Tie Him Up With Ribbons

Twee gay absurdist and MNPP fave (as if calling someone a "twee gay absurdist" wouldn't already imply "MNPP fave" all on its own) Julio Torres is releasing a new book this year! It's called The Perfect Gift and in it Torres shares ideas and illustrations of gift ideas -- I'm sure it will take that concept to the same sort of bizarre conceptual places that his treatises on color did in his show Color Theories. (Which P.S. is now streaming on HBO Max!) The book's out in November and you can pre-order it right here -- below is one of the pages from the book to give you an idea of what you're in for. God I love him. I gotta re-watch Problemista stat.

Wrappin' It Up

As seen down below this week o' mine is pretty crowded with screenings and so I'll be checking out early basically every day  -- last night was the fancy-schmancy premiere of David Lowery's Mother Mary (I saw both Julio Torres and Patti Harrison in the lobby afterwards!)  while tonight I'm off to see the new version of The Mummy from director Lee Cronin. And when I tell you I have avoided all information on The Mummy so I could go in fresh I mean it -- I didn't even know until I decided to look up a picture of it for this post that everybody's favorite shitty boyfriend slash dick-flasher Jack Reynor of Midsommar fame is in the thing. Aww we've missed him. Anyway this is me saying bye, I gotta run. Or rather I gotta "wrap it up" hardy har get it cuz The Mummy... sigh...

Good grief my screening schedule this week is BONKERS (and this isn't even counting the Herzog 3D movie and JOHN WATERS LIVE on Saturday!)

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) April 13, 2026 at 2:20 PM

Space Fruits

A wonderful surreal and strange animated film called Boys Go To Jupiter landed here in NYC a couple of weeks ago (after screening at Tribeca earlier this year) and from there has been making the theatrical rounds -- I've been meaning to write it up for the past couple of weeks but... my brain y'all. Not in its best place right now. Anyway! I finally did! Write it up, that is, so click on over to Pajiba to read my thoughts upon it. It should also be said that it features the voices of both Julio Torres and Cole Escola, which somehow feels like the gay millenial version of crossing the streams. Anyway it's great, see it as soon as you have the chance. Here's the trailer:

Congrats to the Dorian Winners!

The winners of the annual Dorian awards have been announced -- voted on by members of GALECA, an orgination of entertainment critics of the queer sort amongst whom I happily count myself -- and we did okay! I only voted for a couple of the winners but I'm not angry that we gave The Substance a near damned sweep -- that's a lot of fun! This ain't your grandma's queer critic's awards show! Anyway Challengers did well too (winning score and screenplay) and we gave our rising star award to Jonathan Bailey! Jonathan Bailey always gets a rise outta me that's for sure. Hit the jump and I'll share the full press release with y'all...

Jon Hamm Five Times

Jon Hamm is looking mighty fine for the cover shoot in The Hollywood Reporter this week -- I guess he's gunning for awards attention for his role on Fargo this season? I actually wrote an entire piece at Mashable back in January about how great he was on that, read that here. That dickhead he played really brought out his best work in ages. Indeed the entire theme of this article seems to borrow the center of my piece, which is Jon Hamm should really only play dickheads. It's really where he shines. That said he comes across as perfectly lovely in the chat -- he gives a shout-out to Julio Torres, for goodness' sake. (I also love that it's Emma Stone who told him to keep an eye on Torres -- Stone is proving world-class in sussing out talent early.) Anyway I'm sure you're just here for the photos, so let's do the photos, after the jump...

NewFest Pride 2024 Ahoy

New York City's annual LGBTQ+ film fest NewFest became a twice-annual fest recently with an edition happening during Pride Month in June and then the usual fest in the fall, October-ish. And with the June edition rolling up on us fast somehow (what even is time anymore) today they have announced their 2024 Pride line-up and, if I do say so myself, it's looking terrific. The highlight for me is called Haze -- for one it stars actor Cole Doman seen above, who you should recognize from Stephen Cone's terrific Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (because I have been telling you to watch all of Stephen Cone's movies for years and you listened to me, right, RIGHT?) or maybe from last year's movie Mutt (which was also terrific). And for another it is from writer-director Matthew Fifer, whose film Cicada played NewFest a couple of years ago and which I very much dug. (It's on Tubi now if you so desire.) But most of all it's that plot-wise it sounds up my alley:

"A young journalist (Doman) returns home to investigate the unsolved deaths at an abandoned psychiatric center. As he dances with the shadows of his past and a mysterious new man in his life, his family history and the town's secrets begin to converge in this evocative psychological thriller. "

We do love a psychological thriller. Anyway there's plenty more o' highlights -- they're screening Sebastian, which I saw at Sundance and which I loved, and they're screening My Old Ass (with Aubrey Plaza) which I missed at Sundance but got a ton of love from other people. There's a Fire Island doc directed by Sense8 star Brian J. Smith (who PS co-stars in Haze) and they are premiering episodes of Problemista writer-director Julio Torres new HBO series Fantasmas. And there's more which you'll see in the press release down below. NewFest: Pride Edition runs  from May 30th to June 3rd -- and it should be noted that it includes virtual screenings so if you're not in NYC look anyway! And now hit the jump for the full press release...

How You Dune, Part Two

It's a good weekend for new movies as two excellent ones are dropping -- there's Dune: Part Two of course, which is the biggie. And I am sure most if not all of you will have an opinion on that one so please share once you've watched. I wrote some scattered off-the-cuff thoughts of my own over here a couple of days ago. And yes I'm throwing Austin a bone -- so to speak -- by using his image over Timmy's on this post, since I didn't really love what he does in Dune. Keep at it, Austin! One day you'll be a successful actor!) Please realize that I am making fun of myself in that previous statement, and set aside your scorn. I think most people disagree with me. or will. Per usual. But the movie's great overall and I very much want to see it again as soon as I can (preferably if I can snag IMAX 70mm tickets, but I'm afraid to even check how far in advance they are sold out for). 

The other excellent movie out this weekend is Julio Torres' art comedy Problemista starring Tilda Swinton and himself as a painter-slash-maniac and her new assistant -- I posted the trailer for this way back in July when it was going to come out back then, so watch it here if you haven't already. Or just go see the movie, which I totally adored when I saw it at NewFest last summer. You know TIlda's 2008 thriller Julia? This is kind of that but as a comedy. They remind me of each other for some weird reason. Maybe it's just that Tilda is fucking brilliant in them both, I don't know. Anyway that's that, I am done for the week. Have a fine weekend! Perfectly, adequately fine!

Problemista Child

I wasn't really familiar with Julio Torres when I sat down to watch Problemista at NewFest last month -- I vaguely knew he'd written for SNL and that he was the brains behind that Los Espookys show, but I'd never seen that show and I have only watched maybe five episodes of SNL in the past ten years. (Although I had seen Torres' most infamous SNL skit "Wells for Boys" of course -- I'm not an ingrate.) So point being -- I was going to see Problemista for Tilda Swinton. Ninety minutes later Torres had gained a great big new homosexual fan -- this will easily be one of the best and funniest films of 2023, and one I plan on re-watching so many times I can quote it top to bottom. It's hysterical, incredible, forthwith iconic. And we now have a trailer!

Mark your calendars -- the MNPP-approved Problemista

is out in cinema theaters on August the 4th.