News

The Pitch: Dario Argento’s giallo masterpiece gets an even more visually indulgent arthouse update from director Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name). The elevator pitch is roughly the same: Young American Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) gets accepted into a prestigious women’s dance conservatory in Germany circa 1977. Though the school’s location is transplanted from Freiburg to Berlin, it’s still run by a coven of powerful witches. If that sounds like a spoiler, rest assured, it’s not. Unlike its predecessor, the 2018 Suspiria confirms its occult connections early on, leaving plenty of space to explore the more primal aspects of motherhood, and some political subtext thrown in for good measure. Dead Can Dance: In the original, most of the carnage took place away from the dance floor in elaborate kill sequences that owed as much to Rube Goldberg machines as they did splatter cinema. Here, the violence and supernatural occurrences are instead delivered through the choreography itself — transference takes place during a visceral Butoh performance; kicks and plies become tools for crippling body horror; and the dance mirrors hide any number of secrets that are too good to spoil here. Although the latest Suspiria is arguably more graphic than its source material, there’s a mesmerizing grace that separates it from Argento’s. Even at its goriest, this is a dance film as much as it’s a horror film. Radiodead: Just as notable as Suspiria‘s entrancing choreography is its score. Composed by Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke (his first-ever feature-length soundtrack), there are a handful of nods to the horror-synth attacks of Goblin, as already heard in the film’s trailers. But there’s also a delicacy at play whenever Yorke highlights the film’s more internal character moments. Contemplative piano takes us into Susie’s past as a Mennonite, and jazz drums smoothly hiss during strolls taken by Susie’s roommate, Sara (Mia Goth), through the school’s cavernous halls. If Yorke truly was “making spells” when dreaming up Suspiria‘s music, not all of them were frightening. The film’s aesthetic complexity.extends to the performances as well. From the trailer, it seemed that Tilda Swinton‘s dance instructor, Madame Blanc, would be positioned as the big bad in Suspiria. While no one in their right mind would call her the hero of the story, there’s an unexpected warmth to her performance that transcends what we would expect from a typical villain in a horror movie. And that’s to say nothing of the fact that she most likely donned several pounds of prosthetics to also play an elderly male psychiatrist. The Verdict: At 152 minutes, Suspiria is nearly an hour longer than Argento’s 1977 original. Although that will undoubtedly make it a slow burn for some of the horror-going public, the expansive runtime allows Guadgnino, screenwriter David Kajganich, and the rest of their team to actually build upon the source material, rather than just revisit it. By the time we finally do get to the blood and guts, the filmmakers have laid such an artful foundation that the viscera is just another part of Suspiria‘s hypnotic modern dance. Trailer: Source

There’s a reason why Superorganism’s 2018 tour was one of our most hotly anticipated of the year. The Artist of the Month designees have one of the most captivating live shows on the touring circuit. Last night, the young band brought the vivid experience to late-night TV with an appearance on Conan. The group — ostensibly an octet but typically performing as a septet — supported their self-titled debut with a performance of “Everybody Wants to be Famous”. As to be expected from the burgeoning darlings, the presentation was full of bright lighting and carefree dance moves thanks to B, Ruby, and Soul. Diminutive singer Orono Noguchi seemed thrilled with the performance, ripping off her sunglasses in exuberance as she thanked the towering monster that is Conan. Check out the replay: Superorganism will wrap their latest North American tour with a trio of California shows over the next three days. They’ll then head to the UK and Europe, with their full schedule available on their website. Source

Three years ago, filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demo first introduced the world to Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, two nondescript Wisconsin natives whose 2007 conviction for the death of Teresa Halbach seemed like you run-of-the-mill murder case — that was until camera crews arrived and began digging. Avery and Dassey’s story served the basis of Netflix’s award-winning true crime docu-series Making a Murder, and the subsequent revelations uncovered by Ricciardi and Demo brought national attention to the small-town murder case. With many questions still unanswered — including whether Avery and/or Dassey actually committed the murder — Netflix greenlit a second season of Making a Murder in 2016. Now, the 10-episode follow-up is finally set to air on October 19th. According to Ricciardi and Demos, whereas part one “documented the experience of the accused,” part two chronicles “the experience of the convicted and imprisoned, two men each serving life sentences for crimes they maintain they did not commit.” “Steven and Brendan, their families and their legal and investigative teams have once again graciously granted us access, giving us a window into the complex web of American criminal justice, Ricciardi and Demos said in a statement. The episodes will introduce viewers to Avery’s post-conviction lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, who has reversed more wrongful convictions than any other private attorney in the country. Dassey’s post-conviction lawyers, Laura Nirider and Steven Drizin, will also be featured as they work to prove that his confession was involuntary. Both Avery and Dassey have fought vigorously to overturn their convictions — to varying degree of success. In 2016, a judge granted Avery’s request allowing scientific testing to proceed in his case, but last year, his request for a new trial was denied. Meanwhile, in 2016, a judge ruled that Dassey’s confession had been coerced by investigators, and ordered he be freed from prison. However, a court of appeals subsequently overturned the decision, maintaining that Dassey’s confession was in fact voluntary. Both men continue to appeal their convictions. .@MakingAMurderer Part 2 premieres October 19 pic.twitter.com/dL1Ob8eD5E — Netflix US (@netflix) September 25, 2018 Source

Portugal. the Man are running out of TV shows to perform on in support of 2017’s Woodstock. So far, they’ve done Conan, Ellen, Colbert, and Kimmel, upping the ante each time with things like marching bands and children’s choirs. Last night, they checked Seth Meyers off the list, but in a decidedly less extravagant fashion. The band performed “So Young” without any extra accompaniment, opting instead to let the focus remain on the song’s psychedelic harmonies. Check out the replay below. Next month, Portugal. the Man will conclude their Woodstock album cycle with a pair of hometown shows in Anchorage, Alaska. Source

Following an extensive summer outing, Dave Matthews Band will return to the road beginning in November for a 10-city arena tour. Coming in support of their latest album, Come Tomorrow, DMB will play two nights each at Madison Square Garden in New York City and John Paul Jones Arena in their hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. Other stops include Boston, Montreal, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. Find the full itinerary below. Tickets go on sale beginning Friday, October 5th, and you can also grab them here. Dave Matthews Band 2018 Tour Dates: 11/27 – Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center 11/29 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden 11/30 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden 12/02 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena 12/04 – Manchester, NH @ SNHU Arena 12/05 – Albany, NY @ Times Union Center 12/07 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden 12/08 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre 12/11 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center 12/13 – Washington, DC @ CapitalOne Arena 12/14 – Charlottesville, VA @ John Paul Jones Arena 12/15 – Charlottesville, VA @ John Paul Jones Arena Prior to the launch of Come Tomorrow’s album cycle, longtime DMB violinist Boyd Tinsley left the band after being accused of sexual misconduct. Source

Mumford and Sons recently announced the release of their fourth full-length album, Delta, due out November 16th. For their first public performance in support of the Wilder Mind follow-up, the band appeared on Monday night’s edition of The Tonight Show, where they showcased the album’s lead single, “Guiding Light”. Delta promises to be a return to form for the band and fans will no doubt be excited to see them using acoustic instruments (including banjo!) to play the first track from their new LP. Watch the replay below. Frontman Marcus Mumford appeared earlier on in the night as a couch guest. Though they didn’t touch upon that pesky photo with Jordan Peterson, they did have a pleasant talk about Delta (which still isn’t finished) and the time he had a brain fart while performing alongside Bruce Springsteen. Delta is out November 16th (hopefully) via Gentlemen of the Road/Glassnote Records and follows 2015’s Wilder Mind. Mumford and Sons have teased a 60-date worldwide arena tour supporting the album, and those dates should be revealed on October 4th. Source

The musical comedy duo of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, t.k.a. Flight of the Conchords, are set to make their long-awaited return to HBO with a new hour-long special airing October 6th. In anticipation, the Conchords made a rare late-night TV appearance on Monday night’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The self-described fourth most popular folk duo in New Zealand, McKenzie and Clement briefly chatted with Colbert before taking the stage to perform a new song called “Father & Son”. Catch their very funny appearance below. Needless to say, it’s great to have these guys back. Source

There’s no denying the contribution the Sweat It Out label has had on the local and global music scene and what better way to celebrate than to release a new vinyl release paying tribute to founder and DJ god AJAX. Sydney DJ AJAX was instrumental in its origins and provides on-going inspiration for the label we’ve come to know today and the bucket load of talent that has been released is a testament to that. With the amount of releases ticking over a cool 217 the team have been hard at work and this 10th anniversary release is an opportunity to highlight some of the most memorable originals and remixes on the label. What the first side of the vinyl will deliver on is the older tracks that were likely a result of AJAX himself. You will be treated to an unreleased track from him I’m Hot, which is a major throwback to the genres and sounds that started the label. Also included will be the last promo piece from AJAX, in the form of a vinyl booklet, on the release of Parachute Youth and their unforgettable track, Can’t Get Better Than This, which was the second track to go global – the first being, We No Speak No Americano, by Yolanda Be Cool. The other sides will see some of the later and bigger releases Sweat It Out has had to offer, with features from RÜFÜS DU SOL and Motez alongside some of the local heavy hitters like Dom Dolla and Go Freek and let’s not forget that What So Not was once a part of the crew as well! The vinyl is set to be released Friday the 2nd of November but you can pre-order it here. In the meantime check out the trailer below, peep the stacked tracklist and get hyped for the electro throwback goodness to come! Tracklist: 1. Ajax – I’m Hot (Mixed) 2. Midnight Juggernauts – Shadows (Ajax Remix) (Mixed) 3. Twinsy – Back Of My Car (Mixed) 4. Northbrook – Move Your Body (Ajax Remix) (Mixed) 5. Gameboy Gamegirl – Sweaty Wet / Dirty Damp (Mixed) 6. Monkey Safari – Those Dancing Days (Mixed) 7. Danny T – Mean Baby (Mixed) 8. What So Not – 7 Dollar Bill (Mixed) 9. Rüfüs – Take Me (Mixed) 10. Parachute Youth – Can’t Get Better Than This 11. Yolanda Be Cool & DCUP – Soul Makossa (Money) (Mixed) 12. Indian Summer – Grand Rapids (Mixed) 13. Crooked Colours – Come Down (Mixed) 14. Dom Dolla & Go Freek – Define (Mixed) 15. Motez – Promise Me (Mixed) 16. What So Not Jaguar (Mixed) Source

UK-based Grammy winning producer William Phillips or as he’s better known, Tourist has just dropped us a bit of ambient electronica goodness in Apollo. Let it channel the Greek god Apollo as it heals you through a warmth of sounds. There’s something calming and upbeat about it, despite it being an amalgamation of harsh clicking sounds of unknown origin and some fairly beat heavy percussion. The sun shines through however, the ambience creating rays of light that as said before, truly exemplifies warmth. There’s not too much to say about Tourist’s work that hasn’t been said before, the UK producer continues to go from strength to strength and if this one’s anything to go buy, we’ll be eagerly awaiting. The single has been released as part of Tourist Essentials a selection of his tunes since 2012 that form an art piece. Check it out below and tell us if you’re aboard the Tourist train! Source

Bummer alert for rock and metal fans planning to attend this year’s Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky. After rains plagued the Bourbon & Beyond festival this past weekend at Champions Park, the grounds were determined to be too deteriorated to stage the Louder Than Life festival at the same location this coming weekend (September 28th-30th). This past weekend, the two-day Bourbon & Beyond festival had to cancel its second day, after heavy rains disrupted day one. Now, with only a few days to prepare for Louder Than Life, promoter Danny Wimmer Presents has pulled the plug on the popular festival. The three-day Louder Than Life festival was set to feature such headlining acts as Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, Alice in Chains, Limp Bizkit, Five Finger Death Punch, Godsmack and dozens more acts. A statement from Danny Wimmer Presents reads as follows: It is with deep regret that we inform you that this weekend’s Louder Than Life festival has been canceled due to unsafe conditions resulting from ongoing rain and flooding at the festival site —Champions Park. After carefully inspecting the grounds and infrastructure this evening, the City and we have determined that it is no longer possible to make the festival site safe in time for this weekend. We appreciate the outpouring of support from our fans, the numerous offers to come out and help, and the herculean efforts of the City of Louisville in trying to make the festival happen. The one thing we will never sacrifice is the safety of our fans, bands, staff and patrons. Before making the decision to cancel the festival, we looked at every option, from moving the event to another location to breaking the event up into smaller events in various venues. Unfortunately, it’s not logistically possible, and the weather is just not cooperating. It is not safe to attempt to move equipment, and replacement equipment is not available. We are so proud of this year’s festival experience that included incredible music, a showcase for Louisville’s great food scene, and of course an unparalleled offering of Kentucky bourbon, and more. We’re so disappointed to not get the chance to share all of this with you. This year’s Louder Than Life was going to be the momentous experience you all deserve. We will be back next year even bigger and better, and look forward to continuing our relationship with our incredible fans and this great city. As a result of the cancelation, Danny Wimmer Presents is offering full refunds for all tickets, camping packages and VIP passes. Source

Yaeji‘s just dropped a new tune by the name of One More and there’s no denying it’s exactly what you want from the Korean-American producer and songstress. One More seems to have a heavier focus on Yaeji’s vocals, but that’s not to say the underlying beats aren’t super. The first minute or so are almost entirely a personally sung Korean vocal, filtered through some effects, (reverb, a bit of autotune, echo) it creates a sombre opening vibe that we’ve come to expect from a lot of her productions. From there the tune drops into a soothing house-style track that we know the artist can deliver to perfection. One More is a super stripped back tune with those hollow synth sounds that are staples of her production. It seems a bit more serious and introspective than what we’ve come to know from her, then again I have no idea whether that’s actually the case because I have no idea what the Korean lyrics are saying. Check it out below and listen to it in full on Spotify, we can’t get enough Yaeji and will definitely be catching her at her upcoming Sydney shows. You can grab tix here if you feel so inclined. Source

Who is your favorite host? If you answered James Lipton, you’re going to have to find a new one. The longtime moderated of the Hollywood interview program Inside the Actors Studio is stepping down from the job. Since 1994, Lipton has presented fascinating discussions with some of entertainments’ biggest stars at Pace University in New York City. Bravo has aired the series since 1990, but when it moves to Ovation TV in 2019, Lipton will not be going with it. Instead, Inside the Actors Studio will feature a rotating panel of guest hosts. There is, however, a chance that Lipton will make the occasional appearance. “James Lipton’s future involvement will be determined based on his availability,” executive vp programming and production at Ovation Scott Woodward told The Hollywood Reporter. “But we’d love to have him involved.” Lipton shared his own statement regarding his retirement, saying, “It’s very gratifying to see the legacy of Inside the Actors Studio being carried forward for a new generation to appreciate and enjoy. I made a vow early on that we would not deal in gossip — only in craft, and Ovation, as a network dedicated to the arts, will continue that tradition with the next seasons of the series. I’m excited to see the new hosts engage with the guests and students and continue to entertain viewers in the U.S. and around the world.” Lipton held iconic interviews with individuals such as Tom Hanks, Viola Davis, Meryl Streep, Robin Williams, George Clooney, Dave Chappelle, and even the animated cast of The Simpsons during his tenure at Inside the Actors Studio. With Lipton at the helm (also writing and executive producing), the program garnered 20 Emmy nominations, winning Outstanding Informational Series or Special in 2013. Source

Chevy Chase has a long history of taking bites of his career with his mouth. He did so again in a recent interview in which he had some pointedly unkind words for the show that made him, Saturday Night Live. Specifically, he called the current run of the long-running variety show “the worst fucking humor in the world…” Well, current star and future Mr. Ariana Grande, Pete Davidson, wasn’t having any of it. Appearing on The Howard Stern Show (via PageSix) to talk mostly about his fiancé, Davidson held nothing back when addressing Chase and his remarks. “He’s a fuckking douchebag,” the 24-year-old comic said. “Fuckk Chevy Chase… he’s just a genuinely bad, racist person and I don’t like him. He’s a putz.” He wasn’t done, either: “What has he done since ’83? Nothing. He had a big career and then it stopped because everybody realized he’s a jerkoff. He should know more than anybody. It’s disrespectful to Lorne [Michaels] too, a guy who gave you a career. No matter how big you get, you can’t forget what that guy did for you.” Well, in Chase’s defense, he did have Community in the late-’00s/early-’10s. But we all know how that ended. Saturday Night Live returns for its 44th season on September 29th. Adam Driver hosts while Kanye West makes his seventh appearance as musical guest. Source

In today’s instalment of fashion meets electronic music we’ve got the Gorillaz x G-Shock collection. Hitting the ripe ol’ age of 35, G-shock has cemented itself as a bit of a fashion icon and has decided who better to rock the tough watch than the Gorillaz who are always doin’ dumb dangerous stuff. Accompanying the tease is a cheeky video, the first in a series of three, so strap in because we’re in for a bit of Gorillaz content yet. We’re yet to see the complete watch collection itself, but I mean how much can the G-Shock really be altered? Check the video below and the early image of the watch and tell us if you’d cop! Source

While Kingdom Hearts didn’t make our list of top 5 video game soundtracks there’s no doubt that it’s up there with one of the most iconic soundtracks. It’s no wonder that Skrillex has jumped at the opportunity to help with the opening theme for the Disney themed roleplaying game having made it very obvious that he’s a big fan, having posted about the series before. He’s teamed up with Poo Bear and J-pop vocalist Utada Hikaru for the tune titled Face Your Fears and if the reports are true it’s meant to be a super important part of the game. We’re yet to find out if we’ll be getting the classic bass influences of Skrillzy or if it’ll be more of a classic composition style piece, but one thing’s for sure, we’re hanging out to hear it. Tell us what you think, is this one of Skrillex’s better collaborations? Source

From the Father of Techno, Perc to a Brixton favorite Ansome, we present to you techno artists from around the world. Get to know these artists, then listen to our carefully curated playlist. Let’s start off with Hironori Takahashi, a Kentucky raised farm boy turned techno DJ, no not really… Hironori has a strong presence in Japan’s scene. A couple singles that drew us into Hironori Takahashi’s Tokyo techno are called ‘Circules’ and ‘Venatrias’.  Hironori Takahashi ‘Venatrias’: Next, feel Ansome’s surg, a Brixton favorite known around the globe. Ansome Following, find yourself listening to a beloved Madrid artist known as Regal. With exclusive singles like ‘Acid Is The Answer’ and ‘Send Nudes’, you will be hard pressed to find much of his material entirely available, so go catch him live. After digging through Regal‘s catalog we were able to find a full version of his, ‘Action’ to add to our playlist. Listen to Regal’s ‘Action’: Next we present some dark techno from Scutum Man out of a town called Galicia in Spain with his quick single ‘Bamboo Arp’. Listen to Scutum Man’s ‘Bamboo Arp’: Then we have the record Force/Emerge featuring piercing cuts like ‘Lumi’. Listen to ‘Lumi’ (Inland Version): Saving the man known by many as The Father of Techno for last is Perc. Within our playlist you will find some of the Manchester native’s better known singles like ‘Leather & Lace’ and ‘Take Your Body Off’. First, plug into Perc‘s London Boiler Room set. Now, listen into our playlist to feel Hironori Takahashi, Ansome, Regal, Scutum Man, and Perc’s music pumping through your body and soul. The post 5 Clean Techno Artists from Around the World [Playlist] appeared first on EDM | Electronic Music | EDM Music | EDM Festivals | EDM Events. Source

It has been announced that OWSLA founder and extraordinaire Skrillex has co written Kingdom Hearts’ most recent theme song. The Disney owned role-playing video game was launched in 2002 and has since gained a huge following including from the legend himself. After posting a picture of the games characters in 2016, he has not hidden his love for this game. Now, he can put his dreams into action and curate a theme song for the third edition, ‘Face My Fears” with singer-songwriter Utada Hikaru and producer Poo Bear. This new theme song will hopefully bring fans in from far and wide and will excite the current fans greatly. Kingdom of Hearts 3 III will be released January 2019. Click here for more information. The post Skrillex Co-Writes Theme Song for Disney’s Kingdom Hearts III appeared first on EDM Maniac. Source

Some absolute loose unit has shocked everyone but managing to survive a close encounter in a zoo enclosure with a bunch of elephants, thankfully they took pity on him and even lead him to safety. It all cracked off at Copenhagen Zoo in Denmark, when some random bloke decided he wanted to get up close and personal with the aninmals. It’s a pretty damn tense affair, it’s hard to forget that at any moment these elephants could say “fuck this guy” and proceed to stamp him into oblivion. However, they at least show him the common decency of a chance to escape, good onya. As you can see in the video, the elephants were primarily concerned about protecting their calf, even going as far to get a bit how ya going to the bloke who invaded their home. The man attempts to cool them off by stretching out his hands and walking off, which unbelivably does the trick. You can hear his missus in the background giving him a right earful, but he doesn’t seem the least bit concerned. When police rocked up later to see what the hell happened, old mate was gone. Now all we have of him is this grainy CCTV footage and a reminder not to go in an enclosure with elephants. Source

One’s enjoyment of Maniac is really going to depend on personal experience, and that reality exists on a few different levels. For one, an appreciation of creator Patrick Somerville‘s series is going to require at least a passing awareness of the Golden Era of Television, and how many different experiments have been performed on traditional episodic storytelling in the last five years alone. Maniac also deals with mental illness and its associated public manifestations in such a bracing manner that, good or bad, those who can relate to it will have a great deal to say. At large, that emotional connection is another key to enjoying the show, because if you don’t connect to it in some way, Maniac might otherwise be quite a chore to get through. Maniac is trying in several different aspects, but that’s not always a bad thing. Except for when it decidedly is, anyway. Loosely (we stress very loosely) based on a 2014 Norwegian comedy series, Maniac enters the late stages of a pharmaceutical trial in order to spiral through the looking glass. Using a bio-organic super-computer with a personality of its own, and the latest in chemical breakthroughs, Neberdine Pharmaceutical Biotech is closing in on a world-changing discovery: a medication capable of curing any and all mental traumas. It would “heal the brain,” in so many words. Everything from PTSD to family trauma to everyday sadness would be instantly mendable. Maniac, Netflix The only flaw? It’s a drug for humans, thus requiring human test subjects, and Maniac makes clear from its earliest scenes that the biggest danger to the experiment isn’t GRTE, the super-computer invented by James K. Mantleray (Justin Theroux) to develop physiological connections with the test subjects. It’s the simple, unavoidable thing that ruins most science: human error. Maniac turns surreal before long, but its protagonists are always fallibly human, on both sides of the experiment. On the one side is Dr. Azumi Fujita (Sonoya Mizuno), the head researcher on the GRTE project and the standard-bearer of Mantleray’s years of research. On the other are six people, four of whom met the many detailed requirements for participating in the study, which involves being sequestered in a lab for an indeterminate period and having your reactions to the new drug closely studied. The other two are the kind of wild variables for which no researcher could possibly account. There’s Owen Milgrim (Jonah Hill), the deeply troubled youngest son of a privileged family, who struggles to distinguish his innate lapses in reality with the years of abuse and trauma heaped on him by his WASPy family. And there’s Annie Landsberg (Emma Stone), who managed to get her hands on enough of the drug on the black market that she’s now addicted to its powerfully hallucinatory properties. But for both Annie and Owen, that’s not the only reason they’re there. To get into the motives driving each of the show’s troubled dual protagonists is to give away much of the disorienting joy of working through Maniac. The series, as created by Somerville and directed in full by Cary Joji Fukunaga, is of a piece with so many other recent narrative experiments in how far off the reservation a show can run from its initial premise before it begins to grow tiring. Unlike a great number of those, however, Maniac exists at a strange intersection between dramatic highs and off-putting lows, occasionally hitting each within minutes of one another. Its influences will undoubtedly be listed in the coming months and years, but it most immediately recalls Legion, another series obsessed with neon colors and seemingly random digressions and the interior lives of deeply flawed people. Like that show, it’s sometimes transcendent in its emotional power. Also like that show, it’s sometimes too precious by half, which can work in some storytelling contexts and usually struggles in ones involving profound trauma. Fukunaga’s direction will undoubtedly find its following, but it’s the kind of showy visual filmmaking that some audiences will love and others will absolutely loathe, without allowing for too much room in between. From the VHS-tinted introduction starring an aloof Theroux to Owen’s anachronistic office full of IBM-style word processors to the Blade Runner shadings in his vision of a near-futuristic New York City, Maniac is designed to be embraced with open arms by film school types who privilege aesthetic over all. But by the time the series reaches the lab, all Logan’s Run opacity and Refn swatches of primary color, Maniac has done a great deal of both showing and telling while occasionally struggling its way to a salient point. Maniac, Netflix That’s the series in microcosm, really: it’s beautiful, it’s stylish as hell, and at points it’s as interesting as anything on TV all year. When it goes off the rails, however, it’s hard to tell which way is up, or why one should care. To the point of the former, at least, Maniac‘s best attributes are front and center. Much has been made of Stone and Hill reuniting onscreen for the first time since Superbad 11 years ago, but in that time, both have changed substantially as performers. Hill recalls Adam Sandler’s poignant work in Punch Drunk Love here, turning Owen into the kind of man who’s been beaten into submission (figuratively and literally) for so many years that he can barely speak above a mumble or function on his own. Stone does some of her best work to date here as Annie, offering a more convincing version of her caustic Birdman mode as somebody who’s found a very particular way of dealing with trauma and finds herself holding onto it for dear life, no matter where it takes her. The parts of Maniac left to interpretation tend to be the show’s best, because that’s where Somerville and Fukunaga find the show’s messy soul. Maniac is as much a show about the wounds we can’t close (or refuse to), and in each of the heady “trip” sequences kicked off by the pills, only a few things tether the viewer to the familiar. There’s always either Hill or Stone, and the people they recognize. For Owen, it’s his severe father Porter (Gabriel Byrne) and his shitheel older brother Jed (Billy Magnussen, terrific). For Annie, it’s her sister Ellie (Julia Garner), from whom she’s been estranged for some time. When Maniac really digs into the roots of the trauma driving both Owen and Annie mad, it recalls the most evocative sequences of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: trips through the consciousness that drive at how the mind will never ultimately win out over the heart. When it leaves the hallucinations, things get shakier. Maniac works in a riot of themes and modes as it unfolds, and by far the least engaging of them is the psychology going on behind the control panel. While Mizuno and Theroux both do terrific work, as scientists from wildly different schools of thought hoping to change the world as it’s going mad around them, the lab sequences leave some of the season’s later emotional revelations feeling flatter than they should. Where Annie and Owen’s adventures are at least enthralling whether or not they work (it’s about a 60/40 ratio in favor), Fujita and Mantleray’s struggles to figure out why GRTE isn’t working the way they want seem to be present for the sole sake of filling in the dramatic blanks that the hallucinations leave so thrillingly vague. Sure, it’s their arc that leads to a fantastic cameo performance down the stretch, but it often struggles to match the freewheeling verve of the central story. While Maniac‘s hyper-stylization occasionally works to heighten the stakes between each of its blissfully short episodes (it runs the gamut from about 25-45 minutes per), it also occasionally steers the show into lurid places that exist at odds with its moments of genuine, earned sentiment. Maniac occasionally deals in the kind of hyper-violence that both prestige TV and Netflix in particular have made so fashionable of late, but Fukunaga carries several of these sequences to such a vicious extreme that they feel culled from an entirely different series. There’s a clear thread being drawn between interior anguish and exterior savagery, but it’s never defined well enough to make a man being cleaved in half by a shotgun blast seem like it belongs in the slightest. Maniac, Netflix It also tends to diminish one of the series’ biggest conflicts, and the one that earns most of its power: Are people like Owen and Annie capable of being “all right”? Maniac has a couple of genuinely stunning sequences that engage with this concept, but it also ultimately adopts a strangely ambiguous attitude about the value of medication in mending emotional wounds that’s disarming at best and reminiscent of Garden State‘s insufferably smug “quit the pills, maaaaaan” attitude at worst. Maniac is certainly far less simplistic in its examination of mental illness and the various forms of suffering it can inflict on those with it, but that shouldn’t allow the show to entirely sidestep the issue of it flirting with the suggestion that more illness is psychosomatic than not. As you’ve probably worked out by now, Maniac is what the kids on Twitter refer to as “a lot.” It’s personal and broad, emotionally raw and visually indulgent, compelling even when it’s infuriating from time to time. In that sense, it’s exactly the kind of series that could only exist in this particular moment: an audacious challenge that’s also at least a little bit up its own ass, and knows and acknowledges it with frequency. It’s not going to be for everybody, but it’s absolutely going to stick with everybody for a while. Whether they love or hate it might just depend on what they can see of themselves in it. Source

[Image via: Mixmag] Genealogy giant Ancestry have teamed up with streaming service Spotify for a project that’s honestly pretty cool. The two have come together to get you in touch with music that speaks to your culture and background. Ancestry have made it so that when you sign up for the program, sending in your saliva and what not they’ll input the data to Spotify. In turn it’ll select a bunch of tracks that will reflect the cultures of your ancestors and mixed in with your listening habits will create what they’ve coined as your ‘musical DNA’. This idea came as an attempt by Ancestry to help people “experience their culture and not just read about it” and what says experience more than listening to tracks that resonate with your cultural history? Check out the full service here, at $99 USD there’s probably better ways to spend your money, but if you’re using Ancestry anyway, why not? [Via: Mixmag] Source

Earlier this month, Anderson .Paak offered fans an update on Oxnard, his new album and the follow-up to 2016’s Malibu. Not only was Dr. Dre “heavily” involved, but DOOM and Freddie Gibbs producer Madlib also had a hand in the hotly anticipated LP, which .Paak is hoping will take today’s music to the next level. “I feel like ambition is missing from today’s music,” he told Rolling Stone. “This is the album I dreamed of making in high school, when I was listening to [Jay-Z]’s The Blueprint, The Game’s The Documentary, and [Kanye West’s] The College Dropout.” If the aforementioned guests weren’t enough to help .Paak capture this “ambition,” this one certainly might: Kendrick Lamar. In an Instagram post over the weekend, .Paak teased a forthcoming collaboration with Compton’s Kung Fu Kenny. It’s unclear whether their joint effort will be a song, video, or what, but we do know this gift is officially dropping October 4th. Mark it on all your calendars. (Read: The 25 Most Anticipated Albums of Fall 2018) Oxnard serves as .Paak’s first release on Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment and last of “his beach series.” Although a firm release date has yet to be revealed, it’s expected to hit shelves sometime in 2018. A social media post suggests Dre just put the finishing touches on the LP a couple of days ago. Source

Blink and you’ll likely miss a new update from Spotify. Over the past few weeks, the streaming giant has increased the number of downloads users can possess and opened the hatch for independent musicians to upload their music directly. Now, Spotify is doing stuff with DNA! Spotify has partnered up with Ancestry.com to offer playlists based on one’s genetic heritage. In other words, a collection of music that’s based on all the different regions in one’s genetic code. So, if you’ve got German blood, get ready for Kraftwerk. Of course, as with anything involving two conglomerations, there’s a catch. As Spin notes, Ancestry’s terms of service requires you to give up partial rights on how the company uses your DNA, and anyone who’s read a Michael Crichton novel knows that ain’t good. Stay tuned next week when Spotify starts delivering bands to your doorstep. Source

With all the news coming out about Joaquin Phoenix’s The Joker over the last few weeks (including our first look of the star in and out of the makeup), we almost forgot there was another Clown Prince of Crime flick in the works. And then new details about the film’s potential plot came out and we wish we’d never remembered it existed. Set to star Jared Leto and Margot Robbie reprising their Suicide Squad roles of Joker and Harley Quinn, the movie is being penned by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. The pair wrote Bad Santa and are executive producers on This Is Us, and it seems like they’re marrying both those productions in an unholy, DC-based union. “It was sort of like, we wrote Bad Santa a couple of years ago, and it was that sensibility mixed with our This Is Us sensibility. We kind of meshed them together,” Ficarra told Metro. “We were doing a relationship movie but with the sensibility of a Bad Santa, f—ed up, mentally deranged people. It was a lot of fun.” (Read: 10 Other Female Comic Book Characters That Need Movie Adaptations) A twisted Harley/Joker romance sounds decent enough for a movie, but something about This Is Bad Santa doesn’t strike as terribly appealing. Especially when you hear Ficarra describe the opening scene: “The whole thing starts with Harley kidnapping Dr. Phil. Played by Dr. Phil, hopefully. Because her and the Joker are having problems with their relationship.” Because nothing says “trendy superhero blockbuster” like a Dr. Phil cameo. Still, there’s a chance we might never even see this version of the movie. “We handed the script in and everybody loved it, but I don’t know when they are going to do it,” Ficarra explained. He added it’s likely that the Harley/Joker film will depend on the reception to Robbie’s Birds of Prey spinoff. Speaking of which, the Cathy Yan-directed Birds of Prey has been given at February 7th, 2020 release date by Warner Bros. (via The Hollywood Reporter). The studio has also reportedly been testing actresses to star alongside Robbie’s Harley Quinn in the all-female team-up. It looks like they’ll be changing the race of Black Canary to better suit her name, as Janelle Monáe (Hidden Figures), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (A Wrinkle in Time), and Jurnee Smolett-Bell (TV’s Underground) are up for the part. Meanwhile, The Leftovers’ Margaret Qualley, 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Cristin Milioti of TV’s Fargo are contending to play Huntress. According to THR, actresses are also being sought for the roles of detective Renee Montoya and Cassandra Cain, a character who once wore the Batgirl digs but now goes about as Orphan. (Read: 20 Years Ago, Blade Made Comic Book Movies Credible) Birds of Prey is just one of several DC projects in the works. Aquaman opens December 21st, while 2019 will see the release of Shazam! (April 5th), The Joker (October 4th) and Wonder Woman 1984 (November 1st). Ezra Miller is set to film his Flash solo film with Spider-Man: Homecoming writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein in February with hopes for a 2020 release. Matt Reeves wants to lens his Batman film in the first part of 2019, as well, but there’s still the matter of who will wear the cape and cowl. Meanwhile, we may have seen the last of Henry Cavill as Superman, as DC/WB are focused more on getting their Supergirl movie off the ground with writer Oren Uziel. We can only assume The Green Lantern Corps. and a Cyborg film are still in the mix somewhere, as well. Source

Mad Mel will ride once again: According to Deadline, Warner Bros. has tapped the Oscar-winning director to produce, co-write (with Bryan Bagby), and direct a remake of Sam Peckinpah’s iconic 1969 Western, The Wild Bunch. True to its name, the original starred Hollywood badboys Wiliam Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien, Warren Oates, Jaime Sanchez, and Ben Johnson as an aging group of outlaws on the lookout for one last big score. At the time, Peckinpah’s film was seen as incredibly violent, which is essentially Gibson’s forte. His last outing, 2016’s World War II epic, Hacksaw Ridge, hardly shied on the gore, and one has to imagine this reimagining will be plenty wild. Odds are we probably won’t see Gibson on the saddle, though it would be nice if he tagged some old pals, namely Danny Glover, Jodie Foster, Rene Russo, Vince Vaughn, James Caviezel, Brendan Gleeson, and/or Brian Cox. We’ll see. In the meantime, Gibson remains hard at work on his next film, another World War II drama, titled Destroyer. Based on John Vukovitz’s novel, the film will star Mark Wahlberg, who recently shared the screen with Gibson in Daddy’s Home 2. Source

Al Matthews, character actor who portrayed the cigar-smoking Sgt. Apone in James Cameron’s Aliens, has died at the age of 75. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a neighbor found his body at his home on Spain’s Mediterranean coast this past Saturday. Born on November 21, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York, Matthews began singing with various street-corner groups in his teens, eventually finding a place among the Greenwich Village folk scene. He was no doubt influenced by his great uncle, the legendary Cab Calloway. During the Vietnam War, Matthews spent six years in the United States Marine Corps, earning 13 combat awards, including two purple hearts. He became the first black Marine in the 1st Marine Division in Vietnam to be promoted to the rank of sergeant. Following the war, Matthews moved overseas to Europe, working as a folk singer and scoring a hit with the Pierre Tubbs-written “Fool”, which reached No. 16 on the UK Singles Chart. By 1978, he became the first black disc jockey to join Radio 1 in Britain. Throughout the ’80s, Matthews made a name for himself in film, television, and theater, appearing in 1980’s Rough Cut, 1981’s Omen III: The Final Conflict, 1983’s Superman III, and eventually 1986’s Aliens. As Sgt. Apone, Matthews became a cult hero, thanks to his Marine background, which became paramount in the behind-the-scenes training for blockbuster sequel and much of his delivery. Years later, Matthews would go on to star in both 1997’s The Fifth Element and 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies. In 2013, he reprised his iconic role as Apone for the 2013 canonical video game, Aliens: Colonel Marines. Source