The It List is Yahoo’s weekly look at the best in pop culture, including movies, music, TV, streaming, games, books, podcasts and more. Here are our picks for Feb. 21-27, including the best deals we could find for each. (Yahoo Entertainment may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page.)
WATCH IT: Uma Thurman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt team up for Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber
Mike Isaac’s 2019 non-fiction book of the same name, documenting the successes and stumbles of Uber under co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, is the basis for the debut season of Showtime’s new anthology series, which will be narrated by Quentin Tarantino. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the hard-partying Kalanick, while Kyle Chandler portrays the man who was once his mentor, Texas venture capitalist and Uber investor Bill Gurley. Uma Thurman steps in as businesswoman and author Arianna Huffington, who served on the car service’s board under Kalanick. The company experienced a flurry of scandals during his reign, over the way it dealt with sexual harassment within the company, how it evaded authorities in certain markets and more. Ultimately, Kalanick was forced out of the top post in June 2017 in a boardroom coup. A federal investigation into whether Uber created a culture rife with sexual harassment and retaliation found that it did, and the company agreed in December 2019 to pay a $4.4 million settlement. The facts are stark, but the series, created by Billions producers Brian Koppelman and David Levien, promises a mashup of that show, The Wolf of Wall Street and Succession. — Raechal Shewfelt
Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber premieres Sunday, Feb. 27 at 10 p.m. on Showtime.
WATCH IT: House of Gucci heads to home entertainment
“To me, art, like beauty, has no price,” Rodolfo Gucci (Jeremy Irons) posits in Ridley Scott’s ripped-from-the-headlines drama House of Gucci. The film’s new Blu-ray and DVD release comes with a very set price, and Gucci wasn’t the Oscars monster it was once predicted (#JusticeforJaredLeto) but that won’t stop its legions of Lady Gaga fans (calling all Little Monsters) from adding this one to their collection. And hey, if you think this movie’s a masterpiece but are unsure of the commitment, just remember what Aldo (Al Pacino) would say, “Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten.” Check out an exclusive clip from the Blu-ray’s extras featuring Salma Hayek above. — Kevin Polowy
House of Gucci is available on Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday, Feb. 22 on Amazon.
WATCH IT: Spend some quality Zoom time with the all-star cast of Family Squares
Two years into the pandemic, you might be sick of family Zoom sessions. But what if your family was played by Henry Winkler, Judy Greer, Timothy Simons and character actress Margo Martindale? That’s the appeal of Family Squares, Stephanie Laing’s shot-on-Zoom dramedy about a squabbling clan that reunites virtually following the death of its matriarch (played by Oscar-nominee June Squibb) and uncovers all sorts of secrets and lies that previously lay buried. This exclusive clip from the charming and surprisingly emotional film features a Veep reunion with Simons and Sam Richardson, who plays the bumbling funeral home manager that has to get the family to put aside their differences and focus on the business of bereavement. — Ethan Alter
Family Squares premieres Friday, Feb. 25 in theaters and on most VOD services, including Vudu.
WATCH IT: Denzel Washington and Michael B. Jordan summon your tears on A Journal for Jordan, now on Blu-ray
One is the continually ascending star of Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther and Just Mercy. The other is only one of the greatest actors alive, who, it turns out, is a really good filmmaker, too. Denzel Washington directs Michael B. Jordan in A Journal for Jordan (name connection purely coincidental), the tearjerking drama about a U.S. soldier deployed in Iraq who keeps a diary intended for his pregnant wife (Chanté Adams) to share with their unborn son. The weeper lands on DVD and Blu-ray with bonus features including deleted scenes, one of which you can watch exclusively above. — K.P.
A Journal for Jordan is available Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday, Feb. 22 on Amazon.
WATCH IT: Megan Fox and Oscar Isaac add weight to Big Gold Brick
Talk about your rough first jobs. After he’s injured in a car accident by the mysterious Floyd Deveraux (Andy Garcia), novice writer Samuel Liston (Emory Cohen) is invited into the eccentric father’s home and tasked with penning his autobiography. But that’s just the jumping-off point for writer/director Brian Petsos’s yarn, which keeps expanding its Big Lebowski-esque canvas to include other oddball characters — including Megan Fox as Floyd’s second wife and Oscar Isaac as an eyepatch-wearing rival. This exclusive clip features Fox checking in with Samuel, who is understandably tongue-tied at being in her presence. — E.A.
Big Gold Brick premieres Friday, Feb. 25 in theaters and on most VOD services, including Apple TV.
WATCH IT: The waves are alive with the sight of flames in the eco-disaster movie The Burning Sea
Roland Emmerich may have made the moon fall, but leave it to Norwegian master of disaster John Andreas Andersen to set the oceans on fire. The Burning Sea is the third in a series of eco-thrillers — including 2015’s The Wave and 2018’s The Quake — to hail from the same creative team and once again delivers its thrills with an environmental message. This time, corporate underwater drilling is the ultimate villain, opening a crack in the ocean floor that threatens to unleash a devastating oil spill. The only solution is to set the fuel on fire… even if that claims the lives of the few remaining humans onboard the oil rigs. This exclusive clip depicts the exact moment when the seas burst into flame, and the survivors have to find their own way to safety. — E.A.
The Burning Sea premieres Friday, Feb. 25 in theaters and on most VOD services, including Redbox.
WATCH IT: American Idol searches for a 20th 21st-century superstar
Incredibly, this year marks the 20th anniversary of when Kelly Clarkson won the very first season of American Idol. The show has launched several other superstars and undergone many changes since, but the judges who signed on for the ABC reboot — Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan — are all back for Season 20 (or “Season 5,” as ABC insists on calling it), along with O.G. host Ryan Seacrest. And they’re still not giving up on the dream of finding the next Kelly (or the next Carrie, J.Hud, Adam, et al). — Lyndsey Parker
American Idol Season 20 premieres Sunday, Feb. 27 at 8 p.m. on ABC.
WEAR IT: DC Comics celebrates a Milestone with new Black History Month products
Months after announcing The Milestone Initiative at October’s DC FanDome event, DC Comics is showing its commitment to fostering diverse storytellers with a wide range of Black History Month comics, graphic novels and merchandise. Pick up new collections of Milestone Comics mainstays like Static, Hardware and Icon and Rocket; diverse DC titles like John Ridley’s The Other History of the DC Universe and a commemorative celebration of the first Black superhero, John Stewart; T-shirts and hoodies featuring an array of Black heroes and a sweet Static skate deck. — E.A.
DC’s Black History Month products are available at the DC Shop.
WATCH IT: Get your rock ‘n’ roll horror kicks with Studio 666
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has produced two docuseries and two rockumentaries, but his latest screen project is definitely a work of freaky fiction. In the bloody-funny horror flick Studio 666, the Nicest Man in Rock morphs into a possessed demon and goes on a killing spree — decapitating, dismembering and barbecuing his fellow Foos. According to a press release, Studio 666 was inspired by rock ‘n’ roll cult classics like KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park and the Monkees’ Head, but it has just as much in common with Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. — L.P.
Studio 666 premieres Friday, Feb. 25 in theaters; visit Fandango for showtime and ticket information.
WATCH IT: Oscar winner The Hurt Locker feels good on 4K
It’s Oscar season again, that time of year when we celebrate some of our favorite wins and upsets over the years. One of them has to belong to The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow’s mesmerizing and taut war thriller that defied the odds by never losing its steam after a midyear release and riding a wave of buzz all the way to March when it took down James Cameron’s big blue box office behemoth Avatar in 2009. (Even better, as you might know, Bigelow and Cameron are exes.) The six-time Oscar winner gets a home entertainment reboot with a new 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release this week, featuring audio commentary with Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, a behind-the-scenes featurette and more. — K.P.
The Hurt Locker 4K Steelbook is available Tuesday, Feb. 22 exclusively at Best Buy.
HEAR IT: Y’all want a sequel? Kanye West returns with Donda 2
Say what you will about Kanye West’s increasingly erratic and problematic behavior, but there is no doubt that he is one of the greatest recording artists of all time (“of all time!”). And his most recent studio album, Donda, was one of the most critically acclaimed and Grammy-nominated releases of 2021. Now the artist currently known as Ye is set to follow that up with a sequel, Donda 2. The album’s details are largely under wraps, and the mercurial West is notorious for missing his release-date deadlines due to last-minute revisions in the studio. But as of now, the anticipated album drops Tuesday this week. According to a recent Instagram post, Donda 2 will not stream on services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music or YouTube, and will only be available on my West’s own platform, the Stem Player; the device, available to order now, sells for $200. — L.P.
Donda 2 by Ye should be available Tuesday, Feb. 22 on Kanye West’s Stem Player.
WATCH IT: America’s Got Talent get an Extreme spinoff
America’s Got Talent is back with an extreme version filled with daredevil stunts. Yes, this is the show that had to halt production last year when a contestant nearly lost his life. And many of the acts seemed to rank pretty high on the danger scale. Think motorcycle acts, acrobatics at extreme heights and rings of fire. WWE superstar Nikki Bella and motocross and rally car driver Travis Pastrana serve as judges alongside creator and executive producer Simon Cowell, while AGT‘s Terry Crews takes on hosting duties.
America’s Got Talent: Extreme premieres Monday, Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. on NBC.
HEAR IT: Avril Lavigne bites back
Canada’s top punk-pop princess returns with her seventh studio album, Love Sux, teaming with famous skater-boys like Machine Gun Kelly, Blackbear, Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, Marshmello,and Goldfinger’s John Feldmann. Leading with the fierce new single “Bite Me,” the now 37-year-old former teen star recently told Entertainment Weekly that this is the “most alternative record” she’s “made from front to back,” and the album she’s “wanted to make for [her] whole career.” — L.P.
Love Sux by Avril Lavigne is available Friday, Feb. 25 to download/stream on Apple Music.
READ IT: Ringo Starr is a paperback (or hardback) writer
Julien’s Auctions has broken world records with the sale of Beatles memorabilia, including John Lennon’s acoustic guitar (which sold for a record $2.4 million), Ringo Starr’s Ludwig drum kit ($2.2 million) and Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics to “Hey Jude” ($910,000). Now, for the Beatles fan who has everything (but perhaps has less than six or seven figures to spend), the world-famous auction house’s publishing division is releasing Starr’s Lifted: Fab Images and Memories in My Life With the Beatles From Across the Universe. The hardcover book features rare and unseen photos, alongside Starr’s own stories from his time in the Fab Four. “I am not writing this book as a Beatle historian,” the legendary drummer explains in a statement. “I’m writing this book as a Beatle — and there’s only a couple of us who can do that.” —L.P.
Lifted: Fab Images and Memories in My Life With the Beatles From Across the Universe by Ringo Starr is available now on on Juliens Auctions; 500 exclusive “signature edition” copies, personally signed by Starr, are selling for $495 each.
WATCH IT: The Unknown Story delves into I Love Lucy
In 1950s America, when much of the country was watching the same thing at the same time, I Love Lucy was a hit. The Emmy winner was a template for the sitcom for decades. And its success propelled leading lady and producer Lucille Ball to sit at the head of her own Desilu Productions, marking the first time a woman had led a major TV studio. This new episode of Reelz’s The Unknown Story franchise features experts on the subject, including Tom Gilbert, the co-author of Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, recounting the classic’s groundbreaking run. They dissect the network’s objections to Ball being visibly pregnant on-screen, how the show invented the rerun, the real-life pressure that its success put on Ball’s marriage (as depicted in Oscar nominee Being the Ricardos) and more. The peek behind the scenes of I Love Lucy will be followed by one about ’60s sitcom Gilligan’s Island. — R.S.
I Love Lucy: The Unknown Story premieres Saturday, Feb. 26 at 8 p.m. on Reelz.
PLAY IT: Get bigger and badder with the latest edition of Ravensburger’s Disney Villainous tabletop game
When it comes to Disney villains, it’s hard to pick a more Incredible contemporary miscreant than Syndrome. The Incredibles nemesis is the marquee attraction in the latest edition of Ravensburger’s popular Villainous tabletop franchise, where players get to help the bad guys win. Joining Syndrome in Bigger and Badder are Lotso Bear from Toy Story 3 and Sword in the Stone sorceress, Madam Mim. Where’s Merlin when you need him? — E.A.
Villainous: Bigger and Badder is available Sunday, Feb. 27 at Target.
HEAR IT: Tears for Fears return to the mad world
In 1983, a young British duo called Tears for Fears released their debut full-length, The Hurting, a loose concept album focusing on themes of child abuse and psychological trauma. That masterwork was inspired by the anguish of adolescence, but now Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith return with their first album in 17 years, The Tipping Point, a Hurting companion of sorts inspired by the anguish of middle-age — including the death of Orzabal’s wife of 35 years from alcoholism and his subsequent time in rehab as he grieved. The tragedy drew once-estranged childhood friends Orzabal and Smith closer, and as a result, they have created one of Tears for Fears’ finest albums yet . — L.P.
The Tipping Point by Tears for Fears is available Friday, Feb. 25 to download/stream on Apple Music.
— Video produced by Anne Lilburn and edited by Jimmie Rhee
The It List: Uber CEO’s wild ride featured in Showtime’s ‘Super Pumped,’ ‘AGT’ gets ‘Extreme’ spinoff, ‘House of Gucci’ available on Blu-ray and DVD, and the best in pop culture the week of Feb. 21, 2022
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