Category: Trending

In the music video for Robert Glasper‘s “This Changes Everything” from his Grammy-nominated album F*ck Yo Feelings, the accomplished producer goes for a stripped-down treatment, putting on an electric live performance in LA’s Leimert Park with guest rapper Denzel Curry. Beginning with Curry rapping from a mic stand and evolving into an all-out jam session, the video reflects the fluctuating energy of the original track and shows off the virtuoso skills of all parties involved.

In addition to being nominated for Urban Contemporary Album for F*ck Yo Feelings, Glasper also received a Grammy nod for “Better Than I Imagined” featuring H.E.R. and Meshell Ndegeocello in the Best R&B Song category. Meanwhile, 2020 saw the master pianist also join the jazz/hip-hop revival quartet Dinner Party along with saxophonist Kamasi Washington, multi-instrumentalist Terrace Martin, and DJ-producer 9th Wonder. Their single with Cordae and Snoop Dogg, “Freeze Tag,” was among Uproxx’s Best Songs of 2020.

As for Denzel Curry, the 25-year-old rapper announced his plans to retire after making three more albums — and threatening that they would be “bad” because of fans’ reactions to his previous music. However, it might prove to be more difficult for him than just saying it as tracks like “Live From The Abyss” and “Lil Scammer That Could” with Guapdad 4000 show just how good he can be.

Watch the live performance above.

Apple unveiled the new AirPods Max today, and like most things Apple, everything sounds and looks great on paper. It’s the company’s first foray into over-the-ear headphones, and here’s the official description that’s sure to captivate audiophiles and music lovers looking to get the most out of their playlists. From Apple:

AirPods Max combine a custom acoustic design, H1 chips, and advanced software to power computational audio for a breakthrough listening experience with Adaptive EQ, Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency mode, and spatial audio. AirPods Max come in five gorgeous colors, including space gray, silver, sky blue, green, and pink, and are available to order starting today, with availability beginning Tuesday, December 15.

While all of that sounds well and good, things go sideways when you get to the $549 price point. While Apple products have always skewed to the more expensive side compared to its competitors, people on Twitter couldn’t help but note the juxtaposition of a billion-dollar company selling headphones for over half of a grand in the middle of a pandemic that’s caused widespread unemployment and financial struggles. It’s not exactly the best look, and the reactions were brutal.

Of course, the Apple’s announcement might actually be good news for competitors who might be enjoying the negative reactions.

And then, of course, there were the jokes about how Apple seems to have forgotten the “pod” part in AirPods Max, and people went to town clowning on the increasing size of the once tiny product.

This week in pop music saw a handful of musicians ringing in the holiday season. Ariana Grande joined Mariah Carey and Jennifer Hudson for a jolly tune, Shawn Mendes dropped his anticipated album Wonder, and Finneas offered a reflective Christmas ballad.

Each week, Uproxx rounds up the best new pop music. Listen up.

Mariah Carey — “Oh Santa!” Feat. Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson

Mariah Carey is unequivocally the Queen of Christmas, so of course she had to celebrate this year’s holiday season in style. Carey tapped fellow vocal powerhouses Ariana Grande and Jennifer Hudson for the fun and festive single “Oh Santa!” where the three harmonize about wishing to spend the holidays with the one they love.

Shawn Mendes — “Call My Friends”

Shawn Mendes’ album Wonder dropped this week and in it, he sings of fame and falling in love with Camila Cabello. His track “Call My Friends” takes a brief detour from heavier themes, instead opting to sing of letting off steam with his best buddies.

Finneas — “Another Year”

Finneas was another pop artist who is getting into the festive mood, but his is far less jolly. About the slow piano ballad, Finneas said in a statement that he actually penned the song last December. “I wrote this song last Christmas, with a year of uncertainty ahead of us, had I known, anything I know now about how 2020 would go, I don’t think I would have changed a word,” he said.

Rina Sawayama — “We Out Here”

Following the massive success of her album Sawayama, Rina Sawayama decided to grace fans with a deluxe version of the record. Released this week, her deluxe project features the bonus track “We Out Here,” a fun and dancefloor-ready tune perfect for getting in the mood for a night out.

Claud — “Soft Spot”

Gearing up for their debut album Super Monster, Claud shared “Soft Spot” this week. Over a warm-toned guitar, Claud sings of dealing with the emotions behind unrequited love. “I have a soft spot for lots of people, places, and things,” they said about the single. “This song is about knowing I can’t be with this one specific person, but my feelings won’t go away… I still hope I run into them, or they randomly text me about something. It’s just me romanticizing what I can’t have and being like ‘but what if…’”

Yuna — “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching”

Following her defiant 2019 album Rouge, Yuna has offered a handful of one-off singles in 2020. Returning once again, she released the slow-burning number “Dance Like Nobody’s Watching.” The song starts slow, building onto an atmospheric background until hip-shaking beat drops break the building anticipation.

100 Gecs — “Sympathy 4 The Grinch”

100 Gecs is back this week, and they’re here to say “bah humbug” with their latest single “Sympathy 4 The Grinch.” Over a heavily layered beat, 100 Gecs sing of being scorned by Santa. “Wanted some speakers, Xbox, and t-shirts / I’ve been good like every single day / Looked under my tree, my box was empty,” they sing.

Cheat Codes — “Do It All Again” Feat. Marc. E Bassy

Cheat Codes have released a number of uplifting singles this year but for their latest, the trio tap Marc. E Bassy for a fluttering tune about wishing to re-live their past. “Doesn’t everyone wish we could redo normal life all over again,” Cheat Codes said in a statement about the song.

Wens — “Love Blind”

Wens may have released her debut EP this year, but she’s showing no signs of slowing down. Releasing “Love Blind” this year, Wens takes on a lovelorn ballad. “Falling in love for the first time is completely terrifying, its all consuming and the most beautiful thing until it isn’t,” she said. Wens continued: “I was trying so hard to bring us back to life but my harsh reality was that it’s nearly impossible to repair something that is past the point of being fixed.”

Bailey Bryan — “Fresh Start”

Returning with her fourth single of the year, Bailey Bryan is ready for a “Fresh Start.” “You can grow into a new mindset every single day if you want to,” she said about the single. “This project is just me owning that, and revealing it in my own way, each song representing a moment that triggered that sort of growth.”

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

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner won’t be welcomed by New York City at large following January’s inauguration of Joe Biden, and it really seems like — from the look of Ivanka’s tweets — that she’s feeling rootless. In the process, she’s been tossing out a bunch of (attempted) feel-good, off-topic tweets (relative to the Trump “Elite Strike Force” challenging the election) that land like she’s obviously aiming for distraction. This includes the Mount Rushmore photo of her dad that’s still being dragged, along with her bizarre celebrations about greenhouse gases and the stock market.

These bright-and-sunny tweets land alongside what CNN’s calling her more “combative” side that’s recently emerged, like when she’s lashing out at a “vindictive” lawsuit having to do with inaugural funds going to Trump properties. Then there’s the really random entries, like Ivanka’s ode to a flower: “The Rose, our National flower, is held dear as the symbol of love and devotion, of beauty and eternity.”

Also, Ivanka’s now on an astrology kick? “On December 21st, the winter solstice, Jupiter and Saturn will be at their closest visible alignment,” she seriously tweeted. “[J]ust a 10th of a degree apart, since the Middle Ages in 1226.”

It’s really something. Plenty of people do pay attention to astrology, of course, but Ivanka’s sudden embrace of the topic has invited some “Uranus” jokes. People are wondering whether Ivanka has any idea what she’s talking about, or if she simply stumbled upon some literal trivia and decided to roll with it.

Of course, people are also adding their own forecasts into the fold: “On January 20th, the planets will align again, doing away with the last 4 years of being in the Middle Ages.” That’s gotta sting.

Wait, is this a rebranding effort? Sit down, Nancy Reagan. Ivanka Trump might be preparing to one-up your ghost with her own psychic hotline.

“It’s like The Beatles were here,” Ellen DeGeneres said of the K-pop boy band BTS’ 2017 arrival at LAX ahead of their first-ever US tour. She may not have realized it at the time, but DeGeneres’ comparison was incredibly apt. This year, BTS became the first band since The Beatles to have three Billboard No. 1 albums in just one year and they even received a kind co-sign by Paul McCartney himself. Tickets to their first North American shows sold out within minutes, mirroring the Beatlemania seen in 1964. But BTS’ Beatles-like following is part of a larger phenomenon that has been overshadowed by the pandemic’s disruption of the music industry: 2020 was the year international artists took the center stage in American pop music.

K-pop groups and Latinx Reggaeton artists alike commanded charts, album sales, and broke impressive streaming records this year. Earning over 38 billion streams in 2020 alone, people listened to Latin music more than any other genre. Of the 38 billion, Bad Bunny was the most-streamed artist globally and J Balvin was close behind in third place. K-pop groups like BTS and Blackpink also scored big in 2020. BTS became the first South Korean act to both hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and receive a Platinum certification in the US.

Seeing as the American music industry has been historically dominated by English language music, this is a big deal. But how did these artists manage to break into the mainstream and what about 2020 caused a shift to prioritize non-English language voices?

In K-pop music especially, the success of groups like BTS and Blackpink did not happen by accident. Rather, it happened through intentional investment. K-pop’s global roots can be traced way back to South Korean’s economic downturn of the late 1990s. As outlined in the 1999 Basic Law for Promoting Cultural Industries, at least one percent of the country’s annual budget is diverted to promote South Korea’s cultural industries like music in order to increase their influence on the world stage. The music itself reflected this global approach, with many groups opting to translate their albums into Japanese or Mandarin to reach larger audiences.

The government’s major investment, coupled with K-pop’s fashion, feel-good lyrics, high-production videos, and expert choreography, jolted the genre’s worldwide reach. Between 2005 and 2016, the Korean music industry was ranked 29th globally by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). In 2016, it was in 8th. Things moved quickly from there: Just a year later, BTS embarked on their first-ever US tour, selling out stadiums and making their US television debut at the American Music Awards. Then in 2018, Blackpink became the first K-pop girl group to perform at a US festival when they took the Coachella stage ahead of Beyonce. Finally, BTS were invited to perform with Lil Nas X at this year’s Grammys, a definitive marker of their mainstream success.

While K-pop music saw a big push by the South Korea’s music industry, the same cannot be said about Reggaeton music. In fact, many award ceremonies didn’t credit the achievements of Reggaeton artists until this year. When the Recording Academy unveiled their nominations for the 2019 Latin Grammy awards, there was one thing immediately apparent: Reggaeton artists had been snubbed across the board. Ozuna’s Aura was the top-selling Latin album of the year but did not garner a nomination. Despite winning a Latin Grammy for Best New Artist in 2018, Karol G’s name was also missing from the nomination list. The lack of recognition for Reggaeton sparked the viral movement #SinReggaetonNoHayGrammy, which boycotted the awards for failing to nominate Reggaeton in any of the major categories.

The Recording Academy saw Reggaeton artists’ frustrations, and they listened. “We hear the frustration and discontent. We invite the leaders of the urban community to get involved with the Academy, to get involved with the process, and to get involved with discussions that improve the Academy,” they responded. Fast-forwarding to 2020, the Latin Grammys nominated J Balvin and Bad Bunny for a number of major categories including Record Of The Year and Album Of The Year. Furthermore, this year’s American Music Awards also took note of the importance of Reggaeton music. The AMAs expanded their categories to include awards for Favorite Latin Male/Female Artist, Favorite Latin Album, and Favorite Latin Song.

Along with advocating for change in institutions, Reggaeton artists are becoming a different type of innovative role model within music. Bad Bunny and J Balvin have used their platform in 2020 to challenge toxic hyper-masculine stereotypes and become progressive voices for a younger and increasingly diverse generation. “[Bad Bunny’s] discourse and look both defy gender mandates and stereotypes,” noted José Forteza, a senior editor at Condé Nast Mexico and Latin America. “He breaks the sort of accomplice masculinity codes that have hurt women’s rights and discriminated against men whose trajectories have not adjusted to a macho identity.” Bad Bunny can be seen provoking these norms both through his “Yo Perreo Sola” video and his acceptance speech at this year’s Billboard Music Awards, where he advocated for the respect of women’s bodily autonomy.

Like Bad Bunny and J Balvin, BTS has also advocated for social justice this year. Those who weren’t aware of K-pop’s influence were suddenly confronted by swarms of stans this June. Along with helping BTS raise $1 million to donate to Black Lives Matter, K-pop fans flooded the #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag to drown out racist posts on Twitter and Instagram. Fans also mobilized to protect protesters when they successfully crashed the Dallas Police Department’s eyewitness app by continuously uploading fancam videos.

While BTS’ influence was seen through their fans’ online activism this summer, their true success can be tracked through impressive charting numbers and viral successes. This year, Blackpink and BTS smashed YouTube’s video premiere records. BTS’ “Dynamite” video debuted on the site with 101.1 million views in just 24 hours. But they weren’t the first K-pop acts to gain viral success on YouTube. Sun Lee, the head of music partnerships for YouTube Korea noted that “it might have been impossible for K-pop to have worldwide popularity without YouTube’s global platform.” This is proven by Psy’s viral 2012 “Gangnam Style” visual, which became the first video on YouTube’s platform to reach 1 billion views. Nearly a decade later, it’s commonplace for K-pop groups to rack up over a billion views, like Blackpink’s “Ddu-Du Ddu-du” and “Kill This Love” videos have done this year.

K-pop may have dominated charts thanks to two decades of government investment, but Latin artists’ 2020 success can be measured by something truly American: capitalism. This year, huge brands signed major partnership deals with Latin artists. Bad Bunny is featured in a massive promotional campaign for Cheetos. He also collaborated with Crocs for his own line of glow-in-the-dark kicks, meaning the divisive shoe can now be seen as stylish (another 2020 event that no one saw coming). J Balvin also recently unveiled a shoe collaboration, announcing his Nike design for his colorful Air Jordans. But Balvin’s biggest deal of the year was undoubtedly his multi-million dollar McDonald’s partnership, which came with a line of exclusive merch and acted as an indication of Reggaeton’s reach. “We’ll just keep reaching more globally than before, and we want to keep showing the planet that this movement is here to stay,” J Balvin told Uproxx about his music genre’s influence in connection to his McDonald’s partnership. “And that’s what we’ve been doing. Keep working and keep elevating the culture and connecting with the world and definitely with the United States, too.”

From major brand deals to racking up billions of views, Reggaeton and K-pop artists alike have stepped into pop’s limelight. And if there’s any positive music trends to come out of 2020, it’s that international artists like BTS, Blackpink, Bad Bunny, and J Balvin are finally getting the recognition they deserve in the American mainstream.

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

On December 8, 1980, John Lennon died after being shot in New York City. That was exactly 40 years ago today, and to mark the somber occasion, Lennon’s surviving Beatles bandmates, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, shared some heartfelt messages.

Sharing a photo of himself and Lennon, McCartney wrote, “A sad sad day but remembering my friend John with the great joy he brought to the world. I will always be proud and happy to have known and worked with this incredible Scouser! X love Paul.” Starr’s message called for radio stations to play a song today in Lennon’s honor, saying, “Tuesday, 8 December 1980 we all had to say goodbye to John peace and love John. I’m asking Every music radio station in the world sometime today play Strawberry Fields Forever. Peace and love. ”

Lennon’s children, Julian Lennon and Sean Ono Lennon, also shared some posts about their father. Julian shared a photo of Lennon and captioned it, “As Time Goes By….,” while Sean shared a childhood photo of himself with his father, mother, and Julian.

Lennon found his way back into the news earlier this year when Gal Gadot and a host of other celebrities decided to cover “Imagine,” an endeavor that was not exactly beloved.

The Queen’s Gambit was an unexpected hit for Netflix with over “55 million households” watching the chess drama in its first four weeks of release. There likely won’t be a second season, nor should there be, but star Anya Taylor-Joy and co-creator Scott Frank are already working on their next project together: an adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s 1932 novel, Laughter in the Dark. (“Laughter in the dark” also describes me every time Benny was on screen.)

While appearing on The Ringer‘s The Watch podcast, Frank said, “It’s a great book and it’s going to be a valentine to movies, I’m going to do it as a film noir. The book is more about art and paintings, but I’m going to make it more of a movie within a movie. It’s a really nasty, wonderful, little thriller.” Laughter in the Dark is about a middle-aged married art critic who becomes enamored with a 17-year-old girl, presumably played by Taylor-Joy; it’s a theme Nabokov would revisit decades later with his best-known work, Lolita.

Frank has twice been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay (Out of Sight and Logan), while Taylor-Joy deserved an Oscar nominated for her performance in The Witch, and might get one for Emma. Even a big, dumb chess idiot can say that this is an exciting pairing… as long as, again, they don’t make more The Queen’s Gambit. It’s good as is!

(Via IndieWire)

Miley Cyrus headlined last night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and part of her time on the program was spent with a superfan named Paul Fino, who came away from the experience with some odd gifts.

Cyrus told Fino, “I hope you haven’t lived your life by doing everything that I do. It’s very controversial, some of those activities.” The two then faced off in a trivia game about Cyrus, in which neither of them performed all that well. Cyrus pulled out the win, though, but it was Fino who came away with the prize. Seemingly grabbing random items from around her home, Cyrus promised Fino a gift package that includes a used razor, a hairbrush, and a knife.

Elsewhere during the show, Cyrus sat down with Kimmel for an interview and revealed where her current mullet-inspired hairstyle came from, saying, “[My mother] said, ‘Well, I can cut your hair, but I only know how to do one hairstyle, and I’ve been doing this since 1992 for your dad and for your brothers,’ and all my mom can do is the mullet, so I had one option and I needed it.”

She also performed “Prisoner,” so watch clips from Cyrus’ appearance on Kimmel above and below.

It wasn’t easy to make a list of the best movies of 2020. It wasn’t easy for a lot of reasons. Start with the big one: Movie theaters have been pretty much closed since March, which made seeing them — and even releasing them — a struggle. A bunch of blockbusters have been bumped to next year. A fair amount of the most exciting Oscar contenders are not available to the vast majority of viewers yet, including the vast majority of our writers. Coming to a consensus was going to be hard. Ranking them in any order was going to be impossible.

So, we didn’t do that second thing. No rankings this year. What we did instead was try to create as inclusive a list as possible, with a wide selection of movies that people felt were important this year. It’s a pretty good list, which feels like a decent accomplishment considering only one film landed on all of our submissions. That will probably change as more of us have a chance to see more of the year’s movies, probably next year, but for now, it’s the best we’ve got.

Oh, and the one film on every list? It was the one about the guy who woke up every morning living the same day, again and again, seeing the same people and buildings and walls, just grinding through over and over and over in search of a way to break free. Art imitates life sometimes, and sometimes life imitates art.

Palm Springs

A lot of attempts at a Groundhog Day-type plot exist, but none of them are as absolutely charming as this Andy Samberg picture. It’s breezy and refreshing and also maneuvers through those obligatory existential twists in a way that doesn’t feel obligatory. And let’s face it — a lot of us wouldn’t mind (especially in 2020) being stuck in a time loop while attending a destination wedding right about now. That seems pretty relaxing. All one really needs to achieve a zen-like mindset in the loop is liquor and entertainment and the freedom to act as stupidly as possible without consequence because (you guessed it) everything gets erased anyway, right? Nothing matters, until it does, and that’s when the romance part of the story kicks in, and Sarah (Christina Milioti) ends up tearing Nyles’ blissful little mindset apart.

A romantic comedy that prioritizes comedy and then sneaks up on you with the romance? Give me all of it. And look, there’s nothing like the original Bill Murray flick, but Punxsutawney never had dinosaurs or a goat or a vengeful J.K. Simmons. — Kimberly Ricci

Minari

Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari strikes a special chord in these United States as immigrants have been weaponized by the current presidential administration. So it’s almost impossible not to think of that rhetoric while watching Minari, as we get an intimate look at a Korean family who (after some time in California working a job they hate) settle in rural Arkansas in the 1980s to make on their own growing crops on some somewhat sketchy farmland. What this movie does best is it invokes a sense of how brave anyone has to be to embark on a journey like this – to move halfway around the world, to a place where you don’t speak the language, and try to start growing crops. Steven Yeun brings a noble sensibility to Jacob, even if his dream does, at times, seem futile to both his family and the viewer. What sticks out the most are the “mundane” intricacies of just trying to make it from one day to the next – which is where Minari finds its strength. When something big does happen, it almost feels out of place compared with just the daily struggles. Jacob just wants what’s best for his family, even though his family doesn’t quite understand why he’s pushing this hard with little to no payoff. If a person works this hard, good things will happen, right? And, that, right there, is the crux of what we call the American dream, which Minari captures better than any other film this year. — Mike Ryan

I’m Thinking of Ending Things

You know what you’re going to get from a Charlie Kaufman film. Existential dread. Themes of identity. Mind-bending plot twists and sad, lonely men. And even though his latest, I’m Thinking of Ending Things, trades in all those expected motifs, there’s something disturbingly fascinating about this movie – animated decaying pigs, perpetually wet dogs, and all. Most of that has to do with the performances. Jessie Buckley, who’s having a hell of a year, is mesmerizing as a young woman meeting her boyfriend’s parents for the first time. Jesse Plemons, who’s quickly becoming cinema’s go-to villain, is equally captivating as said beau – a depressed, unfulfilled man dreaming up an alternate reality that comes crashing down over the course of the film. And then there’s Toni Collette and David Thewlis who play his parents (and the most hellish dinner mates we’ve seen on screen in a long while). But Kaufman’s love of twisting the truth and making us question the very nature of his storytelling also elevates the viewing experience here. You never truly know what the hell is going on, and that’s half the fun. — Jessica Toomer

Dick Johnson is Dead

In Dick Johnson Is Dead, documentary filmmaker Kirsten Johnson deals with her father’s recent dementia diagnosis and impending mortality by having him play himself in a series of death scenarios that she has imagined for him. The movie jumps between those scenes that they’ve filmed, and the documentary version of those scenes as they’re being filmed. Movies about death and dementia are often too sad or painful to sit through, but Johnson’s method of turning it all into an extended flight of fancy, living in the grey between fiction, fact, and possibility, actually gives us a language to discuss those awful things in ways that aren’t depressing. It ends up being not only not sad, but weirdly life-affirming. At times even hilarious, like during a staged funeral for Dick Johnson during which one of his genuinely grief-stricken friends plays for him what can only be described as a mournful kazoo dirge. It helps that Dick Johnson himself is a lovable old charmer. It’s a must-watch. Long live Dick Johnson! — Vince Mancini

Lovers Rock

Is Small Axe a movie or a TV show? That’s been the dominant discussion around director Steve McQueen’s Amazon Prime Video blank check when, really, we should be talking about the film (it’s a movie!) series’ (it’s a TV show?) finest installment, Lovers Rock. The 70-minute whatever takes place over the course of one exuberant night, as a young woman named Martha (Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn) from a God-fearing family attends a reggae-soundtracked blues party in a West London house. Away from the music, bad things happen. Sexual violence, racism, religious guilt. But when Martha is on the dance floor, she allows herself to let loose, especially when the DJ plays “Silly Games” by Janet Kay. She may have even met someone she didn’t know she was looking for, but now can’t imagine living without. Lovers Rock is a euphoric tribute to the power of communal music and dance. It will stay with you like a song you don’t mind being stuck in your head. — Josh Kurp

The Invisible Man

Is Leigh Whannell the best pulp director workingthe best pulp director working? Whereas most directors as good as Whannell want to make us think, Leigh Whannell is content to merely make us shit our pants. In Whannell’s The Invisible Man, the umpteenth Hollywood take on the Invisible Man, the title character is, just as in Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man (2000), again a villain rather than a hero. But whereas the central question Hollow Man posed was “what would you do if you didn’t have to look yourself in the mirror every morning?” The Invisible Man asks “what would your psychotic ex do if he didn’t have to look himself in the face every morning?” — Vince Mancini

Extraction

This is not an exaggeration or a brag: I’ve watched Commando more times than any other movie. As twisted as it sounds, it’s a feel-good film for me. You can thank my (very cool) dad for plopping this thing into the VCR during school breaks to keep us entertained, which made Arnold Schwarzenegger kind-of my babysitter (one who slaughtered an entire army without reloading his guns) back in the day. This admission probably also tells you too much about my formative years, but damn, I truly miss watching action scenes that aren’t in service of distractingly complicated plots and flashy camera work that can slide into shaky-cam territory. What I’m trying to say is this: I really don’t need my ass-kicking with a side of nuance or nausea.

Well, Extraction manages to feel reminiscent of not only Commando but many other 1980s action pictures, too. That includes Lethal Weapon, especially because Chris Hemsworth’s character is very much a Martin Riggs-esque, swaggery, damaged dude who is actually named Tyler Rake (an amazing fight-guy name), but he can fight like Arnold, and the whole movie feels like a throwback to a cinematic world where it’s alright to appreciate a real-shoot-and-punch-and-explode-’em-up type of joint where everything flows almost too beautifully. It’s like watching a Hemsworth pull off the sweatiest, most grueling ballet moves of all time. The runtime does go a bit long, admittedly; 90 minutes would have been enough (to shave off some of that backstory) to let that Hemsworth charisma shine while leaving open some intrigue for a future franchise. I still think this is a fine throwback, and I’m here for a leaner and meaner sequel. — Kimberly Ricci

One Night in Miami

Based on Kemp Powers’ play (who also wrote the screenplay), it’s almost too good to be true that Regina King’s One Night in Miami is based on a real-life event. Now, we don’t know the actual particulars of what happened that night down to the details, but putting Muhammed Ali (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) all in the same room together, hanging out right after Ali beat Sonny Liston, seems like some sort of Justice League of historical figures fan fiction. Set in 1964, all four men have differing views about what their roles are in the civil rights movement, or if they have any defined role at all. Add in some skepticism against Malcolm X and what his motives might be in recruiting someone like Ali, it leads to a fascinating dialogue between these four historical heavyweights. One Night in Miami is a masterstroke by King on how to direct actors. A phenomenal film. — Mike Ryan

The Trial of the Chicago 7

The Trial of the Chicago 7 is very much an Aaron Sorkin movie, which makes sense because it was written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. Your appreciation of it probably had as much to do with that as it did with anything else: the story, the acting, any of it. Personally, I like a good Sorkin courtroom scene, with all its desk-banging and idealistic speechifying and mind-changing, so I enjoyed his take on real-life events surrounding the riots outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention. It helped that he had actors who went for it. Sacha Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong as press-savvy/hungry counterculture activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin? Going for it. Yahya Abdul-Mateen as Black Panther leader Bobby Seale? Going for it. Eddie Redmayne as the more mainstream political figure Tom Hayden? I mean, you know Eddie Redmayne is going for it. The end result is an extremely watchable movie about events that resonate today, with lots of snappy dialogue and Frank Langella as a cranky judge and, hey, I almost forgot Michael Keaton is in this movie, too. That counts for something, too. The Trial of the Chicago 7 isn’t an arthouse darling or flash of directorial brilliance, but it is a good movie that tells a good story and features good actors doing good work. That might sound like a backhanded compliment but I promise it is not. The Trial of the Chicago 7 was a good movie. Making good movies is hard. It’s on the list. — Brian Grubb

Nomadland

Of all the films to come out in 2020, nothing has stuck with me quite like Nomadland. Chloé Zhao’s haunting, gorgeous film about a woman named Fern (Francis McDormand) who works odd jobs here and there, but is having a hard time finding steady work, so she travels around from one place to another, staying at community van parks and often running into the same cast of characters. This is a stunningly gorgeous film that harkens back to some of Malick’s most beautiful shots. People buy 4K televisions and usually talk about the big-budget superhero movie or whatever huge blockbuster that looks wonderful in this format. Honestly, it’s movies like Nomadland that these televisions were built for. Even not being able to watch in a theater, if you have the right television Zhao’s film makes a viewer feel like they are right there, every step of the way with Fern. It’s a stunning display of direction and cinematography (by Joshua James Richards) that just cements Zhao’s standing as one of the best directors working today. Nomadland would be my personal pick for the best film of 2020. — Mike Ryan

First Cow

The majority of movies about male friendships involve casino heists or muscular handshakes. I love those as much as the next guy-being-dude, but it’s refreshing when a movie like First Cow comes along. The relationship between Cookie (played by John Magaro), a 19th century cook who breaks away from the Oregon fur trappers who relentlessly bully him, and King-Lu (Orion Lee), a Chinese immigrant on the run, is one of tenderness; there’s a platonic affection between the two men, who get into business together to make oily cakes. First Cow is a subtle rebuke to movies like The Revenant, an unrelentingly grim movie about MANLY MEN. Through Cookie and King-Lu, director and writer Kelly Reichardt shows a different kind of manhood, one of necessary kindness in order to survive in a harsh world. It’s right there in the opening text: “The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.” Also, the titular cow? A very good cow. — Josh Kurp

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

Is Borat 2 as funny as the first? In terms of total laugh volume, probably not. Yet it’s arguably a much greater achievement to have pulled off a social experiment in a country that already feels like we’ve been living in a social experiment. In this installment, Sacha Baron Cohen spends nearly the entire film double disguised, as Borat disguised as a series of other characters, from “Philip Drummond III” (at a debutante ball) to “Country Steve,” at a rightwing rally. Borat’s fame leaves his daughter, Tutar, to carry the film, and it’s not too much to say that Maria Bakalova deserves an Academy Award nomination for the performance. Lots of people can make-believe, but let’s see Meryl Streep expose a fake period-soaked crotch in a roomful of dozens of horrified southerners. Sacha Baron Cohen makes acting legitimately dangerous, which is why it’s so hard to turn away (for those of us who can bear to watch in the first place, that is). In the midst of all that, this time around Cohen has created a legitimately compelling arc between these two preposterous characters. Oh, and then there was that scene in which they lured Rudy Giuliani to an underage (as far as he knew) girl’s hotel room to “tuck in his shirt.” It’s only because Rudy Giuliani has found new and entertaining ways to hilariously fall on his face twice a week since then that this wasn’t the craziest news story of the year. — Vince Mancini

King of Staten Island

I have to admit, when I first heard the basic concept for The King of Staten Island — Pete Davidson playing the son of a deceased firefighter who lives with his mom on Staten Island — I didn’t find it all that compelling. It sounded like Pete would be basically playing himself in a movie and I wasn’t sure that that was something I’d care for. (I was a bit Pete Davidson-ed out at the time, to be honest, what with all the stuff about him in the gossip rags and whatnot.) But then I learned more about the film and thought, “Okay, I’ll keep an open mind and give this a shot.” And then I saw it back in May or June and it was the first thing I’d watched since the pandemic started that I was able to truly get lost in and forget about the world for a couple of hours. It was simply a beautiful movie. I was not expecting to cry watching a Pete Davidson movie, but I did (twice), in addition to laughing out loud multiple times. His and Bill Burr’s performances are nothing short of tremendous. Again, it’s just a beautiful movie, and a really touching, moving love letter to Staten Island — one of the last parts of New York City that still feels like an older version of New York City — and to firefighters everywhere. — Brett Michael Dykes

Da Five Bloods

Spike Lee’s been doing some of his best work in the past few years. Maybe that’s because the subject material of so many of his films doubles as a needed reminder of how our shared history seems doomed to repeat itself. In this outing he’s shedding light on yet another murky bit of the past: The Black experience filtered through the lens of the Vietnam War. A group of veteran talents (Delroy Lindo chief among them) and promising newcomers (Lovecraft Country breakout Jonathan Majors) play a squad of close-knit vets, returning to the country to retrieve the remains of their fallen comrade (Chadwick Boseman) and the buried treasure they left behind. There’s a bit of B-movie adventure to this that keeps it entertaining, but the way Lee rounds out his storytelling, drawing threads from the past to very real issues we’re facing in the present, is what makes it awards-contender material. The fact that this is one of the last films Boseman made before his tragic passing this year? Well, that just makes it an all-the-more-emotional watch. — Jessica Toomer

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Never Rarely Sometimes Always was primed to be an indie breakthrough hit when it was released in theaters in March, boosted by strong reviews and a prestigious Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize win at the Berlin International Film Festival. Unfortunately, something else happened in March and director Eliza Hittman’s film was shuffled to video on-demand. You may not have been in the mood to watch a depressing-sounding drama about abortion then, but there’s no excuse now. Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a stunning film about the frustrating obstacles that women, especially teenagers, face when they require an abortion. After failing to self-induce a miscarriage, 17-year-old Autumn, played with remarkable introspection by Sidney Flanigan, travels from her home state of Pennsylvania to New York City to have the procedure, accompanied by her cousin, Skylar (Talia Ryder). Autumn’s journey isn’t easy, and Never Rarely Sometimes Always (the title comes from a series of questions that Sidney is asked during her Planned Parenthood appointment) isn’t always an easy watch. But it’s a journey worth taking. — Josh Kurp

If you thought Rudy Giuliani catching COVID is going to stop him from being the comedy gift that keeps on giving, guess again. Trevor Noah went to town on the scandal-plagued lawyer during Monday night’s The Daily Social Distancing Show where he called Giuliani the “least surprising victim yet” of the pandemic.

“I mean, this dude was going all over the country refusing to wear a mask. What do you expect? If I go around licking car windshields, I can’t be shocked if I get bird flu,” Noah quipped. “Or if I go around drinking at bars until 3 a.m., I can’t be surprised when I go home with yo mama!”

Noah called Giuliani’s diagnosis a “terrifying development” because “we didn’t even think that dead guys could get corona.” The late night host also made sure to highlight the now viral moment where an unmasked Giuiliani asks a woman to remove her mask during a hearing in Michigan last week, and she wisely refuses. Excellent call, lady.

But it wasn’t all jokes about Rudy inevitably catching COVID. Noah couldn’t resist having fun with Giuliani farting during the same Michigan hearing where he also introduced the world to Melissa Carone. “It sounded like his butt was demanding a recount of his lunch. Although, to be fair, that fart is no worse than any of the other legal arguments Trump’s team has made so far.”

Noah ended the segment by noting that the fart could be part of a diabolical legal strategy to get the election overturned. Just let Trump be president forever, and the smell will stop. It’s that easy, folks.

(Via The Daily Show with Trevor Noah)