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☆ ‘The Sympathizer’ review: Robert Downey Jr. heads down the rabbit hole of the Vietnam War
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-14 | by ( Brian Lowry | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The fortuitous timing of having a series produced by and featuring newly minted Oscar-winner Robert Downey Jr. tumbles down a very strange rabbit hole in “The Sympathizer,” a darkly satirical look at the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Each episode begins with dated-looking credits that evoke the 1970s, a promising Quentin Tarantino-ish conceit that, given what follows, sets expectations too high. As constructed, it’s a rather heavy-handed approximation of the fate Vietnam experienced in the pull of the war, which doesn’t make the Captain’s increasingly surreal arc any more compelling. Strangelove,” assuming that was the intent, than a means of maximizing the star’s presence without really heightening its impact. “The Sympathizer” is hardly the first project to funnel the contradictions of the Vietnam War through an exaggerated lens (“Apocalypse Now” being a prime example), but except for a few bracing sequences the execution only clouds that vision.

Persons: Robert Downey Jr, Downey, can’t, Park Chan, ”, Don McKellar, Quentin Tarantino, Duy Nguyen, Fred Nguyen Khan, Peter Sellers, “ Dr, Strangelove, Sandra Oh, David Duchovny, “ Organizations: CNN, Viet Thanh, CIA, HBO, coy, Credit Downey, Warner Bros . Locations: Vietnam, Viet, Saigon, what’s, “

☆ Jeremy Strong Isn’t Sure He Knows Who He Is
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-10 | by ( David Marchese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +9 min

Mamadi Doumbouya for The New York Times Talk Jeremy Strong Isn’t Sure He Knows Who He IsFor years, Jeremy Strong was a relatively anonymous, steadily gigging actor. Jeremy Strong and Brian Cox in “Succession.” Craig Blankenhorn/HBOYou know, the quote that comes to mind for me is “Ass, gas or grass. I don’t think I’m someone who particularly has a drum to bang. Don’t know. I don’t know that that show can be put into any box, but it had an incredible amount of humor in it.

Persons: Mamadi Doumbouya, Jeremy Strong, ”, ” “ Selma ”, Roy, Strong, Kendall Roy, Ibsen’s, —, “, Forrest Gump, Jeremy, Brian Cox, ” Craig Blankenhorn, Rafe Spall, Hamish Linklater, Steve Carell, Jeffry Griffin, Ryan Gosling, Jaap Buitendijk, I’ll, Ibsen, Robert Ferguson, Ted Hughes, I’ve, you’re, You’ve, Arthur Miller, It’s, Miller, Keats, Michael Imperioli, ” Emilio Madrid Really, I’m, David, Peter Sellers, he’s, Sam Gold, Coward, Barry Lyndon ” Organizations: The New York Times, HBO, Yorker, Paramount, Everett, The, New York Times Locations: “, Denmark

☆ ‘Izzard Hamlet New York’ Review: A Solo Show That’s More Noble Than Wise
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-13 | by ( Jason Zinoman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Or at least one you may consider early in Eddie Izzard’s “Hamlet,” in which the comic portrays all the roles herself. Strangelove.” And solo sword fights have possibilities that a brilliant comedian like Izzard might exploit. A wildly witty ad-libber, Izzard can make two-hour monologues feel like a stream-of-conscious eruption. If you don’t know “Hamlet,” there is no chance you are going to follow the play within a play. If you do, you might wonder why Izzard doesn’t spend more time playing the characters watching, not talking.

Persons: Eddie Izzard’s “, Peter, Dr, Strangelove, ”, Izzard, Selina Cadell, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Tom Piper Locations: ”

☆ Vatican confirms ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Pope Francis gestures as he leaves after the weekly general audience, in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican, November 15, 2023. REUTERS/Remo Casilli Acquire Licensing RightsVATICAN CITY, Nov 15 (Reuters) - The Vatican has confirmed a ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons, a centuries-old secretive society that the Catholic Church has long viewed with hostility and has an estimated global membership of up to six million. "Active membership in Freemasonry by a member of the faithful is prohibited, because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry," the Vatican's doctrinal office said in a letter published by Vatican media on Wednesday. The letter on Freemasons cited a 1983 declaration, signed by the late Pope Benedict XVI, at the time the Vatican's doctrine chief, stating that Catholics "in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion". The group says it has 180,000 male members, with two parallel female lodges in England having another 5,000 members, and estimates global Freemasonry membership at around six million.

Persons: Pope Francis, Remo Casilli, Pope Benedict XVI, Queen Elizabeth's, Prince Philip, Winston Churchill, Peter Sellers, Alf Ramsey, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alvise Armellini, Nick Macfie Organizations: Vatican, REUTERS, CITY, Freemasons, Catholic Church, United, Lodge of, Thomson Locations: Saint Peter's, Philippines, Lodge of England, England

☆ Vatican Confirms Ban on Catholics Becoming Freemasons
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Nov. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +2 min

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican has confirmed a ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons, a centuries-old secretive society that the Catholic Church has long viewed with hostility and has an estimated global membership of up to six million. "Active membership in Freemasonry by a member of the faithful is prohibited, because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry," the Vatican's doctrinal office said in a letter published by Vatican media on Wednesday. The same office said last week that transgender people can be baptized, serve as godparents and act as witnesses at Catholic weddings. The letter on Freemasons cited a 1983 declaration, signed by the late Pope Benedict XVI, at the time the Vatican's doctrine chief, stating that Catholics "in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion". The group says it has 180,000 male members, with two parallel female lodges in England having another 5,000 members, and estimates global Freemasonry membership at around six million.

Persons: Pope Francis, Pope Benedict XVI, Queen Elizabeth's, Prince Philip, Winston Churchill, Peter Sellers, Alf Ramsey, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alvise Armellini, Nick Macfie Organizations: VATICAN CITY, Vatican, Freemasons, Catholic Church, United, Lodge of Locations: Philippines, Lodge of England, England

☆ Nick Hornby Reviews a Short History of the Beatles Before the Band
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Nick Hornby | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

THIS BOY: The Early Lives of John Lennon & Paul McCartney, by Ilene CooperIn the early 1980s I was an English teacher at a high school in Cambridge, England. “He introduced John Lennon to Paul McCartney.” I stared at him. Vaughan invented fame. Introducing Paul to John was like introducing ketchup to fries, or causing the Big Bang. By the time John and Paul were 10 and 8, respectively, only 7 percent of 17-year-olds were in school.

Persons: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ilene Cooper, Ivan Vaughan, ”, Vaughan, Paul, John, Paul McCartney ”, “, Cooper, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Peter Sellers, Starchy George Martin Locations: Cambridge, England, Woolton, Liverpool, American

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