W&G: Vengeance Most Fowl in 150 Words

Unqualified utter perfection. I could leave this review right there, honestly. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is another jewel in the Aardman Animation crown. As good as any of the four previous W&G shorts or the one previous W&G movie The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (aka "The Complete Cracking Collection" as they call it) -- I'd say I wished I was a kid so these movies could be formative but they make me feel like a kid and reform me in their image anyway. If you spend the entire holiday break watching this new movie over and over again on Netflix I would not, could not, blame you. It's absolute and total buck-tooth-to-stub-toe delight start to finish. The only complaint is obviously we all wish Nick Park could churn these perfections out faster, but I'll take the slow turnover rate when these illustrious homeruns are knocked out every time. Cinema!

Steven Yeun Twenty Times

These GQ "Men of the Year" lists have been a real godsend -- it seems like every edition of GQ around the world has been doing their own lists and so we've gotten big photoshoots of several actors we're always here for big photoshoots of over the past few weeks. Harris Dickinson for the UK last week, and just yesterday there was The Sympathizer star Hoa Xuande for GQ Austrailia. But one I've had my eyes on for several days and finally managed to gather enough images up from is Steven Yeun, who's featured in GQ Korea's issue...

... and no I don't get why he can't cover our American edition either since he's American but I'll just put that out there and not dive into it too much lest I spoil our fun. Mostly I'm just annoyed because Korean magazines are really aggressive about their watermarks so I had to leave the big distracting GQ on several images below. But anyway I did finally manage to scrounge up a batch of photos from several different sources and I've got 'em after the jump... 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Edward Bluemel

Well if you're reading this (and you also read my post last night) then you know -- I'm a fool! To be factual a lot of people who aren't reading this know I'm a fool as well but I'm talking to you now. Point being I jumped the gun last night thinking I might have today off -- nope, I'm here. But my loss is your gain because I'm now sitting here at my desk with literally nothing to do for the next eight or so hours except barf up my every whim onto this here website. Starting with these photos of My Lady Jane and Killing Eve actor Edward Bluemel for Wonderland magazine. Twas Eve where I first caught Eddy's eye -- and then twas Jane where I first caught Eddy's arse. (And what an arse it is.) And it's been love ever since. Hit the jump for this somewhat substantial-ish photoshoot...

Alessandro I Want For Chistmas...

Because he has three yes count them three movies out in theaters now -- Kraven the Hunter came out last week (read my quick thoughts here) while Brady Corbet's The Brutalist (read my review here) and Pedro Almodovar's The Room Next Door (wonderful but not reviewed by me) are both out now -- we have been blessed with not just one but two count them two photoshoots of Alessandro Nivola this week! This first one is for Sharp magazine and there's a chat with him at that link as well; the same goes for Anthem magazine, and you'll see those photos down below. Before that though, an aside -- there's a chance this post will be our last until the holidays are upon us, happening, and then history. Which is to say I'm not sure if I'll be online tomorrow and after that I'm definitely off until January 2nd of the year 2025. If that's not the case I suppose you'll know when I start rambling on here tomorrow. But if not -- Happy Holidays, everyone! And consider this collection o' Nivola my gifts to you, right on after the jump...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Road House (2024)

Dalton: You know that conchs produce pearls?

Ellie: Yes.

Dalton: And that they have ornate spiral...

Ellie: Shells. Yes, everyone knows that.

Dalton: That one in every 15,000 produces a pink pearl. 

Ellie: Sounds romantic. Unless you're a conch. 

Because what actually happens is the conch gets a bit 

of grit inside its shell, which causes extreme irritation.

Dalton: "Extreme irritation"... that leads 

to something beautiful. How is that not romantic?

Okay I don't want to encourage the Road House remake too much because I really didn't love it, but I will admit that the last time I was home visiting friends I somehow ended up re-watching it and it washed over me with less spite a second time. I'm now of the mind that it's more harmless than anything -- but still give the esteem the original holds as far as being a perfect piece of trash cinema, "harmless" isn't cutting anybody's mustard. But here on our Jake's 44th birthday as we wish him a very happy day we'll allow it. And if nothing else...

... Jake knew well enough to not skimp on the exploitation and to stay properly half-naked for most of the movie. He's a good boy. Have you seen this video of his hot ass practising an action scene? I only just caught this one last week:

I will be watching the sequel. 

Happy birthday, Jake!

Quote of the Day

There is a chat with director Luca Guadagnino and writer Justin Kuritzkes in Dazed magazine right now (thx Mac) about their latest colaboration Queer (the William S. Burroughs adaptation out in theaters now that I reviewed right here) and besides it containing several images from that film's set that I adore -- that one of him in a Carrie t-shirt above is going straight onto my mood board -- it's also got several bits of information I really enjoyed reading. Luca talks about why there's so much Nirvana in the film, and he also admits that Twin Peaks was an influence on it (but refuses to elaborate further). But it's the bit at the end that has nothing to do with Queer that has me the most excited -- and if you've seen my hemming and hawing then you know it's not about his possible American Psycho remake. 

No it's about An Even Bigger Splash, his long-gestating longer cut of his already divine 2015 film A Bigger Splash, which stars Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Dakota Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes. Luca has been mentioning this was a thing on his mind for awhile, and bless this interviewer for getting a very brief but important update:

 "Yes, for sure. 100 per cent. We’re finalising it."

Supposedly this cut has a full seventy more minutes! I don't know whether this is a good idea or not either, but Luca always proves my doubts wrong so you'd think I'd have learned my lesson at this point. And even if it does prove to be too much of a good thing -- am I going to complain about seventy more minutes of a movie where the godline Matthias Schoenaerts runs around in itty bitty shorts looking like a fucking sculpture? I don't think so. In summation here is a new photo that dropped online this week from the set of Luca's other 2024 film Challengers, with him in a spot where so many of us would love to be -- half-straddled by Mike Faist in his tennis gear:

Welcome to Michael Fassbender's Spy Era

I don't know what I was doing on Wednesday when this dropped that I didn't post about it -- that was even the day I shared with you Michael Fassbender in next to nothing on a spy show! But the first official image and the trailer for Black Bag -- Steven Soderbergh's spy thriller starring Fassy, Cate Blanchett, Naomie Harris (god I love Naomie Harris), Regé-Jean Page (hopefully he and Michael will make out), and oh right Mr. Bond, aka Pierce Brosnan himself -- all dropped that day so here is me catching up with that. Fassbender has done "spy thriller with Steven Soderbergh" before, having starred in the best scene in the director's 2011 actioner Haywire, but this looks like a very different beast (the "beast" being that asshole Gina Carano, natch -- good riddance to her). It's basically Mr. & Mrs. Smith just slightly more serious? I was going to say that it starred actors not movie stars but that shortchanges Fassbender & Blanchett on the movie star front as well as short changing Pitt & Jolie on the acting front so nevermind... but it's sort of that.

Anyway Black Bag is out on March 14th. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

The Superman Trailer Made Me Cry

It's true! Three times now! I watched it on my commute this morning and it had me blubbering like an infant on the train. I have no idea if James Gunn will land this when we see the full movie -- July 11th, 2025! Right in time for my birthday! -- but in the two-ish minutes of this trailer he filled me with a sense of Hope like no Superman movie has done since Christopher Reeve. And I don't mean hope for the movie -- hope that it will be good. I mean Hope in the broad, "hope for the world and for decency and kindness" sense. 

Which is a ridiculous thing to take away from a movie trailer but that is the feeling that Superman, at his absolute best, was invented to inspire. So to capture that feeling in two minutes of trailer is something. Granted we're in dark days right now so I am weak and susceptible to emotional swings and neediness! But I've been thinking how weird it is that entertainment hasn't at least tried to ape Depression-era uplift -- maybe we're too cynical now for it. I don't know. I just know this trailer stirred me. When that little kid clutches the flag and prays Superman's name, I absolutely fucking lost my shit. Watch:

Good Morning, World

I think about Park Chan-wook's series The Sympathizer a lot because everything that wasn't Robert Downey Jr. related was so great! I know this floats against the general consensus -- RDJ got the only awards nominations -- but I am in the right here. And it's a damned shame that his preening nonsense dragged the whole series down -- it's the first Park Chan-Wook joint I don't feel much need to revisit. And that makes me feel especially bad for its actual leading man Hoa Xuande here, who was really excellent, and really hot, on it. Hopefully Hoa pops up in more things, but I suppose for the moment I'll just have to make due with this photoshoot of him for GQ Australia for their "Men of the Year" issue (he is Australian). And thankfully it's a hot one! Hit the jump for the rest...

One Week To Get Your Ho On!

Hope your hollies are ready to get jollied y'all.

All Hail King Josh O'Connor

Every year my fine fellow folks and I over at Pajiba sing the praises of a heap of celebrity types for the "Pajiba 10" -- it's like Time magazine's "People of the Year" but without the retching effect. Anyway I took the 2024 opportunity to climb climb up Josh O'Connor mountain, so click on over here to read some words of love and devotion from me to Josh. Between Challengers and La Chimera it really was a banner for our beautiful big-eared boy!

That's My Kind of Advertising

Timmy C, the best who's ever done it.

Niels Schneider Seven Times

Since he's a French actor being photographed for a French magazine I couldn't tell you what Niel Schneider is promoting right now. But if it's just the fact that he is one of the hottest ones doing it right now then he's got my vote! My hope is that the James Bond franchise decides to go hella homoerotic next and they get Niels to play the villain / Bond Boy -- that's my hope. That's the perk up the franchise needs. But Hollywood very rarely listens to me -- probably because my answer to everything is "Make it gayer!" But one day! One day we will triumph. Anyway -- it's Niels! Hit the jump for more Niels...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Pics of the Day

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A post shared by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams)

I had been bitching for awhile, in my extremely priviledged way, that the cast of Robert Eggers' Nosferatu hadn't been doing Q&As here in New York City the way they had been doing for the past several weeks all over the map -- well it turns out they were saving the best for last! And so last night I got to see the movie (a fourth time!) with Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, and Lily-Rose Depp all there alongside their director and above you'll see several videos and photos from the experience. And let me just tell you -- being five feet away from Nicky & Bill being buddy-buddy was certainly an experience. 

But unbelievably that was not the high point of the night -- the most memorable part of the evening came just beforehand when I was waiting in line for the screening in the movie theater's lobby. They have one of the repliucas of Nosferatu's sarcophogus in the Lincoln Square lobby (yes the same ones you can buy on Focus Features' website for 20K lol) and I was leaning on it while waiting to check in, when who should appear through the revolving doors but a live rat. 

Y’all a LITERAL FUCKING RAT just ran past my feet and under the #Nosferatu sarcophagus in the lobby of the AMC while I’m waiting in the line for a NOSFERATU screening — talk about viral marketing

[image or embed]

— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) December 17, 2024 at 5:01 PM

I feel like I should be making this story up given how prominent the press push about all the live rats they used in this movie has been, but I am 100% telling the truth. A rat came into the movie theater through the revolving doors and ran past my feet under the Nosferatu sarcophogus. I am not the only person who saw this -- the people in front of me in line did, and the PR rep for the movie leapt on her chair and screamed. I am in awe. Talk about getting me in the mood.

Anyway the movie plays better every time I watch it -- click here to read my review of the film if you haven't yet. or wait one week, see the movie in theaters yourself, and then read my review. Whatever. Just see this gangbusters horror flick. Eggers made something deeply fucked up in all of the right ways. Exceptional stuff.

Good Morning, World

I am running late this morning because I couldn't fall asleep last night, and while I was mindlessly scrolling the internet on my iPad in bed instead of sleeping -- I am the king of good habits! -- somewhere I don't now remember I stumbled upong these two pictures of a young Colin Farrell sitting on a bed being his Young Colin Farrell beautiful self. Is this not a good thing to get the day started with? I am tired but I feel better looking at this. 

Happy Birthday, Gregg Araki

Evil Comes Home Where it Belongs

I think I've posted the poster for Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Evil Does Not Exist a few times now but I will always take the chance again when it's given -- my favorite poster of the year, I think? Stunning poster, stunning film, and prepare yourselves to be stunned now at home because as foretold the movie has just dropped on blu-ray thanks to Criterion and their Janus Contemporaries line -- go snatch up a copy quick! This movie features prominently on my favorite films of 2024 (whenever I get around to announcing such things natch) and you won't want to miss it. It is streaming on Criterion Channel now too if you prefer to commit to seeing something before buying yourself a hard copy, but all that says to me is you don't trust my word and why would you want to commit an atrocity like that? Here before the holidays? What a bunch of ungrateful monsters! No but for serious go see this movie. It's straight up haunted me since NYFF 2023. One of the great movie endings of perhaps all time.