Not even a week has passed since Beyoncé released her hotly anticipated, seventh studio album Renaissance on July 29, but Houston’s queen is already dealing with more controversy.
After fan outrage on social media and even an essay in The Guardian, Beyoncé’s team has removed what many deem an ableist slur in her song “Heated.” Variety was first to report the news.
At issue is the verse: “Spazzin’ on that ass, spazz on that ass.” The term “spaz,” is long-known slang for “spastic,” which refers to a serious, neuromuscular conditions such as cerebral palsy, which leaves sufferers barely able to control their muscle movements.
When contacted by Variety, Beyoncé’s team confirmed that they will nix the offensive lyric, issuing a statement that reads to the publication, “The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced.”
This marks the second time this year a Houston-born pop star has had to adjust a lyric that many found insensitive. As previously reported here, Houston’s Lizzo was spurred to change her song “Grrrls” on her album Special, which also used “spaz” in a verse. Lizzo, for her part, quickly reacted, retracted the lyric, and expressed remorse and learning from the incident.
As for Queen Bey, this is yet another headline regarding Renaissance. Days before the official drop, fans discovered a song leak; the BeyHive rallied and urged all fans to wait until the July 29 release date.
And just hours after the midnight release, singer Kelis accused Beyonce for “thievery” for sampling her club hit “Milkshake” on the new track “Energy” — without permission. That, however, prompted our resident pop culture critic to call the allegations unfair.
One of the oddest things about the blockbuster era we live in is that while Disney owns the rights to the majority of Marvel comic book characters, Sony Pictures owns the rights to Spider-Man and any affiliated characters. Since they’re sharing Spider-Man himself with Disney, Sony has been trying to capitalize on those rights by making stand-alone films using niche characters that only comic book fanatics would know.
Having exhausted Venom and whiffed on attempts with Morbius and Madame Web, they’re trying again with Kraven the Hunter. Also known as Sergei Kravinoff, Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) is a self-styled vigilante who, as the film tells it, travels the world exacting vengeance on the truly bad people of the world. He’s the son of Nikolai (Russell Crowe), a hard-edged Russian oligarch, and brother to Dmitri (Fred Hechinger), who is relatively weak compared to the rest of his family.
The origin story has Kraven gaining his animal-like powers - including super-strength, speed, and jumping abilities - as a teenager from a mysterious serum given to him by a girl named Calypso (played as an adult by Ariana DeBose) after he was mauled by a lion. The two maintain a tenuous partnership as adults, with Calypso helping him hunt down other villains like Aleksei Sytsevich (Alessandro Nivola) and The Foreigner (Christopher Abbott).
Directed by J.C. Chandor and written by Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway, the film looks and feels enormously lazy, something made merely to hold on to potentially valuable intellectual property. Other than the tense family dynamic between the Kravinovs, little makes sense in the story. Kraven has an indecipherable moral code that has him going after poachers - because he’s part lion? - in addition to other high-powered criminals, with no clear goal except to … get back at his father?
The laziness extends to the action scenes, which feature Kraven being mostly impervious to any damage, whether it’s hand-to-hand combat, knives, or guns. The CGI-heavy scenes don’t even allow moviegoers to enjoy an R-rated bloody free-for-all, as all of the blood splatter is computer-generated, too. Since apparently one Spider-Man villain is not enough, three others make appearances with abilities that are under-explained and CGI that is poorly done.
That’s not even counting Calypso, another Spider-Man villain whose purpose in this film is nebulous at best. Her early connection with Kraven is so coincidental as to be laughable, and her continued reasons for helping him as an adult strain credulity as well. The only saving grace of her presence is that the filmmakers don’t try to shoehorn romance into the plot; perhaps they’re saving that for the (inevitable?) sequel.
Taylor-Johnson has had one of the most prolific-yet-anonymous careers in modern Hollywood, with appearances in big films like The Fall Guy, Bullet Train, and Tenet that have made very little impact. Even as the star here, he fails to hold your attention, with the story and visuals doing him no favors. DeBose has followed up her Oscar win for West Side Story with schlock like I.S.S., Argylle, and this, which doesn’t bode well for her career. At least Crowe gets to chew the scenery.
With a contractual inability to mention the name “Spider-Man,” movies like Kraven the Hunter exist in a weird area that forces filmmakers to make up stories for characters to which most people have no attachment. And just like Sony’s previous efforts, it is a very poor way to spend two hours in a movie theater; avoid at all costs.
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Kraven the Hunter opens in theaters on December 13.
