With the pandemic raging in many corners of the U.S. and full-on lockdowns on the verge of returning, it’s pretty safe to say no one is going to have a “normal” August. Even when talking about camping, we have to be very careful with how we go out and enjoy nature. Your safety is not yours alone. We need to pull together to ensure the safety of one another.
In the practical sense, that means no indoor dining, wear a freaking mask, no parties/ concerts/ public gatherings, and no flights unless your need to travel supersedes the risk (if you have to ask, it probably doesn’t). But you can still have whiskey and you can still get outside. See? It’s not all bad!
If you choose to go camping this summer, find a spot far away from other campers (BLM land!), shop and fuel up beforehand, bring hand sanitizer, pack extra masks, and don’t forget the whiskey. Drink it straight, on the rocks, or in your go-to cocktail, and let it help you forget about how long it took you to put the tent up.
To find the perfect whiskey for your “no contact” summer trip, we asked some of our bartender pals for their favorite tentside bottles.
High West Campfire
John Marchetti, bartender at Dr. BBQ in St. Petersburg, Florida
High West Campfire truly is the world’s only blend of bourbon, rye, and scotch. Best sipped with a splash or two of water, this complex, blended whiskey is best enjoyed with old friends. I don’t know where to start on the notes because there are so many. Think vanilla, honey, toffee, chai spices, nutmeg, cinnamon, and orange zest.
This blended whiskey finishes long, sweet, spicy, and — best of all — smoky.
I’ve really been digging on Blackened Whiskey. It’s a rad blend of bourbons and ryes, hand-selected by the late and great acclaimed Dave Pickerell. Predominantly bourbon, the sweetness of the juice works perfectly with the rye’s savory spice. Definite notes of honey, cinnamon, and allspice all combine with an unexpected smooth apricot note lingering underneath.
Blackened is an unexpected-yet-ultimately-crowd-pleasing dram, appealing to many discerning palates — especially in the summer around a campfire. In my opinion, it’s perfect as a neat sipper, on the rocks, in an old fashioned, mixed with soda water, or in a mule.
Camping deserves something smokey — definitely a peaty Scotch. I would say Lagavulin 12. Drinking smoky spirits like this next to the campfire is absolutely magical.
Joseph Magnus’ Murray Hill Club
Melissa Reigle, beverage manager and head bartender at Byblos in Miami
Camping is for stories and bourbon is for long, winding stories. And if you want a long rich bourbon with a phenomenal story, Joseph Magnus’ Murray Hill Club is for you. Almost a century after prohibition, the Magnus family found a single bottle of Murray Hill. They approached Nancy Fraley — a professional whiskey “noser” — and she was so impressed that she helped the family replicate the recipe.
These days, the family has a rich cache of memorabilia and stories, as well as an award-winning bourbon.
Pinhook Rye’d On
Steve Livigni, food and beverage partner at Hotel June in Los Angeles
I really like the whiskeys this brand is putting out. The newest release ‘Rye’d On’ is delicious, very flavorful at 97 proof, but not palate charring. The packaging is great too.
Smoke with smoke doesn’t go too well together. My feeling is that you want something that is lighter on the palate. This sip starts you off with smooth tones of maple, oak, and nutmeg then finishes off with a light toffee flavor — making it perfect to sip around a bonfire.
WRITER’S PICKS:
Baker’s Bourbon
One of Jim Beam’s small batch collection, Baker’s is aged for seven years and sits at a potent 107 proof. It’s full of rich vanilla, sweet honey, and subtle spice, making it a breeze for summer sipping after a long day of hiking.
Laphroaig 10
After an afternoon spent swimming in a lake, you’re probably going to want to relax in a comfortable chair while you warm yourself on a campfire. A smoky fire deserves an equally smoky whisky. Laphroaig 10 is the perfect juice for the job because it’s full of robust peat smoke, sweet caramel, and subtle ocean brine.
An effort she has teased for the past month, Beyonce, in partnership with Disney+, is preparing to release her upcoming visual film Black Is King exclusively on the streaming platform. As revealed when the film was originally announced, the film will present a second look at the lessons learned in last year’s The Lion King remake, which Beyonce co-starred and for which she produced the soundtrack. In taking this second look, Black Is King will aim to help “today’s young kinds and queens in search of their own crowns.” After a pair of trailers that gave viewers a look into the film, Beyonce returned with a third and final look before the film’s premiere.
Sharing it to her Instagram page, Beyonce delivered the Black Is King trailer, one that featured a narration from herself. “To live with no reflection for so long,” she began seconds into the new trailer. “Might make you wonder if you truly even exist.” Following this narration, the trailer would go on to preview the first song from Beyonce set to appear on the upcoming visual album. The latest preview follows last week’s star-studded trailer, one that saw appearances from Jay-Z, Kelly Rowland, Naomi Campbell, Tina Knowles-Lawson, and more.
The latest trailer serves as the latest piece of content from Beyonce aimed at highlighting and celebrating Black lives at a higher level. Prior to the initial Black Is King, Beyonce celebrated Juneteenth with a new track “Black Parade.”
Sabrina Ionescu is the expected future of the WNBA, as the 2020 first overall pick by the New York Liberty had a record-breaking college career at Oregon and has been considered the consensus top WNBA prospect for two seasons, after deciding in 2019 to return to school for her senior season.
The WNBA schedule did her few favors for her debut appearance, as the Liberty had to face the 2018 champs in the Seattle Storm in Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird’s first games back after missing last season with injuries. The Storm blitzed Ionescu from the start and applied tremendous pressure to her, giving her few easy looks and trying to force the ball out of her hands. While there were flashes of her immense talent, it was a tough first game, but on Wednesday night she bounced back in a major way against the Dallas Wings with 33 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists.
The Liberty lost, 93-80, despite Ionescu’s efforts, which is expected to happen a good bit this season as the Liberty try to rebuild with an extremely young team around Sabrina. Still, it was great to see Ionescu show all the facets of her game that made her such a start at Oregon and the presumptive next face of the WNBA. She got it going from three-point range, hitting 6-of-10 from distance, and was 11-of-20 from the field overall, while also showing off her tremendous vision to set up her teammates.
Getting the rest of the team going will be the challenge for the Liberty, as Layshia Clarendon was the only other member of the Liberty to score in double figures with 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting as New York shot just 42.5 percent from the field as a team.
For the young Wings, it was Arike Ogunbowale who led the way with 20 points, along with 13 from Moriah Jefferson, and 12 each from Katie Lou Samuelson and Ionescu’s former Oregon teammate Satou Sabally.
The game featured 10 rookies in total, a record for a WNBA game, as some of the league’s bright future was on display in Bradenton. Dallas was able to pick up its first win of the season and even their record at 1-1, and while New York will enter Friday’s game against Atlanta at 0-2, Ionescu offered a reminder of her tremendous talents and why there’s plenty of reason for optimism with the Liberty’s future around her.
As the NBA prepares to embark on its eight-game seeding restart in the Disney bubble on Thursday night, players continue to try and keep attention on the fight for social justice and the need to address systemic racism throughout American society.
The league is working on various initiatives to use its resources to help address those problems, most notably discussions with the NBPA on a foundation that will be funded with a reported $300 million to go to various areas of need (with the NBPA being a part of deciding where funding goes). While that is yet to be finalized, players continue to use their platform of post-game press conferences to emphasize the need for justice for Breonna Taylor, calling on the Kentucky attorney general to file charges against the officers who shot her while she was sleeping, and also offering other messages to the community.
Jaylen Brown has been a prominent voice throughout his career on social issues, and was part of organizing a protest march in his hometown of Atlanta after the murder of George Floyd by police sparked nationwide protests against police brutality. On Wednesday, Brown opened his availability with a two-minute statement, again calling for justice for Breonna Taylor and also issuing a plea for people to get out and vote — while also addressing one of the major reasons people in the Black community sometimes feel like voting doesn’t matter.
Breonna Taylor. Voting. Using his platform to inspire and educate.
Here is Jaylen Brown’s thoughtful opening statement before an engaging media session that centered largely on the quest for change. pic.twitter.com/WrpN2PagtY
“I want to continue to demand justice for Breonna Taylor. I want that to continue to be reiterated while I’m down here. Also, I want to encourage people in my community to get out and vote. Not just for presidential elections, but state representatives, elected officials, etc. I think there’s a lot of power in coming together and voting. Especially in the Black community, politicians have made empty promises to the Black community year after year after year, and they think it’s OK and acceptable, and it’s not. So, I want to emphasize that we gotta continue to vote. We gotta come together and use our power and utilize it in the right manner. I want to inspire people in Georgia, where I’m from, Marietta, Gwinnett county, Boston, Massachusetts, Dorchester, Roxbury, Oakland, East Oakland, West Oakland, wherever my influence reaches I want people to vote. There’s a lot of power in exercising that and we gotta use it. So I want to continue to emphasize that, cause we’ve got to get some of these guys out of office who don’t care or don’t think it’s appropriate that we are trying to end systemic racism.
“I want to make voting a strength. I want to use my platform. I want to have people come together and talk about it. I understand the apprehension from the African-American community. Politicians have been making empty promises as well as people feeling like why would I participate in a political system that hasn’t necessarily participated with me. But I believe in small victories, and getting those guys [out] and the right people into office, I think a lot of that is voting. Let’s continue to express that. Let’s continue to lead in that direction and I want to use my platform to inspire people to use their influence, whatever color, whatever race, it’s always important, especially in the Black community, let’s exercise our power and get out and vote.”
Brown points out a problem that often leads to voter apathy, particularly within the Black community and other minority communities, which is how there can be no candidates on the ballot who are directly engaging with those communities and speaking on the issues that are most important to them. It’s something he understands, and needs to be addressed at a party level with bringing in more diverse candidates who are willing to engage in conversations and issues that impact these communities.
There are far more reasons why voter turnout can be low, including various voter suppression tactics that can cause tremendous wait times at polling places in minority communities to policies like Florida’s law that forces ex-felons to pay any fines still owed to the state before being allowed to vote. The latter issue is something LeBron James’ “More Than A Vote” campaign is looking to address, raising funds to pay off those debts and rid that hurdle for voters.
Brown’s other point of emphasizing the need to vote at a local level is important as well, because while national politics dominate news coverage, it is the local elections that often dictate the policies that most impact these communities and is also the beginning of the path to introducing more diverse candidates to the experience that can get them to larger positions.
Ask any group of women if they’ve ever been touched inappropriately by a stranger, and most will have a story to tell. While there is some gray area when it comes to occasional bumps or grazes in public, there are some situations that are so blatantly gropey, there can be no question as to what’s happening.
Some men (and yes, some women) simply cannot seem to keep their hands to themselves, and some will go out of their way to get their creepy fingers on someone else’s body. Gross, but true.
A thread on Reddit highlighted this fact when a woman who goes by the handle “thestashattacked” described what happened to her when she was swimming laps at the pool.
“So I’m lap swimming, and we have 7 swim lanes. 7. That is a ridiculous number of lanes. And, as per usual at this time in the morning, they’re all occupied. Now, usually, you share lanes under these circumstances. Not a problem.
Except this time I’m somehow the only woman swimming, in the crappy shallow lane.
Man comes in, and wants to swim. That’s fine. He has to share a lane (which is risky due to COVID anyway), but he won’t share with any of the men in the good lanes.
No, he absolutely has to share with the only woman in the pool. And of course, every time we pass he has to graze his hand across my ass.
Eventually, I told him if he couldn’t keep his hands to himself, I’d either start hitting, or he could move to another lane. I was here first, and the only reason he came into this lane is that there’s a woman here. Seriously, this is the worst lane.
(Yes, the lifeguard told him to get out after I yelled at him. Apparently he’s way more obvious about the groping when you can see it from outside the water.)”
Choosing the crappiest lane because it’s the only one with a woman in it is no accident. When you’re swimming in the same lane as someone, it’s natural that you may accidentally bump or graze them, but groping someone’s butt every time you pass is also no accident. It’s sexual assault. It doesn’t matter how quick it was, whether he “grabbed” or “grazed,” or whether it was one second or three. Repeatedly putting your hands on a woman’s behind as she swims by is sexual assault. Full stop.
This woman’s story inspired others to share their own experiences with similar Gropy McGropertons, and they’re all just as infuriating.
“I had this shit happen to me when I was just 14 years old. I was hanging around at a local mall by myself (I’d done this plenty of times before without incident). I was looking at clothing on a rack and some older guy walked past me and grazed my ass.
I’m a young kid, so I thought it was accidental at first, but every time I went somewhere else this creep would follow me around the mall. It was about equal parts infuriating and scary.
Finally I found a group of girls around my age and quickly explained what was happening. They were so great — they immediately grasped the situation and formed a wall around me for the rest of the day. They’d ask where I wanted to go next and then we all went there in a group. Several of them pulled out small items that could be used as weapons in case the creep tried to get too close to us — keys held between the fingers, metal nail files, things like that. Creepy guy didn’t dare to approach after that, and he finally left us alone.
I’ll always be grateful to those girls. They were amazing.”
Creepy stalker dudes are familiar to most women at some point in their lives. Good for that group of girls for sticking together and protecting her. But seriously, that should not have to happen.
“When I was about eleven/twelve I was at a swimming pool party in a indoor place you could rent out. Bunch of kids there and we were all having fun. Myself and my cousin went to the super deep end to play that game where you toss items to the bottom and pick them up.
Anyways, this older dude decided he wanted to play with us and my cousin and I thought that was cool that an adult wanted to play a game.
We dive once, old dude rubs up on top of me at the bottom. His crotch was aggressively shoved against my butt, his full weight pushed me to the bottom of the pool. I think that’s weird, but that he was just really into the game and was trying to grab the ring. We dive a second time. Same thing. Third and fourth time this dude keeps rubbing on me. Full body rub too, he got better about it as we dove more.
Finally I decide to test it to see if he is just into the game or if he is actually molesting me. So when we count down for the dive I wait and give my cousin a head start then dive again. Dude waited and rubbed on me again. I finally just had enough and got out of the pool and refused to play again. Stopped swimming the whole day and never went back to that place again.
Place was FULL of parents and other adults and lifeguards. Not a single person noticed this guy feeling me up because it was the pool. Because I was young and didn’t know better I didn’t tell anyone.
I wish I had screamed at that guy and called the cops. Good on you.
“Yup it’s weird. When I was on my club team one boy grazed my crotch during backstroke not one or two but THREE TIMES and when I called him out for it the guys just shrugged it off giving some bs excuse. Got fully credit carded once and another time a boy actually somehow stuck his hand in my suit (touched my belly) from the next lane. Like touching someone’s feet is an accident, flip turning and head butting someone is an accident, but I’ve never groped anyone especially by “accident” during a practice.”
I” was a competitive swimmer throughout school, and this was always so bad. Well, ok it was worst on my high school swim team, not so much on my year-round team. But anyways, fuck those guys, and fuck that guy. I had this one guy on my high school team who was the worst perpetrator. He would be standing at the wall while everyone else was swimming and when I’d do my flip-turn, he’d always touch me somehow trying to grope me. I finally yelled loud enough for the ENTIRE POOL to hear, ‘If you touch me again, or if you are still standing on the wall in the way of everyone swimming, I WILL flip-turn ON TOP OF YOU and kick you as hard as I can.’ The next swimmeet, that same guy stuck his hand INSIDE MY SWIMSUIT FROM THE BACK AND CARESSED MY STOMACH. WHILE I WAS TALKING TO MY PARENTS ON THE BALCONY.”
What the heck. What did this guy go on to do after high school?
“Keep your hands to yourself” is basic kindergarten etiquette that anyone should be able to follow. We should not have to have awareness campaigns to keep women’s bodies from being fondled without their permission. Yes, men’s bodies too. It’s not that hard to not be a creep, regardless of your sex or gender.
Verzuz‘s livestream “battles” have served as the core of hip-hop entertainment for the last two months, and on top of letting rappers face of against each other, they’ve also given them an excuse to look back on their careers. After his battle with DMX, Snoop Dogg sat down with the folks at The Breakfast Club to share another gem from his lengthy career.
During his Breakfast Club interview, Snoop talked about how Dre flew Jay-Z out and he wrote ALL of “Still Dre” in under a hour pic.twitter.com/9TKJHXlbq1
After being asked whether he preferred to write his songs himself or to have others do it for him, Snoop shared a surprising tidbit from one of his classic records. He said he and Dr. Dre spent days struggling to write the song. Finally Dre flew someone in from New York to the Los Angeles studio. It only took this guest 30 minutes to write the song, which Snoop deemed “flawless.” And that person? No less than Jay-Z.
Jay-Z was credited for his work on the song, but to the surprise of The Breakfast Club hosts, they were unaware that he actually wrote it all. Snoop then said that Jay-Z’s ability to pen a west coast hit as an east coast act came from his love of Dr. Dre.
“Jay-Z is a great writer to begin with for himself, so imagine him striking it for someone he truly loves and appreciates,” Snoop said. “He loves Dr. Dre and that’s what his pen showed you, that I can’t write for you if I don’t love you.”
You can see a clip from Snoop’s interview with The Breakfast Club in the tweet above.
The issues go well beyond Hong Kong’s protests, where citizens call for a full democracy after beginning as protests against an extradition bill that would have brought some criminal cases to mainland China, which many believed would lead to unfair trials and put journalists and others who have been critical of the Chinese government at risk. China is also under increased scrutiny by many as the country commits human rights atrocities in the Xinjiang region where thousands of Uighur Muslims are being detained in concentration camps.
The NBA, which operates a multi-billion dollar enterprise in China, has found itself as the public face of the ethical dilemma of U.S. companies — particularly those that have taken strong social justice stances — doing business in a country that actively suppresses its people. Morey’s tweet, which happened while the Lakers and Nets were in China preparing for exhibition games, and the subsequent response of the Chinese government, brought these issues to the national discourse. It also sparked an ESPN investigation into NBA China, particularly into its academies, one of which had operated in the Xinjiang region but the league says was closed in 2019.
According to the ESPN report that came out on Wednesday, a number of American coaches at these academies reported instances of players being physically abused by Chinese coaches and, in the Xinjiang academy where many players were Uighur Muslims, players being housed improperly and not being provided the education that was promised by the academy. The problem is that the league’s academies were in partnership with the Chinese government, which meant the NBA had minimal oversight into the operations of the academies and in being able to ensure they were operating as the league saw fit.
In an interview with ESPN about its findings, NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer Mark Tatum, who oversees international operations, said the NBA is “reevaluating” and “considering other opportunities” for the academy program, which operates out of sports facilities run by the Chinese government. Last week, the league acknowledged for the first time it had closed the Xinjiang academy, but, when pressed, Tatum declined to say whether human rights were a factor.
“We were somewhat humbled,” Tatum said of the academy project in China. “One of the lessons that we’ve learned here is that we do need to have more direct oversight and the ability to make staffing changes when appropriate.”
The recollection of coaches in the ESPN report include seeing coaches throw basketballs at players heads and “kick [a player] in the gut.” The story notes that there are cultural differences in how corporal punishment is viewed in China compared to the U.S., but for the NBA that only furthers the issues with agreeing to allow their name on these academies without having the ability to set ground rules for coaches on what is an is not appropriate within them.
The report offers a number of instances of physical abuse towards players and how a mixed response in terms of success in ending that abuse when those issues were formally reported to NBA China. The league operates a number of NBA Academies in various countries, including Mexico and Australia, and their stated goal is to provide a holistic experience for players, focusing on education as much as basketball. However, in China, the academies were operated in existing facilities as a partnership with the Chinese government, which of course severely limits the impact the league itself is able to have on how things run.
As such, the league now finds itself in a difficult situation where they are now understanding the serious problems that have arisen within the academies while trying to thread the needle of not seeing their multi-billion enterprise crumble by further upsetting the Chinese government — a problem they can only look at themselves for creating by agreeing to such a partnership.
Young Thug is always creating, and it’s easy to come to that conclusion: The Atlanta trap star is constantly delivering Instagram previews of his work as he works in the studio. After a few previews hit social media over the past few months, fans began to wonder if a new project was on the way. Shortly after Thug’s sister teased a surprise for fans from Thug, one set to arrive in August, the rapper tweeted, then deleted, some news that confirmed exactly what that surprise was.
The quickly-deleted tweet revealed the release date for his upcoming project, Slime Language 2, namely on August 16, which is also his 29th birthday. The project will serve as the successor to the 2018 compilation effort Thug released alongside a number of YSL Record artists, among them Lil Duke and Gunna as well as other notable names like Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Keed, Jacquees, and more. It’s safe to assume that Slime Language 2 will be a reunion of YSL artists and with guest appearances from other names.
The announcement arrives after Thug was involved in a social media spat with Pusha T after Thug criticized his choice to diss Drake on their leaked Pop Smoke single. New music featuring Young Thug was premiered on a July 20 episode of Travis Scott and Chase B’s .WAV Radio Beats 1 show.
Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The indigenous people of the Big Sur area of northern California have been a landless group for 250 years. Taken from their ancestral homelands by Spanish colonials and sent to three different missions to be converted to Catholicism, the already small Esselen Tribe of Monterey County was nearly decimated.
“The missionaries were here to save the souls of the heathens, as they called us,” the official website of the Esselen Tribe states. “In this way they hoped to take the land for the Spanish king, Carols III. This had severe consequences for the Esselen and other tribes that called these mountains their home. There were four other tribes that were also affected by the missionary’s efforts for salvation.”
Prior to colonial invasion, the Esselen had inhabited the Santa Lucia Mountains and the Big Sur coast for 6,000 years. Now, they are taking back almost 1200 acres of that land, with the help of a $4.5 million grant from the California Natural Resources Agency.
The grant made it possible to transfer the land from the Portland, Oregon-based Western Rivers Conservancy to the tribe. The Conservancy had negotiated to purchase the land with the intention of transferring it to the U.S. Forest Service, but local residents were concerned about increased use of the land and whether the Forest Service would have the resources to care for the land. As the Conservancy began working with the Esselen people, they tapped into the grant, which came from a taxpayer-funded bond that included $60 million for acquiring Native American natural, cultural and historic resources in California.
“It is beyond words for us, the highest honor,” Tom Little Bear Nason, chairman of the tribe, told KTLA 5. “The land is the most important thing to us. It is our homeland, the creation story of our lives. We are so elated and grateful.”
According to The Hill, the land is a ranch just south of Carmel-By-The-Sea, and is a little larger than the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Nason says that the tribe will build a sweat lodge and village to conduct traditional ceremonies and teach the public about Esselen culture. No permanent homes or businesses will be built on the land.
“We’re the original stewards of the land,” Nasion said. “Now we’re returned. We are going to conserve it and pass it on to our children and grandchildren and beyond.”
Congratulations to the Esselen people on this historic win.
The Netflix name has meant many things, including the best shows not on TV. And while there are some glaring omissions in their selection of good movies, there’s still plenty to peruse. Narrowing them down to just 50 of the best Netflix films wasn’t easy. Nonetheless, here’s a ranked list of the best movies on Netflix streaming no film lover should miss, all of them just a simple click away.
The Indiana Jones franchise has been housed on Amazon Prime for a while now, but it’s finally making its way to Netflix with the streaming platform hosting all four feature films. Of course, nothing beats the original, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and as far as travel and adventure go, this movie has everything you could possibly want. A hero with a love for archeology and whips? Check. An adventure to recover a stolen artifact with destructive powers? Check check. Harrison Ford beating up Nazis while uttering sarcastic one-liners and with a twinkle in his eye? Did movies even exist before this?
It took decades in the industry for Steven Spielberg to finally earn an Oscar for one of his movies, but his win for Schindler’s List is well deserved. The film focuses on wealthy businessman Oskar Schindler, who spends his fortune and risks his life to save the lives of 1,100 Jewish men and women after taking in the horrors of WWII and the concentration camps. Between the three hour running time, the cold, unrelenting cruelty of Ralph Fiennes’ portrayal of Amon Goeth, and its realistic style, it’s a bleak film. But there’s hope to be found in the grim black and white images. It’s an important story told movingly by a filmmaker at the height of his powers.
Daniel Day-Lewis stars in this gritty, Oscar-winning drama from Paul Thomas Anderson playing a turn-of-the-century prospector, who risks his faith and his family for oil. Daniel Plainview is a shrewd, callous businessman who adopts the orphaned son of a dead employee to make himself look more appealing to investors. When he hits oil in California, he wages a war with a local preacher and his family who stand in the way of Daniel’s progress. Violence and yes, plenty of blood, follow.
The Oscar-winning animated film follows a young kid named Miles, who becomes the web-slinging hero of his reality, only to cross paths with other iterations of Spider-Man across different dimensions who help him defeat a threat posed to all realities. Mahershala Ali, John Mulaney, and Jake Johnson make up the film’s talented voice cast, but it’s the striking visuals and daring story-telling technique that really serves the film well.
Martin Scorsese delivers another cinematic triumph, this time for Netflix and with the help of some familiar faces. Robert De Niro and Al Pacino team up (again) for this crime drama based on actual events. De Niro plays Frank Sheeran a World War II vet who finds work as a hitman for the mob. Pacino plays notorious Teamster Jimmy Hoffa, a man who frequently found himself on the wrong side of the law and the criminals he worked with. The film charts the pair’s partnership over the years while injecting some historical milestones for context. It’s heavy and impressively cast and everything you’d expect a Scorsese passion-project to be.
Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this sports drama that catapulted Hillary Swank into the ranks of Oscar-worthy echelon. Swank plays Maggie Fitzgerald, a woman determined to dominate inside the ring. To do that, she needs to put in hard work and find herself a hardened coach who believes in her. Enter Eastwood. The two have a combative, emotionally heavy relationship that only gets more complicated as Maggie begins taking on dangerous fights.
Oscar-winning writer/director Alfonso Cuaron delivers what may be his most personal film to date. The stunningly-shot black-and-white film is an ode to Cuaron’s childhood and a love letter to the women who raised him. Following the journey of a domestic worker in Mexico City named Cleo, the movie interweaves tales of personal tragedy and triumph amidst a backdrop of political upheaval and unrest.
Hannibal Lecter is one of horror’s most iconic characters, but it’s a testament to the creepiness of Anthony Hopkins in a leather muzzle that, no matter how many times the film gets quoted, hearing him tell Clarice Starling he’s having an old friend for dinner still sends chills up our spines. Jodie Foster plays the FBI agent tasked with catching another serial killer with Lecter’s same M.O. and she does it by striking up unnerving conversations with the guy, but Hopkins is the real star here, playing Lecter with a restrained insanity that makes his small talk of enjoying human liver with fava beans so much more nightmarish.
Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, and Cybill Shepherd star in this Martin Scorsese crime thriller about a veteran with mental health issues who works a night job, driving a taxi around New York City. De Niro plays Travis Bickle, a Vietnam war vet who moonlights as a cap driver to cope with his insomnia. During a long shift, he contemplates assassinating a politician to help out the woman he’s fallen in love with (Shepherd) and killing a pimp after befriending an underage prostitute (Foster). It’s a wild ride, full of darkly comedic moments, and an even more harrowing looks at the consequences of war.
Public scandal often makes for good drama, but that’s not why Todd McCarthy’s biographical re-telling of one of the most shocking cases of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church makes this list. Yes, the film has a famous list of names attached, including Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Michael Keaton. Yes, it’s a true story about a group of Boston Globe investigative journalists, who uncovered decades-worth of corruption and molestation accusations buried by leaders of the church. Yet with McCarthy’s restrained direction, the film rejects the trope of glorifying its heroes and sensationalizing its narrative to instead give us an accurate, detailed, and unbiased look at history.
Guillermo Del Toro’s fantasy war epic focuses on a young girl named Ofelia, who grows up during a time of political unrest in her native Spain after a brutal Civil War ravages the country. Ofelia escapes the horrors committed by her stepfather when she accepts a challenge from a magical fairy, who believes her to be the reincarnation of Moanna, the princess of the underworld. If she completes three tasks, she’ll achieve immortality. The film is a play on folklore and fables from Del Toro’s youth, but there’s an undercurrent based in reality — the real cost of war — that grounds this film and makes it even more compelling.
Another Quentin Tarantino classic, this violent visit back in time to America’s era of slavery carries major Western vibes and gives Lenoard DiCaprio a refreshing turn as the film’s big bad, a plantation owner named Calvin Candie. Tarantino favorite Christoph Waltz plays a German bounty hunter who teams up with Jamie Foxx’s Django, a former slave looking to free his wife (Kerry Washington) from Candie’s clutches. There’s a lot of gore and uncomfortable dialogue and over-the-top action, really, everything you’d expect, but DiCaprio, Waltz, and Foxx make it all worth it.
Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., and Mark Ruffalo star in this mystery crime thriller directed by David Fincher. The manhunt for the Zodiac killer — a criminal who committed several murders in the Bay area in the late ’60s and early ’70s — has spawned decades and garnered plenty of media attention, but the film dives deeper into the cost of the search, particularly the toll it’s taken on the men and women reporting on it. Gyllenhaal plays a newspaper cartoonist who becomes obsessed with the case, decoding ciphers sent by the killer and targeting a man he believes could be the Zodiac. Downey Jr. plays a crime reporter who partners with Gyllenhaal on the case and leaks information to the police. It’s a thrilling game of cat-and-mouse fueled by some gripping performances by its male leads.
Denzel Washington and Clive Owen face off in this high-stakes bank robbery flick from Spike Lee. Washington plays a police detective negotiating with Owen’s criminal mastermind after his planned heist spirals into a tense hostage situation. Jodie Foster plays a high-powered broker also involved in the f*ck up, but the real joy of this movie is in watching Washington try to outsmart a seasoned bad guy, who has no qualms about killing innocents.
It’s hard not to watch this Aaron Sorkin-penned, David Fincher-directed masterpiece and have your viewing experience colored by Facebook, and founder Mark Zuckerberg’s, many political misdealings. Jesse Eisenberg plays the boy genius, an outcast whose brainchild is the product of a bad breakup and sexism. He partners with Andrew Garfield’s business-minded Eduardo Saverin and the two create the famous social networking site before Zuckerberg outs his friend and alienates himself. The story isn’t new, but watching it play out is still thrilling, mostly because Eisenberg is just so damn good at being a dick.
A stone-faced Ryan Gosling steers us through the criminal underworld created by director Nicolas Winding Refn in this high-speed thriller. Gosling plays a near-silent stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway man. When he gets involved with his next-door neighbor and her young son, his carefully cultivated life is thrown into chaos, forcing him to align with criminals and take on risky jobs to protect the pair and keep a firm grip on the wheel.
The early aughts action-comedy borrows elements from famous Kung Fu films of the ’70s and pairs them with a completely ridiculous plot and some impressive cartoon-style fight sequences to produce a wholly original flick that we guarantee you’ll marvel at. The film follows the exploits of two friends, Sing and Bone, who impersonate gang members in the hopes of joining a gang themselves and inadvertently strike up a gang war that nearly destroys the slums of the city. Of course, the real draw here is the absurdist, over-the-top comedy that takes place during some of the film’s biggest action sequences. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, but only if you check your brain at the door.
This comic book-inspired dystopian drama is about more than just mind-blowing fight sequences, and compared to some others on this list, the action isn’t as prevalent. Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving are trying to incite a rebellion against a fascist authoritarian regime, so clearly, they’re going to need more than car chases and shootouts to get the job done. But when the action does come — normally from Weaving’s V, an acrobatically-gifted anarchist with dreams of toppling a corrupt government by way of bombing Parliament — it’s some of the best you’ll see on screen.
Keira Knightley stars in this dramatic adaptation of a beloved Austen novel. Ask any British literature fan, and they’ll tell you the best interpretation of this story is either the ’90s mini-series (with Colin Firth) or this Joe Wright masterpiece. There’s no middle ground. Knightley plays Elizabeth Bennet, an independent, quick-witted young woman, who resents her mother’s schemes to find herself and her group of sisters’ husbands to advance their station in life. She also, ironically, ends up falling for a wealthy, aloof lord named Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfayden), and it’s their contentious, electric romance that fuels much of the action.
Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz star in this dark, absurdist comedy about a man searching for love under some very strange circumstances. Farrell plays David, a man whose wife recently left him. David is sent to a hotel where he’s told he must find a mate within 45 days or be turned into an animal. While there, David witnesses strange rituals and must follow strict rules in order to find love, but it’s not until he ventures into the woods, where the “loners” live, that he pairs up with a woman (Weisz) who may be his soulmate. It’s weird, eccentric, and the perfect Farrell-starring vehicle.
Edgar Wright’s 2010 action comedy about a hapless boy, who must defeat evil ex-boyfriends in order to win the hand of the girl he loves, is a fast-paced ride that bombards the senses. Michael Cera plays a loveable goof in the titular hero, a young man enamored with a woman named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). In order to be with his lady love, Scott must fight her evil exes (six guys, one girl), who challenge him to truly strange contests. The film is a cinematic mash-up of Japanese anime and gamer culture, intended for the crowd who grew up on Nintendo and comic books, but it brings plenty of laughs all the same.
Greta Gerwig’s love letter to her hometown of Sacramento, California follows Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf as they navigate the often-frustrating relationship between mother and daughter. Ronan plays “Ladybird,” a young woman attending Catholic school who longs for the culture and change of scenery that New York City promises. Her mother, Metcalf, is overbearing and overprotective, and the family’s lack of money and social standing contributes to a rift between the two. Some hard truths are explored in this film, but watching Ronan manage teenage angst, first love, and everything in between will give you all kinds of nostalgia.
Robert Eggers’ Sundance hit attracted some of the oddest complaints directed at any film in recent years when some disgruntled audience members suggested it wasn’t scary enough. Maybe they were watching a different movie? Set in colonial New England, the austere film follows a family outcast from their strict religious community and trying to make it on their own at the edge of some deep, dark woods. It essentially takes the witch-fearing folklore of the era at face value, watching the family disintegrate under the insidious influence of a nearby witch. It’s a slow-burn horror movie, light on shocks, heavy on unease, and thematically rich in ways that only become apparent later.
Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight will always be remembered for winning the Academy Award for Best Picture after a mix-up that initially named La La Land as the winner. But that’s just an asterisk attached to a momentous coming-of-age story set over three eras in a young man’s life as he grows up in Miami, grappling with the sexuality he feels will make him even more of an outcast while searching for guidance that his drug-addicted mother (Naomie Harris) can’t provide. The film is both lyrical and moving and won justifiable acclaim for its talented cast, including a Best Supporting Actor award for Mahershala Ali as a sympathetic drug dealer.
Noah Baumbach’s star-studded divorce drama is pure Oscar bait, but in the best way. The film takes a look at messy breakups with Scarlett Johansson playing an actress and mother named Nicole, who is intent on separating from her stage director husband Charlie (Adam Driver). Laura Dern and Ray Liotta play their hard-hitting lawyers, who don’t help in diffusing the tension and resentment building between the pair when Nicole moves herself and their son across the country. It’s an intimate look at the emotional wreckage of a divorce and the struggle to put a family back together again, and it’s carried by some brilliant performances by Driver and Johansson.
This adventurous mindf*ck starring Adam Sandler finally landed on Netflix, and our only advice before watching this criminally-good romp is this: prepare yourself for a wild, over-the-top ride. Sandler gives one of his best performances, and the Safdie Brothers prove they’ve got a knack for crafting thrillers textured with grit and a realness that just can’t be beaten.
Al Pacino playing the demonic head of a New York City law firm with Keanu Reeves serving as his protégé? Yes, please. Look, this horror flick doesn’t have as many frights as some on this list, but it’s filled with tense moments, strange happenings, and a twist that you don’t see coming. Reeves plays Kevin, a talented attorney from the South, who makes his way to the Big Apple after winning some high-profile cases. His clients were guilty, but what does that matter, right? Charlize Theron plays his barren wife, Mary Ann, a woman who at one point experiences visions of a baby eating her ovaries, and Pacino plays Milton, Kevin’s boss and Satan himself. It’s a wacky ride into the occult, but the performances are worth it.
Before he scored his own MTV show, filmmaker Nev Schulman was exposing cons on the internet in this documentary, that basically introduces the term “catfish” to the cultural lexicon. The film captures Nev’s growing online-only friendship with a young woman and her family, exposing the secrets and lies they’re keeping along the way and reminding us all: you really can’t trust people.
This beautifully animated French fantasy film follows the story of a young man named Naoufel, or rather, his hand which has been severed from his body and spends most of the film escaping labs and trying to get back to its owner. The film flits between the past and present, watching Naoufel’s life unfold from a young orphan to an accidental carpenter’s apprentice — which is how he lost his appendage — all while exploring themes of love, loss, and destiny.
Any Spike Lee joint is worth a watch, but this genre-bending thriller about a group of black Vietnam War vets returning to the battlefield decades later feels especially timely. That’s because Lee manages to shed light on a little-known part of our shared history: the way our country treated Black soldiers returning from the war, but he also raises the stakes with a subplot that includes a buried treasure hunt and a heartwrenching mission to retrieve the remains of a fallen comrade. The cast, which includes Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman, is brilliant, the story is gripping, and you’ll probably be seeing more talk of it come awards season, so go ahead and watch it now.
After a stint in Hollywood, Alfonso Cuarón returned to Mexico for this story of two privileged high school boys (Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal) who road trip with an older woman (Maribel Verdú) in search of an unspoiled stretch of beach. In the process, they discover freedom like they’d never imagined — and maybe more freedom than they can handle. Cuarón’s stylish film plays out against the backdrop of Mexican political upheaval and plays with notions of upturning the established order on scales both large and small, all the while suggesting that no paradise lasts forever.
Bill Murray has some great comedies living on his resumé, but few are as iconic, or at least, well-loved as Groundhog Day. That’s because watching Murray play a surly weather-man forced to relive the same day over and over again is basically a comedy goldmine of a plot. At first, Phil (Murray) enjoys the time loop, binge-drinking, filming some half-hearted news segments in a hick town in Pennsylvania, having one-night stands, etc, but eventually, he realizes that in order to escape his never-ending bed-and-breakfast hell, he’s got to better himself, not an easy task.
Netflix spent much of 2017 trying to establish itself as an alternative to movie theaters as a place to find quality new films. The results were mostly strong, and none stronger than Mudbound, Dee Rees’ story of two families — one white and one black — sharing the same Mississippi land in the years before and after World War II. Rees combines stunning images, compelling storytelling, and the work of a fine cast (that includes Jason Mitchell, Carey Mulligan, Garett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, and Mary J. Blige) to unspool a complex tale about the forces the connect black and white Americans and the slow-to-die injustices that keep them apart.
Matthew McConaughey’s Dallas Buyer Club is a searing look at how the world failed the LGBTQ community during the devastating AIDS crisis. McConaughey stars as Ron Woodruff, a man diagnosed with the disease in the 80s during a time when the illness was still misunderstood and highly stigmatized. Woodruff went against the FDA and the law to smuggle in drugs to help those suffering from the disease, establishing a “Dallas Buyers Club” and fighting in court to the right to aid those in need. The story is all the more powerful because it’s true and McConaughey delivers one of the best performances of his career as Woodruff, a man who changes his entire outlook on life after being dealt a tragic blow.
Chris Evans stars in this sci-fi thriller from auteur Bong Joon-ho. The film, set years into the future following a devastating ice age caused by mankind, follows Evans’ Curtis who lives in poverty on a train that continuously circles the Earth and contains all that remains of human life. Curtis is part of the “scum” that the people relegated to the back of the train while the “elite” enjoy the privilege of wealth and status that comes with living in the front. Curtis sparks a rebellion that ends in bloodshed and a devastating reveal when he makes it to the train’s engine room and discovers just how the elite have been fueling their operation. It’s a dark, grimy action piece that should give fans a new appreciation for Evans’ talent.
When this French coming-of-age drama premiere in 2013 it sparked plenty of controversies. The film centers on a blooming romance between a naïve teenager named Adele and her free-spirited lover, Emma. Praised for painting an honest portrait of a lesbian romance on screen while also scrutinized for its sometimes graphic sexual content, the film marked a turning point in how the LGBTQ community was represented on film and gave people a heartbreaking look at a young woman discovering herself and her sexual identity in an unforgiving world.
This documentary, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, is based on the unfinished manuscript, Remember this House, by James Baldwin. The author and civil rights activist recounts the history of racism in the United States through personal observations and his relationships with friends and leaders like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. It’s a beautifully-shot, sobering reminder of how far we have yet to go when it comes to equality.
Writer/director Trey Edward Shults followed up his unnerving family portrait in 2015’s Krisha with a look at another family under the most desperate of circumstances. After an unknown illness has wiped out most of civilization, a number of threats — both seen and unseen — come for a family held up in their home out in the wilderness. It’s a subtle, dream-like tale that stars Joel Edgerton and Christopher Abbot as two patriarchs intent on keeping their families safe, no matter the cost.
Before Greta Gerwig was directed Oscar-nominated coming-of-age dramas, she was writing and starring in this black-and-white dramedy about a young woman also trying to find her way in the professional dance world of New York City. Gerwig is magnetic in the titular role of Frances, a dancer dissatisfied with her career prospects and forced to contemplate a move to Tribeca on the whim of her best friend and roommate. That trek across Manhattan serves as a jumping off point for Frances, who travels home, then to France, before settling in Washington Heights on her journey to self-discovery.
Salma Hayek turns in an inspired performance of the famed revolutionary artist Frida Kahlo in this early aughts biopic. Hayek plays the visionary in her later years, as she navigates a tense, passionate marriage with fellow artist Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina) and works to define her voice amidst crippling health problems. There’s plenty of joy to be found in her triumphs, but Hayek is at her best when the film asks her to display her emotional range, focusing on Kahlo’s lowest moments to paint a full portrait of a woman who would one day make history.
This classic Western starring Clint Eastwood follows the adventures of a stiff-lipped bounty hunter, a sociopathic mercenary, and a fast-talking Mexican bandit. The trio is connected by a grave full of gold, a few near executions, and a lot of bad blood. Highway robberies, assassination attempts, and a famous Mexican standoff make this a worthy entry on the action flicks list, plus it’s one of Eastwood’s most iconic roles.
Mel Brooks’ hilarious space odyssey has become something of a cult classic over the decades. It’s a parody of George Lucas’ Star Wars trilogy, so it follows the same plot: a rogue pilot and his sidekick must rescue a princess and save the galaxy, but instead of Startroopers, the bad guys are known as Space Balls, and everyone is hopelessly out of their depth playing hero (and villain).
It seems almost perverse to think about watching The Hateful Eight at home, given how big a deal Quentin Tarantino made of its 70mm format at the time of its release. And while it looks great on the big screen it’s not like that’s an option right now. And, in some ways, the film feels just at home on the small screen, since it’s at heart a chamber mystery that brings together a collection of unsavory characters (Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, and Jennifer Jason Leigh among them) as mystery and murder unfold in their ranks.
When a punk rock group accidentally witnesses the aftermath of a murder, they are forced to fight for their lives by the owner of a Nazi bar (Patrick Stewart) and his team. It’s an extremely brutal and violent story, much like the first two features from director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin and Murder Party), but this one is made even tenser by its claustrophobic cat-and-cornered-mouse nature. Once the impending danger kicks in, it doesn’t let up until the very end, driven heavily by Stewart playing against type as a harsh, unforgiving, calculating character.
Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce play off each other in this fictionalized comedy about two of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church. Hopkins plays Pope Benedict XVI near the end of his tenure as he struggles with the disillusionment of his role and his faith. Pryce plays Cardinal Bergoglio (who would later become Pope Francis) who’s also going through a crisis of faith and wishes to leave his post. What follows is two hours of two of the greatest actors paling around with each other, delivering some laughs as they get deep about the philosophical leanings of these two great men.
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence star in this drama that’s equal parts rom-com and a harrowing look at mental illness. Cooper plays Pat Solitano, a former high school teacher who recently completed a stint at a mental institution. Things aren’t going well for Pat. He’s moved back in with his overbearing parents (a wickedly-funny Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver), his now ex-wife cheated on him, he doesn’t get along with his therapist, and he’s operating under the delusion that if he gets fit and gets his sh*t together, he can get his wife back. Lawrence plays Tiffany, a young woman with problems of her own. She’s depressed after the death of her husband and prefers sex with strangers to drown the pain. The two strike up a friendship that pushes both to their mental and emotional limits. It’s a messy, complicated love story, which makes for a nice change of pace if sappy-sweet rom-coms just aren’t doing it for you.
Few teen comedies have found a permanent place in the cultural lexicon like this 90s flick from director Amy Heckerling. Inspired by a Jane Austen plot and modernized with a Beverly Hills setting, the story follows a shallow, rich Queen-bee named Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) who begins matchmaking fellow students and teachers at her school only to be confronted with her own shortcomings in the romance department. The fashion, the catchphrases, and Silverstone’s magnetic performance — they’re all standouts here.
Walking Dead alum Steven Yeun stars this psychological thriller from South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong. Yeun plays Ben, a rich millennial with a mysterious job who connects with a woman named Shin Hae-mi on a trip to Africa. The two journey back home together where Ben meets Shin’s friend/lover Lee Jong-su. The three hang-out regularly, with Lee growing more jealous of Ben’s wealth and privilege while he’s forced to manage his father’s farm when his dad goes to prison. But it’s when Shin disappears, and Lee suspects Ben’s involvement, that things really go off the rails.
Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams take on the planet’s most-watched singing competition with this campy comedy about an Icelandic duo named Fire Saga, who are set on achieving glory on the world’s biggest stage. Ferrell and McAdams play Lars Erickssong and Sigrit Ericksdottir, artists chosen to represent their nation in the Eurovision Song Contest, a real competition that features musicians from all over the world, who are often performing in wild get-ups. Dan Stevens almost steals the show while Pierce Brosnan and Demi Lovato make appearances. We’re calling it now: “Volcano Man” is going to be a bop for the ages.
This coming-of-age indie is based on a beloved book, but if fans were worried that the story of a depressed teenager who finds friends and a sense of belonging in a group of lovable misfits wouldn’t translate on screen, they shouldn’t have been too concerned. Stephen Chbosky wrote the novel, but he also penned the screenplay and directed this flick, which sees Logan Lerman play Charlie, the social outcast, and Emma Watson play Sam, the alt-pixie-dream girl he falls for. Everyone’s good in this, but it’s Ezra Miller’s Patrick who really stands out.
Recent Changes Through July 2020:
Removed: Ex Machina, Inglourious Basterds, Ant-Man And The Wasp, Her, Back To The Future
Added: Pride & Prejudice, Spotlight, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, Devil’s Advocate, Frida
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from 3 shooting 4-7! 
