One Plague After Another

One of 2025's great under-appreciated movies was writer-director Charlie Polinger's The Plague, which starred Joel Edgerton as the swim-coach (not as sexy as it sounds -- he didn't even wear a speedo once even though we've seen him rock one before dammit!) -- for a bunch of shitty abusive teenage boys. There those two are above, looking like the co-kings of the prom together. The Plague wasn't really Joel's movie though -- it belonged to Griffin in Summer wunderkind Everett Blunck who had one helluva 2025; Everett played the main character, who begins to lose his grip under all the peer pressure of teen-dom, which sees the movie flirting with body horror as it grows more nightmarish. Anyway The Plague's ace so if you haven't seen it yet, do. 

The reason we're here right now though is Polinger has announced his next movie and I can't beleive I forgot to mention this earlier, when this news first dropped a few weeks back -- for A24 he's making a new film version of one of my all-time favorite horror films, Roger Corman's Poe-adaptation The Masque of the Red Death with Vincent Price. The film is already set to star recent Oscar-snatcher Mikey Madison, and today they've announced that Léa Seydoux will be in it as well. 

"While A24 is mum on the official plot but does describe the project as wildly revisionist and darkly comedic. Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Madison is playing twin sisters in a story that sees a mad prince take in the noble class into his castle while a plague devastates the peasantry. The story sees a long-lost twin, hidden among the lower class, enter the castle and into a decadent world of orgies, opium, power schemes, revenge and decapitations.... Seydoux will play a scheming lady-in-waiting who is conniving her way to the top."

As much as I adore Corman's movie (I dressed like Price in it one year for Halloween!) I love the idea of re-adapting the Poe stories -- they're so lush and dark and repellant and perfect. Mike Flanagan's recent The Fall of the House of Usher was my favorite season of his Netflix work. So bring it on! That said of course now I'm just curious who'll be the "mad prince"... casting thoughts?

Alexander Skarsgård Five Times

I've been curious to see how much press Alexander Skarsgård does for his gay "dom-com" Pillion now that it's finally finally finally getting released in the U.S. in exactly one month -- he did so much endless and admirable shilling for it across the fall with the the festivals and then its U.K. release that I was afraid he might be burned out. But he's landed on the cover of Variety today talking the wonderful film -- my review from NYFF can be read right here -- and I think that it helps that he's also promoting The Moment, Charli XCX's movie that's about to premiere at Sundance. It's not overkill -- it's due diligence! Anyway he's Alex, he looks as ever gorgeous, and so we share the photos! Hit the jump...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

Dr. Raffaele: Take a swim, buy a horse, jump obstacles. 

But above all, tell your husband to make love more often. 

Nothing's better for toothaches and spirits.

The legend Fellini was born on this day, 1920.

I only saw this film for the first time last year -- Magnifico!

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Good Morning, World

Hello and welcome back (officially) from that three-day weekend -- I did post once yesterday and if you missed it you shouldn't because it involved Jack O'Connell being his sexy little self) -- but speaking of sexy little men! I'm so glad I binged Industry over the holidays because here we are and it's paying excellent dividends. How so? Well use yer eyes, fool...

Oh thank god Kit Harington’s ass

— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) January 18, 2026 at 10:40 PM

Ass aside (a big ass-ide, wink wink) though, this most recent episode was a phenomonal hour of television -- possibly it's greatest hour to date -- and I hope y'all, if you're like I was and sitting on the fence about watching the show about a bunch of finance-scene assholes, reconsider. It's so excellent. The dark places this series plunges! And yes I do realize that I've used "assholes" and "plunging dark places" in my previous two sentences...

... obviously I'm just sitting here thinking about Kit's bum. And how could I not be? Ever since he first flashed it on Game of Thrones was when I first said to myself, "Kit Harington you will always be famous." He's the Ryan Phillippe of the moment. Okay, that's mean -- Kit can properly act. But you know what I mean. Some young men have realized things about themselves, watching these scenes. So let's get to the life-changing stuff, after the jump...

Good (Holiday) Morning, World

I think I forgot to mention on Friday that I had a three-day weekend ahead -- typical for most people in the U.S. because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day but this is the first year that my day-job office has closed for it, for some reason. Better late than never, I guess. Anyway that's my way of saying what you see before you is a mirage, I am not really here, in the words of my lord and savior Thom Yorke, this is not really happening. (Did you guys know that those lyrics actually came from Michael Stipe? He saw Yorke freaking out on the tour for OK Computer when Radiohead's popularity was exploding and he gave Thom a mantra to repeat whenever the panic came over him -- "I'm not here, this isn't happening." -- which became the chorus to "How To Disappear Completely" i.e. a top three Radiohead song for me on their next album Kid A. Fun facts, I got em!) Anyway since I didn't mention I wouldn't be here and this wouldn't be happening I figured I'd pop in and say so with these photos of Jack O'Connell I just saw (via) as my peace offering. He is one of the stars of this weekend's horror masterpiece 28 Days Later: The Bone Temple, after all -- did you read my review? It's right here if you didn't. And I hope you went to see the movie although it didn't have a great box office weekend so please, go this week if you can! I am now properly invested in a third, don't let me down! Okay enough yammering, see you tomorrow and hit the jump for more of Jack being sexy-adorable...

The Best Bone's Ahead

I know I will be accused of hyperbole but having seen 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple two times now I really mean it when I say that director Nia Dacosta has delivered with this, the fourth movie in the franchise, the best of the bunch. Yes I do indeed make that claim in my review which just dropped over at Pajiba, read it in full here. And I stand by it. Because, first off, as transformative as Danny Boyle's original film was and remains to the horror genre -- and I don't dispute that! -- I think we've all just accepted that it sorta somewhat falls apart in its last act. And then as for Boyle's film last year, well I wasn't a fan. (Read my review of that one here.) But this new one? Spectacular. Strange. Funny. Terrifying. Gorgeous to look at. Emotionally stirring. Kinda gay. It's got a Radiohead song in it for fuck's sake! I wrote a fuck-ton of words on the movie in my review (it's one of my longer ones) and I didn't even mention it has a Radiohead song in it! So yeah. I said what I said. And I meant it.

Found Footage & Vacuum Resurrections

It's a full ass, good ass weekend at the multiplex with the release of the franchise-best 28 Days Later: The Bone Temple horror sequel (my review) plus the awards season spreads of several films including Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice (my review) and The Testament of Ann Lee (which I have not had a chance to review but which rules, so go see it). But that's not all -- there are two more movies I want to quickly mention that are worth your time, even if your effort at this juncture in time might be for naught because you just might not be in the place to see them. The first is the Thai film A Useful Ghost which is opening, as far as I can tell, only here in NYC at the IFC Center. And the second is even more narrow a drop than that -- it's called Infirmary and it's screening tonight only at the Dances With Films Festival happening here in NYC. What's next -- I review a movie that you can only watch under the covers in my bedroom at 4am next Tuesday? (You wish!) Anyway I wanted to toss out a few words about both of these terrific and worthwhile movies so you can keep an eyes out for them in the future, and so now I shall do just that. 

A Useful Ghost -- I know that someone will yell at me for calling this an Apichatpong Weerasethakul movie with a sense of humor -- I mean how dare I besmirch the name of one of the world's great (and gay!) auteurs by insinuating that it's not a laugh riot to watch Tilda Swinton move in slow motion beside a stream for fifteen straight minutes? And Weerasethakul is certainly capable of being funny, but A Useful Ghost has that same very specific Thai vibe of the afterlife mingling with present reality as oh let's say Uncle Boonmee did, but it does so at a far, far goofier register. It's probably more in line to compare it to Wes Anderson than Weerasethakul, save for that Thai-specificity of ghosts among us being not a big whoop. This movie is after all about a man's wife coming back from the dead in the guise of a vacuum cleaner. And yes, there is sex with a vacuum cleaner. Of course there is sex with a vacuum cleaner! What world do you live in where there wouldn't be sex with a vacuum cleaner? That said that's just the first of many silly tricks that first-time filmmaker Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke's got up his poofy sleeves, and A Useful Ghost had me falling off the sofa with a litany of guffaws. And, with that Wes Anderson comparison I made above, a fair share of awe as well -- visually this movie is a feast, existing in its own vacuum-sealed weirdo world of wonder. Basically you will exit this film desperate to see what Boonbunchachoke pulls outta those poofy sleeves next. (It's also got what will surely be one of the year's best posters, as seen up top.)

Infirmary -- If you're anywhere near as big a fan of Found Footage horror movies as I am then you know you've suffered through a lot of fool's gold just to find those infinitesimal bits of real gold out there left to scavenge; sometimes it feels like all the good tricks have been used up. In that sense Infirmary does't re-write the handbook -- it's not doing anything you haven't seen done before. But what it is doing is playing the handbook well, very well -- you know the routine, you've seen the greatest hits, but this one will feed you some of that sweet stuff you love. As usual so much of these movies hinge on location, and Infirmary's got a great one with its half-closed, run-down psychiatric hospital, where two security guards are on the night shift. And just as importantly these are characters you'll actually like -- there's the skittish new kid on the block Eddy (Paul Syre) and there's the "I'm too old for this shit" archetype of Lester (Mark Anthony Williams), who's been doing the job for ages and who spends most of the night just messing with Eddy, scaring him... until the scares start getting real. See? Basic as hell set-up. But first-time feature director Nicholas Perada hits his marks -- the scares are real! -- and in return I jumped and made all of the requisite "Hell no" noises that you hope to make while watching these movies, as the characters stumble deeper into the awful, awful dark. Solid spooky business!

This Should Be the Hamnet Poster

When are they going to start letting me run their ad campaigns?

Poetic Justice For The Life of Brian

Every month I'm caught off-gaurd by it suddenly being the 15th and the new slate of Criterion titles dropping... but not this week! Yesterday I sat around all afternoon waiting for the announcement and it never came. Such is my life! Poor put-upon me -- obviously the worst thing to happen in the world right there, folks. Ahem. Anyway Criterion has released their announcement today, and whaddya know I'm just sitting here again! So let's get to it. These are the April 2026 releases and they kick off with one hell of a neat-o box-set of John SIngleton films! They're calling it his "Hood Trilogy" and it consists of 1991's Boyz N the Hood, 1993's Poetic Justice, and 2001's Baby Boy. It still seems so unbelivable to me that we lost Singleton so young, in 2019 at just 51 years old. That man should've had decades more great movies coming out of him. But this set certainly makes for a spectacular tribute. That lands on April 28th.

Next up there's a new addition to Criterion's renewed "Eclipse" box-set series with "Kinuyo Tanaka Directs", a sextet of films from the famous actress (known for working with Ozu) who decided to go behind the camera to make these six films -- Love Letter, The Moon Has Risen, Forever a Woman, The Wandering Princess, Girls of the Night, and Love Under the Crucifix -- in the decade spanning 1953 and 1962. Anybody seen any of them? I have not but they all sound interesting. And then from there they bring us over to China and right here right now with a blu of Bi Gan's 2025 film Ressurection, which is another semi-incomprehensible dream-experience from the director of Kali Blues and Long Day's Journey Into Night. I'm honestly suprised he's not getting a 4K with this one -- his visuals are always swoon-worthy. 

Speaking of swoonworthy visuals -- next up there is John Boorman's hallucigenically technicolor 1967 crime caper Point Blank starring Lee Marvin and this beauty's of course getting a 4K upgrade -- of course it is, since I just bought the blu-ray like two weeks ago lo. That always happens! Because poor me! Anyway I only saw this movie for the first time this past year but it totally lived up to its legend as one kick-ass experience -- hence me running out and buying a copy. But I'll have to upgrade to the 4K because it is SUCH a gorgeous looking film. And in such unexpected ways.

Next on the 4K upgrade front there's the 1946 classic noir Gilda which turned Rita Hayworth into a star and a sex icon with one flip of her hair, and Ernst Lubitch's 1932 masterpiece Trouble In Paradise starring Miriam Hopkins and Herbert Marshall a a pair of con artists trying to out-do one another in a hyper stylish Venice. Now those are some pictures. (And it's rude of me to reduce Gilda to just that hair-flip because the entire movie is a banger.) That said last but hardly leastly we have got Monty Python's Life of Brian, which... well I don't really feel like I have to sell this movie to anybody -- this movie sells itself. To be honest I'm personally not the biggest Python-head -- I've seen them all and they're fun! Don't yell at me! I just don't really re-watch them and quote them feverishly like some people seem to do. That said I do think Brian is probably my favorite of the bunch. What's yours?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Straight Story (1999)

Alvin: You don't think about getting old 

when you're young... you shouldn't.

Steve: Must be something good about gettin' old?

Alvin : Well I can't imagine anything good about being 

blind and lame at the same time but, still at my age,

I've seen about all that life has to dish out. 

I know to separate the wheat from the chaff 

and let the small stuff fall away.

Rat: That's cool, man. So, uh, 

what's the worst part about being old, Alvin?

Alvin: Well, the worst part of being old 

is rememberin' when you was young.

We lost David Lynch one year ago today. 

The world misses you, my good man.

Five Frames From ?

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Good Morning, World

I cannot believe there exists a photo left from Tom Hardy's Slutty MySpace Selfie Phase that I had not seen before today, but there one is -- that's definitely circa Bronson in 2008 given the stache and general beefiness. Ahh those were the days! Who knew we'd be longing for the Aughts once upon a day? Good grief.

I See London, I See (Chris Messina in) France

Oh yes this is just the news I can use to get me back into this "writing posts" thing that I've spent the past several hours not doing -- our favorite Chris of them all Chris Messina has just gotten his sexy furry butt cast in the next season of The White Lotus! Bless you, Mike White -- a king, a god, anong us peons. Messina joins the formely announced also-hot-piece Alexander Ludwig, as well as actress AJ Michalka (don't knwo her) and that nutty dame Helena Bonham Carter. I suppose I should ass... okay I meant to type "add" but obviously I'm still thinking about Chris Messina haha. Let's try it again -- I should ADD that both Messina and Carter are still "in talks" but whatever, I'm not a legitimate entertainment reporter, I don't care about "specifics" or "facts." I think we all know what I care about and it's what I just typo'd a couple sentences ago.

Five Frames From ?

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Good Morning, World

Many a time in the past when Men's Health has dropped a work-out video from one of our stable of hunks I've gone through the things frame by infinitesimal frame to make dozens of gifs for your visual and emotional and erotic pleasure -- see this Jake Gyllenhaal post for one particularly notable reference -- but, all apologies to Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams, I ain't got time for that shit this morning. So I made one gif, the one you see above, which is really if I had to pick the number one moment in the eight minute video anyway. But watch the entire thing! It's right below. Find the largest screen you can -- perhaps rent out the Sphere in Las Vegas -- and have at it. And have yourself a very good morning!

Say Good Night Jack

Good Night Jack.

Shut Up The Gays Are Talking!

The time has come for the queers to take it away! (When isn't it that time...) The queer critics guild GALECA (of which yours truly is a member) has announced the nominations for our annual Dorian Awards today, and per usual we did good, better, best than most. As ever, because I'm an old crank, I could take issue with some of the people who did get nominated -- I loathe Ethan Hawke's performance in Blue Moon, for instance -- and I could take issue with some of the people who didn't get nominated -- I can't believe we, a group of queer people, didn't have love in our hearts for the best animated movie oif the year by leaps and bounds Boys Go To Jupiter -- but I'll just shut my yap and clap my paws because overall...

... we did very good. A couple of nominations for Pillion! (Even though as I stated earlier today who could be sure which year A24 wants that movie to fall under with their weird release strategy,) A couple of nominations for Hedda, a movie which should be getting much more attention by the big guys -- I can't believe that Tessa Thompson and Nina Hoss probably won't get Oscar nominations whilst steaming crap like the Wicked sequel will. What a world, what a world, indeed. Anyway congrats to all of the nominees (except Ethan Hawke) and if you want to hit the jump I will share our press release with all of the nominations...

Once You Go Kontinental...

The trailer for one of my favorite movies from last fall's NYFF has arrived -- Romanian maniac Radu Jude's Kontinental '25, which I reviewed right here, was actually the more sane of his two NYFF films. But given that the other one was his deranged A.I. riddled schlockterpiece Dracula (also reviewed at that link) it's not saying much to call Kontinental '25 the "sane" one. It's still fully a Radu Jude flick -- political, provocative, hellaciously strange. Oh and speaking of the trailer...

... look who shows up in it! Tis me! Nope, I'll never get tired of it. I do a little dance at my desk every time I get blurbed. Dignity is for the dead. Aaaanyway Kontinetal '25 is about a "well meaning" cog in the machine of modern living who's convinced she's a good person only for Jude to show us, through her, how we're all monsters thriving on the status quo of exploiting everybody else so we can maintain our own comfort. Oh and it's exceptionally funny about it -- I should lead with that. Anyway, trailer-time:

Kontinental '25 hits theaters on March 27th! Don't miss it. 

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