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    Will Ferrell-Harper Steele Documentary Drops on Netflix

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    Will Ferrell and Harper Steele, a former “Saturday Night Live” writer, use a road trip to navigate their relationship now that she is out as a trans woman.The road movie is a time-honored Hollywood genre, and it’s a good format for a documentary, too. Something about getting in a car and driving down the interstate feels quintessentially American and holds the potential for revelation. I’ve seen plenty that serve up only pablum about finding common ground and tolerating each other. But a country so full of contrasts and contradictions is excellent fodder for whoever is holding the camera.“Will & Harper” (streaming on Netflix) is a surprisingly insightful entry into the category. Directed by Josh Greenbaum (who has made comedies like “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar,” among other things), the documentary begins like any conventional road movie might: Two old friends get in a car on the East Coast and point their headlights west.But these are no ordinary friends. Will is Will Ferrell, the comedian and star. Harper is Harper Steele, one of Ferrell’s oldest friends, dating all the way back to their days at “Saturday Night Live,” where they started the same week in 1995. Ferrell, of course, was a performer. Steele was a writer from 1995 to 2008; for four of those years, she was the show’s head writer.In 2021, Steele sent an email to a close circle of friends, coming out as a trans woman. Ferrell, seeking to support her, proposed they go on a road trip across the country, during which he could navigate his relationship with Steele and they could also explore America. What would they learn? They’d find out.The result, unsurprisingly, is very funny. These are two top comedy minds, and Ferrell, at least, is among America’s most recognizable celebrities, no matter what color the state. Steele, on the other hand, is dealing with a new reality. When she was younger, she. had traveled across America, but as a trans woman she encounters a different landscape. Ferrell is there as a companion and, at some points, a defender. Being a trans woman in America can draw a wide variety of responses from others.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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      How Sophie’s Posthumous (and Final) Album Was Completed

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      “Sophie,” a new LP by the visionary hyperpop producer, traces an arc from introspection to pop pleasures to thoughts of eternity. It will be her final release.In the early hours of Jan. 30, 2021, the visionary hyperpop producer Sophie was living in an apartment in Athens. To get a better view of the full moon, she climbed up a balcony, but slipped and fell. She was 34, and her death brought an outpouring of appreciation for the ways her sonic vocabulary — pointed, wriggly, blippy synthesizer tones and ultra-succinct hooks — had moved so quickly from pop’s experimental fringe to the mainstream.In Athens — and before that in Los Angeles and London — Sophie had been working on the successor to her 2018 album, “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” and its 2019 remix LP. The new album was so close to completion that Sophie had chosen the full track list. Three years later, Benny Long, her brother and studio manager, has finished it, striving to honor Sophie’s artistic intentions. It will simply be titled “Sophie.”“There was, at the start, a lot of self-doubt. Can I? Is this going to be possible without her?,” Long said in a video interview from Los Angeles. “But I thought, really, it comes down to, would she want this album to come out or would she not? And she definitely would.”Sophie left behind many more tracks in progress, some of which are likely to emerge as singles or EPs, or appear on other performers’ albums. But as a guardian of Sophie’s catalog, Long has decided that “this is the last Sophie album,” he said. “This is an album that we had worked on for years. We discussed everything about it — the themes, the track list. So to do another album and put it out as a solo album, it would just feel all wrong.”“Sophie,” out Sept. 27, is the artist and producer’s most collaborative album. It includes vocals from the songwriters and singers Kim Petras, Bibi Bourelly, Hannah Diamond, Cecile Believe, Jozzy, Big Sister and Liz, as well as the duo BC Kingdom (who have recorded with Solange Knowles). There’s even a spoken-word appearance by the D.J. and producer Nina Kraviz.Completing the album became a family project for Benny and his sister Emily Long. She studied music law to work with Sophie, and she passed the bar exam two weeks before her sibling’s death. Once Benny resolved to finish Sophie’s album, Emily joined him in making decisions. “Every single day we talk about Sophie and what she loved and the things that would make her happy,” Emily said via a video call from Los Angeles. “We all know why we’re here. We’re all here for her.”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

      ‘The Interview’: Change Can Be Beautiful. Just Ask Will Ferrell and Harper Steele.

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      How well do we know our friends? Our neighbors? Ourselves? In the new documentary “Will & Harper,” which opens in select theaters on Sept. 13 and will stream on Netflix starting Sept. 27, the superstar comedian Will Ferrell and his best friend and frequent collaborator, Harper Steele, take a New York-to-California road trip together to try to answer those questions.Listen to the Conversation with Will Ferrell and Harper SteeleThe superstar comedian and his best friend and collaborator discuss the journey that deepened their friendship.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppHitting the highway on a quest for meaning is a classic American story, but it hasn’t been told in exactly this fashion before: Steele is a trans woman who came out to her friends, including Ferrell, two years ago. That was after years as a comedy writer, many of them at “Saturday Night Live,” where they both worked and where Steele eventually became a head writer. The two friends explained to me that the show wasn’t always the easiest environment, though they have different reasons for saying so. They also experienced some ups and downs on their cross-country drive, which gave them a chance to talk through what Steele’s transition means for their friendship and to get a clearer sense of how their fellow Americans feel about transgender identity.As you might expect, the film’s soul-searching often comes wrapped in laughs. But given the politicization of trans rights, even situations the duo set up for silly comedy can turn tense. There’s a key scene in the documentary in which Steele and Ferrell stop for what they hope is a goofy eating challenge at a rowdy Texas steakhouse. It does not wind up being goofy.That scene, and this emotionally wide-ranging film, evoked feelings in me that work by Will Ferrell hasn’t before. (And I say that as someone who will happily argue for the deeper resonance of his gloriously idiotic “Step Brothers.”) But as “Will & Harper” the movie and Will and Harper the people attest, change can very often be a good and necessary thing — a funny one too.The hard-hitting first question: How did you become friends? Ferrell: We became friends at “Saturday Night Live.” We were hired in the summer or fall of 1995, and we were all this brand-new group. No one knew each other, and one day Harper and I went to lunch. A very pivotal lunch for me. More

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      A New ‘Red Hot’ Album Tackles a Hot Topic: Transgender Awareness

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      “Transa,” with 46 tracks due Nov. 22, brings together artists including Sam Smith, Sade, André 3000 and Jayne County.Over a soft piano riff wafts the unmistakable voice of Sade, singing a song to her son. The lyrics she wrote for the piece — her first new track in 14 years, titled “Young Lion” — are steeped in empathy and regret. “Young man, it’s been so heavy for you/You must have felt so alone,” she sings. “I should have known.”She’s addressing her real-life son, Izaak, whose identity as a transgender man escaped her perception for some time. “Shine like a sun,” she sings to him. “You have everything you need.”Massima Bell, a musician, model and activist who is transgender, said she’d never heard a song like that before. “It’s amazing to hear a legendary musician like Sade sing about her heartfelt experience as the parent of a trans child,” she said in an interview. “It’s incredibly powerful.”It’s also humanizing, nailing a key goal for the sprawling new musical project that contains it. Titled “Transa,” the album, which Bell worked on as a creative producer, is the latest venture from Red Hot, the organization co-founded 35 years ago by John Carlin at the peak of the AIDS epidemic. The organization started with a star-studded album titled “Red Hot + Blue,” designed to raise funds for the fight against the disease.In the decades since, Red Hot has released more than two dozen sets, involving hundreds of top musicians, to benefit a wealth of related causes. (The organization said it has given away $15 million over its lifetime, primarily raised by record sales.) Still, it’s been years since it has focused on an issue with the topicality of “Transa,” a project due Nov. 22, which was partly inspired by the death of the producer Sophie in 2021.Beverly Glenn-Copeland, left, and Sam Smith. Both musicians contribute to “Transa.”Eleanor PetryWe 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

      Karla Sofía Gascón of ‘Emilia Pérez’ Could Make Oscar History

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      There has never been a movie quite like “Emilia Pérez,” so it’s fitting that its star Karla Sofía Gascón is one of a kind, too.In the film from the director Jacques Audiard, Gascón plays a Mexico City cartel kingpin who fakes death in order to transition abroad in secret. Years after her gender-affirming surgery, the newly rechristened Emilia contacts the lawyer who helped arrange it (Zoe Saldaña) and has one more request: a reunion with the unsuspecting wife (Selena Gomez) and children she left behind, even though returning to the scene of her old crimes could have dire consequences.The multitude of genres suggested by this synopsis — a gritty drug-world exposé, a family melodrama, a trans-empowerment narrative — are further complicated by the fact that “Emilia Pérez” is a musical, meaning the characters are liable to break into song whether they’re in a love scene or clashing in a heated gunfight. In a film full of big swings, it’s hard to imagine any of the wild ideas holding together if it weren’t for Gascón, who can contain all of those multitudes in a single freighted look. Many pundits believe that after Netflix releases “Emilia Pérez” in November, Gascón will make history as the first openly trans actress nominated for an Oscar.In May, the 52-year-old Gascón was the breakout star of the Cannes Film Festival, where “Emilia Pérez” won a best actress award that was shared among all of the movie’s leading women. Since her castmates had returned home before the awards ceremony, an overcome Gascón took the stage on their behalf, and her emotional speech was the night’s highlight. At the microphone for nearly six minutes, Gascón flitted between Spanish and English as she tearfully asserted the humanity of trans people, joked about bribing the jurors, paid romantic tribute to her co-star Gomez, then apologized to Gomez’s boyfriend for her ardor.Afterward, Gascón tried to explain her speech’s breathless sprawl. “I’ve never been given a prize,” she told reporters. “I’ve mostly been given blows and kicks.”Spanish-speaking audiences may already be familiar with Gascón, a veteran of Mexican telenovelas who starred in the hit 2013 film “Nosotros los Nobles” and transitioned six years ago while in the public eye. “It was very difficult,” she told me recently over lunch in Los Angeles. “People knew me a certain way and then I changed, so I constantly felt that I had to justify myself. I was always fighting with everyone.”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 Music

      This Is My Voice One Year on T

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      A transgender music critic explores the change in their singing voice after taking testosterone.When I started taking testosterone last year, I was eager for the effects it would have on my speaking voice. I imagined talking in a voice that was low, smooth, soothing. But my high singing voice felt somehow sacrosanct. I didn’t really want it to change.Maybe that’s because growing up listening to opera I was always drawn to the sound of countertenors — the highest of male voice types — like Anthony Roth Costanzo and Klaus Nomi. In that ethereal, almost genderless sound, I recognized myself.What is it about the voice that carries such emotional weight? Such potential for self-recognition? The word “voice” is so tied up with identity as to be nearly synonymous with it. My writing has a voice. The cello, my primary instrument, is sometimes described as closest to the human voice.All voices evolve over the course of a lifetime. Boys’ voices drop during puberty. Opera singers have noticed how their voices change during and after pregnancy. And menopause brings hormonal changes that can lower voices. Our voices can even fluctuate in pitch over the course of a day, depending on whom we’re speaking to, whether that’s a child or a friend.When I started taking testosterone as part of my transition, I wondered not just how my voice would change, but also what that shift would mean. Would I be the same person with a different voice?I’m a cellist-turned-critic but I’ve always sung for pleasure. It wasn’t until two years ago, though, at 26, that I started voice lessons with a countertenor. I was already thinking about taking testosterone, but before that I wanted to experience my voice, as it was, at its full potential.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

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Movies

      Why Levan Akin Won’t Show His New Movie ‘Crossing’ in Georgia

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      The director Levan Akin is worried that his latest film, “Crossing,” will inflame tensions around L.G.B.T. visibility in the post-Soviet nation.When Levan Akin’s movie “And Then We Danced,” a romance between men in a Georgian folk-dance troupe, premiered at Cannes in 2019, it became a festival hit and later an Oscars submission. But when it screened in Georgia later that year, the movie’s combination of traditional Georgian culture and gay love sparked violent protests from conservative groups.Akin’s latest film, “Crossing,” which opens in U.S. theaters Friday, also deals with L.G.B.T. themes, though the filmmaker said recently that he had hoped its reception in Georgia would be smoother. Its plot, about a woman who travels from Georgia to Turkey to search for her estranged trans niece, seemed unlikely be perceived as an attack Georgian culture in the same way, he said.But this spring, when Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, erupted in weeks of protests against a law on foreign influence that critics said would hamper Georgia’s chances of joining the European Union, Akin decided against releasing the movie there in such a polarized climate.“There is such political turmoil,” Akin said, “and we don’t want the film to be used as fodder in the debate. I don’t want that to repeat.”In “Crossing,” Lia (Mzia Arabuli), a retired and unmarried history teacher, travels to Istanbul from the city of Batumi, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, searching for her niece Tekla, who has fled after her family rejected her. Lia is assisted in scouring the city’s narrow streets and packed rooming houses by Evrim (Deniz Dumanli), a trans rights activist and lawyer. They form an unlikely bond — but finding Tekla proves difficult.Lucas Kankava as Achi, and Mzia Arabuli at Lia in “Crossing.”via MUBIWe 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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      Brazil’s Pabllo Vittar is the World’s Next Big Drag Queen

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      São Paulo’s main avenue was packed this month with thousands of people draped in the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag and captivated by a commanding figure atop a tractor-trailer rigged with speakers.From above, the scene could have maybe passed for one of the many political rallies held in the same spot by former President Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian far-right leader who has infamously declared that he could never love a gay son.(Though, to be fair, the enormous rainbow flag would be a giveaway.)It was, in fact, one of the world’s largest Pride parades, and the person atop the sound truck was Phabullo Rodrigues da Silva, 30, the gay son of a working-class single mother in Brazil’s north.Yet everyone in the crowd knew him as Pabllo Vittar, a 6-foot-2-inch drag queen in a glittering cutoff Brazilian soccer jersey and shredded jean shorts — one of the biggest pop stars in this nation of 203 million.“It’s so beautiful to see you in yellow and green!” Pabllo Vittar shouted to those in the crowd, many wearing fishnet and G-strings. She had called on the revelers to wear Brazil’s national colors to reclaim the Brazilian flag from Mr. Bolsonaro’s right-wing movement. “Let’s dance!”RuPaul may still be the queen of queens, but the heir to the global crown has arrived.Fans and digital influencers visiting the Brazilian drag queen Pabllo Vittar, center left, in her dressing room before a concert.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