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Here Is Exactly When Reservation Systems End For The 2023 Season At The Most Popular US National Parks

Summer is unfortunately on its last legs, but with the change of seasons comes one great advantage: less crowding at US National Parks. With kids back in school and family vacations already Instagrammed, shoulder seasons are the perfect time to visit National Parksif you have the flexibility.

Summer’s end is especially clutch if you’re a more spontaneous National Park traveler – as many parks have now instituted summer reservations and permitting systems that must be planned far in advance. As the crowds lessen, the entry requirements do as well, meaning it’s much easier to set out on the road without a care. Just like we did back during the times of printed MapQuest directions!

If you’re heading to any of the most popular National Parks (or want to be the type of person who might decide on a whim to do exactly that) this fall, here is precisely when each park ends its reservation requirements:

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK — MAINE

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK
Emily Hart

Acadia National Park in coastal Maine is one of the top ten most visited parks annually. With over 4 million visitors in 2021, over just over 49,000 acres — the number of visitors per acre is much higher than the most visited parks in the system, prompting vehicle reservations for one of the park’s main attractions – Cadillac Mountain.

WHAT DO I NEED A RESERVATION FOR?

Despite its massive popularity, you don’t need a reservation to enter the park. However, you will need one to drive to the summit of Cadillac Mountain – which is a must. From October 7 to March 6, the summit of the Maine Mountain sees the first sunrise in the United States – but anytime you visit, it is a sight that will take your breath away.

WHEN DO RESERVATIONS END?

Reservations to drive to the summit of Cadillac Mountain last a bit longer into the fall – as fall is the prime season to visit Acadia. Reservations end on October 22, and visitors have until the road closes on December 1 to visit unencumbered.

WHERE TO STAY:

My favorite Bed and Breakfast in Bar Harbor, The Elmhurst Inn, is open year-round. Or find a short-term rental to cozy up in.

WHAT TO DO:

Hike Jordan Pond Path, Gorham Mountain Loop, or Ocean Path Trail after catching the first sunrise in the United States atop Cadillac Mountain. Acadia is an excellent place for snowshoeing and cross-country skiing if you visit in the winter.

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK — UTAH

Arches National Park
Emily Hart

Like Acadia, Arches National Park in Utah is a smaller park by land area than many others on this list. It’s also unique in that it’s not super remote – just 5 miles north of the booming vacation destination of Moab. With more people than ever venturing into National Parks, Arches has recently started requiring timed entry reservations.

WHAT DO I NEED A RESERVATION FOR?

You’ll need a reservation to access any part of the park during the reservation season. Arches is unique from most major National Parks — as there is just one gated entrance to the park — so there is no getting around this.

WHEN DO RESERVATIONS END?

Reservations to enter the park end on October 31, 2023, and don’t begin again until April 1. Typically, the park is open year-round, with some snow during the winter months, but generally, nothing that could squash your plans.

WHERE TO STAY:

While there are some seasonal lodgings in Moab, many options are available year-round, with short-term rentals readily available at lower prices. Check out Red Cliffs Lodge for an incredible location.

WHAT TO DO:

Hike Delicate Arch (if it’s not slick), Devils Garden, and Windows Loop before heading back into Moab for a drink at Moab Brewery and dinner at Thai Bella Moab.

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK — MONTANA

Glacier National Park
Emily Hart

I’ve visited the massive Glacier National Park in Montana four times over the past decade, and each time, it seems even more breathtaking. The park is large, with seven separate entrance points, but, like many parks, the dramatic landscape, glaciers, lakes, and world-class hiking can create problems in the busy summer months. Glacier instituted a reservation system for Going-To-The-Sun road to combat the crowds in 2021 and added reservation requirements to four separate park areas this year.

WHAT DO I NEED A RESERVATION FOR?

Starting in 2023, anyone who entered Going-To-The-Sun Corridor, the North Fork, Two Medicine, and Many Glacier during the reservation periods from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. had to have a valid reservation for that day and that specific entrance.

WHEN DO RESERVATIONS END?

Reservations for all areas of the park ended on September 10 – just as fall colors are beginning to pop in this far northern park. Going-To-The-Sun Road generally closes in mid-October — so while it is a small window to visit, it’s well worth it for the lessened crowds, more affordable accommodations, and less hassle.

WHERE TO STAY:

You can camp at several campgrounds in Glacier through September and even into October at Agpar and Quartz Creek if you have the gear. Otherwise, I loved staying in a cabin at East Glacier KOA, open until the end of September. After that, there are many year-round options in nearby Whitefish — I recommend Grouse Mountain Lodge.

WHAT TO DO:

The leaves will pop in the park from September through October when the larches turn golden yellow. Drive Going-To-The-Sun road until its seasonal closure to stop at Logan Pass, hike the Highline or Hidden Lake Trails.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK — COLORADO

Rocky Mountain NP
Emily Hart

Rocky Mountain National Park is the quintessential landscape many people visualize when thinking of a “National Park.” With incredible jutting peaks, golden aspens, and a wealth of awe-inspiring hiking trails pristine and clear blue alpine lakes – the park has long brought many visitors to the iconic Colorado park. But in the past few years, like the other famous National Parks on this list, the crowds have expanded to a degree where a timed entry system is necessary to protect the alpine tundra ecosystem and biodiversity that the park is known for.

WHAT DO I NEED A RESERVATION FOR?

There are two types of timed entry tickets for Rocky Mountain National Park – and every visitor needs one during the reservation period. The beloved Bear Lake Corridor has a specific timed entry ticket (that will also allow you to access the rest of the park), while the “rest of the park” also has a specific timed entry ticket that gains you access to all but the Bear Lake Corridor.

WHEN DO RESERVATIONS END?

Reservations end on October 22, 2023, for the entire park. Rocky Mountain National Park is open year-round, but some roads are closed seasonally — including Trail Ridge Road and Old Fall River Road.

WHERE TO STAY:

Several year-round lodging options exist in nearby Estes Park outside of Rocky Mountain National Park. Try Estes Park Resort or travel further down the road and stay in Boulder, Colorado, at the St. Julien Hotel or Hotel Boulderado.

WHAT TO DO:

Rocky Mountain National Park is incredible in winter, with hiking, snowshoeing, and scenic drives still accessible. Head to Bear Lake to walk around the lake, or head up on snowshoes to Dream and Emerald Lakes.

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Lauren Boebert’s Cool New Democrat Bar Guy Man Friend Reportedly Hosted A Drag Show Recently At His Trendy Aspen Cocktail Bar

Rootin’ tootin Lauren Boebert did not wait around too long after filing for divorce from alleged hothead Jayson Boebert. She did release a pointed statement while insisting that she’s “always been faithful in my marriage.” Boebert also cited irreconcilable differences, which is generally a catchall term, as many people who have been divorced knows. The suddenness of the announcement presumably blindsided Jayson, and given that Boebert is all about “family values” and told women to run after Jesus when they have marriage problems, her divorce statement felt rather cryptic.

The filing happened in May, which really isn’t too long ago in light of an 18-year marriage. Everyone moves at their own pace, yet it was still moderately surprising to see Boebert looking cozy in video footage of her being kicked out of Broadway’s traveling Beetlejuice show in Denver. The MAGA congresswoman was holding hands with a man that was revealed by the Daily Mail to be Quinn Gallagher, who is not only a bartender and co-owner of Hooch Craft Cocktail bar but also apparently a Democrat. Not only that, but MeidasTouch did some more legwork, which reflects interestingly upon a 2022 Boebert tweet: “Take your children to CHURCH, not drag bars.”

MeidasTouch reports that Hooch, which is located in Aspen, Colorado, regularly participates in the city’s annual Gay Ski Week festivities. You can see a purported flyer for the event here for this year’s “A Winter Wonderland Burlesque and Drag Show.” As Meidas Touch further notes and illustrates, “Dances and other performances were captured by those in attendance.”

Boebert has yet to comment on Bar Guy on Twitter (she has been trashing Bidenomics today), but just FYI, Hooch is listed on the roster for 2024’s Aspen Gay Ski Week. The bar will host a Women’s Cocktail Reception with the following description:

Cocktails & Nibbles – Join us for a fun party starting at 5:30 on Thursday night. We will be serving up a selection of complimentary cocktails and appetizers. This is a great chance to meet with old friends and maybe meet that new special someone.

DJ Autumn Leilani joins us again during this cozy and energetic event for Womxn of AGSW.

Something tells me that Boebert will not be in attendance, but who knows?

(Via MeidasTouch & Aspen Gay Ski Week)

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Mitt Romney Thinks JD Vance Is Utterly Vile, But Loves A Good Salmon And Ketchup Sandwich(?)

It wasn’t all that long ago that Mitt Romney was the face of the GOP. A lot has changed since 2012, when the outgoing senator was the party’s presidential candidate. Not only is it now ruled by a repeatedly indicted guy who can’t spell the word “rumor,” but it’s being devoured by MAGA extremists. In a new profile by The Atlantic, Romney dumps on those guys while also saying something positive — namely that he enjoys a terrible-sounding sandwich.

In the piece, Romney — who announced Wednesday he was not running again for his Senate seat — says he does not care for Jan. 6 cheerleader Josh Hawley. But he really hates one of his colleagues

“I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more than J. D. Vance,” Romney confessed. He didn’t always despise him. He enjoyed his novel Hillbilly Elegy, and thought he had some good ideas on how to reshape the Republican party away from Trumpism. Then he went full Trump.

“I do wonder, how do you make that decision?” Romney said of Vance’s makeover. “How can you go over a line so stark as that—and for what?” He added, “It’s not like you’re going to be famous and powerful because you became a United States senator. It’s like, really? You sell yourself so cheap?”

Romney also opened up about his D.C. living situation, where he often spent his time alone, his wife back home in Utah, stuck in a town where he had few real friends. (After all, his fellow GOPers were laughing behind his back.) Nights were often spent by himself, watching Ted Lasso or Better Call Saul, eating by himself. He’d eat healthy: his freezer is full of salmon.

Thing is, Romney didn’t actually care much for the fish. But he came up with a life hack: Throw it in a sandwich bun and slather it with ketchup.

Salmon pairs well with many condiments, but ketchup? No way. It’s not Romney’s only questionable food take: Over the summer, he decided to celebrate National Hot Dog Day in the weirdest way possible.

But at least he hates the guy who hates pornography.

(Via The Atlantic)

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How To Use Spotify Duo

Spotify Duo is a new feature from Spotify that allows two people who live together to share one payment plan but with two separate premium accounts, ensuring that they get to keep their own passwords, playlists, and shared music. The discount is presumably designed to give roommates and partners a savings option that doesn’t just saddle them with a family plan or sharing an account.

To use Spotify Duo, one of the two people must be designated as the plan manager. This person sets up the payment method, sets the address, and invites the other member to join. Meanwhile, the second person can join once they’ve been invited by logging into their own account, then entering the correct address. If they were already on a premium account, they’ll be prompted once that account expires after canceling the final month. Users can only switch Duo plans once a year.

In order to cancel your existing premium plan, click CHANGE PLAN under the Your Plan tab. Under Cancel Spotify, click CANCEL PREMIUM. The account will switch to a free account after the next billing date. Your playlists and saved music remain with the addition of ads. Once you’re on a Duo account, following these steps will simply remove you from the plan, while the plan manager will still need to cancel or update the payment method.

If you don’t already have a premium account, you may want to sign up soon; Spotify is currently testing restricting access to song lyrics to just premium users.

You can see a video for instructions here.

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Pumpkin Beers Actually Worth Drinking This Fall, Ranked

Finally spotting pumpkin beers on the shelf or beer cooler is a sure sign that summer is nearing its end. Just like the arrival of Halloween candy, pumpkin beers (even in mid-September) signal that fall is right around the corner. This happens every year. Also, the arrival of these brews is met with a mixture of excitement and dread. There are few beers as divisive as the pumpkin beer.

Haters will say it tastes like a generic, overly sweet pumpkin-spiced mess. Others will tell you that when made well, pumpkin beers are complex, balanced, and carry the flavors of fall. Spices, pumpkin, and other ingredients make it a popular choice for many.

That being said, we found eight of the best pumpkin beers (a mix of lower and higher ABV brews) on the market that are actually worth drinking this fall. We ranked them based on pumpkin flavor, balance, and overall drinkability. Keep scrolling to see how it turned out.

8) Iron Hill Pumpkin Ale

Iron Hill Pumpkin Ale
Iron Hill

ABV: 5.5%

Average Price: $11 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

This fall seasonal pumpkin beer from the folks at Iron Hill is known for its balanced flavor profile and recipe that includes pumpkin pie spices and vanilla. The result is a pumpkin ale that literally tastes like a slice of pumpkin pie in beer form.

Tasting Notes:

Right away, the pumpkin aroma hits you. There are also fall spices, and caramel. It’s a very welcoming start. The palate is loaded with more real pumpkin flavor, autumnal spices, toffee, and vanilla. Nothing is over-the-top though. It’s surprisingly easy to drink.

Bottom Line:

This is a good choice for drinkers who want to dip a toe into the pumpkin beer world. It’s lower in ABV than many on the market and less in-your-face in the pumpkin spice department.

7) Southern Tier Pumking

Southern Tier Pumking
Southern

ABV: 8.6%

Average Price: $14 for a four-pack

The Beer:

When it comes to well-known pumpkin beers, it’s tough to beat the appeal of Southern Tier Pumking. This aptly named imperial ale is available from August through October. It’s brewed with 2-row pale malt, Munich Malt, and C60 malts as well as ale yeast, two kinds of hops, pumpkin, and various seasonal spices.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll be treated to aromas of vanilla beans, pie crust, cinnamon sugar, and other seasonal spices. The palate begins with pumpkin flavor and moves into toffee, vanilla, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves. It’s sweet, balanced, the perfectly spiced.

Bottom Line:

Another beer that tastes like pumpkin pie in beer form, the best thing about Pumking is that everything tastes fresh and real. No generic tastes here.

6) Cigar City Good Gourd

Cigar City Good Gourd
Cigar City

ABV: 8.8%

Average Price: $12 for a four-pack

The Beer:

This popular imperial pumpkin ale gets its flavor from the addition of allspice, clove, nutmeg, vanilla, and cinnamon. Like many on the market, its recipe was created to taste as close to a pumpkin pie as possible. It definitely does.

Tasting Notes:

Complex aromas of ripe pumpkin, pie crust, cinnamon, clove, and allspice hit your nostrils before your first sip. The palate only expands on this with roasted pumpkin, vanilla beans, toffee, pie crust, more spices, and even some gentle, floral hops at the finish.

Bottom Line:

As pumpkin ales go, Cigar City Good Gourd is surprisingly well-balanced and flavorful. Add it to your fall list immediately.

5) Saint Arnold Pumpkinator

Saint Arnold Pumpkinator
Saint Arnold

ABV: 11.2%

Average Price: $8 for a 22-ounce bottle

The Beer:

This award-winning pumpkin stout is a seasonal can’t-miss for many beer drinkers. First released in 2009, it’s brewed with pale two-row, caramel, and black malts as well as Liberty and Cascade hops. It gets its seasonal flavor from the use of pumpkin, molasses, brown sugar, and spices.

Tasting Notes:

A lot is going on with this beer’s nose. There are underlying notes of roasted malts and coffee as well as pumpkin, pie crust, cinnamon, and other seasonal spices. The palate continues this trend with more robust, roasted malts, chocolate, coffee, pumpkin, molasses, brown sugar, and spices. The finish is dry and gently spicy.

Bottom Line:

This is a very complex beer with a ton of flavors. To find them all, you’d need to sample it multiple times. And you’ll probably want to.

4) AleWerks Pumpkin Ale

AleWerks Pumpkin Ale
AleWerks

ABV: 7.3%

Average Price: $14 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This 7.3% pumpkin ale out of Virginia’s AleWerks is made with fresh, natural ingredients including pumpkin, cinnamon, brown sugar, and even nutmeg. It smells and tastes like pumpkin pie and that’s definitely not a bad thing.

Tasting Notes:

The nose begins with roasted pumpkin, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, and caramel malts. Drinking it reveals hints of ripe pumpkin, roasted malts, butterscotch, nutmeg, clove, and cinnamon. The finish is dry, spicy, and lingering. It’s a complex memorable beer.

Bottom Line:

Another beer with a lot going on in terms of aroma and flavor. Crack open one of these bad boys on a cool early fall evening and sip it slowly.

3) Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale

Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale
Whole Hog

ABV: 7%

Average Price: $13 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Available from August through October, this 7% ABV, award-winning pumpkin ale is most well-known for its spices. Sure, it starts with real pumpkin like any good pumpkin ale should. But a bit of real cinnamon, nutmeg, and other pumpkin pie spices propel this beer to another level altogether.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is all roasted pumpkin, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. It’s a great sweet, spicy start. Sipping it brings forth more cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and pumpkin as well as allspice and sweet vanilla beans. Even with all the spices, it goes down easy with a nice sweet, lightly bitter finish.

Bottom Line:

This is a great example of a pumpkin ale done right. It ticks all the boxes but doesn’t lean too heavily in any direction.

2) Hardywood Farmhouse Pumpkin

Hardywood Farmhouse Pumpkin
Hardywood

ABV: 8.5%

Average Price: $7 for a 22-ounce bottle

The Beer:

This isn’t your average seasonal pumpkin ale. Hardywood’s version is a Wallonian-style farmhouse ale with pumpkin and spices. It’s brewed with sugar pumpkin, whole nutmeg, allspice, clove, and even ginger.

Tasting Notes:

Rustic, yeasty Saison aromas are up front, followed by ripe pumpkin, cinnamon, and spices. The palate is filled with roasted pumpkin, yeast, clove, cinnamon, and a gentle kick of ginger. The finish is a mix of yeast, sweetness, and light seasonal spices. Overall, a unique take on the style.

Bottom Line:

The end of the summer and the beginning of fall is a great time for Saisons — so why not get really into autumn and drink a pumpkin Saison?

1) Avery Rumpkin

Avery Rumpkin
Avery

ABV: 16.9%

Average Price: $14 for a 12-ounce bottle

The Beer:

Fans of Avery Rumpkin look forward to this seasonal beer year after year. This one is different than the others on this list as it begins as a spiced, pumpkin ale brewed with nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger that’s then aged in rum barrels. The result is a complex, barrel-aged banger that’s not to be missed.

Tasting Notes:

A triumphant nose of roasted pumpkin, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla beans, and sweet, boozy rum greets you right away. Drinking it reveals a warming, boozy flavor profile of caramel candy, pumpkin, cinnamon, vanilla cookies, ginger, and more rum. The finish is dry, warming, and leaves you craving more.

Bottom Line:

This beer is fairly high in alcohol. That being said, it’s surprisingly balanced and complex. Definitely a beer to warm you on a cool fall night.

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Craig Gillespie On ‘Dumb Money’ And Why He Loves An Outsider

Craig Gillespie is an enigma, an opinion I shared with him during this interview. It’s hard to find a through line through his films – narrative, style, or genre – which does see to leave a lot of critics not knowing quite what to do with him. He’s hard to define, in a business that loves defining people. When I bring this up to Gillespie he starts laughing, because he knows it’s true. A hopelessly sweet movie like Lars and the Real Girl doesn’t have a lot in common with, say, the needle-drop rage in I, Tonya or his gritty, stylistic take on a Disney villain with Cruella.

His latest is Dumb Money (which just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and is opening limited this weekend), as Gillespie tackles a full-on ensemble movie about how GameStop became the battle line between ordinary people looking to make some money and the financial institutions hell-bent on making sure that doesn’t happen. Keith Gill (Paul Dano) is a little-known YouTube investor who loves GameStop stock partially because he feels it is undervalued because of the amount of financial institutions shorting it, and partially just out of his nostalgia for GameStop. Eventually, his recommendation catches on, becoming a movement against the banks that were shorting the stocks. Now, on paper, Keith is a millionaire as his wife (Shailene Woodley) and brother (Pete Davidson) wonder if he has a plan at all.

Meanwhile, we circle through a number of investors (America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos, Myha’la Herrold) and their thought processes on how long to stay in. We meet the financial titans losing hundreds of millions a day (Seth Rogen, Vincent D’Onofrio, Nick Offerman). And, of course, the two schmucks (Sebastian Stan, Rushi Kota) who founded the Robin Hood app and find themselves way in over their heads, finally leading to the day they take away the option to buy GameStop, which caused the stock to tank and signaled to the world, oh, right, this truly is rigged.

Ahead, Gillespie takes us through why he was very determined to be as faithful to the actual story as possible, and explains how Dane DeHaan wound up in this movie as a GameStop manager with a rat tail. And he comes up with a convenient through-line for his movies. He says it was never intentional, but when you look back at his movies, he does love an outsider.

(I was supposed to speak to Gillespie in Toronto, but we had to reschedule to Zoom because a day before I was supposed to leave for the festival I tested positive for COVID. Something that seemed quite obvious to Gillespie once I tried to speak, as I was still pretty sick. Then, immediately after this, went back to bed.)

Craig Gillespie: Hey there, Mike. How you doing?

It hasn’t been the best week…

Do you have COVID?

Yeah, I do. I was supposed to go to Toronto.

Just to empathize, my family was coming to Toronto with me. My one son, not the son that was involved in this story, but the other son that lives with his girlfriend, they flew in the night before us, on the red eye. He didn’t feel great the next morning, she tested positive. They had to miss the whole premiere. They flew to Toronto and missed it.

I wanted to see it again in Toronto with that crowd because I knew it would play well, and apparently it did. I’m sad I missed it but I’m glad you got to experience that.

Yes, I did. I was very happy I got to experience it.

I’m just going to go say, I bet it was more important that you were there than I was there.

[Laughs] I was sitting there and being like, “Where’s Mike?”

Last time I spoke to you was for Cruella. When the GameStop stuff was happening, were you finishing that up?

I was definitely on the tail end of that, and was starting to gear up for another film that I was developing. I was living it with my son and in the thick of COVID. It was this slow burn because he was in the early on Wall Street Bets, so he’d be talking about it and talking about it rising. I think a lot of people turned to the internet to just start to look for outlets while COVID was on. And it just had this slow build to it. So it started to get intense. I was getting the blow-by-blow. And then it started getting really intense, coming up to that final day. And literally that conversation that Keith has with his parents when he announces how much he’s up and he’s not selling, it was not dissimilar to when our son the night before, it was like he was up this much and we’re like, “What are you doing? You going to sell? What’s going on?” Not nearly the same kind of numbers, but for him, very impactful. And watching him the next morning, every three minutes, getting up at six for the pre-market, every three minutes checking, when’s he going to get out? It’s in the stress levels trying to find that moment. When’s he going to stop? When’s too far? And he did get out with his option. He timed it perfectly, and then the market crashed the next day with the Robin Hood freeze.

Oh wow. So right before that?

Yeah, it was the day before. And then living that outrage and that incredible frustration and anger and what felt like a system rigged against them – and how you could tank the stock, and trying to figure out what happened, and seeing Elon Musk interviewing Vlad Tenev and being like, “So what’s the deal?” We try to say as true as possible: how the events happened, what actually happened, what we know about what we’ve discovered since the congressional hearings. All of that stuff we tried to embed in the film.

I didn’t know much about Keith Gill. I remember when this was happening, the media just talked about “Redditors are doing this.”

And obviously it’s these things. It’s this confluence of events that made this happen. It’s like you couldn’t orchestrate this in a vacuum. It was a perfect storm, and it turned out that the guy who had been talking about it for a year was Keith Gill.

By the way – and I know you knew it was funny because you showed it like five times – but every time Paul Dano is staring at the cat and then looks at the camera and smiles, I laughed out loud. At the end, you show the real one, but I still think Paul Dano’s is funnier for some reason.

[Laughs] Well, he’s a professional actor.

Okay, good point.

But yeah, we tried to stay so faithful. And even to the point where we have Pete Davidson playing Kevin Gill, and I’d looked at some of his social postings and it felt like a great fit. And he was.

Yeah, he’s great in this.

And the actual person does do DoorDash. He supposedly got a car – we’re not entirely sure – but it seems to be he got a car from his brother after all this happened. And then it’s like, I want to have the scene between the two of them because we know the press was trying to approach him as well. And Rebecca Angelo and Lauren Schuker Blum went back and did some research and found out that he ran the track mile naked in college in a thunderstorm, and so they wrote a scene around that. So we’re always constantly looking for the facts and drawing from those.

How worried are you about audiences picking up jargon? Do audiences know what shorting even means? I remember I learned that from the end of Trading Places and that movie doesn’t explain what they’re doing at all. So I had to look it up.

[Laughs[ We should put a Trading Place meme in there, huh? Just to explain it. Interesting thing. It’s like this is something you’ve seen in films forever and ever. It’s like even you watch The Big Short and do you really understand exactly what happens?

Well, the whole premise of that movie is the banks don’t want you to understand it.

In fact, even as much as you have Margot Robbie explaining, it still doesn’t seem to get explained.

Right, the people who run finance don’t want normal people to understand…

Exactly. But it’s a very complicated thing, like Apollo 13, do we understand exactly what they’re doing to get the spacecraft down to earth? But there was just this very basic situation happening here, which was, the big banks want the stocks to go down. The Reddit users want the stocks to go up to screw over the banks. But within that, and something that I think is incredibly tangible is they’re dealing with finance. They’re dealing with money that’s going to change their lives. When you see America Ferrera’s character and she’s up half a million dollars. The change, the impact that would have on her life is astronomical. And she can relate immediately and in a nanosecond, she can lose it all.

So, Dane DeHaan. That was incredible. I was not expecting that.

I got an incoming call from Dane that he liked to be in the movie. I love Dane DeHaan as an actor. He’s such a beautifully complex guy. And honestly, I felt awkward about it. We got on the Zoom and I’m like, “Dane, we’ve pretty much cast the film. I would love to work with you.” I said, “The only thing I have is I’ve got the manager that plays opposite of Anthony Ramos.” And he’s like, “I’ll do that.”

Oh, that’s great.

Yeah. He’s like, “I’d love to do that.” And I was like, “Are you sure?” He’s like, “Yeah, it’d be fun.” Literally, an hour later he texts me, “Hey, what if I had adult braces in a rat tail?” So immediately he started bringing stuff to that character. “I don’t think I should reveal the braces until later in the film.” And so it’s just the thing, when you’re working with great actors, they just say they’re so addicted to the process and they’re bringing ideas and they’re bringing depth to their characters. And so the complexity with which he could do those scenes, which on the page could be really simple – the insecurities, the disconnect between the common person and what they’re struggling with – it resonated. When you sit with an audience, it resonates so quickly and so strongly. It has to do very little.

I’ve been thinking about this for a few days, and keep in mind, I’ve had a fever for a few days, too. So if this makes no sense, that’s why. I’m imagining you at a bar and someone asks what you do for a living. You tell them you’re a director. They ask what kind of movies you make. What’s your answer? I ask this because you’re an enigma to me.

[Laughing]

You’re laughing because you know that’s true.

Oh, it’s absolutely, it’s a very funny comment. And it depends on the person. It’s like, which one of my movies will this person be seeing? It’s like, I don’t think necessarily all of them.

That’s a good point. Probably not.

Sometimes they’ve seen none of them.

Oh, come on.

I can go through the list. “Have you seen I, Tanya?” “No, what’s that?” “Have you seen Cruella?” They say they don’t have kids.

Who doesn’t love Lars than the Real Girl? That is the sweetest movie ever made.

But it didn’t get to a huge audience. So that one is an unusual one. And then, of course, you’ve got to give the logline to that, which doesn’t give you the context of it.

That’s true. People are going to think it’s erotic.

You just have to see it. It’s hard to explain it, but it really, really is a heartfelt film.

Cruella is interesting. At the time, the critical reaction was a lot of hemming and hawing, but now when people talk about it, they seem to love it. It’s considered this movie everyone likes now. Do you notice that?

It’s such a stressful thing. It was also, Cruella came out a very odd time, in the middle of COVID. So that in itself was something. And I guess with Cruella, interesting thing, it’s so not like anything else that was coming out of Disney at the time. In the best sense of it. I’ve got a wonderful relationship with Disney and they really let me run with it.

Last time I talked to you, we both kind of described it as a “dark and gritty” version. And it is.

It is. And it’s not in any negative way, but every time a production head would come in to start working on the movie, on Cruella, I’d stop him and be like, “You’re not making a Disney film. We’re making an independent movie.” That’s how you need to think about it. And it would just dramatically shift everybody’s perspective. So it’s, in some ways, it was always the idea that we’re getting away with it. But it only works if people like it so it seems to be over the course of time, I’d say yeah, it’s definitely resonated.

I guess the bigger point is just, you can do a number of genres you can do a number of styles successfully. I don’t think a lot of people can do that. But at the same time, you don’t get established as someone known for a particular style.

The only two constants for me, probably, are typically it’s about an outsider. I don’t know. That’s something I wasn’t overtly trying to do. But as I look back, it’s definitely a theme.

Oh, I think that’s definitely true. Even in something like the Chris Pine movie, The Finest Hours, he’s kind of an outsider.

Yeah! He’s a marginalized character, the underdog. Nobody expects that he can get out there and do it. And then the dance with tone that I love to have, no matter what the genre, it varies. But even Fright Night has that dance of tone and comedy and horror. It’s more challenging, but it’s more gratifying to me… It’s funny, it’s like life, to me, is the way that we interact as human beings in our relationships within our families, humor is always a part of it. It’s always used. It’s either to connect or to be divisive. And I love to be able to use that in films, too, because it gets you to know the characters in a way that you can relate to. And I think that’s part of why people connect to the characters in the films because they’ve been on this journey with and gotten to know them in a way that feels very familiar.

There was this one quick moment, which is the big fuss in the movie with Anthony Ramos and in every case we’re trying to find a way they have so little real estate, which is a rare thing about this movie because there’s so many characters mingling. So they’ve got three or four scenes to make an impact and to connect with the audience. One of the scenes that’s written for Anthony is him with his family when he shows them he’s got $175,000.

At the dinner table.

At the dinner table. We all land together and meet for the first time in that apartment on location. Anthony’s meeting these actors for the first time. I said, “I would like you guys to speak in Spanish.” Anthony’s saying, “I’m not great with that.” But it’s not uncommon at all, in a bilingual family, people will be speaking Spanish and English at the same time, conversing that way. So we’re like, “Great. The parents can speak in Spanish, you can speak in English.” And then the mother is like, “I would probably switch to English when it gets serious.” It’s great. So it’s sort of this organic approach to it, which I love. But then it gets to the end of the scene and she’s like, “Be careful with this. It can be like a drug.” And it gets very serious and it’s lacking. I’m not quite understanding of the whole relationship there. So I said, “Anthony, when she says that, take the phone and sniff it like a line of coke.” And then she just spontaneously slaps him over the shoulder. I didn’t ask her to, but immediately started to get their relationship.

That’s great.

They can tease each other and be direct with each other and undercut each other. And you understand the family dynamic in a three-second moment.

I’m looking forward to people seeing this in the theater, and I know it’s soon…

Very soon!

It was good to talk to you, thank you for putting up with my voice.

Try and get some rest!

Oh that’s the next thing I’m doing.

‘Dumb Money’ opens in theaters on September 29th. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

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Mitt Romney Says Almost Every GOP Senator Laughed At Trump’s ‘Toddlerlike Psyche’ Behind His Back

With Mitt Romney headed out the door after officially announcing that he will not seek re-election in 2025, the Utah senator is apparently not holding back about what he saw during his time in Washington.

Romney has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump, and according to a new book by McKay Coppins, his disdain for the former president was shared by his Republican colleagues in the Senate “almost without exception.” While most of the GOP “played their parts as Trump loyalists” in public, behind closed doors was a different story.

Via The Atlantic:

But in private, they ridiculed his ignorance, rolled their eyes at his antics, and made incisive observations about his warped, toddler­like psyche. Romney recalled one senior Republican senator frankly admitting, “He has none of the qualities you would want in a president, and all of the qualities you wouldn’t.”

According to another excerpt from Romney’s journal, Trump burst into a Senate caucus lunch in March 2019 to celebrate Robert Mueller’s investigation failing to prove his campaign colluded with Russia. The former president received a “standing ovation fit for a conquering hero” before “rambling” in front of the group and swinging “wildly from one tangent to another.”

After Trump left the room, the GOP senators didn’t even try to hide their reaction. “The Republican caucus burst into laughter,” Romney wrote.

(Via The Atlantic)

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A Hilarious 2K Glitch Has Caused Players To Get Stuck On The Rim And Spin Around Wildly

This past weekend saw the release of NBA 2K24, which is always one of the most highly anticipated sports video game releases of the year alongside Madden. Fans of the game were excited to see if the promised upgrades really delivered improved gameplay, and if the tweaks to the various game modes improved each of those experiences.

However, there is also the excitement to see what glitches will exist at launch. The reality of sports simulation video games is that as they keep adding more movements and variables to the game to make it as lifelike as possible, they increase the possibility for the game to break. As the masses get the game, they’ll run into situations the testers didn’t, and the results can be hysterical (and/or frustrating, depending on how seriously you take the game) until they get patches done to fix things.

This weekend, the best 2K24 glitch to hit social media was, by far, players running into a crazy situation where sometimes guys that went for a dunk would get stuck on the rim and spend multiple possessions flailing about wildly — often until a timeout was called. Sometimes those players would even cause an offensive goaltending because they were spinning around on the rim when a shot went up.

I’m sure the folks at 2K will (or already have) patch this up, but it’s incredibly funny to see guys just spinning around the rim like a helicopter. It’s also a funny paradox that the more lifelike you try to make a video game, the more likely you are to create the least realistic glitches imaginable.

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Atlantic Records 75th Anniversary Vinyl Reissues Of Albums From Cardi B, Led Zeppelin, And More

While 2023 represents the 50th year of hip-hop, it’s also the 75th anniversary of one of the labels that has had a huge hand in making hip-hop the global phenomenon it is today. Today, Atlantic Records announced its plans to celebrate making it three-quarters of a century (especially in an industry that has seen so much upheaval almost from day one), which include a year’s worth of vinyl reissues of classic and contemporary albums that have defined its first 75 years.

The campaign will kick off in October and include 90 albums from the likes of Aretha Franklin, Bad Company, Booker T & The MGs, Bruno Mars, Cardi B, Christina Perri, Coldplay, Foreigner, Gucci Mane, Jack Harlow, Janelle Monáe, John Coltrane, Kehlani, Led Zeppelin, Lupe Fiasco, Matchbox Twenty, Otis Redding, Phil Collins, Ray Charles, Velvet Underground, Willie Nelson, and more. Some will be special pressings; others will be releases that have never been on vinyl before. There’s also exclusive, limited-edition merch, and partnerships with Vinyl Me, Please and Acoustic Sounds.

The collection will be curated by Atlantic Records chairman/CEO Craig Kallman, who’s been working on it for years. “It was stacks of paper making sure we didn’t miss anybody,” he said in a press release. “It was painstakingly done. There was a lot of internal debating… We tried to include records that were culturally significant, that were groundbreaking for the company, that were blowout sales successes. It was about records that defined the label and the culture of the company.”

Kallman had a personal investment in much of that history, joining Atlantic in 1991 after his dance label, Big Beat Records, was acquired by Atlantic. And although he said he thought it’d be cool to limit the run to 75 titles, he found he just couldn’t, resulting in the 90 planned releases (might as well up it to 100, Craig!). From the names of the albums included, it looks like a worthwhile endeavor and we can’t wait for the year ahead.

Atlantic Records and Uproxx are both independent subsidiaries of Warner Music Group.

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Big Thief’s Captivating ‘Born For Loving You’ Is Here Ahead Of Its Vinyl Release

Big Thief and its members seemingly can’t stop releasing music and that’s not a habit they curbed today (September 13) with the release of a new single, “Born For Loving You.” The mid-tempo, country-inspired song features Adrianne Lenker singing about an ever-present and enduring love.

The song, paired with the recent “Vampire Empire,” will be released on a limited 7-inch vinyl on October 20 via 4AD. That can be pre-ordered here.

The band has had the song in their live setlists since earlier this year, and after a March performance, Lenker explained of the song’s origins, saying, “That was a mishear. I heard a lyric in a song that was like, ‘I’m falling in love with you,’ or something, and I was like, ‘Did they say that I was born in love with you?’ And then of course… of course there’s other songs with ‘born for loving you,’ but… then I was also very inspired in Florida by the pop-country coming out of the trucks that are parked on the beach.”

The song follows the group’s 2022 album Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, as well as Buck Meek’s solo album Haunted Mountain that was just released in August.

Meek recently told Uproxx’s Steven Hyden of what’s next for Big Thief, “The thing about making records is, we really don’t know until we’re there. I will say we have lots of ideas and we’re always working on new songs, especially on the road. […] But the truth is, even we don’t know what’s going to happen. We have all kinds of plans, we have all kinds of ideas, but we don’t know what’s going to happen until we’re actually in the room recording.

Listen to “Born For Loving You” above.