Let’s Talk Fresh; Tom Cruise at Cannes; Dan v. Mann

An in-depth discussion of Fresh, one of the year’s best films so far; Tom Cruise will get some Cannes adulation; Magnolia songsmith Aimee Mann shares some disappointing news about Steely Dan. Also: Jussie Smollett, Ana de Armas, and Sydney Sweeney updates. All in today’s Movie News Rundown.

Fresh: Now that everyone’s had time to see it, we go deep in the latest Low Key podcast on Fresh, the excellent new Hulu film that very skillfully transforms from a (spoiler alert) sharp romantic comedy to an intense cannibalism horror at the end of its first act. We’re impressed not only with the film’s deft manipulation of genre but also its proficiency with allegory. You can listen on Apple or Spotify or here:

Also: In case you missed it, here’s Margeaux Sippell’s interview with Fresh director Mimi Cave.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day: If you’re old enough to remember when pinching people on St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t a fireable offense, you probably also remember when a newspaper would be delivered to your home each morning. I miss it. (The newspapers, not the pinching — the pinching hurt.) Anyway the new documentary “Happiness Is a Journey” follows a newspaper deliveryman still doing the job after two decades — without ever missing a day.

Cruise at Cannes: Tom Cruise will be feted and interviewed for a career retrospective at the Cannes Film Festival prior to a screening of his latest, Top Gun: Maverick, Deadline exclusively reports.

Madame Webb: Euphoria and The White Lotus star Sydney Sweeney has been cast in an unknown role in Sony’s latest Spider-Man spinoff, Madame Webb, Deadline reports. Dakota Johnson was previously announced as a star of the film. Madame Webb is an old person in the comics, and Sweeney and Johnson are young, so I guess we should all just throw up our hands trying to predict how this will all shake out.

Jussie Smollett Released: The Empire star was sentenced last week to five months in jail, but an appeals court agreed to his lawyers’ request that the sentence be delayed while Smollett appeals his conviction for falsely reporting he was the victim of a hate crime.

Ana de Arms-in-Faces: The actress, whose brief appearance in No Time to Die was the highlight of the film, shared video of her training for a big fight scene. It’s impressive! (Or, in the words of Reddit know-it-alls, somewhat impressive.) De Armas shared it on Instagram but it’s hard to access, so we’re instead sharing a tweet from the internet’s No. 1 source of Ana de Armas news.

In Extremely Rich Person News: Amazon has closed its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM, whose catalogue includes Silence of the Lambs, the Rocky and Creed franchise, and part of the Bond franchise. The Hollywood Reporter has details.

Dan v. Mann: Singer-songwriter extraordinaire Aimee Mann says she’s been mysteriously dropped from Steely Dan’s new tour, writing on Instagram: “I was supposed to open for Steely Dan this summer. I just found out that they took me off the bill. No one is entirely sure why, but it seems they thought their audience wouldn’t like a female singer-songwriter? As it happens, Steely Dan is the one band that I 100% love, with no reservations, so it really sucks. But you know what? People are allowed to not like you, for whatever reason.”

Why Is This a Movie Story? If you don’t know who Aimee Mann is, I kind of envy you, because you get to discover her spectacular music for the first time. Start with the Magnolia soundtrack. Anyway I totally would have gone to see Aimee Mann and Steely Dan.

More Dan v. Mann: This is also achingly relevant because last night the missus and I were watching Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie and a great song came on and the missus said, “Is this… Aimee Mann?” and it was!

Which Song From the Magnolia Soundtrack? This one for sure.

Main image: Sebastian Stan and Daisy Edgar-Jones in Fresh.