She Is Ann Lee, Hear Her Roar

One of last year's most slept on upon great movies was Mona Fastvold's The Testament of Ann Lee, a rapturous musical  starring Amanda Seyfried as the Shaker founder -- the film was weird and unexpected and in the words of Anya Jenkins "never going to become a breakaway pop hit." Still it made my top ten of the year and what are we doing here if we're not believing what I say??? But since the movie didn't do well at the box office or the awards bodies it seemed as if getting a physical media release of the thing was D.O.A. -- I still don't know if we'll ever get a blu-ray (there were headlines when it hit VOD that it indeed wouldn't be getting this) but thankfully one barrier's now been smashed down as Milan Records has announced the soundtrack from the great Daniel Blumberg IS getting a vinyl release, and you can pre-order it right here. Hooray! This score is absolutely gorgeous -- being a non-musical person this is exactly what I want from my "musicals" honestly. Real music! That lands in September -- and hey maybe if the thing sells well they'll give us a goddamned blu-ray of the movie itself. Sorry, Ann Lee -- a "gosh-darned" blu-ray, I meant to say. Anyway I guess THE MAN Daniel Blumberg has enough sway to get his shit released, as HE did with THE MAN Brady Corbet's The Brutalist -- THE WOMAN writer-director and WIFE of Brady Corbet Mona Fastvold should try being more of a MAN I guess. (Sexism comes in all forms, y'all.)

Good Morning, World

So who out there saw The Housemaid? I did, I did, although I got to it pretty late -- I didn't see it in theaters, I only got around to it once it'd hit VOD. Anyway it came out on 4K blu-ray yesterday so I'm here to say that it's perfectly fun and twisty trash; I do like this turn that director Paul Feig's made in his career, from straight-up comedies to camp thrillers. He brings his queer-seeming sensibilities (I still don't understand how he's married to a woman but whatever, there's room under the rainbow for him, says me) to movies like this and the Simple Favor series... by which I mean he films Brandon Sklenar as he's seen in these gifs here (or these even nuder ones here) and he films Henry Golding as seen in this older post. Seriously. Nobody's exploiting beautiful dudes like Paul Feig is right now.

Good Morning, World

Did y'all see the news that right now, as of this minute, there are zero plans to give Mona Fastvold's tremendous 2025 film The Testament of Ann Lee any kind of physical media release? That right there is some high bullshit if I ever saw some high bullshit. I say we riot in the streets until not only a 4K disc is released but also that goddamned glorious soundtrack of Shaker bangers is put onto vinyl as well. "Shaker bangers" haha, what a phrase. It sounds like the name of a rowdy detective on a CBS procedural. "Nobody runs from Shaker Banger, baby!" Ahem anyway Ann Lee's gay brother himself Mr. Lewis Pullman (who could totally play Shaker Banger now that I think about it) is on the cover of the new issue of Esquire and we've got the shoot, hit the jump for it (or else we'll send Mr. Shaker Banger here on your tail)...

Good Morning, World

And so we're back! From virtual Sundance! We just walked in to find Brandon Sklenar here with that hot smile upon his face... okay I will stop while I'm behind. Did somebody say behind? Which is to say -- g'bless Paul Feig who's gone from making some great female-centered comedies to making some great female-centered trashy thrillers where he also makes sure to have his beautiful leading men flash their big meaty behinds therein. First there was Henry Golding in last year's Another Simple Favor and now we have the meatiest of them all Brandon Sklenar in The Housemaid, as seen down below. Paul Feig, who knew -- you're a true ass connoisseur. Thank you, good sir. Anyway yes I am indeed back on blog from my Sundance stuff -- there will be reviews coming! But for now, as we greet this Hump Day morning, let's just take a moment or two to bask in a big meaty something sure to brighten it:

Lewis Pullman Four Times

Momentarily I thought maybe it could be considered a spoiler for Mona Fastvold's magnificent film The Testament of Ann Lee to share that the character Lewis Pullman is playing in it is a big ol' 'mo. But I decided instead that one, while it's not an inconsequential note re: the film's themes it's also barely there, and sharing it won't ruin the movie for you in any way, I don't think. It's not some explosive revelation with regards to his character, but it does add to and underline the film's ideas about the Shakers as a community of misfits in their day. That said number two, and more importantly, I thought sharing this tidbit of information might get one or two of you who mightn't otherwise to go and see the two-plus hour musical about a bizarre religious sect. And that's what we want! Because I really love this movie and I'm not entirely sure I'll be properly reviewing it at this point, what with the holiday looming ahead. It's a great movie! Go see it! On a big screen if you can, as it very much demands a big screen. I watched it at home first and I liked it, but then I saw it a second time in 70mm and it blew my brain through the back of my head. With that said hit the jump for a couple more of lil' cute Lewis here...

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!

Good Morning, Gratuitous Michele Morrone

Italian actor Michele Morrone of 365 Days Netflix smut infamy has been doing a very good job raising his beefcake standing lately because this is now my second post on him in as many weeks and I don't feel dirty about it at all. Okay maybe I do feel dirty but just because he's making me think dirty thoughts -- it's not because those movies were trash anymore! More recently he was in paul Feig's A Simple Favor sequel -- playing gay! -- but given I was extremely distracted by Henry Golding's beautiful butt I didn't pay poor Michele much mind there. No more! 

He's grabbed the mic back! And he's got plenty of work lined up -- most importantly and surprising nobody he's been hired by gayest-straight-man-working Guy Ritchie  for a couple of episodes of the second season of The Gentlemen series opposite Theo James. And that show, despite Guy Ritchie, absolutely rules. And -- also surprising nobody -- other-gayest-straight-man-working Paul Feig booked Michele again for his adaptation of the bestseller The Housemaid with Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried. (Also sexy Brandon Skelner!) 

Point being it's a good time to be an obscenely gorgeous Italian man -- who knew? Who could have guessed? Well to the benefit of us all Dolce & Gabbana did and they hired him for their most advertising, and now they are releasing a fancy hardcover book of the photos and outtakes in September, and some of those images are what you're drooling over here in between my ramblings. Huzzah, everything! What a wonderful world we live in! Nothing bad whatsoever! Hit the jump for a pile more photos so we can keep pretending...

Quote of the Day

"A lot of people have donated to the David Lynch Foundation. It was something he was very passionate about. People can also follow Agent Cooper’s advice and give themselves a present every day. My father could not believe what was going on in the world politically, and it was very upsetting to him. People can be kind to each other. As much darkness as he was able to swim in and express, there was so much more light in his work. People can do nice things for other people in his name. That would make him very happy."

Y'all should go read Vanity Fair's interview with David Lynch's daughter, the director Jennifer Lynch today -- as sad as the subject is so many of her words moved me greatly. Above is her answer to the final question that she's asked, about what people could do in memorium of her father, and it's a perfect testament to his legacy. As she also says in the chat -- for all the darkness in his work there's just as much sweetness and light and joy. And with all the horrors we're seeing on the news every minute it's important to remember to keep those things alive and vital in your life. They can't win if we don't let them beat it out of us. Fix your hearts or die!

Hopelessly Devotion'd To You

Due to the (ongoing) pandemic it's been somewhat muted, my star-fuckery over the past couple of years -- you tend to not go to tons of live events when there's a raging illness suffocating thousands of people per week. But I've been making my way slowly back into the world in dribs and drabs -- this year's New York Film Fest really got that ball rolling -- and so last night I found myself at a screening and Q&A for the film Devotion, out next week, starring Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell. I have talked about this movie some here! Just some, haha. I'd already seen the movie (just last week) but knowing those two were going to be there for the screening last night got me back -- I'll review the movie next week, but for now I just wanna share some photos.

Since I risked the plague and all I might as well get some "community engagement" out of it! Also there was actor Thomas Sadowski -- who is apparently married to actress Amanda Seyfried, and she was there and introduced the movie, which you'll see below -- and director JD Dillard. After the screening and Q&A there was a reception and I stood closely, awkwardly, near both Jonathan and Glen at the bar without talking to them, aka my usual creep routine. It was great! Anyway I took a bunch of photos and a few videos, and if you hit the jump you'll see all of it...

What's Black and White and Mank All Over

Okay, and onto the next piece of mine elsewheres -- I have gone and reviewed David Fincher's latest, the one called Mank (you have no idea how much I always every single damn time want to write an exclamation point at the end of this movie's title), over at Pajiba today. Mank -- which tells the tell of how Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz came up with Citizen Kane -- is open in some theaters right this very second... you know, where ever the hell theaters are actually open. But it hits  the safe secure streaming home-service known as Netflix on Friday. It has its pleasures! Namely this grand dame right here:

I Am Link

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--- Ghost Protocol - The big news today is the reveal that the next James Bond movie will be called Spectre (Or is it all capitalized, as in SPECTRE? I've seen it both ways), after the sinister organization lurking in the series' long shadows, and the reveal of the entire cast, including the as-previously-rumored Christoph Waltz, Monica Belluci and Lea Sedoux rightfully taking their place as Bond Girls, and Sherlock's Andrew Scott - he's the one I'm most excited about, natch. I assume Christoph will be the main big bad (booooring) but here's to hoping that Andy gets the juicy sexy henchman bit. I think it's well overdue that Daniel Craig put his money where his mouth is with his "James Bond should sleep with a dude for her Majesty's Secret Service" quote, don't y'all? Letting Javier Bardem caress your inner thigh doesn't count.

--- Second Source - I thought that Duncan Jones' film Source Code with Jake Gyllenhaal was a perfectly fine little sciffy flick (my review) but I don't know if I'll have much interest in a sequel, especially considering it's coming from a different director and will star some nobody not named Jake Gyllenhaal.

--- Turn Back The Radio - I posted it when Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood talked about the fact that the band was just about to enter the studio to start working on their next album so it's best I follow that up with linking to the first picture out of those sessions, which producer Nigel Godrich tweeted out. Thom my man hard at work making his wailing (whaling) sounds.

--- Ozzy Oscars - Australia's Oscars, otherwise tediously known as the AACTAs (and no I have no idea what that stands for), revealed their 2014 nominations this week and our resident Aussie Glenn took a gander at 'em over at The Film Experience. It was a very fine day for Jennifer Kent and The Babadook, as well it should've been.

--- I'll Do it For You, Damien - When I clicked on this link I expected to see a creepy-eyes little kid so imagine my surprise that the lead in the upcoming Damien (yes that Damien) TV show turned out to be a hot adult piece. His name is Bradley james and I guess he was on that Merlin show; anybody familiar with him?

--- Empty Nest - There's been a change-up director-wise on the long long long gestating reboot of The Crow and now Luke Evans - full stop, do note I am not noting anything about Luke Evans anymore, do - says he's off the project because he's very very busy, dammit. Busy face-fucking his model boyfriend, no doubt.

--- Sniff This - I guess the new hot topic is old people perving on young people (yeah, there's something "new" about that) - besides Bruce La Bruce's next movie Gerontophilia (which is actually more about young people perving on old people, I guess), which we talked about previously right here, now there's a NSFW trailer for The Smell of Us, Larry Clark's new movie, which was just prominently placed on John Waters' fave movies of the year list the other day. Smell is out in France next month; no US date yet.

--- Ringing Hallows - We told you about Tales of Halloween, the new horror anthology movie, recently - it already had  Neil Marshall attached and that was good enough to get us there. Well now comes word that Lucky McKee, director of May and recently the tremendously entertaining All Cheerleaders Die, is going to direct a segment too! Yes yes good news, that.

--- And Finally I was medium to lukewarm on Noah Bambach's new movie While We're Young when I saw it at the New York Film Fest earlier this year (my review) but it's strangely comes up in conversation a lot since then - mostly having to do with Adam Driver, which makes sense (who wouldn't want to talk about Adam Driver?). Anyway the trailer just got released today, you can see it below. The movie's coming out in March.

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Five From Eighteen

I just wrote out a list of all the movies I'm behind on reviewing, and it totals eighteen. Eighteen! I will never ever catch up. That said I've got half an hour until I leave work, so let's see how many quickies I can rattle off between now and then, go. (ETA 5, the answer is 5)
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The Two Faces of January - It really really really wants to be The Talented Mr. Ripley, and in the sense that I'm sure everybody had a nice time on location when the cameras weren't pointed at them, I think it was; for the rest of us sitting and watching it though, it ain't quite there. I'm gonna try to make it though this whole thing without mentioning how I never like Oscar Isaac (whoops) - honestly he's fine here (and his best assets are showcased well in those slacks he runs around in) but his sleepy performance is par for the course in a movie that just seems half-sedated when it oughta be riling us up, making us tense with underhanded shenanigans. Everything that could've been curious about the story, any twisted Highsmithian lust or depravity boiling beneath the surface, seems scrubbed clean - it's a lot of pretty pressed clothes folded in a suitcase.

Maps to the Stars - Whenever Julianne Moore's on the screen it's seventeen awesome movies I wanna be watching all at once. She's a spark, incendiary - funny and horrible and genuine and a cartoon all at once. There are other bright spots - Mia Wasikowska and Robert Pattinson have an easy off-kilter charm together, and I appreciate that Cronenberg has no interest in making the movie we want him to make out of this. He's unstoppable in that regard - he has no interest these days in doing anything but following his own whims and letting the pieces fall where they may. (Here's where I pour one out for all the body-horror movies I ain't watching.) But that's not an especially warm appreciation I'm offering - I just wasn't vibing on the majority of your wave-length with this one, Dave.

22 Jump Street - Like the rest of the world I was surprised and satisfied by the first movie, but I've gotta go against the general consensus for take two - this sequel was stale crumbs if you ask me. I suppose the fact that I grew to dislike Jonah Hill in the interim between the two movies (there was one insufferable Oscar campaign too many - two too many, actually) might've aided and abetted my boredom, but man was I not laughing, nope just not laughing at all. (And really, Channing - the football uniform was nice and all but come on, more please.) That said, save when Gillian Bell was around - her nicely bizarre line readings spiced up a sad after-thought of a movie. I hope Channing stays true to his expressed doubts and they don't make a third (but the money, oh how the money will win.)

'71 - Gangbusters! What a captivating little hot-box of a thriller, and Jack O'Connell, man is he fantastic. What a face - at turns brute or beautiful, it's honestly an old-fashioned kind of movie-star face that the light can play all kinds of tricks on; he needs to be a gigantic star. Honestly I enjoyed this much more than Starred Up, which save Jack being once again great in I felt kinda cold to; Starred Up I felt like I'd seen and heard that story a million times before, however well-acted it was. '71 though, made me think of all the best scenes of Children of Men, in a complimentary fashion - what it might lack in that film's magical realism and futuristic sheen, '71 maintains in its captivating movie vérité, its blood on the lens nightmare sense.

While We're Young - I keep describing this as a movie that'll do well on Netflix - the kind of movie you watch in your pajamas at three o-clock in the afternoon on a Sunday with your laptop in front of you, chuckling at a gag or two while you dig for your remote which accidentally slipped to the bottom of a bag of chips. I maintain that. It's broader than anything Noah Baumbach's made so far; it feels as if he's genuinely aspiring for a larger audience with it, Ben Stiller's influence most likely, and the stretchmarks are visible. And that's a shitty obnoxious ending, Noah. But Adam Driver does some more deceptively incisive work, and Amanda Seyfried gets to act a bunch too, so s'all not for naught.
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Gerwig of the North

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The Toronto International Film Festival just announced their slate for this Fall and I'll leave the in-depth dissections of it to the people who are actually going to go (note twinges of jealousy, natch) - what caught my eye, surprising nobody nowhere, was the Greta Gerwig stuff. Specifically, what is there and what isn't. Her movie that is playing the fest is Barry Levinson's movie The Humbling, which stars Al Pacino as (and I quote) "a legendary stage actor who has an affair with a lesbian woman half his age." Oh goodness. Has anybody read the Philip Roth book it's based on? I don't know about all that. There are a couple of pictures at The Playlist, which look like it's Pacino in prime ham mode.

As for the absence at the fest that's catching my eye, I saw Noah Baumbach's name amongst the film-makers hitting TIFF and I figured he was finally going to show that second movie he and Greta shot geurilla-style around the same time they shot Frances Ha; it still doesn't even have a title, IMDb is still calling it "Untitled Public School Project." But no, Noah is showing While We're Young, his movie with Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as a middle-aged couple whose friendship with a younger couple (played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried) mixes up their lives.

Point being - where's my pseudo-Frances-Ha sequel dammit?!?!?

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I Am Link

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--- America's Finest - I know that I read through this description of the first ten minutes of the new Captain America movie over at Slash last night but I read it after I'd taken a sleeping pill so I don't remember single thing about it. I'm just gonna leave it that way and then I can have a fun eerie déjà vu sensation when I'm seeing it in the theater. What fun!

--- Bear Lover - The lucky-in-lust Amanda Seyfried has joined the cast of the sequel to the vulgar teddy bear movie Ted; she's going to be a new love interest for Mark Wahlberg's character. Seeing as how the first movie ended with him finding happily ever after with Mila Kunis, this opens up speculation what goes wrong. I hope they drop a house on Mila. Meta!

--- True Mover - Do we know if Cary Fukunaga is signed on to direct the second season of True Detective or not? I really hope not - I want him back at the movies and off that shoddy over-rated show. Things do look up for me though since he's got a ton of projects lined up, including a new one announced today - there's not much info on it except it's set in a "contemporary wartime context." He's also supposed to make that Ghana child soldiers movie with Idris Elba, too.

--- Sky Walker - Deadline has more information on that fictional version of the doc Man On Wire that Robert Zemeckis is making with Joseph Gordon Levitt playing the French dude who tightrope-walked between the Twin Towers back in the day (we first heard about it a month or so ago) - not surprisingly, Zemeckis wants to go all out on the 3D aspect of taking us up there on that eensy little strong across the skies.

--- Surf's Up - Some dude named Luke Bracey has won the "coveted" (hahaha) Keanu Reeves role in the Point Break remake. Bracey is an Aussie and was in the last GI Joe movie but apparently under the Cobra Commander mask the whole time? Gerard Butler's been signed on in the Patrick Swayze role for awhile now.

--- Survive This - Lily Rabe, who has been so glorious season after season after season on American Horror Story, has lined up a role in that horror movie that Thomas Jane is starring in that I told you about the other week; it's called The Veil and it's about a cult survivor (Rabe will play the survivor, which, well, we all know Lily Rabe is not to be trusted!) who returns to the site of her cult's mass suicide with a documentary crew. And yes this is awfully similar to The Sacrament. Besides Rabe and Jane, Jessica Alba is also in the film. (Ha - Jessica Alba in horror always equals this.)

--- And finally our pal Glenn forwarded us the below video last night out of Australia which is apparently of a marketing campaign for the super duper desired horror sequel Wolf Creek 2 that plunked itself down via a couple of giant shipping containers in a train station and subject those who dared to step inside to killer Mick Taylor's horrors. (I haven't watched it yet myself so this is me reminding myself to do so tonight when I get home.) Wolf Creek 2 opened in Oz last week and did well, box-office-wise. Still no word on its US release.

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Lovelace in 200 Words or Less

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First things first, I think Amanda Seyfried's great in the movie. Weird how I feel like I need to make that clear - I feel strangely protective of her for some reason, even though she's always flaunting her hot-man-hopping ways and making me crazy with jealousy. (To be her, not to have her, of course.) Anyway Mandy's really good as the most famous larynx'd lady in all the world - she's sweet and sad and sweetly sadly sexy too; believably gullible when she needs to be, and dark eyed with cynicism when that hope's all but broken - in a movie that never really seems sure of what it is or where it's going. The double-back structure is clever, that's not my problem with it - the movie just seems distracted by surface even once the darkness rolls in. It never feels like it's asking the right questions, if that makes sense.There's this flat sense of inevitability and obviousness that it never overcomes, and so too much rides out perfunctorily instead of scooping you up by the balls and (dare I? I dare) going deep.

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More Bang For The Buck

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(via) That there is the British trailer for Lovelace, Mandy Seyfried's upcoming porn biopic of the Seventies star. I skipped posting it when the American trailer popped up last week because, bah, no skin! Thankfully overseas they're less prudish selling their movie about blowjobbing with some, you know, seedier stuff. Like Peter Sarsgaard in underpants, hooray! Hit the jump for more caps of that, and Adam Brody, and James Franco...

I Am Link

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--- Uncle Tom - Because he wants to make a fifth Mission Impossible movie, Tom Cruise has dropped out of that other 60s TV Spy Show remake The Man From UNCLE. This is great news, maybe - Armie Hammer was going to be his co-star, and now Armie can find a much more appealing co-star, and I can feel good about wanting to see this movie. Hmm who should replace Cruise? I've never seen the show so I have no idea about who's playing what, really.

--- Wham BAM - The full line-up and schedule for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's annual movie-fest called BAMcinemaFest is up, you can see what's what over here. Hotly anticipated indies like Ain't Them Bodies Saints and The Spectacular Now and Drinking Buddies are all out in force. Yeehaw.

--- Dizzy Izzy - Isabelle Fuhrmann, who ought to be a huge star post-Orphan (and really ought to be making that Suspiria remake with David Gordon Green right now, sigh), is starring in a coming of age story about two girls on a road trip in search of Eleanor Roosevelt. I don't think this movie will be up my alley. But I love Isabelle, so I'm glad she's got work.

--- Silver Tongued - Because if Bryan Singer has anything to do with it he'll leave no twink standing, he's hired Evan Peters (he who looks excellent in tighty whities on American Horror Story) to play the character of Quicksilver in the next X-Men movie. It's really starting to seem super crowded over there. The interesting part of this story is that Joss Whedon is on the record saying he's using Quicksilver for the second Avengers movie; complicated legal junk has kept the X-Men totally seperate from the rest of the Marvel movie universe so far. Will Joss hire a different actor to play the character? Stay tuned!

--- Galaxy Guy - I once liked John C. Reilly quite a bit, thanks to Paul Thomas Anderson, but he kind of makes me cringe now, so I'm not really so enthusiastic about this news that he's been offered a role in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, this next big superhero team-up movie. He'll basically be playing the dude who gets the team all gathered up a la Clark Gregg in The Avengers.

--- Attack The Borg - Apparently there are rumors out there that Attack the Block director Joe Cornish is the guy that might pick up directing duties on the Star Trek franchise now that JJ Abrams is moving along to the Star Wars franchise. If we get to see one of the hairy bad beasties from AtB pop a Tribble into its mouth like a snack-cake, we all win.

--- Knick of Time - Steven Soderbergh may have retired from feature-film making but he's just announced his first foray into television (if you don't count the supposed-to-be-a-feature Behind the Candelabra of course) - he's going to make a ten-hour series called The Knick for Cinemax, starring Clive Owen in the story of a hospital at the start of the 20th Century.

--- Blonde Swap - Amanda Seyfried of all people is indeed taking on "the Greta Gerwig part" in Noah Baumbach's next movie (well next next; he's apparently already got a Gerwig-starring Frances Ha follow-up in the can), which is called While We're Young and is about two couples, one older (Ben Still and Naomi Watts) and one younger (Seyfried and Adam Driver), and how they interact.

--- Salt Lick - I figured once director Todd Haynes announced he was making Carol, that adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's book The Price of Salt that I've been clamoring for for several years now, that'd get the ball rolling, and sure enough the Weinsteins have snapped up the rights so this thing is totally getting made. 

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I Am Link

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--- Revving With Refn - Here's a truly delightful chat over at The New York Times with director Nicolas Winding Refn from Cannes, in which he talks about falling in love with Ryan Gosling, his fetishization of masculinity, turning Kristen Scott Thomas into Donatella Versace, and all of the pills that Lars Von Trier is on. I told you - delightful. (thx Mac)

--- All Mandy - My pretend best frenemy Amanda Seyfried has a new role - she's going to star in Z For Zachariah, which is an adaptation of a sci-fi young adult-ish book from the 1970s I guess.  Anybody read it? Chiwetol Ejifor and Chris Pine are set to co-star - what's neat is it's Ejiofor that's playing her love interest. It's a shame that it's still a thing I notice right away - interracial romance - but we really don't get it all that often still.

--- Space Mien - Cabin in the Woods director and Joss acolyte Drew Goddard has lined up a second film! It's called The Martian and it's about an astronaut who gets trapped on Mars. I guess it's based off an e-book. The influx of smart science-fiction, which I assume this will be, or try to be, as of late is a very happy thing, innit?

--- The Cannibal - Deadline is reporting that there is interest from at least one cable network as well as Amazon to pick it up if NBC decides not to renew Hannibal. They don't name the cable network. Hannibal is apparently the only primetime drama that we don't yet know the fate of, but then it started later than all the rest didn't it?

--- Good Mother - Also on the TV beat - we were just talking about Anna Faris' sitcom called Mom yesterday, and now there's a trailer! I have not watched it yet. I am so scared it will look terrible. Somebody tell me it's safe!

--- Dickies Everywhere - Yesterday The Film Experience took on The Talented Mr. Ripley for its "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series, and I think Nat's write-up might be one of my favorites he's ever done. Course it helps that I love the movie so much. Wish I'd gotten around to rewatching it in order to play myself! Maybe this weekend. Although who am I kidding, this NSFW one is totally gonna win. See all of the picks for best shot right here.

--- Her Vice - Reese Witherspoon's joined the cast of Paul Thomas Anderson's next flick Inherent Vice, marking a reunion between her and her Johnny Cash, Joaquin Phoenix who's the film's lead. Also joining - Jena Malone, who circa Donnie Darko I loved but have grown a little wary of lately.

--- And finally, I haven't have a moment to watch this new trailer for Guillermo Del Toro's robot-versus-monster-mash Pacific Rim yet, but according to the people who have it is chock-filled with more hot monster action. Somebody let me know if there's any hot Hunnam or Elba action and I'll make it a priority, watching this right away.

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Quote of the Day

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"Imagine deep-throating a penis, get that feeling in the back

 of your throat, and then sing. That's where your larynx is."

--- (via) I want to take singing lessons from Amanda Seyfried!

In a class taught by her and her ex Dominic Cooper, of course.

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I Am Link

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--- Kneel Before Brody - That right there's a new picture of my best frenemy Amanda Seyfried on her knees in front of I believe that's Adam Brody, for the bio-pic Lovelace, via The Playlist. Once again she's stealing all my parts!

--- Two Women - This is like the lady version of that thing I said last week about Michael Fassbender and Jake Gyllenhaal blowing each other in a alleyway - a conversation between Lena Dunham and Miranda July, aka two of my very favorite women on the planet? Why yes I will gobble that right up, thank you, Interview magazine.

--- Fur Mates - Well I guess Roman Polanski decided to go a little bit older (seventeen and a half years older) with his male lead in his adaptation of the hit stage show Venus in Fur - he's swapped out 30 year old Louis Garrel for 47 year old Mathieu Almaric. The leading lady is still Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner, who is actually pretty much the same age as Almaric (they already co-starred in the fantastic Diving Bell and the Butterfly), so at least Polanski's not aging up the leading man and keeping a young lady opposite him - that's a dynamic it's best Mr. Polanski stay away from. Anyway I hope someday we get to see Hugh Dancy play the part since he played it on stage and I was too dumb to go see it.

--- Hit The Showers - Brian DePalma, ever the most delicate of film-makers (ha), is going to make a bio-pic about Joe Paterno that will star Al Pacino. Oh dear. This is going to end in tears.

--- Live Nude Boy - I saw Picnic on stage a couple of nights ago and I totally don't have anything to say about it other than what Nat just wrote about it at the Film Experience, so just read that. I suppose I could drool about Sebastian Stan's torso, but I already did that much a bunch. (Seriously though, I don't think I breathed for five minutes.)

--- Foot Work - Also at TFE, Michael counts down ten of his favorite dance scenes from 2012's movies. Great list, and lots of great also-ran's mentioned in the comments. Didn't realize it was such a dance-filled year of movies.

--- Lady Jane - I forgot that Jane Fonda blogged some; here's her writing up her Golden Globes evening. I can't decide if my favorite part is where she says she wants to work with David O. Russell or how she watched the actual ceremony in her hotel room.

--- Golden Gun - We blogged about this nearly two months ago back but I guess it's like more official now - Dominic Cooper will indeed be playing Ian Fleming, aka the writer of the James Bond books, for a UK miniseries on the telly. I hope they find some excuse to have Dom and Daniel Craig, like, make out or whatever. I'd write it into the script if I were in control!

--- Hot Boyle'd - Oh and I forgot to link to this before - also at TFE I wrote up some more thoughts about the trailer for Danny Boyle's new movie Trance with James McAvoy Rosario Dawson and Vincent Cassel.

--- Midnight Eats - I've been saying for years that it seems crazy to me that another Gremlins movie has never been made, so the news that they might be inching towards one (probably a reboot, not a sequel) doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, as long as they don't make shitty cg beasties, I am totally on board.

--- A Haunting - Emma Stone has signed on to star in Guillermo Del Toro's gothic ghost movie Crimson Peak, which is terrific news. We love the both of them, and she's got great big eyes the better for being spooked with.

--- High Heist - Sofia Coppola's next movie, the one about those teenage thieves who robbed famous people's houses in LA called The Bling Ring, will be out in June. It stars Emma Watson, who I love anew after Perks of Being a Wallflower.

--- Hello Mudder - Even though he made some good to great movies this year, I still don't click on links just because of Matthew McConaughey's name. It takes a lil' more. Thankfully the name Jeff Nichols is more. He directed Take Shelter. His new movie is called Mud and it stars Matt. It has a trailer now, right here. I will see this. 
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