Category: News

It’s in Psych‘s DNA and it’s theme song: “I’m not inclined to resign to maturity.” Fake psychic detective Shawn Spencer (James Roday Rodriguez, who recently announced that he is now using his birth name) and, to a lesser extent, Burton “Gus” Guster (Dulé Hill) represent the dream of arrested development, hanging out in their clubhouse together, wearing disguises, and leaning into references to their favorite bits of pop culture while smart-assing and charming their way out of trouble. This while living that Scooby-Doo life of solving crimes and getting into goofy adventures. It’s a formula that works even as the characters cross into the age where it’d be more appropriate for them to know a lot more about golf and mutual funds, but adulthood comes for us all.

In Psych 2: Lassie Come Home (which is available to stream now on Peacock), we see an attempt to thread a needle with a high degree of difficulty. Psych is returning home (in both setting and feel), trying to live up to the ethos of the show and these characters, and also showing some sprinkles of maturity with an eye toward what might come next. Something that’s a particularly interesting question considering that the film now finds itself positioned as a key release tied to the launch of a new streaming service. But as Hill tells us, “there’s always room for an encore.”

Below, we talk about that with him and Roday Rodriguez, how things stay the same and how they evolve organically in the new film, the vital return of Timothy Omundson (who missed the last Psych movie while recovering from a stroke), and why the time is not quite right to look back on or sum up the show below.

How has your relationship to these characters changed over the years since the show ended?

James Roday Rodriguez: It’s a good question. I think when we were in the bubble of eight seasons [filming the show], you kind of just get in the groove, and you’re doing the work. It feels right and you don’t really stop and do a lot of analysis. I think once the show ended and we had some space and some distance, it allowed us a real opportunity. Maybe, for the first time, we really thought about, “Wait a second, what should these dudes be? What do we want these guys to look and feel like as they get older, when real-time has passed and you haven’t seen them for a while?” And that was kind of cool because it wasn’t something that I think we did a lot of when we were making the show as a series. So, like Shawn being married. Gus having a girlfriend and a new job. And being able to think about that stuff with some distance allowed us to essentially come back and do everything exactly the same way that we have been. [Laughs]

Hill: [Laughs] Yeah, I couldn’t have said it better. The thing I think that’s been so beautiful about Psych is that it’s all been organic. I mean, the fact that we started on this basic cable network that had some hits, but it wasn’t what it is now. We grew with the network, we grew with the audience, we grew with each other. And it was all organic. We didn’t know that we were going to have a fan base that was going to stay with us for over a decade. We didn’t know we were going to do eight seasons. And even when we did the first movie, we didn’t know that we were going to do a second one. So I think we kind of, we all just continued to respect each other, love each other, enjoy each other’s company. Support each other in our creativity. We try to give the fans what we feel that they would like, and they give us their feedback in return and keep building on it. So as long as that fellowship is always there, then the characters just grow and evolve organically. I don’t think there really is too much of, “Well, we got to hit this note now. We got to hit this note.” We just allowed it to grow as it is.

Roday Rodriguez: Yeah, the only thing I would add to that is we’ve also been lucky enough to have a studio and a network that, for the most part, just stands back and says, “Do what you do, guys and girls!” Which has been incredible. You don’t often get to experience that, but we’ve been experiencing it for quite some time. I think we’re probably a little spoiled because of that.

You had a really satisfying finale for the show. When you do a movie like this, do you think, “Okay, we want to end this in a place where if we don’t come back for another one, it feels complete?”

Roday Rodriguez: We sit down and talk about story when we’re writing this thing, but I think the only rule that we try to follow is, let’s make sure we end it in a place where you can believe that these characters who you’ve supported and invested in for so long are still out there living their lives. If we can check that box every time we get back together, then I think we feel pretty good. Then we can focus more on doing what we do within the body of a movie or a special and making people laugh. I think that’s the only rule that we’ve ever discussed openly. Which we did in the series finale, as you mentioned, and which, I think we did again in the first movie, and I hope we’ve done again with this movie.

Hill: We always leave a little slight door for encores. So just in case the audience keeps it flowing, we’ll come back. There’s room for an encore. There’s always room for an encore.

When you’re trying to think about where you guys have been and where you want to go, do you rewatch or refamiliarize yourself with what you’ve already done? Or is it just there already?

I would say for myself, it’s just there. Once I get together with James and the rest of the cast, and I see all the crew. We fall into our old jokes, the rhythm comes back after say one take, and there it is. We played the characters for so long. I mean, we were there for eight years together every day, all day for months at a time. That, to a certain extent, Gus has become a part of myself and vice versa. It’s not that hard to, I guess, conjure him back up and say, “Okay, we have some more stories to tell.”

And James, you, of course, watched 12 episodes a day, right?

Roday Rodriguez: Yeah, man, I didn’t even watch the show when we were making it. [Laughs] What I’ll say is this. It is a bit of a puzzle. I think there’s a recipe to what we do. And we’ve always known that. And the one thing that I’ll add is when we made the first movie, we were missing a very huge piece of that puzzle without Tim [Omundson]. And that did feel different to me. And it did take me a little bit longer to find the same groove and start clicking. And this time having him back, it came back much quicker. It felt much more like it was meant to feel, and it felt a lot better. So I will say that if you take out a major ingredient, it doesn’t feel exactly the same for sure. And then, just to echo what Dulé said, [we did this for] so many days in a row for so long. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to say again, doing a job as an actor where like… we didn’t even have to run stuff by each other before takes. Like, it wasn’t even like, “Yo, I’m going to try this, get ready.” There was no discussion. We were just acting and reacting, like two professional wrestlers who don’t even need to go over the match. Like, it was crazy. And that to me was what was so special about it.

There’s been a trend, especially with COVID and the lockdowns, of people going back and revisiting shows and doing podcasts. You see it with Scrubs, and Zach Braff and Donald Faison. And with The Office and Jenna Fischer. I’m curious if you guys have ever thought about doing something like that.

Hill: We haven’t discussed ever doing anything like that. I think if it were, it would be very fun to have that be led by [series creator] Steve Franks because he has a million and one stories. There have been so many folks that have come through. I think it would actually be a fun thing to do. The difference, I will say, between The Office, or Scrubs, or even The West Wing rewatches that go through a podcast is that our world is still evolving. That would be my only thing at this point. So whenever we get to the point, and if Steve Franks has his way, after the sixth movie, then maybe we do something like that. But I don’t know. I mean, what do you think James?

Roday Rodriguez: I agree. I think what we have to offer our fans is that we’re still making content for them. And we’re all still very much a part of this universe together. And to me, I think podcasts often feel like in memoriams. Like, “Hey, let’s not forget about this.” And, and I think for us, we’re still slinging it. And we have a very interactive relationship with our fans, especially on social media. We talk to them all the time, so if we were to do something like that, I agree, it would probably be worth saving it for later, when we can’t necessarily promise them that they’re ever going to see us get together and do our thing again.

So the next apocalypse. You save it for the next time.

Roday Rodriguez: Correct.

Hill: Right. The next one. Right, exactly.

Roday Rodriguez: Yeah, well, we’re about to shut down again, so it’ll be next week.

‘Psych 2: Lassie Come Home’ is available to stream now on Peacock.

Last Updated: July 16th

Spotify is filled with users (including Spotify itself) who put in the effort to curate playlists that feature the right songs for the right mood, or perhaps what’s most current so you can be an informed fan. There are thousands and thousands of playlists, though, so let us help you out: Here are some of the best playlists on Spotify that check a variety of boxes, that will keep you in the loop, and that will expose you to some great stuff you may not have discovered otherwise.

Related: The Best Rap & Hip-Hop Spotify Playlists Right Now

RapCaviar (Hip-Hop, by Spotify)

This playlist is so famous that it’s been called “the most influential playlist in music,” and for good reason: It always has a pulse on what the rap hits of the moment are, and what songs are poised to break out real soon. If somebody in rap is doing something that matters right now, you’ll find it on Rap Caviar.

Top Pop (Pop, by Spotify)

2020 has been a huge year for pop music, and Spotify’s official pop playlist has fans covered. Their 100-song “Top Pop” mix has everything from Lady Gaga’s recent bangers to the tunes that have made Tones And I a star to throwback-style hits from Dua Lipa and The Weeknd. Pop can be the perfect cure for a frowning face, so throw this 5-hour mix on and dance your troubles away.

KEXP’s Song Of The Day 2020 (Indie, by KEXP)

Tastemaking is a big part of indie music fandom, and Seattle radio station KEXP has long been a leader on that front. So, naturally, their Song Of The Day playlist tends to be a strong mix of modern indie hits along with some new stuff in the same realm that might not have been brought to your attention. Once you’ve played your way through this one, you can also check out their Song Of The Day playlist from last year and the years before to fall in love with some gems that you may have missed out on.

The Motherf*cking Future (Various genres, by Charli XCX)

Charli XCX keeps an ear out for the stars that might be coming up behind her. Though she’s certainly busy creating new music, Charli has still managed to find time to continually update this extraordinary playlist, playfully dubbed “the motherf*cking future,” which features mostly women who are currently on top of their game, or artists from the past who were way ahead of their time. If there’s a great new pop song building momentum, it’s probably on here. And Charli doesn’t discriminate between indie, trendy, popular, or commercially successful — if it’s good pop music that sounds like the future, it’s here.

Gold School (Hip-Hop, by Spotify)

If you’re one of the proud few who look down their nose at “SoundCloud rap” and crave the good old days of “real hip-hop,” well then, this playlist is for you. Peppered with hits from the early decades of rap right on down to the late 2000s, there’s plenty of DMX, 50 Cent, Ludacris, Outkast and more to sate your tates for the golden era days. And even if you like modern rap songs, it’s nice to have a trip down memory lane is always just a click away.

The Longest Mixtape: 1000 Songs For You (Various genres, by Caribou)

If you’re making a mixtape for somebody, it usually only has somewhere between 10-20 songs so as to not overwhelm the recipient. Caribou took a significantly opposite approach: In 2015, he shared “The Longest Mixtape,” which features over 1,000 songs. Caribou (real name Dan Smith) has called it “a musical history of my life,” and since he’s somebody who’s spent a lot of time poring over old vinyl and other musical oddities, there are surely some engaging picks among the thousand songs here.

New Music Friday (Pop/Hip-Hop/Indie, by Spotify)

Spotify’s in-house playlists are a reliable way to keep up with what’s current, and there’s no better example of that than their New Music Friday playlist. Ever week, they make sure the mix’s followers are up to date on what’s new in the music world, whether it’s new tracks from mega-stars or stuff that’s just off the beaten path.

Indie / Bedroom Pop (Indie, by BIRP!)

BIRP!’s goal is simple and noble: Every month, the site compiles a playlist that features over a hundred songs, mostly indie rock and indie pop, and although there are some familiar anchors, I can virtually guarantee that you haven’t heard most of what’s going on in these seven-or-so hours. It’s a wonderful opportunity for discovery, and one that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Dreampop/Shoegaze/Lo-Fi Buffet (Indie, by Chris Chan)

Some playlists are meant to be carefully curated experiences that have a narrative or aesthetic flow… and then there’s this behemoth. This 600-plus-song, 42-hour playlist was created in 2011, and although it was last updated in 2017, there’s still more than enough meat here to sink your teeth into, especially for fans of dreamy indie music like Beach House and that sort of thing. As Chan notes in his description, this playlist is best experienced on shuffle mode, so consider it a stocked pond where you can throw your line anywhere and come up with a big ol’ fish.

lofi hip hop beats – music to study/relax to (Lo-fi, by Chillhop Music)

You know those YouTube live streams that play chilled out, instrumental hip-hop around the clock, the ones that usually have screenshots of an anime character studying as the thumbnail? This is basically one of those in Spotify playlist form. It’s updated pretty regularly, so feel free to rely on this if you’re trying to concentrate on something, or even if you’re just trying to bob your head to some beats and don’t want lyrics getting in the way.

Soundtracks For Studying (Instrumental, by Katie O’Brien)

This is another studying playlist, although it’s much different than the previous one: It’s not updated as often (although it does seem to get some attention every few months), but it doesn’t need to be, considering it already has over 50 hours of film scores for you to throw on shuffle and let blur everything that’s going on in the background while you zero in on the task at hand. Sometimes songs with a beat can be too much, and in those cases, welcome home.

Indigo (Country, by Spotify)

Country, like all genres, is multifaceted, so while there’s the mainstream radio pop country, there are also artists pushing the genre in a different direction, downplaying and emphasizing different parts of the organic sound to create something different. Spotify keeps a solid mix of these adventurers up to date, so give it a whirl when your country craving is feeling a bit left of pop.

If It Wasn’t For Gucci (Hip-Hop, by Spotify)

Credit where credit is due — Gucci Mane’s imprint on modern hip-hop is unf*ckwithable. This playlists spotlights some of the Atlanta icon’s best collaborations and most important contributions to the trap-rap canon. It’s also a perfect party playlist if you happen to be with a group of like-minded hip-hop lovers.

Sad Indie (Indie, by Spotify)

Let’s be real, half the time when people are looking for “indie” music, they’re looking for a vibe. And, my friend, half the time, that vibe is sad. The chilled out, blue bliss of soft vocals, sweeping strings, towering drums, and tear-stained lyrics. And if that’s what you’re after, you’ve come to the right place by simply typing “sad indie” into your own personal Spotify account. Let the wallowing begin.

[Emoji-filled title] (Electronic, by Four Tet)

Four Tet’s primary Spotify playlist (the name of which is an unpronounceable string of emojis and other non-letter characters) is famous for sometimes debuting new Four Tet songs, but it’s much more than that: He adds to it all the time, and since he’s one of the most interesting thinkers in music, his ever-expanding mix (which is currently has more than 1,400 songs and is over 120 hours long) is a fascinating and entertaining insight into his curious brain.

Played by Jamie xx (Electronic/Dance, by Jamie xx)

This playlist used to be a lot larger, but Jamie xx has rebooted it for 2020 and started over from scratch. It used to consist of songs that he’d played during DJ gigs or on the radio. Given the ongoing pandemic, though, the mix now features “some of what I’ve been playing out and at home, new and old.” Since he’s established himself as a fine curator and remixer, this should be considered a hand-picked gift from one of today’s best electronic producers.

Walk In Like You Own The Place (Hip-Hop, by Spotify)

If there’s one thing we know about playlists it’s that they’re all about mood. This playlist is one that the kids affectionately call a “BIG” mood, because yes, “walk in like you own the place” is its own aesthetic. Especially in hip-hop. And sometimes you need it in your life, like right before that big job interview or say, a particularly nerve-wracking date or work presentation. Throw on Kanye, Kendrick, Rick Ross, and Drake to get in the appropriate head space. Then, take over the world.

Viva Latino (Latin, by Spotify)

Latin music has found its place in the hearts of listeners worldwide more and more in recent years. Artists like Ozuna, J Balvin, Bad Bunny, and others are a pivotal part of the many styles that make up pop music today, which makes keeping tabs on what these international artists are up to a must.

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

Getting into bourbon can be daunting. There are so, so many bottles of the stuff lining the shelves these days. And scores of terms to learn. But even with all the expressions, buzzwords, and brands, finding the best bourbons for novices remains pretty do-able. “Straight” bourbon has a solid baseline of quality — meaning it’s usually at least “pretty good” on the palate and often much better than that.

Today, we’re talking about “Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey” — one of the most classic iterations of whiskey on the market. It’s a style that carries a few minor regulations which allow it to be labeled the way it is:

1. It has to age at least two years in new, charred American oak.
2. It must be made from a mash bill (recipe) of at least 51 percent corn.

There are also limits on ABV, but we need don’t need to go too deeply into those specifics today.

The ten bottles below are great entry-points for anyone eager to start sipping bourbon from Kentucky. We’re staying well away from the advanced stuff and just focusing on readily-available bottles that you can try right now to get a sense of what bourbon is (with a couple of special expressions thrown in for good measure). This is a foundation upon which you can build a broader bourbon knowledge down the road.

Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond

ABV: 50%
Distillery: Heaven Hill, Bardstown, KY
Average Price: $17

The Whiskey:

Evan Williams is a great gateway bottle of bourbon. It’s cheap, easy to drink, and readily available nationwide. Their Bottled-in-Bond takes a little extra time (aged four years) and effort, thanks to the U.S. government’s regulations that assure quality across the board.

Tasting Notes:

This is a classic. Christmas spices, bourbon vanilla, and thick caramel greet you. The oak is present but never overpowers the taste of those rich and dark spices alongside a mild sense of roasted almonds and a hint of tart apples. A feather-light sense of brown sugar and bananas arrive very late as the warmth of the spice quickly fades across the senses.

Four Roses Bourbon

ABV: 40%
Distillery: Four Roses Distillery, Lawrenceburg, KY (Kirin Brewery Company)
Average Price: $22

The Whiskey:

This is an interesting entry-level expression for a brand. Four Roses is renowned for their use of varied mash bills for various expressions and this bottle is a blend of their “B” and “E” mash bills. That means there’s a high-rye bourbon mixed with a more corn-heavy bourbon in the final product. This gives an interesting, albeit, very accessible feel to the sip.

Tasting Notes:

The vanilla is the star of the show with support from mild spice and a hint of honey sweetness. That sweetness is what carries on throughout the taste, as whispers of rye spice, sweet corn, and baked apples come to play with a flutter of florals mingling on the palate.

The sip ends fairly abruptly but leaves you with a sense of honey sweetness and oaky warmth.

Jim Beam Bonded

ABV: 50%
Distillery: Jim Beam, Clermont, KY (Beam Suntory)
Average Price: $22

The Whiskey:

Jim Beam is a classic whiskey. Their Bonded expression was often nicknamed “The Good Stuff” for good reason. The bottled-in-bond regulations allow a little extra time for the booze to mellow and then the higher proof means you’re getting more of the barrel; thanks to less mineral water cutting the juice down to 40 percent ABV in the standard bottles.

Tasting Notes:

Spice and oak greet you with a sense of candied cherries and a mild note of toffee. The juice burns brightly with notes of spearmint next to rich and oily vanilla and peppery spice. The dram lingers on the senses and hints at charred oak, dark cacao powder (especially with a little ice involved), and a wisp of pipe tobacco.

Buffalo Trace

ABV: 45%
Distillery: Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, KY
Average Price: $30

The Whiskey:

Famed master distiller Elmer T. Lee came out of retirement in the late 1990s to create this now iconic bottle of bourbon. Buffalo Trace Distillery has a lot of labels under their shingle but this is the center point of the whole operation.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a soft sense of molasses sweetness next to fresh sprigs of mint and a flourish of vanilla pods. Oak and anise-forward spice mix with rich and buttery toffee next to ripe, sweet cherries. The short finish highlights the sweeter notes, vanilla, and woody spice.

1792 Small Batch

ABV: 46.85%
Distillery: Barton 1792 Distillery, Bardstown, KY (Sazerac Company)
Average Price: $32

The Whiskey:

1792 Bourbon has been winning a lot of awards for its refinement and accessibility. The bottle carries no age statement, but the juice is said to be aged eight years. The mash bill is high in rye and the expression is bottled with a mildly higher ABV, adding some kick.

Tasting Notes:

Christmas spices, a bushel of cherries, and a lot of vanilla lead the way. There’s a mellow bitterness that feels little like dark chocolate next to charred wood. The spices really amp up the warmth of the sip as a hint of worn leather and an echo of campfire smoke fade off into the toasty sunset of the sip.

Woodford Reserve

ABV: 45.2%
Distillery: Woodford Reserve Distillery, Versailles, KY (Brown-Forman)
Average Price: $38

The Whiskey:

This is another stone-cold classic from a distillery that makes a wide array of great whiskeys. The juice is a blend of a high-rye mash billed pot and column stilled bourbon that’s aged between six and seven years. This bourbon is less about fancy bells and whistles and more about deep attention to tried and true methods for making good bourbon.

Tasting Notes:

Vanilla is prominent upfront with a note of spice, tart apple, and a hint of orange zest. The spice carries through as the orange zest really kicks in alongside some dried fruit and caramelized sugars, creating a bit of a Christmas cake feel. The finish is long-winded as you travel back through the spice, fruit, vanilla, and orange and end on a clear billow of tobacco smoke and oaky char.

Wild Turkey Longbranch

ABV: 43%
Distillery: Wild Turkey Distilling, Lawrenceburg, KY (Campari Group)
Average Price: $40

The Whiskey:

This is kind of breaking the rules of this post. But this is a great example of a one-off bourbon that’s just so easy to drink. Matthew McConaughey teamed up with Wild Turkey’s master distiller Eddie Russell to create a Kentucky bourbon that feels very Texan. They do this by taking classic Wild Turkey and filtering it through Texas mesquite charcoal, resulting in a very easy sipping bourbon.

Tasting Notes:

Classic notes of vanilla and dark spice mingle with a clear caramel corn sweetness that’s bolstered by a brisk smokiness. That smoke fades to the background as the taste dances between apple pies full of cinnamon, walnuts, and brown sugar and mild notes of leather and tobacco leaves. The apple, spice, and vanilla really shine through on the slow end as that smokiness reminds you one more time that it’s in play.

Legent Bourbon Whiskey

ABV: 47%
Distillery: Jim Beam, Clermont, KY (Beam Suntory)
Average Price: $42

The Whiskey:

This is another interesting one-off that’s too easy to sip to ignore. This will also help you add a little refinement to your bourbon palate — thanks to the interesting use of barrels in the aging process. The juice is mostly aged in charred new American oak but master distiller Fred Noe also uses red wine casks from California and sherry casks from Spain. Then the juice is blended by legendary master blender Shinji Fukuyo, marrying Kentucky’s Jim Beam and Japan’s Suntory in a single bottle.

Tasting Notes:

This is almost too easy to drink. You can’t get away from the bourbon vanilla and sweet caramel up top (in a good way). But then, there’s a sense of plummy sherry next to vinous grapes. The sip leans from the jammy elements towards a vanilla-rich and very creamy pudding with plenty of crème brûlée burnt sugar goodness. The sip lingers with notes of oaky spice, vinous grapes, and flourish of dried fruits.

Basil Hayden’s

ABV: 40%
Distillery: Jim Beam, Clermont, KY (Beam Suntory)
Average Price: $44

The Whiskey:

Also hailing from Jim Beam, Basil Hayden’s is a specialty creation for their small-batch collection (alongside Booker’s, Baker’s, and Knob Creek). The juice is a refined high-rye mash bill bourbon that spends just the right amount of time in the barrel to make it one of the most sippable bourbons on this list, and a great entry-point to Basil Hayden’s deep range of expressions.

Tasting Notes:

Tart apples, peppery rye, wildflowers, and a little maple syrup lead the way. The sip stays very subtle with blinking highlights popping up of worn leather, distant smoke, more fruity apples, sharp spice, vanilla, and rich toffee. The sweetness leans into a honey feeling as the sip slowly fades away through the spice, vanilla, oak, and leather.

Michter’s US*1 Small Batch Kentucky Bourbon

ABV: 45.7%
Distillery: Michter’s Distillery, Louisville, KY
Average Price: $46

The Whiskey:

This bourbon from Michter’s is a damn fine dram at a very accessible price point. The juice is classic bourbon done right that’s then sourced from no more than 20 barrels per batch. That makes this a refined bottle of juice that highlights what bourbon should be.

Tasting Notes:

Oily vanilla bean pods dance with clear notes of corn-focused caramel and plenty of oak and dark spice. Notes of ripe and sweet stonefruits, especially apricot, lead towards a hint of butterscotch next to more vanilla and spice. A whisper of smoke comes in late to accent the bitterness of the oak char as the sip slowly fades.

For a long time, the term “action star” felt reserved for the brawniest of Hollywood’s ranks.

An action star was Dwayne Johnson, barreling bad guys through brick walls or Tom Cruise scrambling to grab hold to the outside of a plane during takeoff. It was Tom Hardy mounted on the front a beat-up car in the midst of a high-speed car chase through a waterless wasteland. It was Chris Evans topping elevator mosh pits or Ryan Reynolds “Schooping” his way through the bloodshed on a busy freeway.

Action stars were mostly men, muscled like Popeye, with few emotions and even fewer qualms about killing people.

And they still are, for the most part. The fights have gotten more inventive, the explosions bigger, the tank tops tighter, but action stars, by and large, still resemble this idealized version of masculinity we can’t seem to shake – protein-powdered, muted meatheads who let their bodies do the talking, who measure their bravado by the number of faceless villains they beat up on screen.

We’re big fans.

No really, that kind of mindless, adrenaline-fueled entertainment is awe-inspiring. It’s one of the best things film has to offer but, as with everything, variety is the spice and it’s time we livened up this boy’s club by introducing a new member.

Enter: Charlize Theron.

Now look, we’re not just worshipping at her kickass altar because she’s so good at … well, kicking ass. Theron has been quietly reshaping the action genre for years, introducing complicated heroines (and anti-heroines) that continuously challenge what we previously though an action star looked like.

A stay-at-home housewife with God-like abilities. A villainous mission-director exploring an alien planet. An evil queen, a disillusioned spy, a war captain gone rogue. Theron embodies them all, wielding her talent for easily traversing genres, infusing her fight scenes with a dogged commitment to showing that yes, women can be warriors and mercenaries and bruisers too.

She proves this best with Atomic Blonde — arguably one of the best action flicks in recent memory – playing top-level MI6 operative Lorraine Broughton. In many ways, Atomic Blonde was Theron’s John Wick entry. Her character, like the Keanu Reeves figure, suffers a terrible loss and must complete a mission in order to get revenge. But unlike Wick, motivated by personal struggles, Lorraine is never what she seems — a chameleon who changes form to survive, who uses her sexuality to extract the information she needs, who almost dispassionately views those closest to her as pawns in a larger game. She tough and cold and regularly beaten and bruised in service of something greater than herself which might paint her as a hero of sorts, but her methods for getting the job done are often colored in shades of grey.

Of course, she also unleashes hell on her enemies — a vital component when crafting a bona fire action star — so on top of creating a layered female protagonist with nuanced motivations and murky loyalties, Theron also sacrificed her body for the role, famously working with eight trainers to log in the man-hours needed to sell those epic fight sequences. Broken ribs and cracked teeth were sacrificed in the name of the film’s stylish apartment melee that saw her harness a firehose like Indiana Jones’ signature whip and that savage stairwell faceoff where she absorbed blows and paid them back in kind to two KGB agents. That scene felt viscerally real and cinematically breathtaking because Theron could take a punch, something so many male action stars still seem reticent to do. She suffered, she lagged, she bled and moaned and clawed her way to victory despite being outmatched and outgunned. It was an earned win in a dog-eat-dog fight which is why it still feels seared onto our brains years later while smoothed-out, CGI-powered battles and car chases fade to black.

That gritty, authentic approach to filming action scenes might’ve been inspired by her work on George Miller’s iconic piece of dystopian art, Mad Max: Fury Road. Shaved, dismembered, charged with committing atrocities in the name of a power-hungry tyrant, Theron certainly didn’t look the part of an action hero in Fury Road but it was her Furiosa, not Hardy’s Max, that the film revolved around. Instead of highlighting a broken man’s need for redemption, Miller focused on a hardened woman still clinging to the hope of creating a better world. She risks life and limb for that vision, selflessly sacrificing herself for others, tapping into maternal bonds one moment, expertly-wielding a sniper rifle the next.

It was Theron who influenced her signature androgynous look and who insisted on bulking up her upper body in order to contend with Hardy’s physique. She put in work, grueling work, 15-hours a day work to bring Furiosa to life, but Miller often cites her vulnerability as the driving force behind the action of the film. We wouldn’t have rig chases and War Boy parades and desert-crossing escape plans without the motivating force of Furiosa and, by extension, Theron who had to make her character’s emotional journey just as believable as her physical one.

Perhaps that’s what sets her apart from typical action figures: her undeniable ability to take what’s on the page and channel it to the screen. She can act. Like really, act, not riff against comedic sidekicks or mumble taglines behind the wheel of a souped-up speedster or silently brood after slaying a nightclub’s worth of martial-arts experts. There’s a story she’s telling through the increasingly risk-taking stunts she wants to pull off. It’s there in The Old Guard, Netflix’s latest “blockbuster,” where she helps director Gina Prince-Bythewood transform the stale comic book origins plot into something fresh and exciting — a lament about the consequences of immortality and the downsides of being a “hero.” Theron’s Andy is bitter and exhausted with the hand fate has dealt her, but she’s still willing to gamble her existence on the belief she can do some good in the world — like saving a group of kidnapped school children or mentoring a confused and angry ex-Marine. She accomplishes one of the hardest things in life — the task of finding belief once you’ve lost it. And yes, she chops down special teams with her ancient ax in the process.

Charlize Theron is a different breed of action star and the characters she’s beginning to gravitate towards have the ability to revolutionize the genre if we’ll just start paying attention.

Even in a “normal” year, this past weekend would be considered an exceptionally good weekend for new movies. In no particular order: Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, and J.K. Simmons being utterly delightful in Palm Springs; First Cow, the best movie of the year (imo); Tom Hanks in Peak Dad Mode in Greyhound; Charlize Theron as an immortal warrior in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Old Guard; and future Best Original Screenplay winner Money Plane, starring Money Plane as Money Plane. There was also an indie horror movie that didn’t receive as much attention as, say, Kelsey Grammer calling himself the “baddest mother f*cker on the planet,” which, fair, but it’s still worth a rental.

Relic follows Kay (played by Emily Mortimer, a.k.a. “I have hollow bones, like a bird” from 30 Rock), who, along with her daughter Sam (Bella Heathcote), travels from Melbourne to rural Australia to check in on her elderly mother Edna (Robyn Nevin), only to discover that she hasn’t been seen or heard from in days. The mystery isn’t whether Kay’s mother/Sam’s grandmother will come back — that’s settled quickly; the real question is where she’s been and why her body is covered in a black bruise that resembles the mold that’s spreading throughout her house. Not to get all They Came Together on you, but in Relic, it’s almost like the house is another character in the movie. It’s a gorgeous dwelling, surrounded by woods and a small shack on the grounds, but it’s also rotting from the inside with small thumps heard within walls in cluttered rooms. It’s unsettling.

Director Natalie Erika James, who developed the script with co-writer Christian White, conceived Relic from “a personal place but taken to the highest supernatural extreme.” Her grandmother “had Alzheimer’s for some time. It was definitely drawing on things that I observed in her, feelings of guilt about not seeing her more often which probably led to the shift in dynamic within the family.” That’s clear in her film, which tells an old-fashioned haunted house story while slowly revealing the fractured dynamics between the three generations of women, including Edna and Sam after she proposes to live with her grandmother, only for the family matriarch to forget about the offer and violently accuse her granddaughter of stealing from her. And that’s before we follow Edna as she travels into the woods to eat family photos and bury the remaining memories in the ground to protect them from something within the house. There’s an obvious metaphor at play in Relic (my “I see what’s happening here” moment came about midway through), but it doesn’t take away from the pervasive creepiness of the film. Especially during the tender-if-disturbing climax, which will stick with you for some time.

Not everything about the film works (it’s occasionally too slow), but that unsettling feeling, of pure dread and that around every corner of the house lies something nightmarish, is what Relic does better than any other horror movie I’ve seen so far this year. There are no cheap jump scares or murderous clowns. The tension comes from every creak of the labyrinthine house, every bump and scrap and fingernail scratches on the door, and watching a loved one suffering from dementia forget themselves and those closest to them. Relic is genuinely unnerving because it understands something many other horror movies don’t: that there’s nothing scarier than the human mind.

Relic is available via VOD now. Watch the trailer below.

Joining the long list of artists who have resorted to livestreams in order to entertain their fans in the midst of this quarantine, Angel Olsen and Hand Habits took to the Masonic Temple in Asheville, North Carolina for a livestream performance. The sets served as the second installation in Angel Olsen’s Cosmic Stream livestream series, one that she started last month as a way to raise donations for the YMCA Ashville. Bringing Hand Habits along for the latest performance, the two decided to honor Tom Petty and cover one of his classic songs.

Taking the stage together at the Masonic Temple, Olsen and Hand Habits delivered a heavenly cover of Tom Petty’s “Walls.” The track comes from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1996 album, Songs and Music from the Motion Picture ‘She’s the One’, a companion to the Edward Burns film. Supported by a calming backdrop, which set the mood for the performance, Olsen and Hand Habits beautifully delivered the song as Hand Habits’ accentuated the song with a gentle acoustic guitar.

The livestream performance comes shortly after both Olsen and Hand Habits recently shared new content with fans. Last month Olson tapped Mark Ronson for a pulsing remix of her “New Love Cassette” track while Hand Habits joined Christian Lee Hutson, Phoebe Bridgers, and Conor Oberst for Hutson’s “Get The Old Band Back Together” video.

Watch the performance in the video above.

Over the past week, a number of social media theories have surfaced centered around Britney Spears and her conservatorship. Spears was placed under conservatorship back in 2008 after having multiple public breakdowns the year before, which included her shaving her hair and attacking the paparazzi. The incidents resulted in her father requesting conservatorship in 2008, a request that was made permanent in 2009.

According to Newsweek, under Britney’s conservatorship her father Jamie Spears has the power to “negotiate business on his daughter’s behalf, sell her property, file restraining orders, handling health care and restricting some from visiting her.” Her father has admitted that his relationship with his daughter “has always been strained” as he said in an interview with US Weekly. Over the years, fans have expressed their concern for Britney, as a part of the #FreeBritney movement, under the conservatorship order and in the past weeks, concern has turned into some wild theories sparked by a few social media posts she had made.

Theories began after Britney shared a post of her happily showing off a new floral dress, but the video and its caption seemed to serve more as a worry for fans rather than entertain. “HOLY HOLY CRAP !!!!!! My florist surprised me today by making the flower arrangement all different colors,” she said in the caption. “I was so excited I threw on my favorite yellow shirt and just had to SHARE.” One fan pointed out that in the video posted prior to the floral dress video, Britney was told to “wear yellow in your next video” if she was seeking help. The floral dress she wore in the following video was indeed yellow, causing the fan to be extremely concerned.

Another fan pointed out that another Instagram post seemed to reference Arundhati Roy’s debut novel, The God Of Small Things. This Instagram post’s caption was “She wore flowers in her hair and carried magic secrets in her eyes.” The post from the fan explains the main character from the novel would get a wild look in her eyes “when the radio played ‘her music’.”

Those around Britney have refuted claims that the pop singer is in any type of danger as a result of the conservatorship. Larry Rudolph, who manages Spears, spoke to The Washington Post in May 2019 saying the order “is not a jail. It helps Britney make business decisions and manage her life in ways she can’t do on her own right now.” When Britney checked into a mental-health facility last year, she asked fans to not “believe everything you read and hear.” “Your love and dedication is amazing,” she said, “but what I need right now is a little bit of privacy to deal with all the hard things that life is throwing my way.”

As for her conservatorship, the order renewed and extended until August 22 where another hearing will take place to decide its future.

Four years after Amber Heard and Johnny Depp filed for divorce (and five years after their wedding), The Rum Diary co-stars are embroiled in a libel suit (filed by Depp) against a British tabloid, The Sun. Central to the case is an April 2018 article that labeled Depp as a “wife-beater.” For his part, Depp has strenuously denied that he ever abused Amber Heard during their relationship, although allegations to that effect were made by Heard (who submitted photos to secure a 2016 restraining order) and backed up by Depp’s former managers. No criminal charges were ever filed, and the pair settled their divorce in 2016.

Fast forward to the present (in the heat of a pandemic), and both Depp and Heard are appearing in a U.K. court for a scheduled three weeks of proceedings. The forum’s not too surprising. The libel laws are a lot stricter across the pond than in the U.S., so plaintiffs are more likely to prevail there, rather than here, since the burden of proof rests upon the defendant, which puts publications at a disadvantage. A plaintiff has a pretty good case at prevailing if “serious harm” will come from a defamatory statement. In Depp’s case, his attorneys state that he’s not in this lawsuit for the money but, instead, seeks “to clear his reputation” from potentially irreparable harm and desires “vindication.”

English law holds that libel suit defendants — in this case, The Sun‘s publisher, News Group Newspapers, and executive editor Dan Wootton — are working against the presumption that the allegation in question (that Depp guilty of domestic abuse) is false. Therefore, the defendants must prove that the allegation is true in order to prevail (which is a reversal of the U.S. standard).

Of course, coverage of the trial has reflected quite a circus. No matter how it shakes out, here are the most outlandish things (presented as evidence, although some of it doesn’t revolve around abuse) that have been revealed so far:

– The Missing Half-Billion (At Least) Dollars: This part of the story actually doesn’t source from the trial, but it’s worth mentioning here for the circus-related (not abuse-related) aspect. In a recent, bizarre Rolling Stone profile, Depp admitted to making $650 million from movies and still somehow being in debt. He’s blaming his ex-managers, although tax-payment issues and exorbitant expenditures from Depp (no doubt) contributed to the issue. He seemed proud of his spending and made the following boasts: (1) “It’s insulting to say that I spent $30,000 [per month] on wine. Because it was far more”; (2) “By the way, it was not $3 million to shoot Hunter [S. Thompson] into the f*cking sky [at his funeral]. It was $5 million.”

Whether or not Depp was serious with the above claims, who really knows? During the trial, he’s also repeatedly acknowledged his substance abuse (drug and alcohol issues) while, again, denying spousal abuse. Now, onto those other revelations.

– Those “Porky Pies”: Alas, Depp was not talking about delicious cuisine here. Instead, he was responding to medical notes from Amber Heard’s doctor, who wrote (after diagnosing her with anxiety) that Depp felt threatened by romantic acting scenes she did with James Franco and also “romanticises the entire drug culture and has no accountability for his behaviour.” In response to the court, Depp accused his ex-wife of lies: “I think she was telling porky pies with her psychiatrist.”

– The Poo In the Bed: Depp told the court that he had decided to end his marriage with Heard after much animosity but because of one overriding occurrence — finding poop in their marital bed. He alleges that Amber did the deed (she denies this claim), rather than one of her two terriers (Pistol and Boo), and a housekeeper submitted photos to the court in support of Depp’s claim. She further alleged that there was “a large pile of feces” in the bed. The housekeeper stated, “It was clear to me that this was human feces … could not have come from either of Mr. Depp’s or Ms. Heard’s two small dogs.” There are photos of the “pile” at Page Six, if you are so inclined to see for yourself.

– Alleged Animal Abuse “Jokes”: The court heard that Depp “joked” that he would put one of Heard’s dogs in the microwave. According to a former assistant for the couple and Heard’s sister, Depp also laughingly dangled one of the dogs out a moving vehicle’s window while making “howling noises.” As a lawyer for The Sun asserted, “You were smoking and you opened the window and you were angry and you were aggressive, rather like you were in that clip we saw yesterday — the monster side of your character. And you took hold of Pistol and you held her out of the window.” Depp denies that the car-dangling incident occurred.

– The Ice Cream Debacle: A photo, which was taken by Heard and submitted as evidence and can be seen here, doesn’t look fantastic. The 2014 image shows Depp sleeping (while sitting up) with his mouth hanging wide open and a container of spilled ice cream dripping all over his leg. In regards to the photo, Depp claimed that he was suffering from exhaustion (from work and while weaning off prescription medication), and he stated that Amber had allegedly goaded him over the photo: “Look at what you’ve become … look at you, it’s pathetic.”

– The “Haymaker”: Depp alleges that Heard was, in fact, the instigator and abuser in their marriage. While making the claim, he told the court that Heard had grown greatly upset about him “ruining” one of her birthday dinners. She allegedly punched him, and as Depp explained to the judge, “A haymaker is a type of a wild swing, a roundhouse punch … effective if it reaches the target.” The judge replied, “I have come across it.”

– The Honeymoon Incident: One of Heard’s diary entries (sourcing from their 2015 honeymoon) surfaced in court. While on a train in Southeast Asia, Heard alleges, the two had a “terrible” fight, in which Johnny “at one point found himself with his shirt wrapped around my neck.” Heard wrote that she woke up with a bump on her head, but that the two “fell asleep with one another smashed together in desperate, childlike anger, fear and love.” Depp’s security guard told the court that he didn’t witness the alleged fight (though he wasn’t in the cabin overnight with the pair), and that he “wouldn’t tolerate any man striking a woman.”

– Other Depp-Employee Weigh-Ins: One of Depp’s estate managers testified that Heard “was the aggressor in the relationship” and shouted at him during a violent clash that he was “washed up” and “fat.” Depp and Heard’s former hairstylist testified that Heard had falsely claimed to have appeared on James Corden’s The Late Late Show while sporting “two black eyes” in 2015. The hairstylist insisted that Heard “had been visibly uninjured throughout the day and at that moment.’”

– Depp’s Bloodied, Mangled Finger: It’s not up for debate that, in 2015, Depp visited a hospital after the tip of his finger was sliced off. At the time, Depp reportedly blamed himself for the injury, but his bodyguard told the court that Depp had told him, “She’s just cut my finger off,” and that he’d publicly backed up Depp’s initial assertion that the injury was a self-inflicted one. However, Depp now maintains that Heard had caused the injury while throwing a vodka bottle at her then-husband. In court, Depp admitted scrawling on a mirror with his bloodied finger. He apparently wrote, “I love you,” while Heard alleged that the incident occurred within a “three-day ordeal of physical assault” by her then-husband, who she claims was mixing ecstasy pills and alcohol while accusing her of sleeping with co-star Billy Bob Thornton.

This trial — which will continue for at least one more week — isn’t the first time that evidence of alleged abuse (from either side of the marriage) or photos of an apparently inebriated Depp (or a drunken Depp presenting an award) have surfaced. However, Vanessa Paradis and Winona Ryder have both provided witness statements to the court to back up Depp and state that they never witnessed abusive behavior from him during their relationships with the Pirates of the Caribbean star.

It’s also worth revisiting the below incident that surfaced years ago, both for the footage and for Depp’s response:

– The 2016 Footage: In a video posted at TMZ, Depp appears go berzerk in his kitchen, as recorded by Heard. The footage shows Depp kicking various objects and slamming cabinets before smashing a glass and emptying a wine bottle. At one point, he also says, “You want to see crazy, I’ll show you something crazy.” Then he notices the camera, a scuffle of sorts ensues, and the footage ended. At the time, Depp’s representatives claimed that the footage was “heavily edited” and “a complete setup.”

Earlier today the photo below of a smiling, thumbs-up-flashing President Trump sitting at his desk in the Oval Office with Goya products laid out in front of him was posted to his Instagram account.

The photo was an obvious response to the calls for boycotts of Goya products after the company’s CEO expressed support for Trump, saying that America is “blessed to have a leader” like Trump. Lots of people were awe-struck by the photo, many initially not even believing that it was real, like it were a Photoshop or something from The Onion. But, nope, it’s real (because of course it is), and no one may be more upset about it than CNN’s Chris Cuomo, who opened his show tonight by blasting the president for promoting a brand from the Oval Office in the middle of a pandemic that’s ravaging the nation.

“You tell me how a president in the middle of a pandemic has got time for this bullshit. Are you kidding me?! Hocking products…marketing for a brand following calls for boycotts after Goya’s CEO heaped praise on Trump last week. On your dime, in the middle of a pandemic, they’re selling beans? Are you kidding me? Seriously!”

Here’s the full segment clip below:

https://twitter.com/CuomoPrimeTime/status/1283571131065212930

After mostly staying quiet since announcing his upcoming album back in November, J. Cole returned with his controversial single “Snow On Tha Bluff” last month. It seemed like more was in store for Cole, or at least that’s what since fellow Dreamville rapper and one-half of Earthgang, Olu had suggested. “Cole album is coming. It’s in [US] Customs [And Border Protection] right now,” Olu said on Instagram Live. “Cole album gotta get through Customs ’cause you know, corona.” Sadly, Cole’s manager has stepped in to shut down those rumors.

Dreamville’s co-founder Ibrahim “Ib” Hamad took to Twitter to clarify that words of a new Cole album was nothing more than he joke. “Just to clarify, There is no Cole album coming out soon and There is no Cole interview coming up,” he wrote. “Y’all be taking these IG live jokes people make too far lol. Usually I would of let y’all rock with the rumors but people really been hitting my phone too much about this.”

The interview he mentions refer to a rumor that Cole would be the next guest on Lil Wayne’s Young Money Radio show. On the bright side, if fans are looking for more music from the Dreamville camp, Olu revealed that in a few weeks fans would be able to hear new songs from both Earthgang and his side project, Spillage Village.