#miami beach

By Michael Bustamante | Photos provided by Versace

Versace presented its men’s and women’s Fall/Winter 2020 collections in the same runway for the first time ever in celebration of equality and inclusivity. The brand is known for its freedom of expression and bold choices and Donatella solidifies this with a bold move. “Who is the man and who is the woman of today? The reason I wanted to show my men’s and women’s collections together today is that men and women are equally powerful. It doesn’t have anything to do with gender, it’s that their power comes from a different type of confidence, both from their sensual exuberance and their minds,” said Donatella. There are two things the Versace man and woman have in common – confidence. They are both wildly individualistic and unafraid of making bold choices.

For menswear, the Versace FW20 collection is all about hyper-masculinity with broad shoulders. Head to toe tracksuits have sports references along with netting-backed nylon separates. Also, it wouldn’t be a Versace collection without colorful prints. This time around, the focus is the Virtus V, which has been enlarged and distorted. acid-toned florals and achromic designs are also visible throughout the collection. The collection has bold neon colors that are sure to lift you up during the cooler months. A new sneaker is also introduced, the Trigreca, which will be available in various colors. To shop Versace, visit versace.com. Keep in mind that for the safety of our community, as of now, all Versace stores will be closed until April 10.

This was originally published in Wire Magazine Digital Issue 1.2020

By Alyn Darnay

Directed by: Nat Faxon and Jim Rash
Screenplay by: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, and Jesse Armstrong
Based on: The Swedish film, Force Majeure
Cast: Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Zach Woods, Zoë Chao

Question: What do you call a film that’s not funny, not deeply dramatic, and feels like a messed-up effort to re-make a good foreign film? I guess you call it Downhill and label it a ‘dramedy.’

To sum up the Downhillsituation; the filmmakers took what should have been a dream comedy pairing, in this case, the wonderfully talented Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the woe begotten Will Ferrell, and gave them a script whose plot is way too minimal, where laughs are few and far between, and where the resolution is just too sugary American sweet to make the time watching it worthwhile.

When you stand back and look hard at this dud of a film, you have to wonder how a movie with such talented actors, beautiful locations, and breathtaking cinematography; that won’t even play well on Television, ever got the green light to get made. I sure did.

Here’s the storyline…

A married American couple is on vacation at an adult ski resort in Austria with their two young children. On the second day while they take a noon break from skiing at a mountain top chalet to grab a bite to eat, they just barely survive an unexpected avalanche. During the event, the husband (Ferrell) grabs his cell phone and heads for cover, leaving this wife (Louis-Dreyfus) and children behind to fend for themselves.

In the aftermath, the husband’s self-saving reaction to the danger posed to his family by the avalanche opens the door to the possible destruction of their marriage and threatens to also ruin his relationship with his children.

The film is a fairly accurate re-interpretation of Director Ruben Östlund’s 2014 Swedish film Force Majeure, but the original is much better than this version. I wonder why the powers that be in Hollywood ever wanted to re-make that gem of a film, with broad European sensibilities? I guess Hollywood just can’t stop itself from trying to make money off the coattails of great foreign films.

Ferrell is hopelessly miss-cast as the husband in this movie. He’s stiff, never funny, and unbelievable, the exact opposite of all the elements needed to make the role work. On the other hand, Julia Louis-Dreyfus displayed a terrific range of performance and was never unbelievable. Actually, she’s the only reason to give this film some attention. She’s been a comic treasure for decades and her mature acting talent is on full display here.

My take… I can’t recommend this film. It’s a poor copy of an original, and we all know what that looks like. Pass.

Downhill
Rating: 2 stars (out of 5)
Rated: R (for language and some sexual material)
Running Time: 1 hour and 26 minutes

Alyn Darnay is a film critic; feedback is encouraged at [email protected].

This was originally published in Wire Magazine Digital Issue 1.2020

APRIL 

Justas Jestrumskis @justas_jes

MAY

Evan Peix @evanpeix

JUNE

Peyton Elvy@peytonelvy

This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 6.2020

By Rafa Carvajal | Photos by Marcos G. Punto

Flamenco Festival Miami returns to the Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall with spectacular performances by Miguel Poveda, María Pagés, Manuel Liñán and “Stars of Flamenco” featuring Mercedes Ruíz, Eduardo Guerrero and María Moreno. Flamenco is more popular than ever with artists like Rosalia bringing it forward and making it mainstream. Festival attendees will enjoy today’s most celebrated dancers, musicians, and singers, who will come to our Magic City all the way from Spain. One of those artists is Manuel Liñán, who returns to the Flamenco Festival with a new show, ¡VIVA! The all-male dance company explores gender identity inspired by the flamenco woman. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit arshtcenter.org.

Wire Magazine sat down with Manuel Liñán to preview his new show¡VIVA!, and find out what he enjoys the most about performing at Flamenco Festival Miami.

Rafa Carvajal: Why you are so passionate about flamenco?
Manuel Liñán: It is my way of expressing myself with total honesty. Flamenco is an art that brings together experiences of culture, music, literature, history, movement, dance, testimonies, etc. It’s my life!  

RC: How did you become a flamenco dancer?
ML: It was at school where I began to be attracted to dance. Then, there was a day when I discovered that flamenco was what gave voice and movement to my expression. Through this art, I realized that I could communicate with the world and express everything I felt. It was little by little with love and respect.

RC: Tell our readers about your all-male dance company’s new show, ¡VIVA!
ML:¡VIVA! is a desire that I pursued for years. Since I was little, I have had the need to show myself as I am, and one of those ways is through crossdressing. When I was little, I felt that society did not understand me and ridiculed me, so I started dressing up in secret out of fear of not being accepted by society. Today, I want to make those facts public, the fact of dressing up and also the dramatic burden of thinking you’re going to lose everything.

RC: How does ¡VIVA! explore gender identity through flamenco’s femininity and masculinity?
ML: It’s complicated because flamenco is very set on roles according to gender, and it is something that I don’t understand. When I was little, I was forced to dance as a man should dance, but I also felt the desire to dance like a woman. I felt that I had no options to dance like the opposite sex. I felt limited because my body also wanted to get other movements and options. I simply wanted to have knowledge about everything that both bothered and attracted me, regardless of gender. In ¡VIVA!, we explore ourselves and our way of crossdressing, we do not pretend to be women, nor represent femininity, we simply manifest ourselves as we feel. Giving normality and formality to crossdressing.

RC:How did the idea to create ¡VIVA! come about?
ML: It’s something that I’ve been chasing for years. Now, I feel strong enough to be able to do it without fear or harm. I’ve always wanted to do this since I was little.

RC:What do you enjoy the most about performing at Flamenco Festival Miami?
ML: The public is very welcoming! I feel very good with Miami audiences, I consider them to be very warm. Miami audiences have always received us with a lot of respect and affection.

RC:Is there anything else you would like to share with Wire Magazine readers about yourself, your love of flamenco, or ¡VIVA!?
ML: We just want to dance and dance some more. We are looking forward to being in Miami!

This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 6.2020

By Alyn Darnay

Directed by: Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
Screenplay by: Chris Bremner, Peter Craig and Joe Carnahan

Cast: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig, Charles Melton, Paola Núñez, Kate del Castillo, Nicky Jam, Joe Pantoliano, and Jacob Scipio

As you should know, Bad Boys For Life is the third action-packed, buddy-cop film in the Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay created franchise, and comes out nearly two decades after the last entry. Surprisingly, it maintains the same level of high-spirited, chaotic, action as the previous films, even though this outing moves its main characters into middle age bringing with it all the problems that implies. Michael Bay was supposed to direct this installment as well, but he and Will Smith demand “some of the highest salaries in the film industry,” which meant that the budget couldn’t handle them both. So, the Belgian directing team of Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah took over his duties and did a great job of imitating Bay’s style and adding some of their own sensibilities along the way.

A film, any film for that matter, is only as good as its villain, and this sequel has a great one in newcomer Jacob Scipio. It’s hard to top the machismo of Will Smith, but this guy manages to convince us he’s more than up to the task. There’s a scene near the beginning of the film that pits him against a band of criminals who he decimates in the blink of an eye, letting us know that our boys are in real trouble this time. That feeling never leaves you, it holds true to the very end.

As for Smith and Lawrence’s characters, they’re still the same two bickering, fist-bumping, “Bad Boys” singing, buddies they’ve always been, and their 25 years as Miami cops don’t seem to have mellowed them or dulled their propensity for wanton destruction, racing through crowded city streets, shooting anything that moves, and making light of the consequences of their actions. In other words, perfect anti-hero heroes.
Here’s the storyline…

Miami narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) have been working the streets for two decades and are beginning to feel the effects of age. Just as Marcus becomes a grandfather and decides it’s time to hang it up and retire, someone starts murdering people involved in an old case. Before they can start looking into it, there’s an assassination attempt on Mike’s life. Once he recovers, they decide to work together one last time to bring down the mysterious assassin who seems to have a link to Mike’s past. Their captain (Pantoliano), not wanting to have two loose cannons out on the streets again, orders them to join forces with AMMO, a newly created elite team of the Miami police department. Reluctantly they begin searching for the elusive killer together.

I really liked the cast in this film; they work well with each other and appear to have been chosen with great care. Also, because they’re drawn from character types we’re already familiar with from tons of other films, you understand who they are immediately. This is a smart way to work because background stories on each would have slowed the film down way too much. If you’re missing and long for the action movies of the ‘90s, Bad Boys For Life is just your ticket. It’s filled with big-screen slow-motion explosions, wild car and motorcycle chases, and circular close-up shots of the actors, all set to an overly loud and pretentious film score. My take… if you just sit back and take Bad Boys For Life for what it is, a good action-comedy sequel, you’ll find it one big exciting ride.
Alyn Darnay is a film critic; feedback is encouraged at [email protected].

This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 6.2020

By DJ FR8-O

Who doesn’t love brand new music? The exhilaration of hearing a fresh track for the first time. Being mesmerized by the beats and melody of the instrumentation. Listening to the lyrics pouring from the singer’s mouth and feeling like they’re telling your story. It’s an experience we all crave every day, especially when we’ve played that last new song so much that our ears have gone numb to it. As we become more connected to the world through the Internet and its endless roster of music streaming sites, it’s becoming harder for artists to bring something truly original to the table that can outlast the modern listener’s attention span. That might explain why many artists like Sam Sparro are looking to the past to create the sound of the future.

Sparro has always been the kind of artist whose work is ten steps ahead of the curve. When his breakthrough track “Black and Gold” was unleashed in 2008 – with its sultry synth baseline and classic disco vibe – the rest of the industry was saturating the airwaves with pulsating EDM and fist-pumping everything in its path. Since his track didn’t fit the modern music mold of the times, the Australian singer didn’t get as much mainstream attention as his American peers, but it was eventually nominated for a Grammy, an ARIA and an MTV Award, and went on to be featured in several TV shows, films, and commercials. Proof that sometimes “newer” isn’t always better.

After an eight-year hiatus, the openly gay singer is once again bringing sexy back with his new LP, Boombox Eternal. This time, he’s pulled inspiration from some of his favorite records from the late ‘80s/early '90s and paying homage to childhood idols like Janet Jackson and New Edition. From the album and singles artwork, it’s fair to say the 37-year-old has gone beyond the music to take us back to a time when new jack swing was king and you were only as cool as your cassette collection. He’s even gone as far as to release the album on cassette for hardcore fans and audiophiles.

This musical flashback opens up with that all too familiar click and clatter of a cassette tape being slipped into a boombox before exploding into the intro “Vibe Forever.” The ride that follows is like playing a mixtape you might find in a time capsule from three decades ago. Sparro doesn’t just resurrect the past though. He takes what was old and makes it new again. In an interview with albumism.com, he explained “I did so much research about the sound that I was creating in terms of what keyboards and drum machines Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and Teddy Riley were using (then). I spent a lot of time collecting samples and different sounds from that era and I became very obsessed with sort of recreating it. But what makes Boombox Eternal modern is some of the lyrical content and the production in terms of the mixing and the vocals.”

Before the Internet gave us the power to summon fresh music with the tap of a finger, we sat by the radio for hours eagerly waiting for a brand new track to be inserted into regular rotation. Boombox Eternal rekindles the nostalgia of those days while giving the modern pop landscape a much-needed reboot.

If you’re a recording artist, producer or musician and would like your work featured in TOP TRAX, hit me up at [email protected].

This was originally published in Wire Magazine Issue 6.2020

Daddy come here ;)

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full shoot up on patreon link in bio

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