sonic the Hedgehog is now officially over the hill and picking up speed onscreen. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” is a fast-paced romp that’s silly, filled with quips and unabashedly for children — which is refreshing, coming at a time when so many other children’s franchises have succumbed to Sturm und Drang.This full-tilt sequel by the returning director Jeff Fowler and the screenwriters Pat Casey, Josh Miller and John Whittington finds Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) struggling to relax with his adopted parents, Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter). Their small town is invaded by two animated extraterrestrials: Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), a flying fox who wants to make friends, and Knuckles (Idris Elba), a dog-like bruiser who wants to make mincemeat of anyone who gets between him and an all-powerful whiz-bang of a weapon called the Master Emerald.Things proceed as one might expect, but the road is littered with bits of lunacy that keep the audience on its toes. While the gags can be a hair too reliant on pop culture references — Limp Bizkit and Pantera? — the script has a rare affection for even small characters like Maddie’s quarrelsome sister (Natasha Rothwell), who gets to strut away with the most memorable fight scene.Still, there’s only so far sass can get you, and, as in the last movie, things would sputter to a halt without Jim Carrey’s performance as the fiendish Dr. Robotnik. Carrey may have created the best PG-movie villain in decades: a perfectly calibrated comedy machine whose preening, glowering and frustrated sputtering somehow still seem spur of the moment. Recently, Carrey suggested that he might retire from acting. If these films really do turn out to be Carrey’s goodbye, he is leaving Hollywood with a farewell gift: His built-for-the-big-screen exuberance might just hook this generation of kids on the joy of going to movie theaters.Sonic the Hedgehog 2Rated PG. Running time: 2 hours 2 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘The Harder They Fall’ Review: A New Look for the Old West

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      Jeymes Samuel’s film is a bloody horse opera with a charismatic cast.A note at the beginning of “The Harder They Fall” asserts that while the story is fictional, “These. People. Existed.” This isn’t about historical accuracy, or even realism; it’s about genre. The movie, directed by Jeymes Samuel (from a screenplay he wrote with Boaz Yakin), is a high-style pop Western, with geysers of blood, winks of nasty, knowing humor and an eclectic, joyfully anachronistic soundtrack featuring cuts from Jay-Z, Fela Kuti and Nina Simone alongside Samuel’s original score.The point is that the vivid assortment of gunslingers, chanteuses, saloonkeepers and train-robbers — all of them Black — who ride through picturesque mountain ranges and frontier towns have as authentic a claim on the mythology of the West as their white counterparts. They exist, in other words, as true archetypes in a primal story of revenge, greed, treachery and courage.Especially revenge. The story begins with a family’s Sunday dinner interrupted by slaughter. Some years later, the young boy whose parents were gunned down in front of him has grown up into an outlaw named Nat Love, played with abundant charm by Jonathan Majors. Nat’s gang — whose most valuable players are a sharpshooter (Edi Gathegi) and a quick-draw specialist (RJ Cyler) — specializes in stealing from other outlaw bands. But that’s just business. The personal concerns that propel Nate and the plot are his love for Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz) and his vendetta against Rufus Buck (Idris Elba).Mary is a singer and entrepreneur with impressive fighting skills. Rufus resembles a villain out of fantasy or science fiction — a nearly superhuman avatar of evil with grandiose ambitions and a grudge against the universe. And also the charisma of Elba, unmatched at playing bad guys with a touch of sadness to them. Rufus’s crew is a mirror-image of Nate’s, though his empire is more extensive. His sharpshooter, Cherokee Bill (Lakieth Stanfield), is a philosophical sociopath, and his main lieutenant is a ruthless killer named Trudy Smith.Speaking of charisma: Regina King! From her first appearance — on horseback, in a blazing blue coat with gold buttons to match her stirrups — Trudy spikes the magnetometer, but King is in good company. Just look at the names in the preceding paragraphs. Add Delroy Lindo as a dour U.S. Marshall with complicated allegiances and Danielle Deadwyler as Mary’s pint-size bouncer, who joins up with Nate’s gang and steals a dozen scenes as well as $35,000 from a white-owned bank.Samuel makes the most of his formidable cast. If anything, he may be overgenerous. The narrative sometimes flags so that everyone can get in a few volleys of the salty, pungent dialogue on the way to the next round of gunplay or fisticuffs. There are imaginative and suspenseful set pieces — Trudy peeling an apple while she tells the captive Mary a story; a bank robbery in a town so white that even the dust on Main Street looks bleached — and plenty of more conventional episodes of shooting and punching.“The Harder They Fall,” nodding to the traditions of blaxploitation and spaghetti Westerns in the Netflix era, opts for sprawl and impact — the eye-popping cinematography is by Mihai Malaimare Jr. — over restraint and coherence. That’s not such a bad thing, though the story sometimes feels glib as well as messy. A late-breaking revelation that is meant to raise the dramatic and emotional stakes has the opposite effect, and the violence walks the line between stylization and sadism. The bodies pile up at the end, but there are enough people still existing to tease a sequel. No complaints here. That’s part of how the West was won.The Harder They FallRated R. Killing and cursing. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      James Gunn Nearly Blew Up His Career. Now He’s Back With ‘The Suicide Squad’

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      The “Guardians of the Galaxy” director talks about the Twitter controversy that got him temporarily fired from Marvel, and his crossover to the DC franchise.One day in July 2018, James Gunn discovered that he was trending on Twitter and not for a good reason. Gunn, the filmmaker behind Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” science-fiction series, had tweeted many deliberately crude jokes about the Holocaust, the 9/11 attacks, AIDS, pedophilia and rape. Now they had been resurfaced, steering waves of criticism his way. Gunn was fired from a planned third “Guardians” movie and he believed his career was over. “It seemed like everything was gone,” he said recently.Gunn publicly apologized and his “Guardians” stars, including Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, rallied to his defense in an open letter. In March 2019, Gunn was hired back to the film franchise.Gunn had spent the months after his firing reflecting on himself while also working on an unexpected opportunity: Warner Bros. had tapped him to make a movie in its own superhero universe based on DC Comics characters. His entry, “The Suicide Squad,” which he wrote and directed, chronicles a motley team of criminals, including the marksman Bloodsport (Idris Elba) and the saboteur Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), selected by the ruthless Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) to complete a seemingly impossible mission.“The Suicide Squad,” which will be released in theaters and on HBO Max on Aug. 6, follows the 2016 film “Suicide Squad,” written and directed by David Ayer, which was a commercial success but not well received by critics. Gunn’s take preserves the violence while adding further layers of outrageousness and absurd characters like the Polka-Dot Man (David Dastmalchian), the fish-human hybrid King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) and a malevolent alien starfish called Starro.As Gunn explained, “There’s a sort of magical realism that we come into this film with. Yes, it’s weird to see a walking shark. But it’s not as weird as it would be in our universe.”Gunn, whose credits include the low-budget genre satires “Slither” and “Super,” spoke in late June in a video interview from Vancouver, British Columbia, where he is working on “Peacemaker,” a TV spinoff of “The Suicide Squad” starring that jingoistic adventurer played by John Cena.The 54-year-old Gunn has let his spiky hair go white and grown a tidy accompanying beard, giving him a look that’s more mad scientist than industry upstart. But he remains chastened by his brief exile from Marvel. Speaking of “The Suicide Squad,” he said, “There’s dark humor in it, but the emotional part is there, too. I feel as if I was communicating my whole being.”Gunn discussed his firing and rehiring by Marvel, the making of “The Suicide Squad” for DC and his perspective on the two superhero franchises. These are edited excerpts from that conversation.Gunn with Idris Elba among the cast and crew of “The Suicide Squad.”Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros.How did you first learn that you had been fired from Marvel?It was conveyed to me by Kevin Feige [the Marvel Studios president]. I called Kevin the morning it was going on, and I said, “Is this a big deal?” And he goes, “I don’t know.” That was a moment. I was like, “You don’t know?” I was surprised. Later he called me — he himself was in shock — and told me what the powers that be had decided. It was unbelievable. And for a day, it seemed like everything was gone. Everything was gone. I was going to have to sell my house. I was never going to be able to work again. That’s what it felt like.Did the experience make you more careful about what you say, whether on social media or in general?Yes and no. I’m more considerate of people’s feelings today. I had talked about this a lot before those tweets were [resurfaced]. They are awful things, that’s what my sense of humor was back then. But before this ever happened, I realized that I had closed myself off to things I thought were schmaltzy because I didn’t want to be vulnerable. This attitude — I can make a joke about anything, look how great I am — that’s just not the fullness of me as a human being. And I learned that long before I got called out for the tweets.The term wasn’t as prevalent at the time, but do you think you were a victim of what people now call “cancel culture”?I understand people’s preoccupation with that term. But it’s such a bigger issue than that. Because cancel culture also is people like Harvey Weinstein, who should be canceled. People who have gotten canceled and then remain canceled — most of those people deserved that. The paparazzi are not just the people on the streets — they’re the people combing Twitter for any past sins. All of that sucks. It’s painful. But some of it is accountability. And that part of it is good. It’s just about finding that balance.When you see someone else now being punished for things they’ve posted online, are you sympathetic?Even when the person has done something terrible, I still feel sympathy for that person. Because I’m a compassionate person and it’s part of my faith. Sometimes things get taken out of context. And sometimes somebody did something when they were in college — it’s 20 years later, they’ve lived a great life, it’s just too much. And then sometimes you read, oh, well, what he did was pretty awful.When did you start to realize that things weren’t quite as dire? Did the public support of your “Guardians” actors make the difference?You do not understand the immensity of it until you’re in the middle of it. For a guy who feels like he’s done most things by himself and hasn’t had a lot of backing from anyone, ever, and has had to claw my way from B movies to where I am today, you don’t expect people to have your back. As somebody who does have a difficult time taking in the affection or the love of others, to have everybody around me — my girlfriend, my parents, my family, my manager, my publicists, all of the actors I’ve worked with — to have them come to my side and be there for me, that was an eye-opener for me. I felt really fulfilled and loved in a way that I had never felt in my entire life. And when Warner Bros. comes to me on the Monday after it happens and says, we want you, James Gunn, you think, wow, that feels good to hear.Asked about the nihilistic feel of “The Suicide Squad,” Gunn pushed back: “For me it’s about our changing world and people who have a very difficult time making connections being able to make some small connections.”Alana Paterson for The New York TimesSo while you’re in the midst of this potential scandal, Warner Bros. comes to you and asks if you might be interested in Superman, their flagship DC character?They proposed that to me. Toby Emmerich [the Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman], he works out with my manager, and every morning he would say, “James Gunn, Superman. James Gunn, Superman.”How did you land on “The Suicide Squad” instead?At that time I said I can’t commit myself to something right now. It was traumatic. I had to deal with myself. I just have to take a step back. So I took the different possibilities of projects I could work on, and for a month, every day I worked on a different project. I really wanted to make sure that whatever I was going to write was going to be a great story, and if it worked out and I felt like directing it, I could. “Suicide Squad” was just the one that came to life immediately.Were you a fan of the comics?I really loved [the writer] John Ostrander’s take, which was taking these Z-grade villains and throwing them into black-ops situations where they were totally disposable and they wouldn’t come out alive. I loved “The Dirty Dozen” as a kid. It’s that same concept, mixed with a DC comic.How much were your choices defined by what you’d seen in the previous “Suicide Squad” film?Not at all. I wanted to create what I thought of as the Suicide Squad. For me to react to David’s movie would make it the shadow of David’s movie. I wanted it to be its own thing completely. When Warner Bros. said they wanted me to do this, I watched the first movie for the first time, and I called them back and said, what do I have to keep from this movie? And they said, nothing. They said, listen, we would love it if Margot’s in the movie but she doesn’t have to be. You could come up with all new characters or you could keep all the same characters.The previous film had a few big stars who aren’t returning. Did you explore bringing back Jared Leto as Joker or Will Smith as Deadshot?Joker, no. I just don’t know why Joker would be in the Suicide Squad. He wouldn’t be helpful in that type of war situation. Will — I really wanted to work with Idris. It is a multi-protagonist film. We go off for a while with Margot, and Daniela [Melchior, who plays Ratcatcher 2] is the heart of the film in a lot of ways. But if there’s one protagonist, it’s Idris. And I wanted somebody who had that gruff, “Unforgiven”-type feeling about him. This guy who had been reduced from being a bigshot supervillain — he took Superman out of the sky — who is now scraping gum off the floor at the beginning of the movie. He absolutely doesn’t want any part of it — he just has accepted this is his life. And I just think that character is Idris Elba.“The Suicide Squad” features a motley team culled from the DC universe, including Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, second from right), all led by Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman, center). Jessica Miglio/Warner Bros. This will be the third film, after “Suicide Squad” and “Birds of Prey,” to try to find a place for Harley Quinn in DC’s movie universe. How do you see the character?For me, Harley Quinn belongs on the wall next to Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Spider-Man, Hulk. Most of my career has been writing characters who existed in the comics but weren’t well-defined personalities, and having to create their cinematic personalities, whether it’s Star-Lord or Drax or Groot, who were all very different in the comics. Harley was pretty incredibly written by Paul Dini from the beginning, and so to be able to capture the essence of that character — her chaotic, sweet nature — and give her her due as the trickster and allow her to go wherever she wants, was surprising even to me as a writer.Did you take a certain pleasure in bringing back Viola Davis as Amanda Waller and letting her get her hands as dirty as some of the superhero characters?She has no qualms about doing that whatsoever. She’s just the sweetest person in the world and Waller is scary. When she’s on set and that turn happens, I am literally afraid to come in and give her a note because of the look in her eyes. It is incredibly intimidating. She comes up to here [holds hand at height of his neck] on me. But it is. She’s amazing.There’s a built-in dispensability to your concept of “The Suicide Squad” that cuts against a studio’s desire for repeatable franchise films. Was it your goal to make the most nihilistic superhero movie of the modern era?I don’t think it’s nihilistic. For me it’s about our changing world and people who have a very difficult time making connections being able to make some small connections. My mission statement was just to make the most fun film I could and not balk at anything. I knew I had a chance that very few filmmakers have ever had, which is to make a huge-budget film with no holds barred in terms of the plot, the effects, the sets. I felt a responsibility to take chances.What if, after a yearlong pandemic, mass audiences aren’t ready for a movie with so much wanton death and destruction?I actually think the emotion and the humor help to even off the harsher aspects of it. I think it’s a perfect movie for now. It’s just a matter of where are we going to be with Covid and being safe. [“F9”] did great, so I’m hopeful there’s a real appetite for it. I was talking to my 80-year-old mother this morning. She wants to come see it. I’m like, Mom, this movie has a lot of sharks ripping people in half in it. [Gentle voice] “I know, I don’t care, Jimmy.” She’ll love it.Does it seem strange that the DC films can encompass movies like “The Suicide Squad,” which unabashedly earns its R rating, and also movies like “Shazam!,” which are more family-oriented?I think it’s great. That is the one of the ways in which DC can distinguish itself from Marvel. What I do is very different from what [the “Ant-Man” director] Peyton Reed does, it’s very different from what [the “Iron Man” director Jon] Favreau did, it’s different from Taika [Waititi, the director of “Thor: Ragnarok”]. But not as different as “Shazam!” and “Suicide Squad,” however. I think the current batch of folks over at Warner Bros. are really interested in building out a world and creating something that’s unique to the filmmakers. We’re in a strange time, so anything can happen.Gunn with Michael Rooker (as the blue-skinned Yondu) on the set of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.”Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel/DisneyYou’re the first director who’s made films for both Marvel and DC —[Fake cough] Joss Whedon. I’m the first one to receive a directing credit on the Marvel and DC movies. [Laughs.]Do you see major differences with how Marvel and DC approach their film franchises?Yes, but not as many as people probably think. There’s no doubt Kevin Feige is way more involved with editing than people are at Warner Bros. He gives more notes. You don’t have to take them and I don’t always take them. Then again, I had more problems. If you saw the first cut of “Guardians” 1, it had more problems, because that was my first time making something so gigantic and there’s some learning to what works and what doesn’t, carving away the excess stuff. The truth is, as Marvel goes on and Kevin Feige starts to amass ownership of half of all film in general, he’s more spread out.Are you free to make more films for DC going forward or are you exclusive to Marvel?I have no clue what I’m going to do. For me, “Guardians 3” is probably the last one. I don’t know about doing it again. I do find, because of the ability to do different stuff in the DC multiverse, it’s fun. They’re starting to really resemble their comic books. The Marvel Universe has always been a little more cohesive, and DC has always had more great single runs. They had The Dark Knight Returns. They had Watchmen. They had The Killing Joke. They had Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. The fact that they did “Joker,” which is a totally different type of movie, that to me is cool. I’m very excited about Matt’s movie [“The Batman,” from Matt Reeves]. They’re getting some really good filmmakers involved. They’re always going to be hit or miss — I just don’t want them to get boring.You got your start in the world of low-budget cinema. Do you think you might return to something that’s smaller and faster to make?I love toys and the explosions and the cameras, frankly. I love to be able to work on a big playing field. If I had a smaller, more intimate thing that I wanted to do, I would definitely do that. Right now I really just want to nap, but I still have another major motion picture to make before that. I can’t wait to see the Marvel gang again — those people are my family. It’s so much different than people on Twitter. Everybody is significantly nicer. More

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      Horse Riders, a City Street and a History Now Captured on Film

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      The coming-of-age drama “Concrete Cowboy” is set amid the stables of Philadelphia’s Fletcher Street, a hub for Black equestrians for decades.On Fletcher Street one summer morning in 2019, Ricky Staub was asked to walk the plank.For decades, Fletcher Street — a slice of North Philadelphia’s Strawberry Mansion neighborhood — had been home to urban horse stables, and a hub for Black equestrians, and Staub had started spending time there after befriending a local rider.That’s how Staub found himself struggling to push a wheelbarrow up an angled wooden beam as a group of stable regulars watched his every wobble. Staub was eager to prove himself. He’d shown up for a day of dirty stable work wearing clean, bright sneakers (“like an idiot”) and couldn’t afford another rookie flub. Also, the wooden plank was teetering atop a colossal pile of horse manure.“I’m literally going to be thigh-deep if I fall,” Staub said.Lucky for him (and his sneakers), Staub kept his balance. And when he successfully finished his task, dumping the contents of the wheelbarrow — also full of manure — onto the growing pile, the spectators erupted in applause.That daring maneuver is one of several firsthand experiences that Staub, 37, recreated in “Concrete Cowboy,” his first feature, which is now streaming on Netflix. In this coming-of-age tale, a Detroit teenager (Caleb McLaughlin) is sent to Philadelphia to live with his estranged father (Idris Elba, also a producer of the film), who ekes out a modern-day cowboy existence on Fletcher Street, where small stables sit modestly among rowhouses.The movie, which Staub and Dan Walser adapted from the young-adult novel “Ghetto Cowboy,” by G. Neri, may follow a familiar Hollywood arc, but it is injected with extraordinary, sometimes surreal details drawn from Staub and Walser’s experiences hanging out with urban horse riders in Philadelphia for about two years.Idris Elba, left, and Caleb McLaughlin in “Concrete Cowboy.”Aaron Ricketts/NetflixConsider, for instance, the campfire scene early in the movie, when the riders gather around a fire at night, swapping stories by the light of flames, which spew from the belly of a metal barrel. It’s a tableau, complete with cowboy hats, taken straight from a classic western. It’s also something you might see offscreen today.“In the summertime, any given night that you want to, you go around to Fletcher Street stables and there will be at least three guys with a tin-can fire sitting outside, just relaxing,” said Ivannah-Mercedes, a rider who grew up caring for horses on Fletcher Street in the 2010s. Mercedes, who plays a fictional cowgirl in “Concrete Cowboy,” is one of a handful of riders — some still active there, others now based at different stables around the city — who got involved in the film, on both sides of the camera.The riders pointed to many details in the movie that were true to their own experiences, chief among them that riding has proved an indispensable form of healthy recreation in an environment where gun violence and other dangers can be difficult to avoid.Young people “need alternatives,” said Michael Upshur, 46, who began riding horses on Fletcher Street as a child in the early ’80s. “If they only see people on the street corner, that’s what they’re going to gravitate to.”Upshur said that he had boarded more than a dozen horses on Fletcher Street over the years. Like other riders there, he views the stables as more than a passion or a pastime.“Being with those horses taught me to have patience,” he said. “I found myself thinking a lot more before I act.”Upshur described methodically washing horses with a hose, watching as they playfully chomped at the stream of water. Over the decades, he has often ridden in Fairmount Park, about a 10-minute ride from the stables.“There’s something about you and that park,” Upshur said. “You can hear the sticks cracking while your horse is walking on those little twigs. You see the little squirrels running through, and the horse jumps a little bit — it calms you.”Michael Upshur on the set of “Concrete Cowboy.” He began riding horses on Fletcher Street in the 1980s.Aaron Ricketts/NetflixErin Brown, 37, remembers being told as a young rider that “your horse is a reflection of the type of person that you are.” Brown, who learned to ride on Fletcher Street in the early 1990s and later managed a barn there, said that caring for horses gave her a sense of responsibility when she was growing up. She said that for a period during her late teens, she “was headed down the wrong track,” but that the stables grounded her. She’s now a professional riding instructor.“I honestly don’t know where I would be today — and so many others can say the same thing — if it were not for the horses,” Brown said.Several Philadelphia riders teamed up with Staub and other members of the film’s creative team to create the Philadelphia Urban Riding Academy, a nonprofit that aims to maintain and preserve the history of Black riding in Philadelphia. (Brown is the organization’s executive director; Upshur and Mercedes are on its board of advisers.)Riders on Fletcher Street have long worried about the future of the stables, as gentrification and new development loom. Each stable in the cluster on Fletcher Street is individually owned and managed. There have been problems with conditions over the years, leading to run-ins with the city and the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. And the large, grassy field across from the stables — a set piece in the movie that has served as an open space for riders — is now being developed. The Philadelphia Urban Riding Academy’s goal is to create permanent stables where riders from Fletcher Street and elsewhere in the city can make a sustainable home for their horses.Brown, Upshur and Mercedes each emphasized that the history of urban ridership in Philadelphia should be preserved, and that the sense of empowerment and responsibility that horses offer riders is an invaluable — and irreplaceable — asset in the community. The Hollywood actors in “Concrete Cowboy” sensed that, too.Lorraine Toussaint, who plays one of the fictional riders, said she was struck by “the discipline involved with the care and maintenance and love of these extraordinary animals.”“I fell in love with horses so much,” she added, “that I actually went off and bought a horse farm after this film.”Elba himself felt the rush and grit that the real riders described.“These were really proud moments for me,” he said. “It felt very powerful jumping on a horse — you feel tall. You’re on this majestic beauty of a beast.”Elba was so committed to shining a light on the Philadelphia riding community that he signed on to produce “Concrete Cowboy” when it was still a script in search of financing and took up the challenge of playing opposite actual local riders. He even contributed a song to the film’s soundtrack.Elba did all of this despite an unchangeable, rather inconvenient truth: He’s allergic to horses. More

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      ‘Concrete Cowboy’ Review: Acquiring Horse Sense on the Philly Streets

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      Idris Elba leads us through the long-buried heritage of America’s Black cowboys, manifested in their modern-day urban descendants.There’s a quote that’s been circulating for years and years, apocryphally attributed to Ronald Reagan, Winston Churchill and a few other white men: “There is nothing so good for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.” In “Concrete Cowboy,” the improving aspects of horseback riding — and, yes, stable maintenance — are demonstrated in the tale of a troubled Black teenager, Cole (Caleb McLaughlin).One afternoon Cole’s mom picks him up from school after a fight gets him expelled. She’s so fed up with her son that she drives him all the way from their home in Detroit to Philadelphia, where his estranged, taciturn father, Harp (Idris Elba), lives. With a horse.Harp is part of a group of urban riders. There’s not a lot of room in Philly for expansive stables, so it’s catch as catch can. Nevertheless, Harp and his buddies keep their operations sufficiently copacetic that they are not just tolerated but embraced by much of their community, although the local cop Leroy (Method Man) warns that the authorities might soon break up their party. Cole gets schooled in horse sense; his training features an in-your-face close-up of a wheelbarrow full of manure.Directed by Ricky Staub and adapted from G. Neri’s young adult novel “Ghetto Cowboy,” this picture offers a standard shot-at-redemption story, complete with temptation in the form of Cole’s renewed connection with an old friend who’s involved in drug dealing. But the movie’s convincing accretion of detail and its affectionate fictionalization of an actual subculture are disarming. (Some of the supporting players are members of the Fletcher Street Riders; the characters they play talk of the actual history of the Black cowboy in a scene around a vacant-lot campfire.) The quirks of Elba’s character suit his confident manliness well, and McLaughlin handles Cole’s defiance and sometimes practically equine skittishness with considerable depth.Concrete CowboyRated R for themes, language, drug use. Running time: 1 hour 51 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More