ACM Awards recap

Biggest winners and hottest moments from a fiery ACM Awards in Frisco

Dolly Parton sang rock 'n' roll, wheeled a goat on stage, and Facetime'd with Willie Nelson. The 58th annual Academy of Country Music Awards - held Thursday, May 11 at the Star in Frisco - were a wild and sometimes wacky celebration of country music in 2023.

There were tributes to Texas and Dallas-Fort Worth throughout the night, including Dallas Cowboys Dak Prescott and Emmitt Smith presenting awards and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders waving their silver and blue pom-poms on the red (well, black) carpet. The Star in Frisco is, after all, the Cowboys' home turf.

Keith Urban opened the show with an rousing performance of “Texas Time,” which ended with him being raised into the air on a platform while shredding on his guitar. (Wife Nicole Kidman joined him at the event, in town for her own special Dallas gig as keynote speaker for Genesis Women's Shelter's fundraising luncheon on Friday.)

Country music icon Dolly Parton teamed up with Garth Brooks as hosts of the two-hour show, which was streamed live and nearly commercial-free on Prime Video. Things got off to a bit of a weird start when he introduced her as the "G.O.A.T." and she then wheeled a real goat onstage (poor thing!) and cracked a joke about a threesome.

“I think I speak for everybody, not just in Texas but around the world, when I say we will always love you,” a blushing Brooks replied.

The show was as much concert as it is awards presentation. The star-studded lineup of performers and special collaborations included Cole Swindell and Jo Dee Messina on their (award-winning) hit "She Had Me At Heads Carolina - REMIX.” Karaoke lyrics displayed throughout the arena urged the audience to join in, whether they knew the song from back in Messina's day or Swindell's updated version.

In another "coming together" of generations, 2022 ACM Female Artist of the Year winner Carly Pearce and Trisha Yearwood (who won the award 25 years ago) performed a special medley of Yearwood’s hits, including “Wrong Side Of Memphis,” “XXX’s And OOO’s,” and “She’s In Love With The Boy."

English pop superstar Ed Sheeran performed “Life Goes On” from his newly-released album “-” (Subtract) and surprised the crowd when he brought Luke Combs to the stage to join him.

Texas' own Miranda Lambert performed "Carousel,” a song she described as one of her favorite songs she has ever written. (A live version will be released on Amazon Music on May 16.)

New Female Artist of the Year winner Hailey Whitters made her ACM Awards stage debut with a performance of her fan-favorite song, “Everything She Ain’t.”

The War And Treaty mesmerized the crowd with a stripped-back performance of their song “Blank Page.”

Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson performed “Save Me” in a moment that highlighted Academy philanthropic partner ACM Lifting Lives. Also, Wilson electrified the stage a performance of “Grease,” making its TV debut.

Ashley McBryde, along with Brandy Clark, Caylee Hammack, Pillbox Patti, and John Osborne, delivered an empowering performance of “Bonfire at Tina's” from McBryde's ACM Award-nominated album Ashley McBryde Presents: Lindeville.

It wasn't the only fiery performance.

As promised, Dolly Parton closed the show with one of her biggest performances to date with the world premiere of “World On Fire,” the lead single from her highly anticipated forthcoming rock album Rockstar. The over-the-top production included backup dancers, confetti, and lots of pyrotechnics.

But oh yes, there were awards given out, too. Chris Stapleton, Lainey Wilson, and Cole Swindell were among the night's biggest winners.

Below, a list of the big winners at the 58th ACM Awards. Scroll through the photos above to see some of the most memorable moments from the Texas-sized show.

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR: Chris Stapleton

FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Lainey Wilson

MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Morgan Wallen (who was absent due to illness)

DUO OF THE YEAR: Brothers Osborne

GROUP OF THE YEAR: Old Dominion

NEW FEMALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Hailey Whitters

NEW MALE ARTIST OF THE YEAR: Zach Bryan

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Bell Bottom Country - Lainey Wilson, Jay Joyce, Broken Bow Records

SINGLE OF THE YEAR: She Had Me At Heads Carolina - Cole Swindell, Zach Crowell, Warner Music Nashville

SONG OF THE YEAR: She Had Me At Heads Carolina - Cole Swindell, Ashley Gorley, Cole Swindell, Jesse Frasure, Mark D. Sanders, Thomas Rhett, Tim Nichols

VISUAL MEDIA OF THE YEAR: wait in the truck - HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson

SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR: Ashley Gorley

ARTIST-SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR: HARDY

MUSIC EVENT OF THE YEAR: wait in the truck - HARDY feat. Lainey Wilson

Getty Images

HARDY and Lainey Wilson accept their award for "wait in the truck."

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Movie Review

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma gives horror a surreal twist

Photo courtesy of MUBI

Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

The horror genre really ramped up in the 1970s and ‘80s, bringing with it a new subgenre - the slasher - that gave audiences new visuals of gore, but also a reliance on sexism and homophobia that would come to define the era. The new film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma wrestles with that legacy in ways that are funny, thought-provoking, and downright strange.

Kris (Hannah Einbinder) is a queer filmmaker who has been hired to reboot the moldy IP that is the Camp Miasma franchise, one that was fresh in the 1970s but which numerous shlocky sequels have rendered irrelevant. In an attempt to get to know the property better, Kris has scored a meeting with the reclusive Billy (Gillian Anderson), the star of the original film who has shunned the public eye for decades.

Turns out that Billy lives deep in the woods at Camp Rivoli, which served as the location for the first film. As Kris tries to get to know Billy and convince her to be a part of the new film, she starts to fall under Billy’s spell and the lore of the franchise as a whole. That includes believing that the movie’s villain, Little Death - a transgender person who has an air conditioning vent as a head/mask - may not just be a character created for the movies.

Written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow), the film at first feels like it’s going to go the straight-up comedy route, with comic explosions of blood, a strange fascination with candy brands, and a production design that does nothing to hide that the two main actors are on a movie set with painted backdrops. This is backed up by Kris’ phone conversations with her girlfriend, Mari (Jasmine Savoy Brown) and her agent (Sarah Sherman), as well as numerous other details.

But the film starts to go down the surreal route the longer Kris stays at the camp with Billy, especially when they sit down to watch the original Camp Miasma. An extended sequence shows a good amount of that film-within-the-film, demonstrating why Kris and Billy have a love/hate relationship with the property. For Kris, though, the lines between the film and the real world start to blur, and Schoenbrun uses a variety of out-there elements to drive the point home.

The final act of the film can barely be described as Kris goes deeper down the rabbit hole, with Schoenbrun using her film to comment on the horror genre as a whole, its treatment of women and LGBT people, the movie industry, and more. All the while the “camp” of Camp Miasma maintains a presence, with candy wrappers showing up everywhere and the tongue-in-cheek references to Little Death (the French term La petite mort, which means “the little death,” is a euphemism for orgasm).

Einbinder, an Emmy winner for Hacks, is the perfect person to inhabit her role. Her established real-life and fictional personas color everything she does in the film, with her enthusiasm and curiosity shining through. Anderson leans heavily into another reference - Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard - to create a character that is as mysterious as she is alluring. Supporting actors like Brown, Sherman, Patrick Fischler, Dylan Baker, and Eva Victor keep the movie at the right pitch all the way through.

While other films have made fun of horror movie tropes before, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma finds a wholly unique way of doing so. It’s a funny and daring trip into the psyches of two women who may be victims of their own obsessions, and of the movies that made them that way.

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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is now playing in select theaters

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