Fantasia 2022: "A Life on the Farm"

As online as I may be -- and I think we all know the answer to that is "good god dude go outside once in awhile" -- I'm terrible at keeping up with the world of memes and viral sensations. Just terrible. Yes I'm on Twitter constantly but I don't know what people are talking about half the time. I suppose it's this unwieldy narcissism of mine, but I tend to make of this world wide web my own little world, my innie turned outie -- I'm so busy barfing up my own bottomless bullshit that I don't have time to keep track of everybody else's. 

All that is to say that everything about the found-footage doc A Life on the Farm, which showcases the home-movies that a now-deceased farmer in England named Charles Carson made about his life on his rural farm in the 1980s was new, fresh, and a surprise to me, but the doc makes it seem as if some of this footage was a pretty big deal on the internet not too long ago. As if people will recognize Charles Carson as a meme-maker of recent making? Basically I'm just trying to get out of the way of my own ignorance here upfront, but then when isn't that the case.

So perhaps Charles Carson's eccentric (to put it mildly) videos are known to you, or perhaps like me before watching this movie you had no idea -- either way I think I can say with hearty enthusiasm that this documentary is an absolute pleasure, a revelation, and I recommend it thoroughly to one and all. I will admit that I've gotten a little tired of filmmakers injecting themselves into their documentaries but here director Oscar Harding has good reason, as its his personal connection to the farmer (who was a friend of his grandfather) that sets this mystery rolling -- when he was little he saw one of the videos and it haunted him for years, and once you start seeing what a character Carson was you'll understand why.

Equal parts funny and shocking, A Life on the Farm is an essential document of an unremarked upon life that deserved a second, third, and fifteenth remark. That art belongs to everyone, and it will bubble itself up in the weirdest of places. There's no keeping true creativity down -- like dinosaurs, it will find a way. And the film also acts as a fascinating time-capsule of the concept of time-capsules -- at one point somebody wonders how Carson would have embraced the internet, and you realize that had he lived two decades later Charles Carson would be writing a blog right here alongside me. We're all Charles Carson now -- weirdos hyper-documenting our weirdness because somebody somewhere must know. Must feel it too. Oh I feel ya, Charles.

Fantasia 2022: Deadstream in 175 Words or Less

Not to waste too much time in this brief capsule review of Joseph and Vanessa Winter's bonkers-in-the-best-way found-footage horror flick Deadstream on a different lesser movie, but I kept thinking of Rob Savage's abysmal flick Dashcam while watching this one, and how this movie manages to do everything that that one pretended to be doing, and about one thousand times better. First and foremost Deadstream purposefully gives us a protagonist that we should all actively want to punch in the face (kind of a less muscle-headed Logan Paul type) but Deadstream actually manages to make him entertaining in his awfulness. So quite unlike the way that Dashcam made me want to pour bleach into my ear-holes to burn the part of my brain away where their movie had just gone, then. Deadstream is just a blast -- a jack-in-the-box haunted-house flick that's funny and creepy and savage and gross. And when it hits Shudder later this year you should reserve it a space. Stay tuned!

Fantasia 2022: "The Harbinger"

I don't know how many pandemic movies have made their way out to the general public at this point, but as a person who sees lot of films at film festivals and on screeners I have seen more than my share, more than any single person's share, of them in the past two years since COVID wreaked its havoc on every aspect of our lives. Or so I thought I had -- it turns out that there still was a smart and unsettling horror movie to be mined from this most modern anxieties, and director Andy Mitton managed to harness them into The Harbinger, which just screened at this year's Fantasia Fest.

Monique (Gabby Beans) and Mavis (Emily Davis) are friends from way back, but they haven't spoken or seen each other in some time. Indeed after months of the pandemic raging neither of them have seen or spoken to any person outside of their quarantine bubbles for some time -- a situation that's working slightly more in Monique's favor since she at least lives in the country and has her father and brother to keep her company. Mavis isn't quite so lucky -- she lives in the city by herself, and her neighbors (especially an anti-masker next door) seem mostly like cretins.

And that's hardly the worst of it. Nightmares have taken a hold of Mavis -- ones that seem to keep her in their grip for days, where she's no longer sure whether she's awake or dreaming anymore. And stalking amongst them is a raptor-faced specter in a long black cloak -- yes indeed The Harbinger is the horror movie that finally grabbed the familiar terrifying "plague doctor mask" for its own, and lemme tell you what -- what it lacks in subtlety it makes up for with eeriness, cuz that damned mask is still and will forever be creepy if you ask me. 

Once Mavis reaches out to her old friend begging for assistance even Monique side-eyes the plague-mask obviousness of her friend's described haunting, but the bond between the two women -- which is achingly detailed by Beans and Davis -- is strong enough, with enough intimacy and history, that Monique comes a'running, much to her family's dismay. And those are the notes where The Harbinger really began to hook me -- playing with the very real and ever-present anxieties we're all been sorting our way through these past two years (the "do I even visit the people I love" conundrums that this unique and awful situation has presented with us) in responsible and realistic ways, all while this beak-nosed beastie prowls around? I'm with ya, movie. One hundred percent.

And those are just the first chapters of what Mitton & Co have in store for us -- beyond the fears of sickness and the perils of loneliness the meat of what this movie's digging into with regards to our moment in time is much sadder and more profound. There's an ache at the dark heart of The Harbinger that feels immediate and true, something that taps into this existential sense of loss and trauma that we're all still sorting through. Humanity ain't okay, and The Harbinger knows it, shows it, thrums with the unease of every day, night, day. And in the future, if there is one, maybe we can point over here and say yeah, that one got it right.

Full of Grace

Okay so today is, in case you were unaware, a Summer Thursday. This usually means for me and for MNPP alike that it's a three-day weekend starting right about now. But wait! Not so fast! I am actually pretty sure that I am going to be posting some reviews on here tomorrow, because I have some Fantasia Fest catching up to do. It won't be a full day of posting, let's not go crazy. But I have a screening out in the wilds in the morning tomorrow, and I think I'm going to come into my office after that and set my fingers to tip tap typing. So all's I'm saying is maybe don't leave me just yet? Stay, baby, stay! Click here for the things I have reviewed Fantasia-wise so far, and perhaps I will see your groovy asses tomorrow. Looking exactly like Grace Kelly, because that's how I roll.

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

 

... cooling off with Billy Magnussen.

(via, click to embiggen)

Fantasia 2022: "Popran"

Hard to believe but it's been a full five years since Japanese director Shin'ichirô Ueda gifted the world with his delightful lo-fi meta zombie comedy One Cut of the Dead -- I guess it did play film festivals for a couple of years, building big buzz for itself; I have a distinct sour memory of myself growing more and more annoyed that I hadn't been able to see it as I saw other people's praise pop up all hither and tither. The bastards! But once I did catch the fever, the fever stuck -- what a delightful trickstery film it turned out to be, a gory spectacle that was also somehow ridiculously sweet in its final act, a testament to low-budget creativity and spunk. 

Ueda has done several other projects in the fine years since -- and One Cut of the Dead has also gotten itself remade in France as Coupez! (aka Final Cut) by The Artist filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius (a movie which is coincidentally also screening at Fantasia this year) -- but his movie Popran is the first thing of Ueda's I've managed to see since One Cut and holy hell did it work just as well for me! Vibing on the same goofy sentimental vibe slathered over a subject that would seem to invite anything but, Popran is a demented pop delight, a sincere lark about modern masculinity and the tools (ahem) we can use to deconstruct it.

Popran stars Yôji Minagawa as Tagami, a full-of-himself app designer who's become a big deal by stepping on and forgetting all of the people who helped him get where he is today. Well where he was yesterday, anyway -- one morning after a one-night-stand Tagami wakes up and, not to put too fine a point on it, finds that his dick has gone missing. But not in a bloody spectacle of Lorena-Bobbit-esque sacrifice -- the place where his dick used to be is now smooth as a Ken Doll, except for a small solitary hole where pee won't stop spilling from.

And so begins Tagami's quest to reunite himself with his dismembered member, which he finds, through a series of bizarre encounters I wouldn't dare spoil, has grown a will of its own and simply flown the fuck away. Ueda peppers this magical scenario with rules and logic that all makes their own nutty sense in context, and a lot of the fun of the movie is seeing this world get built from the, uhh, balls up. It's all surprisingly light and frothy for a subject that will have most men cringing and crossing their legs -- a castration comedy for the ages! 

Where the plot goes once you see where it's going isn't super surprising... except for, you know, the fact that this movie's about what it's about at all -- once you remember that, "Oh right this dude is trying to catch his penis with a butterfly net," it's suddenly kinda amazing that it all feels so natural. True facts, the fact that Ueda manages to make this nonsense all seem so logical, well, that just may be a sign of legitimate greatness. And it also seemed to me the most natural thing in the world that Popran might get its own American remake one day -- I can 100% picture Oscar Isaac chasing his wildin' willy around in a heartbeat. Make it happen, Hollywood!

Taron Plays With Packages

I hadn't intended on posting this Taron Egerton photoshoot for Flaunt magazine that's been around for a solid week now because it's all so dour and unsexy, I just didn't feel like encouraging such behavior. We have seen what you look like unclothed at this moment in time, Taron -- this is your moment to do the slutty photoshoots, dude. Anyway I'm breaking my own ban because casting news has broken involving Taron that I actually want to post -- he's signed on to star in the new thriller from Jaume Collet-Serra, director of Orphan and The Shallows and other such goofy thrillers that have had no business being as thrilling as they ended up being but did so via the power of JCS's impressive talent. 

The movie is called Carry On and it will star Taron as a TSA agent "who gets blackmailed by a mysterious traveler to let a dangerous package slip through security and onto a Christmas Day flight." And yes this returns the director to the transportation playgrounds he seems to so adore, given his Liam Neeson duology of The Commuter and Non-Stop. (As a sidenote looking at JCS's IMDb page just now I had no idea he directed Black Adam, the forthcoming DC superhero movie with The Rock and Noah Centineo and Aldis Hodge -- suddenly I find myself wondering if Black Adam might actually be good?) Anyway this movie sounds like it might be something to look forward to, huzzah. Now hit the jump for the remainder of this fairly boring photoshoot if you dare...

Never Knowing Who To Cling To

I probably wouldn't be looking forward to Blonde if it wasn't directed by Andrew Dominik, which I do realize is the straight-bro-film-douchiest thing I could say but I can't help it, man -- you did see The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, right? What other choice do I have? That's not to say that the other ingredients don't intrigue me -- I like Ana de Armas just fine, she has been fun in Knives Out and Knock Knock and especially No Time To Die. I can't say I have felt terribly moved by any work she's done so far, but if it's gonna happen I imagine a Marilyn Monroe bio-pic would be the moment. Speaking of I also love Marilyn and I am like most people who care about the movies still fascinated by her, and on top of that I don't think the definitive movie about her has yet been made. If such a thing can be made.

My Week With Marilyn was fine, Michelle Williams was very good, but that movie evaporated from my memory immediately after that year's Oscars. And I think Nicolas Roeg's Insignificance is a fascinating movie and Theresa Russell does a great job playing "the idea of Marilyn" but I wouldn't call that a definitive take either -- that movie's far too abstract and not really about her, not as a person, anyway. We'll have to see how much Dominik's film is legitimately about the woman then, as the trailer promises to be -- I gotta admit it is one hell of a trailer. Looks ravishing. 

Blonde comes out on September 28th. Thoughts?

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Miguel

Miguel Angel Silvestre is wishing us 

a happy Thursday. Say thank you. (via)

 

Spin Me Alessandro

This romance-novel-inspired poster for the upcoming comedy Spin Me Round starring Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, and Alessandro Nivola just showed up on my social media feed (via) and like a baguette smacked upside my delicate face reminded me that I have not posted the trailer for this damned movie yet! For shame on me, and my apologies to the baguette. I did post about this movie when Nivola was first announced, as is my wont (and my want, when it's Alessandro we're talking) -- it's the new comedy from Jeff Baena aka the guy who made the delightful movie The Little Hours (that nun comedy that also starred Plaza) also aka Aubrey Plaza's cute furry husband. Weird that he keeps working with her, huh? 

And also like The Little Hours this movie co-stars Molly Shannon and Fred Armisen and I assume some other people too, I have just now gotten lazy at looking up names. Most importantly though this one's got Alessandro! Looking full dreamboat. Plot is Brie plays an employee of an Italian-restaurant chain (think Olive Garden) who wins a trip to Italy, while Alessandro's the chain's owner. Shenanigans, some of the romantic sort, then likely ensue, and I am sure it will all be delightful. Here is the trailer:

Spin me Round comes out in theaters
and on demand on August 19th! 

Fantasia 2022: "Please Baby Please"

What's that Leonard Cohen lyric? How's it go? "I've seen the future, baby, and it is Andrea Riseborough snapping her body around like a horny cartoon skunk under a rainbow of bisexual lighting?" I am pretty sure that is how that song lyric goes, and that just shows to go you how prescient Leonard Cohen was both as a man and as an artist, that he could see director Amanda Kramer's hallucinogenic greaser fantasia Please Baby Please coming at us from so far into the past. Gee gosh golly damn! What a picture!

Forgive me my goofball trespasses there at the start of this review, but Please Baby Please I feel will be the first in the forgiving line because this movie is defiantly, deliciously, not taking anything too serious. Starring the living-legend Riseborough and the spectacular-faced Harry Melling as a coupla soft squares lookin' for hard corners, this movie is like somebody spiked the punchbowl at the poodle-skirt soiree -- it's a beatnik blowout by way of licking psychotropic toad bottoms. It's a lot, buster, and I'm down like brown for the friction of this specific fiction.

It is, that is to say, a movie that excites me. A movie I'm gonna watch a dozen times before my next two birthdays. Precisely one of those movies that I might have a hard time reining in my excessive writerly instincts with regards to, as I write about it -- if you've already checked out by now then okay, that's hip, you'd probably be too normie for this movie in the first place. But let me try to do the straight-laced and -faced review thing for a second, and set it all up straight for you, before going off in my dozen crooked directions again. See, Riseborough plays Suze and Melling plays Arthur and they are a quaint 1950s-ish downtown hipster couple who witness a most brutal murder on the street outside of their apartment. 

This sexed up leather gang of finger-snapping thugs beamed straight from Kenneth Anger's horniest fever-dreams -- including all nine-feet-seven-inches of Karl Glusman, of the genus homoerotica personificata -- go at these strangers with pipes and hootin' hollers, and then they turn to see Suze and Arthur standing there, having very different reactions to the spectacle unfolding before them. Ways which they will each eventually spiral out in the service of. For her part Suze is struck dumb, scared too straight if you will, and she will come to spend the rest of the movie overcompensating for that shock -- trying to be the manly man she wishes she'd been in that moment. 

Arthur, on the other hand, finds little animated hearts blinking in his eyeballs as he spies with his littles Glusman's Querelle-ian dreamboat, who's all tipped biker-caps and exposed Adonis belts and too too wet lips. As say we all -- Glusman is the dangerously sensitive, sensitively dangerous glam-boy of our dreams in this, whispery sex on two mile-long stick legs. And none of us, not a one or a whit, would stand a chance once he'd beamed his lasers back in our own direction. Arthur's quest as he accepts it is to get his hands on that mount of man, and ain't nothing coming in his way. 

Least of all Suze, who's not too bothered by Arthur's newfound boy-love obsession -- she's got her own fish to fry, including a mobster-moll upstairs neighbor (Demi Moore, a coo in wig form) who's left her the keys to her sex-toy infested apartment. As much fun as everybody is having in the making of this movie nobody is having more or making more than Riseborough, a continually under-appreciated actress who lets loose in Please Baby Please with the force of megaton. Her waist cinched to one-inch-thickness and her skunk-matted hair teased to the outer-space-orbits she's channeling John Waters Heroine on speed, flicking her sharp angles like when that robot made out of dynamite in Looney Tunes cartoons starts sputtering smoke. 

Aaahhhhhhhhhhhh she's electric! And she shoots this already wildly entertaining mid-century phantasmagoria into the stratosphere. That's not to undersell Melling, whose ironically straight man vibes get goofier as the movie struts along and he starts uncovering the femme underneath like a string of silken scarves he's tugging one by one by one out from his chest cavity. He and Riseborough and Glusman make for a stunning and special triangle of lust and violence -- a boot-scuffed love-story of tender hearts pricked by barbed wire and slicked back hair crying ten thousand tears.

A Kingdom For My Alex

Approximately twelve lifetimes ago -- that math works out to "December of 2020" -- I told you that director Lars von Trier was going to make a new season of his scary series The Kingdom, which he'd last touched in 1997 with the show's second season. He went on to make movies after that -- adorbs lil' nuggets like Dancer in the Dark and Melancholia and The House That Jack Built; you know, things your gram loves to sip hot cocoa to while knitting her tit-purses. Aaaaaanyway it's been twelve lifetimes since that announcement but today it pays off with the news that the series is premiering at the Venice Film Festival and then MUBI is dropping it weekly-like on their streamer some time not long after. They say "Fall 2022" but I don't fore-see them making us wait too long after the fest ends on September 10th. (But don't hold it against me if they do, as I am truly just a clueless internet Cassandra.) Anyway the series, which is about one fucked up horror hospital, will be titled Kingdom Exodus, and they say that Alexander Skarsgard will be guest-starring on it! Hence that photo up top that I lured you in with. Below is the first image from the new episodes, which looks like it will fit right in with the gorgeous poisoned-pee hue of the original series:

Skinamarink is Here to Murder Your Mind

It's too infrequent that movies come along that I feel the need to grab people by the lapels and shake them and thrust them in the general direction of, but today we have just such a movie with newcomer director Kyle Ball's experimental horror film Skinamarink, which just premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival this week, and which I have just reviewed today for Pajiba. There are some caveats, as Skinamarink takes that experimental label fairly seriously, and is not an easy sit. It's abstract and often patience-testing and opaque to the point of absolute confusion. It's also, as I say in that review, the scariest fucking movie I have sat through in ages -- it's the sort of thing that makes every other horror movie seem inadequate in its wake. Yes it is a movie that takes some effort on the viewer's part. But when it starts landing, baby, your brain is gonna break. I am still shook a week on. If y'all like getting scared find this movie as soon as you can and surrender yourself to it.

Just watched a @FantasiaFest horror screener that legit felt like I was trapped inside a waking nightmare. In the meaningful purposeful sense. Haven't been that challenged & terrified by a horror movie in ages - made all else pale. Will not sleep well tonight. (More to come obvs)

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 21, 2022

ETA oh and here is the movie's trailer, in case you need more of an idea of what you're in for with the film. I personally have started loathing trailers, especially for horror movies, and I recommend not watching it and just seeing the movie clean like I did. (I mean, what, you don't believe my recommendation??? How dare you.) But here it is in case you are that person:

The Bitter Tears of September

Finally some news on one of 2022's most anticipated movies of yours truly -- François Ozon's ode to Rainer Werner Fassbinder called Peter Von Kant is getting released here in the US on September 2nd! And we've got a trailer and a big batch of images to share too. I've already talked about this movie a bunch before here on the site, which isn't a surprise given my affection for Ozon and my obsession with Fassbinder. This is my peanut butter meeting chocolate moment! (And if you missed the Warhol-inspired poster I really recommend you check that out.) 

Peter Von Kant, borrowing its title and apparently much of its plot from Fassbinder's classic queer play and film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, stars the great Denis Ménochet as the titular Peter, who here is a man (gasp) and a Fassbinderian film director. From what I gather it's an attempt to look at the director himself through the lens of one of his most self-critical works. I can't say, I haven't seen it! And I haven't read any reviews because I haven't seen it. I'm keeping myself as fresh as I can be until then. I'm not even going to watch this trailer, but maybe you will:

The film will be released in several cities on September 2nd -- namely New York  at the IFC Center, Los Angeles at Laemmle Royal, as well as theaters in San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle. And then it will branch out from there as these art-house movies have a habit of doing. If you'd like to stare at more images from the movie, including more looks at Denis' co-stars Isabelle Adjani, Hannah Schygulla, Khalil Gharbia, Stéphane Crépon, Aminthe Audiard, plus a second Warhol-flavored poster, then you can go ahead and hit the jump right now...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Mockingbird Lane (2012)

Grandpa: There is an important intermediate step 

that we are missing here. The deer eats the grass and is 

itself eaten, and then the thing that ate it dies and fertilizes 

the ground so more grass can grow, so more 

deer can eat, and then... be eaten.

Marilyn: But some deer can live long lives.

Grandpa: Nope.

Marilyn: Also, as an intermediary step, sometimes 

deer want to be eaten. They're depressed and lonely, 

so that lion's doing the deer a favor.

Eddie: That deer didn't look depressed.

Marilyn: No, I know. I thought I saw it smile.

Eddie: Does anything eat the lion?

Marilyn: Grandpa.

Grandpa: It's nature.

Ever since that much-ridiculed trailer for Rob Zombie's The Munsters movie hit a couple of weeks ago -- full disclosure: I haven't watched the trailer, because I do not care about a Rob Zombie Munsters movie even enough to watch the trailer to make fun of it -- I have been wanting to re-watch Mockingbird Lane, Bryan Fuller's one-off Munsters movie from 2012. It wasn't intended to be a one-off -- he was making a pilot for a potential series -- but NBC wasn't into it (because NBC, not so bright) and so we only got the single episode. But at least they did air it as a Halloween special that year -- they did let us see it! And according to JustWatch you can rent it right now on Google Play, too. So go watch it, it's goofy and delightful, and mourn yet another thing in this world full of loss. 

On that note a very happy birthday to the genius and friend-of-MNPP Bryan Fuller today! Have you watched the above extended clip from his forthcoming Shudder documentary Queer For Fear yet? (I have tweeted about it repeatedly this week but somehow forgot to post it here on the site, so there that is. It's full-on glorious stuff -- I am tingling in my every-place for this series, which drops on Shudder on September 29th. Full disclosure part two: I've seen the first full episode (which screened at Comic-Con as well) and it's worth all of the hype. I won't be satisfied with only four hours of this -- I could watch one hundred hours of it. So mark yer damn calendars and go wish Bryan a happy birthday on social media. He is king.

Pics of the (Yester) Day

I've got so much other stuff I need to be doing this week that I wasn't sure if I was going to have time to post these photos of Richard Madden lounging around poolside in Italy looking peak-hot (via) even though, hello, look at him. (The furriness, Richard!) Part of the problem was they showed up about an hour after these shots of Andrew Garfield also looking stunning while sunning...

... and I knew with utmost defeat that I didn't have enough  time to gather up both batches of photos and edit them down in my typically neurotic way. I contemplated doing a "Which is Hotter?" poll even but that seemed like Dick'd win in a blow-out -- no offense to Andy! But Richard Madden is Richard Madden. Anyway what made me finally decide I had to do the Richard Madden post?

It was seeing the photos that Just Jared didn't share -- the ones where Richard's rumored "good friend" and fellow actor Froy Gutierrez can be seen hiding on their hotel balcony. We do all understand how these stunts work right? The photos of Madden at the pool with a lady friend were approved -- the ones with Froy squirreled away probably weren't? Although who knows now -- maybe they realize teasing us like this is also beneficial. Whatever the case I'm eating the bait and here are the photos after the jump...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Riley

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Riley Stearns (@rileystearns)

Good morning only to these six straight minutes of footage of Dual director Riley Stearns getting super sweaty on the mat with another dude. (If you haven't been following our long-running Twitter thread on the director click here.)

I Am Sampo

The fine folks at Vinegar Syndrome have now released two of Russian director Aleksandr Ptushko's 1950s fantasy epics onto blu-ray with 1956's Ilya Muromets (aka The Sword and the Dragon) having hit earlier this year, while today comes Sampo (aka The Day the Earth Froze). And I cannot recommend either one highly enough. They're a blast of old-school movie magic -- often reminiscent of Harryhausen and the sword-and-sandal movies of the period, but the fact that we Westerners aren't familiar with the fairy tales and mythologies these stories are retelling gives these films an even weirder and more surreal edge than anything Harryhausen could conjure -- I mean I'm sure these play differently to Russians or those familiar with these stories, but for me I loved being introduced in this WTF way, having absolutely no idea what would happen next. Ptushko's filmmaking wants to go there, wants to surprise and shock, and it sure does, baby. It's a dream.

YO Aleksandr Ptushko's 1956 fantasy-epic ILYA MUROMETS (which just recently got a glorious remaster + blu-ray release from @DeafCrocodile) is now available to rent online!!! This movie's a wonder, do not miss! https://t.co/sh9encG6YR pic.twitter.com/gnoftUK3RP

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 28, 2022

Anyway I adored Muromets when I watched it back in May but I think I dug Sampo even more, so I highly recommend you hop on over to Vinegar Syndrome and snag yourself a copy of the blu-ray while they're still available. These things really do disappear. (And VS always adds a smart dash of panic to such thoughts by telling us on their site how many copies are left -- as of this writing there are only 385! Eek!) Below is the trailer for Sampo -- any fans of these movies? I hope they keep releasing them, this is a cinematic hole of mine that I've totally enjoyed filling!

Pearl's Got Herself a Man Y'all

I don't know if the IMDb page for Ti West's X prequel Pearl had this information included yesterday when I posted the new poster and told y'all the trailer was coming -- I did go to the IMDb page yesterday to share the link but I didn't scroll down to see if any of the film's cast had been announced beyond Mia Goth, who we already knew about. Point being if I had noticed that actor David Corenswet -- who made an immediate impact on me in Ryan Murphy's Hollywood series in 2020 for reasons that are obvious in the photo above -- was included in the cast I uhh would have mentioned this news then.

I also might have gotten up from my desk, taken the elevator downstairs from my office to the street called Broadway upon which I work, and run up and down both lanes screaming this news. So maybe it's for the best that I see the news today when I am feeling super lazy. But yippee! This news makes me happy! You can make out (with?) beautiful beautiful perfect David in the trailer a couple of times, which I have for you down below, although it's all truly The Mia Goth Show, which is also as it should be. Let's just hope that like in X the movie leers as its menfolk again, what with a man-folk like David around!

Pearl is out on September 16th!

Pics of the Day

(click to embiggen) Three new photos from Luca Guadagnino's new movie Bones and All -- well two new photos from the movie and one new photo of Luca shooting the movie, anyway -- were dropped today along with the expected news that the movie, which stars Timothee Chalamet and Taylor Russell (so terrific in Waves a few years back) and young cannibal lovers, will be premiering at the Venice Film Fest in September. See all of my previous posts on this movie here, although the post at this link is where I talked about it first with all the specifics. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?