Entertainment
Extremely R-Rated Mystery Thriller Is Law & Order Meets Showgirls
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Not all genre mashes are created equal, and 2014’s Naked After Midnight (or After Midnight in some markets) is the most baffling one I’ve come across so far. The film is about a stripper who gets murdered at her place of work, The Candy Cat Club, and her news-anchor sister putting on a wig and posing as an exotic dancer to avenge her death. Along the way, she’s manipulated by her producer and therapist, both of whom want to take their one-sided relationships with her to the next level. Unfortunately for them, she’s a little too preoccupied with her poorly planned revenge arc to entertain their romantic advances.
The whole thing plays out like a bad episode of Law & Order: SVU, but with the added melodrama and sexual exploitation of Showgirls. In better hands, Naked After Midnight could have made for a solid comedy or parody film, but it leans hard into mystery thriller territory, stripping the film of any semblance of charm. Still, it’s so laughably bad, for reasons I’m about to get into, that it’s worth a watch if you’re a masochist like me and just want to watch the world burn.
News Anchor By Night, Revenge Stripper By … Also Night?
Naked After Midnight follows Constance (Catherine Annette), who learns about the murder of her stripper sister, Ann (Jeneta St. Clair), while reading the teleprompter at her news network job. Broken by the news, her suspiciously supportive boss, John (Tim Abell), allows her to take some time off to grieve. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Sam Hubbard (Richard Grieco), who is also suspiciously supportive of her (read: both men want her badly), gives her a shoulder to cry on.
Constance has a different plan in mind, though, and it involves avenging her sister’s death. To do this, Constance, who I feel the need to remind you is a public figure, throws on a blonde wig and asks Candy Cat Club owner Rikki (Tawny Kitaen) for a job despite the fact that she doesn’t know how to dance. The other girls at the club, like Misty (Tiffany Tynes), Britney (Cindy Lucas), and Zoey (Christine Nguyen), don’t take kindly to the prospect of a new stripper cutting into their tip pool. None of them seem all that broken up or concerned over the fact that Ann, somebody they worked closely with a day earlier, was murdered in the parking lot outside their place of work. While all of this is happening, Constance is haunted by apparitions of her dead sister, who just comes and goes as she pleases.
One of the club’s regulars, Julian (Bobby Rice), recognizes Constance from her news show and wants to help with the mystery. Constance is too busy talking to her hospitalized, brain-dead sister Sasha (Madison Ivy) about her revenge plot, though, despite the fact that she’s in a persistent vegetative state and has absolutely no clue what Constance is saying. As Constance digs herself deeper into the world of exotic dancing, she discovers truths she isn’t ready for, making her even more unhinged in her quest to find who killed her sister and return the favor.
Where Do I Start?
If Naked After Midnight had better acting, better production values, a better screenplay, and better direction, it could be a solid movie. If you were to scan that previous sentence with a sarcasm detector a la Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, the machine would detonate in your hands. Every line of dialogue between the strippers feels ripped straight from the Mean Girls playbook, but without any wit or naive teenage charm. Everybody is incredibly mean here except for Rikki, who looks after her girls and always packs heat in her clutch bag.
The weird love triangle between Constance and her two persistent male suitors is laughable because it basically boils down to two grown men repeatedly saying, “Come on, you can talk to me, baby,” to a woman who has absolutely no romantic interest in either of them. The twist ending, which I honestly didn’t see coming, is beyond stupid and arrives so far out of left field that I questioned my own intelligence for a second. Looking back at everything that transpired leading up to it, though, I came to the conclusion that it’s not me. It’s the movie that’s dumb.
Most egregious, though, is The Candy Cat Club itself, which never seems to have more than five patrons inside. The stripper-to-customer ratio is basically one to one, and I have reason to believe that this comes down to budget limitations. Most of the unintentional humor comes from the fact that every single dancer is fighting over turf and tips as if the handful of men in the club have enough dollar bills to go around. The funny part is that they somehow do make it rain, which made me wonder what these guys do for a living because they show up every single night.
Everything about Naked After Midnight is confusing. It’s supposed to be a revenge story, but once you get to the reveal, that premise is completely undermined, making the entire buildup feel pointless. At the same time, it’s so unintentionally hilarious that you kind of have to watch it if you’re looking for something insane to take your mind off things. But be warned: there’s a fair amount of nudity here, and nobody really knows how to dance, which somehow makes the whole thing even more awkward.
NAKED AFTER MIDNIGHT SCORE
As of this writing, you can stream Naked After Midnight for free on Tubi. You’ll need the ad breaks for this one, but you’ll laugh a few times too.
Entertainment
Free hookup app accounts: Comparing AdultFriendFinder, Tinder, Grindr, and more
We all get the urge to find a fun fling at one time or another, but not everyone wants to dish out money to make it happen. If you’re strapped for cash or you just want to keep that credit card firmly in your wallet, know that there are a lot of great free hookup apps and sites that offer results without you having to pay a premium for membership.
That said, not all free dating services work in the same way, and they don’t always offer the same level of freedom. They’re still businesses, after all, and still looking to turn a profit. They will entice you will free fun while hiding some of their very best features behind a subscription — which they hope will tempt you to go further and sign up for that paid membership.
To help you navigate the world of hookup apps and sites as a non-paying user, here’s a handy guide on the top dating services — and all the best features you can get for free.
Hookup apps for everyone
AdultFriendFinder
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readers’ pick for casual connections
Tinder
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top pick for finding hookups
Hinge
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popular choice for regular meetups
Tinder’s mega-popularity probably has a lot to do with how well it has balanced its free and premium features. As a non-paying user, you can create an account, fill your profile with up to nine photos and videos, and then swipe to match and chat with singles in your area.
In other words, you can use Tinder’s basic features without opening your wallet. But restricting yourself to a free account is exactly that — restricting. This includes an ad-laden UI and a limited number of swipes over 12 hours. OK, so it doesn’t sound too bad on paper — until you spend an hour left-swiping and finally find the profile of your dreams, a person seemingly created to pique your interest, only to realise that you’ve run out of likes.
To get the most out of a free Tinder account, we recommend splitting up your swiping time into morning and evening sessions, to minimize the impact of their 12-hour right-swipe restriction. If you score a decent match by using this strategy, you’re all set and probably won’t need to upgrade your account. But if you’re dissatisfied with how many matches you find, it could well be time to explore Tinder’s Gold and Platinum tiers, as these unlock some matchmaking cheat codes, including one monthly profile boost to increase your visibility, plus the ability to see who has liked your profile and message accounts you haven’t already matched with.
AdultFriendFinder is one of the most restrictive dating services for free members. Not only will you not be able to speak to another person one-on-one with a free account, you won’t even be able to view other users’ profiles without stumping up some cash for monthly paid membership.
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Don’t be put off, though. If you’re looking for fast thrills online, a free AFF account still has its upside. For one thing, AdultFriendFinder is less a dating service than an entire sexy ecosystem, complete with live webcam shows, chat boards, adult-themed picture contests, and a whole lot of erotic storytelling. You can access and even take part for free, so whether you want to passively observe the live webcam feeds or test your writing skills out in the streamy fiction section, you have good options.
On the other hand, if you want to use AFF to actually find a potential partner in your local area, you really need to upgrade to their paid subscription, which not only unlocks expanded search features and the ability to communicate one-on-one with other members, but also upgrades the quality of the photos and videos you see, which is worth the expenditure alone.
Like Tinder, Grindr is very generous to non-paying users. With a free account, you can create a profile, search out and chat with other nearby people, and even create a private photo album and send a single photo. In one sense, Grindr is even more generous to its free users than Tinder: It allows you to match with one person outside of your immediate location per day, which gives you a little taste of the app’s reach and capabilities.
Best of all, for those desperately eager to connect, Grindr allows free users two Right Now sessions per week, which functions as a kind of temporary (one hour, max) status update to nearby users also in Right Now mode. Don’t forget, Grindr is all about the fast hookup.
It’s not all upside, though. Like Tinder, Grindr subsidizes its free user features by serving up relentless ads, which definitely impacts the user experience, while also limiting their profile’s reach to “local” Grindr users, which basically means accounts within your immediate vicinity. If you’re in LA or Manhattan that’s not necessarily a problem, but if you’re using the app in a small town or remote area — which likely means a smaller queer population — it can mean fewer hookups.
If that’s a problem for you, you can opt for either the Grindr XTRA or Grindr Unlimited subscriptions to unlock quality-of-life features. These include the ability to send more expiring photos, a larger grid to explore, and even the ability to see who has viewed and liked your profile.
In many ways, Pure is the most intriguing hookup app out there. It’s a true innovator of design and interface, which makes it no surprise that it’s the most popular app for Gen Z singles. Unfortunately, it’s extremely restrictive in the scope it gives to free users. Unless you’re a woman, that is.
On Pure, male and non-binary users have to pay to unlock the app’s most useful features, while women get unrestricted access to the app for free. Before you cry foul, though, remember that most dating apps skew heavily male (Tinder users may be 75 percent male, for example), so by enticing women with a free membership, Pure can keep a relatively even gender split among its users. That’s a good thing, right?
As a free user, you’ll be able to create a profile and fill out all the necessary information, as well as a list of your kinks. But you can’t respond or chat one-on-one with other users, which so you’re essentially locked out of the app’s most fun and interactive features.
Unlike with Tinder, Grindr or AFF, Pure really does require a paid subscription to be at all useful — if you’re not a woman, that is.
Entertainment
NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for May 31, 2026
The NYT Connections puzzle today is not too difficult if you love bright colors.
Connections is the one of the most popular New York Times word games that’s captured the public’s attention. The game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier—so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for today’s Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections?
The NYT‘s latest daily word game has become a social media hit. The Times credits associate puzzle editor Wyna Liu with helping to create the new word game and bringing it to the publications’ Games section. Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise of anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake—players get up to four mistakes until the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
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Here’s a hint for today’s Connections categories
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
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Yellow: Bright-colored
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Green: Playing pool
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Blue: Popeye
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Purple: Timber
Here are today’s Connections categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today’s Connections #1085 is…
What is the answer to Connections today
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Things that are yellow: BUTTER, PIKACHU, RUBBER DUCK, SCHOOL BUS
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Billiard terms: BREAK, CUE, POCKET, RACK
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Slang for a sailor: JACK, SALT, SEA DOG, TAR
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Kinds of wood plus “S”: SASH, SOAK, SPINE, STEAK
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? Get all the Strands hints you need for today’s puzzle.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.
Entertainment
NYT Strands hints, answers for May 31, 2026
Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’re a traveler.
Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Places to go
The words are related to travel.
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Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained
These words describe travel sites.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?
Today’s NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
NYT Strands spangram answer today
Today’s spangram is Tourism.
NYT Strands word list for May 31
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Museum
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Beach
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Tourism
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Castle
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Market
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Restaurant
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Momument
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!
Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.
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