The It List: 'The Curse of Von Dutch' chronicles rise and fall of the 2000s fashion brand, new doc looks at aftermath of Janet Jackson's Super Bowl wardrobe debacle, Adele drops '30' and the best in pop culture the week of Nov. 15, 2021
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 Nov. 15-21, including the best deals we could find for each. (Yahoo Entertainment may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page.)
STREAM IT: The Curse of Von Dutch teases an inside look at the bro brand's shocking history
Remember when everyone was wearing Von Dutch? Well, this true crime docuseries isn't about that early 2000s era, but about the wild happenings that were going on behind the scenes of the clothing brand, even as celebrities including Paris Hilton, Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake rocked it. The three episodes are packed with interviews from people who were there, who can discuss some of what happened: the money laundering, the first-degree murder charge one of its founders faced (he was later cleared) and people being scared for their lives. The newlywed Hilton, who was known to wear Von Dutch herself, back in her days on The Simple Life and while partying with Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, offers perspective on the brand's cultural significance. "It was iconic for Y2K fashion," she says in the trailer. "Trucker caps, jeans, jackets, that was, like, our uniform, basically." — Raechal Shewfelt
The Curse of Von Dutch: A Brand to Die For premieres Thursday, Nov. 18 on Hulu.
STREAM/WATCH IT: Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson illuminates sexist Super Bowl half-time scandal
Janet Jackson is getting the Britney Spears treatment. The New York Times Presents documentary series — which elevated the #FreeBritney movement with Framing Britney Spears and Controlling Britney Spears— now investigates 2004's "nipplegate," what the media dubbed the scandal over the Rhythm Nation singer's areola being on CBS for 9/16ths of a second during the NFL championship. Jackson, an iconic superstar with decades of accolades at the time, faced extraordinary fallout over it, even though Justin Timberlake was the one who ripped the piece off her top. Despite apologies — and JT being forgiven — Jackson was publicly shamed, banned from events (which Timberlake attended) and had her music blacklisted. The doc, directed by Jodi Gomes (The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty), looks at the national furor over the incident, using rare footage and new interviews with Jackson family members, NFL and MTV execs who were at the control deck in Houston that night, music industry insiders and cultural critics. Race and misogyny are examined and so is disgraced CBS executive Les Moonves's role. And Timberlake's career rise gets contrasted with Jackson's fall. Timberlake didn't come off so well in Framing Britney Spears earlier this year, leading to his public apology to both his ex-girlfriend Spears and Jackson over the Super Bowl debacle, and this probably won't improve that perception. — Suzy Byrne
Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson premieres Friday, Nov. 19 at 10 p.m. on FX and Hulu.
WATCH IT: Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt’s adventure-filled Jungle Cruise sails onto Blu-ray
After waiting in dry dock for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt finally got to take audiences on their Jungle Cruise when their period adventure movie debuted simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ over the summer. Based on the Disneyland ride (not to mention The African Queen) the movie features its glamorous stars as a pair of odd couple explorers who travel up the Amazon River on a quest to locate a mythical tree that can heal any illness. The film’s Blu-ray edition includes deleted scenes (like the one above) as well as outtakes and making-of featurettes. — Ethan Alter
Jungle Cruise will be available Tuesday, Nov. 16 at most major retailers including Best Buy.
HEAR IT: Adele returns, older and wiser, on 30
The most hotly anticipated album of 2021 — and an album that, frankly, was hotly anticipated in 2020, 2019 and 2018 — is finally here. An older-and-wiser Adele returns with 30, her fourth LP (and first LP since 2015). Inspired by the roughest year of the now-33-year-old divorced mom’s life, tracks like “Cry Your Heart Out” and the brilliantly titled “I Drink Wine” promise the same confessionals that have made past Adele albums everyone’s go-to breakup soundtracks. And judging by the massive success of lead single “Easy on Me” — which broke both the record for most-streamed song in a single day on Spotify and most-played song in U.S. radio history in a single week — 30 is set to replicate the smash success of Adele’s previous blockbusters, 21 and 25. — Lyndsey Parker
30 by Adele is available Friday, Nov. 19 to download/stream on Apple Music.
STREAM/WATCH IT: Will Smith commands the screen in King Richard
We’ll admit it: We were a bit skeptical hearing that a biopic focused on the Williams family was serving up more on father Richard than his two superstar daughters Venus and Serena. But indeed, there was a true-life fairy tale just waiting to be told about the unbelievable story of how Will Smith’s Richard willed his girls from the blocks of Compton to global tennis domination with a meticulously crafted (if sometimes faulty and just plain stubborn) game plan. Smith is a surefire Oscar frontrunner for his rugged and transformative performance in a powerful and emotional film that brings some nice edge to the enjoyable but often cheesy, or at least predictable, world of inspirational sports movies. This one is aces all around. — Kevin Polowy
King Richard premieres Friday, Nov. 19 in theaters (get tickets on Fandango) and on HBO Max.
WATCH IT: Come fly the Vanilla Sky with a 20th anniversary Blu-ray edition of the Tom Cruise/Cameron Crowe cult favorite
Five years after Jerry Maguire, Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise reunited for an English-language remake of the 1997 Spanish film, Abre Los Ojos, which also featured Penelope Cruz in one of her earliest breakout parts. Cruz reprises the same role in Vanilla Sky — now available in a limited edition 20th anniversary Blu-ray — playing the mystery woman whose dalliance with Cruise’s New York playboy changes the course of his life. Like the original film, Crowe’s version quickly tips its hand to viewers that all is not as it seems, as the dream world and the real world collide in increasingly trippy ways. The first hint that reality is malleable comes in the famous opening sequence, featuring Cruise running through a deserted Times Square. Crowe breaks down how they pulled that scene off in this exclusive clip from one of the featurettes included on the Blu-ray. Additional extras include deleted scenes plus an alternate ending, a commentary track anchored by Crowe and Nancy Wilson and a gag reel. — E.A.
Vanilla Sky’s 20th anniversary Blu-ray edition will be available on Tuesday, Nov. 16 at most major retailers including Amazon.
WATCH IT: The Power of the Dog is a powerhouse return to the big screen for writer/director Jane Campion
It’s been over a decade since Jane Campion made a feature film, and while the New Zealand auteur hasn’t been idle during that time — she helmed two seasons of the great detective series Top of the Lake, after all — there’s a special thrill in welcoming her back in to the silver screen… and eventually to Netflix, which funded the film. It’s even more thrilling that she’s returned with a stone cold masterwork. Based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, The Power of the Dog marries elements of classic Westerns with the psychological dread of vintage Hitchcockian thrillers. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as rancher Phil Burbank, whose extremely toxic brand of masculinity seeps into the psyches of everyone around him, most notably his brother, George, and his new sister-in-law, Rose, played by real life couple Jesse Plemons and Kirsten Dunst. The expansive landscapes provide a beautiful contrast to the sinister chamber drama that plays out in the Burbank ranch house, and Campion expertly tightens the screws until arriving at an applause-worthy final moment of collective catharsis. Here’s hoping it’s not another decade until we see her name on the big screen again. — E.A.
The Power of the Dog premieres Wednesday, Nov. 17 in theaters (get tickets on Fandango) and Wednesday, Dec. 1 on Netflix.
WATCH IT: India Sweets and Spices is a sweet and spicy class comedy set in a wealthy Indian American community
The latest film from writer/director Geeta Malik could also be titled The Real Indian American Housewives of New Jersey. Set in an upscale Garden State suburb, the movie follows Alia (Sophia Ali) home for the summer after her freshman year at college. And to say it’s a rough homecoming would be an understatement: All of the prejudices and classism she left behind when she went away to school are waiting for her now that she’s back — and are also on display in this exclusive clip. The prying eyes of her judgmental family (and their equally judgmental friends) get even more intrusive when she strikes up a flirtation with Varun (Rish Shah), the son of the middle class couple who run the local Indian grocery store. Alia’s new relationship isn’t the only major life change that happens over the course of her eventful summer: She also learns some long-buried secrets about her mother and father, which push the movie to a spicy, and sweet, emotional crescendo. — E.A.
India Sweets and Spices premieres Friday, Nov. 19 in theaters; visit Fandango for showtime and ticket information.
STREAM IT: Haley Joel Osment plays an alien’s best friend in the Netflix animated series Dogs in Space
You’ve heard of Pigs in Space — now dogs are getting in on the intergalactic fun. Netflix’s new cartoon series, Dogs in Space, fast-forwards to our near future, where genetically enhanced talking dogs are sent into the cosmos to seek out new life and new civilizations… and find a new home for humankind. Heading up the show’s dog pack is a friendly mutt named Garbage — voiced by Sixth Sense star Haley Joel Osment — and the rest of the canine crew includes Sarah Chalke, William Jackson Harper and Chris Parnell. This exclusive clip finds Garbage making first contact with a long-lost terrestrial dog… who may actually be an alien in disguise. Here’s hoping these mutts learned the Prime Directive. — E.A.
Dogs in Space premieres Thursday, Nov. 18 on Netflix.
WATCH/HEAR IT: The classic Bruce Springsteen concert you never saw (or heard) before
The title pretty much sums it up: The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts. Even for a band with dozens of historic shows on its C.V., this iconic, atomic, supersonic Madison Square Garden performance ranks among the all-timers for Bruce Springsteen and his E Streeters. Culled together from two separate sets at the all-star benefit concerts, the remastered film and soundtrack feature 13 cuts — 10 of them never before released, including rip-roaring takes on “Born to Run,” “Thunder Road” and “Badlands” and sneak previews of “The River” and “Sherry Darling” from The River album still a year-plus away — capped by the blistering “Detroit Medley” and a cover of “Stay” with additional vocals from Jackson Browne, Tom Petty and Rosemary Butler. — Marcus Errico
The Legendary 1979 No Nukes Concerts will be available Tuesday, Nov. 16 for HD digital download and Friday, Nov. 19 on double CD with DVD/Blu-ray and double LP formats at Amazon and other music retailers.
WATCH IT: Explore deep space like humankind never has before in CNN's The Hunt for Planet B
Ever wonder what it’s like to build and plan for a massive launch into space? Now you can in the Nathaniel Kahn-directed film, The Hunt for Planet B, which follows scientists as they prepare for the December launch of NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, a machine that will be able to peer over 13 billion light-years into deep space — all the way to the first stars and galaxies in the universe. Talk about a trip! Even more so, the film will release new data into the search for possible signs of life on what they call “exoplanets,” or planets outside our solar system. Through a series of interviews and real-life footage of their work and lives, Kahn follows the brainiac engineers, astronomers and researchers — many of them women — who’s mission it is to educate the world on the magic of the cosmos. And just in case you’re wondering, yes, Webb is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, which is perhaps one of the most famous telescopes known today. Looking deeper into space has never sounded more cool. — David Artavia
The Hunt for Planet B premieres Saturday, Nov. 20 at 9 p.m. on CNN.
STREAM IT: Celebrate anime history as One Piece turns 1,000
Grab a straw hat and settle in for the milestone 1,000th installment in the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew of pirates as they endeavor to find the ultimate treasure, the power-bestowing One Piece. Based on Eiichiro Oda’s best-selling manga, One Piece has been collecting fans since 1999; streamers Funimation and Crunchyroll pulling out all the stops for the big event, including a watch party. And what better to go with a party than some dishes straight from chef Sanji’s galley, like the Luffy-approved meat on a bone, laughing mushrooms from the Island of Women and a slice of Mock Town cherry pie, courtesy of the official One Piece Pirate Recipes cookbook. — M.E.
The entire One Piece series is streaming via Funimation and Crunchyroll, with episode 1,000 airing Saturday, Nov. 20. One Piece Pirate Recipes is available Tuesday, Nov. 23 via Amazon and other booksellers.
HEAR IT: Sting bridges 2020 and 2021 with celebratory post-lockdown record
The former Police-man is in a contemplative mood on his 15th album, which was written during a pandemic year of global turmoil, as he ruminates on loss, isolation and political strife. Yet The Bridge is ultimately an optimistic and uplifting effort, so Sting is celebrating its release with his weekly web TV series On the Bridge and a new Las Vegas residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. — L.P.
The Bridge by Sting is available Friday, Nov. 19 to download/stream on Apple Music.
STREAM IT: Mindy's new 'project' is The Sex Lives of College Girls
Mindy Kaling's sense of humor is all over this comedy — she's the co-creator, co-writer and executive producer — that's a little like if a younger version of her character from The Mindy Project had hung out with Issa and Molly from Insecure, back when they were still at Stanford University. Watching the characters interact with each other is great, though often awkward. From the moment that one of them mistakes her roommate's brother for the roommate's boyfriend (oops!) to the repetition of the term "a** meat," it's funny and, thanks to its frequent pop culture references, fresh. However, even before it premiered, Kaling had explained that it was not about her own life at Dartmouth College. "In terms of the sexual parts of the show, virtually nothing [is biographical]," she told The Hollywood Reporter last month. "That's all my imagination or the experiences of my more romantically advanced writing staff," she said. "All the fear about grades and not fitting in, that I pulled from my own experience. That's the reason I wanted to do the show. It's called The Sex Lives of College Girls, but we wanted to tell a story of four passionate, bright girls in college. The romantic stuff just felt like a good hook." — R.S.
The Sex Lives of College Girls premieres Thursday, Nov. 18 on HBO Max.
WATCH IT: Middle-Earth Ultimate Collector’s Edition has all the hobbits you can handle
Now this is one precious box set. In advance of the 20th anniversary of the first Lord of the Rings movie (The Fellowship of the Ring) next month, Warner Bros. is dropping the Middle-Earth Ultimate Collector’s Edition, which comes with all three of Peter Jackson’s LOTR adventures as well as all three Hobbit prequels as part of a 31-disc set. That is not a misprint. 31 discs. Included are theatrical and extended editions of each film, a 64-page goodie booklet, art cards, footage from the recent reunion with Jackson and cast at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Tex. and more. It’s also heavy enough for some good curls to stay in shape in between views. — K.P.
The Middle-Earth Ultimate Collector’s Edition releases Tuesday, Nov. 16 on Amazon.
HANG IT: Marvel black-light poster book delivers super-trippy super-sized superheroes
Back in the psychedelic late ‘60s/early ‘70s, black-light posters were all the rage. Never one to pass up a pop-culture trend, Marvel issued a series of two dozen posters, featuring mind-melting artwork of iconic characters like Captain America, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four rendered in fabulous fluorescence when illuminated with black light. Now, 50 years later, Abrams has collected 12 of the most eye-popping posters in this portfolio edition. Each 20-inch-by-30-inch print is frame-ready and includes commentary by former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas. — M.E.
Marvel Classic Black Light Collectible Poster Portfolio is available Tuesday, Nov. 16 from Amazon and other booksellers.
HEAR IT: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss raise their heads again
Fourteen years after their critics’-darling collaborative album Raising Sand swept the Grammy Awards, the ex-Zep rock god and the American songstress reunite for Raise the Roof — which, as was the case with Raising Sand, was produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett. Featuring covers of songs by the Everly Brothers, Allen Toussaint, Lucinda Williams and Calexico, and featuring a dazzling lineup of musicians like Marc Ribot, Bill Frisell and Los Lobos’s David Hidalgo, the project is likely to pick up a few more Grammys when it becomes eligible for the 2023 ceremony. — L.P.
Raise the Roof by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss is available Friday, Nov. 19 to download/stream on Apple Music.
STREAM IT: Julianne Moore teaches us about the human mind in Netflix's The Mind, Explained Season 2
The human mind works in very mysterious ways so breaking down the ins and outs of what makes us tick is clearly a job only fit for Netflix. The second season of The Mind, Explained is here to explore what’s happening inside our brain ranging from how to improve focus to how much our personally affects our daily lives. Julianne Moore steps in as narrator after Emma Stone's highly acclaimed work on the first season, which broke down the human memory, our dreams, how to be mindful, the effects of psychedelics on the brain as well as an explainer on the origins of anxiety, and why we have it in the first place. Fun fact: We’re not so different from wild pigs, apparently. With the latest science to back it up, Moore takes us all on, ahem, a mindful journey to learn more about how we as human beings tick. But more so, how learning about the human brain allows us to know ourselves in more intimate ways than we’ve ever had before. — D.A.
The Mind, Explained Season 2 premieres Friday, Nov. 19 on Netflix.
HEAR IT: The Darkness believe in a thing called robot love
In late 2019, British rawk 'n' roll brigaders the Darkness released the album Easter Is Cancelled — and then, just a few months later, the pandemic happened and that title became eerily prophetic. Now they’re back envisioning a much sexier dystopia in Motorheart: The title track is all about a rebellious sex robot, and it rocks harder than anything the Darkness has ever released. (The band has aptly described it as sounding like a hybrid of Motorhead and Heart.) Apparently Justin Hawkins and company still believe in a thing called love — only now, it’s the artificially intelligent kind. — L.P.
Motorheart by the Darkness is available Friday, Nov. 19 to download/stream on Apple Music.
— Video produced by Anne Lilburn and edited by John Santo
