Tag: Joy

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Entertainment

Lisa Pleasure on ‘Memory,’ ‘Westworld’ and the Lure of Techno-Noir

Lisa Joy on ‘Reminiscence,’ ‘Westworld’ and the Lure of Techno-Noir

In her first writers’ room, Lisa Joy was politely pulled aside and told she didn’t need to work so hard. After all, born in New Jersey to British-Taiwanese parents, she was just a diversity hire.

The experience did little to stifle Joy’s ambitions or work ethic. In 2013, while expecting her first child, she wrote the screenplay for “Reminiscence,” a tech-noir thriller, and began developing the cerebral sci-fi “Westworld” for HBO with her husband, the “Memento” screenwriter Jonathan Nolan.

After three seasons of the show — the fourth is on the way — Joy stepped up to direct “Reminiscence” herself. In the film, debuting Aug. 20 on HBO Max and in theaters, Hugh Jackman plays a private investigator who taps into clients’ memories but becomes torturously fixated on his own. It’s a story about the pull of the past set in the future, in a Miami that has succumbed to rising waters and is populated by people who have turned nocturnal to escape the searing heat of the day.

In a recent video call, Joy spoke from her office in Los Angeles about being a perpetual outsider, current events imitating science fiction, and her partnership with Nolan. These are edited excerpts from our conversation.

You wrote “Reminiscence” while pregnant. It does feel like the work of someone at a turning point — looking back while looking ahead.

My main goal was to write something that entertained me while I was puking with morning sickness! Certainly it was a very dramatic moment. My husband was working a lot, I was at home with the dogs. I had a lot of time to contemplate my life. At the same time, my grandfather passed away. So there was loss as well as new beginnings. Sorting through his belongings was what really started my meditation on loss, and memory, and the way our memories start to fade.

Looking at the level of detail in your screenplay, I wonder if to some extent you had mentally directed it already?

When I write, I imagine the characters talking, I design the room, I block the scene in my head. I kind of transcribe the movie I’m already looking at. So when other directors were pitching their ideas, I realized that none of the visions aligned with my own. I wanted it to have the spirit of an independent film, to take some more risks, tell a story that wasn’t in a clear genre.

And Hugh Jackman in the lead role?

The second I even contemplated directing it, I knew Hugh was the right leading man. I wanted to show a hero unraveling, questioning his own memories and coming to understand a more nuanced version of the world. Hugh has that soulfulness. And he can also kick a lot of ass.

A lot of ass-kicking along with a lot of mind-bending.

And romance. I wanted to have all those elements in the film. Because life is like that. The polarity of film is frustrating for me. “This is an art-house film. This is a popcorn film.” I think that underestimates audiences.

You started out writing in comedy, on the series “Pushing Daisies.” When did you feel the gravitational pull toward science fiction?

I’ve always liked stories that tackle great, big timeless themes. It’s just where my curiosity took me. When I first went around trying to pitch “Reminiscence” — I was heavily pregnant — people would look at me and think, what the hell is wrong with you? Why are you writing this mysterious, dark, violent, sexy thing? Do a rom-com! People didn’t expect me to do huge, ambitious, world-building things as a junior writer.

Why set the film at some unspecified time in the future?

Stories are more universal when you don’t stick a pin in it. And when I first started contemplating this world, it was nothing like the world we live in now. I didn’t think reality would catch up to science fiction so quickly. And then, right about when the trailer dropped, there were photos of the walls they’re building in Miami. I think it was the front page of The New York Times. They looked exactly like our set designs. There are also scenes of upheaval and rioting in the streets in the movie, and political and socioeconomic unrest. There was a moment when people were like, this is too far-fetched. And then the next week riots broke out.

“Westworld” premiered around the time of #MeToo, and the treatment of the androids in the show seemed to speak to that movement. Were you conscious of drawing on your own experiences in the industry?

None of my work is explicitly confessional, but at the same time, we are who we are. I had just come off a staff that was all-male [USA’s “Burn Notice”]. I wanted to take back my story in the only way I knew how. Which was to write.

It’s not like I have some gift of prophecy. We live in this world. And we need to find a way to survive it. For me, acknowledging the cage you’re within is a way to break out of it. And it’s not just women — it’s anyone who’s felt trapped or been subjected to cruelty.

You’ve said you’ve felt like an outsider for much of your life.

I was born in America, but my mom is Asian, my dad is British. Hollywood was as far away as the moon when I was a kid. There’s always been a feeling of displacement. But almost everybody has that. That’s part of the human condition: to feel bereft from the currents rushing around us. And it’s one of the things that you can explore in fiction without being didactic or presumptuous about another person’s specific experience. And hopefully form a connection.

You were working as a consultant in finance and tech before Hollywood called — in the middle of a presentation you were giving, is that right?

It was kind of an abrupt change! I’ve always loved writing, but in the beginning, trying to be a writer was impossible. I had college debt, I had financial obligations. I worked in corporate jobs, but the whole time, I kept writing. Not because I had any expectation of being a working writer, but because it made me happy.

But working in another field for 10 years before becoming a paid writer — that’s not wasted time. When you’re a producer, it helps to be able to know how money works. Everything is a language. Math is a language. Computer science is a language. I spend a lot of time trying to be conversational in as many as possible.

There was even some Pythagorean problem-solving on your film set, wasn’t there?

It was for this complicated scene where Hugh is looking at a hologram of a memory of Hugh looking at a hologram of a memory. I called it a Hugh turducken.

Is it true a friend introduced you to Jonathan because you had a similar verbose email-writing style.

[Laughs] It’s true. We met at the premiere of “Memento.” I didn’t expect to meet my future husband on the red carpet the second I stepped on it. I was skeptical of him. Hollywood has a reputation — not entirely unwarranted. But we became friends. We were pen pals for a long time.

You ended up married and being collaborators. I’ve seen you describe creating a fictional world together as “romantic.”

I remember when we wrapped the finale of the first season. We had built Sweetwater [the town in “Westworld”] in Santa Clarita. It was a magical thing — you could walk those streets. The world in our head had manifested. Along with a child. We took a golf cart, and the sun was rising in the distance. And we drove through the center of Sweetwater, with our baby on my lap.

I am obsessed with time. There’s never enough of it, especially with the ones you love. And maybe one way to have more of it is to live in multiple worlds every day, to create whole new timelines and dimensions.

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Entertainment

The Pleasure of Eurovision Trend

The Joy of Eurovision Fashion

It is an uncomfortable reality of the modern communal spectacle that more often than not, when it comes to a major award show or performance extravaganza or even sporting event, marketing has overwhelmed personal expression — at least when it comes to the clothes. Red carpets are a big business for public personalities, and fear of looking silly an equally powerful deterrent. Brands have swooped in to exploit that tension to their own ends.

We wrote off the Oscars years ago, but when even the MTV Video Awards and the Olympics become hashtag opportunities for Valentino, Giambattista Valli and Ralph Lauren (among many, many others), you know we’ve reached peak fashion penetration.

Which is why Eurovision 2021, that no-holds-barred mash-up of emotion, inanity, genres, nationalities, wind machines, bursts of fire and just plain weirdness, was such a joy to watch.

The hosts didn’t just use “Open Up” as their official slogan and then open the arena in Rotterdam to thousands of people (thousands of people! in one room! yelling and dancing!). They opened up the stage to a parade of ridiculous outfits that were nevertheless worn with so much exuberance it was a great reminder that sometimes just the freedom to express your own taste should be the goal.

The sheer fact that Italy’s Maneskin, the winner of the whole shebang, actually worked with a big-name designer and no one would ever know because the rock band’s identity completely overshadowed the fashion brand, is symptomatic of what makes Eurovision special. And, increasingly, unique.

That designer — Etro — is, after all, an Italian family-run brand that has made a signature out of a certain boho deluxe aesthetic, most often expressed in floaty paisley fabrics and a sort of sand-swept romance. Yet there Maneskin was, doing their very energetic best to revive the whole idea of glam rock in laminated laced-up leather flares and studded leather jackets, and gold-speckled poet’s sleeves. It did make you think Jimi Hendrix-meets-“Velvet Goldmine,” but it didn’t make you think “Milan Fashion Week.”

That’s actually all to the good. Indeed, by the end of the show, it was hard not to wish that along with the winning song, viewers had gotten to vote for the winning outfit. After all, the two are fairly intertwined.

If Italy won the competition, for example, Vegas-style silver clearly won the night. Spangly, abbreviated shine was the go-to performance look, as seen on Anxhela Peristeri from Albania (in a high-necked steel-sequined leotard with icicles of sparkles dripping from her hips and shoulders); Elena Tsagrinou from Cyprus (in some sort of halter neck bikini confection with crystals and beading); Destiny from Malta (silver fringe-y minidress); and Natalia Gordienko from Moldova (long-sleeved plunge-neck bodysuit with — yup! — more silver fringing).

Apparently, their costume designers had all watched last year’s satire, “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga,” and been inspired to take it literally.

Though the bright yellow outfits of Lithuania’s the Roop, which combined shoulder pads, jumpsuits, and schoolgirl pleats and called to mind the early days of MTV, not to mention both New Wave silhouettes and sunny-side-up eggs, were equally hard to forget. There’s a reason that they caught the eye of supporters in Vilnius, who according to a local government blog enlisted MK Drama Queen, the brand that created the costumes for the Roop to help dress local statues in bright yellow accessories as a form of home-country boosterism.

When it came to camp, however — which is, after all, the signature aesthetic value of Eurovision — no one beat Norway’s Tix. His giant white fur and even more giant white wings took his crystal-studded silver bodysuit to a whole different level, as did the silver chains that bound him to both the Earth (and a couple backup demons gyrating nearby), the better to evoke the point of his song, “Fallen Angel.”

Speaking of angels, feathers were also a key component of the look from San Marino’s Senhit along with a giant gold headdress (along with Flo Rida, who joined her onstage). Which was only outdone in the “how-in-the-world-do-you-move-in-that?” sweepstakes by Russia’s Manizha, who made her entrance in the robes of what looked like a giant matryoshka doll only to answer the question by emerging in the freedom of red coveralls to illustrate the theme of her song, “Russian Woman.”

You couldn’t help but smile at it all, which is the point. Fashion is supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to make you feel good. That’s something everyone needs. That Eurovision hides that under a bushel of kitsch doesn’t make it any less true.

Little wonder no one could muster up any enthusiasm (or votes) for England’s James Newman, who donned a … plain leather coat for his number. One of the takeaways of Eurovision 2021 should be that Coco Chanel’s whole “elegance is refusal” stance doesn’t really work in this context. Except, perhaps, when it comes to France’s Barbara Pravi, who took to the stage in a simple black bustier and black trousers to croon her song “Voilà,” winning a rapturous reception from her home market and coming in second in the jury vote.

Given the plaudits, it was hard not to wonder — with a bit of a sinking heart — if, say, a Dior ambassadorship might be in her future.

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Health

The ‘Pleasure and Envy’ of Vaccine FOMO

The ‘Joy and Envy’ of Vaccine FOMO

At the beginning of the year, Shay Fan was relieved: Vaccinations were on the way. Her relief turned to joy when her parents and in-laws got their shots.

Three months later, Ms. Fan, a 36-year-old freelance marketer and writer in Los Angeles, is still waiting for hers, and that joy is gone.

“I want to be patient,” she said.

But as she flipped through Instagram and saw photos of people, she said, “In Miami with no masks spraying champagne into someone else’s mouth,” while sitting in her apartment, not having a haircut in more than a year, or in was a restaurant. made it difficult to exercise patience. “It’s like when every friend gets engaged before you and you say, ‘Oh, I’m happy for them, but when is my turn?'”

The same rules applied to much of the pandemic: stay home, wear a mask, wash your hands.

But now that the prevalence of vaccines is increasing in some areas while others are lacking due to a third wave of coronavirus cases or even warnings of a fourth wave, rules are diverging globally and even within the same country.

In the UK, people emerge cautiously after more than three months of lockdown and 47 percent of the population has had at least one dose of vaccine. In New York, where at least 34 percent of the people in the state have received at least one dose of vaccine, it is said that life feels almost normal.

France, where only 14 percent of the population received at least one dose of vaccine, has just launched its third lockdown. And Brazil, which has given at least one dose to 8 percent of the population, reports some of the world’s highest new cases and deaths per day. There are dozen of countries – including Japan, Afghanistan, Kenya, and the Philippines – that have given less than 2 percent of their population a single dose.

Juliette Kayyem, 51, a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, said the wait was made even harder because she kept hearing from acquaintances who she didn’t believe were members of priority groups that were up ahead got her vaccinated.

“Is there a word for joy and envy at the same time?” Mrs. Kayyem said.

Ms. Kayyem received her first dose in late March. But instead of relieving herself, she felt another bout of pandemic stress as her husband and teenagers still weren’t vaccinated.

Updated

April 5, 2021, 4:37 p.m. ET

Tristan Desbos, a 27-year-old pastry chef who lives in London, recently received his first shot but said his family could not be vaccinated in France, despite many of them belonging to a risk category. “They don’t understand why they can’t get the vaccine in France,” he said.

In the European Union, the main problem is the supply of vaccines. Amid a new deadly wave of cases, Germany imposed a partial lockdown, Italy banned most of its population from going outside for essential reasons, and Poland closed non-essential businesses.

Agnès Bodiou, a 60-year-old nurse in France, said she had waited weeks for her first shot, despite the government’s promise to give priority to health workers. “The Americans managed to vaccinate, including the English,” she said. “We’re still waiting.”

The end of the pandemic is also a long way off in the Canadian province of Ontario, which fell into a four-week state of emergency on Saturday amid a record number of ICU patients. Massimo Cubello, a 28-year-old who lives in Toronto, said he is happy for his vaccinated friends in the US and UK, but his zoom fatigue is setting in and driveway visits with members of his family have not been easy because of the cold Weather.

“It’s good to see people getting vaccinated because that’s all part of the process of getting where we need to go, but it definitely makes you a bit jealous and concerned about when we as Canadians will be able to do that Experience it for yourself, ”said Mr Cubello, who works in marketing.

In the United States, this dichotomy evolved primarily by generation or race. Older people, who make up the majority of those vaccinated, have eaten indoors, hugged grandchildren and held parties, while many younger people are still ineligible or repeatedly get “no appointments” messages when trying to book.

Dr. Lynn Bufka, psychologist and senior director at the American Psychological Association, said the pandemic had placed a heavy burden on teenagers, and waiting long for vaccines to be distributed could add to the stress.

“Children, in many ways, are people whose lives have been disrupted like everyone else, but who have less life experience adapting to these types of disorders,” said Dr. Bufka.

For American adults at least, the fear of missing out shouldn’t last long. President Biden has promised enough doses by the end of next month to immunize all of the country’s 260 million adults. In fact, the pace of vaccination is accelerating so much that Biden government officials believe the supply of coronavirus vaccines will exceed demand by the middle of next month, if not sooner.

Ms. Fan, the Los Angeles freelance writer and marketer, can book a vaccine appointment in mid-April. She has no intention of doing anything wild – the basics are what she looks forward to most. “I just need a haircut,” she said.

Constant Méheut contributed to the coverage.

Categories
Entertainment

14 Black Celebrities on The place They Discover Pleasure

14 Black Celebrities on Where They Find Joy

After a year of frontline black women fighting for freedom at the same time, POPSUGAR is honoring their resilience in this month of black history with a celebration of the light they continue to find in dark times.

Black stars are constantly asked about the current state of the world and its people, but questions like “What do you enjoy?” are much rarer. So much so that many of them enjoy the variety when the question is asked. This indicates how often society prioritizes the happiness and well-being of black women (spoiler alert: very rare). This story, however, is just the opposite: a chance for black women to stand in the warmth of what fills them.

We asked some of our favorite shining stars where they are currently finding the light. From Saweetie’s love for oysters, to Angelica Ross’ deep appreciation for black drag culture, to Tiffany Haddish as Tiffany Haddish’s biggest fan, here are 14 delightful answers to a question that black women are not asked enough.

– Additional reporting from Monica Sisavat, Grayson Gilcrease, Kelsie Gibson, Chanel Vargas, Mekishana Pierre, Karenna Meredith and Lindsay Miller