Hoults Have More Fun

Although it wasn't a blow-out y'all agreed with me on last week's poll that Nicholas Hoult's new blond hair is by no means a disaster -- in fact he's totally pulling it off and as a fun summer diversion I can't say I'm not enjoying the sight. I think it makes its case as 2025's hair equivalent of Jonathan Bailey's much-memed "slutty little glasses." 

 

They Tried To Make Us See

I will admit that this is a dark way to follow my earlier post saying that we should look for light in dark days, but this one demands our attention -- on the same morning that there's a really fucking upsetting article in the NYT about how our not-esteemed President's healthcare cuts are mucking up the imminent cure for HIV I stumbled upon this video of Russell Tovey doing a reading of a famous letter by John Waters' star and downtown goddess Cookie Mueller. In it she talks about the devastation of AIDS, which would later claim her life as well. If you need a more succinct rundown on the background of Cookie than the many I've given over the years, read this wonderful piece. I think this is really the only note we can end Pride on in 2025. Be furious. We need to be furious. We need to summon the rage of those we lost, and those we will lose. They're coming for every one of us and throwing trans people under the bus isn't going to stop them from shipping a white homosexual like me to a gulag. We're in this together y'all. Make art, make violence, just scream. Scream in the motherfuckers face. Make them uncomfortable. Fucking fight y'all. Things are not okay. So dark days, yes, but we can be the light. Bright violent light if need be -- the sort of light that snuffs out the darkness in a explosion of itself. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Hello and happy Monday, my favorite fiends -- I am glad we all made it through another weekend I won't say unscathed, but we survived. Embrace it while it continues, I suppose! At least while we're nominally free and not locked in cages, that is. Wow the optimism is off the charts. But really though. To paraphrase Margate Atwood don't let the bastards grind you down. I'm trying! And so here...

... some more of Theo James in his white  speedo to remind us that there is still light, hope, and beauty in the world. A behind-the-scenes clip was dropped last week and I'm running woefully behind so I'm not giffing up the entire thing like I did last time (at least not right this second) but do watch and give yourself a good morning. You deserve it!

6 Off My Head: A 2025 Peek Ahead

Inspired by the Bugonia teaser I just shared (along with the fact that it's Paul Thomas Anderson's birthday today which reminded me he has a new movie out in several weeks) I decided to go ahead and make a list of the movies left to be released in 2025 that I'm most looking forward to. I did this (as with everything I do here) mostly for myself because I've been bad about keeping an eye on what's ahead -- I can be very much in the moment; planning ahead's not my strongest suit! So I will myself probably be referring back to this list often. But perhaps this will help you along the same lines! That'd be nice! So sans further ado I give you...

My Top 6 Anticipated Movies of 2025

Bugonia (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) -- Oct 24th 

(more here)

One Battle After Another (dir. PT Anderson) -- Sept 26th

The History of Sound (dir. Oliver Hermanus) -- Sept 12th 

(more here)

After the Hunt (dir. Luca Guadagnino) -- Oct 10th 

(more here)

Sentimental Value (dir. Joachim Trier) -- Nov 7th

Pillion (dir. Harry Lighton) -- TBD

(more here)

------------------------------

(Sidenote: There is no word on Gregg Araki's I Want Your Sex and any kind of release date for it yet, otherwise it would very much be listed above.) 

(Sidenote #2 - literally five minutes after I posted this list it was announced that Neon has bought Park Chan-wook's new movie No Other Choice for release and it's premiering at Venice so add that one too!)

Runners-up: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (dir. Rian Johnson), Marty Supreme (dir. Josh Safdie), Hamnet (dir. Chloé Zhao), A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (dir. Kogonada), It Was Just an Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi), The Roses (dir. Jay Roach), Avatar: Fire & Ash (dir. James Cameron), Together (dir. Michael Shanks)...

... Weapons (dir. Zach Cregger),  Jay Kelly (dir. Noah Baumbach), Caught Stealing (dir. Darren Aronofsky), Frankenstein (dir. Guillermo Del Toro), The Mastermind (dir. Kelly Reichardt), Highest 2 Lowest (dir. Spike Lee), A House of Dynamite (dir. Kathryn Bigelow), Die My Love (dir. Lynne Ramsay), The Running Man (dir. Edgar Wright)

----------------------------

What movies are y'all most looking forward to?

Save the Green Yorgos

We are at the half-point of the year so we're already seeing people make lists of their best movies of 2025.5 -- I'm not doing that, at least not right this second. But I have been thinking about what's left for the second half of the year that I'm most looking forward to, and while there are several examples the number one might just be Bugonia from Yorgos Lanthimos. He hasn't done me wrong yet. So what a coincidence that they dropped the teaser trailer for Bugonia today! Watch:

The film reunites the director with Emma Stone because of course, as well as Jesse Plemons who was so terrific in Kinds of Kindness last year. When this movie was announced and I posted about it EXACTLY ONE YEAR AGO TODAY (how weird is that?) I mentioned it's a remake of a South Korean movie from 2003 called Save the Green Planet! which is about... well exactly the plot laid forth in that teaser. Looks like the only change is the businessman getting kidnapped is now a businesswoman. Feminism! Woke! Anyway this tease made me even more excited -- Bugonia's out on October 24th. I bet it's playing NYFF then! Whee!

Pics of the Day

Whoa ho ho! Nicky Hoult's bleached his hair out! He showed it off for the first time filming Jimmy Kimmel's show yesterday for his Superman duties -- what do we think? He's so pretty I think it's fine, but I'm not gonna lie -- I prefer the dark hair setting off those gorgeous blue eyes of his. But it's not a disaster or anything. If I had to guess I'd guess that this is for his upcoming movie How to Rob a Bank from Atomic Blonde (how appropriate) and Bullet Train director David Leitch -- he likes things bright and poppy and such and this fits into that wheelhouse for sure. Also that's the only unfilmed movie on Nicky's IMDb page right now. I'm a real Sherlock! Anyway I won't force my opinions on y'all -- here's a poll!

online polls

Double Oh Whatever

I'm in no way sharing that image of director Denis Villenueve with Jake Gyllenhaal on the set of their magnificent 2013 film Enemy to imply that Denis should make his former boyfriend Jake his James Bond now that he's been revealed to be directing the first film in the rebooted franchise for Amazon. Although I do find it strange that they hired a French-Canadian to direct this very British franchise I still think they'll get a British person to play the lead. I mean... they have to, right? Anyway if they're announcing a director I feel as if a leading man announcement can't be that far behind so we should probably know soon. And a lot of signs are indeed pointing toward Aaron Taylor-Johnson again. Whatever. I don't have much of a dog in this fight because I'm by no stretch of any person's imagination the world's biggest 007 fan. I enjoyed the Daniel Craig movies because Daniel Craig. I hadn't even seen another Bond movie until Craig was cast! Since then I have gone back and watched the Sean Connery ones and a couple scattered other random ones. They're fine! They're fun. Dr. No is probably a masterpiece but otherwise whatever. All of that said, to circle us around to the start -- Jake could make a great Bond villain. I feel as if the real future of Bond villains is billionaire nerds (and/or perhaps Russians) and that's in Jake's wheelhouse. Just sayin! I'd love for Denis & Jake to work together again. He's been so distracted by Timmy lately...

Good Morning, World

Good morning only to the 6'5" actor and stuntman Chi Lewis-Parry, who played the massive donged Alpha monster in Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later -- I grabbed this video off his Instagram and I think you can tell why I'm sharing it even if I wasn't nuts about the movie itself. (Hehe "nuts.") Here is my review in case you missed it. What a weird life actors have! 

Diego Calva Eight Times

I can't remember if I did a post about this but you can rent the queer drama On Swift Horses from the usual places now -- that's the one that has a lot of Diego here romping about with Jacob Elordi, plus the architectual revelation that is Will Poulter's ass. I mean there's more to the movie obviously but those are the main selling points says me. Here is my review from when it was in theaters. A mixed one for sure, but I'd like to re-watch it sometime -- there's a sweetness and a tenderness to it that will probably make for a nice comfort watch down the line. Anyway these fine new photos of Mr. Calva dropped this week thanks to Behind the Blinds magazine, where you can also read a chat with the actor (lots of sex talk natch). Or just hit the jump for the photos...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Cassie: I don't get you, Ennis del Mar.

Ennis: I'm sorry. Was probably no fun anyway, was I?

Cassie: Ennis, girls don't fall in love with fun!

Pretty sure that every gay man who's been closeted for any portion of their life has had some variation on this exact conversation with a girl who had a crush on them -- I remember a couple from high school and oof, those memories are excriutiating. My sincerest apologies to all of those women today. It's a fuck-ton of a situation. 

Anyway that scene is just one of many scenes in Brokeback (every single scene actually) that rings painfully true. And it seems kismet to me that I highlight it today since it's Linda Cardellini's 50th (!!!) birthday today and I was just talking (see below) about what a stunning performance she gives in her handful of scenes in this film the other day, when I saw this on the big screen over the weekend for its 20th anniversary. (There's an entire thread at Bluesky surrounding the below post, if you're so inclined.) 

Also justice for Linda Cardellini who never gets talked about giving one of the great performances in this movie but surely does

[image or embed]

— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) June 21, 2025 at 7:23 PM

Anyway the movie still stuns but I felt downright lousy I'd forgotten Cardellini's wonderful work entirely since the last time I watched the movie (which was probably about a decade ago -- it's hard to re-watch! It hurts!) -- the main foursome's turns just all loom so large. Or if I start thinking about smaller roles I wander off thinking about Jake & David Harbour eye-fucking each other as Anna Faris hilariously blathers on. Good goddamn the sexual tension in that scene is still off the charts...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

The Chan-dy Man

Channing Tatum is always going to be younger and hotter than me, that's a given  I came to terms with the first second I laid eyes on Channing Tatum. But I feel as if I can still take some personal pleasure from the fact that a movie trailer can still be sold on the repeated sight of Channing half-naked -- the logic being that once he ages out of that then it's really fucking over for me. But that day is not today! So it goes...

... with the trailer for Derek Cianfrance's new movie Roofman, which tells the wild true story of an ex-Ranger who went to prison for robbing McDonalds (by drilling down through their roofs, hence his nickname) who hides out and moves into a functioning Toys R Us store after he escapes. I remember these headlines! Anyway the trailer makes this seem more lighthearted than I anticipated from Cianfrance, but with this incredible cast -- which also includes Kirsten Dunst, Lakeith Stanfield, Peter Dinklage, Ben Mendelsohn, Uzo Aduba and Juno Temple -- I'd have been sold even wiuthout all the Chan-skin. Watch the trailer:

Roofman is out on October 10th!

Hit the jump for several more gifs...

Good Morning, World

The internet is so fast! Pew pew! (Those are computer noises.) We just plow forward, ever forward. No time to breathe. And so sometimes I drop something amazing on here and within a week we've all moved on. That's sad! Especially when the thing I dropped was a half-naked mustachioed Charles Melton jumping rope. Especially that. And I shared a Coach commercial on the 17th that was exactly that and it was all the rage inside these Pants of mine for a good 48 hours, by which time approximately ten million other things (ninety-nine percent of them being awful, let's be real, it's 2025) had shoved its wonder outta the way. That's sad!

But it don't got to be! Because yesterday during my "browsing" -- aka scanning the usual places for filth I might've missed -- I discovered that two set videos of said commercial had been dropped after the original commercial! And they give us a little more half-naked mustachioed Melton to stare at. Slow down and smell the Melton, I say! Along with last night's mayoral primary here in my hometown of NYC everything's coming up so nice this morning! It's such a weird feeling. It won't last. So let's enjoy it while it's here. Hit the jump for ten or so more gifs (and the videos)...

Say Good Night, Aaron

I'm running to a screening but that shouldn't keep y'all 

from enjoying this new photo of Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Pics of the Day

In March of last year I told y'all that Karl Glusman had been cast opposite Samara Weaving in a heist thriller called Eeenie Meanie -- then a few weeks later I shared a photo of Karl topless on the set that made me even more excited. Well now we have our first official looks at the movie and...

... they are still speaking my language! (via) Hopefully this is his costume for a majority of the movie. Anyway the news is also saying that this movie is going right to Hulu on August 22nd -- hopefully we get a trailer soon so we can really gauge what we're working with. Not that I'm not already sold. Hit the jump for more Karl...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Sorceror (1977)

Nilo: When the money's up, 

I'm just as good as any of you.

Back in March when Criterion announced that William Friedkin's film Sorceror was getting a 4K release from them -- which it has, today this very day! -- I admitted this movie was only a recent  favorite since I hadn't until a few years ago. But in that brief time it's become much loved by me -- I've now seen it twice on a big screen and if this movie doesn't have you holding your breath you must be dead already. It's wonderful is my point, a top-notch thriller, and I can't wait to check out Criterion's 4K restoration. On a related note I heard that Barnes & Noble's annual summertime Criterion sale starts this Friday! So get your wish lists prepped!

Great Moments In Movie Staches

If you've looked at social media in the past two days you've no doubt seen everybody listing their "Top 10 movies since 2000" lists thanks to a feature in The New York Times making the rounds -- I'm not doing that! I'm not breaking my brain with that list right now. So don't get your hopes up. (Or the opposite I suppose since I don't know how you personally feel about my opinions!) What I am pointing out though is that I think a full 75% of the lists I've seen have had Wong Kar-wai's 2001 masterpiece In the Mood For Love listed on them, which is just and good and correct. And it reminded me that this movie is getting a theatrical re-release for its 25th anniversary! At least in NYC (on June 27th) and LA (on July 4th) but you can click here to check for other locations and times. And they'll also be screening alongside it the hard-to-see short film In the Mood For Love 2001! That one also stars most-beautiful-people Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, just in different roles -- apparently WKW had intended to do a entire trilogy of ITMFL films but didn't (unless you count the bits in his movie 2046 anyway). You can watch the trailer for both the main film + this short at this link, but as you can see here Tony Leung has a mustache and wears a pink shirt so your eyes might melt outta your head from the hotness. You've been warned!

Pedro Pascal Thirty Times

Pedro Pascal is Vanity Fair's cover-boy for the month what with his big Marvel movie coming out soon and he is looking every inch the swoon in the photoshoot. And you won't believe it but I actually read the interview before posting this time! I wanted to make sure he was still "not talking about his private life" before I did because who knows, perhaps we'd have something to actually report out of it! 

Well we don't. Nothing to report still! He's still "not talking about his private life." What a waste. I will share with y'all the actual quote on this subject from the piece though so you don't have to read the entire thing if you don't feel like it at this point:

"As we wait for the check, we talk about some of the realities of fame. For instance, the internet’s real-time dissection of his coffee order, his vacation reading, and—since, as [Chelsea] Handler said, people of every kind are horny for him—why he doesn’t talk about his own personal life in the press. “I always feel perplexed when I’m identified in whatever form of media as a ‘highly private person,’ because that’s the opposite of me,” he says. “I’m very unprivate in my private life. I just know that personal relationships are such a complex thing to navigate even without having this enormous lens on them.” "

I'm shocked it even came up, honestly -- usually it seems the topic is avoided completely. Whatever, man. We've got Jonny Bailey, I guess. ALL THAT ASIDE it's actually a great profile -- the reason I get so annoyed with Pascal on the "personal life" front is because I find him charming and handsome and intelligent and thoughtful otherwise and I'd like to enjoy him unconditionally without having to go into a rage every time someone calls him an "ally." I know y'all always leave a lot of comments about him being over-hyped when I post about him, but I think he's a natural star. Everybody in the piece who cites his "sad eyes" are right -- perhaps he doesn't want to let on why they're so sad. Alas. Imagine what could be! For now what will be will have to just be this hot photoshoot I guess, so hit the jump for the entire thing...