I haven't watched Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice yet even though it is now on streaming because I have been mentally incapable of spending two hours watching anything about you-know-who before we know the results of today's you-know-what -- I'm hoping all will go the correct way and then I think that I will feel fine watching that movie. But a different Sebastian Stan movie is hitting streaming today that you might want to give a chance, to distract yourself -- his film A Different Man which I saw and adored at Sundance. You can rent ADMright here. If you're made of stronger stuff than I you could watch both movies, even! Seb might not be America's Ass but he's got plenty else going on! (That link is NSFW y'all.) All that said if you need me I'm gonna be over here doing this pose for the next several hours:
Madame Blanc: I don't know how aware you are of what times we lived through here 40 years ago, out of which this piece was made. We learned at great cost through those years the value of the balance of things. Every arrow that flies feels the pull of the earth, but we must aim upwards. We need to get you in the air.
There is a sexy ass photo of Jeremy Allen White meeting Bruce Springsteen on the set of the Bruce Springsteen bio-pic that JAW is starring in -- I maintain that those jeans on Jeremy should be at least two sizes tighter...
... because who could ever forget how tight Bruce wore his back in the day. But I wouldn't be angry if they started making out. Bruce has still got it!
I say this only for the sake of historical verisimilitude obviously but those jeans definitely need to be tighter pic.twitter.com/Xp90MA0PRt
Is it enough for a movie to simply ask interesting questions in an entertaining manner? Not when they're as offensively and -- even worse, rotely -- answered as they are in Heretic, the religious thriller out this weekend from the screenwriters behind A Quiet Place. Really "the screenwriters behind A Quiet Place" should have been my first warning that this movie was going to be at its heart conservative gibberish, seeing as how that earlier film was at its heart a family-values tradwife fantasia. And really I don't know why I expected anything different going off Heretic's trailers which very clearly lay out that this movie was going to be anti-atheism.
I suppose I was hoping it would have more up its sleeve? That perhaps it would find more complicated ground to land upon than "The atheist is a maniac and these religious girls are goodness personified." The sad thing is is that all of the actors are terrific, including Hugh Grant as the villain who calls into question all aspects of organized religion. The film's at its best in its first two-thirds when he is accosting Sophie Thatcher's "Sister Barnes" and Chloe East's "Sister Paxton," two Mormons who make the mistake of stumbling through his door one stormy afternoon, with his ideas. It does, as I said up top, at least ask the questions, and put some uncomfortable truths about religion out there for mass public consumption.
But it is quite honestly irresponsible in the year of nobody's lord 2024 to land on the laziest of imaginable conclusions that Heretic lands on, equating people who don't believe in your harmful fucking fairy tales with sicko freaks.
I've taken a couple of movies in recent years to task for borrowing liberally from Pascal Laugier's 2008 masterpiece Martyrs without really grappling with what Martyrs was getting at -- Barbarian most recently, which turned the pointed pain and suffering at the heart of Laugier's angry film into a yippee fun rollercoaster ride. But Heretic borrows pretty liberally from Martyrs while outrageously flipping that movie's entire point around -- if Martyrs was about the terrifying danger of religious zealotry then Heretic is about the terrifying dangers of, uhhh, disbelief and doubt. What the fuck is this, the Inquisition?
Really, honestly, though -- is there anything lazier than villainizing disbelievers at this point in time? It's difficult to get into details since it's the last act where Heretic really shows its cards and stops having interesting thoughts about doubt, just grabbing firmly onto the easiest of answers, obliterating any goodwill it'd built up before then. Its skillful performances and manipulating of tension just blaze straight into the same old bullshit in defense of the status quo. So there's only so much credit I can give a movie for being "brave" talking about things other movies refuse to talk about when every conclusion it comes to is this craven. Heretic wears a loose skin-suit of edgy and thoughtful only to slip into something more comfortable -- conventional thinking. This is a horror movie that will make all the wrong people feel right.
"... how can you show the love if not the behavior, from the way in which bodies interact, and their faces interact, and their saliva mixes? There was a huge level of commitment from these incredible actors who are basically so happy to do what they love doing — perform!"
That is Luca Guadagnino talking to Variety about filming -- what else? -- sex scenes in Queer, his William Burroughs adaptation out on November 27th starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey. Click on over for more thoughts on intimacy and semen from those actors -- I was just amused by Luca's exclamation at the end of that quote -- "Perform!" Click here to read my review if you haven't already -- and no I won't stop pushing it until the movie's out... on blu-ray. Let's be honest. Love these snaps of Craig included at Variety -- looking sharp, Danny boy.
There is a nice photo of Andrew Scott. Isn't that nice? Ahhh. Nice. Well now that nice is out of the way something less nice -- don't know if you've noticed but there's an election happening in the United States tomorrow. A very very important election. And I'm not going to tell you to vote -- you should fucking well know to vote, and to vote for Kamala Harris; I am generously assuming my readership isn't full of repugnant assholes and that you already understand all of that. But I am going to say that the election has my head in a tizzy so I don't expect to have much of substance to say for the next oh let's be kind to us and say the next 48 hours. My fantasy is that I go to the voting booth tomorrow morning and after insert my Kamala ballot into the machine a little mist-gun pops out and sprays a fine sleeping mist over me and the poll workers then cart us all into a back-room where we sleep until the second the election has been called. And then we all go dance in the streets because the evil shit-ass Republican fuckers have been banished forever, huzzah! That is my fantasy and my wish. But I don't foresee that happening -- meaning the sleeping-mist part; I am honestly optimistic about the election results going our way right now, although due to lasting 2016 PTSD I'm hesitant to say that out loud. So instead I will probably just be off violently refreshing news-sites to stress myself out and curling into a ball and eating everything within reach and probably popping three of four Xanax. Point being -- I don't know that I have a point. At this point I am basically just typing so I don't go back to curling up in a ball. If anybody has anything nice to share, tell me about it in the comments. And if nice stories come into my view and I find the wherewithal to share them I will do so, so maybe I can return the favor and momentarily take y'all's minds off the very real anxiety we're all experiencing. Like -- here's a gif of Jonathan Bailey. Enjoy it. We can do this! (Vote.)
I try not to post new photoshoots back to back like I am posting this Andrew Garfield photoshoot here back to back with the new Franz Rogowski one -- it's nice to have a break with you know words or something so we're not just a "hey look at the pretty man" blog -- but I am so infatuated with all of the pants that Andrew wears in this shoot that I can't control myself. They're all so comfy looking! We went through a period of me hating the way actors were being styled for awhile but right now I am feeling represented. I would happily wear every single item of clothing in these photos. Maybe it's the Fall styles? Give me sweater weather and I'm in my element! Hit the jump for them all...
If you'd have asked me last week if we'd be getting Bird star Franz Rogowski cosplaying as a Wall Street douchebag for the cover of the Financial Times magazine this week I'd have said, "You know what? The election is happening next week so it's entirely possible we might pop out the ass-end of a worm-hole and I am keeping all of my options open." So here's another weird sign o' the times -- exactly that has happened. The Rogowski thing, not the worm-hole thing, although who can even tell?
Anyway seeing Franz dressed up this way has me picturing him playing Patrick Bateman in the American Psycho remake that Luca Guadagnino is supposedly working on (honestly I'll eat my shoe if that film really happens) and... well it would certainly shake that project up. It would be a totally different take than Mary Harron's was! Oh who are we kidding -- Franz would knock it out of the park. He always does. It would be a bold choice though! Hit the jump for the entire photoshoot...
Did y'all see the interview at Indiewire with Lucas Bravo earlier this week where he very clearly tried pulling a Caruso (as in David) and complained in depth about the way his character on Emily in Paris has been written lately? (Hilariously calling his character "guacamole.") I never started watching EIP even with all its hot men because it looked truly insufferable, so I think you can guess which side I am on in this -- Lucas is no David Caruso! Look at him for god's sake! Anyway this comes along with...
... him having a new movie out today, so clearly he's got his gorgeous eyes turned big-screen-ward. The movie is called Freedom (aka Libre) and it tells the true story of "the gentleman robber" Bruno Sulak who commited a heap of robberies in France in the 1970s and 80s -- it was directed by Inglourious Basterds actress Mélanie Laurent and you wanna know what? It's pretty good! It's sleek and sexy...
... and fun in the way of movies like The Thomas Crown Affair, and Lucas is genuinely terrific in it. I dug it but I will admit -- he's so easy on the eyes I possibly cannot be trusted. I mean... he gets naked in it. Just saying! I'm supposed to retain my critical faculties in the face of such a barrage? But you can judge for yourselves since the movie was released here in the U.S. right onto Prime Video. And to prep yourself hit the jump for the rest of these photos...
... and why would we speak of anything else... the unbelivable has happened! The fine folks over at Vinegar Syndrome have finally, finally, FINALLY, got the rights to release Richard Brooks' 1977 film Looking For Mr. Goodbar -- and on 4K no less! This film contains my favorite Diane Keaton performance -- which is saying a lot since I'm a huge fan -- plus peak Richard Gere. It also has one of the most disturbing endings ever put on-screen so, you know, that's fun. Anyway this hasn't gotten a release since VHS way back in the day -- the story was that the rights to the music in the film made a new release cost prohibitive, but it would appear they got that sorted out! Pre-order the disc right here -- they won't ship until sometime in December but do expect to use up your pateince waiting, VS tends to be kind of slow on that front. Especially when it comes to these big sales. I cannot believe we're finally going to get Richard Gere doing push-ups in a jockstrap in 4K!! Just think how much better this gif will be:
That's not all Vinegar Syndrome has of import this month, though -- they're also releasing Red Rooms, the Quebecois serial killer thriller that I reviewed at Fantasia Fest last year and which I just re-watched a week or so ago and loved even more with a second view. This movie is fantastic. And they're releasing Bent, the searing gay holocaust drama that stars Clive Owen and which features Clive & Nikolaj Coster-Waldau memorably going at it in its opening scenes...
Heads-up, happy people! The vast library of our beloved Criterion Collection is on sale on Amazon right now at 50% off! This will presumably be for the entire month of November as they do this to compete with the same sale at Barnes & Noble that typically starts a little later in the month. That means it also includes pre-orders for movies out before the end of November, which includes Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water, the original Godzilla in 4K, and Paper Moon in 4K! And of course it includes last month's barnstormer of an excellent drop with Todd Solondz' Happiness, a Val Lewton horror double-feature, All of Us Strangers, and that to-die-for Gregg Araki trilogy! And then there's the issue of that massive 40-film 40th anniversary box-set that Criterion is releasing on November 17th -- that's not priced at the full 50% off right now but it is priced at $400, so $10 a movie, which seems like a damn good deal already. Anyway point being click on those links and treat yourselves to some movies, it will distract you from... [gestures wildly]
The onslaught of flirty Pedro Pascal / Paul Mescal / Joseph Quinn promotional content for Gladiator II's oncoming release has been relentless for the past couple weeks and yet I've done a terrible, a downright terrible, job of keeping up with it. This post is not an attempt to rectify that though -- this is a collapse, more like. I give up. I'm also extremely tired and braindead this morning so perhaps we'll chalk it up to that but I couldn't even keep on keeping on looking up an approrpiate "Good Morning" themed photo. No this one of Pedro looking like he's about to snap Paul's neck is more Today's Mood than anything. I need to catch up on sleep this weekend -- October takes a lot out of me. Anyway hello, happy Friday, hope you one and all had a nice Halloween evening. Now let's see if this coffee I'm holding has any effect...
Let's all go to the movies, let's all go to the moooovies, let's all go to the movies... and have ourselves a snack! I know I shamefully haven't done one of our "Ways Not To Die" series in awhile but since it's the greatest day of the year today I figured we should celebrate and what better way than with one of the greatest death scenes in all of cinema? Hit the jump for our take on the movie theater scene in 1973's Messiah of Evil...
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