Latest news with #Friendship
The Age
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
Why can't men make friends? Ask Paul Rudd
Men should not have friends. At least that's what Friendship, the black comedy starring Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson, suggests. In the film, Craig (Robinson), is a slightly awkward suburban dad who meets his neighbour, Austin (Rudd). At first, the friendship flourishes – Austin even invites Craig to a gathering with his other male friends. But Craig becomes increasingly over-invested in the friendship, pushing further and further until the relationship completely fractures. Directed by Andrew DeYoung, the storyline is extreme, but it still explores a question many men have likely pondered at some point: Why is it so challenging to make friends with other men? It largely depends on how they've been raised, says Integrated Way relationship counselling specialist Daniel Lichtman. Many, particularly those in western cultures, are taught early on to be more emotionally contained and task-oriented rather than relationship-oriented. 'Many men don't necessarily seek out a relationship for the sake of having a relationship,' he says. 'When men are struggling, they're less likely to reach out to a friend for connection because they often feel more shame and embarrassment in vulnerability than women.' Instead, many opt for 'going at it alone', Lichtman says. It's a pattern of behaviour that appears to be getting worse. In 1990, 55 per cent of men told the Survey Centre on American Life that they had at least six close friends, but in 2021, that dropped to 27 per cent. Meanwhile, one in seven men say they have no close friends. Popular Australian men's forums suggest a similar trend locally. This isn't for a lack of opportunity. There are ample avenues for men to make new friends, says Lichtman, such as sports clubs and men's walking groups. Admission numbers also indicate plenty are actively taking part.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Why can't men make friends? Ask Paul Rudd
Men should not have friends. At least that's what Friendship, the black comedy starring Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson, suggests. In the film, Craig (Robinson), is a slightly awkward suburban dad who meets his neighbour, Austin (Rudd). At first, the friendship flourishes – Austin even invites Craig to a gathering with his other male friends. But Craig becomes increasingly over-invested in the friendship, pushing further and further until the relationship completely fractures. Directed by Andrew DeYoung, the storyline is extreme, but it still explores a question many men have likely pondered at some point: Why is it so challenging to make friends with other men? It largely depends on how they've been raised, says Integrated Way relationship counselling specialist Daniel Lichtman. Many, particularly those in western cultures, are taught early on to be more emotionally contained and task-oriented rather than relationship-oriented. 'Many men don't necessarily seek out a relationship for the sake of having a relationship,' he says. 'When men are struggling, they're less likely to reach out to a friend for connection because they often feel more shame and embarrassment in vulnerability than women.' Instead, many opt for 'going at it alone', Lichtman says. It's a pattern of behaviour that appears to be getting worse. In 1990, 55 per cent of men told the Survey Centre on American Life that they had at least six close friends, but in 2021, that dropped to 27 per cent. Meanwhile, one in seven men say they have no close friends. Popular Australian men's forums suggest a similar trend locally. This isn't for a lack of opportunity. There are ample avenues for men to make new friends, says Lichtman, such as sports clubs and men's walking groups. Admission numbers also indicate plenty are actively taking part.
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
At Newport Folk Fest's final day, joyful defiance and an all-star jambore
With an ace house band led by Bonny Light Horseman's Josh Kaufman, a parade of the weekend's headliners and a few surprise guests tackled classic songs of unity and perseverance. Advertisement Maren Morris and Lukas Nelson played the parts of Janis Joplin and Kris Kristofferson, respectively, on a rousing cover of 'Me and Bobby McGee.' Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff sang Tracy Chapman's 'Talkin' Bout a Revolution.' Mavis Staples – 'the mother of Newport,' as Reilly called her – joined Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy on the stirring tune 'Friendship.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The reunited duo of the Swell Season, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, performed Van Morrison's 'Into the Mystic' with some help from the punchy horns of the Philadelphia funk group SNACKTIME. Newport perennial Nathaniel Rateliff knocked Leonard Cohen's well-traveled 'Hallelujah' out of Fort Adams State Park and over the Narragansett Bay. And the fast-rising folk songwriter Jesse Welles confirmed his status as a new darling of the festival by smashing his guitar to punctuate the Beatles's 'Revolution.' Advertisement Most of these 'seashells' had subtle – or not-so-subtle – messages of resistance, or making 'this land a better land/Than the world in which we live,' as the late New Orleans songwriter Allen Toussaint wrote on 'Yes We Can Can,' presented on Sunday by Trombone Shorty. (In another surprise, the National's Matt Berninger contributed a somber reading of the Flaming Lips's 'Waitin' for a Superman.') Matt Berninger, of The National, performs a surprise set at the Bike Stage on the third and final day of the Newport Folk Festival. Heather Diehl/For The Boston Globe But perhaps the most moving moment of the finale came when Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, the Berklee-trained co-founders of the band Lucius, put a pristine spin on the Beach Boys's 'God Only Knows.' Reilly, who was full of jokes and good cheer, tried to get the audience to sit down for that song, in a show of gratitude and reverence for the recently departed Brian Wilson. When the packed throng balked, he laughed: 'Hey, it's a free country, for now.' Throughout the day, showcase acts see-sawed from anguish about the state of the world to joyful defiance. Before noon on the Quad Stage inside the old fort's stone walls, the South African group BCUC fed the early birds with their heavily percussive psychedelic sound. Frontman Nkosi 'Jovi' Zithulele called for a moment of silence 'in the name of your loved ones' and brought the band's exuberant set home by jumping on the back of the cowbell player. On the Fort Stage overlooking the harbor, the veteran songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter noted that this was the 30th anniversary of her Newport debut. 'It feels emotional,' she said. 'The passage of time. The people who are here, and the people who are not.' Advertisement Midday sets by the Indiana late bloomer Stephen Wilson Jr., the British songwriter Tom Odell, and the Chicago indie band Dehd (whose cockeyed boy-girl vocals gave off a Pixies-ish vibe) were all well-received. Mitch Cutts, leader of the Seattle-area folk-rock band Richy Mitch & the Coal Miners, spoke for several of his peers when he gushed about playing Newport for the first time: 'I could yap about it all day.' Hansard introduced the Swell Season's Cohen-esque new song 'Great Weight' as a glimpse toward an 'imaginary future date,' when a great weight has lifted. The most satisfying set of the day may have been Margo Price's. The Nashville singer and her new band, featuring guitarist Sean Thompson, played classic honky tonk with finesse. They opened with Price's own wistful origin story 'Hands of Time' before stomping through 'Tennessee Song,' and then lamenting the failures of the American Dream on 'All American Made.' Reilly joined Price and her husband, Jeremy Ivey, around an old-fashioned condenser microphone for a roaring take on Bob Dylan's 'Maggie's Farm.' The set wrapped with Price's new single, 'Don't Let the Bastards Get You Down,' inspired by Kristofferson. Mt. Joy performs at the Fort Stage on Sunday at the Newport Folk Festival. Heather Diehl/For The Boston Globe The timeless cosmic Americana of the Grateful Dead provided one of the day's recurring themes. After instantly grabbing the audience with one of their newest songs ('Pink Lady') and their oldest ('Astrovan'), the spirited Philly band Mt. Joy played a rocking version of the Dead's take on the traditional 'I Know You Rider.' Jeff Tweedy prefaced his upcoming solo album, 'Twilight Override,' with a crystalline set on the Quad Stage that owed more than a little debt to the Dead. Later, during the 'Songs for the People' closing set, Goose's Nick Mitarotonda stepped into Jerry Garcia's boots on the Dead's 'Eyes of the World.' Advertisement 'Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world,' as those lyrics, sung by a chorus that featured Sarah Jarosz and Bonny Light Horseman's Eric D. Johnson, went. 'Kindness is not a luxury,' Reilly said by way of introduction to that song. For those who return every year to Newport – and there are many – the festival creates a vibe, he said, 'that you have to bring to the world. 'Be the world you want to see,' he added. NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL At Fort Adams State Park, Newport, R.I., Sunday The crowd is energetic for Mt. Joy's set at the Fort Stage. Heather Diehl/For The Boston Globe
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Michael J. Fox's forgotten fling with Nancy McKeon sparked friendship with future Melrose Place star
Michael J. Fox has long been pals with Doug Savant, as they met via The Facts of Life star Nancy McKeon, who Fox dated in the mid-1980s. Savant, 61, chat about his longtime friendship with Fox, 64, to People at Lifetime's Summer Soirée event, held at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel July 16. Savant spoke with the outlet in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the August 1985 release of the comedy Teen Wolf. Savant - who would find fame playing Matt Fielding on the nighttime soap Melrose Place in the 1990s - appeared in the film as a rookie actor opposite Fox. Fox was one of the biggest stars of the 1980s with his roles as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties and time traveling teen Marty McFly in the Back To The Future franchise. In the movie, Savant portrayed of Brad, a classmate and basketball teammate of Fox's lead character, Scott Howard, a teenage high school student who had the ability to transform into a wolf. Savant expounded to the outlet about his connection to Fox through McKeon - and how it tied into his Southern California roots. 'I grew up in Burbank, California, and I went to school with Philip McKeon and Nancy McKeon – Nancy McKeon from Facts of Life and Phil McKeon from Alice,' Savant said. 'And we were dear friends.' Savant said that he didn't tell Fox about his connection with McKeon, 59, specifically in an effort not to bother the star. 'I just wanted to do my job and be professional, but I had not said anything, said Savant, who also is known for playing Tom Scavo on the hit ABC series Desperate Housewives. Savant said that a week into production, Fox figured out the connection and confronted him about it. 'He went home and Nancy asked, "Who's in the movie with you? Let me see the call sheet." And she said, "Doug Savant? We were family friends."' Savant added, 'One day, Michael comes to work, he says, "Why didn't you tell me that?" He was upset with me that I had not told him.' After that, a fast friendship formed, according to Savant, who said that he 'had a great time' working with the beloved actor on Teen Wolf. Savant said that he looks back with nostalgia on his work on the motion picture: 'I have such great memories from that film.' He added of the movie's longevity: ' The movie has had a stunning lifetime, and people love it. 'They made sequels, and it resonated. So I'm just grateful to have been a small part of it. Savant said the movie was on TV while he was working on a new project and jarred his nostalgia. He recalled: 'The craft service person would play movies, and he puts on Teen Wolf. And there I was doing my job on a new show, but watching Teen Wolf in the craft service trailer.' Fox in 1985 met actress Tracy Pollan, who worked with him on Family Ties, but 'their relationship remained platonic, however, as they were both dating other people at the time,' People reported. They commenced dating after working together again on the 1988 movie Bright Lights, Big City, and married that same year. Fox and Pollan are parents to four adult children: son Sam Michael, 36, twin daughters Aquinnah Kathleen and Schuyler Frances, 30, and daughter Esmé Annabelle, 23. The Back To The Future star was 29 in 1991 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and went public with the information in 1998. He has spent the years since working tirelessly on charitable efforts toward funding research with a cure in mind.
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wendy Ide's pick of other films: Friendship, Four Letters of Love, Gold Songs and Smurfs
Friendship (101 mins, 15) Directed by Andrew DeYoung; starring Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara The minefield of male friendship has long been a rich source of inspiration for film-makers, to the extent that a whole new term – the bromance – gained currency in the early 00s to describe a certain kind of boys ' club buddy movie. I Love You, Man, starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, was the classic example, but there are numerous others. Friendship, the squirm-inducing feature film debut from TV comedy director Andrew DeYoung (Dave, Our Flag Means Death) shares some DNA with the blustering broad comedy of the bromance, but it's a grotesquely deformed mutation of the genre. This is the kind of humour that is as likely to have you chewing your fists to bloody nubs from second-hand embarrassment as it is to generate laughter. Tim Robinson stars as Craig, an unpopular dork with a soul-crushing office job, a wife (Kate Mara) who is drifting into a relationship with another man and a wardrobe consisting of the shade of brown that you find when you unclog the kitchen sink. When Craig meets his new neighbour, local news weatherman Austin ( Rudd), it seems that he might finally have found a friend. Unfortunately, Craig's negligible impulse-control and non existent social skills inevitably make things weird. It's entertaining enough, in a The Cable Guy-meets-The Office, teeth-grindingly uncomfortable way. But Craig is an extreme and unlovely creation. Four Letters of Love (110 mins, 12A) Directed by Polly Steele; starring Pierce Brosnan, Helena Bonham Carter, Gabriel Byrne The country of Ireland is treated to another misrepresentation by a movie industry that seems compelled to filter all depictions through an emerald-green lens and a thick layer of whimsy. This adaptation of Niall Williams's best selling romantic novel features a bingo card full of Irish clich es, including meddlesome ghosts, rebellious convent schoolgirls and a character who plays his penny whistle so vigorously he lapses into a catatonic state. Feisty west coast islander Isabel (Ann Skelly) and forlorn, waxy-looking youth Nicholas (Fionn O'Shea) are destined to be together. But his unreliable, aspiring artist father (Pierce Brosnan) and her meddling mother (Helena Bonham Carter) keep getting in the way. There's also the small problem that Isabel is married to a feckless fellow she met while playing truant from her Catholic school. Fans of wide shots of vintage buses trundling through the most scenically blessed corners of the island may find much to admire, but this is a saccharine and insincere slog. Gold Songs (93 mins) Directed by Ico Costa; starring Domingos Marengula, Neusia Guiamba Love is a luxury for young people in the small, rural town in Mozambique where this slow-burning story starts its journey. And despite the heady attraction between them, Neusia (Neusia Guiamba) and Domingos (Domingos Marengula) find themselves priced out of the market for romance. She's still at school; he toils at a car wash for a boss who regularly fails to pay his workers. Both know that to build a future, they first need a financial foundation. So Domingos leaves, travelling to the north of the country to join his uncle hauling sacks of earth out of the precarious pits that pass for gold mines. The spark between Neusia and Domingos falters as time and distance take their toll. The melancholy and rather lovely second feature from Portuguese director Ico Costa (Alva) , the film's use of non-professional actors blurs the boundaries between fiction and real life – Gold Songs was developed with the participation of local people who shared their stories. The growing gap between the two characters is elegantly captured by the shooting styles of their diverging stories. Domingos, on his fruitless quest for a better life, is in constant motion, with the agitated camera trailing behind him like a stray dog. Back in the village, Neusia finds herself pregnant, her sadness and stillness captured by a subdued and watchful lens. Deep down, they both know that the further they grow apart, the less likely they are to find each other again. Smurfs (92 mins, U) Directed by Chris Miller, Matt Landon; starring Rihanna, James Corden, Nick Offerman Belgium's small, blue and inexplicably popular cultural gift to the world gets a reboot in this revamped Hollywood animation directed by Chris Miller (Puss in Boots). Smurfs has an all-new voice cast (Rihanna takes over the role of Smurfette from previous incumbents Demi Lovato and Katy Perry) and a tone that veers between knowing irony and wigged-out surrealism. But the excitable colour palette, roster of familiar evil-doers and rigidly enforced nominative determinism remains unchanged. This provides a premise: while Clumsy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Hefty Smurf and the others have a unique defining characteristic, No Name Smurf (James Corden) has yet to find his 'thing'. A wish tacked on to an underwhelming musical number imbues him with magical powers, but no sooner has No Name learned to shoot fireworks from his fingers than he inadvertently summons the forces of evil in the form of malevolent wizard Razamel (JP Karliak). The picture borrows unashamedly and blatantly from Inside Out and the Spiderverse films, and the dimension-hopping plot line is tiresome. But the summer holidays are almost upon us and needs must, I suppose. Photographs by A24; Vertigo
