Reviews: Last News

Mad Max: Fury Road.” How easy it is to forget. Repetitive, badly written, fake-looking superhero fare has gobbled up the market since, and escapist thrills have so often become synonymous with idiots in spandex.Not so in the beautiful and brutal “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.”Miller’s latest Road Warrior adventure, a thunderous prequel to “Fury Road” sans Max that explains the origins of Charlize Theron’s badass Imperator, provides the same slap-in-the-face wake-up call as its predecessor.The explosive chase sequences, hurdling through the sandy Wasteland, are as fueled as much by boundless creativity as gasoline.

Running time: 104 minutes. Rated PG (thematic elements and mild language.) In theaters.John Krasinski has written, directed and stars in a new movie about imaginary friends.

Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse at Forest Hills Stadium when a light rain came down during their raucous ‘Love Earth’ concert. At other outdoor shows, this minor inconvenience might have put a damper on the evening; everyone knows wearing ponchos is never cool.

Running time: 122 minutes. Rated R (drug use, language throughout, sexual content and nudity). In theaters May 17.A basic biopic about Amy Winehouse, the eccentric singer who recorded two albums and then died of alcohol poisoning at the devastatingly young age of 27, was never going to work.Obviously.Hers was a whirlwind, hard-lived life that ended abruptly in tragedy.

Hell’s Kitchen. Reviews were fairly solid, and plenty of buzz was generated when the jukebox tuner premiered at the end of last year at New York’s Public Theater.It didn’t even complete its run in January before Keys, along with producers, announced a transfer to Broadway, where it opened in April.New Yorkers — and specifically those who live in the midtown neighborhood the show is named for (now a predominantly gay mecca) — will appreciate that the locality is having a moment in the spotlight.

War for the Planet of the Apes,” continues this damn dirty science-fiction franchise’s reign as one of the best out there.Directed with visual splendor by Wes Ball, the meaty film’s combo of flawless zoological effects (unlike this year’s inferior primate picture “Godzilla x. Kong”), superbly crafted characters and a timeless story of emerging civilization and the fight for survival is remarkably riveting for what sets the groundwork of a whole new trilogy.This enduring series proves that, when handled properly, you just can’t beat talking monkeys.And yap, they do.

Cabaret is back on Broadway with unbridled decadence and immersive glory. Certain musicals are constructed so well that, even if they are cast with mediocre performances or if the production value is low, they still hold.Cabaret stands as one of the indestructible.This might explain why the original sixties production has been revived and reinvented so many times on both sides of the Atlantic.

Anne Hathaway’s career in Hollywood began 23 years ago with a family movie about every teen girl’s ultimate fantasy — her geeky character discovered she was actually royalty.Now 41, the actress has delivered a second dose of impossible escapism with “The Idea of You,” an, ahem, steamier, R-rated flick clearly made for the older millennials who obsessed over “The Princess Diaries” back in the aughts.Her latest fizzy project instead realizes the dream of every bored woman in their thirties and forties: She plays an exhausted single mom who has a fling with a famous, 24-year-old British boybander. And why not? What fun.Anyway, I suspect that aspirational viewers of “The Idea of You,” a decadent diversion that’s based on the popular novel by Robinne Lee, would much rather jet set around Europe with Harry Styles than live in a moldy 300-year-old palace and cut ribbons.

2024 Tony Award nominations announced on Tuesday.When the list was read aloud by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Renée Elise Goldsberry, it was snub city. Barry Manilow’s “Harmony,” the Britney Spears pop-sical “Once Upon a One More Time,” Huey Lewis’ funny “The Heart of Rock and Roll” and “How To Dance in Ohio” were all totally shut out.The musicals “The Great Gatsby” (one mention), “The Notebook” (three) and “Back to the Future” (two) got a dusting, but you can’t very well put “Best costume design nominee!” on a poster.Well, not on a good poster, anyway.David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s Imelda Marcos disco show “Here Lies Love” managed four noms, and “Days of Wine and Roses” got three, including score and best actress and actor for terrific Kelli O’Hara and Brian d’Arcy James, respectively.

“The Tortured Poets Department,” which dropped Friday, the pop star, 34, seemingly admits that she was more emotionally wounded from her breakup with British actor Joe Alwyn than it seemed at the time. In her song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” the 13th track on the album, Swift says that she was only pretending to be happy following their split, which took place just before she started her Eras tour last year.Lyrics supposedly about the “Conversations With Friends” star include: “Cause I’m a real tough kid, I can handle my s—t / They said, ‘Baby, gotta fake it till you make it,’ and I did / Lights, camera, bitch, smile, even when you wanna die / He said he’d love me all his life.”Swift, who has since moved on to NFL player Travis Kelce, 34, also says in the song that she was “shattered” while crowds chanted “more” from her. Swift dated Alwyn, 33, for six years, from 2016 to 2023.

podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.” The show follows O’Brien, 60, as he visits “friends” that he’s made (aka, fans who have called into his podcast). The result is a travel show that feels self indulgent, at times – as all celebrity travel shows often do – but it’s also entertaining and provides an off-beat and quirky look into a variety of countries.

Taylor Swift has a long history of writing about her exes on her albums — or so we think — from John Mayer and Jake Gyllenhaal to Joe Jonas and Harry Styles.But it’s Joe Alwyn, the British actor who the singer dated from 2016 to 2023, who is the object of the 34-year-old pop superstar’s wicked wordplay for a good — or for him, not so good — part of “The Tortured Poets Department,” which dropped on Friday.There’s even one song called “So Long, London” — a goodbye to the city where they once lived together. And just to show you how deep those Swift Easter eggs can be hidden, that track is 9 minutes and 28 seconds — which happens to line up with when the exes are rumored to have started dating on Sept.

Taylor Swift is embodying first the Everygirl, then the Everywoman — the Miss Americana in them all, from era to era.Beyoncé is a goddess, Taylor is a real life human — just like us.But there’s a moment on “The Tortured Poets Department” — the insanely anticipated 11th studio album by the Queen of the Swifties — when she embraces her power as the most famous, the most influential woman in America, if not on the planet.It occurs on “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” — one of two tunes that Swift wrote by herself with that wicked pen of hers.“I was tame, I was gentle/’Til the circus life made me mean/Don’t you worry folks, we took out all her teeth/Who’s afraid of little old me?/Well you should be,” she sings in the rumbling revenge song that brings some menace to the melody.And you can bet that Swift’s most recent exes — the 1975 frontman Matty Healy and, especially, British actor Joe Alwyn — have been quaking in their boots ever since the pop superstar announced “The Tortured Poets Department” after winning Best Pop Vocal Album for 2022’s “Midnights” at the Grammys in February.Sure enough — there is plenty of “Bad Blood” spilled on Swift’s latest.

Taylor Swift album.And, of course, that’s Travis Kelce — the Super Bowl champ sweetheart of the pop superstar.In fact, getting love from the 34-year-old singer on her highly anticipated 11th studio LP — “The Tortured Poets Department,” which dropped on Friday — might be an even bigger win than getting that Super Bowl ring.“The Alchemy” is a sexy slow dance that is unabashedly about Kelce, with Swift staking claim to her stud.“So when I touch down all that matters/Call the amateurs and cut ’em from the team/Ditch the clowns, get the crown/Baby I’m the one to beat/’Cause the sign on your heart said it’s still reserved for me.”All right now, Miss Tay.As if there was doubt about just who she was putting on lock, the Swift — who famously dashed into her boo’s arms for an iconic smooch when his Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers in February — later adds, “Where’s the trophy? He just comes running over to me.”The couple began dating last summer and went public with their relationship in September 2023.Swift has not been shy about her romance with Kelce, ratcheting up the TV ratings for the NFL when she cheered on her boyfriend from the stands at multiple games.“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” Swift told Time in December, when she was named the magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year.“The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone,” she added.

Taylor Swift from seemingly unleashing a wrath of words against 1975 frontman Matty Healy on her highly anticipated 11th studio album “The Tortured Poets Department,” which arrived on Friday.In fact, Healy — who, before their summer split, was a rebound romance for the pop superstar following her breakup with British actor Joe Alwyn after six years — appears to be the subject of the vicious takedown “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”“And I don’t even want oil back/If just want to know/If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal,” sings Swift, who caught flak after Healy made some controversial comments — including racist remarks about the singer’s now BFF Ice Spice.“And I don’t miss what we had,” she continues. “But could someone give a message/To the smallest man who ever lived.”Ouch.Other fans, however, may speculate the “sparkling summer” line is about Alwyn, as the pair split right before her Eras Tour and “Bejeweled” on her “Midnights” album is seemingly about the actor.There are also hints that “I Can Fix Him” (No Really I Can)” — gotta love that title — might be about 35-year-old Healy.“The smoke cloud billows out his mouth/Like a freight train through a small town/The jokes that he told across the bar were revolting/And far too loud/They shake their heads saying ‘God help her’ when I tell ‘em he’s my man/But your good Lord doesn’t need to/I can fix him/No, really I can,” she sings.Even more, Swifties could assume “Fortnight” might be about Healy as the title is a British English term defined as “a period of two weeks,” which could refer to their short-lived romance.

The Nance, directed by Nick Olcott.With careful discretion, Chauncey arranges an assignation for later with the younger man, Ned, a whippersnapper fresh from Buffalo played with aw-shucks joie de vivre by Patrick Joy.While an opening scene set at the Irving Place Theatre establishes Douglas Carter Beane’s well-plotted comedy-drama within the world of 1930s burlesque, the automat scene succinctly, incisively characterizes Chauncey and his compromised existence as a practicing homosexual at a time and place where that could easily get you arrested.It’s also a time when he might happen to get arrested for doing his job as a burlesque performer who specializes in a pansy act, camping it up onstage as the flamboyantly gay stock character known as “the nance.”The play — a winner of three Tonys in its original Broadway production starring Nathan Lane — finds Chauncey and his fellow artists of the burlesque revue at the Irving Place squarely in the sights of city authorities cracking down on these risqué cabaret showcases for ecdysiasts and vaudeville comedians.There’s a great montage in Singin’ in the Rain during the “Broadway Melody Ballet,” showing the rise of Gene Kelly’s Don Lockwood from burlesque hoofer to vaudeville showman to Broadway headliner. The quality of refinement in Don’s costumes, choreography, and chorus girls steadily sparkles brighter, along with Don’s million-dollar smile as he ascends to the top.The denizens of The Nance dwell near the bottom of that stairway to paradise, on the seedier side of Manhattan.

“Franklin,” an eight-part series premiering April 12 on Apple TV+.“Franklin” tells the story of 70-year-old Ben Franklin’s secret diplomatic mission to France in 1776 to gain French support (money, arms) for America’s fight against the British in the Revolutionary War. There are a lot of moving parts here, so viewers would be apprised to pay attention as Franklin navigates French high society — and politics — in an effort to achieve his goal.The series is based on the book “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America” by Pulitzer Prize-winner Stacy Schiff.As the series opens, Franklin — commissioned by Congress to undertake his clandestine journey across the Atlantic — has no diplomatic experience.

Prudential Center on Saturday, March 30.Opening act Tyler Hubbard had just finished wooing the crowd with his stable of rootsy country hits — “5 Foot 9” jerked everyone out of their seats and kept us on our feet until the final note of his infectious closer “Dancin’ In The Country.”“No twerking, just twanging,” my friend smiled, referencing the gals behind us whose southern drawls rang just as loud as their excited belts.In all seriousness, this rabble of fans was a rather tame group.There were handfuls of young sprogs spread throughout the stands, the expected besotten lovebirds, and older adults who stayed sober enough to sing along without butchering a single lyric.But, Kane Brown’s theatrical entrance was what grabbed our attention.Now on his sixth tour — this one dubbed ‘In the Air’ — the crossover country artist knows a thing or two about a grand opening.The stage was reset within minutes. Sheer curtains drawn back, clouds of smoke escaping from the ground, and silhouettes of the band members flashing in each corner.A few snare drums and firecrackers later, the drapes finally fell, and Brown descended from the sky sporting a laidback black Canadian tux, speckled in glistening rhinestones, and a pair of white sneakers.

Hamlet.She pulls it off with great intelligence and careful precision in a two-and-a-half-hour production that whizzes by faster than a perceived phantom. From the troubled Danish prince to the forlorn Ophelia and even a cockney gravedigger, Izzard tackles 23 characters with sophisticated panache and effortless flair.Izzard, who has had an impressive career in London and New York, both onstage and in film, and as an actor and stand-up comedian, admitted to ABC News that she is not the most likely person for a solo Hamlet, but has decided to return to her first love, drama.In the same interview, it was revealed that Izzard ran 32 marathons in 31 days on a treadmill during lockdown.

So decreed Queen B in a rare lengthy Instagram post about “Cowboy Carter,” which is “Act II” in her “Renaissance” trilogy that began with the underground house beats of her 2022 album that had us buzzing and bopping to “Break My Soul,” “Cuff It” and “Alien Superstar.”And while it may seem like a hair-whipping flip to take it from the ballroom to the barnyard on her latest, it is not as radical of a departure as it may seem for Bey herself, who hails from Houston, Texas, and is as Southern as any hummingbird could be.“They used to say I spoke ‘too country’/And the rejection came, said I wasn’t ‘country ’nough’/Said I wouldn’t saddle up/But if that ain’t country, tell me, what is?” she sings with a snarl in her twang on “Ameriican Requiem,” the autobiographical manifesto that opens the album.This is Bey unplugged, raw and rootsy, two-stepping across the color lines that took “Texas Hold ’Em” — the banjo-picking bluegrass stomper that previewed “Cowboy Carter” last month — all the way to No.

the setting of “Road House” from Missouri to the Florida Keys should go down as one of the best decisions made by a movie remake ever.The scenery is tropical, the personalities are oversize and the area inspired a song that goes, “Wasted away again.”Plus, as any skimmer of crime headlines knows, macho bar brawls are not uncommon in the boisterous Sunshine State. Really, this action-packed update of the truly ridiculous 1989 film that starred Patrick Swayze as the world’s best bouncer could almost be a documentary.