Category: News

Maybe you haven’t spent the last two months or so curating your entire personality based on Cocaine Bear, but you probably have heard of it. The movie seems to be confusing people who don’t understand if it’s a joke, a true story, an action heist, or some sort of mini The Americans reunion, and the answer is this: Yes! It’s all of the above! But that might be a little daunting to moviegoers, especially since solid bear representation is so sparse in Hollywood.

Cocaine Bear is based on a true story, so it’s not like you can claim it is unoriginal, though people probably will anyway. Even though it is absurd, the whole cast and crew seem to know that, which means that it likely doesn’t take itself too seriously. Now that the first reviews are out, here is what you can expect from a movie about a bear that eats cocaine:

Mike Ryan, Uproxx:

In the end, Cocaine Bear is the silly fun that a movie called Cocaine Bear should provide us, the audience looking for silly fun. This is not a movie that takes itself seriously, even though the gore rises to the level of some pretty good horror movies. (There’s one death scene, in particular, I found myself laughing out loud because it was so unexpected. I laughed and clapped my way through this entire movie.) I mentioned Freddy Krueger earlier, but Cocaine Bear plays more like an ’80s horror movie in the vein of Friday the 13th. But instead of Jason Voorhees, we get a fun bear who would probably be minding its own business except for all the cocaine it’s done.

Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter:

Because Cocaine Bear doesn’t take itself too seriously, you shouldn’t either. The creators toy with Cokey’s murderous tendencies, which are only triggered when she crosses paths with humans. An appetite for body horror is a prerequisite for fully appreciating the absurdity of the pain and torture inflicted upon people in the film: the chorus of shrill screams, limbs flying toward the camera, skin tearing like leather — you get the picture. Banks and Warden take immense and infectious joy in engineering these scenarios, ratcheting up the ridiculousness to volley with our nerves. One minute you’re chuckling at a zingy one-liner, the next you’re muttering “what the f**k” under your breath.

Pete Hammond, Deadline:

Banks is a savvy director, never letting the intended humor camp things up too much, but also well aware this is a horror film with a flesh-chomping bear at its center and all the body parts that entails, and audiences have to buy all that or the soufflé falls. It doesn’t. You’ll have a blast.

Maria Lattila, WhyNow:

Cocaine Bear is hilarious. The jokes come frequently, and nearly every single one lands. Banks proves herself to be a savvy, competent director; getting a film like Cocaine Bear off the ground is an impressive feat, but making it such a riot is a true testament to her capabilities as a director.

Andrew J Salazar, Discussing Film:

Cocaine Bear will certainly be embraced with open arms by many, since it’s not everyday a major studio invests in a wild story like this. Yet, the film never reaches it’s full potential in trying to appease as many people as possible. What you see is what you get here. But if you’re looking to simply distract yourself for an hour and a half with a good old-fashioned, coke-fueled bloodbath sprinkled with ’80s bops, then Cocaine Bear gets the job done.

While many leaned into the horror and silliness, others were unimpressed with the movie about a bear eating cocaine. As David Sims explains in his Atlantic Review:

Cocaine Bear could’ve been a triumph if the jokes landed, but the zingers just aren’t up to the mayhem. And though the character actors are all capable of sterling work, there’s nobody to root for here; Ehrenreich comes the closest, giving his coke-hunting dirtbag character just enough humanity that you aren’t instantly hoping for his limbs to be torn off. But the main event is the cocaine bear, and the meager humans only distract from her might.

Jude Dry of IndieWire, agreed to an extent:

The blatantly ridiculous appeal of “Cocaine Bear” is proof enough that the project isn’t lacking in self-awareness, but to what end? It’s not unhinged enough to qualify as full-blown parody, and not smart enough to be called satire. Banks seems uninterested in directly referencing exploitation movies of the past, or in burying winking cultural critiques within the outlandish action. Maybe that’s too much to ask from a movie called “Cocaine Bear.” Like its title, what you see is what you get.

Paul Attard, Slant:

Cocaine Bear starts running on fumes almost immediately and peters out before the second brick of cocaine is even devoured. This is a film that finds side characters trading irreverent banter at a steady clip and tough-guy drug dealers playing a game of 20 questions that leaves them feeling all the feels—all before the coked-out bear sinks its paws and teeth into them. Would that the bear’s carnage felt more gleefully unhinged or unnerving, because then it would have been easier to ignore the fact that, if you replaced it with Jason Vorhees, or Freddy Krueger, or just about any other on-screen maniac, you’ve already seen this film before.

The moral of the story here is that a bear ate some cocaine and there is a movie about it. It should not be that deep, and it should be fun. This isn’t changing any lives, but hopefully, it will make yours better for an hour and 35 minutes. We’ve seen it before!

Cocaine Bear will make his grizzly theater debut this Friday, February 24th.

The Murdaugh Murders are about to become TV’s next big true crime obsession thanks to a Netflix docuseries that was released earlier this week.

Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal is a three-part documentary that retraces one of the most shocking murder investigations in South Carolina’s history. It involves a prominent, politically-powerful family, multiple coverups, fraud, money laundering, addiction, and a failed assassination attempt allegedly orchestrated by its own victim. Currently, the case is on trial but to understand the complex, frankly baffling backstory of this terrible tragedy that brought down a modern Southern dynasty.

Who Is Alex Murdaugh?

Alex Murdaugh is the 54-year-old disgraced attorney and heir to the Murdaugh Empire. His family has held powerful judicial offices in Hampton County, South Carolina for the past 100 years with his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all serving as the solicitor in the 14th Judicial Circuit solicitor’s office. Murdaugh worked at a law firm owned by his family and married his college sweetheart Maggie. The couple had two sons, Buster (the eldest) and Paul (the youngest).

Murdaugh was viewed as an upstanding citizen and a trusted voice in his community but, following multiple deaths connected to his family — including the murders of his wife and youngest son Paul for which he is now on trial — accusations of fraud, money laundering, and drug use have surfaced to paint a darker picture of Murdaugh and his motives. Not only has the family patriarch admitted to a two-decade-long opioid addiction that he hid from his friends and family, but his clients have also alleged he stole millions of dollars from them in life insurance settlements — money his law firm partners are now having to pay back on his behalf.

Where Did The Murdaughs Live?

The Murdaughs lived in Hampton County, South Carolina which lies on the border of South Carolina and Georgia and is a two-hour drive from Charleston. The family owned multiple properties but their most prized residence is a sprawling 1700-acre estate known as Moselle. The property was used for hunting and hosting huge family get-togethers. It’s also where both Paul and Maggie plus the family’s longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, eventually died.

How Did Paul Murdaugh And Maggie Murdaugh Die?

On June 7, 2021, Paul and Maggie Murdaugh were found shot to death near the kennels on the Moselle property. Maggie was shot five times, including in her torso, chest, and the back of her head while son Paul was shot twice with a shotgun. While both sustained fatal injuries and likely died quickly after the shooting, Paul suffered particularly gruesome blows that reportedly separated his brain from his head, killing him instantly. Murdaugh was the first to the scene, discovering the bodies of his wife and son shortly before placing a call to the police.

What Was The Motive For Killing Paul And Maggie Murdaugh?

The motives for the killings of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh are still a bit murky. Currently, Alex Murdaugh is on trial, accused of killing both family members to hide his financial crimes. Prosecutors in the case allege that Murdaugh committed the murders in order to divert attention from his own criminal behavior relating to his law firm and to buy him some time before answering charges of theft and mismanagement from his clients. In a court filing, prosecutors wrote the following:

The evidence will show Murdaugh accrued substantial debts over a period of years and to uncover those debts began engaging in illicit financial crimes. The evidence will further show these financial crimes were about to come to light at the time of the killings, more specifically on the date of the killings. Ultimately the murders served as Murdaugh’s means to shift the focus away from himself and buy himself some additional time to try and prevent his financial crimes from being uncovered, which, if revealed, would have resulted in personal legal and financial ruin for Murdaugh.

Strangely enough, Murdaugh was involved in a drive-by shooting shortly after Maggie and Paul’s deaths that he initially claimed was an assassination attempt. According to police, however, the incident was a botched suicide-for-hire plot that Murdaugh orchestrated in order to get a life insurance payout for his son, Buster. Murdaugh is also facing charges for that scheme but he claims it’s not proof that he killed his wife and son.

According to him, the motives for the shooting are related to another death connected to the family that his son Paul might have been responsible for. Murdaugh has alleged that Paul had been receiving threats related to the incident that might provide both a motive and a connection to the killer.

Who Is Mallory Beach?

Mallory Beach was a 19-year-old South Carolina native who attended Wade Hampton High School and was friends with Alex Murdaugh’s youngest son, Paul. In February 2019, Beach was involved in a fatal boating accident after an allegedly drunken Paul crashed his family’s boat into a bridge at high speed. Beach was ejected from the vessel upon impact and, because the accident happened late at night, first responders struggled to find her. Friends who were also riding in the boat alleged that Paul was heavily intoxicated and acting erratically, refusing to let anyone else drive and fighting with passengers.

Eight days after the crash, volunteers and investigators located Beach’s body some five miles from the site of the accident.

What Was The Cause Of Death For Mallory Beach?

After Paul Murdaugh’s murder, investigators in the Mallory Beach case revealed new information about her death, including the cause of it. When Murdaugh hit the bridge at high speed, Beach had been sitting on top of her boyfriend, Anthony Cook’s, lap. She was thrown out of the boat while Connor and other passengers remained inside, sustaining multiple injuries. The coroner’s office determined Beach died from blunt force trauma — likely from the impact of hitting the water and such high speeds — and drowning.

Did Alex Murdaugh Kill Mallory Beach?

It was Paul, not Alex Murdaugh, who was driving the boat the night Mallory Beach was killed. At the time of his death, Paul was out on bond, awaiting trial after being charged with three felony counts of boating under the influence. He had pled not guilty but the intense scrutiny directed toward the family might have made Alex’s money troubles even worse. His financial crimes were slowly coming to light and his involvement in allegedly trying to cover up Paul’s involvement in the crash put a target on his back.

According to Anthony Cook, Alex tried to reframe the narrative to make the police believe it was him and not Paul driving that night. Alex also rushed to the hospital where the teens were taken, allegedly going from room to room trying to talk to the remaining survivors of the crash.

What Is SLED?

SLED stands for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and it’s a statewide investigative agency that assists in and conducts investigations at the direction of the Governor and the Attorney General of the state. SLED agents were involved in both the Mallory Beach death and the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh, responding to both scenes and conducting separate investigations. Murdaugh has since admitted to lying to SLED agents about his whereabouts the night his wife and son died.

Where Can You Livestream The Murdaugh Trial?

The Murdaugh Murders trial is currently taking place in Colleton County, South Carolina, and is being covered by multiple major news outlets including CNN and MSNBC. Livestreams of the trial can be found on Youtube courtesy of local news stations like News 19 and outlets like USA Today.

Being a backup quarterback in the NFL is the closest thing you can get to on the job training to be a coach while being a player, because, barring an injury that forces you into action, you spend most of your time helping the starter and learning the ins and outs of the playbook.

Davis Webb, who was a third round pick of the Giants in 2017, has spent the past five years playing for all three teams that claim New York as home — the Giants, Jets, Bills, and, again, the Giants — playing in just two games over that span, a start this past year in which he went 23-of-40 for 168 yards and a touchdown. Apparently, that time holding the clipboard over five years was enough to catch the eye of Sean Payton, who has brought Webb in to Denver, not as a player, but as the quarterback coach for the Broncos under new offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi.

That means the 28-year-old Webb will be coaching Russell Wilson, who is six years his senior.

It’s not often that you get players being coached by someone younger than them, but this seems like it’ll be a fascinating dynamic, particularly given how apparently set in his ways Russell Wilson is. If the Broncos want to ask Wilson, who struggled mightily last year, to change some things, bringing in someone younger who has never coached the position before to do so is certainly an interesting choice.

NLE Choppa is giving out flowers to everyone that inspires him, including himself. The Memphis rapper is looking for a fresh start in all areas of his life. Whether it is his physical health thanks to herbology, spiritual well-being, or community involvement seen in him organizing a peaceful protest in his hometown, NLE Choppa is taking take ownership of himself.

His latest Tay Keith-produced single, “23,” off his upcoming project Cottonwood 2 is the result of this work. The rapper stopped by our studios to share the behind-the-scenes of the song’s accompanying video.

“I named the song ’23’ because I felt the year of 2023 was a [Michael] Jordan year. This year might make the goats. This year might make people that are not the goats,” said Choppa.

The video, co-directed by the rapper and Water Wippin Evan, as Choppa shares, was filmed over the course of two days, starting in Los Angeles and then ending in Memphis on the same block where it all began for him.

When asked by Uproxx’s Cherise Johnson what it was like to return to his hometown in the same place he filmed his breakout hit, “Shotta Flow,” Choppa said, “Man, it was beautiful. I got a lot of love too. There were a lot of kids running up to me,” before adding, “it’s really memory lane.”

That’s not the only reason the video holds an emotional significance to him. Parts of the video were filmed around the memorial services for the late rapper Big Scarr, who was a dear friend of his.

Watch NLE Choppa’s full behind-the-scenes breakdown of the “23” video above.

Outside of his behind-the-scenes video breakdown, be sure to catch NLE Choppa’s UPROXX Sessions performance of “23.” Click here to watch it now.

NLE Choppa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

If you are worried that the movie Cocaine Bear won’t live up to its title, fear not … for there is very much a bear in this movie that does a bunch of cocaine on multiple occasions. Also, this is one of the goriest movies I’ve seen in ages that’s not billed as a horror movie. (To be clear, it’s very fun gore. Like Freddy Krueger-type gore.) So what we have here is a coked-out bear on a murder spree and, honestly, it’s literally everything I would want from a movie called Cocaine Bear.

Elizabeth Banks’s Cocaine Bear is loosely based on a true story. “Loosely” in the fact that in the real-life story, it’s true that in 1985 there was a bear who ate cocaine after drug smugglers dumped their cargo high over rural Tennessee. In the real-life story, as you might expect from an animal who ate 75 pounds of cocaine, it died pretty quickly. This is not the plot of Cocaine Bear. In Cocaine Bear, the bear who eats cocaine goes on a gruesome, murderous rampage against anyone who gets in the way of the bear having more cocaine.

It’s good to see Ray Liotta one more time, chewing scenery, and having a fun time in a movie called Cocaine Bear. When Liotta was promoting The Many Saints of Newark I asked him about Cocaine Bear, which he was currently filming, and he sounded like he was having a ball, “They’ve been doing it for about a month. I just was there a few days ago. I’m going to go back tonight. Yeah, it’s really an interesting, different story. And it definitely resonates with me. What are you doing? Like, Cocaine Bear! What is that? Just the title alone.”

Liotta plays the head of a drug smuggling ring who’s going to be in some hot water if he doesn’t recover all this missing cocaine. He sends his sad sack son, Marty (Alden Ehrenreich), and his pal Howard (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) to go find the cocaine. Not only do these two have to deal with a bear on cocaine, but there’s a whole assortment of other characters. There are the two kids (Brooklynn Prince and Christian Convery) who find cocaine in the woods and kind of think that’s cool. There’s Keri Russell, playing a mom looking for the two kids. There’s the park ranger played by Margo Martindale who has an itchy trigger finger and the man of her affection (Jesse Tyler Ferguson). There are three punks who in their spare time mug hikers who also find the cocaine. And then there’s the FBI agent (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) chasing down Marty and Howard. Anyway, the point is here there are plenty of characters for the Cocaine Bear to eat.

(As an aside, Cocaine Bear is a sneaky great ’80s movie. When we see a kid’s bedroom, it does not have posters of The Thing on the wall because no kid in 1985 had a poster of The Thing on the wall, no matter how much Gen X filmmakers want you to believe they did at the time. What they do have on the wall in Cocaine Bear are posters of Jason Bateman and Adam Ant. Now, this is historically accurate. When characters drive around with the radio on, it’s not the same three ’80s songs on the radio. In this movie, “No More Words” by Berlin plays. A song that was on the radio nonstop at a point in our history. Also, there’s a scene at a self-described dive bar in St. Louis. As someone who was a kid in St. Louis in 1985, I scoffed at first, thinking, “Well, any 1985 St. Louis dive bar would have Falstaff signs everywhere.” We get a wide shot, and there’s the Falstaff sign. A beer my dad loved back then that no longer exists. Anyway, I can’t remember the last time I was so impressed with the details like this.)

In the end, Cocaine Bear is the silly fun that a movie called Cocaine Bear should provide us, the audience looking for silly fun. This is not a movie that takes itself seriously, even though the gore rises to the level of some pretty good horror movies. (There’s one death scene, in particular, I found myself laughing out loud because it was so unexpected. I laughed and clapped my way through this entire movie.) I mentioned Freddy Krueger earlier, but Cocaine Bear plays more like an ’80s horror movie in the vein of Friday the 13th. But instead of Jason Voorhees, we get a fun bear who would probably be minding its own business except for all the cocaine it’s done.

What’s weird about a movie like Cocaine Bear (kind of similar to Plane earlier this year), these feel like fun outliers now when we used to get movies like this all the time. But now to even get attention they need titles like Cocaine Bear or the funny simplicity of Plane or Ambulance. But I’m glad attempts are still being made to make these movies and I’d be the first person in line for Cocaine Bear 2. Long live the Cocaine Bear.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

It seems like, somewhere along the line, people began thinking that you could successfully make a franchise by simply adding “extended universe” to a concept. It doesn’t always work, but it seems like the great minds in Hollywood have taken the idea and run with it, because we are extending and expanding universes left and right lately. Now, we are getting into the IT extended universe so that we can all experience a clown universe, thanks to the success of Terrifier 2.

Welcome To Derry will expand on the IT franchise that you were afraid of as a child but by the time you were old enough to care, it stopped being scary. HBO Max will bring Pennywise to life (again! he doesn’t die) with the help of filmmaker Andy Muschetti, who will direct the pilot episode.

According to the press release, the series will be a prequel to the iconic horror tale: “Set in the world of Stephen King’s IT universe, WELCOME TO DERRY (wt) is based on King’s IT novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films IT and IT Chapter Two.” Maybe the real horror here is trying to Google “It” and expecting to get any sort of information out of it.

Of course, we have seen this before. Castle Rock, Hulu’s take on the Stephen King cinematic universe, had all of the right stuff to make a successful TV show: horror, ghosts, and a Skarsgard (doesn’t matter which one), so it should have worked. But, it didn’t have that “extended universe” tag, so nobody really cared, so it was canceled and once again Melanie Lynskey was robbed of some sort of award.

But it seems like Stephen King has learned from this, and feels confident in HBO’s ability to populate the sewer systems with haunted clowns. The author expressed his excitement in a statement: “I’m excited that the story of Derry, Maine’s most haunted city, is continuing, and I’m glad Andy Muschietti is going to be overseeing the frightening festivities, along with a brain trust including his talented sister, Barbara. Red balloons all around!”

Listen, balloons are scary right now, so this might actually work. Considering that Bill Skarsgard has portrayed Pennywise in the past, maybe HBO can bring him back so that they get they can give the proper “horror, ghosts, and a Skarsgard” formula another shot. Again, it doesn’t matter which one, any of them would work.

(Via Deadline)

Harvey Weinstein and his mangled testicles will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. On Thursday, a Los Angeles judge sentenced the disgraced Hollywood producer to 16 years behind bars for rape and other sex crimes; that’s on top of the 23 years the 70-year-old is already serving.

“The sentence follows Jane Doe 1, whose testimony prompted the sole guilty verdict from jury, suing Weinstein in February for rape and false imprisonment, among other claims,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. She alleged that Weinstein forced her to “perform oral sex on him before pulling her into the bathroom to rape her” at a hotel in Los Angeles in February 2013.

“Before that night,” Jane Doe 1 said about her encounter with Weinstein (who reportedly smells like “poop”), “I was a very happy and confident woman. I valued myself and the relationship I had with God. I was excited about my future. Everything changed after the defendant brutally assaulted me.” She urged the court to issue the “maximum sentence allowed” and that there’s “no prison sentence long enough to erase the damage” that Weinstein caused.

Weinstein faced two counts of rape and five counts of other types of sexual assault. He pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. In June, a New York appeals court upheld a 23-year sentence following his conviction of committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree and third-degree rape.

If Weinstein serves the entirety of his sentence, he’ll be 109 years old.

(Via the Hollywood Reporter)

Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.

10. (tie) Snowfall (FX/Hulu)

The FX drama about the rise of the cocaine trade in 1980s Los Angeles is back for one last go-round. Things do get bleak here sometimes, as one can suspect from… well, from a show about the rise of the cocaine trade in 1980s Los Angeles, but it remains a solid watch. If nothing else, this is your reminder to power-binge the first few seasons to get caught up for the finale. If only there was a way to stay up all night to power through…

Watch it on Hulu

10. (tie) The Reluctant Traveler (Apple TV+)

Here’s the pitch: Eugene Levy, star of many delightful comedies over the last few decades but probably best known for his roles in American Pie and Schitt’s Creek, does not love to travel. But guess what: He’s going to do it anyway. A lot! As far as premises for reality-based travel series go, you can do a hell of a lot worse than “Eugene Levy is kind of miserable in beautiful locations around the world.” That could be the whole description. It kind of is! Good for Eugene Levy. Maybe bad for him, actually. But… good for us. That’s the important thing here.

Watch it on Apple TV Plus

10. (tie) Cunk on Earth (Netflix)

Philomena Cunk first appeared as a character in Charlie Brooker’s little universe of shows, making her mark as an “expert” and “investigative reporter” who knew very little about anything but was very confident about all of it anyway. Here, she gets her own playground to go wild, with a full season to examine the history of the world. It’s a ton of fun, part Nathan for You, part Daily Show reports from the field, but still entirely original. And really, really funny. This is a good one to sit down with for a few hours with your brain turned down to a low hum. Let Philomena Cunk teach you nothing of value for a little bit. You deserve this break.

Watch it on Netflix

9. Hello Tomorrow (Apple TV)

Human beings need dreams, but do dreams need salespeople? And are those salespeople providing a service by distracting people with hope or are they just setting people up for disappointment while lining their own pockets? These questions come to mind when watching Hello Tomorrow, Apple’s new Billy Crudup-starring drama that blends 1950s futurism with an exploration of hope (in the form of timeshares on the moon), regret, and the heaven on earth that is redemption.

Watch it on Apple TV Plus

8. Bel-Air (Peacock)

The dramatic series inspired by the comedic series inspired by the real-ish experience of the guy who slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars is back for a second season on Peacock. That was a lot of fun to spell out like that. It’s still a little wild that this is a show. A pretty good one, too! There’s still plenty of time to get involved if you haven’t already. No time like the present, buddy.

Watch it on Peacock

7. Abbott Elementary (Hulu)

The first season of Abbott Elementary was a feel-good network sitcom that caught a massive wave of popularity and won a bunch of Emmys in a time when feel-good network sitcoms are kind of not supposed to do that. Credit for this goes to creator and star Quinta Brunson, who realized that an underfunded inner-city public school was exactly the right place to show us people with good hearts working inside a system that can be cold. Kind of like Parks and Recreation but in Philadelphia. The second season is underway and does not appear to be missing a beat. This is basically a miracle, all around.

Watch it on Hulu

6. Outer Banks (Netflix)

This soapy mystery thriller will keep the battle going between rival groups Kooks and the Pogues, who are very pleased to be somewhere that they’ve dubbed “Poguelandia” this season. The latter group now aims to visit the Caribbean for new adventures and a treasure hunt, but of course, that leads to romantic diversions into other locations while everyone searches for a lost city. It happens.

Watch it on Netflix

5. You (Netflix)

Joe Goldberg has another new name, and he’s moved to London. More news: the stalker is the one being stalked. Joe also has a new beard, but someone’s still onto him, but most importantly for his purposes, he’s vowed to finally change his ways, but books are still there for him. He’s now Jonathan Moore, a fake professor, who’s staring into the souls of college students and the adults who can’t quit academia, either. Penn Badgley has admitted to to feeling “icky” about a Season 4 poster, which still fits with the theme of the show, but now, it’s also a mystery story.

Watch it on Netflix

4. Shrinking (Apple TV Plus)

The mental health and comedy crossover of Ted Lasso was apparent in the show’s second season as Ted’s coping mechanisms started to falter, pushing him to get some help. Shrinking, which comes from the minds of Lasso producer Bill Lawrence and Lasso writer/co-star Brett Goldstein (as well as series star Jason Segel) begins in a similar place with its main character, played by Segel, realizing that his strategies aren’t working when it comes to managing grief, having a relationship with his daughter, and helping the patients who come to him for help as their therapist. What follows is an odyssey of personal rediscovery with plenty of awkward moments, incremental improvements, and a whole lot of charming grouchiness from Harrison Ford as a begrudging mentor type.

Watch it on Apple TV Plus

3. Party Down (Starz)

Reboots and long-delayed restarts scratch a nostalgia itch while usually falling short of equalling their past greatness, but somehow Party Down returns with its bite largely intact. The cast (anchored by Adam Scott) still plays well together, but it’s the story that sets this one apart with all the subtle ways these characters have and have not changed, marking the passage of time but not necessarily the rise of maturity.

Watch it on Starz

2. The Last of Us (HBO Max)

One of the most popular video games of all-time comes to HBO as a television series, with Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal leading the cast on a post-apocalyptic trek through a harsh landscape filled with horrors. The reviews are really good. HBO gave it the primo Sunday night slot it reserved for shows like Game of Thrones and Succession. It’s led by Craig Mazin, who also produced Chernobyl, another gripping watch about the potential end of the world. There is a lot to be excited about here. Dive in so you know what your cool friends are talking about.

Watch it on HBO Max

1. Poker Face (Peacock)

Rian Johnson and Natasha Lyonne have combined their powers to give us a gift that keeps on giving with a case-of-the-week style detective show featuring a hyper-observant and very idiosyncratic lead. Played by Lyonne, Charlie Cale just happens to be on the lam and on a roll when it comes to stumbling into other people’s very bad days. Part Columbo with dashes of Highway To Heaven and Psych, Poker Face is a true slice of comfort food, smart, funny, and distinctive.

Watch it on Peacock

Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.

10. (tie) Pamela, A Love Story (Netflix)

Pamela Anderson gets the full documentary treatment from Netflix. Which makes sense. Very few people have defined an entire era of sex appeal and beauty standards — for better or worse — than the Baywatch star did in the 1990s. This look at her life covers, well, all of that, as well as the infamous sex tape and various rock star marriages and her activism for animal rights. It’s kind of a lot, really, which also makes sense. The woman has lived a big life, in a bunch of ways, and now she’s telling the story in her own words.

Watch it on Netflix

10. (tie) The Pez Outlaw (Netflix)

We all have our little preoccupations and collections. Baseball cards, Funko Pops, creepy victorian dolls with their watchful eyes and secrets. Pez Outlaw is about, you guessed it, collecting pez dispensers, those cheap plastic candy dispensers of yore. But it’s also about making cold hard cash, the lengths one will go to feed their habit for pez and profits, black markets, and international intrigue. So pop back the head of this doc and bite out the sweet treat of infotainment with this hyper-stylized doc.

Watch it on Netflix

9. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix)

Daniel Craig returns as Benoit Blanc with a whole new cast of potential murdermakers to relish. Dave Bautista as a scantily clad social media sensation is only one of the ensemble highlights, and the endless buffet of cameos can not be stopped, nor do the story’s twists feel gratuitous or implausible. Instead, the film dances through mischief and swings bigger and better with a series of bewitching wrinkles and knots that will make you forgive the runtime. In fact, you’ll barely notice the passage of time because this film is fun and cerebral and makes perfect sense when all is revealed. Also, one of the greatest TV murder detectives in history makes a (bittersweet) cameo, for crying out loud. Netflix really should have run with a longer theatrical window, but at least it’s streaming for you now.

Watch it on Netflix

8. You People (Netflix)

Black-ish creator Kenya Barris makes his directorial debut in this movie that appears to star too many funny people. We’ve got Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill (who plays one half of a couple completed by Lauren London) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Sam Jay to bring laughs. Also look for a hefty dose of Nia Long and David Duchovny, who plays a dad (bye bye, Fox Mulder and Hank Moody, who was a different kind of dad). The subject matter happens to be romance and cultural clashes, but fortunately, yes, there are many funny people here.

Watch it on Netflix

7. Tár (Peacock)

Tár is a performance piece for Cate Blanchett, which is great because Cate Blanchett always deserves a place to do stuff like that. Here, she plays composer Lydia Tár, a kind of mad genius who is a few days away from a huge symphony performance and dealing with everything around her falling apart. It’s a psychological roller coaster and can be a heavy lift but if you want to see Cate Blanchett give it the full Cate Blanchett, buddy, Tár is the movie for you.

Watch it on Peacock

6. Your Place or Mine (Netflix)

Ashton Kutcher and Reese Witherspoon play mismatched best friends — she loves the calm of California, he loves the chaos of New York — who swip-swap houses for a week for reasons that we could explain, but… you’ve seen a rom-com before. You know how this goes. The draw here is less the story than the star power, with a couple of our more charming faces shining bright. A solid watch for a quiet Valentine’s.

Watch it on Netflix

5. Somebody I Used To Know (Amazon Prime)

Dave Franco and wife Alison Brie already have one on-screen project in the books – the unsettling thriller The Rental that will likely turn you off Air BnB for good. For their follow-up, the couple takes on a different genre – swapping horror for comedy – and a different, but no less cringeworthy, topic. Brie plays Ally, a successful TV producer who’s thrown a professional curveball and forced to seek solace in the one place she swore never to return: home. She reconnects with her ex Sean, rediscovers herself, and for a while, Somebody I Used to Know reads like a plot-by-numbers rom-com — until Sean’s fiancé pops up and wedding festivities begin and a possible throuple forms? Come for the secondhand embarrassment-fueled laughs, stay for the surprising amount of heart.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

4. The Menu (HBO Max)

A horror-comedy set on an island where a fancy young couple has traveled to dine at a world-class restaurant led by a world-class chef who may have other things in store for them beyond your standard filets and Caesar salads. It’s… weird. But also surprisingly fun. Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult are out there — apologies for this awful pun but it had to be done — making a meal of it all. In a good way. Definitely in a better way than their characters do. It’s a good time. Just maybe don’t start it before dinner.

Watch it on HBO Max

3. Sharper (Apple TV)

Lots going on here, all of it intriguing. We’ve got Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan and John Lithgow all starring in what Apple describes as a twisty neo-noir thriller where a con artist takes on a slew of Manhattan billionaires. That’s probably enough to get you excited, at least a little. You could do a lot worse, that’s for sure. The world needs more Julianne Moore.

Watch it on Apple TV Plus

2. Babylon (Paramount Plus)

Babylon bombed at the box office, but someday, it will find the audience it deserves. That day could be today if you watch it on Paramount Plus. Which you should. Damien Chazelle’s debauched chronicle of Hollywood’s transition from silent films to talkies is the rare three-hour movie that’s never boring. Babylon is full of glitz, glamor, cocaine, an S&M dungeon, and a pooping elephant. It’s also got Margot Robbie fighting a snake — what more could you want?

Watch it on Paramount Plus

1. M3GAN (Peacock)

Make it the love child of Chucky and the Terminator, drop it on audiences inundated by stories of automation and AI, and then make it fabulous. M3GAN lived up to the hype, dancing into the hearts of horror fans as the emotional support doll from hell. Now, as she sets her sights on VOD, we’ve been given a new promise: more carnage with an unrated version that’s set to pull off more ears and carve up more yuppy scum. It’s all we could have ever wanted short of a sequel that once again pits M3GAN against avenging aunt (and reigning Queen of elevated horror) Allison Williams.

Watch it on Peacock

Lana Del Rey released “A&W” on Valentine’s Day and is preparing to drop her next album, Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, next month. But did you know that Del Rey’s dad, Rob Grant, is also releasing an album this year?

Grant announced his Lost At Sea album this morning, February 23, with the first single arriving at midnight. The full album is slated for a June 9 release.

A since-deleted-but-still-cached Rough Trade album blurb divulged that “features and writing credits include his daughter Lana Del Rey, while production credits include Jack Antonoff, Luke Howard, Laura Sisk, and Zach Dawes.” Kesha’s mom, Pebe Sebert, doesn’t care about any of that.

“Is he single?” she tweeted.

In another funny twist, Sebert tweeted a selfie from the beach with the semi-related note “Me listening to A&W” on Monday, February 20:

There’s (unsurprisingly) conflicting information on Grant’s status. Google claims he’s still married to Patricia Ann Hill, Lana’s mom, but Distractify hints that Hill has a “new husband.” There are also no traces of Patricia (or any sort of romantic partner) on Grant’s delightful Instagram, for whatever that’s worth.

I mean, he certainly looks like he could have used some company here:

We’ll just have to wait and see if Grant responds to Sebert’s inquiry and sets the record straight himself.

Lost At Sea is out 6/9 via Decca Records.