Cold Nights For Pretty Boys

Back in August I told you about All of Us Strangers and Looking director Andrew Haigh's next movie -- excuse me, next GAY movie (thank goodness) -- an adaptation of Colm Tóibín's book A Long Winter (which comes out in a couple of weeks) about a woman who goes druunkenly wandering into a snowstorm, forcing her husband and son to start a long search for her. That plot description is slightly different from the one of the book -- especially the names and settings which have seem to've been Americanized from the Pyrenees of Tóibín's novel. Anyway there's no word on who's playing who yet but we have some cast members now -- Heartstopper hunk Kit Connor with his Warfare castmate D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, and then our boy Fred Hechinger! (Yay Fred!) How those three pretty young things fit into that plot description I have no idea, but we'll leave our trust in Andrew Haigh, who has yet to make anything that wasn't incredible in his entire career and yet who keeps being ignored by awards bodies because he keeps making gay stuff. (What, me get over All of Us Strangers being snubbed? Are you nuts?) 

Rocky Mountain Haigh

I don't know how much faith we should have in this rumor since they got the description of the book all wrong, but it's being reported (via, thx Mac) that All of Us Strangers and Weekend director Andrew Haigh will next be adapting Brooklyn writer Colm Tóibín's still-to-be-published book A Long Winter to film. The problem is that report linked above comes with a plot description of a totally different book of Tóibín's from 1990 called The South, which is about a woman in the 1950s falling in love with a painter in Spain. A Long Winter on the other hand, well it's also set in Spain but it's about something else entirely:

"One snowy morning, after arguing with her husband, Miquel's mother walks out of their home high up in the Pyrenees and does not return. With his younger brother stationed far away on military service and his father cast out by the people of the town, Miquel and his father are left to fend for themselves. Together they will be forced to battle the elements, and their resentment of each other, through the long winter. Miquel's desperate searching for his mother is only interrupted when Manolo, an orphaned servant boy from the next village, arrives to help out in the house. As Miquel is forced to confront the reality of his mother's absence, Manolo, with his silences and longing gaze, offers the promise of new love, and another kind of life."

So, gay! Andrew Haigh making a gay movie -- that sits better with me. I mean I don't want to pigeonhole him in his work, but when we've got a filmmaker with his enormous gifts making truly exquisite gay films like All of Us Strangers I kinda wanna keep him with us for as long as possible. I think you'll understand. But our man also made 45 Years and Lean On Pete and they're both masterpieces even if they're heterosexual, so we'll truly take whatever he sees fit to give us. My dude hasn't faltered yet. 

Jack O'Connell Seven Times

Wildly I haven't been able to see Sinners yet (I am going this upcoming weekend though) but I have heard from several sources that Jack O'Connell is one of its many highlights and this makes me extremely glad -- talk about a terrific (and yeah let's be honest super beautiful) actor who's gone criminally underutilized for far too long. He's been screaming out for a great director to give him a juicy role for twelve years now since the one-two punch of Starred Up and '71 landed in 2013 (and then there was his breakthrough on Skins before that) -- which isn't to say he hasn't delivered good work in that time. (Go watch Andrew Haigh's miniseres North Water with Colin Farrell and Jack right now.) I'm just glad to hear he's gotten to stand out in a box office hit. More Jack please! Speaking of I have some more from this fresh sexy photoshoot for Hero magazine (read the interview here) for us right on after the jump...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

All of Us Strangers (2023)

Harry: You are queer, right?

Adam: Yeah.

Harry: That's good.

Adam: Well, 'gay'. I can't get used to calling 

myself 'queer'. It was always such an insult.

Harry: It's probably why we hate 'gay' so much now. 

'Gay' meant lame and shit. Those trainers are gay. 

That haircut's gay. This sofa is gay. Your school bag's gay. 

'Queer' does feel polite somehow though. 

Like all the dick-sucking's been taken out.

A happy 52 to the great Andrew Haigh today!

Heads Up, Happy People

Heads-up, happy people! The vast library of our beloved Criterion Collection is on sale on Amazon right now at 50% off! This will presumably be for the entire month of November as they do this to compete with the same sale at Barnes & Noble that typically starts a little later in the month. That means it also includes pre-orders for movies out before the end of November, which includes Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water, the original Godzilla in 4K, and Paper Moon in 4K! And of course it includes last month's barnstormer of an excellent drop with Todd Solondz' Happiness, a Val Lewton horror double-feature, All of Us Strangers, and that to-die-for Gregg Araki trilogy! And then there's the issue of that massive 40-film 40th anniversary box-set that Criterion is releasing on November 17th -- that's not priced at the full 50% off right now but it is priced at $400, so $10 a movie, which seems like a damn good deal already. Anyway point being click on those links and treat  yourselves to some movies, it will distract you from... [gestures wildly]

Good Morning, World

I saw these gifs of Russell Tovey on Looking making the rounds on Tumblr yesterday and I realized I don't think I ever posted these shots here before? Which is insane. And so here they are, Russ in all his glory. Or you know, 85% of his glory anyway. Can you believe Looking is 10 years old already? We are all on death's door. Happy Friday!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

All of Us Strangers (2023)

Mum: They say it's a very lonely kind of life.

Adam: They don't say that anymore.

Mum: So you're not lonely?

Adam: If I am it's not because I'm gay. Not really.

My number one movie of last year Andrew Haigh's masterpiece All of Us Strangers is now out on 4K blu-ray today thanks to the wonderful wonderful folks over at Criterion -- pick up your copy here (as if y'all didn't already have it pre-ordered from when I first announced it was coming out). Here is my review of the movie, where I said of it "an epic of intimacy with a staggering open wound of a performance from Andrew Scott in its lead, All of Us Strangers is so brave in its honesty we’re all left naked babes wailing in its wake." 

(Heyyy Paul.) It's a movie that hit me harder with every re-watch -- every single actor in this film should have been nominated for an Oscar, along with all of the people behind the scenes in every single category, and it's total lack of nominations stands as further proof the Oscars are total shit. TOTAL SHIT. Anyway that's hardly news -- I'm just so glad that Criterion's giving it a proper physical-media release. Since it was a streamer's film and it made no money there was no gaurantee that it would get this. So go shower your money on Criterion in appreciation!

Morning ☕ 💙 pic.twitter.com/U2Gi8eQmWo

— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) September 10, 2024

Andrew Scott Six Times

Happy day, Andrew Scott new photoshoot! Here is our All of Us Strangers and Ripley fella for Netflix's Queue magazine -- clearly given the source this is mainly for Ripley press, given he's currently nominated for an Emmy for it. (At least the Emmys knew what's what, unlike the Oscars with Strangers -- bastards.) Anyway not that I haven't spent the last 12 months or so on an Andy high but I did just see the recorded version of his performance in Noel Coward's play Present Laughter this past weekend as well, in which he was tremendous, and so my high is even higher right now -- hell, highest even. So these photos are hittin' the spot. Yes, that spot. The spot. So y'all hit the jump and hit your spots maybe too...

Happiness Is a Stranger's Apocalypse

Apologies but y'all are going to have to scrape me off the floor before I can write this post with Criterion's September announcements -- this is the most aimed-straight-at-me batch of titles imaginable. It was like one slap with a brick across the face after another as I scanned down through the email announcement -- I couldn't even believe my eyes. I ran to Twitter to immediately scream about the title seen above (which we'll get to in a second) and then when I went back to the email I saw what else was in store and was like, "Momma get me my pills." This is just three simultaneous (wet) dreams coming true at once. I am in a state of happy shock. Allow me a moment to luxuriate in this pleasure...

Okay. Let's get to it. First up! If I went back and tried to find the first time I screamed at Criterion to release a box-set of Gregg Araki's "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy" it would be impossible because it was many many many moons ago and I have done it approximately ten million times since. I probably brought it up two to three times a year. Seeing it finally come to fruition is something I'd almost given up on! But then the movies got remastered last year and I began to think it might be a real possibility... and here we are. Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere, given the proper love they have long deserved. We won! You can see all of the special features over at Criterion, where you can also buy the set -- and do that, buy one for everyone you know, because we need to let them know how happy this has made us. Just know the set is loaded with extras -- they even got the rare bird of Nathan Bexton to be on one of the commentaries! 

My insides are screaming, crying, throwing up, throwing gay ass 

confetti. I could end this post there and be ecstatic, but then...

... it turns out that Criterion is releasing Andrew Haigh's 2023 masterpiece All of Us Strangers on 4K in September too! My favorite movie of last year (here is my original review), which we'd been worried wasn't getting any kind of physical media release here in the U.S. (there is a U.K. blu-ray scheduled) because it was an Amazon movie and that cruel rumor had been going around. I had not a single inkling this was going to happen and every part of me is right now tingling. What a gorgeous surprise! And yet that wasn't even the biggest surprise of all, because...

... Todd Solondz's Happiness is also hitting 4K! HOLY SHIT!!! Do you understand now why my entire self is vibrating? This movie hasn't gotten a proper release since the age of DVD, and those DVDs have been out of print and fetching good sums of money for years now. And now suddenly we're moving right on up to 4K! This is one of my favorite movies of all time, I've seen it more times than I could count -- if you've somehow never managed to see it before (because it really has been a pain to see) my god are you in for a deranged dark treat. I quote this movie at least once a week...

... it's basically everything I want from the movies. And I'm also over the moon that they used Daniel Clowes' fantastic original art-work for the set's cover because how do you top that slice of perfection? It's iconic. Anyway with those three sets (containing five movies total) September 2024 is now etched into the fabric of time and reality as Peak Criterion. My gods. My stars! Oh and I should mention that as seen below they're also dropping 4Ks of both The Long Good Friday and Repo Man which are great and all, too. But let's be honest and obvious -- I am all about the above fireworks show of awesomeness. So, so, so all about! Today is a great day, my friends! Slip something in your tuna sandwich and celebrate! 

Quote of the (January)

Sad to admit I missed our pal David Opie's interview with Andrew Haigh on All of Us Strangers back in January because it's a really good one -- click on over to read it if you're not AOUS'd out (and if you are you're probably in the wrong place). Anyway the film is hitting blu-ray (in the UK, mind you) in a few weeks so this is sort of timely. In between timeliness anyway. Their conversation about the generational divide between gay men who lived through the AIDS crisis and those who came after really strikes at the heart of the film (obviously) so here's that bit:

Opie: That sex scene early on where Harry licks cum off Adam's chest really struck me, because any kind of contact with bodily fluids like this would have once been horrifying to Adam. Did you consciously include this scene in relation to Adam's shame and him overcoming it?

Haigh: Absolutely. That's the point of that shot to me. I think there's probably lots and lots of people who will not truly understand that at all. Of course, you will understand it because you understand it from a personal standpoint. There are two gay people of a different generation and one has no fear in that moment of what he's doing. The other one is still resistant to that. That's years of something within his body telling him to be resistant. And he overcomes it because of course, you can overcome it. Lots of people do overcome that fear and shame and that is the point. In that moment, there was a little bit of resistance, but the intimacy and the compassion of Harry in that moment allows him to overcome a sort of embedded fear."

All of Us Strangers Blu-ray Alert!

Picture it -- you're laying on the couch with either Andrew Scott or Paul Mescal and you're trying to figure out what to watch. Yes yes in this theoretical exercise you would "watch" something instead of fucking their brains out; I know it's hard to imagine, but just go with me. What better thing to watch than Andrew Haigh's masterpiece All of Us Strangers right? Well fucking ALAS, because if you're in the U.S. Disney has basically said fuck you, they're not putting the movie out on physical media at all. I KNOW. But today an answer has answered our cries -- the movie IS getting a release in the U.K. and not just that -- the blu-ray is region-free so it will play in any old blu-ray player here in the U.S. just fine. Angel choirs have erupted in your head right? Me too, me too! Pre-rder the disc right here on Amazon UK -- it's out there on June 17th, right in the thick of Pride Month, just as it should be. Now to celebrate I will allow you to move your thought expirment onto its next phase -- fucking the brains out of Paul Mescal and/or Andrew Scott. For celebration, of course! Awesome news.

Mona Lisa Smiles Upon Andy

Writer-director Andrew Haigh has never made a bad anything. Every movie he has directed, right back to his debut film Greek Pete in 2009, has been at base wonderful and at best a masterpiece -- right up to last year's number one movie All of Us Strangers. His TV series -- Looking and The North Water -- are both tremendous accomplishments. He is quite simply one of the greatest directors working today, and even more importantly he is MNPP Royalty. He should be discussed as one of the greats every damn time his name comes up. Anyway I'm happy to report that he's being handed a project of import from a big studio next -- Universal has hired him to direct its Leonardo Da Vinci bio-pic, which they've been trying to make for awhile, based on Walter Isaacson’s 2017 biography. Da Vinci was of course a big ol' 'mo, so it tracks that Haigh would be interested in this, and my interest just shot up like a rocket. Now we turn our mind to casting. Below is a portrait of Da Vinci as a young man. Not that anybody should give a shit if the actor hired looks like him here five centuries later -- let's just let Haigh hire the best actor for the gig. And given his track record, he will. But who would you cast?

Good Morning, World

I wished Murray Bartlett a happy birthday yesterday on Twitter (see below) but it doesn't feel right now to mark the occasion here on the site and when I saw this photo (which I am fairly sure is new to me) I knew... I knew a lot of things. Like I knew the face of god, for example. So happy birthday, god! (I need to rewatch Looking.)

HAPPY 53, MURRAY BARTLETT pic.twitter.com/00Ucy3lipZ

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) March 20, 2024

5 Off My Head - The Hottest Criterion Covers

They say sex sells, but the art-house media empire known as Criterion doesn't often subscribe to that notion. Sure their streaming service sometimes sluts it up with timed collections catering to such tastes. But when it comes to the actual physical media releases they put out? Let's just say they're not regularly porning up the shelves at your local neighborhood Barnes & Noble. Don't believe me? Just look at the artful but limp covers they gave us for notoriously horny movies like David Cronenberg's Crash and John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy:

Which is why last week's reveal of the cover art for Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle (hitting those shelves in June) came at us like such a happy punch in the privates. Designed by the artist Astra Zero (follow them on Instagram here) the cover is appropriately horny for RWF's horny, horny final film, which we're ecstatic to see getting a proper release at last. But it got me thinking -- what other Criterion covers have stirred my (admittedly easily stirred) loins? So I made a list! And do keep in mind that I am extremely homosexual, so my list echoes those credentials. Make your own lists, straights! (Also clearly the Querelle one trumps everything else and should be considered #1 above all of these from here on out. It already won!)

The 5 Horniest Criterion Covers (Besides Querelle)

Claire Denis' Beau Travail -- I'm not as big a fan of Denis' 1999 erotic treatise on masculinity as a lot of you are, or as would typically make sense, given the film's notable focus on hard half-naked male bodies swinging around in hypnotic unison. But that doesn't mean I can argue with the shadowy visage of actor Grégoire Colin's bared, slick torso. I bought this disc even though I don't love the movie just because of the cover!

Jacques Deray's La Piscine -- I could have used any Criterion cover that has Alain Delon on it (his jawline on the Purple Noon cover could create a cult all on its own) but, even if a bit hetero to my linking, half-naked Alain & Romy Schneider clenched up in ecstacy is about  as hot and sweaty as these things get. Let's not get in the way of their erotic lifestyle!

Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho -- Two of the most beautiful and sensitive movie stars on my early teen years at the height of their beauty and sensitivity, rocking hustler ennui while strapped to one another on the back of a motorcycle -- you can't see that the motorocycle is there in the cover image but you can probably feel it, humming between your thighs all the same. And if not, well, they sure are on top of each other huh? 

Andrew Haigh's Weekend -- Seeing actor Chris New working his way down actor Tom Cullen's naked body again this rumpled mid-coitus snapshot image slams you right back there into the middle of this 2011 masterpiece of intimacy from Haigh and you realize -- oh right that's where I have wanted to be all this time. Back in bed with those two!

Carl Franklin's Devil in a Blue Dress -- Sometimes all it takes is peak Denzel Washington in a white tank top, what can I say?

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

Runners-up: Joyce Chopra's Smooth Talk, Yukio Mishima's Patriotism, Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers, Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien, Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood For Love, Stephen Frears' My Beautiful Laundrette

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

What would be your picks for Criterion's horniest covers?

All of Us Winners

As I posted a few weeks back I was extremely happy with our film nominations for the Dorians, aka the awards that my critics group GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Critics hand out every year -- we did good then and I am happy to report that we did good again with our winners. Much better than a lot of critics groups have! And I don't just say that because we handed three major prizes to my favorite movie of 2023, Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers... although I don't not say it because of that either. Strangers won both our "Film of the Year" award and our "LGBTQ Film of the Year" award, plus the award for "Best LGBTQ  Screenplay" to Haigh, as well it damn should. But I'm happy with the rest of our prizes -- I mean, Lily Gladstone and Charles Melton as our (lead and supporting) acting winners? 

Can you beat that? (In related news I'm extremely annoyed that this awards season doesn't seem to have offered the two of them a chance to take a photo together for me to use here -- I would like to see that. They would look gorgeous together. Somebody get a photo of them together for us please.) I'm not even annoyed that Greta Gerwig won for Best Director for Barbie, even though I'm not a fan of Barbie, because it's a nice fuck you to the Oscars and I will never pass one of those up. Anyway good on us this year! Hit the jump for the entire press release and winners list...

Paul Mescal Sixteen Times

Well what a week for photoshoots this has been! I figured, with the middle of the month behind us, that the best of the February meat had been served but here comes AnOther magazine with cover-boy Paul Mescal -- and not just Paul Mescal but Paul Mescal solidifying his personal branding ownership once and for all of the short-short. Blessed be us all. This comes a day after his movie (my favorite of 2023) All of Us Strangers has hit streaming and the chat inside this magazine (which you can read here) is with AOUS director Andrew Haigh! I have not read it yet. I get the photos to you as fast as I can and then I go back and read the words. So let's look at the pictures! They're worth looking at. Hit the jump...

Strangers On Hulu

It might not have gotten any Oscar nominations and it might not have won any of the BAFTAs it was nominated for and it might not be getting a physical media release here in the U.S. but my favorite movie of 2023, Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers, doesn't need any of that because it's already a goddamned classic and it will outlive and outshine 95% of anything else made in 2023. And at least we can watch it on Hulu now -- it just hit the streamer today. So go watch it, and then leave it playing on repeat in the background of your life so somebody will notice there's interest and maybe we can at least change the "no physical media" thing. (Come to the rescue, Criterion!) That's the only one I really care about. Whatever -- I'm used to it taking time for my beloveds to find their place in the world. I made my peace with it long, long ago! Just go watch the movie, and then read my review, and then we can cry and cry more together over the beauty and the heartbreak of Haigh's making. 

 

Eat Me, Disney

A terrible awful no-good rumor popped up on Twitter last night and the worst part about it is that it seems to be coming from a person who would know, and therefore it's not a rumor but a fact that we just haven't gotten further confirmation upon -- a dude who works on the making of physical media says that not only will Disney only be putting Yorgos Lanthimos' Oscar-nominated Poor Things out on blu-ray only (talk about a movie that demands 4K attention!) but Andrew Haigh's not-Oscar-nominated masterpiece (my number one movie of 2023) All of Us Strangers isn't getting any kind of physical media release at all. Is that the real difference between getting a nomination and not getting one? Do we have tangible proof now? And don't come at me with that box office jibber-jabber -- I don't speak box office. I do speak physical-media though and if AOUS isn't getting a blu-ray because it didn't get Oscar nominations you're about to see somebody start caring about Oscar nominations. And for that a hearty fuck you to Disney. Fingers crossed that Haigh's movie gets a release outside of the U.S. since I have a region-free player -- I should add that technically all of this is personally moot since I got an awards screener of the film mailed to me a few months ago so technically I own the movie already, but those crappy watermakred DVDs don't really count. What a shitshow. 

... this title will sit alongside other Searchlight and 20th Century titles like 'A Haunting in Venice' and 'The Bookeyman' with no 4K release - Blu Ray only. The recently acclaimed Searchlight, #AllOfUsStrangers will not be getting a physical release at all.😭

— Adam J. Yeend (@AJYeend) February 13, 2024

Right On, Dorians, Right On

The 15th annual Dorian Awards nominations dropped last night -- these are voted on by the members of GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, of which I am a member -- and we did a good job this year y'all. Specifically because of all the love we showered on Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers aka my favorite movie of 2023, which received a well-earned nine nominations. Even the movies I didn't like -- things like Barbie and The Holdovers -- I can't quibble with the nominations they did get since I know I'm an outlier there... and especially since we didn't nominate Maestro for shit. Haha! Fuck that movie -- I'm proud that our collection of queer journalists saw through that thing's hetero-lensed shame-y bullshit. Anyway altogether these are a stellar group of nominees. We'll announce our winners on February 26th -- if you want to make the case for my cote on anything do so in the comments! I'm not easily swayed -- I don't know if you've noticed but I tend to have strong opinions, haha -- but I'd love to hear your thoughts. Hit the jump for the press release and all of the nominees...

Strangers Come Home

Heads up -- the best movie of 2023 is hitting streaming in a couple of weeks! Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers will be on Hulu on February 22nd. I know it's been kind of hard for people to see the movie -- the release strategy has been pretty shitty and drawn out -- so this'll make it easy for you all, finally. Click here for my review if you missed it. It was nice to see the film -- which our filthy stupid Oscars totally ignored -- get a bunch of awards (alongside my second favorite film of 2023, Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest) at the London Critics Circle Film Awards over the weekend -- some people have taste at least!