South Sudanese rebels have approved a peace deal with Juba that is expected to be formally signed at a summit of regional leaders.
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed, who is mediating the negotiations, said rebels had signed a key document aimed at ending the country’s devastating five-year civil war on Thursday.
“By signing this document today, we have reached the conclusion of these negotiations, which consisted of two rounds, one about the outstanding issues and the other on the subsequent issues,” Ahmed told reporters in Khartoum.
“The final signing of the peace deal will happen at a summit of IGAD,” he added.
Rebel leader Riek Machar had caused anxiety among negotiators on Tuesday by refusing to sign, but the agreement went ahead.
Remaining rebels concerns are expected to be fully addressed later by the East African regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).
The rebels had differences over the functioning of a proposed transitional government, how many states the country should be divided into, and on the writing of a new constitution.
The peace deal agreed earlier this month allowed for the creation of a transitional government.
“The concerns of these parties will be discussed at IGAD summit,” Ahmed said.
The warring parties have already inked several agreements, including a permanent ceasefire and a power-sharing deal that will see Machar return as first vice president.
Years of civil war have left tens of thousands of people dead and millions displaced [AP]
Civil war
Sudan has been instrumental in brokering peace talks between South Sudan’s warring factions.
South Sudan descended into civil war in 2013, shortly after independence in 2011, after President Salva Kiir accused Machar, then his deputy, of plotting a coup.
Years of civil war has left tens of thousands of people dead, and about 4 million South Sudanese have fled the fighting.
Previous agreements have collapsed after warring parties failed to respect them and numerous ceasefires have been broken.
South Sudan resumed pumping 20,000 barrels a day of crude oil from the Toma South oilfield last week, where production had been suspended since 2013 due to the civil war.
Income from oil accounts for 98 percent of the country’s budget.
Nathan Lane first encountered Simon at the age of 11, when a play-of-the-month club sent him The Odd Couple to read, and he promptly devoured it hidden between the pages of his geography textbook. But the Tony-winning actor’s professional association with the playwright began in 1987, when he portrayed Stanley in the first national tour of Broadway Bound, the final installment in Simon’s trio of autobiographical plays.
Lane then went on to originate the role of Max Prince in 1993’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor and breathe new life into Oscar Madison opposite Matthew Broderick’s Felix Ungar in a 2005 revival of one of Simon’s biggest hits, The Odd Couple, bringing him full circle.
In the wake of Simon’s death on Saturday, EW called up Lane to reminisce about the legend, what their working relationship was like, and why Simon meant so much to him throughout his career.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You’ve starred in three of Neil Simon’s plays. What do you think it is about his voice that was such a good fit for you? NATHAN LANE: He had a very specific way of writing. Like with any great writer, it’s like music and you have to observe the notes and you have to honor what it is he’s writing – the grammar and the punctuation, it’s all very important because he put a lot of thought into that. Anyone who is good with language would be a good fit for Neil Simon. In many ways, his writing does a lot of the work for you.
He often said, from his point of view, he was writing dramas with comic moments in them. The most important thing with his material was always play it as you would a serious play and allow Neil to do his work. People will laugh because of his incredible skill in capturing whatever the dilemma the character is going through, and it’s not about trying to make him funny. He’s already done all of that, and you just have to play the truth of the situation and the seriousness of it.
Of the shows you did, do you have a favorite and why? Each one is a very fond memory. Broadway Bound may be my favorite play of his. It may be the best play he ever wrote. It was the national tour so I auditioned, and he was there in the theater, but I didn’t get to meet him. I didn’t really meet him until several months later at the opening night in Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theatre. There was a knock at the door after the show and I opened it and there he was — taller than I had imagined, with his famous horn-rimmed glasses, and he had that sort of Mona Lisa smile that said, I know something you don’t know and I’m probably going to write a play about it. He probably sensed my nervousness and fear in meeting him for the first time. He was very kind and gracious. He was very sweet about the whole thing, and tried to make me feel good about what I had done. I was very relieved.
And Laughter on the 23rd Floor? Laughter on the 23rd Floor was exciting because it was a new play. Getting to originate a role in a new Neil Simon play was a dream come true. I had the thrill of going out-of-town with him and watching him in action and seeing his rewrites. He would constantly rewrite, making it better and figuring out the play in front of audiences. I was originally asked to play one of the comedy writers. Then, at the last-minute, they had a reading of it. They were going to get a big, burly actor to play the Sid Caesar character. [The play is inspired by Simon’s years writing for The Show of Shows and comic Sid Caesar.] Sid Caesar was 6’2”, 250 pounds. They asked me to read the role of Max Prince, the character based on Sid. Just for the purpose of the reading they felt I would bring the right energy to it. So, we did the reading, and it went very well and then they said to me, “Well, now, we can’t see anybody else playing this part.” Neil said to me, “What you lack in height, you make up for in anger.”
The last Simon play you did was the 2005 revival of The Odd Couple. When I was 11 years old, I had joined a play of the month club called the Fireside Theatre and the first play I received was The Odd Couple. I took it to school with me and during geography class stuck it in the textbook and was reading it and quietly laughing. That particular play has always been meaningful to me. Many years later, I was doing a tribute for him, the Kennedy Center Honors [in 1995]. I read Oscar Madison’s tirade about Felix’s annoying habits. Eight years later, Neil wrote me a beautiful note saying he was remembering my performance of that speech and he wanted to see me do the whole thing in a revival of The Odd Couple. He’d been holding onto the rights in the hope that I would do that. I remember having that copy of the play that I had hidden in a textbook when I was 11, that I sheepishly brought in and asked him to sign it. It’s certainly a classic American comedy of the 20th century. It was an honor just to be asked to do it.
Do you have a favorite memory of him? I’ve played a small part in his remarkable career, but he’s not someone who I really got to know on a personal level. Whenever I was with him, I felt 11 years old. He was always very kind to me and appreciative. I never wanted to let him down or disappoint him. When I did well by him, it was incredibly gratifying because you felt you were pleasing the master. It was mainly this working relationship. It was one of mutual admiration and a tremendous amount of respect, and, on my part, trying to honor his work and to live up to that.
He could be funny, obviously. He wasn’t on in the way that Mel Brooks is constantly, relentlessly funny and entertaining. With Neil, [it was] if something [occurred] to him. We were in my dressing room once and we were discussing a scene. He kept looking over at this humidifier on the dressing table. It was a big, blue water-filled tank from which steam would slowly and steadily rise. At the end, he goes, “Alright I’ll see you later” and then he went to the door, turned back, and, with perfect timing, he pointed to the tank and very seriously said, “By the way Nathan, I think your fish is dead.” He could be funny when he wanted to be, but it was mainly about the work. It was doing the work because it was serious business.
You just completed the run of Angels in America at the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway — did you ever feel that had some sort of poetic resonance? [Laughs] No, I didn’t really. He’s one of the rare people in the theater. He’s a giant. It’s one of those careers that is really unparalleled. Certainly, he was incredibly deserving of that honor. When we did Laughter on the 23rd Floor, in that same season, Perestroika [Part Two of Angels in America] debuted. Frank Rich, the last two reviews of his career as a critic — he reviewed Laughter on the 23rd Floor and Perestroika. So, it does bring back memories then to be acting in it myself. I’m just very proud to have played a small part in his career and been a part of it. It’s something I will always treasure.
The Australian Catholic Church has rejected a recommendation to implement laws forcing priests and other members of the Church to report sexual abuse.
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC), the country’s top Catholic body, said on Friday it will not break the seal of confession, one of the core beliefs of the catholic faith, even if that means the clergy might face criminal charges.
“First of all, the seal is a non-negotiable of our religious life, and it embodies a particular understanding of the believer and God,” ACBC president archbishop Mark Coleridge said at a press conference.
“We don’t believe it will make children safer, and in certain cases we think it could make children less safe. Any suggestion that a perpetrator may, in fact, confess is removed all but certainly by the imposition of a law such as this,” he added, saying that most confessions are done anonymously and do not go into much detail.
About seven percent of Australian priests were accused of sexual abuse between 1950 and 2011, according to a five-year-long inquiry by Australian authorities into the large-scale abuse by members of the Catholic Church.
The inquiry added that more than 4,400 people reported abuse, with the average age of the victim being almost 11 for girls and almost 12 for boys.
The Catholic Church is trying to deal with thousands of cases of sexual abuse around the world.
More than 1,000 children were molested by hundreds of Roman Catholic priests in six dioceses just in the US state of Pennsylvania alone.
Last week, Pope Francis addressed victims of sexual abuse in Ireland, saying he felt shame over the Catholic Church’s failure to prevent sexual abuse by members of the clergy. He also referred to abusers as “repugnant”.
In Australia, one state and a territory have introduced laws making it a crime for priests to fail to report abuse heard in the confessional after the inquiry released its findings.
The other five states and remaining territory have said they are considering their response.
The ACBC’s response agreed to a recommendation by the inquiry to request The Vatican to create a new set of Catholic laws specifically dealing with child abuse.
“All delicts relating to child sexual abuse should be articulated as canonical crimes against the child, not as moral failings or as breaches of the ‘special obligation’ of clerics and religious to observe celibacy,” the ACBC wrote in its report.
Last month, an Australian archbishop was sentenced to a year in detention for concealing historical sexual abuse, becoming the highest-ranking Catholic clergyman to face confinement for a cover-up.
Philip Wilson, former president of the ACBC, was found guilty of covering up the sexual abuse of children by paedophile priest Jim Fletcher in May, which he allegedly knew about as early as the 1970s.
That sentencing came as Australian Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s third-highest-ranking official, prepares to stand trial on charges of historical child sex offences later this year.
Both Pell and Wilson’s charges are the result of the five-year inquiry by the Australian authorities.
Stephen King has written an absolute eff-ton of books, novellas, and short stories in his time, but his most famous is likely The Shining. It’s a dark, sad tale of alcoholism, telepathy, and the danger of topiary sculptures best immortalized in the Stanley Kubrick film that cast Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, the anger-challenged author who attempted to murder his wife and child while under the influence of the haunted Overlook Hotel.
Since Castle Rock takes place in the same universe as many (and perhaps all) of King’s stories, it was a given that the show would connect somehow to The Shining, but until Episode 8 the only reference was the name and character of Diane “Jackie” Torrance — canonically Jack Torrance’s niece who renamed herself after her uncle to piss off her parent — the town’s resident crime enthusiast who longs for the weird old days when interesting (read: deadly) things happened in her hometown.
In Episode 8, Jackie finally became more than an easter egg when a new hotel opened in town and allowed her to live out her bloodiest dreams for reasons much better than her axe-happy uncle’s were.
The episode begins with the story of a disgraced professor and his cheating wife moving into deceased warden Dale Lacy’s old house with the intention of turning it into a murder-themed bed & breakfast, capitalizing on Castle Rock’s macabre past to draw in true crime fans. It’s a pretty neat idea, except for the fact that The Kid is roaming around town and dragging the bad old days with him, so inevitably the professor murders their first guests for no reason and his wife helps him hide the bodies.
Enter Jackie Torrance, whose curiosity about the new hotel’s theme brings her to the bed and breakfast right after the bodies are disposed of. After crimesplaining a few of their historic details to the professor and his wife (in a particularly heavy-handed moment, he remarks that Torrance “really knows her axes”), they shoo her away, but not before acting creepily enough to keep her interested.
Jackie’s love of a good murder and distrust of the couple comes in clutch in one of the episode’s later sequences, then Henry Deaver breaks into the B&B and is attacked by the knife-wielding couple. Just when it looks like the professor will take him out — whack. It’s Jackie Torrance standing triumphant over the attacker’s body, having killed him with, what else? A felling axe.
Having Jackie save Henry makes Episode 8 a tiny redemptive coda to the story of the Torrance family seen in The Shining. Jack was driven crazy by a hotel and tried to murder his family with an axe; Jackie used an axe to save someone from being murdered by hotel owners. It’s small, but as far as tying back into King’s stories it’s one of the more fun and direct nods to the continuity of his ever-expanding universe.
In court documents obtained by PEOPLE and first reported by The Blast on Thursday, attorney Michael Harris, who has been appointed to protect Conway’s interests amid his daughter Kelly and wife Charlene’s dispute over his health care, revealed the 84-year-old comedian is “unable to communicate” and is “suffering from fluid on the brain.”
“He showed no ability or willingness to talk and no apparent sign that he comprehended the nature of the Conservatorship or any of my statements to him,” explained Harris, who made a visit to Conway’s Canoga Park home on Aug. 28.
Kelly previously asked to be appointed the conservator of her father and be in charge of his medical treatments following his dementia diagnosis — out of fear that Charlene would not provide him the proper care.
However, in the documents, Harris stated Charlene is “obviously devoted” to her husband.
“She informed me that her motivation was to work with Jeffrey Cummings, MD, a renowned neurologist who is trying to deal with Mr. Conway’s past brain surgeries involving a shunt that failed and later a valve procedure to correct his neurological problems,” Harris explained.
“Her concern now is for Mr. Conway to receive proper physical therapy so that he can better improve neurologically. It is my present belief that Mrs. Conway, my client’s wife, is an adequate and appropriate steward of her husband’s well-being and that her motives regarding Mr. Conway are in his best interest,” he continued.
Harris also said Charlene, denies Kelly’s claim that she is “planning to move him out of the excellent skilled nursing facility he is currently at.”
As PEOPLE previously reported Kelly is seeking a temporary restraining order to stop the alleged move, according to documents obtained by The Blast.
In the documents, Kelly revealed her father is currently under 24-hour care and that moving him “will be harmful to his health and life.”
She also asked the court to grant her conservatorship or move up the hearing before Sep 1. because she believes Charlene will move him at the beginning of the month.
Kelly did not respond to PEOPLE’s request to comment further.
Fernando Alonso says he would be staying in Formula 1 if he had a winning car – but would not enjoy it as much as racing in another series.
The two-time world champion also, in an exclusive interview BBC Sport, renewed his criticism of the “too predictable” sport in which “only two teams can win”.
Alonso said: “I read I am stopping because I am not competitive, which is partly true.
“If I was winning all the races, I would continue. But it’s also true I would not be having the same fun as I am elsewhere.”
In a wide-ranging interview before the Italian Grand Prix, Alonso discussed:
How he feels about being considered to have had less success than his talent deserves
The difficulties of racing an uncompetitive car for the last five years
His feelings about modern F1
His view of Ferrari’s current success in the context of his five years with the team
His fascination with the Indianapolis 500
Highlights of his illustrious career
His emotions about leaving F1 after 17 years
On his career results
Alonso’s 32 Grand Prix victories put him sixth on the all-time list of winners, but last week Lewis Hamilton said the Spaniard was the best driver he had ever raced against and that it was a “shame” he had not had as much success as his talent deserved.
Alonso said: “Probably I don’t take the second part of what people have in their minds. I feel extremely lucky and privileged to have my achievements.
“I feel F1 and the sport gave me a lot and I don’t think too much on the downside of how many more championships I could have.
“It is true – maybe with five or seven points more I could be five times world champion. But on the other hand I could have zero world championships, and zero wins or zero podiums because F1 is an extremely competitive environment. So I just take the positives and I am happy with my achievements.”
On five years of no success
Alonso has not won a race since May 2013 and has been saddled with uncompetitive cars for the last five and half years.
He said it had been “tough” to face this situation, but added: “There is nothing you can do. You obviously believe in your team and their performance and their projects.
“Even if you have a difficult season, you still believe the following year will be better and a good one. It didn’t happen. It didn’t happen in Ferrari in the last years and it didn’t happen in McLaren the last four seasons.
“But even with that, or despite that, we still showed probably some commitment and determination to keep fighting, whatever the result was that particular weekend.
“And at the same time, thanks to this lack of performance, I explored different categories outside F1 and I discovered a beautiful thing with the Indy 500, or this year I am lucky to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“It is true I am eighth in the world championship and I will not fight for this year’s title. But right now in September, on the F1 grid I am the most successful driver because I won the Le Mans 24 Hours and even the title contenders now, they won nothing now.
“In November one of them will be world champion. The second one it will be a worse season than Fernando had. So maybe only one man will be happier than me in November. And I am happy for that.”
His feeling about modern F1
Alonso criticises F1 for being “too predictable”. He is referring to the domination of Mercedes and Ferrari, and those teams’ focus on Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, when he says that “only two teams or two drivers will win the Monza Grand Prix or Singapore or Abu Dhabi. The other [drivers] will just follow the recommendations of the engineers.”
But he also says the cars, the way the sport is structured politically, and even the length of the calendar are less than ideal.
“These cars are made to drive in a very efficient way, that you need to control the batteries and tyres and everything they need to tell you from the garage,” Alonso said.
“We see there are also a lot of B teams that don’t get in the way of the A team to don’t disturb too much and have all the benefits. That’s one thing.
“The calendar is tough – 21 races, most of them outside Europe. When I joined F1 I was 19 years old, full of energy. You had 16 grands prix and most of them in Europe. It was a demanding, tough life but now it is just total commitment and dedication to F1.
“Now at 37 years old and having already achieved some good results, it is time for me to finish F1 with a good feeling and good performance and taking my own decisions.”
Ferrari’s current success
Fernando Alonso did not win during his season with Minardi in 2001 and has not won in his second spell at McLaren, which began in 2015
Alonso left Ferrari at the end of 2014, despite their initial desire to extend his contract, because he believed that the team would never produce a competitive car in the time he had remaining in F1.
This year, Ferrari are fighting for wins with Mercedes, and Sebastian Vettel, who replaced Alonso, has a good chance of becoming world champion.
But asked whether he ever thought it should be him in the Ferrari, Alonso said: “I am not thinking about it, to be honest. If I was this year in that Ferrari, maybe I was fighting for the world championship and feeling competitive.
“But at the same time, if you look back and are honest, Mercedes was world champion in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, and in 2018 Mercedes is leading the championship.
“So how could I have been in 2018 still not winning a championship with Ferrari if already after five years I felt a lot of pressure and a lot of things were not going perfectly?
“Because if you are not winning with Ferrari, there are a lot of things going on. And already with five years I think it was enough. If this was my eighth year in F1 with Ferrari not winning, it is difficult to imagine.”
Retiring but still in the thick of the action: Alonso was sent airborne in a spectacular crash at the start of last weekend’s Belgian GP
Passion for the Indy 500
Alonso has not confirmed what he is doing next year, but he has been open about his desire to win the Indianapolis 500 and become only the second man in history after Graham Hill to complete motorsport’s unofficial ‘triple crown’ of F1 world title, Le Mans and Indy.
Alonso raced at Indy in 2017 and led 27 of the 200 laps before his engine failed in the closing stages while he was contending for victory.
Alonso said: “It is a race that [people] consider one of the biggest in motorsport. One of three biggest – Le Mans, Indy and Monte Carlo. So just for that reason it makes quite a special challenge.
“Second thing is the way I discovered last year the approach to the race, the way of driving those cars, the way of anticipating the tows, the overtaking manoeuvres. Everything is quite different to what we have in F1.
“And going out of that comfort zone we have here, [where] you have learnt probably everything you have to learn, and starting from zero, it was quite fascinating.
“I liked that feeling. And I am happy to work in the new categories and challenges that give you a sense of being alive again and start from zero.”
Alonso said he had not expected the explosion of global interest in his decision to race at Indy.
“It was a surprise from day one,” he said. “When we tested the car three weeks before the race and we had two million viewers on YouTube just one car running alone; that was the first surprise.
“And then we confirmed that feeling on the race weekend. From that moment, I think I realised I could have different things in my life, away from F1, and still have a huge impact on myself first as a person but also on the sport in general.”
Emotions about leaving F1
Alonso’s last grand prix will be in Abu Dhabi at the end of November. He said he had not thought how he would feel that weekend, but that he had already noticed his decision to leave had changed his attitude.
“It is going to be emotional because, so far, from the moment I decided to stop, all the parade laps, all the last couple of laps, the formation lap, everything about the weekend has been different, more emotional.
“I was taking care of everything, more details. I realised I was filming with my telephone the drivers’ parade in Spa. And when I saw the video at night, I was, ‘Why did I film seven minutes of drivers’ parade?’
“And I did it because I want to have that in my memory, and in Abu Dhabi it is going to be something like that, but huge.”
Highlights of his career
Who was his toughest rival?
“Michael [Schumacher]. Winning the two titles means a lot when Michael is on track but, apart from that, Michael was unstoppable.
“He was a man who fighting with him was tough because on a good day with a good car, he was unbeatable. With a bad day and a bad car, he was still there. He was special.”
Most difficult team-mate?
“Probably Lewis [Hamilton] in 2007. We only shared the team one year but he was quick, tough and difficult to beat.”
“Intensity, yes. Normally wet conditions, wet to dry, dry to damp, all this when you are fighting for a world championship there is no room for mistakes, and if you win that race it is an explosion of adrenaline and emotions.”
Best overtaking move?
“On television, 130R against Michael in Suzuka in 2005. But from the inside it was not that difficult, or it didn’t feel that difficult.”
Even though you overtook him around the outside at 207mph?
“Yes. It looks spectacular on TV, but the difficulty I would put more on the starts, like in Barcelona into Turn One. The level of difficulty in those manoeuvres was higher than 130R.”
A Ugandan pop star-turned-opposition lawmaker has been blocked from leaving for the United States for treatment on his injuries from alleged torture, his lawyers said.
Bobi Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was stopped while trying to board a flight at Entebbe airport on Thursday and police did not explain why, lawyer Asuman Basalirwa told The Associated Press.
He was then checked into a hospital in the capital, Kampala, in a “worrying condition”, said Basalirwa.
What’s behind the recent political unrest in Uganda? – Inside Story
Another lawyer, Nicholas Opiyo, said on Twitter that police “violently abducted” Ssentamu and put him into a police ambulance.
Any doctor who treats the singer without his consent is violating his or her oath and “will be personally pursued”, he added.
Ssentamu’s wife, Barbara, said in a Facebook post that security forces “manhandled” her husband, who “groaned in pain” as he shouted for help.
Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 36-year-old was freed on bail on Monday but faced no travel restrictions after he and more than 30 other lawmakers were arrested over an incident in which the president’s motorcade was pelted with stones and Ssentamu’s driver was shot dead.
A lawyer for the singer called the charge false.
The police action escalated a political dispute between the government of longtime President Yoweri Museveni and a youthful generation that fears he intends to rule for life after 32 years in power.
Ssentamu emerged as a powerful opposition voice among youth frustrated by Museveni, especially after the constitution was changed last year to remove an age limit on the presidency.
The singer won a parliament seat last year without the backing of a political party.
Dozens of global musicians including Chris Martin, Angelique Kidjo and Brian Eno last week issued an open letter condemning the treatment of Ssentamu, who in his first public appearance after his arrest had to walk with support and appeared to cry.
Earlier on Thursday, another lawmaker, Francis Zaake, was barred from boarding a plane to India, with authorities saying he was a suspect in a criminal case.
Government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo said on Twitter that Zaake, who has not been charged with any crime, escaped police custody “and should be arrested at the earliest”.
After the outcry over Ssentamu’s treatment at the airport, Opondo said both he and Zaake can travel “after government doctors have examined them to ascertain their medical conditions”.
Both men had been hospitalised with serious injuries they said they sustained at the hands of security forces during detention.
The speaker of Uganda’s parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, in a letter to Museveni this week described Zaake as “gravely ill” and said Ssentamu “has visible signs of torture and beatings”.
The government has denied the allegations of torture.
That’s one small step from Whiplash, and one giant leap away from La La Land.
Academy Award-winning director Damien Chazelle is moving away from musicals at light speed with the premiere of his historical drama, First Man, at the opening night of Venice Film Festival.
And critics are loving it.
The Neil Armstrong biopic stars Ryan Gosling as Armstrong, House of Cards‘ Corey Stoll as Buzz Aldrin, and The Crown‘s Claire Foy as Armstrong’s first wife, Janet Shearon. Based on early reviews, the star-studded cast is just one of the film’s many assets.
First Man will receive a U.S. wide release on October 12. In the meantime, check out what critics had to say about their early Venice viewing below.
It shows early space travel from a fragile, first-person POV
Chazelle is so successful at putting you inside the cold, claustrophobic spacecraft that Neil never truly leaves — we’re often just inches away from his face, whether behind a visor or not — that we’re sometimes at sea when it comes to understanding what exactly these men and why it’s so important. If you’d like to know the exact purpose of the Gemini 8 mission, look it up beforehand — “First Man” won’t tell you. It’s a kind of first-person procedural, less concerned with the nuts and bolts of these undertakings than one man’s experience of them.
The movie opens with the first of several white-knuckle sequences as Armstrong mans a solo test flight 140,000 feet off the ground, exiting and then re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere with a malfunctioning bounce on the way back. Chazelle immediately summons echoes of great space-exploration films from The Right Stuff to Gravity with the infernal noise and stomach-churning rattle of what seems like a tin can hurtling around in the void. The fragility of these vessels is a constant throughout. In what will become another recurring motif, there’s also a stirring tranquility in the interlude when Armstrong penetrates the atmospheric barrier. In scenes like this, Chazelle uses the beauty of sudden silence to tremendous effect.
The moon landing sans flag planting isn’t super patriotic
It is also a film that downgrades the patriotic fervour of the landing. Armstrong and his comrades are certainly shown to be deeply nettled by news of initial Soviet triumphs in the space race, but Chazelle abolishes the planting of the stars and stripes on the moon.
But amid all the things that “First Man” is, it’s also notable for what it is not. There’s minimal flag-waving here, making it a universal story about tenacity and sacrifice, rather than anything more overtly patriotic. That’s a good thing, but it means that politics are dialed right back in general, with only some Vietnam War footage playing on background TV screens and one moment in which Gil Scott-Heron‘s “Whitey On The Moon” sounds out, making a particularly pointed comment on the social context of the era. But then Chazelle is as little interested in that context as he is in the spiritual or philosophical potential of this story (this is a tale of lunar exploration in which a journalist’s question about “feeling the presence of God” is played for a laugh).
Gosling gives a tricky, compelling performance that grows on you. He plays Armstrong as a brainy go-getter who has learned to hold most of what he feels inside (he wrote musicals in college, and is now ashamed of it). Yet he lets out just enough emotion, especially when someone crosses him, to exude a quiet command. Shortly after he’s chosen to be a Gemini astronaut, Armstrong is strapped into a spherical training simulator that looks like a cross between a carnival ride and a medieval torture device. It turns you every which way at once, which results in each astronaut passing out, then running into the bathroom to throw up. But by the time Armstrong gets to ride a rocket in Gemini 8, the simulation turns real: His mission is to dock his capsule to an adjacent rocket, which happens without a hitch, but then everything goes haywire. The capsule starts “rolling left” (i.e., spinning out of the control). Gosling makes Armstrong a figure of intensely contained can-do moxie whose ability to guide a ship, especially when it’s at death’s door, is the essence of grace under pressure.
In one pivotal scene that predates Armstrong’s departure for the Apollo 11 mission, she snaps at his refusal to speak about the risks involved, and forces him to tell their kids he may never see them again. It’s a harrowing chat that Gosling half avoids through a press-conference style interview, his kids asking questions he laconically responds to, and in reinforcing a crucial rupture between First Man and Chazelle’s prior work, it crystallizes Gosling’s Armstrong as a far more fragile and intricate entry in the director’s pantheon of male heroes. “You’re a bunch of boys making models out of balsa wood,” Jan shouts to Neil’s superiors when things take a tragic turn. Watching Gosling struggling to hold the emotions in, a forced repression that can only be released away from other people’s eyes, her remarks reverberate with a sad echo. Contrasted with Jan’s indomitable and rational persona, there are moments when Gosling and his colleagues look like boys whose will to “make history” has trapped them in a protracted state of denial, and toy with vehicles whose lethal power is far clearer to their families than their own selves.
He announced the release of Kamikaze on Twitter: “Tried not 2 overthink this 1… enjoy,” Eminem wrote, adding a middle finger emoji.
The record contains 13 tracks — including the song “Venom,” which he wrote for the upcoming movie of the same name — and runs for approximately 45 minutes. Guest features include Joyner Lucas, Royce da 5’9″, and Jessie Reyes on two songs. Dr. Dre and Slim Shady are credited as executive producers.
The album art pays homage to the Beastie Boys’ legendary Licensed to Ill, showing a rudder from a jet plane. The rear side of the album shows the jet crashing into a wall, with the pilot flipping the bird.
“Shady punches back, and he’s naming names,” reads the album’s description on Apple Music.
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