Just as in these new photos of Jamie Dornan here at the beach I find myself with a sudden holiday before me -- mine isn't quite so liberating though cuz my office is taking a half day because everybody got COVID and shit. I have myself so far tested negative, fingers crossed. Anyway along with our scheduled Summer Fridays this means when I leave in about half an hour I'm all of a sudden gone til Monday. I know! How half-assed of me! That said I will be doing plenty of work over the next four days -- although I'm back from Montreal I'm still consuming Fantasia Fest movies + prepping reviews and you'll surely see some of that soon. But for now, I be ghostin. Have a good weekend and wish me continued COVID-negativity please...
Well there they are -- our first look at Marvel's first spin on the Fantastic Four! Pedro Pascal, who will be playing Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic, shared the photo on his Insta this morning -- joining him are Vanessa Kirby as the invisible girl Sue Storm and Joseph Quinn as her hot-pants brother Johnny, and then The Bear star Ebon Moss-Bachrach sandwiched between those two (and maybe don't get used to his face since he's playing Ben Grimm, the man eventually made of rocks). I wish them well -- it'd be cool to have a good Fantastic Four movie dang it! I am a little worired that the director Matt Shakman is mainly from T.V., but he did direct some of The Great so that's a point in his favor at least. Plus this movie also co-stars Natasha Lyonne, John Malkovich, Julian Garner, and the voice of Ralph Ineson (daddy from The Witch) as Galactus so I let's try to stay optimistic.
I wrote a post once about how often Jake does "being sad in the shower" scenes (and yes it was stuffed with images, of course it was, so click on that link) and I kept thinking about that watching Presumed Innocent, his Apple+ series that just had its finale this week. Because there was a scene of him showering in nearly every episode -- either running on his treadmill or showering after said run or both, or one one wonderful ocassion dropping his grays weatpants after his run and giving us a great show.
Anyway my point is I will miss the Weekly Jake Gyllenhaal Shower Program -- it was great while it lasted. (I have a feeling the already announced "second season" will center on different characters, but I guess we'll see.) But was it though? Great, I mean? The showering was - the show itself was really just fine. Sometimes riveting and well-acted (no I am not talking to you, O-T Fagbenle -- you are in prison for that voice) but mostly just kinda there. (And I agree with my pal Dustin at Pajiba on the ending they picked.) But the show did give us lots of fleeting shots of Jake vigorously humping, and for that we cannot, we will not, totally dismiss it.
Granted it's been a couple of years since I saw the original Speak No Evil (it's not really the kind of movie you're dying to watch over and over again -- here's my review of that one) but I do not recall the character in that film that James McAvoy is playing in the remake being played as the sexiest psychopath motherfucker on the planet...
... and yet here we are. James Watkins' 2024 remake is leaning in hard -- emphasis on yeah that's right you guess it -- on James McAvoy's big-time sex appeal, to the point where they're making me dizzy. Like this one's on me and my weird fetishes but yesterday they dropped this photo...
... that was hitting all my buttons, with his bloody bulging flannelled up beefcake monster hotness searing itself into my eyes. And now the second trailer they've dropped is like a smorgasborg of said same. James McAvoy rage porn ahoy!
I still think remaking this movie is a goofy ass idea when the original is so darkly terrifying and I don't have the inclination to believe that an American remake will go for it quite so hard, but I guess we'll see when it's out on September 13th. Also... the trailers have given away basically everything at this point, so if you're trying to not know what this movie is about I wish you the best of luck. Just don't watch the trailers? That said... here is the new trailer:
Don't watch it! Indeed I did y'all a favor and made gifs of every shot of James McAvoy being hot in it so you don't have to watch it -- hit the jump and luxuriate in all of the sexy sexy rage...
I will admit upfront that I have only the vaguest idea of who Omar Apollo is -- I know he is a musician and that he is gay, full-stop the end. I definitely have never heard any of his music. But now I know a third thing - he is going to act in Luca Guadagninio's movie Queer. I forgot to bring this up when I posted the first image from the film yesterday as it was announced to premiere at Venice -- his name is included in the cast. And on his Instagram Omar confirmed the information, saying and I quote, "1st movie with Luca, wow hot ass cast." I agree -- it is a hot ass cast. I think Omar and I might get along. Anyway I do love that he called this his "first movie with Luca" -- he either knows something we don't yet or he's got confidence coming out of everywhere... and I have a feeling both those things are true.
Thanks to the commenter yesterday who reminded me that this edition of "Five Frames From ?" from last week hadn't been guessed yet! So here are five more frames from the movie to assit you in guessing:
The first trailer for James Mangold's Bob Dylan bio-pic A Complete Unknown starring Timmy, yes Timmy, has arrived -- I've said this on every ocassion when this film's come up but I just do not give a flying fuck about Bob Dylan and watching this trailer yup, still do not care. That said Timothée Chalamet does fall under my jurisdiction of consideration and sure I guess he's doing a good Dylan here. Big folk fuckboi energy. It's also nice to see Elle Fanning (big Elle fan) and I didn't notice them in the trailer (okay yes my eyes sort of glazed over watching this) but Scoot McNairy and Boyd Holbrook are in the movie somewhere too. Looks like fairly routine bio-pic stuff -- Mangold is not a director that excites me either and this looks very much like his Johnny Cash movie Walk the Line, which I couldn't describe to you a single frame from now. But gawrsh the Oscars loved it and one assumes that's what everybody's hoping for here.
Another day, another magazine I have never heard of offering up sexy photographs of an actor I have very much heard of -- in this case it's French stud François Civil for something called Dedicate magazine, and we have François' Instagram to thank for directing us toward these. They say social-media's killed our brains but durrrr he sho is purdy and stuff. Anyway these photos aren't quite as hot as the last photoshoot of Mr. Civil we saw (see those stunners here) but it's still a good one and you should definitely hit the jump for it...
As expected Luca Guadagnino's next movie, the William S. Burroughs adaptation Queer (see my previous posts here), will be premiering at the Venice Film Fest in a couple of months -- more importantly to me though since I won't be going to the Venice Film Fest in a couple of months is they released the first image from the movie, seen in full below. The film stars Daniel Craig (he can be seen in the doorway in dark shirt) and Drew Starkey -- I'm pretty sure that is Starkey from the back taking the photo -- and it's about a love affair between two men in Mexico City in the early 1950s. Guadagnino has called the film his most personal to date, as well as a triubte to Powell & Pressburger movies (!!!), and he's also claimed that it's going to have a heap of sex scenes as well. In other words GIMME GIMME GIMME.
ETA the director of Venice talked to Variety today about the fest's just announced line-up and how horny it is this year, and added this tidbit regarding what we were just talking about with Queer (he also calls it Craig's greatest performance to date and says he predicts he'll be in the running for an Oscar):
"In this film, too, we are in the realm of great, absolute frankness, of absence of prejudices, of the ability to address these issues in a direct, explicit manner. And the fact that Daniel Craig lent himself to a couple of very explicit erotic sequences is a sign of great courage in an era in which these behaviors are still rejected by a significant part of the audience."
I am a bit frazzled this morning (now afternoon apparently) as I try to figure out what I am doing now that I am back sitting at my desk after a whirlwind five days in Montreal at the Fantasia Fest -- hence the all-over-the-place posting earlier. (Not that that's exactly an outlier, given my millisecond long attention span). But anyway I've only just now realized I never linked to two reviews I had go up while I was away, so I need to do that now! First up my thoughts on the disaster sequel (not disastrous sequel) Twisters went out on Friday at Pajiba -- read those here. Mixed thoughts, they be, but it's fun enough.
The other movie I reviewed is my first official Fantasia review... well sort of, since it also got released in U.S. theaters over the weekend. It's Oddity, the second horror film from Caveat director Damian McCarthy, and this one is absolutely terrific -- read my thoughts here. I love love loved this flick. It totally freaked me out, in a fun way. Oh and I don't think I ever shared its trailer so watch that here:
Time is as they say a flat circle -- case in point I am in the middle of reviewing movies for the 2024 edition of the Fantasia Film Festival but in the past week two trailers for movies I reviewed at the 2023 edition of the festival have dropped! First it was the serial killer thriller Red Rooms (see that here) and now it's the psychotic body snatching tale The Becomers from writer-director Zach Clark (previously of White Reindeer and Little Sister). And yes...
... I have once again made the cut blurb-wise. My wordsmithery bears terrible fruit again, wah ah ah! I will never stop being giddy about this shit, sorry-not-sorry. Anyway The Becomers is a true trip and I think a lot of you are gonna dig is psychedlic slow-burn weirdness -- here is my full review at Mashable last year. I have been dying to revisit this movie a second time ever since seeing it last year, so I was extremely glad to get the email saying that it's dropping on August 23rd. Here's the trailer:
While those of us who can't go to the U.K. fume about missing the opportunity to see Kit Harington letting it all hang out in Slave Play on the London stage, playwright Jeremy O. Harris shared this photo of Kit backstage and I feel slightly better. Slightly. I wouldn't be unhappy if we got more. And the play was filmed. Or a sugar-daddy flew me to London and got me access to Kit's dressing room. You know, the simple things, for a simple man.
The first thing I saw when I flopped on my couch after a long annoying morning of travel back from Montreal yesterday was the above short film from Thunder Road and The Beta Test writer-director-actor slash MNPP fave Jim Cummings, and it couldn't have been more perfect -- as in I literally think it's a perfectly executed and written and performed comic short, and also as in it was exactly what I needed to decompress in that moment. If you'd like to hear Cummings talk about the short IndieWire spoke with him right here -- he says something lovely things about what it's like out there for somebody trying to make their own movies these days, and that's why we love him! Okay yes we also love him because he's friggin' adorable and... speaking of (ahem)... I don't want to ruin the last act of the short film if you haven't watched it yet, so watch it first and then and only then hit the jump for exactly what you should be expecting to see, once you've watched the film...
As mentioned in my previous post I am indeed headed to the land of gorgeous Quebecois boys like François Arnaud and Théodore Pellerin tomorrow -- Montreal bound as the 2024 edition of the Fantasia Film Festival kicks off. I don't believe François is in any movies that are playing this year, so me using an image of him is especially gratuitous, but well you know me! Who doesn't want to stare at François, I ask you? Anyway click here to check Fantasia's entire line-up and if you're around Montreal I recommend going! I had a grand time when I went in person last year for the first time (I've been covering the fest before that for many years virtually) and I am very much looking forward to doing it again. If you're not in Montreal...
... that's probably acceptable since I will see what needs to be seen and tell you about it. And then just like I did with Red Rooms in my previous post today I will keep you wise to when these movies are making their U.S. debuts. There are piles of excellent looking genre movies I'm hoping to cram under my belt over the next couple of weeks -- I will only be up there until Monday (I will be back on blog come Tuesday) but I've also got myself fully loaded up with screeners, and you'll be hearing about all the good stuff, I promise. I will be reviewing films for both Pajiba and Mashable and I'll link to them all from here. Fantasia runs July 18th through August 4th. Sacrée merde!
It's been an entire year since I saw the Quebecois cyber killer thriller Red Rooms at the Fantasia Film Festival in 2023 -- literally, since I leave for Montreal tomorrow morning for the 2024 fest -- and I've spent many a moment in that time wondering when the film, which is terrific, might get a U.S. release. Well wonder no more -- today they dropped a poster and a trailer and a release date of September 6th! And, I might add as I always do in such situations, the poster and the trailer both features quotes from my review!
Here is my full review at Mashable -- I did indeed say all of those things (it does out-Fincher Fincher dammit) and many more. It's a movie that's stuck itself firmly in my head this entire twelve months, and I'm very happy to see its getting a proper release here in the U.S. even though yes, you'll have to read subtitles. You'll manage! (Sorry I just got into a thing with a dope on social media who refuses to watch things with subtitles, which I thought was an attitude we'd abandoned to the dark ages at this point.) Here's the trailer:
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