Speaking Of Physical Media...

... and why would we speak of anything else... the unbelivable has happened! The fine folks over at Vinegar Syndrome have finally, finally, FINALLY, got the rights to release Richard Brooks' 1977 film Looking For Mr. Goodbar  -- and on 4K no less! This film contains my favorite Diane Keaton performance -- which is saying a lot since I'm a huge fan -- plus peak Richard Gere. It also has one of the most disturbing endings ever put on-screen so, you know, that's fun. Anyway this hasn't gotten a release since VHS way back in the day -- the story was that the rights to the music in the film made a new release cost prohibitive, but it would appear they got that sorted out! Pre-order the disc right here -- they won't ship until sometime in December but do expect to use up your pateince waiting, VS tends to be kind of slow on that front. Especially when it comes to these big sales. I cannot believe we're finally going to get Richard Gere doing push-ups in a jockstrap in 4K!! Just think how much better this gif will be:

That's not all Vinegar Syndrome has of import this month, though -- they're also releasing Red Rooms, the Quebecois serial killer thriller that I reviewed at Fantasia Fest last year and which I just re-watched a week or so ago and loved even more with a second view. This movie is fantastic. And they're releasing Bent, the searing gay holocaust drama that stars Clive Owen and which features Clive & Nikolaj Coster-Waldau memorably going at it in its opening scenes... 

Time to (Night) Watch Nikolaj Again!

This is unexpected but exciting news -- a sequel to the 1994 Danish classic horror flick Nightwatch is happening, with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau reprising the role that proved to be his big breakout. Well, sort of -- most people would say that it wasn't until Game of Thrones that he broke out and they'd technically be correct, but it was Nightwatch in my eyes because I saw it (and more specifically his jaw-dropping nude scene) and I paid attention to him from there on out! And then a couple of years later he played tongue-hockey with Clive Owen in Bent and I was fully lost. Anyway if you've never seen the original Nightwatch it's absolutely ace -- far better than the 1997 remake with Ewan McGregor. 

This 30-year-later sequel is called Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever and is from the same director as the original, Ole Bornedal. And the sequel co-stars Bornedal's own daughter Fanny Leander Bornedal, who's playing Nikolaj's daughter and which sees her sucked into the same nightmare that plagued her pops three decades earlier. That said it's been awhile since I watched Nightwatch so I'll refrain from sharing more details, mainly because I don't want to read any more of the press release before re-watching the original myself. Thankfully both movies are dropping thanks to Shudder on May 17th. When we get a trailer I will share it but for now just enjoy looking at Nikolaj in 1994, truly a special-effect of a human being:

King Nabs Dane, More

.

When they announced that the next big Stephen King adaptation, of his 2006 novel Lisey's Story, was going to be a Children of Men reunion starring Julianne Moore and Clive Owen, I should have posted about it. When they announced that the eight episode series, which will air on the Apple+ streaming service, will be directed by Chilean master Pablo Larraín, who made the films No and Jackie, then I should have posted about it. When they announced this week that actor Dane DeHaan, seen pictured above and below, had joined the cast, then I should have posted about it. (thx Mac) But it's the latest news, that Joan Allen has joined the cast as well, that finally pushed my dumb ass over the edge and into a post. My god what a bunch of folks! Lisey's Story tells the story of... uhh, Lisey? More specifically, here:

"Lisey’s Story is a deeply personal thriller that follows Lisey (Moore) two years after the death of her husband (Owen). A series of events causes Lisey to begin facing certain realities about her husband that she had repressed and forgotten. Dehaan will play Jim Dooley, a huge fan of Scott’s (Owen) books who feels strongly about his unpublished work being released to the world."

King himself has scripted all eight episodes, which... well I love King, y'all know I do, but he's not always shown the best judgement when it's come to adapting his own work off the page and onto the screen. I have more faith in Larraín being there to transfer King's words into images, thankfully. All we know about Joan Allen's character is she's named "Amanda" -- I never read this book (did you?) so that means nothing to me. This will be Allen's second King adaptation this decade, after 2014's A Good Marriage -- the unmemorable AGM was also scripted by King, if you want to consider where this could go without someone as talented as Larraín in the director's chair. Fingers crossed.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Bent (1997)

Horst: We had a boy like that in school.
Used to lead us in silences.
Max: Ok. I'll explain. Ok. We have to move rocks.
Horst: Yes sir.
Max: You move one rock at a time.
Horst: Yes sir.
Max: You take it over there.
Horst: Yes sir.
Max: When that pile is complete, you take
one rock at a time and move it back.
Horst: You move it back? You move rocks from
there to there and then from there to back again?
Max: Yes sir.

Meant to mention this yesterday but great news from the home market as Bent finally got released on blu-ray this week in a fancy restoration with some extras - they don't mention any cut scenes but they do promise "behind the scenes footage" and I'm hoping there's at least a hint in there of the extended "Clive Owen & Nikolaj Coster-Waldau orgy scene" that I've mentioned before having seen when the film played the local gay film festival when I was in college circa 1997. You get a little glimpse of it in the film as was finally released, but I vividly remember - you remember such things! - the scene being longer that first time I saw it. Such things should not be lost unto time! I know there's more to this film to appreciate - much more - but this is a white whale of a windmill that I've been chasing for decades now, it's driving me mad! But  anyway I guess at least no matter what we'll always have that kiss...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Gosford Park (2001)

Lady Sylvia: Mr Weissman.
Morris Weissman: Yes?
Lady Sylvia: Tell us about the film you're going to make.
Morris Weissman: Oh, sure. It's called Charlie Chan
In London. It's a detective story.
Mabel Nesbitt: Set in London?
Morris Weissman: Well, not really. Most of it takes place
at a shooting party in a country house. Sort of like this one,
actually. Murder in the middle of the night, a lot of guests for
the weekend, everyone's a suspect. You know, that sort of thing.
Constance: How horrid. And who turns out to have done it?
Morris Weissman: Oh, I couldn't tell you that.
It would spoil it for you.
Constance: Oh, but none of us will see it.

I was thinking about Ivor Novello a few days ago and as always that thought process leads me to Jeremy Northam playing the homosexual movie star in Robert Altman's Gosford Park -- it has been far far too long since I've sat down and watched Altman's down-up masterpiece and so I was pleased as liquor punch to see that our beloved Arrow Video was putting out a beautiful brand new blu-ray this week stuffed to the stiff collar with brand new extras, from a new restoration of the film on down. Have you seen Gosford Park lately? I do wonder how it plays in a post-Downton world. Anyway if you'd like to see the full list of Special Features on the blu-ray hit the jump...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Children of Men (2006)

Luke: Julian was wrong. She thought it
could be peaceful. But how can it be peaceful
when they try to take away your dignity?

Twelve years on and Children of Men feels as prescient and as timely as it ever has, which... is a terrifying thing to come to terms with, quite honestly. Children of Men is one movie you want to feel us moving away from, good grief. Well at least we've got a new movie from Alfonso Cuarón (who's turning 57 today) to celebrate amid a world gone madder - ROMA is in some theaters right now, and will hit some more supposedly over the next few weeks before Netflix drops it on their streaming service, and if you've heard the little I've said about the film so far on Twitter, well...

.

There's just nothing even close. Nobody's operating at the level of excellence Cuarón is here. Nobody. I can literally say without a moment or an ounce of hesitation that Alfonso Cuarón is the greatest living filmmaker at this moment in time, period, full stop, do not pass go

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 27, 2018

... my praise is somewhat effusive. I was finally able to see it a second time last week and so you should expect a proper review soon. It's a movie that demands more than one viewing, but it "demands" your attention the way a blowjob does - you're more than happy to acquiesce. 

.

There are some filmmakers who make you feel fortunate to be alive during the time they’re blessing the world with their films, and as shitty as the world is Alfonso Cuaron makes me happy to live right here, right now #ROMA pic.twitter.com/upB8pqFkzC

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 20, 2018

Yah No Say Daddy Me

.

Way to grab my attention right off the bat, movie! The Informer -- and now I'm going to have Snow in my head all day thanks to that title -- stars Joel Kinnaman and judging by that the first image from the film his co-star of his cum-gutters (click them to embiggen a whole bunch) in a tale of a soldier who gets recruited by the FBI to infiltrate yadda yadda oh god I'm bored already by the plot. What is interesting though is its cast - besides said cum-gutters it co-stars Rosamund Pike, Clive Owen, and Common. Also...

... Joel Kinnaman. 

Did I mention...

... Joel Kinnaman? I should.

Here's the trailer:

.

.
The Informer is out on March 22nd.
.

Good Morning, World

.

Some Blondie popped up on my iPod this morning (instantaneously making it a better morning, bless that Debbie Harry) and that mixed with the other's week's re-watch of American Gigolo and multiplied by yesterday's post ruminating on the theater antics of Paul Newman led me down the rabbit hole this morning of "Richard Gere starring in Bent on Broadway in 1979." He played the Clive Owen role (Mmm Clive Owen in Bent)... or rather the Ian McKellen role as it was originated in London. It wasn't Gere's first time on stage - he spent much of the 70s as a theater actor, understudying and replacing about fifty percent of the male characters in Grease for awhile - but his turn in Bent did smack right up against his turn in Gigolo, not to mention falling after his turns in Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven (swoon) and bouncing around in a jockstrap with Diane Keaton in Looking For Mr. Goodbar.

In a 2015 interview Gere said he thought nothing of doing the play, and its gay sex scenes, at the time - honestly before AIDS swept in and really and truly fucked up America's idea of gay sex I don't find it hard to believe; the trajectory of LGBT acceptance was set to chart an entirely different course circa the late 70s and early 80s. Anyway Gere got a fine review for Bent in the NY Times - "It may sound odd to speak of the actor's work here as subtle; but the state of mind that dictates his increasing ferocity is intricate, intelligible, as inevitable as it is appalling. Mr. Gere is a remarkable performer."

10 Off My Head: Siri Says 1991

.

Somehow an entire month has passed since the last time I asked my telephone to give me a number between one and one hundred and went to choose my favorite movies from the corresponding year, otherwise known as our "Siri Says" series, but now that we're back to talking to our phone again like it's a person Siri went and picked an interesting year of movies for us - The Movies of 1991.

I became a freshman in High School in the fall of 1991, meaning I was heavy in my "I have no friends and I wish I was dead" period - ahh sweet memories. But I had the movies at least? Hey it's what's getting a lot of us, visiting here at this site anyway, through, so don't knock it. This was still a couple of years before I worked at the video-store that would shape my tastes for the better so at this point in time I was still watching tons of garbage - I was watching any and everything really. 

Point being I've seen a shit-ton from this year so I'm upping the list to 10. Looking back at the year now it's easy to whittle the crap down to the movies that matter, but I didn't fall for an awful lot of these until many years later - I sure wasn't laying my eyes on Todd Haynes or Derek Jarman or even Gus Van Sant at that exact point, something which probably would've benefitted my dumpy and isolated mood. Alas, hindsight, et cetera. Anyway onward and upward let's whittle that crap!

My 10 Favorite Movies of 1991

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

(dir. James Cameron)

-- released on July 1st 1991 --

Cape Fear

(dir. Martin Scorsese)

-- released on November 15th 1991 --

Poison

(dir. Todd Haynes)

-- released on April 5th 1991 --

Naked Lunch

(dir. David Cronenberg)

-- released on December 27th 1991 --

Raise the Red Lantern

(dir. Zhang Yimou)

-- released on December 17th 1991 --

Barton Fink

(dir. Joel & Ethan Coen)

-- released on August 21st 1991 --

The Silence of the Lambs

(dir. Jonathan Demme)

-- released on February 14th 1991 --

Soapdish

(dir. Michael Hoffmann)

-- released on May 31st 1991 --

Beauty and the Beast

(dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise)

-- released on November 22nd 1991 --

Thelma & Louise

(dir. Ridley Scott)

-- released on May 24th 1991 --

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

Runners-up: LA Story (dir. Mick Jackson), Sleeping With the Enemy (dir. Joseph Ruben), What About Bob (dir. Frank Oz), Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (dir. Stephen Herek), JFK (dir. Oliver Stone), Fried Green Tomatoes (dir. John Avnet), Dead Again (dir. Kenneth Branagh)...

......  Dogfight (dir. Nancy Savoca), The Addams Family (dir. Sonnenfeld), The Lovers on the Bridge (dir. Leos Carax), Defending Your Life (dir. Albert Brooks), The Double Life of Veronique (dir. Kieslowski), Point Break (dir. Kathryn Bigelow), Shadows + Fog (dir. Woody Allen), Truth or Dare (dir. Alek Keshishian)...

... The Rapture (dir. Michael Tolkin), Edward II (dir. Derek Jarman), Grand Canyon (dir. Lawrence Kasdan), Boyz n' the Hood (dir. John Singleton), Whore (dir. Ken Russell), Mississippi Masala (dir. Mira Nair), Jungle Fever (dir. Spike Lee), My Own Private Idaho (dir. Gus Van Sant)

Never seen: High Heels (dir. Almodovar), Kafka (dir. Soderbergh), Europa (dir. Lars von Trier), Until the End of the World (dir. Wim Wenders), Close My Eyes (dir. Stephen Poliakoff)...

...... The Commitments (dir. Alan Parker), Flirting (dir. John Duigan), Prospero's Books (dir. Peter Greenaway), Scenes From a Mall (dir. Paul Mazursky), Toto the Hero (dir. Jaco Van Dormael), Night on Earth (dir. Jim Jarmusch)

What are your favorite movies of 1991?

.

I Am Link

.

--- Spider Bites - That there is the first picture of Tom Hardy in Venom, his upcoming Spider-man spin-off movie - clearly this is before he turns into a gaping mawed black goo person. In related news the rumor's a'swirl that Spider-twink himself Tom Holland will make an appearance in the film, which kind of clears up the question (if the rumor's a'true) whether this movie will be set in the same universe as the Avengers et al. And speaking of Spider-twink we just found out that Timothee Chalamet read for the role once! He could have been our Spider-twink! He told the story while accepting an award this past week. Oh well guess he'll just have to deal with unanimous critical adoration instead, poor thing. (thx Mac)

--- Capitán Fantastic - Chile's foreign-film submission for the Oscars A Fantastic Woman got a wee release here in NYC last fall but it's going to get a real release in February and I haven't written a review yet but it is a (dare I say) fantastic movie, I am dying to see it a second time, and you should all seek it out the minute it's available for seeking. Vanity Fair talked to the film's director and the film's star the absolutely terrific and hypnotic Daniela Vega, click on over to read that. 

--- Gemini People - Back in October I had a momentary freak-out on Twitter wondering where the hell Ang Lee had gotten himself to, so this week's news of casting for his next movie has really perked up that several month old sore spot. The movie is called Gemini Man and it will star Will Smith in dual roles - he'll play an over-the-hill assassin and his 25 year younger clone, and the two will be trying to kill each other. It sounds like this is another chance for Ang to futz around with fancy technology - I'm guessing the twinning stuff won't look like an episode of The Patty Duke Show! - but I will allow it because of the supporting cast Ang is lining up, which so far includes Clive Owen and the goddess Mary Elizabeth Winstead. MEW beat out both Tatiana Maslany and Elizabeth Debicki for the role, and honestly with choices like that how does one even begin to choose?

--- Jason's Dead - There was a rumor going around last week that Blumhouse was going to reboot the Friday the 13th series (yes we hear this same rumor every six months or so) but BD beat the stuffing out of it this time with a What's What on the rights issues for the series, which are currently in the middle of a big lawsuit. Anyway if you need your Voorhees Fix you could go watch a 40 minute doc on YouTube about the dude who played Jason in Part III (aka the best one) which BD explains all about right here.

--- Tis A Video - Vulture's Kyle Buchanan got his greedy mitts on the gold star of Call Me By Your Name coverage, interviewing the elusive Sufjan Stevens about the heart-rending and gorgeous songs he created for the film, and about his meeting with Luca Guadagnino (the coat story is priceless - and you can see the follow-up to it on Twitter too), and oh yeah finding out that Sufjan's seen the film FOUR TIMES now. Keep trying, Suffy - you'll never catch up! In related news our pal Chris tackled the CMBYN soundtrack in his weekly column at The Film Experience this past week.

--- Show Men - At first the thought of Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron starring in a movie together was an appealing thing to me but I realized after the first trailer that The Greatest Showman was definitely not going to be My Thing. Getting me to enthuse about a musical is oft a tricky path anyway. That said Nathaneil at The Film Experience makes an excellent case today, on the basis of the film's secret box office success, we really should be seeing more musicals, and I don't disagree with him.
.

I'm no Musical Nut but there are so many stars I'd love to see star in one (cough these two cough) and so @nathanielr's case for MORE MORE MORE MUSICALS here makes sense to even me https://t.co/GWQHSt8OQZ pic.twitter.com/sbgX5lNYDT

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 17, 2018

.

--- Lost Boy - I am really very overly anxious for Brad Anderson, the director of the tremendous Session 9 some oh seventeen years ago, to properly follow that movie up - he's made good stuff like Transsiberian and The Machinist, but nothing quite as magic as that 2001 movie. Anyway he's never stopped working this whole time, and here comes another chance - he's made a movie called Beirut, which was written by Tony "Michael Clayton" Gilroy, and which stars Jon Hamm and Rosamund Pike. That's a good pair of stars! Let's hope he has something for them. That movie is out in April.

--- Where's My Freak - I am surprised to read that Ben Wheatley has supposedly not filmed Freak Shift, his movie with Armie Hammer and Alicia Vikander, yet; I thought they had that in the can? But that's what DH says as they share word that Wheatley's currently in L.A. shooting a super-quick (just eleven  days) secret project titled (at least according to the clapperboard that Wheatley posted on his Instagram) Colin You Anus. (LOL.) No word on what the hell it is but given how mind-bending his A Field in England was, which he also shot on a shoestring in just a dozen days, I'm hopeful here! Oh and in Also Armie Hammer News a couple of pictures of him in his upcoming film Final Portrait are right here. Armie is also playing a homosexual in this! This is out in March.

.

--- And Finally I could've sworn I had shared one of the foreign-language trailers for Francois Ozon's upcoming movie Double Lover, which has been out in his home of France for awhile now, but a quick scan through the archives tells me otherwise - we have shared a couple of lovely nudie photographs of Jérémie Renier in the movie (including this shot of Jérémie Renier kissing Jérémie Renier, ooh la la) but no trailer. Which is fine, turns out, because now we have an english-language trailer to watch. The movie is out here in the US on Valentine's Day! Watch:

.

.

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 2006

.

It's time to fire up the iPhone and ask our old friend Siri to choose a number between 1 and 100 for our "Siri Says" series, huzzah, celebration, et cetera et cetera. And today the lil' lady was feeling devilish and gave me the number 6, so today we will look back at the Movies of the year 2006, and name our favorites. 

Truth be told glancing back 2006 was kind of a shit year, you guys? It was an excellent year for Horror Movies (we have Cheney & Friends to thank for that) but I didn't have a very hard time narrowing everything down to this Top 5 - a great Top 5, for sure. But normally with a year so recent I have trouble narrowing down a Top 10, and while technically I could make a Top 10 most of them would just be likes, and not emphatic loves. Hmmm. You decide.

My 5 Favorite Movies of 2006

Children of Men

(dir. Alfonso Cuarón)

-- released on December 25th 2006 --

Pan's Labyrinth

(dir. Guillermo Del Toro)

-- released on December 29th 2006 --

The Descent 

(dir. Neil Marshall)

-- released on August 4th 2006 --

Marie Antionette

(dir. Sofia Coppola)
-- released on October 20 2006 --
.

Notes on a Scandal

(dir. Richard Eyre)

-- released on December 25th 2006 --

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

Runners-up: The Departed (dir. Scorsese), Talladega Nights (dir. Adam McKay), The Fountain (dir. Darren Aronofsky), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (dir. Tom Tykwer), The Hills Have Eyes (dir. Aja), Hostel (dir. Eli Roth), Monster House (dir. Gil Kenan), Little Children (dir. Todd Field), Silent Hill (dir. Christopher Gans), Final Destination 3 (dir. James Wong)...

... Little Miss Sunshine (dir. Dayton & Faris), Idiocracy (dir. Mike Judge), Crank  (dir. Neveldine & Taylor), Volver (dir. Almodovar), The Devil Wears Prada (dir. David Frankel), Casino Royale (dir. Martin Campbell), For Your Consideration (dir. Christopher Guest), The Lives of Others (dir. Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck)

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

What are your favorite films of 2006?

.