‘Yellowjackets’: Director Liz Garbus Talks Shauna’s Baby, Being Inspired by ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and That Stick Figure

Louis Staples It was an earthquake that broke the pop-cultural Richter scale: the revelation that “Vanderpump Rules”stars Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss were having a secret seven-month affair behind the backs of their closest friends. But there was one of their co-stars who didn’t find the news of the affair quite so shocking: Lala Kent. Kent was the first cast member to suspect that Sandoval was cheating on Ariana Madix,  his girlfriend of nine years. Madix found out herself when she discovered an explicit video on Sandoval’s phone, and, as Variety detailed in a May 17 interview with “Vanderpump Rules” executive producer Alex Baskin, by the time TMZ broke the story on March 3, Bravo’s cameras were already at the Valley Village home she and Sandoval share to capture the fallout. Those astonishing scenes aired during last week’s season finale.

French director Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall premiered in Competition at Cannes over the weekend to a buzzy reception with its star Sandra Hüller being tipped as a front-runner for the festival’s coveted best actress prize.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Aki Kaurismäki, the deadpan cockeyed minimalist of Finland, has become the ultimate illustration of the principle that if you make movies in the same mood and style, with the same monosyllabic bombed-out hipster vibe, for a period of 30 years, your movies may not have changed — but the world around them has, so the films will have a totally different effect. In “Fallen Leaves,” the Kaurismäki bauble that’s showing at Cannes this year, there’s actually a scene in which a character uses a computer. The film’s heroine, Ansa (Alma Pöysti), loses her job as a supermarket worker, and to find another gig she rents an HP laptop at a makeshift Internet café that charges 10 Euro for half an hour. Apart from that, the movie unfolds in that scruffy and sparsely decorated so-familiar-it’s-cozy pre-tech Kaurismäki zone, where people still use electric adding machines or listen to a bulky kitchen radio that looks like it’s from the early ’60s. “Fallen Leaves” is set in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, but to our eyes it’s a weirdly underpopulated place where shopping, as a pastime, doesn’t exist, and neither, in any meaningful way, does conversation.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Mrs. Kasha Davis’ run on “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars” Season 8 was short-lived — the returning Season 7 alum was eliminated after just three episodes — but you haven’t seen the last of the queen. She can be found hosting Drag Story Hour. Drag Story Hour, a storytelling event for kids and teens, has been at the center of anti-drag and anti-trans legislation introduced by Republican lawmakers in the U.S in efforts to ban children from drag performances. Davis says the popularity of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and drag being in the mainstream is what creates fear among conservative Americans as the LGBTQ community comes under legislative attack and anti-queer hate crimes appear to be on the rise.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Hulu’s football docuseries “Algiers, America” reaches both an emotional and musical peak in its fifth and final episode. As the students of Edna Karr High School near graduation, one of their classmates, Keyron Ross, is killed by gun violence. The series profiles the New Orleans high school’s football team while also looking at the reality of gun violence, which has caused the players to lose both family members and teammates. For the show’s score, composer Chad Cannon threaded in a whirlwind of sound and emotion, with Labrinth’s “Euphoria” soundtrack serving as inspiration in the way that it fuses gospel, orchestral and electronic music. The importance of music in the series was particularly highlighted during Ross’ funeral.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This contains spoilers from “Yellowjackets” Season 2, now streaming on Showtime. Is adult Lottie Matthews OK? That’s the question asked by viewers at the start of Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” Season 2. Charlotte, as she calls herself, played by Simone Kessell (“Obi-Wan Kenobi,” “The Night Agent”), runs a “wellness center” or mental health retreat. She seems to be on a path to recovery after teen Lottie and her fellow Yellowjackets survived for 19 months in the wilderness. But, a closer look at Kessell’s character, who clads herself in lush silk caftans, visually reflects her descent into madness through the transition from marigolds and yellow to blue and darker shades.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers from “It Chooses,” Episode 8 of “Yellowjackets” Season 2, now streaming on Showtime. In the last moments of the Season 1 finale of “Yellowjackets,” viewers were tipped to the fact that Lottie was alive and well, and out there somewhere in the world. In the show’s second season, the adult version of Lottie, played by Simone Kessell, is revealed to be running a wellness center in Upstate New York — and there’s been an air of doubt around her. Can she be trusted or not? As it turns out, not. Lottie’s sessions with her therapist have been purely a figment of her imagination, and she’s still haunted by the Antler Queen, as well as her past in the wilderness.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Ari Aster‘s three-hour surrealist drama “Beau Is Afraid” marked a tonal shift from his nightmare-inducing films “Midsommar” and “Hereditary.” In the feature, which tackles inherited trauma and mommy issues, Joaquin Phoenix plays Beau, who finds himself on an Odyssean journey to return home after his mother’s untimely death. To score the film, Aster recruited “Midsommar” composer Bobby Krlic, but, unlike their last collaboration, creating the music of “Beau Is Afraid” was a “long and arduous process” as they worked to crack the sound of Beau’s journey. Here, the two discuss their collaboration and how one cue, “Suburban Dream,” helped unlock the film’s sonic landscape.

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has set a July 3rd global premiere for Unknown, a new four-part docuseries on which it’s partnered with Liz Garbus and Dan Cogan’s esteemed production company Story Syndicate that will have new films debuting weekly.

Marks and Spencer shoppers are loving a pair of sandals they are calling both 'versatile' and 'stylish'.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor It took a village of 10 visual effects houses, including Weta FX and Framestore, and 3066 visual effects shots to help bring James Gunn’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” to life over 15 months of post-production. From studying baby raccoons for the backstory of Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) to golden retrievers for talking dog Cosmo, the VFX supervisors spent months putting together the sequences — some with explosions and complex action, including the film’s already iconic two-minute one-shot scene timed perfectly to the beats of the Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep Till Brooklyn.” The teams break down the process behind some of their VFX magic and how they navigated some of the most challenging scenes.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Four-time Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood will reunite with Tim Burton for “Beetlejuice 2.” Atwood confirmed the news to Variety in an interview on Friday. Atwood is currently in London at work on the film, which is set to arrive in movie theaters next year. The costume designer said she had just finished her first week of production. As previously announced, Michael Keaton will be back as Beetlejuice, and Winona Ryder is reprising her role as Lydia Deetz. Additional cast members include “Wednesday” star Jenna Ortega as the daughter of Ryder’s character, as well as Justin Theroux in a yet-to-be-revealed role.

Shoppers have praised a pair of Primark sandals that strongly resemble a top designer's. The budget retailer is famous for its enormous amount of fashionable stock at affordable prices.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor How did writer-director Jim Strouse get Celine Dion to play herself and write five new songs for his film “Love Again?”  “It took months, maybe even a full year,” Strouse tells Variety. “There was a lot of thought, eating, letters and lookbooks.”  The Sony feature-length stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Mira) and Sam Heughan (Rob) as depressed singles that meet in a not-so-ordinary way after inadvertently exchanging a series of intimate and embarrassing text messages. Dion makes her big-screen debut in the romantic comedy portraying a semi-fictionalized version of herself.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” has submitted “Your Personal Trash Man Can” in the outstanding original music and lyrics category for Emmys consideration. Written by Curtis Moore and songwriting partner Thomas Mizer, the song features in “Susan,” Episode 4 of the Amazon Prime series’ fifth and final season. One of the most music-filled episodes of the show, “Susan” follows Susie (Alex Borstein) and Midge (Rachel Brosnahan) as they help a garbage man who calls in sick. The episode was also submitted for production design for a narrative period or fantasy program (one hour or more) by Bill Groom, production designer; Neil Prince, supervising art director and Ellen Christiansen, set decorator.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor She’s back! “RuPaul’s Drag Race” Season 6 winner Bianca Del Rio will return to host the “All Stars” Season 8 weekly recap series “The Pit Stop.” Each week, Del Rio and her guest will recap and review the most recent episode of “All Stars” Season 8, which begins streaming on May 12 exclusively on Paramount+. New episodes of “The Pit Stop” will premiere Saturdays on the “RuPaul’s Drag Race” YouTube channel. “Like a bad rash… I’m baaaack! The greatest thing about a new season of ‘All Stars’ is I don’t have to compete but get to judge all of them by hosting ‘The Pit Stop,'” Del Rio said in a statement to Variety.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan was honored with the Gold House Leading Man award at the second annual Gold House Gold Gala on Saturday in Los Angeles. “When I think of a leading man, I think of someone who is six feet tall with big muscles, good-looking, and a ladies’ man,” the “Everything Everywhere All at Once” star said before cracking, “That practically screams me, right?” While the gala honored the most impactful Asians on the company’s A100 list, which recognizes the 100 AAPI individuals who impacted American culture and society in the last year, the night remained focused on celebrating Asian visibility and achievements. There was little talk of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike currently impacting the industry.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “Qui,” the sixth episode of “Yellowjackets” Season 2, now streaming on Showtime. This week’s episode of Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” answers one of the show’s biggest questions, which is: What happened to Teen Shauna’s (Sophie Nélisse) baby? Unfortunately, as we learn, it died in childbirth. Meanwhile, in the adult Yellowjackets world, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey), Van (Lauren Ambrose), Tai (Tawny Cypress) and Misty (Christina Ricci) converge on Lottie’s (Simone Kessell) “wellness compound” in their efforts to rescue Nat (Juliette Lewis). Toward the end of the episode, a drone shot pulls up to reveal the layout of Lottie’s compound is the mysterious stick-figure symbol.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Visual effects house DNEG has hired Tom Williams as managing director for episodic content in its VFX division. With over 25 years of experience, Williams comes from MPC where he was serving as president of visual effects. While there, he also held the role of managing director of episodic. Prior to that, he held management roles at Sky and Abbey Road Studios. In his new position at DNEG, Williams will be based out of London and focus on expanding its episodic VFX offering, in addition to the work it delivers for its feature film clients. “This is an exciting time to be joining DNEG, as the company doubles-down on its ambitions in the episodic VFX space to cater to high demand for its industry-leading services,” said Williams. “Over the last few years, DNEG has established itself as a destination for directors and showrunners who want to create truly spectacular visual experiences. As we explore how we can build on the amazing work that the DNEG episodic teams are already doing around the world, I look forward to contributing and sharing my experience and insights, and to leading the team to even greater heights.”

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor A new study by UCLA Center for Scholars & Storytellers shows systemic discrimination and limited access to opportunities exist against first-time directors, with only 23.4% working on major feature films in the last 12 years. Commissioned by Lionsgate and its commitment to the inclusive content space, the study examines some of the persistent biases hindering the industry’s progress toward achieving its stated diversity and inclusion goals. Compiled from a list of the top 100 films per year from 2010-2021 (based on domestic box office for each year; 1200 films total), the study also shows that while more women and people of color have been hired as directors recently, the rate of overall hiring in the experienced director pool continues.