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Multiple times per week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts and ratings) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

10: (TIE) Spencer (NEON movie on Hulu)

The world underestimated Kristen Stewart back in her Twilight era, and she’s showing us all with that Oscar nomination and, even more importantly, a gutsy attitude that pushed her to accept this project in the first place. Likewise, director Pablo Larraín took the same approach here as he did while helming Natalie Portman’s turn as Jackie O. The intention here isn’t to be a carbon copy of the subject matter. Rather, it’s to be faithful to the spirit of Princess Di’s secret anguish, and Stewart nails this project (including that hand-washing scene, which still freaks me out).

10: (TIE) Bel-Air (Peacock series)

Will Smith isn’t in this reboot, but he executive produces, so he’s definitely onboard from the creative aspect. The good news is that this show feels committed to proving its worth and its different objectives from the original. So goodbye, Carlton Dance, and hello darker vibes but ultimately warmth-affirming actions. Amid a sea of revivals and resurrections, all reboots face an uphill battle, but we’ll see if this one can mine nostalgia just right and be an exception to the derivative rule.

9. The Woman in the House Across the Street From the Girl in the Window (Netflix series)

If you haven’t had the pleasure yet of ignoring the snootiest critics and enjoying this guilty pleasure of dark comedy, hop onboard and prepare for a completely bonkers finale. You’ve undoubtedly heard of at least a few of this show’s inspirations, but this satirical turn both celebrates and damns the whole genre, including all of the pluses and minuses. It’s wine-soaked and nuts, man.

8. Jeen-Yus (Netflix docuseries)

So, Kanye’s had an interesting few months of a personal life, which is incredibly unsavory regarding his behavior, but he’s also got this streaming documentary that intends to chart his unlikely rise as an artist and (in his wording) a “genius.” The personal’s definitely overriding the professional shades here, but at least this selection is entertaining. Please, let this guy chill out a little bit and focus on the work. That’s where he really shines.

7. The Power of the Dog (Netflix film)

Oscar nominations all around for this film, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch’s a sinister, charismatic rancher who’s menacing side comes out in accordance with his own insecurities and toxic masculinity. He terrorizes his sister-in-law and her son, and both Jesse Plemons and Kristen Dunst won acting nominations along with Cumberbatch himself. Director Jane Campion earned accolades as well, so catch up on this one soon.

6. Pam & Tommy (Hulu series)

Pam & Tommy put a certain 1990s band (that few people remember) on blast last week, and you gotta tune in for the further excess and outrage. It’s an irresistibly trashy show that revels in the best and worst of the 1990s while never avoiding the tough issues, including consent and misogyny. The makeup and hair teams killed it, Jason Mantzoukas killed it while voicing an animatronic penis, and of course, the stars of this thing killed it. Lily James had no right to do as well as she did as Pamela Anderson, and Sebastian Stan really went for it as Tommy Lee. And Seth Rogen with a mullet? Sold.

5. Inventing Anna (Netflix limited series)

Following her latest Emmy-worthy turn on Ozark, Julia Garner cannot stop, even as a straight-up leading lady. Here, she portrays the ultimate con-woman who fools the highest of the high, as inspired by Jessica Pressler’s New York Magazine article. You’ll be enthralled and infuriated, and most of all, you won’t be able to stop watching.

4. Severance (Apple TV+ series)

Work-life balance: what’s up with that? Many of us can’t conceive of separating the two, and this show takes a real swing at the entire concept from the mind of Ben Stiller. Please let some Blue Steel eventually make a cameo, but first and foremost, terminally frustrated Adam Scott and the always fabulous Patricia Arquette are putting this thriller series on for you in an onscreen capacity. Wait for the Christopher Walken entrance.

3. Euphoria (HBO series on HBO Max)

We’re closing in on season finale time, and it’s not looking positive for anyone on this show. From Zendaya’s Rue, who’s inching towards rehab to the characters warring over a sex tape, there’s a plethora of theories to mull over, and hopefully, you’ll enjoy at least a few of the musical entrances while everyone stares down what will come next.

2. Peacemaker (HBO Max series)

Yep, this show formally ended the season last week, but in the process, the James Gunn-penned project opened up several connections to the DCEU at large. God only knows how this pandemic-boredom-borne project ended up tying so many threads together, but we can maybe put it all down to those dances. And that adorable Eagly.

1. The Righteous Gemstones (HBO series on HBO Max)

Alright, this one technically airs on HBO, but HBO Max is streaming this selection, and they are gearing up for evangelical finale time. You can’t resist the hallelujahs or even stop thinking about throwing dollars, so don’t even try to resist. In the meantime, the cast won’t stop. Obviously, John Goodman’s patriarch is there to demand focus, but Edi Patterson’s Judy Gemstone is truly my jam, and no one can resist Walton Goggins acting his butt off as Baby Billy. If you’re really itching for trouble, put that pickle where it counts and catch up on this volcano of a hot mess.

There once was a time when Drake and The Weekend didn’t appear to be on good terms. Two of the biggest stars from Toronto, Drake brought The Weeknd along into his OVOXO collective over a decade ago. While Drake effectively silenced any talk of a beef with his freestyle in the late-2019 track “War,” we got a pretty good idea of where they stand after Drake’s heartfelt toast at The Weeknd’s 32nd birthday party this past weekend in Las Vegas.

“I was there from day one and I’m grateful not only to be here with my brothers but just grateful that the family is back together where we belong from the greatest city in the world,” Drake said, in a moment DJ Akademiks shared on Instagram.

There were a lot of other moments captured at the party, including a clip of The Weeknd grabbing a mic to sing a long to “Get Busy” by surging Portland rapper Yeat. Also, what’s a party in Vegas without gambling? Future was in the mix as well and he ceased the moment to spark a blunt while playing blackjack with The Weeknd.

Following the birthday celebration, The Weeknd announced earlier today that a live TV special entitled The Weeknd x The Dawn FM Experience will be coming to Amazon Prime Video this Friday, February 26th.

The Black Panther wing of the MCU has Letitia Wright, who denied reports that she was spreading anti-vaccine views on set. Meanwhile, the Ant-Man section has its own COVID skeptic. Evangeline Lilly, who plays Hope van Dyne, aka Wasp, recently bragged that she attended an anti-vax mandate rally in D.C. Now the actress is begging Canadian prime minster Justin Trudeau to sit down with the protesting truckers who’ve been blocking the nation’s cities.

In a video recorded for Bridge City News, a Canadian news show that airs on a Christian network, Lilly read a scripted plea to Trudeau. “I want to speak to you today about your current approach to and current treatment of our fellow Canadians who are protesting your federal vaccine mandates,” she said. “They have asked to meet with you, prime minister, medical experts, top scientists, doctors, nurses, parents, grandparents, intelligent, loving, concerned citizens.”

She then asked, “Why won’t you sit with them?”, asking him to “listen to what they have to say with a mind open to hearing things that might go against the ideas you are entrenched in.” She added, “What we need right now from our leadership is unification, and that requires being willing to see, recognize and hear from the people sitting out in the cold at your door.”

Last week, after a month of protests across the nation — with calls to do the same thing in America and elsewhere — Trudeau declared a national emergency to clear the truckers from cities. “We cannot and will not allow illegal and dangerous activities to continue,” he told the nation.

Lilly has always been skeptical of the pandemic’s severity. In mid-March of 2020, mere days after much of America went into quarantine, Lilly wrote it off as a “respiratory flu” and revealed that she was going to ignore public health warnings and refrain from social distancing. When she revealed that she’d attended said anti-vax rally, some of her MCU colleagues seemed to call her out, if not by name. Simu Liu tweeted about losing his grandparents to COVID, while David Dastmalchian, Lilly’s Ant-Man series colleague, wrote, “It’s so unfortunate when people with a large platform use that platform to share irresponsible things.”

(Via The Wrap)

Dave Grohl has had an amazing career so far, as he’s been playing music professionally for decades now while becoming one of the most beloved and esteemed people in his field. It’s not all perfect, though, as it turns out the Foo Fighters leader, like many long-running rockers before him, is dealing with hearing loss.

Grohl spoke about it on The Howard Stern Show recently, saying the hearing in his left ear is worse than in his right. He then explained how his hearing is worse in some scenarios than in others, saying:

“When we go in to make a record and we’re mixing an album, dude, I can hear the slightest little things. My ears are still tuned in to certain frequencies and if I hear something that’s slightly out of tune or a cymbal that’s not bright enough or something like that… In the mix, I can f*cking hear the minutiae of everything that he had done to that song. I really can.

That being said, if you were sitting next to me right here at dinner, I wouldn’t understand a f*cking word you were saying to me the whole f*ckin’ time. There’s no way. In a crowded restaurant, that’s the worst. That’s the worst thing about this pandemic sh*t, is people wearing masks. I’ve been reading lips for, like, 20 years, so when someone comes up to me and they’re like, ‘[mumbles],’ I’m like, ‘I’m a rock musician, I’m f*cking deaf, I can’t hear a word you’re saying.’”

Check out the interview clip above.

In late 2021, Earthgang declared their next album, Ghetto Gods, would be released on January 28, 2022. That date has come and gone and Ghetto Gods is not yet out. Now, though, the duo has revealed the album art while also declaring the album is set for this Friday, February 25.

Earthgang also shared a new song, the Musiq Soulchild-featuring “Amen,” which, predictably given its title, has a gospel influence, especially towards the start of the track, before a hip-hop sound comes more directly to the forefront of the song’s focus.

In a new Rolling Stone interview, WowGr8 says the album represents “motherf*cking absolute certainty” and Olu says, “We realized that the energy of these songs is what we want to go towards. Then, once we started listening back to the records, we were seeing this underlying theme about the present moment. We was like, ‘OK, we’re talking about us finding our light in this wild-ass situation.’” Olu also noted, “We’re so creative, and we have so many great ideas and so many great stories to tell. We feel like it would be to our betterment that we put it in forms where people are able to digest it.”

Listen to “Amen” above.

Ghetto Gods is out 2/25 via Dreamville/Interscope. Pre-order it here.

Keeping up with new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Jack Harlow have a busy few days and Kid Cudi pop up with a collaboration. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

For more music recommendations, check out our Listen To This section, as well as our Indie Mixtape and Pop Life newsletters.

Jack Harlow — “Nail Tech”

Jack Harlow had a big weekend: The rapper played at the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game (and put together a solid little highlight reel while doing so), and before that, he dropped “Nail Tech,” his first single of the year. Harlow became quite the success with his 2020 debut album That’s What They All Say, and he spends time on the track reflecting on his prosperity.

DDG — “Elon Musk” Feat. Gunna

Speaking of All-Star Weekend participants, Gunna (who joined a high-profile crew for a performance on Saturday) hopped on a new track from up-and-comer DDG. The song is “Elon Musk,” and on it, the rappers reckon it’d be pretty cool to be as wealthy as the titular billionaire.

Nilüfer Yanya — “Anotherlife”

We’re now just days away from Painless, and emerging indie favorite Nilüfer Yanya popped up last week with another preview of the upcoming LP, “Anotherlife.” Uproxx’s Adrian Spinelli says of the song, “It’s a breezy groove, showcasing the seemingly infinite combination of sounds that she employs on the axe.”

Kid Cudi and Nigo — “Want It Bad”

At the end of a week during which the Kid Cudi news cycle was mostly focused on beef, it was nice to wrap up with some actual music. The song is “Want It Bad,” a collaboration with Nigo that falls on the more psychedelic and synth-driven side of Cudi’s oeuvre.

J Balvin — “Niño Soñador”

Balvin is on a hot streak that’s seen him drop a full-length project every year since 2018. It remains to be seen if we’ll get a 2022 album, but he’s certainly got new material to share, as he dropped the tender single “Niño Soñador.”

Khruangbin and Leon Bridges — “Mariella”

After delivering one of 2020’s best collaborative EPs with Texas Sun, Khruangbin and Leon Bridges reunited last week for another batch of tunes, Texas Moon. The five-track effort concludes with “Mariella,” which is about as close as Bridges has gotten to a lullaby, with comforting instrumentation that makes your eyelids feel satisfyingly heavy.

Vince Staples — “Magic” Feat. Mustard

Vince Staples has a new album, Ramona Park Broke My Heart, on the way, and while a tracklist hasn’t been unveiled yet, it seems last week’s “Magic” is the first single.” Uproxx’s Aaron Williams says of the track, “‘Magic’ features a Mustard-standard, post-hyphy beat that gives Vince plenty of real estate to sprawl out and once again explain his Long Beach-bred point of view.”

Tame Impala — “The Boat I Row”

Kevin Parker dropped his latest Tame Impala album, The Slow Rush, back in February 2020, meaning we’re already two years removed from the LP. He marked the occasion last week with The Slow Rush B-Sides & Remixes, which includes such highlights as “The Boat I Row,” a hazy B-side that would have sounded right at home on the album proper.

Baby Tate — “S.L.O. (Slut Him Out)”

Some people are looking for love. As for Baby Tate, she’s more into lust these days, at least going by the lyrics on her latest single, “S.L.O. (Slut Him Out).” The track has a simple and hard-hitting beat over which the rapper proclaims she plans to do a bevy of head-turning, NSFW things.

Beach House — “Hurts To Love”

Last week saw Beach House finally follow their 2018 album 7 with the expansive 18-track Once Twice Melody. In her review of the album, Uproxx’s Caitlin White describes “Hurts To Love” as “a more openly sentimental move than they might have adopted in the past” and continues, “More midi than some of the other offerings here, this song’s lyrics also seem to be more direct than most of the others, confronting the confluence of pain and pleasure that any deep relationship necessarily invokes.”

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

Rudy Giuliani has seen better days. He’s gone from America’s mayor to a magnet for inventive public embarrassment, having burned his reputation for a former president who won’t even bail him out of the many financial and legal woes that he acquired for him. Meanwhile, another former Trump lawyer is doing just fine. That person is Michael Cohen, who rehabilitated himself by serving time and repeatedly ratting out his old client.

Wouldn’t it be awkward if the two wound up in the same swanky New York City restaurant? Well, that’s what happened.

As per Page Six, Giuliani and Cohen both wound up at the buzzy midtown Tuscan joint Fresco by Scotto on Thursday night at the same time. A source claim the restaurant managers attempted to seat them on separate sides of the joint. Unfortunately VIPs nabbed those tables, forcing the two ex-Trump consiglieres to sit at neighboring tables.

There was reportedly “zero interaction between them.” Even when Cohen started moving around the room, shaking hands, they never acknowledged one another. “It was so icy between the pair,” a second source claimed, “it seemed like hell had finally frozen over.”

One patron could be heard saying, “I feel like I’m in the middle of a boxing ring, before the match is about to start. You can feel the tension in the air.” Another onlooked said that “Giuliani sat there stone-faced, at a table with friends, with what was left of his hair dye trickling down his brow.”

Cohen is known for dubbing Giuliani “Dopey Rudy.” He recently called him an “idiot” who “drinks too much.” Giuliani, meanwhile, has called Cohen “pathetic” and a “serial liar.”

Giuliani is reportedly in talks to blab to the House Select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot. He also recently made a surprise appearance on The Masked Singer, to the horror of many.

(Via Page Six)

Awards races drive much of the conversation each year in the NBA, and the 2021-22 campaign is no different. The competition is heating up for Rookie of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and even the All-NBA teams, but the Most Valuable Player pursuit is always in the center of the frame. A few candidates have separated themselves to this point in the calendar, but there is still time for shuffling and, more so than any other award, team successes and struggles can also swing the pendulum.

In this space, we’ll take a glance at the candidates as the race stands, with the leaders coming in alphabetical order.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Doesn’t it feel like Antetokounmpo is being overlooked? He has won the MVP award twice, but after a title run and a Finals MVP honor, it could be argued that Giannis is playing the best basketball of his career. He is Milwaukee’s best defender, even on a team with Jrue Holiday, and Antetokounmpo cannot be denied by virtually any opponent on offense. He is averaging more than 29 points and 11 rebounds per game with strong efficiency and catch-all metrics that are clearly uber-elite. Antetokounmpo may suffer from voter fatigue, but he’s a clear MVP candidate.

Stephen Curry

Curry was the consensus leader early in the process, which was certainly helped by a red-hot start from Golden State in the standings. Bizarrely, the two-time MVP and three-time NBA champion then endured a brutal shooting slump, at least by his standards, in January, and Curry’s numbers aren’t quite what they were in November and December. Still, he is the best shooter on the planet, and opposing defenses must tailor their approach to Curry more so than any other player in the league. Curry is also capable of an explosion that could carry him to the top of the heap but, at the very least, he remains a contender and the top guard in the race.

Joel Embiid

We’ll get to the other half of the co-favorite duel in a moment, but Embiid was the recent leader in an intriguing straw poll conducted by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. That poll is usually a good indication of voter sentiment and, as usual, Embiid is the sun, moon, and stars for Philadelphia. With more than 29 points per game, Embiid has the highest scoring average of his career, and he is posting easily the best assist numbers since he arrived in Philadelphia. Embiid is also a top-shelf defender and, even with the Ben Simmons saga dragging on for more than half of the season, the Sixers are a top-five seed in the East at the break.

Nikola Jokic

If the Nuggets were in the top two in the West, Jokic would probably the be the consensus leader right now. That says more about how the voting usually works than Jokic’s performance, though, as the Nuggets have been fantastic when he plays and brutal when he sits on the bench. Denver has a +10.1 net rating with Jokic on the floor and that number dips to a hideous -10.6 when he’s off the court, illustrating his value in plain terms. In addition, Jokic has the best statistical profile of any player, leading the league in almost every catch-all metric with top-10 marks in scoring, rebounding and assists. He may not repeat after winning the 2020-21 award, but Jokic has arguably been better this season than he was a year ago, which is remarkable.

Honorable Mentions

DeMar DeRozan – DeRozan leads the NBA in total points at the All-Star break, which is a pretty good place to start. At age 32, he is turning in the best season of his career, and while he isn’t alone in Chicago, DeRozan deserves a ton of credit for the Bulls’ incredibly strong position. He isn’t likely to win the award without an incredible team finish, but DeRozan should be on plenty of ballots.

Luka Doncic – Doncic had an uneven start by his standards, and Dallas was in the wilderness. The Mavericks are back in the top six in the West, though, and Doncic is on quite a run recently. He would need real heroics, along with team success, to compete at the top of the ballot, but we could look back on this season as MVP quality. His latest salvo included 49 points, 15 rebounds, and eight assists in the final game before the break.

LeBron James – Would he be on this list if he wasn’t LeBron James? Probably not. Has LeBron James been incredible this season? Yes. He’s averaging 29-8-7 and posting the best true shooting percentage since he joined the Lakers. He’s on the list.

Ja Morant – It’s been a phenomenal season for Memphis at 41-19. That record is impressive under any circumstances, and Morant makes the machine go at the point of attack. He is averaging nearly 27 points and seven assists per game, entertaining crowds each night, and Morant’s superstar status is no longer in question. He could be knocked by Memphis posting a 12-2 record without him, but Morant is the real deal.

Chris Paul or Devin Booker – There is an ongoing debate about who the MVP candidate should be for the Suns, which probably means they don’t have one that can seriously compete. With that said, Phoenix’s backcourt has been unbelievably good, and the Suns have a multi-game lead on the entire NBA field.

On a new episode of the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast, Pusha T revealed that Jay-Z will be on his next album. After talking about his history with the iconic rapper, he mentioned having three songs with him, including the time they worked together on Kanye West’s “So Appalled,” their 2016 collaboration “Drug Dealers Anonymous,” and then said the other is “something from my new album.”

Almost a year ago, he revealed that the album was nearly complete. “I’m working on the album right now,” he said. “I haven’t titled it. Probably 12 [songs]. I usually don’t do a lot of extras. I feel like I have some extras right now but I’m gonna keep 12… I gotta go sit in with ‘Ye for a little bit but other than that it’s just these 12.” He also promised it would be the “the best album that drops in 2021,” and said that he was just waiting to finish the collaboration with Kanye West, which ended up being the first single, “Diet Coke,” that came out just last month. Before releasing it, he teased it with a cryptic (and funny) Instagram post that featured a snippet of the track, which sent the internet into a frenzy of speculation.

Watch the full interview above.

Robert Downey Jr. has been done with Tony Stark for a few years now, but he has yet to find his next franchise. (Sorry, Dolittle.) Or maybe he finally has: According to The Wrap, the legendary actor is reuniting with one of his greatest collaborators to bring back to the screen one of crime fiction’s toughest, meanest antiheroes.

That collaborator is Shane Black, the screenwriter of Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout and the director and co-writer of the Downey starrers Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man Three (as well as possibly his greatest triumph, The Nice Guys). The character is Parker, the notorious career criminal and star of 24 diamond cut pulp novels by Donald E. Westlake, who published them under the pseudonym Richard Stark, only because he was so prolific that he didn’t want the public to get sick of his seeing his name.

Black’s films are known for their sharp, witty banter and insults as well as inventive plotting, and Downey is rarely more alert than when he’s rattling off his one-liners. Parker, though, is a man of as few words as possible — a loner who does whatever he needs to survive as lucratively as possible. He was introduced in 1962’s The Hunter, which was turned into the 1967 psychedelic neo-noir Point Blank, with Lee Marvin as its taciturn, fearsome lead (renamed Walker).

Over the decades there have been many big screen takes on the character (who, as in Point Blank, is often renamed). He’s been played by actors including Jim Brown (1969’s The Split, based on The Seventh), Robert Duvall (1973’s The Outfit), Mel Gibson (1999’s Payback, also based on The Hunter), and Jason Statham (2013’s Parker, based on Flashfire). August company indeed for Downey.

It’s not clear which novel Downey and Black are tackling, but they have a lot of options. In the meantime, the Parker novels average about 200 pages with prose as lean and merciless as their antihero. You might even be able to plow through them all by the time the latest film is ready to watch.

(Via The Wrap)