Breeder Me

Are any of you watching the show The Shards, Ryan Murphy's adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' book? I am watching it but it's sort of a hate-watch -- I think all of the young actors who make up the main cast are fairly awful. (How is that nepo-baby supposed to be Richard Gere's son??? I refuse to believe they are even related.) That said the older actors playing the adults on the show are pretty much the exact opposite, a delight to watch to a tee; I would much rather be watching a show about them. And when Glee actor Dot-Marie Jones showed up in an episode that I watched this past weekend playing a porn director that went triply true. So much fun. And seeing her also reminded me that I saw and loved a horror movie called Breeder earlier this year at Tribeca that she's the villain in -- and well whaddya know the trailer for Breeder just dropped today and who do you think...

... was quoted? Me, that's who! And that my quote drops over DMJ getting her face absolutely tongue-wrecked by one of her adorable doggies is very very funny to me because that's one of my boyfriend's triggers -- he finds it absolutely repulsive when people let dogs lick their face haha. That gif's for you, sweetums! Anyway Breeder is extremely fucked up and has far more disgusting things in store for y'all than some face-licking, but you can find out all about that when it lands in theaters on October 16th. Here's the full trailer:

Not Yo Momma's Natchez

A lot of today is going to be catching up on things that landed over the past week while I've had my head buried in Sundance, so let's kick it off with the one that makes me feel the fanciest so I've got the courage to trundle on after a long couch break -- I got another trailer blurb! I don't know how I missed this one since it dates back a few weeks but my review of the really nrather incredible little documentary Natchez, which I called...

... both "bracing and brilliant" made its way into the film's trailer, which I will share down below. I saw it at Tribeca last year -- it's about the small titular town in the South which is reliant upon plantation  tourism, and what that means in the here and now moment of time. There are people still romanticizing it a la Gone With the Wind of course, but there are brave people -- mainly of color because of course they have to do all the damn work themselves -- pushing back against those narratives. Anyway it's a smart portrait of our moment and I really recommend watching it when you can -- it started playing theaters (here in NYC it's at Film Forum) this past week. 

Once You Go Kontinental...

The trailer for one of my favorite movies from last fall's NYFF has arrived -- Romanian maniac Radu Jude's Kontinental '25, which I reviewed right here, was actually the more sane of his two NYFF films. But given that the other one was his deranged A.I. riddled schlockterpiece Dracula (also reviewed at that link) it's not saying much to call Kontinental '25 the "sane" one. It's still fully a Radu Jude flick -- political, provocative, hellaciously strange. Oh and speaking of the trailer...

... look who shows up in it! Tis me! Nope, I'll never get tired of it. I do a little dance at my desk every time I get blurbed. Dignity is for the dead. Aaaanyway Kontinetal '25 is about a "well meaning" cog in the machine of modern living who's convinced she's a good person only for Jude to show us, through her, how we're all monsters thriving on the status quo of exploiting everybody else so we can maintain our own comfort. Oh and it's exceptionally funny about it -- I should lead with that. Anyway, trailer-time:

Kontinental '25 hits theaters on March 27th! Don't miss it. 

What Happened To Riley Brennan

I haven't done a very good job celebrating Ye Spooky Season here at MNPP this month -- getting sick at the tail-end of NYFF knocked me on my ass and got me too far behind on other things which I'm still catching up on. Alas. But here's a word of advice -- there's a good horror movie out this weekend! It's called Shelby Oaks and I saw it a hundred million months ago (okay okay it was July of 2024 but you know -- time has ceased having meaning or whatever) but I gave it a good review at Mashable when I did, and said review has now made its way onto a new poster for the movie seen above. I'm the one saying "Unnerving As Hell" if you can't quite make out the tinier type. I posted the trailer for the film a couple of weeks ago, you can watch it right here. I look forward to watching it again since it's been so long, but there are a few scenes from this movie genuinely burned into my brain, in the scary way, all these many months later -- a very good sign it will hold up!

That's Right -- As Hell, I Said!

Y'all know how giddy I get when I get blurbed -- my great joy is also my great shame -- so consider it giddy-time! That's my Mashable review of Neon's forthcoming found-footage horror flick Shelby Oaks quoted there from the film's Instagram account -- I saw it at Fantasia Fest in Montreal last year and it rules. Here's the full review, although you might wanna see the movie first. It's one with a lot of tricks and turns up its tricky twisty sleeves. As it says above the movie is out on October 24th and I hope it makes for an All Hallows hit -- as I said I haven't seen it since last July but there are still a couple of scares that make the hairs on my arms stand on end when I think about them. I will definitely be re-watching it the second I can. And since I apparently hadn't posted this yet, here's the trailer for the movie below... although like I said, maybe just don't watch this. I will share it because we're all adults and we can make our own decisions -- I'll just hand you the rope to hang yourself with but I deny any and all blame!

I ❤️ LURKER

The queer-ish stalker thriller Lurker starring Archie Madekwe and Théodore Pellerin has been out in theaters for a couple of weeks now -- have you been able to see it yet? I dug it a whole bunch when I saw it at Sundance earlier this year -- if you missed my review you can read it right here. Who didn't miss my review? The PR people apparently,. because they went and used one of my quotes in an ad for the movie! We all know I'm a sucker for blurb-whoring so well here we are. This was actually from a couple of weeks ago but I missed it until today when my fellow Pajiba contributor Kayleigh alerted me to it -- their campaign has been clever, using modern technology prompts as advertising tools; here tis:

Once You Go Femme...

Heads-up, horndogs -- I told you when the fine folks at Vinegar Syndrome dropped Sam Freeman and Ng Choon Ping's 2023 flick Femme (starring Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay, seen sweatily going at it above) onto blu-ray last year. Well Pride might technically have ended a couple of days ago but we're getting one more gift in the form of VinSyn's big sale going on this week, where today and today only you can get Femme for just 15 bucks-ish. Grab it here and then maybe look around -- there's a lot on sale plus they're releasing new titles every day. I'm not making anything off of this recommendation either, except  little goodwill in a world currently without it. Oh and an excuse to post that gif up top, which is truthfully plenty for me. Here is my original review of Femme in case you never read it. Hot dirty stuff, I love it. Here is the trailer which yes I did happen to be quoted in...

It's Another Red Rooms Post

I think I have posted about Red Rooms about three dozen times now but I don't care -- it's out on Shudder today and I feel proud of my itty bitty role in getting the word out on it! Especially once it started popping up in tons of "Best of 2024" lists. I was there when the Quebecois true-crime-obsession thriller had its North American premiere in Montreal at the Fantasia Film Festival in July of 2023, and I was immediately bowled over by it -- I wrote up my thoughts on it for Mashable right here, and yadda yadda eventually other people saw it come 2024 when it got released and they seem to've agreed with my assessment. My little quote that the movie "out-Finchers Fincher" made it into the trailer and onto the poster and onto the eventual blu-ray release, which turns out was a good move by the PR people -- amazing how a throwaway comment you're not thinking too hard about can be the one that captures people's imaginations and curiosity. Anyway I keep being tempted to post the two most memorable shots in the film (once you've seen it you'll know the ones of which I speak) but I wanna leave them for y'all to disocver if you haven't seen it yet. So go watch it. Or go watch it a second time. Talk about a movie that haunts you.  

Robert Eggers' "Fresh Hell"

Oh! One other cool thing happened over the holiday that I'd totally forgotten -- it happened after all on the 23rd, right at the start of my time off, so I can be excused. And yes this is some self-love (nee obsession) but so be it -- I got quoted in a Nosferatu trailer! It's a millisecond quote in a Facebook trailer but whatever -- and I know some people think it's gauche to care about blurb-whoring but I hope I never lose this thrill I feel about it. It always makes me feel like I'm patting Lil' Me on the head and saying, "Hey kid, you obsession with movies in place of 'having friends' will one day reap some okay benefits." And I never write my reviews -- read my Nosferatu review here -- with blurbs in mind, peppering adjectives about like M&Ms for the P.R. E.T.s to follow. I am always shocked when they're able to pull something from my rambling twaddle. But I really wanted to get into a Nosferatu trailer since it's my beloved Robert Eggers and I loved this movie so much. This one made me super giddy. Here's the clip (forewarning it's terrible quality since I had to record it off of Facebook):

Red Red Rooms, Stay Close To Me-ee-ee

Heads-up that one of my favorite movies from last year's Fantasia Film Fest is hitting some theaters today -- Quebecois director Pascal Plante's serial-killer-thriller Red Rooms is hitting 50-ish screens in the big cities and you can check this link to see if it's near you. Also you can read my review of the film right here, and I posted the trailer -- which quoted yours truly! -- right here. I haven't seen the movie since last July when I reviewed it and there's been so much good writing on the film hitting this week -- specifically I liked this piece and then this piece -- that I really want to watch it again myself. It does such interesting things with the genre, finding brand new and exciting ways to make your jaw drop in the face of any cynicism you might hold toward the over-worked and oft under-self-contemplative genre. A really fascinating spin on all of it, looking at the dark recesses of humanity through our true crime obsessions. Big recommend!

Becoming One With The Becomers

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:

Enter the Red Rooms

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:

Excuse My Violent Nature

When I saw the first-person slasher movie In a Violent Nature at Sundance I knew I'd seen something special -- depending on what you consider the first slasher movie the sub-genre's into its sixth decade (!!!) of existence, and that's if you start with its heyday in the late-70s. (And if you're a nerd who considers the 1960 two-fer of Psycho and Peeping Tom the true beginning, with all of those Italian giallo to follow in between, then you should tack on another decade there.)  The genre has just been begging for a freshening up, and I thought IAVN delivered on its promise. It freaked me the hell out basically, and I said so in my review at Pajiba then. 

Well now the movie's on its way to your eyeballs, hitting theaters on May 31st, and a new trailer is here today and there be my words all over the dang thing. Two quotes! TWO! So excuse me for petting my feathers and making myself feel pretty. I know it's uncouth, but making it into horror movie press just makes my inner 12-year-old geek the fuck out. Earlier this week I showed you that poster for this movie that also had a quote on it? I have already had that thing printed and hung on my wall for god's sake. Professionalism will never usurp my geek nature. Anyway everything I said is true, the movie rules, and I can't wait for y'all to see it. Hell I have been dying to see it a second time myself. Here's that trailer:

Nasty As F#¢k

I'm sure it's not very exciting for you and some people probably judge me for being excited about this sort of thing but I don't care, I will never stop being in awe of a quote from one of my reviews popping up on a poster or in a movie trailer, and so when I saw my quote on this new "lobby card" for the upcoming slasher movie In a Violent Nature (via) bearing my very own curse-word I plotzed. Okay? I plotzed. Especially since this is a movie right in my wheelhouse -- it's a slasher movie! I was raised and formed on slasher movies! This grindhouse filth is what makes my blood pump and there I be:

This is just a thrill for me and I feel okay about it being a thrill because I really don't go out of my way to write things that can be quoted out of my reviews -- the gobbledegook I write is  usually too weirdly phrased, and so I am always kind of in awe when a PR person can dig a crumb out like this. But this one is right up there with my quote on the Skinamarink poster -- I am proud of this one and I need to find a copy of this and have this hanging on my wall somehow. Anyway as for the movie I was talking about -- here is my review out of Sundance where the quote comes from. And I shared the trailer when it dropped several weeks back. It's hitting theaters on May 31st. There's been some buzz about this movie this past week because a recording from a screening of it (taken during the film's most spectacularly gory moment) was dropped online that has to be heard to be believed:

Audience reacting to a kill from ‘IN A VIOLENT NATURE’ during the Chicago Critics Film Fest screening of the film. An audience member also vomited during the screening.

The film, described as a slasher from the killer's perspective, hits theaters on May 31. pic.twitter.com/KGlyC3HFXa

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) May 6, 2024

Femme Is Here To Feed You

If you've been waiting and waiting and waiting for Femme -- the queer thriller starring Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George Mackay as a drag queen and the prick who gay-bashes him respectively, which I've been jabbering about excitedly ever since it was announced in May of 2022 -- then you've only got a wee little more to wait as we've finally got a U.S. release date! First it's dropping here in NYC on March 22nd, then in Los Angeles a week later, and you know et cetera et cetera from there. I saw this and reviewed it for Mashable at Fantasia Fest last year -- read my review right here -- and hey look I made it into the trailer...

We always love it when that happens! Makes me feel like a professional person. which, believe it or not, doesn't happen very often. Anyway I know some of us are tired of the cliche of gay men being attracted to their bashers (I know because I get comments on it every time I post about this movie) but I really do think Femme twists it into something interesting and ambiguous and dare I say hot. And hey listen, all I can say is I tend to see myself more in people making terrible choices on-screen. Maybe that's just me. Here's the trailer:

Feel free to gimme your thoughts in the comments...

Home Alone In Hell Comes Home

Excellent news for you, for me, for everybody this morning, in that we've got blu-ray news on the nightmare-inducing no-budget-sensation horror flick Skinamarink which stirred some pots earlier this year -- Shudder is dropping it onto physical media on June 20th! Right in the thick of Pride Month - like The Babadook before it we've got a brand new inexplicable gay horror icon, the Skinamarink! I mean (unlike The Babadook) Skinamarink was made by a gay director, Kyle Edward Ball, at least. But there's nothing super specifically queer about the story, unless you wanna go full Cinema Studies Major on the symbolism of a family broken apart by a little boy's "fall"... okay I think I'm reaching.

Anyway I'm spouting more nonsense than usual right now because I'm giddy about the blu-ray itself, as seen above -- it features my very first blu-ray cover blurb! Taken from my Pajiba review (which you can read here) that's my name and my quote featured! All of that was also on the poster and the trailer (both seen here) but I'm feeling extra-special today because the three quotes from the poster got winnowed down to me and me alone! My ego, y'all -- I'm about to be unbearable. (Cut to ten people I know side-eyeing that "about to be.") Anyway I absolutely love this movie and am more than happy to be as big a cheerleader for it as I can. In all seriousness I really figured they'd upgrade to one of the good reviews the film got from the New York Times or something -- David Erlich's "Home Alone in Hell" at IndieWire was really fuckin' choice. So I'm humbled and honored and now going to stop making this about me right this second -- go pre-order Skinamarink right here. I don't know if you've heard but it will let loose absolute terror!

Experience The Skinamarink Experience

After all my relentless pushing of director Kyle Edward Ball's ace experimental horror film Skinamarink for months now -- I was one of the lucky people who saw it during the Fantasia Film Festival last August, and my review at Pajiba was one of the first ones (which is how a quote of mine made it onto the poster and into the trailer...

... as opposed to all of the fancier folks like the New York Times who hopped onboard later) -- you'd think I'd have done up a post yesterday when the movie dropped onto Shudder! I did tweet but then I got caught up in working on a piece that was due elsewhere. Anyway we're here today and that's what counts. Especially since there's something even more worth sharing -- speaking of The New York Times there is an interview with Ball in there today!

Well technically it's a chat between Ball and director Robbie Banfitch, whose found-footage horror film The Outwaters (more on that one soon) is coming out next week. That's the two of them glimpsed shooting their respective movies above (that's Ball on the left making the infamous chair magic happen in Skinamarink)   -- I feel as if it's important to note here, since this is MNPP after all, that these are two gay men who directed these movies. We love to see it! Anyway go read that, go watch and support these movies, and here's the latest trailer for Skinamarink below (yes this is the one with my quote, because why not make it about me in the end):

Sociopathic Miscreants Unite!

Heads-up on a terrifically weird and weirdly terrific upcoming movie called Stanleyville, which will be playing for a week at the Metrograph theater here in NYC in exactly one month on April 22nd and then moving on to other locations thereafter -- I saw this movie during the Nightstream horror film festival last October and wrote up my briefs thoughts right here, some of which just so happened...

... to make its way into the just released trailer today! That passage (which hysterically accounts for like one-fifth of my entire review) is probably the least quote-whorey thing ever written, so the fact that it made it into the trailer is spectacular, just spectacular. And fitting for such an off-center movie -- here's the plot description:

"One fine day, prim and proper Maria (Susanne Wuest from Goodnight Mommy) decides to unceremoniously walk away from her boring job, her inept husband, and her obnoxious daughter. Moments after doing so, she’s invited to participate in a bizarre and—as it turns out—potentially very dangerous sweepstakes contest, the rules of which are seemingly unknown to even its organizers, competing with a collection of idiosyncratic characters for the chance to win true enlightenment... and one slightly used habanero-orange compact sport utility vehicle. Dark as night and deadpan hilarious, with every fresh escalation progressing according to a warped logic that makes perfect (non)sense."

This is one of those very odd movies that speak to my very particular odd wavelength so your mileage may vary, but I assume a lot of you come here to MNPP because you share at least some of my particularities and/or interests and/or odd wavelengths, so I hope this movie's for you, too. I really dug it. Here's the trailer:

Me & Michelle in Bright Lights

Another exciting career moment for yours truly with the arrival of the trailer for French Exit, Azazel Jacobs' forthcoming farce starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges -- my review of the film got quoted in the just-released trailer!

THE 43 SECOND MARK IN THE TRAILER FOR FRENCH EXIT Y'ALL pic.twitter.com/E4xs5E1t03

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 9, 2020

You can read the full review over here at AwardsWatch. I saw the movie at NYFF and the film as a whole is a mixed-bag but Pfeiffer is anything but -- just an absolute and total blast to watch from start to finish, and I stand by my blurb! I hope she can snag a Best Actress nomination for this -- she'd be a more-than-deserving nominee.

She's not the only reason to see the movie, even if its overall tone never quite finds a footing -- Lucas Hedges is also terrific playing her son, and I'm not only saying that because his long hair and beautiful coats and collars in this film finally, after years of trying and failing, made me "get" Lucas Hedges. I don't mean as "an actor" -- I have found him very good before -- I mean as an object of  lust. I never got it before. But something about him in this movie made it click. 

But Michelle is the primary reason to run run run for the French Exit -- I mean look at her! Movie cameras and giant screens were made precisely for the honor and pleasure and the privilege of staring at that spectacular face right there. The film is getting a limited release on February 12th. Here's that trailer:

This is Hu Ge

.

The Chinese actor Hu Ge (seen above yes but you can see another nice photo from that shoot here) is the star of the film The Wild Goose Lake, which I saw and reviewed at NYFF last fall, and which is about to get a US release in just a couple of weeks. In anticipation of that release they've just dropped a poster and a trailer, and I talk them both up over at The Film Experience, if you care. 

And I think you should care cuz drumroll please I wormed one of my quotes onto the both of them! Both the trailer and the poster! This is my third trailer quote (see here and here for the previous ones) but this is my very first poster, and the nerdy kid who used to steal all of the posters from the video store I worked at and dream about just exactly this happening one day is real ecstatic about this one.