Latest news with #EurekaDay
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4 days ago
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‘Karate Kid: Legends' knocked as ‘uninspired' and ‘unnecessary' by critics
When it comes to Karate Kid: Legends, critics are taking a page from Cobra Kai's book and showing no mercy. Reviews, which just went online, largely knock the sequel for hitting too many of the same beats as its predecessors. Frank Scheck from The Hollywood Reporter says, "While no one could begrudge the seemingly ageless Ralph Macchio and beloved action star Jackie Chan the opportunity to reprise their roles of Daniel LaRusso and Mr. Han, respectively, this latest addition to an apparently unkillable franchise adds nothing original to the formula. It's a formula that works, to be sure, making for a pleasant enough time filler. But that's about it." More from GoldDerby 'There's no skimming a Wes Anderson script': 'The Phoenician Scheme' cast on working with the director 'The worst has already happened, so now I have everything to gain': Meagan Good on love, loss, and empowering women in 'Forever' 'Eureka Day' playwright Jonathan Spector talks vaccine debates, vicious comment sections, and 'the failure of a utopia' Joining Chan and Macchio is Ben Wang as Li Fong, the titular kid, and Ming-Na Wen as his mom. Li's journey brings together the two disparate branches of the film series, much like the character fuses the fighting styles of his teachers, kung-fu and karate. But all of these connections to the franchise's past may have a draining effect on Legends, as IndieWire's Wilson Chapman argues. "In the pantheon of unnecessary legacy sequels — distant continuations that dig up decades of history to occasionally transcendent but mostly exasperating effect — it's hard to come up with a film that gains less from its connections to the work it's tied to than Karate Kid: Legends. Partly, there's a deep sense of redundancy: the iconic '80s Karate Kid martial arts franchise has already been the subject of a six-season sequel series Cobra Kai that just concluded a mere three months ago, which had flaws but nonetheless inspired affection for its cheeky reverence to the cheesy charms of the 1984 original film." For Screen Crush's Matt Singer, it's Legends' lack of emotional character development that ultimately cuts it down. "The reason the original Karate Kid resonated so strongly with audiences was not the fight scenes; it was because Daniel and Mr. Miyagi were fully realized characters," he writes. "They spent long scenes talking to one another, learning from one another. The audience didn't cheer at the All-Valley Tournament because it was a well-choreographed fight scene. They cheered because they cared about Daniel." And while Variety's Owen Gleiberman saw many of the same flaws in the film, he argues that they coalesce to make for a breezy watch. "The film dunks us in a storyline so simple, so unironic, so cheesy-sincere, so analog that you may feel it transporting you right back to the 'innocence' of the '80s," he writes. "And that's actually the best thing about Karate Kid: Legends. It's a film that's unapologetically basic and wholesome and, at 94 minutes, refreshingly stripped down. In its formulaic way, it works as an antidote to the bloat and clutter of your average 'high-powered' teenage/kiddie flick." Karate Kid: Legends opens in theaters on Friday. Best of GoldDerby Marilyn Monroe movies: 15 greatest films ranked worst to best Clint Eastwood movies: 20 greatest films ranked worst to best Morgan Freeman movies: 15 greatest films ranked worst to best Click here to read the full article.
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4 days ago
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‘Road Diary' director Thom Zimny reflects on 25 years with Bruce Springsteen and capturing fans as ‘music hits their soul'
Director Thom Zimny has spent over 25 years collaborating with rock legend Bruce Springsteen, helping tell the story behind his music and performances. In his latest film, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Zimny takes fans behind the curtain, showcasing band rehearsals, rare clips, concert footage, and Springsteen's personal reflections. "What's different about Road Diary is that I had this opportunity to play with a bunch of different forms in the filmmaking process," Zimny tells Gold Derby. "I had vérité footage to work with, I had these moments of concert that I wanted to capture, and also, the band at this point was a narrative I wanted to explore." More from GoldDerby 'The worst has already happened, so now I have everything to gain': Meagan Good on love, loss, and empowering women in 'Forever' 'Eureka Day' playwright Jonathan Spector talks vaccine debates, vicious comment sections, and 'the failure of a utopia' Breakout star Owen Cooper admits 'Adolescence' was 'very out of my comfort zone' Springsteen hadn't toured in years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and Zimny saw an opportunity to explore themes of time, change, and connection. After receiving a call from the musician inviting him to 'drop in at the rehearsal,' Zimny assembled a small crew and began capturing behind-the-scenes moments. 'The story was the band going back on the road,' Zimny explains, 'but the bigger theme was [Springsteen] sculpting a set list that reflected what he was interested in at this moment — looking at the past and reconnecting with an audience.' Zimny's relationship with Springsteen began while working on the Live in New York City concert film for HBO. 'It was the early days of filming with HD cameras, and Bruce hated the way it looked. It was too cold, emotionally. I was a film guy and really connected to what they were struggling with,' Zimny recalls. Through creative approaches — like adding grain and treating musical moments as dialogue — Zimny forged a strong creative bond with Springsteen, which eventually grew into a decades-long collaboration. On the collaborative process for Road Diary, Zimny describes it as organic and improvisational. 'There was no set vision,' he says. 'What happens is, I go to his space, I film for a bit, I cut together some of the things that I see, and I invite him into the edit room... It just builds that way. It's a real luxury as a filmmaker to have that trust.' Zimny also wanted to bring fans closer to the emotional experience of a Springsteen concert. 'There's this moment that happens — and I've seen it many times — this deep connection in someone's face. It's in their eyes. I chase that visual representation of the music hitting their soul,' says Zimny. "I wanted to be this observer of how Bruce and his writing hit and impact an audience. That meant shooting things at certain angles and studying how stage lighting looked in daylight — really trying to find these slowed-down magical moments where you feel like, 'Oh my god. This music is really moving this person.' We're trying to tell as story, but also staying as close as we can to the true musical experience in the filmmaking." Even after working with Springsteen for so long, Zimny remains in awe of the musician's creative drive. 'Even after 25 years, I'm always surprised when he texts me the next adventure he's on,' Zimny shares. Reflecting on Springsteen's recent release of Tracks II: The Lost Albums, which features seven realized albums, Zimny adds, 'The body of work that he's created is just unbelievable. The big surprise that people can't possibly comprehend is the intensity and the focus he has with the work.' "There was a great opportunity with Road Diary to both explain that history and bring it up to date," Zimny shares. "The common thread that I found with all of it was this work ethic and commitment they all carried. Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is currently streaming on Hulu and Disney+. This article and video are presented by Disney and Hulu. Best of GoldDerby 'The worst has already happened, so now I have everything to gain': Meagan Good on love, loss, and empowering women in 'Forever' 'The Better Sister': Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks on their 'fun partnership' and the 'satisfying' killer reveal The Making of 'Beast Games': Behind the scenes of Prime Video's record-breaking competition series Click here to read the full article.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
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‘Eureka Day' playwright Jonathan Spector talks vaccine debates, vicious comment sections, and ‘the failure of a utopia'
Playwright Jonathan Spector describes his arrival on Broadway as a "wild" and "out of body" experience. Not only did he make his mainstream debut with Eureka Day, a comedy about vaccine mandates at an elementary school, he also became a Tony nominee. Speaking to Gold Derby, Spector describes the creation of that infamous Zoom live-stream scene, and why he believes that the play is actually about "the failure of a utopia." More from GoldDerby 'The worst has already happened, so now I have everything to gain': Meagan Good on love, loss, and empowering women in 'Forever' Breakout star Owen Cooper admits 'Adolescence' was 'very out of my comfort zone' Keanu Reeves gets his wings in 'Good Fortune' teaser, Taron Egerton sees 'Smoke,' and today's other top stories Gold Derby: was first produced in 2018. So much has happened in the world since then, especially as it relates to the core topic of this play, including a worldwide pandemic. How do you think the play lands now versus that 2018 production? Jonathan Spector: We were in rehearsal during the election and I guess I, probably naively, thought it was going to go the other way. So I had one idea about what I thought the play was going to mean in that context of opening with incoming President Kamala Harris. And then I have a different idea about how it landed now. It almost feels more like a document of how we got here, of the way in which caretaking and thoughtfulness and all of these tools of liberalism are just not quite up to meeting certain kinds of challenges, as evidenced by our failure to prevent [Donald] Trump from being reelected. Now [vaccines] are an issue that people have a much stronger personal connection to. Before the pandemic, people could engage with the metaphor of the play more easily as a sort of metaphor for democracy, or how you create a society with people when you can't agree on what's true. And then, coming out of the pandemic, it was hard for anybody to see anything but COVID in the play. And I think now it's a little more of a balance. The live-stream scene, although it's changed very little from what it was before, is very different for the audience because now everybody in the audience has lived through that experience many times. There's a much more visceral response to it. Did you ever want to alter the script in any way considering those changes in the world? There were a couple of very minor changes I made of just taking out a line here or there. Before COVID, I had to explain things a little more but now everybody knows what herd immunity is, so we don't need a character to explain that. Obviously the last line of the play is new, of looking forward to the 2019-2020 school year. Beyond that, all the changes I made were less about the pandemic and more about continuing to work on the play and just make it the best version of itself. That live-stream moment you mentioned gets the entire audience laughing with such recognition as we see these vicious comments projected on screen. What was the impetus behind that scene? When I was researching the play, I spent a lot of time on internet message boards where people would fight about vaccines and they would get so vicious with each other. So much of how we live now, how we engage with an issue, is online. So there was something that would be missing if I wrote a play about [vaccines], but left out that big part of how we engage with this. I also didn't want to make my characters be as nasty as people get online. The other part was just a desire to bring more of the school community into the play and not have it just be these five people who are representing everybody. The first production in Berkeley, that theater has a very old subscriber base. I think when they had done plays in the past with text projection, they found that people didn't really pay a lot of attention to it. So our expectation was that maybe most people wouldn't pay attention to it. But the first time we had an audience, you couldn't hear a word on stage because people were laughing so much. So I used to have continuous comments all the way through the scene. Then after realizing how people react, I then went through and I had to sculpt it much more to make sure that the things that are important to hear come in the clear, so the focus can shift back to the actors and then go back to the comments. The five main characters all have these very different views, and yet they are all firmly committed to creating this ideal world for the kids and families. Why was that sense of empathy important to include within the main characters? I think it's much more interesting if you're going to have any play with any kind of political valence or issue, that it's hard for people to be dismissive of each other. Prior to COVID, vaccines and vaccine skepticism was not particularly politicized. Knowing someone didn't vaccinate their kids didn't actually tell you if they were Democrat or Republican in the way that it now is very correlated, but back then it was maybe the only contentious issue that was not correlated with your politics. People on the right and left were both skeptical of vaccines for different reasons. So that then allowed it to be about people who all basically had the same worldview and the same values and wanted the same things, and it was just this one thing that they lived in different realities about. To me, the play is really about the failure of a utopia. They had this thing that worked really well for a really long time, until it finally came up against something that it couldn't overcome. The skepticism side of the argument is highlighted quite beautifully in Jessica Hecht's monologue. Her character Suzanne reveals a heartbreaking loss of a child, which led her down the path of vaccine denialism. What went into creating that moment? When I was writing that, my daughter was less than 1. That first year, you're so paranoid, you're always going in and checking if they're breathing constantly. So, when I listen to that monologue now, I think that's a very visceral fear. It's so distant from my life now, but at the time you could really touch it. And then I feel like it's always the most interesting, sometimes the most fun, to be writing from the point of view of the character who you disagree with, and trying to find the most truthful and empathetic way that they got there. The other thing that informed that monologue is I watched this documentary created by Andrew Wakefield, who's the discredited doctor who put forward the link between autism and vaccines and lost his medical license in the U.K. He is kind of a charlatan, but he put out this documentary about vaccines, and they have these parents whose kids have really severe developmental disabilities that they believe are caused by vaccines. And the thing is, even though that guy is clearly just a fraud, when you see these parents, even if I think they're wrong about the reason their kids are like this, the pain they're feeling about their kids is very real. I wanted to somehow hold onto it as well. Just because you might not be right about what's happening doesn't mean that there's not real suffering there. After the show ended, I heard a lot of audience members remarking that they unexpectedly felt for Suzanne. Have you heard positive reactions from audience members on both sides of this issue? I wanted to be really careful about feeling like you're being fair and truthful about where people are coming from, but not just ethically. If I felt like if somebody walks out of the play and feels like, oh no, maybe I shouldn't vaccinate my kids now, that would be like I was doing some real harm. I don't think that's where the play comes down. And all the research is that it's actually extremely difficult to change someone's mind about vaccines, and so it's not going to happen with a play. I mostly found that people have responded pretty positively. I guess a handful of pretty committed people that I've talked to who have seen the play, felt like their point of view was represented fairly. Somebody said they feel like everybody's ganging up on them all the time, and that's what was shown in the play. And so I was like, okay, well, I'm glad that they felt that. But, it's a tricky line to walk. That's what's so great about having these wonderful actors like Jess and Amber [Gray], who can hold such nuance in their performances. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby Who Needs a Tony to Reach EGOT? Sadie Sink on her character's 'emotional rage' in 'John Proctor Is the Villain' and her reaction to 'Stranger Things: The First Shadow' 'It should be illegal how much fun I'm having': Lea Salonga on playing Mrs. Lovett and more in 'Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends' Click here to read the full article.
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4 days ago
- Entertainment
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‘The Better Sister': Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks on their ‘fun partnership' and the ‘satisfying' killer reveal
Jessica Biel tells Gold Derby she couldn't have been more "excited" to find out who would be playing her sister on Prime Video's The Better Sister. "Me, too!" echoes Elizabeth Banks. In addition to playing estranged siblings Chloe (Biel) and Nicky (Banks), who are forced to come together after someone they know is murdered, the actresses both serve as executive producers under showrunner Regina Corrado. The murder-mystery limited series is based on the 2019 novel by Alafair Burke. "These are hard characters," Biel tells us (watch the full interview above). "These are challenging roles. You want to know that you have a partner who you can trust and who you know is going to bring it every day. More from GoldDerby 'The worst has already happened, so now I have everything to gain': Meagan Good on love, loss, and empowering women in 'Forever' 'Eureka Day' playwright Jonathan Spector talks vaccine debates, vicious comment sections, and 'the failure of a utopia' Breakout star Owen Cooper admits 'Adolescence' was 'very out of my comfort zone' "And I believed that we were sisters," Banks chuckles. "I believed it was possible, and that I was the big sister, which I am in real life. It just felt very correct. You know when you're being well cast, and I felt that we were both being really well cast, and that it was going to be a fun partnership, which it was." All eight episodes of The Better Sister will debut on May 29, so we want to know: Are the actresses binge-watchers, or do they prefer to space out their content? Biel declares, "I'm a binger, but sometimes I don't have the time to binge all that I want to binge, so I do go in chunks. I would definitely be one of those people up all night long till 5 a.m. or 6 a.m. watching everything, if I could." "I get, like, actually mad if I can't binge the show," Banks chimes in. "I do love a weekly drop, for our industry and for the culture. And there are things where I do want to sit with it for a minute before I get the next one. But, in general, if something's coming and I don't get them all, I'll wait and then I'll watch them in a couple days." They theorize that the reason murder-mysteries are so popular right now with viewers is because, "We're all mysteries to ourselves, [and] the audience is fully involved because they're doing the assessing and trying to figure it out, while it's all unraveling right in front of them." While Biel was "shocked" with the ultimate reveal of the killer in The Better Sister, Banks felt differently. "I was excited that it could have been anyone, and at the same time, I think it was the exact right person," she states. "That felt very satisfying to me." Prime Video Working with Kim Dickens as the detective was "a dream," raves Banks. "We're in love! Except she's married, and so am I. So, it's a platonic love. We have a great dynamic in the show, and we really lived it in real life. It was summer in New York, and we were having a fling," which included carpools, dinners, and Broadway shows. Crossing her arms and fake pouting, Biel chimes in, "I was kind of jealous of the relationship. No big deal. I'm still harboring that. I want to get invited to the fling!" Corey Stoll, who plays Adam, Chloe's current husband and Nicky's former one, has a "sophisticated" and "academic" personality when the cameras aren't rolling, the actresses claim. And Biel even got to meet his "fun dad guy" persona recently when all of their kids were hanging out together. Biel opens the show wearing an iconic white dress covered in blood, and she laughs, "There's always something really interesting about being covered in blood. I feel like I do a lot of that in my work. There's a weird combination of things that happen to you. But specifically, that dress was chosen for that reason — that stark white color and that bright red color." Also in our exclusive video interview, Biel and Banks talk about playing characters that are haunted by past traumas, what it was like physically fighting each other in the courtroom hallway, and what it would mean for the Emmy Awards voters to embrace The Better Sister. Biel is a former Emmy nominee for The Sinner (2018) and Banks received bids for 30 Rock (2011 and 2012) and Modern Family (2015). SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby 'The worst has already happened, so now I have everything to gain': Meagan Good on love, loss, and empowering women in 'Forever' The Making of 'Beast Games': Behind the scenes of Prime Video's record-breaking competition series TV Documentary panel: 'Brats,' 'Chef's Table,' and 'Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band' Click here to read the full article.
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4 days ago
- Entertainment
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Breakout star Owen Cooper admits ‘Adolescence' was ‘very out of my comfort zone'
Adolescence breakout star Owen Cooper was pushed out of his 'comfort zone' on the very first day of filming the four-part Netflix series. The young actor, who's been generating awards buzz for his role in the hit show, plays a 13-year-old boy accused of killing a female classmate after becoming entangled in the online world of male toxicity. He said diving into the emotional third episode — where his character, Jamie Miller, speaks with psychologist Briony Ariston (Erin Doherty) — was especially challenging. More from GoldDerby 'The worst has already happened, so now I have everything to gain': Meagan Good on love, loss, and empowering women in 'Forever' 'Eureka Day' playwright Jonathan Spector talks vaccine debates, vicious comment sections, and 'the failure of a utopia' Keanu Reeves gets his wings in 'Good Fortune' teaser, Taron Egerton sees 'Smoke,' and today's other top stories "We shot Episode 3 first, so that was very out of my comfort zone, but I was welcomed, I was comfortable day one," Cooper told Gold Derby on the red carpet at the series' FYC event at the Television Academy Saban Media Center in North Hollywood, Calif., on Tuesday. "The people that were around me made me feel safe." Netflix The heavy subject matter posed a real challenge for the 15-year-old, who made his TV acting debut on the series. Thanks to its gripping one-shot format — designed, cocreator Jack Thorne said, to keep viewers off their phones — all of the actors had to memorize their lines from start to finish. A single slip meant starting over. 'The script was challenging,' Cooper added. 'Learning all the lines was the most challenging part.' He wasn't alone in that experience. During the panel discussion at the event, actor Ashley Walters — who plays Detective Inspector Luke Bascome — recalled a major slip-up during Episode 2, just as he was wrapping up filming. 'We got to the end. I've done all that running at the end of the episode, caught this kid, and I'm walking back to sit in the car, and I called my son [on the show] the other kid's name,' Walters said. '[Director] Phil [Barantini] was so lovely. He came up to me after. He's like, 'No, it's fine. It's fine, it's fine, because it's like, you're a bit discombobulated,' and I was like, 'Mate, shut up. We've got to go again.'' The panel also featured cocreators Thorne and Stephen Graham (who also plays Jamie's father, Eddie), casting director Shaheen Baig, supervising sound editor James Drake, composers Aaron May and David Ridley, and cast members Doherty, Walters, and Cooper. Walters told Gold Derby on the red carpet that the Adolescence cast and crew were deeply supportive of one another and made time to decompress together — crucial, given the weighty themes of the series. 'It was a beautiful kind of process where we would shoot one take in the morning and then we'd have like three hours off. So we'd all eat lunch together in the afternoon, do things together and then shoot again in the evening, which made it really cool.' Doherty emphasized that ensuring a safe and supportive environment was a shared priority. 'From director to within the cast to Jack and Stephen, everyone was so conscious of the importance of the story and what we were making that we were such a family from day one, that you felt held,' she told Gold Derby. While Cooper said during the panel that 'Jamie didn't stay with me' after Barantini called 'cut,' he had access to a child psychologist on set, as well as a chaperone who also served as his tutor — and swing ball partner. Netflix 'I was perfectly fine,' Cooper said. 'I'd just go upstairs, play swing ball and I'd get back into tutoring.' Still, life has changed significantly for the teen since Adolescence premiered in March. 'The first day back [at school] was a bit chaotic,' Cooper said. 'It's not even like people trying to be nice, it's just people coming up to you.' He added, 'In the town center from where I'm from in England, they don't even say, 'Oh, yeah, you did really well.' They just shout your name.' Even though they knew they were creating 'something special,' Thorne said, neither he nor Graham expected Adolescence to become a global sensation. Both expressed gratitude that the show is sparking meaningful conversations between parents and their children. 'Talk to your children, listen,' Graham told Gold Derby. 'Don't talk, listen. Let them talk and just have that communication, that's the key. That was our overall objective, and if you're saying you had a conversation with your [child] after it, then we've smashed it.' Thorne agreed, telling Gold Derby, 'The best reactions I've had to this show are when friends of mine are saying, 'I've just had the conversation with my teenage kid that I haven't had for years. And we just opened up to each other and something special has happened.' 'That's been the most rewarding aspect of making Adolescence,' he added. Best of GoldDerby 'The worst has already happened, so now I have everything to gain': Meagan Good on love, loss, and empowering women in 'Forever' 'The Better Sister': Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks on their 'fun partnership' and the 'satisfying' killer reveal The Making of 'Beast Games': Behind the scenes of Prime Video's record-breaking competition series Click here to read the full article.
