GoneTrending

For some people, fast food is a treat — a rare indulgence. And when you don’t eat fast food regularly and instead consider it an exception to your dietary rules, you don’t want to be disappointed. Because let’s face it, a lot of times, fast food can be pretty disappointing.

This is why we’ve started an ongoing series where we highlight the five absolute best menu items at a specific restaurant. We’ve done Taco Bell, McDonald’s, KFC, and Jack in the Box and now it’s time to take on the Shack. We’re talking about Shake Shack (sorry to the Crack Shack fans out there whose heart rate started to skip).

Shake Shack is a tough restaurant to break down into five undeniable classics because everything the restaurant does it does pretty well. Except for the fries. Shake Shack also tends to have a few limited-time-only items on its menu, like last summer’s Spicy Burgermeister (or this month’s Korean BBQ Burger), which we named the best cheeseburger of 2023.

For this review, we decided to leave off all limited options and only focus on food on the permanent menu. That means we’re going to leave some interesting stuff on the cutting room floor but… it is what it is. Let’s dive in!

Shackburger

Why We Love It:

If there was a Mount Rushmore of cheeseburgers, the Shackburger would be on it. It’s an all-time great, one of the best, if not the best double cheeseburgers in the vast fast food universe.

What sets this burger apart from the competition is the meat patty. It’s beefy, juicy, and has that wonderful carmelized crust across the surface and those lacy edges, that help lock in the savory flavor. The beef patty melts in your mouth. It’s delicate, sumptuous, and puts all other burgers to shame.

And that’s just the beef! Joining that is some great produce as well. Thick green leaf lettuce that has a subtle hint of bitterness, ripe juicy tomatoes that add an umami burst of flavor with every bite, and Shake Shack’s Shake sauce, which offers a nice savory tang to the finish.

We couldn’t improve this one if we tried!

The Bottom Line:

The Shackburger just might be the best cheeseburger in all of fast food.

Roadside Double

Why We Love It:

We love the classic Shake Burger, but at the end of the day it’s just a cheeseburger, and if fast food is a rare treat for you, you might want something a bit more elevated. Enter the Roadside Double, a decadent spin on the original that combines Shake Shack’s amazing melt-in-your-mouth beef patty with a double dose of nutty Swiss cheese, dijon mustard, and beer-simmered caramelized onions.

Biting into this burger is an explosion of bold, sweet, and savory flavors with a sharp tang finish. There is something satisfyingly luxurious about this burger, it has the richness of a BBQ burger without the smokey and overly sweetened notes.

The Bottom Line:

Rich, decadent, and subtly sweet. There is a lot of depth of flavor here that makes this burger addicting.

Avocado Bacon Chicken Sandwich

Why We Love It:

The chicken sandwich is one of the most competitive dishes in fast food right now. And there are a lot of good ones out there (Popeyes and Chick-fil-A immediately come to mind) but as good as those sandwiches are, none of them taste as elevated as Shake Shack’s.

The chicken breast filet here is tender and juicy, breaded in a light and crispy breading which, when paired with the bacon, results in an exceptional audible crunch with every bite. The avocado does a lot of work here to deepen the flavors, offering a buttery savoriness that makes this sandwich as satisfying as a juicy cheeseburger.

The pickles are thick and have a nice amount of snap, and the herb-infused mayo wraps all the flavors together. That mayo is the weakest element here, so if you don’t like mayo on your sandwiches feel free to ditch it — the avocado elevates the flavor enough.

The Bottom Line:

Hands down Shake Shack’s best chicken sandwich.

SmokeShack

Why We Love It:

No fast food burger menu is complete without a great bacon burger, and Shake Shack has one in the SmokeShack. But because this is Shake Shack, whose whole concept is roadside dishes meet premium ingredients, this isn’t your average bacon burger.

The build consists of bacon and beef, joined with chopped cherry peppers, and Shake Sauce. Those chopped cherry peppers add brightness to the smokey and beefy character of the burger, with a mild heat and vegetal sweetness that serves as a nice counterbalance. Wrapping the flavors together is a thick layer of Shake Sauce.

It’s not quite as decadent as a bacon burger tends to be (compare this to the Wendy’s Baconator or the Carl’s Jr Western Bacon Cheeseburger), but it’s refreshingly unique.

The Bottom Line:

A subtle and interesting bacon cheeseburger that tastes unlike the competition.

Malted Chocolate Shake

Why We Love It:

This is Shake Shack so we couldn’t create a list of the five best menu items without shouting out one of the shakes. And when it comes to shakes, the Shack has a lot of them including a Cookies and Cream shake, Maple Snicker Doodle Shake, Coffee and Donuts Shake, and even root bear floats. So why are we going with the standard chocolate shake instead?

Because nothing, and I repeat, nothing tastes more satisfying and rich than a good malted milkshake. To be clear, Shake Shack doesn’t default to a malted milkshake, it’s something you’re going to have to ask for, or you know, select on the app, and adding malted milk powder to your shake adds so much to the end result that it’s almost criminal that all fast food shakes aren’t malted.

One sip of this will introduce your tastebuds to a world of rich cocoa and brown sugar flavors with a hint of nuttiness with a rich finish that is enough to make you say “goddamn!” after drinking it. What other fast food milkshake can deliver the same experience?

The Bottom Line:

Fast food’s greatest chocolate milkshake. Get it malted (always get it malted) and thank us later.

The Golden State Warriors saw Steph Curry leave Thursday night’s game against the Chicago Bulls with ankle injury. With just under four minutes to go and the Warriors attempting to pull off a comeback against their Eastern Conference foes, Curry got into the paint, planted his right foot, and rolled it awkwardly. He was immediately in pain, made his way into the locker room, and was unable to return to the game.

With Curry’s lengthy history of ankle injuries, any roll of the ankle immediately has the potential for a crisis to break out. On Friday, the two-time NBA MVP went to get imaging done on his ankle to learn the extent of his injury, and Shams Charania of The Athletic and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that Curry won’t be sidelined for too terribly long.

The good news for the Warriors is that Chris Paul has returned from his own injury issues, and if he slides into the starting lineup in Curry’s absence, that means the team will have an experienced, veteran point guard who can run the show for a bit. Regardless, there is only one Curry, something that Klay Thompson expressed after the game.

“I know we’re going to miss him if he does need time off,” Thompson said, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. “We’ve been in this position before where he has had time off, and we just got to do it collectively. I know he’ll be ready to go when he does come back, whenever that is. We just wish him a speedy recovery.”

The Warriors are currently in ninth place in the Western Conference with a 33-29 record. While they should be able to earn at least a berth in the Play-In Tournament — they have a 5.5-game lead on the Utah Jazz with 20 games left on the schedule — any Curry absence could hurt their chances of earning both an automatic bid to the postseason (currently, the team is 3.5 games back of the Phoenix Suns for the 6-seed) or getting into the 7-8 Play-In game (the Dallas Mavericks have a 1.5 game edge for the 8-seed).

The biggest concern with any Curry absence is that Golden State is battling with the Los Angeles Lakers for the 9-seed — they’re ahead due to the fact that they have one fewer loss. While no one wants to play in the 9/10 game, where a loss means you are eliminated from the playoffs, getting to host that game is a major edge, particularly due to the fact that the Lakers are 22-11 at home and 12-19 on the road this season.

Jhené Aiko moves at her own pace. In today’s frantic climate of near-constant content churn, the LA singer keeps to herself, quietly creating until she feels ready to release her latest work to the world. She’s like a volcano in that way, patiently bubbling under the surface until she’s ready to erupt with a new creative vision.

Maybe that’s why she presents herself as a fiery volcano goddess in the video for “Surrender,” which she shared this week in honor of the fourth anniversary of her most recent album, Chilombo. On Instagram, she revealed she’d be sharing the unreleased videos from the album, including clips for “Define Me (interlude),” “Love,” and of course, “Surrender.” All three videos were shot by frequent collaborator Glassface and find Jhené soaking up nature, whether that’s on the volcanic island from the “Surrender” video or taking in the savannah of Africa in “Love.” You can check out the “Surrender” video above and the “Love” and “Define Me” videos below.

In accordance with Aiko’s laid-back release schedule, she dropped her most recent songs early this year. “Sun/Son” was a dedication to her and Big Sean’s son Noah, and followed “Calm & Patient,” which came out nearly a year before. She may be feeling calm and patient, but her fans have been neither lately, as demands for a joint release with Sean as Twenty88 have become more and more persistent on social media with her increased activity. They said the album is “coming along,” but that was two years ago, so their insistence is understandable.

Heading into last year’s Oscars ceremony, Angela Bassett was feeling confident about her chances of finally winning an Academy Award. The actress had just cleaned up at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards for her her performance as Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. However, Bassett did not take home the gold for Best Supporting Actress. The award went to Jamie Lee Curtis for Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Naturally, Bassett handled the loss with poise and grace, and in a viral moment, was a rock of comfort for Austin Butler when he lost to Branden Fraser for Best Actor. Only recently has Bassett opened up to Oprah about the disappointment of seeing another Oscar slip through her fingers. (Bassett was nominated once before in 1994 for her iconic performance as Tina Turner. Unfortunately, she lost to Holly Hunter for her performance in The Piano.)

Via Variety:

“I was gobsmacked! I was,” Bassett responded. “I thought I handled it very well. That was my intention, to handle it very well. It was, of course, a supreme disappointment, and disappointment is human. So I thought, yes, I was disappointed and I handled it like a human being.”

Bassett said handling the Oscar loss with grace was of the utmost importance “for myself and for my children who were there with me.”

Bassett then delivered some sage advice.

“There are going to be these moments of disappointment that you’ll experience, but how do you handle yourself in the midst of them?” she said. “We’re going to smile, we’re going to be gracious, we’re going to be kind, we’re going to party anyway.”

(Via Variety)

It’s not uncommon to change your mind about things once you receive more information. For instance, Dakota Johnson seemed really hyped to be in a Marvel movie but then changed her tune once she realized it was not going to be anything like those MCU sequels, and subsequently dragged her own film. It happens! Similarly, in 2022, when Pierce Brosnan was asked who should be the next James Bond, he bluntly replied, “I don’t care.” And who would we be to argue with that?

But now that Brosnan, like the rest of the world, has been under Cillian Murphy‘s enchanting and somewhat haunting spell, he has changed his mind. “Cillian would do a magnificent job as James Bond on His Majesty’s Secret Service,” Brosnan told The BBC at the Oscar Wilde Awards. Not to be confused with The Oscars. That’s different.

Murphy was also in attendance, and while his name might be at the top of the list, he doesn’t seem that invested. People reports that Murphy claimed he is “a bit old” for a Bond role, as he is about to turn 48. The Bond Bosses are hoping to find a “thirty-something” for the role to ensure at least another decade of Bond films. Meanwhile, Daniel Craig could care less.

On the other hand, there is already one soft-spoken 30-something who has been eager to throw his name into the mix, the people just need to start paying attention!

(Via EW)

Just a month after sharing his first new singles of 2024, breakout singer-songwriter d4vd (pronounced “David”) returns with a regretful, eerie video for his new song, “My House Is Not A Home.” The lyrics lament the fracturing of a dysfunctional relationship, tying it in with d4vd’s regret at burning bridges with his family in the pursuit of his dreams of stardom. “You didn’t wanna fall in lovе,” he observes. “You’re looking out for yourself now.”

In the video, d4vd eats alone at a table set for four, roaming the halls of a seemingly empty family home before its revealed that something disturbing has happened here and the evidence needs to be burned away. The video ends with the house at the center of a conflagration as d4vd makes a dramatic getaway, but he does seem more maudlin than elated at the outcome. In a press release, he said the song is “an introspective track about how I viewed my life after moving to Los Angeles – the themes of falling in love with the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time are explored throughout the song, and how I navigate those situations are in the lyrics.”

d4vd’s breakout in 2023 started with songs like “Romantic Homicide” and “Here With Me,” establishing his penchant for melodramatic songwriting that resonates with his fellow teenagers. It looks like he’ll continue to ride that wave as he prepares to follow-up his standout 2023 with a raft of high-profile festival appearances this summer including Boston Calling, Governors Ball, and Bonnaroo.

Watch the video for “My House Is Not A Home” above.

Lauren Mayberry is always a rebel with a cause. Whether in her own solo work or as a member of Chvrches, when she picks up a microphone, you need to listen. Mayberry’s latest single, “Change Shapes,” is no different. On the agenda for this record is inequitable gendered labor in romantic relationships.

Yes, that’s a mouthful, but it is nowhere near as exhausting as walking the emotional tightrope that is the male ego. “It’s exhausting trying so hard all the time / Performative hypocrisy took over my mind / I’m a doll inside a box / With a ball and a chain / I bend over backwards, tiptoe along every wire / Guess I’m quite the actress, no one knows I’m a liar / I’m preaching to the choir / I’m a body for hire / And I think you should know / I change shapes ’til I get what I want from you / It’s your game, now you’re mad that I learned the rules,” sings Mayberry.

What started off as a stress-induced rant, thanks to Mayberry’s spunky vocals and Matthew Koma’s charismatic production, “Change Shapes,” is the ultimate “no thanks” to traditional heteronormative expectations of women. Given that today is International Women’s Day, it could not have been timed better.

Listen to “Change Shapes” above.

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is a lot of things. It’s a colorful, slightly subversive comedy. It’s a fun introduction to Feminism 101. It’s a two-hour toy commercial. But more than all of these things, it’s an incredible display of top-notch production design. Though portions of the movie take place in “the real world,” it’s purely a fantasy with large swathes of time spent in a beautifully crafted Barbie Land. There are also big musical numbers with their own unique spaces and a surreal kitchen out of time where Barbie (Margot Robbie) meets the original creator of the doll, played by Rhea Perlman, along with the bizarre brutalist cubicles and hot pink heart-shaped head table of Mattel’s corporate offices. There is a great amount of love and attention paid to every detail, right down to the exact shades of pink in Barbie’s house.

In a behind-the-scenes tour of the Barbie Land set for Architectural Digest, Gerwig said that she and the creative team sat with “all of these different kinds of pinks” to try and find the right shades for Barbie Land. It was important that the pinks had the same gaudy quality as their toy counterparts. Gerwig said, “When I was a little girl, I liked the pinkest, brightest things,” and that sensibility permeates all of the colors in the fantastical elements of Barbie. Barbie Land rides the line between being gorgeous and garish, making it perfect for younger audiences without totally alienating adults. The kitchen in the past where Barbie meets her creator is suitably sepia-toned and faded, like an old photo, while the cubicles in the Mattel building are all varying shades of gray. That level of attention is extended to every aspect of the production design, from the incredible matte paintings that serve as backgrounds to the giant sticker on the inside of Barbie’s refrigerator. Barbie doesn’t eat, drink, or need to bathe, plus she ascends and descends from the different levels of her house as if a magical, invisible child’s hand is moving her, and her house reflects that.

The Barbie houses are pretty perfect re-creations of their pint-sized counterparts. They’re just slightly too small for their inhabitants, with showers that don’t actually have running water and a fireplace that’s just a flame-shaped light. In fact, according to an interview in Vogue, production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer established a rule that there was no fire or water in Barbie Land. They also wanted to make everything look tactile, because toys are meant to be played with, which led to another rule about limiting computer-generated imagery (CGI) as much as possible. Spencer told Vogue: “To my mind, we were creating a toy. A toy is tactile, A toy is real. Everybody knows what’s CGI. Your sixth sense will tell you—even children will know. So with the painted backdrops, it just gave everybody the belief that you are in the toy box, you are in there, you are a toy.”

The relative lack of CGI also works well with the movie’s biggest influences: classic movie musicals. After all, Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen didn’t have computer-generated visual magic when they made Singin’ in the Rain and it’s a gorgeous Technicolor dream. Barbie draws on that same visual language, as Gerwig was inspired by its “dream within a dream” sequence, which viewers can see traces of in the “I’m Just Ken” musical number. Other influences include Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which Gerwig spoofs in the opening sequence, and Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, which she credits as having an “artificial authenticity” that she strove for on Barbie.

The faux water of Barbie Land is one of the more fascinating fakeries of Barbie. Barbie’s pool was painted and then covered in resin to give it a watery look a bit more convincing than the basic shiny stickers of real-world Dream Houses, but it’s still just the right level of artificial. Likewise, the ocean where Ken (Ryan Gosling) does his job (which is “beach”) is blue and plastic, which makes surfing on it a rather tricky proposition. Background waves are giant colored cardboard pieces, harkening back to some of the earliest films and giving yet another layer of cinematic and toy-like fakery. Even the sand on the beach is pale pink because nothing in Barbie Land escapes the color, not even the palm trees, which have big chunks of pink in their bark.

All of this dedication to details big and small makes Barbie feel like something truly grand, elevating it beyond its witty script and great performances to make it feel more like a timeless classic than just another bubblegum blockbuster. There’s a good reason that Barbie has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Production Design, and it stands a decent chance at winning. The 90s band Aqua might have told us “life in plastic, it’s fantastic,” but the production design team behind the Barbie movie finally helped us all understand exactly what they meant.

If I was Billy Crystal, this is where I’d introduce my predictions for the Oscars through timely song parodies about the nominated films. Something like turning “oppa Gangnam Style” into “Oppenheimer Gangnam Style.” Or making Barbie ballad “I’m Just Ken” about power couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez: “I’m just Ben / Where I see love, Jen sees Dun-ken.” But I’m not Billy Crystal (god willing, I will be some day), so I’ll just get to my picks for the 96th Academy Awards, which air this Sunday, March 10, at 7 p.m. EST on ABC.

Let’s begin with some quick hitters.

Best Visual Effects: Godzilla Minus One
Best Film Editing: Oppenheimer
Best Costume Design: Barbie
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Maestro
Best Cinematography: Oppenheimer
Best Production Design: Barbie
Best Sound: Oppenheimer
Best Original Song: “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie
Best Original Score: Oppenheimer
Best Animated Short Film: War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
Best Live Action Short Film: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Best Documentary Short Subject: The Last Repair Shop
Best Documentary Feature: 20 Days in Mariupol

Best Animated Feature Film

The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Will Win: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Should Win: The Boy and the Heron

Only twice in the 2010s did Best Animated Feature Film not go to a Disney project (which includes Pixar). The trend continued into the 2020s with Soul and Encanto, but last year, the Oscar went to Guillermo del Toro’s magnificent Pinocchio; now, for the first time since Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Happy Feet in the mid-2000s, Disney won’t win two years in a row. It’s a toss-up between The Boy and the Heron, the possibly final masterwork from Hayao Miyazaki, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the sequel to previous winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Expect a repeat.

Best International Feature Film

Io capitano (Italy)
Perfect Days (Japan)
Society of the Snow (Spain)
The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany)
The Zone of Interest (United Kingdom)

Will Win: The Zone of Interest
Should Win: Perfect Days

For four out of the past five years, Best International Feature Film (formerly Best Foreign Language Film) has gone to a movie that was also nominated for Best Picture. It happened for Roma, Parasite (which won), Drive My Car (which should have won), and last year’s All Quiet on the Western Front, and it will happen for The Zone of Interest. I slightly prefer Perfect Days, a lovely day-in-the-life drama from German director Wim Wenders about a man who cleans toilets in Japan (it’s more poignant than it sounds, I swear), but The Zone of Interest is a lock. Now, if France had submitted Anatomy of a Fall…

Best Adapted Screenplay

American Fiction
Barbie
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest

Will Win: American Fiction
Should Win: Poor Things

This one is for the bloggers. Cord Jefferson wrote for Gawker (RIP) before transitioning to television (including Watchmen, Master of None, and The Good Place) and film. American Fiction is his feature-length debut, and after winning Best Adapted Screenplay at the British Academy Film Awards and Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards, he’s poised to take home Best Adapted Screenplay as well. The script never totally coalesces for me (the satire is dampened by the relationship drama), and Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s Barbie could surprise, but American Fiction has math on its side.

Best Original Screenplay

Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Maestro
May December
Past Lives

Will Win: Anatomy of a Fall
Should Win: Past Lives

My siding with Past Lives isn’t a slight against Anatomy of a Fall. Past Lives was my favorite film of 2023, a nuanced love story about life’s what ifs (and a reminder of when social media was good). But even I won’t be dissapointed when Anatomy wins. Justine Triet and Arthur Harari’s screenplay for the courtroom thriller is absorbing, well crafted, and at times, funny, with a centerpiece argument that’s as compelling as any scene among the nominees. Did she do it? If the “she” is Triet and the “it” is win an Oscar, yes, she did it.

Best Supporting Actress

Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer)
Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple)
America Ferrera (Barbie)
Jodie Foster (Nyad)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)

Will Win: Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Should Win: Da’Vine Joy Randolph

Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting (or its equivalent) at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, BAFTA Awards, and basically every other awards show this season. After years of doing knockout work on High Fidelity, People of Earth, and short-lived favorite Selfie, she’ll take home the Oscar, too.

Best Supporting Actor

Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction)
Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)
Ryan Gosling (Barbie)
Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)

Will Win: Robert Downey Jr.
Should Win: Robert De Niro

Robert Downey Jr. survived drug addiction and the Marvel machine. The Academy loves a comeback story, and this story ends with RDJ holding an Oscar (shout out to Robert De Niro giving one of his best performances ever, which is saying something, and Ruffalo as the world’s poutiest f*ck boy, though).

Best Actress

Annette Bening (Nyad)
Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall)
Carey Mulligan (Maestro)
Emma Stone (Poor Things)

Will Win: Lily Gladstone
Should Win: Lily Gladstone

Lily Gladstone gets the Oscar, both for her towering performance in Killers of the Flower Moon (she’s an even more commanding screen presence than Leonardo DiCaprio in the film), and because I can’t wait to hear her acceptance speech. Must-see TV.

Best Actor

Bradley Cooper (Maestro)
Colman Domingo (Rustin)
Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)

Will Win: Cillian Murphy
Should Win: Paul Giamatti

Bradley Cooper has the chance to do the funniest thing (get so mad about losing that he personally attacks the Oscars music director and plays off the winner, which he spent six years learning to do). I would love for Giamatti to win Best Actor; this category almost never goes to a comedic performance, and he is hilarious (and heartbreaking) in The Holdovers. The Oscars needs more farting and poor football-throwing representation. Think of the In-N-Out photo! But there’s nothing underwhelming about Cillian Murphy’s performance, either. The defining image of Oppenheimer isn’t the nuclear explosion or the parade of character actors or even Florence Pugh’s CGI dress. It’s Murphy’s haunted face. The Irish actor doesn’t know what a meme is, but he’ll soon know what it’s like to be an Oscar winer.

Best Director

Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest)
Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)
Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall)

Will Win: Christopher Nolan
Should Win: Jonathan Glazer

The Directors Guild of America Awards has been around since 1948. In all that time, there have been only been eight instances where the winner of Outstanding Directing – Feature Film hasn’t also been named Best Director at the Oscars. This year’s winner at the DGAs? Christopher Nolan, who was up to the task of depicting “the most important f*cking thing to happen in the history of the world.” The big night for Oppenheimer continues. Speaking of…

Best Picture

American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest

Will Win: Oppenheimer
Should Win: Oppenheimer (I’m a realist)

There are three tiers of Best Picture nominees:

Tier 1: it’s nice to just be invited (American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Maestro, Past Lives)
Tier 2: there’s a chance, but it would be a shocking upset (Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon)
Tier 3: the frontrunners (Oppenheimer, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest).

Aw, who am I kidding? I’m trying to build up suspense, but there isn’t any: Best Picture is going to Oppenheimer.

As noted by Vanity Fair, Oppenheimer, a well-deserved critical and commercial hit, won the top prize at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Directors Guild Awards, Producers Guild Awards, and the British Academy Film Awards The last time that happened? Argo, which said go f*ck yourself to the competition. Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan’s third film to be nominated for Best Picture — it will be the first to win.

Kyle Kinane is a comedian. Sure, he’s also a podcaster (teaming with Shane Torres for the No Accounting For Taste pod wherein the co-hosts joke about and celebrate things others drag). He also has more than 50 credits as an actor and voice actor, but stand-up comedy is the job. It’s the one that sends him all over the country (and the world) on an everlong tour, building up jokes night after night before moving onto the next one; the next challenge.

Kinane is talking with me because he’s got a new special out, Dirt Nap (which you can and should download now for $10). There are no nine-foot neon letters that spell out KYLE. The smoke machine went unrented, no fireworks or 5-minute dance routine played to applause at the start. It’s a comedy special, filmed at a comedy club (Acme in Minneapolis). It’s really fucking funny, leading off with an extended riff on the dumb brilliance of the Fast And Furious franchise before driving along to Kinane’s transition to suburban life (he left LA for Portland during the pandemic), dealing with his parents, and jerking off in front of ghosts.

Everything about Kinane’s relatable material, his approach (which avoids pot-stirring verbal clickbait, faux edginess, and punch-down meanness), and the presentation of his specials inspires people in my job to hang labels like “comedy craftsman” and “people’s comedy champion” on him. You know, because we can be a little hacky. But really, it’s that we want to convey to people the idea that in a world of comics with a gimmick, egos, and world-beating ambitions that view comedy as a stepping stone to some kind of cross between rock god, famous actor, thought leader, and style stars, Kinane is delightfully low bullshit and happy to be just a comedian. But as with all things, it has been an evolution.

In the following conversation, we track that evolution, discuss past failures, and relationship challenges that come from a life on the road. We also dive into the new special and brainstorm wonderful places for Dominic Toretto to go next.

Grantland called you a cult hero. When I wrote about the last special I said that you had a grab a beer after a show vibe. I’m trying to stop saying vibes in 2024. But do you ever feel limited by the notion of you being the “regular guy comedian” and man of the people? Limited by the idea that this is who you are and you can only speak to this audience?

I mean, I know it’s a simple thing. That’s why I shave the beard because this is, “Oh, well, you’re this.” “Well, watch. I’m not.” It’s what subject matter do I want to talk about. I think Chad Daniels is one of the best guys right now at taking expectations of who the audience thinks he is and twisting it.

God forbid you actually try to appeal to both sides of anything right now by pointing out similarities rather than differences. I think divisiveness, like that angle of comedy, it’s so easy because you have a built-in audience for your viewpoint if you’re, “I’m this.” And so the comedy doesn’t even have to be that good. You can just get your side riled up to laugh at the other side, and that’s not interesting. I’d rather get the side that I happen to agree with to laugh at themselves by going, “Oh yeah, maybe we’re a little tightly wound about this. I mean the other side still has their problems.”

I would also like, if there are people that have opposing viewpoints to go like, “Wow, that joke was so funny.” I would rather be funny enough for somebody to be like, “I don’t agree but, boy, that was fun to watch.” My buddy, John Roy, made that point. He’s like, “Really great comedy is when I’m laughing at somebody I disagree with.” I would like to be that.

What’s the mindset behind constantly generating new material?

Well, I can’t sit with something. I mean, I don’t have short jokes. I’ll say an idea and then an idea goes longer and longer. I work a lot. I’m lucky enough that I work whenever I want to. I’m doing hours. You’re doing an hour so you do a little three-minute idea. By the end of a weekend, you’re at a comedy club where you’ve done five shows and five hours, a three-minute idea could be a 10 or 12-minute idea by the end of that week. By the end of the next week, it could be a 15, 20-minute idea. And that’s the writing process for me, it’s seeing how much meat I can get off the bone.

Once I realize, “Oh, this works,” that’s the reward — getting it to work. The reward isn’t repeating it to get accolades. The reward is like, “Okay, that thing works. Now I have to write another one.”

So, it’s more about when you get tired of it rather than worrying an audience is going to get tired of it?

Yeah, I mean an artist doesn’t paint a painting and then just hang it in a museum and go look at it every day. They paint another painting. [Laughs] I get bored hearing myself and I lose the ability to deliver it. My acting isn’t that good. I can’t act enthused knowing I’m telling a story for the fifth year in a row. When I recorded Shocks and Struts, I had two hours that I was going to record. So Shocks and Struts was the one hour, and then the long story that’s in this new one was the other hour that I was working on. So it was kind of on deck for a year already even when the other one came out.

And now the new tour, I’m guessing this is all new material?

Yeah. Yeah, this will be new material from that. If you come see me live, it’s not going to be something on a recording.

So I believe in the special and I think in one of the previous specials, you’ve said things along the lines of letting people like what they like. That very much seems like a philosophy of yours. You don’t want to be divisive for the sake of being divisive. I’m curious about why that’s a root part of your act and where that came from.

I mean, I’ll be divisive if it’s about something I believe in, but I’m not going to just be living clickbait. I don’t know. It’s looking at comedy that I don’t like. I don’t like when comedians are like, “Let me tell you how the world works.” You know how the world works for you. You don’t know how the world works for me. I can sit there and say, “Well, this is how things work for me.” I’m not going to say what’s good for me is good for you.

I guess anytime I’m like, “You know what? I hate this thing,” instead of feeling like I’m automatically correct about why I hate it and writing jokes from there, I’d be like, “Well, wait, why do I hate it? Do I not understand it in my lack of knowledge about it?” And also, that’s more fun to write. I’d rather write from a place of curiosity than a place of like, “Boy, I know how stuff works,” because I don’t. That’s a lie. [Laughs]

Anytime I start doing comedy that’s a little bit righteous, I’m like, “You don’t know what you’re talking about right now.” [Laughs] So it’s easier for me to write from a place of curiosity because there’s so much more available material when you’re like, “Am I the problem? Do I not understand it? Let me try to understand it.” Maybe that’s just a more fun way to mess around on stage.

In the announcement for the special you said, “I’m not doing this to level up into a different career. Performing standup is what I do.” Has that always been the mindset for you and I guess what does it take to get to a place like that where you’re comfortable in your place in the world?

Yeah. I know that I’m beyond like I wanted to do standup. That was the goal. It wasn’t a stepping stone to get into other facets of show business. Stuff has happened. I lived in LA and I get to do voiceover stuff here. I got to act and that stuff. That was fun and it builds awareness of who you are, but it draws people back, hopefully, to the standup.

I was just having frustrations in Hollywood because show business has a great way of making you depressed because it convinces you you want things you don’t want. And then when you don’t get the things you didn’t want in the first place, you’re sad about it. Like shows that you pitch and they don’t take or something. You’re like, “I wasn’t even here to do that! I was here to do standup.” And so I kind of had to look at myself and be like, “Yeah, but you have the thing. Hold dear the thing that you wanted in the first place, which was standup.”

And so that’s it. If somebody wants to come in and be like, “Hey, we wrote a part for you. You’re in this movie,” great. But I’m not going to live in LA and drive around to auditions all day or what have you. This is the thing and I have it. And so I’m being very precious about it and making sure I get to keep it, whatever level it’s at. So the level I’m at now, shit, man, my lights are on, my bills are paid because of jokes. Awesome. That’s great. People come to shows. Phenomenal.

Not to dredge up something. Hopefully, it’s not painful. But I watched the pilot this morning for Going Nowhere, and I’m just curious what happened with that? Because it seemed such a brilliant premise [Kinane on the road, checking out different scenes and meeting interesting people]. It was really well executed.

Yeah. You don’t really get answers sometimes. You just find out that they didn’t want it, which is the heartbreak that yeah, they didn’t want it. I have a difficult time going into the public as source material. These people are going to let me come into their shop, and then I got to make jokes. There’s certain people that are just inherently, they’re comedically benevolent. They’re always the target of the jokes. They’re funny and the people around them, it’s a little weird. And then I feel like they’re like, “You’ve got to make more jokes.” And that’s where I revert into this, “Look at this thing and look, this is stupid,” and I make a joke. I’m being a smart ass about the stuff around me, and I didn’t feel good doing that, knowing that somebody’s letting me be there with a camera crew. And then I’m like, “Oh, what they’re into is weird. What they’re doing is silly.”

Just kind of like what the premise for the podcast that I do with Shane Torres, No Accounting for Taste is like, let’s celebrate things that everybody makes fun of, almost maybe a little bit as a penance for the years of mocking stuff that’s different. We’re like, “All right, let’s take all the things that people make fun of and try and lift them up.” But it was just sometimes that just doesn’t click. And that’s the thing, you spent months and months getting it ready and shooting it and editing it, and then just one person just gives you the emperor thumb down with no rhyme or reason. You’re like, “Ah.” And I’m too sensitive for that. At least with comedy, I know if a joke works right away. I don’t have to write it and wait six months.

You’re in a long-term relationship, right? How is that impacted with you on the road that much? What have been some of the lessons about making that work?

She’s probably happy about it, I think. Yeah, we each have a lot of space. [Laughs] I mean, we met when I was already working on the road. There’s a massive level of trust that you have to both have in each other. Like, “All right, I’ll see you in a few weeks,” and be okay with that. But we talk all the time, really working on communicating and being open with people about feelings or what’s going on with each other which is… like, [I’m] Midwestern, it’s not always the easiest thing for me to be like, “Oh, there’s my feelings right now.” You bottle them up. You bottle them up and you push them down.

Under the bed, in the closet, wherever you can throw those bottles of feelings. Absolutely.

What’s that, an emotion? Get it out of here. So being better with that stuff or attempting to be more mature with your own feelings and expressing yourself. But some people are in relationships where somebody’s emotionally gone five days a week.

That’s true.

Getting up to drive an hour into a city, then drive an hour home, and when they’re home, they’re vacant and want to empty their brain, and they don’t want to engage in anything emotional or conversational because that’s what they’ve done all day. And the weekend comes and you want to check out because it’s like, “Oh shit, well, Friday night’s blasted because I had to drive home, I’m tired.” Saturday is the one day you have, and then Sunday you’re just thinking about how you got to go back to the job you don’t like. So that’s also its own form of turmoil in my opinion. [Laughs]

Yeah. I mean I know in my own relationship, my wife and I both work from home, so we’re around each other all the time, and that’s its own challenges too. Every relationship has its own challenges. “This is my best friend. This is the person I love the most in the world. They’re always, always here.” So in anything like that, there’s a challenge to try to be present in all the moments that you’re actually together. So I get what you’re saying.

We’re always looking at some ideal representation of a family or a career or how something should work. Ideal to who? Why can’t these ideals be different career path choices, be unique to the individual as opposed to like, oh, we’re still trying to look at a … I don’t know. It’s like how many weddings have I been to where there are two sets of parents on each side of the aisle because both people are getting married, their parents are divorced and on their third relationship. But I’m like, “Here’s the air fryer. We got hope for you.”

There’s a gift receipt in the box, just in case. Um, I really enjoy the long story about the Fast and Furious franchise in the special. Do you want to see Fast and Furious go to space?

They did, so obviously you’re not a fan of the films.

No, I am a fan of the films, but which one did they go to space?

Well, Ludacris went to space, I believe it was in F9.

He touched space. I mean full on, we’re going to the moon. I don’t mean just getting through the atmosphere.

It still needs to be a car. If it’s like moon runners and stuff, then yeah, it just needs to be car-based. That’s why Hobbs & Shaw, as much as I’m a Statham fan, it was more fighting than it was cars and it bummed me out. Fast and Furious has proved that they’re going to do whatever they want, and they got at least one ticket sold with your boy here. So go to space? Well, they already went there and a submarine. I mean, they’ve done a lot.

I enjoy the films. I’m not hardcore. Most of them I’ve only seen once. I’ll be honest. And I was late to it.

As was I. As was I. They’re dumb. But that’s part of the bit. Like that’s why I’m watching them.

Yeah. Camaros on the moon would work. I think time travel could work. I think maybe going subterranean, drill into the earth, little Jules Verne action.

Camaros on the Moon sounds like a band that would open for Tame Impala or something. It sounds like a lo-fi Chillwave band. [Laughs]