‘The Electric State’ Review: The Russo Brothers’ Joyless Netflix Mockbuster Is Only Compelling as an Argument for Letting the Movies Die

Whatever your expectations for a (supposedly) $320 million Russo brothers Netflix movie starring Chris Pratt as a Chris Pratt type, Millie Bobby Brown as a wannabe Edward Furlong, and Woody Harrelson as the voice of an animatronic Mr. Peanut, I would recommend that you lower them.

A derivative, self-impressed, and seriously confused adventure set in the aftermath of a global war between humans and the talking robots that were “invented” by Walt Disney to amuse tourists at his theme parks (suck it, William Grey Walter!), “The Electric State” is essentially a feature-length adaptation of the argument its directors have been making in the press since “Avengers: Endgame,” the scale and success of which seemed to convince them it was the ultimate film in every sense of the word, and thus inspired them to proselytize about how cinema as we know it is about to be replaced by AI holograms of Tom Cruise or whatever.

Soon to be followed by what feels like a tail-between-the-legs return to the Marvel factory, the Russos’ latest mockbuster takes pains to suggest the world ought to accommodate the technology it creates at any cost. It insists that “progress” has a will of its own, and that people are limiting their own humanity by trying to exert control or fight back. And it insists that our addiction to the way things were might ultimately prove to be our undoing, even though this Netflix movie’s trillionaire villain (Stanley Tucci as Italian Steve Jobs) has made his money by creating the “Neurocaster,” an addictive headset that isolates people with their own private screens at the expense of a collective experience. As I said: seriously confused. At least you get to hear a baseball robot — modeled after Mr. Met, and voiced by Brian Cox — tell someone that he’s going to “poop [them] out raw.” That’s gotta be worth the latest uptick in Netflix’s price, right?

Truth be told, there isn’t a single laugh — or even a knowing smile — to be found in this relentlessly stale ordeal, which does for sci-fi adventure comedies what “The Gray Man” did for action thrillers: absolutely nothing. Instead, the movie is saran-wrapped in a thin veneer of artificial fun, which holds all the way through the super predictable eye-roller of a final shot even though no part of “The Electric State” proper manages to match the creative frisson of its expository opening montage.

Diluted and distorted from Simon Stålenhag’s comparatively somber illustrated novel of the same name, which has more evocative ideas in its first paragraph than this movie does in its entire running time, “The Electric State” takes place in an alternate timeline where the worker robots of the world began to rebel against their indentured servitude at some point during 1990. Led by mecha Mr. Peanut, and antagonized by humanity’s violent reaction to the demand for machine rights, the robots found themselves in a seemingly bloodless war for survival — a war they were certain to win until tech mogul Ethan Skate (Tucci) invented a tool that allowed soldiers to operate cyborg drones from a distance. Homo sapiens prevailed in 1994, Kid Rock headlined a massive victory concert (the robot uprising must have accelerated his breakthrough success by five years), and Skate celebrated by creating a consumer version of the Neurocaster device that had turned the tides of battle.

Everyone lived docilely ever after except for a teenage rebel named Michelle (Brown), whose genius younger brother Christopher (“C’mon C’mon” star Woody Norman) and their parents were killed in a car crash during the war. Forced to live with her Neurocaster-addicted foster dad (Jason Alexander) in nowhere, USA, Michelle is apparently too much of a free-thinker to wear the headset that has fast become a required teaching instrument in America’s public schools.

You’d think her resistance to the technology might be rooted in some character-driven animus toward Skate’s invention, or in anything else for that matter, but you’d be wrong. Her entire personality is sneering at people and saying things like, “Are you trying to be a dick, or does that just come naturally to you?” Michelle is a miserable hang, Brown doesn’t even bother to look for a way to enliven her, and the character might as well be crushed to death under the weight of the messiah narrative this movie drops on her shoulders when Christopher shows up at her door in the form of a child-sized robot modeled after his favorite cartoon.

Robochristopher can only speak in pre-recorded catchphrases (delivered by Alan Tudyk), but that’s enough to convey that his real body is being kept alive somewhere, and to convince Michelle that they should journey into the heart of the Exclusion Zone — a vast stretch of desert where all of the remaining mechas have been walled in and left to rust — in order to reunite the ghost with its shell. To do that, they’ll have to team up with a disillusioned soldier turned sarcastic arms smuggler named Keats (Pratt, of course), who has a robot BFF of his own (voiced by an unrecognizably auto-tuned Anthony Mackie, whose year could be going better). What a rare and thrilling opportunity to watch Chris Pratt exchange snarky but affectionate banter with a small, smart-mouthed CGI companion! Only on Netflix.

Mercifully, the cast broadens to include a forgettable array of other robots (the Russo brothers’ regular screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely struggle to create original characters of their own), most notably a mecha mailwoman voiced by Jenny Slate and Brian Cox’s aforementioned Popfly. The script labors to make Harrelson’s Mr. Peanut into something of a Ulysses S. Grant figure, but it’s surprisingly difficult to foster an emotional connection with the lurching mechanical version of a corporate mascot who the real world already mourned when it died during the 2020 Super Bowl. Wikipedia insists that former NFL star Rob Gronkowski voices a robot named “Blitz,” but it’s been more than 15 minutes since I saw this movie so it’s no longer possible for me to remember whether or not that’s true.

My only fondness was reserved for an automated hair salon chair named Mrs. Scissors (Susan Leslie), who’s so happy to have some new human wigs to cut, and eventually has the pleasure of transforming Pratt from the hottest Van Halen roadie of all time to the generic hero type the algorithm requires. Of course, it’s hard to say whether Keats was actually into a hair metal-adjacent band like Van Halen, or if they even existed in the movie’s timeline, as “The Electric State” displays a galling disinterest in detailing its cultural flashpoints.

There isn’t a single narrative-driven reason why this story is set in 1994. The Russo brothers do less than nothing to create a specific place in time, and their small handful of Zemeckis-worthy needle drops only serve to further diminish the film’s non-existent specificity as they scream for the cheap seats. It’s bad enough that Judas Priest’s “Breaking the Law” plays when Keats breaks the law, and even worse that The Clash’s “I Fought the Law” pipes over the soundtrack when he does it again (though nothing drove me as crazy as the climactic piano cover of “Wonderwall,” a song that wasn’t recorded until 1995). It’s been rumored that Netflix encourages people to make content that people can follow while looking at their phones, and that’s never been easier to believe than it is here.

While “The Electric State” lacks even a single memorable image (unforgivable for something adapted from an illustrated book filled with them), anyone who does happen to glance up from the game of “Balatro” will at least be rewarded with some of the most tactile movie robots ever generated by computer. I have no idea what producer Angela Russo-Otstot meant when she insisted that “this fusion between live action and animation” has “never been done before,” but it looks pretty great regardless.

All function and no purpose, these neglected bots exude their own sentient life force even when the film’s human characters don’t (which is always), to the point that Ke Huy Quan — playing a doctor who’s deeply involved with the invention of the Neurocaster — is outshone by a droid whose monitor displays a pixel animation of the actor’s face. The robots aren’t funny or interesting by any stretch of the imagination, even if the sight of Mr. Peanut fighting robo Giancarlo Esposito feels like a “30 Rock” joke come to life, but not for a second does it feel like they aren’t sharing the same physical space with Pratt and Brown.

A better and more intellectually curious film might have leveraged the quality of its effects in a way that deepened this story’s glancing parallels to our real-world crises; there’s a half-assed hint of social commentary buried somewhere deep inside the villain’s strategy to manufacture hate out of fear, and complacency out of dehumanization, but “The Electric State” is content to waste its cutting-edge tech on one-joke “WALL-E” rejects who eventually band together to fight Skate for their freedom. Most of the action is limited to the climactic assault on the bad guy’s Seattle headquarters, and while the sequence is a bit more organic than anything from “Endgame” (a little grass and sky go a long way!), it’s also completely undone by our lack of interest and understanding in what’s at stake.

We’re never given any legitimate reason to care about Michelle’s quest to find her brother (a handful of flashbacks hurt more than they help), nor any explanation for why Keats becomes so determined to join her. Is he longing for the human connection he lost after the war? Probably, but there’s precious little evidence for that in the film’s script, which is so lacking in humanity itself that it doesn’t feel like it was written by AI so much as it feels like it was written for AI.

And what are Michelle and her mecha friends ultimately even hoping to achieve? The film’s villain has paralyzed the human species with a piece of technology that melds the body together with a machine and relies on empty fantasy to seduce its human users towards utter isolation. That would imply the film’s heroes, by contrast, are fighting to create a future in which people and technology might exist side-by-side — a future in which our species has the courage to live with the consequences of its own reckless need to push forward. Either way, humanity and technology have become too mutually symbiotic to survive without each other, and “The Electric State” would have you believe there’s no use trying to close Pandora’s box. That’s just the way things are, it insists, and we all need to make peace with the fact that what’s coming tomorrow may take us further afield from what we loved about yesterday.

Indeed, this awful movie is so resigned to the cinematic enshittification it epitomizes with every frame that it doesn’t even seem to realize how its idea of a happy ending effectively requires Michelle to turn back the clock and return her civilization to the way things used to be. There’s no undoing the war, but at least there might be a faint hope of redrafting the treaty that ended it. “The Electric State” is emotionally incoherent because the moral of its story is contradicted by the emphasis of its telling. It’s no wonder the filmmakers appear to side with their villain. As Skate puts it: “Our world is a tire fire floating in an ocean of piss.” Despite all of the clout and capital at their disposal, the Russo brothers can think of nothing better to do than stick our faces in it.

“The Electric State” is now playing in select theaters. It will be available to stream on Netflix starting Friday, March 14.

Naomi Ackie On ‘Mickey 17,’ Space, And Working With Meticulous Film Auteur, Bong Joon-Ho | Essence

Actress, Naomi Ackie discusses her leading performance in Bong Joon-ho’s next big-swing Mickey 17, and what she loves most about her character, Nasha.

2020 Oscar-winning filmmaker Bong Joon-ho returns with Mickey 17 (in theatres March 7) — his second, primary English language film since Snowpiercer (2013). Joon-ho’s sci-fi space odyssey enlists Robert Pattinson as the titular character with Naomi Ackie playing his eternal love interest. The South Korean auteur known for Parasite (2019) hardly leaves room for interpretation in his profound way of storytelling. In Mickey 17, Bong Joon-ho’s satirical angle on conglomerate superpowers manipulating scientific innovation and space exploration for their gain doesn’t seem too far off from the near future.

“I feel like there is such a through line from Okja to Parasite,” Ackie says, beaming from New York on Zoom a day after the Oscars. “His films talk about how we treat each other, how society is formed, and how people exist within these structures that tend not to help and never allow everyone to ascend in the way that everyone deserves.” The 32-year-old British actress, most recently, known for playing Whitney Houston in the 2022 biopic and leading Zoe Kravitz’s Blink Twice is extremely familiar with the Mickey 17 filmmaker’s work. Ackie is accustomed to playing headstrong characters yet this is her first time playing a security agent in space who happens to be Mickey’s lover.

The romantic dynamic shared between Mickey and Nasha is one like no other. Joon-ho’s protagonist, Mickey has signed his life away all in the name of scientific research. He becomes the lead case study for an organic cloning experiment which frequently reprints out his body with full memory intact throughout the film; all so humanity can test out different planetary conditions for colonial pursuits. Ackie performs as Nasha with resilience and an allure that dazzles Mickey so much that after each unfavorable death, he comes to her beck and call.

Even though Ackie was transparent about never really wanting to play a love interest, she claims being one in a sci-fi epic, “is really not a part of [her] vibe.” However, since the cinematic canvas was crafted by Joon-ho’s mind, she thought “let’s give it a whir!” The almost inconceivable comedy that comes from Mickey 17’s ensemble which includes Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, and Toni Collette as morally questionable opportunists who seek out greed. Joon-ho’s screenwriting pen is packed with obscure truths, always hinting at humanity’s ugliest tendencies and grotesque habits above all else.

Furthermore, Ackie talks about Joon-ho’s directing style, working alongside multiple characters played by Pattinson, Mickey 17’s aims, and being a part of an original sci-fi blockbuster.

ESSENCE: What do you think Bong Joon-ho was tackling headfirst with your character and Mickey 17’s connection to the landscape of space?

Naomi Ackie: Director Bong had seen a project I did with Steve McQueen back in the day and said I had a motherly nature about me, which he thought was perfect for my character Nasha. I think the most interesting quality about herself for people who are watching is that she doesn’t judge herself. She is not watchful of herself. She is instinctive and she knows what is right for her.

What did you learn about his directing style while being a protagonist in this original sci-fi story?

NA: Bong works extremely meticulously in terms of storyboarding. You film according to storyboard instead of scenes. So, you’re not shooting a whole scene at once. You never shoot a scene all the way through. You shoot it frame by frame instead. So, you never have to learn any lines. You’re literally shooting a moment in time as you go along, and the whole film is edited as you go along. More or less like three quarters of the way through, you could go into the edit tent and watch three quarters of the film. It is all being banked.

There was this real sense of spontaneity. You could really fill up that moment with all of the intention of that frame and then drop it and then move on to a moment completely different. So you end up getting these characters who seem quite wild. It was really freeing. Since then, I’ve done other projects and I want to continue that idea of freedom and spontaneity.

When reading the script at first, did you realize how kinetic your connection with Mickey would be and how it would transform?

NA: Yeah, it was really illustrated. Nasha felt like a different version of a love story and she fit with how I like to do things. If I was to look back on the work I’ve done, everything feels quite different. I love looking at all kinds of old tropes and then figuring out characters that subvert or explore life in really different ways.

ESSENCE: When it came to how intertwined you and Mickey were in this space-borne ship, Nasha would watch Mickey die time and time again. Do you think she sort of had a liking to that ephemeral feeling?

NA: I think so. One thing Bong was always reminding me was that she is fun even though she works in security. She wants to have fun. She is not taking the stakes of life too seriously. She finds something exciting about Mickey and the fact that he can always survive is really touching. There is bravery in what he is doing and nobility. Although, she truly is the one who gives Mickey the time to be a full human being.

ESSENCE: What did you love most about the redemptive evolutions of the characters in the film?

NA: There is a scene without giving anything away near the end where Nasha unleashes herself and I said all of those lines with my full chest and — I mean with my full chest. It was actually one of my favorite days on set. I like how Nasha is a natural-born leader in a way where she is not looking for power. If Kenneth Marshall is searching for power and is willing to go to a different planet to do it, she is someone who doesn’t need the power, but has it naturally inside of her and isn’t searching.

ESSENCE: For Robert Pattinson’s character, the idea of organic printing, how was setting up scenes to play with his twin/clone, how did Bong film those moments? Was it exciting to kind of join the twin canon in cinema?

NA: There was two Robert’s. We cloned two. We had a standing actor who knew the lines and had the same build. If Rob was ever in the same frame as his clone self, then there were two actors in the same frame, and we would shoot it twice over. They would literally take Rob’s face and put it onto the other actor’s face.

ESSENCE: The Alien creepers reminded me of Luke Skywalker’s connection to the Ewoks, how did Bong Joon-ho describe the relationship he wanted your character to share with this new species?

NA: We shot everything in London. It was inside the Warner Brothers Studios and being a Londoner, I got to shoot with Bong Joon-ho at home. It was amazing. Bong has this real affinity for little creatures. He just had such a joy and love for these puppets at the time. I had a puppet that I was working with and then sometimes we would just have to imagine them scurrying around. I haven’t done a CGI-heavy movie since, Star Wars, and that was at the beginning of my career, now, I feel like I have gotten a lot better at acting with CGI.

ESSENCE: Why do you think Mickey 17 was Bong Joon-ho’s next follow-up?

NA: I do think many themes are hidden. I’ve watched it now three times. The third time, I believe was the first time that I could see the film as a first-time audience member might see it. There are so many different layers to Mickey 17. It is a film where if you talk about it more, you start to really figure out how he has placed the story when it comes to commenting on society and what is really trivial or what becomes very, very important when life becomes too political which relates to what is going on in the world right now.

King Charles reveals he’s a fan of pop icon and Brit awards winner

King Charles has broken his silence and finally revealed some of his favourite songs – and it turns out he’s a fan of Bob Marley.

Recording the broadcast for Apple Music 1 in his office at Buckingham Palace, the King shares anecdotes from his encounters with some of the artists and reveals how his chosen songs formed the soundtrack to his life.

Charles opens up about the impact music has had on him, from its capacity to spark happy memories, comfort in times of sadness, and bring joy.

In accompanying footage, the King, in a suit and tie and with a pocket square in his jacket, is shown sitting at his antique desk recording his words, with an illuminated vintage ‘On Air’ sign next to him.

An image of his empty desk next to the window in the grand room also reveals a wide collection of ornaments, including a magnifying glass with a floral handle, ornate scissors and a letter opener in the shape of a bird, a number of red pens, and an upright cushion on his chair to support his back.

Charles says: ‘Throughout my life, music has meant a great deal to me. I know that is also the case for so many others.

‘It has that remarkable ability to bring happy memories flooding back from the deepest recesses of our memory, to comfort us in times of sadness, and to take us to distant places.

‘But perhaps, above all, it can lift our spirits to such a degree, and all the more so when it brings us together in celebration. In other words, it brings us joy.’

The King, who is Head of the Commonwealth, adds: ‘So this is what I particularly wanted to share – songs which have brought me joy.

‘This seemed such an interesting and innovative way to celebrate this year’s Commonwealth Day.’

He tells his audience: ‘Thank you for listening. I wish you all every possible blessing.’

The show, which Apple says also reveals Charles is a fan of ‘1930s crooners’, was recorded to mark this year’s Commonwealth Day, which falls on Monday.

Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s global head of content and editorial, said: ‘Human curation has always been a key pillar of our unique editorial approach.

‘Apple Music Radio is where culture is happening worldwide, and we are honoured that King Charles III chose to share his personal playlist with us, and with music fans around the world.’

Errollyn Wallen, master of the King’s music, said: ‘You can see His Majesty’s wide-ranging enthusiasm for music in this playlist to mark Commonwealth Day.

‘The Commonwealth has produced more than its fair share of wonderful songs, singers, and musicians, and this fun and eclectic collection is a great reminder of this treasure trove of creativity.’

The Music Room is one of the state rooms at Buckingham Palace, and features imposing blue scagliola columns between arched mirrors and doorways, a central grand piano, and curved windows which overlook the gardens.

It was where a baby Prince Charles was christened in 1948.

In 2021, Charles revealed songs by The Three Degrees, Diana Ross and Edith Piaf were among his favourite tunes, when he appeared on a hospital radio show called Music & Memories With HRH The Prince Of Wales for the Hospital Broadcasting Association.

The late Queen’s favourite hits included Oklahoma from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical of the same name, Anything You Can Do from Annie Get Your Gun and ukulele-playing George Formby’s Leaning On A Lamp-Post, as disclosed by her friends and family in a 2016 BBC Radio 2 programme about her musical tastes.

William joined Prince George and Princess Charlotte at a Taylor Swift concert last year, and has said he listens to a ‘bit of everything’, including dance music, Coldplay and Linkin Park.

The King’s Music Room is on Apple Music 1 on Monday March 10 at 6am, or on demand with an Apple Music subscription.

‘The Electric State’ Review: The Russo Brothers Enlist Chris Pratt And Millie Bobby Brown In A Robot Uprising For Netflix’s Latest Big Budget Sci- Fi Extravaganza

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Netflix teams with Joe and Anthony Russo again for a large scale blockbuster-style sci fi adventure that seems tailor made for IMAX, except you will be watching it on your couch. Hopefully your TV is really big.

With elements of 2023’s The Creator, 1986’s Short Circuit, and the wondrous Wall-E among others, Simon Stalenhag’s graphic novel serves as a starting point for screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeley and this humungous big screen adaptation set, like the book, in an alternate version of the 1990’s where Bill Clinton as President engages in an all out war against a robot uprising. Humans are being attacked but it is the robots who had all the humanity as it turns out, but lost everything and now relegated to the sidelines in a world that once was an idyllic place for them.

Now humans live in a virtual reality world much of the time and that is how we meet a teenager, Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) not going along with the crowd, refusing the dictum to behave like all the other students in her high school, and still mourning the loss of her brother Christopher. But not so fast. When a verboten yellow cartoonish-looking bot named Cosmo (voiced by Alan Tudyk) comes into her life she realizes her brother is not dead but is somehow controlling this bot. She sets off with Cosmo going to her father Ted’s (Jason Alexander in a one note deadbeat dad role) apartment , but when he discovers she is hiding a bot he goes ballistic. This sets Michelle and Cosmo off on a journey to find Christopher, who as it turns out is being used as an experiement at Sentros, a factory controlled by tech wizard Ethan Slate (Stanley Tucci). He seems evil but really believes he is using this dicey unethical technology to help people.

Before encountering Slate and his cronies, Michelle and Cosmo stumble on to what is known as the Exclusion Zone where what is left of the defeated robots roam. Here she meets low rent smuggler Keats (Chris Pratt) and his faithful wiseacre sidekick robot Herman (voiced by Anthony Mackie). Together this oddball quartet set out to help Michelle’s ultimate quest in finding her brother. There they meet a bevy of colorful robots styled after mascots, cartoon characters, and others, notably the proud leader of this land, Mr. Peanut (yes that one), voiced with dignity by Woody Harrelson. There is also Penny Pal (Jenny Slate), Perplexo (Hank Azaria), the baseball prophet Popfly (Brian Cox) , Wolfe (Colman Domingo) and more.

These are the outcasts, but they are still in danger, and in fact in one major set piece, they find themselves nearly wiped out again by forces set loose to stop them, notably controlled by Col Bradbury (Giancarlo Esposito), a warrior sent in to find Cosmo, but who just might also have a conscience himself. Just when things get most dire will they all live to fight another day? You bet.

Pratt, in a familiar kind of role he has virtually trademarked now, is nevertheless appealing as a bit of an affable loser finding his calling and inseparable from Herman in the process. Brown, finding ever stranger things in this universe, is the center of the story and much of its heart. As the scientist employed to do Slate’s dirty deeds, Ke Huy Quan finds his own humanity, Tucci is such a good actor he manages to make Slate not a typical heavy, but merely a misguided one. The voice cast is superb right down the line, especially Harrelson’s Mr. Peanut. Shout out to movement choreographer Terry Notary and VFX supervisor Matthew Butler and his team for this seamless blend of CGI VFX and animation that clearly shows the advancements in the field with genuine character work that soars here and gives the story its soul in a way VFX is often not used enough.

Producers are Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Angela Russo-Otstot.

‘CHAOS: The Manson Murders’ Review: Errol Morris’ Tease of a Netflix Doc Is More Interesting to Think About Than to Watch

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The official description for Netflix’s new documentary CHAOS: The Manson Murders invites viewers to “Explore a conspiracy of mind control, CIA experiments and murder.”

The trailer for the Errol Morris-directed film, which is based on Tom O’Neill and Dan Piepenbring’s 2019 book (CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties), suggests roughly the same thing, with lots of flashy editing and creepy Manson cutaways.

This is probably a recipe to deliver the largest audience of Morris’ storied career, because there are few things the Netflix algorithm steers people to more reliably than sensationalistic chronicles of mass murderers.

I’ll be interested to see how audiences respond to CHAOS — whether some viewers come away thinking the doc actually advocates for “a conspiracy of mind control, CIA experiments and murder,” which it definitely doesn’t, and whether some viewers get frustrated because it fails to prove “a conspiracy of mind control, CIA experiments and murder,” which it definitely doesn’t attempt to do.

Morris is too pragmatic and calculating a filmmaker to make the documentary that CHAOS and Netflix suggest it’s going to be. Instead, CHAOS is about our desire or need to craft narratives around the terrifying and unknowable, how those narratives come to be accepted as “truth,” and the challenges of revising those narratives once they’re entrenched.

It’s a complicated meta-commentary delivered loosely in the guise of a ghoulish conspiracy thriller, presented in rushed form to an audience that would happily devour many more hours of the actual ghoulish conspiracy thriller that this is not.

Conversations with O’Neill make up the spine of the documentary, as he’s able to link Charles Manson, a recently paroled ex-convict slowly building up a cult in San Francisco in the late 1960s, with Louis “Jolly” West, a psychiatrist connected with the CIA’s MKUltra project through the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic. O’Neill can connect Manson to the clinic and he can connect West to the clinic, and he can connect the mission of the MKUltra project to what Manson was able to achieve in the brainwashing and mind-controlling of his followers.

What he cannot do, what he admits he cannot do, is connect Manson to West or Manson directly to MKUltra, or to the CIA’s Operation CHAOS or the FBI’s COINTELPRO, two parallel programs in which the American intelligence apparatus investigated and often undermined domestic organizations.

O’Neill is exactly the sort of committed obsessive Morris has built a career out of chronicling (and not just because the MKUltra stuff was central to Netflix’s Wormwood). If what Morris had wanted to do here was support O’Neill’s case or debunk O’Neill’s case, he’s a trained researcher who surely could have done that, or at least made the attempt. What he does instead is listen, because although Morris isn’t convinced by anything, he’s curious throughout.

Instead of speaking with O’Neill primarily through the Interrotron, the Morris-created device that allows him to let his subjects speak directly to him and the audience simultaneously, long stretches of their chats are filmed with both men on-camera, with the gaze directed at Morris’ face, not O’Neill’s. This lets us see whom O’Neill’s stories are primarily directed at. It’s mostly a performance for an intrigued listener, a director who doesn’t want to give O’Neill’s version of events his fullest visual authority.

O’Neill probably believes what he’s selling. Morris doesn’t not-believe.

Morris is shopping. He’s skeptical about the dominant narrative surrounding the Manson Murders, which for decades has been steered by prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter. In that bestselling book, adapted multiple times for television, the Tate-LaBianca murders represent the logical nadir of the counterculture, a warning of the consequences of a decade of permissiveness toward sex, drugs, racial progressivism and rock-n-roll.

Morris is able to explain why that story is convenient, why it was self-serving for Bugliosi, why it has been so enticing, and what agendas it has been used toward. But Morris has always been cautious about monoculturally accepted narratives, so he builds this documentary around at least four different interpretations of events.

There’s O’Neill’s conspiracy theory, which isn’t given room to make total sense, but at least is helpful when it comes to understanding some of the biggest questions regarding how Manson was able to get his followers to do what they did. That is, if you buy any of it.

There’s the Bugliosi version of events, reenforced exhaustively here by prosecutor Stephen Kay, repeating stories he’s been telling in courtrooms, books and news reports since 1970. There are new audio interviews with Bobby Beausoleil, who was arrested for a different Manson-related murder. Beausoleil, clearly exhausted with the mythologizing of his former friend, gives his own explanation for events that he admits is “mundane,” the polar opposite of O’Neill’s wild swing.

Somewhere in the middle of this, Morris breaks down the dry basics of the case, telling the story of the murders through court transcripts and subsequent interviews that Manson and his followers did.

The dry basics of the case are where Morris and CHAOS flounder a little and cause the documentary to lose the directness of its argument. I’m not a Manson obsessive, but I’ve read Bugliosi’s book and watched and listened to various podcasts and docuseries on the subject, and this may be the first approach to the events that I’ve found straight-up boring. I respect Morris’ desire to avoid tawdriness in the depiction of the murders and I guess he’s probably correct that you can’t tell this story assuming that every single viewer will have a wide-ranging awareness of a 55-year-old crime. But there’s maybe 45 minutes in the middle of the documentary that’s just bland regurgitation.

It’s intentionally bland. It’s what you get if you strip away our fascination with celebrity and victimization, if you strip away our gawking appetite for brutality, if you don’t try finding a “story” in the Manson Murders that fits into a societally acceptable genre or theme through which to process the tragedy. the documentary.

Otherwise, Morris is an active and engaged presence in the documentary, making himself an avatar for the audience’s own interest. He can be ghoulish and gross himself, as when, regarding the discovery of Gary Hinman’s body, he says to Kay: “I read somewhere that they could hear the maggots eating him.” Kay doesn’t engage at all. He can be prurient, as when he asks Gregg Jakobson to set the scene at Dennis Wilson’s cabin, overrun with Manson groupies and music industry types. And he can be incredulous, as he tries to push O’Neill for specifics he knows the author doesn’t possess.

“People are very fond of their fantasy,” Beausoleil says, aware that whatever the choices, his own interpretation of events will likely be the least enticing.

Morris doesn’t say what “fantasy” is his own and he doesn’t push viewers in one direction or another, so be very wary of anybody who watches CHAOS and comes away saying that it’s a doc about Manson’s connections to MKUltra or anything related to “conspiracy of mind control, CIA experiments and murder.”

Anybody who gets an “answer” of any sort from CHAOS has missed the entire point of the documentary, which is a story about the need for stories when it comes to explaining the unexplainable. If you come away thinking Morris failed, that probably means he succeeded, which I find compelling as an idea if not always in this execution.

Pamela Bach-Hasselhoff Dies By Self-Inflicted Gunshot

Pamela was found dead in her home in Hollywood Hills after her family members had become worried after not hearing from her.

David and Pamela married in 1989, but she filed for divorce in January 2006, citing irreconcilable differences. The former couple shared two daughters, Hayley, 34, and Taylor, 32.

News of Pamela’s death broke on Thursday after she was found dead at her $2 million home in Hollywood Hills.

According to TMZ, Pamela’s family members grew concerned after getting no word from her and tried to get in touch with her.

Paramedics arrived at Pamela’s residence shortly after 10 p.m. on Wednesday, responding to a call about an unconscious woman.

However, they pronounced Pamela dead at the scene with a self-inflicted wound to the head. No note was found at the scene.

Officers from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) arrived shortly after.

David made a statement about Pamela’s demise soon after it was confirmed.

The “Baywatch” actor told TMZ, “Our family is deeply saddened by the recent passing of Pamela Hasselhoff.”

He continued, “We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support during this difficult time but we kindly request privacy as we grieve and navigate through this challenging time.”

Meanwhile, David and Pamela’s oldest daughter, Hayley Hasselhoff, reposted a picture of her parents on her Instagram Stories.

She captioned the post with a white heart emoji.

Pamela remained active on social media until her last days. The actress had 11.3k followers on Instagram, where she usually shared pictures and videos of some of her most precious moments.

Hours before paramedics found her dead, Pamela commented on her daughter Hayley’s Instagram post.

Hayley had shared a picture and a video of her flaunting her figure and blonde hair in a black gown while applying lipstick. Pamela commented on the post with an emoji.

Her last post was on January 1, when she shared a montage showing as she posed in front of a Christmas tree.

In the post’s caption, Pamela gushed over her granddaughter and looked forward to a beautiful 2025.

She wrote, “Happy New Year, everyone! As we step into 2025, my heart is full of gratitude, especially for my precious grandbaby, London.”

She continued, “Watching her grow and seeing her smile light up my world is truly the greatest blessing. My wish for all of you this year is health, happiness, and an abundance of love.”

Pamela concluded, “May 2025 be filled with beautiful moments, laughter, and all the blessings your hearts can hold. Here’s to a year of making cherished memories, spreading joy, and embracing every precious moment.”

Pamela had a very close bond with her granddaughter. On October 28, 2024, she shared a photo of them alongside the caption, “I Never Knew a LOVE like THIS. It’s Powerful, Pure, Unconditional LOVE I Have Deep in my Soul and Being as I do for my Precious and Perfect GrandDaughter “London Hasselhoff Fiore”.”

She concluded, “It’s incredible how a tiny human can open our tiny hearts in such profound ways. I’m so blessed and Grateful for My lil, BEAUTIFUL Angel. I LOVE YOU Lovely London With All of Me.”

After getting married in 1989, Pamela and David remained a couple until she filed for divorce in January 2006. Their divorce was finalized in August 2006.

Following the divorce, Pamela and David were given custody of each of their daughters.

In a statement to AP after their divorce finalization, Pamela said, “I’ve always loved him and always will, and have love and compassion for him. It’s a very, very sad day, but a day to move on.”

Pamela never remarried after splitting from David. However, the actor, who was previously married to Catherine Hickland before marrying Pamela, tied the knot with Hayley Roberts in 2018.

After divorcing David, Pamela gradually stepped away from acting to focus more on her personal life and family.

She made her acting debut in 1983 in the movie, “Rumble Fish,” but is most famous for portraying Kaye Morgan on “Baywatch” from 1989 to 1999.

Millie Bobby Brown’s Netflix blockbuster The Electric State fails to spark excitement

On this evidence of this flat sci-fi adventure though, the Russos’ return to the MCU can’t come soon enough for the duo.

Like The Gray Man before it, we’ve no doubt that The Electric State will be massive when it lands on Netflix next week. We wouldn’t even be surprised if it became Brown’s second movie in the all-time most-watched movies top ten, alongside last year’s Damsel.

But also like that Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans spy thriller, The Electric State is a bundle of ideas we’ve seen before – and ultimately less than the sum of its promising parts.

Loosely adapted from Simon Stålenhag’s graphic novel of the same name, The Electric State is set in an alternate 1994 following a war between humanity and the sentient robots that served them… until they had enough.

Humanity won out and the robots now live in exile, but humans aren’t exactly living in the real world. Everybody is now addicted to a neurocaster technology, developed by tech guru Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci), that allows them to control a robot drone to do the boring life stuff, while they go live their dreams in a virtual world.

Orphaned teenager Michelle (Brown) is different though. She refuses to use the technology, but finds herself teaming up with a robot called Cosmo who claims that her brother Christopher, who she assumed died in a car accident, is actually alive. What’s more, Cosmo knows exactly how to find him.

In order to find him though, Michelle has to journey into the Exclusion Zone and reluctantly needs the help of smuggler Keats (Pratt) to get there. There, she might not only find Christopher, but also discover that the world is more sinister than she ever realised.

There’s already been plenty of criticism from fans of Stålenhag’s work that The Electric State didn’t seem to share much in common with it. Tonally, it’s certainly different and more of a mainstream blockbuster offering, but the bones and themes of the story are similar. (For what it’s worth, Stålenhag likes the movie.)

Not being a direct adaptation of its source material is far from the movie’s biggest problem, in any case. When you’re left wanting to see what’s taking place elsewhere in the world or its history, then it’s not an endorsement of the story that’s actually being told.

Millie Bobby Brown does try to imbue some emotion into the search for Christopher, but it’s hard to care when we get so little of their connection. There’s some flashbacks, yet the movie is more interested in a colonel (Giancarlo Esposito in another thankless role) tracking down Cosmo or tired ‘banter’ between Keats and his robot sidekick Herman (Anthony Mackie).

If you’re paying attention, you’ll catch on long before Michelle does about what really happened to her brother, especially as it’s a spin on the well-worn ‘humans are the real evil’ trope. But don’t worry if you’re not as there are conveniently placed exposition dumps to outline it if you’re looking at your phone.

The Russos know how to stage action sequences and also to work with VFX-heavy movies, and The Electric State is decent with these aspects. All of the robots, brought to life with motion-capture and CGI, are impressive and while set pieces are kept to a minimum, the finale is suitably epic.

It’s just that there’s always a nagging sense of familiarity – and we’re not just talking the third-rate Star-Lord that is Keats. Even just in recent years, we’ve had drone warfare in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, humanity obsessed with a virtual world in Ready Player One and humans vs robots war in The Creator, to name but a few.

Add them all together and The Electric State quickly feels like a generic sci-fi movie where the really interesting stuff happened before the movie started. The Russos – together with regular writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely – have crafted an engaging and original world, only to tell the wrong story within it.

Even with its flaws, there is a spark of hope in the ending which threatens to do a bold and emotional thing. It goes through with it, but then seems to remember it’s a Netflix movie and can’t cut off a sequel, so reverses on it with a cheap final beat.

It’s reflective of the movie as a whole. There’s elements that are strong and moments where it comes to life, but too often any hope is drowned out by too many ‘seen-it-all-before’ elements that probably explains why it ended up as a Netflix movie, rather than with Universal who originally had the rights.

Should we expect more from a Netflix movie by now? Probably. But The Electric State is indicative of too many blockbuster offerings from the streaming service that do just enough to get you to watch, but are rarely good enough to be memorable.

Apple Music gives Britain’s monarch the aux

It turns out everyone likes to share their music suggestions, even monarchs. Apple Music has announced a new show called The King’s Music Room, hosted by King Charles III at Buckingham Palace. Yes, we know you’ve been dying to discover the getting ready playlist he made for the coronation that cost taxpayers £72 million ($93 million).

The show’s March 10 release coincides with Commonwealth Day and the playlist reportedly features artists from across continents — the release calls out artists such as Bob Marley, Kylie Minogue and Davido. “Throughout my life, music has meant a great deal to me,” King CharIes III states during the introduction. “It has that remarkable ability to bring happy memories flooding back from the deepest recesses of our memory, to comfort us in times of sadness, and to take us to distant places. But perhaps, above all, it can lift our spirits to such a degree, and all the more so when it brings us together in celebration. In other words, it brings us joy.” He’ll also share his, sure to be fascinating, encounters with some of the musicians.

If you’re dying to know what Britain’s longest heir apparent listened to over the years while waiting his turn then tune in to The King’s Music Room on Monday, March 10 at 6AM GMT. It will also air at additional times on Apple Music 1 and Apple Music Hits throughout music and Tuesday. Those looks into the King’s soul are free, though Apple Music subscribers can access it at anytime.

Canadian former Olympic snowboarder accused of ordering killings added to FBI’s Most Wanted list

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A Canadian former Olympic snowboarder who allegedly became the head of a transnational drug organization and ordered numerous killings was added to the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” list Thursday.

Federal investigators announced at a news conference in Los Angeles that Ryan Wedding, who participated in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in parallel giant slalom, was still at large, possibly in Mexico and that they are offering a $10-million reward for information leading to his capture.

The 43-year-old Wedding — who also goes by “El Jefe” and “Public Enemy” — was accused in a September indictment in the Central District of California of running a network that transported hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and into California.

He allegedly orchestrated three murders and an attempted murder as part of the enterprise, which he ran from 2011 to 2024, according to the indictment. His second in command, Andrew Clark, was arrested in Mexico in October.

Clark was held in Mexico, then transferred to the United States, where he was arraigned on the indictment in Phoenix on Monday, prosecutors said.

The duo allegedly would hire contract killers and take out hits on people who they believed got in the way of their business.

In November 2023, they allegedly ordered the killings of an Indian couple visiting Canada who they believed had stolen a cocaine shipment. It was a case of mistaken identity. The couple was shot to death in front of their daughter — who was also shot but survived.

In April 2024, Clark and another co-defendant, Malik Damion, allegedly ordered the killing of another man in Ontario who was shot to death in his driveway. One month later, Wedding and Clark allegedly had another man killed over a drug debt as he sat in his car in the driveway of his home.

In photos taken of Wedding in 2024, he sported a bedazzled Los Angeles Dodgers hat and a thick mustache.

Federal authorities said they believe Wedding is currently in Mexico and may be getting protection from the Sinaloa Cartel.

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Country trio Remember Monday confirmed to represent the UK at Eurovision 2025

This year’s UK Eurovision entry has been confirmed as Remember Monday.

The trio will represent the country during the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel with upbeat pop ballad WTHJH (What the Hell Just Happened).

Formed of friends Charlotte, Holly and Lauren, the band has previously appeared on The Voice UK, with their entry into this year’s competition confirmed on Friday morning’s Scott Mills Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2.

The news comes following rumours which emerged last month that Remember Monday would take to the stage in Switzerland this May.

Speaking about their Eurovision entry, the band said: “What The Hell Just Happened is exactly how we’re feeling right now! It’s all very surreal; our friendship goes so far back, and we definitely never imagined that we’d be doing anything like this.

“When you’re a kid and people ask you what you want to be when you grow up, an absolute classic is ‘I wanna be a pop star’, so the fact that we’re getting the chance to live that dream as three best friends is just wild. We’re going to be the first girlband to represent the UK since 1999, which feels like such a crazy honour.

“We’re going to bring loads of fun, energy and hopefully do something that you won’t have seen before on the Eurovision stage…”

They added: “We honestly can’t wait to experience this with all of the other incredible artists from around the world, and hopefully make everyone back at home feel proud! This is really the music World Cup and we’ll do our best to bring it home!”

Last year the UK was represented by Olly Alexander and his song Dizzy. The UK finished in 18th place, with a total of 46 points.

The 69th Eurovision Song Contest semi-finals will take place on May 13 and 15, with the Grand Final on Saturday, May 17.