Latest news with #NickelBoys
Digital Trends
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
3 underrated Amazon Prime Video movies you should watch this weekend (May 9-11)
Table of Contents Table of Contents Nickel Boys (2024) Mission: Impossible (1996) Warrior (2011) If you subscribe to Amazon Prime, as many people do, then you might be aware that you also have access to Amazon Prime Video. Just because you can access the streamer doesn't mean knowing what to watch is easy. Thankfully, that's where we come in. We've pulled together three very different movie recommendations to check out on the streaming service. Each speaks to how much stuff there is to explore, even as they're all fairly different. Recommended Videos We also have guides to the best new movies to stream, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+. Nickel Boys (2024) One of the most innovative and well-reviewed of 2024, Nickel Boys is adapted from a Colson Whitehead novel of almost the same name (they dropped the 'the'). The movie follows two boys who attend a reformatory school in Florida in the 1950s and are subject to the cruelties and abuse that come from the men who are responsible for their care. Filmed entirely in the first person, Nickel Boys is disorienting at first. Then, the 2025 Best Picture nominee roots you entirely in the perspective of its characters. This helps to understand how much their lives have been shaped by people beyond their control. You can watch Nickel Boys on Amazon Prime Video. Mission: Impossible (1996) Every Mission: Impossible movie is worth watching at least once, and the first in the franchise is one of the best. The film stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, an agent for the fictitious Impossible Mission Force forced on the run to prove his innocence after losing his entire team. Although the film has, at best, a loose understanding of how computers work, it's an impressive exercise in tension and suspense. The movie's most famous sequence, which involves a break-in and is highlighted by Cruise hanging from the ceiling, is just as good as anything the franchise would do afterward. You can watch Mission: Impossible on Amazon Prime Video. Warrior (2011) A heartwrenching, riveting sports drama from director Gavin O'Connor, who is quite good at them, Warrior tells the story of two brothers who are also MMA fighters. Anchored by great performances from Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as the two brothers, and even better work by Nick Nolte as their alcoholic father, Warrior is all about the pain that every family deals with and whether it's ever possible to overcome it. Along the way, we get to see two brothers rise up the ranks of MMA until they find themselves in the ring, facing each other. You can watch Warrior on Amazon Prime Video.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted' Review: A Free-Spirited Music Doc as Delightfully Weird as Its Subject
At one point in the free-wheeling music documentary 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted,' the eccentric 82-year-old musician is asked to describe his philosophy on life. 'Just be cool, you know?,' Swamp Dogg says. 'And it's fun being yourself. That's fun like a motherfucker. But you gotta find yourself.' It's a fitting summary of a creative life lived exactly on his own terms. A cult figure in certain music circles, Jerry Williams Jr. rose to prominence in the '70s for his satirical Southern soul records that were equally likely to feature radical political messages or cover art of Williams inside a hot dog bun covered in ketchup and mustard. He adopted the Swamp Dogg moniker to separate his public persona from his previous career as a Muscle Shoals producer who churned out gold records for other artists, though he continued to be a force in the music industry as a record label founder and producer who backed Dr. Dre's first records. And he continues to innovate into his eighties, experimenting with autotune banjo music from his home studio and touring regularly. More from IndieWire Acting Is More Than Performance: The Stars of 'Sinners,' 'Nickel Boys,' and More Offer Guidance How Chilling Sound Design, POV Shots, and an Uncanny Creature Create a Cinema of Perception in 'April' But in Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson's new documentary, Swamp Dogg's life of achievements takes a backseat to a more pressing matter: getting his pool painted. In an unspecified location in the San Fernando Valley, Swamp Dogg lives in a suburban enclave of creativity. His house is filled with loving freeloaders, primarily musician friends like Guitar Shorty, who asked to crash with him at one point or another and ended up staying for decades. The house is a hotbed for jam sessions and barbecues, but Swamp Dogg thinks it's missing one thing. He wants a picture of himself riding a rodent painted on the bottom of his pool so that it can be seen from the sky. 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted' begins with Swamp Dogg letting the pool painter into his backyard, but it quickly turns into a sprawling hang session featuring his housemates, neighbors like voice actor Tom Kenny, and his daughter. Swamp Dogg reminisces about his singular career, which eventually gives way to some obligatory archival footage, but the film is just as interested in celebrating the zest for life that the octogenarian currently enjoys. The result is a documentary that's as charmingly offbeat as its subject, whose greatest work of art might be the ridiculously fun existence he appears to be living out on a daily basis. Music documentaries have been almost irritatingly omnipresent in recent years, but 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted' is a refreshing change of pace that should delight even the most genre-fatigued viewer. The film never takes itself too seriously, gleefully pausing mid-interview to show Swamp Dogg answering his phone and politely telling someone that he'll have to call them back because he's in the middle of shooting a documentary. It certainly benefits from the fact that its subject will be unknown to many viewers, which frees the filmmakers from the expectation of a hagiographic trip down memory lane and permits them to focus on whatever interests their subject at a given moment. Of course, the approach is only possible because the man getting his pool painted is so damn charismatic. At 82-years-old, Swamp Dogg doesn't look a day over 60, and he boasts a razor-sharp mind and an infectious appetite for all of life's weird pleasures. Watching him meander through his backyard, talking shit with his buddies, exploring new sounds, and dryly calling every inconvenience a 'motherfucker' is the kind of offbeat delight that I would have gladly watched for three more hours. Seeing his excitement that a manufacturer has revived the lost art of writing profane messages on socks or proudly show his daughter his sparkly new shoes is more interesting than anything in his recording career, and Gale and Olson wisely sit back and let the current Swamp Dogg absorb the spotlight. More than any individual song or album, the film seeks to encapsulate the Swamp Dogg vibe. Effortlessly cool, thrilled to be alive, and mildly entertained by just about everything, the man offers what appears to be the perfect blueprint to stay in 2025. We can't all be Swamp Dogg, but it's nice to know the world still contains heroes worth looking up to. I sure hope he enjoys his new pool. A Magnolia Pictures release, 'Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted' opens in select theaters on Friday, May 2. Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film and critical thoughts? to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers. Best of IndieWire The 25 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies, Ranked Every IndieWire TV Review from 2020, Ranked by Grade from Best to Worst
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Quinta Brunson Admits Criticism of Her ‘Abbott Elementary' Character Janine Was 'Tough'
Quinta Brunson's mockumentary Abbott Elementary has amassed a great deal of success, but the sitcom hasn't received straight A's across the board. During a Tuesday appearance on Amy Poehler's Good Hang with Amy podcast, the Emmy winner opened up about the mixed response she's received about her character, second grade teacher Janine Teagues. More from The Hollywood Reporter Janelle James Reacts to Ava Being Fired on 'Abbott Elementary' and Last Year's Emmy Snub Quinta Brunson Files for Divorce From Kevin Anik, Husband of Three Years 'Nickel Boys,' Jennifer Hudson Top NAACP Image Awards Creative Honors 'I'll be real with you, [Janine is] a Black character,' Brunson told Poehler during their conversation. 'Black audiences have so few — still — representative characters on screen, and Black womanhood alone is so touchy.' Brunson admitted that it 'became tough' for her when 'women were seeing Janine not present as they wanted her to,' noting she 'understand[s] it.' The Abbott star and creator added that when she first conceptualized the role of Janine, she 'wasn't really thinking about representation, but she became representation.' 'I think it's important for us to have characters who are more realistic than they are the absolute best representation of us,' Brunson said. 'I think it creates layers for us not only on TV but in the public eye.' Brunson is a triple-threat, notably creating, writing and starring in Abbott since it debuted on ABC in 2021. The series spotlights a group of teachers working at the Philadelphia elementary school of the same name. Overall, Abbott has garnered a total of 24 Emmy nominations and four wins, including Brunson's 2023 win for outstanding actress in a comedy series and an additional win for its 2022 outstanding writing for a comedy series. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the comedian said she was 'very happy' about landing a fourth season of Abbott and that her team was in 'at a really chill place that I'm enjoying from a writing, creating and acting standpoint' following the joint actors and writers strike that shifted the show's third season. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'Yellowstone' and the Sprawling Dutton Family Tree, Explained The Cast of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' Then and Now A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Axios
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Tampa Theatre to host screening of Oscar-nominated "Nickel Boys," Q&A
The Tampa Theatre will host a special screening of "Nickel Boys" on March 22, followed by a discussion with filmmaker RaMell Ross, forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle and journalist Ben Montgomery. Why it matters: The film adapts Colson Whitehead's award-winning novel, a fictional portrayal of the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida, where students suffered horrific abuse for over a century. "Nickel Boys" had a limited theatrical run last year and was nominated this month for Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Zoom in: The film tells the story of Elwood Curtis, a Black teenager from Jim Crow-era Tallahassee, and his friend Turner as they navigate Nickel, an abusive reform school in Florida. Flashback: The Tampa Bay Times series, " For Their Own Good," written by Montgomery and former Times reporter Waveney Ann Moore, inspired Whitehead's novel. For 109 years, Florida sent wayward boys from across the state to Dozier — and the series chronicled the men who survived the school and demanded acknowledgment, resolution and reparation. Dozier closed in 2011, and soon after, researchers from USF found the remains of children in unmarked graves at the school. The big picture: Attendees will have the chance to hear from the filmmaker, along with the reporter and researcher who helped uncover the real story. The Florida Institute for Forensic Anthropology and Applied Science (IFAAS) at USF partnered with Orion Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios for the special screening. The event is free, and seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The Guardian
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Daveed Diggs' sci-fi rap trio Clipping: ‘We are at war all the time. It's one of the great tricks of capitalism'
As a child, Daveed Diggs and his schoolfriend William Hutson drew pictures inspired by the space-age album covers of funk legends Parliament, filled with gleaming UFOs and eccentric interplanetary travellers. Diggs would grow up to become an actor, winning a Tony award as the first person to play the roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton. He's since voiced Sebastian the crab in The Little Mermaid's live-action remake and appeared in Nickel Boys, which was nominated twice at this year's Oscars. But away from Hollywood and Broadway, he's still dreaming up fantastical sci-fi worlds with Hutson – now through one of the most imaginative, harrowing projects in underground rap. Along with Hutson's college roommate Jonathan Snipes – who had a similar childhood experience, inspired by the otherworldly paintings adorning classical albums – the friends formed Clipping in Los Angeles in 2010. Over Hutson and Snipes's production, Diggs weaves blood-soaked horror stories about racial violence or fables of enslaved people in outer space. On their new album Dead Channel Sky, he raps with mechanical precision over warped rave music, creating a noirish cyberpunk world of hackers, clubgoers, future-soldiers and digital avatars. Their music has earned them nominations for sci-fi's highest honour, the Hugo awards, and it's made all the more distinctive by Diggs's decision to avoid using the first person in his lyrics. 'In an art form that is so self-conscious, is it still rap music if we take that out?' he says on a video call alongside his bandmates. 'We discovered pretty quickly that it is, but that it also opened possibilities.' His raps feel like cinema or musical theatre, narrating action and voicing dialogue with characters of – generally – ambiguous gender and race. 'What we've found from fans is that, because we don't have much to do with these characters ourselves, it has allowed people to put a lot of themselves into them, to come up with reasons why this stuff is happening, and make links between songs we didn't think of.' Implicit in this approach is a critique of mainstream hip-hop: Hutson argues that its 'fiercely individualistic' bent, and obsession with authenticity, has bred conformity. 'The constraints of what you're allowed to talk about and who you're allowed to be as a rapper are so narrow,' he says. 'Nobody calls novelists inauthentic compared to memoirists – but in rap music that's apparently the case.' Described by Hutson as a 'CD compilation you've found in a used bin in the future', Dead Channel Sky is therefore filled with storytelling, with Diggs playing a different character on each song. On Ask What Happened, he's a troubled socially conscious MC listing human atrocities at warp speed, but over the mid-tempo house of Mirrorshades Pt 2, he becomes someone slick and aloof, describing a nightclub's strict dress code: 'God is not here – he forgot to rock his mirrorshades.' The characters all belong to the same destructive capitalist system, and this imagined society is at war: Welcome Home Warrior, with Diggs's too-friendly address to 'cyber rat-race escape artists', is done as a military recruitment message. Hutson says they're using a classic sci-fi trope, 'these colonialist, extractive, brutal wars on other planets', and it makes a fitting analogy for life in the west today, where our comforts are reliant on fought-over resources. 'We are at war all the time,' Diggs adds. 'It's one of the great tricks of capitalism and technology: to allow these things to happen in the name of capitalism, with us all participating in it but not feeling like we're affected.' His acting ability helps bring these characters to vivid life on record, but Diggs himself doesn't disappear completely. 'Any time I'm acting in something, whatever I've been reading, whatever I'm thinking, all that stuff finds its way into the person I'm inhabiting. The Clipping stuff is similar. Everything is in service to the story.' Plenty of reading material has informed Dead Channel Sky, especially William Gibson's 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer, which lends the album its title. Hutson says it was a horribly prescient book: 'We have a lot of the technology [from Neuromancer], a version of cyberspace, and we live in a corporatist, fascist dystopia.' But there are less widely known touchstones, too. The track Code samples the 1996 Afrofuturist film The Last Angel of History, in which a character seeks truth by consulting 'techno fossils': interviews about Black culture with speakers including techno music pioneer Juan Atkins, sci-fi author Octavia Butler and Parliament-Funkadelic's George Clinton. Snipes came across the film, and like Neuromancer, found it prescient. 'A hundred years from now, people are going to be finding abandoned data centres and trying to power them up and find out what's on there,' he grins. 'It's going to be like opening King Tut's tomb.' The trio are already well-respected in sci-fi circles. Their 2016 album Splendor & Misery was nominated for a Hugo award – only the second musical project considered since the awards began in 1953. They got their second and third nominations for their 2017 song The Deep and its 2019 novella remake with Rivers Solomon – these imagined an underwater society populated by water-breathing descendants of enslaved people. But their latest cyberpunk theme has a particularly strong affinity with hip-hop, they say, with both forms flourishing in the 1980s. 'The hacker and the hip-hop producer are both 'hacking' technology that wasn't made to do what they're doing with it,' Hutson says, referring in the latter case to turntablism and sampling. 'They're building a future out of the mass-produced garbage around them.' (The group's friend Roy Christopher made this argument in his 2019 book Dead Precedents, exploring rap as 'Black cyberpunk'.) Hutson sees those early days of hip-hop as very creatively liberated, and says the album's different rapping styles attempt to 'harken back to that time, when we didn't really know what rap was yet. You could rap over fast stuff, slow stuff, laser sounds – all this other silliness.' As well as hip-hop, cyberpunk is closely allied with rave music – think of the club scene in the Matrix, or Underworld, Orbital and the Prodigy on the Hackers soundtrack – and so Dead Channel Sky hops between dance sub-genres, including big-beat (Change the Channel), acid-house (Keep Pushing) and drum'n'bass (Dodger). But Hutson sees 'a weird contradiction' here. 'A rave is the most corporeal, embodied sense of joy,' he says. 'It's not about the connectivity of the internet – it's about being in a warehouse with a bunch of people.' This unsteady, contradictory relationship between the digital and the physical lies at the heart of Dead Channel Sky, where imagined realities prompt questions about our own: whether virtual realms of 'pixelated wind' are any flimsier than ours. Diggs suggests: 'If we are currently living in the apocalypse that the cyberpunk fiction of the 80s and 90s predicted, this is the music.' Dead Channel Sky is released via Sub Pop on 14 March
