https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/30/entertainment/lori-loughlin-more-charges/index.html
2019-10-31 12:33:20Z
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Not many people will have come away from Stanley Kubrick’s classic Stephen King adaptation, The Shining, with a burning desire to know what happened to the boy in the story. He was one of the film’s least engaging characters, ranking somewhere between the ghostly twins and the withered hag in the bathtub. But Doctor Sleep, a belated sequel to The Shining, wants viewers to care about the boy’s fate – and, surprisingly, it succeeds. Credible in its characterisation, rich in mythological detail, and touchingly sincere in its treatment of alcoholism and trauma, the film is impressive in all sorts of ways. But its greatest achievement is that it makes The Shining seem like a prequel – a tantalising glimpse of a richer and more substantial narrative.
Doctor Sleep
Director: Mike Flanagan
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Carel Struycken
Run-time: 151 minutes
Release date: 31 October in the UK and Ireland, 8 November in the US, Canada and India
It is different from The Shining in nearly every way. Kubrick’s film, released in 1980, was a mysterious fever dream set in one hotel over one winter. The new film, adapted by writer-director Mike Flanagan from King’s own novel, is an adventure that spans the US and covers almost 40 years. It doesn’t have Kubrick’s masterly control of style and atmosphere, either – but what does? All the same, Doctor Sleep doesn’t feel like a betrayal of The Shining. Partly that’s because it is so full of references to its illustrious predecessor, from the hexagonal-patterned carpet to the fact that one character’s house number happens to be 1980. (Alas, a digitally de-aged Jack Nicholson doesn’t turn up.) But mainly it’s because the plot which blossoms in Doctor Sleep grows from the seeds planted four decades ago.
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Back in 1980, Danny Torrance was a tricycle-riding moppet with the gift of telepathy, or “shining”. Considering that he met a cook who was also telepathic, it’s logical to assume that quite a number of other people could have the gift, too; Doctor Sleep tells us about those people. It’s a logical assumption, too, that Danny would have a tough time recovering from everything he witnessed in The Shining. As in this year’s other major Stephen King adaptation, It: Chapter 2, the film argues that if you have a childhood encounter with murderous occult forces, you won’t necessarily grow up to be a healthy well-rounded member of society.
McGregor has never been more sympathetic
Instead, Danny has grown up to be Dan (Ewan McGregor), a hard-drinking drifter who regularly rounds off his evenings with a bar fight, a fling with a stranger, or both. Even at his most hedonistic, though, he has an air of wariness, exhaustion and sadness: McGregor has never been more sympathetic. Eventually, Dan gets a job in a hospice where he uses his telepathy to soothe the dying, where one of the patients nicknames him Doctor Sleep. Just as he helps them find peace, he finds some peace himself.
It can’t last. Little does Dan know, but there is a rag-tag gang of psychic predators called the True Knot who criss-cross the US in motor homes, keeping their mental antenna out for children with extrasensory powers. When they locate their victims, they butcher them and absorb their life force (or something). The True Knot lot aren’t traditional blood-drinking, daylight-dodging vampires, but the intriguing implication is that every legend about vampires derives from them.
Any sequel to The Shining should have a few more scares and a lot more gore
The leader of the gang is Rose the Hat, played by Rebecca Ferguson with a formidable mix of earthy seductive charm and cold-blooded resolve. Mind you, it’s slightly disappointing that she got her florid name because, well, she likes to wear a hat. It’s also disappointing that her posse isn’t more menacing. They are supposedly mass murderers with terrifying abilities, but after a creepy opening sequence in which they snatch a young girl, they spend most of their scenes sitting around campfires in the woods, complaining. The most frightening thing about them is the thought that they might get out some acoustic guitars and suggest a singalong. Any two-and-a-half-hour sequel to The Shining should definitely have a few more scares and a lot more gore than this one.
Still, Doctor Sleep improves when you realise that it is less of a horror film than a melancholy, horror-tinged superhero movie. The True Knot decides that its next meal will consist of Abra (the charismatic Kyliegh Curran), a 13-year-old girl who has been in telepathic contact with Dan. And, as reluctant as he is to get involved, he accepts that he alone can take her off the Knot’s menu. At this stage, the plot comes down to the battle between two secret societies of code-named superhuman outsiders, so it has much in common with the X-Men franchise, 2017’s Logan in particular.
It could well start a franchise of its own. Flanagan doesn’t emphasise its connections to the rest of King’s work, but his film encompasses so many of the author’s obsessions – cats, psychics, missing children – that it will prompt viewers to ask if the events of Carrie, The Dead Zone, Cat’s Eye and Pet Sematary all unfolded in a shared fictional universe. If Doctor Sleep does well at the box office, it may lead to a spate of explicit sequels and spin-offs set in the ‘King-verse’. If they shine as brightly as this warm and well-constructed supernatural thriller, that wouldn’t be a bad thing.
★★★★☆
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been going through it lately, and Meghan in particular has found it difficult to deal with non-stop negative press. Which is something she made super clear in a heartbreaking interview about how she's "not okay." And while no one truly knows what's going on BTS of the royal family, it looks like Kate Middleton is doing her best to help.
A source tells Us Weekly that Kate "hates seeing" Meghan and Harry "so miserable," but at the same time she doesn't want to get too involved. “While Kate’s concerned about Harry and Meghan’s well-being, she tries to stay out of the drama,” the source explains.
To make matters more tense, there's speculation of a royal rift between William and Harry, something Harry touched on in a recent interview. But Us Weekly's source says Kate “hopes William and Harry will eventually heal the rift and let bygones be bygones. The way she sees it, life’s too short to make enemies–especially with loved ones. She’s very levelheaded like that. Kate’s a family girl.”
This news follows a comment from royal expert and author Phil Dampier, who told The Express, “Behind the scenes, I’m told Kate is doing her best to bring everyone together and help Meghan. None of them want to let the Queen down so Kate is trying to patch things up in private. I’m told she has reached out to Meghan and spoken to her on the phone. Kate feels sorry for her and knows that Meghan is struggling.”
Cuba Gooding Jr. definitely made contact with the backside of a TAO nightclub server -- that's clear in this surveillance video, but it could still be key in helping the actor beat the charges.
TMZ's obtained security footage of the alleged butt-touching incident that got Gooding indicted on 2 of the 6 counts he's facing. Natasha Ashworth claims he used his right hand to pinch her right buttock as he was walking past her at TAO in NYC ... around 4:20 AM on Oct. 24, 2018.
Two camera angles back up much of Ashworth's account of what went down. After the initial contact, you can see she's agitated and there's a heated convo. She claims she told Gooding not to touch her butt, and he replied, "Aw, that's no fun, and I didn't, I touched your back."
The video shows Cuba attempting to point out where he claims he touched her. However, as prosecutors said in the indictment ... you see Natasha grab his arm and motion him away.
What's NOT clear from the video is what kind of contact Gooding made with Natasha's backside -- a glancing touch, a pat or the "pinch" she and prosecutors allege. That could help the Oscar winner if this goes before a jury, where prosecutors would have to prove the allegation beyond a reasonable doubt.
On the other hand, Gooding is charged with sexual abuse in the third degree and forcible touching -- and a jury could see the contact constituting the latter.
His attorney, Mark Jay Heller tells us, "This is a bogus butt grope claim. The video proves Cuba is innocent beyond a reasonable doubt."
Gooding will be in a Manhattan courtroom Thursday to be arraigned on counts 5 and 6 -- related to a separate accuser.
TMZ broke the story, there's also security footage of the rooftop bar incident from this past June which resulted in the initial indictment. You'll recall, that accuser claims Gooding touched her breast.
He's pleading not guilty to all 6 counts.
As we first reported ... Ashworth is also suing Gooding Jr. for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Her attorney, Joshua Kleiman, declined to comment on the surveillance video.
Cuba Gooding Jr. definitely made contact with the backside of a TAO nightclub server -- that's clear in this surveillance video, but it could still be key in helping the actor beat the charges.
TMZ's obtained security footage of the alleged butt-touching incident that got Gooding indicted on 2 of the 6 counts he's facing. Natasha Ashworth claims he used his right hand to pinch her right buttock as he was walking past her at TAO in NYC ... around 4:20 AM on Oct. 24, 2018.
Two camera angles back up much of Ashworth's account of what went down. After the initial contact, you can see she's agitated and there's a heated convo. She claims she told Gooding not to touch her butt, and he replied, "Aw, that's no fun, and I didn't, I touched your back."
The video shows Cuba attempting to point out where he claims he touched her. However, as prosecutors said in the indictment ... you see Natasha grab his arm and motion him away.
What's NOT clear from the video is what kind of contact Gooding made with Natasha's backside -- a glancing touch, a pat or the "pinch" she and prosecutors allege. That could help the Oscar winner if this goes before a jury, where prosecutors would have to prove the allegation beyond a reasonable doubt.
On the other hand, Gooding is charged with sexual abuse in the third degree and forcible touching -- and a jury could see the contact constituting the latter.
His attorney, Mark Jay Heller tells us, "This is a bogus butt grope claim. The video proves Cuba is innocent beyond a reasonable doubt."
Gooding will be in a Manhattan courtroom Thursday to be arraigned on counts 5 and 6 -- related to a separate accuser.
TMZ broke the story, there's also security footage of the rooftop bar incident from this past June which resulted in the initial indictment. You'll recall, that accuser claims Gooding touched her breast.
He's pleading not guilty to all 6 counts.
As we first reported ... Ashworth is also suing Gooding Jr. for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Her attorney, Joshua Kleiman, declined to comment on the surveillance video.
Daenerys from Game of Thrones.
Source: HBO
HBO has confirmed details of a new "Game of Thrones" prequel called "House of the Dragon."
The cable network announced Tuesday that it has ordered 10 episodes of the spinoff series based on George R. R. Martin's companion book "Fire & Blood."
Taking place 300 years before the events of "Game of Thrones," the series will depict the stories of the Targaryen kings who had long ruled Westeros.
Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal will partner as showrunners, according to the premium cable channel, with both also poised to work as executive producers alongside Martin and Vince Gerardis.
"The 'Game of Thrones' universe is so rich with stories," Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, said in a statement.
"We look forward to exploring the origins of House Targaryen and the earlier days of Westeros along with Miguel, Ryan and George."
Sapochnik, who directed six episodes of the flagship show — including "Battle of the Bastards," which is IMDB's highest-rated episode — will direct the "House of the Dragon" pilot.
The announcement comes shortly after reports emerged on Tuesday that the cable network had scrapped another spinoff series of "Game of Thrones."
A much-anticipated prequel starring Naomi Watts was reportedly axed after HBO opted not to commission a full series.
HBO has always been known for its heavily curated content. Shows like "Vinyl" and "Hung" were canceled because they were not as strongly received by viewers as other shows, despite millions of dollars' worth of investment and critical acclaim.
The premium cable service has put much of its production power behind new shows like "Watchmen," which debuted earlier this month to favorable reviews, as well as new seasons of "Westworld," "Barry" and "Last Week Tonight."
— CNBC's Sarah Whitten contributed to this report.
Actor and comedian John Witherspoon, who is best known for his role as Ice Cube’s father in the “Friday” films, has died at age 77, his family said in a statement Tuesday.
His manager Alex Goodman told The Associated Press that Witherspoon died in his Los Angeles home late Tuesday. No cause of death was released. The family said in a statement to Deadline that Witherspoon, who was born Jan. 27, 1942, is survived by his wife, Angela, and sons JD and Alexander and a large extended family.
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“We are all in shock, please give us a minute for a moment in privacy and we will celebrate his life and his work together. John used to say ‘I’m no big deal’, but he was huge deal to us,” the statement said. The family also announced Witherspoon's death in a tweet from his official Twitter account early Wednesday.
“He was a Legend in the entertainment industry, and a father figure to all who watched him over the years. We love you “POPS” always & forever,” they said.
Witherspoon began his career appearing in 1970s TV shows, such as "Barnaby Jones" and "The Richard Pryor Show," NPR reported. He also performed on "The Wayans Bros." television series and voiced the grandfather in "The Boondocks" animated series.
His most recognizable role was "Pops," Ice Cube's father in the stoner comedy "Friday" and its two sequels. He played a crude but affectionate father trying to guide his son to be better. Witherspoon’s film roles also included "Vampire in Brooklyn" and "Boomerang," and he was a frequent guest on "Late Show with David Letterman."
“I’m devastated over the passing of John Witherspoon. Life won’t be as funny without him,” Ice Cube said on Twitter late Tuesday.
Regina King, who appeared as Witherspoon's daughter in "Friday" and also voiced both of his grandsons in "The Boondocks," called him her "comedic inspiration" on Twitter.
“My dad, my grandpa, my comedic inspiration! I love you Spoons! Rest In Paradise, King,” she wrote early Wednesday.
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JD Witherspoon, the actor’s son, tweeted that he was happy for all the great times he and his dad had together.
"We'd roast each other like homies more than Father & Son, and I really liked that. He was my best friend & my idol," JD Witherspoon posted. "Love U Dad...I'll miss u."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Actor and comedian John Witherspoon, a notable figure in the "Friday" franchise and voice actor in the animated series “The Boondocks," died at his home Los Angeles Tuesday at the age of 77, his family said.
Manager Alex Goodman confirmed the news.
"It is with deepest sorrow that we can confirm our beloved husband and father, John Witherspoon, one of the hardest working men in show business, died today at his home in Sherman Oaks at the age of 77," Witherspoon's family said in a statement from Goodman to NBC News.
"He is survived by his wife Angela, and his sons JD, Alexander, and a large family. We are all in shock, please give us a minute for a moment in privacy and we will celebrate his life and his work together. John used to say 'I'm no big deal', but he was huge deal to us.”
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Witherspoon was born in Detroit in 1942 as John Weatherspoon and launched a stand-up and comedy career that began in the late 1970s with television roles, according to the online news site Deadline, which reported Witherspoon's death earlier Tuesday evening.
He appeared in 1980's "The Jazz Singer." He starred as John "Pops" Williams in "The Wayans Bros." television show and as Mr. Jackson in “Boomerang,” among many other film and TV roles.
Witherspoon played the father figure Mr. Jones alongside Ice Cube in the 1995 hit "Friday" and reprised his role in sequels "Next Friday" and "Friday After Next."
Witherspoon also appeared in the 1995 Eddie Murphy film "Vampire in Brooklyn," in which he played Silas Green, and in the 1988 film "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka." He also was a voice actor in the animated series “The Boondocks.”
He also appeared on "The Tracy Morgan Show" and more recently played Lloyd in the "Black Jesus" television series, according to film database IMDB.
The comedian Sinbad was among those mourning Witherspoon’s death Tuesday night, tweeting that the actor and comedian was an inspiration and "one of my early heroes and a beautiful person." Arsenio Hall said it was "heart wrenching news" and called Witherspoon "one of our comic brothers."
Oscar-winning actress and director Regina King tweeted: "My dad, my grandpa, my comedic inspiration! I love you Spoons! Rest In Paradise, King."
Director and producer Judd Apatow called Witherspoon “Pure funny” and “Hilarious and always kind.”
Comedian and actor David Alan Grier tweeted: "RIP my brother. You will be missed. Mannnnnnn this is a hard one."
Diana Dasrath is Entertainment Producer and Senior Reporter for NBC News covering all platforms.
John Witherspoon, actor-comedian who for decades made audiences laugh in television shows and films, including the hit Friday franchise, died suddenly at his home today. He was 77.
“It is with deepest sorrow that we can confirm our beloved husband and father, John Witherspoon, one of the hardest working men in show business, died today at his home in Sherman Oaks at the age of 77,” Witherspoon’s family said in a statement to Deadline. “He is survived by his wife Angela, and his sons JD, Alexander, and a large family. We are all in shock, please give us a minute for a moment in privacy and we will celebrate his life and his work together. John used to say ‘I’m no big deal’, but he was huge deal to us.”
Comedy great Witherspoon was born in Detroit in 1942 as John Weatherspoon. He launched a stand-up comedy career and began acting in the late 1970s with guest-starring TV roles, making his feature debut in the 1980 The Jazz Singer. Witherspoon appeared in numerous films, including Hollywood Shuffle, Boomerang, Vampire in Brooklyn, I’m Gonna Get You Sucka, Bird and The Meteor Man.
Witherspoon was perhaps best known for his role as the grump Mr. Jones alongside Ice Cube and Chris Tucker in Friday. He also appeared in the sequel Next Friday, and was expected to reprise his role in the long-gestating final installment of the franchise titled Last Friday.
Witherspoon also voiced Gramps on the cult animated series The Boondocks. He likely would’ve returned for the series’ upcoming revival on HBO Max. Also known for his role as Pops on The Wayans Brothers, Witherspoon did stints on such comedy series as The Tracy Morgan Show, The First Family and Black Jesus.
Even with his busy film and TV career, standup comedy remained an important part of Witherspoon’s life. At age 77, he continued to perform regularly and had several dates coming up at the time of his death.
That new trailer for The Mandalorian isn't the only Star Wars news to come out tonight, as Disney has announced that a planned feature film trilogy from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss is now off. The deal was announced with much fanfare about a year and a half ago with plans to release the first movie in 2022, but in the time since, Lucasfilm released Solo: A Star Wars Story to disappointing results, Benioff and Weiss signed a huge overall deal with Netflix worth a reported $200 million and the Game of Thrones finale happened -- some of us have different feelings about that.
According to the pair in statements released to Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter, the problem is just one of those things: "there are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects."
Other things that have changed include the details around Disney+, and that Marvel boss Kevin Feige is working on a Star Wars project, in addition to the planned trilogy helmed by Rian Johnson. While this trilogy may be on ice, we'll see even more in that world over the next few years, even after The Mandalorian debuts on November 12th, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theater screens on December 20th.
That new trailer for The Mandalorian isn't the only Star Wars news to come out tonight, as Disney has announced that a planned feature film trilogy from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss is now off. The deal was announced with much fanfare about a year and a half ago with plans to release the first movie in 2022, but in the time since, Lucasfilm released Solo: A Star Wars Story to disappointing results, Benioff and Weiss signed a huge overall deal with Netflix worth a reported $200 million and the Game of Thrones finale happened -- some of us have different feelings about that.
According to the pair in statements released to Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter, the problem is just one of those things: "there are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects."
Other things that have changed include the details around Disney+, and that Marvel boss Kevin Feige is working on a Star Wars project, in addition to the planned trilogy helmed by Rian Johnson. While this trilogy may be on ice, we'll see even more in that world over the next few years, even after The Mandalorian debuts on November 12th, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theater screens on December 20th.
In 1964, in the small, rural community of Longdale, Mississippi, a group of black worshippers at the Mount Zion Methodist Church were ambushed by the Ku Klux Klan. The attackers, some of whom were allegedly dressed in police uniform, broke one man’s jaw, viciously beat others, and ultimately burned the building to the ground. In the midst of the chaos, a woman named Beatrice Cole launched into a spoken prayer of despair: “Father, I stretch my hand to Thee, no other help I know. If Thou withdraw Thyself from me, where shall I go?” Improbably, the Klansmen retreated. Such was the power of the gospel.
“Father I Stretch My Hands To Thee,” an unsmiling Methodist hymn written by Isaac Watts in the early 1700s and turned into a rousing standard by black gospel singers over the next century, has since transcended the church pew. It is ostensibly a favorite of Kanye West, who sampled Pastor T.L. Barrett’s version on 2016’s The Life of Pablo, in a song that opens with a non sequitur about a bleached butthole. Three years and a religious rebirth later, the motif returns on West’s ninth album, Jesus Is King. “Follow God,” whose title is as literal as gospel can get, is organized around a sample of a burning vocal: “Father I stretch, stretch my hands to you,” goes the singer of an obscure 1974 track, Whole Truth’s “Can You Lose By Following God.”
Recorded (and, apparently, re-recorded) in the months after he announced a recommitment to Christianity, the album is West’s first offering in the wake of Sunday Service, the performance series he’s turned into something of a global church brand. As West sells it, figuratively and literally, Jesus Is King is a repudiation of his past sin, an absolution, a blank slate from which to spread the word of a very specific God, one whose blessings rain down on a cul-de-sac in Calabasas and a ranch in Jackson Hole. He’s always presented as religious—“Jesus Walks” imagined the club as a holy temple back in 2004; the Kardashians’ labored, glamorous Easter photos have become something of an annual tradition; Pablo was explicitly an album about faith—and yet the timing is notable.
By most accounts, fewer and fewer Americans identify as Christian, and a steadily growing number describe themselves as atheist or agnostic. The religious, meanwhile, identify as more devout. Consider the power of the evangelical right on the political landscape, into which West has inserted himself in recent years, causing some of the turmoil that presumably sent him seeking refuge in Christ this spring. (In a recent piece for Vibe, the writer Kiana Fitzgerald, who shares with West a bipolar diagnosis, put forth a moving theory connecting spiritual fervor with the experience of mania.)
Though Jesus Is King followed what is now a characteristically chaotic album rollout for West, the result is much more focused than his 2018 album ye. His mythical rap-camp format, popularized with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’s Hawaii origin story, unifies the contributions of producers as disparate as Timbaland, Pi’erre Bourne, Boogz, and Evan Mast of Ratatat into 27 minutes of pleasant, if not entirely transgressive, textures. Some of the hallmarks of 20th-century gospel are evident, and warmly applied: the rise and fall of a formidable choir; the velvety growl of a Hammond organ; an undulating piano; rhythms that stretch through history and geography, all the way back to West Africa. It is a markedly more cohesive and enjoyable album than I believed him capable of creating at this juncture.
Jesus Is King nods to a handful of moments from the past 15 years of West’s career. The gospel-soul sample deployed on “God Is” harkens to his early days as an in-house producer at Roc-A-Fella. The maximalism of his leather-skirt phase is all over the expansive soundscape of “Use This Gospel,” whose Kenny G sax solo might be the 2019 equivalent of throwing Elton John onto a hook, just because you can. Elsewhere, the stark, confrontational attitude of 2013’s Yeezus is echoed in the battle drums that propel “Selah.” His raspy pleading on “Water” recalls the era of loosies that produced “Only One” and “FourFiveSeconds.” Throughout, Auto-Tuned vocals draw a line from 2008’s 808s & Heartbreak all the way through to the anguish of Pablo.
Though Jesus Is King offers some resolution to the darkness hinted at on Pablo, it lacks the deeply human searching that made that album effective and moving. Life is not black and white, and neither is the experience of communing with any god. The most interesting moment, thematically, comes in the inherent tension between a reunited Clipse—Pusha-T and his older brother No Malice—on “Use This Gospel” for the first time in several years and at different stages of self-reflection. They connect the relatable universality of gospel as delivered on Jesus Is King by Fred Hammond, Ty Dolla $ign, and Ant Clemons, whose singing collectively comes closest to expressing the inspiring, sustaining gentleness of a warmly held faith. Think, for example, of the mountain to be traversed on “Climbing Higher Mountains” or the storm to be crossed on “Take My Hand, Precious Lord.” Whereas much traditional and contemporary gospel invokes struggle, salvation, and transformation, Jesus Is King is largely focused on the ways in which religion has served Kanye himself. “How you got so much favor on your side?/‘Accept him as your lord and savior,’ I replied,” he raps on “On God.”
If West’s mission is, as he told Zane Lowe in an interview last week, to convert people to Christianity, he’ll likely have to search a little deeper. Beyond superficial gestures at biblical references and the capitalist leanings of American prosperity gospel, there is virtually no indication here as to what it means to follow Jesus. That is, other than to perhaps sit back and wait for Him to give you a Forbes cover and a billion-dollar sneaker brand. It’s hard to take West seriously when the obstacles he distresses over are Instagram likes and steep tax rates (the IRS, he complains, wants “half of the pie”). Rather than the grace, justice, and love that characterizes faith at its most transformative, West internalizes the religious entitlement that props up the wealthy and powerful, validating months of jokes about his ambitions as a megachurch pastor.
Revelations in recent weeks—that he admonished his wife for wearing tight clothes, asked collaborators to abstain from premarital sex, and began keeping a Christian scorecard that includes limiting himself to two curse words a day—suggest his interpretation of the gospel has been more dogmatic than faithful. Historically, it has been the vulnerability with which he expresses his own hypocrisies and moral failings that have made West a uniquely compelling artist; unfortunately, there is very little of that complexity on Jesus Is King. (An exception is “Follow God,” where an argument with his father prompts consideration, however shallow, of what it means to be “Christlike.”)
There is not enough depth here to distract from his politics, or to complicate them. It’s an album of slogans, dashed-off and too short, and as he continues to test the edge between spontaneous and half-finished, it gets harder to ignore the facts hovering outside the frame. His call for the abolishment of the 13th Amendment, for example, is in direct opposition to his avowed support of a racist, punitive, incarceration-obsessed president. Yes, the bassline on “Water” is one of the best I’ve heard in a long time, but a moment like this feels like a consolation, not a highlight. Kanye albums used to stretch our perspectives and imaginations. Now they illuminate the contours of his increasingly shrunken world.