its 20th anniversary. Season 17’s batch of eight episodes are as outrageous, offensive, and culturally inappropriate as we’d like (and expect) them to be. They hit on several trendy and hot-button topics while also deepening the show’s own twisted and malicious universe through the gang’s weird obsessions. Today, I specifically want to focus on the third episode, titled “Mac and Dennis Become EMTs,” that both pays homage to and ridicules the network’s hit drama series, the fantastic “The Bear.”
It all starts with the peppers. As one of our favorite idiots, Mac (Rob Mac) points it out early on, “Peppers spice everything up.” They certainly do, as we see in the opening scene where two EMTs are trying to resuscitate an unconscious man in Paddy’s Pub after Frank (Danny DeVito) fed him one of his unbearably hot peppers. Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Mac are thrilled by watching the first responders work (seeing the action first-hand gives them a high) and decide to take a crash course to become like them.
Meanwhile, Dee (Kaitlin Olson) is doing a Postmates side gig, delivering food, which Frank takes advantage of to get himself a smash burger. That immediately lights a bulb in Charlie’s (Charlie Day) head, thinking he could make a burger like that (or an even better one) at home. From there, it doesn’t take long until he turns his apartment into an environment meant to resemble a fast-paced restaurant kitchen, and himself into a self-made (and delusional) “master chef” who’s macrodosing peppers to keep up with the imagined high stakes.
Yes, chef!
FX/FXX
Once Dee encounters Charlie’s newfound passion for cooking, she immediately tries to exploit it for her own gain. She convinces the illiterate and trashy Charlie Allen White to turn the apartment into a “ghost kitchen” that makes the food she needs to deliver via Postmates, killing two birds with one stone (well, in this case, burgers with a brick that’s wrapped in aluminium foil). Charlie welcomes the idea but makes it a crucial point that she has to say “yes, chef,” “no, chef,” “corner, chef,” etc., to everything he does because “things just got to work that way” when the stakes are high.
I adore Christopher Storer’s “The Bear,” and this is the most hilarious parody/mockery of the series I’ve seen so far, clearly coming from a place of love. The duo of Charlie and Frank working tirelessly while sweating profusely because of the peppers they keep munching on is absolutely bananas. It’s the kind of laugh-out-loud moment that “Always Sunny” keeps delivering 20 years on. You’d think that the gang must be out of ideas at this point, yet they hit another bullseye. The episode completely goes through the roof when they throw in the Gypsy Kings’ spicy “Bamboleo” track as we watch a montage of Dennis and Mac impersonating EMTs, Dee chaotically speeding and hitting pedestrians with her bike, and the cooking duo getting high on their own supply. In the end, everything comes together seamlessly and ends catastrophically, in typical “Always Sunny” fashion — but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Your mileage may vary, but as a hardcore long-time fan of the sitcom, this episode has already become an instant classic for me. Not just because of “The Bear” homage, but also because it shows the gang is still capable of innovating and keeping things fresh, furthering the type of obscene and dark humor they become a champion at two decades ago. A fan-favorite character we haven’t seen in nine years also returns here and delivers spectacularly. In the end, it all comes full circle, proving that “Always Sunny” still has gas left in the tank and isn’t ready to call it quits just yet.
The bright side of the Lawyer’s absence throughout the past six seasons is that we could tell ourselves his eye healed and that perhaps he’d moved on from his need for vengeance. Tragically, season 17 confirms his eye was indeed lost for good, and he’s still been reduced to a bitter man. His interactions with Frank in season 17, episode 3, “”Mac and Dennis Become EMTs,” really highlight how futile his hate is; for the Lawyer, that season 11 courtroom episode was the worst day of his life, but for Frank, it was another Tuesday. Frank is a terrible person, but he doesn’t hate the Lawyer. In fact, he doesn’t think of him at all. The Lawyer, in other words, is obsessed with five people who don’t remember he exists when he’s not in the room.
This time around, though, the gang doesn’t just gouge the Lawyer’s eye out: They poison him, throw hot fryer oil on his face, break multiple bones, leave him in a burning vehicle, and frame him for multiple crimes that they themselves committed. “Mac and Dennis Become EMTs” then ends with the Lawyer going to jail, while the entire gang once again gets off scot-free.
It’s funny but depressing. The gang has ruined the Lawyer’s existence about as much as they’ve ruined Cricket’s, but at least Cricket has developed a Zen-like attitude with his life of squalor. Cricket barely seems to understand the negative impact the gang’s had on him, whereas the Lawyer knows exactly where it all went wrong.
What’s also notable about the Lawyer is the clear mid-series shift in how the “Always Sunny” writers approached him. At first, they seemed to prefer him in a voice-of-reason role, but at some point, the show’s creatives must’ve figured it’d be funnier to punish him for his distaste for the gang instead. It’s a surprising change in approach — one that highlights how the gang has grown even more depraved and dangerous over the years — but it’s not one I hope the writers keep doing.
By this point, I say the Lawyer’s suffered enough. Let him be like Carmen from the early seasons, who let her success be her best revenge. Ruining the Lawyer’s life was a fun subversion of expectations, but let’s hope the show subverts them yet again and gives him another win. At the very least, let the poor guy move on.
New episodes of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” premiere Wednesdays at 9pm EST on FXX and drop on Hulu a day later.
The sled known as Rosebud — or at least one of the original red sleds created for the 1941 Orson Welles masterpiece Citizen Kane — has just sold for $14.75 million at auction.
The pine hardwood prop, which bears its original paint but signs of production use, wear and removed rails likely sacrificed to wartime scrap drives, has belonged to director Joe Dante since 1984. While he was directing Explorers (1985), it was given to him by someone clearing out a portion of the Paramount lot that once served as the home of RKO Pictures.
“One of the crew who knew I was a fan of vintage films came to me with a wood prop and said, ‘They’re throwing out all of this stuff. You might want this,’” Dante recalled in a recent interview. “I’m not sure he knew what the sled was, but he must have had some inkling, or why else would he have asked me?
“I was astonished. Since I am a huge fan of the movie, I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll be glad to take it.’”
Scientific testing has confirmed its authenticity.
“I’ve had the honor of protecting this piece of cinematic history for decades,” Dante said in a statement released by Heritage. “To see Rosebud find a new home — and make history in the process — is both surreal and deeply gratifying. It’s a testament to the enduring power of storytelling.”
After the sale of a set of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz (1939) for $32.5 million in December, this is the second most valuable piece of movie memorabilia ever sold, according to Heritage. (The $14.75 million price includes the buyer’s premium; the purchaser was not revealed.)
While he had it, Dante put the sled in Explorers, The ’Burbs (1989), Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and an episode of the 1991-93 NBC series Eerie, Indiana that he directed.
Two other screen-used sleds from RKO’s Citizen Kane — only a “few” were produced for the film, the auction house says — sold to Dante mentor Steven Spielberg for $60,500 in 1982 and to an anonymous buyer for $233,000 in 1996.
The sale of Dante’s sled took place Wednesday during the second day of Heritage’s Entertainment auction, which runs through Friday. Earlier in the day, a painting by Bob Peak that served as original key artwork for Apocalypse Now (1979) went for $687,500.
Other items up for sale include inscribed tablets from Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (1956), Luke Skywalker’s Red Five X-wing from The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and a bullwhip from Indiana Jones andThe Last Crusade (1989).
“This is not just the most important Entertainment event we’ve ever held — it’s one of the most important in Entertainment auction history,” Heritage executive vp Joe Maddalena said. “These aren’t just props. They’re mythic objects. They tell the story of Hollywood’s greatest moments, one piece at a time, each tied to a memory, a performance, a legend. We’re honored to bring them to the fans, collectors and institutions who will preserve them for the generations to come.”
From left: Harry Shannon, George Coulouris, Agnes Moorehead and Buddy Swan (as a young Charles Foster Kane) in 1941’s ‘Citizen Kane.’
Lily James’ upcoming slate of films are throwbacks in uniquely different ways.
Beginning with Saverio Costanzo’s 1950s-set Italian drama Finally Dawn, James plays Josephine Esperanto, an Elizabeth Taylor-type movie star who ropes a rejected background artist (Rebecca Antonaci’s Mimosa) into a pivotal scene of her sword-and-sandals epic. From there, Josephine, her co-star Sean Lockwood (Joe Keery) and her jack-of-all trades, Rufo Priori (Willem Dafoe), pressure Mimosa into exploring Rome’s nightlife with them.
While en route to one of their two destinations, Sean Lockwood’s acting insecurities get the better of him, and Josephine makes a half-hearted attempt to compliment their scene work that day. According to James, it’s a highly relatable scene for most actors.
“At their worst, actors are an insecure bunch of self-obsessed, needy humans. Actors and artists are often called upon to be very vulnerable … so it can trigger some serious insecurity and a need for validation,” James tells The Hollywood Reporter in support of Finally Dawn’s July 18 release. “There have been so many times where I’ve heard myself go, ‘God, I should have said that line differently.’ But then I’m like, ‘Shut up. It doesn’t matter. It’s done. Let it go.’”
On Aug. 22, James returns to the big screen opposite Riz Ahmed in David Mackenzie’s ‘70s-inspired paranoid thriller, Relay. The English actor portrays Sarah Grant, a reluctant whistleblower who decides not to expose the unscrupulous company she works for as long as her safety and asking price are honored. To pull this feat off, she recruits Ahmed’s mysterious fixer, who strictly utilizes a teletypewriter and relay service to communicate with his clients. Thus, the majority of James and Ahmed’s scenes involve a dispassionate third-party operator reading typed messages from Ahmed’s character to James’ character by phone.
“When I watched the movie for the first time at TIFF [2024] on the big screen, I was like, ‘Wow, it’s incredible that there’s this great electricity between these two characters when they barely meet,’” James says. “So it was quite a sleight of hand that David [Mackenzie] pulled that off in terms of filmmaking.”
And at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future, James’ reimagining of Sylvester Stallone’s 1993 action-thriller Cliffhanger will arrive in cinemas. Written by Ana Lily Amirpour and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, James is joined by Pierce Brosnan and Nell TigerFree in the new take on the mountainside actioner.
Similar to her Emmy-nominated performance as Pamela Anderson in Pam & Tommy, James went above and beyond for this particular role.
“Oh my God, I had the time of my life. It was so hard. I did five hours of climbing a day for many weeks. I was on mountains nonstop. I fell completely in love with it,” James shares. “It’s the most mind-body-soul activity. And I’m a [mountain-climbing] addict now. I did all my own climbing [in the film], and I got real strong. I was just pounding press-ups between every take.”
As for the film itself, it’s currently in post-production, and James is optimistic about its standing.
“I’m really proud of Cliffhanger. I’m so excited. We’re in the edit and getting it ready, and I’m super hopeful,” James adds. “It is such a cool reimagining, and while it’s really unexpected at times, it keeps all the gripping glory of the original, I hope.”
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, James also discusses how Finally Dawn depicts an uncomfortable scenario that many performers often face in everyday life.
***
In Finally Dawn, your movie star character sees this young Italian woman who’s wandering the halls of Cinecittà Studios, and so she has her join a scene in her quintessential Hollywood epic. Have you ever seen a random person pulled into a scene like this?
You often get those stories of directors seeing someone with an interesting face or energy. They’ll see someone on the street buying a Mars bar, and they’ll go, “Oh my God, they’re a star!’ They need to be in my movie.” There’s a desire not to have a [known] actor and to have real people with real faces.
But in [Finally Dawn], my character Josephine Esperanto is just longing. She’s longing for inspiration, longing to feel alive, longing for something pure and not cynical or bitter or abused by life and Hollywood. So this girl [Antonaci’s Mimosa] represents that, and she becomes Josephine’s muse. She takes her in, and she wants to steal her light or use her light in a way.
Lily James as Josephine Esperanto in Finally Dawn
Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films
Josephine then invents this persona for Mimosa in the form of a Swedish poet named Sandy. Was it originally meant to take attention away from Rachel Sennott’s character? Or is this just how she entertains herself?
Saverio Costanzo’s script is just so layered, nuanced and beautiful. It’s like a gigantic poem, and I fell in love with the script the moment I read it. Josephine’s motivations for that evening are very complex. She’s a woman that’s run out of joy, and she’s run out of the reasons for why she’s doing what she’s doing. So this girl represents this beauty and innocence, and Josephine almost wants to create and destroy Mimosa all at once. There’s these conflicting energies within her, and she’s a character in chaos.
But one of her other motivations is to take down Rachel Sennott’s character a peg or two and prove that she’s not that special. Josephine wants to bring someone else into the limelight instead of her. There’s this warring actress in her that’s jealous, but also fed up.
She eventually tries to humiliate “Sandy” by putting her on the spot to perform a poem in front of a whole party of self-important people. I’m sure every performer has their version of this story, but have you found yourself in situations off set or off stage where you’ve been pressured to sing or deliver an impromptu monologue?
(Laughs.) All the time! My family is like, “Go on, Lily, sing!” And I’m like, “No!’ There are traditions in Ireland where everyone gets up and sings without being overly self-conscious or worrying. But, yeah, [being put on the spot] is one of my worst nightmares aside from being on stage and realizing you’re naked. (Laughs.) You’re suddenly thrust upon to do something, and you feel completely ill-equipped and inadequate. And then there’s that imposter syndrome where you’re like, “What the hell do I do?”
What Josephine does to Mimosa in that moment makes and destroys her at the same time. It’s so cruel to do it to this girl that she’s brought into her world to boost and bring alive. But once Josephine sees that Mimosa potentially has something that might overtake her or make people more fascinated by her than herself, she aims to destroy her in an instant. I loved that Josephine was capable of such cruelty, but also of such generosity all at once. She’s such a beautiful, conflicted character. I really related to how you never really know what she’s trying to do, and I don’t think she knows either.
Talk shows are known to do that too: “Hey, do the accent you did in the movie,” or, “Let’s hear your Arnold Schwarzenegger impression.”
(Laughs.) But the worst thing is that it’s always a little bit planned. So you have to pretend that you haven’t actually said that you can rap this song, but you have because you told the research [team] that.
Oh, right. The pre-interview.
But they do thrust things upon you too. I also love watching that as an audience. I like seeing someone react under pressure and seeing their hidden talents. There’s something kind of exciting about it.
Joe Keery’s Sean Lockwood and Lily James’ Josephine Esperanto in Finally Dawn
Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films
Are there lots of real-life Sean Lockwoods (Joe Keery) where you have to constantly put their insecurities as actors at ease?
(Laughs.) Yeah, there’s a lot of Sean Lockwoods, but there’s also a lot of Susan Lockwoods. At their worst, actors are an insecure bunch of self-obsessed, needy humans. Actors and artists are often called upon to be very vulnerable and reveal themselves in front of a room full of people. So it can trigger some serious insecurity and a need for validation. But that scene [between Josephine and Sean] really made me laugh. There have been so many times where I’ve heard myself go, “God, I should have said that line differently. If only I’d done it like that.” But then I’m like, “Shut up. It doesn’t matter. It’s done. Let it go.”
I last spoke to you when you were filming David Mackenzie’s Relay, which is a ‘70s thriller in modern times. Were you able to read the script without being spoiled ahead of time?
Yeah, when I read Relay, I had the same reaction that I hope audiences have. I hadn’t read a breakdown, so I didn’t know what the twists and turns were going to be. And like Finalmente L’alba or Finally Dawn, I found the script in a very different way. Finally Dawn was this poetic romance looking at cinema and poetry in Italy. It’s a beautiful throwback to La Dolce Vita and the Golden Age of Cinema. And then Relay felt like this really gripping, dark thriller that exposes the world of whistleblowers and the idea of this greater control and always being watched. It felt really surprising, and I was thrilled to get to work with such a unique filmmaker in David Mackenzie. His movies feel so cinematic and grounded and bold and original.
Riz [Ahmed] is also one of the most exciting actors out there, especially when you see what he’s able to convey with no dialogue in the first 20 minutes of the movie. The connection we were able to build despite our characters very rarely being in the same room together was a real challenge. And when I watched the movie for the first time at TIFF on the big screen, I was like, “Wow, it’s incredible that there’s this great electricity between these two characters when they barely meet.” So it was quite a sleight of hand that David pulled that off in terms of filmmaking.
Lily James as Sarah Grant in Relay
Bleeker Street
On the day, who did you actually interact with during the phone calls with the relay service?
Phone calls are the worst! It’s usually like the Second AD, but I actually had a really wonderful actor come in. Riz wasn’t able to do it because of our times and turnarounds, and he was probably shooting other things. It was a really tough shoot. We shot a lot of nights, so we’d go in at 9:00 PM and leave at 6:00 AM. But I had a really great actor who was there. With acting, your focus needs to be on what the other person is doing and responding to them, but that’s tricky in phone calls. So I was lucky to have an actor read the off-lines.
Part of me wants a spinoff about the relay service operators just to hear their conversations about these high-stakes phone calls they’re facilitating.
I know! It’s really funny, isn’t it? The actor was giving me the lines in terms of the scene’s drama so I had something to react upon. But the operators are actually just reading the text [they’re provided] like a script. They’re not putting any kind of intentional motivation into the lines. So it was a really unique and tricky situation to navigate.
If Relay went the more conventional route by the end, do you think you still would’ve been interested?
Honestly, I was so excited to work with David Mackenzie and Riz that I almost would’ve done any old thing that they put in front of me. That being said, you love to find work that’s surprising and characters that take you in a direction you didn’t anticipate. And particularly at this point in my career, I want to keep pushing myself to play unlikely roles, roles that surprise me, and have something to get my teeth into. So that [unconventionality] was definitely what was very appealing about this role and story.
When people think of you, they typically associate you with this role or that role, but in my case, your impressive table tennis skills are now where I go first. Have you ever gotten the chance to blindside or hustle castmates or crewmembers with your ability?
(Laughs.) Literally, the thing I’m most cocky about is my table tennis. My friends laugh that I’ll probably let people know within the first 10 minutes of meeting them that I can play table tennis and that I have a French grandmother. But I’ll give you a spoiler: there might be some more table tennis coming up in my next movie. So, get ready!
Oh, I’m ready.
Knowing that you are my biggest fan when it comes to table tennis, I’ll be thinking of you when watching it.
I joked about this with Sean Durkin, but your hand-eye coordination was also on display at the end of The Iron Claw when the family was throwing the football around in the yard. Zac Efron dropped the ball, but you caught it.
Well, I’m so glad you noticed. I’m finally getting the recognition I so rightly deserve. (Laughs.) I am quite proud of my hand-eyeball coordination. I grew up [playing games and sports] with two brothers, so I appreciate that.
Did your athletic prowess also serve you well on Cliffhanger?
Oh, good segue!
Thanks, I planned that.
(Laughs.) Oh my God, I had the time of my life. It was so hard. I did five hours of climbing a day for many weeks, and I had the most amazing teacher. I was on mountains nonstop. I fell completely in love with it. It’s the most mind-body-soul activity. It’s so deeply athletic, but also meditative. And I’m a [mountain-climbing] addict now. (James holds her hand up to the camera.) I broke my little finger at Christmas, and I was so sad because I couldn’t climb.
But I’m really proud of Cliffhanger. I’m so excited. We’re in the edit and getting it ready, and I’m super hopeful. It is such a cool reimagining, and while it’s really unexpected at times, it keeps all the gripping glory of the original, I hope. I did all my own climbing, and I got real strong. (Laughs.) I was just pounding press-ups between every take.
Lily James in Jaume Collet-Serra’s Cliffhanger
Courtesy of Rocket Science
Pierce Brosnan playing your father should be interesting for Mamma Mia! fans.
We were so lucky to have him, and he’s so brilliant in the movie. He’s one of life’s true gentlemen, and he was such a brilliant actor to have as our father in this story. He just brings real heart, and he elevates the whole thing. He’s just a dream, and getting to work with him again was so wonderful.
*** Finally Dawn opens July 18 in movie theaters; Relay releases August 22 in movie theaters.
Later in their lives, Dolours and Hughes both chose to conduct interviews with Boston College’s Belfast Project; the show recreates these interviews as its framing device. Others stayed tight-lipped. Northern Irish politician Gerry Adams (Josh Finan/Michael Colgan) has long been accused of being an IRA leader; “Say Nothing” certainly depicts him as one. But to this day, he still officially denies that charge. Even the series’ solution to Jean McConville’s murder is Keefe’s educated guess because anyone who knows the truth hasn’t spilled it.
“Say Nothing,” as the title of Keefe’s book claims, is a story about memory — but memories and recorded history are incomplete, so we often have to settle for stories. Keefe assembled these scattered memories of Northern Ireland’s Troubles into a story. Even a much poorer writer than him could’ve captured the suspense and drama of this tale, but his stirring writing was the perfect blueprint for “Say Nothing” to be dramatized.
Of course, when it came to that dramatization, it was out of Keefe’s hands and in just as capable ones belonging to the show’s cast and crew. The younger stars like Petticrew, Doupe, and Boyle (carrying his scenes with chest-pumping charisma) are especially impressive. All three are Irish (Petticrew and Boyle hail from the North), so they bring extra authenticity to their roles.
Petticrew and Doupe are the glue that hold “Say Nothing” together, their performances complementing each other like the Price sisters do. The elder sister Dolours is initially the pluckier leader, but as the story goes on, she succumbs to disillusionment. Marian, on the other hand, never abandons her radicalization. Despite the sisters’ differences, their mutual devotion is unshakeable, especially in the sixth episode, “Do No Harm,” when they’re imprisoned and hunger striking together. In a just world, both would be up for acting Emmys.
“Say Nothing” also honors time and place through its soundtrack, something Keefe obviously didn’t have to worry about. In “Land of Password, Wink, and Nod,” “Big Time” by ’70s Belfast band Rudi plays as the Price sisters run away from their bank robbery. Episode director Lennox stages the robbery itself with unease, emphasizing the girls’ clumsiness as criminals. It’s only as they run home free that excitement, and the appropriate music, hits. Conversely, in episode 5, “Evil Little Maniacs,” the ominous (and anachronistic) folk song “Devil’s Spoke” by Laura Marling plays as the Prices prepare to bomb London.
Though “Say Nothing” the TV series stands on the shoulders of real history and its source material, it did a magnificent job adapting both — enough so that it deserved more recognition by the Emmys.
“Say Nothing” is streaming on Hulu in the United States and Disney+ elsewhere.
Ryan Gosling and Will Ferrell ready for a tough new project. The duo are in talks to star in and produce Tough Guys, an action-comedy being set up at Amazon MGM Studios.
Longtime Workin’ Moms scribe Daniel Gold penned the script as a spec, which has the following logline: “Fed up with being ‘disposable,’ two henchmen break free from the criminal underworld and rewrite the rules as they abandon their ruthless boss and dodge the elite assassin on their trail.”
Gosling helped bring Ferrell onto the project after becoming enamored with the script. The Oscar-nominated actor is already a favorite at Amazon MGM Studios, which will release Project Hail Marry on March 20, 2026. The sci-fi feature’s first trailer arrived last week, ahead of a splashy Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con next week. Ferrell, meanwhile, is also a fixture at the studio as the star of the recently released You’re Cordially Invited and an upcoming Nicholas Stoller feature.
Gosling is in talks to produce Tough Guys with Jessie Henderson via their General Admission banner, while Ferrell is in negotiations to produce with Jessica Elbaum via Gloria Sanchez. Underground’s Trevor Engelson and Aaron Folbe would executive produce.
Gosling is repped by CAA and Sloane Offer. Ferrell is repped by UTA, Mosaic and Jackoway Austen. Gold is repped by CAA, Underground and Ginsburg Daniels.
