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      ‘Scoop’ and Prince Andrew’s Newsnight Interview: What to Know

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      A new Netflix film dramatizes the 2019 BBC conversation that led to the royal stepping back from public life.When Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth II’s second son, agreed to be interviewed on the BBC in November 2019, he likely didn’t expect it would one day inspire a feature film. But “Scoop,” which comes to Netflix on Friday, follows a TV musical and a documentary in depicting the 58-minute interview and its fallout. (Amazon is also producing an upcoming limited series.)In the explosive conversation, Prince Andrew discussed his friendship with the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and denied allegations that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl. Viewers were appalled by his comments, and British and international news media characterized the appearance as a PR disaster. In the following days, Prince Andrew announced he would step back from public life.Though the interview was conducted by the journalist Emily Maitlis, “Scoop” emphasizes the work of Sam McAlister, the producer who secured it. The Netflix film is based on McAlister’s memoir, “Scoops: Behind the Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews,” which was published in 2022.Here’s what else to know about the interview and its fallout.Why did the interview take place?When Maitlis asked Prince Andrew on-camera why it was the right time to “speak out” and give a rare public interview, he replied: “Because there is no good time to talk about Mr. Epstein and all things associated.”By November 2019, Prince Andrew was widely acknowledged as one of Epstein’s friends, with whom he was known to have vacationed and partied. In a 2015 civil case, Virginia Roberts Giuffre accused Epstein of forcing her to have sexual relations with Prince Andrew when she was 17. Buckingham Palace denied the accusation.Sewell, and Gillian Anderson as Emily Maitlis, in “Scoop.”Peter Mountain/NetflixWe 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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      ‘Scoop’ Review: The Story Behind That Prince Andrew Interview

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      In 2019, the prince went on air to respond to accusations involving Jeffery Epstein. The drama here is in how the BBC convinced him to do it.The exposés that brought public attention to Watergate, the predations of Harvey Weinstein and the abuse tolerated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston have all been the subjects of movies. The drama revolved, in part, around the difficulty of getting people to talk.Now comes the story of how the BBC program “Newsnight” landed its bombshell interview with Prince Andrew in 2019. Over a bizarre 49-minute segment, he unconvincingly addressed his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender, and repeatedly denied accusations by Virginia Roberts Giuffre that, at 17, she had sex with the prince after being trafficked to him by Epstein. The interview was less world historic than David Frost’s conversations with an out-of-office Richard Nixon (themselves the basis for a play-turned-movie), but the fallout was real. Faced with widespread criticism, Prince Andrew resigned from public duties just days later.How do you score an interview with a scandal-plagued royal? “Scoop,” directed by Philip Martin, chronicles the determined efforts of the producer Sam McAlister (Billie Piper), on whose book, “Scoops,” the film is based. Attending meetings at Buckingham Palace may lack the grit of shoe-leather reporting, but there is genuine psychology involved in convincing a famous figure that countering disapproval requires acknowledging it, and that the questions asked will be fair. Sam makes her case over multiple discussions with the prince’s personal secretary, Amanda Thirsk (Keeley Hawes), and eventually in a pitch to the prince himself (Rufus Sewell in significant makeup) alongside Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson), the journalist who hopes to interrogate him.The film finds sufficient suspense in these negotiations and in Maitlis’s preparations for the encounter, a grilling that, in real life, she skillfully pulled off without ever registering as discourteous. Why Prince Andrew’s answers were so tone-deaf — he was panned for not expressing sympathy for Epstein’s victims — is a mystery that “Scoop” sidesteps. (McAlister and Thirsk exchange ambiguous glances as the taping concludes.)What “Scoop” offers is the modest pleasure — to which any journalist is susceptible — of rooting for a reporting team to get a story. That, and mimicry: exceptional on Anderson’s part, less on that of Sewell, who has a raspier voice and a more passably serious manner than the prince displayed on TV.ScoopNot Rated. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes. Watch on Netflix. More

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      ‘Yannick’ Review: First Act Problems

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      Audience members revolting against bad art isn’t a new thing, but Quentin Dupieux puts a fresh twist on that theme in his surreal new comedy.At first glance, you might think that with around a dozen movies to his credit, Quentin Dupieux is finally settling down. The French director’s latest takes place entirely inside a Parisian theater, during a play — we are far from superheroes with a giant rat for a boss (“Smoking Causes Coughing”), time-travel passages (“Incredible But True”) and serial-killing tires (“Rubber”).Dupieux’s fans will be happy to know that his surreal humor is gloriously intact, while newcomers might find in this movie a gateway into one of contemporary cinema’s most idiosyncratic universes.“Yannick” starts by bringing to life a fantasy many theatergoers might have had at some point. Frustrated by a dreary, unfunny farce made even worse by a terrible cast (which is expertly played by Pio Marmaï, Sébastien Chassagne and the comedian Blanche Gardin), Yannick (Raphaël Quenard) stands up from his orchestra seat and loudly complains. After overhearing the actors mock him, he pulls out a gun and holds both the cast and the sparse audience hostage.Shot in only six days, this compact comedy (it barely clears the hour mark) doesn’t go easy on either side. Because he bought a ticket then endured a long journey to the theater, Yannick feels entitled to be entertained, and has a certain smugness about it. The play’s snotty actors, meanwhile, clearly consider their foe a proletarian rube and airily patronize him. A funnier skirmish from the culture-war front would be hard to find — and then Dupieux provides a final twist dabbed with unexpected emotion.YannickNot Rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 7 minutes. Watch on Mubi. More

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      ‘The People’s Joker’ Review: A Wild Card

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      Pure chaos is at play in a scrappy and unauthorized new parody about a character who looks a lot like the Joker. It’s a daring slice of queer cinema.The director Vera Drew got in hot water making this DC Comics-inspired origin story about a transgender simulacrum of the Joker, Batman’s frozen-smile nemesis. A disclaimer that now starts the film calls it an unauthorized parody, and any trademark infringement “was not done intentionally.”Drew’s fearless but illicit approach to filmmaking tracks the film itself: It’s aggressively self-indulgent, cinematically topsy-turvy and exhausting. It’s also singular, daring and an uncompromisingly cannonball into the queer cinema pool.Co-written by Drew and Bri LeRose, the story is standard queer movie stuff: A young, closeted transgender girl gets the hell out of small-town America and comes to terms with her identity in big bad Gotham City. But as she’s stymied in her quest for romance and stardom, our heroine morphs into a droll, nasty-minded comedian named Joker the Harlequin.Visually, the film is a manic but charged assemblage of live action, low-watt digital effects, crude animation and even puppetry. It’s as if Drew storyboarded using the angry diary entries and superhero doodles of the 100-some artists she collaborated with on the film. Too bad her relentless, insider jabs at New York’s comedy scene — she’s no fan of “Saturday Night Live” or Lorne Michaels — come across as sour grapes, offering few universal stakes for people who don’t know U.C.B. from a USB.Within the film’s confessional chaos lives the spirit of Vaginal Davis, Ryan Trecartin and other maverick queer filmmakers who toyed with genre to torpedo gender. It’s reviving to see an artist take up the cause.The People’s JokerNot Rated. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Housekeeping for Beginners’ Review: Daddy Nearest

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      Sad news forces a diverse group of friends to take unorthodox action in this volatile, affecting drama.For his third feature, “Housekeeping for Beginners,” the writer and director Goran Stolevski returns to his birthplace, North Macedonia, to capture the tumbling energy and volatile emotions of a household in crisis.The home, a haven of sorts for racial and cultural outsiders, belongs to Dita (Anamaria Marinca), a middle-age social worker whose partner, Suada (Alina Serban), has received a diagnosis of terminal cancer. While Dita anxiously seeks treatment options, the more abrasive Suada accuses her doctor of ill-treating patients who, like her, belong to the maligned ethnic group known as Roma. Suada fears for the future of her daughters: Vanesa (Mia Mustafa), an astringent teenager, and little Mia (a ridiculously charming Dzada Selim). Desperate to give them a better life, she begs Dita to adopt the girls and fraudulently register them as white. And as lesbians are not permitted to adopt, Dita will have to marry a man.This setup might sound depressing or even farcical, but “Housekeeping” is deeply sincere and occasionally joyous. As Dita and a gay housemate, Toni (Vladimir Tintor), reluctantly plan a Potemkin wedding, Naum Doksevski’s supple, hand-held camera swerves and dodges around raucous dance parties and rowdy arguments, visually mapping the residents’ tangled fates and churning feelings. A furiously grieving Vanesa rebels by seeking out her Roma grandmother. And playful Ali (a terrific screen debut by Samson Selim), Toni’s latest hookup, entertains Mia and mediates quarrels. Intimate, partly improvised conversations affirm the group’s rough affections and peppery personalities.This stylistic pliancy is a far cry from Stolevski’s beautifully controlled feature debut, “You Won’t Be Alone” (2022), yet both share an interest in difference and the restrictions of approved gender roles. In its cheerfully disordered way, “Housekeeping” tells us that families, like last-minute meals, must sometimes be created from whatever ingredients are at hand.Housekeeping for BeginnersRated R for bad language and good vibes. In Macedonian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘The First Omen’ Review: The Days Before Damien

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      A prequel to the original franchise, this debut feature from Arkasha Stevenson is a thrilling mash-up of horror tropes that gives the story new life.If the “Omen” franchise left us with memorable tropes — the boy Antichrist, lurking among us; those dreaded three repeated numbers — the content of the movies themselves did little else. The original horror trilogy, kicked off by “The Omen” in 1976, never had the sticking power of other classics in popular consciousness, and a 2006 revamp came and went. What could another attempt, this time a prequel to a middling franchise, really offer?In Arkasha Stevenson’s hands, it can take us on a pretty fun ride. “The First Omen” is about everything before Damien (a.k.a. the Antichrist incarnate), following Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), an American nun-to-be that is sent to an orphanage in 1971 Rome, where social mores are shifting and things quickly begin to get weird. It’s a period piece that Stevenson’s debut feature plumbs effectively, giving the story both scale and some nice compositional punches, while setting the stage for an often delightfully pulpy narrative (the Catholic Church is not so holy after all) to how the Antichrist came to be.The film revels in mashing up familiar genres: the monster movie, body horror and the Gothic church thriller. But it injects a revitalizing juice into the franchise — smartly edited and well paced, with a good cinematic eye.And most important, Free is a game partner to Stevenson’s vision. She naturally embodies the seemingly delicate innocence of young Margaret, a softness that, of course, must eventually harden against darker forces. Eventually she is taken over, her body jolting and writhing to something beyond her control in an arresting scene that gives the oft-discussed subway sequence from Andrzej Zulawski’s “Possession” a run for its money. It’s another familiar nod with just enough of its own delirium.The First OmenRated R for violent content, grisly images, and brief graphic nudity. Running time: 2 hours. In theaters. More

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      ‘The Beast’ Review: Master of Puppets

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      Bertrand Bonello’s latest film, starring Léa Seydoux and George MacKay as lovers in three different eras, is an audacious sci-fi romance.Bertrand Bonello’s “The Beast” is an audacious interdimensional romance, techno-thriller and Los Angeles noir rolled up in one. This shamelessly ambitious epic is about, among other things, civilizational collapse and existential retribution, yet it is held together by something delicate.The prologue shows a green-screen shoot in which Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) takes directions from a presence off camera and, with expert professionalism, braces herself to confront an imaginary monster. The effect is uncanny, wryly funny, weirdly sensual and very sad. Bonello sustains this unsettling tone throughout the film, although the individual parts are less consistent. This is the toll of shifting time periods, from a costume drama to a modern mockery of incel culture.With computer-generated imagery, any opponent — and any era — can materialize in the background. What does this mean for actors? The feeling that great forces move us like puppets runs through Bonello’s genre-bending work (in his 2017 film, “Nocturama,” a gang of teenage terrorists hide in a shopping mall and see themselves reflected in the consumerist sprawl).“The Beast” follows Gabrielle and Louis (George MacKay), who are lovers, in three incarnations, through three timelines: Paris circa 1910, when the city flooded; Los Angeles in the 2010s; and Paris in 2044, a near-future in which artificial intelligence has almost overtaken the work force.In 2044, Gabrielle is struggling to get a job. A disembodied voice at an eerily vacant employment agency tells her that her emotions make her unsuited to work, and a purification process that scrubs people of their pesky feelings is recommended. “All of them?” Gabrielle asks nervously. She is a pianist and an actor in earlier timelines, so she values her capacity to be moved and react authentically.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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      ‘The Old Oak’ Review: The Audacity of Hope

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      A family of Syrian refugees connects with a once-thriving mining town in Ken Loach’s moving drama.“The Old Oak” is named for the pub where much of its action happens — an old drinking hole in a village outside of Durham, England, that’s seen better days. Its back room, once a gathering place for the miners and their families who populated the town a generation ago, has been locked up for many years, fallen to disuse. Its walls are still hung with photographs of those miners taken during the lengthy strike of 1984-1985, a labor effort that ended without the resolution the miners sought and with weakened trade unions. But during the action, the village marched in solidarity — at least for a while — and came together to share meals in that back room, to support one another, a point of pride for the men who were children back then.When the movie begins, it is 2016, the year of the Brexit vote. It’s hard to imagine that kind of unity happening any more. The village has slowly emptied out, closing down places like the church hall, which had been a gathering spot. The village’s real estate is being bought up at auction by entities abroad, driving down the value of houses owned by locals, leaving them with nothing to live on in old age. Jobs are scarce. Money is tight. Children barely have enough to eat. And so in the Old Oak, a handful of regulars sit around, bitterly decrying the state of things.They have lately found a target for their rage: a few families of Syrian refugees who have been settled in the village, helped along by a local charity worker named Laura (Claire Rodgerson) and Tommy Joe Ballantyne (Dave Turner), who goes by TJ and owns the Old Oak. He’s the one who has to listen to the regulars gripe and spew racist epithets about the refugees, always clarifying that they’re “not racist.” He says nothing. He doesn’t think he can. He needs their business to scrape by. He knows their private lives are no picnic either. And if the pub isn’t there, they’ll just go home and wind one another up on the internet anyhow.But TJ is lonely, and cares about the newcomers, though he’s afraid at first to become too involved with their lives. He strikes up an unlikely friendship with Yara (Ebla Mari), a young Syrian woman who speaks English, having learned after two years of volunteering with nurses while living in the refugee camps. Yara has arrived in town with her mother and several younger siblings. They don’t know where their father is because he was taken from them by the Bashar al-Assad regime. Her life has been worse, by any measure, than those of the men in the pub — but it feels almost obscene to make the comparison.You’d know “The Old Oak” was directed by Ken Loach (from a screenplay by his long-running collaborator Paul Laverty) even if his name wasn’t in the credits. His late work is unmistakable, driven by fierce moral clarity and outrage on behalf of the people whom capitalism and Britain’s government, supposedly constructed for citizens’ benefit, have left behind. His previous film “Sorry We Missed You,” for instance, is a blindly infuriated (and infuriating) film about a father who takes a job as a delivery driver to make ends meet, only to discover that everything about this job is designed to prosper the owner but ruin his life and his family.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