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Eternals is the first movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be directed by a Best Director winner in Chloé Zhao, whose Nomadland also took home Best Picture. But despite her immense talent and a stacked cast, including Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Kit Harington, and Salma Hayek, the superhero film has set an unwanted record:

Eternals is the lowest-rated MCU movie on Rotten Tomatoes.

Eternals has a 63 percent Fresh rating, which is three percent lower than the previous bottom-feeder, Thor: The Dark World (66 percent). Other less-loved Marvel movies include The Incredible Hulk (67 percent), Iron Man 2 (72 percent), and Avengers: Age of Ultron (76 percent). Meanwhile, the top five goes Black Panther (96 percent) at number one, followed by Avengers: Endgame (94 percent), Iron Man (94 percent), Thor: Ragnarok (93 percent), and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (92 percent).

Eternals isn’t an outright critical disaster, the way 2016’s maddening Suicide Squad was for DC, and even the harshest reviews have nice things to say about Zhao making the film “as pictorially beautiful as any movie in the franchise.” (It’s still expected to make bank at the box office.) But as our own Vince Mancini wrote, “It feels like they aren’t really trying to get us, the audience, to engage with any of these characters on a serious emotional level. They’re simply trying to build a massive playground in which these pieces of IP can continue to interact with one another accumulating maximum value.”

Eternals opens on November 5.

It’s starting to seem like there’s nothing Michelle Zauner can’t do. The Japanese Breakfast leader and Crying In H Mart author released her brand new album Jubilee earlier this year, along with the aforementioned memoir. Currently on tour behind the record, all that hasn’t stopped her from getting back in the studio already to put together some live recordings and a special cover for fans. Accompanied by the the Quartet 121 string section for her contribution to Spotify’s Live At Electric Lady series, Zauner recorded new live versions of “Be Sweet,” “Savage Good Boy,” “Tactics,” and “Kokomo, IN.”

It might be the cover of Weezer’s classic Blue Album sleeper hit “Say It Ain’t So” that stands out the most here, though. The Japanese Breakfast version of the iconic indie tune is very different from the original, as Zauner takes creative license with a breathy vocal, and the tension of all the stringed accompaniments in the orchestra section build a whole new layer into the song.

“I played a very sloppy basement cover of ‘Say It Ain’t So’ once with my band in college, so it was fun to revisit it from the opposite angle, stripped down with a string quartet,” Zauner said of the track. “Craig Hendrix did the arrangement and Quartet 121 performed the hell out of it.”

Check out the entire EP above or here to hear Michelle doing her best Rivers Cuomo. If you like what you hear, make sure to check out Faye Webster’s live EP for the series as well.

There are few things in soccer that look cooler than a bicycle kick goal, and on Wednesday night, Dairon Asprilla of the Portland Timbers delivered an all-timer on a goalie mistake.

The Timbers tried to hit the San Jose Earthquake on a quick counterattack, but had it seemingly snuffed out by San Jose goalie JT Marcinkowski on a through ball into the box meant for Asprilla. However, when Marcinkowski fumbled the ball, Asprilla was there and created a moment of magic that will almost certainly serve as the goal of the year in MLS.

To hit a bicycle from that far out and at that angle and get the right amount of pace and accuracy on it to score as the Earthquake defenders all try desperately to chase back and save it is truly outrageous. He hits that from 20-plus yards out and manages to have the perfect touch and placement to bury it in the back of the net for Portland’s second goal of the night. That gave Portland some helpful cushion in what ended as a 2-0 win, an important result to keep them four points clear of Real Salt Lake in the final playoff spot in the West.

It is a goal that will be replayed again and again, rightfully so, and is simply a moment of brilliance from Asprilla.

There are few players in the NBA off to a better start to the 2021-22 season than Harrison Barnes, as the veteran wing has come out firing to start his 10th season in the league. Through four games, Barnes is averaging 26.8 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game for the 2-2 Sacramento Kings, posting an outrageous 51.4/51.5/78.3 shooting split.

At some point, Barnes will cool off at least a touch, but for now he is engulfed in flames and is seventh in the league in scoring per game, tied with last year’s MVP Nikola Jokic. Wednesday night was not the night for Barnes’ hot streak to end, as the Phoenix Suns learned the hard way when he had 22 points, nine rebounds, and four assists to help keep the Kings in lock step with the reigning Western Conference champs.

Tied at 107-107 with under two seconds to play, the Kings had a sideline out for the final possession of regulation and ran an action to get Barnes and Buddy Hield working off of each other to let De’Aaron Fox pick the best option. He chose Barnes as he came towards the ball rather than Hield working towards the middle of the floor, and that proved to be the correct choice.

It was great defense from Devin Booker, but there was just nothing more he could do once Barnes rose and fired, knocking down the winner on the road. For the Kings as a whole, it’s a big win as they continue trying to learn how to finish these types of games off — the next step for them in becoming a real playoff contender. We’ll see how long Barnes can keep up this kind of offensive level, but until he shows signs of slowing down, Sacramento will keep feeding him and seeing how far he can take them.

At the end of 2020, rapper Casanova was one of 18 members of the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation group that were arrested after the FBI sought their detainment for charges that included racketeering, murder, and more. It’s all a result of their alleged involvement in firearm possession, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, and unemployment fraud. Nearly a year after he was arrested, Casanova, who was called the “full-fledged, committed leader of the gang,” remains behind bars at a Westchester County Jail in New York. On Wednesday, his manager sent out a plea for help on Casanova’s behalf through his Instagram page to prove his innocence.

“This is a public service announcement to all my fans and very important friends,” Casanova wrote. “I’ve been incarcerated for almost one year now, exhausted all remedies and spent a significant amount of money on legal fees to prove my innocence.” He added, “The charges against me are false, they don’t represent or reflect the person that I am. They are simply using my past criminal history to crucify me in court.” He continued his message, writing:

I’m calling on all the great people with meaningful and powerful voices to help me with this matter. If there’s anything you can do to help whether if it’s contacting my legal attorney to see that I played NO role in this case or having a private investigator look into actual role and not the alleged accusations against me. Any help provided will be a blessing, because I feel defeated one’s past shouldn’t be the reason why you can’t be afforded a successful future.

The message concluded with the phone and fax information for Casanova’s lawyer.

Dave Chappelle, who once quit his highly profitable Comedy Central show because he was uncomfortable with the people enjoying it for the wrong reasons, has made a lot of strange allies of late. The comic’s recent special, The Closer — much like a number of his other recent specials — devotes a largish chunk to him making trans jokes. While that’s enraged many, including trans employees at Netflix, which paid for and streams The Closer, it’s delighted those on the far right. And that includes trans person and failed California gubernatorial candidate Caitlyn Jenner.

As caught by Deadline, Jenner took to Twitter with a clip from a recent live show in which Chappelle addressed the backlash against his latest round of anti-trans jokes. He said that he’s willing to meet with Netflix’s trans employees but only on his terms. He also told people not to blame the LGBTQ community for his woes. The problem, he said, was “corporate interests and what I can say and what I cannot say.”

Jenner had his back — sort of. “Dave Chappelle is 100% right,” she wrote. “This isn’t about the LGBTQ movement. It’s about woke cancel culture run amok, trying to silence free speech. We must never yield or bow to those who wish to stop us from speaking our minds.”

But Chappelle never used the words “cancel culture.” Again, he used the word “corporate interests,” which is too vague to fit Jenner’s specific characterization.

Since transitioning, Jenner has refused to take the progressive side. Instead, she’s sided more often than not with those who are against trans people like her.

(Via Deadline)

For the third consecutive game, Jay-Z could be found courtside at a Brooklyn Nets game, attending the team’s matchup against the Miami Heat, which they lost 93-106. His appearance shouldn’t be a surprise: He’s there often, and he’s also a co-owner of the team. But a funny moment involving him occurred during the game, and thankfully it was caught on camera.

Jay was speaking to someone to the right of him when a woman sat beside him and accidentally spilled his drink on him. A surprised look can be found on his face as he dries himself while the woman celebrates what seemed to be an exciting moment in the game. It turns out the woman in question is Clara Wu Tsai, who is also a co-owner of the Brooklyn Nets as well as a businesswoman, philanthropist, criminal justice activist, and member of Jay’s REFORM Alliance, which he formed with Meek Mill, who was also sitting with them at the game.

Recently Jay-Z and his team Roc organization recently helped raise $1 million to look into a wrongful conviction in Kansas County. He’s also preparing for the release of The Harder We Fall, a film that he executive produced. The soundtrack to the movie will also feature a collaboration between him and Kid Cudi entitled “My Guns Go Bang.”

This past summer marked six years since the last album from Dr. Dre, namely 2015’s Compton, which arrived 16 years after his sophomore album 2001. Thankfully, fans won’t have to wait nearly as long for new music this time around. Snoop Dogg has revealed Dre has something on the way thanks to some sort of partnership with Grand Theft Auto.

“I do know he’s in the studio,” Snoopan said during an interview on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast. “I do know he’s making great f*cking music. And some of his music is connected to the GTA game that’s coming out. So I think that that will be the way that his music will be released, through the GTA video game.” The new music could come in time for Dre’s performance at next year’s Super Bowl LVI’s Halftime Show, where the famed producer will be joined by Mary J. Blige, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and Snoop Dogg.

Snoop’s comments come after he admitted he was “out of pocket” during his feud with Eminem at the beginning of the year. “We brothers and we family so we learn to appreciate each other for what we do and we had our own little conversation about the respect we have for each other and the way we need to talk in public about each other,” he said during an interview on The Breakfast Club.

The Charmed reboot has always gone out of its way to be its own, more diverse thing. But they kept one thing the same: One of the main threesome left prematurely. Over the summer it was announced Madeleine Mantock, who plays eldest sister Macy, would leave the show at the end of its third season. That’s when Shannen Doherty, who played Prue Halliwell on the original, which ran from 1998 through 2006, vamoosed. And in a recent interview, former co-star Alyssa Milano took a good chunk of the blame.

Milano, who’s enjoyed a second act as a progressive activist, took a break from championing world-changing causes to discuss her other big TV show, after the ‘80s staple Who’s the Boss? There was a bit of a rift between Milano and Doherty, who played witch sisters. But things are better now.

“I would say we are cordial,” Milano told Entertainment Weekly. “I can take responsibility for a lot of our tension that we had, feeling that I was in competition rather than it being that sisterhood that the show was so much about.” She added, “I have some guilt about my part in that.”

Milano said that the two reconnected after Doherty was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. Nowadays, Milano sends Doherty direct messages “every couple of months.” Doherty’s cancer went into remission in 2017, but last year she announced it had returned.

“I have respect for her,” Milano said, saying she’s a “great actress, loves her family so much, and I just wish I could’ve felt strong enough in who I was to recognize that [back] then.”

(Via EW)

If you didn’t know it already, rye is having a bit of a moment. Like bourbon, rye whiskey has had a meteoric rise worldwide over the past decade. These days, it seems like new expressions are released on a nearly-constant basis.

Last year, The Boss Hog VII: Magellan’s Atlantic, named for the famed Portuguese explorer, was made up of Canadian rye whiskey that was aged for seventeen years in American oak that was then transferred to Spanish oak before being finished for three days in South American teakwood. The result was an epic, spicy, sweet, slightly tannic, dry, warming whiskey that took home the award for Best Rye Whiskey at the 2021 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Naturally, it kept us very excited about what was coming next.

This year, WhistlePig continues the globe-trotting journey with The Boss Hog VIII: LapuLapu’s Pacific. This over-the-top expression begins with straight rye whiskey, also sourced from Canada, that’s matured for almost eighteen years in new American oak barrels before being double finished in highly toasted barrels that once held small batch, single island, aged rum from The Philippines.

WhistlePig The Boss Hog VIII: LapuLapu’s Pacific

ABV: 52.4-53.3% ABV

Average Price: $499.99 (MSRP)

The Whiskey:

While many know Magellan as the first person to circumnavigate the globe, few know of his eventual demise at the hand of Filipino icon LapuLapu during the battle of Mactan. Five hundred years later, this whiskey is named in LapuLapu’s honor. On top of paying tribute to the Filipino cultural hero, this whiskey was made to showcase the rum-producing expertise of The Philippines. While the Caribbean gets all the press in the rum world, The Philippines is crafting high-quality rums including the small-batch rum (aged between seven and ten years) that provided the barrels this iconic whiskey was finished in.

“On the heels of Magellan’s Atlantic, it was a great challenge to find the perfect finish for the most special rye barrels in our warehouse.” Says Meghan Ireland, a Blender at WhistlePig Whiskey. “We were already tracing Magellan in-depth, and when we discovered LapuLapu’s story we knew we had to track down the best Philippines Rum barrels we could for the sequel. Before maturing Rum for seven to ten years, the barrels were coopered from American Oak and originally held bourbon. In this way, they’ve made their own circumnavigation from American whiskey to the Philippines, and back again to us in Vermont.”

Tasting Notes:

I spent a longer time nosing this whiskey than usual. There was just so much to unpack. First, there was an unmistakable hint of orgeat syrup, almond cookies, bananas, sweet rum, and caramelized sugar. The more I sniffed, the more I found a symphony of tropical fruits. This nose is so fruity, I almost didn’t expect to find a rye whiskey once I took a sip. But there it was, very present on the palate. The unmistakable peppery rye spice is right there up front, along with butterscotch, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, more candied almonds, and dried cherries. It ended with more toffee, orgeat, and pleasing, warming cracked black pepper.

Like Magellan traversed the globe, this was an epic journey for the senses in whiskey form.

Bottom Line:

The Boss Hog VIII: LapuLapu’s Pacific isn’t in everyone’s budget. For most of us, it’s pretty difficult to justify spending $500 for a single bottle of whiskey. But we’re here to tell you if you have the extra cash burning a proverbial hole in your pocket, this is a very solid use of it. You can find this unique, limited-edition expression at premium liquor stores, bars, pubs, restaurants, and various online retailers including shop.whistlepigwhiskey.com.

Rating: 98/100

It’s hard to imagine rye being much better than this unless you actively want it to be more traditional tasting.