Life as a young pop star looked glamorous from the outside, but Jessica Simpson says the reality was far more complicated.

During a recent concert appearance, the singer reflected on the expectations placed on her as a teenager entering the music industry.

Decades later, she is opening up about the pressure to fit a specific image, the self-doubt that followed, and how she eventually found her own voice.

While performing in Pennsylvania, Jessica Simpson shared memories from the beginning of her music career and the expectations she faced after signing with Columbia Records.

The singer explained that record executives saw her as the next big pop star and expected her to follow a path already established by two of the biggest names in music.

“When I first started singing, I was, to everyone at the record label, supposed to be this pop star. There was Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera… and I had to follow in their footsteps,” Simpson told the audience per Us Weekly.

What began as excitement about a recording contract soon came with demands that had little to do with her voice.

“I really thought I was signed just because of my voice, then it was like, ‘OK, you need to lose 15 lbs,’” she recalled.

Simpson was only 17 years old at the time and said she weighed 115 pounds when she received that instruction.

The Pressure To Become Someone Else

Looking back, Jessica Simpson described how the expectations continued to grow as her career developed.

“The second record, I [was told I] needed to have a six-pack, which was definitely not going to happen. I’m just not built that way, you know?” she said.

The constant pressure to meet an image created by others left a lasting impact on her confidence.

“There were just all these things that I had to be to be ‘Jessica Simpson,’ or the version of ‘Jessica Simpson’ they believed I should be to be successful. I always felt like a failure, like, I was never good enough.”

Her comments offered a glimpse into the challenges many young artists faced during the height of the late-1990s and early-2000s pop boom, when appearance often became just as important as talent.

For Simpson, those years were marked by a struggle to balance her own identity with the version of herself others wanted to sell.

Jessica Simpson Reflects On Competing With Pop Giants

The singer has spoken about these challenges before. In a March 2025 interview with Rolling Stone, she revisited the difficult reality of trying to break through while Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera dominated the charts.

“I was never gonna win because I had someone like Britney [Spears] and Christina [Aguilera] ahead of me, who were selling so many more records,” she admitted.

Simpson also revealed that many aspects of the traditional pop-star image never felt natural to her.

She confessed, “I didn’t want to dance, I didn’t want to wear a head mic.”

Despite her reservations, she felt obligated to meet the expectations of the people backing her career.

“But I agreed to do it, because I worked for Sony, and I didn’t want to let them down, and I felt like I was constantly letting people down. Even myself probably, because I wasn’t singing words I wrote.”

Those feelings eventually pushed her toward creating music that reflected her own experiences rather than trying to fit into an existing formula.

Finding Success On Her Own Terms

A major turning point came when Jessica Simpson began taking greater control of her music.

Instead of chasing trends or attempting to mirror other performers, she focused on material that felt more personal. That shift helped lead to one of the biggest moments of her recording career.

Her 2004 hit “With You” became her first chart-topping single and remains one of the songs most closely associated with her career.

The success reinforced something Simpson had been searching for since her teenage years: proof that she could succeed while staying true to herself.

Today, she continues to perform and release music while embracing a more authentic approach to her artistry.

Jessica Simpson Embraces A New Chapter

The singer also used her recent concert to celebrate where she is now in life.

She shared, “It feels good to be back on stage in my 40s. I missed all of my 30s, so this really to me, feels like I’m me again. I feel like walking on stage is almost more comfortable than my living room at home, and it’s such a beautiful feeling.”

Her latest music has been shaped by major personal changes, including her split from former NFL player Eric Johnson.

The pair share three children: Maxwell, Birdie, and Ace. Simpson announced their separation in January 2025 after months of speculation.

At the time, she said, “Eric and I have been living separately, navigating a painful situation in our marriage.”

Before confirming the breakup, she had already hinted at a new phase in her life through social media posts promoting fresh music.

She said at the time, “Interviews in my Nashville music room where I unearthed my singular magic.”

She later added, “This comeback is personal. It’s an apology to myself for putting up with everything I did not deserve.”

For Simpson, the journey from insecure teenager to confident performer has not been easy. But years after being told who she should be, she appears more comfortable than ever embracing exactly who she is.

By Jennifer Asencio
| Updated 35 seconds ago

Actor and debatable comedian Seth Rogen recently reaffirmed his lifestyle, which he describes as “child-free.” A 2023 interview with Kelly Clarkson has resurfaced in which the actor talked about how happy he and his wife, Lauren Miller, are without having had children.

It’s not that Rogen is unfamiliar with the challenges of raising children. At 40 when he gave the interview, he pointed out that most of his peers are parents, so he’s had a lot of exposure to the idea. But he and Miller find that they can develop their careers and themselves in ways that having children does not facilitate for them. The couple has opted to remain childless by choice.

DINK, Defined

Rogen is an infamous goofball, and it’s probably a good idea that he not procreate, especially after Animal Farm. He makes some good points about what being childless can do for an adult, including hinting at the idea that some people should not be parents. He made it very clear that he’d rather work on himself than on raising a child, and, although the two ideas are not mutually exclusive (many of us who are parents have grown because we had children), someone whose focus is more on themselves than their progeny shouldn’t be raising children anyway. At least he accepts that.

However, he makes being childless sound like paradise when he claims that having kids seems like it wouldn’t be fun or that he and Miller are doing things with their lives that they wouldn’t be able to do with children. These days, it is perfectly acceptable not to want children; there is no imperative to keep the species alive or even to maintain the family line. Glorifying childlessness goes too far, though.

Rogen is hardly unique. There is an entire online community of so-called “DINKs,” which stands for “dual income, no kids.” These are adults who have chosen not to have children so they can enjoy expensive vacations and lifestyles without the responsibility or commitment of raising children. Many of these couples are driven by women who are more interested in careers than family, as well as the recent movement that has made terminating one’s pregnancy into a political statement about bodily autonomy.

Conflating Two Different Mindsets

In some ways, Rogen and other DINKs have a point: dragging kids around on vacations or managing them alongside a career is very, very difficult. These days, a dual income is almost a requirement, even for childless couples, to ensure the bills get paid, which emphasizes this juggling act even more. Kids require sick days, have temper tantrums, and might keep you up all night before a big meeting because the Boogeyman is hiding under their bed. They are dirty, messy, and unregulated. It’s okay not to want children. It’s even okay to admit that the reason you don’t want children is that you’d rather keep your time and assets for yourself.

What’s not okay is judging other people when they do have kids. Rogen objects to people expecting him to have children, which is a fair point. Often, we socially do expect couples to reproduce as if that’s the only point of being a couple (and forget about you if you can’t have kids at all!). Many people are perplexed by couples who choose not to have children and continue their family line, and the pressure on couples to have children is immense and personal, coming from family and friends.

But Rogen’s observation that “it doesn’t seem that fun…” and his statement that “People describe having kids as brief glimmering moments of beauty amongst a sea of pain. Whereas not having kids, it’s just lovely all the time,” are both statements made by someone who obviously has no idea what raising children is like. I don’t know who describes having children the way Rogen claims, but raising kids is a timeline of novelties and pleasures that last a lifetime. Playing with one’s kids is not only fun but also gives parents a chance to pass down hobbies and share pastimes (my son and I play Dungeons & Dragons together, and I learned how to play from my mother).

Getting to know one’s children is also a remarkable experience that cannot be matched or understood by DINKs and shouldn’t be written off as a hardship. On some occasions, personalities may clash, but for the most part, one’s children are as much their friends as they are their charges, and doing things with friends is also fun.

Thinking In Terms Of Transaction

Rogen was also dismissive of the idea that children will eventually “take care” of their parents, claiming that it was selfish to expect that. These days, many elderly people are choosing to age in place, in their own homes rather than those of their children. Many elderly are living active lives that separate them from their children socially. Being taken care of as an elderly parent doesn’t always mean living with a free caregiver who is working off a DNA debt. Just hanging out with one’s adult children is rewarding and fulfilling when one has a relationship with them. The affection that is built between parent and child also moves many children to participate in their parents’ care organically, without being forced by expectations.

Rogen really summed up his lack of parental fitness in an exchange with Clarkson in which she said, “People with kids, that’s what we call ‘me time.’ You have to carve it out.” Rogen replied, “All the time is me. Why wouldn’t it be me time?!” While he considers the idea of having kids to “take care of you when you’re old” selfish, he admitted openly that he does not feel capable of putting time into anyone other than himself and his own pursuits of both business and pleasure.

There are a lot of good reasons to have children, and a lot of good reasons not to. Some people just shouldn’t have children because they themselves are ill-equipped to be parents, like Rogen is. These are personal choices between the couples involved. But Rogen’s derision of parents is an example of the very judgment he complains about facing as a childless couple with Miller, even as an equal and opposite response, and especially because it comes from a place of ignorance that he frames as popular opinion.

Unfortunately, people will listen to Rogen, as social media is filled with people applauding his choice and justifying their own decisions not to have children or disillusionment with becoming parents. This is yet another example of celebrities needing to stick to entertaining us rather than sharing their opinions.

Below Deck Mediterranean captured the heartbreaking moment when Joe Bradley found out that his mother was diagnosed with cancer.

During the Monday, June 15, episode of the Bravo show, Joe got a voice message from his mother that doctors had discovered she had tumors. He ran off the boat to call his sister and mother before breaking down into tears on screen.

Captain Sandy Yawn and Nathan Gallagher consoled Joe after the deckhand previously spoke to Us Weekly about his mother’s health scare.

“My mom got diagnosed and I went to look after [her], so I didn’t go back into work after season 10. She’s OK now. She had four tumors and it has been a battle,” he said earlier this month.

Related: Former ‘Below Deck Mediterranean‘ Stars: Where Are They Now?

Over the years, Bravo viewers have seen Below Deck Mediterranean cast members come and go — but not before they brought the drama to the small screen. The spinoff series, which premiered in 2016, seemingly found a permanent crew member in chief stew Hannah Ferrier. The Australia native appeared in five seasons of the hit […]

Joe expressed gratitude for the way his job helped him support his mom.

“But the beauty of this life is that this is my only financial income,” he added. “The yachting industry has not only saved my life, but it’s quite literally [saved] my mom’s life financially. It’s a blessing.”

The deckhand used that positive perspective when choosing to return to Below Deck Med — despite the possible backlash from viewers.

“You will see a level of growth [this season] because I felt it. You will see that I’m comfortable in my own skin on board. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a bit boisterous at times,” he continued. “That’s where Nathan [and I differ]. I can actually be social, but I have a good time as well and do my job well. You will see growth and you will see a level of change because I’m fed up with all these [love] triangles now.”

Related: Biggest ‘Below Deck‘ Feuds — and Where the Relationships Stand Today

Advertisement

Viewers have had a front row seat to some of the biggest reality TV feuds since the Below Deck franchise debuted. The show’s spinoff series Below Deck Mediterranean shocked viewers when Hannah Ferrier and Captain Sandy Yawn‘s inability to see eye to eye turned into the most memorable firing to date. Since the captain joined […]

Elsewhere in Monday’s episode, Nathan and Joe got into an argument after their falling out. Joe told Us that his friendship with Nathan never fully recovered.

Thank You!

You have successfully subscribed.

Advertisement

“I’m in this industry to win. I know what I’m capable of in terms of professional capabilities. At this point, I’m absolutely thriving,” he said. “Captain Sandy gave me the call — and regardless of who the bosun was going to be — I didn’t mind.”

Joe’s main focus was making Captain Sandy proud. “I can take it on the chin,” he continued. “I need to do a job at the end of the day — and I know I do it well. So I wasn’t scared. I was ready with everything. Every inch of effort and motivation, I was ready to join that boat.”

Below Deck Med airs on Bravo Mondays at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.

Most thrillers depict stressful and tense situations, but psychological thrillers arguably go a step further by getting you well and truly into the head of someone placed in a thriller-like story. A psychological thriller will often lean more toward horror, or at least have you feeling the sorts of things you might feel when watching a horror movie (be it psychological horror or something else).

That’s to say that there is some crossover, when you’re talking about particularly despair-filled psychological thriller movies, with some of the ones below also fitting into the horror genre. As long as they can be called psychological thrillers, they qualify. And these ones really are bleak, and often very engaging at the same time, all being among the heaviest psychological thriller movies of all time.

10

‘Blow Out’ (1981)

Image via Filmways Pictures

John Travolta has been in some kind of campy movies, and maybe even gave a campy performance in Carrie, which was directed by Brian De Palma and also not inherently campy overall. Travolta was also directed by De Palma in Blow Out, and this is an even grimmer film than Carrie, as it’s about a man capturing the audio of an assassination, and then this leads him into dangerous territory when he gets involved with a young woman who was also at the scene of the crime.

It’s definitely a neo-noir film, being the kind of thing that would’ve been a bit too gritty and violent for the genre back in the 1940s and ‘50s. Blow Out really does update various noir conventions and tropes exceedingly well, and sure, De Palma is doing a more than slight Alfred Hitchcock homage throughout so much of the film, but he’s one of the best Hitchcock fanatics to himself get behind a camera, so it’s arguably more of a feature than a bug.

9

‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’ (2017)

Image via A24

Yorgos Lanthimos movies have to be entered into with some degree of caution, since with him, Poor Things is probably as approachable and crowd-pleasing as you get, and that’s by no means a movie for everyone. So, it’s not surprising that The Killing of a Sacred Deer is more than a little messed up, though there’s some very dark comedy here, with its story about a family that gets changed forever when a teenage boy comes into their lives.

He’s played by Barry Keoghan, who went on to play a similar role in the almost comparable Saltburn. Saltburn wasn’t as feel-bad as The Killing of a Sacred Deer, though, and probably had a little more by way of outward comedy. This 2017 movie, instead, is pretty firmly in psychological thriller territory, with a little horror and (again, occasional) humor to keep things a bit interesting, not to mention overall less predictable.

8

‘Europa’ (1991)

Image via Nordisk Film

Heaviness is what you get when you watch a Lars von Trier movie, honestly quite reliably… to an even greater extent than you’ll find general weirdness and discomfort in a Yorgos Lanthimos film. Dancer in the Dark is one of the bleakest musicals of all time, while The House That Jack Built is up there among the heaviest horror films ever made, just for starters.

And then there’s the somewhat more obscure Europa, which really shouldn’t be so overlooked and obscure, as it’s easily one of Lars von Trier’s very best films. It’s kind of a war thriller (technically set just after World War II) and a psychological drama all at once, being about a young man who finds himself a pawn who keeps getting used by different people for different reasons in post-WWII Germany. It’s not directly an adaptation of any Franz Kafka story, but it feels incredibly Kafkaesque, being one of the more underappreciated arthouse films of its era, too.

7

‘Obsession’ (2025)

Easily the most recent film here, having blown up when it got a wide release in 2026 (though it first screened in 2025, at the Toronto International Film Festival), Obsession does nonetheless feel like a pretty big deal. “Blown up” is an understatement, especially by the standards of movies that cost under $1 million to make, with Obsession potentially doing for Gen Z what The Blair Witch Project did for Gen X (and maybe some older millennials, too).

It’s devastating, as a psychological thriller/horror movie, really making you sit with some uncomfortable things, and flipping between anxious humor and outright horror without any notice, so many times, all throughout one relentless film. There’s a poor choice made early on, and then a sense of the main character just continuing to dig himself – and those around him – into a progressively deeper hole. It’s hard to watch and also hard to look away from, somehow at the same time.

6

‘Black Swan’ (2010)

Image via Searchlight Pictures

Advertisement

Black Swan is probably the scariest movie about ballet ever made. Failing that, it’s probably the most iconic horror/thriller movie that concerns ballet in one way or another, though the pursuit of perfection is the important and unsettling part of the movie, truth be told. It just so happens to be a ballerina who is driven to madness because she wants nothing more than to get a certain part in a production, and feels similarly driven to play that part perfectly.

It’s hard to describe what makes Black Swan such a nightmare beyond just saying what it’s about, and mentioning how well-crafted and acted it all is (Natalie Portman’s Oscar win for the film was more than well-deserved). The entire film is compelling and nauseating in equal measure, and it does a great job at balancing psychological drama, body horror, suspense, and plenty of other things you might expect to see in a horror/thriller film. They’re all just here in full force, with the movie going above and beyond in being efficiently traumatic.

5

‘Vertigo’ (1958)

Image via Paramount Pictures

Advertisement

Owing to its age, Vertigo isn’t quite as confronting on a visual or visceral level as many of the other movies here, with it being perhaps a little more subtle. It’s still mortifying in its own way, eventually, but definitely a slow-burn that really isn’t afraid of being slow. A man is asked by a friend of his to basically look into some unusual things his wife has been purportedly doing, with the man then starting to fall for said wife.

He gets obsessed, at a point, and then some other things happen in Vertigo, with it not so much taking a dark turn, but taking several dark turns that all add up and prove, at a point, surprisingly bleak for a movie from the 1950s. Vertigo is understandably considered ahead of its time, and one of those classics that people had to get used to first, before it could start to be seen as a classic in the eyes of all.

4

‘I Saw the Devil’ (2010)

Image via Magnet Releasing

There are plenty of great South Korean thrillers that stand out for being particularly intense and heavy-going, with I Saw the Devil being perhaps the most full-on in this regard. It’s about a serial killer at large who’s done some heinous things (to put it mildly), and then there’s also an agent in South Korea’s National Intelligence Service who has personal reasons to try and hunt down this killer.

He goes to some extreme lengths to get revenge on his target, and so the line is blurred between two people who are technically on opposite sides of the law. Basically, I Saw the Devil asks some interesting morality-related questions while also being one of the most visceral movies made in the past couple of decades. There’s some action here, but it’s mostly a heavy psychological thriller on top of also being a crime movie, and then you get a little horror thrown in, too. It stays coherent and purposeful throughout a lengthy runtime of almost 2.5 hours, and so long as you’ve got a strong stomach, it’s a must-watch.

3

‘Nocturnal Animals’ (2016)

Image via Focus Features

Nocturnal Animals is a tricky movie to talk about, and also a difficult one to watch, in many ways. There’s a story within a story here, because Nocturnal Animals is kind of about a woman reading a novel that one of her exes wrote, and then she feels continually troubled by the events of that novel, believing them to mirror the life she shared with that author in some upsetting ways.

That’s scratching the surface, since it’s hard to go into more detail, and even if one is able to, it’s also not really fair to ruin everything the movie has to offer. There is indeed a lot to Nocturnal Animals, and a reason why it’s not exactly a popular film, but is the kind of thing where just about everyone who has seen it will be able to confirm that it shook them up pretty badly. That is the intent; what it’s going for, and all, yet still, there is something almost a little too raw and real about parts of this nightmarish film.

2

‘The Vanishing’ (1988)

Image via Argos Films

The Vanishing is high on suspense throughout, and a film that does a lot with what’s ultimately a fairly straightforward premise. It centers on a young couple who are vacationing in France, and then, without warning, the woman disappears, and the man is sent into a panic. He tries in increasingly desperate ways to find out why she vanished, or where she might’ve vanished to, and then things get a bit bleaker still, from there.

A man claiming to have abducted her begins sending letters to the distraught boyfriend, more or less toying with him, and that adds a whole other angle of psychological horror to the whole thing. The Vanishing succeeds in getting you into the mind of someone going through a hellish situation, making it compelling as a drama/thriller film, sure, but also a pretty challenging watch at times. You’re almost guaranteed to feel stress here, at least at several key points, and possibly even throughout the entire distressing thing.

1

‘Lake Mungo’ (2008)

Image via Arclight Films

While it’s usually described as a horror movie, Lake Mungo also works as a psychological thriller/drama at the same time, being equal parts scary and deeply upsetting on an emotional level. Most of its narrative is concerned with a family trying to unpack the truth behind a death in the family, grieving that death and then trying to endure while certain uncomfortable truths – and potential supernatural occurrences – make all that even harder than it would usually be.

Also, Lake Mungo is done in a shockingly effective mockumentary style, feeling grounded enough that it can almost be easy to forget you’re watching something fictional, at least during the film’s eeriest and most harrowing moments. Owing to how it lingers, and somehow proves so much more unsettling and devastating once it’s over (compared to how it feels while it’s going on… and it is still heavy-going in the moment, too), it feels fair to suggest Lake Mungo might well be the most depressing psychological thriller/horror movie ever made.

Advertisement

Lake Mungo

Release Date

January 29, 2010

Advertisement

Director

Joel Anderson

Writers

Advertisement

Joel Anderson

Advertisement

• 
• 

Advertisement

Advertisement

By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated 29 seconds ago

Most of the details of the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday have been kept a closely-guarded secret. However, we already know what is arguably the most exciting part of this film: the fact that it will involve characters from the original 20th Century Fox X-Men movies. One exciting trailer featured Cyclops unleashing his full power; in another scene, there’s a tender reunion between Patrick Stewart’s Professor Xavier and Ian McKellen’s Magneto. The two were bitter foes in the original films, and there’s something genuinely moving about seeing them playing a friendly game of chess. The scene was presumably easy to film because Stewart and McKellen are such great friends in real life.

While McKellen may be chummy with one-time rival on and off the screen, he has found a very different foe for his real-world anger. Recently, the actor attended a film festival in Rome and discussed details about Avengers: Doomsday. This included a note from the Russo Brothers directing the film: namely, that he should look as if he really hates what his character is destroying. With that in mind, McKellen shouted “Mar-a-Lago,” indicating his desire for Magneto to annihilate the Florida home of President Donald Trump.

Magneto Declares War On Donald Trump

During his discussion at the Cinema in Piazza film festival, Ian McKellen mentioned a juicy detail about Avengers: Doomsday. “They got me at one point to destroy New Jersey.” This could indicate that Magneto goes back to his villainous ways and starts engaging in the kinds of mass destruction we haven’t seen from the character since X-Men: Apocalypse. However, this horrific act may actually be heroic: the recent synopsis for Doomsday lends credence to the theory that parallel realities will start crashing into each other. In the comics, the only way to keep both Earths from being destroyed is for one to take the other out, so Magneto could be fighting to save billions of lives.

At any rate, the Russo Brothers didn’t like McKellen’s initial portrayal of his character’s destructive rampage. They gave him a fairly simple directorial note: according to the actor, they “told me to look more furious: make it look as if you hate what you’re destroying.” To do this, McKellen seemingly decided to envision something that he’d like to see Magneto destroy in real life. To the delight of many in the crowd, McKellen relayed his simple response to the directors. “So I stood there, and I shouted: ‘Mar-a-Lago!’”

There And Back Again: A Mutant’s Tale

For some, McKellen’s film festival tale raised more than a few eyebrows for multiple reasons. First, it was surprising to hear him get so political at a film festival otherwise dedicated to movies. Second, while he only named a place and not a person, some saw this as a kind of implied threat against Donald Trump; the equivalent of telling the president that, if McKellen actually had Magneto’s powers, he’d come gunning for a politician he hates. Now, is that something the Magneto of the comics and films has done on multiple occasions? Absolutely. But hearing a fictional, supervillain-style threat come out of a beloved actor’s mouth was a bit much for some fans. 

At any rate, this ended up being a relatively small blip during the film festival. McKellen didn’t go on an anti-Trump rant or anything; after sharing the weird Doomsday anecdote, he focused on other news, including the fact that he’d soon be traveling to New Zealand to reprise his role as Gandalf for the Andy Serkis film The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum. Will the famous wizard be asked to destroy any in-universe structures, like Barad-Dur? Good news, then: McKellen knows exactly which real-world location he’ll fantasize about blowing up while unleashing his magical wrath! 

By Robert Scucci
| Published 22 seconds ago

I’m going to tell you something that every single parent will tell you with varying degrees of seriousness: kids are evil. They just are, and most of the time, it’s not even their fault.

Do you know why kids are sometimes evil? It’s because they’re still figuring stuff out. In most cases, your kid engages in behavior that’s universally considered “bad,” and it’s up to you to help them develop their conscience because they don’t know what they don’t know. They’re learning the hard way on the schoolyard when they say something out of pocket and get in trouble, or get into a physical scuffle because they don’t yet know how to regulate their emotions.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, this is normal behavior. Most kids learn the difference between right and wrong, and they become conscientious, thoughtful little human beings with minds of their own that you can actually trust. This is not the case in 1993’s The Good Son, where Macaulay Culkin is a straight-up psychopath of a 10-year-old, and there’s no conventional way to reach him before he does something unforgivable.

The most apt modern comparison to The Good Son is 2011’s We Need to Talk About Kevin. In that film, a mother is certain that her child is a danger to himself and those around him, but nobody believes her until it’s far too late. The Good Son is equally unnerving because its protagonist is just a child himself, living with his extended family during winter break, realizing that his cousin is a serial killer waiting for his awakening, and having nobody to confide in about it.

It’s like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” but there was a wolf all along, and nobody in the family of sheep sees the threat for what it truly is.

Insane Chemistry From Our Young Leads

These days, Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood can do literally whatever they want, and I’ll put Daniel Radcliffe into this conversation too while I’m at it. They paid their dues when they were just children, and now they’re free to star in whatever gonzo, low-budget projects they feel like attaching their names to. If there’s any doubt in your mind that Culkin and Wood aren’t high-caliber actors because you’re not a fan of the Home Alone or Lord of the Rings films, The Good Son is all the proof you’ll ever need. Not only are they individually excellent, but their chemistry as young collaborators carries a project that is very much not kid-friendly.

The Good Son centers on 10-year-old Mark Evans (Elijah Wood), who’s sent by his widowed father, Jack (David Morse), to live with his extended family during winter break while he’s away on the final business trip that will provide enough financial stability to step up and be a proper father figure during his son’s time of need.

Things are pretty normal at first. Mark is naturally broken up by his mother’s death, but he finds a fast friend in Henry (Macaulay Culkin), his same-age cousin who loves doing what most boys love to do when unsupervised: playing in his tree house, throwing rocks through abandoned warehouse windows, and shooting neighborhood dogs dead with a custom-made bolt-shooting device …

Early on, there’s some plausible deniability to consider. Maybe Henry was trying to scare the dog and accidentally shot it. Maybe it was his intention all along. What happens immediately afterward, if you didn’t think this was a red flag already, should be the smoking gun that lets you know the boy should get locked up for life.

Mark, clearly disturbed by the fact that Henry just murdered a dog, is made even more uncomfortable by how nonchalant and remorseless his cousin is. The boy just goes about his day as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Escalations Only Mark Can See

While most young-adult-themed thrillers rely on incompetent adults, The Good Son does a great job toeing the line. Henry is a little spawn of Satan, yes, but he’s also wise beyond his years when it comes to manipulating his family. They only see him as somebody who’s helping break Mark out of his shell and grieve the loss of his mother.

The second there are no adults present, he shifts from caring to cruel, often making horrible jokes about Mark’s mother while alluding to the fact that he may have been responsible for the death of his youngest brother, Richard, who drowned in the bathtub under suspicious circumstances the previous year.

Henry’s mother and father, Susan (Wendy Crewson) and Wallace (Daniel Hugh Kelly), are present enough that you never really question their parenting. By all measures, they’re wonderful people, making sure that Henry and Mark are taken care of, along with their daughter, Connie (Quinn Culkin). They’re simply no match for Henry, who causes multiple car pileups with his “pranks” and suggests that he’s willing to kill again if Mark gets in the way of his perfect relationships with his family members.

While young Elijah Wood’s horrified facial expressions are enough to steal the show, they thrive in this capacity because of Macaulay Culkin’s menacing performance as one of the most unhinged child psychopaths ever given a wide release. His self-assured smirks after committing multiple crimes against humanity are enough to make your skin crawl.

What’s most perplexing to me is how poorly this film performed with critics, as it currently sits at an abysmal 26 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Most of the criticism stems from Culkin being cast against type at the height of his movie-star career, but he’s beyond solid here, even if we were only used to seeing him in family comedies up to this point. I’d even say his performance gives Ezra Miller’s turn in We Need to Talk About Kevin a run for its money. It’s genuinely unpleasant, and it doesn’t feel phoned in. It feels like it’s coming from a dark place, especially considering the actor was only 13 when the film was released.

The Good Son, while occasionally suffering from the kinds of tropes you’d expect from a widely released psychological thriller of this era (they always go way too dramatic with the film score), is a cut above its contemporaries and a grossly underappreciated film for its time. Now that it’s streaming on Netflix, you can give it a second chance if you want to see Kevin McCallister really go nuts on some unsuspecting victims.

Growing older in the public eye comes with pressures that many celebrities rarely discuss in detail, but Shania Twain is changing that.

The country music icon is opening up about a difficult period in her life when menopause, body changes, and unrealistic expectations pushed her toward unhealthy habits.

Years later, she is sharing how that experience reshaped her relationship with aging, self-image, and personal acceptance.

During a recent interview with The Times, Shania Twain reflected on a challenging chapter that unfolded during her 2019 Let’s Go! Las Vegas residency.

At the time, the singer struggled to accept the physical changes that came with menopause. The experience affected her confidence so deeply that she stopped wanting to see her own reflection.

“I stopped looking at myself in the mirror. I hated my body,” Twain admitted.

The singer recalled feeling overwhelmed as her body changed in ways she could not control.

She shared, “I’m, like, ‘Oh, I cannot stand this changing body.’ But that was so unhealthy. Who cannot look at themselves in the mirror?”

For Twain, the frustration stemmed from a feeling that familiar methods of maintaining her appearance no longer worked.

“So all of a sudden I’m bloating, and I’m definitely not in control. I can’t just lose five pounds,” she shared. 

The loss of control became emotionally draining and eventually led her down a path she now regrets.

The Dangerous Weight Loss Habits That Took A Toll

As she searched for ways to manage the changes happening to her body, Shania Twain admitted she made decisions that negatively affected her health.

The singer explained that she began engaging in extreme efforts to lose weight while continuing to perform demanding live shows.

“And I was working my body more than I was feeding it to keep up with the strain,” she said.

The consequences were serious. Twain revealed that she became malnourished during that period and even suffered a thigh injury while performing on stage in Las Vegas.

Rather than helping her feel better, the unhealthy habits only created new physical and emotional challenges.

Looking back, the music star now views that period as a wake-up call that forced her to reconsider how she treated herself and what she expected from her body.

Shania Twain Learns To Embrace Change

Over time, Twain’s outlook began to shift dramatically.

Instead of fighting every physical change, she started focusing on acceptance and self-compassion. The transformation altered how she viewed menopause and aging.

“Now I’m like, bring on the mirrors, I’m going to look at myself all day long!” she said.

The singer also explained that menopause unexpectedly taught her a valuable lesson.

She shared, “Menopause has been very good for me because I’ve learned that some things you cannot control.”

Accepting that reality helped remove much of the anxiety she once felt about getting older.

The star now approaches life with a different perspective, one centered on appreciation rather than frustration.

A New Relationship With Aging

Shania Twain has spoken about this change in mindset before. During a 2023 appearance on the “Today” Show, she shared how accepting the aging process brought a sense of freedom she had never experienced before.

She said, “I wake up every day, in the last few years, really feeling a freedom I’ve never felt before. And that is coming with acceptance that I cannot slow the process of aging.”

She continued, “That is out of my control. So, I need to start enjoying aging. And enjoying all that comes with that.”

The singer also revealed that she has become much more comfortable with her appearance than she was in earlier years.

She said she now “feels great in my own skin” and “can look in the mirror with the lights on.”

Reflecting on that confidence, Twain added, “I’m so loving that experience. So, that is one example of freedom, feeling liberated. I really don’t mind! I walk around my bathroom, the lights on…”

The experience has helped her confront insecurities that followed her for much of her life.

“I don’t know. I feel good about facing that kind of fear that I’ve had I think all of my life when I really think about it,” she said.

Shania Twain Focuses On Health And Happiness

The country superstar continued to discuss her outlook during a 2024 interview with The Mirror, in which she explained that her priorities have changed significantly.

“I’m just feeling grateful that I have my health, that I can ride horses. I enjoy being active, being physical,” Twain said while noting that she is “well into the menopause.”

She admitted that much of her younger years were spent focusing on appearance, but eventually she realized that mindset was preventing her from appreciating herself.

“When I started to realize I had been missing out on whatever I am, I knew it was time to make a major change,” she revealed.

That realization helped her move beyond many of the insecurities that once consumed her.

Advertisement

Today, Twain says she “no longer feels inhibited by my body, by those silly things.”

The singer continues to thrive professionally as well. She recently hosted the Academy of Country Music Awards and took the stage at Wembley Stadium as part of Harry Styles’ Together, Together tour.

Wearing black hotpants and a fitted corset top, Twain confidently embraced the spotlight. For someone who once avoided mirrors altogether, that confidence may be the most meaningful victory of all.

Advertisement

As Taylor Swift’s wedding day approaches, reports suggest the singer is feeling increasing pressure due to preparations intensifying.

This pressure is said to have stemmed from the many details involved in organizing a private wedding, including deciding who will be on her guest list. Despite the pressure, the singer and her partner have publicly expressed excitement about their upcoming nuptials.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce have also let slip some details in recent months, although many other important pieces of information remain under wraps.

For years, Swift has been a massive star in the music world, but the attention she has received has since skyrocketed following her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce last August.

Preparations for their nuptials are very much underway, although many of the details have remained under wraps due to the couple’s preference for privacy.

Regardless, Swift is now said to be feeling the pressure as the wedding day reportedly approaches next month.

One of her major concerns appears to be who will make the guest list, especially as she intends to keep the ceremony small.

“The last thing Taylor wants is for her wedding to turn into a big showbiz circus,” a source revealed to Star Magazine. “She’s trying not to get bogged down by the guest list and all the details, but it’s difficult with so much global attention and the pressure for everything to be perfect.”

Taylor Swift And Travis Kelce Are ‘Grateful’ That They Can Handle Security Costs For Their Wedding

Given their popularity, Swift and Kelce are prioritizing security as they plan their highly anticipated wedding.

Regarding this, they are deeply grateful to have the financial means to afford the level of protection needed to keep out unwanted individuals on that day.

“It’s a shame security has become such a big deal,” the source. “But it is what it is, and Travis and Taylor are grateful they can cover the expense.”

Swift’s focus on security is also reflected in other aspects of the wedding preparations, as the organization of her dress, décor, and venue is said to be all handled by seasoned professionals who will not let details slip.

Even the guests are allegedly involved in keeping things private and have reportedly signed NDAs preventing them from sharing information.

Taylor Swift Was Excited About Planning Her Wedding

Ahead of the wedding, Swift has expressed excitement over taking the next chapter in their love story.

Last October, the singer told UK talk show host Graham Norton how eager she was to work out the details of the nuptials.

“I know it’s going to be fun to plan,” the multi-Grammy award winner said at the time, noting that “small weddings are the ones that are “stressful” to plan, “where you have to evaluate or assess your relationships with [people] to see if they should be there.”

Travis Kelce Has Also Been Open About His Excitement Ahead Of His Nuptials

Kelce himself showed similar anticipation while speaking during the May 6 episode of his “New Heights” podcast.

“I can’t wait,” the NFL star said at the time, with the joy of excitement reflecting on his face.

During another moment on his podcast, Kelce couldn’t help but grin after Swift was labeled his “wife” by a guest.

Together, the couple is reportedly focused on “enjoying the experience and remembering what the day is really all about — celebrating the rest of their lives together,” a source also noted, per Star.

Taylor Swift And Travis Kelce Prefer A Live Band

Last year, Kelce inadvertently revealed their preferred music choice, despite the couple keeping most wedding details under wraps.

The detail came up when the NFL star was asked about wedding planning by late-night host Jimmy Fallon during a September episode of his “New Heights” podcast.

“Are you gonna do DJ or band? Are you thinking about all this stuff?” Fallon had asked, to which Kelce responded with, “I think we’re live music kind of people, you know?”

Similarly, Swift has also let slip details about one other potential entertainer who might attend the wedding and take to the stage. This individual appears to be one of her close friends and collaborators, Ed Sheeran.

“It’s like, ‘Ed, if there’s a stage, you know that you’ll be on it,” Swift said during an October Hits Radio interview, per Billboard. “He knows what people want, and he wants to give people what they want.”

By Robert Scucci
| Published 26 seconds ago

In the late 90s and early 2000s, Drew Barrymore was the ultimate girl next door. Films like The Wedding Singer (1998), Home Fries (1998), Never Been Kissed (1999), and 50 First Dates (2004) make you wish she wasn’t so brutally disemboweled during Scream’s traumatic opening sequence. In films like Donnie Darko (2001), she’s one of the cool teachers helping Donnie navigate the tangent universe he’s trapped in, and through her coded messages, she’s still somebody you’d want to approach because she has a warmth about her that’s hard not to gravitate toward.

Now, as a rationally thinking adult human being, I know that most acting talent gets typecast, and once they blow up, it’s hard to go back to their roots. In fact, it’s often discouraged. And while I’m familiar with her earlier roles in experimental films like 1980’s Altered States and the 1984 adaptation of Stephen King’s Firestarter, I’ll shamefully admit that 1992’s Guncrazy was not on my radar until this past weekend.

Just like it’s hard to imagine a world where Reese Witherspoon goes back to starring in films like Freeway (1996) or Election (1999) after becoming a household name with Legally Blonde, the same could be said about Barrymore’s career post-Guncrazy, a bona fide road thriller that portrays her as a morally gray teenager who gets mixed up with an ex-convict and embarks on an exponentially escalating crime spree.

A Barebones Road Thriller

Guncrazy is more of a character study in the sense that there’s not a lot to talk about regarding the plot. Drew Barrymore is Anita Minteer, a teenager who lives with her absent mother’s abusive boyfriend, Rooney (Joe Dallesandro), in his trailer home on the outskirts of town. Her class is tasked with finding a pen pal to write to for the semester, and she latches onto a man named Howard Hickock (James LeGros), a violent criminal who’s up for parole because of his recent good behavior.

Anita confides in her friend Joy (Ione Skye), whose cop father (Michael Ironside) just so happens to be Howard’s parole officer and has a thing or two to say about a hardened criminal striking up a relationship with an underage girl. Before picking up Howard, who admits he’s never had sex with a woman and instead prefers intimacy through sharing secrets, Anita shoots Rooney in the back of the head while he’s watching TV and hides his body on the property.

The new couple ties the knot thanks to a quick service from the snake-wielding local pastor, Hank (Billy Drago), and when Anita finally feels comfortable opening up, she confesses her crime to her new husband. The thing you need to know about Howard is that he was well on his way to being reformed. He’s so infatuated with Anita, however, that he’s blinded by the new romance and willing to play along.

Rooney had a huge stash of guns that Anita has been teaching herself to use, and one of the things she and Howard bond over is firearms. One thing eventually leads to another, and Anita’s reputation catches up with her. Namely, she’s garnered a reputation for being promiscuous, so whenever she’s cornered, she’s threatened until she puts out.

With a protective Howard in the mix, things quickly go off the rails and the body count starts to climb. As the couple continues to Bonnie and Clyde their way through life, they seek shelter in a vacant house, waiting for the heat to die down so they can plan their next move, but it’s evident that there’s no turning back at this point.

When The Corruptible Does The Corrupting

While nobody’s truly innocent in Guncrazy, the power dynamic at play deserves praise for flipping the script. Anita was born a victim and dealt a very bad hand. Looking at her life from the outside is horrifying, and it’s no wonder she snaps the way she does. What makes things interesting, though, is how quickly she gains control of the situation. She doesn’t have a good reputation with her peers or authority figures, and the person who’s supposed to be her father figure treats her like a piece of meat rather than somebody he’s supposed to be taking care of.

The magic in Guncrazy happens when Anita takes matters into her own hands and needs somebody from equally morally dubious territory to help her clean up the mess. Howard is the perfect patsy because he’s served his time, seems truly reformed, and allegedly has never been with a woman before, despite the fact that Anita is still technically just a kid. He’s at the age where he’s romantically entangled against his better judgment, and the law in most states, but also old enough to want to be a father figure to her, which was probably the most upsetting sentence I’ve had to write in a while.

Once Howard realizes how deeply he’s sunk back into a life of crime thanks to his infatuation with a 16-year-old, there’s really no turning back for him. Either he’s been played, or he’s entered a co-dependent relationship with somebody who’s just as unstable as he is. Either way, he starts digging his grave the second he starts writing to Anita, and it’s only a matter of time before his last rites are read to him.

Guncrazy is an exceptionally well-made early 90s thriller that deserves more eyes on it. Even if you’re just curious to see how intense Drew Barrymore was before getting typecast in rom-com after rom-com during her peak, it’s worth your time. If you went into this film not knowing who Drew Barrymore was, you’d be hard-pressed to think she’d be working on any other kind of project because she’s just that good at it. 

As of this writing, Guncrazy is streaming for free on Tubi.