Paul Giamatti has been racking up rave reviews and award nominations for his performance in The Holdovers, but what he’s most excited about is everyone tuning into his podcast where he talks about UFOs, Bigfoot, and even time travel thanks to Tom Hanks. Over the past few months, Giamatti’s audience has increased “threefold,” and he’s itching to get back to making new episodes.
Launched last year at SXSW, the Chinwag podcast came about thanks to Giamatti and philosophy professor Stephen Asma connecting over Zoom during the pandemic. As the two started to have more lengthy conversations about paranormal activity and extraterrestrials, they realized they might have something here. More importantly, it gave Giamatti a chance to talk about anything but himself or acting.
“I know from being interviewed over the years that I often get most excited when the conversation goes off topic and I get to talk about something other than me,” Giamatti told The Hollywood Reporter. “I get bored talking about myself, or a particular project, I gotta be honest.”
Thanks to Giamatti’s Hollywood connections, he was able to book celebrity guests who were also interested in discussing eclectic topics like monsters and haunted subway tunnels:
Giamatti and Asma have covered time travel with Tom Hanks, swapped ghost stories with Billy Bob Thornton, talked cults with Kathryn Hahn, investigated the Mandela effect with Patton Oswalt, listened to Amy Sedaris gush about Japanese subways, heard Don Cheadle share how religion helps tame the ego, covered Jungian archetypes with Stephen Colbert, and listened to Natasha Lyonne double down on her belief in extraterrestrials, ghosts and bigfoot.
Unfortunately, Giamatti has been tied up with the Oscar campaign for The Holdovers, but he’s ready to get back to talking weirdo topics for his much larger audience.
“I’ll be able to fully concentrate on it again soon, because for the past three months, my attention got completely taken away,” Giamatti said. “Hopefully all these things will come to fruition in different ways.”
Every awards season has a breakout star, whether it’s an actor who earned it in the moment or just an actor who has been around long enough that they feel they deserve some sort of award. However, this year’s breakout star was a figure who actually deserves not only an Oscar, but also an Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, and Kid’s Choice Award while we’re at it.
Messi is the adorable border collie who plays Snoop in the French drama Anatomy Of A Fall. Messi won the coveted Palm Dog award at Cannes and has been making the rounds in Hollywood. Unfortunately, the pup is just too busy to attend the Oscars.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Messi will not appear at this Sunday’s ceremony, much to the dismay of everyone who has ever looked at his cute little face, which includes Ryan Gosling and Billie Eilish. He probably wouldn’t really know much about what’s going on anyway, so it’s okay if he sits this one out.
But not everyone loves the pooch! According to THR, “multiple companies” with nominated films complained to the Academy that “allowing him to attend the event gave Anatomy of a Fall an advantage during the voting window.” Have they considered that the dog was just being a cute dog with no hidden agenda?!
Meanwhile, Messi’s trainer and dog mom Laura Martin told The Hollywood Reporterthat his fame has skyrocketed since he started making the rounds in Hollywoof. Sorry, Hollywoof. “The big moment was with Billie Eilish, who bonded with Messi for almost 10 minutes. They were hugging and petting and they really had a vibe. Then Bradley Cooper bumped into him in the hallway. The dog went right to him, so they also had a connection.” It was nice that Messi went straight for Bradley Cooper so he could share some tips on how to win an award. Cooper is surely interested in that.
Even without John Blackthorne’s literary-accurate massive dong, Shōgun is a ratings hit. FX pulled out all the stops, and as a result, 9 million views in the first six days of each episode’s release says a lot in the streaming age when there’s also a buffet of every other type of show imaginable. Truly great historical epics, however, are few and far between, and between this and The Bear, the network’s Hulu partnership is bringing the views in spades.
Will there, however, be a second season of Shōgun to further James Clavell’s Asian Saga series of books? Co-creators and executive producers Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo sat down with The Hollywood Reporter, and although the husband-wife duo are thrilled with the show’s reception, they both sound wistfully prepared to bid it goodbye if there is no renewal by FX. They both would enjoy doing more, but in particular, Marks sounds content with the season finale as “a period” to this adaptation:
“We took the story to the end of the book and put a period at the end of that sentence. We love how the book ends; it was one of the reasons why we both knew we wanted to do it — and we ended in exactly that place. And I’ve been party to this in the past with shows like this, where you build a whole factory, and it only pumps out 10 cars and closes up shop. It’s a bummer.”
Kondo further declared, “It feels a lot like parenting, where you get really good at, like, washing bottles, or all the other things that babies require, and then suddenly they don’t need any of that anymore. And you’re like, ‘Aw, I got so good at that.’” So, is that a negative on a second season? Marks suggests that postproduction phases ran so long on this series, “that’s just our bodies talking. Like, do you want to have another kid right now?” In other words, fingers are crossed, but Blackthorne’s “problematically huge penis” isn’t trying to impregnate anyone else yet.
The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.
ITEM NUMBER ONE – Get ’em, Ike
The celebrities are officially coming for Jeopardy. First, a few months ago, it was Emma Stone, while she was out on the promotional tour for Poor Things, which ended up earning her a nomination at this weekend’s Oscars, saying this about her passion for the show.
“I apply every June. I don’t want to go on ‘Celebrity Jeopardy.’ I want to earn my stripes. You can only take the test once a year with your email address, and I’ve never gotten on the show. I watch it every single night and I mark down how many answers I get right. I swear, I could go on ‘Jeopardy.’”
I respected it then and I still respect it now and I still can’t get over how funny it would be for like some realtor from Minnesota to fulfill their lifelong dream of making it on Jeopardy and flying out to Los Angeles for the taping and then blammo there’s world-famous Hollywood star Emma Stone standing next to you. Think about that person’s brain in that moment. It might just melt. Tough to win a trivia contest with a melted brain. I have always said this.
And then, just this week, there was a new and fascinating development in the celeb siege of our trivia-related game shows. Ike Barinholtz, he of The Mindy Project and The Afterparty and the most recent champion of Celebrity Jeopardy, was invited to compete in the show’s Tournament of Champions and defeated two mega-champs in the first round. Like, real, legit Jeopardy champions, including 13-time winner Ray Lalonde. That… is kind of wild, right? It feels kind of wild. Not that celebrities can’t be smart. A lot of them are theater dorks at heart. But still. Good for Ike, man.
Vulture caught up with him for an interview about his early-round success in the Tournament of Champions, and I really do recommend reading it if only to get an idea of how seriously he takes this. He’s name-dropping other Jeopardy champs, citing strategy, all of it. My favorite part of the interview was this chunk, though, where he discusses how he hit the answer in Final Jeopardy that locked in his win.
How confident did you feel going into Final Jeopardy, especially after seeing the category would be “Poets of Ancient Rome”? What was going through your mind?
I knew a couple of Roman poets. I knew Virgil and Horace. But for some reason, the first name that popped into my head was Ovid. I’m definitely someone whose strengths are more aligned with art, literature, movies, and media. Have you ever seen Eyes Wide Shut?
Yeah, but it’s been a while.
There’s a first scene where Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman go to the party. That creepy Hungarian guy starts hitting on Nicole Kidman and is like, “Have you ever read Ovid and The Art of Love?” For some reason in my mind I was like, Well, Ovid is a poet, and I thought of that line. Maybe that could be okay as an answer. I was incredibly nervous. I was definitely sure Ray and Melissa were going to get it right.
Couple really cool things here. One is just how powerful it must feel to say “I knew a couple of Roman poets” in that answer. I have a college degree and a law degree and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars acquiring them and I straight-up could not name a single Roman poet if you offered me $5 billion and a cheeseburger. Everyone who played for my beloved Philadelphia 76ers since 1996? Absolutely. No problem. But a single Roman poet? Zero chance.
The second cool thing is that this is almost certainly the first time there has been a semifinalist in the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions whom I have a screencap of where the subtitle reads “[urinating intensifies].”
APPLE
So it’s a big week for both of us, really.
Me and Ike.
For different reasons.
ITEM NUMBER TWO – This is too much money for a booth
The Sopranos ended over 15 years ago with a cut to black that people are still debating and/or angry about today, which is a hell of a thing to wrap your head ahead in a few different ways. It just… ended. Boom. Done. I was confused and annoyed in the moment but have grown to like it a lot more with continued distance from it all. Tony was in that booth in Holsten’s eating ice cream, but he could have been anywhere. He was going to have his head on that swivel for the rest of his life, whether it ended right then or not, and if he never knew what was walking through the door then I can understand why we didn’t get to know either. I’m also fine with you disagreeing with me on this. We don’t have time for your counterargument right now, though, because we have to talk about the booth. Sorry.
You see, the booth Tony was sitting in during that final season was recently put up for auction by Holsten’s. The New York Times has the full story but here’s the necessary background.
Holsten’s in Bloomfield, N.J., which is preparing for a renovation, put the burgundy booth and yellow Formica tabletop up for auction on eBay on Feb. 28. Chris Carley, a co-owner of the ice cream parlor, set the opening bid at $3,000, hoping he might get $10,000 for it to help cover part of the estimated $60,000 cost for a new floor and new booths.
Okay, cool. Fine. And honestly good for Holsten’s. The scene gave them a bump in popularity and made it a necessary stop for fans of the show, but still. Running a restaurant is hard. Staying in business over the last 17 years is not nothing, especially considering what the restaurant industry has been through over the last half-decade. I support everything going on up to this point.
But here is where we must stop to ask the important question: How much did the booth go for at that auction? Did they get the $10,000? Did they get more? How much are we talking here?
Within 24 hours, the price had jumped to $52,000. By Monday afternoon, there had been more than 230 bids, pushing the price above $82,000. When the auction ended just after 7 p.m., the booth sold for $82,600.
Jesus Christ.
That is entirely too much money to spend on a booth. Any booth. Even the one Tony may or may not have been murdered in. There are so many better things you can do with $82,600. You can give it to charity. You can start a scholarship for kids from your high school to go to college. You can spend $300 to buy a regular booth that you just tell everyone is the one from The Sopranos — who is going to question something that weirdly specific??? — and then give $82,300 to me. You have so many options.
In conclusion, I am going to put together a team to steal this booth from whoever won the auction. Just to teach them a lesson. You should not spend $82,600 on a booth. We are doing them a favor, really.
ITEM NUMBER THREE – I need the collaboration between Tenacious D and Britney Spears at once
The facts here are straightforward and not in dispute:
This is a video of Tenacious D — the two-man band consisting of Jack Black and Kyle Gass — performing “Baby One More Time” by Britney Spears, which is still a perfect pop song
Last week, Jack Black and Tenacious D bandmate Kyle Gass covered “…Baby One More Time” and shared it on social media.
Now, he’s letting the ’00s icon know what a big fan he is. “Britney, if you’re watching, I love you. I love the song,” Black told Entertainment Tonight at the L.A. premiere of Kung Fu Panda 4.
“We’re very proud of it, [and] I hope you like it, too,” Black said, addressing Spears.
There’s more we need to get to here but I need you to know that this section opening with “last week” immediately lodged this song into my brain and it has not come out since. None of this should be construed in any way as a complaint.
Moving on.
ET’s Cassie DiLaura pointed out that Spears also likes posting dance videos to Instagram, and the two should collaborate. “I’m here! I’m ready when you are. I’m waiting by the phone,” Black said, again addressing Spears.
I have been a fan of both Britney Spears and Tenacious D for north of two decades now and this is the first time in my entire life that I have considered the possibility of this collaboration. I… need it. I’m not joking. This isn’t me being cutesy about a fun news item. I want them to do an entire album together. All covers. Not just their own songs, either. Like, yes, get Jack Black in the sparkly nude bodysuit from the “Toxic” video, but also let them do, like, “Islands in the Stream.”
Someone. Someone, please. You can just put this into the universe and then take it away from me. Think about it.
ITEM NUMBER FOUR – Jennifer Coolidge is the best
Getty Image
The Oscars are this weekend. You probably knew that. If not… well, surprise. But that’s not really the point here. The point here is all the stuff that goes along with the Oscars. Stuff like, for example, the Green Carpet Fashion Awards, an invite-only event co-chaired by Zendaya, Helen Hunt, and Annie Lennox, which itself would be an all-timer of a table to sit at for a wedding reception. But that’s not even really the point either.
The point is that the event was held at the 1 Hotel West Hollywood on Wednesday. Which is where Jennifer Coolidge happened to be staying the same night. So Jennifer Coolidge just, like, showed up. Even though she wasn’t on the invite list for the fancy event. Look at greatness in action.
“I am sort of an imposter here tonight,” the “White Lotus” star told the crowd. “I am just staying in the hotel. I didn’t know about this. I didn’t know it existed. I didn’t know how incredible [it is]. I got in on this in a sneaky little way. I just want you to know I am so impressed. And I am going to give some money tonight. I made great friends.”
So, as far as I can tell, one of two things happened here. Either someone working for the event noticed Jennifer Coolidge hanging around the hotel and was like “oh snap, let’s invite Jennifer Coolidge,” or Jennifer Coolidge saw some fancy Hollywood event going on and put on a nice dress and invited herself.
I can’t decide which one I like more. The second is definitely funnier — I really do like the idea of Jennifer Coolidge crashing events in the hotel she’s staying at, from fancy galas to bar mitzvahs — but the first is cool too because, like, you should invite Jennifer Coolidge to events. All of them. Let’s go ahead and consider this her official invitation to my birthday party. I don’t even have one scheduled yet. But she’s invited to whatever we settle on. I’m leaning toward… oh, let’s say Dave & Buster’s. I want to see her do one of those car-racing games. You guys can come, too, as long as you promise to be cool.
Anyway, now that I think about it all, the actual point in all of this is just that Jennifer Coolidge is the greatest. Everything else was just the build-up to that. Most things are, really. Good chat here.
ITEM NUMBER FIVE – Please be more stupid sometimes
What we have here is a very silly and half-baked little bit from Late Night where Andy Samberg showed up via Zoom and conducted an interview with Seth Meyers in character as Steve Winwood. “In character” is probably a stretch. He basically just put on a wig he found and did a C- impression of Steve Winwood singing some of his hits like “Higher Love.” It’s really just very slapped together and stupid and at one point he looks dead into the camera and says “It’s me! The real Steve Winwood!” and it made me laugh very much.
I don’t want to over-analyze the comedy right out of this but I will say one thing: I appreciate how stupid this is. A lot of late-night comedy is very political because, well, look around. But it’s also really nice that a big-time network show that just had the President on found time to throw something this silly against the wall, too. There’s room for that stuff. There has to be. Otherwise, we’ll all go bonkers. It’s a public service in a way, which is a hell of a thing to say about a dumb bit where Andy Samberg is unsure if the dude he’s impersonating is British or American. Whatever. I stand by it.
More like this, please.
READER MAIL
If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.
From Eric:
I suggested to my wife that Maria’s Dad [from this season of The Bachelorette] should be in every movie. Drama, comedy, horror, don’t care.
Also, I feel like he must have been in a band with Bret Michaels.
Skim through til you get this guy, the producers using Godfather-like music underneath is chef’s kiss.
Okay, I was skeptical here. I am not a Bachelor or Bachelorette fan and I find a lot of the stuff there to be contrived and weird, which I know is not the high ground I should be trying to stake right after singing a love song to that Steve Winwood bit up there, but whatever. I’m happy for people who enjoy it and I mean no one any ill-will over how they get their harmless kicks, but yeah. Not for me.
But then I watched the video Eric sent with the email. Please skip ahead to about the 3:30 mark. Look at this man.
Three notes here:
Hair
Shirt
Voice
I love this man. He looks like if college football coach Mike Gundy had an older brother who was really into reptiles. That reference might be too specific for some of you but I promise it’s pretty good.
A man who took his dog out for a walk in France two years ago made an astounding discovery — one that he’s been keeping a secret, until now.
In 2022, Damien Boschetto stumbled upon a massive, 70 million-year-old fossil that turned out to be a nearly complete skeleton of a long-necked titanosaur, he told ABC News.
This is nice and all but I’m already annoyed that we’re not giving the dog the 50 percent credit he deserves here. He was there, too. It was his walk. Let’s not just gloss over that.
Boschetto — who has a “self-taught passion” for paleontology — discovered the exposed bone fossils, which led to the excavation of a 70% complete, 30-foot-long fossilized titanosaur.
“It happened one morning like any other, during an ordinary walk,” Boschetto told local FranceBleu in February. “While walking the dog, a landslide on the edge of the cliff exposed the bones of various skeletons.”
“THE DOG”?
I THINK HE HAS A NAME, DAMIEN
THIS IS AN OUTRAG
Boschetto, along with members of the Archaeological and Paleontological Cultural Association (ACAP) at the Cruzy Museum, kept the findings secret in order to protect the paleontological site while they excavated the massive skeleton.
YOU KNOW WHO ELSE KEPT IT A SECRET?
THE DOG
WHOSE NAME I AM JUST GOING TO GO AHEAD AND ASSUME IS ROCKY
WHICH I HAVE TO ASSUME BECAUSE HE IS NOT IDENTIFIED BY NAME A SINGLE TIME IN THIS ENTIRE ARTICLE
HE FOUND A DINOSAUR
YOU CALL THIS JOURNALISM?
I AM DISGUSTED
Since his discovery two years ago, Boschetto said he’s left his job in the energy sector and now hopes to pursue a master’s degree in paleontology to continue his work in Cruzy.
In 2022, as GloRilla’s breakout hit “FNF (Let’s Go)” dominated playlists and airwaves, fans breathlessly speculated about which of her fellow rap it-girls would appear on the track’s heavily anticipated remix. When it did come out, they got a surprise: while it had originally been billed to feature Saweetie, the released version instead featured JT of City Girls and Latto.
The abrupt change led to rumors that GloRilla and Saweetie had some behind-the-scenes issue — rumors that GloRilla did her best to brush off later that year. But at last night’s Billboard Women In Music Awards, the two rappers shared a sweet moment backstage that should put the rumors to rest once and for all. In a video making the rounds on social media, GloRilla appears to have noticed Saweetie walking by as she posed for photos. Ditching the shoot, Glo traipses over to intercept Saweetie and they exchange kind words and hugs.
At some point during the night, they also posed for Getty photographer Michael Buckner, resulting in a raft of pics of the pair embracing. It looks like they’re on relatively decent terms, so while there’s still no explanation on why the “FNF” remix didn’t feature Saweetie, perhaps we’ll get another collaboration instead.
Saweetie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Despite House Speaker Mike Johnson begging his fellow Republicans to act with decorum, Marjorie Taylor Greene showed up to the State of the Union address ready to heckle. While decked out in full MAGA garb, the Georgia congresswoman was fully prepared to put on a spectacle. Instead, she got shut down by President Joe Biden in a viral moment for the ages.
While greeting politicians on the House floor, Biden encountered Greene who expected to have a “gotcha” moment with the president thanks to Greene’s “Say Her Name” T-shirt referencing the death of Laken Riley, a nursing student from Georgia who was allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant. Instead, Biden displayed an impressive level of comedic timing by reacting to Greene with mock surprise before walking away with a grin.
The moment immediately went viral thanks to Biden’s hilarious facial reaction, which flew in the face of increased talking points surrounding the president’s age. However, Biden didn’t stop there either. During his State of the Union address, he called Greene’s bluff by saying Laken Riley’s name and holding up a pin that the congresswoman gave him.
It was a moment that Republicans should’ve seen coming considering Biden’s well-documented history of bipartisanship, but this latest batch of MAGA-infused GOP congress critters aren’t exactly the brightest bunch.
You can see more reactions to Biden clowning Greene below:
Cardi B is done letting anxiety get the best of her. With her long-awaited sophomore album slated to drop this year, she has a mountain of music to serve to fans. Her Missy Elliott-approved “Like What (Freestyle)” was just the start. Yesterday (March 7), Cardi took to Instagram to tease her follow-up record, “Miami.”
As a Bronx native, Cardi pulled inspiration for the tropical city for the forthcoming fiery track. From the studio, Cardi B shared an extended snippet of the record, and she’s giving major Gangsta B*tch Music, Vol. 3 energy. “Look, I see my opps linkin’ up / I’m like, ‘What in the f*ck?’ / If you scared then just say that / Ho, enough is enough / They was just in my DM’s / Ain’t no trustin’ these sluts / I’m about to call up Diamond / B*tch, knuck if you buck,” she raps.
According to the simple caption, the song will drop next Friday, March 15. Cardi B’s previous single, “Bongos,” with Megan Thee Stallion, was a take on Brazilian funk. For “Miami,” Cardi B is looking to bring back to the gritty streets of New York.
“Miami” is due out 3/15 via Atlantic Records. Find more information here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Eminem is one of the most recognizable rappers in the world today, but back in 1999, his debut video for “My Name Is” completely shocked the world. A relative unknown at the time the video dropped, Eminem quickly became a figure of fascination — and controversy –primarily because of the video. It featured imaginative visuals, provocative lyrics, and in perhaps most unusually at the time (at least to the mainstream masses), a white guy who rapped really well. The video boggled the minds of the American public, who still largely thought of Vanilla Ice’s parachute pants when the words “white rapper” came up in conversation.
For the video’s 25th anniversary, Eminem revisited the video with Vevo, revealing some of the secrets of its making via footnotes (for my fellow millennials, think VH1 Pop-Up Videos). In addition to being only the second video of Em’s then-nascent career, it was also a prime case of art reflecting life; in the footnotes, Em jokes that he may or may not have been on ecstasy during the filming.
“If you look closely at my eyes during the scene where I was dressed like Bill Clinton, it may look like I was high on ecstasy during that part of the shoot,” he wrote. “… but that’s just a rumor.”
You can check out the “My Name Is” video above and the Vevo “Footnotes” video below.
Charles Barkley‘s deep, years-long aversion of social media came to an end recently when he finally got convinced to join Instagram. As Chuck basically explained, being on social media in some capacity could help him in professional pursuits that go beyond appearing on television and trying to get Shaquille O’Neal to laugh really hard, so he’s now on IG even though he clearly is baffled as to how any of this works.
During last week’s edition of Inside the NBA, Shaq tried really hard to get Barkley to put #OnlyFans on every post he made — Kenny Smith was there to help, uh, make sure he doesn’t do that. And this week, Inside did a little check-in on how all of this is going for Chuck, who still is trying to learn on the fly.
The segment starts with Barkley getting asked if he knows how to go live, which, he does not. They went through the rest of the segment, and at the end, both Smith and Shaq convinced him that he should go live. Here’s how that went:
Of course, this is not what going live on IG is — Barkley just recorded a video and posted it. Here’s hoping that sometime in the next few weeks, we are, indeed, able to get Charles Barkley going live on Instagram in between games, because I imagine that would be very funny.
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
This series originally streamed on Max and found new life after moving over to Netflix for its second season of U.S.-based streaming. Jamie Dornan’s character took a hell of a road trip in the Australian Outback and has now crossed a few ponds to land in Ireland, where he’s attempting to make progress against those ultra-bad dudes who want to take his also-bad dude self off the map. At least Dornan can rest assured that he has escaped those Fifty Shades movies, even if his character here can’t outrun everything.
Netflix’s reigning rom-com queen Gina Rodriguez is back at it. This one kind of flips things on its head, though. Now it’s the ladies who are out partying and having one-night stands with no intention of settling down. At first. Will there be a twist? Maybe a meet-cute that makes our main character question everything they’ve believed to that point in their life?
Let’s go straight to Prime Video’s official description for this one: “This Is Me…Now is like nothing you’ve ever seen from Jennifer Lopez. Alongside director Dave Meyers, Jennifer has created a narrative-driven, cinematic original which showcases her journey to love through her own eyes.”
Hmm. As long as it features a minimum of 20 visits to Dunkin’ with her longtime partner Ben Affleck, we can support this.
Tom Hollander (not Tom Holland) stars in Ryan Murphy’s latest FX creation that’s already dubbed itself the tale of the “Original Housewives of New York.” Hollander plays Truman Capote (yes, that Truman Capote) a writer with a standing invitation to the brunch table of New York’s wealthiest women. He trades on his status as their confidante, writing a book about the scandals and secrets harbored within their Upper East Side brownstones which leads to an all-out society war that no one escapes unscathed. Come for the clothes, stay for the drama and the veteran actresses like Demi Moore, Calista Flockhart, and Naomi Watts who make this thing so deliciously messy.
17. American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders (Netflix)
NETFLIX
A four-part true crime series that, per Netflix, “follows journalist Danny Casolaro’s mysterious death while probing an alleged conspiracy called “The Octopus” linking spy software theft, unsolved murders and major 20th-century scandals.” If your own life and the various spy shows and movies aren’t enough to freak you out thoroughly, this one could be a winner.
Paul Giamatti is picking up awards left and right for his performance in Alexander Payne’s latest film, which is great. For Paul Giamatti. But also for us. Like, as a society. Look at this: “A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school remains on campus during Christmas break to babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school’s head cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War.”
Our official position here is twofold: one, we support anything where Paul Giamatti gets to be curmudgeonly; two, we love to see Paul Giamatti thrive. This checks both boxes.
Two important things to know here. The first is that the premise of it all, summarized by Apple as “the story of how fashion icon Christian Dior and his contemporaries, including Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain and Cristóbal Balenciaga, navigate the horrors of World War II and launch modern fashion,” sounds interesting.
The second is that the cast is straight-up loaded. Ben Mendelsohn, Maissie Williams, John Malkovich, etc. They really went all out on this one. That’s commendable.
The Sandman is the Spaceman. Adam Sandler stars in Spaceman, a science-fiction drama from director Johan Renck (Chernobyl) about a lonely astronaut who realizes his wife (played by Carey Mulligan) might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth. Desperate to fix things, he gets advice from a mysterious talking spider voiced by Paul Dano, as one does. Spaceman is very odd and very sad, and Sandler is very good in it.
Kate Winslet as an unhinged autocrat in a problematic power struggle with her unpredictable mold-eradicating henchman that may or may not spark the downfall of an entire nation? Sign us up. As Elena Vernham, the chancellor of an authoritarian regime in fictional Europe, Winslet smooths over fascist ideals with maternal platitudes while insulating herself from the real problems of the world. It’s only when her home begins crumbling (literally) and her dead father begins haunting its halls (not so literally?) that her iron grip loosens enough for the vultures to sweep in.
Yes, there’s been a live-action adaptation of this IP already. And yes, people overwhelmingly prefer the Nickelodeon animated series, but here is another reimagining that will hopefully make everyone forget about that M. Night Shyamalan project. The setup will be familiar, of course. The story takes place in a world where the four nations (represented by the elements of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air) no longer live in harmony. Fire Nation destroyed the Air Nomads, and one young Air Nomad (Aang) must now ascend to his rightful ruling position and restore peace between the elements and realms. The Fire Nation is very angry, however, so watch out, Aang and friends.
24 years, 12 seasons, and countless social assassinations; Curb Your Enthusiasm is set to begin its end, promising a season filled with familiar faces (Ted Danson, Richard Lewis, Cheryl Hines, Vince Vaughn, JB Smoove) and misanthropic delights as Larry David readies to walk off into the sunset so he can strangle more muppets or do whatever else he does when he isn’t kvetching about required niceties and other peccadilloes. Whether this season will be funny is not in question. Whether Larry’s “character” makes it out alive is.
No streaming service is doing sci-fi quite like Apple TV+ and this entry into the genre continues that winning streak. Starring Noomi Rapace as an astronaut who survives a disaster in space only to return to a slightly off-kilter existence on Earth, Constellation is the kind of mind-melding thriller that sparks those most philosophical of questions: What? Why? Huh? More timeline hopping, government conspiracies, a truly fed-up Jonathan Banks, and some exquisitely directed Scandinavian night shots elevate the central mystery propelling most of the action here, as does Rapace who plays a woman on the brink in the most heartbreaking of ways.
Rick Grimes has been missing from TV screens for a handful of years and in The Walking Dead timeline for over a decade. Now, Michonne is about to save his ass and hopefully torch the CRM while she’s at it. Too much? Nah, this franchise went off the rails a long time ago, and that’s part of the fun. This spinoff ends up being a worthy love story within the parameters of this world, and existing viewers will adore it. Meanwhile, Daryl is still in France, now with added Carol, so they won’t be reinforcements for the “Save Rick” cause, but we can hope for a reunion.
Netflix’s take on this Guy Ritchie banger takes the best part of the crime thriller – the wild accents, the aristocratic drug smuggling enterprise, the suits – and expands on them, trading the frenetic energy of his two hour movie for a more interesting character study disguised as a posh power play. Theo James’ Duke inherits his family’s land, title, and (unknowingly) their stake in a criminal underground filled with the nastiest of characters, all captained by Kaya Scodelario playing a well-dressed, dubiously motivated mob boss with some fantastic one-liners. Should Guy Ritchie have been doing TV all along?
Millie Bobby Brown, kicks some dragon (and royalty) ass after discovering that she’s marrying a prince whose family decides to sacrifice her to a dragon as part of an enormously screwed-up ritual. This twisted fairy tale arrives in conjunction with Evelyn Skye’s novel (based on the film), and both prioritize world-building, so this movie should fly high on the streaming charts.
Emma Stone absolutely cooking in an awards-collecting movie about a lady who is brought back to life by a mad scientist and promptly starts skipping across continents on a journey of liberation
Emma Stone working with director Yorgos Lanthimos again
Did we really need a reimagining of the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie? Watch the first few episodes, and you might agree that this effort was not wasted. Donald Glover and Maya Erskine pick up as assassins who happen to be paired together (and “married”), and you aren’t ready for the rollicking, madcap, action-packed set of missions that they must complete (or else?). Even better: John and Jane Smith’s onscreen relationship is as much of daredevil stunt as the action scenes.
School’s back in session at Abbott Elementary and the show has made some big changes after the romantic cliffhanger that ended season two. Janine has a new job (and a new love interest), Gregory’s struggling to move on, Josh Segarra from The Other Two is auditing classrooms, and Ava Coleman is a Harvard (adjacent) graduate. Lord help Mrs. Howard. After a longer-than-expected hiatus it’s nice to see the Emmy-winning comedy reinventing itself instead of resting on its laurels, but don’t worry, there are plenty of Janelle James one-liners and Tyler James Williams pans to camera to keep things comfortably familiar.
Bottoms is a screwball comedy about two gay teenage girls who start a high school fight club as a ploy to hook up with their cheerleader crushes. Ayo Edebiri is in it. So is Marshawn Lynch. There are acts of vandalism set to 80s bangers and football players in cages and none of it makes any sense but it’s absolutely worth just rolling with it.
This one is a blast. And it’s streaming on the same website you bought your coffee maker on. The future is kind of wild.
With this historical biopic, Christopher Nolan unknowingly created an atomic amuse-bouche for a double-feature blockbuster viewing experience that saved cinema last year. But, watching Cillian Murphy’s cheekbones cut glass as he chain-smokes his way to becoming Death, Destroyer of Worlds for three-plus hours is just as much fun at home as it was in a packed movie theater. Sporting a packed line-up of A-list talent (hello future Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr.), a bone-rattling score, and some clever monochromatic cinematography to distinguish between its multiple timelines, Oppenheimer has more than earned its place on every nominations list this awards season. Now, go enjoy it in the way Nolan intended – streaming on Peacock.
Shogun really is that good. A historical epic set in feudal Japan that follows an English pilot (Cosmo Jarvis) who washes ashore during a time of political strife, it takes the kind of storytelling swings you just wouldn’t expect. Its most fascinating characters speak almost exclusively in subtitles (hello Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawaii, and Moeka Hoshi), its action sneaks up on you, and its political intrigue is cutthroat. It’s Game of Thrones with samurais and it should be on everyone’s must-see list.
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