Entertainment
With the success of her first film, 'Past Lives,' Celine Song has found her future
One night in 2018, at a bar in the East Village, Celine Song fell through a career-altering hole in the space-time continuum.
Song, the director and Oscar-nominated screenwriter of the bittersweet romance “Past Lives,” was having drinks with her husband, playwright and novelist Justin Kuritzkes, and her childhood sweetheart, who had traveled from South Korea to New York to see her. As she sat between them, translating between English and Korean as best she could, she realized she was really doing far more than that.
“I was actually translating between two parts of my own self,” Song said in a recent video interview from her Manhattan home. “What’s amazing is that each part was a mystery to the other. In that moment I was encapsulating my past, present and future at once, and it felt like my whole life was collapsing. There was a new revelation about what it is like to be living through such vast amounts of time and space and of leaving parts of ourselves behind as we move.”
Teo Yoo and Greta Lee star as reunited childhood friends in “Past Lives.”
(Twenty Years Rights)
This sensation is at the heart of Song’s debut film, which was also nominated for best picture after becoming a critical darling and word-of-mouth sensation coming out of last year’s Sundance Film Festival. “Past Lives” tells the story of Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo), once mutually infatuated 12-year-olds in South Korea, now trying to reconnect as 30-somethings. Like Song, Nora immigrated to Canada as an adolescent, and then to New York, and became a playwright. Hae Sung stayed in Seoul and became an engineer. Skipping forward in two 12-year intervals, the film asks questions about love, time and geographic barriers that strike a nerve in all manner of viewers. (It also includes a re-creation of that mind-expanding night at the bar.)
In conversation, Song comes across as an openhearted philosopher, happy to talk matters of the heart and the mind and grateful to have come out of the filmmaking gate with such a surge. It was a daunting process, she says, for which her 10 years as a New York playwright helped her prepare.
“The list of things that I didn’t know was unbelievably long,” she says of filmmaking. “The list of things that I did know was one thing, which is what was in the script — story, character, how I see things, what I think will work. Then every day the list of things that I don’t know is shrinking, and then the list of things that I do know starts to grow. I had my script, which is really my blueprint. That’s my little book that I’m walking around like, ‘OK, this is going to conquer everything. This is going to slay the dragon.’ That’s what it felt like.”
Song infuses “Past Lives” with an effortless bilingualism, switching between Korean and English throughout the film, and eventually including both in the same scenes. She credits the success of “Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho’s 2019 Korean social satire that took home the Oscar for best picture, for the fact that nobody in the “Past Lives” production process raised alarms about her film’s use of subtitles.
The language gap is a central element of the film, representing both Nora’s assimilation into American culture — the adult Hae Sung chides her for her rusty Korean — and the tension between Hae Sung and Nora’s American husband (John Magaro), who speak each other’s languages tentatively but respectfully when they first meet. Magaro actually speaks some Korean (his wife is Korean American), but Song wanted him to play that down for the character; similarly, Yoo, who was born and raised in Germany and studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, speaks English far more proficiently than the man he plays.
But for Song, the idea goes far beyond verbal comprehension.
Greta Lee and Teo Yoo star in “Past Lives.”
(Jon Pack / A24)
“In the final section of the film, Nora is so deep in the culture of being a New York artist, and Hae Sung is so deep in the culture of his own work life,” she says. “Even though they share the culture of Korean-ness, there’s a level in which they actually are not even a part of the same culture anymore. That complexity is a fundamental part of this story, and it always was, because it was written by me, who is every day dealing with this contradiction of being many things at once.”
Now Song has one more piece of identity to work with: Oscar-nominated filmmaker. Coming relatively late to the game, she shows an instinctive touch for the form and a sense of visual grammar you would expect from someone who’s been doing this for years.
Fortunately, she plans on sticking around.
“It was a complete revelation,” she says. “Every day you’re showing up, learning something new. I’ve never experienced something so exhilarating. I’m going to keep making movies until I die.”
Entertainment
Lawsuit claims Riley Keough is biological parent of John Travolta and Kelly Preston’s youngest child
New documents in a lawsuit against Priscilla Presley’s son include claims that Elvis Presley’s granddaughter Riley Keough is the biological parent of John Travolta and the late Kelly Preston’s youngest child, Benjamin.
Priscilla Presley’s former business partner Brigitte Kruse and associate Kevin Fialko filed an amended complaint against Navarone Garcia in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday. Included in the allegations are claims that the “Daisy Jones & the Six” actor, daughter of the late Lisa Marie Presley, gave her eggs to Travolta and Preston in exchange for “an old Jaguar” and “between $10,000 – $20,000.”
According to the complaint, “the entire Presley family clamored for control of the estate and for pay-outs” immediately after Lisa Marie Presley’s death in 2023. Among those who allegedly approached Kruse was Lisa Marie’s ex-husband Michael Lockwood, with whom she shared twin daughters Harper and Finley Lockwood. Kruse and Fialko were allegedly tasked with acting as negotiators and mediators amid the “family chaos.”
The document details how Lockwood said Travolta and Preston had “previously used Lisa Marie’s eggs to get pregnant” because Preston “had been unable to bear her own children.” It was unclear whether Presley’s eggs produced a child. Preston died in 2020 at age 57 after a two-year battle with breast cancer.
Lockwood also allegedly said the couple had approached the Presley family again “in or around 2010” but Travolta “no longer wanted to use Lisa Marie’s eggs because they did not want ‘eggs with heroin’ on them.” According to the filing, a deal was “orchestrated” in which “Riley Keough gave her eggs to Travolta so that Kelly could give birth to their son, Ben Travolta” and “Riley was given an old Jaguar and paid between $10,000 – $20,000 for the deal.”
Included in the filing is an image of a handwritten note that features the words “Kelly Preston carried baby,” “medical bills paid” and “old Jaguar 1990s-ish,” as well as a screenshot of messages presumably exchanged with Priscilla Presley that describe Ben Travolta as her “beautiful great-grandson.”
Lockwood further allegedly claimed that “the entire arrangement required a ‘sign off’ from the Church of Scientology, which heavily involved Priscilla’s oversight.” According to the document, Lockwood “demanded” the information be used “to orchestrate a settlement for him and his daughters,” whom he said were “financially destitute.”
Kruse and Fialko’s amended complaint against Garcia alleges that he “threw a tantrum, demanding [they] keep Riley’s and Travolta’s son out of the press, since Priscilla [had] promised him that he would be the only male musician in the family and would now be the ‘king.’” The document also claims “Priscilla’s love for Navarone was, and always has been, incestuous.”
The filing is the latest in the legal feud involving Presley and her former business partner. Presley previously filed a lawsuit against Kruse and her associates alleging fraud and elder abuse. Kruse and Fialko, meanwhile, are suing Presley for fraud and breach of contract.
“After losing motion after motion in this case, and unsuccessfully seeking to have Presley’s counsel of record, Marty Singer, disqualified from representing her in this matter, Brigitte Kruse, Kevin Fialko, and their co-conspirators have demonstrated that there is no bar too low, no ethical line that they are unwilling to cross in an effort to cause further pain to Priscilla Presley and her family,” Presley’s attorneys Singer and Wayne Harman said in a statement to TMZ.
“In a completely improper effort to exert undue pressure on Presley to retract her legitimate, truthful claims, Kruse and her co-conspirators have also sued Presley’s son, cousin, and assistant,” the statement continued. “These recent outrageous allegations have absolutely nothing to do with the claims in this case. The conduct of Kruse, Fialko, and their new lawyers (they are on their fourth set of attorneys) is shameful, and it absolutely will be addressed in court.”
Representatives for Keough did not respond immediately Thursday to The Times’ request for comment.
Movie Reviews
Movie Review: Paul Feig’s ‘The Housemaid’ is a twisty horror-thriller with nudity and empowerment – Sentinel Colorado
Santa left us a present this holiday season and it is exactly what we didn’t know we needed: A twisty, psychological horror-thriller with nudity that’s all wrapped up in an empowerment message.
“The Housemaid” is Paul Feig’s delicious, satirical look at the secret depravity of the ultra-rich, but it’s so well constructed that’s it’s not clear who’s naughty or nice. Halfway through, the movie zigs and everything you expected zags.
It’s almost impossible to thread the line between self-winking campy — “That’s a lot of bacon. Are you trying to kill us?” — and carving someone’s stomach with a broken piece of fine china, yet Feig and screenwriter Rebecca Sonnenshine do.
Sydney Sweeney stars as a down-on-her luck Millie Calloway, a gal with a troubled past living out of her car who answers an ad for a live-in housekeeper in a tony suburb of New York City. Her resume is fraudulent, as are her references.
Somehow, the madam of the mansion, Nina Winchester played with frosty excellence by Amanda Seyfried in pearls and creamy knits, takes a shine to this young soul. “I have a really good feeling about this, Millie,” she says in that perky, slightly crazed clipped way that Seyfried always slays with. “This is going to be fun, Millie.”
Maybe not for Millie, but definitely for us. The young housekeeper gets her own room in the attic — weird that it closes with a deadbolt from the outside, but no matter — and we’re off. Mille gets a smartphone with the family’s credit card preloaded and a key for that deadbolt. “What kind of monsters are we?” asks Nina. Indeed.
The next day, the house is a mess when the housekeeper comes down and Seyfried is in a wide-eyed, crashing-plates, full-on psychotic rage. The sweet, supportive woman we met the day before is gone. But her hunky husband (Brandon Sklenar) is helpful and apologetic. And smoldering. Uh-oh. Did we mention he’s hunky?
If at first we understand that the housekeeper is being a little manipulative — lying to get the job, for instance, or wearing glasses to seem more serious — we soon realize that all kinds of gaslighting games are being played behind these gates, and they’re much more impactful.
Based on Freida McFadden’s novel, “The Housemaid” rides waves of manipulation and then turns the tables on what we think we’ve just seen, looking at male-female power structures and how privilege can trap people without it.
The film is as good looking as the actors, with nifty touches like having the main house spare, well-lit and bright, while the husband’s private screening room in the basement is done in a hellish red. There are little jokes throughout, like the husband and the housemaid bonding over old episodes of “Family Feud,” with the name saying it all.
Feig and his team also have fun with horror movie conventions, like having a silent, foreboding groundskeeper, adding a creepy dollhouse and placing lightning and thunder during a pivotal scene. They surround the mansion with fussy, aristocratic PTA moms who have tea parties and say things like “You know what yoga means to me.”
Feig’s fascinating combination of gore, torture and hot sex ends happily, capped off with Taylor Swift’s perfectly conjured “I Did Something Bad” playing over the end credits. Not at all: This naughty movie is definitely on the nice list.
“The Housemaid,” a Lionsgate release that’s in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for strong bloody violence, gore, language, sexuality/nudity and drug use. Running time: 131 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
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Entertainment
How Southern California punk veterans built 84 Days’ politically charged debut album
When playing in a legendary South Bay punk band is your day job, most people likely wouldn’t have too many musical side projects. But most people aren’t Pennywise bassist Randy Bradbury.
Having frequently kept the door open for different bands and genres of music, Bradbury’s newest project is the Huntington Beach-based 84 Days. The trio features the veteran songwriter on guitar and lead vocals, Grammy-winning rock producer Cameron Webb on bass and No Doubt’s Adrian Young on drums (at least for the self-titled debut album) — and while 84 Days’ sound and tempo differs significantly from Pennywise, it’s still very much a punk-leaning rock band.
When asked about the name, Bradbury says, “The term ’84 Days’ originally started as an inside joke back when I was a teenager, but watching the world change so much it seems to be a fitting description for how things have become … like something I read in a book once. And now we’re in it.”
Though it may seem odd to launch a new band after more than a collective century of experience in the music industry, Bradbury and Webb agree that 84 Days “sounded like too much fun” to not pursue. And if their debut show at DiPiazza’s in Long Beach back in November was anything to go off of, it’ll be a good time for fans too.
“I think the Randy Bradbury name is bigger than you would think,” Webb says via Zoom. “People obviously relate him to Pennywise, but he’s an individual that a lot of people like — especially other musicians. Everyone knows him and thinks he’s great, so people have just been really supportive of everything.”
“I was just waiting to see what the reaction to the songs would be,” Bradbury adds. “I’d say it’s been very positive so far, so I think we’ll have Green Day opening for us in about a year.”
Jokes about the new band’s popularity aside, Bradbury and Webb’s years in the industry have given 84 Days the kind of platform and connections most bands can only dream of. Case in point, when Young was unable to continue with his drumming duties for the band’s first live shows, Bradbury was able to recruit his friend Erik “Smelly” Sandin from NOFX to fill in for the time being.
“We’ve both been in the Southern California music scene for decades, so I know a lot of people and made a lot of friends,” Bradbury says. “I’ve kept note of who are the players I look up to and would love to play with; as soon as I found out Adrian wasn’t going to play with us, I knew I was going to ask [Sandin].”
“We’re friends with these people because I work with them or Randy tours with them, so we cross paths all the time in the studio or at shows,” Webb says. “Everyone’s been really supportive of me, who doesn’t do it every day. No one’s like ‘You shouldn’t be doing that.’ They’re like, ‘I can’t wait to see this’ or ‘You’re going to kill it.’ So it does make me feel good to see the community be excited for us to play a show.”
But as Bradbury is quick to point out, all of those connections are “contingent on if you’re doing something interesting” and if the music itself is actually good. Thankfully, between Bradbury’s elite writing chops and Webb’s tastemaking ability (as usually seen behind the scenes on other bands’ albums), 84 Days’ self-titled debut isn’t just a fun punk jaunt but a deep look into how the songwriter views the current state of society and the world — including topics that wouldn’t exactly fit ahead of “Bro Hymn” in a Pennywise setlist.
Even though 84 Days may have been founded around the idea of being a “fun” project for its members, none of them is interested in sticking with it if the band itself is less than stellar. While Bradbury is used to performing for a living, the looming threat of live shows encouraged Webb to genuinely practice and tighten his bass skills, having primarily only picked one up previously to help in the studio from time to time.
“I grab instruments a lot, but now I had to learn all these songs and rehearse them,” Webb says. “I’ve got to know my s— and play them as well as the pros that do it every single day. I want us to be a killer band, so we’re going to be a killer band. That just means it’s time to stop goofing around. Instead of going home and watching TV, I’m practicing. I’m learning parts. I’m working on riffs. I’m doing all of that. It’s super fun because Randy makes it a great experience. We’re having a good time doing it and everything’s real positive, so we’re going to keep doing it.”
Just a few shows and one album into their career, it’s too early to tell what the ceiling is for 84 Days. The duo could see it continuing to just play bars and small venues or growing into something much larger. In fact, Bradbury laughs at the idea of some of the bands he knows opening for them — as long as it’s not his new band upstaging Pennywise.
“I think that that tour would end with a lot of bruises on my body and a lot of smashed guitars and basses.”
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