Entertainment

Kelsea Ballerini can't stop telling the truth

Published

1 year ago

October 28, 2024

Kelsea Ballerini can't stop telling the truth

The way Kelsea Ballerini sees it, people expected her to do two things on her high-wire act of a new album: “One, to go pop,” she says. “And two, to go soft.”

The pop move has been anticipated since this 31-year-old country singer and songwriter emerged about a decade ago in the wake of Taylor Swift, a foundational influence whose early embrace of Ballerini as an heir apparent left many waiting for an inevitable “1989”-style crossover moment of her own.

Says Ballerini with a smile: “They can keep waiting.”

As for the assumption that she’d go “all lovey-dovey,” as the singer puts it? “It’s because they see me happy,” she says — one result of her relationship with the actor Chase Stokes, whom she began dating after the public divorce she chronicled in brutal detail on last year’s Grammy-nominated “Rolling Up the Welcome Mat” EP.

“But going pop and getting soft — I very intentionally did not want to do either of those things.”

What she pulls off instead on “Patterns,” which came out Friday, is a pair of difficult tricks: She writes about personal growth with a degree of emotional acuity most songwriters reserve for heartbreak and she makes room for sonic and structural innovations within an unabashedly commercial country-music framework.

Take “First Rodeo,” a sleek midtempo track with twangy guitars and blipping synths in which Ballerini extends a metaphor about getting back on the horse further than you’d think possible without breaking it. Or take “Sorry Mom,” an almost uncomfortably forthright note to her mother about the let’s-call-it-scenic route Ballerini took to becoming “a woman that you’re proud of.” (“Showing up again on Sunday morning / You just made the eggs and turned your head,” she sings, which — oof.)

Then there’s “Wait!”: three minutes of psychological drama in the mind of someone “with a nasty habit leaving before I get left.”

“That’s the last song I wrote for the album,” Ballerini says on a recent morning in a sunny West Hollywood hotel suite. Wrapped in a cozy gray cardigan, she’s sitting cross-legged on a sofa, shoes off, with an overstuffed pillow in her lap. “I felt like it was a missing part of the story, where I was the bad guy, you know? It’s easy to show the unraveling of a relationship. But then you’re like, ‘Oh, wait — part of this was my fault.’”

Ballerini has been in Los Angeles for a few months shooting “The Voice,” the long-running TV singing competition on which she’ll serve as a coach when the show’s next season premieres in February. She used to hate L.A., she says, but given the time she knew she’d be spending here, she resolved to try to make the city feel more like home by renting a place in Los Feliz, which reminds her of her Green Hills neighborhood back in Nashville; she filled the house with the same candles she burns at home and she cooks dinner as many nights as she can. She brought her dog Dibs too, only to discover after getting here that the 9-year-old pup has cancer.

“I just dropped him off for chemo on the way here,” she says, scrolling through the many photos of Dibs on her phone to find one to show off. “It’s gutting, but he’s in good spirits. If I was out here, and this was happening in Nashville, I’d feel so displaced.”

In addition to “The Voice,” Ballerini recently shot a guest-star spot on “Doctor Odyssey,” the new cruise-ship medical drama from producer Ryan Murphy. For years, acting was a “hard no,” she says. “I was terrified of failing and embarrassing myself. But the last couple years, I’ve done a lot of things that I was really scared of, and everything turned out all right.” What links the women Ballerini admires most — “Shania, obviously, Reba, Reese Witherspoon” — is that they’re all “multifaceted,” she says. “They’re women known for doing several things, and that inspires me.”

Even so, “Patterns” showcases the deepening of Ballerini’s core talents as both a singer and a songwriter. In “Two Things,” she finds the ragged edge of her honeyed voice to put across the exasperation involved in a love-hate relationship; in “We Broke Up,” she realizes that closure is available only to those who are ready for it: “I could take a deep dive in the details / I could hide, I could cry till I throw up / Take a stroll, camera roll, old emails / But it’s as simple as, ‘We broke up.’”

After years of screwed-tight Nashville songcraft, Ballerini achieved a more conversational aspect on “Rolling Up the Welcome Mat” that carries through to the new album. (Among her touchstones was SZA’s wonderfully digressive “SOS.”) “I used to think the only great songwriters were the cleverest ones — the Shane McAnallys,” she says, referring to the prolific country hitmaker she describes as “a god” at turning a phrase just so. “But I let that go during ‘Welcome Mat’ — I didn’t even care if things rhymed — and that gave me so much more of a canvas to work with.” Now, she says, a song’s success is less about its hookiness or wordplay than about “whether you go, ‘Oh my God, I literally texted that to my friend yesterday.’”

Kelsea Ballerini will serve as a coach on the next season of "The Voice."

In person, Ballerini is warm, chatty, slightly gossipy — a veteran star who has retained an essential down-to-earth quality but who also knows through experience how to create a sense of emotional intimacy with an interlocutor.

“Kelsea’s not a pop robot,” says Adam Levine of Maroon 5, the longtime “Voice” coach who’s working with Ballerini on the show’s upcoming season. “Talking to her, you feel like you’re girlfriends.”

Ballerini, who calls herself “a classic oversharer,” grew up in a religious family in Knoxville, Tenn., but moved to Nashville at 15 to pursue music; she signed a record deal a few years later and scored a No. 1 country-radio hit with her debut single, 2014’s earnest “Love Me Like You Mean It.” More chart-toppers followed — including “Dibs,” whose title provided her dog’s name, and “Peter Pan,” about the danger of falling for a charming man-child — as did a Grammy nomination for best new artist.

“I sounded so young,” she says now of her early work. “For the first five years of my career, I still had such a baby face.”

In 2017, when she was 24, Ballerini married Morgan Evans, an Australian country singer she’d met when the two co-hosted an awards show in Brisbane. Her career continued to grow after the wedding — she tried out new sounds with the Chainsmokers and Halsey and cut successful country duets with Shania Twain and Kenny Chesney — yet her relationship with Evans eventually withered.

On “Rolling Up the Welcome Mat,” which came out just a few months after the couple finalized their divorce in late 2022, Ballerini sings that they “had to get drunk to ever really talk”; in one song she recounts a breakfast by herself in Big Sur while her husband was on tour in Europe: “The pictures look pretty,” she sings, “at least they do on your Instagram.” (Evans offered his side of the story in his plaintive 2022 single “Over for You,” in which he sings, “It kills me to know you were drifting alone” and wonders, “Was it something I was missing, or is there someone else?”)

“I’m so f—ing proud of the songwriting on ‘Welcome Mat,’” Ballerini says of the EP, which came out amid a wave of divorce albums by female country stars, including Kacey Musgraves and Carly Pearce. “I feel like I proved to myself my credibility — not just to myself, but especially to myself.” Yet she also realizes that her candor — in her music as well as in a very dishy episode of the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast — came “at the expense of a lot of things,” she says. Meaning? “I hurt some people.”

Ballerini describes herself as "a classic oversharer."

With “Patterns,” Ballerini’s fifth studio LP, her ambition was to maintain “the level of honesty that I unlocked” last time while “editing myself a little bit in terms of what I share about my real life.” For help she assembled a team of experienced songwriters: Hillary Lindsey, Jessie Jo Dillon, Karen Fairchild (of Little Big Town) and Alysa Vanderheym, who produced “Welcome Mat” and went on to produce the new album.

“They’re all amazing writers, but they’re also my friends,” Ballerini says, “so it felt comfortable to go in and just throw paint at the wall and figure it out.” The crew held a retreat at a friend’s farm to start the creative process and came up with “Sorry Mom,” “Two Things” and “Baggage,” in which Ballerini admits, “I don’t abide by that 50-pound limit.”

The fact that the team was all women meant that “we could definitely say things we would never say in other writing rooms,” Vanderheym says. “There was wine involved, and there were some very late nights. We were just spilling our guts.” For Ballerini, the liberation was sufficient to drop an F-bomb in one tune — hardly a given in country music. “I remember she was like, ‘Am I gonna have a little E on my record?’” Vanderheym says, referring to the symbol used by streaming services to show that a song contains explicit lyrics. (Ballerini also credits a woman not present for the retreat: “I would not have put ‘f—’ on this record,” she says, “had Taylor Swift not put ‘f—’ on a record.”)

The singer and Vanderheym recorded much of “Patterns” in Vanderheym’s living room in part because the singer is no fan of a professional studio’s vocal booth. “It just feels like I’m walking into a cubicle with a Dell computer that I don’t know how to work,” she says with a laugh. “When I do vocals now, I’m crisscross applesauce on the floor with a mic in my hand.”

For the album’s lead single, “Cowboys Cry Too,” Ballerini enlisted Noah Kahan, the folk-rock singer-songwriter from Vermont, whom she met at the Grammys in February. “I totally fan-girled on him, and then he asked me about ‘Peter Pan,’” she recalls. “I was like, ‘How do you even know that song?’” In “Cowboys,” Ballerini addresses the effects of “toxic masculinity,” as she puts it, but she felt the song would be more powerful “if it’s me opening the door and then a man actually talking about it from his perspective. So I just shot my shot and texted it to Noah.” Kahan wrote a moving verse about a guy un-learning the stoicism he inherited from his dad.

Says Ballerini: “Noah is what the song talks about, which is a man who’s not afraid to be cracked wide open and gush out.”

According to Ballerini, “Cowboys Cry Too” is “one of the two most country-radio-friendly songs I’ve ever put out.” (The other one is “If You Go Down [I’m Goin’ Down Too],” a cut from 2022’s “Subject to Change” LP that Ballerini co-wrote with McAnally.) Yet four months after it was released, “Cowboys” is stuck down in the high 30s on Mediabase’s closely watched country chart.

The singer is philosophical about “Cowboys’” performance. “I’ve had seven No. 1s on country radio, and now I can’t get one anymore,” she says. “Things just change, right?” She adds that she may never win female vocalist of the year at the Country Music Assn. Awards — a prize she’s been nominated for seven times, including at next month’s CMAs ceremony. “That’s probably the truth,” she says.

“But I’m in this phase of my career where there’s abundance in different ways,” not least the TV gigs and the concert she has booked Tuesday night at New York’s Madison Square Garden, where she plans to perform “Patterns” from beginning to end. “I’ve had to rewire exactly what success looks like. I’m working really hard, and I’m showing up, and that matters to me,” she says. “Whatever this ends up looking like, I’m open to it.”

Movie Reviews

‘See You When I See You’ Review: Cooper Raiff Gives a Deeply Felt Lead Turn in a Tragicomedy That’s Sad for the Wrong Reasons

Published

7 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

‘See You When I See You’ Review: Cooper Raiff Gives a Deeply Felt Lead Turn in a Tragicomedy That’s Sad for the Wrong Reasons

After a 14-year hiatus during which he focused on directing television and acting, Jay Duplass made a welcome return to features in 2025 with The Baltimorons, a gentle May-December romance with an After Hours vibe and an unassuming charm that sneaks up on you like a surprise hug. I wish See You When I See You had a similar effect, but despite its sincerity and the raw pain of shattering real-life experience that infuses it, this feels like a knockoff struck from the template of a thousand bittersweet, funny-sad indie grief dramas branded with the old-school Sundance stamp.

Dysfunctional family whose members seem to have forgotten how to communicate? Check. Belabored metaphor that never adds up to much (in this case a sage grouse at risk of extinction)? Check. Surreally stylized flourishes that are both awkwardly realized and inorganic to the prevailing mood and style? Check. Random nostalgic nods to ‘90s bands? Check. Treasured childhood memory tarnished by soul-crushing trauma? Check. Tinkly piano score poised to underline every emotional beat? Check. The list could go on.

See You When I See You

The Bottom Line

Not if I see you first.

Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Premieres)
Cast: Cooper Raiff, Hope Davis, Lucy Boynton, Ariela Barer, Kumail Nanjiani, Poorna Jagannathan, David Duchovny, Kaitlyn Dever
Director: Jay Duplass
Screenwriter: Adam Cayton-Holland, based on his book, Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir

1 hour 42 minutes

All this is a shame since first-time screenwriter Adam Cayton-Holland, adapting his 2018 memoir Tragedy Plus Time, is clearly drawing from a very personal well in depicting with candor the spiraling chaos of a young comedy writer as he struggles to move forward after his beloved younger sister’s suicide. The authenticity of the writer-protagonist’s feelings is undermined by the banal familiarity of a specific indie-film model.

It’s doubly regrettable because Cooper Raiff pours a ton of heart and humor, along with PTSD, into the author’s stand-in, Aaron Whistler. He’s likable and funny, and even when the character is pushing people away like a flailing mess, he never forfeits the audience’s compassion.

Duplass could not have wished for better preparation for material of this nature than his work as producer and director of six episodes — including the pilot — of HBO’s sublime Bridget Everett series Somebody Somewhere. That series started from a similar place, with a central character trying to regain her footing after the shattering loss of a sibling and tending to deflect her sorrow with humor. Every single member of the ensemble felt fully lived-in and relatable, something that can be said for only some of the principal roles here.

It’s been two months since Leah (Kaitlyn Dever) took her own life and her devastated family has still not been able to agree on funeral arrangements — if they are to have one at all. The urn containing her ashes sits conspicuously on the mantlepiece in her parents’ loveless bedroom.

Leah’s mother Page (Hope Davis) has become closed-off and sour, doing her best to ignore her own grave health situation; her husband Robert (David Duchovny) pours himself into his work as a civil rights attorney, avoiding the subject of Leah; their other daughter Emily (Lucy Boynton), who has her own young son to care for, urges Aaron to see a therapist and goes from impatience to anger at the extent to which his grief has hijacked everyone else’s loss. Aaron and Leah were always members of a private club from which Emily felt excluded.

A big part of Aaron’s trauma is that he was the one who found his little sister’s body; when he is forced, after a DUI charge, to sign up for a mental health diversion program, he’s uncooperative and hostile with the therapist, who tells him nothing he didn’t already know. Later, when he finds an empathetic therapist with whom he connects (Poorna Jagannathan), Aaron initially remains blocked, only able to revisit the night he found Leah dead up to a point.

Raiff is very good in these scenes, which makes it frustrating that the memory flashes throughout of time spent with Leah are so clunky and obvious. Dever is always a compelling presence, but Leah seems more like a bundle of exposed nerve endings than a real person — the dangerous, out-of-control highs, the precipitous lows, the psych ward stints. The worst part, though, is a thuddingly literal device so poorly handled it yanks you out of the movie every time — a hole opens up in the ceiling or sky at a certain point in Aaron’s recollections, and Leah is sucked up into the atmosphere.

There are sweet interludes when Aaron reconnects with his girlfriend Camila (Ariela Barer), who is furious about him ghosting her for months until she learns the reason. Still, it’s clear to her that Aaron is not OK, causing her to pull away again.

The scenes that work less well and seem virtually superfluous are those with Kumail Nanjiani as Adeel, an environmental activist who drags Aaron along with him to break into a fracking site that is disturbing the breeding ground of…the sage grouse.

Duplass can’t be accused of lacking sensitivity as a director, and in the moments when See You When I See You works best, the movie has an infectious warmth. Until it turns into treacly cliché. The performances mostly are better than the material deserves — Raiff in particular, but also Davis and Boynton. No one enjoys beating up on a film in which the writer has invested so much of himself and his pain. But Cayton-Holland and Duplass have somehow made an authentic tragedy feel phony and unaffecting.

Entertainment

Writers Guild Awards nominations include ‘Sinners,’ ‘One Battle After Another’ and more

Published

9 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Writers Guild Awards nominations include ‘Sinners,’ ‘One Battle After Another’ and more

The awards momentum for “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another” continues to build.

Ryan Coogler’s historical vampire horror and Paul Thomas Anderson’s comedic political thriller were among the nominees for the 78th Writers Guild Awards announced Tuesday. Both films were also nominated in their respective writing categories for the 2026 Oscars.

Along with “Sinners,” the original screenplay nominees include the spy thriller “Black Bag” (David Koepp), the parental psychological dramedy “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” (Mary Bronstein), the ping-pong picture “Marty Supreme” (Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie) and the multi-perspective mystery horror “Weapons” (Zach Cregger).

Joining “One Battle After Another” in the adapted screenplay category are the alien comedy “Bugonia” (Will Tracy), the gothic monster movie “Frankenstein” (Guillermo del Toro), the Shakespeare tragedy “Hamnet” (Chloe Zhao & Maggie O’Farrell) and the period piece “Train Dreams” (Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar).

The television series nominations included past nominees such as “Andor,” “Severance” and “The White Lotus” on the drama side, as well as comedies “Abbot Elementary” and “Hacks.” New series being recognized include “The Pitt,” “The Studio,” “The Chair Company” “Pluribus” and “Task.”

The winners will be announced at at concurrent ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York on March 8. The Los Angeles-based show will be hosted by Atsuko Okatsuka and streamed live on the WGA West’s YouTube channel.

Screenplay nominees

Original screenplay

“Black Bag,” David Koepp
“If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” Mary Bronstein
“Marty Supreme,” Ronald Bronstein & Josh Safdie
“Sinners,” Ryan Coogler
“Weapons,” Zach Cregger

Adapted screenplay

“Bugonia,” Will Tracy (based on the film “Save the Green Planet,” written and directed by Jang Joon Hwan)
“Frankenstein,” Guillermo del Toro (based on “Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley)
“Hamnet,” Chloe Zhao & Maggie O’Farrell (based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell)
“One Battle After Another,” Paul Thomas Anderson (inspired by the novel “Vineland” by Thomas Pynchon)
“Train Dreams,” Clint Bentley & Greg Kwedar (based on the novella by Denis Johnson)

Documentary screenplay

“2,000 Meters to Andriivka,” Mstyslav Chernov
“Becoming Led Zeppelin,” Bernard MacMahon & Allison McGourty
“White with Fear,” Andrew Goldberg

Television, streaming and news nominees

Drama series

“Andor” — Tom Bissell, Dan Gilroy, Tony Gilroy, Beau Willimon
“The Pitt” — Cynthia Adarkwa, Simran Baidwan, Valerie Chu, R. Scott Gemmill, Elyssa Gershman, Joe Sachs, Noah Wyle
“Pluribus” — Vera Blasi, Jenn Carroll, Vince Gilligan, Jonny Gomez, Peter Gould, Ariel Levine, Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock
“Severance” — Adam Countee, Mohamad El Masri, Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman, Anna Ouyang Moench, K.C. Perry, Megan Ritchie, Erin Wagoner, Beau Willimon, Wei-Ning Yu
“The White Lotus” — Mike White

Comedy series

“Abbott Elementary” — Quinta Brunson, Ava Coleman, Lizzy Darrell, Riley Dufurrena, Justin Halpern, Joya McCrory, Chad Morton, Morgan Murphy, Brittani Nichols, Rebekka Pesqueira, Kate Peterman, Brian Rubenstein, Patrick Schumacker, Justin Tan, Jordan Temple, Garrett Werner
“The Chair Company” — Zach Kanin, Gary Richardson, Tim Robinson, Marika Sawyer, Sarah Schneider, John Solomon
“Hacks” — Genevieve Aniello, Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, Jess Dweck, Ariel Karlin, Andrew Law, Carolyn Lipka, Joe Mande, Aisha Muharrar, Pat Regan, Samantha Riley, Jen Statsky
“The Rehearsal” — Nathan Fielder, Carrie Kemper, Adam Locke-Norton, Eric Notarnicola
“The Studio” — Evan Goldberg, Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck, Frida Perez, Seth Rogen

New series

“The Chair Company” — Zach Kanin, Gary Richardson, Tim Robinson, Marika Sawyer, Sarah Schneider, John Solomon
“The Pitt” — Cynthia Adarkwa, Simran Baidwan, Valerie Chu, R. Scott Gemmill, Elyssa Gershman, Joe Sachs, Noah Wyle
“Pluribus” — Vera Blasi, Jenn Carroll, Vince Gilligan, Jonny Gomez, Peter Gould, Ariel Levine, Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock
“The Studio” — Evan Goldberg, Alex Gregory, Peter Huyck, Frida Perez, Seth Rogen
“Task” — Brad Ingelsby & David Obzud

Limited series

“The Beast in Me” — Howard Gordon, C.A. Johnson, Ali Liebegott, Daniel Pearle, Gabe Rotter, Erika Sheffer, Mike Skerrett
“Black Rabbit” — Zach Baylin, Sarah Gubbins, Kate Susman, Andrew Hinderaker, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Carlos Rios
“Death by Lightning” — Mike Makowsky
“Dying for Sex” — Sheila Callaghan, Harris Danow, Madeleine George, Elizabeth Meriwether, Kim Rosenstock, Sasha Stewart, Sabrina Wu, Keisha Zollar
“Sirens” — Bekah Brunstetter, Dan LeFranc, Colin McKenna, Molly Smith Metzler

TV & streaming motion pictures

“The Best You Can,” Michael J. Weithorn
“Deep Cover,”Derek Connolly & Colin Trevorrow
“The Life List,” Adam Brooks (based on the novel by Lori Nelson Spielman)
“Swiped,” Bill Parker & Rachel Lee Goldenberg and Kim Caramele

Animation

“Abe League of Their Moe,” Joel H. Cohen (“The Simpsons”)
“Don’t Worry, Be Hoopy,” Lindsey Stoddart (“Bob’s Burgers”)
“It’s a Beef-derful Life,” Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin & Wendy Molyneux (“The Great North”)
“Parahormonal Activity,” Loni Steele Sosthand (“The Simpsons”)
“Scared Screenless,” Bill Odenkirk (“Futurama”)
“Shira Can’t Cook,” Mehar Sethi (“Long Story Short”)

Episodic drama

“7:00 A.M.,” R. Scott Gemmill (“The Pitt”),
“A Still Small Voice,” Brad Ingelsby (“Task”)
“Charm Offensive,” (“Pluribus”)
“Execution,” Eric Tuchman (“The Handmaid’s Tale”)
“Got Milk,” Ariel Levine (“Pluribus”)
“Reunion,” Mara Brock Akil (“Forever”)

Episodic comedy

“A Call from God,” Mohammed Amer & Harris Danow (“Mo”)
“Pilot’s Code,” Nathan Fielder, Carrie Kemper, Adam Locke-Norton, Eric Notarnicola (“The Rehearsal”)
“Prelude,” John Carcieri, Jeff Fradley, Danny R. McBride (“The Righteous Gemstones”)
“The Promotion,” Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg & Peter Huyck & Alex Gregory & Frida Perez (“The Studio”)
“The Sleazy Georgian,” Megan Amram (“Poker Face”)
“Worms,” Ayo Edebiri & Lionel Boyce (“The Bear”)

Comedy/variety series – talk or sketch

“The Daily Show,” Head Writer: Dan Amira; Senior Writers: Lauren Sarver Means, Daniel Radosh; Writers: David Angelo, Nicole Conlan, Devin Delliquanti, Zach DiLanzo, Jennifer Flanz, Jason Gilbert, Dina Hashem, Scott Hercman, Josh Johnson, David Kibuuka, Matt Koff, Matt O’Brien, Joe Opio, Randall Otis, Zhubin Parang, Kat Radley, Lanee’ Sanders, Scott Sherman, Jon Stewart, Ashton Womack, Sophie Zucker

“Have I Got News for You,” Head Writer: Mason Steinberg; Writers: Jim Biederman, Daniel Chamberlain, Jodi Lennon, Michael Pielocik, Jill Twiss

“Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” Senior Writers: Daniel O’Brien, Owen Parsons, Charlie Redd, Joanna Rothkopf, Seena Vali; Writers: Johnathan Appel, Ali Barthwell, Tim Carvell, Liz Hynes, Ryan Ken, Sofía Manfredi, John Oliver, Taylor Kay Phillips, Chrissy Shackelford

“Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Head Writer: Alex Baze; Supervising Writers: Seth Reiss, Mike Scollins; Closer Look Supervising Writer: Sal Gentile; Writers: Jermaine Affonso, Bryan Donaldson, Matt Goldich, Jenny Hagel, John Lutz, Seth Meyers, Amber Ruffin, Mike Shoemaker, Ben Warheit, Jeff Wright

“Saturday Night Live,” Head Writers: Alison Gates, Erik Kenward, Streeter Seidell, Kent Sublette; Senior Writer: Bryan Tucker; Supervising Writers: Dan Bulla, Will Stephen, Auguste White, Celeste Yim; Writers: Steven Castillo, Michael Che, Mike DiCenzo, Jimmy Fowlie, Sudi Green, Martin Herlihy, John Higgins, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Allie Levitan, Ben Marshall, Lorne Michaels, Jake Nordwind, Ceara O’Sullivan, Moss Perricone, Carl Tart, Asha Ward; “Weekend Update” Head Writer: Pete Schultz; “Weekend Update” Writers: Rosebud Baker, Megan Callahan-Shah, Dennis McNicholas, Josh Patten, KC Shornima

“They Call It Late Night with Jason Kelce,” Writers: Andy Blitz, Kevin Dorff, Jon Glaser, Tami Sagher

Comedy/variety specials

“82nd Annual Golden Globes,” Written by Barry Adelman, Nefetari Spencer, Mike Gibbons, Brian Frange, Sean O’Connor, Alex Baze, Bob Castrone, Chris Convy, Anna Drezen, Jess Dweck, Noah Garfinkel, Lauren Greenberg, Ben Hoffman, Ian Karmel, Andrew Law, Mike Lawrence, Jon Macks, Bonnie McFarlane, Chris Spencer, Matt Whitaker

“The Daily Show Presents: Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse: MAGA: The Next Generation,” Written by Ian Berger, Devin Delliquanti, Jen Flanz, Jordan Klepper, Zhubin Parang, Scott Sherman

“Marc Maron: Panicked,” Written by Marc Maron

“Conan O’Brien: The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor,” Written by Jon Macks, Chris Convy, Lauren Greenberg, Skyler Higley, Ian Karmel, Sean O’Connor

“SNL50: The Anniversary Special,” Written by James Anderson, Dan Bulla, Megan Callahan Shah, Michael Che, Mikey Day, Mike DiCenzo, James Downey, Tina Fey, Jimmy Fowlie, Alison Gates, Sudi Green, Jack Handey, Steve Higgins, Colin Jost, Erik Kenward, Dennis McNicholas, Seth Meyers, Lorne Michaels, John Mulaney, Jake Nordwind, Ceara O’Sullivan, Josh Patten, Paula Pell, Simon Rich, Pete Schultz, Streeter Seidell, Emily Spivey, Kent Sublette, Bryan Tucker, Auguste White

Quiz and audience participation

“Celebrity Jeopardy!,” Head Writer: Robert Patton; Writers: Kyle Beakley, Michael Davies, Terence Gray, Amy Ozols, Tim Siedell, David Levinson-Wilk

“Jeopardy!,” Writers: Marcus Brown, Buzzy Cohen, Michael Davies, John Duarte, Mark Gaberman, Debbie Griffin, Jim Rhine, Michele Loud, Robert McClenaghan, Amy Ozols, Billy Wisse

Daytime drama

“Beyond the Gates,” Writers: Sara A. Bibel, Jazmen Darnell Brown, Ron Carlivati, Susan Dansby, Cheryl L. Davis, Christopher Dunn, Robert Guza Jr., Gregori J. Martin, Lynn Martin, Danielle Paige, Judy Tate, Michele Val Jean, Teresa Zimmerman

“General Hospital,” Head Writers: Elizabeth Korte, Chris Van Etten; Writers: Cathy LePard, Emily Culliton, Nigel Campbell, Suzanne Flynn, Charlotte Gibson, Kate Hall, Stacey Pulwer, Ryan Quan, Louise Rozett, Scott Sickles, Micah Steinberg

“The Young and the Restless, Associate,” Head Writers: Jeff Beldner, Marla Kanelos, Dave Ryan; Writers: Susan Banks, Amanda L. Beall, Marin Gazzaniga, Rebecca McCarty, Madeleine Phillips

Children’s episodic, long form and specials

“The First Snow of Fraggle Rock,” Matt Fusfeld & Alex Cuthbertson
“Stay Out of the Basement: Part I,” Rob Letterman, Hilary Winston (“Goosebumps”)
“Merry Giftmas,” Halcyon Person
“I Play Dodgeball with Cannibals,” Craig Silverstein, Rick Riordan (“Percy Jackson and the Olympians”)
“When We Lose Someone” Sean Presant (“Tab Time”)

Short form streaming

“The Rabbit Hole with Jimmy Kimmel,” Jimmy Kimmel & Jesse Joyce
“Sesame Street YouTube: Take a Moment with Jonathan Bailey,” Andrew Moriarty

Documentary script – current events

“Syria After Assad,” Martin Smith (“Frontline”)
“The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram,” Thomas Jennings and A.C. Thompson (“Frontline”)
“The Rise of RFK Jr.,” Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser (“Frontline”)
“Trump’s Power & the Rule of Law,” Michael Kirk & Mike Wiser (“Frontline”)

Documentary script – other than current events

“Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act,” Chana Gazit (“American Experience”)
“Clearing the Air: The War on Smog,” Peter Yost & Edna Alburquerque (“American Experience”)
“Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP,” Rob Rapley (“American Experience”)
“Matter of Mind: My Alzheimer’s,” Jason Sussberg
“Mr. Polaroid,” Gene Tempest (“American Experience”)

News script – regularly scheduled, bulletin, or breaking report

“Devastating Flooding in Texas,” David Muir, Karen Mooney, and Dave Bloch (“World News Tonight with David Muir”)
“The L.A. Wildfires,” David Muir, Dave Bloch, and Karen Mooney (“World News Tonight with David Muir”)

News script – analysis, feature, or commentary

“Eye on America: Coldwater Creek,” Cait Bladt
“Gaza, Hannah Arendt, and The Banality of Evil,” Basel Hamdan
“Mysterious Russian Deaths,” Michael Rey, Cecilia Vega, Oriana Zill de Granados (“60 Minutes”)
“Remembering Palestinian Journalists Killed by Israeli Forces,” Lisa Salinas
“Uphill Battle,” Richard Buddenhagen, Kay Lim, Lesley Stahl (“CBS News Sunday Morning”)

Digital news

“Altadena Residents Know Their Community Is Worth Rebuilding. Can They Protect Its Legacy?,” Taiyler Mitchell
“American Siberia,” Alexander Sammon
“An Isolated Boarding School Promised to Help Troubled Girls. Former Students Say They Were Abused.,” Sebastian Murdock and Taiyler Mitchell
“How Cassie’s Lawsuit Against Diddy Galvanized A Movement of Survivors,” Njera Perkins and Taiyler Mitchell
“Trump Sent Them to Hell. Now He’s Erasing Them Altogether,” Matt Shuham and Jessica Schulberg

Radio/audio nominees

Radio/audio documentary

“Episode 2: A Game of Telephone,” Heather Rogers, Rachel Humphreys, Colin McNulty (“Camp Swamp Road”)
“Jerry Lewis’ Lost Holocaust Clown Movie,” Max Freedman (“Decoder Ring”)
“Why Women Kill,” Mary Harris and Elena Schwartz (“What Next”)

Radio/audio news script – regularly scheduled, bulletin, or breaking report

“ABC News Radio Top of the Hour News,” Robert Hawley
“CBS World News Roundup,” Paul Farry and Steve Kathan
“Hasan Piker Knew Charlie Kirk,” Mary Harris and Madeline Ducharme (“What Next”)

Radio/audio news script – analysis, feature, or commentary

“How Will We Feed Our Neighbors?,” Mary Harris and Anna Phillips
“The Life and Legacy of Jimmy Carter,” Gail Lee
“We Made a Memecoin,” Lizzie O’Leary, Evan Campbell and Patrick Fort

On-air promotion

“Behind the Crown: King & Conqueror EPK,” Molly Neylan
“CBS Comedy,” Dan Greenberger

Movie Reviews

Vikram Prabhu’s Sirai Telugu Dubbed OTT Movie Review and Rating

Published

19 hours ago

January 27, 2026

Press Room

Vikram Prabhu’s Sirai Telugu Dubbed OTT Movie Review and Rating

Movie Name : Sirai
Streaming Date : Jan 23, 2026
Streaming Platform : ZEE5
123telugu.com Rating : 3.25/5
Starring : Vikram Prabhu, LK Akshay Kumar, Anishma Anilkumar, Ananda Thambirajah
Director : Suresh Rajakumari
Producer : SS Lalit Kumar
Music Director : Justin Prabhakaran
Cinematographer : Madhesh Manickam
Editor : Philomin Raj

Related Links : Trailer

Sirai marks the 25th film of actor Vikram Prabhu. The Tamil movie was released on Christmas Eve and went on to score hit status at the box office. It has now arrived on OTT with a Telugu dub, and here is our review of the crime drama.

Story:

Set in 2003 in Guntur, Srinivas (Vikram Prabhu) is a head constable in the Armed Reserve (AR). During an escort duty, a prisoner attempts to escape, forcing Srinivas to shoot him dead, which puts him under scrutiny by higher authorities. While the enquiry is still ongoing, Srinivas is assigned another escort duty to transport Abdul Rauf (L. K. Akshay Kumar), a murder convict, from a central prison to Kurnool. During the journey, Srinivas senses something amiss, and the situation worsens when Abdul goes missing. With the prisoner required to be produced in court the very next day, the tension escalates. What happens next? Does Srinivas and his team manage to trace Abdul? Who is Abdul, and what is his backstory? The rest of the film unfolds the answers.

Plus Points:

The film touches upon a different and rarely explored aspect of police life. Unlike most films that focus on senior officers and portray them heroically, Sirai revolves around a head constable from the Armed Reserve. Srinivas is shown as a grounded human being rather than a larger-than-life policeman, which makes the approach refreshing.

Vikram Prabhu delivers a neat performance, but the actor who truly stands out is L. K. Akshay Kumar. He effectively portrays the dilemma, pain, and hope of a prisoner, and his performance becomes a major driving force of the film.

The flashback narrated from Abdul’s point of view is emotional and engaging. Along with the emotional depth, the suspense maintained in certain scenes, especially during the escape sequence and the pre-climax and climax portions, works well.

The police station episode after the escape, the emotional scenes in the final 30 minutes, including the courtroom portions, and the suspense-filled climax are well executed and keep the viewer engaged.

Anishma Anilkumar, as Kalavathi, delivers a neat performance. The remaining cast members perform adequately.

Minus Points:

There is limited scope to point out major drawbacks. Some viewers may find the initial portions slightly routine, but the narrative picks up as the film progresses.

Though Vikram Prabhu is the lead, his role offers limited scope for performance. While he gets sufficient screen time, the character does not demand much in terms of expressions. His personal life angle is underdeveloped, and the character of his wife adds little value to the story. In the flashback portions, the love story and conflict scenes could have been explored in more detail.

Technical Aspects:

Despite this being his debut, director Suresh Rajakumari impresses with his screenplay and execution, giving the film the feel of an experienced filmmaker’s work.

Justin Prabhakaran’s background score is one of the film’s highlights and plays a key role in maintaining suspense and enhancing emotional moments. Madhesh Manickam’s cinematography is neat and serves the narrative well.

Editing by Philomin Raj is effective, keeping the film crisp within its two-hour runtime. The production values are decent, and the Telugu dubbing is clean and well done.

Verdict:

On the whole, Sirai is an engaging crime drama backed by a solid screenplay and effective execution. Vikram Prabhu is decent, but L. K. Akshay Kumar steals the show. The police station episode, flashback portions, emotional moments, and suspenseful climax make it a film worth watching. Though the narration feels slightly slow in the beginning, it does not last long. On the whole, Sirai is definitely worth a watch for its content, execution, empathy, and humanity.

123telugu.com Rating: 3.25/5
Reviewed by 123telugu Team