David Simon. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images for WarnerMedia)
As he rode a train from New York to Baltimore this week, David Simon took time to lament the state of his two careers: First in journalism, as a Baltimore Sun crime reporter; and television, where he created one of the best series ever, “The Wire,” and several other memorable shows for HBO. As newspapers continue struggling and Hollywood braces for further consolidation, he also recognized the similarities in their plights, a mood conveyed by the title of his sardonic blog, “The Audacity of Despair.”
Talking to Status, the writer-producer’s train ride served as a decent metaphor for media’s halting path—and two fields facing stops, starts, and uncertainty about where they’re heading, much less what route will get them there.
Citing the parallels between news and entertainment, Simon told Status…
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Zazie Beetz in “They Will Kill You.” (Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)
‘Kill’-ing Time: After basking in the glory of the Oscars and a string of box-office hits, Warner Bros. has started 2026 in considerably less robust fashion—following “Wuthering Heights” with “The Bride!,” which audiences and critics left at the altar; and now “They Will Kill You,” an absurdly stylized action-horror-comedy mashup that somehow makes a satanic cult, wanton violence, and buckets of blood boring.
Charitably, the movie has some merit as a starring vehicle for Zazie Beetz, who dives elbow-deep into the action, which kicks off about seven minutes in and only lets up occasionally to putty in some of the story, not very convincingly, via flashbacks.
Beyond that, though, this effort from Russian director/co-writer Kirill Sokolov is about as subtle as its title, playing like an…
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