Maisie Peters opened for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in London, but that doesn’t mean she’ll necessarily receive an invitation to the Grammy winner’s highly anticipated wedding to Travis Kelce.

“I’ve not received a sourdough loaf or a wedding invite,” Peters, 25, said on the Friday, May 22, episode of the Zach Sang Show, also referring to Swift’s well-documented penchant for baking bread. “I think that’s OK.”

Peters opened for Swift, 36, during her August 19, 2024, concert at Wembley Stadium.

“The plan is we’re going to have a great night, but you guys have already started having a great night because you got to be absolutely dazzled by the most amazing opening acts possible,” Swift told concertgoers at the time, referring to Peters and Paramore’s respective sets. “You started off the evening with someone I’m such a fan of and I’m still gonna keep talking about her.”

Swift continued, “She is amazing, she’s absolutely incredible [and] crushed it on this stage. I love her songwriting so much. Her name, of course, I’m talking about the amazing Maisie Peters.”

After the concert, Peters even had a chance to bond with Swift backstage.

“I actually went [to the Brick Lane market] to buy Taylor some presents before I did the show. I got her some books and a little tote bag,” Peters recalled on Friday, adding that she gave Swift “a spiel” about her fandom of fellow pop star Hilary Duff.

Peters also jokingly speculated that her impassioned speech is the reason she didn’t ultimately receive a wedding invitation.

Thank You!

You have successfully subscribed.

“After hearing my spiel on Hillary Duff, I don’t think it’s coming,” Peters quipped. “Obviously, I’m a huge fan and maybe one day I’ll get to try her sourdough. Life goal [and it’s good] to have dreams.”

Advertisement

Related: Inside Taylor Swift’s Next Era: New Album, Engagement and More Revealed

After 152 dates across 54 cities and five continents, some 7,000 songs, more than $2 billion in ticket sales, countless friendship bracelets and dozens of A-list attendees, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour will finally come to a close on December 8 in Vancouver, British Columbia. It’s been an eventful nearly two-year ride for Swift. Professionally, she […]

Swift was dating Kelce, 36, during the international leg of her Eras Tour, and they got engaged in August 2025 after two years together. While Swift and the Kansas City Chiefs tight end are reportedly set to tie the knot this summer, the pair have not publicly disclosed any details of their nuptials — including the guest list.

“I think the wedding is what happens after [my Life of a Showgirl promotional tour] in the scheme of the planning, but I’m so excited about it,” Swift teased on the Graham Norton Show in October 2025. “I know it’s gonna be fun to plan because I think the only stressful weddings are the ones where you have a small amount and people are on the bubble.”

I’m usually slow to commit to fashion trends — I prefer a well-rounded, timeless wardrobe. But I immediately hopped on the mesh flats bandwagon, and I’m glad I did. It’s the footwear trend that never dies! These fun flats are perfect for summer because they are breathable, comfortable, easy to wear and add a playful pop to any outfit.

The mesh flat trend also has serious staying power: it’s been the shoe of the summer two years in a row. If you haven’t already, it’s time to add a few pairs to your lineup. I have my eyes on the following 13 styles, including sporty supportive designs and embellished picks perfect for late nights.

13 Mesh Flats to Add to Your Summer Wardrobe

1. The Starter Pair: Ease your way into the mesh flats trend with an affordable nude pair that’s made with an adjustable buckle for the perfect fit. Once you slip into these, you’ll understand the hype.

2. Dainty Florals: The delicate embroidered daisies on these summery mesh flats are just so adorable. The moment I saw this pair, I immediately added it to my cart.

3. Upgraded Classic: Mary Jane shoes get a full makeover with the mesh flat trend. This see-through style, which comes in black or white, gives the timeless silhouette a cool-girl flair that will earn you plenty of compliments.

4. So Nostalgic: The jelly sandals from the early 2000s rebranded and became these vibrant jelly mesh flats. Younger me would think I’m the coolest person ever wearing these shoes.

Related: 17 Upgraded Espadrille Styles That Make the Seasonal Shoe Feel Fresh

Espadrilles have always been a mainstay in my warm-weather wardrobe. I have quite a few pairs, including flats for casual days and wedges for more elevated occasions. I thought my espadrille collection was complete. . . until I saw some new styles that completely upgraded the seasonal shoe. Think: slingback styles that align with the […]

5. So Secure: Some ballet flats slide right off my feet (the worst!). This chic and versatile design features an ankle strap that’s just as functional as it is fashionable.

6. Slip It On: Madden NYC’s gorgeous mesh mules feel like jewelry for my feet with the intricate woven upper. I’m ditching all my heels in favor of these slip-ons this summer!

7. Let’s Go to The Beach: Raffia fashions and coastal vacations go hand in hand, which is why these boho-inspired mesh flats are a necessity for your next trip.

8. Bling Bling: I’m obsessed with anything sparkly, so it should come as no surprise that these rhinestoned Sam Edelman flats are my favorite (and most-worn) warm-weather shoes.

9. The Best Crossover: Mesh espadrilles are the cutest style combo I didn’t know I needed until I tried this lacey platform design. It’s also the ideal summer bridal shoe.

10. Sling Back Beauty: Rothy’s mesh sling-back flats are much more comfortable than your average option because the soft material won’t rub or cause blisters.

11. Sporty Chic: Clock those miles in style with this mesh flat-sneaker hybrid, which offers extra arch support so you can walk for long stretches of time without experiencing pain.

12. Keep It Simple: You could wear an average pair of nude ballet flats, or you could branch out with this summery nude mesh style that feels more fun and carefree for the warmer months.

13. Go Bold: Shoes are the most fun accessory, so don’t be afraid to add some pops of color! I recommend these simple mesh flats in lime or fuchsia for more personality.

Related: Walmart Is Selling the Cutest $25 Beaded Sandals That Look Designer

As much as we love neutral tones, summer is really all about incorporating pops of color into our wardrobes. We recently spotted a pair of beaded slide sandals at Walmart that reminded us of a signature designer look, and the four designs are that dose of fun our outfits are missing. Better yet, the slip-on […]

If a movie doesn’t want to have a traditional score, or if it doesn’t want to just rely on a traditional score, then it might opt to have a soundtrack. The difference, at least for present purposes, is that a soundtrack is compiled of pre-existing songs, or sometimes covers of such songs recorded for the movie, rather than a score that someone like, say, John Williams composed for Star Wars, or Ennio Morricone composed for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, to just rattle off a couple of all-time great/iconic scores.

Soundtracks are different. If you want great soundtracks, and soundtracks that really suit the movie they belong to, then the likes of Trainspotting and Pulp Fiction have got your back, and if you want a great score and a great soundtrack at the same time, 1983’s Scarface does a bit of both. Anyway, good soundtracks aren’t the focus of the ranking below. These soundtracks contain bad music, or misused music that’s usually good when divorced from the context of the movie. It was a bit hard to find only soundtracks compiled of bad songs, so soundtracks with inappropriate or cynically thrown-in songs are also included below, and will be specified accordingly.

7

‘Godzilla’ (1998)

Image via TriStar Pictures

This is an easy and kind of petty pick. Maybe it’s not the best idea to start with something petty, but whatever. Godzilla (1998) sucks, and any opportunity to talk about Godzilla (1998) sucking must be seized. What a wonderful series Godzilla is, or at least can be, and what a thoroughly awe-inspiring misunderstanding of it is Godzilla (1998). It’s mind-bending how bad it is.

Because of the mind-bending awfulness, the soundtrack is just one small layer in what’s an overall terrible-looking and tasting cake, but, again, any opportunity to be a hater must be embraced. You get a disappointing cover of the usually incredible “Heroes” (the David Bowie song), a misused Rage Against the Machine track, and then the foul-smelling icing on the whole terrible cake: a P. Diddy song called “Come with Me.” It is, regrettably, true. It is a sentence that hurts to type, and a fact that feels so wrong, but it’s here, and it’s a part of the whole awful soundtrack. Like anyone ever needed another reason to stay the hell away from 1998’s Godzilla.

6

‘The Room’ (2003)

Image via TPW Films

If you want to try and single out the almost redeeming elements found in The Room, you could highlight the honestly (and weirdly) iconic score by Mladen Milicevic. If it’s not good in the traditional sense, then it’s ultimately solid and memorable in a way that the rest of the movie kind of falls short of being, at least intentionally. Like, the score is better than the writing, directing, acting, and the everything else-ing.

But on top of the instrumental score, you’ve also got some songs featured in The Room, most of them underscoring the infamous (and needlessly long) sex scenes, with those songs honestly adding to the unintentional comedy and/or discomfort of such scenes. So, they’re necessary to The Room being the wonderful disaster that it is, but they’re also fairly bad songs… and even if you hear them out of context, somehow, you’re likely to be reminded of the scenes they back, which probably isn’t something you want to remember.

5

‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ (2022)

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

There are problems beyond just the music in Thor: Love and Thunder, and some of them have even been acknowledged by those involved with its production. Maybe in an attempt to distract from the generally ugly visuals, Guns N’ Roses needle drops were prominent throughout, a little too aggressively, with “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” “Welcome to the Jungle”, “Paradise City”, and “November Rain” all heard here.

It’s a little in line with Thor: Ragnarok prominently featuring Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” yet that song worked in that context, musically and lyrically. The insistence on having Guns N’ Roses song after Guns N’ Roses song feels hollow and desperate, in this overall hollow and desperate superhero film. Those Guns N’ Roses songs are all good, too, being easily among the band’s best, but they just don’t really fit or feel earned here, and the rest of the movie drags them down, making them sound honestly quite bad, in this context. Or in this lack of context. What a mess of a movie.

4

‘Sky High’ (2005)

Image via Buena Vista Pictures

Advertisement

Some people really love Sky High, be it for nostalgic reasons or otherwise, so saying anything negative about it always feels risky. In this instance, it’s just the music that’s going to be critiqued. Other examples in this ranking have misused music that’s used to back bad movies, but with Sky High, you get an honestly decent family-friendly superhero movie that’s ultimately brought down by the music it uses.

Well, actually, the songs here are good, but it’s the fact that they’re all lackluster covers that hurts things. Seems like it’s cheaper to license covers of existing songs, so that was done for Sky High, and so if you’re a fan of bands like Talking Heads, The Smiths, The Cars, Tears for Fears, and Devo, among others, then you get to hear inferior versions of some of their songs! Yay! (Again, it’s a family movie, so kids probably won’t care or notice, unless they’re kids who really like new wave stuff from the ‘80s for whatever reason).

3

‘Suicide Squad’ (2016)

Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

Advertisement

Like with Thor: Love and Thunder, this is an instance of good music being misused, and perhaps even the definitive example of good music being misused: 2016’s Suicide Squad. If you just listen to the music, you’ll get some admittedly good music, since you will technically hear the likes of Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Rolling Stones, Black Sabbath, Kanye West, The White Stripes, and Queen here.

That’s really only scratching the surface, and therein more or less lies the problem: Suicide Squad just keeps throwing so many iconic songs from iconic artists at you, and it gets exhausting. They feel cynically inserted to distract from the sheer messiness of the overall movie, and so yeah, the music’s generally not bad, but it is all utilized badly, if that makes sense. It feels like a desperate attempt to recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle nature of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, without really understanding how that soundtrack, though stacked with great/iconic songs, was also rather carefully assembled, so that the songs used actually meant something within the film itself.

2

‘Lost Horizon’ (1973)

1937’s Lost Horizon is a pretty great fantasy movie, especially for its time, but 1973’s Lost Horizon might well be a somewhat more engaging watch, even though it’s technically a far inferior movie. In both cases, the narrative concerns the discovery of a mythical and seemingly utopian land known as Shangri-La, with the 1937 film being a non-musical, and the 1973 version being a very shoddy musical.

With the 1973 film, it’s a more or less watchable – if slightly underwhelming – fantasy film until the scenes when people break out into song, when it becomes unintentionally hilarious. Maybe the songs here don’t sound so bad out of context, but in context, they are ludicrously cheesy, stilted, and just off… it’s hard to know who to blame, though. It is just the case that the songs don’t work, and the musical numbers are incredibly silly, so the soundtrack does end up ultimately feeling, in one way or another, pretty bad.

1

‘Cocktail’ (1988)

Image via Buena Vista Pictures Distribution

If you don’t venture too far into the past, it’s hard to find many genuinely bad Tom Cruise movies (okay, aside from The Mummy, if anyone remembers that). But in the 1980s, he was in a few genuine stinkers, and Cocktail is one of them. This is a complete nothing of a movie that people seem to kind of like because of the vibes? Maybe? It’s very ‘80s, for what that’s worth, but 1986’s Top Gun is a better “vibes only” Cruise movie from around the same time (as in, that one’s also flawed in some ways, but it’s still watchable).

Cocktail contains one shoddy song after another, and it’s not the main issue of the movie, yet the soundtrack here does not help, by any means. “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” and perhaps the worst Beach Boys song, “Kokomo,” are here, for starters, and then there’s some other really limp and uninteresting song choices throughout. There was good music that came out in the 1980s, but you wouldn’t know it, from listening to the Cocktail soundtrack.

Advertisement

Cocktail

Release Date

Advertisement

July 29, 1988

Runtime

104 minutes

Advertisement

Director

Roger Donaldson

Writers

Advertisement

Heywood Gould

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills executive producer Alex Baskin shut down rumors of a cast overhaul for season 16.

On Friday, May 23, rumors circulated that Dorit Kemsley was being put on pause for next season after clashing with longtime friends Kyle Richards and Erika Jayne in the season 15 reunion.

Per a blind item, Kyle, 57, 54, Erika, Sutton Stracke, Bozoma Saint John and Rachel Zoe were all “locked in” for season 16, with Jennifer Tilly returning as “friend of the Housewives.” Plus, the blind item alleged that Bravo offered controversial newbie Amanda Frances a new contract and that RHOBH alum Crystal Kung Minkoff was “back in the mix.”

Alex, 45, quickly denied there was any validity to these latest rumors, dismissing them as “not true” via his Instagram Story on Friday.

Dorit, 49, is currently in the middle of a messy divorce with husband PK Kemsley, with the couple battling this month over allegations that she spent more than $1 million — calculated to be 80 percent of her available funds — on luxury items over the past year.

Dorit reacted to PK’s allegations during an Extra interview on Thursday, May 21, promising that she would “have a response to it” in court soon.

“When you’re in litigation, you have to sort of follow the legal process,” she explained. “I think there will be answers to everything. When you hear one version or one narrative, there’s always another side.”

Dorit added, “Do I love fashion? Yes. Do I spend a lot of money on clothes, expensive clothes, designer clothes? Yes. It is my choice. It is also my money. It’s my money that I earn, that I work for. Not his money. However, once PK and I can finish and have an agreement, what I choose to spend my money on and what he chooses to spend his money on, it’s our own choice.”

“I think, right now because we’re sort of intertwined, there’s a sort of feeling like you can have a say about what the other is spending,” she concluded.

Dorit’s extravagant spending was a major point of contention during RHOBH season 15, as Kyle openly questioned whether her frenemy was acting out because of her marital issues. Kyle warned at the recent reunion that it was “a lot of money [Dorit] is spending” during shopping sprees on RHOBH.

Thank You!

You have successfully subscribed.

“Being judged by you [hurts], having you go and speak to the girls about, ‘That’s a lot of money she’s spending.’ Kyle, especially from you of all people,” Dorit vented.

Kyle clapped back: “By the way, I’m not in the same financial position as you, I’m sorry.”

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills airs on Bravo and streams via Peacock.

Romantic movies get forgotten for reasons that honestly make me a little bitter. There are films like The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, etc. that almost everybody watches religiously growing up. Then there is this whole other shelf of romance, stranger, softer, funnier, bruisier, more intimate, where movies understood longing in very human ways and somehow still slipped out of the conversation. Not because they failed. Because romance is one of the first genres people condescend to when memory gets lazy.

That is a shame. But no more. I’m bringing up all the movies that mattered now. The 10 films in this list know chemistry is not enough. Timing matters. Class matters. Grief matters. Baggage matters. Shyness matters. The version of yourself you become around one person versus another person matters. All of them deserve better than being treated like secret treasures when they should just be treasures.

10

‘Only You’ (1994)

Image Via TriStar Pictures

What I love about Only You is how recklessly it believes in romantic destiny without becoming stupid about it. Faith in “the one” can get unbearable fast in movies if it is written as some smug cosmic guarantee. Here it works because Faith Corvatch (Marisa Tomei) does not come off like a manic fantasy machine. When she hears the name Damon Bradley and bolts toward Italy, the movie understands that what looks absurd from the outside can feel emotionally necessary from the inside. That is the whole charm.

And then the film gives you Peter Wright (Robert Downey Jr.) at exactly the right frequency, mischievous, improvisational, a little dangerous in that charming way people in romantic films used to be allowed to be. The Italian setting helps, obviously, but not because it is postcard-pretty. It helps because the movie knows travel can loosen a person’s grip on their old self. Only You is really about what happens when fantasy collides with a living, breathing, inconvenient person and turns out to be better because it is messier. That is real romantic intelligence. It is not mocking idealism. It is testing whether idealism can survive contact with chemistry.

9

‘Return to Me’ (2000)

Image via MGM Distribution Co.

This movie could have been unbearable. That premise, widower unknowingly falls for the woman who received his late wife’s heart, could have gone wrong in about seventeen manipulative ways. But Return to Me works because it never treats the concept like a cheap twist. It treats it like an emotional problem that human beings are trying, with great difficulty, not to mishandle. Bob Rueland (David Duchovny) is not just sad in a polished rom-com way. He is genuinely hollowed out, moving through life like the shape of routine remained after the feeling got burned away. Grace Briggs (Minnie Driver), meanwhile, has this warmth and fragility that the movie is wise enough not to oversell.

What makes the film special is its decency. Not softness. Decency. It understands that both people are carrying something sacred and awkward and potentially disastrous into the relationship, and it lets the sweetness of their connection grow before the premise’s moral complication fully crashes down on them. The supporting ensemble helps too. In a nutshell — Return to Me is romantic because it believes love can arrive through grief without disrespecting grief, and that is a very hard balance to strike.

8

‘Untamed Heart’ (1993)

Image via Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

I have a real weakness for movies like this, films that are almost too vulnerable for their own good. Untamed Heart is not sophisticated in the cool, lacquered sense. It is emotionally naked. Adam (Christian Slater) is shy, wounded, inward, the kind of romantic figure modern movies are often too embarrassed to take seriously because sincerity now gets treated like something that needs defense mechanisms around it.

Caroline (Marisa Tomei) has more noise in her life, more chaos, more visible confusion, and the movie is smart enough to understand what would make these two people pull toward each other. Not just attraction. Recognition. The feeling of meeting someone whose loneliness rhymes with yours in a different key. And yes, the movie has that famous romantic-symbolism angle that some people find too much. I do not care. It works because the film’s emotional world is already pitched toward fable. What matters is that Untamed Heart knows love sometimes enters through protectiveness, through quietness, through being looked at by somebody who does not seem to want to consume you or perform around you. Tenderness feels erotic in this film and real ones know that hits different on a low-dopamine day.

7

‘One Fine Day’ (1996)

Image via 20th Century Studios

One Fine Day is two stressed single parents having a chaotic day in New York and falling for each other, and sure, that is the skeleton. But the reason it works is that Melanie Parker (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Jack Taylor (George Clooney) understand speed. They understand how adults under pressure flirt while pretending they do not have time to flirt. The movie is built on scheduling panic, childcare panic, work panic, urban panic, and that is exactly why the romantic current feels so satisfying. It has to sneak in through irritation.

And that grown-up quality is what makes the film more than just a pleasant studio romance. These people are not drifting around waiting for a meet-cute to reorganize their souls. They are busy, frustrated, overextended, carrying the low-level fatigue of people whose lives are already spoken for. So when chemistry starts happening, it feels earned in a very adult way. It feels like relief mixed with surprise. And New York helps enormously, as a city where timing, inconvenience, and momentum constantly shove people into each other’s orbit. One Fine Day gets the texture of that kind of accidental intimacy exactly right.

6

‘Crossing Delancey’ (1988)

Image via Warner Bros.

This is one of the greatest romantic films about a woman mistaking self-image for self-knowledge. Crossing Delancey follows Isabelle Grossman (Amy Irving) who is smart, cultured, ambitious, a little vain in the totally human sense, and deeply attached to the version of herself that belongs to one social world rather than another. That is what makes the movie so good. It is not just “career woman learns to appreciate nice guys.” It is about class taste, embarrassment, intellectual vanity, Jewish family expectation, urban loneliness, and the way romance often reveals where a person’s self-myth has started working against them.

And Sam (Peter Riegert) is such a wonderful romantic hero because the movie never turns his steadiness into blandness. Riegert gives him this dry, grounded, slightly wounded presence that makes him feel like a man who has already done the work of becoming a whole person and is now standing in front of someone still trapped by performance. The pickle man setup could have gone sitcom-broad in lesser hands. Instead the film lets the social and emotional awkwardness breathe. That is why Crossing Delancey feels so rich. It is not just about choosing between two men. It is about choosing between two versions of adulthood, one curated and impressive, one more ordinary and maybe more real.

5

‘The Truth About Cats & Dogs’ (1996)

Image via 20th Century Studios

This movie is so much smarter than people give it credit for. The premise already sounds like a romantic comedy pressure cooker, a radio host with low self-esteem uses her glamorous friend as a physical stand-in for a man she connected with over the phone, but what makes it work is how cruelly and accurately it understands comparison. And instead of abstract insecurity, it’s about comparison. The constant, exhausting way people build a second self out of what they imagine others would prefer.

Abby Barnes (Janeane Garofalo) is shy, funny, intelligent, competent, and still unable to believe those things can fully compete with visible beauty inside the romantic marketplace. That is why the movie hits. It knows the central deception is not only plot. It is psychological truth externalized. Noelle Slusarsky (Uma Thurman) is perfect for this too because the film never makes her just the pretty obstacle. She has her own loneliness, her own softness, her own sense of being read superficially by the world. So the triangle never becomes morally easy. And Brian (Ben Chaplin) works because the movie lets him feel genuinely drawn to both the mind he has met and the body he thinks belongs to it. That complication is the whole movie’s pulse. The Truth About Cats & Dogs is romantic, yes, but it is also painfully alert to how desirability scrambles identity.

4

‘The Baxter’ (2005)

Image via IFC Films

I will always go to bat for The Baxter because it understands one of the saddest truths in romantic comedy history: some people are structurally written to lose the girl in other people’s movies. That is such a funny, weird, secretly heartbreaking idea, and Michael Showalter milks it beautifully. Elliot Sherman (Michael Showalter) is the safety choice male lead. The nice guy who seems right on paper. The fiancé who exists in the final act so the heroine can realize she is meant for somebody else.

Most movies do not care what that person’s interior life feels like. The Baxter cares, and that is what makes it special. It is a meta-romantic comedy, yes, but it is never only clever about genre. It is emotionally invested in what repeated almost-love does to a person’s sense of worth. Elliot is so desperate to perform stability and likability that the performance itself becomes part of his sadness. Then along comes Michelle Williams in exactly the kind of role that can make a movie feel lighter just by entering the frame, and suddenly the film becomes about whether someone like Elliot can stop auditioning to be chosen and actually become emotionally present enough to choose. That is lovely.

3

‘Truly, Madly, Deeply’ (1990)

Image via The Samuel Goldwyn Company

Truly, Madly, Deeply is one of the rare ghost romances that genuinely understands the cruelty of recovery. This is one of the most emotionally devastating romantic films ever made because it understands that grief is possessive. Nina (Juliet Stevenson) is not just mourning Jamie. She is living in the afterlife of their relationship so completely that ordinary life has started feeling like betrayal. Then he comes back, and the movie turns it into a confrontation with mourning itself. What did she lose? What did she idealize? What did she freeze in amber because the person was gone and could no longer complicate the memory? That is the genius of the film.

The ghost is there to destabilize grief’s version of love. And because Jamie (Alan Rickman) brings so much warmth and wit and quiet exasperating humanity, the movie gets even sadder. He is lovable enough to justify her attachment and ordinary enough to make that attachment impossible to sustain as pure fantasy. That is what lifts Truly, Madly, Deeply into greatness.

2

‘Love Jones’ (1997)

Image via New Line Cinema

This is one of the most alive romantic films of the 1990s and it should be spoken about with far more reverence than it usually is. Love Jones gets something right that most romances either overpolish or completely miss: attraction between two intelligent, stylish, emotionally unfinished adults can be thrilling, frustrating, seductive, immature, generous, selfish, poetic, and badly timed all at once. The film follows Darius Lovehall (Larenz Tate) and Nina Mosley (Nia Long) and they’re two very specific people who want each other and still keep getting snagged on who they are when desire is not enough to solve the rest.

And the film’s texture is such a huge part of its greatness. The nightlife, the poetry, the music, the circles of friends, the flirtation as performance and sincerity interwoven, it all gives the romance an environment rather than just a sequence of scenes. That environment matters because the movie is really about emotional rhythm, how two people can be on the same wavelength in one moment and entirely out of phase in the next. Tate and Long are incredible partly because neither of them tries to smooth that out. They let attraction stay messy. They let pride and confusion and bad timing keep interrupting what could otherwise become some polished movie-love fantasy. That mess is exactly what makes Love Jones feel so true and so sexy.

1

‘The Lunchbox’ (2013)

Image via Sony Pictures Classics

This is number one because it understands something profound and almost unbearably tender about romance: sometimes love begins not with spectacle, not with chemistry in a room, not even with faces meeting, but with attention. Real attention. A wrong lunchbox gets delivered, notes start passing between two strangers, and suddenly the movie is inside one of the most delicate emotional premises imaginable. Ila (Nimrat Kaur) and Saajan (late Irrfan Khan) are not exactly young but inside lives shaped by disappointment, routine, grief, domestic invisibility, and the quiet ways a person can stop feeling seen while still technically remaining present in every room they are expected to occupy.

That is why the movie hurts so beautifully. Every letter becomes more intimate because it is crossing into spaces where speech had already failed. Food, routine, train schedules, office fatigue, apartment loneliness, all these ordinary structures become channels for emotional revelation. Khan was extraordinary. Kaur did something just as difficult, she lets hope emerge in a person who knows enough about life to fear hope’s cost. The film never cheapens what grows between them by forcing it into easy rom-com release. It understands that longing itself can be transformative, that being known by one person, even briefly, even imperfectly, can change the emotional contour of a life. That is romance in its purest form to me. That is why it is number one.

Brad Pitt has reportedly been completely turned off from marriage and is said to have no intention to even have kids again.

Despite his current romance with jewelry designer Ines de Ramon waxing stronger, insiders claim the actor’s bitter divorce from his ex-wife, Angelina Jolie, has made him averse to the thought of getting married.

Brad Pitt is also struggling with the emotional strain of being estranged from six of his children, whom he shares with Jolie, as most of them have opted to drop his last name.

Sources who spoke with the Daily Mail revealed that the chances of Pitt ever tying the knot again are extremely low due to the emotional and financial fallout from his previous relationship with movie star Angelina Jolie.

Besides his never-ending legal drama with the actress, Pitt also has to deal with the consistently widening rift between him and his six kids, who are primarily under Jolie’s care.

The four older children, Maddox, 24, Pax, 22, Zahara, 21, and Shiloh, 19, have distanced themselves from the actor, with Shiloh in particular, legally dropping Pitt from her name.

The twins, Vivienne and Knox, 17, are also now estranged from Pitt, as previous reports confirmed that he hardly gets to see them despite having court-mandated visits.

Insiders close to Pitt seem to blame the strained relationship on their mother, with a friend telling the news outlet that “there has been a campaign of alienation [by Jolie] which has been successful.”

“The antagonism is huge,” they added. “He has been alienated from the kids completely. It is devastating to him.”

These challenges have seemingly left Pitt with a bad taste in his mouth when it comes to the idea of marrying for a third time or having more kids.

The Actor Doesn’t Have Marriage On The Cards Despite His ‘Happy’ Relationship With Ines de Ramon

Pitt and de Ramon have been dating since 2022 and have even reportedly moved in together. The couple is said to be “very happy,” with the actor enjoying the “peace” and “support” of his “easygoing” partner.

Pitt is also enjoying a career resurgence after starring in the critically acclaimed “F1,” with three more movies in the can.

However, despite the positive state of his love life and career, sources noted that when it comes to the question of a third marriage, the answer is a firm “no” for the 61-year-old actor.

Friends of Pitt noted that at this point, they can no longer see him tying the knot again or even having more children.

“He has a great partner whom he appreciates, but there is no rush in that direction,” a source said, per the Daily Mail.

Brad Pitt’s Rift With His Kids Linked To Alleged 2016 Private Jet Incident

The rift between Pitt and his kids can be traced back to an unfortunate incident that took place in September 2016 on a private jet.

It was alleged that at the time, Pitt, in a drunken moment, poured alcohol on his family, told the kids their mother was “crazy,” and got physical with one of the children after shoving Jolie.

While the actor has consistently denied being a domestic abuser, the allegations have lingered to this day and seem to be at the heart of his estrangement from his kids.

Both Maddox and Pax have since dropped Pitt’s last name, opting to use only Jolie in the credits of films they have worked on.

Zahara, like her brothers, also began using just Jolie when she began college. Fourth child, Shiloh, dropped the name legally right after turning 18, while Vivienne notably opted not to be identified with her dad’s name in the credits of a musical adaptation she worked on in 2025.

More recently, the actor was noticeably absent from Zahara’s graduation from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Sources told TMZ that Pitt did not “reach out” ahead of the graduation, adding that “nothing prevented him from showing up for her. Or ever visiting her.”

These remarks have since alarmed people in Pitt’s circle, as they accuse Jolie of being “manipulative” and “evil.”

The Actor Still Has Hope For Reconciliation With His Six Children

Regarding Pitt’s absence from Zahara’s graduation, a source told the Daily Mail that the actor was simply faced with a hard situation due to the estrangement from his children.

They noted, “You can’t have it both ways – to promote a complete estrangement and then criticize someone for not going to an event when you’ve made sure that they would not be welcome.”

“That’s not a situation which he created,” the source added.

Despite how bitter things have become, a friend said that Pitt is still hopeful for a reunion with all six of his children, citing the past feud between Alec Baldwin and his daughter, Ireland, who have now become close in recent years.

“He continues to hope that one day a reconciliation is possible,” the insider noted. “There’s a hope that in time they will all find each other.”

Brad Pitt Is ‘Happier Than Ever’ With Ines de Ramon

While marriage may not be on the cards for Pitt and de Ramon, the couple is reportedly content with how things are right now and very serious about each other.

Last October, a source told People Magazine that Pitt and de Ramon are now fully living together, noting that the actor always makes sure to include the jewelry designer in his plans as she makes him happy.

“Brad is really including Ines in all his travel plans, and when they are home, they just relax together,” the insider said. “They are really making their home into a home.”

Another source specified that Pitt, in particular, is “so happy and in love” as he and de Ramon make future plans as a couple.

While not every martial arts movie is about revenge, a good many of them are, which is okay, because revenge works as something to drive the sort of conflict you want to see play out in such an action movie. Martial arts films foreground hand-to-hand combat, be it with or without weapons used at a close range, and that’s probably why revenge works well with such films. Seeing a character get direct and physical revenge with an intimate fighting style tends to be both more intense and ultimately satisfying, both for the person seeking vengeance and the viewer.

There are some action movies that feature revenge while almost feeling like martial arts movies (see The Crow and Oldboy), but it feels like a little bit of a stretch to call them genuine martial arts films. They’re great action movies about revenge with some hand-to-hand fighting, though, and were worthy of honorable mentions here, just without appearing in the ranking below, since this ranking’s focused on genuinely great martial arts revenge movies that are sufficiently martial arts-focused.

10

‘The Avenging Eagle’ (1978)

Image via Shaw Brothers Studio

Though The Avenging Eagle doesn’t often get the appreciation it deserves, if you’re talking about all-time classic martial arts movies, it really should. There’s nothing here it really does wrong, in terms of delivering a good deal of exciting action within a no-nonsense narrative, here mostly just “complicated” by the fact that there’s one person who wants revenge against a particular clan for personal reasons, and another person who wants to fight back against that clan as a former member.

Both have been wronged by the same people, essentially, and so they form a duo to go about fighting a bunch of bad guys. The Avenging Eagle clocks in at just 90 minutes, and has a generous amount of well-choreographed fight scenes for a film of such a brief length (it also helps that there are quite a few different weapons used throughout, which keeps the action scenes sufficiently varied).

9

‘John Wick’ (2014)

Image via Summit Entertainment

While the sequels to John Wick get a bit wilder and perhaps even convoluted (not necessarily in a terrible way, since all the criminal underworld stuff proves quite entertaining), the first one is stunningly simple. The titular character is a man who’s lost pretty much everything by the time of the film’s start, except a puppy he was gifted by his wife before she passed away.

Some rather foolish criminals kill that dog and steal John’s car, so he sets off getting violent vengeance for them taking what little he had left, and since he’s got nothing left to lose, he doesn’t mind using the skills he used to have in his previous life as a hitman to get that revenge. Also, John Wick does admittedly have more by way of shootouts than all the other martial arts movies mentioned here, yet many of the fights here are kind of “gun fu,” combining some aspects of hand-to-hand combat with firearms, and that approach is one of the things that helps much of the action stand out.

8

‘Vengeance!’ (1970)

Image via Shaw Brothers

The exclamation mark in the title Vengeance! is well-earned, since this whole movie goes pretty big, loud, broad, and bloody. And not just bloody by the standards of the early 1970s, since this one still feels visceral today. It would’ve probably been a shock to the system back in 1970, though, doing for martial arts movies what The Wild Bunch kind of did for Westerns (and yes, that’s an entirely different movie, but it came to mind just now because that one was also graphic for its time, and still holds up as pretty darn violent to this day).

As for the plot of Vengeance!… well, it’s all in the title. There is a young man who’s murdered, and then his brother sets out to kill the people who killed him. And he goes very far in achieving such a goal, to the point where he begins to feel less and less heroic, more or less going from sympathetic, to an anti-hero, and then to someone similarly vicious as the violent people who got the whole blood-drenched mess started in the first place.

7

‘Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance’ (1972)

Image via Toho

There’s a distinction between martial arts cinema and kung fu movies, because kung fu movies are a sub-genre of the martial arts genre (or a sub-sub genre to a sub-genre, if you want to count martial arts movies as an action sub-genre). So, there will be samurai movies worth mentioning here, even if they’ve obviously got a focus on combat with swords over literal hand-to-hand stuff, with the first of note, for present purposes, being Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance.

You’ve got “Sword” in the title, obviously, and it’s also near the word “Vengeance,” so go figure. This is the first of the Lone Wolf and Cub movies, which are, broadly, all about an ex-executioner being betrayed by the clan he once worked for, and seeking revenge against anyone who still belongs to said clan. He and his son get up to some other things throughout the series, and the six main films are all pretty great, but the first one’s being singled out here just because that sets up why the central character wants to become the vengeful one-man army he is for the rest of the series.

6

‘The 36th Chamber of Shaolin’ (1978)

Image via Shaw Brothers Studio

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is wonderfully straightforward, even by the standards of martial arts movies that involve revenge. Evaluated cynically, you could call it the most basic and no-nonsense of perhaps the quintessential martial arts movie premise (in that there’s a person who’s wronged, then that person trains, then finally, that person gets revenge), but less cynically, you could also say it’s the movie that does that straightforward premise the most seamlessly.

There’s catharsis here, and maybe that’s the main thing. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin spends what feels like the bulk of its runtime on the training, and that extended process proves surprisingly compelling to watch, as there are so many challenges – both physical and mental – for the protagonist to overcome. So, once he does master everything, he blasts through those who wronged him… and all that’s quite entertaining to watch, too.

5

‘Lady Snowblood’ (1973)

Image via Toho

Another samurai movie, and one of the all-time great ones, Lady Snowblood is about a young woman who, from a young age, was basically brought up just to get revenge. It’s almost all she knows, given her mother lost almost everything, and then wished for her to be brought up as someone who could avenge all the deaths in the family that occurred before her birth.

In that sense, it’s quite a desolate and despairing movie, because the core story here is incredibly sad, even if there’s also some level of spectacle here (owing to the visuals), not to mention a good bit of excitement when there’s action (the fights here are rather bloody). Lady Snowblood does have a sequel, but it’s not the kind of thing where you really need to see that movie… not the case for a two-part film that Lady Snowblood famously inspired, but more on that duology in a bit.

4

‘The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter’ (1984)

Image via Shaw Brothers Studio

Since both The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter starred Gordon Liu, were directed by Lau Kar-Leung, and produced by Shaw Brothers Studio, they’d make for a pretty solid double feature. Also, they kind of have the same premise, but The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter ends up being a little more about the struggle to get revenge, as it sees its protagonist failing quite a bit more during his training.

The focus, as such, is a little shifted, and it also leads to the action in the final act being messier and arguably more thrilling. It’s an approach to that previously mentioned well-worn formula that ends up working quite well, and even if it’s a bit more chaotic overall (things had to be altered when one of the film’s stars, Alexander Fu, died suddenly during production), it’s still ultimately a great martial arts movie that’s (largely) about revenge.

3

‘Harakiri’ (1962)

Image via Shochiku

Again, it’s a samurai movie, and one that doesn’t really emphasize action, for the most part, but Harakiri still feels very much worth mentioning because it’s eventually a pretty impactful revenge movie. Elaborating on the details or even mentioning revenge is a part of it could be ruining things, yet there’s also something to be said about the execution here, and that’s something you can only fully appreciate from watching the film.

Harakiri is largely a drama, and centers on a man who tells a samurai clan why he feels compelled to end his life via the titular ritual (sometimes called seppuku). The reason the movie’s light on action is that Harakiri wants to build tension and focus on a heavy-going narrative before, all so that you do feel the intensity of the fighting far stronger when it does eventually begin. The approach ends up working remarkably well, to say the least.

2

‘Kill Bill: Vol. 1’ (2003)

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 has more action than the second volume, yet that one’s heavily indebted to the martial arts genre in slightly different ways, even if it’s narratively a direct continuation. So, the first movie is getting mentioned first, and gets to take its own place here. It’s largely a homage to martial arts movies, with a particular focus on swordplay, and you get a ton of action in the final act.

This first volume of an overall epic moves at a wildly fast pace throughout, as in, if it were any faster, you’d probably feel overwhelmed and might struggle to keep up. The motivation of the main character, The Bride, is incredibly straightforward at this point in the story, and Kill Bill: Vol. 1, overall, is like, “Yeah, the nuance can wait; it comes later.” This one’s mostly about action, and the action is undeniably exciting.

1

‘Kill Bill: Vol. 2’ (2004)

Image via Miramax Films

Advertisement

So, if Vol. 1 has all the action, and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 is a technically talkier affair, why does it take the #1 spot over the first half of the story? It’s a fair question, and it’s first worth mentioning that there is still some action in Vol. 2, and what you do get is largely satisfying and well-choreographed. But there are more interesting places it goes as an exploration of revenge, and the dramatic highs and lows that come with actually getting vengeance.

Also, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 has a great training sequence that plays out as a flashback in Vol. 2, with the flashbacks also making The Bride (who’s even given a name in this half of the story) a more fleshed-out and compelling character. Bill’s also a proper character in this one, as opposed to the almost voice-only appearance he has in the first, and that helps, because he’s also a great character. Vol. 1 pays homage to martial arts action, while Vol. 2 pays homage to the comparatively “slower” scenes you get in most classic martial arts movies, and somehow, it all works, and adds up to an immensely satisfying whole.

The White House shooting suspect allegedly claimed he was Jesus Christ in a police run-in months before he was killed in a skirmish with the Secret Service.

CNN identified the suspected shooter as 21-year-old Nasire Best, reporting that he had a series of documented mental health issues. Best was allegedly once arrested while claiming “he was Jesus Christ” and was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital on another occasion for obstructing a vehicle entry near the White House in July 2025.

“I’m actually the son of God,” he allegedly wrote in one social media post.

The outlet reported that Best previously threatened the life of President Donald Trump and allegedly had multiple encounters with police near the White House in the past.

Related: New WHCD Shooting Video Shows Moment Shots Were Fired With Trump Nearby

Shocking new video footage shows the moment shots rang out at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last weekend. Jeanine Pirro, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, posted what appears to be security camera footage of the shooting incident via X on Thursday, April 30. Shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen can allegedly be […]

An affidavit from 2025 indicated that Best was “known to the Secret Service” for “walking around the White House complex inquiring how to gain access at various entry points,” per CNN.

Us Weekly reached out to the Secret Service for comment.

Gunfire erupted near a Secret Service checkpoint outside the White House at around 6 p.m. ET on Saturday, with a bystander being struck in the crossfire and hospitalized in critical condition. No Secret Service agents were injured in the crossfire.

“Shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday, an individual in the area of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue pulled a weapon from his bag and began firing,” Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi told Us on Saturday. “Secret Service Police returned fire, striking the suspect who was transported to an area hospital where he was pronounced deceased. During the shooting, one bystander was also struck by gunfire.”

His statement went on, “No injuries were sustained by officers. The President was in the White House during the incident, however no protectees or operations were impacted. The incident remains under investigation and additional information will be released as it becomes available.”

Several reporters were on the premises of the White House when shots broke out. They were rushed from the Pebble Beach media location into the White House briefing room and instructed to shelter in place for around 40 minutes.

Thank You!

You have successfully subscribed.

“I was in the middle of taping on my iPhone for a social video from the White House North Lawn when we heard the shots,” ABC News White House correspondent Selina Wang tweeted at the time. “It sounded like dozens of gunshots. We were told to sprint to the press briefing room where we are holding now.”

Advertisement

Related: Oz Pearlman Details Moment He Locked Eyes With POTUS During WHCD Shooting

Mentalist Oz Pearlman was performing for President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and press secretary Karoline Leavitt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday, April 24, when he realized something was very wrong. “I was performing right then for the president, the press secretary and the first lady,” the magician said during a […]

This latest Washington D.C. shooting incident occurred less than one month after gunshots rang out in the lobby of the Washington Hilton at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, as President Trump, first lady Melania Trump and Vice President JD Vance were in attendance. The Trumps and other officials were evacuated from the Hilton as the violence unfolded.

A Secret Service agent was struck in his protective vest and hospitalized. Shooting suspect Cole Tomas Allen was arrested and later charged with attempting to assassinate the president, interstate transportation of weapons and discharge of a firearm during a violent crime, to which he pleaded not guilty earlier this month.