A Quiet Place: Day One showed the horrifying origins of the silent monsters that were introduced back in 2017’s A Quiet Place and the follow-up, A Quiet Place Part II. The prequel starred Joseph Quinn and Lupita Nyong’o as they find themselves at the center of the alien attack which takes over the planet.
Considering how the universe expanded and progressed over the years, it would not be unheard of for another story or standalone movie to be on the horizon. After all, we’ve really only seen how a very small subsection of the world handles the invasion. At the end of A Quiet Place Part II, the survivors meet at an island off the East Coast, and Day One writer-director Michael Sarnoski thinks there could be more stories to tell there.
“I mean, definitely a good portion of those people probably ended up on the island that we see in Part Two of A Quiet Place,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. This could mean more stories (and maybe more Frodo the cat?) He continued, “I think there’s a good chance that they’re there, and definitely there’s a good chance we’re going to see them again.”
While nothing is set in stone, Sarnoski sees the possibility. He told The Economic Times, “I think Paramount would be really happy to see where they ended up. I don’t think there are any super specific plans. But I would not be surprised if that happens. So that’s a very loose, unofficial sequel tease.”
A Quiet Place: Day One is now streaming on Paramount+.
There isn’t a single dish in all of fast food more popular than the chicken sandwich. And yes, we’ve considered the cheeseburger. Look, no shade to the cheeseburger, we love it, and it has served us well, but it had its reign (here is a list of some of our favorites). Still, 2024 is all about the chicken sandwich. That’s probably why some of the fastest-growing chains in fast food — Chick-fil-A, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Popeyes, and Raising Canes — exclusively focus on chicken.
In 2024, we’re spoiled for options when it comes to a great chicken sandwich. But with fast food prices rising, it’s important to know which sandwich is the most worthy of your hard-earned money. Seeking out the very best chicken sandwiches in fast food is something we’ve been hard at work at for the last five years. We can trace our search back to when Popeyes first launched its chicken sandwich in 2019 and started the so-called “chicken sandwich wars,” (a phrase we promise to never use again after this year).
Being on the search for five years, you’d think we’d have an answer to the question: who makes the best chicken sandwich? But our answer changes almost every year, and while that might sound us being inconsistent is really just a sign that the chicken sandwich is the most steadily innovated dish in fast food. Every year there’s a new crop of sandwiches, which means every year we the consumers are treated to increasingly delicious food.
So who makes the best chicken sandwich of 2024? We set out to find out by tasting and re-ranking every fast food chicken sandwich we could get our hands on. Let’s eat.
25. Dairy Queen — Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Dairy Queen
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
I’m going to save you some time: don’t order a chicken sandwich (or any food that isn’t ice cream) at Dairy Queen. If you need to know the gory details, let’s talk about them.
The meat in this sandwich is spongey and highly processed. The filet has barely any crunch and is seasoned simply with black pepper. Atop the filet is a sad leaf of lettuce, an unripened slice of tomato, and mayo — pretty standard stuff, and yet this sandwich tastes absolutely brutal.
Sonic has some legitimately great menu options, but the Crispy Chicken Sandwich is not one of them. This chicken filet is spongey and porous — it makes me wonder how much of it is actually real meat — but well-seasoned with black pepper. The breading provides a nice crunch, but the texture of the meat is so off-putting that I find biting into this sandwich somehow offensive.
It’s an insult to everything else on the Sonic menu that actually works (the breakfast burrito comes to mind).
The build is pretty standard stuff: lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayo on a buttered bun. But the quality of everything but the bun leaves a lot to be desired. When the bun is the highlight of your sandwich, you’ve got a problem.
The Bottom Line:
Order anything else on the menu but this! Need some suggestions? Here you go: jalapeño poppers, chili cheese fries, a hot dog, mozzarella sticks, or a breakfast burrito.
This sandwich almost works. The black-peppered bacon has a great smokey and slightly sweet flavor. Unfortunately, every other element of this sandwich weighs it down. The chicken is bone dry and underseasoned, the lettuce is soggy, the bread is dry and dense, the tomatoes fall flat, and the honey mustard, with its tang and bitter finish, straight-up doesn’t work in this sandwich.
I’m convinced that Arby’s only has this sandwich on the menu so they can keep up with every other big fast food brand that makes a decent sandwich.
The Bottom Line:
Another skip! Order the Smokehouse Brisket, Roast Beef Gyro, or Corned BEef Sandwich instead.
22. Burger King — Bacon and Swiss BK Royal Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Burger King
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
A couple of years back Burger King revamped its chicken sandwich to launch the Ch’King. It was an amazing chicken sandwich. One of the best! Unfortunately, because it was hand-breaded and made to order, it wasn’t sustainable, so BK simplified the recipe, and we were given this. Which is good, but pales in comparison to what once was!
The breading on the chicken filet is crunchy and nicely seasoned with a mix of salt and black pepper. Those flavors are supported by gentle smokey notes courtesy of the bacon with the cheese offering a slightly sweet and savory finish. It’s got a great crunch and flavor, two necessary ingredients for a good chicken sandwich, but the texture of the chicken filet is where it falls apart.
The filet is chunky and flakey — a sign that this chicken has been frozen — and the meat itself lacks any flavor whatsoever. The filet is frustratingly bland, which is a real disservice to everything else this sandwich has going for it.
The Bottom Line:
Good flavors are hampered by a flavorless and oddly-textured filet.
McDonald’s will not stop trying to push its chicken sandwich on us. Every year it feels like they are trying to market the McCrispy in a new way as if the advertising is what’s keeping people from ordering this. Hey McDonald’s, it’s not the marketing, it’s the chicken!
The filet is just not very good. It’s bland, and texturally slushy, which is meant to sound disgusting. I’m trying to warn you here, this is a skippable sandwich.
What works is the spicy pepper sauce. It has a strong cayenne kick with a sweet element that balances out the heat. The pickles are wet and brine-y, and the breading is light, crispy, and airy.
It’s so close to being a decent chicken sandwich but not quite there.
The Bottom Line:
You’re better off just ordering chicken nuggets and some fries.
20. Burger King — Fiery Bacon Royal Crispy Chicken Sandwich
Dane Rivera
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
This is a slight improvement over the Bacon and Swiss build. It features a quadruple dose of heat via a creamy cayenne-based sauce and a cayenne-based glaze, pepper jack cheese, and cayenne-dusted bacon.
That heat helps to mask the sub-par quality of the chicken filet. Not much else to say though, if Burger King had better chicken, this would easily be ranked much higher.
This sandwich is kind of a joke. It features an extra crispy chicken tender sandwich between a sesame seed bun with pickles and mayo. The chicken is tender and crunchy, with a good flavor but it feels so minor.
It’s definitely not a meal, treat it like a snack and it won’t let you down.
The Bottom Line:
A fine addition to KFC’s menu. The only snack-sized chicken sandwich on this list.
This sandwich has a few things working for it. The breast filet is hand-breaded and well-seasoned with black pepper, salt, a bit of garlic, and onion powder. In addition, the Swiss cheese brings some nutty and salty notes to the flavor profile, while the bacon adds some smokiness and extra crunch.
Pulling all the flavors together is a spread of mayo over a squishy slightly sweet potato bun.
The only thing holding it back is that it’s a little bit dry, especially compared to what we’ve ranked above it.
The Bottom Line:
A good chicken sandwich but there are far better options out there.
17. Jack in the Box — Homestyle Ranch Chicken Club
Jack in the Box
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
I’m actually surprised that I don’t totally hate this. Jack in the Box is a fast food chain that excels at sides, it doesn’t have a lot of delicious sandwich options save for the Smashed Jack and this Homestyle Ranch Chicken Club.
The chicken filet is well-seasoned with a mix of black pepper and garlic, enhanced by smokey bacon and further complemented by a tangy buttermilk ranch finish. The tomatoes — always a gamble with low-end chicken sandwiches — are surprisingly juicy and add some umami dimension to the palette of flavors. The weakest ingredients are the lettuce — which is incredibly bitter — and the cheese which is akin to melted plastic. It’s supposed to be Swiss, but it just tastes like salt.
While I think this sandwich is pretty good, again, there are far better options out there.
The Bottom Line:
Pick up this sandwich if its financially convenient, but if you’re looking for the best, look elsewhere.
While still very far from the best, Rally’s Bacon BBQ Mother Cruncher is a huge step up from Jack in the Box’s Homestyle Ranch Chicken Club.
This sandwich provides a good crunch with well-seasoned breading that includes white pepper, garlic, and onion powder elevated by sweet and slightly smokey barbecue sauce. The fried onions, bacon, and crispy thin pickles help to accentuate the savory flavors of this sandwich while mayo helps pull it all together.
This sandwich’s secret weapon is that double dose of sauce which helps hide some of the dryness of the patty.
The Bottom Line:
A very good chicken sandwich, but the double dose of sauce is clearly being used as a mask to hide the low-quality chicken.
A spicy chicken sandwich from KFC? That’s kind of an anomaly, the brand doesn’t do spicy all that often, so when this first dropped last year we were pretty psyched about it. The results though? Middling at best.
This sandwich is close to being great though, the chicken is tender, meaty, and well-seasoned with a mix of garlic, onion, black pepper, and salt, with a spicy kick courtesy of the cayenne pepper sauce. It balanced heat and sweetness really well.
What needs work is the build. The pickles are soggy, the bun is greasy (when it should be buttery), and the chicken is so heavily breaded that it tones down the cayenne pepper sauce a bit too much.
The Bottom Line:
KFC has almost made a great chicken sandwich, but they’re still not quite there yet. A few tweaks and this goes from very good to great.
This sandwich is frustrating. Raising Cane’s has the best chicken tenders in all of fast food. The tenders are so good that the brand doesn’t bother to make anything else, and this sandwich suffers from it. Rather than a chicken filet, this sandwich consists of three chicken tenders shoved between a dense and bready bun with some boring green leaf lettuce and Cane’s famously delicious Cane’s sauce.
Let me be clear, the tenders and sauce are a great combination, but the rest of the sandwich distracts from the flavor. And because the sandwich is made from three tenders rather than a solid piece of meat, you’re constantly fighting to keep the tenders from falling out while you eat it.
So skip the bread and just order some chicken tenders and dip them in sauce. If you really want the extra carbs, just order a side of Texas Toast, which is way tastier than the bread used for this sandwich.
The Bottom Line:
Save yourself some money and calories and just order the tenders. It’s essentially the same dish, only better.
Church’s chicken sandwich does a whole lot with just a little bit. The build is painfully simple, you’ve got a huge chicken breast filet that is heavily breaded and topped with pickles and mayo. That’s it.
The chicken filet is pretty damn good, it’s tender and juicy and seasoned with a simple blend of black pepper, salt, garlic, and onion. The bun features a honey-butter glaze and the mayo helps bring all the flavors together. But it lacks the depth of flavor that its biggest influence — the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich — has.
The Bottom Line:
A great chicken sandwich, but if there is a Popeyes in the area, you’d be better served by getting that instead.
This sandwich was first launched in the summer of 2023 for a limited time and now it’s back, so I guess this is Chick-fil-A’s new seasonal sandwich. We don’t hate that, but we’ll admit that this sandwich isn’t for everyone. It’s going to come down to whether you like pimento cheese or not, if you do, this is great. If you don’t, this isn’t going to convince you that pimento cheese is worthwhile.
At first bite, your tastebuds are met with a mix of savory and salty flavors with some vegetal notes from the jalepeños, a mild heat that slowly builds, and a sharp tang and a sweet floral finish.
The Bottom Line:
A medley of flavors that take you on a journey from savory, to tangy, to sweet with a slow-burning heat.
This used to be my go-to Wendy’s chicken sandwich and while it isn’t my favorite anymore, I still think it’s pretty solid, so we’re including it! The flavor is a mix of spicy cayenne pepper heat with some black pepper, smokey bacon notes, and a tangy creamy ranch finish.
It’s a great chicken sandwich, but if you want something a bit more adventurous, see our next Wendy’s entry.
The Bottom Line:
One of Wendy’s best chicken sandwiches. An all-around great sandwich.
This now holds the crown for the greatest Wendy’s chicken sandwich. It features a crispy tender filet heavily seasoned with cayenne and black pepper, topped with spicy ghost pepper seasoned fried onions, creamy ghost pepper American cheese, and Wendy’s greatest dipping sauce: ghost pepper ranch.
Lettuce and tomato help to reign in the spicy flavors, but are overall the weakest aspect of this sandwich.
If you have a low spice tolerance, don’t worry, this sandwich isn’t quite as spicy as it sounds. But the heat does slowly build in intensity as you eat the sandwich, so keep your favorite beverage on hand to cool things down.
The Bottom Line:
This sandwich features three different layers of strong but manageable heat that are a treat for your tastebuds.
Jollibee’s chicken sandwich is a bit different than every other sandwich on the market. The breading here is cornstarch-based, giving it an airy crispiness that helps to keep the chicken juicy and tender without being dried out from over-frying.
In addition to the light texture, the breading is seasoned with garlic, onion, pepper, salt, and a slight hint of parsley. The complex umami-heavy mayo also stands out and helps to accentuate this sandwich’s savory qualities. The Bottom Line:
A great umami-rich chicken sandwich. It’s not our favorite but it’s worth experiencing if you haven’t had Jollibee before.
The Spicy Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich takes everything that works about the non-spicy variant and adds a spicy element that wraps the flavors together in a more satisfying way.
Those vegetal jalapeño notes are further accented by a cayenne-forward spicy chicken filet, which makes the heat much more pronounced. That added heat helps to de-emphasize the tangy and floral sweet notes, which I think is a better complement to the pimento cheese.
The Bottom Line:
You still get that savory, tangy, and sweet flavor profile, with a bigger emphasis on the heat.
Shake Shack probably makes the best cheeseburger on the market, and because of that, people are sleeping on the chicken sandwiches, which are also incredibly delicious. The breading on this filet is wonderfully flaky and crispy, with tender and meaty chicken well-seasoned with onion powder.
The crispy exterior acts as the perfect sponge to soak up the herbaceous buttermilk herb mayo. The pickles are crispy and have a nice snap to them, and the bun is slightly sweet and spongey.
All in all a great sandwich, but Shake Shack has an even better version.
The Bottom Line:
Delicious. A great chicken sandwich. Not quite as good as a Shake Shack burger, but better than a lot of the competition.
During the 2010s, I would’ve said Chick-fil-A easily had the best chicken sandwich in all of fast food, but in 2024 we have a few options that top this delicious sandwich.
This sandwich features crinkle-cut pickles that have a nice snap to them and offer an earthy tang with some buttery green leaf lettuce, two succulent slices of tomato, pepper jack cheese, and a chicken breast filet seasoned generously with black pepper, garlic powder, floral paprika, and cayenne pepper.
The breast filet is fried in peanut oil which helps to give it a crispy exterior — due to the high smoke point of the oil — while still keeping the chicken inside juicy and moist.
The Bottom Line:
One of the best spicy chicken sandwiches in all of fast food, period.
Popeyes Golden BBQ is the newest chicken sandwich in this ranking and one of the best. The sauce used on this sandwich is sweeter than your typical BBQ sauce, with a mix of floral peppery notes and a mellow tang in place of the smokiness you might expect from BBQ.
That sweet and tangy BBQ helps to elevate the flavor of the chicken’s breading, which has a slightly sweet flavor that combines a mix of garlic, onion, black pepper, and a gentle hint of cayenne.
The Bottom Line:
Sweet, buttery, and tangy. A great chicken sandwich.
If you need a little sweetness with your heat, the Mango Habanero Chicken Sandwich is the sandwich for you. The build features a fried breast filet tossed in a spicy, citrusy, and, sweet mango habanero sauce, lettuce, mayo, and Smashburger’s signature sweet and soft bun.
The breast filet is flattened out which helps the meat to retain a supremely tender and juicy texture. But the real highlight is the sauce, which begins with a floral sweetness and finishes bright and citrusy. Don’t expect too much heat though, despite the inclusion of habanero, this sandwich offers a very slow burn.
By the end of the sandwich, your mouth will be watering. Trust.
The Bottom Line:
A nice and fruity spin on the spicy chicken sandwich.
Dave’s Hot Chicken Slider is another chicken sandwich that uses a chicken tender in place of a filet, but where the Raising Cane’s sandwich was made from three tenders, this one features just one. That might sound like a rip-off but this is the biggest, thickest chicken tender you’ll ever come across, so it works!
The build consists of a chicken tender topped with a mix of cabbage and kale, tangy savory sauce, and pickles (you also have the option to add cheese.) It’s simple, tender, and delicious.
My only gripe is that the chicken tender is so big that most of it extends out of our sandwich, which means half of your bites will just be chicken, no bread.
Weak point aside, this is legitimately the hottest sandwich in this ranking with seven different heat levels. Our pick is “hot,” which sports a strong heat that is strong enough to feel but not so strong that it ruins your meal or feels like a challenge.
The Bottom Line:
The spiciest chicken sandwich in all of fast food.
The Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich has everything the regular Chick’n Shack has plus bacon and fresh avocado, so therefore, it’s better! Biting into this sandwich takes you into a wonderful world of texture and flavors.
The chicken and bacon combo provides a mix of crunchy textures with the avocado adding a nutty butteriness into the mix which pairs perfectly with the earthy tang of the pickles. The herb-mayo helps to bring all the flavors together, making the finish a mix of herbal, savory, and smokey flavors.
The Bottom Line:
A must-order chicken sandwich. It came so close to snagging the top spot but ultimately we went a different way for our number one pick.
Here it is, the best chicken sandwich in all of fast food. This sandwich builds on the foundation of Popeyes’ game-changing chicken sandwich by adding bacon and Havarti cheese.
Biting into this sandwich, you’re greeted with a pleasing crunch that gives way to a tender and juicy piece of chicken that is heavily seasoned with a mix of onion, garlic, and cayenne pepper. That cayenne is further accentuated by the gentle heat of a spicy sauce, which together with the bacon adds a nice smokey top note to the sandwich.
The pickles supply a nice brine-y tang while the Havarti cheese adds subtle nuttiness. This is a near-perfect sandwich. The only way to improve on this sandwich is by swapping out the bun for something a bit more elevated. But as it stands, it’s hard to complain about this sandwich. It’s a must-order and the only choice if you’re looking for the absolute best chicken sandwich in fast food.
. The Bottom Line:
The best-tasting chicken sandwich in all of fast food. Order it immediately.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds just recently released their latest album, Wild God, their 18th and their first since 2019’s Ghosteen. Speaking of things they haven’t done in a while, the band also just announced The Wild God Tour, which will feature their first North American dates since 2018.
The run starts in April 2025 with shows in Boston and Brooklyn, with those two dates featuring special guest St. Vincent. From there, the band will hit Detroit, Toronto, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, and more.
Ticket pre-sales start on September 10 at 10 a.m. local time, while the public on-sale launches September 13 at 10 a.m. local time. Find more information on the tour website.
Check out the tour dates below.
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ 2024 Tour Dates: The Wild God Tour
04/15/2025 — Boston, MA @ Agganis Arena *
04/17/2025 — Brooklyn, NY @ Barclays Center *
04/19/2025 — Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple
04/21/2025 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
04/23/2025 — Toronto, ON @ Meridian Hall
04/24/2025 — Montreal, QC @ Place Bell
04/26/2025 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Met
04/28/2025 — Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed
04/29/2025 — Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed
04/30/2025 — Milwaukee, WI @ Miller High Life Theatre
05/02/2025 — Columbus, OH @ Palace Theatre
05/04/2025 — Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory
05/05/2025 — Kansas City, MO @ Kansas City Music Hall
05/07/2025 — Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
05/10/2025 — Portland, OR @ Theater of the Clouds
05/11/2025 — Vancouver, BC @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
05/12/2025 — Seattle, WA @ The Paramount Theatre
05/14/2025 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
All it took was a mirror selfie with a reflection of song lyrics posted on Bubble for fans to begin speculating Tzuyu would be the next soloist from TWICE.
“I don’t know how they kind of connected the dots, but that’s how— I didn’t mean to drop hints, but it just turned out to be that way,” Tzuyu explains with a smile, reminiscing about the reactions she received on the artist and fan messaging app. The thought of ONCE (TWICE’s fans) doing detective work, to create theories and conspiracies to unravel who would be the member to go solo, amuses her. “I’m always surprised by how intuitive our fans are and how good they are at connecting the dots. I kind of felt frustrated because I wanted to tell them about my solo album, but I couldn’t so it was actually so much fun.”
Speculations and fan theories aside, the decision for TWICE’s youngest to be the next soloist was actually made last year, while the actual recording and production began in February of this year.
Tzuyu follows Nayeon, TWICE’s eldest member, and Jihyo, the group’s leader, as the third member to release their own solo album. “Both of them reached out to me first to say whenever I need any help, they’re going to be there for me, and they will always be cheering me on,” she disclosed. Though she forever will be the youngest in the eyes of the other eight members and their fans, she’s blossomed into a young woman, ready to take the stage on her own.
“I couldn’t tell you then [in February],” the 25-year-old singer giggles on Zoom call, referencing our last encounter for another interview, when it was disclosed that Nayeon would release her second solo project in June.
Sure, many may have seen her take on a couple of solo schedules and stages for concerts or brand endorsements over the course of TWICE’s career, but this time is literally all about her — or all aboutTZU, the title of her debut EP. aboutTZU will be a six-track solo project consisting of a colorful array of genres that piques the singer’s interest, including “Runaway”, a disco-pop lead single produced by JYP Entertainment’s executive producer and TWICE’s creator, J.Y. Park; b-sides like “Heartbreak in Heaven,” featuring Korean hip-hop/R&B artist pH-1, and “Lazy Baby” featuring BTOB’s rapper Peniel; and a self-written track titled “Fly.”
“I think this album will be a good window for people to see a new side of me,” Tzuyu says. “It incorporates a lot of different inner emotions that I have, and this album shows the side of me that is more mature, a little sexier, and emotional, and also very quirky. Just a variety of sides of me.”
Known to be one of the quiet members of TWICE, with nicknames like Yoda (for her ears) or “Savage Maknae” (youngest in Korean, for her snarky one-liners and comebacks), Tzuyu is aware of the idol persona the public perceives of her. With her debut, though, she’s taking her solo promo to her advantage and weaponizing it to break out of her shell.
“I am coddled a lot because I’m the youngest, and I am kind of known to be quiet and shy,” she acknowledges. “But I think — I hope — that this album kind of gives the fans a chance to discover new sides of me. And it’ll be great if the fans can go, ‘Wow. Tzuyu had this side? Tzuyu could be this way?’ It’ll be great to get that kind of reaction.”
“As a TWICE member, I could lean on my members to compensate for what I lack,” she continues. “But with this, I am solely responsible for everything. And I have to do everything alone, so the process wasn’t so easy.”
She shares a schedule mishap as an example of the adjustment from having eight women and a number of managers around to just herself and a few staff members for this cycle.
“There was a time where we had to shoot additionally for the music video, and it was scheduled for 2 p.m. the next day. But because of nervousness, I mistook it for 2 a.m. So, I got ready for bed at 8 p.m. the night before. I even went down to the basement parking lot to wait for my manager, and nobody was there. Nobody came. So I messaged my managers and none of them answered. And that’s when I realized that I messed up.”
There’s a shift in the atmosphere as Tzuyu finishes telling her anecdote. She’s glowing, not because of the blurred background and lightning in the conference room she’s in, or her long light brown hair complimenting her simply glammed face, but from the confidence in how she eloquently answered the questions. She’s got the type of glow up that makes you happy for her and makes you want to keep cheering her on — as if she’s your own little sister doing big things.
But, really, abouTZU is really the culmination of Tzuyu’s idol life from the beginning. She’s been independent from the get-go. Hailing from Tainan, Taiwan and being the only member from there — in a group that consists of five Korean members and three Japanese members — Tzuyu’s a tough cookie who’s gone through it all: from moving to a different country at the age of 13 and entering a reality survival show in order to debut as a K-pop star, to promoting in three different countries as a member of one of the biggest girl groups of our lifetime.
“I don’t really have any particular regrets per se, but if I could speak to my younger self, I want to tell younger me to go ahead and pursue my dream without any fear,” she reflects. “I am just so grateful when I hear that, and it kind of becomes a great motivating factor for me to do even better than I already am..”
Growing up in front of the camera isn’t an easy feat, but Tzuyu’s entrance into idoldom has inspired the likes of aspiring young idols, not just in K-pop but in other countries as well. Her advice?
“As a person who thinks a lot before trying new things, I want to tell someone who is hesitant and in fear, if you love something you just have to go ahead. And any experience, whether good or bad, is helpful. It’s nourishing, and it’ll teach you a lesson. You will learn a lot along the way, so just go ahead and don’t be afraid.”
As cliché as it may sound, it’s very Yoda of her to say.
ASAP Rocky said he wasn’t going to worry about his Drake beef on future releases, but fans believe they’ve detected some shade in his new song. “Ruby Rosary,” the new ASAP Rocky song produced by The Alchemist and featuring J. Cole, has a few lines on it that some fans believe are references to Drake and the ongoing friction between the two former friends. So…
Did ASAP Rocky Diss Drake On “Ruby Rosary?”
In his second verse, Rocky raps, “Who dared me to die? / You a dead man walkin’, like you barely alive / Cut everything but the family ties / Cut the shit, cut the lies, word to the wise / Who in your top five? / I don’t get fresh to death, bitch, I’m buried alive / I heard dawg talkin’ funny, like it’s Family Guy.”
One of the more obvious potential Drake references is “Buried Alive,” the Take Care interlude on which Drake invited Kendrick Lamar to rap, increasing Kendrick’s popularity early in the Compton rapper’s career. Obviously, the two stars’ career paths diverged greatly, culminating in this summer’s beatdown, wherein K. Dot cooked Drake repeatedly over the course of several songs.
In some of those songs, particularly “Family Matters” and “Meet The Grahams,” the two foes expended several lines referring to each others’ families, hence, a potential meaning for the “family ties” reference in “Ruby Rosary.” Of course, all this is circumstantial and thinner than a toad’s toupee, but after Drake bowed out of his rumble with Kendrick, bloodthirsty rap fans have been grasping at whatever straws they can, hoping for a crumb of conflict.
Film festivals are no stranger to controversy via polarizing fare and lengthy standing ovations, but this year’s most sensational title happens to be Demi Moore’s first horror movie since 1988’s The Seventh Sign. In this case, a fear familiar to many will form the basis for this film’s extra-gory serving of body horror that arrives with hefty doses of nudity from Moore and her co-star, Margaret Qualley.
The film, written and directed by Coralie Fargeat (Revenge), serves as a parable about wish fulfillment with graphic Cronenberg touches, and the film contains very little dialogue but has plenty to say, so film’s title works in more ways than a few. Let’s dive into the gory details on what to expect from one of the most intriguing movies of 2024.
Plot
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In The Substance, Demi Moore portrays Elizabeth Sparkle, an aging Oscar winner who has stayed relevant as a celebrity workout instructor until a TV exec named Harvey (that name is no coincidence, and he is portrayed by Dennis Quaid) has decided that she’s passed the age where being a commodity is possible. In frustration, Elizabeth decides that an experimental new product, which will create a younger version of herself and has a worthy selling point, which forms the film’s synopsis:
Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself?
You. Only better in every way.
You’ve got to try this new product.
It changed my life.
THE SUBSTANCE.
There’s a twisted Cinderella spin on this promise, however. Sue is born in the image of Margaret Qualley, and before too long, she decides to ignore the agreed-upon condition of switching places each week. You can imagine how well that decision eventually goes.
In an interview with Indiewire, Moore addressed the film’s plentiful nudity, which is “about the vulnerability.” The Ghost star also discussed the approach that The Substance takes to the split bodies and personalities:
“If you imagine – let’s take identical twins, and maybe that’s not even a good example. We had a lot of discussions trying to figure out some connections, some logic, so we were all operating from the same thinking.The best way I can think of it was that while we share consciousness, that physical body [with] a cellular memory, [each] was creating its own experience. The longer Sue had her time awake, you can kind of see the lack of regard she starts to have for Elisabeth the more times she’s in her own body.”
And recently in a more SPOILER-LADEN DISCUSSION (including details on a scene with “30,000 gallons of blood”) with with LA Times, Qualley addressed her approach to working out for months ahead of the nude scenes:
“We’re representing perfect, right?” Qualley says. “And the movie has a pretty inspired message. So I also thought it was important for that perfect to be healthy, even if it’s unrealistic. I’m fortunate that the naked stuff was at the top because throughout the five months my ass was just slowly deflating.”
Moore, unfazed by “The Substance’s” ample nudity, all of it motivated, quips, “I did admire how round Margaret’s ass was.”
On a less appealing note, Qualley revealed that she did have at least one “panic attack” while shooting some of the more stressful scenes, and “had crazy acne for a full, long-ass time.” Moore added that “I got shingles… and I then lost, like, 20 pounds” due to the film’s intensity. And the show still went on, soon to be visible in a multiplex near you.
Cast
In addition to Demi Moore as Elisabeth and Margaret Qualley as Sue, Dennis Quaid (who replaced the late Ray Liotta) portrays a TV executive named Harvey. The cast further includes Hugo Diego Garcia and Gore Abrams.
Release Date
September 20 is when the fateful first injection will arrive in theaters.
Trailer
Admit it, you can’t stop watching this, but you don’t want to either.
Last month, Flo Milli starred in True Religion’s anniversary campaign alongside NLE Choppa (viewable here). However, clothing is completely optional in the “Never Lose Me” rapper’s steamy new music video.
Today (September 6), Flo Milli shared her first solo release since her Fine Ho, Stay album in March (excluding the Bad Boys 4 soundtrack song, “Duh!”). On “Wet Dreams,” which is dropped by Jasper Hellwig, Flo Milli alongside her collaborators Coop and G, the trio explicitly raps about their sundown activity.
But, in the track’s official video, director Leff brought that sensual fantasy to life. From cinematic recreations of Pamela Anderson’s slo-mo run across the hot beach in Baywatch to a mashup of Belly’s iconic bedroom scene with Taral Hicks, the ladies leave nothing to the imagination.
Dressed in laced numbers, at times filtered by blue light, it is clear that Flo Milli, Coop, G’s racy lines are not for play. Girls just want to have fun and their intimate partners are all happier for it. But as they shake their goodies on the glass encased patio, they don’t mind others looking in.
It is unclear if this is the first taste of a project Flo Milli has hidden in her négligée but who cares — just enjoy the show.
You know you’ve made a significant contribution to society when your story inspires a Lifetime event. The Royal Family, Britney Spears, a group of pregnant friends, all of them have had their own Lifetime adaptation, and now that Taylor Swift has cemented herself into both music and NFL history, it’s time to bring her story to those who need it most: women aged 18–49 with access to basic cable.
Swift’s whirlwind romance with the Kansas City Chiefs‘ Travis Kelce has inspired a holiday love story called Christmas In The Spotlight. Not to be confused with Spotlight on Christmas, a similar movie from 2020. According to the logline, the TV movie will follow Bowyn, “a popular musician and celebrity, who despite always singing about love and relationships, hasn’t found Mr. Right yet.” But she has still found “Mr Perfectly Fine” yet?
The synopsis continues, sounding like it could be plucked straight from a song off of Red: With a work schedule making it “nearly impossible to date,” Bowyn meets Drew, a pro football player who attends her show and “publicly declares he has a crush on Bowyn, they decide to give dating a shot.” Sound familiar?
“With people questioning if their feelings for each other are real or just for show, the pressure mounts from the press, paparazzi, their fans and even their family. The pair has until the end of the holiday season to decide if they want to stay together, or let it go down in flames,” the synopsis reads. The movie stars Jessica Lord and Laith Wallschleger.
Sure, it seems like a silly thing to make a whole movie out of, but it will likely be a ratings touchdown for Lifetime. Whitney, the Angela Bassett directed Whitney Houtson biopic for the Lifetime Network managed to bring in nearly 5 million viewers when it debuted in 2015. Lately, the NFL has been using Swift in a series of promos ahead of the football season, so a Lifetime moment was bound to happen sooner or later.
Christmas In The Spotlight will hit Lifetime this holiday season.
If I had a nickel for every time a movie about ghosts starring a Stranger Things cast member played in theaters this weekend, I’d have two nickels — which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.
There’s Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, of course. But don’t overlook a new film starring Dacre Montgomery, who played Billy Hargrove on the Netflix series, that just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Directed by Samuel Van Grinsven, Went Up the Hill stars Montgomery as Jack, who “travels to a remote region of New Zealand to attend the wake of his estranged mother Elizabeth, a troubled architect who abandoned him as a child,” according to the TIFF plot summary. “Jack claims he was invited to the funeral by his mother’s widow, Jill, who has no recollection of contacting him.” Jill is played by Phantom Thread great Vicky Krieps, and she “invites Jack to stay at their house until the funeral, intrigued, as he is, for them to learn more about each other.”
Boy, did they ever learn about each other in what The Daily Beast called the “craziest sex scene of the year.”
The inability to move on means that both Jack and Jill are beholden to Elizabeth’s spirit, and they’re preyed upon throughout Went Up the Hill. This both frightens and enthralls them, and in terms of out-there perversity, it peaks early on, with Elizabeth inhabiting her son Jack in order to use his gay male body to make love to her lesbian spouse Jill. Set against a black backdrop and filmed in slow-motion, this bonkers coupling visually recalls Caravaggio, whereas a later panorama of Jack running across a nocturnal field of tall grass has a decidedly impressionistic quality.
It would be a weird coincidence if this also happened with the ghost of Bob in the final season of Stranger Things.
Went Up the Hill does not currently have a release date.
These five essential pieces from Under Armour’s Unstoppable Collection will take you from the field to the streets and everywhere in between
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