The It List: Exes Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas star in erotic 'Deep Water,' new baking competition 'Is It Cake?' has a deceptive twist, 'Bad Vegan' tells true story of Sarma Melngailis and the best in pop culture the week of March 14, 2022
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 March 14-20, 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: Real-life exes Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas get steamy in Deep Water
Things may be a little tense around the Lopez/Affleck household this weekend. That's because the Argo star's long-delayed erotic thriller with former flame, Ana de Armas, is finally dropping on Hulu after a three-year delay. Based on a novel by The Talented Mr. Ripley scribe, Patricia Highsmith, the film features the real-life exes as an unconventional married couple whose sex and violence-laced mind games get everyone around them hot and bothered. While Affleck and De Armas's offscreen fling is sure to be the main focus of the movie's inevitable internet notoriety, Deep Water is also notable for being Fatal Attraction director Adrian Lyne's first feature since Unfaithful premiered in theaters a full two decades ago. If this movie is half as bonkers as Lyne's classic '80s and '90s thrillers, our Indecent Proposal is that you'll want to rewatch it every 9 1/2 Weeks. — Ethan Alter
Deep Water premieres Friday, March 18 on Hulu.
WATCH IT: Keke Palmer seeks vengeance in the trippy and timely thriller Alice
Fresh off its world premiere at January's Sundance Film Festival, Krystin Ver Linden's debut feature arrives in theaters as the opening act of Keke Palmer's busy 2022. The star of the upcoming summer blockbusters Lightyear and Nope plays a slave on a Georgia plantation who discovers that her 19th century surroundings have been hidden away from the larger 20th century world. Emerging into 1973, she has her consciousness raised by the Black Power movement — and Blaxploitation movies — and returns to her former digs to wreak bloody vengeance. This exclusive clip from Alice features Alice's impassioned plea to Frank (played by Common), who helps her adjust to the modern world. — E.A.
Alice premieres Friday, March 18 in theaters; visit Fandango for showtime and ticket information.
WATCH IT: West Side Story dances its way onto DVD and Blu-ray
Did Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story get the respect it deserved when released this past December? It certainly didn’t get the box office returns it deserved. But reverence for the iconic filmmaker’s spin on the 1957 stage musical seems to be growing by the day. See the film’s seven Oscar nominations, frontrunner status for Best Supporting Actress contender Ariana DeBose, and viral tweets like this one espousing how “f***ing insane” the direction and cinematography was on the film. Now the film hits Blu-ray this week with a giant heap of bonus features including making-of extras (watch an exclusive clip from one above), the ability to skip directly to your favorite song and more. — Kevin Polowy
West Side Story is available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD Tuesday, March 15 on Amazon.
WATCH IT: The Outfit is tailor-made for the talents of Oscar winner Mark Rylance
Mark Rylance takes center stage in Graham Moore's chamber room mystery, which is set in roughly the same era as Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies — the movie that won the celebrated stage and screen actor his first Oscar. Rylance plays a Saville Row-trained English tailor currently plying his trade in Chicago. One evening as he's closing up shop, he's visited by two foot soldiers in a local gangster clan (Dylan O'Brien and Johnny Flynn), kicking off a long, tense night filled with double-crosses, unexpected revelations and murder most foul. Think Reservoir Dogs meets Phantom Thread, and you'll have a sense of how Moore's story plays out. In this exclusive clip, Rylance talks to O'Brien about his origins in the clothing trade... a story that may or may not be entirely on the level. — E.A.
The Outfit premieres Friday, March 18 in theaters; visit Fandango for showtime and ticket information.
STREAM IT: Is It Cake? is a social media slam dunk
In an age when you can easily get sucked into spending hours browsing tiny foods, luxurious foods and any other subgenre of eats, this Netflix series is a logical addition to your cooking and craft shows diet. It's even inspired by a meme! Hosted by Saturday Night Live's Mikey Day, each of the eight episodes feature a changing panel of celebrity judges that includes Day's SNL colleague Heidi Gardner and former SNLer Bobby Moynihan, Queer Eye's Karamo Brown, comedians Loni Love and Fortune Feimster and more. They'll look at the kitchen creations of some of the skilled competitors known for baking cakes that look exactly like, for instance, a stack of red Solo cups, a cheeseburger or shoes. While it's all fun for those of us watching, it's a serious competition for the bakers, the top three of whom will compete for $50,000. — Raechal Shewfelt
Is It Cake? premieres Friday, March 18 on Netflix.
READ IT: Go down a terrifying rabbit hole with Alice in Borderland, Vol. 1
Haro Aso’s epic Japanese manga — adapted into a hit 2020 Netflix series (with a second season on the way) — is available for the first time in an English-language edition. Curiouser and curiouser meets deadlier and deadlier as a trio of angsty teens are transported to the Borderland, an alternate universe where they must survive a series of lethal challenges before they can escape home. A trippy twist on the Squid Games/Hunger Games genre, this sci-fi saga will have you racing through pages and leave you waiting desperately for Volume 2. — Marcus Errico
Alice in Borderland, Vol. 1 is available in paperback and digital on Tuesday, March 15 from Amazon and other retailers.
HEAR IT: Charli XCX crashes the pop party
Hot off her hyped Saturday Night Live performance, the shape-shifting pop polymath returns with her fifth studio album, the post-disco open CRASH, assisted by other indie trailblazers like Christine & the Queens, Caroline Polachek and Weeknd collaborators Oscar Holter and Oneohtrix Point Never. A “poptastic” departure from Charli’s recent hyperpop output, the record is inspired by '80s pop stars like Madonna, Janet Jackson, Cameo, Taylor Dayne and Belinda Carlisle. — Lyndsey Parker
CRASH by Charli XCX is available Friday, March 18 to download/stream on Apple Music.
BUY IT: Just Play's Turning Red toy line is sure to generate lots of green
Based on the ecstatic early reviews, Pixar's latest animated feature Turning Red is another winner for the house that Toy Story built. And Just Play is wisely cornering the market on Turning Red toys with a line of plush and collectible figures, as well as accessories like journals and jewelry sets. The huggable plush versions of the movie's red panda Mei are sure to get a lot of love: a Concert Plush comes ready to play some of the movie's tunes, while the Many Moods of Mei Plush expresses a myriad of emotions and catchphrases from the film. — E.A.
Just Play's Turning Red toys are available at Amazon and Walmart.
WATCH/STREAM IT: Top Chef meets the The French Chef in the new cooking competition The Julia Child Challenge
Recreating a Julia Child recipe — boeuf bourguignon, roast chicken — is hardly a novel concept; blogger Julie Powell’s early-aughts efforts to cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking spawned both a book and film (both named Julie & Julia). But the Food Network’s Julia Child Challenge is going a step further by immersing eight contestants — all self-proclaimed super-fans of the late, great, lovable chef — in Child’s world as they painstakingly produce her most famed French-influenced dishes. Child’s own Smithsonian-worthy kitchen has inspired the set, while she herself will make a posthumous cameo via a TV screening the former French Chef host’s vintage cooking show appearances. Top Chef alum and head judge Antonia Lofaso and guests like Brooke Williamson, Michael Voltaggio and Cliff Crooks will determine who wins the grand prize, an all-expenses-paid, three-month cooking course at Le Cordon Bleu, the very school where a certain young American housewife living in Paris began her cooking journey back in 1949. — Erin Donnelly
The Julia Child Challenge premieres Monday, March 14 at 9 p.m. on the Food Network, and is also available to stream that day on Discovery+.
HEAR IT: Rosalía revs it up
The Spanish superstar has described MOTOMAMI, her first full-length record since 2018, as her “most personal and confessional and sexy album so far.” Her experimental third LP draws inspiration from the Beastie Boys' Ill Communication, Moby's Play, Lorde's Pure Heroine and Nine Inch Nails’s The Downward Spiral, and features collabs with the Weeknd, James Blake and Tokischa. — L.P.
MOTOMAMI by Rosalía is available Friday, March 18 to download/stream on Apple Music.
STREAM IT: Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives
Netflix offers up a new true crime docuseries that starts with raw vegan food and ends with an order of Domino's Pizza. Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. tells the strange story of a prominent New York vegan restauranteur who turns to a life of crime after falling for a man who promises to make her dog immortal.
Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives premieres Wednesday, March 16 on Netflix.
BUY IT: Red Rocket is a blast on Blu-ray
Sean Baker can’t seem to do any wrong these days. The Tangerine and The Florida Project director dropped yet another gem with the fall release of Red Rocket, a sharp, sweaty, darkly comedic, intentionally uncomfortable tale of contemporary Americana once again co-written by Chris Bergoch and announcing the official comeback of Simon Rex. The former MTV veejay just won an Independent Spirit Award for his gloriously frenetic performance as a washed-up porn star who returns to his tiny Texas hometown with his tail between his legs. If you missed this one in theaters don’t miss it on Blu-ray. — K.P.
Red Rocket is available on DVD and Blu-ray Tuesday, March 15 on Amazon.
HEAR IT: Sonic Youth is eternal
In 2011, founding Sonic Youth members Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore shockingly announced they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage, effectively ending the run of their legendary, prolific New York noise-rock band. More than a decade later, a band reunion still seems highly unlikely, but In/Out/In should please fans still trying to get over the split. A new compilation of rare Sonic Youth instrumental jams recorded between 2000 and 2010, In/Out/In is a fascinating artifact from what bassist Lee Ranaldo described to Rolling Stone as a creative “golden period” for the seminal group despite “a bit of tension going on” at the time. — L.P.
In/Out/In by Sonic Youth is available Friday, March 18 to download/stream on Apple Music.
WATCH IT: Get excited about the Oscars with Step Into… the Movies With Derek and Julianne Hough
The siblings and former Dancing With the Stars pros — he's now a judge on the ballroom competition — will recreate dance numbers from many beloved films, including Dirty Dancing, Moulin Rouge, Beauty and the Beast, Saturday Night Fever, Chicago, La La Land and Singin' in the Rain, in this special. Their performances arrive exactly one week ahead of this year's Oscars broadcast, which will honor nominees including West Side Story and Tick, Tick … Boom, two films that would be worthy of a restaging in a subsequent special. "There's a little pressure there," Derek told Ryan Seacrest during a March 4 visit to On Air With Ryan Seacrest. "But it's more of a celebration and just a thank you to all these films that have inspired us for so many years." Think they'll do the lift? — R.S.
Step Into…the Movies With Derek and Julianne Hough airs Sunday, March 20 at 10 p.m. on ABC.
WATCH IT: Lily Tomlin gets career achievement honor from AARP Awards
There will be films vying for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor — and the contenders are among those you’d expect this year: Belfast, King Richard, The Power of the Dog, West Side Story, with a couple you might not (Halle Berry for Bruised, Sandra Bullock for The Unforgivable). But one of the most intriguing reasons to tune into AARP The Magazine’s Movies for Grownups Awards 20th Anniversary Special has to be the lifetime achievement award, which will go to comedy legend Lily Tomlin — as presented by another comedy legend, Goldie Hawn. Yes, it’s a Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in reunion, and there’s sure to be lots of laugh-ing watching these two meet again (sorry). — K.P.
The virtual ceremony for AARP The Magazine’s Movies for Grownups Awards 20th Anniversary Special will broadcast Friday, March 18, 2022 by Great Performances on PBS.
— Video produced by Anne Lilburn and edited by John Santo
