Ariana Grande is thrilled about her latest casting news. The 23-year-old singer has snagged a role in Hairspray Live, which is set to air on NBC December 7. And it's an important one, at that. Grande will be playing Penny Pingleton, best friend to protagonist Tracy Turnblad.
In a series of tweets, Grande proved she's as excited as we are about the news. "I AM NOWWW A CHECKERBOARD CHICK," she exclaimed. The singer wrote that she was a big fan of the Broadway musical, which later became a movie with Amanda Bynes as Penny. Grande also tipped her hat to Kerry Butler, who played Penny in the original Broadway production.
We are not robots. We feel things. We can't survive on comedic bromances and CGI-ed action sequences alone. We like our joy, but we need our sadness, too. So bring a box of Kleenex and settle in for some melancholic movie-watching. It's not about wallowing in misery. It's about getting lost in a story that captures the full human experience, with all of its highs and lows.
A good drama hits you right where it hurts, whether it's Blue Valentine 's broken romance or Fruitvale Station 's sense of injustice. If these cinematic tear-jerkers don't have you crying, keening, and curling up into a little ball, we don't know what will.
Marley & Me(2008)
It's like Old Yeller for millennials, right down to the snotty ugly-crying. Who'd have thought an Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston film could make us feel so many feels?
Pictured: Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston
Photo: Moviestore/Rex/Shutterstock.
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
We know this Oscar-winning classic set during World War II is all about maintaining that British stiff upper lip, but the series of tragedies always turn us into a wobbly mess.
Pictured: Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon as the Minivers
Photo: Snap/Rex/Shutterstock.
Life as a House (2001)
Terminal illness, divorce, and a complex father-son relationship: This drama ticks all the tear-inducing boxes. Both Kevin Kline and Hayden Christensen (yes, Anakin himself) were nominated for acting awards for their moving performances.
Pictured: Kevin Kline, Hayden Christensen, and Kristin Scott Thomas
Photo: Snap Stills/Rex/Shutterstock.
Me Before You(2016)
Like, puddles. We won't give away any spoilers, but let's just say that this Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin romantic drama will make your tear ducts feel like they've been set on fire by Daenerys.
Pictured: Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin
Photo: Warner Bros/Moviestore Collection Ltd/REX/Shutterstock.
45 Years(2015)
More bleak and quietly disheartening than boo-hoo, this British drama earned Charlotte Rampling a Best Actress Oscar nomination earlier this year. It was well deserved, too, with the legendary actress beautifully conveying emotions like romantic disappointment and jealous irritation.
Pictured: Charlotte Rampling
Photo: Moviestore Collection/Rex/Shutterstock.
Jack (1996)
For the most part, this is a light comedy about a young boy with Werner syndrome, which ages him to the point that he looks like Robin Williams. It's all very bittersweet, though, culminating in a graduation speech that's sure to set off your facial sprinkler system.
Pictured: Diane Lane and Robin Williams
Photo: Moviestore Collection/Rex/Shutterstock.
Project Nim(2011)
This heart-wrenching documentary follows the story of a chimpanzee raised with a human family before becoming the subject of an extensive research project in the 1970s. Long story short: Nim Chimpsky gets let down by pretty much everyone.
Pictured: Nim Chimpsky with a researcher
Photo: Moviestore Collection/Rex/Shutterstock.
Rabbit-Proof Fence(2002)
Kenneth Branagh plays the baddie in this Australian drama about three mixed-race Aboriginal girls who try to make their way home after being ripped from their families and placed in a settlement camp for "half castes." The film is loosely based on a true story.
Pictured: Everlyn Sampi and Tianna Sansbury
Photo: Moviestore Collection/Rex/Shutterstock.
The Book Thief(2013)
Based on Markus Zusak's bestselling book of the same name, this story about a book-loving orphan entrusted to a German family in 1938 strings together a series of heartbreaking plot points. Star Sophie Nélisse is a wonder as the lead character Leisel.
Pictured: Sophie Nélisse
Photo: Moviestore Collection/Rex/Shutterstock.
The Danish Girl(2015)
Eddie Redmayne's Einar Wegener struggles to find love and acceptance as he transitions into a woman, while Alicia Vikander, playing Wegener's wife Gerda, beautifully captures a sense of loss. The train station scene is brutal.
Pictured: Eddie Redmayne
Photo: Moviestore/Rex/Shutterstock.
Schindler's List (1993)
Unless you're Jerry Seinfeld, this Oscar-winning story about heroism during the Holocaust will have you weeping uncontrollably right down to the end credits.
Pictured: Ralph Fiennes and Liam Neeson
Photo: Snap/Rex/Shutterstock.
The Pursuit of Happyness(2006)
Just keep reminding yourself that this based-on-a-true-story film has a happy ending as you watch Will Smith constantly struggle to support his son (a pre-Louis Vuitton Jaden Smith) and get a pinky toe on the corporate ladder.
Photo: Snap Stills/Rex/Shutterstock.
Southpaw (2015)
Consider this a sucker punch to the heartstrings. A surprise twist elevates this 2015 hit from a mere boxing flick to an emotional drama about love, family, and discipline.
Pictured: Rachel McAdams and Jake Gyllenhaal
Photo: Rex/Shutterstock.
The Constant Gardener (2005)
Beyond the intrigue, this political thriller digs deep into heartbreak, questions of fidelity, and devotion.
Pictured: Rachel Weisz
Photo: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock.
Frozen River (2008)
Melissa Leo and the late Misty Upham star in this bleak drama about two women (one a down-and-out single mom, the other a Mohawk bingo parlor employee separated from her son) going to great lengths to make ends meet.
Pictured: Melissa Leo
Photo: Moviestore Collection/REX/Shutterstock.
Still Life(2013)
Eddie Marsan stars as a government employee tasked with sorting out funerals for deceased citizens who have no loved ones. One final case prompts him to investigate the death of a man who died in squalor. Trust us when we tell you that the ending will hit you like a ton of bricks.
Pictured: Eddie Marsan
Photo: Redwave Films/Embargo Films.
Philadelphia (1993)
We still can't listen to Neil Young or Bruce Springsteen without welling up, and it's all due to this tearjerker. Tom Hanks won his first Oscar for playing an AIDS-stricken lawyer suing his old firm for discrimination, with Denzel Washington as the "ambulance chaser" leading the charge.
Pictured: Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks
Photo: Moviestore/REX Shutterstock.
Fruitvale Station (2013)
If you sobbed when Wallace got shot on The Wire, this other Michael B. Jordan vehicle will no doubt have you in the fetal position for days. Even more heartbreaking is the fact that the events in the Ryan Coogler-directed drama actually happened.
Pictured: Michael B. Jordan
Photo: Snap Stills/REX Shutterstock.
All Is Lost (2013)
What this Robert Redford drama lacks in dialogue, it compensates with edge-of-your-seat drama and an overwhelming sense of weariness and frustration. Will Redford save his broken boat? Maybe. Will you ever go sailing again? Probably not.
Pictured: Robert Redford
Photo: Moviestore/REX Shutterstock.
About Time(2013)
On its face, this is a rom-com with a time-traveling twist. Perhaps that's why the built-in life lessons and a plot about terminal illness hit us like a ton of bricks.
Pictured: Domhnall Gleeson and Bill Nighy
Photo: Moviestore/REX Shutterstock.
Still Alice (2014)
Julianne Moore earned her Best Actress Oscar for playing an active and intelligent 50-year-old woman diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Her struggle is heartbreaking, from having to tell her grown children that the disease is genetic, to making a list of questions she must answer every day to keep her memory sharp.
Pictured: Julianne Moore
Photo: Moviestore/REX Shutterstock.
My Girl (1991)
Although the 1991 coming-of-age film is billed as a comedy-drama, director Howard Zieff certainly pulled out all the stops when young Vada Sultenfuss (played by newcomer Anna Chlumsky) had to deal with the tragic loss of her friend (Macaulay Culkin) while growing up in her father's funeral home in the '70s.
Pictured: Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky
Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures.
The Elephant Man (1980)
David Lynch's 1980 biopic of Victorian freak-show exhibit John Merrick, a man suffering from severe elephantiasis, is a stark indictment of the inhumanity and moral exclusion people routinely inflict on others.
Pictured: John Hurt
Photo: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
Blue Valentine(2010)
Michelle Williams certainly earned her Oscar nomination in this 2010 film documenting the gut-wrenching dissolution of her character's marriage to a violent alcoholic played by Ryan Gosling.
Pictured: Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling
Photo: Courtesy of The Weinstein Company.
Steel Magnolias(1989)
Few movies portray the bonds of female friendship quite like this 1989 ensemble dramedy, adapted from the eponymous Robert Harling play. The film — which features a magnificent cast, including Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, and Dolly Parton — tells the story of how a tight-knit group of Southern women support each other through the various peaks and valleys of their lives. Some of the saddest moments are watching Sally Fields' grief as her daughter, a pre- Pretty Woman Julia Roberts, dies of complications from diabetes. Talk about an emotional gut punch.
Pictured: Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Daryl Hannah, and Dolly Parton
Photo: Courtesy of TriStar Pictures.
P.S. I Love You (2007)
This movie is explicitly designed to turn on the waterworks. It's the story of a young widow (Hilary Swank) who receives posthumous letters of encouragement from her late husband (Gerard Butler) after he dies of a brain tumor.
Pictured: Gerard Butler and Hilary Swank
Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
My Life (1993)
This under-appreciated 1993 gem features Michael Keaton as a high-powered PR executive and expectant father who is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Fearing that he will not live long enough to see the birth of his son, Keaton records a video documentary of himself so that his child can get to know him.
Pictured: Nicole Kidman and Michael Keaton
Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures.
Magnolia (1999)
Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 drama features an interconnected group of characters in L.A, who are forced to grapple with forgiveness, desperation, and the search for happiness when their lives intersect around the death of a terminally ill quiz-show producer played by Jason Robards. The scene where Tom Cruise's pick-up artist character breaks down by the death bed of his estranged father is one of the great emotionally affecting scenes (and Cruise won his third Golden Globe for the role).
Pictured: A theatrical poster for Magnolia
Photo: Courtesy of New Line Cinema.
Atonement(2007)
The iconic Vanessa Redgrave delivers a somber and arresting performance as a novelist who used fiction to atone for the young lovers whose lives she ruined when she mistakenly accused a man (James McAvoy) of a sex crime at the onset of World War II. Adapted from the 2001 Ian McEwan novel, the film deals with decades' worth of grief as a result of a youthful flight of fancy that contributed to the premature death of her sister (Keira Knightley) and the false imprisonment of her sister's lover.
Pictured: James McAvoy and Keira Knightley.
Photo: Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Beaches (1988)
It is absolutely impossible not to cry during this 1988 drama where the deeply complicated 30-year-friendship between a brash actress (Bette Midler) and a privileged lawyer (Barbara Hershey) is brought to an abrupt end when the latter is diagnosed with a rare heart disease. The opening bars of Midler's performance of "The Wind Beneath My Wings" are usually all it takes to open the floodgates.
Pictured: Barbara Hershey and Bette Midler
Photo: Courtesy of Buena Vista Pictures.
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Hilary Swank is a bit of a staple in the tearjerker genre. This time around she's a scrappy boxer who eventually develops a bond with her hard-nosed boxing coach, played by Clint Eastwood (who also directed the film). The movie has all the makings of your typical sports drama with a triumphant underdog — until it delivers an emotional sucker punch at the end.
Pictured: Hilary Swank
Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
Up(2009)
We have to hand it to this 2009 Pixar offering for completely reinventing the formula we've come to know and expect from sad movies. While most tearjerkers save the most gut-wrenching developments for the third act, this beloved animated feature has both kids and adults reaching for the Kleenex within the first 10 minutes.
Pictured: A scene from Up
Photo: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
The Fault in Our Stars(2014)
As this 2014 romantic dramedy proves, the only thing more tragic than a fresh-faced teenager with terminal cancer is a fresh-faced teenager with terminal cancer in love. This film though? Doubles down: It features two terminally ill teens in love, played by Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort.
Pictured: Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley
Photo: Courtesy of 20th Century Fox.
Life Is Beautiful (1997)
The Italian film's director and star Roberto Benigni took home the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance of a father trying to distract his son from the horrors of life in a Nazi concentration camp.
Pictured: Roberto Benigni with Nicoletta Braschi and Giorgio Cantarini
Photo: Courtesy of Miramax Films.
Boys Don't Cry(1999)
Hilary Swank makes yet another appearance on the list in this indie biopic of Brandon Teena, a trans man whose blossoming romance with a karaoke singer (Chloë Sevigny) was cut short after he was brutally murdered in small-town Nebraska. The movie is not only heartbreaking because of it's ill-fated love story, but also because it illustrates the bigotry and threats that many trans people have historically endured and continue to face.
Pictured: Chloë Sevigny and Hilary Swank
Photo: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father (2008)
Dear Zachary is a unique entry on this list because it's a documentary. The 2008 film starts off as a video diary to the infant Zachary from friends and family giving testimonials about the murdered father he'll never meet. Events take an unexpected, true-crime turn however, and tragedy further compounds itself by the film's end.
Pictured: Zachary with his grandparents
Photo: Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories.
Dancer in the Dark (2000)
Leave it to Lars von Trier to make arguably the most depressing musical ever filmed. Things start out pretty bleak, with Björk starring as an impoverished factory worker who is pinching pennies to pay for an operation that will save her son from the same genetic, degenerative eye disease that is causing her to go blind. If that doesn't sound upsetting enough, things only go downhill from there.
Pictured: Björk
Photo: Courtesy of Fine Line Features.
Sophie's Choice(1982)
Thanks to this critically lauded 1982 drama, the term "Sophie's Choice" has entered the lexicon to stand for any scenario where one must make an impossible decision. In this case, Meryl Streep's Sophie was forced to choose which of her two young children would be sent to the gas chamber when the family was imprisoned in Auschwitz. Streep brought home an Oscar for her performance, and the film as a whole pretty much set the gold standard for tearjerkers.
Pictured: Meryl Streep
Photo: Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
12 Years a Slave(2014)
One could argue that the saddest movies on the list are the ones depict the inhumanity of people or institutions in power. Steve McQueen's 2014 Best Picture winner is not only heartbreaking because it depicts the plight of one man sold into slavery, but because it depicts the cruelty that was once an accepted as status quo.
Pictured: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Photo: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures
Bicycle Thieves(1948)
Vittorio De Sica's 1948 Italian neorealist film is widely lauded as one of the best movies ever made. A young father is desperate to feed his impoverished family, so he scrapes together the money to buy the bicycle necessary for his new job hanging advertisements around the city. As luck would have it, his bike gets stolen on his first day on the job. With his young son in tow, the man sets out on a near impossible mission to get it back.
Pictured: Enzo Staiola and Lamberto Maggiorani
Photo: Courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment.
Amour(2012)
Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke isn't known for making particularly uplifting films, and 2012's Amour is no exception. This Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film takes a profoundly sad and somber look at how an elderly Parisian couple fares when one half slips into dementia after a series of strokes.
Pictured: Emmanuelle Riva
Photo: Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
Terms of Endearment(1983)
No list of sad movies is complete without this 1983 dramedy. Shirley MacLaine's performance, particularly the part where she's dealing with the loss of her daughter, is the barometer against which all other sad-movie performances must be measured.
Pictured: Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger
Photo: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
If Sophie's Choice and Life Is Beautiful taught us anything, the surefire formula for a devastating tearjerker combines the Holocaust with child mortality, and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas has both. Nine-year-old Bruno's family relocates near a concentration camp when his father, an SS officer, is given a promotion. Little Bruno sneaks off and befriends a prisoner his age near the edge of the camp, where they play checkers through the barbed wire. Although the two boys become great friends, little Bruno learns some hard truths about what his father does for a living, and why his new friend wears what he mistakenly assumes are pajamas.
Pictured: Jack Scanlon.
Photo: Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
The Road(2009)
In this adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, this film's grim, post-apocalyptic vision makes the dystopia of The Hunger Games look downright desirable. The unnamed father and son duo do their best to keep hope alive in a bleak world where roving bands have turned to cannibalism in the bleak hellscape left over from an unspecified disaster.
Pictured: Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee
Photo: Courtesy of The Weinstein Company.
The Day of the Locust(1975)
John Schlesinger's 1975 adaptation of the Nathanael West novel of the same name is a grim look at Hollywood in the '30s, particularly at a group of broken has-beens and never-were who failed to make their show business dreams come true.
Pictured: A scene from The Day of the Locust
Photo: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
The Notebook(2004)
Sure, we all like to think of 2004's The Notebook as an enduring love story first and foremost, especially given the fantastic circumstances leading up to Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling's sexy, rain-soaked kiss. However, we have to hand it to James Garner and Gena Rowlands for effectively reducing us all to tears at the end.
Pictured: Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling
Photo: Courtesy of New Line Cinema.
Brokeback Mountain(2005)
This heartbreaking love story of the 20-year affair between two ranch hands, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger, was easily the most talked-about movie of 2005. Ledger and Gyllenhaal began an affair on a job site on the movie's titular mountain, before being fired by the summer's end. The pair continue with a shaky and sporadic relationship, despite their attempts to marry women and live lifestyles that society deemed more acceptable in the '60s to the '80s.
Pictured: Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger
Photo: Courtesy of Focus Features.
Stepmom(1998)
Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts play the respective ex-wife and fiancée to Ed Harris. The tension between the two is heightened when Sarandon passive aggressively uses her children as pawns in her quiet war with her ex. However, the women are forced to make peace when Sarandon is diagnosed with terminal cancer and they realize the family dynamics really will change forever.
Pictured: Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts
Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures.
Precious(2009)
This is easily one of the hardest movies on the list to watch. The 2009 Lee Daniels films tells the story of Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), an illiterate, pregnant 16-year-old who regularly escapes into her own fantasy world when faced with emotional, physical, and sexual abuse from her family. Despite being in the eighth grade at 16, Precious is tasked with getting her GED and ultimately changing her life's direction so that she can escape her abusive home and provide for her children.
Pictured: Gabourey Sidibe
Photo: Courtesy of Lionsgate.
The Champ (1979)
Franco Zeffirelli's 1979 remake of the 1931 film of the same name features a young Ricky Schroder in his film debut. The movie details the dysfunctional relationship between young T.J (Schroder) and his dad (Jon Voight), a former boxer turned alcoholic horse trainer with a gambling problem. However, things get more complicated as T.J.'s estranged mother (Faye Dunaway) comes back into the picture. Despite being just 9 years old, Schroder gives an incredibly impressive onscreen cry. In turn, it will definitely get your waterworks going.
Pictured: Ricky Schroder and Jon Voight
Photo: Courtesy of United Artists.
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Issa Rae is one of our best sitcom writers and actresses. Her work on Awkward Black Girl is amazing and Insecure looks to be a hit in the making.
But her charitable work might be the best thing she’s ever done. After the killing of Alton Sterling by a policeman, Rae did more than just tweet thoughts and prayers. She went on GoFundMe to create a scholarship for Sterling’s children. The page quickly blew up, raising $200k in just 9 hours.
But the success didn’t stop there. As of this writing, the page has raised $456k. And the numbers keep going up.
“I have left word for the Edmond, the family attorney and have been consulting with my legal advisors to ensure that ALL of the money will get to the family (hopefully tax free),” Rae wrote in an update. “We're working on the most efficient plan and I thank all of you who have reached out to help and offer your services/connections.”
Hello, vixen. With the sun and Venus doing time in your seductive eighth house, you will be utterly magnetic this month. But attracting people is the easy part. Your job is to be discerning, holding out for the magic of a mind-body-soul connection. You could find it with the new moon on July 4 or two days later when cosmic lovers Venus and Mars dance a sexy pasodoble. If you're already attached, dive in deeper. The first week of July is all about baring your soul. Vulnerability and authenticity will only strengthen your bond.
Having "me time" is essential, especially after the 12th, when Venus moves on to your independent ninth house. Devote time to your passions so you can stay centered. On the 20th, stable Saturn in Sagittarius forms a lucky triangle with Venus, helping you stand your ground during a lovers' quarrel. As much as you want to compromise, you do have your limits. Stick to your bottom line, Sagittarius, even if that brings a temporary rift in your relationship. Calm, clear communication will help you work it out. Traveling with your sweetie will be sublime after the 22nd. Single Archers, pack your sexy underthings, because the last third of July could bring a soul-stirring vacation romance.
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Photographed by Nick Eucker; Styled by Laura Pritchard; Hair by Peter Matteliano at Kate Ryan and Maggie Connolly at Utopia; Makeup by Ashleigh Ciucci; Nails by Yuki Miyakawa at Kate Ryan; Set Design by Hans Maharawal; Modeled by Iuliia Danko for NEXT Management. Model wearing Sharon Wang dress, Bing Bang ear cuff, Annelise Michelson ring, and model's own earrings.
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Go on, Scorpio, do something daring. With the sun beaming through your "live out loud" ninth house until the 22nd, your mysterious M.O. won't be necessary. Just be open, wild, and free — and watch the love interests line up. With red-hot Mars motoring through Scorpio all month, you'll be on the prowl, too. This will be especially evident on the 6th, when Venus and Mars form a sultry trine (120-degree angle), rewarding you for taking a fearless chance on romance. Sparks might fly with someone from a different part of the world, so don't rule out a long-distance love.
The full moon on the 19th could bring an illuminating moment. Someone you shuffled into the friend category may show greater, uh, benefits. And coupled Scorpios may find new ways to lighten up and cooperate. Aren't you sick of having that fight again? Look for creative solutions, like outsourcing something that you both hate doing (i.e. cleaning). The provider type could make you swoon during a Venus-Saturn trine on the 20th. Then the sun heads into your goal-oriented and traditional 10th house on the 22nd, helping you think big picture. If starting a business with bae ever felt appealing, the last third of the month is the time to start exploring.
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Photographed by Nick Eucker; Styled by Laura Pritchard; Hair by Peter Matteliano at Kate Ryan and Maggie Connolly at Utopia; Makeup by Ashleigh Ciucci; Nails by Yuki Miyakawa at Kate Ryan; Set Design by Hans Maharawal; Modeled by Hilda Dias Pimental for Muse Model Management. Model wearing M. Patmos dress, Jennifer Fisher earrings, and Dannijo ring.
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Open up your shared calendar, Libra. With July's planets amping up your career mojo, you're going to have to schedule your romantic rendezvous. Balancing it all won't be easy, so look for ways you can include your other half in your ambitious endeavors. On the 6th, a prosperous angle between lovebirds Venus and Mars could even spur you to start a business together. Single? A professional connection could turn romantic this month. Blurring lines always comes with a warning alert, but as long as you pace yourself and make sure it's more than just a physical attraction, this could be the start of something beautiful.
When your ruler Venus heads into Leo and your social 11th house on July 12, don't let work be an excuse for skipping out on fun. Being around like-minded people is the fastest route to finding true love, especially when the sun joins up with Venus from the 22nd on. The full moon on the 19th lands in your home sector. Start scoping out a love nest, or set up your space so there's room for a partner to enter your life. This full moon also underscores the importance of female friendships, as their support can take the pressure off a relationship to be your everything.
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Photographed by Nick Eucker; Styled by Laura Pritchard; Hair by Peter Matteliano at Kate Ryan and Maggie Connolly at Utopia; Makeup by Ashleigh Ciucci; Nails by Yuki Miyakawa at Kate Ryan; Set Design by Hans Maharawal; Modeled by Iuliia Danko for NEXT Management. Model wearing Lisa Perry dress, Gig Couture dress, Tuleste rings, and model's own earrings.
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There’s nothing wrong with rocking the rose-colored aviators as the sun drifts through your fantasy-fueled 12th house this month. Drop your guard and let people in, but do run background. Under these quixotic skies, you'll want to believe the best in people, even if they don't deserve it. On July 4, under the beams of a new moon, you could finally celebrate your independence from a toxic ex. Or you might meet someone who literally sweeps you off your statement sandals. Near the 6th, a female friend could make the fateful introduction to your future amour. Stay open to suggestions!
Then, on the 12th, romantic Venus makes her annual visit to Leo, lighting you up with a radiant glow for the rest of July. Take the lead in love and be more outspoken about your desires. When master planner Saturn forms a helpful trine (120-degree angle) to Venus on the 20th, you could make some rock-solid commitments about the future — or even wind up with a rock on a certain finger. Don’t forget to make time for your own interests, too. With the sun heading into Leo for a month on the 22nd, your birthday season begins, and even the most love-struck among us will need a longer leash.
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Photographed by Nick Eucker; Styled by Laura Pritchard; Hair by Peter Matteliano at Kate Ryan and Maggie Connolly at Utopia; Makeup by Ashleigh Ciucci; Nails by Yuki Miyakawa at Kate Ryan; Set Design by Hans Maharawal; Modeled by Iuliia Danko for NEXT Management. Model wearing Sharon Wang dress, Bing Bang ear cuff, Annelise Michelson ring, and model's own earrings.
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You're a nurturer by nature, Cancer, but July is about putting yourself first. When you catch yourself rushing to help your sweetie, take pause. Over-giving can lead to resentment — and there ain't nothing sexy about that. July 4's new moon in Cancer is your personal Independence Day, so if you need to, create a little more autonomy in a relationship. Remember that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Let yourself shine like a fireworks display and be the life of the party all month. An exhilarating connection of Venus and Mars on the 6th could rouse a vacation romance. And with a full moon in your relationship house on the 19th, single Cancerians could attract a dynamic (and permanent) other half. Attached? A little space can create sparks, which might just lead your love to get down on bended knee.
Healthy bonding is the order of the day as ardent Venus forms a lucky triangle (a trine) with grounded Saturn on the 20th. You could meet your match at the gym or while doing yoga. Serenade your sweetie with green smoothies and an endorphin-fueled, post-gym romp. The sun moves on to Leo and your sensual second house on the 22nd, which helps you settle down once again. Romance each other with poetry. Slowing down allows good tension to build.
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Photographed by Nick Eucker; Styled by Laura Pritchard; Hair by Peter Matteliano at Kate Ryan and Maggie Connolly at Utopia; Makeup by Ashleigh Ciucci; Nails by Yuki Miyakawa at Kate Ryan; Set Design by Hans Maharawal; Modeled by Hilda Dias Pimental for Muse Model Management. Model wearing M. Patmos dress, Jennifer Fisher earrings, and Dannijo ring.
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Make a wish, Virgo! July is your month to visualize the kind of relationship that would feed your soul. For the first half of the month, this will be more of an intellectual process. You'll long for a meeting of the minds as much as the crackle of a physical attraction. But that also means sharing more of yourself. With courageous Mars in your communication house all month, candor shouldn't be a problem. You could meet someone who talks your talk near a blissful Mars-Venus connection on the 6th, or a friend of a friend could turn out to be “the one.”
When a relationship gets comfortable, it's easy to coast. But July's planets are pushing you to go deeper, especially after July 12, when Venus descends into your soulful 12th house. Even if you have to put some scary stuff on the table — like past transgressions and secrets — these discussions will enrich your relationship. Circle the 19th as one of 2016's romantic high points, when the full moon blossoms in your fifth house of true love and fertility. If you're ready to tie the knot, there could be a proposal — or a pregnancy if that’s in your game plan. The sun joins Venus in your fairy-tale-friendly 12th house on the 22nd, calling for a sweet escape. Slip off for a beach vacation with bae, or go solo to reconnect with yourself. Feeling whole as an individual can make it easier to get closer to someone else.
To get the details on this look and more, click here.
Photographed by Nick Eucker; Styled by Laura Pritchard; Hair by Peter Matteliano at Kate Ryan and Maggie Connolly at Utopia; Makeup by Ashleigh Ciucci; Nails by Yuki Miyakawa at Kate Ryan; Set Design by Hans Maharawal; Modeled by Andrea Thomas for Q Management. Model wearing Lisa Perry dress, Marimekko dress, Annelise Michelson ear cuffs, Nancy Newberg VIA Iconery ring, Catbird ring, stylist's own ring, and Thierry Lasry sunglasses.
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By now, you should have the chorus of "Sorry " memorized. "Formation" ought to be your theme song. "***Flawless" should have been your anthem for at least a year.
And now is the time when you can't eff it up. Beyoncé's Formation World Tour has officially started, and, as any true Bey fan knows, it's time to bring your A-game.
That means belting along to every song in tune (likethis guy at the Rihanna concert), nailing down that sass (like this little girl), and memorizing the choreography to "Single Ladies" (like these Bey superfans).
So, to help you prepare, we scoured the set list so far and pulled together the songs you must memorize before even calling yourself a member of the Beyhive. From old-school classics to the newest off her Lemonade album, these are the tracks to sing along to and prep in order to bow down to Queen Bey. Click ahead to get your jam on, and leave your favorites in the comments below.
It's safe to say that anything trying to stage a second act — be it a movie, game, or toy — faces an uphill battle. Sequels tend to fall flat and attempts to modernize old-school favorites often feel contrived and silly. So, it's come as a surprise to those who aren't Pokémon diehards, myself included, that Pokémon Go, a free mobile game based on the original 1995 Game Boy release and trading card universe, is an uncontested success. It’s one of Nintendo's earliest ventures into mobile games and it’s giving the Pokémon franchise a second chance at taking over our lives.
The game has gone viral, with everyone from parents to kids and college students geeking out over catching the little monsters. Since launching in the Apple Store and Google Play earlier this week, Pokémon Go has become the top-downloaded and highest revenue-grossing iPhone app in the U.S. Not a bad comeback.
Pokémon Go is different from your typical smartphone game. Instead of staying on your screen, it's brought what was, for many millennials, a beloved childhood game into a very 21st-century world. The game uses augmented reality a to place the Pokémon in your world. You have to walk around to play the GPS-based game, seeking out critters like Abra and Electabuzz and "throwing" Poké Balls to capture them. You're walking down the street and —bam! — there's Ekans.
People are actually risking their lives and interrupt important life events, like the birth of a child, for this phone app. As many players have noted, your safety isn't exactly the game's first priority. They've caused some people to travel to creepy, hilarious, and, at times, dangerous places. Here are some of the most craziest:
They are present in the hospital room, while your wife is going through labor:
They're present at funerals — but not to pay their respects. (Note to users: a funeral probably isn't the most appropriate place to capture a Pokémon, no matter how obsessed you are with the game).
Is Pokémon Go the new Neko Atsume? It definitely seems so. Apparently, we love virtually "collecting" things and the mix of real and virtual in Pokémon Go is even more addictive than collecting items in an on-screen one. Prepare yourself: If you're not obsessed yourself, you'll be spending at least the next few months hearing friends complain about failed captures and never-ending quests for Pokémon medals.
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Grace Jones's hi-top fade, Brigitte Bardot's beehive, Jane Birkin's fringe — over the decades, we've witnessed a slew of earth-shattering 'dos. But this year, there's one in particular we've seen resurrected time and time again on everyone from Taylor Swift to models on the runway and girls on the street. What is this hairstyle, you ask? Debbie Harry's platinum shag.
"This is the 'rules are made to be broken look,'" hairstylist Matt Fugate says of the punk-rock cut. "It's a mid-length shattered shag that's tousled with reckless abandon." We couldn't have put it better ourselves — the effortlessness of the Blondie front-runner's style is unparalleled, so it comes as no surprise that everyone wants this cut and color.
But why now? Fugate believes we're slowly moving away from the age of polished hair. "I think due to the flood of blowout bars, the perfectly coiffed hair isn't so sought after," he says. "Now it's about going against the grain."
But the very best part of Harry's look is that basically anyone can rock it. "The shape and looseness is flattering to lots of women," says hairstylist Ryan Trygstad. "It gives length to the neck and helps women get volume."
Even Harry's icy-blonde color can be sported by basically any hair type, face shape, and skin tone — you just need to have the confidence to rock this daring shade, says professional colorist Lucille Javier. "My best advice is to be honest with your professional so they can better help you and your hair," she says. Make sure to fess up to any previous hair color (even that quickie box-dye job you did last year in a pinch) that could possibly derail your ideal platinum.
Need some visual inspo? We've rounded up a handful of images of Harry herself, along with a few shots of celebrities who have adopted a Harry-inspired crop in the slides ahead. The best part? Each slide has tips on how to style, manage, and maintain the cut.
If you're set on a Blondie-inspired 'do, Trygstad recommends asking for a textured bob that can be worn wavy or straight. If you have a shorter neck or a less pronounced jaw, opt for a lob-length rather than a shoulder-grazing style.
Photo: Maureen Donaldson/Getty Images.
For those of you with blonde ambition, Javier emphasizes that the look requires time and dedication. "It's not a hair trend for the lazy; it takes energy to maintain a healthy blonde," she says. But don't worry, we've laid out exactly how to maintain your color right here.
Photo: Michael Putland/Getty Images.
Taylor Swift rocked a platinum-blonde shag at this year's Met Gala. Although the color didn't last long, the shade was a daring success for Swift.
Photo: James Devaney/GC Images.
Taylor Momsen is known for her layered, ice-blonde locks. According to Fugate, all you need to achieve this level of "reckless abandon" is a blowdryer and an A+ blowdry cream (Kérastase Ciment Thermique is his favorite). When your hair is wet, use your hands to flip your strands in alternative directions while blasting it with hot hair. Once it's dry, zhuzh with a little volumizing texture spray (he recommends Serge Normand Dream Big) and voilà, you've got an artfully undone look.
Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images.
In May, Emma Stone (a natural blonde) debuted a platinum shag. As much as we love the actress's signature red, we're happy to see her return to her roots.
Photo: Splash News.
For those of you who shy away from the super-messy look, Jennifer Lawrence's ice-blonde lob is a good way to go. You'll still be able to capitalize on that beachy Blondie texture, but with a bit more control.
Photo: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC.
You don't have to sit ears-high in bleach for four hours to get this look. Honey-blonde highlights like Zendaya's do wonders to enhance the movement and dimension of the cut.
Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
Or make like model Mica Arganaraz and just go for a monochromatic shag. In between cuts, Fugate suggests breaking the rules. "Every so often, twist some of your hair in your fingers and cut it yourself," he says. "The initial haircut should last a while, so you can be free to do what you want with it until you're ready for your next big cut."
Photo: Victor VIRGILE/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images.
The shag isn't just a shoulder-length style — take a look at model Freja Beha Erichsen's collarbone-grazing version.
Photo: Darren Gerrish/WireImage.
Alexa Chung is a texture pioneer. According to Trygstad, her version can be worn wavy or super-straight. Just be sure to mess your locks up after styling to add even more texture and movement (he loves using Oribe's Dry Texture Spray and Oribe's Après Beach spray).
Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images.
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Photo: James Devaney/GC Images.
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You probably already know about the many wonderful health benefits of having sex (or, at least, we hope you do). But if sex in general is great, frequent sex is amazing — and having satisfying intimate experiences more often, in certain circumstances, may improve not just your physical well-being but also your emotional wellness.
For instance, a study published in 2014 in Social Psychological and Personality Science followed 371 college students for 12 weeks. Researchers found that, for those who enjoyed casual sex, having more of it was associated with a whole host of great things linked to well-being — including higher self-esteem. (However, getting more casual sex didn't have the same effect if participants weren't into it.) Bonus: Solo sexy time has also been shown to improve self-confidence.
And then there's the research showing that women (especially millennial women) with higher self-esteem also report having more satisfying sex, according to a 2011 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. That included regularly having more orgasms and engaging more often in communication and exploration during sex. Although men showed a similar trend, it wasn't statistically significant.
But that association certainly doesn't happen immediately. Other research has found stark differences in the way men and women tend to experience losing their virginities. Namely, the experience increases self-confidence in men and reduces it in women. As another study found in 2011, this is especially true for our confidence in our appearance. Which, in a society that places so much importance on that for women, can have far-reaching consequences for self-esteem.
So, obviously, simply having more sex isn't going to magically make you more confident. But, under the right circumstances, you might just get a nice little boost with that booty call.
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Nothing's better than spending the weekend holed up in a movie theater, devouring the latest big-screen debuts. But how do you choose what to see? Well, that's where we come in.
Obviously, there will be certain movies throughout the year that feel like must-sees just because everyone is talking about them ( Swiss Army Man got mixed reviews at Sundance; The BFG is Steven Spielberg's return to making delightfully magical kids movies). But if you want to be a more discerning cinephile, you can visit this cheat sheet. Here we'll give you the lowdown on new releases — and the critics' verdicts on them. Then you'll be able to determine which one is right for you.
This post will be continually updated, so don't forget to check back!
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
Starring: Zac Efron, Adam Devine, Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza
Synopsis: A pair of brothers find two outgoing girlfriends and enlist them as wedding dates.
What’s The Word: It’s a goofy R-rated bro comedy, but its female characters manage some subversive winks. “There’s a craftiness in the script that isn’t always present in these performance-based, R-rated comedies,” wrote The Guardian ’s Jordan Hoffman. The Wrap’s Robert Abele wasn’t a fan: “Only Parks & Recreation alum Plaza offers the occasionally pleasurable deadpan impishness, but the primary takeaway is that she’s been to this well one too many times.” At The Ringer, though, staff writer Allison P. Davis was into it. The movie may be the first rom-com to suggest that women can drink and smoke and make immature jokes and also be deserving of love without having to evolve into it. “The central premise of Mike and Dave is that the vehement avoidance of growing up is a right equally for all genders,” Davis wrote. “It’s immaturity as equality, which means that neither of our party-girl heroines have to let go of their deeply flawed, MDMA-loving personalities.” The New Yorker 's Richard Brody raised an interesting point about these boyish comedies made in Judd Apatow's image: "Many comedies seem to be made by taking pictures of funny (or funny enough) people acting funny. But comedy is a matter of direction — not just comic timing but also comic spacing."
Synopsis: The doc tells the story of Stuxnet, a 2010 computer virus used in cyber warfare.
What’s The Word: Alex Gibney (director of Going Clear, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, the Eliot Spitzer doc Client 9) has created another vehicle for information and smart suspense. “What Zero Days does is plausibly make the case that cyber-aggression of nation states is a new form of dangerous geopolitical dysfunction,” writes The Guardian ’s Peter Bradshaw. But the doc lacks focus, probably due to the high levels of secrecy surrounding the weaponized computer virus. “Though their sound bites are well chosen and edited,” The Hollywood Reporter ’s Boyd van Hoeij wrote, “a sense remains that they are really talking around the film’s core subject.” An unexpected highlight? Joanna Tucker, according to A.V. Club’s Mike D’Angelo: “[Gibney] gets a genuine star turn from Tucker, who may one day be as famous as her husband, Adam Driver. She’s the main reason to see Zero Days — which is pretty ironic, since she’s the one quasi-fictional element in a movie that’s otherwise strenuously ‘just the facts, ma’am.’”
The Secret Life of Pets
Starring: Kevin Hart, Jenny Slate, Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Lake Bell, Ellie Kemper, Hannibal Buress
Synopsis: Your favorite comedians play a gaggle of lost cartoon canines for some kid-friendly fun.
What’s The Word: " The Secret Life of Pets is a hilarious account of the relationship we have with our animals, and a gentle reminder to treat them with love and respect,” wrote Raakhee Mirchandani at the New York Daily News. It might be charming, but it’s definitely a rehash of old kid-movie tropes, wrote Christianity Today ’s Alissa Wilkinson: “ The Secret Life of Pets might as well be called Generic Animated Animal Movie, a puzzle constructed of pieces lifted from other sources.” As a maker of kids movies, Universal might finally be hitting its stride, writes Village Voice ’s Bilge Ebiri, who said it “feels like they’ve finally cracked the code on making a silly-animals movie that’s just deranged enough to keep you watching, yet harmless enough not to truly offend anyone. It may not be a work of art, but it’s crazed, zigzagging energy is something to behold.”
Synopsis: A couple raises their children in an intellectually stimulating wilderness home, a setup that’s threatened when the family has to engage with the real world after the mother’s suicide.
What’s The Word: The movie has a “wonderful wryness,” according to R29’s own Elizabeth Kiefer. Some of it is charming, wrote The Hollywood Reporter ’s Leslie Felperin, but most of it is overdone movie magic: “This is really a movie for upper-middle class hipsters who once fancied themselves firebrands and status quo-challengers in college, but now consider only buying organic food at Whole Foods and not vaccinating their kids to be radical acts.” Viggo Mortensen is the flick’s undisputed star. “He’s totally believable as a man who’s set his own moral code and lived by it for years,” wrote Ed Frankl at Little White Lies. “As he realizes that he stands to lose his children to the outside world, Mortensen’s performance shifts up a gear, becoming more sensitive and moving.”
Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You
Starring: Norman Lear, George Clooney, Jay Leno, Rob Reiner, Amy Poehler, Jon Stewart
Synopsis: A look at the prolific television producer who changed the sitcom landscape and brought social issues into living rooms across America (albeit somewhat imperfectly).
What’s The Word: It’s a moving portrait of a television titan that borders on the syrupy sweet. “It finds pathos in an amiable, fluid charting of the career (and political) ambitions of the TV producer,” wrote Slant’s Clayton Dillard. The doc follows not only Lear’s professional life, but his personal as well: “Ewing and Grady’s high esteem for Lear doesn’t cause them to shy away from Lear’s personal failings,” wrote Laura Anne Harris at Seventh Row. But maybe it’s just a little too glowing, suggests Variety ’s Guy Lodge: “While a tongue-in-cheek poster captured on screen refers to Lear as a 'Great Black Leader,' there’s little sense here of how the Black community, of his generation or the next, viewed and continues to view his work. 'You raised me,' Jon Stewart tells Lear at one point in the doc; it’d be interesting to know if, say, Shonda Rhimes — a showrunner as ubiquitous in this era as Lear was in his, and comparably influential in the depiction of Black lives on screen — might say the same.”
Fathers and Daughters
Starring: Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Aaron Paul, Diane Kruger, Janet McTeer, Octavia Spencer, Jane Fonda, Quvenzhane Wallis
Synopsis: Two timelines intersect as a famous novelist struggles with illness and raising his daughter in the past, and his daughter reckons with infidelity and trust issues in the present.
What’s The Word: How did so many great talents converge to work on something so obviously contrived and overstuffed? It’s all messy and damsel-in-distressy, according to The Telegraph ’s Tim Robey: “The level of psychological nuance in Desch’s script, not to mention feminist enlightenment, makes EL James look like Virginia Woolf.” For Empire, Ian Freer pointed out a high note: “It’s tastefully shot and Crowe commits to the horrors of Jake’s illness (his seizures are upsetting) but the writing lacks depth, the character psychology is dime-store Freud, and the performances are variable.” At the Observer, Rex Reed points out the dizzying device of time jumps: “The movie jumps around like a yo-yo with a juxtaposition of time sequences that careen out of control until the audience is thoroughly dazed and confused. One minute Katie is an 8-year-old begging her daddy to love her. Sixty seconds later, she’s a grown woman (Amanda Seyfried) destroyed by sex addiction — dry, barren, unable to relate emotionally and a promiscuous child psychologist whose boss (Octavia Spencer, wasted in a cameo) assigns her the case of a tormented orphan who does not speak.”
Synopsis: A cell phone virus turns New Englanders into murderous zombies (or something).
What’s The Word: A Stephen King adaptation that was better left as a book. “ Cell treats its subject matter with alarming seriousness, as if Williams were worried he might be making a Nicolas Cage movie, but the material cries out for the gonzo, pulp energy of a B-movie,” wrote Consequence of Sound’s Nico Lang. The movie has its bright spots — namely the reteaming of Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack — but “so much of the film lacks style or life of its own,” wrote Rob Hunter for Film School Rejects. “Let’s just be honest about this: Cell the movie looks cheap. Not Syfy channel cheap, but too cheap to be attempting some of the stuff it appears to be attempting,” wrote Slash Film’s Jacob Hall when the trailer dropped. “This doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie (there are plenty of terrific horror films that look like they were made for pennies and prayers), but it should put any and all expectations in the right place.”
The BFG
Starring: Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton
Synopsis: A young orphan girl is whisked away by a Big Friendly Giant on the adventure of her life, based on the Roald Dahl novel of the same name.
What’s the Word: “For such a big, extravagant movie, with such an outsized central character, The BFG is surprisingly intimate, and that’s largely thanks to Rylance,” Stephanie Zacharek wrote for Time. “His BFG is a fragile, gentle soul with clumsy feet clad in hippie-sandals, a bit frightening at first, but he wins us over in a heartbeat.” At Gizmodo, Germain Lussier highlights the fantastical visuals: “The textures, the colors, the physical representations of dreams, it’s a world that’s quite pleasant to spend some time in.” For The Telegraph, Robbie Collin called the plot lean and a little slow, but “Sophie and the BFG’s partnership almost plays like a platonic romance, deepening and becoming more moving with every passing minute.”
Synopsis: At the end of the Holocaust, a young doctor arrives at a convent to find several nuns pregnant and in the throes of a religious crisis.
What’s the Word: It’s a movie that treats rape and religiosity with graceful nuance. “Those women are painted as full, complex characters in a few deft strokes — women who are struggling after rape to know whether they believe in something anymore, to understand their vows of chastity, to live in the problem of theodicy every day,” wrote Christianity Today ’s Alissa Wilkinson. These serious topics are treated with an insightful degree of delicacy: “Laced with intensely emotional situations, it refuses to force the issue by pushing too hard,” wrote the Los Angeles Times ’ Kenneth Turan. “And it proves, yet again, that though moral and spiritual questions may not sound spellbinding, they often provide the most absorbing movie experiences.” At Variety, Justin Chang was struck by the give and take of each sister's piousness: “In the process, the sisters — despite wearing identical habits and seeming to radiate the same stiff severity — emerge as individuals with their own unique feelings, convictions, personal histories, and varying degrees of faith.”
Synopsis: A documentary chronicling how a family used Disney movies to communicate with their autistic son.
What’s the Word: It’s a moving coming-of-age documentary about how Disney movies gave a family a way to communicate with a shared language and love. “It tells two stories,” wrote Jason Bailey at Flavorwire. “How his parents used those cartoons, which he’d obsessively viewed and memorized, to bring him out of his shell; and where they’ve left him at his moment of transition into adulthood and independence.” The Associated Press found it devastatingly tender and well-honed: “But once we wipe away the tears from that devastating moment when doctors diagnose little Owen Suskind with 'regressive autism' — and raise the real possibility that he'll never speak again — we're in for a fascinating, sometimes excruciating, uplifting, and yes, even funny ride, thanks to director Roger Ross Williams and of course Owen's devoted and determined family.”
The Legend Of Tarzan
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson
Synopsis: A reformed, gentlemanly Tarzan leaves England and returns to the jungle to work as a trade emissary.
What’s the Word:Tarzan has always been a superhero movie about a white savior, but Skarsgård’s talent tries to find a depth in the one-dimensional hero. At its core, it might actually be a movie about the perils of white colonialism, suggested IGN’s Jim Vejvod: “You can't help but leave the film suspecting the screenwriters really wanted to just tell a straightforward story about the Belgian atrocities in the Congo, and the only way they could get that film made was by sticking Tarzan in it.” At Indiewire, David Ehrlich praised Samuel L. Jackson as the dud’s only interesting element. “Only Jackson, whose George Washington Williams is loosely based on a historical figure of the same name, manages to stir any interest,” wrote Ehrlich. “There’s real weight to the notion of a late 19th-century black man traversing the world in order to weed out slavery wherever it rears its head, but [director David] Yates reduces him to a limp sliver of comic relief.” Manohla Dargis was a bit more forgiving in her review for the New York Times: “Tarzan is still the white avatar flying through the African jungle with eerie skills, a mighty yodel and existential issues, yet the terrain he swings over is messier, closer, and less of a lie than it once was.”
Synopsis: An ordinary teacher and his wife become middle-man informants for a Russian mafia boss looking to get out of the game.
What’s the Word: It’s a solid spy thriller without a lot of fluff. “A late scene with Perry and Hector, in which neither man can say what he actually thinks, is fascinating; it’s a subtle little master-class in acting,” wrote Moira Macdonald of the Seattle Times. As an adaptation of a John le Carre thriller, it’s a little measly, wrote NPR’s Ella Taylor: “The ambience of contaminated elegance suggests underlying depth, yet screenwriter Hossein Amini, with input from le Carre himself, is working with pretty thin material.” At The AV Club, Jesse Hassenger found it to be a fresher take on a more tired plot line. “ Our Kind Of Traitor develops, slowly but not dully, into the right kind of old-fashioned thriller,” Hassenger wrote.
Synopsis: A senator’s presidential campaign vows to end the crime free-for-all that is The Purge, but she finds herself in peril when the yearly event rolls around.
What’s the Word: Finally, a vision of an America that is worse than the 2016 election. Variety ’s Owen Gleiberman thought it worked, but lamented the lack of a true dramatic edge: “ A Clockwork Orange shocked people because of how it got us to identify with Alex, but there’s never a moment in Election Year when a character we know and like turns into a purger, killing for the nasty, pleasurable kick of it.” For BET.com, Clay Cane said this installment doesn’t live up to the political thoughtfulness of its predecessors. “Although horror is usually a vapid genre, The Purge was layered with social issues to make the audience think beyond the gore. The Purge: Election Year isn’t smart or layered enough to justify the gratuitous violence,” Cane wrote. “[Director James] DeMonaco's cleverly playing to two different audiences here,” wrote Laura Clifford for Reeling Reviews, “those who will be horrified by his political satire and those who will come for the gore and violence.”
Synopsis: A surfer adrift at sea tries to avoid becoming a shark’s dinner.
What’s The Word: Lively is in great form, but the plot drags and the suspense feels fake. “At times, it’s hard to tell whether The Shallows is trying to sell a tropical vacation, that Sony Xperia phone or a fantasy date with Lively herself, but in any case, the film looks virtually indistinguishable from a slick, high-end commercial,” wrote Variety ’s Peter Debruge. At The Guardian, Jordan Hoffman compared it to Gravity in its arresting simplicity: “What could have been mere summertime chum is actually one of the more cleverly constructed B-movies in quite some time.” Lively is good as a solo star, but the rest is of the movie is another story, wrote The Hollywood Reporter ’s Todd McCarthy: “Shallow is a mild word for it. Others would be silly, miscalculated, unconvincing, artless, pandering, hokey, ridiculous. Or just plain awful.”
Independence Day: Resurgence
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Liam Hemsworth, Bill Pullman, Vivica A. Fox
Synopsis: Earth’s nations are in cahoots to battle aliens.
What’s The Word: If you want to spend some time in an air-conditioned theater, watching big explosions with minimal character development, this is your movie. “It's technically and visually marvelous, but it's hard not to get a little fatigued before the big finish,” wrote CNET’s Luke Lancaster. “But the real problem isn't the borderline tiresome carnage. It's the cast.” At The Film Stage, Dan Schindel wrote that Will Smith’s absence is palpable: “It doesn’t help that, though the script does a remarkable job of recapturing the original’s winning sense of goofiness and the cast is game for it, it severely lacks a Will Smith.” For GQ U.K., Helen O’Hara called it a bit of fun foolery: “So while this is utter nonsense for much of its runtime, overstuffed with people you will struggle to care about, and while its finale shamelessly begs a sequel (like Steven Hiller, Emmerich apparently ain’t heard no fat lady), there’s still a (molten) core of wild entertainment beneath the hokum.”
Free State of Jones
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Keri Russell, Mahershala Ali
Synopsis: An honorable farmer rebels against slavery during the Civil War.
What’s The Word: A contrived take on race and America that errs on the History 101 side. “It’s a tale of racial liberation and heroic bloodshed that is designed, at almost every turn, to lift us up to that special place where we can all feel moved by what good liberals we are,” wrote Owen Gleiberman for Variety. It’s not terrible, wrote Michael Phillips for the Chicago Tribune, but “often in Free State of Jones we feel like visitors to a historical re-enactment site.” At The Village Voice, Bilge Ebiri called it cluttered, but said it’s well intentioned: “The movie is gradually overwhelmed by onscreen title cards doling out historical context, along with the occasional informative and/or inspirational speech.”
Weiner-Dog
Starring: Greta Gerwig, Danny DeVito, Ellen Burstyn
Synopsis: A pup sprinkles some joy into the lives of an offbeat group of characters, including a bitter old woman, a veterinary nurse, and a screenwriter.
What’s The Word: It charms, but with an oddball sensibility. “You’ll laugh, you’ll cringe, you’ll wince, and you’ll sigh. Such is the genius of Wiener-Dog, and of [director Todd] Solondz, and why he remains a reliable visionary,” wrote Michael Roffman at Consequence of Sound. At The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy was less taken with Solondz’s signature misanthropy: “By embarking upon an episodic road movie, Solondz is able to create a miniature portrait of the modern American landscape, and it isn’t a pretty picture; but, then, it never would be, no matter what area nor what era he was dealing with, so corrosive is his view of human nature and how people conduct themselves.” Writing for The Playlist, Noel Murray said the movie isn’t perfect, but it’s not terrible: “Not everything Solondz comes up with works, but he’s still pulling interesting ideas out of his oddball head.”
Synopsis: A charming beauty turns cold after becoming the It Girl of L.A.’s modeling scene. Expect cat fights and lots (and lots) of blood.
What’s The Word: It’s weird (and it was booed at Cannes). But maybe in a high-fashion, artsy way that just happens to turn gruesome. “[Nicholas Winding] Refn’s built a career on the exploits of violent men — of underworld hustlers, vicious convicts, and Viking warriors,” wrote AV Club’s A.A. Dowd. “He pivots here to a feminine perspective but only abstractly: This is a film about objectification that mainly sees its characters as objects, to be dressed and undressed, plastered in glitter and gore, and arranged like furniture against vast expanses of negative space.” Modeling really is the kill-or-be-killed industry we all thought it was, wrote The New Yorker ’s Anthony Lane, and Refn is keen to prove it: “By the end of the movie, Refn has toyed with cannibalism, lesbian necrophilia, the egestion of an eyeball, and other minor sports, all of them filmed in lavish taste.” At Rolling Stone, Peter Travers panned the glitzy modeling drama: “I'd talk about the acting, but I never saw the cast doing any; it's all posing. Even the sex and violence have lost their allure, and every take is drawn out with such excruciating precision that you want to scream.”
Synopsis: Stranded on an island, a lonely guy befriends a farting corpse.
What’s The Word: A black comedy with bro-losophy pranks. The premise is weird and the plot drags, wrote Time ’s Stephanie Zacharek, but it makes an interesting point: “The world [the two leads] build in their dual isolation becomes a ramshackle paradise, a place to explore complex male feelings.” At Brooklyn Magazine, Benjamin Mercer found that it’s still very funny, even if its dramatic moments don’t hit home: “It’s hard not to appreciate the juvenile exuberance of many of these high jinks, and the hand-cranked effects with which many of them are rendered.” The Guardian ’s Jordan Hoffman warned audiences to expect lots of flatulence: “I could never prep you enough for the degree to which farting plays a pivotal role in Swiss Army Man.”
The Phenom
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Paul Giamatti, Johnny Simmons
Synopsis: A struggling baseball wunderkind is mentored by his physical therapist.
What’s The Word: It’s a baseball movie without a lot of baseball that explores the nature of insecurity. “ The Phenom unfolds as a series of quiet, incisive conversations that showcase subtle, insightful performances,” wrote Serena Donadoni at The Village Voice. At The New York Times, Neil Genzlinger was less forgiving: “It’s a variation of all those children’s movies and TV shows in which a Little Leaguer or pee-wee football player is browbeaten by a parent trying to relive his or her own childhood.” At Slant, Kenji Fushima countered that even though the movie isn’t excellent, it’s not really about baseball at all. “The film touches on the effects of a culture that puts too much emphasis on winning and money at the expense of simple healthy competition.”
Finding Dory
Starring: Ellen DeGeneres, Diane Keaton, Albert Brooks, Ed O’Neill, Ty Burrell
Synopsis: Everyone’s favorite forgetful fish searches for her family with the help of Marlin, Nemo’s dad.
What’s The Word: A lovely, worthy Finding Nemo follow-up. “In a way that is both emphatic and subtle,” wrote A.O. Scott of TheNew York Times, “ Finding Dory is a celebration of cognitive and physical differences. It argues, with lovely ingenuity and understatement, that what appear to be impairments might better be understood as strengths.” Still, writes Ann Hornaday of TheWashington Post, “ Finding Dory could never completely measure up to Nemo, whose dazzling visuals and mythic contours made it an instant, enduring classic.” The sequel features a gaggle of stars and master voice actors, but DeGeneres remains the star, as RogerEbert.com’s Susan Wloszczyna noted: “DeGeneres and her sometimes goofy, sometimes giddy persona continues to be a perfect fit for the role that provided the uplifting salt-water soul of Finding Nemo.”
Central Intelligence
Starring: Kevin Hart, Dwayne Johnson, Amy Ryan, Aaron Paul
Synopsis: A high school outcast turned CIA agent pairs up with a former popular kid to complete a mission during their high school reunion.
What’s The Word: Goofy, but also too bloated to capitalize on its stars. “Johnson and Hart are performers of trustworthy charisma, but their personal appeal hits its limits when they are recruited to perform in a film that is hard to sit through,” wrote Colin Covert of the Chicago Tribune. At The Wrap, Sam Adams said their charisma can only do so much to make up for the obvious lack of laughs. “‘Jason Bourne in jorts’ sounds like a phrase right out of a pitch meeting, and Central Intelligence often feels like it never got past that initial outline,” Adams wrote. The Hollywood Reporter ’s Jon Frosh said that it’s still just some good ol’ summer fun: “[The anti-bullying message] and the mindless laughs that Central Intelligence serves up along with it are things we could use now more than ever.”
The Conjuring 2
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Frances O’Connor
Synopsis: Paranormal investigators travel to north London to help a single mother living with a house plagued by evil spirits.
What’s the Word: The sequel is scary! And worth it, if you’re into horror movies and paranormal frights. Vera Farmiga is reliably excellent, according to USA Today ’s Brian Truitt. “While [Patrick] Wilson is solid as the good-hearted Ed, Farmiga is [director] Wan’s true standout — her Lorraine really gets put through the wringer as she deals with the constant presence of a terrifying supernatural force, and Farmiga sells every gasp,” Truitt wrote.
At Consequence of Sound, however, Michael Roffman was less invested in the “exaggerated carnival fare" that is "slick and stylish to the point of distraction.” HitFix’s Drew McWeeney says it’s a cut above others in the horror genre: “A rare horror sequel that stands toe-to-toe with the original, possibly even improving on it.”
Now You See Me 2
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Daniel Radcliffe, Lizzy Caplan
Synopsis: The illusionists are now in China working for a tech wizard and trying to clear their names.
What’s the Word: The addition of director Jon M. Chu ( Step Up, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) almost makes the sequel work, but it’s a sausage-fest with magic tricks that don’t impress. Lizzy Caplan is the movie’s bright spot, adding some much-needed humor, according to EW ’s Leah Greenblatt. “[Isla Fischer] has been replaced by Lizzy Caplan, and it’s one of the sequel’s biggest improvements. Caplan, too, has to wear a whole lot of not much, but she’s also a worthy, mouthy foil for her male counterparts,” Greenblatt wrote.
Michael Phillips at the Chicago Tribunecommented on the lacking visual effects: “[It’s] insufferably old-fashioned. With so much digital-effects work guiding so many of the action scenes, the simple pleasures of sleight of hand are all but lost.” Really, the movie’s twists and turns aren’t as magical as they are just confusing, wrote A.V. Club’s Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. "True to form, the movie more or less refuses to explain the actual twist ending,” he wrote. “Up until then, it runs on a regular five-minute schedule of reversals, where nothing is ever as it seems."
Warcraft
Starring: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper
Synopsis: An orc shaman rebels and starts a conflict between two worlds in this video game adaptation.
What’s the Word: The revamp can’t exactly decide what it’s trying to do, which makes its plot difficult to sift through if you’re not already a die-hard fan of the World of Warcraft franchise. The movie’s biggest battle is actually behind the scenes and happening between art and commerce, wrote The Verge’s Tasha Robinson: “It's a knock-down, drag-out fight between storytelling, franchise-making, and fan service, and some casualties were inevitable.”
Collider’s Matt Goldberg praised the visuals, writing that “the only thing that feels fully crafted in Warcraft is the world. I went to see the movie with a fan of the game and she said that this is a film that definitely errs on the side of the fans.” For viewers that aren’t familiar with the complicated web of worlds and wars, Miami Herald ’s Rene Rodriguez recommends tuning out the plot entirely. “The moment you stop trying to figure out what’s what and who’s who, the movie becomes easy to follow,” Rodriguez wrote. “Because all the fancy names and references are just window dressing on a plot so simple it could pass for a children’s book.”
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
Starring: Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, Sarah Silverman
Synopsis: The Lonely Island guys are back with a pop prince satire.
What’s The Word:Popstar is the Spinal Tap that our generation of memes and @mentions deserves. It’s smart but also goofy: “ Popstar is not a highbrow comedy. There are dick jokes, there’s a barfing turtle, and bird shit is practically used as a metaphor,” wrote Lizzie Plaugic from The Verge. Screencrush’s Matt Singer praised The Lonely Island team’s take on pop fame and fortune in 2016. “Samberg, Schaffer, and Taccone are astute observers of celebrity and pop culture, which provides them with plenty of raw material to work with and make fun of,” he wrote. But reality is still so much stranger than fiction, and Lonely Island's pop culture historians have a hard time getting ahead of the bizarro age we’re living in. “Even on peak form, the Lonely Island could never top the aphasia-like poetry of Kanye West’s declaration to run for president,” reasonedThe Guardian ’s Jordan Hoffman.
Me Before You
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Charles Dance, Jenna Coleman
Synopsis: A quirky caregiver and her cynical, paralyzed patient fall in love.
What’s The Word: It isn’t the best love story with medical complications, but it’s also not the worst. Sheri Linden at The Hollywood Reporter said that the actors — Game of Thrones ’ Clarke and Hunger Games ’ Claflin — make a formulaic plot easier to stomach. “With their charm and good looks, Clarke and Claflin give the duo’s sublimated sensuality an undeniable charge, enhanced by the honeyed light of Remi Adefarasin’s camerawork,” Linden wrote. The Wrap’s Alonso Duralde was more harsh on the film's lack of cohesiveness: “Forget art, or even craft,” he wrote. “This is the kind of movie that can’t even get its shameless audience-pandering in order.” At A.V. Club, Jesse Hassenger wrote that though the movie might bring tears, he expects they'll quickly dry: " Me Before You is a first-level tearjerker, the kind that expects people to cry when the characters are sad, not because of any unspoken meaning underneath."
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
Starring: Megan Fox, Stephen Amell, Will Arnett, William Fichtner
Synopsis: Your favorite (and hopefully only?) talking turtles meet a mad scientist and his evil mutants.
What’s The Word: “Can a franchise have a renaissance if it was never that good to begin with?” asked CinemaBlend’s Doug Norrie. Perhaps it’s possible, but TMNT is not that franchise. The series’ second installment is barely an improvement on the first. Empire’s Emma Thrower said most of the film is tolerable until it collapses under the weight of its own tropes in the third act: “The slick first third may seem like a different franchise to the turtles’ 2014 outing, but Out of the Shadows soon unravels as the Retro-Mutagen cements its status as yet another uninspired MacGuffin in yet another bland final act containing yet more people looking up at the sky,” Thrower wrote.
Alice Through the Looking Glass
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Anne Hathaway, Johnny Depp, Sacha Baron Cohen
Synopsis: Alice time travels through the fantastical Underland to rescue the Mad Hatter and his family.
What’s The Word: The visuals in this follow-up to Tim Burton’s 2010 fantasy are less stellar than the original, and the plot holes persist. “The saving grace of Burton’s film was his wise tendency to bask in the wonders of his gothic Underland. [Director James] Bobin — not as equipped in the visual department — merely rushes from one point to the next,” Nigel M. Smith wrote for The Guardian. Hitfix’s Drew McWeeny praised the visuals, but found every other element hollow: “The bigger disappointment here is that Tim Burton is willing to put his brand name all over something so crushingly pedestrian.” Writing for RogerEbert.com, Matt Zoller Seitz said the film’s false feminism put a damper on Mia Wasikowska’s charm, writing, “She's in every scene of the movie, yet it's still a nothing part.”
X-Men: Apocalypse
Starring: Oscar Isaac, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Olivia Munn, Sophie Turner
Synopsis: The X-Men battle an ancient cyber-mutant named Apocalypse and his villainous Four Horsemen.
What’s The Word: This lukewarm X-Men installment doesn’t approach the heights of the franchise’s best. Empire’s Helen O’Hara said that Apocalypse relies too heavily on its predecessors, writing, “The more the film harks back to other X-installments, the more you’ll wish you were watching those instead.” Michael Roffman at Consequence of Sound wrote that Professor X and his gang are fun, but now have “a same ol’, same ol’ wash” that wasn’t as obvious before. Geoff Berkshire at Varietyacknowledged the monotony, but was more dismayed at the movie’s squeeze on Oscar Isaac: “Apocalypse remains a one-note villain throughout, despite Isaac’s best efforts to imbue the godlike foe with authoritative menace underneath mountains of prosthetic makeup.”
Synopsis: Sorority sisters mess with hapless adults.
What's The Word: This comedy sequel has a surprising and welcome feminist bent. "The Bechdel test is overly simple, yes, but a usefully blunt tool to compare Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising to its modern comedy brethren, virtually none of which have bothered to imbue female characters with the agency, humor, or actual personality that the women of Neighbors 2 deliver in spades," Katey Rich wrote for Vanity Fair. Erin Whitney at ScreenCrush noted: "Not only is it one of the best and funniest comedy sequels, it’s also the most feminist, gay-inclusive, and self-aware mainstream comedy of the year, if not ever." But Amy Nicholson at MTV News was slightly more wary: " Neighbors 2 ’s Social Justice Warrior critique would feel less sour if it weren’t written by five white guys. I guess this is still their party after all."
The Nice Guys
Starring: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice
Synopsis: A daffy detective teams up with a deadpan hit man to investigate porn-centric crime in 1970s L.A.
What's The Word: Shane Black's flick is an amusing, violent throwback, with a very good Gosling. Variety 's Owen Gleiberman called the movie "an ultra-violent burlesque, the sort of cheerfully hostile buddy bash that’s been a staple since the ’80s, only this one is singularly clever about its own triviality, and it offers the scruffy pleasure of seeing two great actors dial down their gravitas with style." Joe Morgenstern at The Wall Street Journalsaid it is "consistently entertaining, frequently violent and generally slapdash." Meanwhile, A.O. Scott of The New York Timesacknowledged Black's "knack for slapstick anarchy," but also explained, "This is a dumb movie pretending to be smart, even as it wants you to believe the opposite."
Synopsis: Birds battle pigs. You've played this game.
What's The Word: According to some, it's not that bad. " Angry Birds could be a whole lot worse," Leah Greenblatt conceded at Entertainment Weekly. The AP's Lindsey Bahr said "it's definitely not terrible and even surprisingly fun and heartfelt at times." Jesse Hassenger of The A.V. Club wasn't so forgiving. "The movie’s dialogue is so generic that Red (Sudeikis), the outcast bird with the furrowed, furry eyebrows, barely registers as angry," he wrote.
Money Monster
Starring: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Jack O'Connell
Synopsis: George Clooney plays the wacky host of a financial TV show who finds himself at the center of a hostage crisis.
What's The Word: Though not without flaws, the movie is serviceable entertainment. It "might not be a great movie, but it is a comforting movie-movie that's still fun to watch even if it whiffed on being something more," Lindsey Bahr wrote at the AP. Variety 's Andrew Barker said it's "taut yet sporadically odd," but "hangs together surprisingly well." It does have a true fan in Stephanie Zacharek from Time, who raved: "It’s the movie of the moment, an expertly made, state-of-the-nation entertainment that also underscores just how little most of us know about the behind-the-scenes shell game the banking and finance industries are orchestrating, using our money as the disappearing nugget."
The Lobster
Starring: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Léa Seydoux
Synopsis: An exploration of love and life in a society where people have to find romantic partners in 45 days or they are turned into animals of their choosing.
What's The Word: It's an acquired taste, but it's truly brilliant. "This movie is an unusual beast, and if you can’t invest in its wild premise and starchy manners, stay home," Amy Nicholson at MTV News explained. "See it, however, and you’ll not only see one of the best movies of the year — you’ll see one of the most brutally honest takes on the knots people twist themselves into so they don’t have to be alone." The New York Times ' A.O. Scott wrote that the movie is "often startlingly funny in the way it proposes its surreal conceits, and then upsettingly grim in the way it follows through on them." Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weeklydeemed it " the most original and beautifully strange love story since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind."
Love & Friendship
Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Chloë Sevigny, Xavier Samuel
Synopsis: A Jane Austen adaptation about a scheming widow.
What's The Word: If you're a Janeite in need of a laugh — or just someone who likes great movies — go. The movie "more than delivers on the comedy of manners front, but it’s also a very funny, unapologetic portrait of a diabolically clever woman," Glenn Whipp wrote at The Los Angeles Times. Peter Travers at Rolling Stonesaid he "can't think of a more wickedly modern romantic comedy." A.O. Scott's New York Times review declared: "It's the Whit Stillman movie that some of us have been waiting a long time for, and also a Jane Austen movie that goes some way toward correcting the record of dull and dutiful cinematic Janeism."
Keanu
Starring: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Method Man
Synopsis: Key and Peele get drawn into a world of crime as they attempt to retrieve a really, really cute cat.
What's The Word: It's worth seeing for Key and Peele. " Keanu doesn't have nearly enough story to go the distance, sputtering through an '80s-style action-comedy that follows a feline MacGuffin through an L.A. gangland misadventure," Scott Tobias wrote at NPR. "And yet Key and Peele have such a sensationally giddy chemistry together that the film's raggedness plays, in their hands, like a kind of spontaneity." The New York Times ' Manohla Dargis also thought the comedians "comfortably hold the big screen," but described the movie as "a slack, erratically amusing excuse to watch" them. According to the A.V. Club 's A.A. Dowd, "[The] pair are so consistently funny, bullshitting their way through every situation, that it’s sometimes possible to ignore how thin the movie around them really is."
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It's been nearly four years since thousands camped out before the premiere of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2, in November 2012. Stephenie Meyer's novel Breaking Dawn hit bookshelves in 2008, followed only by a spinoff novella and last year's reimagining, Life and Death. Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart broke up for good in May 2013. Logically, you might surmise that the fervent members of Team Edward and Team Jacob would have scattered to the wind like the ashes of so many destroyed sparkly vampires.
There is some evidence that Twihards have moved on. Of the hundreds of fansites listed on Meyer's official site, roughly two-thirds no longer exist, and most of those haven't been updated in years. Did they succumb to the criticism that the books promoted an anti-feminist, damsel-in-distress view of the world? Did they take another look at the wigs from the first movie and discard their obsession for good? Have they read one too many interviews in which Pattinson or Stewart complains of what peak Twilight fever did to them? Not a chance.
We talked to the fans who named their children after the books' characters. They got tattoos to commemorate their devotion. They reread the books every single year. Such an intense love doesn't just go away.
"They are totally still out there, in a big way," Bekah Decker told Refinery29. She and her friend Nikki Pierce ran the site Letters to Twilight, where for five years they wrote hilarious, fangirly, but not entirely uncritical letters to the movies, actors, books, and fans. When they finally felt the well of news was running dry, they spun off their site into Thats-Normal.com, which retains a similar fan voice but encompasses broader pop culture subject matter.
"We already brought a lot of the other things that we liked into Letters to Twilight, but we just wanted to expand and talk about more shows, more movies, more books," Pierce said. "We still love Twilight, obviously, so we left on amicable terms."
It's the same story for other, bigger fansites, such as Twilightish, which is now Fangirlish, and Twilight Source, whose creator Andrew Sims went on to found Hypable. On those sites, you can see how much of the passion fans had for Edward and Bella has now shifted to the likes of Outlander 's Claire and Jamie.
Then there are the Twihards who have never changed their focus. They've just moved their conversations to Facebook groups, and, yes, even to real life.
Photo: Fotonoticias/WireImage.
"I don't know that [the fandom] has grown smaller; it's grown more intense," said Lissy Andros, the executive director of the Forks, WA, Chamber of Commerce. The tiny logging town saw its visitor numbers grow from 5,600 in 2005 (the year before it became the fictional home of the Cullens) to 72,900 in 2010. Last year's count, 37,600, is still quite up there, historically speaking.
"We still get thousands of Twilight fans in here that are either coming for the first time, or they've just fallen in love with the area," said Andros, who actually moved to Forks from Texas because of the franchise.
One of her job responsibilities is to run the annual Forever Twilight in Forks festival in September. At last year's festival, when Meyer came to sign copies of Life and Death, the novel in which Meyer turned Bella and Edward into Beau and Edith, there were more than 1,500 attendees, the highest in the event's 10-year history.
"We get everyone from the typical Twilight fan — how people picture them, which is a teenager — but the true Twilight fan is a woman of any age," she said. "We're now getting Twi-guys... These are men that maybe watch it with their families, and they like it."
People are just as passionate about, say, 'Star Wars,' Disney or 'Game of Thrones,' but those types of franchises are seen as more 'acceptable' than Twilight. It drives me crazy.
Meyer has come to a few of the festivals, as have various actors from the movies, such as Booboo Stewart (who played werewolf Seth). Breaking Dawn director Bill Condon's production partner Jack Morrissey works with the festival, arranging the celebrity appearances and helping with promotion. Additional actors are hired to play characters from the books, interacting with fans and posing for pictures. Vee Elle, a member of the Olympic Coven acting troupe, likens the gig to playing characters at Disney.
"When I'm in character, I aim to treat everyone I meet the way Alice treats Bella: like we’re instantly best friends," Vee Elle, a 28-year-old from Toronto, told us via email. "Readers love Alice’s character because they want to be her friend, so I aim to be bubbly, warm, and open, offering compliments and fashion advice and invitations to the Cullen house for parties. And then, when the conversation deepens, I ask them about their lives: their families, their jobs, their homes."
Vee Elle and Lissy Andros.Photo: David Youngberg/Land's End Images.
This hits on one of the most common statements I heard from Twilight fans while researching this story. They come together to talk about the books and movies, even after all these years, but they stay because they feel an instant connection to each other.
"I think people are craving community, and communities that form naturally and organically often tend to be stronger than ones that are deliberately facilitated," CJ wrote to Refinery29 on the private Forever Twilight in Forks Facebook group. "A story about a small tightly bonded group — such as Twilight, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings — provides a good kernel for extended community to form around."
Meyer's books are chronicles of strong feelings — Edward and Bella's romance and heartbreak, the wolves' volatile tempers, vampires' fierce hunger and protective parental love — and it seems that when you get a group of people together who are drawn to this emotional roller coaster, they begin to feel strongly about each other, too.
"In the [Facebook] group, if someone puts a post out there that 'I'm coming alone; this is my first time,' they will envelope that person with a welcoming hug," Andros said. "It's so heartwarming to feel so accepted."
Andros said she's seen people meet for the first time at the festival and form such a tight bond that they take other vacations together throughout the year.
I don't know that [the fandom] has grown smaller; it's grown more intense.
"Even though there are no more books or movies coming out, we use our love of Twilight and have come together on Facebook," Kim Mahone, a 34-year-old from Beaufort, SC, told Refinery29 via email. "We discuss what's going on with our families, some talk about the past events, and just what they look forward to seeing and doing the most at the FTF event in Forks, as well as the New Moon Over Gatlinburg [Tennessee] event in April."
Vee Elle, who's a fan as much as she's a "professional" in the Twilight world, doesn't think the appeal of gathering with other fans will disappear any time soon.
"My fiancé asks me why I'm still involved in the Twilight fandom all the time," Vee Elle said. "But I look forward to my Twilight events, and immersing myself in that world, because of the friendships I've made with other Twilight fans. When you're at a Twilight event, you're with like-minded people who wouldn't be there if they weren't as big a fan as you are."
Pam Rice, a 66-year-old from San José, CA, said even the non-fans in her life see the value in her passion.
"My non-fan friends are supportive," she wrote in an email. "Maybe [they] wonder about me, but [they're] happy I have found something enjoyable."
Though Vee Elle says her non-fan friends know about her Olympic Coven gig, she's aware of the stigma of being a Twihard.
"The judgment that comes with being a Twilight fan is a little disappointing," Elle said. "It feels like anything that has a strong, vocal, female fanbase — whether it's Twilight or 50 Shades or One Direction — is usually subject to more ridicule. People are just as passionate about, say, Star Wars, Disney or Game of Thrones, but those types of franchises are seen as more 'acceptable' than Twilight. It drives me crazy."
Photo: David Youngberg/Land's End Images.
But now that Twilight is no longer in the public eye every day, the haters have kept quiet, too. Another huge shift in the fandom was the breakup of Pattinson and Stewart.
"I think that was pretty divisive for the fandom," Decker said. "Honestly, it got crazy, because people chose sides, and [friendships] broke up. There were Rob fans, and there were Kristen fans."
Professionally, Pierce and Decker have grown even closer to Twilight. Though they live on opposite coasts, Pierce in Los Angeles and Decker in Philadelphia, they run their own digital marketing agency, Method Agency. Their first client? Stephenie Meyer.
"She and her business partner came to us, and they had a film production company and wanted us to run their social media," Pierce explained. The most surreal moment of their fandom-turned-day-job life was when they helped promote Life and Death.
Though that book's plot was a twist on the one they already knew so well, when Decker read it, she said it brought her right back to her Twilight roots. "It was so reminiscent of that first time."
While promoting that book, Pierce and Decker had the chance to introduce the franchise to younger bloggers. They've also seen children of the original fans now becoming old enough to read the books. If they keep this up, the Twilight fandom may have the longevity of, well, a certain sparkly, blood-drinking species.
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Is anything better than plugging in your headphones, firing up your music app of choice, and jamming out to that brand-new song you're obsessed with?
Don't get me wrong; I love my go-to playlists. The classics are great. But something amazing happens when I hear an awesome new track for the first time. I am filled with anticipation, enthusiasm, and pure bliss as I wonder to myself, Will the chorus be as good as the hook? or Wait — did I just discover my new favorite artist?!?!
New music is one of the best mood-boosters ever to me, and I want to share it with you. So each week, I'm pulling together the most popular (as in, they have over 100K listens within the first few days of their release) and most exciting new music out there for you to turn on, tune in, drop out to.
Let's get listening. If you have any new pieces of musical gold, leave a link in the comments below. And be sure to check next Friday for a whole new slew of songs.
"I Got the Keys" — DJ Khaled feat. Jay Z, Future
The chorus "I got the keys" will be stuck in your head all day. A pretty classic rap track from three big names.
Who is DJ Khaled?
DJ Khaled, real name Khaled Mohamed Khaled, is a Snapchat superstar, rapper, and producer. His one-liners like "major key," "we the best," and "bless up" have become synonymous with his public moniker.
Video via YouTube.
"California Dreaming" — Arman Cekin feat. Paul Rey
This fun electronic track will be on repeat at your next pool party or the next time you hit the road.
Who is Arman Cekin?
A DJ from the Netherlands who is rising in the charts each week.
Video via YouTube.
"Hands" — A Song for Orlando
Over two dozen artists, including Britney Spears, Selena Gomez, and Jennifer Lopez, sang on this track dedicated to the lives lost in the Orlando tragedy. An emotional yet uplifting song that will bring you to tears but leave you hopeful.
Video via YouTube.
"M.I.L.F. $" — Fergie
The new "London Bridge" from Fergie. Watch the video for conversation sake.
Who is Fergie?
Formerly of The Black Eyed Peas, Fergie has always enjoyed stirring up a lot of attention with her bizarre lyrics and suggestive videos. And guess what? She's ba-ack.
Video via YouTube.
"Light of the Seven" — Composed byRamin Djawadi
The Game Of Thrones withdrawal is real. This song is currently at the top of the trending charts on Spotify. Will this be your new "going out" jam? Probably not. But it could make a good "study" soundtrack.
Video via YouTube.
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Centaurus is one of the largest constellations in the night sky. At 340 light-years away, it houses some of the brightest star clusters in the southern sky, too. Among those stars, a new exoplanet has recently been discovered and there’s something very unique about it. The exoplanet, which has been dubbed HD 131399Ab, has three suns.
HD 131399Ab, which was spotted by the European Extremely Large Telescope in the Chile, is about three times the size of Jupiter. According to Engadget, it takes about 550 Earth years for the giant to make one trip around its star system. For half of that time, all three suns are visible from the exoplanet's surface. You'd think that would make the planet's surface pretty damn bright, but actually, if you stood on its surface, Space.com says the three suns would appear only as bright as Earth's full moon. This is because the sun closest to HD 131399Ab is far away — about twice the distance between our sun and Pluto.
The three suns that make up this exoplanet's star system include the creatively named (that's sarcasm there) Star A, Star B, and Star C. Star A, which is the closest to HD 131399Ab, is roughly 7.8 times brighter than Earth's sun. The other two, Star B and Star C, orbit one another while simultaneously orbiting around Star A. All that happens while HD 131399Ab orbits the three of them. That sounds like some very complicated interstellar choreography.
Check out this video to get a better idea of exactly how it all works and what this discovery means.
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So, you’ve mastered the art of clever sexting exchanges. You’ve even been smart enough to store away some half-naked or fully naked shots (with or without your face, depending on your preference) for when you’re asked to send a dirty pic and you’re wearing sweats. While sexting might be the digital age’s form of tantric discussion, the seemingly ancient form of phone sex might seem out-of-date. But it’s not.
As more and more couples successfully navigate long-distance relationships and an increasing amount of people meet their partners online, phone sex can be a surprisingly sexy avenue to explore. Plus, opting for phone sex over an IRL experience can be a great way to mix things up for long-term partners. As phone-sex operator Jenny Ainslie-Turner says, phone sex is less about quick exchanges and more about a total-body experience.
“People think it's just talking dirty on the phone,” Turner tells Refinery29. “What a lot of people don't realize is that the brain is the biggest sexual organ in the body. When you talk, breathe heavy, or moan, you’re doing this through a direct line to the brain.”
But if you need some help perfecting your dirty-talk repertoire and etiquette, don’t worry: We talked to a handful of phone-sex operators and got their best advice for upping your phone-sex game. These (ahem, detailed) tips will help you navigate any sexy call you’re on. Just try not to blush while you read them.
Surprise your partner when he/she first picks up the phone.
“When your partner answers the phone, sigh deep into their ear. Your partner will no doubt ask, ‘What's wrong?’ Tell them, ‘Nothing really. Just wish I was there with you, because I miss your breath on my neck.’ Sigh again, then say you miss their mouth on your hard nipple! Believe me, you will get their undivided attention.”
“Your partner fell in love with you, so while the external trappings might be sexy, when you’re on the phone together, let your personality shine through. Accents or changing the pitch of your voice is temporary, but remember: Ultimately, this is about you and the person who loves you.”
“Your phone-sex voice isn’t like your normal voice. It is lower, slower, and it pauses. Your sound is sultry, [and it comes] from deeper in the throat and closer to the heart. Commit and establish that this is no ordinary conversation, that there will be plenty of pauses for moaning.”
“Be as vocal as you could possibly be. You aren't acting, but you do want an exciting experience that culminates in a climax. It is difficult to be aroused by a silent lover, in reality and during phone sex.”
“You have to relax and put yourself in a bit of a naughty mood. To do this, think of the last time you were together and made love or had sex or a quick kiss and cuddle. Phone sex is just saying what he did that you liked or how he touched you and how he made you feel. Now, think about those feelings and put them into words. So much easier on the phone instead of face-to-face.”
We love our Zayn. We love our Rihanna. We even love our Bieber (now). Still, sometimes we need the musical equivalent of a #ThrowbackThursday, and that's where the '80s come in.
Hear us out. We're talking about the decade that gave us New Wave, New Romantics, new respect for rap, and Michael Jackson's King of Pop heyday. We also got Madonna and Cyndi, Siouxsie Sioux and Adam Ant. Men wore makeup, women paired suits with buzz cuts, synthesizers were king, and everyone knew Jenny's phone number. Hell, MTV even played music videos!
We're paying tribute to it all with 32 of our favorite '80s hits. Trust us, that doesn't even scratch the surface, which is why we'll be updating this list monthly. If your favorite Duran Duran or David Bowie hit doesn't show up now, you've gotta have faith (sorry) that it will soon.
Pet Shop Boys, "West End Girls"(1984)
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe may look bored as hell in the video, but it is actually humanly impossible to not sprint to the dance floor when this pop track comes on.
Video: Courtesy of Bobcat Records.
Kim Carnes, "Bette Davis Eyes" (1981)
This 1981 Grammy-winning Song of the Year is a fabulous ode to a certain classic film star. Show some respect, kiddos.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
Bananarama, "Cruel Summer"(1983)
Not to be confused with Kanye West's "Cruel Winter," this seasonal fave didn't become a hit until the year following its U.K. release. It's all thanks to its inclusion on The Karate Kid soundtrack, so let's give Daniel-Son a round of applause, okay?
Video: Courtesy of London Records.
Ultravox, "Vienna"(1980)
This track's appearance in a season 3 episode of The Americans reminded us just how intoxicating the synth-pop ballad is.
Video: Courtesy of Chrysalis.
Visage, "Fade to Grey"(1980)
Just try not to bop your head to that sweet synth beat.
The Cure, "A Forest" (1980)
There are really too many Cure songs to consider, but this one pretty much nails the British group's goth-rock sensibilities and creative beats.
Robert Palmer, "Johnny and Mary"(1980)
With all due respect to "Addicted to Love," this hummable love song is more likely to turn up on party playlists.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
Tom Tom Club, "Genius of Love"(1981)
Mariah Carey later sampled this for "Fantasy," but its true creators are none other than Talking Heads' husband-and-wife duo, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth. Show some respect.
Video: Courtesy of Sire/Warner Bros.
The Human League, "Don't You Want Me"(1981)
Yes, yes, we want you. See you at karaoke night.
Video: Courtesy of EMI Music.
The Specials, "Ghost Town"(1981)
Gotta show some love for the ska. This hit about urban decay captured the angst of Margaret Thatcher's England.
Video: Courtesy of 2 Tone.
Michael Jackson, "Billie Jean" (1982)
Picking a favorite M.J. song is like picking a favorite child...but harder. When all is said and done, though, this one always gets us going.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
David Bowie, "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)"(1982)
The title track from the 1982 film Cat People is probably best known for the cinema scene in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
Video: Courtesy of YouTube.
Culture Club, "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" (1982)
Culture Club wasn't just coloring outside the lines when it came to Boy George's gender identity. Their style of pop also incorporated elements from reggae and calypso to craft hits that didn't sound like anything else.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
New Order, "Blue Monday"(1983)
The original version of this dance club anthem runs about seven-and-a-half minutes, and not once have we felt the need to skip ahead to the next song.
Video: Courtesy of Warner Music Group.
Depeche Mode "Everything Counts"(1983)
All hail the poster boys for '80s electronica.
Video: Courtesy of YouTube.
Talking Heads, "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)"(1983)
The ultimate hipster love song, as seen in Lars and the Real Girl.
Video: Courtesy of Sire.
The Smiths, "This Charming Man"(1983)
Man, we miss the old Morrissey.
Video: Courtesy of Rhino.
The The, "This Is the Day"(1983)
Anyone else listen to this first thing every morning as a motivational mantra? Just us?
Video: Courtesy of Epic.
Eurythmics, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" (1983)
Pretty sure this is why synthesizers were invented, right? Also, Annie Lennox is a freaking legend.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
Men at Work, "Overkill"(1983)
If "Down Under" is too campy for your tastes, consider this melancholic melody instead. Yes, it always makes us think of that Scrubs episode.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
Melle Mel, "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)"(1983)
Frequently and erroneously credited to Grandmaster Flash, this popular coke-is-bad anthem is indicative of the decade's growing respect for hip-hop and funk.
Video: Courtesy of Sugar Hill Records.
Bronski Beat, "Smalltown Boy"(1984)
Beyond being a wicked dance track, this synth-pop hit has an important message about homophobia.
Video: Courtesy of London Records.
Sade, "Smooth Operator"(1985)
Like a long soak in the bathtub for your ears.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
Madonna, "Into the Groove"(1985)
Again, picking one is impossible, but there's nothing like a little shout-out to Desperately Seeking Susan.
Video: Courtesy of Sire/Warner Bros.
Run-D.M.C., "It's Tricky"(1986)
Though not a huge hit at the time, this robust rap continues to be a crowd-pleaser, popping up in films like Can't Hardly Wait and Road Trip.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
Terence Trent D'Arby, "Wishing Well"(1987)
Between this and "Sign Your Name," D'Arby (now known as Sananda Maitreya) had a lock on soulful pop.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
Suzanne Vega, "Tom's Diner"(1987)
Written by Vega in 1981, this hypnotic tune is the kind that sticks in your brain for days.
Video: Courtesy of A&M/PolyGram Records.
Salt-N-Pepa, "Push It"(1987)
Would you believe this rap favorite was originally released as a B-side? Millennials, just nod your head and pretend you know what that means.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
The Sugarcubes, "Birthday" (1987)
In which baby Björk not only proved that Icelandic rock was a thing, but that she was one to watch.
Video: Courtesy of One Little Indian.
The Church, "Destination"(1988)
"Under the Milky Way" tends to get more love, but this other Starfish track has a hypnotic hook that deserves repeat play.
Erasure, "A Little Respect" (1988)
The '60s had Aretha. The '80s had Erasure.
Neneh Cherry, "Buffalo Stance"(1989)
Though more '90s fly girl in spirit, this tune remains one of the best dance hits of the '80s. Love the attitude.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
The Stone Roses, "I Wanna Be Adored"(1989)
Ian Brown (yes, kids, he was in Harry Potter) and his powerful pipes helped usher in indie rock just as the '80s came to a close.
Video: Courtesy of VEVO.
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Sex toys, especially high-quality ones, can be expensive, and you may want to use the same toys with multiple partners — but what are the risks?
"The only thing you want to get from a sex toy is an orgasm," Planned Parenthood has told Refinery29. "However, anytime semen, vaginal secretions, or fluids from STI sores are transferred to someone else’s body — via vaginas, penises, fingers, and yes, sex toys — STIs can be spread."
No, you don't have to go out and buy a new We-Vibe or Eva every time you start hooking up with someone new. You are, however, obligated to keep your pleasure products squeaky-clean to avoid transmitting bacteria from one partner to another. Read on for our tips on responsible sex-toy sharing.
1. Your toys should be body-safe to begin with. Because pleasure products are classified as "novelty items," they aren't tested or regulated by the FDA, leaving you responsible for doing your own research on the safety of your purchases and only buying from retailers you trust. Many jelly rubber toys are made using softening agents called phthalates, some of which the Environmental Protection Agency deems "possible human carcinogens." Jelly rubber is also porous, meaning that bacteria can hide in it even after you clean it; the same is true of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. Stick to sharing toys that can be sanitized, specifically toys made of silicone, glass, Pyrex, or stainless steel, which are non-porous.
Photographed By Stephanie Gonot.
2. Sanitize toys before and after use. You already know it's important to clean your toys directly after use, but while in storage, they might come in contact with more bacteria — bacteria you don't want in your body.
Photographed By Stephanie Gonot.
3. Use the right cleaning method for the material. There's really no need for sex-toy-specific soaps or cleaners. Just wash your toys with fragrance-free soap and warm water. Claire Cavanah, co-founder of sex-toy shop Babeland, has noted to BuzzFeed that she doesn't recommend antibacterial soap: "It might seem like a good precaution," she explained, "but it can leave a residue." Pyrex and stainless steel are resistant to heat, so you can also place them in boiling water for a few minutes or run them through the dishwasher. Leather (including vegan leather) and hard plastics, which are porous, can be sanitized (as completely as is possible) with a few swipes of isopropyl rubbing alcohol.
Photographed by Noah Rabinowitz.
4. For maximum safety, cover your toys with condoms. If you are using porous toys, for example those made of jelly rubber, hard plastic, or elastomer, consider covering them with condoms, because you can't be sure that no bacteria is lurking inside. (Still, wash these toys with soap and water as well.)
Photographed By Stephanie Gonot.
5. Smart storage means safer sex toys. Make sure to dry toys completely before putting them away to avoid mildew (because how gross would that be?). Store toys in their own separate bags to minimize their contact with other toys and their surroundings. (And bonus pro tip: Remove the batteries from any battery-operated toys before you put them away to extend the batteries' life.)
Photographed by Amy Lombard.
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