Category: News

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is more than happy to spread lies about voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election, but the one conspiracy theory group he does not want to be associated with seems to be QAnon.

Lindell, who spent Thanksgiving hosting a bizarre stream-a-thon in which he auctioned off excerpts from his new book in exchange for donations to his current legal fund, is on the road again to talk about the big lie. Despite Donald Trump himself basically admitting election fraud believers are “stupid,” Lindell and Trump ally Michael Flynn seem to be touring together to push the same misinformation (that Trump won the presidential election) that sparked the Jan. 6th insurrection. But the pair’s latest on-camera interview with a British documentary crew abruptly ended when Lindell was asked about the global conspiracy movement known as QAnon.

You can watch the entire clip below, and we’ll recap below.

A Channel 4 interviewer sat down with Flynn and Lindell, quizzing them both on QAnon’s ties to the larger election fraud conspiracy they’ve been pushing. Flynn, for his part, tried to play dumb, asking the interviewer, “What is it?” when the subject of QAnon was first brought up. But Lindell grew irrationally irate when pressed on the cult and how its founding philosophy might be tied to Lindell’s attempts to reverse the 2020 Presidential Election.

“It doesn’t matter who stands behind us or doesn’t stand,” Lindell shouted when asked in QAnon believers also subscribed to his election fraud theories. “The evidence, the truth shall set you free. I think the interview is over. Waste of my time!”

The interviewer tried to calm the situation, asking Lindell, “But why does it need to be offensive?”

“Because that’s what you all are!” Lindell answered, ripping off his microphone and storming off. “That’s such a joke what you did. Shame on you.”

(Via RawStory)

This year marks the first time in more than a year where things were somewhat “normal” in the music industry. Concerts and festivals made a return which allowed artists to release projects they held off on dropping due to the quarantine. For what it’s worth, however, R&B found plenty of success in 2020 and it did again in 2021. From Jazmine Sullivan’s excellent Heaux Tales project that kicked off the year to Silk Sonic’s An Evening With Silk Sonic that brought us towards the end of 2021, this year is just another case of the phenomenal diversity that lives in the genre.

So let’s get into it. Here are the fifteen best R&B albums from 2021 in alphabetical order.

Foushee — Time Machine

Foushee is one of the many 2021 acts that received a healthy boost thanks to landing a viral moment on TikTok. Her breakout single “Deep End” achieved success on the app and led to a flood of interest in her artistry. With the later release of her debut project, Time Machine, Foushee defined the pocket that her music lives in. The New Jersey native thrived by creating unlikely pairings through her work. A thumping bass was accompanied by funk-inspired R&B and her transgressions through heartbreak, growth, and more, are sung with the grace of a young indie singer. Foushee works best when a neverending horizon serves as her only confinement. – Wongo Okon

H.E.R. — Back Of My Mind

It’s odd to think of Back Of My Mind as H.E.R.’s debut album. After all, it’s so fully formed, sashaying easily between sweeping power ballads (“We Made It“) to mournful reflection (“Damage“) to warm weather bops (“Slide“). H.E.R.’s pen is like a surgeon’s tool, cutting to the bone of such subjects as heartbreak, self-realization, and the stirrings of new love. Her instrumentation is even more impressive. Perhaps it’s owed to the decade-plus of behind-the-scenes work she’s done as she strove toward this moment. After the year she’s had, though, she won’t be in the back of anyone’s mind ever again, because she’s earned her spot at the forefront of the pop-culture consciousness. – Aaron Williams

Jazmine Sullivan — Heaux Tales

Jazmine Sullivan returned to the music world after an almost six-year absence with her Heaux Tales EP. Through 11 songs with help from Ari Lennox, Anderson .Paak, and HER, Jazmine sings about the experiences through love and intimacy that she and other women go through. There are moments of passion and moments of regrets, but the vulnerability to tell it all and stay true to herself, along with help from other female voices, helped to make Heaux Tales a flawless project. – W.O.

Joyce Wrice — Overgrown

Joyce Wrice’s debut album Overgrown was an early bright spot for 2021 R&B. Her free spirit thrived on this project through fourteen songs that flaunted her maturity and sheer distaste for indecisiveness. Wrice falls in love quickly when it’s right (“Think About You”) and packs her bags just as fast when it’s not for her (“Must Be Nice”). At 29 years old, there is a bit of wisdom that Wrice showcases on her debut, as for her, love is something that adds to her life, rather than making it complete. Whether it be sonically, contextually, or both, Overgrown finds a way to stay fun and light-hearted without drowning listeners in the highs and lows of romance at a given moment. – W.O.

Kyle Dion — Sassy

If you want an example of an artist constantly striving to go against the grain, you don’t have to look any further than Kyle Dion. The singer’s third album Sassy broke his own rules as well as those set before him by the industry. Dion is best described as a rockstar with funk-inspired confidence and the light touch of a traditional R&B star who can neatly gift wrap it all for the unsuspecting listener. Pull at the ribbon that is Sassy and you get an excellent blend of funk, rock, and soul captures Dion on his euphoric journey to have fun and live life to the absolute best he can. – W.O.

Leon Bridges — Gold-Diggers Sound

Remember the Leon Bridges who enacted Sam Cooke-esque soul music on 2015’s breakthrough Coming Home? He has positively given way to a more traditionally-minded R&B singer, enacting a polished lovelorn sound. With the exception of album closer “Blue Mesas,” Gold-Diggers Sound feels like a bold re-invention for Bridges and he has Lizzo producers Ricky Reed and Nate Mercereau expertly leading the way. On “Born Again” featuring Robert Glasper on keys, Bridges leans into a PJ Morton-style piano ballad, but it’s Bridges’ gentle rasp that carves out space for him as a singular force on the album. This is the type of stellar studio R&B that will keep Bridges on the Grammy radar well-beyond his recent 2022 nomination. – Adrian Spinelli

Mac Ayres — Magic 8Ball

Life tends to deliver the unexpected at unexpected times and it’s this randomness that Mac Ayres used as the foundation of his Magic 8Ball project. Ayres takes life as it comes and he accounts for all the moments he stands unprepared for. For what it’s worth, Magic 8Ball was created in the quarantine year of 2020, a period filled with uncertainty for the future. However, the honesty and straightforward approach to these varying aspects are what draw you into Magic 8Ball. Add Ayres’ lush vocals and the project’s bright and groovy production, and you have a body of work guaranteed to be enjoyed at every listen. – W.O.

Nao — And The Life Was Beautiful

Hope is something the entire world needed as they exited 2020 to enter 2021. For Nao, she found that through the sunflowers that bloomed at her feet last year. This natural occurrence became the inspiration for her third album And Then Life Was Beautiful. On it, she offers a gesture of hope strong enough to inspire the hopeless. As a whole, And Then Life Was Beautiful is made in the space of emerging from turmoil to see that all will be okay one day. Through 13 records, Nao flawlessly unveils and recounts the moments in her life that brought hope to a beautiful tomorrow, even when it wasn’t promised. – W.O.

Phabo — Soulquaraius

Neo-soul is still alive in R&B and one of the places you can find it thriving is on Phabo’s debut Soulquaraius. The Soulection singer shined like gold on his first full-length project thanks to sixteen songs that are covered in nostalgic gold while also flaunting his impressive pen. “How’s My Driving?” emulates one’s ability to operate a vehicle and to that of satisfying a yearning love interest while “The Homie” arrives as a first-person account of a man slowly becoming aware of his partner’s uncommitted ways. Phabo’s Soulquarius is filled with the finesse and charisma of a man who knows exactly what he’s doing and where he’s going on his road towards neo-soul prosperity. – W.O.

Pink Sweats — Pink Planet

Pink Sweats is a living example of why simplicity is often key. A light acoustic sound carries the Philly singer on his official debut album Pink Planet as the gentleness behind his voice and the project’s production match that of the love he fantasizes about on Pink Planet. It also helps to create a more intimate setting that excellent allows the heart’s true and raw desires to be translated fully. Pink Sweats smiles ear-to-ear at the arrival of love in its best form on “Magic” and “So Sweet” while also praying for its longevity on “At My Worst” and “Lows.” However, don’t think the Philly singer is nothing more than a rotating love story. He also ups the ante with a double dose of his infectious spirit on “Give It To Me” and “Icy.” Altogether, Pink Planet best represents Pink Sweats complete artistry and the unique vision he has for R&B. – W.O.

Shelley — Shelley FKA DRAM

Shelley, fka Big Baby DRAM, returned this year with a new name for his permanent role as a certified love doctor. Throughout his career, Shelley crafted records in the name of pure love like “Caretaker,” “Best Hugs,” and more, but they weren’t the foundation of his artistry. All of that changed with his second album Shelley FKA DRAM. This time around, the Virginia singer arrives with anecdotes of love that treat every attempt at companionship like it’s the first one — fearless and unknowing of the possible dangers of giving your heart away to a trusted partner. Through songs like “All Pride Aside” and “Remedies,” Shelley presents a love with your guard down on Shelley FKA DRAM and it’s a magical thing to see unfold. – W.O.

Silk Sonic — An Evening With Silk Sonic

From the very moment that Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak made their newly-formed Silk Sonic duo official with the release of “Leave The Door Open” earlier this year, their promised debut album was one of the most sought-for releases in 2021. Would the duo live up to the hype? Would the album perhaps be unbalanced? A multitude of questions arrived at Bruno and .Paak’s doorstep, all of which were answered with the brilliant An Evening With Silk Sonic. The duo met all expectations and did it through an excellent display of showmanship. There’s no telling how long Silk Sonic will last, but their current presence is something to be thankful for. – W.O.

Snoh Aalegra — Temporary Highs In The Skies

While many excel in relaying their experiences with love, Snoh Aalegra does a beautiful job of showing her wavering feelings in romance through her music. Her third album Temporary Highs In The Violet Skies is another example of that. Its 14 tracks present a woman who chooses to focus and highlight the best moments in love, even if they last shorter than expected. This task is accomplished beautifully thanks to help from Tyler The Creator, James Fauntleroy, Pharrell Williams, The Neptunes, and more. – W.O.

Summer Walker — Still Over It

Summer Walker achieved some groundbreaking feats with her 2021 sophomore album Still Over It. First of all, she got “Ciara’s Prayer” from thee Ciara Harris-Wilson. Lord knows how long the ladies have been asking Cici herself for the prayer and Ms. Walker was able to get that and was generous enough to share it with her listeners. Second of all, Still Over It is the highest-charting album from a female R&B artist since Beyoncé’s 2016 Lemonade and is likely to continue towards an upward trend. Regardless, Summer Walker uses Still Over It to air out her grievances a la Usher’s Confessions, except she’s naming names and calling out her baby daddy-ex London On Da Track, his mother, and the other women in his life. She does this over perfectly curated production by the same man she’s going in on. London and Summer made magic on Over It, so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. On the other hand, Pharrell and Summer on “Dat Right There” sounds like a win for the future of music. Most of all, Summer’s adept songwriting skills, inimitable vocals, and ability to dig into the souls of her listeners through song puts her on another level, to the point that whatever shenanigans she’s on The Shade Room for makes the music worth it. – Cherise Johnson

Tinashe — 333

If you needed proof that independence is what’s best for Tinashe, her fifth album 333 is undeniable proof of that. The album is arguably one of, if not the strongest showcase of her versatility as she bends the R&B genre in a number of ways, something she’s proven capable of doing time and time again. 333 is also a testament towards trusting the process, and if you know what it took Tinashe to get here, you’ll have an added dose of appreciation towards her current position. – W.O.

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

Does any filmmaker own a decade as much as Paul Thomas Anderson owns the 1970s? In Boogie Nights, he gave us the freewheeling, sexually-liberated seventies (that cocaine-like rush of feeling invincible followed by a crash). In Inherent Vice he gave us the paranoiac, Rome-after-the-fall seventies, beset by cultism, secret societies, and nihilistic escapism. In Licorice Pizza, his latest, Anderson offers a more personal take on the decade, one specific to showbiz and the San Fernando Valley, but still essentially defined by a lack of adult supervision. He gives us once again the seventies as a moral power vacuum, where the “responsible” adults are all dead or asleep at the wheel, leaving the kids in charge to try to remake the world however they see fit.

Cooper Hoffman plays Licorice Pizza’s lead, Gary Valentine, a former-ish child actor trapped in a sort of career purgatory. He has the precocious pomposity and worldly careerism of a show business veteran, which he sort of is, but a big, awkward body and a spotty face that mark him as no longer suitable to play kids excited about Tonka trucks or breakfast cereals. Gary is 15 when we first meet him, preparing to take his school pictures but mostly hitting on the photographer’s assistant, Alana (played by Alana Haim from the band Haim), even though she’s in her twenties. Which he does with all the suave self-assuredness of a professional bullshitter twice his age.

This first scene is the last time in Licorice Pizza that school is either depicted or referenced; that it’s even really acknowledged as an idea. Gary, this budding Dale Carnegie, has already grown out of it. His mom (played by Mary Elizabeth Ellis) is sort of present, but more as a colleague than a parent — the two are even partners at a PR firm, trying to craft the perfect press release for the local Japanese restaurant (with the paternalistically racist proprietor played hilariously by John Michael Higgins). School? Why waste time preparing when you can just try things out?

Cooper Hoffman is, obviously, the son of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Whereas other directors might also cast famous sons or daughters (legacy cases making up a substantial contingent of those who can afford to pursue acting as a career these days), only Paul Thomas Anderson — himself the son of an actor and television host — leans into it as an overt theme. Licorice Pizza‘s credits are littered with equally famous names: Haim, Giacchino, Hershlag, DiCaprio, the latter of whom, Leo’s dad, plays a waterbed salesman, apparently a job he’d actually had. If the seventies was the decade of no adult supervision, the San Fernando Valley is a place where no one even has to grow up, a sort of Lord of the Flies for starry-eyed dreamers.

This world, of famous names and folks scheming on the fringes of show business, is something Anderson knows well. Even his wife, Maya Rudolph, is the daughter of a songwriter and a composer. Just as it’s hard not to see a little of Wes Anderson in Max Fischer from Rushmore, the precocious private school dilettante, it’s hard not to assume that there’s a little of PTA in Gary Valentine. Valentine is a lovable bullshitter and the ultimate opportunist, unafraid to start a new business venture the instant it seems to have growth potential, whether that be selling waterbeds or opening an arcade. It’s not so much that Anderson gives this impression in interviews or personal appearances, it’s more that Gary Valentine has a distinct whiff of Don Cheadle attempting to open Buck’s Stereo World in Boogie Nights, or Dirk and Reed’s foray into power pop, or even Daniel Plainview realizing his son can be a helpful prop in There Will Be Blood. Anderson loves hucksters the way the Coen Brothers love the arcane vernacular.

Alana, meanwhile, is Gary’s perfect foil, a decade older and seemingly half as experienced. She lives to call bullshit on Gary’s latest spiel and clown his insufferable career-speak, yet still feeds off his drive, knowing deep down that without him she’d still be stuck working in some dull job. Why have a job when you can have a venture?

Part of me does wonder whether Paul Thomas Anderson was trolling the QAnon types when he made a movie about a pseudo-love affair between an adult woman and a teenage boy, and then cast it with every famous name in Hollywood, but if you can silence that internal Alex Jones slavering about Satanic globalists, the Alana-Gary connection is meticulously explained and smacks of verisimilitude. His movies have always explored the blurry boundaries between childhood and adulthood, both personally and culturally. Alana and Gary just kind of fit, they’re even sort of weird-hot in similar ways. And it’s hard to say which actor seems more prematurely fully formed in both of their feature film debuts, because they’re both pretty perfect, the combination more than the sum of its parts.

The whole movie is like that, to some extent: this loosey-goosey, real and hyper-real SoCal picaresque, full of wild-eyed weirdos with a backdrop of the gas shortage. Gary and Alana are the emotional center but lots of the fun comes from the episodic side characters. Like Bradley Cooper showing up as a megalomaniacal Jon Peters buying a waterbed (see Kevin Smith’s infamous Superman story for more background on this), or Sean Penn’s unforgettable turn as an alcoholic William Holden with his star on the wane. Wringing this much charm from Sean Penn in 2021 borders on sorcery.

Perhaps more than any other filmmaker, Anderson has a way of making movies that actually are about the journey and not the destination. I truly could’ve watched The Master or There Will Be Blood for as long as he wanted to make them, never needing closure or explanation.

Yet Licorice Pizza manages a genuine crescendo, flaming out in a grand finale just as it reaches emotional climax. There were times watching it when I was skeptical that I could see another scene of the characters running or being lit by neon, but this was one of those rare endings that make it all feel worth it. Licorice Pizza seems to further all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s pet themes while adding a personal twist, and at this early stage it’s hard to think of it as anything other than a masterpiece.

‘Licorice Pizza’ opened in select theaters on November 26. It expands nationwide December 25th. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can check out his film review archive here.

Over the weekend, Olivia Rodrigo and Phoebe Bridgers’ double-bill performance at Austin City Limits debuted. Ahead of that, the pair got together over Instagram Live to promote the show with a fun, free-wheeling conversation. During their chat, Rodrigo, who just today announced her 2022 tour dates, got some sage touring advice from Bridgers.

Rodrigo asked Bridgers for some words of wisdom about touring since she hadn’t done it before and Bridgers responded:

“I’m so excited for you, because… getting to travel and stuff is great, but getting to travel because of [music] makes everything more fun. If you go on vacation and you get kind of depressed or whatever, it’s so much worse. If you’re depressed on tour, you’re surrounded by people, you get to be with all your friends and it’s like work. So then the magical moments are so much better and the sad moments are weirdly so much better. I have such a great friend group of people who are like, ‘I know it’s hard to miss your dog.’ My advice is FaceTime your pets, call your mom… it’s OK if there are times that feel a little bit harder, but mostly, it’s the best thing ever.”

They also talked about their tour riders, performing on Saturday Night Live, and more over the course of the 20-minute conversation, so check out the full chat below.

Can misinformation be bad for your health? According to NPR, the answer seems to be a resounding yes. On Sunday, NPR reported that:

Since May 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that went for now-President Biden. That’s according to a new analysis by NPR that examines how political polarization and misinformation are driving a significant share of the deaths in the pandemic.

NPR looked at deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which vaccinations widely became available. People living in counties that went 60 percent or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.7 times the death rates of those that went for Biden. Counties with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher COVID-19 mortality rates.

NPR was aided in their analysis of the data by Charles Gaba, an independent health care analyst who has been reporting on COVID deaths at the county level throughout much of the pandemic. “The analysis only looked at the geographic location of COVID-19 deaths,” according to NPR. “The exact political views of each person taken by the disease remains unknowable. But the strength of the association, combined with polling information about vaccination, strongly suggests that Republicans are being disproportionately affected.”

These findings are in line with other recent data findings, which have determined that Republicans account for the largest group of unvaccinated individuals and that Republicans are directly exposed to more misinformation, specifically about COVID-19 and its vaccines, and as such are less likely to trust the information they are given by authorities such as the CDC.

“An unvaccinated person is three times as likely to lean Republican as they are to lean Democrat,” Liz Hamel, vice president of public opinion and survey research at the Kaiser Family Foundation, told NPR of the link between political affiliation and vaccination status. “If I wanted to guess if somebody was vaccinated or not and I could only know one thing about them, I would probably ask what their party affiliation is.”

You can read the full report here.

(Via NPR)

If Alec Baldwin hoped that the whole world would be listening when he sat down with George Stephanopoulos in his first public interview since the tragic shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of Rust, he may have been disappointed that his emotional sit-down ended up in last place for that night’s network ratings. But at least one person did hear the Oscar-nominated actor very publicly proclaim his innocence by stating that, “I did not pull the trigger” and “Someone is responsible for what happened. And I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me”—and she’s none too happy about it.

According to Deadline, Santa Fe First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, the woman tasked with handling the investigation into Hutchins’s death, is reportedly displeased that Baldwin chose to use his celebrity status to tell his side of the story in such a public manner before they have finished their work. On Friday, the day after Baldwin’s interview, Carmack-Altwies stated that “certain individuals may be criminally culpable for his/her actions and/or inactions on the set of Rust.”

Carmack-Altwies says she plans to “exercise my prosecutorial discretion to its fullest, including filing charges that are supported by probable cause,” and explained that she and her office were “exploring various legal theories at the time.”

To many, the comment was a direct response to Baldwin’s interview, in which he told Stephanopoulos that he had been told it was “highly unlikely” he’d face any criminal charges in the accidental on-set shooting, which resulted in Hutchins’s death and injuries to director Joel Souza. While Baldwin insists that he did not pull the trigger, firearms experts have expressed doubt about that statement.

After being interviewed immediately following the incident and later by the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office, authorities asked that neither Baldwin nor the rest of Rust’s cast and crew make any public comments about what is still an ongoing investigation. Baldwin’s decision to go directly against this request has reportedly not sat well with those investigating the shooting. A source told Deadline that the Sheriff’s Office felt “betrayed after all the consideration given to Baldwin in the aftermath of the shooting,” while another source stated that “Baldwin is testing the department’s patience and becoming a distraction to the ongoing investigation.”

“As the First Judicial District Attorney, I have not made a decision to charge or not charge any individuals involved in the shooting that resulted in the death of Halyna Hutchins and injury of Joel Souza,” Carmack-Altwies said. According to Deadline, it could be several more weeks until the investigation is concluded.

(Via Deadline)

Although Tyler The Creator could easily be pegged as an antie-establishment nonconformist when it comes to hip-hop, he recently admitted that much of that posturing just came from feeling that he wouldn’t be accepted by the mainstream. Now that he more-or-less is the establishment, he seems a lot more comfortable engaging with the culture on its usual terms — working with DJ Drama on his new album, performing at the BET Awards, and participating in the time-honored tradition of sharing and debating Top Fives.

The Top Five, in this case, is Jay-Z’s songs, as prompted by Spotify’s Head of Urban Music, Carl Chery, who asked on Twitter on December 4 in honor of Jay’s birthday. As the responses rolled in by the dozens, Carl took the opportunity to share a clip of a recent interview with Tyler The Creator (who helpfully revamps his entire wardrobe between album cycles, making it easier to determine timelines in situations like this) revealing his own favorites. However, in typical Tyler fashion, the “Wusyaname” rapper still had to make sure his answers were a little off-center (and he picked six), picking eyebrow-raising tracks like “Allure,” “Do It Again (Put Ya Hands Up),” “Excuse Me Miss,” “F*ck All Nite,” and “Show You How.”

Astute fans can probably pick out the common denominator in the majority of those picks, knowing Tyler’s allegiance to Pharrell Williams, but he also included the “Grammy Family” freestyle Jay performed for Funkmaster Flex. Maybe in a future interview, he could offer a little more insight into why these picks are his faves, but for now, they constitute solid picks from an expansive and nearly bulletproof discography. Watch Tyler’s interview with Carl Chery below.

What is it with billionaires and bad haircuts? Mark Zuckerberg apparently can’t spend $15 from his $116 billion fortune to take a trip to Supercuts, while Elon Musk was the laughingstock of Twitter for sporting the “official haircut of no one around you telling you no.” No wonder Jeff Bezos went with the Lex Luthor look.

On Sunday’s episode of Desus & Mero, hosts Desus Nice and The Kid Mero had some words for Musk’s haircut. “Oh, damn!” Mero cried out after being confronted with a photo. “Elon Musk said, ‘Yo, let me go get the Richard Spencer.’” Desus added, “He spent all his Dogecoin on one toupee. He got too much money. He can get better hair than that!”

Musk’s cut is even less flattering from behind. “Come on, dog! He put the sh*t on backwards,” Mesus joked, adding, “He used the Elmer’s Glue Stick for that, dog” and, “Fam, you’re already, you’re already a supervillain. Embrace the balding, my G.” The worst part of this, according to Desus? “Grimes saw this and was like, ‘He’s hot.’”

Both hosts also wondered what aliens would think if they saw the world’s richest man with that haircut. “They’re like, ‘That’s why you got COVID,’” Desus cracked.

You can watch the Desus & Mero clip above.

After going heavy on the déjà vu with its last teaser, The Matrix Resurrections just dropped its final trailer that takes that theme even further as Keanu Reeves‘ Neo finds himself once again busting out kung fu moves inside The Matrix and questioning what, if anything, was ever real. Continuing the franchise’s trippy blending of a simulated world keeping alive the incubated remains of humanity, this latest trailer doesn’t shy away from hinting that this is a new version of The Matrix that is clearly reusing old programs from previous versions. Most notably, Jonathan Groff‘s character, who appears to be an upgrade on Hugo Weaving’s Agent Smith.

Yayha Abdul-Mateen II’s Morpheus also gets some significant play, as he doesn’t appear to be Neo’s adversary, but once again, a mentor figure attempting to aid him through this latest incarnation of The Matrix, which has also somehow ensnared Carrie Anne-Moss‘ Trinity. Unlike previous trailers, we finally get to see Trinity whoop ass and continue to be every bit the equal to Neo she was in the first film. Rounding out the cast is Jessica Henwick, who has been absolutely electric in every trailer as the mysterious Bugs.

We’d try and tell you more about the plot, but The Matrix movies could give Marvel a run for their money when it comes to secrecy. Heck, we just saw a brand new trailer, and we still couldn’t tell you what the heck is going on.

The Matrix Resurrections enters theaters and HBO Max on December 22.

Billie Eilish’s album Happier Than Ever has a lot of moments that see her get really personal, and “Male Fantasy” is one of those, in which she examines her relationship with pornography. Now Eilish has given the track a chance to shine as she shared a new video for it today.

In the clip, Eilish meanders around a dimly lit home in not the happiest of states, which makes sense given the lyrical content of the song: She sings in the first verse, “Home alone, tryin’ not to eat / Distract myself with pornography / I hate the way she looks at me / I can’t stand the dialogue, she would never be / That satisfied, it’s a male fantasy / I’m goin’ back to therapy.”

In a September interview with Vice, Eilish said of the song, “The other day I was talking about how stupid and unrealistic porn is so much of the time. How unrealistic, misogynistic, and totally ridiculous the world of porn is. I decided that it was actually a really good idea for a song to talk honestly about pornography because it’s an uncomfortable thing to talk about. Pornography can make you feel violated and good at the same time and this conversation turned into the song. It was hard to write because we wanted it to be as revealing as possible. It’s difficult to be vulnerable and honest and open about my life right now. I find it much easier to write about my past and how I used to feel and to find a new perspective on something that happened to me, to take myself out of a situation. I don’t usually write about what I’m going through in the moment because it’s hard to process it. So this was also about saying how I felt. It was hard and satisfying and revealing and exposing and also incredibly cathartic, too.”

Watch the “Male Fantasy” video above.