Well, here it is: the final Friday Five before the holidays. We've got some fun things planned for the last couple Fives of the year, so we guess this will be our last "standard" entry of 2021. But don't worry, it's a good one! We've got great stuff to watch, jams to listen to, and of course a new follow to brighten up your Insta feed. So buckle up, because we are in the home stretch!
Don’t Look Up
We’ve hit on it before, but one of our most anticipated movies of the year is finally here. Don’t Look Up, the latest installment from comedic mastermind Adam McKay, hit theaters last week ahead of its December 24th Netflix drop. After a few Oscar-nominated efforts in The Big Short and Vice, McKay once again has a loaded cast working with what sounds like an electric script. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill, and Meryl Streep headline a truly astonishing cast list, and even Ariana Grande has a cameo (to go along with original music for the film). As more and more details leaked out about this movie over the last few years, we couldn’t help but get excited. Now we get to see the result of a whole lot of creative geniuses working at the peak of their powers — what more could you ask for?
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty
What’s better than one highly-anticipated Adam McKay project? How about two Adam McKay projects. On the heels of the Don’t Look Up release came the first look teaser for McKay’s HBO series Winning Time. The series jumps in a time machine back to the birth of the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers, highlighting (at least at first) the arrival of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Los Angeles. We’ve breathlessly followed casting announcements and script details for the series, and based on the trailer, it won’t disappoint. John C. Reilly is just one of the many stars to lend their talents to this project, and we are obviously excited to see a reunion between Reilly and McKay. That era of Lakers basketball, and Los Angeles in general, provides plenty of material for McKay and his team to work with, and we can’t wait to see a (lightly?) fictionalized version of all the glitz and glam. The music is likely to be killer as well, and the show can probably be powered by sheer vibes alone. Winning Time isn’t debuting until March, so until then, we will just have to watch the teaser on repeat.
Licorice PIzza Soundtrack
We’ll stay in that time machine, and Los Angeles for that matter, for the next entry in this week’s Five. We finally got the chance to see Licorice Pizza (as expected, it rocked), and since the screening, we’ve had the soundtrack on repeat. If you don’t like having movie music spoiled for you, you should definitely move on to the next entry! Paul Thomas Anderson has become one of the masters of the pop soundtrack, and his selection of 60s and 70s rock hits instantly transported us back to the San Fernando Valley of the 1970s. A few needle drops especially stuck with us, and the use of Paul McCartney’s “Let Me Roll It” was one of the most memorable music moments in recent film history. There’s also an incredibly effective use of a Doors track, and David Bowie’s “Life on Mars?” plays a big role after its use in the film’s trailer. If you’re weird like us, you might want to hold off listening to the album until you’ve seen the movie. But if not, it’s a pretty great collection of oldies hits that can keep you grooving through your holiday travel.
The Main Squeeze - "Payday"
Let’s keep on groovin’ with some new music this week, too. Our friends at The Main Squeeze came out with a new single, “Payday” that might be our new weekend anthem. As the title suggests, the song celebrates that feeling we all get when the direct deposit hits on a Friday, and how it can change your whole weekend. The lyrics are upbeat and positive, and the music matches. There are catchy, subtle horns, a great rhythm part, and grooving guitar and bass parts. Plus, the vocals are killer, both from the lead singer and the echos from the backup singers. While we know some people are fully into Christmas music these days, we like to have some variety. So if you are still building out a non-holiday playlist to close out the year, “Payday” has to be on it.
Prateek Vatash - @Vatash
As we finish off our last “normal” Friday Five of the year, we have to hit on the NFT game one final time. Prateek Vatash is one of our favorite Instagram design follows, as he uses eye-popping colors and stunning shapes and lines to catch our attention. Most recently, we were drawn to an NFT project he worked on, which, for lack of better words, was like futuristic interior design. The first slide was like a space-age beach house, which obviously fits right in with our vibes here. The bursts of pink and yellow, along with the palm trees in the background, made us forget all about the winter weather. And the giant silver spheres and pops of neon in the second stuck out amongst all the noise in our feeds. If you want a dose of design and color added to your daily scroll, look no further!