Lakeith Stanfield Nine Times

Hey people! Just got to my desk after having a screening this morning so I will make up for lost time now with these here photos of the ever handsome Lakeith Stanfield for Esquire magazine. You can read his interview here -- he's promoting Boots Riley's new movie I Love Boosters which hits theaters tomorrow (did you see I hit the pop-up in NYC yesterday afternoon for some movie merch?) Anyway having seen ILB I can say with genuine authority it's a blast and I thoroughly recommend -- not sure whether I'll be reviewing it or not but two movies in I'm big-time Team Boots; I adore his brand of chaotic nosnense. He was made for me! Also made for me -- Lakeith. Maybe news to Lakeith but it's true. So hit the jump for the new photos of my fella...

Good Morning, World

I almost fell out of my chair when I stumbled across this selfie taken by Lakeith Stanfield this morning, and so I now hopefully pass that feeling of joy in horny disorientation along to you, my beloveds. Enjoy. (click to embiggen)

The Chan-dy Man

Channing Tatum is always going to be younger and hotter than me, that's a given  I came to terms with the first second I laid eyes on Channing Tatum. But I feel as if I can still take some personal pleasure from the fact that a movie trailer can still be sold on the repeated sight of Channing half-naked -- the logic being that once he ages out of that then it's really fucking over for me. But that day is not today! So it goes...

... with the trailer for Derek Cianfrance's new movie Roofman, which tells the wild true story of an ex-Ranger who went to prison for robbing McDonalds (by drilling down through their roofs, hence his nickname) who hides out and moves into a functioning Toys R Us store after he escapes. I remember these headlines! Anyway the trailer makes this seem more lighthearted than I anticipated from Cianfrance, but with this incredible cast -- which also includes Kirsten Dunst, Lakeith Stanfield, Peter Dinklage, Ben Mendelsohn, Uzo Aduba and Juno Temple -- I'd have been sold even wiuthout all the Chan-skin. Watch the trailer:

Roofman is out on October 10th!

Hit the jump for several more gifs...

Lakeith Stanfield One Time

Viiiiibin'. (via)

Lakeith Stanfield Ten Times

This pairs well with yesterday's Lakeith post wherein we learned he has a new television series on Apple called The Changeling -- to promote said television series (and that term seems so outdated now -- television series -- I am ancient) Lakeith has done a photoshoot and interview with AnOther magazine, check it out here. Or if you hate reading and/or are illiterate just check out the photoshoot, which I have for you after the jump...

Good Morning, World

I know this is exacerbated by the ongoing strike, but I hadn't heard a single word about the new Apple series The Changeling until last night when I turned on my Apple TV and Lakeith Stanfield's face was staring back at me -- this is a problem! And they expect these shows to perform well immediately, after dropping, or they get axed? Streaming is a damn racket, y'all. Anyway here's news you can use -- there is a show called The Changeling that stars Lakeith Stanfield that is on Apple now. Apparently. Don't hold me to that. It might be gone tomorrow, like we all dreamed it. 

Good Morning, World

Lakeith Stanfield is on the cover of the new issue of The Standard's EM magazine talking about his role in Disney's Haunted Mansion movie (god what have we done to cinema) -- I have never been to a Disney theme park (that's some "gold star gay" shit right there) so I know nothing about this ride, and have no desire to, so I skipped all that. But I did like this part of his interview:

"He considers it a ‘beautiful luxury’ to be able to explore different shades of masculinity, and has long since given up worrying what people might think about his more flamboyant fashion choices. ‘I could show up in a suit, I could show up in a cowboy hat, I could show up in fishnet socks, it doesn’t matter — somebody’s gonna have something to say!’ he shrugs. ‘Most of the people who have something to say are nekkid flipping through the channels, or online in their drawers! So what difference does it make? Everybody has an opinion, so you might as well just do whatever feels right.’"

Lakeith has had some of the wildest photo-shoots over the years (check our archives to confirm this truth) so believe it when he says it. Funny enough though this photo-shoot (photographed by Petra Collins) is extremely tame, by his standards -- that's not to say he's not looking fine per usual. Just he's wearing regular button-down shirts and no elaborate wigs. Not a single wig! Hit the jump for it... 

One Big Heads Up

I should have mentioned this on this morning's "Good Morning, World" post but I was so distracted by Taron Egerton's slamming buttocks (as one gets) that I forgot -- mark your stalking calendars, as I'm going to be offline for a bit starting this week, heading into next. Specifically half of tomorrow, and then Thursday straight through the following Wednesday. I'm doing my annual-ish visit "home" to family and friends. I put "home" in quotations because I have lived here in NYC longer now than I have lived anywhere else, so NYC is home to me now. But you feel me. Anyway this was a good excuse to share that photo of Lakeith (via) and kill another bird in the process -- the more you know, and all.

Happy InDePlaidPants Day 2022

For the third year in a row I am giving you people something to actually celebrate on July 4th, since the thought of celebrating "America" these days makes anyone with a sane brain break out in hives -- Happy InDePlaidPants Day! Wherein we instead tip our hats toward a bunch of photos of of attractively styled actors wearing this site's namesake pants o' plaid! Okay okay let's not be "controversial" -- you can also celebrate "America" if you want to. I won't smack the sparkler out of anybody's hands. These two things can coexist. I don't want a bunch of mouth-breathing red-hatters deciding to boycott plaid pants or anything. (As if they'd have the fashion capabilities in the first place.)  We're just here for pictures (and to hate Republicans), hit the jump for the pictures (and just hate the Republicans inside of your hearts)...

All's Right on the Western Front

I've never been big on Westerns. Although, as with Musicals, there are singular and strange exceptions that prove the rule -- I can watch Catherine Denueve stare out an umbrella shop window with tears in her eyes as I can watch Montgomery Clift compare pistols with John Ireland til the sun goes down, yeehaw lil' doggy. I grew up with a father who loved Westerns, John Wayne shit everywhere, and, as with sports, a rejection of all things father-related seems to have worked its way into the foundations of my being. I understand you're not my therapist and this is a lot of information, but it seems important to gateway my review of the giddying and gleeful The Harder They Fall in such a manner, because I want you to know when I tell you I loved it that this carries some weight.

So I loved it. It's not just the fact that writer-director Jeymes Samuel has fore-fronted a cast that looks nothing like your typical Western cast of yore -- there are plenty of pink-skinned second-players but the film stars in all its leading roles black faces, gorgeous black faces, belonging to Idris Elba, Regina King, Lakeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz, and my king Jonathan Majors. It's not just that I am looking at these people doing things I haven't been given the chance to see them do before that livens up the proceedings -- but that don't hurt. Like a zap from the eyeball straight to the funny bone -- that's how science works, right -- there's just a thrill, keen and electric, in the singularity of it. A freshness that can't be ignored. We want our meals fresh -- why not our movies, dagnabit?

There have of course been Black Westerns before. When I was in high school Mario Van Peebles' film Posse came out; and while it's a stretch to call it a "Black Western" one of my father's favorites was indeed Mel Brooks' obscene farce Blazing Saddles, which explicitly dealt with the racism of the genre with the great Cleavon Little as its slapsticky leading man. But those movies (along with even just Django Unchained even more recently) were About Racism, full stop. I won't say the characters stayed skin deep, but the movies could only see their skin when it came to the stories they could tell. The black cowboys and Buffalo Soldiers were set against all manner of ugly racists spouting racist bullshit, and that's all they got.

In the opening scene of The Harder They Fall some white dude starts to say a word that begins with the letter "N" and Regina King shoots him dead before he can get past the syllable, making a joke that she doesn't care where he was going with it from there -- an "N" is too much already. And the movie takes that attitude onward -- this story ain't about that shit, and it allows its black characters to become so very much more. They're bad bad bad guy villains, they're romantic leads and avengers, they're sidekicks and ol' stalwarts and all the Western tropes we've seen a million times before. Just black. It's not that racism isn't there; it's just that these people have lives and adventures to lead that have nothing to do with it. And I'll be good goddamned if that doesn't make the picture just feel alive from someplace deep within it, with the blood coursing up and out from there.

The cast feels it too, and they sing appropriately -- these are some of the most relaxed movie star turns i've seen from this stable of fine movie stars, everybody leaning into aspects of themselves they've never quite gotten to muss with while also complimenting all of our favorite bits about them. (Lakeith as a sad quiet killing machine and Regina King as a no-nonsense terror are of particular delight.) And you better believe me when I tell you the last act of this movie's a trip, a culmination of double and triple-crosses that takes the usual Western Town shoot-out and makes it hit notes of absolute action fantastic pleasure. You really care about these folks by the time the bloodbath starts washing down the main street's thoroughfare, and so every zing of a bullet stings deep. And I'll be damned if I'm not crying to be signed up for ten more of these movies now.

The Harder They Fall is streaming on Netflix right now! Go'n git!

Jonathan Majors Four Times

Netflix's new Western The Harder They Fall is hitting that streamer tomorrow and so here are a quartet of Jonathan Majors photos (via) to whet your... well, yer everything. Appetite, et al. Majors and Zazie Beetz plays the movie's White Hats (so to speak) while Idris Elba, Lakeith Stanfield, and Regina King play the Black Hats (so to speak) -- these terms are loaded when you're talking about a black cast, huh? Anyway I posted the trailer here -- I am hoping to review this before the day is through (spoiler alert: it's pretty terrific) so maybe stay tuned for that! Until then make due with these photos of our San Francisco treat turned big, after the jump...

Harder Times Ahead

Finally some news on the western film The Harder They Fall with the all-star cast of Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors, Lakeith Stanfield....and excuse me while I take a deep breathe after that Holy Trinity of names... okay, there's more... Regina King, Delroy Lindo, and Zazie Beets, among others! Wowza. The movie has a release date now, which is hitting theaters on October 22 and on then hitting Netflix on November 3. 

Oh and they dropped some new stills, as well as a full ass trailer! We posted the teaser back in July right here, but this one today is full ass. I don't know why I keep saying that -- I'm gonna get y'all's hopes up that Idris shows his ass in this movie, which probably is not the case. The man is about to turn fifty and has only really shown his ass once, I doubt we're gonna get more on that front. What am I even talking about? God. Here's the trailer:

You know maybe Jonathan Majors or Lakeith will show their asses. It's possible. A classic western scene always involves those small wooden tubs that people were forced to bathe in. We could have one of those scenes, maybe? And yes I am still talking about this. I'll be talking about this... well I was gonna say "days" but there's no end in sight, let's be truthful. No end! Speaking of ends... okay I'll stop. Sorry. Hit the jump for a few more new photos from the film...

I Did It All For You, Lakeith

When I first read this news this morning I thought they were remaking the 1980 horror classic and I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but it ain't that -- Lakeith Stanfield is set to star in an Apple+ series based on a 2018 book by Victor LaValle called The Changeling, which sounds kinda The Omen-esque in that the birth of a son sends a married couple's lives spiraling into horror. Here is how Deadline describes the story:

"The Changeling, from Annapurna and Apple Studios, is a fairytale for grown-ups. A horror story, a parenthood fable and a perilous odyssey through a New York City you didn’t know existed. In the LaVelle’s book, when Apollo — the role that Stanfield will be playing — and Emma have their baby, Brian, it feels like both a reward and a challenge for the new dad. Apollo, the son of a single mother, had been scraping by as a bookseller who hunts estate and garage sales for rare first editions, so even the unusual circumstance of Brian’s birth (on a stalled subway train) seems like a blessing, as does the way Apollo stumbles across a first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird (inscribed by Harper Lee to Truman Capote, no less) shortly thereafter. But after some young-parent squabbles and inexplicable images on their smartphones foreshadow trouble, the story turns nightmarish."

Anybody read the book? The description on the book's Amazon page is a little different and brings up the subject of "racism" so I'm guessing Lakeith was looking for his own Get Out, just where he gets to be the star this time. Good on 'im. Lakeith should be the star more often. And in another nod towards Daniel Kaluuya, Melina Matsoukas, the director of Queen & Slim, will direct -- I didn't like Q&S much but it was plenty stylish and maybe I'll like this one more.

Cowboy Majors & His Merry Band

Just yesterday I shared an interview with you that Jonathan Majors gave to The AV Club and I was lucky what he was talking about was "being built like a brick shit-house" on Lovecraft Country because it allowed me to use a previously-posted photo of said "brick shit-house" stature. Because, I thought at the time, if I'd needed to find a new photo of Mr. Majors I'd be hella screwed, as I've been, or so I thought, relentless in scouring the 'net for every one. But I was wrong! As seen above there's a brand new photo of him -- it's out of The Hollywood Reporter last week, where he was included in their TV Actors Roundtable. Also there...

... our boy-prince Josh O'Connor. I haven't read the piece or watched the video yet -- have any of you? Do Jonathan & Josh flirt with each other, because if they do you need to tell me, I need warning. I need to put down some pillows, and slip into a rubber sleeve. The other people in the Roundtable ain't nothing to sneeze at either -- Regé-Jean Page, Chris Rock, John Boyega. I'll read it over lunch. Anyway! That's not the only reason we're here, if you can believe it. This morning we got the trailer for The Harder They Fall, the forthcoming Western that stars Majors alongside Idris Elba, Regina King, Lakeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz, and Delroy Lindo. Watch!

It looks like a ton of fun, right? No release date yet, just says 

sometime this fall. If you hit the jump I've got a couple photos...

Good Morning, World

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by 𝙷𝚃𝙸𝙴𝙺𝙰𝙻 Stanfield (@lakeithstanfield3)

This is definitely the energy I am going to 

try to carry with me into this week. Yessir.

Good Morning, Lakeith Only

Newly minted Oscar nominee (!!!) Lakeith Stanfield is looking mighty fine in (and on the cover) of the new issue of Flaunt magazine -- not that Lakeith ever looks anything but, but still. And I know people are weirded out about both his and his Judas and the Black Messiah co-star Daniel Kaluuya's nominations being for Supporting Actor when they are clearly co-leads of the film but...  well the Oscars themselves and their rules are dumb and arbitrary and measuring Art is ridiculous, let's just be happy that an actor as good as Lakeith -- and he gave my favorite performance in Judas -- got nominated when nobody thought he was going to. 

He's always so good, and even better and more important in real life he seems like a genuine weirdo and y'all know how I feel about weirdos, I was just going on about weirdos yesterday in my review of the new Udo Kier movie. The movies, hell the world, needs more genuine weirdos. And if they look like Lakeith, well, all the better. On that note (of looking at Lakeith) there's an entire photoshoot alongside his Flaunt interview and I've got it after the jump...

Pics of the Day

The magazine known as British Vogue has dropped their 2021 "Hollywood Portfolio" today and there's so much hotness therein after I was done scanning down the gallery I had to go to the bathroom and make sure my eyebrows were still there. (They are.) If you click over wear protective glasses, please! We have lost enough in this past year, nobody needs to go blind for beauty! There are women included in their portfolio of course but because I am me I gathered up all the photos of the Menfolk that I plan on having an Oscar night orgy with -- hey, in the famous words of that monster that haunted the baseball field back in the 1980s, "If you build the sex swing, they will come." That's how I remember that movie anyway. Maybe I rented something else? I don't know. Hit the jump for the hot guys photos...

Today's Fanboy Delusion

 Today I'd rather be...

... popping off with Lakeith, Yahya and Steven.

(via)

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Get Out (2017)

Jim: Life can be a sick joke. One day you're 

developing prints in the dark room and the next day 

you wake up - in the dark. Genetic disease.

Chris: Shit ain't fair, man.

Jim: Oh, you got that right! Shit ain't fair.

A happy 32nd birthday to Daniel Kaluuya today! If you haven't seen Judas and the Black Messiah yet you definitely should -- there's a lot great going on in it I thought, especially the performances. And very excited for him to re-team with director Jordan Peele, on some sort of horror thriller that will apparently have the terrific Keke Palmer playing the villain...

BABES NOTHING BUT BABES pic.twitter.com/zIQvls0tS6

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) February 16, 2021

Only The Best Men

Silly me I thought I could get away with just tweeting out a pair of images from W Magazine's "Best Performances" issue yesterday -- there was of course more where those came from, and a proper post is called for. They did a very good job picking the actors they focused on with ONE exception -- you're not going to see those Jared Leto photos below. That movie is terrible and he, per usual, is terrible in it. But the rest of the fellas -- Steven Yeun, Riz Ahmed, Jacob Elordi, Jonathan Majors and Lakeith Stanfield? I mean come on. You can't shake a stick at that line-up? (Or could you?) Ahem. Each actor has a little Q&A which you can find at the link above, but after the jump nothing but snaps...