my new plaid pants

Thursday, August 13, 2026

The Devils Will Hurt You

Big time props to the person who cut the new trailer for Ken Russell's renowned and beseiged and terribly controversial 1971 masterpiece The Devils -- this trailer feels like a blapshemous frenzy and that's exactly how it should feel. There is a sequence of quick edits at its tail-end...

... that is legitimately kind of painful to stare at, and yes actually that is also how I should feel watching a trailer for Ken Russell's The Devils. It's a trailer that should come with a warning beforehand! Love it. Anyway as I've said every chance I get -- this remasted Director's Cut, indeed the holy grail, is hitting some theaters on October 16th. Best believe come hell or more hell we'll be there.

Good Afternoon, Drew Starkey

My mea culpa for being offline this A.M. -- I had a screening dammit! -- is sharing these photos of Drew Starkey for GQ Hype... as if I wouldn't have shared them either way. Look at our Queer boy! All wet and bothered, just the way we like him. Anyway I haven't read the full chat in GQ yet but apparently he gets real sly about it when Luca Guadagnino's possible American Psycho movie comes up -- he drops a "no comment" when asked but then he also goes and admits that he has read the script. Sneaky devil.

I remain unsure about the entire prospect of making another version of this movie when Mary Harron's film and Christian Bale's performance therein are both perfect things, but Luca already proved me wrong once with Suspiria so I will shut my filthy mouth and I will watch whatever he does. I will admit that I can see interesting ways that a gay man's adaptation of the book would be different from a straight woman's. So it could be also great but different, in a different way? I see that possibility. Anyway I'm rambling when all you wanna do is stare at Wet Hot Drew Starkey, I get it. So hit the jump for him...

Callum Turner Twelve Times

I've been a Callum Turner ogler for several years going -- I was particularly fond of his slutty blond phase (thanks, George Clooney). But reading about the "conservative creep", ideologically-speaking, that's supposedly (I didn't see it) on display in this past weekend's sex-purge rom-com One Night Only alongside his really annoying no-homo-ish quote about how disgusting guys are for wearing spandex at the gym (oh no, penises, the horror) well he has my crush living on the edge. My Spidey-sense is sensing a strong suspicion he's overtime positioning himself as the number-one most hetero-manliest of double-oh Bond options on the table, basically. And it's almost started to feel disingenuous to the point of craven.

Judging by the reviews written by people I trust this movie is hot trash but then I see these photos of Callum Turner and I just don’t know WHAT to think

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) August 5, 2026 at 8:15 PM

His constant vacationing with his gorgeous famous wife getting pap-snapped every other day feeds into this; as do his boring fashion choices on red carpets. But am I reading too much into things? Honestly every second I spend thinking about this is one second I'm not thinking about the world being on literal fire, so have some sympathy if I am being totally deranged. I still like to look at him! (Even more if he went blond again.) I just hope he tones this all down once the Bond pick lands, either way. Daniel Craig never ran away from his immense bisexual energy dammit -- he ran straight (heh) into it! And we must not go back in time on absolutely everything! Anyway hit the jump to stare some more at his goofy attractive face if you're into it, and I won't judge (for now)...

I don't understand why there aren't more dinoasaur movies without the word "Jurassic" in the title -- I guess they try every so often, like that one with Adam Driver that I have completely forgotten and will not be spending the time to look up, and that semi-hostile indifference to even trying to remember that turd probably answers my question as to why there aren't more dinosaur movies without "Jurassic" in the title! It's not like these movies can be made for peanuts -- even in the age of accessibility for most to passable movie-making equipment dinosaurs still represent a challenge. (How long until we see some A.I. slop dinosaur nonsense making the rounds? I suppose it already exists and I've just been wily enough to avoid it.)

Anyway out this weekend is another one of Hollywood's sporadic stabs at making a dinosaur movie without "Jurassic" in the title -- and hey, this one is better than that last one. Sorta! The End of Oak Street stars Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway as Greg and Denise, a married couple on the rocks in the mid-1980s who have a daughter Audrey (Maisy Stella) and a son Brian (Christian Convery), and who find themselves and their entire neighborhood sucked through a wormhole to predator-stuffed Prehistory. Thankfully nobody spends much time bothering to explain the inexplicable science of this -- Audrey's a fan of Carl Sagan and gives it a brief go but it's blessedly as hand-wavy as, "Welp well that happened," and then everybody moves on to the chomp-chomp of it all.

What they move on to probably should have been a better movie -- if you're prone to bees in your bonnet over characters behaving stupidly then this movie will feel like that rightly beloved meme of Oprah Winfrey releasing the bees sprung to life beneath your headwear. Beyond waving away the nonsensical science of the family's exceptional situation, writer-director David Robert Mitchell (yes the same man who made the incredible horror movie It Follows; I know) also hand-waves away any legitimate reasons to keep this family out of their boarded-up house. They are constantly, moronically wandering the streets even as they're watching their neighbors get gnawed and torn to shreds.

That's one of the film's more delicious bits, though -- it sure ain't afraid to be vicious. Although most of it's seen from a good distance people do die horribly in this movie, including one genuine shock moment that legit left my jaw hanging. But the movie's meanness in that respect teeters precipitously against its Choose Your Own Family Adventure set-up -- it's not a wholly comfortable fit, and the movie really strains against itself. There is something admirable in its willingness to wind its own tonal path I suppose (it certainly isn't playing safe) but it veers too close to the nastiness of that scene in the first Jurassic World movie where that young woman was tossed around and torn apart by Pteranodons. Gratuitous and grim.

The main issue though, besides how dumb these people keep behaving for no discernable reason, is a phrase I've been using a lot lately -- The End of Oak Street definitely suffers ftom "the conservative creep" that's been affecting so much Hollywood product over the past few years. Wedged-in conversations about religious faith keep popping up, and the film's ultimate goal -- which I promise you isn't a spoiler since it's obvious it's what this movie's about all of five minutes in -- is to make Mom stop being so darn angry and to appreciate her darn family again. While words like "Amblin-esque" will surely be tossed at this flick for all of its 80s nostalgia, a more appropriate one would surely be "Reagan-esque." Shudder, indeed.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Mackay

Learning about a new movie starring George MacKay is always cause to stop dead in one's tracks and find out more, as he's easily slid into the role of one of our most intersting and daring young actors working today -- this thing I am just finding out about is called Mission and it reunites Georgie-boy with the director of his 2013 (he was just a wee babe he was) movie For Those in Peril, which I have never seen but which co-stars Kate Dickie and so I probably should seek that one out, ehh? Anybody seen it and know? Anyway Mission got a teaser trailer this week and...

... it looks good! Looks like a good role for Mr. MacKay, it does. He plays a young man who finds out he's dying and decides to go rampaging through life while he still can -- it co-stars Rosy McEwen, who I've dug ever since The Alienist but after that went on to make the very fine horror flicks Harvest and Rabbit Trap with Dev Patel. She has one hell of an interesting and watchable face -- just like George actually. Anyway the reason I just heard about this movie is it's playing at the Edinburgh Film Festival in the next few days so I guess we'll hear more after that. I wanna see it though! Let's make that happen.

Tuesday, August 11, 2026

The World Needs More...

... Jonathan Tucker in it.

Don't you agree?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Wild Rose (2018)

Susannah: Why country?
Rose: Cuz it's three chords and the truth.

A happy birthday to the tremendously talented Sophie Okonedo, always a totally riveting presence on-screen, today -- when she popped up in Janet Planet a couple of years ago I felt like I hadn't seen her in ages. (And weirdly this is the second time Janet Planet has come up today -- guess iut's time for a Janet Planet rewatch!) But seriously why aren't I seeing Sophie Okonedo in everything all of the time?? So that's my birthday wish for her -- work more! Get with it, Hollyweird! Get her all up in my business, please.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Pics of the Day

The first photos from Andrew Haigh's forthcoming film A Long Winter have arrived -- I first told you about this movie just about a year ago when it was first announced because it's Andrew f'ing Haigh we're talking about here, of course I did. Then the killer cast started filling in -- our beloved baby bird Fred Hechinger (seen above) Kit Connor, Caitríona Balfe (so great in Belfast), The Bear and Girls actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach -- and we kept reporting! This movie is screening at NYFF in a couple of months (it's also playing TIFF) so surely I'll be on it then -- this is an adaptation of a Colm Tóibín book about a mother who goes wandering into the snowy mountains leaving her family behind, or so I recall the plot being when I first wrote about this news. I never read the book; have you? Anyway no word on when y'all will get to see it just yet but stay tuned and hit the jump for the rest of the pictures...

I'm so glad that Alden Ehrenreich has been able to stick around -- hell you could even say he's thriving, having gotten a Tony nomination this year for his first role on Broadway! Plus Weapons was such a big hit too. He just had a bunch of high profile flops that made me worry we'd lose Steven Spielberg's favorite bar mitzvah discovery and we wouldn't want that. We adore him. Anyway he's doing his adorable thing in the new Carly Rae Jepsen video...

... directed by Slave Play playwright Jeremy O. Harris (cuz sure why not) -- I can pretty much guarnatee this is and will remain the only time I will type the words "Carly Rae Jepsen" on this here website. But good on here -- these are a helluva pair of collaborators. I mean I never got to see Slave Play but I got to see all of the ridiciulously hot Kit Harington pictures from it and that was enough to know me and Jeremy are simpatico spirits. Anyway -- behold! A Carly Rae Jepsen video on MNPP!! You'll never see the likes of this again:

Anyway there that is.
Happy Tuesday, lovers!

Alden Ehrenreich in the new Carly Rae Jepsen music video lol

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) August 10, 2026 at 4:30 PM

Monday, August 10, 2026

Josh Heuston Three Times

(via)

Baby's On Fire

Well there it is -- there you have the poster for the forthcoming re-release of Ken Russell's long elusive The Devils, which dropped like a bomb on the heads of people exactly like me who give a shit about such things with a 4K restoration at Cannes a few months back. The film also has a theatrical date (via) -- October 16th. It's appparently an "exclusive one-week engagement" -- exclusive to whom I don't know, that source doesn't say. I imagine it won't be at every single multiplex though so perhaps be prepared to travel some. It's worth it! I've seen the movie a couple of times on the big screen, including a longer cut with Ken Russell in attendance not long before he passed; I've completely lost track of what cut that was, if it was the same one being released now, but that cut I saw was Russell's own as far as I remember from the time. I have seen this movie so many times and read so much about it that I've lost track of what I have seen and have not seen at this point -- I've imagined the cut-out bits so much I feel like I've seen them! But October 16th we'll all get to see the definitive cut I guess, and even though they're not announcing it yet I have no doubt a physical media release will follow. I have to say I like the original art for the film that I have the poster of better than this new art, but this is good too.

Puck Me

It's kinda crazy I never saw Splitsville, the 2025 romantic comedy, because the only two things I knew about it -- it stars my beloved Dakota Johnson and actor Charlie Gillespie looks like that above and also showcases a truly world-class ass a moment later -- are enough reasons, big enough reasons, hard enough reasons, that would normally get me to watch a movie. But I have not so I can't tell you shit about Gillespie's acting ability, having seen him in nothing but gifs, and that's now a real demerit against me because over the weekend he was cast as one of the new main characters in the second season of Heated Rivalry. Point being I can't even guess if he was cast solely to challenge Connor Storrie in an Ass Off -- he's bringing some stiff competion though, lemme tell you what! (Or show you, as I'm sure you've already glanced at that gif down below.) Anyway also joining the cast is Justice Smith from I Saw the T.V. Glow -- him we know all about, and he's a terrific (and super cute) actor. Hockey hotness overload, y'all!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

After the Hunt (2025)

Alma: I feel like deep inside I always expected this.
I expected the rottenness in me to be seen by other people
right before I managed to expunge it.
Hank: Spoken like a true woman...
I never felt myself be rotten at all.
Alma: Spoken like a true man.

A happiest of happy birthday to the great and legendary Luca Guadagnino, who is turning 55 today! If you've been on this here site for longer than an hour you know our feelings about Luca, who speaks deep to us in a way that not many other filmmakers do these days -- not just in the obvious one (Call me By Your Name, which I wrote about just a little bit back circa 2017) but everything from his superior Suspiria to Bones and All to yes this one here After the Hunt, a movie which really didn't get a fair shake when it came out. (At least I knew it was good though.) I actually just re-watched it a few weeks ago and it's shown itself to be even wilier about where the world was headed -- like all his films they're ever so slightly ahead of their time. We'll see what happens with his Sam Altman biopic Artificial soon enough -- I remain convinced he'lll be ten steps ahead of the current conversation -- but for today, let's just show the genius some love! My gift to him & us is this Andy Garfield gif:

It's a Miasma-piece

Hey weirdos, my beloved weirdos, have I got a movie for you -- well a movie review actually. I reviewed Jane Schoenbrun's Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma this past Friday and you can read it right here. We're playing catch-up, you see, in more ways than one -- I saw this the first time at NewFest and the third time at Fantasia Fest (with a press screening sandwiched in between there) but only just got around to writing about it as it hit theaters this past Friday. But only a few theaters -- NY and LA I believe? It spreads out this week and further after that (you can keep track of that at this link) so I imagine most of you haven't yet had the chance. Anyway I bust out the "m" word in my review -- "masterpiece" that is, which if you know me you know I don't break that word out lightly when a movie is this new. Having seen it three times now though, with it only getting funnier and weirder with every watch, I feel pretty compelled toward that word. It is most definitely one of the year's highlights and not to be missed.