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.
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)...
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!
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:
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:
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...
... his first film 1996's The Delta is also getting a drop, which rules. It's a lovely intimate little gay drama that showed we were in for a real one with Sachs. Sachs has never made a bad film that I've seen and I've seen I think like 90% of what he's done? I've never seen Married Life or Forty Shades of Blue but everything else is top-tier stellar.
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 masterpieceStray 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.
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...
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...
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...
(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.)
a 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.)
(click to embiggen) It was Moonlight actor Trevante Rhodes' birthday earlier this week and as a gift to the rest of us he shared this selfie yesterday on his Instagram -- good lord almighty can I get an Amen? More like "A Man" when Trevante's involved. "Can I get an A MAN???" Indeed. Anyway I was thinking about Trev before I saw it was his birthday and before I saw this photo because there was a movie at Sundance that was felt Moonlight-adjacent and I now really would like to re-watch Moonlight. It's been ages! Also -- where the fuck is Trevante? Where is my daily pile of fresh Trevante content? More roles for Trevante, you fuckers!
Give it up for Rock Hudson serving hard 70s porn coach in Roger Vadim's exceptionally bizarre 1971 movie Pretty Maids All in a Row. Anybody seen this? For some reason its name crossed my social-media a couple of times recently which i took as a sign to watch it. So I did that last night and, uhh -- what the fuck was that? It's basically Porky's as a giallo film... or perhaps a giallo film as Porky's is more apt. It's a broad sexploitation comedy where the high school teachers are fucking and murdering their students. Before you run out thinking, as I did, "Oh my god I have to see this!" please know it's not a "good" movie. For all the WTF-ery going down it's somehow still plodding and pointless and mean. It's 1971 so of course it's profoundly misogynistic but even so, having that expectation going in, it manages to seem extra gross. Angie Dickinson plays a teacher opposite Rock and you can tell she was just bone-deep exhausted having to play this role, which demands she be dumber than hair.
There's a proto-Heathers thing going on -- the movie's one great joke is about the school having a "moment of silence" for the murdered cheerleaders during the big game -- but I think that might be the only time it actually wrung a laugh from me. Probably the most fascinating thing is watching the closet-case Hudson get his Psycho moment, turning a big campus hetero-stud into a figure of menace. But to be honest the movie doesn't seem terribly interested in making his character legitimately scary -- you basically get the feeling that the movie's still on his side after it reveals he's the killer very early on, and that those sluts and bimbos really had it coming. And remember, do keep in mind -- this is all (in theory) being played for wacky laughs! Laughs that never land. Still (in theory) it's interesting, and we do get to see big strapping Rock Hudson walking through a locker-room full of stripping football players, and it co-stars Telly Savalas AND Roddy McDowell, and the movie is deeply obsessed with the unrelenting boner of its main character, who for some insane reason is named "Ponce de Leon Harper" (played by the unconventionally adorable John David Carson). If you're ready to be offended and bored by a nevertheless fascinating mess I suppose I recommend this. But also I warned you.
I promised y'all I'd try to keep an eye out for news on the release of Harry Lighton's "dom-com" Pillion as A24 has slowly, slowly, slowly drizzled it into theaters, and so here, an update -- they posted on the social-media-site-that-shall-not-be-named today that the film will be going "nationwide" on February 20th. Whatever "nationwide" means but one assumes it means "in lots more theaters than it's in now." I don't have a list of theaters but hopefully this means you can see it then! You should! It's great -- yes that's my cue to link to my review for the five-hundredth time. Now enjoy these Harry Melling photos -- and on that note over at Pajiba our pal Kayleigh wrote about Harry Melling yesterday and it's a good read. He's a keeper.
"I too quit smoking (2013) AND find this type of pictures cool. Also, PSA: if you're feeling like you want to start smoking again, just remind yourself "I do not want my body and house to stink like stale horseshit", then go drink one more glass of water to entertain your hands and lips. Congrats, btw."
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