Ex-Simpsons Composer Alf Clausen Files Wrongful Termination Suit

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Alf Clausen, the longtime composer for The Simpsons who was fired from the show in 2017, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Fox and the show, claiming he was dismissed because of his age, Variety reports.

Clausen joined The Simpsons during its second season and worked on the show for 27 years. When he was let go in 2017, he said he received a call from Simpsons producer Richard Sakai, who said the show was seeking a different kind of music.

In his new lawsuit, filed Monday, Clausen countered, saying, This reason was pretextual and false. Instead, Plaintiffs unlawful termination was due to perceived disability and age. The new suit names Fox, James L. Brooks Gracie Films and The Simpsons new corporate owner, Disney, as defendants.

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A representative forThe Simpsonsdeclined to comment. A representative forFox did not immediately return Rolling Stones request for comment.

After Clausen was fired, The Simpsons replaced him with the music production company Bleeding Fingers Music, which was founded by Hans Zimmer, Russell Emanuel and Steve Kofsky. The suit alleges that Clausens replacement was substantially younger in age [and] was not only paid less, but was not disabled. The suit does not identify Clausens disability.

A lawyer for Clausen did not immediately return Rolling Stones request for comment.

At the time of Clausens firing, there was some speculation that the move was part of ongoing cost-cutting measures at The Simpsons, even though the show continues to rake in massive profits. The composers overhead was particularly high because he scored every episode with a 35-piece orchestra. While that was the set-up Simpsons creator Matt Groening wanted from the start, the cost of musicians, studios, orchestrations and other expenses could run into the millions per year.

During his tenure, Clausen handled background music and cues, contributed to an array of classic Simpsons songs and earned 23 Emmy nominations, winning two. At the start of Season Three, he also re-arranged Danny Elfmans famous Simpsons theme song.

GLOW Season 3: A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action, Please

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This post contains full spoilers for GLOW Season Three, which Netflix released on Friday.

In the closing moments of GLOWs third season, Britney Youngs Carmen announces plans to leave the show-within-the-show because, she says, I want to wrestle, and I cant do that here anymore.

Carmens in a unique position among the Netflix dramedys main characters. Almost everyone else fell into wrestling by accident, or for lack of a better option, where Carmen grew up in the wrestling world and loves it for its own sake. Even money man Bash (Chris Lowell), while a wrestling fan, has diversified his interests by this point in the series, and looks at GLOW as one small part of his larger showbiz empire. So it makes sense that Carmen, of all the regulars, would be most apt to make a meta comment about how little wrestling there is in this season of a show about wrestling.

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Over the course of a 10-episode season, only three episodes feature any significant action inside the squared circle: the premiere (Up, Up, Up), which establishes how the former cable-access show translates into a Las Vegas casino revue; the fifth episode (Freaky Tuesday), where all the women swap characters for the night; and the finale (A Very GLOW Christmas), in which Carmen convinces Ruth (Alison Brie) to perform a version of A Christmas Carol where Ruths wrestling alter ego Zoya the Destroya is Scrooge.

In several ways, it makes a lot of sense that Season Three largely back-burners the wrestling. Doing GLOW as a stage show for tourists means that it will be the same thing every night, and theres no point dramatizing that except on occasions like Freaky Tuesday, where things go differently. (And it turns out that Betty Gilpin can do a terrible Russian accent almost as amusing as Bries.) And by the end of Season Two, GLOW had arguably pushed the wrestling angle as hard as it could. Not only had all of the actresses become technically skilled in the ring, but that season devoted an entire, marvelously silly episode to showing us an installment of the Bash-produced show from beginning to end.

Perhaps most importantly, the wrestling sequences take up a lot of real estate on a show with a big ensemble an ensemble that it was clearly determined to service more thoroughly this year than in the past. By acknowledging early on that the Vegas show would be the same from night to night, Season Three gave itself more room (*) to dig deeper into nearly every character. (The two hairdressers were still mostly comic relief, but even they played a more dramatic role as Sunita Manis Arthie anxiously took a step out of the closet.)

(*) As a streaming show without commercials or time slots, GLOW can technically be any length it wants, and nearly every episode this year was 30-plus minutes, with several clocking in near or even over 40. But thats also pushing the outer limits of what tends to work in a TV comedy episode even for a series meant to be binged so something had to go. In this case, it was the wrestling.

Like Ruth and Debbie, GLOW itself has always looked on the wrestling as a means to an end. For the show, it was the chance to explore the ambitions and bonds among a group of misfits at a very tacky moment in our pop cultural history. Having long since established how the wrestling works, Season Three looked more at what made everybody tick.

Bashs green-card marriage to Rhonda (Kate Nash), for instance, allowed the creative team to more directly address Bashs own stay deep inside the closet, which had only been touched on briefly in previous seasons. This is tricky dramatic territory, but Lowell, Nash, and the writers navigated it with grace throughout culminating in an unexpected threesome between the sexually incompatible spouses and the male prostitute Rhonda had hired in the mistaken belief that she could make Bash jealous. Most of that sequence was dialogue-free, with the actors expressions and movements explaining everything about this impromptu renegotiation of the marriage.

There was also good material for Sheila the She-Wolf (Gayle Rankin) and Tamm (Kia Stevens) as they opted to make like Ruth and get serious about acting; for Debbie as she asserted herself as a producer and fell into a brief romance with older businessman Tex (Halt and Catch Fires always-charming Toby Huss); for the awkward romance between Arthie and Yolanda (Shakira Barrera), who had no interest in hiding her own identity; for GLOW director Sam (Marc Maron) to make peace with the fact that daughter Justine (Britt Baron) was a better writer than him; and for Cherry (Sydelle Noel) to debate whether to sacrifice her career to have a baby with husband Keith (Bashir Salahuddin). Nothing revolutionary, but all the stories were effectively told. The season also did a nice job with its two major new additions: Geena Davis as the former showgirl who owns the casino, and Kevin Cahoon as Bobby, a drag queen who becomes close with Sheila.

The monotonous, backgrounded nature of the wrestling fit into the seasons themes. Vegas offered both GLOW and its performers a chance to reinvent themselves. Nearly all took it, and discovered new facets of their work and/or personal lives. The only exceptions: Carmen, who just wanted to wrestle; and Ruth, who found herself plateauing while all her friends were blossoming. (Even Sam couldnt cast her in the studio movie he was making, because screenwriter Justine objected, and Sam chose his daughter over his would-be girlfriend.)

So in terms of plot, character, and theme, it made sense that we didnt spend much time watching Zoya, Liberty Belle, Machu Picchu, and the rest of the womens wrestling characters. But I have to admit that by the time Carmen voiced her objections to Ruth and Debbie, Id started to agree with her.

While the Vegas setting hemmed in the creative team regarding how much the show-within-the-show could change each time we saw it, its also not coincidental that Freaky Tuesday and A Very GLOW Christmas were among the seasons most effective episodes for both laughs and character development. GLOW just feels livelier, and truer to itself, when were spending at least a few minutes each episode on the work thats brought these misfits together. And in seasons past, the show deftly used the wrestling not only to provide narrative structure, but to help advance character arcs. There was some of that in Season Three Jackie Tohns Melrose does a racist Asian accent while swapping roles with Ellen Wongs Jenny in Freaky Tuesday, kicking off a very potent storyline for two of the shows back-benchers but not as much as there could have been. Its a big deal late in the season, for instance, when Sheila encounters a real wolf during a desert camping trip and, realizing that shes been faking it all these years, ashamedly burns her wig and other bits of lupine cosplay. But the only time afterward that we see her in the ring, its for the Christmas Carol spoof, which means we have no idea what kind of character she winds up playing the rest of the time or whether she feels enough of an actress now to separate the She-Wolf from Sheila and use the former for work purposes.

GLOW doesnt always need wrestling to move things along and hit important emotional beats. The seasons penultimate episode (The Libertines) takes place at an AIDS benefit cabaret that Bobby invites the women to, and those performances effectively take on the role the wrestling scenes so often play in underlining story and character and theme. (Its at the cabaret, for instance, that Sheila gets major validation for her acting, while Arthie is inspired to embrace her truth after homophobes vandalize the event.) But some kind of performance is helpful, and Season Three could have used some similar substitutions throughout.

The season ends with Debbie having helped Bash buy a local TV network out from under Tex, with the plan to revive GLOW as a television property (with new characters, because their old station owns the rights to Zoya, et. al), and with Ruth replacing Sam as director. But Carmen has already split for other opportunities, and Ruth doesnt want to give up her acting dream, even if, as Debbie bluntly puts it, it would have happened for her by now if it was going to.

Its a promising set-up for a potential fourth season, but fourth seasons on Netflix are becoming an increasingly rare proposition. The streaming giant has apparently embraced the idea that it can cancel shows, and that its subscribers would rather start something new after a few seasons. (Never mind that long-running shows like The Office and Friends are apparently among the most popular titles in the entire Netflix library.) It wouldnt surprise me if theres a fourth season of GLOW, but nor would it shock me to see it join the recent ranks of Tuca & Bertie and The OA, among many others, to get a shorter-than-planned run.

This was still a fine season of TV, and the best showcase yet for many members of the cast. And if GLOW manages to break the recent cancellation trend and come back for a season where Debbie and Bash are mounting a new wrestling TV show, then we can look on Season Three as an admirable and mostly successful experiment. But if the last we see of these characters is Debbie and Ruths awkward airport goodbye, then among the disappointments will be the fact that GLOWs unplanned farewell season mostly sidestepped the arena where so many of its memorable moments once took place.

Everyone Is a Murder Suspect in Final 13 Reasons Why Season 3 Trailer

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Netflix released the final trailer for13 Reasons Whys Season 3 on Wednesday, before the new season premieres August 23rd on the streaming platform.

The new trailer gives more insight into the Homecoming death of Bryce Walker, the driving force behind this season at Liberty High. Everyone is a suspect, as nearly everyone at the high school had a reason to kill Bryce. But which one of them is truly capable of murder?

Everyone has their reasons The secrets at Liberty High run deep, and in the aftermath of the Homecoming game all of the friends have something to hide. As the mystery of his death engulfs the town, there are numerous suspects in focus, reads the Season 3 synopsis.

Season 3 sees much of the13 Reasons Why cast reprising their roles:Dylan Minnette, Brandon Flynn, Justin Prentice, Alisha Boe, Christian Navarro, Miles Heizer, Devin Druid, Ross Butler, Timothy Granaderos, Anne Winters, Steven Weber, Brenda Strong and Amy Hargreaves. The season introduces new cast members Grace Saif (as new girl Ani), Bex Taylor Klaus and Tyler Barnhardt.

See Sylvester Stallone Blow People Up in New Rambo: Last Blood Trailer

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Sylvester Stallone readies himself for revenge with knives, machine guns and landmines in the new trailer for Rambo: Last Blood, the actors first Rambo movie in 11 years. Most of the action seems to take place on Rambos farm-like compound, where hes protecting his niece. All shes got is me, he says, between shots of him cocking a semiautomatic rifle and building a device that punctures tires. Throughout the clip, scenes from previous Rambo movies starting with 1982s First Blood flicker between fireballs.

Elsewhere in the trailer, there are scenes of soldiers marching through fire to Rambos barn and the Vietnam vet blasting baddies in some sort of underground tunnel system (the existence of which really ought to be explained in the movie, because its doubtful most farms need tunnels). Im gonna tear you apart, Rambo mumbles at one point, stretching an arrow out on his bow.

The film, which will hit theaters on September 20th, also features Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, and Adrianna Barraza, among others. Filmmaker Adrian Grunberg, whose credits include working as the assistant director on Narcos and Jack Reacher, helmed the picture. Stallone, who directed 2008s Rambo, cowrote the screenplay with Matthew Cirulnick, who, incidentally, has a writing credit on Eminems The Slim Shady Show cartoon.

The film studio, Lionsgate, is billing Last Bloodas a final mission for the character. A previous trailer for the film, which is the fifth in the Rambo series, featured Lil Nas Xs Old Town Road on the soundtrack.

The Nightingale Review: Aussie Revenge Tale Pulls No Punches

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Its instructive to point out that The Nightingale is not for the faint of heart. Theres horrific violence abound; at one point early on, a rapist violates his victim while her baby screams in his ear. But in no way is this powerhouse another treatment of male violence filtered through an exploitaive male gaze. In her second film, after 2014s haunting The Babadook, Australian writer-director Jennifer Kent creates a womans revenge tale fueled by a righteous anger at the evil men do. Theres not a whit of audience coddling. Youve been warned.

Set in the harsh 1825 Tasmanian Outback, the film stars Aisling Franciosi the Italian-Irish actress best known as Game of Thrones Lyanna Stark as Clare, a 21-year-old Irish convict. Shes been sent to this remote penal colony of Van Diemens Land and enslaved by Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin), a British officer and boot-and-polish sadist. His slow rise in the ranks is a consistent sore point. So he takes out his frustration by brutalizing those in his charge, from underlings to prisoners. That most definitely includes Claire.

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At first, Hawkins is content to make the young woman his personal songbird, given that Clare sings like a nightingale while she serves him food and drink. And then the screaming starts. Claflin, the blond dreamboat Finnick Odair in The Hunger Games series, plays this colonial monster without dropping his charm and good looks, which makes him doubly scary. Its a bold gamble of a performance that pays off. Hawkins wears a surface sanity in public; he desperately wants that promotion. And its Clares hope that the pressure will persuade him to set her free, along with her husband Aidan (Michael Sheasby), a fellow convict, and their infant daughter.

When her dream of liberation is brutally squashed, Clare vows revenge. Thats when Kent and the splendid cinematographer Radek Ladczuk (shooting in the square-shaped, old-school Academy ratio) build a historical story of vengeance that shakes you to your core. The Nightingale extends from the tale of one woman in pursuit of a male predator to a broad condemnation of a system that exploits women and the indigenous people of Tasmania, all the while detailing how their world becomes one.

Clare chases Hawkins into the wilderness on her husbands unsteady horse, her trauma often reducing her to a fevered dream state that tests her survival at every turn. As a guide, she hires an Aboriginal tracker, Billy (a superb Baykali Ganambarr), who is reluctant to work for this half-crazed, racist woman who is likely to get him killed. Ganambarr, a dancer in an extraordinary acting breakthrough, builds a character whose grudge against the British begins to match Clares own. Watching the mutual hostility between these two antagonists soften into a fragile bond gives the film a fierce hold on viewers, and Kent never loses sight of the psychological wounds that fester underneath Clares odyssey. Its a shame that she diffuses the force of her storytelling with too many false endings. But as a devastating deconstruction of the complex nature of one womans retribution, The Nightingale is peerless.

Best TV to See in September 2019: Country Music Doc, The Deuce, Walton Goggins in The Unicorn

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Remember when September was the big month for new TV programming? (Gather round, children, and let Grandpa tell you about the days when there were only three networks!) Yes, the traditional pilot season is once upon us, which means laugh-tracked comedies, curious cop shows and Lost-like mysteries are once again upon us. Also on deck: Ken Burns delves into an august tradition of American music; a documentary looks at an icons impact on sport and culture; and an under-seen triumph returns to HBO with meticulous period recreations intact. Here are the sitcoms, procedurals, and other future Ill-binge-this-once-its-on-a-streaming-service favorites hitting the tube this month.

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American Horror Story: 1984 (FX, Sep. 18th)
Jocks in crop-tops, hair several stories high, New Wave synth music on the soundtrack it must be the Eighties on Ryan Murphys unstoppable horror anthology. He pays homage to cabin-in-the-woods slasher movies with the latest season, with the summer camp setting specifying the pool of references to Sleepaway Camp and its ilk. A cast of unsuspecting, nubile teens, including Murphy regulars Emma Roberts and Billie Lourd (along with Ryan TV newcomers DeRon Horton and Olympic skier-turned-actor Gus Kenworthy), will get hacked to bits by a masked assailant, but this being American Horror Story, there has to be more to it than that. Though taut midriffs and intermittent stabbings is, to be fair, plenty.

Country Music (PBS, Sep. 15th)
Americas preeminent longform-doc historian covered jazz in 2001; now Kens Burns is turning his sights on the other purely American genre of music. Country gets the full Burns approach with a top-to-bottom account of its formation, its social import, and its legacy in the present day. With an avalanche of rare preserved footage, exhaustive research, and color commentary from such luminaries as Garth Brooks, Loretta Lynn, and Willie Nelson, Burns has accomplished another herculean feat of posterity-building. He establishes a public record of all that his chosen topic means to the people at its center joy, heartbreak, hope, and everything in between.

The Deuce, Season 3 (HBO, Sep. 9th)
David Simon and George Pelecanos porn epic jumps ahead into the Eighties for its final season, when videotape revolutionized the industry by slicing production costs. Rising director Candy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) continues to gain in legitimacy, while sleazeball brothers Vincent and Frankie Martino (James Franco and James Franco, respectively) do the opposite as their business enterprises grow shadier and shadier. Porn starlet Lori (Emily Meade) goes mainstream as a video vixen on the hair metal scene, and the cops launch a new plan to clean up Times Square once and for all at the behest of Mayor Ed Koch. Times change, buildings rise and fall, but the one constant throughout everything: Sex sells.

Diego Maradona (HBO, Sep. 24th)
Diego Maradona has a solid claim to the title of historys greatest soccer player. (Fine, fine, football player.) This documentary goes one step further to posit him as one of the most fascinating figures in all of sport, exposing the agony and ecstasy of an unparalleled talent. From his childhood in the slums of Argentina, to his rise to stardom and the frenzied media spectacle surrounding it, to later-in-life scandals involving cocaine and La Cosa Nostra, its another comprehensive portrait from director Asif Kapadia, i.e. the man behind Senna, the jaw-dropping Formula-One-champ profile, and Amy, the Oscar-winning chronicle of Amy Winehouses life and times. In other words, audiences are expecting a gooooooooooal.

Emergence (ABC, Sep. 24th)
An airplane falls out of the sky and crashes on the Peconic Bay in Long Island. Out from the smithereens crawls a girl (Alexa Skye Swinton) with no memory of who she is or where shes come from. Theres a mystery afoot, probably related to the unexplainable electrical flares and odd lights in the nighttime sky, and local police chief Jo Evans (Fargo breakout Allison Tolman) wants to be the one to unravel it. Trouble is, shes taken a shine to the young survivor and offered her a home, tying some emotional knots into her deductive efforts. Uh-oh.

Prodigal Son (Fox, Sep. 23rd)
What if Hannibal Lecter was your dad? Thats the jumping-off point for this new crime procedural, in which ex-FBI profiler Malcolm Bright (Walking Dead alum Tom Payne) returns to the job when a new serial killer appears to be copycatting the murders Malcolms father (Michael Sheen) committed years earlier. Hell have to confront his mental demons and go face-to-face with his long-estranged, homicidal pop-pop if he wants to solve the case before the killer strikes again. But Malcolm cant shake the sneaking suspicion that his father may somehow be orchestrating all this from behind bars, and more troubling still, that he may be one of the pawns.

Room 104, Season 3 (HBO, Sep. 13th)
Sam Richardson, Luke Wilson, Arturo Castro, Paul F. Tompkins, and June Squibb number among the guests checking in at HBOs anything-goes anthology series this year. The show sticks to its one guiding principle all action takes place within a single suite at a singularly strange hotel but that parameter leaves a lot of space for flights of fantasy. This seasons trailer teases a growhouse FDA bust, multiple openings of the third eye, and at least one encounter with a well-renowned monster. Oh, and lots of bloodshed. The drama appears to be drifting towards the realm of horror, a fittingly unlikely pivot for a show thats thrived on its own unpredictability.

Stumptown (ABC, Sep. 25th)
The title refers to the nickname of Portland, Oregon, the city that down-on-her-luck veteran Dex Parios (Cobie Smulders) calls home. Unemployed and deep in debt, she gets the bright idea to scrape together some scratch as a private eye, using her skills learned from the military to pay the bills and support her brother (Cole Sibus) with Down Syndrome. One lowlife at a time, she cleans up the streets and dispenses sardonic one-liners; the project hasnt strayed far from its graphic novel origins. Shes a far cry from HIMYMs Robin Sparkles, in other words.

Sunnyside (NBC, Sep. 26th)
Kal Penn draws on his background as an entertainer, a political operator, and an Indian-American man for this sitcom about the red tape wrapped around the American dream. The shows creator also leads as Garrett Modi, a former New York City councilman booted from office due to drug charges. (To think: Kumar himself, getting high!) He finds his second act in a group of immigrants preparing to take their citizenship exams; they need help getting a leg up on the test, and he needs to do something meaningful. Do you think theyll end up teaching him as much as he teaches them? Have you ever watched a half-hour television comedy before?

The Unicorn (CBS, Sep. 26th)
For the record: Series lead Walton Goggins does not portray the snow-white one-horned horse of legend in this new comedy series. Rather, his character Wade is a comparably rare phenomenon in the adult dating world: handsome, a good father, gainfully employed and, after the tragic death of his wife, single. And this sitcom picks up at the point where the widower decides to get back in the game. Yes, he may have caught the eye of every single mom within a ten-mile radius. No, hes not done processing his own grief or figured out how to introduce a new woman to his youngsters. Who doesnt pine for a weekly dose of Walty G. once more?

The Radical Kindness of Steven Universe

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The title character of Steven Universe is an adolescent boy who, over the course of the Cartoon Network series first five seasons, developed the ability to fly, to conjure an impenetrable pink shield out of thin air, to use his saliva to heal injuries short of death (and sometimes beyond), to merge his body with a friends (in an act called fusion) so they can become even stronger as one than they are side-by-side, and more. But his greatest power and the reason the show became so adored that a follow-up film, Steven Universe: The Movie, will air on Labor Day, potentially leading into future seasons is both much simpler and much more remarkable:

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Steven is kind.

The animated series, created by Adventure Time alum Rebecca Sugar, has a complicated mythology involving the Gems, an alien race of women whose leaders, the four Diamonds, want to reshape the universe into something following their very rigid and orderly caste system. Thousands of years ago, we gradually(*) find out, a Gem known as Rose Quartz (Susan Egan) formed a rebellious group called the Crystal Gems to protect life on Earth from being conquered and eradicated by the Diamonds. By the time the series begins in the present day, Rose has sacrificed herself to give birth to half-human son Steven (Zach Callison), who is raised in part by failed rock-star dad Greg (Tom Scharpling) and in part by the three surviving Crystal Gems: the enigmatically cool Garnet (Estelle), uptight Pearl (Deedee Magno Hall), and immature Amethyst (Michaela Dietz). Steven inherited Roses gem, and her powers, but his age and the human half of his DNA make them slow to emerge. So in the shows earliest adventures, Steven is a glorified mascot to the Crystal Gems, along mainly for moral support and the occasional bit of improvised pubescent boy strategy.

(*) Most episodes are 11 minutes long, and Sugar slow-plays a lot of the backstory and major arcs by focusing the start of the series (and each ensuing season) on relatively light-hearted standalone adventures. Its a seasonal structure that classic genre shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars, and The X-Files used so well back in the day, but thats unfortunately gone out of vogue in favor of pure serialization. (When Veronica came back this summer, it told a single, eight-episode story.) As a kids show with extremely nuanced themes, Steven Universe benefits greatly from how much time it lets you marinate in Stevens world before getting to the big topics. But a newcomer wouldnt be blamed for sampling the first few episodes and dismissing it as something much sillier and more superficial than what follows.

But even after he begins mastering his inherited powers, its clear that Stevens greatest asset to the team and the most appealing part of the whole series is his fundamental decency. Its not just that he prefers nonviolent solutions when Garnet or Amethyst would be content to smash the latest monster in their path. Its that his impulse is almost always to empathize and try to help, and to see the best in everyone he meets whether seemingly villainous Gems like the smug Peridot (Shelby Rabara) or humans like shiftless doughnut-shop worker Lars (Matthew Moy). Steven wants to be friends with everyone, and wants everyone to be friends, and more often than not, he succeeds. (Think Leslie Knope, but huskier and less intense.)

Heroes who are intrinsically good can prove intimidating to storytellers who need to generate conflict. Its why most of the attempts to make a post-Christopher Reeve movie about Superman involved making him angstier, or why, before Chris Evans came along, no one believed audiences would want to watch a hero as cornily forthright as Captain America. But when it works and hoo-boy, does it work on Steven Universe, whether youre a wide-eyed kid or a cynical adult the force of their virtue shines so brightly that it can be hard to imagine wanting anything even slightly less sincere.

Stevens empathy and his knack for accepting people on their own terms proves essential for a show that presents complex ideas in a manner its young audience will appreciate. Just like Buffy once used monsters as metaphors for adolescence, Steven Universe uses the Gems to talk about a variety of LGBTQ issues (among other things). Pearls unrequited love for Rose and her resentment of both Greg and Steven for taking Rose from her is subtly but clearly established, and is something she and the guys have to work through together. Gems are only meant to fuse with others like them (Ruby with Ruby, Pearl with Pearl), which makes the Crystal Gems habit of fusing with one another an abomination to the more traditional, repressed Gems. Yet Steven is thrilled when he sees Pearl and Amethyst fuse into the giant archer Opal. And when he accidentally fuses with best friend (and mutual crush) Connie (Grace Rolek) into the glamorous, intersex Stevonnie, it becomes a story about the importance of consent, with each of them frequently checking in with the other to be sure they want to stay this way a while longer.

Its a wonderful show for many reasons, but the curiosity and warm-heartedness of Steven is the crucial one.

Steven Universe: The Movie plays less as a sequel to the series so far than a Greatest Hits collection almost a primer for newcomers, even if it wont have the same impact on them that 160 bite-sized episodes of TV had on the veterans.

The movie takes place a few years after the Season Five finale, and early on features a long expository musical number about who everyone is and how they all got happy endings when last they appeared. Then along comes a mysterious new Gem who at times resembles Bugs Bunny at his most anarchic, at others the elastically cheerful Steamboat Willie-era Mickey Mouse. Her attacks give the Crystal Gems a kind of factory reboot that erases all the emotional progress they made during the series, forcing Steven to recreate important moments from their lives to bring them back to normal.

The structure of the movie can make it feel like a rehash of things the fans all know so well. (At one point, Steven even loudly complains that he is once again having to deal with the consequences of something his mother did.) Fortunately, its a rehash accompanied by a soundtrack of terrific original songs (co-written by, among others, Chance the Rapper, Aimee Mann, and Ted Leo) performed by Steven and friends. And if Im following in Stevens footsteps and looking for the best in this follow-up to those five wonderful seasons, Id look at the movie as the start of whatever Sugar wants to do with this world next. If its meant as a conclusion, its fun but inessential. But if its the start of a new phase of an older Stevens universe, then it makes sense to travel down memory lane with frequent musical interludes before pushing onto whatever comes after the happy ending.

The first four Steven Universe seasons are streaming on Hulu, while Season Five is available On Demand. Steven Universe: The Movie premieres September 2nd at 6 p.m. on Cartoon Network.

Martin Scorseses The Irishman to Premiere at New York Film Festival

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Martin Scorseses highly anticipated new film, The Irishman, will have its world premiere at the 2019 New York Film Festival Friday, September 27th, festival organizers announced on Monday.

The Irishman is so many things: rich, funny, troubling, entertaining and, like all great movies, absolutely singular, said NYFF festival director Kent Jones, who previously worked for Scorseses World Cinema Foundation, in a statement. Its the work of masters, made with a command of the art of cinema that Ive seen very rarely in my lifetime, and it plays out at a level of subtlety and human intimacy that truly stunned me. All I can say is that the minute it was over my immediate reaction was that I wanted to watch it all over again.

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Scorsese said of the announcement, Its an incredible honor that The Irishman has been selected as the Opening Night of the New York Film Festival. I greatly admire the bold and visionary selections that the festival presents to audiences year after year. The festival is critical to bringing awareness to cinema from around the world. I am grateful to have the opportunity to premiere my new picture in New York alongside my wonderful cast and crew.

The mob drama stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, and is due to be released on Netflix and in select theaters later this year. Based on the nonfiction book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, with an adapted screenplay penned by Steven Zaillian (Schindlers List,Gangs of New York,Moneyball), the film uses state-of-the-art anti-aging digital effects to depict De Niro, Pacino and Pescis characters as up to 30 years younger.

The last time a Scorsese film was screened at the New York Film Festival was in 2011, when a work-in-progress version ofHugo premiered as a special surprise for guests.

Festival, VIP and special event passes for this years NYFF, including the screening ofThe Irishman, are on sale now; other individual screening tickets go on sale to the general public on September 8th. The festival runs September 27th through October 13th.

Brittany Runs a Marathon Review: Star Jillian Bell Goes the Extra Mile

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A fun ride, spiked with touching gravity, is not a shabby way to end the movie summer. Thanks to Jillian Bell, a comic force of nature with real dramatic chops, thats what you get in Brittany Runs a Marathon. The glorious Bell, who stole every scene she graced in 22 Jump Street, plays the title role, an aggressively upbeat twentysomething who gets a medical wake-up call about weight, high blood pressure, and Adderall addiction her body mass index is in the obese zone. Brittany barely gets by working as an usher at an Off-Broadway theater, and her lack of ambition and direction is eating away at her self-esteem. Theres a downside to being what she calls the fat sidekick to her skinny, narcissistic roommate Gretchen (Alice Lee), and its not pretty.

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Its running the 26-mile New York City Marathon that represents Brittanys impossible dream, especially since her attempt to merely jog around the block leaves her out of breath and on the verge of collapse. Still, she has a nearly year to prep and a newfound determination. Luckily, debuting director Paul Downs Colaizzo, an acclaimed playwright (Really Really) who based the film on the experiences of his own best friend (also named Brittany), doesnt build his sharply witty script for easy sitcom miracles that tie everything up in a neat Hollywood bow. Its true that Brittany creates a support team in another inexperienced runner, Seth (Micah Stock), and acid-tongued expert Catherine (Michaela Watkins), who puts them both to shame. And she does find love, of sorts, with snarky Jern (Utkarsh Ambudkar, terrific), who shares the house- and dog-sitting job she takes to pay for gym class. You just know their sniping byplay has to lead somewhere; that it doesnt follow the clich handbook is a bonus.

For Brittany and anyone who lives in the real world self-improvement is all baby steps, and the same goes for the movie, which refuses to leave Brittanys demons unexplored. Its the backsliding that gets to the roots of her self-loathing. In one stunner of a scene, Brittany boozes it up on a visit to the home of her supportive sister (Kate Arrington) and brother-in-law (Lil Rey Howery), and insults their overweight guest, a woman who is bearing the brunt of all the hate Brittany actually feels for herself. Bell and Colaizzo do it the hard way, creating a character to root for without glib shortcuts. When you cheer at the end and you will the laughs and the tears feel honest and richly earned. Yes, Brittany Runs a Marathon gets a little earnest at times, stopping just short of self-righteousness. But Bell is always there to pull us back. She is pure gold.

John Oliver: Of Course President Trump Wants to Buy Greenland

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John Oliver isnt surprised that President Trump wants to buy Greenland. On Sunday, Trump confirmed reports that he tasked administration officials with inquiring about purchasing the autonomous Danish country, and on Last Week Tonight, Oliver picked a hilarious way to frame that news: Of course he fucking did. Of coursehe did. Greenland is icy, distant and semi-autonomous its exactly Trumps type, he cracked, cutting to a picture of Trumps wife, Melania.

The Greenland story dominated headlines after it broke, even prompting Greenlands premier, Kim Kielsen, to issue a statement declaring the territory is not for sale. Oliver added, If you had two-and-a-half years in your office pool of when a world leader would have to tell Trump You cant buy our country, congratulations, youre a big winner.

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Elsewhere on Last Week Tonight, Oliver criticized Trumps response to the widespread, ongoing protests in Hong Kong over a proposed extradition bill that some fear would undermine citizens rights.

The protest initially began over a bill that would allow China to extradite Hong Kong citizens to the mainland, which opponents feared were part of a larger plan to undermine Hong Kongs autonomy, Oliver said. He also noted that as protests have grown, the government has ramped-up its use of military vehicles, while protestors have taken to using lasers and umbrellas to disorient police.

Trump not only barely seems aware of whats going on there, [but] he also essentially gave China a green light to do whatever they want, he said, showing a clip of the presidents strange response to reporters on the issue. Well, somethings probably happening with Hong Kong because when you look at, you know, whats going on, theyve had riots for a long period of time, Trump says in the clip. And I dont know what Chinas attitude is. Somebody said that at some point theyre going to want to stop that, but thats between Hong Kong and thats between China, because Hong Kong is a part of China.

Oliver fired back, Theyre gonna want to stop that is exactly the wrong message to send to China right now. He continued, Trump effectively giving China a tacit endorsement to use force against protesters is unfortunately not remotely surprising he sends the wrong signals to other countries all the time. And until his term ends, were all just going to have to live with the fact that we now have a president who looks at Americas allies and says, Go fuck yourselves, looks at Russias interference in our election and says, No big deal and looks at Greenland and says, Two hundred bucks plus Don, Jr. final offer.'

The King Trailer: Timothee Chalamet Reluctantly Takes Throne as King Henry V

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Timothe Chalamets reluctant Prince Hal assumes the throne as King Henry V in the wake of his fathers death and soon questions his loyalties and duties in the teaser trailer for Netflixs The King.

Already I can feel the weight of this crown I wear, he confesses as tensions brew between members of his court. When he confides to Knight John Falstaff (portrayed by Joel Edgerton) that he is looking for people to trust, Falstaff gives him foreboding advice: A king has no friend. A king only has foes.

Directed by David Michd (Animal Kingdom), who cowrote the script with Edgerton, The King is based on William Shakespeares Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2 and Henry V, where Prince Hal had initially eschewed royalty to find his own way among the people. However, when his tyrannical father dies, Hal ascends to the throne during a chaotic time, inheriting war and political strife in the wake of his fathers death.

The King costars Sean Harris, Ben Mendelsohn, Robert Pattinson and Lily-Rose Depp. It will premiere during Venice Film Festival 2019, which runs August 28th through September 7th. Following its debut, The King is slated to stream on Netflix in the fall as well as screen in select theaters.

Watch Josh Gad and James Corden get Fired From Hobbs & Shaw

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Josh Gad and James Corden have somehow never made a film together, which may be for good reason. In a segment on The Late Late Show, the duo reveal a series of failed movie acting jobs, including stints in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood and Hobbs & Shaw. While the actors may not have made the final cuts, they were certainly entertaining.

In the clip, Gad and Corden (a.k.a. Olaf and Peter Rabbit) discuss how theyve never worked together. And then one day the phone rang and it was Quentin, Corden says. He needed two hot guys for the leads, Gad adds. The duo take on the roles that eventually went to Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, but Corden fails to light and then smoke the cigarette required for the job.

Just when we thought we were out of luck we got a phone call from the producers of the Fast and the Furious, Gad says, noting they were offered the leads in Hobbs & Shaw. That one goes even worse when they cant steal a car, so the actors are fired again. Thats show biz for you, Corden notes. One minute youre the cock of the walk, the next minute youre being escorted off the set with a backpack full of stolen iPhone chargers.

Im 99.8% sure that @JKCorden and @joshgad make a much cooler team than me and ol prepubescent, nasally Harry Potter Statham. @HobbsAndShaw https://t.co/WURyvlBgFj

Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) August 13, 2019

Their final chance comes in the form of Toy Story 4, where they don costumes for Buzz Lightyear and Woody. It doesnt quite turn out as Gad and Corden expect, but at least no one is fired this time.

Tupac, Afeni Shakur Docuseries Headed to FX

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FX announced a new slate of docuseries including a five-part project on Tupac and Afeni Shakur, as well as a six-episode investigation into a dying breed of old school hip-hop power brokers. The network announced five new docuseries in total, plus one feature documentary, though they have yet to share premiere dates for any of the programs.

Per a press release, Outlaw: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur will tell the story of the most inspiring and dangerous mother-son duo in American history, whose unified message of freedom, equality, persecution and justice are more relevant today than ever. Afeni, who worked as an activist and served as a member of the Black Panthers, was a constant source of inspiration for Tupac, most famously on his 1995 single, Dear Mama.

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Filmmaker Allen Hughes will direct Outlaw. He previously helmed the 2017 HBO docuseries on Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, The Defiant Ones.

Along with Outlaw, FX is also prepping Hip Hop Untold, a six-part series about a dying breed of power brokers who operate from the shadows of hip hop. While the statement from FX doesnt offer any specifics about who will be featured in series, the show will reportedly offer a deep dive into the paradox of Americas criminalization of the genre and fascination with the street culture that exists within it.

The other docuseries coming to FX include Pride, a six-part history of the fight for LGBTQ civil rights in America that will feature a different LGBTQ director helming each episode. There will also be a six-part adaptation of Errol Morris book A Wilderness of Error, about a Green Beret physician accused of killing his wife, and The Most Dangerous Animal of All, which is based on a book by Gary L. Stewart, who set out to find his biological father and discovered that man was likely the Zodiac Killer. Lastly, FX will also produce a feature-length documentary, Women in Comedy, which was directed by Andrea Nevins and examines the changing landscape for women in stand up.

The Simpsons: Watch Trump Flee the Squad in New West Side Story Parody

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President Donald Trump tries to evade the Squad the informal nickname for new U.S. representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley in a new West Side Story spoof from The Simpsons.

The 90-second clip is fittingly titled West Wing Story and boasts a parody of the musicals famous number, America. In it, Trump sings to a picture of the Squad, They shouldnt be in America/No one but me America/No taxes for me in America/This is my natural hair-ica! Soon Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Omar and Pressley are chasing Trump through the White House, firing back, Youre Boris Johnson without the class/Cant wait to see you behind prison glass/Your nose is right up Putins ass/We say its time to impeach you fast.

The clip ends with Trump getting swept up in a can-can line featuring all the 2020 Democratic primary hopefuls, trying to keep pace with the high kicks before inevitably running out of breath. Whos the old man now? an animated Biden cracks.

The Simpsons will return for its 30th season September 29th on Fox.

The OA: Netflix Cancels Series After Two Seasons

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Netflix has canceled The OA, the mind-bending fantasy-drama series co-created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, four months after launching its second and assumedly final season. The show, which debuted in December 2016, starred Marling as Prairie Johnson, a once-blind woman who returns home after being missing for seven years, her sight mysteriously restored.

Cindy Holland, Netflixs head of original content, told The Hollywood Reporter that the network is incredibly proud of the programs 16 mesmerizing chapters. She added, [Were] grateful to Brit and Zal for sharing their audacious vision and for realizing it through their incredible artistry. We look forward to working with them again in the future, in this and perhaps many other dimensions.

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Marling addressed the cancelation in a lengthy Instagram post, writing that she and Batmanglij are deeply sad not to finish this story. She continued, The first time I heard the news I had a good cry. So did one of our executives at Netflix who has been with us since the early days when we were sketching out Haps basement on the floor of our production office in Queens. Its been an intense journey for everyone who worked on and cared about this story.

Batmanglij was more succinct in his social media eulogy, writing, The OA (2016-2019).

In 2017, Marling spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the shows long-term vision and scope.From the very beginning when we were on our own daydreaming a story, we definitely thought, How can we construct something that, many seasons out, has a satisfying end? So there is an end and there is an answer to every riddle, and nothing is done to just be sound and fury going nowhere. It all goes somewhere. And as to whether or not we get to tell that, I certainly hope that we do. There is a place that season two already begins in our minds and a place in which it ends.

Leslie Jones Announces Netflix Stand-Up Comedy Special

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Comedian andSaturday Night Live cast member Leslie Jones will get her own Netflix stand-up comedy special. The hour-long special will premiere on Netflix in 2020.

Jones announced the news onJimmy Kimmel Live!Thursday night. Yall get to see what I really do: I am a stand up comic. Its fun to be the actress and all this other stuff, but I am a stand-up, hardcore. Jones added that the special would be recorded in Washington, D.C and that President Donald Trump is banned from the show:

Jones recently completed her fifth season ofSaturday Night Live. Her work on the show has garnered three Emmy nominations and a spot on the Time 100 list. Jones was also the host of the 2017 BET Awards. Known for her live-tweeting of sporting events and Game of Thrones, Jones most recently provided commentary on the 2019 FIFA Womens World Cup, where the U.S. team dominated, and joined Seth Meyers for one last reaction video to the Game of Thrones finale in May.

Her previous hour-long comedy special,Problem Child, was broadcast on Showtime in 2010. This year she voiced the villainess Zeta in the movie Angry Birds 2, in theaters August 16th.

Watch Emilia Clarke Find the Holiday Spirit in Last Christmas Trailer

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The holiday season is closer than you might think, especially now that the Christmas movie trailers have been dropping. The latest is Last Christmas, a new romantic comedy from Bridesmaids director Paul Feig starring Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding.

In the trailer, Clarke plays a cynical Londoner named Kate who works as an elf in a year-round Christmas shop called Yuletide Wonderful. She encounters Goldings Tom when she gets pooped on by a bird and sparks fly. With Toms help Kate begins to find her Christmas spirit again. Emma Thompson, who wrote the script with Bryony Kimmings, co-stars as Kates mom (who appears to have some kind of Russian accent in the film). Michelle Yeoh and Patti LuPone round out the cast.

Last Christmas, in theaters November 8th, will feature the music of George Michael, including the titular song, and will also premiere unreleased material by the singer. Feig told Entertainment Weekly that the film was inspired by Michael and Thompson began writing the script while the late singer was still alive. A plot line about homelessness was given the Michaels blessing and the filmmakers worked with the singers estate after he died on Christmas Day in 2016.

We have a whole story line in our movie about a homeless shelter, and [we consulted] with a lot of homeless charities to make sure we were portraying it correctly, Feig said. The great sadness is that hes not here to be a part of this. But he knew it was going to happen, and that gives me such joy. We feel like hes here with us.

The Long Journey of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

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Once upon a time, Jim Henson found himself stranded in the middle of a snowstorm. To pass the time, the Muppet Show creator began to dream up an elaborate story of mystics, monsters, and two different races a vulturelike aristocracy called the Skeksis and a kindhearted, elfin people known as Gelflings battling over the fate of their planet, Thra. By the time the storm ended, Henson had a 25-page movie treatment. He called it The Dark Crystal. The pioneering puppeteer was prepared to stake his whole career and his relationship with his No. 1 benefactor, Lord Lew Grade, to make this movie a reality.

When his passion project, co-directed with Frank Oz, finally hit theaters in 1982, audiences were confused: Were we dropped into the middle of a story, and what, exactly, was going on here? Why was everything so visually dark and foreboding? And why was the man who gave the world Kermit the Frog telling such an intense, too-scary-for-kids tale of corruption, eco-doom and genocide? Henson was heartbroken. But over the years, the movie began to find an audience. If you were of a certain age and fantasy-obsessed demographic, you may have watched The Dark Crystal a million times and/or worn out several VHS tapes of the film. It became a shared secret, a bona fide cult movie. Its fans have been clamoring for a sequel for decades.

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Thanks to Netflix, theyre about to get their wish. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, a 10-episode prequel series that premieres on the streaming service on August 30th, not only revisits the late Hensons fantasy world but expands upon it to an impressive degree. Set long before the 1982 films story, Age of Resistance follows three young Gelflings a royal guard, a scholarly princess, and a member of an agrarian clan living underground as they learn that their Skeksis masters are using the life-giving totem of the series title to gain immortality. They need to expose the plan in time, or else. And with characters voiced by Taron Egerton, Anya Taylor-Joy, Andy Samberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Game of Thrones Lena Headey, Awkwafina, Sigourney Weaver, Alicia Vikander and many, many others, the new project has a serious A-list pedigree.

For years, Jim Henson Co. CEO Lisa Henson had been trying to get a new Dark Crystal off the ground. I remember going on set as a child and seeing it develop over the years, seeing the puppets being built, she recalls. It was so different from what people expected from my dad and he was so proud of that. Lisa knew the film was beloved by a small but passionate few, but it wasnt until she suddenly found myself talking to a roomful of people at Comic Con [in the mid 00s] and there being tremendous excitement about another Crystal story that the time seemed right to return to Thra. Samurai Jack creator Genddy Tartakovsky had begun working on a sequel in 2006, only to have financing fall through; the storyline inspired a graphic novel, The Power of the Dark Crystal. Other ideas came and went.

Then filmmaker Louis Leterrier the French director behind The Transporter, The Incredible Hulk and the Clash of the Titans remake took a meeting with Lisa Henson in 2011. His one question: So what are you doing with The Dark Crystal? Hed obsessed over what he called this weird UFO of a movie as a kid, seeing it endlessly in film clubs and on TV while growing up in Paris (It was the first movie to scar mebut in a good way!), and asked to take a crack at a film sequel. Meanwhile, Henson was developing an animated prequel series. When she pitched Netflix on the toon, execs asked, Well, why cant you do it like the original, with puppets? The projects were combined. Writers Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews came on board as executive producers/showrunners. Leterrier spent six months filming a live-action chase scene as a test, and Netflix was sold.

The rest of the industry, however, remained slightly skeptical or somewhat disinterested. Leterrrier remembers several meetings, and more than a few dinner parties, where people would ask him what he was working on. When hed tell them his new project was a follow-up to Hensons 1982 anti-Muppet movie, the answer was usually: Oh, is that the one with Bowie? No, thats Labyrinth, the director would gently remind them, referring to Hensons 1986 fantasy featuring a goblin king, a kidnapped 16-year-old and the former Thin White Duke sporting ones of the cinemas greatest blown-out mullets. Im doing the one with the dinosaurs in dresses,' Leterrier would tell them, cackling. So many people just couldnt remember what it was. But fans remembered. I remembered. There was this feeling that we could pay homage to Jim, and to his work, and really do something unique and new with what he gave us.

Both he and Lisa Henson hope that longtime fans will appreciate how the Age of Resistance pays tribute to the original without being a slavish imitation or a mere nostalgia trip; they respectively mention that the mix of creative Dark Crystal brain trusts from back in the day (including concept artist Brian Froud, who contributed several new designs along with his wife Wendy and son Toby) and next-gen puppeteers gave the series continuity without a sense of creakiness. Theyre each anxious for younger viewers to step into this universe for the first time. And they love that, like the 1982 film, the 2019 show retains the Grimms Fairy Tales feel of the senior Hensons storytelling combined with a childlike sense of imagination. It was the most political thing he ever did, talking about abuse of power and distrust of the ruling class, Leterrier says. So to be able to put this into the world at this moment. It took years to make, but Im glad its coming out now.

Fiddler: Miracle of Miracles Review An Untraditional Documentary on a Beloved Musical

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A documentary about a 55-year-old musical sounds like a quaint and nostalgic cinematic scrap book. But Fiddler:Miracle of Miraclesturns out be an exhilarating, expansive, warts-and-all look into 1964 Broadway phenomenonFiddler on the Roof. Director Max Lewkowicz delivers an emotional powerhouse in which none of the compromises, growing pains and ego wars of Fiddlers creation are left out in the name of tribute. The film is dedicated to the memory of Hal Prince, who produced the original show and died last month, and truly documents what goes into the creation of a masterpiece. (Never mind that the shows first review in Variety declared it had no memorable songs in a score that includes If I Were a Rich Man, Matchmaker, Matchmaker, and Sunrise, Sunset.)

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Based on the short stories of turn-of-the-century Russian-Yiddish author Sholem Aleichem, the show (set in 1905)focuses on Tevye and the tiny czarist Russian village of Anatevka. Themilkman brings humor and heart to struggles with poverty, a strong-willed wife, and five marriage-age daughters. The stirrings of feminist rebellion can be felt as the young women push back against the attempts of Yenta the matchmaker one defies tradition to marry a non-Jew. Tevye talks to God about his problems, especially when his people face religious persecution through violent pogroms and are forced to leave their shtetl as refugees facing a scarily uncertain future. If youre wondering why Fiddler is so pertinent to our tumultuous present that theres an all-YiddishJoel Grey production of the show currently on Broadway, heres your answer.

In Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles, archival interviews with the shows creators composer Jerry Bock, lyricist Sheldon Harnick, and librettist Joseph Stein are mixed with those from contemporary artists like Stephen Sondheim, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Fran Lebowitz, Calvin Trillin, and Alisa Solomon, who extol the shows enduring value. We hear from Norman Jewison, the director of theOscar-winning 1971 film version, who hilariously had to apologize to the studio for not being a Jew, despite a last name that suggested otherwise.

Lewkowiczs film allows us to see how Fiddler on the Roof was put together by a band of outsiders who constantly questioned its artistic viability and commerciality. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the portrait of Jerome Robbins, the shows dazzling, notoriously difficult director and choreographer. Conflicted about his Judaism and sexuality, Robbins, who died in 1998, was a domineering genius. Zero Mostel, the formerly blacklisted actor who starred as the original Tevye, so resented Robbins for naming names at Senator Joe McCarthys anti-communist witchhunts that he barely spoke to Robbins during rehearsals. Actor Austin Pendleton, who costarred in the original production as Motel the tailor, recounts a stinging story about how Robbins insulted him, calling him physically repulsive and saying how hard it must have been for the actress playing his wife to act opposite him. But then the film cuts to Robbins at work, creating the glorious Bottle Dance for Tzeitel and Motels wedding in which the male guests move with bottles balanced on their heads, symbolizing the precariousness of life as Jews in Anatevka. The sequence remains one of the finest achievements in choreography as characterization.

Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles makes itself essential viewing by chronicling the turbulent genesis of a global sensation. But its real miracle is demonstrating whyit continues to entertain and illuminate, from Tokyo to a Brooklyn middle school where an African-American girl now plays the role of Tevyes wife, Golde, and back to Broadway.

Why Canceling The Hunt Was Wrong

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Even if youre not a horror-film fanatic, youve heard about The Hunt. A grisly-looking, modern grindhouse film, it was supposed to come out through Universal Pictures at the end of September. The plot was said to feature wealthy liberals as portrayed by Hilary Swanks well-dressed villain who kidnap jus-folks types and put them into a forested compound where theyre picked off one by one. Originally titled, per The Hollywood Reporter, Red State vs. Blue State, the movie seems to boast a comparable mixture of paranoia, political topicality and pulp fiction and is produced by Blumhouse, Hollywoods finest purveyor of smart, low-budget scary movies such as the Oscar-winning social satire Get Out and the Purge franchise.

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But The Hunt is most likely on your radar because it might never get a chance to see the light of day. Thats because Universal, the Comcast-owned studio that produced the film, abruptly canceled its release after President Donald Trump angrily tweeted about it last Sunday. The president, almost assuredly egged on by Fox News drum-beating, decided to sound off on the movie even though he, like the rest of us, hasnt seen it. Acting like an angry fanboy, the kind that has little information about an upcoming project but just knows theyre mad anyway, our commander-in-chief found it prudent to render a verdict sight-unseen.

Liberal Hollywood is Racist at the highest level, and with great Anger and Hate! he tweeted on August 9th. They like to call themselves Elite, but they are not Elite. The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos. They create their own violence, and then try to blame others. They are the true Racists, and are very bad for our Country! Trump chose to see The Hunt as an attack on MAGA voters you know, real Americans and thus inflamed anger against a film that had released all of one trailer to that point.

In a sane society, we wouldnt have a president sounding off on something as minor as an action-horror movie like it was a major catastrophe. And we also wouldnt have a studio do what Universal did in response, which was surrender. While Universal Pictures had already paused the marketing campaign for The Hunt, after thoughtful consideration, the studio has decided to cancel our plans to release the film, the company said in a statement on August 10th. We stand by our filmmakers and will continue to distribute films in partnership with bold and visionary creators, like those associated with this satirical social thriller, but we understand that now is not the right time to release this film.

There are reasonable motivations to call a time out. In the wake of other mass shootings and tragedies, the unveiling of films and TV shows has been pushed back everything from Arnold Schwarzeneggers 2002 thriller Collateral Damage to Ryan Phillippes USA series Shooter in a desire to be sensitive to still-fresh atrocities. Maybe if it had merely been in response to the deadly shootings in El Paso and Dayton, the studios decision would have been understandable thoughtful, even. Respectful restraint is welcome at certain moments.

But what makes Universals disappearing of The Hunt so chilling is that those shootings probably arent what ultimately goaded the executives into taking such drastic action. Its hard not to think that Trumps invective, which can work like a Bat-Signal for his most devoted followers, created the very real scenario of possible violence at public screenings. Never mind that, as National Review film critic Kyle Smith put it, President Trump doesnt have the most finely tuned irony gauge; he seemed unable to understand that the globalists in the film are plainly the bad guys and that the trailer was satirizing rather than saluting the hunters it portrays. The simple fact is that if the president misreads the films possible angle if he doesnt understand that its a satire that might actually try to put non-elites in a positive light and decides to lash out, his actions can have extreme, and deadly, consequences. Universal isnt merely postponing the release. The studio is trying to pretend the movie never existed. (The Hunts website has been scrubbed like its a biohazard.)

Maybe the movie will end up on Netflix. Maybe Universal will give it a small theatrical release and push it onto VOD simultaneously, like the way Sony handled the 2014 Kim Jong-un comedy The Interview. Whatever ultimately happens to The Hunt, however, the studio brass has decided its not worth the headache. And for artists and moviegoers alike, thats the problem.

Superhero flicks, Star Wars sequels, Disney live-action reimaginings, Pixar films: These are the properties Hollywood pledges allegiance to, in the hopes of netting close to a billion dollars with each new installment. And when blockbusters do cause a stir like when there was a shooting in a Colorado theater that showed The Dark Knight Rises a movie of that magnitude isnt getting canceled. Theres too much money invested, too many careers at stake. In that case, the show must go on. But at a time when fewer and fewer risks are being taken by the major studios, Universals decision doesnt just feel like cowardice but rank expediency. Maybe The Hunt would have made a tidy profit Blumhouse films usually do but, apparently, the upside for an action-thriller with few big names, a generic title and a familiar premise wasnt worth it. (As more than one commentator has pointed out, wait til Trump and his minions find out about The Most Dangerous Game, published almost 100 years ago and the inspiration for dozens of movies, including The Hunt and the upcoming horror movie Ready or Not.)

And Universal shouldnt pretend it stand[s] by our filmmakers and will continue to distribute films in partnership with bold and visionary creators. The brouhaha was their opportunity to prove who it stands behind, and it whiffed spectacularly. Its not as if they didnt know what it was getting into by making the film: Last year, the studio won a competitive auction to land the rights to the spec script written by Lost and Leftovers mastermind Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse, the son of fellow Lost showrunner Carlton Cuse. It then tapped indie provocateur Craig Zobel (Compliance, Z for Zachariah) to direct. If Universal had the guts to honor bold and visionary creators a year ago, theres no reason to stop now.

But whats most upsetting is that the film cant even defend itself. Since no critics or journalists have seen The Hunt the best the Hollywood Reporter could do was read a copy of the script and talk to studio insiders who had watched a cut all of us, up to and including the president, are just speculating. Films arent judged by their prerelease hype theyre judged by the quality of the actual work. Whether its a third-rate Purge rip-off or the second coming of Dr. Strangelove, well never know because Universal has buried it and in the process, created a dangerous precedent.

Movies have to be bigger than one president, or one ideology. They tell us about whats going on around us responding to and sometimes influencing national and global events. Theyre an imperfect but crucial barometer of who we are, what we fear and what we aspire to be. They show us up there on the screen, and then they let us sort out what to make of the whole thing.

The Hunt deserves that same chance, as do dozens of other movies that might offend your parents, a school board, a foreign government or the President of the United States of America. Last week, Swank was asked about the controversy surrounding the movie. [N]o ones seen the film, she said. You cant really have a conversation about it without understanding what its about. Audiences just want that opportunity. More than ever, we need those conversations instead of hunting around for reasons to shut down the dialogue.