𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐞

Kingsley Ben-Adir is Bob Marley - January 12, 2024.

Kingsley Ben Adir

Bob Marley: One Love - Official Trailer (2024 Movie)

BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE celebrates the life and music of an icon who inspired generations through his message of love and unity.

Discover Bob Marley's powerful story of overcoming adversity and the journey behind his revolutionary music. Produced in partnership with the Marley family and starring Kingsley Ben-Adir as the legendary musician and Lashana Lynch as his wife Rita.

BOB MARLEY: ONE LOVE is in theatres February 14, 2024.

"Biopics of massively famous musicians are rarely very good, often because they stumble at the question of whom exactly they’re being made for. Are you making a movie for the already initiated die-hard fans yearning to see the life and times of their hero reflected back at them in exacting detail? Or is your movie a welcome mat for novices, a breezy jukebox of greatest hits aimed at cultivating new generations of fans, goosing streaming tallies and catalog sales in the process? Most musician biopics never manage to resolve this tension, in part because they’re usually also serving a third master, namely the musician’s estate, which tends to hold its own, very specific ideas about on-screen depiction.

Bob Marley: One Love, the new movie about the late reggae superstar that’s produced by Marley’s widow, Rita, along with some of his children, is a biopic that does seem to know whom it’s for, which isn’t a point in its favor. The film is directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (King Richard) and stars Kingsley Ben-Adir as Marley, who does his best with the role despite not really looking or sounding much like the real Marley. (Within the past four years Ben-Adir has played Malcolm X, Barack Obama, and Bob Marley, quite the triptych of historical figures.) Lashana Lynch plays Rita and steals the film in every scene she’s in, even if the movie’s script fails to elevate her character past the archetypical suffering-yet-supportive wife of a genius.

Rather than taking a cradle-to-grave approach to Marley’s life, One Love instead focuses on a single period of Marley’s career, his self-imposed exile to England in the aftermath of the 1976 attempt on his life at his home in Kingston, during which time he recorded Exodus, the 1977 LP that marked his full breakthrough into global superstardom. The film opens with the assassination attempt, after which we’re quickly whisked to London, where the film depicts Marley writing most of Exodus’ songs in a cloying series of “eureka!” moments that tend to populate movies of this kind. Snippets of Marley’s classic “Redemption Song” surface as a recurring musical motif in the film, and in one of the last scenes, we see Marley performing the song for his awestruck family in a sappy flourish that’s also anachronistic. (By most accounts, Marley didn’t write “Redemption Song” until 1979.) Periodically we’re treated to a series of flashbacks of the singer’s earlier life, a clichéd device that this movie could have used more of: Brief forays into Marley’s conversion to Rastafarianism are surprisingly well done, and a scene of a teenage Marley and the Wailing Wailers performing “Simmer Down” at Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One is the best moment in the film.

One Love is an inspirational tale about a Great Man who used music to unite the world, one that reduces one of the most consequential and complicated artists of the 20th century to a walking fount of genial aphorisms, the guy who suggested we all get together and feel all right. As such, the film indulges a decadeslong public appetite for a particular imagining of Marley that his estate now seems depressingly eager to feed. It’s been 42 years since Marley died of a rare form of melanoma at age 36, and I’m not sure there’s a musician who’s more literally iconic: Go to any commercial district in any part of the world and within minutes you’ll find an opportunity to buy something bearing Marley’s likeness. In the United States, Marley has been a staple of dorm-room walls for generations: The casual and underinformed co-optation of Marley by American bro culture has even inspired a recurring meme in which Marley’s name is erroneously affixed to an image of Jimi Hendrix.

To a certain brand of musical cynic, Marley has become the embodiment of a musician whom people own posters and T-shirts of but don’t actually listen to, which isn’t totally fair to most of the owners of those posters and T-shirts. Some of Marley’s music is still enormously popular: His 1984 greatest hits compilation Legend is currently enjoying its 820th week on the Billboard 200, a position it will likely maintain for the foreseeable future given One Love’s early, strikingly robust box-office projections. The only album that’s spent longer on the chart is Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.

But in the pop-cultural imagination, Legend has completely eclipsed everything else Marley ever released. The album has sold more than 15 million copies in the United States alone, while no other Marley LP has sold even 1 million stateside. From a purely mathematical standpoint, this would indicate that for many fans, Legend is the first and only Marley album they’ll ever listen to. I’m not sure there’s another greatest hits compilation that has played such an outsize role in the public definition of an artist.

Legend is a fine little collection, but the idea that it’s some sort of one-stop synopsis of Marley’s career is absurd. For starters, 10 of its 14 tracks date from the period of 1977–80, a four-year time frame that represents the height of Marley’s global popularity but is a relatively minuscule cross section of a staggeringly prolific, nearly two-decade-long recording career. (Five of Exodus’ 10 tracks are included on Legend, which I suspect is one reason that One Love is so invested in the album’s significance.)

This period also coincides with a time when Marley’s music seemed to take a step back from revolutionary politics, a tack that may have been driven at least in part by the aforementioned assassination attempt. The Marley canonized on Legend is not the Marley who sang “I feel like bombin’ a church/ Now that you know that the preacher is lyin’ ” or who called for “burnin’ and a-lootin’ tonight … burnin’ all illusion tonight” or declared that “Rasta don’t work for no CIA.” The dominance of Legend in the U.S. is particularly striking when one considers that Marley’s highest-selling album in this country during his lifetime was 1976’s Rastaman Vibration, which peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and includes such overtly political tracks as “Crazy Baldhead,” “Rat Race,” and “War.” Legend doesn’t include a single track from Rastaman Vibration, instead opting for romantic fare like “Is This Love” and “Waiting in Vain” and feel-good anthems like “One Love/People Get Ready” and “Jamming.” (For an excellent deep dive into the history and legacy of Legend, I recommend this article from the Ringer earlier this week.)

One Day’s Director Has No Regrets About the Movie’s Controversial Ending

Legend’s preeminence has helped turn Marley into the musical equivalent of a tourist destination, at which One Love is just one more cozy attraction. This is worse than a shame, because the real Bob Marley was one of the most remarkable musical talents of the 20th century. As a songwriter, he was so prolific that music seemed to pour out of him, a quality that has sometimes led to a naturalization of his gifts that veers into exoticizing primitivism. (One Love certainly partakes in this.) But rather than being some carefree savant, Marley was a fiercely disciplined and ambitious artist from the very beginning. He wrote and recorded his first single, “Judge Not,” in 1962 at the age of 16, and it remains an astonishing debut, an effortlessly catchy melody sung by a voice that sounds both nervous and supremely confident in a way that only a teenager can manage.

By the time he signed to Island Records in 1972 and began his ascent to international superstardom, Marley had already written a lifetime’s worth of great songs. He had a preternatural ear for hooks and crafted songs that were ready-made hit records, three-minute gems of perfectly crystalized musical ideas. As a singer, his indelible tenor rasp and thrillingly improvisational style were the byproducts of an extraordinarily well-honed sense of intonation and time. And during the 1970s, he fronted what might have been the best band on the face of the earth, grounded in the peerless rhythm section of drummer Carlton Barrett and bassist Aston “Family Man” Barrett, the latter of whom died earlier this month at age 77. (Aston’s son and namesake, an accomplished musician in his own right, plays his father in the film.)

One Love doesn’t know how to begin exploring this artist and his art in any way that even begins to be interesting. Instead it just feeds back the same sanitized and saccharine idea of Bob Marley to the same audience who has been eating that up for generations. It’s a movie about a poster. Over the end credits of One Love, archival performance clips of Marley flash onto the screen, and for a few moments we’re treated to sounds and images that are infinitely more magnetic and thrillingly alive than anything we’ve seen over the preceding 100-ish minutes. That Bob Marley, and the extraordinary body of music he left behind, is still out there for those who go listening for it, but this movie isn’t where you’ll find him."

Congrats 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

shadow_act:

‘Bob Marley: One Love’ has surpassed $100 million at the global box office!⁠ ⁠ The film had exceeded expectations, outperforming projections through its Valentine’s Day release window and $70 million budget. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, the film stars Kingsley Ben-Adir as Bob Marley and Lashana Lynch as his wife, Rita Marley. It follows the icon’s life and in key years of importance, delving into the iconic music created and the activism that came from it.⁠ ⁠ Have you had a chance to see the film? 🔗 ⁠

Ugh I know you don’t post about this anymore but I’ve followed you since GoT season 7 came out and ik you loved Emilia so I just wanted to share some of the reviews about her from her new show. I’m so proud of her and she seems so excited about it 😭😭

“The standout of the series by a wide margin is Game of Thrones icon Emilia Clarke, who plays G’iah. Making her MCU debut in line with a stacked cast of seasoned veterans, Clarke elevates above all the rest into an echelon of her own.”

“The standout for me is Emilia Clarke, who is making her MCU debut! She’s a fantastic addition to this beyond talented cast"

“Emilia Clarke is great. Love how nuanced the writing is for her, and how layered her performance is."

“The casting of Emilia Clarke as a dangerously intense figure with conflicting impulses toward her own rise to power is hardly imaginative, but Clarke is good at her job and the kind of actor Marvel is lucky to get.” - Variety on Emilia Clarke’s performance

“Emilia Clarke and Ben Mendelsohn also put on engaging performances as Skrulls caught between the ambitions of their people and their dreams of a better world.” - Collider on Emilia Clarke’s performance

“Sam Jackson is great as usual but Kingsley Ben-Adir and Emilia Clarke are clear standouts."

"Emilia Clarke absolutely steals every scene she's in."

"I'm loving Emilia Clarke. She’s cunning, misunderstood, but morally questionable."

“To work with Emilia Clarke, you know I watch Game of Thrones…to work with the Queen… Mother of Dragons, it was great too.” - Samuel L. Jackson on working with Emilia Clarke in Marvel’s Secret Invasion.

Ugh the love she’s receiving is just so amazing to me! The way people still call her The Queen and are just so honored to be working with someone like her. She’s been speaking more positively about the set for secret invasion than she ever did about working with the game of thrones cast. Don’t know if you’ll be watching but I’m watching for her!

This is so awesome. She deserves this. I might have to check this out after all.

The 7 best new and returning TV Shows in 2023

We already have a list of 7 new and returning TV shows that should be put right on your must-watch list, so we can assure you that 2023 will be a fantastic year for TV shows. With new programs like the BBC's touching drama Best Interests and HBO's epic and horrifying The Last of Us in January, there is something for everyone. Along with returning favorites like You and Sex Education from Netflix, Clarkson's Farm is back on Prime Video. 1. Sex Education season 4 For more crazy antics and coming-of-age drama in 2023, Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson, Ncuti Gatwa, Aimee-Lou Wood, Emma Mackey, Connor Swindells, Kedar Williams-Stirling, and Mimi Keene will all be back. The critically acclaimed teen drama's final season is anticipated (*sobs*), but it will also feature Schitt's Creek actor Dan Levy as Maeve's new Ivy League tutor Thomas Molloy. https://youtu.be/goke5cXZ3Ro 2. You season 4 As Joe, played by Penn Badgley, reluctantly turns into a detective in London after learning that he might not be the only murderer in town, he is accompanied by Ed Speelers (Downton Abbey), Charlotte Ritchie (Fresh Meat, Feel Good), Adam James (Vigil), and Charlotte Scott (Fresh Meat, Feel Good). Netflix will start streaming You season 4 part 1 on February 10. https://youtu.be/Xp30pyRW23U 3. Velma Release on January 12, HBO US broadcaster Max; UK broadcaster TBD Featuring: Constance Wu, Sam Richardson, and Mindy Kaling The most intelligent member of Scooby-team, Doo's Velma Dinkley (Mindy Kaling), has her origin tale in this animated series for adults. There is no news yet on whether Velma, a longtime LGBTQ+ icon and recently confirmed queer character, will be portrayed as such in Kaling's project, despite the fact that we know the show will contain a "love triangle". So let's hope. https://youtu.be/lHdtsWn7sgE 4. Daisy Jones & The Six Release: March 3, 2023, Prime Video Riley Keough, Sam Claflin, and Suki Waterhouse appear in the series. This miniseries, which was produced in the form of a mock-doc episode of MTV's Behind The Music, follows a fake rock band as they erupt and ultimately implode in 1970s Los Angeles. Expect plenty of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll since it is based on Taylor Jenkins Reid's best-selling book, which was partially inspired by the real-life highs and lows of Fleetwood Mac. https://youtu.be/s9kwIlRJNy0 5. Secret Invasion Availability: early in 2023, Disney+ Ben Mendelsohn, Kingsley, and Samuel L. Jackson are the stars. Ben-Adir Do you recall Captain Marvel's shape-shifting aliens, the Skrulls? They will be the main subject of this new superhero program, which will depict a more nuanced and subdued side of Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury. As a "crossover event series," there is a good chance that other beloved Marvel characters will make a surprise appearance. https://youtu.be/qZVTkn2NjS0 6. Masters of the Air Release: Apple TV+ in 2023 Featuring: Barry Keogh, Callum Turner, and Austin Butler This miniseries about World War II has a solid resume. Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg serve as executive producers, and Cary Fukunaga of No Time to Die The director Joji Fukunaga is one of them. A talented ensemble of up-and-coming performers, led by Elvis actor Austin Butler, portrays the valiant "bomber boys" who fought the war in the air. https://youtu.be/aDyDg04x1W0 7. Poker Face Starring: Natasha Lyonne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Adrien Brody; release date: January 26, Peacock (US); broadcaster in the UK TBC This detective drama was conceptualized by Glass Onion director Rian Johnson and offers a fascinating idea. The lead role of Charlie Cale, a sleuth with an uncanny ability to detect deception, belongs to Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll). The 10-episode season has a "case-of-the-week" structure, making it a potential Murder, She Wrote replacement for the streaming era. https://youtu.be/UH5uGZ9SW7A Read the full article

One Love

Bob Marley is an influential musician who sadly passed away at a very young age. Marley stood on the principles of love and unity for the people of Jamaica.

During a time of unrest and political turmoil, Marley was forced to relocate his family to the US and himself to England. During that time, Marley always wanted peace and tried to do whatever it took to bring people together.

Kingsley Ben-Adir is tremendous in the lead role of Bob Marley. His power as an actor really shines during the scenes with Marley and the band coming together to create the iconic songs we still love today. Marley is a soft soul who pushed really hard for the legalization of Cannabis through out his career. That is one thing the movie could have handled better along with showing us the political unrest in his home nation.

Other than those small gripes this movie handled the story really well. The decision not to show the concert to me was a smart one. Why? A movie simply cannot recreate the same passion as watching the real and raw footage of these big historical moments. Film only allows us to view them in 4K with an actor recreating these iconic moments. The idea is the footage should look grainy and real. The only thing the film could have done is transition from Ben-Adir into the real footage of the concert to play just before the credits role.

In terms of the story showing as different aspects that was acceptable as well. Here see Marley receive his cancer diagnosis but the film does not need to address it further as we know the tragic outcome. The world lost an icon at the young age of 36. This story tells us the essential details of the failed assassination attempt on Marley leading all the way to his homecoming. If you want to see the passion of that event, the entire concert is on YouTube free to view. I strongly suggest watching that as opposed to wishing the movie would have seen it. If we want these legends to live on we should watch the real thing as often as possible. Solid movie, solid acting.

𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐞

Weekend Top Ten #629

Top Ten Actors Who Could Play James Bond (2024 Edition)

Dum-dada-dum-da-da-da, dum-dada-dum-da-da-da, DA-DA, da-da-dum. Yes, it’s that time again; time to needlessly speculate without any provocation about the casting of an iconic role.

This particular bout of “who will it be” is, of course, prompted by reports that erstwhile Quicksilver and future Kraven Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been offered the role of James Bond. Now, it’s fair to say that this remains a rumour; indeed, if I was a betting man, the very fact that this rumour has come out suggests to me that it isn’t, in fact, true. But it’s still got me thinking about who could be Bond; after all, the gap between the last film, 2021’s No Time to Die is ever-growing, and they usually like to be pretty speedy about these things.

Daniel Craig’s tenure as Bond is somewhat ridiculous, because even though at five films he’s not the most prolific in the role (behind both Connery and Moore), he was technically in the role for a whopping fifteen years. So long, in fact, that when Spectre came out, I actually did a list speculating who could replace him, and even that was nine years ago.

Anyway, we’re at it again; who could play Bond? And that’s what this list is all about, if you haven’t guessed. As usual, I’ve come up with some Rules, because that’s what separates us from the animals. First of all, these actors have to be British. Or Irish. Or maybe, at a push, Australian. Well, they have to be from the Commonwealth, at least. No Americans – that’s the takeaway. No Americans. Secondly, I have decided that they should be under forty. No offence to ancient people, especially the hideously decrepit 42-year-olds; but after Craig spent so long playing a variation on Old Man Bond, I think we should focus on a sprightly young chap. Presumably they’re going to be in this role for, what, six years? Ten? So I think it’d be best to plump for someone in their thirties, better to avoid Moore-style stunt-person-itis in their later films. I mean, look at Chris Hemsworth; it feels like he’s been Thor for a million years, but he’s only just turned forty. Maybe he really is Asgardian. Finally, I’ve picked all blokes. Why? Well, as much as I’m in favour of gender-neutral casting – or outright gender-swapping (if you’re gonna remake Highlander, Karen Gillan is right there) – I do feel that James Bond is, well, a bloke. The line between it not being a big deal or even positive to fuss about with a character’s gender is as blurry as the concept of gender itself, but I just feel like James Bond is a bloke.

That’s it. Now pay attention, 007…

Kingsley Ben-Adir: possibly the oldest actor here, but easily one of the most charismatic. He can be intense and brooding, with serious dramatic roles under his belt; but he’s also done more action-y stuff, big Hollywood stuff, and been a romantic lead. And he’s a Ken. Come on! He danced at the Oscars! Plus he had to be in Secret Invasion, he could do with a break.

Regé-Jean Page: he’s got the suave part down better than anyone (Bridgerton), he can do commanding and authoritative (Dungeons and Dragons), he’s even dabbled in action with The Gray Man. He’s done his bit in the Brit TV coal mines and has proven his acting chops. Look, just picture him in a tux with a martini. He’d rock it, shaken or stirred.

Henry Golding: absolutely nails it in the looks-good-in-formal-wear stakes. He’s tall, he’s attractive, he’s done his share of romances. And he kicks ass like the best of them; of all the guys on this list, he’s probably the closest to being a proper flat-out action star. And if you were hoping Bond was a Henry Cavill type, he’s the best of the bunch.

Dev Patel: the first three guys are broadly similar, in that they ooze traditional suavity. Patel, I think, possesses a looser, fuzzier air; think of the out-of-place charm he brings to the likes of Slumdog or Best Exotic. He’s so naturally charming, you’ll always root for him; but he can really bring the edge, the darkness, the rage. From the looks of Monkey Man, he can bring the thunder too.

Robert Pattinson: tall, lantern-jawed, traditionally gorgeous, with immaculate hair. He’s a superb actor, he can wear the hell out of a suit, he can be funny if he needs to be, he’s not afraid to puncture his own aura, and he’s cool in a Vintage Brad Pitt kind of way. However: can a person be both Batman and Bond?

John Boyega: arguably a bit shorter and scrappier than the other actors on this list, Boyega nevertheless is both a tremendous actor and a ball of screen-incinerating charisma. The Force Awakens really showed how, when put to good use, he can charm anyone off the screen – even, just about, Harrison Ford. I’m not really sure he’d want to be Bond, mind, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

Connor Swindells: possibly one of the lesser-known names on the list, and also one of the youngest; he’s part of the ensemble of Sex Education, where he’s very good indeed. He’s also a big, broad, square-jawed fella with a look of John Cena about him; he’d definitely convince as a buff, tough Bond. But he can do sweet and vulnerable incredibly well.

Will Poulter: like Daniel Craig, he probably wouldn’t be everyone’s first thought when it came to Bond; but like Craig, he’s got depths and charm galore. He can be supremely likeable very easily, but also play layers of depth and darkness. And I don’t know if you’ve seen him lately, but he’s hench now. If he’s not Bond, they really need to give him an Adam Warlock solo movie.

Paul Mescal: Mr. Flavour-of-the-Month, he’s the hot new star on the rise. He’s young, good-looking, charismatic; he has a glint in his eye, oodles of charisma. He’s about to star in the sequel to Gladiator, when he’s sure to look ripped with his shirt off and garner even more fans. In fact, it’s quite likely that he’s so hot right now, that there’s no way he’d do Bond. But he’d be good at it.

Nicholas Hoult: what can’t he do? Everyone’s favourite War Boy has the tall, lithe physique, plus a playful, flirtatious sense of humour that makes him convincing as a romantic lead. He made being a zombie sexy, for flip’s sake. And he can do the action stuff. In short, he’d be terrific, but he’s probably going to be too busy terrorising Superman for the foreseeable.

Bob Marley: One Love: Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. With Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton, Tosin Cole. The story of how reggae icon Bob Marley overcame adversity, and the journey behind his revolutionary music.