Back To Boyd

Lots of Boyd Holbrook popping up this week unexpectedly -- I re-watched both Gone Girl and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny over the past two nights (I'd totally forgotten he was in Gone Girl at all) -- and along with the fact that it's his birthday tomorrow, well why not let him have tops-of-the-blog honors before I head off for a long weekend? And somehow these two vintage photos of Boyd from his pre-acting modeling days didn't make it into the enormous gratuitous post I did of him back in 2015. (I go back to that post so often -- it soothes me.) Anyway yup, it's a four day weekend. I am off until Tuesday and there are zero movies out this weekend worth talking about so I got nothing to recommend. I'm going to spend it catching up on the quite terrifyingly large piles of blu-rays I have been buying, and going to see a couple of movies at the "Bigger & Louder" series at the Paris here in NYC, which just revamped their system. I am seeing Playtime in 70mm tomorrow, holy shit! Anyway this weekend is just the quiet before the storm of fall movie releases -- NYFF will be swallowing me up by the end of September -- so I'm going to enjoy this breath whilst I can take it. Y'all have a good one and see you in September! (And as always if you see something good, say something in the comments.)

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Beau is Afraid (2023)

Beau: I accidentally drank mouthwash Friday night. 

You can't get stomach cancer that way? 

Therapist: Not from one time.

Beau: I drank a mouthful a couple of weeks ago too.

Therapist: I'm sure it's fine.

A happy 74th birthday to Stephen McKinley Henderson today! I had to look him up on Wikipedia to make sure that he hasn't been hiding in plain sight all along and it was me being a fool for not having taken notice of him before Lady Bird in 2017 -- it seems as if he started getting attention for doing a couple of August Wilson plays on Broadway over the past two decades. So it makes sense that I've only been familiar with him for a few years now, then. 

Anyway it's been a pleasure, over the past six years, every time he's popped up in anything. And nowhere more than his turn in Ari Aster's latest film (reviewed here) -- since that movie's such a ride I can't really talk about my favorite parts of his performance without spoiling it and I'm not at all convinced that all of you have seen it yet; just know that SMH is very very very funny in it, and I hope he keeps getting these chances like that to shine. Happy birthday to him!

Josh O'Connor Ten Times

More of that Josh O'Connor promotional tour for a movie that doesn't exist (at least not quite yet) has hit today, as a new spread and interview for GQ arrives that has him doing all these tennisy things even though his tennis threesome movie Challengers from Luca Guadagnino got cruelly shoved to 2024 due to the ongoing strikes. There are all sorts of reasons to be furious at the studios for the way they're behaving but this one should make us all the angriest! Thankfully photographs of Josh O'Connor in shorts are here to sooth our souls, temporarily. Hit the jump and sooth your everythings...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

That there is a photo of Daniel Radcliffe acting out this morning's mood for me -- he was kind enough to oblige when I asked. A good egg, that dude! And an excellent actor, as he perfectly captured every nuance. Anyway let's get this fucking day over with -- I got a four-day weekend to sleep through.

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... dippin' with Dornan. (via)

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from

The Inspection (2022)

Rosales: If we got rid of every gay person

in the military, there would be no military.

A happy 46 to the great Raúl Castillo today! Have y'all seen The Inspection yet? It really got lost in awards season last year but I thought it very fine -- click here to read my review from when it screened at NYFF. It deserved more attention. It deserved to be lavished with attention just the way that Jonathan Groff lavished Raúl's chest hair with attention on Looking dammit...

Elordi's So Easy To Fall in Love

As teased so teasefully on Monday the first teaser trailer for Saltburn, Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell's movie starring Barry Keoghan as a boy who becomes obsessed with Jacob Elordi (as one does), has arrived! And damn this shit looks sexy. Not just sexy -- there are some stunners of some shots up in here...

... which makes total sense since Linus Sandgren, the DP behind several Damien Chazelle and David O. Russell movies, shot it. (It's really reminding me of Babylon visually.) Anyway put this movie inside of me et cetera et cetera. Here's the trailer:

Saltburn hits theaters at Thanksgiving. What do we think?

ETA and oh goodness, look at the posters y'all:

Hey Movie Lovers

Documentarian Mark Cousins' 15-part doc called The Story of Film, made across a decade starting in 2011 and telling (you guessed it) the story of film, has been on my watch-list for awhile now. And hey whaddya know thankfully I'm in luck -- Music Box Films put the whole shebang out onto blu-ray just yesterday! You can buy it right here (although they're temporarily out of stock as of this exact minute) -- the trailer is down below. Has anybody seen these? I have only heard great things; I'm thinking I might binge it over the holiday weekend. What else am I gonna do? Move off the couch? Pshaw.

Joe Keery Eleven Times

I know I keep bringing up my new computer with every post today and that's got to be real, real exciting for all of you. And I'm sorry to excite you so very much! But this was my first time editing photos on it and holy shit they looked so much better. The resolution on this machine is insane. I could practically floss my teeth with Stranger Things' Joe Keery's chest hairs and isn't that what we've all been waiting for? Anyway this photoshoot comes to us from WWD (via here) and so Joe's all fancy man dressed up and while we prefer him in his 80s jeans (or less) we'll accept these photos because, well, he's just too gosh-darned adorable not to. Hit the jump for them all...

Poorerer Things

This is the third poster for Yorgos Lanthimos' movie Poor Things that's been released, and I do believe they're saying this is the final one -- the film premieres in Venice fairly soon, and then I'll be seeing it at NYFF at the end of the month. Anyway all the posters have been great and this one's no exception, but I think I prefer above all the second one... which I'm shocked to realize, after a search, that I never posted? WTF. I'll add it down below. (And here is the first poster.) Actually since we're here and I'm distracted with computer stuff why don't we make a poll? That oughta keep you busy.

online polls

Good Morning, World

Hi! From me and Manu! He's here helping me figure out how the hell my new computer works, bless him. He's a tech genius, who knew or could have possibly guessed? Anyway I'm going to be busy with that off and on today (slash for the next several weeks) but we're trying to get ourselves going. Me and Manu, that is. I just like the sound of that. Me and Manu, me and Manu. Poetry.

Nerd Alert

Hey you! Sorry for the quietude today -- I was finally getting my work computer fixed after a week of nerdy nonsense, and it kept me off of here. But now! All fixed! Kind of. I've got a way fancier computer than the one I had been using before that one crumbled into dust, and I've got to figure out how the fuck this thing works now. The biggest issue is going to be figuring out how to make new banners, since I'd been using an ancient version of Illustrator that my new Mac ain't playin' round with. (If anybody has any good free and easy Illustrator / Photoshop alternatives -- emphasis on free and easy, my favorite words -- please share!) Shrug emoji! We'll figure it out as we go -- for awhile I'll probably be using previously made banners. A greatest hits, if you will. Jesus am I still talking? Anyway tomorrow, besides futzing around with all that, I'll be here, blogging and being my usual nonsense self. A reason to get up in the morning for us all!

 

We Can Be Strangers, Just For One Day

There's the really very lovely first poster (via) for Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers, his movie starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal as neighbors with benefits or something. I am trying to be vague both for myself and all of you lovely people, because I think this'll be a movie best served by experiencing it instead of trying to sort out all its details beforehand. Anyway just a couple of weeks for me on that front since it screens at NYFF in about a month! See my previous posts here.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, Killer

As surmised when we got the poster yesterday, the trailer for David Fincher's The Killer arrived this morning -- and yes, that's a shot of Michael Fassbender from it above. As if I wasn't giffing that immediately. Although, knowing what we all know about Michael Fassbender, well... I just feel as if something has been stolen from us in that shot. Something appears to be missing! Anyway! Moving on. The trailer, unsurprisingly, kicks ass and makes me want to see this movie twice as fast as I wanted to see it before and that was already warp speed. So double warp speed please! Watch:

Quite honestly doesn't Michael Fassbender seem like the Perfect David Fincher Actor though? It didn't really occur to me until watching this -- he's handsome obviously, but in a sort of creepy, decrepit way. (This is not meant as an insult -- all of those words appeal to me.) The sinister is just baked right into him. And he seems like the kind of masochist who would welcome Fincher's infamous shoot-everything-five-thousand-times approach, too. A match made in cinema heaven, I think. The Killer is out in theaters on October 28th and then hits Netflix on November 10th so let's all assume the position...

Well I Feel Teased

It's ridiculous of me to even bother posting this fourteen second teaser for a teaser, but since it's fourteen seconds of Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi being naked within one's another vicinity my ass is gonna bite. Saltburn is Promising Young Woman director Emerald Fennell's new movie -- I told you about it previously right here but it basically sounds on paper very Talented Mr. Ripley. Gay-ish obsession with class implications. We'll see when we're teased some more on Wednesday I suppose. Anyway this is premiering in Toronto I think? I'm not covering TIFF this year so I didn't pay much attention to their line-up. It's in theaters at Thanksgiving. Circle back on Wednesday when we'll get teased some more!

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

The I in Mirder

I admittedly buy a lot of posters so I might not be the best judge of such a thing, but I want to buy this here first poster for David Fincher's The Killer immediately, do not stop go, just send me the link to buy it right this minute. LOVE IT. Does this mean we're getting a trailer soon? Oh I will die. Is that how Michael Fassbender's character kills people? He emails the trailer for his movie to them and they drop dead on the spot. It tracks! This is out in November.

Be My Bayard

Historical biopics aren't usually a genre I'm too interested in -- not until they make that one about tragic Wasp Woman actress Susan Cabot anyway; I'll camp out for that! -- as they're almost always so staid and formulaic. There are excellent ones obviously -- I just can't really get myself super excited about them beforehand. That said I'm pretty on-board for Rustin, the biopic of gay civil rights hero Bayard Rustin starring Colman Domingo, as he's a man who's story I've been longing to see get the respect it deserves for a very long time, and Domingo seems just the actor to do it. And the just released trailer made me tear up! I mean it still looks super formulaic, but in service of an under-served subject. Watch:

Rustin is out in November. What do we think?

Good Morning, World

Am I nuts or has this new season of Justified been way more gratuitous than the old seasons? I didn't even post half of the Boyd Holbrook stuff I could've (just this one priceless gif here) and now they got Timothy Olyphant with his boxers falling halfway down to Jesus. Did they bring me in to direct these things and then wipe my memory or what?

Quote of the Day

"I knew Paul, certainly, and I have a dinner party every year with [photographer] Greg Gorman in L.A. I had it last week and Paul was supposed to be there. He was there every year. [His recent death is] very sad. And he was right up there with Howdy Doody and Lassie in the history of American television, if you ask me. A great gentleman who celebrated the delightful."

-- John Waters spoke to THR today about his forthcoming exhibit at the Academy Museum (god I wanna go so bad) and the above is the sweetness that he had to say about the passing of our beloved friend Paul Reubens -- and seeing as how those two, alongside Vincent Price, make up my holy trinity... well excuse me if I'm crying again. I had been planning on quoting John from earlier in the piece, the very funny bit where he talks about Pink Flamingos airing on TCM recently, but as soon as Paul came up that was the obvious winner. But make sure you go read the whole chat!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Ichi the Killer (2001)

Ichi: Listen, when you're giving pain to someone, don't think about the pain that person is feeling. Just concentrate on how good it feels to be causing someone pain. That's the best thing you can do for a true masochist!

A happy 63 to director Takashi Miike today!

Eight (No) Mountains, High Enough

There are now (sort of) two Criterion Days per month! Last month they began announcing their "Janus Contemporaries" series, which is an off-shoot of the Criterion Collection that will be putting out Janus movies that premiere in theaters and then on the Criterion Channel -- aka exactly the way you'd pray that streamers would behave with their properties. Give them all physical media releases dammit! Anyway they announced their three November releases today and one of them is one of my favorite films of 2023 so here we are --  Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch's film The Eight Mountains is hitting blu-ray on November 21st (it just hit the Channel this week) and I love love love this movie and cannot recommend it enough. Here is my review at Pajiba from its release earlier this year -- it's about the life-long friendship between two men (Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi) in the Italian Alps and it's one of the best movies about male friendship in years. If you don't have the Criterion Channel and you missed it in theaters, snatch this up! You won't be disappointed. The other two movies they're releasing in November are Godland and the Dardennes' Tori and Lokita, neither of which I've been able to see yet even though, sigh, they're both on the Criterion Channel. I am so far behind on everything!

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?