Although anything Tory Lanez posts must be taken with a grain of salt in recent months, it looks like Lil Wayne celebrated his official pardon by getting straight back to work, joining Lanez on the set of his new music video for “Big Tipper.” In a clip that Tory posted to his Instagram, Wayne apparently takes on the role of a plastic surgeon, dancing, rapping, and smoking behind a nude woman stretched out on her stomach and receiving a butt lift. In the caption, Tory thanks Wayne for coming to shoot the video just a day after being pardoned and promotes the video as “coming soon.”
Of course, Tory has been accused of fudging the details of his video shoots in posts designed to make it appear his famous friends still support him in the fallout of his assault case. Tory was accused of shooting fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion in the back of both feet during a dispute after a Hollywood party, and Megan has accused Tory of using a number of underhanded means to undermine her credibility. Most recently, Tory posted a photo from what seems to be another shoot with DaBaby, prompting fans to criticize the North Carolina rapper before Megan revealed Tory posted a still from an old video that was never cleared for release.
With that in mind, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that he’s doing the same thing with Wayne. However, since there are still some Tory collaborators, like Jack Harlow, who aren’t willing to write him off just yet, anything is possible.
The Clippers have, unsurprisingly, been among the NBA’s best teams to start the 2020-21 season, going 13-4 out of the gate to put them in a tie with the Lakers atop the Western Conference standings. Paul George’s play, in particular, has been noteworthy, as the star forward is playing All-NBA caliber basketball and has seemingly shaken off his disappointing postseason — as has the entire Clippers team. They’re aided by newcomers in Serge Ibaka, Luke Kennard, and Nic Batum, the latter of whom has looked like the best value signing in the league this offseason.
However, this is still a team driven by its two stars in George and Kawhi Leonard, who combine to average just under 40 points per game and over 10 rebounds and 10 assists per night, and both have posted 50/40/90 seasons to this point. The Clippers will begin a six-game East coast road trip on Tuesday in Atlanta to face the Hawks, but will have to do so without the services of either George or Leonard, who are both now in the league’s health and safety protocols.
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are not flying to Atlanta with the team. Depending on the extent of NBA protocols, Leonard and/or George could potentially join the team on this road trip. https://t.co/0WUPPIfD5v
As ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk notes, depending on what they’re in the protocols for — contact tracing or a positive test — one or both could rejoin the team closer to the end of their road trip. Should it be a contact tracing situation, a 7-day absence for both, pending negative tests, would allow them to return for next Tuesday’s showdown with the Brooklyn Nets. A positive test, however, requires a 10-day quarantine, which would keep them out for the entirety of the 6-game trip.
It is an unfortunate situation for the Clippers, who will turn to a short rotation to make up for the absences of their two stars, in particular Batum, Kennard, and Marcus Morris to pick up the scoring load on the wing — and Lou Williams likely being tasked with more offensively with the bench unit. It also underscores the continuing issues the league is having with postponements and players missing time, just as reports emerged that they are considering putting on an All-Star Game in March.
The NBA decided back in November that it would not host a traditional All-Star Weekend this season due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a decision that appears to have been a wise one given the slow rollout of the vaccine and continuing spikes in cases around the country.
As such, Indianapolis’ turn hosting the game was pushed to 2024 and the league said it would revisit a plan for a “revised NBA All-Star 2021” would be announced at a later date. On Monday, we got our first word about discussions for what that revised plan might look like, with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting the NBA and NBPA have been talking about hosting an All-Star Game in Atlanta.
ESPN Sources: The NBA and NBPA are discussing scenarios to still hold an All-Star game in March. One site under discussion is Atlanta, home of Turner Sports. That idea includes providing support for HBCU’s and COVID-19 relief. Story soon on site.
Marc Stein of the New York Times confirmed those discussions, while also noting that voting will happen regardless of whether they can agree on playing an actual game.
The NBA will institute All~Star voting this season with or without a game, sources say
Proposals for staging an actual All-Star game include holding it on an HBCU campus in the Atlanta area in the March 6-7 range
It isn’t a huge surprise that the NBA would push for an All-Star Game to be played, as it is a revenue driver not unlike the Christmas Day games that they pushed the start of the season up to be able to have. It would appear the plan would just be to play the game itself based on this initial report, but it’s possible they also could try and host Saturday night festivities as well — and, in the interest of bringing the fewest amount of people possible, it would honestly draw more attention and be smarter if they did those events with just All-Stars. NBPA president Chris Paul is reportedly among the top proponents of putting on the game and using it to benefit HBCUs, including potentially playing in an HBCU gym, per Woj.
There is of course the major issue of having 30 players from across the league, even if you are bringing just All-Stars, coming into one location to play a game when the league has already been struggling with postponements and keeping the season going as positive tests and contact tracing put numerous players in the COVID-19 protocol — this report came out mere minutes before the Clippers announced their two presumptive All-Stars, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, are both out for Tuesday due to health and safety protocols. On top of that, Atlanta is a city with ample temptations and ensuring everyone follows whatever protocols they put in place, which one would assume to be quite restrictive, would be a task of heightened difficulty.
Foo Fighters have been steadily dropping singles ahead of their impending LP Medicine At Midnight, but that’s not the only exciting project they have in the works. To drum up anticipation around the album, the band is launching the SiriusXM station Foo Fighters Radio.
After launching February 3rd, Foo Fighters Radio will be available for a limited time only. The new station will feature fan-favorite music, commentary by the entire band, and a broadcasting of the entirety of Medicine At Midnight at the moment of its release. Foo Fighters are also teaming up with SiriusXM for an exclusive livestream hours after their album officially drops on February 5.
Alongside the station’s announcement, SiriusXM’s chief content officer Scott Greenstein praised Foo Fighters’ decades-long career. “From their inception in mid-’90s to their recent performance at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration celebration, Foo Fighters remain one of America’s biggest rock bands,” Greenstein said. “They have achieved critical acclaim for their music and onstage energy, all while building a large and loyal audience. […] They are a rock band that grabs you and won’t let go, and we love to bring their music and passion to our listeners.”
While the band’s vocalist Dave Grohl is gearing up for the Foo Fighters’ next release, the musician recently revealed he still has dreams about playing music in Nirvana. “I still have dreams that we’re in Nirvana, that we’re still a band. I still dream there’s an empty arena waiting for us to play,” he told Classic Rock. Grohl continued: “I wouldn’t feel comfortable singing a song that Kurt sang. I feel perfectly at home playing those songs on the drums. And I love playing them with Krist and Pat and another vocalist. But I don’t sit down at home and run through ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by myself. It’s just a reminder that the person who is responsible for those beautiful songs is no longer with us. It’s bittersweet.”
Medicine At Midnight is out 2/5 via Roswell/RCA. Pre-order it here.
An exasperated Cardi B gave her fans a history lesson and a breakdown of her family tree after being pulled into the recent controversy over DaniLeigh’s new song “Yellow Bone.” When DaniLeigh was called out for promoting colorism by fans insisting she isn’t Black because of her Dominican roots, it wasn’t long before some were making the comparison between Dani and Cardi, who is also Dominican.
Cardi wasn’t happy about being dragged into the controversy after explaining her history multiple times since becoming a celebrity as a cast member of Love & Hip-Hop, but it has been over 18 months since the last time and that’s usually about how long it takes for everyone on the internet to forget something happened and bring it back up again. “Every 6 months I gotta explain myself cause people can’t research,” she tweeted. She then followed up with a series of photos and quick responses hashing out her appearance and how she slowly learned to use correct terminology over time.
Explaining that she always embraced her Afro-Latina roots, Cardi cleared up that she hasn’t “always been super woke” and didn’t always use the correct terminology when one commenter said she didn’t know the difference between “race,” “nationality,” and “ethnicity.” She also shared old photos of her family members to support her explanations and told her detractors, “It’s time for ya to pick up a book. Your ignorance at this point is a choice.”
Finally, proving that she’s mastered navigating social media controversies — as she should, considering she’s been at the center of so many — she pivoted the topic to skincare, asking fans for product suggestions for her recent breakouts. Meanwhile, DaniLeigh’s halfhearted apologies for “Yellow Bone” went full Lana Del Rey, bringing up her “chocolate man” and “dark-skinned friends.” Maybe she could take notes from Cardi and Chika, who explained why any Black woman would understand the harmful dynamics involved in “Yellow Bone” reinforcing the tenets of colorism.
Amazon Prime is way more than just a way to get your electronics and books in two days or less. There’s a wide breadth of good movies and TV shows out there to choose from if you know what you’re looking for.
To help you out, we’ve rounded up the 35 best movies on Amazon Prime right now. From new Oscar winners to classic titles, you might be surprised as to what the service has available.
Riz Ahmed stars in this powerful, heartbreaking Amazon original movie from director Darius Marder. Ahmed plays a heavy-metal drummer named Ruben who, along with his girlfriend and the band’s lead singer Lou (Olivia Cooke) hopes to make it big in the music scene. His plans are thrown for a loop when he begins to lose his hearing, putting his life, and his love for music, in jeopardy.
Awkwafina stars in this dramedy from director Lulu Wang that got a fair amount of Oscar buzz this season. The story follows a Chinese family, who discovers their beloved grandmother has only a short time to live. Instead of telling her, they keep the news to themselves, planning a wedding so that everyone can gather to say their goodbyes. It’s a dark comedy to be sure, but it’s given heart by some brilliant performances including Shuzhen Zhao as the central Nai Nai.
Nauseating. Disturbing. A total mindf*ck. Those are all fitting descriptions of Ari Aster’s Hereditary follow-up, a sophomore outing that gleefully embraces the very worst of humanity and shines an unforgiving light on those universal flaws. It’s a horror story, sure, but it’s a relationship drama at its core, flavored with pagan rituals, brutal killings, unsettling imagery, and all-consuming grief. Florence Pugh gives a career-defining performance as Dani, a young woman reeling from a terrible familial tragedy who accompanies her distant, disinterested boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and his college bros to a small Swedish village to celebrate the summer solstice.
Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment star in this mind-bending drama from Steven Spielberg about a highly-advanced robot on a quest to become real. Osment plays an artificial child named David, given to a human family whose own son is suffering from a rare illness. David is accepted and loved, until the human boy makes a miraculous recovery, becomes jealous of his new “brother” and orchestrates his exile. From there, David goes in search of answers as to what he is and why he was created, a perilous journey that proves eye-opening. Osment is eerily perfect in the starring role and Spielberg injects just enough emotional tension to make us care past the thrill of the hunt for answers in this world that feels alarmingly possible.
An early work of director Sofia Coppola, this film based on a 1993 novel of the same name, follows the story of the Lisbon sisters, five girls aged 13-17 who make a suicide pact after their youngest sibling kills herself. A sense of mystery and aloofness adds to the girls’ appeal when it comes to the neighborhood boys, through whom much of the story is told. Confined to their house after the death of their sister, the girls find ways of communicating with the outside world through secret phone calls and late-night trysts. Eventually, the sisters make good on their pact, but Coppola chooses to find a sense of freedom and validation in their decision to commit suicide, one that paints the end of the film in a strangely victorious light.
Regina King’s first outing as a director comes in the form of this moving drama that imagines a meeting between some of the most influential icons in the Civil Rights Movement. In a room at the Hampton House in February 1964, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke gather to celebrate Ali’s victory over boxer Sonny Liston where they also discuss their own roles in the movement and confront the harsh realities of the Jim Crow Era.
Starring Cillian Murphy and Brendan Gleeson, this British horror flick follows a pretty unlucky bike courier who wakes up from a coma and finds his city not only deserted but filled with the undead. The reason? A group of animal rights activists freed a chimp carrying a virus that caused the entire human population to, well, you know, drop-dead and then reanimate and crave human flesh. The group tries to make their way to safety, a place untouched by the virus, but you can guess how well that goes.
The mind-boggling success of the Marvel Universe this decade makes it easy to forget it’s humble, fantastically-written origins. We’re talking about the first Avengers team-up, a modest affair in comparison to the universe-spanning, dimension-hopping Endgame, but one that still holds up as a worthy outing for our O.G. heroes. This film marked the first time Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, and Clint Barton shared any real screentime and while most of the fighting is done in-house, the team pulls it together to take on a scheming Loki and his invading army of earth-destroying space monsters in the end.
Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars in this sci-fi thriller about a woman on the run who must return home to the family she abandoned once word of her supernatural abilities spreads. Mbatha-Raw plays Ruth, a woman whose seizures trigger earthquakes. Her mother and young daughter also have telekinetic abilities and when Ruth comes home to escape a dogged scientist determined to experiment on her, she begins trying to understand her powers with their help while also staying under the radar.
Jimmie Fails plays himself in this semi-autobiographical drama about a young man’s attempts to reclaim his childhood home. Fails and his best friend, Mont (Jonathan Majors), visit the old Victorian house where Fails grew up, only to find it in disarray. When the current tenants find themselves embroiled in a fight for ownership, forced to move out while the battle plays out in court, Jimmy and Mont move in, fixing up the place and fighting to restore some of the neighborhood’s old school charm.
Chris Hemsworth stars in this Whedon creation directed by Drew Goddard that’ll make you wary of ever going on a mountain retreat again. Hemsworth plays one of a group of five friends who head to the woods for some R&R. The remote cabin they stay at quickly becomes a hellish prison they struggle to escape from.
There’s a reason Julia Roberts took home an Oscar for her performance in this biopic from Steven Soderbergh. She’s absolutely magnetic as the titular Brokovich, a single mom working her way up the corporate ladder who discovers a passion for helping others through the law. Brokovich is dogged in her pursuit for justice — the real-life inspiration for the character single-handedly brought down one of the biggest energy companies in California — but it’s the quieter, more emotional moments Roberts is able to deliver that feel even more worthy of her “Best Actress” win.
This cult comedy from director Cameron Crowe has earned a dedicated fan following amongst rock-and-roll lovers. Based on Crowe’s own experiences as an underaged music journalist for Rolling Stone, the film follows a 15-year-old kid named William Miller, who goes on the road with rock band and becomes entangled in their exploits. Billy Crudup and Frances McDormand also star, but it’s Kate Hudson, who plays the magnetic groupie Penny Lane, who really steals the film.
Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning martial arts flick defied the odds to become one of the most influential films in the genre, crossing multicultural barriers and introducing audiences to some great talents in the international acting world. The film follows the story of Li Mu Bai, an accomplished Wudang swordsman who retires his legendary weapon only to be pulled back into a battle with his arch-nemesis, a woman who killed his master years earlier and seeks to claim his sword for her own. There’s more happening plot-wise — Bai has a love interest in another skilled warrior, Yu Shu Lien, and they’re both forced to face off against a Wudang prodigy that’s been studying under their enemy — but the real draw here is the perfectly-mapped-out fight sequences, which include just enough special effect to be awe-inducing, but not too much to distract from the beautiful choreography that Lee puts on display.
James Stewart stars in this holiday flick about a down-on-his-luck businessman who laments his suburban life. George Bailey wishes for a different, more successful life, one unencumbered by a wife and kids but when his wish is granted and an angel shows him what life would be like without him, Bailey must figure out how to make the most of the present. Stewart is magnetic in the role and though it’s thought of as a Christmas classic, this film can and should be enjoyed year-round.
This film by Destin Daniel Cretton (the guy Marvel’s tapped to direct Shang-Chi) marks the first leading role for Brie Larson. Long before her Captain Marvel days, Larson was playing Grace Howard, a young woman navigating life as a supervisor of a group home for troubled teens. Other soon-to-be stars like Lakeith Stanfield and Rami Malek also have a role in this thing but it’s Larson’s vehicle and she’s in full command of it.
Jonah Hill’s directorial debut is a nostalgic ode to growing up in the 90s. The film follows a 13-year-old kid named Stevie who spends one summer in L.A. navigating between his troubled home life and a new group of friends that push to him to test his own boundaries. The movie is heavy in skater culture, a scene L.A. was known for at the time, but it’s also an introspective look on making the transition from boyhood to adulthood, and how perilous that time can be.
Call us jaded, but few movies that are as hyped up as this Rian Johnson whodunnit actually live up to the hype. You’ve got an A-list cast that’s somehow managing to share the screen and carve out singular moments for their characters despite a packed plot. You’ve got a story with twists and turns and darkly comedic gags you could never see coming. And you’ve got Johnson, who managed to make an original film that actually competed with, and surpassed, some established franchises at the box office. Something’s got to be wrong with this movie, right? Wrong. It’s as layered and nuanced and perfect as Chris Evans’ waffle-knit sweater. Enjoy.
Disappointing sequels aside, the original installment in J.J. Abrams’ Cloverfield trilogy remains one of the greatest works of found-footage in the history of film. Most of that is because the narrative style lends itself to the tension, chaos, and horror of fleeing a monster destroying New York City. The film follows a group of friends caught in the bedlam after a Godzilla-like creature begins attacking the Big Apple. While trying to save each other and make it out of the city before the bombs drop, the friends document their journey. The directing by Matt Reeves is superb, almost too good, because you often feel a part of the action, for better and worse.
The Truman Show was truly ahead of its time when it landed in theaters in 1998. Starring Jim Carrey, the comedy centered on a young man, Truman Burbank, who unknowingly spent his entire life in front of the camera. With Carrey starring, the film had some funny moments, but it’s probably most memorable because of the subversive commentary it offers on our obsession with the intimate details of people’s lives. That and the fact that Carrey, who’s known for his over-the-top, obnoxious comedy style, kept it relatively low-key for most of the film and proved he could really act.
When filmmaker Kurt Kuenne’s childhood friend Andrew Bagby is killed and his suspected killer/ex-girlfriend reveals she’s pregnant, Kurt decides to make a documentary chronicling Andrew’s life. While largely a love letter to a man who touched the lives of many for Zachary, the son he never met, Dear Zachary also tells the starkly bitter side of a broken Canadian legal system that directly endangered a baby. We follow the drawn-out custody battle between Andrew’s parents and Zachary’s mother, interspersed with loving snapshots into the Bagby family. The story sucks you in, but it’s also the at times comedic, fast-paced, and downright enraging documentary style of the film that breaks up the emotional tale.
Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson team up for this comedy that imagines the grit and humor it takes to lead a late-night talk show as a woman. Thompson plays Katherine Newbury, an accomplished TV personality who fears she may lose her talk show because of declining ratings and competition from a younger, male comedian. She hires Molly (Kaling) a comedy writer with little experience to diversify her team, and the two women weather hilarious mishaps and a few scandals to bring the show back on track.
Bill Murray and a terrific Scarlett Johansson star in Sofia Coppola’s Oscar-winning dramedy. Murray plays Bob Harris, an aging movie star who has outlived his time in the spotlight and is finding it hard to move on. Johansson plays Charlotte, a young woman neglected and just a bit lost herself. The two form a quirky, thought-provoking bond that gives some much-needed enlightenment and us the chance to witness the actors’ comedic chemistry first hand.
Shia LaBeouf writes and stars in this semi-autobiographical tale of his time as a child star. Noah Jupe plays the younger version of himself while LaBeouf plays his controlling, often abusive father. The two live in motel rooms in L.A. while Otis (Jupe) works on a popular kids TV show. Their relationship becomes strained as Otis ages, and his dad James (LaBeouf) grows resentful of his son’s success. Lucas Hedges plays an elder Otis, who struggles with all kinds of addictions because of his rough, unconventional upbringing. It’s a tough watch but one that feels refreshingly honest, and you can’t deny LaBeouf’s talent and courage in telling such a raw, intimate story.
Based on a historical crime novel set in Victoria-Era England, Park Chan-wook’s lavish, mesmerizing thriller focuses on two young women fighting to escape oppression by the men in their lives. Chan-woo has traded the stuffy British countryside for Japanese-occupied Korea, telling the stories of Lady Hideko and her handmaiden Sook-hee in three parts, weaving a tale of passion, betrayal, dark secrets, and revenge with grander themes of imperialism, colonial rule, and patriarchal corruption. The two women are the draw of the film with both resorting to illicit, illegal, morally compromising schemes in order to gain their freedom, but love is an unintended consequence that leaves the third act — one you might think you have figured out halfway through the film — completely unpredictable.
Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon drew from their own unusual love story for their script about a Chicago comic named Kumail (Nanjiani) who falls in love with Emily, a woman (Zoe Kazan) who falls into a coma while in the midst of a rift in their relationship created by the expectations of Kumail’s traditional parents. The funny, moving romantic comedy also features strong supporting work from Ray Romano and Holly Hunter as Emily’s parents, who form an awkward bond with Kumail as they wait for Emily’s recovery.
Joaquin Phoenix stars as a troubled hitman with a dark past in this thrilling crime flick from Lynne Ramsay. Phoenix plays Joe, a gun for hire, former military man and FBI agent, who spends most of his time rescuing victims of sex trafficking. He’s recruited to save a Senator’s daughter from a brothel that caters to high-end clientele, but the job thrusts him into the center of a conspiracy that costs him everything and ends in blood and tragedy. It’s a relentless slog to be sure, but it works because Ramsay is more interested in profiling the man, not the hits he makes.
Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe star in this truly bonkers period drama from Robert Eggers. It’s a beautifully shot portrait of two men slowly driven to the brink of insanity by their choice in career — they’re stuck alone on a slab of rock, looking after a crumbling lighthouse. Pattinson masturbates to visions of mermaids, and Dafoe gets drunk and does a jig. To say anything more would be spoiling the fun.
Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet star in this heartbreaking drama about a father trying to save his son from a drug addiction that’s slowly eating away at his family. Carell plays David, a New York Times writer who struggles to help his son Nic (Chalamet) after he falls victim to a worrying drug habit. He has moments of sobriety, attending college, living with his mother in L.A., and working at a drug clinic to help others battling the disease. Yet eventually, his addiction returns, and Nic is powerless to fight it. David is forced to choose between sacrificing his family and his own sanity or continuing to help his son. Both Carell and Chalamet give powerful performances that elevate what essentially is an emotionally restrained look at father-son relationships and the landmines they navigate.
A portrait of a particular moment in music history, when the folk revival found young musicians discovering their voices in old styles and old songs, Inside Llewyn Davis stars Oscar Isaac as a singer/songwriter who can never quite translate his talent into professional success. Joel and Ethan Coen both exactingly recreate early ‘60s New York and use it as the site of one of an affecting tale of the clash between artistic impulses and the needs of the material world, a theme they’d previously explored with Barton Fink and would pick up again with Hail, Caesar!.
Dwayne Johnson and Lena Headey star in this family drama about a pair of siblings with dreams of making it in the WWE. Only one, Florence Pugh’s Saraya, actually makes it, but the road to wrestling stardom is riddled with fake friends, sexism, parental drama, and self-doubt. There’s plenty of great matchups here — body slams, cage matches and the like — but the real draw is Pugh, who completely disappears in the role.
Eva Khatchadourian (Tilda Swinton), who’s unwilling and unable to properly care for her troubled son Kevin, watches her life unravel as her husband (John C. Reilly) ignores their problems and Kevin grows more and more sociopathic and violent. The story jumps around in time, showing Swinton’s character as both a new mother who blames her son for ruining her life and as a woman who eventually blames herself for what becomes of her son. Swinton proves once again that she’s the actress that indie movies need for complex characters that live their lives in grey areas. At its core, We Need To Talk is about the importance of proper parenting, communication, and probably therapy. And it’s not for the faint of heart.
Ten years after his last Ocean‘s entry, Steven Soderbergh revisits the heist genre, this time centering on a pair of unlucky brothers (Channing Tatum and Adam Driver) working a scheme to rip off a big NASCAR race. Memorable side characters, rapid-fire dialogue, and charismatic performances keep the story from becoming too predictable even for a twist-filled heist tale. Soderbergh was even able to cut out major studios and keep complete creative control over the movie, thanks to streaming services and international distribution. It’s a largely light-hearted movie, and frankly, that’s necessary sometimes.
A mysterious pawnshop owner (Won Bin), whose only friend is a child that lives next door, tears the local criminal presence apart after she’s kidnapped. This South Korean thriller from Lee Jeong-beom follows a similar format to such films as Léon: The Professional and Man On Fire of “guy with a shady past protects little girl”, but The Man From Nowhere still crafts an original tale of a heartbroken man out to save the only thing he has left in this world. The action sequences are bloody and intense, and Bin’s stoic performance brings a painful depth to the brutal savior.
Coherence is one of those low-budget sci-fi stories that is extremely tough to explain without either giving too much away or requiring an extended entry. Essentially, a group of friends sifts through their own issues and insecurities during a mind-bending paradoxical experience. Taking place almost entirely in the same room on a single night, the characters struggle to find answers just as much as the viewer. It’s a challenging yet enthralling film, perfect for those who love to overthink things.
“thank you to everyone who has listened to skin especially those who have opened their minds to lyrically what i was trying to get across. i wasn’t bothered by a few lines in a (magnificent) song and wrote a diss track about it. i was at a tipping point in my life for countless reasons. so i was inspired to do what i usually do to cope, write something that i wish i could have told myself in the past. people can only get to you if you give them the power to. and a lot of people were trying to get to me. the song isn’t calling out one single person. some lines address a specific situation, while other lines address plenty of other experiences I’ve had this past year. it also shows that many things have actually gotten under my skin.. and I’m still learning to not give other people so much power over my feelings. I know a lot of you struggle with the same thing. i don’t want this to become an endless cycle so please don’t take this as an opportunity to send more hate anyone’s way.”
Definitely checks out and feels very authentic! Oh wait, except for the fact that she literally put the line “don’t drive yourself insane” in the bridge. This is a high-quality attempt at backpedaling, but nobody is buying it.
The fight game suffers from a similar paradox as politics. Just as winning elections and actually governing are two separate, possibly completely unrelated skill sets, so it is that the things that sell tickets to a fight aren’t the same things that make that fight great.
And this Saturday’s UFC main event between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier was great. It was notable not only for being a great fight, but for its decided lack of all the things a Conor McGregor fight usually sells. There was no big grudge match build up, no lengthy sizzle reels of the two guys trashing each other (or blurry TMZ videos of them throwing dollies through bus windows or whatever), and a notable dearth of politics, religion, xenophobia, water bottle chucking, and whatever else normally accompanies the Conor McGregor circus. McGregor and Poirier even genteelly touched gloves before the fight, before the ref even old them to.
When it was over, they congenially reminisced about all the great times they’d had punching and kicking each other.
Class from Dustin Poirier as he thanks Conor McGregor after the fight:#UFC257
Corny? Maybe, but it’s exactly the kind of corny I fall for every time. You probably don’t get into MMA training or serious MMA fandom if you don’t at least a little bit fall for the Fight Club ideal of two guys finding mutual spiritual fulfillment from having just beat the living piss out of each other.
I wish I could say that this fight was proof that a fight doesn’t need all the jawing and slurring and antics and post-fight brawls in order to be fun, but the truth is that I’m just as guilty of buying wolf tickets as anyone else. Hype is a necessary evil. If he wasn’t the best in the world at hyping up a fight, no one would’ve probably even seen Conor McGregor limping around afterwards acting strangely respectful. It wouldn’t have worked without star power. Whether a fight between two guys that hate each other makes a better fight than two guys who mostly sort of like each other is both a generalization and up for a debate. Mostly it just doesn’t matter once the opening bell rings. They’re two separate things.
These two had already fought once before, back in 2014, when McGregor knocked out Poirier in the first round. That was back when Conor was on the ascent, seemingly invincible and before the 13-second KO of Jose Aldo, who at that point had been undefeated for 10 years, forever cemented his legend.
Poirier earned his rematch in the time since by beating virtually ever other lightweight contender the UFC has — Max Holloway, Eddie Alvarez, Justin Gaethje, Dan Hooker, Anthony Pettis. In that sense, it’s funny to say that Poirier was the one who had to earn the rematch, since Conor had spent much of the same time dabbling in boxing and getting arrested, his lone MMA win in the past four years coming against Donald Cerrone, who is fun to watch but not really a contender these days, and at welterweight, a class in which McGregor doesn’t really fight. Yet it’s all-but undeniable that it was Poirier who had to earn the fight, because Conor is the best in the game at selling fights, and that’s what matters in the ticket-selling business.
Losses to Floyd Mayweather and Nate Diaz and Khabib Nurmogomedov notwithstanding (Nurmogomedov also holding Poirier’s only loss of the last four years, but now conveniently retired, supposedly), McGregor also came into the fight with that air of invincibility about him. There is the sense that McGregor doesn’t just beat people, he forever steals their confidence. Fighters like Chad Mendes, Jose Aldo, and Eddie Alvarez — to say nothing of earlier stepping stones like Diego Brandao — seem like they’ve never been quite the same since losing to Conor McGregor. He stole their sense of invincibility and used it to build his own. And yes, McGregor baiting his opponents into having to back up months worth of bitter trash talk probably has something to do with this phenomenon. Part of the reason Poirier’s journey has been so rousing, in fact, is that a lot of us sort of expected him to wilt like that, to maybe lose his chin, after losing to Conor McGregor. Instead, he’s seemed better than ever.
Yet in the first round of their fight, McGregor still felt like he had Dustin Poirier’s number. McGregor fought like every punch he landed could be the fight ender, while Poirier came out tight, seeming like he’d have to slip and dodge and land twice as often if he wanted to win. McGregor had that aura of casual dominance about him. It only started to crumble towards the end of the first round, when, at some point, Poirier’s calf kicks began to feel like an offensive strategy rather than panicked defense. It seemed to coincide with the the moment when he stopped caring about whether Conor McGregor would embarrass him in front of millions of people and started worrying about the fists and shins flying towards his body.
Those kinds of moments, when there’s some palpable shift in the arena, and we get to watch some previously-dominant fighter’s indefinable mental edge crumble before our eyes, is why, for all its obvious faults, I still love MMA. I remember watching it happen to Ronda Rousey (twice), I remember it happening when GSP kicked Matt Hughes in the forehead (I literally jumped on my couch), when Gonzaga deactivated Cro Cop with his own head kick, when Verdum submitted Fedor, and on and on. As much as I enjoy the technical discussions of why an elbow here and not there will make the difference between nuisance and bodily deactivation, or why Poirier’s calf kicks are the perfect counter to Conor’s wide base, it’s that mystical shit that gets me every time. When something ineffable yet totally palpable changes in two fighters’ essential dynamic. It allows me to believe for a second in a world beyond the physical.
We got to watch that Saturday night. It was as beautiful as ever. Now, I know I wouldn’t root for Dustin Poirier so hard if Conor McGregor hadn’t given him the early gift of allowing him to be the unassuming babyface to Conor’s arrogant heel. That we wouldn’t have cared so much about this fight in the first place if Conor hadn’t talked himself into relevance over and over again by being such a perfectly infuriating little prick.
Even still, that we could watch a fight that was just a great fight, and not a grudge match or a bully battle or a clash of cultures and ideologies was the icing on the cake. Few things feel quite so refreshing in 2021 as not having to exploit people’s essential differences in order to make us care.
Vince Mancini is onTwitter. You can access his archive of reviewshere.
Amanda Bynes loves rappers, but now it seems she would like to be one — and she’s got at least one major co-sign should she pursue a serious career. The former Nickelodeon star shared a snippet of her first, bass-heavy attempt, titled “Diamonds,” on Instagram last week, and it seems to have impressed Lil Uzi Vert, who tweeted this morning, “I wanna work with Amanda Bynes.” Just in case anyone thought he might be joking, he added, “SHE BETTER HIT THAT AMANDA PLEASEEEEEEE.”
I wanna work with Amanda Bynes .
SHE BETTER HIT THAT AMANDA PLEASEEEEEEE on my shit !
In 2013, Bynes drew attention for expressing her major thirst for Drake. When she tweeted, “I want Drake to murder my vagina,” the responses ranged from amused to concerned to just plain confused. She later explained that when she tweeted it she was “on drugs and trying to be hilarious,” but she still had a lengthy break from the spotlight as she seemingly recovered, despite an optimistic profile in Paper magazine in 2018. Although she announced her intention to return to television at the time, she has yet to accumulate any new credits on her IMDB page, which still lists Easy A‘s conservative Christian bully Marianne as her last role.
Meanwhile, Lil Uzi Vert’s most recent collaboration was a bit more conventional. Despite releasing two albums’ worth of material in early 2020, he managed to close out the year with one last big project, Pluto X Baby Pluto, a collaborative mixtape with Future.
Leonardo DiCaprio was one of dozens of celebrities, politicians, scholars, and CEOs who signed an open letter to President Joe Biden asking him to take the threat of climate change seriously. “Congratulations! Your inauguration marks a turning point in history for the United States of America and for the world. The task ahead is enormous: the need to tackle the devastating global health and economic crises, and the need to unite Americans in doing so, is urgent,” it reads, adding that the 2020s is “the most decisive decade in human history to confront the climate crisis.”
Biden can be remembered as the “climate president,” the letter continues, while describing him as possibly transforming “the world’s energy systems from fossil fuels to clean energy, while also creating an abundance of jobs, reducing harmful pollution, and tackling economic, racial, and health inequality in the process.” Rejoining the Paris Agreement, which he did on his first day in office, was a good start, but “as you have stated, it is simply not enough”:
You’ve famously said: “When I hear the words climate change, I hear jobs.” We agree. While the climate crisis presents incredible challenges, it is also the greatest economic opportunity for innovation, job creation, new businesses, and investment in our communities. It goes hand in hand with restoring justice and building an equitable, inclusive, and just future for all.
Other actors actors who signed the letter include Zooey Deschanel, Rosanna Arquette, Connie Britton, Natalie Portman, and Mark Ruffalo. DiCaprio has been a long-time climate change activist, and his The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation “brings attention and needed funding to six program areas: Wildlands Conservation, Oceans Conservation, Climate Change, Indigenous Rights, Transforming California, and Innovative Solutions.”
You can read the entire letter below.
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on my shit !
® (@LILUZIVERT) 