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      ‘The Penguin’ Review: The Dark Blight

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      The HBO series starring an unrecognizable Colin Farrell is further proof that there is no fun in the Batman universe.When was fun banished from Batman’s world? Certainly the tide turned with “The Dark Knight Returns,” Frank Miller’s 1986 series of comics. As exciting as they were, Miller’s books enshrined a claustrophobic, dystopian approach that has smothered many subsequent screen treatments.In the immediate aftermath of the books, the Tim Burton films “Batman” and “Batman Returns” found thrills in the darkness. But when I sit through the subsequent Christopher Nolan blockbusters, or Todd Phillips’s “The Joker,” or even Matt Reeves’s recent reboot film, “The Batman,” I feel as if I were being punished for not being a serious enough (or depressed enough) viewer.Reeves (“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”) is a very talented director, and “The Batman” was easier to sit through than some of its ballyhooed predecessors. But it was ruinously long at three hours, its small store of familiar ideas about revenge and social decay running dry well before the movie ended. And Reeves’s Batman was such a stone-faced mope that poor Robert Pattinson spent the whole movie looking as if he were wondering where the bathroom was, not that he would have been any happier had he found it.But the movie was beautifully shot, and Zoë Kravitz was the latest in a line (Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, Michelle Pfeiffer) of great Catwomen. And it had an odd, sideshow-like bonus: a beautiful movie star, Colin Farrell, rendering himself unrecognizable under a reported 50 pounds of latex to play a battered, ugly, all too human variation on a classic villain, the Penguin. The performance wasn’t fun, exactly, but it was definitely something to look at.Now Farrell and his latex are back in “The Penguin,” an HBO series spun off from “The Batman.” (It premiered on Thursday night; its second episode will not appear until Sept. 29.) Even though the show is set in the immediate aftermath of the film, and the story features large-scale chaos, Batman is nowhere to be seen; apparently he’s taking a long vacation. So “The Penguin” is not a superhero show.Instead, as developed by Lauren LeFranc (“Impulse,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) with Reeves as an executive producer, it is a particularly self-conscious gangster saga. Farrell’s Oswald Cobb (shortened from Cobblepot) is a midlevel mobster who sees an opportunity when his boss is killed and sets out to take over the Gotham City drug trade, peddling a new high called Bliss. Alternately opposed to him or allied with him is the boss’s daughter, Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), recently released from Arkham Asylum with designs of her own on the top spot.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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      in Movies

      Natasha Lyonne’s Success Is Driven by a Sense of Mortality

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      Natasha Lyonne has her funeral all planned out.Not just planned, really, but choreographed, produced and directed, complete with music cues and writing prompts, to calibrate the emotion just right. “Otherwise it can run long,” she explained. So Lyonne, the downtown vivant actress, writer and director, has diligently assigned her passel of famous friends “jobs that they didn’t want.”There will be a month of commemorative screenings at Film Forum and songs by Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs (“I have a sworn promise that she performs; I’m very grateful”) and the “Color Purple” star Danielle Brooks, because her voice “breaks my heart.” The comedian John Mulaney will be on hand to punch up material. “I actually tasked him with writing speeches for people that wouldn’t want to get onstage,” Lyonne said, like her BFF Chloë Sevigny. “I was like: You need to give Chloë some jokes.”The plot she acquired, at the Hollywood Forever cemetery, alongside her boyfriend at the time, Fred Armisen, she has now graciously ceded to his wife, Riki Lindhome. “I probably don’t want to be buried in Los Angeles anyway, if I’m honest,” she allowed. But she’s still making him the funerary musical supervisor.That Lyonne, at 45, has thought at length about her own demise is, to anyone who knows her or her oeuvre, not surprising. All of her recent, most celebrated projects — including “Russian Doll,” the Emmy-winning Netflix series; “Poker Face,” the retro crime procedural on Peacock; and her latest role, in the Netflix drama “His Three Daughters” — find her confronting life’s end. She does it with a spectacular, bewitching buoyancy. Even in “His Three Daughters,” in which she displays an unexpected reserve (but exuberant hair) opposite Carrie Coon and Elizabeth Olsen as estranged sisters caring for their father in his last days. It’s earning her Oscar talk.As a producer, Lyonne “likes the grind and the hustle, and the hard work that comes with it,” said Amy Poehler. “That’s not always the case.”OK McCausland for The New York TimesSo, when we found ourselves in an East Village restaurant on a drizzly Friday night, ordering a dessert made of Pop Rocks and talking about death, it felt just as the universe — or New York City, same difference — intended.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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      ‘Happy Clothes’ Review: Patricia Field Doc Is Pleasantly Chaotic

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      “Happy Clothes” covers her work on “Emily in Paris” and “Sex and the City,” as well as her time as a tastemaker in the 1970s and ’80s underground.Patricia Field likes, as she puts it, “happy clothes.” If you’ve seen her work, you get it; if you’ve watched TV, you have probably seen her work. The fashion maven is one of the most celebrated and influential costume designers of the past three decades, with “Emily in Paris,” “The Devil Wears Prada” and “Sex and the City” among her credits. Michael Selditch’s new documentary, “Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field” (in theaters and on demand), follows Field as she works on the second season of the Starz comedy “Run the World,” but the feature is really a celebration of her long career.A movie like this can head in a lot of directions, and a possible weakness of “Happy Clothes” is that it tries to go in all of them. There are conversations with Field’s friends and collaborators, including the “Devil Wears Prada” director David Frankel, the “Sex and the City and “Emily in Paris” creator Darren Star, and the actresses Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall and Lily Collins. Field’s work in the past as the owner of a well-known boutique that bears her name comes to life through archival footage and interviews, while observational images show her working with assistants, shopping for pieces and going to sets.There’s just a lot here. But with a subject like Field, the mild chaos feels pleasantly appropriate. Her taste runs toward the conspicuous and bold, and several interviewees — particularly Parker, who became a fashion icon partly because of her willingness to wear anything Field selected — note that her choices can be shocking at first. Prints and patterns, gems and silhouettes, neons and bold accessories: You never really know what you’ll get when you work with Field.But that’s why people love her. Her style, as she says, is happy. “I like clothes that don’t die,” she explains, a statement that reveals she’s always thinking about longevity. Field is amazingly energetic — her 80th birthday approaches as the film begins — and she’s interested only in the future, telling someone at one point that she doesn’t keep an archive because she’s always looking forward.It’s probably ironic, then, that the most illuminating element of “Happy Clothes” is a sequence in which her taste now is linked to her history as a central figure in New York’s underground culture of the 1970s and 1980s. Former employees and customers attest to what it meant to have a place — her store — where they could be unapologetically queer or trans or just interested in fashion, where they didn’t have to hide their identities. Field was ahead of her time in more ways than one, and this history suggests that she has been practicing an exuberant joy her whole career. That, “Happy Clothes” says, is her real legacy. More

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      in Music

      A Concert Celebrates Jimmy Carter’s 100th Birthday, With Music and Thanks

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      The night included gospel hymns and “America the Beautiful” and the B-52s lighting up the Fox Theater, one of the oldest auditoriums in Atlanta, with a performance of “Love Shack.” In one moment, the crowd was on its feet as Angélique Kidjo, the acclaimed Beninese musician, sang and danced. In another, they shimmied and sang along to a cover of “Ramblin’ Man.”The collection of artists and performances transcended generations, genres and geography. But one thread bound them together on Tuesday night: affection for former President Jimmy Carter, which they were eager to express in celebration of his coming 100th birthday.“You can see he had a relationship to music — look at how we gathered here together tonight,” said the country singer Carlene Carter, who is not related to the former president but said he still feels like kin. “He used it as a powerful tool to bring people together.”The civil rights leader Andrew Young, seated, and his wife, Carolyn, standing, share a laugh with, from left, Thomas and Henry Carter, great-grandchildren of Jimmy Carter and Jason Carter, his grandson.Dustin Chambers for The New York TimesCarter’s actual birthday was still almost a couple of weeks away, and Carter himself was 160 miles away, at home in Plains, Ga., where he has been in hospice care for the past 19 months. But the concert was intended as a gift, one that will be broadcast as a special on Georgia Public Television on Oct. 1. The family said he plans to watch as part of his birthday festivities.The concert in many ways mirrored the scope and ambitions of the man it was celebrating: Global and idealistic in its reach, but firmly planted in Georgia, molded by religious and cultural traditions as well as the rich but complicated history of the rural South.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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      ‘La Maison’: Like ‘Succession,’ but Better Dressed (and French)

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      The new Apple TV+’s new series takes the viewer inside two rival Paris fashion houses, with gorgeous people in gorgeous clothes who will do anything for power.“Does she know our favorite dish is eating each other alive?”So one family member asks another in an early scene of “La Maison,” a glossy new drama from Apple TV+, about two rival high-end, family-owned French fashion houses: Ledu and Rovel.The show, which premieres on Friday, is filled with gorgeous people living in fabulous homes, fighting, scheming, flirting, plotting and betraying one another as they attempt to gain control of — everything!Yes, like “Succession,” but with more glamorous outfits and, well, Paris.Or akin to “a Shakespearean drama,” said Lambert Wilson, who plays Vincent Ledu, the longtime designer of the Ledu house, whose fall from power is fast and devastating when an unbridled rant about Asian clients goes viral, leading to his cancellation and unwilling resignation. Enter Paloma Castel (Zita Hanrot), a young, edgy designer with ideas about waste and sustainability, who is recruited by Perle Foster (Amira Casar), Vincent’s right-hand woman and former muse. (Amping up the tension and resentment, it turns out that Paloma’s dead father was Vincent’s lover.)Zita Hanrot as Paloma Castel, a young designer who comes onto the scene after Vincent Ledu’s fall from grace.Apple TV+In the other camp, the terrifying chief executive Diane Rovel (Carole Bouquet) schemes to have her company take over Ledu, helped by Vincent’s brother, Victor (Pierre Deladonchamps), who is married to Diane’s daughter (Florence Loiret Caille).“All the characters have scar tissue,” said Casar, “they are all damaged and lonely.” Her own character, Perle, is a watchful, lonely outsider. “On the one side, there is this old aristocratic family, the Ledus, who are hanging on to craft and tradition, on the other this nouveau riche bourgeoisie, the Rovels, who will destroy to have it all,” Casar said.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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      in Television

      Late Night Thinks It’s Unlikely That Neighbors Ate Your Cat

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      Before starting rumors about Haitians, please make sure your cat is actually missing, Ronnie Chieng implored on “The Daily Show.” 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.‘My Bad!’Erika Lee, a resident of Springfield, Ohio, who spread a rumor on Facebook that a Haitian neighbor had eaten a missing cat, deleted her post and expressed regret (but not before Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, made “cat-eating Haitians in Ohio” a campaign issue).“Oopsie doopsie! Sorry, I set off a race war in the middle of a presidential election,” Ronny Chieng mimicked on Thursday’s “Daily Show.” “That’s totally my bad!”Another Springfield resident, Anna Kilgore, who told the police that Haitians might have taken her cat Miss Sassy, later apologized to her Haitian neighbors after the animal turned up safe and sound.“Turned out, Miss Sassy — which is also my nickname for JD Vance — was in her basement.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Well if that isn’t the most Miss Sassy move I could possibly — [imitating Miss Sassy] ‘I’m gonna go hide in the basement to start some rumors. You know why? ‘Cause I’m sassy.’” — SETH MEYERS“By the way, if your cat goes missing, why would your first guess be someone ate it?” — SETH MEYERS“Here’s a little tip for anyone out there with a missing pet, OK? Before you accuse your Haitian neighbors of stealing them, maybe you could first try looking around your house.” — RONNY CHIENGThe Punchiest Punchlines (Rudy Rudy Rudy Edition)“At the rally, Trump did his usual rant about how New York has turned into a third-world hellhole. And to prove his point, he brought out a New York icon that has decayed beyond all recognition, Rudy Giuliani.” — RONNY CHIENG“Yeah, Rudy wasn’t actually invited — someone just said his name three times and he appeared.” — JIMMY FALLON“Rudy is so feral, I’m worried R.F.K. Jr. will put him in his trunk.” — RONNY CHIENG“He’s going to get you, and good luck trying to outrun Rudy Giuliani on three whiskeys.” — RONNY CHIENG, on Giuliani’s threat to anyone “behind” attacks on Trump: “I’m going to get you.”“That’s right, the guy who can’t differentiate a Four Seasons from a dildo store is gonna find you. You’ve been warned.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingSting performed his new song “I Wrote Your Name (Upon My Heart)” on Thursday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutDemi Moore in “The Substance.”MubiIn “The Substance,” Demi Moore stars as an aging actress who discovers a deadly cure for obscurity. More

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      Anna Delvey’s Ankle Monitor Shines on Dancing With the Stars

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      The former fake heiress let her tracking device steal the show in her “Dancing With the Stars” debut. To survive another week, she may need to show some emotion.The ankle monitor finally had its moment to shine.In the opening seconds of Anna Delvey’s debut on “Dancing With the Stars” on Tuesday night, the cameras pulled in tight on the tracking device strapped to her ankle. Normally a staid black box, the monitor had clearly been through the show’s wardrobe department and was encrusted with a rainbow mix of crystals that perfectly matched Ms. Delvey’s fringed dress.Ms. Delvey, of course, is the former fake heiress whose legal name is Anna Sorokin. She served almost four years in prison after being convicted of stealing more than $200,000 from multiple businesses, and was then arrested by U.S. immigration authorities for overstaying her visa and put on house arrest (hence the ankle monitor).She is also the latest in a long line of contestants on the dance show who were seemingly picked for the controversy they were likely to inspire.The focus on Ms. Delvey’s ankle monitor helped her lackluster performance stand out on social media among more ambitious routines from contestants like the actress Chandler Kinney and the former N.B.A. star Dwight Howard (even if her dancing placed her in the bottom-third of the pack).But if Ms. Delvey was happy about having been allowed to travel to Los Angeles for the show, you wouldn’t know it from her cha-cha.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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      ‘A Very Royal Scandal’ Is a Juicy British Drama

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      This taut and serious Amazon series chronicles the time when Prince Andrew was interviewed on TV about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.Ruth Wilson, left, and Michael Sheen in a scene from “A Very Royal Scandal.”Christopher Raphael/Blueprint, via Sony“A Very Royal Scandal,” available now on Amazon Prime Video, tells — retells — the story of when the BBC journalist Emily Maitlis interviewed Prince Andrew on television in 2019 about his relationship to Jeffrey Epstein. The very first thing he says in the interview is that “there is no good time to talk about Mr. Epstein and all things associated.” Welp …The mini-series is tightly focused — its three episodes cover the period just before the interview, the interview itself and the immediate aftermath, with a few key flashbacks — but the show exists in a hall of mirrors of real-world scandals and media. “Royal” lives in the shadow of the crown, and in the shadow of “The Crown,” and is part of a prestige-laundering industry that refashions tabloid ignominy and wretchedness into cool-toned, highbrow drama. And it follows the movie “Scoop,” starring Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell, which premiered in April and is about the same interview.Michael Sheen stars as Prince Andrew, depicted here as stuffy and frustrated, unappreciated by his brother and devoted to his mother, neither of whom we see. His daughters adore him, as does his ex-wife, but he insists that the happiest time in his life was fighting in the Falklands War. Royal staffers whisper that he is so insulated from the world that he’s incapable of understanding it.Ruth Wilson plays Maitlis (herself an executive producer of the mini-series), a harried mom devoted to Velcro rollers and late night Google sessions. Wilson drops her voice to more closely resemble Maitlis’s, but it’s so unconvincing that it makes the fictionalized Maitlis seem phony, as if she were stealing a move from the Elizabeth Holmes playbook.The show plays out as a slow-motion car crash, a what-not-to-do case study for media relations — or perhaps a what-to-do guide for interviewing the terminally hubristic. Anyone who watches the full interview could rightly wonder, “How could you be so stupid to sit for an interview like this and say things like that?” “Royal” does a thorough, energetic, juicy-but-serious job of answering.And yet, the show can’t escape its own admission that there are much bigger questions one could ask about rape, misogyny, money, secrecy and power. Maitlis has a pat monologue about the injustice of it all, but the call is coming from inside the mini-series. More