Tahar Take Away

How funny that the last post before the weekend one week ago was a Tahar Rahim post and it's happening again! Hysterical! The funniest thing to happen in ages!!! Okay maybe "funny" wasn't the right word but whatevs, you get my gist. Anyway I know a couple of you watched The Serpent on Netflix when it dropped last week because you said so, but maybe more of you have? I don't really have anything more to say on it but I'd love to hear if you do...

... but I am here because Interview Magazine has dropped this new photo-shoot today (thx Mac) along with a chat with one of my favorite living actresses, Miss Carey Mulligan. I've only skimmed the chat so far, I'll read it on my subway ride home in about ten minutes, but I did spend some time with each and every one of these new photos -- god I love his head. Is that a weird thing to say? He's just got a terrific shaped head. Face. Head. Face and head and all of it. Anyway get more Tahar head after the jump... 

James Norton Six Times

There are still 182 days until the next James Bond movie comes out but doesn't everything sort of feel like its channeling back into the "Who will play James Bond next???" conversation for the five thousandth time? I suppose I should stop thinking there's ever a break in that conversation -- there aren't five thousand conversations, there's just one unending screech. Anyway I don't know if James Norton even mentions double-oh-anything in his British GQ interview that's attached to these photos (via)...

... because British GQ hasn't dropped that interview online yet (and it's probably mostly about Joss Whedon's The Nevers, which is hitting soon and which has him playing bisexual, huzzah!), but nevertheless every time I see James Norton I personally immediately start considering whether he'd be a good James Bond or not, so maybe it's just me? I still think I want Henry Golding in that role, but listen, James Norton, you can be anything you wanna be. Just be it with me!!! On that note hit the jump for the rest of these reminders that good goddamn is this man just ridiculously handsome and simply spectacularly coiffed... 

Happy Moffie Day

This has been a review nineteen months in the making (when a friend told me about it at Venice in 2019) and I'm happy to say that it didn't disappoint -- I love every second of Moffie, the new gay "coming of age in the time of Apartheid" film from South African director Oliver Hermanus, and I said so in way more words over at Pajiba today. And having seen the film three times now I can promise you this is one that only deepens, emotionally and intellectually, with re-watches -- I love love love this movie -- it has so much to say about gayness, about masculinity, about the ways society has been weaponized to make us all terrified of ourselves and each other. My review is a full meal but don't be surprised if I write even more about this movie soon -- there's some personal business it reminded me of that I didn't even get into. Anyway see this movie as soon as you can! Here's the trailer -- the movie's out today thanks to IFC Films. And after the jump a few pictures from the movie...

The Temple of Phoebe

Today's all about good vibes going out to women we adore, it seems -- I just wished Kristen Stewart (here) and Elle Fanning (here) happy birthdays on Twitter, and now comes word that the great Phoebe Waller-Bridge has just landed the biggest role of her career (yes, bigger than writing the new Bond script): she's going to play the female lead in the fifth Indiana Jones movie. Will this movie be better than the last one? I don't know. Harrison Ford's back of course but Steven Spielberg isn't directing -- it's James Mangold, who, well I know a lot of you are but I'm not at all a fan of. But honestly whether the movie's "good" or not doesn't matter at this point, because even the shittier shit elements become iconic -- "nuke the fridge" anybody? I even consider Cate's Evil Russian Bob iconic...

... and no, I will not be taking questions. Anyway time-wise this one will be in the 1960s won't it? Will they go to Cuba? Hiring Phoebe makes me think the series will go right at the James Bond thing head-on -- ye olde archeologist Indiana being a relic of the past, with "Super Spies" being the hip cool cats of the mod future. God I've half written this thing already, haven't I?

I Wanna See Sweat Comin' Out Yo Pores

I don't think any of you will mind this specific randomness, but I was reminded this morning of a seminal photograph -- I posted it on the Tumblr a minute ago -- and now I'm having Marky Mark flashbacks. They do come with a measure of guilt, given what a tool he is, but they're inescapable in their horny nostalgia once they arrive -- I was 15 when his Calvin Klein campaign happened, and could put up no fight. If you're feeling a whiff of these same "Good Vibrations" now I recommend clicking back to this old post of ours, which delved a little deeper into this particular 90s moment.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Every year on April 9th I think well that's it, I can't possibly find more Jean-Paul Belmondo photos to share for his birthday... and every damn year I'm wrong. I suppose being a French Sex Symbol for... well he's turning 88 today... a lot of years, you'll rack up a damn bunch of photographs. Thank the gods! Several of these (the bathtub ones, mainly) seem to be from his 1964 movie called Greed in the Sun, -- anybody seen it? -- but otherwise after the jump it's just a random assortment of new-to-me ones...

Andrew Scott is Crowning

My first thought upon reading the news that Andrew Scott will (probably) be playing British PM Tony Blair in the final season of The Crown, which begins filming soon, was definitely, "Ooh Andrew Scott." My second thought though was definitely, "Oh I'm not gonna bother posting that, because I'll have to admit for like the 50th time that I still haven't watched a single second of The Crown, and who needs that headache?" But then, my third and most important thought came when I stumbled upon the above photograph of Andrew Scott about an hour after reading that Crown news, when I thought, "Well I guess I am doing a post, because I'll be damned if I'm not sharing that picture of Andrew Scott wearing a tank-top and snuggling a goddamn teddy bear." So there. You're welcome. Now somebody tell me if there were rumors about Tony Blair and Prince Charles (Josh O'Connor) having a torrid sexual affair in the 1990s, and by "tell me" I mean, "write your best filthiest slash-fic in the comments, please."

Today's Fanboy Delusion

 Today I'd rather be...

... smooth-groovin' with smooth-mover Zemo.

When I posted yesterday morning about my happy hard-on for Daniel Brühl's every moment on the last episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier I hadn't seen that the hashtag #ReleaseTheZemoCut had become a thing, but it had, and Marvel (clearly anticipating the viral possibilites of that single second of his dance-moves beforehand) went and dropped more footage of Baron Zemo's groovin. For god's sake, they put an hour-long remix of it on their official YouTube page. So now you've got a video to play in the background at your next dance party! (With only vaccinated people in masks, of course.)

We Want Queer, We Want Queer Now

The headline at TV Line for this news really drew me in -- "Queer as Folk Reboot: Peacock Orders 'Reimagining' of OG British Series" -- with happy pictures inside my head of Charlie Hunnam and Aidan Gillen returning to the hot-n-heavy roles where I long ago fell in love with them... only to quick sucker-punch me with the details. It doesn't sound like it will really have anything to do with the original series, besides Russell T. Davies being a producer; it will be more akin to the U.S. version (which I couldn't ever get into), just another group of gay people being gay and doing gay, as gays gay, gay do gay, gay.

"Described as a “vibrant reimagining” of Russell T. Davies’ seminal British series, the new Queer as Folk will center on a diverse group of friends in New Orleans whose lives are transformed in the aftermath of a tragedy. Stephen Dunn (Little America) serves as creator, writer and exec producer. He will also direct several episodes."

Well as long as it's "vibrant" that's what matters! In all seriousness I do have hopes for this -- maybe not "high" just yet but if it's closer in spirit to the original than it is to the tacky-ass poorly-acted Showtime version that'll be a big step in the right. And with Davies fresh off the totally solid tearjerker series It's a Sin he's proven he's got plenty of juice left. We're in desperate need of Queer content these days. (Justice for Looking!) And hey if my boys Nathan, Stuart, and Vince show up anywhere well all bets are off. Talk about vibrant!

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

I'm not one hundred percent sure that this is the first time for this series that I've done back-to-back death scenes from the same movie, but I couldn't help myself -- I'm still buried hard mentally inside the MonsterVerse movies and I really wanted to giggle about this moment from Kong: Skull Island today. An even funnier death than the one I shared two weeks back -- I hope that actor Shea Whigham dines out on this death-scene often, because it's a classic. If I was an actor I'd want all the death-scenes -- fuck being a Final Girl. Give me a good death! Even better give me a violently destroyed dummy replica of myself to keep as a souvenir! That's reason enough to become an actor. (Although I wouldn't want to have to sit under the plaster mask, god forbid.) 

For the record they go:

1) Godzilla vs Kong
2) Kong: Skull Island
3) Godzilla (2014)
4) Godzilla: King of the Monsters

That said Shin Godzilla is better than all of them pic.twitter.com/Qbu1q36gLx

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) March 30, 2021

Anyway have we all seen Godzilla vs Kong by now? You wouldn't have seen it when I did that post two weeks back but by now I assume you have -- it had great numbers in theaters and on HBO Max and every damn person had an opinion. So what's yours? I reviewed it over at Pajiba if you missed it; my opinion was high. So high that I've gone back and started watching (or in some cases re-watching) all of the 1980s-90s Godzilla movies, called the "Heisei Era" of films, which have been a blast. There's even a Twitter thread for that...

Hit the jump for links to Previous Ways Not To Die...

James Cusati-Moyer Three Times

Interview Magazine shared these stunning photos of Broadway actor James Cusati-Moyer back at the start of February but I didn't post them then because what do I have to say about a Broadway actor? I never got a chance to see Slave Play, I probably will never get that chance. But today came a good reason to go back and grab these snaps for those of us left behind -- Cusati-Moyer has just joined the ridiculously gorgeous cast of DC's Black Adam film, which already stars (deep breath) Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, and "Hot Jafar" Marwan Kenzari. Oh and something for the Boomers...

... Pierce Brosnan has shown up on the cast-list since the last time I checked! I mean this is just an insanely gorgeous gathering of men. Oh and the "interview" portion of James' Interview Magazine piece was conducted with some lady named Julianne Moore, if you want to read that. I mean she's great and all -- The Hand That Rocks the Cradle forever, lady! -- but it's a shame they didn't have Slave Play producer Jake Gyllenhaal go deep with James. I'd have liked that. Those two, going deep.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Invitation (2015)

Will: You look different, Edie. 

Eden: I am different. I'm free. All that useless pain, 

it's gone. It's something anyone can have, Will, 

and I want you to have it too.

Happy 5 to one of the greatest horror films of our age, Karyn Kusama's masterpiece of resolute tension The Invitation -- I don't think we really appreciated at the time how great it was, or how great it would be; talk about prescience. It saw QAnon coming, that's for damn sure. The feeling that the people we love have been co-opted by illogic, their traumas weaponized by outside forces, their happy smiling faces turned to terrifying masks. I can't remember if I've mentioned it here on the site proper or just tweeted about it but I have an old, good friend who I lost to the Q-cult and this movie in retrospect nails everything about the experience -- the sense of confusion and betrayal, of slamming your head up against an impenetrable place. It's weird now going back and re-reading my original very positive review of the film, how innocent that review seems now. How could we have known what was coming? Well The Invitation did. It put out the red lanterns lighting the way.

Freeze It's Fantasia Time

In the sort of grim convergence we've become accustomed to over the past twelve-plus months I had just finished reading an article about how bad Canada's COVID numbers are when I immediately then saw an email announcing that the annual, beautiful Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal will be all virtual again this year, running from August 5th through 25th. I suppose virtual makes sense then! Not that I've ever personally gone to Fantasia in person -- all of my coverage over the past few years has been of the virtual sort, even pre plague-times. And the fest is staying Canada-centric, meaning I don't think any of our U.S. readers can access the screening platform. But I have Canada readers -- hey you two! -- and I always consider my Fantasia coverage a preview of coming attractions -- they always get quality small genre movies way before anybody else and I can tell y'all what to be on the look-out for. 

Speaking of -- besides their fun new art-work seen up at the top of this post the fest has also announced their opening night movie. It's a zombie comedy called Brain Freeze and it sounds like it's also got plague-times on its mind...

"Julien Knafo’s BRAIN FREEZE. First pitched at Frontières, the festival’s world-renowned international co-production market, the film is a smart and stylish zombie comedy that slyly comments on social concerns both domestic and universal, telling the tale of an environmental disaster that leads to a fast-spreading virus ravaging a wealthy gated community off the island of Montreal. BRAIN FREEZE joins the ranks of recently-released cinema that holds an eerie mirror up to our collective experience even though scripted and shot pre-pandemic. While production on the winter-set chiller was abruptly halted four days before completion following Quebec’s lockdown, shooting was miraculously able to wrap the following summer. "

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

I checked and re-checked (and then, you know, triple-checked two more times) our John Gavin Archives here at MNPP this morning to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me, but it would appear I have never posted here on the site the two photos you see here before the break of Mr. Gavin before. I've probably tweeted them, or they made their way onto our Tumblr -- I know I have seen these photos before. O, have I. But today, on what would have been his 90th birthday, let's right this egregious! And as a bonus I'm gonna throw in, after the jump, several more shots from this blessed moment PLUS a dozen (egregiously watermarked) on-the-set photos from his perfect tremendous shirtless scene in Psycho, how about that...