Bends Break

 

The classic Radiohead album The Bends turned 30 this week (don't think about how old that makes you, don't think about ittttt) and the fine five fellas from Oxfordshire did us all a solid in its honor and dropped a playlist of Bends-era singles and B-sides, which led to me rediscovering one of my absolute favorite Radiohead tracks that I had 100% forgotten about -- "The Trickster" was released on their 1994 EP My Iron Lung which is perhaps their best non-album output? If you've never listened to it then you're missing out -- even just their acoustic version of "Creep" is perfection. But "Trickster" -- goddamn this song will get me dancing and somehow I hadn't listened to it in years and years until it popped up on my commute this morning and I almost turned the train into a Spike Jonze video I was so amped. Anyway happy 30 to The Bends, the album that really made me fall in love with Radiohead -- that said there's "love" and then there's "lifelong soul-deep obsession" and that took their next record OK Computer; once OKC came out I was lost unto Thom and the gang forever and ever. And I have never doubted my devotion for a moment since! 

In related news this didn't seem worthy of a post on its own since it's such vague news as to be unsubstantial for the moment, but last week our favorite British five-some registered a new LLP called "RHEUK25 LLP" which has for decades been a sign that they're up to something -- since they've ditched having a label and release all of their music themselves they do this every time they are preparing to release or do something new. (Could be a tour, could be a re-release of old work, or -- heavens to betsy -- it could be their first brand new album in over a decade.) It's real boring in its details so click that link if you care -- just know I can feel the ground shaking beneath me and I am very very very excited about it. 

Five Frames From ?

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Good Morning, World

Another blessing from the good folks at Behind the Blinds magazine -- a nice big gratuitous photoshoot of Broadway and movie actor Andrew Burnap! There are two large places of note that this looker can be found and seen and stared at and such in 2025 -- number one he's playing the leading man in the live-action Snow White movie opposite Rachel Zegler... who for some reason is not a Prince. I don't know. He sure looks like a Prince Charming to me. But they're calling him "Jonathan" for some reason. Not quite as memorable! But hopefully he gets some white pants to wear just like the obscenely snug ones that Richard Madden wore in the Cinderella movie. That's make everything memorable!

And the other place where he can be seen in 2025 -- as long as you're rich anyway, given how expensive the tickets are (I've been complaining sbout this for weeks, don't mind me) is on Broadway opposite Denzel Washington and one Mr. Jake Gyllenhaal in the latest staging of Othello. He's playing Cassio, aka a character who gets maniuplated a bunch by Jake's Iago -- let's hope there's some sexual tension, then. The people demand it! Especially at those prices. Anyway for now I'll just go ahead and create our own sexual tension by dropping all of these photos, right after the jump...

Jack Lowden Eight Times

Loverboy Jack Lowden was on the cover of The Times over the weekend and we were gifted with this new photoshoot -- there's also an interview right here which no I haven't read yet. I'm sure it's all Saoirse this and Saoirse that because don't they just make the world's most talented and hot Irish-Scottish actor couple who ever lived and blah blah blah.  Okay it's probably about his work more likely, whatever. I'm feeling snotty for no reason having to do with these people today. I love you, Jack! Don't hold it against me. (And that's the only time I'll ever use that turn of phrase with respect to Jack.) Hit the jump for all of the adorable photos... 

Happy Biollante Day!

It's the day we've been waiting for since it was announced in December -- and before that, forever in our dreams -- Criterion has released the 1989 kaiju delight Godzilla vs. Biollante on 4K today! Pick it up here and while you're over there Criterion is celebrating our person-plant-monster hybrid baby Biollante by also having their bi-annual Flash Sale, meaning every in-stock disc is priced at 50% off! I ordered my own whopping heap of discs the second they sprung the sale at Noon -- it runs until Noon tomorrow. I always think I've got all I need of theirs and then I do something stupid and google, "Underrated Criterion Releases" and I find a pile more that I somehow don't already own. It's endless! Endless but wonderful. 

Five Frames From ?

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Jonze in the House

Pedro Pascal teased on social media that he was doing something with Spike Jonze a week or so ago but I knew better than to get my hopes up for a new movie from Mr. Jonze -- it's been TWELVE YEARS since he gifted us with Her so any hope inside of me has cocooned itself off far too deeply to be awoken that easily. And sure enough it's a commercial -- a cool commercial because of course it is; Spike Jonze directed it. It's for Apple's new AirPods. Watch and delight in what we've been sorely missing from the big screen:

Good Morning, Bad Bunny

Since I was off getting my teeth sand-blasted yesterday afternoon and missed this when it dropped I'm sure y'all have seen Bad Bunny's Calvin Klein underwear campaign by now -- when I got on the subway in a novocaine'd daze after said blasting I opened my Instagram feed and it was just nothing but Bunny Bulge for the entire scroll. But what I lack in timeliness I make up for in comprehensivity, because I have dozens and dozens of images (and two videos) below. True they're 85% gifs I made from said videos, but you won't want to miss them so hit the jump...

Today's Mood

That moment from the masterpiece that is David Lean's Brief Encounter isn't the choice for "Today's Mood" because of why you might be assuming it is -- although the general state of the world isn't helping! -- but more due to a totally different subject. Namely I've had a serious toothache for five straight days and am only finally getting into my dentist this afternoon. It seems likely I might be getting my very first root canal if I had to wager a guess, so if you wonder where I am for the rest of today it's there -- getting my face torn asunder. Hooray! It's my own fault because once the pandemic broke my going to the dentist regularly routine I kind of stopped going altogether -- I've only had one check-up since 2020. So this was probably inevitable. Go to the dentist every six months, kids!

Today's Fanboy Delusion

 Today I'd rather be...

... breathing deeply with Austin Nichols.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Saint Maud (2019)

Maud: Never waste your pain.

A happy birthday to actress Morfydd Clark today! 

We should all watch this masterpiece in her honor tonight. 

That line of dialogue feels fitting to 2025!

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Gratuitous Omar Ayuso

It can be difficult to keep up with someone as ruthlessly exhibitionist as gay Elite actor Omar Ayuso is -- I've only done two itty bitty posts on him in the past, but in my defense I still haven't watched any of Elite... but in my anti-defense that hasn't kept me from posting heaps of his Elite co-star Manu Rios. Whatever. We're overdue-ly here today because Manu finally stormed his rightful and proper way...

 

... into the pink-hued pages of Butt Magazine, like so many ruthless exhibitionists before him. And it booted my bum into gear to post some Omar for y'all this Monday morning! Say thank you! And then hit the jump for a fine little collection of some of Omar's finest exhibitionist moments captured for posterity...

Paging Mister Page

This seems like the right and correct place to note that Regé-Jean Page has a shirtles sscene in Steven Soderbergh's ace spy thriller Black Bag that's in theaters today -- I didn't mention it in my review because I's respectable elsewhere, but here well here we let it all hang out. As you well know. Anyway it's a very brief moment and it's not particularly memorable as far as skin scenes go, but it is notable for being the only bit of skin we get in the movie and yet the movie manages to remain sexy as heckfire all the same! If you missed my review yesterday click over to Pajiba to read it -- I really kept it profoundly spoiler-free so no need to worry about that. I barely mention the plot at all, but then it's all Macguffins in service of hot talented actors being smooth and sexy and expensive looking. AKA Cinema! Point being y'all should go see it and let the studios know there is room for an adult entertainment like this in actual movie theaters. I promise you'll have a terrific time in exchange for your effort. Otherwise -- a very fine weekend to you all and goodbye!

Arnaud Valois Five Times

Even if actor Arnaud Valois isn't in any of the movies that screening at the "Rendez-Vous with French Cinema" series happening through this weekend at Film at Lincoln Center here in NYC (see my previous post here) I feel fine posting this new photoshoot of him (via) in lieu of one of an actor in one of their films because... well just because. The stache! The curls! The bedroom eyes! How could one resist? He's French so the point has been made. French cinema, huzzah! Now hit the jump for the rest... 

In Space No One Can Hear Barry Jenkins Scream

It hasn't been the greatest week on record just in the general sense of, you know, everything! But here is one good nice story to come out of it, one which hopefully come to fruition as long as, you know, "everything" doesn't murder us first. THR is reporting (thx Mac) that good and proper movie star (we can call him one now right?) Glen Powell is going to make a movie with good and proper auteur (we can definitely call him that) Barry Jenkins to make a movie! And there won't be any animated wildebeests this time -- it's about human beings and for adults this time! It's called The Natural Order and it's based on a story by Coco screenwriter Matthew Aldrich and all we know beyond that right now is that it's "a sci-fi thriller centering on the search for eternal life." I will watch a Barry Jenkins sci-fi thriller! And even better I will watch a Barry Jenkins sci-fi thriller starring Glen Powell! So sign me up. In all seriousness this sounds like a solid compromise between Barry making the tiny independent masterpieces he'd been making and then churning out depressing IP nonsense like the Lion King sequel  because that's the only sort of trash Hollywood is interested in. So bring it on. 

From Mishima to Midnight in 32 Seconds

There is a lot of love about Paul Schrader's film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters -- the visuals are incredible and the score by Phillip Glass is a world-class one, and it's further proof that Paul Schrader is the gayest "straight" man on Earth -- but I've always been disappointed by it all the same because the real life writer and filmmaker and homosexual fascist Yukio Mishima was actually more fascinating and more deranged and, well, hotter (see up top), than the movie ever is. I'll always recommend Mishima's own film called Patriotism over Schrader's sort-of-biopic any day. (And Criterion has released that movie themselves.) 

But since Criterion is now upgrading their Mishima disc to 4K come June I'll go ahead and admit I cannot wait to see the new restoration -- I sort of wish they'd add Patriotism itself to the special features of this disc if they're not going to upgrade that one from DVD but I guess we can't have (anything) everything. 

That said the June release I'm the most excited about isn't that one -- it's William Friedkin's Sorceror in 4K! I've admitted before that I only saw this movie about five years ago for the first time -- I know I'm not alone in being thrown off by its title; I thought it was a fantasy movie for the longest time a la Krull or Zardoz aka some bargain basement shit from a period and genre that I'm not super interested in. But no it's a remake of Clouzot's 1953 thriller Wages of Fear (which Criterion helpfully just dropped onto 4K earlier this month) and it turns out that it ranks among Friedkin's greatest accomplishments. It's a spectacular film, tense and hypnotic and so much stranger than you're expecting it to be. It haunts me. I got to see it on a big screen last year and man alive does it play like gangbusters that way. Anyway it immediately became one of my favorite Friedkins and I wish I'd seen it earlier. (And speaking of amazing scores the one here from Tangerine Dream is The Shit.) 

And then further on in June we've got The Wiz hitting 4K -- the 1978 reworking of The Wizard of Oz with Diana Ross and Michael Jackson has always creeped me out in a not good way, but I know it's iconic to a lot of people so I'll shut up! -- and then the 1988 documentary Thelonious Monk Straight, No Chaser about the jazz musician, which, yeah, not a jazz person so this isn't for me either. So moving right along...

... because this is a loaded month, there's also the 1939 screwball comedy Midnight starring Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, and John Barrymore -- I have never seen this. Any fans? It was written by Billy Wilder so I'm sure it's crackling and it's got one of those great fake-identity screwball plots where Colbert infiltrates Parisian society pretending to be a Hungarian noblewoman. I'm sure it's fun and thankfully it's on Criterion Channel to watch right now so maybe I'll watch it this weekend to gauge my interest in a hard copy. 

Next up there's François Girard's 1993 pianist bio-pic Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould which is one that's been on my to-watch list for decades now but I've never gotten around to. 1993 was right around when I was beginning to turn into a movie dork properly so I remember hearing a lot about this one at the time, but we've never crossed paths. Its pastiche approach to its story, which tells Gould's life in 32 separate chunks that range from animation to interview -- always sounded like a treat so I'll definitely be seeking this one out at last, for sure, now that I have been re-reminded. Oh and the final June drop is Terry Gilliam's masterpiece Brazil in 4K. Certainly no slouch to end with there!

Five Frames From ?

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Good Morning, World

I don't know where the tenacious sleuths on Tumblr dug up this shot from On Swift Horses, the forthcoming (out on April 25th) movie film starring Diego Calva and Jacob Elordi as forbidden lovers but this shot was not in the trailer they released a few weeks back -- I giffed all the good stuff in that one right here. Maybe a new clip's been dropped somewhere? It's too early for me to do much more digging -- I slept like hell last night and need to finish this great big coffee sitting in front of me -- so let's just enjoy that gif of the two gorgeous actors bumping tighty-whities for now. Good morning!

Sexy Spy Time

Extremely happy to have loved Steven Soderbergh's new movie, the spy thriller Black Bag starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as a pair of married spies who find themselves doubting -- or do they? -- each other's motives when there turns out to be a mole among their agency. It's a smashing good time, sexy and stylish as hell -- head on over to Pajiba to read my thoughts. And here's a bonus photo of Fassy with his ridiculously handsome co-star Regé-Jean Page because duh: