Entertainment
Violent, R-Rated Action Thriller On Netflix Is A Certified Fresh Winning Ticket
By Robert Scucci
| Published
If I ever won a $156 million lottery jackpot, I wouldn’t tell anyone, but there would be signs. First, I’d fake my own death, only to resurface a couple weeks later wearing a fake mustache and going about my business as usual.
When approached by people who say, “Hey, didn’t you just die?” my answer would be simple: “That wasn’t me, that was the impostor.” When they inevitably respond with “What?”, I’d say “Huh?” throw a smoke bomb on the ground, and run away because I’d have enough disposable income for a limitless supply of smoke bombs. Then I’d fake my death again, this time resurfacing a couple weeks later with a goatee.
I’d repeat this process a dozen or so times until the novelty wears off. Then I’d fake my death for real and retire to my underground bunker. My intended elusive methods may seem insane, but this rock solid plan is nothing compared to what happens in 2023’s Your Lucky Day. Here, a guy wins the jackpot at a convenience store, brags about it loudly, and immediately gets compromised by another patron who just so happens to be hard up for cash and willing to do whatever it takes to claim the ticket.
A Terrible Plan, And Its Many Escalations
In Your Lucky Day, we’re first introduced to a low-level drug dealer named Sterling (Angus Cloud), who gets robbed during a deal gone wrong. Not knowing how to recoup his losses, Sterling pops into a convenience store to take a quick breather. Inside, the store’s owner, Amir (Mousa Hussein Kraish), and a regular customer, Mr. Laird (Spencer Garrett), are making small talk while Mr. Laird scans his Mega Ball tickets at the lottery kiosk to see if he won anything. Also in the store are Abraham (Elliot Knight), his pregnant girlfriend Ana (Jessica Garza), and a cop named Cody (Sterling Beaumon).
Here’s how it all goes down. Ana and Abraham are grabbing ice cream, Cody is in the bathroom, and Mr. Laird discovers he just won the $156 million jackpot. Sterling tapes a makeshift mask made from a Mega Ball flyer to his face and decides to rob the store to take the ticket. The scuffle that follows brings Cody out of the bathroom with his weapon drawn. In the ensuing chaos, Cody accidentally kills Mr. Laird. Sterling, who now has nothing to lose and everything to gain, shoots Cody, presumably killing him as well.
Sterling locks down the store and demands that Ana, Abraham, and Amir help him dispose of the bodies, but not before discussing how they’ll split the winnings. Everybody is understandably apprehensive, especially since the winning ticket is now tied to a fatal robbery, potentially rendering it useless. Still, they come up with a plan that, on paper, allows them to get rid of the bodies without drawing suspicion, cash in the jackpot, and go their separate ways. Or so they think. The plan sounds airtight until unexpected complications start piling up.
Unexpected, But Welcome Lead Role Switcheroo
Kicking off from Sterling’s perspective, Your Lucky Day pivots quickly once the robbery spirals out of control. Sterling may have secured the Mega Ball ticket, but he’s still a low-level criminal thinking one step ahead at best. Ana, one of his hostages, gradually takes control of the situation, and it’s the best part of the movie.
Ana is nine months pregnant and rightfully terrified by everything that’s happened, but that doesn’t stop her from stepping up. She’s calculating, sharp, and quick to map out a contingency plan that makes you wonder what kind of crime lord she was in a past life. What she doesn’t anticipate is that Cody’s corrupt cop family is looking for him, and they’re closing in fast.
Your Lucky Day is a tight, low-budget thriller with more charm than its back-pocket production values would suggest. It tells a simple story, and that simplicity works because of how fast it escalates and how confidently it throws curveballs at the audience.
Watching how quickly everybody adjusts to the situation once they realize they could walk away from this never worrying about money again is half the fun. Loyalties shift, nerves fray, and the stakes keep climbing as the walls close in, but you’ll want to stick around to see how it all plays out.
As of this writing, Your Lucky Day is streaming on Netflix.
Entertainment
Maddies Secret trailer reveals John Early as youve never seen him before
Comedian John Early makes his feature directorial debut with Maddie’s Secret, an offbeat homage to melodrama that he wrote and headlines as its eponymous heroine.
As an aspiring food influencer, Maddie Ralph (Early) is passionate about her cuisine. And at first glance, she’s got a picture-perfect life: a loving husband (Eric Rahill), a devoted best friend (Kate Berlant), and a job at a culinary content studio called Gourmaybe. But as the title suggests, there’s a side to Maddie she can’t stomach sharing with her loved ones. And this secret could kill her.
Out of the movie’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, I cheered Maddie’s Secret, writing in my review for Mashable, “The film is silly and strange, but even amid campy bits, sincere. So, you’ll laugh at its parody elements, but may well be genuinely moved by Early’s commitment to this strange and splendid film.”
I also said “John Early is a better ingénue than Sydney Sweeney,” comparing Maddie’s Secret to another earnest (but less entertaining) TIFF offering, Christy. And I stand by it.
Maddie’s Secret opens in theaters in New York on June 19, and in Los Angeles on June 26.
Entertainment
Pride is almost here! Check out the best dating apps for LGBTQ women.
We know Pride is all year round, but there is something special about the month of June. We’re not there quite yet, but if you want a main squeeze for all the parades and parties, you gotta start looking now. How about on a dating app?
As a lesbian, you probably know all about them. Lesbian Americans (along with bisexual and gay Americans) are far more likely to have ever used dating apps than straight Americans: 51 percent to 28 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.
There are a few reasons why LGBTQ people might turn to online dating more quickly than straight folks. For one, you might live in an area without a thriving LGBTQ community, and in-person dating may be hard. If you don’t know other lesbians to begin with, how can you meet more IRL to date? (Sometimes, lesbian spaces can also be co-opted by The Straights.) Unfortunately, in-person dating may also be less safe, depending on where you live.
Hookup apps for everyone
AdultFriendFinder
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readers’ pick for casual connections
Tinder
—
top pick for finding hookups
Hinge
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popular choice for regular meetups
Thankfully, we live in a time where we can find people like us with a few swipes. Lesbians are welcome on major dating apps, and there are also niche ones specifically for lesbians and other queer women and people. But which one to choose?
How to find the best dating apps for lesbians
Niche lesbian dating apps aren’t your only option for finding love.
Credit: Stacey Zhu / Mashable
In Mashable’s recommendations below, you’ll find both general dating apps and apps specifically for queer people. As the former appeals to the general population, you’ll find more users in these spaces. The caveat, however, is that when you swipe on other women, you might find those coupled with men who are looking for another woman to have a threesome with (aka unicorn hunters). No judgment here, but that’s probably not what you’re looking for. Then again, people of all types are on dating apps like Tinder and Hinge. You never know who you may come across.
Then there are apps specifically for the community, like HER and Lex. If you yearn for a smaller dating scene, head for these apps. While there’s no “Grindr for lesbians” — we go into why in the FAQ section — these apps are more so like stepping into your neighborhood lesbian bar than an app like Bumble.
You can also try multiple dating apps, as each one below has a free version. You can filter by the gender you identify with and are looking for, and sometimes, as with OkCupid, there are many options to choose from.
Diving into the dating pool isn’t easy, but the water’s fine. Check out our guide below for the full rundown of our recommendations and dating app reviews.
Entertainment
OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT 5.5 Instant as the new default model for everyone
Last week, OpenAI managed to stop ChatGPT from talking about goblins all the time. This week, there’s a whole new model for users to play with.
The company announced in a blog post on Tuesday that ChatGPT 5.5 Instant has begun rolling out to all users as the new default model for the popular AI chatbot. The new model is a follow-up to GPT 5.5, which was released in April.
GPT-5.5 Instant replaces 5.3 Instant, which will remain available for the next three months for paid users but will otherwise be sunsetted.
Unlike Claude Opus 4.7 from Anthropic and GPT-5.5, which are only available to paid customers, GPT-5.5 Instant is “available to everyone.” OpenAI says it should produce fewer hallucinations and better overall results for everyday ChatGPT usage.
“This update makes everyday interactions more useful and more enjoyable: stronger and tighter answers across subject areas, a more natural conversational tone, and better use of the context you’ve already shared when personalization can help,” OpenAI’s blog post said.
Mashable Light Speed
According to OpenAI, GPT-5.5 Instant produced 52.5 percent fewer hallucinated claims in internal testing than GPT-5.3 in “high stakes” topics like law, finance, and medicine. In addition, the new model “reduced inaccurate claims by 37.3% on especially challenging conversations users had flagged for factual errors.”
The company also says the new model is better at deciding when to use web search for a prompt and analyzing image uploads than before. The new model is also allegedly more concise in its answers, while also maintaining something of a personality in how it talks to the user. GPT-5.5 Instant should also be better at understanding and referencing context from a connected Gmail account and other integrations to provide quality answers.
And, again, most importantly, it should avoid mentioning goblins unless absolutely necessary.
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Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
Maddies Secret trailer reveals John Early as youve never seen him before
Pride is almost here! Check out the best dating apps for LGBTQ women.
