Rock, Chris

Subterms

    More stories

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Movies

      Will Smith Apologizes to Chris Rock After Academy Condemns His Slap

      by

      “I was out of line and I was wrong,” said Smith, who hit Rock at the Oscars after the comedian made a joke about his wife. The film organization opened an inquiry into the incident. Will Smith walked onstage and slapped Chris Rock after the comedian made a joke about Mr. Smith’s wife, the actress Jada Pinkett Smith. Mr. Smith then yelled and cursed at Mr. Rock after returning to his seat.Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesLOS ANGELES — Will Smith apologized to the comedian Chris Rock on Monday evening for slapping him during Sunday night’s Oscars telecast after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which administers the awards, denounced his actions and opened an inquiry into the incident.Mr. Smith, who had pointedly not apologized to Mr. Rock on Sunday night when he accepted the award for best actor, wrote on Instagram Monday evening that “I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris.”“I was out of line and I was wrong,” he said in the statement. “I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be.”His apology came as the academy, a major Hollywood union and others criticized his actions, which stunned viewers around the world and overshadowed the Oscars. “The academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show,” the film organization said in a statement. “We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our bylaws, standards of conduct and California law.”The academy’s statement came after a meeting Monday. A five-page document on standards of conduct that accompanied it spells out behavior the organization deems unacceptable. It prohibits “physical contact that is uninvited and, in the situation, inappropriate and unwelcome, or coercive sexual attention.” Also not allowed is “intimidation, stalking, abusive or threatening behavior, or bullying.”Disciplinary action, according to the bylaws, could include “suspension of membership or expulsion from membership.”The Academy was not known to have expelled a member before 2017, when Harvey Weinstein was removed amid allegations of sexual harassment and rape. Then, in 2018, after adopting a code of conduct for members, the organization expelled Bill Cosby, who had been convicted of sexual assault, and the filmmaker Roman Polanski, who had fled the country years earlier while awaiting sentencing for statutory rape.The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the union representing thousands of people who work in film, television and radio, called the incident “unacceptable” but said that it “does not comment on any pending member disciplinary process.”“Violence or physical abuse in the workplace is never appropriate and the union condemns any such conduct,” the union said in a statement Monday. “The incident involving Will Smith and Chris Rock at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable.”How to Understand the Altercation Between Will Smith and Chris RockThe Incident: The Oscars were derailed when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, who made a joke about Mr. Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.His Speech: Moments after the onstage altercation, Mr. Smith won the Oscar for best actor. Here’s what he said in his acceptance speech.The Aftermath: Mr. Smith apologized to Mr. Rock the next day after the Academy denounced his actions and opened an inquiry into the incident.A Triumph Tempered: Mr. Smith owned Serena and Venus Williams’s story in “King Richard.” Then he stole their moment at the Oscars.What Is Alopecia?: Ms. Smith’s hair loss condition played a major role in the incident.The incident unfolded Sunday night after Mr. Rock made a joke about the buzzed hair of Mr. Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who has alopecia, a condition that leads to hair loss. Mr. Smith responded by walking onto the stage of the Dolby Theater and slapping Mr. Rock, leaving stunned viewers wondering at first if the blow might have been scripted until Mr. Smith returned to his seat and warned him to stop talking about his wife, using expletives.Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith in the audience at the ceremony.Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesBehind the scenes at the Oscars, there were serious discussions about removing Mr. Smith from the theater, according to two industry officials with knowledge of the situation who were granted anonymity to describe internal deliberations. But time was short, because the best actor award, which Mr. Smith was heavily favored to win, was fast approaching, one noted — and stakeholders had varying opinions on how to proceed. There was also concern about further disrupting the live broadcast, the other said.As the show went on, the actor Denzel Washington spoke with Mr. Smith during a commercial break. Not long after that Mr. Smith won best actor. (Mr. Smith said in his speech that Mr. Washington had told him: “At your highest moment, be careful. That’s when the devil comes for you.”) In his onstage remarks, Mr. Smith apologized to the academy and to his fellow nominees — but not to Mr. Rock — and defiantly sought to draw parallels to the character he played in “King Richard,” the father of Venus and Serena Williams.“Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” Mr. Smith said.He received a standing ovation.Mr. Smith said in his statement Monday that he had reacted emotionally because a joke about his wife’s medical condition was “too much for me to bear.” Mr. Smith also apologized to the Academy, the show’s producers, the viewers, the people who worked on “King Richard” and the Williams family.“I deeply regret that my behavior has stained what has been an otherwise gorgeous journey for all of us,” he said. “I am a work in progress.”The incident overshadowed the awards. On ABC’s “Good Morning America,” on Monday George Stephanopoulos described it as “something we have never seen before, something that is very hard to process: Will Smith, walking up onto that stage after Chris Rock told a joke about his wife — simply assaulting Chris Rock.”The powers-that-be at the Oscars had been intent on not repeating last year’s record-low ratings, putting a series of changes in place they had hoped would draw more viewers: installing three comic actresses as hosts, pretaping some awards to try to quicken the pace, introducing a fan-favorite award that viewers could vote on. But the broadcast became must-see television for a reason they did not anticipate.“Welp … I said it wouldn’t be boring #Oscars,” Will Packer, one of the show’s producers, tweeted after the show. He later added: “This was a very painful moment for me. On many levels.”The telecast drew a larger audience than last year’s, but interest remained depressed compared with past years. The awards show attracted 15.4 million viewers on ABC, a 56 percent improvement on the 9.85 million people who watched the 2021 event, according to ABC. Sunday night’s show was still the second least-watched Oscars ever.Comedians, who tell uncomfortable and sometimes offensive jokes for a living, raised concerns about the precedent Smith had set.“Let me tell you something, it’s a very bad practice to walk up onstage and physically assault a comedian,” Kathy Griffin tweeted. “Now we all have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith in comedy clubs and theaters.”Jimmy Kimmel, the comedian and talk show host who had been the last person to host the Oscars, said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast” that he felt bad for the show’s hosts; for Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who won the best documentary feature award Mr. Rock had been presenting, and for Mr. Rock, who he said “certainly didn’t deserve that.”“In a way, I feel bad for Will Smith too, because I think he let his emotions get the better of him, and this should have been one of the great nights of his life,” Mr. Kimmel said. “And now it’s not. Was there anyone who didn’t like Will Smith an hour ago in the world? Like no one, right? Now he doesn’t have a single comedian friend — that’s for sure.”Whoopi Goldberg, who is on the academy’s board of governors and has hosted the show several times, said on “The View” on Monday that she did not think Smith’s award would be revoked, citing Mr. Rock’s decision not to press charges.“We’re not going to take that Oscar from him,” she said. “There will be consequences, I’m sure.”Mr. Rock after the incident with Mr. Smith, seated in front of him. Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesThe Los Angeles Police Department said it was aware of what it described as an incident involving “one individual slapping another” at the Oscars. The police said the person involved had “declined to file a police report.”“If the involved party desires a police report at a later date,” the police said, they would move forward and “complete an investigative report.”At least one member of the academy, Marshall Herskovitz, a former president of the Producers Guild of America, called for Mr. Smith to face disciplinary action.Two industry officials said that Mr. Rock’s joke had apparently been ad-libbed.And Bruce Vilanch, a past head writer of Oscars shows who did not work on this year’s, said: “Everything that is in the script is vetted. But if a comedian comes out onstage and ad-libs something, there’s no time to vet. I’m guessing that’s what happened last night. What I’m hearing from everybody is that this was not the material that was rehearsed.”Mr. Rock has teased the Smiths from the Oscars stage before. In 2016, when the Smiths boycotted the awards show because the nominees in the four acting categories were all white, Mr. Rock, that show’s host, joked about it. “Jada says she not coming, protesting,” he said. “I’m like, ain’t she on a TV show? Jada is going to boycott the Oscars — Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited.”Mr. Smith was not deterred from celebrating his win on Sunday night, dancing at a crowded party after the Oscars while holding his trophy, but he avoided questions about the incident. A publicist for Mr. Rock did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.Jaden Smith, one of the Smiths’ children, tweeted simply: “And That’s How We Do It.”The reaction inside and outside Hollywood ranged widely. In interviews following the show, at after-parties and on social media, Smith’s colleagues variously expressed sadness, confusion, disbelief, anger and, in some cases, empathy. Many deflected or ignored questions about the episode entirely.The actor Mark Hamill called it the ugliest Oscars moment. “Stand-up comics are very adept at handling hecklers,” he wrote on Twitter. “Violent physical assault … not so much. #UgliestOscarMoment_Ever.”One top studio executive, who declined to speak on the record, voiced disappointment in Smith and in the fact that the audience in the theater gave him a standing ovation.And Janai Nelson, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, worried aloud in a tweet that “the way casual violence was normalized tonight by a collective national audience will have consequences that we can’t even fathom in the moment.”Others seemed to defend Mr. Smith. “Many takes on here about Will Smith and Chris Rock, especially from people whose partners are not Black women (mainly white people),” the author Frederick Joseph tweeted. “I don’t care if it’s a joke or not, the amount Black women have to endure — people are tired of it. We have no idea what Jada has gone through.”And the comedian Tiffany Haddish, who starred in the movie “Girls Trip” with Ms. Pinkett Smith, said in an interview with People magazine at an after-party that she appreciated seeing Mr. Smith protect his wife.“Maybe the world might not like how it went down,” Ms. Haddish said, “but for me, it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen because it made me believe that there are still men out there that love and care about their women, their wives.”Even still, the day after, the prevailing reaction was mostly one of disbelief.“We’re not sure where the fallout will end up,” Ryan Seacrest said Monday on his morning show “Live With Kelly and Ryan.” “It was one of those moments that we couldn’t believe when we saw it.”Sperling reported from Los Angeles. Matt Stevens and Julia Jacobs reported from New York. More

    • 113 Shares179 Views

      in Television

      Oscars Gets Higher Ratings Than Last Year’s Academy Awards

      by

      The Academy Awards on Sunday night drew a larger audience than last year, when viewership plunged to an all-time low, but interest remained depressed amid disruptions to television- and movie-watching habits.The 94th edition of the awards show attracted 15.4 million viewers on ABC and a 3.2 rating among adults between 18 and 49 years old, according to a preliminary report from Nielsen released to ABC on Monday. The early results showed a 56 percent improvement on the 9.85 million people who watched last year’s event, according to ABC, though the show was still the second-least-watched Oscars ever on record.Initial viewership figures evolve in the days after the show to factor in West Coast audiences as well as out-of-home and livestream viewing.The telecast took a bizarre turn more than two hours in, when Will Smith strode onstage and slapped Chris Rock in the face for telling a joke about his wife. Mr. Smith then returned to his seat, and less than an hour later, he won the best actor prize.The early data did not indicate whether there was a surge in viewership after the slap, which immediately ricocheted around the internet.Organizers have been desperate to reverse a yearslong ratings slide for the Oscars, which saw viewership last year plummet 58 percent. To perk up interest, they hired the comics Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes to host a show that had been hostless since 2019; relegated some awards to a pretaped segment to hurry along what still clocked in at more than 3.5 hours; and invited fans to vote on Twitter for their favorite film (Zack Snyder’s “Army of the Dead”).The broadcast hit its peak in 1998, when 55.2 million viewers tuned in to watch “Titanic” sweep the awards, and has struggled to retain its cultural relevance since. Awards shows took an additional hit during the pandemic but had already been facing criticism for being too white, too long, too politicized and too boring. Viewership for the Grammy Awards, which will be held this weekend, slumped 53 percent to a new low last year; NBCUniversal declined to even broadcast this year’s Golden Globes.Mr. Smith’s attack happened after Mr. Rock, who was handing out the award for best documentary, joked about Mr. Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and her closely cropped hair.“Jada, I love you — ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it, all right?,” he said, referencing the 1997 film ‘G.I. Jane,’ which featured Demi Moore sporting a buzz cut.The joke prompted an eye roll from Ms. Pinkett Smith, who has been vocal about her struggles with alopecia, a condition that leads to hair loss. Mr. Smith then marched onto the stage, slapped Mr. Rock, turned around and returned to his front-row seat. Then, using an obscenity, he yelled at the comedian to stop speaking about Ms. Pinkett Smith.The slap appeared onscreen, but many viewers in the United States did not hear Mr. Smith shout at Mr. Rock because ABC cut the sound. That left many viewers initially wondering if the attack was real or a skit. Uncensored clips soon shot around the internet, leaving no doubt that it was real.Mr. Smith won best actor for his role in “King Richard.”Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesForty minutes later, Mr. Smith won the best actor trophy for his role in “King Richard.”He returned to the stage to receive the award — his first — and delivered an emotional speech apologizing to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and to his fellow nominees, but not to Mr. Rock.“I hope the academy invites me back,” he said at the end of his speech.The outburst divided Hollywood. The academy said it “condemns the actions of Mr. Smith” and that it was starting an inquiry. The actor Mark Hamill called it the ugliest Oscars moment, while the comedian Kathy Griffin said it was “very bad practice.”Tiffany Haddish, a comedian who co-starred with Ms. Pinkett Smith in the film “Girls Trip,” described Mr. Smith’s protective display as “the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” Piers Morgan, the British television host, wrote that he felt “moved to defend” Mr. Smith.Ariana DeBose, Troy Kotsur and Jessica Chastain with their Oscar statues on Sunday night.Noel West for The New York TimesThe confrontation jolted a broadcast whose most exciting moments earlier had included historic acting wins by Ariana DeBose of “West Side Story” and Troy Kotsur of “CODA” and a surprise appearance by the rapper Megan Thee Stallion in a performance “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” the hit from “Encanto,” which won best animated feature.Despite being aired on a broadcast network, the night underscored the upheaval to theatergoing and traditional television caused by streaming services and online platforms.“CODA,” which featured Mr. Kotsur as a deaf fisherman trying to relate to his hearing daughter and was snapped up by Apple TV+ for $25 million after debuting at the Sundance Film Festival last year, was the first film from a streaming service to win a best picture Oscar. Jane Campion, the director of Netflix’s “Power of the Dog,” beat out Steven Spielberg, who directed “West Side Story,” to claim the directing trophy.But the Oscars telecast continued to draw advertising attention. ABC sold out of spots for commercials the week before the show, which featured ads from Crypto.com, Pfizer, Rolex, Verizon and more. Many companies also tried to take advantage of the altercation between Mr. Smith and Mr. Rock by posting memes of the slap, to which marketing experts reacted with dismay. More

    • 138 Shares99 Views

      in Television

      Does the Academy Hate Movies? Our Critics on the 2022 Oscars.

      by

      Whatever you make of the slap, the telecast as a whole was a frustrating night of television that seemed based on a misunderstanding of what makes films great.Our chief film critics reflect on an Oscar night that went pretty much as expected — until it didn’t.A.O. SCOTT “The greatest night in the history of television,” said Chris Rock, a few seconds after Will Smith slapped him. Not a bad off-the-cuff punchline (so to speak). But until that moment — and Smith’s tearful, unrehearsed acceptance speech when he won best actor a short time later — it had been a dull and frustrating evening of television. Few surprises in any category (except maybe when “Belfast” won for original screenplay). Sentimentality triumphing over craft (except when Jane Campion won best director). A gnawing sense that the academy doesn’t understand movies, and maybe even hates them.MANOHLA DARGIS Bingo! Mind you, I don’t think the academy and its roughly 10,000 members hate movies; they just sometimes have really terrible taste, like everyone else, except you and me. But I think that as a TV show, the Oscars absolutely have contempt for the art, as the unfunny jokes about the hosts not finishing “The Power of the Dog” underscored.SCOTT The slap did not dispel any of that, but it did distract Twitter, which convulsed with takes about what it meant. We can get to that (or not!), but for the moment I want to stick with the question of what kind of television this was. American viewers did not actually see it on their screens. When the image froze, I thought my laptop had crashed, and it was only when people started posting uncensored video from Australian and Japanese broadcasts that anyone here knew what had happened. During Smith’s speech, the cameras cut away to Venus and Serena Williams, and then to the Oscars logo. Here was a spontaneous, complicated, emotionally intense moment — serving up more raw and painful human drama than “CODA,” “Belfast” and “King Richard” combined — and ABC just could not deal with it.DARGIS To be uncharacteristically fair about my favorite hate-watch, ABC wasn’t alone in not being able to deal. Initially, when ABC cut off Smith’s rebuke to Rock, I thought that the janky antenna that I use the rare times I watch broadcast TV had failed. Like a lot of people, I don’t watch as much traditional TV as I once did, which is part of the show’s and ABC’s intractable problem. That the network or the Oscar producers, or both, lost their nerve wasn’t surprising given that they’d already failed by not presenting some of the essential awards live.Will Smith’s slapping Chris Rock clearly overshadowed the evening.Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesSCOTT The way the “below-the-line” awards were banished to an earlier, pre-broadcast ceremony and then spliced into the main event was nonsensical. Are the acceptance speeches of cinematographers and costume designers inherently more telegenic than those of composers and editors? As it happens, Jenny Beavan, winning her third costume Oscar (for “Cruella”), was glamorous and genuine and funny, and her celebration of craft and professionalism represents the best of the Oscars. So do the honorary awards, which were held Friday night and featured Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson hugging and cracking each other up as Washington presented Jackson with his trophy. Why wouldn’t the TV audience want to see that?DARGIS Even so, this year’s event started off pretty OK, particularly given horrific world events. One of the three hosts, Regina Hall, deftly handled the bit about administering faux Covid tests to some of the men in the room, even as the camera focused on her rear. It was stupid Oscar shtick — surprise — yet as it went on (and on), I kept thinking about the fact that the United States alone is approaching one million pandemic deaths. I’m not sure how the show could have addressed Covid’s grievous toll, but asking for a moment of silence, of all things — as it did with Ukraine — might have been worse.Of course now all the focus is on the slap, which was embarrassing and very sad. Smith seems to be going through something deeply complicated, to the point that he sabotaged his own triumph. As for the rest of the show, it lacked dramatic shape and momentum, partly because those canned awards would have given the live event more tension and emotion. There was no buildup, just bits … and an obituary musical number. Among other things, the show didn’t give viewers a coherent point of focus, the way it has when Jack Nicholson or Meryl Streep sat front and center representing the art and industry, a place that this year should have been reserved for Denzel Washington, who looked mighty uncomfortable in that chair.SCOTT The endless pre-Oscar hand-wringing about how to shore up ratings and make the show more relevant demonstrates a lack of confidence that was very much in evidence last night. The hosts were fine. The movies that won were fine.Except for those idiotic “fan” awards. They were, somewhat hilariously, hijacked by the Zack Snyder Twitter militia. The most memorable movie moment (of all time? of the century? it was hard to tell) is supposedly that scene from “Justice League” when Flash enters the Speed Force. And the most popular movie (of 2021) was “Army of the Dead,” which beat other curiosities like “Cinderella” and “Minimata.”Is this the death of cinema?DARGIS LOL. (Also: Did you see “Minimata”?) The Oscars are a TV show, and while they reflect certain industry trends, like the transformation of the big studios, they don’t have much to do with cinema, which is doing just fine, as you and I keep saying and writing and muttering. The Oscars generated lower ratings and angry snark when independent films like “Breaking the Waves” and “Secrets & Lies” received nominations in 1997 — “The English Patient” swept, winning best picture — only to rebound with “Titanic” the next year.SCOTT The more things change, the more they stay the same. One thing that has gotten worse is the unfortunate journalistic habit of equating the state of the Oscars with the state of movies. Even when television is great, the Emmys are terrible. Nobody seriously thinks that bad Grammy Awards spell the death of pop music, or that a given year’s National Book Awards reveal much about the health of literature. But movie journalism has elevated the Oscars to a position of absurd importance.“CODA” was the first Sundance premiere to win best picture.Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesDARGIS As an epic-sized commercial for movies, the Oscars just don’t often make good television. That’s kind of funny-strange given how many movies look like TV, which means it’s time to bring up Apple TV+’s “CODA.” It’s hard to believe it would have won best picture if voters had been forced to watch it on the big screen, though maybe it would have. It’s a nice, little, pedestrian heart-tugger, so it fits perfectly on TV. It’s the kind of movie that we’ve seen repeatedly at Sundance; but it isn’t the kind that inspires colleagues to proselytize about it the way they did with, say, “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” But that’s the Oscars, right? One year, “Moonlight” wins; two years later, “Green Book” does — and then, boom, “Parasite” wins.SCOTT “CODA” is the first best picture winner to premiere at Sundance, as well as the first to be distributed by a streaming service. It also won all of the three categories in which it was nominated, none of which were for lead performances or technical achievements, making it a fascinating outlier. Its victories — especially Troy Kotsur’s supporting actor win, a wonderful Oscar-night moment — are part of the academy’s continuing efforts to present a more diverse, inclusive face to the world.And it’s worth pointing out that the 94th Oscars were not so white, or so male, as most of their precursors. For the second year in a row — and the third time ever — the best director is a woman. The best picture was directed by a (different) woman. The best documentary feature is the work of a Black filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. The best supporting actress, Ariana DeBose, is the first openly queer woman of color to win an acting Oscar. You and I have been covering Hollywood long enough to be wary of overstating its progress or believing its promises, but I also wonder if the defensiveness and insecurity that surround the Oscar broadcast amounts to a form of backlash.DARGIS Both Kotsur’s and DeBose’s acceptance speeches were lovely, and each offered moments of grace during an otherwise often awkward, poorly paced slog of three and a half hours, plus change. As to your wondering if the increasing diversity of the awards winners has provoked a backlash — well, yeah, I bet! The movie industry is changing and is no longer the citadel of white male power that it once was. At the same time, the old guard is holding strong and the Oscars often seem more like aspirational visions of the industry rather than its reality.SCOTT Aspirational and also, as we saw last night, wildly dysfunctional. That’s entertainment! More

    • 150 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      Will Smith Hits Chris Rock at the Oscars. Here’s What We Know.

      by

      In an apparently unscripted moment that stunned viewers and audience members alike, Will Smith strode onstage and hit Chris Rock in the face after the comedian made a joke about the actor’s wife while presenting the best documentary award at the Oscars.Rock joked that Smith’s wife, the actress Jada Pinkett Smith, was in “G.I. Jane 2,” seemingly a reference to her short-cropped hair. Pinkett Smith has said she has alopecia, a condition that leads to hair loss.Smith yelled and cursed at Rock after returning to his seat, demanding that Rock not speak about his wife.During the heated exchange, the telecast went silent on many screens, leaving confusion about what had happened and what had been said.Rock, a presenter at the show, had been firing off jokes during a mini-monologue when he got around to actors and their spouses.“Javier Bardem and his wife are both nominated,” Rock said. “Now, if she loses, he can’t win.”“He is praying that Will Smith wins, like, please, lord,” Rock continued. “Jada, I love you. ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it, all right?”The camera panned to Smith, who appeared initially to be smiling. But the joke drew a lukewarm reception, prompting Rock to add: “That was a nice one!”Jada Pinkett Smith immediately rolled her eyes at the joke. Pinkett Smith has been open about her alopecia, posting a video on Instagram last year to explain how the hair loss had progressed. She first shared the diagnosis in 2018 on an episode of her talk show, when she said she had decided to cut her hair short after handfuls of it came out in the shower. On Sunday, after Rock spoke, her husband was soon out of his seat. Smith walked down the runway toward the stage.“Uh-oh,” Rock said. Smith approached, and hit Rock; the impact could be heard through his microphone.Uncensored broadcasts of the telecast outside the United States showed that after being struck, Rock, trying to keep the mood light, acknowledged that Smith had “smacked” him, using an expletive to describe how hard he had been hit.Back in his seat, Smith told Rock: “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth!”Rock responded, “Wow dude, it was a ‘G.I. Jane’ joke.”Smith then repeated his demand.Looking shocked, Rock said, “That was the greatest night in the history of television,” then moved on to awarding the Oscar for documentary feature to “Summer of Soul.”Soon after, Smith won the Oscar for best actor, and he gave an emotional speech in which he said: “I want to apologize to the academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees.”At the end of his speech, Will Smith added: “Thank you. I hope the academy invites me back.”The academy later issued a statement on Twitter that mentioned neither Smith nor Rock, but said “The academy does not condone violence of any form.”In a statement after the evening’s telecast had concluded, the Los Angeles Police Department said it was aware of what it said was an incident involving “one individual slapping another” at the Oscars. The police said the person involved had “declined to file a police report.”“If the involved party desires a police report at a later date,” the police said, they would move forward and “complete an investigative report.” More

    • 100 Shares129 Views

      in Movies

      Will Smith’s Full Oscars Speech for Best Actor 

      by

      Will Smith, who started his acting career in 1990 in an after-school special on ABC and became one of Hollywood’s most bankable and prolific action stars and producers, finally achieved the one thing that had always eluded him: He won an Oscar.Moments earlier, Smith had brought the ceremony to an awkward standstill by striding onstage from his seat and — in what at first seemed like a preplanned bit — hitting Chris Rock, who had just cracked a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. (“Jada, I love you. G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait,” Rock had said, an apparent reference to her short-cropped hair.)Smith then returned to his seat and angrily shouted twice at Rock to not utter his wife’s name, using an expletive that was bleeped by ABC. A rattled Rock tried to regain his composure, and a stunned audience, both in the theater and at home, tried to figure out what happened. “Right now, we’re moving on with love,” Sean Combs said, arriving onstage soon afterward to introduce a celebratory montage from “The Godfather.”Smith was celebrated for his performance in “King Richard” as the fiery, flawed coach and father of the tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams — mirroring best actor wins at major film awards ceremonies this year, including the Critics Choice Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.“Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” an emotional Smith said in his acceptance speech. “In this time in my life, in this moment, I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world.”He went on to apologize to the academy and to his fellow nominees, but not to Rock. “This is a beautiful moment,” Smith said. “And I’m not crying for winning an award. It’s not about winning an award for me, it’s about being able to shine a light on all of the people.”Smith was previously nominated for best actor in 2007 for “The Pursuit of Happyness” and in 2002 for “Ali.” Rather incredibly, given the lack of diversity in the movie business, he lost to a Black actor in both instances: first to Denzel Washington and then to Forest Whitaker.In 2016, however, Smith became part of the #OscarsSoWhite movement. After nominating only white actors and actresses for its awards in 2015, drawing widespread criticism, the academy did it again the next year — overlooking performances like the one Smith gave in “Concussion.” Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, was outspoken about what many people saw as an urgent need for the academy to become more inclusive. Smith was less pointed in his criticism, but joined her in a boycott of the ceremony. In the years since, the academy has dramatically expanded its voting membership.Also nominated for best actor on Sunday were Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”), Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”) and a hard-campaigning Andrew Garfield (“Tick, Tick … Boom!”).Here is Smith’s entire acceptance speech:Oh, man. Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family. In this time in my life, in this moment, I am overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world. Making this film, I got to protect Aunjanue Ellis, who is one of the most strongest, most delicate people I’ve ever met. I got to protect Saniyya [Sidney] and Demi [Singleton], the two actresses that played Venus and Serena.I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people. I know to do what we do, you got to be able to take abuse, you got to be able to have people talk crazy about you. In this business you got to be able to have people disrespecting you, and you got to smile and pretend like that’s OK. But Richard Williams, and what I loved — thank you, D. — Denzel [Washington] said to me a few minutes ago, he said, “At your highest moment, be careful. That’s when the devil comes for you.”It’s like, I want to be a vessel for love. I want to say thank you to Venus and Serena — I just spit, I hope they didn’t see that on TV — I want to say thank you to Venus and Serena and the entire Williams family for entrusting me with your story. That’s what I want to do. I want to be an ambassador for that kind of love and care and concern.I want to apologize to the Academy. I want to apologize to all my fellow nominees. This is a beautiful moment, and I’m not crying for winning an award. It’s not about winning an award for me. It’s about being able to shine light on all of the people: Tim [White] and Trevor [White] and Zach [Baylin] and Saniyya and Demi and Aunjanue and the entire cast and crew of “King Richard” and Venus and Serena, the entire Williams family. Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said. I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things.To my mother, a lot of this moment is really complicated for me, but to my mother — she didn’t want to come out; she has her knitting friends, she has a knitting crew that she’s in Philly watching with. Being able to love and care for my mother and my family and my wife. I’m taking up too much time. Thank you for this honor. Thank you for this moment. And thank you on behalf of Richard and Oracene [Price] and the entire Williams family. Thank you. I hope the Academy invites me back. Thank you.Nancy Coleman More

    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Movies

      What to Know About ‘Spiral’ and the ‘Saw’ Franchise

      by

      Not sure if the new horror movie “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” is for you? Our primer will help you decide.You don’t have to know a thing about the horror movie “Saw” or its spawn before watching the latest movie in the franchise, “Spiral: From the Book of Saw,” opening in theaters on Friday. More

    • 138 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Spiral: From the Book of Saw’ Review: Slicing Up Bad Apples

      by

      This addition to the “Saw” universe stars Chris Rock as a misanthropic detective pitted against a Jigsaw copycat.In “Spiral,” the latest film in the “Saw” universe, the first expletives land before the two-minute mark. Blood spills right after, when a man has to decide between getting his tongue ripped out or being hit by an underground train. That the film is overall gorier and more foulmouthed than its predecessors, while still managing an R rating, is undoubtedly an accomplishment. Unfortunately, that is the film’s only notable one.“Spiral” is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (“Saw II,” “Saw III” and “Saw IV”) and written by Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger (“Jigsaw”). The film follows the lone wolf detective Zeke (Chris Rock), who begrudgingly accepts a new partner (Max Minghella) at the same time a Jigsaw copycat targets the corrupt officers on his force. Zeke is portrayed as a renegade, the rare American male unafraid to whine about political correctness or call his ex-wife misogynistic slurs. He scoffs at protocol, tortures an informant and prattles on about how women can’t be trusted. Yet the film calls Zeke a “good cop” and expects viewers to root for him against the killer.Though “Spiral” is the first “Saw” film to introduce a new style of villain — the motivation, voice and puppet alias are all different from that of original baddie John Kramer — it is no more challenging than the rest. Its most redeemable moment is one of accidental camp, when a forensic specialist standing next to a fleshless corpse states, “He was obviously skinned.”The premise is disingenuous at best and, in a moment where scores of citizens are calling for widespread police reform, fearmongering at worst. Like Jigsaw offering one of his facile riddles, this film is not as clever as it thinks it is.Spiral: From the Book of SawRated R for dismemberment, naughty words and general gnarliness. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters. More

    • 125 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      Chris Rock Re-edits a Special, and the Result Is Fascinating

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Best of 2020Best ComedyBest TV ShowsBest BooksBest MoviesBest AlbumsAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn ComedyChris Rock Re-edits a Special, and the Result Is FascinatingWith “Total Blackout: The Tamborine Extended Cut,” the comic effectively erases the stamp of the original director, Bo Burnham, and turns in a less intimate show.The comedian served as the director of the new version of “Tamborine.”Credit…NetflixJan. 12, 2021Updated 7:13 p.m. ETIn film, directors have all the power, less so in theater. But they are omnipotent compared with the director of the stand-up special, who, to borrow a metaphor from Chris Rock’s already essential 2018 special, “Tamborine,” has not traditionally led the band so much as stood on the side and played the tambourine.But in recent years, directors’ status has shifted, becoming more like bass players or even drummers, in part because of specials like “Tamborine,” directed with style by the innovative comic Bo Burnham. His auteur vision didn’t just showcase Rock in concert. It engaged and interpreted his work, sharpened its focus, while applying distinctive aesthetic flourishes.“Total Blackout: The Tamborine Extended Cut,” released on Netflix on Tuesday, will be fascinating for comedy nerds, not just because it adds new jokes, with almost 40 minutes of extra material from arguably the greatest living comic. It also represents a key turning point in the balance of power between comic and director, with Rock reclaiming control. He effectively erases the stamp of the director, even replacing Burnham in the credits with his own name, and produces a new special with most of the same shots, whose differences are subtle but significant.“Extended Cut” has more jokes, longer setups and more mess. Rock, who has himself directed features, even introduces a part where he misspeaks in setting up a joke, saying “bullies rule the world” when he means “nerds.” Burnham’s slick cinematic flourishes are taken out. Gone is the triple repetition, along with quick-cutting camera angles, of the first three words of the opening joke. (“You would think that cops would occasionally shoot a white kid, just to make it look good.”)But the most important contrast is in the comic’s discussion of his own infidelity. Until “Tamborine,” Rock was known as a social commentator who mostly kept his private life at a distance. But addressing his divorce and his responsibility for the failure of his marriage, Rock made the most vulnerable, introspective comedy of his career. Burnham was clearly drawn to this aspect of the set and focused on it. This material, including jokes about marriage, divorce and sex, takes up about half of the special, as opposed to around a third of the extended version.When Rock confessed his mistakes, Burnham moved into a rare close-up. And he stayed on the star’s face, with no cutaway shots, as Rock talked about cheating on his wife. When the crowd chuckled, Rock looked grave, emphasizing that he wasn’t proud. He said he knew what people were thinking: “What is wrong with men?”On this line, Burnham did something dramatic: He shrank the frame even more, moving in on Rock like a microscope, so close to him that it obscured part of his head. It’s an aggressive move, and one that both underlines the question of what is wrong with men and broadens it, giving this personal story a new weight, especially since it came out just months after the Harvey Weinstein exposé and inevitably evokes the #MeToo movement.A year later, Kevin Hart released a special, “Irresponsible,” in which he also discussed cheating on his wife. He was more oblique, briefer in his contrition, and the special cut away from him after a joke to show the crowd laughing. Whereas Burnham kept the audience out of it, “Irresponsible” took a more ingratiating route, with a shot that indicated it was OK to laugh before keeping things moving.Rock’s extended version remains tougher-minded but moves closer to this posture. He removes the extreme close-up, which, along with its role in drawing attention to the material, is something of a signature Burnham shot. He used it at the start of his direction of Jerrod Carmichael’s game-changing special “8” — whose filmic aesthetic inspired Rock to hire him. In place of that touch, Rock adds a new shot, a mouse-eye view of the star from the front of the stage partly obscured by what appears to be a member of the audience. This new angle looks up at a performer, in awe.What sticks with you in the original is the setup — the admission of cheating with three women and the specificity of the confession. In the extended cut, it’s the punchline, as Rock anticipates the audience response and contrasts the shock from women with the more blasé response of men. (“Three? That’s it? Just three?”) It’s the same joke, but the direction changes the effect.The original version of the special moved in on Rock like a microscope.Credit…NetflixThe new version is a more conventional, if unvarnished, stand-up production, but it also may be truer to the experience of the concert. As someone who saw the first theater show in 2017 on the tour that resulted in this special, I was happy to experience certain jokes again, many of which zero in on the economic angle of a hot-button issue, like his take on how “prices are the new Jim Crow.” He goes on to explain, “The Four Seasons hotel does not say, ‘No Blacks allowed.’ But a $4,000 a night hotel suite sure does.”Rock’s diagnosis of police brutality also returns to money when he says cops are poorly paid “and you get what you pay for.” The streamlined cut emphasized the personal, but the extended version is a reminder that Rock has always been a materialist alert to how the bottom-line colors almost every issue.In a departure from the swaggering, pacing Chris Rock in his big-room shows, Burnham emphasized intimacy in the quiet, jazzy open that showed us the back of the comic’s head waiting for the show to start, observing. The extended cut dispenses with this image of the solitary Rock and adds celebratory scenes hanging out with other comics. We see Eric Andre, Dave Chappelle and Arsenio Hall. The new version is also more straightforward about his fame. Rock places clips of appearances on talk shows he did to promote the special as a way to flesh out certain jokes.This new version does not erase the old one, which remains on Netflix, but it will supplant it for many fans. So while both are worthwhile, if you are going to watch one, my recommendation is to go with the original. It’s more stylish, ambitious and unusual. And its direction represents a step forward for the art, one that inches the special closer to the status of feature films.Stand-up comedians are often control freaks. It’s part of why they go into a job where you not only write your lines, but also deliver them. There are real benefits to this kind of control, but there is also virtue in collaboration, particularly for work that aims for more thematic, aesthetic and narrative complexity.The audience wants comedy that feels most authentic to the animating vision of the artist. But that is not the same thing as work done without filters or assistance. Sometimes you need other voices to help you be the best version of yourself.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More