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      The 25th Latin Grammys Showed Their Age

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      While Latin music looks ahead, its biggest awards show, broadcast live from Miami on Thursday night, looked back.The 25th annual Latin Grammy Awards, broadcast live on Univision from the Kaseya Center in Miami on Thursday night, consciously looked backward. Frequent winners collected more top awards. Clips from past shows bracketed live shots. There were fervent tributes to departed superstars and nods to musical dynasties.In an era when many Latin musicians are experimenting and gleefully warping genre boundaries, the Latin Grammys flaunted the familiar. Perhaps that’s inevitable for an institution marking a milestone. But that earnestness cut back on the old Latin Grammy carnival spirit. The show still had some visual flair — particularly in the surreal, asymmetrical dresses worn by women who appeared as presenters and attendees. But its music held back.The Dominican songwriter Juan Luis Guerra and his group 4.40 won awards for album of the year for “Radio Güira,” a six-song EP, and record of the year for the single “Mambo 23.” “Radio Güira” also won the award for bachata/merengue album and “Mambo 23” for tropical song. Guerra has won 28 Latin Grammys, dating back to two at the first event in 2000.Jorge Drexler, who won song of the year on Thursday night, now has 15 Latin Grammys.Zak Bennett/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe Uruguayan songwriter Jorge Drexler’s “Derrumbe” (“Collapse”) — a brief, poetic ballad with turbulent studio undercurrents — was named song of the year. It also tied with Kany García’s “García” for cantautor (singer-songwriter) song. Drexler now has 15 Latin Grammys.The Latin Grammy broadcast, like the Grammy Awards show, focuses on performances, not presentations. Only nine of the 58 Latin Grammy categories received awards on the broadcast; the others were presented earlier Thursday afternoon on a webcast. Edgar Barrera was named both songwriter and producer of the year, and the Argentine songwriter Nathy Peluso won three awards. The Portuguese-language categories included two awards for the Brazilian songwriter Jota.Pê and a third for the engineers of his album “Se o Meu Peito Fosse o Mundo” (“If My Chest Were the World”).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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      Billy Bob Thornton Reflects on Life and ‘Landman’

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      You would think a performing arts hall in Connecticut named after Katharine Hepburn, in a quiet seaside town like Old Saybrook would be safe. You would think a crowd of mostly ex-hippie gray-hairs, who had paid to sit in plush red chairs, hear you sing and have you sign their “Bad News Bears” posters, would be free of hecklers.You would be wrong. And now Billy Bob Thornton, on tour with his rock band the Boxmasters, was going to have to invite a man who had just called him a “condescending jerk” — except he hadn’t shouted “jerk” — to come up and sit on the edge of the stage with him and work this out, man to man. He was going to have to explain, as he has surely gotten tired of explaining, that he isn’t who you think he is.“I can tell you people that I know personally, who will walk by every fan and not even look at them,” he said from the stage. “I stand by the bus and I sign every person’s picture. I talk to everybody. I take a picture with everyone.”It was, in the end, a perfectly pleasant conversation, but one might assume that at 69, a man of Thornton’s acclaim and accomplishments wouldn’t feel the need to plead his case at all. Again wrong. While he was reluctant to talk about the incident when we caught up by phone a few weeks later, he is otherwise open about his insecurities and his feelings of being misunderstood, just as he is open about his disappointments — particularly his disappointments with Hollywood.If Thornton has appeared to pull back from Hollywood a bit in recent years, that is by design. The once up-and-coming filmmaker who wrote, directed and starred in the Oscar-winning “Sling Blade” had already given up writing and directing movies years ago because of how studios treated him just after that 1996 film — something he is “still pissed off” about, he said. He still loves acting but is increasingly selective: His role in the new Taylor Sheridan series “Landman,” premiering Sunday on Paramount+, is one of only a handful of major roles he has taken since “Bad Santa 2,” from 2016.In the new Taylor Sheridan series “Landman,” Thornton plays a guy who is basically Thornton if he had a job putting out fires, figurative and literal, on a West Texas oil field.Emerson Miller/Paramount+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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      Late Night Feels Queasy About America’s Next Health Czar, R.F.K. Jr.

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      Stephen Colbert urged viewers to keep an open mind about the pick, “because that’s how the worm gets in.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Take Your VitaminsOn Thursday, President-elect Donald J. Trump said he would nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic known for some strange encounters with animals, to be his secretary of health and human services.Stephen Colbert advised his booing audience to keep an open mind, “because that’s how the worm gets in.”“So, R.F.K. Jr. is now in charge of our health, exactly what everyone voted for. Surely, this will lower the price of eggs.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“And who better to be in charge of health and humans than a guy whose brain was partially devoured by a worm?” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Unpasteurized whale juice for everybody!” — JORDAN KLEPPER“Wow, this is exciting news. We are making things in America again, specifically, Patient Zeros.” — JORDAN KLEPPER“If you’ve been feeling under the weather since the election, don’t worry — pretty soon, everyone else will be sick, too.” — JORDAN KLEPPER“Trump originally wanted a doctor in that role. Turns out the late, great Hannibal Lecter isn’t a real person, so.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“There are many theories as to why Trump is naming a battalion of bozos to do these very important jobs. Some believe he’s testing the Republican Congress to see how far he can push them. Some say he’s doing this strategically to weaken certain sections of the government. Or, and this is the theory that I believe, he’s dumb.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Yesterday’s Bad News Continued Edition)“President-elect Trump announced yesterday on Truth Social that he is picking Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general. Even crazier: Gaetz’s girlfriend just got Class President.” — SETH MEYERS“When asked about President-elect Trump selecting Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz as his nominee for attorney general, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said it was not on her ‘bingo card.’ As for what’s on Matt Gaetz’s bingo card: B-17.” — SETH MEYERS“OK, senator, that is your first mistake right there. Now that Trump’s been re-elected, we all get new bingo cards with none of those boring numbers like B-14 and N-7. Mine has, let’s see, ‘Trump/Putin, matching tracksuits,’ ‘Chief Justice Kid Rock’ and ‘Deport Ricky Martin.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“For everyone who didn’t have that on your bingo card, maybe throw out the bingo card, ’cause it’s a whole new bingo now. Instead of numbers, it’s just going to be symbols from the Zodiac killer.” — SETH MEYERSThe Bits Worth WatchingJimmy Fallon presented Michael Bublé with his new album, “Holiday Seasoning,” as an early Christmas gift on Thursday’s “Tonight Show.”Also, Check This OutChristian Borle, left, as Jim Bakker and Katie Brayben as Tammy Faye Bakker in the musical “Tammy Faye” at the newly renovated Palace Theater in Manhattan.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesA new Broadway musical about Tammy Faye fails to capture her campy persona. More

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      in Television

      Season 2 of ‘Bad Sisters’ Is Still Stylish and Thrilling

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      There is a sense, however, that the most important events in this offbeat Apple TV+ drama happened in Season 1.Season 2 of “Bad Sisters” (two episodes of which are available now, on Apple TV+) arrives after a two-year break, but the plots and pressures are driven completely by the action of the first season. The Garvey sisters are still recalibrating their lives after the secret murder of one sister’s monstrous husband, J.P., a slimy abuser who deserved every bad thing that came his way. But secrets are only ever buried alive — and as any fan of the lurid knows, it’s not the crime, it’s the cover up.When the season begins, Eva (Sharon Horgan, also a creator and executive producer) has a menopause coach and a pep in her step. Ursula (Eva Birthistle), a nurse, is now thoroughly divorced and co-parenting. Bibi (Sarah Greene), the one with the eye patch, and her wife are preparing for fertility treatments, while Becka (Eve Hewson) has a bro-y new boyfriend. And Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), whose now-dead husband was the source of so much suffering, is getting married to the handsome Ian (Owen McDonnell), who even gets along well with her teenage daughter, Blanaid (Saise Quinn).The central villain of Season 1 has been dispatched, so there’s a new antagonist; this time instead of a smarmy rapist, it’s a pushy busybody named Angelica (Fiona Shaw), identified onscreen as “the Wagon.” That’s Irish slang for … uh … a woman everyone really likes and respects and gets along with. As with Season 1, the true evil is not one individual but rather misogyny.“I’m a woman of the church,” Angelica tells her brother, Roger (Michael Smiley), the neighbor who helped Grace and is haunted by his role in the crime. “I’m in the guilt industry. I know guilt when I see it.” She has plenty to turn her attention to, then, and she wastes no time. Guilt is a constant companion here, a mechanism for control both in broader society and on an individual basis, and we see characters sacrifice more and more of themselves to managing its burden.A lot of what made Season 1 such a thrill is intact here: The show remains pointed and stylish, and the chemistry among the sisters — and their not-quite-matching, not-quite-not-matching costumes — is its most exciting, endearing element. But “Sisters” can’t escape the sense of rehash, the fact that all the most important things have already happened, the biggest bombs have already detonated, the most chilling secrets have already been exposed.Despite a huge, brutal twist early in the season, these additional episodes aren’t deeper or more special and specific than the first season’s. The opening credits this go-round use the same song as the first but set up a new macabre Rube Goldberg machine, and that’s kind of how the whole season feels, like a code you already have the key to.Season 2 has eight episodes, and new installments arrive on Wednesdays. More

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      in Television

      Martin Scorsese on His Tour of Catholic Saints

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      The Fox Nation series “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” emphasizes the human struggles behind religious legends.The director Martin Scorsese’s filmography teems with troubled protagonists struggling with moral codes. With his new project, that canon now includes the canonized.“Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints,” premiering Sunday on the Fox Nation streaming service, is hosted and narrated by the filmmaker and dramatizes the lives of eight Catholic saints.The series is premiering in two parts, with the first four episodes rolling out weekly and featuring well-known saints, including Joan of Arc and John the Baptist, as well as more obscure ones like Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who volunteered to die in place of another man at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The second part, scheduled to premiere in April, will include episodes about the Italian friar Francis of Assisi and Mary Magdalene, a follower of Jesus Christ, among others.The series was created by Matti Leshem, a founder of New Mandate Films, a production company that focuses on storytelling rooted in Jewish history and culture. Scorsese is an executive producer. Kent Jones, a frequent collaborator of the filmmaker’s, wrote the scripts, which were informed by lengthy discussions on theology he had with Scorsese.Catholic saints, who are people recognized by the church after death for their virtue as models for holiness, have long interested Scorsese. “I was always fascinated by the idea of a saint and what a saint could be,” he said earlier this week, recalling how he found respite in St. Patrick’s Cathedral as a child growing up in 1950s New York City.In an interview at a hotel on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Scorsese discussed the show, his relationship to Catholicism and why he thinks faith-based entertainment needs to have depth. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.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 Day of the Jackal’ Is a Cat-and-Mouse Thriller

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      The new Peacock series, starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch, adapts the 1971 Frederick Forsyth novel and sets the action in the present day.Eddie Redmayne is one of our most curious actors. The British star, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything,” takes big swings that sometimes are captivatingly odd. (If you haven’t seen his bellowing villain in “Jupiter Ascending,” from 2015, check it out.) But Redmayne’s innate slipperiness is well-suited to his latest role: an unknowable and deadly assassin in “The Day of the Jackal,” premiering Thursday on Peacock with five episodes (of 10).You spend much of the series wondering what exactly makes the Jackal tick. Is he simply a monstrous, unfeeling killer? A family man in disguise? A straight-up psychopath? Redmayne is fascinatingly coy — warm one moment and then haunting the next.The series is an adaptation of the 1971 Frederick Forsyth novel, which was also made into a film in 1973. Created by Ronan Bennett, this version sets the action in the present day and opens with Redmayne’s gun for hire targeting a German politician. This piques the interest of an MI6 officer named Bianca (Lashana Lynch), who has an almost perverse fascination with weapons.As Bianca runs around trying to uncover the Jackal’s identity, the assassin gets a new high-profile assignment. These two characters operate on parallel tracks, just missing one another time and time again. If Redmayne’s portrayal of the Jackal is steeped in mystery, Lynch’s take on Bianca is a stirring mix of impulsivity and cunning. They are the twin engines propelling the plot.As is often the case with streaming dramas, there is some bloat in the narrative — it takes multiple episodes for Bianca and the Jackal to even end up in the same place. But there is a compelling focus on the collateral damage these two inflict. The Jackal has a beautiful Spanish wife who slowly becomes more suspicious of her husband’s activities. At the same time, Bianca is willing to put innocents in danger, including her own daughter, because she believes she is serving the greater good. Some of this material can feel like filler, but much of it deepens “The Day of the Jackal” and its depiction of the human cost of global intrigue. More

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      For One of the ‘Bad Sisters,’ Things Have Gotten Even Worse

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      Anne-Marie Duff, who won a BAFTA for her performance in this black comedy last season, discusses her character’s darker turn in Season 2.This article includes spoilers for the first two episodes of the new season of “Bad Sisters.”The first time Anne-Marie Duff applied to drama school in London, it turned her away. When she applied a second time, she received a spot on the wait-list, and she called the school every day until it admitted her.“I think they just gave me a place to shut me up,” said Duff, the 54-year-old actress who describes herself as “London Irish.”Tenacity and grit characterize many of the women Duff has portrayed throughout her decades-long career, including the indomitable Fiona Gallagher in the British version of “Shameless” and the headstrong Queen Elizabeth I in the BBC mini-series “The Virgin Queen.”But those qualities are particularly evident in Duff’s depiction of Grace Williams, the troubled housewife at the center of an elaborate whodunit in the Apple TV+ black comedy “Bad Sisters.”For much of the first season, Grace trembles under the heavy hand of her husband, John Paul (Claes Bang), a jerk known by an unprintable nickname to her sisters. But beneath her timid exterior and obsequious demeanor, frustration builds and boils as her husband belittles and badgers her — until she finally erupts in a climactic scene that ends with her strangling him.Duff’s performance won her best supporting actress at the EE British Academy Film Awards and helped secure a second season of the show, which had a two-episode premiere on Wednesday.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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      Craig Melvin Is Named Hoda Kotb’s Replacement on ‘Today’

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      By selecting Mr. Melvin, a familiar face on the show, network executives chose to go the steadiest route possible.Craig Melvin, the veteran NBC News host, will succeed Hoda Kotb as an anchor of the network’s flagship morning show, “Today,” the company announced Thursday morning.Mr. Melvin will start in the new role, teaming with Savannah Guthrie, on Jan. 13.The position, one of the most prominent in television news, opened after Ms. Kotb, who has been at the network for more than two decades, announced in September that she would step down early next year. Ms. Kotb, who will remain as a contributor to the show, said at the time that she wanted to spend more time with her young children, and that it was “time to turn the page on what has been a dream book, a dream quarter-century.”Ms. Kotb, 60, will take her final turn as co-anchor of “Today” on Jan. 10.By selecting Mr. Melvin, 45, network executives chose to go the steadiest route possible. He has been the news anchor of “Today” since 2018, frequently joining Ms. Guthrie and Ms. Kotb on the set at some point in the 7 a.m. hour. He is also a co-host of the show’s 9 a.m. hour, and used to be an anchor of the weekend edition of “Today.”Mr. Melvin also was an anchor on MSNBC before leaving his daily 11 a.m. show on the cable network two years ago.“Dreams do come true,” he said in an interview before the news was announced on “Today.”“As someone said to me, this is an obit job,” he continued. “When you die one day, this is the first thing that gets mentioned in an obituary after it mentions you were a husband and a father.”Mr. Melvin said he found out about his selection several weeks ago. (NBC News executives kept it under wraps until after the presidential election.) Ms. Kotb said in an interview that it was such a secret that they had to develop a code term in order to toast his success, since so few people knew of it. The code? “Let’s Go Mets.”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