CULTURE

Only Icons in the Building

Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd Join Selena Gomez, Martin Short, and Steve Martin in the hit Hulu murder mystery

Selena Gomez at the 2nd Annual Academy Museum Gala held at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, USA on October 15, 2022.

By Tinseltown / Shutterstock

If you’re not already a devoted fan of Only Murders in the Building, run — don’t walk — to Hulu to start binging your new-favorite show now. The Emmy-nominated series stars Selena alongside comedy veterans Martin Short and Steve Martin. The result: a charming, addictive comedy that only strengthens Selena’s already-massive career.

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Film Features

"Romeo + Juliet" 2021 - Before Its Time

Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet is an ecstasy-infused, colorful retelling of the star-crossed lovers' tale that takes a 425-year-old story and strangely reflects society in 2021.

Leonardo Dicaprio, Claire Danes ROMEO & JULIET 1996

By Merrick Morton-20th Century Fox-Kobal-Shutterstock

Pandemics are known for triggering upheaval and societal change.

It's probably no coincidence, then, that Shakespeare penned Romeo and Juliet around 1595—directly in the middle of the deadly Bubonic plague pandemic that ravaged Europe. Amidst today's pandemic, the most relevant adaptation of this timeless and classic tragedy was made 25 years ago.

Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet is an ecstasy-infused, colorful retelling of the star-crossed lovers' tale. Romeo + Juliet made a decent ranking at the box office, but it was heavily overlooked for awards, only receiving one Oscar nomination for best art direction.

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Film Lists

10 Best Female Characters in the MCU

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has not always done justice to women, but recent years have given us some iconic female characters

Marvel Cinematic Universe

via Marvel

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has not always been kind to women.

The franchise initially focused pretty exclusively on white men and garnered so much success doing so that their argument for not featuring marginalized groups in more prominent ways was their fear of compromising their fanbase.

However, over the past few years, fans and actors have successfully advocated for films that focus on heroes from marginalized communities and feature them in more prominent, complex roles.

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Photo by: Willian Justen de Vasconcellos / Unsplash

If you're a fan of the original 1984 Ghostbusters or the 2016 remake because of their inherent hilarity and kitsch, then you may not love the new trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

The new film, directed by Jason Reitman and written by Reitman and Gil Kenan, stars Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Carrie Coon, and Paul Rudd, while Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts return in their roles from the 1984 film. The trailer is decidedly dark, even sad at times, as it depicts a single mother (Carrie Coon) and her two children (Grace and Wolfhard) retreating to their recently inherited family patriarch's rickety old farm house. As the town is thrown into disarray by unexplained earthquake-like occurrences, the children start to uncover relics of their late-grandfather's past, such as a ghost trap and, eventually, the car from the original Ghostbusters movie.

It all adds up to hint at a darker, less-comedic, more heartfelt addition to the beloved franchise.

GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE - Official Trailer (HD)youtu.be

TV

Paul Rudd's "Living With Yourself" Is Extremely Normcore

This article contains spoilers for Netflix's "Living With Yourself."

Netflix's new series Living With Yourself has two major things going for it.

The first is Paul Rudd. The man has a charm to him and an ageless youthfulness that makes him a delight to watch even as the schlubby, nihilistic Miles, who is only distinguishable from New Miles by his messy hair and eye bags.

The other main positive is the premise, which apparently occurred to creator Timothy Greenberg in a recurring dream. In the series, Rudd plays a worn-out and downbeat man who decides to fork over $50,000 in order to undergo a mysterious operation meant to make him into a "happy" person. He visits a spa and then wakes up underground. It soon becomes clear that the procedure was actually a cloning process, and now there are two Paul Rudds—one loving and upbeat (also known as New Miles), the other as down as ever, albeit more confused.

That's about the extent of the weirdness of Living With Yourself, an impressive fact in and of itself—the show takes a complex sci-fi concept worthy of Black Mirror in its eeriness and makes it palatable, inoffensive, and simplistic. In its eight episodes, it's heavy on lackluster humor, benign upper-middle-class suburban surroundings, and cookie-cutter characters.

That's not to say that it's a bad show. At risk of shattering any residual illusions of journalistic objectivity, I admit my personal vendetta against it may come from the fact that I've been interested in personal duality and its intersections with technology for years, and I've spent a good amount of time researching and writing about it. The concept that each person contains a dark side and a light side within them is ancient and primal, and the show's plotline had all the makings of a fascinating or at least intriguing psychological journey. Also, the question of whether—if given the choice—we would eliminate our sadness and internal turmoil and allow ourselves to be replaced by happy-go-lucky clones touches on larger philosophical debates about genetic engineering, medication, artificial intelligence, and technology on the whole, questions that we'll have to face sooner rather than later.

Instead of addressing these themes, the show's creators opted for a light, almost anachronistic rom-com vibe, relying heavily on Paul Rudd's charm while asking for relatively little critical thought from the audience. The vast existential implications and science of the cloning process are sidenotes at best. Out of all the characters, I personally related most to Weinraub, the insane FDA employee running a cloning interrogation room in a spare office.

All that said, Living With Yourself has ample charm. It will certainly appeal to anyone who's ever been stuck in a repetitive rut, wondering what would happen if negative thoughts could be completely wiped out of their brain. It's careful to practice some element of social awareness, too. Though it centers on Paul Rudd, it offers its leading woman—Miles' wife Kate (Aisling Bea)—a nuanced if initially underwritten storyline, giving her some piercing clapbacks and context and refusing to allow her to be pigeonholed or idealized. Miles' relationship with Kate is probably the show's most complex aspect, for better or for worse.

Living With Yourself is also embedded with gentle critiques of toxic masculinity and other harmful tropes. The original Miles recoils when New Miles cries, and he's afraid of showing emotions and connecting to others, which is a core part of his sadness. That he has nothing else to be sad about is indicative of his class privilege (among other kinds), but it's also something that everyone can probably relate to in some way. Still, Miles' sadness is mostly expressed in doleful glares and sighs, and ultimately the show fails to actually make a piercing emotional impact in any way, either in the humorous or emotional sense. It lacks the rigor of Black Mirror, the quirky vibrance of Russian Doll, or the vulnerability of Modern Love, a show that has been criticized for its dreamy idealism but that seems deep and nuanced compared to this one. There's nothing wrong with Living With Yourself, but it's missing a spark.

FILM & TV

BOX OFFICE BREAKDOWN | Save some crimes this holiday weekend

JULY 6TH-8TH | What's Coming to Theaters this Weekend?

indiewire.com

The big guy this weekend at the box office is actually quite small.

In Popdust's column, Box Office Breakdown, we aim to inform you of the top flicks to check out every weekend depending on what you're in the mood to enjoy. Looking to laugh? What about having your pants scared off? Maybe you just need a little love? Whatever the case may be, we have you covered. Take a peek at our top picks for this week…

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