Donald Trump and Howard Stern used to be friendly (it’s unclear if Trump is capable of having an actual “friend”), as the president appeared on The Howard Stern Show over 20 times. But their relationship has soured in recent years. Stern voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, and while he stated that he doesn’t “hate” Trump, the Sirius XM host believes that Trump is secretly (and accurately) “disgusted” by his MAGA hat-wearing supporters. Now, the president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr. has gotten involved, too, after tweeting a link to a 27-year-old comedy sketch of Stern in blackface.
Yikes!
NSFW: Howard Stern says N-word too many times during awful blackface impression that should have Libs yelling “CANCEL!” https://t.co/b9XJg2krnS
Deadline reports that the clip “was interspersed with Stern’s recent appearance on The View, where he claimed during the appearance that he’d never used the racial slur…. Stern was reportedly playing the part of Ted Danson, with Sherman Hemsley playing Whoopi Goldberg, Danson’s girlfriend at the time.” (Danson wore blackface to a Friars Club roast in 1993.) Stern acknowledged the footage during Monday’s recording of The Howard Stern Show, calling his former-self the “craziest motherf*cker” on radio.
“The sh*t I did was f*cking crazy. I’ll be the first to admit. I won’t go back and watch those old shows; it’s like, who is that guy?” he said. “But that was my shtick, that’s what I did and I own it. I don’t think I got embraced by Nazi groups and hate groups. They seemed to think I was against them, too. Everybody had a bone to pick with me.”
Stern has since, as he put it, been able to “change my approach, able to change my life, and change how I communicated,” unlike the Trumps. “It f*cking distresses me that Donald Trump, Jr. and Donald themselves won’t go into psychotherapy and change. Why not change the way you’re approaching things, because, wearing a mask is not a bad thing. Telling people the actual size of the crowd at your inauguration is OK. Attacking me during the coronavirus and Black Lives Matter is absolutely f*cking crazy.”
“I cringe when I look at myself 30 or 40 years ago, and that was 27 years ago… Am I a bad guy? I don’t think so. Donald Trump didn’t think so, he was on my show 27 times. Donnie Junior did the show. On TV he said, ‘I’m really disappointed in Howard, he’s changed,’ that I’ve gone Hollywood. Which is it? Do you want me to get in blackface and make fun of Ted Danson? … I remember how badly Donald, Jr. wanted to take a picture with me.”
It’s only a matter of time before, somehow, Ted Cruz gets involved in all this.
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?
The Wachowski sisters created one of the greatest sci-fi films in cinematic history with their mind-bending Matrix trilogy, but the original is hard to top. Keanu Reeves plays Neo, a young man unplugged from the matrix — a kind of alternate reality that keeps humans docile, so machines can harvest their life energy. He teams up with a band of rebels fighting the machines (Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus and Carrie-Ann Moss as Trinity) and faces off against a henchman named Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). The real draw of this trilogy, besides its inventive storyline, is the CGI effects. The movie also sports some of the most imaginative fight sequences you’ll ever see on the big screen.
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.
Christopher Nolan’s imaginative sci-fi adventure will most likely be remembered as one of the best genre films in cinematic history, and for good reason. The movie — which stars everyone from Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy to Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Caine — is the ultimate heist flick, following a group of thieves who must repurpose dream-sharing technology to plant an idea into the mind of a young CEO. DiCaprio pulls focus as Cobb, a troubled architect with a tragic past who attempts to pull off the impossible so that he can return to his family.
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.
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.
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.
Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller breathed new life into the tired A.I. trope when it landed in theaters a few years ago. The film focuses on a naïve young programmer (Domhnall Gleeson), who’s selected amongst a pool of applicants to evaluate a new A.I. life form. The poor kid is whisked away to a remote villa to spend time with the eerily-human-looking robot, Ava (Alicia Vikander), and her eccentric, often cruel creator Nathan (Oscar Isaac), a genius with an ego to match his talent. The film takes some twists you don’t expect, and Isaac gives cinema one of its greatest dance sequences, in case you needed more reason to watch.
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.
Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay star in this gripping drama about a mother and son held hostage for nearly a decade. The film, based off a work of fiction, pulls elements from real life trauma cases as it follows a woman named Joy (Larson) and her son Jack (Tremblay) who exists in a singular room, cut off from the outside world. The two plot an escape, are eventually rescued and must cope with the effects of their harrowing ordeal while adjusting to life outside of the room. Larson is deserving of every award she won for this thing, and her chemistry with Tremblay will have you grabbing for the tissues throughout the film.
Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Christoph Waltz, and Eli Roth star in Quentin Tarantino’s imaginative World War II drama about a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers with a plan to assassinate Hitler. The film flip-flops between Pitt’s Southern-accented Lt. Aldo Raine’s mission to scalp Nazis and blow-up an exclusive event for SS officers in Paris and French actress Melanie Laurent, who plays a theater-owner with a devious plan of her own. It’s full of mesmerizing performances and Tarantino’s unique brand of humor — oh, and a lot of Nazi killing.
Steven Spielberg is the genius behind this mind-bending, futuristic crime drama starring Tom Cruise and Colin Farrell. Cruise plays John Anderton, a police chief in charge of a unit capable of arresting criminals before they commit their crimes thanks to a trio of psychics called “precogs.” When Anderton is identified as a future murderer, he goes on the run with one of the precogs and uncovers a deeper conspiracy that forces him (and us) to question the nature of free will.
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.
You can’t think of classic ’80s teen comedies and not include Matthew Broderick’s rebellious school comedy in those musings. Broderick brought Ferris Bueller, a smart-mouthed kid with a flair for the dramatic, to life in this beloved movie that also stars Alan Ruck and Jennifer Grey. Bueller goes to extreme lengths to skip school with his best friend and girlfriend, leading them on an adventure that includes a musical parade in the city and a brush with the law. Being bad never looked so fun.
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.
Spike Jonze imagines a world in which Artificial Intelligence can become something more than just a personal assistant program. Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly, a depressed introvert going through a divorce who starts up a relationship with an OS named Samantha. Things get serious before Theodore begins to realize that romance with an A.I. is more complicated than he thought. What follows is a thoughtful exploration of love, relationships, and the ways human beings find connection in a plugged-in world.
We’re in the end game now. The Russo brothers return to direct the first of this two-part wrap-up. Josh Brolin plays the ultimate villain, a purple meat-head named Thanos, who’s insistent upon solving the Universe’s over-population problem. The film does a good job of giving fans some long-awaited pairings — Thor meets the Guardians of the Galaxy crew while Tony Stark and Doctor Strange square off — and it manages to fit its enormous, A-list cast into an over two-hour flick that never feels like it’s running too long.
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.
This iconic ’80s comedy franchise might have wrongly-assumed we’d have flying cars, hoverboards, and self-tying shoes by now, but it got a lot of other tech predictions right. Still, that’s not what makes this film a classic. Christopher Lloyd playing a brilliant-but-eccentric scientist, Michael J. Fox playing a smart-mouthed teenager who can time-travel, and a brilliantly-funny script from director Robert Zemeckis. That’s what makes this comedy a classic.
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.
Cate Blanchett plays the famous monarch in this period piece that charts her earliest days on the throne. Blanchett’s Elizabeth is a young woman being held prisoner by her older sister, the current Queen, before wearing the crown when that woman dies. She must contend with the political machinations of older men in her court, a religious uprising, and the scandal of having a married lover and yet not taking a husband for her own. It’s really the best kind of British drama.
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.
Look, it’s hard to keep track of the Marvel Universe timeline so we’re not going to explain where Ant-Man and the Wasp fits into the grander scheme of this blockbuster monopoly. The only thing you really need to know about this action flick, which sees Paul Rudd returning to play the shrinking superhero and Evangeline Lily playing his partner in fighting crime, is that it’s a hell of a fun watch. Rudd returns to the character more seasoned in the superhero verse and thus, more comfortable with his leading man status, but he benefits greatly from a team-up with Lily and a well-written script.
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.
Disappointing sequels aside, the original installment in J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield trilogy remains one of the greatest works of found-footage in the history of film. Most of that is because the narrative style lends itself to the tension, chaos, and horror of fleeing a monster destroying New York City. The film follows a group of friends caught in the bedlam after a Godzilla-like creature begins attacking the Big Apple. While trying to save each other and make it out of the city before the bombs drop, the friends document their journey. The directing by Matt Reeves is superb, almost too good, because you often feel a part fo the action, for better and worse.
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.
Chris Pine, Ben Foster, and Jeff Bridges star in this neo-Western crime thriller about a pair of brothers who go on a bank-robbing spree to save their family’s ranch. Pine plays Toby, a down-on-his-luck father struggling to live right under mountains of inherited debt while Foster plays Tanner, his ex-con brother who has a wild streak that often endangers the two men on their jobs. Bridges is the aging sheriff tasked with bringing them to justice but his job is made harder by the locals, who have no love for the bank chain the boys are stealing from. It’s a gritty, unapologetic tale of a forgotten America brought to life by some brilliant performances and an impressive script from Taylor Sheridan.
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.
If you don’t live in a major American city, you might’ve convinced yourself that the country had gone back to “normal” since protests calling for an end to police violence against Black Americans erupted across every state after the May 26 killing of George Floyd. It hasn’t. Also, we’d like to argue there is nothing “normal” about a country where police are regularly accused of using force that reaches far beyond the scope of their duties.
To the former point: People are still out protesting and they’ve made it clear they’re not going home until serious progress is made. Dismantling/ defunding massive police departments was never a short-term project and, as we enter the third week of protests, it’s worth remembering that this type of nationwide movement takes time. The Montgomery Bus Boycott lasted 381 days, the Greensboro Sit-Ins five months, and the Selma marches stretched out over 18 days.
Protests in Atlanta were punctuated by the death on Friday morning of Rayshard Brooks, 27, who was shot in the back twice by a police officer after an attempted arrest. CNNreports that within 48 hours of protestors flooding the streets calling for justice for Rayshard, the officer who shot him has been terminated and the police chief has stepped down. In Palmdale California, protestors took to the streets over the weekend calling for a renewed investigation into the death of Robert Fuller, a black man whose body was found hanging from a tree outside of City Hall just days after another black man was found hanging from a tree outside of a Victorville library, 45 miles away. According to The Cut, both deaths were initially believed to be suicides by local authorities.
The protests from this past weekend, even in Atlanta and Palmdale, were been largely peaceful (though the Wendy’s in the parking lot where Brooks was arrested was burned down) as people showed up in the thousands at peaceful protests in Hollywood, Brooklyn (where protestors wore white in support of the Brooklyn Liberation), Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Boston. In conjunction with pride month, this past weekend’s Black Lives Matters marches had a special emphasis on black trans lives. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 91% of the reported murders of trans and gender non-conforming people in 2019 were black women.
Here are some of the scenes from this weekend’s protests across the country.
Yesterday at Chicago’s #DRAGMARCHFORCHANGE was led by city drag members for #BlackLivesMatter It was amazing to see the entire city turn out for this peaceful protest. 20,000 people filled the streets of Boystown with their bodies and voices. pic.twitter.com/bWt0l66VZm
“I will fight with you and march with you every step of the way,” Democratic Senate nominee Jon @ossoff tells the crowd of thousands of demonstrators outside the Capitol. #gasen#gapolpic.twitter.com/FoHuxc7IEW
“I will fight with you and march with you every step of the way,” Democratic Senate nominee Jon @ossoff tells the crowd of thousands of demonstrators outside the Capitol. #gasen#gapolpic.twitter.com/FoHuxc7IEW
The CMJ Music Marathon was a New York Institution between 1975 and 2015, but the event came crumbling down following some legal issues involving the then-CEO and some lawsuits from employees. In 2016, they asked fans to “bear with” them, and toward the end of last year, it looked like good news from CMJ was on the way. Under new ownership, CMJ was set to return in 2020. Like it has to everybody else, though, life happened, and live events aren’t really going on right now.
However, Amazing Radio, which announced in April that they are the new owners of the CMJ name, has a plan. Instead of a live in-person event, CMJ will be an online-only affair that will be “set up to emulate the iconic New York City festival and its spirit of new music discovery,” as noted in a press statement. For $30, artists can sign up to be eligible to play the virtual fest.
In April, Amazing Radio chairman Bill Hein said, “This is a revolution for American emerging artists; the opportunity to be played on the radio, increase their popularity through listener engagement, have the chance to play CMJ and grow their careers, all backed up by audience support and exert advice. We’re still planning to bring CMJ back to New York in October, come hell or coronavirus. But we’re here to help musicians, now, anyway.”
It was back in 1978 when Esquirepublished a story called “The Ballad of the Urban Cowboy: America’s Search for True Grit.” Most of the events of the piece take place at Gilley’s, a honky-tonk in Pasadena, Texas, just outside Houston. And, frankly, that article pissed off the owner of that bar, country singer Mickey Gilley, because he thought it was making fun of country music and the whole surrounding scene. He was about to let his ire be known when he got wind that there was interest in shooting a movie based on the article, which would film at Gilley’s bar – a movie which would eventually become Urban Cowboy, starring John Travolta. Suddenly that article didn’t seem so bad anymore.
Urban Cowboy would become a phenomenon, doing for country music what Saturday Night Fever would do for disco — perhaps more, considering country’s mainstream appeal hasn’t really wavered much since. This film about Bud (Travolta) and Sissy (Debra Winger) and their on-again, off-again relationship, interlaced with mechanical bull riding, put Houston on the Hollywood map and produced the smash hit “Looking For Love” by Johnny Lee and Gilley’s own smash, his cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.” (Gilley even performed his version alongside King once.)
In celebration of Urban Cowboy‘s 40th anniversary, Paramount has released a new Blu-ray. When I was a little kid and we lived at Lake of the Ozark – yes, the one from the Netflix show – Gilley often used to perform at the bar my father’s best friend owned. So, when Paramount asked if I wanted to talk to Gilley, I couldn’t resist. And now, at 84, he’s still out there “performing for the folks.”
Well, at least he was before everything shut down, now he’s just keeping safe and reminiscing about the time he got to fly a plane with John Travolta.
How are you doing? Have you been staying safe? Been keeping busy?
Oh, yeah. I’m doing fine. We’ve been out of work now for quite some time, but the time is not bad.
Where in the world are you right now?
I’m in Branson, Missouri.
I’m in New York City right now. I went to junior high in Springfield, which isn’t that far from Branson.
I go to Springfield to go shopping and to do some things that they don’t do here in Branson. It’s about 35 miles, so it’s no problem.
The Battlefield Mall.
Battlefield Mall! You’re right.
Speaking of Missouri, I was a very little kid when Urban Cowboy came out, but I do remember all of a sudden my parents were going to honky-tonks and learning country dancing.
It was so awesome. It changed my life. I tell people I think John Travolta is keeping my career alive, at 84 years old and still singing the music from the soundtrack of Urban Cowboy. And it has been one heck of a ride.
I rewatched it the other night. It’s not at all what I remember. There’s a lot going on. So how did you get involved with it in the first place?
The article had come out in Esquire magazine, “The Ballad of the Urban Cowboy.” And my business partner, he knew that I didn’t appreciate what the guy had written in Esquire magazine, because I thought he was poking fun at country music. And that was my life. I was was going out to do the Mike Douglas or the Merv Griffin show, one of those shows out there. And he said, “Look, don’t say anything bad about that article in Esquire magazine, because we may get a film on this particular article.” And I looked at him and I said, “What side of the bed did you roll off on?” And he says, “No, I’m serious.” He said, “They’re looking at John Travolta to play the part.” And when he said John Travolta, I said, wait a minute. Saturday Night Fever was the first thing I thought about. And I said, “Saturday Night Fever? Country Night Fever!” And I did not mention that that article at all in Esquire magazine. I kept my mouth shut about it.
Do you still dislike that article?
Oh, I love the article now.
I bet.
The bottom line was, if you read the article, it said, “Boy meets girl. Twang, twang. Boy falls in love with girl. Twang, twang.” They were using the “twang, twang” on it. And that kind of irritated me a little bit. But we got to film Urban Cowboy with John Travolta playing the part, and it has become such a big thing in my life because of the music. I had “Stand By Me”, the old Ben E. King song. It wasn’t really a country song. It was a blues type song. And then Johnny Lee, of course, had the “Looking For Love,” which was a major hit in the film.
It is like the soundtrack of 1980.
And when I found out, now they’re going to put it out on Blu-ray, which is going to enhance the whole thing. And it’s been 40 years ago since that film came out, I’m very excited about it. It’s wonderful.
Do you think the influence of Urban Cowboy making country music mainstream led to even the ’90s explosion with people like Garth Brooks?
I think that the film changed a lot of people’s lives, as far as the music scene was concerned. Because a lot of people didn’t listen to country music until that film came out. And when it came out, and they heard all these other acts in this film doing some of this music that they could listen to, and they could relate to, and all of a sudden country music, well, it boomed all of a sudden.
Again, I was very young, but your version of “Stand By Me” was the first version I heard because my parents had the record. How did that become a thing?
Actually, the guy who picked it was a guy by the name of Jim Ed Norman. And he bought the song and he says, “I want you to record this song, and we’re going to use it for the dance in the film. Well, I thought we were going to do it like Ben E. King. And he changed the complete arrangement of it. And we started doing that differently, and it turned out to be a one heck of a song for me, because it was so different. It’s been a dynamite song. When I play it, people say, “What are you doing? You trying to milk the crowd?” And people get on their feet and stand up. I said, “Hey, it’s just a song.”
What’s wrong with milking the crowd? Why is that a bad thing? Milking the crowd is a good thing.
Well, I tell you what, I’m very fortunate to be 84 and still been able to go out there and sing the music for the folks. And people say, “Why don’t you retire?” And I say, “Because I enjoy the music. I love the music.”
I’m curious, did you ever hear from Ben E. King?
I got to perform with him in Los Angeles.
Oh, that’s great.
And he did his version. If I recall it correctly, he did the song, part of it, and I did part of it my way. I got to work with him on that one particular thing. It was Rhythm and Blues and Country, I think, or something, what they called it. I don’t remember exactly now, because it’s been awhile back. But it was quite a few acts on the show.
Tell me about Gilley’s, the bar. It’s such a huge part of Urban Cowboy.
We opened the club in 1971. And in 1973 or 1974, I had my first number one song in the country charts. And then in 1978, I’m on the road traveling. And my business partner, Sherwood Cryer, installed this mechanical bull in Gilley’s. And when he did, I thought it was a big mistake. And I told him, “We’re going to get people hurt on this thing. We’re going to start getting sued.” It had my name on it and I was a little scared about the thing. And he says, “We’re going to attract all these cowboys, who want to be a cowboy.” And it did. People coming out to Gilley’s, riding the mechanical bull, chasing the girls and drinking beer and that type of thing. And lo and behold, I didn’t believe they were going to do the film until the Paramount truck started pulling into the parking lot. Jim Bridges was the director at the time. He says, “When that film comes out, this club will never be the same.” And boy was he ever right. It changed completely after that film came out. I mean you could not get into it.
Maybe it’s movie magic, but it does look like Travolta is riding the bull.
Oh, he did ride the bull. That was him. It was actually him riding it. I don’t think he used a stuntman.
Did Debra Winger ride it, too?
Oh yeah. If you look, if you watch the film, she stands up on it and she’s dancing on top of the bull. It was awesome.
That scene when Travolta is dancing is pretty amazing. It really is a country version of Saturday Night Fever. He’s magic.
I got a private showing in Hollywood. I said, “Johnny Lee will have a hit, ‘Looking For Love.’” And they said, “Really?” And I said, “Yeah. And you know why? Because John Travolta said, ‘Turn that up. That’s my favorite song,’ in the film.”
What was he like to hang around then?
He was a very nice young man. And when I met him, the one thing we had in common was we both liked to fly. I had my multi-engine rating, my instrument rating. And he was working on his, getting his pilot’s license. And I got to fly with him. So, that’s my exciting thing that I can say that I did with John Travolta.
While not nearly as well-traveled as much of the Uproxx Life staff, one place I actually have been is Spain (ah, travel, remember that?). The first dish I had in Barcelona was something called pan con tomate, a vaguely familiar dish that seemed to consist entirely of tomato pulp on top of some bread.
I’d had all these ingredients before a million times, just not in this exact configuration.
Vince Mancini
A traditional Catalán dish (pa amb tomaquet) dating back to the 16th century, pan con tomate was initially a way to reinvigorate stale bread. The reason I like it is that, well, for one thing, it’s incredibly easy. For another, I’m also one of the many people who used this quarantine to dabble in bread baking, and the tomatoes in my garden are just starting to ripen.
Got bread? Got tomatoes? Then you should know pan con tomate.
Ingredients
Tomatoes
Bread
Garlic
Olive oil
Salt
Yep, that’s it. Now, the purists will say to use a rustic loaf of bread and the special hanged tomatoes they have in Spain (that lose moisture and concentrate flavor as they sit), but honestly, as long as you have decent bread, ripe tomatoes, and good olive oil it will work just fine. I’m growing early girl tomatoes in my garden and they work wonderfully.
It’s not required, and stale or untoasted bread works fine, but I like to cut mine into slices, lightly butter it (with more apologies to the purists), and stick it under the broiler until it’s lightly browned. That helps with the next step:
Vince Mancini
This is my favorite part. Take your peeled garlic clove, cut the top off, and sort of rub the cut part all over your toasted bread. Imagine the garlic is cheese and the toast is the cheese grater. Ideally, you’ll see the bread take on a slight sheen from the garlic oil and you’ll be able to smell garlic in the air. Incidentally, I use this exact technique for avocado toast.
Vince Mancini
Now, it’s true, the traditional Catalán way of doing this is to rub the tomatoes directly onto the bread. But hey, my garden is small, and fuck wasting all that tomato. I prefer grating the tomato over a bowl, which does add a bowl to clean but wastes less tomato and allows for cleaner hands. I use my microplane over a bowl and rub carefully until all that’s left ungrated is the skin.
Vince Mancini
Now I just spoon that mixture onto my toasted, garlic-rubbed bread. It’s okay that it’s making the bread soft, that’s kind of the point. To complete the dish, you simply drizzle on some olive oil (call it a teaspoon), and sprinkle on a little salt. I’ve heard there’s some argument about whether you should salt before drizzling olive oil or drizzle olive oil before salt. You could make a case for either — salt dissolves better in tomato than in oil, so you could say salt first seasons it better, though oiling last might also wash away some of the salt. I tend to go salt last, but I doubt it matters. I use more or less the same amount of salt you’d use to season an egg.
Vince Mancini
Ta-da! No really, that’s it. It’s like the laziest gourmet snack ever, which is why I love it. Once you’ve had it, you’ll almost feel guilty cooking your nice fresh tomatoes. And it’s basically the same flavors as bruschetta, pico de gallo, gazpacho, panzanella… There’s a reason we have so many different dishes based on basically the same three or four ingredients.
Avocado Toast Variation
We don’t get beautiful ripe tomatoes all year round (though you can get medium-shitty imported ones grown in a greenhouse somewhere) but you can usually find avocados. Start by toasting the bread and rubbing on the garlic in the same way, but then instead of tomato, use half of an at least semi-soft avocado. Cut it in half and add lengthwise slices, or cut it in half, score it into small cubes and then spread like butter.
To the avocado add a sprinkle of salt and a sprinkle of pepper. For extra credit, you can add a few drops of lime in place of the olive oil, and sprinkle on some chopped chives or chive blossoms.
In the months sense, WWE shareholders have filed multiple lawsuits against WWE, claiming that the company has made misleading statements and withheld facts about their business, and making specific mention of the Saudi Arabia deal and Crown Jewel. Because WWE can be insincere to us, and that’s just The Business, but if they’re lying to shareholders too, that’s a whole other thing.
As of this weekend, thanks to Wrestlenomics, we’ve seen the official court documents from one of these lawsuits, and it backs up all those rumors we heard back in the fall. It turns out the plaintiffs have an unnamed witness who’s able to testify firsthand about the experience on the ground (and trying to get into the air) after Crown Jewel.
The witness is referred to in the document as CW-2 (short for Confidential Witness Two), a former WWE Superstar who performed at Crown Jewel and was on the ill-fated flight. Here’s the relevant text from the court document, which you can read in its entirety in PDF form at CourtListener.com:
CW-2 recalled that he was initially told the charter flight he was scheduled to leave on was delayed because the plane needed to be pulled around, and once they boarded, they were removed from the airplane after 20-30 minutes. CW-2 explained that he spoke with a stewardess on the flight about the delay, who told him that “it seems someone doesn’t want us to leave the country.” CW-2 further explained that the pilot sounded “distressed” when he informed the passengers that the flight was unable to take off. CW-2 recalled that then they were told that it was because of mechanical issues, but he recalled seeing a “ton” of guards wearing black “militia” attire and wearing guns that were blocking their exit and “staring at the wrestlers.”
CW-2 became aware that something was wrong and explained that a number of the other personnel were referring to the event as a “hostage” situation.” CW-2 explained that he asked the Senior Director of Talent Relations, Mark Carrano, about what was going on and that Carrano told him that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and McMahon had gotten into an argument over late payments in connection with the June 7, 2019 Super ShowDown event. Carrano also informed CW-2 that McMahon had cut the live feed for the Crown Jewel event and that this had made the Crown Prince “very mad.
CW-2 advised the he and other WWE personnel looked into the prospect of booking flights on their own at a different airport for early the next morning. After a few hours, CW-2 explained, he and about 10-12 other wrestlers, cameramen, and agents were put on another flight to Buffalo. CW-2 further noted that at this point he wondered why if other planes were available that they did not get everyone out of Saudi Arabia.
CW-2 also heard that while on the plane, other wrestlers communicated back home that the military police were holding the wrestlers, and that McMahon didn’t air the first 30 minutes of the pay-per-view, and that as retaliation the Prince was holding them.
In addition, CW-2 recalled a number of wives being very concerned on social media and then when wrestlers returned home there were a lot of messages expressing how grateful they were to be home. CW-2 stated that after he returned, the WWE put out a letter that attempted to remove all blame from the company and that, in his opinion, many wrestlers were scared of speaking out due to the limited job opportunities in the industry and the WWE’s comparatively high salaries. CW-2 explained that many spoke on the condition of anonymity to journalists and the WWE denounced these stories as “conspiracies” and “laughable.” Nevertheless, after the event, CW-2 said that he and a co-worker went straight to Talent Relations and said they would not go back to Saudi Arabia. CW-2 noted that other wrestlers tried to do the same but the WWE “abused” their “power” and threatened the future trajectory of their careers if they did not go.
After the first season of The Witcher became a knockout hit for Netflix when it stormed onto the streaming service in December 2019, fans of the Henry Cavill monster-hunting series were already eager for a second season, which is on its way. Eventually.
However, even the most die-hard enthusiasts of the fantasy epic struggled with the choice to slowly reveal that the show was operating on three separate timelines while introducing the characters of Geralt (Cavill), Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), and Ciri (Freya Allan). While showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich stands by the story-making decision and is surprised by how controversial it became, she recently told The Wrap that the timeline will be more linear in the second season with everyone on the same timeline:
“We get to do flashbacks, we get to do flash-forwards, we get to actually integrate time in a completely different way that we weren’t able to do in Season 1. Because, if you can imagine, if we were in three different timelines (in Season 1) and then flashed forward or flashed back, we would have been in four or five or six timelines — even I know that’s too much. So I think it will be a lot easier for the audience follow and understand, especially a new audience coming in. But there are still going to be some fun challenges with time.”
Due to its filming location in the UK, The Witcher was one of the first shows to shut down production as the global pandemic began to spread. To complicate matters even further, new cast member Kristofer Hijvu (Game of Thrones) tested positive for COVID-19. Fortunately, Hijvu made a full recovery, although we don’t know if any other cast or crew members were infected. According to Hissrich, the show is hoping to resume filming on season two this summer, but it will all come down to making the safest possible decisions for the cast, crew, and local residents.
When the Philadelphia 76ers gave Joel Embiid a max extension after his rookie deal, they included some protections and outs in case his injury history caused him to miss significant time and derailed his career.
Happily for Embiid and the Sixers, the All-Star center has blossomed into one of the league’s most dominant forces and, while he’s had some minor injuries here and there, he has not seen a reoccurrence of the foot injury that caused him to miss his first two years in the league and has played in 63 and 64 games the past two years, prior to 44 appearances in this shortened season. To guarantee the final three years of his deal, with $95 million at stake, Embiid needed to play 1,650 minutes to hit the final threshold in his contract.
When the league shut down, Embiid had played just over 1,300 minutes, well on his way to meeting that goal, but with the hiatus he would’ve fallen short — even with the eight-game restart. However, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the league and players union have agreed to prorate bonuses and incentives based on the number of games played prior to the March 11 shut down, allowing Embiid to fully guarantee his deal, and others to grab bonuses they were on pace to hit.
One agreement finalized in recent days includes the NBA prorating performance bonuses and incentives using March 11 as the end date of the regular season — eliminating the eight additional seeding games in Orlando as part of the formula, sources said.
For Philadelphia 76ers All-Star Joel Embiid, it means meeting the minutes-played criteria needed to fully guarantee the final three years and nearly $95 million on his $148 million maximum contract, sources said.
It’s a big deal for players to get those incentives prorated and locked in based on a 60-some odd game schedule, because there’s real money on the line for a lot of players. Embiid’s contract is the biggest number, but there were other players tracking towards hundreds of thousands of dollars of bonuses that would’ve fallen just short had the league not come to this agreement. It’s a wise business move on the part of owners as well, who can use that as a concession they were willing to make when dealing with financial strains that could come in the near future due to a shuffling of revenue from the lack of fans to close the season and, possibly, some loss in TV revenue.
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view from across the apt!! 
