Let's All Go To The Land of Nod

Exciting news this morning as Kyle Edward Ball, the writer-director of Skinamarink an MNPP-approved fave, has announced his new movie! There's not a lot of specific news to share except it's going to be called The Land of Nod and -- in a huge step up from the itty bitty indie cred of Skinamarink -- it will be for A24! (And Elijah Wood as well with his production company SpectreVision.) Here is my review of Skinamarink from way back in the day -- I was one of the first critics to review it and I became somewhat obnoxiously relentless in my pushing of it even though I knew it wasn't for everybody, and uhhh a lot of people sure said so. It's not often you see something that feels so fresh though, something which taps into something so primal in you, and Skinamarink did that for me tenfold. I was lulled into a trance and found the ultimate experience deeply terrifying. Anyway no idea what Ball will go for this time out (although he has spoken about projects he was working on before, read that here) -- all we have info-wise right now is that title The Land of Nod, which is a Biblical reference; via Wiki:

"The Land of Nod is a place mentioned in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, located "on the east of Eden", where Cain was exiled by God after Cain had murdered his brother Abel. According to Genesis 4:16: 

"And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden." 

... Nod is said to be outside of the presence or face of God. Origen defined Nod as the land of trembling and wrote that it symbolized the condition of all who forsake God. Early commentators treated it as the opposite of Eden (worse still than the land of exile for the rest of humanity). In the English tradition Nod was sometimes described as a desert inhabited only by ferocious beasts or monsters. Others interpreted Nod as dark or even underground—away from the face of God. Augustine described unconverted Jews as dwellers in the land of Nod, which he defined as commotion and "carnal disquietude".

A fertile reference, that! I remember the phrase from my childhood spent in Sunday School but a lot of the further inferences go beyond my kiddie-learning. You could go pretty much anywhere from there, but to be honest just some of those descriptions -- the opposite of Eden, a place with its face turned away from God -- give me goosebumps, even though I'm an long-time atheist now. Anyway one imagines this will be very different from Skinamarink -- there's not going to be a need for that film's no-budget aesthetic this time out obviously! But I have a feeling Ball will use what he learned there and maintain some of his voice, even into a bigger production. His voice felt so assured to me already -- I want more! Cannot wait! Also of import (since we're here) -- Ball is a queer filmmaker, which gives Skinamarink an even more interesting underbelly once you know that; can't wait to see how that sorts itself out in his future work. 

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):

Go To Heck

Back in July at the Fantasia Film Festival I saw one of the scariest movies I've seen in ages with Kyle Edward ball's Skinamarink, a lo-fi affair that obliquely tells the story of two children waking up in the middle of the night seemingly alone in their house... then not. I reviewed the movie at Pajiba right here, saying, "Skinamarink, if you’ll allow it, will lull you into some kind of suspended animation trance-state, and Skinamarink will let loose absolute terror." It's been several months since I saw the movie and images and sounds from it still crawl into my brain every few days, unnerving me, and the movie's been making the festival rounds while it prepares for some kind of release next year. But until then, something I didn't know (thx via) and something to tide us all over -- Skinamarink was based on a short film that Ball made that's called "Heck" and he's got the short streaming for free on his YouTube channel right this very minute! I'm going to wait until tonight to watch this, once it's dark and I can turn all the lights off and properly immerse myself in its atmosphere, and I recommend y'all do the same. But do watch it and prep yourself for frights beyond imagination!

The Great Fantastic North

Monsieur Théodore Pellerin would like to welcome us to French-Canadia (I don't know why but it's always "French-Canadia" in my head so it stays) for this year's Fantasia Film Festival in beautiful Montreal, baby! Specifically I'm hoping Teddy will welcome me personally because tomorrow morning I'm hopping on a plane and heading up there for a another week of typically fantastic and scary movies like only Fantasia can do. Don't forget this is where I saw Skinamarink and Red Rooms for the first times! (Cue the incorrect Skinamarink haters in 3...2...1....) The fest kicks off today and it runs for a full three weeks, ending on August 3rd -- obviously I can't do the entire fest given that length of time but I still won't be back here writing for you again until next Thursday. (Or if French-Canadia will have me -- maybe never? Dare to dream.) Anyway you'll be getting reviews from me soon enough from the fest but since I already saw and reviewed Monsieur Pellerin's ace stalker thriller Lurker when it played Sundance I can go ahead and re-share that review as if it's a Fantasia one -- read my thoughts on Lurker right here. Terrific flick! And I'm hoping there will be another Skinamarink or Red Rooms shaped thrilling surprise ins tore for me this year -- stay tuned, make sure you check out their entire line-up at this link, and if you're a Canadian or traveler who's already planning on attending some of this stuff do make with the bonjours. 

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:

Happy Skinamarink Day!

With theatrical releases being one thing and streaming being another there will surely be several Skinamarink days, but for today the little horror movie that could is hitting a few hundred theaters around the country -- check the film's website for locations (although I heard a rumor that it's playing even more than you'll see there so just check your local theaters). I reviewed this movie, which is about a little brother and sister left alone one night with something lurking in the dark, several ages ago when it screened at the Fantasia Film Festival in August -- read that here. I watched the movie on a semi-lark and one hundred minutes later knew I had to write about it immediately. 

And even though I have no ownership of the movie (that honor belongs to writer-director Kyle Edward Ball, whose name you should remember and who you can follow on Twitter right here) I admit this week I have felt a little proud parentage  (I am on the poster -- see the bottom of this post -- after all!), having been one of the first reviewers to say, "Hey everybody! Stop what you're doing and look at this!" Now the movie's the Critic's Pick at the New York Times! And listen, as I said in my review this movie will be divisive. It's not an easy sit. It weaponizes boredom and a lot of people don't vibe on that. It's fine. It wasn't made for everybody. The fact that something this challenging and odd is getting this much buzz makes me ecstatic on its own.

But if it does work on you, as it did for me like gangbusters, then hold onto your butts y'all. Anyway I wrote some more about the film today at Mashable, trying to get you in the right head-space for the film -- click on over to read it. There are some spoilers in the piece, so beware. Most importantly -- give this movie a shot! We need to at least try to embrace it when somebody tries something new. And having watched the film repeatedly now lemme tell you -- if it works on you once it works on repeat viewings. I wasn't sure it would, but it totally does. The vagueness of it, the atmosphere -- it keeps on keepin' on.

Just found out (thx to my buddy @jshawhan for the pic) that I got blurbed on the SKINAMARINK poster! Couldn’t be happier to proselytize paper-wise for this specific movie - so freaking scary! Out in theaters in January and @Shudder after that https://t.co/6Y0XBk5lB6 pic.twitter.com/tuddQN6dsJ

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 25, 2022

The Desert Can Go F*** Itself

Last week I mentioned the found-footage horror flick The Outwaters in relation to recent lo-fi sensation and MNPP fave Skinamarink, because those movies two directors, Robbie Banfitch and Kyle Edward Ball -- both open homosexuals, right out in the open, imagine it! -- were featured chatting in the New York Times about their respective films, and the indie scene that's booming a lil' bit in horror right now. Well anyway The Outwaters is now in theaters (before hitting Screambox soon-ish) and if you click over to Pajiba you can read my thoughts on the movie. They're more mixed than my ecstatic ones about Skinamarink, but given how all over the map people have reacted to Skinamarink that probably means nothing to most of you. I will say this for The Outwaters, though -- way more male nudity! Below is the trailer by the way, and you can look to see if the film's playing near you at this link. 

Back on the Skinamarink Beat

I have talked about the upcoming horror flick Skinamarink several times now here at MNPP and also elsewhere, like on the corner with a sandwich board and a large clanging bell, and also popping my head into people's kitchen windows alongside their cooling blueberry pies. It's that good -- so good that I have willed myself into becoming an especially obnoxious character from The Andy Griffith Show! But mostly I have talked about it here, including sharing the trailer at this link and sharing one of director Kyle Edward Ball's short films right here and, most importantly, here is my review of the movie when I saw it at Fantasia Fest this summer and it scared me so bad I was leaking liquids every place.

That said I apparently haven't mentioned that the film has a release date now, at least here in NYC -- the Alamo has it slotted in for the weekend of January 13th, as does IFC Center. I very much want to experience this movie inside of a movie theater (I saw it at home on my TV) because it's very much all about lulling you into a hypnotic trance and I imagine the theatrical experience will be of assistance. If you do watch it at home when it hits Shudder later on please, I beg of you, do it proper and turn off all the lights and ignore your phone and don't take bathroom breaks and just give the movie your full attention. It will 100% reward the effort!

Anyway I missed one other thing I wanna share, which is this chat with Ball that popped up in Variety earlier this month -- the whole thing's worth a read but I'm most excited to hear what the director is working on next and they have a preview of intriguing possibilities contained therein:

"Next up for Ball? He’s currently kicking around two ideas that both sound like a logical extension of “Skinamarink”: One is a take on the Pied Piper legend, the other about three strangers who all see the same house in a dream. He plans to write this winter and maybe even start shooting by summer 2023, and is excited to explore more dark corners in a genre that allowed him to have a voice even without a massive budget."

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Birds (1963)

Lydia: I wish I were a stronger person. I lost my husband four years ago, you know. It's terrible how you depend on someone else for strength and then - suddenly all the strength is gone, and you're alone. I'd love to relax some time. I'd love to be able to sleep.

When we talk about terrific performances in Alfred Hitchcock movies we really should mention Jessica Tandy in The Birds more -- even though she was only six years older than Rod Taylor as her son I never don't believe her as his mother, and she's so touchingly broken in it. She's a perfect mirror image of Tippi's character and other choices and pathways for women in ways the fascinating film only hints at. Plus Tandy's soundless scream after finding the farmer's pecked-out eyeholes is one of the greatest displays of fear ever put on celluloid: 

Anyway The Birds came out sixty years ago today! I've seen it dozens of times and every time I do all I can think of is how angry my mother told me she was once at the ending because nothing happens, lol. Gotta love Hitch at his most experimental! And speaking of -- there's a really good piece over at Inverse today that talks to a few filmmakers, including Skinamarink's Kyle Edward Ball and Tar's Todd Field, about how influential the lack of a score in The Birds was on their work. (I do take issue with the piece's mention of the A Quiet Place movies though, because those are absolutely slathered in obnoxious braying score and that totally ruins them, for me anyway.)

Karl Glusman Erotic Thriller Imminent

Thank goodness for weirdos! After reading this news this morning (which I will get to in a second) my mind trailed off on a tangent about how thank goodness there are people out here still making movies that actively alienate half (or more) of their audience -- movies like Skinamarink or Jennifer Reeder's Perpetrator or Amanda Kramer's Please Baby Please or anything by Gaspar Noe... which is where we enter the news. Alicia Silverstone, one time Batgirl, has embraced the weirdos as of late and her career's seen a renaissance due to it -- she was deliciously bizarre in the aforementioned Perpetrator, and now she's going to co-star with our favorite full-time weirdo Karl Glusman, and in an erotic thriller at that! 

But wait -- there's more -- the film, called The Bird and the Bee, is from gay director Justin Kelly, the filmmaker behind King Cobra and I Am Michael (the movie where James Franco became an ex-gay which I will admit I have never seen) and, most recently, the JT Leroy movie with Kristen Stewart and Laura Dean. That one sort of disappeared didn't it? I never saw that either. But I loved King Cobra and I love that we've got a gay director putting Karl Glusman front and center in an old-school erotic thriller. Also the film has apparently already finished shooting? Which makes me realize that all the recent photos...

... of Karl getting into insane shape was probably for this movie! Hoo baby gimme this sucker now! Here is all that we know about the film so far from the news article at Deadline:

"Pic follows a successful executive (Silverstone) as she fights back a scorned younger lover (Glusman) who takes his obsession too far... In a statement to Deadline, Kelly described The Bird and the Bee as “a unique take on a twisted romance that I’m thrilled to bring to life because it’s not only a great story but also an exciting departure from my previous films.” While reading Donnelly’s “brilliant” script, he said, “I immediately pictured the look and vibe of the many great 80s and 90s erotic thrillers—stylish, moody, and sexy.”  Continued the director, “I’m honored to work with the iconic Alicia Silverstone for the second time (after KING COBRA) as well as the uber-talented Karl Glusman— their on-screen chemistry is electric."

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

MNPP's 20 Favorite Films of 2023

Since I leave for Sundance in a couple of days -- have I mentioned that I'm going to Sundance enough yet? I'm going to Sundance! -- I have decided that it'll be the best for us all if I just go ahead and drop my favorite movies of 2023 list right now without a lot (or more, anyway) hemming and hawing on it. Lord knows I could put this off for a few more weeks as I try to get around to some outstanding movies, and rearrange this list every single day as my erratic mood shifts like the breeze, but I think I'll prefer to just not have this hanging over my head as I start reviewing 2024 films. 

Anyway as I've stated already I think last year was a marvel of a year for movies -- excellence abounded. And while I'm cool on several of the ones that seem to racking up a lot of the established awards out there (Barbie is fine and The Holdovers is mediocre at best) there's a lot to love even on the mainstream stages, and several movies in my Top 20 will probably have Oscar nominations come Oscar nomination time. Hell I even like the Nolan movie -- it's only a runner-up on my list and my least favorite thing about it (Robert Downey Jr.'s performance) seems to be the thing marching straight to Oscar gold, but since we're talking one of my least favorite, most overrated filmmakers, this is something!

Yadda yadda I've put off the list as long as I can with my rambling

so let's just do it. Here are my 20 favorite movies of 2023!

20. De Humani Corporis Fabrica

(dir. Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel) -- my review

19. La Chimera (dir. Alice Rohrwacher) -- my review

18. Showing Up (dir. Kelly Reichardt) -- my review

17. El Conde (dir. Pablo Larraín) -- my review

16. Passages (dir. Ira Sachs) -- my review

15. Godland (dir. Hlynur Pálmason)

14. Past Lives (dir. Celine Song) 

13. Rotting in the Sun (dir. Sebastián Silva) -- my review

12. Beau is Afraid (dir. Ari Aster) -- my review

11. Godzilla Minus One (dir. Takashi Yamazaki) -- my review

10. Killers of the Flower Moon (dir. Martin Scorsese) -- my review 

9. Asteroid City (dir. Wes Anderson) -- my review

8. May December (dir. Todd Haynes) -- my review

7. Poor Things (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) -- my review

6. Saltburn (dir. Emerald Fennell) -- my review

5. Skinamarink (dir. Kyle Edward Ball) -- my review

4. Afire (dir. Christian Petzold) -- my review

3. The Eight Mountains

(dir. Felix van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch) -- my review

2. The Zone of Interest (dir. Jonathan Glazer) -- my review

1. All Of Us Strangers (dir. Andrew Haigh) - my review

-------------------------------

Runners-up: The Killer, Anatomy of a Fall, Oppenheimer, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Eileen, A Thousand and One, Infinity Pool, You Hurt My Feelings, Silver Dollar Road, Will-o'-the-Wisp, Fallen Leaves, Full Time, Bottoms, Priscilla, Return To Seoul, Robot Dreams

You Put It On a Slow Bake

The great Skinamarink isn't the only Shudder horror news of note today -- they also snatched up one that I haven't yet seen but am very much looking forward to seeing. It's called Perpetrator and it's from director Jennifer Reeder, whose previous film Knives and Skin was a real Lynchian eye-grabber that I reviewed right here. Perpetrator is premiering at Berlinale in February and here's how it's described:

"On her 18th birthday, tough-girl Jonny eats a cake baked by her aunt according to a magical family recipe and goes through a radical metamorphosis. As several classmates go missing, a bloody coming-of-age story takes its course."

I just read the phrase "magical family recipe" and I went through my own "radical metamorphosis," one unto utter delight. All I ask is that the B-52s song "Cake" is involved in some manner, and I will immediately pack my things and not pass go, head straight to heaven. Anyway no word on when we'll see this if we're not in Berlin but my oh-so-educated guess is Shudder will have it up some time in 2023. Maybe it can play at Tribeca before that so I can see it sooner? Just saying!