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One of the more interesting storylines heading into Oscar nominations morning was whether Spider-Man: No Way Home would be up for Best Picture. It was a populist favorite — and the fourth highest-grossing movie ever — with a sparkling 93 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes; that’s higher than all but three of the films that were actually nominated (Drive My Car, The Power of the Dog, and CODA; Don’t Look Up is the lowest with a 56 percent rating). But co-presenters Tracee Ellis Ross and Leslie Jordan only said “Spider-Man” once on Tuesday, for Best Visual Effects.

Kevin Smith, who knows a thing or two about spiders, thinks this was a mistake.

“I would just like to congratulate the good folks who made Spider-Man: No Way Home for the very deserved Best Picture nomination that I’m sure it got, I didn’t read the nods. [Co-host Marc Bernardin], tell me that I’m right,” the director said on the FatMan Beyond podcast. When informed that he was wrong, Smith continued, “What the f*ck? They got ten slots, they can’t give one to the biggest f*cking movie of like the last three years? Man, and they’re like, ‘Why won’t anyone watch this show?’ Like f*cking make a populist choice, f*ck, man. You got how many slots? Throw in Spider-Man for God’s sakes.”

After joking that No Way Home deserves to be the second Marvel movie up for Best Picture (after Black Panther) because Peter Parker is “always getting crapped on and sh*t,” Smith’s livestream cut out. When he returned, he joked, “Kids, the conspiracy is real. I spoke about Spider-Man not being nominated by The Academy and we got tossed off of YouTube. Tie those two things together, the truth lies somewhere out there.”

This is exactly how I feel, but about Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

You can listen to the podcast below.

(Via Comic Book)

When Blacklight, Liam Neeson’s latest only-in-theaters shoot-em-up, opened with a thinly-veiled AOC railing against corruption and corporate greed at a raucous rally, I was concerned. The Venn Diagram of people who want to watch Liam Neeson kick ass and people who want to see an old white man maim brown people isn’t quite a circle, but there’s certainly some overlap. You never know when a beloved action hero is going to go full reactionary, like Stallone in Rambo: Last Blood. Would Liam Neeson be tasked with killing the fictional AOC before a cabal of corrupt socialists could institute Sharia law in the US?

Then again, was it actually concern I was feeling, or intrigue? “Having good politics” is not generally something we associate with great action-revenge movies. Most of the great action movies of the 80s and 90s are jingoistic nightmares with the id of a 12-year-old boy. In fact, I would argue that what we want from a Liam Neeson revenge movie (insofar as “we” want anything from one at all, assuming a Liam Neeson revenge movie is anything more than just a complicated tax sheltering scheme for a foreign financier) is tastelessness, specifically. Taken was the movie that kickstarted this whole phenomenon, and if anything made that memorable, aside from the great trailer line, it was its sheer brutality. Like Liam Neeson showing up to a nice dinner and shooting an innocent lady in the arm:

In Blacklight, co-written and directed by Mark Williams, Liam Neeson doesn’t end up having to kill AOC. In fact, he plays Travis Block, an off-the-books FBI fixer whose job is helping deep-cover agents get their heads straight before they can hurt anyone or reveal covert ops. Block has to track down agent Dusty Crane (Taylor John Smith) and in the process uncovers a secret deep state plot against the fictional AOC, Sofia Flores (Mel Jarnson). The big baddy turns out to be the FBI director, played by Aidan Quinn, who at one point growls, “This country is ruled by gotcha moments on Twitter!” and “Hoover had Cointelpro, I have Operation U.”

It doesn’t quite acknowledge the FBI sorta-maybe-probably getting Martin Luther King killed or anything too controversial, but in a very loose sense and graded on a Liam Neeson revenge movie curve, Blacklight‘s politics are reasonably good. In and of itself that doesn’t automatically make for either a good movie or a bad one, but Blacklight is sub-mediocre in execution. It largely lacks the kind of tasteless brutality that would make it interesting.

There is precisely one moment, when Neeson’s character, sitting in the driver’s seat of an SUV, interrogates Quinn’s character in the back, who gives Neeson an answer Neeson doesn’t like, so Neeson slams on the brakes and smashes Quinn’s face into a headrest, that has enough spontaneous physicality to transcend the predictable formula. It’s the only moment, in a film that otherwise consists of barely comprehensible gunfights between actors who may or may not have been in the same room during filming. A lot of thought seems to have gone into how to make a tasteful enough plot for a Neeson revenge picture, which reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of why people watch these movies in the first place. Blacklight is like a nu-metal song preaching quiet introspection.

It seems to me that most of the post-Taken Neeson filmmakers don’t quite understand what they’re making. Which at its heart is a kind of guns-and-knife fight slapstick, with Neeson as the Moe and the armies of faceless terrorists, human traffickers, drug dealers, and child rapists as his Larries and Curlies. Why do they keep kidnapping his wife and daughter?? Probably for the same reason people keep hiring the Stooges to move pianos and cater debutante balls. Blacklight’s filmmakers seem to have spent a lot time trying to figure out why Neeson would have to bonk some heads, and not nearly enough time storyboarding and staging elaborate, gloriously executed head bonks.

Less talking, more bonking, please.

‘Blacklight’ opens only in theaters February 11th. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Donald Trump had a terrible habit of clogging up the White House toilets.

Jimmy Kimmel knows “that sounds like just a crude joke,” but it’s just the latest bizarre bit of behind-the-scenes intel being shared about Trump’s presidency. And Kimmel couldn’t wait to talk about it on Thursday night:

“You know how Trump had a habit of tearing up the… official White House documents? He ripped them into little pieces? Well, the papyrus has thickened… According to a book written by the highly esteemed Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, the White House engineer—who’s kind of the plumber, I guess—would frequently be called in to unplug the president’s toilet because he had a habit of flushing papers down it. For real.”

It didn’t take long for Trump—who Kimmel has now dubbed “Mar-a-Cloggo”—to issue a statement denying the claims, in which said that “another fake story, that I flushed papers and documents down a White House toilet, is categorically untrue and simply made up by a reporter in order to get publicity for a mostly fictitious book.”

Kimmel pointed out that the former president sat down with Haberman on more than one occasion, in person in Florida, to be interviewed for this “mostly fictitious book.” While Haberman has been questioned as to whether she’s sure that the plugged-up commode in question was indeed one being used by the 45th president, Kimmel is simultaneously amused and astounded that this is a conversation we’re even having at all.

“I want you to think about the fact that Donald Trump actually had to come out and, in writing, deny he clogged up the toilet at the White House,” Kimmel marveled. “This is a conversation you have with your 3-year-old!”

You can watch the full clip above.

In recent years, Ye (aka Kanye West) has been open about dealing with bipolar disorder. Perhaps most notably, on his 2018 Ye track “Yikes,” he says, “That’s my bipolar sh*t, n****, what? / That’s my superpower, n****, ain’t no disability.” Since then, though, some people have decided to use his mental health against him and Ye is tired of it.

In an Instagram post last night, Ye called out Billie Eilish for seemingly dissing Travis Scott’s handling of the Astroworld Festival tragedy, when she paused a recent concert because a fan was having an urgent health issue. “I wait for people to be OK until I keep going,” Eilish said on stage. Ye noted, “I NEED BILLIE TO APOLOGIZE BEFORE I PERFORM.”

(Eilish responded, by the way.)

He followed that post quickly by sharing a screenshot of a comment that’s presumably representative of many comments he received on the previous post and others over the years. The user wrote, “Man’s off the meds album gonna go crazy.” Ye captioned the post, “THE WORLD IS RACIST SEXIST HOMOPHOBIC AND CRAZY PHOBIC AT OUR CORE ITS CHEAP AND DISMISSIVE TO SAY IM OFF MY MEDS ANYTIME I SPEAK UP PHOBIA IN THIS SENSE DOESN’T MEAN BEING AFRAID OF IT MEANS NOT GIVING POWER TO LETS BE MORE CONSCIOUS AND NOT WRITE EACH OTHER OFF SO EASILY.”

Indeed, some comments on the Eilish-targeted post use Ye’s mental health for punchlines. Examples include, “why is kanye having his midlife crisis on instagram feed,” “Bro has lost his mind,” “are u good?,” “oh he’s really lost it,” “Lmao u r manic beyond compare,” “take your meds baby,” and “Kanye take your meds pls…”

(Spoilers for Netflix’s Inventing Anna will be found below.)

Inventing Anna is a dramatization of the real-life story of Anna Sorokin, a.k.a. “Anna Delvey.” It’s heavily inspired by Jessica Pressler’s New York magazine profile called “How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People.” Shondaland did this story up to showcase the dastardly financial deeds of Delvey, who is now languishing in ICE custody on a visa violation after serving time at both Rikers Island (19 months) and Albion Correctional Facility (21 months following her sentence, beginning in 2019).

What happened to all of the people that Anna defrauded, though? There are bankers and investors and hotel chains and friends, all of whom made the mistake of loaning money to a master con artist. Let’s talk about where a few of these defrauded and/or tricked people are these days:

– Rachel DeLoache Williams (portrayed by Katie Lowes): Oh, Rachel. She’s the character who wrote up her story in Vanity Fair (this really happened) and who ended up in truly dangerous, intense, arms-of-the-chair-gripping circumstances in Morocco after Anna failed to come through with any sort of luxury-resort payment card. Rachel ended up putting expenses on both her personal and professional credit cards, which caused her problems in both arenas. Most recently, she penned a TIME editorial about how she felt that the Netflix show was a mistake, and in doing so, she declared that she’d optioned her own story to HBO.

– Kacy Duke (portrayed by Laverne Cox): The take-no-prisoners personal trainer to the rich and famous, and she’s still doing her thing. Unlike Rachel, Kacy ended up leaving Morocco before the sh*t really hit the fan, and sure, she ended up helping Anna in a few smaller ways (compared to Rachel), and at this point, she appears to hold no sympathy for her former friend’s plight. Kacy’s still personal training and basically living her best life. In other words, she got off the Anna train while the getting was good.

– Neff (portrayed by Alexis Floyd: Neff’s real-life name is Nefferati Davis, and she’s the hotel clerk that was incredibly connected and enjoyed when Anna “made it rain” with all of those $100 tips. She befriended Anna while working at the Soho’s 11 Howard hotel, and to this date, Neff and Anna remain friends. That’s sort-of to be expected, given Neff’s defiantly supportive stance throughout the show, but girl, be careful.

– Billy McFarland (portrayed by Ben Rappaport): You vaguely know the name. This is the grifter responsible for the ridiculous Fyre Festival of 2017. In 2018, he received a six-year prison sentence and later landed his butt in solitary confinement for starting a tell-all podcast. And he and Anna totally deserved each other, even if the limited series showed that she wasn’t too impressed by him at all. I guess it takes one to know one?

Inventing Anna is streaming on Netflix.

After building up their names in the hip-hop world, Mozzy and Roddy Ricch are supplying us with their first collaboration together. It comes after Mozzy connected with YG for their Kommunity Service album, which he followed with his solo effort Untreated Trauma some months later. Roddy Ricch also dropped an album in 2021, with his sophomore release Live Life Fast arriving in December. Now, Mozzy and Roddy bring their talents together for “Real Ones.”

The track is a somber release that finds both rappers paying tribute to the real ones that they’ve lost in their lives. Whether it be that they’re incarcerated or deceased, Mozzy and Roddy’s new single is certainly an honorable release to remember their friends. The track arrives after Yo Gotti announced that Mozzy would be joining the Collective Music Group (CMG) roster alongside Moneybagg Yo, 42 Dugg, EST Gee, Blac Youngsta, and others. It also arrives after Mozzy teamed with Kalan.FrFr in a video for their “Whole 100” collaboration.

As for Roddy, he recently delivered collaborations with 2 Chainz and Gunna. He was also set to perform on Saturday Night Live, but he postponed his set due to a COVID-19 exposure that occurred on his team.

You can listen to “Real Ones” in the video above.

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

Orville Peck has slowly been surely been building his own gay country empire — a shoegaze-y cowboy with a soft spot for Dolly Parton? What’s not to love! It sure doesn’t help that bonafide star Lil Nas X was getting into the same lane right around the time Peck was coming into his own, but while Nas was happy to use his “Old Town Road” fame to pivot back toward pop and hip-hop sounds, Peck is decidedly country. It sure doesn’t hurt that his music caught the attention of the likes of Harry Styles, either, and now he’s got another full-length project coming.

His new album, Bronco, will be out on April 8, and he’s introducing it with the campy lead single, “C’mon Baby, Cry.” This album follows up his debut, Pony, and the follow-up EP, Show Pony. But Peck said he thinks this is his best work so far. “This is my most impassioned and authentic album to date,” he said in a press release. “I was inspired by country rock, ’60s & ’70s psychedelic, California and bluegrass with everything being anchored in country. Bronco is all about being unrestrained and the culmination of a year of touring, writing in isolation and going through and ultimately emerging from a challenging personal time.”

The album will be released in three chapters over the next few weeks, with the first chapter dropping tonight, which includes “C’mon Baby, Cry;” “Daytona Sand;” “Outta Time” and “Any Turn.” Check out the full tracklist below and the video for “C’mon Baby, Cry” up above.

Bronco tracklist:

1. “Daytona Sand”
2. “The Curse Of The Blackened Eye”
3. “Outta Time”
4. “Lafayette”
5. “C’mon Baby, Cry”
6. “Iris Rose”
7. “Kalahari Down”
8. “Bronco”
9. “Trample Out The Days”
10. “Blush”
11. “Hexie Mountains”
12. “Let Me Drown”
13. “Any Turn”
14. “City Of Gold”
15. “All I Can Say”

Bronco will be out 4/8 via Columbia Records. Pre-order it here.

Future is one of the many artists in the music world who’s been deemed toxic by listeners. A large reason for that came after the release of his 2017 album Hndrxx which was filled with toxicity from top to bottom (take “My Collection” for example). After some years as one of the trap kings of Atlanta, Future is back to reclaim his toxic crown and it comes just in time for Valentine’s Day. Future returns with “Worst Day” and it finds him sharing the problems he experiences on the romantic holiday.

The rapper admits that because of his polygamous ways, which finds him entertaining multiple women at a time, Valentine’s Day tends to be a chaotic holiday for him, so much so that he deems it the worst day. In a music video he released with the song, which features an appearance from Kevin Samuels, Future displays the struggles he experiences on Valentine’s Day. Multiple dates, multiple gifts, and the need to stretch himself thin trying to satisfy all of his partners are just some of the things he goes through on February 14.

Future’s latest single is presumable the first offering from his upcoming ninth album, however, it could also just be a loosie he released for Valentine’s Day. It’s been almost two years since Future released a solo album, that being High Off Life, so hopefully he has one on the way.

You can watch the video for “Worst Day” above.

In what was one of the more unexpected collaborations of 2021, Fivio Foreign and Kanye West struck magic on Donda. The two, along with Playboi Carti, joined forces on “Off The Grid” and the track turned out to be one of the year’s favorite hip-hop records. Kanye later admitted that he recruited Fivio for the song after hearing his impressive freestyle on Funk Flex’s radio show. Now, the two have connected for another song and this time, it sees Fivio leading the way and Kanye supplying a guest verse with help from Alicia Keys.

The trio puts their talents together for “City Of God.” The track is carried by drill production and Alicia Keys’ interpolation of The Chainsmokers’ “New York City,” which serves as the hook for the song. Fivio lays two hard-hitting verses before Kanye arrives to lay a lengthy verse to close out the song, which also features ad-libs from Playboi Carti. For over two minutes, Kanye drops direct and indirect references to the Chicago Bulls, Pete Davidson,SNL, Justin LaBoy, Drake, Donda, Donda 2, College Dropout, and more. He also declares that his contribution to the song will be the best verse of 2022.

In addition to the new song, Fivio revealed that his debut album, B.I.B.L.E., will be released on March 25 and feature executive production from Kanye himself. Fivio also noted that the album will be dedicated to his friend and long-time collaborator Tahjay “T Dott” Dobson.

You can press play on “City Of Gods” in the video above.

Though she’s already found her niche as an actress, and like most Gen-Z stars has been blowing up on TikTok, 2022 is the year that Dove Cameron breaks out as a musician. With numerous roles in the Marvel universe and in the Descendants series, Cameron got her start on the Disney Channel, like plenty of other present day pop stars (Ari and Selena, anyone?). Though she’s released several soundtrack albums, a handful of singles, tons of pop covers, and even gone out on tour, her latest song, “Boyfriend,” feels much more focused than her past work. And Dove herself agrees.

“In writing ‘Boyfriend,’ I feel like I finally found my sound, my perspective and myself in a way I wasn’t sure I ever would,” she said in a press release. “I am so immensely happy to have this song and this part of me out in the world. I hope you feel access to yourself when you listen to it too.”

Highlighting her queerness, the new single emphasizes the speaker telling the object of their affection just how much better a partner they’d be than their current boyfriend. As in, maybe what the girl in question needs… is a girlfriend. It’s dramatic and dark, and hits like a queer James Bond anthem. “Boyfriend” will definitely put Dove on the map in a new way, and might just turn her into one of your new favorite rising pop stars.. Check it out above.