Nicole Kidman’s filmography is awash with romances with younger men.

 

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A Family Affair, which just premiered on Netflix, is her most recent.

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Kidman plays a decorated writer in the throws of a creative blockage whose passions are re-awakened upon a surprise romantic encounter with her daughter’s boss (Zac Efron).
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While this current film is lighter, her most compelling on-screen romantic roles feature dark fantasies with younger men.

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In Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Kidman is married to Tom Cruise but finds herself undone by her desire to sleep with a young naval officer with whom she shared a single glance.
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In To Die For (1995), she strikes up a sexual relationship with a young Joaquin Phoenix in order to manipulate him for a crime.

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And in Birth (2004), Kidman develops a deep-rooted attraction to a ten-year-old boy who claims to be her dead husband, and the two share a bath.

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Kidman stated:

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“Movies that deal with uncomfortable subject matter will rarely be rapturously received because you’re dealing with things that don’t make people feel safe… they’re not a soothing bath.”

Kidman’s ability to push herself to the edge of human psychology is consistently magnetizing.

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In A Family Affair, the stakes are much less grandiose, but there’s a great moment where Kidman, in the evening after the fanfare of being caught in bed with Efron has subsided, slinks up to her daughter and offers her whole heart:

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“Went a little crazy. I’m allowed, right?”

It’s wonderfully raw in a way that only Kidman can deliver.
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A Family Affair is currently streaming on Netflix.

 

James Dean died at 24 but soon, he will be able to read you a bedtime story.

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That’s because ElevenLabs, a leading AI platform that has developed deep expertise in synthesizing the human voice, has struck a licensing agreement for the voices of:

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• James Dean (d. 1955)
• Judy Garland (d. 1968)
• Laurence Olivier (d. 1989)
• Burt Reynolds (d. 2018)

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Their estates have signed the agreements, and ElevenLabs now has full ability to exploit their voices for its Reader App, which reads articles, PDFs, newsletters or any other written content.

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What do we gain by bringing back these screen legends from the grave?

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AI does not resurrect the dead (although this documentary makes the argument); it is a digital simulacrum that devalues these great artists.
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I want to hear the real Judy Garland sing “Over the Rainbow,” I want to listen as James Dean screams, “You’re tearing me apart” and I want to sit in rapture as Olivier delivers a Shakespeare monologue.

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For the love of God, don’t make them read lesser works that they have not agreed to.

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No matter how good AI gets, human connection with other humans is the very foundation of humanity, and as storytellers, we should never lose sight of that fact.
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Liza Minnelli (Garland’s daughter), in her infinite sweetness, noted that:
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“It’s exciting to see our mother’s voice available to the countless millions of people who love her. Through the spectacular new technology offered by ElevenLabs, our family believes that this will bring new fans to Mama, and be exciting to those who already cherish the unparalleled legacy that Mama gave and continues to give to the world.”

It’s not as if her mama’s voice is being used to promote derivatives of work in which she performed, e.g., Garland voicing a new introduction to The Wizard of Oz.

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Instead, the great and mysterious voice behind the curtain will not be Garland’s but a machine. And these nefarious attempts by AI companies to inject themselves into every facet of our society, to exploit our cultural connections to beloved figures as a gateway drug to mass adoption of the technology, are poisonous.

 

Brad Pitt thrives when things around him move quickly.

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He excelled at pouring out his soul while flying through space in Ad Astra (2019), tuning out while cruising through LA in Once Upon a Time in the West (2018), and enduring an identity crisis while speeding across Tokyo in Bullet Train (2022).

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But Pitt has an immense ability to slow down time.

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Look no further than his latest film, F1, which just dropped a teaser trailer.

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Here’s the official synopsis:

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Follows a Formula One driver (Pitt) who comes out of retirement to mentor and team with a younger driver.

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The most cinematic moment of the trailer is not the glorious cinematography fueled by the high-octane next-gen camera system by director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick) but the moment at the end when the camera zooms into Pitt’s stolid face, locked into the race at 200 mph.

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What we unlock in this stillness is the reflection of ourselves in his character– we project onto Pitt ourselves and lock into the race.

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Reflecting on a similar style of performance in Ad Astra, Pitt stated:

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“I see this as very still, and I want to see how much truth and honesty can read on camera, can resonate.”

While this style of performance is a far cry from where Pitt started off with megawatt characterizations as a prophetic lunatic in 12 Monkeys (1995) or a cynical mastermind in Fight Club (1999), they’re just as compelling.

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It’s the next gen of Pitt, and we have much more to look forward to.

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F1 opens June 27, 2025.