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While many American families spend an idyllic Christmas day watching the snow fall while gathered around the fireplace opening presents, Christmas falls smack in the middle of the summer in Vance Joy‘s native Australia. So, his family spends Christmas day on the beach. “My dad usually cooks a huge trout for us and we are just happy to finally be there with each other all together. We will go walk and see the kangaroos on a nearby trail too.” When asked about his favorite holiday memories, he struggles to settle on just one. “There are too many — swimming with my siblings and looking at the fish in the rockpools at the beach.”

Despite the difference in environment on Christmas day, holiday music still remains a centerpiece of the holiday. To celebrate the holidays this year, Vance Joy has officially offered a cover of The Pogues’ “Fairytale Of New York” after uploading his rendition to YouTube last year and garnering quite a bit of fan support. To celebrate the release of the cover, Vance Joy took part in the first installment of the Uproxx Holiday Playlist series, and selected some of his favorite holiday music to help ring in the time of year. “Music is the best and there are some truly great holiday songs that I included in my playlist. Some of the holiday music creates the atmosphere and some of it can hit you in the heart and tell a story.”

Check out the full playlist, along with Vance Joy’s explanations for each of his picks, down below.

Mykola Dmytrovych / John Williams — “Carol Of The Bells”

As a little boy I watched Home Alone hundreds of times. This song and scene are very memorable and powerful. Haunting Christmas. Get chills!

Paul Kelly — “How To Make Gravy”

One of the great songs. Christmas from the perspective of a guy in prison missing his family. ‘That won’t stop the roast’!

The Pogues — “Fairytale Of New York” (Feat. Kirsty MacColl)

This is one of the great songs of all time. It’s not sugary and corny but tells a Christmas story from the perspective of the down and outs. Nick Cave says all this better than me in a letter he wrote about this song – definitely worth a read.

John Lennon — Happy Xmas (War is Over)

“Let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear.” “For weak and for strong”. For “the rich and the poor ones.” The song speaks for itself. I like the idea of us all being connected and included and at peace.

Mariah Carey — “All I Want for Christmas is You”

This is the biggest Christmas tune out there and like clockwork zooms up the charts around this time every year. Makes me think of the scene in Love Actually.

Sia — Snowman

I love Sia. “Snowman” tells a tender and comforting Christmas story and it’s so unique, like everything Sia does.

Coldplay — “Christmas Lights”

Christmas lights keep shining on – I love Coldplay and Chris Martin’s soul is easy to find in the way he sings his lyrics. So who better to sing at Christmas time.

Sinead O’Connor — “Silent Night”

This song is peaceful and makes me think of Christmas as a kid. And of the versions out there I chose this one.

Vance Joy is Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Jordan Peele won an Oscar for the screenplay to his directorial debut, 2017’s Get Out. Other writers to win an Academy Award in the 2010s include Quentin Tarantino, Bong Joon-ho, Spike Jonze, and Barry Jenkins, and in the decade before, Diablo Cody, Charlie Kaufman, Sofia Coppola, and Pedro Almodóvar. This group wrote some of the best movies ever, but Peele has them beat, according to the Writers Guild of America.

On Monday, the WGA released its list of the “101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (So Far).” Get Out was ranked number one, ahead of Kaufman’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Network, Bong and Han Jin Won’s Parasite, and Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men. Five films, five classics. Other highlights include Best Picture winner Moonlight at #6, Bridesmaids at #12 (it’s the highest-ranked movie written by a woman, or in the case of Barb and Star icons Annie Mumulo and Kristen Wiig, women), and only two non-Pixar animated films, Spirited Away and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, at #67 and #71.

Here’s the top 10:

1. Get Out (2017)
Written by Jordan Peele

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Written by Charlie Kaufman, Story by Charlie Kaufman & Michel Gondry & Pierre Bismuth

3. The Social Network (2010)
Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, Based Upon the Book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich

4. Parasite (2019)
Screenplay by Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won, Story by Bong Joon Ho

5. No Country for Old Men (2007)
Written for the Screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, Based on the Novel by Cormac McCarthy

6. Moonlight (2016)
Screenplay by Barry Jenkins, Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney

7. There Will Be Blood (2007)
Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson, Based on the Novel Oil! by Upton Sinclair

8. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Written by Quentin Tarantino

9. Almost Famous (2000)
Written by Cameron Crowe

10. Memento (2000)
Screenplay by Christopher Nolan, Based on the Short Story by Jonathan Nolan

You can find the full list here.

Transgender Jeopardy! champ Amy Schneider rose to champ status during Trans Awareness Week and has kept her winning streak, thus far, going for 13 games. This puts her in a rare spot: the 4th all-time champ when it comes to regular-season games, with a total of $536,400 and counting. She’ll be eligible in the Tournament of Champions, at some point down the line, as the first trans contestant to participate. And while producers are still trying to firm up a permanent replacement host (Amy has been praising Ken Jennings), there’s no hesitation at all when it comes to Amy deciding to throw some shade at certain lawmakers when given the chance.

Tim Ryan was not one of those lawmakers called out by Amy Schneider. He’s a Democrat state lawmaker, and he offered up a hearty congrats. “In Ohio, we’re great at making a lot of things—steel, rubber, glass… and jeopardy champions!” Ryan tweeted. “Keep climbing @Jeopardamy. We’re rooting for you all the way.”

Amy responded with all the positivity that her tweets have revealed thus far, though there was some spice here. “Thanks!” Amy wrote. “To any followers in Ohio, next year remember that, no matter who the Republican candidate is, one of their goals in office will be to make life harder for me personally. Don’t give them the chance!”

Some people would probably prefer that Jeopardy! contestants refrain from getting political, but Amy has used her platform wisely thus far while raising awareness for the trans community. This appears to be more of the same vibe.

Amy’s on a Jeopardy! breather at the moment, due to this week’s Professors Tournament. Never fear, though, because she’ll return on December 20.

Over the past handful of days, Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin have been busting out their 2021 series of “The Hanukkah Sessions” covers, which focuses on songs by Jewish artists. Their eighth and final cover of the year was shared yesterday, and it saw Grohl and Kurstin take on the Kiss classic “Rock And Roll All Nite.”

As with most of the duo’s Hanukkah covers, they don’t look to shake things up in a major way here, as their rendition is faithful to the rocking original song. The performance is so faithful, in fact, that Grohl and Kurstin actually did themselves up in Kiss-style white and black face paint.

In a statement shared alongside the video, Grohl discussed the cover and indicated that he and Kurstin plan to return with more Hanukkah covers next year:

“Ladies and gentlemen….we made it. Night 8! And what better way to celebrate another year of Hanukkah Sessions than Chaim Witz and Stanley Eisen….two young lads from Queens that set the world (and thousands of stages) on FIRE as Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of KISS!!!

Greg and I would like to thank all of the people that helped ramp up the Hanukkah Sessions this year. It’s gonna be tough to beat! (But we will. Oh, we will…..) We hope that this year’s batch of hits has brought a little joy to you, as it surely did to us! Now let’s rock and roll all nite and party everyday until next Hanukkah! L’Chaim!!!!!!”

Watch Grohl and Kurstin perform “Rock And Roll All Nite” above.

Releasing an album in the thick of the pandemic has proven to be a precarious exercise. For Fleet Foxes, the band released Shore, their spectacular fourth album, in September of 2020, when the state of the world was very much in flux and things like an album tour seemed as far off in the distance as possible. But on the winter solstice of 2020, frontman Robin Pecknold still found a way to play his music for fans: a carefully-planned performance at Brooklyn’s St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church, which was livestreamed to the world.

In a solo-focused acoustic performance, Pecknold coursed through not only songs from the now-Grammy-nominated Shore, but also from the band’s whole catalogue. It was “me by myself on the longest night of the year… honoring the loneliness of 2020 with a nylon string and some songs new and old,” Pecknold described in a statement. Now the performance will live on in A Very Lonely Solstice, the first ever Fleet Foxes live album, out this Friday, December 10th.

Among the acoustic arrangements on the release, the all-female/non-binary Resistance Revival Chorus join Pecknold for Shore’s “Wading In Waist-High Water” and “Can I Believe You,” and there’s also a cover of Nina Simone’s “In The Morning” in the 13-track set. The filmed recording of the album will also be up on YouTube this Friday, along with a Q&A with Pecknold and host Elia Einhorn via YouTube Premium.

Check out the A Very Lonely Solstice artwork and tracklist below.

1. “Wading In Waist-High Water”
2. “Sunblind”
3. “In The Morning”
4. “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song”
5. “Maestranza”
6. “Helplessness Blues”
7. “Silver Dagger”
8. “Featherweight”
9. “A Long Way Past The Past”
10. “Blue Spotted Tail”
11. “If You Need To, Keep Time On Me”
12. “I’m Not My Season”
13. “Can I Believe You”

A Very Lonely Solstice is out 12/10 via ANTI- Records. Pre-order it here.

DaBaby has one less legal trouble after his battery case in Las Vegas was dismissed, according to TMZ. Charged with misdemeanor battery in May 2020 for allegedly attacking a driver when he asked the rapper and his crew to put out a joint, DaBaby reportedly cooperated with prosecutors, paying the alleged victim $7,500 and “staying out of trouble.” While that last part is admittedly… questionable, DaBaby didn’t have any legal fracases since then, avoiding arrest in most of the dustups that occurred in the intervening 18 months.

During and after his first year of stardom, the Charlotte rapper faced a slew of assault allegations for everything from beating up a rival rapper in a shopping mall to lashing out at a woman who startled him with her camera’s flash in a Tampa club. While he was accused of shoving a hotel employee who took an unauthorized photo of the rapper and detained in Miami when one of his artists was arrested for getting into a shootout, he managed to keep himself out of jail throughout the rest of 2020 and early 2021.

Unfortunately for him, he was unable to keep himself clear in the court of public opinion after making a series of homophobic comments at Rolling Loud in Miami. While the fallout from that incident appears to have settled, a disagreement with his child’s mother DaniLeigh on Instagram Live had them both explaining their respective sides of the story and her charged with assault.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell is more than happy to spread lies about voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election, but the one conspiracy theory group he does not want to be associated with seems to be QAnon.

Lindell, who spent Thanksgiving hosting a bizarre stream-a-thon in which he auctioned off excerpts from his new book in exchange for donations to his current legal fund, is on the road again to talk about the big lie. Despite Donald Trump himself basically admitting election fraud believers are “stupid,” Lindell and Trump ally Michael Flynn seem to be touring together to push the same misinformation (that Trump won the presidential election) that sparked the Jan. 6th insurrection. But the pair’s latest on-camera interview with a British documentary crew abruptly ended when Lindell was asked about the global conspiracy movement known as QAnon.

You can watch the entire clip below, and we’ll recap below.

A Channel 4 interviewer sat down with Flynn and Lindell, quizzing them both on QAnon’s ties to the larger election fraud conspiracy they’ve been pushing. Flynn, for his part, tried to play dumb, asking the interviewer, “What is it?” when the subject of QAnon was first brought up. But Lindell grew irrationally irate when pressed on the cult and how its founding philosophy might be tied to Lindell’s attempts to reverse the 2020 Presidential Election.

“It doesn’t matter who stands behind us or doesn’t stand,” Lindell shouted when asked in QAnon believers also subscribed to his election fraud theories. “The evidence, the truth shall set you free. I think the interview is over. Waste of my time!”

The interviewer tried to calm the situation, asking Lindell, “But why does it need to be offensive?”

“Because that’s what you all are!” Lindell answered, ripping off his microphone and storming off. “That’s such a joke what you did. Shame on you.”

(Via RawStory)

This year marks the first time in more than a year where things were somewhat “normal” in the music industry. Concerts and festivals made a return which allowed artists to release projects they held off on dropping due to the quarantine. For what it’s worth, however, R&B found plenty of success in 2020 and it did again in 2021. From Jazmine Sullivan’s excellent Heaux Tales project that kicked off the year to Silk Sonic’s An Evening With Silk Sonic that brought us towards the end of 2021, this year is just another case of the phenomenal diversity that lives in the genre.

So let’s get into it. Here are the fifteen best R&B albums from 2021 in alphabetical order.

Foushee — Time Machine

Foushee is one of the many 2021 acts that received a healthy boost thanks to landing a viral moment on TikTok. Her breakout single “Deep End” achieved success on the app and led to a flood of interest in her artistry. With the later release of her debut project, Time Machine, Foushee defined the pocket that her music lives in. The New Jersey native thrived by creating unlikely pairings through her work. A thumping bass was accompanied by funk-inspired R&B and her transgressions through heartbreak, growth, and more, are sung with the grace of a young indie singer. Foushee works best when a neverending horizon serves as her only confinement. – Wongo Okon

H.E.R. — Back Of My Mind

It’s odd to think of Back Of My Mind as H.E.R.’s debut album. After all, it’s so fully formed, sashaying easily between sweeping power ballads (“We Made It“) to mournful reflection (“Damage“) to warm weather bops (“Slide“). H.E.R.’s pen is like a surgeon’s tool, cutting to the bone of such subjects as heartbreak, self-realization, and the stirrings of new love. Her instrumentation is even more impressive. Perhaps it’s owed to the decade-plus of behind-the-scenes work she’s done as she strove toward this moment. After the year she’s had, though, she won’t be in the back of anyone’s mind ever again, because she’s earned her spot at the forefront of the pop-culture consciousness. – Aaron Williams

Jazmine Sullivan — Heaux Tales

Jazmine Sullivan returned to the music world after an almost six-year absence with her Heaux Tales EP. Through 11 songs with help from Ari Lennox, Anderson .Paak, and HER, Jazmine sings about the experiences through love and intimacy that she and other women go through. There are moments of passion and moments of regrets, but the vulnerability to tell it all and stay true to herself, along with help from other female voices, helped to make Heaux Tales a flawless project. – W.O.

Joyce Wrice — Overgrown

Joyce Wrice’s debut album Overgrown was an early bright spot for 2021 R&B. Her free spirit thrived on this project through fourteen songs that flaunted her maturity and sheer distaste for indecisiveness. Wrice falls in love quickly when it’s right (“Think About You”) and packs her bags just as fast when it’s not for her (“Must Be Nice”). At 29 years old, there is a bit of wisdom that Wrice showcases on her debut, as for her, love is something that adds to her life, rather than making it complete. Whether it be sonically, contextually, or both, Overgrown finds a way to stay fun and light-hearted without drowning listeners in the highs and lows of romance at a given moment. – W.O.

Kyle Dion — Sassy

If you want an example of an artist constantly striving to go against the grain, you don’t have to look any further than Kyle Dion. The singer’s third album Sassy broke his own rules as well as those set before him by the industry. Dion is best described as a rockstar with funk-inspired confidence and the light touch of a traditional R&B star who can neatly gift wrap it all for the unsuspecting listener. Pull at the ribbon that is Sassy and you get an excellent blend of funk, rock, and soul captures Dion on his euphoric journey to have fun and live life to the absolute best he can. – W.O.

Leon Bridges — Gold-Diggers Sound

Remember the Leon Bridges who enacted Sam Cooke-esque soul music on 2015’s breakthrough Coming Home? He has positively given way to a more traditionally-minded R&B singer, enacting a polished lovelorn sound. With the exception of album closer “Blue Mesas,” Gold-Diggers Sound feels like a bold re-invention for Bridges and he has Lizzo producers Ricky Reed and Nate Mercereau expertly leading the way. On “Born Again” featuring Robert Glasper on keys, Bridges leans into a PJ Morton-style piano ballad, but it’s Bridges’ gentle rasp that carves out space for him as a singular force on the album. This is the type of stellar studio R&B that will keep Bridges on the Grammy radar well-beyond his recent 2022 nomination. – Adrian Spinelli

Mac Ayres — Magic 8Ball

Life tends to deliver the unexpected at unexpected times and it’s this randomness that Mac Ayres used as the foundation of his Magic 8Ball project. Ayres takes life as it comes and he accounts for all the moments he stands unprepared for. For what it’s worth, Magic 8Ball was created in the quarantine year of 2020, a period filled with uncertainty for the future. However, the honesty and straightforward approach to these varying aspects are what draw you into Magic 8Ball. Add Ayres’ lush vocals and the project’s bright and groovy production, and you have a body of work guaranteed to be enjoyed at every listen. – W.O.

Nao — And The Life Was Beautiful

Hope is something the entire world needed as they exited 2020 to enter 2021. For Nao, she found that through the sunflowers that bloomed at her feet last year. This natural occurrence became the inspiration for her third album And Then Life Was Beautiful. On it, she offers a gesture of hope strong enough to inspire the hopeless. As a whole, And Then Life Was Beautiful is made in the space of emerging from turmoil to see that all will be okay one day. Through 13 records, Nao flawlessly unveils and recounts the moments in her life that brought hope to a beautiful tomorrow, even when it wasn’t promised. – W.O.

Phabo — Soulquaraius

Neo-soul is still alive in R&B and one of the places you can find it thriving is on Phabo’s debut Soulquaraius. The Soulection singer shined like gold on his first full-length project thanks to sixteen songs that are covered in nostalgic gold while also flaunting his impressive pen. “How’s My Driving?” emulates one’s ability to operate a vehicle and to that of satisfying a yearning love interest while “The Homie” arrives as a first-person account of a man slowly becoming aware of his partner’s uncommitted ways. Phabo’s Soulquarius is filled with the finesse and charisma of a man who knows exactly what he’s doing and where he’s going on his road towards neo-soul prosperity. – W.O.

Pink Sweats — Pink Planet

Pink Sweats is a living example of why simplicity is often key. A light acoustic sound carries the Philly singer on his official debut album Pink Planet as the gentleness behind his voice and the project’s production match that of the love he fantasizes about on Pink Planet. It also helps to create a more intimate setting that excellent allows the heart’s true and raw desires to be translated fully. Pink Sweats smiles ear-to-ear at the arrival of love in its best form on “Magic” and “So Sweet” while also praying for its longevity on “At My Worst” and “Lows.” However, don’t think the Philly singer is nothing more than a rotating love story. He also ups the ante with a double dose of his infectious spirit on “Give It To Me” and “Icy.” Altogether, Pink Planet best represents Pink Sweats complete artistry and the unique vision he has for R&B. – W.O.

Shelley — Shelley FKA DRAM

Shelley, fka Big Baby DRAM, returned this year with a new name for his permanent role as a certified love doctor. Throughout his career, Shelley crafted records in the name of pure love like “Caretaker,” “Best Hugs,” and more, but they weren’t the foundation of his artistry. All of that changed with his second album Shelley FKA DRAM. This time around, the Virginia singer arrives with anecdotes of love that treat every attempt at companionship like it’s the first one — fearless and unknowing of the possible dangers of giving your heart away to a trusted partner. Through songs like “All Pride Aside” and “Remedies,” Shelley presents a love with your guard down on Shelley FKA DRAM and it’s a magical thing to see unfold. – W.O.

Silk Sonic — An Evening With Silk Sonic

From the very moment that Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak made their newly-formed Silk Sonic duo official with the release of “Leave The Door Open” earlier this year, their promised debut album was one of the most sought-for releases in 2021. Would the duo live up to the hype? Would the album perhaps be unbalanced? A multitude of questions arrived at Bruno and .Paak’s doorstep, all of which were answered with the brilliant An Evening With Silk Sonic. The duo met all expectations and did it through an excellent display of showmanship. There’s no telling how long Silk Sonic will last, but their current presence is something to be thankful for. – W.O.

Snoh Aalegra — Temporary Highs In The Skies

While many excel in relaying their experiences with love, Snoh Aalegra does a beautiful job of showing her wavering feelings in romance through her music. Her third album Temporary Highs In The Violet Skies is another example of that. Its 14 tracks present a woman who chooses to focus and highlight the best moments in love, even if they last shorter than expected. This task is accomplished beautifully thanks to help from Tyler The Creator, James Fauntleroy, Pharrell Williams, The Neptunes, and more. – W.O.

Summer Walker — Still Over It

Summer Walker achieved some groundbreaking feats with her 2021 sophomore album Still Over It. First of all, she got “Ciara’s Prayer” from thee Ciara Harris-Wilson. Lord knows how long the ladies have been asking Cici herself for the prayer and Ms. Walker was able to get that and was generous enough to share it with her listeners. Second of all, Still Over It is the highest-charting album from a female R&B artist since Beyoncé’s 2016 Lemonade and is likely to continue towards an upward trend. Regardless, Summer Walker uses Still Over It to air out her grievances a la Usher’s Confessions, except she’s naming names and calling out her baby daddy-ex London On Da Track, his mother, and the other women in his life. She does this over perfectly curated production by the same man she’s going in on. London and Summer made magic on Over It, so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. On the other hand, Pharrell and Summer on “Dat Right There” sounds like a win for the future of music. Most of all, Summer’s adept songwriting skills, inimitable vocals, and ability to dig into the souls of her listeners through song puts her on another level, to the point that whatever shenanigans she’s on The Shade Room for makes the music worth it. – Cherise Johnson

Tinashe — 333

If you needed proof that independence is what’s best for Tinashe, her fifth album 333 is undeniable proof of that. The album is arguably one of, if not the strongest showcase of her versatility as she bends the R&B genre in a number of ways, something she’s proven capable of doing time and time again. 333 is also a testament towards trusting the process, and if you know what it took Tinashe to get here, you’ll have an added dose of appreciation towards her current position. – W.O.

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

Does any filmmaker own a decade as much as Paul Thomas Anderson owns the 1970s? In Boogie Nights, he gave us the freewheeling, sexually-liberated seventies (that cocaine-like rush of feeling invincible followed by a crash). In Inherent Vice he gave us the paranoiac, Rome-after-the-fall seventies, beset by cultism, secret societies, and nihilistic escapism. In Licorice Pizza, his latest, Anderson offers a more personal take on the decade, one specific to showbiz and the San Fernando Valley, but still essentially defined by a lack of adult supervision. He gives us once again the seventies as a moral power vacuum, where the “responsible” adults are all dead or asleep at the wheel, leaving the kids in charge to try to remake the world however they see fit.

Cooper Hoffman plays Licorice Pizza’s lead, Gary Valentine, a former-ish child actor trapped in a sort of career purgatory. He has the precocious pomposity and worldly careerism of a show business veteran, which he sort of is, but a big, awkward body and a spotty face that mark him as no longer suitable to play kids excited about Tonka trucks or breakfast cereals. Gary is 15 when we first meet him, preparing to take his school pictures but mostly hitting on the photographer’s assistant, Alana (played by Alana Haim from the band Haim), even though she’s in her twenties. Which he does with all the suave self-assuredness of a professional bullshitter twice his age.

This first scene is the last time in Licorice Pizza that school is either depicted or referenced; that it’s even really acknowledged as an idea. Gary, this budding Dale Carnegie, has already grown out of it. His mom (played by Mary Elizabeth Ellis) is sort of present, but more as a colleague than a parent — the two are even partners at a PR firm, trying to craft the perfect press release for the local Japanese restaurant (with the paternalistically racist proprietor played hilariously by John Michael Higgins). School? Why waste time preparing when you can just try things out?

Cooper Hoffman is, obviously, the son of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Whereas other directors might also cast famous sons or daughters (legacy cases making up a substantial contingent of those who can afford to pursue acting as a career these days), only Paul Thomas Anderson — himself the son of an actor and television host — leans into it as an overt theme. Licorice Pizza‘s credits are littered with equally famous names: Haim, Giacchino, Hershlag, DiCaprio, the latter of whom, Leo’s dad, plays a waterbed salesman, apparently a job he’d actually had. If the seventies was the decade of no adult supervision, the San Fernando Valley is a place where no one even has to grow up, a sort of Lord of the Flies for starry-eyed dreamers.

This world, of famous names and folks scheming on the fringes of show business, is something Anderson knows well. Even his wife, Maya Rudolph, is the daughter of a songwriter and a composer. Just as it’s hard not to see a little of Wes Anderson in Max Fischer from Rushmore, the precocious private school dilettante, it’s hard not to assume that there’s a little of PTA in Gary Valentine. Valentine is a lovable bullshitter and the ultimate opportunist, unafraid to start a new business venture the instant it seems to have growth potential, whether that be selling waterbeds or opening an arcade. It’s not so much that Anderson gives this impression in interviews or personal appearances, it’s more that Gary Valentine has a distinct whiff of Don Cheadle attempting to open Buck’s Stereo World in Boogie Nights, or Dirk and Reed’s foray into power pop, or even Daniel Plainview realizing his son can be a helpful prop in There Will Be Blood. Anderson loves hucksters the way the Coen Brothers love the arcane vernacular.

Alana, meanwhile, is Gary’s perfect foil, a decade older and seemingly half as experienced. She lives to call bullshit on Gary’s latest spiel and clown his insufferable career-speak, yet still feeds off his drive, knowing deep down that without him she’d still be stuck working in some dull job. Why have a job when you can have a venture?

Part of me does wonder whether Paul Thomas Anderson was trolling the QAnon types when he made a movie about a pseudo-love affair between an adult woman and a teenage boy, and then cast it with every famous name in Hollywood, but if you can silence that internal Alex Jones slavering about Satanic globalists, the Alana-Gary connection is meticulously explained and smacks of verisimilitude. His movies have always explored the blurry boundaries between childhood and adulthood, both personally and culturally. Alana and Gary just kind of fit, they’re even sort of weird-hot in similar ways. And it’s hard to say which actor seems more prematurely fully formed in both of their feature film debuts, because they’re both pretty perfect, the combination more than the sum of its parts.

The whole movie is like that, to some extent: this loosey-goosey, real and hyper-real SoCal picaresque, full of wild-eyed weirdos with a backdrop of the gas shortage. Gary and Alana are the emotional center but lots of the fun comes from the episodic side characters. Like Bradley Cooper showing up as a megalomaniacal Jon Peters buying a waterbed (see Kevin Smith’s infamous Superman story for more background on this), or Sean Penn’s unforgettable turn as an alcoholic William Holden with his star on the wane. Wringing this much charm from Sean Penn in 2021 borders on sorcery.

Perhaps more than any other filmmaker, Anderson has a way of making movies that actually are about the journey and not the destination. I truly could’ve watched The Master or There Will Be Blood for as long as he wanted to make them, never needing closure or explanation.

Yet Licorice Pizza manages a genuine crescendo, flaming out in a grand finale just as it reaches emotional climax. There were times watching it when I was skeptical that I could see another scene of the characters running or being lit by neon, but this was one of those rare endings that make it all feel worth it. Licorice Pizza seems to further all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s pet themes while adding a personal twist, and at this early stage it’s hard to think of it as anything other than a masterpiece.

‘Licorice Pizza’ opened in select theaters on November 26. It expands nationwide December 25th. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can check out his film review archive here.

Over the weekend, Olivia Rodrigo and Phoebe Bridgers’ double-bill performance at Austin City Limits debuted. Ahead of that, the pair got together over Instagram Live to promote the show with a fun, free-wheeling conversation. During their chat, Rodrigo, who just today announced her 2022 tour dates, got some sage touring advice from Bridgers.

Rodrigo asked Bridgers for some words of wisdom about touring since she hadn’t done it before and Bridgers responded:

“I’m so excited for you, because… getting to travel and stuff is great, but getting to travel because of [music] makes everything more fun. If you go on vacation and you get kind of depressed or whatever, it’s so much worse. If you’re depressed on tour, you’re surrounded by people, you get to be with all your friends and it’s like work. So then the magical moments are so much better and the sad moments are weirdly so much better. I have such a great friend group of people who are like, ‘I know it’s hard to miss your dog.’ My advice is FaceTime your pets, call your mom… it’s OK if there are times that feel a little bit harder, but mostly, it’s the best thing ever.”

They also talked about their tour riders, performing on Saturday Night Live, and more over the course of the 20-minute conversation, so check out the full chat below.