The Devil at the Door

There are a lot of movies hitting theaters today -- I already talked about one of them -- but there's only one that I have written a real and proper review for and that one is E.L. Katz's folk horror flick Azrael starring Samara Weaving. Click over to Pajiba to read my thoughts, which are pretty mixed but by no fault of Weaving's, who I just adore watching onscreen. She's so great even when the movie around her is struggling (and hey that also goes for Babylon, funny enough). Anyway if you're good at ignoring plot holes then go see this because it's basically Samara as a horror movie Rambo and that's something worth seeing. Here is its trailer:

Pic of the Day

The Safdies are hit or miss for me -- big huge massive fan of Good Time, while I couldn't stand Uncut Gems -- but I am (obviously) hoping for good things from Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme, his ping pong movie (made sans brother Ben) starring Timothee Chalamet (see my previous post here). Anyway the movie is filming here in NYC right now and there's Timmy on set looking geekily adorable with his wiry little pencil stache -- now we know why he was rocking that at a Dune 2 press event last week and it thankfully wasn't for fashion's sake. Since I posted about this movie's announcement the cast has grown quite a bit, adding Gwyneth Paltrow, Abel Ferrara, Penn Gillette, and Tyler the Creator -- quite a random assortment of folks up in there but we'd expect no less. The Safdies do love themselves some big characters. 

A Mountain Murder Mystery

The fine folks over at Oscilloscope always put out some of the most interesting movies around and this weekend they've got a humdinger -- The Universal Theory from German director Timm Kröger is a black-and-white Alpine noir about multiverse science and murder, and who can say they ever thought they'd write or read that sentence in their entire life?  Point being if you wanna see something strange and totally unforgettable then seek out this one -- I completely fell for its gorgeous Swiss scenery and its stellar score; if you want to look up where you can see the movie (here in NYC it's playing the Quad) then click here.  Bless you, Oscilloscope! here is the trailer which will give you a good inkling of what lay ahead:

It's Cooper Koch O'Clock

First things first -- no I am not watching Ryan Murphy's controversial Menedez Brothers series Monsters yet; I have been way too busy with NYFF. I'll probably watch it over the holidays when I have the real, proper time to devote to all its sleazy splendor. But I have seen y'all going nuts for the actors playing the Menendezes (Menendezi?)...

... and I obviously understand why. Which means I should remind you that I have been on the Cooper Koch train for a few years now thanks to his turn in director Carter Smith's superb queer horror flick Swallowed last year -- here is my review of that movie, and here are all of our previous Cooper posts, of which there are several, and they are outstanding resources I promise you. And while these two extremely hot new photos of Cooper seen up top and down below are reason enough to be here I actually have another purpose -- according to Carter Smith's extremely  NSFW "All the Dead Boys" website Swallowed is finally finally finally about to get a blu-ray release! And not just that -- his stellar short film Bugcrush will be included on the set! 

I have been Team Bugcrush since 2006 -- it was the first thing of Carter's I saw and I immediately knew he and I were simpatico minds and he hasn't disappointed me yet. Anyway if I had to wager a guess this release will be via Vinegar Syndrome -- they'll be announcing several new titles on October 1st, but if not then there will be even more later. It really seems like a title one of their many labels would drop. But don't hold me to it, I don't have an inside scoop or anything. But I will surely freak out and announce it when that news breaks, no worries!

Start Your Spooky Season Right

It is very very close to October and I know some of you have pumpkins on your socks as yo're reading this, so it's the season for spooky movies! And one of this year's finest examples of such has just today hit Shudder. Wwriter-director Damian McCarthy, who made a little bunny toy freak out anybody who saw Caveat a couple of years ago, went and made an even better movie for us in 2024 with Oddity -- read my review over at Pajiba if you missed it when the movie played a few theaters in July. it's kind of a kitchen-sink approach to scares but not at all in a way that calls attention to itself -- there is a ton going on in Oddity but I felt like McCarthy juggled everything with outrageous dexterity. Just a real feat of sleights of hand that jabs you in the ribs while he's got you staring at the clouds. Great stuff! Big fan.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

I probably don't have to tell you, after the wild week we've had with this Andrew Scott photo-shoot, how happy I was when I opened Instagram this morning and two more photos were sitting there waiting to greet me so we could end the week properly -- fully fed! A truly delicious way to spend a whole week, seeing Andy's bright and shining mustache et cetera to greet the day with. Thanks to Diaries99 magazine for making this happen -- I sound like I am giving an Oscar speech and I tell ya, I feel like it too. Happy Friday!

So What Do You Think...

... these three talked about?

Super Schoenaerts Away

Finally, some news on our beloved Matthias Schoenaerts, who we haven't seen or heard much of since The Regime ended -- he was so great on that show, you guys -- Deadline reported earlier this week (thx Mac) that he will play the villain in a new Supergirl movie. Which... well, you know. A superhero movie doesn't excite me a whole lot. For a second I pictured him playing the Faye Dunaway role from the 1984 movie though, and...

... that was exciting. But no they say the bad guy will probably be a character named "Krem of the Yellow Hills" which... uhh yeah okay. That's a name. In the comic the character is the one that kills "a young alien girl's father [and] draws Supergirl into the conflict." I guess this one is a big sci-fi story they say, and not your typical superhero origin story. Sure. Milly Alcock from House of the Dragon has been cast as Supergirl, and in good news Craig Gillespie of I, Tonya and the Pam & Tommy miniseries is directing the film. I tend to like Gillespie's stuff more than I don't. And then in maybe the best news out of all of this, Matthias' character as drawn in the comic is a shirtless bearded ginger stud:

He could pull that off.

Evil Does Not The Beast

If you thought the four killer movies that Criterion announced for a December release last week -- No Country For Old Men, baby! -- were enough then you don't know Criterion. Or more specifically their off-shoot line of Janus Contemporaries releases, which has been dropping its own stellar roster for a year or so now. Today JC has added two more wicked good flicks to the December line-up, including one of my favorite movies of this year (by way of last year -- I first saw it at the NYFF in October of 2023), Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist. The latest from the Drive My Car director is a slow burn but when it lands it's the sort of thing that will haunt you for life -- I've said it several times on social media whenever this movie comes up but this one has drifted into my mind often over the past twelve months, and sends a chill down my spine every damn time it does. It's so good! I'm also deeply and profoundly in love with its poster art (I made sure to snag a copy of the poster when Posteritati had them for sale) and I am extremely happy they used that art for the blu-ray cover. This drops on December 17th.

The second movie getting a December drop (a week before on the 10th) is Bertrand Bonello's somewhat unfathomable The Beast, which confounded me at NYFF last year and yet I have been really wanting to see it a second time and wrestle with its many, many ideas and images and oddnesses. It stars Léa Seydoux and George Mackay (mmm Mackay) as... well, several different people across several different timelines, all weaving and bumping up against one another. It's certainly a singular experience (as most of Bonello's works are) and if any of you have seen it I'd love to hear your thoughts. One day when I have time it'll push its way in front of me again and I'll be able to sort out some of my own. Maybe. Or maybe I'll just enjoy George Mackay being hot and perfect. So many possibilities.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Andrew Scott Four Times

Of course right after I posted pictures of Sebastian Stan lamenting there were no new Andrew Scott photos to post, some new Andrew Scott photos to post appeared. So it goes, and we're fine -- double our pleasure, double our fun, and all. While I was kinda hoping we'd see some more of yesterday's jockstrap (like... a lot more) we're back to leather queen posturing and I'm in the tank for that too. Down, in, on top of. Hit the jump for the new ones...

Good Morning, World

I guess we're taking a break from Andrew Scott in jockstraps and leather harnesses this morning (sighhh) -- but that's (mostly) okay because Sebastian Stan is here to conjure thoughts of being his reverse cowgirl via a new photoshoot for British GQ. See what we have of them over here. Ride me, cowboy! Anyway today is one of them half-days I warned you about due to some NYFF screenings -- this week's been a little lighter than anticipated on that front but next week, hoo boy -- don't expect a lot from me next week. It's very busy next week. So savor the wit of this Seb post while you have it! Such wit y'all! I made two cowboy sex jokes! Two! John Wayne is spinning in his hell hole, I tells ya.

Happy 75, Pedro Almodóvar

If I wasn't currently buried in working on the very film festival that will allow me to see Almodovar's new movie in a week -- that would be the New York Film Festival and the movie The Room Next Door -- then I would have time to toss this Spanish king his proper laurels, and I think I'd do it with a list of my favorite movies of his. Okay I have probably done that before but whatever, things change with time. But since I am, in a fit of irony, busy with said same fest, I don't have time to figure all that out. But I'm posting this brief brithday love letter to him anyway to open the floor to you maniacs reading this -- tell me your favorites in the comments! And since this is Pedro Almodóvar we're talking about there literally isn't a single bad choice. Okay maybe I do feel weird about Kika and the rape scene that gets played for slapstick laughs. But other than that! All good here!

James McAvoy Fifteen Times

I won't say that I take back all of my mild-ish criticism of the Speak No Evil remake in my review thanks to this very fine photoshoot that James McAvoy has just gifted us in Esquire Mexico, but... well, I will say thank you, James. You can stay around. (As if anything at this point would change that.) Read the interview here (if you understand Spanish anyway) or hit the jump for the photos...

Quote of the Day

"It was tragic in a lot of ways... The most tragic part about it is that Todd Haynes is 62. He’s not old, right? But there is a finite number of films that he’ll be able to do in his lifetime... [He is] one of the most extraordinary film artists of his generation, and the idea that his time was wasted and that a movie is not a result of those years of working closely with Joaquin… That is the tragedy to me. And that I can’t get over, that we as a cultural community, lost the opportunity to have another movie by Todd Haynes. That is just criminal.”

That is Todd Haynes' longtime producing partner -- and general fucking movie icon -- Christine Vachon talking in broad terms at the San Sebastian Film Fest this week about the bullshit that unfolded with the gay romance that Haynes had been working on with Joaquin Pheonix for the past few years -- the one that Joaquin backed out of just a couple of days before shooting was set to begin. And that is basically exactly what I said at the time. It's uhhh actually weirdly similar:

"That said this especially pisses me off because Todd Haynes is 63 years old and probably only has a handful of movies left in him, and this neurotic douchebag just wasted more or less two years of Haynes' creative life for nothing. It's not like it's getting easier for iconoclasts like Haynes to make movies. Joaquin can go roll around in the twenty million bucks he got from Warner Brothers for the Joker sequel -- Todd Haynes is back to the drawing board, ekeing out financing for whatever small movie he can cobble together next."

Anyway preach, Christine. You -- we -- said it!

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning Sir Redux

Yesterday a harness and leather on Andrew Scott was one thing. But today they're coming at us with Andrew Scott showing off a jockstrap under jeans and a white tee -- and still rocking that sexy stache, no less! -- and it's just like... what am I supposed to do with this information? This is too much information for me this early in the morning. Why not just sneak into my room as I am sleeping and slap me across the face several times? That would wake me up the same way. I am awake, dammit! Very very alert and awake now. My eyes have been opened. I can now see. Halleluiah!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Totally F***ed Up (1993)

Patricia: Let me tell you what the problem with the stupid fucking world is. All the stupid people are breeding like mad having tens and tens of kids, while the cool people aren't having any! So, the population just keeps getting stupider and stupider! I mean, it's no wonder the whole world's going down the toilet.

The day I really never thought would come, has come -- today Criterion has released a 4K box-set of Gregg Araki's "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy" aka his 1993 movie Totally F***ed Up, his 1995 movie The Doom Generation, and his 1997 movie Nowhere. The latter two were extremely formative for yours truly -- the earliest one I didn't see until awhile later (it was hard to find) but adore just as much as the rest now. And now I've got all of them sitting on my shelf ready to watch at any moment, looking better than they ever have! Bless you, Criterion!

But today is truly, truly a legendary day at Criterion -- also out today on 4K blu is director Todd Solondz's 1998 masterpiece Happiness! Out of print now for several years, I can barely contain my excitement about sitting down to watch this brand new restoration of one of my absolute tip-top favorite movies of all time. Needless to say...

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... sharing a fag with Aaron Taylor-Johnson. (via) 

Gahhhhh this devil knows what he is doing. He's too much. Too too much. And yet... just right. Hit the jump for several more photos he just shared from a recent trip with his missus...