Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s surprise album
Beyoncé and Jay-Z have released their debut full-length collaboration album. Billed as the Carters, the couple premiered Everything is love through Tidal, the streaming service co-owned by Jay-Z. Its arrival was announced on stage at their On the Run II tour at the london Stadium in the UK on Saturday, where screens projected the message “album out now”. The appearance of the nine-track album confirms the rumours that the Carters were pursuing a joint project. In November 2017, Jay-Z told the New York Times that he and Beyoncé had started working on something as they produced their respective albums 4:44 and lemonade. “We were using our art almost like a therapy session,” he said. “And we started making music together.”
Jay-Z’s 4:44 was widely interpreted as his response to lemonade, in which Beyoncé appeared to reference his marital infidelity. Everything is love depicts the couple in a state of romantic happiness, but confirms that they almost split up. “We broke up and got back together,” Jay-Z raps on lovehappy. “We came and we conquered/Now we’re happy in love,” Beyoncé adds. The Carters also released a video for Apeshit, directed by Ricky Saiz and shot at the louvre in Paris in May. Beyoncé makes reference to her relationship with streaming platforms on Nice from the new album.
John Travolta gets flak for Gotti
Mobsters regularly face worse than a hail of rotten tomatoes, but John Travolta’s screen portrayal of the New York City crime boss John Gotti has taken quite a pelting. The film, directed by Kevin Connolly, has scored a rare zero on the well-known review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes.
Travolta, 64, plays the leading role in the story of the rise of the criminal known as the Teflon Don, who headed the Gambino family. It had been in production since 2016. All 18 of the reviews on the website on Saturday had judged it thoroughly “rotten”. Scoring on the site is often harsh, but it is unusual for a film not to receive any positive feedback — aside from some favourable comments about the makeup. Unfortunately for Travolta, he also stars in one of the few other films to have been rated so low, the 1993 comedy sequel look Who’s Talking Now! in which he returned for the third time opposite Kirsty Alley. Jaws: The Revenge, made in 1987, and The Ridiculous 6, a 2015 western comedy starring Adam Sandler, have also scored zero.
The verdict of the New York Times critic was uncompromising: “That the long-gestating crime drama Gotti is a dismal mess comes as no surprise. What does shock is just how multifaceted a dismal mess it is.” Rolling Stone’s reviewer wrote: “Starring in this mobster biopic that deserves to get whacked is an offer Travolta should have refused.”
Blind director’s dream comes true
Adam Morse had always dreamed of becoming a film-maker and nothing — not even the sudden loss of his sight — was going to stop him. Now, almost a decade after he was registered blind, his first feature film, with a cast headed by Hollywood actor Billy Zane, is to receive its world premiere at the Edinburgh international film festival.
lucid explores dreams and reality and reflects Morse’s view that “nothing can stop us from making dreams come true”. Observers say the fact that the 28-year-old has written and directed a film with only peripheral vision — let alone with high-profile actors such as Zane, Sadie Frost and laurie Calvert in it — is extraordinary. “I want to inspire people to make their dreams real,” he said of the film, which premieres on 23 June. “I’m not just talking about disabled people. I want everyone to believe in themselves and to realise that almost anything is possible.”
Morse, from Kingston upon Thames, had perfect vision until 2009, when his eyesight suddenly deteriorated while he was in Dubai working as a production assistant on the film City of life.