Editorials
Why Viktor Hargreeves’ Experience in The Umbrella Academy Was Always a Trans Allegory
[Editor’s note: The following contains mild spoilers for The Umbrella Academy Season 3.] Cliffhangers rule The Umbrella Academy. Every season, including the just-premiered third, of Netflix’s adaptation of Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s comic book series has ended with the status quo being shaken up more than it already has. And Season 2 ended with a particularly intriguing move: The Hargreeves, a dysfunctional family of adopted super-siblings, returned to the present from 1960s Dallas, only to find their home is no longer their home. Instead, Reginald Hargreeves adopted a different group of children with special powers (including original Umbrella Ben) for what’s now known as “The Sparrow Academy.” But a different sort of lingering question about the show’s direction arose between the second...
Elvis’ Cultural Cachet Has Gone Up and Down Over the Years, But He’s Still Way More Relevant Than You Think
Go ahead: Google “Beatles are irrelevant” and “Rolling Stones are irrelevant.” The former will net you about half a million results — the latter, a hair under two million. Now, Google “Elvis is irrelevant.” You’ll get more than twice the results of both those queries — combined. At first thought, this is understandable. The Stones remain a titanic concert draw despite losing a key member. The Beatles’ Get Back didn’t just lift us out of Turkey Day doldrums; it bestowed on us a rare case of almost universal common ground. Recent deluxe editions of both beloved bands’ classic albums do gangbusters on Spotify. Speaking of: at press time, the Beatles command 26 million monthly listeners; the Stones, 21 mil. Elvis Presley? A paltry 13. Granted, there are many potential reasons for the above — a...
Kate Bush’s Stranger Things Triumph Reminds Us of the Joy of Discovering Music Through Film and TV
This week, in the aftermath of Stranger Things Season 4 debuting, English singer/songwriter Kate Bush experienced a remarkable renaissance, as her iconic 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” became a chart-busting hit across multiple streaming services. Over the course of Memorial Day weekend, the song reached the top 10 on Apple Music in 34 different countries, becoming one of the most-Shazamed songs of the week and getting permanently stuck in every viewer’s head — hopefully music supervisor Nora Felder is feeling pretty good about her accomplishment. If you watched the new episodes of the show, this isn’t a surprise: In the show, “Running Up That Hill” has a huge impact because it’s not just a casual needle drop — it saves a girl’s life. Max (Sadie Sink) is seen listening t...
What the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard Verdict Means for Depp’s Future Career
It seems like an inevitability, at this point: Johnny Depp will be back on the big screen again soon. Not that he’s felt exactly absent from our screens over the last several months, as his defamation case against ex-wife Amber Heard raged not just in a Virginia courtroom but across the entire Internet. The resulting decision was not a clear-cut victory for either side, but with Depp being awarded $10 million in compensatory damages in comparison to Heard being awarded $2 million, the jury made it clear who they thought was more in the wrong here. However, while Depp fans are treating yesterday’s verdict as a clear-cut victory for the star, the question becomes: What happens next, at least in terms of Depp’s career — the very thing he accused Heard of damaging? Advertisement Related Video ...
There Would Be No Depeche Mode Without Andy Fletcher
Throughout his time with Depeche Mode, Andy “Fletch” Fletcher became accustomed to one question more than others. “What exactly is it that you do?” It was a fair query. Fletcher — who passed away Thursday (May 26th) at the age of 60 — was an enigma amidst bandmates with clearly-defined roles. Dave Gahan holds forth as lead singer. Martin Gore is the band’s primary instrumentalist and prolific composer. Even former members Vince Clarke and Alan Wilder had delineated responsibilities in the group’s operation. Fletcher, however, was content to be “the guy that stands in the back.” Tall. Unassuming. Genial, even. Onstage he stood behind a keyboard but could appear as if he’d just happened to wander onto the set. He was the only band member with no songwriting credits, and at a certain point hi...
Dear Comedians, When Did the Concept of Empathy Get So Difficult?
Not that the current conversation about comedy, Netflix, and trans people needed a new development this month, but it got one in the form of Tuesday’s (May 24th) debut of a new Ricky Gervais special. You don’t really need to watch SuperNature on Netflix or read the recaps of his comments if you don’t want to — it’s the same strutting for attention that Gervais has executed countless times over the years, with a token attempt to say that he does believe in trans rights… well, at least, he says: “Full disclosure: In real life of course I support trans rights. I support all human rights, and trans rights are human rights. Live your best life. Use your preferred pronouns. Be the gender that you feel that you are. But meet me halfway, ladies: Lose the cock. That’s all I’m saying.” A message tha...
Dear Comedians, When Did the Concept of Empathy Get So Difficult?
Not that the current conversation about comedy, Netflix, and trans people needed a new development this month, but it got one in the form of Tuesday’s (May 24th) debut of a new Ricky Gervais special. You don’t really need to watch SuperNature on Netflix or read the recaps of his comments if you don’t want to — it’s the same strutting for attention that Gervais has executed countless times over the years, with a token attempt to say that he does believe in trans rights… well, at least, he says: “Full disclosure: In real life of course I support trans rights. I support all human rights, and trans rights are human rights. Live your best life. Use your preferred pronouns. Be the gender that you feel that you are. But meet me halfway, ladies: Lose the cock. That’s all I’m saying.” A message tha...
In 2012, The Avengers Was a Huge Risk. In 2022, It’s a Relic of a Lost Era.
There’s an argument to be made that Joss Whedon’s The Avengers is the most important superhero movie of the 21st century. The reasons are numerous, from its proof of concept that a crossover event on this scale could work, to its staggering box office success, to the now-vast media empire which would not exist had this one film fallen apart. The MCU began with Marvel literally using its entire catalog of characters to secure a massive loan to produce its own films, and while the early success of Iron Man and the other Phase 1 films was promising, that huge gamble was still largely dependent on The Avengers succeeding. And that wasn’t necessarily the safest of bets, given that despite Whedon being nerd royalty and an established screenwriter, script doctor, and TV director, the film was onl...
Coachella 2022: The 6 Toughest Set Time Conflicts
Coachella’s organizers have undoubtedly been busy: in a season marred with last minute cancellations, controversies, and inevitable left turns, Paul Tollett and Goldenvoice have definitely been putting in some overtime hours. Hence, one of the latest schedule drops in the festival’s history — nearly 24 hours before the festival begins, to be exact. Such a late set time release means there’s even less time to make decisions about who to see, especially given the festival’s conflict-heavy time table. There are some traditional surprises with the schedule drop — Ari Lennox has moved her set to Friday and J.I.D.’s set will go down on Saturday, for instance — but no surprise is more intriguing than the news that Arcade Fire will be performing a special set in the Mojave Tent at 6:45 p.m. (siden...
Thank God You Can See Master Chief’s Face in Halo the TV Show
The genre-defining video game Halo has been in development for a potential screen adaptation for nearly a decade now, and over that time one question has loomed large: Would we ever see the face of the franchise’s main character, a taciturn super-solider named Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, who has never been unmasked over the course of 16 video games made over 21 years? It’s a question that the Paramount+ series, which debuted this spring, answered towards the end of its first episode, as Master Chief (brought to life here by Pablo Schreiber) removed his helmet while being held at gunpoint by the terrified Kwan (Yerin Ha), in an effort to connect with her. Up until that point, Master Chief had been a man of action but always held at a distance by the show because of the full suit of...
Bruce Willis’ Retirement Means It’s Time to Rethink Our Perception of Bruce Willis
Gasoline Alley, Midnight in the Switchgrass, Cosmic Sin — these are just a few of the titles the visage of Bruce Willis has graced in the last several years, direct-to-video cash-ins that leveraged a few minutes of screentime from one of America’s most revered action stars to drive VOD sales and move Redbox inventory. Take a chintzy script you can film in Eastern Europe or Atlanta with minimal crew and one or two C-listers, throw Willis at the beginning or the end (aided by obvious body doubles), then slap his face on the poster and you’ve got a movie, baby. Willis’ take on this material, in particular, earned this subgenre of film the moniker “the geezer teaser.” Willis’ recent films in particular have been the subject of a deluge of jokes online, from hour-long Red Letter Media videos to...
Taylor Hawkins: A Musician’s Musician, A Fan’s Fan
Shortly after sound checking his “70s dirt rock cover band” Chevy Metal for a performance on the eve of Metallica’s second Orion Music + More festival during June of 2013 in Detroit, Taylor Hawkins spoke — effusively, as was his nature — to this writer about his musical ventures and adventures to that point. “Man, I just wanted to play music all the time, and I’m doing it and it feels great,” said the multi-faceted performer. At that point, Hawkins was five albums into his career with Foo Fighters, after tenures with Alanis Morissette and Sass Jordan, and had also launched another band, the Coattail Riders — thus stacking up a resume of high profile collaborations. “Y’know, I wanted to be in a great band. I’m in one,” Hawkins said. “I wanted to play with great people. I am. I wanted a life...
