News Analysis India

Tag: Amy poehler

  • Netflix sets premiere date for ‘Russian Doll’ season 2

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: The second season of the American comedy-drama series “Russian Doll” will arrive on Netflix on April 20, the streamer has announced.

    Lead star Natasha Lyonne also returns as the showrunner and executive producer, reported Deadline.

    In the show, Lyonne plays Nadia Vulvokov, a game developer who repeatedly dies and relives the same night in an ongoing time loop and tries to solve it, leading to her finding Alan Zaveri (Charlie Barnett) in the same situation.

    The upcoming installment is set four years after Nadia and Alan escaped mortality’s time loop together.

    The Emmy-winning series, co-created by Amy Poehler and Leslye Headland, will continue to explore existential thematics through an often humorous and sci-fi lens.

    Alex Buono, Poehler, Headland, Lilly Burns, Tony Hernandez, Dave Becky, Kate Arend, Regina Corrado, and Allison Silverman also executive produce “Russian Doll”.

    The critically acclaimed series is also produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. The first season of the show premiered on February 1, 2019.

  • Amy Poehler’s high-school feminist drama ‘Moxie’ checks all the boxes

    Express News Service
    March is usually a chaotic month for women, one in which the world, around Women’s Day, seems to awaken from its slumber to acknowledge once again that women exist. Mostly, it is for our purchasing power, with a barrage of campaigns targeting women with money. For this single day, women are celebrated, and their problems, recognized. Social media gets a decorative makeover.  And then, we go back to regular programming. We are expected to keep our heads low and shrink away from visibility. Rape threats and harassment occur because we are ‘asking for it’. When we are assertive, we are ‘bossy’; when we ask questions, we are being ‘difficult’.

    Being dubbed ‘difficult’ or a ‘killjoy’, is a rite of passage, mine anyway, to discovering feminism. I struggled with it and continue to fight it. It is the easiest way to make one feel like they don’t deserve the space they occupy. This emotional scuffle is central to Amy Poehler’s high-school feminist drama Moxie, adapted to the screen from the book of the same name. It makes sense that the story is set in high school because, for a lot of us, it is when we discover the double standards. We realise our bodies are being treated differently, that we have different rules and are being censored, that we are held accountable for things we aren’t responsible for.

    One of the girls in this film gets sent home for wearing a tank top. Girl students are ranked from ‘most bangable’ to ‘best rack’, and no one, not even the girls, bats an eyelid. The school administration shrugs it off as ‘social media stuff’. When Lucy (Alycia Pascual-Peña), a new student at Rockport, gets harassed by the ‘popular football captain’ Mitchell Wilson, the school principal asks her to ‘sort it out’.

    Moxie does have a ‘been-there done-that’ feeling, but the energy is infectious (the word, Moxie, means courage and energy). Vivian starts Moxie, a feminist club, after being inspired by the tenacity of her new black friend, Lucy. She then discovers about her mom’s tryst with protests and feminism. And like we all do at some point, she wonders how things are still the same.

    What I loved about Moxie is that it tries to be intersectional: even though Vivian starts the group, it is Lucy who pushes the idea forward and makes it formidable. There’s a lovely conversation between Vivian and Claudia, her Asian best friend, about how different they are, and how the latter’s race makes it harder for her to take the risks Vivian is able to. There’s also a differently-abled person who does her part for the cause, like just another person. It reminded me of the utility of differently-abled characters being shown as normal supporting characters, without focus drawn towards why they are different. If that isn’t #inclusivity…

    Moxie also checks another box by arguing that feminism isn’t just for women. Instead of glamorizing the conventionally attractive Mitchell, the film roots for the more sensitive Seth who doesn’t think twice before supporting the girls. In the real world, he would be called a ‘simp’, or ‘not man enough’. But that is patriarchy’s biggest achievement, isn’t it? To turn sensitivity, inclusivity, and humanity into something that needs to be mocked.

    In a teenage drama, the scene of an emotional breakdown is usual. But Vivian’s breakdown feels infinitely personal in Moxie. There’s a lot of rage and angst a woman feels when she begins to understand the ways of patriarchy. You begin to look at the world differently, and it makes you question everything. And boy, can it get exhausting to be angry all the time… All the pent-up frustration can occasionally gather to lash out at even those who mean well. As you grow up though, you learn to simmer, not boil. It is all part of owning the space we occupy, without budging and slinking into the darkness. And we are allowed our mistakes too. Isn’t it better to try with honesty and err, than to not do anything?

    Moxie has no room for subtlety. It is loud and relentless, and the messaging is on the nose. And why not, because it’s 2021 and yet, women continue to get asked sexist questions. Their make-up costs come for criticism, not their work. So, there is a need to be loud, to claim the space we rightfully own. We deserve a seat at the table too, and not just for one day. If that is being ‘difficult’, then so be it.

  • The glam was back at the 2021 Golden Globes, albeit at a distance

    By Associated Press
    NEW YORK: Glam was back for the Golden Globes virtual, bicoastal awards night Sunday as nominees Zoomed in from around the world and, for Leslie Odom Jr., from his front porch in Los Angeles not far from the action in Beverly Hills.

    And they were ready, style wise, as the Globes split hosts, with Amy Poehler at the Beverly Hilton and Tina Fey at the Rainbow Room in New York.

    There was nary a pair of sweats in sight. Jason Sudeikis was a glam outlier in a rainbow tie-dye hoodie from his sister’s clothing line as he picked up an award remotely, saying : “Wow, do I talk now?”

    The sweatshirt, which retails for $110, whipped up buzz on social media, prompting Fey to joke after Sudeikis accepted his award: “If anybody wants to know where they can get Jason Sudeikis’ hoodie, go to nbc.com/globesfashion.” The page, please note, doesn’t exist.

    Backstage after the show, Sudeikis told reporters he owns a multitude of hoodies but chose the one emblazoned with “Forward” on the front and “Listen + Lead” on the back as fitting for the unusual night.

    ALSO READ: ‘Schitt’s Creek’ wins Golden Globe for Best TV Comedy Series

    “When people you care about do cool interesting things you should support them,” he said.

    Jodie Foster won wearing a black-and-white silk pajama set from Prada, her dog Ziggy in a bandana to match and her wife by her side.

    During a Zoom session with reporters after the show, a giddy Foster stuck out a bare foot showing she went shoeless to collect her award and said: “This is the best Globes ever! To be able to be home just felt really real. It didn’t feel like it was filled with so much artifice.”

    Regina King’s dog snoozed in the background before the show as she showed off her Louis Vuitton gown in silver and black — and Amanda Seyfried previewed a springy, coral Oscar de la Renta with floral adornment, echoing many stars who said they wanted to bring a little joy.

    “I’ve got my son, who is 5 months old, laying against a pillow in a tux,” Seyfried said.

    Cynthia Erivo went for neon green Valentino to present in person, and Kaley Cuoco munched pizza in a de la Renta design. Gillian Anderson, alone in Prague, wore a green gown and Julia Garner a two-tone Prada black and white look. She didn’t forget the lipstick, a deep red.

    Laverne Cox, in a red, embellished cape-sleeve gown, did something even more unusual: She stood up to chat with reporters on E! and NBC via Zoom before the show.

    “I wanted to feel festive and go for it,” she told NBC. “It’s really amazing about this whole Zoom world. People can do whatever they want.”

    That meant Chanel for Shira Haas in Los Angeles, and custom Gucci for Elle Fanning in London.

    “It’s nice to have something to celebrate and get dressed up for, and actually put on a dress to walk from my living room to my kitchen,” Fanning told E!. “I thought, why not?”

    The jewels flowed along with the gowns, which included a stunning, bright green sparkler for Anya Taylor-Joy by Dior Couture with a matching coat.

    Fey and Poehler, both dressed in black to open the show, joked about the unusual set up and the distance between them, with Fey pretending to stroke Poehler’s hair through their screens. The two, with numerous fashion changes, were joined by an array of presenters as winners accepted via Zoom, with an early glitch when winner Daniel Kaluuya’s audio went silent at first, then perked up so he could speak.

    King’s dog wasn’t the only surprise star. Sarah Paulson held her little black pooch on screen and Emma Corrin’s fluffy white cat grabbed a moment for itself.

    And there were kids, too. Mark Ruffalo’s two wandered behind him as he accepted an award. Aaron Sorkin was joined by a bevy of women on hand for his win. Lee Isaac Chung, director of “Minari,” hugged his small daughter tight as he accepted an award, his dressed-up offspring squeezing back with: “I prayed, I prayed, I prayed.”

    Peter Morgan, creator of “The Crown,” was a winner from his “tragic little office,” calling the pre-pandemic Globes “always the most fun awards show.”

    Nominees bantered from screen to screen, shouting out their hellos to each other.

    On stage and for their small, in-person — and masked — audiences, production designer Brian Stonestreet pivoted like never before when the Globes decided to go bicoastal earlier in February, just days before show time.

    The awards veteran, who has designed for the Grammys, the Billboards, the Academy of Country Music and others, told The Associated Press ahead of the Globes’ big night that he gained massive horizontal real estate for the screen-centric show with the shrinking of tables in size and number.

    ALSO READ | Golden Globes 2021: Sacha Baron Cohen takes dig at Giuliani, Trump during acceptance speech

    “Funnily enough, it gave me a little more freedom in terms of scenery,” he said of the Beverly Hilton, while incorporating the Rainbow Room’s massive center chandelier adorned with stars and orbs in New York.

    He used the extra space (about 36 guests in New York and 42 in Beverly Hills) to expand screen presence and curvier, more dramatic, staircases. On the floor, he placed trophies on pedestals among his two- and three-person cocktail tables, rather than the usual 6-foot round tables seating 10 to 12 people for a total of more than 1,000.

    Instead of star-studded crowds crammed into the Hilton’s ballroom, the Globes hosted frontline and essential workers, along with food bank workers from the show’s philanthropic partnership with Feeding America.

    Lydia Marks, a New York set decorator, told The Associated Press the evening’s technical challenges were many. With so many remote locations and two live sets, the few glitches should be forgiven, she said.

    “While it looks easy, the direction needs to remain responsive in a way that is more like a live sporting event than an awards show,” Marks said. “I think it looks pretty seamless and controlled for the amount of feeds they are working with.”