Month: March 2022

The last we heard from Dan Bejar, it was early 2020 and he was touring behind a spooky and prescient Destroyer album, Have We Met. A sinister work rife with apocalyptic warnings about the future, the album hit almost too close to home when, just over one month after it was released, the world was forced to shut down due to Covid-19.

If the Vancouver native earned some credibility as an oracle on the last Destroyer LP, his latest effort, Labyrinthitis (due out March 25) points in a more upbeat direction. While the lyrics contain some of the darkest lines of Bejar’s career — so dark that Bejar talks about “the singer” on this record in the third person — the music grooves hard, drawing on an unlikely but somehow compatible combination of influences drawn from techno and rave cultures as well as gloomily catchy ’80s English alt-rock bands like New Order and The Cure. It’s similar to the musical palettes utilized on Have We Met and 2017’s Ken — Bejar considers Labyrinthitis the concluding part of a trilogy with those records — but on the new album there’s a greater feeling of exuberance. It surely is the most danceable music Destroyer has yet made.

Bejar’s latest musical direction is informed, in part, by his desire to get back on the road after a two-year break. The physicality of these songs — which, at one point in our interview, he likened (I think seriously) to the German industrial act Rammstein — ought to really pay off in a concert setting. But even on record, Labyrinthitis is yet another example of Bejar’s consistent ability (exhibited over the course of more than 25 years) to make excellent new music that doesn’t repeat what he’s done in the past. Six months shy of his 50th birthday, he remains one of indie’s most interesting, vital, and unique voices.

He’s also, despite his dour image, a very funny conversationalist, which I discovered yet again when we connected recently over Zoom to talk about Labyrinthitis, Van Morrison’s bonkers Covid era phase, whether he should make a bluesy Americana record, and his grumpy reputation.

Pitchfork once called you indie rock’s most lovable curmudgeon. Do you take that as a compliment?

[Pauses] No, I don’t.

Why do you think you are considered a curmudgeon? I’ve interviewed you before, and I don’t really feel like you are. I think you’re a pretty funny guy actually, but where do you think that perception comes from?

I don’t know. Maybe it has different meanings to different generations. It could even have a different meaning to an American person versus an English person, or someone in between like a Canadian person.

I don’t see myself as grumpy. Maybe that’s what I am, or that’s how I come off, which is unfortunate. I think there was a time when I was younger that I got off on being critical of things and trying to voice that in a poetic way, in a way that didn’t usually show up in rock songs. But I’m not sure it was any more than, say, a Mott The Hoople song.

I would say I’ve noticed there’s a general posi — to use the language of the kids — like a posi vibe out there on the internet and in media in general. So maybe I don’t fit in, or maybe it just stands out like that. Maybe I’m negative. I don’t know.

To be fair, they did also say “lovable.”

I don’t see being negative and being curmudgeonly as being the same thing. Curmudgeonly is more like those two dudes in the Muppets up in the balcony.

I think you’re right that there has been a shift to a kind of sanctioned positivity, especially about mainstream culture. Whereas in the past, making fun of mainstream culture made you discerning, rather than curmudgeonly.

I have a lot of what would still be seen as kind of ’90s stances or hangups, which I guess would be seen as curmudgeonly. But to me they’re just what me and my scene took for granted as being normal ways of looking at the world, and maybe it’s really outdated and actually maybe there is shit wrong with it. But it’s kind of the natural place that I come from, you know?

At this point in your life, do you feel pressure or an obligation to keep up? Do you follow the news closely? Do you try to watch the most zeitgeist-y movies or television shows?

I’ve always been really into discovering new music, new movies, new books, to the point where if I don’t find something that speaks to me out there, I get kind of depressed. But there’s a slew records that just came out. For instance, there’s this movie that is getting a lot of attention that came out last year called Drive My Car. I saw it a month or two ago and the soundtrack came out recently, and I feel like I’ve been playing it every single day. I love it. Aside from that, the Cate Le Bon record that just came out, it’s really good.

I really didn’t start looking at the news until around March 13, 2020. And then, like everyone, I started being slightly obsessive about it. I’m coming out of that a little bit.

Your new album is called Labyrinthitis, which I assumed at first was a made-up word. But then I Googled it and learned that it’s a term for an inflammation of the inner ear. Why did you name your album after an inflammation of the inner ear?

I was in a bit of a health spiral. I was suffering at one point last year from what I thought was a really aggravated case of tinnitus, to the point where my ears were ringing badly. I couldn’t really listen to music. I wasn’t really reading. It even affected my vision. I would get bouts of vertigo, which I still seem to be having a little bit.

I was like, “What the fuck is this?” And I looked it up, and I remember looking at the word and being like, “This seems fake.” It seemed like a word that Kafka would make up, an invented affliction.

All Destroyer titles are usually me just liking the look of the word. Kaputt was the same way, really independent of its meaning. But increasingly with this record, as we worked on it, I found it more and more disorienting and confusing to me. I felt myself lost inside of it, and I thought that fit well with a word which, when you first look at it, could mean someone who’s addicted to mazes, or someone who chronically takes the wrong turn. Like chronic disorientation. It’s an aggro-disease title that reminded me of Tool or System of a Down. I thought there’d be a couple of songs on the album that might go in that direction. But that wasn’t really the case. There is one that kind of reminds me of Rammstein a little bit.

Which song reminds you of Rammstein?

“Tintoretto, It’s for You.” That seems like very much John Collins running away with a song and me being excited by the momentum of his vision.

But I liked the sound of Labyrinthitis. It could be a prog-metal title, or it could be questionable ’90s electronica, or it could jazz fusion. It seemed to span all these questionable forms, which I like the idea of dabbling in, at least on a words level.

It’s interesting that you were going through some health issues while making this album, because I feel like it’s one of your most physical records. The songs really groove to the point where you can actually dance to them.

I really don’t want to play up anything that I was going through because it was a phase and it happened pretty late in the day. The initial conversations I had with John when we first talked about doing a record again — which really came out of nowhere, I wasn’t expecting to do another one with him — was about doing a full-on techno record. Just have a 4/4 beat that runs through Side A, and then another 4/4 beat that runs through Side B. We didn’t do that, but there was a notion to keep the songs fast, and to keep the production in your face. It’s a lot less minimal than Have We Met. There’s really very little downtime. That was the idea from day one — keep things jarring, and to a certain extent, cartoonish.

Why did you initially want to make a techno record?

For a really long time, I’ve thought that a steady beat was my best accompaniment as a singer. Just to have a basic slamming beat with some kind of bass that’s really present in your face, and some sound effects, and me crooning along seems like an easy recipe. But neither one of us listen to techno music and it’s actually a lot harder to do than just saying it out loud, or saying it in a text or an email.

The album also has a New Order/The Cure vibe.

That music is definitely stuff that’s coursing through me, and it’s come out in the last three albums. They’re probably of a piece — Ken, Have We Met, and Labyrinthitis. It just so happened that I landed on John Hughes soundtracks and things like that. And for John, he really liked the idea of going into Art of Noise territory, and the kind of stuff that Trevor Horn would do when it came to arrangements.

I will say — I don’t know if I say this with every album — but I will say this record is the most distant from what our starting point was. Some of the songs, I don’t exactly know where they come from.

I don’t know if “optimistic” is the right word, but Labyrinthitis certainly seems more upbeat than Have We Met.

Have We Met had a strict mandate. The main mantra was keep it dark, keep it depressing, and be more depressing.

For this one, it was more Spike Jones, more Carl Stalling. Just more absurdist and more aggro. That being said, I find it to be maybe the darkest Destroyer record when I listen to it as a whole. The singer seems to be at least 60 percent of the time singing from the vantage point of a petty villain, or an evil sidekick. Just not a likable person. Someone who insults children and points at people and revels in their pain. That’s a strange character to sing from. I feel like that’s a kind of a persona that’s creeped into Destroyer songs in the past, in lines here and there, but it has never been so sustained as on this album.

It’s definitely dark, but there’s an exuberance to it. You see villains on-screen and there’s usually something electric about their presence. Labyrinthitis has that same vibe.

I find the exuberance mixed with what I’m actually saying to be even more disconcerting. Like the song “Suffer,” it’s about suffering, murder, terrible acts. But the music has this mid-’90s Glastonbury vibe, which is unsettling to me. It almost makes what I’m saying, instead of cautionary, downright immoral. Like an immoral song. As opposed to a song like “Kinda Dark” off Have We Met, which was foreboding and kind of nightmarish, but also the music reflected that. It wasn’t a party anthem about terrible shit.

Before you talked about “the singer” on this record in the third person. Do you normally separate yourself from what you’re doing on Destroyer records? Or is this record a unique case?

It’s hard to say. Definitely there are songs where I feel like I’m assuming a voice, by collecting a certain style of words or collecting a certain group of images that I take on. I sing it from a kind of persona I don’t totally recognize as myself. Maybe I’m doing that more and more, which is kind of disconcerting.

The first song [“It’s In Your Heart Now”] is kind of dreamy and in a lot of ways very heartfelt. And the last song [“The Last Song”] is supposed to be a tonic, like a palate cleanser, even though it’s really solemn. In between is all this stuff that is more like what we were talking about. Like characters in a crumbling world. The second to last song is filled with autobiographical stuff, probably moreso than any song I’ve ever written. But I don’t know if that makes it necessarily personal.

You’re referring to “The States.”

It’s very much about being stuck at some bus station in the middle of nowhere, lying your way across the border, packing your bags and splitting from Montreal, packing your bags and splitting for Spain, thinking that your life will somehow be different but it’s not.

You were in the middle of a tour when Covid hit. How did you feel about being on lockdown?

Every year I become more hermetic and so I was like, “Oh, I can do this standing on my head.” But I probably was accumulating anxiety in ways that I didn’t know. You know, just thinking about sickness more than I ever have, thinking about things that I’m really attached to that I could never do or see again. Just the world all of a sudden becoming a very strange and disorienting place, which is something I’ve always liked to write about. In a lot of ways, Have We Met scans as a Covid record way more than this one. Even thought it was written and made before I knew what Covid was.

To be crass and superficial about it — considering the kind of loss of life and just the amount of pain that the last two years has caused — in Destroyer world, the tour was going really well. Probably our best tour. I haven’t been in a room with those guys for two years now. That part was a drag. I started to wonder if I’d ever see a live show again, let alone play one. The more the world dabbled in normalcy in opening up, I was like, “Who the fuck cares?” If I can’t wander into a random bar and see a bunch of people making noise up on a stage, the world doesn’t interest me that much. I don’t care if you can go play racketball or whatever.

I was starting to become really embittered at that idea. I hope the singer —I will refer to that person on Labyrinthitis as “the singer” — doesn’t come across as too embittered because that can come off as curmudgeonly.

The physicality of this record suggests to me that you made it with the hope of playing these songs live in front of an audience.

I wasn’t interested in making a record that reflected any kind of solitary existence. I don’t think the record sounds like someone really embracing society, but it definitely embraces cacophony and I’m ready for volume, even though it might make me fall down. I think I was really fetishizing those things.

The record is kind of complicated. I actually don’t know how we’re going to do it, but I do know that the band has it in them to do it. I know that they’re hungry for it, so I’m pretty excited about it. I will say the last two years has made me realize how important the live experience is. Even if it is just us in a room by ourselves, playing music with people is increasingly more important to me. I think my rep was I was really shy about it, and I do still have anxiety around it. But I think about playing songs with people all the time.

I thought it was interesting that the documentary about the Have We Met tour seems to show every aspect of tour life except playing live. It seems like a deliberately boring film.

I didn’t have anything to do with the making of that movie. I think when [director David] Galloway first said that he wanted to do it, I was like, “Well, you have to stay out of the band’s face, so you can’t come backstage. And you can’t come on the bus, and you have to do it as if you were going to do it whether I said you could do it or not. It has to be a guerilla operation.” The only music in it is us trying to learn Lou Reed’s “Ecstasy” during a soundcheck, and I don’t even know if you see us.

The dramatic high point of the film is you eating a sandwich.

That’s the one staged thing. That was like, “We’re going to film you eating a sandwich. Are you cool with that?” I was like, “Okay, this I’m going to give to you.” And I ordered a Philly cheesesteak in Philadelphia and ate it.

The drama for me was, “Is he going to finish the Diet Coke or not?” And I think you left about a quarter of the Diet Coke in the bottle.

I definitely suffered for my art during that scene.

I know you’re a fan of Van Morrison, so I’m curious if you listened to his most recent album, Latest Record Project, Volume 1, and if you had any thoughts on it.

I haven’t listened to it. Aside from being blown away by the title, which struck me as magnificent, I’m trying not to be on the side of that guy right now. Just because I don’t know if it’s any good; surely it can’t be as good as Born to Sing: No Plan B. Also, if I put it on there are people in my house who would just unplug the stereo and throw it out the window, because, you know, fuck that guy. The last thing we need is more rich old men just spreading contempt in the world.

I will say, as someone who has heard it, that if you ignore the lyrics his voice sounds really good.

His vocals in his senior years, his senior discount years, they’re good. It’s undeniable.

As artists like Van Morrison and Bob Dylan have gotten older, they’ve leaned more into traditional music styles: blues, folk, country. You’ve never delved into that kind of music. Do you have any interest in ever experimenting with those ancient forms?

I think about it sometimes, but just as a way to get played on NPR, honestly. As someone now turning 50, as a mature musician, if I just keep on cranking out new wave art-rock records, I’ll probably be punished for it. It’s fun to plug myself, the few times I’ve done it, into uncanny situations. So I guess that would mean making a rockabilly record.

There are a couple of bluesy songs I’ve tried to write in the past, probably when I was deep under the spell of Bob Dylan or Van Morrison. It’d be kind of funny to steer into that. Every second that I don’t somehow turn this aging outfit into a roots or folk band is literally endangering the life of my daughter. I’m literally stealing food from her mouth. The sooner I do that, I’m sure the better. At least as far as American and U.K. music scenes are concerned. There’s no real path forward if I don’t somehow take on a gentle rootsy form of music. Unless I just go full U2, but you have to be a stadium act to do that.

I think you have another 10 years.

Age 60 is the new 50?

Exactly. At that point, however, you’ll have to start wearing a fedora on stage. But you’ll otherwise be grizzled enough to pull off a bluesy turn.

For me, the more feasible angle, and something I’ve kind of gotten into recently, which is not music I’ve listened to since I was a teenager, would be Tom Waits. “Tintoretto, It’s for You” really was supposed to be more like a Tom Waits song, just run through a distortion pedal. It ended up being something else. But if you actually isolate the vocal, and if you actually heard the original electric piano that I play, you’d be like, “Oh yeah, that’s kind of like Bejar doing Small Change or Blue Valentine.” It just kind of disappeared in our treatment of the song, but I might have my revenge on the band and do a bunch of songs like that, where they just have to play it in barfly mode.

All kidding aside: Do you see yourself still making records when you’re in your 70s?

I picture myself doing something, and I do like playing with a band, and I like recording music. I just feel like there’s stuff that I write that doesn’t get used because it makes no sense as song language. Maybe someday I’d like to steer into that. I just don’t really know-how. There’s also music that I tool around with that doesn’t come out as verse-chorus kind of songs. I don’t know what to do with that.

I’m still in this mode of singing, and thinking of myself as a singer-songwriter, which is good because I’m kind of traditional that way. But at the same time, it would be cool to bust out of that in a deranged, old man kind of way.

Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.

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10. (tie) Severance (Apple TV Plus)

“Am I livestock?” Who among us hasn’t asked ourselves that question while grazing amongst the cubicles at work? But the workplace in Severance (a new Adam Scott starring and Ben Stiller produced Apple TV+ series) is a little different, running workers through a process that effectively breaks people in two with zero crossovers between their work life and non-work life. Sound ideal in a world where work stresses bleed into home life and Sunday scarys seem to always kneecap your weekend? Perhaps in some respects. Susan from HR probably LOVES the idea, seeing it as the ultimate NDA, but as the show is set to explore, it’s a less tidy experience that raises all kinds of questions about what happens when people are severed from the awful things they might be asked to do at work. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.

10. (tie) Inventing Anna (Netflix)

As if Julia Garner didn’t already rule the small screen in Ozark, we’re getting another heaping helping of her. This time, though, the tight corkscrew curls are hidden while Garner portrays Anna Delvey, a real-life Instagram “legend” and fake German heiress. In reality, Delvey was a master con artist who captivated New York’s social elite and ended up dragging the hell out of the American dream in the process. This Shondaland limited series follows the investigation into Anna’s misdeeds, along with how she stares down trial and keeps those lies alive, all as inspired by Jessica Pressler’s New York Magazine article that will get you primed. Watch it on Netflix.

9. The Boys: Diabolical (Amazon)

While we all wait for the flagship series’ third season, this animated series will be kind-of canon and bring us backstories for some familiar faces and an array of new characters in outrageous, bloody, and violent scenarios with all of the gore and humor that we’re used to from this franchise. There’s plenty of Homelander and some of The Deep, and the voice cast is more than any comic book fan could hope for. Not only do we get to hear Antony Starr, Chase Crawford, Colby Minifie, and Elisabeth Shue but also Awkwafina, Don Cheadle, Kieran Culkin, Giancarlo Esposito, Justin Roiland, Seth Rogen, and Andy Samberg. Watch it on Amazon.

8. Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max)

A pirate comedy starring Taika Waititi, Rhys Darby, Leslie Jones, and Hodor from Game of Thrones? Don’t mind if I do. Our Flag Means Death is about an 18th-century aristocrat (Darby) who gives up whatever aristocrats do to become a swashbuckler alongside Blackbeard (Waititi). If it’s anything like What We Do in the Shadows but with pirates, prepare to be… Hook-ed. Watch it on HBO Max.

7. Killing Eve (AMC Plus)

Last season ended with winners and losers aplenty. And c’mon, you didn’t think that Villanelle and Eve would be able to get along in the long term, right? Imagine what domestic life would be like for these two. A former MI6 officer and an assassin who can’t give up the life (or the luxury trappings) are as ill-equipped for reality as Westley and Buttercup in The Princess Bride. Yet there’s no reason why they’ll be able to resist each other forever, but Eve is hellbent upon revenge this season while Villanelle desperately wants to prove that she’s not a “monster.” Good luck to both of them. Watch it on AMC Plus.

6. The Dropout (Hulu)

A podcast. A documentary. A book. And soon, a feature-length film. There’s a reason Hollywood can’t get enough of Elizabeth Holmes, the fraudster who scammed millions and left a black mark on Silicon Valley – one likely in the shape of a Steve Jobs-esque turtle neck. Con artists sell, especially when they’re young, white women promising inventions meant to save millions of lives, and Holmes’ story is bigger, ballsier, and more unbelievable than most. Hulu’s The Dropout does a good job of retracing the most important plot points: the creation of Theranos, the realization that Holmes’ at-home blood-testing concept wouldn’t work, the delusional sense of grandeur that pushed her to criminally defraud every from Bernie Madoff to Henry Kissinger and Walgreens, and the very public downfall that would follow. But what the show really excels at is digging under the skin of a megalomaniac in-training, tasking a top-of-her-game Amanda Seyfried with turning Holmes’ most incomprehensible actions into ones we can empathize with, balancing her hollow sense of ambition with the very real anxieties and societal pressures she faced as a 20-something woman trying to start her own company. The Dropout is a wild, bloody, drama-filled train that always feels like it’s teetering on the edge of the track … but that’s kind of what we want, right? Watch it on Hulu.

5. Minx (HBO Max)

We are going back in time, again, this time to the 1970s, again, to see the dawn of an erotic magazine made specifically for women. That sounds fun. It also co-stars Jake Johnson from New Girl as a seedy pornographer who wears shirts unbuttoned halfway to his navel, which sounds… really fun. Worth a shot, at the very least. Watch it on HBO Max.

4. DMZ (HBO Max)

A second civil war breaks out in America and Manhattan becomes a demilitarized zone. A nurse played by Rosario Dawson becomes a national symbol of hope as she searches for her missing zone. Pretty validating for those of us who have always assumed the country will eventually tear itself apart and Rosario Dawson will be the only one who can bring it back together. Watch it on HBO Max.

3. Human Resources (Netflix)

Do you enjoy Big Mouth, the Netflix animated series where a bunch or horny teens are mentored and/or terrorized by teams of very literal fur-covered hormone monsters, some of whom are voiced by Nick Kroll and Maya Rudolph and David Thewlis? You probably do, because Big Mouth is awesome. And now it has this spinoff, which focuses exclusively on the hormone monsters working in their office behind the scenes. It’s a fun idea, made by people who are good at this. That’s all you can really ask for sometimes. Watch it on Netflix.

2. WeCrashed (Apple TV)

Jared Leto is doing his doing his Jared Leto thing in this biopic about the meteoric rise (and shocking downfall) of WeWork founder Adam Neumann. And by that we mean he’s wearing a ton of prosthetics, sporting an indiscernible European accent, and spouting off instantly iconic one-liners. Anne Hathaway’s here too, fighting for dominance in a patriarchal start-up world, but if anything got us to buy into the hype of this latest scammer-saga it’s Leto’s declaration: “I am a Golden Goose laying golden eggs!” No really, that is an actual line he says in the show. Watch it on Apple TV.

1. Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (HBO)

If you think about it, Winning Time (HBO’s new Adam McKay-produced series about the 1980s LA Lakers) has all the elements of a classic heist movie. Assembled by a larger than life fast talker with equally big ambitions (in this case, former Lakers owner Jerry Buss), a rag-tag group comes together, leaning on their exceptional and unique talents to paper over any personality conflicts that might arise while taking the thing (a whole mess of gold trophies) no one thought they’d ever get their hands on. This while having some wild misadventures along the way. We’re simplifying, of course, but the point is this should appeal to basketball fans and non-basketball fans alike, earning the right to be the most buzzed-about piece of basketball culture crossover content since The Last Dance helped us all stave off boredom for a few months by telling the story of another mismatched group of big personalities and champions. Watch it on HBO.

Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.

10. (tie) The Power of the Dog (Netflix)

Benedict Cumberbatch gives a villainous performance for the ages in The Power of the Dog, the first film in 12 years from director Jane Campion. The western is expected (and deserves) to be an Oscars frontrunner, so hop on the horse-drawn bandwagon now. Watch it on Netflix.

10. (tie) Don’t Look Up (Netflix)

Jennifer Lawrence is back in Don’t Look Up, Adam McKay’s apocalyptic satire about two low-level astronomers (J-Law and Leonardo DiCaprio) who try to warn everyone on Earth about an approaching comet — but no one seems to care. The ensemble cast also includes Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Ariana Grande, Timothée Chalamet, Cate Blanchett, and Tyler Perry. Maybe that’s why no one cares about the comet. They’re too busy looking at all those stars. Watch it on Netflix.

10. (tie) Marry Me (Peacock)

Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson star as a preposterously attractive couple who get together after her character — one half of a global sensation pop duo — discovers her lover and music partner has been stepping out. That’s right, it is rom-com time over here. Will they? Won’t they? Whose hair will look better in the pivotal scene that will probably take place in the driving rain? There’s one way to find out: Grab some popcorn and comfy pajamas and set up shop on the couch. Watch it on Peacock.

9. Kimi (HBO Max)

Zoe Kravitz plays a stay-at-home digital detective in this latest thriller from Steven Soderbergh who — with the help of her friendly A.I. sidekick Kimi — uncovers a string of murders she traces back to the company she works for. She then must venture out into a pandemic-ridden Seattle in search of the reason why. Honestly, we can’t relate. But, Kravitz is quickly becoming a bonafide action star and a Soderbergh script rarely disappoints. Watch it on HBO Max.

8. Windfall (Netflix)

Let’s go straight to the official description of this one: “A man breaks into a tech billionaire’s empty vacation home, but things go sideways when the arrogant mogul and his wife arrive for a last-minute getaway.” Hmm. Intriguing. As is the cast, which features Jesse Plemons and Lily Collins and Jason Segel. We could tell you who plays the arrogant CEO and who plays the thief. You could look it up, too. But, really, either way would work just fine. Watch it on Netflix.

7. Cheaper By the Dozen (Disney Plus)

Well, guess what: It’s a remake of the 2003 classic with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, which was itself a remake of a film from 1950, only this time is stars Zach Braff and Gabrielle Union as the flustered parents and can be found on Disney Plus, a service that did not even almost exist when the other versions came out. Which is fine. Time marches on. And this one is written and produced by Kenya Barris from Black-ish, which is also fine. Good, even. Round up the family and grab some snacks. Watch it on Disney Plus.

6. Master (Amazon Prime)

The only thing more terrifying than the haunted hallways of Ancaster College in this Amazon Prime flick is the real-life social justice issues it contends with – concepts like diversity-inclusion efforts and systemic racism that feel just as suffocating as the specter haunting these plush Ivy League corridors. In that way, Master is a lot like Get Out. It’s a horror movie with something important to say. It’s also led by the terrific yet underrated Regina Hall who proves she can carry a thriller as easy as anything else she’s done. If the thought of going back to school scares you now, just wait until you watch this thing. Watch it on Amazon Prime.

5. Phoenix Rising (HBO Max)

It’s not the easiest documentary to watch, but it’s an important one to witness. Evan Rachel Wood’s advocacy for sexual assault survivors, including her lobbying for The Phoenix Act in California, takes center stage. In addition, this two-parter takes a startling look at what led Wood to come forward in 2021 to name Marilyn Manson (real name Brian Warner) as her alleged abuser. Director Amy Berg takes an unflinching look at her subject matter while bringing visibility to survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. Watch it on HBO Max.

4. The Adam Project (Netflix)

Ryan Reynolds plays Mark Ruffalo’s time-traveling son, so there’s a little MCU crossover there for you before Deadpool makes his possibly sooner than expected MCU return. They’re going to save the future, of course, and this film also has Ruffalo’s 13 Going On 30 co-star, Jennifer Garner, so there’s reteaming aplenty here. Expect both family drama and romance and drama across four dimensions. Watch it on Netflix.

3. West Side Story (Disney Plus)

Steven Spielberg brings the classic musical to the big and/or small screen, to the delight of both older fans and newer ones who get to experience it all for the first time. Get in there. Really let the experience wash over you. Sing along. Dance around your living room. Get in a knife fight with your sworn enemy. Okay, maybe not that last one. But the other ones, definitely. Watch it on Disney Plus.

2. Turning Red (Disney Plus)

In Domee Shi’s Turning Red, a boy band-loving teenage girl turns into a red panda whenever she experiences strong emotions, which as every parent of a teenager knows all too well, is often. Too often. It’s all the time, really. Turning Red is being called Pixar’s best movie in years, as it should. It’s about time red pandas got the cinematic showcase they deserve. Watch it on Disney Plus.

1. Deep Water (Hulu)

Deep Water is an erotic thriller that stars Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas as… honestly, what more do you need? It’s a “weird, wild mess” of a movie from the director of Fatal Attraction and Unfaithful, with a murder mystery, duplicitous characters, and Affleck as an alpha cuck. Deep Water is the kind of sleazy mainstream movie that rarely gets made anymore, so it feels like a sexy treat that it even exists (from Disney, no less). Break out your Ana de Armas cardboard cutout and make it a double feature with Basic Instinct. Watch it on Hulu.

The Boys star Karen Fukuhara has revealed that she was the victim of an apparent anti-Asian hate crime this week while walking outside of a cafe. According to a post on Fukuhara’s Instagram, the actress was “struck in the head by a man,” and the experience has prompted her to speak out on holding perpetrators accountable as well as raising awareness that these attacks are happening, often because of anti-Asian rhetoric spread during the pandemic.

“This sh*t needs to stop,” Fukuhara wrote. “Us women, Asians, the elderly need your help.”

After sharing her experience on Instagram, Fukuhara’s The Boys co-stars jumped into the comments to offer their support. Via Variety:

Chace Crawford wrote, “F this person!! Hope you’re ok this is awful.” Jack Quaid added “Karen thank you for sharing your experience. I’m sorry that happened to you. Love you. Here if you need anything.” Laz Alonso shared, “This pisses me off. Wish I was there….”

You can read part of Fukuhara’s post below:

Today I was struck in the head by a man (I’m physically fine) & this shit needs to stop. Us women, Asians, the elderly need your help…

I was walking to a cafe for some coffee and a man struck me in the back of my head. It came out of nowhere. We made no eye contact before, I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. It came to my surprise and my hat flew off. By the time I looked back, he was a few feet away from me (he must have kept walking after hitting me). I thought about confronting him first but he started coming towards me and I didn’t think it was worth the risk. After a few seconds of staring at each other, and him yelling at me, he eventually walked away.

This is the first time I’ve been harmed physically, although racial slurs and hurtful actions have been directed to me in the past. I write this, because I’ve had conversations with multi-racial friends of mine that had no idea these hate crimes happen to everyday, regular people — people that they share meals with.

You can read the rest of Fukuhara’s post on Instagram.

Singer Jhene Aiko celebrated her 34th rotation around the sun yesterday. On her birthday, her boyfriend Big Sean sent her benedictions by way of Instagram, sharing pictures and video clips of the couple throughout the years.

“Happy Birthday to my best friend, my love, the most authentic, talented, healing, Creative, angelic person/Alien I know!,” said the “Bounce Back” rapper in the caption. “Im lucky to have you in my life and to be apart of yours, let’s change the world even more! I love you Efuru.

Aiko is an ardent Pisces, often referencing her birth date, the John 3:16 bible verse, and variations of the number “316” in her music. Her debut EP, Sail Out, contains a song called “3:16 A.M.” and on “W.A.Y.S.,” a cut from her Souled Out album, she opens the song singing “at 44 minutes ’til four, an angel walked up to my door.”

Last month, Sean shared plans to release a follow-up to his and Aiko’s 2016 collaborative album, Twenty88.

“We’ve been working on it for a little bit,” Sean said of the album in a live stream. “It’s coming along though.”

Aiko is set to perform a few festivals this summer, including the women-led Sol Blume festival and the inaugural Letsgetfr.ee Carnaval.

Way back in August, it was announced that Joni Mitchell would be honored as MusiCares’ 2022 Person Of The Year. Mitchell said in a statement at the time, “I’m honored to be chosen as person of the year by this great charity. I look forward to being part of this gala that will help MusiCares continue their inspired work in providing a support system for those in need.”

Now we’re getting closer to the gala honoring Mitchell, which is set to go down on April 1 (presumably not as an April Fools’ Day joke). Many of the evening’s performers were previously announced, but now St. Vincent, Beck, and Chaka Khan have been added to the lineup.

They join a roster that also includes Leon Bridges, Jon Batiste, Brandi Carlile, Herbie Hancock, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash. Meanwhile, Carlile and Batiste are pulling double duty as the event’s artistic directors. James Taylor and Maggie Rogers were originally set to participate, too, but they had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts.

In January, Mitchell threw her support behind Neil Young’s Spotify boycott, saying, “I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”

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

Is concern trolling is the new “alternative facts?” Based on the number of ultra-conservative pundits who are currently attempting to reinvent themselves as caring human beings, it sure seems that way. On Wednesday, both Marjorie Taylor Greene and Laura Ingraham tried to spin their previously pro-Putin-seeming rhetoric as concern for the people of Ukraine, with slightly different tones.

First up is MTG: Her day got off to a shaky start when the whole of Congress gave Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a standing ovation, while she neglected to clap and seemed more interested in her phone:

Later, as PatriotTakes shared, Greene posted a video to her Facebook page in which she claimed that if we truly want to help the people of Ukraine, we should not send them any weapons or money “to fight a war they cannot possibly win,” despite many expert opinions to the contrary and the staggering number of Russian soldiers being sent home in body bags. Still, Greene—with as much emotion as a robot—declared that “it’s not our responsibility to give President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people false hope about a war they cannot win.”

On Wednesday night, Ingraham pretty much echoed the same talking points while interviewing Arkansas senator Tom Cotton. While speaking about the $800 million in weapons Biden promised Ukraine, Cotton commented that “the Ukrainian people and army have proven they are capable of fighting the Russians. We need to encourage them to do so, and we need to provide them with the weapons they need to fight the Russians” (which was a pretty major turn of events given Cotton’s recent reluctance to condemn Donald Trump’s pro-Putin comments).

Cotton was barely through his statement when Ingraham interrupted to ask/suggest, “Now you don’t think we’re giving the Ukrainians, at this point—and the rest of the world—false hope? You think, given the fact that Russia is closing in on Ukraine at this moment—you heard the air raid sirens outside of Lviv—that we’re not building people up to this false hope at this point? I’m worried about that!” Cotton, looking somewhat dumbfounded by the question, disagreed.

Of course, this isn’t the first instance of concern trolling we’ve seen this week. On Tuesday, Tucker Carlson attempted to justify his own seemingly pro-Putin rhetoric by explaining that he would just hate for us to do anything that might “prolong the fighting in Ukraine at the expense of the vulnerable civilian population in Ukraine.” Because, like Greene and Ingraham, Carlson can’t help being just so darn caring.

A Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot was announced in 2018. That was also the last time we heard about the Buffy reboot. The “new take” on the WB/UPN series that ran for seven seasons was set to be “contemporary and build on the mythology of the original,” this time with a Black actress as Buffy, but that was before creator Joss Whedon faced abuse allegations from Justice League star Ray Fisher, “threatened” the career of Gal Gadot, and “obliterated his career” in an interview with New York magazine. Buffy and Angel star Charisma Carpenter also said that Whedon “has a history of being casually cruel. He has created hostile and toxic work environments since his early career. I know because I experienced it first-hand. Repeatedly.”

If Buffy does get a reboot, it will likely be without Whedon’s involvement (like how The Conners continued without Roseanne). But it will have Sarah Michelle Gellar’s support:

Interviewed for the new book Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts, Gellar was asked by author Evan Ross Katz about the constant reboot talk. The actress said she would support a reboot if it happened, explaining that the ending to the original series left the door open for exploration of other slayers.

Who does she think should play the Slayer? “I vote Zendaya,” Gellar said. She can battle figurative demons on Euphoria, and literal demons on Buffy. It’s a natural fit.

You can purchase Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts here.

(Via ScreenRant)

Just before the end of 2021, Lil Nas X, the internet’s embodiment of fun, disruptive chaos, vanished from social media like the Last Airbender. It’s understandable; after all, he spent most of that year dominating the discussion with his album Montero and No. 1 singles “Call Me By Your Name” and “Industry Baby.” He’d also trolled the racist, homophobic establishment that lost its sh*t every time he made a move to oblivion and back. I’d say he earned a break.

But, the world needs good chaos now more than ever and so, like the titular character of the above-mentioned, award-winning animated series, Lil Nas X has returned to his stomping grounds, bringing photos of his wild hairstyles from the past few months, more good-natured trolling, and best of all, the first teasers of his new music, which included screenshots of two new songs currently on his phone: “Down Souf Hoes” featuring fellow queer rapper Saucy Santana and “Late To The Party” with viral favorite YoungBoy Never Broke Again.

After Nas popped back up on Instagram and TikTok — two of his favorite mediums — he popped back onto fans’ Twitter feeds like the Cheshire Cat, wondering, “why are people surprised i’ve been away for so long? have y’all really never heard of maternity leave?” The reference to his Montero rollout, in which he staged an entire pregnancy, was quickly followed by a slew of memes and jokes that he hadn’t been online because “i gotta bbl (Brazilian butt lift),” as well as a video in which he shows off his best Atlanta accent.

Welcome back, Lil Nas X. Thanks for being you.

(Spoilers for Netflix’s Bad Vegan will be found below.)

Bad Vegan is Netflix’s latest in a line of scammer-focused documentaries and limited series. It’s perhaps the most unbelievable of the bunch, given that there’s talk of dog immortality and a “meat suit,” but if you’re into exploring a handful of episodes about people who’ve made the worst life decisions possible, it could be your thing. There’s also an odd Alec Baldwin connection, as well, but essentially, this is the story (which is at least partially true) of Sarma Melngailis, the wildly successful celebrity New York-vegan-restauranteur who fell from grace.

Long story short: Sarma entered into an incredibly bad relationship that waved an army of red flags from the beginning. She persisted, eventually embezzling money from her restaurant (while leaving her employees unpaid) and investors, funneling the dollars to Anthony Strangis (who operated under the “Shane Fox” pseudonym), and then they eventually became casino-frequenting fugitives. They got busted in the most bizarre way (shown in the series), and then Sarma served four months on Rikers Island.

The story’s sensational but pretty unbelievable at moments. Sarma’s narration often shows little affect and close to zero emotion, and there’s some lingering mystery when it comes to the woman dubbed as “the vegan Bernie Madoff.” Did she fall into a cult mentality, and/or is her story filled with holes? Whatever the case, as one user put it, “‘Bad Vegan’ literally saw ‘Tinder Swindler’ and said hold my beer rookie.”

It’s really bonkers. Sarma held an economics degree and ran two enormously popular restaurants but somehow started believing that Anthony/Shane had secret-agent/black-ops superpowers or something. A lot of heads are shaking.

All of the wire transfers also added up (Sarma’s access to enormous sums of money is astounding) and served to break more deals for the audience, cautionary tale or not.

Maybe a little sympathy can be found for Sarma? It’s out there.

But mostly, people can’t stomach the resources squandered here.

The Alec Baldwin thing is actually rather amusing, if true.

Yet the story is kind-of a disaster. It’s sad not only for Sarma but also for the many people who paid for her bad judgment and continued belief in a clearly terrible man. She also didn’t apologize in the series, which ain’t great.

PEOPLE has now reported that Sarma claims to have repaid her jilted employees with money from the documentary. “Of all the harm and the many debts resulting from my downfall, this portion weighed heaviest,” Sarma expressed.

Bad Vegan (from executive producer Chris Smith of Tiger King and Fyre: The Greatest Party) is currently streaming on Netflix.