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    ‘Forever’ Explores the Timelessness of Teen Romance (and Sex)

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    A new Netflix series adapts Judy Blume’s 1970s novel with a contemporary Black cast, flipping the gender roles but preserving its emotional innocence.In Judy Blume’s taboo-busting 1975 novel “Forever …,” a teenage girl has sex for the first time. It does not destroy her life. (That’s the plot twist.) But she is still surrounded by cautionary tales: unwanted pregnancies, untimely marriages and dreams deferred. The stakes of any tryst are higher for her than they are for her more experienced high school boyfriend.When the showrunner Mara Brock Akil considered adapting the novel, a young adult classic, she saw the relationship through different eyes: her own, as a mother to Black sons. In her first meeting with Blume — whose seminal coming-of-age best-sellers helped generations understand their bodies and themselves — she made the case that a TV version should also be told from the perspective of the boyfriend, in a contemporary series focused on Black families.If Katherine, the book’s heroine, seemed socially powerless in her era, “I would posit that Black boys are the most vulnerable at this time,” said Brock Akil, the creator of the beloved 2000s sitcom “Girlfriends,” and several other comedies. “A modern Black family, I feel like we know how dangerous the world is.”Blume wrote “Forever …” in the aftermath of the Pill, in response to her daughter’s request for a story in which a teen girl doesn’t get punished for having, and enjoying, a sex life — the dominant narrative at the time. Blume’s antidote captures the dramatic rush of first love and the fumbling urgency of adolescent exploration in frank language that made it both irresistible for young readers (with dog-eared copies passed around in schools) and one of the most frequently banned books in America well into the 2000s.Brock Akil with Michael Cooper Jr. on the set of “Forever.” In her first meeting with Judy Blume, she pitched the idea of centering the story on a Black family.Elizabeth Morris/NetflixBrock Akil’s interpretation, which debuts on Netflix on Thursday, stars Lovie Simone (“Greenleaf”) and the newcomer Michael Cooper Jr., flipping the original story’s gender roles: Simone, as Keisha Clark, is more experienced and self-assured; Cooper Jr., as Justin Edwards, is the awkward one who falls hard and needs guidance. Winningly, it preserves the source’s emotional innocence — breathe easy, parents; this is not the hard living of teen fare like “Euphoria.” But it builds tension exploring issues of race and class.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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      Debi Young, a Makeup Artist the Stars Swear By

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      Debi Young is a behind-the-scenes presence who has become a trusted voice to many A-list stars.Debi Young nodded in her maternal way, validating Jamie Hector’s concerns. Hector was nothing like Marlo Stanfield, the sociopathic shot caller he depicted in “The Wire” nearly a generation ago. But the latest script had called for Stanfield and a woman to be intimate in a car. Hector, then 28, mentored young actors and fretted about promoting promiscuity.He voiced his problem to Young, officially the show’s makeup artist and unofficially its moral compass.“There will come a day when you can say what you want to do and what you don’t want to do,” Young told Hector. She knew the sex scene was important for the character and that Hector needed to trust the writers. “Right now? You’re trying to bring people along with you,” she added.Then, the woman cast and crew referred to variously as Big Sister, Den Mother, Divine Mother or Mama Debi topped her advice with instructions that dropped Hector’s jaw: “So, you go into that scene and you just bang the hell out of her.”Hector, now 49, laughed at the recollection. “What she has to say is always on time, always important and always sincere and coming from a righteous place,” he said.Young is a youthful 71 whose most common credit is department head of makeup. She is a mainstay of HBO with credits on “Watchmen,” “Treme,” “True Detective” and “Mare of Easttown.” She has received four Emmy nominations. But it’s her deft advice, bendable ear and ability to cultivate trust that has made her a go-to for a constellation of Oscar-winning stars, many of whom are appreciative of seeing a Black woman in a position of authority.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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      Zazie Beetz and Regina King on Their Big Battle in ‘The Harder They Fall’

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      In the Netflix western, the two actresses, playing members of rival cowboy gangs, engage in an epic fight. Here, they break down the scene.“Trudy’s mine,” hisses Stagecoach Mary Fields (played by Zazie Beetz), her eyes blazing.Trudy Smith (Regina King) ducks into a dye barn, its rafters hung with swatches of color.Their eyes lock, Mary empties her shotgun onto the floor. Trudy tosses her pistol to the side.“Let’s go,” Mary spits out. A wild fight scene ensues between the two members of rival cowboy gangs: bodies hit windows, teeth crunch into hands and horseshoes hurl toward heads.Toward the end of the new Netflix western “The Harder They Fall” — a reminder that Black cowboys should be as much a part of the genre as anyone else — Mary and Trudy duke it out in an epic fight that nearly ends in death.Although the director, Jeymes Samuel, is a singer-songwriter known as the Bullitts, he has dabbled in filmmaking, and “The Harder They Fall” is his first feature. In a video interview, he clarified that he wasn’t reimagining the western — he was “replacing” it.“What I was doing with that fight, I’ve done it the whole film,” he said. “The whole film is reverse psychology on what we know as the western and puts up a mirror.”Historians estimate that one in four cowboys were Black, a fact that was hardly reflected in the conventional westerns popular in the 20th century, which were largely devoid of people of color.In creating the film, his aim was to counter two tropes of traditional westerns: people of color shown as less than human; and women appearing subservient and less than men. “Westerns have never given light to women and their power in that period,” he said. That’s why Samuel, who wrote the screenplay with Boaz Yakin, inverted gender roles in the Mary-Trudy battle.“All the men in the film, when they have conflict, they pick up guns,” Samuel said, adding, “It takes the two women to literally throw away their guns and duke it out.”Regina King as Trudy Smith. She, Beetz and their stunt doubles practiced the fight in their off hours.David Lee/NetflixAlthough the actresses, part of a star-studded cast, worked closely with their stunt doubles, Nikkilette Wright and Sadiqua Bynum, most of the final cut features the actresses themselves — because the stunt doubles were simply too good at their jobs. The stand-ins’ work “was too clean,” Samuel said. “In that particular scene, it was perfect and neat, whereas I needed the urgency. When you put Zazie and Regina together, neat went out the window.”Beetz, King, Wright and Bynum practiced the fight on their own time in a hotel conference room in Santa Fe, N.M., where much of the movie was shot. As rough and tumble as the scene may look onscreen, Beetz said in a phone interview that it was all very carefully choreographed.“We also wanted the fight to look scrappy, because we wanted it to look real and intense and how people really would potentially fight,” she said. “I think it’s just a testament in general to the shift in film and the shift in how we see women and their physical abilities.”As part of her preparation, the actress read about Stagecoach Mary Fields, the first African American woman in the United States to be a mail carrier on star routes — routes handled by contractors who were not employed by the Postal Service. (Many of the main characters are based on real historical figures, but Samuel fictionalized the vast majority of the plot.) Fields was enslaved until she was around 30 years old, when the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. Then she went on to live a whole new life.“There was a lot of formerly enslaved people who moved to the West, and the culture of the United States wasn’t as established in the West,” Beetz said. “So there was more mobility for Black people. And there really were towns that were all Black, and they were self-sustaining, and it was an interesting place where Black people could thrive.”Five Movies to Watch This WinterCard 1 of 51. “The Power of the Dog”: 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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      ‘S.N.L.’ Imagines a Victory Lap After Trump’s Acquittal

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘S.N.L.’ Imagines a Victory Lap After Trump’s AcquittalThe opening sketch on “Saturday Night Live” presented satirical remarks from Republican allies like Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell.Regina King (with Kenan Thompson) hosted “Saturday Night Live” this week.Credit…NBCFeb. 14, 2021Within hours of the Senate’s vote to acquit former President Donald J. Trump on a charge of inciting the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, “Saturday Night Live” was imagining how some of Trump’s Republican allies in the Senate might be celebrating in a parody episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”Alex Moffat played that Fox News host, who compared himself to a human White Claw and started his broadcast with what he called “a loose collection of scaremongering non sequiturs.” Among them, “Is AOC hiding in your house right now?” and “Pixar: Is it making our kids depressed or gay? Pick one.”The program’s first guest was Senator Lindsey Graham (Kate McKinnon), who said that it was “a great day for 30 percent of America.”In defense of Trump, McKinnon said, “Just because the rioters were yelling ‘Fight for Trump’ doesn’t mean they meant Donald Trump. Could’ve been some real Tiffany heads. Maybe even some Eric stans, I don’t know. But regardless, the trial is over and now we can move past this and focus on the serious issues. That’s locking up Hillary and freeing beautiful Britney Spears.”McKinnon added that she didn’t understand the contempt directed at Trump. “He is smart, he is nice, he’s in shape,” she said. “Last fall he died of Covid and didn’t even tell nobody.”Playing Senator Ted Cruz, Aidy Bryant discussed the relationship between Republican senators and Trump’s legal counsel. “Like any impartial juror,” she said, “we took it upon ourselves to meet with the defense lawyers, to give them some very simple advice: stop, and don’t.”Inside the Senate chamber, Mikey Day played Trump’s tongue-tied lawyer Bruce L. Castor Jr., who apologized as he misidentified himself as the lead prosecutor, the bailiff and a bridesmaid. Pete Davidson, who played his truculent fellow defense lawyer Michael van der Veen, said he was in a hurry to complete the proceedings because he had “already bought a nonrefundable train ticket back to Phillyvania, Pennsadelphia.”The final guest was the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell (Beck Bennett), who, despite denouncing Trump, said that his not guilty vote was justified “because everyone knows you cannot impeach a former president.”“That’s why we should have impeached him before, back when I said we couldn’t,” he said. “I think he’s guilty as hell, and the worst person I ever met and I hope every city, county and state locks his ass up.”Bennett then exhaled a long breath and declared, “God, that felt good. I’ve been holding that inside my neck for four years.”Asked what he would now do in the Senate, Bennett replied, “I plan to reach my hand across the aisle and then yank it back and slide it across my hair and then say, ‘Too slow.’”Fake Commercial of the WeekIf you can afford a trendy Peloton exercise bike but have no interest in the relentlessly upbeat motivational messages from its onscreen product, “S.N.L.” may have a product that’s more your speed. It’s the Pelotaunt, which in this advertisement is billed as “the only exercise bike that provides you with personalized, at-home negative reinforcement and relentless criticism.”Among its many modes of emotional manipulation are snotty disdain, insincere praise and avoidant attachment style. And if none of those settings gets you into shape, why not try a workout accompanied by the theme from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” or video of “an elderly woman who’s like 1,000 times better than you”?Timely Legal Assistance of the WeekWho among us has not required the intervention of a plastic surgeon after using an extremely powerful adhesive as a substitute for hair spray? It happened in real life to Tessica Brown, who became an unfortunate viral sensation when she pasted her pate with Gorilla Glue.Now, should any of us make the same mistake, we have the law firm of Denzel and Latrice Commode (Kenan Thompson and Regina King), who can’t fix our hair but may be able to help us win large cash settlements. As King explained, “Fact: Every day as many as one people fall victim to using Gorilla Glue in place of a beauty product. And they deserve compensation.” She added that, though the odds may be tough, these attorneys understand what they’re up against. “We know it’s going to be hard taking a gorilla to court and suing him over his glue,” she said.Weekend Update Jokes of the WeekOver at the Weekend Update desk, the anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che continued to riff on Trump’s impeachment acquittal.Jost started:Like so many other men living in Florida, Donald Trump has once again escaped from justice. This has to be the dumbest trial I’ve ever seen. Here’s how dumb it was: The jurors, who are deciding the case, were the ones attacked by defendant. The trial took place at the scene of the crime. And then right after the trial ended, one of the jurors who voted to acquit Trump ran out and said, “Someone’s got to prosecute this guy. He did it. This man belongs in jail.” What are you going to do? If you’re going to impeach the president for anything, don’t you think it’s sending a mob to kill the Vice President? I feel bad for Pence — 43 of his work friends were like, oh come on, Mike, they only tried to hang you. Stop being such a drama queen. I think it would be hilarious if Biden now sent rioters back into the Capitol. And he was like, What? You guys said it was fine.Che continued:During Donald Trump’s impeachment, House managers showed security footage of Capitol rioters violently attacking police. But here’s a little Black history lesson for you: Just because there’s video evidence doesn’t mean you’re going to get a conviction.Jost then added:Video evidence of the violence on January 6 showed that Senator Mitt Romney and Vice President Pence both had close calls with rioters. So let me get this straight: You’re a white supremacist mob and you go after these guys? The two whitest guys I could think of? They make me look like Ice-T.Most Valuable Player of the WeekNo one right now would seem to have it easier or better than Tom Brady, the NFL quarterback who won his record-setting seventh Super Bowl last weekend in his first season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, after leaving his longtime home with the New England Patriots.But, as portrayed by Bennett at the Weekend Update desk, Brady is a drunken, slurring, Vince Lombardi Trophy-tossing muddle who variously boasts of his successes and taunts his old Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick (“You hear that, Bill? You’re not my dad anymore!”) As Bennett explained in a moment of self-loathing, “My problem is nobody likes me. I don’t know what I did so wrong. All I did was go out and win the Super Bowl. I kept thinking, maybe I get one more trophy and people are going to like me. Nope. They don’t talk about the wins. They just talk about how I kiss my sons.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More