On The Mandalorian, Gina Carano plays one of the good guys — or one of the few people our once-mysterious bounty hunter hero (Pedro Pascal) actually trusts. As seen-it-all mercenary Cara Dune, the former MMA fighter-turned-screen badass is one of the best parts of the show, finally getting a role she can sink her teeth into. It was almost a decade ago that Steven Soderbergh first tried to turn her into a screen star with Haywire, so it’s about time! And yet some Star Wars fans want Carano gone, and it’s not because of her acting.
Judging from her tweets, Carano is one of a small number of Hollywood players who are, if not fully on board with America’s ongoing president, then outspoken about supporting some of the things he believes. For instance, she thinks wearing masks to prevent yourself and others from contracting a highly contagious disease is stupid.
Carano also believes that voter fraud is happening, despite all evidence to the contrary (and all the “evidence” supplied by Trump minions being roundly debunked).
We need to clean up the election process so we are not left feeling the way we do today. Put laws in place that protect us against voter fraud. Investigate every state. Film the counting. Flush out the fake votes. Require ID. Make Voter Fraud end in 2020. Fix the system.
Throw in her making fun of pronouns and shilling for Parler — the “free speech” social media site that has become a hornet’s nest of conspiracy theorists, assorted bigots, and other people who would too easily be suspended from Twitter — and you have the makings of the “#FireGinaCarano” hashtag. Only three episodes into the new season, and the movement has gained some traction.
Gina Carano actively promotes hateful, bigoted views, has tweeted misinformation +conspiracies about the American election, doesn’t support wearing masks/treats COVID like a hoax, liked tweets about shooting protesters… this woman is not part of the Rebellion #FireGinaCaranopic.twitter.com/4u52pqI3vo
— newceo of kanera, axevanth, dinaxeNaNoWriMo! (@targaryenjedii) November 15, 2020
“But free speech and she’s a woman, you just want her fired for her different opinions blahblahblah” yeah if those opinions are racist, invalidating people’s existence, spreading harmful lies and propaganda and wishing ill upon people, then yeah, she doesn’t belong in Star Wars.
They fired James Gunn for jokes but she still had a job after all the crap on her timeline? Asking people to join Parler which is just a bunch of Right wing racists on there #FireGinaCarano@Disneyhttps://t.co/ekQ91bt9ZW
this isn’t just a difference in political opinions, what she has done and continuing to do is violent and harmful. she is supporting and defending white supremacists and their extremist ideals whilst voicing her own. #fireginacaranopic.twitter.com/bWg8bDNHzw
being a racist, transphobic, pandemic denying bigot are not “awkward” opinions, they’re harmful and dangerous but thanks for helping the hashtag reach the trending page #FireGinaCaranohttps://t.co/FWoec2YIdJ
Some pointed out that Carano was aligning herself with the same people who made life hell for Star Wars colleagues like John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran.
It’s really disgusting how John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran were viciously attacked by racist and sexist people, resulting in reduced roles and zero support from Disney, and Gina Carano gets a major role while associating herself with those very same people. #FireGinaCarano
Of course, these kinds of grass roots social media campaigns rarely lead to actual firings, so Carano can likely rest easy. (Besides, there’s still five episodes left in Season 2, so who knows what happens.) But if this one effect real change, at least Carano will get to spend more time hanging out with, uh, far right weirdos like Charlie Kirk.
Mike Will Made-It, Metro Boomin, and Mustard are three of the most influential hip-hop producers of the last decade. And yet the three producers feel slighted by Digital Service Providers like Spotify, Apple Music, etc., due to their failure to include production work on their individual artist pages. Mike Will started the discussion on a now-deleted post to his Instagram story, where he said, “If a producer has a DSP page we shouldn’t have to force ourself on a song as a feature to have it be linked with our page it feels corny or like a reach or forced.” He added, “It should just standardly be linked like an artists ‘Featured On’ section a producer artist should have produced on section.”
Wills continued into a second Instagram post, which read, “All producers catalogs should be hyperlinked with their artist page on all DSP’s.” Shortly after, Metro Boomin and Mustard reposted Mills’ second post on their own Instagram pages, implying that they were in agreement with the Atlanta producer.
Will’s comments come after he tapped Nicki Minaj and YoungBoy Never Broke Again for his new single, “What That Speed Bout?!” It marks the first time the producer worked with Nicki since 2019’s “Runnin,’” from the Creed II soundtrack. The song will also appear on his upcoming album, Michael, which is set to arrive at some point in 2021.
Amazon Prime is way more than just a way to get your electronics and books in two days or less. There’s a wide breadth of good movies and TV shows out there to choose from if you know what you’re looking for.
To help you out, we’ve rounded up the 35 best movies on Amazon Prime right now. From new Oscar winners to classic titles, you might be surprised as to what the service has available.
Christopher Nolan’s imaginative sci-fi adventure will most likely be remembered as one of the best genre films in cinematic history, and for good reason. The movie — which stars everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy to Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Caine — is the ultimate heist flick, following a group of thieves who must repurpose dream-sharing technology to plant an idea into the mind of a young CEO. DiCaprio pulls focus as Cobb, a troubled architect with a tragic past who attempts to pull off the impossible so that he can return to his family.
Awkwafina stars in this dramedy from director Lulu Wang that got a fair amount of Oscar buzz this season. The story follows a Chinese family, who discovers their beloved grandmother has only a short time to live. Instead of telling her, they keep the news to themselves, planning a wedding so that everyone can gather to say their goodbyes. It’s a dark comedy to be sure, but it’s given heart by some brilliant performances including Shuzhen Zhao as the central Nai Nai.
Nauseating. Disturbing. A total mindf*ck. Those are all fitting descriptions of Ari Aster’s Hereditary follow-up, a sophomore outing that gleefully embraces the very worst of humanity and shines an unforgiving light on those universal flaws. It’s a horror story, sure, but it’s a relationship drama at its core, flavored with pagan rituals, brutal killings, unsettling imagery, and all-consuming grief. Florence Pugh gives a career-defining performance as Dani, a young woman reeling from a terrible familial tragedy who accompanies her distant, disinterested boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and his college bros to a small Swedish village to celebrate the summer solstice.
Leonard DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, and Alec Baldwin star in this crime thriller from Martin Scorsese about an undercover cop and a mole in the police department who attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in Boston. DiCaprio plays the good guy (or as close as he can) with Billy, a disturbed officer playing the part of a criminal to get close to Nicholson’s kingpin, Frank. Damon plays the rat, Sullivan, who serves as a police officer on the force, but really works for Frank. The two unknowingly thwart each other at every turn, playing a thrilling game of cat and mouse before their secrets eventually come out.
An early work of director Sofia Coppola, this film based on a 1993 novel of the same name, follows the story of the Lisbon sisters, five girls aged 13-17 who make a suicide pact after their youngest sibling kills herself. A sense of mystery and aloofness adds to the girls’ appeal when it comes to the neighborhood boys, through whom much of the story is told. Confined to their house after the death of their sister, the girls find ways of communicating with the outside world through secret phone calls and late-night trysts. Eventually, the sisters make good on their pact, but Coppola chooses to find a sense of freedom and validation in their decision to commit suicide, one that paints the end of the film in a strangely victorious light.
George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson star in this period comedy, playing a trio of escaped convicts on the hunt for buried treasure. While they try to find their ticket to riches and freedom, a dogged detective pursues them, forcing the group to come up with imaginative, ridiculous ways to evade the law. Look, this movie’s great, but let’s not kid ourselves — we’re here for the soundtrack.
Robert De Niro stars in this boxing drama from Martin Scorsese playing famed fighter Jake LaMotta. LaMotta succeeded in the ring because of his infamous temper and violence, but those same traits are what led him to ruin away from the mat. De Niro plays LaMotta with a kind of swagger and ruthlessness that’s magnetic on screen, even though the character see-saws between hero and villain in his own story.
The mind-boggling success of the Marvel Universe this decade makes it easy to forget it’s humble, fantastically-written origins. We’re talking about the first Avengers team-up, a modest affair in comparison to the universe-spanning, dimension-hopping Endgame, but one that still holds up as a worthy outing for our O.G. heroes. This film marked the first time Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, and Clint Barton shared any real screentime and while most of the fighting is done in-house, the team pulls it together to take on a scheming Loki and his invading army of earth-destroying space monsters in the end.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars in this sci-fi thriller about a woman on the run who must return home to the family she abandoned once word of her supernatural abilities spreads. Mbatha-Raw plays Ruth, a woman whose seizures trigger earthquakes. Her mother and young daughter also have telekinetic abilities and when Ruth comes home to escape a dogged scientist determined to experiment on her, she begins trying to understand her powers with their help while also staying under the radar.
Jimmie Fails plays himself in this semi-autobiographical drama about a young man’s attempts to reclaim his childhood home. Fails and his best friend, Mont (Jonathan Majors), visit the old Victorian house where Fails grew up, only to find it in disarray. When the current tenants find themselves embroiled in a fight for ownership, forced to move out while the battle plays out in court, Jimmy and Mont move in, fixing up the place and fighting to restore some of the neighborhood’s old school charm.
Chris Hemsworth stars in this Whedon creation directed by Drew Goddard that’ll make you wary of ever going on a mountain retreat again. Hemsworth plays one of a group of five friends who head to the woods for some R&R. The remote cabin they stay at quickly becomes a hellish prison they struggle to escape from.
Before FX gave us some spectacular follow-up formatted for TV, the Coen brothers introduced us to the cold, weirdly-accented world of murder and cover-up in Fargo, a thriller continues to stand the test of time. The premise is probably familiar by now: a criminal mastermind’s plan goes awry thanks to the ineptitude and bungling of his henchman and the persistence of a dogged policewoman (the unfairly-talented Frances McDormand). Still, it’s worth a rewatch.
This cult comedy from director Cameron Crowe has earned a dedicated fan following amongst rock-and-roll lovers. Based on Crowe’s own experiences as an underaged music journalist for Rolling Stone, the film follows a 15-year-old kid named William Miller, who goes on the road with rock band and becomes entangled in their exploits. Billy Crudup and Frances McDormand also star, but it’s Kate Hudson, who plays the magnetic groupie Penny Lane, who really steals the film.
Another Dunst/Coppola team-up, this period drama is a visual feast that gives Dunst two hours to play, in costume, as France’s once most-hated woman, Marie Antoinette. Born to marry the French King Louis XVI, the ill-fated queen lived lavishly, died tragically, and in-between, shouldered the burden of making a marriage to an apathetic man work while carving out her own bit of freedom.
James Stewart stars in this holiday flick about a down-on-his-luck businessman who laments his suburban life. George Bailey wishes for a different, more successful life, one unencumbered by a wife and kids but when his wish is granted and an angel shows him what life would be like without him, Bailey must figure out how to make the most of the present. Stewart is magnetic in the role and though it’s thought of as a Christmas classic, this film can and should be enjoyed year-round.
This film by Destin Daniel Cretton (the guy Marvel’s tapped to direct Shang-Chi) marks the first leading role for Brie Larson. Long before her Captain Marvel days, Larson was playing Grace Howard, a young woman navigating life as a supervisor of a group home for troubled teens. Other soon-to-be stars like Lakeith Stanfield and Rami Malek also have a role in this thing but it’s Larson’s vehicle and she’s in full command of it.
Jonah Hill’s directorial debut is a nostalgic ode to growing up in the 90s. The film follows a 13-year-old kid named Stevie who spends one summer in L.A. navigating between his troubled home life and a new group of friends that push to him to test his own boundaries. The movie is heavy in skater culture, a scene L.A. was known for at the time, but it’s also an introspective look on making the transition from boyhood to adulthood, and how perilous that time can be.
Call us jaded, but few movies that are as hyped up as this Rian Johnson whodunnit actually live up to the hype. You’ve got an A-list cast that’s somehow managing to share the screen and carve out singular moments for their characters despite a packed plot. You’ve got a story with twists and turns and darkly comedic gags you could never see coming. And you’ve got Johnson, who managed to make an original film that actually competed with, and surpassed, some established franchises at the box office. Something’s got to be wrong with this movie, right? Wrong. It’s as layered and nuanced and perfect as Chris Evans’ waffle-knit sweater. Enjoy.
Toni Collette stars in this terrifying nightmare by first-time director Ari Aster. The film charts the grief and shared trauma of the Graham family. Annie (Collette) is mourning the loss of her secretive mother, worrying over her inherited mental health issues and her children. When her son Peter accidentally kills his sister, hauntings begin happenings. Malevolent spirits, possessions, a seance gone wrong — this is pure nightmare fuel people.
Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Christoph Waltz, and Eli Roth star in Quentin Tarantino’s imaginative World War II drama about a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers with a plan to assassinate Hitler. The film flip-flops between Pitt’s Southern-accented Lt. Aldo Raine’s mission to scalp Nazis and blow-up an exclusive event for SS officers in Paris and French actress Melanie Laurent, who plays a theater-owner with a devious plan of her own. It’s full of mesmerizing performances and Tarantino’s unique brand of humor — oh, and a lot of Nazi killing.
When filmmaker Kurt Kuenne’s childhood friend Andrew Bagby is killed and his suspected killer/ex-girlfriend reveals she’s pregnant, Kurt decides to make a documentary chronicling Andrew’s life. While largely a love letter to a man who touched the lives of many for Zachary, the son he never met, Dear Zachary also tells the starkly bitter side of a broken Canadian legal system that directly endangered a baby. We follow the drawn-out custody battle between Andrew’s parents and Zachary’s mother, interspersed with loving snapshots into the Bagby family. The story sucks you in, but it’s also the at times comedic, fast-paced, and downright enraging documentary style of the film that breaks up the emotional tale.
Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson team up for this comedy that imagines the grit and humor it takes to lead a late-night talk show as a woman. Thompson plays Katherine Newbury, an accomplished TV personality who fears she may lose her talk show because of declining ratings and competition from a younger, male comedian. She hires Molly (Kaling) a comedy writer with little experience to diversify her team, and the two women weather hilarious mishaps and a few scandals to bring the show back on track.
Comedian Bo Burnham’s directorial debut looks at the social anxieties of a young girl on the cusp of her high school career. Elsie Fisher plays Kayla, a pre-teen in her final week of eighth grade. She’s virtually friendless, choosing to spend her time creating inspiring Youtube videos that no one sees. When she decides to venture from her computer screen, attending pool parties and hanging out with older kids, she’s thrust into situations she’s not entirely ready for. The film is a painfully honest look at the pressure of growing up, the loss of innocence, and how social media can contribute to feelings of anxiety and isolation in teens, especially young girls who are forced to grow up much more quickly than their male counterparts.
Shia LaBeouf writes and stars in this semi-autobiographical tale of his time as a child star. Noah Jupe plays the younger version of himself while LaBeouf plays his controlling, often abusive father. The two live in motel rooms in L.A. while Otis (Jupe) works on a popular kids TV show. Their relationship becomes strained as Otis ages, and his dad James (LaBeouf) grows resentful of his son’s success. Lucas Hedges plays an elder Otis, who struggles with all kinds of addictions because of his rough, unconventional upbringing. It’s a tough watch but one that feels refreshingly honest, and you can’t deny LaBeouf’s talent and courage in telling such a raw, intimate story.
Based on a historical crime novel set in Victoria-Era England, Park Chan-wook’s lavish, mesmerizing thriller focuses on two young women fighting to escape oppression by the men in their lives. Chan-woo has traded the stuffy British countryside for Japanese-occupied Korea, telling the stories of Lady Hideko and her handmaiden Sook-hee in three parts, weaving a tale of passion, betrayal, dark secrets, and revenge with grander themes of imperialism, colonial rule, and patriarchal corruption. The two women are the draw of the film with both resorting to illicit, illegal, morally compromising schemes in order to gain their freedom, but love is an unintended consequence that leaves the third act — one you might think you have figured out halfway through the film — completely unpredictable.
Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon drew from their own unusual love story for their script about a Chicago comic named Kumail (Nanjiani) who falls in love with Emily, a woman (Zoe Kazan) who falls into a coma while in the midst of a rift in their relationship created by the expectations of Kumail’s traditional parents. The funny, moving romantic comedy also features strong supporting work from Ray Romano and Holly Hunter as Emily’s parents, who form an awkward bond with Kumail as they wait for Emily’s recovery.
Joaquin Phoenix stars as a troubled hitman with a dark past in this thrilling crime flick from Lynne Ramsay. Phoenix plays Joe, a gun for hire, former military man and FBI agent, who spends most of his time rescuing victims of sex trafficking. He’s recruited to save a Senator’s daughter from a brothel that caters to high-end clientele, but the job thrusts him into the center of a conspiracy that costs him everything and ends in blood and tragedy. It’s a relentless slog to be sure, but it works because Ramsay is more interested in profiling the man, not the hits he makes.
Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe star in this truly bonkers period drama from Robert Eggers. It’s a beautifully shot portrait of two men slowly driven to the brink of insanity by their choice in career — they’re stuck alone on a slab of rock, looking after a crumbling lighthouse. Pattinson masturbates to visions of mermaids, and Dafoe gets drunk and does a jig. To say anything more would be spoiling the fun.
Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet star in this heartbreaking drama about a father trying to save his son from a drug addiction that’s slowly eating away at his family. Carell plays David, a New York Times writer who struggles to help his son Nic (Chalamet) after he falls victim to a worrying drug habit. He has moments of sobriety, attending college, living with his mother in L.A., and working at a drug clinic to help others battling the disease. Yet eventually, his addiction returns, and Nic is powerless to fight it. David is forced to choose between sacrificing his family and his own sanity or continuing to help his son. Both Carell and Chalamet give powerful performances that elevate what essentially is an emotionally restrained look at father-son relationships and the landmines they navigate.
A portrait of a particular moment in music history, when the folk revival found young musicians discovering their voices in old styles and old songs, Inside Llewyn Davis stars Oscar Isaac as a singer/songwriter who can never quite translate his talent into professional success. Joel and Ethan Coen both exactingly recreate early ‘60s New York and use it as the site of one of an affecting tale of the clash between artistic impulses and the needs of the material world, a theme they’d previously explored with Barton Fink and would pick up again with Hail, Caesar!.
Dwayne Johnson and Lena Headey star in this family drama about a pair of siblings with dreams of making it in the WWE. Only one, Florence Pugh’s Saraya, actually makes it, but the road to wrestling stardom is riddled with fake friends, sexism, parental drama, and self-doubt. There’s plenty of great matchups here — body slams, cage matches and the like — but the real draw is Pugh, who completely disappears in the role.
Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton), who’s unwilling and unable to properly care for her troubled son Kevin, watches her life unravel as her husband (John C. Reilly) ignores their problems and Kevin grows more and more sociopathic and violent. The story jumps around in time, showing Swinton’s character as both a new mother who blames her son for ruining her life and as a woman who eventually blames herself for what becomes of her son. Swinton proves once again that she’s the actress that indie movies need for complex characters that live their lives in grey areas. At its core, We Need To Talk is about the importance of proper parenting, communication, and probably therapy. And it’s not for the faint of heart.
Ten years after his last Ocean‘s entry, Steven Soderbergh revisits the heist genre, this time centering on a pair of unlucky brothers (Channing Tatum and Adam Driver) working a scheme to rip off a big NASCAR race. Memorable side characters, rapid-fire dialogue, and charismatic performances keep the story from becoming too predictable even for a twist-filled heist tale. Soderbergh was even able to cut out major studios and keep complete creative control over the movie, thanks to streaming services and international distribution. It’s a largely light-hearted movie, and frankly, that’s necessary sometimes.
A mysterious pawnshop owner (Won Bin), whose only friend is a child that lives next door, tears the local criminal presence apart after she’s kidnapped. This South Korean thriller from Lee Jeong-beom follows a similar format to such films as Léon: The Professional and Man On Fire of “guy with a shady past protects little girl”, but The Man From Nowhere still crafts an original tale of a heartbroken man out to save the only thing he has left in this world. The action sequences are bloody and intense, and Bin’s stoic performance brings a painful depth to the brutal savior.
Coherence is one of those low-budget sci-fi stories that is extremely tough to explain without either giving too much away or requiring an extended entry. Essentially, a group of friends sifts through their own issues and insecurities during a mind-bending paradoxical experience. Taking place almost entirely in the same room on a single night, the characters struggle to find answers just as much as the viewer. It’s a challenging yet enthralling film, perfect for those who love to overthink things.
Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood mogul currently serving a 23-year sentence for sexual misconduct, is reportedly very sick. According to USA Today, he has come down with a fever and, as per his rep, Judith Engelmayer, is “being closely monitored.” Engelmayer would “neither confirm nor deny” that he has contracted the novel coronavirus.
If Weinstein did test positive, it reportedly wouldn’t be his first time. In March, during the early days of the pandemic’s march across America, word spread that he tested positive for COVID-19, which resulted in him being isolated. At the time prisons were hotbeds for the highly contagious virus, with a number of prisoners across the nation contracting it.
Weinstein is highly immunocompromised. Engelmayer pointed out that he has “numerous maladies and conditions,” including “a heart condition, high blood pressure and spinal stenosis.” Back in February, a month before his brush with COVID, he was rushed to the hospital with high blood pressure.
Weinstein is 68, and since his sentence began in February of this year, that would mean he wouldn’t be released until he was 91. He was found guilty one two sex crime felony charges, out of five with which he was charged, and is serving his sentence in Wende Correctional Facility in Erie County, New York. He was accused of misconduct by many, many more than five.
With the 2020 NBA Draft arriving on Wednesday and the league producing a flurry of transactions, there is real buzz for the 2020-21 season. Much of the attention, at least for now, is paid to how teams will be shaping their rosters in the coming days but, on Tuesday evening, the NBA made a formal announcement concerning the schedule and dates for the upcoming campaign.
As part of the release, the league announced that each team will play three games against conference opponents and two games against cross-conference foes, allowing teams to compile 72 games each. From there, the NBA will be releasing the schedule in two distinct parts, with the first half of the season outlined near the start of training camp in early December, with the second arriving during the “latter part of the first half portion of the schedule,” allowing them to reschedule some games that may need to be made up should teams deal with COVID-19 outbreaks.
The NBA also released a matrix outlining the home/away splits for every head-to-head matchup, which could be quite interesting when it comes to heavyweights squaring off within each conference.
If I’m reading this graphic from the NBA correctly, the Lakers will only play once this season at Golden State and Sacramento, hosting those teams twice. pic.twitter.com/9DvQMIa7Pf
From there, the league made official that a four-team play-in tournament will be utilized in both conferences, with No. 7 through No. 10 jockeying for position in advance of the playoffs. That will take place from May 18-21, with the first half of the season scheduled for Dec. 22 through March 4 and the second half set for March 11 through May 16. In between, the league will have a six-day All-Star break from March 5-10 and, at the end, the playoffs are scheduled for May 22 through July 22.
Because the league exercised its discretion on scheduling, it is a safe bet that certain teams will feel aggrieved with their home schedules compared to others. Still, a 72-game season makes things less simple than usual, and it will be interesting to see how the campaign play outs when it (finally) arrives.
Nipsey Hussle’s Marathon Clothing Store in South Central Los Angeles was one of the biggest accomplishments in the late rapper’s career; it established a business in his hometown and grew into a million-dollar endeavor. The store, which he opened up back in 2017, would also be where the Victory Lap rapper was tragically shot and killed in March 2019. Now, according to a report from The Blast, the Marathon Clothing Store has been vandalized and looted.
A niggh bet not find out who did this shit… bitch ass nigghs something awful gone happen to Yu!! Long Live The Great @NipseyHussle shit fucced up cuz, love u bro pic.twitter.com/xsLecQmOES
A video recorded by a bystander reveals severe damage to the store, which was reportedly looted, its windows smashed, and graffiti tagged on the walls. The person who recorded the video makes their anger known, saying, “Whoever did this sh*t — if we ever find out who did this, it’s ugly for you cuz.” They add, “I swear to God. We gon hurt somebody cuz. You n****s some f*cking haters. This sh*t is fucked up. Bitch ass n****s.”
Unfortunately, Nipsey’s store was not the only one damaged in the incident. The surrounding outlets in the plaza were also victims of vandalism. Thankfully, some members of the community have already joined together to begin the cleanup process.
Nipsey Hussle is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Forgiveness is hard for most of us, but it’s harder for some than others. When we’ve been harmed in some way—physically, emotionally, or both—we tend to carry the pain around with us. Anger and resentment are natural responses to being hurt, of course, and the longer or more severe the wounding, the more likely we are to feel those feelings long-term.
What we usually want—or think we want—is for the person who did the hurting to acknowledge our pain. We want them to fully understand what we feel, to know the impact of their words or actions. And we want an apology as proof that the person not only get, but also regrets, what they’ve said or done to us.
Some of us will hold onto our anger and resentment indefinitely, waiting for that all-important apology to come before we even consider the idea of forgiveness. But if we value our own well-being, we may want to rethink that order.
You don’t have to wait for an apology—or even an acknowledgement—in order to forgive. And in fact, we shouldn’t.
To fully understand why that is, we need to understand what forgiveness actually is. And in order to understand what forgiveness is, it’s helpful to clarify what it isn’t. Forgiving someone is not the same as making up with them. Forgiveness is not reconciliation. Forgiveness doesn’t require justice to be done or apologies to be offered.
Forgiveness isn’t an external action, but rather an internal state of letting go of anger and resentment. It’s saying, “I’m no longer going to allow you and the hurt you’ve caused me keep me in a state of unhappiness.” It’s something you do for yourself, not for the person who hurt you.
Think about it. Who is that anger and resentment hurting the most? Who is having their life disrupted by it? Who is having to deal with it day in and day out? You, right? Not the person who hurt you. You.
And there are real physical effects of holding onto those emotions. “There is an enormous physical burden to being hurt and disappointed,” says Karen Swartz, M.D., director of the Mood Disorders Adult Consultation Clinic at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Chronic anger impacts your heart rate, blood pressure, and immune system, which increases your risk of chronic disease. Forgiveness has the opposite effect.
And it doesn’t mean just saying that you forgive the person. Again, forgiveness is an internal act of releasing anger, frustration, disappointment, and resentment. “It is an active process in which you make a conscious decision to let go of negative feelings whether the person deserves it or not,” Swartz says.
That’s why an apology isn’t necessary in order to practice forgiveness. We have to let go of the idea that forgiveness means telling someone what they did is okay or that they are somehow being let off the hook. It doesn’t. It means telling yourself that whatever the person did to you isn’t going to keep you in a state of bitterness. It’s making the choice to stop allowing your own anger to keep hurting you.
Sometimes forgiveness can lead to empathy and compassion for the person who hurt you, but it doesn’t have to. Some kinds of harm are impossible to empathize with, but that doesn’t mean they make forgiveness impossible. There are some incredible stories of people forgiving perpetrators of terrible atrocities, like the genocide in Rwanda, not because those things were forgotten or justified but because holding onto resentment and anger only punishes the victim of harm, not the perpetrator.
So if you’ve been waiting on an apology, try forgiveness first. While it’s easier said than done, letting go can be incredibly freeing, and good for both your mental and physical health.
Nobody expected much out of the Thunder last season. Oklahoma City was able to land a load of assets in the deal that swapped Russell Westbrook for Chris Paul, with Paul’s future with the team uncertain given that his championship aspirations put the on two very different time lines.
But after a stunning run to the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference and a thrilling seven-game grudge match against the Rockets in Orlando, it became very clear that Paul was still operating an elite level. As a result, he quickly became one of the hottest commodities on the market this offseason.
Several teams expressed interest, with the Phoenix Suns eventually winning the sweepstakes and setting themselves up for a return to relevance after years of futility. It’s hard to gauge just how close he was to ending up elsewhere, but one hypothetical scenario had Carmelo Anthony reuniting with the Knicks and teaming up with Paul there.
On a recent appearance on SeriousXM NBA Radio, former teammate Matt Barnes claims that Paul told him he was actually considering New York, although he was ultimately turned off by the prospect of playing at an empty Madison Square Garden.
Did the pandemic keep the #Knicks from trading for Chris Paul?
“He was saying the Knicks were an option but, you know, if he was going to New York he wanted the full Knick experience, meaning he wanted the fans, he wanted the essence, he wanted the ambiance of that Madison Square Garden crowd. And going there now, you know, we don’t know if that crowd will ever be back,” Barnes said.
Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it’s unclear when fans might be able to return to arenas. The Lakers have indicated that they won’t allow fans at Staples to start the season, while the Warriors have submitted an ambitious plan that includes rapid testing and would ostensibly permit 50 percent capacity at Chase Center.
Read another way, Barnes didn’t actually clarify that he was referring to the lack of fans because of the pandemic. Attendance at MSG has been down in recent years as the Knicks have struggled to gain much traction and have been left spinning their wheels in a perpetual rebuild.
The Knicks reportedly had some interest in acquiring Paul but ultimately were reluctant to give up too many of the assets that would’ve been required to swing a deal. So now we can go ahead and add this to the never-ending list of the Knicks’ near-misses in the free agent frenzy.
The Atlanta Hawks are armed with a whole lot of cap space in an offseason where the pool of available free agents isn’t particularly robust. As a result, if they want to spend big, they might need to look into some other avenues, and a report by Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports indicates that they might turn to the trade market to acquire talent.
Haynes brings word that the Hawks have some amount of interest in Gordon Hayward of the Boston Celtics. Word dropped earlier in the day, via Zach Lowe of ESPN, that Hayward and the Celtics extended the deadline for him to decide on his $34.2 million player option. Now, Haynes reports that the Hawks have a few potential avenues to explore a move for Hayward.
The Atlanta Hawks are in play in an attempt to acquire Boston Celtics forward Gordon Hayward, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
A sign-and-trade deal is a possible route, but Atlanta is equipped with the most cap space in the league at around $44 million and can simply sign Hayward to a hefty multi-year deal if he decided to decline his option.
Haynes went on to report that Hayward is interested in the Hawks as well, and that the team believes he could be another playmaker alongside Trae Young on the team’s offense. Hayward signed a big money deal to join the Celtics from the Utah Jazz during the 2017 offseason, but has struggled to consistently stay on the floor due to injuries. Last season, Hayward averaged 17.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in 33.5 minutes per game for the Celtics.
In 2019, Lizzo shot to stardom thanks to her breakout single “Truth Hurts.” The track helped her gain two of her three Grammy awards, as the song won in both the Best Urban Contemporary Album and Best Pop Solo Performance categories. Nowadays, she continues to work on her upcoming project, which will be her first body of work since her breakthrough. Successful though she is, the singer hopped on TikTok to make it clear that fame has plenty of downsides.
“Fame only puts a magnifying glass on the sh*t that you already have,” Lizzo said in the video. “If that sh*t is f*cked up, you’re just going to have even more magnified f*cked up sh*t situations where it doesn’t even seem valid or like you’re even like supposed to feel that way so it f*cks you up even more because you feel super f*cking ungrateful.” She then shifted her attention from herself to her listeners, sharing an important message.
“So, I’m just telling everyone now, anyone who has internal issues or has like any type of self problems that they need to work out, work out now,” Lizzo said. “Because money, fame, or success or even getting older doesn’t really fix that sh*t. Do the inner work, because if you don’t, it’s going to haunt you like a f*cking ghost.”
You can watch Lizzo’s TikTok in the video above.
Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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