Month: April 2023

The next time you want a pleasant conversation among friends to turn into pure chaos, ask the following question: who is the most huggable superhero? You will get a wide variety of answers. Some people (freaks) might say Batman; others, King Shark. Maybe it’s Spider-Man, or Wonder Woman, or Mister Fantastic, or the Beast, who appears on this list of the 10 most furry superheroes. Good enough for me. One of the superheroes who will not be in the conversation is that steel-beam of emotion known as Superman.

Unless you’re friends with James Gunn.

When asked by Variety at the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 premiere about what he’s looking for in a Man of Steel, the Superman: Legacy director replied, “The next Superman has to be someone who has all the humanity that Superman has but he’s also an alien” Gunn needs his Superman, and whoever plays him, to be “somebody who has the kindness and the compassion that Superman has and be somebody who you want to give a hug.”

Superman is neither comforting nor fuzzy. Therefore, I have never considered wanting to hug him. Probably because I’m worried he’ll squeeze too hard and, oops, pop go my eyeballs. It’s a concern of mine.

(Via Variety)

A lot was made of Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s response to a simple question in the aftermath of the Milwaukee Bucks’ season-ending loss to the Miami Heat earlier this week. Antetokounmpo was asked if he viewed this Bucks season as a failure due to their inability to make it out of the first round, and while he went to great lengths to stress that he was not trying to attack the reporter who asked the question, he made clear that he doesn’t believe coming up short in the pursuit of a championship means that a team should get hit with that label.

This led to a conversation on Inside the NBA on Thursday that decided to take a deep dive into how Giannis approached things.

The Inside crew is usually making headlines for doing something extremely funny, but this is a good reminder of why they’re the best in the business. Chuck, Ernie, Kenny, and Shaq got 10 minutes to have a lengthy, uninterrupted conversation where they handled this subject with a ton of care and insight, all of which comes from the perspectives of people who have dedicated their lives to the sport of basketball. And the best part is they don’t fully agree on things — Barkley and O’Neal, from the jump, come at this from two different viewpoints, which sets the table for the rest of the conversation. Like most things on Inside, the whole segment is worth a watch.

In March 2022, The Gaslight Anthem announced their return with a slate of tour dates. Singer Brian Fallon opened up to Uproxx about the band’s hiatus and subsequent return to form, including a tease of when fans might be able to expect a new album.

“I’ve always been a fan of writing more than you need. So, right now I’ve got maybe five or six songs, and I would want to have 30 to pick through and make sure that we’re actually good. The shows will come first, and then hopefully by the end of the year the record will be written to the point where we could pick 11 or 12 songs and then record. So, that would be early next year, early spring,” Fallon said in the interview published last April.

Today, April 28, The Gaslight Anthem released their first single in nine years with “Positive Charge.” The uninhibited, emotionally charged chorus finds Fallon belting, “I wanna smile like a letter from an old friend,” and fans will likely smile hearing from The Gaslight Anthem again.

“‘Positive Charge’ began as a message of joy to ourselves and to our audience,” Fallon said in a statement. “The central theme is about looking at the things you’ve come through and feeling like you want to go ahead with an open heart toward the future, believing that the best years are not behind any of us and the good we have is worth something.”

The band celebrated “the next chapter” on Instagram, including an announcement of additional headlining tour dates for this fall.

Per press release, The Gaslight Anthem’s spring headlining tour will see them perform their “first live shows in the Southern US since 2015,” beginning on Monday, May 1, at House of Blues in Houston, Texas. Ticketing information can be found here.

Watch the “Positive Charge” video above, and see all of The Gaslight Anthem’s 2023 dates below.

05/01 — Houston, TX @ House of Blues
05/02 — San Antonio, TX @ Aztec Theater
05/03 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom
05/06 — Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Music Festival
05/06 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
05/07 — Charleston, SC @ Charleston Music Hall
05/09 — Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Revolution
05/10 — St Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Live
05/12 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
05/14 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
05/16 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte
05/17 — Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live
05/19 — Atlantic City, NJ @ Sound Waves at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
05/20 – Buffalo, NY @ Buffalo Outer Harbor Site
05/21 — Wallingford, CT @ The Dome at Toyota Presents Oakdale
05/23 — Portland, ME @ The State Theatre
05/25 — Bethlehem, PA @ The Wind Creek Event Center
05/26 — Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
05/27 — LaFayette, NY @ Beak & Skiff Apple Orchards
07/08 — Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
07/29 — Richmond, VA @ Brown’s Island
08/13 — Washington, PA @ Four Chord Music Fest
09/15 — Louisville, KY @ Bourbon & Beyond
09/16 — Grand Rapids, MI @ GLC Live at 20 Monroe
09/19 — Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
09/20 — Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
09/22 — Columbus, OH @ The Bluestone
09/23 — Chesterfield, MO @ The Factory
09/24 — Madison, WI @ The Sylvee
09/26 — Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion
09/27 — Wichita, KS @ The Cotillion
09/29 — Sioux Falls, SD @ The District
09/30 — La Vista, NE @ The Astro – Indoor Theater
10/02 — Denver, CO @ The Fillmore Auditorium
10/04 — Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl
10/05 – Wheatland, CA @ Hard Rock Live
10/07 — Boise, ID @ Knitting Factory Concert House
10/08 — Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory Spokane

A year ago, Rudy Giuliani would have given his second cousin to get just a few minutes of airtime on Fox News. On Thursday night, he decided to trash the cable news network hand that once fed him — or at least allowed him to feed his 2020 election conspiracy lies to millions of people, and ultimately paid the price ($787 million, to be precise).

Clearly, Newsmax — which has already issued on-air apologies for giving a platform to Jan. 6th conspiracies — must have missed the memo about how much money Rupert Murdoch is set to hand over to Dominion Voting Systems following the settlement of their defamation suit. Or they simply don’t care. Because on Thursday night, Newsmax host Eric Bolling let Rudy ramble about Fox News, Tucker Carlson, and the former New York City Mayor’s unhinged (and pro-Trump) January 6th conspiracy theories.

As The Daily Beast reports, Bolling welcomed Giuliani onto the network, presumably to talk about Fox going “woke” (if the chyron is to be believed). While both men agreed that Fox News made a huge mistake by dumping Tucker, Rudy found a totally inelegant way to somehow make Carlson’s firing about Trump.

“Everything we’re going to see now for the next year and a half can all be answered by: They don’t want Trump back,” Giuliani predicted… then found a way to bring it all back to the Capitol insurrection:

“It wasn’t even so much that Tucker was that much for Trump. He had become that way. Really, he was laying out the circumstances that show how incredibly crooked they are. I mean, they manipulated Jan. 6. They were more than willing to create the fiction of an American insurrection in order to get rid of Donald Trump. For that, you probably should be thrown out of the country.”

Giuliani — who is also being sued by Dominion for $1.3 billion for pushing the Big Lie in the lead-up to the deadly events of January 6, 2021 — then also had the audacity to claim that NO ONE DIED as a result of the Capitol riots. The Daily Beast’s William Vaillancourt writes:

“The reality is they’re talking about six people dead. Nobody’s dead,” said Giuliani, similar to how Donald Trump has also tried to minimize the death toll. Four people in the crowd of Trump supporters died on Jan. 6, and five police officers who had been at the Capitol later died, four by suicide and one from a series of strokes.

“They’re talking about an insurrection, except an insurrection without a single gun and without a single person being charged with insurrection after four hundred charges,” continued Giuliani, even though it was just last week that rioter Chris Alberts told a Washington, D.C., jury that he had been armed with 25 rounds of ammunition. Guy Reffitt, another rioter sentenced last year to over seven years in prison, was also carrying a handgun.

Rather than regain control of the conversation, Bolling just let Rudy go — a move that has clearly gotten other networks into serious trouble in the past. Nor did the host even push back on any of Giuliani’s baseless claims. Instead, he simply claimed, “I’m old enough to remember when Fox used to embrace that and… allow the host to dig into the stories.”

Bolling, it should be noted, was a part of the Fox News family from 2008 to 2017 — until he was given the boot following a series of sexual misconduct allegations.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Today (April 28), the first photos from an upcoming movie called Poor Things were shared. The film stars Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, and Ramy Youssef. It’s Stone who’s standing out early, though, as fans think that in the new photos, her character looks pretty much exactly like Lorde.

Lorde was actually a trending topic on Twitter after the photos were revealed. One fan re-shared one of the photos and joked, “First look at Emma Stone as Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor in the Lorde biopic ‘Lorde.’” Another quipped, “lorde did not release a new album today because she became an actress! so proud of her!”

As for what the movie’s about, Deadline reports, “Stone plays Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.”

The movie is set to hit theaters on September 8.

Check out some more Stone/Lorde reactions below.

Kesha has become a fixture in music thanks to her breakout danceable pop tracks like “Cannibal.” However, on her forthcoming album Gag Order, the singer is breaking out of the sonic box she’s been placed in. Although her vibrant glam rock cover of Rihanna’s song “Umbrella” was a subtle display of that, she truly sheds her pop persona on her newly released singles.

Co-produced by Rick Rubin, “Eat The Acid” is a poignant song about warming others about ingesting the addicting drug that is fame. The track, co-written by Kesha, her mother, and Stuart Crichton, is a metaphor for the wake-up call she had after her legal battle with producer Dr. Luke. After realizing just how cruel the music industry can be, Kesha exhaustedly sings, “You said, “Don’t ever eat the acid if / You don’t wanna be changed like it changed me / You said, “All the edges got so jagged now / Everything you saw then can’t be unseen.”

Whereas “Fine Line,” co-written by Ajay Bhattacharya, details the aftermath of speaking out against the powers that be. Signing, “All the doctors and lawyers cut the tongue outta my mouth / I’ve been hidin’ my anger, but b*tch, look at me now / I’m at the top of the mountain with a gun to my head / Am I bigger than Jesus or better off dead,” Kesha is battling herself. The singer ultimately questions whether in the end if all the advocacy work is worth it.

In speaking about the project’s creative direction, Kesha told Rolling Stone, “I feel like I’m giving birth to the most intimate thing I’ve ever created. It’s scary being vulnerable. The fact that I have compiled an entire record of these emotions, of anger, of insecurity, of anxiety, of grief, of pain, of regret, all of that is so nerve-racking — but it’s also so healing.”

Listen to both songs above.

Gag Order is out 5/19 via Kemosabe/RCA Records. Find more information here.

John Mulaney‘s dog Petunia, who he frequently talked about in his stand-up and talk show appearances, has passed away. “Petunia, I loved you from the first moment I saw you. Rest in peace. Thank you for being my little shadow,” he wrote on Instagram.

People reports that the “French bulldog, whom Mulaney, 40, shared with ex-wife Anna Marie Tendler, at one time had her own Instagram feed, which still has 132,000 followers and features old photos of the pooch in themed costumes, New York City moments, and even her owners’ 2014 wedding.”

Tendler also shared a tribute to Petunia. “Rest in peace my sweet Petunia,” she wrote. “You were my best friend and the great love of my life. You were the funniest. You were the smartest. You were the weirdest. Everything about you was the best thing. To think I will never again hold you, hear you, or see your big, beautiful brown eyes gazing back at me seems unfathomable. Thank you for letting me be your constant companion, and for being mine. I love you with every part me. Until we meet again in our next life.”

In his special, Kid Gorgeous at Radio City, Mulaney joked, “We have a four-year-old French bulldog. Her name is Petunia. The idea of people applauding for that little monster. Just, I mean, I would never tell her that you applauded. It would go right to her ego, that little monster who just rubs her vulva on the carpet while staring at me in the eye.” He later said that he and Tendler would walk around New York City with Petunia in a stroller, “and people lean in to see the baby. And instead, they see a gargoyle breathing like Chris Christie.”

Here he is talking about Petunia on Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj:

R.I.P. to Petunia, a legend in her time.

(Via People)

Nessa Barrett stripped down to the bare essentials alongside Ice Spice, PinkPantheress, and Raye for the latest Skims shapewear campaign. Barrett is even more vulnerable in her clever “American Jesus” single, out today (April 28) with an accompanying video directed by Loris Russier.

The video finds Barrett in classic small-town America. She’s sitting in a trailer while the object of her affection is cruising on a motorcycle on endless back roads. He arrives outside of her trailer and brings her along for the ride. They dance, make out on a kitchen table, and toss money up in the air before getting married at sunset.

Barrett’s cheeky lyrics use religious iconography as symbols of reckless young love (“He’s got a cross on his neck / But he spends Sundays in my bed”) and emphasize her devotion (“Knees down at your altar”).

“You know all my secrets / American Jesus, baby,” Barrett sings in the hook. “Won’t you take me to heaven tonight?”

The illusion of their love is broken when Barrett is awoken by him after he spots a police car driving by their trailer and panics. They can’t escape fast enough, and tears fall down Barrett’s cheek as her love is arrested.

“It’s about the fantasy of someone who is your savior, your cowboy in a crown,” Barrett said in a statement. “Everyone dreams about a love that’s heavenly, and I know everyone will be able to relate to this.”

The blind love at the root of “American Jesus” starkly contrasts the resentment fueling her punk-infused February single “Bang Bang” — further establishing her artistic range.

Watch the “American Jesus” video above.

Nessa Barrett is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

(WARNING: Spoilers for this week’s Power Book II: Ghost episode will be found below.)

Season three of Power Book II: Ghost introduced a few new characters to the mix, one of them being a Stansfield student named Salim (played by Petey McGee). Salim initially checks into the season as Professor Benett’s teacher assistant, but he quickly took an interest in Diana, and soon enough, the two were in a bit of a romantic relationship. Things seemed to be okay at the start, but their relationship took a turn for the worse when Salim did research on Diana where he found out more about her family — specifically her father Lorenzo.

From that point forward, Salim turned into an extremely judgmental character who criticized Diana for still associating with her family, attempted multiple times to “save” her from them, and wasted no time pointing out any hypocrisies that he felt came up. After a heated argument at the repast for her dad’s funeral in episode six, Diana decided to break things off. Salim tried to redeem himself by bringing flowers to Diana’s dorm, but she had already moved on to Tariq. Still, our hotep steppin’ brother wasn’t ready to give up as he took the opportunity in episode seven to publicly read a poem he wrote about Diana with her present in the crowd. This also backfired as Diana brushed it off as something not worth her attention or response, and while Salim tried to retaliate against her, Diana played a better hand that forced Salim to simply sit there and eat his food.

Diana was not the only one who seemed annoyed with Salim. Through it all, fans made their displeasures with him very clear on social media. After his latest actions, I think it’s only right that take a moment to laugh at some of the best reactions to Salim.

New episodes of ‘Power Book II: Ghost’ are available on the STARZ app on Fridays at 12:00 am EST and on the STARZ TV channel at 8:00 pm EST.

After delivering a surprise hit with 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which took an obscure Marvel Comics team and turned them into the wildly popular breakout stars of the MCU, James Gunn is back to finish his unique spin on the fan-favorite space team with one last ride in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Set after the cataclysmic events of Avengers: Endgame, Gunn makes a bold creative choice by eschewing the multiversal trappings of the MCU’s recent output and centering Vol. 3 on Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) in a surprisingly emotional blockbuster that reminds audiences why they fell in love with these characters in the first place.

You can see what the critics are saying below:

Mike Ryan, Uproxx:

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t expect to feels so sad so many times while watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. To be clear, this is by design. This movie, at times, wants you to feel very sad. To the point I had to internally scold myself, “Dude, you cannot start crying in public about a CGI raccoon. You know people here. Don’t be one of these people who cry during Marvel movies. It’s embarrassing.”

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter:

Cinematic superheroes have been going through a rough patch lately. Already this year, both Shazam and Ant-Man proved a bit at sea in their latest adventures. So it comes as a relief to report the trilogy-capping Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. achieves what it sets out to do, which is provide a stirring and audience-pleasing finale for a franchise that has proven to be one of Marvel’s biggest and most unlikely success stories.

Damon Wise, Deadline:

For anyone unfussed by the minutiae of the Marvel Multiverse, returning director James Gunn is surprisingly cavalier — in a good way — about backstory, not only in terms of the first two GotG movies but in the wider world of The Avengers, too. How Quill and Gamora (Zoe Saldana), once lovers, came to be estranged is covered with a witty scene inside an elevator, and references to Thanos are scarce. The absence of clutter allows the cast to shine, notably Dave Bautista — who’s really on a tear right now in the wake of Glass Onion — as the funny, charming and only mildly psychopathic Drax the Destroyer.

William Bibbiani, The Wrap:

There’s no status quo to uproot anymore, no baseline normal to turn upside down. Heck, even something as simple as “telling a story set on our own planet” is a little alienating, since the MCU version of Earth is just a cracked egg with the corpse of a giant space god hanging out of it. So, in a funny way, it makes sense that “Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3” is more grounded than the other Phase Four movies. Set in the farthest reaches of outer space, the only connection this corner of the MCU ever had to our reality was its vibrant, emotional characters.

Peter Debruge, Variety:

Gunn’s saga comes to a close in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” which repositions Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) as the soul of this team, while adding dimension to every member of the core ensemble — including relatively new recruits Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Kraglin (Sean Gunn) and Cosmo the Space Dog (Maria Bakalova). At a jam-packed, planet-hopping 150 minutes, it also feels less like a conventional moviegoing experience than the endorphin rush that comes from waiting years for the next season of your favorite TV series, then binge-watching all the new episodes in a single sitting.

Kate Erbland, IndieWire:

If most Marvel movies make their audiences stand up and cheer, Gunn’s does something even more meaningful: make them stand up and cry. (Yes, we’re talking about the movies with the violent raccoon and the talking tree.) Gunn’s special brand of sincerity, humor, and violence has always made for a strong match for the “GOTG” crew — there are no other characters in the current MCU lineup who are so adept at cracking jokes while absolutely wrecking a room full of baddies — and he takes that alchemy to insane ends for his final chapter.

Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com:

This sci-fi/action/comedy still succumbs to a few of the MCU issues of late—bloated runtime, things-go-boom finale, too many characters—but there’s a creativity to the filmmaking, dialogue, and performances that modern superhero movies often lack. Much of the recent talk has been about the potential for AI-generated blockbusters, and I like when “GoTG 3” is at its messiest. Gunn is like that kid who is not only playing with his action figures; he’s pulling them apart and smashing them back together to make them into new creations. He doesn’t just love these losers, he wants to see them save the universe again. You will too.

Ross Bonaime, Collider:

With Gunn heading out to run DC, it’s time for him to say goodbye to this crew, and he does so in a satisfying way with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is full of heart, humor, and action that feels like a creation only Gunn could come up with. Will we likely see some of these characters again down the line? Almost definitely. But with Gunn gone as captain, Vol. 3 feels like the last time we’ll see these characters in this way again, and Gunn gives them a wonderful sendoff.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 rockets into theaters on May 5.