Take Off Your Clothes & Go

I had just a couple of small plans this week -- mainly to wrap up my NYFF coverage -- but when I wasn't skittering off to press screenings I was feeling so burned out I could barely type the word "gratuitous." And we all know when that's the case it's shit's creek for us. And here we are, and it looks like Alexander Skarsgard -- this isn't actually so bad? Huh. Anyway I am done finito over fucked for the week -- I cannot possibly do any more work until I go home and collapse for a bit. I have been drained dry yo! (And not by Alex, unfortunately.) Coming next week -- supposedly a NYFF wrap-up, plus brand new reviews of the films La Bola Negra and Wicker and Wildwood, supposedly! (I only haven't seen the latter yet so these are all a work-in-progress.) Until then, collapse with me! Bye!

Crawlers in 150 Words or Less

Coming from your favorite noted arachnophobe it means something when I say that Crawlers is creepy crawly dumb fun -- it's basically an unofficial  remake of Sébastien Vanicek's far superior 2023 flick Infested, but really the logline "apartment building full of killer spiders gets quarantined and the residents must try to survive" is a logline that belongs to us all. This movie is dumber and sillier than Infested was and it really casts a wide net to catch up all of the "unlikeable slasher movie archetypes" it can for feeding to its eight-legged lil' freaks, but I slept very poorly after watching Crawlers all the same, and isn't that the point? To make you want to scratch your own skin off? As such, success.

Jesse Williams Twelve Times

This post is an amalgam of a few different photoshoots of Jesse Williams that I somehow missed over the past couple of years, all of which I gathered up just now to try and staunch the bleeding from the self-inflicted wound of something else I missed that's even more egregious -- the news that the legend Gregg Araki not only announced he's working on a new movie so quickly after I Want Your Sex broke a decade-long dry-spell, but... the bastard's already done filming the thing! And yes it co-stars the forever-dreamy Jesse here, but it's harkening back to his old-school gargantuan cast days a la Nowhere and so it also stars (deep breath)...

... Kal Penn, Michael Chiklis, David Koechner, Steve Guttenberg, Colleen Camp, Giovanni Ribisi, Judy Greer, Margaret Cho, Ashton Kutcher, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Alison Brie! Good grief. The movie is titled for the moment The Decline Of Fucking Western Civilization (taken from a title-card in his movie Totally F*cked Up) but we don't know anything about the scenario other than that. Thank goodness he's pounding out movies again! And surely he will exploit how ridiculously hot Mr. Williams is, which is even more important. (I daren't dream of my front-row Take Me Out shower scene experience, but I do. I do!!!) Anyway until we get more info about this movie feel free to hit the jump for the Jesse snaps...

Deliver Us To Criterion

While we're still recovering from the swollen holiday schedule robbing us blind, the January load from Criterion usually runs light -- and it's no different for 2027, as they've just announced their releases and it's a small batch indeed. One third of it is 4K upgrades -- those would be John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy and Bong Joon-ho's Parasite (kind of surprised the latter wasn't already 4K, I hadn't noticed) -- and then there's a new set of Martin Scorsese's long running "World Cinema Project" series, including...

Finally! Very happy to see this appear in Criterion's January announcements as part of Volume 6 of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project, three years after I caught the restoration at the London Film Festival, excellent 👌...

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— Richard Wells (@slipperyjack.bsky.social) October 16, 2026 at 2:05 PM

That leaves just three standalone releases for the month, but they're pretty darn exciting -- first up there is John Boorman's masculinity thriller Deliverance with Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, and Burt Reynolds at his highest Sex God peak. Great movie (now squeal, piggy.) Then second is Mike Leigh's Career Girls, one of the Leigh movies I've never seen -- any fans? It's Mike Leigh so obviously I'll see it at some point -- now that he's retiring I can finally catch up! (I'd gladly remain behind if he wanted to keep working though.) Anyway the final title for Criterion's January haul is another one I haven't seen, Claire Denis' debut film Chocolat starring the great and gorgeous Isaach de Bankolé. Look how pretty he is on the cover below! Good grief.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

 

Good Morning, World

Aussie actor Stacy Clausen, who you should recognize from his role in the "immediate queer horror classic" Leviticus, has gifted us with a slutty little photoshoot this morning for something called Interloper magazine (via) -- every time I turn around there's a new magazine filled with slutty little twink photoshoots, it's truly a golden age. Anyway I'm curious to see if either of the Leviticus boys can ride that movie's modest success (and I mean "modest" as in financially and culturally -- creatively that movie is a resounding success) to more international work; Stacy here is in the next Wolf Creek movie (yes a new Wolf Creek movie, huzzah!) so that's helpful. And posing in your tighty-whities isn't the worst way to keep your name out there either! Certainly worked on me. Happy Friday and hit the jump for the entire shoot...

Good Afternoon, World

Much like the above gif of Austin Nichols here I am, rolling back into your lives this afternoon -- forgot I had a screening this morning. (If you'd like to know what it was and a brief snippet of what I thought of it check out Bluesky here.) Anyway on top of that it's also the Opening Day of both NewFest and the Brooklyn Horror Fest and so it might be a little quiet, this post besides. October is always a lot! Let's see how it goes...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

The Snow Men

I'm not just saying this because I am me and it's so me to say this, but I'm actually pretty shocked that the shot in Andrew Haigh's A Long Winter where Fred Hechinger and Kit Connor are getting dressed for bed and stand beside each other shirtless with their extremely different physiques on display is not included in the just released trailer for the movie -- the moment does serve a meaningful purpose in the movie, even if it's also just a little gratuitous in the sense that Andrew Haigh knows who his audience is, and when I saw the movie at NYFF I was likie, "Ooh trailer shot." But no they slapped me right across the face and said "Boo Whore" instead, and I am fine with that -- it's not that kind of movie. (Although any Ebon Moss-Bachrach fans might want to get in line and stay in line, just saying.) 

Anyway I didn't get to review this out of NYFF because it'd already been reviewed at Pajiba out of TIFF, but if I had reviewed it I would have been Team This Movie -- it's very quiet and gentle, it's like snow falling, but if you can get on its wavelength it's a terrific addition to the canon of Sad Mom Cinema. (Indeed I have a feeling it might wreck my partner, who vibes hard with such.) Fred Hechinger is wonderful in it, giving a real surprise of a performance -- not that I am surprised he's good, Fred is always good. But you don't at all expect his character to be such a beacon of light given his circumstances and yet Fred plays everything with a little more wonder and kindness than you expect . And it really took me off-guard, in a good way. And it's not going to happen (this movie is shamefully going to slip through the cracks of the next few months, I can already tell) but the best performance in it belongs to Bachrach, and he really deserves some awards-season appreciation. A Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars would be richly deserved but I won't be holding my breath. Anyway the movie hits NYC on December 4th and then exapands outward on January 22nd and as with anything made by Andrew Haigh you should see it.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Listen -- if they wanna drop one photograph from this photoshoot of Dino Fetscher per day for as long as I live and blog well then we'll be getting a "Good Morning, World" post that is Dino Fetscher every damned day. I do not just take this bait -- I revel in it, I roll around in it like a low-down dirty dog, I do. Good morning! I'm feeling better than I was yesterday. Passed out early, got up late -- I really do think there should be an entire week of rest per year where everything shuts down and everyone just lays around. It would do our brains good dammit. (click to embiggen) 

 

Calling In Exhausted

Hey, you. So I got back to my desk this afternoon after a wonderful (early, early) morning spent in the presence of Greta Gerwig and Stephen Colbert talking about the new Narnia movie (see below) and I immediately hit a wall. It's been a long month y'all. Anyway I wasn't going to post anything at all but then I remembered that the above old photo of Daniel Craig exists and I decided to give us something to look at until tomorrow. Well besides my noted Bluesky braggadocio:

Here's the trailer! MOTHERFUCKING ZEPPELIN, MAN

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— Jason Takes Man-Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) October 13, 2026 at 2:14 PM

Sudden-ly, See More Hamaguchi

I will do a round-up of my New York Film Festival reviews some time this week now that the fest has ended -- it was one of the best years I've had at the fest in the decades I've been going, with so many incredible movies that I couldn't even get to writing about, so I actually have a second post in mind as well; we'll see if I have time what with both NewFest and Brooklyn Horror Fest starting in a couple of days, but I hope I do so I can give all the great movies their due credit. But for now I've finally written up a few, deeply inadequate thoughts on what is my favorite movie coming out of the fest (and I don't just mean NYFF, I mean "the year" at this point), Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden -- read my review right here. Even after I named his previous movie Evil Does Not Exist my favorite film of 2024 I somehow keep underestimating Hamaguchi (I almost missed seeing this new one entirely) but that ends now -- what an absolute thing of beauty, this film. I haven't stopped thinking about it for weeks. Neon is releasing it on November 25th and you have to go; here is the trailer:

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Phoenician Scheme (2025)

Sister Liesl: When I pray no one answers. 

I only pretend he does. Then I do whatever 

I think god probably would've suggested. 

Usually, it's obvious.

A happy birthday to actor Mia Threapleton today -- yes yes she's high-nepo being Kate Winslet's daughter but she was so wonderful in this wonderful movie that I can't hold it against her. Actually it's kind of weird that Kate Winslet has never been in a Wes Anderson project isn't it? I could see her excelling with his tone -- whenever she leans into comedy she's grand at it. (The Regime had a semi-Andersonian tone to it actually.) Maybe this was Wes trying to get at Kate. I could picture an entire film by Wes Anderson starring nepo-babies though -- they'd all have that slightly familiar air of their parents but a little off-kilter, which is what Wes Anderson Movies are in a nutshell basically. They always feel like things that previously existed, unearthed tchotchkes from the past made new through his weird and wonderful sensibility. Anyway this is just reminding me how deeply underappreciated The Phoenician Scheme was in 2025 -- how the Oscars keep existing when Wes Anderson movies don't get nominated for at the very least Best Production Design every single time he has a new movie out is to their eternal shame. I did my part, it was in my Top 20 movies of last year!

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Since nobody guessed here are five more!

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Irish actor Fra Fee (and yes we just did a post last week debating the whole "openly gay" thing with our self re: him) just got done doing a theatrical show called I'll Be Seeing You in Scotland, and our laddy was kind enough to share a few photos from... well from his time getting dressed and undressed in the dressing room for the most part. This is why we need gay stars! They are like us! And they know what the people want. So let's enjoy these photos whilst I re-settle myself into my seat for this post-NYFF week, shall we? We shall, after the jump...

Stan in the Place Where You Live

I literally just reviewed Fjord earlier this week for the New York Film Fest -- read that here -- but for once I was not speaking from an ivory tower! No you, the common people, can go see Fjord this very weekend yourselves! Well you can if you're a "common person" in New York or Los Angeles anyway. Fuck you, Maryland. Sit and spin, Idaho! Ahem. Anyway you should see Fjord whenever you have the chance because, like everything director Cristian Mungiu makes, it's very good. As for me, well, I've got one more NYFF movie to see tomorrow and at least one more NYFF review to write (see all my NYFF coverage to date here and then it's on to the Brooklyn Horror Fest and NewFest which both kick off next week. This is a mad time of year, as ever. But mostly I have a quiet weekend ahead and I plan to take full advantage, zone the fuck out, and watch that dumb monster show starring Josh Hartnett on Netflix. Tis the season! 

Okay well obviously I'll be binging BELOW this weekend

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— Jason Takes Man-Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) October 9, 2026 at 3:53 PM

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Widows (2018)

Veronica: We have a lot of work to do,

crying is not on the list.

Happy birthday to the great Steve McQueen today.

Good Morning From Last Night, World

I sure hope the world doesn't explode in the next twelve hours because golly I will look like a fool, posting this post from Thursday evening to go up in the theoretical postapocalyptic world of this Friday A.M. I have posited. That's the danger of pre-planning posts in 2026! Anyway I've got my final press screening of the NYFF this morning -- for the Closing Night film, Ava Duvernay's follow-up to her documentary 13th called you guessed it 14th -- so I'll be in a little late. This isn't my final screening of NYFF -- I'm catching at least one more over this final weekend -- but it's the last one you people have to worry about keeping me from you. Even through a possible apocalypse! The theoretical things I do for the movies. Anyway look -- it's George MacKay! More MacKay (via) even after we've gotten such a fine and hefty bunch as of late thanks to next week's new Sense and Sensibility movie, in which as I have already said he is delivering a real swooner of a turn. Feel free to enjoy these new photos after the jump in any manner you like til I'm back in my seat again...