Month: October 2020

Whereas good bourbon can be found even in the $15 price range, good scotch — especially single malt — is rarely priced that low. Yes, there are incredibly affordable bottles of solid scotch out there, but they usually require a fair bit of sleuthing. Remember also that “price” and “value” aren’t always the same. There are lots of great value scotches, they just aren’t quite as cheap as their bourbon counterparts.

The best place to start is defining what makes a good Scottish single malt. That really depends on whom you ask. There are several regions with their own quasi-signature styles (the peatiness of Islay being perhaps the most easily defined) — but even those aren’t monoliths. At the base level, you need a solid matrix of soft loch water, malted barley, ale yeast, old stills, and barreling (sometimes for decades at a time). Each component brings its own special something to the mix. Then there’s the human factor. The malters, coopers, distillers, nosers, warehouse managers, and blenders all have their say in what makes it into the final dram. It’s a hell of a lot to consider.

The ten bottles below are single malts from Scotland that we’ve tried and love. We’ve broken them down by price in $10 increments between $30 and $120. Of course, these picks aren’t the only bottles worth your money at their particular price points. They just happen to be our favorites (at the moment!).

Sláinte!

$30 — Tomatin Legacy/Dualchas

ABV: 43%
Distillery: Tomatin Distillery, Inverness, Highlands (Takara Shuzo Corp.)
Average Price: $32

The Whisky:

Tomatin Legacy (known as Tomatin Dualchas on the U.S. market) has become recognized as a powerhouse dram at this price point thanks to a gold medal at the 2019 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The Highland juice stands out due to its aging process. It spends time in both ex-bourbon casks and new oak casks before blending into the final product.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a thinness to the nose that entices you towards clear bourbon vanilla and mild cinnamon. Those notes remain as a sweet fruit essence arrives with a fresh ginger spiciness. The end is short but full of that spice, fruit, vanilla, and a hint of Highland malt.

Bottom Line:

This is a solid highball whisky to have your shelf, especially at this price, and even more so if you’re a bourbon drinker looking to get into single malts.

$40 — Aberlour Double Cask 12

ABV: 43%
Distillery: Aberlour Distillery, Aberlour, Speyside (Pernod Ricard)
Average Price: $42

The Whisky:

This might be one of Scotland’s best hid secrets. Aberlour Double Cask 12 spends its years mellowing in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. We know, that’s not reinventing the wheel when it comes to Scottish double casks. However, the quality and subtlety of flavors found in this expression are top-notch.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is distinctly full of sweet apple and an almost apple seed earthiness. The taste holds onto that fruit while classic sherry notes of plum, nuts, and a touch of must mingle with a dark chocolate underbelly, especially when water is added. A hint of oaky spice arrives late as the dram embraces more of its apple sweetness and slowly fades out.

Bottom Line:

This is another stellar highball base but works perfectly fine on the rocks too. I also dig this in a cocktail. Think a Rob Roy (which is just a Manhattan with scotch instead of bourbon or rye).

$50 — Old Pulteney 12

ABV: 40%
Distillery: Pulteney Distillery, Pulteneytown, Highlands
Average Price: $52

The Whisky:

This expression from the far north of Scotland is another distinctly unique dram. The whisky is aged in second-fill ex-bourbon barrels that have been air-dried next to the sea. The results make this a very one-of-a-kind whisky that bourbon aficionados will dig.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a clear sense of warm malts on the nose with a distinct whiff of briny sea air. The sip leans into that seaside feel with a salted caramel svelteness alongside creamy honey spiked with dark spices. That spice carries on with the salty-sweet foundation as a wisp of smoke arrives on the lingering finish.

Bottom Line:

This is an easy on-the-rocks whisky to have around. It also works as a nice sipper with some water, especially if you’re feasting on shellfish.

$60 — Bruichladdich The Classic Laddie

ABV: 50%
Distillery: Bruichladdich Distillery, Rinns, Islay (Rémy Cointreau)
Average Price: $60

The Whisky:

Speaking of no whisky region of Scotland being a monolith, this Islay expression is an unpeated whisky from a place most famous for its peated whisky. The Classic Laddie is also no-single-thing when it comes to single malt. The barley is all sourced in Scotland with a fair amount coming from Islay. The rest is up to the distiller’s whim and decided while making the batch.

When you snag a bottle, go the Bruichladdich’s website to find out what’s in the bottle, how it was barreled, and so on. We know, it sounds like a gimmick. But the quality of the juice is generally so accessible that we can forgive this particular ploy.

Tasting Notes:

These bottles are dependent on the batch, obviously, but very generally speaking, expect a baseline of Islay florals, sweetened malts, and a flourish of the sea on the nose. The palate will play in a sandbox full of tart fruits, sweet malts, blooming florals, and sea brine.

Bottom Line:

It’s always fun grabbing and bottle and then finding out how it was aged and so forth before you dive in. It’s kind of like unwrapping a present on Christmas morning and being truly surprised and satisfied with what’s inside.

$70 — Talisker 10

ABV: 45.8%
Distillery: Talisker Distillery, Carbost, Isle of Skye
Average Price: $68

The Whisky:

This entry-level expression from Talisker is also one of their best. The juice is aged in reconstructed ex-bourbon casks for ten years before going into the bottle. It’s an almost-too-easy-to-drink dram that’ll welcome you into the wider world of Talisker’s killer line up of whiskies.

Tasting Notes:

The malted barley dances with dialed-in notes of tart — green fruits up top. The sip keeps the malt foundation as a sweet berry fruit drives towards an echo of smoke laced with sea salt. The warm hug of an end adds a little spicy heat as the fruit and malt fade out.

Bottom Line:

This is a great all-around whisky. It works as a highball base, in cocktails, or a sip on a rainy day.

$80 — The Balvenie Caribbean Cask Aged 14 Years

ABV: 43%
Distillery: Balvenie Distillery, Dufftown, Speyside
Average Price: $80

The Whisky:

This whisky — from Scotch whisky icon David Stewart — embraces the barrel finishing he’s credited with creating. Stewart makes his own rum, ages it in oak, and then uses that oak to finish this whisky after it spends over a decade in ex-bourbon casks. The results are a highwater mark in the specialty barrel finished whisky world.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a rum molasses upfront with a cut of berry fruit. The maltiness of the backbone gives way to creamy vanilla, more fruit, and buttery toffee. The taste then edges towards a Caribbean oak mustiness as it lingers on your senses and warms your soul.

Bottom Line:

This is an easy sipper, especially with a little water or a rock. Don’t sleep on mixing this into a cocktail though.

$90 — Ardbeg Uigeadail

ABV: 54.2%
Distillery: Ardbeg Distillery, Arbeg, Islay (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy)
Average Price: $92

The Whisky:

Pronounced “Oog-A-Dal,” this mid-range expression from Ardbeg is easy to fall in love with. The expression is named after the Islay loch where the distillery pulls its water. The juice is then aged in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks before it’s married into this peaty single malt expression.

Tasting Notes:

This is a big dram with notes of Christmas spice mingling with smoked plums, wildflowers, and a hint of ripe banana. The fruit and smoke really marry on the palate as a nice rush of spice arrives in the velvety body of the dram. The end is short, full of smoked fruit, and leaves you longing for more.

Bottom Line:

If you love the peat, this is your dram. The smoke isn’t overpowering by any stretch and really mellows with a rock or a few drops of water, allowing the fruity and spicy nature of the sip to emerge.

$100 — Highland Park Twisted Tattoo 16

ABV: 46.7%
Distillery: Highland Park Distillery, Kirkwall, Orkney
Average Price: $100

The Whisky:

This unique expression combines quality whisky with a great package thanks to Danish tattoo artist Colin Dale. The whisky is a bespoke combination of 153 oak barrels that were seasoned with Spanish Rioja red wine and 70 ex-bourbon barrels. And good news: it’s now available in the U.S.!

Tasting Notes:

Ripe peaches with vanilla creaminess counterpoint mild smoke and tart berries. The palate delivers on the nose with the addition of a red wine oakiness with a twinge of vinous spiciness. The berries, red wine, vanilla, and oak find a little more smoke and a wisp of brine as the sip slowly fades.

Bottom Line:

This is a solid sipper with a little water or a rock. Give it time to bloom and enjoy it slowly.

$110 — Oban Distiller’s Edition

ABV: 43%
Distillery: Oban Distillery, Oban, Highlands (Diageo)
Average Price: $110

The Whisky:

This expression is a love letter to the tiny town of Oban on the western coast of Scotland. The juice is finished in Montilla Fino sherry casks to add an extra dimension to the already finely crafted whisky from the distillery.

Tasting Notes:

A small billow of smoke greets you next to notes of sea brine, orange zest, and a hint of vinous fruit. Sweet malts form a foundation with apple, more grape, and toffee building a flavor profile above it. The salty sea comes back late as the sip fades out quickly and boldly with one last hint of smoke.

Bottom Line:

This is a great pairing dram, especially for a seafood feast. It also works as a post-meal snifter, just make sure to let it open up with a little water.

$120 — Aberfeldy 18

ABV: 43%
Distillery: Aberfeldy Distillery, Aberfeldy, Highlands (Bacardi)
Average Price: $120

The Whisky:

This year’s Aberfeldy 18 release embraces Malt Master Stephanie MacLeod’s continuous drive to make better and better whisky every single year. This year’s juice is finished in Pauillac wine casks from Bordeaux. The whisky spends an additional four to five months mellowing in the wine-soaked oak before it’s bottled.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a clear berry note on the nose that accentuates a mild maltiness, nutty edge, and spicy warmth. The sip embraces the brighter side of those berry notes then veers into a cedarwood and worn leather territory with a distant billow of pipe tobacco smoke. The end is mid-length, full of bright red berries, all that cedar — like a long, warm embrace.

Bottom Line:

This is another sipper that’s too easy to drink. Add a little water to really let it bloom and take your time enjoying this well-rounded dram.

Outside of the obvious blockbusters, the ones where characters return from the dead and Florence Pugh has a Russian accent, a summer 2020 film that I was really excited for was Promising Young Woman. But then… y’know happened. The black-comedy thriller from Killing Eve‘s Emerald Fennell, about Carey Mulligan seeking out revenge against men who take advantage of women, was supposed to come out in April, but it’s finally been given a new release date: December 25 (Merry Christmas?), the same day as Wonder Woman 1984 and One Night in Miami. For now.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

From visionary director Emerald Fennell (Killing Eve) comes a delicious new take on revenge. Everyone said Cassie (Carey Mulligan) was a promising young woman… until a mysterious event abruptly derailed her future. But nothing in Cassie’s life is what it appears to be: she’s wickedly smart, tantalizingly cunning, and she’s living a secret double life by night. Now, an unexpected encounter is about to give Cassie a chance to right the wrongs of the past in this thrilling and wildly entertaining story.

Promising Young Woman also stars Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, Connie Britton, Sam Richardson, Adam Brody (hopefully giving his best dirtbag performance since Jennifer’s Body), Max Greenfield, and Laverne Cox.

HER is a versatile talent who has been nominated for a ton of Grammys and won a couple of them. She’s a heck of a guitarist, and she flexed her six-string abilities on The Tonight Show yesterday by facing off against Jimmy Fallon in a guitar solo battle.

Appearing virtually and backed by The Roots, HER ran through the solos from “American Woman” by The Guess Who (but more based on the Lenny Kravitz version), “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince, performing them all masterfully. However, it was really more of a bit than an actual contest, as Fallon was tasked with playing “Mary Had A Little Lamb” and “The NBC Chimes.” Needless to say, HER was declared the winner.

HER’s latest Tonight Show appearance comes not too long after her previous one. In February, she joined A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie to perform, appropriately enough, “Me And My Guitar.” She also recently linked up with Jhene Aiko for a charity livestream performance of “B.S.” Meanwhile, not long after former First Lady Michelle Obama launched her Spotify podcast, HER found her way onto an Obama-curated playlist of songs that helped inspire the podcast.

Watch the guitar “battle” unfold above.

Sean Bean is extraordinarily good at dying. He’s done the deed dozens of times onscreen, but his luck might change on TNT’s Snowpiercer. Well, we shall see if he lives, beginning in January 2021 when Season 2 of the Daveed Diggs-starring series returns. The series quickly proved to be so relentlessly unlike Bong Joon Ho’s film that I had to admire it, even if it felt weird to see the source material (Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette’s graphic novels) get adapted in a Law and Order style. Still, things were missing. Chris Evans muttering “babies taste best” was nowhere to be found, and Mr. Wilford (played by Ed Harris in the movie) was… missing.

Jennifer Connelly’s hospitality chief, Melanie Cavill, gave it her all to keep that secret under wraps. Yet as it turns out, she’d left the train’s genius inventor and mastermind for dead long ago, and he’s now back. And he’s played by Sean Bean! Since Wilford is a key figure (who is alive) in the movie, one would assume that he won’t be dying on the series, and if so, congratulations to Sean Bean for not dying onscreen in a role. Maybe. You never know what this show is gonna do. From the Season 2 synopsis:

Discovering Mr. Wilford (Sean Bean) is alive and headed their way on a rival train, Melanie (Jennifer Connelly) risks going outside to prevent him from invading Snowpiercer. While she’s out there, it’s revealed that Alexandra (Rowan Blanchard), Melanie’s daughter, who she thought had died, is alive and has become Wilford’s dedicated protegee. In season two, an entirely new power struggle emerges, causing a dangerous rift as people are divided between their loyalty to Layton and to Mr. Wilford, who has a new train, new technology and a game plan that keeps everyone guessing. While Layton battles Wilford for the soul of Snowpiercer, Melanie leads the charge on a shocking new discovery that could change the fate of humanity.

The Snowpiercer train returns on January 25.

Hip-hop is moving as fast as ever. Luckily, we’re doing the work to put the best music in one place for you. This week, there were videos from 21 Savage and Metro Boomin, DaBaby, Lil Durk and Queen Naija as well as Lil Wayne and Gudda Gudda. There was also new music from Travis Scott and Future, Trippie Redd, Juicy J and NLE Choppa, Benny The Butcher, Lil Wayne, and Big Sean. Here’s the rest of the best new rap music of the week.

BoatHouse — “Suckers” Feat. Bun B

Bun B spit a pair of menacing verses on Chicago producer’s Boathouse’s “Suckers.” The Trill OG makes his present felt on the haunting, electrohop track, warning that going up against him is like “the Pillsbury doughboy versus Doughboy from Boyz N The Hood, you better go boy.”

Comethazine — “Derek Jeter”

Comethazine plays homage to a baseball legend— and his lungs — on “Derek Jeter,” where he gets rowdy and braggadocious over a ChildBoy production.

DeJ Loaf — “Star” Feat. Dave East & Nicole Bus

DeJ Loaf and Dave East pour out their hearts on the pensive “Star,” the first single from the upcoming True To The Game 2 soundtrack. Def laments, “I got issues, I drink Dusse, to hide all mine,” while Dave calls out a friend who “couldn’t picture what friendship is without no benefits.”

Denzel Curry — “Live From The Abyss”

Denzel Curry is “plannin’ something radical, in the cut so anonymous” on his latest single “Live From The Abyss.” The Florida rapper churns through a caustic instrumental while speaking to the times and giving President Trump some pointed advice.

Junglepussy — “Main Attraction”

Junglepussy is being choosey about her next lover on “Main Attraction,” a smooth single from her upcoming JP4 album that was augmented with a trippy, colorful video.

King Von — “I Am What I Am” Feat Fivio Foreign

Fivio Foreign linked up with this second Chicago rapper in two weeks on the frenetic “I Am What I Am.” Von and Fivio both sound invigorated over mesmeric, 808-based production.

Marlon Craft — “Wherever”

Marlon Craft dropped off the first single from his sophomore album with “Wherever,” a typically-thoughtful track that showcases him passionately rhyming and sarcastically demanding posers to “explain how you free when you ain’t you so I understand properly.”

Papoose — Endangered Species

Papoose is back with his Endangered Species album. The Brooklyn MC is showcasing his spellbinding lyrical gifts throughout the 12-track offering, including the sinister “Kickback” with French Montana and Conway The Machine.

Reason — New Beginnings

Reason dropped his formal TDE debut with the aptly-titled New Beginnings, a confessional lyrical exercise where he shows off his skills over 14 tracks with the help of artists like Vince Staples, Schoolboy Q, Rapsody, Isaiah Rashad, and J.I.D.

Rucci & Shordie Shordie — “Me And My Drugz Pt. 2″

Rucci and Shordie Shordie connect on “Me And My Drugz Pt. 2” which flips Soul 4 Real’s “Candy Rain” classic into a nihilistic ode to the way “sippin drank take away my pain.” They paired the autotune-tinged track with a video showcasing them rapping alongside their crew.

THEY. — “Losing Focus” Feat. Wale

California duo THEY. is set to drop The California Tape this month. They dropped off another single from the project this week with “Losing Focus,” a sleek, distressed track that was ripe for Wale’s contemplative verse where he contends, “We can do a lot by doing absolutely nothing.”

Tristate Gates — “NY Natives” Feat. Benny The Butcher

It’s an empire state connection on “NY Natives,” where Tristate Gates reflects on how “corners get you cornered” and Benny The Butcher gives us a “3AM in Brooklyn” perspective with a closing verse where he proclaims, “I’m still sellin’ verses like capsules.”

YRN Lingo & Takeoff — “All Time High”

YRN Lingo and Takeoff take turns lamenting the phoniness going on in the game on “All Time High.” YRN proclaims, we “can’t let these n****s break us up / they just mad we in a Bentley truck, while Takeoff is “tryna duck the paparazzis.”

YNW BSlime — “One Step” Feat. YNW Melly

YNW BSlime gave his big brother Melly’s fans a treat this week with “One Step.” The breezy, dancehall track showcases BSlime asking his girl “just kick it with me, Karate” and Melly adds a melodic appearance. The precocious video showcases BSlime on a safari alongside an animated version of Melly.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Sometimes a movie sells itself. That is the case for John Bronco.

The mockumentary stars Justified‘s Walton Goggins as John Bronco, the greatest pitchman of all-time, an international sex symbol who appears on cereal boxes, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and movies with Bo Derek. If that premise — and Goggins naked on the hood of a car, playing an acoustic guitar, or Goggins saying, “I’ve always been a wild horse, and I’m always going to be a wild horse, but I’ll always be John… Bronco” with a wink — doesn’t grab you, I don’t know what to say. Live a little?

Directed by Jake Szymanski (7 Days in Hell and Tour de Pharmacy), John Bronco follows the pitchman who, at the height of his fame, disappeared from public life. “Legendary Spokesman. Pop Culture Icon. Global Phenomenon. All words that can be used to describe John Bronco, the original Ford Bronco pitchman who attained celebrity status many years ago before disappearing in 1996. Where did John Bronco go?” a website supporting the film asks. I don’t know the answer to that, but one thing’s for sure: as Bronco says in the trailer above, “When people think of the Ford Bronco… they will always think of one guy in particular. Me, John Bronco.” Yup, no other cultural associations with the Bronco whatsoever.

John Bronco premieres on Hulu on October 15.

Released only a few weeks after Radiohead’s Kid A, the topic of last week’s episode, Linkin Park’s debut studio album Hybrid Theory turns 20 this month. It featured four major singles (“One Step Closer,” “In the End,” “Crawling,” and “Papercut”) and has sold 27 million albums worldwide since its release, making it the best-selling debut album since Guns N’ Roses’ 1987 debut Appetite for Destruction, and the single best-selling rock album of the 21st century.

The record’s success marked a transition moment to the mainstream for a type of rock music that was pioneered by bands like Korn and Deftones. With the emergence of nu metal came a through line that Linkin Park was able to capitalize on, one that continues today with Machine Gun Kelly’s new album Tickets To My Downfall, which is currently sitting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. On the new episode of Indiecast, Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen trace the lasting influence of nu metal and big, fun chart-topping rock music.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Cohen is singing the praises of Floral Prince, the latest album from Field Medic, while Hyden is hyping “The Shining But Tropical,” a beautiful new single from Wild Pink that previews their upcoming album.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 11 below and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In the moments when a hoodie-clad John Oliver accepted Last Week Tonight‘s fifth consecutive Best Variety Talk Series Emmy, he took a few moments to talk about his only “dream” for 2020. Well, his only attainable dream… one would assume that Oliver would like the pandemic to end and for Biden to win the presidency, but there’s no way to see those things happen at the moment. Instead, Oliver put his mind toward achieving the one goal that would make him feel slightly better about this year’s dumpster fire, and that’s having a sewage plant in Danbury, Connecticut named after him.

Well, some dreams do come true. Local ABC affliate WTNH is relaying the good news for Oliver with a statement from Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton: “Congratulations, Mr. Oliver, you now have a poop plant named after you.” The vote was almost unanimous (18 in favor, 1 against, 1 abstaining), and I’m wondering if we’ll hear from the person who officially wanted to poop on Oliver’s impending happiness. In the meantime, Mayor Boughton embraced his city’s sense of humor on Twitter.

The pressure is now on for Oliver to visit (which he will hopefully do when it’s safe to travel again), given that council member Farley Santos told WTNH, “I just want to make sure that we welcome Mr. Oliver to come to the dedication so that he can receive this honor that he’s been so begging for.”

Yes, Oliver has truly been pleading for Danbury to bestow him with this honor. He even fired shots in a mock feud with Mayor Boughton calling the host “full of crap.” Well, Oliver enjoyed that barb, but when he found out that it was only a joke, he opened his wallet and made a $55,000 donation to the city. And as mentioned after the Emmys, he gushed, “My dream this year is to have a sewage plant named after me in Danbury, Connecticut … And I’m close. I feel like I’m real close.”

It’s been a months-long road for Oliver, who declared to the City of Danbury in August, “Listen, I didn’t know that I wanted my name on your sh*t factory… But now that you floated it as an option, it is all that I want.” Congratulations to John Oliver for getting all that he wants, or at least, everything that he could realistically see happen, in 2020.

(Via WTNH)

(Ed. Note: This review was originally published in January after a screening at the Sundance Film Festival. We’re republishing it in conjunction with the film’s HBO Max release.)

With its young-black-men-on-dirtbikes-doing-wheelies-through-the-city imagery, Charm City Kings was one of those Sundance titles that just jumped off the program page. Inspired by the 2013 documentary, 12 O’Clock Boys, about a famous clique of Baltimore dirtbikers (12 o’clock is the position of the bike in a wheelie, get it?), the film casts real Baltimore riders like Lakeyria “Wheelie Queen” Doughty and young actors alongside rapper Meek Mill and veterans like Teyonah Harris (Chi-Raq, If Beale Street Could Talk) for a movie that’s essentially Boyz n the Hood meets A Bronx Tale set in the world of urban dirtbiking. Credit where credit’s due, that’s a pretty damn good hook.

Jahi Di’Allo Winston plays Mouse, a smart seventh grader living with a single mom and running with a squad of buddies that includes a chubby kid (Sweartagawd, played by Kezii Curtis) and a hard kid (Lamont, played by Donielle T. Hansley Jr.) — trying to score chicks and become men while staying out of trouble, just like Boyz n the Hood. Mouse idolizes his dead older brother, a legendary 12 O’Clock Boy named Stro, and crushes on a new girl in town named Nicki (Chandler Dupont), who is into photography, just like… well, just like every teen movie love interest ever.

Mouse comes to be torn between two father figures — a cop from the big brothers program played by William Catlett, who wants Mouse to quit dirtbiking and focus on veterinary school, and a legendary ex-con rider trying to go straight as a mechanic played by Meek Mill, who encourages Mouse to use dirtbiking as a way to stay away from those corners. It’s a dynamic that producer Caleeb Pinkett (yes, Jada’s brother) said was inspired by A Bronx Tale (in which Lillo Brancato was torn between a gangster played by Chazz Palminteri and his hard-working truck driver father played by Robert De Niro).

Charm City Kings has a slick pitch and even slicker direction, by Puerto Rican Angel Miguel Soto, but you get the feeling Charm City Kings‘ creatives were hired guns brought in to flesh out what some producer assumed would be an extremely sellable concept. It’s one of those movies that practically screams the Hollywood shorthand that spawned it — TWELVE O CLOCK BOYS MEETS BOYZ N THE HOOD AND A BRONX TALE — but never evolves much beyond the pitch. Why Baltimore? Why 12 O Clock Boys? Outside of a couple jargon explainers and sizzle reel scenes, it feels like this story could’ve been set anywhere. Mouse’s mom never quite screams “ain’t no dirt bikes gonna put no food on this table!” but that’s gist of it.

At the post-screening Q&A, producer Pinkett explained that the idea behind the film was that because of Baltimore’s “no chase” policy (police brass don’t want to start a high speed chase over illegal dirt biking and end up hurting civilians), the bikes became the only place these otherwise overpoliced twelve o clock boys “could feel free.”

That’s great marketing copy, but as inspiration it’s a little thin. (Screenwriter Sherman Payne helpfully explained “they brought me on to write the script, and I wrote the script”). The intention seems to be to use Baltimore as a stand-in for disaffected youth trying to escape oppression and poverty everywhere. That’s pretty ambitious, but you have to be somewhere before you can be everywhere. Meanwhile, Charm City Kings is long on tried-and-true story arcs and short on specifics. I could listen to that peculiar Baltimore accent all day (say it with me: “Aaron earned an iron urn”), but while CCK feels authentically cast and acted (with a notable turn from Meek Mill) the story feels plug-and-play.

It has a cool setting, solid acting, impressive stunts and beautiful shots, but its setting seems like a place the filmmakers thought looked cool rather than one they actually knew.

‘Charm City Kings’ is available October 8th on HBO and HBO Max. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Fleetwood Mac stock is pretty high right now. The band’s song “Dreams” has had skyrocketing sales in recent days thanks to its use in the viral TikTok video of a guy skateboarding while drinking cranberry juice. With this all going on, now would be a great time for the band and its members to capitalize, and that’s just what Stevie Nicks has done.

Today, the singer has dropped her first new solo single in nine years, “Show Them The Way.” The driving, upbeat song comes with a Cameron Crowe-directed video, which features images of historical figures and movements. Nicks recently noted the song was inspired by a dream she had before the 2008 presidential election.

Crowe says of the track, “‘Show Them The Way’ is among Stevie Nicks’ best, most personal songs. There’s an immediacy about it too. Within hours of hearing the song we were already putting together the video about her ‘dream about a dream.’ ‘Show Them The Way’ began as a poem, and grew into one of her strongest musical tracks. It feels like both a gift and a fever dream about hope and promise. We finished the video on the full-moon with a whole lot of passion and excitement about immediately sharing it with the world right now.”

The track features Dave Grohl on drums. The two have collaborated on multiple occasions before, like when she performed with Grohl on Letterman in 2013. Nicks also dedicated a performance of “Landslide” to Grohl in 2015, shortly after he broke his leg, saying, “I’d like to dedicate this to Dave Grohl. Falling off stage, getting up, and playing a two-and-a-half-hour set: I think that’s awesome.”

Watch the “Show Them The Way” video above.