First Comes Peace, Then Comes Out

Well I hate to do it to y'all but I'm making like Will Poulter there and peacing out for the weekend -- leaving now for a screening and then I've got a big fun root canal happening tomorrow morning so I'm just taking off the entire day. Wheeeeeeee, that will surely be a blast -- I'll think I'll spend some time going through more movies etc. to list on eBay. Sort through the pain! Speaking of though if you missed my begging post yesterday about my neediness click here -- this looming dental work is a part of that that I didn't mention! But thanks to everybody who's been kind enough to donate already -- it means a lot to me. Moving on -- I haven't got any reviews hitting this weekend but I will say that if you feel like seeing that "Naomi Watts and a big dog" movie The Friend I recommend it -- I saw it at NYFF in the fall and it's surprisingly low-key and moving and Watts is wonderful in it. I know when you hear it's a movie about people dealing with big animals in small apartments you think you've immediately got the entire movie written in your head but I promise you The Friend will surprise you. It's a lovely little piece of work. 

Oh and since I brought up Will Poulter up top this is also a good moment to share the below clip from his new movie Death of a Unicorn (also out this weekend), which showcases a scene that was the movie's highlight for me. Which isn't to say that I didn't like the movie -- it's a lot of goofy fun (Teo Leoni and Richard E Grant are hilarious) if perrrrhaps a tad too long -- but rather that if you have now-era Will Poulter in nothing but a pair of soaking wet shorts getting out of a hot tub, then that's gonna be your movie's highlight for me. That's just math. Have a good weekend, everybody.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Passenger (1975)

The Girl: Isn't it funny how things happen? All the shapes 

we make. Wouldn't it be terrible to be blind? 

David: I know a man who was blind. When he was 

nearly 40 years old, he had an operation and regained his sight.

The Girl: How was it like?

David: At first he was elated... really high. Faces... colors... 

landscapes. But then everything began to change. The world 

was much poorer than he imagined. No one had ever told him 

how much dirt there was. How much ugliness. He noticed 

ugliness everywhere. When he was blind... 

he used to cross the street alone with a stick. 

After he regained his sight... he became afraid. 

He began to live in darkness. He never left his room. 

After three years he killed himself.

God I love The Passenger. Really I love every Antonioni movie I've seen so I should 1) binge more of them because there's a lot I haven't seen and 2) write about his work more. (I mean I watch Blow Up when I need to relax.) Anyway to get to the point actress Maria Schneider was born 73 years ago today. (She passed away in 2011.) Besides starring opposite Jack Nicholson in the above movie she's of course best known for starring opposite Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris. And coincidentally there's a movie about Schneider's disturbing experiences making Tango with Brando & director Bernardo Bertolucci that's in theaters right now! It's called Being Maria and I'll share the trailer down below. Anamaria Vartolomei plays Schneider and Matt Dillon plays Brando, while...

... the extremely hot Italian actor Giuseppe Maggio plays Bertolucci in what you might be forced to call an exxxtreme glow-up. That was certainly a choice. A lot of one. That said I haven't seen Being Maria yet, but I've got a screener so hopefully I can dive in this weekend. I'm extremely curious to see how it tackles all the shit that Maria went through making that movie. Here's that trailer:

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Pic of the Day

As stated last evening I did indeed get to go and see Paul Mescal play Stanley Kowalski in the new production of the Teneessee Williams classic A Streetcar Named Desire currently running at BAM in Brooklyn -- if that photo I took during the bows last night didn't clue you in to that fact already. It's a very fine production and all three leads -- alongside our Paul (who I suppose I should note given my audience is in his underwear twice and shirtless several times -- I was in the front row only ten feet away y'all and I kept myself seated; please clap!) there's Patsy Ferran (from my beloved Living with Bill Nighy!) as Blanche and Anjana Vasan (from Killing Eve) as Stella and they're all very very good. I had a couple quibbles with the staging, but then I have got to admit that having seen Gillian Anderson play Blanche in 2016 kinda spoiled me on this play -- she gave what I called at the time the greatest stage performance I'd ever seen, and that remains true today. Anderson played Stella as very much a larger than life archetype though, making the show mythic in its proportions; Ferran smartly brings the character down to earth and so her performance, while not quite as shattering for me, stood on its own. And I think Mescal was a better Stanley than Ben Foster was opposite Anderson -- now I'm picturing Paul & Gillian doing the show together and kapow, mind blown. Anyway I'm very happy I was able to get out of my foul headspace last night and escape into somebody else's foul headspace for a bit -- thanks, Tenneessee! Below are a couple more photos I took:

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Gooding Morning, World

Here are three photos that Mason Gooding felt kind and generous enough to share with us on Instagram this week -- say thank you, everybody!

Tonight's Mood

Right on time to temporarily take my mind off my troubles I'm off to see Paul Mescal in the touchable flesh in the Brooklyn re-staging of A Streetcar Named Desire that he's starring in, after it's been carried over from London -- a couple of desperately needed hours of respite, long sighhhh. So needed. I'll probably spend the majority of the show feeling like he looks in the above photo from the show but hey -- at least I''ll be far uglier while doing it! Wow, a real ball of sunshine over here. Anyway! I might stake out the stage door after the show to get my [redacted] signed by Paul (from what I can tell he's been generous in that regard) so keep your eyes on my Insta maybe. Until tomorrow...

Pics of the Day

While we (impatiently) wait for Plainclothes, the 90s-set gay drama starring Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey to hit theaters -- although my waiting is probably less impatient than your waiting since I have already seen the movie thanks to Sundance, and reviewed it right here -- that movie's leading man Tom Blyth, who is excellent in it, has news of his next project to share. Specifically some photos he took in Senegal where he just finished shooting Claire Denis' next one titled The Cry of the Guards. It also stars Mia McKenna-Bruce, Matt Dillon, and Isaach De Bankolé, and here's how Variety describes it: "The story unfolds over the course of one night near a construction site in Senegal, where a group of workers are confronted by a man seeking justice for his brother’s death at the site." Sounds like a Claire Denis movie! Anyway post-Plainclothes I'll be following Blyth pretty much anywhere but a Claire Denis movie isn't a hard sell at all. Hit the jump for a few more of his photos...

Beggars Off Russell's Backside

Hey look it's Russell Crowe's bum in Virtuosity! Remember when that happened? That was a nice time for the entire family. Pretty sure this was the first time I ever saw Mr. Crowe and while I can't say that I have resolutely stayed a fan of his through the decades this was a perfect introduction. Anyway now that I have your attention this is one of those posts I hate posting but I am feeling the need to today given some unexpected financial difficulties -- and yes I'm deeply aware the world is burning so please feel free to skip on past if you're unable. There are also way more important causes to donate to right now -- I recommend the ACLU first and foremost. But if you have got an extra cent or ten after you've done that why not head on over to my eBay store and buy some movies from me? Like the 4K of Virtuosity, even! (I also added a couple of Michael Haneke box-sets which are total steals!) Plus vinyl and books and posters -- I've got tons of entertainment shite for sale and you can make offers on everything; don't feel the need to pay full price. Or if you don't want anything but would still like to help here is a link for that.You can also set up a monthly subscription over there in the right-hand column too. Or if you wanna use Venmo message me. I seriously appreciate any help, always and forever. Y'all rule. If blogging really dumb thoughts were pennies I'd be a millionaire, but unfortunately I'm just sort of treading (under)water these days. Thanks y'all, from both me and the Crowe butt. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Zone of Interest (2023)

Rudolf Höss: I wasn't really paying attention... I was too 

busy thinking how I would gas everyone in the room.

A happy 60 to the brilliant Jonathan Glazer today.

(Read my review of this masterpiece here.)

The Best Part of Breakin' Up

I guess the little nip of a taste of awards heat that Zendaya felt for her work in Challengers got to her because she's signed up for the surest thing going, nomination-wise -- a music biopic! She's going to star in a movie about the legendary singer Ronnie Spector. Thankfully she's hauling along some Grade A behind-the-scenes talent to make it happen though -- it will be written by Bones and All and Suspiria scribe Dave Kajganich (so one of Luca's right hand men) and it will be directed by, drum roll please, one Mr. Barry Jenkins! And the crowd goes wild. That's the good shit right there. So happy to have Barry off of Disney live-action-ing duties. Ronnie Spector of course had a wild life and the film will focus in on the wildest part, her marriage and partnership with Phil Spector. So uhh who plays Phil then? Any casting suggestions?

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Groff

Happy 40 to Jonathan Groff today!

Wrap Me in Reynor

Florence Pugh (because she is very good, mind you!) has a tendency to swallow up her male co-stars' deserved attention. We saw it with Lady Macbeth and how long it took the world to cotton to her co-star in that, Cosmo Jarvis. And it seems to've happened again with Jack Reynor, Pugh's Midsommar leading man -- he ran around with his willy out (as did Cosmo actually) and for what? Bupkis for years, while she's off starring in Avengers movies. Feminism run amok! In all seriousness I think Jarvis and Reynor stood every bit her equal in those movies so I was very happy when Cosmo started getting attention thanks to Shogun, as I am very happy now to see that Reynor's booked a big leading man gig -- he is going to star in a new version of The Mummy for Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin. I don't think I mentioned it on here but I finally got around to seeing Wolf Man, the Christopher Abbott reboot of that Universal Monster, and I liked it way more than its reputation suggested? I loved its single night structure and I found the dissolving relationship of the family unit surprisingly moving! That movie got a bum rap. (Anyway it's on blu-ray now so you should give it a chance if you missed it.) And Cronin is maybe an even better director than Leigh Whannell -- Cronin's 2019 horror flick The Hole in the Ground is tremendously fine (here is my review). So I'm curious to see what they do with the Mummy mythology and I think Jack will look good covered in sand -- count me in! And since we're here I unearthed something of my own -- an attractive Jack Reynor photoshoot from 2022 that I apparently never posted. So hit the jump for it... 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Night Moves (1975)

Harry: Listen Delly, I know it doesn't make 

much sense when you're sixteen. Don't worry. 

When you get to be forty, it isn't any better.

Arthur Penn's classic 70s neo-noir Night Moves has hit the Criterion collection in glorious 4K today, as we previously forecasted -- and (unfortunately) there's probably a never better time to revisit it given the recent passing of its star Gene Hackman. Some people consider this his greatest performance! I'd have to go with The Conversation on that front but this one's sure no slouch. Very much worth seeing.

In related news I watched Penn's 1966 film The Chase for the first time over the weekend and I actually found it a really fascinating film. It's not perfect, it's wildly all over the place (and with an unwieldy cast that includes Marlon Brando, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall, James Fox, E.G. Marshall, and Miriam Hopkins that's to be expected), but as a portrait of the societal tensions (both racial and economic) of that chaotic moment in time it really gets across the feeling of a world on the brink of madness. And as I said in my brief Letterboxd take it really feels like the kind of movie our current moment is really screaming out for. Any fans of The Chase? Or Night Moves for that matter?

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Noah Centineo

Well here's one we've been waiting for a month and a half for -- I won't bother to say "patiently" waiting since I've been screaming inside every other day over it -- as a big batch of Noah Centineo's photoshoot for Behind the Blinds has dropped at last! I posted three extremely sexy photos from this shoot on February 12th but it's been nothing but edging off those ever since -- big throbbing thanks to the photographer Sam Ramirez for sharing these at last! 

Per usual Behind the Blinds still hasn't posted the photos themselves on their website since they presumably want people to buy their actual magazine, and who can blame them? Not me! I recommend you do go buy their magazine because their shoots have been feeding us well over the past few years -- they do wonderful work and bless them for it. But that's not going to stop me from posting these photos here because damn damn damn Noah. Hit the jump...  

Arnaud Valois Thirteen Times

I can't say for sure if this'll be every photo of actor Arnaud Valois in the new issue of Behind the Blinds magazine because they haven't actually posted the photoshoot on their site yet -- I've gathered these up over the past week from a few different Instagram accounts. Because I do the work! But it's a nice big batch anyway and since I'm carrying a big mean case of the Mondays right now I figured why not drop some sunshine and lollipops onto us? 

I've been enamored with this gallic stunner since he starred in the great B.P.M. -- and now that I mention it a re-watch of the great B.P.M. suddenly feels timely as fuck. A movie about righteously antagonizing the ruthless powers that be? Sign me up. I could use the booster shot. Anyway until I manage to slip myself at least marginally outta this funk (ha good luck with that) let's just enjoy these photos of the inspirational Arnaud after the jump...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Happy Monday... well you know. All things depending.  I think we all feel like Patrick Schwarzenegger in this scene from last night's White Lotus these days -- a little sick, a little terrified, every time we wake up -- and who can blame us? Mike White tapping into the zeitgeist in a way only he could! Chaos reigns at home and abroad and entertainmentally speaking. Good times. I suppose this is where I ask y'all what you though of that episode if you watched it? I'm trying to be non-spoilery although these two gifs obviously say a little bit! Feel free to jump in in the comments, and I'll even give you a bouncing off point here with Sam Nivola's lil' bum...

Pic of the Day

Having seen Death of a Unicorn last night I'm now back on my Will Poulter bullshit, real hard -- he spends a good majority of this movie wearing small shorts, and he has an excellent hot-tubbing scene as well! -- and so I wasn't going to resist sharing this photo of Will with Jacob Elordi on the set of their upcoming rainbow drama On Swift Horses. I mean I wasn't going to resist sharing this photo whether I'd just seen Will in soaking wet trunks in a new movie last night or not! Anyway if you missed the trailer it's right here and if you missed the new hot photos of the other dude in the movie -- one Diego Calva -- that I shared yesterday click here. On Swift Horses is out on April 25th! Not even a month to go!