Pics of the Day

I thought I'd said all I needed to say about last night's Oscars in my earlier post and we could move on (as I'm always so super anxious to do with awards season) -- but then I remembered that nominee Isabella Rossellini wore a blue velvet gown to honor David Lynch and I started crying again! Just a perfect tribute -- if the show itself couldn't be bothered save a five second placard in their "In Memorium" segment to honor the most important American filmmaker of the past oh let's say fifty years, then at least Isabella and her seat partner Laura Dern got to be front and center and do their own little visual tribute. Sad they couldn't get Kyle Maclachlan and Naomi Watts beside them, but every time they cut to these two it packed a wallop. The Oscars, you might recall with the righteous fury of indignation I too carry, only ever gave Lynch an Honorary Oscar, and his acceptance of it got shuffled off to a side-show. As I've said before that was my breaking point with truly giving a shit about these awards. The break that started with Brokeback officially broke then! Anyway bless these two queens for representing.

Quote of the Day

Did y'all catch MNPP fave Alessandro Nivola during last night's Oscars show? I can't remember who it was that won (maybe the songwriters?) but they were seated behind The Brutalist actor and Nivola and his wife Emily Mortimer were sitting front and central on-screen for awhile as the people got out to walk to the stage and I yelped in excited recognition. (It was very the "Leo Pointing" meme.) Anyway Esquire chatted with Nivola about his custom-made tux and The Brutalist and his crazy year yesterday before the show, but my favorite bit was when they asked him about watching his son Sam Nivola on The White Lotus right now:

"You bet I have been watching season 3. From the looks of it, I may have to start watching some of it through my fingers. But I mean, it’s just amazing watching him. He’s done so well. I think he’s so good in it, and there’s something about his character that is so gentle and mysterious and really draws you in. I can tell that it’s headed in a direction that’s going to get a little hectic soon, so I’m bracing myself for the coming episode tonight. You know, Carrie Coon was texting me and wishing me luck for the Oscars, and I was saying I might have to slip out of the Vanity Fair party tonight to catch episode 3 before rejoining the fray. But, yeah, he’s kind of being shot out of a cannon now, and I’m so happy for him."

His saying "I may have to start watching some of it through my fingers" made me lol. No kidding! We've been leaning forward ourselves during Sam's scenes with Patrck Schwarzenegger but we have the benefit of not being his father haha. But in related news I passed out right after the Oscars last night and have not watched last night's episode of The White Lotus so nobody spoil anything in the comments please! I'll watch it tonight. And now I must insist you hit the jump for a couple more photos of handsome devil Alessandro looking sharp as fuck...

Goodbye Oscars Again

Conan O'Brien was doing such a good job putting on a good Oscars show -- along with the show's producers, who embraced the gaudy nonsense that the show should embrace, but more on that in a second -- that it wasn't until its second half that I realized I didn't give a shit about any of the movies or people winning the prizes. That they held off my annual Oscar annoyance and bitterness that long is an incredible feat! There are a couple of winners -- Flow for Best Animated film, Daniel Blumberg's incredible score for The Brutalist, No Other Land for Doc, and I'm Still Here for International Film -- that make me very happy. Several others are fine. But when you're as meh as I am about every single one of the top prize winners? Keiran Culkin is the only performance of the four acting winners I really like, but I could name twenty people I'd have handed that statue to over him including three of the other people actually nominated against him (I haven't been able to bring myself to watch The Apprentice yet). And I admit I need to re-watch Anora -- I have only seen it once at NYFF in the fall -- but y'all know...

When Conan made the joke about Anora using “the f word” 479 times I thought maybe we were gonna get a joke about its rampant homophobia for a second, haha silly me

— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 2, 2025 at 8:51 PM

... my repeatedly-expressed feelings there. And while I quite like The Brutalist I'm of the mind (apparently very very lonely of that mind) that Brody and Jones are its weakest aspects. (And JFC Brody's speech was insufferable proof that he remains insufferable.) 

I was expecting this to pop up in the middle of that speech

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 2, 2025 at 10:28 PM

Anyway I loved the production of the show, which embraced the hokey dance numbers of the past, and which really let -- for its first half anyway -- the nominees in all the craft cateegories get their due. Until they decided things were running too long and started cutting people off -- as soon as they start doing that I start getting tense and annoyed and the entire mood shifts. And then I started noticing that I wasn't liking the winners and yadda yadda Mikey Madison beat Demi and I was done. Y'all have thoughts? 

Robbed

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 2, 2025 at 10:43 PM

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Hello and happy Monday -- post-Oscars Monday, at that! -- I am running woefully behind this morning and so here are a couple of quick Noah Centineo on The Recruit gifs I haven't shared before since they were the first thing I came across. So to speak. Minds outta the gutters, people! Or not -- however you choose to use them from here is your business. Anyway enjoy, have a good time, et cetera. A simple happy Monday is my point! 

Bottoms in Your House

Here is some happy news on a not happy day -- there's a rumor that Bottoms is finally getting a physical media release in May! The exquisite broad (and very very gay) comedy from Shiva Baby director Emma Seligman starring Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edibiri, and Nicholas Galitzine among others, has up until now just been a streaming release -- you can watch it on Prime right here. But supposedly Kino Lorber will be dropping a "special edition" of the movie on May 27th. Hooray! Here is my review of the movie from way back.  

Pic of the Day

I am trying to take a momentary break for a minute from anger-scrolling over our shit-ass Russian-puppet President right now so there's a new promotional picture of Jake Gyllenhaal and Denzel Washington for their new stage adaptation of Othello -- I've been entering the lottery every day trying to get cheap tickets but so far come up with bupkis; it hasn't even been a week though so y'all keep me in your prayers! Somebody snapped a photo (seen below) of the cast taking a bow the other day and it looks like Jake is full Jarhead in it, and that is some shit I need to see in the flesh y'all. Regular tickets for the show are so outrageously expensive though the lottery's the only way I'll be seeing it. 

OH GOD HE'S IN UNIFORM TOO LIVE ACTION JARHEAD

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) February 27, 2025 at 2:48 PM

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Barton Fink (1991)

Barton: Have you read the Bible, Pete?

Pete: Holy Bible?

Barton: Yeah.

Pete: Yeah, I think so. 

Anyway, I've heard about it.

Every time I re-watch Barton Fink I come to love it more and more, until my last re-watch a couple of months ago it cemented it firmly in my top three Coens movies (alongside Fargo and A Serious Man). It's so funny and strange and ultimately terrifying and the relationship between Turturro and John Goodman ranks among the greatest in any Coens movie. Most of all I am always, every time, surprised by it -- it always brings something new out to contemplate. Just a brilliant film. And with that we wish John Turturro a happy 68th birthday today! I am a couple of episodes behind (I just watched the episode pictured below last night) but I did finally start watching the new season of Severance and his character of Irving remains my favorite character on the show by leaps and bounds -- when do we are we gonna get John an Oscar? He's seriously overdue. Let's get on that. What are your favorite Turturros?

Leo Woodall Four Times

After reading my fellow Pajiba contributor Chris Revelle's piece on the gay romance at the edges of the series Prime Target starring Leo Woodall I decided it was my patriotic duty -- or whatever the gay equivalent of that is -- to watch the show, even though a show about math that is by all accounts very very silly isn't really up my alley. And so I started it last night. And it is indeed very very silly -- Leo saying that he doesn't use a computer because "they're too slow" made my eyes roll around the world and back. But Leo is so goddamned easy to look at and just ease  yourself right into a salivating stupor that I flew through the first episode without even realizing? I have been in need of a dumb show to watch anyway so I think this'll fit the bill nicely. These new photos are for Vanity Fair -- and I know you've all already embiggened the above photo to glare at Leo's gams and it's okay, I did it too! Hit the jump for them all...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Raise your hand if you suddenly want to be a water bottle! I believe this gif of Aaron Taylor-Johnson comes from one of the special features that will be on the blu-ray that's out on March 4th -- you can pre-order it right here if you'd like a look at those special features; the movie itself, well, that's up to you! It's not the worst superhero movie ever made -- Alessandro Nivola is a hell of a lot of fun and Aaron knows we're there to stare at his muscles and he dutifully obliges more than most actors in his postion. Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, all the Chrisses -- they usually gave us a single shirtless shot per movie but Aaron's bulging out all over this thing. Anyway hello it's Friday and I have perhaps never been happier about that fact -- let's get this weekend going already. I am cooked. 

I Have a Screening...

... so here is a vintage photo of today's "It Boy" Jamie Dornan posing with a couple more Calvin Klein models back in his own Aughts-era modeling days -- the other boys seem to've drawn the short straw when it came to clothes but we're not angry at the visual (and the scenario) provided! (click to embiggen) I'll be back on here tomorrow, y'all have a nice rest of Thursday.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

Sometimes I wonder if there is still magic to be discovered in this world, but this morning I am here to tell you kiddos that yes, there is -- there is still magic! Look no further than me discovering in the year 2025 that Texas Chain Saw director Tobe Hooper made I'm Dangerous Tonight, a Made-For-TV thriller in 1990 about an evil red dress possessed by Incan Devilry that starred Twin Peaks actress Mädchen Amick, Psycho star Anthony Perkins, E.T. & Cujo icon Dee Wallace, and... R. Lee Ermey? Because why not?

You'd think I'd have read something about this movie when my beloved Peter Strickland's killer red dress classic In Fabric came out in 2018 but if somebody did mention it it completely slipped past me -- only this week did I learn of its existence when Letterboxd made a list of movies about "Cursed Objects" (thanks to the release of Oz Perkins' The Monkey) and mentioned this film. Obviously I had to watch it immediately -- I couldn't even wait for the blu-ray to arrive in the mail, I watched the shitty quality copy that you see in these gifs. And it was worth every second of squinting!

Tobe clearly knew he had to lean hard into the camp, so this thing is soapy, it's stupid, it's trash, and I loved every fucking second of it. But let's get to this death scene here --  Mädchen's sex-obsessed cousin Gloria (Daisy Hall, chewing the walls themselves) steals the dress from Mädchen and upon putting it on immediately goes into a slutty rage. Her ten foot tall actual linebacker boyfriend obviously never stood a chance! Hit the jump for the rest of the scene...

Good Morning, World

Ooh batten down your hatches -- we're gonna have a new Jamie Dornan photoshoot! Okay yes all we have right now is the cover and I shouldn't jump the gun, but it was a rare Insta-bright-spot in a sad Insta-morning (did you see SMG's post about Michelle Trachtenberg? Broken hearted. Not to mention all of the Gene Hackman tributes rolling in. Good grief.) I daren't hope this shoot when revealed in full could be as good as his Arena Homme shoot last year but that image above is promising anyway. It reminds me of a bit that Sandra Bernhard had in one of her comedy specials where she made a joke about an album cover for Heart where one of them had "one eye obscured by a peacock feather." And I like that.

Say Good Night, Sufjan

Good night, Sufjan.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Insidious (2010)

Tucker: A picture's worth a thousand words.

Specs: Words are worth a thousand words, too.

A happy 48 to director James Wan today!

He really understands the appeal of Patrick Wilson...

... and for that we owe him an eternal gratitude.

And I am still super sad we're not getting a Trench movie.

Dammit James Wan's THE TRENCH was literally the only DC movie I gave a shit about. 1, cuz that sequence is the best sequence in any DC movie, period. And 2, cuz making a whole damn movie out of that seemed so ridiculous & inexplicable. Clearly it was but that's where magic lives! pic.twitter.com/m9BNbRLonN

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 1, 2021

RIP MIchelle Trachtenberg

Incredibly shocking and sad news today as we learn that Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl, Mysterious Skin and Harriet the Spy actress Michelle Trachtenberg has passed away at the far far far too young age of 39. I only started watching Buffy regularly in its fifth season (and had to go back and watch all the earlier seasons on DVD) so Michelle's character of Dawn never felt imposed on the show to me like it did to most people who watched the show from the start (of course that was part of the knowing wink of the character) -- anyway I was vehemently pro-Dawn and was always knocking back at the character's haters. I also got to interview Michelle in 2004 for the Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly -- I tried to find the interview online but it doesn't seem to be anywhere. I've only done two interviews in my entire life (the other one being Michael Fassbender because how could I say no to that) because I am not a natural conversationalist (which should read: cripplingly shy) but I remember Michelle being lovely and sweet and funny in our phone convo. Our deepest condolences go out to all the people who knew and loved her. With the possibility of a Buffy reboot ahead we now have to wonder how they'll address this. How very very sad.

Leo Woodall Five Times

I haven't watched the new Bridget Jones movie yes and I don't know if I will -- I think I only saw the first one? But I definitely appreciate the fact that it's given our former White Lotus trophy boy Leo Woodall some additional press here in 2025 (to go alongside all the hot gay action he's currently engaging in on his Apple+ series) -- if you follow me on Bluesky then you'll already know it's been useful not just for the usual (i.e. staring) but practical too since I used a recent photoshoot of this pretty boy to show to my barber for the haircut I got this morning! He's a man for all seasons, this one!  

Anyway in procuring said haircut photos last night I stumbled upon several other recent shoots I'd not seen before, but I'm only sharing this one (via) right now because.. well, it's plenty. Sleeveless tees, short shorts -- I am sated. We'll save the other ones for the rainy days when we've got nothing else to post. Hit the jump for the rest of these...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?