Category: News

One of the most common misconceptions about people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is that they are emotionless. The disorder exists on a spectrum, so everyone is different, but people with ASD experience the same emotions as everyone else and sometimes more intensely.

“Sometimes, an individual with autism may display their emotions differently than one might expect, but this does not mean they are emotionless,” Autism Learning Partners wrote. “Some individuals with autism may internalize their feelings, not as a direct result of autism, but because of external factors such as bullying or trauma.”

A viral video posted by mother Jennifer White-Johnson shows that people with ASD have no problem experiencing emotions and when that’s mixed with self-confidence can result in eruptions of pure, unbridled joy.

On December 13, White-Johnson posted a video of her son Knox, 10, performing “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey and it was pure joy. Knox has ASD but that didn’t hold him back from performing. In fact, it’s probably one of the reasons why he was so carefree.

“Timeline cleanse if you need one!” White-Johnson wrote in her post. “Knox tonight at his 4th-grade school winter concert singing @MariahCarey ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ #AutisticJoy on full display! My kid is everything! I hope Mariah sees this!!”

u201cTimeline cleanse if you need one! Knox tonight at his 4th grade school winter concert singing @MariahCarey u2018All I Want For Christmas Is Youu2019 #AutisticJoy on full display! My kid is everything! I hope Mariah sees this!!u201d

— Jen White-Johnson (@Jen White-Johnson)
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The amazing thing is that Carey, the Queen of Christmas, saw the video and reposted it on Twitter. “Your kid IS everything!!!!!!” Carey wrote. “Knox, you made my day. Your JOY gives me and everyone watching JOY. THANK YOU for reminding me why I wake up in the morning and do what I do. I love you.”

u201cYour kid IS everything!!!!!! Knox, you made my day. Your JOY gives me and everyone watching JOY. THANK YOU for reminding me why I wake up in the morning and do what I do. I love you u2764ufe0fu2764ufe0fu2764ufe0fu2764ufe0fu2764ufe0fu201d

— Mariah Carey (@Mariah Carey)
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The family had Carey’s tweet framed and Knox thanked her in a response video. “Thank you Mariah for making me feel so alive in my life. I’ve never felt so overjoyed in my life, Amen,” Knox said.

u201cWhat he says in the video: u2018Thank you Mariah for making me feel so alive in my life. Iu2019ve never felt so overjoyed in my life, Amenu2019 @MariahCarey #MariahCarey #AutisticJoyu201d

— Jen White-Johnson (@Jen White-Johnson)
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White-Johnson was happy that her video could show people a side of ASD that people try to hide.

“We don’t want to shush our son and we don’t want to make it a point to say you’re being too loud when all he’s really doing is being happy,” White-Johnson told Good Morning America. “Even going further, with a Black autistic child, there’s certain expectations of what that child’s behavior is going to be like. I’ve even heard various people say that they’re surprised he can even emote to that degree because they didn’t think that young, autistic children could do that. And it’s like, well, he’s still a human being and he has feelings and he has emotions that he’s excited to share. And while he’s still navigating this kind of experience that he has, he knows that he’s free to explore what that means for him.”

Kudos to White-Johnson for sharing the video of her child’s performance because it’s a joy to watch and it shows a side of ASD that more people need to understand. When people see that people with ASD have big feelings, it lifts the stigma surrounding the disorder and makes it more likely they’ll be treated like everyone else.

Netflix’s streaming library is packed with blockbusters, Oscar-winners, and indie darlings waiting to be your next movie-night viewing. But, with so many options comes the headache of choosing which flick fits your binge-watching mood. Do you want a star-studded whodunnit? Maybe you’re in the mood for an action-packed Bollywood adventure? Does a horror movie that doubles as nightmare fuel sound tempting?

Whatever kind of story you’re looking to escape into, you’ll find it on this list. Here are our picks for the 50 best movies streaming on Netflix right now.

1. Glass Onion

Year: 2022
Cast: Daniel Craig, Janelle Monae, Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn
Genre: Mystery, Comedy, Crime
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 140 minutes
Director: Rian Johnson
Trailer: Watch here

Rian Johnson delivers a deliriously fun follow-up to his breakout 2019 murder-mystery with Daniel Craig returning to play famed detective Benoit Blanc. This time around, Blanc, equipped with a colorful new wardrobe and his same slow, Southern drawl, heads to Greece to investigate a murder amongst a group of friends reuniting for an island holiday. Most of the culprits are out-of-touch elites – to the nth degree – with stars like Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Kathryn Hahn, and Edward Norton playing supermodels, Twitch streamers, politicians, and tech moguls who are as ridiculous as they are corrupt.

Watch it on Netflix

2. Gladiator

Year: 2000
Cast: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Djimon Hounsou
Genre: Drama, Action
Rating: R
Runtime: 155 minutes
Director: Ridley Scott
Trailer: Watch here

Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix star in this Ridley Scott epic that nabbed quite a few Oscars in its day. Crowe plays Maximus, a former Roman General who is betrayed by his Emperor (Phoenix) and forced into slavery. He returns years later, seeking revenge for the death of his family while fighting as a gladiator, gaining the public’s love and putting his plan to take down the Empire into motion.

Watch it on Netflix

3. Ip Man

Year: 2008
Cast: Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Siu-Wong Fan
Genre: Action, Biography
Rating: R
Runtime: 106 minutes
Director: Wilson Yip
Trailer: Watch here

Based on the true story of Ip Man, the grandmaster who trained Bruce Lee, this martial arts epic is unmatched in terms of the action sequences it delivers on screen. Donnie Yen steps into the legends shoes, playing the talented fighter as a simple man trying to protect his family during the turbulent times of the Second Sino-Japanese War. When Ip uses his martial arts knowledge to benefit his family, he’s targeted by everyone from sadistic Imperialist deputies to local gang leaders hoping to prove they’re the better warrior.

Watch it on Netflix

4. Casino Royale

Year: 2006
Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Judi Dench
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 144 minutes
Director: Martin Campbell
Trailer: Watch here

Casino Royale marks Daniel Craig’s first James Bond entry, but he plays the suave MI6 agent like he’s been doing it for decades. The film gives fans of the spy franchise a soft reset, as we’re introduced to the new Bond when he sets off on his first mission as 007. Bond’s tasked with catching a private banker funding terrorist operations by beating him in a high-stakes game of poker in Montenegro, and he’s joined by Vesper Lynd (a terrific Eva Green), an MI6 accountant with a secret that threatens to derail the mission and may cost Bond his life.

Watch it on Netflix

5. The Hateful Eight

Year: 2015
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Genre: Western, Crime
Rating: R
Runtime: 168 minutes
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Trailer: Watch here

Quentin Tarantino lends his trademarked style to this slick, gruesome Western set in the Midwest just after the end of the Civil War. Samuel L Jackson plays Major Marquis Warren, an African-American Union vet turned bounty hunter who gets stuck in a Wyoming blizzard with a cadre of nefarious criminals. He’s joined by Kurt Russell’s John Ruth, another bounty hunter Warren is friendly with, who has his own living cargo (Jennifer Jason Leigh) to contend with. Murderers, bandits, robbers, and outlaws set up shop in the same Haberdashery as the two lawmen, resulting in a tense, nearly unbearably long stand-off that’s filled with twists and violence.

Watch it on Netflix

6. Sorry To Bother You

Year: 2018
Cast: LaKeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Steven Yeun
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 111 minutes
Director: Boots Riley
Trailer: Watch here

Boots Riley’s directorial debut comes courtesy of this dark, absurdist comedy that manages to weave themes of class and capitalism into a bonkers tale about a telemarketer living in Oakland who figures out a way to use his “white voice” to make sales. As he moves up the ladder, selling while hiding his identity, he’s pulled into a conspiracy that forces him to choose between cashing in at humanity’s expense or joining his friends in a rebellion against the system. LaKeith Stanfield gives a riveting turn as Cassius Green, Cash, the kid at the center of this bizarre story, and Tessa Thompson gives a commendable performance as Cash’s radical feminist girlfriend, Detroit.

Watch it on Netflix

7. Da 5 Bloods

Year: 2020
Cast: Delroy Lindo, Chadwick Boseman, Jonathan Majors
Genre: War, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 154 minutes
Director: Spike Lee
Trailer: Watch here

Any Spike Lee joint is worth a watch, but this genre-bending thriller about a group of black Vietnam War vets returning to the battlefield decades later feels especially timely. That’s because Lee manages to shed light on a little-known part of our shared history: the way our country treated Black soldiers returning from the war, but he also raises the stakes with a subplot that includes a buried treasure hunt and a heartwrenching mission to retrieve the remains of a fallen comrade. The cast, which includes Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman in one of his final roles, is brilliant, the story is gripping, and the direction is top notch.

Watch it on Netflix

8. 21 Jump Street

Year: 2012
Cast: Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Dave Franco, Brie Larson
Genre: Comedy, Action
Rating: R
Runtime: 109 minutes
Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Trailer: Watch here

Attention Hollywood: If you want your comedy remake to be successful, hire millennial himbo Channing Tatum. The actor who wasted away his comedic talent trying to be an on-screen heartthrob early in his career is perfectly cast here as Jenko, a less-than-stellar police officer who goes undercover to bust a high school drug ring. He’s joined by his partner and best friend Schmidt (the always-funny Jonah Hill) but when their designations are flipped – Jenko is mistakenly assigned as a nerd while the smarter Schmidt is forced to infiltrate the popular crowd – their friendship and detective skills are put to the ultimate test.

Watch it on Netflix

9. Monty Python And The Holy Grail

Year: 1975
Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle
Genre: Comedy, Adventure
Rating: PG
Runtime: 91 minutes
Director: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
Trailer: Watch here

Even if you’ve never seen any of the Monty Python films, you most certainly know of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It’s been quoted, memed, gif-ed, and idolized by comedy fans for generations. At its core, it’s a parody of the legends of King Arthur and his knights. It’s stocked with an impressive cast — John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, etc — and it’s full of eccentric characters, bizarre adventures, and gut-bustlingly funny jokes. Think failed Trojan Rabbits, modern-day murder investigations, animated monsters, and musical numbers.

Watch it on Netflix

10. RRR

Year: 2022
Cast: N. T. Rama Rao Jr., Ram Charan
Genre: Action, Drama
Rating: Not Rated
Runtime: 187 minutes
Director: S.S. Rajamouli
Trailer: Watch here

This Bollywood epic recounts the true story of Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Rama Rao). The pair fought against the British Raj, i.e. the British government that controlled India in the 1920s. The film imagines their friendship before both men eventually joined the war effort – complete with musical numbers, CGI tigers, and some of the most mind-blowing action scenes we’ve ever seen. Seriously, Marvel, you’ve got some work to do.

Watch it on Netflix

11. All Quiet On the Western Front

Year: 2022
Cast: Daniel Brühl, Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch
Genre: War, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 148 minutes
Director: Edward Berger
Trailer: Watch here

Sometimes the best argument against war is to show it fully, in all its brutality and heartbreak, and inevitable devastation. That’s what this film does well, following the story of a young, idealistic German boy who enlists to serve his country during World War I. Instead of finding glory and honor on the battlefield, he and his friends witness unimaginable horrors while struggling to survive in a wasteland created by man’s greed and insatiable appetite for violence.

Watch it on Netflix

12. Where The Crawdads Sing

Year: 2022
Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Taylor John Smith, Harris Dickinson
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 125 minutes
Director: Olivia Newman
Trailer: Watch here

Daisy Edgar-Jones (Normal People) carries this crime drama based on a best-selling book by the same name. Jones plays Kya, a young woman raised in the Carolina marshes who is abandoned by her family as a child and forced to fend for herself in the 1950s-era Deep South. Isolated and uneducated, she begins a romance with a local man who leaves for college, which eventually puts her on a path to meeting popular quarterback Chase Andrews – a boy with bad intentions and the money to feel entitled to them. When Chase mysteriously turns up dead, the town turns on Kya, and she’s forced to open up her carefully cultivated life to public scrutiny in an attempt to clear her name.

Watch it on Netflix

13. Phantom Thread

Year: 2017
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville, Vicky Krieps
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: R
Runtime: 130 minutes
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Trailer: Watch here

There’s toxic romance and then there’s the relationship between Reynold Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Alma Elson (Vicky Krieps). Woodcock is an in-demand dressmaker for London’s upper crust, crafting gorgeous designs for high society snobs and royalty alike in the 1950s. When he meets Alma, a waitress at a country restaurant, she quickly becomes his lover, his muse, and eventually, his wife. But Woodcock is demanding and unmoving in his pursuit of perfectionism, something that takes its toll on their relationship and forces Alma to adapt in ingenious, slightly sinister ways.

Watch it on Netflix

14. Eyes Wide Shut

Year: 1999
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise
Genre: Mystery, Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 159 minutes
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Trailer: Watch here

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise star in this erotic thriller from cinematic mastermind Stanley Kubrick about a married New York City couple that flirts with temptation. Cruise plays Dr. Bill Harford while Kidman plays his wife, Alice. The two run in the city’s elite circles and are constantly exposed to sex, drugs, and the opportunity for infidelity. When Alice admits to fantasizing about other men, Bill acts out, attending a masked orgy that ends up altering their marriage forever.

Watch it on Netflix

15. The Mitchells Vs. The Machines

Year: 2021
Cast: Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph
Genre: Animation, Comedy
Rating: PG
Runtime: 114 minutes
Director: Michael Rianda, Jeff Rowe
Trailer: Watch here

If The Mitchells vs. The Machines proves anything, it’s that Disney doesn’t have the animation market cornered just yet. A fun, beautifully touching ride that covers everything from our reliance on tech to familial squabbles, this film has a stacked voice cast — think Maya Rudolph, Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride — and a strong storyline to go with it. A dysfunctional brood’s road trip is upended by a robot apocalypse here and even worse — it seems this quirky, completely unprepared group is humanity’s only hope.

Watch it on Netflix

16. The Irishman

Year: 2019
Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci
Genre: Biography, Crime
Rating: R
Runtime: 209 minutes
Director: Martin Scorsese
Trailer: Watch here

Martin Scorsese delivers another cinematic triumph, this time for Netflix and with the help of some familiar faces. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino team up (again) for this crime drama based on actual events. De Niro plays Frank Sheeran a World War II vet who finds work as a hitman for the mob. Pacino plays notorious Teamster Jimmy Hoffa, a man who frequently found himself on the wrong side of the law and the criminals he worked with. The film charts the pair’s partnership over the years while injecting some historical milestones for context. It’s heavy and impressively cast and everything you’d expect a Scorsese passion project to be, with some interesting de-aging CGI that does its best to show the scope of Scorsese’s storytelling.

Watch it on Netflix

17. If Beale Street Could Talk

Year: 2018
Cast: KiKi Layne, Regina King, Stephan James
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: R
Runtime: 119 minutes
Director: Barry Jenkins
Trailer: Watch here

Barry Jenkins excels at bringing the Black experience to the screen with an authenticity that is rarely matched by his fellow filmmakers. He did it with Moonlight, and he does it here with this adaptation of a piece from James Baldwin’s iconography. Told in a nonlinear style, the film recounts the romance of Tish and Fonny, two young Black lovers living in 1970s New York. When Fonny is accused of a heinous crime, Tish and her family fight to prove his innocence. The story is heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time, and Regina King puts in an Oscar-winning performance as Tish’s devoted mother.

Watch it on Netflix

18. Miss Americana

Year: 2020
Cast: Taylor Swift
Genre: Documentary
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 85 minutes
Director: Lana Wilson
Trailer: Watch here

Let’s be honest, Taylor Swift could’ve delivered a glossy, stylized, superficial doc about her life to promote an album, and her rabid fanbase would’ve eaten it up. Instead, the pop star took a risk and gave filmmakers no-holds-barred access to her personal and professional life, offering up intimate interviews with herself and her family, detailing difficult struggles with body dysmorphia and eating disorders, allowing cameras inside her sexual assault trial, revealing her mother’s cancer diagnosis, and unearthing home video footage of her youth to create a fuller picture of herself. It’s a film that reveals the human underneath the icon. It’s bold, brutally honest, and some of Swift’s best work yet.

Watch it on Netflix

19. The Conjuring 2

Year: 2016
Cast: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Runtime: 124 minutes
Director: James Wan
Trailer: Watch here

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return for round two of this haunting horror franchise, once again playing a married couple expelling spirits who’ve set up shop with unsuspecting innocents. This time, Ed and Lorraine travel to London to help a single mother of four children who lives in a house plagued by an evil greater than any they’ve faced before. The setting has changed, but the plot stays pretty much the same, with the couple confronting some dark truths about their own natures while trying to save the kids.

Watch it on Netflix

20. Emily The Criminal

Year: 2022
Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 97 minutes
Director: John Patton Ford
Trailer: Watch here

Aubrey Plaza turns in a mesmerizing performance as the criminal in the title of this tense and tight crime thriller. Plaza’s Emily is a recent college grad plagued by debt (who can’t relate, tbh?) who’s given up on using her actual degree in the hopes of making money to pay off her outrageous loan interest each month via a catering contract job. When that doesn’t foot the entire bill she’s turned onto a less-than-legal scam enterprise that sees her creating fake credit cards, selling TVs out of her four-door sedan, facing off against junkies with boxcutters, and stealing luxury vehicles. Her descent into a life filled with felonies is swift, anxiety-inducing, and a bit too believable for comfort.

Watch it on Netflix

21. Enola Holmes

Year: 2020
Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin
Genre: Action, Adventure
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 123 minutes
Director: Harry Bradbeer
Trailer: Watch here

Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Sam Claflin star in this gender-flopped take on the classic detective adventure. Brown plays the titular Enola, a young woman whose mother vanishes in the night, putting her on a crash course with Viscounts and her two older brothers — one the famous investigator, the other an uptight prick. Brown is perfectly cast and watching her venture across the English countryside via train, bike, and motorcar while solving crime and serving wicked clap backs to period sexism is more fun than we can accurately convey.

Watch it on Netflix

22. Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé

Year: 2019
Cast: Beyonce, Jay-Z
Genre: Documentary
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 137 minutes
Director: Beyonce, Ed Burke
Trailer: Watch here

Beyoncé’s history-making Coachella performance was enough to temporarily rename the music festival Beychella, but fans who couldn’t afford to see Queen Bey perform live get a backstage pass to the show with this doc. Are there killer performances, musical mash-ups, and dance routines? Sure. But what really makes this music doc stand out besides the talent of its star is the intimate look fans are given into Beyoncé’s personal life, from her surprise pregnancy to her struggle to get in shape before the event and all the in-between madness and heartbreak.

Watch it on Netflix

23. Bo Burnham: Inside

Year: 2021
Cast: Bo Burnham
Genre: Comedy, Music
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 87 minutes
Director: Bo Burnham
Trailer: Watch here

Bo Burnham distills our collective quarantined experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, writing, directing, starring in, composing, and editing this bleak-yet-hilarious bit of performance art that might be the most exciting, inventive thing we’ve seen yet. Is it a movie, a stand-up routine, or a comedy special? We really don’t know, but it’s damn funny so we’re putting it on this list. The self-deprecating humor and catchy tunes are here of course, but Burnham goes darker, crafting complete bangers about everything from the white savior complex to cancel culture, toxic masculinity, depression, and global economic inequality.

Watch it on Netflix

24. Bad Trip

Year: 2021
Cast: Eric Andre, Lil Rel Howery, Tiffany Haddish
Genre: Comedy
Rating: Unrated
Runtime: 86 minutes
Director: Kitao Sakurai
Trailer: Watch here

Eric Andre borrows Sacha Baron Cohen’s schtick — combining scripted storytelling with secretly-filmed real-world pranks — to create this hybrid comedy masterpiece about two best friends on the road trip of their lives. Andre plays Chris while the always fantastic Lil Rel Howery plays his BFF Bud. The two head from Florida to New York (chased by Bud’s mentally unsound escaped convict of a sister played by Tiffany Haddish) while taking in America’s heartland by way of rodeo nights and unfortunate gorilla encounters at local zoos.

Watch it on Netflix

25. The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf

Year: 2021
Cast: Theo James, Mary McDonnell, Graham McTavish
Genre: Animation, Adventure
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 83 minutes
Director: Kwang Il Han
Trailer: Watch here

Netflix knew the IP goldmine they had with Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher series which is why it took practically no time at all to greenlight an animated action-adventure movie set in the same universe as Henry Cavill’s passion project. This story follows Geralt of Rivia’s mentor, Vesemir, from his humble beginnings as an impoverished child to a legendary monster-slayer. Becoming an infamous Witcher has its problems though and when a new creature threatens the brotherhood, Vesemir has to face the darkness in his own past to defeat it.

Watch it on Netflix

26. The Trial of the Chicago 7

Year: 2020
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Jeremy Strong, Sacha Baron Cohen, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Genre: History, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 129 minutes
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Trailer: Watch here

Aaron Sorkin’s star-studded courtroom drama delivers a handful of ridiculously good performances from its impressive cast – a lineup that includes everyone from Succession’s Jeremy Strong to Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne, and Watchmen breakout Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. The film follows the true story of a group of anti-Vietnam war protesters charged with conspiracy counts and inciting riots during a demonstration at the 1968 Democratic Convention. If you’d like to gauge how unsettling and absorbing this movie is beforehand, word has it that Strong asked Sorkin to tear-gas him for a scene so, yeah, it’s an intense watch.

Watch it on Netflix

27. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Year: 2020
Cast: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Taylour Paige, Colman Domingo
Genre: Music, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 94 minutes
Director: George C. Wolfe
Trailer: Watch here

This dramatic interpretation of August Wilson’s iconic play rightly earned considerable awards buzz when it was released just a couple of years ago. That’s mainly due to Viola Davis, who turns in a stunning performance as the legendary Blues singer, and the late Chadwick Boseman, who plays a frustrated young Jazz musician whose ambition disrupts a fateful recording session. It’s tense and contained in a way that suits its source material but it feels even more relevant now than when Wilson first wrote it.

Watch it on Netflix

28. Lady Chatterley’s Lover

Year: 2022
Cast: Emma Corrin, Jack O’Connell
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: R
Runtime: 126 minutes
Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
Trailer: Watch here

Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell deliver a dazzling display of chemistry in this adaptation of a classic novel that feels as scandalous and searing as its source material. Corrin plays Connie, the titular Lady Chatterley, a young woman who marries a rich aristocrat and finds her life to be increasingly dull and restrictive. O’Connell plays Oliver, the gamekeeper of her husband’s estate. The pair begin a forbidden affair that had dire consequences for both and, while the sex scenes are plenty, it’s the bond between Connie and Oliver – and what it says about the class divide and sexist societal expectations – that really holds your attention.

Watch it on Netflix

29. I’m Thinking of Ending Things

Year: 2020
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, David Thewlis, Toni Collette
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 134 minutes
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Trailer: Watch here

Charlie Kaufman’s latest film is based on a book of the same name and stars Chernobyl’s Jessie Buckley as a young woman meeting her boyfriend’s parents for the first time — which normally would be a happy event except she’s secretly been planning to break up the with the guy. That guy is Jesse Plemons, who seems to be in everything these days, and along with Toni Collette and David Thewlis who play his parents, they make for hellish dinner mates. There’s a sinister vibe permeating everything about this straightforward plot so if you think you know how this ends, let us be the first to tell you: You don’t have a clue.

Watch it on Netflix

30. It Follows

Year: 2014
Cast: Maika Monroe,
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 100 minutes
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Trailer: Watch here

Maika Monroe carries this supernatural thriller that once had 2014-era hook-up culture shaking in its boots. The film follows a young woman named Jay (Monroe) who contracts an STD after a backseat hookup. The only problem? STD in this case stands for “sexually transmitted demon.” Her only hope to not end up dead is to pass the curse onto someone else – or figure out why this being is haunting people in the first place.

Watch it on Netflix

31. Pinocchio

Year: 2022
Cast: Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Cate Blanchett
Genre: Animation, Family
Rating: PG
Runtime: 117 minutes
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Trailer: Watch here

Guillermo del Toro brings his trademark whimsy and love for dark fantasy to this adaptation of a beloved childhood fairytale – told this time in stop-motion animation form. Of the two Pinocchio retellings fans were given this year, del Toro’s is undoubtedly the superior work, rehashing the familiar plotline – a wooden puppet brought to life as the son of his carver – and setting it amidst the backdrop of Fascist Italy before and during the Second World War. It’s grim and mesmerizing and surprisingly moving, even if you can predict most of its trajectory.

Watch it on Netflix

32. Day Shift

Year: 2022
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Dave Franco
Genre: Comedy, Action
Rating: R
Runtime: 113 minutes
Director: J.J. Perry
Trailer: Watch here

Horror comes in many forms and not every “scary” movie has to terrify you. Some of them can make you laugh. And this film? This film does both. There are enough jumps and thrills to keep you guessing but the real draw is the chemistry between Jamie Foxx and Dave Franco. One plays a vampire-hunting single dad, the other, his tightly laced sidekick who is definitely not cut out for the stake life. Add in a pretty wild Snoop Dogg guest spot and some gory Buffy Summers-esque slaying action and you’ve got a recipe for a great horror comedy watch.

Watch it on Netflix

33. Crimson Peak

Year: 2015
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Charlie Hunnam
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 119 minutes
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Trailer: Watch here

Guillermo del Toro recruits Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston for this gorgeous Gothic horror story that’s more unnerving than truly terrifying. That’s not a knock. Horror takes all kinds of forms, and this story, about a brother-sister duo with a deadly secret and a young woman trying to escape her tragic past, is certainly spine-chilling. Chastain has the most fun, playing a deranged spinster with sinister plans for her brother’s new wife – including poisoned porridge and a bit of ghostly gaslighting — but the real star here is the setting: a Victorian-era mansion that breathes, bleeds, and holds the memories of its unlucky former inhabitants. It’s beautiful – as is everything del Toro does – and it deserves more hype than it’s been afforded.

Watch it on Netflix

34. Dolemite Is My Name

Year: 2019
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Mike Epps, Keegan-Michael Key, Wesley Snipes
Genre: Comedy, Biography
Rating: R
Runtime: 118 minutes
Director: Craig Brewer
Trailer: Watch here

Eddie Murphy proves why he’s one of the definitive comics of his generation in this biopic about famed comedian, actor, and showman Rudy Ray Moore, better known as Dolemite to fans of his raunchy comedy albums, stand-up tours, and blaxploitation films. Murphy plays Moore at the beginning of his career when he was just a record store clerk looking to break out in the business. He’s joined by a cast that includes Keegan-Michael Key, Ron Cephas Jones, Tituss Burgess, and others, but it’s Murphy who shines here, giving possibly the best performance of his career as a man who will stop at nothing to pursue his dream.

Watch it on Netflix

35. The Power Of The Dog

Year: 2021
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Genre: Western, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 126 minutes
Director: Jane Campion
Trailer: Watch here

Based on the novel of the same name, this Jane Campion-directed Western features a handful of tour-de-force performances and an emotionally wrenching story about familial bonds. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Phil, one-half of a pair of ranching brothers who becomes bitter and verbally abusive to his brother’s new wife, Rose (Kirsten Dunst). Hiding who he is and angry that his brother seems to be occupied with his new life, Phil befriends Rose’s young son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and as their relationship progresses, both men learn undeniable truths about themselves.

Watch it on Netflix

36. The Lost Daughter

Year: 2021
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 121 minutes
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Trailer: Watch here

Dakota Johnson and Olivia Colman star in this tense drama from first-time director Maggie Gyllenhaal. Colman plays Leda, a woman on vacation in Greece who’s forced to confront her own shortcomings as a mother when she befriends Nina (Johnson) a new mom struggling to keep her head above water. The film teeters between the past, with Jessie Buckley playing Leda as a young, overwhelmed, absentee mom, and Colman, who makes increasingly problematic choices in her attempt to get closer to Nina and find some kind of redemption.

Watch it on Netflix

37. Always Be My Maybe

Year: 2019
Cast: Ali Wong, Randall Park
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 101 minutes
Director: Nahnatchka Khan
Trailer: Watch here

Ali Wong and Randall Park star in this short but sweet rom-com from Netflix that follows two childhood sweethearts — who’ve spent the last 15 years apart — trying to reconnect when one moves back home. Wong plays a successful chef opening a new restaurant in San Francisco while Park plays her former best friend still living at home and working for his dad. Both have some growing up to do, but the film eschews classic romcom tropes for bits that are funnier and more poignant than your average lighthearted fare. Oh, and there’s a Keanu Reeves cameo that’s just *chef’s kiss*.

Watch it on Netflix

38. Hustle

Year: 2022
Cast: Adam Sandler, Queen Latifah, Ben Foster, Juancho Hernangómez
Genre: Sports, Comedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 117 minutes
Director: Jeremiah Zagar
Trailer: Watch here

Adam Sandler has plenty of comedy favorites housed on Netflix but we’re highlighting this one because Sandler gets to channel his everyman charm in a sports story that lets his comedic sensibilities control the game. He plays Stanley Sugerman, an aging scout for the 76ers who discovers a potential NBA star during a pick-up game in Spain. Stanley risks his career and his family’s future to back the unknown player, eventually squaring off against his old boss and confronting his own troubled past to help someone else achieve their dreams on the court.

Watch it on Netflix

39. Stutz

Year: 2022
Cast: Jonah Hill, Phil Stutz
Genre: Documentary
Rating: R
Runtime: 96 minutes
Director: Jonah Hill
Trailer: Watch here

Actor and director Jonah Hill bravely invites fans into his own therapy sessions with psychiatrist Phil Stutz in this documentary that’s both incisive and lighthearted. Hill devotes much of the doc’s runtime to telling the story of Stutz’s life and his unique approach to therapy before the pair delve deep into the actor’s own psyche, including his increasing anxiety surrounding a key element of his profession. It’s heartwarming and raw in a way you likely wouldn’t expect, and it may change your perceptions about talk therapy and just how beneficial it truly can be.

Watch it on Netflix

40. Luckiest Girl Alive

Year: 2022
Cast: Mila Kunis, Finn Wittrock, Connie Britton, Scoot McNairy
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 113 minutes
Director: Mike Barker
Trailer: Watch here

None of us are who we were in high school but that’s especially true for Ani Fanelli, a New York City journalist on the cusp of having it all. Mila Kunis plays Ani as tough, street-smart, and a bit of a black sheep amongst the Manhattan elite whose circles she now navigates while trying to keep a lock on her troubled and violent past. But, when a documentary crew comes knocking, hoping to get Ani’s take on an infamous school shooting incident she survived during her teenage years, old ghosts rise to the surface, threatening her carefully cultivated persona in ways she could never expect.

Watch it on Netflix

41. The Imitation Game

Year: 2014
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode
Genre: Biography, Drama
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 114 minutes
Director: Morten Tyldum
Trailer: Watch here

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a tortured genius in this war-time drama based on the life of mathematician Alan Turing who’s considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. During World War II, Turing led a team of cryptanalysts in deciphering coded Nazi messages. His construction of a machine that could decode these missives daily potentially saved thousands of lives and helped the Allies win the war, but it’s Turing’s personal life that provides much of the drama in this film. The scientist was a gay man in a time when the LGBTQ community was not only outcast but hunted down and punished by the British government. The film tells of Turing’s incredible brilliance, and his equally unbelievable struggles once his sexual orientation was discovered.

Watch it on Netflix

42. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Year: 2018
Cast: Tim Blake Nelson, Zoe Kazan, James Franco, Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson
Genre: Comedy, Musical
Rating: R
Runtime: 133 minutes
Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Trailer: Watch here

The Coen brothers serve up a slick Western romp, one that serves as an ode to all of the tropes present in Hollywood’s best Wild West adaptations. Split into six parts, each story is loosely connected although thematically and tonally different. Tim Blake Nelson stars as the titular hero, a sharpshooting songster who takes part in the film’s opening musical portion. From there, we get stories of outlaws getting their due, prospectors mining for gold, ghostly hauntings, and wagon trails. Forget trying to follow the thread and simply enjoy the ride with this one.

Watch it on Netflix

43. tick, tick… BOOM!

Year: 2021
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Vanessa Hudgens, Robin de Jesus
Genre: Biography, Comedy, Drama
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 120 minutes
Director: Lin Manuel-Miranda
Trailer: Watch here

Lin Manuel-Miranda hops into the director’s chair for the first time with this musical biopic about famed Broadway composer Jonathan Larson. Andrew Garfield completely transforms himself to play the tortured artist who would one day give us Rent. In this outing, Larson is still searching for inspiration for his next play while battling grief and a debilitating awareness of life’s deadline. The supporting cast (Vanessa Hudgens, Alexandra Shipp) are all good, but this is Garfield’s moment and he proves his multifaceted talent extends beyond his Marvel superhero contributions.

Watch it on Netflix

44. Oblivion

Year: 2013
Cast: Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 124 minutes
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Trailer: Watch here

Tom Cruise stars in this mind-bending sci-fi adventure based on an unfinished graphic novel by director Joseph Kosinski. Set in the year 2077 when Earth has been decimated beyond repair, Cruise plays Jack, a maintenance tech whose mission is to find and fix drones that guard hydrothermal rigs capable of converting seawater into fusion energy from alien scavengers. This energy is used to power life on Titan – a moon orbiting Saturn – and these aliens are the reason why Earth has become inhabitable to begin with. Except, of course, nothing is as it seems and when a rebel alliance of humans captures Jack, forcing him to confront strange memories he has no recollection of living, the dominoes begin to fall.

Watch it on Netflix

45. Beasts Of No Nation

Year: 2015
Cast: Abraham Attah, Idris Elba
Genre: Drama, War
Rating: R
Runtime: 137 minutes
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Trailer: Watch here

Idris Elba is normally so talented and charismatic on-screen that it’s easy to forget he can play a morally-corrupt psychopath to perfection as he does in this harrowing war story based on a novel by the same name. As the Commandant, Elba recruits young boys to his rebel army fighting the government of Ghana by forcing them to undergo a brutal initiation process. Agu, a young boy who saw his father and older brother murdered at the hands of the government, is captured and indoctrinated into the Commandant’s army, suffering through terrible torture, both physical and psychological, before he eventually escapes. The film’s commitment to authenticity makes it hard to stomach at times, but there’s still a sense of hopefulness that makes its ending worth the watch.

Watch it on Netflix

46. The Good Nurse

Year: 2022
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne
Genre: Crime, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 121 minutes
Director: Tobias Lindholm
Trailer: Watch here

There’s an inherent sense of trust in medical professionals that we all harbor which makes the true story of a killer nurse who went undetected for years even more terrifying. Hospitals are where sick people go to get better, not die from preventable, man-made causes. And yet, for hundreds of patients under the care of Charlie Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) that’s exactly what happened. Cullen begins the film as an exemplary nurse and a devoted co-worker to Jessica Chastain’s Amy – a single mom secretly battling a serious heart condition. Their friendship fuels the drama that comes when Amy discovers Charlie’s patients have been mysteriously dying, not just at their hospital, but at the dozens of others, he’s worked for in the past. Her fight for justice and her internal dilemma over turning on her best friend make what could’ve just been a paint-by-numbers true-crime story something far more interesting.

Watch it on Netflix

47. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

Year: 2018
Cast: Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Janel Parrish, Israel Broussard
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 99 minutes
Director: Susan Johnson
Trailer: Watch here

A teen rom-com for the ages, this movie is based on a best-selling YA series that Netflix was smart enough to snatch up early on. Sequels have followed but none have managed to bottle the exact magic formula that this fun, light-hearted coming-of-age story boasts. Lana Condor plays Lara Jean Covey, a junior in high school who tends to write her crushes love letters without ever actually sending them. After those same letters are anonymously mailed, she’s forced to do damage control by carrying on a fake relationship with one of her former love interests who just happens to be one of the most popular kids at school. Blame this movie for Noah Centineo’s ascension to internet boyfriend status.

Watch it on Netflix

48. Tinder Swindler

Year: 2022
Cast: Simon Leviev, Cecilie Fjellhøy, Pernilla Sjöholm
Genre: Crime, Documentary
Rating: NR
Runtime: 114 minutes
Director: Felicity Morris
Trailer: Watch here

Romance in the age of dating apps is exhausting, anxiety-inducing, and, according to this documentary, downright dangerous. Anyone who swipes right on a regular basis in the hopes of finding love should view this true-crime story as a cautionary tale, one whose villain is the ultimate catfisher and whose victims feel all too relatable. Simon Leviev convinced multiple women across the years that he was a jet-setting billionaire playboy, the heir to a Russian diamond “king,” by wooing them with gifts and trips that they would, unknowingly, finance themselves. In reality, he was a con man who extracted millions of dollars from women in an emotional Ponzi scheme that seems so unreal, it has to be true.

Watch it on Netflix

49. The Munsters

Year: 2022
Cast: Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Daniel Roebuck, Jorge Garcia
Genre: Family Comedy
Rating: PG
Runtime: 109 minutes
Director: Rob Zombie
Trailer: Watch here

Rob Zombie has been wanting to make a Munsters movie for years and the result of that dogged pursuit is this saturated, sinister comedy that feels less like a Zombie flick and more like a film you can watch with the whole family. The movie serves as an origin story of sorts for the popular 1960s sitcom, retracing the Frankensteinian birth of Herman Munster and his unlikely romance with a 150-year-old vampire named Lily. Lily’s undead father, The Count, initially disapproves of the match, which causes all kinds of trouble for the couple, who eventually move to California to buy the dilapidated mansion that should be instantly recognizable to fans.

Watch it on Netflix

50. His House

Year: 2020
Cast: Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu, Matt Smith
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: NR
Runtime: 93 minutes
Director: Remi Weekes
Trailer: Watch here

Lovecraft Country’s Wunmi Mosaku and House of the Dragon’s Matt Smith star in this British horror flick that paints a terrifying picture of life as an immigrant. Mosaku plays Rial while Sope Dirisu plays her husband, Bol. The couple flees their war-torn home in South Sudan, applying for refugee status in England and hoping for a better life. Instead, evil lurks, not only in their neighborhood but in their own home which houses ghosts that haunt the pair and force them to reckon with past injustice. Smith plays their case worker who ignores their concerns, forcing the couple to endure some nightmarish conditions before they can find peace in this bizarre and foreign setting.

Watch it on Netflix

How good was Top Gun: Maverick? So good that it kept a bald ripoff from being released. As per The Hollywood Reporter, this fall China was set to release Born to Fly, a blockbuster about a bold pilot who takes part in a top-secret military program involving advanced fighter jets. It was set to be the nation’s answer to the Top Gun sequel, which would be great because Top Gun: Maverick was never cleared for release in China. And yet its release was suddenly pulled at the last second, and a replacement date has yet to be made. No official answer has been given as to why, but sources say it’s because the producers realized it was clearly inferior. Or, put another way: Top Gun: Maverick was too damn good.

Born to Fly was a big and hotly anticipated production. It starred pop star-turned-actor Wang Yibo. It was made in cooperation with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force, just as Top Gun: Maverick was made with help from the U.S. Navy. It was set to be the latest nationalistic blockbuster, much like the mega-hits Wolf Warrior 2 and The Battle at Lake Changjin. And yet it was pulled days before release. Producers put out a vague statement, claiming it was yanked “in order to present better production effects.”

Sources, however, claim it’s because producers felt the film’s “stunts and visual effects were far inferior to Top Gun: Maverick’s and that the Chinese version risked ridicule in comparison.” But that’s not all:

Some in China who have seen Born to Fly have said that the movie disappointed the Chinese air force because of both its overall perceived shabbiness and its mistaken reference to China’s proudly homemade J-20 jet as a “fourth-generation” stealth fighter, rather than, correctly, a more advanced, fifth-generation plane of its kind. Most of all, though, the original timing of the underwhelming Chinese film’s release — on Sept. 30 — couldn’t have been more fraught, coming just two weeks before the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, where Xi Jinping was anointed with an unprecedented third term as China’s top leader. It was a moment of historic political sensitivity in the country, a time when Party leadership would brook no embarrassments.

Will audiences ever see Born to Fly? Maybe, maybe not. A source told THR it was still awaiting a new release date. “It could come anytime,” they said, “or it might never come at all.”

In the meantime, in the good ol’ U.S. of A., Top Gun: Maverick just hit Paramount+. Merry Christmas to everyone.

(Via THR)

Iconic rapper Wiz Khalifa was on People’s Party with Talib Kweli last week to talk about his journey in hip-hop. Deep in the episode, Kweli asks Wiz about his mega-smash song “See You Again” with Charlie Puth. The track was meant to commemorate the death of Paul Walker at the end of Furious 7 — so it’s no surprise that it’s a deeply emotional song about loss and love.

Reflecting on that song and the story behind it, Wiz says “A lot of people don’t know I have an older sibling. Well, I had an older sibling. My brother but she was transgender. At the time I was writing ‘See You Again’ is when she got sick. I knew I was pretty much going to be letting go…I think it was able to touch anybody who was going through a loss, or could be dealing with a situation. That is what made it so special to me.”

The discussion around the song also reveals the existence of a version without Wiz’s rap verses that played on some pop stations. Wiz’s response “I’m not trippin’!” is perfect — especially considering how much money he’s sure to have made from the track.

Catch more of this insightful and funny interview on People’s Party with Talib Kweli with co-host Jamin Leigh.

Tequila is a great choice for the holidays. A tequila cocktail? That’s an even better choice. Sure, you can have all the margaritas you want this time of year… when you’re at your favorite Mexican joint (or better yet, in Mexico!). But that’s a summer drink. Palomas really pop a little brighter between May and September, too.

So today, let’s take a look at some different tequila cocktails that speak to the holidays and taking the edge off all the festivities. Below, I’m mixing up three tequila cocktails that you can easily make at home while Adam Sandler sings about Hanukkah or Christmas Vacation plays one more time on the TV.

The below mixes are very straightforward and classic cocktails that use tequila. They also happen to be very easy to make with little skills, gear, or effort.

Also Read: The Top Five Cocktail Recipes of the Last Six Months

• Our ‘Perfect Whisky And Coke’ Recipe Uses The Last Brand You’d Expect
• The Hemingway Daiquiri Is A Deeply Refreshing Summer Cocktail — Here’s The (Very Simple) Real Recipe
• It’s A Great Weekend For A Bourbon Old Fashioned — Here’s Our Recipe
• The Fall Old Fashioned Is The Perfect Weekend Sipper — Here’s Our Recipe
• This Smoky Negroni Variation Is The Perfect Backyard BBQ Sipper — Here’s Our Recipe

Tequini

Have you tried a classic Martini with blanco tequila instead of gin or vodka yet? No?!

It’s time to make this drink immediately. One tip, choose a very good blanco tequila. I like to use Don Julio Blanco. I also tend to lean toward Noilly Prat dry vermouth as it’s a little subtler and adds a nice smoothness to the tequila. Lastly, make sure to always express those lemon oils over the cocktail before you serve or sip. It’ll add that extra depth and brightness that takes a cocktail from an at-home effort to feeling like a pro made it.

Ingredients:

• 3 oz. blanco tequila
• 0.75 oz. dry vermouth
• Lemon peel
• Ice

What You’ll Need:

• Coupe, Nick and Nora, or cocktail glass
• Mixing glass
• Cocktail strainer
• barspoon
• Jigger
• Peeler

Method:

• Add the tequila, dry vermouth, bitters, and a large handful of ice to a mixing glass. Stir until the mixing glass is ice-cold to touch.
• Strain the cocktail into a pre-chilled cocktail glass.
• Express the lemon oils over the cocktail and run the peel around the rim and stem. Serve.

Bottom Line:

This is delicious. The tequila truly shines through with a sense of white pepper and caramelized agave with a hint of vanilla and summer florals. The lemon makes it all pop with a super light and refreshing vibe. You’ll be making a few of these over the next week or so.

Añejo Old Fashioned

The tequila old fashioned is an old-school classic. An oaky and spicy añejo tequila is the perfect replacement for rye or bourbon whiskey. Beyond that, if you can make an old fashioned with whiskey, you can make this right now. And if you’ve never made an old fashioned before, follow these handy directions below.

Ingredients:

• 3 oz. añejo tequila
• 1 barspoon white sugar
• 1 barspoon bubbly water
• 3 dashes of Angostura Bitters
• Dark cherry
• Orange peel
• Ice

What You’ll Need:

• Rocks glass
• Barspoon
• Peeler
• Jigger

Method:

• In the rocks glass, add the sugar, bitters, and bubbly water and stir until a bitters base forms and the sugar just starts to dissolve.
• Add the tequila and stir until most of the sugar/bitters base dissolves.
• Add a handful of ice and stir until the rocks glass is ice-cold to touch.
• Top the glass with fresh ice.
• Add a cherry and express orange oils over the glass, running the peel around the rim and body of the glass. Drop in the peel and serve.

Bottom Line:

This is strong AF but delightfully balanced. The orange really helps the spices pop on the palate with a mild roasted agave feel and caramelized sweetness.

Dirty Bird

The holidays always call for a creamy concoction with a good dose of booze. The dirty bird is a modern classic that keeps things light — compared to heavy nogs or Brandy Alexanders — while adding a good caffeine kick into the mix. This is also nearly a pour-in-the-glass and-stir drink, making it the easiest to make on this list. Yes, you have to give it one or two shakes, but that’s super easy.

Ingredients:

• 1 oz. blanco tequila
• 1 oz. coffee liqueur
• 2 oz. half and half
• Pinch of cinnamon
• Ice

What You’ll Need:

• Rocks glass
• Bottom of a Boston Shaker

Method:

• Fill the glass with ice. Add the tequila and coffee liqueur. Put the bottom of the Boston Shaker over the glass and give the drink two shakes (not too hard). Pour the cocktail back into the glass.
• Top with the half and half. Dust with cinnamon. Serve.

Bottom Line:

This is shockingly refreshing and light. The coffee cuts through really well and balances out the tequila’s vegetal vibe while highlighting the pepperiness of the spirit. Yes, it’s creamy but not overly so. It feels more like a boozy espresso drink from Starbucks that’s not overly sweet and tastes, you know, really good.

With everything being shut down in Iowa thanks to Winter Storm Elliott becoming a full-scale blizzard, KWWL sports guy Mark Woodley was tasked with covering the morning weather report. He was not a fan. Not a fan at all.

While revealing that he was tossed outside five hours before he normally wakes up, Woodley spent the entire morning show getting progressively more cranky as he bristled at being constantly asked how’s he doing and alternating between hating that his face is frozen, only to wish it still was. The dude definitely missed the comfy fines of his sports desk.

You can watch the hilariously cranky weather report below:

Woodley’s understandably grouchy demeanor quickly went viral on Twitter as people loved his candid remarks about his predicament and complaints about his colleagues who he accused of lengthening the show by an extra hour just to torture him.

The KWWL report was later picked up by Rex Chapman on Thursday afternoon, who shared it with his 1.2 million followers, so definitely get ready to have your dad or uncle ask you if you saw the cranky sports guy over the holidays as it’s already started racking up likes within minutes of Chapman sharing it.

(Via Mark Woodley on Twitter)

Getting someone a Cameo for a holiday or a big occasion is nothing new. What is a little new, however, is what the Buffalo Bills decided to do for Josh Allen to celebrate Christmas, as the team purchased him a Cameo from his backup quarterback, Matt Barkley, who had no idea that the Cameo was going to Allen.

My favorite part is how Allen was very visibly not up for whatever hijinks were about to ensue when the people behind the Bills’ TikTok account walked in, only for him to completely lose his mind over an unsuspecting Barkley giving him advice on how to become a better quarterback.

Allen cannot stop laughing once he learns that Barkley didn’t know which Bills fan named Josh was going to receive this Cameo. At one point, Allen starts to critique the advice Barkley gives, and then, the Cameo ends and he kisses the iPad. He then FaceTimes Barkley and lets him know exactly what was going on here, at which point Barkley confirms that he had zero clue what was going on. It is hard to argue against this being a very good use of $99, and perhaps Allen will take this advice and help lead the Bills to a Super Bowl this year.

Despite causing over a billion dollars to go missing from the cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, which he’s accused of running as his own “personal fiefdom” causing its disastrous crash, Sam Bankman-Fried is free on bail for the holidays. However, it wasn’t cheap. His parents had to put up their house to secure his whopping $250 million bail, and the disgraced crypto bro will be severely limited in his movements and expenditures.

Via The New York Times:

Under the bail arrangement, Mr. Bankman-Fried will live with his parents in Palo Alto, Calif., under strict electronic monitoring, including a bracelet that will be placed on him before he leaves the courthouse.

The $250 million personal recognizance bond — a written promise to appear in court as needed — will be secured by his parents’ interest in their home, the judge said. He was also required to surrender his passport and to receive mental health and substance abuse treatment. Any expenses above $1,000 would require prior approval by the government.

The judge, Gabriel W. Gorenstein, made it a point to warn Bankman-Fried that if he violated the terms of the bail agreement, he’d be thrown in jail and his parents would be forced to pay the entire bond in full. While prosecutors argued that Bankman-Fried is a “flight risk” and that he should be denied bail, the judge disagreed after determining that the disgraced crypto CEOs fortunes have been severely depleted and pretty much everyone knows who he is now.

“It would be very difficult for this defendant to hide without being recognized,” Judge Gorenstein said. “So I believe that the risk of flight is appropriately mitigated.”

In short, he ain’t going nowhere, and man, talk about salt in the wound.

(Via The New York Times)

On top of all of the food, twinkling lights, parties, and generally revelry associated with the holidays, the time off just might be the best part. Even if you have your in-laws visiting, you still probably get a few days (if not a week or more) off for the holidays. This extra time at home is a great opportunity to enjoy some of the incredible winter beers currently available.

What else are you going to do from now until New Year’s? Spend time with your family? Why not enjoy a beer or three while you’re at it!

Since winter is such a great time for beer, we understand the idea of rounding up the best, most flavorful winter beers is a bit of a daunting task. This is why we decided to do the work for you. Keep scrolling to see our 20 favorite seasonal brews ranked by overall flavor.

20) Harpoon Winter Warmer

ABV: 5.9%

Average Price: $11.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

One of the more well-known winter warmers on the market, Harpoon Winter Warmer has been a Boston classic since its inception in 1988. Known for its mix of sweetness and wintry spices, it’s a warming hug on a cold winter night.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is spicier than we’d prefer with cinnamon and nutmeg making an appearance along with toffee. The palate continues this trend with roasted malts, vanilla, and caramel pairing with a heavy dose of wintry spices. It could use a better balance between malts and spices.

Bottom Line:

Maybe this one is more nostalgia, but that’s okay by us. It just tastes like frigid winter day. It’s just a little heavy-handed on the spices for some drinkers.

19) Southern Tier Old Man Winter

ABV: 7.5%

Average Price: $9.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Only available in November and December, Old Man Winter is a 7.5% ABV winter ale brewed with ale yeast, three types of hops, and two types of malts. It foregoes the wintry spices for roasted malts, chocolate, caramel, and slightly bitter hops instead.

Tasting Notes:

Aromas of roasted malts, caramel, chocolate, and lightly floral hops greet you before your first sip. On the palate, you’ll find notes of dried fruits, roasted malts, caramel, and a nutty sweetness.

Bottom Line:

While we don’t prefer overly spiced winter ales, this one is lacking a little in the flavor department. It’s malty, but just a little light as winter seasonals usually go.

18) 21st Amendment Fireside Chat

ABV: 7.9%

Average Price: $9.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This beer is named for the “fireside chats” or evening addresses by then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt. It’s even adorned with an image of the former president sitting beside a roaring fire. It’s a warming, seasonal English-style ale with wintry spices.

Tasting Notes:

The nose isn’t overly exciting, but there are hints of cocoa powder, caramel, ginger, and orange peels. These scents give way to a palate of brown bread, candied orange peels, gingerbread, chocolate, toffee, and just a hint of floral, resinous pine at the finish.

Bottom Line:

This is another spiced winter ale that just doesn’t completely hit the mark. It’s decent but is just lacking in overall aroma and flavor.

17) Boulevard Nutcracker Ale

ABV: 7.8%

Average Price: $9.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Besides a Christmas tree or a menorah, there are few things more associated with the holidays than a wooden nutcracker. That’s why Boulevard named its 7.5% ABV winter warmer after the iconic nut-crushing soldier. It gets its flavor from a variety of malts and Chinook hops.

Tasting Notes:

Brown bread, candied nuts, dried fruits, molasses, and slightly floral, piney hops are noticeable on the nose. The palate features more caramel malts, brown bread, molasses, piney hops, and gentle wintry spices. The finish is slightly hoppy and bitter.

Bottom Line:

This isn’t a bad beer. It’s just kind of mislabeled. The imagery makes you think it’s going to be a spiced, wintry beer when it’s really just a malty, lager-like winter warmer. Nothing really special here.

16) Dark Horse 4 Elf

ABV: 8.75%

Average Price: $10 for a four-pack

The Beer:

The brewers at Dark Horse refer to 4 Elf as “holiday cheer in liquid form” and we couldn’t agree more. This winter warmer gets its memorable, seasonal flavor from the addition of malt and hops as well as brown sugar, honey, clove, cinnamon, and even nutmeg.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is surprisingly spicy with orange peels, cinnamon, nutmeg, and floral herbal hops. Drinking it adds to the seasonal appeal with flavors like clove, candied orange peels, caramel malts, cinnamon, and more spicy, floral hops at the finish.

Bottom Line:

This is a well-made winter warmer for fans of spice. It would be better served with a little more caramel malt flavor to offset the hops and spices though.

15) New Belgium Accumulation

ABV: 6.5%

Average Price: $11 for a six-pack

The Beer:

As winter beers go, this is about as far from a winter warmer as you can get. This 6.5% ABV hazy, winter IPA is released in December to be enjoyed during ski season or by anyone looking for a respite from darker beers. It gets its snappy, juicy, citrusy flavor from the addition of Mosaic, Lotus, Strata, and El Dorado hops.

Tasting Notes:

This IPA’s aroma is citrus through and through. There’s a ton of tangerine, lime, lemon, and earthy, resinous pine. It’s a great start that leads into a memorable palate of grapefruit, candied pineapple, lemon zest, tangerine, and a nice kick of slightly bitter pine.

Bottom Line:

As hazy IPAs go, this one isn’t as juicy and tropical fruit-filled as expected. It’s a little more one-dimensional, relying on citrus almost exclusively.

14) Anderson Valley Winter Solstice

ABV: 6.9%

Average Price: $10.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Anderson Valley set out to create a classic winter warmer with its Winter Solstice and they did just that. It’s brewed with Pale 2-row, Crystal, and Munich malts as well as oat flakes, house yeast, and Northern Brewer and Chinook hops.

Tasting Notes:

A complex nose of toffee, brown bread, dried fruits, and wintry spices greets you before your first sip. On the palate, you’ll notice layer upon layer of caramel, toasted malts, dried fruits, cinnamon, and other seasonal spices. A lot is going on with this beer.

Bottom Line:

This is a well-made winter warmer. It has the caramel malts and the spices, but nothing is overdone. The only thing holding it back is the fact that it could almost use even more wintry spices to round it out.

13) Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome

ABV: 6%

Average Price: $10.99 for a four-pack

The Beer:

This 6% ABV winter ale is known for its complex, balanced flavor profile featuring a heavy dose of caramel malts as well as Fuggle and Golding hops. The result is a malty, spicy, slightly hoppy beer for the cold nights ahead.

Tasting Notes:

The aromas is all brown bread, raisins, dried cherries, toffee, and herbal, floral hops. It’s a good start and it only gets better when you take a sip. This is where you encounter notes of sticky toffee, figs, raisins, bready malts, honey, vanilla, and lightly bitter, floral hops.

Bottom Line:

This is an interesting, flavorful, balanced winter warmer. Its only downfall is that at such a low ABV for a winter warmer, the flavors are slightly muted.

12) Widmer Brothers Brrr

ABV: 7.2%

Average Price: $12 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This aptly named award-winning beer isn’t your usual winter sipper. Instead of the usual winter warmer or other dark beer, this is a Northwest-style red ale. Brewed with Chocolate and Caramel malts as well as a healthy dose of hops (Alchemy, Eureka, and Cascade), it’s a great take on the wintry style.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is loaded with toffee candy, brown bread, candied orange peel, dried fruits, and pine needles. On the palate, you’ll find flavors like orange peel, caramel, freshly baked bread, vanilla, and earthy, herbal, piney hops. It’s subdued in the best way possible.

Bottom Line:

While this beer isn’t over-the-top when it comes to seasonal flavors. It’s in its balanced simplicity where it shines.

11) Two Beers Tipsy Toboggan

ABV: 6.8%

Average Price: $10.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

While we’d never suggest climbing into a toboggan at the top of a steep hill after you’ve had a few beers, we do suggest you try this seasonal favorite from Two Beers. This 6.8% ABV winter ale was brewed with 2-row, Vienna, Munich, Black Prinz, Crystal 60, Crystal 150, and white wheat. It gets its snappy kick from the addition of Columbus, Galena, and Cascade hops.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a ton of raisins, dried cherries, butterscotch, vanilla, and brown sugar on the nose. It invites you to take a sip. This is where you’ll find even more flavors like figs, raisins, toffee, treacle, chocolate, and even cinnamon. It’s a very fruity, rich beer that you’ll be craving all year long.

Bottom Line:

When it comes to winter beers, this is definitely something different and that’s not such a bad thing. It’s heavy with fruit and caramel and just as heavy with happiness.

10) Highland Cold Mountain

ABV: 5.9%

Average Price: $15.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Highland Brewing has been making this perennial winter classic for the last twenty-six years. It’s brewed with 2-row, Pilsen, Vienna, Chocolate, Caramel 40, Caramel 60, and wheat as well as Cascade and Mt. Hood hops.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find aromas of dried fruits, cinnamon sugar, vanilla, caramel, and roasted malts. The flavor is highlighted by brown bread, toffee, brown sugar, cinnamon, roasted malts, chocolate, and other wintry spices. Sweet, warming, and memorable.

Bottom Line:

Cold Mountain is a little lighter in ABV than many winter warmers, but somehow it’s still loaded with balanced seasonal flavors and aromas.

9) Flying Dog Freezin’ Season

ABV: 7.4%

Average Price: $13 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This 7.4% ABV winter warmer is aptly named as it’s known for its warming mix of caramel malts and sweet, dried fruits. It’s also one of the earliest winter beers to hit shelves as it launches at the end of October.

Tasting Notes:

Before your first sip, you’re met with aromas of vanilla beans, caramel malts, freshly baked bread, ginger, and gentle spices. This leads to a palate of sticky toffee, vanilla, dried fruits, cinnamon, and roasted malts. It’s malty, sweet, with just a hint of wintry spice.

Bottom Line:

This winter warmer has everything winter beer fans could want. It’s higher in ABV, warming, malty, and doesn’t overdo it with the holiday spices.

8) Troegs Mad Elf

ABV: 11%

Average Price: $15.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This holiday favorite is a mischievous mix of Chocolate, Munich, and Pilsner malts paired with honey and five different kinds of cherries. It’s bold, indulgent, sweet, malty, and well-suited for winter drinking.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is all cinnamon sugar, toffee, vanilla beans, wintry spices, and a whole wallop of dried cherry flavor. The palate follows suit with notes of caramel, roasted malts, chocolate, Christmas spices, and sweeter, tart, delicious cherry flavor.

Bottom Line:

This one is for the cherry fans. It has the wintry spices and flavors winter beer fans love, but it’s put over the top with the dried cherry flavor.

7) Odell Isolation Ale

ABV: 6%

Average Price: $11 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Nobody wants to be snowed in, but they might not mind if they found themselves with a sixer (or hopefully more) of Odell Isolation Ale. Simply brewed with Rocky Mountain water, roasted and caramel malts, and Nugget hops, it’s a true seasonal favorite.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find brown bread, roasted malts, butterscotch, and just a hint of dried fruits. On the palate, you’ll find flavors of bready malts, caramel candy, dried fruit, roasted malts, and gentle herbal, earthy, slightly piney hops at the very end.

Bottom Line:

This popular winter beer is a great example of balance. Bready, caramel malts give way to light herbal hops, creating a classic winter beer.

6) Carton Decoy

ABV: 12%

Average Price: Limited Availability

The Beer:

As winter beers go, this one is truly unique. This 12% ABV Belgian-style strong ale is flavored with Special B malts and Belgian candi sugars as well as coriander, cumin, lavender flowers, Sichuan red peppercorns, and even honey.

Tasting Notes:

A complex nose of sweet honey, peppery spices, raisins, figs, caramel, vanilla, and earthy, floral aromas come first before the first sip. Drinking it brings forth notes of dried cherries, plums, honey, vanilla beans, roasted malts, and just a hint of wintry spices.

Bottom Line:

This one should appeal to fans of Belgian beers and Belgian-style beers. It’s complex, spiced, and perfect for a cold winter night.

5) Jolly Pumpkin Noel

ABV: 9%

Average Price: $15.99 for a 750ml bottle

The Beer:

This 9% ABV wild dark strong holiday ale is brewed with Styrian Aurora, Fuggle, and Tettnang hops as well as Pilsner Malt, Wheat Malt, and Chocolate Malt before being aged for a full six months in oak.

Tasting Notes:

This beer smells like a fruitcake with dried fruits, caramel malts, brown bread, and a nutty aroma. The palate is more of the same with candied almonds, raisins, dried cherries, figs, vanilla beans, toffee, and an almost wine-like fruity flavor throughout.

Bottom Line:

In a world of spiced winter warmers, Jolly Pumpkin Noel with its wine-like, oaky flavor profile is a nice respite.

4) pFriem Winter Ale

ABV: 7.5%

Average Price: $7.99 for a 16-ounce can

The Beer:

This complex winter ale was brewed with Rahr Pale, Simpsons Munich, Simpsons Crystal Dark, and Carafa III malts as well as Chinook, Citra, El Dorado, Galaxy, and Mosaic hops. It’s known for its dried fruit, caramel, and lightly piney flavor profile.

Tasting Notes:

Caramel, brown bread, roasted malts, grapefruit, candied orange peels, dried berries, and gentle, herbal pine can be found on the nose. Sipping it reveals notes of caramel, vanilla beans, light citrus zest, dried fruits, and pine needles. The finish is dry, sweet, and gently spiced.

Bottom Line:

This is a classic winter ale. It has a great mix of caramel, winter spices, and pine. Everything is in perfect unison.

3) Sierra Nevada Celebration

ABV: 6.8%

Average Price: $10.99 for a six-pack

The Beer:

There are few winter beers more popular than the classic Sierra Nevada Celebration. The best part? It isn’t anything like any of the other well-known winter beers. This is because it’s a fresh hop IPA brewed with Cascade and Centennial hops.

Tasting Notes:

This change of pace seasonal beer begins with grapefruit, tangerine, and lemon zest along with caramel malts, and pine needles. The palate continues this with cereal grains, caramel, tangerine, grapefruit, and a bitter, floral, piney finish.

Bottom Line:

Often, we don’t think of IPAs when we think of winter beers. But Sierra Nevada Celebration is just that. A bold, bright, hoppy IPA perfect for respite from darker, maltier beers.

2) Deschutes Jubeleale

ABV: 6.7%

Average Price: $11.99 for a six-pack
https://www.totalwine.com/beer/specialty-styles/winter-warmer/deschutes-jubelale/p/101728126

The Beer:

There’s a reason Deschutes Jubelale is one of the most popular winter beers. Brewed with Pale, Crystal, Extra Special, Carapils malts, and roasted barley, it gets its hop flavor from the addition of Bravo, Cascade, Delta, Us Tettnang, and East Kent Goldings. The result is a malty, slightly spicy, piney winter beer worth remembering.

Tasting Notes:

Roasted malts, toffee, raisins, dried cherries, brown bread, honey, and wintry spices are the first aromas found on the nose. On the palate, you’ll find notes of treacle, chocolate, caramel candy, brown sugar, dried fruits, wintry spices, and lightly floral, herbal pine.

Bottom Line:

Light spices, caramel, herbal hops, this warming, rich, sweet winter warmer have everything you could want in a winter seasonal.

1) Fremont Winter Ale

ABV: 8%

Average Price: $11.99 for a four-pack

The Beer:

This 8% ABV imperial winter ale is available in November and December, but it’s the latter where it really shines. It’s brewed with 2-row Pale, Munich, C-120, Chocolate, and Carafa 2 malts as well as roasted barley, Columbus, US Goldings, and Willamette hops.

Tasting Notes:

A lot is going on with this beer’s nose. There are aromas of graham crackers, raisins, fudge, sticky toffee, and Christmas spices. The palate continues this trend with flavors like cocoa, caramel candy, cinnamon, ginger, and herbal, earthy pine.

Bottom Line:

This is one of the most well-balanced winter beers on the market. The malts and hops are in perfect symmetry and it doesn’t have any over-the-top spices to hold it back.

The Flaming Lips‘ Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is a classic, immersive record, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise when in 2007 it was announced that it would be adapted as a musical. It was set to be directed by Des McAnuff and Aaron Sorkin, they revealed at the time. The project, however, never came to life.

In a new interview with Yahoo!, Flaming Lips bandleader Wayne Coyne opened up about what went wrong. He explains that Sorkin wanted the “Pink Robots” to symbolize “the evil George Bush empire,” and that the aftermath of 9/11 got in the way of the concept.

It’s a long story, so read Coyne’s full explanation below.

“The Aaron Sorkin part is… I mean, I don’t remember it all that precisely, but we did a meeting. We were in New York City — I think we were going to be on the David Letterman show or something — and in the afternoon we were going to meet with some potential writers. And one of them was Aaron, which was like, ‘Oh, of course Des knows him!’ But at the same time, there was a strike on Broadway that day, which meant all their theaters were shut down. I think it was something in the union that didn’t let anything play on Broadway. And of course, that’s millions of dollars leaving; that’s people out of work. And in Aaron’s case, that’s a big deal. He had two or three [shows] that were shut down that day, and Des as well had two or three that were shutting down that day. So, they had a lot of stuff on their minds. And here’s my little record, and they’re talking about what it could be! We were only allowed to meet for probably 20 minutes or something.

“You’ve got to remember, this is… not that long after the World Trade Center planes, the 9/11 stuff, all happened, and we were still dealing with George Bush Jr., who was the president. And Aaron wanted to make it about that. He saw the ‘Pink Robots’ as being the evil George Bush empire. And I really don’t know why I was so opinionated, but I just said, ‘Oh, I don’t really like that idea.’ Not that I had a better idea, but I just didn’t see this music as being connected to politics and stuff, you know? I mean, I felt like Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is going to last forever, but George Bush will be gone in a couple of years, so who cares? But I think [Aaron] was like, ‘Oh, so you’re going to say no to my idea?’ I mean, he wasn’t mean, there was nothing bad said, but I just got the feeling that he was like, ‘Well, that’s the way I see it. And if you don’t see it that way, see you later!’”