What’s New

Credit: Coco Picard

Editor’s note: for this issue, Coco Picard talked to Chicago artist and professor Nick Cave about his art practice and work, as well as his exhibition “Forothermore.” Edited text from the comic is transcribed here to ease readability.

The artist, activist, and educator Nick Cave’s first retrospective, “Forothermore,” is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago through October 2. Spanning three decades of work, this immersive exhibition includes installations, video, and sculpture, as well as the Soundsuit series–inspired by the beating of Rodney King in 1992–and the debut of the Soundsuit 9:29 series–inspired by the death of George Floyd.

Throughout the show, Cave mixes fashion, found objects, sculpture, textiles, and more to address issues of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Curated by Naomi Beckwith, “Forothermore” will travel to New York this fall and open at the Guggenheim Museum on November 18. Cave spoke to the Reader about his work and process.

Nick Cave: “Standing in this show illustrates my own commitment to this purpose. While it’s 30 years of work in this vein, it is also 30 years of being fueled by this issue of being othered.

“I want to be sure we flip the other into a fueled way of looking at oneself as a change agent.

“Tondos are large immersive objects that one can find purpose and power within, even while they show catastrophic happenings on their surface.

“A sculpture asks you to move around it, and a performance shares the movement to a stationary audience member. Both require movement and shared space.

“Art is the fuel for all things. Thought. Drive. Beauty. Power. Change. Love.”

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This is one of the most inauspicious moments in history to release an adamantly apolitical film centered on reproductive choices. Wanuri Kahiu’s Look Both Ways in other contexts might simply be a fairly inoffensive feel-good romance riff. As it is, though, the film’s lack of courage is painful and unforgivable.

The movie’s high concept is that it follows two possible versions of the life of its main character Natalie (Lili Reinhart). Natalie is a graduating senior at the University of Texas at Austin with great plans to become an animator. In a celebratory moment, she sleeps with her best friend Gabe (Danny Ramirez). Shortly thereafter, she feels sick and takes a pregnancy test. In one world, the test is negative, and she whooshes off to LA. In the other, the test is positive, and she has to move back to her parents’ home to have the baby.

The film does very briefly acknowledge that Natalie could have had an abortion in theory. In practice, though, it treats terminating a pregnancy as unthinkable and unimaginable. The movie would be much stronger, and make much more sense thematically and structurally, if Natalie had been pregnant in both realities, and had chosen not to have a child, rather than just avoiding it by chance. Instead, when Natalie becomes pregnant, she has only one choice. 

The bulk of the movie is meant to illustrate that you can find love and career success and happiness whichever way your life goes. Given Texas’s brutal new post-Dobbs abortion restrictions, that ends up feeling like a glib justification. Women who have unplanned pregnancies, the film insists, will be just as happy with a baby as they’d be otherwise. They need to trust fate and choose whichever life it hands them. Look Both Ways claims it’s offering women many options. But it feels more like it’s closing them down. TV-14, 110 min. Netflix

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The first four episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law are an absolute delight. Thankfully the show dispenses with a lengthy origin story, opting repeatedly for quick and to the point, getting right to the action that audiences want to see and then making fun of itself for doing just that. This self-awareness permeates the show, which stars Emmy Award-winning actress Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) as sometime-Hulk Jennifer Walters, a lawyer focused on superhero-centered cases. Maslany is superb as the sharp, funny Walters who, in keeping with the comic, often breaks the fourth wall to address the audience and acknowledge what everyone expects of a show like this, such as cameos from the likes of Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Emil Blonsky/Abomination (Tim Roth), and Wong (Benedict Wong), as well as one surprise teased in the trailer—fellow superhero lawyer Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox). Walters struggles with her desire to be a lawyer against her inability to ignore that she can change back and forth into a tall, green, muscle-bound superhero who constantly garners unwanted attention. She laments that she gets hired because she is She-Hulk instead of for her legal prowess, and the show does a fine job of integrating salient issues of feminism and tokenism with humor and without ham-handed preachiness. She-Hulk is the kind of smart, funny production that proves that like Ms. Marvel, Thor: Ragnarok, or Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel is at its best when it combines self-conscious humor with great storytelling. TV-14, nine 30-minute episodes

Dropping weekly on Disney+

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Day Shift should be a fun and enthralling movie. 

Set in a world where vampires exist, Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx) uses a dull pool-cleaning job as a front so that he can hunt and viciously decapitate the undead. Ripping out their fangs pays big money. Unfortunately for Bud, he’s been kicked out of the union, so he’s being severely underpaid by buyers. 

When he learns that his ex-wife Jocelyn (Meagan Good) plans to move their daughter Paige (Zion Broadnax) to Florida, Bud’s friend Big John (Snoop Dogg) helps him get back into the union so that he can earn money fast. There’s just one catch: Bud has to be joined on his vampire murder spree by office worker Seth (Dave Franco), who has been ordered to report back with all of his violations. 

Day Shift actually begins impressively. Cinematographer Toby Oliver shoots Los Angeles with a beautiful sheen, while the opening fight scene between Foxx and a shockingly spry 90-year-old vampire is brutal, gory, and surprising.

Once that sequence ends, though, Day Shift quickly becomes atrocious. First-time director J.J. Perry is more interested in making sure it looks good than delivering coherent action or letting us connect with the characters. 

What’s even worse is that Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten’s script goes from formulaic to incomprehensible, all while being painfully unfunny. 

Ultimately, Day Shift feels like it has more in common with a video game than a movie. In a year of Netflix delivering flop after flop, Day Shift might just be the worst of the lot. R, 113 min.

Netflix

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The first four episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law are an absolute delight. Thankfully the show dispenses with a lengthy origin story, opting repeatedly for quick and to the point, getting right to the action that audiences want to see and then making fun of itself for doing just that. This self-awareness permeates the show, which stars Emmy Award-winning actress Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) as sometime-Hulk Jennifer Walters, a lawyer focused on superhero-centered cases. Maslany is superb as the sharp, funny Walters who, in keeping with the comic, often breaks the fourth wall to address the audience and acknowledge what everyone expects of a show like this, such as cameos from the likes of Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Emil Blonsky/Abomination (Tim Roth), and Wong (Benedict Wong), as well as one surprise teased in the trailer—fellow superhero lawyer Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox). Walters struggles with her desire to be a lawyer against her inability to ignore that she can change back and forth into a tall, green, muscle-bound superhero who constantly garners unwanted attention. She laments that she gets hired because she is She-Hulk instead of for her legal prowess, and the show does a fine job of integrating salient issues of feminism and tokenism with humor and without ham-handed preachiness. She-Hulk is the kind of smart, funny production that proves that like Ms. Marvel, Thor: Ragnarok, or Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel is at its best when it combines self-conscious humor with great storytelling. TV-14, nine 30-minute episodes

Dropping weekly on Disney+

Read More

Day Shift should be a fun and enthralling movie. 

Set in a world where vampires exist, Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx) uses a dull pool-cleaning job as a front so that he can hunt and viciously decapitate the undead. Ripping out their fangs pays big money. Unfortunately for Bud, he’s been kicked out of the union, so he’s being severely underpaid by buyers. 

When he learns that his ex-wife Jocelyn (Meagan Good) plans to move their daughter Paige (Zion Broadnax) to Florida, Bud’s friend Big John (Snoop Dogg) helps him get back into the union so that he can earn money fast. There’s just one catch: Bud has to be joined on his vampire murder spree by office worker Seth (Dave Franco), who has been ordered to report back with all of his violations. 

Day Shift actually begins impressively. Cinematographer Toby Oliver shoots Los Angeles with a beautiful sheen, while the opening fight scene between Foxx and a shockingly spry 90-year-old vampire is brutal, gory, and surprising.

Once that sequence ends, though, Day Shift quickly becomes atrocious. First-time director J.J. Perry is more interested in making sure it looks good than delivering coherent action or letting us connect with the characters. 

What’s even worse is that Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten’s script goes from formulaic to incomprehensible, all while being painfully unfunny. 

Ultimately, Day Shift feels like it has more in common with a video game than a movie. In a year of Netflix delivering flop after flop, Day Shift might just be the worst of the lot. R, 113 min.

Netflix

Read More

This is one of the most inauspicious moments in history to release an adamantly apolitical film centered on reproductive choices. Wanuri Kahiu’s Look Both Ways in other contexts might simply be a fairly inoffensive feel-good romance riff. As it is, though, the film’s lack of courage is painful and unforgivable.

The movie’s high concept is that it follows two possible versions of the life of its main character Natalie (Lili Reinhart). Natalie is a graduating senior at the University of Texas at Austin with great plans to become an animator. In a celebratory moment, she sleeps with her best friend Gabe (Danny Ramirez). Shortly thereafter, she feels sick and takes a pregnancy test. In one world, the test is negative, and she whooshes off to LA. In the other, the test is positive, and she has to move back to her parents’ home to have the baby.

The film does very briefly acknowledge that Natalie could have had an abortion in theory. In practice, though, it treats terminating a pregnancy as unthinkable and unimaginable. The movie would be much stronger, and make much more sense thematically and structurally, if Natalie had been pregnant in both realities, and had chosen not to have a child, rather than just avoiding it by chance. Instead, when Natalie becomes pregnant, she has only one choice. 

The bulk of the movie is meant to illustrate that you can find love and career success and happiness whichever way your life goes. Given Texas’s brutal new post-Dobbs abortion restrictions, that ends up feeling like a glib justification. Women who have unplanned pregnancies, the film insists, will be just as happy with a baby as they’d be otherwise. They need to trust fate and choose whichever life it hands them. Look Both Ways claims it’s offering women many options. But it feels more like it’s closing them down. TV-14, 110 min. Netflix

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The Chicago Bears haven’t ever had a quarterback develop into a franchise guy. They thought that trading for Jay Cutler or drafting Mitchell Trubisky would be a solution but neither of them panned out. Now, they are hoping that Justin Fields is the guy.

Of course, his rookie season didn’t go well with Matt Nagy at the helm but the new regime is committed to getting him going in the right direction. He has the tools to be that guy but he needs to put them together on the field to be successful.

The 2022 season is going to be a big test for him. It is all getting going in the preseason as he gets ready for week one against the San Francisco 49ers. He was okay in the first exhibition game against the Kansas City Chiefs and was looking to improve in the second one this week.

Fields only played in one drive in this game on Thursday but he was very good. He connected on five of his seven passing attempts for a total of 39 yards. They aren’t numbers that jump off the page but it is clear that he is grasping what they are trying to do with the offense.

Justin Fields looke pretty good in his only preseason week two drive of the night.

One of the best parts of the game was the fact that Fields clearly is developing a great connection with Cole Kmet. The Bears drafted Kmet in the second round out of Notre Dame in 2020 with the hopes that he can be one of those great tight ends in the NFL.

It is very important that Fields can use his tight ends to his advantage and Kmet is the best option on the team right now. If these two are able to keep their chemistry going, there will be multiple good options for Fields on each and every play that they run.

Fields is going to continue being given everything he needs to succeed in the NFL as the years go on. It is evident in the first two preseason games that their offensive line needs some help but he has the ability to use his legs to make plays.

We should see Fields a lot more than one drive in the final preseason game against the Cleveland Browns next week. That is the final dress rehearsal before the season opener on September 11th.

Hopefully, these flashes of brilliance are signs of things to come for Fields and the offense. It might not translate to wins in 2022 but it should translate into great development.

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