Quim Gutiérrez Thirteen Times

When I found out that Spanish actor Quim Gutierrez was finally going to be in a Pedro Almodovar movie I mentioned that I should post more of him since there's a downright horrific absence of him here on the site -- well me being me I immediately went and forgot I said that until this past week when I saw the new Pedro Almodovar movie, with Quim therein, and I was ashamed. Besides that link above there is only one other set of photos posted on here even though I've long been an admirer...

... of his (aka I saw those pictures of Quim flapping his dick around on a public beach years ago and got myself to admiring). Anyway with Almodovar's Bitter Christmas about to play NYFF and then to open in the U.S. on November 13th it seems like a fine moment to share this photoshoot (via) with you, and hopefully this will burn into my brain to keep up with the Quim content! Hit the jump for the rest...

Is It Getting Bitter In Here Or Is It Just Me

I know I've posted the above poster for Pedro Aldmodovar's upcoming Bitter Christmas -- which has already come out in lots of places on "the continent" but which will be premiering here on "this continent" at TIFF and then NYFF -- before, because I fucking love that poster. That is a good looking poster, and I would like to buy a copy of it. Alas it seems they've switched over to the poster seen down below which is good, it's fine, I probably would've loved it more if I hadn't already seen the above superior poster. Also knowing this movie used to be called Autofiction, a much better title, makes me wonder what's going on with Pedro right now. You okay, friend?

online polls

Anyway while I've avoided any reviews of the film so far I have gotten the vague impression that reception to it has been cool -- have any of you fine folks seen it already? I know you're a worldly bunch. That said I'm pretty excited to be off to a press screening of this movie right this minute, so stay tuned. But if we're being honest the Pedro Almodovar thing I am most excited about this fall is Almodovar Art, the big fancy (and perhaps seriously over-priced) hardcover book that's hitting your local corner book-shop in just a few weeks! I keep checking to see if the price has dropped yet and nope -- it's almost 700 pages so I get the high price-point but come on, some of us Almodóvar fans are poors! I'm going to have to put on a bob wig and large sunglasses and shoplift this bitch under a red trenchcoat like a classic Almodovar character woulda.

Devils & Archers

Given it's the buzziest restoration of.. well "the year" doesn't even seem sufficient even though we've only known about its existence since May when it played Cannes -- it's got to be the buzziest restoration of the decade. Anyway given the fact that everybody (including yours truly) is losing their heads over the new re-cut & restoration of Ken Russell's The Devils it's not at all surprising that this is leading NYFF's just today dropped list of "Revivals" screenings -- it would have been one hundred more times shocking if it wasn't there (even though the restoration's one week theatrical engagment lands a whole four days after the fest ends). So yes...

IT IS HAPPENINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG @filmlinc.bsky.social #NYFF

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) August 18, 2026 at 11:08 AM

... we are excited about that. But there's an entire list of movies playing, and I'd be remiss if I didn't call attention to the other, less buzzy but just as stunning of a whopper that is, unlike The Devils, actually having its World Premiere at NYFF...

... and that is the brand new restoration of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1950 film Gone To Earth. I have never seen this one and that sounds for the best because apparently producer David O. Selznick took it away from the men who made the masterpieces The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus and cut it up all to hell, and it's only been available in this butchered version for the past 75 years. Until now, thanks to one Marty Scorsese and editing icon legend and genius Thelma Schoonmacher, who besides all of those professional titles was also married to the late Michael Powell. The two of them oversaw a meticulous reconstruction of the filmmakers' never-seen version -- basically we're getting a new movie from the Archers! Holy hell! Here's how NYFF describes the film (and if any of you have seen the old version, share in the comments!): 

"This restoration miraculously brings Powell and Pressburger’s Technicolor version of Mary Webb’s novel back to life. Jennifer Jones stars as the free-spirited, nature-loving Hazel Woodus, a woman who refuses to bow down to her father (Esmond Knight), the spiritual clergyman (Cyril Cusack) to whom she is betrothed, or the reckless squire (David Farrar) who desires her. Jones gives a career-best performance in The Archers’ glorious tribute to the otherworldly landscapes where Powell’s father grew up. "

Pics of the Day

The first photos from Andrew Haigh's forthcoming film A Long Winter have arrived -- I first told you about this movie just about a year ago when it was first announced because it's Andrew f'ing Haigh we're talking about here, of course I did. Then the killer cast started filling in -- our beloved baby bird Fred Hechinger (seen above) Kit Connor, Caitríona Balfe (so great in Belfast), The Bear and Girls actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach -- and we kept reporting! This movie is screening at NYFF in a couple of months (it's also playing TIFF) so surely I'll be on it then -- this is an adaptation of a Colm Tóibín book about a mother who goes wandering into the snowy mountains leaving her family behind, or so I recall the plot being when I first wrote about this news. I never read the book; have you? Anyway no word on when y'all will get to see it just yet but stay tuned and hit the jump for the rest of the pictures...

Godzilla Takes New York (Film Festival)

Today will have to be a very very good day news-wise to top the news that  Godzilla Minus Zero, the new Godzilla movie from Takashi Yamazaki director of the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, will be having its World Premiere at the New York Film Festival in October. And "very very good days news-wise" are rare enough beasts in 2026 that I'm just gonna go ahead and state that this is the best news of the day. The week. Hell the year probably! The news is super-sized surprising at first, but then you realize that 1) the film hits U.S. theaters on November 1st so the timing is perfect and 2) Godzilla is actually coming to NYC in the film itself, as briefly glimpsed in the very first teaser trailer which you can watch right here. I personally won't be watching any more trailers after that -- I know all I need to know, and now I've got a date for when I'll get to see it all with my Godzilla-loving eyes! NYFF is killing it this year! I haven't mentioned the other announcements that they've made so far but you can keep track of them all on their website. The big expensive passes are on sale right now but individual tickets start going on sale at the end of the month. NYFF runs from September 25th through October 12th! Roar!

Pillion Reaching Completion

It's been a long hard ride for Pillion and the people who love it -- the dom-com starring Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling edged us all fall awards season long (I saw and reviewed it at NYFF in October) only to wait until February to give us a U.S. theatrical release proper. The Oscars ignored it (because of course they did, they're lame) and I put it in my top five movies of the year, and now after all this time, it's finally coming... out on blu-ray! A24 dropped the pre-order earlier today -- grab it at this link. I don't really understand why it's not 4K but at least they're promising the "unrated  theatrical cut" which... I have no idea what that means to be honest. I saw it like three times but they were all in the fall during festival and awards screenings -- I never could really suss out what cut was what after that. I guess I'll know when I sit down and watch this after it ships out in July. Just in time for my birthday! Bend me over a picnic table and give me my present, Alex! 

Pics of the Day

Rose of Nevada is the new "horror" film from Enys Men director Mark Jenkin -- if you've seen Enys Men then you probably understand why I put "horror" in quotes; it's because his movies are more surreal and uncanny than they are straight-up horror. They want to destabilize you in a way that's starting to feel wholly unique to Jenkin, two movies in -- I am a fan of them both, having seen Rose at NYFF last fall, and not just because this new one stars Callum Turner and George MacKay as ship-mates who look like they look in the photos seen here (via) from the set. The movie is hitting the UK on April 24th -- it comes out here in the U.S. in June so I'll try to say more then. Until then just spend some time today imagining being these boys' bunk-mate -- it's absolutely what I'm doing!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)

Prosecutor Nusret: Ignore Naci. He's just 

a handful of bees, as my mother would say. 

All noise and no action.

I have such a vivid memory of watching this film at the New York Film Festival in the fall of 2011 -- you know how some images imprint themselves onto your brain? It's not just a specific image out of this gorgeous stream of images that director Nuri Bilge Ceylan assembled here, either -- it's a flow of images, of cars moving down dirt roads across distant hills and fields in the night-time, with the screen and the audience I was watching the film with itself included in the memory. It was as if we'd all be lifted and transported to this place where we hovered over on the next hill over, watching this drama unfold in the distance. 

It was a magical experience, one of those "this is why we go to a movie theater" religion of cinema things, and that's why we're wishing the great Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan a happy birthday today. Go watch his movies! All of the ones I've seen since have had the same sort of magical transportative quality to them. 

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. 

Putting the Supreme in Marty

Before I scurry away from the computer for a week and a half like it's injecting poison into my fingers with every button push (and really do we even have proof that computers don't do this?) I do have some stuff to share with you! Awww. I'm a peach. But really, it's not nothing -- there are a heap of movies hitting theaters over the holiday and I reviewed a couple! Starting with, you guessed it, the biggie -- click on over to Pajiba to read my thoughts on Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme, starring one Timmy C. I know y'all have soured on him given the comments I get every time I post about him but he's absolutely top-notch in the movie and I'm rooting for him to get that Oscar y'all. The other options are, what -- Leo already has one (although I do think he's better in One Battle After Another than he was in the role he won one for) and if they give Ethan Hawke a statue for his limp-wristed shrieking in that Richard Linklater movie I am so fucking done. Timmy's legit giving the performance of his career to date in Marty Supreme and all this talk of a hype backlash is bullshit. The boy's doing his job, getting eyeballs on his movie! In 2025 Hollywood ya gotta fucking hustle, man. This is a two and a half hour movie about an asshole playing ping-pong ffs. And it rules. 

The other review is one that's been around for a bit since I saw it at NYFF, but Jim Jarmusch's wonderful Father Mother Sister Brother is hitting theaters tomorrow and it's one of my favorites from him, so you should go see it. But don't let me here convince you -- let me over at Pajiba convince you where I wrote about the movie in actual depth. Jarmusch is hit-or-miss with me but this is a real hit from where I stand. I tend to like it most when he does funny. I think he and I have very similar senses of humor. 

Smoke Em If Ya Got Em, Brandon Sklenar

I cannot speak personally pro or anti this weekend's thriller film The Housemaid because I had to miss my screening of it when I fucked up my ankle a couple weeks back -- all I've heard are mixed things though, and those mixed things trend toward the "It's not nearly as campy as it needs to be" so I'm not exactly running out to see it myself. But when it hits streaming? Sure. Probably. I love Amanda Seyfried (who gives a tremendous performance in her other Winter 2025 movie The Testament of Ann Lee). And this marks the third photoshoot (via) of noted hunk Brandon Sklenar that we've posted here at MNPP (see here and see here) so clearly he's in the plus column as well. Anyway it probably won't be as much torture as I found the latest Avatar movie (the other movie out this weekend) to be, so there's that. 

Oh and I guess Bradley Cooper's Is This Thing On? is also out today but I have nothing to say about that movie -- less than nothing. I saw it during NYFF and it left zero point zero percent of an impression on me. Completely forgettable hetero nonsense that totally wastes Laura Dern. Blergh! All that said you might wonder why I'm running through all the movies out this weekend here on a Thursday... well it's because I just found out right this very minute that my office will be closed tomorrow. So it's looking like a three-day weekend for moi! Huzzah! And then next week's a two day week, and then I'm off for nearly two weeks! I'm not saying this to rub it in your face... I'll leave it to Brandon to rub things in your face. Happy weekend!

Wagner Moura Two Times

The Secret Agent, the ace new movie from Bacurau and Aquarius director Kleber Mendonça Filho, is out in theaters today! (Check this link for tickets near you.) And its sexy slash super talented star Wagner Moura has been on the awards trail in support of it, which has been a big boon to those of us who like looking at Wagner Moura. Especially since it is a movie that treats him very much as a Movie Star, and makes him look about as fine as he can -- just take one look at the main still from the movie and tell me you don't want to watch two hours of that! But beyond starriness Moura gives another world-class turn in the film -- he shot immediately onto my radar in 2013 in Neill Blomkamp's otherwise forgettable Elysium (he'd already been working, mostly in Brazil, for 15 years before that) and it's been a real pleasure watching him fulfill that promise year after year. TSA is definitely his best work to date, and it'd be awesome if he manages to score an Oscar nom for it -- that said I'm also rooting for Lee Byung-hun in Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice and I foresee AMPAS being stingy when it comes to giving away slots to non-English language performers. They'll usually go for one, not two. So if I had to bet I'd give the edge to Wagner -- this movie isn't as tonally tricky as Park's movie; as dark as it gets, it goes down easier. Anyway I'm rooting for the both of them, and Wagner if you need a date to the ceremony I am (sorry boyfriend) available... (pics via)

Must Be Funny in a Rich Man's World

Well it only took me two weeks and one day from the fest's last day but I have finally dropped my last review out of this year's New York Film Festival -- please clap! It normally doesn't take me this long but you try to write about Park Chan-wook's gleefully deranged satire of capitalism while on an entire fistful of cold pills and tell me how you fare mkay? Anyway I did finally birth something, and that something is a review of director Park Chan-wook's latest movie No Other Choice at Pajiba, and you can read it right here at this link. I was incredibly lucky to be able to see the movie a second time last week, which brushed aside some of those sick day cobwebs and affirmed some ideas I had had way back when I'd seen it weeks earlier. Shorter version: terrific movie! See it!

The Jarmusch Don't Die

My feelings on the movies of writer-director-hairdo Jim Jarmusch have long been all over the place -- some I like, some I hate, but I can't say I've ever deeply loved anything he's directed. Night on Earth is probably the closest that comes to that. I'm also a fan of Broken Flowers and I seem to be one of the few who really liked his zombie comedy The Dead Don't Die. Anyway that was all true until I saw his latest at NYFF a couple of weeks ago -- click over to Pajiba to read my thoughts on Father Mother Sister Brother, the director's "rumination on the unfamiliarity of family" as I put it, which seems to've immediately become a personal fave from the white-haired iconoclast. A triptych of unrelated stories about three very different families who have had some issues connecting, the film stars Charlotte Rampling, Vicky Krieps, Cate Blanchett, Tom Waits, Adam Driver, et cetera et cetera -- Jim Jarmusch can get whoever he wants and he usually does. Krieps gives my favorite turn in the film but then she often does -- thank you Paul Thomas Anderson for the gift of Vicky! FMSB is out in U.S. theaters on Christmas Eve; here's the recently dropped trailer:

Good Morning, JAW

I was wondering when we'd start getting our Jeremy Allen White awards season PR push and I guess it makes sense that being today since his Springsteen movie is apparently out on Friday! I didn't even realize. I saw the film at NYFF and... it's fine? Actors have won Oscars for worse musician bio-pics and yes I am speaking directly to you, Rami Malek. I imagine it will make Springsteen people happy -- having never been one of said people I learned some stuff I didn't know but I can't say I was blown away by anything I witnessed. This is why I didn't write a review! I really have nothing to say about it. But Jeremy Allen White flashing dem abs and digging around in his jeans crotch for Interview Magazine today? That I could write ten thousand words about. Half of it would take the form of one of those "Man From Nantucket" rhymes sure but hey it's something. Anyway he's a sexy af short king and we love this shoot and good morning, hit the jump for all of it...

Criterion Gives Birth This January

Put another checkmark in the "Fucking finally!" column because one of the great movies that hasn't gotten a proper release since the days of DVD is getting an upgrade on January 27th, 2026 -- yes obviously I speak of Jonathan Glazer's 2004 masterpiece Birth, as that enormous visage of Nicole Kidman's face with the word "Birth" scrawled across it probably let on already. (Sidenote: Birth is coming out on my mother's birthday? How fortuitous.) I'd have a hard nigh impossible time ranking Glazer's films because he's made nothing but masterpieces in his directing career -- one wants to call his a "brief" career since he's only directed four features, but those four features are spread across 25 years (beginning with Sexy Beast in 2000) and that's the opposite of brief. But depending on the day Birth might be my favorite of his. The next day it'll be Under the Skin and the day after that's it's The Zone of Interest, and so it goes. But this is triuphant news nonetheless -- a 4K disc, including a new doc on the movie's making -- now can we get Alexandre Desplat's now-legendary score released on vinyl please??? No, it's never enough. You get one thing, you need another, and then you die. And are reborn in a little boy to go stalk Nicole Kidman!

And as if Birth wasn't chilly enough -- Criterion is definitely leaning into the January-ness of January -- we'll also be getting Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man and John Huston's The Dead hitting 4k that month. I don't think I've seen either of these before? I may've seen the Huston ages and ages ago but I was certainly too young to get it and should revisit. As for Dead Man I'm hit-or-miss when it comes to Jarmusch and I'm not exactly crawling over broken glass to watch Johnny Depp movies these days, but I did really love Jarmusch's latest at NYFF so I can probably be convinced. Opinions on either?

Next up there's Jia Zhangke's tremendous latest Caught By the Tides, which I haven't seen since NYFF 2024 so it's been awhile, but it's a film that flits across my consciousness often -- Zhangke shot the film over 23 years (!!!) with actors Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin and watching them age in real time, watching China change around them -- it's an incredible experience. I suppose it must've been annoying for him when Richard Linklater beat him to the gimmick with Boyhood but I'm very much Team Zhangke on this one. It's an incredible accomplishment. And then there's the latest entry in Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project series, which honestly has long intimidated the hell out of me. I'll dive into them one day! 

And so we come to the months'f inal three releases (big batch!) -- the second more vital drop this month to my eye is their re-release of Edward Yang's Yi Yi in 4K, which I've talked about a few times since seeing it for the first time just a few months ago; an astonishing film, one of the greats. Then there's the 1985 film of Kiss of the Spider-Woman starring Raul Julia and an Oscar-winning turn from William Hurt. I should probably give this one another chance -- I remember not being nuts about it when I saw it in my 20s. And then to bring us home there's Errol Flynn's best movie says me, the enormously entertaining 1935 swashbuckler Captain Blood. Love this movie; Errol is Peak Errol here.The big sword fight on the rocks is unmissable classic cinema. 

Good Night Oscar

Have you seen the photos of Oscar Isaac taken at the Los Angeles premiere for Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein last night? Here are two of them but he looks so handsome in every damn picture I recommend you search around (or just check my Bluesky where I posted more) -- they're worth losing yourself in! Kinda wild how he just keeps getting better looking -- I actually saw him coming out of a screening of Richard Linklater's new movie at NYFF last week and stood two feet from him and it ain't photoshop y'all. The man's a dream. Anyway let these photos hold you tight cuz I sure ain't gonna -- I'm off to see the new Yorgos Lanthimos picture! Yay me! Bye!

Two By That Rascally Radu Jude

I like to think that my MNPP readers are cinematically astute ones and that y'all have heard of Romanian director Radu Jude and seen at least one of his movies. But if you haven't... hoo boy, have you got some treats ahead for you. Well they're treats if you're an adventurous movie-watcher, that is -- if you like your movies to go down smoothly he probably isn't the man for you. I only became familiar with him with 2021's Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (here is my review) but since then I've very much gotten on-board with his cinema of aggression -- "provocation" doesn't even seem adequate, his movies are actively aggressive -- and so I had to review his two, yes TWO, movies that are screening at this year's NYFF -- click here to read my thoughts on both Kontinental '25 and his version of Dracula (!!!), which is truly something to behold. They both are, but Dracula is particularly unhinged. Kontinental '25 is the better Film film, if you know what I mean, but Dracula is something you'll never forget watching. Experiencing. Here's the (NSFW) trailer for it which only gets like 1/5th of its madness across:

Alexander Skarsgård, Leather Queen

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A post shared by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams)

As you may or may not have heard (although all signs point to "have") I'm in the middle of New York Film Festival duties right now, and for the most part (save yesterday but don't ask) having a grand old time. You can see what there is of coverage so far right here, with the caveat slash promise that lots more coverage will be coming. Anyway I figured I'd share the above photos and videos that I took over the weekend of Pillion writer-director Harry Lighton with his star Alexander Skarsgard at a non-NYFF-specific screenng of that movie -- which I reviewed here -- because there's never not a right time for the Skarsgård. And speaking of Sir Alex -- we've been deeply enjoying the BDSM-flavored outfits he's been rocking on the red carpets for Pillion so far, and it seems like a poll would be fun. Right? Right. Pick your favorite master...

Talk To Me, Ben Whishaw

This one won't be for everyone but I quite liked Peter Hujar's Day, Ira Sachs' new film starring Ben Whishaw & Rebecca Hall, at NYFF -- click over to Pajiba to read my review today! It's a hangout movie where a lot of the hanging out is banal but I think that's part of its point? Anyway as I say over there -- who the hell wouldn't want to just hang out with Ben Whishaw & Rebecca Hall for 76 minutes? It was like heaven to me. (I previously shared the trailer right here.)