Entertainment
That ‘SNL’ abortion cold open and other highlights with Benedict Cumberbatch as host
The newest episode of “Saturday Evening Dwell” transported viewers again to the Center Ages amid the leaked draft ruling that hinted the Supreme Court docket is positioned to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
Hosted by Benedict Cumberbatch with musical visitor Arcade Fireplace, Saturday’s episode additionally included materials associated to “Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity,” Mom’s Day and even Will Smith’s notorious Oscars slap.
Many of the writers pitched Cumberbatch sketches about “Physician Unusual,” the actor stated throughout his opening monologue.
“However I’ve been in different movies. And [executive producer Lorne Michaels] stated to me, ‘Like what?’ I stated, ‘Nicely, “The Energy of the Canine.”’ He stated, ‘No one noticed it.’ I stated, ‘Come on, man. I used to be nominated for an Oscar for that.’ I imply, I didn’t win. I used to be beat by Will Smith — not bodily, not bodily.”
After plugging his newest Marvel movie — which simply scored the most important theatrical opening of 2022 — Cumberbatch gave candy Mom’s Day shout-outs to his mom and to his spouse, actor Sophie Hunter, with whom he shares three youngsters.
“You gave delivery to our three lovely boys, and that alone is a minor miracle, as anybody will inform you,” he stated, addressing Hunter.
“In the meantime, in line with you, I used to be off dressing up as a wizard. … However actually, critically, glad, glad Mom’s Day to all of the moms on the market, all of the grandmothers, all of the caregivers — for everyone who does such a rare job doing that — particularly to the 2 moms in my life.”
See extra highlights from Saturday’s present beneath.
Trendy instances or medieval instances? Chilly open tackles Roe vs. Wade leak
In gentle of the leaked Supreme Court docket draft opinion overturning Roe vs. Wade, the chilly open time-traveled to the medieval period whereas mocking the criminalization of abortions.
“Whereas I used to be cleansing the outlet on the aspect of the fortress the place we poop, after which it falls via the sky right into a moat stuffed with human feces, I began to consider abortion,” stated a resident of thirteenth century England performed by Cumberbatch — a uncommon cold-open look by a bunch. “Don’t you suppose we must make a regulation in opposition to it?”
“You imply just like the regulation we have now in opposition to pointy footwear?” stated one other character performed by James Austin Johnson.
“Or the regulation that when you hunt deer within the royal forest, they lower off your genitals?” added a 3rd performed by Andrew Dismukes.
“Precisely,” Cumberbatch stated. “One thing truthful and cheap. We should always make a regulation that may stand the take a look at of time, in order that lots of and lots of of years from now, they’ll look again and say, ‘No have to replace this one in any respect! They nailed it again in 1235.’”
A particular message from Supreme Court docket Justice Amy Coney Barrett (Kate McKinnon)
The Roe vs. Wade discourse additionally got here up a number of instances in the course of the “Weekend Replace” phase, that includes Kate McKinnon as Supreme Court docket Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
“It’s easy,” McKinnon stated whereas impersonating Barrett, who has drawn criticism for her feedback on abortion.
“You’re a assassin when you’ve got an abortion, however you’re not a assassin when you put a child in a bag in a mailbox — and that tracks and is nice to me.”
Whereas commenting on the leaked draft opinion, “Weekend Replace” co-host Colin Jost joked, “The Court docket is normally cautious, however they slipped up simply this as soon as, and now they’ve acquired to dwell with it ceaselessly. Sounds actually unfair.”
Elizabeth Olsen pays a go to to her ‘Physician Unusual’ co-star
In a digital quick, the sketch comedy collection’ unofficial understudy, Chloe Fineman, debuted a spot-on impersonation of Elizabeth Olsen reverse Olsen herself.
(Olsen stars alongside Cumberbatch in “Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity” as Sokovian sorceress Wanda Maximoff.)
“Oh, my God,” Cumberbatch stated upon seeing each Olsen and Fineman — in costume as Wanda — in his dressing room. “The multiverse is actual.”
Possibly don’t add these to your Mom’s Day quote board
For a particular Mom’s Day sketch, Aidy Bryant performed a mother opening presents from her husband and youngsters.
Among the many presents had been a collection of picket indicators bearing (de)motivational messages, resembling, “Had been your ears ringing? I used to be in remedy” and “Pricey spouse, now that the youngsters are grown, we don’t have intercourse as a lot anymore. However we do generally, and that’s high quality.”
An ice cream focus group? What might go flawed?
Channeling his interior cowboy, Cumberbatch portrayed a hardened rancher who takes his job as a focus-group member for Blue Bunny ice cream a bit too critically.
“Keep in mind the Fourth of July?” Cumberbatch stated in an exaggerated Southern accent after tasting a taste referred to as Galactic Mint Frost.
“The air was so thick with smoke, you can barely discover your little brother’s hand. Daddy allow you to each keep out late so long as you stored your little brother shut. You by no means did discover him. You walked residence alone, went straight to the icebox, scooped out some chocolate chip — nothing too fancy on the evening your brother disappeared. That is that. This tastes like that.”

Movie Reviews
Sand City (2025) ‘Karlovy Vary’ Movie Review: Mahde Hasan’s Strange and Beguiling City-Portrait Marks a Visually Arresting Debut

In Mahde Hasan’s feature debut, “Sand City,” a tight, clipped psychosis of disaffection rips through its atmosphere. There’s a stifling thrust cities exert as Dhaka does in the film. Where’s the release? Mauled by a city’s pummelling of daily routines, how do you inch towards a smidgen of fresh possibility? A faith in transcendence is snipped by the brutal drudgery synonymous with scratching out a life of dignity. How do you endure with grace when battered by daily banality?
“Sand City” spins around two characters. Emma (Victoria Chakma), a woman from an ethnic minority population, exits her office only to discover slurs scrawled on her bike. It happens on a daily basis. The guard claims he hasn’t a clue who’s behind it. Rather, he redirects insinuations at her, implying: why is it that only she is targeted? She must be doing something that attracts a particular kind of image. At work, Emma is mostly disconnected. She’s seen as an outsider, an anomaly.
The other character is Hasan (Mostafa Monwar), who slaves away at a glass plant with a gradually swelling plot of making his own. He collects several materials, including silica sand, and stores them at home. Emma also hauls off sand for her cat litter. Sand binds the two strangers. She feels edged out in most spaces, receding thereby to her own little corner. There’s no comfort she receives or warmth from kindred others. He’s biding his time, rosy-eyed about the big, brilliant future his project’s success can bring him.
Hasan orchestrates the city-space’s discombobulating effects with precision and austerity. Smoggy landscapes accentuate a deep-set sense of doom and collapse. There’s despair and disillusionment, but it’s purposefully muted. The film drives the kind of morass that seems inescapable, binding on all fronts. Dream as you may; turning the tide is futile, crashing past any mild fluttering of the heart.
Hasan is terrifically confident in handling silences. Long wordless stretches dominate much of the film, a sandbox for you to decipher and project what characters may be feeling at any given point. There’s a distance, a chasm in place between Hasan and Emma, though a few interstices come up sometimes. But what’s felt more keenly is people being strung apart, socio-economic vectors firmly in place.
It’s a cold hollowness that creeps up on individuals. They have dreams which they pursue tenderly, secretly. Hope is so delicate it might shatter, should they recklessly share, open up their hearts. Giombini’s sharply sculpted framing prises out the city and its deadening blow. It’s a stark, alienating atmosphere we are slowly dipped into. Hasan has no interest in setting up a conventional structure, with easily discernible narrative beats. Instead, he and Giombini imbue “Sand City” with a moodier drift. The blue glowing nights draping over Emma are as striking as evocations of the netherworld in the wasteyards Hasan scavenges through.

Characters don’t navigate the city as much as they are stuck within fixed routes. It’s a stasis that chews into the fibre of their lives. They don’t know how to find their footing if they take a plunge. Hasan does fling himself out there more demonstratively. However, their emotional, psychological isolation gnaws like an open wound. Amidst a space crunch, individuals are severed from any form of affectionate intimacy. The daily struggle for sustenance might not be the same for all. Some, like Emma, occupy a more privileged status.
But fulfilment remains elusive. People wander, aching for some anchorage that’s also affirming. Emma is waiting for visa issues to get sorted, so she can fly out of the country. Rarely do we witness the characters sharing a meaningful, grounding bond with others. Both Emma and Hasan are hemmed in. The latter is hopeful about his big project. But the city’s ruthlessness soon rams into him. To leap at salvation of some kind is exposed bleakly, rudely as a sorry quest. The promise of a renewed future stays suspended.
Mahde Hasan bends the film into a visually stunning drama. Most of the undercurrents are riven into Oronnok Prithibi’s sound design, which unleash vividly seething sensations in both crucial moments, like a heightened, shocked discovery, and regular, mundane rhythms. “Sand City” splays grimness into a vacuum that nags both its characters. Each yearns and jostles with the city’s grind. How much will they yield to it? They have to perennially deal with the interplay between resignation and resistance.
The latter is most terrifying, but the final choice, they hope, will make a difference. The director stitches in jolting, disquieting revelations, aided by Prithibi’s piercing, bracing sound design. The clang of construction noise, as the city expands unto itself in all its congestion, works as a constant reminder of the larger scale. A sliver of genuine human connection seems out of reach for both the characters. For Emma, it manifests through an uncanny intrusion. With defiant interruptions and daring ellipsis, Mahde Hasan twists “Sand City” into something evasively peculiar, singular, and unforgettable.
Sand City premiered at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival 2025.
Sand City (2025) Movie Links: IMDb
Entertainment
Denise Richards' husband, Aaron Phypers, files for divorce and wants alimony

It seems Denise Richards and husband Aaron Phypers are going their separate ways after six years of marriage.
Phypers filed his petition to divorce actor and “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Richards on Monday, The Times has confirmed. The businessman filed his petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court. He cites “irreconcilable differences” for the split and lists July 4 as the date of his separation from Richards.
A representative for Richards did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
“Wild Things” actor Richards, 54, tied the knot with Phypers, 49, in 2018. They do not share children, but Richards has two adult daughters with ex-husband Charlie Sheen. She and the “Two and a Half Men” actor were married from 2002 to 2006. Richards is also the mother to a teenage daughter whom she adopted as an infant.
Phypers was previously married to “Desperate Housewives” star Nicollette Sheridan from 2015 to 2018.
Phypers is reportedly seeking spousal support from his now-estranged wife, according to court documents reviewed by The Times. In his declaration, Phypers says he has made no income since closing down a business last year and estimates Richards makes more than $250,000 a month from several business ventures including brand deals, TV and OnlyFans content. Phypers has asked to keep their assets and debts as separate property, including his power tools, motorcycle and sports car, legal documents show.
The couple began their relationship in 2017 and married a little more than a year later in a private ceremony in Malibu. They wed in September 2018, a month after Phypers finalized his divorce from Sheridan.
Though Richards has not publicly commented on Phypers’ decision to file, she made her thoughts on divorce pretty clear earlier this year. In the debut episode of her Peacock series “Denise Richards & Her Wild Things,” Richards said in a confessional interview, “I’m never getting divorced again. Even if we hate each other, I’m not gonna f— get divorced.”
Phypers responded: “No, we’ll just have different homes or something. But we’re not gonna hate each other.”
Movie Reviews
Sovereign (2025) – Movie Review

Sovereign, 2025.
Written and Directed by Christian Swegal.
Starring Nick Offerman, Jacob Tremblay, Dennis Quaid, Martha Plimpton, Nancy Travis, Thomas Mann, Jade Fernandez, Jobie James, Eric Parkinson, Barry Clifton, John Trejo, Faron Ledbetter, Buddy Campbell, Brandon Stewart, Tommy Kramer, Ruby Wolf, Jared Carter, Jennifer Nesbitt-Eck, Mike L. Thomas, Cheryl Vanwinkle, William Sherman, Astrid Allen, and Alonso Rappa.
SYNOPSIS:
A father and son who identify as Sovereign Citizens, a group of anti-government extremists, find themselves in a standoff with a chief of police that sets off a manhunt.
One of the most impressive feats to pull off in movies is crafting a character so odd yet seemingly fighting for justice that it’s tough to pinpoint what to make of them. In writer/director Christian Swegal’s narrative feature debut Sovereign (inspired by true events), Jerry Kane (Nick Offerman) is an anti-establishment “sovereign citizen” and not only defying banks and other institutions that don’t necessarily always play fair, but also traveling and giving seminars to others on how to navigate such predatory situations when the average persons backs are against the wall. To one woman, he advises not only to be aware of what money she does owe a bank, but also the money she has no obligation to pay. Of course, Jerry also comes across as a quack high on his own supply, potentially spouting off gibberish tactics that won’t stand up, and taking advantage of these people without even realizing it, since his mind is so uncomfortably obsessed with pushing back against the government.
Then there is Jerry’s unorthodox relationship with his homeschooled teenage son Joe (Room breakout Jacob Tremblay, desperately in need of a script that gives him a well-adjusted and normal home life, albeit giving another outstanding performance rich in maturity and conflicted complexity beyond his years), which comes with a dynamic bordering on indoctrination more than affection. There is still reason to believe Jerry loves his son, but like in most everything else about his life, he can’t see the forest for the trees; he is lost, hopelessly misguided, and spiraling further into mental instability with each subsequent incident that threatens his homeownership and whatever delusional definition of freedom he has made up in his head. He is also a gun nut, and, well, not the kind of guy that should be walking into stores and easily obtaining more.
By all means, this is not a parent who should have guardianship, as they disallow Joe from enrolling in public high school or even having friends his age. Still, there is also something oddly alluring about his staunch, unwavering position to break free from any government rules. Naturally, his war is on a collision course with disaster, but the film wisely sidesteps portraying Jerry as a villain. It’s also apparent that Jerry has unresolved baggage stemming from his father, citing a moment where his dad showed a bit of cowardice, shrugging his questioning off with a disgruntled “forget it” rather than explaining what he meant by insisting that teachers “lie” and are more concerned with guiding students into obeying the system.
At one point, this is flipped on its head, with Joe, justifiably frustrated with his lack of a normal life (and not even able to talk to a local girl he is crushing on, which in itself starts to transition into borderline parasocial stalking since he has no reliable figure to look to for advice), becomes aware that most of what Jerry says is nonsense, uttering under his breath “forget it” and walking away. It visibly triggers a shell-shocked frustration within Jerry that is arguably among Nick Offerman’s finest performances as an actor (although admittedly, there are a few scenes that could have benefited from reshoots, unintentionally evoking his comedic side).
However, deep down, there is an internal pull that keeps Joe doing anything for his father, including bailing him out of life-threatening danger. It’s also the complexity and the inability to entirely cut himself off from his father’s crazed nonsense, perpetually at a fork in the road, that gives Sovereign its engrossingly uncomfortable suspense. Meanwhile, the presence of Police Chief John Bouchart (Dennis Quaid) provides a window into the relationship between him and his son, Adam (Thomas Mann), creating a striking juxtaposition with Jerry and Joe. Adam is undergoing training to be a police officer, but from what is observed, it also appears to be another form of indoctrination, as if John will be disappointed if he lacks the intestinal fortitude for the job.
These fathers are two sides of the same coin, pushing and motivating their children with end goals that, similarly, also come from two sides of the same coin; it’s an unsettling story about freedom, control, and power, blurring the lines between all three. And whereas Jerry could be considered more loving of the two fathers, it’s John who has the tough-love persona, suggesting that Adam not pick up his newborn when the baby is crying, as doing so will instill, from an early age, a sense of spoiled entitlement.
With cinematography that matches the tone of isolation and a fittingly haunting score, perfect for the tragically harrowing story that unfolds, Sovereign is a slow-burn offering much to ponder beneath what could be considered familiar thriller material. It boils over into moments that are both upsetting and emotionally taxing, the latter including a callback ending that’s earned and drives home the thematic purpose and resonance. There should be much free-thinking done on Sovereign, as this is less about the plot itself and more about the fully formed, multidimensional characters worth turning over in one’s head repeatedly.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
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