Category: News

Multiple times per week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. Emancipation (Apple TV+ movie)

Sadly, that Oscars slap was bound to overshadow this movie on multiple fronts, although the movie itself may not have held up against the inevitable scrutiny even without Will Smith’s awards-show spectacle. Antoine Fuqua directs this film that was very clearly intended as awards-show fare, but critics pointed toward a messy final product. Still, this slavery epic is riding the streaming charts with some B-movie touches confusingly appearing alongside the project that strives to not be mere entertainment.

TIE: 10. His Dark Materials (HBO series on HBO Max)

The final season of this adaptation revolves around Phillip Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass to bring Lyra’s story to a close. In doing so, HBO has delivered a much more worthy project than the 2007 movie starring Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, and this season, we’ve got extra doses of James McAvoy’s Lord Asriel. As well, Dafne Keen has kept up her strong performance while making plucky heroines everywhere proud and helping the audience explore the parallel world of Dæmons.

9. Black Adam (Warner Bros. movie streaming on Amazon Prime/VOD)

The Rock’s passion project finally arrived on big screens after seven years in the making. One successful VOD run later, the movie lands on HBO Max beginning on December 16. That will provide for plenty of holiday-bound screenings of Teth-Adam being mad as hell at the world, and you can’t blame him, since he was imprisoned for using his powers in ancient Kahndaq. A lot has changed 5,000 years later, but an understandable chip still sits on his shoulder. Also, get ready more of Black Adam vs. Superman while the DCEU/DCU’s transformation keeps taking shape.

8. The Guardians Of The Galaxy Holiday Special (Disney+ movie)

James Gunn is wrapping up his time at Marvel (before riding off to his DCEU/DCU future), but here’s a nice little shrink-wrapped gift for the masses before Guardians 3 arrives. We are Groot! Gunn is not sorry about that Bucky reference, and I’m sure gonna miss my man, Rocket Raccoon.

7. Warrior Nun (Netflix series)

The critical buzz for this show’s second season hasn’t been as plentiful this time around, but to be fair, the streaming floodgates have opened full force (with lots more competition) lately. Still, Alba Baptista’s Ava continues to lead the Sister-Warriors after receiving a too-slight taste of normal existence following being shackled by illness while growing up. As it turns out, she might be the only being who can save humanity from Adriel, who is neither angel nor demon but is a major, unholy pain in the ass.

6. Fleishman Is In Trouble (FX series on Hulu)

Claire Danes plays a truly loathsome character to Jesse Eisenberg’s more affable (although not too terribly relatable) divorcing spouse, who ends up juggling all of the balls and attempting to rebuild a personal life. The real attractions of this story, however, are Fleishman’s two best friends. That’s especially the case for Lizzy Caplan’s Libby, who’s narrating this story and also wrestling with what’s become of her life. Adam Brody plays the stereotypical finance bro who’s also an unwaveringly good friend. The show’s based upon Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s novel, and she adapted the project with some changes, which reveal themselves as the season unfurls as an anxiety-ridden slow burn on a weekly basis.

5. Lady Chatterley’s Lover (Netflix movie)

Emma Corrin (who portrayed The Crown‘s first Princess Diana) picks up the leading role in this film that’s much steamier (positively sizzling, in fact) than the recent My Policeman co-starring Corrin with Harry Styles. Here, Emma portrays an aristocratic wife whose husband falls prey to a war injury. Keeping in line with the classic D.H. Lawrence novel, she ends up getting randy with one of their gamekeepers. Expect sexy times, yes, but also plenty of drama because these things can never be clear cut.

4. Emily The Criminal (Roadside Flix/Netflix movie)

Aubrey Plaza is finally everywhere, as she deserves to be. Unlike her The White Lotus character, though, Emily is enduring a tough life. This show puts the student-loan hierarchy and the criminal-justice system on blast as Plaza’s protagonist resorts to joining the underworld to make enough cash to stay afloat. Before she knows it, she’s lured into dark and dangerous scheme that eventually transforms this film into an action-thriller. In some lights, Theo Rossi looks like a sinister version of B.J. Novak, so have fun with that visual, and watching Plaza break bad (with a nebulous past in the mix) promises to be a satisfying watch.

3. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix movie)

Fresh off his successful Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix, The Shape of Water and Crimson Peak director continues to revel on the small screen. Here, he delivers a stop-motion delight while reinventing the story of a wooden puppet who we all thought we knew best. It’s dark stuff and perhaps too frightening for the younger kiddos, but the story takes on layers of thematic relevance and more than justifies its own existence.

2. Wednesday (Netflix series)

Jenna Ortega picks up your favorite monotone heroine for Tim Burton, and this series continues to provide record-busting numbers for Netflix. Call this a case of Thanksgiving leftovers that do not spoil, although I have a feeling that The Addams Family daughter would enjoy that, too. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzmán are perhaps too good as Morticia and Gomez, and there’s plenty of room for zero blinking in Season 2.

1. The White Lotus (HBO series streaming on HBO Max)

By now, plenty of people know who lived and died on this Sicilian adventure, so go get caught up, and you can find out if Brian Grubb’s predictions came true. Multiple bodies were mentioned early on, but at least everyone knew from the beginning that Daphne lives, and Valentina and Rocco should be just fine, but from there, all lips were zipped. It’s been one hell of a passive-aggression fueled season, and that pent up energy was bound to lean into carnage. That’s The White Lotus way, and now, we’re left to wonder where the next season of malaise (in idyllic surroundings) shall take place.

In her second performance of the night, Brandi Carlile delivered a cozy performance of “You And Me On The Rock” on the Saturday Night Live stage. The song comes from Carlile’s Grammy-nominated album, In These Silent Days.

While on stage, Carlile donned a bright blue suit, as she was joined by indie-pop duo Lucius to perform the light-hearted love song.

“Me out in my garden and you out on your walk / Is all the distance this poor girl can take / Without listenin’ to you talk / I don’t need their money, baby / Just you and me on the rock,” they sing on the song’s chorus.

“You And Me On The Rock” is up for three Grammys at the upcoming 2023 awards show, including Record Of The Year, Best Americana Song, and Best American Roots Song. In an interview with Stereogum, Carlile shared how her family inspired the song during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When my life changed, when everything that I identify myself by went away, I was just kind of left with a question of, well, is what I’ve built my life on really a solid foundation? I turned to [my wife] Catherine and the girls, and I wrote that song,” Carlile said, “and I realized that, yeah, even the most intensely self-identifying things can go away, but what my life is really built on, which is faith and my family, it’s a rock, and it’s solid.”

Check out the performance of “You And Me On The Rock” above.

Brandi Carlile is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Lizzo is set to perform on Saturday Night Live next Saturday (December 17) in an episode hosted by Elvis actor Austin Butler. The news was announced last night during the SNL broadcast.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were originally set to perform, however, due to keyboardist Nick Zinner’s pneumonia, they have been forced to cancel their appearance.

The band issued a statement on social media saying:

“As many of our fans know Nick has had pneumonia over the past month and it’s been and up and down recovery process. The band’s top priority is supporting Nick through a full recovery, as a result, we had to pull out from our engagements of KROQ’s Acoustic Christmas and Saturday Night Live. YYYs have enjoyed the incredible highs of being supported on KROQ and the huge honor of being chosen to close out SNL‘s 2022. We are deeply thankful and expectedly heartbroken we cannot rise to these occasions.”

This marks Lizzo’s second time performing on SNL this year, and her third time overall.

“It’s an honor to fill in for the yeah yeah yeahs who unfortunately could not perform next week,” said Lizzo in a tweet.

Lizzo is a Warner Music Artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Magomed Ankalaev was dominant in the final three rounds, but a split draw meant the UFC light heavyweight title is still vacant after his main event of UFC 282 against Jan Blachowicz from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Ankalaev opened up the first round showing off his speed, precision, and counter strikes. While he looked for openings from Blachowicz, the former champion chipped away with leg kicks early, and then went up top for big shots of his own.

In the second, Ankalaev focused on staying up top, attacking Blachowicz’s head and body, while Blachowicz peppered the top contender with devastating leg kicks. Late in the second, a leg kick appeared to hurt Ankalaev, and a second caused him to lose his balance.

The third forced Ankalaev to remain in orthodox stance as Blachowicz chipped away at big shots to his leg. Ankalaev found a bit of aggression early in the round, moving forward and finding his range with overhand rights and stinging jabs. Ankalaev was determined not to allow Blachowicz to land leg kicks, moving forward so fast that his opponent couldn’t set his feet and it paid off. Toward the end of the round, Ankalaev earned a takedown and was able to wait out the round.

Early in round four, Ankalaev earned the takedown and controlled basically the entire round with a dominant ground game. In the fifth, a shot to the midsection sent Blachowicz falling backwards, allowing Ankalaev to jump on top and control the ground yet again. With about a minute and a half remaining, Ankalaev poured it on in half guard, ground and pounding Blachowicz in his attempt to earn the referee stoppage.

The Blachowicz-Ankalaev main event came following a slew of changes to the UFC 282 card, which included Jiri Prochazka vacating the belt due to a shoulder injury that required surgery and would keep him out of action for six months. Former champion Glover Teixeira, who was slated to face off in a rematch against Prochazka following his submission loss, reportedly declined a title opportunity and last-minute switch to fight Ankalaev.

The new main event offered an opportunity for Blachowicz to avenge his submission loss to Teixeira in October last year, needing just one win this year against Aleksandar Rakić to find himself in title contention yet again. Blachowicz previously won the belt via knockout against Dominick Reyes, and proceeded to prove his worth with statement wins over Corey Anderson and later Israel Adesanya.

Ankalaev entered Saturday night’s showdown with Blachowicz with his lone professional loss coming in his UFC debut four years ago. Within the last year he’s earned significant wins over former title contenders Thiago Santos and Anthony Smith.

Tonight, Americana singer Brandi Carlile graced the Saturday Night Live stage with her presence. For her first performance of the night, Carlile performed “The Story” from her sophomore album, also called The Story.

During her performance, Carlile was joined by a band, and showed off her guitar chops playing electrifying riffs.

The song originally came out in 2007, however, it has remained a fan-favorite of Carlile’s for the past 15 years. Carlile, alongside her bandmates Tim and Phil Hanseroth, spoke about the song’s creation in a 2015 interview with Acoustic Guitar. The trio spoke to each other’s strengths as songwriters.

“With me, it’s a real crap shoot, because it has to do so much with what’s going on in my life, and it’s based solely on lyrics,” Carlile said.” I tend to focus on my feelings and my environment lyrically. I like to really say what I mean and mean what I say, and say things that are special. So all three of us bring something interesting to the band. Tim brings total consistency and a prolific nature, Phil brings eccentricity, and I bring communication.”

Check out the performance of “The Story” above.

Brandi Carlile is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

There is no chance we ever get instant replay in high school football for a million different reasons. Having said that, the Georgia high school football Class 3A championship game between Sandy Creek and Cedar Grove could have really used the opportunity to go back and look at things, as a stunning decision to give a touchdown on a third-and-goal where the ball carrier was easily tackled short of the goal line ended up deciding the winner — Sandy Creek came out on top, 21-17.

Another angle showed how this looked from down the right side of the goal line. What makes this so bad is that it shows almost the exact angle that the official who called it a touchdown for Sandy Creek saw, and it’s clear that the ball-carrier doesn’t break the plane.

Of course, if the officials determine that he did not score on this play, Sandy Creek gets the ball on the doorstep on fourth-and-goal, so it is certainly possible they would have punched it in to win a state title, regardless. And as an added bonus for Sandy Creek, they were able to enact a measure of revenge with the win. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the two teams played earlier this year, with Cedar Grove picking up a 49-34 win.

Though Beyoncé hasn’t officially announced her Renaissance tour, it’s become one of the buzziest of the upcoming year. Plans of the Renaissance tour were revealed back in October at WACO Theater‘s Wearable Art Gala 2022, where a lavish tour package was up for auction.

According to The Sun, Beyoncé is in high gear planning for her tour. A source close to the tour told The Sun that Bey is enforcing a ban on alcohol and drugs during rehearsals and tour dates.

“Bey knows the new performances will require intense choreography and precision, so everyone has to be clean and sober,” said the source. “There won’t be any crazy partying on the road either.”

The source also revealed that each crew member will be thoroughly background-checked, in order to prevent sexual misconduct during the tour.

“She is also carrying out #MeToo checks with the dancers, band and crew with hopes doing so will make the tour a safe and friendly work environment,” said the source.

Additionally, Bey will be providing her tour crew with access to mental health support and resources.

“She knows people are happiest when they know their well-being is fulfilled,” said the source, “and wants to use what she has learned in the business to lead by example.”

The Heisman Trophy is headed to Los Angeles. USC quarterback Caleb Williams lifted college football’s highest individual honor on Saturday night in New York City, beating out a field that included three other signal callers as finalists: Georgia’s Stetson Bennett, TCU’s Max Duggan, and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud.

It was not viewed as a foregone conclusion for much of the year that Williams would win the award, as things were pretty wide-open for large portions of the season. On. Nov. 19, Williams and the Trojan offense played a high-profile game against UCLA in which he had 503 total yards and three total touchdowns, which led to him getting thrust into the Heisman conversation as one of the favorites.

On the year, Williams completed 66.1 percent of his passes for 4,075 yards with 37 touchdowns and four interceptions. He pitched in another 372 yards and a team-high 10 touchdowns on the ground.

Williams becomes the second quarterback in a row to win the award, as Alabama’s Bryce Young earned the honor last season. It marks the sixth time in seven years that a signal caller won the Heisman, and Williams is the third QB coached by Lincoln Riley to win the award — Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray went back-to-back under Riley at Oklahoma in 2017 and 2018, while Jalen Hurts, another Riley protégé, was the runner-up in 2019.

The Trojans will take the field one last time this season, as the team is slated to play Tulane on Jan. 2, 2023 in the Cotton Bowl.

Miley Cyrus is planning to end 2022 and kick off 2023 with a bang. Last month, it was announced that Cyrus would return to NBC and Peacock for Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party, which she hosted last year with Pete Davidson. Although this year, Davidson won’t be returning as Cyrus’ cohost. Instead, she will ring in the new year with none other than America’s treasure — her own Godmother, Dolly Parton.

While plenty will be tuned into already to see Cyrus and Parton, the “Midnight Sky” hitmaker announced that she will be bringing in even more exciting guests to her annual New Year’s party. Yesterday (December 9) on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Cyrus revealed Latto, Sia, and Rae Sremmurd would be performing throughout the night.

Cyrus also noted that these aren’t the only performers who will be taking the stage at her New Year’s Eve celebration.

“As we get closer to the show, I want to start revealing who else we have,” she said. “But the lineup is very me. It is curated in a way that makes no sense, but makes total sense.”

Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party will air live on Saturday, December 31 on NBC from 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET. The special will also stream live on Peacock.

It appears Diddy has welcomed a baby girl this weekend. Today (December 10) the rapper, producer, and entrepreneur announced via Twitter that his baby daughter was born.

“I’m so blessed to welcome my baby girl Love Sean Combs to the world,” he said. “Mama Combs, Quincy, Justin, Christian, Chance, D’Lila, Jessie and myself all love you so much! God is the Greatest!”

The news seems to be a surprise to everyone, as Diddy’s rumored girlfriend Caresha Brownlee, better known as Yung Miami of City Girls, hadn’t announced she was pregnant within the past year. The last time Miami announced a pregnancy was in 2019, when she revealed she was expecting her second child in the trailer for City Girls’ BET documentary, Point Blank Period, Part 2.

While the news of a baby may come as a shock, some fans are speculating that Diddy may not even be talking about a baby at all. Some believe the mogul is hinting at something else. Perhaps an album, or a liquor partnership, or fashion line.

“is this the new Album? It’s gotta be the new album,” said one Twitter user. “A new…. liquor? A new clothing line? A new self-help book. “Anyway, congrats on the new marketing!”

As some Twitter users had theories, some simply weren’t buying it, and immediately concluded that he was bluffing.

“Diddy talking about an Album and GossipTwitter losing their minds thinking he got somebody pregnant,” said another Twitter user.

At the time of writing, Miami had not commented on Diddy’s announcement.