Tonight on “American Idol,” host Ryan Seacrest announces the Top 20, who will each perform a song of their choice to capture America’s vote once more. Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie give feedback from the judges’ table and guest performers Teddy Swims, Lauren Spencer-Smith and Paul Russell take the stage.
Below, follow with our live blog for “American Idol 22” Episode 10 airing Sunday, April 14 (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. Et/Pt). The Top 14 will be revealed on Monday, April 15.
See ‘American Idol 22’ predictions: Now You can predict who will win and who’ll be voted out next
8:03 p.m. — Ryan reveals nearly 30 million votes were cast to decide tonight’s Top 20. Tonight, viewers at home are in charge again. Over the next three hours the Top 20 will be revealed and they will instantly sing for a spot in the Top 14. Keep in mind, the results of tonight...
Below, follow with our live blog for “American Idol 22” Episode 10 airing Sunday, April 14 (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. Et/Pt). The Top 14 will be revealed on Monday, April 15.
See ‘American Idol 22’ predictions: Now You can predict who will win and who’ll be voted out next
8:03 p.m. — Ryan reveals nearly 30 million votes were cast to decide tonight’s Top 20. Tonight, viewers at home are in charge again. Over the next three hours the Top 20 will be revealed and they will instantly sing for a spot in the Top 14. Keep in mind, the results of tonight...
- 4/15/2024
- by Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
This article contains spoilers for "Drive-Away Dolls."
When the trailer for Tricia Cooke and Ethan Coen's "Drive-Away Dolls" (read our review here) was first released, folks quickly caught a blink-and-you'll-miss-her appearance of a young hippie woman covered in psychedelic filters played by actress and Grammy award-winning musician, Miley Cyrus. "Drive-Away Dolls" takes place in 1999, so what the hell is up with this lava lamp in the summer of love-looking character? Cyrus' character pops up a few times throughout the film, leading up to the reveal that republican senator Gary Channell (Matt Damon) knew this mysterious acid-tripper in his younger years, and if the public ever learned of their encounter, it would destroy his conservative political career — alluding to a possible presidential candidacy in the near future. What could Gary Channell have done that's so shocking? The answer is not only the key to Cyrus' character but also solves the...
When the trailer for Tricia Cooke and Ethan Coen's "Drive-Away Dolls" (read our review here) was first released, folks quickly caught a blink-and-you'll-miss-her appearance of a young hippie woman covered in psychedelic filters played by actress and Grammy award-winning musician, Miley Cyrus. "Drive-Away Dolls" takes place in 1999, so what the hell is up with this lava lamp in the summer of love-looking character? Cyrus' character pops up a few times throughout the film, leading up to the reveal that republican senator Gary Channell (Matt Damon) knew this mysterious acid-tripper in his younger years, and if the public ever learned of their encounter, it would destroy his conservative political career — alluding to a possible presidential candidacy in the near future. What could Gary Channell have done that's so shocking? The answer is not only the key to Cyrus' character but also solves the...
- 2/23/2024
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
Melanie, the witty, gentle-voiced singer-songwriter who rose to fame with her crowd-pleasing performance at Woodstock in 1969 and had two major hit singles – “Brand New Key” and “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” – in its aftermath, died January 23. She was 76.
Her death was announced by her children Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred. A cause of death was not disclosed.
“Dear Ones,” they wrote on Facebook, using the greeting favored by their mother, “This is the hardest post for us to write, and there are so many things we want to say, first, and there’s no easy way except to say it… Mom passed, peacefully, out of this world and into the next on January 23rd, 2024.”
Born Melanie Safka on Feb. 3, 1947, in Queens, New York, Melanie began performing in Greenwich Village folks clubs such as the Bitter End during the mid-1960s, winning over audiences with a clear, if sometimes tremulous,...
Her death was announced by her children Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred. A cause of death was not disclosed.
“Dear Ones,” they wrote on Facebook, using the greeting favored by their mother, “This is the hardest post for us to write, and there are so many things we want to say, first, and there’s no easy way except to say it… Mom passed, peacefully, out of this world and into the next on January 23rd, 2024.”
Born Melanie Safka on Feb. 3, 1947, in Queens, New York, Melanie began performing in Greenwich Village folks clubs such as the Bitter End during the mid-1960s, winning over audiences with a clear, if sometimes tremulous,...
- 1/24/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Last May, Butch Walker, Elizabeth Cook, and Katie Pruitt — all of them with Georgia roots — performed Jim Croce’s “Walkin’ Back to Georgia” at a Nashville benefit concert for the Georgia Music Foundation. The one-time-only collab went over so well that later this summer, the trio rendezvoused at Walker’s Tennessee studio to record. “Walkin’ Back to Georgia” arrives today on New West Records.
“My parents used to listen to Jim Croce all the time in the house and I realized how they would always play ‘Walkin Back to Georgia...
“My parents used to listen to Jim Croce all the time in the house and I realized how they would always play ‘Walkin Back to Georgia...
- 12/14/2022
- by Joseph Hudak
- Rollingstone.com
“Firefly Lane” Season 2 has arrived, and with it comes another loaded lineup of signature songs for the seventies, eighties, nineties and early 2000s. Throughout the shifts between three separate timelines in Tully and Kate’s friendship, needle drops help distinguish which part of their lives we’re watching, especially when it gets confusing between the older versions of Kate Mularkey Ryan (Sarah Chalke) and Tully Hart (Katherine Heigl). Kristin Hannah’s 400+ page novel off of which the television show is based uses certain songs and lyrics to introduce the new decades, or parts of the book, like Abba’s “Dancing Queen,” Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” and more.
Season 2 boasts two Whitney Houston songs — “I’m Every Woman” and “How Will I Know” — Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors,” The Knack’s “My Sharona,” Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody” and “Closer to Fine” by The Indigo Girls.
More...
Season 2 boasts two Whitney Houston songs — “I’m Every Woman” and “How Will I Know” — Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors,” The Knack’s “My Sharona,” Chaka Khan’s “Ain’t Nobody” and “Closer to Fine” by The Indigo Girls.
More...
- 12/2/2022
- by Dessi Gomez
- The Wrap
Ever since he scored the severing of a cop's ear to Stealers Wheel's kitsch-folk classic "Stuck in the Middle with You," Quentin Tarantino has been rightly considered a master of the needle-drop cue. He's bolstered this reputation over the last 30 years with his brilliant, often counterintuitive selections for everything from "Pulp Fiction" to "Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood." He's introduced viewers to obscure tracks like Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich's "Hold Tight!" in "Death Proof," and imbued stirring new life into radio mainstays like Jim Croce's "I Got a Name."
We all have our favorite Tarantino needle...
The post It's Hard To Argue With Quentin Tarantino's Pick For His Favorite Needle Drop appeared first on /Film.
We all have our favorite Tarantino needle...
The post It's Hard To Argue With Quentin Tarantino's Pick For His Favorite Needle Drop appeared first on /Film.
- 6/29/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Elvis Presley had been dead for six months when the plastic-surgeon’s knife plunged into Dennis Wise. There Wise lay, on a table in an Orlando hospital, surrounded by photos of the King. He knew what was coming, but the reality of it didn’t really hit him until the doctor, who seemed like a nice enough guy, started carving into his face. “All of a sudden, it started hurting real bad,” Wise recalls. “He said, ‘Give me something!’ and a nurse came over and plunged this needle into me.
- 1/2/2022
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Paul Thomas Anderson grew up in the San Fernando Valley, which played an important role in his 1997 breakthrough film “Boogie Nights,” which looked at Valley’s porn industry during the ‘70s and 80s. In his new United Artists release “Licorice Pizza,” Anderson returns to the Sfv for a nostalgia-tinged comedy-of-age story set in 1973 starring Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim. Both young performers received strong notices with the L.A. Times’ Justin Chang declaring Haim as the true star of “this boisterous, bighearted movie and its raison d’être.” And Bradley Cooper has earned positive notices for his funny turn as hairdresser turned film producer Jon Peters, who ironically was a producer on Cooper’s 2018 “A Star is Born.”
So, what was the world like in 1973? It was the year of Watergate, Roe Vs. Wade and “The Exorcist” hitting the big screen. Let’s travel back almost half a century to look at the top films,...
So, what was the world like in 1973? It was the year of Watergate, Roe Vs. Wade and “The Exorcist” hitting the big screen. Let’s travel back almost half a century to look at the top films,...
- 12/2/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
This review of “Prisoners of the Ghostland” was first published after the film’s January 2021 premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
Prolific and wildly eccentric Japanese auteur Sion Sono has spent most of his career at the dizzying point at which arthouse bravado meets grindhouse gonzo, and his best films stretch the limits of narrative so far as to leave viewers simultaneously gobsmacked and exhilarated. It’s perhaps inevitable that he would cross paths with Nicolas Cage, an actor whose post-Oscar film choices have tended to veer into the grimiest edges of genre, resulting in a very mixed bag of delights and duds.
One might have hoped that “Prisoners of the Ghostland” — Sono’s English-language debut, starring Cage, and making its world premiere at Sundance — would have elevated Cage to Sono’s level, but unfortunately, it’s done the opposite. While the film far outshines most of Cage’s recent...
Prolific and wildly eccentric Japanese auteur Sion Sono has spent most of his career at the dizzying point at which arthouse bravado meets grindhouse gonzo, and his best films stretch the limits of narrative so far as to leave viewers simultaneously gobsmacked and exhilarated. It’s perhaps inevitable that he would cross paths with Nicolas Cage, an actor whose post-Oscar film choices have tended to veer into the grimiest edges of genre, resulting in a very mixed bag of delights and duds.
One might have hoped that “Prisoners of the Ghostland” — Sono’s English-language debut, starring Cage, and making its world premiere at Sundance — would have elevated Cage to Sono’s level, but unfortunately, it’s done the opposite. While the film far outshines most of Cage’s recent...
- 9/16/2021
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Getting the chance to audition for The Voice is an accomplishment in itself, but getting a judge to turn around during your performance is an even bigger one. During his blind audition for season 19, John Sullivan got to experience both. While singing a cover of “Operator (That’s Not The Way It Feels)” by Jim Croce, Sullivan was greeted by Blake Shelton and John Legend who couldn’t resist spinning around. While they both made compelling pitches as to why John should join their team, he ultimately decided to go with Team Blake and he’s excited to see where this journey
10 Things You Didn’t Know about John Sullivan...
10 Things You Didn’t Know about John Sullivan...
- 11/6/2020
- by Camille Moore
- TVovermind.com
That, folks, is that. Monday’s episode of The Voice brought to a close Season 19’s Blind Auditions, adding to the coaches’ rosters the worst nightmare of Team Blake’s Sam Stacy, a coupla middling country singers and the only act in the competition that can do its own harmonies (as the photo above suggests). It also introduced to the contest a Johnny-come-lately who was so good, I thought cowabunga, he could actually win. Ok, now I sound like the coaches, who seem to say that to every third contestant. Let’s recap, shall we?
Julia Cooper (Team Legend), “Alaska...
Julia Cooper (Team Legend), “Alaska...
- 11/3/2020
- by Charlie Mason
- TVLine.com
Monday’s blind auditions episode of “The Voice” Season 19 began with a whopping 31 of the Top 40 artists having already found homes on one of the four teams. Three of the coaches had acquired eight contestants apiece, while the fourth (John Legend) was right behind with seven members. Only a trio of artists had wowed the panel enough to become four-chair turns, with Tamara Jade and Cami Clune joining Team Legend and Desz picking Team Kelly. With the blind auditions now complete, did tonight’s two-hour episode feature anymore four-chair moments?
SEEEverything to know about ‘The Voice’ Season 19
Below, read our minute-by-minute “The Voice” recap of Season 19, Episode 5 to find out what happened Monday, November 2 at 8:00 p.m. Et/Pt. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite artists on NBC’s long-running reality TV show, which coach you’re rooting for this season and...
SEEEverything to know about ‘The Voice’ Season 19
Below, read our minute-by-minute “The Voice” recap of Season 19, Episode 5 to find out what happened Monday, November 2 at 8:00 p.m. Et/Pt. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite artists on NBC’s long-running reality TV show, which coach you’re rooting for this season and...
- 11/3/2020
- by John Benutty and Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
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(Above: Raphael Peter Engel (aka Zandor Vorkov) today.
By Mark Cerulli
When you think of Dracula, some iconic names immediately come to mind – Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman, Jack Palance… and Raphael Engel.
Wait.
Who?
Raphael Peter Engel, aka “Zandor Vorkov” played the thirsty count in one of the most unique films to feature the immortal character – 1971’s Dracula vs Frankenstein, made by the prolific B-movie team of director Al Adamson and co-writer/producer Sam Sherman.
Both the actor and the film itself took a very circuitous route to come into being. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Raphael (then known as Roger) grew up with a younger brother in Miami, Florida. “We did Saturday matinees – two films, cartoons, a short, popcorn and I’d walk down many blocks to the theater…”, Raphael recalls in an exclusive Cinema Retro interview. “That influenced me. We...
(Above: Raphael Peter Engel (aka Zandor Vorkov) today.
By Mark Cerulli
When you think of Dracula, some iconic names immediately come to mind – Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman, Jack Palance… and Raphael Engel.
Wait.
Who?
Raphael Peter Engel, aka “Zandor Vorkov” played the thirsty count in one of the most unique films to feature the immortal character – 1971’s Dracula vs Frankenstein, made by the prolific B-movie team of director Al Adamson and co-writer/producer Sam Sherman.
Both the actor and the film itself took a very circuitous route to come into being. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Raphael (then known as Roger) grew up with a younger brother in Miami, Florida. “We did Saturday matinees – two films, cartoons, a short, popcorn and I’d walk down many blocks to the theater…”, Raphael recalls in an exclusive Cinema Retro interview. “That influenced me. We...
- 5/23/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
In March, as the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the music industry was just coming into focus, the online music platform Bandcamp came up with an innovative way to help artists in need: For one day, the site waived its revenue share on all sales, giving musicians more of the money made off of each record, tape, or T-shirt. Fans responded in huge numbers, spending more than $4 million that Friday. Those results were so encouraging that Bandcamp is now extending this sales holiday to the first Friday of the next three months,...
- 4/30/2020
- by Jonathan Bernstein, Brenna Ehrlich, Claire Shaffer, Rob Sheffield, Hank Shteamer and Simon Vozick-Levinson
- Rollingstone.com
Ashley McBryde is one of those artists in the odd predicament of having a new album arrive in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. Never Will, the Arkansas native’s second release for Warner Bros. Nashville, came out March 27th, and she’s been busily promoting it with interviews and an ongoing series of streaming performances from her couch. Her next livestream is in partnership with the boot brand Ariat and takes place Wednesday, April 8th, at 2:30 p.m. Ct.
“I have a record coming out and it helps,...
“I have a record coming out and it helps,...
- 4/7/2020
- by Jon Freeman
- Rollingstone.com
Eric Weissberg, who arranged, played banjo on and won a Grammy for “Dueling Banjos,” from the 1972 movie Deliverance, died Sunday of Alzheimer’s disease complications. He was 80.
His son, Will Weissberg, confirmed the news to our sister publication Rolling Stone.
More from DeadlineNotable Hollywood & Entertainment Industry Deaths In 2020: Photo GalleryLifetime Casts Trio In Pilot 'The Lottery', Duo In 'Deliverance Creek'Pilots 'Eye Candy' & 'Deliverance Creek' Cast Regulars
Born on August 16, 1939, in New York City, Weissberg was a bluegrass musician from an early age, having seen Pete Seeger play at his school in Greenwich Village, and went on to attend the Juilliard School of Music in the 1950s. He also played guitar, mandolin, fiddle, pedal steel, and string bass.
He also became a frequent collaborator of Tom Paxton and Judy Collins and worked as a session man for such acts as Bob Dylan, Talking Heads,...
His son, Will Weissberg, confirmed the news to our sister publication Rolling Stone.
More from DeadlineNotable Hollywood & Entertainment Industry Deaths In 2020: Photo GalleryLifetime Casts Trio In Pilot 'The Lottery', Duo In 'Deliverance Creek'Pilots 'Eye Candy' & 'Deliverance Creek' Cast Regulars
Born on August 16, 1939, in New York City, Weissberg was a bluegrass musician from an early age, having seen Pete Seeger play at his school in Greenwich Village, and went on to attend the Juilliard School of Music in the 1950s. He also played guitar, mandolin, fiddle, pedal steel, and string bass.
He also became a frequent collaborator of Tom Paxton and Judy Collins and worked as a session man for such acts as Bob Dylan, Talking Heads,...
- 3/24/2020
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
Bluegrass musician Eric Weissberg, whose cover of the Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith instrumental “Dueling Banjos” became an unlikely pop hit when it appeared on the soundtrack to the 1972 film Deliverance, died Sunday at the age of 80 after a five-year struggle with dementia. His son, Will Weissberg, confirmed the musician’s death to Rolling Stone.
“Eric Weissberg was a consummate musician, a solid and seemingly effortless player of stringed instruments of all kinds — banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, pedal steel, and string bass,” his lifelong friend and frequent collaborator Happy Traum wrote on Facebook.
“Eric Weissberg was a consummate musician, a solid and seemingly effortless player of stringed instruments of all kinds — banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, pedal steel, and string bass,” his lifelong friend and frequent collaborator Happy Traum wrote on Facebook.
- 3/23/2020
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Welcome to this week’s Impact Wrestling review, right here on Nerdly. I’m Nathan Favel and we have a major, historically significant World Title match to get to, so shut up and talk a little louder…and make-up your damn mind. Also, Booker T will love this s—. I can see it now…Booker T: Two chicks…no dicks…that’s some bull-s—!
Match #1: Tjp & Fallah Bahh def. The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) The following is courtesy of impactwrestling.com:
Tjp and Fallah hit a backpack splash on Alexander. Page spins Tjp into a sitdown powerbomb from Alexander. Fallah goes on the attack with a Samoan Drop to Alexander. Page grabs Alexander, stopping the momentum of Fallah. The North hit Tjp with a double team crucifix slam for a near fall. Tjp heads to the top but Page takes him down with a superkick. Page connects with a cutter on Fallah.
Match #1: Tjp & Fallah Bahh def. The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) The following is courtesy of impactwrestling.com:
Tjp and Fallah hit a backpack splash on Alexander. Page spins Tjp into a sitdown powerbomb from Alexander. Fallah goes on the attack with a Samoan Drop to Alexander. Page grabs Alexander, stopping the momentum of Fallah. The North hit Tjp with a double team crucifix slam for a near fall. Tjp heads to the top but Page takes him down with a superkick. Page connects with a cutter on Fallah.
- 3/4/2020
- by Nathan Favel
- Nerdly
Looking to craft the perfect Valentine’s mix for your beloved? Be sure to steer of clear these romantic cheddar bombs, all of which give love a bad name.
Chris de Burgh, “Lady In Red”
It’s kind of fitting that this song was a hit in 1986, the height of the greed-is-good, conspicuous consumption Eighties; it’s the ultimate trophy-wife ballad (barely edging out Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”). The fake-glitz muzak sound is perfect for a cheaply sentimental song about a guy whose appreciation of the woman beside him...
Chris de Burgh, “Lady In Red”
It’s kind of fitting that this song was a hit in 1986, the height of the greed-is-good, conspicuous consumption Eighties; it’s the ultimate trophy-wife ballad (barely edging out Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight”). The fake-glitz muzak sound is perfect for a cheaply sentimental song about a guy whose appreciation of the woman beside him...
- 2/13/2020
- by Rolling Stone
- Rollingstone.com
That Dog were a beloved band in the Nineties whose legacy has only grown since they released their last LP, 1997’s near-perfect Retreat From the Sun. They just released a deluxe edition of their 1995 debut album, and they recently played their first show in 19 years. In an example of That Dog’s influence on today’s generation of indie rock, Allison Crutchfield of the great band Swearin’ was on hand to sing backing vocals. Now, they’ve announced a new album, Old LP, their first since Retreat From the Sun.
- 8/23/2019
- by Jon Dolan
- Rollingstone.com
All-American race car mania is alive and well in this excellent Jeff Bridges movie, a true biographical story researched by Tom Wolfe. Junior Johnson needs a future beyond running moonshine for his father, and finds it climbing the rungs of success in the stock car racing game. This may be the most satisfying saga of its kind, and it helped prove that Bridges was a star.
The Last American Hero
Region ? Blu-ray See Below
Explosive Media
1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date March 28, 2019 / Der letzte Held Amerikas / Available at Amazon.de
11.92 Euros Starring: Jeff Bridges, Valerie Perrine, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Gary Busey, Art Lund, Ed Lauter.
Cinematography: George Silano
Art Director: Lawrence G. Paull
Film Editors: Robbe Roberts, Tom Rolfe
Original Music: Charles Fox
Written by William Roberts from stories by Tom Wolfe
Produced by John Cutts, William Roberts
Directed by Lamont Johnson
Catching up with older Jeff Bridges movies is never a bad idea,...
The Last American Hero
Region ? Blu-ray See Below
Explosive Media
1973 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 95 min. / Street Date March 28, 2019 / Der letzte Held Amerikas / Available at Amazon.de
11.92 Euros Starring: Jeff Bridges, Valerie Perrine, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Gary Busey, Art Lund, Ed Lauter.
Cinematography: George Silano
Art Director: Lawrence G. Paull
Film Editors: Robbe Roberts, Tom Rolfe
Original Music: Charles Fox
Written by William Roberts from stories by Tom Wolfe
Produced by John Cutts, William Roberts
Directed by Lamont Johnson
Catching up with older Jeff Bridges movies is never a bad idea,...
- 8/10/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The very binge-worthy third season of Stranger Things is so good that fans are already clamoring for the next batch of episodes. Of course, the latest chapter in the supernatural saga was filled with plenty of shocking moments and nostalgic references, which were only heightened by the stellar soundtrack in the background.
Each track was specifically chosen to fit both the scene and keep with the time period of the show, and here’s a complete list (put together by the folks at Screen Rant) of every song featured this season, as well as the moments they coincided with:
“Chapter One: Suzie, Do You Copy?”
“Never Surrender” by Corey Hart: Eleven and Mike kiss in her bedroom. “Rock This Town” by Stray Cats: Townsfolk are having fun in the community pool. “Workin’ For A Livin'” by Huey Lewis and The News: Nancy hurries to work to deliver lunch. “She...
Each track was specifically chosen to fit both the scene and keep with the time period of the show, and here’s a complete list (put together by the folks at Screen Rant) of every song featured this season, as well as the moments they coincided with:
“Chapter One: Suzie, Do You Copy?”
“Never Surrender” by Corey Hart: Eleven and Mike kiss in her bedroom. “Rock This Town” by Stray Cats: Townsfolk are having fun in the community pool. “Workin’ For A Livin'” by Huey Lewis and The News: Nancy hurries to work to deliver lunch. “She...
- 7/5/2019
- by Evan Lewis
- We Got This Covered
Perhaps you’re aware that the television program “Stranger Things” is set in the decade of the 1980s.
If the copious cans of New Coke and neon clothing aren’t enough of a clue, the show has also stuffed its runtime with plenty of era-appropriate tunes. The opening episodes are drenched in ’80s standbys, with the first handful of chapters backed by familiar hits and less-obvious tracks from the time. Bonus points to the show for picking a Corey Hart song that isn’t “Sunglasses at Night,” even if the pull of the Stray Cats is pretty much inevitable.
Not all these tunes come from the decade in which the show’s set. For every Huey Lewis track, there’s one from Jim Croce. For every Wham! classic, there’s a chorus of bygone well-wishers singing a song that a Kubrick classic already nabbed for its own. (And it takes...
If the copious cans of New Coke and neon clothing aren’t enough of a clue, the show has also stuffed its runtime with plenty of era-appropriate tunes. The opening episodes are drenched in ’80s standbys, with the first handful of chapters backed by familiar hits and less-obvious tracks from the time. Bonus points to the show for picking a Corey Hart song that isn’t “Sunglasses at Night,” even if the pull of the Stray Cats is pretty much inevitable.
Not all these tunes come from the decade in which the show’s set. For every Huey Lewis track, there’s one from Jim Croce. For every Wham! classic, there’s a chorus of bygone well-wishers singing a song that a Kubrick classic already nabbed for its own. (And it takes...
- 7/5/2019
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
In 2012, the Avett Brothers joined Randy Travis for a taping of Cmt Crossroads, a musical union that deftly matched the rootsy folk of the North Carolina band with the traditional country of fellow North Carolinian Travis. Seven years on, it stands as one of the best, most seamless Crossroads, a testament to the musicianship of the Avetts and the singing prowess of Travis, who no longer performs after suffering a stroke in 2013.
During a concert last weekend in Mississippi, the Avetts nodded to that pairing and their continuing respect for...
During a concert last weekend in Mississippi, the Avetts nodded to that pairing and their continuing respect for...
- 4/23/2019
- by Joseph Hudak
- Rollingstone.com
Walking the Floor bobs and weaves this week, swapping its usual focus on Americana music for a special conversation with boxing’s only eight-division world champion.
“It’s not a music episode,” explains podcast host Chris Shiflett, an avid fan of the sweet science, during the episode’s first moments. “It’s a boxing episode, and the guest this week is none other than Manny freakin’ Pacquiao.”
Recorded days before Pacquiao’s January 19th fight with Adrien Broner, this unconventional installment of Walking the Floor finds Shiflett and Pacquiao talking about fingerstyle guitar,...
“It’s not a music episode,” explains podcast host Chris Shiflett, an avid fan of the sweet science, during the episode’s first moments. “It’s a boxing episode, and the guest this week is none other than Manny freakin’ Pacquiao.”
Recorded days before Pacquiao’s January 19th fight with Adrien Broner, this unconventional installment of Walking the Floor finds Shiflett and Pacquiao talking about fingerstyle guitar,...
- 1/14/2019
- by Robert Crawford
- Rollingstone.com
Songwriter Norman Gimbel, whose works won him an Oscar, Grammy and admission to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, has died. He passed on Dec. 19 at his home in Montecito, Calif. at age 91, according to a tribute posted by Bmi. Gimbel’s lyrics to Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly and Jim Croce’s I Got A Name were just some of the highlights of a catalog that reads like a compilation of 20th century hits. His lyrics graced the English language version of The Girl from Ipanema and the TV themes to Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley; he earned an Academy Award with David Shire for Jennifer Warnes’s It Goes Like It Goes; he was the Best Original Song winner for 1979’s Sally Field starrer Norma Rae; and shared the Grammy Song of the Year with longtime writing collaborator Charles Fox in 1973 for Killing Me Softly.Gimbel and...
- 12/28/2018
- by Bruce Haring
- Deadline Film + TV
Norman Gimbel, an Oscar and Grammy-winning composer whose lyrics graced hit songs such as Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly with His Song” and Jim Croce’s “I Got a Name,” died at the age of 91 on December 19 at his longtime home in Montecito, Calif.
His death was confirmed by Bmi, which paid tribute on its website, noting: “Bmi was greatly saddened to learn of the passing of renowned songwriter Norman Gimbel, a truly prolific and gifted writer who will be greatly missed by his many friends and fans here.”
The Brooklyn native wrote the words to both “The Girl from Ipanema” and the “Happy Days” theme, earning an Academy Award with David Shire for Jennifer Warnes’ “It Goes Like It Goes,” the Best Original Song winner for 1979’s “Norma Rae,” which also garnered Sally Field her first of two Best Actress Oscars.
With his longtime writing collaborator Charles Fox,...
His death was confirmed by Bmi, which paid tribute on its website, noting: “Bmi was greatly saddened to learn of the passing of renowned songwriter Norman Gimbel, a truly prolific and gifted writer who will be greatly missed by his many friends and fans here.”
The Brooklyn native wrote the words to both “The Girl from Ipanema” and the “Happy Days” theme, earning an Academy Award with David Shire for Jennifer Warnes’ “It Goes Like It Goes,” the Best Original Song winner for 1979’s “Norma Rae,” which also garnered Sally Field her first of two Best Actress Oscars.
With his longtime writing collaborator Charles Fox,...
- 12/28/2018
- by Roy Trakin
- Variety Film + TV
Norman Gimbel, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning lyricist whose career included Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song," Jim Croce's "I Got a Name" and the themes to Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, has died. He was 91.
Gimbel died Dec. 19 at his longtime home in Montecito, Calif., son Tony Gimbel told The Hollywood Reporter.
The Brooklyn native shared his original song Academy Award with David Shire for "It Goes Like It Goes," performed by Jennifer Warnes for Norma Rae (1979), starring Sally Field in an Oscar-winning turn.
With music by his most frequent ...
Gimbel died Dec. 19 at his longtime home in Montecito, Calif., son Tony Gimbel told The Hollywood Reporter.
The Brooklyn native shared his original song Academy Award with David Shire for "It Goes Like It Goes," performed by Jennifer Warnes for Norma Rae (1979), starring Sally Field in an Oscar-winning turn.
With music by his most frequent ...
- 12/28/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Norman Gimbel, the Oscar- and Grammy-winning lyricist whose career included Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly With His Song," Jim Croce's "I Got a Name" and the themes to Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley, has died. He was 91.
Gimbel died Dec. 19 at his longtime home in Montecito, Calif., son Tony Gimbel told The Hollywood Reporter.
The Brooklyn native shared his original song Academy Award with David Shire for "It Goes Like It Goes," performed by Jennifer Warnes for Norma Rae (1979), starring Sally Field in an Oscar-winning turn.
With music by his most frequent ...
Gimbel died Dec. 19 at his longtime home in Montecito, Calif., son Tony Gimbel told The Hollywood Reporter.
The Brooklyn native shared his original song Academy Award with David Shire for "It Goes Like It Goes," performed by Jennifer Warnes for Norma Rae (1979), starring Sally Field in an Oscar-winning turn.
With music by his most frequent ...
- 12/28/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Thanksgiving dinner is served on Sunday’s Supergirl (The CW, 8/7c). But before anyone has a chance to give thanks for life’s many blessings (Sam Witwer’s jawline, etc.), a scuffle with the Children of Liberty cuts the celebration short.
“All of the Superfriends come together for Thanksgiving dinner, and like pretty much every Supergirl get-together, we’re forced to … scatter and go off and try to save the city,” Jesse Rath told reporters during a recent visit to the show’s set. “You get to see Braniac get froggy with a couple of Children of Liberty thugs.
“All of the Superfriends come together for Thanksgiving dinner, and like pretty much every Supergirl get-together, we’re forced to … scatter and go off and try to save the city,” Jesse Rath told reporters during a recent visit to the show’s set. “You get to see Braniac get froggy with a couple of Children of Liberty thugs.
- 11/18/2018
- TVLine.com
During Monday’s episode of “The Voice,” Jennifer Hudson paired up Anthony Arya and Kennedy Holmes in the latest knockout round of Season 15. Anthony performed Jim Croce‘s “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels)” in front of the four reality TV coaches while Kennedy impressed with Pink‘s “What About Us.” Despite Anthony’s rehearsal song being praised more by Jennifer and mentor Mariah Carey, Kennedy wowed when it counted in front of the live audience so Jennifer chose to keep her in the competition. Read the coaches’ comments below.
SEEDeAndre Nico wins ‘The Voice’ knockout over Jake Wells after Adam Levine raves, ‘This dude came to win!’
“It’s definitely very tough because you both have bright futures ahead of you,” Jennifer told Kennedy and Anthony. “I see a place for both of you guys wherever you want to be — somewhere in the stars. The plus of...
SEEDeAndre Nico wins ‘The Voice’ knockout over Jake Wells after Adam Levine raves, ‘This dude came to win!’
“It’s definitely very tough because you both have bright futures ahead of you,” Jennifer told Kennedy and Anthony. “I see a place for both of you guys wherever you want to be — somewhere in the stars. The plus of...
- 11/6/2018
- by Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
And just like that, we’re almost to the live shows for “The Voice” Season 15. We now know several of the artists who will be competing for public votes beginning next Monday, November 12. After tonight’s episode of Knockouts Night 3, we’ll know the rest for the teams of coaches Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Jennifer Hudson or Kelly Clarkson.
Stay tuned throughout this week as we offer up separate power rankings for each team on our home page. Who do you think has the best chance to win Season 15?
Pop superstar Mariah Carey has been an excellent choice to guide the singers during this round, giving them advice not only on their songs but also on their stage presences. Monday evening’s show will be the final time we see her on this season.
See ‘The Voice’ Winners Full List: Photos and Where Are They Now Updates
As we’ve done for several seasons,...
Stay tuned throughout this week as we offer up separate power rankings for each team on our home page. Who do you think has the best chance to win Season 15?
Pop superstar Mariah Carey has been an excellent choice to guide the singers during this round, giving them advice not only on their songs but also on their stage presences. Monday evening’s show will be the final time we see her on this season.
See ‘The Voice’ Winners Full List: Photos and Where Are They Now Updates
As we’ve done for several seasons,...
- 11/6/2018
- by John Benutty and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Mr. Burns saves the day and crashes the competition as The Simpsons cry Baby You Can't Drive My Car.
TV
This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.
The Simpsons: Season 30 Episode 5
Homer has two unexpected partners in The Simpsons season 30 episode 5, "Baby You Can't Drive My Car": Marge and Mr. Burns. Neither turn out to be what we'd expect in the thirty years we've known them and that's why this week's installment is a near classic in the post-classic era of the classic series.
When "Baby You Can't Drive My Car" opens, Homer is at odds with both his boss and his wife. He loses his job at the nuclear plant after recklessly dipping chicken fingers while driving and crashes through Burns' window just as the old man is showing off his new Faberge chicken. Even at the height of his popularity, Krusty the Clown could only afford a few Faberge eggs,...
TV
This The Simpsons review contains spoilers.
The Simpsons: Season 30 Episode 5
Homer has two unexpected partners in The Simpsons season 30 episode 5, "Baby You Can't Drive My Car": Marge and Mr. Burns. Neither turn out to be what we'd expect in the thirty years we've known them and that's why this week's installment is a near classic in the post-classic era of the classic series.
When "Baby You Can't Drive My Car" opens, Homer is at odds with both his boss and his wife. He loses his job at the nuclear plant after recklessly dipping chicken fingers while driving and crashes through Burns' window just as the old man is showing off his new Faberge chicken. Even at the height of his popularity, Krusty the Clown could only afford a few Faberge eggs,...
- 11/4/2018
- Den of Geek
Tuesday night during Night 6 of “The Voice” Season 15, country singer Caeland Garner took on King Harvest‘s “Dancing in the Moonlight” and caused two coaches to turn their chairs around: Blake Shelton and Jennifer Hudson. The fact that Caeland is best friends with Season 13 finalist Red Marlow, who was a member of Team Blake, helped Caeland make his decision to join Blake’s current roster. Watch NBC’s “The Voice” blind audition video above and read the coaches’ comments below.
SEECountry artist Kirk Jay ends ‘The Voice’ rivalry between Adam Levine and Blake Shelton as they kiss and make up [Watch]
“I started thinking, man, I want to buy this guy’s version of that song for my lake playlist,” Blake said while trying to convince Caeland to join his team. “I gotta say, man, your voice is so unique and it sounds like it comes from a different period in time.
SEECountry artist Kirk Jay ends ‘The Voice’ rivalry between Adam Levine and Blake Shelton as they kiss and make up [Watch]
“I started thinking, man, I want to buy this guy’s version of that song for my lake playlist,” Blake said while trying to convince Caeland to join his team. “I gotta say, man, your voice is so unique and it sounds like it comes from a different period in time.
- 10/10/2018
- by Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
We’re almost to the finish line for the blind auditions of Season 15 for “The Voice.” For Tuesday’s Night 6, it’s just a one hour show that might even feature the dreaded performance montage. But it will somehow not be the complete end of blind auditions as the show will still air a few more next Monday and go directly into the first round of battles.
Watch this episode on NBC for Tuesday, October 9. Six-time coaching champ Blake Shelton, three-time winner Adam Levine, reigning champion Kelly Clarkson and returning coach Jennifer Hudson are facing off each week. Make your own comments in our live updating blog below about the coaches and this week’s contending artists. We’ve got exclusive minute-by-minute detailed analysis of the performances as they are happening. Enjoy reading our coverage of last week’s episodes for Monday, October 24, Tuesday, October 25, Monday, October 1, Tuesday, October 2 and Monday,...
Watch this episode on NBC for Tuesday, October 9. Six-time coaching champ Blake Shelton, three-time winner Adam Levine, reigning champion Kelly Clarkson and returning coach Jennifer Hudson are facing off each week. Make your own comments in our live updating blog below about the coaches and this week’s contending artists. We’ve got exclusive minute-by-minute detailed analysis of the performances as they are happening. Enjoy reading our coverage of last week’s episodes for Monday, October 24, Tuesday, October 25, Monday, October 1, Tuesday, October 2 and Monday,...
- 10/9/2018
- by Kevin Jacobsen and Chris Beachum
- Gold Derby
Crack the Sky have an impressive prog résumé. In their Seventies heyday, the group toured with everyone from Frank Zappa to Elo; they recently earned a spot on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums; and they’ve remained a staple of the Baltimore music scene for the past 40 years.
So why, as they prepare to issue their 17th album, Living in Reverse, is the band still a largely unsung obscurity, even among devotees of their genre?
Among other reasons, they were too arty and experimental for pop fans,...
So why, as they prepare to issue their 17th album, Living in Reverse, is the band still a largely unsung obscurity, even among devotees of their genre?
Among other reasons, they were too arty and experimental for pop fans,...
- 8/15/2018
- by Ryan Reed
- Rollingstone.com
The record industry might be tanking, but the music industry is thriving within the film and TV business. Employer contributions to a residuals fund for musicians whose work is heard on the big and small screens hit a record $100 million last year, according to the latest report from the Film Musicians Secondary Markets Fund.
Last year, the fund distributed more than $81 million to 17,000-plus musicians but is holding more than $5 million in unclaimed checks for more than 6,000 musicians for whom the fund has no current address or contract information. They iinclude Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elton John, Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Axl Rose, Tony Bennett, Cyndi Lauper, Nelly Furtado, Blake Shelton, Kanye West, Annie Lennox, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Spector, Brian Eno, Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth, Peter Gabriel, the Monkees’ Michael Nesmith, Dave Clark, Johnny Depp, Jared Leto and all three Hanson brothers – Taylor, Zac and Isaac.
The estates...
Last year, the fund distributed more than $81 million to 17,000-plus musicians but is holding more than $5 million in unclaimed checks for more than 6,000 musicians for whom the fund has no current address or contract information. They iinclude Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elton John, Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Axl Rose, Tony Bennett, Cyndi Lauper, Nelly Furtado, Blake Shelton, Kanye West, Annie Lennox, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Spector, Brian Eno, Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth, Peter Gabriel, the Monkees’ Michael Nesmith, Dave Clark, Johnny Depp, Jared Leto and all three Hanson brothers – Taylor, Zac and Isaac.
The estates...
- 6/21/2018
- by David Robb
- Deadline Film + TV
It will likely come as no surprise that, 40 years after the release of his classic album of standards “Stardust,” Willie Nelson will be releasing another standards-filled new collection, this one devoted to the repertoire of Frank Sinatra.
“Sinatra and I were very good friends,” Nelson says by way of explanation. “He was my favorite singer, and he had written one time in an article that I was his favorite singer, so we kinda kicked it off good together, and we worked a few shows together, did a couple of albums together, and a video. He was just a buddy.”
Nelson expects that the Sinatra project, titled “My Way,” will be released on the heels of “Last Man Standing,” his new Legacy Recordings album, out today (April 27), just ahead of his 85th birthday. Buddy Cannon, who has produced most of the singer-songwriter’s recent records, recorded the horn- and string-laden backing...
“Sinatra and I were very good friends,” Nelson says by way of explanation. “He was my favorite singer, and he had written one time in an article that I was his favorite singer, so we kinda kicked it off good together, and we worked a few shows together, did a couple of albums together, and a video. He was just a buddy.”
Nelson expects that the Sinatra project, titled “My Way,” will be released on the heels of “Last Man Standing,” his new Legacy Recordings album, out today (April 27), just ahead of his 85th birthday. Buddy Cannon, who has produced most of the singer-songwriter’s recent records, recorded the horn- and string-laden backing...
- 4/27/2018
- by Chris Morris
- Variety Film + TV
When Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan assembled to form an Americana all-star trio a few years ago, the name “Monsters of Folk” had already been claimed by an all-male supergroup. “Monsters of NPR” doesn’t really have the right ring to it, and avoiding “I’m With Keillor” proved to be wise, even though all three women were strongly associated with “Prairie Home Companion” and are now staples of its successor, “Live From Here.” They settled on I’m With Her, which was not without liability as a moniker, as the phrase was soon thereafter pilfered as a political mantra. That vague association is okay — I’m With Her’s show Monday at Los Angeles’ Teregram Ballroom did feel a bit like a rally, in favor of stunning female harmony singing and virtuosity.
Watkins wryly noted early in the show that the trio’s first album, “See You Around,...
Watkins wryly noted early in the show that the trio’s first album, “See You Around,...
- 4/3/2018
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
It’s hard to believe but Jim Croce didn’t really take music seriously until he attended Villanova University where he finally began to get into the swing of things. In fact as a wedding present his parents actually gave him and his wife a hefty sum of money, for those days, to get his music career going. They were hoping that his album would fail and that he would realize that a career in music wasn’t for him, but it kind of backfired on them. Croce’s album did great and reaffirmed that he was on the right path. Instead of using
The Top Five Uses of Jim Croce Songs in Movies or TV...
The Top Five Uses of Jim Croce Songs in Movies or TV...
- 1/7/2018
- by Wake
- TVovermind.com
David Harbour had been acting for over a decade in film and television before landing the role of Chief Jim Hopper in Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” so it’s not too surprising to hear the actor never thought he’d be as famous as he is nowadays. But Harbour became something more than just famous in Season 2: He became a full blown sex symbol.
Read More:‘Stranger Things 2’ Review: Season 2 Is Nothing But a Good Time, But Bigger Isn’t Exactly Better
The actor’s form-fitting police outfit, extremely lovable dance moves, and irresistible daddy-ness made him the sexiest part of “Stranger Things 2,” and the internet took notice with plenty of gifs and articles saluting television’s sexiest daddy. Harbour, who received an Emmy nomination for his performance and is currently nominated for a Golden Globe, recently told Variety that he loves his sex symbol status, mainly because he...
Read More:‘Stranger Things 2’ Review: Season 2 Is Nothing But a Good Time, But Bigger Isn’t Exactly Better
The actor’s form-fitting police outfit, extremely lovable dance moves, and irresistible daddy-ness made him the sexiest part of “Stranger Things 2,” and the internet took notice with plenty of gifs and articles saluting television’s sexiest daddy. Harbour, who received an Emmy nomination for his performance and is currently nominated for a Golden Globe, recently told Variety that he loves his sex symbol status, mainly because he...
- 12/26/2017
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
One of the most unexpected projects was reported this week, as news broke that Quentin Tarantino had conceived of an idea for a “Star Trek” movie that impressed Hollywood heavyweight J.J. Abrams. Tarantino is allegedly sharing the idea with a group of writers and may direct the project. Considering the filmmaker’s long-standing independence from the studio system and especially franchises, IndieWire’s staff debated the prospects of this sudden mid-career twist.
Eric Kohn: No major American filmmaker has flaunted his autonomy from the Hollywood system more than Quentin Tarantino, whose characters speak and whose movies move in ways that are forever connected to his name. So the idea of Tarantino — who flirted with studio projects early in his success before paving his own path — could have anything to do with a “Star Trek” movie is a bit baffling. Although I love the idea of a Qt/Jj combo, the suggestion that Tarantino’s energetic,...
Eric Kohn: No major American filmmaker has flaunted his autonomy from the Hollywood system more than Quentin Tarantino, whose characters speak and whose movies move in ways that are forever connected to his name. So the idea of Tarantino — who flirted with studio projects early in his success before paving his own path — could have anything to do with a “Star Trek” movie is a bit baffling. Although I love the idea of a Qt/Jj combo, the suggestion that Tarantino’s energetic,...
- 12/5/2017
- by Eric Kohn, Kate Erbland, Anne Thompson, David Ehrlich and Liz Shannon Miller
- Indiewire
There’s a cute little dance move David Harbour’s character Jim Hopper does when talking to Eleven in the second season of “Stranger Things.” And now you can watch it over and over again, matched to your favorite songs. During the third episode, Hopper dances to Jim Croce’s “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.” Someone on Twitter took that and created a meme called Hopper Dancing To, dedicated to the Hawkins police chief shaking it to songs by *NSync, Gorillaz and Spice Girls, as well as the Pokemon theme song and a famous track from Oscar darling “La La Land.
- 10/31/2017
- by Beatrice Verhoeven
- The Wrap
Michael Ahr Oct 30, 2017
Stranger Things season 2 is filled with pop culture references and other goodies you may have missed. Here's what our Us chums found...
Warning: contains episode-by-episode spoilers.
See related Legends Of Tomorrow season 3 episode 3 review: Zari Legends Of Tomorrow season 3 episode 2 review: Freakshow Legends Of Tomorrow season 3 episode 1 review: Aruba-con
With a series like Stranger Things, which places a lot of weight behind its nostalgia for 80s pop culture, any hidden references, allusions, and homages become key for audience enjoyment, especially for those who were the same age back then as the kids are in the show. Whether it be a song choice with particularly appropriate lyrics, a recognisable image meant to invoke an 80s movie or TV show, or a detail harkening back to season 1, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of all the easter eggs and references here.
Did we miss any? Let us know...
Stranger Things season 2 is filled with pop culture references and other goodies you may have missed. Here's what our Us chums found...
Warning: contains episode-by-episode spoilers.
See related Legends Of Tomorrow season 3 episode 3 review: Zari Legends Of Tomorrow season 3 episode 2 review: Freakshow Legends Of Tomorrow season 3 episode 1 review: Aruba-con
With a series like Stranger Things, which places a lot of weight behind its nostalgia for 80s pop culture, any hidden references, allusions, and homages become key for audience enjoyment, especially for those who were the same age back then as the kids are in the show. Whether it be a song choice with particularly appropriate lyrics, a recognisable image meant to invoke an 80s movie or TV show, or a detail harkening back to season 1, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of all the easter eggs and references here.
Did we miss any? Let us know...
- 10/27/2017
- Den of Geek
The classical western exists as an ideal sandbox for stories of heroism, in which white hats can immediately separate our protagonists from the black-hatted antagonists. Occasionally, though, we have a revisionist western that questions and defies the well-trodden patriarchal confines of the genre, as if looking at an old image from a tilted perspective and finding something new.
Sometimes, the characters don’t fit into the dusty old boxes occupied by so many western heroes and heroines. The hero robs and kills to stay alive, frightened and overwhelmed by this strange, new frontier. Other times, the stereotypical Western landscape disappears, blanketed in snow. Horses drive their hooves through ice-covered puddles. Wind screams past bone-thin trees — manifest destiny frozen over, encasing the American dream in ice.
In the case of Sofia Coppola’s newest, The Beguiled, gender and power roles reverse: an injured Union soldier (Colin Farrell) turns up at a girl’s school, an arrival which breeds intense sexual tension and rivalry among the women (Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning). According to our review, the movie is “primarily based on the 1966 book by Thomas Cullinan,” and “appears, at first glance, to be a remake of Don Siegel’s 1971 film adaptation rather than any sort of new reading of the original text. Coppola, of course, is far too clever for that.”
In celebration of The Beguiled, we’ve decided to take a look at the finest examples of the revisionist western. Enjoy, and please include your own favorites in the comments.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) idolized the legendary outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt), growing up hearing campfire stories about the man. Ford loved James so much that he eventually willed himself into the man’s life story. You cannot tell James’s story without also telling Ford’s. These two tragic lives are irrevocably linked by Ford’s betrayal. The film’s dryly antiseptic voiceover narration confides that Ford grew to regret his violent ways. The same goes for James, who at one point beats a child and then weeps into his horse’s neck, unable to live with his own deeds. While James’ propensity for violence is a deeply cut character flaw, Pitt plays the outlaw like an emotionally wounded teenager. His jovial sense of humor cloaks a vindictive and self-loathing interior. Whether Jesse James hurts himself or someone else, there is always a witness looking on with wide eyes. After James’ murder, Ford became a celebrity, touring the country reenacting the shooting. But Ford gained his prominence by killing a beloved folk hero. And so, one day, a man named Edward Kelly walked into Ford’s saloon with a shotgun and took revenge for James’s murder. Unlike the aftermath of Ford’s deed, people leapt to Kelly’s defense, collecting over 7000 signatures for a petition, leading to his pardon. America hated Robert Ford because he killed Jesse James. They loved Edward Kelly because he killed Robert Ford.
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (Robert Altman)
Robert Altman’s largely forgotten and often funny western about egotistical showman Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Newman) treats its lead without respect, eagerly mocking him at every opportunity. Known across America as they best tracker of man and animals alive, Cody runs Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, a rodeo-like performance of cowboy-feats, ranging from simple rope tricks to the trick-shots of the legendary Annie Oakley. However, Cody is a fraud, a walking accumulation of lies and tall-tales. When Cody gets the chance to hire Chief Sitting Bull, the man who defeated General Custer at Little Big Horn, he’s thrilled, until Sitting Bull refuses to participate in his offensive show. Contrasted with phony Buffalo Bill Cody, Sitting Bull drips with dignified authenticity, totally uninterested in living up to the ignorant public’s racist image of his people. While the manufactured “reality” of Cody’s shows gets applause from white audiences, the stoic realness of Sitting Bull initially receives jeers, until something occurs to the crowd: this isn’t showmanship; this is the real thing. Later, when Cody and his gang form a posse, he hastily removes his show attire and searches through his wardrobe, cursing: “Where’s my real jacket?” So utterly consumed by his own public image, Cody can no longer locate his true self. Altman’s film is a rare western with a lead character who never succeeds, changes, or learns from his mistakes, always remaining a hopelessly pompous horse’s ass.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill)
As we meet the legendary Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) he’s scoping out a bank, recently renovated to include heavy iron bars over every window and bolted-locks on every door. He asks the guard what happened to the old bank, which displayed such architectural beauty. “People kept robbing it,” the guard says. “Small price to pay for beauty,” Butch replies. It’s a running theme in revisionist westerns to reveal the truth behind the legend. The changing times had rendered bandits on horseback obsolete. But Butch Cassidy and his partner, the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) didn’t see the end coming until the future was already upon them. After barely evading a super-posse (to use a term coined by screenwriter William Goldman) led by a ruthless bounty hunter, they escape to Bolivia with Etta (Katherine Ross) Sundance’s girl, where their criminal ways are similarly received. What began as a vacation away from their troubles slowly becomes a permanent getaway run, sowing seeds of inevitable tragedy. Etta sees what Butch and Sundance cannot: the end. “We’re not going home anymore, are we?” Etta tearfully asks Sundance, informing him that she has no plans to stick around to watch them die. George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a tearful celebration of a pair of old dogs too foolish to learn new tricks.
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
The gorgeous and haunting Dead Man opens with a soot-faced Crispin Glover trilling as he points out the window of a train: “They’re shooting buffalo,” he cries. “Government said, it killed a million of them last year alone.” The American machine greedily consumes the landscape, leaving smoldering devastation in its path, while a stone-faced accountant named William Blake (Johnny Depp) travels to the hellish town of Machine, where he’s promised a job. Unfortunately, there’s no job at the end of the line for this seemingly educated man, blissfully unaware of his namesake, the poet William Blake. After taking a bullet to the chest, Blake wanders this dying western landscape as if in a dream, guided by Nobody (Gary Farmer) a Native American raised in England after getting kidnapped and paraded around as a sideshow attraction for whites. At one point, Blake stumbles upon three hunters by a camp fire, one of which, played by Iggy Pop, wears a muddy dress and bonnet like a twisted schoolmarm. Writer-director Jim Jarmusch’s twist on the western (accompanied by Robby Müller’s flawless cinematography) hums with textured period detail and vivid costume design, the accumulation of which achieves an eerily stylized tone.
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
The spirit of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is in the sequence scored by Jim Croce’s “I’ve Got a Name.” Django (Jamie Foxx), now a free man, removes the old saddle from his horse’s back, a saddle originally procured by a white slaver, the animal’s previous owner. He then mounts in its place, his own saddle personalized with an embroidered D. His freedom is still new and unfamiliar but, Django is more than willing to grasp those reigns. What works best about the film is how Tarantino’s screenplay embraces the politics of the Antebellum South in a fashion carefully ignored by every other western of its time. The dialogue, Tarantino’s most applauded talent, wheels a careful turn between a sly comedy-of-manners and a bluntly provocative historical indictment, always landing on a shameless exploitation cinema influenced need for violent catharsis. Tarantino’s channeling of Spaghetti Western violence, with the gore cranked up to a level far beyond that of even Sergio Corbucci’s bloodiest work, delivers tenfold on that catharsis, splattering the pristine white walls of Candyland plantation bright red.
El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
Dripping with transgressive and bizarre imagery, El Topo embraces every taboo imaginable with a breathless zeal. Existing somewhere between Midnight Movie oddity and art-house epic, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s second feature envisions the west as an unknowable landscape, dotted with peculiar and grotesque characters, such as a legless gunfighter who rides around on the back of an armless man. Describing the film in narrative terms, beat by beat, would be pointless, although we follow a rider in black, the titular El Topo (which means The Mole) who crosses the desert with a naked boy on the saddle. Though we spend more time with El Topo, his son is the heart of the film, this warped and subversive pseudo-fable exploring the cyclical nature of life. Jodorowsky’s painterly eye for composition lends individual shots with arresting and breathtaking resonance. With less than subtle biblical imagery scattered throughout, including a marvelous sequence involving a religion based around the game of Russian Roulette, Jodorowsky’s film feels at times like a twisted celebration of mysticism, sampling notes from Catholicism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. It’s ending, a chaotic, dream-like burst of violence, adds a scathing gut-punch to an already overwhelming experience. There is no other western quite like El Topo, to say the least.
Continue >>...
Sometimes, the characters don’t fit into the dusty old boxes occupied by so many western heroes and heroines. The hero robs and kills to stay alive, frightened and overwhelmed by this strange, new frontier. Other times, the stereotypical Western landscape disappears, blanketed in snow. Horses drive their hooves through ice-covered puddles. Wind screams past bone-thin trees — manifest destiny frozen over, encasing the American dream in ice.
In the case of Sofia Coppola’s newest, The Beguiled, gender and power roles reverse: an injured Union soldier (Colin Farrell) turns up at a girl’s school, an arrival which breeds intense sexual tension and rivalry among the women (Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning). According to our review, the movie is “primarily based on the 1966 book by Thomas Cullinan,” and “appears, at first glance, to be a remake of Don Siegel’s 1971 film adaptation rather than any sort of new reading of the original text. Coppola, of course, is far too clever for that.”
In celebration of The Beguiled, we’ve decided to take a look at the finest examples of the revisionist western. Enjoy, and please include your own favorites in the comments.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik)
Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) idolized the legendary outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt), growing up hearing campfire stories about the man. Ford loved James so much that he eventually willed himself into the man’s life story. You cannot tell James’s story without also telling Ford’s. These two tragic lives are irrevocably linked by Ford’s betrayal. The film’s dryly antiseptic voiceover narration confides that Ford grew to regret his violent ways. The same goes for James, who at one point beats a child and then weeps into his horse’s neck, unable to live with his own deeds. While James’ propensity for violence is a deeply cut character flaw, Pitt plays the outlaw like an emotionally wounded teenager. His jovial sense of humor cloaks a vindictive and self-loathing interior. Whether Jesse James hurts himself or someone else, there is always a witness looking on with wide eyes. After James’ murder, Ford became a celebrity, touring the country reenacting the shooting. But Ford gained his prominence by killing a beloved folk hero. And so, one day, a man named Edward Kelly walked into Ford’s saloon with a shotgun and took revenge for James’s murder. Unlike the aftermath of Ford’s deed, people leapt to Kelly’s defense, collecting over 7000 signatures for a petition, leading to his pardon. America hated Robert Ford because he killed Jesse James. They loved Edward Kelly because he killed Robert Ford.
Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (Robert Altman)
Robert Altman’s largely forgotten and often funny western about egotistical showman Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Newman) treats its lead without respect, eagerly mocking him at every opportunity. Known across America as they best tracker of man and animals alive, Cody runs Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, a rodeo-like performance of cowboy-feats, ranging from simple rope tricks to the trick-shots of the legendary Annie Oakley. However, Cody is a fraud, a walking accumulation of lies and tall-tales. When Cody gets the chance to hire Chief Sitting Bull, the man who defeated General Custer at Little Big Horn, he’s thrilled, until Sitting Bull refuses to participate in his offensive show. Contrasted with phony Buffalo Bill Cody, Sitting Bull drips with dignified authenticity, totally uninterested in living up to the ignorant public’s racist image of his people. While the manufactured “reality” of Cody’s shows gets applause from white audiences, the stoic realness of Sitting Bull initially receives jeers, until something occurs to the crowd: this isn’t showmanship; this is the real thing. Later, when Cody and his gang form a posse, he hastily removes his show attire and searches through his wardrobe, cursing: “Where’s my real jacket?” So utterly consumed by his own public image, Cody can no longer locate his true self. Altman’s film is a rare western with a lead character who never succeeds, changes, or learns from his mistakes, always remaining a hopelessly pompous horse’s ass.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill)
As we meet the legendary Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) he’s scoping out a bank, recently renovated to include heavy iron bars over every window and bolted-locks on every door. He asks the guard what happened to the old bank, which displayed such architectural beauty. “People kept robbing it,” the guard says. “Small price to pay for beauty,” Butch replies. It’s a running theme in revisionist westerns to reveal the truth behind the legend. The changing times had rendered bandits on horseback obsolete. But Butch Cassidy and his partner, the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) didn’t see the end coming until the future was already upon them. After barely evading a super-posse (to use a term coined by screenwriter William Goldman) led by a ruthless bounty hunter, they escape to Bolivia with Etta (Katherine Ross) Sundance’s girl, where their criminal ways are similarly received. What began as a vacation away from their troubles slowly becomes a permanent getaway run, sowing seeds of inevitable tragedy. Etta sees what Butch and Sundance cannot: the end. “We’re not going home anymore, are we?” Etta tearfully asks Sundance, informing him that she has no plans to stick around to watch them die. George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a tearful celebration of a pair of old dogs too foolish to learn new tricks.
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch)
The gorgeous and haunting Dead Man opens with a soot-faced Crispin Glover trilling as he points out the window of a train: “They’re shooting buffalo,” he cries. “Government said, it killed a million of them last year alone.” The American machine greedily consumes the landscape, leaving smoldering devastation in its path, while a stone-faced accountant named William Blake (Johnny Depp) travels to the hellish town of Machine, where he’s promised a job. Unfortunately, there’s no job at the end of the line for this seemingly educated man, blissfully unaware of his namesake, the poet William Blake. After taking a bullet to the chest, Blake wanders this dying western landscape as if in a dream, guided by Nobody (Gary Farmer) a Native American raised in England after getting kidnapped and paraded around as a sideshow attraction for whites. At one point, Blake stumbles upon three hunters by a camp fire, one of which, played by Iggy Pop, wears a muddy dress and bonnet like a twisted schoolmarm. Writer-director Jim Jarmusch’s twist on the western (accompanied by Robby Müller’s flawless cinematography) hums with textured period detail and vivid costume design, the accumulation of which achieves an eerily stylized tone.
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
The spirit of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained is in the sequence scored by Jim Croce’s “I’ve Got a Name.” Django (Jamie Foxx), now a free man, removes the old saddle from his horse’s back, a saddle originally procured by a white slaver, the animal’s previous owner. He then mounts in its place, his own saddle personalized with an embroidered D. His freedom is still new and unfamiliar but, Django is more than willing to grasp those reigns. What works best about the film is how Tarantino’s screenplay embraces the politics of the Antebellum South in a fashion carefully ignored by every other western of its time. The dialogue, Tarantino’s most applauded talent, wheels a careful turn between a sly comedy-of-manners and a bluntly provocative historical indictment, always landing on a shameless exploitation cinema influenced need for violent catharsis. Tarantino’s channeling of Spaghetti Western violence, with the gore cranked up to a level far beyond that of even Sergio Corbucci’s bloodiest work, delivers tenfold on that catharsis, splattering the pristine white walls of Candyland plantation bright red.
El Topo (Alejandro Jodorowsky)
Dripping with transgressive and bizarre imagery, El Topo embraces every taboo imaginable with a breathless zeal. Existing somewhere between Midnight Movie oddity and art-house epic, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s second feature envisions the west as an unknowable landscape, dotted with peculiar and grotesque characters, such as a legless gunfighter who rides around on the back of an armless man. Describing the film in narrative terms, beat by beat, would be pointless, although we follow a rider in black, the titular El Topo (which means The Mole) who crosses the desert with a naked boy on the saddle. Though we spend more time with El Topo, his son is the heart of the film, this warped and subversive pseudo-fable exploring the cyclical nature of life. Jodorowsky’s painterly eye for composition lends individual shots with arresting and breathtaking resonance. With less than subtle biblical imagery scattered throughout, including a marvelous sequence involving a religion based around the game of Russian Roulette, Jodorowsky’s film feels at times like a twisted celebration of mysticism, sampling notes from Catholicism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. It’s ending, a chaotic, dream-like burst of violence, adds a scathing gut-punch to an already overwhelming experience. There is no other western quite like El Topo, to say the least.
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- 6/22/2017
- by Tony Hinds
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: In yet another instance in which F. Scott Fitzgerald is proved decidedly wrong, enter the members of the 70s rock band Gunhill Road. Best known for their 1973 single “Back When My Hair Was Short,” they were a sought after live act who opened for some of the biggest acts of the era, including George Carlin, Carly Simon, Lily Tomlin, Kris Kristofferson, Cheech & Chong, Robert Klein, Jim Croce, and Bette Midler among others. The group ceased activity in 1976 and…...
- 1/23/2017
- Deadline
On Friday, Amazon released all 10 episodes of Transparent season 3, and I have some general thoughts on the year, followed by a mini-reviews of each episode, coming up just as soon as I say I'm the strip club's It person... As I alluded to in the introduction to my interview with the always-candid Gaby Hoffmann, I found that season 3 worked more in individual moments — or at times for entire episodes — than it did as a season of TV. The character arcs frequently felt like they were jumping from Point A to Point D without worrying about B or C, even though it wasn't structurally all that different from the previous seasons. Great performances, great scenes, and slightly more self-awareness from the Pfeffermans — Maura and Shelly, at least, and maybe Ali — but something was a bit lacking compared to the show's previous heights. Let's go episode-by-episode, and I'll do my best not...
- 9/26/2016
- by Alan Sepinwall
- Hitfix
After months of mouth-watering trailers and backdoor stage-setting, "DC's Legends of Tomorrow" is finally upon us. The series, which pulls characters from "Arrow" and "The Flash" and sets them adrift in time, premieres this Thursday on the CW.
Moviefone recently screened the two-part pilot and -– spoiler alert -– it's tremendously fun.
Understandably, there are a lot of moving parts. Not only must "Legends" introduce a brand new protagonist in time master Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), but the series also has to show him wrangle together a large group of colorful heroes and villains from the CW's other comic book shows. The premiere does a great job of weaving in each new character without ever slowing down the narrative, but there is much to digest.
How does the whole time travel thing work exactly? Does "Legends" feel more like "The Flash" or "Arrow"? And what about guest stars -– are there any of them?...
Moviefone recently screened the two-part pilot and -– spoiler alert -– it's tremendously fun.
Understandably, there are a lot of moving parts. Not only must "Legends" introduce a brand new protagonist in time master Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill), but the series also has to show him wrangle together a large group of colorful heroes and villains from the CW's other comic book shows. The premiere does a great job of weaving in each new character without ever slowing down the narrative, but there is much to digest.
How does the whole time travel thing work exactly? Does "Legends" feel more like "The Flash" or "Arrow"? And what about guest stars -– are there any of them?...
- 1/20/2016
- by Travis Reilly
- Moviefone
The Pfeffermans are reunited when Shelly’s husband goes missing in “Transparent.”
Though “Transparent” is nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, some of its most memorable moments were the more poignant ones. IMDb’s editors picked 11 of their favorites:
1. When the family comes together for dinner at “Moppas”, and Maura wipes BBQ sauce off her daughter’s face.
2. Ali and Josh getting nostalgic over the Jim Croce album from their childhood.
3. In a flashback to 1994, Maura goes to Camp Cordelia and comes to life when she dances with Connie, the very accepting wife of a fellow camper.
4. When the kids all leave Maura’s talent show before the end of her performance, and you feel all the weight of Maura’s pain.
5. In a flashback scene, Shelly Pfefferman tells Mort, “I want you to be a man and save the day!”
6. Maura and Shelly reuniting ...
Though “Transparent” is nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, some of its most memorable moments were the more poignant ones. IMDb’s editors picked 11 of their favorites:
1. When the family comes together for dinner at “Moppas”, and Maura wipes BBQ sauce off her daughter’s face.
2. Ali and Josh getting nostalgic over the Jim Croce album from their childhood.
3. In a flashback to 1994, Maura goes to Camp Cordelia and comes to life when she dances with Connie, the very accepting wife of a fellow camper.
4. When the kids all leave Maura’s talent show before the end of her performance, and you feel all the weight of Maura’s pain.
5. In a flashback scene, Shelly Pfefferman tells Mort, “I want you to be a man and save the day!”
6. Maura and Shelly reuniting ...
- 9/19/2015
- by Melissa Roth
- IMDb Blog - All the Latest
Tony Award winnerDonna McKechniegraces the stage of 54 Below with areturn engagement ofSame Place Another Time a musical deja vu celebrating the scintillating 70's in New York City - the heyday of Studio 54. McKechnie, best known the world over for creating the role of Cassie inA Chorus Line, is also well-known for her Broadway appearances inState Fair On the Town Company Promises, Promises andHow To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. For these two very special performances, Donna will salute this remarkable era via the music of Jim Croce, Peter Allen, Marvin Hamlisch and Stephen Sondheim. The evening will also includea special tribute to Kander amp Ebb, celebrating their last musicalThe Visit.
- 8/5/2015
- by Walter McBride
- BroadwayWorld.com
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