Movie Review: Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel are razor-sharp in art comedy ‘The Christophers’

“The Christophers” looks like an art heist movie at first. A couple of wannabe heirs (James Corden and Jessica Gunning) hire a restoration specialist (Michaela Coel) to finish a series of paintings by their famous father (Ian McKellen), who wants nothing to do with them or the uncompleted works that would surely command an astronomical price tag.

The offspring, whom McKellen’s Julian Sklar vividly describes as wrecks — one a train wreck, one a shipwreck — feel they deserve an inheritance they’re smart enough to know they won’t receive through any will — or talent of their own. The specialist and sometimes forger Lori (Coel) has other motives. There’s the promise of paying rent, yes, but there’s also an element of revenge. Lori and Julian have a kind of history that the movie will reveal in time. She’s also been publicly critical of his later works.

But “The Christophers” is not an “Ocean's” movie or a “Logan Lucky,” which is to say it’s not really a heist. There’s the tease of one, right up until the end, and the promise of the con. This latest film by the great and astonishingly prolific Steven Soderbergh is not out to give the audience what they think they want from him. Instead, it’s a meditation on art, legacy, creativity and the oh-so-touchy subject of who has the right to critique. It might sound a bit dreary, but Ed Solomon’s razor-sharp script and the brilliant pairing of McKellen and Coel make this lean two-hander breeze by.

You can read however much you want into how much Soderbergh (or Solomon) may or may not relate to Julian, who is determined to burn, bury and shred the unfinished “Christophers,” a series of paintings of a former boyfriend that became his most famous. It’s a fun and prickly exercise for any creative person to reconcile with the peaks and lulls of a long career in the arts — and Julian is luckier than most. He actually got famous and relatively wealthy from his paintings.

Music Review: Make way for Ella Langley’s ‘Dandelion,’ a new era of old-soul country

NEW YORK (AP) — A few years ago, Ella Langley emerged a saving grace for modern country music because she dared to look backward. “You Look Like You Love Me,” her award-winning, inescapable 2024 hit with Riley Green, pulled from another era — all pedal steel and spoken-word choruses, the same night out told from different perspectives. It put her on the map six years after the release of her debut single.

A song that big can be a curse — or at the very least, an obstacle — for a new performer, because they become tasked with eclipsing their own success, bypassing the curse of a one-hit wonder. But the Alabama singer-songwriter has done so with ease. And her sophomore album, “Dandelion” out Friday, co-produced by Langley, Miranda Lambert and Ben West, only further proves her chops.

Lead single “Choosin' Texas” may be her “You Look Like You Love Me” of the current moment, a rare No. 1 hit on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 for a female country artist and a radio mainstay that challenges the country industry's reputation for failing to support its women artists. (If that's not enough to sway the non-believers, maybe this is: As of this writing, “Choosin' Texas” has spent five weeks at the top, the longest run from a song by a female artist that also hit No. 1 on the country charts. Whose record did she best? Taylor Swift, of course.) Langley and her earworms, it seems, are too big to fail.

It's not just “Choosin' Texas,” though it is a standout. “Dandelion” plays to Langley's old soul strengths. The album opens with “Froggy Went A Courtin',” the centuries-old folk song and nursery rhyme, before leading to a few tracks worthy of their own myth-making: The homesick title track “Dandelion,” the credits-closing cinema of “Low Lights,” the sweet dual harmonies with ERNEST on “Loving Life Again,” and so on.

‘SNL’ season closes out with plenty of Olivia Rodrigo, Matt Damon, Will Ferrell and Paul McCartney

NEW YORK (AP) — Matt Damon, Will Ferrell and Paul McCartney will help close out the “Saturday Night Live” season, along with a double dose of Olivia Rodrigo.

Rodrigo will do double duty as host and musical guest on May 2, marking her hosting debut and third time as musical guest, ahead of her new album, “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love.”

Damon, promoting Christopher Nolan's “The Odyssey,” will host the following week for the third time on May 9. Noah Kahan will perform as that show's musical guest, for the second time.

Ferrell, who leads Netflix's upcoming “The Hawk,” will host the 51st season finale on May 16 — his sixth time hosting. His musical guest will be McCartney, who will take the stage as musical guest for the fifth time.

‘Malcolm in the Middle’ returns after 20 years with questions of legacy and its trademark craziness

NEW YORK (AP) — A very grown-up Malcolm turns to the camera at the beginning of the new “Malcolm in the Middle” revival and, weirdly, has nothing to complain about.

“Yeah, I look different, but, hey, everything about me is different. I’m happy. I’m successful,” he says. “My life is fantastic now. You want to know how I did it? All I had to do is stay completely away from my family.”

That's going to be very hard to do in Hulu's four-part return to “Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair,” which reunites one of the zaniest and chaotic families ever on prime time. The episodes premiere Friday.

Twenty years after the last episode aired, we learn that Malcolm — a nervous, sputtering Frankie Muniz — is now a father of a teen and desperate to shield her from his dysfunctional parents and siblings.

Canadian rockers July Talk take on the myth of the midlife crisis in new rom-com

TORONTO -  

If there’s one thing July Talk knows, it’s tension.

The Juno-winning Toronto band built its sound on the contrast between Peter Dreimanis’ raspy growl and Leah Fay Goldstein’s sugar-soft delivery — a push-and-pull that keeps their live shows feeling unpredictable, even feral.

So when the longtime partners in work and life decided to co-star in a romantic comedy, it was a surprise, but not a leap.

‘Ketamine Queen’ gets 15 years in prison for selling Matthew Perry the drugs that killed him

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday handed down a sentence of 15 years in prison to a woman who pleaded guilty to selling actor Matthew Perry the ketamine that killed him in 2023.

“You’re going to have to show some epic resilience,” Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett said to Jasveen Sangha, echoing the defendant's words earlier in the hearing about her self-improvement.

Citing the unique role Sangha admitted to playing in Perry’s death and her broader drug-dealing business, the judge gave the 42-year-old a sentence that will almost certainly be more than all four of her co-defendants combined.

The hearing Wednesday in a Los Angeles courtroom was in many ways the pinnacle of the 2 1/2-year investigation and prosecution that followed the overdose death of the 54-year-old actor, whose role as Chandler Bing on NBC’s “Friends” in the 1990s and 2000s made him one of the biggest television stars of the era.

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Ray Stevens recovering after breaking neck

NASHVILLE (AP) — Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Ray Stevens broke his neck and is recovering at home after being briefly hospitalized, according to a statement published Tuesday.

The 87-year-old country star, who is known for his topical satire, fell late last month, according to the statement released on his X account. He will need to wear a neck brace for about a month.

“He remains fully mobile & in good spirits," the statement said.

Stevens' decades-long recording career has included such hits as the Grammy-winning “Everything Is Beautiful" as well as the zany “The Streak," which captured the mid-1970s craze for running naked in public.

What to know about Offset, the rapper who was shot outside a Florida casino

NEW YORK (AP) — Law enforcement is investigating who may have shot Offset, a former member of the influential hip-hop trio Migos, outside a Florida casino Monday.

Police have detained two people and said the shooting followed a fight at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, just north of Miami. The rapper was in stable condition at a hospital Tuesday. Investigators were working to identify others involved, police said.

As details about the shooting emerge, here is what to know about the prominent Atlanta rapper.

Musical accolades

Céline Dion adds 6 more dates to her Paris comeback run

Céline Dion's heart will go on in Paris — and so will her shows.

The Quebec pop icon says she's adding six additional dates to her comeback run in the French capital.

Last week, Dion announced her return to the stage with a 10-show run in Paris this September, following a prolonged break after being diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, an incurable autoimmune disorder.

Clicks and clacks, rhythms and beats: The tap shoe

You'll never say you didn't hear them coming: tap shoes, where plates are added to the soles allowing the wearer to make music with each step. They're the required equipment for the syncopated beats and rhythms of tap, which has been dubbed America's dance.

The development of the click-clacking, feet-as-instruments art form traces its roots to a blend of different cultural influences.

The percussive element came from the traditions of enslaved people brought to the southern United States from central Africa. In the 18th century, when they weren't allowed to play musical instruments by plantation owners, they used the rhythmic stomping of their feet as a way to stay connected to their cultures.

Over time, that blended with the fast footwork of dancing styles brought to America by immigrant groups, like Irish step dancing and English and Welsh clog dancing, to evolve into tap. Before metal plates on the bottom of shoes became standard, dancers attached objects like nails or coins to make their sounds.

Hulu’s ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ spinoff ‘The Testaments’ is about girlhood in Gilead

Throughout the six-season run of “The Handmaid's Tale,” dread hung over the series like a perpetual rain cloud. It made sense because the U.S. had turned into a totalitarian society called Gilead where women were stripped of their rights. In “The Testaments,” debuting Wednesday on Hulu, Gilead is still Gilead — but there are glimmers of hope as a through-line.

Like its predecessor, “The Testaments” is based on a novel by Margaret Atwood of the same name. It takes place five years after the events of “The Handmaid's Tale,” and follows privileged girls in Gilead who are on the cusp of adulthood. Viewers are reintroduced to Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) from the original, who now runs a school training girls to be proper young ladies who are ready for marriage and most importantly, babies. There is a class where the girls are tested in how they pour tea.

Lydia has become a bit softer since we last saw her. “At the end of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ she’s in a deep state of remorse and begging for forgiveness when her life, as she knew it, collapses,” said Dowd of her character. “She’s come into this world a gentler human being. She’s still Lydia, but I think she’s had time to let go of the wall that was built around her.”

New story, new heroes