A Little Tom Holland Treat

The first official images from Christopher Nolan's film of The Odyssey have started to land (via the new issue of Empire magazine I believe) and I figured it would be this shot of Tom Holland playing the character of Telemachus that would blow up all y'all skirts the best. This movie's not out until July 17th 2026 so we've got some time to decide whether we give a shit -- well I suppose "we" really equals "me" since I'm the biggest Nolan naysayer around. And yet! And yet I did like Oppenheimer. So maybe I'll like this one even more and Nolan will suddenly become a director I appreciate again, which hasn't really been a thing since Memento. (Okay okay I do mostly like The Dark Knight too.) With a cast that includes Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Mia Goth, Jon Bernthal, Zendaya, Logan Marshall-Green, Lupita Nyong'o and Samantha Morton (among others) there'll certainly be somebody worth staring at most of the time... but then Nolan's always gotten big starry casts which he then usually squanders. I'm trying to be optimistic, really! How are y'all feeling about the prospects on this one? 

Cosmo Jarvis Three Times

Big day for Cosmo-stans as not only was he featured in that Warfare clip I shared earlier but we've also got news of his next project, and it's a biggun -- he's just joined the vast cast of Chris Nolan's upcoming epic take on The Odyssey (thx Mac). No idea who he's playing in it but he's got a face for skirts and he joins the already announced (the movie is actually already filming) cast of (deep breath) Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson, John Leguizamo, Benny Safdie, Charlize Theron, Jon Bernthal, Mia Goth, Shiloh Fernandez, Himesh Patel, Elliott Page, Bill Irwin, Samantha Morton, Jesse Garcia, Will Yun Lee and Corey Hawkins. We have of course been in the Cosmo-corner ever since we first saw him opposite Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth -- it took Shōgun for the rest of the world to catch up but that's fine because Shōgun is ace. And I know I should know better than to expect anything homosexual from Nolan but my god with this cast of actors and Ancient Greece as your setting... I mean we all know what Achilles and Patroclus were getting up to dammit!

Joseph Quinn Six Times

I haven't read the interview yet so I have no idea why it's Lupita N'yongo interviewing Mr. Quinn in Interview Magazine -- wait is he in the new Quiet Place movie maybe? -- but it is, meaning I'll read it because I love Lupita even if I'm holding off on the Joe Quinn train until I can see him in more than just Stranger Things. Which he admittedly knocked outta the park. All I know if he shaved his head and immediately turned into a Mini James McAvoy in my eyes, leaving me confused. But anyway he looks hot as hell in these photos from Interview, and that's really the thing that matters most. We'll see what he does in "the Chris Evans role" in the new Fantastic Four -- it's a big ask, even if those FF movies blew chunks, asking me to forget Chris Evans in that skintight blue suit. (I suppose when the time comes we'll be providing a "Who Wore It Best?" poll to settle the sitch.) Until then we wish him luck! Hit the jump for the photos...

13 Bunnies of Halloween #2

Today's second entry in our "13 Bunnies of Halloween" series takes us to Jordan Peele's 2019 film Us, which is positively hoppin' with lil' cotton-tailed creatures, literally from its opening credits  on. 

In the practical sense, we find out the rabbits are there as food for the tethered folks who all live down below (if you have no idea what I am talking about because you haven't seen the movie, just go watch the movie; I am not explaining this complicated movie right now) -- and yes they eat the rabbits raw, and yes that is hella gross. But why bunnies? Just what the hell do all of those bunnies mean? There are a couple of answers, straight from the mouth of Peele himself. Here is one explanation (via):

"They symbolize a lot of different things... The main connection to me was Easter. This story is a dark Easter of sorts." Red, the doppelgänger to Lupita Nyong'o's Adelaide, "is The Messiah," the writer-director explains, "who's rising from the hole [from] which she was left for dead." As for the larger meaning behind those bunnies: "The animals in my story represent this battle between science and religion," Peele says. "I tend to like to explore the gray area where religion and magic and the unexplainable meet science. Between the two you have an abomination, a metaphor for humanity."

But as profound a reasoning as all of that sounds, Peele also lets on to one other bit of reasoning -- he just finds rabbits fucking creepy. As he told the Guardian: "They’re adorable but they terrify me at the same time... and they got those scissor-like ears that creep me out.” Did somebody say scissors?

We really are blessed to be living in the time of Jordan Peele making horror movies y'all. His ability to whittle things down to some rich yet bizarre iconography is absolutely peerless at the moment, and I say that as a person who found Get Out a little bit overrated at the time of its release. Three movies in now and a better, fuller sense of his voice feels clear to me, and... yeah, we're blessed. Bring on the next one!

"Rabbits... they have the brain like a sociopath." @JordanPeele explains how nature's cuddly creatures are the most terrifying animals around. #UsMovie pic.twitter.com/94FYwPRjvF

— Rotten Tomatoes (@RottenTomatoes) March 21, 2019

Searching For Edgar Ramirez

In case you hadn't noticed -- and why would you? -- it is January of the year 2022. I don't know. It just is. So yeah, it's January, allegedly, and even though nothing else feels the same the studios are still using January as their dumping ground and so the movies coming out, they ain't so exciting. We do have the new Scream movie coming out next week and that is exciting, but otherwise, me trying to do a round-up of things to watch right now? Not a thrill. There is The 355, a lady spies adventure starring Jessica Chastain and Lupita Nyong'o and Fan Bingbing and Penelope Cruz and Diane Kruger, but I've heard tepid things and...

I know The 355 is all about actresses or whatever but their advertising should feature more of Edgar Ramirez and Sebastian Stan if you ask me, like making out and shit pic.twitter.com/yUM91p5WIB

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 7, 2022

... that would benefit their buzz, don't you think? But nooooooo they know better. Best of luck with that, then. I think we're all gonna be saving that one for airplane rides. (Hollywood has really done Edgar dirty y'all -- he's such an incredible actor when given the chance.) 

There is a good movie out on VOD today (and supposedly in some theaters but I'm not encouraging theater-going at all right now, and I think you know why, but let's try to write a post without naming the pandemic in the room for once) -- it's called See For Me and I reviewed it out of Tribeca last summer, right here. It's about a blind girl named Sophie who is house-sitting for strangers when robbers break in and there's a, you guessed it, cat and mouse game that ensues. It's terrific -- atmospheric, tense, all the things you want from that set-up. I'll share the trailer here: 

Otherwise there is the new Asghar Farhadi movie A Hero in some theaters, but seriously, it hits Amazon in two weeks -- just wait for that please. I will be writing it up up then -- you don't want to see it before you know what I think, right??? Man I'll try anything. Stay home. I am staying home. I am going to watch a bunch of Search Party (watch the trailer here) and celebrate Elvismas tomorrow from the comfort of my sofa, the way Riley Keough's grandfather intended. Have a good safe weekend, everyone. And please tell me what you're watching in the comments! 

Pantys '19: Performers, Part Two -- Actresses

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Earlier today I shared with you my ten (well really twenty, with the runners-up included) favorite performances from actors in 2019. Now the time's come for my ten (well twenty really, with the runners-up) favorite performances from actresses coming out of 2019. That's how things work, see? Amazing. 

And no, sidenote, I don't really know anymore why I'm splitting these things up by gender in the year that is 2020 (not to mention even using the word "actress"), except it gives me a good way to split this into two lists and thereby include twice as many names -- I try to do my "Actor to Actor" series when I can manage my time well enough since it sidesteps all this, but this year we're falling to the old standby due to time constraints. So Actors and Actresses it is. Yadda and yadda, in no particular order I give you...

My 10 Favorite Actresses of 2019

Elisabeth Moss, Her Smell

Fatma Mohamed, In Fabric

Lupita Nyong'o, Us

Florence Pugh, Midsommar 

Yeo-jeong Jo, Parasite

Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Dolemite is My Name

Marietta Subong, Ode to Nothing

Adèle Haenel, Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Alfre Woodard, Clemency

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10 Runners Up

Isabelle Huppert, Frankie

Octavia Spencer, Luce

Mia Wasikowska, Piercing

Taylor Russell, Waves

Mary Kay Place, Diane

Julianne Moore, Gloria Bell

Noémie Merlant, Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Aisling Franciosi, The Nightingale

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, In Fabric

Molly Shannon, Wild Nights With Emily

What were your favorite Actresses of 2019?
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Pantys 19: The Horror Movies

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Put on your ball-guards, everybody -- the time has come here in our 2019 Golden Trousers Awards to count down my favorite genre, the genre of scares, and these suckers are all a real kick in the nards. As you maybe noticed we're in a good time for the Horror Genre these days -- this is often the case when the world's an anxious place, but in 2019 it's even more than that.

It's that lots of people who have been anxious all along but haven't previously been given a platform to voice said anxieties have been given, look at that, a little bit of a platform. But even the movies made by straight dudes on here seem to be obsessed with what that means -- there seems to be an inward battle with toxic masculinity happening in this, the spears-tip of the movie genres... Horror always sees where we're going, what the conversations are, before any other. There's a lot of smarts happening amid the stabbings, the goo, the scares; you just gotta face down the barrel of the gun and you'll see. 

Anyway you'll see this list below cruelly cuts itself off at the knees after Number Five -- the remainder of the movies will be showing themselves on my "Top 10 of 2019" list that I'll be posting soon. I just didn't want to spoil the big ones (I mean I'm sure you probably know what they are, if you've spent any time at MNPP, but still.) But for now here are...

My 15 Favorite Horror Movies of 2019

15. Tigers Are Not Afraid

(dir. Issa López)

-- read my review here -- 

14. Little Joe

(dir. Jessica Hausner)

13. Luz

(dir. Tilman Singer)

-- read my review here -- 

12. The Dead Don't Die

(dir. Jim Jarmusch)

-- read my review here -- 

11. Satanic Panic

(dir. Chelsea Stardust)

-- read my review here -- 

10. Climax

(dir. Gaspar Noé)

-- read my review here -- 

9. The Golden Glove

(dir. Fatih Akin)

8. Girl on the Third Floor

(dir. Travis Stevens)

-- read my review here -- 

7. One Cut of the Dead

(dir. Shin'ichirô Ueda)

-- read my review here -- 

6. Koko-di koko-da

(dir. Johannes Nyholm)

-- read my review here -- 

5. Us

(dir. Jordan Peele)

-- read my review here --

4 - 1: TBA!!!

(ETA you can find the movies that
 made my Top 4 right here mixed
in with out Fave Films of 2019)

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The Girl Had a Shadow

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For the past several weeks I've been using my "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" series at The Film Experience to yammer on about what I consider the best horror performances from actresses in this our year of 2019 -- you can scan through them all here. Well this week brings us to the one I've been patiently putting off until now, here, with what will probably be the last write-up until after the holidays -- Lupita Nyongo's deliciously twinned work for Jordan Peele's deliciously twinned Us. Read my thoughts on it right here. She is as good as they come, folks.

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Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... working the waves with Winston.

Not keen on letting me give Lupita all the love this week her very fine Us co-star Winston Duke has taken to his Instagram to show off his lil' tropical vacay -- here are a couple more shots via my Twitter:

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If anybody needs me I'm going to be scouring every beach on Earth for Winston Duke today pic.twitter.com/5iXrOigfQA

— His Name Was Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 10, 2019

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I'm deeply entrenched in my Autumn Preparedness right now so I don't especially feel like making a wander backwards to beach weather but I'd probably make an exception if Winston wanted some company. Probably. Hell, I'll be the horse.

Bad Times Never Felt So Good

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Can optimism actually make a difference? If we stop telling the same tired stories of a dystopian apocalypse and try to see other ways of being -- lighter ways, with appeals to decency and kindness -- might that be any help in righting the ship? Giving people an alternate vision a la the original Star Trek where the future not only seems possible but limitless -- where people of all walks of life can come together and build some good shit. Has our Doom been so pounded into our heads that it's become a self-made prophecy -- that we've given up, tossed up our hands and said "Bring on the Bad Shit" instead of allowing for something, anything save total collapse and annihilation?

I don't fucking know. But I do know that last night I walked out of the goofy and unserious zombie-comedy (aka zom-com) Little Monsters starring Lupita Nyong'o -- playing the sunshine bright teacher of a second grade class who get caught up in an undead outbreak and does her ass-kicking damndest to keep all of the kids trauma-free -- with all of these questions rattling around in my big set of brrrrrrrainssssss, and that's not too shabby. 

Lupita, effervescent as ever, plays Miss Caroline, and yes this is the sort of movie that will have the Neil Diamond song "Caroline" sung before it is through. Perhaps my Lupita-loving ass is biased but Miss Caroline should have been the movie's lead -- there would have been a more interesting arc than the one we get, I think, in watching Miss Caroline embrace her own barely-holding-on optimism for the sake of the children. 

What we get instead is a movie about a douchebag slacker named Dave (Alexander England), the uncle of one of the kids, who learns that lesson and inevitably gets the girl way too good for him -- I'd have rather watched my Lupita Version than have been forced to suffer through an entire act of Dave being a dickhead to be honest, even if Alexander England is the real-world boyfriend of one Elizabeth Debicki and therefore clearly knows something about getting women ever so magnificently above his pay-grade.

But the arc does pay out dividends in the end because of how refreshing all of those questions I began this review with are as our pay-off from watching Yet Another Zombie Movie. I've seen The Road and I don't ever need to see The Road again -- let me instead walk out of this week's latest Apocalypse with thoughts of goodness, kindness, and singalongs; let's not be blind and oblivious, but it doesn't cost anything to at the least contemplate the worth of a smile in opposition to this world's hourly atrocities.

Seb & Edgar Get Their Spy Kicks

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I don't think I've posted about this movie before, and it figures it'd take a couple of male actors being added to the female spy movie for me to bite -- the old news is that Jessica Chastain and Lupita Nyong'o and Penelope Cruz and Fan Bingbing are making a female spy movie together that's called 355. It will be directed by X-Men producer turned X-Men director Simon Kinberg, and written by one of the writers of the television show Smash. We knew all that. What we learned today is that Sebastian Stan and Edgar Ramirez are also joining the cast, and that predictably why I am suddenly here writing about it. I do my own thing! Anyway I know the assumption is that they'll be this movie's equivalent of the Bond Girls, or maybe Bad Guys, or possibly both of those things at once, but why can't they be a kick-ass team of homosexual spies slash lovers that help the ladies out? Why not, I ask???

... But the Past Ain't Through With You

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I have a scar about two inches long on my back that runs just perpendicular to my spine, and nobody can tell me where it came from. I have no memory of getting injured there and I've never had any sort of surgery (that I know of, cough alien abduction cough) -- I showed the scar to my mother recently and she didn't have a clue where it came from either. And so my brain fiddles with the past. It's like shuffling a deck of cards but the cards are neither-sided -- you flip them over and over and all you see are their backs. You're trying to make stories, a history, out of nothing -- there is a empty center to your creation, and it pulses and spreads. 

Us, Jordan Peele's really very brilliant new horror film, is about a lot of things, but I feel like this absence at the heart of one's self, this unnerving feeling of otherness buried in our bellies, marked across our skins, is at its heart. Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) has a memory she can't make sense of, and it's haunted her for her entire life. But like with most repressed memories she finds it coming back to the surface once she revisits the site of her original trauma. More than the surface -- in the grand manner of horror films and why they matter Adelaide's trauma manifests itself with a miraculous and terrible form. Her scars take outward shape, legs, big awful sputtering eyes, a voice like tin cans.

And in expressing themselves, a perversion. We can't remember what happened to us -- the words don't come out right. The stories of our past somethings are mangled and misshapen. Our beautiful baby boys are burned up, the men we love become great big hulking monsters who bellow unintelligible nothings. Everything is flop-sided, funhouse mirrors. 

And a randomness, a chaos, becomes intermixed with and undermines our selves -- an innocent thing that wanders in, a common housefly in the science-machine suddenly spliced into our DNA; little baby broods in snowsuits wielding play-hammers -- golden scissors all the better to snip out all the bad things and make us one again. The fable of a half-remembered charity event called Hands Across America becomes, in our poisoned retellings, a sudden and spectacular atrocity -- a plague we spread locust-like across the Earth. We have no control over this violence pouring out of us. It just comes. Oozes up from the sewers. Wrong, it makes of us. Unmakes of us. Nothing but secret scars; an intimate pandemic.

I Am Trying...

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... to avoid all of the press stuff for Jordan Peele's new film Us (starring Lupita Nyong'o and Elisabeth Moss) before it drops on March 21st, I still have avoided the trailer, but he just tweeted this new poster and oh my god it is getting harder and harder to wait! That is some freaky shit, y'all! Are you guys as excited as I am?

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