French Me, Fantasia

Well alrighty then -- the famous Québécois seen above must mean it's time for me to be on my way Montreal-bound again for another year's incredible-looking Fantasia Film Fest! (And whaddya know -- there's even a movie starring François Arnaud sceening this year too!) I leave tomorrow morning and I'm there until next Wednesday, watching heaps of great genre fare per usual -- keep your eyes on my socials and over at Pajiba too and maybe probably you'll see me popping up in those places! Or just stare long, hard, and deep at that photo of François -- I get it. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one more time, since I am a glutton for attention, that right now right here as I write this it's my birthday and if you'd like to donate to the site's continued emotional / financial maintence (inextricably bound, they are) there are places to do that -- there's also as mentioned earlier this week a ton of shit I tossed onto eBay recently, which is another good way to pay it forward. Although maybe not so great for the next week since I'll be in Canada and unable to ship anything out until I get back from there. Otherwise -- y'all have a great week! And no I am probably not reviewing The Odyssey even though I told y'all I have indeed seen it, although I did plop down a few off-the-cuff thoughts in a brief thread at Bluesky as linked below. That's not nothing! Okay -- bye til I'm back! Hopefully it's not an infernal Odyssey of my own...

 

This happens with every damn Nolan (Oppenheimer excepted) - I never plan on being the turd in the punchbowl but I get so viscerally annoyed by the OTT praise (Nolan doesn't know how to make an ugly image? WTF u smoking NYT) I feel compelled. The Odyssey's... fine? See it for Samantha Morton I guess!

[image or embed]

— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) July 15, 2026 at 4:41 PM

Forever & Alwyn

I suppose we're overdue some news on what Brady 'The Brutalist" Corbet is up to next so voila, here it is -- his next film ios set to be called The Origin of the World, it will start filming this September, and it will star Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Selena Gomez, and that handsome fella above Joe Alwyn (via, thx Mac). Alwyn was in The Brutalist of course, while  Fassbender & Blnachett starred together in Steven Soderbergh's fantastic Black Bag a couple of years ago. And then there's... Selena Gomez. Anyway the plot's not been announced yet but here's a little bit of a quote from Corbet on the thing which, well, it all sounds very him:

"In a previous interview with The Hollywood Reporter Corbet revealed that the film “spans from the 19th century into the present day — it’s just predominantly focused on the ’70s. The film is really, really genre-defying.”"

Dance It's Criterion Day

Tis that semi-annual moment where my birthday and Criterion Announcement Day overlap -- I personally feel as if this means that Criterion should send me copies of every single upcoming release I'm about to tell you about, but sadly the world doesn't work that way. Mean world. Just think -- if it did work that way that'd mean I'd be getting a copy of that complete Stanley Kubrick boxed-set that I told you about last month since that's an October release alongside the rest of these! Holy moly would that rock. That set is obviously the month's show-stopper -- the thing every cineaste will be gifted or gifting themselves for this year's holidays -- but the rest of the October line-up ain't too shabby. For two Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein is escaping its Netflix confines and getting a gorgeous 4K set as pictured...

... right there. Love that art! Jacob Elordi's Oscar-nominated performance is definitely the movie's highlight but I'm excited to have the entire gorgeous package off that streamer and in my greedy little hands -- the rich scenery and costumes and gore (and Jacob Elordi's little bandage underpants) is all gonna look so gorg in 4K! And since we're talking about October aka Spooky Season that's not the only horror on board the month -- no less than some lil' masterpiece called The Silence of the Lambs is hitting 4K finally! Perhaps you've heard of it? Also there's Jerzy Skolimowski's 1978 psychological thriller The Shout starring John Hurt, Susannah York, and Alan Bates (mmmm Alan Bates)...

... coming at us, a film I've seen a couple of times and liked not loved. I don't know -- I always expect more from it than it's willing to give me so I always forget what happens in it like a week later. Like reading through the plot now I am like, "Oh yeah that happened," but I find that movie weirdly unmemorable. Perhaps you disagree? Alan Bates is always worth staring at either way.

The title I'm most curious about in the October line-up though is Ngozi Onwurah’s "radically ahead-of-its-time dystopian sci-fi film" Welcome II the Terrordome from 1995 -- I have heard of this movie but very little about it and I have definitely never seen it before. But it sounds and looks really striking! Bless Criterion for rescuing something like this and putting it in front of people, then. Have any of you seen that one before?

Speaking more of movies I haven't seen -- there's Ulli Edel's 1981 drug-addict flick  Christiane F. which... I've admitted this before on here but I really don't like watching addiction movies anymore. They're always so miserable and unplesant and wallow-y, you know? I have had my fill of addiction dramas. No more watching needles go into veins in close-up, no more puke dribbling on chins and people groveling for pennies to get their fix -- I just don't need it anymore! Let the youth learn their lessons; I got it. That said the fact that one David Bowie did this movie's soundtrack is whispering my name all the same... maybe I can just go listen to the soundtrack on Apple Music and be fine that way. We'll see. Anyway the final October release is one of Criterion's always-fantastic Eclipse box-sets -- this one is "The First Films of Samuel Fuller" which includes I Shot Jesse James, The Baron of Arizona, and The Steel Helmet, aka two Westerns and one War movie. And even though, like drug movies I generally can do without Westerns, I've actually seen The Baron of Arizona before! It's because it's a Vincent Price movie though, and I try to see all of those. He's Vinnie fuckin' Price after all!

Wet Hot American Horror

Most excellent news today as my beloved Film at Lincoln Center here in NYC has announced my beloved annual "Scary Movies" series line-up -- the series actually disappeared for a couple years but it's back with a vengeance now! This year it will run from August 12th through 20th and screen sixteen movies including brand new premieres and beautiful new restorations of classics. For example -- a new 4K print of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (with director John McNaughton in person) ffs!!! And they're also screening a new 35mm print of Daniel Goldhaber's fantastic 2018 film Cam, a movie I fucking love that's been buried on streaming for far far too long and not gotten the proper recognition it deserves. As far as the new films: two of them, the J-Horror haunted house flick Never After Dark and the kiddie-show-gone-berserkers Buddy, those I'm hopefully seeing at Fantasia Fest (which reminder I leave for tomorrow and will be basically offline as far as the site's concerned for a week). But other than that all of these titles are new to me and I cannot wait to dive in. Fresh horror for August is always such a treat. Hit the jump for the full line-up reveal and press release etc...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good (Birthday) Morning, World

Well these gifs of a nude James Norton have been a few days coming -- I only got around to this week's episode of House of the Dragon last night though. So even though I knew this scene existed, -- given the filthy pl;aces I congregate regularly on the internet -- I decided to wait until I watched the episode to make my own. And here we are! I might have had more to say about them -- Although what really is there to say? There's hisw bum! Cherish it! -- but I got trapped on an extremely slow subway train this morning and gopt to my desk an hour late, thereby kicking off my birthday -- yes it is today! -- with sweat and annoyance. It's going to be almost 100 here in NYC today -- I hate having a summer birthday so much -- so all around, just a great start. But James Norton's bum is here for me, at least. And I am here for all of you fine people with said gifs of exactly that after the jump...

Charles Melton is Still Milking It

I was literally just whinging this past Friday that we hadn't gotten any more photos of Charles Melton's Milk Campaign that broke our brains and bodies the week before, when wham bam thank you cow udders the photographer behind the campaign went and shared this here dripping moist outtake on their Instagram. I know I bring up my birthday a lot when my birthday is happening but this is totally another birthday present to me, as I see it. Thanks, Charles! If you want to bring me some "milk" to wash down my birthday cake this week I am available and very very very thirsty. 

Garrett Wareing Slips Into Patrick Wilson's Pants

Well here's some news tied and trussed up straight for my birthday tomorrow -- beautiful fur-baby and freshly unearthed MNPP fave Garrett Wareing (from The Long Walk along with a couple dozen photoshoots I've posted over the past year or so) just went and got himself cast as Young Patrick Wilson in the upcoming prequel Conjuring film The Conjuring: First Communion. (Actress Amanda Fix, who's apparently in Jane Schoenbrun's upcoming horror film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma got the Young Vera Farmiga role.) I'm actually surprised they recast the roles since haven't there been actors who's played the Young Warrens already? I guess at this point even those actors ain't so young anymore and they needed even fresher flesh. Well they sure got it with Garrett Wareing! They actually found someone hot enough that I cannot side-eye the casting as a Young Patrick Wilson -- good work! That said the Conjuring movies are grotesque Catholic propoganda that legitimize a pair of frauds, and even worse none of the movies have been any good for years. And even when they were "good" they were just "okay." But whatever! Good for lil' Garrett! Onward and upward.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Paris, Texas (1984)

Walt: I thought you were afraid of heights.

Travis: I'm not afraid of heights. I'm afraid of fallin'.

The lo-fi legend Harry Dean Stanton was born 100 years ago this day. When I picture HDS I picture his small and heartbreaking role as Carl Rodd, often seen sitting on a bench and staring the clouds beside the Fat Trout trailer park, in Twin Peaks (both Fire Walk With Me and The Return) immediately, but that's just because I'm such a Peaks fanatic -- there are more treasures and pleasures to be had across the man's incredible and lengthy CV than I could even begin to list here. Paris Texas is a pretty biggun though, so I feel fine celebrating via it. What are your favorite Harry Dean moments across the decades? Like -- did anybody do more in Alien to make that crew feel immediately down-to-earth than him? He was such a VIBE, man.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Pics of the Day

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams)

As foretold by a blind poet -- i.e. me, I am the blind poet -- I went and saw Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey last night. I'm not going to say anything re: my thoughts on the movie here because I haven't checked to see when the embargo time is (I am not even sure if there was one tbh) and also I'm not assigned to review the movie and with Fantasia Fest kicking off in two days, who cares? I have other things to occupy my mind! Plenty. That said I did want to share the photos I took last evening of the red carpet for tonight's NYC premiere being set up at the AMC Lincoln Square theater because even in its half-formed state it's one of the biggest spectacles I've seen being put together for one of these things -- the carpet-to-be looked like it was going to stretch two full blocks and yes as you see there a full-size Trojan Horse has been dropped onto the scene. Truly outrageous stuff. There were also a wealth of costumes inside the theater that I tried to snap photos of -- excuse the glare though, it was mid-day and I did my best. That blue number is the dress Anne Hathaway wears in a very Diva Moment, I will give you that much. All of that said I might not be able to resist saying some things about the movie between now and when I head to Montreal on Thursday morning so stick around. The possibilities are endless-adjacent!

Good Morning, World

Listen -- if I stumble upon a picture of Paul Newman shirtless that I have somehow never seen before, I am going to post said photo, reasons be damned. Given all we have posted of perhaps the most beautiful man to ever grace the silver screen over the decades, finding a nugget of anything of this sort is a small miracle. And yet even as I started this post thinking I was being random, I realized I am not -- the Fates aligned! Because Newman's perhaps greatest performance in Hud has just been released onto the Criterion Collection in 4K this very day! Kismet! Paul putting the kiss in kismet. As in somebody build me a time machine so I can go make out with Paul Newman kinda "kiss." Anyway -- Hud! Helluva pitchuh.

Unsheath Your Swords, Boys

I was just now looking through the cast list for Christopher Nolan's latest The Odyssey since I realized I had been paying very very very little attention to this thing since way back when it was first being announced (I haven't even watched a trailer for it) and I'm literally about to walk out the door to see it now. And besides all of the big names I couldn't believe how many notable hot people are down below the line on this -- Logan Marshall-Green? Cosmo Jarvis?? Himesh Patel? Rafi Gavron? Shiloh fucking Fernandez?? I didn't even know Jon Bernthal was in this to be honest. Anyway this at least gives me some hope that I'll have some hot guys in skirts to stare at for its three fucking hours of runtime. With all of that said y'all know I'm nobody's idea of a Nolan Stan but given that I dug Oppenheimer more than any of his films since, well, Memento probably, I'm not going into this with as much weight in my belly as I normally would've pre-Oppy. We'll see soon enough! If nothing else Robert Pattinson will be weird and that's sometimes, oftentimes, plenty.

Kit Connor Three Times

Three new outtakes from Kit's already swoon-inducing photoshoot for Flaunt magazine last April (via) -- the third and apparently final season of Heartstopper drops this week! I still haven't watched a single episode! Perhaps I'll binge it once it's through? Thoughts? 

Pedro Pascal and Such For Sale

I feel like I'm doing one of these posts every other week now but heads-up that I piled another round of goodies onto eBay for sale over the weekend -- this weekend was really Criterion heavy because I was rearranging those specific shelves so you'll see a couple dozen Criterion discs for sale there! And as always everything is open to offers so make me an offer, and if you buy more than one thing I ill ship it together and refund you the extra -- pinky swear. You can trust me -- you know where to find me otherwise, wink wink. There's also a copy of the sold out issue of Fantastic Man magazine that features this slutty ass photoshoot of Pedro Pascal in it -- a prize to put in your hope chest obviously for when you and Pedro get married. Buy my shit here. Besides that...

... there's also piles of movie posters, and a heap of fancy photography and art books that've gone up recently... and really when it comes down to it this is my birthday week so this is great way to celebrate me. We all win! Alternately there's always the option of a PayPal donation! Feed your favorite needy writer on his birthday week. You know you want to.

Lewis Pullman, You Devil

I've never been much for his daddy 

but my god does Lewis have swag.

(click to embiggen)

Putting the Heat into Evil Dead Burn

I saw somebody describe the hotness of Evil Dead Burn's French director Sébastien Vanicek as "Travis Kelce but hot" and I thought that was so funny and spot-on it's how I shall describe him as well. (I was going to say "forever" but honestly I kind of hope that ten years from now I'll have forgotten the name "Travis Kelce.") Anyway my review of Evil Dead Burn dropped at Pajiba last Friday but if you missed it read it here. Mixed thoughts! Extremely mixed thoughts on this one. Still I think Vanicek is talented -- I thought that after I finally set aside my spider-willies long enough to watch his 2023 horror flick Infested, which is a creepy-crawly great time. And even more importantly he's hot! So we'll continue keeping track of his career. We're easy like that. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Jurassic Park (1993)

Dr. Alan Grant: Life found a way.

You'd think a person would reach a certain age, one where they've gone through enough of these to have an inkling that everyone dies and most of the people older than yourself who you worshipped as a kid, you're gonna have to say goodbye to them. But even with his openness about the cancer he'd been battling for years I wasn't prepared for my boyfriend to wake me up this morning with the news that Sam Neill had died. I'm sure I'd seen him in something before Jurassic Park -- I'd probably seen The Hunt For Red October; I doiubt I'd seen The Piano -- but he became, from the moment that movie opened, Dr. Grant to me. I actually have a vivid memory of not liking him having been cast in the role since I'd read the book and I'm sure the Dr. Grant that was swimming around in my hormonal 15-year-old head was hunkier. But the child-like (yes, Spielbergian) wonder under a faux-gruff exterior that he brought to the role was undeniable, and without it the movie wouldn't have worked. And it did work -- I went back and saw the movie twenty damn times in the theater, after all!

It took a long time for me to be able to see Neill as anything else -- and I'm sure, even though he more than anyone else in the franchise capitalized on the bank the role brought him, that single-role identification was a little harmful to his career -- but decades on when I finally got around to catching Andrzej Żuławski's Possession, well, if you've seen that movie you know it'll slap the spell off of anybody's face. I think I really only came to appreciate what a fine and versatile actor he was once that happened. So of course I'll find time to re-watch Jurassic Park for the ten billionth time this week but I'm gonna make space for The Piano, Dead Calm, In the Mouth of Madness, Hunt For the Wilderpeople, as well.

Thank you for everything. Sam Neill.

Good Morning, World

Happy Monday morning from an old photo (but previously unseen and unposted I do believe) of Russell Tovey in short-shorts in a room full of shelves. Shelves! Short shorts! Big ass calves! If it wasn't for his pup blocking the bulge this picture would have everything one needs to get through a Monday morning. Alas, we shall just have to thunder through on the rest. You can do it! (click to embiggen)