Sean Penn apparently took a hardline stance by refusing to return and filmGaslit, his Watergate limited TV series with Julia Roberts, until the entire crew and cast got vaccinated. Deadline originally reported that Penn made the insistence due to Covid-19’s Delta variant spread in Los Angeles, and he also offered to “facilitate the vaccination effort, free of charge,” through his CORE organization. Penn’s stance arrives on the heels of LA reinstating an indoor mask mandate as cases rise again, and he’s apparently only got two weeks of filming left, so replacing him wouldn’t really be an option.
This stance also lands on the heels of widespread reports about a committed set of conservative voters who are digging in their heels and refusing to get vaccinated, and that’s a stance that endangers the immunocompromised and paves the way for more variants. However, Penn first tried to get his message across with a little bit of humor.
“Anecdotally, I’m told that not only are the vaccines totally safe, but they also help burn weight,” Penn tweeted last week. “Healthier & slimmer in one shot.”
Anecdotally, I’m told that not only are the vaccines totally safe, but they also help burn weight. Healthier & slimmer in one shot.
Yes, it’s silly, but there may be a handful of people who have (incidentally) lost weight since getting vaccinated. Being able to get out of those house and to the gym would make a difference, after all. Yet Penn is not known for subtlety, so he’s likely being sarcastic and hoping that something will eventually convince those who refuse to protect not only themselves but those around them. And the report that he’s offering to vaccinate the Gaslit crew would be consistent with CORE’s efforts to help run drive-through testing facilities earlier on in the pandemic.
There’s been no word yet of a response from the Gaslit production heads (on the Starz limited series) on the reported Penn hardline stance.
Sierra Nevada is a big name in the craft beer world. Founded in 1979 in Chico, California (where it’s still brewed) by Paul Camusi and Ken Grossman, it has consistently launched award-winning, well-respected beers while also helping launch the entire craft beer movement. This includes the pale ale that started a beer revolution: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.
One of the top ten largest breweries in the country, Sierra Nevada remains privately owned. While it’s most known for the aforementioned pale ale, the brewery has become a center of the IPA universe bridging the gap between piney, resinous West Coast IPAs and juicy, sweet, fruity New England IPAs perfectly. All told, Sierra Nevada makes ten IPAs (and its beloved pale ale that’s so hoppy it often makes IPA lists).
All of its IPAs are noteworthy, but some are better than others. This is why we decided that it was important to the beer-drinking community (especially IPA fanatics) that we ranked each and everyone one of this iconic brand’s IPAs. We’re also ranking the original Pale Ale as a check and balance to the rest of Sierra’s line. Check them all out below to see where your favorites landed. And if you want to try any of these yourself, just click on the prices!
Brewed with two-row pale malts, oats, wheat, and Chinook, Simcoe, Comet, Mosaic, Amarillo, and Strisselspalt, this is a winner in the session IPA world in the hops department.
Tasting Notes:
For the number of hops included in this beer, there isn’t much of an aroma. There are slight hints of resin as well as light citrus. But they’re fairly muted. The palate is a little better with notes of caramel malts, citrus rind, tangerine, and pineapple. The finish is slightly bitter but rather uneventful.
Bottom Line:
For a crushable summer beer, this hits the spot. Being the only session IPA on this list, it’s a little lighter in the flavor department than the others. It’s just that it’s pretty bland when you compare it to the rest of Sierra Nevada’s portfolio.
Brewed with ale yeast, pale malt, wheat malt, and Munich malt, as well as Magnum, Crystal, Chinook, Idaho 7, Columbus, Cascade, and Mosaic hops, this is a bold, brash, aggressive IPA. It’s 9 percent ABV and filled with malty, tropical flavors.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a mixture of floral, resinous pine, and slight fruit. Sipping this beer reveals a lot of fruity sweetness along with slight biscuity-like malts, wet grass, pineapple, grapefruit, and more subtly bitter, dank hops. The finish is a nice mix of fruit and bitter hops.
Bottom Line:
Once again, this is definitely not a bad beer. However… when compared to the other offerings on this list, it’s a bit aggressive in the bitterness and high alcohol department.
This is a fun beer and it tastes exactly as the name suggests. This slightly malty, highly fruity beer is brewed with Citra, Comet, Mosaic, Amarillo, and El Dorado hops. The result is an IPA designed to make you feel like you’re enjoying this beer in a tropical paradise and not in your backyard overlooking corn fields somewhere in the Midwest.
Tasting Notes:
As expected, the nose is all tropical fruits. There are hints of ripe peaches, mango, guava, and pineapple. There are also piney hops to round it all out. The flavor follows suit with a gargantuan fruity, tropical flavor. There’s also a nice caramel malt backbone and a slightly bitter finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a tasty, fruity beer. The only reason it landed so low on the rankings is that it’s fairly one-dimensional. By that, we mean it’s all fruity, tropical flavors and that’s about it.
Fantastic Haze is a bold, citrus-filled beer. Brewed with ale yeast, two-row pale malts, oats, wheat, as well as Chinook, Azacca, Amarillo, Idaho 7, and Strata hops, it lives up to its fantastic name. It’s hazy, juicy, and so filled with citrus and tropical fruit flavors, you forget that it’s 9 percent ABV.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find aromas of dank hops, wet grass, mango, guava, and various other tropical fruit flavors. The palate follows suit with stone fruits, grapefruit, slight bready malts, and very little hops bitterness. Even with the high ABV, it’s surprisingly crushable and sweet.
Bottom Line
To really enjoy this beer, you should try it side by side with Big Little Thing. They’re both 9 percent ABV, but the differences are so subtle that drinking them one after another is the only way to really find the subtle nuances.
This double IPA is the bold, vibrant hop-bomb that West Coast IPA fans dream about. Not only is it chocked full of hops, including Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Crystal, Magnum, and Idaho 7, it also gets its slightly bitter, floral, and dank flavor from the addition of lupulin dust that’s added right into the tank.
Tasting Notes:
Based on the ingredients, you’d expect this nose to have a little more going on. There’s an obvious, piney hops aroma that pairs with citrus zest, and a floral component West Coast IPA drinkers expect. But it’s all a little muted. The palate is slightly acidic with notes of tangerine, lemon zest, and dank pine. It’s fairly bitter, but that’s expected with an IPA like this.
Bottom Line:
With a name like Hop Bullet, there’s an expectation that this beer will be over-the-top hoppy. That’s just not the case. While a great beer for West Coast IPA drinkers, it doesn’t live up to its moniker.
With a name like Dankful, you definitely know what you’re in for with this beer. Brewed with ale yeast, various malts, and Columbus, Chinook, Mosaic, Ekuanot, Nelson Sauvin, Zappa, and Idaho 7 hops, it’s a dank, resinous, hoppy West Coast IPA you’ll go back to again and again.
Tasting Notes:
Before sipping, take a moment to breathe in the aromas of resinous pine, wildflowers, slight soap, and citrus zest. The palate is swirling with earthy, herbal notes, dank pine, slight bready malts, grapefruit, and a nice kick of hops bitterness at the very end.
Bottom Line:
On top of being a great, hoppy, dank West Coast IPA, drinking Dankful actually helps those in need. A portion of its proceeds to go nonprofit charities.
This is not a beer for IPA novices. This triple IPA, brewed with Chinook, Magnum, and Idaho 7 hops sit at a bold 11 percent ABV. It’s bitter, piney, dank, and definitely pushes the envelope in terms of what exactly a West Coast IPA is. It’s a true palate destroyer.
Tasting Notes:
Sierra Nevada’s hoppiest beer begins with aromas of citrus zest, dank pine, resin, and just a hint of floral hops. The flavor is filled with caramel malts that are enveloped with tangerine, grapefruit, and a whole forest of dank, resinous pine trees. This is a bold, hop-bomb that IPA drinkers need to try.
Bottom Line:
If you’re the type of person who wants to push the limits of the West Coast IPA, this is the beer for you. It’s crazy hoppy, dank, and filled with bitter, pine flavor.
Even though it seems like every brewery makes a hazy IPA now, there’s a reason Hazy Little Thing still makes lists ranking the best of the best. That’s because this IPA brewed with Citra, Magnum, Simcoe, Comet, Mosaic, and El Dorado is juicy, sweet, and highly crushable on a hot summer day.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is what you expect from a hazy, New England-style IPA. It’s filled with guava, mango, tangerine, pineapple, and grapefruit. The palate is highlighted by flavors like ripe peaches, passion fruit, mango, fresh oranges, wet grass, and just a hint of hop bitterness at the finish.
Bottom Line:
This is a true, unrivaled juice bomb. Fans of hazy New England IPAs will have a hard time finding a better, more crushable juicy IPA than this.
Celebration is a bit different from the other IPAs on this list. It’s a wintry IPA brewed with Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook hops. Unlike many winter beers, it’s not spiced. Instead, it’s fresh, piney, and crisp. The perfect beer to drink while you take a break from pumpkin ales and barrel-aged stouts.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is filled with scents of orange peels, fresh flowers, grapefruit, and subtle spice. The palate has a nice caramel malt backbone that pairs perfectly with citrus zest, resinous piney, dank hops. It’s a great combination of citrus, malts, and crisp hops.
Bottom Line:
In a sea of spiced, overly sweet holiday beers, Sierra Nevada Celebration is a welcomed respite of crisp, hoppy, floral refreshment.
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is the beer that started the American pale ale craze. It’s also so hoppy — being brewed with ale yeast, a handful of malts, and a large amount of Cascade hops — that it manages to sneak into many IPA ranking lists.
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, you’ll find a combination of caramel malts, lemon zest, floral hints, and subtle, piney hops. The palate is littered with flavors of biscuity, caramel malts, grapefruit, lemon rings, and floral, dank, slightly bitter hops. It’s a perfectly balanced beer that deserves all of the accolades it receives.
Bottom Line:
If you only drink one pale ale, make it this one. It’s crisp, citrusy, and completely refreshing on a hot day (or literally any day).
You heard it here first. Torpedo is the best beer Sierra Nevada makes. This 7.2 percent “extra IPA” gets its slightly herbal, dank, piney flavor from the addition of Crystal, Citra, and Magnum hops. Even with its dry-hopped flavor, it’s surprisingly well-balanced and highly drinkable.
Tasting Notes:
The nose is a nice mix of malt sweetness, resinous, dank pine, citrus zest, and floral notes. Take a sip and you’ll find notes of ripe pineapple, lemon zest, grapefruit juice, spruce tips, and gentle, sweet, caramel malts. It’s super hoppy, yet balanced with a nice malty backbone.
Bottom Line:
This is the best Sierra Nevada IPA because it has a nice ABV level, pleasing floral, piney hops, slight bitterness, and a good amount of malty sweetness. A great year-round IPA for sure.
As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.
Morgan Wallen was a crossover country star on the rise thanks to his 2021 sophomore album Dangerous: The Double Album: The album topped all-genres Billboard 200 chart and he booked a gig as Saturday Night Live musical guest. Then, it happened: He was filmed using a racial slur. While his album continued to break chart records despite the controversy, the singer remained on the bad sides of many. Now, he has addressed the whole situation on Good Morning America, sitting with Michael Strahan today for his first interview since everything went down.
Strahan asked Wallen if his use of the word happened out of “nowhere,” and Wallen explained, “No, I don’t think it just happened. I was around some of my friends and, you know, we just say dumb stuff together. It was… in our minds, it’s playful, you know? I don’t know if… that sounds ignorant, but that’s really where it came from, and it’s wrong.”
Strahan then suggested the word is one Wallen uses “frequently,” and Wallen responded, “I wouldn’t say frequently, no. Not frequently. It was just around this certain group of friends, I would say.” He went on to note that as for his use of it in the video, he “didn’t mean it in any derogatory manner at all.”
When asked what made him think the word was ever appropriate for him to use, Wallen said after a pause, “I’m not sure. I think I was just ignorant about it. I don’t think I sat down and was like, ‘Hey, is this right or is this wrong?’”
Elsewhere during the conversation, he revealed that he spent 30 days in rehab following the incident and noted that he donated the money from his increased album sales to Black organizations.
Watch the full interview here and check out clips from it above and below.
After more than a year of being stuck indoors, it’s understandable that any excuse to be in a room with living creatures who aren’t your cats would be tempting. But if that weird uncle or kid who ate his boogers in kindergarten invites you to a dance party via Facebook, do yourself (and the world) a favor and just say no. On Thursday, The Late Show host Stephen Colbert revealed a truly idiotic new trend among anti-vaxxers who desperately want to keep spreading their dirty lies about COVID, but are having trouble getting around the social media network’s misinformation triggers: dance parties!
“The only thing spreading faster than COVID variants is COVID misinformation, especially on social media. In response, Facebook has been hunting down and removing groups that present misleading or sensationalized information about vaccines… Facebook finds the groups using keywords, but they’re having trouble because some anti-vaccination groups are changing their names to euphemisms like ‘dance party’ in order to skirt bans from Facebook. So get ready for new dance crazes like Actual Saturday Night Fever, The Harlem Ache, and The Floss (of Taste and Smell).”
Of course, it won’t take long for Mark Zuckerberg and his merry band of tech goons to come up with an algorithm that shuts down these virus-fueled dance parties, so these same people who don’t believe in science have begun creating their own online language to further evade detection from Facebook’s powers-that-be. As seen here:
Antivaxxers are calling themselves something, anything else on Facebook.
Once they change their group name, the adapt their whole vocabulary to fit it.
Here’s a list of codewords for the group of people who don’t “go dancing” — or won’t get the vaxx.
“For example, instead of ‘got the vaccine’ they say ‘danced’ or ‘drank beer,’” Colbert explained. “References to Pfizer generally use the term ‘pizza’ and Moderna is referred to as ‘Moana.’ Dancing? Beer? Pizza? Moana? If you’re going to describe you think is killing everybody, maybe don’t use code words that are things that everybody universally loves. You might as well just say: My sister ‘danced’ with a ‘laundry basket full of puppies’ and now I’m afraid she’s given me ‘rock-hard abs.’ In fact, she’s pressuring the whole family to ‘drink a chocolate milkshake’ with ‘Jason Sudeikis.’”
You can watch the full segment above; it begins around the 3:20 mark.
After the thrill of stepping outside again (after you know what) wears off due to sweltering heat, we sure could use some programming relief. Fortunately, Netflix knows how to give the people what they want. The streaming service is serving up some new series and films to cover all interest bases, including a sequelized take on a beloved 1980s childhood classic. That series is in good hands, given that the ultimate fan, Kevin Smith, is showrunning, and next up, there’s a dating show that’s bizarre enough to make most other dating shows seem downright conventional in comparison. Also, we’ve got a Guillermo del Toro project, a crowdfunding caper, and a time-traveling love story to give you some vicarious adventures without overextending your own heart. We’ve rounded up the most bingeworthy selections of this week, so that you can relax and take a load off while (hopefully) also binging on a cool, sweet snack.
Here’s everything else coming to (and leaving) the streaming platform this week.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation (Netflix series streaming 7/23)
The very battle for Eternia’s soul continues with the ultimate fanboy, Kevin Smith, picking up the showrunner sword. Smith’s enthusiasm for all stuff geeky has led him down many roads, all of them filled with huge feelings, and honestly, the dude has the Power of Grayskull running through his veins. So, one can expect him to nail the tone here while advancing the story, justifying a revival, and continuing the story of the rivalry between Skeletor and everyone else. Cringer and Orko and Teela are on board, and the voice cast (including Lena Headey, Henry Rollins, and Jason Mewes) is phenomenal here, especially Mark Hamill as Skeletor. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of He-Man, guys.
Well, if you thought that you’ve seen every kind of dating series out there, Netflix is shouting something about holding their beer. The show purports to feature contestants that will choose matches based on personality only. Sounds practical, right? Well, the key to doing that here is dressing up as furries and other prosthetic-adorned creatures, and no reveal of actual physicality shall happen until the pivotal decisions are made. It’s like The Masked Singer, only way hornier.
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans (Netflix film releasing 7/21)
This franchise installment (from Guillermo del Toro) picks up after the events of the Tales of Arcadia films, and those heroes must now come together to banish the evil Arcane order and defend humanity. Of course, the Arcane Order has ancient titans on their side and the darkest of magic, so vanquishing them won’t be a simple feat.
The Last Letter From Your Lover (Netflix film releasing 7/23)
Shailene Woodley and Felicity Jones star in this story (based upon the novel by JoJo Moyes) about a journalist who uncovers decades-old love letters that reveal a forbidden affair. While investigating the individual threads that make up the mystery surrounding the affair, the journalist soon falls into a love story of her own.
When two unemployed young entrepreneurs wildly (and drunkenly) develop a video pitch about a (nonexistent) video app, the crowdfunding dollars start pouring in. As it happens, however, they have no bloody idea what to do but must make good on the millions of dollars that came their way.
Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:
Avail. 7/18 Cosmic Sin
Avail. 7/20 milkwater
Avail. 7/21 Chernobyl 1986
The Movies That Made Us: Season 2 One on One with Kirk Cameron: Season 1 Sexy Beasts
Too Hot to Handle: Brazil
Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans
Avail. 7/22 9 to 5: The Story of a Movement
Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop
Avail. 7/23 A Second Chance: Rivals!
Bankrolled
Blood Red Sky
Kingdom: Ashin of the North
The Last Letter From Your Lover
Masters of the Universe: Revelation
Sky Rojo: Season 2
Avail. 7/24 Charmed: Season 3 Django Unchained
And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:
Leaving 7/28 The Croods
Leaving 7/30 Spotlight
Leaving 7/31 A Clockwork Orange
Bride of Chucky
Child’s Play 2
Child’s Play 3
Eat Pray Love
Four Christmases
Freak Show
Fred Claus
Friends with Benefits
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Grand Designs: Season 10 Grand Designs: Season 15 Hardcore Henry
Hinterland: Seasons 1-3 Hook
Horns
Jupiter Ascending
King Arthur
Little Baby Bum: Nursery Rhyme Friends: S1 The Little Rascals
Mad Max
My Best Friend’s Wedding
Nacho Libre
Nights in Rodanthe
The Patriot
Remember Me
Seed of Chucky
Step Up: Revolution
Your Highness
Zombieland
In recent years, Kanye West has proven himself untrustworthy when it comes to doing things on time. He routinely misses scheduled release dates for his albums and that spirit of tardiness even carried over to his failed presidential campaign. So, when a release date for West’s upcoming album Donda was “confirmed” earlier this week for July 23 (aka today), it remained to be seen if the project would actually come out on that day.
Typically, albums are released at midnight on their release date, so it seemed like West’s huge listening event at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium (which was of course delayed by a couple hours) would be a perfect lead-in to Donda‘s debut on streaming platforms. However, both fans who stayed up for the anticipated midnight release and those who expected to wake up to Donda this morning were left disappointed but not surprised: As of this post, Donda is not available on streaming platforms.
As it became clear that Donda isn’t out yet, the album title became a trending topic on Twitter as fans shared memes. These posts expressed disappointment, sadness, and bemusement as fans kicked themselves for not expecting a delay.
There are still plenty of hours left in this July 23, though, so Donda could still make its announced release date. As the world waits to see if that actually happens, check out some of the reactions to the album’s delay below.
Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) is the only actor to ever appear in every canonical Star Wars movie, from 1977’s Star Wars to 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, but Mark Hamill isn’t too far behind him. In response to Wookieepedia noting that the What We Do in the Shadows legend (if you inspire Laszlo to change his name to Jackie Daytona, you qualify as a legend) voiced droid bartender EV-9D9 on the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, Hamill tweeted, “Did you know… I voiced multiple secret voice-cameos in every #StarWars movie released since 2015?”
Hamill obviously plays Luke Skywalker in The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker, but “every #StarWars movie released since 2015,” a.k.a. the Disney era, includes Rogue One and Solo. It also means that he did double duty in the sequel trilogy; he also voiced casino goblin Dobbu Scay in The Last Jedi and Resistance miner Boolio in The Rise of Skywalker. It’s unclear who he voiced in The Force Awakens. As for Rogue One and Solo, Hamill revealed in 2020 that his pseudonym, William M. Patrick (“for my older & younger brothers”) appears in the credits for both films.
It was never about billing (L-#RogueOne R-#Solo) or salary. It was for fun & the fans & because I#EasterEggs! I misremembered my pseudonym as “Patrick Williams”-It was actually “William M. Patrick” (for my older & younger brothers) I’m not telling what the M. stands for. #Guesspic.twitter.com/AOSdsdtD5a
Star Wars fans will now spend the rest of the week listening closely to every weird-looking alien and sassy droid in Rogue One to see if they’re voiced by Hamill. They were going to do that already, but at least now there’s an excuse.
Did you know… I voiced multiple secret voice-cameos in every #StarWars movie released since 2015?*
Just like many rappers who claimed they were retiring from the game have done, Logic reemerged from his cave to step up to the mic and share new music with fans shortly after his declaration. His return came less than a year after the release of his sixth album, No Pressure, a project he used to momentarily conclude his career. Now, the Maryland rapper is back in action, and he adds on to his recent string of releases with his latest effort, “Call Me.”
The track is a laid-back effort that’s conceptually similar to his highest-charting single, “1-800-273-8255,” as it finds him providing a hand of support to those around him who might be in need of it. “You know you can call me / When nobody picking up,” he raps over the song’s mellow production. “When it feel like don’t nobody in the world give a f*ck / Call me / I’ll be there to pick you up.”
“Call Me” is the third single that Logic revealed that his next project, Bobby Tarantino III, is on the way. The first was “Vaccine,” which he recently shared a music video for, and the second was “My Way.” Aside from Bobby Tarantino III, Logic is also promoting a joint project with Madlib as he’s shared a collection of singles that include “Raddest Dad” and “Mafia Music.”
If we could impart one piece of wisdom with this binge-guide it’s this: don’t sleep on Hulu‘s movie line-up. The streaming service may have started as just a way to watch cable TV without actually paying premium prices for the cord but over the years, it’s morphed into a platform with an impressive film catalog. We’re talking prestige originals, blockbusters, inventive comedies, and so much more. We don’t really need to do much more in the way of hyping it up, so we’ll just let you scroll through our picks for the best films on Hulu and leave you with this warning: your watchlist is going to get full real quick.
It’s hard to quantify a film as stylishly inventive and socially aware as Bong Joon Ho’s comedic thriller. There’s a reason this film won so many Oscars. It flits between instilling empathy for a family struggling to crawl out of poverty by increasingly deceptive means and the clueless elite whose house they eventually infiltrate. Bolstered by some terrific performances and a gripping script, the less said about the story, it’s twists and unexpected turns, the better. Just do yourself a favor and watch it.
Barry Jenkins follows up the success of Moonlight with this adaptation of a James Baldwin masterpiece. 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.
This Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary tells the unbelievably inspiring story of Hatidze, a bee-hunter in North Macedonia who represents a dying breed of ecological custodians. Hatidze and her ailing mother live on a remote mountain range, where she peacefully coexists with the bees whose honey is her livelihood, but when new neighbors arrive to disrupt this fragile harmony, Hatidze must fight for her simple way of life. It’s a moving, intimate portrait of an inspiring woman, and a larger commentary on how our greed and ignorance can irreparably damage our surroundings.
As flashy and over-the-top as the sequin-spandex numbers that graced the ice back in the ’80s, I, Tonya manages to straddle a thin line. It’s both a biopic of one of the most notorious female athletes in the history of figure skating and a raucous comedy intent on mocking everything troubling about American culture at the time. Margot Robbie is brilliant in her role-playing a woman tortured by talent and her inability to capitalize on it — and you can literally hear Allison Janney chewing every scene she’s in as Harding’s narcissistic, chain-smoking mother. Plus that parrot bite is as funny as you could hope.
Rob Reiner’s ridiculous fantasy romp never fails to entertain, no matter how many times you re-watch it. It plays with classic fairytale tropes in inventive, increasingly absurd ways without ever sacrificing its story: the quest for true love. Cary Elwes plays Wesley, a farmhand who falls in love with a beautiful maiden named Buttercup (Robin Wright), but a cruel twist of fate separates them, leading him to become a notorious pirate and her to be betrothed to a truly awful king. It’s a bit Monty-Python-esque but with more swoon-worthy moments and, if you can believe it, memorable jokes.
Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut is this coming-of-age ode to friendship starring Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever. Feldstein plays Molly, a politically ambitious high schooler, who resolves to have one night of teenage fun before graduation. She ropes her best friend Amy (Dever) into her plan, and the two navigate a host of wild mishaps to make it to the biggest party of the year. It’s fun and heartfelt and a surprisingly confident first take from Wilde.
There are forbidden love affairs and then there’s this epic romance from French filmmaker Celine Sciamma. Filled with sexual tension and secret rendevous, this period piece centers on a young painter named Marianne who lives on the island of Brittany and is commissioned to complete a portrait of an aristocratic noblewoman named Heloise before she’s set to be wed. The two women form an intimate bond, one that tests their sense of self and their willingness to sacrifice for love.
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.
Chloe Zhao helms this moving portrait of a forgotten sect of society. Frances McDormand plays Fern, a woman who loses everything in the Great Recession and decides to journey through the American West. As she embraces the joys and challenges of her van-dwelling nomad life, she meets others on the same path who teach her about the value of letting go, moving on, and confronting her past.
It’s hard not to watch this Aaron Sorkin-penned, David Fincher-directed masterpiece and have your viewing experience colored by Facebook, and founder Mark Zuckerberg’s, many political misdealings. Jesse Eisenberg plays the boy genius, an outcast whose brainchild is the product of a bad breakup and sexism. He partners with Andrew Garfield’s business-minded Eduardo Saverin and the two create the famous social networking site before Zuckerberg outs his friend and alienates himself. The story isn’t new, but watching it play out is still thrilling, mostly because Eisenberg is just so damn good at being a dick.
Adam McKay’s controversial biopic lands on Hulu with its impressive cast of Oscar-winners including Christian Bale, who undergoes a mind-blowing transformation to play former Vice President Dick Cheney. The film follows the build-up to Cheney’s White House appointment, as he gains power first as a Washington insider, then as the man pulling the strings of the Bush administrations. Amy Adams plays his supportive, just as morally compromised wife, Lynne, with Sam Rockwell turning in a hilarious performance as Bush himself.
There are so many worthy entries in The Terminator franchise, but it’s hard not to love the original more than the rest. Arnold Schwarzenegger used the film to cement his action-hero legacy, playing a cyborg assassin simply known as the Terminator, who travels from the future to ’80s Los Angeles to kill a waitress named Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). From there, we learn about Skynet, an artificial intelligence defense network that will soon become self-aware and destroy humanity if Sarah’s unborn son doesn’t stop it. There’s a lot of time-travel jargon to keep up with, but the real thrill of this movie is seeing Hamilton more than hold her own against an eerily-robotic Schwarzenegger.
Viggo Mortensen and Kathryn Han star in this feel-good drama about an unconventional family’s attempts to stay together despite outside forces closing in on their way of life. Mortensen plays Ben, the father to six children all living in a remote, wooded area. The kids keep a strict schedule, learning on their own, surviving in the wild, eschewing traditional schooling and activities for Ben’s regimen, which pushes them to think for themselves and find their own purpose. When Ben and the kids are forced to leave their utopia and interact with estranged family members in the real world, his teachings and their way of life is challenged in surprising ways.
Set during the touring years of The Beatles’ career, from 1962-1966, director Ron Howard crafts an intimate portrayal of the world’s most popular band with the help of both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with widows Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. Featuring 4K restorations of some of the band’s most memorable concerts, this documentary is a must for any film lover, Beatles fan or otherwise.
Mads Mikkelsen gives a tour-de-force performance in this Danish tragicomedy about a group of professors who attempt an intriguing social experiment with varying degrees of success. Mikkelsen’s Martin is an aging teacher whose marriage is suffering. His three friends are also experiencing mid-life crises. Their solution? To test a scientific theory that claims having a constant blood alcohol level of .05 make you happier and more creative, but when being buzzed just isn’t enough, each of the men begin to spiral, some with tragic consequences.
Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, and Tessa Thompson return for round two of this boxing drama reboot. Still training with Rocky Balboa, Adonis Creed (Jordan) tries to bounce back after a dangerous beatdown, resolving to face off against the son of Viktor Drago, the man who killed his father. The film’s tension is heightened, the hits more violent, and Jordan is as confident as ever in his leading man status.
Ozark breakout Julia Garner stars in this tense #MeToo thriller with Succession’s Matthew Macfayden. Garner plays Jane, a recent college grad who just scored an assistant job at a film production company. When she begins noticing her boss sexually harassing young women around the office, she tries to do something about it and runs into various roadblocks from the higher-ups. It’s a dark, seedy drama and Garner is brilliant in it.
Australian director Jennifer Kent follows up her surprise success, The Babadook, with another dark tale, this time one that follows a young woman on a path of revenge. Aisling Franciosi plays Claire, an Irish convict sent to Tasmania in 1825 who chases a British officer (Sam Claflin) through the wilderness intent on making him pay for the crimes he committed against her and her family. Along the way, she recruits help from an aboriginal tracker and the two navigate racial tensions and prejudice on their quest. Franciosi is magnetic as Claire, a woman who refuses to let the horrible abuses she’s suffered break her and Claflin seems to delight in playing the villain of this story.
Merging high art and science fiction, director Lars Von Trier found inspiration for his story after suffering a depressive episode. Focused on two sisters with a strained relationship, they must now face the reality of a rogue planet set to collide with Earth. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where Kristen Dunst was given the Best Actress Award, and the following year the British Film Institute named it one of the greatest films of all time — a rare honor for any film made in the 21st century.
Tessa Thompson and Lily James deliver magnetic performances in this gritty crime drama from director Nia DaCosta. Thompson plays Ollie, a young woman living in an oil town in North Dakota who starts running drugs across the Canadian border when her mom gets sick. James plays her screw-up sister, Deb, who comes back into her life after their mom’s death with problems of her own. The sisters must find a way to save their childhood home, get Deb the help she needs, and get Ollie out of town before the police and some angry drug dealers catch her. It’s a relentless meat grinder of a film, but it’s also a hell of a watch.
Loosely based on the ground-breaking manga of the same name, Akira is considered a landmark in Japanese animation, as well as one of the best animated films ever produced. Set in a dystopian future in 2019, a teenager named Tetsuo gains tremendous telekinetic powers after a motorcycle crash, eventually going mad with power before bringing the military-industrial complex to its knees. A live action adaptation has been in the works in some form since 2002, but remains in development purgatory for the time being.
Helping to close out a decade of memorable teen films on a dark note, Heathers is a savagely funny deconstruction of the frivolousness of popular cliques that helped set the tone of many dark comedies that would follow in its wake. The plot involves a popular group of girls known as The Heathers who invite Veronica Sawyer (Winona Ryder) to join them, guaranteeing that she would gain popularity by association. Eventually, Veronica finds herself teaming up with a dangerous sociopath (Christian Slater) in an attempt to break the Heathers’ tyrannical hold on the school.
Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton), who’s unwilling and unable to properly care for her troubled son Kevin, watches her life unravel as her husband (John C. Reilly) ignores their problems and Kevin grows more and more sociopathic and violent. The story jumps around in time, showing Swinton’s character as both a new mother who blames her son for ruining her life and as a woman who eventually blames herself for what becomes of her son. Swinton proves once again that she’s the actress that indie movies need for complex characters that live their lives in grey areas. At its core, We Need To Talk is about the importance of proper parenting, communication, and probably therapy. And it’s not for the faint of heart.
Tom Cruise is joined by Superman himself, Henry Cavill in this latest installment in the action franchise. Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt who leads his IMF team but is joined by Cavill’s CIA Agent, August Walker, who’s tasked with monitoring the group after a mission gone wrong. Hunt is tracking some missing plutonium before a terrorist group called The Apostles can weaponize it against the world but he’s thwarted by a surprising enemy.
The war of the Fyre docs kicked off earlier this year with Hulu releasing their surprise flick just days before Netflix’s planned exposé. Both films rehash the same basic plot: a young entrepreneur scams thousands of millennials and investors out of millions of dollars, but Hulu’s movie takes a closer look the aftermath and damage caused by Billy McFarland and Ja Rule, in addition to interviews and close looks at the events of the Fyre Festival disaster with a critical eye.
Pen15‘s Maya Erskine and ‘ Jack Quaid star in this modern rom-com about a pair of friends, who agree to suffer a summer of wedding invites together. Alice and Ben have been pals since college, but when their mutuals start getting hitched, and they’re left without dates to the happy nuptials, they make a pact to be each others’ “plus one.” What begins as a chance to score free booze and food quickly spirals into a neverending series of interactions that remind them how lonely they both are and force them to confront their hidden attraction.
A charming, unconventional story about what it means to be a family, Hunt for the Wilderpeople follows a juvenile delinquent named Ricky (Julian Dennison), who is adopted by a couple living on a farm in a remote region of New Zealand. After Ricky fakes his suicide and escapes into the bush, his (reluctantly) adopted father Hec (Sam Neill) goes looking for him, and after a series of mishaps, the two are forced to survive in the woods together for months. It was released during SXSW in 2016 (you can read our review here), and after rave reviews from critics the world over, it’s gone on to become the highest-grossing film in New Zealand history.
Before the Tina Feys, Amy Poehlers, and Maya Rudolphs of the world made Saturday Night Live a female-led powerhouse, comedian Gilda Radner starred on the sketch comedy series. She’s an icon, an absolute legend in the world of stand-up, and she played her bigger-than-life characters on the show with a kind of quirky abandon that made you laugh at them and care for them all at once. This doc looks back at her career, her struggles in an industry that wasn’t always accepting of her gender, and her brushes with more serious issues, like illness and eating disorders. Despite those serious topics, it’s a breezy, feel-good watch for comedy lovers of every generation.
Coherence is one of those low-budget sci-fi stories that is extremely tough to explain without either giving too much away or requiring an extended entry. Essentially, a group of friends sifts through their own issues and insecurities during a mind-bending paradoxical experience. Taking place almost entirely in the same room on a single night, the characters struggle to find answers just as much as the viewer. It’s a challenging yet enthralling film, perfect for those who love to overthink things.
This highly-anticipated comedy from SNL alumn and Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Andy Samberg feels like a spiritual successor to a Bill Murray classic, a millennial Groundhog’s Day except this story is set in the sunny world of Palm Springs. Samberg’s Nyles meets Sarah (Cristin Milioti) at a wedding, and the two are pulled through a weird portal that causes them to repeat the same day, over, and over again. Honestly, it’s the perfect quarantine watch.
In today’s generation of rap, Gunna and Polo G stand as two of the most popular names within the genre. The success they portrayed over the last couple of years is direct proof of this, in addition to the work from early in their careers. So it’s no surprise that Kawhi Leonard recruited them both to appear on his upcoming compilation project titled Culture Jam. The duo’s song, titled “Waves,” leans more into Gunna’s lane as it features production the YSL rapper might use for his own work, but nothing too out of the box for Polo G as he flows smoothly on the new track.
Kawhi dropping a project, here he is teasing a track from it with NBA YoungBoy and Rod Wave pic.twitter.com/Zgmi0m46sR
Leonard shared additional details about the project back in May. “Culture Jam will always be a platform where creators’ ideas and talents come to life and serve our families and communities,” he said in a statement. “As an athlete that loves family, music, culture, and community, it was extremely important for me to build a space where all these elements thrive. Culture Jam’s significance is not only timely but it is also necessary.” The first single from the project was NBA YoungBoy and Rod Wave’s “Everything Different.”
The new track is also not the first time the the two rapper’s have worked together. Back in 2019, Gunna and Lil Baby teamed up to join Polo G for “Pop Out Again,” a song of the Chicago rapper’s debut album, Die A Legend.
Press play on Gunna and Polo G’s latest collaboration in the video above.
Gunna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
(@Ryann_martinn) 
