Duke Davis Roberts on His Justified Arc and His Former Life As an MMA Fighter

Duke Davis Roberts on Justified. Spoiler alert: This interview reveals major plot points from the February 24 episode of Justified, “Alive Day.” Duke Davis Roberts has made a big impression on Justified this season. His character, brain-damaged war veteran Mundo, a.k.a. “Choo-Choo” (because he comes at you like a train), has been embraced by fans despite the fact that he’s a murderous thug for evil pot baron Avery Markham (Sam Elliott). [Read More]

Eastbound & Down Recap: A Higher Purpose

Eastbound & Down Chapter 9 Season 2 Episode 3 «Previous Next» « PreviousEpisode NextEpisode » In his excellent write-up of the season-two premiere of Eastbound & Down, now officially America’s most batshit-insane television program that doesn’t involve hoarders, our regular recapper noted that the show had “raised the stakes by removing them.” Until this week, we weren’t so sure: The first two episodes of the White Flame’s (! [Read More]

Eddie Murphy and Jonah Hill to Explore Their Differences or Something in New Kenya Barris Come

Eddie Murphy, Jonah Hill, and Kenya Barris are making a movie together, and apparently, that’s all we need to know. The Hollywood Reporter exclusively announced the meeting of comedic minds for an untitled comedy feature. Barris, a writer on Murphy’s Coming 2 America as well as the creator behind the -ish franchise, will make his feature directorial debut with the movie for Netflix. Hill and Barris co-wrote the script and will produce through their Strong Baby and Khalabo Ink Society banners. [Read More]

Eddie Murphy Live

The razor-edged king of late-night comedy. Photo: New York Magazine Photo: New York Magazine Editor’s note: This review originally appeared in the December 10, 1984, issue of New York. We’re republishing it to mark the release of Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F this week. In executive producer Dick Ebersol’s office, overlooking the Saturday Night Live set, the only thing hanging on the wall is a cork bulletin board. On that bulletin board, four days before the first S. [Read More]

Elbows, Knees, and Blows: All the Ways Jack Reacher Kicks Ass Over Seventeen Novels

This December, in Jack Reacher, the diminutive Tom Cruise will somehow star as the six foot five former Army MP title character of Lee Child’s bestselling thriller series. Throughout seventeen books (the latest, A Wanted Man, was released last week), Reacher has, liked Kane in Kung Fu, walked the Earth (or at least America), getting into violent adventures that usually involve beating the hell out of bad men. Lots of elbows are thrown (if you learn anything from these novels, it’s this: elbows over fists), lots of people are shot in the head. [Read More]

Eloisa James on Feminism, Sexuality, and Why Romance Novels Are More Than Worthy of Respect

It’s No Respect Week at Vulture, which means we’re celebrating things we like that never seem to get any love: schlock rock, Adam Sandler cry-fests, over-the-top action sequences, and Rodney Dangerfield novelty songs. Here, we take a fresh look at the genre of literature known as bodice-rippers.  Despite selling over a billion dollars worth of books each year, romance novels are routinely given the no-respect treatment. The latest entry in this ongoing slagging is by William Giraldi in The New Republic, who called romance “uniformly awful and awfully uniform. [Read More]

Emma Roberts, Let Ryan Murphy Film a Horror Movie in Your Home

Sometimes the scariest movies are the ones you least expect. The 1999 film Audition, for example, begins as a romance and devolves into a terrifying horror film filled with torture porn. Similarly, the Emma Roberts Architectural Digest house tour begins pleasantly enough before devolving into a frightening example of a type of madness likely to render you an insomniac for the rest of the week. The video begins auspiciously enough: Roberts is talking about her living room. [Read More]

Erykah Badu Did Not Approve That NSFW Flaming Lips Video

And therefore, as you might expect, she is displeased that an unedited version of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” made its way into the world last week. (It was pulled the next day.) In fact, Erykah was so upset with the leak that she tweeted a long, angry open letter outlining her concerns to Wayne Coyne. It includes the following thesis statement: “perhaps, next time u get an occasion to work with an artist who respects your mind/art, you should send at least a ROUGh version of the video u PLAN to release b4 u manipulate or compromise the artist’s brand…By the way you are an ass. [Read More]

Every Animal Collective Album, Ranked

Will there ever be another band like Animal Collective? The question may sound trite, but it’s impossible to overstate the temporal singularity of what Noah Lennox (Panda Bear), Brian Weitz (Geologist), Dave Portner (Avey Tare), and Josh Dibb (Deakin) have accomplished over the last 20 years of their career. Since emerging from the more outré corners of the NYC music scene in the early 2000s, Animal Collective experienced a steady rise in indie culture — practically reshaping it with every major release up to 2009’s canonical Merriweather Post Pavilion — while remaining totally and utterly inimitable stylistically. [Read More]

Every Brooklyn Nine-Nine Episode, Ranked

Brooklyn Nine-Nine isn’t only one of the funniest comedies on TV, it’s easily the most consistent. There’s almost never a false character moment, there’s a bounty of hilarious bits of physical and verbal comedy in every episode, and the characters are just nice — good people who are good at their jobs and genuinely care about each other. It’s a style of comedy developed by Michael Schur, co-creator of Brooklyn Nine-Nine with Dan Goor, perfected by other Schur shows like Parks and Recreation and The Good Place. [Read More]