Crystal Wahpepah’s first cookbook celebrates Native cuisine

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Crystal Wahpepah’s first cookbook celebrates Native cuisine

When Crystal Wahpepah opened Wahpepah’s Kitchen five years ago, Native food spaces were, even that recently, still hard to find. When she was a child, Wahpepah told me, she never saw or set foot inside a Native restaurant. Now the chef gets to see her community, young and old, experience a “healing connection” when they walk through the door. “We need to have our foods visible to people when it comes to talking about health and wellness,” Wahpepah said. At the same time, a Native kitchen “uplifts food producers” and the ingredients she cooks with that other chefs don’t.

Earlier this spring Wahpepah, with Amy Paige Condon, published her first cookbook, A Feather and a Fork: 125 Intertribal Dishes from an Indigenous Food Warrior. Wahpepah’s biography provides the backbone of the book. The recipes are all informed by and connected to her life story. She recounts the good memories—foraging for berries, cooking with her auntie Johnella—and contextualizes the more troubling ones within the many destructive government policies directed toward Native Americans. 

“I really wanted to share my story, how I became an Indigenous chef,” Wahpepah said. On her current book tour, people are engaging with the recipes as home cooks look for inspiration. But they’re also reading the chef’s anecdotes as a way to connect with “what’s going on in Indian country.” Both the cookbook and her restaurant have provided the chef with a platform to introduce Native cuisine. Her culinary influences reflect the history of a people and their relationship to the land.

Wahpepah’s Kitchen only serves game meat. The chef pointed out that, “These are the meats from this land.” There are recipes in A Feather and a Fork for bison, rabbit, venison, turkey and fish. The chef loves rabbit because she associates it with a childhood memory. “My grandfather would hunt rabbit,” she recalled. “But if you think about what the animal eats—they eat a lot of veggies and greens—rabbit is the cleanest animal, even more than chickens.” Depending on how it’s prepared, whether in tacos or pozole, Wahpepah describes the taste as “really light.”

“We have grown so much when it comes to creating recipes on the menu,” Wahpepah said. In 2021 she wasn’t making acorn crepes, but she since found an acorn provider. The chef also wasn’t offering frybread. Now she serves it with soup, stew and chili. “It’s part of our story, and it’s a part of our resilience,” she said. “And it’s part of when I’m making my grandmother’s sweet corn soup.”

Wahpepah is an enrolled member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma. The chef lists each dish on her menu in Kickapoo and in English. In A Feather and a Fork, she includes a Kickapoo glossary right before the first chapter as a way of “reclaiming our voice.” She writes, “By sharing these words, we keep the language alive and show our gratitude for all who came before.”

Chapter one is dedicated to beans, corn and squash, also known as The Three Sisters. “If you come from a bean, corn and squash foundation of a tribe like I do, we have The Three Sisters,” Wahpepah said. She sources blue, white and yellow corn from Bow & Arrow, located on Ute Mountain Reservation land in Southwest Colorado. “They are pretty much one of the biggest providers for Native restaurants,” she said.

Blue corn reminds the chef of her grandmother. She serves it as a corn mush topped with berries, in cornbread and in tortillas. “It has a lot of good healing remedies,” Wahpepah said. “I believe corn can really tell a story. Even though it originated from down South, it’s all throughout North America.”

Some of the produce at the restaurant is grown at Heron Shadow, a farm in Sebastopol. There they grow seven different kinds of squash, beans, corn, chard and greens. “When you come to Wahpepah’s Kitchen, you get a window of seasonality in our menu,” Wahpepa said. But squash is definitely a major player. “Right now I’m looking at these beautiful seeds of squash that have been around for hundreds of years. And we have this opportunity to present it in a really good, tasteful way where people can connect with it.”

Wahpepah’s Kitchen, 3301 E. 12th St., Suite #133, Oakland. Open Wed-Sun, 11am to 2pm. 510.698.4067. wahpepahskitchen.com

Free Will Astrology: Week of June 17

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Free Will Astrology: Week of June 17

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries mathematician Paul Erdős lived without a permanent address, traveling the world to collaborate with other mathematicians. He owned little, claiming “property is a nuisance.” His life was structured around doing mathematics and helping others do mathematics. He published over 1,500 papers, more than any mathematician in history. Was his minimalism a form of deprivation? I prefer to think it was liberation from everything that didn’t serve his purpose. What would your life be like if you eliminated things that don’t serve your deepest purposes, Aries? In the coming weeks, you have permission to be ruthless about your priorities. What are you maintaining out of habit rather than conviction? What burdens masquerade as responsibilities?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A friend told me about the creative writing class he took with renowned poet Brenda Hillman. “I recall being in class,” he said, “and having the thought, ‘Wow, this teacher works far harder at teaching than I do at learning.’” Dear Taurus, please don’t indulge in a similar laziness anytime soon. Your educational opportunities are currently richer than usual. To extract the full benefit, you must match the verve and vigor of your teachers. (PS: The teachers may or may not think of themselves as teachers. They could even be animals, rainstorms or ancestors.)

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Eastern monarch butterflies migrate annually from the American Midwest to central Mexico. The individuals who start the journey from Nebraska or Wisconsin die long before they reach the oyamel fir trees of Mexico. So do their children and their grandchildren. Their great-grandchildren finish the trip, though they have never been to the destination. Somehow they know where to go, navigating thousands of miles to trees they’ve never seen. Let’s apply this as a metaphor for you, Gemini. I suspect you are carrying navigational wisdom you didn’t realize you possessed. Inherited knowledge, encoded deep in your secret places, is ready to guide you. So pay attention to inexplicable certainties. Trust the directions that arrive without logical explanation.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): A large earthquake doesn’t relieve stress evenly along a fault. Instead, it creates zones where stress is reduced and others where stress increases, making future ruptures more likely. So the stress is redistributed, but not uniformly. According to my reading of the omens, Cancerian, you recently experienced a metaphorical shake-up. I suggest you identify where stress has grown and where it has dissipated. Your next moves should account for this new distribution of pressure. Some areas of your life are now more vulnerable, while others have become more stable. Read the landscape accurately before proceeding.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Songbirds like zebra finches practice their melodies while asleep. Their vocal muscles move in ways that mirror daytime singing. These replay patterns help young birds learn their songs and adults maintain and refine their tunes over time. I suspect you are engaged in a similar type of learning, Leo. You are enhancing skills and uncovering insights while asleep and dreaming. Bonus! Even when awake, you’re absorbing clues on a subconscious level. Your deeper intelligence is gathering information you will need for your upcoming breakthroughs. Hooray for mysterious help!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Architects who design concert halls know that perfect sound isn’t achieved through perfect smoothness. The best acoustics come from strategic irregularities, textured walls and angled surfaces that distribute vibrations in pleasing ways. Too much uniformity creates dead zones and echoes; too much chaos creates muddle. Pleasing resonance arises from organized complexity. In my estimation, Virgo, your life is currently too smooth in some areas and too haphazard in others. You may need more strategic irregularity. Consider introducing productive unpredictability into relationships that have become too routine. Add inventive structure to efforts that have become shapeless. Don’t aim for either total order or complete randomness. What will generate maximum beauty?

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Have you ever been ambushed by unexpected bursts of gratification emerging from subtle miracles? Maybe a loved one finally grasps a truth you’ve been trying to convey for eons. Or you feel balanced in a situation that once made you feel lopsided. Or you grasp, with shivers of awe, that you got uncanny spiritual guidance at a key crossroads. I foresee at least three such blessings for you in the coming weeks. To ensure you recognize them, don’t get distracted in the pursuit of splashy bonanzas and gaudy prizes. Be nimbly alert for subtle breakthroughs.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Poet Emily Dickinson rarely left her family home but bequeathed us a marvelous body of lyrical work as she roamed through vast inner worlds. Sci-fi novelist Octavia Butler rose early to write before long shifts at low‑paid jobs, imagining visionary futures during her limited hours to be creative. Lucille Clifton raised six children while shaping poems of distilled, luminous insight, showing us how to summon fierce originality from a life crowded with responsibilities. Moral of the story: Buoyant power can flourish even when circumstances are limited. This lesson may be relevant for you in the coming weeks. If conditions seem imperfect or incomplete, trust that your resilience and adaptability can compensate for external obstacles. I have faith in your ability to generate useful beauty.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Our tongues are primed to heal astonishingly fast thanks to dense blood vessels, saliva’s repair proteins and a rapid immune response. Wounds that would take more patience elsewhere can heal here in days. I suspect that your psyche now possesses your tongue’s high level of healing power. So I hope you will launch a phase of accelerated repair. Call on every possible form of therapeutic assistance, please!

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Now is an ideal time to clear out old romantic karma from the past. Please consider performing a DIY ritual to release painful memories, leftover grudges and long-standing hurts that keep tugging at your intimate connections. The coming weeks will also be a favorable phase to discard rigid beliefs about gender and dismantle anything that blocks you from experiencing full-bodied sensual and sexual delight. Expect to be freed from at least some energies that have limited your ability to explore fun and vigorous ways of savoring your desires.​

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I suggest you adopt a new honorary title like “Charm Weaver” or “Emissary of Radiance” or “Beauty Whisperer.” Why? Because I hope it will help inspire you to stir up delightful play and lyrical mystery wherever you wander. For instance: Infuse your conversations with sparkling harmony and sly, graceful humor. Burst into whimsical songs, fling out extravagant compliments, pose clever questions that spark fresh ideas, and call attention to systems and relationships in your world that are functioning wonderfully well. Many perks will flow your way as you do.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Is there a dream from childhood that you’re ready to revive on a higher octave? Think of something you longed for before the world told you to be boringly realistic: an art you wanted to practice, a way you wanted to live or the kind of person you hoped to become. The question isn’t “Can I go back and do it exactly the same?” but “What is the mature, wiser, present-day version of that dream?” You might write in your journal: “The childhood dream I’m ready to lift to a higher octave is ______,” and then add, “If I took one concrete step toward it, what would it be?”

Homework: Beam unconditional acceptance at a part of yourself you often criticize. tinyurl.com/777vvv777

Mildred Howard explores history through art

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Mildred Howard explores history through art

The work of artist Mildred Howard can be summed up in one admittedly reductive word: astonishing. Amazement is abundant in the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)’s new exhibition, “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory.” Presenting the first major retrospective of the Oakland-based artist June 12-Oct. 11, the exhibit fills the Great Hall with installations, found-object sculptures, archival materials, audio and video recordings, and new works.

Spanning five decades, contrast prevails throughout the collection, which includes grand and quiet expressions, dramatic and tender contemplations of history, and explicitly exposed or intriguingly veiled memories. In every corner, the output of a curious, clever, bold, creative mind carves a portrait of hope and a voice expressing bountiful protest in hope’s absence.

Born in 1945, Howard grew up with her parents, Rolly and Mable Shrock Howard, in the East Bay. Her parents operated an antiques business and were highly engaged in civic activism. In an interview, Howard says, “Art was everywhere.” Recalling frequent trips to visit San Francisco’s de Young and the Oakland Museum of California—at the time, a tiny place she remembers primarily for displaying Victorian-period furniture—artistic inspiration was always immediately at hand.

A lifetime of making art began with using leftovers—fabric, furniture, glassware—from vintage items Howard’s mother collected. Along with plentiful material to explore at home, arts and crafts classes at the nearby South Berkeley Congregational Church led to “magic” interactions with crayons and copper enamel. Seeing musicians like Leontyne Price and Duke Ellington at the Paramount Theatre, participating in civil rights marches, attending dance classes, and deep dives into American and world history expanded her interests. A film camera she received at age 14 introduced movement to her artistry. In subsequent years, the Harlem Renaissance, African American folk culture and global politics became subjects of her focus.

Howard holds an associate of arts degree and a certificate in fashion art from the College of Alameda, and a master’s in fine arts from Fiberworks Center for the Textile Arts at John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley. Among numerous honors and awards, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fine Art in 2025.

As an educator, Howard has taught at Stanford University, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the California College of Arts and Crafts, and established the Institute for Inquiry workshops and other curriculum at San Francisco’s Exploratorium. Locally, her artwork is found in the permanent collections of OMCA, Berkeley Art Museum, the de Young Museum, SFMOMA and San Jose Museum of Art.

In a phone interview, Howard says childhood visits to OMCA and other museums influenced her worldview. “OMCA was a lot of period furniture, not as contemporary as it is now,” she says. “I saw how the world is full of diverse things. When we were done, we’d have lunch on the lawn at Lake Merritt and watch the ducks.”

A retrospective at this time in her life and in the current political climate presents particular challenges and opportunities. “I’m not going to let this climate and administration determine what I do, present and say,” she says. “Fortunately, the museum has been fantastic. They’ve given me the Great Hall, and that’s a wonderful thing. I could have filled the whole museum. We went over every single thing that’s being exhibited. I didn’t even think about the administration, although yeah, it’s always on my mind. You can’t avoid it.”

One work in the exhibit, What Came First, Howard made in 2007. She suggests it is as important now as it was then. A miniature U.S. Capitol created with bakelite is mounted by what appears—due to its relative size—to be a gigantic chicken.

“It applies now directly to the administration,” Howard says. “Why? Because the president’s a bully; he’s destroying our rights. Even worse, he’s getting away with it. But my work is about so much more. I don’t want to give him all my space while we talk about my work.”

Indeed, the show presents a multiplicity of significant thought points told through fact-backed history, personal and collective memory, and oral stories handed down through generations. “History is memory,” Howard says. “Yes, memory is not always correct, but the more you develop your ability to transcribe what has been, the clearer it becomes. Just because we haven’t seen or don’t notice something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. But I’m also interested in the now, because it’s all related.”

Howard says each work, and the concepts generating it, determine scale, materials and other elements. “I don’t always know I’m going to put 4,000 bottles in a house [sculpture],” she says. “The work demanded that. Sometimes it’s layering paper with fragments of memories; sometimes it’s what paint to use, what color red or blue or shade of gray. Figuring it out is the fun part. Scraping away layers, putting other components down. It’s continuous learning and understanding.”

Moving Stills is a video installation combining a captured past and immediate, in-the-moment movement. A film Howard made when she was 14 is projected on layers of sheer fabric that shift with the slightest breeze and bring spontaneity and three-dimensionality to the work.

Crossings had Howard buying thousands of faux eggs. “I thought about the Middle Passage and the fragility of life,” she says. “The person who delivered them was being so very careful. I showed him [what they were], and he laughed and laughed.”

Black Has Always Been a Color paraphrases the title of an essay by artist Raymond Saunders. The work is a declaration, a statement; but it is also an artist’s simple investigation of a color.

“They always say black is the absence of color,” Howard says. “But it isn’t. And why must black always be dark and furious? The night is dark, but it’s also beautiful and layered. So much about race is made up. History, when I was growing up—you rarely saw anything other than the white race. That’s erasure. If not for [untold] stories and the civil rights movement, what would we have? White men … but the world is changing, and there’s no going back.”

Other works in the exhibit draw in the Soweto Massacre and the advent of color Xerox, as well as Howard’s fondness for jazz music and her deep connections to family. Through time, place and people—collaged, painted, sculpted, filmed, discovered, recognized and celebrated—Howard’s past and present work is an astonishing display.

‘Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory,’ Friday, June 12–Sunday, October 18, 2026, at Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland. For more info visit museumca.org/on-view/mildred-howard-poetics-of-memory.

On her terms

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On her terms

The Oakland-raised singer and songwriter isn’t in a rush to explain herself, either. Her debut album, Yellow House, released June 5, feels less like a grand introduction and more like someone letting one read pages from a journal they finally stopped hiding. Over the years she’s shared stages with Macy Gray and Madison McFerrin, while also performing at sold-out shows at SFJAZZ. Across nine tracks, Satya pulls from folk, soul, jazz and R&B, turning years of transition, grief, uncertainty and self-reflection into something warm, intimate and deeply lived in.

Growing up between North Oakland and downtown Oakland, she counted Corinne Bailey Rae, Roberta Flack and Maxwell as early influences. Later on she dove into rock and shoegaze music as well. For high school she attended Oakland School for the Arts (OSA), where she focused on vocal music. While the program was intensive, balancing academic studies in the morning with artistic training in the afternoon, Satya credits the experience with shaping how she connected to learning and education.

Satya also recalled a visit from Goapele during her time at OSA, an experience she described as full-circle given how much Goapele’s music was played in her household growing up. Satya said the conversation left her feeling “really proud to be from the Bay,” adding that Goapele’s honesty about her relationship with music and her personal journey made a lasting impression. “She’s also so genuine,” Satya said. “It was really inspiring.”

After graduating from OSA in 2018, Satya left the Bay for Loyola University New Orleans, where she studied pop and commercial music. But the further she delved into the program, the more disconnected she felt from why she started making music in the first place. The industry language, the branding conversations and the constant focus on marketability all started to drown out the actual art. She dropped out in 2020, just before the pandemic, and decided to bet on herself full-time.

A lot of Yellow House began taking shape in 2020, during that strange period right before the pandemic shutdown. The album followed her across cities and versions of herself: written between Oakland and New Orleans, recorded in Nashville and finished while settling into Los Angeles after signing with Giant Music. One can hear all of those places on the record. Oakland gives it soul. New Orleans gives it looseness. Nashville sharpens the storytelling.

“I hope people walk away feeling connected to themselves,” Satya said, sitting inside Mokha House in Oakland’s Dimond District. “Or at least feeling open enough to talk about the things they’ve been carrying.”

One of the album’s emotional centerpieces is her cover of “Fruits of My Labor” by Lucinda Williams. Satya first heard the song while living in New Orleans, and she remembers it stopping her cold. “I felt like I just got so connected to the song,” she said. “I remember going home and reading all the lyrics and feeling like it connected to exactly what I was going through.”

Williams wrote the song about love and distance, but Satya heard something even bigger in it: loneliness, memory and the strange ache of becoming a different person while still trying to hold onto older versions of oneself. 

The album has lighter moments, too. The opener, “Project 10,” is one of Satya’s personal favorites. She said the song came together during a period when she felt creatively stuck and wasn’t making music she felt proud of.

“I was just gonna make a stupid song,” she said, laughing. Instead, it became one of the recordings she connected with most, written and tracked in a single day. Even with its brighter sound, the song still pulls from darker emotions, touching on mental health and the inner world she often retreats into. “It sounds fun and pretty,” she said, “but it still definitely represents a darker part of me.”

Raised by a single mother in North Oakland, Satya spent a lot of time with her grandfather, who introduced her to the Grateful Dead. Their song “Box of Rain,” which appears as one of the album’s more upbeat moments, was one of his favorites. Like much of Yellow House, the song holds memory without getting stuck inside it.

For more info, visit satsatmusic.com.

Long live Lady Day

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Long live Lady Day

When Stella Heath walks on stage to tell the story of Billie Holiday, she wears a gardenia in her hair, an homage to Holiday’s familiar appearance. Backed by her 10-piece band, she presents an evening of songs associated with Holiday. Between songs, she adds historical storytelling to enhance Holiday’s musical legacy.

“There is a narrative arc to the show, and it changes with every performance,” Heath said. “I want it to be alive, so I try to keep it very fluid and the show changes every time we do it.”

Heath debuted The Billie Holiday Project in 2019. In 2025 Heath and co-founder pianist Neil Fontano scaled the band up from a 5-piece to a 10-piece, with arrangements by Fontano and other band members.

In the presentation, she includes one contemporary number, written in the swing style that Holiday made her own. “I decided to include ‘These Tears,’ a song by Vilray Blair Bolles, because I felt it was important to have something that ties these old songs into the present day,” Heath said. “I went to see Bolles perform in 2018. I was working on the Billie Holiday Project and he was starting his duo, Rachel & Vilray. He’s one of my favorite songwriters. He told me he wrote [‘These Tears’] for Billie, so I asked him if I could sing it and record it.”

The arrangements for the songs, including standards like “What A Little Moonlight Can Do” and “Them There Eyes,” don’t stray too far from Holiday’s. The band leaves Heath plenty of room to play with the rhythms and melodies in the manner of Holiday. For the Freight show, Heath will bring along the full band and a few swing dancers to enhance the performance.

“The dancers add a wonderful cinematic aspect to the show,” she said. “The audiences love it. So much of the music Billie played was out of the Swing Era. At any of her live shows, early on in her career, there would likely have been dancers there.”

Heath often closes the show with “Strange Fruit,” the most controversial song Holiday ever recorded. Written by Abel Meeropol and inspired by the lynching of two Black teenagers, it includes the lines, “Black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze / Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees …”

After Holiday made the decision to sing the song, it affected her life. She was hunted by the U.S. government, and the FBI set her up many times for drug busts.

“I connect strongly with [Holiday’s] music and her way of singing,” Heath said. “She gets to the emotional core of a song. She was also set apart for me because of her decision to sing ‘Strange Fruit.’ That very act made her a historical figure, and the song still speaks today. It’s unnerving that it’s becoming more and more relevant to sing in this current era.

“I wanted this project to say something about how far we’ve come, or haven’t come, and that song sums it up,” Heath continued. “It’s a scary time and a time of great change. That song needed to be sung in Billie’s time, and it needs to be sung today.”

Heath and Fontano recently went into the studio with the band to record For Billie, to document some of the tunes they feature in the live show.

“This album is borne out of years of performing this music live,” Heath said. “We have tried through the years to record it, but I am pretty picky about things, so we’ve performed the show for many years, with no recorded material.”

For Billie was cut with the band paired down to eight players, with Fontano as musical director and primary arranger, and Heath producing. “We played everything live,” Heath said. “It was important to me and Neil that we keep the energy we have when we are playing live for an audience. I think the album truly captures our band’s sound.” 

Heath released the album on her own Matterhorn Records. “Creating a label has been a learning curve,” she said, “but it’s not that different from bandleading. I certainly have a lot on my plate all the time.”

Stella Heath and her band will perform The Billie Holiday Project on Saturday, June 13, 7:30pm at The Freight, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. 510.644.2020. thefreight.org. Listen to ‘For Billie’ at: stellaheathmusic.bandcamp.comand stellaheathmusic.com.

The Old Furiosity Shop: ‘The Furious,’ reviewed

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The Old Furiosity Shop: ‘The Furious,’ reviewed

In the first five minutes of the new Hong Kong/China action pic The Furious, we’re reminded of one of the time-tested truths of the exploitation subgenre: In real life, a character cannot get repeatedly slammed in the face with a steel automotive transmission housing without bleeding, at least slightly. In a movie, however, anything goes.

That lowbrow movie-house truism, and others, have been inspected and rigorously analyzed many times over the years, traditionally at drive-ins but lately more often in streaming horror and action items, in which the ultra-violence floats to the top like pond scum.

The Furious, directed by Japanese former stuntman Kenji Tanigaki from a screenplay by a trio of veteran mainland China and Hong Kong writers, and released in the U.S. by Lionsgate, is an eager case study of “Anything Goes.” In it, the young daughter of a tough but comparatively innocent man named Wang Wei (played by Miao Xie) gets kidnapped by brutal thugs bent on sex trafficking.

The same thing simultaneously happens to Navin, a fistically adept journalist played by Indonesian-Chinese actor Joe Taslim. The two adolescent girls are part of a group of helpless victims stolen by a cabal of loathsome gangsters.

Whereupon the two wronged fathers join forces to get their kids back and teach the hoods a lesson they’ll never forget. Cue an avalanche, a deluge and an eventually tedious torrent of mega-violent retribution. Punches; kicks; Muay Thai—the film was shot in Bangkok; electro-shock; a sledgehammer; a barefoot chase sequence over a street littered with broken glass—ouch!; bows and arrows; and more. When they run out of weapons in the last reel they even hurl bicycles at each other. The only missing piece of skulduggery is a pie fight—gotta save something for the sequel, after all.

There’s nothing here that industrious, bottom-feeding movie audiences haven’t seen before. The Furious passes in front of the spectators’ gaze in an all-too-familiar blur. Liam Neeson supposedly perfected the righteous avenging-dad routine in the Taken series—Charles Bronson’s game-changing string of vigilante Death Wish flicks notwithstanding. For nonstop chop-socky, writer-director Gareth Evans’ The Raid: Redemption (2011) and its follow-ups also set a seemingly impregnable bar, with their series of Indonesian-based bloodbath policiers about a rough night at a police station. Then, on the old-fashioned good clean fun side, let’s not forget the Three Stooges, or Laurel and Hardy’s silent, slapstick, pie-throwing  extravaganza, The Battle of the Century (1927), in which the boys destroy downtown Los Angeles.

The Furious is neither a documentary nor a meditation on the inherent ugliness of everyday life. Instead, it belongs to a potent comic mythology probably most amusingly illustrated by Kit ’n’ Kaboodle writer Brian McConnachie and illustrator Warren Sattler’s 1973 National Lampoon takeoff on the Tom and Jerry cartoon franchise, pound for pound one of the most violent popular juvenile narratives of all time. And yes, that includes John Kricfalusi’s Ren & Stimpy as well, not to mention the Brothers Grimm.

Generations of kids have guffawed at the war between the predatory cat Tom and his dangerously underestimated “victim,” a mouse called Jerry—created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and brought to movie and TV screens by MGM. The Lampoon sendup’s premise is that if what the funny cat and mouse did to each other were realistically presented—with severed limbs, protruding organs and more—it might be too gruesome to laugh at, even for pint-sized devotees of Saturday morning TV mayhem.

So where does that leave The Furious? 

Out on a limb. Nothing about the characters—neither the juvie victims, their determined action-hero guardians nor the menacing goons—rises above Tom and Jerry-style characterizations. The bald-headed bad guy, double-teamed by Wang Wei and Navin, gets a sledge hammer to the face followed by a speed bag to the skull. We’re not sure if that actually kills him, but we can hope. Laugh yourselves silly, cartoon fans.

* * *

In theaters June 11

NOTE FROM KELLY VANCE 6/22: In my review, I accidentally misstated the situation of a secondary character. In the case of the journalist Navin, it was his wife, not his daughter, who was victimized by the kidnappers. Thanks to the alert readers who helped clarify this plot point.

Social Eyes: Week of June 11-17

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Social Eyes: Week of June 11-17

THU 5/11

POP

JAMES BLAKE

The GRAMMY-winning musician might be the ultimate collaborator. Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, SZA, Rosalía, Kendrick Lamar, Travis Scott, U.K. Rapper Dave and many more have persuaded him to buddy up with them on recordings. With six studio albums of his own and billions of streams, Blake is known to put on a stunning solo show. The Greek is the perfect forum: Grand architecture that evokes thoughts of mythological gods and modern, state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems. The stars and moon will carpet the sky above as the sun sets, the atmosphere will hum, the universe will be in harmony. That’s rare these days and oh, so necessary. – LOU FANCHER

INFO: Thu, 7pm, Greek Theatre, 2001 Gayley Rd., Berkeley. $77. 510.871.9225.

THU 5/11

REGGAE

THIRD WORLD

Anyone who is even remotely familiar with reggae most likely already knows Third World. For over five decades this reggae band has combined roots, soul, disco and funk with politically and socially charged lyrics to stand up to Babylon and make the people think. While it’s gone through a number of line-up changes over the years, bassist Richard Daley remains the constant thread linking Third World’s past to its present. However, this Thursday’s show is bittersweet as it’s a tribute to Stephen “Cat” Coore, a founding member of Third World and the band’s guitar player since its inception. So dance for the spirit of Coore, who brought so much love and wisdom to generations. – MAT WEIR

INFO: Thu, 8pm, The Freight, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. $44-$49. 510.644.2020. 

FRI 5/12

PUNK

SUMMER FEST 

Ah, summer. It’s a time for outdoor grilling, swimming and utterly brutal moshpits. Thankfully, Summer Fest hits the Gilman this weekend to deliver the last of the summer trifecta. This two-day, 12-band festival benefits the long-running punk collective, so attendees can not only have a good time, but feel guilt-free while doing it. On Friday, get down with the sounds of Peaboo and the Catz, Happy Now, the Bonstones, Enemy Proof, Hell Bound Pound and Bitchfit. Then stick around for Saturday with Calling the Skis, the Dollheads, We Might Die, Halibut Head, East Brothers and Stay Out. It’s two days of Bay Area punk for Bay Area punks, just the way Dog intended. – MW

INFO: Fri, 6:30pm, 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. $15/Fri., $20/Sat. 510.524.8180.

FRI 5/12

JAZZ

ORCHESTRA NOIR

Founded by Jason Ikeem Rodgers in 2016, Atlanta’s all-Black Orchestra Noir is simply spectacular. Highlighting African-American musicians whose achievements in classical, jazz, blues, hip-hop and R&B music have made and continue to transform the industry is only the first step. The orchestra’s journey brings its remarkable musicians and exceptional repertoire to audiences of all ages, races, ethnicities and musical persuasions. Educational concerts and workshops geared for young, minority students guarantee the magic will keep flowing long into the future. The orchestra’s 2000 Tour is a look back aimed at looking forward. Catch the view now and never let it go. – LF

INFO: Fri, 8pm, Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts, 10 10th St., Oakland. $78-121. 510.629.2381.

SAT 5/13

SOUL

THE GOLD SOULS

The Gold Souls approach funk, soul and blues as living, breathing dance music. Fronted by Juniper Waller, the Bay Area/Sacramento group builds deep-pocket grooves around bright horn arrangements, bluesy storytelling and infectious joy. Their all-women horn section punches through the mix with swagger and precision, while the band’s rhythm section keeps everything loose enough to move. The result lands somewhere between classic revue energy and modern West Coast boogie. – SONYA BENNETT-BRANDT

INFO: Sat, 8pm, Ivy Room, 860 San Pablo Ave., Albany. $18. 510.526.5888.

SUN 5/14

BRAZILIAN

GRUPO FALSO BAIANO

The first Brazilian musical idiom to blend African rhythms with European forms and instrumentation, choro has undergone repeated revivals since it emerged in Rio de Janeiro in the 1870s. Grupo Falso Baiano is one of the Bay Area’s leading ensembles, steeped in the virtuosic instrumental style, with a repertoire that ranges across choro’s century-and-a-half repertoire. Featuring percussionist Ami Molinelli, seven-string guitarist Brian Moran, mandolinist Jesse Appelman and reed player Zack Pitt-Smith, the group has gained international renown over the past two decades. They’re joined by Brazilian guitarist/composer Carlos Oliveira, a former East Bay resident who moved back to Recife, and Israeli reed star Anat Cohen, who has recorded with many of Brazil’s greatest choro musicians. – ANDREW GILBERT

INFO: Sun, 5pm & 7:30pm, Piedmont Piano Company, 1728 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. $30-$35. 510.547.8188.

SUN 5/14

FITNESS

ALAMEDA YOGA & WELLNESS FESTIVAL

Produced by Yoga Amansala and local wellness leaders, the second annual festival begins with a meditation and sound bath. Yoga, Mat Pilates, flow and ecstatic-dance sessions follow. Headliner Sol Rising swings into action for part of the day and brings everyone into the same headspace. A portion of each ticket benefits the Alameda Food Bank. Taking care of the body and mind includes giving that leads to everyone’s wellness. The vendor village introduces new products and services, with local purveyors and local folks meeting face-to-face. A kid’s corner, mocktail lounge and, honestly, the vibe in the outdoor venue promise to rejuvenate even the most world-weary among us. – LF

INFO: Sun, 9:30am, Radium Runway, 2151 Ferry Point, Alameda. $23.

TUE 5/16

R&B

PATTI AUSTIN

What can’t Patti Austin do? At 75, the vocalist has been a music business force since the mid-1960s, when she worked as a teenage session musician. She’s recorded duets with George Benson and Michael Jackson, sang backup on Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and scored a chart-topping hit with James Ingram on the Quincy Jones-produced “Baby, Come to Me.” While best known for her work in pop and R&B, Austin is a commanding jazz vocalist who has effectively paid tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington, her godmother. Her two-night run at Yoshi’s is likely to have the feel of a homecoming. – AG

INFO: Tue, 7:30pm, Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. $55-$89. 510.238.9200.

TUE 5/16

REGGAE

J BOOG

Raised in California with Polynesian roots, J Boog has become one of the defining voices in contemporary island reggae. His music pulls together roots reggae warmth, R&B smoothness and Pacific Island sensibilities into songs that feel both breezy and emotionally grounded. Mentorship from Fiji and time spent recording in Jamaica deepened his connection to reggae’s lineage, but his sound never feels overly reverent. J Boog’s specialty is relaxed, melodic songs built for slowly swaying crowds, beach-day optimism and collective singalongs. – SBB

INFO: Tue, 8pm, The UC Theatre, 2036 University Ave., Berkeley. $49. 510.356.4000.

WED 5/17

INDIE

PROBLEMS

Chicago one-person creative factory PROBLEMS makes electronic music that feels both meticulously constructed and barely contained. Led by Darren Keen, the project ricochets between blown-out dance beats, experimental collage, noise-pop chaos, abrasive vocals and moments of orchestral beauty. The maximalist energy to it all—absurd samples, sudden left turns—is undergirded by an ambitious composer’s instinct. His latest album, 2025’s Enter the Annals, can be best described as the result of a mad genius with a synthesizer and a mic improvising the soundtrack to a haunting narrative video game. – SBBINFO: Wed, 8pm, Thee Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $15. 510.859.8709.

Kitsch Coffee opens in Jack London Square

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Kitsch Coffee opens in Jack London Square

Déjà vu hit me the second I stepped inside Kitsch Coffee. It took me a minute to realize I’d stepped back in time to the bygone era of Blake Edwards’ 1968 film, The Party. From the paintings on the wall to the amber-colored water glasses, the general sense of décor is vintage to the core. The café is part of Vanessa Murray’s Narrative building in Jack London Square. Murray’s collective is a haven for mid-century modern aficionados and their allies. Kitsch is a brand new addition.

The space was a perfect fit for Layla Kaufman and her partner, Max Rock, who helps out on the weekends. When I spoke with them, Kaufman noted that they are “giant vintage collectors and antique enthusiasts who love rummaging through junk stores and vintage fairs.” Before they started operating Kitsch, Kaufman had worked as a barista for a decade. Her years of coffee-related experience have informed her attitude towards the public. She’s a perfect host—bubbly, attentive and energetic. Kaufman also makes many of the syrups on the menu such as lavender, rose, strawberry, ginger, vanilla and orange. Although she’s only using the orange syrup, which she describes as “very light,” for tonics.  

Before it became Kitsch, the space sat empty for a couple of years. Murray, Kaufman said, cleaned it up for an art show. After seeing the gallery filled with people, Murray came to the conclusion that the neighborhood needed a coffee shop, a place where shoppers could sit down and relax. Rock describes the café as a combination of Murray’s visual design and their sensibility at the coffee bar. “You can see the potential clash of styles, but it’s all mid-century, so it works,” he said.  

Kitsch serves Four Barrel Coffee with a range of beans from different countries. The espresso is a blend of African coffees called Friendo Blendo. Four Barrel sums it up as “a balance of florality, brightness, and sweetness.” De La Paz is the name of the drip coffee. “Four Barrel acquired it probably eight or nine years ago,” Kaufman said. “But they kept the name and the branding.” For now Kitsch brews De La Paz’s Big City Blend, but the café’s also going to try the Peel Sessions Blend.

Kaufman’s curriculum vitae includes stints at Canyon Market and Tartine Manufactory, and for the past six years she worked at Breck’s in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood. At Canyon, she became the supervisor of the coffee bar. “They had a great team of hardworking individuals; it was a well-oiled machine,” she said. Will Eagle, the owner of Breck’s, started the café as a wine bar. “But he had the brilliant idea of staying open for longer hours and making it a coffee bar café, too,” she said. While at Breck’s, Kaufman helped bring Four Barrel coffee to Eagle’s café.

Kaufman then left Breck’s to briefly work at George’s Donuts. Less than a month into her tenure there, one of Four Barrel’s account managers reached out to her. He told her a friend of his was looking to open a coffee bar inside of her vintage store in Oakland. He said, “It would essentially be yours. Are you interested?” Kaufman had just turned 30. “I was wearing a uniform and working for people and I had this dream of my own café, but it felt so far away,” she recalled. “I just thought I would try it. I met Vanessa and it felt like an immediate ‘yes’ and just wanting to make it work, and here we are.”

Along with her homemade syrups, Kitsch also serves what the young people want—cold drinks. “Gen Z, Gen Alpha—they want fun flavors and they want cold foam,” Kaufman said. “I am very new to the world of cold foam.” For those not in the know, it’s a heavy whipped cream. “But not too whipped, and it sits on top of drinks and it’s so rich,” she added. For the grand opening party, Kaufman’s going to work on her cold-foam game and come up with a few specials to run through the summer. I hope she names one in honor of the late Claudine Longet.

Kitsch Coffee, 590 Second St., Oakland. Check Instagram for the café’s hours: @kitschcoffeeoakland.

Free Will Astrology: Week of June 10

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Free Will Astrology: Week of June 10

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Many of you have a fraught relationship with discipline. You recognize you need it if you want a life rich with epic adventures. Yet you sometimes resist planning ahead or organizing your resources, fearing it might dampen your immediate pleasures. The problem is that when you skip the planning and organizing, the short-term fun you default to may turn out to be unsatisfying. That’s the challenging news. The encouraging news is that you’re now in a cycle when you can transform how you relate to discipline. I bet you can render some of those old patterns obsolete.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Gemologists evaluate opals less for flawless uniformity than for their mesmerizing play of color. They study how light interacts with a stone’s microscopic internal structure to produce vivid, shifting hues. The most prized opals aren’t necessarily the most perfect in shape, but the ones whose internal pattern and rainbow-like displays are most vibrant, varied and alive. This is a marvelous metaphor for you in the coming weeks. I hope you don’t obsess on consistency or smooth away your complications. Let the world see your play of color.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “Dear Oracle: Why do we always have to start at the beginning? I’d much prefer just jumping into the middle of things. Right now, I would love to bypass all the tedious baby steps I’m being forced to take as I try to get some momentum going. Please slip me a few clues about how to fast-forward directly to the fun stuff. —Bored with the Groundwork.” Dear Bored: Your timing is perfect. The planetary omens say you are now authorized to vault over the preludes and prologues and dive right into the heart of the action.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Restoration ecologists work to revive damaged prairies. They’ve discovered that seeds of many native plants can lie dormant in the soil for years, waiting for the right conditions to germinate. If they remove invasive species and restore the land’s natural cycle of controlled fire, wildflowers long absent from the landscape spring back to life. With this metaphor in mind, Cancerian, consider what dormant possibilities may lie buried in your own psyche. What seeds did you plant long ago and then forget? What dreams or talents are waiting for you to clear away the choking overgrowth and create space for them to emerge? Old potentials may be patient, not dead.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Better than any other sign, you understand that ego and generosity can be collaborators rather than enemies. Your charismatic radiance is often a public service. When you express your interesting beauty, you give others permission to tap into their own luminosity. The world always craves your unique flavor of audacious joy, and especially now. The rest of us need your intense insistence that flair and flamboyance are forms of resistance against the forces that would diminish life’s splendor. 

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Many people struggle with what could be called “imagined ugliness,” a condition clinicians refer to as body dysmorphic disorder. It usually involves fixating on a supposed physical defect, or even on a flaw that exists only in one’s mind. I suspect that almost everyone carries a trace of this tendency, including you and me. The good news, though, is that the current astrological climate is ideal for you to at least partially shatter its spell. You are poised to transform your self-image so vigorously that you begin to regard yourself as a flawless exemplar of quirky, one-of-a-kind beauty.​

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The Golden Gate Bridge, which is a few miles from my home, is painted continuously. Painters start at one end, work their way across, and by the time they reach the other side, it’s time to start over. The job is never finished; maintenance is the permanent condition. Some people find this depressing, but I find it oddly liberating. It means the bridge doesn’t have to achieve some final, perfect state. It just has to be tended. Similarly, you don’t have to fix everything once and for all, Libra. The relationships, projects and internal states you’re concerned about aren’t meant to reach completion. You shouldn’t worry about trying to finish what’s meant to be an ongoing practice. Just keep starting the cycle again.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Innovative theater director Viola Spolin was a Scorpio. She taught that the best scenes emerge when the actors avoid trying to control outcomes. Instead, they fully commit to the reality they’re creating together. Spontaneous responses are their gold standard. Let’s make this a keynote for you in the coming weeks. Your assignment is to give yourself heartily to improvisation. The most interesting magic will happen as you relax into the collaborative process, trusting it to guide you toward beauty and meanings none of you could have scripted alone.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Musicologists distinguish between “perfect pitch” and “relative pitch.” A person with perfect pitch can sing or identify a specific note without hearing any other music beforehand. Relative pitch is the ability to recognize musical notes in relation to other notes. In the coming weeks, Sagittarius, relative pitch will be a more useful metaphor for you than perfect pitch. Don’t insist on perfect clarity about what’s right and wrong, beautiful and ugly, worthy and unworthy. Instead of obsessing on fixed standards, practice relational discernment.  How does this choice feel compared to that one? How does a person behave in this context versus another? For you right now, truth lives in the intervals and connections.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The best way to eliminate a bad habit is to replace it with a good one. Now is an excellent time to acquire more expertise in this art. Start by choosing a specific habit that drains your energy, time or self-respect. Then identify what that habit is secretly trying to give you, like comfort, distraction or a sense of control. Your mission is to find a healthier behavior that offers a similar payoff without the damage. For example, maybe you go online and binge-scroll through bad news because you imagine it soothes your anxiety. Instead of that, read an uplifting book or listen to serene music for a while. Be concrete: When the itchy habit hits, what exactly will you do as an alternative?

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In 1905, 26-year-old Albert Einstein worked full-time as a clerk in a Swiss patent office. During his off-hours, he wrote four audacious papers that fundamentally changed how physics understood space, time, light and matter. He accomplished his revolution without the sponsorship of a renowned university or laboratory. His example suggests that we can perhaps re-imagine and recreate the world even if we’re not supported by glamorous circumstances. I suspect this principle applies to you these days. Breakthrough insights and earth-shaking realizations may arrive while you’re doing ordinary tasks. Be alert for the flashes that arise in seemingly routine and modest situations.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): For linguists, “untranslatable” words are concepts that exist in one language but have no equivalent in others. One example is mono no aware, which in Japanese refers to the tender poignance and appreciation you feel in the presence of fleeting beauty, like cherry blossoms falling. I bring this to your attention, Pisces, because I suspect that you, too, are untranslatable right now. My advice is to forget about trying to get others to grasp what’s going on with you. Here’s a suggestion that might help: Find soulful artists and emotionally intelligent creatives who speak the language of your mystery.

Homework: What gifts do you have that you have never yet given with fullness? tinyurl.com/33ss33ss

Who wore it better? 

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Who wore it better? 

In the late 1990s, the films The Truman Show (1998) and EDtv (1999) were noted for their uncannily similar premises, in which reality TV shows go to increasingly invasive and unethical extremes in the pursuit of higher ratings.

So-called “twin films” like these are often explained as the result of studios vying to capitalize (literally) on an idea more successfully than their competitors—I’d argue that they can also be a sign of a society attempting to metabolize troubling social and political realities through reiterative storytelling. For example, Truman and EDtv grappled with the contemporary social anxieties of surveillance and privacy erosion by taking the concept of reality TV to satirical extremes. 

Filmmaker Boots Riley’s new film, I Love Boosters, also works within the medium of satirical extremity. The absurdist comedy, about Bay Area shoplifters waging financial and conceptual war against an unethical fashion mogul, overflows with surreal visual gags and fantastical plot devices, unbound by the conventions of any genre. But despite its wacky aesthetic indulgences, Boosters is satire with a purpose—a film conscientiously grounded in, and unabashedly opinionated about, social realities like poverty, poor working conditions, and wealth inequality. 

Booster’s twin (dare I say “evil twin?”) arrived in theaters a month earlier in the form of The Devil Wears Prada 2. Their twin credentials are clear: both movies are comedies set in the fashion world, featuring young women clashing with older, wealthier, more powerful women in the industry. But the two films diverge in their ability to honestly reckon with the ethical implications of the stories they are telling. Boosters commits to a rigorous critique of the fashion industry (and economic inequality at-large) by incorporating its critiques into the very fabric of its storytelling. A political problem like sweatshop labor is skewered not with a throwaway quip, but by making it the focal point of the film’s second half, when a Chinese factory worker literally teleports into a Bay Area luxury outlet to steal back the clothes she made in abusive conditions. 

Tellingly, sweatshop labor is also (briefly) name checked in The Devil Wears Prada 2, but only as a plot device to facilitate the reshuffling of jobs within the glamorous skyscraper offices of the film’s main characters. Prada, for all of its commendable surface-level messaging, is fundamentally a story about the fashion industry elite, told entirely from their perspective. When it comes to the political and economic conditions the rest of us are facing, Boosters—the surreal sci-fi featuring teleportation devices—is actually more in touch with reality.

Crystal Wahpepah’s first cookbook celebrates Native cuisine

Crystal Wahpepah’s first cookbook celebrates Native cuisine
When Crystal Wahpepah opened Wahpepah’s Kitchen five years ago, Native food spaces were, even that recently, still hard to find. When she was a child, Wahpepah told me, she never saw or set foot inside a Native restaurant. Now the chef gets to see her community, young and old, experience a “healing connection” when they walk through the door....
Read more

Free Will Astrology: Week of June 17

Free Will Astrology: Week of June 17
Nomadic mathematicians, monarch butterflies, earthquakes, zebra finches, concert hall architects and more in this week's horoscopes!
Read more

Mildred Howard explores history through art

Mildred Howard explores history through art
The work of artist Mildred Howard can be summed up in one admittedly reductive word: astonishing. Amazement is abundant in the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)’s new exhibition, “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory.” Presenting the first major retrospective of the Oakland-based artist June 12-Oct. 11, the exhibit fills the Great Hall with installations, found-object sculptures, archival materials, audio and...
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On her terms

On her terms
The Oakland-raised singer and songwriter isn’t in a rush to explain herself, either. Her debut album, Yellow House, released June 5, feels less like a grand introduction and more like someone letting one read pages from a journal they finally stopped hiding. Over the years she’s shared stages with Macy Gray and Madison McFerrin, while also performing at sold-out...
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Long live Lady Day

Long live Lady Day
When Stella Heath walks on stage to tell the story of Billie Holiday, she wears a gardenia in her hair, an homage to Holiday’s familiar appearance. Backed by her 10-piece band, she presents an evening of songs associated with Holiday. Between songs, she adds historical storytelling to enhance Holiday’s musical legacy. “There is a narrative arc to the show, and...
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The Old Furiosity Shop: ‘The Furious,’ reviewed

The Old Furiosity Shop: 'The Furious,' reviewed
In the first five minutes of the new Hong Kong/China action pic The Furious, we’re reminded of one of the time-tested truths of the exploitation subgenre: In real life, a character cannot get repeatedly slammed in the face with a steel automotive transmission housing without bleeding, at least slightly. In a movie, however, anything goes. That lowbrow movie-house truism, and...
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Social Eyes: Week of June 11-17

Social Eyes: Week of June 11-17
This week's calendar picks feature James Blake, Third World, Summer Fest, Orchestra Noir, The Gold Souls, Grupo Falso Baiano, Alameda Yoga & Wellness Festival, Patti Austin, J Boog, and Problems.
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Kitsch Coffee opens in Jack London Square

Kitsch Coffee opens in Jack London Square
Déjà vu hit me the second I stepped inside Kitsch Coffee. It took me a minute to realize I’d stepped back in time to the bygone era of Blake Edwards’ 1968 film, The Party. From the paintings on the wall to the amber-colored water glasses, the general sense of décor is vintage to the core. The café is part...
Read more

Free Will Astrology: Week of June 10

Free Will Astrology: Week of June 10
Yep, still Gemini season...
Read more

Who wore it better? 

Who wore it better? 
In the late 1990s, the films The Truman Show (1998) and EDtv (1999) were noted for their uncannily similar premises, in which reality TV shows go to increasingly invasive and unethical extremes in the pursuit of higher ratings. So-called “twin films” like these are often explained as the result of studios vying to capitalize (literally) on an idea more successfully...
Read more
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