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Cast propels hip-hop comedy ‘World’s Best’ to winner’s circle

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:00:56 GMT

A delightful throwback to Disney’s great, original, live-action films of the past, “World’s Best” is the story of a New Jersey, middle-school-aged boy who goes to high school for math class because he is that smart when it comes to numbers and equations. But what Prem (rhymes with “name”) Patel (standout Manny Magnus) really wants is to become a hip-hop sensation like his late father Suresh (actor and rapper Utkarsh Ambudkar of TV hit “Ghosts”). Modest and terrifically executed by cast and crew, the film is a terrific piece of entertainment. When we first meet curly-haired, bespectacled Prem, he’s participating in a “Mathylimpics” contest and helping his team win right on the buzzer. He is reminded of one of his father’s mottoes, “The best never rest.” But it’s just a dream.Rising at 6 a.m., Prem gazes at images of Leibniz, Newton and Ramanujan on his ceiling. Prem’s mom Priya (Prunam Patel, also TV’s “Ghosts”) encourages his math studies an...

2023 NBA Draft: Nets select Noah Clowney 21st, Dariq Whitehead 22nd

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:00:56 GMT

They kept their picks after all. Which means a subsequent deal could be imminent.The Nets held consecutive late first-round picks in Thursday’s NBA Draft and were expected to package picks Nos. 21 and 22 in an attempt to either move up in the draft or put together a trade package for an impact player or another star.They did neither.Instead, the Nets selected Alabama’s freshman stretch four Noah Clowney 21st overall, then took Duke’s 3-and-D forward Dariq Whitehead with the ensuing pick.Brooklyn’s front office clearly put an emphasis on floor spacing. The Nets also prioritized size, and they got both in their back-to-back first-round picks on Thursday night.Clowney has stretch-four potential at the NBA level. He led Alabama in rebounding 14 times last season and made the 2022-23 SEC All-Freshman Team while converting at a 28.3% clip from downtown. The volume was more noteworthy than the percentage: Clowney attempted an average of more than three threes per ga...

2023 NBA Draft: Analysis on Victor Wembanyama, Brandon Miller and top-10 selections

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:00:56 GMT

With the first pick, the “Wemby Draft” went according to plan. We’ll see if Victor Wembanyama’s career follows suit. Wembanyama, the giant Frenchman, shook Adam Silver’s hand in a dark green suit and officially joined the San Antonio Spurs. The process was drawn out by the NBA to achieve maximum airtime for ESPN, with the Spurs requiring the full five minutes for the pick.Then the clock started on the real drama, with Michael Jordan making his final pick as Hornets owner at No. 2. Here were the top-4 picks from Thursday’s draft:1. SPURS: VICTOR WEMBANYAMAPrevious Team: Metropolitans 92 (France)Age: 19Height: 7-4Weight: 209 poundsThe Frenchman is considered a talent without rival because of his combination of height, athleticism and skill. His presence places the Spurs back on the national map after four years without a playoff appearance. It also probably extends the career of Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich. The talent and uniqueness is undenia...

How ‘Swagger’ creator keeps it real for audience & actors

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:00:56 GMT

Reggie Rock Bythewood, the creator-writer, showrunner, frequent director and executive producer of the hit AppleTV+ basketball series “Swagger,” knows all too well his real-life responsibilities in this universe.They began with the awareness that casting teenagers in key roles will inevitably change their lives.His casting for “Swagger” began with an unusual distinction: Reality.“Number One, I’m very committed to getting this right,” Bythewood, 57, began in a Zoom interview earlier this week. “A lot of times in a sports movie you’re hiding the fact that this person is not a real ballplayer, you’re camouflaging their lack of ability. I didn’t want to do that.“First and foremost, I had people who are really evolved players. Because the storytelling has to be authentic and if the ball playing is not authentic, we lose the audience. So we cast people that could play at a high level and gave them training to act.“The actors who are to play ball, we gave them several mon...

Editorial: Sub tragedy brings out worst in ‘eat the rich’ crowd

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:00:56 GMT

After five days of intensive searching and anxious waiting, rescuers found remains Thursday of the submarine Titan which disappeared while exploring the wreck of the Titanic. All five people aboard the sub have died.While that’s not the result any of those who held out hope – no matter how slim – that this would end in a rescue, there are those who are are downplaying the tragedy of lives lost.OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet were wealthy, and their fortunes brought out the worst in many.The sniping and vitriol was in full play on Twitter:“In many ways, the swift rescue efforts for the billionaires trapped in the Titanic submarine, while poor & desperate refugees are neglected & left to die, mirrors a sad, familiar story of the world that has replayed across history. Little has changed. #OceanGate #submarinemissing” wrote one.“Ok looks like the Titanic...

Graham: RFK Jr. inspired by JFK as he campaigns for White House win

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:00:56 GMT

Just hours before delivering a speech on foreign policy that he says he was inspired by the words of his famous uncle, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made his first-ever visit to the statue of JFK at Nashua City Hall Tuesday.The bust of President John F. Kennedy marks the spot where, on Jan. 25, 1960, he made the first stop of his successful presidential campaign. Kennedy carried New Hampshire with 85% of the primary vote later that year.RFK Jr. hopes some of that success will come his way as he challenges incumbent President Joe Biden.“I was at the convention in 1960 in Los Angeles,” Kennedy told NHJournal during his visit to city hall. “It was the first time that I had stayed up all night, and then I flew back with him the following day. I sat next to him on the airplane the whole way.He also recounted how he and the other nieces and nephews of the then-Massachusetts senator hit the campaign trail.“We were handing out buttons, knocking on doors, and shaking hands with people,” Kennedy said...

Celtics draft Arkansas wing Jordan Walsh with No. 38 pick, stockpile future second-rounders

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:00:56 GMT

After a slew of trades and maneuvering around the draft board to stockpile future picks, Brad Stevens and the Celtics ultimately moved back into the second round and selected Arkansas wing Jordan Walsh with the No. 38 overall pick in Thursday night’s NBA draft.The 19-year-old Walsh spent one season with the Razorbacks and helped a talented team that had three selections in Thursday’s draft reach the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. At 6-foot-7, 205 pounds, Walsh is a physically gifted and explosive athlete. He possesses a 7-foot-2 wing span and projects as a versatile defender at the next level. However, he is a major work in progress offensively after shooting just 27.8 percent from 3-point range in his lone college season.Walsh averaged 7.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game for Arkansas last season. The Celtics originally held the No. 35 selection in this draft before they made their stunning trade that sent Marcus Smart to the Grizzlies, which netted them two first-round pic...

Wes Anderson works his quirky magic once more with ‘Asteroid City’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:00:56 GMT

From the endlessly fertile and curious mind that has given us “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “The Royal Tenenbaums” comes “Asteroid City,” and while this latest curio may not scale the heights of this artist’s greatest hits, it’s more fun than almost anything out there.Set in 1955 for reasons known only to writer-director Wes Anderson, and shot in the squarish academy ratio more common to those times, ”Asteroid City” begins with a host-narrator (Bryan Cranston) who reminds us that what we are about to see is entirely “imaginary” and “apocryphal.” He also introduces us to the hardworking writer Conrad Earp (Edward Norton), the creator of the world we about to inhabit. Soon, we behold a sign reading “Asteroid City.” It sits in the middle of a space suggesting the Arizona-Utah-straddling Monument Valley location director John Ford used for many of his Westerns. Its most important feature is a giant crater left by an incorrectly labeled and proudly displ...

‘Maximum Truth’ gives politics the mockumentary treatment

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:00:56 GMT

Frequent character actor Ike Barinholtz (“Suicide Squad,” “The Lego Movie 2”)) is both the lead actor and co-writer of “Maximum Truth,” a “mockumentary” (yes, I know, been there, done that) in which a couple of unseen filmmakers follow a self-deluded Los Angeles hustler named Rick Klingman (Barinholtz) around after he establishes a company called, yes, “Maximum Truth.” Rick is hired to dig up dirt on a Los Angeles candidate for Congress named Antonio Kelly-Zhang (Max Minghella) on behalf of a possibly (all right, probably) demented and cackling Beverly Hills dowager named Mary Jo Nackerson (the fine character actor Beth Grant). Ms. Nackerson acquired her vast fortune from her late husband Wilbur, a fracking magnate, who liked to hunt big game.Yes, “Maximum Truth” has a definite “Chinatown” vibe with Rick Klingman as an even more high-strung and aggressive truth-seeker and dirt-digger than Jack Nicholson’s J.J. Gittes. Rick’s right-hand-man is Simon Tarnum (Dylan O’...

Dear Abby: Toxic in-laws take it up a notch after hubby dies

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 06:00:56 GMT

Dear Abby: I was never close to my late husband’s family. He had two half-siblings from his mother and seven from his father. (He was the only mutual child between them.)  At his funeral, his sister on his mother’s side wore what appeared to be a white wedding dress and had her three daughters dressed like flower girls. She had threatened me often with violence and stalked me at my job. I got a protective order, but it took three filings to get it because her father has friends in the court system. The order is for one year, but we’ll see what happens when it expires.Everyone in his family has demanded a portion of his ashes. I refuse to divide them because he wanted to be buried with me, and I want to abide by his wishes. The other side of his family contacts me only if it benefits them.For almost a year, I took care of my father-in-law, who has dementia, without any of the seven remaining children helping. I have since cut ties with all of them. They are toxic, a...