Horror in the High Desert 3 in 275 Words or Less

Have I got any fans of director Dutch Marich's Horror in the High Desert movies in the house? There are now three films in this found-footage franchise, starting with the first in 2021, the second last year, and now this past week the third, subtitled Firewatch, has landed on Prime Video... and I am here to tell you to go make yourself a fan right now if you're not already. If you're a found-footage nut like I am these movies are whatever the movie version of catnip is -- cine-nip? Whatever, you my gist. Marich is a pro at whittling this subgenre down to its most basic form and formulas -- Marich dubbed it "horror edging" and I find that description so delightful I will use it from now on every chance I get. 

Point being he never goes for a cheap jump-scare when he can instead simply put his protagonist into a scary place and have them walk, and walk, and walk, with limited vision, peering around corners, slowly turning around -- all the things where we have been trained to expect the big "BOO!" moment. But no big "BOO!" moment comes! And Marich simply does this over and over and over until you feel like you're going to crawl right out of your skin. It's deeply effective, and I have left all three of these movies feeling full on PTSD. That is the highest of praise. There is a moment of legendary WTF-ery in here that needs to go in the WTF-ery pantheon stat. And I hope Marich will continue scarring me for life. He is really, really good at this, you guys.

Matt Bomer Seven Times

Good grief. Every time you think Matt Bomer can't get more beautiful... the boy proves you dead wrong. Excuse me while the ghost of Chandler Bing possesses me but could he BE aging any better? This new shoot for Style Magazine Italia (via) by photographer Guy Aroch (who's given us some of our favorite sexy suited-up manly-man photoshoots as of late including this one and this one) has him unloading the hot daddy vibes hard on us, and we can only appreciate. And so does his Fellow Travelers boy-toy Jonathan Bailey, for that matter:

Hit the jump for all the photos...

NYFF Ahoy!

Although it seems nuts to be onto the fall festivals already (not that I will miss this hellfire summer in the slightest, mind you) it is indeed the perfect moment for me to take stock of my hometown beloved, the New York Film Festival, since they've officially announced all three of their Gala films now. We'll start with the end, or is that the middle -- today they announced their Centerpiece film screening and it will indeed be Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language full-length film The Room Next Door starring Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, and Alessandro Nivola. See all my previous posts on this one here -- we've been rather excited about this for some time, because of course we have. 

This will be its U.S. premiere -- it's premiere-premiering in Venice in September. The NYFF screening is October 4th, right in the middle of the fest -- hence it being the "Centerpiece film" duh -- which runs from September 27–October 14. And speaking of those dates -- the Opening Night film that they announced a couple of weeks ago is Nickel Boys from Hale County This Morning, This Evening (a truly spectacular movie, that) director RaMell Ross -- an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer-winning novel, Nickel Boys stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, Daveed Diggs, Fred Hechinger, and two young actors named  Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson in the leads; it's about "two Black teenagers who become wards of a barbaric juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow–era Florida." Anybody read the book? 

And then there's our Closing Night movie -- Steve McQueen's Blitz! I've been jonesing for this ever since I first heard about it -- the Hunger and Shame and 12 Years a Slave director is tackling the World War II bombings that devastated London from the ground level, with Saiorse Ronan playing a working-class mum who gets seperated from her little boy in the underground. Blitz also stars, among many others, Harris Dickinson, Stephen Graham, and Hayley Squires -- I have been a massive fan of Squires ever since she wowed in Ken Loach's 2016 film I, Daniel Blake, so I hope her role is juicy too. A lot of people think this might be the movie to finally get Saoirse her Best Actress Oscar, but I don't think enough people have actually seen it yet to know that much. (Having seen her in The Outrun at Sundance though I can already tell you that this is going to be a very good fall for her.)

Anyway that's three films down, dozens more to come -- I daren't even conjecture, they always surprise me, but I find myself getting giddy thinking about it already. If you're planning on attending you can buy packages right here right now; single tickets go on sale in the middle of September. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Which Is Hotter?

Aaron Taylor-Johnson took to his Instagram this morning to show off a recent transformation, from the bearded hipster you see above...

... to the bulging bald-faced gym bro you see here. And it only seems right (although I suspect I know the answer) to ask y'all...

online polls

Good Morning, World

I didn't bother seeing the Amy Winehouse bio-pic Back to Black because I heard really, really bad things about it and the trailer looked terrible and I kind of don't give a shit about Amy Winehouse anyway and all of Sam Taylor-Johnson's skills seem to be in the "landing a world-class hot husband" department and not so much the "directing" one. But I don't want to knock her too much because she did put said world-class hot husband on full, and I do mean full, display that one time -- and hey if she was just taunting us, showing us what we'll never have, that's fine, I am fine with that, I can go back to my post full of gifs and pretend. And also hey look it's Jack O'Connell topless in Back to Black! I also appreciate that. So I might not watch your movies, Sam, but I will inevitably post about them at some point at least because you always give us some gratuitous goods. I think we'd get along. We would have things to talk about. In summation -- call me, Sam!

What Happens in Shelby Oaks, Stays...

Another day, another Fantasia Fest review -- this time we're talking the horror film Shelby Oaks from YouTube critic turned filmmaker Chris Stuckmann, which begins as a found-footage film and... doesn't stay that way for long. It's a movie with a thousand surprises and twists and turns up its sleeves and I mostly dug it! You can read my thoughts over at Mashable -- I tried to keep them as spoiler-free as possible but that proved impossible, so maybe wait to see the movie before reading the review. (And that won't be an issue because Neon, the house behind Longlegs, has already picked the film up for release.) The general gist of my opinion is that's it's clearly a first film in that Stuckmann has a LOT of ideas and he tries to put them all into one movie, to its detriment at times, but I look forward to seeing where he goes next very much. There's a lot of promise here. And I would love to geek out over his influences with him some time.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Remember My Name (1978)

Pike: I don't bother you. I expect the same.

Emily: I don't want to bother you. 

Just wanna be friendly and talk.

Pike: I don't talk to nobody. I listen.

Emily: What's the matter, you scared of women?

Pike: Look, what do you want from me?

Emily: I want a set of clean sheets.

If you've never seen Remember My Name go find some way to see Remember My Name -- it used to be hard to see but it is streaming right now on Tubi! (Go Tubi.) Co-starring Anthony Perkins, Alfre Woodard, Dennis Franz and Jeff Goldblum and directed by Alan Rudolph (who also did Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle and Afterglow) it's a fantastic way-ahead-of-its-time character study of an extremely difficult woman, and Geraldine Chaplin gives one of my favorite performances of all time in it. So hard-edged, such a total weirdo -- I relate! I deeply relate. Anyway Miss Chaplin is celebrating her 80th birthday today and we wish her a very happy one! Oh and it also muct be mentioned that the poster for this movie rules -- I gotta get myself a copy of this:

Andrew Scott Six Times

Happy day, Andrew Scott new photoshoot! Here is our All of Us Strangers and Ripley fella for Netflix's Queue magazine -- clearly given the source this is mainly for Ripley press, given he's currently nominated for an Emmy for it. (At least the Emmys knew what's what, unlike the Oscars with Strangers -- bastards.) Anyway not that I haven't spent the last 12 months or so on an Andy high but I did just see the recorded version of his performance in Noel Coward's play Present Laughter this past weekend as well, in which he was tremendous, and so my high is even higher right now -- hell, highest even. So these photos are hittin' the spot. Yes, that spot. The spot. So y'all hit the jump and hit your spots maybe too...

Pics of the Day

These photos of fresh besties Jonathan Groff and Daniel Radcliffe (who just starred together, and won Tonys together, in Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway) visiting with the star of the Sufjan Stevens ballet-musical Illinoise (which also won a Tony) Ricky Ubeda (he plays the Sufjan surrogate) have totally made my day. There are more photos over here with more of the show's cast but these two are the ones. Groff's nerd-out is delighting me so hard. I saw the show twice -- once at the Armory and then again on my birthday after it had moved to Broadway -- and I'd go again if I could. It's absolute magic. The show runs through August 10th so y'all still have a chance to make it if you haven't!

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

There are three reasons I'm posting these rather ancient gifs of Russell Tovey in his briefs on Quantico circa 2017 or so -- one, I have never posted them before. Two, I was looking for something to post this morning and these were literally the first thing I stumbled on. And three, y'all left some pissy comments on my Russell post Monday and I am feeling antagonistic. All excellent reasons! Enjoy!

Cole Doman Got Me in a Haze

That is not a photo from the movie I am about to direct you to my review of, but it is a picture of the star of said movie -- it's actor Cole Doman, who you should hopefully recognize from writer-director Stephen Cone's wonderful 2015 film Henry Gamble's Birthday Party, and who stars in the queer thriller called Haze aka the movie I have now reviewed. I mentioned both Haze and Doman back in May when this film screened at NewFest but I wasn't able to catch it then -- thankfully it just screened at the Fantasia Film Fest in Montreal though, and there I did catch it. And if you head over to Pajiba you can read my review of the film, which sees Doman playing a young journalist who heads to his hometown to dig into a shuttered psychiatric hospital that left a trail of suicides in its wake. And if you really need to be sold -- the film also co-stars Sense8's own Brian J. Smith and those two go at it like gangbusters in the movie. Hot stuff!

They Call Him Kommix

I have gotten very bad at keeping up with those things called "books" -- not just reading (although like a lot of us I'm not doing nearly as much of that as I used to since the internet has fucked up my brain) but keeping abreast of the news of news ones. Hence me just discovering today that my favorite cartoonist alive Charles Burns has a new book out TODAY. It's called Kommix and it's a collection of eight covers of comic books that never were but he wished existed -- this is a very him thing to do. Anyway you can order your copy off of Amazon right this minute -- I would direct you to the publisher Fantagraphics but they're out of stock! Which isn';t too surprising, given I'm hardly the only person who worships at the altar of Mr. Burns. Gahh excited! 

Richard Madden Comes Out (Of The Gym)

We don't see Richard "Dick" Madden nearly enough these days but I feel like when we do, he maximizes the effort. (I am thinking especially of all of his beach-bound excursions with Froy boy.) Or maybe it's just that he looks like Richard Madden and so every time I see him I am just stopped dead i my tracks all over again. But it's probably that PLUS the slutty tank top. That's my version of math. Now hit the jump for as of this writing one more bonus photo (but I feel like we might see more from this, so stay tuned for updates)...

Niels Schneider Eight Times

I am officially convinced as of today that somebody who works at Behind the Blinds magazine reads MNPP because if this photoshoot of French beauty Niels Schneider (via) isn't directly Me Bait then I don't know what. I don't know what! Well, theyb got me. The pretty French boy shirtless and smoking got me. And speaking of -- everybody congratulate Niels because he now officially has his own tag here on the site. Shocked it took me this long seeing as how he was stunning me fifteen years ago in Xavier Dolan's first movies, but better now than never. Anyway the rest of this shoot -- which I will warn you up front isn't as much of a thrill as these two photos seen here up top; too many baggy clothes dammit! -- is after the jump, so jump on 'em...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Now this is a good way to start a day! Here is some footage of Mr. Jonathan Bailey grooving out in his trailer during the filming of Fellow Travelers -- obviously taken during the 1970s period of the series, given his sexy disco daddy look. I be swooning. Give this man the damn Emmy just for this!

Jack Lowden Twelve Times

I am normally depressed when beautiful young actors that I crush on hard go off and get married to Some Woman, but Saoirse Ronan is not just "some woman" so I will not only allow it, Jack Lowden, I will give you both a hearty congratulations. They're one of my favorite celebrity couples, and I love the fact that they didn't announce their marriage at all -- the only reason we know it happened is that a newspaper went snooping in Scotland's govermental wedding registries (thx Mac). I don't love the invasion of privacy, mind you -- I just love that they, with typical loveliness, didn't seek out press. They seem like good true folk! And yes I am a legendarily terrible judge of character, but I still believe this to be true! 

I mean they met making a movie where Jack fucks hot boys on the side -- if that ain't romance I don't know what is. In all seriousness they are two of the finest moving-picture actors we have -- Saoirse has had multiple opportunities to prove this (and Jack produced her next, the Sundance stunned The Outrun, which very well might finally and deservedly win her an Oscar) but Jack remains deeply under-appreciated. Why nobody is plumbing his depths like Terence Davies did in Benediction I admit I remain baffled. That's truly one of the decade's best turns -- so where the hell are all of his big roles dammit? The movies are broken. 

Anyway I was just going to point you to my long-running Jack Lowden Appreciation Thread on Twitter with this here congratulations to the newlyweds, but then I stumbled upon a 2022 photoshoot of him from the magazine The Laterals that I've inexplicably never posted, and so I shall now do just that. How I missed these gorgeous photos I'll never! So go on and hit the jump and celebrate the boy (and his lady too, by way of the boy)...