Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Manu Rios Five Times


This is another photo-shoot where I'm fairly certain more photos will be released after I've posted these, but these? These are too good to wait. They're the Elite actor (and future Almodóvar gay cowboy) Manu Rios for Vogue Hong Kong... well actually I think the final photo is an older one for some other issue of Vogue (his hair is different and he looks a little younger) but whatever, I never posted it before. Hit the jump for 'em...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Nikki: I figured one day I'd just wake up and and find out what the hell yesterday was all about. I'm not too keen on thinkin' about tommorow. And today's slipping by.

The fine folks at Criterion were kind enough to wait until today, the day that David Lynch's great Inland Empire was hitting blu-ray, to announce their Flash Sale -- 50% off everything in stock for the next 24 hours! I bought three movies myself already and we'll see how the day carries us. Click on over to buy Inland and a pile of other movies, please -- we gotta keep Criterion going, at least until we get a big boxed-set of Gregg Araki movies. Once that happens life will have reached its apex and we can pack it all up. But only then, Climate Change! You wait til then dammit.


Great Moments in Movie Shelves #201


Ooh y'all know how hard a secret door in a library makes me! Or at least you should. Well maybe not exactly the "hard" part, that's an overshare specific to today. But I am sure I have spoken before about how much I love a secret door in a library in this extensive series now past the two-hundred mark. But maybe what you don't know is that even better than a secret door in a library is when the books then come to life and throw themselves at the person who's just come through the secret door in the library! I mean you couldn't have known that because I didn't know it myself until i saw it happen myself for the very first time in Jean Rollin's groovy 1971 weird-ass erotic-ish French horror film Shiver of the Vampires two nights ago. 

This was my first Jean Rollin movie because I was pretty sure what was in store for me going in, and it's not entirely my cuppa -- lotsa boobies, basically. I mean boobies are fine, y'all enjoy your boobies if you have them. They're just not really a drawing point for me personally when picking out movies to watch. And Shiver of the Vampires is indeed chockfulla boobies. There's not an actress in the film who doesn't wear a sheer nightgown at some point during its runtime, and many of them wear nothing but. So anyway I hadn't rushed to watch a Jean Rollin movie. But then I saw that this one was getting the 4K fancy treatment from the smart folks at Indicator -- pre-order your copy on Amazon! And then I saw it's streaming for free on Tubi and I said fuck it, let's give it a twirl. And I'm glad I did.

I love how they're literally just throwing books at this poor dude's face at one point. Being an actor is seriously the weirdest fucking job in the world -- my hat off to any of you people who do that shit because I can't even imagine. "Today we're going to lock you in a room and throw books at your face!" I mean, really. Anyway this movie is fucking bizarre in ways I did not expect. All the boobies are out in full force, but then the grand high lesbian vampire makes her grand entrance by unfurling herself from the inside of a grandfather clock?

Sure, why not. It becomes a running joke after this -- where will she pop out from the next time she arrives -- which told me that Jean Rollin wasn't just boobies. Dude was having fun. Obviously I should see more of his movies. I know that Indicator is also putting Two Orphan Vampires from 1997 out on 4K at the same time as this one, so perhaps that's next? Any recommendations? Anyway this library scene goes on too long for me to make all of the gifs I wanted to make from it so here, I uploaded it to YouTube. (Sidenote: video doesn't have any sound but who cares, you don't need it.)

Nicholas Hoult, Noted Shirtless Nosferatu Actor


In theory I could have built an entire post around the above photo of Nicholas Hoult -- hell in theory I could build an entire cult around that photo of Nicholas Hoult. I mean have you looked at it? Open it up, click on it and make it bigger -- I really recommend it. Anyway I could've been lazy and done that per usual, but I actually read the interview at L'Officiel magazine where the photo (and all of the photos down below) came from because it is a chat between Nicky and his The Great co-star Elle Fanning and those two are just so goddamned winning, ya know? On their own and together -- I'd be fine if they became their generation's Bogie and Bacall or Gaynor and Farrell or Hanks and Ryan. Just stick Nicky and Elle into a million projects -- they have sparkling chemistry.

Anyway the chat between them is indeed a delight -- they talk about all sorts of things I personally want to hear actors talk about, like the fun things they've had to learn for new gigs and what it's like having things you work really hard on getting cut from the finished project. It's a really good talk! But even better than that they talk a little -- just a little, mind you -- about Hoult's next role, which he's in the middle of preparing for. Which is his role in Robert Egger's new Nosferatu movie. And since I am contractually obligated to post every scintillating detail of information that we hear about Robert Eggers' Nosferatu between ten years ago when we first heard about it until the day it's released, I will now quote this portion of the conversation for you:

Elle: Are you doing a crazy accent [in Nosferatu]?
Nicky: You know me; I always flirt with an accent, so I was doing that. Then I was working with a dialect coach, and they were like, “Don’t do that. That’s terrible. That’s offensive.” [Laughs.] No, they were much more political about it; they’re like, “It’s good what you’re doing, but it doesn’t necessarily help us with the story.” I think it was me consciously being like, I’ve just done Renfield; I don’t want to end up in the same realm as that. But then I was like, that’s silly: Renfield is an action comedy set in modern times and is almost like a spoof, and Robert Eggers is doing a very serious Nosferatu, a Gothic horror movie. They’re different; I’ll be different naturally. But I was trying too hard. Do you ever have that?
Elle: Yeah, and you also create problems for yourself that no one else is thinking about. You’re thinking too far ahead. But you had an English accent in Renfield
Nicky: Yeah, but in that, I’m using more of my own voice, and the language in that is modern, whereas [Nosferatu] is more the language of the era—but not in The Great way. I don’t get to say as many funny things in this."

So what do we learn from all of that? Nothing much we couldn't have guessed already. Nicky calls it "a very serious gothic horror movie" but that's not really a shock -- it's fuckin' Nosferatu. He says he was working with a dialect coach, which implies he's not playing a British character, and he says that they're using the language of the era -- also not a big surprise given it's an Eggers film and in an Eggers film historical accuracy is the order of the day. So I guess what we can take from this is the movie we want Robert Eggers to make here is the movie that Robert Eggers appears to be making.

Y'all... I couldn't be more excited about this. I really don't care that it's a retelling of a thing we've seen told perfectly three times previously -- there is a dusty Victorian nightmare version of this movie, all faded daguerrotypes and muttonchops, that's in my head that I am dying to see Robert Eggers spill across a movie screen. But that's still ages away, sigh. So we'll hit the jump and stare at these pictures of Nicky, for now...

Five Frames From ?

 




What movie is this?

Good Morning, World


Chockablock days for those of us who like looking at Sam Claflin -- not long after that very fine photo-shoot for Rolling Stone he's gone and done another one for GQ. You can read the interview here, if you're so inclined. This is all coming hard due to that series he's starring in with our beloved Riley Keough called Daisy Jones and the Six, which according to my boyfriend (who has watched it; I have not) is basically just an unauthorized retelling of the Fleetwood Mac story. Anybody up in here watched it? Say something about it in the comments if so -- I'm probably never going to watch it. Rock biopics, even made-up ones, hold very little interest for me at this point. (Get back to me when we do Blondie or the Talking Heads though!) Hit the jump for the photos...

Monday, March 20, 2023

Hark Triton Hark


It feels a little goofy to me at this point to do an entire post about this -- all y'all who care about such things will have already seen it elsewhere, and I'm not getting anything for writing this. If A24 wants to send me review copies of things -- just saying! Not that I didn't buy a copy of the just-announced 4K blu-ray of Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse the second I got the damn email. It's only one of my favorite films of the past decade, the greatest film of its year, and a movie I've already watched so many times I could probably reenact the damn thing as a one-man-show on command. Here is my original review if you'd like to recall my derangement. Anyway as you'll see at A24 this disc comes with a slew of new extras -- not to mention this gorgeous film in 4K which is enough on its lonesome -- so perhaps when the package hits my hot little hands at the end of this month I will do some fresh posts on those things. Even if I had to pay for it dammit. God I'm becoming so spoiled and privileged now. But baby's gotta get paid! In the parlance of Danny Glover I'm getting too old for you know.


Matthias Schoenaerts One Time


Hoping there are more photos from this shoot to come, what with his turn as Django hitting supposedly some time soon, but we'll take whatever Matty wants to throw our way (via) and be grateful, dammit. But it's never enough!

Pics of the Day


Actor and sexual being Benjamin Aldridge shared some fun set photos for Knock at the Cabin over the weekend via Insta -- one of them I had previously posted but the above snap, with Jonathan Groff feeling up Ben's knee in front of some bookshelves...

... now supplants that one as my fave. Hell it supplants photos of my childhood and family and best friends as a fave. Not sure why he's sharing these now -- it's not out on blu-ray until May (you can pre-order it right here though) but whatever, it presents a good excuse to link to my piece about what the film had to say about gay trauma right here at Mashable. In case you missed it! Anyway there are a few more photos, including lots of hot hugging man-action with Dave Bautista, hit the jump for it...

The Brokeback Boys of (Not) Broadway


West Side Story breakout Mike Faist is grabbing that movie's heat by the horns and riding it into some interesting (read: gay) territory. He's already filmed Luca Guadagnino's tennis-set love-triangle Challengers opposite Josh O'Connor and Zendaya (which Luca slyly admitted would have some "queerness" in an interview, although if he just meant "because I am directing it" or what wasn't clear) -- and speaking of there is news on that front, as it's being reported the film is hoping to premiere in Venice and then come out in the U.S. on September 15th (thx Mac). (Also at that link is the news that Luca's next movie, the William Burroughs adaptation Queer starring Daniel Craig, will begin filming next month and is also going to co-star Frances McDormand!) 

But also up for our former and most recent Riff is the long gestating stage adaptation of Brokeback Mountain! Him and Lucas Hedges are going to do it in London. And it's a musical? Can't wait for the "Spit Lube" song. In all seriousness it doesn't entirely sound like the characters themselves will be singing -- it sounds like a band will be playing country songs astride the stage antics. This is set to debut in August. I am perfectly fine with this, by the way -- it was Annie Proulx's story before it was Ang Lee's movie and there's lots of room for different interpretations. Do I think it's kind of weird that this very American story will be playing in London? Kinda! But that might just be me being annoyed I won't be able to see it talking. 

Five Frames From ?






What movie is this?

Good Morning, World


James Norton is asking you
to both rise, and shine.
Happy Monday.

Friday, March 17, 2023

I Think We Can All Agree That Barry Keoghan


Lord it took me like twenty minutes of digging to find a photo of Barry Keoghan that I haven't posted before -- thankfully I finally stumbled upon this 2018 shoot of our good little laddie at i-D magazine (this was circa The Killing of a Sacred Deer aka when we first took notice of him) and even thankfully-ier it includes several photos I've never seen before. Anyway! The delicious news that Barry is joining Paul Mescal in the Gladiator sequel for Ridley Scott broke yesterday but I hadn't gotten around to posting it, and today seemed like a good day for me to leave Barry at the top of my site, what with...


... the St. Patricks holiday celebration hitting today and all. Just say feck yeah to Irish boys! But seriously -- I hate the original Gladiator movie (seriously, it's terrible) and even when Paul Mescal was announced I wasn't 100% sold. You add Barry to the mix though and there's obviously no saying no now. But you'd best have all my boys in the short short skirts, Ridley! Anyway have a great weekend one and all, and hit the jump for the rest of these vintage photos...

Inside in 300 Words


Inside has one of those log-lines that sells the movie easy as pie: Willem Dafoe plays an art-thief cat burglar who gets locked inside a luxury apartment mid-job who must, with no way to contact the outside world, find some way to survive for as long as possible. There's no running water and a very small supply of food - think a jar of olives and some pasta (a refrigerator situation any New Yorker recognizes) - and the probability that the billionaire owner won't be home for weeks, months, ages. And that's it. So basically if you're a person who would want to stare at Willem Dafoe's endlessly fascinating face for ninety minutes, this is a movie for you. And I am one of those people! Like Willem there's not a lot of meat on the bone, but there's enough.

The most interesting aspect of the film for me was the film's sly commentary on Modern Art -- the apartment is filled with art, art art everywhere. But it's more mausoleum than museum. It's all airlessly tucked away in the sky with nobody to look at it. And Willem's relationship to all of that art, as a viewer who's literally forced to view, is the real arc of the picture. It's the difference between looking at a Van Gogh for thirty seconds, just snapping a selfie of yourself in front of it and moving on, and sitting in front of the same Van Gogh for an hour and really truly looking into it. Art will creep itself into you if you let it. It will change you, and you will change it. It should be symbiotic. But like the joke that was Edward Norton and the Mona Lisa in Glass Onion we've allowed the wealthy to steal that interaction, that life-force, from us. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Mary: Adults are, like, this mess of sadness and phobias.

This masterpiece was released 19 years ago this Sunday!
Try not to turn to dust realizing it's almost 20 - too late for me.
I am dust, typing this out with my dust fingers.
Well here's this gif to cheer us up:


A Decade of Spring Breakin'


First things first -- how spectacular is that poster for Harmony Korine's film Spring Breakers? It's by one of the greats working today -- Akiko Stehrenberger, whose work I've highlighted here on the site several times in the past (like this post about his poster for Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things). He has an uncanny ability to capture a film's essence with beautiful simplicity. I would kill to own that poster up top but it sells for a heap of money now. That said I do have Stehrenberger posters for a few movies -- The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and I'll be getting my copy of his poster for Tár in a couple weeks! 

See more of his work at this link. But I digress -- we're here to talk Spring Breakers! I got all distracted by that gorgeous poster. So Korine's film turned ten earlier this week and it seemed like a good time to look back at it, so I did just that over at Mashable. Click here to read my thoughts on the movie a decade on. Spoiler alert -- I think I dig it more now than I even did then. It really captures something vital about that time, and sees what's coming right around the corner as well. Florida Man indeed!


KJ Apa Five Times


I have no idea how there could possibly be more photos left from KJ Apa's photoshoot for Behind the Blinds magazine that I haven't previously posted in my five previous -- yes five! -- posts on the subject. (See the previous posts here, and here, and here, and here, and here.) And yet the photographer pulled out five more, perhaps from the folds of his sofa, and posted them on Instagram this morning. And I'm well passed the point where I can stop sharing them -- not until the collection's complete! So hit the jump and enjoy some more and who knows, maybe five years from now there will be another post on this subject...

Five Frames From ?





What movie is this?

Good Morning, World


No there's nothing particularly "morning" related with this new photoshoot of Theo James for Cero magazine -- not unless you count the (sexy) grimaces that Theo is serving here a good representation for how you feel in the morning, in which case I wholeheartedly concur. But I think we can all agree that even if he's not sucking on a bagel or soaping up all of his beautiful bits in a shower that looking at Theo James, no matter the hour, is a pick-me-up. And this morning I need a damn pick-me-up. So let's pick ourselves up and hit the jump for the rest...