Candice Frederick

Sinéad O’Connor as seen in "Nothing Compares"
Sheila Rock Photography
Amid today’s stan culture, there’s too often a lack of curiosity when it comes to understanding the context around a pop culture phenomenon. Some artists are “canceled” without having the full information around their alleged offense, while others are propped up with little regard for their offenses.
It wasn’t much different years ago. For Sinéad O’Connor, the singer-songwriter who became an icon in the early ’90s, it was a...

Florence Pugh and Harry Styles as the deliriously happy couple Alice and Jack in "Don't Worry Darling."
Courtesy of Warner Bros.
There are times when the conversation around a film prior to its release is so loud and ridiculous that it could drown out a far more interesting dialogue around an otherwise superb movie. Then there’s the case of the Olivia Wilde-directed “Don’t Worry Darling,” around which rumors of cast firings, an on-set romance, and on- and off-set tension have swirled for the ...

A still from Hulu's "Reboot

ILLUSTRATION: JIANAN LIU/HUFFPOST; PHOTO: MICHAEL DESMOND/HULU

The new Hulu comedy series “Reboot” is a curious product of this particular cultural era. It follows the reboot of a fictional early 2000s family sitcom, “Step Right Up,” and the tensions it places on its dysfunctional cast and crew.

Among the stars of the show (and show within a show) are Keegan-Michael Key, Judy Greer and Johnny Knoxville, whose characters begrudgingly sign on for the reboot after man...

(From left) Tamara Lawrance and Letitia Wright star as Jennifer and June Gibbons in "The Silent Twins" film in theaters Sept. 16.
Lukasz Bak/Focus Features
The story of June and Jennifer Gibbons remains as confounding as ever — even with multiple on-screen and print iterations.
The identical twins spent most of their lives mirroring each other’s every move. They only spoke to each other, not even their family, in a language they stitched together on their own (a blend between their native Bar...

Stills from "The Menu" and "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery."
Illustration: HuffPost; Photos: Getty/Netflix/20th Century Studios
We have reached an awkward point in pop culture when roasting the rich on-screen, or even simply attaching the “obscenely” descriptor to this elite segment of the population, is considered a satisfying enough rebuke of corrupt capitalism that favors white people above all others. Add a kooky murder, an A-list cast, and bone-dry humor and you might even have yourse...

Sheryl Lee Ralph (left) and Quinta Brunson in the ABC sitcom "Abbott Elementary."
Prashant Gupta/ABC via Getty Images
You shouldn’t have to read this piece. And, for what it’s worth, I didn’t want to write it. But it seems Emmy voters have decided to go the way of the status quo and not award one of the most beloved sitcoms of the year, “Abbott Elementary,” with the best comedy series trophy Monday night.
But its loss shouldn’t be all that surprising. After all, it’s kind of the Emmys’ thing....

It’s always a little bittersweet whenever you tout the Emmys for a notable first (i.e. first Black actor to win X award or the first female-led series to win X major award). Because as nice as it is, it’s also incredibly embarrassing that the bar is so low. Because the pleasant shock is almost always followed by a valid question along the lines of: What the hell took so long?
That came to mind yet again Monday night when Sheryl Lee Ralph and Jennifer Coolidge, inarguable screen and stage lege...

Marie Andre with photos of son George Desdunes
Laylah Amatullah Barayn
Ask anyone you know their thoughts around hazing, and you’ll likely get a variety of astute yet conflicted responses. That’s not because there’s a question of whether inflicting bodily harm on someone, sometimes to the point of death, is wrong.
Rather, it’s the context surrounding it that people struggle with — the desire to fulfill a long legacy of Greek life in college, belong to a fellowship that is particularly tethere...

An archival image of Sidney Poitier in "Sidney."
Courtesy of Apple TV Plus
Often it’s almost impossible to have a real conversation about a venerable figure amid today’s stan culture — and even sometimes frustratingly discouraged. That’s especially true when it comes to older Black icons who paved the way for those who came after them, and whose less comfortable truths are often pushed aside out of respect.
But director Reginald Hudlin’s “Sidney,” which explores the life and career of the lat...

First row, from left: Lashana Lynch, Viola Davis, Shelia Atim; second row, from left: Sisipho Mbopa, Lone Motsomi, Chioma Umeala

Ilze Kitshoff/Sony Pictures Entertainment

It’s fitting that the first image I see when Gina Prince-Bythewood signs on for our video call is a photo of herself as a little girl. She’s running a few minutes behind from her last interview, so she doesn’t quite have her camera set up when we first meet, virtually, face to face.

I asked her the typical Zoom starter quest...

To make a great radio hit in 1994, it often came down to marketing — from the perfectly packaged music video and the artist’s image, to their uniformed styling or choreography. Essentially, whatever was amenable to popular culture.
Think Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You,” Ace of Base’s “The Sign,” Aerosmith’s “Crazy” and Salt-N-Pepa featuring En Vogue’s “Whatta Man.” These were and remain classic songs; they also were made to fit neatly inside the nebulous realm of pop music.
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Trevante Rhodes (second from right) and Russell Hornsby (far right) as boxer Mike Tyson and promoter Don King in the Hulu series "Mike."
Patti Perret/Hulu
It doesn’t take very long for “Mike” to really go off the rails. And despite the personal grievances of former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, on whom the show is based, that’s not due to the fact that creator and screenwriter Steven Rogers didn’t go through him for clearance.
There is a fundamental storytelling issue throughout the...

Clockwise from left: Lily James as Pamela Anderson in "Pam & Tommy," Janet Jackson in "Janet Jackson," Trevante Rhodes as Mike Tyson in "Mike," Jennifer Lopez in "Halftime," Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in "Blonde."
Illustration: Chris McGonigal/HuffPost; Photos: Hulu/Netflix/A+E Networks
It’s been less than a month since former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson first posted his contempt for Hulu moving forward with “Mike,” the upcoming miniseries based upon his life, without consultin...

From left: Quei Tann, Cooper Koch, Austin Crute, and Darwin del Fabro in "They/Them."
Josh Stringer/Blumhouse Productions
Recent mainstream horror has an exploitation problem. Sadly, that’s often traced to the exquisite 2017 film “Get Out,” which with all its sublimity, subtlety and actual nuance, should have raised the bar. But it somehow opened the floodgates for a slew of identity horror knockoffs — from “Them” to “Antebellum” — that are shallow, sloppy copycats.
“They/Them” is the latest ...

If you were anywhere near a TV in the summer of 1999, images from the hellfire that was Woodstock were inescapable. The renowned three-day rock and roll festival, which once promoted messages of peace and love in its hippie era of 1969, turned into all-out anarchy at the end of the ’90s, complete with drug-fueled riots, arson, vandalism and rampant rape.
Or as a few of the folks in Netflix’s new docuseries “Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99” describe it: It was like “the fall of Hanoi” or “Lord of th...