Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... smashing swords with Miguel Ángel Silvestre.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Murder in a Blue World

I know you're not supposed to review the movie you had in your head, you're supposed to review the movie you watched -- the one the movie-makers actually gave you -- but allow me a minute to indulge that destructive impulse of mine first. Because the second Avatar movie, 2022's The Way of Water, really made me think I knew what we were getting next (from a franchise I have mostly enjoyed, even while acknowledging that the films are obviouly very dumb) and I was excited about seeing it. 

In WoW we see Kiri (the young Sigourney clone) start to exhibit, with wicked coolness, super-powers where she can telepathically command the strange creatures of the sea to do her bidding. Now if you know anything about Cameron's extra-filmic obsessions you know he's all about deep sea exploration -- back in 2012 he became the first human being to pilot a one-man submersible into the Mariana Trench for god's sake! 

So anyway it didn't seem an extraordinary leap for my mind to imagine that the next film really would be capitalizing on Kiri's powers and taking us deeper into the ocean, allowing Cameron and his special-effects wizards to dream up an entire world of wild new creatures down there. Just imagine! I sure did. Deep sea life has been one of my obsessions since I was a wee little kid and saw my first image of a giant squid fighting a whale (pretty sure that's the image every kid sees first). I found myself giddy over the possibilities. Cameron using his seemingly bottomless access to hundreds of millions of dollars to deliver my childhood dreams? If the Avatar franchise is for anything that is very much what it is for. (Remember how the first movie really made us feel like we were flying on the back of a dragon like nothing had before?)

Anyway there's one scene in the disastrously boring and redundant Avatar: Fire and Ash where Cameron sort of goes there, unleashing a carnivorous pod of deep sea squid monsters -- well I guess it's two scenes since these creatures show up twice, but the second is really just more of the first. These creatures are very cool! And in so being only serve to highlight what the film is lacking otherwise -- imagination.

Because the entire story of Fire and Ash is been there, done that two times already, was sorta bored the second time so there's no excuse to be doing this all yet again, dude. We're introduced to a new colony of Na'vi, an aggressive deep-jungle tribe who worship fire and become obsessed with humankind's weaponry, hellbent as they are on killing everybody and becoming top of the heap. Which leads to a bunch of scenes we've seen a dozen times already with the kids getting in danger and fighting on sinking ships and yadda yadda so very many yaddas. 

There is one other highlight -- Oona Chaplin absolutely murders it as the leader of the Ash people, Varang. Pure camp, slinking around, hissing and shrieking, being a total vamp (she fucks!), one imagines if the Avatar franchise ever comes anywhere near drag culture it will be to celebrate sweet psychotic Varang. 

But as I said on Bluesky right after my press screening a few weeks back (seen below), all I could think wading through the unbearable sludge of Avatar: Fire and Ash's three-plus-hour runtime was the word "enough." I have had plenty. More than plenty. I am positively sick with plenty. James Cameron, we're begging you -- make something else! Cameron's ability with crafting an action sequence remains exquisite -- these scenes all look great and move great individually. We've just really seen enough of this blue shit, James! Enough for several lifetimes, and enough for several clone's lifetimes after those.

Oh guess that AVATAR embargo broke. I considered just writing one word: ENOUGH. I liked the first two but watching this one in a post-AI-poisoned world, a longing for reality overwhelmed me from the first frame & nothing rose above. Oona Chaplin and the squids are great. Otherwise... well, ENOUGH.

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) December 2, 2025 at 1:35 PM

Me & Timmy & Co

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A post shared by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams)

As promised nay threatened last evening I scurried off to devour a second helping of Marty Supreme, and as you can see above my dreams came true and Mr. Chalamet himself was there for the Q&A after. They weren't advertising who would be there, they just said "cast" on the invite, but it was pretty much everybody! (Hey Gwyneth.) Even the real life ping-pong player who plays Marty's nemesis. (Although "nemesis" is a strong word because the film never goes the "Ivan Drago" route and demonizes the player sopposite Marty, which is smart -- dude makes enemies every time he opens his mouth and they're much scarier than ping-pong opponents.) Anyway check the pics, watch the vids, enjoy. More to come on Marty later. Eventually. (It's out in 9 days so soon.)

Good Morning, Wilson

Actor Patrick Wilson, who is 52-years-old, decided it was time to remind us that he's a finer slab of man than all those bitches half his age, and so we've been granted blessed access to some of his work-out routine via his Instagram -- I guess now that his time as the holy roller rolling over the unholyon The Conjuring franchise is (supposedly) over he's back to sinnin' -- just the way we prefer him. Hit the jump for more more more...

And the Chalamet Goes Wild

And with that I am off to see Marty Supreme a second yes second time -- weirdly after a double-check I realized I never shared here my Bluesky reaction from my first viewing so I'll share that down below. I don't suppose it will surprise any of you who consider me Timmy-pilled but given how hit-n-miss I find the Safdies I think it should. This was by no means a guaranteed response from me. Anyway there will supposedly be "cast" present at this screening I'm headed to now, but they're not telling us who exactly -- so press your ear to your window in a few hours to see if you can hear my fan-girl shrieking and immediately know that I'm in a room with my Timmy without me having to say it. (With my luck it'll just be that asshole from Shark Tank, sigh.) All that said maybe check my Instagram too, as there will be photos. And I will be reviewing this movie before its release at Christmas, so perhaps I can persuade you with "words" not just pictures, as I know Timmy's face drives some of you to madness. Cheers, see ya tomorrow!

GIVE TIMMY HIS OSCAR IT’S HIS HE EARNED THAT SHIT #martysupreme

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) November 20, 2025 at 10:56 PM

Criterions of the Flower Moon

How is it after all these many years (cue that old Titanic lady meme) I can still be surprised when the 15th rolls around and it's suddenly New Criterion Announcement Day? And yet here we are and I'm wholly unprepared for it. For real though -- I've got a screening in an hour that I'm cutting out early for so let's see if I can pound this sucker out and still say something worthwhile about them (as if that's stopped me before). The "them" being Criterion's releases for March of next year -- these things always being three mon ths ahead of time always give me this weird tunnel telescoped idea of time; like oh okay we're already living in the spring of 2026! (Is he dead yet? Fingers and toes crossed.) Which brings us to the biggun outta this batch -- Martin Scorsese's 2023 masterpiece Killers of the Flower Moon. Yes I was very much Team This Movie, as my review at the time let on -- I know some people have other opinions but I don't care for those in general. This is a great movie and man oh man is Lily Gladstone incredible in it. 

Next up two I have never seen -- Claude Sautet's 1960 crime thriller Classe tous risques, which stars a post-Breathless Jean-Paul Belmondo as the sidekick to a fugitive slicing n' dicing his way through Paris' criminal underworld -- anybody seen it? Seeing as how Belmondo was at Peak Hotness right here you'd best believe it's just been added to my To Watch list. Then there's the 1995 Hong Kong actioner The Blade from director Tsui Hark about a one-armed sword-maker hellbent on revenge -- I guess this was a flop when it came out but is now considered an expressionist action masterpiece? Now see, when people praise action movies for being "expressionist" I get worried it's some Michael Bay butchered nonsense -- deranged people have used that term for his cinema-barf and poisoned it for me. But we'll see. I'll give it a chance. 

Next up two more 1960s classics with Claude Lelouche's 1966 romance A Man and a Woman starring Jea-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée as widowed single parents falling for one another along the gorgeous Normandy coast, and Luis Buñuel’s deliciously blasphemous 1961 masterpiece Viridinia with Catherine Deneuve. I only saw Viridinia a few years ago for the first time and man oh man does it live up to its reputation as So Fucking Good. Wanna know why? Becaue it is So Fucking Good! That Buñuel. Whatta guy. And then, finally, we have the sixth title for the month, another one I have never seen but which sounds incredible and I can't believe I haven't seen this -- Lynne Littman's 1983 film Testament, which stars Jane Alexander as a small-town mother of three surviving the day after a nuclear explosion. I guess Alexander was nominated for an Oscar for this? Any fans? Sounds very intriguing to me!

Next Year's Hokum

As dismal as the world seems in many ways right this minute there are reasons to be excited about 2026, and I'm choosing to focus on one of those right now -- namely the release of the new horror movie from Oddity director Damian McCarthy! Real horror nerds will also know his movie before Oddity -- the creepy-as-fuck haunted stuffed bunny thriller Caveat -- but Oddity really took him next level, and Hokum (which is what the new one's called, and golly it's a good title) looks to continue the trend. It's being released by current horror bellwether Neon for one (they've very much snatched the title from A24), and it stars the great and under-used Adam Scott for another. And now there's a teaser! Watch:

Hokum is out on May the 1st.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Stand By Me (1986)

Chris: I'm never gonna get out of 

this town am I, Gordie?

Gordie: You can do anything you want, man.

Chris: Yeah, sure. Give me some skin.

Gordie: I'll see ya.

Chris: Not if I see you first.

RIP Rob Reiner. And thank you.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Since Josh O'Connor doesn't take his clothes off in his role as the priest the latest Benoit Blanc mystery Wake Up Dead Man that landed on Netflix over the weekend, here are two gifs of him in a pair of period-appropriate boxer shorts in Kelly Reichardt's film The Mastermind. I think that one's been streaming on Mubi for a little while now? Anyway they're both good movies so do go watch both of them. And while you're at Mubi watch The History of Sound too! Make it a Josh O'Connor triple feature. (In related news -- anybody watch him on SNL? I did not but am curious if I should bother. Thoughts?) Any-what it's Monday, hi, hello, et cetera. Let's get to it!

Pierre Niney Six Times

Sexy French Gumby Pierre Niney has gifted us with some new modeling shots for the brand Lacoste, and obviously I must share them. Trying to remember the last actual movie I saw Pierre in -- actually I realize it wasn't that long ago as I got to see the 2024 version of The Count of Monte Cristo he starred in thanks to the annually outstanding "Rendez-vous with French Cinema" series here in NYC. Anyway I'm kinda surprised that nobody's stuck him in an American movie yet -- wouldn't he be a perfect fit for Wes Anderson??? He combines the living cartoonishness of an Adrien Brody type with Anderson's noted Francophilia -- somebody (Léa Seydoux, you up?) get those two in a room together stat. For now we'll just make due with him being hot stuff for the alligator brand after the jump...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Support the Girls (2018)

Lisa: I can take fucking up all day, 

but I can't take not trying.

Eventually I'm going to run out of Support the Girls quotes to quote on the queen Regina Hall's birthday and have to use one from one of her other great performances, but that day is not today thank goodness! Because any day when I can bring up Support the Girls is a good one. I love this movie so fucking much! I love it so much I want to climb on the roof of the nearest gastro-titty-pub and scream it toward the nearest generic freeway! That's how much. Anyway bringing up Regina Hall just now has reminded me that when my alarm went off this morning I was in the middle of having a dream where I was winding through a maze of movie theater hallways desperately trying to get to see this year's best movie One Battle After Another again on the big screen. So that's where I'm at. For real though -- every time I re-watch the movie her performance, which is like 75% quiet reaction shots, digs deeper into my soul. We love you, Queen Regina!

I'm Not Mads, I'm Just Drawn That Way

One of my most anticipated movies of not just 2025 but the past several years is out today -- Pushing Daisies and Hannibal creator Bryan Fuller's Dust Bunny which stars Mads Mikkelsen as a hit-man who gets hired by a little girl (Sophie Sloan) who lives in his apartment building to kill the monster under her bed. You should go see it! I mean it! And I will have more words than that piddling bit of sage advice to share in order to convince you, just... not quite yet. My review's a little delayed due to a bevy of unforeseen circumstances (the sprained ankle I'm still dealing with is just one of them but it's had a helluva butterfly effect) but I will indeed be writing about the movie soon. Until then just take my couple of words for it -- it's a delightful, funny, rampaging charmer, clearly destined to be a cult classic for all those people adventurous enough to take a chance and wander into its weird little one-of-a-kind-world. Bryan is very good at making those! Anyway I've shared it before but here's the trailer, and stay tuned for more from me in the next few days on this wonderful, wonderful film.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

I guess Michele Morrone must've gotten jealous of the attention that his Another Simple Favor co-star Henry Golding's shower scene got and decided to one up Henry's perfect bouncy bum with this (admittedly shadowy) full-frontal photo in the recently released Dolce & Gabbana book that's nothing but Michele smut. this is a kind of battle we can get behind. That said they should probably wrestle, in the shower, in front of many cameras, to work it out. Make slow soapy erotic love not war, boys!

Today's Mood

I really feel as if Michael Shannon would be right down for making some good trouble with you if you asked him genuinely, and that's why I will love him forever. (More pics here.) Let's storm the barricades together, Mikey!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Pieces (1982)

Student 1: Have you ever been laid on a waterbed?

Student 2: The most beautiful thing in the world is 

smoking pot and fucking on a waterbed at the same time.

Happy Lynda Day George Day to all who celebrate! When I do these posts I usually choose a quote from a character played by the person who's celebrating their birthday. But considering the fact that I will probably never in my life know what day the birthdays of the actors who played "Studennt 1" and "Student 2" in Pieces fall on, and yet that quote demands being a part of this series, I'm making an exception. And I used Lynda Day's most iconic Pieces moment to celebrate her birthday last year, as seen below. What a movie. What a FILM.

HAPPY 80 TO HORROR ICON LYNDA DAY GEORGE TODAY!!!

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) December 11, 2024 at 12:43 PM

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

I first saw these photos of former Now Apocalypse beauty Avan Jogia a couple of days ago but since I never posted them here on the site (only on Bluesky) and since I needed something for this morning's "Good Morning" post, let's do this thing. The photos are for an upcoming Prime series called 56 Days, based on a book by Catherine Ryan Howard (anybody read it?) -- it's described as "an erotic thriller" (ooh we love those) about a couple of pretty young things (played by Jogia and Dove Cameron) who meet, fall into sexytimes, and fifty-six days later a mutilated corpse springs forth and (per usual) somebody's to blame. I think the big question is who is the corpse, if I'm reading this right? It's supposed to be him or her (which is unidentifiable due to the mutilation) and the show will untangle that mystery. Anyway we've worshipped upon the altar of Avan's beauty since that former Gregg Araki series mentioned in this post's first sentence so we'll be watching this when it premieres in February. I don't recognize a single other name involved but Avan's nuff!