Pic of the Day

The fine folks over at Neon just shared this image of a shirtless, bloodied Charles Melton on their Instagram to celebrate Nicolas Winding Refn's Her Private Hell getting a R-rating for "STRONG / BLOODY VIOLENCE, SEXUAL CONTENT, AND LANGUAGE" aka all of my favorite things. Seriously if I were to re-write that song from The Sound of Music it'd be like "Blood drops on big pecs and whipping sex kittens" and so on (sorry I am not re-writing that entire song right now, that's all you're gonna get from me). Anyway point being gimme this movie! The baffled and hostile reactions at Cannes only made me more excited than I was before. I cannot wait. Click here if you missed the teaser trailer -- it's out on July 24th! (And yes I am really hoping there's a press screening nine nights before so it can be my birthday present.) 

The Poodle Breeder Horror Movie

Another Tribeca review from yours truly for y'all to consume this afternoon -- this time we're talking Breeder, the horror movie about a... poodle breeder? Yes, a poodle breeder. It sells itself really. That said I did overall like this movie while also having some issues with it that I get into -- read my review right here. I know I'm beginning to sound like a semi-hysteric on this front but there seems to be a lot of straight white men making horror movies right now where they think are dissecting this moment's straight-white-manhood when they are really just falling into tropes of othering people who are not straight white men. And I don't so much like this aspect of horror right now! Call me crazy but that bit's not so cool! Anyway IFC and Shudder snatched this movie as it premiered at Tribeca because "The Poodle Breeder Horror Movie" is the easiest fucking sell in the world, so you'll all get to see this movie this fall. Then you can decide if I am indeed a hysteric. (I am sure most of you already decided "yes" on that but whatever.)

RSVP Hell Yes

I don't know why I thought I was embargoed with regards to sharing my opinion on Olivia Wilde's upcoming comedy The Invite -- which stars her and Seth Rogen as a married couple who invite their neighbor couple, played by Ed Norton and Penelope Cruz, over for dinner and, uhh, it goes wild -- but I just realized now that I am not embargoed, and so I feel the need to immediately shout from the rooftops that this movie is the funniest movie I have seen in a movie theater (or not in a movie theater) in a very long time. I honestly haven't openly unreservedly guffawed inside a theater like this movie had me going in I don't know how long -- I honestly don't remember the last time. I'm not tasked with writing a review so I'll probably leave it this simple -- go see this movie, go make this movie a hit, so we can get more smart silly adult comedies in movie theaters please. Below is the first look at the film from A24 -- it's out in "select theaters" next Friday and then wide on July 10th. With this and Gregg Araki's I Want Your Sex coming later in July Olivia Wilde has officially completely flipped around that rough patch her career was going through circa the Harry Styles mess -- good for her.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Gooding, Mason, World

This photo of Mason Gooding (via) is as close as I'm going to be getting to his upcoming comedy 72 Hours since I'm a deeply anxious person and Kevin Hart's constant screaming in all of his movies makes me have to run for the exit. But I am happy to have this photo of Mason! Hopefully there will be more and I can eventually see all of those online, silently, removed from all of their context. I admit I'm feeling particularly high-strung this morning -- I figured I'd be fine, coming in to work this morning, since the Knicks Parade that's happening downtown literally ends fifteen blocks from where my office is. Reader, I was mistaken. My subway was slow, crowded, and getting off was even worse -- trying to just get my coffee and get to my building's front door was some "Nam shit. I am shook. I mean listen, as much as I loathe sports I've been generous with this basketball stuff in NYC for the past few weeks -- I liked seeing my city celebrating and excited. But those were night-time things! Don't come between me and my Dunkin at 8:30 in the morning, yo. 

 

Josh Heuston Two Times

This gorgeous man's reign of terror on me personally continues on unabated with these new photos from GQ Australia -- there are a couple more at this link if you think you can summon the strength to not tear your own face off for its inadequacies once you've done so. I myself have not the willpower! My face has already been ripped off five times today, and now it's just loosely stapled to my skull, half flapping in the breeze. Wow this post took a turn didn't it? It's a good thing nobody reads what I write here -- not when there's Josh to be stared at anyway. I could say anything! And I love that, much like Ray Stantz before me, when pressed to think of something random I immediately thought of marshmallows. I have been dying for a marshmallow lately. I think it is that when I was visiting upstate home a few weeks back I was momentarily offered s'mores but then said s'mores never came to fruition. How cruel is that? To renege on s'mores? What kind of a monster does such a thing? I will never get over that. Never. Anyway good night. 

Gay Sex & Murder Ships, Oh My

Every gay story shouldn't be sad of course but y'all know I can't resist the ones that are -- my masochism, well-earned, runs deep. And with that I send you over to my Pajiba review of Labrador: Autopsy of Silence, a wonderful and yes sad and yes gay and yes Canadian movie that just premiered at Tribeca last week. It's a beautiful little heartbreaker of a thing, and its leading man Christopher Angatookalook gives one of the best newcomer performances I've seen in quite awhile. And for once it's not just me saying this -- he won an award at the fest for his work! The movie also won best International Feature (as well as Best Cinematography) and I think it was more than justified doing so -- it's a really special movie. I do recommend! Oh and since we're talking here at MNPP right now I will add, in a slutty whisper, that there is a crazy hot gay sex scene included as well. Bonus! Tuck that info away for future reference. 

HOT GAY COUPLE IN A MOVIE ALERT: Christopher Angatookalook and Alexandre Landry in LABRADOR: AUTOPSY OF SILENCE at Tribeca are absolute SCORCHERS tribecafilm.com/films/labrad...

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) June 6, 2026 at 11:57 PM

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

City of the Living Dead (1980)

Blonde gravedigger: Will you check her out? 

Talk about a "box lunch". 

Gravedigger: I'm telling you, you'll end up a dirty old man 

reading that stuff. A pervert. A peeping tom. I saw this 

porno flick once. This guy in the audience got so carried away 

with it, he humped himself to death. 

Blonde gravedigger: Yeah, but what a way to go.

Just a heads-up to all of my Fulci Freaks out there that today marks the 99th anniversary of the great gore-maestro's birth! That means you've only got one year to create your centennial maggot-masks and wood-shard-eye-sockets and cow-intestine-tongues with which to celebrate! Get to goring! Okay actually now that I think about it, maybe starting a year early with half of that stuff is a bad idea -- it will start to stink real fast. Especially the intestines thing. Check out your refridgeration situation first I guess. Anyway yes here's to 99 years of Fulci -- I love several of his movies a lot but I do think City of the Living Dead will probably always be my favorite, and that discussion above, bringing Shakespeare into the age of Italian sleaze, is a good reprsentative moment why. To be or not to be, to jerk off to death or not to jerk off to death -- ehh what's the difference? What a king. 

Couple Quick Capsules

As I've said about thirty three thousand times this week I've been busy writing reviews of films I saw at the Tribeca Film Festival, which ended on Sunday, and that's why it's been a wee bit quiet in here. A couple of those will be dropping this afternoon (I think) but I do want to take a moment anyway to jot down some very fast off-the-cuff thoughts about a pair of new-ish horror movies that I watched on my own (i.e. not for the fest) in the past couple of days. Because they both ruled and I should say so!

Mārama (dir. Taratoa Stappard) -- It's not often you see an entire new sub-genre of horror film present itself these days, but if we could get about one hundred more "Gothic Maori" horror movies in the coming years I wouldn't side-eye askance at that. I'd be in heaven after this here unexpected meeting of flavors burst in my mouth in the most incredible of ways.  Ariana Osborne (who often seems a dead ringer for Lily-Rose Depp in Nosferatu) plays "Mary", a Maori girl who finds herself shipped off to not-so-jolly-ol Victorian England by a colonialist dickhead (Toby Stephens) whose got a fetish for her people (enslaving them, mostly) and wants to have Mary teach his own daughter about their ways. What Mary is faced with in quick succession is a bunch of upper-crust British assholes play-acting racist tropes -- thankfully she's got some will of her own and is no wilting Bronte gal, but damn this movie slaps. Visually and thematically a feast. Stappard is clearly one to watch.

Is God Is (dir.  Aleshea Harris) -- A tale of blistering revenge that will probably, and purposefully, make you think of Quentin Tarantino (tcasting Vivica A. Fox as the mother being avenged will do that), but writer-director Aleshea Harris along with her two incredible lead performers Mallori Johnson and Kara Young (as twin sisters Anaia and Racine) hand in something all their own here. A lot of Southern Gothic, dripping with moss and heat, with a real fire burning in its belly -- its heroines, who sink into the moral morass of their parentage no matter how hard they fight against it, are to my eye immediate movie icons, like nobody you've ever seen on-screen before and completely impossible to look away from. Oh and Sterling K. Brown should only play villains from now on. Anyway this is completely spellbinding stuff -- I absolutely cannot wait to see what Harris drops next. 

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Oh and as an aside I just realized that both of these incredible movies are debut features and holy shit does that make me optimistic for our movie future. Hey, websites and entertainment magazines, how about some cover-stories that talk about the British-Maori man and the black woman who just dropped two of this year's truly great horror films, instead of just slobbering obvious praise all over the two straight white YouTube dudes who made the most financially successful yet nevertheless mediocre ones? Just a thought! Puttin' it out there!

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Austin Nichols seems happy to see us this morning.

A Kit Grows in Brooklyn

There have been so many photos of Kit Harington looking blisteringly hot on the Brooklyn set of his upcoming Hulu limited series Count My Lies that I've stopped keeping track of them because -- Depressing! Why aren't I there??? However these new tank-topped photos today have broken past my willful ignorance at light speed and so here we are, suffering for his art once again. Lord whoever almighty just transport me to this place! Even if I end up half-stuck in the pavement when I rematerialize there it will have been worth it for a single glimpse of this in person. Anyway in related news it was just announced (via, thx Max) that François Arnaud will also be co-starring in this series, so we can possibly look forward to seeing Kit and François being photographed together, as well as my immediate and one hundred percent related to this death. ETA I dug up a few more photos so do hit the jump for them...

Pics of the Day

Another day now where the Tribeca fest has officially ended yet I'm busy pounding out reviews from it that you're not seeing just yet -- just know I'm doing the work! And you'll see fruit from it soon enough. Anyway here's a good quick thing to share -- a pair of new photos of the boys from my beloved Leviticus, writer-director Adrian Chiarella's new queer horror classic (says me) that's out on Friday. (thx Mac) Yes this very Friday of this very week! I hope you are excited -- you should be excited. Here is my review from a couple of weeks back when it screened at NewFest. Check Neon's website to see if it's opening near you -- they tend to be helpful with getting that knowledge out there and this one's getting a surprisingly robust theatrical count for its opening weekend. Pessimist that I am I won't pretend I don't think its box office will pale in comparison to much-lesser movies like Backrooms and Obsession -- it's emphatically a film about queerness, as opposed to you know men hating women or pirates. But I love that Neon is pushing the movie so hard -- give them your money! This movie's so worth it.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Gratuitous Hayden Michael Brown

Last night when I saw Tom Holland's sexy leggy cover for the new issue of Esquire UK I'd figured he'd be getting this morning's "Good Morning" post but you know what? From a glance at the rest of the photos that dropped on the magazine's Insta this morning it seems like the only hot-shot is the cover and then everything inside the magazine is milquetoast and I'm tired of Tom baiting us. So no "Good Morning" post for you, Tom! Instead I'm going with a dude with one acting credit to his name and it was on that Ryan Murphy show starring Kim LastNameIDoNotType. Cuz that's how I roll.

His name is Hayden Michael Brown and that show was called All's Fair and I never watched a single second of it -- even though (save Kim) it had a cast of extremely talented and charismatic actors including Naomi Watts, Niecy Nash, Teyana Taylor, Sarah Paulson and Glenn fuckin' Close, among many others, it got some of the most horrendous reviews I've seen in some time. But I doubt that was hottie Hayden here's fault -- he was only in two episodes and...

...  I can't imagine he wasn't hired to mainly showcase how hot he is. And boy looks hot! And yes of course he does since he's mainly a model, which explains how I managed to gather up dozens upon dozens of photos of him even though his only acting credit is two episodes of a deeply despised Ryan Murphy show. Maybe at this point you're wondering how the hell I stumbled upon Hayden all of a sudden this week without having seen his Very Important Two Episode Arc on All's Fair then? A fair question! Twas those dastardly chaps at Behind the Blinds magazine...

... who were behind it again, featuring this young fellow in one of their latest photoshoots. They always got my number over there at Behind the Blonds excuse me Blinds. (That was a real genuine typo but clearly I'm keeping it.)  Anyway -- take notes, Tom Holland! This is how you get ahead in this business. Spider-who? Ody-what? Exactly. Hayden who and what and I'll tell him "where" when he gets here. Hit the jump for dozens more of Hollywood's new everything...

Two Secret Lovers, Wagner & Me

Although Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent was one of my favorite movies out of last year it's not the September 2026 Criterion release that got announced today that I am the most thrilled about, for one simple reason -- we already knew that Criterion was releasing this film on disc. That news had been spoiled months ago. But I don't think it takes a brain surgeon to figure out why I'm nevertheless beginning this post with that picture of The Secret Agent's leading man Wagner Moura. I think we all got it! I am a simple man. Anyway this will release be on 4K, it comes out on September 22nd, and this movie is probably pretty much an undistputed masterpiece -- if you haven't seen it yet do, and then just buy the damned disc. Or blind-buy it. I really doubt you'll be unhappy you did. It's one of those rich feasts of movie that we hardly ever get anymore. Moving on to more feasts...

... the September release that has not just knocked my socks off but shot them right across the room is the box-set of three Leos Carax movies! Fuck yeah and yes please! If we were just talking about his first film, Boy Meets Girl, which I only just saw for the first time a couple of years ago and fell deeply madly and completely in love with upon first sight, that'd be enough here. But it also includes his two Binoche!-starring follow-ups, Mauvais Sang and The Lovers on the Bridge -- amongst Juli's best roles, which is really saying something when you're talking about the world's greatest living actress says me. These two are magnificent showcases for her and for what magic Carax is possible of making. He's one of my number one movie-makers, and this set will give you a clue why. (I wish Criterion would go ahead and put Holy Motors in the Collection already but I'm sure it is inevitable.) 

And then we've got another two-fer of 2025 flicks coming in hot -- there's Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague, which as far as Richard Linklater movies go I kinda of liked? Out of the two movies he made last year it's a goddamned masterpiece at least, compared to the unbearably shrill Blue Moon which I couldn't fucking stand. I thought all of the actors were terrific as the French New Wave Gods they were tasked with playing in Nouvelle Vague at least, and Linklater's adoration of characters who won't shut the fuck up for five seconds at least made sense when dealing with a person like Jean-Luc Godard. The other 2026 title is Sergei Loznitsa's "Kafka-esque thriller" Two Prosecutors, which I really wanted to see (I will watch anything described as a "Kafka-esque thriller") but somehow slipped through the cracks. I will consider this release my chance to fill up said crack, then. Any fans? Is it indeed a "Kafka-esque thriller" or is this just Criterion suckering in Lit-major dopes like me who always fall for that descripotion? 

I'm gonna plow through the last three titles coming out in September a little quickly now because 1) I don't have a lot to say about any of these and 2) I should be working on my ongoing Tribeca reviews but I am allowing myself a brief break so the site doesn't sit here silent as the grave all day. Here goes. They are upgrading Sidney Lumet's classic 12 Angry Men to 4K; they are dropping the massive nine-hour-long Holocaust document Shoah (which means that I will definitely finally watch Shoah, one of the long overdue experiences I've admittedly been terrified of experiencing all these many many years); and they are releasing Satyajit Ray's beloved 1970 film Days and Nights in the Forest, which I have not yet seen either. Ray also represents a massive hole in my film knowledge -- I believe I've only ever seen Pather Panchali? So many damn holes and cracks to fill, damn damn damn. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

What did I tell you guys last week when that photoshoot of Charles Melton dropped for GQ? I told you, and I quote, that "I would not be lying if I told you that 2026 Me wakes up every single morning hoping for a new Charles Melton photoshoot to appear." Well I woke up this morning hoping for it again, and voila -- it happened again! Alright alright I had a wee bit of warning on this one because W Magazine teased this photoshoot last night with a little Instagram video (one which I have natch made gifs from) but nevertheless. Beef awards season has finally gotten me to care about awards season y'all. What a miracle. Anyway happy Monday and hit the jump for the rest...