Morgan Spector Four Times

This is me being impatient even though I know damn well that Man About Town will surely drop more than four photos from this new photoshoot of Morgan Spector -- but it's Morgan Spector! So I am inclined to be jumpy. (I mean have you looked at this old post before?) Anyway I love that I have now done a Morgan Spector AND a Carrie Coon post today -- we're basically Grand Central Gilded Age Station right now. All I need is for Claybourne Elder to flash some of that ginger chest fur of his and everything will be perfect. Hit the jump for the other three (for now) photos...

Do Monkey Around

I never reviewed it but I thought Dev Patel's Monkey Man was pretty terrific, especially when you take it into consideration that he was a first-time director -- he bit off a lot for his first go-round and I don't just mean the fact that he also wrote and starred in it. I mean it's a wildly ambitious action movie that also threads in politics and emotional resonance to its kick-assery, and while the seams do show at times it's still very much worth seeing. Which you can do now, is my point -- you can rent it on Amazon right now, or you can pre-order on 4K blu-ray and wait to watch it when it streets... which there doesn't seem to be a date for yet. But I'd still recommend watching it on 4K when that chance arises because Dev really shot the hell out of it. Also... abs. He knew we wanted the abs and he gave us the abs. If that's not worth buying the damn disc I don't know what. Reward this man!

A Brand New Wedding Banquet

I sent this news story to myself two nights ago meaning to post about it but so goes my brain, forever distracted by shiny things -- anyway you have maybe heard by now but Fire Island and Driveways director Andrew Ahn (longtime MNPP fave) is remaking (sort of) Ang Lee's classic 1993 queer rom-com The Wedding Banquet! You'll understand why I say "sort of" when I share the plot, but before that -- this news comes along with a stellar name cast: Lily Gladstone, Bowen Yang, Kelly Marie Tran, Joan Chen, and Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung! There's only one person who hasn't been cast yet and that's the hot Korean guy named Min who's at the center of everything, aka the role that was played by hot Winston Chao in Lee's movie. 

Mmm Winston. Anyway those are a lot of names of actors when the main roles in Ang Lee's original film didn't contain that many characters, which is where the "sort of" with regards to this being a remake comes in -- this version's plot has some extra complications. The plot:

"The plot revolves around Min, whose marriage proposal is rejected by his boyfriend Chris (Yang). Min then convinces his best friend Angela (Marie Tran) to marry him for his green card and offers to pay for the IVF treatment of the latter’s partner, Liz (Gladstone), in return. Although Min and Angela plan a “subtle city hall elopement,” their lives are turned upside down when the former’s grandmother arrives in Seattle to throw them an extravagant Korean wedding banquet."

I think Ahn's making smart choices here, beefing up the life of the female character with her own romance -- the fact that it's bringing legend Lily Gladstone along for the ride is just bonus. Okay it's a really really exciting bonus. Now we just wait to see who Ahn casts as Min... and might I make a suggestion: 

After Past Lives I need all the Teo Yoo I can get. That said I think he's straight (actually I have no idea) and I wouldn't be surprised if Ahn is looking for a openly queer actor. So any suggestions?

Quote of the Day

"Look, we’re all going to die. Nothing somebody writes in an article is going to be the thing that kills me. A lot of other things are going to kill me, but that’s not one of them. I understand if you’re working onstage and you’re reading reviews while you’re onstage, you can get stuck in your head on that stuff. But also…I don’t know. I like to know how the work’s being received in the world. I think it’s important. I think I’m interested in that conversation about what art is doing. I’m part of what’s doing the art, and I feel like I have some responsibility to understand how that work is landing in the world—to help me hone in on the kind of things I’m interested in participating in, and what’s something that I don’t think I want to put my name on."

I know I'm a movie critic so of course I'm partial to opinions that value our work, but I think Carrie Coon (in an interview with Vanity Fair here), in admitting she reads the reviews of her work, really pinpoints something beyond my ego (as if such a far-flung place exists) -- that it's the critic's job to situate art within the moment; to give it context. Sometimes it's one person's context -- the critic's -- but we are not islands, and surely those of us who are actually trying and aren't just pull-quote machines are actually providing a service. Anyway I always like it when performers and artists appreciate what we do and don't act like pissy little ceramic dolls and Carrie Coon continues to rule, the end. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

And a happy 36 to Jonathan Bailey today!

Josh O'Connor Thirteen Times

There are actually two more Josh O'Connor photoshoots that I am ignoring at the moment in order to share this one for the Wall Street Journal first -- so it goes when our big eared boy has a new movie coming out! The photographers and stylists (and Russell Tovey) all love Josh right now. (PS that WSJ article is paywalled so I haven't read it and I scrounged up what photos I could from other sources but this might not be everything.) And so do we, although I am very much feeling the "hey we were there years ago" vibe. But after seeing Challengers a second time this past Monday night it's clear there's no fighting it -- this is a star-making role for Josh and to my eye he walks away (struts away, really) with the whole movie. But more on Challengers later this week when I finally drop my review! For now enjoy the photos (this first batch), after the jump...

The Vampire is Capitalism

Random recommendation time! I was looking for something to watch last night from the gigantic pile of physical media sitting in front of my television and I saw Severin's Danza Macabre: Volume 2 box-set sitting there -- these sets contain gothic Italian horror films from the 1960s and 70s mainly, and that sounded like my mood to me. I landed on Corrado Farina's 1971 film They Have Changed Their Face (aka Hanno cambiato faccia) which I'd recalled sounding interesting when I bought the set; here is how Severin describes the movie:

"Though he made only two feature films, writer/director/novelist Corrado Farina (BABA YAGA) rocked the Italian horror genre with his “astounding” (Taliesin Meets The Vampires) and long out-of-print 1971 debut: A mid-level automotive company employee is summoned to the mountain villa of owner Giovanni Nosferatu (Adolfo Celi of THUNDERBALL and DANGER: DIABOLIK fame) only to discover a glossy netherworld where capitalism is the new vampirism, consumers are its unwitting victims and escape may be impossible. Giuliano Disperati (VIOLENT ROME) and Geraldine Hooper (DEEP RED) co-star in this startling reinvention of the Dracula mythos co-written by Giulio Berruti (KILLER NUN) and influenced by Farina’s earlier career as an advertising executive."

That description sort of does the movie justice, but it's way sillier and weider than you might even be picturing -- yes it's basically a re-telling of Dracula but the count is a middle-aged white-haired CEO of a company called Nosferatu that brands everything from laundry detergent to LSD (and see the video at the bottom of this post for a commercial for LSD in the movie that had me cackling). Plus the mansion's grounds are patrolled by a fleet of white European mini-sedans, and every piece of furtniture spits out advertisments through embedded speakers in the walls of the mansion whenever used. 

It is wildly and terrifically weird y'all, and that's before Farina starts inserting parodies of Bergman and Fellini movies in the last act. Anyway I don't know where this movie has been my entire life but now that it's introduced iutself to me I am obsessed, and I need to spread the gospel far and wide. What a treat! You can buy the Danza Macabre box-set at this link (volume two also includes 1964's stellar Castle of Blood with horror icon Barbara Steele; I haven't watched the other stuff on the set yet) or if that price puts you off (the set ain't cheap, even though I have found it worth every penny) you can rent THCTF on Amazon for 99 whole cents right here. Would I steer you wrong??? I haven't felt this enamored with a random old movie since the first time Messiah of Evil fell in my lap.

I mean, this movie is really something pic.twitter.com/RllBHsqMwf

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 24, 2024

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

I can't believe that Luke Evans is managing to get his "clothing brand" mentioned here two mornings in a row but I suppose we are the target audience and all things considered I do appreciate how basic and simple he's kept it -- white tees and tighty-whities, you can't go wrong -- and oh plus that he's got Russell Tovey modeling for him pro-bono in his underpants. That last part is the actually most important part. Anyway I feel as if I have been poking fun at Russ a little too much lately (see this tweet for an example) but it's very much intended to be a loving ribbing -- because when I say that I have seen all of his public displays of Josh O'Connor crushing this week (he posted a photo of Josh on his Insta-stories and he has been liking every photo of Josh on Insta before even I get to them) it's not to call him out; it's just to say I see you, Tovey, and I understand you. Also when I think about the meeting of the Epic Ears that Russell Tovey & Josh O'Connor getting together would create -- an ear-pocalypse!!! -- I get very excited. Let's make it happen, boys!

 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

eXistenZ (1999)

Ted: We're both stumbling around together in this unformed

world, whose rules and objectives are largely unknown,

seemingly indecipherable or even possibly nonexistent,

always on the verge of being killed by
forces that we don't understand.

Allegra: That sounds like my game, all right. 

Ted: That sounds like a game that's
not gonna be easy to market. 

Allegra: But it's a game everybody's already playing.

David Cronenberg's eXistenZ was released 25 years ago today!

If you haven't picked up that 4K yet I recommend doing so.

PS this makes a killer double-feature with Crimes of the Future.

Kingdom Comes Home

Using Alexander Skarsgård's photo here is a bit of a cheat since his role in the third season of Lars Von Trier's series The Kingdom is minute, but I'm never above a cheat! Especially not if it allows me to stare at Alexander Skarsgård. Anyway today is a happy day for us Kingdom-heads as the entire three-season series has been given fresh life thanks to the fine folks at MUBI, who've just dropped a blu-ray box-set of all three seasons and thirteen episodes -- you can buy it at this link. The set includes not just the show (a prize beyond words in itself) but behind-the-scenes interviews, commentaries, a documentary, Danish commercials, and a companion booklet. But the show itself is plenty; I mean where else are you going to see...

... somebody give birth to a full-grown Udo Kier, I ask you? Well besides at any local gay bar on a Saturday night. In all seriousness this series is a bizarre treat from start to finish, one of LVT's greatest accomplishments. And who knows when we'll get something from LVT next? His health ain't great. (And his sanity... well that's never been the greatest.) He is supposedly working on a series of short films called Études (aka Studies) right now but we should all probably tide ourselves over with The Kingdom for now. And it goes excellent with that ginormous box-set of LVT's entire filmography that I told you about earlier today, actually!

A Peter Strickland Smorgasbord

I imagine the Venn diagram of these two circles isn't enormous but since I am smack dab in the center of it I will do the post anyway -- this one goes out to my fellow physical media obsessives who are also huge fans of the director Peter Strickland! (And I imagine if you people do exist then you've been here to this site because these are things I post about regularly.) The British company Curzon is dropping one of their legendary box-sets for Mr. Strickland this year! I have several of their boxes -- the absolutely massive one that they put out for Lars Von Trier last year blew my mind -- and they do quality work. This set will include blu-rays of all five of Strickland's feature films to date...

... meaning Berberian Sound Studio, The Duke of Burgundy, In Fabric, Flux Gourmet (aka my number one movie of 2022), along with his debut film Katalin Varga which will be hitting blu for the very first time and which (shh don't tell anyway) I have never seen. Gaps, I know! I have been saving it for a special moment. I suppose getting this set will count. The set will also be loaded with Strickland's music videos and short films -- one of which he made specifically for this set! And there's also a book included with writings by Strickland and his favorite actress Fatma Mohamed. (We worship her.) Anyway these sets are Region B of course so only buy them if you've got a region-free blu-ray player. The set is currently only for sale on Amazon UK at this link. They have the release date as June 24th! Anything that keeps Strickland's name out there so we can get a new movie some time soon! I'm dying here.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Noted actor Luke Evans is on the cover of the Spanish edition of Men's Health this month and he brought his tighty-whities -- not to the cover unfortunately, but inside the magazine. And when I say "his" tighty-whtiies I do actually mean his, since he's trying to be a fashion maven now with a very gay brand that seems to make mostly underwear and speedos. Luke's specialties! Anyway I assume that's what this article is about (it's in Spanish so I have no actual idea) since he doesn't have any other projects coming out at the moment. But if it gets him modeling tighty-whities and speedos in Men's Health who am I to mind? Hit the jump for more photos...

Happy Birthday, John Waters

The king is 78 today.

Make That Two Cocks in a Frock on a Rock

I guess it's 90s Gay Day here at MNPP, what with me posting about the original Queer as Folk and then following it up with news that the now-30-year-old film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is getting a sequel. The original cast of Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce (I was so hot for Guy Pearce in this) and Hugo Weaving are all returning, as is director Stephan Elliott -- rumor is the plot will be about Hugo Weaving's character's son, who was 7-years-old in the original movie. So... 37-ish now. Siiiigh. Fuckin' time, man. Anyway speaking of it's been ages since I watched the original -- should give it another spin soon. And I know what we're all praying -- Oscar winner Lizzy Gardiner  (and her Amex-dress!) better be back too! And now, a treat: here is the film's iconic opening scene to cheer up this Monday afternoon: 

Quote of the Day

"I just kind of waited for someone to stop me. And I could defend it vigorously. It wasn't there to be salacious. People talk to me about “shock value,” and actually shock value is just as much a danger of people turning off as it is turning on. I powerfully believed in that rimming scene, because I needed a sexual experience that Nathan had never even imagined. There wasn’t as much porn. Nathan wouldn’t have had access to all that stuff. Even in porn magazines, you didn’t see rimming, particularly. It wasn’t as easily photographed, I suppose. I wonder what boys imagine now, now they know what goes on. Maybe you imagine fucking. But to imagine rimming? And to get a sexual thrill out of rimming? I don’t think then, at 15, that even existed in his head. So that was the point. That night with Stuart is a mind fuck. Not just a fuck. A mind fuck. He experiences something he never even knew existed. And that’s a metaphor for his whole gay experience. I genuinely believe to this day that it was important."

British GQ dropped an "Oral History" of the original Queer as Folk over the weekend -- which just turned 25 a couple of weeks ago, good grief -- and the above quote is from creator Russell T. Davies, talking about the first episode's infamous (slash legendary) "rimming scene" between Aidan Gillen and Charlie Hunnam. Oral History indeed! In all seriousness that scene was when the show got its hooks in me, and for the exact reasons Davies explicates -- I mean yes obviously we all liked watching that happen to Charlie Hunnam. (Also there are other quotes in the piece that seem to finally make it clear for once that yes, that is indeed both Aidan & Charlie in the scene, and nobody's body doubles. Huzzah!) But I saw my own experience being reflected on a screen in that show in a way I never had before. When I was 18 and having sex with my slightly older boyfriend for the first time(s) I had no idea what to do -- I hadn't had any access to gay porn in the mid-90s. I was fucking clueless. I didn't know what two men would do together; I just knew that I wanted it to happen whatever it was. So Charlie's shock and delight in that moment... let's just say I felt real seen. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Well it looks like Paul Mescal was still filming The History of Sound, his gay movie with Josh O'Connor from Moffie and Living director Oliver Hermanus, in Italy over the weekend -- either that or Paul was feeling very frisky all on his own! I shared some more-dressed photos on Friday from the set -- it seems they timed the filming of these Just-Paul scenes to coincide with the ongoing Challengers press tour, which Josh has been traveling around with while wearing the goofiest fashions his stylist can throw at him. Anyway in related Oliver Hermanus news I finally started his limited-series Mary & George with Julianne Moore & Nicholas Galitzine over the weekend and I practically finished it too -- just two episodes to go. So I'm loving it obviously but I'll write more once I have finished. Okay that's all, hit the jump for a few more photos and happy Monday...