GoneTrending

It does feel a bit hypocritical to bemoan, in one breath, the sorry state of the movie industry, when movies are so underpromoted that a movie starring Eddie Murphy, Jonah Hill, and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss can barely warrant a blip on the cultural radar, and, in the next, bash said movie for not being worth worthwhile. Acknowledging that it feels very “the food is terrible — and such small portions” to say so, this is exactly what I’m saying.

You People should be a bigger deal, and it also isn’t very good.

Directed by Black-ish writer Kenya Barris and co-written by Barris and Jonah Hill, You People stars Jonah Hill and Lauren London as an engaged couple whose parents just can’t get along.

Obviously, “disapproving in-laws” has been a staple of rom-com plots almost since the Lumiere Brothers were still alive (to say nothing of the interracial disapproving in-laws), but the hook here is that Jonah Hill’s “Ezra Cohen” is a Jewish guy from West LA, and London’s “Amira Mohammed” is a black girl from Compton. With Kanye wearing a sock over his face telling Alex Jones “There’s a lottttttta things I love about Hitler” still fresh in our memories, a Black-Jewish rom-com “when people stop being polite and start getting real” feels well timed.

And yet You People never really stops being polite or gets very real. Virtually every creative decision in it is so on-the-nose and obvious that it’s mostly a chore. It took me at least four attempts to get through it. Hiring superstar comedic acting talent only to have them parrot Twitter arguments does not make your movie relevant (Netflix’s ad copy describes You People as “an edgy comedy”), it makes it exhausting. We’re already online enough, the last thing we need is comedy that’s Torn From The Discourse.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. You People is essentially the hypebeast version of Pauly Shore‘s Son In Law. Amira and Ezra meet cute when Amira pulls over to check her directions, and Ezra hops in the back of her car, thinking it’s an Uber. Amira is a set designer, and Ezra dreams of one day quitting his boring job in finance to dedicate all his time to his sidegig: co-hosting his hypebeast podcast with Mo, played by Sam Jay.

Remember how in Full House, none of the bits they showed Uncle Jesse doing were nearly funny enough to justify people’s reactions to it on the show? Ezra and Mo’s show is kind of like that. Sample banter, from You People‘s opening scene:

EZRA: The president of the United States was smoking Newports! I’m like, this is my guy.

MO: That’s what I love about Barack: it’s like, he’s become such an icon. He’s kind of like Jesus. Like, he could just be whatever version of him you want him to be. Like, my Barack does gay stuff sometimes, but only when he’s on coke, you know what I’m saying?

Obama fan-fiction was weird while Obama was still in office, and it’s even weirder now. The kinda-gay-on-coke Jesus Obama of Mo’s fantasies is, I guess, kind of deliberately weird. So I guess that’s something? Yet mostly this scene feels like some focus group-triangulated calculus of, what’s the safest possible political opinion to hold? That’s right, that Barack Obama was cool.

This is what the makers of You People chose for the opening of the movie, and they’ve presented it as if these are two people just gettin’ real and lettin’ it rip. Nothing like getting vulnerable and admitting only the safest things in the world! (Yes, Obama has a Netflix deal of his own, through his production company, Higher Ground, though they did not produce You People).

Ezra describes his podcast as being about “The Culture,” which, to You People‘s credit, Amira’s dad, Akbar, played by Eddie Murphy, does at least challenge him on. “‘The Culture? Really? You’re just gonna take the word ‘Black’ out of there?”

That’s good, and Murphy gets the most actual laughs of any actor in You People. And yet, no one ever questions the basic assumption of the other half of the statement: asking whether they actually mean “culture.” Because it seems like what Ezra is mostly about is commerce.

Is he a cultural connoisseur or merely a consumer? That question is clearly above You People‘s pay grade (or below it), and in its place are the usual hokey culture clash things. Akbar (who used to be named Woody) proudly shows off his dashiki gifted to him by Louis Farrakhan to Ezra’s Jewish parents (with Ezra’s father played by David Duchovny), which is sort of a funny premise. In practice, they mostly just go through the motions of arguments that, again, we’ve already mostly heard online. A number of corny bits follow, from Ezra accidentally wearing red to a Crip barbershop, to Akbar forcing Ezra to explain why Ezra loves the song “N**gas In Paris” (proving that the Kanye thing was indeed on the filmmaker’s minds), all of it shot in the brightly lit, terminally dull style of a sitcom.

My standard dismissal of the hypebeast phenomenon is that it seems like mostly a bunch of rich SoCal kids who’ve confused buying sneakers and liking hip hop for having a personality. You People does nothing to challenge this assumption, and in fact, it seems to go to some lengths to un-satirically confirm it.

During the late second act falling out (which basically all rom-coms have, usually as a lead-up to the big reconciliation scene, aka the running-through-the-airport/kissing-in-the-rain scene), Amira suddenly realizes how much she misses Ezra. This happens when… she notices his sneakers left under her bed. Aw, his sneakers! At this point, she actually hugs Ezra’s shoes and sighs into her pillow.

This is a movie that has spent basically the entirety of the previous two acts trying to build up Ezra as a genuine, caring guy with feelings and desires and dreams, and yet when push comes to shove, the essence of him can still be contained within a pair of shoes. If I thought there was satire intended here I might say this was genius. Representing a hypebeast as an empty pair of sneakers is an image that’s almost too mean, even for me.

‘You People’ is available now on Netflix. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. More reviews here.

A school principal in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, asked the librarian to remove a poster featuring a quote by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel because it violated the district’s “advocacy” policy. This story was first reported by WHYY.

The poster was removed two days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“If I didn’t take it down, I knew there would be consequences that could impact me,” Matt Pecic, the school librarian said. “It’s a horrible feeling. And you feel like you have to do something that you don’t agree with.”

The controversial policy says that district employees may not “advocate” to students on “partisan, political, or social policy matters,” or display any “flag, banner, poster, sign, sticker, pin, button, insignia, paraphernalia, photograph, or other similar material that advocates concerning any partisan, political, or social policy issue.”

On one hand, it makes sense because schools should foster an educational environment that isn’t steeped in politics. On the other, complete neutrality allows bad ideas to flourish.

The quote in question was from a speech Wiesel gave while accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986:

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Wiesel received the Nobel Prize for his efforts to defend human rights and peace around the world. He is best known as the author of “Night” (1960), a chilling book based on his experiences with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald from 1944 to 1945.

The irony of the school removing the poster is that it was in the name of staying neutral, while the quote was expressing the fact that neutrality always favors oppression. To take things a step further, Wiesel’s quote was based on his experience living through the horrors of Nazi oppression. So he was advocating for something we can all agree on: basic human rights.

u201c.@CBSDSchools forced a librarian to remove a quote from his door by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel: u201cWe must take sides.Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” BC of Policy 321 this isn’t considered fair & balanced.u201d

— BucksCountyBeacon (@BucksCountyBeacon)
1674702528

The school’s actions went public after the Bucks County Beacon posted about the story on Twitter. The tweet has been seen by over 430,000 people and sparked a lively discussion.

“Who would be providing the other side’s views?” Buckcho asked. “So maybe something from Mein Kampf? I don’t mean to state the obvious, but some statements do not have a balanced opposition,” Gail Kristin Upp responded.

The good news is that the posters were put back up the next day, and in a statement, the district noted that “Night” was part of its curriculum. The district also apologized “for any hurt or concerns this has caused, particularly for those in the Jewish community.”

u201c”There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.u201d- Elie WieselnnPicture: Central Bucks South today. #resist #savecbsdu201d

— Diana Leygerman (@Diana Leygerman)
1674832312

After the school’s decision was reversed, Pecic papered the entrance to the library with the quote.

The story is a great reminder that even though there may be multiple sides to every argument, not all ideas should be treated equally. And even though we live in a world where everything seems political, there are certain ideas, such as basic human rights, that should always be held above the fray.

No one must’ve told card-carrying Bey Hive member Lizzo that Beyoncé would be announcing the Renaissance World Tour today. Either way, fans of pop music divas saw a double victory today as Lizzo shared her new video for the single “Special” off her album by the same name.

The track deviates from Lizzo’s signature dance track pacing that propelled her into pop superstardom. However, the song’s message directly ties back to her empowerment ethos. On “Special,” Lizzo opens up about how constant online bullying, which is often tied to fatphobia, hurts her. But, at the end of the day, she, like the others who unfortunately experience the same type of hate, must find the strength to keep going.

In the accompanying video, director Christian Breslauer takes this concept to the next level transforming Lizzo into a superhero, who’s on a mission to protect others from those vile perpetrators. As the visual often shows, Lizzo flies back home after a long day of saving the world and immediately removes her super-suit, an added layer of protection shielding her from the haters. However, as Lizzo removes the armor, which exposes her vulnerability, she’s immediately met with hate while singing, “Woke up this morning to somebody in a video / Talking about something I posted in a video / If it wasn’t me, then would you even get offended? Or Is it just because I’m Black and heavy? / Y’all don’t hear me, though.”

That’s followed by the line, “Fame is pretty new, but I’ve been used to people judging me / That’s why I move the way I move and why I’m so in love with me,” letting the world know this vicious circle of hate is the driving force behind her confidence.

As Lizzo navigates the world, she switches between the attacked and the protector until she fully embraces her mission, but getting there isn’t easy. In several parts of the video, Lizzo is ridiculed for her advocacy and rallied against it despite serving as an inspiration to many. However, as Lizzo sings in the lines, “Could you imagine a world where everybody’s the same? / And you can cancel a girl / ‘Cause she just wanted to change / How could you throw f*ckin’ stones / If you ain’t been through her pain? / That’s why we feel so alone / That’s why we feel so ashamed, ” her efforts will be met with resistance, but she must power through.

The chorus, “In case nobody told you today / You’re special (special) / In case nobody made you believe / You’re special (special) / Well, I will always love you the same / You’re special,” serves not only as words of encouragement for Lizzo but for everyone on the same path.

Watch the full video above.

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

It looks like new music from Doja Cat is coming soon. In an interview with Variety, she spilled on everything we can expect from her upcoming era. First and foremost, she guaranteed we can expect an album this year.

And while her first three albums — Amala, Hot Pink, and Planet Her — have featured the rapper/pop icon lean into her feminine side, Doja teased that we can probably expect less of that from her fourth album.

“I know that I’ve done a lot of pink and soft things, a lot of pop and glittery sounds,” Doja said, “but for this next era, I’m going in a more masculine direction.”

Over the years, Doja has shown her prowess in rap, hip-hop, pop, and R&B. Now, she is saying she wants to experiment with punk sounds, but not necessarily pop-punk, which has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years.

“I feel like we have enough pop-punk artists right now,” she said. “And if there needs to be more, then let there be more, but I don’t think I’m the one to do it. I want to explore more of a raw, unfiltered, hardcore punk sort of thing. It’s just something that I’m doing for my own personal fun — getting some drummers and guitarists together. And I don’t even know if that’s gonna make it out there.”

While Doja’s albums usually showcase her performing a wide range of genres, she revealed that if she were to utilize punk sounds on her upcoming record, she would “absolutely not” incorporate other kinds of sounds.

“It does not mesh! I’m gonna see if maybe it could be fun, but it doesn’t make any sense to me,” she said.

The thing I get asked the most about M. Night Shyamalan‘s Knock at the Cabin is if it’s faithful to the book. I have not read Paul G. Tremblay’s book, but I get why people ask this question. I won’t give away that answer here, but it is interesting that people who have read the book seem hesitant to the idea of watching a live-action rendering of that ending and, from what I gather, are hoping that it has been changed. This seems unusual.

Knock at the Cabin is one of Shyamalan’s best films and may be my favorite since way back in his early run that included The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. It’s eerie, it’s disturbing, but I also found myself tearing up at times.

Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge play Eric and Andrew, who are vacationing at a remote cabin with their young daughter, Wen (Kristen Cui). Wen is out catching bugs when she’s approached by Leonard (Dave Bautista), an imposing, but seemingly nice man – you know, other than the fact he’s stopping to have a fairly long conversation with a young girl in the middle of the woods. Leonard explains to Wen that he and his three companions need to get into the cabin to speak to Eric and Andrew. If they are not let in, they will force their way in.

Wen returns to tell Eric and Andrew of this news and, of course, they are not totally into the idea of four strangers with sinister-looking weapons entering their vacation home. Eventually, of course, the four do make it in and offer Eric and Andrew an extremely enticing offer: One of them has to kill the other or the world will end. Now, there are rules. The four invaders – which includes Leonard, Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), Adriane (Abby Quinn), and Redmond (Rupert Grint) – have all had visions about how this works and they are not allowed to directly harm Eric, Andrew, or Wen. Also, suicide won’t stop the world from ending. One must physically kill the other. If they decide not to go through with this, the three of them would survive, but everyone else on the planet will die.

Of course, like most reasonable people, Eric and Andrew think this is absurd. And, for that matter, think they are being targeted for being a same-sex couple. Leonard is adamant they did not know who would be in the cabin, the visions only told them to come to this particular cabin. The four-cabin invaders decide that “getting to know us” is the best way to gain Eric and Andrew’s trust. But, again, no amount of personal details about Leonard’s life is going to get them over the hump that this whole premise is crazy.

What’s interesting here is even as Leonard turns on the television to live newscasts of horrible tragedies being set off around the world, Eric and Andrew still don’t believe what they are being told. And I have to admit, yeah I don’t think I’d buy into even that either. As a skeptical person, I, too, would think this was all some trick. That this was some sort of prerecorded video. And that’s what this movie captures really well: what would it really take to convince a person to do something truly terrible because the world is at stake.

Everyone here is great, but the movie is sold by Bautista. His hovering, intimidating presence, combined with his calm and deliberate delivery makes for a wonderful performance. To the point, I’m not sure the movie works this well without him. Like, I don’t want to believe this very large man who just broke into a cabin, but on the other hand, he seems so caring and nice, I kind of do believe him. Bautista has turned into a fascinating actor. I don’t want to directly compare him to other actors who came from his other professional background, but he doesn’t seem to be in this for the fame (he has that) or the paycheck. He truly seems to want to do good work and I’m more and more impressed with him every time.

M. Night Shyamalan can be streaky with his movies, but he’s always going for something, even though it doesn’t always work. But I do appreciate that even when it doesn’t work, he’s still out there doing it. But when he hits one right, man he sure hits. And here he really is at his best. He lets the story breathe and he really does let all these actors drive what’s happening instead of putting something conflated in here to surprise us just for the sake of surprising us. (To be fair, sometimes that’s fun, but I’m glad he didn’t do that here.) And the result is a truly suspenseful film with a powerful, emotional ending. Again, it’s one of Shyamalan’s best.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

It’s not particularly strange or unheard of for professional athletes to dabble in acting. Sometimes, for instance, it leads to a flourishing and successful career. Other times, it does not work out. But the fear of making a movie that might not hit isn’t something that scares Tom Brady, clearly, as 80 For Brady hits theaters this week.

It seems like the former pro football player might have been bitten by the acting bug after his on-screen debut in the sports comedy that your mom and her book club friends have been raving about. While on the red carpet for 80 For Brady, the football player says that he might be interested in becoming the world’s next great movie star, “I would like that,” he said when asked about appearing in another movie. “I had fun.”

Fun is one way to describe 80 For Brady, the comedy which follows a group of legendary actresses as they travel to Houston in order to see Brady play in Super Bowl LI. Brady stars and produced the film, so maybe he will have a future producing sport-adjacent movies.

Of course, when asked about his football retirement, Brady said, “When should I make the decision? These things take time. We’ve got to marinate it a bit.” He made the decision roughly 8 hours later. Maybe he has been marinating his movie career, too!

(Via Variety)

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Let’s get this out of the way up front: No, Lil Yachty is not the first rapper to release an alternative project. Obviously, within the past few years, a number of artists have made swings that way: Kid Cudi, Machine Gun Kelly, and Post Malone all spring to mind.

Notably, though, Yachty’s new album, Let’s Start Here, isn’t just a departure from his own oeuvre; it also differentiates itself from its peers like Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven, Tickets To My Downfall, or Twelve Carat Toothache by tapping into a different lane in the psych-rock stylings of bands like Animal Collective, MGMT, and Tame Impala.

Yachty also took care to tap members of the modern psychedelic scene as collaborators on the album, recruiting Jacob Portrait of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Justin Raisen, known for his work with Yves Tumor and David Bowie, Patrick Wemberly from synth-pop duo Chairlift, and MGMT’s Ben Goldwasser to produce and play on it.

As Lil Boat himself put it ahead of the album’s release, “I wanted to be taken seriously as an artist, not just some SoundCloud rapper. Not some mumble rapper, not just some guy that made one hit.” While it would have been impossible to reduce him to “one hit” given he’s been directly responsible for several to date, the result of Let’s Start Here is that he’s received much praise — and criticism — for the creative risk of diverging so sharply with was thought to be his established lane.

It’s fascinating to watch the divided responses roll in. On the one hand, you’ve got those who are absolutely thrilled to see Yachty pulling from late-aughts Brooklyn barbecue staples like MGMT, evoking what’ll likely end up being the first wave of nostalgic nods to that era (right on time for the 15-year cycle, no less).

On the other hand, there are those who lived through that era who are if not perhaps a little grouchy about entering the second or third phase of internet-era nostalgia for their late teens and early twenties, then taking the same, high-handed hipster approach of being cooler than the latecomer (who was, I shouldn’t have to remind anybody, just 12 years old around the time Modest Mouse and Vampire Weekend ruled the airwaves).

There are those who undoubtedly see in Let’s Start Here echoes of the exaggerated fawning over Childish Gambino’s Funkadelic homage Awaken, My Love! Maybe they don’t want the originators, the King Gizzards and the Rain Parades, to get overshadowed by this upstart, as happens so often when imitators sometimes became the avatars of past scenes.

But then, when someone like Questlove, who’s been there for it all and is as unimpeachable as a music figure can possibly get, has such glowing things to report of the album, it’s hard to see Yachty’s creative grasp as anything less than a success for the recording industry as a whole — even if he doesn’t quite reach as far as some would have hoped.

As for myself, I land in that fourth quadrant of hoping for the best in all respects. I want this album to be the gateway for younger fans to discover the wealth of incredible art in its foundations. And I hope that it does cast Yachty in a new light, capable of besting the wobbly “Minnesota” and its spiritual successor “Poland.”

And I’m a little sad that a hip-hop artist still can’t really get his or her due operating primarily in that mode. Yachty sort of raps on a handful of tracks, like “I’ve Officially Lost Vision” and “The Alchemist.” But 50 years later, it still feels like hip-hop is an afterthought, a second cousin, a red-headed stepchild to every other genre, save for rare exceptions like the hyper-heady Kendrick Lamar or the genre shapeshifter Drake.

But I’m impressed that we’re in a place where an artist who was written off as a gimmick early in his career can rediscover himself like this. I love that the once solid walls between genres are now so fluid and hazy. The musical freedom this album exemplifies — not just for Yachty but for all artists — is heartening, especially in a world where algorithmically-generated music looms as an existential threat to the very nature of artistry.

It’s ironic that the cover of Yachty’s latest is an AI-generated monstrosity. It seems to mock the idea that the computers can do what flesh-and-blood artists can. They can take in influences from multiple sources and blend them together and spit out something approximating art. But they can’t take risks, they can’t change their minds, they can’t have the idea, and they can’t execute it in the one unique way that Yachty can. In only in proving that and nothing else, Let’s Start Here is a triumph.

Let’s Start Here is out now via Quality Control and Motown. You can get it here.

The New York Liberty have landed the biggest name in the 2023 WNBA free agency class. In a video posted to her social media accounts on Friday afternoon, four-time All-Star Breanna Stewart announced that she’ll leave the Seattle Storm and bring her talents to the Big Apple.

Stewart posted a tweet that included the video and the Empire State Building lit up with her nickname.

Stewart is the latest splash the Liberty have made this winter, after the team pulled off a trade with the Connecticut Sun and the Dallas Wings to acquire Jonquel Jones and Kayla Thornton. It will mark the first time in her career that she suits up for a WNBA team other than the Storm, as the team selected her first overall in the 2016 WNBA Draft.

The 2018 WNBA MVP and a two-time champion with the Storm, Stewart averaged a career-best 21.8 points per game last year with 7.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.6 steals in 30.9 minutes a night while connecting on 47.2 percent of her attempts from the field and 37.9 percent of her threes.

Last season, New York went 16-20, which was good for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. It was the second year in a row that the team made it to the postseason, where they ended up losing to the Chicago Sky in three games.

We are just days away from the 2023 Grammy Awards, and while we’re still not sure who’s performing, we can still expect to see some of our favorite artists at the ceremony. Today, the Recording Academy has revealed some of the presenters.

Olivia Rodrigo, who won the Best New Artist Grammy last year, as well as the Best Pop Vocal Album award for her debut album, Sour, and Best Pop Solo Performance for her breakthrough hit, “Drivers License,” is one of the artists scheduled to present an award on Sunday night. Cardi B, who won the Best Rap Album Grammy in 2019 for her debut album, Invasion Of Privacy, is also among the presenters for the awards show. Five-time Grammy winner Shania Twain will also present an award this Sunday.

In addition to some of our favorite artists, some notable figures will also deliver music’s highest honor. First Lady Jill Biden will be in attendance to present awards. Actor Billy Crystal, who is currently nominated for Best Musical Theater Album for his work in Mr. Saturday Night, and actress Viola Davis, who is nominated for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording for her memoir, Finding Me, are also set to present.

Also among this year’s presenters are The Late Late Show host James Corden, who hosted the Grammys back in 2017, as well as actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

The Grammys will air on Sunday, February 5 beginning at 8 p.m. EST on CBS. The ceremony will also be available for streaming on Paramount+.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

For a year, Dr. Dre’s groundbreaking solo debut record, The Chronic, has been unavailable to stream after being pulled down while Dre and his respective labels, Death Row Records and Interscope, wrangled over the rights behind the scenes. Today, though, it’s finally back as part of its 30th-anniversary celebration (it was released in December 1992, so it’s kinda borderline, but we’ll take it).

In a statement, Dre said, “I am thrilled to bring The Chronic home to its original distribution partner, Interscope Records. Working alongside my longtime colleagues, Steve Berman and John Janick, to re-release the album and make it available to fans all over the world is a full circle moment for me.”

The last time The Chronic was on streaming was in 2020, however, after Snoop Dogg secured the rights to the Death Row Records catalog early last year, several of the label’s seminal releases went missing from DSPs, with Snoop explaining that he wanted to create a new platform since DSPs pay reportedly minuscule royalties on streams.

There was also some confusion over just who owned the rights to The Chronic; while Snoop initially said it was part of the Death Row catalog, Dre’s lawyer denied that it was. Eventually, it seems they got things cleared up and the real winner in all this is the fans, who get to revisit the album that changed gangsta rap forever.

Check it out below.