Man Not There, Woman Under Influence

If I was forced at gun-point -- or perhaps in this instance umbrella-point is more apt -- to list the ten most beautiful movies ever made, Jacques Tati's 1967 masterpiece Playtime would be on said list -- I've watched this sucker projected on the wall of the Museum of Modern Art, for goodness's ake. And I don't mean inside one of their movie theaters -- I mean in the actual art part of the museum they had this several minutes of this film projected on a wall right beside paintings for a few years and every time I walked past it I would sit down on the bench provided and re-watch the footage for the gazillionth time. It's about as perfect as such things go and so the news that Criterion is dropping the film onto 4K disc this upcoming February is some happy news indeed. (And obviously the folks at Criterion agree with me on this film's stature since this FOURTH release they've given it, after DVD, blu-ray, and their must-own Tati box-set.)

Indeed I don't usually start these monthly Criterion release announcement posts with one of their now constant 4K upgrades but Playtime on 4K is obviously a special ocassion. That said the rest of February's hardly a slouch -- take for instance Sidney Lumet's 1976 media master-class Network, which is enterting the esteemed Collection for the first time, and also in 4K. That movie turns 50 next year and feels as timely as ever -- and of course I speak of how we all still would have had sex with Old William Holden even if we were hot young things like Faye Dunaway. Obviously! Why -- what did you think I was talking about? 

Next up on February 3rd there's the 1957 Western 3:10 to Yuma, which I must admit I've never seen -- I've seen the remake with Christian Bale but never the original with Glenn Ford. Should I? Tell me your opinion as if you're talking to someone who doesn't have a lot of patience with Westerns in general. Because you are. Nor do I have a lot of patience for John Cassavetes' much-beloved 1974 drama A Woman Under the Influence, which is getting what I believe is its first standalone release after being part of the Cassavetes box-set previously. I tend to agree with Pauline Kael's infamous opinion here -- that Rowlands is just doing Way Too Much in this movie. I understand why actors love the performance, but as a viewer I'm just not into it at all. (That said I'm sure this is getting this standalone drop because of Rowlands' recent passing and that's nice for her fans.)

February ain't stopping there, though -- you want a box-set of Ernst Lubitsch's musicals, you say? Well you got it! Their reinstated "Eclipse Series" is unloading four of the champagne-synonymous filmmaker's movies starting with The Love Parade in 1929 right through One Hour With You in 1932. I haven't seen a single one of these but every time I have seen The Love Parade's title anywhere I think of that being the title of Tobey Maguire's book in Wonder Boys. (Is that weird? I'm weird. God I love Wonder Boys. Put Wonder Boys in the Criterion Collection dammit!) Next up there's the great Kiyoshi Kurosawa's most recent thriller Cloud, which also happens to be streaming on Criterion Channel right now -- it's about an online reseller becoming unhinged as he tries to score questionable deals, and yes I related to it an awful lot. Which brings us to the last but hardly least February drop -- the Coen Brothers 2001 black-and-white Noir-riff The Man Who Wasn't There, starring Billy Bob Thornton and Scarlett Johannson among many others. Here's where I admit I don't thiunk I've seen this since it came out? Which is strange indeed because I remember liking it a lot. Huh. Well now's my chance! 

What out of February 2026's releases has you most excited?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Pontius Pilate: It's one thing to want to change 

the way people live; but you want to change 

how they think, how they feel.

Jesus: All I'm saying is that change will happen 

with love, not with killing.

Pontius Pilate: Either way, it's dangerous. It's against Rome. 

It's against the way the world is. And killing or loving, 

it's all the same. It simply doesn't matter how you want 

to change things. We don't want them changed.

A happy 83rd birthday to the living legend Martin Scorsese! Who's watched the doc Mr. Scorsese that landed on Apple last month? I plowed through it pretty quickly once I emerged out from under all my film festival duties and I came away with two main thoughts - one, it totally could've been a couple of episodes longer. Starting with Cape Fear (which he casually dismissed, much to my Cape Fear loving chagrin) the momentum got moving too fast -- they didn't even mention Hugo! And Hugo is great! That's only a complaint insofar as wanting more of a thing can be a complaint -- otherwise it was great. 

My second main thought though -- well now I have to re-watch every Scorsese movie. I re-watch my faves like The Age of Innocence, After Hours, Taxi Driver, probably once a year. (I made a Top 5 list for Marty's birthday three years ago that hasn't changed.) But there are several that I haven't seen in a very long time, including the film quoted up top (it's been decades) and Raging Bull. So I think over the holidays I'm going to be making a project of re-watching several Scorsese movies. I actually don't think I've seen The Departed since it came out!

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Dead Man

Hello and happy Monday -- when I posted about noted dreamy Irishman and actor Daryl McCormack being cast in Tom Ford's next movie (along with a bevy of hotties) last week I said to myself (and also Bluesky), "Hmm why don't I post more Daryl McCormack?" I think the dude caught all our eyes and other parts and then some with his star-making turn opposite Emma Thompson in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande a couple of years ago -- then when he popped up in the latest Knives Out movie Wake Up Dead Man, which as an aside just got a new trailer this very morning...

... and I really realized I best get on it. Thankfully today we've got a photoshoot of him to share and do just that -- he's in the new issue of Hero magazine (I haven't read it yet but his chat is with his WUDM co-star Cailee Spaeny) looking typically handsome as hell. As for WUDM (which yes obviously given what I just said I have seen) that is very much Josh O'Connor's movie (as much if not more than it is Daniel Craig's movie, if you can believe it) but what we get of Daryl is good. That's out in "select theaters" on Thanksgiving (yeah you know what Netflix means when they say "select theaters" by now right) and then on the streamer December 12th. And without giving away my review of it let's just say it's probably my favorite of the franchise to date. I digress! Let's show you all of them Daryl pics after the jump...

A Few Small Beers

I've made no secret of the fact that Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another is my favorite movie of 2025 -- my review at Pajiba when it hit theaters contained such ecstatic frothing at the mouth somebody shoulda called a kennel. Anyway I've seen it four times in the theater now and will probably try to hit it up at least one more time before it disappears completely (I've got the added advantage of screenings for the awards guilds I'm in, which I've taken full advantage of) but all y'all who didn't make it out to the theater should know that the movie is on VOD now. You can rent it right here. I watched half of it at home last week (via awards screener) and it plays terrific at home too, although I'm sure the year's best scene car chase that caps the movie off won't feel quite so visceral from the sofa. But however you gotta see it, see it. They also announced the physical media release info recently -- the blu-ray and 4K of the film are landing on January 20th, with a limited-edition steelbook of the film coming later in the spring. That later edition will supposedly have a bunch of PTA-crafted special features that the earlier ones won't (hence the delay) but annoyingly it seems like it'll be harder to grab one of those -- it's already sold out on Amazon but some of the botique shops are still selling them for pre-order, like Orbit DVD right here. All that said if you've seen the movie and not shared your opinion with me yet that's what the comments below are for! Next week when I finally see Marty Supreme I'll have seen all of OBAA's main competition for Best Picture (unless the third Avatar movie shatters expectations) and as of right this minute I'm ready to go to war if OBAA doesn't win the top prize as well as Best Director. It's PTA's time dammit. (Jonny Greewnood's too!)

The vinyl for Jonny Greenwood's ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER score is out now!

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) November 14, 2025 at 2:26 PM

Jay Ellis Eleven Times

A couple of weeks ago I shared a photoshoot of actor Jake Lacy that was promoting his series All Her Fault -- it's only right I also share these Jay Ellisphotos that dropped today (via) too then, since they're both on that same show. I mean I was going to share these photos anyway because LOOK AT HIM, but then I looked up what he's promoting and realized it was the same series -- which I have not watched -- and here we are. I suppose I should ask if anybody's watching this show then? It's stuffed fulla hotties apparently so at least one of you must be. For now we'll stuff out hotties here though, or rather after the jump...

A Little Tom Holland Treat

The first official images from Christopher Nolan's film of The Odyssey have started to land (via the new issue of Empire magazine I believe) and I figured it would be this shot of Tom Holland playing the character of Telemachus that would blow up all y'all skirts the best. This movie's not out until July 17th 2026 so we've got some time to decide whether we give a shit -- well I suppose "we" really equals "me" since I'm the biggest Nolan naysayer around. And yet! And yet I did like Oppenheimer. So maybe I'll like this one even more and Nolan will suddenly become a director I appreciate again, which hasn't really been a thing since Memento. (Okay okay I do mostly like The Dark Knight too.) With a cast that includes Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Mia Goth, Jon Bernthal, Zendaya, Logan Marshall-Green, Lupita Nyong'o and Samantha Morton (among others) there'll certainly be somebody worth staring at most of the time... but then Nolan's always gotten big starry casts which he then usually squanders. I'm trying to be optimistic, really! How are y'all feeling about the prospects on this one? 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Do Dump or Marry: Three Hot Gays

In honor of Russell Tovey's birthday today we will toss him into a heap with two of the internet's favorite homosexuals and force them to wrestle it out for our enjoyment. Our gay gladiators! He and Andrew Scott and Sexiest Man Alive Jonathan Bailey were all photographed at... oh I don't care, some party this week. I can't be bothered to look up what it was. But it seems the right moment to "Do Dump or Marry" the three of them. Do do that in the comments and also wish a Happy birthday to Mr. Tovey! From you and from me and more importantly (like way more importantly) from these two:

Good Morning, Waël

This Friday we're grabbing onto a newcomer for dear life -- his name is Waël Sersoub and he's actually been making movies for a decade. He was apparently in Michael Haneke's Happy End!  I really need to re-watch Happy End. Anyway on Insta I follow the photographer who took that picture and I one hundred percent thought it was a photo of former canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at first -- you can see the resemblance right? And yes it seemed like a big leap in Trudeau's career to suddenly be taking beefcake photos but hey he is dating Katy Perry right now. Who knows? The world works in mysterious, horny ways. Anyway it's not the former Prime Minister of our upper neighbor, it's a French model-turned-actor who I recommend looking up -- he pretty. Ooh he also was in a Matthias Schoenaerts movie. I like to think they made fast friends, him and Matty. Check Waël's Insta right here. Happy Friday!

 

To Know Her is to Keeper

Well I managed to make it to the day I see Osgood Perkins' latest horror movie Keeper without knowing a single thing about it -- well okay that's not entirely true since I know Oz directed it and I know it stars Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland and I think I saw that it's Folk Horror. But even though I posted the trailer in August I still haven't watched it and I've avoided any other information about the film. And yes I brandish this ignorance as a badge of pride! As one should in America 2025. Ignorance and the right to be proud of it is our greatest export! Seriously though keeping one's self unspoiled in this day and age takes mucho bobbing and mucho-er weaving, and with an hour to go until the curtain drops I think I can say I made it! Huzzah! I will just refrain from reading this post's comments until later. Can't catch me! In summation goodbye for the night and hello Rossif Sutherland's glorious beard...

Zane Phillips One Time

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

Lethal Weapon (1987)

I guess it's been longer since I'd seen Lethal Weapon than I realized because I have no memory at all of this ridiculous scene -- why the hell is Tom Atkins suddenly holding a carton of Egg Nog in front of himself like that??? Why did Gary Busey just shoot him through it... besides Busey gonna Busey??? But truth be told the only thing I do actually remember about Lethal Weapon is Mel Gibson's ass reveal...

...and, granted, that was enough in my tender youth to get Little Me to watch this movie dozens of times. This one definitely fell under the banner of straight guy movies that little gay boys could watch and get something out of them that their peers were not, alongside every movie Jean-Claude Van Damme made. Anyway I'm not here to ogle the ass of an asshole -- I'm here to celebrate the 87th birthday of the genre icon Tom Atkins, who inexplicably cradled that carton of egg nog like the goddamned professional he is. Legend!

Hit the jump for links to all the previous Ways Not To Die...

Lick On Heathcliff

The second trailer for Emerald "Saltburn" Fennell's Wuthering Heights movie starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi licking a wall (as seen above) has dropped today -- I shared the first one back in September and said what I needed to say and posted the gifs of shirtlesss Jacob already right there. The brief gist is I am hardcore Team Fennell and I can't wait for her to annoy all of you who aren't. Here's the trailer:

This movie isn't out until February -- do a double-feature with Pillion! -- so I'm surprised we're already getting a full-length trailer now, but I guess it's so they can play it during all the holiday releases. Anyway every use of red in this trailer made me orgasm -- and yes that's a lot of orgasm, and also yes nobody should probably sit next to me when I see finally this. For real though this shot below in particular seriously made me cackle withh glee -- this romance-novel nonsense is amazing. Amazing! I want it! (And I already bought the Charli XCX soundtrack on vinyl, which just went on sale today.)

Today's Fanboy Delusion

 Today I'd rather be...

... doing as Lee Pace commands. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

It's been such a busy week for sexy-fella photoshoots that I've been sitting on these pictures of Alexander Skarsgård in Esquire for two days and only now getting around to posting them. Now normally I'd apologize to the talent I'm sitting on for taking my sweet time. But since Alex is allowing the studio to hold his "dom-com" Pillion hostage in the U.S. until February I will do no such thing. Yes yes I personally have already seen the movie two times -- and reviewed it, and sat ten inches away from Alex himself for a Q&A -- but I speak for the people. You people. You people who wants to see Alexander Skarsgard wearing a leather jumpsuit getting a BJ in a back alley. My people! Release the film! As a gesture of goodwill on my part here is the Esquire photo-shoot after the jump...

No Other Master

Much the way I end up wanting several different versions of posters every time a new Yorgos Lanthimos movie comes out -- and sidenote I can't believe I never linked to the big recent NYT article about Yorgos' longtime poster designer Vasilis Marmatakis, which can be seen here -- I feel the same every time a new Park Chan-wook movie hits. And sure enough his latest No Other Choice has cause for a buffet of movie art beauty. The one seen above is an echo of the main poster, previously posted here -- I already own a copy of that earlier poster but I would one hundred percent also like to buy the one seen here too. Sigh! And don't even get me started on the transclucent one that was being handed out at screenings of the movie in South Korea! I'd kill every person I love to just hold one of those in my hands! Aaaanyway why am I bringing up a movie I have 1) already reviewed out of NYFF right here, and 2) isn't actually out in limited U.S. theaters until Christmas? Because I got some super-powered star-fucking I am super-psyched to mention! I'm about to check another "breathing air with a favorite director" experience off my bucket-list tonight when I see this movie for a third time and it's followed up by a Q&A with Master Park himself! And his leading man, long time beloved hunk Lee Byung-hun, will be there as well! I AM SO EXCITED, YOU GUYS. I'll clearly be posting from it over on my Insta, so keep your eyes peeled there. Did you see my photos of Joel Edgerton and William H. Macy at a screening of Train Dreams last night? They're below if you missed 'em. Tis the busy busy awards-season time of year so expect more star-fuckery to come. 

Some snaps of Joel Edgerton, William H. Macy and director Clint Bentley at tonight’s TRAIN DREAMS screening! #traindreams @Netflix.com

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) November 11, 2025 at 11:22 PM

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Héloïse: Do all lovers feel they're inventing something?

A happy 47 to the great Céline Sciamma today. Do 

yourself a favor and go watch this or Petite Maman.

Both masterpieces. You are welcome.

Sing Me a Song of Beautiful Men

Well here's some news tailor-made (heh see what I did there) for MNPP -- former designer turned movie director Tom Ford (now you see what I did there) has announced his next film and it's an adaptation of Anne Rice's book Cry To Heaven about 18th Century Italian Opera. None of those things are really the specific things that make this a tight fit onto our interests -- it's all about the cast, baby. Namely it will star (among others) Nicholas Hoult, George MacKay, Colin Firth, Paul Bettany, Mark Strong, Theodore Pellerin, Daryl McCormack and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Phew! Several of those people have worked with Ford before: Hoult and Firth were both in A Single Man of course....

... sorry I can't mention that fact without posting that gif; it's written into my contract. And then Aaron Taylor-Johnson memorably wiped his ass while sitting on an outdoor toilet in everybody's favorite movie of the millenium Nocturnal Animals. Don't worry -- I am not sharing that gif. And the rest of those names will be served wonderfully by Ford's eye I have no doubt -- I especially can't wait to see how he shoots the outrageous angles of Pellerin & MacKay's faces. Oh and Daryl McCormack, who's just soooo dreeeeeeamy.

Wait what were we talking about? Oh right this is a movie. I have never read this Anne Rice book but one assumes that the big headline here is the person I have not yet named in the cast -- the singer Adele is making her acting debut in a movie about opera singers. I imagine she's the lead and all of these insanely good looking men will be circling around her? I don't know; maybe Tom will give her a light load on her first film and some of these gorgeous men will pick up the slack. Whatever. GIMME! Other names in the cast -- that kid Owen Cooper from Adolesence, Ciarán Hinds,  Thandiwe Newton, Hunter Schafer, and Lux "sister of Pedro" Pascal. This sucker's loaded up yo!