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(via, thx Mac)
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Thursday, September 21, 2017
Joe Dallesandro in 3D!!!
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In 3D at last!!!
I have honest to goodness goose-pimples about this, you guys. 10-year-old me, staring at this movie's illicit VHS cover at the local video-store, with its bloody knife poking through that lacy curtain...
... it always seemed so dangerous, ya know? Eventually my cousin and I got permission to rent scary movies from his much more lenient parents a couple years later and off we went, him ogling the boobies, me ogling the boy bits. And Part III has some good boy bits with Rick (Paul Kratka) and hand-walking Andy (Jeffrey Rogers)...
But besides the great gratuity this movie's got everything a growing freak needs from their 3D horror movie - it's got a yo-yo flying at your face, it's got an eyeball flying at your face... it has SHELLY!
Shelly in 3D!!!
I am painfully excited, y'all.
That there (click to embiggen) is the full list of films the Quad is showing - the series runs from October 13th through the 19th and they haven't announced the actual schedule on their website yet but I can't imagine that they won't be showing Friday the 13th on Friday, October 13th. MARK YOUR CALENDARS, FOLKS.
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5 Off My Head: Uncle Stevie's 70
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It is the 70th birthday of Stephen King and old age be damned he's this year's hot "It Boy" and in more ways than one, the movie It being the year's biggest surprise hit - I think we all expected the movie to do well, but not this well. It's raking in cash over claw. (Here is my review in case you missed it.) Anyway I'm in too much of a rush just now to go back through our archives and check to see if I've done this before (it's entirely possible) but here on his 70th let's name our five favorite movie adaptations of his stories.
My 5 Favorite Stephen King Movies
Dolores Claiborne (1995)
-- dir. Taylor Hackford --
-- dir. Brian DePalma --
-- dir. Frank Darabont --
The Shining (1980)
-- dir. Stanley Kubrick --
Misery (1990)
-- dir. Rob Reiner --
And if I did a Top Ten: The Shawshank Redemption,
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(And would you already put It on your list?
I'm not quite there yet, but it's good.)
I'm not quite there yet, but it's good.)
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NYFF Diaries: Day 3
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Before I review movies from this year's New York Film Festival (which runs from September 27th through October 15th) for The Film Experience I actually have to see them, and that's what I'm doing now - we're reporting each day with a quick log of what we're watching at early press screenings. Here is Day #1 and here is Day #2. And today's lucky movie is...
September 21st
Thelma (dir. Joachim Trier)
A couple of weeks ago I shared the trailer for Thelma with you guys - click here for that. Bonus pictures of Hot Dude in movie at that link, by the way. Also there are shelves, glorious shelves - a lot of this movie appears to be set in a university library? And it's lesbian art horror? So so very excited. Our pal Chris already reviewed this movie from TIFF at The Film Experience - you can read his thoughts here. He called it "Blue is the Warmest Color by way of Carrie" so you know WHAAAAAAT.
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The Disappearance of Mike Vogel
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That title speaks not of Mike Vogel's professional career, which is doing just fine - most actors would kill to be starring on a brand new series on NBC that premieres in four days. I speak of his literal blink-and-you'll-miss-him moment in Battle of the Sexes, which I rambled a bit about in my review of the film yesterday. Honestly it strikes me that I should've saved it for a separate post, because I like and long for Mike Vogel in my life, so that's what I am doing now.
I just want you guys to keep your eyes peeled for him, because you will miss him if you don't. Mike shows up when Billie Jean (Emma Stone) and her new girl "friend" Marilyn (Andrea Riseborough) go out dancing for the first time. A dude comes up and tells BJK he's a fan of hers and asks her to dance - the entire thing is shot watching the two actresses; the actor is incidental to what's happening between them. So when his face is visible for the briefest moment I was surprised to see it was Mike Vogel.
Anyway this isn't that weird - actors get cut out of films all the time. Still the flash we do get of Mike is promising - he's got a 70s mustache, and as with most everything Mike Vogel has worn, he wears it really fucking well. I want to get a screen-grab of it as soon as possible since it will be our only record.
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Good Morning, World
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I don't watch This is Us (no not even for Milo's butt) but I keep hearing how Sterling K Brown is giving a terrific performance on it... well at the very least his shirts must be performing well, because they are somehow managing to keep all that magic contained. Strong fabric!
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
It'll Grand Slam Your Heart
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You know what the world needs right now? If you said "love sweet love" you're a goddamn hippie, but you're not too far out of bounds. The word "crowd-pleaser" has been lobbed at Battle of the Sexes already and lots more than once, and it's a solid call - like the best Sports Movies this one, which tells the story of tennis legend Billie Jean King's infamous 1972 match with the washed-up Bobby Riggs, is going to make the audience you're sitting with clap and cheer once that final reel rolls along.
But the movie's both better, and a little worse, than just that. On the one hand it's a really lovely love story, and my favorite scenes by far are the ones where Billie Jean (Emma Stone, truly firing on all cylinders) gets to know the hairdresser, flung out of space, who's awakened all kinds of feelings she hadn't been expecting (played a dreamy soft Andrea Riseborough, who once again proves that she will always be the best thing in any given movie while simultaneously elevating everything around her). Their chemistry is so palpable that the film introduced a mustachioed Mike Vogel to come between them and I actually really wanted him outta there! (And since it's a literally blink and you'll miss him cameo the movie clearly agreed - Vogel 's not even credited! The only clue I have that it was him is this link.)
That said with pleasing the crowds you've sometimes got to sand the edges for mass consumption (just maybe don't ask Darren Aronofsky about that specific topic this week) and so Steve Carell hamming it up tends to drag on a few seconds too long every time (although given who the real-life Bobby Riggs really was perhaps exhaustion with his antics was the only way to really play those scenes). And there are probably maybe too many characters rattling around in this thing, but who would I give up? Certainly not Sarah Silverman's cigarette-snapping Phyllis-Diller-ian hairdo on legs. And certainly not Elisabeth Shue radiating rich Californian sunshine in every frame.
And certainly not Lewis Pullman, who plays Carell's sweetly disappointed son Larry in a series of lovingly photographed yet always surprising, time after time, demonstrations of how to correctly fill out this strange era's strange snug fashions, as demonstrated perfectly above in them tennis shorts (via).
But oh wait, I do know who I could've done without. Because with sanded edges comes a spoon-fed "Magical Homo" character like the one Alan Cumming plays. And yes I know that tennis dress designer Ted Tinling was a real dude and was very much involved in the events, probably exactly as depicted - he was a close friend of BJK's and she's happy with the movie so if it rings true to her who am I to complain? It's just his final scene in the film, delivering a message of long-distance hope for the future, read on-screen to my eyes and ears, verisimilitude be damned, as forced and false - the sort of thing students of cinema future will look back upon with a cringe; an It Gets Better era Stepin Fetchit.
So the movie gets the love, the sweet love, right, but it could probably have used a little more of the hard fight ahead burned into its DNA - it ends bittersweet but I really needed just a tad bit more taste of that bitter on my tongue as I walked out the door. It was a long road ahead for Billie Jean, and as she tread first so tread we all still today.
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I've Got Something You Can Punish
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I know I trend towards narcissism (I am a blogger after all) but I really am starting to think that Jon Bernthal took my longstanding distaste towards him (thanks to all the Ham & Cornpone he spread across The Walking Dead) as some kind of a dare -- in the past couple of months he went and got The World's Best Haircut, and now here in the trailer for his upcoming standalone Punisher series on Netflix as seen above he's gone and slathered his beefcake in blood, something we've expressed a dark taste for before. (Don't you psychoanalyze me.) Oh, Jon. I just don't know what to do with you. (I totally know what to do with him.)
..
The Punisher doesn't have a drop-date yet
but it's supposed to hit before the end of the year.
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Pics of the Day
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Tom Hardy is currently hard at work training to play the big super-bad space-gunk known as Venom, and some photos of him at the gym in a delightful unicorn tank-top have made their way onto the internet (via) that need to be shared far and wide. What a delight. Oh and there's also several behind-the-scenes videos out there too of him kicking and punching and rough-housing in said unicorn tank-top - you can click here to view those.
NYFF Diaries: Day 2
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The New York Film Festival has begun press screenings for their 2017 fest, which runs from September 28th through October 15th, and yesterday we decided we'd try to keep y'all in the loop with what we're seeing each day, since the blog will be quiet otherwise during those screenings. (Here's Day 1 if you missed it.) Eventually we'll review these movies for The Film Experience, but for now, this is just a preview. And here's what we're seeing today!
September 20th
Mrs. Hyde (dir. Serge Bozon)
I've never seen any of Bozon's films before but how could I resist a loose re-telling of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic split personality tale of Jekyll & Hyde starring Isabelle Huppert as a downtrodden mathematics teacher who is struck by lightning and gains strange superpowers? I mean who would even want to resist such a thing?
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I Am Link
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--- Hammer It Home - Collider chatted with Luca Guadagnino and his Call Me By Your Name
stars Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet at TIFF about the film and
found out from the director that his original cut was four hours long! You can watch the video of their chat here.
Fingers crossed that the four-hour cut sees the light of day on the
blu-ray and the additional hour and a half or however much it is is
nothing but real-time footage of peach-fucking from everybody. Everybody! Timothee, Armie, Luca, me! Aaanyway how about that
new picture there? (click to embiggen; thx Mac) Good stuff. I've got less than two weeks til I see the movie! Let's not blow up the world before then, at least, please.
--- RIP HDS - I wish I had time to write up something good on the passing of Harry Dean Stanton, one of the greatest actors we've ever had the pleasure of spending pretend time with, but if you want a good What To Watch then head on over to Rolling Stone where my pal Sean and a couple of his fellow contributors listed HDS' ten best roles. Truth be told I am not allowed to write anything until is ee Paris, Texas, which I still haven't -- they're doing a week-long series on HDS at The Quad here in NYC starting this weekend and I'm gonna try to make it to the screening there.
--- Russian Dynasty - Matthew Weiner of Mad Men fame is making an anthology series for Amazon called The Romanoffs,
which will follow a different (fictional) person around the world who
thinks they're a descendant of the infamous Russian family. Was do I, as
a non-Mad-Men fan, care? Because the cast he's lined up includes
Isabelle Huppert, Aaron Eckhart, Christina Hendricks, Andrew Rannells,
John Slattery, Jack Huston, Amanda Peet, and Corey Stoll. (Although if
it was just the first and last names I'd be there honestly.) (thx Mac)
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Hooray For Hiroyuki - Two big roles for the hot and perennially under-used Hiroyuki Sanada
hit the other day, which we were really hoping for after he low-key stole Life from the bigger names - he's signed on for the next Avengers movie,
although given those movies now have a literal cast of millions I don't
think we should get our hopes up that he'll have much to do. No word on
who he's playing but the folks at the link seem to think the Yakuza
will play a part in the Infinity Wars movies. And continuing the theme of "hire the Japanese actor to play stereotypes" Sanada's also signed on to Westworld's second season and everybody's just assuming he'll be a part of the neighboring Samurai-world, which we got a glimpse of last year.
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--- Small Town Surrealism - If you still don't want to stop thinking about David Lynch's Twin Peaks third season well then come sit next to me, friend-oh. Here's a pair of worthwhile links to feed the beast -- first up this chat at Vulture with
the real-world owner of the Laura Palmer house who ended up getting a
surprise small role in the finale is a true delight; she comes off as
the coolest lady slash nerd around. And secondly even though this long-form piece on the show for Harpers
was written before the show ended ( I think they said it had only aired
thirteen episodes by the time they published) it's one of the finest,
sharpest pieces I've read anywhere about the pleasures of Living Through Lynch.
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--- RIP HDS - I wish I had time to write up something good on the passing of Harry Dean Stanton, one of the greatest actors we've ever had the pleasure of spending pretend time with, but if you want a good What To Watch then head on over to Rolling Stone where my pal Sean and a couple of his fellow contributors listed HDS' ten best roles. Truth be told I am not allowed to write anything until is ee Paris, Texas, which I still haven't -- they're doing a week-long series on HDS at The Quad here in NYC starting this weekend and I'm gonna try to make it to the screening there.
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--- Poison Pals - There's a chat with three of the VIPs of New Queer Cinema in this month's Out Magazine
(I guess they're celebrating their 25th year so they're looking back -
they chatted with producer Christine Vachon and directors Gregg Araki
and Tom Kalin, about what it was like on the ground making gay movies
back int he 90s. True story: my first job in NYC was very very close to
being Vachon's personal assistant. Now there's a separate timeline.
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Good Morning, World
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Alex Pettyfer shared this image exactly a week ago today, and I was going to post it the day after and then I was going to post it the day after that but since it said "Wednesday" right on the image I figured why not save it for Wednesday, and here we are. Thankfully we still exist. (Hopefully we still exist?) Phew.
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Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Today's Mood
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First things first just LOOOK how enormous the six foot five inch Armie Hammer's hand is in that picture. Thank you, Jason Isaacs, for sharing. But a second and perhaps even more significant thing - did you see Jason's screed against the presence of noxious little man Sean Spicer at the Emmys? I am so glad SOMEBODY called that shit out - go follow this hero on Instagram immediately.
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Which is Hotter?
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I just realized via Vanity Fair's review of the Kingsman sequel that this is yet another movie that stars Taron Egerton in a one-piece snowsuit buddy-buddying up with a Daddy-type...
... after having made that Eddie the Eagle movie with Hugh Jackman last year. This is a very specific fetish for a Hollywood Exec out there to have, but clearly a Hollywood Exec out there has it because it keeps
getting lots and lots of money tossed at it to be realized on screen. So
let's pay attention...
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10 Off My Head: Siri Says 2007
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I wasn't planning on having time to do one of our "Siri Says" series today what with my NYFF screening eating up half of the afternoon, but then I asked my phone for a number and it gave me "7" and I thought I could probably rattle off a list from The Movies of 2007 pretty easily because I already did that before -- 2007 was the first year I tried to do such a thing, right here in this post.
But it turns out that 2007 was a really really good year for the movies, you guys, and I kind of couldn't narrow this down to just five. It has to be ten. Hell it could've been 20 I think - there are titles in the runners-up that in a shittier year could've pushed their way to the front. And my list has actually changed a little bit in the 10 years since these movies came out, too. (And yes, all of these movies turn 10 this year.) So here is my revised list.
My 10 Favorite Movies of 2007
(dir. David Fincher)
-- released on March 2nd 2007 --
(dir. Brad Bird)
-- released on June 29th 2007 --
(dir. William Friedkin)
-- released on May 25th 2007 --
(dir. Andrew Dominik)
-- released on October 19th 2007 --
(dir. Coens)
-- released on November 21st 2007 --
(dir. Frank Darabont)
-- released on November 21st 2007 --
(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)
-- released on December 10th 2007 --
(dir. Mike White)
-- released on May 11th 2007 --
(dir. John Carney)
-- released on June 15th 2007 --
(dir. Paul Verhoeven)
-- released on May 18th 2007 --
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Runners-up: 300 (dir. Zack Snyder), Black Snake Moan (dir. Craig Brewer), I'm a Cyborg But That's OK (dir. Park Chan-wook), 28 Weeks Later (dir. Fresnadillo), Sunshine (dir. ), Superbad (dir. Greg Mottola), Eastern Promises (dir. David Cronenberg), Stardust (dir. Matthew Vaughn)...
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