5 Off My Head: Timmy Women

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The trailer for Greta Gerwig's Little Women adaptation is here, as promised yesterday, and it looks a delight -- Greta's clearly brought her Gorgeous Millennial Energy to Louisa May Alcott's 150-year-old book, casting the tale of Jo & Co. through the lens of our times, and that cast, that cast, that cast. Here's the trailer itself:

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I'll leave all the studies in actressing and dialects and large draping fabrics to the other folks -- if you've come to MNPP for Little Women talk you've come here for the Timmy of it, and in this respect I have to say I think Greta is definitely One Of Us. Timothée Chalamet, who's playing the timeless fuckboi Laurie, gets more of a focus in the trailer than more than half the March sisters, if not more! And we're here for it. And so I give you...

My 5 Favorite Shots of Timmy in the Little Women Trailer

Any list of awesome things must begin where Awesome Things begin, and that is with Laura Dern. Seeing the two of them together is As Good As It Gets. Speaking of I would watch a remake of As Good As It Gets starring these two, honestly. 

This shot is an absolute paean to The Art of Loving Timmy -- Greta is clearly as smitten as any of us. It makes me think of Little Edie talking about The Marble Faun for some reason. Classical fuckboi.

As I immediately stated on Twitter upon watching the trailer -- watching James Norton stare at Timmy's hair is some sort of religious experience, I think? Thrice the fuckboi energy! And Timmy thumbing those suspenders is a lot for me, this early in the day. That said I can't figure out who Dude #3 is, anybody recognize him? And how is it not Lucas Hedges?

I mean this is what we are here for.

Timmy bringing the performance!

Timmy running!

Timmy dancing!

Oh I seem to have lost count of the Timmy pictures. Whatever -- so did whatever smart soul cut this trailer together. Timmy sells! Little Women is perfectly and exquisitely out on Christmas Day -- what do we all think of the trailer?

Queer Kisses For Antonio & Co.

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When I posted my five favorite nominations yesterday for the Dorian Awards -- aka the annual prizes given out to movies of merit from the LGBT critic's guild GALECA, of which I am a member -- I knew the winners announcement was imminent, but it turned out to be really really imminent, showing up about half an hour after I posted that post. I'm glad I posted it beforehand though, since if I'd posted it after it might have seemed like sour grapes given nearly none of my picks ended up winning. Good things won! (Mostly.) We had plenty of love for Portrait of a Lady on Fire and I love that we gave Antonio Banderas Best Actor for Almodovar's Pain and Glory. 

And I very much like Parasite (my review), which strolled off with five prizes including Best Film and Best Director and Best Supporting Actor -- do I think Parasite is just a liiiiiittle overrated? I have said as much previously, yes. But far worse things can float to the top when it comes to consensus, and Parasite is nobody's bad movie. Anyway I'm the most happy we gave Florence Pugh an award, which was the one of my wishes that came true. Hooray for Florence! Hit the jump for the entire list of winners, and big gay congrats to them all...

I Promise To Kiss You Before You Die

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A sunshiny little heap of character posters for Greta Gerwig's Little Women were released today but as much as I adore every single member of the cast I only have time for posting Timmy -- you can see the rest of them over at EW though. Little Women is out for Christmas! And this is as good a place as any...

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/qyflg9mt0V

— His Name Was Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 29, 2019

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... to remind y'all that Andre Aciman's Call Me By Your Name sequel book detailing the further adventures of Oliver and Elio called Find Me was, swoon, properly released today -- in a funny stroke of coincidence as mentioned earlier I won't be getting home to get my mitts on my copy until late tonight because I'm hopefully fingers crossed seeing Little Women tonight. Trading one Timmy for another! Today will be the death of me.

Pic of the Day

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I JUST SPENT THE LAST TWO HOURS WATCHING GRETA GERWIG INTERVIEW LAURA DERN FOR INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO OH MY GOD THANK YOU @joereid21 #lauradern #gretagerwig #littlewomen

A post shared by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams) on Oct 2, 2019 at 6:49pm PDT

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We weren't supposed to take pictures during the taping of that last night but I managed to sneak that sucker surreptitiously in a between-takes moment, right before they started taking questions from the audience. Anyway yes the rumors are true I got to see my long time love Greta Gerwig talk to my longer time love Laura Dern about the latter's career for over two full hours last night -- if there is a heaven for me that is what it will look like (well Jake will be there too, but he won't be on the stage). 

I'm not sure when this episode will air just yet but you can check out Ovation's website here for that. There's a good chance you'll catch me looking a fright in the audience! (I don't know why it didn't occur to me that I might end up on camera but it was so hot yesterday I did not dress appropriately for such an event, oh well.) 

Anyway I don't have much scoop to share from the taping since you'll be able to see it all in just a couple of weeks and it wasn't that kind of talk -- I can tell you that the both of them met my expectations and then some; Gerwig was her usual charmingly yammering self and Dern was basically light personified (hence why she came out so bright in the photo -- she just glows, as a human being and as a special effect). The only scoop was this below and this should be obvious to anybody who's been looking forward to Little Women:

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PS they showed a thirty second clip of Laura Dern and Saoirse Ronan acting in Gerwig’s LITTLE WOMEN and I was crying before it had finished

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 3, 2019

Little Louis & His Women

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This news is six days old and I am just now posting it - somebody, preferably, Louis Garrel, slap me silly! Last week Deadline reported (thx Mac) that Louis here has joined the cast of Greta Gerwig's Little Women movie! No word on who he'll play and I'm not a big enough LW fanatic to sort that out but if y'all are and y'all wanna make an educated guess in the comments go to town. hell make uneducated guesses, what do I care? Louis has a movie he directed playing at NYFF this month so I'll probably see that,  stay tuned. Anyway besides Louis the Little Women cast is set to include, deep deep breath, Meryl Streep, Timothee Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan, Laura Dern, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlon, James Norton, and Emma Watson. Is your head spinning? My head is spinning.
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Prepare Your Pretty Little Selves

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The trailer for Greta Gerwig's Little Women

is dropping some time tomorrow, nerds!

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Tomorrow. #LittleWomenMovie pic.twitter.com/71hlcCm2SP

— Little Women (@LittleWomen) August 12, 2019

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The Little Lady Laura

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I don't know if I can really sum up todays news about Laura Dern joining the cast of Greta Gerwig's forthcoming Little Women adaptation better than I did wit my all-caps happy-dance full-force freak-out on Twitter, so why try...

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GRETA GERWIG WAS LIKE THE WORLD SUCKS I AM GOING TO MAKE EVERYBODY FEEL SO NICE AND FINE THE WAY I CAN GRETA GERWIG IS LITERALLY THE BEST PERSON YOU GUYS LITERALLY https://t.co/OimBrfd4mW

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) August 14, 2018

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I have taken a moment and a breath to calm myself though, so let's just step back and take stock in the cast that Miss Greta has assembled (or yes is in the process of assembling whatever let me believe they will all happen please). So far the names we have are Lady Bird stars Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet, plus Emma Stone and Florence Pugh and some lady named Meryl Streep, and oh right when I wasn't looking they went and added James Norton...

(PS - I just posted a new photo-shoot 

of Mr. Norton over on the Tumblr.)

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5 Off My Head: Wins To Smile With

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Per usual you'd be hard pressed to know that the Oscars -- not to mention the always superior Indie Spirits, bless their Lighthouse loving hearts -- are this very weekend if you only came to MNPP for your movie info. I just don't care. My faves never much jive with their faves, and when I do get drawn in they inevitably yank the football away 98% of the time. My back hurts, you bastards. (Yes that's a Brokeback reference -- so sly I saw fit to triple underline it!) 

Anyway I do actually watch the damn Oscars every year, indifference be damned, because 1) there's no way to be a writer about film and ignore them completely, and 2) I do love beautiful movie stars at their most pretty, a fetish I make obvious here daily, hourly, secondly. So point being since I'll be watching them here is a list of things that would make me the happiest, cookie-wise.

The 5 Oscar Wins That Would Make Me Happiest

1. Greta Gerwig winning Best Adapted Screenplay for Little Women -- Just to make that moron who couldn't follow the two timelines turn to ash. Not really -- Greta should win because Little Women is a marvel and her ingenious script is one of my faves of the year. I find its structure deeply moving -- I can't think of much else that hit me as emotionally square-on as that one-two whammy of Beth scenes in the middle.

2. The Lighthouse winning Best Cinematography -- I know I am just supposed to be happy with this nomination, but I WANT IT ALL for my favorite movie of the year. I'm willing to go total Tracy Flick and rip up half the ballot box for this one.

3. Pain and Glory winning Best International Feature -- I'd also love for Antonio Banderas to pull off a crazy upset in Best Actor but I'm not nuts, and Joaquin has given such great speeches this season he hasn't let me stay annoyed about him winning for a terrible movie that I don't even think he's particularly great in. 

Anyway I like P&G more than Parasite so an upset - an admittedly also totally unlikely one - for Almodovar would make me dance around the room with ribald glee. I know it doesn't work this way but maybe everybody who votes for Parasite for Best Picture (and it'd be a fun win for that statue, even if I don't worship it like all y'all do) will communally agree to spread the wealth. I'm dreamin', I know.

4. Quentin Tarantino winning Best Director -- I feel as if this might be a controversial pick! I don't care, I'm a huge fan of Tarantino's movies and of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood specifically, and I think we'll feel lousy if we never reward him for Directing. Do I want to hear him give another cringe-filled speech? I do not. He is spectacularly terrible at speeches, underlining all the worst of his blasé creepiness. I don't care that he's a creep. I'm a creep. He's a fantastic fucking director of movies.

5. Missing Link for Best Animated Film -- Laika is like a woman pregnant with quadruplets entering her tenth month -- fucking overdue. Missing Link isn't my absolute favorite of their films but it's charming, funny, smart and typically ravishing work from the studio that gifted us with ParaNorman, Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, who has never been rewarded. I won't be furious if I Lost My Body wins, it's lovely, but I want Laika dammit. 

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Runners-up: There are several probable wins that I will be happy with -- it'll be lovely to see Brad Pitt clutching some gold that's not just his pubes for a change. Since Willem Dafoe wasn't even nominated (good grief) I'm fine with Brad winning. 

Same with Laura Dern's triumphant stampede to the stage all season long -- she's one of my favorite actresses of ever (top five for sure) and people have been seriously under-valuing her sharp and tricky work in Marriage Story.

So what wins will make you smile?

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Monsters Wanna Costume Too

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As I mentioned earlier there wasn't a lot that stuck in my craw during last night's Oscars, since they got a lot right -- or you know, right with the limited options they had presented themselves with, nomination-wise, anyway. But there was one big thing I found myself annoyed about, and that was the way they used costumes from both Midsommar and Us as dancing props for the opening musical number even though neither of those movies got nominated. If you follow me on Twitter you saw this happen in real time:

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The Midsommar dresses just make me sad :(

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) February 10, 2020

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Wow -- riveting Twitter feed, Jason. Anyway I turned that tweet into action and today over at The Film Experience I wrote a little bit about the Oscars' truly lackluster history with the genre's endlessly iconic costuming. When I really started thinking about all of the egregious oversights over the years it really piled up! Even just this past year there are two hands worth of examples!

I know it's just one of many, many examples of the Academy hardly ever allowing themselves outside of the box, but it seems like all we ever talk about with regards to that are the bigger categories when, if you dive into the smaller crafts that make up our shared movie history, you see it's just as infuriating. As much as I loved Greta Gerwig's Little Women -- and I deeply deeply did -- who's going to remember anything Florence Pugh wore in that movie more than they'll remember her day-mare floral May Queen extravaganza?

Little Woman

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We've been blessed eleven years with Saoirse Ronan now, from Atonement through this Friday's Mary Queen of Scots (which she's the best thing about, by the way), and it's the former I turn to for this week's "Beauty vs Beast" poll over at The Film Experience this week -- click on over to vote, aka to bide the time between now and when Greta Gerwig's Little Women comes out.

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Little Women (1994)

Jo: Late at night my mind would come alive with voices
and stories and friends as dear to me as any in the real world.
I gave myself up to it, longing for transformation.

A happy 48th birthday to the great Winona Ryder today! Wouldn't it be amazing if they got the cast of the 1994 film -- Winona and Kirsten and Trini and Claire and Samantha and fine Susan I suppose oh and Christian Bale, obviously! -- to show up at the premiere of the new film? That movie will be celebrating its 25th anniversary the exact day that greta Gerwig's movie comes out after all. It's too good -- I demand it! 

I worry I'm jinxing myself even mentioning this because it's not one hundred percent confirmed but there's a chance I might get to see the new Little Women tonight! Say a non-religious prayer for me in my time of extreme need, please.

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5 Off My Head: Siri Says 2019

We are indeed still filling in the final few gaps in my "Siri Says" series -- this is where I ask my phone to give me a number between 1 and 100 and then I take that number and I pick my five favorite movies from the year that corresponds. Thing is we left the "Siri" part in the dust awhile back when the remaining numbers got down below fifteen, because waiting for Siri to say a number that hadn't been used before took ages. So now I have the remaining years written on slips of paper and I choose one at random, and yet I still use Siri in the title? Sue me for fraud if you must! Anyway today I chose the number "19" and since there's no chance in all of the depths of hell that I'd have anything to say about the movies of 1919 -- my apologies to Yankee Doodle in Berlin! -- I will be regaling us with my five favorite films from three years ago. (Here is a list of 2019 movies if you need a refresher -- a lot has happened since then!)

And yes I have already posted by five favorite movies of 2019 on the site -- indeed I listed my Top 25 that year! So this will only be interesting if anything has changed, and (drumroll please) I am sorry to tell you the list of movies in my top five has not changed. But wait! The movies themselves have maybe not changed, but (drumroll please) the order of them has a little! Chaos! Sanctus! Dominus! Sanctus! Dominus! Dogs sleeping with cats et cetera! Okay maybe not but whatcha gonna do, we got a space to fill. And I do think it's a little interesting to see what's shifted in three years time's estimation. No? Well without further dreadful ado I give you...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 2019

5. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

(dir. Marielle Heller)

-- released on November 22nd 2019 --

4. Midsommar

(dir. Ari Aster)

-- released on July 3rd 2019 --

3. The Last Black Man in San Francisco

(dir. Joe Talbot)

-- released on June 7th 2019 --

2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire

(dir. Céline Sciamma)

-- released on December 6th 2019 --

1. The Lighthouse

(dir. Robert Eggers)

-- released on November 1st 2019 --

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Runners-up: In Fabric (dir. Peter Strickland), Sorry Angel (dir. Christophe Honoré), Little Women (dir. Greta Gerwig), Knife+Heart (dir. Yan Gonzalez), End of the Century (dir. Lucio Castro), Peterloo (dir. Mike Leigh)...

... The Nightingale (dir. Jennifer Kent), Pain and Glory (dir. Pedro Almodóvar), Invisible Life (dir. Karim Ainouz), Transit (dir. Christian Petzold), Us (dir. Jordan Peele), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (dir. Quentin Tarantino)

What are your favorite movies of 2019?

Devils May Come

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Back in September we told you about The Devil All the Time, a new film from Christine director Antonio Campos (based on a 2012 book by Donald Ray Pollack - anybody read it?) that was going to star Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, Chris Evans and Tracy Letts, and we were already pretty psyched about that group of folks being in one place then. Well I guess we weren't the only ones psyched about that crew (a'duh) because today Netflix tweeted that they're the ones producing it, and they added a couple of names to that already stellar cast - namely Bill Skarsgård and the got-heat Eliza Scanlen, aka the teen sister and doll-house-practitioner in Sharp Objects who's also playing Sickly Beth in Greta Gerwig's Little Women. On top of that Netflix also gave us a few more details regarding the plot (for those of us who haven't yet read the book)...
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Chris Evans, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgard, Mia Wasikowska, and Eliza Scanlen will star in “The Devil All The Time,” a midwestern gothic involving a serial killer couple, a faith-testing preacher, and a corrupt local sheriff in a story told across two decades pic.twitter.com/C0mMe0y2K7

— See What's Next (@seewhatsnext) January 16, 2019

James Norton Eleven Times

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There is a ton of absolutely gorgeous shit to stare at in Greta Gerwig's Little Women -- which I saw two nights ago, see previous post here -- but perhaps none so lovely as James Norton, star of screen and smaller screen, playing Mr. John Brooke, the tutor who falls for the March sister Meg. But then what else is new? James Norton is always one of if not the prettiest things where ever James Norton stands.

Today James Norton finds himself standing on the cover of something called The Jackal magazine, and whaddya know -- pretty, pretty, and yes indeed more pretty. Anybody would be willing to give up their dreams of pretty frilly dresses for making babies in relative poverty for this face, am I right? Hit the jump for the rest of the shoot...

Good Morning, World

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I hope you all wanted to be pregnant cuz ya are now pic.twitter.com/3mhgBvyvha

— His Name Was Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 17, 2019

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Turns out that flowy-bloused photo of Timmy I posted last night was from Entertainment Weekly -- the cover story about him and Saorsie and Greta Gerwig's Little Women is right here at this link. This is not a bad way to both end and begin a day, I'd say.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Brooklyn (2015)

EilEilis: You have to think like an American. You'll feel so homesick that you'll want to die, and there's nothing you can do about it apart from endure it. But you will, and it won't kill you. And one day the sun will come out - you might not even notice straight away, it'll be that faint. And then you'll catch yourself thinking about something or someone who has no connection with the past. Someone who's only yours. And you'll realize... that this is where your life is.

Happy 25 to the already legendary actress Saorsie Ronan! God, Brooklyn is so good and underrated. (Read my review here.) Which of her three films out in the next year -- Greta Gerwig's Little Women with a cast of thousands, Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch also with a cast of thousands, or Ammonite, her lesbian romance with Kate Winslet from the director of God's Own Country -- are you most looking forward to?

polls

My First Dorians

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Guess who's been admitted into GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, you guys? If you guessed anyone other than me... well, you're really, really terrible at guessing games if you did that. I mean, really. But yes that's right, it's me, and I'm pleased as rainbow punch that they're having me. 

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Anyway my membership is super fresh but I managed to squeak on in just in time to vote for their 9th annual Dorian Awards, wherein the membership chooses their picks for the Best of the Year, and I'd like to pretend that my votes were the ones that turned this list into the top-tier batch of winners that it turned out to be. We did good!

Like I think you guys are safe in assuming that I'm pretty pleased that the "Film of the Year" and the "LGBTQ Film of the Year" prizes both went to Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name, while Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor went to Timothée & Michael Stuhlbarg. Meanwhile Greta Gerwig won Best Director for Lady Bird and Laurie Metcalf won for Best Supporting Actress! And Sally Hawkins won Best Actress for The Shape of Water! I cosign every bit.
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I was also pretty happy to see God's Own Country get a prize - it won the "Unsung Film of the Year" award. I know lots of fans of GOC (of which I am certainly one) have been irritable about how CMBYN has sucked all of the awards oxygen out of the room so it's snazzy we made room for that, as well as B.P.M. which won Foreign Film. 2017 was such a banner year for exceptional queer cinema -- spreading the love is highly agreeable.

GALECA also awards television's best - give it up for a prizes for both Twin Peaks and American Gods! - and so if you'd like to see all of our quite wonderful winners you can see them after the jump...
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