festival

A former security guard for Drakeo the Ruler testified under oath that he saw rapper YG produce a knife and slash it toward him during the 2021 backstage fight in which Drakeo was fatally stabbed, according to recently obtained deposition excerpts.

Alrick Cooper III, who was part of Drakeo’s security detail at the Once Upon a Time in L.A. festival, said YG was “front and center” during the Dec. 18, 2021, brawl and was one of three men he saw carrying what appeared to be short, improvised knives. He said YG, whose real name is Keenon Jackson, was wearing a ski mask, but he recognized the rapper’s hazel eyes as he tried to protect Drakeo, whose legal name was Darrell Caldwell Jr. Representatives for YG did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The excerpts come from Cooper’s March 19, 2025, deposition, which surfaced last month in a court filing by attorneys representing Drakeo’s family in a civil lawsuit against festival organizers and security contractors. It adds more context to the fight after law enforcement investigating the killing searched a Burbank property and detained YG in the process on Thursday.

The California Highway Patrol, with help from the Burbank Police Department’s SWAT team, briefly detained YG while officers searched the property. He was released after the search and was not arrested.

YG has repeatedly denied involvement in Drakeo’s death. On his June 2026 song “We Know the Truth,” he rejected allegations connecting him to the killing and said he learned after arriving to perform at the festival that someone had been stabbed.

A CHP spokesperson said the agency “cannot comment as this is an ongoing and open investigation” when asked if YG was a suspect or person of interest in the case. No one has been arrested in the ongoing murder case. NBC Los Angeles reported that the warrant was served as part of the continuing homicide investigation. CHP told NBC that YG was present when officers arrived and was released when the search was completed.

Drakeo’s son and other relatives, along with Cooper, sued Live Nation, C3 Presents, Bobby Dee Presents and several security contractors in February 2022, alleging the companies involved in staging and securing the festival failed to protect Drakeo from a foreseeable attack. YG is not a defendant in the lawsuit.

‘Front and center’

Cooper testified that Drakeo’s group was confronted by at least 20 to 25 people backstage. When asked whether he recognized anyone in the opposing group, Cooper named only YG.

“He was directly involved in the fight?” an attorney for Drakeo’s family asked.

“Yeah,” Cooper answered. “Front and center.”

Cooper said the attackers divided into groups and surrounded Drakeo’s party near the artist entrance. Some wore red clothing, ski masks or hoodies and Cooper said festival security personnel failed to intervene and instead closed two gates that could have provided an escape route.

“They actually closed the gates and trapped us in to where we couldn’t leave,” Cooper testified. According to his account, one exit was blocked by security personnel while attackers swarmed the other side of the backstage area.

Cooper said he initially struck one of the approaching men and momentarily lost his footing. He then found himself fighting YG and a man he described as YG’s bodyguard, with Drakeo positioned a foot or two behind him and to his right.

“And then YG produced a knife from his left hand,” Cooper testified, describing the weapon as appearing to emerge from Jackson’s sleeve. “And when I saw that I just backed up.”

As the confrontation continued, Cooper said, the attackers moved toward Drakeo and “swarmed over” him. Police arrived almost simultaneously, according to Cooper, and began breaking up the fight.

Three men with knives

Cooper described the weapon he attributed to YG as a silver blade approximately three or four inches long. He said he did not see a handle and compared its appearance to an improvised prison shank.

“He was slashing at me with it, like getting me to back up,” Cooper testified. He said he was not stabbed.

Cooper said he saw two other men standing near YG with similar weapons. He described one man as being immediately beside YG and another as positioned behind and between them. Cooper said he concluded the men were armed after observing movements that differed from ordinary punching.

“Once I saw the stabbing, jabbing motion,” Cooper testified, he tried to move away from those individuals.

Cooper described one of the other men as a bald Black man, approximately 5 feet 9 inches or 5 feet 10 inches tall, with light-brown or hazel eyes and a blue patterned crew-neck shirt. He described the third as a similarly sized Black man with dreadlocks but said he could not remember the man’s clothing. Cooper estimated YG was approximately 6 feet 1 inch or 6 feet 2 inches tall.

Identifying YG behind a mask

Cooper acknowledged that the person he identified as YG was wearing a black balaclava that exposed only the area around his eyes. He said the man also wore a black bomber-style jacket, black pants with red stripes and shiny black shoes.

Asked how he could make the identification with much of the man’s face covered, Cooper said he had met YG “a lot” and recognized his eyes, body type, height, walk and demeanor.

Cooper also testified that members of the attacking group taunted Drakeo during the confrontation.

He recalled hearing statements including “Is this Drakeo?,” “Is that who I think it is?,” “What you want to do?” and “Now we finally got him.” Cooper also reported hearing Blood gang expressions, including “soo whoop” and “Sup, Blood,” and seeing individuals beating their chests.

Earlier in the deposition, Cooper said he had previously intervened when the two rappers encountered each other outside a recording studio.

According to Cooper, YG approached Drakeo and asked, “What’s up [with] all that internet stuff?” Cooper said he had to defuse that encounter.

Cooper also cited Drakeo’s 2021 song “IngleWeird,” interviews and music released by artists associated with the two camps as evidence of an escalating dispute. He recalled a summer 2021 interview featuring YG and two other artists in which, according to Cooper, someone said, “We don’t do that internet stuff, the homies going to get you.”

Cooper testified that the history led him to warn Drakeo before the festival that more security was needed. He believed there was a substantial chance the two artists or their entourages would encounter each other as Drakeo left the stage or festival grounds.

All parties will be back in court for the first of two hearings beginning Aug. 13 covering motions to dismiss the case brought by Bobby Dee Presents and Live Nation.

Kevin Lyman has always lived life on the move. For years it was a symptom of working to keep up with Warped Tour, a punk rock circus on wheels. Since bringing the festival back last year to celebrate its 30-year anniversary, he’s switched his mode of transport from buses to planes. What started as a two-month tour across the U.S. and parts of Canada is now a strategically placed, five-date extravaganza starting this weekend in Long Beach. With stops in Montreal, Mexico City, Orlando and Washington, the tour has gotten bigger with the partnership of EDM promoter Insomniac but Lyman insists that the soul of it remains the same.

Thriving on a mix of punk, emo, ska, hardcore, metal and action sports, Warped has become an entry point to festival culture for a new generation of fans, requiring Lyman to always move forward in his musical tastes while still trying to stay true to the essence of what made Warped more of a community than just an annual event.

Recently he chatted with The Times to discuss the process of continuing the fest’s revival and why it’s still a vital part of the summer festival ecosystem.

What were your initial thoughts after Warped Tour’s big comeback in Long Beach last year?

I was really nervous. To be honest, I knew I had one shot at getting it right. I knew there were going to be bigger stages, we were going to have video and lights, but I also knew that I had to make it feel like Warped Tour between the performances. So that little bit of controlled chaos we had between the stages — the merch tents, all the sponsorship booths, the skate ramps, the surprises we threw out each day — I think it was mission accomplished. The feedback overall has been fantastic from the fans. For some people closer to my age demo, maybe it was a little too much — their feet hurt. But Warped came back strong, we went back on sale [for 2026] fairly quickly, and to still have 50% of the people buy the tickets right away without knowing a band on the bill yet was great.

Jimmy Eat World is doing like their 25th anniversary of “Bleed American” at the fest this year. What does it mean to you to have some of those early Warped Tour bands like that on the bill again?

It felt good to have a lot of those bands. For me, one of the more emotional ones last year was Rise Against. They had such a big moment. They were such a part of Warped Tour, and you get them to come back and then watch that crowd, every phone went up in the crowd, and probably 50% of the people there had never seen them before.

“I’ve been a disruptor, and the disruption I’ve caused has attracted enough people. Now we’re a niche of people,” Lyman says. “Warped is a great niche.”

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You’ve always had your own way of doing things that created the culture of Warped Tour. Why do you feel it is still so vital in the festival ecosystem today?

I had to carve a niche out for myself in the industry. I was never going to really quite conform. I kind of came from that rebellious spirit that Goldenvoice instilled in me back in the ‘80s when I worked for them, and Gary Tovar was rebellious. So I’ve always kind of had that mentality of, “Hey, let’s go against the norm. Let’s make it something our own.” And even when I’m teaching at USC now, I say you have to learn the foundations of every business. And those foundations, to me, were working 12 years in the clubs of L.A., 320 nights a year, and then you have to make something your own. I always say when you decide to go for it — go for it. And I did, and it seemed to connect with enough people and resonated with enough people that I’d been around that said, “Wow, this is different. He needs to work on it. But instead of knocking him down, let’s support him.”… I’ve been a disruptor, and the disruption I’ve caused has attracted enough people. Now we’re a niche of people. Warped is a great niche.

How did you keep Warped on people’s minds year-round while you were planning it out this year?

That was a challenge because before we used to have the two-month tour, so we were able to build community to keep the conversation going. Community is a big driver for me. Everything we’re doing now is investing in the community, and I think it’s working. [In January] we had a downtown Long Beach event with the band Holy Wars, we had an event in Orlando. We had one event in a fraternity house backyard in Virginia, we had events in Mexico City and Montreal … canned food drives, blood drives or, you know, register to vote. We’ll drop those kind of events so we’re constantly in everyone’s mindset. And it’s not about monetizing. I think people are always asking “How do you monetize the superfan?” I’m like, “How do you reward them?” Giving people a free Sunday afternoon event in Long Beach, that’s a thank you. Those are the people that are going to spread the word when you post a video, they’re going to share it with all their friends, and then they’re going to be telling kids at their schools. A third of the people going to Warped had never been to a festival or even a concert before, so we need to engage them in a different way.

What are your ways of scouting out bands you want to take a chance on when booking the festival?

Well, I have a great booker named Amanda Phelan. She books with me, so she’s kind of that on the ground talking to the agents and things. I don’t necessarily do that much anymore. I talk to them, but my part is more like, “Oh, I want to see what bands other bands are talking about, or young people are talking about.” And then I’m also talking to lots of the independent promoters out there that you know I used to work with.

Why do you think younger generation of fest goers will keep discovering Warped Tour?

We used to be that festival where you know it was over by sunset, your mom could pick you up at the curb or you could get home by dark, and then you went off to other festivals. We were your entry point to festivals. We may be that entry point again, but a lot of it now will come down to price point. We know the economics of Warped Tour are conducive for people that want to go on two levels: ones that want to come and explore a festival, and other ones, maybe some of your peers, who don’t get to go out every night and see bands anymore because they all have real jobs and things. But they can go for one for two days and catch up on all music, which makes you feel like you’re staying young.

At least two people have been killed in a shooting at a street festival in Toronto.

Police in the Canadian city initially received reports of an active shooter on St Clair Avenue at approximately 20:12 local time (01:12 BST), where a salsa festival was being held.

Five victims with gunshot wounds were found by police, who said two people had been pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said they had secured the scene, but urged the public to stay away from the area, where a large police presence would remain. They added that more information would follow.

St Clair Avenue, located in midtown Toronto, is lined with shops and restaurants.

Between the 11 and 12 July, it was set to host the annual Salsa on St Clair Latin festival, a yearly celebration which features a host of live music and dance performances.

This year was the festival’s 22nd iteration.

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Enjoying the local produce is one of the great pleasures of travel – and a trip that coincides with a food festival is a win-win. We’d love to hear about foodie festivals you’ve discovered on holiday in Europe or the UK – from tiny village affairs to well-established events that draw the crowds, tell us where you went, what you ate and why it was so good.

The best tip of the week, chosen by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet wins a £200 voucher to stay at a Coolstays property – the company has more than 3,000 worldwide. The best tips will appear in the Guardian Travel section and website.

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A MAJOR US band has cancelled all of their UK tour dates including a massive headline festival appearance. 

The popular nineties group pulled out of their tour just hours before their first UK show due to “medical issues”, leaving fans devastated. 

The American punk rock band, Alkaline Trio, have revealed to fans the sad news that they are unable to continue on their UK tour. 

Frontman Matt Skiba, Dan Andriano and Tosh Peterson make up the Chicago originated group.

The trio were all set to perform last night in Birmingham but hours before the show was set to start, the band released a statement on social media.

It read: “We are immensely sorry but we must cancel our dates in England, including tonight’s show in Birmingham, due to medical issues Matt has been suffering from that have worsened.

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“He’s gonna be okay but needs to be treated stateside as soon as possible.

“We will be back healthier and stronger!

“Refunds are available at the point of purchase.”

Not only will the band miss their upcoming UK tour dates to return to the States, but they have also been forced to cancel their highly anticipated headline performance at 2000trees Festival. 

Frontman Matt went on to share a video to fans from London Heathrow Airport, expressing his gratitude for “all the love and support”.

He added: “You guys deserve a better show than I can throw right now. I got numbness in my feet, numbness in my hands as you can tell I’m losing my voice so I can’t really talk, walk, play or sing. But I’m okay.”

After the news broke fans rushed to the comments, one user said: “Sorry to hear this and get well soon.

“Have flights and accommodation booked for the Manchester gig on Wednesday as no Dublin date. Dang.”

Another added: “Gutted to hear this guys, was so looking forward to seeing you again in London tomorrow, but know this decision wouldn’t have been taken lightly. Get well soon Matt.”

“Me looking at my tickets for London and 2000trees (crying emoji) Get well soon, Matt! Wishing you a speedy recovery fam,” a third added.

“It is what it is. Just a shame cus I was literally about to leave my hotel when I saw the message,” penned a fourth.

The band, whose name derived from Matt Skiba simply flicking through a dictionary to find a cool word to stick in front of the “Trio”, was founded in 1996 and went on to sell over a million albums.

Matt is well known for serving as the co-lead vocalist and guitarist of Blink-182 from 2015 to 2022.

Alkaline Trio are best known for songs like ‘Stupid Kid’ and ‘Private eye’. 

The band shot to fame when they released their debut single ‘Sundials’, in 1997.

Dine-in movie theater chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is launching a new initiative to show unreleased independent films that had successful festival runs, a move that comes as specialty films have struggled to gain distribution.

The Alamo Exclusives program, announced Wednesday, will give limited theatrical runs to films that showed at festivals including Sundance, the Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Festival and South by Southwest festival, as well as Alamo’s own Fantastic Fest.

The idea is to help showcase films that received critical acclaim, but did not secure distribution or acquisition deals. The chain will not acquire these films, but instead will enter into agreements with filmmakers to exhibit their films on Alamo Drafthouse screens. By showing these films to audiences on the big screen, these films could get the momentum they need for further opportunities.

The program’s first film will be the documentary “Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth and Nothing Butt,” which debuted last year at South by Southwest and chronicles the history of the punk rock band.

The film will be shown in Alamo Drafthouse theaters for a limited time later this summer.

The Austin-based chain, which is owned by Sony Pictures, has a long history of curating indie films for its audiences, giving Alamo Drafthouse confidence that its viewers want to see these kinds of movies, company chief executive Michael Kustermann said in a statement.

“Time and again, they’ve shown they’ll come out to support bold, original films when given the opportunity,” he said. The new Alamo Exclusives “gives us another way to champion filmmaker-driven films that deserve to be discovered and connect them with the wider Alamo Drafthouse audience.”

The initiative comes at a difficult time for indie films. Since the pandemic upended the movie business, traditional studios and distributors have had less appetite for risk, including betting on smaller indie films out of festivals.

And as the 2023 dual writers’ and actors’ strikes thinned out theatrical lineups, that aversion to uncertainty became a push for reliable and profitable hits.

“Too many incredible films premiere at festivals and then never receive the theatrical life they deserve,” Lisa Dreyer, director of Fantastic Fest and film innovation at Alamo, said in a statement. “We are actively searching for films across all genres, from horror to comedy, to everything in-between, to champion in this new, exciting way.”

AN ICONIC music festival will host its final line-up this summer – after more than 18 years of hosting performers.

This marks a blow for residents as the county’s biggest festival comes to an end.

Nottingham’s Splendour festival will run for a final weekend next month, as the festival is set to be closed permanently.

The decision comes after organisers said they faced challenges within the current festival market, and have struggled to manage “the cost of staging events”.

Launched in 2008, Nottinghamshire’s biggest festival hosted a number of well-known performers throughout its run, including the likes of Noel Gallagher and Calvin Harris.

It regularly drew in crowds of up to 25,000, and had expanded into a two-day event in 2022.

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Now, the final show will take place from July 18 to 19 in Wollaton Park, with The Wombats, Primal Scream and Snow Patrol performing as headline acts.

George Akins, DHP Family managing director, said: “Like many independent festivals, Splendour has had to navigate a very different landscape in recent years, with the cost of staging events rising sharply at the same time as household budgets have come under pressure and the festival market has become much more crowded.

“After a lot of careful thought, we feel the right thing to do is to make this year a proper celebration of everything Splendour has meant to Nottingham and give it the send-off it deserves.”

Local artists, including Nottingham act Jake Bugg, had often used Splendour as a springboard for their careers.

To mark the final edition, organisers launched a two-for-one ticket offer on general admission day tickets.

Akins added: “Thanks to everyone for your loyalty and support over the years, we couldn’t have done it without you.”

BECKY Hill has hit back at the crowd that booed her during her surprise festival set as she addressed a viral video.

The pop star, 32, was treated badly at the weekend after she vowed to play only new songs at her secret set at TRNSMT. 

Speaking about the viral video that showed the crowd, she has now said: “Getting booed is not nice.

“I haven’t found a single one of these easy, it’s really upsetting.

“Because I love this job and that’s not making me love it as much as I usually do.”

Speaking directly to the camera she added: “I wanted to bring a new and exclusive thirty minute set of brand new music to a festival crowd unannouced.

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“I thought it would be a great opportunity to play the new music I’ve been working so hard on.

“And I personally love so much.”

She then thanked the team at the festival for giving her that stage and also the crowd of people who you stayed and danced with her right until the very end.

She added: “It was amazing to have such a captive audience who wanted to hear the new stuff too.

“I said on stage how difficult it is to transition into a new single, and new music and new albums.

“And all this conversation online is exactly what I meant.

“I’m not a jukebox, I’m an artist and the tickets at TRNSMT were not sold with my name as part of the line-up.

“And I wanted to do something new, artistically driven.”

Becky explained that she doesn’t normally get the opportunity to do that much in her career.

She added: “But trust me when my name is on the poster I will always sing the tunes that people know and love.”

“I feel really grateful to have those records in my catalogue,” she explained.

The singer concluded that in order to have a long career she needed to have new music and thanked those that stayed to listen to her.

The pop star has no shortage of hits to choose from, with 19 top 40 singles, six top 10s and a number one to her name.

Becky played her new track Daddy’s Range Rover at TRANSMT which hits out at Jack Whitehall for mocking her when he hosted last year’s Brit Awards.

The pair have since buried the hatchet and Jack admitted he apologised to Becky for calling her “Wetherspoons Whitney”. 

Addressing her fans while performing earlier this year, she said: “I’ve had enough of all this s*** so I wrote about it.

A NOUGHTIES pop star looks unrecognisable 23 years after his controversial hit, as he braved the rain at a UK festival.

This US singer, now 54, shot to fame in a quirky Detroit rock band – but can you guess who he is?

The star in question is Dick Valentine, who is known for the band Electric Six, which he founded with friends from high school.

The band launched into the spotlight in the early noughties, and were known for their controversial song Gay Bar.

The tune was released in June 2003, and lead singer Dick, who’s real name is Tyler Spencer, has now revealed how he came up with the song.

Speaking in the rain at Download Festival, he told the Academy Music Group: “The real story, I was in a rock and roll bar. Okay, and so there’s ambient noise, there are people talking, there are drinks clinking.

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“In the background, on the jukebox, right, you’re hearing the song that they’re playing in the jukebox, but you can’t quite make out the lyrics.

“The song on the jukebox was Girl You Want by Devo, where the lyrics are, ‘She’s just a girl, just a girl, girl you want.’

“Those are the lyrics, those are the actual lyrics.”

Continuing with his story, Dick said: “But I thought he was saying, ‘She’s just a girl, just a girl in a gay bar.’

“And so I started singing that, and my friend was like, ‘No, no, no, what are you singing?’

“So then I’ve got this lyric now about a girl in a gay bar, right, I’ve got this, and it hasn’t been used, so now this is mine.

“So that was the genesis of it. It was just a misheard lyric in a pub, and it worked out really well for me!”

When Gay Bar was released over twenty years ago, the track certainly caused a stir.

While the song and music video got a lot of airplay the lyrics mentioning the Iraq war, which was ongoing at the time, were edited because they were perceived to have been offensive at the time.

Meanwhile, Electric Six shot to fame with their first single, Danger! High Voltage, which soared to No. 2 in the UK charts.

Along with Dick, the original line-up included Cory Martin on drums, Anthony Selph on lead guitar, Joe Frezza on rhythm guitar, and Steve Nawara on bass.

Over the years the band has experienced various changes in members, but Dick has always remained at the helm.

Electric Six continue to perform, and are currently on tour right now in the UK.

A FREE UK beach festival dubbed a “giant family playground” returns this weekend to an iconic seaside town.

Tens of thousands of visitors are expected to descend on the beachfront to enjoy a programme of live music and workshops.

A huge, free beach festival is set to return this weekend (June 20 to June 21) with tens of thousands of visitors expected to attend.

The First Light Festival takes place annually in Lowestoft, Suffolk, and features more than 200 performances across 24 stages.

The creative festival also offers visitors a wide-ranging programme of workshops, wellbeing sessions, crafting, dance, science, storytelling and family adventures for a fun-filled weekend.

Taking place over the summer solstice, the festival is a celebration of the first sunrise of midsummer.

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This year, visitors will be able to attend a “special Indian Sunrise raga” at dawn on Sunday, June 21.

The festival covers an expansive area of the South Beach, spreading along the seafront, promenade and nearby Kensington Gardens and East Point Pavilion.

Converting the seafront into a “giant family playground”, festival-goers will enjoy events such as dance parties, science discoveries and circus skills workshops.

There are also camping options for those looking to stay overnight, including a glamping experience in well-equipped campervans.

Visitors are able to enter the First Light Festival for free and without a ticket.

However, after 9.30 pm, any festival-goers looking to attend one of the Sundown Events happening on Saturday night after the free programme of beach events ends will need to purchase a ticket.

The festivities began on Friday, June 19, with a selection of live theatre and music events to kick off the celebrations, and there are many more activities to get involved in as the weekend progresses.

A huge Big Bang Boogie parade takes place on Saturday, June 20, starting at the East Point Pavilion at 11 am and travelling along the seafront towards the main Sunlight Stage.

Other activities include a grounded movement ring, rocketry experience, and a traditional Punch and Judy show.

Visitors can also explore a selection of dance workshops, aerial displays and even get to see objects from the Natural History Museum.

Returning for its sixth year, the festival also has a huge impact on the town itself.

Chairman of Lowestoft Vision business improvement district, Danny Steel, told the BBC that the midsummer festival was “massive” for Lowestoft.

He explained: “We get about 30,000 people come to the First Light Festival over the weekend, and if all of those people spend £35 in Lowestoft, that’s £1m extra into the Lowestoft economy.”

Chief executive officer of the First Light Festival, Genevieve Christie, said the festival is about “coming together” as a community and gives people the chance to “experience things in real life”.

The festival also aims to put Lowestoft on the map as a holiday destination.

She explained: “All of our work is about raising the profile of Lowestoft, actually as a place to come on holiday, to be a tourist.

“We’ll be looking forward to 2028, when we’ll be operating the new cultural centre in Lowestoft, and our whole idea there is to bring the spirit of the festival into the town.”

There’s something delightful about plays about grand divas in crisis.

The prima donna in extremis in Pearl Cleage’s “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous,” which is having its Los Angeles premiere at the Geffen Playhouse, has an air of Bette Davis extravagance to her. When Anna Campbell (Charlayne Woodard) struts around her elegant hotel suite in Atlanta, she can’t resist delivering one of Davis’ signature lines: “What a dump!”

She’s not at all dissatisfied with the accommodations. She’s just frustrated that the weather isn’t cooperating with her upcoming outdoor performance and agitated that this might be a bad omen for her big American comeback.

More than 30 years ago, Anna and her manager and trusted companion, Betsy Samson (a formidable Denise Burse), fled to Europe on the heels of a highbrow scandal. Anna made waves when she performed “Naked Wilson,” a protest piece that had her delivering male monologues from August Wilson’s plays while standing stark naked before a divided audience.

The idea was to call attention to the way women have been de-centered in the male canon, but some felt it was sacrilege to subject Wilson’s work to a feminist stunt. Acting opportunities dried up, and Anna high-tailed it to Amsterdam, where her histrionic grandeur was put to good use in European classics.

Charlayne Woodard in “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Woodard brings Anna to life with a smokey voice, a statuesque presence and an arch demeanor. When her arms are in flamboyant motion, she leaves the impression of a seductive windmill that might slice you to bits if you come too close.

The sumptuous production, directed by LaTanya Richardson Jackson with solidarity for Cleage’s characters, provides a marvelous showcase for Woodward to slink around on Beowulf Boritt’s glamorous five-star set in costume designer Emilio Sosa’s inspired Pucci-esque outfits. Her Anna doesn’t do much but give attitude. Ah, but what delicious attitude she gives!

Cleage’s play, it must be said, is hamstrung with exposition. More time is devoted to setting up the dramatic situation than to activating it. Author of “Blues for an Alabama Sky,” a 1995 abortion drama still ahead of its time, Cleage is telling a backstage story that’s clearly close to home. She’s also spinning an intergenerational tale of Black women groping past their initial distrust to a deeper understanding of what they have in common.

The intentions are noble and the themes are handled with admirable complexity, but the writing is sluggish. The plot is like an old car whose engine just refuses to start on a cold winter morning.

Anna has returned to Atlanta to headline a festival that is rebooting her “Naked Wilson” piece. She’s worried about disrobing at her age, but it turns out that she’s only being honored for her work. A much younger and far less experienced performer has been cast in the part that made her a cause célèbre.

Denise Burse, from left, Deborah Joy Winans, Charlayne Woodard and Olivia Washington in “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Precious Watson (Olivia Washington), who goes by Pete, has not only never performed in a Wilson play but she’s never even seen one on stage. She’s a stripper whose only real dramatic experience has come from the adult entertainment industry. (Don’t call her a porn star, not because she’s ashamed of the films she made but because she’s too modest about her screen credits.)

Anna, her hauteur hardening like a protective shell, is aghast. She’s also fearful about her future. She’s run out of money, and this festival was to have launched her return to the U.S.

Betty, whose fate is tied to Anna’s, has been dangling the prospect of a national tour. But when Kate Hughes (an appealingly grounded Deborah Joy Winans), the producer of the festival, hears of this idea, she thinks it’s completely unrealistic.

“I love Anna,” she tells Betty. “ I’m honoring Anna, but there just isn’t an audience for the kind of presentation you’re talking about.”

Time marches on, and one era’s sensational renegade becomes a footnote in the next. But Anna can’t believe that all she holds sacred — study, discipline, seriousness, commitment — is of little value in the social media world.

Deborah Joy Winans, left, and Denise Burse in “Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Pete (whom Washington plays with impressive self-possession) doesn’t seem at all bothered about what she doesn’t know. Anna keeps prefacing her remarks with the words “no offense,” but Pete can’t help being offended by her pointed disdain. Their standoff energizes the play, but this jolt of momentum comes a little too late.

“Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous” is not just the title. It’s also a plot summary. The gorgeous part is the richness of Cleage’s characters, radiantly realized by all four actors under Jackson’s warm direction.

Cleage gives the women plenty of substance, though her novelistic mode — more telling than showing — deprives her drama of style. The elegant staging tries to compensate, but the performers have to rely a little too heavily on their own charms to make up the difference in a play that swerves unexpectedly at the end into a cutesy fairy tale.

There was a time in the beginning of Sublime’s recent revival when Jakob Nowell, the son of the band’s late singer Bradley Nowell, saw himself simply as a good son trying to help his adoptive uncles — drummer Bud Gaugh and bassist Eric Wilson — restart his dad’s iconic Long Beach trio. The goal wasn’t to take the place of his frontman father who died of an overdose in 1996. “I’ll never look at it as my band. Sublime is my dad’s band, and I’m helping out, that’s all,” he told The Times in 2024. Luckily, he was wrong.

The journey of finding his own voice through his father’s sly, shambolic poetry and reggae rock anthems, along with his determination on the road with Gaugh and Wilson through a barrage of festivals and tour dates helped him eventually step into his own as a songwriter and Gen Z rock star. It’s all been done with the mission to preserving his dad’s legacy and having fun while doing it. Now it feels as natural as the trio sitting together on the waterfront in LBC’s shoreline marina within earshot of the bellowing horn of the Queen Mary earlier this year as they were finishing the recording of “Until the Sun Explodes,” the first album under the Sublime moniker in 30 years.

Just like the band’s original recipe of shoving punk, dub reggae, hip-hop and ska into a blender, the new songs dutifully stick to the formula along with Jakob’s soulful caterwauls that sound scarily similar to his dad. But what emerges from the 21-song tracklist is the evolution of a trademark sound that gives a nod to the past while standing strong on its own, just like Jakob, despite coming to the interview on crutches while healing from a performance-related knee injury. The band members chatted with The Times about recapturing the effortless essence of their immortal beach-ready sound and looking forward to a second chance to chase an endless summer.

This interview was edited for length and clarity

It’s kind of a rare thing for all three of you guys to be in one place at the same time. What was it like working in the studio together to finish the new album?

Bud Gaugh: Magical. Things are just coming together. We showed up, Jake had an idea for another song, and he sent us a little demo and said “Hey, this is what I’ve been thinking about.” And then we get down to the studio [in San Pedro], and he’s like, “Oh yeah, so I had another idea,” and kind of changed it. We jumped in there [and by the end of our sessions, we had written] brand new songs to the list of songs that we already had.

The band’s revival has been a long time in the making. I remember when you guys had your first show together, a surprise gig a couple years ago as part of a benefit show for the Bad Brains frontman H.R. Do you feel you’ve come a long way since then?

Eric Wilson: I never thought the chemistry would be like it was with Bradley.

Jakob Nowell: Especially now that we’ve been playing together this long, the chemistry is very much there. We’re just comfortable and having fun. Jamming together is the best. We get in there to do a take for a song, and I’m always like “Let’s just do like three more!” It’s just that much fun, and that’s how it feels playing live too.

When did the idea for creating a new album come about?

Gaugh: It was pretty much just while we were playing shows, At first, the idea was that we were getting together to do this benefit for H.R. [at Teragram Ballroom in December 2023]. We went from “How’s this going to work?” and then [after the show] it was like, “Wow, this is something special. We should definitely go out and play some more shows, and get this music out there and get the opportunity to bring the music to the people in the purest form that we possibly could.” As we’re doing that, it’s like we’re seeing the reaction in the fans, and we were feeling it emotionally. We realized this is going to be bigger than we ever thought. That’s when we really decided where it was going to go.

Jakob Nowell, right, once thought Sublime was only his late father’s band; now, fronting the Long Beach trio, he’s leading a new chapter that still honors Bradley Nowell’s legacy.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Were any of the songs on the new album mined from previously unreleased material or did you start fresh?

Nowell: There was that song we did with Stick Figure [“Feel Like That”], so I think that kind of inspired us. [We realized] “Oh s—, there really is some meat on the bone.” And then I had found some old recordings of stuff that were just like jams without even like vocals or whatever. Then it became just this thing during sound check or maybe in the middle of sets, we’d just start jamming these random progressions and stuff, and it kind of just evolved from there naturally.

The new songs that I’ve heard fit right in the vein of what people love about Sublime. What was it like putting some of those new songs in the setlist as you were building them?

Nowell: It was like magic. We were joking yesterday that sometimes we’ll play a new song for the first time just randomly and I’d see people try mouthing the lyrics and stuff and I’ll say “you’ve never even heard this before! I know you haven’t. We don’t even really know what the hell we’re saying.”

Gaugh: You frontin’! [Laughs]

Nowell: But [the new material] sounded like it was supposed to be there, so it was kind of a rad little test in a lot of ways. We almost don’t even have to think about it. That’s always going to be the guiding goal of any band trying to make fun music that’s relatable.

Wilson: What if you’re Slayer? That’s not true if you’re Slayer.

Jakob, it seems like you’ve gotten a lot more comfortable in the frontman role since joining the band. What’s it like just taking the lead, not just for the sake of your dad, but for the fans?

Nowell: Oh, dude, it’s the best. I don’t even have to think about it. We really feel like this is — we’re a band, you know?

Gaugh: It’s [Jakob’s] band too. Now it’s our band. It’s us.

Nowell: It feels like that whenever we’re hanging out, just doing stuff, or at the studio or at these shows. So, this upcoming year feels like a really rad adventure. We got all these different eras [of fans] — people who were in their 50s when [Sublime’s] first stuff dropped, who are still alive, and then their kids and their grandkids and great grandkids. Everybody finds a piece of the discography they can relate to. That’s what is most exciting. It’s not just one or two songs, people sing along to everything.

I was at Warped Tour in Long Beach last year when you guys played and —

Nowell: That was my favorite set!

To me that felt like it encapsulated what you were talking about with the multigenerational groups of fans that have enjoyed you guys and associate you with Long Beach.

Gaugh: It was like a homecoming for me. I remembered playing the Chili Cook off, you know, right over there in the same area [as Warped Tour], and it was just bringing me back 30 years. It’s so meaningful to be in our backyard playing our music again, right there. This is where it all started. It’s come full circle.

Nowell: It was like playing at a local bar in a cool way. I had this huge group of people up front, they were just talking and shouting and saying stuff, like f–ing with us and joking around. I was like “Damn this is great!”

How about you, Eric? How’d you feel playing Warped?

Wilson: [Mumbles] It was f–ing awesome.

Now that you’ve played all these festival shows, from Coachella to No Values, you’ve got your own festival going on. Can you talk a little bit about Sublime Fest and your Sublime Reef Madness Cruise and how you came up with it?

Nowell: We could put on a bunch of the bands we love, and some of our boys, like Vandals, and make it our own vibe.

Gaugh: You walk around Coachella and there’s so many different elements there. Wouldn’t it be neat if we could make like all this like a Long Beach element, a Sublime element. Looking at this thing, it’s like “Oh wow. So we can actually get some of our friends and set up like a tattoo booth, and have our idea of art and everything out there, and mix it all together — food, art, music — bringing all these different elements, and friends of ours that play music. We get to decide who’s going to share the stage with us, so it’s really neat. It’s like planning a high school party or something like that.

Nowell: The biggest backyard party ever seen.

You guys always had your own sound going on, what’s it like to see that the fans still want it?

Wilson: It took a lotta years to catch on, but it did.

Nowell: Yeah, the kids really want that, like ‘90s, Y2K kind of vibe. That was the last era of like cool authenticity and stuff. You can see it when young people make stuff to look retro … when things get so high fidelity, we’re almost losing a little element, so I think these festivals kind of seek to bring some of that back in a way that everybody can get into.

With “Until the Sun Explodes,” Sublime’s first album in three decades, Jakob Nowell, Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson rediscover their studio chemistry, jamming new songs that feel instantly familiar onstage.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

You guys also have the timeless iconography of the Sublime sun logo. The title of the album is “Until the Sun Explodes.” Does that title have any particular meaning to you?

Nowell: It’s almost just another way of saying “forever,” like “Oh baby I’m gonna love you till the sun blows up.” That’s gonna happen in billions of years, if at all. The fact that [Sublime’s] lasted this long and has this many fans is evidence to me that we wanna be here forever. I think that’s what everybody wants for themselves.

Jake, you’ve taken steps to advance your own aspirations and music with your label, Sunburnt Records, how does that fit into where Sublime is right now?

I was inspired by the whole Skunk Records thing [Sublime’s first label], Evan Zinger with [his lifestyle brand] SRH, and just all the local brands I grew up with when I was a kid. So just trying to do a cool, chill local thing that has that vibe of putting on small shows and kind of getting to use this new notoriety to be like, man, I have so many friends in these small bands like Strange Case and Eight Ball, and other bands up and down Southern California. Let’s put on shows and sneak them on a Sunburnt Stage at [Sublime Fest] and if people really like that Sublime sound here’s a bunch of kids who are carrying the torch like Slightly Stoopid did when they started out. Mike Watt always said “start your own band!” So the more we can inspire people to do that and be some small part of that, it’s a dream come true.

Do you feel like this version of Sublime is something Brad would be proud of?

Gaugh: We all kind of brought our own element to the music orignally. So we just kind of followed that recipe. Jake’s his own person, he’s got his own influences, and we just kind of stick with that idea. Jake brings in his feelings, and Eric brings in his and we sat there and recorded this song, and then as we were recording it, we’re coming up with ideas. It’s like, “Oh wait, we should do this here, slow that down there, stop here,” it’s all a conglomeration of ideas, everyone does their part, brings in their own spices and we mix it in a pot like gumbo.

Krutzsch says the event was designed to be accessible. “It was critical to make sure that there were affordable opportunities for the community and fans of the World Cup, or any of these countries that are participating, to have a place to come be part of these official celebrations,” he says.

Tickets for FIFA Fan Festival are $10 including fees, with free admission for children ages 12 and under when accompanied by a paid adult. (There is a limit of three free child tickets per one adult ticket purchase.)

TikTok content creator Carlos Maciel plays a game at the DoorDash booth during a media preview of the FIFA Fan Festival.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Meanwhile, reserved club seats and loge boxes are $30 including fees. These premium tickets offer access to shaded lounge areas, enhanced seating, food and beverage offerings and elevated viewing locations overlooking the festival grounds and match screens.

Tickets can be purchased online or at the Coliseum box office on event days when the festival is not sold out. The box office is located at Gate 29. General admission entry will be at Gates 1, 4 and 28.

EVER looked at an airport runway and thought how cool it would be to walk it?

Well, now you can as later this summer an abandoned airport in the UK will be hosting a huge music festival, that you can even camp at.

Love on the Runway music festival will take place across two days between August 29 and 31 at Manston Airport in Ramsgate, Kent.

There will be house, techno and DnB music across two stages for guests to enjoy.

The festival will also have food and drink stalls, for when you need a bite to eat or drink between dancing.

To add some fun, there will also be a fairground ideal for families.

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Other features of the festival include chill out zones and a number of VIP areas.

Little other details have been revealed about the festival yet.

Visitors can book camping passes for £103, which allow for a pitch with up to 10 people (so £10.30 per person) or a camper van.

And with each camping pass, one weekend festival pass is included (so other guests camping at the pitch will need to purchase their own festival ticket).

A regular weekend pass costs from £37 per person or you can get four for £112.50.

If you fancy heading to the festival for just one day, you can do so for £22 and kids go free.

And the festival will have a cheap shuttle bus from Thanet Parkway Station if travelling to the festival via train.

Manston Airport closed back in 2014 and was used as a former RAF base and a regional hub, flying Brits abroad from the 1960s.

Airlines that used the airport included Monarch Airlines, KLM and Flybe.

However, there are current talks to see if the airport could reopen, with the return of flights scheduled for 2029 – however this will be for cargo aircraft only.

Initially, the airport planned to reopen in 2025, but this has been pushed back.

Lucy’s friends and family have not heard from her for a week

A UK woman has vanished in Paris after travelling abroad for a festival, with no contact with her family for over a week. Lucy Stemp has been reported missing by her loved ones. The woman, from Tonbridge, Kent, has been described as “very vulnerable” by her family.

She had travelled over to France for a festival in the city of Brest but her last known location is believed to have been Paris. Lucy is believed to have gone missing on May 30. Her loved ones are pleading with locals and expats to report any information they have on to the police or themselves.

Her last known location was the Bercy neighbourhood in the French capital. Lucy’s stepdad Sean said: “Lucy is my stepdaughter and is very vulnerable, she has been missing for over a week now.”

It is believed that Lucy will have no access to sorting how to get herself back home. The British embassy and Interpol are reportedly working together on a cross-border operation to help track her down.

Paul Arnott, who helps find missing Brits, said: “Lucy Stemp, from Tonbridge, Kent, has been missing in France for approximately one week and her family are becoming increasingly concerned for her welfare. Lucy had travelled to France for a music festival in the city of Brest and is believed to have subsequently been in Paris.

“No one has heard from her for the past week. Lucy is considered vulnerable and efforts to locate her are ongoing. The British Embassy, police authorities and Interpol are involved in the search.

“If you know Lucy, have spoken to her, seen her, or have any information that could help establish her whereabouts, please come forward as soon as possible.”

A US influencer and actor have caused outrage after mocking Palestinians subject to rape and beastiality in Israeli prisons. Elon Gold and Lizzy Savetsky made the comments at the Tribeca Film Festival as they promoted a new film made in Israel.

June 6 (UPI) — Several people were shot Saturday afternoon at an outdoor festival in Ohio, with “many victims” sent to the hospital.

At least eight people were shot around 5:30 p.m. at the Old West End Festival in Toledo, Ohio, all of whom were transported to the hospital and all of whom are expected to survive, the city’s mayor, Wade Kapszukiewicz, told WTOL-11.

As of 8:00 p.m., police said that they were still looking for the suspect or suspects that were involved in the shooting.

“The investigation currently includes scenes in the area of Delaware Avenue and Robinwood Avenue,” the Toledo Police Department said in a statement posted to Facebook.

“Residents and visitors are asked to avoid scenes in the area and expect a significant police presence as officers continue their search and investigators work to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident,” the police department said.

The Old West Festival, an event that has been held for more than 50 years, is a celebration of the history of the area, and was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

“Summer festivals should be safe spaces for families to spend time together without fear of violence,” Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine said in a statement on social media.

“We are confident that law enforcement will locate the suspects involved in this senseless crime,” he said.

FESTIVAL season is finally upon us and party-goers are dusting off their wellies in preparation.

But this year music lovers could have to shell out up to £700 or more for weekend-long events.

Those planning on heading to Reading Festival this year are looking at £325 to £361 for the ticket alone.

Meanwhile, First Choice has revealed that festival-goers will spend an average of £80 a day on food and drink and an additional £150 on camping gear and equipment.

The tour operator looked at festival prices in line with holiday booking data and found that for less than a third of the price, you could party just as hard at a week-long holiday at a sun-drenched beach hotel.

So would you consider swapping festivals for a getaway in the sun?

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MALIA, CRETE

DITCH the muddy festival site for a lively beach club and outdoor venues with music thumping until the early hours.

Malia, in Crete, is known for being a top party spot and gives off heavy festival vibes – with the likelihood of lots more sunshine.

Check into the small and charming Aegean Sky Hotel and Suites, just yards from the main strip of bars.

The hotel hosts regular DJ sessions around the pool and lively barbecue nights, as well as cocktail happy hours.

GO: Seven nights’ self-catering in a two-person studio is from £423pp including flights from Newcastle on August 30.

Book now at firstchoice.co.uk.

SUNNY BEACH, BULGARIA

IF you’re on a budget, you won’t regret booking a break to Sunny Beach in Bulgaria where pints cost around €2.50.

You’ll be able to knock them back in bars, nightclubs and at the beach – just make sure you can keep the party going until the early hours if you’re heading to Cacao Beach.

It’s known for having some of the most spectacular sunrises in Europe and DJs will keep you dancing until dawn.

Better still, if you stay at the TUI Blue Nevis, you won’t have to shell out a penny extra for meals or drinks within the hotel, thanks to its bargain all-inclusive packages.

GO: Seven nights’ all-inclusive at the 3T TUI Blue Nevis is from £485.46pp including flights from Gatwick on June 12.

See tui.co.uk.

AYIA NAPA, CYPRUS

WHAT could be better than partying in a field? How about partying on a boat?

Those seeking daytime parties on the water and non-stop garage music will love Ayia Napa on Cyprus’ glistening south-east coast.

There are plenty of boat trips to pick from, costing around €60 for the day, that include live tunes and free food.

Or, if you’d rather kick back and relax on dry land, the 3H Senator Hotel Apartments has its own pool and is within walking distance of the beach.

Rooms also have mini kitchenettes so you can save cash by cooking your own grub.

GO: Seven nights’ self-catering is from £359pp including flights from Bristol on June 10.

To book, visit loveholidays.com.

Muslims around the world have begun celebrating Eid al-Adha, the “Festival of Sacrifice”, which falls on the 10th day of Dhul Hijjah, the 12th and final month of the Muslim lunar calendar.

One of the biggest holidays in the Muslim calendar, it coincides with the last day of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

In Gaza, where Israel’s months-long offensive has devastated neighbourhoods and displaced most of the population, many families are marking Eid in tents and crowded shelters, with little meat or festive clothing.

More than 1.7 million people are taking part in the Hajj this year, slightly up from 2025, even as a war pitting the United States and Israel against Iran casts a long shadow across the Middle East.

On Tuesday, pilgrims prayed on Mount Arafat, where Prophet Muhammad is believed to have delivered his final sermon. They then spent the night out in the open at Muzdalifah, halfway between Arafat and Mina, where they collected pebbles for the symbolic stoning of the devil.

After the stoning ceremony in Mina, pilgrims return to Mecca for a final circumambulation of the Kaaba, the cube-shaped building at the heart of the Grand Mosque towards which Muslims around the world face when they pray.

Eid al-Adha commemorates the Quranic story of Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail as an act of obedience to God. Islamic tradition holds that God spared the boy, replacing him with a ram.

The day is marked with the sacrifice of an animal – usually a sheep, goat or cow – and the distribution of its meat among family, neighbours and those in need, underlining the festival’s themes of faith, charity and community.

ACTRESS Demi Moore wraps up the Cannes Film Festival in her 16th outfit of the gala.

The US star was on the jury so became a red carpet fixture over two weeks.

For Saturday’s closing ceremony, Demi, 63, enveloped herself in a green Balenciaga gown with huge blue sleeves.

Across the fortnight, she dazzled in an array of outfits.

She kicked things off with two Jacquemus designs, including a crystal-embellished gown and a polka-dot dress.

But her designer of choice was Gucci, with four custom-designed gowns.

MOORE STYLE

Demi Moore, 63, looks sensational in violet gown on red carpet at Cannes

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They included a mermaid-inspired sheer lilac outfit she wore in 2003 for the Matrix Reloaded premiere.

Her judging stint came 29 years after her Cannes debut.

Back in 1997 she joined then-husband Bruce Willis for festival opener The Fifth Element.

Mother-of-three Demi’s fellow jurors included Hamnet director Chloe Zhao.

Demi said: “We had the opportunity to truly appreciate contemporary cinema every day.

“There was a lot of kindness — both between us and in the way we felt about the films.”

Actress Demi was joined on the red carpet by stars including Gillian Anderson and Ruth Negga.

Demi was last at Cannes in 2024, promoting her film The Substance, which won her a Golden Globe for Best Actress.

Just months ago, Demi capped off a stellar career comeback by being named Glamour’s Woman of the Year.

She was interviewed by her Substance co-star Margaret Qualley for the mag and said: “With everything I’ve been through, which has been a lot, I wouldn’t trade where I am today.”

After 10 days of crazed moviegoing at the Cannes Film Festival, Times film critic Amy Nicholson and Times film editor Joshua Rothkopf are all but spent. They leave with 10 recommendations (listed below in alphabetical order), including several titles you’ll be hearing about during awards season, but also, admittedly, more reservations than usual.

Amy Nicholson: There are worse ways to spend your life than watching four movies a day in the south of France. For a week and half, we ran in and out of the dark theaters, blinking at the shock of the sun and bickering about what we just saw with the highest concentration of film lovers anywhere — most of us jacked up on espresso or rosé. Yet, we’re flying home miffed that the movies themselves were mediocre. Cannes is meant to launch ambitious, prickly works by grandmasters and next-generation talents. This year, the programming looked like a party with an impressive invite list — Nicolas Winding Refn, Asghar Farhadi, Hirokazu Kore-eda — but upon arrival, all the guests felt like old acquaintances tapped out of anything interesting to say.

I’m being harsh. Cannes had good movies, too. But I needed this year’s Cannes to be great. Audiences trickling back into theaters deserve to see something fantastic. Instead, too many filmmakers took the crowd’s attention span for granted; even the strongest films in competition could delete a half-hour of dead air. Fittingly, the majority of my favorites came from Cannes’ kookier programming sections, Directors’ Fortnight and Un Certain Regard — and I suspect many of yours did, too, oui?

Joshua Rothkopf: I did find a handful of films from the main competition that impressed me, but point taken: Nobody is served if we can’t admit that this year’s edition was weaker than others. We could blame screenwriting or pacing (though paradoxically I was impressed by both the longest and the shortest movies in competition). Maybe it’s an overall lack of boldness. When a restored version of Ken Russell’s salacious 55-year-old “The Devils” eclipses virtually everything else shown at the festival, a certain timidity is hard to deny. There were too many “nice” films: perfectly respectable but not what I want Cannes to be.

Fortunately, we saw enough to sharpen up a list of favorites. Here’s what stirred us.

‘All of a Sudden’

I’m not convinced that the utopian vision of end-of-life care presented in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s drama has a fighting chance in America, but we deserve the opportunity to grapple with its compassionate turns and have that discussion. The director of “Drive My Car” continues his process-centric exploration of workplace relationships in this quietly revelatory movie, one with a centerpiece conversation that merits comparison to the long walks of Richard Linklater’s “Before” movies. Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto let a day’s stroll linger into profundity, the twilight dimming and human connection brewing in all its possibilities. Is it too late for them? It doesn’t need to be. — Joshua Rothkopf

‘The Beloved’

Esteban (Javier Bardem), a renowned bad boy Spanish filmmaker, returns to his homeland from New York to shoot a period picture in the desert. Off-screen, he’s gifted one of the four leading roles to his estranged daughter (Victoria Luengo), an aspiring actor who hasn’t seen her father in 13 years. Esteban failed as Emilia’s dad. Can he succeed as her director, especially when her big break packs this much pressure? Not likely, especially as Emilia has inherited his disastrous boozing habits. “The Beloved’s” actual director, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, unleashes his leads to become a tag team of destruction, each blaming the other for what’s going wrong on set. They’re both mired in clashing narratives of their relationship. Sorogoyen shows us the truth, as well as the visible frustrations of the film-within-a-film’s cast and crew that risk shutting down this too-passionate passion project. — Amy Nicholson

‘Bitter Christmas’

(Iglesias Mas / Sony Pictures Classics)

Pedro Almodóvar’s self-flagellating film about his artistic process has a Charlie Kaufman-lite structure that I’d rather let audiences discover on their own. In brief: Almodovar’s avatar, a filmmaker named Raúl (Leonardo Sbaraglia), gets dragged over the artistic coals by the dramatic female characters he’s been writing for decades, one of whom dares him to simply coast on his legacy. Too many veteran filmmakers in his year’s Cannes competition seem to have accepted that bargain, so when Raúl got to the end of a new script and decided it wasn’t up to his standards, I nearly shouted “Bravo!” Navel-gazing cinema about the creative process isn’t usually my bag, but Almodóvar doesn’t take his own misery that seriously, even inserting a manic pixie dream hunk, a male stripper-slash-firefighter played by Patrick Criado, for a little bump and grind. — Amy Nicholson

‘Clarissa’

It’s been 101 years since Virginia Woolf first published “Mrs Dalloway,” a novel about persnickety party hostess Clarissa Dalloway colliding with her former lovers, one male and one female. The plot seems simple, but every glare and sigh tells a whole story about modernization, capitulation, cynicism and violence. Twin brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri have transplanted the tale to present-day Nigeria and stacked the cast with Sophie Okonedo, Ayo Edebiri, Nikki Amuka-Bird, David Oyelowo and the staggeringly talented India Amarteifio as the diva in her captivating youth before she married a tedious oilman and started bullying the help. “Clarissa” makes several smart adjustments, swapping in a traumatized Boko Haram soldier for a shell-shocked veteran of the Great War, and cocking an eyebrow at the shiny new yoga studios and coffee shops littering Lagos’ once-lush waterfront. Better still, it’s sexy as heck — the flashbacks are one swimsuit party after another. — Amy Nicholson

‘Club Kid’

The one-sentence pitch of Jordan Firstman’s debut dramedy — a gay nightclub promoter sobers up when he discovers he has a 10-year-old boy — sounded as fun as snorting a line of aspartame. I stand corrected. “Club Kid” is a blast: a spicy, surprising and irreverent comedy that rarely peddles the audience anything artificially sweet. Firstman stars as Peter, a debauched millennial aging out of a New York scene that never cared about him as a person in the first place. His business partner Sophie (Cara Delevingne) is a horror; his selfish squatter-roommate Nicky (Eldar Isgandarov) is even worse and so hilarious I’d watch a spin-off sequel just about him. Peter’s shock son Arlo (Reggie Absolom) has a casual charm that pickpockets your heart, but it’s the script’s sour quips that will have you urging people to get past the treacly set-up and go see “Club Kid” themselves. — Amy Nicholson

‘The Diary of a Chambermaid’

Art punk Radu Jude’s latest satire is about a Romanian immigrant with a burlesque double life. By day, Gianina (Ana Dumitrașcu, fantastic) is the live-in housemaid of a daft Parisian family; by night, she’s an actress in a turn-of-the-20th century slapstick farce about a housemaid whose master suckles her patent leather boots. In neither world can she openly say what she thinks (although in her native tongue, she curses her employers and their young son plenty). Fast, crisp and snide, “The Diary of a Chambermaid” gives equal weight to the monotony and the absurdity of Gianina’s grind. And Jude isn’t above including a mocking slow-motion shot of a spoiled French boy totally whiffing a soccer kick. — Amy Nicholson

‘Fatherland’

The tension at the heart of Paweł Pawlikowski’s period piece, set in a ravaged, fallen Germany after the end of World War II, is one that goes unresolved. All that’s left are defensive denials, evasions of Nazi collaboration and the faint hope that something higher has survived. I could watch this kind of guilt-ridden post-apocalyptic movie for hours; instead, this lasts a scant 82 minutes. The conclusion, a wordless moment between father and daughter set to the strains of Bach played on a broken pipe organ, was the most devastating passage of the entire festival. “Fatherland” shows off Pawlikowski’s exquisite way with black-and-white evocations of European tragedy, but he’s never summed them up as poetically. — Joshua Rothkopf

‘Fjord’

People at the festival called this one complex; I found myself disagreeing. It’s actually a fairly straightforward story about a religious but mostly level-headed family flung into conflict with an overly sensitive branch of child protection services — and maybe with the whole of agnostic Norwegian progressivism. As reactionary as that sounds, I was totally rapt. Partly that’s due to a beautifully plotted courtroom scenario and the immersive performances of Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, reuniting after “A Different Man,” as parents increasingly out of their depths. But mainly, I credit Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, who knows a good story when he sees one, crystallizing its potency with every camera choice. — Joshua Rothkopf

‘Minotaur’

The ice-chilled return of Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev (after a multiyear battle with long COVID) is worth the wait: a condensation of everything he does well into something so purely distilled, it should come with a proof warning. The movie kicks off as a casual portrait of the vacant nouveau riche lifestyles of the mini-oligarchs: fancy dinners, divorces, bathroom gossip. Then it becomes an erotic thriller (it’s based on Claude Chabrol’s 1969 “The Unfaithful Wife,” as was Diane Lane’s “Unfaithful”). But the best comes last, as the situation gets fixed in broad daylight with breathtaking brutality. The war in Ukraine? Someone else’s problem. “Minotaur” takes on the whole of Putin’s dissociative society and puts its winners above the blackened clouds, looking down at the rest of us. — Joshua Rothkopf

‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’

I am growing to love Jane Schoenbrun’s exfoliation of ’80s horror obsessions, especially for the movie’s nonjudgmental embrace: Let these movies be free in all their “problematic” badness and let them work on you. The fact that “Teenage Sex” sometimes plays like a bottle episode of “Hacks” doesn’t hurt. Hannah Einbinder brings vulnerability to a project that needs her brand of self-excoriating fearlessness. Points, too, for not turning this into yet another celebration of some forgotten male director reclaimed as a genius. Rather, the opposite: It’s about an abused scream queen (Gillian Anderson, gamely campy), a liminal, wintry campground and the exhilaration of running in the woods in your pajamas. — Joshua Rothkopf