The current most popular series on Max isn’t The Sopranos, The Wire, or Enlightened (what a beautiful world that would be). It’s Naked Attraction, a British series where a clothed contestant decides which naked person they want to go on a date with. If only there was another way to see nudity…
Naked Attraction premiered on Britain’s Channel 4 in 2016 and has run for seven seasons, so there are hundreds of British people who have stood in the glass tubes, naked, hoping to be picked. Based on a Reddit thread from before the show debuted on Max, they enjoy talking about the experience.
Yep, a girl who worked with us (40 people in the company) went on, told everyone, and absolutely owned it. Was a bit of a shock, as I guess I’d always slightly judged people who went on but she made me rethink me prejudices. Nothing came of it for her but hell she took a chance.
Yes a friend of mine did. We got it up on the TV at our local and everyone watched it. From Fetlife I know he was into small dick humiliation so I’m assuming he went home, read the online comments and wanked himself into a coma.
A friend of mine went on it; I’ve not seen the episode as I watched a few of the first series and never bothered after that.
He was photographer at my wedding. Apparently it came up in conversation during the wedding breakfast and another mate of mine who was on the same table excused herself for a few mins, found the episode online, watched his reveal, and then came back. She continued flirting with him so presumably she was impressed with what she saw!
A really obnoxious guy who used to drink at my local. He also bragged about it. Obviously it didn’t take long for screenshots to get passed round all the regulars/ staff. He was so up himself he really did appear to be immune to ridicule. Fascinating.
My girlfriend worked with a guy for a short time who was on one episode, he was an arrogant twat. He drove a stupid car around that looked like some thing out of Ali G. He was fairly open about the whole thing. His boss at the time would tell everyone to watch the episode. She was in a sex club and wasn’t exactly shy about it at work either. She managed to “accidentally” send a picture of her vagina to a work WhatsApp group among other things.
Yes, but I’ve not watched it, but of the people I know who did watch his episode they said they weren’t surprised he was willing to go given the equipment he has haha
I know of someone who I’m friends on Facebook with (same job, different company in an incestuous industry with lots of mutual friends) that was on it. He had a smaller member and they zoomed in on it for about 15 seconds while discussing how it was ok to be smaller.
He occasionally posts about it on Facebook and doesn’t seem to be bothered by it.
A guy from my secondary school was on there. I always thought he was kinda hot in a “mysterious way”, but hadn’t seen him since I went onto college.
Was kinda intrigued to see what he looked like naked, and when finally he went nude I actually didn’t really think much – it was a bit if an anti climax. But not in the way of “he didnt look good naked”, more like I was no longer the 16yo who giggled at slight nudity and I’m now a 31yo woman who has seen plenty of it. Wasn’t a big deal, and I actually was impressed with his bravery.
Nice dong tho.
I was hoping that story would end in marriage. Alas.
Despite the marketing trying to forget Jonathan Majors is a big part of this second season of Loki, everyone involved in the production is acutely aware and, to Kevin Wright’s credit, didn’t shy away from discussing the situation. Honestly, with the lack of really any statement on the matter from Marvel, I was fully expecting to be told Wright wouldn’t be discussing the situation and be asked not to bring it up, which would force me to politely not agree to that and probably canceling the interview altogether. And again, to their credit, none of that happened.
And this second season is a lot of fun as Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Mobius (Owen Wilson) enlist the help of Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan) to track down a variant of the evil Kang, Victor Timely (Majors) before he’s found by Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) or Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), who both want to find him for very different reasons. (It’s all a bit more complicated than that because this is a pretty complicated show that kind of dines out on the joke about how a lot of it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, adding to its charm.
Ahead, Wright takes us through this second season and what he wanted to accomplish for the character of Lokiand how he convinced new Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan to join the cast. And yes he addresses Majors and how this situation affects Wright as a producer and if there was any talk at all of replacing Majors in this role.
I enjoy how dense the plot is, but the attitude of the TVC is still, “Oh, another day at the office.”
Yeah, look, I’m a details guy. I love shows and movies that just really feel like they are packed dense with information. That you could pause any frame, and that there is a story in there. And I think all of our filmmakers and department heads really enjoy that, too. So it’s just fun world-building…
Does it work without Owen Wilson deadpanning though?
No, and that’s the thing. It’s like you write that character completely straight, and he is going to bring some kind of incredible charm and turn to that character that you could never put onto the page.
There’s a great scene with Ke Huy Quan’s Ouroboros where Loki is talking to him while jumping back and forth in time, in both time periods. And present-day Ouroboros is getting new memories in real time.
That was an “a-ha” moment. We always have moments, we had them in season one with some of Michael Waldron’s early drafts. And then with Eric Martin on this season, the real a-ha moments. And Eric’s first draft of that introduction is very, very close to what’s on-screen. And it was one of those moments where we all just went, “That’s how we do this.” That’s how we’re going to proceed with our time travel this season.
I think when you see it on the page, that was like, all right, we knew we wanted to do time loops. We knew we wanted to literally do the snake-eating-its-own-tail kind of storytelling structure this season. And it’s a big, fun sci-fi concept. But it also made sense. It was easily digestible. And that’s always our guiding light on this show: intrigue and simplicity, versus confusion and homework. Once it becomes confusing and homework, no good. We’ve got to simplify something or figure out how to land it. But it was just there in that first pass.
And this is the part that you’ve probably had to take PR classes about before you started doing interviews. Jonathan Majors has a trial that starts this month. And I know there’s no way you don’t know this is going to pop up in every review. And I’m not asking you to comment on an upcoming trial. But as a producer, how does this affect you?
Yeah, I think what you said is right. We don’t know what that will all be. But what I can say is the show that is on-screen, that will be, going out, is the show that we wanted to make. Victor Timely was always a big part of that. The story that is there is what was written, what was shot. This is maybe the first Marvel movie or show with zero additional photography. So I think we feel strongly about what the story is, what the performances are. And we’re happy with it, and it’s what the show is. And what happened afterwards, none of us really know. And we’ll see.
Was there any thought, even a quick discussion, about making a change and re-shooting his part? Now that I’ve seen it, he’s in it a lot so I’m guessing that wasn’t possible.
No. And I think it’s because we had shot the show. We made the show. And there’s nothing really to act on at this moment.
Ke Huy Quan is wonderful. When did he get cast?
It happened super quick. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once was playing in LA and New York. It hadn’t gone nationwide yet. And it hadn’t gone global yet. I think it was in that week it was about to go out across America. We got a call on a Thursday evening from Sarah Finn, our casting director. We were in London. We were prepping the show. We were probably starting shooting in two or three months at that point. She said, “I can make you a list for potential OBs, but I think you guys should meet Ke. I think it should be Ke, and you have to act very quickly.”
Did you have other people in mind before he was brought up?
No, not yet. When everyone’s in the writer’s room, things are talked about. I think we knew we wanted probably some kind of comedic vent to it, which could’ve opened up a lot of possibilities. And that was a Thursday night. On Friday, myself, we set up a Zoom. We pitched Ke the show. We pitched him the character. We sent him that first introduction scene.
How did that Zoom pitch go with him? How do you even explain this character?
I would love to go back and see what it was, because I had COVID at the time as well. So I was like, out of it. But he seemed really excited and we made an offer over that weekend. And then that Monday we called in the big guns. And we had Kevin Feige call him and basically say, “Ke, we want you to do this. Will you join the family? Can you come to London?” And he’s kind of on record saying this, he already loved Marvel. He loved Loki, season one. He had already decided he was doing this. And two months later he was in London, helping us develop the character and dig into the script. But it happened really quick. And then obviously the Oscars and everything came afterwards. But he fit right in. He fit right into the team. And I’m sure that was intimidating for him, to come into a team that already had such a great rapport.
How tough is it with just the character of Loki himself at this point? We’ve watched him for 12 years now. He’s the hero of this show, but I feel you put moments in to remind people of the bad things he did. Like when he casually references taking New York City hostage.
Yeah. And this version of Loki is not far removed from that. That Avengers thing that he’s joking about, that happened for him weeks ago.
Right, this version of him just got caught.
But the serious answer to that too though is so much of this season, from season one and now into this one, is about identity. It’s about growth. It’s about what’s your place in the universe? Can you become the best version of yourself? And the exciting path with this variant of Loki – and that we’ve been following for, by the time this ends, almost 12 hours of storytelling – we still have not seen the best version of this guy. And I mean the one that’s fulfilling his potential, which maybe explains when he uses magic in the movies, he’s using it for duplicitous means. He’s using it for mischief.
Now it’s like, we wanted to send him down the path of can you be the best version of yourself? What does that look like? And the idea, can you even become the best version of yourself if you’re not acknowledging your past and where you came from and what you are? And so those reminders coming in, they’re fun, they’re flippant. But they also hopefully are serving, or will have a cumulative effect, of building to this larger story arc that he’s going on.
Paramore is releasing a new remixed version of their recent This Is Why, album, this time titled Re: This Is Why. The band brought on some outside artists to either provide classical reinterpretations of songs, or rewrite/rework others.
Fans had been waiting for the tracklist, which consists of musicians like Julien Baker, Foals, Wet Leg, and even Apple Music’s famous interviewer, Zane Lowe.
“We’ve long wanted to recognize the connection we have with some of the artists who’ve influenced us as a band and/or who have cited our band as an influence,” Paramore shared with the social media announcement. “It’s incredible to hear all our worlds colliding.”
Continue scrolling for Paramore’s Re: This Is Why tracklist.
1. “This Is Why” (Re: Foals)
2. “The News” (Re: The Linda Lindas)
3. “Running Out Of Time” (Re: Panda Bear)
4. “Running Out Of Time” (Re: Zane Lowe)
5. “C’est Comme Ça” (Re: Wet Leg)
6. “Big Man, Little Dignity” (Re: Domi and JD Beck)
7. “You First” (Re: Remi Wolf)
8. “Figure 8” (Re: Bartees Strange)
9. “Liar” (Re: Romy)
10. “Crave” (Re: Claud)
11. “Thick Skull” (Re: Julien Baker)
12. “Sanity” (demo)
The beginning of fall is one of the greatest sections of the American sports calendar, as you have the MLB and WNBA playoffs, NFL and college football in full swing, and the NBA and NHL getting set to begin. Beyond the Big Four sports, you have the NASCAR playoffs, beginning of the soccer season overseas, and, every two years, the Ryder Cup in golf.
For golf fans, the Ryder Cup (which pits the best golfers from USA and Europe against each other in a rare team competition) is a massive event, but it doesn’t often get the shine golf fans would tell you it deserves from the major sports networks. This year’s Ryder Cup in Rome was particularly spicy, with some shouting matches in the parking lot, internal Team USA turmoil, and mostly European dominance on the course. That wasn’t a hot topic on First Take for the early part of the week, but when Chris “Mad Dog” Russo showed up on Wednesday for his weekly appearance, he used his time to rant about whatever he’d like to deliver an incredible monologue about the catastrophe the week was for the USA side that had Stephen A. Smith at one point keeled over on the floor and Marcus Spears cackling in the corner.
Chris “Mad Dog” Russo gives an incredible Ryder Cup rant so good that it put Stephen A. Smith on the floor. pic.twitter.com/pZLVcw1Snf
Mad Dog asking if anyone had seen the Patrick Cantlay hat stuff, getting a resounding “no,” and then screaming “PAY ATTENTION” was incredible, as was him yelling “HE’S A CADDIE” about Joe LaCava getting in Rory McIlroy’s grill on the 18th green. There are few people who can deliver a rant quite like Mad Dog and he’s so good at it he can make Stephen A. and company roll around about a golf event they were absolutely not dialed into otherwise.
LANY is continuing their critically acclaimed A Beautiful Blur World Tour. Today (October 4), the band announced the North American leg of the tour, which is set to kick off early next year.
The tour comes in support of the band’s fifth studio album, A Beautiful Blur, and LANY is scheduled to play various venues throughout the US and Canada. Fans can register for a pre-sale via Seated, and will be able to purchase tickets beginning Tuesday, October 10. General on-sale begins Friday, October 13.
You can see the list of tour dates below.
02/13/2024 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
02/16/2024 — Nashville, TN @ Municipal Auditorium
02/17/2024 — Atlanta, GA @ Coca Cola Roxy
02/20/2024 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
02/23/2024 — Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock live
02/26/2024 — New Orleans, LA @ The Fillmore New Orleans
02/29/2024 — Austin, TX @ ACL Live – Moody Theater
03/02/2024 — Dallas, TX @ South Side Ballroom
03/04/2024 — Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater*
03/05/2024 — Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
03/07/2024 — Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom*
03/09/2024 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Delta Center
03/10/2024 — Boise, ID @ Revolution Concert House
03/12/2024 — Seattle, WA @ Paramount Theatre
03/14/2024 — Vancouver, BC @ PNE Forum
03/16/2024 — San Francisco, CA @ Bill Graham Civic Auditorium*
03/17/2024 — Wheatland, CA @ Hard Rock Live
03/21/2024 — Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Financial Theater
03/22/2024 — Las Vegas, NV @ The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan
03/23/2024 — Los Angeles, CA @ Kia Forum
03/26/2024 — Minneapolis, MN @ Armory
03/27/2024 — Madison, WI @ The Sylvee
03/28/2024 — Indianapolis, IN @ Egyptian Room
03/29/2024 — Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed
04/02/2024 — Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore
04/04/2024 — Montreal, QC @ MTELUS
04/05/2024 — Toronto, ON @ History
04/08/2024 — Washington, DC @ The Anthem
04/09/2024 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore
04/11/2024 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall
04/12/2024 — New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
Optimism does not come naturally to Philadelphia sports fans. I know because I have been one for my entire life. Every little sliver of hope is often dashed by a crushing defeat or bad vibes. Look at the Sixers right now, with the reigning MVP and a bouncy young emerging star both getting dragged through the muck by the James Harden fiasco. Look at the Eagles, too, who are undefeated and loaded with talent and still make every game feel as exhausting as a marathon. (Follow some Eagles fans on Twitter if you need proof of this.) It’s making this Phillies season very weird. The vibes are entirely too good. It’s all kind of unsettling.
Another thing making it weird is that the whole team is… well, weird. They’re just a collection of dinger-smashing dirtbag himbos who do things their own way, the history of baseball and general logic be damned. Start at the top. Literally. Start at the top of the lineup, in the leadoff spot, a role generally reserved for fast little slap hitters who get on base and steal bags and is filled on this squad by Kyle Schwarber, a big beefy boy who looks like a guy who drives a truck that delivers hoagies to the clubhouse and sometimes opens the game by doing stuff like this.
It’s incredible. The Marlins have a leadoff hitter, Luis Arraez, who hit about .350 this year on the back of a zillion slapped singles, and the Phillies roll out a dude who hit 47 home runs and 48 singles and whose batting average didn’t even crack .200. Pretty much all he does is draw walks, strike out, or hit home runs. Sometimes the home runs go halfway to the moon. It’s great. Look at this guy.
The whole team is like this, in a way. Just a collection of weirdo characters. There are games where Schwarber starts in left field and he isn’t even the team’s weirdest outfielder. It’s hard to take that crown when there are guys like Nick Castellanos in right field, with his shirt unbuttoned halfway to his navel doing stuff like this.
To be clear, this play was madness. Catching the ball was ill-advised at best, with a runner on third ready to tag up and score what would have been the game-winning run. The quotes about it all after the game drive this home and help convey what a collection of goofballs we have out there.
“Drop it,” manager Rob Thomson said.
“I already told him that I had to be honest,” Garrett Stubbs said. “I was screaming at the top of my lungs to drop it.”
“I saw him not get behind it,” Bryson Stott said, “and I said, ‘Oh crap.’”
There is a voice in his head, Castellanos said. “Usually he just pops up when I’m hitting. You know? Like, don’t take this 2-0 pitch.” The voice does not sound like Scooby-Doo. He heard the voice as he moved toward the foul ball with one out in the ninth inning and the winning run on third base. “Catch it,” the voice said. “Throw him out.” Castellanos did it with a flourish, a spinning motion that resulted in a perfect throw home. It was both wrong and lucky.
Two things worth noting here…
ONE: It’s delightful to picture a professional athlete making decisions from moment to moment based on what a voice in his head is telling him.
TWO: That reference to Scooby-Doo in there was not random. It’s a callback to earlier this year when Castellanos was asked who his favorite superhero is and backed up his claim like this.
I mean… he’s not wrong, right? You have to love a silly outfielder who is guided by voices and makes you rethink everything you know about possibly stoned cartoon dogs. And he’s having a great influence on the other starting outfielder, Johan Rojas, a 22-year-old defensive phenom who has also been unbuttoning his shirt like he’s in a Miami nightclub in 1986. With the blessing of Castellanos. Look at these guys.
The background here is that Castellanos told Rojas he needed to loosen up more when he got called up straight to the majors from Double-A after some injuries, and unbuttoning seems to have helped, because the kid has been setting centerfield on fire in his time in the majors. Here’s a decent rundown of what he’s accomplished out there.
Rojas is challenging how defenders are measured in modern baseball. It’s best to ignore small samples. Rojas, obviously, is a talented defender who makes it look easy. He does things others cannot. But, entering Monday’s game, he had accumulated 14 Defensive Runs Saved. That ranked 14th among all fielders this season — and Rojas had played only 310 innings in the field. It’s an astounding rate. Rojas has broken the metric.
Or not.
“No,” Marsh said, “I don’t think it’s crazy. I mean, the dude had 11 Defensive Runs Saved in August. Right? You don’t see that.”
Marsh had the number right.
And here’s the best part of that blockquote: Brandon Marsh, who said those glowing things about Rojas, is the guy who basically lost his job to the new guy. Marsh went from starting centerfielder to platooning out in left because Rojas has been so damn good, and he seems actually kind of thrilled about it. This is what I mean about the vibes. They’re borderline immaculate. Here’s what Marsh did the night the Phillies clinched a playoff berth on a walkoff single by Rojas.
I mean… come on. How can you not root for these guys? What are you, some kind of Mets fan? Be serious.
The weirdness doesn’t stop in the outfield either. The team’s $300 million shortstop, Trea Turner, started out the year with a five-month slump before getting an extended “we got your back” standing ovation from notoriously fickle Philly fans and then hit about .350 with 16 home runs over the next two months. Their first baseman, Rhys Hoskins, last season’s bat-spiking playoff hero, tore his ACL in spring training and has been replaced by Bryce Harper, who returned from Tommy John surgery faster than anyone in history and learned a new position with no rehab stint in the minors and promptly returned to smashing game-winning home runs in the playoff push. The catcher, JT Realmuto, hits 100 points higher on the road with no good explanation why. The second baseman, Bryson Stott, moved there from shortstop without complaint when the team signed Turner and looks like Dax Shepard and showed up to the Little League Classic with a bat designed to look like a number two pencil. I love him very much.
And as if all that wasn’t enough, as if all the weird and positive energy in Eastern Pennsylvania weren’t firing itself like a laser beam into Citizens Bank Park, we also had this happen in the last week of the regular season.
When your son, Orion Kerkering, makes his MLB debut and gets two strikeouts … there IS crying in baseball. pic.twitter.com/7DFhixpcmb
“I guess it was just seeing the kid,” Todd, who is 59, said Monday morning. “I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of good things. I’ve seen a lot of ugly things in my life. I guess maybe it’s a culmination of all those things through life and, you finally reach a point when you get to something that is just unbelievable. I mean, there are 900 guys roughly in the MLB right now at that level. And he’s one of them. You know? I mean, I don’t know. It’s just what came out.”
He scanned the text messages from his Marine friends. They know Todd and some of them know Orion. They understood.
“I got tears in my eyes, too,” one told him. “Don’t worry.”
And so, again, the optimism. It’s an odd feeling. Especially since the team refuses to be normal. No lead is safe, for any team, when the Phillies are on the field. This season alone they’ve blown an 8-1 lead and come back from an 8-1 deficit. I’m actually more comfortable when they’re losing, sometimes, because I have more confidence in them making a comeback than holding a lead. I am equally as sure they are going to win the World Series as I am they are going to blow the next two games by a combined score of 24-3. Anything can happen. It’s… I mean, it’s nerve-wracking and it’s exhausting but it’s also a great time. I love my bomb-blasting boys. I love my tear-stained dads. I love my…
Wait.
Alligators?
Are you kidding me. A #Phillies fan tried to come into game tonight with what they said was a “service animal.” An Alligator! Yes an Alligator. Thing’s I’ve never seen. This is it. @SportsRadioWIP pic.twitter.com/H7A0FM0IYC
Wally, who will be 4 in July, was rescued from just outside Orlando when he was 14 months old. Henney said Wally could grow anywhere from 14 to 16 feet long and weigh 900 to 1,100 pounds. Wally eats chicken wings and shares a 300-gallon plastic pond, indoors, with Scrappy, a smaller, younger alligator the family has also rescued. Wally’s favorite programs to watch on television, of course, are Gator Boys and Swamp People. He also likes to watch The Lion King.
Scrappy watches what Wally watches.
What I’m getting at here is that there is a non-zero chance we are screaming toward a scenario where Kyle Schwarber holds an emotional support alligator named Wally as the Phillies World Series parade makes its way down Broad Street.
Boygenius has been everywhere this year. After reuniting for the first time since their debut EP Boygenius, which was released in 2018, the supergroup — comprised of Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers, and Julien Baker — dropped their full-length debut record, appropriately titled The Record.
Last night (October 3), the trio paid a visit to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, during which, they performed “Cool About It” from The Record.
During the performance, the trio stands around a microphone, delivering raw, intimate vocals. The ladies are dressed in black-and-white suites, with Bridgers playing guitar and Baker playing banjo. Baker and Bridgers glisten the song with sugary background vocals, while Dacus takes command of the song vocally.
In an interview with Loud And Quiet, Dacus spoke about her songwriting process, and how the women’s parts all come together in
“A lot of times I’ll write a song for us in a different frame of mind, so you can be harmonizing with me and saying something that’s still true for you,” said Dacus. “I don’t want to make either of you sing lyrics that don’t resonate with you.”
The Record has proven to be a promising era, with the supergroup performing at SXSW and Coachella this spring, and a critically-acclaimed tour over the past few months. Next Friday (October 13), Boygenius will release The Rest, a new EP, completing the story of The Record.
In the meantime, you can see the performance of “Cool About It” above.
After tackling the Halloween series, director David Gordon Green is back with another take on another horror classic, but so far, the only thing frightening are the reviews.
Heavily touted as a direct legacy sequel to the original film, The Exorcist: Believer arrives in theaters this week, and critics are not feeling this latest addition to the franchise. While the original Exorcist directed by the legendary William Friedkin is one of the best in the genre, Believer reportedly fails to capture that feeling of demonic horror thanks to its double-possession plot and its own inert fear of making bold statements about faith and religion.
Like previous attempts to expand the Exorcist franchise beyond the first film, Believer just doesn’t possess the skill and mastery of the original, and instead is a mish-mash of horror tropes that are old hat by now.
A new “Exorcist” movie shouldn’t be a slavish imitation of the original “Exorcist,” but it should conjure a certain danger; that’s what “The Exorcist” was all about. “The Exorcist: Believer,” in its superficially competent and poshly mounted way, feels about as dangerous as a crucifix dipped in a bottle of designer water.
An execrable film that’s redeemed by almost nothing besides Leslie Odom Jr.’s well-modulated lead performance and the ambient sense of unease that Green casts over the story’s first half, “Believer” is so creatively spineless and bereft of its own ideas that its entire concept of sacrilege is limited to imperiling its franchise’s legacy.
David Gordon Green’s “Halloween” trilogy reveled in returning Jamie Lee Curtis front-and-center to the franchise, but he doesn’t quite do the same thing with Ellen Burstyn. Whether that’s an interesting narrative choice, a half-assed attempt to capitalize on the enduring legacy of the original “Exorcist,” or merely a disappointment may be up for some debate, but the “half-assed” argument is by far the most convincing.
The music by David Wingo and Amman Abbasi turns up the tension, even if there’s nothing here to rival the needling effectiveness of Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells,” which makes a welcome return in key moments, albeit in a remix that nixes the bells. That watered-down version of an inspired horror theme is symptomatic of a movie that starts out full of promise but fumbles the material as the stakes get higher.
The Exorcist: Believer is a simmering duel with the devil buoyed through a confused second act by an enthusiastic cast and a timely meditation on the importance of community during crisis. But Believer is also palpably reluctant to deviate from the formula of its legendary forerunner. Though its predestined, blockbuster exorcism sequence just manages to provide a satisfying conclusion to the story, the underdeveloped synchronized possession element creates more problems than it solves.
His major ace is the return of the original protagonist Ellen Burstyn, who had wisely steered clear of any sequels, but was lured back by a “whole bunch of money” and the promise of a scholarship program for acting students. It’s a sound rationale given both the $400m Universal paid for the trilogy and what Burstyn, as one of our finest elder actors, deserves. But it’s also indicative of the overall emptiness of the endeavour, from an Oscar-winning William Friedkin classic to a soulless cash grab originally intended for a dual platform release on Peacock. Taken as just that, it’s serviceable; a silly, gloopy Halloween shocker that offers just about enough goofy entertainment for an undemanding fright night crowd. But it might be close to impossible for those with deep reverence for the original, of which there are a great many, to take it as such.
There is something almost comical about how The Exorcist: Believer takes the premise of the first movie and attempts to go bigger by making it two girls becoming possessed instead of one. Rather than being something fresh or different, it comes across as a largely empty escalation in search of more profound emotion. On top of that, it isn’t particularly scary, as nothing visually holds the same mesmerizing power as Friedkin’s work, and the whole thing seems increasingly scattered.
What made The Exorcist so scary and enduring wasn’t its concepts of faith or lack thereof but its authentic characters grappling with relatable issues as they venture further into the dark abyss of evil. Believer doesn’t spend enough time with any of its characters and instead rushes through all the requisite beats of an Exorcist movie right until it fizzles. Its bold, cynical commentary and occasionally effective imagery get lost in the shuffle. Believer is handsomely shot, at least, but mostly, it’s just unscary and soulless.
The Exorcist: Believer opens in theaters on October 6.
If you’re a bourbon or dark rum drinker and you’re not on the cognac bandwagon by now… what are you possibly waiting for? Fall is an especially great time to start enjoying this flavorful French, grape-based brandy. Grab a bottle, drink it neat, and enjoy the warming, rich, sweet flavor profile on a cool autumn night.
The spirit — which gets its name from the city of Cognac and the surrounding wine-growing regions — is well-known for its complex flavor profile, featuring caramel, vanilla, dried fruits, spices, and other notes that all appeal to whiskey and dark rum drinkers. It even has various levels (VS, VSOP, XO, etc.) letting you know how long it spent aging in oak Limousin barrels.
Don’t take our word for it though. The folks who bide their time behind the bar love this nuanced, exciting spirit even more than we do. That’s why we asked a handful of well-respected bartenders and mixologists to tell us the best cognacs to drink this fall. Keep scrolling to see all of their picks so you’ll know which bottles to add to your home bar cart.
Camus Cognac VSOP
Camus
Heidi Finley, lead bartender at The Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota, Florida
Camus Cognac VSOP is a great fall cognac. You can simply sip it slowly and savor in the delight of all of the harmonious flavors. I also like to make a cocktail with Camus VSOP that includes St. George Spiced Pear Liqueur, lemon juice, cinnamon, demerara sugar, and cardamom bitters called ‘The Perfect Pear’.
Tasting Notes:
It’s robust yet elegantly smooth with tastes of warm vanilla, bright orange zest, and a touch of baking spices, such as cinnamon and allspice.
When it’s time to sip and savor in the fall, Martell Cognac VSOP takes center stage. It’s a complex blend of eaux-de-vie in which the youngest cognac has been aged for a minimum of four years in fine-grained oak barrels.
Tasting Notes:
Its aroma, redolent of plum, apricot, and candied lemon, perfectly complements the crisp autumn air. Martell VSOP is a delightful choice to warm your spirits during the fall season.
Cognac Park VSOP
Cognac Park
Alex Barbatsis, head bartender at The Whistler in Chicago
Cognac Park VSOP is a great Cognac to drink on its own and it’s not crazy expensive to feel bad about using in a cocktail. It’s aged eight months in new oak barrels to extract bright sweet tones before being aged in mature casks for at least another three years. It’s perfect to enjoy on the rocks or in a negroni variation.
Tasting Notes:
This award-winning cognac is known for its fruity, floral, vanilla, honey, and spiced palate that makes it a perfect slow sipper on a cool evening.
Monnet Sunshine Selection Cognac
Monnet
Alex Fitzgerald, beverage director at Paseo in Louisville, Kentucky
I love Monnet Sunshine Selection Cognac for the transition to Fall, as it has all my favorite aromas and flavors of summer and fall in one. This complex blend was matured for a minimum of two years in Limousin oak casks.
Tasting Notes:
The flavor is light and sweet, with notes of peach and apricot, perfect for those warm September days, but it also has some vanilla, cinnamon, and dried fruit notes reminiscent of the colder months ahead.
Remy Martin XO is a great cognac for the fall months. This blend of hundreds of complex, hand-selected eaux-de-vie that have been matured for at least ten full years in oak barrels.
Tasting Notes:
Smooth and velvety with a nice weight that sticks to you when you drink. Warm and inviting with baking spices, vanilla, and subtle caramel that makes it great for a fall sip.
Pierre Ferrand Ambré
Pierre Ferrand
Alex Pisi, lead bartender at The Wells in Washington, DC
I have always enjoyed sipping on Pierre Ferrand Ambré. It’s a warming blend of Ugni Blanc and Colombard eaux-de-vie that is aged for at least ten years in French oak barrels giving it a well-rounded, nuanced flavor profile.
Tasting Notes:
Lively grape notes with juicy tones are balanced by carefully aging this cognac. Notes of bitter orange, caramel, and everlasting nuttiness make it amazing to sip neat, slightly warm, or in a sidecar.
Courvoisier VSOP
Courvoisier
Jared Bailey, bar manager at Soho Cigar Bar in New York City
Courvoisier VSOP is not only a fun word to say, but a soothing cognac to drink when the leaves start to change, and the temperature starts to drop.
Tasting Notes:
Boasting an unparalleled smoothness, it also carries tasting notes of dark grape, caramel, and subtle oak. It’s a can’t-miss cognac for the cooler months.
Camus Borderies XO
Camus
Dana Lachenmayer, head bartender at The Wesley in New York City
Without price limitations, Camus Borderies XO is one of the finest cognacs to sip on this fall. It’s the product of a single estate vineyard in the smallest cognac cru.
Tasting Notes:
This cognac is at once complex, velvety, and charming. A floral bouquet and palette is balanced with dried fruit, cinnamon, and pastry that leaves you wanting more.
Pierre Ferrand 1840
Pierre Ferrand
Kira Collings, bar manager at Hearth and Hill in Park City, Utah
Pierre Ferrand 1840 is a fantastic cognac to drink in the fall. It is complex enough to enjoy sipping on it on its own and holds up well in a cocktail. I always enjoy making a sazerac with it. I follow in the footsteps of Death & Co and make their split base cognac and rye sazerac, perfect for sipping around a warm fire.
Tasting Notes:
The silky texture, cinnamon, and ginger give it a warm spice, with notes of caramel and stone fruit to round it out.
Dudognon Reserve 10-Year Cognac is a great pick for fall. It’s a fantastic spirit that delivers an intoxicating journey. It’s a Grande Champagne cognac that picked up a ton of fruit, vanilla, and oak during the aging process.
Tasting Notes:
From its dry floral aromatics to the mineral-driven finish, this cognac has a distinct brightness reminiscent of summer’s end, while hints of vanilla provide a coziness apropos of autumn.
Frapin 1270 Cognac
Frapin 1270
Steven Dinsmore-George, bartender at The Pembroke in Washington, DC
Frapin 1270 Cognac is a can’t-miss fall cognac. This single estate, Grande Champagne cognac is well-known for its indulgent, almost dessert-like palate that makes it an exceptional drink to finish a heavy meal on a cool fall evening.
Tasting Notes:
It has a wonderful smoky start and a spiced finish that will highlight any fall spirit-forward cocktail such as a Sazerac or a Japanese Cocktail. It also makes for a delightful after-dinner drink by itself.
While she won’t be in 2024, as Usher was announced as the performer for the Vegas event, it doesn’t rule out it happening in the future. Swift is currently on a break between the legs of her massive Eras Tour, which will continue through next year.
A source also spoke with the Daily Mail about what Swift’s mindset is about playing. “Taylor is busy with her current tour, she has zero time to prepare a Super Bowl show, she will do it eventually, but she is in no rush at all to do it in Vegas or do it in the next couple of years,” they shared.
They also noted that Swift “knows she is at her peak in her career and each move from this point on is as important as the next. Working on her current tour and recording her old music and working on new music and living life are taking up the majority of her time.”
Swift won’t be any time soon, but the possibility of it hasn’t been ruled out permanently — and it could be a special, career-spanning thing when it does.
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