Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Fight Club (1999)

Tyler Durden: Warning -- If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think every thing you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.

Happy 25 to another movie like American Psycho where all the wrong people that the movie is making fun of saw a movie that read to them the opposite of that. I don't think it's quite as clear in Fincher's hands as it was in Mary Harron's, but he's gone on with movies like The Killer last year to underline his points often enough about the show-offy fragility of masculinity that we know his heart's always been in the right place anyway. To be honest I haven't actually sat down and watched Fight Club start to finish in quite some time -- it'd be great if we got a 4K of this first but watching the way Fincher's been tinkering with the 4K release of Seven for a few years now, delaying its release over and over, I won't hold my breath. Dude is too tinkery! Stop tinkering and go make the next season of Mindhunter goddammit!

Jo Jo Grifter, Your Winchester is Calling

And speaking of Criterion! (Which we just were.) I just realized that today is also New Announcement Day for the fanciest physical media brand around -- okay I didn't "realize" so much as "get the PR email that told me it is" but whatever, cut me some slack, I am very scattered and busy right now. So Criterion today has announced their January 2025 line-up and it shocks me how good they are at plucking movies out of thin air that I have never heard of and plunking them down in front of me like rare gems of great beauty. I don't know half of these movies but I look forward to finding out. The one I do know and have seen is Stephen Frears' 1990 neo-noir The Grifters starring John Cusack, Annette Bening, and Anjelica Huston -- I have spent my entire life being terrified of bags of oranges thanks to this movie and I haven't seen it in decades. It'll be nice to revisit, and in 4K no less. That's out in January 21st. 

Next up there is Richard Pryor's semi-autobiographical 1986 film Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, which is apparenrtly a fractured bio-pic that he starred in himself -- how have I literally never heard of this movie? I mean I've never been the world's number on Richard Pryor stan but I have always liked him when I've seen him -- I guess this was way outta my wheelhouse when it came out and I was 8-years-old but I have no excuse for the many many years between then and now. And then there's Jean Eustache's The Mother and the Whore from 1973 -- this one I have heard of but that's it,;I haven't seen it nor do I know much about it. Sounds like a threesome movie from their description but one with two ladies circling the dude, which is sad to me as Jean-Pierre Léaud looks really cute on the cover of the disc and I'd prefer this co-starred let's say Jean-Paul Belmondo as his side-piece. Somebody use AI and stick Belmondo into this for me! Use AI for good!

The final batch of movies for January include a 4K upgrade of Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Sanjuro double-feature (and no I somehow have never seen these ones yet either) and then Anthony Mann's 1950 western Winchester '73 which, well it's a Western. I just can't be made to care. It doesn't matter how many great Westerns I see, and I have seen plenty -- I just cannot stir excitement in myself over sitting down and watching a Western. That said Winchester does have Rock Hudson playing a Native American so I might have to watch this out of a sick curiosity. 

Demon Pond Ahoy

The artwork by Yuko Shimizu on the new Criterion cover of Masahiro Shinoda's 1979 fever dream Demon Pond is so beautiful I am just posting it again even though I posted it in July when this disc was announced -- anyway today is the day, this movie is out! Go buy it here or over on Criterion's site -- I watched this a few weeks ago and it's so hypnotically strange and beautiful, it will make for a killer Halloween afternoon watch. Not necesarrily Halloween night when you want to scare yourself but the afternoon when you wanna edge yourself into the spooky mood -- it's perfect. It kind of feels like the ketamine you take to bring down Hausu's amphetamines.

The Boys of Nickel

Per usual I'm behind behind behind on reviews here in the red hot month of October -- NYFF finished this past weekend and I'm still plowing out my write-ups from there even though I'm knee-deep in NewFest and Brooklyn Horror begins on Thursday! It's impossible -- I am but one man. Anyway today my write-up of the NYFF Opening Night film (so you know the one that somehow screened 18 days ago -- what????) has arrived, -- click on over to Pajiba to read my thoughts on Nickel Boys, the adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel. There actually is a legitimate reason for my delay with this one -- I really wanted to see the movie a second time, and I was right too; it helped me a lot in sorting out my thoughts. Anyway you'll know soon enough because Nickel Boys is out in NYC October 25th, LA the week after, and rolling out from there. Now let's see if I can finally get my Queer review finished...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Paul Mescal Ten Times

Has anyone considered yet that Paul Mescal might be the devil? I didn't believe in the devil, not since I was a kid anyway, but looking at this new cover-shoot for GQ magazine I have begun to find my religion, as it were, at least in so far as there might be a man of such unbridled sexy charisma that I would sell my soul for him, and he's about to star in a Ridley Scott Gladiator picture.

Anyway that's where I am after looking at these pictures, I don't know about you. He's coming straight for us though, and I am fine with that. I wasn't using my soul anyway. He can have it. It's yours, Paul! I am fingers crossed actually going to be in a room sharing air with Mr. Mescal next week -- anybody have anything you want me to scream at him as I get dragged away by security? Hit the jump for the entire blessed, cursed, devil shoot...

Good Morning, World

There is life before you've seen this photo of actor Dino Fetscher in a 2019 stage production of Torch Song Trilogy, and there is life after you see it, and we're all now happily, firmly ensconced in the latter camp. Long live the theatre!

Which is Hotter?

Turns out that October 14th is a very gay day as both Udo Kier and Ben Whishaw were born today. Udo is celebrating a milestone -- 80! -- but we already tweeted him birthday greetings, so we turn our happy gay eyes todward Ben now. Or as I've long dubbed him, "The Great Gay Hope" because I've long thought he'll be the first out gay actor to win an Oscar. I will admit that I'm not so sure about that now that Colman Domingo is giving him a hard run for his money -- and now I am trying to picture a movie starring Colman & Ben and what that might be? maybe a Thelma & Louise type thing? Who wouldn't watch that? Only shitheels, that's who. Anyway until then we're gonna face down two of our favorite Bens -- Ben playing adorkable Q in the Daniel Craig James Bond movies and Ben as the stand-in for all of us painfully in love with Franz Rogowski in Ira Sachs' Passages. Two dependable and wispy Ben bests. Now pick!

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Today's Mood

I'm really feeling this recent photo of James McAvoy this afternoon -- I just finished writing another NYFF review (that'll be up tomorrow) and I'm looking for something, anything, to post here on the site but just kind of ending up glaring at the empty exapanse of the dumb internet with disdain instead. Sigh. And I suppose it's my job to fix this, as a person who posts on the internet -- I should be entertaining us like the little dancing monkey that I am! But I'm not feeling so dancing-monkey today. Anyway all of that said James McAvoy's angry face makes me as the kids say "hot under the collar" so that's also a good reason to post that photo as well.  Va va voom, baby.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Juliet: All the best people have bad chests 

and bone diseases. It's all frightfully romantic.

A happy 30 to Peter Jackson's masterpiece!

Maybe they could announce a 4K release today?

Seeing as how the movie doesn't even have a blu-ray.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Jake

Happy Monday mystery solved! Back in August I posted a video of Jake Gyllenhaal shaving his hair off in a mirror having no idea why he'd posted the video on his Insta -- appreciatevly, obviously, but still a little mysified -- but now with his Document Journal photoshoot being revealed over the weekend we have our answer! It was for this photoshoot. Also I assume he was buzzing his hair off for a role and decided to kill two sexy birds at once, getting the process photographed for our pleasure...

... and it worked. I feel pleased? Don't you feel pleased? I really love this photoshoot (from photographer Casper Sejersen) by the way -- the surrealism, the psuedo-Lunchian vibes -- some of these photos could be called Eraserhead-lite. And now I am picturing Jake in a David Lynch movie -- swoon. I'd probably die from the pleasure of that meeting. Of course Donnie Darko is Lynch meets like Sweet Sixteeen. His Villenueve movie Enemy is Lynchian as well. Make more scary movies, Jake! Anyway I already posted the cover image from this shoot here, but now we have the rest so hit the jump for the rest...

Weekend Update With Gabriel LaBelle

I haven't seen the making-of Saturday Night Live movie Saturday Night from director Jason Reitman that's out this weekend yet, but I have seen this new photoshoot of actor Gabriel LaBelle (the former Spielberg stand-in is playing Lorne Michaels here) for Esquire magazine and my thinking is this likely tops that! I held off from crushing on Gabriel in The Fabelmans but by the time the movie Snack Shack rolled around last Fall I was fully signed up -- this shoot's triple underlining said commitment! Anyway if y'all do see this movie over the weekend let me know what you thought -- I don't have the time with three films festivals all piled on my docket at once right now so I'll just stare at this photoshoot when I have a free second instead. Hit the jump for them all...

Sleep in Heavenly Pieces

I kind of let myself run wild with my "review" of the new Terrifier movie at Pajiba today -- as I say in my piece these movies are kind of critic-proof so I wanted to prove that something could actually be said... so I said it all! I worked in everything from the entire history of horror and politics to a slow-cinema abortion drama I saw at the New York Film Festival last week. If you want the basic gist of "is this movie good or not" I don't think clicking over will really help you out on that front, but anybody pretending to be able to answer that question is off their rocker anyway. We're beyond such binaries now, baby! Anyway click here to read my thoughts on Terrifier 3 and the post-Elevated-Horror landscape I think it repsents pretty thoroughly, plus what that says about our shift in cultural anxieities. All that plus dick jokes! Your one stop shop, I tell ya.

Take a Jake Break

All I have as of now is this cover image, but Jake Gyllenhaal is on the new cover of Document Journal (via) and why wouldn't I jump right on here and share this even before we have any more of the shoot? He looks sharp as fuck and we deserve it dammit.

Kit Connor Ten Times

Twice this week we've displayed proof that I am a bad, terrible gay, truly the worst -- on Wednesday I posted a photo of Taylor Zakhar Perez and admitted for the tenth time I still haven't watched Red White and Royal Blue. And now here today I'm posting a photoshoot of Heartstopper star Kit Connor while admitting that no, I haven't watched a single second of Heartstopper either. I am an Official Gay -- I'm a member of the guild and everything! -- and yet this is how I behave? Simply excoriable. String me up from the rafters, folks. I have it coming. Anyway Kit is 20 years old now so I can officially feel slightly less creepy for posting his photos -- this photoshoot for Hero magazine (via) has given me permission to ogle! I feel freed and, dare I say, very gay. So hit the jump to feel gay some yourself...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Friday, World

Our Russell Tovey Shirtless Days of the Week Calendar thread on Twitter is now five days down -- just Tuesday and Sunday to go! You can do it Russell! Bring us home!

A Brutalist Man

Another day, another NYFF review -- well that's not exactly true, these have been slow coming, but we're into them now at least. I have written up my thoughts on Brady Corbet's The Brutalist today for Pajiba -- click here to read those. it is mostly all very very positive, although there are a couple of large exceptions to my praise. But still -- it feels like a good and proper big ass movie movie that I see myself watching a dozen more times (I've already seen it twice and it very much rewards repeat viewings). And the second its score is released on vinyl I will buy that shit so fast -- probably the score of the year, right here, give or take a Challengers.  

Morgan Spector Three Times

I've had the first and third photos seen there for awhile now -- I tweeted them last week -- but I've been so distracted with screenings that I somehow hadn't gotten to posting them! Thankfully the middle photo popped up today and I was reminded -- otherwise this website would and should crumnble to dust through my own fault and neglect. These are new ones from Mr. Morgan Spector's photoshoot for The Cut in early September -- I did post the rest of that shoot right here so it's not all negrlect. Anyway! I had my last NYFF screening this morning so things will calm down a little -- although uhhh NewFest kicks off today (see my post on this year's edition here) and the Brooklyn Horror Fest kicks off one week from today so it won't be totally calm. But those are all night-time things -- I will be here day-wise, doing my thing. Giving you the Morgan Spector content you demand! And some other stuff probably. But mostly Morgan. Let's be real. MNPP stands for MorgaN sPector Peen after all!