What movie is this?
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
How To Make a Killing in 500 Words or Less
Remember Scream Queens? The Ryan Murphy series that ran for two seasons a decade ago didn't rewrite the television medium but it's one of Murhpy's most entertaining efforts, goofy in a way that embraced Murphy's tendencies toward chaos -- the slapdash quality that sinks so much of his work was there a feature, not a bug. Anyway that was where I was introduced to Glen Powell as the dipshit hunk Chad Radwell, a perfect distillation of the actor's strengths right up front. That character's smugness wasn't meant to be charming... until it was, thanks to Powell's balls-deep performance. Point being I've been rooting for Powell all these years because he charmed me so fully right out of the gate.
But the iteration of Glen Powell Movie Star that we have in 2026 has become a different beast altogether, and the limits of this current rictis-grin persona of Powell's meet and are beat by their match in John Patton Ford's How To Make a Killing (his follow-up to Emily the Criminal with Aubrey Plaza), out this weekend. What this movie -- which is based on the book Kind Hearts and Coronets, previously turned into a very fun movie with Alec Guinness in 1949 -- needs is a real asshole. Somebody who isn't desperately trying to be liked while also murdering his rich-prick relatives in order to get their wealth.
The actor who played Chad Radwell ten years ago maybe could've pulled this off. But Glen Powell V.2026 cannot. The movie works so hard trying to make his character Becket into a good guy -- despite all, you know, the killing shit -- that it deflates any and all of its satire, instead wandering around some unpleasant uncanny valley for two hours. Powell's face is frozen into an action-figure smirk for the entirety of this thing's runtime, and it's impossible not to wonder what an actor who was actually enjoying their slide into depravity might've brought -- an actor with an edge, somebody who brings a real sense of danger. A Jack O'Connell or LaKeith Stanfield could've rocked this.
The character really needs to have some crazy in his eyes; a sense that he's finally finding himself by discovering and embracing his monstrous lineage of rich shits. But both the movie itself and Powell keep backing off of that at every opportunity. There's no sense of developing tragedy or mounting lunacy -- it's just a bunch of stuff that happens, the end. And it's a genuine disappointment because the good version of this movie is so close, so possible, but it's just a series of self-owning stumbles instead. A cowardly trip, man.
Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...
... you can learn from:
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
Sammy: I've watched you forever, Caden, but you've never really looked at anyone other than yourself. So watch me. Watch my heart break. Watch me jump. Watch me learn that after death there's nothing. There's no more watching. There's no more following. No love. Say goodbye to Hazel for me. And say it to yourself, too. None of us has much time.
RIP to the great Tom Noonan, who gave multiple performances of note across his long and varied career -- Manhunter is one of the few Michael Mann movies I can tolerate and it's thanks to him -- but nevertheless will always be Sammy, sweet sweet Sammy, the man who breaks my heart every single time in Charlie Kaufman's masterpiece. The elliptical way that Kaufman structures the character of Caden's life-long best friend who's always being edged out, always forced to the sidelines, is as brilliant as anything else in the script -- the way Noonan is seen peering out from behind things before Caden's even "met" him, because of course the way a self-centered narcissist would remember his own story would shove someone that isn't himself or one of his temporary love interests into the margins -- is moving in itself. But the way that Noonan plays Sammy, the love and the heartbreak that he channels into that role? It's tremendous, and if anybody had known how to react to Synecdoche in its moment as it demanded and deserved then Noonan would have been, should have been, a Best Supporting Actor contender. It moves me more with every re-watch. Brilliant subtle work. (The way he sort of shrugs as he jumps? My god.)
Tom Noonan should have gotten an Oscar nomination for his performance in Charlie Kaufman’s SYNECDOCHE NEW YORK #ripking
— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) February 17, 2026 at 11:52 PM
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Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Noah Jupe Seven Times
I can't say that I expected to see the little kid from the Quiet Place movies rocking not much more than a black thong on the cover of a magazine on the docket but I guess Noah Jupe wanted us all to know he's a big boy now. And so he has, thanks to Perfect magazine, which put him in a variation of the same Tom Ford slut-outfit that Alexander Skarsgard rocked back in December for Dust magazine -- should I do a "Who Wore It Best?" poll? Well we're here, why not...
Anyway I hadn't even put together the two times I saw Hamnet this past Fall that I knew Noah Jupe already from several kid performances -- he'd already in that film aged up into Hot Young Man so perhaps I'd set up a mental block. I even saw him live in person at a Hamnet Q&A and no dots were connected. It wasn't until I saw this photoshoot and realized I needed to google his age and make sure we weren't being led into a mine-field when I was like, "Oh shit right -- he was in those earlier things." Don't let them ever tell you that a black thong won't gain you name recognition, fellas. Hit the jump for the entire shoot...
Viva Filipiñana's Revolución
Yes I am still doing Sundance reviews! Lucky you people. Over the weekend my take on one of my favorites of the fest dropped -- click on over to Pajiba to read my thoughts on director Rafael Manuel's Filipiñana, a luxuriously filmed class satire set on an extremely hot day at a Filipino country club where the wealth and power disparity between the rich and the poor is baked to a crisp under the sun and the unpsaring glare of the camera. Really great movie and last week it was announced that the folks at Kino Lorber picked it up for a proper release this year so you will be able to see this one eventually! I'll keep my eyes out for it. Terrific flick.
Good Morning, World
Well -- it happened! Sort of! I don't want to get too spoilery with regards to this past weekend's episode of Industry in case some of you who do watch the show haven't had the chance to watch Sunday's episode, or if some of you who might want to watch the show in the future would rather not know, but what we'd been theorizing based off the trailers for this season with regards to Kit Harginton's character Sir Henry Muck (god I love that name and will continue to repeat it whenever given the chance) happened this week... if not exactly in the way we thought it might in ways that were close and sexy enough to matter and make me a happy little homosexual all the same. God I love this show! Thank you to every one of you who told me to start watching when I was trying to decide before the holidays -- s'paid off. Hit the jump for some sexiness (and some spoilers)...
Friday, February 13, 2026
Come Undone Indeed
Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" is now in theaters and if you missed my review earlier this week you can read it right here. I loved it but as with all of Fennell's movies it's looking to be inexplicably divisive -- I've read dozens of think-pieces trying to explain to me why Fennell makes people so crazy at this point and they all seem like nonsense to me. Like here's somebody making extravagent and funny pop-entertainment that's ribbed for our pleasure with gorgeous creatures behaving badly and every single one of them gets met with this wave of hostile humorlessness over and over and over again. No matter how hard people make their case it will never compute for me. Anyway I 100% plan on re-watching Saltburn this Valentine's Weekend because what is Love if not Barry Keoghan's cock flopping in time to "Murder on the Dancefloor"? Oh and here's something else super cool -- I'm actually spending Valentine's Day itself camped out in the movie theaters of MoMA because they're screening two Park Chan-wook masterpieces back to back with Thirst and The Handmaiden. And, truly -- what is Love if it's not two gorgeous lesbians scissoring on a steam-ship after triumphantly murdering all of their enemies? Be gay do crime forever!
François Arnaud Three Times
The second-tier Heated Rivalry guys are coming at us hard here at the end of this week -- I posted a bunch of Robbie G.K. this morning (and let it be told I'm about to update that post with several new photos so check back!) and now here is our long-time beloved François Arnaud covering Behind the Blinds magazine. Given every time I post anything from BTB they end up dribbling out several dozen more photos over the course of months at a time I would expect more of these photos to be revealed, eventually. For now, enjoy three. I sure am.
ETA see? Already another! So make that Four Times:
Sex! Death! Camp!
Can we just take a moment to appreciate how freaking hot Gillian Anderson looks in that photo? My god. Anyway that aside that there is the first image from I Saw the T.V. Glow filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun.'s next movie called Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (another ace movie title -- go Jane) which stars Anderson alongside Hacks star Hannah Einbinder and is hitting theaters on August 7th. Here is the second first photo:
Which I am finding very funny after having just re-watched Excalibur last night. On point! It's also got a dose of Friday the 13th to it which I'd say is appropriate, given today is yes you guessed it Friday the 13th. And well I suppose also the movie is literally called Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, which tells us right up front that slasher movies are on the menu and sure enough the plot description...
"After years of slapdash sequels and waning fandom, the Camp Miasma slasher franchise is handed over to an enthusiastic young director for resurrection. But when she visits the original movie's star, a now-reclusive actress shrouded in mystery, the two women fall into a blood-soaked world of desire, fear, and delirium."
I love that Jane is so commited to this queer exploration of horror themes -- I was slightly iffy on ISTTVG the first watch but I've since grown extremely fond of it. And funny enough I know someone who worked behind the scenes on this movie but I haven't been able to see them since it shot -- I will be poking and prodding for details, believe you me! Until then here's a teaser for all the vibes:
Criterion Brings the Heat to May
I feel as if Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat should be a July or August release, but Criterion has deemed it for this May and who am I to argue -- that's the first title in their May line-up which has just been revealed today and I'm already sweating with antici.... pation. That scorching neo-noir is perfection and I can't wait to see every bead of sweat dripping from William Hurt's mustache in gorgeous 4K. Gimme!
It's a truly stellar roster for the month though -- also included are two of last year's absolute best movies (both of them figured into my favorites of 2025 list) with Joachim Trier's Oscar-nominated Sentimental Value (and I am obsessed with that Chris Ware cover art-work!) and Ira Sachs' Peter Hujar's Day (read my review of that one here). And speaking of Ira Sachs...
As for classics getting their deserved 4K upgrades there is Bob Fosse's Lenny, the 1974 black-and-white bio-pic of the comedian Lenny Bruce starring Dustin Hoffman, and Kurosawa's 1949 crime thriller masterpiece Stray Dog starring, as ever, Toshiro Mifune. Did somebody say Toshiro Mifune? Toshiro Mifune break!
Ahhhhh I needed that. The final title for Criterion's May slate is the only one I've never seen -- Shu Lea Cheang's 1994 lesbian "cyber punk fantasia" Fresh Kill, but it's been on my list for a good long while now. Anybody ever seen it? It sounds like a trip.
Good Morning, Valentine
I guess I should have waited until today to do a Heated Rivalry star Robbie G.K. post and not shot our communal wad with that sexy selfie of his on Wednesday morning -- but how was I to know he would immediately begin dropping all sorts of goodies for us... including a photoshoot of himself eating a cheeseburger in his underwear in bed with an adorable pup? I suppose I should have seen that one coming. My bad. Hit the jump for these and several other photos and Happy Valentine's Weekend, lovers...
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Fra Fee Nine Times
Earlier today I thought I'd relegate this new Attitude magazine photoshoot of Hawkeve and Prime Target actor Fra Fee to Bluesky (here) but that was when I just had two photos -- now we've got the whole thing and it demands an audience, it demands respect, it demands I throw myself on the floor its faithful servant. And here we are. If you're all like "Fra what, Fee who?" see we have posted about him a couple of times before -- the man got gay and naked with Leo Woodall for god's sake, of course he captured our attentioin. That said I should've done a little deeper.a dig (ahem) because apparently he's been out as a noted homosexual for some time and I had no idea! I learned that via the interview alongside these photos, and so we must now officially welcome him to the club. Which here at MNPP means -- leer. We will leer. Hit the jump for all of your welcoming leering material...
Pick a Peck of Pillion
I don't know who that lucky chap standing with the camera is but down there under him is Alexander Skarsgård (hence him being a lucky chap) -- this is a set photo from Pillion that was included with a few others in a new Interview Magazine interview with writer-director Harry Lighton that I recommend reading! (thx Mac) Probably read it only if you've seen the movie already because I do feel like there are some spoilers contained therein -- and on that note, you know how yesterday I told y'all that Pillion is going nationwide on February 20th? Well I got an email today saying February 27th instead. SIGH. I am just the messenger! Okay? Don't take it out on me! I'm sorry! Anyway that aside there is some cool other news buried in that Interview Mag chat that I hadn't heard before -- apparently Lighton has written the script for History of Sound director Oliver Hermanus' upcoming bio-pic of the designer Alexander McQueen?? I did know that Hermanus was working on this project -- see this post from May of last year here -- but I didn't know Harry Lighton was writing, and has apparently now finished, the script. That's exciting! That said Lighton also admits in this interview that he's never seen a single Rainer Werner Fassbinder movie, and... Harry. Come over. We'll do a binge. I have such sights to show you...
A Spector of My Mortal Soul
(click to embiggen) Sorry I just needed to make sure this photo of Morgan Spector was posted here on the site. I have nothing to add... well I could add a "woof" but I'll spare y'all that. (No I won't. Woof.)
Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...
... you can learn from:
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Jackie: Anyone can feel strong hiding behinda piece of metal. I prefer to know my own strength.
Happy birthday to the incredible and formidable Katy O'Brian today! What a movie this is, and what a performance. I maintain that Edgar Wright's The Running Man would have been a far better movie if Katy had played the main character instead of Glen Powell -- and I'm not even a Glen Powell hater. I just think that movie needed an unexpected shock of energy that was missing and Katy would've given it that and more. I just wanted to wander off with the small thankless role she was playing whenever she was on-screen. So let's get her some action-hero lead roles stat. (In related, I need news on director Rose Glass too. After LLB and Saint Maud I will follow her to the ends of the earth.)
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