Anthony Mackie takes up the shield as Captain America in the hot garbage that is Brave New World.
While watching Captain America: Brave New World, I had a realization that Disney will be making Marvel movies for the rest of my life.
There have been 35 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) since Iron Man debuted way back in 2008. This is not exactly a new phenomenon in the hundred-plus years of commercial filmmaking. There have been 52 movies and serials starring Tarzan, beginning with Tarzan of the Apes made by the National Film Corporation of America in 1918, and continuing until 2016’s The Legend of Tarzan.
But MCU pictures are a different beast. Tarzan was a guy who lived in the jungle with Jane (star of 1934’s Tarzan and His Mate), who solved jungle-style problems, which differed from year to year (he fought the Leopard Woman, found the magic fountain, etc.). The MCU presents a unified story, now at more than 60 hours long — at least theoretically. But what happens when you’re telling a unified story, and you get to the part called Endgame, but you want to keep going for, say, 13 or 14 more movies?
The answer that Captain America: Brave New World suggests is, you flail until you fail.
Reader, I try to go into every film with an open mind. If it’s a genre I don’t generally care for, I try to evaluate it on its own terms. Is the film succeeding in what it’s trying to do, even if I don’t like what it’s trying to do? But the MCU is mightily trying my patience. What is Captain America: Brave New World even trying to do? It doesn’t know.
Actually, that’s not true. Executive Producer Kevin Feige is trying to make money for his corporate overlords, and, judging from the $190 million opening weekend, he will likely succeed. But that’s not your problem, or your win. You want to see a well-made, entertaining movie. Captain America: Brave New World is not that.
That’s a shame because the previous Captain America stories had been some of the highlights of MCU. Chris Evans hung up the shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame, when Steve Rogers chose to use the time travel tech that won the Infinity War to go back to the 1940s and romance Peggy Carter. He tapped Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon (aka Anthony Mackie) to be his successor. When we pick up with Sam, it’s after the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier miniseries, which aired on Disney+. (I know nothing about that part of the story because it contained my least favorite Marvel character of all time, Bucky Barnes.) He’s down in Mexico, leading Seal Team 6 on a mission to recover a mysterious package from the clutches of the Serpent Society, led by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). What starts as a simple MacGuffin retrieval immediately goes south. The buyer for the package declined to show up to the rendezvous, and the frustrated Sidewinder is taking out his frustrations on a group of nuns. While Captain America (who, the film reveals, speaks both Spanish and Japanese) saves the clergy, his new sidekick Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), who has taken up the mantle of the Falcon (which is to say, Sam’s old super-suit) retrieves the package.
Afterwards, Cap and Falcon are summoned to an audience with the new president, Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford). Ross was one of the bad guys in The Incredible Hulk (2008), when he was played by the late William Hurt. But now, he’s shaved his mustache, cleaned up his reputation, and won the election as a reformer. Sam is naturally suspicious of the guy who has always had his own agenda of personal ambition, but now he’s the president, so it’s Captain America’s duty to obey orders. At least that’s how this Cap interprets his role.
President Ross reveals his plan for world peace, or something like it. The giant Celestial monster that tried to emerge from the Earth during the climax of The Eternals ended up as a stone head and hand protruding from the Indian Ocean. It turns out, the package Cap and Falcon were sent to retrieve is a sample taken by the Japanese which proves Celestial Island is extremely rich in adamantium, the fictional super-metal that Wolverine’s claws and skeleton are made of. Unlike vibranium, the other super-metal whose sole source is controlled by Wakanda, the adamantium reserves are up for grabs because the terra nova of Celestial Island belongs to no one. Rather than risk a war, President Ross is trying to negotiate a treaty that will share the new super-resource with the world.
While Ross is making his presentation, an assassination squad led by Sam’s mentor Isaiah Bradley, himself a product of postwar super soldier research, tries to shoot him. Now, Captain America has to a) find out who’s behind the assassination attempt while b) clearing his friend Isaiah’s name and c) preventing a war. Director Julius Onah and his five credited writers have a lot of goals to fulfill, and they attempt it by shuffling Cap and his ever expanding cast of sidekicks through a series of incoherent battles and strained conversations.
The Captain America movies have been showcases for some of the best action sequences the MCU has produced, such as the famous airport confrontation in Civil War. Nothing attempted here even comes close to that standard. I will applaud Brave New World for not attempting the Marvel Third Act, where our heroes fight a large number of faceless adversaries. Instead, Cap faces off against the Red Hulk (who, it must be noted, is not even the primary villain) in D.C.’s cherry blossom orchard. This sounds great on paper, but it looks like absolute ass. Maybe it’s the extensive reported reshoots leading to a rushed final assembly, but this film feels like three or four films haphazardly spliced together. Mackie is game, clearly giving the role his all, but he never stands a chance because the material is hot garbage. I have trouble faulting Onah, as he is the latest in a series of semi-disposable helmers appointed as scapegoats. Brave New World bears the mark of a film made by feuding, status-obsessed middle managers. This is not filmmaking; it’s brand management disguised as entertainment.
Captain America: Brave New World Now playing Multiple locations
Memphis rapper NLE Choppa is sick of the city’s gun violence problem. The 22-year-old is already a rap vet, having released his first single at age 16. His new single “Can We Live?” is dedicated to those we have lost, like Young Dolph and Choppa’s friend Tae Grape.
“I know some kids toting guns before they learn to tie they shoe/No more bedtime stories, they putting shit to sleep too.” Choppa raps.
The music video for “Can We Live?” was shot in Tom Lee Park, and features a cameo from Mayor Paul Young. Take a look:
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
“I knew what we had, and I wanted to knock everyone’s socks off with it.” — Jimmy Page (Photo: Courtesy Sony Pictures)
Given the oodles of gushing praise for the band written over the last half century, it’s kind of hard to believe that Rolling Stone’s music critics absolutely hated Led Zeppelin. “Dull and repetitious” is how the house organ of rock-and-roll described their 1968 debut album. It continued on like that for the better part of a decade, with reviewers going out of their way to trash records that are now unassailable castles in rock Valhalla.
There’s a lot of critical stuff you can say about Led Zeppelin. They had some good songs, but their legions of mediocre imitators over the years have soured their reputation. The issue of cultural appropriation in the popular music of the 20th century is often very fraught and complex, but in the case of Led Zeppelin, it’s pretty cut and dried. Jimmy Page heard Chicago electric blues and said, “Do that, but louder.” As Page says in Becoming Led Zeppelin, the music he heard as a teenager in the quiet Midlands of England “sounded like it was coming from Mars, but really it was coming from Memphis.”
But I think what really bothered those Rolling Stone writers was that Zep was never considered “authentic.” Of the four members — guitarist Jimmy Page, drummer John Bonham, singer Robert Plant, and bassist John Paul Jones — only Plant was “from the street.” Plant says he was living out of a brown suitcase, drifting from gig to gig when Jones invited him to his house for an audition.
(Photo: Courtesy Sony Pictures)
Page and Jones had both been session musicians in London for years before the Zeppelin took flight. One of the things I learned from Becoming Led Zeppelin is that they met while on the session for the James Bond theme “Goldfinger.” Yes, that’s half of Led Zeppelin playing smooth jazz behind Shirley Bassey. Later, Page backed Donovan, the psychedelic folkie who was Bob Dylan’s nemesis.
For me, it’s revelations like that which make the first hour of Becoming Led Zeppelin a fairly gripping watch. Director Bernard MacMahon made his name in the documentary world with the BBC miniseries American Epic. Those four films traced the lasting influence of recorded music on democracy. His assignment here is a little simpler: Tell everyone how awesome Led Zeppelin was, in their own words.
And how awesome were they? Pretty damn awesome. MacMahon unearths some stunning footage from the band’s early years. Some of it has been widely seen before, like the Yardbirds cameo in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up. Page joined the Yardbirds as a side gig when Jeff Beck got sick, and then stayed with the band until they broke up in 1968.
MacMahon does a good job keeping the famously bombastic band sticking to the facts of the story. Then Page describes the guitar that Jeff Beck gave him, which stayed with him throughout the band’s career, as “the great sword Excalibur.”
It’s also possible that Rolling Stone’s hatred of Zep stems from Page coming off as the bad guy who had hijacked the beloved Yardbirds, a narrative which is not even hinted at in Becoming Led Zeppelin. And yet we know those early reviews still sting because the film devotes quite a bit of screen time to detailing the pains. Time has clearly been on Jimmy Page’s side in this argument. To hear him tell it, he didn’t care about what the critics said because he didn’t have to. When the Yardbirds split up, he paid for Led Zeppelin’s debut record out of pocket. Jones shocked his friends and family by giving up a steady paycheck as an in-demand commercial music arranger and joining Page to make loud rock. Plant passed his audition by singing a folk song popularized by Joan Baez, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” and insisted they get Bonham to play drums. Bonham agreed, if they could match the 40 quid a week he was making with his current band. After a short European tour as The New Yardbirds, that proved to be no problem. The Who’s drummer Keith Moon suggested the name Led Zeppelin about the same time Page took them into the studio.
To anyone familiar with the horrors of the recording industry, the next part of the story is the most shocking. Page took the completed master tapes to New York City to pitch directly to Atlantic Records’ Grand Poobah Jerry Wexler and secured a contract giving him complete creative control. As I do in many of the documentaries about Boomer-era musical legends, I found myself thinking, “Wow, the biggest difference between them and the also-rans is that they had really good lawyers.”
Page, the longtime studio rat, had plenty of time to absorb how the industry worked, and when his time came,“I knew what we had, and I wanted to knock everyone’s socks off with it,” he says.
The recordings speak for themselves, and for a big chunk of the film’s second hour, MacMahon allows them to do just that. Seemingly every time the band was in front of a camera from 1968 to ’70 is in this film. Veteran editor Daniel Gitlin makes the most out of the wildly variable film quality. Finally, in the climactic “Whole Lotta Love” sequence, he gives the film over to the kind of psychedelia the band was so deeply associated with in the 1970s. These “laser Zeppelin at the planetarium” bits hit pretty hard, while bearing the clear influence of the incredible Bowie doc Moonage Daydream. But Becoming Led Zeppelin never climbs to that film’s artistic heights. We get only the band’s perspective, which in this case means quite a bit of whitewashing. Even though their tours were notoriously decadent, Plant only mentions drugs once, in passing. So if you’re looking for dirt, it ain’t here. But if you’re looking for thunderous riffs delivered on a giant Dolby sound system, Becoming Led Zeppelin’s got ’em.
Becoming Led Zeppelin Now playing Select Malco theaters
“Years ago, when I first started writing songs, I joined forces with my friend and Palindrome bandmate Chad Nixon to form a raucous and inane acoustic group called 6PACKADELIA,” says Jeff Hulett. “Back then, circa 2002, and by virtue of our TASCAM 4-track, we put out a self-titled album replete with songs about love and loss and even covered a Dylan song. Flash forward to now and Chad and I are back at it, but this time we decided to cover some of our favorite ’90s songs.”
The song 6PACKADELIA covers in their first music video is not “Cars” by Gary Numan, but “Car” by Built to Spill. Their EP “Dating Ourselves” will drop on Friday, Feb. 14, which just happens to be Valentine’s Day.
This week we introduce Memphis to your future leaders with our annual 20<30 issue. You can read about our readers’ and staff’s picks for Memphis’ best and brightest here.
Of our 20 honorees, 19 chose to do Zoom interviews with journalist Chris McCoy (Noah Miller opted to do his interview via email), so on this week’s podcast, you can hear them talk in their own words about who they are, what they do, and why they do it.
Every year, the Memphis Flyer asks our readers to nominate outstanding young people in Memphis who are making a difference in their community. We chose the top 20 from an outstanding field of more than 50 nominations. Memphis, meet your future leaders, the 20<30 Class of 2025.
Austin Brown Director of Development and Communications, Community Legal Center (CLC)
A native Memphian, Brown decided to stay in the city and attend Christian Brothers University. There, he became the philanthropy chair for Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Brown says the experience changed his life. “We did a bunch of volunteering opportunities. Just getting a chance to see up close and personal the disparities in the city showed me a lot of the things I wanted to address in my professional career, and in any way I could.
“What makes Community Legal Center unique is, unlike some other legal aid organizations you may be familiar with, CLC offers services at a low cost, and on a sliding scale, depending on household income and household size,” says Brown. “We’re about filling in that justice gap and helping the people in the forgotten middle. So, people who probably make too much money to qualify for free legal services, but they don’t make enough to afford a private attorney. I’m here to make a just Memphis. Simple as that.”
Liv Cohen Membership and Community Engagement Coordinator, WYXR
“I grew up in Oxford, Mississippi. Memphis was the cool city to come to on a weekend, and I just kind of fell in love with it,” says Cohen.
She found her niche at the community radio station, WYXR. “I interned my senior year of college, and then just convinced Robby [Grant, WYXR founder,] to keep me around. … I manage all of our individual giving and memberships, so if you’ve ever gotten an email asking to donate to WYXR, it’s probably from me.
“I’ve found myself deeply rooted in the music community here, and it’s unlike anything else I’ve ever experienced or witnessed. People really care about each other here. The music is just unbeatable, and yeah, I’ve really found my people here and I love it. … I would love to see a city that really invests in creative types and puts them in positions of leadership as well.”
Leon Cunningham III Agent, New York Life Insurance
“I think Memphis is, right now, a land of opportunity,” says Cunningham. He’s got a lot of irons in the fire. In addition to his work in the insurance field, he is also dedicated to volunteerism. “I think I’m making an impact here from a financial place, but a philanthropy piece is something that I could hang my hat on at the end of the day.”
One of his passions is mentoring. “Embracing Brotherhood [Foundation] is a social group I kind of started through networking in Memphis. It’s centered around youth, but also minority males, helping them get connections throughout general areas and regions, supporting them in business and life.”
As if that’s not enough, he’s also a professional model, working on national accounts through the Tribe Talent Management. “I was definitely shy. It opened me up. It helped me be comfortable in my skin.”
Hugh Ferguson Biomathematics Research Student, Rhodes College
“I’ve always been interested in being a doctor, since I was probably 11 or 12,” says Ferguson. “I have a heart condition and other health conditions, and the care that I’ve received from other doctors has inspired me to make sure other people have that same access.” He volunteers for Remote Area Medical. “We go into rural areas, mostly in Tennessee, that lack proper healthcare. We set up remote clinics and get doctors around the region to help. We usually treat about a thousand people at each clinic.”
This inspired his research into AI-assisted ultrasound devices. “We’re working on, not replacing [X-ray machines], but offering an alternative to help underserved communities. You can’t learn how to care about someone from just reading about science. You have to go into field work, and experience humanity, what it needs, and realize that you’re more than just a person. There’s a whole story behind you.”
Antonella Reyes Flores Case Manager, Endeavors
When unaccompanied immigrant children arrive in Memphis, Flores takes care of them. “It can be anything from helping them enroll in a school, or connecting them to something like Church Health and getting them their updated vaccinations, or getting them a PCP. If they’re struggling with mental health, connecting with mental health services. Or just connecting them to a local food bank. Maybe they are trying to get onto a local soccer team, or they want to get involved with the church. I’m there to have a feel for what they need, and fill those gaps.
“I want to build an inclusive Memphis. Everyone has their niche in Memphis, whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or you’re a nonprofit or higher education, there are so many overlaps. We need to keep working together to help the next generation of Memphis. We have to put so much back into our youth. These are future doctors, teachers, engineers. We’re doing our part to guide them into helping build such a great Memphis.”
Zavier Hayes Owner, Zavier Hayes Shelter Insurance
During the pandemic, Hayes got a job offer to work in insurance. “I’m thinking, ‘Nobody’s going to take a chance on me. I’m 23 years old! I’ve barely got a year of experience.’ … They took the chance, gave me my own office in Mumford.”
Now, he’s his own boss. “You’re an independent contractor; you’re being your own entrepreneur. There’s some days where it’s harder than others, and there’s some days where it’s like, man, I just wish I could copy and paste this day, and have this be every day. It’s a journey, and I truly enjoy it.”
In his off hours, he coaches basketball at Northpoint Christian School. “I love working with kids. It’s a chance to give back. I tell my players, ‘I was just in y’all’s shoes 10 years ago.’ And this is my chance to say, ‘Hey, if this was younger me, this is exactly what I would teach you guys to do.’”
Raneem Imam Musician
Originally from the Bay Area, Imam’s family is Palestinian- and Lebanese-American. “I call myself an Arabic cocktail, so I’m really mixed with a lot of great things to make a juicy cocktail,” she says. “I’ve always been singing. My mom says I was getting on top of tables and singing to guests, and convincing her to come to my room for short musicals that I would perform for her and my grandmother.”
At Rhodes College, “I ended up majoring in music and falling in love with Memphis music and all the opportunities that I could seize while I was there. I didn’t know where the road was going to lead, obviously, but I feel like it’s just a part of my life motto to start where you are.”
Her plan to hit the ground performing after graduation was stymied by the pandemic, but she found an audience through virtual gigs. Now she’s pursuing music full-time and working on a full-length album. “I’m kind of exploring this line between funk, R&B, and pop, while also toying around with some Arabic influence because I haven’t seen that yet.”
RaSean Jenkins Board Office Advisor, Memphis-Shelby County Schools
“I got a scholarship to University of Memphis when I was studying Japanese history and language,” Jenkins says. “I was going through my neighborhood one day, and I had so many questions about why are we so separated as a city. What led Memphis to be this way? It ended up becoming my major, and I ended up becoming an urban historian.”
Jenkins is currently on track to finish his Ph.D. at the University of Memphis. “I’m writing my dissertation on A.W. Willis and his family’s work to integrate segregated spaces in the Mid-South.”
Teaching is in his blood. “I’ve been a mentor for Memphis-Shelby County Schools since I was 18, and also I do mentoring with the city. I want to be a professor one day, but I am very dedicated to our district here in Memphis and Shelby County. I would not like to leave the district. I would love to stay and just continue to grow here, but I really see myself being a college professor one day for sure, teaching history.”
Alexxas Johnson Associate Attorney, Spence Partners
“I do general litigation, so the easiest way to describe that is, everything except criminal [law] — except when I have to do criminal [law],” says Johnson. “So really, just a smorgasbord of things, which I love, because I’m somebody that is creative by nature. I thought when I decided to become a lawyer, I was a little bummed because I feel like lawyers are in this gray area, with not a lot of time to create and be innovative. There are so many rules and procedures, and of course it’s a very old career field, governed by things that happened in 1935. But thankfully, in the way that I write and craft my arguments, I’ve learned to become creative in this career field.”
A native Memphian, Johnson returned home after attending college at Alabama and a stint in Miami to attend law school. “Who doesn’t want to be a part of Memphis? I mean, everyone steals our swag anyways, so you might as well come here.”
Noah Miller Multidisciplinary Artist
Filmmaker, photographer, printmaker, and painter, Miller does it all. His most recent exhibit, “Days,” ran for seven months at Crosstown Arts. “I’m interested in so many different things. The world is abundant! But most of the time, I have an idea that feels like it could be better represented in a different medium, whether that’s painting, sculpture, music, or film. Film is the greatest medium of all because it’s everything packed into one thing. It scratches every itch for me. But I’m someone who wants to do it all: write the script, build the set, shoot the whole thing myself, edit, and even record the soundtrack. … This is why I’ve gravitated toward painting. I can realistically have something finished by the end of the week.
“Memphis feels like the biggest ‘punk’ city to me in the sense that everyone just does exactly what they want here (or they should be), and you can get away with it! It’s a very genuine place.”
David Oppong Project Engineer, Allworld Project Management
Inspired by his scientist father, Oppong decided to pursue engineering. “I realized that whatever I wanted to do in life, I wanted to have a direct impact on people and help make people’s lives better. I’ve seen that through civil engineering because people are the most direct result of all the infrastructure that we have in this world. I knew that if I could be around to affect the change and have a positive impact on people’s lives, then I would feel fulfilled in my purpose to be an engineer.
“We work with MATA on a number of capital projects, and the very first project that I had a chance to be a part of — and eventually got a chance to lead — was their electric bus program, which was for the procurement and implementation of up to 50 electric buses within their fleet.
“I grew up in the city, and I stayed because I knew that I wanted to be part of the change to make this a better place.”
Phoenix Powell Community Advocate/Health and Wellness Specialist, OUTMemphis
Powell’s work for OUTMemphis includes cooking weekly community meals. “I found that I really have a passion for advocacy and made a decision to do it as my work last year. I feel like advocacy and cooking go hand-in-hand because any civil rights movement that you look at, things like food and music have always been a part of it. I’m able to use food as a way to give back. … Now the stakes feel a little bit higher than they have been.
“The work we do here is really needed. Every day, people come in and tell their stories. The common denominator is, they don’t really have a support system. They don’t have a group of people that they can feel like, ‘This is like my family.’ And when I’m cooking, I never like to shortcut things. These folks come to us when they don’t have anything. I’m not going to give them the bare minimum.”
Juan Sanchez Project Engineer, Turner Construction Company
A native of Memphis with “proud Mexican origins,” Sanchez was the first person in his family to graduate from college. “I was born here, raised here, went to school here, went to university here, currently working here. I’m currently building Memphis and building the communities that I’ve been a part of. So it’s all been full circle.”
Among the projects Sanchez has been the “boots on the ground” for are the Memphis Sports and Events Complex, the Shelby County Health Department, and the soon-to-be-opened Alliance Health Services’ Crisis Center. Project engineer, he says, is “a two-word title, but it has many different responsibilities. … A lot of what I do is coordination and problem-solving among our contractors, design team, and clients to assure construction advances safely, within budget, and on schedule.”
Sanchez takes time to recruit other Hispanic and minority kids into the science and engineering fields. He was the first-ever guest speaker for the University of Memphis’ Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. “There’s much more for Memphis in the future, much more building, and I’m just excited to be a part of that.”
Josh Shaw Musician, Blvck Hippie
“I started playing piano when I was 11,” says Shaw. “Music was just my own way of spreading my wings.”
Shaw’s band Blvck Hippie had a great year in 2024, touring extensively, and playing a huge gig at the Overton Park Shell. “Getting to play the Shell was just crazy! I found this little goal list I wrote out when I was a junior in college — my musical bucket list, basically. The top three were, one, tour. The second one was, do a European tour, and the third one was, play the Shell.”
Shaw completed all three items on their list last year and won the Indie Memphis music video competition for the second year in a row. Even sweeter, they got to bring their young daughter to the Shell show. “She got to see me play for the first time! That was just kind of a dream come true.”
Ciara Swearingen Family Inn Advocate, Room in the Inn
Swearingen was already a volunteer for Planned Parenthood when she became pregnant at 22 years old, while a student at the University of Memphis. “Going through my pregnancy, I didn’t get a lot of support from my OB-GYN,” she says.
After having to advocate for herself while enduring a high-risk pregnancy, she became an advocate for others in the same position. “There are things that, growing up, especially in the Black community, nobody prepares you for when becoming a mother. … There are so many women, especially in the city of Memphis, that are struggling to let their doctors know, ‘Hey, I’m feeling this type of way. Is this normal?’
“Once baby gets here, and you’re in the hospital, that’s the most important time for moms to command and demand in their pregnancy. Luckily, I had my mom there with me when I had my son, but there are a lot of Black women in the city of Memphis who don’t have this support.”
JoElle Thompson Entrepreneur, The Four Way, Center for Transforming Communities
In 2002, Thompson’s grandfather decided to reopen the shuttered Four Way restaurant after seeing it on a Travel Channel list of the best soul food restaurants in America. “It was the only one that was closed,” Thompson says.
Her family devoted themselves to “keeping the legacy alive because so many people from Stax and just around the neighborhood of LeMoyne-Owen College, … even Martin Luther King and notable people around the country, knew about the Four Way when they came to Memphis because it was a community staple. We’ve tried to continue that legacy.”
While working at the restaurant, she also earned a master’s degree in public health and was recruited as a community organizer at the Center for Transforming Communities (CTC). “My project that I’m doing right now with CTC is a community cookbook, specifically based in South Memphis, to honor people like me and some of my friends who are third, fourth, and fifth generation South Memphians because there’s such a rich legacy in our community. I’m trying to capture the history and voices of our community.”
“I love Memphis because it’s in my DNA,” says Thompson. “It runs through my veins.”
Thompson is passionate about politics and wants to spread the word about participating in our democracy. “When I went to Tennessee State University, I had started the bus to the polls, and a lot of students didn’t even know that they could vote. … My wish to every school and university is that we could do better with that in educating our students so they can be involved because our students are the future. They’re going to be the ones to keep us moving forward. And if they don’t know what they’re supposed to do, then we’re going backwards.”
She’s already made a splash in Tennessee political circles. “It is such an honor to serve as the youngest policy director for the Tennessee Senate Democratic Caucus, and I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to work with both Mayor Paul Young and Senator London Lamar. Their leadership and trust in me have been instrumental in my journey, and I truly admire their commitment to serving our community.”
Margaret Tong Entrepreneur, Mochi & Mi, Bao Toan Kitchen & Bar
Tong was born and raised in Memphis, but “growing up, my classmates were predominantly white and Black. It was very rare for me see Asian people. Once I got myself into the Asian community, I felt more sense of belonging, with people that understand you, understand the culture.”
Tong helped put on the first Asian Night Market, which has seen explosive growth over only two years. “We didn’t expect to have such a big turnout because we were like, ‘Oh, the community is small.’ … And then I saw that crowd! I was glad I was behind the table. There was more room behind the table than there was in that crowd!”
Growing up, her mother had a nail business, but the pair decided to go into the food business together. Now, they’re the force behind Bao Toan Kitchen, the newest restaurant in Crosstown Concourse. “I’d like to see a Memphis that helps each other,” she says. “I love the people, the sense of community here, the Memphis pride here.”
Why did Webber become an attorney? “I get asked that a lot, and the answer is that I like to argue.”
An internship at the Davidson County district attorney’s office led him to the Tennessee Innocence Project. “We investigate and litigate cases of wrongful conviction in the state of Tennessee. … We received more applications from Shelby County than any other county in Tennessee. This was clearly where the need was, and they asked me to move here and open the office with them. I said, ‘Absolutely.’”
One of the first cases they tackled was Ricky Webb, who had been convicted of a “heinous crime” in 1976. “We started looking into his case almost 50 years later, and there was a lot of evidence that was covered up that really proved that he was in fact innocent. His conviction was overturned in October [2024]. It became formal on Halloween, and he became the fourth-longest serving exoneree in United States history. He served just shy of 47 years in custody.”
Haley Wilson Actor, Choreographer
Wilson first came to Memphis for the annual United Professional Theater Auditions at Playhouse on the Square in 2019. She made her debut as the lead in A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline. “I played one of my dream roles, a country artist that I had always listened to growing up, and also started my company member position at the same time.”
Since then, she has performed in more than 30 shows, earning an Ostrander Award for Best Supporting Actress in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, as well as three other BroadwayWorld Awards nominations. She’s taught and choreographed at Houston High School, St. George’s Independent School, and Memphis University School. “I like to live other people’s stories to the best of my ability,” she says. “Sometimes being yourself is hard, and so getting away and getting to be someone else for a little bit is what I strive for. Today was a hard day for Haley, but I’m going to go be someone else for a little bit and just get away from that.”
The Memphis Flyer extends special thanks to Sondra Pham Khammavong, 20<30 Class of 2024, for serving on this year’s selection committee.
Sophie Thatcher stars as a robot, grappling with the revelation that she’s not a real person.
The word “robot” turns 125 years old in 2025. It was originally coined by Karel Čapek for his 1920 play Rossum’s Universal Robots. It was derived from the Czech word for “slave.”
But no one is more responsible for our modern conception of robots than Isaac Asimov. In his seminal 1950 book I, Robot, he laid out the Three Laws of Robotics: 1. A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Asimov’s stories weren’t primarily about “gee whiz, how cool would it be to have a robot?” — although there’s plenty of that. They were about the ethical dilemmas presented by the fact that we humans have constructed autonomous beings who we expect to be our slaves.
But wait, you say. It’s not accurate to equate our relationship with machines, which are inanimate objects built for a purpose, with slavery, which is stripping the humanity from a fellow human. When I use a Roomba to vacuum the floor, it possesses no consciousness with which to experience suffering. But in the age of AI chatbots which give the illusion of sentience, that line is increasingly blurred.
Writer/director Drew Hancock’s Companion is a descendant of Asimov’s robot stories. It is near-future America, and Josh (Jack Quaid) and Iris (Sophie Thatcher) are excited about getting away for a weekend at their friend Sergey’s (Rupert Friend) secluded lake house. There, they hang out with Sergey’s girlfriend Kat (Megan Suri), as well as Patrick (Lukas Gage) and Eli (Harvey Guillén). Everyone’s supposed to be friends, but Kat seems pretty cold towards Iris. We also get the sense that Josh and Iris’ relationship may not be very healthy. He generally treats her as an afterthought, but she seems devoted to him.
Then, one morning by the pool, Sergey tries to rape Iris when no one else is around. She seems confused at first, then enraged. She pulls out a knife and plunges it into Sergey’s neck. Iris runs back to Josh, covered in blood and tears. But instead of comforting her, Josh tells her to “sleep.” Iris immediately goes limp because she’s his robot companion.
Obviously Iris violated the First Law of Robotics when she stabbed Sergey. But she was in danger of being raped, which is self defense, as defined by the Third Law, except that there’s the pesky First Law exception. So clearly, something has gone wrong here. And by the way, where did she get the knife? Most people don’t bring weapons with them when they’re lounging by the pool.
If it seems like I’m giving away too much of the plot, trust me that I’m not. Hancock’s screenplay has more than enough twists and turns in store. Even better, each plot reveal is grounded in the premise, surprising in the moment, and seems inevitable in retrospect.
Thatcher is perfect as Iris, who is forced to grapple with the very Philip K. Dick-ian revelation that she’s not a real person, but a stunningly accurate fake. At first, she leans into the robo-bimbo persona, but gets more subtle and human-like as the story progresses. The other big standout in the cast is Harvey Guillén as a conniving houseguest with secrets of his own. It’s a testament to how beloved the What We Do in the Shadows star is that when he made his entrance, half of the people in my screening pointed at him like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme.
Usually, January and February are the months when studios dump films that they don’t know what to do with into theaters. So maybe I’m just happy to see a good screenplay executed well during the dry season, but I haven’t stopped thinking about Companion since I saw it. On the surface, it’s a tight techno-thriller with a sly sense of humor. But it’s also hinting at deeper issues, not just about feminism and the nature of consent, but also about our rapidly changing relationship with technology. At what point does the Roomba deserve rights?
“I am always loathe to say what a song means to me. Sometimes I don’t even know until years later,” says Jungklas. “Justin Thompson is aware of this, and he suggested a lyric video. That way, the song is both specific and open to interpretation. He did a wonderful job of setting the mood, and creating a visual accompaniment to the words. Hopefully, the listener/viewer will be moved to their own conclusions.”
This week on the Memphis Flyer Podcast, we’re all about podcasting! Sonosphere creator and host Amy Schaftlein joins Chris McCoy to talk about her pioneering music podcast, her day job at United Housing, and The Brutalist. Read this week’s cover story here.
