Usher’s first new solo album in eight years and the “Abbott Elementary” debuting its third season on ABC are a number of the new tv, films, music and video games headed to a tool close to you.

Also among the many streaming choices value your time as chosen by The Associated Press’ leisure journalists: Justin Hartley of “This is Us” debuts his new CBS sequence “Tracker,” Sony’s new multiplayer navy shooter Helldivers 2 and Celine Song’s “Past Lives,” an achingly tender movie about making peace with the alternatives that form our lives.

— Celine Song’s “Past Lives” is an achingly tender movie about making peace with the alternatives that form our lives. Song’s directorial debut, which is nominated for finest image and finest screenplay on the Academy Awards, is a couple of girl named Nora (Greta Lee) who, whereas married and residing in New York, reconnects with a childhood buddy (Teo Yoo) from Seoul. Though modest in scale, “Past Lives” gently reckons with existential quandaries that stretch throughout time and continents. In her assessment, AP’s Jocelyn Noveck referred to as it “a gorgeous, achingly wistful feature debut.” Streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime.

— The thoughts of Charlie Kaufman has produced a number of the most memorable movies (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Synecdoch, New York”) of the previous couple of many years. But even when Kaufman final scripted an animated movie, (“Anomalisa”), you wouldn’t name the outcomes child-friendly. But in “Orion and the Dark,” Kaufman adapts Emma Yarlett’s illustrated kids’s e book a couple of fifth-grader (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) who’s afraid of the darkish, amongst different issues. He’s pressured to confront his fears when visited the precise Dark (voiced by Paul Walter Hauser). In his assessment, AP’s Mark Kennedy stated director Sean Charmatz’s movie “is about fear and overcoming … but has too much junk clogging up the vision.” Streaming on Netflix.

— Laura Chinn’s directorial debut “Suncoast,” which not too long ago premiered on the Sundance Film Festival, attracts from Chinn’s personal expertise rising up in Florida and caring for her sick brother. With a forged together with Laura Linney and Woody Harrelson, newcomer Nico Parker stars because the high-schooler Doris on this coming-of-age drama. “Suncoast” streams Feb. 9 on Hulu.

    — AP Film Writer Jake Coyle

— It might very properly be Usher’s world, and we’re simply residing in it. From an extremely profitable Las Vegas residency to scoring the 2024 Super Bowl halftime present, the “Confessions” singer is experiencing a well-deserved inflow of consideration — from a brand new and curious viewers in addition to these crammed with nostalgia for his clean ’00s R&B. There’s extra nice news: on Friday, Feb. 9, simply two days earlier than he seems at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for Sin City’s inaugural Super Bowl, Usher will launch “Coming Home,” his first new solo album in eight years. He hasn’t missed a beat — “Good Good,” the only with Summer Walker and 21 Savage — is silky summertime R&B with some Atlanta bounce — a successful mixture. Elsewhere on the album, Usher joins forces with Burna Boy, Latto, The-Dream, H.E.R., BTS member Jungkook and Pheelz. “Stacked” is the phrase.

— Swedish pop singer Zara Larsson will launch her fourth studio album, “Venus,” on Feb. 9 — an album filled with shimmery synth-pop and Euro dance-pop that burns vibrant, scorching and quick like a Saturday evening. “On My Love” with EDM big David Guetta proves it, however Larsson’s dedication to feel-good membership bangers exists all through: like on the strings of “End of Time,” which she stated was impressed by Rihanna and ABBA in equal elements. Now that’s a mix.

— If you frequent indie music corners of the web, you would possibly’ve seen the shirts launched by Helado Negro, the musical moniker of Roberto Carlos Lange, earlier than you heard his music: “Young and Latin and Proud,” they learn, a celebration of the South Florida native born to Ecuadorian immigrants’ id, but in addition the id of a lot of his listeners. It’s an important framework to contemplate Helado Negro’s newest album, “Phasor,” a day-dreamy assortment of experimental pop (like on “Best For You and Me”), psych rock (“LFO (Lupe Finds Oliveros)”) and different rhythms and flutes (“I Just Want To Wake Up With You.”) It is a celebration of an unimaginable variety of Latin music, together with one which will get misplaced when listeners focus too intently on geography: atmospheric sounds.

— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

— “Abbott Elementary” aired its season two finale final April and there are lingering questions that want solutions. Can Janine and Gregory (sequence creator Quinta Brunson and Tyler James Williams) stay platonic after nearly stepping exterior the friend-zone on the sector journey to the science museum? Did a summer time at Harvard immediate Ava (Janelle James) to lastly take her job as principal critically? And will Mrs. Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph) lastly be taught that Brian Tyree Henry’s identify just isn’t Brian Austin Green? Answers could also be revealed Wednesday when faculty is again in session and “Abbott Elementary” debuts season three on ABC. Episodes additionally stream on Hulu.

— Revisit fashionable Super Bowl advertisements from years previous on “Super Bowl Greatest Commercials XXIII: The Ultimate Countdown,” on Wednesday on CBS. The present presents prime commercials from through the years from manufacturers together with Budweiser, E-Trade and Coke. Hosts Boomer Esiason, the previous NFL quarterback, and actor Danielle Ruah slim down the competitors to 2 finalists, and viewers can choose a winner by scanning a QR code on display to vote dwell. The particular may even stream on Paramount+.

— There’s a four-legged different to Super Bowl Sunday: Puppy Bowl XX. This yr marks the Bowl’s twentieth yr and 131 adoptable pups have been drafted from shelters and rescues throughout the U.S. to compete. Teams Ruff and Fluff sq. off for the coveted “Lombarky” trophy whereas additionally encouraging individuals to undertake and never store for pets. Puppy Bowl XX will simulcast on Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Discovery+, TBS, TRUTV, and MAX earlier than the massive human recreation on Sunday, Feb. 11.

— Great American Family additionally needs in on the call-to-adoption programming. Year two of the Great American Rescue Bowl will characteristic each canines and cats — all who’ve already been adopted — to spotlight the sorts of pets you’ll find at a shelter or rescue as a substitute of a retailer or breeder. The paw-some recreation between groups The Adorables and The Cuddlers start at 12 p.m. additionally on Sunday, Feb. 11.

— Justin Hartley of “This is Us” debuts his new CBS sequence “Tracker” within the prime spot after Super Bowl LVIII. Based on the e book “The Never Game” by Jeffery Deaver, Hartley performs Colter Shaw, a man with a ability for monitoring down the lacking and all he asks for in return is reward cash. In an interview, Hartley says he was itching to roam round exterior after years of being in kitchens and residing rooms for “This Is Us.”

— Alicia Rancilio

— Sony’s new multiplayer navy shooter Helldivers 2 invitations you to “wage war for peace” and “die for democracy.” If these slogans sound like one thing out of the 1997 satire “Starship Troopers,” wait till you see the enemy, a species of big bugs referred to as terminids. You can be a part of forces with as much as three mates as elite troopers defending “Super Earth” from the aliens — which, after all, is finest achieved by attacking the monsters on their dwelling planets with a spectacular assortment of high-tech weaponry, out of your primary laser rifle to huge bombs. If you end up cornered by an alien “bile spewer,” properly, that’s your drawback. The invasion launches Thursday on PlayStation 5 and PC.

— Lou Kesten

© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials might not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.

Cream, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Audioslave, The Highwaymen — the music business is stuffed with storied supergroups comprised, principally, of males.

But it is 2024, and boygenius has entered the chat.

The indie rockers are up for six Grammys at Sunday’s ceremony in Los Angeles, and member Phoebe Bridgers has a seventh nod for her collaboration with high nominee SZA.

Like many a supergroup earlier than them, boygenius not too long ago introduced they are going on hiatus and returning to solo work — however that is after an distinctive 12 months on the street collectively.

And on Sunday, they’re going to get to have a good time.

Boygenius members Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus met as up-and-comers within the indie music scene and, uninterested in fixed comparisons to one another as “women in rock,” determined to affix forces whereas persevering with to supply solo work.

The inventive enterprise become a successful wager: the trio amassed a loyal fan base with their 2018 eponymous EP, a debut — hits included the arresting “Salt In The Wound” and the wrenching gradual burn “Me & My Dog” — that fused their distinct songwriting and kinds to create, in a phrase, magic.

Calling the work “astonishing,” music outlet NME gave the prolonged play an ideal vital rating, writing it “serves as a reminder of each musician’s particular powers — Bridgers’ ability to spin haunting, poetic folk-pop out of beautiful simplicity; Dacus’ sage and, often, wry indie-rock; and Baker’s dramatic, emo-tinged exorcisms of emotion.”

The artists performed a handful of tour dates earlier than peeling off to concentrate on solo albums.

They every discovered particular person success, specifically the 29-year-old Bridgers, who discovered rising mainstream fame with the 2020 album “Punisher,” which featured the hit single “Kyoto,” and a smash tour.

But followers and music journalists weren’t having it: wanting extra of the group’s transcendent harmonies, they requested always for a reunion and a full studio album.

The band ultimately obtained again collectively and gave in to the hype, saying “the record” could be launched in March 2023.

It was an on the spot hit and propelled boygenius on an in-demand tour that featured a number of competition appearances together with at Coachella, which marked their first performances for the reason that album’s launch.

The group additionally appeared on the Eras Tour of none apart from Taylor Swift, who referred to as boygenius’ album “genuinely a masterpiece.”

The group’s work captures the ravages of heartache with eerie, melancholic tones that ascend into anthemic choruses with cathartic peaks.

But their personas each onstage and off are winky and playful — three artists who write songs, crack jokes, and easily get alongside.

“We’re obsessed with each other. I like myself better around them,” Bridgers has stated.

They opened every set on their rollicking tour with “The Boys Are Back in Town” — the mid-Seventies Thin Lizzy observe — and a nod to their identify, which is a commentary on their unfavorable experiences in an business, and a world, that has traditionally prioritized the work of males.

“Men are taught to be entitled to space and that their ideas should be heard because they’re great ideas and women are taught the opposite,” Bridgers advised Vogue.

“A ‘boygenius’ is someone who their whole life has been told that their ideas are genius.”

And one of many group’s nice annoyances is the suggestion that they’re outstanding by advantage of being ladies, or as a result of all of them establish as queer.

“Something that’s been really important to us is to be able to exist like any other band: to make a sick song and have that not be weighted because of all these extraneous identifiers that we work within,” the 28-year-old Baker advised Rolling Stone final 12 months.

In the identical cowl story, Dacus — additionally 28 — stated working as a trio allowed the artists to be “able to commiserate about the less enjoyable aspects of this job… we have a shared experience that is not shared by a lot of other people in our lives.”

Unlike many stars who put their careers and fan bases over rocking the boat, the members of boygenius put on their politics on their sleeves, routinely talking out on transgender and abortion rights.

In 2023, when Barack Obama added their tune “Not Strong Enough” to his annual music suggestions, Dacus’ response was lower than thrilled: “war criminal,” she tweeted, probably referring to criticism the previous president confronted for authorizing lethal drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times final 12 months, boygenius members had stated they’d stroll Grammy pink carpets in the event that they obtained nominations, with Dacus saying she’s “kind of a bitch for spectacle.”

They’ve obtained six probabilities locked in: let’s hear it for the boys.

© 2024 AFP

Daisy Ridley doesn’t need audiences to be misled by the title of her new movie, “Sometimes I Think About Dying.”

Her character, Fran, is, really, fairly humorous. Fran is a lady content material in her largely solitary life, other than her co-workers in her chatty workplace. But when an attraction to a brand new colleague challenges her to take dangers and push by way of social awkwardness to make a connection.

The movie, in theaters now, is directed by Rachel Lambert and co-stars comic Dave Merheje and several other different comedic actors, who improvise watercooler speak to huge laughs. )Ridley says she typically needed to stifle her laughter to remain in character.)

The Associated Press just lately spoke to Ridley about discovering Fran, reprising her position as Rey in a brand new “Star Wars” movie, and perfecting her loss of life stare. Answers have been edited for brevity and readability.

AP: The movie’s title makes it sound gloomy, however it’s really a comedy, proper?

RIDLEY: There was much more humor than anybody is anticipating as a result of the title provides a sense that it’s going to be extra of a melancholic form of feeling. But there may be a number of humor and Fran is fairly humorous. But additionally the world that she lives in is stuffed with vibrancy and the workplace area could be very gregarious and loud and enjoyable, so it’s a pleasant world for her to reside in, despite the fact that she is struggling to make connections sometimes.

AP: Fran’s outsider view places the workplace setting and other people underneath a microscope — did that amuse you?

RIDLEY: I beloved the world and I beloved the workplace however, really, a number of that was improvised. Rachel talks about how a lot she loves working with comedians as a result of there’s such an ease with improvisation. The first scene we filmed was across the desk within the convention room, and Rachel simply let folks fly and it was such an effective way to deliver everybody collectively. Fran likes to be at work. She loves her routine. But additionally she is usually a little bit judgmental of the folks round her. So it’s not simply that she’s struggling. Sometimes she’s like, “I don’t want to be part of it.” I believe it’s very human, like two issues might be true on the identical time.

AP: You perfected your loss of life stare for the fantasy scenes — was that difficult?

RIDLEY: The seaside was chilly! And the primary factor actually was attempting to not shiver. So that was “please don’t shiver, please don’t move.” And then mendacity within the forest was difficult as a result of I had a handful of bugs and it was like icky icky icky.

Thank you for the praise about my loss of life stare, I don’t know the way I managed that effectively (laughs). It sounds so tousled. An absence of thought, which is clearly a distinction, as a result of I had a lot pondering after I was enjoying her. So in these moments, it was in regards to the absence of any of that and the form of calm, quiet time.

AP: This was your first time producing — how was that have?

RIDLEY: It was a beneficiant give of the producer credit score (laughs). I did come on early so there was a way that all of us needed to maintain arms and say, “OK, this is what we’re going to do, and this is how we’re going to do it.” I used to be requested about varied artistic issues, however Rachel made it really easy. And then from touchdown in Portland, (Oregon,) I used to be simply an actor. There was no feeling of duty — bar from my very own efficiency and being a part of an organization of individuals, which was great. But there have been a number of classes I discovered on set as a result of there have been a gaggle of people that made the movie collectively they usually have been very beneficiant with me, speaking about finances and scheduling — so that truly facilitated me making my very own film, as a result of I knew what may very well be completed.

AP: Knowing you can’t say a lot in regards to the new “Star Wars” film,what excites you most about it?

RIDLEY: I’m excited in regards to the story. I didn’t suppose it could occur that I’d return now. I believed perhaps it could sooner or later, like within the faraway future. But I believe the story is nice and can enchantment to the people who adore it, and people who find themselves perhaps not as conversant in it. I believe will probably be a worthwhile journey (smiles).

AP: You have been so younger on the final one; how will this be totally different?

RIDLEY: I used to be the newborn! Now I really feel extra like a grown-up. It’s going to be so unusual as a result of I’m not going to be the newborn anymore. But additionally, that’s form of an thrilling journey of like, OK, how is that this going to be — a special filmmaker, totally different author, totally different crew, totally different forged? It will likely be such its personal factor with its personal thumbprint on it. It will likely be attention-grabbing.

AP: Who on that set gave you recommendation or helped you be taught in regards to the enterprise?

RIDLEY: I’m the individual that is all the time too embarrassed to ask questions. So I fake I’m not fussed in any respect that I’m, like, subsequent to Harrison Ford (laughs)! I believe J.J. (Abrams) notably, I’ll all the time consider in such an exquisite means as a result of it’s such an intimate relationship, the one between actor and director, and the one between actor and cameraman. We had this wonderful digicam operator known as Colin and there’s all the time such safety with the hair and make-up crew and the costume crew as a result of, once more, it’s so intimate. You go in at 5 within the morning and persons are in your area, serving to information you and serving to you’re feeling able to be seen ultimately on an IMAX (display screen). And actors. There was a number of kindness from all locations.

© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This materials is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.