Pop Culture Fix: Halle Berry’s Jackie Justice Is Queer in Her New MMA Movie, Way to Bury the Lead Internet

Feature image by Prince Williams/Wireimage

This is a really excellent Pop Culture Fix — let’s just dive in!


+ I can’t believe the internet buried the most important piece of information about this new Halle Berry movie it was going berserk over yesterday! This is why we need independent queer media! So, Halle Berry talked to EW about her directorial debut in her new film, Bruised, a story centering a disgraced MMA fighter (named Jackie Justice!) looking for one last chance. And here, on casting:

and a statuesque British stage actress named Sheila Atim as Bobbi “Buddhakan” Berroa, the reluctant trainer who also becomes her love interest.

Carmen has already called the review, if she makes it through the movie alive!

+ Rowan Blanchard and Auli’i Cravalho will star in Hulu’s queer teen love story produced by Natasha Lyonne and Maya Rudolph.

+ Here’s your first look at HBO Max’s new Pretty Little Liars.

+ Valerie Anne has peeped some new potential horror gays in Amazon’s I Know What You Did Last Summer series.

+ Aretha Franklin’s biopic, Respect, opens with a purposely queer moment.

+ Good Trouble star Sherry Cola joins Adele Lim’s R-rated comedy: Cola will play one of the four leads, “As the women at the center of the film travel through the region, their experience becomes one of bonding, friendship, belonging and no-holds-barred wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are.”

+ Speaking of! Here’s a sneak peek at tonight’s Good Trouble.

+ Lil Nas X turned down a role on Euphoria.

+ Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is finally coming to theaters.

+ Beanie Feldstein will star in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl. And I just gotta:

God. I will miss you forever, Naya.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

9 Comments

  1. truly love that i learned the beanie feldstein funny girl news by seeing several tweets about how le@ miche1e is crying somewhere

    • i’m mildly paranoid that she’ll be combing through google hits and see that we were mocking her and then late one night as i’m listening to show tunes she’ll come through my mirror and say she could do it better

  2. Speaking of MMA: that sport has more than its fair share of queer ladies but coverage of them on this site is pretty thin…

  3. thinking about Dr. Phillips throwing a figurative elbow for a Halle Berry queer movie review is the smile i needed today. thanks, autostraddle.

  4. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Glee covers on Spotify and Naya’s songs frequently pop up. I really like the cover of Do Wop (That Thing) with Amber. But really anything she sang especially Adele was great.

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