This week, the multiplex lights up the return of Samuel L. Jackson as arch-villain Mr. Glass in M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass. Streaming options smoke with the music festival disaster documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, as well as the season three premiere of series near and dear to everything we do, HBO’s High Maintenance. Among the new freaky movie classic collectibles are Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak and the mega-’90s boondoggle Waterworld. Sound-wise, we’ve got hot drops from James Blake, Deerhunter, Future, and Rich the Kid.
So let’s get straight — but not “straight” — to this week’s fresh-rolled recommendations.
Movies
“Glass” (2019)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, James McAvoy
M. Night Shyamalan unites his classic deep-thought, high-suspense wig-outs Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2016) with Glass.
Here, now, is a reality-shattering sequel in which Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) unleashes The Beast (James McAvoy) onto a public that doesn’t believe in superpowers with only The Overseer (Bruce Willis) to protect us from the skull-smashing truth.
The whole movie feels heavily hallucinogenic and feverishly rippling with creepy chills, so pick the proper strain to puff before hitting the theater—your head will thank you!
*
Streaming
“Black Monday”: Season One
Cast: Don Cheadle, Regina Hall, Andrew Rannells
Watch It: Showtime
Sex, drugs, stocks, and bonds rule Black Monday, a new Showtime comedy series set in Reagan-era Wall Street—that is, until they don’t. The real-live market crash of October 19, 1987 then proves to be the real trip!
Don Cheadle stars as Rod “The Jammer” Jaminski (Don Cheadle), a big money hustler overseeing high finance and full-on abandon en route to disaster, and riotously riding it all the way out.
Black Monday earns further high-end pot pedigree marks as it’s executive produced by the always reliable Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
*
“Crashing”: Season 3
Cast: Pete Holmes, Jaboukie Young-White, Artie Lange
Watch It: HBO
Exceptionally funny, freakishly clean stand-up comic Pete Holmes returns for the third season of Judd Apatow’s HBO sitcom Crashing, once playing a version of himself among the dankest, dirtiest, and most hilarious heavy-hitters of New York’s comedy scene.
In addition to returning funnymen Dave Attell, John Mulaney, and beloved wrecking ball Artie Lange, other laugh legends dropping by Crashing this year include Ray Romano, Amy Schumer, Estee Adoram, Kevin Brennan, Elon Gold, Joyelle Johnson, Jessica Kirson, Emo Philips, Colin Quinn, Vanessa Ramos, Modi Rosenfeld, Wil Sylvinces, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and Jaboukie Young-White.
*
“Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” (2019)
Director: Chris Smith
Watch It: Netflix
In the annals of attempted pop culture coups turned spectacular disasters, few debacles can compete with the 2017 Fyre Festival. The new Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never happened chronicles every horrible thing that happened after tech entrepreneur Billy McFarland teamed with rapper Ja Rule to create a luxury music festival in the Bahamas.
Promising first-class accommodations, gourmet meals, and the opportunity to get lit alongside celebs such as Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid, ticket buyers found themselves dropped off on an island with FEMA tents, prepackaged sandwiches, and not enough security, let alone any social media superstars. From there, things only got worse, leading to $100 million in ongoing lawsuits and McFarland getting sentenced to six years in jail.
So blaze up this weekend and take in the amazing misery of Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, from the comfort of home. Maybe set up an emergent relief tent and grab a plastic-wrapped bologna sandwich while watching to enhance the experience.
*
“High Maintenance”: Season 3
Cast: Ben Sinclair, Yael Stone, Greta Lee
Watch It: HBO
High Maintenance, HBO’s hella dope (in every sense) sitcom about a New York City marijuana dealer simply named The Guy (Ben Sinclair) returns for a third deadpan hilarious reefer run through the five boroughs.
With weed decriminalized, The Guy’s customer base is expanding like the minds of those who purchase his product, promising ten new episodes of previously unimaginable adventures, all courtesy of commercially traded cannabis. High Maintenance, indeed, is what it’s all about.
**
Cult Classic Reissues
“Crimson Peak” (2015)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowski
Special Features: Guillermo del Toro commentary; feature-length documentary; multiple behind-the-scenes featurettes on the sets, costumes, art direction, and other aspects of the film; video essay by Kat Ellinger; deleted scenes; trailers; TV spots; double-sided poster; new packaging by concept artist Guy Davis; 80-page, hard-bound book
Get It: MVD
Just before he wrote and directed the Academy-Award-winning ode to human-fishman sex The Shape of Water (2017), fright-master supreme Guillermo del Toro created Crimson Peak, a massively lavish, gloomily gothic ghost story that vaporized in theaters but which since garnered a devoted following that thrills to the movie’s epic-scaled eeriness.
Mia Wasikowska stars as Edith Cushing, an American heiress in 1887 who gets spooked repeatedly by the spirit of her dead mother. She falls for English nobleman Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), who whisks her off to his ornate, sprawling mansion in the countryside that automatically looks like it must be deeming with ghosts, phantoms, apparitions, poltergeists, and other disembodied ghouls because, (super)naturally, it is.
Del Toro whips the slow-burn creep-show romance of Crimson Peak into a bloody, beautiful confection, best witnessed after heightening one’s senses and perceptions to otherworldly possibilities. As the movie casts its spell, who knows what mysterious entities you’ll discover dancing in your exhaled smoke?
**
“Waterworld”: Limited Edition (1995)
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Cast: Kevin Costner, Jeanne Tripplehorne, Dennis Hopper
Special Features: 4K scan; feature-length making-of documentary; archive featurettes; Glenn Kenny on eco-blockbusters; stills; trailers; extended TV cut; uncensored European cut; six original postcards; double-sided foldout poster; 60 page book by David J. Moore and others; reversible sleeve
Get It: MVD
The post-apocalyptic sci-fi epic Waterworld takes place in a future version of Earth where the oceans have overtaken all life except for pockets of seafaring survivors, some of whom—like Kevin Costner as the movie’s hero, The Mariner—have mutated to grow gills and breathe while submerged.
Amidst all that sailing, legends persist of an island paradise called, appropriately, “Dryland.” The Mariner is searching for it, but so, too, is an outlaw horde of tobacco addicts led by The Deacon (Dennis Hopper, who goes astoundingly over-the-top).
In its day, Waterworld made headlines as the most expensive movie ever made, especially when it opened to soggy box office returns. Since then, stoners have embraced this hard-splashing tsunami of action and imagination as a primo choice for passing a bong to while watching—and not just because The Deacon’s disciples are called “the Smokers.”
*
Music
“Assume Form” — James Blake
Get It: James Blake Music
Genre-buster extraordinaire James Blake follows up 2016’s The Colour of Everything with Assume Form, another 12-track bombardment of brilliance that defies categorization and invites intoxication. Joining Blake this time are André 3000, Rosalía, Moses Sumney, Metro Boomin, and, on “Mile High,” Travis Scott. The title of that just-dropped single describes exactly how you’ll feel when you hear it.
**
“Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?” — Deerhunter
Get It: Deerhunter Music
Atlanta art-psych anarchists Deehunter have always come out shooting full-blast with glut of glorious noise, bouts of gentle beauty, and cascades of consciousness-cracking concepts.
On Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared, these rock marauders go bleaker, deeper, and more blitzed than ever before, contemplating the seeming inevitable end of humanity (soon?) through booming riffs, lilting harmonics, and lyrics destined to sink deep into your soul—and stay there.
Your experience of Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? is destined to change each time you hear it and also depending on the type of weed with which you pair it. As a result, this is a record to keep your brain busy forever.
*
Get It: The WIZRD Shop
The present, of course, belongs to Future. It’s a fact he grandly establishes once again on his latest leap forward, Future Hndrxx Presents: The Wizrd or, as he’s also referring to it, The WIZRD.
Spanning 20 songs and the infinitely vast universe of Future’s talent and innovations, The WIZRD is pure marijuana magic in sonic form. You’ll submit to its charms anew with each fresh inhale.
*
“The World Is Yours 2” — Rich the Kid
Get It: iTunes
Atlanta rap’s reigning crown prince Rich the Kid bounds upward again from his 2018 breakthrough The World Is Yours with the naturally titled, The World Is Yours 2.
Amplifying his signature mumble-trap sound with intense new turns both in terms of performance and production, Rich smokes any notions of a “sophomore slump,” aided and intensified via guest spots by Migos members Offset and Takeoff, Young Thug, Gucci Mane, Juice Wrld, Swae Lee, Tory Lanez, Quavo, Nav, and Big Sea.
