It’s that time of the week again, when we grab the best smile-worthy content from the last seven days and deliver it in a nice little package so you don’t have to go searching for it.
Let’s be real. There’s a whole lot we could point to that sucks in the world. But that has always been the case, and it’s also always been true that there’s plenty of good in the world when we look for it.
I once heard someone say, “The grass is always greener where you water it.” If we want more goodness and positivity in the world, we need to place more energy there. That doesn’t mean we ignore problems that need fixing, but there’s wisdom in feeding and nurturing what you want to grow.
So let’s focus on some goodness right here as we celebrate awesome dads, hilarious kids, thoughtful mentors and animals that make us laugh. Enjoy this week’s roundup and share the smiles to spread some joy:
1. The way this man gets emotional when handing out Halloween candy.
It can be easy to take good things for granted. Seeing this guy’s wholesome emotional reaction to the tradition of trick-or-treating is a sweet reminder to revel in the joy of simple things.
2. The way this border collie painstakingly herds a group of ducklings into their puddle.
u201cA border collie gently guiding ducklings into a puddleu201d
Kids unintentionally telling on themselves is always funny, but this one is legendary. “I did not put butter in it.” OK, little one. Guess it’s just a mystery!
4. The way Steven Spielberg honored Drew Barrymore’s vivid imagination by keeping E.T. ‘real’ between takes.
u201cSteven Spielberg appointing 2 guys to ensure E.T. was always operating incase Drew Barrymore went over to talk to him has made my heart so full. What a menschu201d
Drew Barrymore had a famously rough childhood, and she has said the “E.T.” cast and crew really taught her the meaining of family. She and Steven Spielberg have been close since then and he has served as a loving father figure. The way he honored her imagination by keeping E.T. alive is just so sweet. Read the full story here.
5. The way this kid waxes rhapsodic about imagination being the basis for everything we have.
The motivational speaker you never knew you needed! #recesstherapy #viral #motivation
This was … should I say … adorable? What a delightfully thoughtful young man. I think he needs to give a TED Talk. Read the full story here.
6. The way this Indian village sounds a siren at 7 p.m. to remind people to turn off their devices and connect with one another.
All of us could use more unplugged time—and we know it—but it can be hard to disconnect. Love this idea of a whole community marking a specific time, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., for nondigital fun and bonding. Read the full story here.
7. The way this dad talks his daughter through her feelings during an upset moment.
Kier Gaines is an awesome dad who also happens to be a therapist. Definitely worth a follow to get great advice and see powerful examples of compassionate, effective parenting. Follow him on Instagram.
8. The way these lions don’t give a single hoot that they’re blocking traffic.
Hope that made you smile! Come back next week for another roundup of joy. And if you’d like these posts delivered to your inbox each week, sign up for the free Upworthiest newsletter.
Last week, Aubrey Plaza was walking around New York City as a witch, and we all just assumed that it was because of Halloween, since that would be the logical explanation. But then, it was announced that Plaza would be starring in the upcoming Marvel spinoffAgatha: Coven of Chaos, and then it all started making sense: Plaza is a method actor! Maybe not, but it is true that Plaza will star in the upcoming WandaVision spinoff that’s slated for next year.
WandaVision became a massive hit for Disney+, and while many praised Elizabeth Olsen’s gut-wrenching performance, the unexpected favorite was Kathryn Hahn’s nosy neighbor, Agnes. It’s later revealed that Agnes is really Agatha Harkness, a powerful Marvel witch who fled the Salem Witch Trials. At the end of WandaVision, Agatha is trapped by Wanda, though that surely can’t last long! Buffy alum Emma Caulfield Ford will return as Dottie, while Heartstopper’s Jon Locke will star in an undisclosed role.
As for who Plaza will play, the roles are top-secret, but she is expected to play some sort of villain, which means she might be teaming up with Agatha. Considering her history of playing dark and sarcastic anti-heroes, this would make the most logical sense. Plus, Hahn and Plaza have worked together before on Parks and Rec, so they have some solid history there.
The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.
ITEM NUMBER ONE – I cannot believe this exists but I am so happy it does
The important stuff here, boiled down to a concentrated goo of facts, goes something like this: Last week, Atlanta, currently in the middle of its final season, aired a standalone episode that featured none of the main cast and had nothing to do with anything that has happened to-date in this season or any other season of the show. It was just a 30-minute flight of fancy about the fictional history of A Goofy Movie, which, in the universe of the show, was the result of a young animator getting elevated to head of Disney by accident and setting out to create “the blackest movie ever made.” If that all sounds completely insane to you, there’s a pretty good reason for that: it was and is completely insane. But also, so good. Just extremely, wildly good. Maybe the best episode of television I’ve seen all year. Maybe the best episode of television I’ve ever seen. It’s probably too soon to make that second claim. I’ll need a little more distance before I feel comfortable saying it for sure. But it is a thought I had when I watched it that I’m still having a week later, so the ball is already rolling on this one.
I’m torn on how much else to say about it, at least plot-wise. I don’t want to step on any of the things it reveals piece-by-piece throughout the episode. That would not be fair to you or to the show, both of which deserve better. What I will say is that it is loaded with surprise appearances and twists you will never see coming and that you can watch this with fresh eyes even if you’ve never seen another episode of the show. It’s kind of like an episode of Documentary Now! in that way, which I say as one of the highest compliments I know how to give. Also, there’s this bit, which is set up by a discussion about how Goofy is technically a dog but still watches Mickey slap a leash into his dog, Pluto.
FXFXFX
Really just brilliant stuff, beginning to end.
I think my favorite thing about this episode is that it even exists at all. Think about what we have here. Think about all the moving parts. Atlanta, one of the best and most creative shows of the last decade or so, slammed on the brakes in the middle of its final season, with only a few hours left to wrap up its story, and yoinked the car off the road entirely so it could tell a fully separate alternate history of a children’s movie from 1995 that features zero members of its now-famous cast. That’s… that’s wild. It’s such a huge swing to take for no real reason other than “because it would be awesome,” which is the kind of thing I support with all of my heart. Chaos for the sake of chaos. Jokes for the sake of jokes. This is all terrific stuff.
It’s also a reminder that you can just kind of just do anything sometimes. It helps to have a good track record and a foundation of success at what you do, just so when you go to someone with your crazy idea they don’t kick you out of their office. But you always have the option to, like, try. It’s kind of depressing to realize we have this many shows on this many outlets and we are slowly teetering back into making thousands of hours of comfort food for our eyeballs instead of letting people try the weirdest stuff they can think of. And it’s kind of thrilling that Donald Glover and the beautiful maniacs who make this show decided to use the capital they’ve banked over three-plus seasons of television to cash in on a standalone half-hour about the weirdest thing they could think of. It’s almost inspirational in a way. Sometimes the only thing stopping you is the furthest limits of your own imagination. It’s good to remember that.
So, yes. Good for them. Good for all of them. Good for us, too, even if all we did was watch it. Which you should do if you haven’t. Today, if possible. Again, you can come into this one blind. You can be completely unfamiliar with Atlanta. You don’t even need to know who Donald Glover is, although you should. This is one of those special things that reminds you of everything television can be, which is a hell of a thing to say about something as silly as this is. I stand by it.
And if you don’t laugh at the sight gag at the very end, I… I don’t know. You need something in your life that I can’t provide. I hope you find it someday.
Maya Rudolph is the best. She’s the best now and has been the best for a while and I suspect she’ll be the best going forward into the foreseeable future. Watch her in a slew of old SNL sketches this weekend. Watch Big Mouth and hear her make a whole buffet dinner out of any number of sentences she delivers via voiceover in character as a sex-crazed hormone monstress. Watch her in Loot, a really fun Apple show we — me included — probably didn’t talk about enough when it came out. The woman rarely if ever misses. The best.
And when you watch all those things (spread them out a little if you have errands to run), you might notice something: Maya Rudolph has been on Hot Ones two separate times in character as someone else, but zero times as herself in real life. (One of them — from Loot — is at the top of this section.) And you should not expect that second number to change any time soon.
But anyone who sits down for an interview does have to eat the wings—or at least be game to try—which can make it a hard sell for certain people. After filming their Loot scene together, Evans says he invited Rudolph—who has actually spoofed the show twice, having previously played a hot wing-eating Beyoncé in a Saturday Night Live sketch—to appear on a future episode of Hot Ones. “She was like, ‘Sean I love you but there is no way in fuh-uck that I’m ever doing your show. I’m not eating those wings,’” Evans recalls, his voice getting high and sing-songy as he swears. “But I kind of like that we have that, that the only time Maya Rudolph does Hot Ones is when she’s doing fake Hot Ones.”
This brings us to yet another situation where two things can be true at the same time. In this case, those things are:
1. I do not think I would enjoy being on Hot Ones very much because, while I enjoy some spicy food, the stuff on the higher end of it all makes me feel miserable in about four different ways for hours, and if Maya Rudolph has a similar reaction I cannot fault her in any way for trying to avoid any part of it.
2. I enjoy both Hot Ones and Maya Rudolph quite a bit and would really like to watch this potential episode.
I don’t know. I’ll think about this some more. Right now I’m stuck somewhere between “Maya Rudolph has brought me a lot of enjoyment over the years and I want her to be happy and free from pain” and “I bet she would be hilarious as the pain receptors in her mouth and face liquefy her brain during an interview.”
I kind of do not have any idea what is happening here or why any of it is happening
I will still go see it in the theater anyway, mostly because there are worse ways to spend a weekend afternoon than staring at pretty colors on a massive screen for a few hours
I suspect I’m not the only person who feels this way
This movie is going to make an absurd amount of money
It would have been funny if they released the trailer and everyone found out this entire movie was just about a high-stakes basketball tournament where a bunch of blue creatures dunked on each other a lot
These are my thoughts on the Avatar trailer.
ITEM NUMBER FOUR – I would pay at least $10 for a standalone podcast episode where Quinta Brunson and Paul Rudd get drunk and talk about anything they want
ABC
The Hollywood Reporter has a big profile of Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson over at their site this week. It’s worth a read for a bunch of reasons, some of which can be filed under “Quinta Brunson seems cool and it’s pretty cool to see her succeed like this” and others of which can be filed under “she uses her show to makes lots of very Philly-specific references and nods to the local sports teams that I love very much and I point at the television and smile and shout each time like a marginally well-trained pet.” Both equally important in the grand scheme of things. To me. Go Birds.
Anyway, one particular section of the piece jumped out at me and I wanted to make sure you guys saw it, too. This section. The one I’m about to blockquote. Here…
You’ve said that a chance encounter with Paul Rudd inspired you to pursue comedy. Have you ever connected on this?
I saw Paul recently in New York. We talked about it briefly, but it was at a comedy club, and I was drunk, so I don’t even remember what we said. I know he knew about it and had told Seth [Rogen] that he didn’t remember. I didn’t expect him to! It was just him being nice to someone, and that makes a difference. You never know who you’re going to affect, just being chill and talking to them about the craft when they have a genuine interest.
There’s a lot of stuff in here that I really like a lot. There’s the thing about Paul Rudd apparently being almost exactly as cool as you’ve thought he was for like three decades now. There’s the thing about the good vibes from one seemingly unmemorable encounter causing a ripple effect years later that led to a fun television show that mentions my beloved Philadelphia Eagles sometimes. And there’s the thing about a drunk Quinta Brunson hanging out with Paul Rudd in a comedy club, which is something I had not considered before this week but have been thinking about a lot since.
This brings me to my point: I think I would like a podcast or televised talk show where fun and cool celebrities kick back and have some drinks and talk about whatever. Tell cool stories. Crack some jokes. My ideal version of this is just Quinta and Paul releasing a new episode every week, but I would start to worry about their livers after a while. I do want to hear that episode, though. Very much.
In conclusion: I like when people I like are friends and I like when I get confirmation that people I suspect are cool are actually, in fact, cool. Almost nothing to dislike about any of this. Except maybe the thing where that podcast doesn’t exist yet. I don’t know what’s taking so long. I suggested it a whole paragraph ago.
ITEM NUMBER FIVE – Good cameo
HBO
I have good news: The White Lotus is back. You might already know that. I hope you do. I wrote a whole thing about it. It’s a really good show. I’m glad Jennifer Coolidge is thriving.
A cool thing happened in the first episode, too. The short version, with as few spoilers as possible, goes like this: Michael Imperioli is playing a guy who is on vacation in Italy with his father and teenage son while going through a really rough patch with his wife for reasons that are not fully articulated yet but implied to involve him being kind of a putz. He has a brief phone conversation with her at one point in the premiere that consists mostly of her screaming and cussing at him. That’s a screencap of the scene up there. It was fun.
But maybe you saw that scene and thought, “Hmm, why does that voice sound familiar? Why does it feel like I do not ever want to disappoint that person? Why do I feel kind of ashamed even though I’m not the one getting yelled at?“ And if you did, well, there was a good reason for that, as confirmed by EW the day after the episode aired.
The season 2 premiere of The White Lotus on Sunday featured some surprise cameos from creator Mike White’s previous collaborators. You already know about the former Survivor: David vs. Goliath contestants who showed up in the opening minutes, but perhaps that voice on the phone later in the episode sounded familiar as well. Worry no longer: EW has confirmed that it was indeed Laura Dern who provided that profanity-filled bit of voice acting.
This is cool. It’s just really cool. I hope more shows do this. Get super weird with it. Have the phone ring in an episode of Hacks and have Jean Smart talk to some dude with a deep gravelly voice and let me think “Yo, is that Vin Diesel?” for a while and then talk myself out of it because it would be too strange and then open the internet the next morning and see a headline like “Yes, That Was Vin Diesel’s Voice On The Phone On Hacks” and shout “I FREAKING KNEW IT” out loud in a coffee shop with such unsettling intensity that a woman at the table next to me gets up a minute or two later and leaves without even finishing her latte.
That would be fun.
READER MAIL
If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.
From Dan:
I saw that Pierce Brosnan posted a picture on Instagram of himself standing in front of a Pablo Picasso painting and I opened up Twitter to tell you about it and when I got there I saw someone else had already sent it to you and you had retweeted them. Your brand is so strong. I wonder if Pierce realizes he’s become a meme for all thefts now. I hope you get to tell him some day.
Okay, some background, just in case you are not a sicko who follows me on Twitter: I do this thing where I see a story about a theft of anything — money, art, cheese, donuts — and then I post a picture of Pierce Brosnan with the story. I do this because I’ve seen Thomas Crown Affair 100 times and After the Sunset 50 times and because it makes me laugh a lot to picture some tuxedo-clad smooth criminal played by Pierce Brosnan making off with, say, $300,000 worth of tennis balls. The point here is that I’m an idiot.
And so, where Pierce posted the Instagram in question, embedded here…
… no fewer than five people alerted me to it. Which I love. It makes me happy. Please always do this. And do not tell Pierce about it. I will be so embarrassed if I ever meet him and he looks at me with disappointment in his eyes because of my various online tomfoolery. A real self-esteem heist, if you will.
Anyway, if I were a security guard in an art museum and Pierce Brosnan was walking around looking at priceless paintings, I would absolutely try to figure out how to get “Sinnerman” playing over the sound system. I would get fired immediately. It would be worth it.
Perhaps the greatest controversy in the history of the sport of cornhole unfolded in August at the 2022 American Cornhole League World Championships, in Rock Hill, S.C.
Was the No. 1 ranked doubles team using illegal beanbags?
CORNHOLE SCANDAL
With the cornhole world watching live on ESPN, officials inspected the bags with the solemnity required for such a grave complaint. Then they huddled near sponsor banners for Johnsonville sausage products and Bush’s baked beans.
It was true—the bags weren’t regulation size. “They’re too small,” color commentator Mark Pryor exclaimed to viewers. “That’s going to create some drama.”
I love it. I love it more than the scandals in Irish dancing and competitive fishing but maybe a little less than the scandal in chess, if only because that one may or may not have featured a high-tech cheating plan that involved vibrating anal beads and I don’t see how anything could ever top that.
But still.
Illegal beanbags!
Messrs. Lopez and Richards asked officials to check their opponents’ bags, too. Turns out, they weren’t compliant, either.
This now infamous incident is known to fans as BagGate and it has sparked a frenzy in the game that started in the backyard, enjoyed between swigs of beer.
Two things here: One, it says a lot about humans as a species that we are both capable of creating a million fun little activities to set off the pleasure receptors in our brains and also twisted enough that we immediately try to figure ways to cheat at those same activities in order to defeat or friends and/or enemies; and two, once again, I hope darts is next.
“I think it’s funny that anyone believed it would be all friendships and rose petals forever in cornhole,” wrote one commenter on the Addicted to Cornhole Facebook page, which has 85,000 members. “Now the dirty underbelly is being exposed.”
This is, maybe, the funniest paragraph I have ever seen. I will need to think about it some more. Which I will. A lot. But it’s definitely way up there.
“You have the average players that try everything to make the bag do different things,” says Nate Voyer, a cornhole professional who prefers to wash his bag with a little fabric softener and let it air dry.
He knows a player who lays plywood over his bag and drives a car over it. That crosses into a gray area in Mr. Voyer’s view because it could crush the resin beads into smaller pieces. Cornhole pros are generally good people, he adds, “but all it takes is one bad apple.”
Imagine you go outside today and you see your neighbor — an otherwise normal guy, maybe a bank manager who coaches his daughter’s soccer team and has cookouts where everyone swings by and grabs a hot dog — in his driveway backing over a sack of beanbags with his car and when you wave and ask him what he’s doing he looks at you with a deranged mania in his eyes and says “big cornhole tournament this weekend.”
This would stay with me a long time. Possibly all the way to the grave.
We live in the age of streaming. From shows to movies, live sports to video games – any and everything can be enjoyed at home if you’ve got the right set-up. And sure, things like surround sound speakers and cloud storage, and next-gen consoles all factor into creating the perfect home entertainment system, but the most important weapon in your binge-watching, game-playing arsenal is always your TV. It’s where the action explodes in full color, where great stories are translated, where worlds are built, and rivalries are hosted. It’s where friends and family gather to make memories. It’s an oasis of solitude and the perfect party co-host.
It is, at the risk of sounding cheesy, where the magic happens. This is why cutting corners when it comes to finding the right TV for you just doesn’t make sense. So, what should you be looking for when it comes to selecting the best TV for your needs? We’ve got a few tips and a few purchase options courtesy of LG and Best Buy.
1. Size
Your screen size needs depend on a few things – the amount of space in whatever room you’re fitting it for, outside factors like the amount of light and noise it will have to filter, whether you’re buying for yourself or your family, etc. But a screen doesn’t need to span the entire length of your living room to be worth a look.
2. Features
Size isn’t all that matters. These days, a TV has more features than just a built-in speaker system and a smart remote. Picture quality, OLED and LED, streaming apps, voice-activated search, AI-powered picture toning, and multiple processing speeds are all on the table when it comes to the hottest TVs on the market and can be the difference between enjoying the latest episode of TV’s buzziest shows or being literally left in the dark. It’s important to consider the bells and whistles that can help separate a great TV from one that’s simply… fine.
3. You
The final thing to remember when looking to level up your entertainment set-up is, well, you. What do you really need from a new TV? Are you going to be using it to binge-watch streaming favorites or as the focal point when you invite friends over for a Friday night movie? Are you going to spend hours in front of your TV with a controller in your hand or watching football? Keeping your unique needs in mind when sifting through all of these cool features and cutting-edge tech can help to narrow down your options and ensure you walk away with a TV that fits your needs as well as your budget.
Here are a couple of options to get you started in your search, courtesy of LG and Best Buy.
LED TV Brilliance
The LG QNED 80UQA series spans multiple sizes including the sweeping 65″ model that brings the promise of Quantum Dot and NanoCell color technology. “Ok, cool,” you’re probably thinking. “What does that mean?” In short, it means richer, more accurate colors for a beautiful picture every time. Pair that vibrant 4K picture with an AI processor that automatically adjusts your screen to fit any kind of action — from the winning play during the big game to the breathtaking filmography of the latest award-winning blockbuster, and you’ve got a great option for movie lovers, gamers and sports fans.
It’s not just OLED. It’s LG OLED.
The LG OLED B2PUA series also comes in a variety of sizes including the powerful 55″ model. OLED represents the cutting edge when it comes to smart TVs because it uses self-lit pixels — unlike the standard LED tech found in most TVs right now — which guarantees infinite color contrast and perfect black. Why is that a big deal? Because dimly-lit scenes are going to be a thing of the past, which is good news for binge-watchers and game players alike. Speaking of, the combo of G-SYNC, FreeSync Premium, and VRR plus the LG Game Optimizer and multiple HDMI ports mean you’ll get to stay in the action as a gamer with lifelike play, access to a massive catalog of titles, and greater control over how you game.
Once again, these LG TVs can be found at your local Best Buy or by clicking these links to go directly to their product pages.
Dan Crenshaw is once again throwing his fellow Republicans under the bus by refusing to go along with Donald Trump’s “Big Lie.” This time around, Crenshaw revealed that not even the most diehard MAGA politicians believe that Trump actually won, but that hasn’t stopped them from saying so publicly.
“It was always a lie. The whole thing was always a lie. And it was a lie meant to rile people up,” the Texas congressman said on the latest episode of his podcast. After reiterating his anger at his fellow Republicans for making false promises of overturning the Electoral College (“There’s not even a process for you to do that. It doesn’t even exist.”), Crenshaw shared that he challenged the “rabble-rousers” behind closed doors. What they told him made him even more angry.
But even just the others, they’re like, ‘Yeah, we know that, but we just, you know, people just need their last hurrah. Like, they just need to feel like we fought one last time. Trust me, it’ll be fine.’ And I was like, ‘No, it won’t. That’s not what people believe and that’s not what you’re telling them. And maybe you’re smart enough to know that but like …’ So we have a lot of people in the political world that are just willing to say things they know aren’t true, they know aren’t true. It’s a huge manipulation.
To Crenshaw’s credit, he is one of the few Republicans willing to publicly state that Trump lost to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. That hasn’t always worked out well for him though. During a GOP event in August 2021, he was heckled by a MAGA crowd after he refused to say the election was stolen and mocked a recent audit in Arizona. The crowd turned on Crenshaw as he chided them for actually believing Trump’s lies.
“Five different states? Hundreds of thousands of votes? You’re kidding yourself,” Crenshaw said before footage of the event cut off.
Neil Gaiman is currently riding high regarding news about The Sandman‘s renewal on Netflix. He’s previously shown that he quite enjoys dealing with trolls with one practical strategy: “Keep them talking until sunrise.” God only knows that Neil has gotten enough practice lately, since he already had to tell anti-wokers that he didn’t write Amazon’s Lord of the Rings.
In addition, Gaiman began the Netflix The Sandman saga by saying that he gave no f*cks about the minuscule backlash over diverse casting on the show. And whaddya know, the series is a momentous success, particularly (and I am partial here) when it comes to the Death character (portrayed by Kirby Howell-Baptiste), who so warmly bounces off Tom Sturridge’s Dream. Did we mention that the show sat atop the global streaming charts for several weeks? It did, but Neil needed to deal with another troll, who is apparently so happy at the prospect of this show going down the tubes.
The person did not enjoy the battle between Lucifer and Morpheus and all the so-called “agenda” stuff. From there, they unoriginally declared, “[S]o that’s why it will get cancelled! Go Woke Go Broke! AMEN!”
To which Neil tweeted, “I’m sorry. I drifted off. Did Sandman get cancelled, then?”
Last week, Cabo was cracking for Halloween Weekend. To celebrate its 10-Year Anniversary, the Uproxx Fall Travel Hot List featured Hotel El Ganzo’s entire property was taken over by a tsunami of music, beach parties, wellness activities, art installations, and tons of great food. As an eco-focused, B Corp Certified patron of local art, it’s no wonder the community turned up for this unique Día De Los Muertos meets Halloween meets Burning Man 2.0 extravaganza.
Overlooking the Marina of San José Del Cabo, Hotel El Gonzo is based on a foundation of art and culture. There’s a full gallery and literally an in-house recording studio below the lobby. And this celebration, Ganzo X, hoisted this artistic fervor up on full display. Headlining the main music event were Texas musical trio Khruangbin, Quantic (AKA Will Holland), Carribean-inspired Pachyman, the Kinshasa-bred stars and ambassadors of Congolese music Jupiter & Okwess.
A great diversity of music, dance, costumes, meditation, artwork, markets, after-parties, and relaxation made this celebration truly something special. Get a sense for the weekend (and perhaps be filled with FOMO) down below!
I’m not going to say pop star Harry Styles is a terrible actor; he’s not. Mostly he’s perfectly adequate at saying the lines in the script convincingly enough that it doesn’t take you out of the story or make you think “jeez, this guy sucks.” Mostly you think, “Eh, he’s fine.”
However, My Policeman, Styles’ latest film in which he plays a gay policeman in 1950s Britain, is the kind of movie that normally stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, young up-and-comers at the top of their game. Aside from the fact that this maudlin weepy about tragic gays is at least 15 years past its sell-by date, it needs an actor who can do more than just adequately deliver the lines on the page. Considering it’s largely a story of repressed people yearning, pining, lusting, regretting… etc — I would argue that most of its appeal rests on that which isn’t on the page. If I squint to imagine the movie My Policeman could be and not the movie that it is, it’s an actor’s showcase. And Harry Styles isn’t an actor, at least not yet.
The opening frame is set in early nineties-ish Sussex, where silver foxes Marion and Tom (Gina McKee and Linus Roache) are arguing about Marion’s decision to become caretaker for stroke victim Patrick, played Rupert Everett in full lookin’-old-for-the-accolades mode. Tom is upset about Patrick being in the house and says Marion doesn’t owe him anything. Raising the obvious question, what’s the deal with their whole relationship?
Luckily there’s a flashback for that, starring Harry Styles as Young Tom, David Dawson as Young Patrick, and Emma Corrin as Young Marion. Young Tom, a cub policeman, proposes to Young Marion, even though he’s also in a sort of ambiguous relationship with Young Patrick, a slightly less young museum curator. Is Tom and Marion’s marriage a closeted man’s marriage of convenience, and who does it end up hurting?
The irony is that My Policeman itself is something of a marriage of convenience. I doubt the filmmakers (director Michael Grandage and writer Ron Nyswaner, adapting from the 2012 novel by Bethan Roberts) wanted Harry Styles because they thought he was a brilliant actor who’d be the best choice for the role. Probably it was more that he was an international pop star with a level of fame that made getting the movie financed feasible. For Styles, who has been known to be photographed wearing women’s clothes and has been accused of exploiting “queer” aesthetics, he gets to further his sort of pansexual, love-is-love public persona by playing a gay man. Which is to say: these were all economic decisions. They were career decisions. It doesn’t strike you that either party undertook this relationship because they thought it would make for a better movie. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t.
There’s a pivotal scene in My Policeman when Tom, who spends the movie mostly lying and dissembling to everyone, especially himself, finally comes clean to his wife about his gay relationship. It’s the kind of scene that, in the context of this (honestly kinda dull) movie, should land like a cymbal crash. It’s clearly intended to be a kind of crescendo, and while Styles doesn’t drastically underact it, and could never be accused of overacting it, as it mostly lands with all the gravity of a scone on tea plate. It’s just sort of there. It’s not a disaster, it’s just kind of banal and not noteworthy.
All that said, that My Policeman doesn’t work because of Styles is not entirely true. It’s locked into a depiction of being tragically gay in a time that wouldn’t allow it, with all the tears, bigotry, brutality, and repressed feelings that entails, which feels very of a time. My Policeman does precious little exploring of the joyful side of this unconventional three-way relationship and lots of wallowing in the sadness of it all. And if I’m going to wallow, I’d at least like to have it feel like a fresh wallow. I never like to repeat a wallow. And My Policeman feels decidedly like an echo of wallows past.
‘My Policeman’ is available in theaters now and globally on Amazon Prime November 4th.Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can read more of his reviews here.
Sometimes it seems like there are too many IPAs on the market. This is especially true if you’re one of those drinkers who doesn’t fully embrace the resinous, dank, piney, and sometimes aggressively bitter nature of this iconic beer style (and all of its various offshoots). But the glut of IPA choices at breweries from Tacoma to Tampa means that no matter where you go, there’s always an IPA to be found. Many are regional IPAs only found near their home bases throughout the country but there are also widely available, flavorful IPAs that can be purchased just about anywhere.
Today, we’re talking about “grocery store” IPAs. These are the IPAs from bigger names that you (likely) can find at any grocery store, beer store, or anywhere that sells beer wherever you live. But I didn’t just make a list ranking my favorites. I selected eight well-known, easy-to-find IPAs and blindly nose, tasted, and ranked them.
Keep scrolling to see how everything turned out.
Here’s the list:
Cigar City Jai Alai
Bell’s Two-Hearted
Lagunitas IPA
Firestone Walker Union Jack
Bear Republic Racer 5
Stone IPA
Goose Island IPA
Ballast Point Sculpin
Part 1: The Taste
Taste 1
Christopher Osburn
Tasting Notes:
Citrus peels, lemon zest, caramel, biscuit-like malts, and dank, resinous pine are highlighted on this beer’s nose. The palate continues this trend with cereal grains, caramel, dried fruits, lemon peels, tangerine, grapefruit, and dank, herbal, slightly bitter pine. Overall, this is a very well-balanced IPA.
Taste 2
Christopher Osburn
Tasting Notes:
The nose is over-the-top citrus peels and floral, piney hops, and really nothing else. I really tried, but that’s all I could focus on. The palate has some grapefruit, pineapple, and other tropical fruit flavors, but it’s really overpowered by aggressively bitter, piney hops.
I enjoy hops, but this was just too much.
Taste 3
Christopher Osburn
Tasting Notes:
This beer starts off with a nose loaded with complex aromas of lemongrass, orange peels, bread-like malts, caramel, tropical fruits, and bright pine needles. The palate is filled with flavors like caramelized pineapple, tangerine, grapefruit, caramel malts, and bitter, piney, resinous hops.
The finish is slightly sweet with a lingering, piney bitterness.
Taste 4
Christopher Osburn
Tasting Notes:
The nose is filled with aromas of fresh-cut grass, tropical fruits, citrus peels, biscuit-like malts, caramel, and earthy, piney hops. The palate is a mix of caramel, biscuit malts, tart grapefruit, mango, tangerine, wet grass, and slightly bitter, and dank pine needles. The finish is a great mix of malt sweetness and hop bitterness.
Taste 5
Christopher Osburn
Tasting Notes:
A nose of wet grass, citrus peels, light caramel malts, and herbal, piney hops greets you prior to your first sip. Drinking it reveals some bread-like malts, light caramel, citrus, fresh-cut grass, and a ton of dank pine. The finish is dry and overly bitter. It kind of cancels out the other flavors.
Taste 6
Christopher Osburn
Tasting Notes:
The nose is fairly intense even though I could only find ripe grapefruit, sweet malts, lemon zest, and dank pine. The palate is tropical fruits, citrus peels, cereal grains, and bright, bitter, piney, herbal hops at the finish. While the hops are fairly aggressive, the other flavors still shine through.
Although… everything here has a bit of a synthetic flavor.
Taste 7
Christopher Osburn
Tasting Notes:
This beer starts with fairly generic IPA aromas of caramel malts, citrus zest, and pine needles. Really, that’s it. The palate is bready, caramel malts up front with tangerine and grapefruit making an appearance. The finish is a mix of malts and bitter, piney, dank hops. It’s a decent IPA, but the bitter hops are slightly out of balance.
Taste 8
Christopher Osburn
Tasting Notes:
On the nose, I found tangerine, grapefruit, caramelized pineapple, sweet malts, and pine needles. This trend continued on the palate with more grapefruit, tart orange, cereal grains, caramel malts, and bold, bitter, slightly floral hops. It’s bitter, and citrus-laden, but tempered well with sweet malts.
Named for a spiny fish, this popular IPA from San Diego’s Ballast Point is known for its mix of tropical fruit flavors, bright citrus, and a floral, piney, bitter sting of hops at the finish. It gets its unique flavor profile from being hopped at five different times during the brewing process.
Bottom Line:
Ballast Point Sculpin is one of the highest-rated IPAs on the market and, to me, it’s just too abrasively bitter. It overpowers everything else in my opinion.
Nowadays, many drinkers mostly know Goose Island because of its highly coveted Bourbon County Stout. But the Chicago-based brewery also makes myriad other beers including a popular IPA. This award-winning, 5.9% ABV IPA is Goose Island’s twist on the classic English-style IPA.
Bottom Line:
Goose Island’s IPA suffers the same problem as many well-known IPAs. The finish is so dry, piney, and bitter that it mutes all of the other flavors.
One of the most well-known IPAs in America, Lagunitas IPA is brewed with Caramel malts as well as Centennial, Chinook, Cascade, and Simcoe hops. It’s known for its mix of sweet malts and piney, floral hops.
Bottom Line:
Lagunitas IPA is a popular beer for a reason. In a world of overly bitter, aggressive IPAs, it’s… borderline balanced. It still leans a little too heavily into the bitter-hop domain for me, though.
There are very few IPAs more popular than Stone IPA. First brewed in 1997, it’s known for its malt backbone and mix of citrus, tropical fruits, and pine. The hops included are Centennial, Magnum, Chinook, Azacca, Ella, Vic Secret, and Calypso hops.
Bottom Line:
It’s no surprise that Stone IPA is a popular beer. It has everything IPA fans could want. The only downfall is that it all tastes rather generic.
If you polled brewers and bartenders on their favorite easy-to-find IPA, you’d get a lot of people saying Bell’s Two Hearted. This popular, widely available IPA is brewed and dry-hopped with Centennial hops. This 7% ABV year-round beer is known for its mix of pine, citrus, and malts.
Bottom Line:
While many popular IPAs (especially West Coast IPAs) lean almost aggressively bitter, Bell’s Two Hearted has the bitterness IPA fans enjoy, but it’s tempered well with malts.
This popular West Coast IPA from the folks at California’s Firestone Walker is kettle brewed with CTZ, Cascade, and Centennial hops before being dry-hopped with Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe, Citra, Amarillo, Chinook. That’s a lot of hops.
Bottom Line:
This is a beer for hop fans. It’s loaded with hop aroma and bright, floral, dank, pine flavor. It’s not one-sided though. A very well-balanced beer.
If you think football is violent, you should check out Jai Alai. This rowdy sport is one of the most violent in the world. It also happens to be popular in Tampa, Florida where Cigar City is brewed. That’s why this popular brewery named its now iconic, well-balanced, citrus-filled IPA for the sport.
Bottom Line:
There are few easy-to-find IPAs more balanced than Cigar City Jai Alai. Sure, it’s a pine and citrus bomb with a good deal of bitterness, but it also has a ton of sweet malt flavor.
This award-winning West Coast IPA is brewed with house ale yeast, pale barley malt, white wheat malt, and crystal malt. It gets its bright, vibrant hop profile from the addition of Columbus, Chinook, Cascade, and Centennial hops.
Bottom Line:
This IPA deserves all of the awards it receives. It starts off with a ton of malt flavor, but it has the characteristics of a classic West Coast IPA. It’s filled with citrus, tropical fruit, and bitter pine flavors.
Part 3: Final Thoughts
While I won’t fault you very enjoying your lip-puckering, overly bitter IPAs without much else, those aren’t for me. Clearly, I prefer a well-balanced IPA with citrus, tropical fruits, dank pine, nice bitterness, but also a good malty backbone. Semi-sweet is where it’s at.
A nice balance between caramel sweetness and resinous pine bitterness — and if you vibe with that, the top three are certainly going to be for you!
When Tenci‘s Jess Shoman describes the band’s music as “unconventional,” she’s not wrong. Since releasing their 2020 debut album My Heart Is An Open Field, Tenci have been releasing some of the most unique and endearing music in indie rock. The band first captured hearts with Shoman’s distinct vocals; her husky lilt adds dimension to the band’s light and flowing instrumentals. But now as Tenci prepares their sophomore LP A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing, the band — composed of Shoman on vocals, Curtis Oren on saxophone and guitar, Izzy Reidy on bass, and Joseph Farago on drums — are ready to bring their refined songwriting to the masses.
Tenci are more than just a “hot cute fun band from Chicago” as described in their Instagram bio. The four-piece have revamped heartland Americana for a new generation. The upcoming A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing — out Friday on Keeled Scales — weaves Shoman’s poetic observations on nature, rebirth, and memory into 12 heart-tugging tracks.
Ahead of their sophomore album’s release, Tenci sat down with Uproxx to talk jumpsuits, John Prine, and stick and poke tattoos in our latest Q&A.
What are four words you would use to describe your music? Shoman: Emotional, vibrant, spacious, unconventional.
It’s 2050 and the world hasn’t ended and people are still listening to your music. How would you like it to be remembered? Shoman: A beautiful, winding, vivid story. An honest archive of memories and life.
What’s your favorite city in the world to perform? Shoman: Chicago! There’s no place like home.
Who’s the person who has most inspired your work, and why? Shoman: Mother nature.
Where did you eat the best meal of your life? Oren: My friend’s living room.
What album do you know every word to? Oren:What It Takes To Be A Man by Nora Petran.
What was the best concert you’ve ever attended? Shoman: Aldous Harding at The Empty Bottle in 2017. I had to step outside because I was so overwhelmed with emotion.
What is the best outfit for performing and why? Reidy: Best outfit for performing is a jumpsuit because it’s a whole outfit in one piece of clothing no need for multiple sartorial decisions.
Who’s your favorite person to follow on Twitter and/or Instagram? Farago: For the longest time I didn’t have a Twitter account, but I would Google search Patti Harrison’s Twitter and read it from top to bottom like a novel. She’s got plenty of antics besides her iconic impersonation of Sia on the Nilla Wafers account that got her banned from the platform.
What’s your most frequently played song in the van on tour? Shoman: I think every tour so far I’ve listened to Aqua’s Aquarium.
What’s the last thing you Googled? Reidy: Last thing I Googled was “Lund surk bandcamp” which is the name of someone I met at a show the other night — it’s cool check it out.
What album makes for the perfect gift? Shoman: My friend Mia recently gifted me Prime Prine: The Best of John Prine and that is perfect to me.
Where’s the weirdest place you’ve ever crashed while on tour? Oren: I slept in my car at a state park in northwest Pennsylvania and got woken up in the middle of the night by a dozen men in camo with flashlights frantically running around looking for something.
What’s the story behind your first or favorite tattoo? Reidy: A lot of my favorite tattoos are from when I first moved back to Chicago a few years ago. I was getting into doing stick and pokes and was hanging out with this group of artists all the time at my friend’s apartment/tattoo shop. It was such a nice experience — hanging out and drawing all night, getting tattoos more or less at random. I look at them and remember that time fondly even though I don’t see those people very often lately.
What artists keep you from flipping the channel on the radio? Farago: Roddy Ricch has some of my favorite hooks in pop music right now, so whenever he comes up I refuse to switch the station.
What’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you? Shoman: Anytime my friends bring me a treat or check in on me when I’m feeling down I feel so loved and cared for. Well before me and my partner started dating he spontaneously brought me flowers to cheer me up and I cried. I still think about that often and remember feeling like it was the nicest thing anyone had ever done even though it was a simple and kind gesture.
What’s one piece of advice you’d go back in time to give to your 18-year-old self? Reidy: For some reason the idea of trying to council myself out of my mistakes is terrifying to me despite this being completely hypothetical. I experienced a great deal of pain at that age, but I’m pretty attached to the stuff I learned. The things I would say to an 18 year old generally would be: Be nice to yourself, get into therapy, and don’t go to college right out of high school.
What’s the last show you went to? Farago: Moontype, Joshua Virtue, and NNAMDÏ for NNAMDÏ’s latest LP release. Three incredible Chicago musicians, great energy, amazing stage presence, the Midwest is a dream!
What movie can you not resist watching when it’s on TV? Farago: Probably Pokémon 2000.
What’s one of your hidden talents? Oren: Finding photographic evidence of a memory.
A Swollen River, A Well Overflowing is out 11/4 via Keeled Scales. Pre-order it here.
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