Tadanobu Take Us Away

Nothing like a hint of Tadanobu Asano's furry tum-tum to take us into the weekend with a buzz -- sure the world's on fire but there are still for the moment small pleasures to be had. (In fact you can see three more of these small pleasures right here.) As for the weekend, well, it's here. And there's a new Final Destination movie to enjoy! If you missed my review earlier you can read it here -- I'm seeing it myself a second time tomorrow because once again we must grab onto the good things while they're available! Such doom tinged to all of my optimissm these days! Weird, right? Where could all of that be coming from... aaaanyway I have a second review of a different movie coming out this weekend that will drop at some point in the next couple of days, so check back and I'll try to post about that. Until then... well just smoke 'em if ya got 'em, my friends. Poof!

Today's Mood

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) May 15, 2025 at 7:35 PM

I Have Reviewed the New Final Destination

Although I don't (for obvious reasons) go into how impossible it is to review the Final Destination movies in my review of  the new Final Destination movie, it should be admitted -- they've got to be taken on their own terms, and you're either a mark for or an enemy of their treatment of violence, death and gore as spectacle and entertainment above pretty much all else. I'm honestly surprised more people don't get up in arms about them but then they've never tried to be serious enough to get too worked up about in my opinion -- yes yes I value human life. But also we're all going to die in some ridiculous way probably and these movies allow us to prepare ourselves for that vicariously. I think most critics get that. All of that is to say that I have reviewed the latest entry in the franchise, the sixth one titled Final Destinaion: Bloodlines, which is dropping a mere fourteen (!!!) years after that last one. Time, y'all! Meaningless. Click on over to Mashable to read my thoughts on the film, which are very pleased because the filmmakers knew what the franchise demands and they stuck to it. For the most part. I won't go so far as some of my collegues have to say this is the best one of them all -- I think they do a little more explaining than is necessary, and I think they rely a little too much on surprise shocks more than they do suspense. But that opening disaster is a real humdinger, that's for sure. You'll very much want to see this in the theater, packed with likeminded sadists. 

Hello, Criterion's August 2025 Batch

The August 2025 releases from Criterion have been announced today and this might be the most Cirterioniest batch of Criterion titles I've ever had to post about -- meaning they straight up went and made me feel like a failure at what I do by releasing a bunch of movies (save a couple) that I've never even heard of before! But that's part of the fun of Criterion -- they are very good at digging up International and Classic treasures that even self-anointed cineastes have to date missed out on. The one that grabbed me the hardest was the 2004's queer rom-com Saving Face from filmmaker Alice Wu, which co-stars Joan Chen and therefore immediately made us think of Andrew Ahn's recent queer rom-com The Wedding Banquet, which also co-starred Joan Chen. (As an aside I hope Criterion is thinking about getting some of Ahn's films into the Collection -- fancy 4K editions of Driveways or Spa Night would be wonderful!)

Next up we've got a double-feature of Edward Yang movies from the 90s with A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong, a pair of Taiwanese satires that the filmmaker dropped in between his better-known films A Brighter Summer Day and Yi-Yi (both of which I believe Criterion has already released before). I haven't seen either of these but they sound great -- any fans? And then there's Egyptian director Youssef Chahine's 1958 classic Cairo Station, which they call one of the most influential films in all of Arab cinema -- blending neo-realism and melodrama it stars director himself as a man obsessed with a woman played by Hind Rostom (aka "the Marilyn Monroe of Arabia") which leads to tragedy.

And then there's a pair of WWII-era dramas from Japanese director Kon Ichikawa with The Burmese Harp (1956) and Fires on the Plain (1959) -- I've heard people speak rapturosously of these two before but never seen either. It''s weird they're releasing these separately -- seems like a pair that could've gotten the double-feature treatment, especially with the very similar artwork. Maybe they'll eventually work their way up to a box-set of Ichikawa. 

The final pair of August drops (this is a crowded month!) is director Zeinabu Irene Davis' 1999 film Compensation which has the same actors playing two different couples of deaf African-Americans, one at the start and one at the end of the 20th Century. This sounds fascinating -- anyone seen it? Or heard of it even? Don't know how this'd completely slipped my radar, especially with all the talk of and lists about 1999 being a great year for great movies. And finally the final film is Vittoria De Sica's classic neorealist drama Shoeshine, which I mayyybe saw in film school but not since. I had an echo of a visceral reaction to the cover, as if the story is hella depressing and it left a mark on my brain that I still haven't recovered from. Hooray for the movies!

Death in Tilda's Hands

I'm pretty sure I talked about how Tilda Swinton should do more horror movies when I reviewed her turn in the wonderful ghost story The Eternal Daughter a couple of years ago -- I'm sure I could go find proof of that and quote myself, it's just a google away, but let's just believe me when I say that I said it. Anyway so I'm happy with this morning's news, I am! She's going to star in the new movie from A Ghost Story and The Green Knight director David Lowery -- and that in itself is a thrill! -- and it's an adaptation of the 2020 book Death in Her Hands by beloved author Ottessa Moshfegh. (As a weird aside I had a signed first edition of this book that I never read because it was worth too much that I had listed on eBay for a couple of years and which finally sold just about a month ago -- I wonder if whoever bought it has a heads-up on this project?) Anyway here is how the plot is described:

"She’ll play recent widow Vesta Gul, who comes across a chilling handwritten note in the woods near her home: “Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.” Except there is no body. No blood. Unmoored by the death of her husband and armed only with a camera, her dog Charlie, and her vivid imagination, Vesta becomes obsessed with uncovering Magda’s identity and fate. As her inner world begins to eclipse reality, the mystery of Magda threatens Vesta’s grip on her own life "

So it sounds like gothic old-fashioned kind of horror -- psychological obsession et cetera -- which will be perfect for Tilda. I really don't understand why she hasn't done more horror -- she's practically one of Guillermo Del Toro's ghouls come to life with the right lighting, and I say this with a heart bursting of love and appreciation. I wish I was one of Guillermo Del Toro's ghouls come to life! Instead I'm just, like, an extra in the Thriller video at best.

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Good Morning, World

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

Eugene: I know what your son is to you, and it frightens me. Let me explain a little. I don't think he'll change. At twenty-one or twenty-two, so many things appear solid and permanent and terrible. Which forty sees as nothing but disappearing miasma. Forty can't tell twenty about this. Twenty can find out only by getting to be forty.

The great Joseph Cotten was born 120 years ago today.

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Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather...

... taking in some local color with Theo James.

Okay! So Dolce & Gabbana have been teasing the release of their Theo James campaign for a few days now -- I've been documenting it with daily irritation on Bluesky because we saw those set photos last summer! We knew what they'd photographed! And yet they were being coy! Well no more, as you can well see -- coy no more!

Nope not coy at all. Nice to see Theo embracing his Greek side! (I'd also like to embrace Theo's "Greek Side" wink wink.) Anyway I have a feeling even more will drop and I'll have jumped the gun by not waiting a day or two longer but... I couldn't. So hit the jump for everything to date...

Good Morning, World

It is very wet here in NYC this week and not supposed to let up for a few more days so I am trying to make wetness appetizing inside my brain and I thought of this photo of Josh O'Connor and... mission accomplished. You know -- Josh turns 35 next week on Tuesday so in order to wake us all up today tell me in the comments what you'd give Josh for his birthday if you could. (Oh myyy.)

Makin' Like Tovey...

... and peacin' the fuck out.

Bye til tomorrow...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

THX 1138 (1971)

OMM: Let us be thankful we have commerce. 

Buy more. Buy more now. Buy. And be happy.

Since I'm on an unexpected Star Wars kick thanks to the crazy good series Andor -- as dived into yesterday -- let's go ahead and wish George Lucas a happy birthday today. I'm 100% going to be re-watching the SW prequels and such over the next few months, whenever I've got time to waste really, since Andor was so good it made me feel like diving into the world of the Skywalkers et al. And yet here I am using a quote from one of his few non-Jedi-related projects for this post! What -- you want a Jar-Jar quote instead? But in related news -- if you've watched the final three Andor episodes tell me your thoughts in the comments! (I stayed up way too late last night to binge them all and personally -- swoon, they stuck the landing.) 

Mason Gooding Seven Times

Mason Gooding posted these photos on Instagram saying thanks to Adidas for sending himself and his adorable doggy (who you'll see in a photo below) the clothes, and I think he's insinuating he took these photos himself? In which case I can only commend the man -- he sure knows his angles. Hit the jump for all seven snaps...

Jeremy and Tigers and Jude, Oh My

This news is two days old so the world's moved on but here I am, world, here I am, finally reporting that Jude Law and Andrew Garfield are going to play homosexual tiger tamers Seigfried and Roy in a limited series about their lives for Apple. Titled Wild Things (excuse me there is already a campy queer masterpiece called Wild Things) it'll have Jude starring as Siegfried and Andy as Roy, and if you ever knew which one of those weirdos was which I wish you the best. Coming so soon after reporting that Sebastian Stan and Leo Woodall will be playing a gay couple I feel as if it's my duty to holler about "where the hell are the gay actors getting cast in gay roles" here, even if I'm not really honestly all that upset about this shit this week -- there's just other stuff to worry about. I can't prioritize who's slipping into spangled leotards to play the Vegas punchlines right now. But since we're here anyway...

... I will also report on (presumably) less gay news that also involves a pair of straight actors that people seem to find attractive (I only find one attractive and I've made that opinion known before) -- Jeremy Allen White and Austin Butler are going to star in a "crime saga" film for A24 titled Enemies,  about a contract killer and a detective playing "cat and mouse." The film will be directed by Henry Dunham, who made 2018's Standoff at Sparrow Creek -- I feel as if that title is familiar but I don't think I ever saw that. But good on A24 for continuing to support new filmmakers, and to hook them up with great big stars in the process. Anyway that news is brand new, of today, so we're all caught up now. Hooray!

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Quotes of the Day

"I’m okay. Situation normal, all up, kind of a thing. I’ve had some pretty difficult things happen to me, so I’m in a state of repair and survival. I’m not really in any state of mind or any position to go on tour yet. But I’m starting to see the light. I’m starting to feel a sense of direction toward something meaningful and substantial. I’ve been focusing on the moment and on things that feel very silly and Zen: serenity and acceptance and duty and stewardship... I’m doing a lot of ordinary, mundane adulting. The other day, I had to get a septic pump replaced. I have had to retile the kitchen and buy some new appliances, and I’ve got seedlings under grow lights in the garage. I’ve been working on other people’s music this past year, not my own. It feels like my life is in service to other things right now. It’s fine and required of me. I’m okay, I’m okay, I’m okay. It’s been two years of a shitshow, but I’m okay."

A couple of weeks ago when one of the fresh demo tracks off of Sufjan Stevens' upcoming 10th anniversary re-release of his record Carrie & Lowell dropped I wondered how the man himself is doing -- ask and ye shall receive, as he talked to Vulture today and gave us that update on his well-being. Thank goodness! There's a lot more to the chat so check it out if you worship the man like I do (well none of you worship him like I do, but it's nice you try) -- most of it is about the record (which is out on May 30th) but they also get into the gayness of religion which mightily amused me (how I wish we could've heard Sufjan talking like this a decade ago):

"The religious is very sexual. It’s erotic. Look at Catholic art through the ages, Baroque art. It’s all very fleshy and sensual and full of naked bodies. I’ve always embraced that. I’ve always felt that my relationship to God is a very intimate and sensual one. Sacraments are. It’s engaging with God in a physical way. You’re literally eating the flesh and drinking the blood of God during the Eucharist. It doesn’t get much more erotic than that. If you’re a vampire, that’s the ultimate erotic experience.... The Bible’s very gay. Just all men. That’s what you get when there’s a patriarchy that’s endured for so long. Jesus was single, never married; Disciples were all dudes …"

Good Morning, World

Swallowed and Monsters actor Cooper Koch was revealed -- perhaps I should say "undraped" -- as Calvin Klein's latest tighty-whites model yesterday, so behold the fruits of his loom! Sexy pictures that are obviously a call-back to the original CK underwear campaign shot of Olympian Tom Hintnaus by Bruce Weber that got the entire ball(s) rolling. Hit the jump for all the snaps I could dig up...

A Love Letter To Genevieve O'Reilly

I was rightfully chastised yesterday when I mentioned that I hadn't written anything here on the site proper about Andor (even as I haven't shut up about it on social media) so let's right that wrong today with a love letter to the biggest reason for that love -- namely Genevieve O'Reilly's extraordinary performance as the senator-turned-rebel-leader Mon Mothma. She's been playing the character in some iteration since she her scene got cut out of Revenge of the Sith in 2005 -- the character was originally played by Caroline Blakiston in Return of the Jedi, ("Many Bothans died to bring us this information") and no I couldn't have told you any of this nerdy shit a few weeks ago before I binged the first season of Andor right before the second season began. As I've stated on here a million times I've never been much of a Star Wars person; I was way too young when the original trilogy came out to pay them much mind (my parents didn't take me to the movies so I definitely didn't see any of them in the theater) -- Jurassic Park was my Star Wars. But since binging Andor, phenomonal Andor, I find myself wanting to go re-watch all of the Star Wars movies, which will surely turn out disappointing in comparison given that Andor is operating on a completely different level than anything else the franchise has ever accomplished. At the very least after tonight, when the final three episodes air, I will have to go and watch Rogue One again -- Andor is that film's prequel and I have a feeling I'll have a very different reaction to it now compared to the shrug it got from me when it came out in 2016. 

All of that said it's Genevieve O'Reilly we're here to celebrate, and celebrate we shall -- there are several great performances happening on the show (Denise Gough and Kyle Soller as those fascist creeps Dedra and Syril we hate to love, for instance) but, with all due apologies to Diego Luna -- Andor belongs to O'Reilly. Watching her transformation from a life of walled-off privilege to one of dangerous rebellion all due to her steadfast commitment to freedom for all has been wildly inspiring to watch -- I don't know if there will be a better scene on TV this year than the one where she has a breakdown on the dance floor at her daughter's wedding as she realizes just how much her life is collapsing around her. Andor has been so smart about the way it's wielded what we know is coming -- the inevitability of everyone's coming roles in the rebellion (given we already know most of their fates) has enriched every choice instead of undermining the tension. Tony Gilroy (the showrunner) has done an astonishing job forcing us to luxuriate in these uncomfortable choices, and nobody's made a richer feast out of this than O'Reilly. Give this woman all of the awards!

Been a hot minute since I have loved a character and a performance as much as I love this lady right here #andor

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) April 23, 2025 at 11:12 PM

This Dude's Playing John-John

Say hello to Paul Kelly, a newcomer who according to Evan Ross Katz on Instagram will be playing John F. Kennedy Jr. in Ryan Murphy's upcoming miniseres American Love Story, which will tell the tale of John-John's whirlwind romance with Carolyn Bissette. Bissette will be played by actress Sarah Pidgeon (who's in the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot) while JJ's mommy-dearest Jackie will be played by one Naomi Watts! I couldn't even dig up Paul Kelly's IMDb page but he does have an Instagram right here -- I took note of how many followers he has right now...

.... and I'll be curious to see how many he has in a few weeks, or months haha. I already followed him, that's for damn sure. ERK says Kelly beat out a thousand other actors for the role -- he's gorgeous obviously (I'm guessing he was a model given the photos you see here off his Insta) but I'm not sure I see Junior just yet. But who knows what magic they can work with a makeover. Shave him (his face only!) and give him that wavy 90s pompadour and anything could emerge! Not sure how I feel about this series in general, but Naomi will make a good Jackie, I think -- I might not have thought so before her role in Capote Vs The Swans but it totally makes sense now.

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