On March 1, Porter Robinson wrote across his social media accounts, “The album is done.” Robinson didn’t make his fans wait too terribly long before releasing the lead single off his forthcoming third LP, as “Cheerleader” arrived alongside a Hugh Mulhern-directed video on Wednesday, March 20.
“When I got back in the studio for ‘Cheerleader,’ I asked: What would be something that people could love with zero context — just instantaneous, universal, explosive connection?” Robinson said in a statement, as per a press release. “‘Cheerleader’ is my take on bottling that feeling.”
The video begins with a life-size doll eating some sort of gummy, and then it cuts to Robinson jamming on keyboard and guitar as a now-doll-sized doll dances along. Robinson is alone in a room — which is mostly bland, except for a giant pink-tinged painting of a cat — before joining a group of life-sized dolls dressed as cheerleaders at what appears to be a karaoke party.
“Cheerleader,” Robinson sings. “Thought she needed me, but I need her.”
Simultaneously, the original life-sized cheerleader doll is on the computer playing with a program called “Porter builder v3,” using a 3D printer to build her preferred version of Robinson, which comes to life when Porter reappears dressed exactly like the figurine in a glittery room. Eventually, a Godzilla-sized Robinson discovers the doll controlling him in her tiny apartment and swallows the doll, which predictably causes him to collapse.
The dolls multiply and conquer until Robinson is back alone in a bedroom, strumming his guitar and slowing down the song’s otherwise manic pace to sing the bridge: “Somehow, I don’t even know what she does now / But do I wish her the best or do I actually miss her? / She had hearts in her eyes, she was rootin’ for me all the time / Her love, the type that makes you dedicate your life / Oh, my cheerleader / Thought she needed me, but I need her.” The dolls calmly watch Robinson through the window, but they get the last laugh — breaking the window and all of his belongings. The four-minute-long chaos is punctuated by Porter being burst open like a piñata.
Robinson’s forthcoming album will be his first since 2021’s Nurture.
There isn’t a single expression that captures all the magic of tequila like blanco. I love the mellow vibes and complex character of reposado, I can appreciate the sip-worthy sometimes dessert-like quality of a beautifully aged añejo or extra añejo tequila, and cristalino…certainly is drinkable (I get the hate, it’s not for everyone). But nothing hits quite like an un-aged blanco.
A great blanco is wonderfully agave forward, vegetal and grassy, bright, a little ~spikey~, zesty, and has this wonderful and pleasing burn — it’s a whole world of flavors that sends your palate on a journey. It’s also tequila at its purest and, to my palate, most delicious. And it’s incredibly versatile. You can sip the best bottles, mix them up in high-end cocktails, and even shoot ’em (although… don’t shoot the best stuff — taste it!).
In celebration of my favorite tequila expression, we’re shouting out the 10 absolute best bottles you can pick up for under $50. This is a greatest hits list — meaning any of these bottles are worthy of gracing your bar cart — so if you see one of them on sale, don’t hesitate. They’re all winners.
Here are the best blanco tequilas under $50, ranked.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Tequila Posts Of The Last Six Months
Tepozan is a small batch tequila hailing from NOM 1584, Tequila El Tepozan, and is made from estate-grown blue agave that is hand-harvested and peak maturity and cooked in a pressurized brick oven.
The juice from the cooked agave is extracted with a roller mill and fermented in open-air still tanks before being twice distilled. After the first distillation, the tequila is clarified using volcanic rock water, and then further refined.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Roasted agave gives way to clay and wet earth and a bit of cinnamon. You can almost taste it before it hits the palate, serving as a nice teaser of what is to come.
Palate: An initial spicy hit kicks the palate awake with cooked agave notes, a hint of cracked black pepper, cinnamon, and vegetal brightness.
Finish: That vegetal quality dominates the finish with some minerality and a buttery aftertaste.
The Bottom Line:
Natural and earthy with an agave-forward character. Very pleasant for those looking for high minerality in the flavor profile.
Mijenta is produced at NOM 1412, Destiladora de Los Altos, using agave harvested from the highlands of Jalisco, cooked in a low-pressure autoclave, and roller mill extracted before being fermented in stainless steel tanks and distilled in a stainless steel pot.
There is a clean purity here that I love for cocktails.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: White pepper and agave. There is an initial funkiness to this that shifts into a floral honey tone as you inhale deeper. That might read as a turn-off, but the funk doesn’t translate to the palate.
Palate: Rich and buttery with cooked agave, black pepper, and a dash of vanilla. Elegant and dessert-like without being overly sweet.
Finish: Cinnamon and anise with a slight fruitiness that lives on the aftertaste.
The Bottom Line:
Buttery and earthy with a nuanced sweetness. A perfect base for a truly astounding cocktail.
Produced at NOM 1139, the famed La Alteña distillery, Tapatio is made from agave harvested at peak maturity and slow-cooked in masonry ovens. Tapatio removes the bud in male plants, which the brand claims “adversely affects the flavor of tequila.” Is there any truth to that? We’re not sure, but Tapatio tastes good so we’re not about to criticize the process.
The cooked agave is roller mill extracted and fermented in open-air wood vats with native wild yeast for 72 to 96 hours, and finally distilled in copper pots.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Carmelized agave leads to wet grass and a hint of juicy key lime. Very green on the nose.
Palate: A medley of citrus notes dominates the palate, I’m tasting tangerine, grapefruit, and a bit of orange. There is also a subtle hint of licorice.
Finish: Long and peppery. It sticks to the palate in the best way.
The Bottom Line:
Grassy and heavy on the citrus, with a really interesting licorice quality. There is a lot of distinct character to this one.
Siete Leguas’ Blanco tequila is produced at NOM 1120, at Tequila Siete Leguas, the brand’s namesake, which is usually a good sign. It’s also the only brand in production there, another great sign!
The agave is cooked low and slow in stone brick ovens, tahona, and roller mill extracted, and made with natural spring water. The juices are fermented in stainless steel tanks and twice distilled in copper pots with no additives.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Warm inviting agave notes with a noticeable wet rock and soil character.
Palate: Earthy and highly vegetal with a strong green grass flavor and some cracked pepper spice.
Finish: Citrusy with a hint of vanilla and some cool mint on the backend.
The Bottom Line:
Grassy, vegetal and bright. If you’re all about tequila where you can really taste the agave, this one is an ideal choice.
Before I get into this tequila I want to give special mention to Cascahuin’s reposado. I know this is a list of blancos, and while that remains my favorite tequila expression, Cascahuin’s reposado is my preferred expression from this brand. I like the level of complexity there, so if you end up loving this bottle, give the repo a try, even if you’re a blanco-purist.
Produced at NOM 1123 at Tequila Cascahuin, this additive-free tequila is cooked low and slow in stone brick ovens, roller mill extracted, and fermented in stainless steel tanks before being twice distilled in a stainless pot with copper coil.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Roasted agave, citrus, and warm wet soil.
Palate: The humid warmth from the nose translates to the palate, with some caramelized agave sweetness black pepper, the slightest hint of vanilla, and a mineral quality.
Finish: There is a mintiness that peaks out at the finish balanced out by citrus and black pepper.
The Bottom Line:
Well balanced with sweet and vegetal qualities with a bit of warmth to it. Surprisingly mellow despite the lack of aging.
LALO has a strict commitment to tequila blanco, so naturally, they needed to be part of this list. The agave for this tequila is hand-harvested at 6-7 years maturity from the highlands of Jalisco, it is then cooked in brick steam ovens for 20-32 hours and rested an additional 18 before being roller mill extracted.
The juice is then fermented for 3-4 days using a proprietary Champagne yeast. The result is a wonderfully bright and pure-tasting unaged tequila.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Cool refreshing cucumber balanced out by warm zesty citrus rind, there is a noticeable juicy green freshness here.
Palate: Agave and citrus with some light caramel notes, a bit of vanilla, and cracked cinnamon.
Finish: The vegetal quality of the finish is strong here. It feels fresh and grassy with more citrus at the back end and some roasted agave.
The Bottom Line:
A pure-tasting, well-balanced, and additive-free blanco, it’s relatively inexpensive for the quality on display here.
Tequila Ocho’s agave is hand-harvested sometime between 7-10 years and slow cooked in brick ovens for 48 hours and rested for 24 before being crushed by a roller mill. The juice is then fermented in wood vats and twice distilled, the second time in a small copper pot.
For the price, it’s amazing. You’re getting an additive-free tequila that utilizes a slow preparation process giving the tequila a silky and luxurious quality without breaking the bank. For that alone, this very well may be someone’s favorite.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Fresh-peeled orange rind and roasted agave dance on the nose in equal parts.
Palate: Zesty and earthy, I’m getting cracked black pepper and a rush of fresh herbal flavors. Almost cilantro-like.
Finish: Mint and pepper with a gentle spice that builds on the aftertaste.
The Bottom Line:
Lots of natural sweetness and fruity character here. A true joy to sip which is a rarity at this price point.
G4 comes from fourth-generation master distiller Felipe Camarena and is produced at NOM 1579, Destileria El Pandillo. The agave is cooked in stone brick ovens, tahona extracted, and made with natural spring and rainwater.
If you’re willing to spend a bit more money, I think the 108-proof is a great option due to its wonderful herbaceousness. That isn’t to say the regular blanco isn’t good, I just feel weird talking about G4 without mentioning the excellent high-proof version.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: A warm and inviting agave aroma swirls above this pour with some sinus-tickling black pepper and citrus notes.
Palate: That smell perfectly translates to the palate, I’m getting a lot of black pepper and citrus, with lush green grass notes to balance it out.
Finish: Warm and slightly nutty with a silky luxurious mouthfeel.
The Bottom Line:
Warm and agave rich, with a luxurious finish. For the money, I think this is hands down one of the best bottles of tequila on store shelves right now.
Fortaleza can sometimes be incredibly hard to find because it’s widely considered the best tequila by tequila snobs and people beginning their deep dive into the spirit. Believe the hype, this is truly great stuff, if you see a bottle on a store shelf, buy it, don’t hesitate. Is it going to change your life though? No.
Produced at NOM 1493, Tequila Los Abuelos, the agave here is slow-cooked in stone brick ovens, tahona crushed, fermented in open-air wood fermentation tanks and double distilled in copper pots before being poured into hand-blown bottles. It’s a traditional process that results in a no non-sense additive-free tequila.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Even on the nose, you’re going to get some complexity here. A bouquet of roasted agave, vanilla bean, citrus, and salt. On the smell alone, it’s mouthwatering.
Palate: Luxurious caramelized agave with warm vanilla, a hint of lemon, herbs, and a bit of grassiness.
Finish: Buttery with a dry earthy finish and a slightly bitter aftertaste.
The Bottom Line:
Bright and citrus-forward, it captures all the magic of blanco perfectly.
Am I going to get killed by tequila snobs for placing El Tesoro’s blanco above Fortaleza’s? G4s? Maybe, but I’ll take it because this is the tequila that opened up my world to what tequila should be, and for that, it’ll always have a special place in my heart.
El Tesoro is produced at NOM 1139, Tequila Tapatio (La Alteña) where it is one of three brands produced. The agave is cooked in stone ovens, tahona extracted, and fermented in open-air wood tanks before being twice distilled in a copper pot.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Juicy raw and warm caramelized agave in equal balance with a hint of fruity mango interest.
Palate: Rich agave, cracked black pepper, fresh flowers, baking spices, a hint of salt, grass, and minerals. The flavor shifts between sips, always leaving something new to latch onto.
Finish: Remarkably clean. Agave and grass with no lingering flavor.
The Bottom Line:
Juicy, agave forward, floral and fruity. One of the finest blancos you’ll ever drink.
On Wednesday evening, March 20, Post posted an Instagram Reel teasing a snippet of an unreleased single featuring Wallen. “Let’s go with the real mix this time @morganwallen [cry-laughing emoji],” Malone captioned the video, which shows him drinking a Bud Light and giddily singing along. Wallen commented, “I had some help getting to the point of posting it at 4 am [three cry-laughing emojis] this song is one of my favs in a long time. Proud to be on it w u bub!!”
This is just the latest in a string of posts hinting at an imminent Post Malone country album. Earlier this week, he posted photos of a session with Luke Combs, roughly one month after sharing an unreleased snippet of his song featuring Combs. Last week, Malone shared another snippet of a country-adjacent ballad alongside the caption, “missin you like this [blue heart emoji],” which people presumed is the title of the song.
During a Twitch livestream last November, Malone assured,” Country record is coming. I keep singing a song that we made while I was in Nashville, and it’s so f*cking sick, but it’s not out,” as relayed by American Songwriterat the time.
In the meantime, Posty fans can look forward to hearing him as the featured artist on “Fortnight,” the opening track on Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department, which is due out April 19.
Humans weren’t the only ones celebrating St. Paddy’s Day last Sunday. Penguins at the Detroit Zoo got in on the fun as well, only with more Valentine’s vibes.
“Love is king during penguin nesting time,” read the onscreen text for a video posted to the zoo’s TikTok, as the aquatic love birds scanned through a pile of colorful pebbles, searching for the perfect gift to present their partner. How romantic.
Out in the wild, this adorable courtship ritual is pretty standard, at least for Gentoo penguins. Male gentoos find a polished stone or pebble to offer their potential mates—Mother Nature’s engagement ring, if you will.
Luckily for the penguins at the Detroit Zoo, they had plenty of beautiful options, aka “lucky charms” to choose from. And the zoo explained in the clip, each stone was “lovingly painted with non-toxic paint” by their Tots and Teens program.
Folks who watched the sweet pebble procuring were instantly enamored.
“Oh to be a little penguin picking out a pretty rock for my love,” one viewer wrote.
“Imagine painting a rock and then finding out a penguin uses it as an engagement rock,” wrote another.
Naturally, many were reminded of the 1995 cartoon “The Pebble and the Penguin,” starring Martin Short, Jim Belushi and Tim Curry.
Watch below, and marvel at these little creatures whose love language is obviously gift-giving.
Sigh. Here we go again. After Beyoncé shared the cover of her upcoming album Cowboy Carter, fans were rightfully fascinated by its symbolism and the events that apparently inspired it. But, of course, there was one commenter who had further thoughts — and didn’t hold back on sharing them.
Azealia Banks, who previously called Beyoncé’s new singles “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ‘Em” a “big-time musical grift” (lol, girl, knock it off), went all the way in on the Cowboy Carter cover, deriding it for a lack of creativity. The covers features a beauty-queen Beyoncé sitting side-saddle on a white stallion, clad in a red, white, and blue Nudie suit with a sash bearing the album’s title holding an American flag. Here it is:
Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia Records
Banks declares herself “ashamed at how u switch from baobab trees and black parade to this literal pick-me stuff.” She doesn’t exactly explain what any of that means across no fewer than four Instagram Story slides. Side note: Just those four clock in at a full 900 words — if sis could pitch to an outlet, she could be getting paid to be a hater instead of just doing it for free (however unlikely it’d be that any editor would want to put up with her shenanigans).
There’s a lot to parse here, but it seemingly boils down to Banks’ view that Beyoncé, with all her culture-shifting power, could have yanked the visual aspects of country music closer to an aesthetic like that of her diaspora-dabbling Black Is King imagery. To be clear, Banks called that aesthetic hypocritical at the time, as well. She also picks on Beyoncé (inaccurately) for deigning to collaborate or share her platform with exclusively white artists — which… just, no. No. If you’re going to lie, do it convincingly. You can read the rant in full below.
I’ll take a shot at extracting some meaning from the bloviating above… Azealia Banks is still looking for someone to blame that she tanked her own career with all that mean-girl energy, and enjoys the attention she gets from flaming other artists who are more successful than her. Well, here you go, Azealia. Take it to the bank.
Azealia’s music is infinitely better than any of her cultural commentary and it really irks me that the only time people talk about her now is when she is pretending to be Khia on her IG stories
One thing About Azealia Banks is she will give her critique about another artist’s SUCCESSFUL career, but don’t have one solution for how to get her own career out of the lowest depths of hell… pic.twitter.com/yE8MHf8Glq
Took a nibble of the Azealia rant cause I keep seeing “points were made” on the TL and it’s just her projecting cause she let some crooked men in the industry railroad her career. Not quite what’s happening over here sis!
The Internet might never stop being weird about Sydney Sweeney’s body, but she’s moving right along. She’s also not too terribly hung up on Madame Web‘s box-office implosion, either, initially opting to point out that she was only “hired as an actress” and had nothing to do with any production decisions. However, Sweeney is grateful for the film’s existence and for appearing within it because, as she recently told GQ in a new feature piece, heading into a(n attempted) franchise reaped lasting positive effects.
Enormously positive effects. As it turns out, Madame Web opened the door for Sweeney, as both star and a producer of Anyone But You, to sell that movie, which was distributed by Sony. The romcom, which co-starred Top Gun: Maverick‘s Glen Powell and sparked romantic speculation IRL, ended up grossing over $170 million at the global box office. This also paved the way for a possible sequel and for Sweeney to snag the lead role in the upcoming Barbarella. Really:
Sweeney is frank about the career opportunities that saying yes to a big franchise has given her, even if the film didn’t turn out as she might have hoped. “To me that film was a building block, it’s what allowed me to build a relationship with Sony. Without doing Madame Web I wouldn’t have a relationship with the decision-makers over there,” she says. “Everything in my career I do not just for that story, but strategic business decisions. Because I did that, I was able to sell Anyone But You. I was able to get Barbarella.”
See? Madame Web might have earned Morbius comparisons, but at least it was a force for ultimate cultural good. And if you missed Anyone But You at the theater, you can currently rent the film on Amazon Prime or Apple TV, or you can wait for the April 23 Netflix debut. Either option is better than mulling over why Dakota Johnson was unenthusiastically rambling about researching spiders in the Amazon.
After YouTube phenomenonMrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, 25, graduated high school in 2016, his mother made a deal with him. He could live in her house and go to college, or if he didn’t want to pursue higher education, he would have to move out and live on his own. So, he decided to go to college, although his heart wasn’t in it.
The content creator, philanthropist, and founder of Feastables chocolate snack brand had just started making videos on YouTube as a teenager and had yet to hit the big time. So, he went to school while continuing his passion for creating YouTube videos.
However, college was not for MrBeast and he quickly dropped out. “I got to college and I couldn’t stand it, man. I used to sit in front of other classrooms and think, yo, I don’t know what the fu*k is going on,” he said, according to Essentially Sports. Instead, he put all his efforts into pursuing his dream of being a YouTube star. By the following year, he had earned over 1 million subscribers on the platform and was well on the way to being a success.
Last year, MrBeast reportedly made $82 million from his hundreds of millions of subscribers.
In an interesting twist to his story, MrBeast recently warned aspiring influencers and content creators to be careful about following his footsteps and giving up everything to pursue their dreams.
“It’s painful to see people quit their job/drop out of school to make content full time before they’re ready,” Donaldson wrote on X on March14. “For every person like me that makes it, thousands don’t. Keep that in mind and be smart plz.”
Itu2019s painful to see people quit their job/drop out of school to make content full time before theyu2019re ready. For every person like me that makes it, thousands donu2019t. Keep that in mind and be smart plz
— (@)
MrBeast’s tweet contradicts the inspiring advice successful people often give about following their dreams. Especially for someone so young who gave up a college education to pursue his. MrBeast is not advocating for people to follow the words of the great T.S. Eliot, who once said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” Or Nelson Mandela, who famously said, “There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
But MrBeast definitely knows the business he’s in, and it’s a lot different than it was when he first started out in 2016. The number of YouTubers has expanded exponentially over the past 8 years, and there are only so many eyeballs and sponsorships to go around.
Further, influencers now have to compete with artificial intelligence and TikTok is in danger of being shut down by the government.
“The chances of you quitting your job without a safety net and becoming a successful content creator are slim to none and anyone who does that is the exception, not the rule,” Katya Varbanova, a brand marketing strategist and the CEO of Viral Marketing Stars, told Business Insider. She also added that a big part of MrBeast’s success was “being in the right place at the right time.”
MrBeast made it big by working tirelessly to figure out the type of videos the YouTube algorithm and viewers wanted produced. Then, he scaled up his budgets and production quality to become a leader in the content creator industry. But one of the keys to his success was that he got in the game at the right time.
For those who may be discouraged by MrBeast’s thoughts on becoming an influencer in 2024, it doesn’t mean to stop following your dreams. It means to be like MrBeast and find the next big thing before everyone else, work hard to perfect it and shoot for the stars.
When I meet Madi Diaz before her show at the Kessler Theater in Dallas, she is spent. We’re scheduled to have a conversation about the women in music who have inspired her but she’s coming off a week at SXSW in Austin that was taxing to the point of nearly breaking her. “I’m not usually like this,” she tells me and proceeds to have the entire conversation with her eyes closed. In fact, she breaks into tears after I ask her to recount the scene of an artist who played a showcase with her during SXSW.
Leaving the conversation, I feel concerned about how her show is going to go. But I know something Diaz doesn’t. The Kessler is a special room that is often mentioned as one of the best-sounding venues in Texas. And she knows something I don’t because it is my first time seeing her — that all the women she mentions when we speak will be present at the show. Not literally, but as I watch her set, I see aspects of all of them show up in her performance.
There is a saying that frequently comes up when we talk about women in music: “You can’t be it if you can’t see it.” At Diaz’s show, the crowd is made up of more young, fashionably dressed women than the venue usually attracts, many of whom likely discovered her when she opened for Harry Styles on Love On Tour in 2022 when she also joined his backing band. A big part of what makes her music resonate for women is how vulnerable it is — and how it gets to the heart of a feeling. That’s the thing that made Diaz love Joni Mitchell so much.
“I don’t even know if I need to get into why. If you know who Joni is, it’s pretty obvious,” Diaz says of Mitchell’s influence on her work. “She’s just a force with a knife of a tongue and a wild mind for melodies. She knows how to cut to the quick of things.” Diaz has a poetic lyricism that is reminiscent of Mitchell, tapping into that distinct style of describing things. ” Diaz references the lyrics to Mitchell’s “The Last Time I Saw Richard,” when Mitchell describes herself with the phrase, “Only a dark cocoon before / I get my gorgeous wings and fly away” as one of her favorites. It immediately makes me think of linguistic picture painting in Diaz’s own lyric in “Get to Know Me” from Weird Fatih, when she sings, “Sometimes I find a pillow and I empty out my lungs / I keep my room dark enough to obscure skeletons.”
It was Diaz’s father, who is the inspiration for her song “God Person,” who introduced her to Blue, one of Michell’s best-known and critically beloved albums. “He always had it playing in the background, just the kind of thing that was always played on long drives,” she remembers. It was also the album she played while driving around LA, after moving there from Nashville, with a now ex — and when the relationship didn’t work out, listening to the album became an act of self-harm. It took a lot of work to get that album back into her life but, she assures me, she has reclaimed Mitchell and Blue for her own.
She mentions that artist she saw at a quiet backyard party at SXSW: Kathleen Edwards. She’s in good company being blown away by the singer/songwriter; both Rolling Stone and the Austin Chronicle mention exceptional showcases by Edwards in recaps from the even this year. Edwards stepped back from music for several years and Diaz mentions the final song on her 2012 album Voyager, “For The Record,” as particularly meaningful after the festival. “I’ve been listening to her since I was 18 or 19,” Diaz says. “The line, ‘For the record I only wanted to sing songs,’ is so heavy. I was thinking about that a lot at SXSW this week. It’s a wonderful festival, but it does feel unusually cruel to musicians. That line is the crux of it. We’re all in this to play music and sing songs.”
Edwards wouldn’t release another album until 2020. She left music to open a coffee shop she called Quitters. Edwards is just starting a tour — SXSW was its first date — while Diaz wraps up her U.S. headlining tour and in April will head across the pond to open for Kacey Musgraves in Europe. Despite having mutual friends, Diaz and Edwards hadn’t met before this showcase, although Diaz had been listening to her work for a long time. “At some point, Kathleen got up to play,” Diaz says and sheds a few tears. “I heard her guitar and the second she opened her mouth to sing, it was so emotional. It was cathartic to hear a voice that I’ve heard for so much of my life, just singing 15 feet away.”
We take a breath for a moment, and when we get back to her list Diaz goes straight to Kathleen Hannah of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, saying she is “so important and has such a loud war cry of a voice even now.” Diaz recounts seeing Bikini Kill in early 2023 and says, “Kathleen is so good at reminding you of your own force and that you are your own living, breathing, moving work of art.” If you’re wondering how the influence of Hannah shows up in a folk and Americana singer, just watch Diaz perform “Think Of Me” from her 2021 album History Of A Feeling. That night at the Kessler, she strums her guitar until she gets to the line “I hope you f*ck her with your eyes closed” and lifts both hands to display double middle fingers. The guitars might be light and sparkly, but the sentiment is no different than a full-throttle riot grrl moment.
“Another one is Kate Bush,” Diaz says, noting that her unsung work as a producer is as influential as her artistry. “She is also another [influence] who is a fucking phoenix,” she says, talking about Bush’s return to pop culture in recent times. “She’s such a singular woman, driving her own train, writing her own songs, making her own art, and calling her own shots.”
I think of Bush, and her on-stage theatrics, the second I get a look at Diaz’s treatment of the stage — to be clear, the Kessler is a small room where musicians mostly play acoustic shows. They rarely change the stage. But Diaz completely took it over with a backdrop, a Persian rug topped at her mic with a fluffy turquoise rug and blue Christmas lights. It’s all her aesthetic. And it’s a highly unusual thing to see in this venue.
Finally, Diaz talks about Bonnie Raitt. “She’s a badass guitar player, what a slide player she is. I feel like everyone looks at her for her songs and voice, while her guitar playing is something about her that I wish was more spotlighted.” I think of Raitt as I watch Diaz strum her ‘59 hollow body Harmony that night. Occasionally she struggles with it, telling the audience it’s old and cranky like she hopes to be when she’s that old, but mostly she works it like an instrument she knows well, pushing on her distortion pedals and losing herself in playing it here and there. Raitt would be proud of those moments when Diaz closes her eyes and loses herself in the playing.
You might not be the most logically coherent TV show, but to its credit, it still manages to addict Netflix viewers despite the lead character being a reprehensible piece of work. Joe Goldberg has stalked his way in and out of trouble for four full seasons, and somehow, he keeps getting away with (literal) murder. The streamer decided that Joe was good for a final season, too, even after an ennui-filled fourth round in gloomy London that scored over 90 million streaming hours in its first week.
Joe, who is always on the move after each round of crime, is taking himself on one last voyage, and he has headed into a new-old setting for the show’s fifth season. Let’s get down to tackling what to expect from more You.
Plot
Let’s get this out of the way: Joe is a stalker extraordinaire, but he’s also a semi-chaste stalker now. That is to say, Penn Badgley voiced his resolve to no longer do sex scenes, and you know, it’s hard to blame the guy after a particularly humiliating scene involving Joe, Love, and another couple in the third season. With that said, he will still be up to his old tricks, and after beginning his story in New York, followed by Los Angeles, France, and England, he’s fully back in the Big Apple.
There, the show might address the biggest mystery of the entire series: how has he been making an on-off living as a bookseller? In all seriousness, however, Joe is opening a new book shop, which means that he will probably favor rare books that need to be preserved in some type of underground vault, the better to hide his inevitable victims. In the fourth season, viewers will will recall, the tables turned on Joe, and he became the hunted. Sort-of. Joe was actually the Eat-the-Rich killer, too, but the season finale saw Kate help Joe free himself from all consequences, and there he was, running merrily free again. Will that last?
Not likely. Badgley has been very upfront about rooting for Joe to get what’s coming, and it seems unlikely that he will face legal consequences because although he’s sloppier, the powers that be are somehow even more inept when it comes to Joe. What does seem more probable is that there could be a legit threat to Joe’s life. Do viewers really want to see him get out of this story alive, or should we expect him dead? The latter seems like the only justice possible.
As well, there’s apparently a ghost from the past (presumably beyond Beck, Candace, and Love) who will be back to mess with Mr. Goldberg.
Who will that be? A teaser has hinted at the open threads that remain in Joe’s story. Those include past victims who could very well get him busted, including Marienne (Tati Gabrielle) and Dr. Nicky (John Stamos), if they find the proper ammo and/or people choose to believe them. Also, Jenna Ortega has gone on record to express interest in returning for her Season 2 character, Ellie, who Joe met in Los Angeles. Here’s what Badgley has said about the final season thus far: “Can his inner monologue evolve some now? What does it mean for him to accept himself?” Take that as you will.
Heck, maybe Joe will take himself out at the end? We need more clues, but the show is shooting now in New York City, so we should at least see some official teaser photos soon.
Cast
Thus far, Penn Badgley has been confirmed to be accompanied by Madeline Brewer, “an enigmatic and free-spirited playwright” named Bronte (of course) who will make the unfortunate decision of working in Joe’s new bookshop.
Madeline Brewer joins Penn Badgley in YOU S5. Madeline plays Bronte – an enigmatic and free-spirited playwright who comes to work at Joe Goldberg’s new bookstore. Good luck, girlpic.twitter.com/EVZXFA4SWB
The food movie is a genre that inspires nostalgia, longing, and hunger (both metaphorical and literal). There’s an unspoken sexiness about so many of the films we’re talking about today, as they’re often deeply sensual and highlight the idea of cooking as a “love language.” But it’s not all subtle eroticism, there’s also a deep human connection on display –parents and kids reconnecting, sibling rivalries, friendship dynamics put to the test, and abiding friendship.
Another joy of this genre is the realism of life in the service industry — which some films just nail. It’s an aspect that certainly adds a layer of authenticity to the proceedings.
Today, we’re ranking our 20 favorite food movies. For this endeavor, we called back food and movie critic extraordinaire Vince Mancini to add his well-seasoned two cents. By arguing a lot over text, we came up with a great list of food-focused films you 100% need to watch. Just as a note, we didn’t include any documentaries. Those films feel like they deserve their own list.
Let’s have a cinematic feast!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Since these guys fully shut out Spanglish, I’m dropping the famed sandwich that became a centerpiece to Sandler’s first big dramatic role here:
Also Read The Best Food Articles Over The Last Six Months From UPROXX:
The Broken Lizard crew is the epitome of mid-aughts comedy, and this movie is arguably their highwater mark (after Super Troopers, of course). The conceit is simple, a crew of miscreants, losers, and wild service industry folks (front and back of house) gather for a one-night shift in a seafood restaurant owned by an egomaniac former boxing champ. That alone is enough to bring the comedy. Add in the vibe between the Broken Lizard crew (they’re really firing on all cylinders here) and a murderer’s row of supporting actors (Cobie Smulders kills it in this) and you have one hell of a picture!
In the end, this is just a fun romp in a restaurant with ridiculous jokes that go well beyond any reality of working in a restaurant. But there is that foundation of authenticity that helps the movie cut a little close to the bone throughout. Plus, it’s freaking fun. Not all food movies need to be life-and-death tomes about lost love. — ZJ
19. Ratatouille (2007)
Ratatouille is an obvious choice, but sometimes an obvious choice is obvious because it’s good. There’s the pivotal scene during which Remy cooks snooty critic Anton Ego a life-changing ratatouille, of course (do you think they chose a vegetarian dish because the protagonist is a furry little animal?), which is both a brilliant depiction of the way food can be transporting through sense memory (a real Proust’s madeleine for the internet age) and an excellent bit of food porn.
That great climax aside, the entire film is an honest and surprisingly nuanced portrait of the restaurant industry. It manages to squeeze in why the protagonist chooses food as his raison d’être, a satire of white tablecloth restaurants and celebrity chef culture, and a depiction of the boys-clubby culture of the kitchen into the same movie, which also actually appeals to kids (I have a two-year-old, I can say this definitively now). It’s kind of like Kitchen Confidential for five-year-olds. They made it look so easy that, if anything, it doesn’t get enough credit for what they actually pulled off.
(And yes, Anton Ego may have set the public perception of critics back years, but the part about him being just a frustrated romantic at heart was dead on). — VM
18. The Founder (2016)
You might as well call this “America, The Movie.” An entitled white man — Ray Kroc — takes the hard work of others and claims it for himself and then (quite literally) takes the land they are on — plus the land every single one of their restaurants will ever be on and claims that for himself too. This all comes at great profit for Kroc, naturally.
Who knew a movie about the guy who screwed the McDonald brothers out of their ideas, innovations, and fast-food joints could be a parable about Manifest Destiny to its core? Yet, here we are. And that’s what makes this such a good watch. Even in food, America and Americans’ desire for self-defined “greatness” will always trample the dreamers and innovators. What a bummer.
This will make your next Sausage McMuffin a tad bittersweet when you think about everything the McDonald brothers lost out on. But still… a great watch. — ZJ
17. Pig (2021)
Pig is an easy choice for being both a pretty good movie (or at least a winningly weird one) and about as directly about food as any movie that exists. Nicolas Cage plays a mushroom forager who lives in a Pacific Northwest forest, hunting prized funghi with his pet pig. It turns out that he’s a formerly acclaimed chef who quit the business when he realized that the snooty restaurant industry was focusing on all the wrong things. In a pivotal scene, he makes another chef realize that his whole life has been a lie by cooking him an incredible butter-basted squab.
As far as food porn goes, that moment is a pinnacle. — VM
16. The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)
This film is a bit of a hidden gem. It’s also a great airplane watch for a long flight — that’s not a kick at the quality. The film’s premise centers around a stuffy traditional French restaurant owner — played lovingly by Helen Mirren — opening up to new flavors and foodways when a South Asian family opens a restaurant across the street. The key is that the new restaurant owner’s son is a chef wunderkind (Manish Dayal) armed with a loving demeanor and a case full of amazing spices that he knows how to use.
The best part is that the film has one of the best “omelet” making scenes of any film (it’s far better than The Bear scene from last year). The beauty of creating a standard dish but taking it to a new level is beautifully encapsulated by Mirren and Dayal’s respect for each other and the food they’re creating side-by-side in the kitchen. — ZJ
15. Chef (2014)
Chef is a movie Jon Favreau wrote, directed, and cast himself in as the protagonist, is about a bored chef who gets his groove back by launching a food truck that makes Cuban sandwiches. It’s light and breezy with a great cast (Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale), though a smidge broad and paint-by-numbers, with the requisite 20-teens plot device of someone “going viral.” (“Oh my gosh, I’ve gone viral!”)
But there’s a scene early in the movie that’s pure food porn — Favreau’s character getting home from the restaurant late one night and whipping up a batch of pasta aglio e olio. Favreau makes it look gorgeous (thanks to his food mentor, Roy Choi), and it’s such an easy, everyone-should-know-this kind of dish that it’s impossible to watch the film without it inspiring you to attempt the dish.
If you remember nothing else about the film, you’ll remember that scene. And that’s what food is supposed to do, right? — VM
14. Waiting (2005)
Yes, I’m choosing another service industry movie from the mid-aughts. This time we have Ryan Reynolds in full Van Wilder-as-loser mode with an all-star cast of mid-aughts stars that had yet to break out (Anna Faris, Luis Guzmán, Justin Long, Rob Benedict, and Dane Cook in his best role to date). The story is simple here too. A newbie gets a job at a Shenanagins (shout out to Super Troopers again!) and has the craziest first day of his fledging service career. The film goes much darker than The Slammin’ Salmon while cutting a dead-ender tone that plagued so many Americans in their early 20s right after 9/11.
Looking back, it was hard to know the point of anything in those years, and this film perfectly captures that vibe. — ZJ
13. Goodfellas (1990)
Maybe it’s not strictly a “food movie,” but it’s one of the best movies of all time and the food scenes are some of its most memorable. Who among us hasn’t tried cutting the garlic so thin that it “liquefies” in a little olive oil? It’s a waste of time if you’re not in prison, but a fun little experiment nonetheless. Just don’t spend so much time stirring the sauce that you end up getting caught by the feds. — VM
12. Mostly Martha (2001)
This German-Italian film is a classic. The plot is pretty simple. A well-starred chef (Martina Gedeck) working in Hamburg inherits her sister’s kid after a deadly car accident and Chef Martha has to change her perfectionist ways by the end of the movie. Along the way, you get loving and vivid food descriptions by Martha to her therapist while trying to adjust to a niece who refuses to eat — an affront to someone who adores food so much.
Enter Mario (Sergio Castellitto), who arrives in Hamburg as Martha’s new sous chef. Mario is the magic pixie dream chef of German cinema, whipping up simple but amazing pasta that’s so good that he even gets Martha’s food-hating niece to fall in love with it right alongside effortless words of wisdom that change lives. If all of this sounds familiar, the film was remade in the U.S. with Catherine Zeta-Jones as No Reservations, and another remake was made in Spain as Chef’s Special.
You know the story is great when remakes abound. — ZJ
11. Big Night (1996)
Big Night is a movie that’s both pretty good and definitely about food. It stars Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as two Italian brothers from New Jersey who are locked in a battle with a rival Italian restaurant. As the food version of a fraternity comedy that comes down to race to throw the best party the campus has ever seen, Primo and Secondo (they’re named after courses!) have to plan an epic feast to introduce the town to real Italian cuisine.
The centerpiece of the dinner is, as anyone who has seen it remembers, “the timpano,” a giant cornucopia of pasta baked inside a giant drum made of dough. If other movies on this list include dishes everyone tries because they look delicious and simple, the timpano from Big Night is the one no one attempts because it looks so hard. But all home cooks think “…one day.” — VM
10. Tampopo (1985)
No list would be complete without Tampopo. This is a food lover’s movie. There’s a long scene just about looking at and caressing ramen before you eat, for god’s sake. While that sounds so pretentious, Juzo Itami (the film’s writer and director) has the good sense to temper every moment of deep introspection with real-world comedic reactions to how ridiculous and ritualized we make food.
In short, this film is about making the perfect bowl of ramen. There are few better endeavors than that. — ZJ
9. Phantom Thread (2017)
Phantom Thread is a film about a finicky dressmaker named Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis), who makes his entrance into the film by turning his nose up at a basket of beautiful pastries while flamboyantly declaring “I told you, no more snodgy things at breakfast!”
The scripts online will tell you he says “stodgy,” but they’re gaslighting. Watch the film, he definitely says “snodgy”.
Anyway, the signature sequence involves Alma, played by Vicky Krieps, lovingly cooking up Reynolds an incredibly sexy-looking wild mushroom omelet, which she uses to poison him. Not many directors could pull off an act of partner-poisoning that seems both loving and makes you hungry, but that’s the magic of Paul Thomas Anderson. — VM
8. Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory (1971)
This is a classic for a reason. The songs — Pure Imagination and Candy Man — have become American standards. Gene Wilder’s performance is one for the ages as a slightly psychotic (slave-owning?) chocolate man. The story is so ingrained in our cultural consciousness that we keep remaking this novel from Roald Dahl over and over again, even though we achieved perfection with this one back in the 1970s.
It’s absurd, takes forever to get to the factory, and takes joy in the torture and death of children. That all kind of makes it a perfect piece of art. — ZJ
7. The Trip To Italy (2014)
“The Trip” movies are actually TV shows in the UK that are edited into feature films for the US market. I’ve never seen the full English series, but all of the “The Trip” movies feature Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan traveling around sun-dappled European vacation spots eating five-star food while doing impressions at each other. The movies are about 60% comedy and 40% food porn in a way that almost feels like cheating to include on a food-movies list.
But if they can write themselves a movie that allows them to go on gorgeous vacations eating delicious food, I can sure as hell use it to fill out my list. They make me almost as hungry for the food as I am jealous of Coogan/Brydon for getting to make these. — VM
6. The Trip (2010)
This film has the perfect balance of comedy, food porn, and travel FOMO in … Northern f*cking England. My wife (shut up, Vince) is from Northern England and I’ve spent a lot of my life there. And look, there are some wonderful places and corners tucked away in an otherwise very rural and post-industrial part of the country. So this film (a TV series in the UK) pulls off the best magic trick of the series — it makes a very rural and depressed part of the U.K. shine with great food and stunning (albeit misty) vistas.
Anyone can make Italy, Spain, and Greece look great with views and food (as proven in the next installments of “The Trip” franchise — the Trip-iverse if you will). But making Northern England look this good is a real treat for the senses and truly impressive. Also, “My-cocaine”! — ZJ
5. The Trip to Spain (2017)
Remember The Trip to Italy? The Trip to Spain is like that, only with less pasta and more ham. Plus about the same amount of impressions. There’s also The Trip to Greece, which is also a great food movie, but I’m not including it here solely as an example of editorial restraint. — VM
4. The Menu (2022)
You had to see this entry coming. The Menu captured the national zeitgeist at the tail end of 2022 into 2023 in a way that films rarely do. Plus (spoiler alert), that cheeseburger was legit. All of that aside, this is a movie that balances influencer culture, haute cuisine, wealth, and service/sex work in a deeply resonant way. Ralph Fiennes, Nicholas Hoult, and Anya-Taylor Joy give spot-on performances as a chef, his acolyte, and the no-nonsense sex worker they’re orbiting at a remote five-star celebrity chef restaurant with a real cult following.
The tension! The food! Tyler’s Bullshit! It’s all pretty goddamn entertaining and one of the great food movies of the 21st century. — ZJ
3. Labor Day (2014)
Sitting awkwardly alongside Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Young Adult, and Up In the Air in Jason Reitman’s early filmography, Labor Day is a steamy romance about an escaped convict and a lonely single mom starring Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet. As I wrote in my original review, it feels like Reitman tried to riff on the Nicolas Sparks movie formula, and he actually does a pretty good job of it.
Ah, but why is it a food movie, you ask? Well, aside from Brolin’s character proving himself to Winslet with a delicious batch of biscuits he learned in prison, there’s the finale, which I originally described thusly:
“The sexual tension comes to a gooey crescendo when Prison Biscuits Brolin teaches Lady Nightgown to make peach pie in the most sensual way possible.”
Yep, basically imagine the pottery scene from Ghost as applied to peach pie. I’ve been trying this whole list not to overuse the word “sensual,” but Labor Day finally forced my hand. I don’t know whether I wanted the two of them to screw each other or the pie. — VM
2. The Taste of Things (2023)
I was going to slide Babette’s Feast into this spot. Then I saw The Taste of Things and had to bump that classic off the list. The Taste of Things is very French but has this quiet sumptuousness to it that’s … well, transcendent. The food scenes are maybe the best I’ve ever seen on screen (Trần Anh Hùng’s direction is pure soft-toned visual splendor). I swear I could almost smell the food Juliette Binochet was cooking. It was so immersive and welcoming from top to bottom.
The film revolves around cook Eugénie (Binochett) and her partner and employer Dodin (Benoît Magimel). Their love language is food as they prepare menus and cook together in Dodin’s estate kitchen. It’s f*cking magical. Then tragedy takes the film to a place I cannot spoil here but gives the story so much more depth and reasons to enjoy the food in the film…just find it and watch it. –ZJ
1. Sideways (2004)
Does wine count as food? What this movie’s inclusion in this list presupposes is, yes, it does.
Sideways, Alexander Payne’s classic about a struggling writer from San Diego traveling up to Santa Barbara County for a two-man, wine-lovers bachelor party is notable as one of the best wine movies ever made (with the bonus that it isn’t about Napa! That’s right, they make wine other places too!), and also for helping to make Paul Giamatti a leading man.
It’s true, they don’t show food much for a movie set almost entirely in restaurants and during meals (they mostly weren’t drinking the wine by itself), but it’s the centerpiece scene that feels most relatable to foodies. Miles hears his ex-wife is having a child with another man and takes his prized bottle of ‘61 Cheval Blanc to a burger joint to drink out of a styrofoam cup. Certainly, it’s a scene meant to convey Miles’ emotional state, but I think it also shows that the snootiest foodies are usually the biggest hogs.
Yes, I love an oyster on the half shell straight out of the ocean, but you know I’ll eat some gas station nachos too under the right circumstances. — VM
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