Film

Twisters

In theaters July 19

In a whirlwind two years, Glen Powell—who was born and raised in Austin—has appeared in Top Gun: Maverick, the rom-com Anyone But You, and Hit Man, a Netflix film directed by fellow Texan Richard Linklater that’s loosely based on a Texas Monthly story. Now he’s at the swirling center of what may be this summer’s biggest blockbuster, a stand-alone sequel to the 1996 megahit Twister, which starred Helen Hunt and the late, great Fort Worthian Bill Paxton. In Twisters, Powell plays Tyler Owens, a blowhard social media personality who chases storms (and clout) while sporting a cowboy hat as the self-described “Tornado Wrangler.” While filming his atmospheric adventures, Owens crosses paths with Big Apple–based meteorologist Kate Cooper, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, who is more focused on science—and safety—than nabbing selfies.

Book

Native Texan: Stories From Deep in the Heart, by Joe Holley

Maverick Books, July 30

A longtime columnist and editorial writer for the Houston Chronicle, Joe Holley shares thirty stories from the archives of his “Native Texan” column about visiting small towns and big cities, hunting ghosts, and repeatedly falling in love with Marathon and Big Bend. He also revisits episodes and figures in Texas history and gets to the bottom of tall tales whose popularity obscures the truth behind them. Holley (whose son is Texas Monthly staff writer Peter Holley) is indeed a native Texan, born in Waco. His love for his home state pervades this book and everything else he writes, even, or especially, when he criticizes it. 


Album

X’s, Cigarettes After Sex

Partisan Records, July 12

Sixteen years after forming in El Paso, Cigarettes After Sex—the group made up of Greg Gonzalez on vocals and electric guitar, Randall Miller on bass, and Jacob Tomsky on drums—is about the same age as the legions of teens who’ve discovered its achingly romantic dream pop through a TikTok-fueled spate of virality. But this isn’t music for kids. While the trio mostly triples down on its ambient, shoegaze sound, the album’s best song, “Tejano Blue” (a rare reference to Gonzalez’s home state), dispenses with any semblance of innuendo in a downright filthy retelling of a torrid love affair.

This article originally appeared in the July 2024 issue of Texas Monthly. Subscribe today.