Month: August 2021

Variety reports Travis Scott‘s Cactus Jack Films has signed a production deal with independent entertainment company A24 to produce movies including what looks like the first draft of a script by Travis himself. Both A24 and Travis Scott posted photos of the script on social media. The title, which is redacted in the photo, is apparently “Utopia” according to Variety.

Over the past three years, Travis has been working on his new album — also reportedly titled Utopia — the follow-up 2018’s Astroworld, which kicked off Travis’ newfound level of pop-culture dominance. Since Astroworld‘s release, Scott has performed at the Super Bowl and in one of Fortnite‘s first virtual concerts, done mega-deals with Nike, Sony, and McDonald’s, which released a meal named for the Texas rapper that sold out in many locations accompanied by some odd merch that fans also snapped up within a few days of its launch. Travis previously dabbled in film with the “Franchise” video, which accompanied the release of Tenet.

A24, meanwhile, is a groundbreaking studio that regularly surmounts its films’ relatively small budgets to land huge hits like Ex Machina, The Last Black Man In San Francisco, Midsommar, Minari, and Moonlight, racking up Academy Awards and critical acclaim (they previously worked with Chance The Rapper on his horror-comedy film Slice, as well). Their latest buzzy release, The Green Knight, is furthering this reputation along with Twitter-thread-to-black-comedy film Zola.

Billie Eilish has always said a lot in her music, and it turns out that she does so with the greatest variety of words: a new study from Word Tips (as Consequence notes) indicates that of all modern stars, Eilish has the biggest vocabulary.

Here, “biggest vocabulary” equates to most word variety: To compile the data, Word Tips “counted the words used by 100 modern stars [Spotify’s most listened-to artists] and the 100 greatest singers of all time [according to a 2010 list by Rolling Stone] and added up the number of unique words they used per 1,000.” Among modern stars, Eilish has the most unique words used per 1,000, with 169. She is followed by Harry Styles (159), Lizzo (153), Shakira (151), Lorde (149), and Janelle Monáe (149).

Eilish also finished high on the all-time list, as she’s 5th. Ahead of her are Patti Smith (217), Joni Mitchell (199), Björk (197), and Jim Morrison (177).

The site also noted which stars have the smallest vocabularies. That title goes to both Trey Songz and Luther Vandross, who each use 66 unique words per 1,000. Other artists towards the bottom of the list include Carly Rae Jepsen (69), Mary J Blige (71), Meghan Trainor (72), Justin Timberlake (76), Mariah Carey (77), Ariana Grande (79), Michael Jackson, Adam Levine, Justin Bieber, Usher, Prince, and Tove Lo (80 each).

Word Tips has put their data into a great interactive infographic, so find that here.

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

Once again, the NBA world is ensnared in Russell Westbrook’s trap. A partnership with LeBron James and Anthony Davis can be great, but will it? The debate is one we’ve had loudly for nearly a half-decade.

It’s a source of frustration for everyone involved. Fans remain largely optimistic about him as a great player because they see a person who embodies so much of what you want from a basketball player. He hustles, he’s consistent, he fills up the box score, and he is a beloved teammate by many. Those who are paid to analyze the league see what has been true for years, and what was only amplified when Kevin Durant left the Thunder: that Westbrook has not adopted the habits necessary to turn his skill set into a winning recipe.

That collision of perspectives has only intensified in recent years as we’ve all been forced to think about Westbrook more often because of all the high profile trades he’s been involved in lately. Who has played with more of the league’s best players than Westbrook? Now that yet another deal landed him in Los Angeles alongside LeBron, Davis and the 2020 champion Lakers, what sits before Westbrook now is likely his last best chance to be a key piece on a title team.

Can it be different here than it was in Oklahoma City with Kevin Durant or Paul George, in Houston with James Harden or in Washington with Bradley Beal? There are plentiful explanations for why those tandems failed to get to the top, but it’s safe to say that if Westbrook can’t make it work with some folks’ GOAT and potentially the greatest defensive player of his generation, his options to compete for a ring may run dry — at least in a starring role.

As one of the grittier superstars the NBA has ever seen, Westbrook has always been asked to be the soul of star-studded teams. There’s a reason that in many of these controversial deals, Westbrook has still commanded positive value. After all, he’s averaged a triple-double in four of five seasons. But since Durant left (the last time Russ made a conference final), many of his teams failed, not because they didn’t get enough heart or production from Westbrook, but because they were doomed by how he operated on the court. Being next to LeBron and Davis theoretically smoothes out some of the wrinkly parts of Westbrook’s game, yet as has always been true, it will work only if Westbrook adapts.

Breakdowns have already been written about how Westbrook can help get Davis better shots, help the Lakers be better when LeBron is off the floor, and get badly needed buckets for an LA offense that ranked in the bottom half of the NBA last season. Yet even optimistic takes rely on the same promise we’ve conjured up about Westbrook in every new situation over the past half-decade: that he becomes a different type of player than he’s ever been.

Westbrook should never be criticized for what he can’t do. The man is a bat out of hell when he wants to be, and tries anything in the name of winning. To win with his shooting and defensive limitations, though, Westbrook needs to more consistently make the smaller winning plays that allow him to fit next to other great players. Otherwise, he is taking possessions away from LeBron, cluttering the Lakers’ spacing, and giving opposing offenses another defensive weak link that Davis and LA’s team scheme must make up for.

When people describe what Westbrook can do to help make the Lakers a title team again, they seem to be describing someone who operates almost like a backup for LeBron. The version of Westbrook who would make sense for the Lakers is one who feeds Davis, screens for LeBron, infuses nitrous into the Lakers’ transition offense, defends opposing playmakers, and slips in for easy buckets when opponents pay too much attention to the two superstars. There’s no question that player is present inside of Westbrook, the concern is it isn’t allowed to come out.

Some not-so-subtle part of Westbrook continues to believe that him taking full control of the offense is the best path to his team winning. He hasn’t been able to kick that habit in over a decade in the NBA, even as a consensus has developed among close followers that his default settings aren’t ideal. There will be moments in every game when Westbrook is allowed to drift back into his preferred stylings, but to win close playoff games one after another, everyone in the world knows LeBron needs to have the ball.

Will he finally be able to accept a smaller, less commanding role? The Lakers have many things that could inspire promise that Westbrook might change. First is LeBron, maybe the greatest playmaker in the history of the NBA can command the respect of Westbrook to cede some of that on-court leadership role. There is also a return home for Westbrook, as well as the looming end to his super-max contract in 2023. Of course there is a chance an aging Westbrook could cling to a superteam in the future and chase a ring, but for someone as intoxicated by competition as Westbrook, it’s only reasonable he’d want to do it while he’s still in his prime.

If there were ever a time for Westbrook to turn the whirling dervish routine into something more refined, it’s in this situation. Part of why NBA insiders and writers seem to be critical is the same reason fans remain so dead set: we all want to see it. We see one of the most aggressive players ever to step foot on a court, someone whose physical gifts make him impossible to contain, and it seems so obvious that he should be able to channel that into greatness.

Joining up with a player as genius as LeBron and someone in Davis who cleans up so much — in L.A.! — certainly magnifies that struggle, but also slides it closer to something Westbrook ought to be able to accept.

Day N Vegas is the first hip-hop festival to react to DaBaby’s comments and the resulting backlash. The festival didn’t release an extensive statement as Lollapalooza and Governor’s Ball did, but it made the announcement that DaBaby had been removed from the lineup with an updated lineup post featuring DaBaby’s “Rockstar” collaborator Roddy Ricch added in his place.

DaBaby lost the two prior festival spots after his comments from the Rolling Loud stage two Sundays ago in which he prompted male fans to light their cell phones “if you ain’t sucking dick in the parking lot.” He also made some off-color comments about HIV/AIDS, saying, “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases, that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cellphone lighter up.”

After his words sparked a backlash online as fans deplored his outlook and spreading misinformation about STDs, DaBaby doubled down with the release of his “Giving What It’s Supposed To Give” video, which he captioned with a defiant message on Instagram. He kept doing so, reacting with derision toward Questlove for calling him out and Boohooman for ending their partnership. Meanwhile, stars like Dua Lipa, Elton John, and Madonna expressed concerns at his statements, while radio stations have taken to playing a feature-less version of the Dua Lipa song “Levitating” in response to his refusal to acknowledge the harm of his words.

Apex Legends has had a significant cheating problem for a while now. Respawn Entertainment’s battle royale is one of the best out there with a perfect blend of quirky characters and skills to make characters feel unique, but the top players are still the ones with the best aim. It’s that blend of skill and unique powers that makes Apex Legends so fun to play. Unfortunately, it’s also a game with a serious hacking problem where cheaters run rampant.

Every game has an issue with cheaters, especially first-person shooters, but rarely has a game had the significant issues that Apex seems to have. Aim botters, exploits, and even hackers from a different game have all at one point or another caused problems in the Apex community. It’s become such an issue in ranked that the hashtag #SaveApexRanked has become a popular slogan on Twitter in a plea from fans to fix the hacks.

With Season 10 on the way for Apex, Respawn Entertainment is at a critical moment where they need to get hacking under control. Otherwise, they might lose a significant portion of the player base for good. While they’re always trying to work on fixes, Respawn did report in late July a significant ban of cheaters across multiple platforms.

In a short interview with Fanbyte, Respawn reiterated their goal is to get the cheating problem under control in Season 10. They didn’t give too many details, likely because they don’t want cheaters to prepare for what they have coming, but they’re stressing how serious an issue this is and their desire to have it resolved.

“We’ve definitely put in some things recently that we think will help the situation. We’ve seen some of that come down recently,” Apex Legends team director Steven Ferreira told us. He explained that while they cannot get into the details of what’s being implemented or future plans, Ferreira assured me that “we have a team dedicated to working on that.” Ferreira then stated that while ensuring a smooth season launch is important, “that kind of a problem is important all the time.”

Unfortunately, even if the Apex team is able to get the current wave of cheating under control, there is always going to be a new kind of hack or cheat that they have to be on the lookout for. Developers are facing a moving target when it comes to creating code that can detect cheating. Aimbots are growing more sophisticated, more difficult to detect, and they’re rampant in multiplayer shooters. Call of Duty: Warzone just had an issue last month where it had to prevent the development of a cheat that was advertised as undetectable and had some players intentionally exploiting a glitch that would make them invisible. Research done by Surfshark indicated that more players are searching for ways to hack Fortnite than any other popular shooter.

If it’s not clear by now when a game gets popular there will be attempts to cheat in it. The Apex Legends issue is unfortunately not unique, and it’s one that will continue as long as the game is running.

It’s August and that means the unofficial start of the video game new year is upon us. For many video game fans, they consider the start of August into the holidays as the time of the year when the biggest titles start releasing. Those big releases continue all the way into March until they start to tail off as we hit the summertime. That means that there are some really big names that we think everyone should be playing this month. Then of course there are the “free games” we all get with our subscriptions so there is plenty to play right now.

There will never be a situation where we don’t recommend the free monthly games. Even if they end up being terrible it doesn’t cost you a dime, beyond what is paid for the subscription, so there is no risk to at least claiming them and seeing what they are. They could be a diamond in the rough, a cult hit, or a game that was fun for the low price of nothing but would have been disappointing at full price.

Games With Gold (Xbox ONE, Xbox Series X/S)

This month Xbox owners who currently have gold membership, or Game Pass Ultimate, will have access to Darksiders III, YookaLaylee, Lost Planet 3, and Garou: Mark of the Wolves. No real must gets here, but for the low price of free, all of them are worth claiming for when there’s a weekend with nothing to play. Darksiders and Lost Planet are action games, while YookaLaylee is a pretty faithful interpretation of the Banjo Kazooie collect-a-thon formula. Mark of the Wolves is a fighting game so it won’t be for everyone, but anyone that’s already tired of Guilty Gear can give this one a shot.

PlayStation Plus Games (PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5)

PlayStation owners definitely got the rougher group of free games this month, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be some fun here. This month’s August games are Hunter’s Arena: Legends, Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, Tennis World Tour 2. While none of these are particularly incredible single-player experiences, with Hunter’s Arena being the only game that’s action-based, all of them should have an appeal to someone out there. Plants vs. Zombies in particular is loved by many and with the Olympics going on there might be an interest in playing a quality Tennis game. Hunter’s Arena is an interesting mishmash of battle royale and MOBA’s, but can only be claimed by PS5 owners.

Hades (PlayStation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox ONE, Xbox Series X/S)

Hades will finally be coming to PlayStation and Xbox consoles this month. It’s been a PC and Nintendo Switch exclusive since releasing in 2020 and it’s won numerous Game of The Year awards making it a must-play. Xbox owners, in particular, should be psyched because it is coming to Game Pass this month so they can play one of the best games from last year practically for free. Anyone that hasn’t played Hades yet really needs to give it a shot. Especially lovers of rogue-like games. Never played one? Don’t worry: this is the perfect entry point into the genre.

Madden 22 (PlayStation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox ONE, Xbox Series X/S, PC)

Yep, that’s right. They made another Madden! The latest NFL football simulation is the first one to be made with next-generation consoles in mind and while some players have grown frustrated with the series it’s still one of the biggest releases of the year. In this iteration, they promised an improved franchise mode, an improved homefield advantage, and the typical upgrades we expect.

12 Minutes (Xbox ONE, Xbox Series X/S, PC)

12 Minutes is a concept that isn’t completely unique, but the way it’s being presented feels different and fresh. The main character is having a nice night with his wife when suddenly a man in a suit comes in and arrests them for the murder of his father. These 12 minutes will loop non-stop until the player can solve why it’s looping and why this is happening. Described as an interactive thriller, 12 Minutes has the potential to be one of those experiences that can only happen in video games. It’s also worth playing for the star power in the voice cast alone, with Willem Defoe, Daisey Ridley, and James McAvoy all lending their voices.

Psychonauts 2 (PlayStation 4, Xbox ONE, PC)

A sequel to one of the most beloved weird games of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, Psychonauts 2 was a game fans have been asking more of for ages. Tim Schafer’s touch for the weird can be felt all over this franchise and this game will surely have more of it. The best part however is that it will feature an invincibility mode for anyone that can’t get through the game without it. This is a feature that every game should have.

No More Heroes 3 (Switch)

No More Heroes is one of the most aggressively weird franchises out there. The series, starring Travis Touchdown, is unashamedly violent and features humor that earns the M rating put on the front of the box. Of course, anyone that watches the trailer above might be a little confused by that sentence because it doesn’t match at all. The idea of a trailer that makes no sense is actually so perfectly No More Heroes that it should make any fans of the franchise excited to finally give it a try. These games are typically cult hits so the fans of it are going to be playing this day one, but anyone that enjoys a good action game might want to give it a try. Just maybe look up the previous games first to get an idea of what you’re in for.

Grime (PC)

If indie games are a genre then the Metroidvania format is the most common type of game within that genre. However, because it is so full of them that means the developers still making that kind of game need a hook that stands out Grime using an art style that fits the name it’s given, with a dark hole for a head, and the ability to copy enemy abilities just might be the hook it needs to stand out. The art style may put off a few people, and attract others, but as long as the gameplay is fun that should be enough to bring players in.

Lawn Mowing Simulator (Xbox Series X/S, PC)

It’s a simulation game about mowing. If that isn’t enough of a sell have you considered that they needed to make it a next-gen console exclusive because the game itself is too powerful for the Xbox ONE? As silly as the concept sounds, when the original trailer came out a lot of people said it looked therapeutic and enjoyable. With franchises like Truck Simulator and Microsoft Flight Simulator out there and immensely popular, there is no reason that Lawn Mowing Simulator can’t be a part of that relaxing genre.

Ghost of Tsushima: Director’s Cut (PlayStation 4/PlayStation 5)

A Game of The Year contender for a lot of fans last year, Ghosts of Tsushima is nothing if not beautiful. This is one of those games that a lot of players said they spent hours just exploring so they could check out the gorgeous scenery. It was also a pretty fun game on top of that. The Director’s Cut promises to have more of that, and an expanded story, so anyone that never got to play the original will get a two-for-one deal. Anyone who did may want to wait for a price drop unless they’re a huge fan and can’t possibly wait.

Cardi B first became a household name in 2018 on the strength of her breakthrough hit, “Bodak Yellow,” as the song racked up plays and accolades on its way to becoming Cardi’s first No. 1 hit — and the first No. 1 record from a solo female rap artist since Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop (That Thing)” twenty years earlier in 1998.

Today, the video for “Bodak Yellow” reached a milestone reserved for only the most popular clips on YouTube: reaching over one billion views. It’s Cardi’s first solo video to reach one billion, after her video for “I Like It” — her second No. 1 record featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin — and Maroon 5’s video for “Girls Like You,” which also went No. 1 and on which Cardi features, reached one billion views in 2019.

Cardi recently revealed that despite its popularity, “Bodak Yellow” was relatively inexpensive as far as music videos go. “Fun fact: ‘Bodak Yellow’ music video cost me 15 thousand dollars,” she tweeted back in January. “I was in Dubai and I said… I gotta fly Picture (videographer) out here… BOOM BOOM BANG! Ya know the rest.” By comparison, her more recent videos, like the ones for “Money” and “WAP,” cost astronomically more — $400,000 and $1 million, respectively.

More recently, Cardi B appeared in the video for Normani’s new single “Wild Side,” but was forced to tone down her performance as a result of her pregnancy. She’s also working on her second album as well as her second child.

Check out the video for “Bodak Yellow” above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Ted Lasso Power Rankings are a weekly analysis of who and/or what had the strongest performance in each episode. Most of the list will feature individual characters, although the committee does reserve the right to honor anything from animals to inanimate objects to laws of nature to general concepts. There are very few rules here.

Season 2, Episode 2 — Lavender

Honorable Mention: Frank Sinatra (skewed mercurial); dads, generally (some good, some less so); Jamie’s agents (spin-off); Rebecca (gonna need her to have a standalone episode at some point); Higgins (he’s a sweet man but it seems fitting in a very specific way to leave him out of the listings proper); Laughing Liam (AH AH HAH AH); Emily’s mom (a good egg); Ted Danson, JLD, Dave Grohl (Midas touch); Dani Rojas (physically pains me to remove him from the top ten); Nate (needs to chill out a little)

10. Jamie (Last Week: 7)

Tough week for Jamie across the board. Booted off his reality show, booted off of Manchester’s roster, laughed at by his agents, etc etc. Real existential crisis for old Jamie Tartt, one that culminated in a heart-to-heart with Ted in a bar where they talked about dads and soccer and other things two guys talk about over beers. The whole thing got quite biblical by the end, and I mean that literally, because once he rejoined the team in the final moments of the episode, it all straight-up mirrored the story of the Prodigal Son.

Pardon me for a second while I blow an inch of dust off of my old Sunday School Bible here, but that story goes something like this: A father has two sons, a well-behaved older one and a wildass younger one. The older one stays to work the fields and help the family and the younger one runs off to cavort with prostitutes and reprobates. Eventually, the younger one runs out of money and spirit and comes home, where the father greets him with open arms and celebrations. We pick up the story there:

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Ted is the dad, Sam is the older son, Jamie is the young delinquent. It works out almost perfectly. The only thing missing is Ted slaughtering a cow to celebrate. But that would have been weird. Jamie just found out George Harrison died. I’m not sure he’s ready to watch his coach slit a farm animal’s throat on the pitch. Maybe next week.

9. Danthony (Last Week: Not ranked)

I mean, I can’t very well rank Danthony below Jamie, can I? Not when Jamie got voted off before him. Rules are rules here.

8. Sam (Last Week: Not ranked)

Big rollercoaster week for Sam. Threw a little tantrum on the pitch about Jamie coming back, was assured that Jamie was not coming back, smiled and told Ted a sweet thing about his dad, then watched Jamie waltz back in any way to steal his thunder. He has a right to be upset on this one, I think. At Ted, specifically. Especially if, as it appears, Ted did not double back and tell him about the 180 on Jamie’s return. Communication is key.

Which brings up a good point: What the heck, Ted? It kind of looked like he just went ahead and made the decision unilaterally, which is, I suppose, depending on the language in his contract, his right, but still. At least tell the other coaches. At least tell Sam you’ve changed your mind after that heart-to-heart about being a leader. This might be the angriest I’ve ever been at Ted Lasso, even if he made the decision with kindness and understanding in his heart. Come on, man.

7. Will the Kit Man (Last Week: Not ranked)

My sweet boy. Just running around making things smell and taste nice. Turning the clubhouse into a day spa. I hope by episode four he has Dani in a charcoal mask with cucumber slices over his eyes. Like, on the bench, during the game. He just wants to help. I love him very much.

6. Ted (Last Week: 9)

Ted is inching closer and closer to that sit-down with Doctor “Okay, Fine, Call Me Doc If You Must” Sharon, a woman who sees straight through him as though he were a freshly washed window pane. This will be interesting for a lot of reasons, starting with Ted never really, truly coming to terms with his own post-divorce life and continuing on to the way he’s thrown himself completely into his job and helping the people around him while pushing down what appears to be a tiny, dark, bubbling little demon. It’s going to be a whole thing. The prediction here is that Ted will cry at some point. Write that down.

But there is a silver lining in it all: As long as the team doesn’t sell its lawnmower, he’ll always have at least one source of unfiltered joy in his life. It’s the little things, sometimes.

5. Mae (Last Week: Not ranked)

Love Mae. Runs the bar with an iron fist but has a heart made of solid gold. There’s a long list of characters on this show whose origin stories I would like to see explored in a Mythic Quest-style standalone episode (Higgins, Roy, Keeley, Nate, Rebecca), but none rank higher than Mae. Nothing would surprise me about her. The next episode could start with her polishing a silver medal she won for pole vaulting in the 1972 Olympics and I’d be like “Yeah, I can see it.”

4. Dr. Sharon (Last Week: 2)

While I cannot approve of anyone who has a blanket prohibition on sugar for any non-medical reason, I do appreciate the power move of taking one bite of a homemade biscuit and then placing it back in the box and handing the whole thing back to the person who gave it to you. Bold. Strong. Dr. Sharon fascinates me. I must know everything about her at once.

Also, I hope, more than anything else related to the second season of this show, the story she told about swearing off sugar because it makes her an unhinged lunatic ends up being a Chekhov’s Gun situation and we get to see her on a saccharine bender for the ages before the credits hit in the season finale. Like, swinging on a chandelier in Buckingham Palace. Arrested by the palace guards. The whole thing. Give Sharon a cupcake and watch her rage.

3. Keeley (Last Week: Not ranked)

Keeley might be the most consistent performer on the show. Rarely too high, rarely too low. Just giving good advice and having various world-famous athletes pleasure her. It’s a solid gig if you can get it. Good for her.

2. Roy (Last Week: 8)

I like that the show has already figured out what to do with a post-career Roy and I like that the answer turned out to be “have him cuss a lot in situations where one is not supposed to cuss in polite society.” Coaching a youth soccer team? Roy is letting an eff-bomb fly. On national television as a pundit? Get the bleeper ready, lads. He’s like Charles Barkley but bearded and even less censored. I appreciate this greatly. I hope the entire season charts his rise as a television phenomenon — complete with one of those montages where newspapers spin toward the camera and reveal headlines like “Ex-Footballer Becomes Telly Sensation” and “Roy Kent Tells It Like It Is” — and I hope he ends up with his own daytime talk show on the BBC. I know I just said this last week but I’m going to keep saying it until it happens. I will type this into existence.

1. Coach Beard (Last Week: 1)

See, you would think that Coach Beard might get bumped from the top spot after we learned that he’s been sleeping in the clubhouse because his chess partner and lover heaved his keys into a river during a quarrel. That’s not an unreasonable thing to think.

But you would be wrong. It only makes me love him more. Number one.

Sony Pictures surprised fans by dropping a new Venom: Let There Be Carnage trailer on Monday morning, when fans received the closest look yet at Woody Harrelson’s Carnage, and man, were folks feeling the film’s take on Venom’s deadliest enemy. Within minutes of the trailer‘s release, Carnage fans were going wild on social media with their reactions. From Harrleson’s transformation into the blood red symbiote to his badass strut in the middle of a brutal prison break.

You can check out the reactions below:

After the first trailer gave Venom fans a small taste of Carnage, sequel director Andy Serkis revealed that the classic Marvel villain will have a new power when he makes his live-action debut this fall.

“He can turn to mist. He can turn to all manner of tendrils. He can take different forms. He can weaponize, he can do all of these different things,” Serkis told IGN while explaining why Venom will have his work cut out for him. “It would be like trying to have a fight with an octopus basically.”

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Tom Hardy returns to the big screen as the lethal protector Venom, one of Marvel’s greatest and most complex characters. Directed by Andy Serkis, the film also stars Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris and Woody Harrelson, in the role of the villain Cletus Kasady/Carnage. Directed by Andy Serkis, the film also stars Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris and Woody Harrelson, in the role of the villain Cletus Kasady/Carnage.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens on September 24.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

When it comes to legendary musicians, critics love to talk about their phases. Massive discographies get split up over time, catalogued into sections that are defined by sound, style, and era, each segment parceled out neatly for listeners to engage with. And though it’s only her second album, on Happier Than Ever, Billie Eilish has already ushered in a completely new phase — one that manages to sound absolutely pitch-perfect without negating her prior work. Shifting away from the eerie trap beats and ASMR pop that completely defined When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, this rising star cemented herself as the important element, everything else can be swapped out with apparent ease. Billie remains.

Happier Than Ever is a jazzy, sometimes too-slow, incredibly self-serious project, one that repurposes her righteous viral monologues and hindu poems with equal dexterity, Finneas’ golden touch mitigating the potential clunkiness of either. It’s hard to imagine another teenage pop star releasing a record that cites influences like Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee as major touchstones, let alone turning a slew of songs with the sonic palette of a jazz standards songbook into a commercially successful pop project, but she’s done just that. As different as her new blonde hair and doe-eyed promo photos are from her previous green locks and blank stares, the songs on this second album delve into sex, physical intimacy, trauma, lust, and abandonment in a way that’s leaps and bounds beyond the lyrics on her debut. It’s only been two years, but in Billie’s world, everything has changed.

And even if her personal life did drastically shift with the increased fame brought on by her first record and its record-breaking critical acclaim — the pressure of the spotlight is usually mentioned second-hand here, as an interruption of or hindrance to her relationships. Happier Than Ever gets into sex and physical intimacy right off the bat, with the slinky “Billie Bossa Nova” giving us “Girl From Ipanema” for the iPhone era. On an even more explicit standout, the insatiable “Oxytocin,” Billie imagines God watching her and a hookup do “bad things,” while other tracks like “OverHeated” and “Halley’s Comet” get at long-distance relationships, desirability, and body image in more roundabout ways.

Since fans have already heard a good portion of singles off the record — “Therefore I Am,” “My Future,” “Your Power,” “Lost Cause,” and “NDA” just a few days ago — it wouldn’t be surprising if the rest of the album paled in comparison to these predecessors. But that isn’t the case at all. Those songs are strong, but other more reflective tracks like album opener “Getting Older” and the title track examine complex feelings of mortality, freedom, and toxic relationships, “Everybody Dies” is akin to the Bond theme song Billie and Finneas released in 2019, “No Time To Die,” reflecting on loneliness that bleeds into existential themes.

Disappointment with men and relationships is a common thread throughout the album, with album closer “Male Fantasy” in particular skewering the still-prevalent double standards that impact young women, even if they’re as powerful as Billie Eilish. But Billie is at her best when she’s focusing on herself, and her behavior, instead of the unsurprising reality that men can’t live up to her standards. This perspective shift is clear in the album’s title, too, which seemed to sardonically hint at life after her debut album’s success, but is actually about feeling better now that a certain someone is no longer in her life. Not quite a breakup album, Happier manages to touch on all kinds of relational themes, as the swaggering “Therefore I Am” alluded to all the way back in fall of 2019. The bulk of these songs aren’t sad, or mad, but disappointed, and refocused on loving and understanding herself.

And even with the album’s heavy jazz and piano, little flourishes of percussion and fuzz keep the record from feeling sleepy or retro, another indication that Finneas might be the next super producer of our time. Take the massive Yeezus crescendo on “NDA,” or even the disco-funk embedded in the middle of “My Future” as proof that he can still insert subtle flexes, even within super-specific boundaries. Billie’s vocals, too, are feathery and treated with the same jaw-dropping precision that made her debut stand out so quickly. Maybe that’s why it’s so easy to take her lyrics to heart — the vocals are always the most important element in the mix. Even so, it’s likely that her palette for this album will be just that, a single project sound that’s quickly replaced for her next release. But if she moves as smoothly and assuredly into the next era, it won’t matter if it’s metal, musical theater, or even country. Because it will still be Billie. Clearly, all she needs is herself.

Happier Than Ever is out now via Darkroom Records/Interscope. Get it here.