Tag: Natasha Lyonne

Review: ‘The Bad Guys 2,’ starring the voices of Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne, Maria Bakalova and Zazie Beetz

July 30, 2025

by Carla Hay

Snake (voiced by Marc Maron), Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell), Tarantula (voiced by Awkwafina), Piranha (voiced by Anthony Ramos) and Shark (voiced by Craig Robinson) in “The Bad Guys 2” (Image courtesy of DreamWorks Animation/Universal Pictures)

“The Bad Guys 2”

Directed by Pierre Perifel; co-directed by JP Sans

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Los Angeles area and in outer space, the animated film “The Bad Guys 2” (based on the book series of the same name) features a cast of characters who are talking animals and humans.

Culture Clash: The Bad Guys, a group of five animals who are reformed criminals, are forced back into committing crimes by a trio called the Bad Girls, who want to steal a rocket ship for reasons that are revealed in the movie.  

Culture Audience: “The Bad Guys 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of “The Bad Guys” franchise and animated adventures where talking animals are the main characters.

Pigtail (voiced by Maria Bakalova), Kitty Kat (voiced by Danielle Brooks) and Doom (voiced by Natasha Lyonne) in “The Bad Guys 2” (Image courtesy of DreamWorks Animation/Universal Pictures)

In trying to outdo its predecessor movie, “The Bad Guys 2” almost falls into a sequel trap of overstuffing the plot. Despite some distractions, this animated film still presents an engaging adventure story in a crime caper comedy about anti-hero animals. The action scenes are more elaborate but they’re also more cluttered, compared to 2022’s “The Bad Guys” movie.

Directed by Pierre Perifel and co-directed by JP Sans, “The Bad Guys 2” was written by Yoni Brenner and Etan Cohen. “The Bad Guys” movies are based on Aaron Blabey’s book series of the same name. The first “Bad Guys” movie was directed by Perifel and written by Cohen. Damon Ross is a producer of both movies.

In the “Bad Guys 2” production notes, Ross comments: “The first movie was our love letter to heist films like ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’ with a touch of Quentin Tarantino. For the sequel, we wanted to go bigger and explore other genres. We looked to ‘Mission: Impossible’ and James Bond for inspiration—bigger action, bigger spectacle and much higher stakes.”

The titular main characters in “The Bad Guys” movies are five talking animals:

  • Mr. Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell), the group’s leader, has a cool and charming personality. He prides himself on being able to talk himself out of almost any tricky situation.
  • Ms. Tarantula (voiced by Awkwafina) is an expert hacker and the most logical member of the group. She is usually calm and level-headed under pressure.
  • Mr. Snake (voiced by Marc Maron) is a pessimistic safecracker who is Wolf’s best friend. Snake’s prickly personality is softened when he gets an unexpected love interest in the story.
  • Mr. Shark (voiced by Craig Robinson) is a master of disguise and is the one most likely in the group to be in a good mood and entertain the others. Shark also has a soft spot for children.
  • Mr. Piranha (voiced by Anthony Ramos) is hot-tempered and unpredictable. This “loose cannon” also tends to fart when he gets nervous, which is a personal trait that is used more than once as comedy in the movie.

“The Bad Guys 2” explains how “The Bad Guys” ended: The five members of the Bad Guys became reformed criminals and decided to start over as law-abiding citizens. The beginning of “The Bad Guys 2” shows that this intention is easier said than done.

Because of their criminal records, the Bad Guys have a hard time getting hired for legitimate jobs or applying for apartment rentals. For example, Wolf mistakenly applies to work at a bank that he forgot that he robbed three times. The Bad Guys all live together in a space where they are about to be evicted for non-payment of rent.

In “The Bad Guys,” Wolf became friendly with a fox named Diane Foxington (voiced by Zazie Beetz), who is now the governor of California. In an early scene in the movie, Wolf and Diane are doing some boxing training at a local gym. He tells her about the Bad Guys’ unemployment and financial woes in trying to have law-abiding lives.

Wolf and Diane mildly flirt with each other, which hints that they have a mutual attraction. However, in this moment, Diane wants to keep things between them strictly platonic. And during this boxing session, Diane easily defeats Wolf. Diane has a secret past as a master thief called Crimson Paw. This past comes back to haunt her in “The Bad Guys 2.”

Meanwhile, a mysterious criminal that the media and the public have called the Phantom Bandit has been committing a slew of robberies in the area. The Phantom Bandit hacks into computer systems to gain access to the places that are robbed. Everything that the Phantom Bandit has stolen is made of a rare metal called MacGuffinite.

The Belt of Guatelemango, which is the grand prize in a Lucha Libre wrestling match, is the most famous MacGuffnite item. The Bad Guys are under suspicion for being the Phantom Bandit. And that’s why the Bad Guys end up at the wrestling match, where they think they can catch the real culprit in the act.

At the wrestling match, they meet a raven named Susan (voiced by Natasha Lyonne), who is working as a snack vendor at the event. Snake reveals that he and Susan have been dating each other. And he really seems to be falling in love. Snake’s friends tease him about this relationship because Snake doesn’t seem like the romantic type, and Susan seems too “book smart” and “nerdy” for Snake.

It’s soon revealed (as shown in the movie’s trailers) that Susan’s real name is Doom, who is a master manipulator/con artist. She’s part of a female criminal trio called the Bad Girls, led by a ruthless snow leopard named Kitty Kat (voiced by Danielle Brooks), who is the mastermind of the heist at the center of the movie. The other member of the Bad Girls is Pigtail Petrova (voiced by Maria Bakalova), a Bulgarian wild boar who is the group’s mild-mannered technical engineer.

After a chaotic ambush at the wrestling match, the Bad Guys find out that they’ve been abducted by the Bad Girls, who are the real criminals behind the Phantom Bandit thefts. Kitty Kat orders the Bad Guys to help the Bad Girls steal a rocket ship. In exchange, the Bad Girls will release a video proving that the Bad Guys did not commit the Phantom Bandit thefts.

The rest of “The Bad Guys 2” involves a series of hyperactive scenes, including action sequences in outer space. One of the clumsiest parts of the movie is when the Bad Guys and Bad Girls show up uninvited (and in disguise) at the wedding of a tech billionaire named Jeremiah Moon (voiced by Colin Jost), who is a huge dolt for not noticing all the weird things that these uninvited guests do to call attention to themselves. Let’s put it this way: The Bad Guys are better at being thieves than at being spies.

Reprising their roles from “The Bad Guys” are TV reporter Tiffany Fluffit (voiced by Lilly Singh), who has takes a tabloid approach to her journalism; imprisoned Professor Rupert Marmalade IV (voiced by Richard Ayoade), who was the villain in the first “Bad Guys” movie; and Misty Luggins (voiced by Alex Borstein), who has been promoted from police chief to police commissioner and loves to remind people about this promotion. New to “The Bad Guys 2” is an Egyptian billionaire named Mr. Soliman (voiced by Omid Djalili), an art collector who was robbed by the Bad Guys five years earlier.

Although “The Bad Guys 2” story is messier and not as entertaining as the story in the first “Bad Guys” movie, the voice cast performances remain among the best assets of this animated film series. Rockwell, Awkwafina, Brooks and Lyonne are the standouts because they bring personalities to their characters that make them instantly memorable. Borstein also brings some laughs as a sometimes-bumbling law-enforcement official.

Daniel Pemberton’s musical score (he also wrote the score for “The Bad Guys”) is a highlight that keeps up with energetic pace of the movie. The movie’s visuals are very competent but not award-worthy. This is a sequel that could’ve used the concept of “less is more.”

For better and for worse, the Bad Girls get almost as much screen time as the Bad Guys. On the one hand, the Bad Girls are undoubtedly interesting characters that keep the story lively. However, some of the Bad Guys and their camaraderie get sidelined in the process. For example, the friendship between Wolf and Snake is solid but not as strong as it was in “The Bad Guys.”

“The Bad Guys 2” makes the Bad Girls such a huge part of the story, it seems almost like a test for a spinoff series for the Bad Girls. Professor Marmalade’s brief appearances in the movie (including a mid-credits scene) seem to be purely for nostalgia purposes. There’s no need to bring back past villains into every “Bad Guys” movie.

“The Bad Guys 2” doesn’t surpass “The Bad Guys” in terms of overall quality. However, it’s a very good option for an animated film with an entertaining story. “The Bad Guys” movies need to stick to using the “Ocean’s” and “Mission: Impossible” movies as inspirations—or “The Bad Guys” could easily lose their way and turn into the animated equivalent of the bloated and ridiculous “Fast and Furious” franchise.

Universal Pictures will release “The Bad Guys 2” in U.S. cinemas on August 1, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on August 19, 2025. “The Bad Guys 2” will be released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on October 7, 2025.

Review: ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps,’ starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Natasha Lyonne and Paul Walter Hauser

July 22, 2025

by Carla Hay

Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal and Joseph Quinn in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios)

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps”

Directed by Matt Shakman

Culture Representation: Taking place in the late 1960s, in New York City and in outer space, the sci-fi/fantasy/action film “Fantastic Four: First Steps” (based on Marvel Comics characters) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Four astronauts with superpowers join forces against an evil, planet-eating god that lives in outer space and has recruited a silver-armored surfer to be his warrior messenger.

Culture Audience: “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of superhero movies, Marvel Comics, and action films where the superhero team is a tight-knit family.

Julia Garner in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios)

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is a step in the right direction for relaunching Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four characters into a movie series for theatrical release. It’s an entertaining but not exceptionally outstanding improvement from 2005’s tepid “Fantastic Four,” 2007’s underwhelming “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” and 2015’s dreadful reboot “Fantastic Four,” which had completely new cast members from the previous “Fantastic Four” movies. Instead of being an origin story about how these superheroes got their powers, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” shows this quartet as an established group of beloved superheroes whose loyalties to family and the world are put to the test. Great action sequences and a unique plot outweigh the film’s mixed-bag chemistry and bland villains.

Directed by Matt Shakman, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” was written by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer. The movie takes place sometime in the late 1960s in New York City (the home city of the Fantastic Four) and in outer space. The movie’s Earth is an alternate version called Earth 828. It’s revealed near the end of the film that 828 stands for August 28, the birthday of Fantastic Four creator Jack Kirby, who died in 1994 at age 76. (“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” was actually filmed in London and in Spain.)

The Fantastic Four, who all live together, are heroic astronauts who are at the forefront of the Space Race, which had the United States competing to be the world leader in outer-space travel. The Fantastic Four have the nickname the First Family of Marvel because they were Marvel Comics’ first group of superheroes to be members of the same family. Here are the members of the Fantastic Four, who all got their superpowers four years earlier, during a space mission that went awry because of a cosmic storm:

  • Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (played by Pedro Pascal) is the intellectual scientist/inventor of the group. His superpower is the ability to stretch like rubber for great lengths. Reed is the one who is most likely to obsess over scientific theories and mathematical equations to find solutions to problems. Reed also still feels guilty about the botched mission that made their lives anything but normal.
  • Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (played by Vanessa Kirby) is Reed’s level-headed wife. Her superpower is the ability to be invisible and to move large objects with her mind. Sue is the best out of the four when it comes to diplomatic relations with the public. She is also the head the Future Foundation, where she does a lot of work as a diplomat to help bring about world peace.
  • Johnny Storm/Human Torch (played by Joseph Quinn) is Sue’s impulsive, daredevil younger brother. His superpower is the ability to turn his body into a flaming torch and to shoot fireballs. Johnny is a bachelor who is considered the “heartthrob” of the group. And true to his Human Torch nickname, he’s a bit of a “hothead.”
  • Ben Grimm/The Thing (played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach), a former fighter pilot, is Reed’s best friend since their college days. His superpower is his extraordinary strength because the outer-space accident left him looking like a large man made of rocks. Ben is also a bachelor and is actually a gentle giant underneath his fearsome exterior.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” begins by showing Sue finding out the results of a home pregnancy test that she’s taken. She’s pregnant, after two years of trying to conceive a baby. Sue shows Reed the results of the test. They are both happy but also cautiously optimistic because they don’t know if their child will be biologically “normal” or not.

Reed and Sue say to each other about having this child: “I really want to do this.” Sue then tells Reed, “Nothing’s going to change.” We all know she’s wrong about that because this movie would not exist if everything stayed the same for the Fantastic Four. Reed and Sue later find out that their unborn child is a boy.

Also living in the Fantastic Four household is a robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. (Humanoid Experimental Robot B-Type Integrated Electronics), who resembles the robot title character of 2008’s “WALL-E.” H.E.R.B.I.E. (voiced by Matthew Wood) is a helpful assistant with numerous skills that come handy in the lab, the kitchen or wherever he’s needed. H.E.R.B.I.E. also has the same qualities of being like a cute pet.

One of the best things about “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is that it’s not overstuffed with characters and subplots. The story is fairly uncomplicated and easy to follow, but there are some moments that get a little mundane and predictable. And, quite frankly, there are more fascinating and more appealing superhero groups in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), such as the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy.

A mysterious being called the Silver Surfer (played by Julia Garner), who is completely silver and travels through space on a surfboard, arrives on Earth, announces to the Fantastic Four that she has a message to deliver to Earth from a giant god named Galactus (played by Ralph Ineson), who lives in outer space and eats planets: “Your planet is marked for death. Your planet will be consumed by the Devourer … There’s nothing you can do about it.”

Marvel Comics and other on-screen depictions of the Silver Surfer made this character a male character. The gender swap of the Silver Surfer in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” results in a subplot of Johnny developing a physical attraction/infatuation with her. It’s later revealed that the Silver Surfer’s real name is Shalla-Bal. Flashbacks briefly show some of her personal background, but she’s still an underdeveloped character who doesn’t say much.

After the Silver Surfer delivers this gloom-and-doom message and leaves to go back to outer space, Johnny follows her to see where she came from, but she fights him off like he’s a stalker, because he basically is a stalker in this moment. Johnny is defeated and falls back down to Earth, but he’s smitten, even though the Silver Surfer barely talks to him. Maybe Johnny is attracted to the skin-tight metallic silver body suit that she seems to be wearing.

Later, Johnny describes her as a “sexy alien” and says he “had a moment” of connecting with her. It’s kind of a strange part of the movie because Johnny could have his pick of many women on Earth. But if this is the movie’s way of saying that Johnny has some kind of kink for outer-space aliens who don’t look entirely human, who are we to judge? Later, in a battle scene when Sue tells Johnny to kill the Silver Surfer, he quips like a dejected bachelor: “Just when I thought I met someone interesting.”

The Fantastic Four then travel by spaceship to track down Galactus on their own, as if no one else on Earth can go in a spaceship to find this monster. Official marketing materials for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” have already revealed that the son of Reed and Sue is born in this movie. Fans of the Marvel Comics already know that this son will be named Franklin.

However, the birth of Franklin in this movie is definitely not like it was in the comic books. The childbirth scene is like no other scene in the MCU. What also sets “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” apart from other MCU movies is how it shows superheroes becoming first-time parents because most superheroes are never shown as parents. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” makes parental love the central focus of the movie’s biggest dilemma/conflict in fighting the villains.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” has top-notch production design and very immersive visual effects. And there’s no doubt that the movie has a talented cast. Pascal, Kirby, Quinn and Moss-Bachrach all bring charismatic sparks to their respective characters while staying true to the characters’ original personalities from Marvel Comics. It’s just that the characters’ dialogue in this movie isn’t particularly special. Garner and Ineson are perfectly fine in their roles, considering the Silver Surfer and Galactus are very robotic in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Almost nothing in this movie is shown or told about Galactus’ origin story.

Supporting characters include Lynne Nichols (played by Sarah Niles), the Fantastic Four’s chief of staff, who doesn’t do much except stand by and act like a loyal administrative employee. She’s a member of the Fantastic Four entourage, but Lynne isn’t the type of trusted “inner circle” employee who’s privy to all of the Fantastic Four’s secrets, in the way that Alfred Pennyworth is for Batman. Most of Lynne’s screen time consists of her reacting with approval to whatever the Fantastic Four are doing or have done. Another side character is Ted Gilbert (played by Mark Gatiss), the host/star of a “Tonight Show”-styled variety show called “The Ted Gilbert Show,” who makes commentary on his show about the Fantastic Four.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” makes a half-hearted attempt to give Ben a love interest when he develops a mutual attraction to Rachel Rozman (played by Natasha Lyonne), who works for a community center. Ben meets friendly Rachel when he returns to his childhood home on Yancy Street. Some children behind a fence at the community center ask him to lift up a Volkswagen Beetle on a nearby street, he accommodates their request, and Rachel comes out of the building to talk to Ben.

The short interactions between Ben and Rachel are limited to only two scenes that are far apart from each other. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” has a few other scenes that show how lovelorn Ben feels isolated from having a “normal” life because of his physical appearance. This aspect of Ben’s personal life is really sidelined in the movie because the main focus is on Reed and Sue becoming parents.

The Fantastic Four are the MCU’s most serious-minded group of superheroes so far. Don’t expect any wisecracking comedians in this quartet. Some of their jokes fall kind of flat. The movie’s funniest character is Harvey Elder/Mole Man (played by Paul Walter Hauser), a former Fantastic Four enemy who has created a society of Moleoids, who live underground with him in a community called Subterranea. Harvey, who is depicted as an unpredictable eccentric, brings some comic relief to the movie. There’s an entire backstory about Harvey that the movie ignores because he’s not in the movie long enough to warrant a lot of information about his past.

The chemistry between the characters in this version of the Fantastic Four isn’t entirely convincing. Ben is supposed to be Reed’s best friend, but Ben spends more time hanging out with Johnny. As for any marital passion between Reed and Sue, there’s more heat generated from four lit matchsticks than any romantic love that these two spouses show on screen. In this movie, Reed and Sue seem more like very compatible co-workers than a husband and a wife who are supposed to be in love with each other.

Despite these shortcomings, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” isn’t boring. It’s certainly engaging in many ways, and it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone film—unlike other MCU films that make people feel like they need to watch several previous MCU films and TV series to understand what’s happening. In “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” the mid-credits scene takes place four years after the events in the movie and is a preview of 2026’s “Avengers: Doomsday.” The movie’s end-credits scene is a non-essential animated 1960s-styled homage to the Fantastic Four. Ultimately, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” isn’t top-tier MCU, but it’s better than the average superhero movie.

20th Century Studios will release “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” in U.S. cinemas on July 25, 2025.

Review: ‘Smurfs,’ starring the voices of Rihanna, James Corden, Nick Offerman, JP Karliak, Amy Sedaris, Natasha Lyonne, John Goodman and Kurt Russell

July 16, 2025

by Carla Hay

Ken (voiced by Nick Offerman), Hefty Smurf (voiced by Alex Winter), Smurfette (voiced by Rihanna), No Name (voiced by James Corden) and Brainy Smurf (voiced by Xolo Mariduena) in “Smurfs” (Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Smurfs”

Directed by Chris Miller

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly in the fictional Smurf Village and various parts of Earth, the animated film “Smurfs” (based on the comic book series of the same name) features a cast of characters that are Smurfs (blue humanoid beings), wizards, and other creatures.

Culture Clash: Papa Smurf, the leader of Smurf Village, is kidnapped by an evil wizard, and it’s up to the rest of the Smurfs and some allies to save Papa Smurf.

Culture Audience: “Smurfs” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “Smurfs” franchise, the voice cast and animated films that are formulaic to a fault.

Razamel (voiced by JP Karliak) and Gargamel (voiced by JP Karliak), Papa Smurf (voiced by John Goodman) and Azrael (voiced by Rachel Butera) in “Smurfs” (Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

Even by the simplest of standards for animated films, “Smurfs” is a subpar mess of idiotic dialogue, hyper banality, and unimaginative plot developments that copy superhero movies. Most of the supporting characters have no real purpose but to take up space. “Smurfs” has about 18 characters who have noticeable speaking roles, but the movie cares about only six of these characters, based on how they affect the tepid story.

Directed by Chris Miller and written by Pam Brady, “Smurfs” is part of the “Smurfs” franchise that began in 1958 with a comic book series created by artist Peyo. Since then, there have been numerous “Smurfs” movies and TV series, all of which are about a group of dwarf-sized blue humanoids called Smurfs, who live in Smurf Village. After all these years that the “Smurfs” franchise has existed, “Smurfs” has a very unoriginal concept: Papa Smurf (voiced by John Goodman), the leader of Surf Village, has been kidnapped, and the other Smurfs go on a mission to save him.

Much like the Seven Dwarfs in the “Snow White” fairy tale, Smurfs have names based on their respective defining personality characteristics. They travel in a male-dominated pack that apparently that only makes room for one “alpha female” Smurf. In the case of the Smurfs, this “alpha female” is Smurfette (voiced by Rihanna), who is portrayed in this “Smurfs” movie as sassy but not as smart as she could be.

Smurfette is also an anomaly because unlike the other Smurfs (who are born without the need for female childbirth), she was created by the Smurfs’ arch nemesis: a power-hungry wizard called Gargamel (voiced by JP Karliak), whose main goal in “Smurfs” stories is to capture Smurfs and use them for unscrupulous reasons. It’s just another way of defining the Smurfs world as a world where only males get to create life. In this “”Smurfs” movie, Gargamel is not the chief villain and doesn’t have a lot of screen time.

The original “Smurfs” stories had a problematic erasure of females and made all the Smurfs male, except for Smurfette. This “Smurfs” movie has a more equitable gender balance of Smurf characters, but that still doesn’t make the movie very good. Only the most die-hard Smurfs fans would be able to tolerate the slop that’s doled out in this wretched film.

Most of the other Smurf characters in “Smurfs” are Papa Smurf’s red-haired, self-assured brother Ken (voiced by Nick Offerman), No Name (voiced by James Corden), Moxie Smurf (voiced by Sandra Oh), Hefty Smurf (voiced by Alex Winter), Vanity Smurf (voiced by Maya Erskine), Worry Smurf (voiced by Billie Lourd), Brainy Smurf (voiced by Xolo Maridueña) and Grouchy Smurf (voiced by “Smurfs” director Miller). In the beginning of the movie, No Name is very insecure about not having a name therefore not having an identity. He depends on Smurfette to give him emotional support and pep talks.

Gargamel and his more evil brother Razamel (also voiced by Karliak) belong to the Evil Alliance of Wizards, which has gained possession of thee out of four magical books that bring peace to the universe. Papa Smurf, Ken and their long-lost brother Ron (voiced by Kurt Russell) used to be a trio of superheroes called Smurf Guardians of Good. (For whatever reason, the Smurfs in the movie keep pronouncing “guardians” as “guardianeers,” even though the word “guardianeers” doesn’t exist in the English language.)

Razamel kidnaps Papa Smurf to force Papa Smurf to tell Razamel where to find the missing magical book, which is called Jaunty (voiced by Amy Sedaris) but doesn’t really need to be a talking book. You know the rest: Hijinks ensue. Chase scenes happen. The heroes find themselves trapped in a seemingly impossible situation, but they band together to figure out the problem and fight the villains.

The Smurfs end up in the Australian Outback, where they meet Snooterpoots, who are furry interdimensional creatures that live underground and have a weakness for eating cake. Snooterpoots have mop-like fur in various colors and are slightly smaller than Smurfs. Snooterpoots are also thieves whose specialty is pickpocketing.

The leader of the Snooterpoots is Mama Poot (voiced by Natasha Lyonne), a gravelly-voiced ex-girlfriend of Ken’s. Mama Poot is initially reluctant to help rescue Papa Smurf, but she’s persuaded to when she’s enticed with the reward of cake. There are huge sections of the movie where you only see Mama Poot, Smurfette and No Name. In a movie already overstuffed with characters, “Smurfs” shows various Snooterpots who are seen scurrying around, but only Mama Poot is the only Snooterpoot with a voice, name and personality.

Other characters in the movie include Evil Alliance of Wizards members Asmodus (voiced by Octavia Spencer), Chernobog (voiced by Nick Kroll) and Jezebeth (voiced by Hannah Waddingham); a talking tardigrade (voiced by Jimmy Kimmel); Razamel’s intern Joel (played by Daniel Levy); and Gargamel’s cat Azrael (voiced by Rachel Butera). There’s no point in keeping track of who most of these characters are because most of them are sidelined in service of a story that really focuses on Smurfette, No Name, Mama Poot, Papa Smurf and feuding brothers Razamel and Gargamel.

“Smurfs” copies a multiverse dimension-hopping idea that was in 2023’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” And just when you think “Smurfs” isn’t done imitating a Marvel superhero movie, the reveal of Smurf “demi-god” Ron (who has superhero powers) looks like whoever created Ron is a big fan of Thor and Captain America.

The dialogue in “Smurfs” is bland and often mind-numbing. At one point, Ken says to the group of Smurfs: “You don’t know Smurf about Smurfs.” In another part of the film, the Smurfs end up in Paris. Smurfette knows it’s Paris but can’t explain how she knows, even though the Eiffel is right in front of them. Where’s Brainy Smurf when you need him?

Later in the film, the Smurfs say words what could be curse words but are bleeped out. At first glance, it might seem “edgy” for a “family-friendly” movie to do this, but it’s really lazy comedy. It’s also a thinly veiled and short-lived attempt to keep mature audiences interested in all the drivel.

Much of the marketing for “Smurfs” is promoting Rihanna as the voice of Smurfette. And as expected, there’s an original song (“Friend of Mine”) that Rihanna recorded for the movie, whch shows Smurfette performing the song. It’s a forgettable pop tune that’s a blatant attempt to get awards recognition. Nothing about “Smurfs” is award-worthy or impressively creative.

The movie’s voice performances are visuals adequate, but the screenplay and direction fall very short of being coherent. It’s wasteful, considering all the voice talent involved. “Smurfs” introduces several new characters (Ken, Ron, the Snooterpoots), but does nothing new, in terms of what type of adventure story could be told. Even children (the movie’s target audience) could be very bored by this cash-grab film that make the Smurfs world look like a pile of mushy ideas copied from better movies.

Paramount Pictures will release “Smurfs” in U.S. cinemas on July 18, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on August 12, 2025.

Review: ‘Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,’ starring Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson and Dave Bautista

November 23, 2022

by Carla Hay

Kate Hudson, Jessica Henwick, Daniel Craig and Leslie Odom Jr. in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” (Photo by John Wilson/Netflix)

“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”

Directed by Rian Johnson

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2020, mostly on an unnamed island in Greece and briefly in the United States, the comedy/drama film “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African American and Asians) portraying the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Southern gentleman detective Benoit Blanc is invited to the private Greek island of a technology billionaire, who is hosting a murder mystery party, where at least one person gets murdered for real.

Culture Audience: “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of 2019’s “Knives Out,” star Daniel Craig, and murder mysteries that are also incisive social satires.

Edward Norton, Madelyn Cline, Kathryn Hahn, Dave Bautista, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe and Daniel Craig in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” (Photo by John Wilson/Netflix)

Simply put: “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” is a sequel that’s better than the original movie. This comedy/drama is a fantastic follow-up to 2019’s “Knives Out,” another comedically dark murder mystery with its central location being the home of a wealthy person. Both movies, which are self-contained stories written and directed by Rian Johnson, deliciously skewer arrogant, rich elitists and other people with bad attitudes, while American Southern gentleman detective Benoit Blanc (played by Daniel Craig) solves the murder mystery. “Glass Onion” had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

Johnson has said in many interviews that his greatest inspirations for his “Knives Out” movie series are Agatha Christie mystery novels and movie adaptations of these novels. In that respect, Benoit is like an American version of Christie’s “world’s greatest detective” Hercule Poirot from Belgium—someone who can deduce and reveal complex details and secrets about other people’s lives, but his own personal life remains a self-guarded mystery. (Craig is British in real life, but you can tell he has fun with doing a leisurely American Southern accent when he’s in the role of Benoit.)

Because the “Knives Out” movies are self-contained, it’s not necessary to see the first “Knives Out” movie to understand “Glass Onion.” However, seeing “Knives Out” can give viewers a better appreciation of how “Glass Onion” is an improvement from the first “Knives Out” movie, which is enjoyable but more predictable than “Glass Onion.” (“Knives Out” received several accolades that comedic murder mystery movies rarely receive, including an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay.)

In “Glass Onion,” several people from different parts of the U.S. have each received in the mail a mysterious box from American technology billionaire Miles Bron (played by Edward Norton), a pretentious blowhard who loves to name drop and show off his wealth. Miles, a bachelor who lives alone, has made his fortune from co-founding a company called Alpha Industries. The box that he has sent contains an elaborate puzzle that reveals an invitation to go to Miles’ private island home in Greece for a murder mystery party. In the invitation, Miles says that he will play the murder victim.

Benoit is one of the people who receives this box as a mail delivery. Later, when he gets to the party, he finds out in an awkward way that Miles didn’t actually invite Benoit. But now that Benoit is at the party, Miles doesn’t want Benoit to leave, because Benoit is just another celebrity whom Miles can brag about attending one of Miles’ parties. Who sent Benoit that box? That answer is revealed in the movie.

“Glass Onion” begins on May 13, 2020—the day that the boxes are delivered. It’s just a few short months into the COVID-19 pandemic, before a vaccine was available, and when mask-wearing and social distancing were becoming a way of life for people who cared to take those precautions. Some of the party guests are more concerned about the pandemic than others.

Before going to the party, Benoit is seen having a relaxing bath at his home. He’s on a videoconference call with an eclectic group of famous friends, such as Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim (who died in 2021), classical musician Yo-Yo Ma, actress Angela Lansbury (who died in 2022), retired basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and actress Natasha Lyonne, who all make these quick cameos as themselves in the movie. It’s in this scene that viewers see that Benoit likes to play quiz games with his friends during the pandemic.

The only other peek into Benoit’s personal life is when he’s on a videoconference call with a man named Philip (played by Hugh Grant), who seems to know a lot abut Benoit and his personal life. In this scene, viewers can speculate how close Benoit and Philip are to each other and what kind of relationship they might have. Ethan Hawke makes a brief appearance in the role of an unnamed Miles Bron employee, who sprays a COVID-19 medical screener inside each guest’s mouth when they arrive at Miles’ Greek island home. The implication is that this screener can make any possible COVID-19 symptoms disappear, and Miles is so rich, he can afford this medical treatment before it’s legally sold to the public.

Miles’ party guests have been transported by a private boat to the island, whose biggest building is a high-tech mansion that Miles has named Glass Onion. The property’s centerpiece is a giant glass structure shaped like an onion and located inside a glass atrium. (The onion can also be seen as a symbol of the story’s layers that get peeled to reveal the truth. The Beatles song “Glass Onion” is played during the movie’s closing credits.) Inside this nouveau-riche home are dozens of glass sculptures and gaudy indications that Miles is a narcissist, such as a giant portrait painting of a shirtless Miles that makes his physique look more athletic than it really is.

In addition to Benoit, the other people at this party are:

  • Claire Debella (played by Kathryn Hahn), a progressive Democratic politician who is very image-conscious and currently running for re-election as governor of Connecticut.
  • Lionel Toussaint (played by Leslie Odom Jr.), an experimental scientist who has recently been testing a mystery product called Klear that Miles wants to sell, but Lionel has been warning Miles not to send this “volatile substance” on a manned airplane flight.
  • Birdie Jay (played by Kate Hudson), a controversial former supermodel who is now a fashion entrepreneur, who says and does racially offensive things on social media, and who is currently embroiled in a scandal about her fashion company using an exploitative sweatshop in Bangladesh.
  • Peg (played by Jessica Henwick), Birdie’s always-worried assistant who constantly has to clean up Birdie’s messes and prevent Birdie from doing more damage to Birdie’s reputation and career.
  • Duke Cody (played by Dave Bautista), a very sexist and gun-toting loudmouth who has become a famous social media influencer and “men’s rights” activist promoting the belief that men are superior to women.
  • Whiskey (played by Madelyn Cline), Duke’s airheaded girlfriend/social media sidekick who doesn’t seem to be doing anything with her life but being a hanger-on/gold digger/social climber.
  • Andi Brand (played by Janelle Monáe), Miles’ former business partner, who lost a bitter lawsuit against him, in which she claimed that she came up with most of the ideas for Alpha Industries, and she accused Miles of stealing her share of the company from her.

It’s eventually revealed in the story that Miles, Andi, Claire, Lionel, Birdie and Duke all knew each other from 10 years ago, when they were struggling to “make it” in their chosen professions. Andi was the one who introduced Miles (who was unlikable even back then) to the rest of the group. They all used to hang out at a bar called Glass Onion.

Miles is a big talker who is very good at making people believe that he’s smarter than he really is. For example, he makes up words that don’t exist. His incessant namedropping becomes an ongoing lampoon in the movie. He mentions how he got famous composer Philip Glass to write original music for him. Miles also brags about his other connections to celebrities, such as getting a personal gift from actor/musician Jared Leto and getting invited to a recent birthday party for CNN anchor Anderson Cooper.

As the story goes on, cracks begin to show in many of the party guests’ façades. Birdie wants people to think that she’s confident, but she’s actually very insecure about being perceived as unattractive and a has-been. Peg, who appears to cool-headed and logical, is actually on edge and desperate, because she has spent most of her career with loose cannon Birdie, so anything that destroys Birdie’s career will probably destroy Peg’s career too. Lionel is uncomfortable with being paid by Miles to approve this mystery product Klear that Lionel says is too dangerous to approve.

Claire, who prides herself on being a “take charge” control freak, is worried about how wild this party might get and how it could affect her reputation in this crucial election year. Duke becomes uneasy when he sees that Whiskey is openly flirting with Miles, who does nothing to stop this flirtation and seems to be enjoying it. Andi, who is the most mysterious guest, keeps her distance from the group for a great deal of the movie, and she seems to be tough-minded and occasionally rude, but her emotional vulnerabilities are eventually exposed. When Andi arrives at the island, Miles tells her that he’s surprised that she accepted the invitation.

Of course, Andi appears to be the one who has the biggest grudge against Miles. She is also different from the other guests because she was the only one who didn’t bother to figure out the box puzzle but just smashed the box instead and found the invitation. In a group of characters with larger-than-life personalities, Monáe delivers a complex performance that is one of the highlights of “Glass Onion.”

It would be revealing too much to say who actually gets murderded in “Glass Onion,” but it’s enough to say that the movie has more twists and turns and than “Knives Out.” The comedy in “Glass Onion” has much sharper edges that result in some intentionally hilarious moments. The dialogue and scenarios portray in stinging accuracy what can happen when people try to impress each other too much and wallow in self-centered pretension.

Peg and Benoit are the only people at the party who don’t show any completely obnoxious qualities, for different reasons. Peg, who seems like a decent person overall, is at the party in the capacity of being a subservient employee who’s afraid of losing her job. Benoit, as always, is a keen observer of people and doesn’t really jump into action until there’s a murder to be solved. Craig, who seems born to play the role of this sly and sarcastic private detective, has no doubt found his next big movie franchise after retiring from the role of James Bond.

Also turning in very good performances are Norton as billionaire jerk Miles and Hudson as spoiled celebrity Birdie. These two characters have some of the best lines in “Glass Onion,” which makes them the type of characters whom viewers will love to hate. However, if we’re being honest, Norton and Hudson have played these types of unlikable characters in other movies before, so people might not be as surprised by these performances. Monáe shows a range in “Glass Onion” that she hasn’t had a chance to show in her previous movies. The rest of the principal cast members in “Glass Onion” have characters that are a bit shallow and underdeveloped.

The production design of “Glass Onion” (which was filmed on location in Greece) is quite striking and has more originality than the “old money” mansion setting of “Knives Out.” Johnson’s screenplay and direction for “Glass Onion” are sharp, witty and thoroughly engaging, even when the characters are saying and doing awful things. “Glass Onion” also benefits from having less characters than “Knives Out” had, thereby making the “Glass Onion” story less cluttered than “Knives Out.” Most of all, “Glass Onion” admirably avoids one of the biggest mistakes that most movie sequels make: It doesn’t try to copy its predecessor. To put it in baseball terms: It swings big in its ambitions and hits a home run.

Netflix released “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” for a limited one-week engagement in U.S. cinemas on November 23, 2022. The movie will premiere on Netflix on December 23, 2022.

Review: ‘DC League of Super-Pets,’ starring the voices of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart

July 26, 2022

by Carla Hay

Merton (voiced by Natasha Lyonne), PB (voiced by Vanessa Bayer), Krypto (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), Chip (voiced by Diego Luna) and Ace (voiced by Kevin Hart) in “DC League of Super-Pets” (Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

“DC League of Super-Pets”

Directed by Jared Stern; co-directed by Sam Levine

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in the fictional city of Metropolis, the animated film “DC League of Super-Pets” features a racially diverse cast (white, black, Asian and Latino) portraying talking animals, superheroes and citizens of Metropolis.

Culture Clash: Inspired by DC Comics characters, “DC League of Super-Pets” features a group of domesticated pets, including Superman’s dog Krypto, fighting crime and trying to save the world from an evil guinea pig that is loyal to supervillain Lex Luthor.

Culture Audience: “DC League of Super-Pets” will appeal primarily to fans of DC Comics, the movie’s cast members and adventure-filled animated movies centered on talking animals.

Lulu (voiced by Kate McKinnon) in “DC League of Super-Pets” (Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

Even though “DC League of Super-Pets” sometimes gets cluttered with subplots and characters, this animated film is a treat that has a winning combination of pets and superheroes. There’s plenty to like for people of many ages. In addition to the appeal of having familiar characters from DC Comics, “DC League of Super-Pets” is a well-cast film for its voice actors, because the cast members bring their own unique flairs to the characters. It’s helpful but not necessary to have knowledge of DC Comics characters before watching this movie.

Directed by Jared Stern and co-directed by Sam Levine, “DC League of Super-Pets” makes good use of mixing zany comedy, engaging action and some heartwarming and touching moments. Stern makes his feature-film directorial debut with “DC League of Super-Pets,” which he co-wrote with John Whittington. Stern and Whittington also co-wrote 2017’s “The Lego Batman Movie.” Where “DC League of Super-Pets” falters is when it tries to cram in certain plot developments to the point where “DC League of Super-Pets” comes dangerously close to biting off more than it can chew. (No pun intended.)

If you have no interest in watching an animated movie about pets and would-be pets of superheroes, then “DC League of Super-Pets” probably is not for you. The world already has more than enough animated films about talking animals. However, “DC League of Super-Pets” mostly succeeds at being entertaining when putting comic book characters in a predictable but dependable story of a group of misfits that become friends while trying to save the world.

“DC League of Super-Pets” begins by showing how Superman (whose birth name is Kal-El) ended up with his loyal Labrador Retriever dog Krypto. Kal-El was born on the planet Krypton. When he was a baby, Krypton went under attack, so his parents put Kal-El on a spaceship alone and sent him to Earth for his safety. Kal-El’s parents Jor-El (voiced by Alfred Molina) and Lara (voiced by Lena Headey) say their emotional goodbye to Kal-El.

Jor-El says, “Krypton is about to die.” Lara adds, “But you, dear son, will live on.” Suddenly, the family’s Labrador Retriever puppy jumps on the spaceship with Kal-El. At first, Jor-El wants to try to get the dog back, but the space ship has already been set in motion. Lara tells Jor-El: “Our boy will need a friend.” Jor-El says to the dog: “Watch over our son.”

Years later, Kal-El is now an adult living in the big city of Metropolis under the name Clark Kent. He’s a bachelor who works as a reporter at the Daily Planet newspaper, but Clark Kent is an alter ego to his secret identity: a superhero named Superman (voiced by John Krasinski), who has super-strength, X-ray vision and the ability to fly. The dog, named Krypto (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), is still his loyal companion and knows about the secret life of Superman, because Krypto often fights crime alongside Superman.

Krypto has superpowers that are the same as Superman’s superpowers. And they both have the same weakness: an energy force called kryptonite that can drain their superpowers. Krypto and Superman are a lot alike, when it comes to how they view crime and justice. However, Superman and Krypto are very different when it comes to adapting to life on Earth: Superman/Clark Kent is social with humans, while Kypto is very aloof with other pets on Earth.

An early scene in the movie shows Krypto trying to get Superman to wake up because Krypto wants to go for a walk. But “walking the dog” for Superman really means “flying through the air with the dog.” Krypto often leads the way on the leash. The Metropolis in “DC League of Super-Pets” is designed to look like a modern, well-kept city with many tall buildings, just like in the comic books.

In this version of Metropolis, Superman is such a familiar sight, no one really thinks it’s unusual to see Superman in a park with his dog Krypto. It’s during one of these park outings that Krypto sees that things at home will soon change for Superman and Krypto. Superman/Clark Kent and his Daily Planet journalist co-worker Lois Lane (voiced by Olivia Wilde) are very much in love, and they meet at the park for a date. They show lovey-dovey public displays of affection, much to Krypto’s dismay.

The relationship between Superman/Clark Kent and Lois has gotten serious enough where it looks like this couple could be headed toward marriage. Krypto is jealous and fearful that Superman/Clark Kent will no longer have the time and attention for Krypto if Lois moves in with them. Krypto doesn’t dislike Lois. Krypto just sees her as a threat to the comfortable existence he has always known with Superman/Clark Kent.

As Krypto worries about how his home life will change if Lois moves in, some other pets in Metropolis are worried if they’ll ever have a permanent home. At an animal shelter called Tailhuggers, several pets are up for adoption, but so far, they have no takers. The shelter is run by a bachelorette named Patty (voiced by Yvette Nicole Brown), who is very kind to the pets and keeps them under vigilant protection.

Brash and sarcastic hound dog Ace (voiced by Kevin Hart) is the leader of the shelter pets. Other animals at the shelter are elderly turtle Merton (voiced by Natasha Lyonne), cheerful pig PB (voiced by Vanessa Bayer) and nervous squirrel Chip (voiced by Diego Luna), who are Ace’s closest friends at the shelter. Also at the shelter is a cat name Whiskers (voiced by Winona Bradshaw), whose loyalty to the shelter pets is later tested.

Ace is anxious to run away from the shelter and is constantly plotting his escape. He tells his animal shelter friends that he knows of a paradise-like farm upstate where they can all go to live freely. One day, Ace actually manages to run away from the shelter, but he doesn’t go far. He’s literally stopped in his tracks by “law and order” Krypto, who uses his superpowers to freeze Ace’s legs to the sidewalk when he sees that Ace is a runaway shelter dog. Needless to say, Ace and Krypto clash with each other the first time that they meet.

Meanwhile, Superman has a crime-fighting incident where he summons the help of his Justice League superhero colleagues: Batman (voiced by Keanu Reeves), Wonder Woman (voiced by Jamila Jamil), Aquaman (voiced by Jemaine Clement), Green Lantern (voiced by Dascha Polanco), The Flash (voiced by John Early) and Cyborg (voiced by Daveed Diggs). Through a series of incidents, all of these superheroes are captured by billionaire supervillain (and longtime Superman nemesis) Lex Luthor (voiced by Marc Maron), who is keeping his captives hidden in a secret lair. Lex also has a cynical assistant named Mercy Graves (voiced by Maya Erksine), who isn’t in the movie as much as she could have been. Mercy’s screen time is less than five minutes.

All of that would be enough of a plot for this movie, but “DC League of Super-Pets” also has a plot about a devious guinea pig named Lulu (voiced by Kate McKinnon), who manages to escape from a Lex Luthor-owned scientific lab that was experimenting on guinea pigs. Somehow, Lulu gets ahold of orange kryptonite (she’s immune to kryptonite), she develops telekinesis powers, and goes on a mission to prove her loyalty to Lex by trying to destroy the Justice League.

Lulu has an army of former lab guinea pigs to do her bidding. Two of Lulu’s most loyal of these accomplices are mutant guinea pigs that also have newfound superpowers: Mark (voiced by Ben Schwartz) is fiery red and can shoot flames, while Keith (voiced by Thomas Middleditch) is ice-blue and has the ability to freeze things. Lulu also has a plot to (cliché alert) take over the world.

It should come as no surprise that Krypto ends up joining forces with Ace, Merton, PB and Chip to try to save the Justice League and save the world. During the course of the story, certain superpowers are gained, lost and possibly gained again for certain characters. Viewers of “DC League of Super-Pets” should not expect the Justice League superheroes and Lex Luthor to get a lot of screen time, because the movie is more about the pets.

Lulu’s revenge plot gets a little convoluted, but not so confusing that very young children won’t be able to understand. The movie has the expected high-energy antics, with animation and visual effects that aren’t groundbreaking but are aesthetically pleasing on almost every level. Once viewers get used to all the characters that are quickly introduced in the movie, it makes “DC League of Super-Pets” more enjoyable.

The movie has some recurring jokes, such as self-referencing all the movies and licensing deals that come from comic-book superheroes. “DC League of Super-Pets” also has a running gag of guinea pig Lulu being insulted when she’s often misidentified as a hamster. After one such misidentification, Lulu snarls, “A hamster is just a dollar-store gerbil!”

Lulu has some of the funniest lines in the movie. When she sees the DC League of Super-Pets together, she makes this snarky comment: “What is this? PAW Patrol?” And even though Batman isn’t in the movie for a lot of time, he also has some memorable one-liners, which he delivers in a deadpan manner.

It soon becomes obvious that these Super-Pets have another purpose besides saving the world: Each pet will be paired with a Justice League superhero. PB is a big fan of Wonder Woman. This star-struck pig thinks that Wonder Woman has the confidence and independent spirit that PB thinks is lacking in PB’s own personality.

Turtles are known for walking slow, so it should come as no surprise that Merton admires The Flash, whose known for his superpower of lightning-fast speed. Ace sees himself as an “alpha male” who strikes out on his own when he has to do so, which makes Batman a kindred spirit. Chip is attracted to the fearlessness of Green Lantern. As for Aquaman and Cyborg, it’s shown at the end of the movie which pets will be paired with them.

Amid the action and comedy, “DC League of Super-Pets” also has some meaningful messages about finding a family of friends. Ace has a poignant backstory about how he ended up at an animal shelter. Ace’s background explains why he puts up a tough exterior to hide his vulnerability about being abandoned.

Johnson (who is one of the producers of “DC League of Super-Pets”) and Hart have co-starred in several movies together. Their comedic rapport as lead characters Krypto and Ace remains intact and one of the main reasons why “DC League of Super-Pets” has voice cast members who are perfectly suited to each other. Hart is a lot less grating in “DC League of Super-Pets” than he is in some of his other movies, where he often plays an over-the-top-buffoon.

Even though Ace is an animated dog, he has more heart than some of the human characters that Hart has played in several of his mediocre-to-bad movies, Law-abiding Krypto and rebellious Ace have opposite personalities, but they learn a lot from each other in ways that they did not expect. All of the other heroic characters have personal growth in some way too.

“DC League of Super-Pets” is a recommended watch for anyone who wants some escapist animation with entertainment personalities. The movie’s mid-credits scene and end-credits scene indicate that “DC League of Super-Pets” is the beginning of a movie series. It’s very easy to imagine audiences wanting more of these characters in movies if the storytelling is good.

Warner Bros. Pictures will release “DC League of Super-Pets” in U.S. cinemas on July 29, 2022.

Review: ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday,’ starring Andra Day

February 25, 2021

by Carla Hay

Andra Day in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” (Photo by Takashi Seida/Hulu)

“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”

Directed by Lee Daniels

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the U.S., primarily from 1947 to 1959, the dramatic film “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” features a predominantly African American cast (with some white people) who are connected in some way to legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday, who is the central character in the movie.

Culture Clash: Holiday’s drug addiction and her controversial civil rights song “Strange Fruit” made her a target of the FBI, which plotted to ruin her life.

Culture Audience: “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” will appeal primarily to people who want to see a melodramatic interpretation of Holiday’s life and don’t mind if some parts of the movie are inaccurate.

Trevante Rhodes and Garrett Hedlund in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” (Photo byTakashi Seida/Hulu)

If people watched the 1972 movie “Lady Sings the Blues” and the 2021 movie “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” they would wonder if Billie Holiday led different lives in alternate universes. Both movies are about Holiday, but they are very different from each other. “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” (directed by Lee Daniels) is the more sexually explicit, more realistic version of her life, compared to director Sidney J. Furie’s “Lady Sings the Blues” (starring Diana Ross as Holiday), which presented Holiday’s life as more of a romantic fantasy that was hindered by drug addiction. However, “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” even with the benefit of a stunning performance by Andra Day and gorgeous costumes, misses the mark with an uneven tone that can’t decide if it wants to be a politically driven drama, a campy drug-addict saga or a sappy romance that was fabricated for the movie.

“Lady Sings the Blues” (written by Suzanne de Passe, Chris Clark and Terence McCloy) is more of a “rags to riches” story,” since it shows Holiday’s teen years and up to the height of her fame, but before she reached middle-age and died at the age of 44 in 1959. “The United States vs. Billie Holiday”(written by Suzan-Lori Parks) is more of a “riches to downfall” story, since the movie shows Holiday (portrayed by Day) as a New York City-based diva already at the height of her fame and chronicles her continued slide into self-destruction until she was on her deathbed.

“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” has a brief flashback to Holiday’s childhood in Baltimore that shows her at 10 years old, living in a brothel and being told, against her will, that she will eventually have to service the clients. In real life, Holiday says she became a prostitute when she was 13. In “Lady Sings the Blues,” Holiday’s single mother Sadie is a live-in maid to a white family and let her daughter (whose birth name was Eleanora Fagan) spend time in the brothel that was run by a madam. However, in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” there is no such context to explain why the future Billie Holiday was living in a brothel as a child.

“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” aims to be a much more socially conscious movie than “Lady Sings the Blues” because it keeps hammering the point that the FBI conspired to ruin Holiday’s life, and her influential civil rights song “Strange Fruit” was the trigger. (The “Lady Sings the Blues” movie avoided pointing fingers at the FBI for Holiday’s downfall.) “Strange Fruit” (written by Abel Meeropol under the alias Lewis Allan) was released in 1939. It’s a poetically brutal commentary on racial injustice, particularly in describing the lynching of black people in the South.

“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” has an unnecessary narrative device that opens the movie in New York City in 1957, when Holiday is giving an audio interview to Reginald Lord Devine (played by Leslie Jordan), a flamboyant journalist who seems to have been written as the epitome of a white man from the South who is willfully ignorant about racial inequality. He drawls to Holiday: “Tell me, tell me, what’s it like to be a colored woman?”

This interview scenario then leads to flashbacks of Holiday’s life, primarily from 1947 to 1954, before culminating with her death in 1959. However, the writing, direction and editing for this movie are so choppy that the flashbacks are interrupted by going back to showing the annoying Devine asking silly questions. The movie would’ve been better off without this useless plot device of Holiday looking exasperated while she’s doing an interview that she clearly doesn’t want to do.

When Devine asks Holiday about “Strange Fruit” and why she creates problems for herself by singing it, she replies: “Ever seen a lynching? It’s about human rights. The government forgets that sometimes. They just want me to shut up and sing ‘All of Me.'”

The movie has repetitive scenes of Holiday arguing with people (such as a manager or nightclub owner) over wanting to sing “Strange Fruit,” but she’s often overruled. And when she does sing the song on stage at the Earle Theatre in Philadelphia in 1947, her performance is cut short and she’s literally carried off stage while she’s fighting the man who’s forcing her to leave. It’s a very slapstick-type of scene that looks too over-acted.

In “Lady Sings the Blues,” drug addiction was the villain. In “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” the FBI is an additional villain, specifically the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics chief Harry Anslinger (played by Garrett Hedlund), who’s portrayed as ruthless, ambitious and very racist. (In case there’s any doubt that he’s racist, he uses the “n” word.)

In a 1947 government meeting in Washington, D.C., Anslinger says in some very corny dialogue: “Drugs and [a racial slur for black people] are a contamination to our great American civilization. Jazz music is the devil’s work. That’s why this Holiday has to be stopped.” Anslinger is such a stereotypical villain in the movie, that if his moustache had been long enough, he would’ve twirled it.

In this FBI meeting is attorney Roy Cohn (played by Damian Joseph Quinn), who would later become known as the right-hand man of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy (played by Randy Davison) and their witch hunt against Communists. Much later in his life, Cohn was a “fixer” for many rich and famous clients, including Donald Trump. “Strange Fruit” is brought up in the meeting as a song that could incite riots, but Cohn says that trying to bust Holiday for inciting a riot would be a misdemeanor crime at worst. Cohn suggests to Anslinger that since Holiday is a well-known drug addict, it would be better to have her arrested for drugs.

And that’s why an African American FBI agent is recruited to go undercover and help the FBI arrest Holiday. His name is Jimmy Fletcher (played by Trevante Rhodes), who ends up falling deeply in love with Holiday. In fact, their romance (which is completely exaggerated for the movie) becomes such a big part of the plot that it looks very fake, especially when Fletcher ends up shooting heroin with Holiday and having shared hallucinations with her. Viewers will be rolling their eyes at this nonsense more than a junkie who’s high on drugs.

Another ridiculous thing about the movie is how in almost every performance of Holiday’s that’s shown, Fletcher and usually Anslinger are also in the audience, as if they have nothing better to do with their time than stalk her. Fletcher is portrayed as someone who’s woefully inept at being undercover. He’s also ordered to follow her on tour, but it isn’t long before Fletcher doesn’t even try to be professional, and he’s partying with Holiday and her entourage like a pathetic hanger-on.

Holiday’s bisexuality, which she was open about in real life, is briefly hinted at in scenes with Holiday and actress Tallulah Bankhead (played by Natasha Lyonne), who is only identified in the movie as a “close friend.” The well-known affair that these two women had in real life is toned down for the movie. When Anslinger interrogates Bankhead and asks her point-blank if the stories are true that she and Holiday are lovers, she doesn’t really answer the question. When journalist Devine mentions Bankhead in his awkward interview that keeps disrupting the movie’s already ragged flow, Holiday gets defensive and sidesteps the question.

As for the other lovers in Holiday’s life, the ones portrayed in the movie are two who were also her managers: John Levy (played by Tone Bell) and Louis McKay (played by Rob Morgan), who would become her second husband in 1957. (In real life, Levy was white, so the movie did a racial swap with this character.) And briefly depicted is Holiday’s first husband James Monroe (played by Erik LaRay Harvey), a pimp who became a trombonist in her band.

Monroe, Levy and McKay are all portrayed as selfish, abusive leeches, which many people who were close to Holiday say was how these three men were like in real life. It’s more realistic than how McKay (played by Billy Dee Williams) was depicted in “Lady Sings the Blues,” as her only steady lover and as a caring man who never abused her and never took advantage of her. To its credit, “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” doesn’t try to make it look like Holiday’s love life was that simple.

In fact, all of the men in Holiday’s life are depicted as using her in some way. Fletcher, who’s portrayed as the only “good man” in her love life, started out as using Holiday to further his career with the FBI. Her closest “friends” are on her payroll, including her saxophonist Lester Young (played by Tyler James Williams), who’s credited in real life with giving her the nickname Lady Day, and her trumpet player/drug dealer Joe Guy (played by Melvin Gregg). She also has two sassy personal assistants named Roslyn (played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and Miss Freddy (played by Miss Lawrence), who are the “court jesters” of this movie, since they provide most of the comic relief.

There’s a comedic scene that doesn’t work very well where Roslyn and Miss Freddy are invited to an elaborate funeral because Holiday has told them there’s been a death in her family. The death is shown to be serious enough that Holiday cancelled one of her shows. Roslyn and Miss Freddy go to the funeral, only to find out that it’s for Holiday’s dead Chihuahua. It’s definitely something that was fabricated for the movie, if only for the fact that planning this type of funeral would be hard to keep a secret from a celebrity’s personal assistants.

Holiday’s drug arrest in Philadelphia in 1947, as well as her subsequent imprisonment for one year, are covered in a rushed series of montages. It’s followed by a standout scene of her 1948 sold-out comeback performance at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. It was a breakthrough performance for a jazz artist at Carnegie Hall, which at the time was a venue for classical and opera music.

The FBI’s targeting of Holiday is unquestionably portrayed as racist harassment in this movie. “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” shows other ways that Holiday was discriminated against because of her race. These scenes show how, even with her star status, Holiday could not escape from the systemic racism that she encountered in her everyday life.

There’s a scene where Holiday and Bankhead go to Bankhead’s apartment building, but the African American elevator attendant (played by Furly Mac) refuses to let Holiday use the lobby’s elevator because it’s the building’s policy that black people have to use the service elevator in the back. Even though Bankhead offers to take the service elevator with her, Holiday throws a fit and leaves the building in a huff, while the pain of this discrimination is on her face as she stands by herself outside. In another scene, Holiday is scheduled to perform at a major live radio broadcast, only to find out before she’s ready to take the stage that she’s been replaced by a white female singer because of the “Strange Fruit” controversy.

However, the movie falls off the rails around the time Holiday was arrested for drug possession in San Francisco in 1949. The way that the trial is depicted is fairly absurd, and it’s where the movie starts to drown in the schmaltz of Holiday and Fletcher’s romance that was contrived for the movie. Fletcher is depicted as willing to ruin his career, just to be with Holiday, when that didn’t happen in real life. Fun fact though: Fletcher’s colleague Agent Sam Williams is played by Evan Ross, who is one of Diana Ross’ sons.

“The United States vs. Billie Holiday” is based on Johann Hari’s 2015 non-fiction book “Chasing the Scream,” which details the impact of America’s “war on drugs” and how people of color have been singled out more than white people as targets for drug arrests. Holiday’s troubles with the law are depicted as a precursor to the “war on drugs” that officially began when the Drug Enforcement Administration was formed in 1973 under then-U.S. president Richard Nixon.

However, this serious message of the film is cheapened by some dumb comedic scenes, dreadful dialogue and the unconvincing love affair between Holiday and Fletcher, who starts to romance her even more even after she’s found out that he works for the FBI. By all accounts in real life, Holiday preferred her men to be “bad boys” with shady reputations. Any sexual involvement with Fletcher would not have blossomed into the type of relationship where they’re making goo-goo eyes at each other while on a rowboat (as shown in one of the movie’s scenes), and he openly becomes her “tour boyfriend” while he’s on duty with the FBI.

Paramount Pictures was originally going to release “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” and it’s easy to see why the studio passed on it. The movie needed a massive rewrite and more cohesive direction, so that it would be more of an immersive experience instead of a series of scattershot, uneven scenes that sometimes have awkward transitions. That doesn’t mean the film is a complete disaster, but it should have been much better, considering all the talented people involved.

The high points of “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” are the electrifying performances on stage. Day (who’s a fantastic singer) does all of her own vocals in the movie. Some of the songs heard in the movie are “Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness,” “God Bless the Child,” “Lover Man,” “I Cried for You,” “Them There Eyes,” “Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer,” “All of Me” and “Lady Sings the Blues.” And there’s a harrowing, impactful sequence of Holiday witnessing the aftermath of a lynching, which leads to her centerpiece performance of “Strange Fruit.”

Day brings a raspy, world-weary yet edgy quality to her overall performance as Holiday that is more authentic than Diana Ross’ interpretation of Holiday as an emotionally wounded waif in “Lady Sings the Blues.” (Ross got an Oscar nomination out of it.) The costume design and production design are well-done in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” However, all of it is not enough to overcome all the tonal misfires in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” which won’t stand as the definitive Billie Holiday movie. For a more accurate and better movie about Holiday’s life, watch the documentary “Billie” instead.

Hulu will premiere “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” on February 26, 2021.

Review: ‘Irresistible’ (2020), starring Steve Carell, Chris Cooper, Mackenzie Davis and Rose Byrne

June 26, 2020

by Carla Hay

Chris Cooper, Brent Sexton and Steve Carell in “Irresistible” (Photo by Daniel McFadden/ Focus Features)

“Irresistible” 

Directed by Jon Stewart

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly in the fictional working-class town of Deerlaken, Wisconsin, the political comedy “Irresistible” features a predominantly white cast (with a few African Americans and Latinos) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: A high-profile and experienced Democrat National Committee strategist arrives in Deerlaken because he thinks he can groom a future Democratic presidential candidate by getting him elected as a Democrat mayor of Deerlaken, but this mayoral campaign faces stiff competition from the campaign of the Republican incumbent.

Culture Audience: “Irresistible” will appeal mostly to fans of Steve Carell and political comedies, but the movie is nothing more than a series of lazy stereotypes.

Rose Byrne and Steve Carell in “Irresistible” (Photo by Daniel McFadden/Focus Features)

Contrary to what it looks like in the trailer for the political comedy “Irresistible,” this smug and annoying movie is not centered on a possible romance between Democrat National Committee strategist Gary Zimmer (played by Steve Carell) and Republican National Committee strategist Faith Brewster (played by Rose Byrne), as they’re pitted against each other in a mayoral campaign battle in the fictional working-class town of Deerlaken, Wisconsin. Byrne’s Faith Brewster character isn’t in the movie every much, even though photos and images of Byrne in the movie’s marketing materials make it appear is if she’s a co-lead actor in the movie. She’s not. She has a small supporting role.

Instead, “Irresistible” (written and directed by Jon Stewart) is very much enamored with making the condescending, posturing “liberal” Gary Zimmer the center of the story. It’s at least commendable that “Irresistible” did not try to completely copy the “love/hate/we know they’re going to get together” relationship of political opposites that was on display in director Ron Underwood’s critically panned 1994 comedy flop “Speechless.” Geena Davis and Michael Keaton starred in “Speechless” as political speechwriters working on rival campaigns—a story inspired by the real-life romance of James Carville and Mary Matalin, except that in “Speechless,” the woman was the Democrat and the man was the Republican.

In “Irresistible,” Gary is the worst kind of liberal: He thinks he’s open-minded and progressive, but he has the same old-fashioned stereotypical beliefs about women and people of color as the conservatives he says he despises. It’s unclear if writer/director Stewart (who is an outspoken liberal in real life) intentionally set out to do a satire of this type of self-congratulatory liberal, but the end result is a comedy film that takes itself way too seriously.

And, quite frankly, the screenwriting for “Irresistible” isn’t very good at all. Just because Stewart wrote a lot of jokes and won several Emmys when he hosted “The Daily Show” from 1999 to 2015, that doesn’t mean he’s a talented screenwriter for movies. “Irresistible” (not to be confused with the 2006 “Irresistible” love-triangle drama, starring Susan Sarandon, Sam Neill and Emily Blunt) is also an odd name for a political satire/comedy, since many people find politics to be the opposite of irresistible and actually quite repellent—much like how the competing political strategists in this movie are repulsive characters.

“Irresistible” starts off with a montage of photos of U.S. presidential campaigns from various Republican and Democrat nominees, from 1968 to 2016. The movie then shows Gary and Faith experiencing Election Day for the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Faith is reveling in the victory of Donald Trump, while Gary is crushed by Hillary Clinton’s loss.

The rest of the story then pivots to Gary’s point of view, as Faith only pops up here and there for the rest of the movie. Gary comes across a viral video of a former Marine-turned-farmer in Deerlaken (pronounced “Deer-locken”), giving a passionate pro-immigration speech at a town council meeting about undocumented workers. That farmer is Jack Hastings (played by Chris Cooper, in one of his long list of “folksy, salt-of-the-earth” roles), a widower who tells an anti-immigration city official in front of the assembled crowd: “I’m not saying you’re a bad person. I think you’re scared.”

Gary tells his assembled team at his headquarters in Washington, D.C., that this farmer could be a promising candidate to win a future U.S. presidential election because Jack is a hero ex-Marine who looks conservative but talks progressive. As far as Gary can tell, Jack is not affiliated with any political party and has no political aspirations, but Gary thinks he’s come up with a brilliant idea to groom Jack into a Democrat: Gary wants to go to Deerlaken to help Jack run for mayor.

“He’s a Democrat but just doesn’t know it,” Gary says arrogantly about Jack. Gary also crudely describes Jack to his team as “a man who makes Joe the Plumber look like [1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael] Dukakis in mom jeans and a fucking Easter bonnet.” This “joke” only works with people who know about U.S. presidential campaigns from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

When Gary tells his team that he wants to get Jack elected, it’s a problematic scene that reduces the few people of color in the scene (three Latino men and one black woman) as tokens who only speak up when Gary talks about needing representation from their racial groups. He condescendingly tells them that Hillary Clinton lost the election because not enough black people and Latinos showed up to vote for her. (Gary conveniently forgets to mention all the white citizens who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, but didn’t vote for Clinton in 2016, even though Obama campaigned for her.)

Debra Messing has a brief, uncredited cameo in the scene as another “liberal” DNC staffer who thinks she knows best, by saying the best strategy for Democrats to win the next presidential election is to get more black and Latino citizens to vote. The Latino men in the meeting agree, and join hands with the Debra Messing character, while shutting out the black woman sitting in between them. The men utter something in Spanish in solidarity.

The only black DNC staffer (played by Denise Moyé) in the meeting speaks up, by saying that she agrees with Gary’s idea of expanding the Democrats’ base and not taking votes for granted. The Debra Messing character (who also doesn’t have a name in the movie) sheepishly agrees.

It’s a cringeworthy, pandering and poorly written/depicted scene. The one thing that’s fairly accurate is how Gary, like a lot of people in power, think they can speak for all racial groups on their team, without actually checking to see how the team members from different racial groups actually feel about those topics.

At any rate, by the time Gary and his nearly all-white team head to the nearly all-white Deerlaken, his massive ego thinks that he can roll into town and tell these people what to do because he’s a big-city intellectual liberal who’s a big-shot strategist from the DNC. Of course, the movie’s biggest credibility plot hole is that in real life, a political strategist with this amount of clout would not waste all this time to get a small-town mayor elected. Why? There’s not enough money in it for the strategist.

Gary convinces Jack to run for mayor as a Democrat by saying things like: “I know you don’t think of yourself as a Democrat, but after hearing your speech, I can assure you, you are. And I would like to offer you my company services to do so … Democrats are getting our asses kicked because guys like me don’t know how to talk to guys like you.”

Faith finds out that Gary is in this small town for this campaign, so she shows up in Deerlaken to be the strategist for the Republican incumbent Mayor Braun (played by Brent Sexton), because apparently she has nothing better to do with her time either. Faith and Mayor Braun don’t get nearly as much screen time in the movie as Gary and Jack do, but these sparsely written Republican characters are also written as stereotypes. Faith could easily pass for a Fox News anchor, while Mayor Braun uses Republican tropes in his campaign, such as the love of God, guns and country folks.

Multiple times in the movie, “Irresistible” makes a heavy-handed point about campaign finances and how money can corrupt politicians. Gary is obviously in politics for the money and power. Therefore, it doesn’t ring true that someone like him would get so caught up in a small-time mayoral campaign. It seems like this common sense was thrown out the window when Stewart was writing the screenplay, whose only purpose seems to be portraying people in the political process as broad clichés.

When Gary arrives in Deerlaken, all the predictable stereotypes are on display.  (Although Deerlaken is supposed to be in Wisconsin, the movie’s Deerlaken scenes were actually filmed in Rockmart, Georgia.) The only thing that Stewart didn’t do to add to the condescending stereotypes of Midwestern rural people is have anyone chew on hayseed.

The volunteers for Jack’s campaign aren’t very smart, which is the movie’s way of saying that people in this area are very uneducated. When the volunteers start calling people on their phone lists, they find out they’re accidentally calling each other at campaign headquarters instead of voters, because the volunteers mistook the office phone list for the voters phone list. And it takes Gary to point out this mistake to them. That’s how “dumb” these locals are.

Gary is staying a motel where the motel bar is also the “front desk.” It’s a bar where men wear flannel shirts and have names like Big Mike (played by Will Sasso) and Little Mike (played by Will McLaughlin) and don’t seem to have an education past high school. The motel and the town are so “behind the times” that they don’t even have Wi-Fi or broadband service throughout most of the town. They mostly access the Internet through dial-up service. The annoying screech of a dial-up modem connection is a running “joke” in the film.

And there’s a badly written scene of Gary and some of the men on his team parked in a car outside the town’s high school, one of the few places with Wi-Fi access. Gary and his team are asked to leave, but they refuse, so they get kicked out of the parking lot because the school’s security people think it’s a car full of possible sexual predators.

Even when Gary gives a lustful stare when he first sees Jack’s 28-year-old daughter Diana (played by Mackenzie Davis) at Jack’s farm, that lust turns to some disgust when he sees that she’s got her hand up the rear end of a cow. For most of the movie, Gary and his team underestimate Diana’s intelligence because they think she’s an ignorant farmer’s daughter who doesn’t know much about politics. It still doesn’t stop Gary from flirting with Diana, but he’s mostly focused on winning the campaign for Jack.

Two of the people on Gary’s team are nerdy pollster Kurt (played by Topher Grace) and abrasive digital analytics strategist Tina (played by Natasha Lyonne), who clash with each over about how they think their respective voter analysis is better. Tina huffs when she dismisses Kurt’s polling numbers by saying that people’s computer usage is a more accurate picture of who voters are: “A digital footprint is your true self.”

When Kurt and Tina get into a little verbal tiff during a campaign meeting, Diana speaks up and says to Tina, “Surely, people are more complete than their online transactions.” Tina snaps back, “Says the woman with three cats and intense [Internet] search history of the herpes virus.” This is what’s supposed to pass as humor in this movie.

In fact, there’s very little humor to be found in “Irresistible,” which is a waste of this talented cast. Faith and Gary have some obvious sexual tension with each other, but it’s written in such an off-putting way that it’s just not as funny as Stewart probably thought it was when he wrote the script.

For example, there’s one scene where Faith calls Gary “fat,” and then she gives him a long lick on his face like it’s an ice cream cone. In another scene, Gary and Faith have an argument and then say that whichever of them loses the election will have to perform oral sex on the other for an hour. This oral sex “dare” is described in much cruder terms in the movie.

By the end of “Irresistible,” there’s kind of a dumb plot twist that reiterates some of the preachy messages of the film. But this plot twist doesn’t matter too much, because the entire plot of a strategist like Gary being in a small town like Deerlaken was an ill-conceived idea in the first place. And “Irresistible” also has an unnecessary gimmick of showing three different epilogues (the last epilogue in the film is supposed to be the “real” one), even going as far as having the end credits start to roll during each epilogue, just to trick/confuse viewers over which epilogue is “real.”

With so many U.S. citizens in real life who are already cynical or apathetic about politics, “Irresistible” isn’t going to make people feel good about participating in the political process. And although “Irresistible” is obviously influenced by “The Candidate” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” it definitely won’t be considered a classic like those films.

Focus Features released “Irresistible” in select U.S. cinemas, digital and VOD.

Review: ‘Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics’ starring Sting, Ben Stiller, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Bourdain, Deepak Chopra, A$AP Rocky and Sarah Silverman

May 18, 2020

by Carla Hay

Rob Corddry in “Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics”

Directed by Donick Cary

Culture Representation: This documentary interviews a predominantly white male group of entertainers who talk about their experiences taking psychedelic drugs, and the movie features a diverse group of actors doing comedy skits about psychedelic drug experiences.

Culture Clash: Despite these drugs being illegal, almost all of the people interviewed say that they don’t regret taking psychedelic drugs.

Culture Audience: “Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics” will appeal to people who just want one-sided comedic stories about taking psychedelic drugs, because the movie’s agenda is to exclude any stories about the drugs’ long-term negative effects on health.

Nick Offerman in “Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

In its overexuberance to portray psychedelic drug taking as something that’s harmless or something to laugh about later, the documentary “Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics” sinks to new lows of exploitation by prominently featuring two celebrities whose tragic, self-destructive deaths are definitely not funny. The documentary’s filmmakers (including director Donick Cary) made the morbid and tacky decision to display the filmmakers’ interviews with Carrie Fisher and Anthony Bourdain in this parade of celebrities who mostly glamorize taking psychedelic drugs.

Fisher died in 2016 of drug-related causes. Bourdain committed suicide in 2018. They both struggled with mental-health issues and drug addiction and admitted to taking a lot of LSD and other psychedelics in their lifetimes. Needless to say, Fisher and Bourdain are definitely not examples of how psychedelic drugs can help people with mental-health problems and drug addictions. And yet, the documentary pushes the scientifically unproven agenda that psychedelic drugs are beneficial to people suffering from drug addiction and mental-health issues.

But hey, why let these tragic deaths get in the way of making a documentary where these now-dead people are shown joking about their acid trips, as if those drug experiences couldn’t possibly be harmful to them? They’re certainly not going to talk about the negative side effects of “bad trips,” such as suicidal thoughts, depression or psychosis. After all, this movie wants people to believe that psychedelics are “shiny, happy drugs,” without giving a thoroughly honest look at the down sides too, because the film is so focused on having people endorse these drugs.

And there’s a reason why the filmmakers only included entertainers in this documentary that glamorizes psychedelic drugs. Imagine a documentary that featured a bunch of health-care workers, emergency responders, schoolteachers or airplane pilots joking about their experiences doing psychedelic drugs, and many of the interviewees giving the impression that they still do psychedelics on a regular basis. It wouldn’t seem so “harmless” then, would it?

Therefore, it’s no surprise that the documentary focuses on people (some more famous than others) who are in showbiz, where illegal drug abuse is flaunted and often celebrated. The average person in a regular job would not be able to get away with bragging in a Netflix documentary about their drug experiences.

Nor does the average person have the kind of money that rock star Sting has, to fly to Mexico whenever he wants, just to take peyote in an elaborate shaman ritual, which he describes in vivid detail in the documentary. Almost all of the people in this film can easily afford to indulge in taking illegal drugs and do not have to worry about how they’re going to pay for any medical treatment or legal issues if things go wrong. It’s one of the reasons why the documentary glamorizes these drug experiences, because there are some negative consequences to illegal drug taking that the “average” person can’t casually dismiss as easily as a well-paid entertainer can.

In addition to Sting, there are several other entertainers in the documentary who talk about their psychedelic drug trips or say that they’ve used psychedelic drugs: Ben Stiller (who’s one of the documentary’s producers), Nick Kroll, Deepak Chopra, Will Forte, A$AP Rocky, Nick Offerman, Shepard Fairey, Lewis Black, Paul Scheer, Rob Corddry, Andy Richter, Judd Nelson, Sarah Silverman, Jim James, Diedrich Bader, Rob Huebel, Reggie Watts, Natasha Lyonne, Adam Horovitz, Mark Maron, Rosie Perez, Donovan, Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, Brett Gelman, Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and David Cross.

One of the problems of doing a documentary like this is that you never really know how much people could be exaggerating or lying about these drug experiences. Many of the people interviewed are comedians and actors—two professions that are notorious for people fabricating things about their lives in order to get attention. Therefore, this documentary should not be considered very “realistic” by any stretch of the drug-addled imagination.

The psychedelic stories are re-enacted in one of two ways: through animation or by having live actors do a scripted skit. The animated segments (from Sugarshack Animation) are among the best aspects of the documentary. The scripted skits are hit-and-miss.

One of those misfires is miscasting Adam Devine as Bourdain in a re-enactment of Bourdain’s description of a drug-fueled, Hunter S. Thompson-inspired road trip that he took when he was a young man in the 1970s. Devine is known for having a sweet and goofy persona, while Bourdain was the complete opposite, which makes the re-enactment wrong from the get-go.

Even worse, the story that Bourdain tells isn’t even that funny. The road trip included Bourdain and a male friend picking up two women and partying heavily with them in a hotel room, including ingesting several drugs, such as LSD, alcohol, marijuana and cocaine. One of the women overdosed, and the others thought she was dead. So they just left her unconscious on the floor while they tried to figure out what to do, according to Bourdain.

Bourdain, while high on LSD, says that he imagined that there would be police coming to arrest them, with helicopters, searchlights, and a S.W.A.T.-like team surrounding the room. And then the woman suddenly regained consciousness and started to dance as if nothing had happened. Someone could’ve died from ingesting drugs while you were partying with that person, you had a LSD-induced panic attack about being arrested, and that’s supposed to be funny?

A better re-enactment that accomplishes its intended humor is Natasha Leggero dressed in a “Star Wars” Princess Leia outfit, for Fisher’s tale of being high on LSD while in New York City’s Central Park. During that psychedelic experience, Fisher says she spent a great deal of time being upset at seeing an acorn “misbehave” on the grass. During another acid trip on a beach, Fisher vaguely remembers she might have been topless when a bus full of Japanese tourists stopped right in front of her and they recognized her.

And in a somewhat clever casting switcheroo, Corddry plays Scheer in the segment that re-enacts Scheer’s psychedelic story, while Scheer plays Corddy in Corddry’s re-enactment. Meanwhile, Kroll portrays himself in his re-enactment about how he and a group of male friends were high on LSD at a Malibu beach, and the friends covered him in kelp as a prank. He then imagined himself to be a kelp monster and chased them around the beach. (Things weren’t so funny the next morning when he woke up covered in bites from whatever small animals were in the kelp.)

Most of the psychedelic trips described in the documentary are about hallucinations, experiencing colors in a different way, or losing a sense of time or memory. And there are the typical stories of “revelations,” along the lines of “I saw inside my soul,” “I saw how connected the world is” and “I found out the meaning of life is to love everybody.” Some of the people interviewed also give advice by saying it’s better to take psychedelics with trusted friends and to avoid looking in mirrors while under the influence of psychedelics.

A$AP Rocky (one of the few people of color who’s interviewed in the film) tells one of the documentary’s funniest stories, about how he took LSD with a beautiful female companion. During the course of the time they had together, they started having sex. And he swears that he saw a rainbow shoot from his penis during this encounter. “I don’t even like rainbows,” he quips. (Needless to say, the re-enactment for this story is definitely in animation form.)

But for every entertaining story like that one, the documentary has a story that’s basic or boring. The Grateful Dead was considered the ultimate psychedelic rock band, so you’d think one of the Dead’s drummers would have some hilarious stories to tell. Wrong.

Kreutzmann’s anecdotes aren’t that interesting or revealing, unless you consider it’s fascinating that he tells a story of coming home to his parents’ house after staying out all night while he was on LSD, and hallucinating that his breakfast meal of eggs were moving on the plate. He also mentions that he once couldn’t finish performing at a Grateful Dead concert because he was hallucinating that his drums were melting. Yawn.

Being stoned on psychedelics at a Grateful Dead show is also predictably mentioned by some of the interviewees, such as Corddry and Maron. (The late Fred Willard has a cameo as a Deadhead hippie in the re-enactment of Maron’s psychedelic story.) Garant comedically describes how you can tell the difference between someone having a “good trip” and a “bad trip” at a Dead concert, because someone having a “good trip” will lean forward while walking, while someone having a “bad trip” will lean backward while walking, as if they’re afraid of where their head will go.

Sting, who says he’s had good and bad psychedelic trips, mentions that facing his own mortality was one of the most frightening things he ever experienced while under the influence of psychedelics. He also describes the first time he took peyote. It was at a farm in England, where he was unexpectedly asked to help a cow give birth while he was tripping out on the drug. He was told that the cow would die if he didn’t help, and when the calf was born, Sting says he finally understood the miracle of life.

“I think it’s a valuable experience,” says Sting of taking psychedelic drugs. “Whenever I’ve had a bad trip—and I’ve had many—I’ve realized it was what I needed. Sometimes, you need to have your ego taken down a notch or two. On the other hand, you can have immensely rewarding experiences. My feeling is that it balances out.”

Stiller is one of the few celebrities in the documentary who talks about disliking what he says was his one and only experience with LSD (when he was a young man in the ’80s), because it was a bad trip. He says that he was hoping that it would be an enlightening experience, but instead he spent the approximately six-hour acid trip feeling “fear and anxiety.”

“Immediately, I started to freak out and get really scared,” Stiller remembers. “I started staring at my hand, doing the cliché thing of of pondering what my hand was.” His paranoia during the acid trip was made worse, he says, when he and the friend he was with at the time began walking around New York City and saw the parade floats that were going to be in the upcoming Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Stiller says that he hallucinated that the floats were chasing him, like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in the “Ghostbusters” movie.

Perez and Silverman each say that the first time they took LSD, it was by accident. Silverman said that it happened when she and some comedian friends were hanging out at a diner in New York City, when a hippie stranger walked in and handed her a tab of LSD that she took without even asking what it was. Her story isn’t as coherent as some of the others, since she recalls laughing and crying with a group of people in public and then ending up in someone’s car with the driver (who was also on LSD) forgetting how to drive.

Perez said she got “dosed” when she was out with her sister on New Year’s Eve in their hometown of New York City, sometime in the late ’80s. They went to a nightclub, where she was offered some fruit punch as a drink. Little did she know that the punch was spiked with LSD. Perez says that she  hallucinated that the dance floor had turned into waves, and she ended up rolling around with her breasts exposed.

Her trip intensified when she got home and imagined that her body had merged into her bed. Perez says she didn’t do drugs or drink alcohol at this time in her life, so when she was told that she was having an acid trip, her first thought was that she was going to hell. She says that the experience led her to seek therapy, which helped her get over her “Catholic guilt,” so she thinks getting rid of her religious hang-ups was one good thing that came out of the experience.

Speaking of guilt trips, the movie pokes fun at the ridiculous, over-the-top and usually badly acted public-service announcements (PSAs) aimed at preventing people, especially young people, from taking psychedelics. Offerman pops up occasionally throughout the film in a parody of a science professor who talks about the effects of psychedelics. NBCUniversal’s “The More You Know” PSA campaign is mocked with “The More You Trip,” whenever one of the interviewees gives advice on what to do or what not to do when taking psychedelics. (For example: “Don’t drive while on acid.”)

The “ABC Afterschool Special” is given the satire treatment with the documentary’s “LSD Afterschool Special,” a multi-part segment that has actor/comedian Adam Scott as the host of a 1980s-styled PSA film with a plot of nerdy high schoolers (played by Haley Joel Osment and Maya Erskine) going to a house party and being tempted into the “evils” of taking LSD. It’s a funny idea but it’s executed poorly.

On a more serious note, “Have a Good Trip” also attempts to promote the theory that using psychedelics is the best way to treat depression and other mental-health issues. Dr. Charles Grob, a psychiatry professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, is interviewed about his research in this area. Not surprisingly, he’s a proponent of using psychedelics to treat these issues (how else would he be able to continue to get research money), but the documentary fails to present other scientific points of view.

The only other non-entertainer interviewed in the film is Zach Leary, son of famed LSD guru Timothy Leary. And what he has to say is very predictable and reveals nothing new at all: “DMT is like the express ticket to primordial ooze. If you want to see what it is to be an organic being and absolutely watch your ego dissipate into nothingness, smoke some DMT, and you’ll get there right away.”

Although some people in the documentary, including Dr. Grob, caution that taking psychedelics isn’t for everyone and can have damaging effects for some people, any of those “bad effects” stories are shut out of the film. It’s like doing a documentary about bungee jumping and refusing to talk about the people who got seriously injured or killed from this risky stunt.

Celebrity spiritual guru Chopra, who says he experimented with psychedelics in the past, is one of the few people in the film who admits “you run the risk of psychosis” from doing psychedelics. Of course, the film only presents stories from people who say that they have “happy endings” from taking psychedelics. And two of those people are now dead because of self-destructive reasons, so viewers can judge for themselves how “beneficial” psychedelics really are in helping people with serious health issues such as depression and addiction.

One of the more irresponsible things about the documentary is that it leaves out any talk of acid flashbacks. Naïve people who see this film as a guide to taking psychedelic drugs might think that once an acid trip is “over,” the drug has left the body, the way that alcohol can leave the human body through urine after a 24-to-48-hour period if no more alcohol is consumed. But the scientific reality is that, depending on the dosage, psychedelic drugs can stay in the body for a variable period of time, and that can lead to unpredictable and random “flashback” trips.

How people feel about “Have a Good Trip” will depend largely on how much they worship celebrities and take their words as gospel. The psychedelic anecdotes in the film should be taken for what they are—stories from people who are in the business of creating fake personas and making things look more glamorous than they really are.

The people who were chosen to be interviewed for this documentary also have the privilege of being less likely to be arrested for illegal drugs. (With few exceptions, most of the people in this film have a certain level of fame.) And they are less likely to have their careers ruined by a lot of psychedelic drug use, compared to people who don’t live in such a privileged bubble. It’s something to think about whenever you hear a celebrity in a certain income bracket openly brag about using illegal drugs.

Netflix premiered “Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics” on May 11, 2020.

2019 Tribeca Film Festival: Tribeca X: A Day of Conversations debuts to celebrate intersection of entertainment and advertising

April 3, 2019

Tribeca Film Festival - white logo

 

Natasha Lyonne (Photo by Marion Curtis / StarPix for Netflix)

The following is a press release from the Tribeca Film Festival:

The Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, announced today that it will debut Tribeca X: A Day of Conversations, a look at storytelling at the intersection of advertising and entertainment, during the 2019 Festival on Friday, April 26. The event will bring together industry leaders and creators from brands, agencies, and filmmaking to examine the achievements that are adventurous and distinctive in their work. Participants include keynote speaker P&G Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard; AT&T Communications Chief Brand Officer, Fiona Carter; Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard; TBWA Worldwide Chief Diversity Officer Doug Melville; President & CEO of The Ad Council Lisa Sherman; actress/creator Natasha Lyonne, and more. Tribeca X, sponsored by PwC, takes place during the 18th Tribeca Film Festival, which runs April 24-May 5.

The Tribeca X: A Day of Conversations program is an extension of the 4th annual Tribeca X Awards which celebrates the best artist and brand collaborations of the past year. For the first time this year, Tribeca X expands from one award to four: best feature film, short film, episodic, and VR. Also announced today are the finalists for the 2019 Tribeca X Awards representing brands such as The Carlsberg Foundation, Patagonia, PepsiCo Content Studio, AT&T, YETI, Girls Who Code, HP, The North Face, Impossible Foods/White Castle, Stand Up To Cancer/HP, and Diageo. This year, the selected finalists’ work will be screened during the Festival, with VR available to experience during the Tribeca X day event at The Tribeca Festival Hub at Spring Studios.

The winning projects will be chosen by a jury that includes Kinjil Mathur, Chief Marketing Officer of Squarespace; John Osborn, Chief Executive Officer of OMD USA; Nabil Elderkin, Film Director; Patrick Milling-Smith, Co-Founder/CEO of SMUGGLER; Kim Gehrig, Director; Jason Kreher, Creative Director, Entertainment and Editorial at Wieden+Kennedy.

“As brands continue to push the boundaries of creativity and tell deeper stories, we are excited to debut this event and bring leaders in entertainment and advertising together at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival,” said Paula Weinstein, EVP of Tribeca Enterprises.

“As festival programmers, we are keenly aware of the potential for an incredible film to move an audience, inspire action, and effect change,” said Festival Director Cara Cusumano. “It has been rewarding to see brands embracing this transformative power of cinematic storytelling in how they communicate with consumers, empowering innovative filmmakers along the way.”

TRIBECA X: A DAY OF CONVERSATIONS:
New this year, Tribeca will host a half-day conference with speakers and conversations about the state of branded entertainment and cinematic collaborations between filmmakers and brands.
Event Time:
Friday 4/26, from 9AM-2:30PM, Tribeca X: A Day of Conversations, at the Festival Hub at Spring Studios

Keynote Speaker: Marc Pritchard, Chief Brand Officer, P&G
Marc Pritchard is responsible for P&G’s brand building worldwide. He sets the Company’s multi-billion-dollar media advertising strategies, and leads marketing innovations that guide brand building for P&G’s portfolio of 65 trusted, quality brands. As top brand builder and P&G veteran for more than three decades, Marc believes in the power of brands to serve people with the best-performing products, while also being a force for good through ethics and responsibility, community impact, diversity and inclusion, gender equality and environmental sustainability. He continually leads P&G’s brand building reinvention and is a leading voice in the media, marketing and creative industry.

Founder Spotlight: Yvon Chouinard, Founder, Patagonia
Patagonia is recognized as one of the most mission-driven brands in the country. What most people don’t know is that the reach of this California-based retailer extends far beyond brick and mortar stores, blurring the lines between commerce and activism. Patagonia is an award-winning film company, an emerging leader in the organic food industry, and a fearless supporter of environmentalist causes, currently suing the Trump administration in an effort to protect Bears Ears National Monument. Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard will share the story behind the brands most recent feature-length film Artifishal: The Road to Extinction is Paved with Good Intentions and the company’s mission to save our home planet.

Creator Spotlight: Natasha Lyonne
Celebrated Emmy-nominated actress Natasha Lyonne stepped behind the camera in 2019 for her critically-acclaimed Netflix show Russian Doll. Her directorial debut, in fact, came in 2017 with the short film Cabiria, Charity, Chastity for fashion brand KENZO’s 2017 campaign. In this one-on-one conversation, Lyonne will share the story behind her stunning KENZO collaboration and her point of view on the trends of brand supported filmmaking. She’ll discuss how her creative approach to a brand partnership differs from her traditional film and TV work, as well as the unique opportunities that can be created when artists, independent filmmakers and influential brands join forces.
Moderator: Brian Braiker, Editor, Ad Age

What’s Next for Women in Branded Entertainment?
Movements like Time’s Up and 50/50 by 2020 are sweeping across the film industry, demanding change and parity for women storytellers. How have these ripples been felt in the world of branded filmmaking? How do brand collaborations offer unique opportunities for women’s stories and voices, and how do those stories elevate a brand and resonate with consumers and audiences? How does the incredible work being done by female creatives and brand leaders make both the content and the brand better? And now that change has come, what happens next?
Moderator: Emma Reeves, Executive Director, Free The Bid
Panelists:

  • Fiona Carter, Chief Brand Officer, AT&T Communications
  • Justine Armour, Executive Creative Director, 72andSunny
  • Shruti Ganguly, Filmmaker & Founder, honto88
  • Samantha Woolf, Head of Marketing, NY, United Talent Agency

Activism and Impact
Films have a long history of effecting change. In advertising, having a purpose is more important than ever. How can activism-oriented brands and organizations achieve their impact-oriented goals by working with real filmmakers and creators to tell stories that support their mission? How can companies support the socially impactful work already being created in this space? What types of content can be created to help further the message and raise awareness for important causes?
Moderator: Lesley Chilcott, Producer & Director, Invented by Girls (An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman)
Panelists:

  • Lisa Sherman, President & CEO, The Ad Council
  • Greg Hahn, Chief Creative Officer, BBDO New York
  • Folayo Lasaki, Head of Marketing, SoulPancake, a division of Participant Media
  • Peter Van Overstraeten, VP, Premium & Super Premium Brands, Anheuser-Busch

The Immersive Method
Immersive technology has changed the way we create and consume content. Whether you’re a creator or a brand, there has never been a better opportunity to engage audiences with experiences that tell a story. VR and AR driven concepts allow artists to take their creative visions to new and exciting heights. Brands are using experiential marketing to create interactive, story-driven experiences that resonate with consumers. How will immersive storytelling continue to evolve and influence the trends of branded content and the landscape of advertising?
Moderator: Gregory Boyer, Partner, Entertainment & Media Sector Advisory Leader, PwC
Panelists:

  • Tom Vance, Independent Producer, Immersive Content
  • Stephanie Riggs, Creative Director, Experiential, Refinery29
  • Brandon Zamel, CEO, Springbok Entertainment
  • Mia Tramz, Editorial Director, Enterprise & Immersive Experiences, TIME Magazine

Case Study: Uncle Drew
A process-oriented conversation that brings together the key collaborators behind the Pepsi franchise Uncle Drew, one of the most successful examples of branded entertainment crossing over into mainstream culture. They’ll discuss how it broke the mold of conventional marketing, the impact it has achieved and how it evolved creatively – from a short-form advertising campaign to a successful theatrically released feature film.
Moderator: Doug Melville, Chief Diversity Officer, TBWA Worldwide
Panelists:

  • Lou Arbetter, GM, PepsiCo Content Studio, PepsiCo
  • Paula Kupfer, SVP, Global Partnerships, Consumer Products, and Product Placement
  • Colin Smeeton, President, PRP
  • Jay Longino, Writer, Producer

This year’s Tribeca X finalists and jury include:
FEATURE FINALISTS:

Almost Human
Notes on the human condition by 10 scientist and a robot. Stephen Fry narrates Jeppe Rønde’s visionary science essay, where the artistic ambitions have intergalactic dimensions.
Director: Jeppe Rønde
Brand: The Carlsberg Foundation
Event Time: Thursday, April 25 at 7:00PM at Regal Cinemas Battery Park

Artifishal: The Road to Extinction is Paved with Good Intentions
A film about the fight for wild fish and rivers. It explores wild salmon’s slide towards extinction and the financial, social and ecological costs of human arrogance.
Director: Josh “Bones” Murphy
Brand: Patagonia
Event Time: Thursday, April 25 at 6:15PM at Regal Cinemas Battery Park

Uncle Drew
After draining his life savings to enter a team in the Rucker Classic streetball tournament in Harlem, Dax is dealt a series of unfortunate setbacks. Desperate to win the tournament and the cash prize, Dax stumbles upon the man, the myth, the legend Uncle Drew, and convinces him to return to the court one more time.
Director: Charles Stone III
Brand: Pepsi
Agency: The PepsiCo Content Studio
Event Time: Thursday, April 25 at 8:45PM at Regal Cinemas Battery Park

SHORT FINALISTS:
Event Time: Thursday, April 25 at 5:45PM at Regal Cinemas Battery Park

The Face of Distracted Driving – Forrest
Tells the story of Forrest Cepeda, a 16-year-old boy who was killed in a distracted driving accident.
Director: Errol Morris
Brand: AT&T
Agency: BBDO New York

Hometown
Billy Durney’s hard work towards his dream restaurant came to an unexpected halt when Sandy hit. But that didn’t stop him from helping his Brooklyn community. He lifted spirits with damn good barbecue.
Director: Greg Kohs
Brand: YETI

SISTERHOOD: “Action”
On the eve of their 16th birthday, a group of friends get stuck on a boat. As they wait for dawn, they project their hopes for the world over the next sixteen years.
Director: Amirah Tajdin
Brand: Girls Who Code
Agency: Yours Truly Creative

Universal Machine
A meditation on the ultimate fate of humanity’s relationship with technology. The film follows a gifted young woman who awakens into a post-apocalyptic world and must transcend a violent confrontation with a lifelike Artificial Intelligence.
Director: Daniel Askill
Brand: Calvin Klein
Agency: Visionaire

EPISODIC FINALISTS:
Event Time: Thursday, April 25 at 5:45PM at Regal Cinemas Battery Park

History of Memory
From Florida to India, Beijing to New Orleans, History of Memory is a documentary series about people whose lives were forever altered by the discovery, creation, or preservation of one photograph.
Director: Sarah Klein, Tom Mason
Brand: HP
Agency: Redglass Pictures, the Garage by HP

Walls Are Meant For Climbing
Since 1966, we’ve seen walls not as obstacles but as opportunities. They are a chance to explore what we believe to be possible. They are a vertical proving ground for grit, perseverance, and determination. This series celebrates the walls that unite us not divide us.
Director: Landon Bassett
Brand: The North Face

Wu-Tang In Space Eating Impossible Sliders
The online mini-series features Wu-Tang artists eating White Castle’s Impossible Sliders while orbiting Earth answering questions from fans. The setting represents Impossible Foods’ vision for having such an impact on the planet you can see it from outer space.
Director: Sam Spiegel
Brand: Impossible Foods, White Castle
Agency: Impossible Foods In-House, Merkley + Partners

VR FINALISTS:
Event Times:
Thursday, April 22 – Wednesday, April 24, from 10AM-6PM, registration at the Festival Hub at Spring Studios
Friday, April 26, from 9AM-2:30PM, Tribeca X: A Day of Conversation at the Festival Hub at Spring Studios

The 100%
An immersive experience following the harrowing and inspirational journey of Maggie Kurdirka, a ballet dancer and rising star at the Joffrey Concert Group, who at 23 years old was diagnosed with incurable stage four metastatic breast cancer.
Director: Hernan Barangan
Brand: Stand Up To Cancer, HP
Agency: Springbok Entertainment

Decisions: Party’s Over
Diageo’s “Decisions: Party’s Over” demonstrates the company’s commitment to social responsibility through innovative VR technology that engages consumers in a first-person, 360° immersive story about the dangers of binge drinking.
Director: Patrick Meegan
Brand: Diageo
Agency: Jaunt, Taylo

2019 TRIBECA X JURY:

Nabil Elderkin, Film Director
Kim Gehrig, Director
Jason Kreher, Creative Director, Entertainment and Editorial, Wieden+Kennedy
Kinjil Mathur, Chief Marketing Officer, Squarespace
Patrick Milling-Smith, Co-Founder/CEO, SMUGGLER
John Osborn, Chief Executive Officer, OMD USA

Passes and Tickets for the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival
Tickets for events at The Beacon Theatre and single tickets are now on sale at tribecafilm.com/festival/tickets, or by telephone at (646) 502-5296 or toll-free at (866) 941-FEST (3378).

Also available for purchase now is The Hudson Pass, an all-access pass to screenings and talks taking place at BMCC, Regal Battery Park Stadium, Village East Cinema, and SVA theaters as well as full access to all events at the Festival Hub at Spring Studios, which includes VR and Immersive projects, Movies Plus screenings and access to Festival lounges.

Single tickets cost $24.00 for evening and weekend screenings, $12.00 for weekday matinee screenings, $30.00 for Tribeca TV and Movies Plus $40.00 for Tribeca Talks events and $40.00 for Tribeca Immersive.

● iTunes:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tribeca-festival/id1208189515?mt=8
● Google Play:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tff2017.android

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About the Tribeca Film Festival:
The Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, brings visionaries and diverse audiences together to celebrate storytelling in all its forms, including film, TV, VR, gaming, music, and online work. With strong roots in independent film, Tribeca is a platform for creative expression and immersive entertainment. The Festival champions emerging and established voices; discovers award-winning filmmakers and creators; curates innovative experiences; and introduces new technology and ideas through premieres, exhibitions, talks, and live performances.

The Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2001 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan following the attacks on the World Trade Center. Now in its 18th year, the Festival has evolved into a destination for creativity that reimagines the cinematic experience and explores how art can unite communities. The 18th annual edition will take place April 24 – May 5, 2019.www.tribecafilm.com/festival

Hashtag: #Tribeca2019
Twitter: @Tribeca
Instagram: @tribeca
Facebook: facebook.com/Tribeca

About 2019 Tribeca Film Festival Partners:
As Presenting Sponsor of the Tribeca Film Festival, AT&T is committed to supporting the Festival and the art of filmmaking through access and innovation, while expanding opportunities to diverse creators around the globe. AT&T helps millions connect to their passions – no matter where they are. This year, AT&T and Tribeca will once again collaborate to give the world access to stories from underrepresented filmmakers that deserve to be seen. “AT&T Presents Untold Stories” is an inclusive film program in collaboration with Tribeca – a multi-year, multi-tier alliance between AT&T and Tribeca along with the year-round nonprofit Tribeca Film Institute.

The Tribeca Film Festival is pleased to announce its 2019 Partners: 23andMe, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Bai Beverages, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), BVLGARI, CHANEL, Diageo, ESPN, HBO, IMDb, Kia, Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card from Chase, Merck, Montefiore, National CineMedia (NCM), Nespresso, New York Magazine, NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, Prime Video Direct, P&G, PwC, Salesforce, Spring Studios New York, Squarespace, Status Sparkling Wine, and Stella Artois.

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