Among the group’s challenges was ensuring that the book reflected a political shift in Brazil’s approach to the Amazon in the years since Phillips’ death. Most of Phillips’ research was done during the term of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, as Brazil’s Amazon deforestation reached a
and then-President Laurentino Cortizo announced the start of a process to close the mine.“Opus,” we are introduced to Alfred Moretti, the biggest pop star of the ‘90s, with 38 No. 1 hits and albums as big as “Thriller,” “Hotel California” and “Nebraska.” If the name Alfred Moretti sounds more like a personal injury attorney from New Jersey, that’s the first sign “Opus” is going to stumble.
leans into his regular off-kilter creepy to play the unlikely pop star at the center of this serious misfire by the A24 studio, a movie that also manages to pull “The Bear” starback to earth. How both could be totally miscast will haunt your dreams.Writer-director Mark Anthony Green has created a pretty good premise: A massive pop star who went quiet for the better part of three decades reemerges with a new album — his 18th studio LP, called “Caesar’s Request” — and invites a select six people to come to his remote Western compound for an album listening weekend. It’s like a golden ticket.
Edebiri’s Ariel is a one of those invited. She’s 27, a writer for a hip music magazine who has been treading water for three years. She’s ambitious but has no edge. “Your problem is you’re middle,” she’s told. Unfortunately, her magazine boss is also invited, which means she’s just a note-taker. Edebiri’s self-conscious, understated humor is wasted here.It takes Ariel and the rest of the guests — an influencer, a paparazzo, a former journalist-nemesis and a TV personality played by Juliette Lewis, once again cast as the frisky sexpot — way too much time to realize that Moretti has created a cult in the desert. And they’re murderous. This is Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous” crossed with
It’s always a mistake to get too close a look at the monster in a horror movie and Green makes the same error with his pop star, ludicrously nicknamed “The Wizard of Wiggle.” Watching Malkovich, in his 70s, make vulgar pelvic thrusts at his visitors while wearing a weird metallic top really doesn’t inspire dread. It inspires cringe and an AARP membership.
Costume designer Shirley Kurata has clearly lost the thread, putting Malkovich in Nehru jackets embellished with sprays of crystals, a sarong, gloves with rings on top and platform shoes. He looks less like a superstar than a sommelier at a stuffy molecular gastronomy restaurant: “This cabernet has notes of chocolate and leather.”Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 128 drones overnight. Among the targets were Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, damaging an industrial facility, power lines, and several private homes, regional Gov. Serhii Lysak said on Telegram.
In Kyiv, debris from a Russian drone fell onto the grounds of a school in the capital’s Darnytskyi district, according to Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration. No injuries were reported.Ukrainian shelling in Russia’s Kursk region killed a 50-year-old man and injured two others, acting regional Gov. Alexander Khinshtein said Thursday.
on Tuesday for the first time since Moscow claimed that it drove Ukrainian forces out of the area last month. Kyiv officials denied the claim.“Despite the liberation of our territory, the border region is still subject to enemy attacks,” Khinshtein warned residents on Telegram. “It is still dangerous to be there.”