The Hillbillies, more or less an alter-ego duo of cousins Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar, headlined Tyler, The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival last weekend. Before their set, a mysterious trailer played on the stage’s screen for what we now know to be Baby Keem’s forthcoming The Melodic Blue visual. This morning, November 16, a press release confirmed that The Melodic Blue will be available to globally stream on Amazon Prime Video on December 5.
“Keem’s internal battle leads us through fragments of memory and temptation as he navigates the depths of The Melodic Blue,” the press release teased.
The Melodic Blue first arrived as Baby Keem’s major-label debut album in September 2021, which Uproxx’s Wongo Okon reviewed as “Baby Keem’s attempt to balance his individuality with a reduced dose of his trademarked chaotic energy.” Keem dropped a deluxe version in October 2022.
According to the press release, The Melodic Blue visual was directed by Savannah Setten. It stars acclaimed actress Amandla Stenberg opposite Keem, Shakira Ja’nai Paye, Francis Lovehall, and Séréna Sy. The visual presented by Eerie Times, pgLang, and Amazon Music was co-executive produced Keem, Kendrick Lamar, and Dave Free. Jamie Rabineau and Cornell Brown are also credited producers.
As per a press release, The Melodic Blue visual will be presented by Eerie Times, pgLang, and Amazon Music to stream globally on Amazon Prime Video on December 5. Information is sparse, other than the fact that it stars acclaimed actress Amandla Stenberg. “Keem’s internal battle leads us through fragments of memory and temptation as he navigates the depths of The Melodic Blue,” the press release teases.
Last Saturday, November 11, The Hillbillies — comprised of Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar — headlined Tyler The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival (newly labeled “The Best Festival In America” by Uproxx’s Aaron Williams and Philip Cosores). Before the set’s start, a trailer for Keem’s The Melodic Blue visual played.
Someone in attendance captured the trailer on video, later circulating on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Along with Stenberg, the Savannah Setten-directed visual will co-star Baby Keem, Shakira Janai Paye, Francis Lovehall, and Séréna Sy. The press release confirms that it was co-executive produced by Keem, Kendrick Lamar, and Dave Free. Jamie Rabineau and Cornell Brown are also credited producers.
All kinds of places to watch movies continue to grow in popularity; Amazon’s Prime Video selections remain a favorite among movie lovers. With a wide variety to choose from, it can be challenging to know where to start. There are plenty of great shows that can keep you engaged for hours. However, as far as movies go, Prime Video has a ton of hits straight out of movie theaters to your own home. If you have kids, there’s also content they can get into as well. Whether you’re in the mood for a comedy, drama, or action, here are some of the best Prime Video movies to watch right now.
Sound of Metal (2019)
Sound of Metal is a powerful drama about a heavy metal drummer who begins to lose his hearing. Riz Ahmed delivers an outstanding performance as Ruben, a musician who is forced to confront the reality of his situation and adapt to a new way of life. The film also explores themes of acceptance, identity, and the power of community. Sound of Metal is a must-watch for anyone who appreciates a well-crafted drama that will leave you thinking long after the credits roll. The sound design of Sound of Metal is exceptional and immerses the audience in Ruben’s experience. The film also features strong supporting performances from Olivia Cooke and Paul Raci.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is a comedy-drama series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino, the creator of Gilmore Girls. The show is set in the 1950s and follows the life of Miriam “Midge” Maisel, played by Rachel Brosnahan, a Jewish housewife living in New York City who discovers a talent for stand-up comedy after her husband leaves her. The film spotlights a time when women were expected to conform to traditional gender roles and stay at home. However, Midge defies these societal expectations and decides to pursue a career in comedy, which was a male-dominated field at the time. What further makes The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel great is its witty writing, fast-paced dialogue, and fantastic performances. The show has also won numerous awards for its excellent writing, directing, and acting, including several Primetime Emmys.
One Night In Miami (2020)
One Night in Miami is a fictionalized account of a meeting between four iconic figures in American history. It features portrayals of Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke. Set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, the film explores the conversations that may have taken place on the night of February 25th, 1964. The performances in One Night in Miami are outstanding, particularly Leslie Odom Jr.’s portrayal of Sam Cooke. The film’s themes of activism, race, and identity are still relevant today, making it a timely and thought-provoking watch. Directed by Regina King, One Night in Miami is a powerful film that will stay with you long after viewing.
The Big Sick (2017)
The Big Sick is a romantic comedy based on the real-life experiences of its writers, Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon. The film follows Kumail (Nanjiani) as he navigates his relationship with Emily (Zoe Kazan). It movie also touches on dealing with Kumail’s traditional Pakistani family’s expectations. The supporting cast, including Holly Hunter and Ray Romano, also deliver strong performances. This helps make The Big Sick an enjoyable and heartfelt watch. The film is a refreshing take on the rom-com genre, with a sharp and witty script.
The Farewell (2019)
The Farewell is a touching drama about a Chinese-American family who decides not to tell their grandmother that she has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Awkwafina also delivers a standout performance as Billi, the family’s Americanized granddaughter who struggles with the decision to keep the diagnosis a secret. The Farewell is a poignant exploration of family, cultural identity, and the complexities of grief. The film’s themes are universal, making it relatable to audiences of all backgrounds. The supporting cast, including Tzi Ma and Diana Lin, delivers strong performances that add to the emotional impact of the film.
Parasite (2019)
Parasite is a genre-bending film that defies easy categorization. Directed by Bong Joon-ho, the film tells the story of two families from different socioeconomic backgrounds whose lives become entwined in unexpected ways. Parasite is a particularly great example masterclass in filmmaking. It has exceptional performances, stunning cinematography, and a gripping script. The film’s themes of class and power dynamics are explored with subtlety and nuance, making it a thought-provoking and timely watch. Parasite made history by becoming the first non-English language film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, cementing its place as a modern classic.
Moonlight (2016)
Moonlight is a coming-of-age drama that tells the story of a young Black man named Chiron, growing up in Miami. The film is told in three parts, each exploring a different chapter of Chiron’s life and the challenges he faces as he grapples with his identity and sexuality. Moonlight is a beautifully crafted film with exceptional performances from the cast, particularly from Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris. The film explores themes of identity, masculinity, and the intersections of race and sexuality with sensitivity and nuance. Moonlight is a must-watch for anyone who appreciates a well-crafted drama that explores complex themes with subtlety and heart.
Manchester By The Sea (2016)
Manchester by the Sea is a heart-wrenching drama that explores themes of grief, loss, and redemption. Casey Affleck delivers an outstanding performance as Lee, a man who is forced to confront the trauma of his past when he becomes the guardian of his teenage nephew. Manchester by the Sea is a slow-burning film that builds to an emotional climax. Despite the length of the film, Michelle Williams and Lucas Hedges deliver strong performances that add to the emotional impact.
Lady Bird (2017)
Lady Bird is a coming-of-age comedy-drama about a teenage girl named Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson and her turbulent relationship with her mother. Saoirse Ronan delivers an outstanding performance as Lady Bird, a young woman struggling to find her place in the world. Lady Bird is a must-watch for anyone who has ever felt like they didn’t fit in. The Prime Video movie is a funny, heartfelt, and relatable film that explores the complexities of growing up with honesty and nuance. The supporting cast, including Laurie Metcalf and Timothée Chalamet, also delivers strong performances that add to the film’s emotional depth.
The Handmaiden (2016)
The Handmaiden is a visually stunning thriller set in 1930s Korea, based on the novel Fingersmith by Sarah Waters. The film follows a con artist who tries to swindle a wealthy Japanese heiress. However, things quickly become more complicated than they initially seem. The Handmaiden is a masterclass in filmmaking, with exceptional performances, stunning cinematography, and a gripping script. The Handmaiden is a must-watch for anyone who appreciates a well-crafted thriller.
The Florida Project (2017)
The Florida Project is a drama that explores the lives of a group of people living in poverty in the shadow of Disney World. The film follows a young girl named Moonee and her mother as they navigate the challenges of living in a motel.The Florida Project is a powerful and thought-provoking film exploring poverty, childhood, and the American Dream. Additionally, the performances in the film are fantastic. Willem Dafoe and Brooklynn Prince are outstanding and add to the story’s emotional impact. The Florida Project is a must-watch for anyone who wants to see a film that tackles complex themes. Let us know your favorite Amazon Prime movies in the comment section.
Swarm would have made an excellent movie and an even better SNL sketch (or…). It’s got a stinging (sorry) premise: What if one of those zany online stans really carried out their constant threats against anyone who dares to criticize their favorite artists? After all, there’s just enough of a hint of real-world danger – online doxxing and stalkers showing up at celebrities’ homes – that a satire of stan culture is not only timely but also arguably needed in the current climate.
But Donald Glover and Janine Nabers’ seven-episode Amazon Prime Video miniseries misses its opportunity to really make a decisive artistic statement about the subject. Instead, it pursues the appearance of art, opting to focus on style and head-scratching creative diversions in surreality rather than substance. In doing so, it stretches the kernel of creative potential in its premise into a format that could have worked – but only with someone else at the helm.
In the show, Dominique Fishback – who gives an out-of-this-world lead performance — plays Dre, a Houston woman whose superfandom of Beyoncé stand-in Ni’Jah makes social interaction difficult for her. Initially, Dre presents as a kind of a tabula rasa, which could be useful for projections of crazed standom. After all, these folks often send their bee emoji-laden jabs from the safety of anonymity, using aliases and sock puppet accounts to protect their identities from their obviously problematic behaviors.
That’s why we’re mostly left to guess their motivations. Who are they? Why do they do these things? What are their lives like? Are they dealing with unprocessed trauma? Are they just sociopaths? Dre functions in the story as kind of a repository for the possible answers to those questions, but because of this, she comes across as flat – at least, at first. Dre lives and works with Marissa, her “sister” who shares a love of Ni’Jah, but several orders of magnitude less intense (she’s played by Beyoncé protege Chloe Bailey, who is often on the receiving end of stan backlash, most recently over this very show).
When tragedy strikes, Dre makes an unconscionable decision that forces her to go on the run, adopting a string of false identities and temporary occupations across the nation. At the same time, she takes on a new mission: To defend Ni’Jah from online critics and trolls by any means necessary – which usually involves blunt force trauma to the cranium.
Along the way, a variety of cleverly cast guest stars including Billie Eilish, Paris Jackson, and the incomparable Cree Summer (hell, this show is worth it just for getting Cree’s actual face on TV again) get pulled into Dre’s orbit, prompting them to ponder her ever-present question: “Who’s your favorite artist?” The first four episodes play this way — about two hours of the show — which is why it seems like perhaps this could have been a movie instead.
If this sounds a lot like another buzzy murder-a-week mystery show, that’s because Poker Face operates on a similar premise, only in reverse. In that show, human lie detector Charlie (played by the delightful Natasha Lyonne) bounces from small town to small town taking cash jobs and solving murders. To be honest, if Swarm were a howdunit like this involving Dre just trying to lay low and blend in while getting close to her targets and working out angles for retribution, I’d have written one happy review.
Instead, the show crashes in the fifth episode, losing all its momentum and starting to veer irretrievably into the deepest valleys of its campy concept. Instead of continuing to unravel the character of Dre through her encounters with possible victims or would-be acquaintances, the show returns her to Houston for a confrontation with her past – one that fails to reveal anything truly interesting about the character, her motivations, or her internal world.
The penultimate episode attempts to do that excavation but from the perspective of a new character – and a new show format – that seems tonally inconsistent from what’s gone before. This is a Donald Glover trademark, which he employed in his prior prestige show Atlanta. I know a lot of people find those detours endearing and smart; I always felt they were kind of pretentious and smug.
Sure, it’s groundbreaking, but sometimes I wonder if Glover just gets bored and throws in one of these episodes to troll the audience. I’ve got a sense of humor, but with all the hundreds of other options for entertainment, challenging me to turn off your show and choose one of them is probably going to result in me doing just that. But there’s still one more episode of Swarm to get through: The finale.
Suffice it to say that in pursuing Glover’s typical narrative carelessness, the ending of this tale disappoints. It doesn’t satisfactorily wrap up Dre’s story, and it doesn’t deliver a solid thesis. It handwaves the audience’s concerns, leaving us to “figure it out” after refusing to give us enough solid information to do so. Ultimately, the show has no opinion on stans; it doesn’t know whether they are pathetic, whether they deserve empathy, whether they are just pranksters everyone takes too seriously, or serial killers just waiting for the right trigger.
It’s clear that a lot of craft and care went into the early episodes. They’re shot on film, and many scenes have such striking compositions that I literally went to sleep and dreamed about how beautiful this show looks. And the directors pull some truly magnificent performances out of Fishback and many of the guest stars. But Swarm eventually gets caught between style and substance, and given its creators, the former is going to win every time (this is America, y’all).
The ways in which Dre’s character fills in toward the end of the show are pat and staid. The revelations about her past are predictable and don’t truly explain her standom — or why that standom turns into full-blown psychotic rage. Dre’s mission gets muddied; is she a stan overzealously defending her Queen, or is she a traumatized sister lashing out at an unfathomable loss? And what does her journey actually say about the wider culture of standom?
We never see her engage with the Hyve (ha) as a whole, save for one episode that references that “Sanaa Lathan supposedly bit Beyoncé at a party” incident, and even then, her experience with the broader collective is solely through the screen of her phone. We never get the chance to contrast her behavior with any other example of the species to learn if she’s representative or beyond the pale. Instead, we get a cut-and-dry serial killer narrative that seemingly wants us to feel a little sorry for her, even as she makes wild, unexplained transitions and continues to commit ghastly murders.
The part of all this that makes Swarm especially disappointing is that there’s another name attached: Janine Nabers. Because Glover’s name is naturally going to take top billing in most folks’ minds, Nabers’ contributions have been getting overshadowed in so much of the discussion taking place about the show. And because they’re billed as co-creators, it’s impossible to attribute the show’s issues and triumphs to one or the other. Is Nabers the real genius, hamstrung by attachment to the figurehead who doubles as an albatross, or were her ideas the ones that kept this flight of fancy so earthbound?
Unlike the questions that the show itself posits but refuses to unpack, answers may be forthcoming. Glover’s got a handful of other projects to look forward to. Nabers has productions in the works with both Amazon and HBO (hacking drama Syd at the former and a sports comedy with Insecure showrunner Prentice Penny at the latter). So, we’ll soon see how Nabers fares on her own. Fortunately for both, they shouldn’t have to worry about those pesky stans at their next gigs.
After it premiered at midnight last night (March 17), Swarm has taken over the internet. The new Amazon Prime Video series from Donald Glover and Janine Nabers is notable for a number of reasons, including a recently revealed appearance from Billie Eilish. She’s not the only music star in the show, as Chlöe also has a role, and there’s one scene in particular that is making waves online: the sex scene.
We won’t share it here (it’s easy enough to find, though, either via clips on Twitter or in the actual show), but for about 30 seconds in the first episode’s opening minutes, Chlöe and Damson Idris’ characters (Marissa Jackson and Khalid) have sex with each other as they talk dirty and make sexual noises. Partway through, Khalid notices Dominique Fishback’s character (Andrea “Dre” Greene) watching them from the doorway, but he continues and even flashes her a smile before Dre walks away.
Naturally, the explicit scene has drawn so many reactions on Twitter.
Chloe Bailey getting her back blown out in this new show? hold up lemme go check it out pic.twitter.com/sSV6tls63R
In a recent Deadline interview, Chlöe spoke about filming the scene, saying, “I remember when I first read the script, I was like, ‘Oh, this is insane, this is incredible,’ and I cried, and then I realized, ‘You gotta do that sex scene, girl.’ And as open and liberal as I am with my body, I was very scared because I haven’t had that many partners, I’m not like that… that sexual and open. […] Damson made it really comfortable. You know, there were limited people on set, it was a closed set. We were laughing in between. We literally had a bouncy ball in between us. […] I have to give a lot of kudos to him as a man for making me as a woman feel comfortable being literally raw and naked.”
Chloe Bailey on how Damson Idris made her comfortable filming her first love scene in ‘Swarm’ #SXSWpic.twitter.com/jKhKmlTHj4
When he first arrived on the scene 15 years ago, Kid Cudi was one of the first rappers to live his life not just in the spotlight but on social media as well, giving fans an unprecedented level of access to his triumphs and trials. However, that doesn’t mean that we know all there is to know about him; following the modern trend of artists putting out their own documentaries about their lives and careers, Cudi shared the trailer for his upcoming film, A Man Named Scott, streaming November 5 on Amazon Prime Video.
The trailer finds Cudi detailing his musical mission: “to make something that calls out to the broken and the lost… How can I give people something that they haven’t heard before?” It also touches on how the pressure of the fame that resulted from pursuing this goal weighed on Cudi’s mind and forced him to make “adjustments from being Scott to being Kid Cudi.” He describes how the success of Man On The Moon made people look up to him despite his own unhappiness because they related so much. “I felt like a fraud,” he admits. “I sacrificed the privacy of my life and put my story out there to help others. That’s always been my mission.”
Watch the trailer for Kid Cudi’s A Man Named Scott documentary above and stream the film on 11/5 on Prime Video.
(@BabyKeemBrasil) November 12, 2023
(@CheckDownChris)