Tag: Entertainment-Variety

The Guadalajara Film Festival’s (FICG) prominent LGBTQ+ strand, the Premio Maguey, is marking its 15^th year, a milestone they have dubbed Queerciañera, fusing the words queer and quinceañera, Latin America’s hallowed coming-of-age celebration for girls turning 15.

Since it was launched in 2012, the first queer film award to be launched in Mexico and Latin America has grown in stature, establishing itself as one of the festival’s strongest sidebars.

Reflecting on this all-important milestone, its director Pavel Cortes said: “Talking about the impact that the Premio Maguey has had on Guadalajara and the rest of the country might seem rather pretentious. However, its social contribution to the legitimization of sexual diversity and queer culture—both locally and nationally—is undeniable.”

Its impact underscores cinema’s role as a powerful tool for social transformation, he added.

“Unfortunately, it continues to be a very important and necessary award, even though over these 15 years of the Premio Maguey we have witnessed the transformation of the world in relation to sexual diversity—acceptance remains a matter of privilege.”

“Mexico remains an intolerant country toward sexual diversity,” he asserted, “with a significant record of hate crimes and transfemicides.”

Premio Maguey launched at a time when the topic was still taboo in the country, subjected to segregation and marginalization, he said. “Since then, national queer film production has consolidated and, in this edition, we present seven Mexican films out of the 16 that make up our official competition for Best Film, the Jury Prize and Best Performance.”

The 15th edition features a selection of fiction, documentary and short films with stand-outs among the Mexican productions and those focusing on transmasculine parenthood: Sharon Kleinberg’s “I Am Mario (Mexico) and Daniel Ribeiro’s “I Will Miss You” (Brazil) as well as the short film among the special screenings, “Alex,” (Mexico), which follows Alex, a non-binary person, who becomes pregnant and sets out to get an abortion.

Alejandro Amenábar’s Oscar-winning “The Sea Inside” and “On the Road,” David Pablos winner of the Venice Orizzonti Award for Best Film and the Queer Lion Award, are among the special screenings slated for this edition.

FICTION

Eruption (“Erupción”) Pete Ohs, U.S., Poland
A Polish florist and a British tourist spark an unexpected romance through chance encounters and fleeting, magical moments.

I Am Mario (“Soy Mario”) Sharon Kleinberg, Mexico
Mario, a forty-year-old trans taxi driver, faces an unexpected pregnancy that opens the possibility of fulfilling his dream of becoming a father.

I Will Miss You (“Eu vou ter saudades de você “) Daniel Ribeiro, Brazil
After seven years together, Amanda and Caio move in together, but love is not enough. When João enters their lives, their relationship is tested and transformed.

Iván & Hadoum (“Iván & Hadoum”) Ian de la Rosa, Spain
Iván, a trans man working in greenhouse warehouses, falls in love with Hadoum, a Spanish-Moroccan coworker. Against family opposition, they pursue their relationship between greenhouses and seaside landscapes.

Like a Kite (“Feito pipa”) Allan Everton, Brazil
Gugu dreams of becoming a great footballer. Raised freely by his grandmother, he will do whatever it takes to avoid living with his father.

No Dogs Allowed (“No se permiten perros”) Steve Bache, Germany
Gabo, a seemingly ordinary 15-year-old, develops disturbing tendencies and forms a troubling bond with an older man. When the man is arrested, Gabo must decide whether to testify or protect his own dark secret.

On the Sea (“En el mar”) Helen Walsh, U.K.
A poetic exploration of masculinity and desire within a remote fishing community of stark and untamed beauty.

Pioneers (“Pioneras”) Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz, Spain
In early 1970s Spain under Franco’s regime, a group of young women defy societal norms to play football, finding an unlikely ally and laying the groundwork for the future of women’s football.

The Circle of Liars (“El círculo de los mentirosos”) Nancy Cruz Orozco, Mexico
Cecilia arrives in the city aspiring to be a writer and meets Nicolás and Aristeo, two young poets who claim to be the founders and sole members of an underground ultraist movement.

Wanted (“Se busca”) Kenya Márquez, Mexico
René, a lonely teenager, runs away from home to Ciudad Juárez, where an inner calling leads her on a journey of self-discovery.

What They Leave Us (“Lo que nos van dejando”) Issa García Ascot, Mexico
A biologist is forced to travel to the jungle, where she confronts deeply buried memories from her past.

DOCUMENTARY

“Cuba Street” (“Calle Cuba”) Vanessa Batista, Chile, Cuba, Mexico
Four women, one street and an entire country pulsing between invisible wounds and the dream of resistance

“I Have Two Dads” (“Yo tengo dos papás”) Edgar Reyes, Mexico
The story of Santiago: from abandonment to the embrace that transforms his destiny

“Mickey” (“Mickey”) Dano García, Mexico
A decade-long collage by two friends becomes a film exploring Mickey’s self-discovery and the journeys of those who grew up with her

“Our Body is a Star that Expands” (“Nuestro cuerpo es una estrella que se expande”) Semillites Hernández Velasco, Tania Hernández Velasco, Mexico
Tania and her brother Semillites confront childhood rejection and question their bodies through collage, animation, dance and intimate documentary, creating a sensorial exploration of identity

“Shelter” (“Cobijo”) Adrián Silvestre, Spain
Cecilia joins a youth poetry movement in the city that becomes corrupted by envy as she studies to become a writer

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

“Alex” Natalia Bermúdez, Mexico
Alex, a non-binary person, becomes pregnant and embarks on a journey to have an abortion with the support of their aunt Salome, a traditional doctor

“A Teacher’s Gift” Artur Ribeiro, United Kingdom, India
In London, a Hindi teacher torn between duty and desire forms an unexpected bond that leads him to India

“Flowers” (“Flores”) Job Samaniego Rivera, Mexico
After a magical encounter with a flower, Moisés and his daughter Samy embark on a journey of discovery and transformation Through an ancient tale seen through Samy’s eyes, a colorful world emerges, allowing Moisés to accept himself and finally see Samy for who she truly is

“Lemebel” (“Lemebel”) Joanna Reposi Garibaldi, Mexico
The story of writer and visual artist Pedro Lemebel, from the founding of the collective Las Yeguas del Apocalipsis during the dictatorship to his death in 2015 from cancer

“On the Road” (“En el camino”) David Pablos, Mexico
A drifter who sleeps with truck drivers meets a reserved driver and joins him transporting goods in northern Mexico As they grow closer on the road, the drifter’s past threatens them both

“The Sea Inside” (“Mar adentro”) Alejandro Amenábar, Spain, France, Italy
A portrait starring Javier Bardem of Spaniard Ramón Sampedro, who fought for 30 years for euthanasia and his own right to die. An Academy Award Foreign-Language Feature winner.

“When You Get Home” (“Cuando llegue a casa”) Edgar Adrián, Mexico
A teenager in Guadalajara explores identity between friendship and desire. During temple festivals, this search puts their relationship with their grandmother at risk.

Pedro Pascal wasn’t about to sit around and wait for invitation to be a part of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime show. Instead, the “Last of Us” star reached out to the Grammy-winning superstar’s team.

“I wanted to participate in any way – literally a volunteer position, like serving coffee if needed – and I put the feelers out through people I work with,” Pascal says in the new issue of Fantastic Man magazine. “When it comes to representation synchronized with celebration there’s no one better than Benito at the moment, and that fills me with inspiration outside of just being super into his music.”

However, Pascal didn’t hear back right away. After wrapping Tony Gilroy’s upcoming “Behemoth,” Pascal said, ” I was lamenting about not hearing back and I sent someone an email with a selfie of me sticking my tongue out, being, like, ‘It’s really me.’ Within 25 minutes, they called me back and they were like, ‘We want you to come to the show.’”

His only instruction was to wear beige on the big day. “We’re up in the stands watching the game and somebody pulls me from my seat and takes me backstage and then there’s Cardi B and there’s Young Miko and Karol G and Jessica Alba,” Pascal recalled. “They do a wardrobe check and then they tell me, ‘OK, so the vibe is: you’re dancing.’ I started to realize right before they started, and I was like, ‘It’s the Casita. I’m such a fucking idiot. Oh my god, I’m going to be in the Casita,’ as I was being marched out into the field. So I think that’s why I seemed like a deer in headlights.”

In the same interview, Pascal also talked about experiencing fame at an older age than most of his peers. “I think there are two ways of looking at it,” said Pascal, who turned 51 on April 2. “There’s a universal feeling of imposter syndrome that we all can experience when we’re being unkind to ourselves, especially if it’s somehow uncomfortable to get what you want. Then the kinder side of it is that, as old as I feel, and as silly as some of it can be – because of ‘What is a 50-year-old man doing dancing in La Casita?’ – I’m incredibly grateful for having been a fully developed character before experiencing any kind of large-scale exposure. I’m kind of out of the oven, already baked. I was 38 years old when I got the part of Oberyn Martell [in ‘Game of Thrones’].”

He talked about the many waitering and bartending jobs he held in New York City. “It was paycheck to paycheck, but the theatre work became somewhat consistent for a few years,” Pascal said. “And then you always felt like it was this enormous score if you got an episode of ‘Law & Order’ or something. I was scraping by. I got bailed out a lot over the years by my sister and friends.”

Pascal was asked about his signature mustache. “I’d never had the courage to sport facial hair of any kind because I felt like I grew such weak facial hair. To this day, I can’t grow a proper beard,” he said. “The role where I was assisted with specific facial-hair grooming was that of Oberyn Martell. Then came ‘Narcos’, in which I felt like a moustache was completely fitting for the period. So now I sort of cling a little to the vanity of having some definition in the face with my very weak, patchy facial hair. But if the role calls for it, it can all disappear.”

On a more serious note, Pascal explained why he’s so outspoken about progressive politics. “I think staying quiet is the harder path,” the actor said. “I would have too hard of a time living with myself. It’s the way I was raised. Decency and compassion. The idea of the vulnerable being scapegoated and terrorized in this way is unspeakably painful.”

Read the full interview with Pascal at fantasticman.com.

British actor David Jonsson is only five films into his career, but you’d already know his gaze anywhere: Even in a film as spry and bright as the 2023 romcom “Rye Lane,” those crinkly, softly drooping eyes bring an air of old-soul melancholy to proceedings. But they’ve never borne quite as much sorrow as they do in “Wasteman,” a coolly brutal prison drama that follows a pretty rusty narrative template — hardened inmate on the brink of parole struggles to stay on the straight and narrow — but finds more interest in the dueling masculine energies of its two principal stars. If Jonsson, as the nearly-free man in question, is all guarded regret and head-down resilience, Tom Blyth is his lethal opposite number: As a near-feral cellmate from hell, he’s the disruptive force that gives an otherwise predictable film a spark of erratic danger.

Though Jonsson and Blyth’s stealthily adversarial, hot-and-cold double act represents the chief selling point of “Wasteman” — which premiered at last year’s Toronto festival and hit screens in its native U.K. back in February — the film is most emphatically a calling card for first-time feature director Cal McMau, who picked up a surprise win for Best Debut Director at last year’s British Independent Film Awards (beating the more hotly tipped likes of Akinola Davies Jr. and Harry Lighton) en route to a nomination in the BAFTAs’ equivalent category. An artist turned commercials director, he handles proceedings here with equal parts grit and polish, smoothly integrating multiple shooting formats and implied points of view — with an emphasis on vertical cellphone footage that gives us a bristlingly immediate sense of life on the inside.

Slightly less persuasive, however, is the script by Hunter Andrews and Eoin Doran, also taking their first feature credit. Trading in starkly opposed male archetypes but scantly developed characters, it builds some claustrophobic drama around inmates’ jostling for alpha status within these bleak, blue-washed walls, though it’s only glancingly attentive to the systemic failures governing this sordid battle royal, or more specific, unspoken social and racial conflicts presumably coursing through a pressure-cooker microcosm of modern British manhood. (Give or take the flavorful accents, the tone of the drama here is most reminiscent of that decades-old HBO TV provocation “Oz.”)

Jonsson plays Taylor, a watchful, aged-beyond-his-years introvert who has spent 13 years behind bars on a manslaughter charge — missing almost the entire life of his teenage son Adam (Cole Martin), from whom the boy’s mother is determined to keep him estranged. He’s a quiet prisoner if not exactly a model one, with an opioid addiction he can’t kick, funded by his stoic work as a barber to his fellow inmates. When he’s informed that he’s soon to be up for parole — due less to his own good behavior than a need to free up prison space — he’s cautioned not to put a foot wrong; receding into himself is the safest course of action.

It’s a bad time, then, to be paired with a new cellmate, particularly an unholy terror like Dee (Blyth), a grinning, nihilistic thug with a taste for living large — which, in prison confines, amounts to an in-cell air fryer and a shelf for his impressive sneaker collection — and a steady supply of drugs that soon makes him the most popular dealer on the wing, to the consternation of former big dogs Gaz (Corin Silva) and Paul (Alex Hassell). Generous with his stash and with access to his phone — which Taylor uses to communicate with Adam on social media — Dee ropes the addict into his trade, though their tentative friendship is soon subsumed into the prison’s overriding culture of violence.

With his gangly, clammy physicality and strident delivery, Blyth is an electrifying hair-trigger antagonist, jump-starting each scene he’s in and even contributing some leering wit to an otherwise stern affair. “I don’t need to be careful,” he brags to the walking-on-eggshells Taylor: For Dee, being beyond redemption is a point of pride. The actor can’t, however, find much semblance of humanity in this flatly vicious figure, who ultimately serves to highlight the manifold vulnerabilities of our flawed but contrastingly soulful hero, played by Jonsson with a tight, walled-off reserve that seems liable to break at any given moment.

That palpable desperation is compounded by the sheer airlessness of Phoebe Platman’s production design and Lorenzo Levrini’s prowling cinematography, which permits only the odd, stray shaft of natural light into this dank, metallic-hued world. The most explosive setpieces here are the pummelling prison riots, which Levrini charges into with handheld gusto, but the film feels rawest and realest in recurring interludes where the aspect ratio narrows and McMau views prison life (some of it battering, some of it banal) through the grainy lens of the inmates’ devices. A more unusual, subversive work might have stuck to this conceit throughout, but “Wasteman” finds some relief in formal convention.

Jill Biden is a “Heated Rivalry” fan.

So much so that the former First Lady, just minutes ago during the live auction at the NYC LGBT Community Center’s Center Dinner, bid $35,000 to have a walk-on role in the queer hockey series’ second season along with a dinner with the cast, according to sources.

However, she was outbid. The package ending up selling twice to two bidders at $125,000 each.

“Heated Rivalry” creator Jacob Tierney and his producing partner Brendan Brady (who wasn’t able to make it to the gala) were honored at the event with the Cultural Impact Award. They were presented with the award by Rachel Reid, author of the queer hockey book series “Game Changers.”

“Tierney and Brady have elevated and centered queer characters as fully realized leads whose desires, conflicts and tenderness are treated with dignity,” Center CEO Dr. Carla Smith said ahead of the event. “By championing our voices, they have brought queer joy and storytelling to the mainstream media and have created work that affirms and advances our community.” 

Brooks Brothers CEO Ken Ohashi was also honored. Melanie C, aka Sporty Spice of the Spice Girls, performed.

“Heated Rivalry” Season 2, which will be an adaptation of Reid’s book “The Long Game,” is expected to premiere on HBO Max in April 2027. Filming will start this summer with stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams returning.

“I’m in a room all day writing,” Tierney told me at the GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles in early March, adding that he would stay “faithful” to the book.

“I think I realized a little while ago that what I have to do is go back to where my head was at the first time I wrote, which was love these books and try to make the smartest thing I can make of it,” Tierney said.

Along with Williams and Storrie, the “Heated Rivalry” cast includes François Arnaud, Robbie G.K., Christina Chang, Dylan Walsh, Nadine Bhabha, Sophie Nélisse and Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova.

Oasis‘ 2025 reunion tour won the Major Tour of the Year award at the 2026 Pollstar Awards, held Wednesday night in Hollywood as the centerpiece event of the annual Pollstar Live! conference, hosted by the primary trade magazine focused on the live music business..

Other top winners in genre-based categories included Metallica (for rock tour of the year), Kendrick Lamar/SZA (hip-hop tour of the year), the Weeknd (R&B tour of the year), Benson Boone (pop tour of the year), Bad Bunny (Latin tour of the year), Adam Sandler (comedy tour of the year), and Chris Stapleton and Lainey Wilson (who tied for country tour of the year).

Olivia Dean continued her recent awards streak by winning in the category of support/special guest of the year, for her stint as opening act on Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet Tour.” With a sold-out arena headlining tour commencing in May, it’s safe to say Dean will probably never be eligible for a repeat win in that category.

Other artists who came out on top in the Pollstar voting included the Eagles, for residency of the year (at their recurring Sphere gig in Las Vegas), and Teddy Swims, as new headliner of the year.

Many of the categories were set aside for venues or festivals. Austin City Limits and Ohana were named festivals of the year (in over 30,000 and under 30,000 attendance divisions, respectively). L.A. came out on top with the wins for nightclub of the year, the Troubadour, and outdoor venue of the year, the Hollywood Bowl. Las Vegas venues prevailed for arena of the year, which went to Sphere, and U.S. stadium of the year, a win for Allegiant Stadium. Nashville’s Pinnacle picked up the prize for new concert venue of the year.

Among the awards going to individuals were the award for promoter of the year, which went to Live Nation’s Arthur Fogel, a bit of good news amid a tough day for that company, plus Barclay Center’s Laurie Jacoby as venue executive of the year, Red Light’s Coran Capshaw as personal manager of the year, Shore Fire’s Rebecca Shapiro as publicist of the year, CAA’s Allison McGregor as marketing executive of the year, and another CAA honoree, Darryl Eaton, as agent of the year. CAA scored an additional win as booking agency of the year.

All of the awards are voted upon within the music industry except for one fan-voted honor that was added this year, in connection with a media sponsor — the first iHeartRadio Pollstar Fan Favorite Award for Live Performer of the Year, which went to country superstar Morgan Wallen.

The 37th annual Pollstar Awards were hosted by iHeartRadio personality Valentine and held at the conference’s new location for 2026, the Loews Hollywood Hotel.

A full list of winners follows:

37th Annual Pollstar Awards Winners

Major Tour of the Year:
Oasis, “Oasis Live ’25 Tour”

Rock Tour of the Year:
Metallica, “M72 World Tour”

Hip-Hop Tour of the Year:
Kendrick Lamar/SZA, “Grand National Tour”

R&B Tour of the Year:
The Weeknd, “After Hours Til Dawn Stadium Tour”

Pop Tour of the Year:
Benson Boone, “American Heart World Tour”

Country Tour of the Year:
Chris Stapleton, “All-American Road Show” (TIE)
Lainey Wilson, “Whirlwind World Tour” (TIE)

Latin Tour of the Year:
Bad Bunny, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour”

Comedy Tour of the Year:
Adam Sandler, “You’re My Best Friend Tour”

Support/Special Guest of the Year:
Olivia Dean, “Sabrina Carpenter: Short n’ Sweet Tour”

Residency of the Year:
Eagles, Sphere, Las Vegas, NV

Family, Event or Non-Music Tour of the Year:
Dancing With the Stars

New Headliner of the Year:
Teddy Swims

Music Festival of The Year (Global; over 30K attendance):
Austin City Limits Music Festival, Austin, TX

Music Festival of The Year (Global; under 30K attendance):
Ohana Festival, Dana Point, CA

International Music Festival of The Year:
Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, UK

Nightclub of the Year:
Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA

Theatre of the Year:
Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY

Arena of the Year (U.S. Only):
Sphere, Las Vegas, NV

Arena of the Year (Outside the U.S.):
The O2 – London, London, UK

Red Rocks Award – Outdoor Concert Venue of the Year:
Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA

Stadium of the Year (U.S. Only):
Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, NV

Stadium of the Year (Outside the U.S.):
Wembley Stadium, London, UK

Casino/Resort Venue of the Year:
Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, CT

New Concert Venue of the Year:
The Pinnacle, Nashville, TN

Venue Executive of the Year:
Laurie Jacoby, Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY

Talent Buyer of the Year:
Del Williams, Danny Wimmer Presents

Small Venue Talent Buyer of the Year (Under 10,000 Capacity):
Joe Moallempour, Danny Wimmer Presents

Bill Graham Award / Promoter of the Year:
Arthur Fogel, Live Nation

International Promoter of the Year:
Erik Hoffman, Live Nation Canada

Bobby Brooks Award – Agent of the Year:
Darryl Eaton, Creative Artists Agency

International Booking Agent of the Year:
Emma Banks, Creative Artists Agency UK

Booking Agency of the Year:
Creative Artists Agency

Independent Booking Agency of the Year (Global):
Independent Artist Group (IAG)

Rising Star Award:
Gade Raftery, Live Nation

Personal Manager of the Year:
Coran Capshaw, Red Light Management

Maxie Solters Award – Touring Publicist of the Year:
Rebecca Shapiro, Shore Fire Media

Marketing Executive of the Year:
Allison McGregor, Creative Artists Agency

Road Warrior of the Year:
Chris Risner, Metallica

Transportation Company of the Year:
Upstaging

Concert Visuals Company of the Year:
4Wall Entertainment

Concert Sound Company of the Year:
L-Acoustics

Tour Services Company of the Year:
Master Tour

In transitioning from a standalone story to a multi-season anthology, all shows in the genre Ryan Murphy took mainstream with “American Horror Story” face the same existential question. If a series isn’t defined by a stable set of characters or locations, what does define it? For HBO’s “The White Lotus,” the answer is wealthy people trying and failing to outrun their problems at various outposts of a luxury hotel chain. For FX’s “Fargo,” it’s the battle between moral turpitude and folksy common decency across the American Midwest. 

For Netflix’s “Beef,” the 2023 hit and Emmys darling that starred Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as enraged enemies, its core essence appears to be right there in the name. Wherever creator Lee Sung Jin took the concept next, a bitter rivalry would presumably be its driving force, just as Wong and Yeun’s searing anti-platonic chemistry powered Season 1 through some tonal bumps and big swings. And unlike “Feud,” the Murphy show with a confusingly similar name and concept, “Beef” could do so without the constricting tethers of a real-life inspiration. 

Three years later, Season 2 seems to reintroduce itself along these established lines. The biggest difference, in line with all the attention and acclaim received by Season 1, is one of scale: rather than two individuals on a collision course across class and gender lines, we now have two couples. Josh (Oscar Isaac) and Lindsay (Carey Mulligan) are aging hipsters who’ve traded cool, creative careers in music and interior design for a cushy gig running a Montecito beach club — Josh as general manager, Lindsay as his de facto lieutenant. Austin (Charles Melton) and Ashley (Cailee Spaeny) are two low-level employees at the club who decide to blackmail the older couple into promotions when they catch the pair on video in a nasty, violent fight. The millennial-Gen Z generational divide, both sides fighting over scraps of a shrinking pie while still in smiling, obsequious service to aging boomers, is an enticing hook made more so by meta casting. Isaac and Mulligan are experienced film stars, while Melton and Spaeny are more recent breakouts. All four are executive producers. 

But over eight episodes, “Beef” loses focus and overcrowds this already expanded premise. By the closing credits, Season 2 is no longer mainly about the acrimony between its antiheroes and what it brings out from within them. Which begs the question: even if a follow-up allows Lee to attract bigger names and film in far-flung locations (more on that shortly), was “Beef” ultimately worth turning into a franchise?

Doubling the personalities would be a tall enough order in itself. Yet Season 2 soon reveals it’s not really the story of two couples, but three. The club has recently been acquired by a South Korean billionaire, Chairwoman Park (Oscar winner Youn Yuh-Jung of “Minari”), who’s less preoccupied with her new toy than the hand tremors threatening the livelihood of her much younger husband, plastic surgeon Dr. Kim (“Parasite” star Song Kang-ho, so rarely seen that the role is a glorified cameo). The new bosses’ high-class problems are always tertiary to the Josh-Lindsay-Ashley-Austin quadfecta and never stop feeling tacked-on, even when plot contrivances transport the entire ensemble to Seoul for the finale. But they’re just present enough to distract from the core conflict, transforming the season from a group character study into a corporate espionage thriller such that neither half feels fully fleshed-out.

It’s a shame, because before they peter out, there are threads worth following. Lee has a gift for crafting characters who ride the edge between loathsome and pathetic; you feel just enough for these people to keep watching, and enjoying, their self-inflicted suffering. Josh and Lindsay’s carefree youth has curdled into a tangle of resentments over squandered money and lost potential, with their dachshund Burberry  — it’s a good joke! — the thin layer of glue keeping the sexless relationship together. Ashley and Austin are only 18 months into their courtship and newly engaged, but there are already cracks in their freshly laid foundation. A former college football player, Austin is struggling to reinvent himself as a personal trainer, while Ashley clings to the prospect of motherhood as a salve for her abandonment issues. (Her extortion of Josh is motivated by a need for health insurance to fund an ovarian cyst surgery.) Both seem more anxious about holding onto their first love than actually enamored with each other. 

Just as Season 1 was a sociological cross section of Asian-American Los Angeles and its many subcultures, Season 2 gets specific with another corner of Southern California. Josh and Lindsay live in Ojai, the hippie mountain town turned increasingly yuppie enclave; Austin and Ashley are in more working-class Oxnard. None of them can actually afford to live near their jobs around Santa Barbara, a common trend with service workers employed in what’s increasingly a retirement community for well-heeled baby boomers. 

But rather than dig into this dynamic, Season 2 represents the club’s clientele through a single VIP, Troy (William Fichtner), and his trophy wife Ava (Mikaela Hoover). Most of “Beef”’s satirical ire is instead reserved for those lower down the food chain: Josh’s unctuous sycophancy (Lindsay says he’s good at his job as an insult), Lindsay’s posh permafrost (she thinks Park deeming her aesthetic “colonial” is a compliment), and most uncomfortably, Austin and Ashley’s stupidity. (He thinks “misc.” on an invoice is a typo for “mist”; she makes sense of a 1 to 10 pain scale by reasoning it’s “like Letterboxd.”) 

Given their youth and economic precarity, the show’s contempt for Austin and Ashley can tip into the mean-spirited, even if it’s not exclusive to them. Ashley complains that she worked “nine whole hours” at her new job, a “kids these days” stereotype that’s the most basic form of generational humor. Regardless, the performances are uniformly, and unsurprisingly, excellent. There are no great discoveries here, á la Young Mazino in Season 1 — just professionals demonstrating why their success is so justified. Melton, for example, follows up his revelatory turn in “May December” with another young man in a toxic relationship whose emotions are inscrutable to himself but painfully obvious to the viewer.

In fact, this expanded version of “Beef” has so many centers of gravity that the whole enterprise starts feeling adrift. At the season’s halfway mark, Ashley vows to “take” Josh “down” by any means necessary. The line gives the feeling of the plot locking into place. (Where’s the beef? Here!) Except little ever comes of it. “Beef” has to attend to the internal dynamics of the marriages, plus the initially vestigial but increasingly overpowering storyline about Park and Kim’s plastic surgery clinic. A finale set piece there is riveting and directed with flair by series stalwart Jake Schreier; the scene still feels disconnected from the preceding buildup. Dr. Kim and his physical decline are introduced at the end of Episode 2 in an abrupt escalation of stakes. Despite some gestures at Austin exploring his half-Korean heritage through a flirtation with Park’s assistant Eunice (Seoyeon Jang), the subplot is never smoothly incorporated.

Once the animosity between Josh, Ashley and their significant others fades into the background, it’s increasingly difficult to discern what Lee wanted to say with their juxtaposition. Is it that all couples outside the 0.01% will crack under financial pressure in time? Is it that the middle-aged envy and want to sabotage the innocence of fresh-faced twentysomethings? Or is it that Season 1 was successful enough to demand a sequel, regardless of how much Lee’s current interests aligned with the “Beef” framework? Season 1 of “Beef” was an original idea that took off on the strength of its own merits, not a brand name. Perhaps that was the magic worth attempting to replicate.

All eight episodes of ‘Beef’ Season 2 are now streaming on Netflix. 

They’re here.

Steven Spielberg premiered a new trailer at CinemaCon on Wednesday for “Disclosure Day,” his return to summer blockbuster filmmaking after a decade mostly spent making personal dramas (“The Fabelmans”) and prestige fare (“West Side Story”). The film’s plot has been shrouded in secrecy, but it involves visitors from another planet and a vast government conspiracy to cover up their arrival. It’s a genre that has been good to Spielberg over the years, inspiring classics such as “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and hits like his remake of “War of the Worlds.”

Here he’s supported by a starry cast that includes Emily Blunt as a weather reporter with a connection to otherworldly visitors; Josh O’Connor as a man with evidence that we’ve made contact; and Colin Firth as a nefarious bureaucrat who will stop at nothing to keep our heroes from going public. Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo round out the ensemble. David Koepp, who penned “Jurassic Park,” wrote the script. Spielberg called the sci-fi premise “closer to truth” than you might think.

“I’ve been curious ever since I was a little kid with what was happening in the night sky,” Spielberg said.

He noted that there has been increasing evidence that unidentified flying objects are real, referencing a 2017 report in the New York Times on a secret Pentagon program to investigate these mysterious sightings.

“The world became more accepting of the fact that we probably are not alone,” Spielberg said. The director’s certainty that intelligent life is out there has only grown in the nearly 50 years between the release of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Disclosure Day.”

“I believe this movie is going to answer questions and this movie is going to cause a lot of people to ask a lot of questions,” Spielberg said. “All you need to get from beginning to end is a seat belt,” he added.

There was lots of that Spielbergian sweep on display in the footage that he presented on Wednesday. Blunt and O’Connor crash through a farm house while evading government agents and later climb onto a speeding train. As for the aliens, they are glimpsed fleetingly. A ship (is it a flying saucer?) starts to materialize out of an ink-black sky; a hand that is definitely not human reaches up to caress a face. But do they come in peace?

At CinemaCon, Motion Picture Association CEO Charlie Rivkin presented a visibly emotional Spielberg with a “one-time honor, the America 250 award,” which was followed by a conversation between Domingo and his “Disclosure Day” director. It marks Spielberg’s first visit to the exhibition industry trade show.

“I promise you this will not be my last,” Spielberg promised after receiving a standing ovation.

Spielberg wasn’t just in promotional mode. He came with advice about how to sustain an art form he loves. That started with a plea to keep movies in theaters longer before debuting them on home entertainment platforms. To that end, he praised Universal, the studio behind “Disclosure Day,” for its recent decision to increase the number of days its films are in cinemas from as few as 17 to 45.

“Audiences will find what they want to watch, whether the films are big or small, but studios need to help us by greatly expanding the exclusive windows like [Universal Entertainment chief] Donna Langley just did,” Spielberg said to loud applause. “Today I’ve got to be greedy. Do I hear 60 days? Do I hear 120 days?”

Spielberg stressed that studios like Universal need to keep investing in original films like “Disclosure Day” instead of reboots, sequels and spinoffs.

“If all we make is known, branded IP, we’re going to run out of gas,” Spielberg said. “There is nothing more important than giving the audience visual stories, and they can be in any form, but we need to tell more original stories.”

But will “Disclosure Day” prove that audiences want something new and different or will it struggle to draw crowds to a movie that isn’t based on a comic book or a video game? We’ll find out if Spielberg is right when it opens on June 12.

After opening new offices in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina this year, Netflix is now turning its attention to Colombia.

Francisco Ramos, Netflix’s VP of original content, Latin America, was at the 65th Cartagena Film Festival (FICCI) to present four key initiatives aimed at bolstering the country’s audiovisual industry and give a sneak peek of Season 2 of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” the streamer’s most ambitious series in the region.

 “To us, telling stories in Colombia is just the beginning. We want the experience of producing on a large scale – as we’ve done with ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ – to leave a positive impression on the creative industry. Today, the goal is to continue driving this growth so that the local ecosystem becomes increasingly robust, competitive and sustainable,” said Ramos, noting that Netflix was marking its 15th anniversary in Latin America, where it produced three out of its first five original local language shows.

In an exclusive interview with Variety, he pointed out that while Colombia has shown immense potential, it remains vital that Netflix provide not just financial support, but also the resources to execute artistic and technical craftsmanship.

“Otherwise, there’s a risk of a bubble: lots of production without quality, ambition or proper execution. The talent exists and with the initiatives we’ve been doing — and the new ones we’re launching — we’re emphasizing the need for more people to develop their craft. This will allow not only more diverse stories but also a deeper understanding of Colombia’s complexity: multiple large cities, diverse cultures, Caribbean, Pacific, central regions, and borders with several countries. On the technical side, people have always had the knowledge, but lacked resources. Now, we provide the tools and opportunities to fully develop their expertise.”

“I really believe it’s crucial for talented people to feel they can succeed in their own country. I’d be concerned if talented Colombians felt that to succeed in any craft — production design, costume, makeup, VFX, cinematography or production — they had to leave the country. People should have the option, especially in such a culturally rich country like Colombia, to build their careers at home.”

The four new training initiatives are:

Opera Prima Lab Film & Series:

Developed in partnership with FICCI, it will focus on guiding emerging filmmakers who are developing their first feature film or series. Alongside Netflix, the program “offers specialized mentorship in storytelling, essential production tools, and access to the FICCI programming, aimed at continuing to build our capacity to tell our own stories,” said Mónica Moya, FICCI industry director.

“There are extraordinary new filmmakers emerging — when I say “small,” I mean their films are small in scale, not in vision. Many of these movies wouldn’t be made without incentives, so we’re building the infrastructure to give these filmmakers access to people who can help make their projects more extraordinary, unique and individual,” Ramos asserted.

“It’s interesting because some might think our efforts are self-serving, but many of these films may never even end up on Netflix — and that’s perfectly fine. These filmmakers or writers could later work on a show with us or bring a project to us. I genuinely feel that when a film gets made because of the resources and support we provide — even if we’re technically competitors — it validates the ecosystem we’re building,” he added.

Lab Macondo 3:

In partnership with the Colombian Film Academy, led by Cristina Umaña, actress and President of the Colombian Film Academy, the Lab builds on earlier editions focused on literary adaptation and production design. Now in its third iteration, it centers on executive production as the bridge between creative vision and project sustainability, with most of its 24 participants hailing from across Colombia’s regions.

“Developing the craft of production designers — similar to the way exceptional designers in Mexico are recognized globally — will be hugely beneficial here. For example, many art directors who worked on ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ with Bárbara Enríquez are now joining us and even our competitors as production designers, because they now understand and can bring this level of vision to a project,” Ramos noted.

Audiovisual Industry Provider Training Program: 80 companies will be participating in this initiative in partnership with local producers association ASOCINDE, which will focus on fortifying the capabilities of companies to develop and produce content, said its president Diego F. Ramírez. “Every link in the chain is essential for content to reach audiences across borders; that is why the program promotes the development of skills, services and logistical capabilities that enable us to take our productions further.”

BAMMERS: Developed alongside promotional entity Proimágenes Colombia as part of the Bogotá Audiovisual Market (BAM), the initiative backs a new generation of Latin American producers by providing them with tools and connections to develop projects with international appeal.

“Opportunities make the difference, and these training programs pave the way for them. Initiatives like BAMMERS provide access to international experts, allow for the sharing of experiences, and connect participants with producers currently active in the industry. It’s a unique opportunity — one that’s often found not in universities, but in real life — and this is the first step,” said Claudia Triana, executive director of Proimágenes.

This initiative builds on the momentum led by “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” which marked a milestone for Colombia’s industry, not only for its cultural significance but also for its economic impact. Injecting close to $60 million into the national economy, it was a gargantuan production that involved building the mythical village of Macondo, which spanned over 5,812,506 square feet and tapped thousands of local talent and resources.

The 65th Cartagena Film Festival runs April 14- 19.