Together in 300 Words or Less

The best horror movie of 2025 to date is out this Wednesday! (And just screened at Fantasia, which is where I saw it.) Newcomer writer-director Michael Shanks proves with Together that he's not just somebody to not just watch but someone to attach yourselves to as if glued by some sort of demonic force. Tackling the story of an inseparable couple named Millie and her sexy but useless cuck-boy Tim (played by real-world couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco) who literally become inseparable thanks to some weird-shit-in-the-woods hoodoo that they do, Together is exctly what it promises to be on the package -- but what a package! (Don't make the Dave Franco's penis joke, don't make the Dave Franco's penis joke....)

In all seriousness I refused to watch the trailer for this but I had susseed out what the general story would be anyway thanks to 1) its title and 2) the images on the posters -- and as any of you who've ever read anything of mine know, it's not because I'm thrillingly clever. It's one of those stories that is so obvious now that it's been made you can't believe it hadn't been made already. (Final scene of Society notwithstanding.) But Shanks -- with copius thanks to the wonderful chemistry between his stars -- delivers a film that exploits our expectations while also delivering on them to a gratuitous (complimentary) and gore-iffic tee. The shocks come in how far the three of them are willing to go with it all, and Together goes all the way, baby. Two days before a movie comes out is probably early to call something a classic but Together has all of the makings. I will watch this fifty times if the world can refrain from ending first.

Good Morning, World

A happy 40th birthday to lil' Davey Franco today -- not so little no more, I suppose, but that's an older picture of him I'm using since it's morning related and I don't believe I've posted it before so Lil' he can stay this particular morning. Have you been keeping up with his Body Horror movie Together co-starring his life-parnter Alison Brie that's out at the end of July? A new poster poped up this week and I think there have been trailers but I have avoided everything because, to quote our beloved Aunt Sassy, I don't need to see that. I just need to see the movie, thank you very much. I figured out what it was about just from the title and the vague description of the plot when I read about it ages ago and everything else they're dropping will just rob me of its presumed pleasures now. I have patience. Except I don't. I'm gonna go email its PR reps right now and find out about screenings, scuse me...

A Decade of Spring Breakin'

First things first -- how spectacular is that poster for Harmony Korine's film Spring Breakers? It's by one of the greats working today -- Akiko Stehrenberger, whose work I've highlighted here on the site several times in the past (like this post about his poster for Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things). He has an uncanny ability to capture a film's essence with beautiful simplicity. I would kill to own that poster up top but it sells for a heap of money now. That said I do have Stehrenberger posters for a few movies -- The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and I'll be getting my copy of his poster for Tár in a couple weeks! 

See more of his work at this link. But I digress -- we're here to talk Spring Breakers! I got all distracted by that gorgeous poster. So Korine's film turned ten earlier this week and it seemed like a good time to look back at it, so I did just that over at Mashable. Click here to read my thoughts on the movie a decade on. Spoiler alert -- I think I dig it more now than I even did then. It really captures something vital about that time, and sees what's coming right around the corner as well. Florida Man indeed!

Dave Franco Eleven Times

I know that Dave Franco had this blond hair for the character he plays on the Apple+ series The Afterparty, but god I hate it. Terrible hair, just terrible. That said I haven't watched the show -- the only reason I know the show exists actually is that Twitter keeps putting ads for it in front of me and Dave's showing cleavage in the ads and they grab my attention every damn time. Have any of you watched it? Is it any good? Even with that hair? Anyway he almost pulls the hair off in a couple of these photos (which were taken for ICON mag last year) but only almost, but I needed something go alongside the news I actually wanted to share today that involves Dave, so...

... here these are. Perhaps some of you will appreciate the hair more than I do. Anyway, that news -- Deadline is reporting that Dave has joined the cast of Love Lies Bleeding, one of my most anticipateds coming up, which is the new horror flick from Saint Maud director Rose Glass! We love love loved Saint Maud, and even better this movie is happening because no less than Kristen Stewart also loved Saint Maud and insisted that she'd do whatever Glass wanted to do next. Also joining the film beside Dave today are Ed Harris and the ever kick-ass Jena Malone -- Jena and Kristen Stewart in a movie together! Holy shit! If you want a few more details on the movie click that Deadline link -- I recommend knowing nothing, but then when isn't that the case? Instead just hit the jump for these questionable Dave Franco blonds...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

Fonny : It don't seem to me like there's 

a reason to treat two Negroes so nicely. 

I mean, clearly we ain't got a pot nor much 

of a drink to make piss with. Pardon my French. 

Levy : Look, man, with me it's pretty simple. 

I dig people who love each other. Black, white. 

Green, purple. It doesn't even matter to me. 

Just spread the love, you know?

This is one of my favorite scenes in Beale Street -- it's just such a lovely little bubble of happiness before, you know, it bursts. It doesn't hurt that Stephan James and Dave Franco had some chemistry going on and I might have momentarily imagined another movie, ahem. I mean, James Baldwin would have agreed! Anyway a real happy 27th birthday to Stephan James today -- I recommend you check out our Stephan James Archives to celebrate alongside him. (Oh especially this post.) I'm pretty excited for his next project, the big Vietnam War anthology film The Things They Carried, which has him co-starring alongside Tom Hardy, Bill Skarsgard, Martin Sensmeier, the list goes on and on. Now hit the jump for a new-to-me photo-shoot...

Listen to the Children of the Night...

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Have I really made it entirely clear how much I love, just love, Sheila Vand? She's in a new horror movie out this weekend called The Rental (directed by Dave Franco of all people; more on that later this week) and it reminded me of this cold hard fact -- Sheila Vand rules. I mean I knew she ruled when I first saw her in A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night -- which is the subject of this week's edition of "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" over at The Film Experience, click on over for that -- but I knew she both ruled and I totally adored her when she caught my eye next in my beloved We the Animals. Sheila Vand is totally enough all on her own to be excited about a thing now, is my point. One of our stone cold faves!

A Bum For All Seasons

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Even though I haven't seen the latter yet the one-two-punch of the utterly ridiculous Serenity (my review here) and this week's Harmony Korine film The Beach Bum is making me reconsider my thickly developed distaste for Matthew McConaughey. Before 2013 I was usually fine with him (he's very funny in Magic Mike) but that Dallas Buyers Oscar season really curdled my opinion and it hasn't rebounded. (Ughhh, True Detective.) But Serenity was so hysterically bad it was admirable, and The Beach Bum looks like a thing I might enjoy, and so here we are. Here we are looking back at Korine's last film, that is, with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" over at The Film Experience. Look at my shit!!!

Let the Great Movie Flood Come

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When last Friday rolled around I didn't have anything to say about the weekend's new movies, as I hadn't seen any of them - this weekend on the other hand is a whole different bag of beans. There are by my count six movies out today that I've already offered up my thoughts on  (two of them just this afternoon), and in case you care what I have to say - and I hope you do, otherwise WTF you doing here? - here are links to what I went and said...

Here are my thoughts on Steve McQueen's Widows.

Here are my thoughts on Green Book, in limited release.

Here are my thoughts on Van Gogh biopic At Eternity's Gate.

Here are my thoughts on the horror flick Cam, out on Netflix.

Here are my thoughts on the fine horror flick
The Clovehitch Killer, which is in limited release.

And here are my thoughts on the Coens' The Ballad of Buster 

Scruggs, which is also on Netflix right this very minute.

I'm seeing the new Fantastic Beasts tonight, which... looks terrible.

But if you wanna share your thoughts on any of these movies

feel free to do so in the comments! Have a nice weekend, y'all.

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Ruffalo Squared For Cianfrance

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This here website is littered with examples of me getting all worked up about Hifalutin Computer Technology being used to make twins out of an actor I crush on in hopes that we'll get some Hot Narcissus Action, but the only people who've seen it through so far are Jeremie Renier in Double Lover and Dave fucking Franco. (Literally.)

It's not incest if it's computer generated! But despite the tech being there it's been viciously under-exploited - not Tom Hardy in Legend, not Ewan McGregor on Fargo, not the Armie Hammers in The Social Network or my two Jake in Enemy...

Well anyway we're about to see which side Mark Ruffalo will fall on (and I'm guessing the latter) because he's going to play twins for an HBO limited series event called I Know This Much is True, based on the bestselling book by Wally Lamb. Anybody read it? I have not and it sounds way too high-minded for my shenanigans. Here's DH:

"[Ruffalo will] star as identical twin brothers Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in the series. The story follows their parallel lives “in an epic story of betrayal, sacrifice and forgiveness set against the backdrop of 20th century America.”

And this is coming from director Derek Cianfrance, the man behind Blue Valentine and The Place Behind the Pines and The Light Between Oceans (I think I'm like one of ten people who really loves the latter?) so yeah, this will be straights-ville. But probably good anyway, despite that red mark against it! Until then we'll just have to make due with this gif of Mark kissing Matt Bomer from The Normal Heart...

Git To Heck

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I made a good call last week when I randomly dug Bill Heck's name out of the cast list for the Coens latest movie The Ballad of Buster Scruggs -- I didn't know who he was then or how big his role would be, but he ended up giving one of my favorite performances as a Gary Cooper type opposite Zoe Kazan in the sad sweet romantic middle sixth of the six-part anthology.

My whole review of the film's up now over at The Film Experience - click on over to read that. IAnd I just realized I never posted any pictures of the Coens and their cast at the NYFF press conference - well none of the ones I took turned out that great but here's an alright one. The Coens are on the right; that's Heck on the far left, with Tim Blake Nelson and Zoe Kazan beside him.

The Ballad of Bill Heck

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If ever there was a name for an actor to have that would fit them right in to a Western made by the Coen Brothers that name would be Bill Heck, so it's a good thing a Western made by the Coen Brothers has just happened, while a man who goes my Bill Heck is working. I am seeing the film (which goes by The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) this morning for the NYFF so this is my farewell for a few hours. Anyway I can't tell you how big Mr. Heck's role is in the film, not having seen it quite yet - I can tell you the above picture of him being molested on stage by Dana Delany (in a production of Night of the Iguana) is making me hope Mr. Heck has a gosh-darn big role, though. 

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Do you recognize Bill Heck from anything though? His career is still pretty fresh but he's been in some things (The Alienist, The Leftovers) and he's done some gay roles - he was in Yen Tan's 2013 film Pit Stop (see below) and he's also in Tan's upcoming film 1985 which I shared the trailer for recently and which is screening at NewFest here in NYC this month.

Take Your Breathe Away

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Did anybody actually see Breathe? Did Breathe even come out? Breathe is the movie with Andy struck down by polio opposite Claire Foy - IMDb says it came out in October but it didn't seem to make much of an impression, I guess. It is hitting blu-ray right after the holidays though, so stay tuned, polio fun straight ahead. 

online survey

(I ask this question knowing fully well that the only correct answer to "What actor sexed themselves up in a mirror the best?" is and always will be Alain Delon in Purple Noon.) Anyway I guess Andy won't be getting an acting nomination this year, but he kinda owes the world one after that Hacksaw Ridge absurdity last year, so take it in stride, dude. And in return we'll post some pictures of him after the jump to make sure he feels a little love...

I Am Link

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--- Thin Ice - Have you read my review of I, Tonya yet? If you're waiting to see the movie, i get it, but if you just missed it you can read it right here. I bring it up because I've been thinking about the movie a lot this week - it's not a perfect thing by any means (I might have lost the framing device of the talking heads altogether myself, even though some of the movie's best lines are in there) but the one complaint I see as wrong-headed and precious is the one complaint I see the most, and that's about its "funny" treatment of domestic violence. That tone seems to me entirely honest to the film's subject, but Vulture was nice enough to talk to the film-makers themselves about it and this was very much on their minds as they made it. Says the director:

"It was one of the first questions that Margot asked me: How would you portray the violence? I said, ‘We have to reflect the life that Tonya came from and the abuse that she went through that gave her the armor that she had, and the way that she sees the world.’ To not show it would be a disservice.”

--- Crazy Woman - Kimberly ripping her wig off on Melrose Place is kind of my own personal Field of Dreams - if you post about it, I will post about your post. And so here head on over to The Cut where they wrote a whole thing about what a fracture in the universe that moment created - there is Before, and there is After.

--- Good Times Ahead - This story's going on two weeks old but I keep meaning to mention it - Robert Pattinson, fresh off his maybe best performance yet with Good Time, is proving his indie-cred bonafides with his next project and then some: he's signed on to star in the new movie from Ciro Guerra, whose hallucinatory Amazonian film Embrace of the Serpent was one of the highlights of 2016. It's called Waiting for the Barbarians and it will also star Mark Rylance, but I think that's all the info we have so far (as if that is not enough already).

--- Holiday Fear - I should make a list of my favorite Xmas movies at some point this month now that I think about it, but you can bet your bottom that Joe Dante's Gremlins would have a spot. Nothing gets me in the spirit quicker than watching Mrs. Deagle flying out her second-story window. There's a nice little chat with Dante and the film's star Zach Galligan over in The Guardian where they reminisce about the making of the movie. Justice for Phoebe Cates! I wish she'd talk.

--- Gays On Screen - Yesterday IndieWire posted a list of the Best LGBT Movies of 2017 (thanks Mac) - I think you can surmise that if I were to make this list myself their number two would be my number one (ya think?) but I think BPM is an astonishing piece of movie-making too so I don't begrudge it a topping here and there! Anyway you really can't argue with any of the movies on the list - that Top Five is just an astonishing and diverse group of films. This year's one for the record books. At least cinematically speaking we're doing well!

--- Stories For Scaring - Have you guys seen The Autopsy of Jane Doe yet? It's a totally solid spooker - here's my review - and it's been long out now where ever you watch movies, I believe. Give it a twirl! I bring it up because the film's director André Øvredal (he also made the fun-time Trollhunter movie) has officially signed on to direct the movie version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Alvin Schwartz's book series that creeped out an entire generation mostly thanks to the terrifying illustrations by Stephen Gammell. I really don't know how you make a movie from those books, which were all short short stories that relied for most of their bite from those drawings, but good luck to him trying! If nothing else maybe we'll get a fancy edition of the original books.

--- Barry's Harem - Yet another good looking dude has jumped on-board Moonlight director Barry Jenkins next project, an adaptation of a James Baldwin book called If Beale Street Could Talk - this time around it's Game of Thrones and Narcos' actor Pedro Pascal. (thanks Mac) The other week we told you how Dave Franco and Ed Skrein were both joining the cast. Lookers left and right. Not sure how they all figure into the story, which is about a pregnant woman trying to keep her accused-of-murder partner safe from the forces closing in, but I look forward to finding out.

--- And Finally earlier this week I shared the poster for Andrew Haigh's upcoming "teenager and a horse" drama Lean on Pete and told you the trailer was due soon - well soon has come and gone but I'm just getting to it. If you haven't seen it yet here's the trailer below; I'm really excited to see how young Charlie Plummer does - he was so good in King Jack a few years back. He's got a big year ahead - he's also in that Christopher Plummer movie (ha) All the Money in the World as the rich kid who gets kidnapped.
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It Is Apparently Friday?

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This week just sorta flew by me without me realizing it and here we are and the week is over? Point being I am outta here and I haven't gotten the chance to write my Disaster Artist review yet so a real quick word on that before I write something more substantial next week - it's very funny! You should go see it this weekend. Tell me if you see it in the comments. Same goes for The Shape of Water, which I reviewed here, but only if you're in New York since that's only open in New York. Okay seriously I gotta go. Bye!

PS If you missed my big (spoiler-riddled and bombastic) piece on Call Me By Your Name earlier this week you shouldn't! It's right here! Okay bye again for real now.

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Dave Franco Four Times

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Shot by Eric Day Davidson for August Man magazine (via)

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The Return of Sexy James Franco

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Along with his very fine shoot for Out Magazine last month (see it right here) this new shoot of James for GQ Australia (via) is also very fine, marking a severe uptick in "very fine" looks for the actor in quite awhile. Could things (i.e. his ass) be looking up? Has he swept aside his insufferablity one more time? 

Stay tuned, we'll see. He could say something tomorrow that picks at the scab. And did any of you watch the first episode of The Deuce? I thought it was pretty entertaining - I do love me some seedy 70s NYC, and I have missed Maggie Gyllenhaal a whole lot. Plus... that is a whole lot of Franco pubes. A whole lot. Anyway hit the jump for eight more shots...

Zachary Quinto & James Franco Rubbing Scruff

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Even though it's been on Netflix for awhile I still haven't sat down to watch I Am Micheal, the gay conversion therapy movie starring James Franco and Zachary Quinto yet - have any of you? The tepid reviews dulled my enthusiasm... as did the word that their on-screen three-way with Charlie Carver was apparently a dud. How do you make that be a dud? Anyway when I saw the new Out Magazine photo-shoot of James looking really very good the other week I thought maybe I should go back and give it a chance. Thoughts?

Hail Mary Full of Laughs

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If ever a movie was made to be called "BAWDY!" on its poster, The Little Hours is that movie, and delightfully so. (Also possibly "RIBALD!" in a pinch?) It stars Aubrey Plaza, Allison Brie, Kate Micucci, and Molly Shannon as four of the nutty brunette nuns running roughshod over a 14th Century convent and the priest (a piously pickled  John C. Reilly) in charge, slamming their vows like soiled habits against the stones. They curse, they fornicate, they lift up their heavy skirts and ride the Deadly Sins (also Dave Franco) donkey-style across the picturesque Italian countryside - it's Hee Haw for heretics!

This sort of thing could've been slight, a threadbare SNL skit - watch out for those crazy nuns! - and at times it flirts with that, but director Jeff Baene also has a beautiful eye and the landscape is really very breathtaking - there's a sweet frisson to the goofiness of the manic happenings rubbing up against the sun-dappled 70s feel of the thing that come across individual and fresh. Baene keeps his camera wide and lets these big characters play out against this big landscape, and there's something delicious and cinematic about it. 

So no, it's not going to overthrow our shit-stained government and usher in a new and profound era of peace and light, but The Little Hours is ninety straight minutes of Dave Franco's spectacular cleavage getting pawed at by a cloister-full of frolicsome comediennes cut loose and extra groovy, and that's plenty for my forlorn soul this summer. I feel saved for now.

(If you missed our pics from last night's Little Hours event with Plaza & Franco click here for that!)

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Pics of the Day

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A few of my favorite things gathered in one neat little convenient spot last night - Aubrey Plaza and Dave Franco, human joke machines, showed up at the storied Rare Book Room of the Strand Bookstore (shelves shelves shelves!) along with their Little Hours director Jeff Baena to read a trio of passages from Giovanni Boccaccio's 1353 opus The Decameron, upon which Baena based his "Nuns Gone Wild" film, which is out in some theaters tomorrow. In case you missed the film's trailer, click here. 

Anyway this was a strange and wonderful thing to witness, a clash of millennial sarcasm and great literature, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world, and so... I didn't, as these photographs make clear. I also posted a video snippet of Aubrey reading on my Instagram right here, and a video snippet of Dave reading on my Instagram right here. You should see The Little Hours -- I'm planning on reviewing the movie in a bit, so stay tuned for that. But first...

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Hey look it is Timothee Chalamet pic.twitter.com/tfXhezLtQc

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 29, 2017

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... I do just have to share that! I have no idea why Call Me By Your Name leading man Timothée Chalamet was in the audience but he definitely seemed to be there with one of the people on stage because he left with them as they left. But I managed to snap that quick shot of him, and can I just say that he is stunning in person - on film he looks young (which yes I keep getting shit for every time I post about him) and awkward, which is perfect for the role in Call Me By Your Name, but in person... wow. Not a bad angle.
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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

21 Jump Street (2012)
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Eric: You know what they do to handsome guy like me in prison. It rhymes with grape. It rhymes with grape. 

A happy 32 to Dave Franco! PS you should all be excited 

for The Little Hours. I have seen it (review to come)...

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... and it's funny
and positively stuffed with Dave Cleavage.

 It's out on June 30th.

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