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Playboi Carti made waves with 2020’s Whole Lotta Red, leaving fans wanting more. Luckily, they won’t be waiting too long. During an interview with XXL earlier this year, the Georgia rapper recently opened up about the direction for his third upcoming studio album.

Throughout the chat, the rapper outlined his ambitions for his forthcoming album and opened up about his personal life. Carti revealed that he initially had plans to name the project Music.

“I was about to name my album Music because that’s where I’m at, you know what I’m saying? Music,” Carti said. “That’s all it is at this point.”

The rapper also shared that the album is inspired by changes in his life and some of his vices. Ultimately, Carti hopes his next project brings “peace to the world.”

“Love. Sex. Drugs. Changes in my life,” he continued. “I’ve been rapping about going to rehab. I want to go to rehab because I think I’m bipolar. I want everybody to feel free. I want this album to make everyone feel free. I hope this album brings peace to the world, honestly.” He added, “I’m in love with what I’m doing. Like I told you, you can’t put a genre alternative [on me]. My little brother told me that all the time.”

You can read the entirety of Carti’s new interview with XXL here.

In the last week, George Santos, an incoming Republican representative for New York City, has belatedly come under scrutiny, which is to say people have caught him lying about everything from his heritage to where he lives. Now there’s a report about Tom Cotton, the mildly notorious GOP senator from Arizona, that raises questions about how much time he spends in the state he represents.

The report, from Arkansas Times, explores how much time Cotton and his family, namely his wife and two kids, spend in Little Rock, Arkansas, where they moved to several years ago. It doesn’t appear to be much. Most Senators tend to make numerous trips to D.C. but spend most of their time in their home state. Indeed, many try to spend as little time in the nation’s capitol as possible. Cotton appears not to do that. Instead, his office paid for zero trips in 2021 and none between January and September.

What’s more, those who live in the apartment complex where he’s registered to vote don’t recall him walking down the halls or borrowing brown sugar. “You’ll never see him,” says his next-door neighbor, who says he’s only spotted him a few times in the last three years. He says he sometimes hears noises late at night but never during the day.

Another neighbor, who lives across the hall, says they’ve never seen anyone entering or leaving the unit. There was that time last year when she heard children during the weekend. They used to think it was being used as an Airbnb.

But what of Cotton’s social media accounts? Every now and then he posts pictures of him in the Wonder State, but only infrequently. Sure enough, he can go several weeks without posting posts confirming that he’s at home.

It’s not even clear if his family lives there or in the D.C. area. Cotton’s wife has voted absentee 11 times since 2016. The last time she voted in person was back in 2014. She’s listed as a lawyer in four different states, none of them Arkansas.

Cotton came to prominence during the summer of 2020, when he penned an op-ed for The New York Times in which he recommended sending the National Guard to New York City to squash Black Lives Matter protesters. He wasn’t a strict MAGA hardliner; he was among those who came out against Trump’s voter fraud claims, which did before the Jan. 6 riot, which he later condemned. Then again, he was also one of a mere handful of senators who voted against a bill meant to help stop attacks on Asian-American citizens during an uptick in hate crimes.

(Arkansas Times)

As it turns out, you, me, and just about everyone else you have ever met in your entire life has used the incorrect term when we consume multiple delicious nuclear orange cheese crackers. According to Carter Karels of NoleSports.com, a representative for the Cheez-It Bowl gave a quick rundown on the proper pluralization of “Cheez-It.” Apparently, when I consume half a box of them while I watch a sporting event on my couch at 10:30 p.m., I am not eating “Cheez-Its,” I am eating “Cheez-It crackers.”

This was shocking to a number of college football fans, who, like most people on earth, just call them Cheez-Its.

It should, of course, be noted that “Cheez” is not the correct spelling of that word, even if I love the product dearly. Anyway, all of this comes on the same day that Cheez-It announced that four college football players — two of whom are playing in the bowl game that is officially sponsored by the company — signed NIL deals with that will put them in hotel rooms that are completely packed with branded stuff. It is, as you can guess, a shocking amount of red and orange and yellow.

There is no word on whether or not it is required that multiple little bits of baked cheese be referred to exclusively as “Cheez-It crackers” as part of the NIL deal.

A ’70s blaxploitation film icon from classics like Foxy Brown and Coffy, Pam Grier found new life in Quentin Tarantino’s 1997 Jackie Brown. Since then, it’s much more than just boomers who understand what an important figure Grier was for Black women in film.

She’s now the focus of the fourth season of TCM’s The Plot Thickens podcast and Grier settled in with Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield to talk about her legacy and ongoing ambitions. Among them, Grier revealed that she’s scheming to be on the big screen with Cardi B and expressed her reverence for other Black women who are crossing over from music to the silver screen.

“I’m writing something for me and Cardi B,” Grier said when asked about being a touchstone for today’s cross-generational icons. “I love Cardi and ‘WAP.’ I love Megan Thee Stallion. I told her, ‘You and your artistry are beautiful. People are gonna punk you because a stallion is a male horse, but there’s some really foxy mares!’

“She’s really good. She went to college,” she said about Megan, before expanding into her thoughts on other stars. “You got to have your goals. You’re gonna have haters, you’re gonna have jealousy, but just do your art, do your passion from your heart. She [Megan] and Lizzo and Nicki Minaj and some of the others, they know — you gotta make your own style. You get to hire people later. But you come up with your own stuff, then you just draw people like a magnet, so collaborators make you greater and greater. I want them to find that.”

Grier, who also played music with Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix, also cited working with Tarantino and Samuel L. Jackson as moments that shaped her into a well-rounded artist and added one last bit of advice for Cardi, Meg, Nicki, Lizzo, and others: “But any kind of artist, you’re like a musician, and you don’t know if you’re gonna be heard 40, 50 years later. This music may not be passed on by other artisans. But it’s nice if your music is still played generations later.”

Some of the artists mentioned here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

When The Hangover came out in 2009, its main trio were already well-known. It just made instantly made them much, much more famous. Bradley Cooper had been knocking about for years. Zach Galifianakis was a big time cult comic. As for Ed Helms, he’d already been a Daily Show correspondent and part of the ensemble of the American The Office. Still, the latter, at least initially, didn’t adjust so well to going from famous to mega-famous.

“It was a tornado of fame and a lot of buffeting,” Helms recently revealed on the podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. “It was very overwhelming. But I also — I feel very lucky on that as well because, I had — my public persona had risen gradually and we had, like, when I was on basic cable on The Daily Show, we had what [Stephen] Colbert liked to call ‘toy fame.’”

What does Colbert mean by “toy fame”? It’s the kind of notoriety in which you can still go out and be a regular person. Helms had experienced something a bit more than that when he left the Comedy Central show for NBC. “I was on The Office for a couple of years before The Hangover. And that was another ratchet up cause that’s network television,” Helms explained. It didn’t help that his character, Andy Bernard, had some catch-phrases, “which of course ups the ante with public recognition.”

But The Hangover “was a whole new level,” he said. “I really was reeling a lot of the time, like in the aftermath of The Hangover, just kind of like get, like how I was handling my — I was getting scripts for all these different kinds of projects. ‘Like what do I do? I dunno,’” Helms recalled. “I was kind of spinning out and panicking about different things. Like, ‘Well, what kind of a career do you want?’

“I definitely felt a lot of anxiety and like identity kind of — just turmoil,” Helms said. “And I will say one of the — one of the craziest things about a — about a like massive jump into fame like that is — and this is what I think people who have never dealt with that or been close to it, just can’t understand is the just total loss of control of your environment.”

How did he get through it? With a little help from some friends who were going through the same thing, namely Cooper and Galafianakis.

“If it wasn’t for those guys, I don’t think I would’ve stayed sane,” Helms said, “but we all had each other to kind of be like, you know, I don’t know, just to commiserate and measure ourselves… and I think we kept each other from drifting too far. And being too unprofessional.”

You can listen to Helms’ full Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend episode here.

(Via Mediaite)

Not all dads are home improvement weekend warriors, but for those who are, Home Depot is where it’s at. Like, literally, it’s where everything is at. It’s where they get tools, parts, materials—everything from honking huge sheets of wood to the tiniest little nuts and bolts. If you need it, Home Depot has it. If Home Depot doesn’t have it, it probably doesn’t exist.

For DIY dads, Home Depot is a second home and as much as I hate to stereotype, there are some common characteristics these dads share. I know because I’m married to one. And nowhere is this stereotype summed up as succinctly—or hilariously—as in the 33-second rap song YouTube gamer Welyn created using the Home Depot theme song.

I mean, just check out the opening lyrics:

---

I’m talkin’ propane on the gas grill

Open flame, hold the pan still

In flannel, it’s plaid, still

Never question the dad skill

I’m in the backyard…

You really just have to hear it—and watch head-bobbing cat jamming out with it.

The song is available on Spotify and I’m pretty sure my kids have listened to it a hundred times. They call it “Dad’s Theme Song” and they laugh hysterically every time they sing it.

The rest of the lyrics:

Tool belt, big truck, and a backpack

Workin’ on a house and I flip it like a flapjack

Phillips head with a tread, hammer with a napsack

Got a creak in the knees, even got a bad back

Never back-track; two measure, one cut

Got a big beam, bolts and a lug nut

Screws and a tool kit, thinking of what does what

Hit ’em with a ‘sport’ when I’m beatin’ ’em at putt-putt

(Heyyyy, sport!)

It’s 33 seconds of perfection, truly. The home improvement dad theme song we never knew we needed.

You can follow Welyn on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.

Riverside, California’s 4L Javi is the rapper-singer you don’t want to miss. On this year’s project Letters 2 U, he flexes his range of singing and rapping through love stories fitting for a young adult just trying to figure it out. Javi’s sound fits into a new wave of West Coast rappers bringing the best of R&B and rap into their projects— think Kalan.FrFr, Blxst, and MCM Raymond. On his track “Playboy,” he takes the crooning and honesty of R&B but positions himself as solely a rapper over Michigan-style production.

He makes his Sessions debut performing the track, affirming his anti-loverboy status with lyrics like “retail therapy, I don’t need a therapist,” and “I never learned to love, I was always wit’ the pits.” His cadence is laid-back and fitting for a SoCal rapper, reminiscent of an Ice Cube or a more contemporary Huey Briss. With his Sessions performance of “Playboy,” 4L Javi proves himself to be up next.

Watch 4L Javi perform “Playboy” for UPROXX Sessions above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

The assault trial against Tory Lanez for shooting Megan Thee Stallion concluded in dramatic fashion last week, with Lanez’ conviction on three charges. In addition to committing assault with a firearm causing great bodily injury, the Canadian rapper was also found guilty of concealing a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. Naturally, with such a contentious trial, the result was disputed online, but nowhere more forcefully than in Tory’s father’s post-trial outburst — which has sparked some attention-getting reactions of its own.

After the trial, Tory’s father, Sonstar Peterson, addressed reporters, called the outcome of the trial a “miscarriage of justice” and decried Megan’s management company, Roc Nation, as well as its founder, Jay-Z, promising Roc Nation would “crumble.” Of course, an entertainment management company would really have very little clout in a court of criminal law, and Jay-Z probably wouldn’t have had any dealings with Tory Lanez at all if they weren’t tangentially related to the shooting, so fans were delighted by the opportunity to finally have some fun with the otherwise grim proceedings.

Obviously, Jay-Z makes for a convenient target on whom the Peterson family can cast aspersions. Jay spent the early part of the millennium as the subject of numerous online conspiracy theories, including his supposed membership in such secret societies as the Illuminati and the Freemasons, so much so that he addressed such rumors repeatedly in songs like Rick Ross’ “Free Mason” (“I said that I’m amazin’,” he cracks. “Not that I’m a mason!”). Tory and his family, in the face of overwhelming logic, have naturally resorted to illogical defenses, suggesting a conspiracy against him, so it makes sense they would latch onto a figure who already has a “history” of conspiracies.

In any case, Tory Lanez now faces up to 22 years in prison and deportation as a result of … well, the consequences of his own actions. Meanwhile, Meg has yet to address the verdict but it has been reported that she and her lawyers are considering legal action against the slew of blogs that threw their support behind Lanez by posting venomous, false reports throughout the proceedings to undermine her credibility and generally make her out to be the villain. We wish her the best of luck.

It’s too easy to spend an entire evening scrolling through streaming services like Amazon Prime picking a movie to watch. By the time you pick a movie, you could have watched one. Or two. Maybe even three. We’re here to solve that problem with the 25 best Amazon Prime movies that are available right now. From recent critical darlings like La La Land and Licorice Pizza to modern classics like Fight Club and Minority Report, here is your guide to the best movies on Amazon Prime, so you can spend your next movie night actually watching a movie:

1. La La Land

Year: 2016
Cast: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, John Legend
Genre: Drama, Musical
Rating: R
Runtime: 128 minutes
Director: Damien Chazelle
Trailer: Watch here

While its legacy might be it was a fake Oscar winner, Damien Chazelle’s romantic but painful musical La La Land shows how ambition and success can unite people, and also how it can divide and change them in an idyllic, colorful version of Los Angeles (the titular La La Land, of course). Although the year’s best picture Oscar actually went to Moonlight, Emma Stone won the Oscar for best actress for her charming performance as aspiring actress Mia.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

2. The Wolf of Wall Street

Year: 2013
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 180 minutes
Director: Martin Scorsese
Trailer: Watch here

The best thing about The Wolf of Wall Street? It doesn’t give a sh*t. Martin Scorsese’s hilarious adaptation of Jordan Belfort’s life and career as a wealthy stock-market manipulator brought out another side of his directing style and another unexpected side of Leonardo DiCaprio. With the help of effortlessly funny co-stars Jonah Hill and Margot Robbie, DiCaprio finally lets loose and allows himself to be funny. Fortunately, he is just as good at it as he is at drama, if not better.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

3. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Year: 2001
Cast: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen, Cat Blanchett
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 178 minutes
Director: Peter Jackson
Trailer: Watch here

The introductory film in Peter Jackson’s award-winning Lord of the Rings trilogy is a classic with ground-breaking special effects, affecting performances, and unbelievable set pieces, costumes, and unfathomable scale. The cast and their sparkling chemistry turns the otherwise quite dark hunt for The One Ring into comfort viewing.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

4. Fight Club

Year: 1999
Cast: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 139 minutes
Director: David Fincher
Trailer: Watch here

Ah, yes, the movie whose poster was tacked to the dorm walls of straight men everywhere for years on end. Despite the annoying film bro following that this David Fincher film developed over time, Fight Club is a decade-defining classic, featuring clever, extremely physical performances from stars Edward Norton and Brad Pitt. If you love a twist, you’ll love this, even if you see it coming five minutes into the movie.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

5. Licorice Pizza

Year: 2021
Cast: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 133 minutes
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Trailer: Watch here

Paul Thomas Anderson is obsessed with two things: Hollywood and the 1970s. Licorice Pizza combines those inside a coming-of-age story featuring performances from first-time leads Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman (the son of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, a frequent Anderson collaborator). The film is not Anderson’s strongest to date, but it is, perhaps his most personal film to date. Like a typical Anderson film, the narrative feels epic with many acts and many characters, some of who only appear for a scene or two. The best part of the film is Bradley Cooper’s truly wild performance as film producer Jon Peters.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

6. The Fighter

Year: 2010
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo
Genre: Drama, Biopic
Rating: R
Runtime: 116 minutes
Director: David O. Russell
Trailer: Watch here

David O. Russell’s film about professional boxers and half-brothers Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund follows all the typical beats of a sports drama and a biopic. Despite its predictability, formulaic structure can be great. In this case, it gives us the committed performances (some of the decade’s best) room to shine from Melissa Leo’s Oscar-winning performance, Christian Bale’s Oscar-winning performance, and Amy Adams non-Oscar winning or nominated performance (a casual reminder that Amy Adams is long overdue for an Oscar ).

Watch it on Amazon Prime

7. Shutter Island

Year: 2010
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams, Ben Kingsley
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: R
Director: Martin Scorsese
Runtime: 139 minutes
Trailer: Watch here

While Shutter Island might not be one of Martin Scorsese’s best films, it is an essential one. Scorsese flexes decades of directorial experience here, going bigger than ever with his style, which has only progressed since then. Shutter Island, which follows two detectives investigating a disappearance at a remote insane asylum, also follows most thriller cliches, but Scorsese’s skill makes it twice as thrilling, and a little bit fun despite its dark tone and themes. Scorsese is going all out here and encourages his frequent collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio (his 2000s muse, in a sense) to really go for it, too.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

8. The Usual Suspects

Year: 1995
Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Steven Baldwin, Benicio del Toro
Genre: Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 106 minutes
Director: Bryan Singer
Trailer: Watch here

The Usual Suspects combines elements of film noir with a standard ’90s thriller. With every second that passes in the energetic crime thriller with a sprawling cast of ’90s faves from Gabriel Byrne to Benicio del Toro, more layers are added to the mystery and, therefore, the film itself. Although the complex story builds and builds as it goes, the screenplay is packaged in a way so that it doesn’t feel as complex as it is, without condescending to the audience.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

9. The Northman

Year: 2022
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, Willem Dafoe
Genre: Action
Rating: R
Runtime: 136 minutes
Director: Robert Eggers
Trailer: Watch here

Like every Robert Eggers film, The Northman is even weirder than it looks. The film follows the Viking Amleth who devotes his life to seeking revenge on the man who murdered his father and, seemingly, took his mother. Amleth gets his revenge, but slowly and very violently. And yes, the rumors are true: there is a naked volcano fight scene in this. And also a magically unhinged performance from Nicole Kidman.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

10. The Italian Job

Year: 2003
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green
Genre: Action
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 105 minutes
Director: F. Gary Gray
Trailer: Watch here

It doesn’t get more 2003 than this remake of the 1969 movie of the same name. Action star of the moment Mark Wahlberg stars as professional fixer Charlie Croker, who, seeking revenge for the murder of a friend leads a team of people with various useful skills when it comes to a heist on a heist. Edward Norton plays a villain with a little mustache who often wears a beanie.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

11. Fantastic Mr. Fox

Year: 2009
Cast: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman
Genre: Animation, Comedy
Rating: PG
Runtime: 87 minutes
Director: Wes Anderson
Trailer: Watch here

Of course, a director with an eye for color and symmetry is also a visionary in animation. Wes Anderson’s stop-motion film, based on the 1970 children’s novel of the same name by Roald Dahl, is about a fox whose series of thefts cause problems for his family and his community, as they are hunted down by those seeking revenge. Anderson co-wrote the screenplay with Noah Baumbach.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

12. The Hunger Games

Year: 2012
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrellson
Genre: Action
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 142 minutes
Director: Gary Ross
Trailer: Watch here

The Hunger Games novel is practically written like a screenplay, and the film adaptation stays as loyal as it can be (it was, probably pretty easy). The themes are a little heavy-handed at times, but its the direction, cinematography, and performances from leads Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson (as well as supporting ones from Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Donald Sutherland, and Lenny Kravitz) that make it staggering and thought-provoking.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

13. Minority Report

Year: 2002
Cast: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton
Genre: Sci-fi, Action
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 145 minutes
Director: Steven Spielberg
Trailer: Watch here

Minority Report is what every sci-fi action film should be: energetic, horrifying, and stimulating. Most importantly, fun. Tom Cruise stars as Precrime Chief John Anderton, whose job is to arrest people for crimes they are predicted to commit. Despite his trust of the system, John becomes one of the hunted when he is predicted to commit a crime. So, like everyone he hunts, he runs, and in the process discovers a conspiracy. The film also includes a massively underrated supporting performance from Colin Farrell, then early into his film career.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

14. Superbad

Year: 2007
Cast: Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Emma Stone
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 113 minutes
Director: Greg Mottola
Trailer: Watch here

This irreverent comedy turned Jonah Hill (now an Oscar nominee) and Emma Stone (now an Oscar winner) into movie stars. The raunchy, graphic comedy went further than any comedy before it, in ways that have aged well and ways that have aged poorly. Regardless, it’s a classic. Behind all the dick jokes and weird period jokes, it’s a film about male friendship that allows men on the screen to be vulnerable with each other.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

15. The Machinist

Year: 2004
Cast: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 102 minutes
Director: Brad Anderson
Trailer: Watch here

Christian Bale is well known for putting on pounds or losing them for roles. For his role in The Machinist, Bale transformed himself into a rail-thin paranoid factory worker who has not slept in a year by dropping over 60 lbs. It’s definitely a gimmick, but Bale’s transformative performance is admirable and unlike anything else he’s ever done before or since.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

16. The Silence of the Lambs

Year: 1991
Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Runtime: 118 minutes
Director: Jonathan Demme
Trailer: Watch here

Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs is not only one of the best horror movies ever made, but one of the best movies ever made full stop. The disturbing psychological thriller gets its energy from its rousing lead performances from Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. Their chemistry on screen is a palpable force that helped earn the film – and the genre – deserved recognition at the Oscars, where it swept the five major categories: best actor, best actress, best-adapted screenplay, best director, and best picture. To this day, it is the only horror film to win best picture.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

17. Jennifer’s Body

Year: 2009
Cast: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 102 minutes
Director: Karyn Kusama
Trailer: Watch here

Jennifer’s Body was generally reviled by critics when it came out, but it has since gained a deserved cult following and is now regarded as a feminist classic. Written by Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody, people were likely not prepared for the body horror flick as much as they were for a charming indie about a pregnant teenager. Megan Fox plays Jennifer, a high school student who develops some deadly vampiric tendencies after a ritual gone horribly wrong. Emmy-winner Amanda Seyfried plays her nerdy best friend who tries to save her bff’s victims.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

18. The Tender Bar

Year: 2021
Cast: Ben Affleck, Lily Rabe, Ty Sheridan
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 104 minutes
Director: George Clooney
Trailer: Watch here

This sentimental coming-of-age film from director George Clooney tells the story of American journalist J.R. Moehringer’s life growing up on Long Island, where he spent a significant portion of his time at a bar, which is his only escape from his complex life at home. It is based on Moehringer’s 2005 memoir of the same name.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

19. A Quiet Place 2

Year: 2020
Cast: Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds
Genre: Horror
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 97 minutes
Director: John Krasinski
Trailer: Watch here
Emily Blunt returns for the sequel to her husband John Krasinksi’s hit horror film set in a post-apocalyptic world occupied by aliens with razor-sharp hearing. Although the film is not as tight as its predecessor, the sequel still captures the family dynamics that give it heart and Krasinksi continues to show off his skill as a horror director.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

20. Casino Royale

Year: 2006
Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judy Dench
Genre: Action
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 144 minutes
Director: Martin Campbell
Trailer: Watch here

Casino Royale is a significant departure in tone in the decades-long James Bond franchise. In 2006, new Bond Daniel Craig had a different, controversial look and feel to the Bond actors before him: his hair wasn’t as dark and he was a little less polished, rougher around the edges. Unlike Craig’s hair, Casino Royale set a dark, more serious tone for the next era of Bond by taking it a little more seriously. It influenced the Bond franchise permanently, and action films as a whole, which have gotten gritter (some in good ways, some in bad ways).

Watch it on Amazon Prime

21. Sound of Metal

Year: 2020
Cast: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 120 minutes
Director: Darius Marder
Trailer: Watch here

Riz Ahmed earned himself an Oscar nomination for best actor for his performance as heavy-metal drummer Ruben who hopes to make it in the music scene but discovers that he is losing his hearing, which changes his life and his plans to pursue a career doing what he loves. House of the Dragon’s Olivia Cooke, who plays Ahmed’s girlfriend and bandmate Lou, also delivers an impressive performance.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

22. Candyman

Year: 2021
Cast: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Runtime: 91 minutes
Director: Nia DaCosta
Trailer: Watch here

Nia DaCosta (Little Woods) directed this followup to the ’90s cult classic starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as an artist who investigates a serial killer for a new project. His investigation leads him to other Black men who were murdered and secrets about his own lineage that send him on a bloody spiral. DaCosta is a visionary director with a deep understanding of disturbing, thrilling, and impactful imagery.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

23. Coming 2 America

Year: 2021
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall
Genre: Comedy
Rating: R
Runtime: 110 minutes
Director: Craig Brewer
Trailer: Watch here

If you love the original Coming to America, which graced theaters in the summer of 1988, you will most likely enjoy the sequel, set in the country of Zamuda, where the newly crowned king Akeem (Eddie Murphy) embarks on an all-new adventure across the globe. Ultimately, he ends up back in Queens, New York, where Coming to America began decades ago.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

24. The Lost City of Z

Year: 2017
Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Tom Holland
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 141 minutes
Director: James Gray
Trailer: Watch here

James Gray’s ambitious biopic/adventure flick is a retelling of the true-life drama of Col. Percival Fawcett. Fawcett (Hunnam), a British explorer who disappeared while searching for a mysterious city in the Amazon in the 1920s. Like most of Gray’s work, it’s a slow, but rewarding burn. The cinematography is spectacular, and there are some engrossing action sequences. Robert Pattinson is, as always, weird as ever, but it works.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

25. Ambulance

Year: 2022
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eiza González
Genre: Action
Rating: R
Runtime: 136 minutes
Director: Michael Bay
Trailer: Watch here

When described, AmbuLAnce (it’s set in LA!) sounds fake. The film, directed by Michael Bay, includes several references to Michael Bay films including The Rock. It’s messy and all over the place, but Jake Gyllenhaal’s chaotic performance as the manic villain collides with Bay’s aggressive directing style as if they were meant to be.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher are hanging out, down the street, in real life and on TV. The married couple, who raised over $30 million to help Ukrainian refugees, will reprise their That ’70s Show characters, Jackie and Kelso, in Netflix’s That ’90s Show. You can actually follow the entirety of Kunis and Kutcher’s relationship through the two shows, as they shared their first kiss — and Kunis’ first kiss with anyone — while filming a scene.

“I remember Mila’s first kiss was Ashton,” actress Debra Jo Rupp, who plays Kitty Foreman, said in a behind-the-scenes video for That ’90s Show (which you can watch above). “I remember her coming to my dressing room when she had to do that and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, well, at least he’s cute.’ So, that’s good.” Kurtwood Smith (Red Forman) didn’t share his thoughts on their first kiss, but if he’s anything like Red, it would probably involve insults and bleeped words.

Here’s more on That ’90s Show:

It’s 1995 and Leia Forman is desperate for some adventure in her life or at least a best friend who isn’t her dad. When she arrives in Point Place to visit her grandparents, Red and Kitty, Leia finds what she’s looking for right next door when she meets the dynamic and rebellious Gwen. With the help of Gwen’s friends, including her lovable brother Nate, his smart, laser-focused girlfriend Nikki, the sarcastic and insightful Ozzie, and the charming Jay, Leia realizes adventure could happen there just like it did for her parents all those years ago. Excited to reinvent herself, she convinces her parents to let her stay for the summer. With a basement full of teens again, Kitty is happy the Forman house is now a home for a new generation and Red is, well… Red.

That ’90s Show premieres on Netflix on January 19, 2023.