Drag Race RuCap: "Snatch Game of Love: Island Edition"

Which one of the Snatch Game boys is your favorite? Don't be shy, share with the class.

CLÁUDIO ALVES: The narrative set forth by the Talent Show kerfuffle continues to unfold in this season’s Snatch Game. In some ways, it feels like Mama Ru is correcting the injustices she (or the broader production team) may have perceived in the Rate-a-Queen results, rewarding those who were thrown under the bus while punishing the conspirators behind Myki’s close brush with elimination. She’s like Eggers’ Northman, intoning to herself: “I will avenge you, Meeks! I will save you, Coco! I will kill you, Dions!” Then again, it’s not like the girls are making her job very difficult. The correct bottom two lip-synced for their life this week, and even if I might have picked a different victor, Ru’s champion is hardly scandalous. Anyway, did you know Athena Dion is Greek?

NICK TAYLOR: I do, though there’s a moment where she’s really pressed by the suggestion to play Greek. Diva, that is your brand!! You did this!! Along with course-correcting the talent show, Ru’s judging feels like a referendum against fictional and mythological characters popping up in Snatch Game. I have questions about the judging, but not complaints, and in retrospect part of my shock at this week’s elimination is from the edit not pushing the possibility as hard as they might have...

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Drag Race RuCap: "The Rate-A-Queen Talent Show, Part 2"

The face of a proud Greek mother whose plans are falling into place.

CLÁUDIO ALVES: Those Emmy losses to The Traitors have really done a number on the Drag Race producers and editors. Because this week, the entire episode felt like it should have been unfolding in a Scottish Castle rather than the WOW studios. In other words, it was juicy reality TV, but perhaps a bit less rewarding as a RuPaul’s Drag Race episode. For those, like me, who feel the series is at its best when embracing the form of a drag variety showcase, an hour that felt more about alliances and internal cast politics than about talent or drag pageantry is bound to leave one a tiny bit dissatisfied. At the same time, a pretty shapeless season suddenly slotted into place, narratives writing themselves into existence, arcs, heroes and villains, underdogs and whatnot. 

NICK TAYLOR: It’s fabulous character drama, and a great bit of comeuppance for all my bitching about the alliance shenanigans or whether the talent show needed to be two episodes. The queen’s choices really mattered! We got some fun drag from the runways, and Nini Coco would have trounced this group pretty handily if she’d performed this week, but everything whack about the final ratings felt like the end of Act One in a major way...

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Drag Race RuCap: "Red Carpet Mash Up"

Law Roach is THAT GIRL! She is MOTHER!!! Just look at the material.

CLÁUDIO ALVES: After a couple of great first episodes, season 18 of RuPaul’s Drag Race seemed to fall off a cliff with the advent of its first comedy challenge. While this fourth installment still leaves much to be desired, it’s a marked improvement, full of drama and strong work by the queens. Sure, the judging’s still fucked and some of the conflict skewed nasty rather than entertaining, but it was better than that “RDR Live!” trainwreck. And, at least, this week, Law Roach added some needed sanity to the judges’ panel, delivering good if catty critiques, showing he’s getting better and better at this Drag Race gig. There really is no better critical eye for a challenge this focused on celebrity red carpet fashion, a refreshing spin on the team’s design challenge from DRUK season 2 that was a tad complicated but not nearly as frustrating as I initially assumed. Following my grumpiness last time, I’m ready to be the good cop to your bad, dear Nick.

NICK TAYLOR: What if we’re both on a similar wavelength?...

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Something "Wicked" this way comes!

by Cláudio Alves

Ariana Grande, Jon M. Chu and Cynthia Erivo photographed by Giles Keyte on the set of WICKED: FOR GOOD | © Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

In 1900, L. Frank Baum published the first book in what would become a series and a cultural monument – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Two years later, he'd adapt Dorothy's adventure into a musical extravaganza for the stage, and six years after, that Kansas girl would walk the yellow brick road into the silver screen for the first time. But it would take MGM's 1939 Technicolor miracle of a movie for The Wizard of Oz to reach its full potential. In 1995, Gregory Maguire used Baum's creation to question the workings of American propaganda through a revisionist tale. In 2003, Wicked reached the stage, reimagined as a mega musical that would take the world by storm. Last year, Jon M. Chu's film adaptation of the show's first act wowed audiences and, next week, the story ends, For Good.

It's been a long journey to get here, and I was lucky enough to attend the London premiere of Wicked: For Good, experiencing one of 2025's most anticipated movies firsthand, along with the fervor of die-hard fans and the media fanfare of a promotional roll-out the likes of which we rarely get to witness...

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TIFF 50: “Couture” reflects on fashion, bodies and mortality

by Cláudio Alves

In Alice Winocour's Couture, Angeline Jolie enters the film in a rush, already late and running. She plays Maxine Walker, an American director famous for her work in horror, who has been recently hired by one of those legendary French fashion houses to create a short film that will play alongside their new haute couture collection at Paris Fashion Week. She's there to work with the highest budget of her career, pumping out a vampire fantasy in a couple of days as the rest of the French capital prepares for the runway shows. At the top of the world, she's still struggling, burdened by doubts from higher-ups, a stifling schedule, and confusing calls from physicians back home. Those last ones are so insistent that she ends up leaving the shoot for an emergency appointment…

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