By Crystal Bell Less than a minute into our conversation, Leah Lewis tells me how she’s been taking care of herself — “mentally and physically” — while quarantining in her Los Angeles home. It’s late April, and the usually benign question of “how are you doing?” is now a loaded phrase that means, in essence, “how are you coping?” The 23-year-old star of The Half of It assures me she’s been eating a lot (she and her boyfriend challenge each other to cook-offs in the kitchen), reading a lot (she’s currently in the middle of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood), calling a lot (she talks to her best friend and co-star Alexxis Lemire at least “five times a day”), and painting her toenails a lot. She journals every day, a ho...
By Crystal Bell Daniel Diemer spruces up a small area of his Studio City apartment for a full day of Zoom interviews in promotion of the new Netflix film The Half of It, but he only keeps things professional from the waist up. A sartorial mullet, of sorts. “I’m wearing sweatpants,” the 23-year-old actor says matter-of-factly over the phone. He’s sitting in front of the television in his living room, where his roommates are currently prohibited from snacking too loudly, telling me about his days as a teenage gig worker in his Canadian hometown, British Columbia’s Brentwood Bay. In no specific order, he coached ping pong, picked blueberries, published a children’s book about a penguin detective, did some low-level accounting work, coached tennis at the same summ...
Twihards, unite! Whether fans of the Twilight franchise rallied behind #TeamEdward or #TeamJacob, they have something in common with a couple of A-listers, including Halsey, Stevie Nicks, Adam Lambert and Evanescence. With Twilight author Stephenie Meyers releasing its new addition Midnight Sun in August, avid readers might have the same summer reading list as their favorite artists — or they might just be binge-watching the first 2008 film like the “Bad At Love” singer. Here are all the times that musicians gushed about Hollywood’s hottest blood-suckers. Adam Lambert dressed up as a “glam-pire” for Halloween. Adam Lambert‘s favorite holiday is Halloween, so it comes as no surprise that he dressed up as a character fro...
Source: Warner Bros. Pictures / HBO Max Zack Snyder’s Justice League was a flawed movie that never lived up to its potential. However, there have long been rumors of a director’s cut of the film that allegedly was exponentially better than what made it to theaters, and that version is coming to HBO Max. But, you’ll have to wait until 2021 to actually see it. Today (May 20), HBO Max and Warner Bros. Pictures announced that it will exclusively world premiere Zack Snyder’s director’s cut of Justice League on the streaming service in 2021. Snyder hipped fans to the news this morning during a live online commentary of Man of Steel, which starred Henry Cavill and was a pretty damn good Superman flick. “I want to thank HBO Max and Warner Brothers for this brave gesture of supporting artists and a...
DC fans, rejoice: The Snyder Cut of Justice League is finally being released! Well, kind of. Director Zack Snyder, who initially helmed the 2017 superhero blockbuster but left before production was complete due to a family tragedy, revealed on Wednesday (May 20) that the world will soon indeed get to see his vision of the film. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Snyder Cut will hit the new streaming service HBO Max (launching on May 27), likely sometime in 2021. The final shape it’ll take remains a question, though it could be one four-hour cut of the film or split up into six “chapters.” After Snyder left the film in mid-2017, Avengers director Joss Whedon was brought in to retool the film and to keep its slated release date in November. But the mythical Snyder Cut...
By Crystal Bell Director Alice Wu knows the power of a deadline. If her years as a software engineer for Microsoft taught her anything, it’s that true efficiency is achieved through self-imposed stress (and better time management skills, but that’s besides the point). In late 2016, she applied that knowledge to a script she had been mulling over for months. The filmmaker cut a check for $1,000, sent it to a trusted friend, and made them promise: If she didn’t finish the draft in five weeks, the money would be donated to the National Rifle Association. The guilt, coupled with constant pressure from her close circle of progressive friends, was just the motivation she needed to finish it. So in a weird way, Wu has the NRA to thank for what would eventually become The Half of...
What’s perhaps most memorable about 1983’s classic, Martha Coolidge-directed teen romance, Valley Girl, is its “trippin’-dicular” soundtrack, anchored by Modern English‘s “I Melt with You,” which plays over one important montage and closes out the end credits. The iconic track makes a reprise in the musical update to the charming ’80s time capsule, which arrived on-demand on May 8, but it is bolstered by the addition of other popular cuts from the era, including songs by Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, and Joan Jett. In addition to its sparkly sonic identity, the 2020 film comes with new faces and new themes. Starring Jessica Rothe and Josh Whitehouse, as well as controversial YouTuber Logan Paul, the remake riffs on the...
Source: Netflix / Netflix t’s been more than a year since we learned that Chadwick “Black Panther” Boseman was cast in Spike Lee’s newest project, Da 5 Bloods. While it may sound like a film about gangbanging, it’s actually much deeper than that. The Oscar-winning director’s latest film centers around four African-American Vietnam veterans – Paul (Delroy Lindo), Otis (Clarke Peters), Eddie (Norm Lewis), and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) – who come together to fulfill a pact made when they were young soldiers serving on the front lines of Nam. Now well into their senior years, the four men return to Vietnam five decades later to not only retrieve the remains of their deceased squadron leader (Chadwick Boseman), but also dig up a treasure chest filled with enough gold to have them set fo...
Idris Elba, who battled the coronavirus this year, has lent his voice to a new song about black men and mental health that will benefit pandemic relief efforts. Elba is featured on the song “Kings” by Kosine, a singer-songwriter-producer best known for crafting hits for Big Sean, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna. Kosine, whose real name is Marcos Palacios, is one-half of the production duo Da Internz. Elba delivers a spoken word performance on “Kings,” which was released Friday. “This song looks at mental health, mental enrichment. We should stay away from conspiracies as they are a collision of fear and ignorance, two factors that erode our mental health,” Elba wrote on his Instagram page about “Kings.” The Golden Globe-winning actor has dipped his toe in music multiple times: He’s released severa...