Marc Jacobs's anti-politics, from faux nails to creative freedom
Along the steps leading into the New York Public Library on the last day of June, a small crowd gathered to watch a parade of guests make their way inside for Marc Jacobs's fashion show.
The arrivals included fashion editors, stylists and friends — many of them wearing Jacobs's designs. The more daring were dressed in recent runway ensembles, some of which made walking perilous and moving through narrow doorways a high-class geometry problem.
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Gizmodo
2 minutes ago
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‘Freakier Friday' Barely Scrapes By on Its Nostalgic Charms
Freaky Friday is back after over two decades since we last saw Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan swap bodies thanks to a suitably freaky family curse. However, Disney's new follow-up, in theaters this week, leaning heavily on the charms of a stellar ensemble, is a sequel constantly threatening to fall apart under the weight of uneven execution. In Freaky Friday, it was just mother Tess Coleman (Curtis) and her daughter Anna (Lohan) who swapped bodies, a kooky way for mother and child to better understand each other and come to terms with their respective journeys in life. In Freakier, directed by Nisha Ganatra, Ana is now all grown up herself with a teen daughter (Harper, played by Julia Butters) and ready to marry the father of said daughter's high school nemesis (Eric and Lily, played by Manny Jacinto and Sophia Hammons, respectively). While Tess attempts to help glue the new family dynamic together, there are plenty of interesting cracks forming among all the different relationships among them as they prepare to adapt to this new normal. Which is where, of course, the Coleman family curse triggers, hitting Anna, Tess, Harper, and Lily. With more body swaps this time around, things get convoluted quickly. Lohan is now playing Harper in Anna's Body, while Curtis plays step-sister Lily, and the duo seamlessly falls back in step with one another as they did 22 years ago. They really shine through some of the film's silliest hijinks, even if the setup to those slapstick moments feels nonsensical, even for a comedy. When Lohan and Curtis get to play, however, they give some much-needed depth and heart to the core of the film. Lohan likewise gets to lean into her romantic comedy sensibilities opposite Jacinto, and they make for a sizzling pairing, both in the comedic moments and in the more touching family relationship drama—it's just a shame that there isn't enough of them together in the film to mine that chemistry for all its worth. It takes Freakier far too long to really let us get to know the newcomers in Eric and Lily, their arrival undercut by needlessly overcomplicating Anna's backstory, covering the time between the two films with former high school drama. And that's kind of Freakier's big problem: it feels overstuffed in a lot of ways. Many gags go on for just a bit too long, even before the film digs into body-switching shenanigans, and a lot of the comedy, especially between the two teens, feels more like adults trying to write Gen Z kids rather than feeling particularly contemporary. Butters and Hammons are definitely underserved, having to play Tess and Anna in their teen bodies compared to the other half of the body-swapping drama—Freakier just wastes them until the final act, but it comes too suddenly and too late in the game to have any impact. That overstuffing definitely hits hardest in Anna's arc in the film, having to balance solo-parenting her daughter with her career managing an upcoming music artist, Ella (the scene-stealing Maitreyi Ramakrishnan). There's just too much going on that the film never does justice to, especially when it comes to why Anna left behind her own musical career with Pinkslip. For a comedy that also happens to run nearly two hours long, Freakier feels like it has too many characters in the mix, leaving so many of them (and the film's gags) getting short-changed trying to balance it all. What is most frustrating is that Freakier's smart updates to the body-swapping 'lore,' combined with the ensemble cast's chemistry selling it all in the first place, really work, only for the film itself to buckle under stereotypical constraints of the comedy genre. It's a movie that feels like someone kept interfering to add more jokes, throwing off the vibe of the film (alongside some questionable soundtrack choices, including not one, but two Chappell Roan needle drops that really just make it feel like someone realized she was having her moment last year, and was needed to make the film feel contemporary). The sheer force of Lohan and Curtis' dynamic getting to return to these characters brings some appeal to Freakier Friday (as do Manny Jacinto's charms and arms), but it's only barely enough to make up for the film's messy, overstuffed feeling, making this long-awaited return more of a Forgettable Friday than a particularly Freaky one. Freakier Friday hits theaters August 8. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
The Verge
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Forbes
4 minutes ago
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Disney Cruise Line Is Enhancing Entertainment Through Storytelling And Technology
Later this year, Disney Cruise Line will launch its seventh cruise ship, the Disney Destiny. The vessel is themed around the stories of heroes and villains. One story that will be performed inside the Walt Disney Theater is Disney Hercules, a Broadway-style retelling of the classic animated film. The show will feature larger-than-life musical numbers, puppets, cutting-edge technology and more to bring new energy to the stage adaptation of Hercules. For Disney Cruise Line, the ship's crown jewel is the Walt Disney Theater, where each night guests onboard will see performances featuring Disney characters and retelling Disney stories. What makes the Disney Destiny stand out among its other Wish-class ships (the Disney Wish and Disney Treasure) is the immense level of storytelling and technology that is blended together to make each stage performance top-notch. Although shows don't just appear onstage overnight, and Disney Hercules is no exception, new technology and storytelling techniques have enabled Disney to enhance its entertainment offerings onboard its new ships. A massive team of performers, choreographers, musicians and more has worked for nearly three years to bring Disney Hercules to life for the Disney Destiny, which will take its maiden voyage on November 20, 2025, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Designing theater, the Disney Cruise Line way 'We're so proud that we get to make theater that, for many people, is their first exposure to this art form that we're all so incredibly passionate about,' says Jenny Weinbloom, Vice President of Live Entertainment at Disney Signature Experiences. 'We're always incredibly thoughtful as we're developing these shows that we're making them for everybody.' Disney Cruise Line mainly draws nuclear and extended families who want to cruise together. Adults without children is also a growing segment for the brand, which makes sense since this is a booming guest segment at Disney Parks as adults look to tap into the nostalgia of their childhood. Why Disney Cruise Line chose Hercules for the Disney Destiny Disney has a deep vault of intellectual property to choose from for live performances. When it was announced that the Disney Destiny would be themed to heroes and villains, the theater creatives knew Hercules had to be the premier show inside the Walt Disney Theater. Not only was it already a musical with a classic score and soundtrack by Alan Menken, it was also one of the ultimate hero and villain stories from Disney's Renaissance era of the late 1980s and early 1990s. 'Hercules is kind of having a moment right now,' explains Weinbloom. 'Hercules is on the West End too, which is a delightful coincidence, but it's because this music is so incredible, the story is so incredible and it's kind of a perfect time to tap into the nostalgia of this amazing source material and to build upon it.' The new show, while telling the same story as the West End rendition, will be exclusive to the Disney Destiny. 'Our task is to take that story, take that music and reimagine it through the lens of a theatrical vocabulary,' says Weinbloom. '[We are] taking what's inherently animated about this story, stripping that away, and taking the story to its core and rebuilding it again for the stage.' Cutting-edge technology will bring Disney Hercules from Mount Olympus to the Disney Destiny This isn't the first time the Greek god has made its way to a Disney Cruise Line ship. Hercules: The Muse-ical could be seen on the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder from 1998 through 2008, and was earmarked as a musical comedy. While these two smaller ships have fantastic shows inside The Walt Disney Theater, the Disney Destiny has some major upgrades that have allowed the Disney Hercules production team to enhance the story through technology that was just not possible in the early 2000s. One of the biggest jumps in technology is the theater itself. 'Not all of our ships have the same theater. The Destiny is in the Wish-class of ships, so the Wish, the Treasure and the Destiny. They have significantly larger Walt Disney Theater venues than the smaller, older ships in the fleet. So they have different capabilities attached based on that scale and also based on the technology embedded within those venues,' explains Weinbloom. Another leap forward in technology is the on-stage puppets. Disney Hercules will have eight total puppets, including two towering Titan puppets. But these Titans aren't going to be manned behind a curtain like a marionette. The puppets are actually Exo-frames that were developed in partnership with Walt Disney Imagineering's research and development team. The puppet style was play-tested at the Disneyland Resort as an Incredible Hulk figure. For the show, there will be an earth Titan and a frost Titan that tower 9 feet and 13 feet tall, respectively, with actual performers inside the puppet. Additionally, Disney Cruise Line's rehearsal facility in Toronto, Canada, is a technological marvel. The facility's multiple rehearsal rooms are designed and marked just like the stage inside the Walt Disney Theater on each of Disney's cruise ships. There are also dedicated rooms for stunts and flying rigs, which are exactly the same systems used onboard each cruise ship, just in a different space, so performers can get plenty of practice in before heading to the ship. 'From a new show development standpoint, having the facility here has been integral to our process. We did a workshop on the ship and had all of these ideas about what we were going to do, but when we got here and into the actual space, lots of things changed,' explains Arin Dale, the Producer of 'Disney Hercules.' For Disney Cruise Line and Disney Live Entertainment, the goal for Disney Hercules, or any show inside The Walt Disney Theater, is for guests to be truly immersed in Hercules, going from zero to hero as he fights Titans and Hydras. As 'wow' moments come to life on stage, the idea that this may be Disney Cruise Line's most advanced stage show yet should fade into the background, as storytelling is the prime reason theater exists after all.
