Axe Me No Questions

'Nother day, 'nother piece of Steve McQueen's so-called "Small Axe" series of films to review from the New York Film Festival -- this time around over at The Film Experience I'm taking a look at the middle segment titled Red White and Blue and starring former-Finn John Boyega in the true-life story of a 1980s police officer and yes, if you're like me then you're saying to yourself hot damn it's about time Steve McQueen worked with John Boyega. Now that's a duo. Okay okay so I still want Steve to work with Michael Fassbender again, but for now this will do. And if you missed my other two "Small Axe" reviews read my thoughts on Lovers Rock right here and my thoughts on Mangrove right here. They are all supremely excellent and "Small Axe" -- when it drops on Amazon in November -- is the cinematic event of the year. I'm dying that I have to wait for the last two thirds with the rest of you normal people!

On a side-note I was so inspired by all this hot sexy Steve McQueen action that I re-watched Widows the other night and hot damn is that a movie. Just an all around banger -- I think I actually liked it even more this second time through. We did that movie wrong in 2018 -- it shoulda gotten all sorts of awards attention. We don't deserve Steve McQueen, we really really really do not.

VIOLA DAVIS' APARTMENT IN WIDOWS THOUGH pic.twitter.com/OpyrRuxUB6

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 4, 2020

GALECA Goes Small Screen

As mentioned with terrific pride on several occasions I became a member of GALECA, the guild for LGBTQ entertainment journalists and critics back in 2018 -- that's right, the year of Call Me By Your Name, which I loved so much I decided I had to lobby for it as hard as I could. Y'all know I'm not the biggest pusher of Awards Season narratives but I think our little group does a better job than most, and I think that's showcased in our just-dropped nominations for this year's TV Awards, which I've got for you below. 

This is the first year our Dorian Awards have been split up, with our Movie Awards happening during the usual Movie Awards Season and our TV Awards happening, well, now. And it makes sense to me -- pre-halfening the list of awards was hella long! This is much more manageable. There are a couple of shows I lobbied hard for this year that didn't make a dent at all (Raoul Peck's Exterminate All the Brutes, which I wrote about at Pajiba awhile back, is an absolute masterpiece that didn't get a single mention) or not much of a dent at all (just one nomination for shows like PEN15, The Underground Railroad, and blasphemies of blasphemies -- and bringing us back to my beginning with this guild -- Luca Guadagnino's We Are Who We Are, although I recognize that show was divisive... 

... but the haters are hella wrong). Still those last three shows did get mentioned, and Steve McQueen's Small Axe masterful miniseries got three nominations, and that's more than most of the TV academies will probably recognize those things. Plus plenty of love for It's a Sin and Hacks and Mare of Easttown, all predictable as far as these things go but excellent all the same. Our winners will be announced on August 29th, but for now hit the jump for the full list of nominees...

The King McQueen

Every time I do a post about Steve McQueen's "Small Axe" anthology of films I have to re-link like a billion links because I have reviewed 3/5ths of the series already, and I don't feel like doing that again -- I just found out that I have a bonus day off this week, meaning the only day of office-work I have this week is today, and I have suddenly been swallowed whole by a "kid before their summer vacation" mind-set, aka I ain't getting anything done now. It's full-tilt stare-at-the-clock o'clock around here. So here's the deal -- the first part of "Small Axe" is out now over on Amazon, and this is me reminding you to watch each and every single part, starting with this one. They get released every Friday, through December 18th. All everything else that you need to know about "Small Axe" including a trailer and links to all of my reviews you can find in this post that I did last time the subject came up. Voila, done!

 

I lied -- he wears two wigs all at once https://t.co/VJrcznCL3e pic.twitter.com/9oWfMREoKT

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 23, 2020

Small Axe is Here to Stay

And speaking of "my favorite directors" I saw this new photo of Steve McQueen the other day and it took me a moment to even recognize him -- dude is hella skinny! Anyway that aside it's a big day for those of us who love his work -- his series of 2020 short-films titled Small Axe are hitting Criterion in box-set form today! You can buy the set right here -- and Amazon has it cheap too, just 70 bucks right now. I somehow still haven't done a list of my favorite movies for 2020 but I'd have to figure out how to fit Small Axe in there if/when I did/do -- whether it be by individual film or all in one big chunk, it belongs. An absolute masterpiece.

In related news -- have any of you watched Uprising, his three-part  documentary series about three different events in 1981 London, yet? Shamefully I keep forgetting to watch even though it's on Prime Video. Gonna send myself a reminder for this weekend. Next up for McQueen is the film Blitz, about you guessed it the blitz bombings of London during WWII -- it stars Saorsie Ronan and Harris Dickinson, among many others (no Michael Fassbender though, which makes me sad -- I feel like they must've had a falling out). And McQueen also has a WWII doc called Occupied City coming out soon as well, about Amsterdam's Nazi occupation. I guess he really got into World War II during the pandemic. Here's a photo of Saorsie looking killer in period garb on the set of Blitz:

Steve, Bring Me the Axe

Lots of trailers today! Now comes our best-to-date look at the new thing from Shame and Hunger and Widows and 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen -- it's really hard to choose a single film to attach to his name, I just wanna go with every one of his bonafide masterpieces -- called Small Axe. I have talked about Small Axe a lot at this point but let's recap -- Small Axe is an anthology of five films all set in the same West Indian community of London where McQueen himself grew up, over the course of a few decades. 

The films vary in length and you'll see a cast-member here and there float through another chapter, but they are all (supposedly) standalone films. I say "supposedly" because I have seen three of the five films already, and they all were standalone, but who knows what'll happen in the other two -- maybe all the characters from the three I've seen will show up and have a Battle Royale. (I would so watch Steve McQueen direct a remake of Battle Royale.) 

The first part is called Mangrove and it will premiere on Amazon on November 20th. I reviewed Mangrove when it screened at the New York Film Festival right here. It tells the true life story of Frank Crichlow (a truly phenomenal Shaun Parkes), the owner of a restaurant who finally has enough abuse from the police and fights back. It co-stars, among many, Black Panther's Letitia Wright. it is real fucking good, you guys.

The second part is called Lovers Rock, it premieres on Amazon a week later on November 27th, and I reviewed this chapter right here. This part is also real fucking good. The third part is called Red White and Blue, it premieres a week later on December 4th, it stars Star Wars phenom John Boyega as a police officer in training trying to buck the system from within -- I reviewed this chapter right here and, spoiler alert, it is real fucking good! Sensing a theme?

The last two chapters are called Alex Wheatle and Education, they air on December 11th and 18th respectively, and... I sadly have not seen these. Yet. You best believe I've been refreshing my inbox for screeners. Here is the trailer they just dropped this afternoon:

Point being I recommend you write all of these dates in your little pleather-cased date-books in ripe red ink immediately -- you will not want to miss this, the cinematic event of the year. I've seen some people call these "television" but I'm not categorizing them as such myself -- these are five films, a sort of Cinematic Universe of actual import. Imagine that. If you'd like the official descriptions of all five films hit the jump, I'll share them below:

Lucas Hedges Five Times

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Yesterday the New York Film Festival announced that French Exit, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges, will be their Closing Night film this year -- of course what "Closing Night" means in 2020 is still kind of up in the air at this point; for the most recent explanation of how they're supposedly going to be doing things check out this piece at IndieWire. It involves lots of virtual screenings and working together with the great already-established Rooftop Films here in NYC to do outdoor screenings, basically. 

But I'm getting off topic! French Exit is from director Azazel Jacobs, who made the fantastic film The Lovers back in 2017 (I reviewed it at the Tribeca Film Fest that year) with Debra Winger and Tracy Letts as the typical "old married couple" who're both having serious affairs but who suddenly re-spark to each other. I very much recommend The Lovers. I haven't read the book that French Exit is based on but our pal Nathaniel made a really good case for it over at The Film Experience yesterday -- he says it's short and very darkly comic. I like both of those things! 

He also says the role is a killer one for Michelle Pfeiffer on paper, and that if all goes right she might be dallying with Oscar this year, which is so overdue at this point it's outrageous. Have any of you read the book? In other NYFF news they announced their Opening Night movie will be Steve McQueen's film Lover's Rock, one fifth of McQueen's "Small Axe" anthology that's set to air on the BBC before the end of the year -- see my post on Small Axe right here. 

Two others in the anthology will also be screening at NYFF. The films are mostly loaded with unknowns actor-wise, but a few big names -- John Boyega and Letitia Wright -- do jump out. Anyway the 2020 edition of the NYFF runs, however it runs, from September 25th through October 11th, and we should be hearing the Main Slate of films within the next couple of weeks! Get yourself a sassy turtleneck, go stand in a cornfield, and stay tuned until then! 

Triangle of the Small Seventh King

Tis the happiest day of the month, Criterion Announcement Day! These titles are all dropping in April of this year, starting with and most excitingly director Steve McQueen's five-film series Small Axe, which screened on the BBC in the UK and on Amazon here in the US. All five, set in the same West Indian neighborhood in London over the course of a few decades, are magnificent -- here is my review of Lover's Rock, and here is my review of Mangrove, and here is my review of Red White and Blue. I never reviewed the other two (because they didn't screen at NYFF like those three did) but they also rule. This set hits on April 25th.

Next up and nearly as awesome -- they've got Ruben Östlund's current awards-prospect Triangle of Sadness also hitting 4K and blu-ray on April 25th! (Love that cover.) Have you seen this movie yet? I've seen it twice but weirdly never reviewed it? I thought I had but... nope. Huh. Anyway I like it quite a bit! Yes it's fairly blunt in its aim but sometimes (I say this often) bluntness is needed. And everybody's absolutely stellar in it -- I'm happy that Dolly De Leon is probably going to get an Oscar nomination but we should also be giving more love to Harris Dickinson, who works real magic with an extremely tricky role.

We should definitely be talking more about the first sequence in the film, the excruciatingly awkward between him and Charlbi Dean (RIP) -- such a barn-stormer. Aaaanyway the other discs hitting in April are all upgrades to 4K from already existing Criterion blu-rays -- they consist of Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (out on April 18th) and Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King (out on April 11th). I should probably try to watch the latter again someday -- I haven't seen it in ages because I hated it back in the day. Perhaps I've grown into it?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Shame (2011)

Brandon: If you had a choice to live in the 

past or the future, and you could be anything

you wanted to be , what would you be? 

Marianne: What would you be? 

Brandon: Well, I always wanted to be a 

musician in the Sixties. 

Marianne: That's cool. Musician? 

Brandon: Yeah. 

Marianne: Sixties it's tough though! I saw 

Gimme Shelter recently, you know, 

the Rolling Stones documentary? 

Brandon: Yeah. 

Marianne: Kinda seem like hell! 

Brandon: What? 

Marianne: Yeah, Sixties be like 

the last place I want to be. 

Brandon: No way! 

Marianne: Yes. Ugh, chaos! 

Brandon: So, where would you and 

what would you want to be? 

Marianne: Umm, I dunno. Here, now. 

Brandon: That's boring. 

Marianne: Fuck you.

There are a lot of things I could think about when I think about Steve McQueen's film Shame -- a lot, and I have spent a lot of time talking about them over the years too...

... but lately I've really been thinking about the scenes between Michael Fassbender and Nicole Beharie. That's probably because I've seen Beharie in a couple of things over the past couple of months -- Miss Juneteenth and an episode of Monsterland, specifically. But looking back on the film now nearly a decade later -- that's difficult to believe! This movie turns 10 next year! -- don't their moments together feel like a lynchpin to the entire enterprise in a weird way? 

Of course that can be said of any piece of a Steve McQueen movie -- they're always perfectly constructed, not a piece of flotsam in the bunch, and so we wish the director a very happy 51st birthday today. Y'all don't know how fortunate you are, with the entire pentalogy of Small Axe films hitting Amazon next month -- having now seen three at NYFF (Lovers Rock reviewed here, Mangrove reviewed here, and Red White and Blue reviewed here) this is, as I said earlier, the cinematic event of 2020. Even if it's on a small screen.

Bring Me The Axe

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Finally some new news on what director Steve McQueen is up to next -- we knew he's making a six-part miniseries for Amazon but now I'm seeing the title for the first time, which is Small Axe, and it's got a bunch of cast to boot. Star Wars star John Boyega and Black Panther star Letitia Wright have joined, as well as several other names you can see at the link... including current ginger boyfriend Jack Lowden, of Mary Queen of Scots. Of course McQueen hiring a ginger not named "Michael Fassbender" always raises the question why they're not working together anymore after making a trilogy of smashing successes that cemented both of their careers, but I'll try to set that aside for the moment since Jack is so goddamn cute.

Good Morning, World

The final video in Michael Fassbender's Porsche-collab "Road to Le Mans" was posted to YouTube over the holidays, and if you've see our previous posts on this very subject -- see here and here and here and here -- then you know it's one worth noting for as long as we're able. Not that I could give a shit about racing, but whatever makes Michael happy makes me happy -- I'm just a generous soul like that. And Michael's generous in return. Here's a clip of generous proportions:

I mean, Fassbender's former partner-in-cinema the director Steve McQueen has been rightly winning tons of "Best of 2020" notices for his "Small Axe" anthology but I think he's got a serious competitor now, with all this footage of Michael standing around half-naked in a locker-room. Next time find Michael a role, Steve! Aaanyway I made some more gifs, as my wont is, hit the jump for the gifs...

Putting the Man in Mangrove

That is a photo of the actor Malachi Kirby, who has a good sized-role in director Steve McQueen's new film Mangrove, otherwise known as "the first fifth of his Small Axe miniseries" which is premiering on Amazon & BBC in November. That is not a photo of Malachi Kirby in Mangrove; this is a photo of Malachi Kirby in Mangrove...

... but you can see why I led with the shirtless photo. That said for the second time in a very brief morning I am admitting I don't know where a shirtless picture's coming from -- if you know what that top shot of Mr. Kirby is from feel free to share in the comments. My main point with this post is to direct you to my review of Mangrove at The Film Experience, which went up on Friday when it screened as part of the New York Film Fest. Well that and to tell everybody we should definitely know who Malachi Kirby is, too.

Invasion of the Ginger Snatchers

First things first it seems important to share the above photo of former Dunkirk twink and current Saoirse squeeze Jack Lowden hanging out with his bearded ballet-dancing brother Calum -- you know. Important. Jack's Instagram has been fun over quarantine -- I advocate following him for your recommended daily dosage of ginger goodness. Sometimes doubled! You can't OD on Ginger!

Moving on! Jack is the co-star of a very fine horror movie that's coming out very soon! And yes that is The Great And Honorable Fiona Shaw you see in the above gif alongside him. The movie is called Kindred and IFC is dropping it on November 6th -- it stars Tamara Lawrance (a British actress seen in several TV series over there; she's also featured in one of Steve McQueen's upcoming "Small Axe" series of films) as a young woman in love with our boy Edward Holcroft...

... which marks any character automatically as "smart." Anyway they go to the country to visit his mother (Shaw) and... things get scary. I have indeed already seen this and will review it closer to its release date but I recommend you put Kindred in your calendars, is what I am saying for now. November 6th. That being said this trailer gives away too much, and you maybe shouldn't watch it. I enjoyed knowing nothing going in. But you're an adult and can make your own damn decisions, so here. Choose wisely...

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... beasting out with John Boyega.

Oh my god a John Boyega treasure trove! You guys have no idea how hard and for how long I have been looking around for this sort of thing before to absolutely no avail, but all this time if I'd only known about his trainer's Instagram account, which is just non-stop Boyega Gym Porn.

Even better than these photos though are the videos, so I went 

and made a little compilation for everybody! Enjoy!

I mean I was already excited to watch John in Steve McQueen's Red White and Blue segment of his Small Axe anthology this weekend for NYFF (of which I have already reviewed two parts, see Lovers Rock here and see Mangrove here) but this is like an unexpected dessert before the main course.

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

I realized as I took the screen-grabs for this one that it was gonna require some explanation as it went along. But that's fine, shake it up a bit, and I really wanna talk about this scene and this movie, reasons for which I will explain as I go along.

So the film is Jacques Tourneur's 1947 film-noir Out of the Past. I'm assuming most of you haven't seen it, although I hope you have, it's terrific. But since I'm assuming it's perhaps unfamiliar to many of you this is why I'm gonna explain what's going down more thoroughly than usual with these images. Obviously, this will involve spoilers, so y'all that haven't seen it oughta see it first or whatever. Or just let me take you on a ride through a pivotal moment! Again - whatever.

The film stars Robert Mitchum as a man that has escaped from his past into a new small-town life with a new gal... a new gal that's much less sinister than his previous dame that he'd stolen from a mobster. But said mobster finds him in is new small-town life and wants to blackmail him to do some dirty work and maybe get some revenge for referenced dame-stealing, yadda yadda, you get the gist. Everybody's got their motives! Anyway, in his small-town life, Mitchum has an... assistant? A rent-boy? I don't know, they never really make it clear what their relationship is or where the hell they met. But he's deaf-and-dumb and named The Kid (of course) and we come into this scene meeting him first.


Just before this The Kid's met with the mobster's dame - she's back with the mobster now - and the mobster's dame's bodyguard-type, named Joe (of course). They're looking for Robert Mitchum too, but he's gone into hiding what with everybody wanting to kill him and frame him and what-not. The Kid met with The Dame and Joe for reasons given that I don't really remember, some sort of faux-pact-making hullaballoo - what the meeting was really all about (I think) was luring the mobster's dame's bodyguard-type named Joe out to follow The Kid from said meeting to where ever Robert Mitchum was hiding.


And a-ha! It has worked and Joe has followed. Silly wabbit. The Kid then makes pretense (I think) of going fishing, with Joe in pursuit.

Ruh-roh! Joe's spotted Robert Mitchum,
who is holed up across the river.

Joe decides the best place to scope out the scene is on the edge of a high deadly cliff of course. Where better to relax, whip out your pistol, and take aim?


But lo The Kid has his own plan (I think)! He's spotted Joe and ain't gonna let his man-boss-pimp-john get shot like that no how!

Swing and a perfect catch!
Ya caught a big one, The Kid!

Aww yeah. Bad ass.

So I have some thoughts on this scene. Obviously. Why else would I post it? This isn't for my health, people! These are very important things! Ahem. So firstly, I kept saying "I think" when ever it came to this being a plan by Mitchum and The Kid because they never made it clear if it was or not. They'd shown themselves adept at maneuvering in the rules of this seedy underworld so far in the film so I'd like to think that they knew The Kid would be followed and that's why The Kid met with The Dame and Joe in the first place, to set a trap for Joe who's been a worthy adversary so far.

But if this was the plan... it's a really fucking ridiculous plan! Let's get this guy right up here, have him get a loaded pistol aimed right at my head, and then you will use your incredible fishing skills to hook him where he sits on the top of a cliff and yank him off the cliff to his fishy demise. Brilliant!

But it's utter ridiculousness reminds me of so many of the insane plans that populate Alfred Hitchcock's films (let's get Cary Grant in the middle of a field and send a crop duster - an eeevil crop duster - after him!) and so many others of this sort, and in the end it's the adventure, the excitement of the moment that matters and not the logic. The film follows its own internal logic, that this could be a plausible plan, and that's really what matters in these instances. Because what we get is a guy pulled off a cliff by a fucking fish-hook, and I like having experienced that in my life.

But besides all of that logistical and logical delight-riddled nonsense, what I mostly wanted to use this scene to illustrate is what a scam it is that its director, Jacques Tourneur, is not more loudly proclaimed to be the master that he most certainly was. Maybe I've gotten an askew version of his film-making prowess, I've barely even scratched the surface of all the credits he's got listed on IMDb, but I have a general rule that if a director has made 3 Great Films then he is a Great Director. Period. And Jacques Tourneur made Cat People, I Walked With A Zombie - read my thoughts on those two movies right here - and this movie, and I consider all of them to be Great Films. So where's his love? Well I'm gonna do my little part. Love! Love for you, Mr. Tourneur!

Seriously though, what made me want to use this death-scene for this series the most is how absolutely beautiful I find it to be shot. The entire film is beautiful to look at. As is Cat People and as is I Walked With A Zombie. And none of you should be turned off by the title of the latter - Zombie is a haunting, gorgeous film that everyone needs to see, especially before the remake comes out.


Tourneur was an amazing talent and ought to be celebrated as such. We should all shout it from the cliffs! Except the ones where deaf-and-dumb boy-men with fishing poles stand at the bottom. Avoid those ones.

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

Previous Ways Not To Die: "The Libyans!" -- Axe Me No Questions -- Pin the Chainsaw on the Prostitute -- The Wrath of the Crystal Unicorn -- The Ultimate Extreme Make-Over -- Drown In A Sink Before The Opening Credits Even Roll -- The Dog Who Knew Too Much -- Don't Die Over Spilled Milk -- Inviting the Wrath of Aguirre -- An Inconceivable Outwitting -- The Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique -- Nipple Injected Blue Junk -- Your Pick Of The Deadly Six -- Thing Hungry -- Don't Fuck With The Serial Killer's Daughter -- DO Forget To Add The Fabric Softener -- Any Of The Ways Depicted In This Masterpiece Of Lost Cinema -- Rode Down In The Friscalating Dusklight -- Good Morning, Sunshine! -- Mornin' Cuppa Drano -- The Cylon-Engineered Apocalypse -- Tender-Eye-zed -- Martian Atmospheric Asphyxiation -- Maimed By A Mystical Person-Cat -- The Sheets Are Not To Be Trusted -- Handicapable Face-Hacked -- I Did It For You, Faramir -- Summertime In The Park... Of A Pedophile's Mind -- A Vengeful Elevator God: Part 3 -- Strung Up With Festive Holiday Bulbs By Santa Claus Himself -- A Vengeful Elevator God: Part 2 -- A Vengeful Elevator God: Part 1 -- Decapitated Plucked Broiled & Sliced -- Head On A Stick! -- A Trip To The Ol' Wood-Chipper -- Pointed By The T-1000 -- Sucking Face With Freddy Krueger -- A Pen-Full Of Home-Brewed Speed to The Eye -- Motivational Speech, Interrupted -- A Freak Ephemera Storm -- When Ya Gotta Go... Ya Gotta Go -- Hoisted By Your Own Hand Grenade -- Having The Years Suction-Cupped Away -- Criss-Cross -- Turned Into A Person-Cocoon By The Touch Of A Little Girl's Mirror Doppleganger -- Satisfying Society's "Pop Princess" Blood-Lust -- Done In By The Doggie Door -- Tuned Out -- Taking the 107th Step -- Rescuing Gretchen -- Incinerated By Lousy Dialogue -- Starred & Striped Forever -- Vivisection Via Vaginally-Minded Barbed-Wire -- Chompers (Down There) -- Run Down By M. Night Shyamalan -- Everything Up To And Including The Kitchen Toaster -- Sacrificed To Kali -- Via The Gargantuan Venom Of The Black Mamba Snake -- Turned Into An Evil Robot -- The Out-Of-Nowhere Careening Vehicle Splat -- "Oh My God... It's Dip!!!" -- Critter Balled -- Stuff'd -- A Hot-Air Balloon Ride... Straight To Hell!!! -- Puppy Betrayal -- High-Heeled By A Girlfriend Impersonator -- Flip-Top Beheaded -- Because I'm Too Goddamned Beautiful To Live -- By Choosing... Poorly... -- Fried Alive Due To Baby Ingenuity -- A Good Old-Fashioned Tentacle Smothering -- Eepa! Eepa! -- Gremlins Ate My Stairlift -- An Icicle Thru The Eye -- Face Carved Off By Ghost Doctor After Lesbian Tryst With Zombie Women -- Electrocuted By Fallen Power-Lines -- A Mouthful Of Flare -- Taken By The TV Lady -- Bitten By A Zombie -- Eaten By Your Mattress -- Stuffed To Splitting -- Face Stuck In Liquid Nitrogen -- Crushed By Crumbling Church Debris -- Bitten By The Jaws Of Life -- A Machete To The Crotch -- Showering With A Chain-Saw -- In A Room Filled With Razor Wire -- Pod People'd With Your Dog -- Force-Fed Art -- Skinned By A Witch -- Beaten With An Oar -- Curbed -- Cape Malfunction -- In The Corner -- Cooked In A Tanning Bed -- Diced -- Punched Through The Head -- Bugs Sucking On Your Head
.