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As Sci-Fi, Life Is Just So-So. But As Horror, It Works.

It’s a bit early still, but I’d like to make a prediction: In the tradition of New York and Los Angeles getting engulfed by flame and flood and nuclear winter, the International Space Station is the next outpost of human civilization we’ll see habitually demolished onscreen, over and over again. It got a clobbering from debris in 2014 in Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity , and it similarly takes a beating in the opening moments of Life. Is the ISS, a multinational research vessel that inspires schoolchildren and promotes cooperation among the scientific community, begging for a cinematic hubris check? If it is, you can bet there will be more to worry about than a little space trash.

Life follows a group of six astronauts aboard the ISS, tasked with examining a rock sample from Mars. Biologist Hugh Derry (Ariyon Bakare) has discovered a dormant single-cell organism in the sample. He manages to wake it up with a little heat and glucose (who among us can resist this combo?) and the world rejoices at the first discovery of extraterrestrial life. We see this primarily via an overhead shot of a packed Times Square — even in the near future, everyone will still descend on midtown to watch television. A group of children are given the opportunity to name the creature, and they name it after their elementary school: “Calvin.” Then Calvin starts growing, first into something resembling a couture pasty designed by H.R. Giger, then into a little floppy, translucent starfish. An analysis of his cellular structure reveals that he is “all muscle, all brain, and all eye.” He’s no bigger than a tennis ball when he crumples Hugh’s hand like a soda can and escapes his box in the lab. From there, he keeps finding food, and growing, and picking off the crew one by one.

Those inclined toward this kind of material will likely hold Life up unfavorably against the first Alien movie, which had a similar structure but better characters and more tactile horrors. But while Alien remains untouchable, and the xenomorphs themselves something out of a nightmare, Calvin — especially in his early, ephemeral, blob stage — is much more like something out of my nightmare. The CGI work is both obviously synthetic and vibrantly gross. In the zero-gravity environment, Calvin’s handiwork resembles the victims suspended in the black void from Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin. I already used the word “crumple,” but yes, they’re crumpled.

There’s also the proximity to Earth — as the situation gets more dire, help is so close, yet so far. Even this close to home, no one can hear you scream. It would have been nice to have more character time with Jake Gyllenhaal’s David Jordan, who is nearing the record for consecutive days in space and looks like it. When his colleague Miranda North (Rebecca Ferguson) urges him to return to Earth for a bit, he mumbles, with puppy-dog melancholy, “I like it up here.” Space madness is clearly closing in on him even before the E.T. hijinks commence. Gyllenhaal is in haunted Nightcrawler mode throughout, but is never quite given room in the script to explore the implications of that, other than to set up the dramatic irony of the film’s wicked, if predictable finale.

Life comes to us from a veritable Ryan Reynolds support group: Safe House director Daniel Espinosa and Deadpool writing duo Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, which makes a certain plot point involving Reynolds’s character pretty amusing. But otherwise, there’s little naughty snark here. There’s also not much insight or art to the direction; it’s Alien for short attention spans, Arrival for non-pacifists, with some remnant of ambition toward something headier. On that count, it falls short, but as a final-girl structured horror film, it has plenty of imaginative moments.

Whats most effective, and telling, is how levelheadedly our egghead protagonists handle the alien threat. “Calvin doesn’t hate us,” Hugh says. “He has to kill us in order to survive.” Later, the crew changes its tune: Before the final showdown, one survivor remarks, “I know it’s not scientific, but I feel pure fucking hatred for that thing.” Well, all right. None of this was ever going to be scientific, but it was nice of Life to pretend for a bit.

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Movie Review: Life (2017)

• Greg Eichelberger
• Movie Reviews
• No responses
• --> March 28, 2017

From the premise that all extra-terrestrial life is harmful comes Life , a combination of “Alien,” “The Thing,” “ Gravity ,” “The Mummy” and a few other trapped-in-space or alien-assimilation movies that we all know and love (or tolerate in some cases). Life is the story of the six-member crew of the International Space Station who, while orbiting Mars, discover a new form of life. And, of course, we all know what happens next. That’s all well and good, though, since we are not expecting anything other than fast action and quick deaths, and the audience will certainly not be disappointed in the film’s rather short running time (just a tad over 100 minutes; no doubt folks in earlier years had more patience with story and character development than we currently have).

In space for almost a year, the crew (with a heavy international vibe going on), consists of two American studs (Jake Gyllenhaal, “ Nocturnal Animals ” and Ryan Reynolds, “ Deadpool ”), a Brit researcher (Ariyon Bakare, “ Jupiter Ascending ”), the Frenchwoman commander (Rebecca Ferguson, “ The Girl on the Train ”), a Russian technician (Olga Dihovichnaya, “House of Others”) and a Japanese scientist and new father to boot (Hiroyuki Sanada, “ The Wolverine ”).

Things are pretty mundane, but when a life form is brought aboard from the surface of Mars, the world celebrates while a bunch of goofy kids name it “Calvin” (after their elementary school). Meanwhile, Hugh Derry (Bakare), begins treating the species like his own offspring, coddling it and even bringing it back from suspended animation. There is not much suspense to realize that this action causes the semi-protoplasm to grab the guy’s hand and render him mostly useless for the rest of the film (plus the trailer gave that away).

It’s here that the astronauts, who are no more than cookie-cutter placeholders, violate not only NASA protocol, but every rule of motion pictures within this genre by opening the lab door and ultimately allowing the growing organism (now looking like a translucent octopus) to attack each of the Space Station members one by one (like we’ve seen before, right?). For example, an astronaut has the thing enter their mouth and come out even larger and stronger; another incident has the crazed being bouncing around in space (where it is not supposed to live, but it maintains enough oxygen to survive until it can re-enter through a thruster port; and finally, the creature is able to make its way into space suits and other sealed equipment, rendering it practically invincible.

The last resort calls for survivors to utilize a pair of escape pods, sending the creature into deep space while the other returns to Earth; it’s during this segment that a more than obvious twist may or may not take place (I even found myself saying to the person next to me, “Uh, there’s two pods and . . .”).

Nonetheless, director Daniel Espinosa (“ Child 44 ,” and doing his best Ridley Scott impression) makes fairly decent use of the limited time and produces some thrilling moments, while the camera work of Seamus McGarvey (“ Godzilla ”) is both claustrophobic and vast with some truly amazing scenes inside the space station; and the special effects (mostly the ever-changing alien life form) overseen by David Watkins (“ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ”) is quite realistic and very frightening in some sequences.

It’s too bad all of this wonderful technology could not have supported a more original idea. Still, Life is not a bad ride, it’s just that most of us have lived it before.

Tagged: alien , astronaut , Earth , scientist , space , survival

I have been a movie fan for most of my life and a film critic since 1986 (my first published review was for "Platoon"). Since that time I have written for several news and entertainment publications in California, Utah and Idaho. Big fan of the Academy Awards - but wish it would go back to the five-minute dinner it was in May, 1929. A former member of the San Diego Film Critics Society and current co-host of "The Movie Guys," each Sunday afternoon on KOGO AM 600 in San Diego with Kevin Finnerty.

Movie Review: Despicable Me 3 (2017) Movie Review: Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) Movie Review: All Eyez On Me (2017) Movie Review: The Mummy (2017) Movie Review: Baywatch (2017) Movie Review: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) Movie Review: The Promise (2016)

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Screen Rant

Life movie ending explained: what happened to the capsules.

Life is a fun sci-fi horror movie from 2017 that stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds. Here's what happens in the movie's dark ending.

• The Life movie ending is a shocking twist that reveals the heroes' plan has failed, leaving Earth vulnerable to the alien menace.
• The devastating ending showcases the futile attempts of the characters to save the world, highlighting the threat posed by the new lifeform.
• Director Daniel Espinosa purposefully included the dark and bleak ending, drawing inspiration from the noir genre and believing it was a fundamental part of the movie.

The Life movie ending took audiences by surprise in 2017, offering a bleak and haunting conclusion to the sci-fi horror movie. While Life was not a box office or critical hit, it managed to impress many fans with its take on the contained killer alien story that draws a lot of inspiration from Ridley Scott's Alien . However, the aspect of the movie that seems to get the most attention is the unforgettable ending that is worth examining further.

Life stars Rebecca Ferguson, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Ryan Reynolds as a team of scientists working on a space station that discovers a living organism they dub "Calvin," who was found in a soil sample from Mars. As can be expected with horror movies in outer space , the organism soon turns hostile and starts absorbing crew members to nurture itself and grow larger. As Calvin continues to grow, it threatens not only the crew of the space station, but also the population of Earth if it manages to reach the nearby planet. It makes for an intense sci-fi ride leading up to Life 's memorable ending.

What Happens In The Life Ending

The Life movie ending comes with only two remaining scientists alive and battling Calvin to prevent an alien invasion of Earth . Despite numerous attempts to kill Calvin, including burning him with a flamethrower and a failed attempt to eject him from the station, David (Gyllenhaal) and Miranda (Ferguson) hatch a plan. They know that under no circumstances can Calvin reach Earth since he'd quickly evolve and annihilate the human race as it continues to grow, so David proposes to sacrifice himself by luring Calvin into an escape pod and heading for deep space.

Meanwhile, Miranda will take another pod and head back to Earth to warn of other lifeforms from Mars. The final few minutes of Life find David succeeding in luring Calvin into his pod, while Miranda also escapes. The pods are hit by some debris as they detach, however, sending one into space. While David attempts to manually steer the pod Calvin soon overwhelms him, and the movie cuts to the Earthbound pod as it breaks the atmosphere.

The Twist In The Life Ending

The Life movie ending provides a unique horror movie twist ending that shocks the audience by revealing that the heroes' plan has failed. When some Vietnamese fishermen see the Earthbound pod land and quickly rush to help, it is revealed that it is David inside and he is covered in some kind of cocoon. The cruel ending of Life reveals it was Miranda's pod that was sent flying into space, with the last viewers see of her being the character screaming as she spirals into the void. Meanwhile, David desperately begs the fishermen not to open his pod, but the final scene is the door being pried open as more boats arrive.

The Meaning Of The Life Ending

The Life movie ending is a devastating blow to the audience as the desperate and selfless acts of Miranda and David to save the Earth from this alien menace proves to be futile. Miranda is faced with dying alone in the cold depths of space while David can only watch helplessly as the dangerous new form of life is free upon the world. Indeed, the ending also gives new meaning to the movie's title. While it initially seemed to refer to the new lifeform of Calvin, it also could refer to Calvin feeding off of other life and how, ultimately, life on Earth is now threatened.

Given that Life was not a huge success, there is little hope of the movie getting a sequel, but that is fine given the ending. While there are plenty of questions about what will happen next, the Life movie ending was not meant to set up a sequel. Instead, it is more similar to the ending of The Thing which also hints at an alien species making its way into populated areas and taking over. However, the fact that the audience is left to imagine what happens next is more effective than actually seeing it.

What The Director Said About The Life Ending

The Life movie ending is quite a dark and bleak conclusion for a big blockbuster with A-list stars. However, it was something that was very important for director Daniel Espinosa to include in the movie. Espinosa explained in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he took inspiration for the ending from the noir genre which was known for its cynical finales. He also insisted the ending was a big part of the reason he wanted to make Life , so he was vocal about that fact with the producers before filming even began:

"When I met the producers, I told them, “I completely understand that this ending might not be the preferable choice, but for me it was a fundamental part of the reason I want to do the movie.” If we couldn’t see eye to eye with the ending, we should part ways before we get something started. My producers were completely supportive, which I thought was surprising and bold."

Indeed, the bleak movie ending does feel like something special outside of Life 's more mainstream feel. While that could be part of the reason the movie didn't become more popular, those who do enjoy the movie, point to the ending of Life as its best aspect.

Why 2017's 'Life' Is an 'Alien' Rip-Off Worth Revisiting

If you're going to copy something, copy 'Alien.'

Modern film development is dominated by sequels, prequels, spinoffs, adaptations, and basically any established existing property. When everything is based on a name brand or burdened with world-building, seeing an old-fashioned rip-off feels almost quaint. Not every rip-off has to be a deceptive Asylum title , and many rip-offs are classics in their own right. There wouldn’t be a Reservoir Dogs without The Killing , there wouldn’t be Assault on Precinct 13 without Rio Bravo , and there certainly never would never be Cliffhanger , Speed , Air Force One , or The Rock without Die Hard . For a recent, underappreciated example: The 2017 science fiction horror film Life takes the premise of Alien and runs with the story of Ridley Scott ’s claustrophobic classic nearly note-for-note. When an unmanned exploratory vessel discovers an extraterrestrial soil sample in a Martian probe, samples of the organism are delivered to the crew of the International Space Station. The life form, nicknamed “Calvin” by Earth-bound school children witnessing the televised reports, is both sentient and lethal.

With the ability to both expand and exterminate, Calvin begins to pick off the crew of scientists Dr. David Jordan ( Jake Gyllenhaal ), Dr. Miranda North ( Rebecca Ferguson ), engineer Rory Adams ( Ryan Reynolds ), system operator ( Hiroyuki Sanada ), Dr. Hugh Derry ( Ariyon Bakare ), and Commander Ekaterina Golovkina ( Olga Dihovichnaya ) one-by-one. However, just because Life is derivative doesn’t mean it's not a blast. Alien is never a bad influence to have, and the outer space body horror of Daniel Espionosa ’s underrated fright-fest deserves another look this Halloween season.

RELATED: 'Alien' Games Ranked by How Fun It Is to Use the Flamethrower

While both Life and Alien exist firmly in the space-slasher subgenre, the design of Calvin is completely distinct from the Xenomorph. The Martian creature begins as a single-cell organism, and takes on new forms as it devours its victims. If the Xenomorph is mostly hidden within the shadows of the 1979 classic until the very end, Calvin’s composition is always fluctuating. It's not only a distinguishing factor, but a means for Espinosa to get more creative with the kills.

The perspective of scientists is also unique compared to the motley working-class crew of the Nostromo . These are definitely “movie scientists” who make a lot of dumb mistakes (although they’re significantly less clueless than those in the actual Alien prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant ), but they seem genuinely interested in the potential Calvin’s biology could have on the future of medical advancements. Their radio messages down to Earth and the subsequent media coverage could have been nothing but a lazy method of doling out exposition, but it provides insight into how their studies are received.

Espinosa isn’t a flashy filmmaker, but as Hollywood “for hire” filmmakers go, he can reliably hit the right beats. Safe House and Easy Money are generic action movies unshackled from any larger ambitions, and Life keeps the story mostly focused on the question of which crew member will be taken out next. Espinosa gets away with a surprising amount of gore for a PG-13; Reynolds’s surprisingly early exit, in particular, boasts some fun body distortion.

The relatively thin characterization is elevated by a surprisingly stacked ensemble, and it's nice to see a studio project with such a diverse cast working together effectively. Gyllenhaal has mostly worked with experimental arthouse fare after the failure of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time , so it's fun to see him return to material that is campier. Jordan’s willingness to sacrifice himself in order to destroy Calvin is the exact type of simple, noble character decision that a great actor can make more emotionally effective, even when it reads fairly simplistic on paper.

However, the fact that Jordan’s intended self-sacrifice doesn’t go as planned makes Life even more interesting. Now unleashed on Earth when Jordan’s pod is recovered when Vietnamese fishermen discover the crashed vessel, Calvin can continue spreading and presumably set up an Aliens rip-off next. It's strange that online speculation ahead of Life ’s release centered on its connection to Venom , because screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernicks ’ ideas for a sequel centered on containing Calvin could potentially spawn a cool franchise of its own.

It's more than a little ironic that Life hit theaters only two months before Alien: Covenant , because the two films take nearly opposite “back to basics” approaches to the original Alien premise. Covenant is completely weighed down by its mythology; Scott became so obsessed with tying in events from his original film, retconning events from Prometheus , and examining the consequences of playing God that the kills felt secondary. Comparatively, the stripped-down nature of Life makes it much more suspenseful.

Life is a March movie that knows it's a March movie, but the refreshingly straightforward take on zero-gravity horror is worth revisiting amidst this year’s Halloween festivities. The demand for “original sci-fi” doesn’t always need to include projects as ambitious as Arrival or Interstellar . Being non-IP in of itself is a novelty, but the well-executed chaos and anxiety in Life ’s galactic thrills are worth another look.

KEEP READING: The Best Space Movies of the 21st Century (So Far)

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Watch Life with a subscription on Paramount+, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Life is just thrilling, well-acted, and capably filmed enough to overcome an overall inability to add new wrinkles to the trapped-in-space genre.

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Daniel Espinosa

Jake Gyllenhaal

David Jordan

Rebecca Ferguson

Miranda North

Ryan Reynolds

Hiroyuki Sanada

Sho Murakami

Ariyon Bakare

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Life Movie Ending Explained (With Full Plot Details)

Life is a sci-fi thriller brought to us by director Jorge Daniel Espinosa. The film is about a crew on a space station which is conducting research on Mars’ soil. The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ariyon Bakare and Olga Dihovichnaya. This is a rare film of Jake’s where you don’t have to put in many hours to understand the movie’s plot. It’s rather straightforward except for a few bits. There was a rumour that the film is a prequel to a movie about Venom (Spiderman). Well, no it’s not. Ryan Reynolds is now Deadpool so his contract wouldn’t allow him to feature in a Venom’s prequel. Here’s the plot and ending of the movie Life explained; spoilers ahead.

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Where To Watch?

To find where to stream any movie or series based on your country, use This Is Barry’s Where To Watch .

Oh, and if this article doesn’t answer all of your questions, drop me a comment or an FB chat message, and I’ll get you the answer .  You can find other film explanations using the search option on top of the site.

Life Movie Explained

Dr. David Jordan (Jake) – Senior Medical Officer Dr. Miranda North (Rebecca) – Quarantine Officer Rory “Roy” Adams (Ryan) – Pilot of the International Space Station Sho Murakami (Hiroyuki) – System Engineer Hugh Derry (Ariyon) – Lead Scientist Katerina Golovkina (Olga) – Commander of the Crew

What is the crew up to?

Well, they are on a mission to collect and analyze soil from Mars. They suspect that they may have found life.

What happens in the beginning, what are they trying to catch?

One of the pods that contains the soil sample is out loose. So Roy heads out and uses a clamp to catch the pod floating by. This part is not very significant but if they missed catching the pod, there would be no story. Because in the pod, is Martian soil and in the soil is a single cell of Martian origin.

The single cell seems to be dead. But when Hugh changes the atmospheric settings to match ancient Earth, the organism is revived from its dormant state. The organism begins to grow and is now multicellular. Hugh notices that each of the cells, unlike human cells – is all muscle, all brain, and all eye. In humans, different types of cells come together to form eyes, muscles and the brain. For the alien, the cells are kind of supercells. I know I’m trying to justify the explanation in the film. But honestly, I have no idea what the concept of this all brawn and brain thing is. But hey, it’s fiction . America names the alien Calvin. The organism grows rapidly. However, there is an accident in the lab that messes up the atmospheric conditions. Calvin goes dormant. Hugh, the smartass, uses electricity to try and resuscitate Calvin. Calvin gets pissed and breaks the electricity wand and as a bonus, breaks Hugh’s hand too. Hugh faints. Calvin uses the broken wand to rip out of containment unit. Calvin then consumes a friendly neighbourhood lab rat and grows in size.

Roy enters to save Hugh. He gets Hugh out but gets trapped with Calvin. Roy tries to flame-throw Calvin but fire doesn’t seem to affect it. Calvin retaliates by entering Roy’s mouth and ripping him from inside out. Calvin exits Roy and has become even bigger. The still active flame thrower triggers a fire alarm and air vents open up. Calvin escapes from one of the air vents.

The ship loses connectivity to Earth. Sho sends out an SOS call which reaches Earth unknown to the crew. Katerina decides to step out and have a look at the antenna. She realizes that the coolant has been consumed by Calvin as food. This has caused the comm failure as well. Calvin attacks her as she tries to reenter. Her suit is damaged and coolant from her suit enters her head chamber. She realizes that the rest of the crew would be put in danger and hence decides to drown and die outside. But Calvin makes its way to the thrusters to enter.

How is Calvin able to breathe outside the ship? Doesn’t it need oxygen?

Well, Calvin is shown to be desperate, it’s trying to get to the oxygen in Katerina’s suit. After she dies, Calvin is desperate to enter the space station from the Thrusters. Calvin is a lot bigger that it was in the containment unit. Hence it’s able to last a while longer without oxygen. Okay, then how about the pressure? Isn’t it vacuum in space? Alright, fine, this bit makes no sense at all.

So why is Calvin on a killing spree?

It’s primal instinct. It is a carbon-based lifeform, it needs to survive, it needs food. Humans are food. Humans have also pissed it off. So it’s merely reacting to protect itself.

Sho tries to turn on the thrusters as Calvin tries to enter them. He runs low on fuel doing this. Calvin is unharmed. Apart from this, all the thrusting has caused the space station to begin entering Earth’s orbit. They can’t have Calvin entering Earth. So they save the remaining fuel to correct the course out of the Earth’s orbit and Calvin reenters the ship.

What’s up with Hugh and how is Calvin on his leg?

As the crew plans to cut off atmosphere from the rest of the station except their own, Calvin has already made it to their module. Unknown to the crew, Calvin latches on to Hugh’s legs. Hugh can’t feel this because he’s paraplegic. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that? Hugh can’t feel his legs. He goes into cardiac arrest. Let’s take a minute and see what Hugh is up to here. Hugh has some crazy affinity with Calvin. He sees Calvin approach while the others are taping up the place. He doesn’t say anything. He actually allows Calvin to latch on to his leg. He then goes on to talk about how the nature of life is through destruction. How Calvin doesn’t hate them but has to kill them for its own survival. He then touches his leg and then begins to lose consciousness. Then he says “I’m sorry”. Hugh’s helping Calvin here. He’s lost it and the crew doesn’t realize this. As they use a defibrillator on Hugh, they notice Calvin emerging from the leg. They make a run for it. David and Miranda make it into a module and Sho shuts himself into a sleep capsule. Calvin has eaten a part of Hugh along with his tracker. So now they are able to track Calvin’s location. Hugh dies.

What’s that thing about the firewall?

David and Miranda use Hugh’s dead body to lure it into a module. Remember that SOS call that reached Earth? Well, Miranda had planned earlier that in case the crew loses control of the space station, Earth should just send a spacecraft to push the space station into deep space. So the incoming spacecraft is doing just that.

It locks-on and begins to push. Sho thinks that rescue has arrived and makes his way to the spacecraft and manually opens the latch. Calvin attacks. David and Miranda try to save Sho but they can’t. The manual hatch opening sends the capsule spinning onto the space station damaging it severely. The temperature and oxygen begin to drop rapidly.

David and Miranda are in a module and Calvin in the other. As they prepare to die, they realize all the pushing has caused the space station to drop into Earth’s orbit again. Calvin could survive the reentry, and Earth is doomed. David has one last idea. He recollects two escape pods that are configured to autopilot back to Earth. He tells Miranda to get into one pod and make it to Earth. He decides to lure Calvin with the oxygen glowing thingy things into the other pod. He plans to override the autopilot and fly into deep space with Calvin onboard.

Life Movie Ending Explained

David lures Calvin into his pod and Miranda enters hers. Miranda has a navigation failure and begins to go off course from Earth. It is her pod that begins to float into deep space not David’s. David tries to pilot his pod into deep space but Calvin immobilizes him. David is unable to control the ship and it enters the Earth’s orbit. It lands safely in Vietnam. Two fishermen come to check the pod out. The ending of Life reveals that while the audience is made to think that Miranda is the one who enters Earth, we are shown that is actually David’s pod with Calvin. Surprisingly, David is alive and Calvin has spread out like a web over David.

Why has Calvin kept David alive?

Well, it could be because the reentry drastically changed the atmospheric conditions in the pod which may have caused Calvin to go dormant. Alternatively, Calvin plans to use David as bait to get out of the pod. Either way, the film ends with multiple boats coming to the pod to rescue David as he screams for them to not to. They manage to open the Pod. The film ends. Earth is doomed unless there is a sequel.

Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. He’s regularly available for a chat conversation on his website and consults on storyboarding from time to time. Click to browse all his film articles

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‘the book of life’: film review.

Jorge R. Gutierrez's animated film, produced by Guillermo del Toro, is inspired by the Mexican holiday the Day of the Dead.

By THR Staff

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The Book of Life Still - H 2014

It’s not surprising that a companion art book to the new animated film directed by Jorge R. Gutierrez and produced by Guillermo del Toro has already been released. Steeped in Mexican folk art and inspired by that country’s holiday the Day of the Dead, The Book of Life is a visually stunning effort that makes up for its formulaic storyline with an enchanting atmosphere that sweeps you into its fantastical world, or in this case, three worlds. The film, which will have an obvious special appeal to Hispanic audiences, should prove a winner for 20th Century Fox Animation.

Bookended by amusing contemporary segments in which a sassy museum tour guide ( Christina Applegate ) hosts a group of skeptical school kids, the story concerns the romantic triangle among the free-spirited Maria ( Zoe Saldana ) and her two suitors: Manolo ( Diego Luna ), the scion of a long line of bullfighters, who really wants to be a singer/guitarist; and the vainglorious Joaquin ( Channing Tatum ), a military hero who struts around with a huge display of medals on his chest.

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The plot is set in motion by squabbling married gods La Muerta ( Kate del Castillo ) and Xibabla (del Toro regular Ron Perlman ), who make a wager as to which of the two men Maria will choose. La Muerta, the ruler of the Land of the Remembered, places her bet on Manolo, while Xibabla, who oversees the dark Land of the Forgotten, puts his faith in Joaquin and thinks nothing of exerting his influence to determine the outcome.

Read More ‘The Art of the Book of Life’ Preview: How to Design a Villain

To that end, he tricks Manolo into thinking that Maria has ventured into the Land of the Remembered, so the love-struck suitor sets off after her. While initially joyful to be introduced to the magical world containing all of his ancestors, Manolo is soon chagrined to discover that Maria is not there and sets off to find La Muerta to help him in his quest, stopping first at the Cave of Souls to consult with the Candle Maker ( Ice Cube ) who’s in charge of The Book of Life. Meanwhile, the Land of the Living is beset by the villainous monster Chakal ( Dan Navarro ) and his gang of bandits, with the inevitable battle affecting the destinies of all concerned. Acerbically commenting on the proceedings from the sidelines is the whiskered, elderly Grandma, hilariously voiced by Grey Griffin .

While the screenplay by Gutierrez and Douglas Langdale may prove a little too convoluted for younger viewers, they will surely be swept up by the magical visuals depicting the three worlds and their — literally, not figuratively — wooden inhabitants (Tatum’s Joaquin is, again, literally square-jawed). Its frames packed with vibrantly colorful, detailed imagery inspired by Latin American folklore and art, the computer-animated film looks particularly impressive in 3D.

Read More ‘Book of Life’ Fashion Collection Celebrates Mexican Art (Exclusive)

Although thankfully devoid of the sort of winking, pop culture-inflected humor prevalent in so many current animated films, The Book of Life provides much amusement with its inspired musical choices. Besides the original score and songs by two-time Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla ( Brokeback Mountain , Babel ) and veteran songwriter Paul Williams , there are fun, mariachi-flavored versions of such pop hits as Mumford and Sons’ “I Will Wait,” Radiohead’s “Creep” and Rod Stewart ‘s “Do You Think I’m Sexy?” among others. Luna and Saldana provide their own singing, with impressive results.

Adding further regional flavor is the supporting voice cast, which includes fun contributions by Placido Domingo , Hector Elizondo , Cheech Marin , Gabriel Iglesias and Danny Trejo .

Production: Reel FX Creative Studios, 20th Century Fox Animation, Chatrone Cast: Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum, Ron Perlman, Christina Applegate, Ice Cube, Kate del Castillo, Hector Elizondo Director: Jorge R. Gutierrez Screenwriters: Jorge R. Gutierrez, Douglas Langdale Producers: Aaron Berger, Brad Booker, Guillermo del Toro, Carina Schulze Executive producers: Cary Granat, Chuck Peil, Aron Warner Editor: Ahren Shaw Production designers: Paul Sullivan, Simon Valdimir Varela Composer: Gustavo Santaolalla Casting: Christian Kaplan

Rated PG, 95 minutes

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Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence age more than 50 years in "Life,'' the story of two New Yorkers who spend their adult lives on a Mississippi prison farm because of some very bad luck. It's an odd, strange film--a sentimental comedy with a backdrop of racism--and I kept thinking of "Life Is Beautiful,'' another film that skirts the edge of despair. "Life Is Beautiful'' avoids it through comic inspiration, and "Life'' by never quite admitting how painful its characters' lives must have been.

The movie is ribald, funny and sometimes sweet, and well acted by Murphy, Lawrence and a strong supporting cast. And yet the more you think about it, the more peculiar the movie seems. Murphy created the original story line, and Ted Demme ("The Ref'') follows his lead; the result is a film that almost seems nostalgic about what must have been a brutal existence. When was the last time that a movie made prison seem almost pleasant? "Life'' opens in 1932 in a Harlem nightclub, with a chance encounter between a bank teller named Claude (Lawrence) and a pickpocket named Ray (Murphy). They both find themselves in big trouble with Spanky, the club owner (Rick James), who is in the process of drowning Claude when Ray saves both their lives by talking them into a job: They'll drive a truck to Mississippi and pick up a load of moonshine.

The trip takes them into Jim Crow land, where Claude is outspoken and Ray more cautious in a segregated diner that serves "white-only pie.'' Then they find the moonshiner, load the truck and allow themselves to get distracted by a local sin city, where Ray loses all his money to a cheat ( Clarence Williams III ) and Claude goes upstairs with a good-time girl. The cheat is found dead; Claude and Ray are framed by the sheriff who actually killed him and given life in prison.

The early scenes move well (although why was it necessary to send all the way to Mississippi for moonshine, when New York was awash in bootleg booze during Prohibition?). The heart of the movie, however, takes place in prison, where after an early scene of hard physical labor, life settles down into baseball games, talent shows and even, at one point, a barbecue. Bokeem Woodbine plays Can't Get Right, a retarded prisoner who hits a homer every time at the plate, and Ray and Claude become his managers, hoping to get a free ride out of prison when he's recruited by the Negro Leagues. But it doesn't work that way, and life goes on, decade after decade, while the real world is only hearsay.

Demme has two nice touches for showing the passage of time: Prison inmates are shown simply fading from the screen, and in the early 1970s Claude gets to drive the warden ( Ned Beatty ) into nearby Greenville, where he sees hippie fashions and his first afro haircut. Meanwhile, Rick Baker's makeup gradually and convincingly ages the two men, who do a skillful job of aging their voices and manners.

All of this time, of course, they dream of escaping. And they maintain the fiction that they don't get along, although in fact they've grown close over the years (comparisons with "The Shawshank Redemption'' are inevitable). Ray remains the realist and compromiser, and Claude remains more hotheaded; the warden likes them both and eventually assigns them to his house staff. But what are we to make of their long decades together? That without the unjust prison term, they would never have had the opportunity to enjoy such a friendship? That prison life has its consolations? That apart from that unfortunate lifetime sentence, the white South was actually pretty decent to the two friends? "Life'' simply declines to deal with questions like that, and the story makes it impossible for them to be answered. It's about friendship, I guess, and not social issues. Murphy and Lawrence are so persuasive in the movie that maybe audiences will be carried along. Their characters are likable, their performances are touching, they age well, they survive. And their lives consist of episodes and anecdotes that make good stories--as when the white superintendent's daughter has a black baby, and the super holds the kid up next to every convict's face, looking for the father. That's a comic scene in the movie; real life might have been different.

But life flows along and we get in the mood, and by the end we're happy to see the two old timers enjoying their retirement.

After all, they've earned it.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Life (1999)

Rated R For Strong Language and A Shooting

100 minutes

Eddie Murphy as Ray Gibson

Martin Lawrence as Claude Banks

Obba Babatunde as Willie Long

Ned Beatty as Dexter Wilkins

Bernie Mac as Jangle Leg

Rick James Winston as Spanky

Clarence Williams III as Hancock

Directed by

• Matthew Stone
• Robert Ramsey

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A Look Back at Mandisa's Ups and Downs Following the Grammy-Winning American Idol Alum's Death at 47

The late singer was open about her experience with "a deep pit of depression" that left her feeling "so hopeless" she contemplated suicide

Life was full of highs and lows for Mandisa before the Grammy-winning American Idol alum's death at age 47 on April 18 .

"We can confirm that yesterday Mandisa was found in her home deceased," a rep for the reality singing competition series' beloved season 5 contestant told PEOPLE. "At this time we do not know the cause of death or any further details. We ask for your prayers for her family and close knit circle of friends during this incredibly difficult time."

Mandisa quickly became a fan-favorite during her time on Idol , and she even made it to the show's top 9 alongside Katharine McPhee ,  Kellie Pickler ,  Chris Daughtry ,  Paris Bennett ,  Elliott Yamin  and eventual winner  Taylor Hicks .

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Paras Griffin/Getty Images 

Following her stint on the show, the soulful vocalist released her debut album, True Beauty , in 2007 and earned a No. 1 debut on the Top Christian Albums Charts, making her the first new female artist to do so in the chart's 27-year history.

Born and raised in Citrus Heights, California, she released six total albums throughout her career, four of which earned Grammy nominations. Her 2013 album, Overcomer , won the award for best contemporary Christian music album the year after its release, making Mandisa the fifth artist to receive a Grammy after emerging from Idol.

Overcomer was inspired by her best friend and backup singer Kisha Mitchell’s battle with breast cancer. Later in 2014 after Mandisa won the Grammy, Mitchell died.

"When she passed away, it shook the foundations underneath me," Mandisa told PEOPLE in 2017 . "I sank into a deep pit of depression. I turned back to my old ways, which is food."

Having previously lost over 120 lbs., she gained the wait back, plus 75 lbs. more and became a recluse. "You’re battling shame, and you don’t want to leave the house," she said at the time.

"I  didn’t  leave the house, for the most part. When I got up, I went downstairs, sat in the recliner, and I watched television nonstop," continued Mandisa. "The only time I left was when I got tired of pizza delivery and decided to get McDonald’s."

Terry Wyatt/Getty 

During that period, she felt "so miserable" and "so hopeless" that she began to consider suicide. "I am a woman of faith, and I believe that heaven is real, and when I do leave here, I’m going to be in heaven with Jesus," she said. "One of the things I started hearing during that dark period was: ‘You’re in so much pain. If you take your life, you could be in heaven right now with Jesus.'”

In 2016, Mandisa exited the house for a rare outing to see the film War Room , which featured her song "Press On." Upon exiting the movie theater, she realized "a bunch of my friends" had staged a kind intervention for her.

"When I left the movie theater, I saw my car: It had a bunch of sticky notes all over it. The notes said things like ‘We love you’ and ‘We miss you’ and ‘Come back to us,'" she recalled the following year. "They insisted that I get counseling, and that is what helped me finally start dealing with my grief. If that hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t be here today."

Jason Kempin/Getty Images

At that point, "the darkness felt a little less dark," she wrote in her 2022 memoir  Out of the Dark: My Journey Through the Shadows to Find God's Joy , chronicling the experience. "I could see a small flicker. Light was beginning to break through."

Elsewhere in the book, Mandisa praised her meaningful connections with friends. "During my life I've been drawn into friendships with all types of people — some very different from me," she wrote.

"My tribe has included men, women, single people, married people with kids, millennials, more 'seasoned' folks, and every age in between. ... You learn so much and become a richer person by surrounding yourself with people who are different from you," added the performer. "As I've walked through hard things in my life, I've sometimes been surprised by the people God has used to comfort and help me. At times I get to be there for them too. That's what it's all about."

Through treatment, she began to cope with her internalized emotions, which she told PEOPLE in 2017 "is the healthiest thing I can do, not stuff it down with a box of Krispy Kremes."

Additionally, Mandisa started working "bit by bit" to get into better physical shape. "I'm making one healthy choice after another, instead of saying, 'Oh my gosh, I can't believe I have to lose 200 lbs. again.' No, I'm losing 1 lb. at a time," she said at the time.

Managing her relationship with food wasn't easy. "That's the interesting thing about a food addiction! You can go without crack cocaine, but you have to literally face food every day," added Mandisa. "I'm just not of the mindset to say, 'I can never have these things for the rest of my life.' I just say: What choices can I make today that will help me to get where I want to go?"

Jason Merritt/FilmMagic

Mandisa returned to music in 2017 with an album called Out of the Dark , through which she channeled her pain. "My prayer for this is it would give people hope — people who cannot see their way out of the darkness will, through my story, maybe see themselves in it," she said of the project, "and maybe I can be that little flicker of light for them."

Eventually, she found herself in a place of reflection. "When you are walking through this, you think that you’re the only one," she said of her experience with depression. "But you are never the only person walking through something like that."

If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.

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Is 'Unlocked: A Jail Experiment' real? The story behind the controversial Netflix show

N etflix viewers get a rare look at the inside of an Arkansas prison in the streaming service’s latest hit series, “Unlocked: A Jail Experiment.”

Since premiering on April 10, the show has quickly captivated viewers and became Netflix’s number one series. However, the show, and the making of it, has also created a bit of controversy.

Ready to hear what all the hype is about? We’re breaking down everything you need to know.

What is 'Unlocked: A Jail Experiment' about?

The series follows a group of inmates at Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility in Little Rock, Arkansas as they take part in a social experiment. 

Netflix describes  the series as an “exploration of what happens when unit cells are unlocked for six weeks, and detainees create community and structure for themselves.”

According to  documents viewed by TODAY.com  and shared by the Arkansas Times, production company Lucky 8 Productions “reached out” to Pulaski County Sheriff Eric Higgins for the project. The production company “felt he would be a good candidate” after “seeing his stance on reentry.” 

Higgins told Netflix’s  Tudum  he was inspired to run the experiment because he was worried about “high recidivism rates” and “dismal conditions” of local jails.

“The goal was to determine if more autonomy and less control in jails can lead to a more community-oriented living environment and better support one of the fundamental purposes of incarceration: discouraging people from committing future crimes,” he said in Tudum .

What was involved in running the experiment?

Prior to the experiment, deputies were stationed inside prison units with detainees, with varying security levels. The “Unlocked” experiment reduced the amount of direct supervision.

“We thought, ‘What can we do to create some ownership for those detainees in that unit?” he told Netflix. “How do we make the facility safer, and what can we do to still hold them accountable but empower them at the same time?’”

The experiment removing deputies from the unit, creating a tier-based structure that rewards good behavior and installing monitors to create outside supervision. 

Participation was optional, per Higgins.

What happened during the experiment?

 Detainees were left to decide how to run their unit.

“They each have their own issues, whether it’s court, their charges, their contact or lack of contact with family members, their lack of support… all of those things are coming into play,” Higgins said. “They stepped up. They recognized that they can improve their environment. And the majority of the people in the unit did the right thing from Day 1.”

Higgins said he thinks the experiment was a success.

“In this country, we have a certain perception of someone who goes to jail — the assumption being that they’re guilty,” Higgins said. “But they deserve dignity. These individuals, they’re fathers, they’re uncles, they’re sons. People care about them… they’re not just a number. I believe that if you treat people right, and you hold them accountable… I think they take that with them when they walk out of this facility. I think we have proven that people will rise to the expectation.”

What is the controversy surrounding the show?

There’s an ongoing debate as to whether Higgins had the authority to grant permission to film inside the detention facility.

Legal documents viewed by TODAY.com  and shared by the Arkansas Times show that Higgins signed an agreement with a production company called Lucky 8 TV in 2022.

As reported by the  Arkansas Times , county officials say Higgins did not have the authority to sign a contract on behalf of the county. Only the county judge can bind the county to a “legally enforceable agreement,” per Pulaski County attorney Adam Fogleman.

In an interview with Arkansas’  Democrat-Gazette , Higgins called the document he signed a “location release” instead of a contract and acknowledged that he can’t sign a contract for the county.

Lucky 8, the production company, sent Pulaski County a check for $60,000 for filming, per documents viewed by TODAY.com. 

Lieutenant Antonio Waters and Deputy George Belt were given compensation for providing off duty security to Lucky 8 staff at a rate of $40 an hour.

Documents do not indicate prisoners were compensated for their appearance.

TODAY.com has reached out to Fogleman, Higgins and Lucky8 for comment and has not heard back at the time of publication. 

How have viewers reacted to the show?

After watching the new series, many viewers took to social media to share their reactions.

"It’s incredibly thought-provoking and eye-opening. Definitely worth a watch!" one X user wrote .

Another said the experiment gave them "hope for the prison industrial complex."

Of course, some viewers were skeptical at first.

"Now watching — Unlocked: A Jail Experiment. Not them turning prison into a reality show set. What is going on," one wrote .

Despite their reservations, most people were more far too intrigued to look away.

"Do I think it’s a bad idea? Yes. Am I about to start watching? Also yes," one X user commented .

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

Taylor Swift Renews Her Vows With Heartbreak in Audacious, Transfixing ‘Tortured Poets Department’: Album Review

By Chris Willman

Chris Willman

Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic

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For where it sits in her catalog musically, it feels like the synth-pop of “Midnights,” with most of the feel-good buzz stripped out; or like the less acoustic based moments of “Folklore” and “Evermore,” with her penchant for pure autobiography stripped back in. It feels bracing, and wounded, and cocky, and — not to be undervalued in this age — handmade, however many times she stacks her own vocals for an ironic or real choral effect. Occasionally the music gets stripped down all the way to a piano, but it has the effect of feeling naked even when she goes for a bop that feels big enough to join the setlist in her stadium tour resumption, like “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.”

The first time you listen to the album, you may be stricken by the “Wait, did she really just say that?” moments. (And no, we’re not referring to the already famous Charlie Puth shout-out, though that probably counts, too.) Whatever feeling you might have had hearing “Dear John” for the first time, if you’re old enough to go back that far with her, that may be the feeling you have here listening to the eviscerating “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” or a few other tracks that don’t take much in the way of prisoners. Going back to it, on second, fifth and tenth listens, it’s easier to keep track of the fact that the entire album is not that emotionally intense, and that there are romantic, fun and even silly numbers strewn throughout it, if those aren’t necessarily the most striking ones on first blush. Yes, it’s a pop album as much as a vein-opening album, although it may not produce the biggest number of Top 10 hits of anything in her catalog. It doesn’t seem designed not to produce those, either; returning co-producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner aren’t exactly looking to keep her off the radio. But it’s easily among her most lyrics-forward efforts, rife with a language lover’s wordplay, tumults of sequential similes and — her best weapon — moments of sheer bluntness.

Who is the worst man that she delights in writing about through the majority of the album? Perhaps not the one you were guessing, weeks ago. There are archetypal good guy and bad boy figures who have been part of her life, whom everyone will transpose onto this material. Coming into “Tortured Poets,” the joke was that someone should keep Joe Alwyn, publicly identified as her steady for six-plus years, under mental health watch when the album comes out. As it turns out, he will probably be able to sleep just fine. The other bloke, the one everyone assumed might be too inconsequential to trouble her or write about — let’s put another name to that archetype: Matty Healy of the 1975 — might lose a little sleep instead, if the fans decide that the cutting “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” and other lacerating songs are about him, instead. He might also have cause to feel flattered, because there are plenty of songs extolling him as an object of abject passion and the love of her life — in, literally, the song title “LOML” — before the figure who animated all this gets sliced down to size.

The older love, he gets all of one song, as far as can be ascertained: the not so subtly titled “So Long, London,” a dour sequel to 2019’s effusive “London Boy.” Well, he gets a bit more than that: The amusingly titled “Fresh Out the Slammer” devotes some verses to a man she paints as her longtime jailer (“Handcuffed to the spell I was under / For just one hour of sunshine / Years of labor, locks and ceilings / In the shade of how he was feeling.” But ultimately it’s really devoted to the “pretty baby” who’s her first phone call once she’s been sprung from the relationship she considered her prison.

It’s complicated, as they say. For most of the album, Swift seesaws between songs about being in thrall to never-before-experienced passion and personal compatibility with a guy from the wrong side of the tracks. She feels “Guilty as Sin?” for imagining a consummation that at first seems un-actionable, if far from unthinkable; she swears “But Daddy I Love Him” in the face of family disapproval; she thinks “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can),” before an epiphany slips out in the song’s hilariously anticlimactic final line: “Woah, maybe I can’t.” Then the most devastating songs about being ghosted pop up in the album’s later going.

Now, that, friends, is a righteous tirade. And it’s one of the most thrilling single moments in Swift’s recorded career. “But Daddy I Love Him” has a joke for a title (it’s a line borrowed from “The Little Mermaid”), but the song is an ecstatic companion piece to “That’s the Way I Loved You,” from her second album, now with Swift running off with the bad choice instead of just mourning him. It’s the rare song from her Antonoff/Dessner period that sounds like it could be out of the more “organic”-sounding, band-focused Nathan Chapman era, but with a much more matured writing now than then… even if the song is about embracing the immature.

The album gets off to a deceptively benign start with “Fortnight,” the collaboration with Post Malone that is its first single. Both he and the record’s other featured artist, Florence of Florence + the Machine , wrote the lyrics for their own sections, but Posty hangs back more, as opposed to the true duet with Florence; he echoes Swift’s leads before finally settling in with his own lines right at the end. Seemingly unconnected to the subject matter of the rest of the record, “Fortnight” seems a little like “Midnights” Lite. It rues a past quickie romance that the singer can’t quite move on from, even as she and her ex spend time with each other’s families. It’s breezy, and a good choice for pop radio, but not much of an indication of the more visceral, obsessive stuff to come.

The title track follows next and stays in the summer-breeze mode. It’s jangly-guitar-pop in the mode of “Mirrorball,” from “Folklore”… and it actually feels completely un-tortured, despite the ironic title. After the lovers bond over Charlie Puth being underrated (let’s watch those “One Call Away” streams soar), and over how “you’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith,” an inter-artist romance seems firmly in place. “Who’s gonna hold you like me?” she asks aloud. (She later changes it to “troll you.”) She answers herself: “Nofuckinbody.” Sweet, and If you came to this album for any kind of idyll, enjoy this one while it lasts, which isn’t for long.

From here, the album is kind of all over the map, when it comes to whether she’s in the throes of passion or the throes of despair… with that epic poem in the album booklet to let you know how the pieces all fit together. (The album also includes a separate poem from Stevie Nicks, addressing the same love affair that is the main subject of the album, in a protective way.)

There are detours that don’t have to do with the romantic narrative, but not many. The collaboration with Florence + the Machine, “Florida!!!,” is the album’s funniest track, if maybe its least emotionally inconsequential. It’s literally about escape, and it provides some escapism right in the middle of the record, along with some BAM-BAM-BAM power-chord dynamics in an album that often otherwise trends soft. If you don’t laugh out loud the first time that Taylor’s and Florence’s voices come together in harmony to sing the line “Fuck me up, Florida,” this may not be the album for you.

When the album’s track list was first revealed, it almost seemed like one of those clever fakes that people delight in trolling the web with. Except, who would really believe that, instead of song titles like “Maroon,” Swift would suddenly be coming up with “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” “Fresh Out the Slammer,” “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”? This sounded like a Morrissey track list, not one of Swift’s. But she’s loosened up, in some tonal sense, even as she’s as serious as a heart attack on a lot of these songs. There is blood on the tracks, but also a wit in the way she’s employing language and being willing to make declarations that sound a little outlandish before they make you laugh.

Toward the end of the album, she presents three songs that aren’t “about” anybody else… just about, plainly, Taylor Swift. That’s true of “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?,” a song that almost sounds like an outtake from the “Reputation” album, or else a close cousin to “Folklore’s” “Mad Woman,” with Swift embracing the role of vengeful witch, in response to being treated as a circus freak — exact contemporary impetus unknown.

Whatever criticisms anyone will make of “The Tortured Poets Department,” though — not enough bangers? too personal? — “edge”-lessness shouldn’t be one of them. In this album’s most bracing songs, it’s like she brought a knife to a fistfight. There’s blood on the tracks, good blood.

Sure to be one of the most talked-about and replayed tracks, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” has a touch of a Robyn-style dancing-through-tears ethos to it. But it’s clearly about the parts of the Eras Tour when she was at her lowest, and faking her way through it. “I’m so depressed I act like it’s my birthday — every day,” she sings, in the album’s peppiest number — one that recalls a more dance-oriented version of the previous album’s “Mastermind.” It’s not hard to imagine that when she resumes the tour in Paris next month, and has a new era to tag onto the end of the show, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” might be the new climax, in place of “Karma.” “You know you’re good when you can do it with a broken heart,” she humble-brags, “and I’m good, ‘cause I’m miserable / And nobody even knows! / Try and come for my job.”

Not many superstars would devote an entire song to confessing that they’ve only pretended to be the super-happy figure fans thought they were seeing pass through their towns, and that they were seeing a illusion. (Presumably she doesn’t have to fake it in the present day, but that’s the story of the next album, maybe.) But that speaks to the dichotomy that has always been Taylor Swift: on record, as good and honest a confessional a singer-songwriter as any who ever passed through the ports of rock credibility; in concert, a great, fulsome entertainer like Cher squared. Fortunately, in Swift, we’ve never had to settle for just one or the other. No one else is coming for either job — our best heartbreak chronicler or our most uplifting popular entertainer. It’s like that woman in the movie theater says: Heartache feels good in a place like that. And it sure feels grand presented in its most distilled, least razzly-dazzly essence in “The Tortured Poets Department.”

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