With her new album The Breeze Grew A Fire coming out next month, R&B singer-songwriter Mereba shared the video for single “Phone Me.”
“This song is a sisterhood/friendship anthem dedicated to those classic bestie friendships that may have changed over the years, but are still cherished deeply,” Mereba said about the single. “The experiences we shared helped us shape our journeys and have confidence in our destinies. I just wanted a fun, joyful song celebrating my chosen sisters and brothers.”
For The Breeze Grew A Fire, Mereba said she went “back to me being on my own for the creation of a lot of the songs, and it was really important for me at this time of life because I was a little disconnected from the world, and from who I was. So I was trying to find my way back to myself first. What do I like? What do I want to hear? What do I want to say to people now?”
You can watch the video for “Phone Me” above, and check out Mereba’s tour dates below.
Mereba’s 2025 Tour Dates: Breeze Grew A Fire Tour
04/24 — Sacramento, CA @ Harlows Nightclub
04/25 — San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365 Club
04/27 — Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
04/28 — Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
05/01 — Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater
05/04 — @ Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
05/06 — Chicago, IL @ Metro
05/07 — Detroit, MI @ The Magic Stick
05/09 — Toronto, ON @ The Axis Club
05/10 — Montreal, QC @ Theatre Fairmont
05/13 — Philadelphia, PA @ TLA
05/14 — New York, NY @ Webster Hall – Grand Ballroom
05/16 — Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
05/17 — Washington, DC @ Howard Theatre
05/21 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda Theatre
The Breeze Grew A Fire is out 2/14 via Secretly Canadian. Find more information here.
New Selena Gomez music might be on the way, per an Instagram Story she posted yesterday (January 22).
The video starts with the camera on Gomez before she swings it around to reveal a home studio setup with a computer monitor (strategically covered by a heart emoji) and audio equipment. She then puts the camera back on herself and gives a happy smile.
Fiancé Benny Blanco also shared the video on TikTok, and in response to a comment that says “When ur producer is also ur husband,” Blanco wrote, “when ur wife is also selena gomez.”
Notably, this comes after Gomez has expressed over the past few months that music isn’t her top priority. In a September interview, Gomez called music “just a hobby that went out of control,” but immediately followed that by saying, “Now it is a part of who I am, so I don’t think I’m going anywhere.”
Then, when asked in November about making a new album, she said, “We’ll see, you never know.” Later that month, she said in a different interview, “Music isn’t going away. I just set it down for a second.”
Now, though, Gomez appears to at least be exploring the idea of actively making new music. Perhaps her recent engagement to super-producer Blanco has inspired her to start looking back in that direction again.
Sundance serves as a heat check for the coming year in film, debuting indies that go on to earn Oscar buzz and bigger budget projects that make their way to streaming platforms by year’s end. In other words, if you want to get a jumpstart on your moviegoing plans in 2025, Sundance is your crystal ball. And sure, you could head to snowy Park City to catch glimpses of A-listers like Ayo Edebiri, Josh O’Connor, Bowen Yang, Dev Patel, and more, or you could enjoy the magic of cinema from the comfort of your own home.
This year a slew of film premieres are being made available to the public as the fest rewards fans with online streamings of its most-promising titles. You can head here to grab your tickets, but first, here’s a round-up of films we’re especially excited for. Add them to your list and check back here for more coverage in the weeks ahead.
Atropia
Imagine if HBO’s Westworld was a satirical takedown of America’s military-industrial complex. You’d likely arrive at Atropia, both the title of first-time director Hailey Gates’ bizarre, fascinating love story and the name of the city constructed on the outskirts of L.A. that her film revolves around. In Atropia, aspiring actors play pretend war games while real-life soldiers serve as insurgents and the lines blur between reality and fiction, morality and amusement, ambition and narcissism. Alia Shawkat and Callum Turner play the two lovers trapped in this Black Mirror-esque simulation where nothing is as it seems… or smells.
Bubble & Squeak
Writer-director Evan Twohy takes what would normally make for fairly dramatic fare – a vacationing couple illegally smuggling goods across the border – and injects just the right amount of ridiculous into the proceedings to give audiences a wildly funny, surprisingly sharp rom-com. The Last Station’s Himesh Patel and Barry breakout Sarah Goldberg play the couple in question while the illicit items they’re transporting on holiday turn out to be cabbages – a garden vegetable banned by the nondescript country they’re visiting. When a gung-ho customs officer – Matt Berry putting his locutionary prowess to good use – decides to chase them down, the cracks in their marriage become chasms.
Bunnylovr
Katarina Zhu writes, directs, and stars in this searingly sensitive drama about a cam girl searching for connection in a broken, often dangerous, world. Zhu’s Rebecca has always maintained strict boundaries with her online clientele but when she reunites with her dying, estranged father, the divide between personal and professional becomes blurred. Can intimacy ever be real when it’s commodified? Rachel Sennott plays Rebecca’s no-bullshit best friend while Hit Man’s Austin Amelio plays one of Rebecca’s more questionable cam fans.
By Design
“A woman swaps bodies with a chair, and everyone likes her better as a chair.” The logline for this absurdist comedy starring Juliette Lewis should be enough of a hook, but writer-director Amanda Kramer promises to deliver more than just surface-level funny with her unforgiving examination of societal norms and how they affect our interior selves. But yes, Lewis cosplays as a chair and strikes up a relationship with the musician in whom’s apartment it (she?) sits. And yes, this whole strange experiment is narrated by Melanie Griffith. What more could you want?
Love, Brooklyn
A love letter to New York that centers on a trio of Brooklynites navigating their changing city – and how that transformation bleeds into their personal lives – Love, Brooklyn is propped up by a masterful cast that includes Andre Holland, DeWanda Wise, and Nicole Beharie. Holland plays the free-spirit of the group, constantly challenged by the women in his life – Wise (a single mother attempting to date) and Beharie (an ambitious gallery owner wanting more from their life together).
Plainclothes
Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey team up for this thrilling (at times, uncomfortably so) tale of an undercover police officer whose secret life is put in jeopardy while on assignment. Blyth’s Lucas is a young cop eager to prove himself. His chance comes when he’s tasked with luring and arresting gay men, a job that proves especially difficult when he falls for one of his marks (Tovey). A commentary on police surveillance and our inability to confront our own desires, the film plays with mediums, using lo-fi VHS footage to bring an authenticity that only heightens the tension for audiences.
Train Dreams
The success of Taylor Sheridan’s universe and Peter Berg’s American Primeval prove that streaming audiences are clamoring for more historical fiction that reexamines the myth of the American West. Train Dreams does that – thrusting us back to the turn of the 20th century as Joel Edgerton plays Grainier, a day laborer helping to build a cross country railroad. But director Clint Bentley turns things introspective, using Grainier’s vantage on the cusp of making history to question our brief existence and how lasting of an impact one person can truly make.
Twinless
Writer-director-actor James Sweeney crafts a bittersweet comedy centering on two grieving men seeking comfort in the strangest of places. Sweeney and co-star Dylan O’Brien play men who meet at a twin bereavement group and embark on a co-dependent friendship that pushes both to some uncomfortably funny places.
World Premieres
Lurker
Saltburn breakout Archie Madekwe plays an on-the-rise pop star who befriends a retail worker (Théodore Pellerin) while escaping a rabid horde of fans. Their unexpected friendship pushes Pellerin’s character to some dark places as he fights to keep his spot within a celebrity’s entourage. What would you do to stay fame-adjacent?
Opus
Ayo Edebiri plays an unsuspecting journalist invited to cover the decades-in-the-making return of an eccentric pop star in this darkly comedic thriller that grows more disturbing with every minute. John Malkovich plays Moretti, a musical icon who disappeared from the public eye only to launch a comeback 30 years later. How? By inviting his cultish fans and industry friends to convene at his desert compound for a listening party from hell.
Rabbit Trap
Welsh folklore. Haunting children. ’70s era mysticism. This horror movie from Bryn Chainey has a bit of everything, all made better by the talents of Dev Patel as a withdrawn husband and Rosy McEwen as an avant-garde musician searching for inspiration in the wilderness. The usual nightmarish hijinks ensue when the couple stirs up ancient spirits with an axe to grind but hey, good art requires sacrifice, right?
Rebuilding
An (unfortunately) timely portrait of loss, grief, and the heartwrenching exercise of rebuilding amongst the ruins, Max Walker-Silverman’s drama sees Josh O’Connor playing a rancher tasked with helping his family heal after a devastating fire wipes out their way of life. Meghann Fahy and True Detective’s Kali Reis join the Challengers star to give this Americana-set tragedy a more grounded feel.
The Wedding Banquet
First, Andrew Ahn took us to Fire Island for a modern-day rom-com that gave Pride and Prejudice a Queer makeover. Now, he’s tackling another rite of passage, trading summer romance for wedding bells with a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 comedy. Bowen Yang plays a man in need of a green card, and Kelly Marie Tran is his best friend willing to guarantee his citizenship by way of marriage. But things get complicated when his grandmother decides to throw a traditional, completely over-the-top ceremony that makes everyone – especially Yang’s long-term boyfriend – uncomfortable.
Tamino had the privilege of opening for Mitski on her tour, and now they’ve gone ahead and hopped on a song together: Today (January 23), they share a new duet, “Sanctuary.”
Tamino explains in a statement:
“Two weeks before our scheduled studio session, I had doubts about whether the current song was suitable enough for a duet. I teamed up with my friend Alessandro Buccellati (SZA, Arlo Parks) at my place in New York City, where, in the wake of my doubts, we wrote the music of ‘Sanctuary’ in a few hours. The next morning I wrote the lyrics, recorded a small demo, and sent it to Mitski, who loved it and, like me, preferred it to the other song. I asked her if she thought changes in the lyrics were necessary, but she liked it as it was. Two weeks later she came to the studio, where she wrote beautiful harmonies and recorded her part in half a day.”
The song comes from Tamino’s upcoming album, Every Dawn’s A Mountain, which is set for release on March 21. Per a press release, the project “is about loss, displacement, breaking up and letting go of the past.” Tamino also notes that despite “Sanctuary” being “a bit of an outlier,” he “can’t imagine this record without it.”
Listen to “Sanctuary” above, and find the Every Dawn’s A Mountain cover art and tracklist below.
Tamino’s Every Dawn’s A Mountain Album Cover Artwork
Each week our staff of film and television experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
Stephanie Hsu, who really should have won the Oscar over her Everything Everywhere All at Once co-star, is joined by Zosia Mamet in the new series Laid. The “f*cked up rom-com” is about a woman who finds out that her former lovers are dying in unusual ways, and must go back through her “sex timeline” to figure out what the heck is going on.
Netflix’s most-watched show ever is back. Squid Game season 2 sees the return of Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), a.k.a. Player 456, who has only one goal: to end the horrifying competition for good. This time, Gi-hun finds himself “locked in a tense battle” with the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), as well as trying to survive against the other competitors. Squid Game is the rare water-cooler show in the “death of the monoculture” era. Keep up if you want to know what your co-workers are talking about.
Written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters), Asura is a family drama set in 1979 about about four sisters — Tsunako (Rie Miyazawa), Makiko (Machiko Ono), Takiko (Yu Aoi), and Sakiko (Suzu Hirose) — who discover that their dad is having an affair. It’s being called 2025’s “first great new TV show.”
Noah Wyle? As a doctor? It’s crazy enough to work. This time, the ER star works in a hospital in Pittsburgh, and the show is “a realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes.” The entire 15-episode first season takes place over the course of one 15-hour emergency room shift, not unlike 24.
For a while there, Taylor Kitsch was everywhere. He went from playing hunk with a heart of gold Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights to starring in two big-budget films, John Carter and Battleship, as well as a prominent role in Oliver Stone’s Savages, all released in 2012. But when all three films underperformed and/or were met with scorn from critics (justice for John Carter!), Kitsch stopped being The Next Best Thing. But now he’s back with his biggest part in years: American Primeval, a gritty, gloomy limited series set in the American frontier during the 1800s. The cast also includes the great Betty Gilpin, Kim Coates, and character actor favorite Shea Whigham.
Now in its fifth season, Harley Quinn shakes things up by moving the action from Gotham to Metropolis, which means the introductions of characters like Lena Luthor, Brainiac, and Red X. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the excellent voice cast, including Kaley Cuoco as Harley Quinn, Lake Bell as Poison Ivy, Alan Tudyk as Joker and Clayface, Ron Funches as King Shark, J.B. Smoove as Frank, and James Adomian as scene stealer Bane.
Sebastian Stan received career-best reviews for his performance in A Different Man, in which he plays Edward, an inspiring actor who undergoes a radical medical procedure to transform his appearance. But his dream turns into a nightmare when he loses out on the role he was born to play to the uber-confident Oswald (Adam Pearson), who has the same genetic condition he once had. A Different Man is a surreal, thought provoking, and inventive film.
A Real Pain — which appeared on numerous Best Movies of 2024 lists — finds cousins David (played by Jesse Eisenberg) and Benji (Golden Globes winner Kieran Culkin) reuniting for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. But the journey takes a turn when old tensions resurface.
After a long, long break, one of the best shows on TV is back. Severance picks up where season 1 left off, with Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Helly Riggs), Dylan (Dylan), and Irving (Irving Bailiff) trifling with the severance barrier, “leading them further down a path of woe,” according to the cryptic Apple TV Plus synopsis. There are so many mysteries left to answer: what’s the deal with Ms. Casey (Dichen Lachman)? What’s the deal with Seth Milchick (series MVP Tramell Tillman)? And seriously, what’s the deal with the freaking goats?
Sleep is one of the final film appearances from South Korean actor Lee Sun-kyun, who rose to international fame for his performance in Parasite. In this horror-thriller, he plays Hyeon-soo, who recently got married to Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi). One night, she discovers that her husband is sleepwalking, and potentially posing a violent threat to himself — and their newborn baby.
Created by Girls Trip writer Tracy Oliver, Harlem follows four friends, Camille (played by Meagan Good), Tye (Jerrie Johnson), Quinn (Grace Byers), and Angie (Shoniqua Shandai), on the “precipice of change like never before,” according to Prime. “Whether it be motherhood, singlehood, sisterhood, complicated career journeys, or even more complicated families, our stylish and ambitious best girlfriends strive to choose themselves above all else.”
Best Animated Feature at the 2025 Oscars is unusually stacked. Inside Out 2 is the frontrunner considering how much money it made, but honestly, it’s probably the weakest of the nominees. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is a delight, obviously, while the beautiful and heartbreaking Flow is my personal favorite. But don’t sleep on The Wild Robot, a charming critical and commercial hit from Lilo & Stitch co-director Chris Sanders about a robot learning to adapt to their surroundings in the great outdoors. It’s very good.
Gladiator II wasn’t a Best Picture-winning smash hit like 2000’s Gladiator, but it has its moments. And by moments, I mean Denzel Washington vamping it up, Paul Mescal in a lil’ gladiator outfit, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger’s insane and sickly-looking emperors, and the shark battle in the Colosseum. Even a mid-tier Ridley Scott movie is better than most movies.
Fresh off his performance as f*ckboy Jack in The White Lotus, Leo Woodall stars in Apple TV+’s Prime Target. Created by Sherlock and Doctor Who writer Steve Thompson, the thriller follows Edward Brook, a brilliant young mathematician who teams up with a government agent to unravel a troubling conspiracy. Here’s one mystery we’ll never get an answer to: why isn’t Prime Target on Prime Video?
The Night Agent season 1 premiered in 2023 and quickly became one of Netflix’s biggest shows ever. Now it’s back for season 2, which picks up with Peter Sutherland (played by Gabriel Basso) as a certified Night Agent. Per Netflix: “But working in the secretive organization [will] propel Peter into a world where danger is everywhere and trust is in short supply.” You can check out the exciting trailer here.
Sports documentaries have become big business for streaming services, particularly Netflix, as the streaming giant has found a winning formula with its follow-doc structure. After the success of Drive to Survive, which took American fandom in Formula 1 to entirely new levels, they’ve applied that formula to the NFL, NBA, PGA Tour, and others.
Their next sports documentary will hit the streamer on February 18, when “Court of Gold” releases, following the men’s basketball teams from the USA, Serbia, Canada, and France through the 2024 Olympics in Paris. On Thursday, Netflix released the first trailer for the doc, which features interviews with a number of stars and sets up the general tension of last year’s Olympic men’s basketball tournament: Can someone finally dethrone the United States? Two teams, Serbia and France, came perilously close to beating the Americans, but Kevin Durant’s question from the trailer became prescient.
For all the talk about how other countries had more chemistry and a structure they all knew how to play in, the talent pool still matters, and as KD says, “is that chemistry gonna help you when you gotta guard Steph?” Curry’s heroics in both the semis against Serbia and the final against France made that quote from KD an easy inclusion in the trailer. While the Americans came out on top once again, the behind the scenes look at all of these teams should be fascinating, particularly the locker room footage from games.
Last May, adidas announced they were bringing in Candace Parker as the new president of their women’s basketball division. Parker had long been an adidas athlete and was once one of the few WNBA stars with her own signature sneaker, and her addition as president signaled a refresh with the brand.
With Parker leading the way, they figured to be in the mix for top stars and showed their investment in the women’s game. Heading into the 2025 WNBA season, they were looking for more stars to add to their roster, and on Thursday announced the addition of two-time All-Star Satou Sabally to their roster.
“Joining the adidas Basketball family is a dream come true,” said Satou Sabally. “adidas is dedicated to innovation, creativity, and championing women’s sports. I can’t wait to inspire the next generation and continue moving the game forward with the support of my adidas family.”
“Satou was a priority addition to the adidas Basketball family, and we couldn’t be more excited to have her joining,” said Candace Parker, President of adidas Women’s Basketball. “Her versatility and commitment to making an impact made her a no brainer for the adidas roster. Satou is a unicorn on and off the court and we’re thrilled for her to help in building the future of adidas Basketball.”
Sabally is headed into a big offseason, as she indicated she would not be returning to the Dallas Wings next season, sparking plenty of speculation about her future as free agency approaches, even as the Wings gave her a Core designation (which likely will facilitate a sign-and-trade). Wherever she ends up, she’ll be rocking the three stripes as their newest star, joining the likes of Chelsea Gray, Aliyah Boston, Nneka Ogwumike, Aaliyah Edwards, Kahleah Copper, and others.
One of the biggest off-court stories of the 2024-25 NBA season is the upcoming change in what networks will broadcast games, as this is the final year of the NBA on TNT before Amazon and NBC join ESPN as the league’s national broadcast partners.
Initially, it looked like that would mean an end to Inside the NBA. However, after spending two decades trying in vain to replicate the success of their competitor, ESPN, TNT Sports, and the NBA agreed to a deal that will keep the show on the air, with ESPN licensing the show from TNT, who will continue to produce it from Atlanta. That brought a sigh of relief to many fans, but it quickly became apparent that the announcement had been made before every loose end was tied off.
Charles Barkley continued to muse about leaving for NBC or Amazon, noting ESPN and TNT haven’t given him a schedule yet and he’s not about to end up like other ESPN analysts working constantly. From there, Shaquille O’Neal didn’t have a new deal after this season and was reportedly not happy they announced the show would continue before signing him up long-term. On Thursday, word broke from CNBC’s Alex Sherman that Shaq and Kenny Smith’s situations had, at the least, been resolved, as they were both inking multi-year extensions with TNT Sports.
But, rest assured NBA fans, O’Neal and Smith are coming back. Both are on the verge of re-signing with TNT Sports, CNBC has learned. O’Neal will sign a five-year contract. Smith will ink a multiyear deal, as well. A Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson declined to comment.
Sherman notes that both Shaq and Smith spoke with NBC and Amazon, but ultimately came back home to TNT Sports. With those two back, it would seem to signal the show will indeed go on as planned with ESPN — one would think those two wouldn’t re-sign without at least something approaching a firm plan for their schedule in place. Barkley is forever the wild card, but I also think he just wanted to enjoy the idea of free agency — Chuck knows rule number one is never turn down a free dinner — and had that taken away from him a bit, so he made sure to still get that in his own way.
We’ll find out for certain soon, but Amazon seems to be moving in a much younger direction with their studio show, currently featuring Taylor Rooks, Dirk Nowitzki, and Blake Griffin. As for NBC, Sherman notes they’ll be headed more in a “news magazine” style approach, which will be interesting to see how that comes together, but if the goal is less banter, as Sherman says, I can’t imagine them being serious threats to steal Barkley away. All signs point to Inside continuing as planned on ESPN, with the new networks bringing some fresh talent into the studio show game, all of which should be very good for the NBA.
On Instagram, in response to the song enjoying another week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Mars wrote, “THANK YOU ALL! I’m headed to the studio right now to make a strip club anthem so I can celebrate and properly act up this weekend. Someone please help me get in touch with Sexyy Red!!”
It soon became clear, though, that he was probably already in touch with Sexyy: The next day, he shared a photo of himself and Sexyy, set to a snippet of a new song. “Found Her,” Mars wrote.
Some have reported that the song is set to arrive tomorrow (January 24) and that it’s called “Fat, Juicy, & Wet,” although neither artist has directly confirmed either of those two points. The title makes sense, though, given that Sexyy shared Mars’ post on her Instagram Story and added the hashtag #FJW. “Fat, Juicy, & Wet” also seems like an appropriate title for the “strip club anthem” that Mars envisioned.
Mars, meanwhile, has the 2025 Grammys to look forward to, as “Die For A Smile” is nominated for Song Of The Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
Congratulations to all the nominees at the 2025 Oscars. Now, let’s talk about who got snubbed. It’s a crime that Denis Villeneuve wasn’t nominated for Best Director for Dune and Dune: Part Two, and The Substance star Margaret Qualley was left out of Best Supporting Actress for some inexplicable reason? But arguably the biggest snub was Challengers for Best Original Score.
“Challengers had two elements that were very powerful in terms of sound,” director Luca Guadagnino told Variety about his sexy tennis drama. “One was the erotic crunchy pulse of tennis. The racket swinging, the ball hitting, bones crushing. And on the other hand, the pulse and energy of the score.”
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross brought the energy for the techno-driven score, and then some, so no one can make sense of why they weren’t nominated.
“challengers original score snub cancel the oscars,” one person on X wrote. Another added, “No CHALLENGERS in original score… I feared days like this would come.” Simply put: “No CHALLENGERS for original score, for shame.”
Challengers Not Getting Nominated For Best Original Score: Reactions
Sorry there’s been a mistake, challengers you guys won best score. This is not a joke they read the wrong thing. Challengers. Best score. (via)
challengers not getting an oscar nomination for best original score… they just pissed me off (via)
the academy either didn’t watch challengers or had the sound OFF (via)
No best original score Oscar nomination for CHALLENGERS’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is ridiculous (via)
It’s a sad day for Challengers nation.
You can check out the full list of nominees for the 2025 Oscars here.
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