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She Is Ann Lee, Hear Her Roar

One of last year's most slept on upon great movies was Mona Fastvold's The Testament of Ann Lee, a rapturous musical  starring Amanda Seyfried as the Quaker founder -- the film was weird and unexpected and in the words of Anya Jenkins "never going to become a breakaway pop hit." Still it made my top ten of the year and what are we doing here if we're not believing what I say??? But since the movie didn't do well at the box office or the awards bodies it seemed as if getting a physical media release of the thing was D.O.A. -- I still don't know if we'll ever get a blu-ray (there were headlines when it hit VOD that it indeed wouldn't be getting this) but thankfully one barrier's now been smashed down as Milan Records has announced the soundtrack from the great Daniel Blumberg IS getting a vinyl release, and you can pre-order it right here. Hooray! This score is absolutely gorgeous -- being a non-musical person this is exactly what I want from my "musicals" honestly. Real music! That lands in September -- and hey maybe if the thing sells well they'll give us a goddamned blu-ray of the movie itself. Sorry, Ann Lee -- a "gosh-darned" blu-ray, I meant to say. Anyway I guess THE MAN Daniel Blumberg has enough sway to get his shit released, as HE did with THE MAN Brady Corbet's The Brutalist -- THE WOMAN writer-director and WIFE of Brady Corbet Mona Fastvold should try being more of a MAN I guess. (Sexism comes in all forms, y'all.)

Good Morning, World

It doesn't seem right that I've brought up the hot hockey show Off Campus a couple of times now thanks to actor Josh Heuston -- who's on it but doesn't even play a hot hockey player -- without mentioning actor Belmont Cameli, who's on the show and very much plays a hot hockey player. Indeed he even gives us a soapy gratuitous shower scene for the ages therein. (I only know this because I frequent the internet places where such gifs are freely available -- I have not watched the show.) And what with it being Hump Day it only feels even more appropriate to share these gifs -- and a sidenote: I imagine we'll revisit Belmont down the road as even without having seen the boy in anything I've already got a folder fulla goodies, but for now we'll rein ourself in to the subject at hand. Hit the jump for the hot humpy hockey boy gifs...

Pillion Reaching Completion

It's been a long hard ride for Pillion and the people who love it -- the dom-com starring Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling edged us all fall awards season long (I saw and reviewed it at NYFF in October) only to wait until February to give us a U.S. theatrical release proper. The Oscars ignored it (because of course they did, they're lame) and I put it in my top five movies of the year, and now after all this time, it's finally coming... out on blu-ray! A24 dropped the pre-order earlier today -- grab it at this link. I don't really understand why it's not 4K but at least they're promising the "unrated  theatrical cut" which... I have no idea what that means to be honest. I saw it like three times but they were all in the fall during festival and awards screenings -- I never could really suss out what cut was what after that. I guess I'll know when I sit down and watch this after it ships out in July. Just in time for my birthday! Bend me over a picnic table and give me my present, Alex! 

Where There's a Will...

I have a screening this afternoon. The movie may or may not have this fellow in it. I'm not saying! But I am going to put him in front of you until I'm back in a couple of hours anyway. Bye til then.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Body Heat (1981)

Ned: Maybe you shouldn't dress like that.

Matty: This is a blouse and a skirt. 

I don't know what you're talking about.

Ned: You shouldn't wear that body.

God there is so much snappy dialogue in Body Heat, I love it so much -- I could've chosen a dozen other lines to highlight (see also here); it's why I think it's one of the most successful of the neo-noirs that popped up in the 70s and 80s (alongside Chinatown of course). The dialogue harkens beautifully back to the genre's heyday where the verbal playfulness between the lovers-to-be reveals not just their desire but their danger -- anybody who can whip out a double entendre this fast isn't to be trusted. And it also helps when the people are as sexy as William Hurt and Kathleen Turner are in this scorcher. Anyway we're here of course because Lawrence Kasdan's sweaty masterpiece is hitting 4K thanks to the Criterion Collection today -- go snatch up a copy stat! How hot is that cover art too? Humina humina!

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Good Morning, World

Well blessings be upon us this Tuesday morning -- Mr. Colman Domingo has gone and covered Men's Health this week and granted us a photoshoot for the ages. This man is 56 y'all. FIFTY-SIX. I don't even have words. I will add this feels significant though because we've got an out gay black man on the cover of Men's Health -- granted I think, given all the coverage I've given this magazine for its slutty shoots over the past few years, this magazine skews gayer than it did when I was a wee gayling sneaking glances in the grocery-store checkout line. But still. Go on, Colman. He's proved himself a legend, an icon, by now, I think. So hit the jump for an iconic(ally sexy) shoot...

Who's Getting Safe in August? We All Are!

I don't mean to besmirch the rest of Criterion's just today announced line-up for August 2026 but when the headliner is Todd Haynes' 1995 masterpiece Safe getting a 4K upgrade I'm going to be somewhat hyper-focused. Haynes has several masterpieces under his belt but I'd say this is the crown-jewel -- or to continue the belt metaphor this would be the buckle. And now I need to own a belt buckle that has that famous image from the poster of that woman in her white body-suit lurching like Bigfoot through a field. (Which reminds me that I own a copy of the original Safe poster and how the hell is that not hanging on my wall?) Anyway I couldn't cough up enough superlatives about this movie -- I think it's one of the greatest American films ever made, and it only feels more resonant and affecting with every year that passes. While I'm still dying for Velvet Goldmine to get an upgrade already -- long long long overdue, that one -- the ocassion of Safe in 4K is a hallelujah moment if ever there was one. That lands on August 4th.

Safe aside August will also bring a double-feature of Barbara Kopple documentaries -- her most celerated one Harlan County USA from 1976 is getting the 4K upgrade from a previous release, while 1990's American Dream, about a labor strike in Austin in the mid0-80s is hitting the Collection for the first time. I've never seen the latter so that'll be something to look forward to. 

Next up is French legend Bertrand Tavernier's 1981 classic Coup de torchon starring Isabelle Huppert in a Jim Thompson adaptation about a corrupt cop in West Africa and the dangerous and unprectiable gal he falls for. "Dangerous and Unpredictable" -- has there ever been  a quicker distillation of The Whole Huppert Thing? After that there's James Gray's directorial debut Little Odessa from 1994 -- I have never seen this! Could this be the movie that convinces me James Gray deserves the hype people throw on him? Because I have yet to really get it. With a cast that includes Tim Roth, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximillian Schell, and Edward Furlong... uhh I don't know where I was going with that. With every name that list of names got weirder and weirder and threw me off. Anyway the final August release from our favorite physical media barons is a box-set of documentaries from the Japanese legends Kazuo Hara & Sachiko Kobayashi -- Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 and The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On have both been on my To Watch list for years and years so I embrace this golden opportunity to fill them holes. In summation -- SAFE IN 4K!!!!!!

Double Oh Arty

I just happened to be looking at that picture of Daredevil villain and Downton fop Arty Froushan this morning -- "just happened" -- and it struck me: why not Arty for James Bond? He was born in the U.S. but was raised by his British mother in London -- they want someone younger and he's only 33. We need to be putting Arty's name (and everything else) into the conversation! They just started officially casting last week (although I have my doubts that they haven't been having conversations with actors and their own team at Amazon behind the scenes for months) and who knows where they're going with the franchise but I think all roads should lead to Arty. I have just decided it right now. Nothing else will make me happy. And you won't like me when I'm angry, Jeff Bezos! (Also fuck you, Jeff Bezos.) Anyway 007 or not I have now posted that photo above so my mission is accomplished. (Ooh an Ethan Hunt reboot! I know who'd be perfect for that!)

Josh Heuston Eight Times

Much as many of us would like to seize his something-or-other, Josh Heuston is sezing his moment with the release of his horny hockey series Off Campus -- yes, there's another one, only not gay unfortunately -- with a photoshoot worth the word "shoot" in all its many meanings for Artchive magazine. We just posted about Josh on Friday thanks to a slutty selfie and here we are again -- I would beg, Josh, but I am glad you're not making us. Hit the jump for the rest of your (ahem) shoot... 

Private Hells For Everybody!

Nicholas Winding Refn's latest movie Her Private Hell starring Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton among others is about to premiere at Cannes, so today they dropped the teaser -- Thatcher and Melton (and Charles Melton's tits) are the main focus of it so I am assuming they're the main characters, our leading lady and lad. And tits.

As I told you back on the 1st we don't have forever ages to go until we can see this ourselves -- Neon is releasing it on July 24th. Thank goodness. Looks like a perfect Summer Movie -- really all Refn movies are Summer Movies. Everybody is hot and sweaty and mean. Anyway the teaser gives away very little -- just showcases NWR's style, the real star of the show, so feel free to watch: 

Pumping Jonathan Bailey

Gays supporting gays! You love to see it, especially when they're this hot and Jonny Bailey's popping a bicep like that -- the only good thing in the Wicked movies went to see Luke Evans and his headline-grabbing bulge in the new staging of Rocky Horror this weekend and we were all graced with this perfect moment captured. Huzzah. Anyway even though I could do a whole post for just that picture I have got something else on deck -- Deadline reported this morning that Mr. Bailey will be starring opposite one Natalie Portman in a movie called, ahem, Pumping Black. Is that an actual term that cyclists use? Because it's a movie about cyclists -- Jonny will be playing one who's aging out of the sport who gets taken under the nefarious wing of Portman's character, a doctor who "will stop at nothing" to win. So Pumping Black Swan, basically. Good lord -- I'm sorry, you can't put "pumping" in your movie title no matter what, but especially not with Jonathan Bailey there.  Am I really expected to spend the next, what, year, year and a half, no being sent into a tailspin whenever I think about these things together?? 

Good Morning, World

I am just going to assume that most of you who care about such things already saw the photos of Finn Jones here on the set of the next season of Daredevil Born Again, meaning a controversial return for him to the Iron Fist character -- those give me some sort of reason to be talking about Finn Jones at all, who I haven't seen in anything since then. I'll be damned though if he doesn't look perhaps the best he's ever looked in these new photos here though, so good on ya, Finn. I never watched Iron Fist, I only knew him via the group-up series The Defenders (plus his gay bit on Game of Thrones of course) and he left little impression on me (with Charlie Cox and Mike Colter standing there who stood a chance)  but I am willing and open to what ya got to bring now, Finn. Anyway! Happy Monday! I have a busy day ahead so it might be a little quiet. We shall see. 

Nicholas Hoult Wants To Play Master

I don't know if you kept checking back on my post of photos of Nicholas Hoult rocking this leather ensemble at the Met Gala the other week but if you only saw it the one time I recommend going back and scanning down as I went off. And with good reason! And I'm extremely thankful to've found even more photos from that blessed event today because we've got Nicky News to share and I wouldn't want to share it with any other photos. And it's super duper incredible Nicky News too. Hhe is teaming up with God's Own Country filmmaker Francis Lee -- right??? We're already excited -- to remake the 1963 Joseph Losey classic of homoerotic domination The Servant! (thx Mac) I only saw The Servant (which stars Dirk Bogarde and a delicious James Fox) this past year for the first time when Criterion released it and it is already hot hot hot stuff in that very restrained and coded way of its time -- wondering how Lee will update this all has me... 

... feeling things. The same sort of things these pictures of Nicky wearing leather makes me feel, actually. Anyway I'm not even done with all the incredible news here -- Hoult (who's playing the Fox role of course) will be starring opposite Colman Domingo in the Bogarde role of the man-servant who flips the script on his boss-man. Lee's version will relocate the story from the Swinging 60s in London of the original movie to 1950s New York -- and the fact that race has entered the chat due to Colman's casting will surely add some wrinkles when it comes to the power dynamics between the two men. Anyway as if all of THAT wasn't enough (and it was!) Hamnet hottie Noah Jupe (click here, click here) is also in the cast. This is unfathomably awesome movie news to end the week with! 

Time To Get Obsessed With Michael Johnston

I thought I might spend 2026 feeling more in line with my fellow critics on the horror movies than I did in 2025 -- when I wasn't jiving with movies lik Weapons and Good Boy that my peers were loving -- but my reaction to Obsession, writer-director Curry Barker's extremely well recieved new horror flick out in theaters now, has me second-guessing that instinct. Ciuz I didn't like it! Okay that's a bit harsh -- there are things I do like about it and I do mention them in my review which just dropped over at Pajiba, read it. But generally I think it's not nearly as daring as it believes itself to be -- although one thing I didn't mention there that I will mention here is that the film's leading man is played by that handsome fellow seen above; his name is Michael Johnston and I guess he was on the Teen Wolf series? 

I thought we'd run out of hot guys from that show by now who would force me to once again point out I never watched that show, but here we are. Anyway Johnston is good as the lead and he is very cute and, most importantly, he is also apparently openly gay! We love that for him! And for us! And our imaginations later. (He shows off his bum in the movie and it's one helluva bum y'all.) Anyway I bring up this fact not (just) so I could talk about his bum, but because the fact that casting a gay dude in this role is itself an extra-textual point in the movie's plus column. The movie is working very hard to obliterate the sad boy mindsets of incel straight dudes, and casting a gay guy to play that part is finely subversive stuff. I still think the movie doesn't really succeed with what it's trying to do for reasons I explain in the above-linked review, but it's got stuff going for it! My thoughts are really more mid than they are hateful. And hey that's something. Also something -- Google is telling me Mr. Johnston is partnered with a filmmaker named Anthony Sellitti who you can see below and umm... my goodness.

Tie Him Up With Ribbons

Twee gay absurdist and MNPP fave (as if calling someone a "twee gay absurdist" wouldn't already imply "MNPP fave" all on its own) Julio Torres is releasing a new book this year! It's called The Perfect Gift and in it Torres shares ideas and illustrations of gift ideas -- I'm sure it will take that concept to the same sort of bizarre conceptual places that his treatises on color did in his show Color Theories. (Which P.S. is now streaming on HBO Max!) The book's out in November and you can pre-order it right here -- below is one of the pages from the book to give you an idea of what you're in for. God I love him. I gotta re-watch Problemista stat.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

North By Northwest (1959)

Phillip Vandamm: Seems to me you fellows 

could stand  a little less training from the F.B.I. 

and a little more from the Actor's Studio.

Granted I've seen this movie approximately one thousand times but can't you just hear James Mason purring out that rejoinder? God what a voice that man had. I've already used one of these posts a few years back to expound upon the implied homosexual connection between Mason's character and his favorite side-piece henchman played by Martin Landau, but I could go on about how James Mason is like the paltonic ideal of a Hitchcock Baddie for days. Smooth as hell, a gentleman to the end, unspooling a truly ridiculous plot via ludicrous means -- sure why not send Cary Grant to the middle of nowhere to be shot at by a crop duster? Why not, I say! Anyway Mason was born 117 years ago today -- go watch one of his movies! You will not be disappointed. He was always the man.

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