Fletcher Peters

Disney/Gilles MingassonBradley Cooper may not have picked up the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Maestro—that went to Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy instead—but he did get something equally as wonderful: a cameo on Abbott Elementary. Between an Oscar and a chance to meet the cast of Abbott…actually, no. I’d take the Oscar. Sorry, Bradley. At least this is half as cool!Cooper stars as himself in the episode, titled “Willard R. Abbott.” He’s just visiting the Philly area when he runs into one of Melissa’s (Lisa Ann Walter) students at a nearby sandwich shop.“Whenever I’m in Philly, you know the deli across the street?” Cooper asks, greeting a flurry of starry-eyed teachers. “That’s my first stop. My dad used to always take me there. They have the best hoagies in the city!”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Getty ImagesOppenheimer has won Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards, making it Christopher Nolan’s first win in the biggest Oscar category of the night.The most bizarre aspect of this moment, however, was Al Pacino’s abrupt reading of the winner. After taking center stage, the Scarface star wasted no time to wrap up the night. Pacino didn’t even read the list of nominees before uttering, “My eyes see Oppenheimer.”But let’s be honest—if anyone could get away with changing the classic line, “And the Oscar goes to…,” it would be Pacino, who won an Oscar in 1993 for Scent of a Woman. Audiences online were blown away by Pacino’s bizarre announcer technique. Hey, at least he got the winner right!Read more at The Daily Beast.

SXSWIt’s hard to believe the Y2K scare was a quarter of a century ago. And yet, here we are, decades later, totally unaffected and unharmed by the far reaches of technology! (Kidding—AI needs to go.) But what if it had been a real and dangerous threat, and humans faced apocalypse as soon as the clock struck midnight on Jan. 1, 2000? They’d throw on a George Michael track and pray for the nerdiest hacker to come through and save the day, that’s what.With the ’90s wit of Freaks and Geeks and the gallows humor of Shaun of the Dead, Kyle Mooney’s directorial debut Y2K nearly has what it takes to be the next great teen horror comedy. The film’s dawn of the new millennium references—from AOL dial-up crackles to the “Macarena” dance—are absolutely riotous. But a lack of intriguing characters and failure to follow through on a great concept for a horror story leave Y2K, which premiered at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, with major software bugs.It’s New Year’s Eve, and besties/total losers Eli (Jaeden Martell) and Danny (Julian Dennison) have no solid plans to ring in the millennium. Danny’s best idea: “sit around and talk about who you wanna fuck from school,” he pitches over AIM. While Eli giggles over raunchy messages from Danny, he also IMs roxygirl (a shopgirl knockoff), a.k.a Laura (Rachel Zegler), the most popular girl at school. Eli, who is super anxious and too unsure of himself to ever get a word out, has befriended Laura in AP Computer Science. She’s a tech whiz. Eli is constantly stunned by her presence.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Falco InkDating is hell. Consider this: You’ve finally made it out of the “talking stage”—when you text non-stop but never actually see each other—and you’re ready to go on an actual in-person date. You throw together a fashionable fit, but you sweat through the shirt and have to redo it. You can’t stop nervous pooping. Does your breath smell? Does your hair look bad? At a certain point, everything is settled, so you make one giant leap for singlekind and step out your front door. You head to the restaurant, or the movie theater, or wherever the first date is. You feel hot. (Literally, because again, you can’t stop sweating.)And that person you’ve been texting non-stop all week? They're a manipulative jerk. You did all this for nothing.This nightmare becomes a reality in I Love You Forever, which premiered at the SXSW Film Festival on Saturday. Directed by Elisa Kalani and Cazzie David—daughter of Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David—the dark comedy peers into the life of Mackenzie (Sofia Black-D’Elia), who finally finds Mr. Right, but soon realizes he’s Mr. Absolutely-the-Fuck-Not.Read more at The Daily Beast.

A24Shakespeare has nothing on the theatrical masterminds at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility. That’s probably because Shakespeare never had the guts to blend his Hamlet with Gladiator, Blazing Saddles, and Back to the Future. But few in the world would have the pure gall to experiment with around a dozen genres at once—the theatre group in Sing Sing, however, has no inhibitions about putting on such an ambitious production.Although the play in question is definitively a comedy, Sing Sing—director/writer Greg Kwedar’s sophomore feature, following 2016’s Transpecos—has that magical balance of wit and sentiment. Based on a true story reported in Esquire in 2005, Sing Sing sees a full production come to fruition in the brilliant theatre group at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, located in Ossining, NY. Although the group has always put on drama productions under the leadership of John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo), an incarcerated man who has taken most leads in the productions, and director Brent (Paul Raci), a newcomer spins the group on its head when he pitches a new idea: Why doesn’t the group put on a comedy? They need to lighten up!In many ways, the theatre group seen in Sing Sing—which had its U.S. premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival on Friday—mirrors the same structure as high school theater. There’s the ringleader and his second-in-command, Mike Mike (Sean San Jose), as well as a director who works closely with the recurring main star. Then, out of nowhere, a younger newbie threatens to dethrone the superstar. In Sing Sing, that newcomer is Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin (starring as himself), who is recruited by the company and the first to pitch this swap to lighter content. While Divine G has always brainstormed their projects—and even written some himself—the group is tired of Shakespeare. They like Divine Eye’s idea of blending Robin Hood, Peter Pan, and… Hamlet, notoriously not a comedy, and notoriously written by Shakespeare.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/ElectroLeague/Courtesy Jalil Moghaddan/Miyu Productions/Mast Films/From death row and incest to war and more war, this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Animated Shorts are perhaps the bleakest—and worst—in recent memory. Although Pixar, which goes unrecognized this year, has no shortage of wins and nominations in this area, this group is really missing that studio’s brighter, happier stories. It could use an ounce of levity!This year’s lineup brings, if nothing else, a fascinating blend of animation techniques to the Oscars. From doodle-esque black scrawl to stories hand-painted onto literal clothing that moves to create action, there’s a great array of creative styles. That said, the short most likely to take home the win feels like standard, Pixar-like animation without as much heart—which makes sense, considering it was written and directed by a former Pixar employee.The shorts may have appearances from Tim Blake Nelson, John Lennon, and a sweet young French girl, but that doesn’t make them any more entertaining. Nevertheless, we watched them so you don’t have to—and we have a good idea of what will win, to keep your Oscar ballot looking strong.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/ElectroLeague/Courtesy Jalil Moghaddan/Miyu Productions/Mast Films/From death row and incest to war and more war, this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Animated Shorts are perhaps the bleakest—and worst—in recent memory. Although Pixar, which goes unrecognized this year, has no shortage of wins and nominations in this area, this group is really missing that studio’s brighter, happier stories. It could use an ounce of levity!This year’s lineup brings, if nothing else, a fascinating blend of animation techniques to the Oscars. From doodle-esque black scrawl to stories hand-painted onto literal clothing that moves to create action, there’s a great array of creative styles. That said, the short most likely to take home the win feels like standard, Pixar-like animation without as much heart—which makes sense, considering it was written and directed by a former Pixar employee.The shorts may have appearances from Tim Blake Nelson, John Lennon, and a sweet young French girl, but that doesn’t make them any more entertaining. Nevertheless, we watched them so you don’t have to—and we have a good idea of what will win, to keep your Oscar ballot looking strong.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/NBCThe chaotic brilliance of Deal or No Deal has returned. But it’s back with a Survivor-style twist. Deal or No Deal Island may sound like a title ripped from 30 Rock—I feel like I write this every week at this point, with reality shows about twins dating, MILFs, and polyamory always popping up—but it’s 100 percent real and about to debut on NBC.Deal or No Deal Island, which premieres Monday night on NBC at 9:30 p.m. ET, was a show made for anyone who still watches reruns on the Deal or No Deal Roku Channel that airs reruns at every hour of the day. (So, me. I’m unapologetic about this fact—Deal or No Deal rocks.) It was made for people who want to scream, “Don’t make that deal!” at confused contestants who think a measly $83,000 is better than a potential million bucks hiding within their case. Even without Howie Mandel, Deal or No Deal Island is a dreamlike, messy, absurdist concept that ties in facets of the original Deal or No Deal with ease.At first, one might not expect such high praise for Deal or No Deal Island. The series is shoddily made, with iPhones replacing the iconic landline phones to contact the banker. Joe Manganiello takes the place of Mandel as host, a C-minus replacement at best. The models who present the cases—Meghan Markle used to be one—are no longer present; instead, two unfashionable “banker’s assistants” do that job. The ever-present techno thrums of the stressful Deal or No Deal music have vanished too.Read more at The Daily Beast.