Good Morning, Monsters

I'd almost posted these behind-the-scenes photos of Frankenstein star Jacob Elordi with his stunt double (I think his name is Daniel Cudmore) a couple of weeks back, but it didn't feel right to splay the look of the monster all over the place so early -- I don't think the movie had even hit Netlfix when I first saw these. But now it has and I think it'll probably be a popular post-turkey watch this holiday so here, enjoy these too. They're a full meal all on their own! But speaking of the forthcoming holiday feast -- today's our last day on site til Monday, which I assume you'd assumed but one shouldn't make too many asses out of you and me so I figured I'd put it into words to make it crystal. Don't worry -- just slide yourself between these two slices of hearty white bread and make of yourself a sandwich til I'm back. You'll be fine.

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... clapping back at the Frankenstein boys.

Good Morning, Monsters

Hello and happy Monday -- your wayward host has indeed returned and he's brought with him several gifs of a butt-naked Oscar Isaac in Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein to smooth the process along -- and while we're at it, what is it with Guillermo and hot dudes barely visible junk floating in bathtubs anyway? It's a very specific thing to have pop up in two (live-action) movies in a row, right? (I added the "live-action" because as far as I recall I don't remember Gepetto getting his gray balls out to take a soak in Pinocchio but it's possible I blocked that out.)

Anyway Frankenstein dropped on Netflix over the weekend so I assume most of you have now seen it if you weren't near one of the theaters where it was shwoing, so please -- offer me your opinions! I liked not loved it -- Jacob Elordi is terrific, it looks great, it sounds great, but there was just something missing... some spark of life, if you'll allow me that indulgence. Maybe if Mia Goth had gotten more to do I'd have been bigger on it? Anyway it's not every movie where Oscar Isaacs gets his pubes out (more like "every other" at this point, blessed man) so hit the jump for the steamy collection of gifs I assembled...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Pete: When a man believes his own lies, starts believing that he has the power, he's got shuteye. Because now he believes it's all true. And people get hurt. Good, God-fearing people. And then you lie. You lie. And when the lies end, there it is. The face of God, staring at you straight. No matter where you turn. No man can outrun God, Stan.

Guillermo Del Toro's Nightmare Alley landed in the Criterion Collection this week on glorious 4K, where this gorgeous and deeply under-appreciated gem belongs -- I hope that people will go back and realize they were incorrect in their negative critical asessments now, mainly to prove that I was right and this movie rules. But for other reasons too! Bradley Cooper gives his best performance to date in the film for one, but it's also (as the above quote suggests) a savvy  dissection of our poisoned modern-day political situation without ever being too on-the-nose about it. It's like Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria in that way. It diagnoses the rot. Anyway we also see Bradley Cooper's dick so what have you got to lose? Go watch it! (Looking forward to an upgrade on the gif below with the 4K edition, you best believe it.)

Good Night Oscar

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

A Man and His Beautiful Monster

Frankenstein stars Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac are on the cover of the new Variety to talk the forthcoming release of Guillermo Del Toro's reowrking of Mary Shelley's vision -- you can read the chat right here. Which I'm going to do myself right after I run and grab my lunch. Hence why I'm not mentioning what the two have to say in the interview -- I'm running out the door and haven't gotten to it yet. But I am taking a quick moment to post the photos of these beautiful men touching each other because -- if this isn't food then what is? I could probably just stare at these photos and survive for months. Hit the jump for them all (plus some video)...

Only Monsters Play God

Netflix just dropped these two teaser posters for Guillermo Del Toro's upcoming film of Frankenstein, which stars Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, and Jacob Elordi as the Monster. (Love that the poster below centers Oscar's patented Chunky Bum, although it's a little shadowy, Guillermo. You'd best give it the spotlight treatment at some point in your movie!) We also have the official release dates -- Frankenstein is playing in "Select Theaters" on October 17th and then it hits Netflix on November 7th. This being Netflix you might want to side-eye that "select theaters" thing -- it will definitely play the Paris Theater here in NYC since that place is owned by Netflix, but beyond that? Definitely somewhere in L.A. one assumes but who knows how wide they'll go. I think most people will sadly be seeing this on a small screen. Who are the real monsters, then? They're playing God with Movies!

Pics of the Day

Although it's clearly a covered-up tease there's our first semi-look at Jacob Elordi's Frankenstein's Monster for Guillermo Del Toro's upcoming film thanks to a great big piece on the movie at Vanity Fair -- they talk to Oscar Isaac and Del Toro and also the make-up guy a lot...

... for obvious reasons. But I just wanna hear from costume designer Kate Hawley  for paragraphs because she's what's wowing me in these photos. Especially all of the spectacular outfits we see Mia Goth wearing. (I imagine Hawley also probably had fun giving Oscar his undone blouse & snug trousers and whatever tattered rags Jacob Elordi sports.) Anyway hit the jump for the photos...

Nightmares & Fire: Criterion's Month of Violence

Every year October always has my favorite releases from the Criterion Collection -- I think it's the meeting of them ramping up for the holidays plus lots of horror because of Halloween? Anyway they've just announced their October 2025 releases and once again -- my god it's the good shit. Kicking it off they've got Ken Russell's hallucinatory 1980 gem Altered States, which is one of my personal faves -- peak William Hurt turning into a neanderthal after dosing himself with too much psychology? What's not to love? It's Russell at his most bonkers... well okay it's hard to quanitfy "most bonkers" when it comes to Russell but this one's up there. Can't wait to take this in in 4K -- it lands on October 21st.

Next up Guillemo Del Toro's tremendous 2021 noir-carny vision Nightmare Alley is finally finally getting a physical media release (it's a Netflix joint so it hasn't before this) -- I know reactions to this were mixed but I loved it, it's one of my favorite of Del Toro's movies, and I am of the mind that Bradley Cooper gives his best performance to date in it. (aAnd given how much I soured on him otherwise over the past couple of years that's saying something.) Then there's the one title this month I'm unfamiliar with -- Mexican director Arturo Ripstein's 1996 melodrama Deep Crimson -- anyone know it?

Then there are the inevitable 4K upgrades of discs they've released before, but man oh man are these a wild duo of masterpieces -- David Lynch's Twin Peaks prequel Fire Walk With Me and  Georges Franju's 1960 horror classic Eyes Without a Face. You can't go wrong with either of those, which besides being perfect are both gorgeous to look at and will no doubt stun in 4K. Oh and then there's a double dose of David Cronenberg joints -- his most recent film The Shrouds (which hasn't gotten nearly enough love if you ask me) and his 2006 neo-noir A History of Violence. The latter has quite the surprising cover -- personally I love it but I feel as if it might be divisive? Thoughts?

6 Off My Head: A 2025 Peek Ahead

Inspired by the Bugonia teaser I just shared (along with the fact that it's Paul Thomas Anderson's birthday today which reminded me he has a new movie out in several weeks) I decided to go ahead and make a list of the movies left to be released in 2025 that I'm most looking forward to. I did this (as with everything I do here) mostly for myself because I've been bad about keeping an eye on what's ahead -- I can be very much in the moment; planning ahead's not my strongest suit! So I will myself probably be referring back to this list often. But perhaps this will help you along the same lines! That'd be nice! So sans further ado I give you...

My Top 6 Anticipated Movies of 2025

Bugonia (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) -- Oct 24th 

(more here)

One Battle After Another (dir. PT Anderson) -- Sept 26th

The History of Sound (dir. Oliver Hermanus) -- Sept 12th 

(more here)

After the Hunt (dir. Luca Guadagnino) -- Oct 10th 

(more here)

Sentimental Value (dir. Joachim Trier) -- Nov 7th

Pillion (dir. Harry Lighton) -- TBD

(more here)

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

(Sidenote: There is no word on Gregg Araki's I Want Your Sex and any kind of release date for it yet, otherwise it would very much be listed above.) 

(Sidenote #2 - literally five minutes after I posted this list it was announced that Neon has bought Park Chan-wook's new movie No Other Choice for release and it's premiering at Venice so add that one too!)

Runners-up: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (dir. Rian Johnson), Marty Supreme (dir. Josh Safdie), Hamnet (dir. Chloé Zhao), A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (dir. Kogonada), It Was Just an Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi), The Roses (dir. Jay Roach), Avatar: Fire & Ash (dir. James Cameron), Together (dir. Michael Shanks)...

... Weapons (dir. Zach Cregger),  Jay Kelly (dir. Noah Baumbach), Caught Stealing (dir. Darren Aronofsky), Frankenstein (dir. Guillermo Del Toro), The Mastermind (dir. Kelly Reichardt), Highest 2 Lowest (dir. Spike Lee), A House of Dynamite (dir. Kathryn Bigelow), Die My Love (dir. Lynne Ramsay), The Running Man (dir. Edgar Wright)

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

What movies are y'all most looking forward to?

Pic of the Day

A new photo from Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein (via) dropped today that showcases Oscar Isaac as the not-so-good doctor -- specifically his suspenders, heaving cleavage, and muttonchops, all of which I look forward to muchly. The movie, which also stars Jacob Elordi (as the monster!) and Mia Goth is out in November, presumably Thanksgiving just because this very much feels like a Thanksgiving release. Possibly critically important but definitely pulpy enough for the whole fam! But I hope Del Toro pervs it out the way any Frankenstein should be perved out, we know he's capable of it (hello to his fish-fucking Best Picture winner). But reading how GDT is making this story about Fatherhood (and how he just lost his father) instead of it being about a man sneaking down to the basement every night to build himself his very own man (one that looks like Jacob Elordi no less) while ignoring his fiancee upstairs, well I worry the Whale-esque (and Rocky Horror) perviness might get waylaid. Do by this queer monster story right, Guillermo!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Shape of Water (2017)

Giles: Oh! God, to be young and beautiful.
If I could go back to when I was 18 - I didn't know anything
about anything - I'd give myself a bit of advice.
Elisa: [in sign language] What would you say?
Giles: I would say: Take better care of your teeth
and fuck, a lot more. Oh no, no, that's very good advice.

Guillermo Del Toro's Best-Picture-winning The Shape of Water is out on Criterion 4K today! I love this movie and will hear no ill words about it -- I think it winning Best Picture was weird but it was 2017. We were all going a little mad. (So maybe we'll have more bonkers atypical Oscar winners ahead! I suppose that can be one bright spot, sigh.) Anyway it's a lovely little movie and Sally Hawkins gives a lovely little performance and when it comes down to it I think we all could stand to fuck more fish. So that's my advice. Fuck more fish. 

Punch-Drunk Druggies Cross Delancey

Criterion Announcement Day sneaked up on us again -- and it was technically three days ago! They're late even and I didn't notice. Gosh it's almost like there are distracting things happening in the world? Well let's not focus on those, and instead focus on the movies that Criterion is releasing onto 4K blu-ray this upcoming February of the year 2025... yeah we're especially going to need some distractions right then I wager. Argh. Anyway! Criterion! First up is Gus Van Sant's 1989 druggie drama Drugstore Cowboy starring a very pretty Matt Dillon alongside Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham, and James Le Gros. Oh and William S. Burroughs! He's in this too. I haven't seen this movie in a very very long time (like at least twenty years) so it's definitely due a revisit -- I have a feeling I'll have grown to appreciate it more because I was never that much of a fan but it feels like a movie I'll get more now than I did when I was younger. 

Next up we have a pair of movies I've never seen -- Jean-Luc Godard's King Lear from 1987 starring Peter Sellers and Molly Ringwald (wtf) and Joan Macklin Silver's 1988 romance Crossing Delancey with  Amy Irving torn between two fellas in late-80s Manhattan. The Godard sounds bonkers; the JMS sounds sweet and perfect for a Saturday afternoon, and I am excited to watch them both. 

Then we've got three more movies (big month, February) which I have seen before -- there's Nicolas Roeg's brilliant 1970 film Performance with  James Fox and Mick Jagger, there's Guillermo Del Toro's first film Cronos getting a 4K upgrade, and there's Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love also doing the same. Love all three of those -- PDL was my favorite PTA movie for a long time but I can safely say that Phantom Thread has replaced it now. But I also haven't re-watched it in several years since every time I do think about it I think about how it shreds my nerves and I move on to another movie since whose nerves have needed extra shredding lately? Certainly not mine! 

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]

Criterion's Great Big November Stomps Ahead

November is typically a pretty epic month for Criterion releases because they're no doubt hoping for cinematic stocking stuffers to be all the rage over the approaching holidays (it's also the month when Barnes & Noble has another 50% off sale typically for that exact same reason) and sure enough they've announced a great big slate today. Starting with the king of the monsters itself, Godzilla! Ishiro Honda's original 1954 kaiju masterpiece Gojira that is -- they're dropping it in a brand new 4K restoration! I suppose to depends on your mood and what you want from a movie about a giant monster stomping on tiny people -- sometimes you want that to be goofy and have little ones blowing bubbles while the big guys do Pro Wrestling movies, and I judge no one for wanting such a thing. But the 1954 film is seriously excellent, a proper horror film explicitly wrestling with Japan's post-WWII experience, and remains the greatest film in the series til this day. Although Godzilla Minus One did give it a run for its money last year!

That's not the only horror movie getting the Criterion treatment in November -- Guillermo Del Toro's Oscar-winning The Shape of Water is hitting the collection too! Whether TSOW is really horror or more of a romance I'll leave to people who care about such distinctions to tussle over -- what I do know is that winning Best Picture did a number on this lovely movie's reputation, and I hope we can re-embrace it now, with the benefit of time, because I think it's super. And this is also a new 4K release -- I cannot wait to luxuriate in Del Toro's details. 

Criterion is really ramping up the 4K upgrades now that they've started with them -- the 1932 version of Scarface from director Howard Hawks and Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Seven Samurai are both being upgraded in November, as is William Wyler's Funny Girl starring that Streisand woman. And then there is Peter Bogdanovich's phenomonal 1973 comedy Paper Moon -- I have never been Bogdanovich's biggest fan but most of his earliest movies (this, The Last Picture Show, and Targets) I do fully endorse. Madeline Kahn in Paper Moon alone is worth the purchase price. 

Six titles is more than Criterion usually drops in a month, but those are of course not all -- as was announced last week they're also celebrating their 40th anniversary with an asbolutely monumental box-set of 40 (!!!) films called CC40 which consists of the films most chosen by people who've visited the legendary Criterion Closet. I'm not even going to begin listing off the titles because there are 40 of them and I'd want to list every goddamned one. They are all classics, they are all worth seeing. The set ain't cheap -- it's 650 bucks -- but that works out to less than $17 for each movie, so if you've been wanting to start a Criterion collection of your own then this is a one-stop shop means to do so! Absolutely epic shit!

Oscar Isaac's Giving Us His Flesh of the Gods

Now here is some movie news so chockful of sweet names that you're gonna get a tooth-ache -- Oscar Isaac and Kristen Stewart are going to star in the new movie from Mandy director Panos Cosmatos, which was co-written by Se7en writer Andrew Kevin Walker. The movie is called Flesh of the Gods and here is the plot description:

"In glittering 80’s LA, married couple, Raoul (Oscar Isaac) and Alex (Kristen Stewart), descend each evening from their luxury skyscraper condo and head into an electric nighttime realm of 80’s Los Angeles. When they cross paths with the mysterious and enigmatic Nameless and her hard-partying cabal, Raoul and Alex are seduced into a glamorous, surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills, and violence.”

Tell me that doesn't sound like the hottest shit you have ever heard? 1980s sexy neon decadence starring those two adventurous hotties??? Admittedly I had mixed feelings about Mandy -- specifically because I'm over movies about women dying horribly to send men on righteous vengeance quests and I thought it would have been ten times a better movie if Nicolas Cage had been the one to die and Andrea Riseborough went on the righteous vengeance quest for him. (Obviously the fact that I prefer Riseborough as an actor to Cage by degrees of thousands had something to do with that too.) 

But Cosmatos really won me over with his episode of Guillermo Del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, which was one of my favorites... although I will say that I adored 90% of that series, one of the best anthologies in some time I thought -- Hey Guillermo can we get a second season already? Anyway Flesh of the Gods! That's a motherfucking title already -- add the cast, the writer, the director, that plot description -- I am super duper sold on this and need it inside of me like five days ago.

What a Monster Jacob Elordi Is

In case you missed the news yesterday (thx Mac) Andrew Garfield has left Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein movie and Jacob Elordi has stepped in to replace him -- all six foot five inches of him. And before I hear a single person say that Jacob is too pretty to play Frankenstein (specifically Frankenstein's Monster, that is) I am going to need you to google Boris Karloff because Boris was an extremely handsome man. And Frankenstein being super-tall makes a world of sense. Still on board the project are Oscar Isaac as the good Doctor and Mia Goth as... do we know who Mia's playing?

I've seen people say she's playing The Bride but the sources I've dug around in don't seem 100% on that. There's also the role of the Doctor's Wife, at least in the original version, but I can't imagine Del Toro wouldn't spice that boring role up here in 2024. Especially with Mia Goth playing it. Perhaps those two characters will become one? Also onboard is Christoph Waltz, probably as a bad guy because Christoph Waltz. Anyway since Frankenstein has always been a deeply queer text I hope GDT leans hard into that -- Oscar Isaac is defying god to build himself a pretty pretty man, after all!

Bride of Frankenstein is Gay Canon and only a gay director should be allowed to touch it https://t.co/r7h9hSMrxq

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 14, 2023

Two Trailers of Sheer Terror!

My head's been all over the place today -- blame those Jeremy Allen White underwear pictures that exploded off my screen like fireworks when I first turned on my computer this morning -- and so I haven't gotten to a couple of important things worth sharing yet. So let's do it rat-a-tat style, a fast drop of too much information and then whoosh I'm gone again like I was never here. First up! There is a docuemtnary about horror master Dario Argento hitting Shudder on February 2nd! (It's coinciding with a screening series here in NYC at the IFC Center.) Titled Dario Argento Panico and from filmmaker Simone Scafidi the doc features interviews with people like Gaspar Noé, Guillermo Del Toro, and Nicolas Winding Refn, aka the hottest nerd-fest in town. Also a bunch of his actors and Mr. Argento himself. Here's the trailer!

Next up we got the full trailer for Diablo Cody's next horror film called Lisa Frankenstein -- I shared the teaser all the way back in October; watch that here if you're like me and don't want too much given away. Which means that no, I haven't watched this full trailer myself. But I have heard good stuff about this movie from people who've already seen it, and I love love loved that teaser, so I don't need to. Maybe you're not me, who knows! Anyway Lisa Frankenstein hits theaters on February 9th, and here's that trailer:

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Crimson Peak (2015)

Ogilvie: A ghost story. Your father 

didn't tell me it was a ghost story. 

Edith: Oh it's... it's not. It's more a story with 

a ghost in it. The ghost is just a metaphor. 

Ogilvie: A metaphor? 

Edith: For the past.

I love how Guillermo Del Toro just lays that out there in Crimson Peak -- a smack upside the head to reorient our expectations going into the movie, and yet so many people were like, "It's not scary enough!!! The ghosts are funny looking!!!" after watching it. This movie remains so underrated! Blergh, people. Anyway no blergh to Guillermo, who's celebrating his 59th birthday today! A very happy blergh-less day to him!

Blue Fairies & Red Balloons

Time time time keeps bullet-training away... somehow it's time for Criterion Day again? I don't know. I have no concept of time anymore. What I do have a concept of is -- hooray for physical media! Criterion has just dropped the three titles they'll be releasing in December of this year, just in time to shove into your beloved's stocking. (Not a euphemism... or is it???) (Eww.) And at the top of the pile is Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio, which Netflix has deigned good enough to give the physical media treatment, thank goodness. And in 4K to boot! And you must look at the pop-out packaging:

Check at the disc specific's on Criterion's site -- it is stocked to the gills with extra content, as one expects from the premiere fancy place for film! This set hits on December 12th so yes, that's plenty of time to stuff them stockings. (Eww.) Next up...

... they're dropping a set of Albert Lamorisse's short films including the legendary The Red Ballon. The set also includes White Mane, Bim the Little Donkey, Stowaway in the Sky, and Circus Angel. And all of these have been restored, some in 4K, as well. I've only ever seen The Red Balloon -- have any of you seen any others? And I was about to say this was an incredibly kid friendly line-up for the holidays, but then I saw the third movie...

... a 1961 noir called Blast of Silence that they describe as "Swift, brutal, and blackhearted." So maybe not this one for junior. I've never heard of this movie before though -- any fans? The trailer (included at that link) makes it look like an incredibly stylish portrait of NYC at that moment in time. Anyway that's it for December -- this seems like a small batch so part of me is wondering if they'll drop news on a boxed-set later on?They do that sometimes and I feel like we're due a beautiful box-set from them this year still. The Pasolini one is a wonder but we usually get a couple, don't we? God I'm greedy.