Wednesday, May 01, 2024

Pictures of Wagner


Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho's 2019 film Bacurau is a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned so obviously I'm going to be paying attention to whatever he does next -- especially given how it's been five years since Bacurau and all he's made in that time was last year's doc Pictures of Ghosts, which was about the history of movie theaters in his hometown Recife (well technically it was about much more than that, but that was the baseline). So today's word on what he's up to was always going to be exciting -- add in that what he's up to will star the terrific actor Wagner Moura (most recently seen being sexy af in Civil War) and it becomes doubly exciting. It's much bigger scaled than Filho's previous work -- titled The Secret Agent, Moura will play:

"... a university professor in his 40s who is on the run. He travels from São Paulo to the seaside city of Recife during Carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son. But he soon finds out he has been tailed and spied on by neighbors in his new refuge, leaving him no possible escape from the tentacles of corruption.”

There's more info from the director himself at that link above -- he says that making Pictures of Ghosts was integral to his process of getting to this one because it helped him deal with the intimate history of the place, and the time, where he grew up and where the film will be set. Anyway we can't wait!

Presumed Sexy


It's only a wee minute long but the first teaser trailer for Jake Gyllenhaal's Apple+ limited series adaptation of Presumed Innocent has arrived and 1) I had forgotten it co-stars both Ruth Negga and Renate Reinsve, and 2) there are some shots in here so steamy my glasses are all fogged up, and I don't wear glasses! The moment when Renate chokes Jake...

... I am gonna need a minute or two of recovery y'all. Anyway the series will premiere on June 12th -- also before that the first episode will be screening at the Tribeca Film Festival and obviously I'm hoping to be there for that. Also on the show is Peter Sarsgaard, Lily Rabe, Elizabeth Marvel. Watch:


So what do we think? I am, unsurprisingly, a fuck yeah.



Five Frames From ?






What movie is this?


Good Morning, World


May we never meet the day where Morgan Spector stops 
posting photos of himself getting dressed for events.


Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Josh O'Connor Ten Times


Because everyone with eyeballs and smarts is feeling the Josh O'Connor love this week post-Challengers the folks at ICON El Pais magazine went and reposted his 2021 photoshoot, and much to my surprise I did a search only to realize that I had only posted the cover image back then! I am utter trash! So let's rectify this (as if I could ever earn back your trust after this!) and follow their lead and post the entire thing today. Hit the jump for more Joshy...

It's Spooky Sally Time


The directing duo behind last year's terrific horror hit Talk To Me (here is my review) have lined up their next project and blessings upon blessings, it will star Sally Hawkins! We adore Sally Hawkins. The movie will be called Bring Her Back and it will reteam the directors with A24 but that's all the info we've got right now -- that said that title gives us some ideas about storylines. (As Judd in Pet Sematary says, "Sometimes dead is better!") Anyway I'm surprised that Sally hasn't done more horror -- she's got that likeable-but-frail thing down pat, in that we're going to be worrying about her right off the bat with very little effort. Kind of like poor blind Audrey Hepburn in Wait Until Dark

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from 

Dogfight (1991) 

Eddie: Why do we bullshit each other like this? 
Berzin: Let me tell you something about bullshit. It's everywhere. You hit me with a little, I buy it. I hit you with a little, you buy it. It doesn't make us idiots. That's what makes us buddies. We buy what the corps hand out, and that's what makes us marines. And the corps buy all the bullshit from President Kennedy, and President Kennedy is buying all the bullshit from everybody in the US of the fucking A, and that's what makes us Americans.

Criterion has done the world a favor this day and given Nancy Savoca's 1991 masterpiece Dogfight a proper blu-ray release -- click here to buy a copy. Set in the early 1960s Dogfight is about a bunch of soldiers about to head to Vietnam who throw the titular party, where whoever brings the ugliest girl to their party wins -- River Phoenix is one of the soldiers and Lily Taylor is a folk-singing waitress he decides should be his date only to regret it once he actually starts liking her. The movie is about as lovely and intimate as they come; I hadn't seen it in years but re-watching Criterion's edition I remembered immediately why I'd always thought well of it. 

Phoenix and Taylor are absolutely perfect and the movie never sugarcoats a single moment or overly villainizes its characters -- they all feel deeply human. And it's also surpisingly funny, given the dark subject matter. One of the great films of the 1990s and we're absolutely blessed to have this fresh release so people can rediscover it. Oh and the blu-ray has a killer special feature -- a great chat between Savoca, Taylor, and director Mary Harron! Pick this one up stat, you will not be disappointed.



Five Frames From ?






What movie is this?


Good Morning, World


Yeah wash that dirty mouth out, Chris Hemsworth! Actually I should be the one washing my dirty mind out (err ahh I don't know, it's early, man, cut me some slack) because I keep forgetting that the new Mad Max movie is out in less than four weeks! Holy crikey! Just yesterday I went through the 2024 release schedule, putting things into my calendar to try (and inevitably fail) at being aware of what is happening and I saw that Furiosa is apparently out on May 24th? I guess that's why all the marketing has been happening, up to and including this new cover shoot of Chris for Vanity Fair (via).  Is anyone else nervous about Furiosa? I mean all my heart trusts in George Miller but I wasn't as nuts about that first trailer as I shoulda been. I know, I know. George won't let us down. Le't start getting excited now! Hit the jump for more photos of Chris being hot aka a very good way to get's one's self excited...

Monday, April 29, 2024

An Excellent Cosmo


I spent my Sunday binging all ten episodes of Shōgun on Hulu (which stars out boy Cosmo Jarvis, seen above and also in these gifs I made a couple weeks ago of his nude scene on the series before watching any of it) -- have any of you watched it yet? It gets thirteen samurai swords up from me -- go watch it if you haven't. I have never seen the original miniseries with Richard Chamberlain, nor I have ever read the book, but watching this series felt like devouring an entire novel and once I was all in I couldn't quit. Stayed up way past my bedtime last night finishing the show. Fantastic television that had my jaw dropping more than once an episode -- that earthquake scene! -- and riveted by all of the intricate political maneuvering in between. Plus Hiroyuki Sanada AND Tadanobu Asano? Are you kidding me? Don't miss it!

You Got a Permit For Those Guns, Alden


Now here is a cast worth eyeballing -- Alden Ehrenreich is going to star opposite Julia Garner in the next horror movie from Barbarian director Zach Cregger! The movie is called Weapons and it was supposed to film last year but got delayed due to the strikes -- there's not much info on specifics except that it "promises interconnected stories surrounding the disappearance of high schoolers." I don't think Alden or Julia can play high schoolers anymore -- he's 34 and she's 30. Maaaaaybe Julia, although I think it'd be pushing it. Also in the cast is Josh Brolin, who is definitely too old to be playing a high school student. Anyway I was mixed on Barbarian -- here is my review -- there was stuff I liked about it (specifically its structure) but I think it botched its tone in the end in ways that really didn't work for me. But I think Cregger's got talent and hopefully this one will win me over. This cast is a good start!

5 Off My Head: Threesome Movies


I know I've told this story here before but in 1994 when the movie Threesome was released I was still very much a closeted high schooler, but I had to see it. HAD to.  This was before the internet so anything with any hint of gay content coming anywhere near my small upstate New York cow town was extremely rare. And yet here was this movie opening at our recently built five theater multiplex! I had to be there! So I sneaked into a screening one night... and bumped into one of my best friends from church. There with her current boyfriend. Her current boyfriend who I had done a little light fooling around with a few years previous. And she insisted on us all sitting together. It was an utterly mortifying experience for me, and probably drove me deeper into the closet for another six months lol. Oh well! 

Anyway threesome movies! They're a good topic for today because of Luca Guadagnino's Challengers being the number one movie in the country, and also totally ruling. So here are five of my favorites!

5 of my Fave Threesome Movies

3 (Tom Tykwer, 2010) 

Design For Living
(Ernst Lubitsch, 19833)

The Dreamers
(Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003) 

Y Tu Mama Tambien
(Alfonso Cuarón, 2001)

Splendor
(Gregg Araki, 1999)

---------------------------

What are your favorite threesome movies?

Challenge This!


If you missed my review of Luca Guadagnino's Challengers over the weekend, click here! And yes I know if you scan down this here front page of the site a few posts you'll see my link to that already, but this is giving me an opportunity to share the above set photo of Mike Faist and Zendaya on the set and Mike's thigh muscles are demanding I do so. They are literally holding a gun to my head! Anyway I did also mean to mention last week that the film's unforgettable soundtrack from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross hit all of the streaming services last week, so if you're a fan (and I know some of you are not fans, but you're incorrect) you should be listening to it, as I did while doing dishes and folding laundry this weekend. It makes everything so intense! Also I can't find the link on Twitter right now but I did see confirmation from either Sony or Milan Records that they are working on a physical release of the soundtrack, which is momentous. Since their gorgeous scores for Bones & All and The Killer are both still unreleased on vinyl I had gotten worried. 

Oscar Isaac Nine Times


I shared one of the images of Oscar Isaac modeling for the clothing brand Brioni a couple of weeks ago but he looks so goddamned good in these photos that I can't help myself, I gotta share them all. Also I'm including the previously posted photo so we can have them all in one place (and also it's the hottest photo so this post would feel especially lacking without it.) Hit the jump for them all...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Storytelling (2001)

Mikey: Consuelo, what is rape exactly?
Consuelo: It is when you love someone and they 
don't love you and you do something about it.
Mikey: Sometimes I think my parents don't love me.
Consuelo: Well when you get older
you can do something about it.

Heads-up that a difficult Todd Solondz movie to watch -- and I don't mean difficult because of the content, although that's often true for a lot of people when it comes to Todd Solondz and this one certainly has its moments! -- 2001's Storytelling is finally landing on blu-ray in July! You can pre-order it right here. I'm a big fan (duhh) and of course this blu news comes a few months after I finally broke down and bought an overpriced DVD of it. That's always the way! 

Anyway it doesn't say anything about special features and I doubt anybody is splurging on making this happen but let's all form a non-religious prayer circle to summon up some deleted scenes including the cut third of the film that Solondz has spoken about -- the lost chapter that he filmed starring James Van Der Beek as a closeted football player that involved "a graphic gay-sex scene." Also supposedly Welcome to the Dollhouse star Heather Matarazzo was in it too. Gimme! 

Five Frames From ?






What movie is this?


Good Morning, World


Who's up for a little morning sweat with
best bros Garrett Hedlund and Charlie Hunnam?

Friday, April 26, 2024

I Accept Your Challengers


It only took us approximately three hundred billion days to get here but Luca Guadagnino's techno tennis trio flick Challengers is right now, right this minute, in movie theaters! Meaning whatever the hell you're doing right now isn't what you should be doing, which is sitting in a theater watching Challengers. Does this mean I liked the movie? Hmm I wonder, I guess you'll have to click on over to Pajiba to read my review of it and find out for yourself. I am sure it's an absolute mystery to you, whether I liked it or not. It's not as if I have been posting about it endlessly, breathlessly, for months. I am such a riddle! Anyway go read that, go watch Challengers, and go have a hot sweaty weekend full of balls flying at your faces. Bye til Monday!

I Guess I Earned That Glare, Bill Skarsgård


When I got knocked on my butt thanks to food poisoning last week I ended up missing the press screening for Bill Skarsgård's new action movie Boy Kills World, which is out today -- I was sad to miss it but maybe I will actually go to the theater this weekend? Odder things have happened. Now that the weather has turned agreeable I am feeling the itch to come out of my cocoon a bit, and with Bill looking like he looks above well, it makes a convincing argument. Here was my post about the trailer for the film. if you go see it tell me what you thought in the comments! And here is the wisest official still ever released for any movie:


Mike Faist Nineteen Times


Happy Challengers day! The new Luca Guadagnino joint is out in theaters fiiiinally after months and months of delays thanks to the strikes in H'wood last year -- Luca smartly knew he'd need Zendaya and her boys looking flashy on some red carpets and in magazines to sell his sweaty tennis flick so delayed it to today and that was probably a good decision. It feels like a spring movie, not a fall movie. The birds and the bees, baby. Everybody's pollinating. 

Anyway I maybe could have saved this post of Mike Faist's new photoshoot (via) for a couple of hours to when my review of the movie goes live (yes, it's coming!) but I'm impatient and I will surely want to post more about the movie today anyway. So let's stare at Mike (who's finally just gotten an MNPP tag all his own, congrats!) until then. Hit the jump for them all...