When it premiered back in 2021, “The White Lotus” was a sharp class satire aimed at skewering high-end tourism and the elite one-percenters willing to pay $9,000 a night to relax. Written and directed by Mike White, the darkly comic mystery followed the entitled guests and beleaguered employees at a luxurious Maui hotel over the course of an increasingly tense week.
A destination that was supposed to be a refuge from the world’s problems instead became a microcosm for them, a place where the class divide and legacy of American imperialism were on vivid display. “The White Lotus,” which was filmed its first season on location at the Four Seasons in Maui, somehow made an exclusive resort seem like a toxic pressure cooker. Working there was not just soul-crushing, it could even kill you.
Season 2, a bedroom farce set at a gorgeous beachfront resort in Sicily, looked at sex, money and power. Both installments lampooned the wealthy and depicted people dying under tragic circumstances in picturesque locations. And perhaps counterintuitively, both seasons led to a tourism boom in the filming locations. Somehow, a show that sharply critiqued luxury travel also functioned as a glossy advertisement for it.
This contradiction is even more pronounced in Season 3 of “The White Lotus,” which premiered on HBO last month. Set on the island of Koh Samui in Thailand, the latest installment follows tradition by opening with a dead body. But it also explores new themes, including the clash between Western materialism and Eastern spirituality, particularly Buddhism. This season’s fictional White Lotus is known for its wellness program. Guests are encouraged to put away their phones for the duration of their stay and avail themselves of offerings like yoga, meditation and massage.
Sam Nivola, Sarah Catherine Hook and Patrick Schwarzenegger in “The White Lotus.” Characters are encouraged to put away their phones for the week.
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(Fabio Lovino / HBO)
Hollywood movies and TV shows tend to focus on the more decadent aspects of Thai culture — from the all-night Full Moon Party to sex tourism in Bangkok. The team behind “The White Lotus” wanted to showcase other sides of the country.
“Obviously that exists here, but it doesn’t define Thai culture,” executive producer David Bernad said in a phone interview last month from Bangkok, where the show was having a splashy local premiere attended by its cast, including Thai-born K-pop star Lalisa Manobal, a.k.a. Blackpink’s Lisa, who stars as a worker at the hotel. “What we attempted to do is depict Thailand in an authentic way — the beauty of the people and the culture — in a way that hopefully brings more positive interest back to Thailand.”
The season was made in partnership with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Four Seasons, which once again served as a filming location for the series. The government of Thailand also offered generous tax rebates to the production. HBO collaborated with a slew of brands to create an array of “White Lotus”-inspired products, including $98 scented candles, $48 sunscreen, $325 overnight bags, $725 dresses and $4.50 flavored coffee creamers. Despite its often dark themes and cynical take on humanity, the show clearly has become an aspirational marketing vehicle for brands across the spectrum. Why, exactly, is a show about terrible people behaving badly (and dying) so appealing to these companies?
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“I genuinely don’t know the answer. It’s a very weird thing,” Bernad said. “It’s surreal, knowing that the original construction of the show was so intimate and small. For me, it still feels strange that anyone is paying attention.”
Given what a pop culture juggernaut “The White Lotus” has become, it is easy to forget it was conceived as a stopgap — a show that could be made quickly and safely in a single, isolated location during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when HBO was in desperate need of fresh programming.
The original plan was to film in Australia, where strict lockdowns helped keep the pandemic in check. When that proved too difficult, Hawaii became the obvious choice. The setting offered stunning natural beauty but also rich themes to explore, particularly American colonialism and the plight of Native Hawaiians.
Similarly, Season 2 was almost set in France but wound up in Sicily after a scouting trip to Taormina, where a tour guide told them the legend behind the decorative moor’s head statues found in the region that became a motif in the series. “That was the kickoff to Mike wanting to write this bedroom farce season about sexual politics,” Bernad said.
Season 3 was always envisioned as an “exploration of Eastern versus Western philosophy,” Bernad said. But Plan A was to film in Japan, a country where they’d been keen to make something for years. Largely as a courtesy to HBO, White and Bernad also visited Thailand. (White had negative associations with Koh Samui in particular because he’d been sequestered on the island after getting eliminated from “The Amazing Race.”)
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Thai K-pop artist Lisa Manobal is one of the stars in “The White Lotus.” Season 3 of the show was always envisioned as an “exploration of Eastern versus Western philosophy.”
(Stefano Delia / HBO)
But ultimately they were charmed by the country and its people. White also was struck by a fit of inspiration when he came down with bronchitis while in the city of Chiang Mai. He was treated with potent steroids and “hallucinated the entire season,” Bernad said. “Honestly, the next day, we were scouting in the van, and he told me about his dream. It’s basically what we shot — his steroid-induced dream.”
Relocating the show to Thailand, where more than 90% of the population is Buddhist, “allowed us to explore Buddhism as a religion and a philosophy,” Bernad said. One of their creative goals was presenting a more nuanced version of Thai culture than is typical of Western media. “It’s usually like ‘The Hangover Part II,’ exploiting the darker side of Bangkok. But that’s not what we set out to do,” he said.
One of the characters this season, Piper Ratliff (Sarah Catherine Hook), is a religious studies major who has dragged her wealthy Southern family to Thailand so that she can interview a Buddhist monk for her thesis. Her spiritual curiosity is baffling to her family, who are skeptical of the many wellness offerings at the hotel.
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Koh Samui is “like detox island,” a place well-heeled tourists come to engage in practices they associate with Buddhism but are often a mishmash of different spiritual traditions, said Brooke Schedneck, a religious studies professor at Rhodes College whose research centers on Buddhism and religious tourism in Thailand. “Everyone coming off the plane [in Koh Samui] has their yoga mats,” she said. Places like the fictional White Lotus “draw on this idea of Thailand as a Buddhist place but [offer] wellness options that don’t necessarily connect to Buddhism.” (You’d never practice yoga in a Buddhist temple, for instance.)
“I think it’s really funny how … most of them are going to this wellness resort, and then they’re like, ‘I don’t want to do wellness. Why do I have to do this?’” Schedneck said of the hotel’s spoiled guests. ”It shows the individualistic, Western mindset of ‘I want to do whatever I want.’”
Yet the contradiction between East and West may not be as stark as one might assume. Some Westerners wrongly assume that because Buddhism is so prevalent in Thailand, it means people are less interested in material things. “The idea that Buddhism can encompass and encourage wealth is something that’s difficult for people to grasp,” Schedneck said.
For the Four Seasons, “The White Lotus” has been an undeniably powerful marketing tool — despite the death and dissolute behavior that goes on at the resorts in the series. The formal partnership, launched ahead of Season 3, means the company can use “White Lotus” IP and do branded activations, including poolside cabanas and viewing parties, at its resorts. The Four Seasons also recently announced a 20-day excursion in which guests will travel aboard the company’s private jet to the show’s three filming locations.
As part of its partnership with HBO and “The White Lotus,” the Four Seasons is featuring food and experiences inspired by the show. (Courtesy of Four Seasons Resorts)
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A poolside villa at the Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, featured in the show. (Courtesy of Four Seasons Resorts)
As part of its marketing research, the company conducts monthly surveys with high-net-worth individuals. The questionnaire now includes questions about “The White Lotus.” Of the millennials surveyed, 88% were aware of both brands, and 71% said they were highly likely to visit properties featured in the series.
“We know that if we pick the right show, and if the hotel has been featured in the right way, it has a huge business impact, and it’s the best PR we can do,” said Marc Speichert, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at the Four Seasons. He is already seeing a surge of online interest in the Koh Samui property: Visits to the site are up nearly 600% over the same time last year.
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“Everybody knows that this is obviously a fiction. The White Lotus isn’t the Four Seasons, per se. It just uses the hotel as a backdrop. The PR that we’re getting is about how incredible the hotel looks,” Speichert said. (He said that characters like Belinda, played by Natasha Rothwell in Seasons 1 and 3, and Valentina, played by Sabrina Impacciatore in Season 2, reflect the kind of people who do work at the Four Seasons.)
Previous seasons of “The White Lotus” led to a surge of visitors to Maui and Sicily. In Thailand, where tourism is a major industry, an influx would be welcome. The country saw 35 million foreign visitors last year, according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which aims to increase that number to 40 million in 2025.
“Thailand acting as the setting of ‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 allows us to reach a truly global audience, and offers a unique opportunity to showcase Thailand’s breathtaking landscapes, rich culinary scene, vibrant culture, natural beauty and, most importantly, the people and the warmth of Thai hospitality,” said Chompu Marusachot, director of the TAT’s New York office.
An increase in visitors would be an economic boon for Thailand, but there is also concern about the potential environmental impact more visitors would have on the country, particularly Koh Samui, which already struggles with a shortage of fresh water and an overflowing landfill, according to reports from local residents. Other Hollywood productions offer cautionary tales: “The Beach,” released in 2000, helped turn Maya Bay on the island of Ko Phi Phi Leh into a major tourist destination that received as many as 5,000 visitors a day. Because of the resulting pollution, an estimated 80% of the coral in the bay was destroyed. Authorities eventually closed the beach for several years and now restrict access. HBO did not provide comment when asked about the environmental impact of filming “The White Lotus” in Koh Samui.
But for Bernad, making the series in Thailand taught him the importance of treading lightly. “You have to come in with a humility that you’re not imposing your way of production,” he said. “You’re learning from the local crew and producers, and adjusting to their needs.” Good advice for producers — and tourists — alike.
A Wes Anderson film is always an uphill battle for me. I put that out in front here so you can understand where I’m coming from in this review. While I think his sensibilities lend quite nicely to animation, and I’ve really enjoyed both Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs, Anderson in live action is very much a mixed bag. I always keep an open mind, but his batting average with me is quite low. For every movie that works on me, like The Royal Tenenbaums or The Grand Budapest Hotel, there’s the rest, which leave me just shrugging my shoulders. Recently, Anderson made one film I didn’t care for at all in The French Dispatch (reviewed here), as well as one that nearly won me over in Asteroid City (reviewed here). Now, with The Phoenician Scheme, I was wondering whether he’d get me over the edge and back on his side, or fall back on the things that annoy me. Unfortunately, while there’s some solid humor on display, as well as the normal pristine visuals, it once again feels like watching him play with a diorama. I felt nothing, which means the flick has failed.
The Phoenician Scheme starts with a little bit of novelty from Anderson, which I appreciated, but before long, it’s the same old story. By the end, there’s a little diorama on the screen, which I don’t think is meant as a joke. As always, I can appreciate the singularity of his vision, as well as understand why it works on some folks, while getting absolutely zilch out of the experience. Aside from a few laughs and appreciation of craft, I sit stone-faced, which is a real shame.
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Ruthless and wealthy international businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro) seems to be pulling the world’s strings however he pleases. He also repeated survives assassination attempts, suggesting that not everyone is thrilled with how he’s in such control. After one such attempt, he decides that he wants an heir, not just to his company, but to his power as well. While he was married three times and has nine young sons living in a dorm near his estate, he opts for his daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton), who he sent to a convent as a young girl. Liesl is about to become a nun and has no use for any of this, least of all her father, suspecting him of murdering her mother, but the prospect of solving that mystery, perhaps gaining vengeance in the process, is too good to pass up. So, father and daughter are reunited, with the children’s tutor Bjorn (Michael Cera), who immediately has fallen in love with Liesl, along for the ride.
Zsa-zsa’s competitors have conspired against him, raising the price of an item that’s created a massive financial gap, so the trio must travel to each party in order to negotiate better terms, as well as other methods for filling in the gap. While that’s going on, some mild father and daughter bonding results. Of course, the world is filled with others, from the competition (played by Bryan Cranston and Tom Hanks, to name two), to family (Benedict Cumberbatch), to the leader of a band of radicals in Sergio (Richard Ayoade) who want a revolution. It all builds and builds, but where it ends up will potentially leave you simply shrugging, like I did.
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Benicio del Toro does some very nice work here, as does Michael Cera and Mia Threapleton. They’re best in show, which is helpful considering they’re the three characters we spend the most time with. Watching del Toro get a showcase is admittedly a pleasure, while Threapleton has some definite acting chops. As for Cera, it’s wild that he and Anderson have not worked together yet, as he’s a strong fit for that style. In terms of the smaller roles/cameos, Jeffrey Wright steals his scene, cementing my theory that he should be the lead of an Anderson project one day. The aforementioned Richard Ayoade, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Tom Hanks are all fine, though more or less just here because they enjoy Anderson. Supporting players here include stars like F. Murray Abraham, Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Amalric, Willem Dafoe, Hope Davis, Rupert Friend, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Scarlett Johansson, and Bill Murray, plus many more.
Wes Anderson directs a screenplay he wrote with frequent collaborator Roman Coppola, and while some of the surprising violence is pretty funny, the whole thing does feel a bit stale. The visuals from Bruno Delbonnel and the score by Alexandre Desplat are Anderson approved, so if you appreciate his work, you’ll like what they’re up to even more. The failing here, besides the general twee feeling that I get from Anderson, is that Anderson and Coppola clearly want you invested in the family story. Especially considering where it leaves off, the intent is undeniable. The thing is, it just never sucks you in. You’re kept at a distance, admiring the pretty images, but never really caring much about the machinations of the plot, which is wildly obtuse and overcomplicated, let alone the characters within.
The Phoenician Scheme left me cold, which is a shame considering its hopes to have an emotional core on display. All in all, this is Wes Anderson up to his old tricks. Whether that’s a promise or a threat is a matter of perspective. It’s clear where I fall on this, but your mileage may vary. If you’re a fan, prepare to enjoy some more of Anderson’s antics. If not, well…at least you know what to expect.
Mess with 50 Cent and he might come for your house — even if it takes him a few years to do it.
The rapper’s company Sire Spirits got the OK last week from a federal judge to seize the Connecticut home of former Sire executive Mitchell Green as partial payment toward a $7-million debt after a federal bankruptcy judge lifted an automatic stay that had prevented transfer of the property.
That took 50 Cent — real name Curtis Jackson III — and his legal team a little more than four years to accomplish, from when Green confessed to embezzling from his employer via a kickback scheme involving wholesalers until last week when the stay came off the house.
Branson Cognac and Chemin du Roi Champagne, both owned by Jackson, are managed through Sire Spirits. Green admitted in February 2020 that he had been raising prices and getting kickbacks from wholesalers that were labeled “agency fees,” the New York Post reported in 2022 and 2023.
Sire Spirits filed a request with the U.S. District Court, New York Southern, on Sept. 1, 2021, for confirmation of an arbitration agreement of a little less than $3.5 million in damages, according to court documents reviewed by The Times.
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Green had been embezzling from 2018 into 2020, when someone attempted to blackmail him over the $2.2 million in kickbacks, according to AllHipHop. At that point, Green told his employer what he’d done. Sire Spirits fired him and went into arbitration, which was settled in Sire’s favor. With attorney fees and legal costs rolled in, the November 2022 final judgment totaled around $6.3 million.
In March 2023, the disgraced businessman filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, which was still going on when Sire Spirits’ legal team secured a judgment lien against Green’s home in Westport, Conn., according to the court documents.
Green’s legal team had been providing court-ordered updates on the status of the property, always stating that Green was still in bankruptcy proceedings and therefore still had that automatic stay protecting his home. But last week, Sire’s attorneys asked the bankruptcy judge to get rid of the stay, saying that Green had no equity in the home due to the size of the judgment against him and therefore the property didn’t need to be part of his liquidation.
The judge agreed and lifted the stay.
The Connecticut home was appraised in late April at $1 million. That value will ultimately be credited against the judgment plus pre- and post-judgment interest, which now totals around $7 million.
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Although Jackson has mentioned Branson Cognac recently on social media, he hasn’t said anything about the legal victory. In the last week, the rapper has been enjoying himself by poking fun at Sean “Diddy” Combs, a.k.a. “Puffy,” who is mired in a federal sex trafficking and conspiracy trial, where prosecution witnesses have been testifying.
“Cut, CUT … Wait a minute PUFFY’s got a gun, I can’t believe this I don’t feel safe … LOL,” Jackson wrote Tuesday on social media, posting screen shots of new testimony from Combs’ former assistant Capricorn Clark. Clark told the court that Combs said something about guns that she took as him making a threat against Jackson.
“Oh my goodness itty bitty Diddy wants me Dead,” the entrepreneur and provocateur said in a follow-up post. “I have to lay low, I think I’m gonna hide out at the playoff game tonight LOL.” He posted a comical picture of himself looking completely freaked out.
The New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers should be tipping off right about now.
CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD is a horror comedy. Quinn, a female teenager, and her father, a doctor, move into Kettle Springs, a small town in the American heartland, far from their old Philadelphia home. They’re seeking a new start after Quinn’s mom died. The dying town once had a thriving factory with a giant sinister-looking clown as its mascot. Quinn quickly makes friends. After the annual Founders Day celebration, she sneaks out to attend a teenage party, where a horde of killer clowns emerge from the surrounding cornfield to kill everyone.
CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD features a smart script with surprising character depth, plenty of twists, darkly funny lines, and a positive father-daughter relationship. The filmmakers assemble an appealing young cast with Katie Douglas as the lead, and a terrific Aaron Abrams as her father. The story moves like a freight train. However, it’s marred by a strong Romantic, politically correct, abhorrent worldview with a negative, politically correct view of Small Town America. CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD also has frequent foul language, graphic violence, and two teenage boys who resume a homosexual relationship.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:
Very strong Romantic, politically correct worldview with an Anti-American, politically correct view of small-town America (the villains turn out to be “strict” adults) and a developing homosexual relationship between two male teenagers (they kiss romantically near the end of the movie), but there’s a strong and positive father-daughter relationship;
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Foul Language:
At least 52 obscenities (including at least 35 “f” words), and one “I swear to G*d” profanity;
Violence:
Numerous graphic killings in extremely unique ways, with lots of blood showing and splattering, most kills cut away from the actual murderous act and leave it to the imagination, many are portrayed comically because they’re so outlandish, two people get impaled on pitchforks, two are decapitated, a girl is electro-shocked but not killed, a villain is smashed by a car, and his blood drenches the windshield, one teenage boy gets eviscerated with his intestines pulled out, a villain is stabbed in the neck by a person acting in self-defense, a father tries to kill his teenage son by hanging him;
Sex:
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A clothed teenage girl jumps on her teenage neighbor to his surprise and starts passionately kissing him and making it clear she wants intimate sex, but the guy stops her by admitting he’s actually a closeted homosexual, and he and another teenage male kiss romantically, and their relationship is affirmed by other people;
Nudity:
A teenage male is shirtless while doing bodybuildng exercises;
Alcohol Use:
Lots of teenagers drink alcohol at parties;
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Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:
Some teenagers are shown smoking marijuana; and,
Miscellaneous Immorality:
Two adult authority figures are revealed to be part of a group of murderous adults, and teenage girl sneaks out of her house to attend a teenage party.
CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD is a fast-moving, comical horror movie in the vein of the SCREAM movies, in which teenagers and a new doctor in a small rural town must fight a small group of people dressing up as clowns and brutally murdering the town’s most rebellious high school students. CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD features a smart script with some surprising character depth and a positive father-daughter relationship, but it’s marred by a strong Romantic, politically correct, abhorrent worldview with a negative portrayal of Small Town America, frequent foul language, graphic violence, and two major teenage male characters who begin to develop a homosexual relationship during the movie’s story.
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Teenager Quinn Maybrook (Katie Douglas) and her father Dr. Glen Maybrook (Aaron Abrams) move into the small town of Kettle Springs in the American heartland, far from their old home in Philadelphia. They’re seeking a new start after Quinn’s mom died from a drug overdose. Quinn hates the small town, but she’s trying to help her father and is soon to graduate high school and go away to attend college anyway.
Quinn quickly meets her neighbor, Rust, a muscular guy with extremely awkward social skills, who warns her to steer clear of their school’s most popular clique. However, through a comical misunderstanding with a harsh teacher, Quinn winds up sharing detention with Cole, a good-looking guy who’s also the son of the town’s richest man. They have an instant attraction, and Quinn finds herself hanging out with his popular crowd after all, while learning that the dying town used to have a thriving factory called Baypen that had a sinister-looking giant clown as its mascot.
The factory burned down years ago, but the clown still is a menacing presence in the town. In fact, as shown in the movie’s opening sequence, the clown has been killing teenagers for decades. When Cole throws a big overnight teenage party after the town’s Founders Day celebration, Quinn sneaks out of her home and into the party – only to find a horde of killer clowns coming out of the surrounding cornfield and her friends fighting for their lives.
With her father also battling the killer clowns in order to save her, will the teenagers survive the night? Will she find new love with Cole? Can she and her father find a new start?
CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD has an amazingly positive portrayal of Quinn’s father, and the other entertaining filmmaking qualities mentioned above. Co-writer/director Eli Craig rose to cult popularity with his movie TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL, which had a similar mix of outrageous mirth and murder back in 2010. Here, he assembles an appealing young cast led by Katie Douglas as teenage lead Quinn, and a terrific Aaron Abrams performance as her dad. The script has plenty of twists and darkly funny lines, and the direction moves this movie forward like a freight train.
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Of course, a major problem with a slasher comedy like this is all the graphic, bloody violence. For example, people are impaled on pitchforks or lose their heads literally. That’s par for the course for this genre, and the regrettably frequent foul language is another concern.
The biggest problem with CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD, however, lies in its Romantic, politically correct worldview. For example, the movie has a Romantic worldview with a strongly negative view of small town American life. The killers are adults who hate the fact that some of the town’s teenagers don’t appreciate the town where they live. Also, two of the town’s best-known teenage guys “come out” and admit they’ve been homosexual lovers in the past. At the end of the movie, they restart their relationship with a passionate romantic kiss in front of other teenagers. This scene is unnecessarily pushing the homosexual agenda on impressionable teenage viewers.
Thus, media-wise viewers will avoid CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD. The movie is to be viewed only, if at all, by adult and older teenager with extreme caution.
