Welcome to See/Hear, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important cultural happenings, pop and otherwise. Every month, we round up the biggest upcoming movie, TV and album releases, ask some cool people to tell us what they’ve been into lately, make you a playlist we guarantee you’ll have on heavy rotation and recommend a classic (or unduly overlooked) piece of pop culture that we think is worth revisiting.
MOVIES
Kinda Pregnant
Feb. 5, Netflix
Whether or not you enjoy this one will depend entirely on how you feel about Amy Schumer and her whole schtick. This time around, she plays a woman who gets jealous of the attention her pregnant friend receives and decides to start wearing a fake belly and pretending that she, too, is pregnant. Along the way, she happens to meet the man of her dreams, who presumably will eventually realize in a few months that she’s been lying. Will he forgive her? It’s a rom-com, so we have to assume yes.
Heart Eyes
in theaters Feb. 7
If you hate all the lovey-dovey fanfare of Valentine’s Day, this horror-comedy is for you. From the producers of Scream, Heart Eyes introduces us to the Heart Eyes Killer, a murderer who stalks and kills romantic couples. When a pair of platonic co-workers working late are mistaken for a couple by the killer, they must spend Valentine’s Day together running for their lives.
Becoming Led Zeppelin
in IMAX Feb. 7, in regular theaters Feb. 14
It’s hard to believe that it’s taken this long for the surviving members of Led Zeppelin to participate in a documentary, but here we are. Director Bernard MacMahon’s doc features interviews with Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones along with previously unheard audio interviews with the late John Bonham, as well as never-before-seen footage from the band’s early shows.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Feb. 13, Peacock
Based on the 2013 novel of the same name, the third installment in the Bridget Jones series kills off our beloved Mark Darcy, making Bridget a widow who finds herself falling for a much younger man (played by The White Lotus‘s Leo Woodall). Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Emma Thompson all reprise their roles from the previous movies.
SLY LIVES! (Aka The Burden of Black Genius)
Feb. 13, Hulu
Summer of Soul was proof that Questlove is not only a talented musician and author, but a skilled documentarian, and SLY LIVES! is his latest. It traces the rise and fall of Sly and the Family Stone, focusing specifically on frontman Sly Stone and his struggles with substance abuse and mental illness, and examining the unique pressures that Black artists face in America to this day. The doc features interviews with André 3000, D’Angelo, Chaka Khan, Nile Rodgers, Q-Tip, Clive Davis, George Clinton, members of Stone’s family and more. The goal is to reframe and celebrate his legacy. “I think our aim to tell the story, to humanize Sly Stone and they’re also going to realize that Sly is parallel to other artists they might like,” Questlove said in a recent interview. “Like, Sly is so influential (…) Our goal is to tell a story of a human being which often isn’t allowed in these circumstances.”
I’m Still Here
in theaters Feb. 14
This Brazilian political drama tells the true story of Eunice Paiva as she struggles to cope with the abduction of her husband, former congressman Rubens Paiva, during the country’s military dictatorship. I’m Still Here earned a 10-minute standing ovation when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival, and it could win big at the Oscars, where it’s nominated for Best International Feature, Best Actress (Fernanda Torres) and, most significantly, Best Picture. It’s the first Brazilian film to ever be nominated in the latter category.
Paddington in Peru
in theaters Feb. 14
If you’ve got kids (or just an affinity for talking British bears), you’re in luck: the third installment in the Paddington series sees our furry friend and his family traveling to Peru to visit his Aunt Lucy. Aunt Lucy is supposedly living at a home for retired bears, but when they get there, they learn that she has gone missing in the jungle. Who doesn’t love a good rescue mission?
Ex-Husbands
in theaters Feb. 19
Griffin Dunne stars as Peter, a man reeling from a recent divorce after 35 years of marriage. To cheer himself up, he books a trip to Tulum, where he accidentally winds up at the same resort as his two sons who are there on a bachelor party trip. Rosanna Arquette, Richard Benjamin and James Norton also star.
The Monkey
in theaters Feb. 21
This horror-comedy is based on the Stephen King short story of the same name, which centers around twin brothers who are haunted by a cursed toy monkey they discover in their attic. Theo James pulls double duty as both twins, and he’s joined by Tatiana Maslany and Elijah Wood.
My Dead Friend Zoe
in theaters Feb. 28
You can probably guess what this one’s about based on the title, but it traces the friendship between Merit and Zoe, two female soldiers, and the grief and trauma Merit must cope with after Zoe is killed. Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman star.
TV/STREAMING
The 67th Annual Grammy Awards
Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. EST, CBS and Paramount+
Whether or not it’s actually “music’s biggest night” remains up for debate, but this one promises to be a doozy, with performances from Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Cynthia Erivo, Stevie Wonder, Sabrina Carpenter, Janelle Monáe, John Legend, St. Vincent and more.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Feb. 6, Netflix
Who doesn’t love a good scammer story? This limited series features Kaitlyn Dever as real-life Australian wellness influencer Belle Gibson, who used her platform to peddle pseudoscience and lied about being diagnosed with cancer.
Clean Slate
Feb. 6, Prime Video
Comedian George Wallace stars as Henry, an old-school car wash owner in Alabama who gets the shock of his life when his estranged child (Laverne Cox) returns home after 17 years and reveals that she is a trans woman. Pairing two polar opposites and letting the hijinks ensue isn’t exactly a unique concept for a sitcom, but this one looks promising.
The 30th Annual Critics Choice Awards
Feb. 7 at 7 p.m. EST, E! and Peacock
Chelsea Handler hosts this awards show, which was originally slated to take place on Jan. 12 before being postponed due to the wildfires in Los Angeles.
Super Bowl LIX
Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m., FOX
Can Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs complete the three-peat? Will people ever stop talking about Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift? Tune in for the answers to these pressing questions, along with a halftime performance by Kendrick Lamar.
Yellowjackets season 3
streaming Feb. 14 on Paramount+ with Showtime, on Showtime Feb. 16
Season 2 of Yellowjackets went off the rails a bit, but it also left us with some major cliffhangers to address, including the death of Natalie in the present-day timeline and the mysterious fire that torches the girls’ shelter in the 1996 timeline. We don’t know exactly what will transpire in this new season, but it seems safe to assume it’ll involve more cannibalism.
Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary special
Feb. 16 at 8 p.m. EST, NBC
The official list of guests for the legendary sketch comedy show’s big 50th anniversary show hasn’t been announced yet, but we can expect cast members from all eras to turn up and help celebrate half a century of Saturday Night Live with this special three-hour primetime event.
The White Lotus season 3
Feb. 16, Max
Has there ever been an actress more perfectly suited to play a White Lotus character than Parker Posey? We’ll find out when the third installment of Mike White’s HBO anthology series ventures to Thailand. Besides Posey, the stacked cast includes Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb, Walton Goggins, Michelle Monaghan, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Lalisa Manobal (better known as Lisa from Blackpink) making her acting debut. Natasha Rothwell also reprises her role from season 1 as Belinda, the spa manager from the White Lotus resort in Hawaii.
Zero Day
Feb. 20, Netflix
This political thriller centered around a global cyberattack features an insane cast that includes Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Joan Allen, Connie Britton, Dan Stevens, Angela Bassett and, of course, the one and only Robert De Niro.
The 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards
Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. EST, Netflix
The SAG Awards are usually a pretty good indicator of who’s most likely to take home an Oscar in March, so take note of who gets honored by their peers. This year’s ceremony will be hosted by Kristen Bell and stream live on Netflix.
The Americas
Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. EST on NBC, streaming on Peacock the next day
A stunning nature docuseries from the producers of Planet Earth and narrated by Tom Hanks? Sign us up.
Running Point
Feb. 27, Netflix
This new Mindy Kaling series stars Kate Hudson as a Jeanie Buss-esque character who takes over the basketball team her family owns. Drew Tarver (The Other Two) and Scott MacArthur (The Righteous Gemstones) play her hapless brothers, and the rest of the cast includes Max Greenfield, Chet Hanks, Brenda Song and Jay Ellis.
MUSIC
Guided By Voices, Universe Room
Feb. 7
A new Guided By Voices album is hardly a rarity — Universe Room will be the band’s 18th record in 10 years, and their 41st overall — but it’s always a delight. “I wanted to get a little more sonic diversity for this album,” frontman Robert Pollard said in a statement. “So I asked each member of the band to record all the instruments for one song and I did three songs myself. For the rest of the songs, we used a lot of different approaches to the recording of both the instruments and the vocals.”
Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory, Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory
Feb. 7
We know her primarily as a solo artist, but Sharon Van Etten’s latest was written and recorded collaboratively with her band, the Attachment Theory — which includes bassist Devra Hoff, percussionist Jorge Balbi and multi-instrumentalist Teeny Lieberson. “For the first time in my life I asked the band if we could just jam,” Van Etten said in a press release. “Words that have never come out of my mouth — ever! But I loved all the sounds we were getting.”
Bartees Strange, Horror
Feb. 14
Horror, which was co-produced by Jack Antonoff, is a deep dive into one of our most primal emotions. As Bartees Strange explains in a statement, “In a way, I think I made this record to reach out to people who may feel afraid of things in their lives, too. For me it’s love, locations, cosmic bad luck, or that feeling of doom that I’ve struggled with for as long as I can remember. I think that it’s easier to navigate the horrors and strangeness of life once you realize that everyone around you feels the same. This album is just me trying to connect. I’m trying to shrink the size of the world. I’m trying to feel close — so I’m less afraid.”
Horsegirl, Phonetics On and On
Feb. 14
If this buzzy Chicago trio isn’t yet on your radar, you have the perfect opportunity to rectify that embarrassing oversight with Phonetics On and On. The group’s sophomore album was produced by Cate Le Bon and recorded at Wilco’s studio, The Loft. Phonetics On and On sees Nora Cheng, Penelope Lowenstein and Gigi Reece experimenting with some new sounds and adding violins and synths to their musical arsenal, and if the insanely catchy lead single “2468” is any indication, this will likely be one of the best indie rock records of the year.
Patterson Hood, Exploding Trees & Airplane Scream
Feb. 21
Exploding Trees & Airplane Scream is Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood’s first solo album in 12 years, but it is by no means a solo endeavor. Hood rounded up an impressive roster of collaborators for this one, with contributions from Waxahatchee, Wednesday, Lydia Loveless, Kevin Morby, Brad and Phil Cook, Los Lobos’ Steve Berlin, David Barbe, Stuart Bogie, Drive-By Truckers members Brad Morgan and Jay Gonzalez, and more.
Basia Bulat, Basia’s Palace
Feb. 21
Canadian singer-songwriter Basia Bulat returns with her seventh album, and it’s at least partially inspired by becoming a mother. Of lead single “Baby,” she writes, “I wrote this song many years ago but never could get the lyrics and performance quite right. I wanted to try it again after becoming a parent — it’s about how we can’t control how or when we’re going to evolve even when we desperately want to…. [A]fter all the times I tried to get it right I knew I finally had ‘the take’ when my daughter kept asking to hear it again.”
Sam Fender, People Watching
Feb. 21
Sam Fender is already big in the U.K., but his forthcoming third album seems poised to be a real breakthrough for him here in the States. “Me and the band have picked away at these songs for the last couple of years, we recorded so much material in that time and deliberated long and hard over what came next,” the Newcastle singer-songwriter wrote in an Instagram post announcing the record. “The band has really evolved in this time, I’m a lucky f–ker to be surrounded by such a talented bunch.”
Youth Lagoon, Rarely Do I Dream
Feb. 21
Trevor Powers is back as Youth Lagoon, and on Rarely Do I Dream, he’s looking back on his own youth, splicing in audio from home movies he found in his parents’ basement. “I wanted to really make someone feel like they were inside my living room in 1993, but rearrange the furniture a bit,” he said in a press release. “Something about combining that level of hyperreality with fairytales of devils and detectives weirdly felt like the truest way to immortalize these pieces of my family.”
Panda Bear, Sinister Grift
Feb. 28
Animal Collective’s Panda Bear returns with his first solo album since 2019, recorded in his Estudio Campo studio in Portugal. Sinister Grift features contributions from Cindy Lee and Spirit of the Beehive’s Rivka Ravede, and it was co-produced with his bandmate Deakin.
YOUR MONTHLY PLAYLIST
Whether they’re a little too obsessive, written about an inappropriately young love interest or romanticizing a toxic relationship, there are a surprising number of songs about love that are far creepier than they were intended to be. To help you know which ones you should steer clear of when putting together your Valentine’s Day playlist this year, we’ve rounded up some of the most disturbing examples. (For the purposes of this playlist, we’re focusing solely on songs that are unintentionally creepy, meaning self-aware depictions of unhealthy relationships or songs that are specifically intended to shock — like The Misfits’ “Die, Die My Darling” or Gnarls Barkley’s “Necromancer” — don’t fit the bill.) Enjoy them on your own time, but maybe don’t do it in the presence of anyone you’re actively trying to woo.
ARTIST RECOMMENDATIONS
Each month, we catch up with a few musicians, actors, comedians or otherwise cool people whose opinions we respect to hear about a piece of pop culture they’re particularly excited about. This month, it’s Lauren Mayberry of CHVRCHES and Rissi Palmer.
The Outrun
“This film is beautiful and heartbreaking, and really solidified for me how amazing an actor Saoirse Ronan is. I would follow her anywhere and watch her do anything. It’s based on Amy Liptrot’s memoir about her journey into recovery from addiction, and a lot of it is set in Orkney in Scotland, so it’s visually stunning as well.”
Streetlights (Bonnie Raitt), Rags to Rufus (Rufus & Chaka Khan), Ode to Billie Joe (Bobbie Gentry)
“Here are the top albums I’ve been listening to that inspired my new and upcoming album, Survivor’s Joy:
- Streetlights – Bonnie Raitt (1974): It’s hard to name a favorite Bonnie Raitt album, but this and Luck of the Draw are mine. The swampy production partners well with Bonnie’s honeyed and blues-infused vocals. Also, freaking ‘Angel from Montgomery’ is a masterpiece.
- Rags to Rufus – Rufus & Chaka Khan (1974): This album was on constant rotation in my house as a child and inspired me to want a band of my own when I grew up. I love this album because even though Chaka Khan is CLEARLY a force to be reckoned with, they are a cohesive band: one band, one sound. This is the dynamic I try to emulate with my own band, The Smoke. On an album that includes ‘Tell Me Something Good’ and ‘You Got the Love,’ the standout track for me is ‘Walkin’ in the Sun,’ which is a country soul song in all the very best ways.
- Ode to Billie Joe – Bobbie Gentry (1967): Bobbie Gentry really doesn’t get enough flowers in my opinion for being ahead of her time in so many ways. She was a captivating storyteller, a tasteful singer, a total bombshell and someone who successfully blurred genre lines. This album is equal parts country, soul, gospel and pop. My favorite song on this album is ‘Papa, Won’t You Let Me Go to Town With You.’ What a cool, weird song.”
WORTH REVISITING
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005)
Streaming on YouTube TV, available to rent or purchase on Prime Video and Apple TV+
Last week, the Oscar nominations were announced, and as expected, the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown received some high-profile nods, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Timothée Chalamet), Best Supporting Actor (Edward Norton) and Best Supporting Actress (Monica Barbaro). But if you’ve still got Dylan on the brain and want to hear his story from the man himself, it’s the perfect time to revisit Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
Like A Complete Unknown, No Direction Home focuses exclusively on Dylan in the ’60s, starting with his arrival in New York in 1961 and ending with his decision to “retire” from touring after his motorcycle accident in 1966. Culled from 10 hours’ worth of interviews with the legendary singer-songwriter, it also features interviews with his friends, mentors and even ex-lovers, including Joan Baez, Suze Rotolo, Pete Seeger, Allen Ginsberg, Dave Van Ronk, Bob Neuwirth, Mavis Staples and D.A. Pennebaker.
Will Dylan diehards gain any earth-shattering insights or break through his notorious air of mystique? Not particularly, though anyone vaguely familiar with him knows that that’s how the man formerly known as Robert Zimmerman prefers it. Instead, the real draw here is the rare historical footage, including a recording of his high school band, his screen test for Andy Warhol and Dylan’s Manchester Free Trade Hall concert on May 17, 1966, where an angry fan disappointed over his hero’s decision to go electric yelled “Judas!” at him before he started performing “Like a Rolling Stone.” If A Complete Unknown sparked your interest in the outrage over a beloved folk singer plugging in and pivoting to rock, watching the real thing is a must.
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