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Thanksgiving,’ Eli Roth serves up a feature-length feast of gore, some of it stale

Gather ’round the table, horror fans, because Eli Roth is finally serving up his long-gestating holiday feast: the seasonal slasher movie “Thanksgiving.” The idea for this film got rolling some 16 years ago with the 2007 Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez double feature “Grindhouse,” in which Roth and his longtime friend Jeff Rendell cooked up a joke trailer inspired by their love of themed horror movies and a Massachusetts childhood spent just down the road from Plymouth, the site of the first Thanksgiving. When horror fans first got their eyes on the “Thanksgiving” trailer, it sparked a fervent appetite for the whole meal, but with the full film finally hitting theaters after 16 years of discussion and development, it proves the adage — also true for Thanksgiving meals — that there can be too much of a good thing. “Thanksgiving” is an enthusiastic slasher romp in which Roth is clearly having a ball making his childhood dreams come true. But the problem here is the underbaked script, ...
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Fantasia Barrino talks ‘The Color Purple,’ facing her demons and surviving a suicide attempt

Fantasia Barrino is opening up about overcoming darker times and nearly taking her own life. Barrino, who is reprising her role as Celie in the Oprah Winfrey-produced big-screen musical adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel “The Color Purple,” told Variety that although she never thought she would be, she is “so HAPPY — in all caps.” After being crowned the winner of the third season of “American Idol” in 2004, Barrino told the trade outlet, she rushed to embrace her grandmother, who told her to buckle up, “because with all of this comes the storm.” In 2008, after ending her run playing Celie in “The Color Purple” on Broadway, the singer visited a church in Los Angeles, where Bishop George Bloomer warned her that she had years of pain to come. If she held on and made it through, he told her, her ending would look better than her beginning. Just two years later, amid a battle with depression and intense public scrutiny, Barrino tried to take her own life by swallowing sleeping pills and as...
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Latin Grammys 2023: Latinas steal the show, sweep all major awards

Latin Grammy Awards 2023: Live updates from Sevilla The 24th edition of the Latin Grammys will bring together some of the biggest names across Latin Music and some new faces that will vie for the award for Best New Artist. This time the event isn’t taking place in Las Vegas, instead it will be hosted in Sevilla, Spain. Las cosas no se hacen precisamente temprano por estos lares. Mientras que la alfombra roja se inició después de las 6 de la tarde y terminó después de las 9 de la noche, la ceremonia oficial de premios que se transmite por televisión comenzó después de las 10 de la noche y se prolongó hasta después de la 1.30 de la madrugada. Para quienes cubrimos el evento en vivo, la jornada fue brutal. Para otros continentes, pertenecientes sobre todo a los territorios latinoamericanos y a los Estados Unidos, la idea de que el Latin Grammy se realizara tan tarde tenía sentido, incluso cuando no se iba a transmitir en vivo por allá. En lo que respecta a los trofeos, los resultados fina...
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With sports and horror movies as canvas, an artist dissects the world’s digital upheaval

Emotionally creepy, intellectually disturbing and very, very loud, both audibly and visually, “Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom” is an extraordinarily compelling survey of the artist’s work in digital imagery, whether sculptures that incorporate video, room-size installations or large-format photographs. He’s been at it since the mid-1990s. The newly opened exhibition of more than 50 works at Little Tokyo’s Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art is also timely, which adds to its resonance. We have lately been swallowed up in spectacular social and political upheaval, intensified by the depredations of digital life that traffics in images of state violence. With the eruptions and disruptions of digital mass culture as its Ferrari-level engine, often represented by the roaring drama of sport, Pfeiffer’s art cogitates on power as an ongoing campaign waged between the individual and the crowd. Pfeiffer, 57, was born in Honolulu the year before Fre...
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This 2023 Horror Movie May Be One Of The Best Modern Lovecraft Adaptations

Suitable Flesh is a modern exploration of ancient fears, inviting audiences to confront the terrors that lie beyond the threshold of understanding. The year 2023 promises an unsettling experience with Suitable Flesh, a spine-chilling adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short story, "The Thing on the Doorstep." Directed by the visionary Joe Lynch and penned by the talented Dennis Paoli, this film brings Lovecraftian horror to life, weaving a narrative that explores the thin veil between sanity and ancient, malevolent forces. With a stellar cast including Heather Graham, Judah Lewis, Barbara Crampton, Bruce Davison, and Johnathon, this new horror flick ventures into the depths of psychological terror. Before delving into the depths of Suitable Flesh, it's crucial to understand the profound influence H.P. Lovecraft has had on the horror genre. Lovecraft's distinct cosmic horror, characterized by the insignificance of humanity in the face of incomprehensible cosmic entitie...
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‘The Marvels’ Never Really Stood A Chance

Critics and MCU fans all have something to say about the movie, and it’s a symptom of a larger issue. Have you heard? “The Marvels” has the lowest box office earnings for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film brought in $47 million in its opening weekend. So many headlines about the film, which had a reported production budget of $274.8 million, have been screaming about its failure. This is it, folks, the end of the Marvel franchise, and it’s all because of those pesky woke women who think they can make comic book movies, many detractors said. “The Marvels” is the sequel to “Captain Marvel,” which was the MCU’s first female-led (and co-directed) film. This sequel is also a follow-up to “Ms. Marvel,” the Disney+ series that introduced the much-loved comic book character of the same name to the franchise. Yes, there are criticisms about the film that many people agree on, like the fact that some of the backstory needed more context and the villain was underdeveloped. But this vehement...
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'The Marvels' Suffers 'Unprecedented Box Office Collapse'

The superhero movie may have encountered a new villain at the box office: genre fatigue. Since 2008’s “Iron Man,” the Marvel machine has been one of the most unstoppable forces in box-office history. Now, though, that aura of invincibility is showing signs of wear and tear. The superhero factory hit a new low with the weekend launch of “The Marvels,” which opened with just $47 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The 33rd installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a sequel to the 2019 Brie Larson-led “Captain Marvel,” managed less than a third of the $153.4 million its predecessor launched with before ultimately taking in $1.13 billion worldwide. Sequels, especially in Marvel Land, aren’t supposed to fall off a cliff. Yet “The Marvels” debuted with more than $100 million less than “Captain Marvel” opened with — something no sequel before has ever done. David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Research Entertainment, called it “an unprecedented Marvel bo...
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