# Movie Review: A holiday movie with some bite in Alexander Payne's 'The Holdovers'
By **LINDSEY BAHR**
October 23, 2023. 4:30 PM EST

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Alexander Payne brings audiences to a New England boarding school in 1970 in "The Holdovers," a textured, nostalgic and often funny piece about three lonely and mismatched souls stuck together over Christmas break. It's a keeper and possibly even destined to become a classic.

The holiday movie genre is suspect - even the most well-intentioned entries can be too saccharine, too wistful, too "Lifetime." But Payne, working with a sharp script written by David Hemingston, keeps "The Holdovers" grounded and real. Even absent your own memories of smoking indoors or handsewn outerwear, this is the kind of thoughtful, precisely constructed movie where you can almost taste the cigarette smoke and feel your fingers numbing through drafty wool mittens.

With its knowingly retro production titles starting the film, "The Holdovers" lets you settle in and submit to something that could very well have been made in the time it was set, which was one of Payne's goals. Similarly, the recurring Damien Jurado song "Silver Joy," a soothing and melancholy tune that perfectly sets the tone and place, feels like a forgotten Cat Stevens melody - not something from the past decade. It's all part of the transportive magic of the experience.

Paul Giamatti stars as Paul Hunham, a curmudgeonly ancient history instructor whose only pleasure seems to be derived from holding his privileged students to account and failing them without regard for political considerations. He's the kind of guy who looks suspiciously at a smiling colleague giving him homemade Christmas cookies and wants to start a new lesson in the last hours before the break.

Paul draws the short straw for holdover duty - i.e. babysitting the students staying on campus during the break for various reasons. After a few days of chaos and humor, the group is whittled down to just one: Angus Tully (newcomer Dominic Sessa), whose mom abandoned their plans for a beach vacation at the last minute to spend time with her new husband. And no one is happy, least of all Mary Lamb (Da'Vine Joy Randolph), the head cook mourning her son's death in Vietnam.

The actors get to explore depths beyond the tropes of the cranky teacher, the depressed cook and the privileged jerk as they clumsily try to navigate an unpleasant situation. To make matters even bleaker, food deliveries stop over the break and the heat is turned off everywhere but the infirmary, where they must bunk in sad hospital beds for the duration.

It's strange to think that this is the first time that Giamatti has reunited with Payne since screaming about not wanting Merlot in "Sideways," which came out almost 20 years ago. These two together make for a special match. Giamatti doesn't let the characters' quirks (a glass eye) overwhelm his choices - this man's pathos runs deep, as does his militant view of what a Barton man does and does not do.

Randolph also adds turbulent emotion to what could have been a tertiary, one-note character consumed in grief. She is in grief, which comes on in both expected and unexpected ways, but she's also witty and wise and a perfect foil to Paul's didactics.

But the true discovery is Sessa, making his film debut. They found him in the drama department at one of their shooting locations, Deerfield Academy. Casting modern teens in period pieces can be a tricky art, but Sessa somehow looks straight out of 1969. And he goes head-to-head with his seasoned co-stars, exhibiting a real capacity for both drama and physical comedy.

The idea of found family is a little too neat and cliche for "The Holdovers," but perhaps more resonant and believable are the hard, and sometimes comically, learned lessons about how to be a decent person in the world - how to look outside of your own problems to empathize with and maybe even help others. No one comes out of this fixed or healed; It's just a bit of life mixed up in the surreal pressure cooker of the holidays.

"The Holdovers," a Focus Features release opening in New York and Los Angeles Friday, in limited release Nov. 3, nationwide on Nov. 10, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for "some drug use, language and brief sexual material." Running time: 133 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.


# Movie Review: Netflix's 'Old Dads' is a recycling of PC grievances and a Bill Burr career nadir
By **MARK KENNEDY**
October 19, 2023. 9:00 PM EST

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The new Netflix movie "Old Dads" has a title problem. It really should be called "Old Dads Yelling at Clouds" or "Old Dads Raging at QR Codes." It's designed for people who find it hard to navigate the Netflix scroll and so blame millennials for being woke.

Bill Burr, who directs from a script by him and Ben Tishler, leads a meandering, unfunny assault on PC culture that would seem perfectly in place in the 1990s alongside "Illiberal Education" by Dinesh D'Souza and the rantings of Pat Buchanan. It's so dated there's even a mention of Halliburton.

The whiff of deep, old school morass about modern life comes from the moment the movie begins with the Miramax logo and a rock guitar solo, two clear signals we're going back in time when making fun of Starbucks cup sizes was funny.

Burr, who plays a 51-year-old dad with a young son and another child on the way, is immediately ranting about the lack of parking spots, mechanical scooters, pre-school etiquette, Twitter, emotional learning, vaping and paper straws. Cutting edge humor, this is not.

Burr, who has also conspired to sully the reputations of onscreen buddies Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine by inviting them into this mess, go on to mock trans identity and the notion of "check your privilege."

"No offense, you're just coming across a little old, you know? A little out of touch," a younger guy tells Burr, who responds: "Like your generation? Filming yourselves while you're flipping water bottles?"

The plot is loosey-goosey, never anything engrossing and more like a series of set pieces for Burr to act badly. The three old dads once owned a high-end throwback jersey company - throwback at least is on brand - and have sold it, returning as employees to a 28-year-old new boss, who fancies himself a disruptor. "I appreciate you," he tells them, which naturally enrages them.

Strap in for a lot of purposely baiting slurs and then amazement that there's push-back. "Is it ever over with these people?" whines Burr's dad, whose style of parenting is to rub dirt into a child's wound to make them more macho.

While Burr is a boiling cauldron of grievances, Cannivale's dad tries too hard being cool - saying things are "fleek" and that he has "gotta bounce" - and Woodbine's carefully curated life is suddenly under threat. Things go south for all of them when they "exercise free speech" - in other words, spew misogynist hate.

Their friendships begin to rend and their wives - portrayed as either cold, needy or intimidating - begin bickering. Mostly because Burr is a Gen-X anti-social warrior, prone to go on an angry rant no matter the consequences. "What, you're mad?" he screams at his pregnant wife. "Cause I'm honest?" No, 'cause your toxic, dude.

In one scene, the three old dads try to trap a millennial into using the n-word when he sings along to N.W.A.'s "Straight Outta Compton." Why? That will apparently expose the hypocrisy of the younger generation. But it doesn't. It's also a moment lifted from another earlier Netflix movie, "You People."

There's no way this cinematic slop would lead to a strip club, is there? You bet your G-string it does. That's where Burr's old dad comes to a realization, and where the others come to their own realizations. That they should be better men? No, it's too late for that. You can't teach an old dad new tricks. As for you, gentle viewer, you're better off watching water bottles flip in the air for 100 minutes.

"Old Dads," a Netflix release streaming starting Friday, is rated R for "pervasive language, sexual material, nudity and brief drug use." Running time: 104 minutes. Zero stars out of four.


# Movie Review: In 'Nyad,' Jodie Foster swims away with a showcase for Annette Bening
By **JAKE COYLE**
October 18, 2023. 10:00 PM EST

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In "Nyad," there are two feats of perseverance on display. First, there is the ceaseless determination of Diana Nyad (Annette Bening) to accomplish a marathon swim from Cuba to Florida across 103 miles of open, shark-infested waters. Then there is the mettle of Nyad's support team to tolerate the singularly self-absorbed and stubborn Nyad. Both, in the film, are an endurance sport.

"Nyad," which opens in limited theaters Friday and streams Nov. 3 on Netflix, is in many ways a conventional sports drama, defined by long odds and personal triumph. But there is enough here to help the film, directed by the intrepid filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, if not swim against the tide of sports-biopic convention then at least ride a swift current to the finish line.

First and foremost there's the fact that this is a sports drama led by two actresses in their 60s: Bening and Jodie Foster, who plays Diana's best friend and personal trainer Bonnie Stoll. When "Nyad" gets underway, the setting isn't the 1970s, when Nyad's record swims made her a headline-grabbing sensation. It's Diana's 60th birthday, which for her only marks her long distance from a real challenge. "Where's the excellence?" she says.

Diana soon thereafter gets back in the pool, resolving to complete the Cuba-to-Florida swim, a route some moviegoers may associate more with the Go-Fast boats of Michael Mann's "Miami Vice" than athletic pursuit. For Diana, the 50-hour endeavor is a matter of completing a long-ago abandoned dream and a way to prove to herself (and everyone else) that age is no match for her will.

It's the rare role that could be said to be both shark and Oscar bait. Yet Bening's performance has little vanity to it. Her Diana is obsessively single-minded to the point of unlikeable. When Diana hits the ocean, Bening turns into a ferociously forward-moving force who won't let anything - not thunder storms, nor jelly fish stings - stop her in her quest. Just keep swimming? She'd leave Dory in the dust.

Diana also comes close to outswimming the people trying hardest to help her. Though the film is principally a showcase for Bening, it's Foster's supporting turn that lifts "Nyad." Foster is a rare screen presence these days, which only makes her warmth and ease all the more powerful here. "Nyad" is balanced between Diana's admirably insane ambition and Bonnie's loyal (up to a point) support for her friend. In any case, it's a reminder, like a pail of cold water, of just how good Foster can be.

Other supporting characters are along for the ride, too, most notably Rhys Ifans' crusty sea-dog navigator John Bartlett. He's a cliche but a darn likable one. Nyad has, herself, often been a brash and savvy self-promoter less likely to share the spotlight. It's to the movie's credit that it pushes back against its prickly protagonist at the same time it exalts her.

But "Nyad" does accept Nyad's ultimate accomplishment, even if some have disputed it. Her 2013 swim to the Florida Keys was never ratified by the World Open Water Swimming Assn., and fellow marathon swimmers have cast doubts on it. Nyad has forcefully maintained she completed the swim, without assistance. At times, "Nyad" bends over backwards to depict Nyad as conscientious of the rules.

Vasarhelyi and Chin, in their narrative debut, mix in documentary footage throughout the film, smoothly transitioning from the non-fiction world they come from. They're the filmmaking team behind documentary standouts like the Oscar-winning "Free Solo" and the Thai cave chronicle "The Rescue."

Those films were excellent not just due to Vasarhelyi and Chin's own filmmaking adventurousness but because of their firm grasp of the psychology of those who push themselves to physical extremes. "Nyad" relies on flashbacks to Diana's past - including an encounter with an unnamed swim coach Nyad said sexually assaulted her and others - to dig into what fuels her.

And just like Alex Honnold of "Free Solo" and the British cave divers of "The Rescue," "Nyad" convincingly argues that to accomplish something great - to really dream big - you may need a dose of delusion, too.

"Nyad," a Netflix release is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for thematic material involving sexual abuse, some strong language and brief partial nudity. Running time: 121 minutes. Three stars out of four.


# Movie Review: Cornwell/le Carré, through Errol Morris' lens, in riveting 'The Pigeon Tunnel'
By **LINDSEY BAHR**
October 18, 2023. 3:39 PM EST

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Errol Morris's conversation with the late David Cornwell in "The Pigeon Tunnel" is fascinating even without the filmmaking flourishes.

Cornwell, better known by his pen name John le Carré, was the spy-turned-novelist whose tales of espionage and betrayal defined an era, gave literary heft to a genre and inspired numerous adaptations. And here, Morris challenges him to reflect on his unconventional childhood - his con-man father, his mother who left him at 5 never to return - on through his time in the secret services and beyond. You hear how he quite literally began life on the run, how he learned to be a "little spy" from quite a young age, how his father loomed so large in his imagination and how untrustworthy his own memory even turned out to be.

It could have been just a transcript; It would have been a must-read.

Cornwell died in 2020 at 89, and this film which will be streaming on Apple TV+ Friday, is said to be his final and "most candid" interview. That might simply be marketing-hype but, of course, this is not just an interview. It's an Errol Morris film, right down to the Philip Glass score. And while the Interrotron and the reenactments might not be the revolutionary storytelling devices they once were, they're almost comforting at this point and no less effective at creating a mood and an emotional experience around a sharp conversation.

Morris turns "The Pigeon Tunnel" into a le Carré-style thriller itself - a probing examination at the man behind George Smiley, the betrayals of his life, both to him and by him, and up through his fascination with spies and double agents. It scarcely matters if you've never read or even heard of "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold." At the heart of "The Pigeon Tunnel" are some wonderful, and chilling, observations about life and the nature of man, and a fascinating story about a master storyteller.

Like any good spy or novelist for that matter, Cornwell is as equally interested in his interviewer - or interrogator. He cheekily uses these words almost interchangeably. The nature of any interview has as much to do with the subject as it does the questioner.

"This is a performance," Cornwell says. "You need to know something about the ambitions of the people you're talking to."

And to understand Cornwell, or at least poke at some truths about him, you have to look at this father, Ronnie Cornwell. Ronnie was a con man straight out of a novel - charming, contradictory, always on the brink of success, sometimes on the run, occasionally in jail and never second guessing himself. He taught Cornwall the art of the performance and made childhood for him and his brother "terribly exciting," if fraught and false. Later in life, he asked his now wealthy son to repay him for costs spent on his education.

Once, at a hotel in Monte Carlo as a child, Cornwell remembers fixating on the tunnel that pigeons would fly through to provide ample shooting targets for paying men. They were bred on the roof, sent through the tunnel to either die or go back to the roof once again to tempt death all over again. Many of his books, he said, had the working title "The Pigeon Tunnel," which he found to be a metaphor for a lot of things. It took until his memoir in 2016 for it to stick to publication.

There might not be anything quite so shocking as Robert McNamara admitting mistakes, but Cornwell has his own crosses, including regrets about painting the secret services as "so bloody brilliant" at the wrong time. He even wonders if he'd have been a traitor in a different life. But, he says, "luckily I found a home for my larceny."

Cornwell also seemed at peace with himself and his purpose (looking in the mirror was only hard, he said, when he had a hangover). He'd discovered that writing was his freedom and he was happiest when doing so - a revelation that everyone should be so lucky to have for themselves. That, or, to have Errol Morris oversee their last interview.

"The Pigeon Tunnel," an Apple Original Films release streaming Friday on Apple TV+, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for "brief language, some violence, smoking." Running time: 93 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.


# Movie Review: Scorsese's epic 'Killers of the Flower Moon' is sweeping tale of greed, richly told
By **JOCELYN NOVECK**
October 18, 2023. 11:23 AM EST

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There tends to be lots of fast talking and fast moving in Martin Scorsese films, often from shifty types trying to get away with something. Or sometimes, simply because the master filmmaker has so much to pack in.

But in "Killers of the Flower Moon," everything seems to slow down, and especially when the camera lands on Lily Gladstone. As Mollie, the Osage woman at the heart of this sprawling, real-life tale of greed and treachery on a scale both broad and intimate, Gladstone is the quiet, powerful center - taking her time, letting her eyes do the work, and unafraid of silence.

It's a beautifully cadenced performance, all the more impressive because Gladstone's sharing the screen with two of our most celebrated actors. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro both turn in superb work for their legendary director, appearing together for the first time in 30 years. But Gladstone, in the rare Scorsese film that gives center stage to a female character, is the emotional core here, and it's her face that stays etched in our memory.

Based on David Grann's gripping whodunit set among the Osage in 1920s Oklahoma, "Killers" is a departure in other ways for the 80-year-old filmmaker. It's his first Western, a genre he's long wanted to explore - albeit a uniquely Scorsese Western, with an upended world of heroes and villains. And in telling this Osage story, he focuses on a people he's never depicted before, deeply mindful of honoring their experience and their rituals, beliefs and customs.

It surely won't surprise anyone that Scorsese brings his full wealth of artistic resources to this endeavor, along with his brilliant cinematographer, Rodrigo Prieto, and inspired production designer, Jack Fisk. Together, on location in Oklahoma, they've created an oil boomtown astonishing in its precision, detail and spirit.

It may also not surprise anyone that Scorsese has taken three and a half hours (albeit three minutes less than "The Irishman" ) to tell his tale. This may be a source of debate, but it's hard to argue that a story this hefty - a chronicle of a dark chapter in American history and a shocking true crime tale, all framed in a fraught love story - doesn't deserve the length, considering the craft in every shot. And with some scenes - a boisterous prairie wedding, or a dance on a boomtown main drag - you feel you could have stayed longer still.

We begin with a late 19th-century ceremony, one of many portrayals of Osage spiritual life. Then, in a memorable image, there's a whoosh from underground: Oil, spurting from land that was supposed to be worthless.

Thanks to this discovery, we learn in a terrific prologue using silent-movie title cards, the Osage become enormously wealthy. But they're deemed "incompetent" and appointed white "guardians" who control their assets. This is how we meet Mollie, asking for her own money to pay medical bills.

Meanwhile, Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio) steps off the train, a World War I vet with a taste for women and finer things, but no money, or talent to speak of. Perhaps his uncle can help. William Hale (De Niro) is a cattle rancher but more like a king around these parts - indeed, King's his nickname - a white man who speaks the Osage language and calls himself their best friend.

But it's clear from the get-go Hale has sinister motives, and De Niro's just the guy to ooze sinister from every pore as this Godfather-like figure (he commits crimes, and they're organized). Scorsese and co-writer Eric Roth depart here from Grann's book, which holds us in suspense as to Hale's motives. He wants Osage money, and tells Ernest that if he woos and marries Mollie - well, even less-than-brilliant Ernest can do the math.

So can Mollie. Trusting but hardly naive, she knows Ernest covets her wealth, but there's growing affection between the two, and their marriage, gorgeously rendered, is a happy occasion.

But then the Osage start dying, one by one, in suspicious ways - including, eventually, Mollie's sisters and mother. As for Ernest, he's no angel, spending time robbing and gambling. But is he doing more? DiCaprio's mouth settles into a tortured frown as he becomes increasingly torn between marital loyalty and fealty to his venal uncle.

Finally, federal agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons, perfectly cast) shows up, working for J. Edgar Hoover in what became the FBI. (It's White who figured most prominently in Grann's book, and indeed DiCaprio was once slated to play him.) This last act finds its way to a crackling courtroom scene perhaps only Scorsese could bring together: jittery DiCaprio and menacing De Niro, joined by a bombastic Brendan Fraser and a sputtering John Lithgow.

Indeed, the vast supporting cast includes countless faces you may recognize, as well as cameos of a number of musicians, and dozens of Osage actors in key parts. Scorsese's late friend Robbie Robertson wrote the memorable score.

We won't spoil the ingenious epilogue in which Scorsese ties up the loose narrative ends - with another significant cameo. But the fact that this epilogue comes after, oh, 200 minutes of expertly sustained tension is just another sign that in the latter years of his career, Scorsese is upping the ante - in terms of scale, yes, but also ambition.

He has called his work an offering to the Osage, and to other Native peoples. It also feels like an offering to those who love cinema, allowing us to watch a master of the craft continue to force himself, unlikely as it seems, to stretch and learn. May he keep stretching - himself, and us.

"Killers of the Flower Moon," an AppleTV+ release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association "for violence, some grisly images, and language." Running time: 206 minutes. Four stars out of four.


# Movie Review: In the elated 'Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,' every seat is the best seat in the house
By **MARIA SHERMAN**
October 12, 2023. 8:35 PM EST

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It opens with a clock counting down until show time - the dropped stomach, rollercoaster slowly encroaching its apex sensation - and then, a gentle fake out. Taylor Swift is heard before she is seen. "It's been a long time..." her voice carries. Then the drop hits: an abridged performance of "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince" into "Cruel Summer," a track that TikTok breathed new life into four years after its initial release on her 2019 album "Lover."

This is the moment it should become clear: "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" film is a near exact replica of her blockbuster concert performance, which recaps all 10 of her studio albums across 17 years of recorded work. There will be no narrative breaks, no behind-the-scenes footage, no additional ornamentation of the monolithic set (with the exception of a few CGI effects and album title cards to introduce each epoch.) The film delivers on the promise of its title: this is the Eras Tour in full - conveniently viewable at an AMC theater near you.

For those who've managed to snag tickets to the Eras Tour concert, it is the ability to relive the experience, likely with loved ones who weren't as lucky. For those who didn't attend, it's a chance to test expectations versus reality. But for everyone, it is the opportunity to have every seat in the house transform into the best seat in the house. "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" is all up close and personal footage from every vantage point, courtesy of Sam Wrench, who shot and directed it.

Where else but in this film can you be placed inches from Swift's moss-covered "evermore" album -era piano as she introduces "Champagne Problems" - so close as to examine phalanges as they press down on the final notes of the song's coda? And where else does it sound this good, highlighting sonic details that might've been missed in the stadium setting? Like guitars placed high in the mix on "Look What You Made Me Do," differing slightly from the recording, or emphasis placed on moments fans have transformed into opportunities from insider participation, like when everyone shouts, "1, 2, 3, 4, let's go, bitch!" in "Delicate," as inspired by a viral video?

Edits to the three-and-a-half-hour concert production are few on screen. Costume changes are cut down. Some songs are snipped, like "The Archer," "Cardigan," "Wildest Dreams," and "no body no crime." The "Speak Now" section is just one song long: "Enchanted," with "Long Live" soundtracking the end credits alongside images of "Eras Tour" bloopers and an endless exchange of friendship bracelets. On stage banter, too, is limited, mostly reserved for humor and exposition.

As previously reported, the concert film, compiled from several Swift shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, a suburb of Los Angeles, is expected to launch with $100 million, or possibly more. Advance ticket sales worldwide have already surpassed $100 million.

AMC announced that the concert film broke its record for highest ticket sales revenue in a single day. The theater chain Cinemark reported domestic pre-sale records are more than "10 times higher pre-sales than any other cinema engagement event."

It's too early to tell, but all signs point to her usurping 2011's "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" as the biggest concert film, ever. And for the premiere Wednesday night in Los Angeles, Swift shut down The Grove, a bustling mall just south of Hollywood, and watched her performance in an auditorium alongside a star-studded audience of Adam Sandler, Mariska Hargitay, actor Julia Garner, "Queer Eye" co-host Karamo Brown, country star Maren Morris, singer Hayley Kiyoko and Bachelor Nation's Becca Tilley.

It is massive, but nothing could exactly recreate the decibel-bursting exhilaration of a live music performance, particularly one at this scale. But in this format, Swift gets as close as possible - and for her, being an exception to the rule is par for the course. In a fractured, algorithmic music industry, Swift is a final exemplar of monoculture, a figure recognizable by most. And because of that fact, she's able to fully communicate her power in a concert film with little to no dialogue.

(That, admittedly, is something available to only her and Beyoncé, a superstar Swift has learned from and mirrored, in some ways. For example: Beyoncé limits traditional press appearances to instead present her own story in her own terms; Swift has begun to do the same. Relatedly, Bey will release a documentary chronicling her Renaissance World Tour, premiering at AMC theaters in North America on Dec. 1 in a similar agreement to Swift.)

The success of Swift's concert film, too, has something to do with the setting of a theater. Her revealing 2020 documentary, "Miss Americana," was released to Netflix and meant to be absorbed with a kind of intimacy. The viewer is with her in the backseat of car, listening to her incredible candor about the pressures of being Swift, and in a particularly memorable moment, disordered eating.

A very different viewing experience, "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" is meant to be enjoyed communally - a shout-along affair where fans in bespoke cosplay can dance and sing and film the screen on their smartphones, breaking the rules of the traditional movie-going experience. Strangers become friends. And all the while, feeling closer to Swift than ever before.

"Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour," an AMC release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for some strong language and suggestive material. Running time: 168 minutes. Three stars out of four.


# Movie Review: In 'Anatomy of a Fall,' a sharp courtroom drama that will end relationships
By **LINDSEY BAHR**
October 10, 2023. 2:20 PM EST

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Of all the ways that a relationship can end, a fundamental disagreement about a work of art is in some ways extremely silly. And yet, a film or a book exposing an irreparable rift in a love that perhaps wasn't as compatible, as symbiotic or as caring as one might have thought is also, somehow, as good a reason as any. Maybe it will even, eventually, provide a funny story.

Another, more excruciating, way for a relationship to end is with one party falling off the roof of a house to their death, followed by a humiliating public trial to determine the fault or innocence of the other, as happens in Justine Triet's Palme d'Or-winning "Anatomy of a Fall." And just like "The Corrections" before it, it seems that "Anatomy of a Fall" might be the new litmus test for modern relationships. See it with a romantic partner at your own risk. But, from my perch, this is one that's worth the debate(s) it provokes.

Sandra Hüller, the German actor known for "Toni Erdmann" and, soon, "The Zone of Interest," is Sandra, a writer living in a chalet in the French Alps with her husband, Samuel (Samuel Theis), and 11-year-old son, Daniel (Milo Machado Graner). Triet thrusts the audience into a tense and stressful atmosphere, introducing us to Sandra in the midst of an interview with a grad student, a woman, which will become significant later. Sandra is a little prickly and sipping a glass of red wine while deflecting questions back at her interviewer. It is hard to focus on what they're saying, however, as an instrumental version of 50 Cent's "P.I.M.P." blares through the household on a deafening, constant and maddening loop. Samuel's choice, apparently.

The student leaves, Sandra waves goodbye from a balcony, 50 Cent still playing, glass of red still in hand and Daniel, who is blind, heads out for a walk with his dog. He returns to find his father on the ground outside, dead and bleeding out. Sandra's lawyer, Vincent (Swann Arlaud, a calming presence), later analyzes the fall trajectory and finds the cause of death "inconclusive."

"Stop," Sandra says. "I did not kill him."

"That's not the point," Vincent responds.

It's one brief exchange that could sum up the 150-minute film, which is a smartly constructed and wholly engaging whodunit, courtroom thriller, marriage drama and, at some points, satire. This is not really a tearjerker, but a visceral dismantling of a life that's either happening in the wake of a tragedy or a murder. Either way, it's uncomfortable to watch Samuel's sharp, merciless advocate (Antoine Reinartz) grill Sandra about their marriage troubles and why, in his mind, that makes her a likely suspect. She's also accused of doing it for material for her books.

Hüller makes the audience squirm along with her as she plays the tricky game of knowing when to take the insults and when to push back (without seeming "unlikable," of course), and she's doing this all in two languages that aren't the character's own (French and English). It's exhausting, illuminating and triggering to be reminded of the internalized misogyny that still exists and even thrives in marriages that look evolved and equal on paper. But it's hard to fight back when parties can hide their own culpability behind therapy-speak.

For Daniel, the trial and his part in it plays out like a vicious divorce proceeding, in which his parents' characters are dissected and annihilated. He bears witness to their fights, their infidelities, their insecurities and all manner of speculation made by prosecutors, therapists and judges about the private matters of this couple, the complexities of which are far too great for a child burdened with the loss of one parent and the possible imprisonment of another.

And, of course, Samuel is unable to speak for himself - not really at least. His therapist has some insights and assumptions, his lawyer has many, and there is one brutal argument that we're all privy too, since he himself recorded it in secret to inspire his own writings. For some audiences, this might be the biggest and most egregious injustice of all, coating everything with an uncertainty that will never be resolved. At a certain point, you might even forget that it's a murder trial you're watching.

"Anatomy of a Fall" may not be a film with many concrete answers, ultimately, but the truths it uncovers are irrefutable.

"Anatomy of a Fall," a Neon release, in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for "sexual references, violent images and some language." Running time: 150 minutes. Four stars out of four.


# Movie Review: In 'Fair Play,' a battle of the sexes on Wall Street
By **JAKE COYLE**
October 4, 2023. 5:20 PM EST

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The disquieting root of Chloe Domont's slinky, slick feature debut "Fair Play" lies in the face of Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) as he learns that his fiance Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) has been given the promotion at their Wall Street hedge fund he thought was his.

"Congratulations," he says with a grin that looks more like a grimace. "That's amazing."

Ehrenreich, a cunning actor here given a part to chew on, conveys the moment with the just right mix of of support for Emily and shattering woundedness. Up to this point, we've seen Emily and Luke as only a swoon-worthy romantic pair deeply in love with one another. In the film's breezy opening moments, they slip away from a party to have sex in a bathroom. After, Luke kneels to propose.

But the engagement ring lies ominously on the counter when both dress in the morning for work in their their Chinatown apartment at the same high-powered hedge fund in downtown New York. They've left some inner version of their selves at home; at the office, they must keep their relationship a secret for the sake of company policy and their own career ambitions.

Work-life balance gets more than a little wobbly in "Fair Play," which debuts Friday on Netflix, and so do traditional gender roles. Luke initially puts up a good front, but his alpha male persona (and his libido) takes a beating when Emily's meetings with the sexist boss Campbell (Eddie Marsan) go past midnight and banter around the office turns to his fiance. In "Fair Play," the supportive male may just be a facade.

Since its hit arrival at the Sundance Film Festival, "Fair Play" has been hailed for reviving the long-dormant-but-often-missed erotic thriller. While there are bits of that in Domont's film, "Fair Play" is neither especially erotic nor much of a thriller. What it is, though, is often gripping battle of the sexes set in a toxic, misogynist corporate world where power and sex are inextricably linked currencies.

The movie is brilliant and breezy at first but sputters just as its catching fire. It may, in fact, be wrong to call this a battle of the sexes - Luke turns out to be not really up for a fight. He transforms into an emasculated and increasingly volatile wreck and "Fair Play" lurches toward a lurid and overcooked third act. For Emily - and surely countless women just like her - "Fair Play" is more of a horror movie, and an accurate one at that.

But for a while, Domont's film is electric thanks to its lead actors. Dynevor is especially terrific playing a woman whose first thought when she's promoted isn't pride for herself but concern for the hurt feelings of Luke.

At its best, "Fair Play" feels like a demented game where everything in high finance comes down to how you project yourself, man or woman. Emily knows when meeting the boss to switch her drink order from a Diet Coke to Macallen 25, neat. It's in sly moments like these that Domont is at her most playful. Double entendres fly. Coming home drunk one night, Emily tries to cajole a tired Luke into sleeping with her. "C'mon," she says, "I'll do all the work."

"Fair Play," a Netflix release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for pervasive language, sexual content, some nudity, and sexual violence. Running time: 113 minutes. Three stars out of four.


# Movie Review: Jamie Foxx leads a crowd-pleasing courtroom drama in 'The Burial'
By **LINDSEY BAHR**
October 4, 2023. 3:54 PM EST

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Jamie Foxx deploys his movie star charm judiciously and skillfully as a litigator with swagger to spare in "The Burial," a very entertaining courtroom drama.

Foxx is one of those actors, blessed with an allure and glamour that runs so deep that it's almost tempting to dismiss a performance like this as one that's natural. It's one of those compliments that's rotten at its core - of course he, or Clooney, or whomever, is good at being slick and appealing, right? If it looks effortless, we assume it is, denying them the work that goes into every role.

The same could be said for "The Burial," which is glossy, appealing and goes down suspiciously easy. Is there a catch or did director and co-writer Maggie Betts just prove her commercial chops in her sophomore feature? (It's the latter.) Just take a look at the poster used for its marketing campaign -- a little retro, a little cheesy, and a lot self-aware. This movie and everyone involved knows what it is.

In a probably skewed memory of the mid-90s, these sort of mid-budget "rousing courtroom dramas" seemed ubiquitous, but have gone the way of the rom-com at least in big theatrical releases. "The Burial" will be in some theaters for a week, before coming to your living room on Oct. 13 on Prime Video.

This story is a classic David vs. Goliath one, in which a Biloxi funeral home owner, Tommy Lee Jones as Jeremiah O'Keefe, goes up against a billionaire, Raymond Loewen (Bill Camp). Both were children of funeral parlor owners, but O'Keefe stayed local while Loewen took the so-called "death care" business corporate. He made a fortune acquiring funeral homes in Canada and then the United States in anticipation of a "golden age of death," in which the baby boomers start meeting their ends in mass numbers. "The Burial" is loosely based on a true story, which was chronicled by Jonathan Harr in The New Yorker in 1999.

Betts focuses her lens on Foxx's character, Willie E. Gary, a self-made success in personal injury law, who has never lost a case and doesn't plan to. Jeremiah's case is a contract one but a young associate played by the always appealing Mamoudou Athie convinces him that he's going to need a lead counsel who is Black if they're going to have a chance. The trial has been set for a poor, largely Black area, and Jeremiah's longtime lawyer, Mike Allred (Alan Ruck, playing a character who would probably be a Con-Head), is an obvious racist. He's working on it, he says chillingly to a team of Black lawyers.

When Willie does finally agree to go out of his comfort zone and take on a different kind of case (his ego stoked by the promise that this could make him as famous as Johnnie Cochran), there is a steep and humbling learning curve and a formidable opponent in Jurnee Smollett's Ivy League-educated lawyer representing the Loewen Group.

Betts shares a screenwriting credit with Doug Wright, the Pulitzer and Tony-winning playwright, who has been with the project for years, with Alexander Payne once attached to direct. Betts was coming off a promising, but small, debut - the religious drama "Novitiate," with Margaret Qualley and Melissa Leo. "The Burial" too is assured and straightforward, and faces questions about race and privilege and inequality head on. This story is about two older white men fighting about a contract, sure, but Betts and Wright expand its scope with sensitivity and nuance. Like many good courtroom dramas before it, this case is bigger than just these two guys.

Smollett's Mame is the big invention of the movie, which doesn't grate the way it usually does when screenwriters add a fictional, exceptional woman to diversify a too-male story. Mame is not a one note character - she is brilliant and accomplished but also keenly aware that she can't stumble, falter or lose her cool the way her male counterparts can. Sometimes you even forget that you really shouldn't be rooting for her to win, which is a shrewd touch for a movie with a pretty obvious conclusion and an easily hateable villain.

But this show belongs to Foxx, and it's a fun feast to see him grandstand and doubt himself and charm all kinds of jurors and make us feel empathetic for a guy who is himself ostentatiously wealthy, no matter if it was easy for the actor or not.

"The Burial," an MGM/Amazon Studios release in theaters Friday and streaming Oct. 13, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for "language." Running time: 125 minutes. Three stars out of four.


# Movie Review: 'The Exorcist: Believer' doesn't desecrate the original but it won't compel you
By **JAKE COYLE**
October 4, 2023. 3:28 PM EST

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There may be no holier ground in horror than "The Exorcist." As endlessly as William Friedkin's 1973 film has been ripped off and resurrected, its power remains unalloyed, its place in movie history consecrated.

Why is it that, after we've seen seen so many heads twist around, "The Exorcist" can still turn heads? Much, surely, is owed to its patient, restrained approach, icy atmospheres and and evocative, uncluttered imagery - all conjured in the dawning dread of post-1960s America.

But the possession of young Regan MacNeil still haunts, I think, for its absolute belief in good and evil. It's a supernatural movie that treats the supernatural as straightforwardly natural. The devil is as real and present as all those concrete steps.

There were flop sequels that followed and plenty of spinoffs that failed to grip. But now, just two months after the death of Friedkin and a few months shy of the original's 50th anniversary, comes a sequel from director David Gordon Green.

Hollywood's propensity for reaching back to old classics may be, by now, enough to inspire the kind of projectile vomiting Friedkin made famous. "The Exorcist: Believer" was produced by Blumhouse with the intent of launching a new series of films, but it feels guided largely by affection and respect for Friedkin's original rather than more cynical motivations.

The film's main additions are that, this time, there are two possessed girls (double the fun?) and the Catholic Church is no longer the sole or even the primary demon battler. This is a multidenominational "Exorcist," yet also a less profoundly spiritual one.

Green, one of today's most protean filmmakers, has been at this before. He rebooted the "Halloween" films in a trilogy that started off promisingly with an update to the slasher suburban nightmare before devolving in subsequent films.

It's easier to recycle "Halloween" than it is "The Exorcist." Yet the first thing you notice about "Believer" is its sure-handedness. Green, working from a script he wrote with Peter Sattler from a story by Green, Danny McBride and Scott Teems, moves nimbly in setting the atmosphere, refraining from the kinds of flashy camera movement or schlocky scares often found in horror films. There's craftsmanship in how "Believer" is stitched together - at least at first.

Thirteen years after the death of his pregnant wife in an earthquake in Haiti, Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.) lives with his 13-year-old daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett). They are close and Victor is a little overprotective. When Angela and a friend Katherine (Olivia O'Neill) walk through the woods after school and start performing a seance by candlelight, it's not hard to guess where this might be going.

But "The Exorcist: Believer" initially gets its hooks into you thanks to the agility of the filmmaking, the levelheaded presence of Odom Jr. and a fine performance by newcomer Jewett. The girls go missing for several days and, when they return, no longer seem themselves. As things begin to get ugly, the film's attention shifts to the parents - this is more a movie about parenting than it is about faith - including the blurrily characterized parents of Katherine (Norbert Leo Butz and Jennifer Nettles), whose bond with their daughter may be less than Victor's with Angela.

If "The Exorcist" seemed to summon demons, the best "The Exorcist: Believer" can do is to conjure tropes. Fingers claw. Heads turn. Bodies levitate. Once the film gets both possessed girls tied down in chairs, back to back, with a cobbled-together team of spiritual defenders around them, "Believer" bogs down in a prolonged torture chamber of horror cliches.

Green, who has long had a keen eye for casting, populates the film with some fine actors. Ellen Burstyn, Oscar-nominated for "The Exorcist," returns as Chris MacNeil, though it may be the film's biggest mistake to so quickly and gruesomely dispatch its most potent performer. Ann Dowd, as a nurse who lives next door, also adds to the film's dramatic heft.

But "The Exorcist: Believer" never manages anything like the deep terror of the original, and the film's climactic scenes pass by with a lifeless predictability. Been there, exhumed that. It may be that to get near the dark danger of "The Exorcist" you have to climb your own steps and fight your own demons.

"The Exorcist: Believer," a Universal Pictures release is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for or some violent content, disturbing images, language and sexual references. Running time: 111 minutes. Two stars out of four.


# Movie Review: Check out 'The Royal Hotel' but don't linger in this subtle horror flick
By **MARK KENNEDY**
October 4, 2023. 1:32 PM EST

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"The Royal Hotel" is a horror movie but don't expect any jump-cuts, scary masks or serial killers. It's more like the horror that dawns on a frog when it realizes it is being boiled alive.

Filmmaker Kitty Green tells a captivating tale of two young American female backpackers who find themselves tending bar for a few weeks in a very remote part of Australia.

The bar is a dump ironically called "The Royal Hotel" and the clientele are rough, hard-drinking miners unfamiliar with the etiquette of Miss Manners or even just respectful interaction.

Our two heroines - Julia Garner from "Ozark" and Jessica Henwick from "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" - really should not be in this situation. They are the recipients of dirty jokes, drunken behavior, offensive nicknames and constant propositions. One client pays for his beer by passive-aggressively tossing coins at them.

"Wouldn't hurt you to smile a bit?" they are asked.

Green, who directs with a screenplay she wrote with Oscar Redding, explores how women respond to a male-centered environment and how it can test their own friendship. The constant threat of violence hangs over this tale very uncomfortably, its wingman always being alcohol. Would-be heroes come and then show their true nature, slinking off.

It is a subtle movie, with the growing accretion of indignities building slowly until one of the women blurts out: "I'm scared. I'm scared of this place. I'm scared of everyone and everything in this place."

And yet, they stay.

The remoteness of the bar - a bus is always several days away - helps explain some of the stasis, but the two women have the very human tendency to settle: They make excuses, they blame themselves, they point to cultural misunderstandings and another day begins.

Hugo Weaving plays the bar owner, the arbiter of what is correct (mis)behavior. But the moral center is played by Ursula Yovich, who speaks truth to power and when she leaves, allows chaos to fully enter.

"The Royal Hotel" has a pessimistic - OK, accurate - view of gender relations. The two sides simply don't understand each other - "I can't hear you," says one of the women early on to a would-be suitor - and attempts at conversation are so often drowned out by noise. It asks how you can rationalize ending up mopping up puke in a dive bar in rural Down Under.

The movie perfectly starts with a dark remix of Men at Work's "Down Under." Remember the lyrics: "Buying bread from a man in Brussels/He was 6-foot-4 and full of muscle/I said, 'Do you speak my language?' He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich."

"The Royal Hotel" shares a vibe with Alex Garland's sophisticated horror film "Men" - an arty indictment of toxic masculinity that often felt like a lecture. But Green's film doesn't feel like that. The final scene will make you cheer, even if the ultimate message is murky.

"The Royal Hotel," a Neon release, is rated R for "language throughout, sexual content and nudity." Running time: 91 minutes. Three stars out of four.


# Movie Review: Her voice is lower, but Joan Baez has songs to sing and secrets to tell in new doc
By **JOCELYN NOVECK**
October 3, 2023. 5:08 PM EST

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Bob Dylan called it her "heart-stopping soprano," and it's true that when Joan Baez unleashed that pure, angelic voice on the protest song "We Shall Overcome," you could believe we would, indeed, overcome.

The celebrated folk singer and activist was singing about civil rights, of course. But what we learn in the thoughtful, thorough and sometimes harrowingly intimate "Joan Baez: I Am a Noise" is that Baez was also seeking to overcome much on a personal scale: anxiety, depression, loneliness and, late in life, troubling repressed memories about her own father.

If that sounds like a lot to cover in 113 minutes, it is - especially because the new documentary, directed by Maeve O'Boyle, Miri Navasky and Karen O'Connor, also recaps a 60-year performing career, with the singer telling her story through interviews and an incredible wealth of archival material. We see Baez entering for the very first time a storage unit filled to the ceiling by her late mother with photos, home films, audio recordings, letters, drawings and even tapes of therapy sessions.

And she gave her directors the key. The film was originally intended simply to cover Baez's last, 2018 "Fare Thee Well" tour, but Baez decided to leave a more thorough legacy.

The film begins with novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez's quote about how everyone has three lives: public, private and secret. Well, this is certainly apt for Baez, who emerged as a sudden star in 1959, an 18-year-old with a guitar and that bell-like voice, and went on to make some 40 albums, with a 2017 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. As we see from her own anguished drawings and letters beginning in youth, her intensely public life masked both a difficult private one and some dark secrets as well.

And then there was Dylan, the same age as Baez, that inscrutable genius who stole her heart and then broke it. It was intoxicating being together, recounts Baez, who introduced him lovingly to her audiences, until a painful UK tour when his fame blossomed and "it was horrible." Then, staring into the camera, she says: "Hi, Bob!" It's a welcome and rare opportunity to laugh with her.

But back to the beginning, where Baez, on the cusp of 80, is preparing for the tour, rehearsing at home in northern California. Her hair is fully gray; her face has not changed much. "I know I look good for my age, but there is a limit," she quips of upcoming retirement. As for her voice, it's there, but definitely lower and more ragged.

Amid concert footage, we toggle to scenes of Baez's youth. We also hear, on and off, a strange (and rather distracting) male voice sounding like a hypnotist. It turns out to be her therapist.

The story begins with lovely, black-and-white footage of Joan as a child, dancing in a field with her parents and sisters. Her Mexican-born father was dashing. The scenes look idyllic, but there are signs of trouble ahead when, in an interview from the present, Joan notes mysteriously: "I'm way too conflicted to just have a bunch of happy memories."

We see pages from young Joan's journal, its copious sketches brought to life by wonderfully inventive animation, and hear how white kids called her "the dumb Mexican" in school. Panic attacks and anxiety set in. Even when she becomes a star, breaking out at the Newport Folk Festival in 1959, her self-image doesn't seem to thrive. Nestled among the many letters to her parents is a drawing of a very small girl: "This is how I felt on the Carnegie Hall stage."

And then a charismatic singer-songwriter invades her life.

"I was just stoned on that talent," she says of Dylan. One of the best moments of the film has Baez at the mic, during good times, imitating Dylan imitating her.

But later, on that tour to Britain, he leaves her in his wake. "Dylan broke my heart," she says.

A new phase sees Baez deeply engaged in protests against the Vietnam War - even going to jail. There, young activist David Harris visits her. The two will marry, she'll become pregnant, and then HE will go to jail. When he comes out, the marriage is troubled and doesn't last. "He was too young and I was too crazy," she says. Gabriel, her son, plays drums in his mother's band on the farewell tour.

Later scenes have Baez discussing a phase of reliance on Quaaludes, which cause her to make some questionable decisions, including posing for an album cover in huge aviator goggles.

The final act deals with accusations against her father of inappropriate sexual behavior with Joan and one of her sisters, Mimi. Her parents, both deceased, denied it, and Joan's own memories lack detail. She has said she could not have told this story while her parents were still alive.

There's an excruciating tape of a phone message from her accused dad, and then a tender scene where Baez comforts her aging and dying mother.

And then, after footage of a final concert at New York's Beacon Theater, we see the now-retired Baez dancing in a field near her home. A nod perhaps to the childhood scenes - but also maybe a statement that while she hasn't overcome it all, she's overcome a heckuva lot.

"Joan Baez: I Am a Noise," a Magnolia Pictures release, is unrated by the Motion Picture Association. Running time: 113 minutes. Three stars out of four.


# Movie Review: Humans take a back seat in the stunning AI, sci-fi epic 'The Creator'
By **LINDSEY BAHR**
September 27, 2023. 4:30 PM EST

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The artificial intelligence in Gareth Edwards' "The Creator," a visually magnificent if by-the-books epic, is not the AI making headlines at the moment. This is AI in the classic sci-fi mold - the Roy Battys of "Blade Runner," the Avas of "Ex Machina," the ones whose sentience we question and debate endlessly. Will the machines kill us? Take our jobs? Or do something that the movies haven't dreamed possible yet?

As the retired special forces guy cleaning up nuclear debris, Joshua (John David Washington), flatly tells a fellow worker when she posits that the AIs were indeed after their jobs: "They can have this one."

Regardless, for now, artificial intelligence is more allegory for the other than aspiring screenwriters, filmmakers or trash collectors. And, for Edwards and his co-writer Chris Weitz, they might even have more capacity for humanity and goodness than humans, which is not exactly part of the ChatGPT conversation either, though that would be an interesting twist.

In the world of "The Creator" they're welcomed by society at first as an unambiguous good - a helpful servant class that have the ability to make our human lives better. But as they so often do in sci-fi dystopias, they turned on us. Actually, more specifically, they turned on the U.S. when they dropped a nuclear weapon on downtown Los Angeles. Naturally, that means war.

Washington's Joshua lost his family in the attack and when we meet him, he's undercover in New Asia to try to find the creator of these advanced AIs, a shadowy, elusive figure they call Nimrata. Joshua got busy with other pursuits though. He fell in love with, married and is about to welcome a baby with his on-the-ground source Maya (Gemma Chan), taken from him in an unexpected raid by his peers - one of many truly sublime sequences in which a hovering death star-like aircraft called NOMAD scans the lush landscape with ominous blue lasers. Edwards, who had a complicated journey making "Rogue One," does not deny himself the pleasure of riffing on "Star Wars" iconography.

Allison Janney's hardened Colonel later attempts to recruit him for one last shot at finding Nimrata and the ultimate weapon he's suspected of building, but a jaded Joshua demurs that he doesn't care about going extinct: "I've got TV to watch." Of course he eventually says yes and ends up travelling with a Very Special Child, a wide-eyed AI whom he names Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), who might be able to help him find what he's looking for. Voyles is a captivating presence and undeniably compelling. Unfortunately, the script denies her the edge and nuance that would make her more believable as a person as well as a machine. Even Grogu is a little sassy sometimes.

But this is also a film where the visuals upstage the pretty predictable story and even the actors, including the likes of Washington and Ken Watanabe. The lush landscapes of Southeast Asia are stunningly photographed by Edwards and co-cinematographers Greig Fraser ("Dune") and Oren Soffer, who shot on location in eight countries with an unusually low-cost camera for a Hollywood studio film (the Sony FX3, which goes for under $4,000).

Speaking of cost - "The Creator" was made for around $80 million and looks a thousand times better than movies (mainly of the superhero variety) that cost three times as much. This was part of Edwards' design and could be revolutionary for filmmaking. In addition to using a camera any hobbyist could buy at a local store, instead of pre-determining the concept art and visual effects and forcing the actors to look at little silver balls or tracking markers, they added them in after the fact. It makes a huge difference.

"The Creator" is an original movie too, and even if it is a somewhat convoluted and silly mishmash of familiar tropes and sci-fi cliches, it still evokes the feeling of something fresh, something novel, something exciting to experience and behold - which is so much more than you can say about the vast majority of big budget movies these days. And it's worth taking a chance on it at the cinemas.

"The Creator," a 20th Century Studios release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for "strong language, some bloody images, violence." Running time: 132 minutes. Three stars out of four.


# Movie Review: Documentary 'Carlos' is a loving, respectful portrait of guitar god Santana
By **MARK KENNEDY**
September 26, 2023. 2:10 PM EST

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A new documentary on rock icon Carlos Santana begins with the legendary philosopher-guitarist asking a simple question: "Do you believe in magic?"

"Magic. Not tricks - the flow of grace," he says.

You may be convinced you do a little less than 90 minutes later by director Rudy Valdez's intimate portrait of a man with a magical ability and a story told with few tricks.

"Carlos" is a traditional linear tale, tracing Santana's formative years in Tijuana, Mexico, his set at Woodstock, his relentless touring and dive into spirituality, climaxing with his triumphant 1999 "Supernatural" album.

It's lovingly told - and intimate. There is the first known recording of a 19-year-old Santana in 1966 - already a guitar master with a familiar, blistering style - and one later in life in which he delights his children behind a couch with sock puppets.

But some of the most powerful images are several old homemade clips Santana made himself, alone at home just jamming. It's like hearing the magic flow straight from the source, watching unfiltered genius work while his guitar gently wails.

Valdez uses various images almost like a collage to capture his subject - talk show clips, old concerts, and newly conducted interviews with the master, one at sundown with the icon beside a fire. The only forced bit is a roundtable of Santana's wife and sisters.

A highlight is watching Santana and his band play in the rain during 1982's Concert for the Americas in the Dominican Republic. Other directors might show a short clip and go but Valdez lets it play long, a treat.

We see Santana grow up to a violinist father and a fierce mother, who became mesmerized by the blues-rock of Ray Charles, B.B. King and Little Richard. He was pressing tortillas at a diner in San Francisco in the late 1960s - he calls the city a "vortex of newness" - and go to the Fillmore to listen to the Grateful Dead and Country Joe and the Fish.

After being busted trying to sneak into the legendary venue without paying, impresario Bill Graham was so impressed by this skinny guitarist that he invited him to open for the Who, Steve Miller and Howling Wolf.

At Woodstock - he and his band wouldn't have their debut album out for months more - Santana hits the stage very high by accident (Thanks, Jerry Garcia) and says a little prayer: "God, I know you're here. Please keep me in time and in tune." Throughout his set, Santana seems to be wrestling the neck of his guitar, which to him resembled a snake.

His first royalty check was spent on a home and a refrigerator for mom, fulfilling a promise. "It's better than Grammys and Oscars and Heisman trophies. It feels better than anything," he says in the documentary.

Inevitably, the fall comes, with the drugs and overindulgence. Shocked by the deaths of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, Santana decides he must choose between heroin or spiritual meditation. He picks the latter, dresses in white, eats healthy, turn to jazz and decides to "surf the cosmos of imagination."

With enduring hits like "Oye Como Va" and "Black Magic Woman," Santana was voted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first person of Hispanic heritage to be inducted. But he wasn't done yet. "This Earth time is an illusion," he argues, after all.

"Supernatural," which arrived in 1999 during a Latin pop explosion, won a total of nine Grammys with such hits as "Smooth," "Put Your Lights On" and "Maria Maria." He is called a second-act king. Man, he's a hot one.

Valdez shows real style illustrating that Santana's bands were far from stable when it came to its lineups - he cleverly shows various different singers belt out the same section of "Black Magic Woman" live - and captures Santana today watching an old concert he did with his late dad. "He's proud of me and I'm proud of him. And I miss him," he tells the camera.

Santana deserves to be on the Mount Rushmore of rock and that's why in so many ways "Carlos" is a corrective to the thinking of people like Jann Wenner, co-founder of Rolling Stone, who overlooked Santana for his new book of transcendent rockers, "The Masters." A master is hiding in plain sight.


# Movie Review: St4llone, St4tham are back in 'Expend4bles,' yet another expend4ble sequel
By **JOCELYN NOVECK**
September 21, 2023. 6:00 PM EST

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It's a throwaway line, but maybe a bit too meaningful, under the circumstances. "Gravity is setting in," says Barney, Sylvester Stallone's aging character in "Expend4bles," when someone asks how he's doing.

Indeed. Gravity is setting in throughout "Expend4bles," a movie whose most enticing mystery is not the secret identity of its shadowy villain, but how you pronounce the film's title. Are we supposed to enunciate the mid-word numeral, or is it merely visual? Is this what stands for a smart new spin on a tired franchise? Will we soon have "My Big F4t Greek Wedding"? Are these questions supposed to distract us from how stunningly mediocre the film is?

Perhaps we digress. This is, obviously, the fourth "Expendables" film, but our considered scientific opinion is that you needn't see the first three to catch up. True, there's no explanatory intro, but if you've seen earlier "Expendables" films, you'll know there's not much to know. These guys are the indestructible mercenaries who swoop in - literally, on Barney's turboprop plane - to do dirty work in miserable places. The body count is head-spinningly high (this film, directed by Scott Waugh, returns to an R rating after a switch to PG-13 for the last installment). The dialogue is head-spinningly mundane. The flow of testosterone is, well, head-spinning.

Leading the pack, as ever, is Stallone's Barney Ross and his expert knife-wielding best bud, Lee Christmas - Jason Statham, reveling in his Cockney charm and smiling more than usual. (This is not a bad thing. Statham has a nice smile. This may be the only good thing.) Also back are Dolph Lundgren's Gunner and Randy Couture's Toll Road.

And now, perhaps in a nod to the previously unrecognized fact that half the human race is female, we have Megan Fox as mercenary leader Gina. More on her in a bit. Also providing new blood is Andy Garcia as a prickly CIA handler, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as an ex-Marine and new team member, and two martial arts stars: Iko Uwais as ruthless arms dealer Rahmat, and Tony Jaa as quiet warrior Decha. Other additions: Jacob Scipio is the son of Antonio Banderas' character from the last film, and Levy Tran is a new female teammate, adept with a whip chain.

Got all that? In a prelude scene in New Orleans, we reconnect with Barney, who now has salt-and-pepper hair, and a bad back - so bad, he enlists Christmas to help him recover his prized skeleton ring at a biker bar, which he's lost in a thumb-wrestling contest. The thugs dispatched and the ring collected, it's time to get back to work.

This means a trip to Libya, to "Gadhafi's old chemical plant," where aforementioned arms dealer Rahmat (Uwais) is securing detonators for a nuclear weapon. CIA handler Marsh (Garcia) needs the Expendables to stop him. The other thing you should know is that Barney is determined to unmask a shadowy figure codenamed Ocelot who's maybe pulling all the strings.

Not surprisingly, the Expendables run into resistance. The body count mounts, and then something happens that will change the trajectory of the film. We can't give it away, but let's just say it brings Statham's Christmas to the forefront for much of the film.

But he makes an early error that sidelines him for a bit. Leading the next stage of the mission will be Gina (Fox), his ex (or maybe current?) girlfriend. Gina is introduced to us the only way a woman in a testosterone-dripping franchise like this can be: Sexy AND crazy, yelling like the dickens in a hot little dress. She also wears an absurd amount of makeup, including on the mission. Apparently, there's a brand of matte lipstick that holds up very well through mortal combat. Which is convenient if your ex-boyfriend may or may not be showing up.

All this action takes place on a freighter where the aforementioned nuclear bomb is being stored. It includes countless killings and also a motorcycle chase (on a freighter!) It all gets very tiresome.

It doesn't help that the special effects sometimes seem thrown together with about as much care as the script. Some of the most obvious green screens provide inadvertent comedy. As for intended comedy, the only truly funny scene is when Christmas, sidelined, tries out a job as security detail for an obnoxious social media influencer.

The likable British action star is having a busy year. In "Expend4bles," as mentioned, they let him smile a lot, and it's a nice touch. Still, if there's an "Expend5bles," they're gonna need more than a Statham smile and another mid-word numeral in the title.

"Expend4bles," a Lionsgate release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association "for strong/bloody violence throughout, language and sexual material." Running time: 103 minutes. One star out of four.


# Movie review: A star-making turn for Eve Hewson in the feel-good 'Flora and Son'
By **JAKE COYLE**
September 20, 2023. 5:15 PM EST

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John Carney, the Irish filmmaker of "Once," "Sing Street" and "Begin Again," makes the movie version of "three chords and the truth."

His films, unabashedly earnest, feel-good movies for cynical times, are lo-fi musicals that tell simple stories, charmingly. There are love interests, usually. But the abiding romance is for music. His films are the sort that would be easier to dismiss as "sentimental" if his central belief - in the redemptive power of music - didn't happen to be kinda true.

The song remains much the same in Carney's latest charmer, "Flora and Son," starring Eve Hewson as a working-class single mother in Dublin who takes up guitar lessons. Flora's initial instinct when she snags a beat-up acoustic guitar out of a dumpster, is to give it to her troubled 14-year-old son, Max (Orén Kinlan) as a day-late birthday present. Max, though, is nonplussed.

"You expect me to turn into Ed (expletive) Sheeran?" he says.

Their life together in a small apartment is far from harmonious. Their interactions are caustic and cruel. Flora, who we first meet dancing at a nightclub and going home with a man she immediately regrets, isn't shy about her disinterest in parenting. Max, meanwhile, is close to getting kicked out of school.

These are problems that, perhaps, take more than a six string to solve. But Carney, who wrote and directed the film, has a way of not hitting the cornball notes too hard and mixing in enough humor to keep the saccharine tones from overpowering.

Pondering her sad state of affairs, Flora finds new resolve. "This can't be my story," she says, like a good protagonist. "This can't be my narrative." She flips around on YouTube looking for guitar lessons before settling on Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a laid-back instructor in Southern California who she's immediately attracted to.

Their lessons over Zoom are intimate; Carney sometimes enhances the effect by transporting Jeff into Flora's kitchen. They talk James Blunt and Joni Mitchell. Jeff shares one of his own songs, which Flora bluntly critiques and then helps shape into a lovely duet. (Carney and Gary Clark penned the film's songs.) Outside of the frame, their interactions have some irony. Hewson, the daughter of Bono, was probably born with chops.

The movie proceeds with the satisfying structure of a song: verse, chorus, bridge. Flora's ex-husband, Ian (Jack Reynor), doubts her commitment. But Flora proves adept at her new hobby, which fosters a newfound connection with her son.

Hewson has been a standout in the TV series "The Knick" and "Bad Sisters," but she can be verifiably called a movie star after "Flora and Son." Her character isn't miles off ones we've seen many times, but Hewson's confident, charismatic leading performance has enough grit and spunk to light up the screen. Nepo baby or not, she's a total star.

"Flora and Son," like a B-side to Carney's earlier hits, may sound a little like a tune you've heard before. But it's sung with enough heart to have even the coldest cynic humming.

"Flora and Son," an Apple TV+ release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for language throughout, sexual references and brief drug use. Running time: 97 minutes. Three stars out of four.


# Movie Review: An immigrant teen who wants to fit in enters a nightmare in 'It Lives Inside'
By **LINDSEY BAHR**
September 20, 2023. 2:19 PM EST

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A beautiful Indian American teen, Samidha (Megan Suri), just wants to fit in with her suburban classmates in the new horror "It Lives Inside." But there's a demon at large and it's not hormones or puberty - it's a literal monster that will maim and kill you and anyone who tries to help in this grisly, if imperfect, metaphor for the immigrant experience.

It's the feature debut of Bishal Dutta, who co-wrote the film with Ashish Mehta, and crafts an effectively menacing PG-13 rated nail-biter centered around the interesting and conflicting dynamics of an Indian American family. The mom, Poorna (Neeru Bajwa) is determined to keep up with the traditions of the country they left behind. Samidha - sorry, Sam -- would rather not, which her dad supports, in theory. She shaves her arms in the morning and posts a Kardashian-level selfie with a carefully chosen filter. She "forgets" the lunch her mother has packed her. She resents the Indian customs and holidays that prevent her from hanging out with the cute guy in her class. And she's cast aside her old best friend, a fellow Indian American named Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), hoping that maybe she can just blend in and not be the "Indian girl" anymore. Essentially, she's a normal teen, through and through.

Unfortunately for Sam, Tamira has gotten pretty weird. Her childhood friend skulks around school like a ghost, hidden behind a curtain of unbrushed hair and cradling a cloudy Mason jar like her life depended on it - not exactly the kind of person that an aspiring popular girl wants on her resume. And it just gets worse because, naturally, IT does live inside that Mason jar and that Mason jar is unable to withstand a fall to the floor. Oops.

Dutta gets your heartrate going off the bat, with a creepy prologue as screams flood out of a normal suburban house, but Sam's descent into one of the haunted never quite finds a suitable or consistent tone. It's all moody, wide-eyed paranoia with "Stranger Things" vibes that's occasionally interrupted by run-of-the-mill jump-scares and demonic nightmare visions. It'll startle and spook, but it also doesn't feel incredibly original, which is an odd failure for a story that has chosen to focus on a very original threat.

Her parents are a bit confounding and frustrating too - as she becomes increasingly paranoid and scared (which seems reasonable after she witnesses the shocking death of a classmate, regardless of whether it was invisible demon or rabid wild animal) they respond like she's just a delinquent who has broken curfew or been caught skipping school. The only one who seems to care and listen is her teacher ("Get Out's" Betty Gabriel), which does not put her in the good graces of the vindictive, flesh-eating Pishacha.

The story also doesn't really grapple enough with the intriguing themes of assimilation, alienation and identity once the monster is at large - perhaps it's because we're simply plopped in the middle of a mystery that doesn't give us enough to really care about anyone involved. One kid's already dead. Tamira is already weird. Sam is already cool.

"It Lives Inside" is still a welcome respite from the other long-in-the-tooth horror franchises populating theaters this time of year in that it's just something new - new faces, new themes, a promising filmmaker to watch - but I wish it would have embraced more of the things that make it unique as opposed to trying to fit in with its genre brethren. Sort of like Sam. I mean, Samidha.

"It Lives Inside," a Neon release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for "teen drug use, brief strong language, bloody images, terror, violent content." Running time: 99 minutes. Two stars out of four.


# Israeli military says Gaza ground offensive has expanded into urban refugee camps
By **NAJIB JOBAIN**, **WAFAA SHURAFA**, and **SAMY MAGDY**
December 26, 2023. 2:36 PM EST

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**RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP)** - Israeli forces on Tuesday expanded their ground offensive into urban refugee camps in central Gaza after bombarding the crowded Palestinian communities and ordering residents to evacuate. Gaza's main telecom provider announced another "complete interruption" of services in the besieged territory.

The military's announcement of the new battle zone threatens further destruction in a war that Israel says will last for "many months" as it vows to crush the ruling Hamas militant group after its Oct. 7 attack. Israeli forces have been engaged in heavy urban fighting in northern Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, driving Palestinians into ever-smaller areas in search of refuge.

The U.S. said Israel's minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, was meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Despite U.S. calls for Israel to curb civilian casualties and international pressure for a cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military was deepening the fighting.

"We say to the Hamas terrorists: We see you and we will get to you," Netanyahu said.

Israel's offensive is one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. More than 20,900 Palestinians, two-thirds women and children, have been killed, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, whose count doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants. The agency said 240 people were killed over the past 24 hours.

The U.N. human rights office said the continued bombardment of middle Gaza had claimed more than 100 Palestinian lives since Christmas Eve. The office noted that Israel had ordered some residents to move there.

Israel said it would no longer grant automatic visas to U.N. employees and accused the world body of being "complicit partners" in Hamas' tactics. Government spokesman Eylon Levy said Israel would consider visa requests case by case. That could further limit aid efforts in Gaza.

Residents of central Gaza described shelling and airstrikes shaking the Nuseirat, Maghazi and Bureij camps. The built-up towns hold Palestinians driven from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war, along with their descendants.

"The bombing was very intense," Radwan Abu Sheitta said by phone from Bureij.

The Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate a belt of territory the width of central Gaza, urging them to move to nearby Deir al-Balah. The U.N. humanitarian office said the area ordered evacuated was home to nearly 90,000 people before the war and now shelters more than 61,000 displaced people, mostly from the north.

The military later said it was operating in Bureij and asserted that it had located a Hamas training camp.

The telecom outage announced by Paltel follows similar outages through much of the war. NetBlocks, a group that tracks internet outages, confirmed that network connectivity in Gaza was disrupted again and "likely to leave most residents offline."

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said several countries had sent proposals to resolve the conflict following news of an Egyptian proposal that would include a transitional Palestinian government in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. He did not offer details of the proposals.

## REGIONAL SPILLOVER
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel faces a "multi-arena war" on seven fronts - Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran. "We have responded and acted already on six of these," he told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Iranian-backed militia groups around the region have stepped up attacks in support of Hamas.

Iranian-backed militias in Iraq carried out a drone strike on a U.S. base in Irbil on Monday, wounding three American service members, according to U.S. officials. In response, U.S. warplanes hit three locations in Iraq connected to a main militia, Kataib Hezbollah.

Almost daily, Hezbollah and Israel exchange missiles, airstrikes and shelling across the Israeli-Lebanese border. On Tuesday, Israel's military said Hezbollah struck a Greek Orthodox church in northern Israel with a missile, wounding two Israeli Christians, and fired again on arriving soldiers, wounding nine.

"Hezbollah is risking the stability of the region for the sake of Hamas," said Israel's military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

In the Red Sea, attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen against commercial ships have disrupted trade and prompted a U.S.-led multinational naval operation to protect shipping routes. The Israeli military said a fighter jet on Tuesday shot down a "hostile aerial target" above the Red Sea that the military asserted was on its way to Israeli territory.

## A MASS GRAVE
More than 85% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes. U.N. officials say a quarter of the territory's population is starving under Israel's siege, which allows in a trickle of food, water, fuel, medicine and other supplies. Last week, the U.N. Security Council called for immediately speeding up aid deliveries, but there has been little sign of change.

In an area Israel had declared a safe zone, a strike hit a home in Mawasi, a rural area in the southern province of Khan Younis. One woman was killed and at least eight were wounded, according to a cameraman working for The Associated Press at the nearby hospital.

In response, Israel's military said that it wouldn't refrain from operating in safe zones, "if it identifies terrorist organization activity threatening the security of Israel."

Hamas' Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 others hostage. Israel aims to free the more than 100 hostages who remain in captivity.

Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll in Gaza, citing militants' use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel says it has killed thousands of militants, without presenting evidence.

At the Kerem Shalom border crossing, U.N. and Gazan medical workers unloaded a truck carrying about 80 unidentified bodies that had been held by Israeli forces in northern Gaza. They were buried in a mass grave.

Medical workers called the odors unbearable. "We cannot open this container in a neighborhood where people live," Dr. Marwan al-Hams, health emergency committee director in Rafah, told the AP. He said the health and justice ministries would investigate the bodies for possible "war crimes."

Hamas has shown resilience. The Israeli military announced the deaths of two more soldiers, bringing the total killed since the ground offensive began to 161.


# Lose a limb or risk death? Growing numbers among Gaza's thousands of war-wounded face hard decisions
By **WAFAA SHURAFA** and **JACK JEFFERY**
December 26, 2023. 12:11 AM EST

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**DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP)** - The doctors gave Shaimaa Nabahin an impossible choice: lose your left leg or risk death.

The 22-year-old had been hospitalized in Gaza for around a week, after her ankle was partially severed in an Israeli airstrike, when doctors told her she was suffering from blood poisoning. Nabahin chose to maximize her chances of survival, and agreed to have her leg amputated 15 centimeters (6 inches) below the knee.

The decision upended life for the ambitious university student, as it has for untold others among the more than 54,500 war-wounded who faced similar gut-wrenching choices.

"My whole life has changed," said Nabahin, speaking from her bed at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. "If I want to take a step or go anywhere, I need help."

The World Health Organization and the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza say amputations have become commonplace during the Israel-Hamas war, now in its 12th week, but could not offer precise figures. At the hospital in Deir al-Balah, dozens of recent amputees are in various stages of treatment and recovery.

Experts believe that in some cases, limbs could have been saved with proper treatment. But after weeks of Israel's blistering air and ground offensive, only nine out of Gaza's 36 hospitals are still operational. They are greatly overcrowded, offer limited treatment and lack basic equipment to perform surgeries. Many wounded are unable to reach the remaining hospitals, pinned down by Israeli bombardment and ground combat.

Sean Casey, a WHO official who recently visited several hospitals in Gaza, said the acute lack of vascular surgeons - the first responders to trauma injuries and best positioned to save limbs - is increasing the likelihood of amputations.

But also in many cases, he said, the severe nature of the injuries means some limbs are not salvageable, and need to be removed as soon as possible.

"People may die of the infections that they have because their limbs are infected," Casey told a news conference last week. "We saw patients who were septic."

Israel declared war after Hamas militants stormed across the border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 240 hostages. Israel has vowed to keep up the fight until Hamas is destroyed and removed from power in Gaza and all the hostages are freed. More than 20,600 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, about 70% of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants among the dead.

Before the war, Gaza's health system was overwhelmed after years of conflict and a border blockade enforced by Israel and Egypt in response to the 2007 Hamas takeover of the territory. In 2018 and 2019, thousands were wounded by Israeli army fire in weekly Hamas-led anti-blockade protests, and more than 120 of the wounded had limbs amputated.

Even then, Gaza amputees had a hard time getting prostheses that would help them return to an active life.

Those joining the ranks of amputees now face near-impossible conditions. Some 85% of the population of 2.3 million have been displaced, crowding into tents, schools-turned-shelters or homes of relatives. Water, food and other basic supplies are scarce.

On Nov. 13, when an Israeli airstrike hit the home of Nabahin's neighbor in Bureij, an urban refugee camp in central Gaza, her ankle and arteries in her leg were partially severed by a clump of cement that blew into her home from the explosion next door. She was the only one of her family who was injured, while a number of her neighbors were killed, she said.

She was quickly taken to nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where doctors managed to sew up her leg and and stop the bleeding.

But after that, Nabahin said she received minimal treatment or attention from doctors, who were dealing with a growing number of critically wounded people amid dwindled medical supplies. Days later, her leg turned a dark color, she said.

"They discovered that there was ... shrapnel that was poisoning my blood," she said.

The amputation went well, but Nabahin said she remains in acute pain and can't sleep without sedatives.

Jourdel Francois, an orthopedic surgeon with Doctors Without Borders, says the risk of post-op infections in war-stricken Gaza is high. Francois, who worked at Nasser Hospital in the southern town of Khan Younis in November, said hygiene was poor, mainly because of scarce water and the general chaos in a hospital that's overwhelmed with patients while hosting thousands of displaced civilians.

He recalled a young girl whose legs had been crushed and urgently needed a double amputation, but she couldn't be booked into surgery that day because of the high number of other critical injuries. She died later that night, Francois said, likely from sepsis, or blood poisoning by bacteria.

"There are 50 (injured) people arriving every day, you have to make a choice," he told The Associated Press by phone after leaving Gaza.

At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, many of the new amputees struggle to get to grips with how the loss of limb has changed their lives. Nawal Jaber, 54, had both legs amputated after she was injured on Nov. 22, when an Israeli bombardment hit her neighbor's empty house and damaged her house in Bureij. Her grandson was killed, and her husband and son were wounded, she said.

"I wish I could meet the needs of my children, (but) I am unable," the mother of eight said, with tears streaming down her face.

Before the conflict, Nabahin had started her degree in international relations in Gaza and planned to travel to Germany to continue her studies.

She said her goal now is to get out of Gaza, to "save what is left of me, and to install a prosthetic limb and live my life normally."


# The rapper Ye, who has a long history of making antisemitic comments, issues an apology in Hebrew
By **MARIA SHERMAN**
December 26, 2023. 3:29 PM EST

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The rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who has a long history of making antisemitic comments, apologized to the Jewish community in an Instagram post written in Hebrew on Tuesday.

"I sincerely apologize to the Jewish community for any unintended outburst caused by my words or actions," Ye wrote.

"It was not my intention to offend or demean, and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused," continued the rapper, who legally changed his name to Ye in 2021.

The statement arrives less than two weeks after Ye went on an antisemitic rant in Las Vegas while promoting his upcoming album "Vultures," due out Jan. 12. In the rant, he made insidious insinuations about Jewish influence and compared himself to Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler.

"After causing untold damage by using his vast influence and platform to poison countless minds with vicious antisemitism and hate, an apology in Hebrew may be the first step on a long journey towards making amends to the Jewish community and all those who he has hurt," the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement to The Associated Press and other news outlets on Tuesday. "Ultimately, actions will speak louder than words but this initial act of contrition is welcome."

The American Jewish Committee, however, criticized Ye's use of Hebrew in the apology.

"Beyond being bizarre and possibly a ploy to gain more attention, the Hebrew apology - posted without translation - is inaccessible to most American Jews who do not speak the language," the AJC said in a statement to the AP. "To be sure, using Hebrew to communicate with the Jewish community intentionally denies most American Jews- and, consequently, non-Jews-the ability to directly see Kanye's apology."

"While he claims that he is committed to learning and greater understanding, this apology speaks to 'any pain I may have caused,' rather than acknowledging the pain that he has caused," the AJC continued.

Ye has a history of offensive and antisemitic comments, including repeated praise of Hitler and the Nazis. He also once suggested slavery was a choice and called the coronavirus vaccine "the mark of the beast." In October 2022, he was criticized for wearing a "White Lives Matter" T-shirt at his Paris Fashion Week show and tweeted that he was going to go "death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE," an apparent reference to the U.S. defense readiness condition scale, DEFCON.

Later that month, the Balenciaga fashion house cut ties with Ye and he lost the lucrative partnership with Adidas that helped catapult him to billionaire status over his remarks.

"Ye's recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness," the German sportswear company said at the time. Adidas has sold hundreds of millions of euros in remaining Yeezy shoes, donating part of the profits to groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change.

(Recently, though, Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden said on a podcast episode that he didn't think Ye "meant what he said and I don't think he's a bad person." Gulden later apologized, the Anti-Defamation League said.)

He was also dropped by talent agency CAA, and his documentary with MRC Entertainment was scrapped. He was locked out of his accounts on Instagram and what was then known as Twitter, though he has since returned to both platforms.

This isn't the first the rapper has apologized for his antisemitic comments. He expressed some remorse for his "death con 3" tweet on a podcast in October 2022, characterizing the initial tweet as a mistake and apologizing to "the Jewish community." He also went on "Piers Morgan Uncensored."

"I will say I'm sorry for the people that I hurt with the confusion that I caused," he said on the show. But less than two months later, he told conspiracy theorist and host Alex Jones that he sees "good things about Hitler."

"We've seen this behavior from Kanye before - the antisemitic rant and the follow-up apology," the American Jewish Committee said.

Ye's latest apology ends with him saying he's committed to "learning from this experience" and plans on "making amends." A representative for Ye did not immediately respond to the AP's request for further comment.