Movies
The gripping story of 1960s/early 70s musical supernova Sylvester Stewart, better known as Sly Stone, will unfold in the upcoming musical doc Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius). The first, heady trailer for the eagerly anticipated film directed by Roots drummer Questlove dropped on Thursday night (Jan. 23) and it promises to unpack the unbelievable highs, and shocking lows of the once-in-a-generation talent behind Sly and the Family Stone.
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The first look at the film that will begin streaming on Hulu on Feb. 13 hints at the too-much-too-soon supernova ride taken by Stone and his then-pioneering multi-racial band, who burst onto the scene in 1968 with their first hit, “Dance to the Music,” before becoming household names thanks to 1969 No. 1 hit “Everyday People.” The group that preached unity and brotherhood went on to score a number of other indelible Billboard Hot 100 top 10s, including “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” “Dance to the Music,” and No. 1 smashes “Family Affair” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again).”
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The two-minute trailer opens with Quest asking OutKast’s André 3000 if he believes in the concept of musical genius over footage of Stone in his musical heyday, owning the stage with his hyperkinetic moves, peacocking costumes, oversized shades and voluminous afro. A larger-than-life figure whose message of peace and unity was custom-built for the late 1960s age of Aquarius, Stone broke all the rules and inspired generations of Black (and white) musicians to come, as attested to by the film’s A-list line-up of talking heads.
Proof of that legacy comes with D’Angelo, Chaka Khan, George Clinton, Terry Lewis and Living Colour’s Vernon Reid attesting to the Family Stone’s massive popularity at the time over footage of the group rocking the stage.
“Sly created this unique space,” says Q-Tip, with P-Funk icon Clinton noting that at that time a group with a “mixed” line-up of men and women, white and Black, was a new thing. “They sounded like nothing else sounds,” says producer Jimmy Jam of the group’s uplifting, life-affirming mix of soul, pop, R&B, funk and gospel on records such as “I Want to Take You Higher” and “If Want Me to Stay” at a time when the country was riven by division over the Vietnam War.
The film mixes in archival footage of the enigmatic singer and new interviews with Nile Rodgers, P-Funk singer Ruth Copeland and music industry icon Clive Davis, as well as Family Stone members Larry Graham Jr., Jerry Martini and Greg Errico. In addition to introducing a new generation to Stone’s music, it also seeks to understand the pressure put on Black geniuses by society’s expectations, and how that spotlight can sometimes lead, as in Stone’s case, to destructive results. Or as Stone says, “at the time… it was almost too much all at once.”
The preview makes it clear that Quest will delve into the “anxiety, the pressure, the drug use,” the latter a nod to Stone’s long struggle with mental health issues and substance use, which led to cancelled concerts, arrests and the bitter dissolution of the band whose public calling card was unity.
“If you’ve been on this heightened, explosive life… your body has taken in so much energy and you’ve given out so much energy and you stop… where’s that energy go?,” wonders André 3000 about the rocket ride to the top and nearly as rapid descent into chaos experienced by Stone.
A description of the film that premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on Thursday night promises that it, “examines the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone, the groundbreaking band led by the charismatic and enigmatic Sly Stone… [capturing] the band’s rise, reign and subsequent fadeout while shedding light on the unseen burden that comes with success for Black artists in America.”
It is the follow-up to Quest’s Oscar-winning 2021 Summer of Soul doc about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival (aka “Black Woodstock”).
Watch the Sly Lives! trailer below.
A new documentary chronicling a crucial 18-month period in the lives of late Beatle John Lennon and wife/Plastic Ono Band co-leader Yoko Ono, One to One: John & Yoko, will be released exclusively in IMAX on April 11. The film directed by Kevin Macdonald will then make it’s streaming debut later this year on Max, according to Deadline.
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A description of the film says that it is a, “moving look at the couple’s life upon their entry into a transformative 1970’s New York, exploring their musical, personal, artistic, social, and political world. Set in 1972 against the backdrop of a turbulent era in American history.” The core of the film will focus on the couple’s One to One Concerts, a two-show charity event for children with special needs that took place at Madison Square Garden in August 1972, the only full-length performances by Lennon following the Beatles’ split two years earlier. The benefit shows also featured performances form Stevie Wonder, Sha Na Na and Roberta Flack, among others.
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The concert audio was remixed and produced by the couple’s only child, musician Sean Ono Lennon, who said in a statement that, “Kevin’s documentary brings completely fresh insight into my parents’ lives during their Bank Street and early New York years, showing first hand their unwavering dedication to promoting peace and non-violence during a turbulent era of unrest, corruption and unnecessary war.”
The film will also feature newly transferred and restored footage from that era alongside previously unseen and unheard items from the couple’s personal archives, including phone calls and home movies recorded and filmed by Lennon and Ono during the 18 months the couple lived in a cramped Greenwich Village apartment in the early 1970s.
A high-energy one-minute trailer for the doc set in 1972 features home movie footage of the couple on the Staten Island Ferry, hanging with Andy Warhol and visiting the Statue of Liberty, where they both famously gave a power fist salute to the quintessential symbol of freedom and opportunity. The montage is cued to their song “New York City,” a chronicle of their love affair with the city Lennon called home until his murder in December 1980.
“I wanted to make a film that surprises and delights even the most dedicated Lennon and Ono fans by focusing on one transformative period in their lives and telling the tale through their own words, images and music,” said director Macdonald (One Day, Touching the Void). “Built around the beautiful 16mm film footage of the only full-length concert John gave after leaving the Beatles, I hope the film will introduce the audience to a more intimate version of John & Yoko – while also reflecting their politically radical and experimental sides.”
The movie made its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last year and will be featured this week at the Sundance Film Festival.
Check out the trailer for the One to One film below.
Jamie Foxx revealed that he was close to death during his 2023 medical emergency. On the red carpet at Sunday’s 2025 Golden Globe Awards, Foxx told Variety‘s Mark Malkin that the nurse who treated him in Atlanta dubbed him a “five-percenter,” in reference to the less than 5% of people who survive the kind of severe brain bleed and stroke that the actor suffered that year.
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For over a year Foxx, 57, did not reveal much about the medical incident that left him hospitalized, though he did finally open up about it in his Golden Globe nominated stand-up special, What Had Happened Was…, which was released in December. In it, Foxx got emotional at points, verging on tears describing the scary incident, noting that during the first two weeks of his treatment his doctors weren’t sure he would make it.
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In a testament to his joy in surviving the scare, Foxx told Malkin “this doesn’t matter,” in reference to the hoopla surrounding the glitzy, star-studded awards show. He illustrated that point by shouting out the nurse who told him he was a five-percenter, saying that when she saw who her patient was she “rolled her sleeves up” and got to work.
“I said, ‘thank you so much,’” he recalled.
“She said, ‘why are you thanking me? You’re not special,’” he said. “I roll my sleeves up for everybody that comes in here. And so when it hits like that and all of the red carpet and the tuxes and this, come on man. And she said, ‘All of [this treatment] will get you to that, but right now you’re a patient and I got to get you right.”
Foxx attended the Globes with his daughters, Anelise Foxx and Corinne Marie Foxx, who he praised for stepping up during a difficult time. “I say this all the time, when you dream about what you want to be, you don’t dream about tragedy,” he said, taking off his shades. “You dream the good things, you dream the greatest life in the world. But when tragedy happens, you need somebody there that really loves you.”
Corinne, in particular, took charge by initially informing the world about her dad’s “medical complication,” then giving an update several weeks later. She said at the time that the family had been “preparing for the worst,” only to tell fans that her dad was out of the hospital and recuperating (and playing Pickleball), while thanking them for their support.
Last July, Foxx opened up a bit about the medical emergency that landed him in the Atlanta hospital for a month while he was filming the Netflix movie Back in Action with Cameron Diaz, telling fans that he had no memory of the particulars. “Look, April 11 last year — bad headache. I asked my boy for an Advil,” Foxx said. “I was gone for 20 days. I don’t remember anything.”
Foxx told Malkin that he likes to say that Corinne “turned into Michael Corleone,” laughing that his daughter was not familiar with Al Pacino’s iconic turn as the head of a mob family in Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather trilogy. “I said, ‘you don’t understand. When Michael seen that his dad was in trouble, he stepped up.’ And she did, man. It was a lot of pressure on her, but she delivered.”
Watch Foxx talk about his medical scare below.
In December, Robbie Williams‘ film biopic Better Man (Paramount Pictures) was released in cinemas globally, telling the story of the British pop icon, albeit with Williams replaced by a CGI monkey.
The film covers Williams’ rise to fame as a teenager in pop band Take That, his decision to go solo in 1995, his various controversies and struggles with addiction, his recovery and time in the limelight. The film was directed and co-written by The Greatest Showman director Michael Gracey and divided critics and fans for its use of the CGI character instead of a traditional actor.
Better Man includes a number of Williams’ greatest hits including “Angels,” “Rock DJ,” and “She’s The One.” A new composition, “Forbidden Road,” is also featured in the movie, and last year was nominated for the Golden Globes as well as being shortlisted for best original song at the 2025 Oscars (March 2).
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That song, however, was eventually removed from the shortlist last month on the grounds that it incorporated material from an existing song that was not written for the film in which it appears. Williams co-wrote the song with Freddy Wexler and Sacha Skarbek, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences deemed that it shared similarities to “I Got a Name,” a 1973 ballad written by Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox for the Jeff Bridges film The Last American Hero. (The late Jim Croce had a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with the song.) In a statement to its members about the removal of the track, The Academy said: “This is a decision that both honors our rules and protects the special nature of the Original Song and Score categories.”
The song remained a nominee for best original song at Sunday night’s (Jan. 5) 82nd Golden Globes, where Williams walked the red carpet. Speaking to Deadline, he responded to the disqualification of the song from the Oscars shortlist. Watch the full interview below.
“Listen, the rules is the rules and you have to go by them. It would have been nice, but also as an introvert, it’s another party I don’t have to go to,” he said. “I went through it, I’m on the other side. It’s all good.”
Williams’ song lost the award at the Golden Globes to “El Mal,” co-written by Clément Ducol, Camille, and Jacques Audiard for the film Emilia Pérez, which also scooped best motion picture, musical or comedy.
Later this year, Williams will embark on a massive European tour and recently told NME that he was working on a new album which featured contributions from Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi.
After years of keeping their relationship under the radar, Spider-Man costars Zendaya and Tom Holland are engaged. People magazine confirmed that the 28-year-old actors are preparing to tie the knot after Holland reportedly proposed at one of Zendaya’s family homes over the holidays; TMZ was first to report the news about the holiday proposal. Z […]
Selena Gomez didn’t go home with any hardware at Sunday night’s (Jan. 5) Golden Globe Awards, but the Only Murders in the Building co-star had absolutely no complaints about her big night out with fiancée producer Benny Blanco.
In addition to being nominated for a best supporting actress award for her role in the musical Emilia Pérez — with her co-star, Zoe Saldaña, taking home the prize — Gomez was also overcome with emotion when she had an unexpectedly sweet encounter with a fellow A-lister before the show. During a pre-show red carpet stroll, Gomez was shocked when House of Gucci star Salma Hayek interrupted her live spot with carpet co-host and Variety senior culture and events editor Mark Malkin, to give Sel, 32, a hug.
According to video posted by Variety, Hayek not only embraced the singer/actress, but insisted that Gomez take the mic and chat with Malkin as well. “No, no, no… I refuse,” Hayek said, swatting away Malkin’s hand as he tried to get her to hop up and do a dual interview with Gomez.
Gomez clearly appreciated the kind gesture, bowing down and giving Hayek a kiss on her hand as she fought off tears that threatened to muss her perfect makeup.
“That just made me cry! She’s who I’ve looked up to,” Gomez told Malkin. “It’s actually the sweetest thing ever,” Gomez told Malkin. “I love her. I looked up to her. My dad’s crush was her. Everything.”
In a different interview with Malkin at this weekend’s Variety 10 Directors to Watch & Creative Impact Awards, Gomez admitted that she’s super anxious about the idea of performing songs from Emilia Pérez at the 2025 Oscars. When Malkin asked her if she would be up for performing songs from the musical alongside Saldaña, Selena said she’d rather defer to the Avatar star.
“I hope that all goes on Zoe,” she said, noting that she has not performed live for quite a while. Then Malkin reminded Gomez that Saldaña recently said she wants both of them on stage on March 2 to do a “big homage to Mexico with both (Emilia Pérez) songs,” asking “will you do it?”
“I don’t know if I could, Gomez responded. “I’m not as… I’m not there, it’s just different.” The announcement of the 2025 Oscar nominations are less than two weeks away and assuming Emilia Pérez continues its winning ways — it also took home best motion picture – musical or comedy, best original song (“El Mal“) and best non-English language motion picture at the Globes — it’s likely it’s musical numbers will get nods; the songs nominated for the best original song Oscar are typically performed during the ceremony.
Jon M. Chu would love to tell you all about the Britney Spears biopic he’s working on. But speaking to Billboard on the red carpet at Sunday night’s (Jan. 5) Golden Globe Awards, the Wicked director said, for now, he can’t say much. “I really can’t talk about that yet,” he said of the upcoming Universal Pictures movie he working on based on the pop princess’ best-selling memoir, The Woman in Me.
“I’m a big fan of Britney. I’ve been a fan since I was young and she was young and she was one of 12 acts at the Shrine Auditorium,” Chu added in the video you can watch above. “So I want to do her justice and tell her story right. But we’ll see. We’re developing it now and it’s a long road ahead.”
Back in November, Chu told The Hollywood Reporter that the script for the Spears film was not written yet — and that no writer had been hired at that point — but that in its initial conception he expects it to be “a lot about how we treat people, young people, stars that we think we own, women, mothers.”
Variety has reported that Universal Pictures landed the rights to make a movie of the Spears memoir, which chronicles her rise to fame, her high-profile relationship with Justin Timberlake and her life under a very restrictive 13-year conservancy; Chu will direct with Marc Platt tapped to produce.
While it’s unknown where the script is at this point, in September Spears cryptically revealed in an Instagram post that it is “flattering to be in such good company like Jon Chu,” adding that “the project I might be doing isn’t a biopic story … it’s a fictional musical where I play an extremely intelligent character !!!”
Chu had (a little) more to say about the second installment of Wicked, which will bring fresh surprises, including a song co-written by co-star Cynthia Erivo. “I can say nothing other than I’ve very excited for people to see For Good,” Chu told Billboard when asked about the songs singer/actress Erivo penned for the eagerly anticipated sequel due out later this year. “It’s really good.”
In December, Erivo told Variety that in addition to prepping her debut album she has worked with composer Stephen Schwartz to write an original song for Elphaba that she said is “so special to me… when we filmed it, the entire crew was in tears. I hope audiences are ready — it’s a song that speaks to the heart of who Elphaba is.”
Billboard also asked about one of the most talked-about deleted scenes, the so-called “friendship montage” between Ariana Grande’s Glinda and Erivo’s Elphaba. “I might use it in another movie. I have another movie to go!” Chu said.
With the second part of the musical adaptation, Wicked: For Good, due out on November 21, Chu teased that “there’s certain footage that I can’t release because I don’t know if I’m going to use it yet.” But, joking that he’s already gotten in trouble with movie studio Universal Pictures for promising certain things, Chu said, “I’ll consider it.”
When asked to make the hardest choice of all: Team Elphaba or Team Glinda? Chu took the diplomatic route. “You’re gonna get me in trouble. These girls watch what colors I wear every day!” Chu said of his eagle-eyed co-lead actresses. “I love both of them so much,” he added. “Every day I’m a little Elphaba and a little bit Glinda.”
Bruce Springsteen has been spending time hanging around the set for the upcoming biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere and so far he’s very impressed with the movie’s star, Jeremy Allen White. The actor best known for playing perpetually harried chef Carmy Berzatto on The Bear has been filming the movie that will tell the story behind the making of the Boss’ stark 1982 character-heavy album Nebraska.
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In a recent chat with SiriusXM E Street Radio’s Jim Rotolo, Springsteen, 75, talked about whether it’s been strange to be on set as he watches Allen portray a thirtysomething version of him. “A little bit at first, but you get over that pretty quick and Jeremy is such a terrific actor that you just fall right into it,” Springsteen said. “He’s got an interpretation of me that I think the fans will deeply recognize and he’s just done a great job, so I’ve had a lot of fun. I’ve had a lot of fun being on the set when I can get there.”
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More importantly, at a time when Timothée Chalamet is earning praise for his original vocals in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, Rotolo wondered what The Boss thinks of White’s singing in the film. “He sings well. He sings very well,” Springsteen said. “You know, and Jeremy Strong [as Springsteen’s longtime manager Jon Landau] and Odessa Young [as then-girlfriend Faye], you know, it’s a tremendous cast of people. They cast the film beautifully, so it’s very exciting.”
Directed and written by Scott Cooper, the adaptation of Warren Zanes’ book of the same name, the movie has gotten full support from Springsteen. Last year, White told GQ that in addition to hours and hours of video study to nail Bruce’s signature raspy singing and speaking cadence he’s also been working with a vocal coach.
“I’ve got a really talented group of people helping me train vocally, musically, to get ready for this thing,” White told the magazine. “I’m also really lucky [that] Bruce is really supportive of the film, and so I’ve had some access to him and he’s just the greatest guy.” Before cameras started rolling, White was asked last June if he planned to do his own singing in the film, telling Variety, “we’re gonna try, we’re gonna try our best.”
In the same interview with Rotolo, Springsteen also confirmed a late 2024 press release teasing that this year will bring a new collection that will “look back at Springsteen’s storied recording career, featuring never-before-heard material.” When Rotolo asked about that release teasing unheard tunes, Springsteen simply confirmed, “there will be.” The singer also debuted a new song called “Girlfriend” in honor of late Replacement’s guitarist Slim Dunlap on the episode.
Listen to the interview below.
There is a very good reason you never seen Spider-Man star Tom Holland walking the red carpet with longtime girlfriend Zendaya. In a new cover story interview with Men’s Health the 28-year-old actor explained that for the same reason he can’t just drop in to see an afternoon matinee play without being swarmed by fans — or pulling attention from the actors on stage — he doesn’t want to distract from Z’s big day.
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“Because it’s not my moment, it’s her moment, and if we go together, it’s about us,” he told the magazine about why he tends to skip most non-mandatory public events and attends Zendaya’s premieres, but doesn’t do the step-and-repeat with her.
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Holland is re-emerging from a year-long break from acting and told the magazine that for the first time in nearly two decades he doesn’t have anything to promote (well, except for his new line of nonalcoholic beers, Bero). “It was just something I needed to do,” he said. “I had been acting flat out since I was 11.” The latter refers to his audition for Billy Elliot: The Musical in London, which was followed a few years later with a role in The Impossible with Naomi Watts, and then his first run at Spider-Man in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War.
In addition to the fourth Spider-Man film, he is also slated to join Matt Damon and Zendaya in the upcoming Christopher Nolan adaptation of Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. The star who has gotten into killer shape for his Marvel films is notorious for his dedication and focus, as well as for his signature parlor trick: a backflip. But even as he hovers at the edge of 30, Holland said age feels like it’s starting to catch up to him.
While visiting Cornwall with Zendaya and his family recently a cousin asked him to bust out one of his flips. “So I went outside and I was getting ready, and I was thinking, I can do this. I can totally do this. I’ve done this thousands of times. And Z was there, and she was like, ‘Are you sure you can still do this?,’” he recalled. After assuring her he could, Holland said he bent down and landed a perfect one. Well, almost perfect. “I actually did land it, but I pulled every muscle in my stomach, because when you do a backflip, it’s all about extending up as much as you can and then tucking,” he said. “For weeks, I could not laugh because my stomach was so sore.”
The actor also revealed that his new go-to workout anthem is Linkin Park 2.0’s comeback single, “The Emptiness Machine,” his favorite movie is, no shame, Avatar, but said he will not share his patented euphemism for sex. “That’s my lady,” he said. “I’m not getting into that!”
Ariana Grande has been in the spotlight for more than half of her life. In an interview with YouTube personality Sally this week, the Wicked star got very candid about what that has felt like, specifically how it feels to constantly have strangers evaluating and judging her body. And, in a super honest moment, she had a simple message for people who do that.
“There’s a comfortability people have with commenting on that [my body] that I think is really dangerous. And I think it’s dangerous for all parties involved,” she said, as her Wicked co-star, Cynthia Erivo, held the singer’s hand and comforted her as she appeared on the verge of tears while answering a question about the struggle for women to live up to society’s exacting, often unreasonable, beauty standards
“I’ve been kind of doing this in front of the public and kind of been a specimen in a petri dish since I was 16 or 17, so I have heard it all,” Grande said. “I’ve heard every version of it… of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it, and then it’s wrong for different reasons. But that’s everything from – even just the simplest thing – your appearance, you know?”
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Grande, 31, said it’s hard to protect yourself from that noise and it’s uncomfortable no matter where you experience such pressures. “Even if you go to Thanksgiving dinner, and someone’s granny says, ‘Oh my God, you look skinnier! What happened?’ or ‘You look heavier! What happened?’” she said. “That is something that’s uncomfortable and horrible no matter where it’s happening… and I think in today’s society there’s a comfortability that we shouldn’t have, at all, commenting on other’s looks, appearance, what they think is going on behind the scenes, or health, or how they present themselves.”
Getting animated, Grande said those kinds of judgements about what women are wearing and how their bodies and faces look are “dangerous.” She counted herself lucky to have a good support system that allows her to “know and trust that I am beautiful… but I do know what the pressure of that noise feels like… I just don’t invite it in anymore. It’s not welcome. I have work to do. I have a life to live. I have friends to love on, I have so much love and it’s not invited.”
She added that however you have to block that noise out, whether it’s deleting a toxic social app or blocking trolls online, “you keep yourself safe. Because no one has the right to say s–t!”
The latter comment drew a clap from host Sally, as well as an “amen” seconded by Erivo. “Can you tell I needed that today?” Grande said with a smile as Erivo grabbed her arm and displayed yet another example of the way the two women have openly supported and big-upped each other during the exhaustive press tour in support of the hit movie musical which has already rolled up $372.9 million in ticket sales so far.
Grande has spoken before about fans’ concerns over her appearance, including in a TikTok video last year in which she had similar thoughts about people’s concerns about her body.
“I think we should be gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies — no matter what. If you think you’re saying something good or well-intentioned, whatever it is. Healthy, unhealthy, big, small, this, that, sexy, not sexy, I don’t… We just shouldn’t. We should really work towards not doing that as much,” she said at the time.
“But I also just wanted to say one, there are many different kinds of beautiful,” she added. “There are many different ways to look healthy and beautiful. I know personally for me, the body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body. I was on a lot of anti-depressants, and drinking on them and eating poorly, and at the lowest point of my life when I looked the way you consider my ‘healthy.’ But that, in fact, wasn’t my healthy. I know I shouldn’t have to explain that, but I do feel like maybe having an openness and some sort of vulnerability here, something good might come from it.”
Check out Grande and Erivo’s interview with Sally below.