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‘Condescending Wonka’ meme a hilarious part of Gene Wilder’s legacy

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Nick Cave has been singing about mortality for decades, and he's really good at it. Whether the narratives are biblical or pulpy, the victims innocents or death row convicts, the circumstances comprehensible or cruelly random, Cave's songs are on intimate terms with the infinite ways a life can be extinguished. And yet, "Skeleton Tree", his latest album with his estimable band, the Bad Seeds, is a relatively concise song cycle shadowed by death that feels different than all the rest. Read the full review.

AP

On "22, A Million," Justin Vernon reimagines his music from the bottom up by letting technology — synthesizers, treated vocals, electronic sound effects — dictate. The songs retain their melancholy cast, but now must fight for air beneath static and noise. Read the full review.

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The new album embraces her individuality more explicitly than ever, both more autobiographical and more politically and socially direct than anything she'd recorded previously. It's a rawer, less elaborate work than its predecessors, yet still hugely ambitious. Read the review

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Kendrick Lamar's "Untitled, Unmastered" is presented as an unfinished work, though it rarely sounds like one. Read the review.

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Actor Gene Wilder disregards a "Wet Paint" sign and is about to step on newly-painted curb outside NBC studios after appearing on the NBC's "Today" show on June 26, 1979, New York.

Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

"Lemonade" is more than just a play for pop supremacy. It's the work of an artist who is trying to get to know herself better, for better or worse, and letting the listeners/viewers in on the sometimes brutal self-interrogation. Read the full review.

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Lee Meredith with Zero Mostell, left, and Gene Wilder in a scene from the movie "The Producers" July 1967.

Jessica Hill / AP

Fan Margarita Cortavarria, right, of Hartford, speaks with actor Gene Wilder, center, and his wife Karen prior Wilder receiving the Governor's Awards for Excellence in Culture and Tourism at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, Conn., on April 9, 2008.

Ron Frehm / AP

Actor Gene Wilder, left, gets a kiss from co-star Joan Severance during a premiere benefit for their new movie "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" on May 11, 1989 in New York.

Dave Pickoff / AP

Actor Gene Wilder is shown at NBC studios, June 26, 1979, New York. Wilder had just appeared on the "Today" show to promote his Warner's Bros. film, "The Frisco Kid."

Ron Edmonds / AP

Actor Gene Wilder testifies before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Capitol Hill concerning the death of his wife, actress Gilda Radner, to ovarian cancer, Thursday, May 9, 1991, Washington, D.C.

John Konstantaras / Chicago Tribune

On her seventh studio album, "Golden Hour" (MCA Nashville), the singer-songwriter doesn't get hung up on genre. She's made a style-hopping pop album that infuses her songs with a relaxed spaciousness while muting, but not ignoring, her country roots. Read the review

Bill Polo / AP

Gilda Radner, left, and Gene Wilder are shown in a scene from the film "Hanky Panky," directed by Sidney Poitier, Aug. 27, 1981.

Bill Polo / AP

Actor/director Sidney Poitier, left, gestures on Wednesday, August 26, 1981 in Boston while speaking with Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner, two of the stars of "Traces."

Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune

Now "Schmilco" (dBpm Records) arrives, a product of the same recording sessions that produced "Star Wars" but a much different album. Though it's ostensibly quieter and less jarring than its predecessor, it presents its own radical take on the song-based, folk and country-tinged side of the band. Read the full review.

Jordan Strauss / AP

"Blonde" is a critique of materialism with Frank Ocean employing two distinct voices, like characters in a play, a recurring theme throughout the album and perhaps its finest sonic achievement. A party spirals out of control, the music rich but low key, a melange of organ and hovering synthesizers. Ocean uses distorting devices on his voice to add emotional texture and to enhance and sharpen the characters he briefly embodies. The upshot: They're all little slices of Ocean's personality with a role to play and they each sound distinct. Read the full review.

Jessica Hill / AP

Gene Wilder listens as he is introduced to receive the Governor's Awards for Excellence in Culture and Tourism at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, Conn., in 2008.

Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune

Warpaint's unerring feel for gauzy hooks and slinky arrangements germinated over a decade and flourished on the quartet's excellent 2014 self-titled album. But the band has always nudged its arrangements onto the dance floor — subtly on record, more overtly on stage — and "Heads Up" (Rough Trade) gives the group's inner disco ball a few extra spins. Read the review.

Laurie Sparham / AP

A grown-up Christopher Robin returns to the Hundred Acre Wood and his best friend Winnie the Pooh. Read the review.

Dave Pickoff / AP

Actor Gene Wilder is shown at NBC studios, June 26, 1979, New York. Wilder had just appeared on the "Today" show to promote his Warner's Bros. film, "The Frisco Kid."

AP

Comedian Gilda Radner, left, and Gene Wilder, kiss for photographers in this photograph following their private wedding ceremony, 1984, France.

AP

Not many albums could survive Ed Sheeran performing reggae, but Pharrell Williams always took chances — not all of them successful — in N.E.R.D.Despite the Sheeran gaffe, "No One Ever Really Dies," the band's first album in seven years, is a typically diverse, trippy ride from the group that established Williams' career as a performer in the early 2000s alongside Chad Hugo and Shay Haley. Read the full review.

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An Atlanta teenager (Amandla Stenberg) deals with the death of her friend in "The Hate U Give," director George Tillman Jr.'s fine adaptation of the best-selling young adult novel.  Read the review.

Tobin Yelland / AP

Risk-prone 13-year-old Stevie (Sunny Suljic, left) shares some of his angst with one of the local LA skateboarding idols, Ray (Na-Kel Smith), in writer-director Jonah Hill's "Mid90s." Read the review.

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Actor Gene Wilder is shown during an interview with Jean Claude Bouis at his New York City Hotel, Dec. 9, 1977.

Jessica Hill / AP

Actor Gene Wilder, right, holds hands with wife Karen as he is introduced to receive the Governor's Awards for Excellence in Culture and Tourism at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, Conn., Tuesday, April 9, 2008. Wilder was one of four recipients of the award given by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

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Reunited for a family wedding, former lovers played by Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem find themselves embroiled in a kidnapping in "Everybody Knows," directed by Asghar Farhadi. Read the review.

Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune

"Black America Again" (ARTium/Def Jam) arrives as a one of the year's most potent protest albums. The album sags midway through with a handful of lightweight love songs, but finishes with some of its most emotionally resounding tracks: the "Glory"-like plea for redemption "Rain" with Legend, the celebration of family that is "Little Chicago Boy," and the staggering "Letter to the Free." Read the review.

AP

"Love & Hate" shows Kiwanuka breaking out of that stylistic box. His core remains intact: a grainy, world-weary voice contemplating troubled times in intimate musical settings. The album announces its more ambitious intentions from the outset, with the trembling strings, episodic piano chords and wordless vocals of the 10-minute "Cold Little Heart." It's a striking, if atypical, approach to reintroducing himself to his audience — a five-minute preamble before Kiwanuka begins to sing. Read the full review.

Graham Bartholomew / AP

A tropical island boat captain (Matthew McConaughey) and his much-abused ex-wife (Anne Hathaway) enter a vortex of rough justice and fancy riddles in "Serenity." Read the review.

CBS Films/Lily Gavin

Penniless, driven, the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (Willem Dafoe) regards his next canvas subject in "At Eternity's Gate," directed by visual artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel. Read the review.

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Gene Wilder stands next to a cut-out caricature of Gilda Radner after cutting the red ribbon at the opening of Gilda's Club in the West Village section of New York City, June 8, 1995.

Jonathan Hession / AP

Isabelle Huppert and Chloe Grace Moretz star in the thriller "Greta." Read the review.

Eustache Cardenas / AP

French comedian Jean Rochefort, center, comedian Gene Wilder, left and French comedian Pierre Richard hold the "Cesar" award Rochefort received for his film "Le Crabe Tambour" at the annual French cinema "Cesars" ceremony on Feb. 4, 1978 at the Pleyel Hall in Paris, France.

Jessica Hill / AP

Actor Gene Wilder, right, sits with wife Karen before he is introduced to receive the Governor's Awards for Excellence in Culture and Tourism at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, Conn., Tuesday, April 9, 2008. Wilder was one of four recipients of the award given by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Frank Gunn / The Canadian Press

Sound often says it all in Drake's world, but "Views" plays in a narrow range. The trademark hovering synths and barely-there percussion edge out most of the hooks, in favor of long fades and enervated tempos that start to drag about halfway through this slow-moving album. Read the review.

Lynne Sladky/AP

Gene Wilder rehearses on the set of "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" at the Queen's Theatre in London October 2, 1996.

David Appleby / AP

Elton John (Taron Egerton) lays down a track for his express train to super-stardom in "Rocketman." The musical biopic co-stars Jamie Bell as lyricist Bernie Taupin. Read the review.

AP

Lee Meredith, upper right, and Kenneth Mars, upper left with Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel in a scene from the movie "The Producers" July 1967.

WellGo USA

Childhood friends and uneasy lovers played by Yoo Ah-in (left) and Jeon Jong-seo (center) find their lives disrupted by a mysterious man of means (Steven Yeung, right) in "Burning." Read the review.

AP

Vanellope von Schweetz (voiced by Sarah Silverman) and Ralph (John C. Reilly) zip around the web in a mad dash to save Vanellope's arcade game, "Sugar Rush," in this wild sequel to the 2012 "Wreck-It Ralph." Read the review.

Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune

In contrast, "Junk" (Mute"), M83's seventh studio album, sounds chintzy — a bubble-gum snyth-pop album that indulges Gonzalez's love of decades-old TV soundtracks, hair-metal guitar solos and kitschy pop songs. Read the full review.

Steve Wilkie / AP

Unburdened by Batman and Superman, the DC Comics realm turns in a not-bad origin story buoyed by Zachary Levi as the superhero version of 15-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel). Read the review.

Peter Kramer / AP

Actor Gene Wilder signs copies of his new book "The Woman Who Wouldn't" at Barnes and Noble, on March 26, 2008, in New York.

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Cystic fibrosis patients Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) and Will (Cole Sprouse) negotiate a tricky mutual attraction in "Five Feet Apart," directed by Justin Baldoni.  Read the review.

Tatum Mangus / AP

Stephan James and KiKi Layne play Fonny and Tish, expectant parents in 1970s Harlem in the new James Baldwin adaptation "If Beale Street Could Talk."  Read the review.

Atsushi Nishijima / AP

This image released by Fox Searchlight Films shows Olivia Colman in a scene from the film "The Favourite." (Atsushi Nishijima/Fox Searchlight Films via AP)

Charles Krupa / AP

Gene Wilder, right, and a unidentified friend watch a men's semifinal match between Rafael Nadal, of Spain, and Mikhail Youzhny, of Russia, at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, Saturday, Sept. 11, 2010.

AP

Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder are shown in New York City in June 1982.

AP

"Everything Now" is a tighter but not better album. The heavyweight arena anthems of Arcade Fire's 2004 debut, "Funeral," are long gone, replaced by brooding lyrics encased in lighter music. Read the review.

Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune

"American Dream" is a breakup album of sorts but not in the traditional sense. This is about breakups with youth, the past, and the heroes and villains that populated it. It underlines the notion of breaking up as just a step away from letting go — of friends, family, relevance. Read the review.

Chip Bergmann / AP

A high-powered ad agency executive (Tika Sumpter, right) takes in her ex-con sister (Tiffany Haddish, center) in "Nobody's Fool."  Read the review.

AP

Actor Gene Wilder is shown in December 1980.

Matt Kennedy / AP

Washington D.C. power brokers Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) and Lynne Cheney have a date with destiny in Adam McKay's "Vice," co-starring Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld.  Read the review. Nomainted for: Best Picture, Best Actor for Christian Bale, Best Supporting Actor for Sam Rockwell, Best Supporting Actress for Amy Adams, Best Director for Adam McKay, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing,

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Actor Gene Wilder, left, and tennis player Mary Pierce, watch tennis action at the U.S. Open in New York Saturday Sept. 9, 1995.

Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune

"Ye" isn't so much a musical statement as a 23-minute, seven-track therapy session. Read the review

Atsushi Nishijima / AP

Queen Anne's (Olivia Colman) court wrestles with the question of how to finance a war with France. Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), the Duchess of Marlborough, uses her wits, her body and the queen's bed to coerce Anne into raising taxes on the citizenry in order to keep the off-screen battle going. Then the unexpected arrival of her country cousin, Abigail (Emma Stone), a noblewoman fallen on hard times. A dab hand with medicinal herbs, Abigail quickly rises above servant status to become the queen's new favorite. Game on! Read the review. Nomainted for: Best Picture, Best Actress for Olivia Colman, Best Supporting Actress for Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz, Best Director for Yorgos Lanthimos, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design,

AP

"Peace Trail" — Neil Young's second album this year and sixth since 2014 — is occasionally fascinating. It's also not very good, a release that surely would've benefited from a bit more time and consideration, which might have given Young's ad hoc band — drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Paul Bushnell — a chance to actually learn the songs. But the four-day recording session sounds like a getting-to-know-you warmup instead of a finished product. Read the full review.

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Genie (Will Smith, right) explains the three-wishes thing to the title character (Mena Massoud) in Disney's "Aladdin," director Guy Ritchie's live-action remake of the 1992 animated feature. Read the review.

Ron Frehm / AP

Actor Gene Wilder, left, gets a kiss from co-star Joan Severance during a premiere benefit for their new movie "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" Wednesday, May 11, 1989, New York.

Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune

On their new album, "Existentialism," the Mekons turn their audience and the recording space into accomplices for the band's high-wire act. Read the full review.

Jessica Kourkounis / AP

Capping the trilogy started with "Unbreakable" (2000) and the surprise hit "Split (2017), Shymalan's treatise on superhero origin stories brings James McAvoy, Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson together for a plodding psych-hospital escape.  Read the review.

AP

The real stars of "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" are sound designers Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van Der Ryn. Their aural creature designs actually sound like something new — part machine, part prehistoric whatzit.  Read the review.

AP

Gene Wilder is shown in character as he films Tri Star Pictures' "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" with Richard Pryor in 1989.

David Cantor / AP

Actor Leonard Nimoy, left, chats with Gene Wilder at the screening of the movie "Never Forget" Tuesday, March 20, 1991, New York.

Daniel McFadden / AP

In "First Man," Ryan Gosling reteams with "La La Land" director Damien Chazelle to relay the story of astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. Read the review.

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On "Here" (Merge), the band's first album in six years and 10th overall, the front line of Norman Blake, Gerard Love and Raymond McGinley once again trades songs (four each) and lead vocals, over sturdily constructed pop-rock arrangements. But the band has taken some subtle evolutionary turns to where it's now a faint shadow of its "Bandwagonesque" incarnation. Read the review.

AP

When Aretha Franklin recorded her bestselling gospel album in early 1972, director Sydney Pollack's camera crew shot many hours of footage, unseen publicly until now. "Amazing Grace" is now in theaters.  Read the review.

AP

Gene Wilder and his daughter, Kate, are shown at the world premiere of "Silver Streak" in New York City, Dec. 7, 1976.

NBC

Kanye West's "The Life of Pablo" (GOOD/Def Jam) sounds like a work in progress rather than a finished album. It's a mess, more a series of marketing opportunities in which West changed the album title and the track listing multiple times, to the point where the very thing that made West tolerable despite a penchant for tripping over his own ego — the music itself — became anti-climactic. Read the review.

AP

Six miles beneath the Pacific Ocean surface, a team of oceanographers and experts discover an entire hidden ecosystem laden with species "completely unknown to science." But Meg comes calling, attacking the submersible piloted by the ex-wife (Jessica McNamee) of rescue diver Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham). Read the review.