When the second season of Euphoria premiered last January, the first episode “Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door” ended with a brutal bang that left most viewers in shock. In the final scene, Fezco, the lovable drug dealer played by Angus Cloud, approaches sadistic jock Nate …
Read More »Zooey Deschanel Is Tired of Being Likable
Zooey Deschanel doesn’t need you to like her. Sure, the California native has spent almost two decades bringing her signature deadpan comedy and effortless emotion to screens big and small. She went from a few television appearances to a part in the rock film Almost Famous, and followed it up …
Read More »Pee-wee Herman Was the Greatest Pop-Culture Manchild Ever
It was the laugh that got you first: A staccato giggle combined with what sounded like a T. rex’s roar. If you watch The Pee-wee Herman Show, the HBO special taken from Paul Reubens’ 1981 stage show that — along with a handful of appearances on Late Night with David …
Read More »Whatever Heart 'Euphoria' Had, It Lay in Angus Cloud
A lot of people loved Angus Cloud, the star of Euphoria who abruptly died today at the age of 25, for his voice — that syrupy laconic drawl that sounded like a podcast at .5x speed. But I loved him for his eyes, these wet Easter-egg blue pools of emotion …
Read More »They Sold Porn Star Bathwater and Just Made the Year's Scariest Movie
There have been quite a few horror movies of late that center around influencers and YouTubers, and, with some exceptions, they mostly suck. Maybe it’s because the protagonist is always yelling in that trademark “YouTube” voice. Maybe it’s that the found footage oeuvre could use a serious overhaul. Or maybe …
Read More »'I Didn't Kill My Wife!' — An Oral History of 'The Fugitive'
When Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert sat down at the end of 1993 to pick their 10 favorite movies of the year, they largely selected prestige, Oscar-bait films like The Piano, The Age of Innocence, The Joy Luck Club, and Schindler’s List. They skipped nearly all of the big multiplex …
Read More »How Kristin Gore and OK Go's Damian Kulash Created 'The Beanie Bubble'
When the Beanie Baby craze reached its apex in the late Nineties, around the time desperate suburbanites were shelling out small fortunes for the purple Princess Diana bear on eBay and ransacking shopping malls whenever rumors hit that a new shipment had arrived, screenwriter Kristin Gore and OK Go frontman …
Read More »Elizabeth Banks Laid Down Her Life For a Cabbage Patch Kid
“I think it’s cyclical,” offers Elizabeth Banks. “Everything has its moment, goes away, and comes back.” The wildly prolific actress, who’s appeared in everything from Wet Hot American Summer and the original Spider-Man films to The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Hunger Games franchise, is talking about the YA craze she …
Read More »Ending One of the Last Vestiges of Blackface in Hollywood
Actor Jason George was a few years into his career when he secured his first starring role in a movie. It was the early 2000s, and he’d been cast as a co-lead in a mountain climbing flick called The Climb. He was excited for the prospect of a break until …
Read More »'The Kardashians' Finale Skips Right Over Kim Kardashian's Balenciaga Scandal
“We’re sharing every last detail of our lives. I just think our show is what made us. I’ll always want to give it my all. I’ll always want to film and be a part of it and give everything I can.” During the second episode of the third season of …
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