The It List: 'Jerry and Marge Go Large' tells the true story of the Selbees who legally gamed the lottery, Miles Teller and Chris Hemsworth star in 'Spiderhead,' Pete Davidson returns to Netflix with another comedy show and all the best in pop culture the week of June 13, 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 June 13-19, 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: Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening find a lottery loophole in Jerry and Marge Go Large
The Devil Wears Prada director David Frankel and an all-star cast — Rainn Wilson, Anna Camp and Michael McKean, as well as Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening in the title roles — tell the true story of retirees Jerry and Marge Selbee. They're the Michigan couple who won $26 million in state lotteries after having figured out just how many tickets they needed to buy in order to win a game and turn a profit. But don't call it a scam! (One official who investigated the case, former Massachusetts inspector general Greg Sullivan, told 60 Minutes in June 2019, that he was "dumbfoundedly amazed that these math-nerd geniuses had found a way legally to win a state lottery and make millions from it.") Along the way, Jerry and Marge also discovered how to help others in their community access those profits, too. And, in a fascinating turn of events, the couple eventually found themselves facing stiff competition for the winnings after a second party detected the flaw in the system. — Raechal Shewfelt
Jerry and Marge Go Large is premieres Friday, June 17 on Paramount+.
WATCH IT: Brian and Charles is your man-robot indie buddy comedy of the year
One of the quietest favorites to sneak out of January’s Sundance Film Festival, Brian and Charles centers around a lonely inventor in rural Wales who finally decides to build himself a robot companion — and it’s just as funny, sweet, quirky (and yeah, maybe predictable) as you’d expect. David Earl, who stars as Brian, cowrote, and could be mistaken for Marc Maron’s long-lost Welsh brother, is a revelation — as is Charles (played by Earl’s co-writer Chris Hayward), the gigantic, square-bodied yet freakishly realistic bot he bonds with. Check out an exclusive clip from this charmer above. — Kevin Polowy
Brian and Charles opens in theaters Friday, June 17. Buy tickets from Fandango.
STREAM IT: All rise: Chrissy's Court is back in session on The Roku Channel
Order in the court! Chrissy Teigen picks up the gavel to adjudicate a new batch of cases on the second season of Chrissy's Court. Originally premiering in 2020 on the gone and kinda forgotten streaming service, Quibi, the series is now a Roku Channel original. But the supermodel's unique brand of judging remains intact, and you'd better believe that her mom, Vilailuck "Pepper Thai" Teigen, is still on hand to provide additional levity as the world's nicest bailiff. This exclusive clip features some vintage mother and daughter bickering while Judge Chrissy tries to settle a dispute over vacation fees between friends. — Ethan Alter
Chrissy's Court Season 2 premieres Friday, June 17 on The Roku Channel.
STREAM IT: Pete Davidson sticks up for pal Chris Rock in his latest Netflix comedy special
Chris Rock isn't among The Best Friends that Pete Davidson brings onstage in his new Netflix comedy hour, but the comedian makes it clear that he's Team Rock rather than Team Will Smith. Davidson references the infamous Oscar night slap onstage, reminiscing about a night he spent with buddies Rock and Jon Stewart at a Knicks game where they accidentally photobombed basketball superstar Stephen Curry's record-breaking performance. "I was thinking about that night a lot because... since then, such horrible things have happened to me and Chris," he jokes. "Jon Stewart, if you're out there watching — watch your f****** back, bro!" Even though Kim Kardashian's boyfriend is the star attraction, he doesn't hog the spotlight: Machine Gun Kelly, Big Wet and Carly Aquilino are some of the FoPs (Friends of Pete) that drop by during the hour-long special. We're guessing that they won't be watching Men in Black at the afterparty. — E.A.
Pete Davidson Presents: The Best Friends premieres Monday, June 13 on Netflix.
HEAR IT: Alanis Morissette soothes your jagged nerves
Alanis Morissette has explored her raw emotions ever since she released the Zeitgeist-capturing Jagged Little Pill at age 21. Now 48, the older and even wiser singer-songwriter has found a new musical avenue of expression on her first guided-meditation album, The Storm Before the Calm. “Music, for me, is like a portal in a way, an invitation into a state of being that I’m not normally in. Making the record kept me super connected and accountable during COVID, when I felt like I was just going to disappear and float away,” she said in a statement. Judging from the project’s hypnotic, 11-minute preview track, “Safety—Empath in Paradise,” The Storm Before the Calm will be a lot, well, calmer than “You Oughta Know” but just as powerful. — Lyndsey Parker
The Storm Before the Calm by Alanis Morissette is available Friday, June 17 to download/stream on Apple Music.
STREAM IT: Top Gun: Maverick director reunites with Miles Teller in Spiderhead
Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller and director Joseph Kosinski are teaming up again in the sci-fi thriller Spiderhead. Based on a George Saunders short story "Escape From Spiderhead," which was originally published in The New Yorker, the Netflix movie stars Teller as a prisoner at a high-tech research facility where a pharmaceutical scientist, played by Chris Hemsworth, is conducting strange drug experiments by using chemicals to manipulate human emotions and behavior.
Spiderhead premieres Friday, June 17 on Netflix.
STREAM IT: Allez cuisine! Iron Chef returns after a 4-year hiatus
First things first: Yes, the Chairman is back in Kitchen Stadium. Mark Dacascos's signature alter ego — along with secret ingredients, that 60-minute clock and Alton Brown — return for the next iteration of the Iron Chef franchise, which jumps to Netflix after airing its final Food Network season in 2018. While it doesn't mess too much with the formula that dates back to the show's early ’90s origins on Japanese television, Quest for an Iron Legend does feature a few format tweaks that escalates the challenge factor — including a dish that has to be completed and served to the judges in the first 30 minutes. After watching one episode, you'll be hungry for more. — E.A.
Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend premieres Wednesday, June 15 on Netflix.
STREAM IT: The Martha Mitchell Effect explains how the Washington socialite was instrumental in breaking Watergate
No less than Richard Nixon himself once said that, if it hadn't been for Martha Mitchell, there would have been no Watergate. The wife of President Nixon's chosen attorney general, John Mitchell, herself later said that Nixon was responsible for the demise of her marriage. In this new documentary short, co-directors Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy zoom in on the outspoken Martha, who was beloved by the people and the press, and the way she was treated during and after the scandal, which began 50 years ago this week. Though her husband had tried to hide from her his and the administration's involvement in the break-in of the Democratic National Committee's headquarters at a Washington office building — to the point where she was taken to California as the actual burglary took place and then held against her will — she figured it out, and she willingly talked to reporters about what had gone down. The problem, at first, was that no one believed Mitchell that something in the administration was amiss, and she was incorrectly painted to be nothing more than an alcoholic with mental issues. Everyone learned the truth, of course, when Nixon resigned in Aug. 1974. The great Nora Ephron summarized the story in New York Magazine at the time with the headline, Martha Mitchell Isn't Crazy. — R.S.
The Martha Mitchell Effect premieres Friday, June 17 on Netflix.
READ IT: Paul Newman: Blue-Eyed Cool reminds fans why the Hollywood icon was nobody's fool
Next to Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman had Hollywood's most famous pair of blue eyes. Those peepers pierce the camera lens in the new coffee table book, Blue-Eyed Cool, which collects rare photos of the star of such classics as The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke and The Verdict snapped by six celebrity shutterbugs, including Eva Sereny and Douglas Kirkland. Spanning the entirety of Newman's career — and capturing both his public existence in movies and private life with wife, Joanne Woodward — the pictures are accompanied by expert commentary from film journalist, James Clarke. — E.A.
Paul Newman: Blue-Eyed Cool is available Tuesday, June 14 at most major booksellers, including Amazon.
HEAR IT: Foals are giving you life
British math-rockers and festival favorites Foals return with their seventh studio album, Life Is Yours, previewed by a music video for the single “2am” filmed in Kyiv with a Ukrainian crew. “We wanted to refocus and do something that shared a DNA throughout the songs: a physicality, a danceability and with energy and joyousness. … It’s definitely the poppiest record we’ve ever made,” frontman Yannis Philippakis said in a statement. The upbeat material will surely go over well when Philippakis and company hit the festival circuit this summer. — L.P.
Life Is Yours by Foals is available Friday, June 17 to download/stream on Apple Music.
READ IT: Take a deep dive into Netflix's hit teen drama with Outer Banks: Pogue Life
The ’90s had Capeside, the aughts had Tree Hill — in the 2020s, teen viewers are flocking to the Outer Banks for their regular dose of high school drama. Go behind the scenes of the hit Netflix YA series with Pogue Life, a scrapbook-style look at the show's absurdly attractive cast and wild storylines that pit the wealthy Kooks against the working class Pogues. With the show set to return for its third season later this year, use this book as a supplementary binge guide. — E.A.
Outer Banks: Pogue Life is available Tuesday, June 14 at most major booksellers, including Amazon.
— Video produced by Anne Lilburn and edited by John Santo
