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Giveon opened his heart with his brief, four-track EP When It’s All Said And Done last October. The project arrived just a few months after his debut effort Take Time, but a lot had changed in the world since the LP’s late-March release. Now, Giveon showcases his soulful songs from both projects with his performance on NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series.

After opening his set with a smooth rendition of the track “The Beach,” Giveon introduced himself: “Thank you guys so much for having me. For those who don’t know, my name is Giveon. I’m from Long Beach, California, and that’s what this song is about. This moment means a lot to me so just bear with me while I just enjoy this and soak it in.”

Before launching into his shuffling track “Like I Want You,” Giveon described why performing the Tiny Desk concert during Black History Month: “Any moment to do this would be special. But I think Black History Month, it’s the moment to celebrate Black creatives, like what I have on the wall and just my all-Black band. And Black politicians and Black activists… just celebrating Black culture for this month, I’m really excited to get to do this on this platform. Any month would be good, but also another special thing about this month is it’s my birthday month. And yes, if you’re wondering, I am a Pisces and we are emotional. Maybe that’s why I make songs like this.”

Watch Giveon’s Tiny Desk concert above.

When It’s All Said And Done is out now via Epic. Get it here.

Piers Morgan has been known to say plenty of not-so-nice things, but when it comes to Piers talking U.S. politics with former VP candidate Sarah Palin, Piers definitely comes out looking like the more civilized of the two prolific ranters. Palin must have felt that her far-right thunder is currently being duplicated in the halls of Congress because she’s making the rounds, including as a guest on Good Morning Britain.

Palin was on hand to cheerlead for Trump (at the onset of his record-setting second impeachment trial) and defend him against what she (wrongly) believes are unfair accusations that he incited his MAGA followers to riot at the U.S. Capitol (which he did). Then, of course, the subject turned to Palin’s insistence that Joe Biden stole the election though rampant voter fraud (despite all U.S. courts who confronted the issue finding no evidence), and this got ugly with Palin insisting that “dead people” voted for Biden.

“No one will convince me, nor anyone else with common sense or a sense of justice,” Palin raved. “That there were not shenanigans going on… How many polling areas had to produce their voter rolls and they showed that there were more votes than there were voters in certain districts?”

“Those are not facts. There was no fraud. Where’s the fraud Sarah? Where has a single court in America upheld fraud?” Morgan shot back.

“What about all the dead people who voted?” asked in a dead-serious way.

“Sarah, we like having you on the program, we normally have a good, two-way, robust debate but today you’ve just come on and you’re just talking nonsense,” replied Morgan. “I say this with the utmost respect to you, you’re sounding totally bonkers.”

Watch the full video below.

Welcome to Streamer Smackdown, where we’ll crush dreams, so that you, the fans, can find the platform that fits you. We’re looking at everything from content to pricing to whether you can find that beloved animated movie from your childhood that, looking back now as an adult, you realize was incredibly inappropriate and far too mature for you to be watching as a kid.

This third round is going to be rough. We’re pitting two fairly young streamers against each other: HBO Max vs. Disney+, and tasking ourselves with effectively knocking one down before it’s even gotten the chance to live. Or get to a second season, as they say in the biz. Let the games continue!

The Case For HBO Max

We’ve already established HBO Max as the underdog in the streaming wars — yet they did just enter the game, and their catalog of blockbuster franchises really makes us want to see them get a win. The platform’s got a lot going for it: a deep lineup of prestige HBO dramas carried over from the network’s older streaming service and a mind-boggling lineup of films that includes the DC Universe.

The pricing for HBO Max isn’t as flexible as enticing as what Disney+ is offering with $14.99 a month only nabbing you three simultaneous streams. But if the money’s not as much of a concern, you’ll be rewarded with dozens of kick-ass TV shows — think Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, Succession, Euphoria — and the kind of blockbusters you’d normally pay to rent for a movie-night watch.

And let’s not forget the industry shakeup that HBO Max delivered after just one year in the mix. Warner Bros set a precedent when it announced that, because of the current pandemic, the studio would be releasing new movies in theaters and via streaming on the same day. We’ve already seen how that works with Wonder Woman 1984 (spoiler: it’s insanely convenient) and with buzzworthy titles like Dune, the Matrix 4, Godzilla vs. Kong, and James Gunn’s Suicide Squad set to drop this year, there’s really no better argument for subscribing if you’re a film junkie.

Pros: A massive library of guaranteed-to-be-good shows and a lineup of theatrical releases coming this year.
Cons: The original content is lacking, so if you’ve already seen older series, there’s not much on the TV side to sway you here.

The Case For Disney+

Sure, Disney+ is technically just a few months older than HBO Max, but when you’re a studio that sports decades of beloved movies and popular TV shows, can you really be called a “rookie?” We think not. Disney has some of the biggest franchises and comic book IP under its very large umbrella, and it’s not afraid to leverage that library to gain more subscribers.

Right now, you’re only paying $6.99 a month — though that price will inch up to $7.99 per month in March of this year -– to gain access to nearly every movie in the Marvel catalog, including hyped spinoffs like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki. The streamer is basically catnip for MCU fans.

And we can’t forget about the mythic Disney vault. Holding us hostage with threats of never again being able to enjoy the quirky chaos of the Emperor’s New Groove or the fist-pumping feminist fairytale behind Frozen might be diabolical on the studio’s part, but dammit, it worked.

But if animated fairytales and superhero team-ups aren’t your thing, Disney+ has a place for you too because they’ve also acquired Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox (and all of the films that come with both). Yes, that means the entire Star Wars collection, and the X-Men universe, and Deadpool, and all of the Fantastic Fours, and Baby Yoda, and… you get it, right?

Pros: A massive library of animated classics, superhero sagas, and sci-fi space operas.
Cons: As of now, WandaVision and The Mandalorian are the only original series worth your time.

The Verdict: HBO Max Wins. Don’t Come For Us, Disney Overlords.

Here’s the tea: the MCU, as it stands now, is just a better draw than the DC Universe, even with Zack Snyder’s overpriced Justice League reshoot coming. And if WandaVision is anything to go by, Marvel’s plans for its TV spinoffs are in good shape too.

But, if we take away the superhero component, then really we’ve just got a Star Wars show and some classic movies vs. dozens of award-winning TV series and a host of Warner Bros. films. Look, we love Baby Yoda too, but those J.J. Abrams sequels don’t fill the void left from that season two finale. You know what does feel good though? Knowing you can stream Succession and Game of Thrones and Lovecraft Country before embarking on a Lord of the Rings marathon and exploring the Studio Ghibli collection.

For bourbon fans, the thought of being paid to taste the brown nectar for a living sounds like a dream job. There’s no caveat coming — it’s a pretty sweet gig for any true aficionado. And Old Forester’s Master Taster, Jackie Zykan, is living that exact dream.

The road to getting paid to taste whiskey wasn’t always a straightforward one. Prior to working with Brown-Forman’s Old Forester, Zykan studied biology and chemistry while supporting herself as a bartender in St. Louis, Missouri, with plans to attend medical school. After graduation, she relocated to Louisville, Kentucky, where she took on bartending gigs for big-name whiskey brands like Four Roses and Woodford Reserve, amongst others.

Her energy and talent soon caught the attention of Brown-Forman staffers who frequented the venues and events Zykan bartended at. The company hired her initially as a master bourbon specialist before she was promoted to master taster. Working alongside Old Forester’s Master Distiller, Chris Morris, Zykan now assists with limited-edition releases while also operating the single barrel program.

This week, I spoke with Zykan about her beginnings in the industry, how to taste bourbon like a pro, and combating the obstacles that come with being a woman in the whiskey world. Read our conversation below!

***

What was your first introduction to bourbon?

Honestly, I didn’t really start getting into it until I moved to Kentucky from St. Louis. That was about 11 years ago. I moved to Louisville and just realized very quickly that there was such an expanse of products. I knew absolutely nothing about it and went in headfirst. It’s been an interesting road — I studied biology and chemistry while working as a bartender back in Missouri. And then when I relocated to Louisville for my first husband’s job it was just kind of like love at first sight with all these bottles.

When did you discover you wanted to pursue a career in the whiskey industry?

I was working more on the bar side of things and more cocktail focused, and different opportunities kept coming up. There are different brands based here in Louisville and they would come in and have a dinner and say, “Oh, can you create a specialty cocktail for us?” “Yeah, sure, no problem. I got you.” It was just this constant state of “yes” to all of these tiny little opportunities that really kind of made me realize that I have a passion for this, and I have a passion for sharing it with people.

And so it was just sort of addictive, really.

I had experience with a whole bunch of different brands that are based here in Louisville and around Kentucky. And the day came that Old Forester just kind of needed somebody who had both cocktail experience and could understand the science behind it all. And I had already built up a name for myself as someone who would show up on time and get things done, so I got a phone call and here I am.

With somebody who didn’t grow up around bourbon, it’s a totally different perspective that I have as an outsider. It’s not like, “Oh, grandma always had a hot toddy” and all these bottles on the back bar, in the basement, and all these other things. It’s very fresh to me and I look at it with different eyes. There’s so much intimacy that goes into that setting of tasting whiskey with other people. You have to bring your most vulnerable self because the sensory details that you’re applying to your tasting are things that are based on just your experiences in your own personal perspective.

I really love that people are willing to just open up and expose all of these wonderful memories that they have during it. Once that all started, there was no turning back whatsoever.

That’s exciting. And you brought out some interesting points as well. So, kind of going back to when Old Forester first contacted you, was it by word of mouth, or did you actually do some of their cocktails for them at an event?

So, I had worked with a lady who was then working with Old Forester, but before that she was working for the Kentucky Derby Museum and I worked with Four Roses and her on a virtual bartender exhibit that they had. So, she was in the room and raised her hand and was like, “You got to know Jackie!”…And then there were a couple of people at Brown-Forman who I worked with Jack [Daniel’s] or had worked with another little side gig. Honestly, Louisville is such a big, small town. There are so many people at Brown-Forman that knew me just because they were bar regulars at any of the restaurants. And so I just sort of had this built-in support network already that I didn’t even know I had. That’s really kind of what drove that I think.

For those who are new to bourbon, what advice would you give them on “tasting notes”?

I would definitely say — and I say this all the time — it is not a competition and there is no prize at the end of it based on the number of notes you can identify. There’s always that one person in a tasting that’s like, “I’m getting apricots, but also… vanilla” and everyone else is just kind of like, “Wow, okay.” It can be intimidating sometimes for folks if someone else that you’re tasting stuff with is picking up on notes that you aren’t, but it is literally whatever you get out of it is the right answer.

Step one, just relax with it. There is no right or wrong here, whatever you get is what you get. You’re only going to pick up on notes and articulate things that you’ve already had experience with.

If you’ve never smelled cinnamon, you’re never going to smell a glass of whiskey and go, “I’m getting cinnamon” because you haven’t made that connection in your sensory bank yet. So a really great way of really prepping yourself for tasting things — and this was not just with whiskey, it’s with wine, it’s with anything — is to just make time and be mindful of exposing yourself to everything. Smell things at the grocery store. I do. I’m that weird person walking through sniffing stuff left and right.

Smell different candles, different fragrances, start to lock in what those words are with those scents that will help you to articulate what’s going on. Don’t feel like you have to start with high proof. The lower the proof, the easier it’s going to be to decipher this stuff on the front end. That’s especially important for those that are new to the category.

Just don’t feel like you have to jump all the way into barrel strength. Because that high alcohol content can really anesthetize your senses and you won’t be smelling much after that. And then at the end of the day, guess what? If you don’t like drinking it neat – don’t. Drink it in a cocktail. You don’t like that either? Don’t. Life’s just too short to be drinking and sniffing and tasting stuff that you aren’t happy with. So, no pressure on it whatsoever.

When I first got started, I was hung up on, “Oh, I don’t really know how to articulate what I’m tasting” or “I need to be this expert already!” because, like you mentioned, it can be a little intimidating when you’re around others who are experts. On that note, I’ve written a lot about the dynamic faced by women in whiskey. I’ve interviewed Becky Paskin and Marianne Eaves, among others, and have gotten their feedback on how they’ve been able to beat stereotypes in whiskey.

Have you faced challenges that felt specifically related to being a woman in whiskey?

Oh, for sure. I mean, we don’t have enough time to go through all of it. [Laughs] In general, I can say that I have had my absolute fair share of people doubting what I have to say, questioning me constantly, ignoring me. I’ve done so many tastings where literally not a single person stopped talking and I just had to scream at the top of my lungs. And then, eventually, I just stopped talking and waited ‘til it was awkward – and then they stopped.

There are people who are handsy. There are people who don’t want to talk to you if you don’t look just like the promo model that you’re forced to stand next to behind the tasting booth. There’s a lot of interesting things that happen in this industry, but at the end of this day, I choose to release all of that pretty readily.

You just keep going and you just keep showing up. I’m not doing what I do because I’m a woman and I have a point to prove, I’m doing what I do because I love what I do. And I work for a great company and a great brand and I’m happy. So I think the more and more it’s important to address it — and it’s important to know that there are still struggles out there with it — but the more you really sit around and think on it, the more energy you give it. And you just have to release that.

It doesn’t just come from men. It comes from women as well as — from all different sides. But it’s just part of the changing landscape of what aged spirits are, you know? For the longest time [in] whiskey, women weren’t as involved in the marketing and advertising. So a lot of what the consumer was painted to be was really a projection of self-interest. And now that a shift has occurred, I think we all just need to hang in there and trust that in due time it will level out and it will be much better.

Just staying present in it and not letting it bog us down is really kind of the only thing we can do.

That’s very well said. Thank you for your transparency too. It’s something that’s definitely a hurdle, but you have such a great attitude about it. What would you say has been the biggest highlight of your career?

Considering that I just sort of flowed with a current into where I am now — and that’s not to say that I didn’t put in a hundred hours a week of work prepping for it — but the first step that I remember from this position where I actually identified like, “Oh, wait, this is an opportunity. And I’m going to get it, and I’m going to do this.” It was the transition from what my job was before, which was the master bourbon specialist role, which is similar but different. It wasn’t production involved. It was more mixology and PR and things of that sort. But when I definitively said to Campbell Brown, “By the time that new distillery opens, I will be the master taster for this brand.” And he was kind of like, “Whoa, okay, that’s a little forward, but all right.”

So then within a year I hunkered down and knocked out all of the training that needed to happen and sort of really led the charge. And I remember sitting at lunch with him [Brown] and my PR manager at the time when he told me, “So, congratulations. We’re changing your title over to this.” And I just started crying. I don’t know why, but it was sort of the first purposeful mission that I had in this role. And then, there’s been so many little ones along the way. But really vocalizing, “I’m going to do this,” and then sitting there at that moment, realizing I had done it was very empowering.

With just three days to go until the release of his highly-anticipated sophomore album, Slowthai shares one last video from the upcoming project featuring Skepta and a whole lot of horror film references. In the video for “Cancelled,” Thai and Skepta revisit the “Wazzup?” gag from Scary Movie, the infamous axe and face peel scenes from American Psycho, and reinterpret Candyman, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Nightmare On Elm Street.

Talking with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about the new track, Thai revealed its antsy, tense energy was inspired by his own bad mood the day they recorded — and some hallucinogenic mushrooms. “Yeah, we were on shrooms,” he admits. “Like, you’ve got to refresh the mind sometimes. It gives you an insight into yourself… So I’m sitting down and I’m just in a negative place, I was being negative. You know when you’re just that one bad apple in the room? Yeah, the energy is off… And it was that none of us wanted to go on the first bit, but then Skep was coming like, he’s like, ‘Yo, what we should be like? We should come like this. This is how we go about it.’”

Slowthai debuted “Cancelled” last week on The Tonight Show with an eerie pre-taped performance teasing the dark undertones of the video to come. Meanwhile, his Tyron rollout has also included high-concept videos for “Feel Away,” “NHS,” and “Mazza.”

Watch Slowthai and Skepta’s “Cancelled” video above.

Tyron is due 2/12 via Method / AWGE / Interscope Records. Pre-order it here.

We are approximately a third of the way into the 2020-21 NBA season, and for many, the MVP race has already been narrowed to a few top candidates. LeBron James, Nikola Jokic, and Joel Embiid are the three most discussed for the award, while others will include Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Curry, and others.

However, Magic Johnson is not ready to narrow the field so dramatically just yet. The former Lakers president, who famously resigned suddenly in part because he couldn’t take not being able to tweet about other players in the league without getting fined for tampering, has his own MVP tier system and he sees 14 candidates still existing for the league’s highest individual honor, broken into Tier 1 and Tier 2.

I like to believe, somewhere, Magic has a full list of the entire NBA tiered out, and this is how he made decisions during his time in L.A. — I also desperately would like to see this list. I choose to believe this because Magic loves making lists, as we learned last year when he listed his 60 favorite movies and TV shows of all time just for the fun of it, like he’s a 2010-era blogger.

In all seriousness, it’s a really solid list of MVP candidates and I appreciate him casting a wide net because there has been some incredible play in the NBA this season and while we tend to get bogged down in the MVP debates, it’s nice to just appreciate how many great players having great seasons there are. While his tweeting style has become something of a running joke, it is genuinely the thing I love most about Magic. His earnest positivity and sheer enjoyment he takes in watching basketball is something all of us who find ourselves getting a little too serious about some of this stuff could learn a lesson from. No one thinks basketball is more fun than Magic Johnson, and even as someone who was one of the best to ever do it, he can always appreciate greatness in a way few former players seem willing to.

Hayley Williams didn’t give much warning before releasing her sophomore solo LP Flowers For Vases / Descansos, which she announced just one day before its debut. Williams takes a vulnerable approach to songwriting on the project, touching on themes of mental health and self discovery. Further explaining how her life’s experiences shaped her songwriting, Williams says that she’s beginning to unpack how she’s been impacted by generational trauma.

Williams sat down with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe for an interview about the Flowers For Vases / Descansos album. After touching on things she’s learned in therapy, Williams said she’s been examining the generational trauma passed down through the women in her family:

“My mom and I have been talking a lot about the effects of generational trauma and generational prayer. And I think generational trauma has come up a lot because of what we talked about over the last year. Finally, more people are willing to talk about systemic racism and what this has done to a lineage of folks. But for me even, just in my own family story, women went through a lot of sh*t way before I was an idea, and certainly before I was born. I think I just picked up on that at a young age. We actually ran to Nashville two times. The first time we kind of got found. […] I think my mom is a super brave and super resilient person.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Williams explained how writing the album was cathartic for her. “It’s such a culmination of the lessons I’ve learned throughout multiple relationships that just felt like my own body was eating itself,” she said. “I just haven’t had a good enough relationship with myself to receive pure and simple stuff, like romantic relationships. I’ve been in therapy now since we got home from [touring in support of Paramore’s 2017 album] After Laughter, and I still go every week.”

Watch Williams’ conversation with Lowe above.

Flowers For Vases / Descansos is out now via Atlantic. Get it here.

Hayley Williams is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

We don’t see much of Jodie Foster these days. Maybe it’s too much to claim that’s by design, but if you look at the massive amount of movies and television Foster has done in her career, she makes it clear she’s, let’s say, picky about how she chooses to spend her time. In other words, at this point in her career (which includes two Academy Awards), she’s not someone who is going to do a movie just for the sake of doing a movie. And that shows, since in the last eight years, going back to 2013’s Elysium, we’ve only seen her in three films.

Foster is back in Kevin Macdonald’s The Mauritanian, a harrowing true story about Mohamedou Ould Salahi (played by Tahar Rahim), who was arrested without charges and kept at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years. Foster plays Nancy Hollander, Salahi’s attorney who, herself, doesn’t always believe in his innocence.

Ahead, we talk to Foster about why this role intrigued her enough to make a movie. Also, we asked her about her directorial debut, an episode of Tales From the Darkside. Foster also tells us if she is going to watch the new CBS show about the character she made famous, Clarice. And she tells us, maybe, why we are still waiting for that illusive Panic Room Blu-ray (to this day Panic Room has only had a DVD release) of David Fincher’s 2002 thriller.

You were in one of the first four or five movies I ever saw, Freaky Friday…

That’s cool.

Anytime it’s on cable it’s always the Jamie Lee Curtis version.

I don’t think I’ve seen it in about 40 years, so I’m not even sure what happens in the movie.

This is only your third movie in the last eight years, since Elysium. Why don’t you do more movies? Selfishly, I always want to see you in more.

Well, I did slow down. I made a lot of movies when I was young, and after 55 years in the film business, I think that I get to slow down if I want to and I really just take movies that move me. And as you get older, you’ll see, the things that obsess you and interest you suddenly become fewer and far between. So, the good news is, that when you do see that I’m in a movie, I think it’s always worth seeing the film because there will be an interesting discussion that happens around the movie. It doesn’t mean the movie will be great, but it does mean that they’ll at least be an interesting discussion around them. I’m not one of those people who just wants to work all the time and not have a life and just wants to act, and do anything — it doesn’t matter what the film is and how silly it might be. That’s just not my personality. I like to really focus on something and give everything.

Well, that’s why I say, “selfishly.” But if I’m in your situation I’d only do things that made me happy.

Well, this does make me happy. It’s an extraordinary movie, an extraordinary story. Mohamedou’s story, especially, is amazing.

How much did you know about this story?

I vaguely knew that Guantanamo was there and there were detainees there, and I knew that Obama wanted to close it, but I just didn’t know anything about the subject. And, so, I was really blown away when I read it.

Speaking of Obama, he said on Colbert recently his biggest regret was not closing Guantanamo, but this movie tells us his administration still wouldn’t release Mohamedou.

Now, look, he may have wanted to close Guantanamo Bay, but the judges said that he needed to release Mohamedou, and they kept him anyway for another five years.

It’s just a surprising moment. Because all we heard is how he wanted to close it. How do you square that?

But, look, 9/11 is a very complicated thing that happened to us. And we will be living with ramifications of that for the rest of our history. The generations will live with that. And it probably takes 20 years past it in order to be able to even go back and take a look at what we did and why it happened. What the film says, 9/11 was this moment of fear and terror. And the American government took those emotions and used that as an opportunity to throw the rule of law out the window. And the Constitution out the window. And to go against their laws, and their foundations, and everything that we believed in, in democracy, so that they could seek revenge. And maybe, and also, so that they could make sure they didn’t have a second attack because that’s really what they were worried about. And that’s understandable. It’s all very human, but people’s lives were lost. And Mohamedou suffered because of that. And his story is worth telling.

Did you see Mohamedou wrote an open letter to Biden to close Guantanamo?

Did he? Oh, good. I love that.

You thread a needle with this performance because for a good portion of the movie your character doesn’t fully believe his story.

Look, there was circumstantial evidence that pointed towards Mohamedou. Very circumstantial evidence that, had the military prosecutors spent the 15 minutes that the HCLU spent debunking them, they would have understood that they were totally debunked. But because the suspicions were high, because we were afraid, because we thought every Muslim was a terrorist, and because we had that kind of Islamophobic that was part of our white supremacy system, we couldn’t see past it. Now, look, Nancy will tell you, one of the first things she’ll say to you, that she’s very proud of is, “Look, I don’t care whether my clients are guilty or innocent. In fact, it’s easier for me, if they’re guilty.” If you have a mission, your mission is to uphold the Constitution and to challenge the government, to defend everybody. You’re going to defend a lot of guilty people and that’s hard. That took a toll on her. So, I really wanted to show that. I wanted to show that she was a damaged person, in some ways, and that it was very difficult for her to open to him, and to love him, and to care about him. But she did. And they are like mother and son, the two of them.

Is that aspect what jumped out at you? Why you chose this film?

I like big ideas that are really provocative, have provocative conversations, and that are emotionally touching. And I like to get obsessed by them. I like to talk about them, and think about them, and work through them. And to me, that’s a real gift. And that’s what gets me in front of the cameras. That’s why I do it.

I’ve been thinking about the last movie you directed, Money Monster, because of the GameStop situation.

Yeah! People are calling me, asking me to explain hedges to them. How does a hedge work?

It’s about someone manipulating a stock price. You were ahead of your time on that one.

Well, I don’t know if I was ahead of my time. Because, also, it was right before the election, and I came out right before the election. That character saying, “Look, it’s all rigged. It’s all rigged against us. And it’s a fixed system.” And all that was that populist movement of people saying, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” And that’s certainly was what the story of the zeitgeist happening at the time.

I also think it came out right before a lot of movies like that, with big movie stars and aren’t part of a franchise, started movie to streaming. George Clooney didn’t star in another movie until Midnight Sky just recently on Netflix.

It’s very easy to look back and go, what could we have done better? As a director, you do that all the time. There were a lot of choices that I made that I’m not sure I would make now.

Like what?

There was a different way to go. That movie is about a TV show.

Right.

So, it would have been very easy to make it an event on streaming because it is about live television. So, it would have been natural if we wanted to go that route, but we didn’t.

I have a deep cut for you, because I went back and watched your first directorial effort…

Oh?

An episode of Tales from the Darkside.

Oh! Okay….

I liked it. You don’t like it?

Well, I just came in because my friend, Bob Balaban, really directed it. And he said, “Listen, I know that you want to direct, and I’d love for you to come be a co-director. You’re not DGA (Directors Guild of America), so that helps us. You can be a co-director and not DGA. We do this as a team, and you’ll be able to participate in everything, the edit and all that.” And it was really helpful. It was really helpful to me, as a director.

What’s billed as someone’s first time directing, and you’re around 25 and directing Eileen Heckart, an Oscar-winner. That sounds intimidating.

It wasn’t intimidating. It was really fun. And yeah, when you’ve been working for such a long time, you get scared of the idea of directing, and thinking, “Oh my gosh, I have so much to learn.” But then, you realize that you’ve gone to the best film school in the world. And in fact, actually, sometimes, you have to lose some of your preconceptions from all the experience that you’ve had. You have to go, no, it doesn’t have to cut that way. Or you don’t have to have it over shoulder at this point. Or, sometimes, you have to lose some of your education.

Are you going to watch Clarice?

I probably…. I don’t know. I’m really happy that Clarice has a whole new life. That character keeps coming to life over and over again. It’s a testament to the original book by Thomas Harris. Silence of the Lambs and Red Dragon, they’re really wonderful texts, and he’s an incredible writer. So, I’m glad that she continues to have a life moving forward.

So you’re flipping through channels, and there it is. And it’s like, oh, okay, I’ll give this a shot. Is that how you feel about it?

I guess. I’m always going to be partial to our movie.

Well, yes. I imagine so.

Like, it was this something to aspire to, and it has been 30 years since Silence of the Lambs. So, yeah, it’s time for it to evolve, I guess.

I have no idea if you’d know anything about this, but when is Panic Room finally going to get a Blu-ray or 4K? It’s never even been on Blu-ray…

Well… really?

Yeah, it’s kind of infamous for never having a Blu-ray release. That and True Lies are always the first two mentioned.

I don’t know, but I have a feeling that David Fincher has something to do with that because he really cares about all that stuff. There must be a reason.

That seems to be people’s guess. But I didn’t know if you ever ran into him and said, “Hey, when’s this Blu-ray coming?”

The only thing that, maybe, may have something to do with it is we shot that movie in the dark. We didn’t have to. We could have shot it in a little bit lighter circumstances, and then brought the lighting down in the lab. But Fincher was adamant that we basically shoot the movie in the dark. So, I’m not sure what happens and if it holds up.

Oh, that’s interesting.

That may have something to do with it, because of the blacks in the film.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

A week after giving fans a blurry glimpse of Jared Leto’s new Joker look for the Justice League director’s cut, Zack Snyder is back with even more details about Leto’s return, and why his version of the Joker is in a very different place than the last time we saw him in Suicide Squad. According to Snyder, Leto’s Joker will appear in a “Knightmare” sequence similar to the one in Batman V Superman where Ben Affleck’s Batman navigates a post-apocalyptic world that’s been ravaged by Darkseid. Only this time, instead of encountering an evil version of Henry Cavill’s Superman, Batman will find a long-haired, “road weary” Joker who will act as a motivational warning of what’s to come. Via Vanity Fair (which also has exclusive photos of Leto’s new look):

“The cool thing about the scene is that it’s Joker talking directly to Batman about Batman,” Snyder said. “It’s Joker analyzing Batman about who he is and what he is. That’s the thing I also felt like fans deserved from the DC Universe. That is to say, the Jared Leto Joker and the Ben Affleck Batman, they never really got together. It seemed uncool to me that we would make it all the way through this incarnation of Batman and Joker without seeing them come together.”

Part of that discussion will involve how the Joker gave Batman “the most significant personal injury to his life” by murdering Robin, which Snyder had hoped to explore in future films. The director has previously confirmed that the dead Robin is Dick Grayson (as opposed to Jason Todd in the comics), and he had a whole story planned out where Carrie Kelley from The Dark Knight Returns would’ve became the new Robin in his films. Realizing that he’s probably done with the DC Extended Universe, Snyder should use the Knightmare scene in Justice League to at least give fans a taste of the backstory he’s been sitting on for Affleck’s Batman and Leto’s Joker.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Lil Uzi Vert set the internet abuzz when he debuted his new facial piercing last week. As it’s a thumb-sized pink diamond jammed in the middle of his forehead, that’s understandable. Also understandable: Fans have questions. So many questions. Fortunately, Rolling Stone got in contact with Eliantte & Co., the New York-based jewelers responsible for the implant, to clear things up. The story sounds a lot like Uncut Gems: Uzi saw the diamond, fell in love, and decided he just had to have it.

Of course, the tale departs with the gem’s use. Whereas Kevin Garnett believed the opal in Uncut Gems would grant him unfathomable good luck in games, Uzi just likes to set trends and freak people out. Since everyone seems to be used to him shopping in the women’s section (after freaking out about it early in his tenure), this was just the drastic step he needed to continue to draw attention. He’s since played up fans’ fears, claiming that he could die from removing the implant, but an Eliantte spokesman shot down that idea.

“It’s as safe as any other piercing,” said Simon Babaev. “As long as you maintain it well and have good upkeep, it’s perfectly fine. We made sure that prior to getting anything done that Uzi brought someone in to consult on everything. We didn’t just do this randomly.”

He also explained how they got the diamond to stay in place, elaborating that “We engineered a specific mounting that clips and locks in place. There’s a whole mechanism involved, it’s not a standard piercing. A specific piece and part were both engineered with millimeter precision to get this put on him.” He compared the piercing to one the company did for Young Thug once — unfortunately, Thugger lost his (in case you were wondering why you never see it anymore). Something tells me it’ll be a lot harder for Uzi to lose this one.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.