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Zola (2020)

Stefani: Hey! Money, titties, money titties!

Zola is such a masterpiece. Masterpiece! Riley Keough and Taylour Paige both should've been Oscar-nominated. Anyway a very happy birthday to director Janicza Bravo today! Can't wait to see what she does next as I've loved both of her feature films so far (the other being Lemon in 2017, reviewed here).  She's been working on TV since Zola came out -- directing episodes of Them and The Bear and Poker Face, among many others -- but I'd say our pateince has worn thin. Hand this woman the money for her next feature, yo!

Meet Barley Keoughan

Two of our favorite working actors with fairly similar names -- namely Barry Keoghan and Riley Keough -- who have both worked with Andrea Arnold previously and to great effect (him in Bird and her in American Honey) are next teaming up together! They will star in the next film from Beanpole director  Kantemir Balagov -- as if we needed further proof that these two are the real deal, seeking out real filmmakers making challenging works of art, there we are. I personally felt mixed on Beanpole but it was striking nonetheless and it certainly made Balagov one to keep an eye on. The new movie will be called Butterfly Jam and it's about "a tight-knit U.S. community of Circassian immigrants and a complicated relationship between a father and son, in which the son imbues his father with qualities he doesn’t actually possess." Okay! I'll watch that. And since we're here already hit the jump for a couple bonus shots of Barry that I've never posted before...

Good Morning, World

After seeing this much appreciated seflie from Sam Claflin yesterday -- PS thanks for not shaving your chest anymore, Sam! -- I had to go look up what he's been up to because I haven't seen him in anything in awhile. That's when I was reminded I didn't watch that 70s rock music series he was in with Riley Keough -- my bad. Did any of you watch it? My bf did -- his Riley love knows no bounds -- and he did not like it, but I am open to other opinions. So please share if you have one. Anyway looking forward via his IMDb page I see he's about to star in a Count of Monte Cristo series (yawn) but more interestingly he's in what sounds like a horror movie called All the Devils Are Here with Rory Kinnear, Eddie Masran, and Burn Gorman. Pheonomal cast, that! It might just be a thriller, the description is vague, but we also hope for horror. Keep hope alive! And keep not shaving your chests!

Big Hogs For Everybody

Biker gangs are apparently the next hot trend -- this news I am about to share is the second bit of news today announcing a movie involving them, for goodness' sake! (See my previous post on Alexander Skarsgard's upcoming "kinky queer" biker movie here.) Add all that to the fact that out this June there is Jeff Nichols' film The Bikeriders with Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Karl Glusman -- Glusman who co-starred in 2022's fantastically queer Please Baby Please, which I am choosing to see as the real spark that started this Biker Gang Fire -- and we're calling it a trend. Anyway onto the second Biker Gang news of the day -- Cate Blanchett is going to star in Alpha Gang from the Zellner Brothers, whose wonderful film Sasquatch Sunset (starring Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough as sasquatch) is out in theaters now. As with all Zellner Bros movies there's nothing straightforward about Alpha Gang though, which is described thus:

"Alpha Gang follows alien invaders sent on a mission to conquer Earth. “Disguised in human form as an armed and dangerous 1950’s leather-clad biker gang, they show no mercy… until they catch the most toxic, contagious human disease of all: emotion.”

Is that description making anybody else think of John Cameron Mitchell's dementedly under-appreciated 2017 movie How to Talk to Girls at Parties, which starred Nicole Kidman as a leather-clad punk rock alien? 

Sasquatch Sunset in 150 Words or Less

You will believe in Sasquatch! You will see in Sasquatch! You will hear and you will most definitely smell in Sasquatch too! From esteemed weirdos David and Nathan Zellner (see also Damsel and Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter -- no seriously see both of those movies, they absolutely own) -- comes Sasquatch Sunset, a weirdly deeply moving and fluid-filled imagining of what the final days of the Bigfoot people would look like, if the Bigfoot people were real and also Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg in elaborately convincing Bigfoot people costumes and make-up. Commiting to its bit so fully that you can't help but believe that that's an actual sasquatch fingering its sasquatch pussy right in front of you, this movie is totally deranged and I love it like it was a new limb that had sprouted up suddenly out of my body. Sasquatch is sublime, sick, and cinema itself. 

The Best is Yeti to Come

My biggest disappointment going to Sundance in person this year was the fact that because of a scheduling conflict I could only watch the first half of Sasquatch Sunset, the fantastically bizarre new movie from the Zellner Brothers (who previously gifted us with or Kumiko The Treasure Hunter in 2014 and Damsel in 2018, both films of which I am ean enormous fan). Starring a totally unrecognizable Jesse Eisenberg and Riley Keough buried under full sasquatch get-ups the film plays like out like a nature documentary, just about sasquatches. Or the first half does anyway. I still don't know what happens in the second half dammit! Anyway the movie has gotten a poster and a trailer today, and a release date of April 12th -- so we'll find out together then what happens in its second half, I guess! I can't wait though -- I absolutely loved what I did see (and no I don't specifically mean all of the sasquatch dick).

AKA Riley Keough's Grandmother

I was fairly indifferent to Baz Luhrmann's Elvis movie but I am far far far more interested in Sofia Coppola's Priscilla -- that's the first poster above and apparently we're getting a trailer tomorrow. For one Baz's film didn't have squat to say about the fact that Priscilla was fifteen when she and Elvis met, and a film in 2023 that has no opinion on that matter might as well not exist, no matter how many sequins there are on Austin Butler's swinging dick and no matter how many double-chins they put on Tom Hanks. Sofia Coppola's movie though, obviously she's gonna have things to say. Also... she's Sofia Coppola, and that beats Baz any day of the week. (I mean I love Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge too, but come on.) And third -- even though we can barely see anything in it this poster is reminding me really hard of my great-grandparents house, a 60s time-capsule of baby-blues and lemon-yellows; it smelled like powder and everything was satin-lined. That this single image feels so textured is giving me great hope here. Can't wait for the trailer. 

I Do, Nicky, I Do

Just a few days until the third season of The Great saunters back into our lives -- I think this is the first time I didn't ask for screeners? Boooo. Anyway that means I'm as in the dark as any of you people about where the show's headed but I look forward to finding out alongside all you filthy commoners. The Great isn't why we're here posting, however -- Nicholas Hoult has booked a new movie! And it sounds fun too -- it's called The One and it is a horror spin on the reality show The Bachelor where new Scream star Melissa Barrera plays a young woman trying to win Nicky's heart when everything turns very very dark somehow. Weirdly Riley Keough is producing it? That makes me kind of wish it was a spin on The Bachelorette and Riley was starring in the lead and Nicky was vying for her affection -- alas. I will say that Melissa Barrera was much better in Scream VI than she was in Five-Cream but I'm still not totally sold on her. But with Mr. Hoult on-board we're there, a single rose in our hands, no questions asked.  

Good Morning, World

Chockablock days for those of us who like looking at Sam Claflin -- not long after that very fine photo-shoot for Rolling Stone he's gone and done another one for GQ. You can read the interview here, if you're so inclined. This is all coming hard due to that series he's starring in with our beloved Riley Keough called Daisy Jones and the Six, which according to my boyfriend (who has watched it; I have not) is basically just an unauthorized retelling of the Fleetwood Mac story. Anybody up in here watched it? Say something about it in the comments if so -- I'm probably never going to watch it. Rock biopics, even made-up ones, hold very little interest for me at this point. (Get back to me when we do Blondie or the Talking Heads though!) Hit the jump for the photos...

Sam Claflin Thirteen Times

I should definitely have a better idea of what the hell Daisy Jones and the Six is because it stars my beloved Riley Keough, first off -- I try to keep abreast of my Riley projects! But I swear to you until this week here, which is the week this thing is being released, I had never heard of this thing in my entire life. And now I'm seeing it co-stars Sam Claflin via this photoshoot for Rolling Stone UK -- read the interview here -- and I guess I should look it up.

I mean I am technically a professional or whatever -- I am typing out a whole post here and I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about. That in itself is entertaining me, though -- more than actually knowing if this is a TV series or a movie will, I think? I have to know so many things -- too many really -- I enjoy not knowing some! Sometimes! So I will google it later. Or I won't! Who knows? I follow my own drummer, bitches! (And I dare an A.I. to try and capture this voice.) That said hit the jump for more photos of Sam looking very attractive for this thing, whatever it is...

Jakey's On Fire

Time for my second-so-far review out of this year's Toronto International Film Fest, and you've maybe heard me already speak of my excitement for this one once or twice around these parts, due to its star -- Antoine Fuqua's The Guilty starring Jake Gyllenhaal is reviewed by me at Pajiba right here. Y'all don't have too long to wait on this one for yourselves (if you didn't see it for yourself at TIFF, obviously) because it's hitting Netflix on October 1st. Jake's very good in it, I thought! Here is the trailer if you missed it.

Guilty As Charged

Well forget that measly lil' glimpse of The Guilty we got last week -- today comes the first full trailer, and it looks to me like we're getting what we were hoping to get, i.e.e two hours of nothing but Jake Jake and more Gyllenhaal sitting behind a desk looking tense. That's what the original film was -- just with Jakob Jakob and more Cedergren in the place of Jake Jake and more Gyllenhaal -- and that's the formula that worked once so why eff with it? When this remake was first announced, along with a starry cast of names -- Ethan Hawke, Paul Dano, Riley Keough, Peter Sarsgaard -- we'd worried that writer-director Antoine Fuqua had opening it up in mind; this trailer puts that to rest. To bed. Jake, in bed. Wait what was I talking about? oh right here's the trailer.

The Guilty hits theaters on September 24th and Netflix on October 1st; it's also playing TIFF next week, and I plan on reviewing it from there so stay tuned...

Some Jake In Your Ears

I imagine some of you steer clear of Twitter because I have been told it is a "nightmare hellscape" to some, so perhaps you missed me tweeting this stuff out over the weekend (I personally thrive inside of most nightmare hellscapes) -- a teaser poster and a teaser trailer for Antoine Fuqua's forthcoming Netflix remake The Guilty, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, dropped. Well actually what happened was first Jake posted a phone number on his Instagram account...

Jake Gyllenhaal just posted a phone number that gives you an ad for THE GUILTY if you call it! #theguilty pic.twitter.com/DZM68Gai5u

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) August 28, 2021

... and when you called the number suddenly it was Jake's voice talking to you and, well, it was such an erotic experience I didn't hear a word of what else happened. I might have actually been unconscious for most of Saturday because of it? Anyway by the time I'd woken up there was also this teaser trailer, which uses the same audio as the recorded phone call, but adds the specter of Jake's face to the mix. This gives me more hope that the film might, like the original (which PS is streaming on Hulu right now), stay one hundered percent trained on Jake, but we'll see. The film is out on October 1st on Netflix; see some photos from the film here.

Guilty of Biceps in the First Degree

(click to embiggen) I figured it would only be a matter of time before we got our first look at Jake Gyllenhaal in Antoine Fuqua's upcoming Netflix film The Guilty once earlier today Netflix revealed the film's release date is October 1st, aka only about five weeks from now -- and no do not ask me how it's possibly five weeks until October already, I'm still stuck in like March of 2020 over here. 

I am so worried that this movie will be a complete bastardization of the super duper good original (SEE IT) but at least Jake reuniting with Fuqua is making me remember Jake's Southpaw body so all's not for naught https://t.co/OPVAIPUb7h pic.twitter.com/RRmeeVRrkq

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) August 23, 2021

Anyway my assumption was for once right -- no ass outta me this time! -- and there it is up top, our first look. And it looks exactly like one would expect it to look if one has seen the original (spectacular) film which Fuqua's remaking, which was like a one-man play focusing on a 9-1-1 operator (Jakob Cedergren) as he navigates an ever-escalating emergency call. I recommend you see the original! 

Or maybe wait for this one? I guess we'll see. Maybe it will end up being like The Ring vs Ringu and everybody will love the one they saw first the most. Fuqua (who previously directed Jake in Southpaw) also cast Peter Sarsgaard, Riley Keough, Paul Dano, and Ethan Hawke, but we'll have to see then if they're just voices like in the original, or if we will actually get to see their beautiful buncha mugs... which will change the film drastically from its original. (God I hope not, though.) Oh and if you wand to see the rest of what Netflix has lined up for the rest of the year date-wise check out the rundown at AwardsWatch. And now here is a photo of Fuqua's impressive biceps with which we will end:

Farewell For Five

What will definitely end up being one of the great movies of 2021, Janicza Bravo's Zola, is out in theaters today! And if you're comfortable at this moment with going to movie theaters I am calling this one unmissable. (Here's the trailer in case you missed it.) It stars Taylour Paige as the title character, a stripper who gets sucked into a whirlwind nightmare trip to Florida (is there any other kind) by a fellow stripper (played by the ever-genius Riley Keough) and her scary-ass pimp (played by hot-ass and out gay Colman Domingo, seen being a hot-ass above). I want to see the film a second time before I properly review it, but I have tweeted out exclamatory stuff about it a few times now...

THEY WERE ALL RIGHT#ZOLA IS BOSS SHIT
OSCARS FOR EVERYBODY @A24 pic.twitter.com/BXwFIcdM5G

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 9, 2021

... which should clue you in to where I stand on the thing... if the opening of this post wasn't enough, that is. It's real good cinema. Funny and sharp as fuck, go see it. Aaaaaaanyway that's all I got this week -- I've been half-assing it, I recognize, but I have just had my eyes on the prize of the five-day weekend ahead and not had a lot of gas in the tank for much more than half an ass. On that end today is indeed it, until Tuesday (well except one post I've got scheduled for the 4th which you won't want to miss) -- I'm heading home in an hour and hiding in the A/C until this godforsaken heat breaks, and then... well, nothing. No plans. My brain needs the time off -- I imagine every single one of you understand. Have a good one, everybody! Rest your goddamned brains as well! Bye!

FUCK THIS HEAT pic.twitter.com/UziXAdTCMJ

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 30, 2021

Alex Going Above & Beyond Infinity Again

Alexander Skarsgård has made some hella fine choices career-wise as of late. He's in Robert Eggers' big Viking movie The Northman which is the biggie for me of course, but he's also got a small but important role in Rebecca Hall's masterful flick Passing (which I reviewed at Sundance right here) coming out later this year. And from there one glance back at his filmography shows several already-classics under his belt (yes let's all take a pause since I just talked about being under Alexander Skarsgård's belt........ okay, moving on) -- he's worked with Park Chan-wook on The Little Dummer Girl; he's worked with Lars von Trier on Melancholia; he made Diary of a Teenage Girl with Marielle Heller and Hold the Dark with Jeremy Saulnier and Mute with Duncan Jones and The East with Zal Batmanglij. No not all of those worked, but he keeps jumping on interesting filmmakers and picking interesting projects. Somebody who looks like Alexander Skarsgård doesn't have to do this!

Maybe that's the bare minimum to ask but I appreciate it, anyway. I appreciate not having to watch dreck just so I can stare at him, is my point! Thank you, Alex! Anyway that brings me to today's terrific news about his next next thing, which will be a film (thx Mac) with Brandon "Son of David" Cronenberg, who's fresh off his killer flick Possessor. It's gonna be called Infinity Pool and here is how Deadline describes the plot:

"Infinity Pool follows James and Em, who are young, rich, in love, and on vacation. Their all-inclusive resort boasts island tours and gleaming beaches. But outside of the hotel gates waits something much more dangerous and seductive, beyond the edge of paradise."

The studio Neon, who distributed Cronenberg's Possessor for him last year, already snatched up the rights to this one so they're clearly in the him business. The film will begin shooting in September -- no word on who his leading lady will be -- I'd love to see him reunite with one of his formers like Florence Pugh or Riley Keough, wouldn't y'all? Or, ooh ooh ooh ooh, what about Anna Paquin! We don't see nearly enough Anna Paquin these days!

Colman Domingo One Time

Well this is gearing up to be a busy week for me -- not only did I (finally) get accredited to cover this year's Tribeca Film Festival right at the end of last week (with the festival starting, you know, on this Wednesday; see my preview of the fest right here) but I've also got my first in-person press-screening (having nothing to do with Tribeca, that is) tomorrow with A24's very buzzy Zola, starring Taylour Paige and my pretend best gal-pal Riley Keough, not to mention the always welcome (and openly gay) Colman Domingo, seen up top. Here's its trailer:

Zola opens on June 30th and you'll surely hear more from me on that once that time comes. For now... well for now I've got about a billion movies for Tribeca to try and schedule, so things here for the next week and a half could be spotty while I 1) figure all of that out and 2) watch and review things. My reviews will be going up on The Film Experience and at Pajiba mainly, but I'll surely keep you informed here and on the Twitter when they do go up.

Who's Jake Gonna Call

So this was weird! Last week a heap of people -- a heeple? -- got added to the cast of Jake Gyllenhaal's upcoming remake of Gustav Moller's Danish thriller The Guilty from 2018 which has Jake's Southpaw director Antoine Fuqua directing. Awesome people! Jake's reuniting with his brother-in-law Peter Sarsgaard for one -- I don't believe they've co-starred in anything since Jarhead ten years ago, correct me if I'm forgetting something. But also there's Ethan Hawke and even better our beloved Riley Keough! And then there's also also Paul Dano, who co-starred with Jake in both Okja and Prisoners...

Should I rewatch Prisoners? pic.twitter.com/qrIau3i11V

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 12, 2020

... and Da’Vine Joy Randolph who was so so so very good in Dolemite is My Name last year. That's a great effing cast, right? So why am I saying this is, and I quote, "weird"? Because the 2018 version of The Guilty is best known for being a one-person movie! It starred (the very handsome) Jakob Cedergren as a (very handsome)  9-1-1 operator (do they call it 9-1-1 in Denmark?) who attempts to unravel an ongoing crime via the telephone call that comes in. Its essentially a radio-program playing out across Cedergreen's (very handsome) face for ninety minutes.

Jake first announced he wanted to make this remake a few years ago but I wasn't surprised when it got moved to the front of the pile recently, given this "one man show' factor made filming in the middle of a pandemic a non-issue. But... now they're hiring all these actual actors that are not Jake and I don't know what to think. Are they being hired for just their voices? It's not unheard of (HA GET IT) -- Tom Hardy's movie Locke, the movie that only starred Tom Hardy as he drove around and called people on the phone, used bonafide terrific actors like Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott and Tom Holland and Olivia fucking Colman to supply those voices. 

But maybe not? Maybe Fuqua & Co have something different up their sleeve and I don't want to be too judgmental out the gate because we always scream, "Do something new with a remake!" It's just... without the "one man show" gimmick of The Guilty it's just another 9-1-1 operator movie like that Halle Berry movie The Call and I don't think Halle Berry even wants to remember The Call.

The Cult of DaKeough

Let's end the day with some gloriously, deliriously happy-making news -- two of my favorite young actors, and the two who have most proven as of late that nepotism (as long as we're not talking politics) doesn't absolutely always have to be a bad word, have gone and made a project for themselves to star in together! First off I actually had no idea that Dakota Johnson and Riley Keough even knew each other -- when I went to find a photograph for this news I expected to have to photoshop something up but there they were, as seen above, chumming it up like my new favorite couple -- apparently they've been best friends since they were 15 and Dakota was Riley's bridesmaid at her 2015 wedding (a pertinent aside: Kristen Stewart's apparently a close pal too). I love, love, love it. 

Anyway! Cross-eyed star-fucking aside our new fave BFFs Riley & Dakota are going to star together in a limited series called Cult Following, based on a memoir by Bexy Cameron that's set to be released in July of next year, which tells the story of... well I'm feeling lazy, I'll let Deadline explain it for us:

"Based on the book written by Cameron, the story follows her as she recounts her upbringing in the notorious cult Children of God. After emancipating herself at the age of 16 and building a life away from the cult, as an adult Cameron (Johnson) embarks on a road trip with a close friend (Keough) to investigate and document contemporary cults existing in America today. Two young women set out on the ‘adventure’ of a lifetime and Cameron’s emphatic, raw and at times incredibly funny experience on the road runs parallel to her examining and processing the psychology and trauma of her own childhood being raised in a cult. It’s a journey of meltdowns, meth cooks, monks, Jesus freaks, soap-making Armageddonists, surveillance vans, ex-Apple employees and finally, Cameron’s confrontation of her parents and ultimately herself."

One Stacked Weekend

Although I've got a pile of New York Film Festival screeners to watch and reviews to write this weekend (slash for the next two weeks) I'm actually impressed I got as much done this week as I did, because this week revealed itself to be a doozy, new-release-wise. Not just movies either, what with three television series of note all premiering -- Luca Guadagnino's We Are Who We Are arrived on HBO on Monday, while Ratched hit Netflix...

... (and hey there Corey Stoll in sock garters) and PEN15 hit Hulu today -- but primarily in movies, and I managed to share some thoughts, fast or otherwise, on everything I intended to! So let's do a quick round-up...

WHAT TO SEE, OR NOT SEE, I DON'T OWN YOU

Earlier today I reviewed Sean Durkin's The Nest, starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon, right here. It is good!

I reviewed Antonio Campos' The Devil All the Time, starring every young actor on the planet plus Jason Clarke tugging it to street trade, right here. It is... okay?

I whiffed the fact that they switched the release date for Miranda July's latest called Kajillionaire to next week and went ahead and reviewed that anyway, right here. That'll be out a week from today! I will surely re-remind you then.

The gay horror flick Spiral starring the ridiculously handsome Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman from UnREAL (sidenote: I miss UnREAL), hit Shudder earlier this week and I shared my thoughts on that right here. Bonus as an aside in that review I mention the horror flick Antebellum, out on VOD today, but sadly not worth that much of my (or your) time.

On top of all of that I also got my first of many to come NYFF review out with my thoughts on Steve McQueen's Lovers Rock, which just opened the fest -- read that over at The Film Experience. I'll have more up over at TFE over the weekend and through the next couple of weeks for the fest, so stay tuned!

Your biggest priority out of all of these things would be... well it's PEN15, isn't it? Honestly if I was home right now and not trapped at my office desk I'd be re-watching the second season of PEN15, which is absolutely everything, just everything. I very much liked the first season but the second season takes the whole show to glorious, surprising heights -- the show is a classic now. An all-timer. For real. Watch PEN15 dammit!

I was totally jazzed when my beloved Michael Angarano showed up on #PEN15 in the new season but I had no idea until right now that he and the show's star Maya Erskine are a real life couple!!!! NEW FAVORITE COUPLE ALERT pic.twitter.com/T6oapEQ1n0

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) September 12, 2020