The Saddest Weekend of the Year

That is a photo fo Jonathan Bailey that I have posted before but I need a pick-me-up here on the day after David Lynch died so don't judge. I've mostly spent today reading Lynch tributes, hence the relative quiet -- although I also have a review that'll be hitting Pajiba at some point today or this weekend so stay tuned for that. See -- I haven't been completely sidelined! I am trying to hold Lynch's cheery workmanship attitude at the forefront of my mind -- he would want us to keep writing, to keep making, with every fiber of our being. Anyway the review I wrote was not of Wolf Man -- I mentioned at the beginning of this week I was seeing a screening of that but subway troubles got in the way and I missed that screening, so I haven't seen that one yet! I'm hoping to get to it this weekend even though the reviews do seem pretty limp. But unlike most weekends as of late I do actually plan on leaving the house on Sunday...

... since they're screening a new restoration of Pink Narcissus at MoMA! I cannot miss that! And since I'll be off the couch anyway why not try to be something like a human person and do some other stuff? Imagine that. I think more of that will be imperative to not collapse into total existential despair about the state of everything. Getting off the couch is a good start! (Who even am I and what I have I done with me? Spreading such statements. Filth!) Anyway each and every one of you have a great weekend. Even if it's generally stated that the third weekend of January is always the year's most depressing time. What do they know? Just go buy some of my shit off of eBay since I need to pay for the twenty David Lynch related things I bought in the past 24 hours and that will cheer you up. Oh and definitely do watch something by Lynch this weekend. If I find the time (couch-evading be damned) I'm going to try to watch his shortlived 1992 series On The Air, which has been fully uploaded onto Archive.org right here. It's one of the very few remaining Lynch works I have never seen! Actually now that I think about it that's what I'm doing tonight. Come, join me!

Pic of the Day

Fans left flowers and candles and photos memorializing David Lynch at the Bob's Big Boy statue in Burbank yesterday -- this might be the perfect Lynchian tribute. If you're not aware Lynch went to this this diner every day for seven years at 2:30 in the afternoon to have a coffee and a chocolate shake -- he said he went at that precise moment in the day because that was the time when the milkshake machine was working just right. (pic via) And here is a picture I have posted before, from happier times:

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

George Mackay Six Times

Well here's a nice distraction. Filmmaker Xavier Dolan photographed actor George Mackay for a new Gucci campaign! And I have the photos! That one above is going right onto the vision-board but they're all hotness so hit the jump and singe yourselves...

Good Morning, World

Yes I am still fully consumed with the loss of David Lynch -- don't expect this fire to die down any time soon. Sorry to belabor that metaphor and not to be morbid but given it's Lynch I think he would be interested in this himself -- I found myself thinking about his career-long fascination with fire and smoke ("Fire Walk With Me" et cetera) this morning, and the fact that it appears his death came about because of the combination of his previously revealed emphysema from years of chain smoking plus that being exacerbated by the Los Angeles wildfires and his having to be evacuated from his home because of them a few days ago and... well it's comsic and it's eerie, the way all of this is adding up. I miss him so much y'all. The world feels so much shittier knowing he's not out there.

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RIP David Lynch

I felt lucky at least once a week, but sometimes once or twice a day, to be alive at the same time as David Lynch. That might sound outlandish but it's not even the slightest bit of an exaggeration. His work walked with me. It inspired and scared and tickled me. He gave me a fresh way to look at the world -- he didn't just make movies. He reshaped my consciousness. And I don't say that in a religious way -- I never paid much attention to his Transcedental Meditation stuff, at least beyond the effect it had on his work. I mean that his work ingrained itself in my understanding of life, love, everything. 

And all of a sudden, thousands of robins were set free, and they flew down and brought this blinding light of love. And it seemed like that love would be the only thing that would make any difference. And it did.

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) January 16, 2025 at 1:34 PM

I cannot possibly overstate his influence, and now he's gone and I don't want to write. I never wanted to write this post, This obituary. As the man grew older I worried constantly about this moment. And now I just want to go to a movie theater and sit in the dark and watch his images for the next month of my life. I want to pay him proper respect and shut everything down for a period of actual, legitimate mourning. And celebration. There was no one like him in my life, and the world does indeed have a big hole in it now. I will no doubt have more to say on the man ahead, but today I can't. Go through our Lynch Archives to see some stuff. Below is his family's statement. Goodbye David, and thank you.

Documentary Like Right Now, Right Here

This is the best news we'll get today, it's all downhill from here -- hell this could be the best news we get all month. (I'll stop myself there lest I depress myself again.) The IFC comic mockumentary masterpiece Documentary Now! from Fred Armisen and Bill Hader is getting a box-set blu-ray release! Pre-order it right here -- hitting on February 25th it's four discs including every episode (which each riff on a different real-world documentary comedically) and loaded with extras. We should've known that Hader, who's practically jizzed himself inside the Criterion Closet (as too would I!), wouldn't let this series go physical media free! I'm just surprised this seems to indicate that the series is done? I figured they'd keep dropping seasons of this for the rest of our lives. Well maybe they will and they're lying when they call this set "complete" -- I'd be fine with being lied to in this instance. It'll just be good to have everything so far in my grimy hands. There are lots of episodes of this series I've still never seen -- it always feels like one to watch sporadically, whenever you need a pick-me-up. I like having it for rainy days. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

In the Mouth of Madness (1994)

John: This shit really sells doesn't it?

Linda: More than you'd think. Surprised?

John: Lady, nothing surprises me anymore. 

We fucked up the air, the water, we fucked up each other.

Why don't we just finish the job

by flushing our brains down the toilet?

A happy 77 to the legend John Carpenter!

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Yura

When yesterday afternoon I posted that Sean Baker's Anora is getting a Criterion release I did a quick search to see what images of Russian actor Yura Borisov I'd posted before so I didn't repeat myself and I discovered that I've barely posted any! Blaspheme! (There is this one post and that is it.) I had hopped onto his bandwagon even before Anora when I saw him the wonderful 2021 movie Comparment Number 6 (here is my review of that movie where I called him "a moody revelation") and I had even gathered up an entire folder of pictures of him to post at some point... then didn't. Well that was the reminder I needed -- I'm only posting one photoshoot of him this morning, but it's a good one...

... even if he's got hair and a beard and looks very very different than the hairless beauty we've seen on the Anora campaign trail. But still a beauty! Let this be my FYC to awards voters -- I'm not a huge fan of Anora but let's get Yura that Supporting Actor nomination -- he earned it. (I actually think he's the best thing in the movie, even better than Mikey Madison. He's the lynchpin without which none of it would work and he judges every moment of that performance perfectly, including his reactions to my biggest problem with the movie, i.e. the homophobia it casually tosses around without ever having anything to say about it.) All that said let us now hit the jump for a whole lot of Yura to stare at...

Yura To Warhol & Everything Criterion Between

I was just literally thinking, "Hey I get paid today," when an email arrived in my inbox (not a euphimism) that reminded me the smackdab middle of the month also indicates something even better -- it's Criterion Announcement Day! And it turns out that the drop for the forthcoming April is a hefty one -- seven titles strong! The big one being Sean Baker's extremely popular 2024 film Anora, which will assuredly get a bank of Oscar nominations come Oscar nomination morning (whenever that happens, since they keep moving it due to the wildfires). I have my issues with Anora (which I've mostly gotten into on social media) but I think it's a fun, fine piece of entertainment for the most part, and the three leads (Madison, Eydelshteyn, and especially our boy Yura Borisov) are all pretty excellent. Anora hits 4K on April 239th and the disc is loaded with special features, check them all at that link. Also being released from Criterion that same day -- Baker's 2008 film Prince of Broadway, which I've never seen. Any fans of that one? It's actually streaming on Criterion Channel right now so maybe I'll watch it this weekend.

The other big titles from the April releases that I haven't seen are Claude Berri's 1986 double-feature Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring, which adapts Marcel Pagnol's book into two grand and grandly expensive movies starring an incredible French cast including Gérard Depardieu, Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, and Emmanuelle Béart. Nor have I somehow ever seen Kenji Mizoguchi's 1953 film Ugetsu, a wartime-set ghost story that stars  Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō (this one's also on Criterion Channel right now which I know because I've had it on my list for years and never yet gotten to it -- sighhhh). 

Then there are the usual 4K upgrades, which include Won Kar-Wei's masterful Chungking Express -- I have the WKW box-set already so I don't know if I'll get this but it is a masterpiece so we'll see. Tony Leung and Takeshi Kaneshiro in 4K is awful hard to resist! Also getting the 4K upgrade is Billy Wilder's comic classic Some Like It Hot. Which, like,  what can I say about Some Like It Hot? It doesn't get better. It's, like, hot.

But wait -- there is one more! And this is my number one pick for the month. We're talking Julian Schnabel's 1996 film Basquiat, starring a maybe-never-better Jeffrey Wright as the famed painter making his way through the NYC art scene in the 1980s. I haven't seen this in literal decades but I remember really loving it, and it's been a difficult movie to get one's hands on for a good long while, making this upgrade extremely overdue. I mean -- David Bowie playing Andy Warhol! Come on now!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Jerry Maguire (1996)

Jerry: How can I make your life better?

Marcee: This is humiliating and I'm pregnant and incapable of bullshit. Where is our offer from Arizona? I don't know what you do for your four percent but my husband has a whole plan, an image and when you put him in a waterbed warehouse commercial you're making him common, when you know he deserves the big four: shoes, cars, clothing line, soft drink. I know about the four jewels of the celebrity endorsement dollar. I majored in marketing and so did my husband. We came to play.

A happy 54 to the grand Regina King today!

Today's Mood

Bless you, Alessandro Nivola.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

 

Good Morning, World

I'll try to not post gifs from Queer every single morning from now until eternity now that the movie is available online, but I make no promises! (See also: yesterday.) Tumblr is overwhelmed with them right now and I am not a strong man. Anyway happy Hump Day!

Jonathan Bailey Two Times

There's a Woman, And a Yard...

I know that Blumhouse thinks they're the selling point here so that's why they put their name on the poster but the real selling point behind the upcoming horror movie The Woman in the Yard is the film's director Jaume Collet-Serra, aka the man who gifted the world with Orphan. Also the 2005 House of Wax remake (how many times am I going to mention that movie this January???) and The Shallows and the recent B-movie thriller Carry On with Taron Egerton (which was, in typical JCS fashion, a heap of fun) -- this man does not know how to not make an entertaining picture. (He also gave us the hotness of Alessandro Nivola as a soccer player in the movie Goal so he will forever have my heart.) Anyway the movie also stars the terrific Danielle Deadwyler, so that's also a plus! The plot is pretty much the title -- a scary woman shows up in the yard. We're there! Here's the trailer:

The Woman in the Yard is out on March 28th!

It's Another Red Rooms Post

I think I have posted about Red Rooms about three dozen times now but I don't care -- it's out on Shudder today and I feel proud of my itty bitty role in getting the word out on it! Especially once it started popping up in tons of "Best of 2024" lists. I was there when the Quebecois true-crime-obsession thriller had its North American premiere in Montreal at the Fantasia Film Festival in July of 2023, and I was immediately bowled over by it -- I wrote up my thoughts on it for Mashable right here, and yadda yadda eventually other people saw it come 2024 when it got released and they seem to've agreed with my assessment. My little quote that the movie "out-Finchers Fincher" made it into the trailer and onto the poster and onto the eventual blu-ray release, which turns out was a good move by the PR people -- amazing how a throwaway comment you're not thinking too hard about can be the one that captures people's imaginations and curiosity. Anyway I keep being tempted to post the two most memorable shots in the film (once you've seen it you'll know the ones of which I speak) but I wanna leave them for y'all to disocver if you haven't seen it yet. So go watch it. Or go watch it a second time. Talk about a movie that haunts you.  

Five Frames From ?

Which movie is this?

Good Morning, Queer

Well what are you waiting for? Luca Guadagnino's phenomonal William S. Burroughs adaptation Queer is available to rent and buy ditigally today -- so go do that here! I know the reaction has been mixed towards the film but I personally am anything but -- it''s one of my top three films of 2024; indeed I haven't been able to write that list because my top three keep shifting every time I re-watch them and this one is very much in that mix. Here is my review. 

I admit it's not an easy film to warm to and its wavelength is very odd but if you're on it then baby, to the moon. If you need a "key" to unlock it, for me it reads pretty straightforward as being a film about an impossible disconnect between two people, and everything is in service of amplifying that. Anyway also this:

If I hear one more person say “a movie should work on its own, without you needing you do research to understand or appreciate it” - no maybe you should remember how to be intellectually curious like when you a kid and didn’t get a grown up reference and be delighted by new things to learn!

— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) January 11, 2025 at 3:12 PM