Entertainment

Sabrina, Charli and Chappell are suddenly stars. Why now?

Published

2 years ago

June 25, 2024

Sabrina, Charli and Chappell are suddenly stars. Why now?

There were lime-green tube tops, lime-green beanies, lime-green hoodies and cowboy hats and sunglasses and at least one lime-green mesh vest like something an especially with-it street paver might wear. But even those not dressed in the glaring color of Charli XCX’s glaring new album, “Brat,” were showing their devotion to the English pop singer this month, shouting along with every word as she performed all 15 of the album’s tracks for a capacity crowd vibrating with excitement at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles.

“I don’t want to sing this one — I just want to hear you sing it,” she said before the beat of “B2B” kicked in at a pulverizing volume, and nearly every person in the room seemed overjoyed to oblige her.

With tickets going for hundreds of dollars over face value on the secondary market, this recent sold-out concert was a convocation of the ultra-loyal Charli XCX fans — Charli’s Angels, many call themselves — who’ve helped maintain her cult-fave status over the decade and change since she emerged in the early 2010s with appearances on hits like Icona Pop’s “I Love It,” which she co-wrote, and her own solo debut, “True Romance.” For almost Charli’s entire career, her tuneful yet edgy brand of electronic pop has held a distinct connoisseur’s appeal — a kind of if-you-know-you-know energy that’s endeared her only more deeply to her core following.

Yet signs keep mounting that the wider world is starting to pay attention.

“Brat,” Charli’s sixth studio LP, debuted last week at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, a career high for the 31-year-old musician. Reviews of “Brat” have been almost uniformly positive, including raves from the likes of Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and the Guardian.

Lorde, about whom Charli is broadly thought to have written the song “Girl, So Confusing,” offered her take on Instagram, writing that “there is NO ONE like this b—”; the New Zealander then jumped on a remix of “Girl, So Confusing” that immediately racked up more than 5 million plays on Spotify after it dropped on Friday. And this fall, Charli will play arenas on a co-headlining tour with Troye Sivan.

For all her swagger at the Shrine, Charli on “Brat” anticipates the isolating experience of stardom; in the song “Rewind,” she’s already longing for the days “when I didn’t overanalyze my face shape” and when she “used to never think about Billboard.”

In fact, she’s not alone: Charli’s sudden ascent is just one of several we’re seeing this summer, including Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, both of whom are putting up huge numbers after years of work in the trenches of pop music.

This week, Carpenter’s song “Please Please Please” — a slinky yacht-rock jam about a famous woman’s anxieties regarding a public relationship — topped the Hot 100 in just its second week on the chart, followed closely at No. 4 by her frothy neo-disco smash “Espresso”; a few days before, San Francisco’s Outside Lands festival announced that it had tapped Carpenter, 25, as a last-minute headliner to replace Tyler, the Creator after he dropped out for unspecified reasons.

Roan, meanwhile, just entered the top 10 of Billboard’s album chart for the first time with her grandly theatrical 2023 LP, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” powered in large part by the 26-year-old’s much-discussed appearances at Coachella and New York’s Governors Ball festival. Asked by Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” the other day what it felt like to finally break through, Roan smiled and said, “It feels like I was right all along.”

So why now for these women — and in a year crowded with activity, no less, by veteran A-listers like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Billie Eilish? One top pop songwriter, granted anonymity in order to speak candidly, points out that part of what’s happening is merely a course correction for a music industry that’s been starved for new superstars.

“The last one was Olivia Rodrigo, and that was almost four years ago — that’s not normal,” this person says. “There used to be at least one massive breakout every year, if not two.”

COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns deprived record labels access “to the traditional levers they used to be able to pull” to elevate young acts, the songwriter adds; TikTok filled the vacuum with short-lived hits by “random people in their bedroom — which is beautiful, but then you realize they’ve never played a show before and there’s nothing to fall in love with. It’s just a song, and you have no clue who’s singing it.”

Yet something connects Carpenter, Roan and Charli XCX in particular that’s clearly resonating with listeners. According to Michelle Jubelirer, the former Capitol Music Group chief executive who helped orchestrate the rise of Ice Spice, “They’re all incredibly strong, independent women who are a little brash and who build worlds and remain authentically themselves.” Jubelirer laughs. “It’s like, ‘We’re done with the bulls—,’” she says. “‘Accept us for who we are, or f— you.’”

That brashness doesn’t just manifest in the winking aggression of a song like Charli’s “360,” in which she promises to “shock you like defibrillators,” or “Please Please Please,” which has Carpenter warning her actor boyfriend not to embarrass her. It’s also in the forthright depiction of queer sex in Roan’s “Casual” and in the naked vulnerability of Charli’s “I Think About It All the Time,” a staticky ballad about how motherhood fits (or maybe doesn’t) into the life of an artist.

“I was walking around in Stockholm / Seriously thinking ’bout my future for the first time,” she sings, going on to recount a visit to friends with a new baby. “She’s a radiant mother and he’s a beautiful father / And now they both know these things that I don’t.”

Sturdily crafted yet rough around the edges, “I Think About It All the Time” reflects the frankly confessional nature of social media, which may be a reason Charli’s music is stirring up more passion than Dua Lipa’s comparatively streamlined “Radical Optimism,” to name one recent album by a far more famous pop singer that’s failed to connect with a mass audience this year.

Ditto, perhaps, for relatively underperforming LPs by Ariana Grande and Kacey Musgraves, both of which presented portraits of women who’d soul-searched their way to a state of emotional equilibrium — as opposed to people (à la Charli, Sabrina and Chappell) owning their unresolved desires and anxieties.

Of course, however happily messy they might appear, each of these ascendant pop stars has honed the ability to express that message through years of practice. Roan signed her first major-label deal almost a decade ago and moved to L.A. from her native Missouri in 2018; Carpenter, who has an album due in August, made her name on a Disney Channel series and released her debut full-length in 2015. As one seasoned insider puts it in regards to former kiddie-TV figures: “Fans grew up with them, so when they break, they’re more than a song because they’re already a part of your life. And the Disney girls are well trained: They can deliver when they need to.”

Indeed, as Jubilerer notes, Roan and Carpenter have consistently gone viral with performance clips that demonstrate their old-school stage talent — talent each of them got to expose to huge audiences on the road this year, Roan as an opening act for Rodrigo (with whom she shares a producer in Dan Nigro) and Carpenter as one of Swift’s openers on the record-breaking Eras tour.

Yet the stage is also where an experienced pro can come face to face with her disorienting new reality. Performing this month in North Carolina, Roan tearfully interrupted her set to tell her audience that she felt “a little off” because “my career is just kind of going really fast and it’s really hard to keep up.” She said she didn’t want to offer up “a lesser show” because of her feelings and added, “This is all I’ve ever wanted — it’s just heavy sometimes.”

The crowd promptly roared.

Movie Reviews

MOVIE REVIEWS: “Mercy,” “Return to Silent Hill,” “Sentimental Value” & “In Cold Light” – Valdosta Daily Times

Published

2 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

“Mercy”

(Thriller/Crime: 1 hour, 39 minutes)

Starring: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis

Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Rated: PG-13 (Violence, bloody images, strong language, drug content and teen smoking)

Movie Review:

“Mercy” is a science fiction movie based on one of the more common themes of moviedom lately, artificial intelligence (AI). This crime thriller cleverly creates an intriguing story using technology and the justice system, yet it fails to be consistently interesting and intelligent throughout. The conclusion is less significant than the initial setup, as the concluding scenes become typical action sequences.

Detective Chris Raven (Pratt) of the LA Police Department is a huge supporter of the city’s new judicial courtroom. Crimes are now judged by an AI program (Ferguson) in the Mercy Court. The court is run by an artificial program that makes decisions based on all of the evidence before it without any prejudice. Detective Raven is all for this system until he is convicted of killing his wife. Now he must use all of the data, including the AI‘s ability to tap into everyone’s electronic devices, security cameras, and even into government files, within reason, to prove he did not murder his wife.

Mercy is an interesting movie. It entertains throughout, even when the story gets sloppy and characters’ actions are irrational. This mainly occurs during the final scenes. The movie tries too hard to insert unneeded narrative twists. This is disappointing because the story is interesting. What makes it fascinating is that it happens in real time. This is the most brilliant facet.

All the other theatrics are unnecessary. Director Timur Bekmambetov (“Profile,” 2018; “Wanted,” 2008) and “Mercy’s” producers should have just kept the ending simple, no plot twists or superfluous action sequences.
Grade: C (This flick needs some mercy. Let the trial begin.)

“Return to Silent Hill”

(Horror: 1 hour, 46 minutes)

Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Hannah Emily Anderson and Robert Strange

Director: Christophe Gans

Rated: R (Bloody violent content, strong language and brief drug use.)

Movie Review:

“Return to Silent Hill” is about one man’s quest to return to the love of his life. The problem is she has moved on to the afterlife. Meanwhile, audiences lose part of their life watching this movie, which is unlike any of the two prequels in this series. This one is a psychological horror that bores.

Artist James Sunderland (Irvine) decides to return to Silent Hill, a place where many people died during a devastating illness that nearly enveloped the entirety of the city’s population. What is left there is a horror show of freakish creatures, all with violent intent. Still, Sunderland searches for the love of his life, Mary Crane (Anderson).

Think of this movie as a slow suicide, where a guy goes back to retrieve his dead girlfriend. To do so, he must travel to the modern land of the dead that Silent Hill has become. This one is a type of swan song by the main character, and the movie becomes less scary while lackluster romantic notions wander aimlessly.

Grade: D (Do not return to see this.)

“Sentimental Value”

(Drama: 2 hours, 13 minutes)

Starring: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning

Director: Joachim Trier

Rated: R (Language, sexual reference, nudity and thematic elements)

Movie Review:

“Sentimental Value” is a Norwegian film that won the Grand Prix in France’s Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Motion Picture. It is a solid drama filled with symbolism and family connections. It is brilliant performances by a talented cast under the direction of Joachim Trier (“The Worst Person in the World,” 2021).

This screenplay is about Gustav Borg (Skarsgård). He is a father, grandfather and a famed film director. He stayed away from his two daughters, actress Nora Borgwhile (Reinsve) and historian Agnes Borg Pettersen (Lilleaas), while he was creating works as a filmmaker. The director comes back into the lives of his daughters after the death of their mother. Their reunion leads to a rediscovery of their bond at their family home in Oslo.

Stellan Skarsgård is always a solid actor. He takes his roles and makes them tangible characters that seem like you know them, even when they’re speaking a foreign language. That is the quality of his act and why he gets nominated for multiple awards each season.

“Sentimental Value” is a valuable movie filled with enriching sentiment. It is an enjoyable film for those who value a good drama. The acting and original writing alone make the movie worth it. “Sentimental Value” starts in a very simple way, but everything in between, even when low-key, remains potent. Joachim Trier and writer Eskil Vogt have worked together on multiple projects such as “The Worst Person in the World” (2021). Their pairing is once again worthy.

Grade: A- (Any motive valuable movie.)

“In Cold Light ”

(Crime: 1 hour , 36 minutes)

Starring: Maika Monroe, Allan Hawco and Troy Kotsur

Director: Maxime Giroux

Rated: R (Violence, bloody images, strong language and drug material)

Movie Review:

“In Cold Light” sticks to a very straightforward story, primarily taking place over a short period. The problem is the story leaves one in the cold. Audiences have to guess what is being communicated because this movie uses American Sign Language (ASL) without subtitles. For those moviegoers who do not know ASL, they are left deciphering characters’ actions and facial expressions during some pivotal scenes.

Ava Bly (Monroe) attempts to start a legit life after prison. Her life changes when Ava’s twin, Tom Bly (Jesse Irving) is murdered while seated next to her. As her brother’s killers pursue her, Ava must evade law enforcement, which contains some crooked cops led by Bob Whyte (Hawco).

For a brief moment, this movie hits its exceptional moment when Oscar-recipient Helen Hunt enters the picture as a motherly Claire, a crime boss who seems more like a social worker/psychologist. Her long scene is wasted as it arrives too late.

French Canadian director Maxime Giroux’s style has potential in his first English-language film, but it does not fit a wayward narrative. A rarity, this crime drama has characters commit many dumb actions at once.

Moreover, Giroux (“Félix et Meira,” 2014) and writer Patrick Whistler forget to let their audiences in on their story. They allow much to get lost in translation, especially during heated conversations between Monroe’s Ava and her father, Will Bly, played by Academy Award-winning actor Troy Kotsur (“CODA,” 2021).

Grade: C- (Just cold and dark.)

More movie reviews online at www.valdostadailytimes.com.

Entertainment

Paramount-Warner Bros. deal stirs fears about what it means for CNN

Published

4 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Paramount-Warner Bros. deal stirs fears about what it means for CNN

As the media industry took stock of Paramount Skydance’s startling acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, one question lingered on the minds of many in the news business and beyond: What will this mean for CNN?

The iconic 24-hour cable news network is among the various Warner Bros. assets that would be scooped up by Paramount in a deal announced Thursday that could transform the media landscape.

Paramount has undergone a swift transformation under Chief Executive David Ellison following his family’s acquisition of the company last summer. These changes reached CBS News almost immediately with the appointment of Bari Weiss, the controversial Free Press co-founder, as its new editor in chief.

Bari Weiss moderated a town hall with Erika Kirk, widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

(CBS via Getty Images)

Weiss’ tenure so far has been rocky.

Her decision to pull a “60 Minutes” story about conditions inside an El Salvador prison that housed undocumented Venezuelan migrants from the U.S. received widespread criticism and accusations of political motivation. The network said the story was held for more reporting, and the segment eventually aired.

There was more upheaval last week at the news magazine, when “60 Minutes” correspondent and CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper announced that he’d be leaving to spend more time with his family.

And earlier this year, a veteran producer at “CBS Evening News With Tony Dokoupil” was fired after he expressed disagreement about the editorial direction of the newscast.

Now, the concern is that similar changes could be in store for CNN, which has long been a target of President Trump’s ire. He has personally called for the ouster of hosts at the network who have questioned his policies.

CNN Worldwide Chief Executive Mark Thompson tried to quell some of those fears, particularly inside his own newsroom.

In an internal memo dated Thursday and obtained by The Times, Thompson urged employees not to “jump to conclusions about the future” and try to concentrate on their work.

“We’re still near the start of what is already an incredibly newsy year at home and abroad,” he wrote in the note. “Let’s continue to focus on delivering the best possible journalism to the millions of people who rely on us all around the world.”

Chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide Mark Thompson and media editor for Semafor, Maxwell Tani, speak onstage.

CNN declined to comment beyond Thompson’s memo.

Ellison has said his vision for a news business is one that is ideologically down the middle.

“We want to build a scaled news service that is basically, fundamentally in the trust business, that is in the truth business, and that speaks to the 70% of Americans that are in the middle,” he said during a Dec. 8 interview on CNBC, shortly after Warner said it had chosen Netflix as the winning bidder for its studios, HBO and HBO Max. “And we believe that by doing so that is for us, kind of doing well, while doing good.”

Ellison demurred when asked whether Trump would embrace him as CNN’s owner, given the president’s past criticisms of the network.

“We’ve had great conversations with the president about this, but … I don’t want to speak for him in any way, shape or form,” he said.

First Amendment scholars have raised concerns about press freedom and free speech rights under the Trump administration, particularly after last month’s arrest of former CNN journalist Don Lemon and the Federal Communications Commission’s pressure on late-night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert.

Press freedom groups have long asked questions in other countries about how authoritarian regimes use their power and “oligarchical alliances to belittle, silence, and punish independent journalistic voices, or to steer media ownership toward … a preferred version of the truth,” said RonNell Andersen Jones, a 1st Amendment scholar and distinguished professor in the college of law at the University of Utah, in an email.

“We see them asking at least some of these questions about the U.S. today,” she wrote.

Apprehension about the merger also extends beyond its implications for CNN and the media business.

Lawmakers such as Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) have raised concerns about how the consolidation of two major Hollywood studios could affect industry jobs and film and television production — which has significantly slowed since the pandemic, the dual writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023 and corporate cutbacks in spending.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called the deal an “antitrust disaster” that she feared could raise prices and limit choices for consumers.

“With the cloud of corruption looming over Trump’s Department of Justice, it’ll be up to the American people to speak up and state attorneys general to enforce the law,” she said in a statement.

Already, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has said the merger isn’t a “done deal,” adding that he is in communication with other states attorneys general about the issue.

“As the epicenter of the entertainment industry, California has a special interest in protecting competition,” he posted Friday on X.

The deal is subject to approval by the U.S. Justice Department. Bonta and other state attorneys general are expected to file a legal challenge to the mega-merger on antitrust grounds.

Ellison addressed some of these concerns in a statement Friday.

“By bringing together these world-class studios, our complementary streaming platforms, and the extraordinary talent behind them, we will create even greater value for audiences, partners and shareholders,” he said. “We couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.”

Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.

Movie Reviews

Movie Review: ‘Goat’ – Catholic Review

Published

14 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

NEW YORK (OSV News) – “Goat” (Sony) is an animated underdog sports comedy populated by anthropomorphized animals. While mostly inoffensive, and thus suitable for a wide audience — including teens and older kids — the film is also easily forgotten.

The amiable proceedings center on teen goat Will Harris (voice of Caleb McLaughlin). As opening scenes show, it has been Will’s dream since childhood to play for his hometown team, the Vineland Thorns.

The inhabitants of Vineland and the other areas of the movie’s world, however, are divided into so-called bigs and smalls, with professional competition dominated, unsurprisingly, by the former. Though Will stoutly maintains that he’s a medium, those around him regard him as too slight and diminutive to go up against the towering bigs.

Despite this prejudice, a video showing Will more or less holding his own against a famous and arrogant big, Andalusian horse Mane Attraction (voice of Aaron Pierre), goes viral and inspires the Thorns’ devious owner, warthog Flo Everson (voiced by Jenifer Lewis), to give the lad a shot. Though Will is understandably thrilled, his path forward proves challenging.

Will has idolized the Thorns’ sole outstanding player, black panther Jett Fillmore (voice of Gabrielle Union), since he was a youngster. But Jett, it turns out, is not only frustrated by her situation as a star among misfits but scornful of Will’s ambitions and resolute in helping to deprive her new teammate of playing time.

Given such divisions, the Thorns’ fortunes seem destined to continue their long decline.

“Roarball,” the invented game featured in director Tyree Dillihay’s film, is essentially co-ed basketball by another name. As produced by, among others, NBA champion Stephen Curry, the movie — adapted from an idea in Chris Tougas’ book “Funky Dunks” — is an unabashed celebration of hoop culture both on and off the court.

Viewers’ enthusiasm may vary, accordingly, depending on the degree to which they’re invested in the real-life sport.

Moviegoers of every stripe will appreciate the fact that the script, penned by Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley, shows the negative effects of self-centeredness as well as the value of teamwork and fan support. Plot developments also showcase forgiveness and reconciliation.

Will’s story is, nonetheless, thoroughly formulaic and most of the screenplay’s jokes feel strained and laborious. Still, while hardly qualifying as the Greatest of All Time, “Goat” does provide passable entertainment with little besides a few potty gags to concern parents.

The film contains brief scatological humor and at least one vaguely crass term. The OSV News classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG — parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.