5 Off My Head: The Steak F*cker Supreme

The sparkling vampire with the iconic up-do is celebrating his 40th today! Robert Pattinson aka RPattz is officially the big four-oh, slamming the door not just on twinkdom but twunkdom altogether. Which is fine by me because our man just keeps getting better and finer with age -- I don't care what people are saying about his wonky accent work in The Odyssey or Dune 3 trailers, as I love it when Rob gifts us a wonky accent. Remember his Pepé Le Pew accent work in The King? 

You probably don't remember that, because who remembers The King. But it made that entire movie spring to life, it did, I swear. Anyway I'm going to finally give you my list of five favorite performances now, and lemme tell you -- one of these is a favorite quite possibly entirely due to the accent he adopts for the film. (I won't say which one and it could go for several but I mean one specifically and if you've seen it you probably know what one I'm talking about.) Anyway it took some time (I still haven't seen a single Twilight movie) but I've fully come to love it whenever Rob shows up anywhere -- I do miss...

... the interviews where he'd gleefully spit out nonsense like how he really jerked off on camera because he couldn't fake an oh-face for that Gay Salvador Dali movie he made, but I guess he's 40 now. He has to be semi-respectable. Hehe "semi." Well clearly turning 40 didn't make me grow up! Take note, Rob!

My 5 Favorite Robert Pattinson Performances

Connie, Good Time

"You know what, tonight, as fucked up as it is, I just think... I think something very important is happening and it's deeply connected to my purpose. And I think that you are somehow connected to it as well. I mean, do you feel me at all? Or do I just sound like a total faggot?"

Thomas, The Lighthouse

"Goddamn yer farts! You smell like piss, you smell like jism, like rotten dick, like curdled foreskin, like hot onions fucked a farmyard shit-house. "

Jackson, Die My Love

"Maybe if I spend a little less time with my hands down my pants and a little more time writing, maybe I'd write something, maybe."

Monte, High Life

"The sensation of moving backwards even though we are moving forwards, getting further from what's getting nearer, sometimes I just can't stand it."

Samuel, Damsel

"Regular horses don't have names,
they're just, uh, you know, regular."

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Runners-up: Mickey 17, The Lost City of Z,
Cosmopolis, Maps To the Stars 

 So what are your favorites?

Pics of the Day

The first photos of Aaron Taylor-Johnson on the set of Robert Eggers' now-filming horror film Werewulf (via) are the literal platonic ideal of what we would hope the first photos of Aaron Taylor-Johnson on the set of Robert Eggers' now-filming horror film Werewulf would be -- Aaron Taylor-Johnson half-naked, howling ferally and covered in blood! Huzzah -- we won, kids! It's giving me The Northman meets Nosferatu -- big shock, that combo. Anyway see my previous post on the film, which is already set to open on Christmas 2026, right here. And hit the jump for the rest of the pics...

Pic of the Day

I think we're probably all agreed that Aaron Taylor-Johnson's current beard situation is a bit much, so I'll remind us that it's for Robert Eggers' now-filming werewolf movie. And with that out of the way let's just appreciate the fact that his wife saw fit to take and post this photo for us today. I'm almost tempted to do a "Who Wore It Best" poll between ATJ and the statue but I have no idea who the statue is supposed to be of and that seems like an important missing piece of that puzzle. Anybody recognize that ancient fella?

Aaron's Outer Wolf

When Aaron Taylor-Johnson showed up at Venice last week looking like a hairy beast I wasn't sure what the fuck he was doing -- I mean we're clearly not getting a Kraven sequel. I'm embarrassed to admit it took this new Esquire interview for me to realize that DUHHH he's all bearded up to reunite with his Nosferatu director Robert Eggers on his werewolf movie! According to him he's already started working on Werwulf, although the official beginning of filming is TODAY -- here's what else ATJ's got to say on the project (don't get too excited, it's fairly insubstantial PR speak stuff he's saying):

"Other than being a phenomenal filmmaker and a strong visionary for these genre movies, I really loved being in his presence. He’s a strong filmmaker, he knows exactly what he wants, and he's very much in control. I like being an actor that is under the influence of a strong director. There are just limitations and boundaries within that, and it allows you to then differentiate between the other things you do, because he's so strong and bold in his style. I felt very honoured and privileged that he asked me to do something else with him. And Willem Dafoe also, and Lily Rose Depp. The company he keeps is just extraordinarily talented people. Same heads of department, same costume. And Jaren, our cinematographer who did Nosferatu and every other movie he's done. I mean, he's got a very strong, distinctive voice. As an actor, you just feel very lucky and privileged to be a part of it, really."

Back in the Furs Again

You can tell I'm exceptionally exhausted today -- I was up way past my bedtime last night not celebrating my birthday but rather working on the two reviews I told you are dropping today; the sacrifices I make! -- because it's taken me until three in the afternoon today to mention the huge news on one of my favorite filmmakers that dropped all the damned yesterday! This had actually completely slipped out of my brain until just now (thx Mac for the reminder). So I guess that was opfficially the birthday where the old age has set in. Sigh! Anyway here's said news -- Robert Eggers is looking to reunite with two of his Nosferatu stars for his next film, the werewolf movie Werewulf that I told you about in January. Specifically Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Lily-Rose Depp. No word on who they'll be playing or what the movie is about beyond what we originally learned in January. Lycanthropes and the 13th century. And Olde Enligh I think. As for ATJ, I know many people thought he was actively bad in Nosferatu but it might be my favorite performance he's ever given? I think he's wonderful in it anyway. As of LRD she generally got very good reviews for the movie and I agree with that consensus. True I'd love to see Eggers get back in the Anya Taylor-Joy business, but having seen how well he and Depp worked together I won't be mad about it this time like I was when Anya had to drop out of Nosferatu. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Lighthouse (2019)

Thomas Wake: O what Protean forms swim up from men's minds, and melt in hot Promethean plunder, scorching eyes, with divine shames and horror... And casting them down to Davy Jones. The others, still blind, yet in it see all the divine graces and to Fiddler's Green sent,where no man is suffered to want or toil,but is... Ancient... Mutable and unchanging as the she who girdles 'round the globe. Them's truth.

A very happy 42nd birthday to writer-director and so-says-me genius Robert Eggers today! As far as I'm concerned, dude is four for four movie-wise -- each of his four feature films were among my favorites of their respective years, or in the case of the movie quoted above my number one favorite movie of its year. They are all so my shit. I cannot get enough. Should I rank them? Okay let's rank them:

4. The Northman (review)

3. Nosferatu  (review)

2. The Witch  (review)

1. The Lighthouse  (review)

Five minutes from now I might change my mind and swap the middle two around, and then five minutes after that I might swap them back. But numbers one and four are set in stone. Which isn't to say I don't adore The Northman -- any movie that ends with Alexander Skarsgård and Claes Bang having a naked swordfight on top of a volcano is about as good as cinema gets if you ask me. So a very happy day to a man who's brought me more pleasure than almost any other working filmmaker. All of these movies have landed in less than a decade y'all! That's wild. Tell me your ranking of his four movies in the comments!

Sucking the Boys Dry At Home!

If you somehow haven't seen Robert Eggers' tremendous Nosferatu yet I will try not to judge you (oh wait, too late) and simply direct you to the streaming service Peacock, where the film is now available to stream from the comfort of your reclusive bubble. Here is my review of the film, which technically landed at #4 on my favorite movies of 2024 list but ask me another day it could've been my number one. Having watched it at home and in the theater (repeatedly) now I can say with certainty that the movie really benefits from the theatrical experience -- for one it's a dark movie...

People who complained about NOSFERATU being "too dark" really never watched GAME OF THRONES did they

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 8:22 PM

... although in a purposefully meted out way; this isn't sloppy darkness. It's painterly. But you need the screen to be large to really appreciate the detail of what's happening inside of Eggers' frames. But if it's to be at home you might be better off watching the 4K disc of the film as opposed to relying on the quality and strength of a streamer's transmission. But you do you! Just turn off all of the lights and let the mood envelope you. God I love this (sorta gay) movie. 

Meet The Monster's Makers

A series of films curated by Nosferatu director Robert Eggers kicked off last night at Film at Lincoln Center here in NYC with a screening of Eggers' latest followed by a Q&A with three of the film's Oscar-nominated artists (very happy to discover that cinematographer Jarin Blaschke is super fine) and Eggers himself on hand -- oh and me! I was there too! I actually had no idea that any of these people were showing up -- I just wanted to see my beloved Nosferatu on a big screen again, and for the first time in 35mm. (It looked gorgeous.) You can see Eggers' series in full at this link -- so so many excellent and interesting picks but that's hardly a shock. I'm at least going back to see Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, if not more, over the weekend.  Anyway this Q&A was a lovely surprise and I took a few photos and videos -- the one just below has him giving just a teeny tiny hint of what we can expect from his next film, that medeival werewolf movie I told you about a couple of weeks back, but hit the jump for even more...

The Harding of Friedrich

There are several moments that made me gasp in Nosferatu, but none louder than when Aaron Taylor-Johnson revealed the very important and critical detail that his character of "Friedrich Harding" dresses to the left. And let us take this opportunity to congratulate the film's costume designer Linda Muir on her richly deserved Oscar nomination! See two more gifs from this moment right here -- there's another moment in the movie (seen here; thx Mac) where Aaron's constant co-star makes a similar cameo but it was this shot above that really shook me to my core, personally. Stormed my castle, even! I mean -- they're plaid pants, even! This was a message sent directly to me, I know it. In all seriousness I could 100% write a serious piece of criticism on the abundance of phallic imagery in Eggers' adaptation if, you know, I was a serious person. Instead we get bulge gifs! Awooga!

The Goblin King Meets the Prince of Darkness

I've always found it odd that I have no emotional connection to the 1986 film Labyrinth -- I'm the right age for it, I loved The Muppets, and I'd eventually grow up to become a horror freak who adores David Bowie. But the movie for whatever reason never grabbed me as a kid and so I find myself in a weird position approaching today's news from Deadline that no less than director Robert Eggers is apparently working on a sequel to the film.  Alongside yesterday's much-more-thrilling-to-me news that Eggers is working on a werewolf movie it's proof that the box office success of Nosferatu (along with its four Oscar nominations, and even better its high placement on my own Top 20 of 2024 list) has everybody wanting to take a bite of Bobby and that makes me happy. But this is just weird news that I don't know how to react to. I did re-watch Labyrinth a couple years ago (it's on 4K now!) and I still feel very little for it but I guess it will be cool to see what the hell Robert Eggers would do with puppets. Or will this movie be puppet-less? I can't imagine that is a possibility -- the people who love the original would riot. It's hard for me to imagine this movie at all! I don't know! Weird news! If nothing else I hope they bring back Jennifer Connelly.

The 20 Best Movies of 2024

I have thought about dropping my year-end favorites list on Oscar Nom Day several times in the past, but timing-wise it just hasn't worked out before -- this year looks to be an exception, however! My reasons for thinking it's a good idea are 1) as stated in my earlier requisite post acknowledging that those nominations happened I just don't care about them and I don't want to spend all day reading people's brain-numbing statistics and theories all of which rob me of a will to live. So this gives me something else to focus on. Also today is the first day of Sundance and while I might not be there in person this year (sigh) I will be reviewing movies virtually, and I'm going to be very busy starting to do that almost immediately. So if I don't do this today it'll be a couple more weeks. 

Also -- I've had the list of movies on a spreadsheet for weeks now, and every other day I go onto the doc and I move them around a little bit depending on my mood, and... I could just keep doing that forever, or I could just say enough! And organize them into their final form, waffling be damned. That said 2024 turned out to be an especially amorphous year with no single frontrunner slam-dunk -- any of my top five on any given day could've been my number one. Which isn't to say I think 2024 was a bad year for movies -- quite the opposite! There's a lot of love spreading around here. But let's just stop our yammering and get to the goods. Here at last are...

My 20 Favorite Movies of 2024

20. Strange Darling (review)

19. Femme (review)

18. I Saw the T.V. Glow (review)

17. I'm Still Here

16. Love Lies Bleeding (review) 

15. Janet Planet

14. A Different Man (review)

13. Flow

12. The End (review)

11. National Anthem (review)

10. Kinds of Kindness (review)

9. Rumours (review)

8. Red Rooms (review)

7. Bird (review)

6. The Substance (review)

5. Challengers (review)

4. Nosferatu (review)

3. Hard Truths (review)

2. Queer (review)

1. Evil Does Not Exist 

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And here are ten runners-up: The Vourdalak, Babygirl, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Hundreds of Beavers, Blitz, Trap, The Brutalist, Memoir of a Snail, Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World, and Oddity.

Okay -- that's that! Onward and onward!

 Let's get 2025 rolling...

Oscars Remain Pointless, News At 11

Well the Oscar nominations are here and they flopped the only test I was giving them this year -- nominate Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Hard Truths for giving the best performance this year, perhaps even this decade, in Best Actress. So I fully don't give a shit about the rest of the noise even if a couple of cool things happened -- I expected The Substance to get Best Actress and maybe even Best Director but scoring Best Picture seemed a stretch and they went there, which is cool. Hoping they will make it Ralph Fiennes year FINALLY; happy for Fernanda Torres, who is wonderful in I'm Still Here and I certainly don't blame her for MJB's absence -- not when two of the Best Actress nominations are straight up trash. Yura Borisov! Guy Pearce! Nosferatu nabbing several noms for its exquisite everything! But mostly in a really interesting year for movies they nominated the least interesting, basic, to downright bad things -- shocker! Conan O'Brien hosing the audience down with blood and reenacting the end of The Substance might be the only saving grace, I fear. 

Well now that that is over we can get back to talking about movies yay

— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) January 23, 2025 at 10:19 AM

Ye Olde Wolfe Movie

Even though I said I was going to get off the couch this past weekend and force myself to go see Wolf Man in theaters I did not -- I am the lyingest liar who ever lied and I hope Christopher Abbott shows up at my door and slaps me. (With what I'll leave up to him.) Anyway obviously that makes it my fault that the film flopped, but I did think about the movie some -- that's the same, right? What I thought about was my god, will anyone make a werewolf movie that works again? I mean this is admittedly an insulting thing to think about a movie I haven't seen yet, but the general consensus appears to be that Leigh Whannell's movie doesn't work and it got me thinking -- what was the last werewolf movie that really did work? That was truly great? I saw and liked last year's Werewolves recently but it's not a "good" movie -- it just knows how dumb it is, it has really fun practical effects, and it leaves us on a high note:

Thank you #Werewolves for ending on a high note
(this shot of Frank Grillo) pic.twitter.com/3OiOIKlvql

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 29, 2024

2021's Werewolves Within is a lot of fun too but I don't know that I can quite call it an iconic success -- maybe if it hadn't been released in the depths of the pandemic and had grabbed hold of the cultural imagination, but I do think the movie is a little wobbly on its own outside of just being fun. It's certainly not scary, and I want a scary fucking werewolf movie already! Anyway to finally get to the point -- on the heels of Nosferatu's tremendous box office success (huzzah!) our lord and devilish savior Robert Eggers has announced his next movie and it's going to be a scary fucking werewolf movie! (And we know he won't shy away from some blessed werewolf transformation nudity either!) 

He's calling it Werwulf because of course our favorite history nerd is leaning into Ye Olde English -- the script was co-written with his Northman writer and is apparently stuffed with annotations due to its use of Olde English lol. I love this dork so much. The only other info we have is it's set in the 13th Century and Eggers was going to shoot it in black and white but now he is not doing that. Oh and Focus Features has already dated the movie for Christmas Day 2026 because they are counting their great big checks from the holiday counterprogramming of Nosferatu and saying "Gimme more of that shit please!" If we start getting Robert Eggers horror movies every other Christmas I will be a very very happy boy y'all. Long may our dark prince reign!

GIVE US THE WEREWOLF SEX WE DEMAND!!!

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) January 22, 2025 at 1:46 PM

We All Fall For Nosferatu

Some terrific physical media news landing in the last 12 hours (for those of you who know physical media is where it's at, and the rest of you who should learn just that) -- first up we've got the official release info for Robert Eggers' Nosferatu, of which you might have noticed I'm a fan (here is my review) -- this movie is out on VOD right this very moment! So if you missed it in theaters... well I think it's still in theaters, so go to a theater dammit. But if you're not able, rent it now. Fine! But that's not physical -- you can pre-order the 4K blu-ray right here, which streets on February 18th. The disc is loaded with special features, including excitingly an "extended cut" which I believe adds like 20 minutes to the movie? A lot of people complained the film was too long as is but I am not one of those people and can't wait to soak in the world Eggers created a bit longer. My assumption is there will be more of the side characters, and seeing as how the relationship between Aaron Taylor-Johnson & Emma Corrin's characters is a thread I really love in the film that felt a bit too brief to me I'd love more of them. (Anyone saying ATJ is the weak link in the film is incorrect -- I think it's his best work ever.) 

But wait -- that's not all! Another masterpiece got an announcement -- the folks at Umbrella Entertainment down in Austrailia have announced their 4K box-set of The Cell director Tarsem's long long long out-of-print 2006 The Fall starring Lee Pace. This movie basically vanished the movie is arrived, flopping in theaters and barely making a dent on home video but last year a 4K restoration appeared and this is the first announcement of its imminent homeward drop. I am recommending patience and some caution here though if you're in the U.S. -- Mubi released the 4K restoration here in the U.S. and my guess is they'll be dropping a 4K disc of their own here in the States that will be far more reasonably priced and just hasn't been announced yet. I ordered Umbrella's box myself because...

... Umbrella is in my opinion making the best, most beautiful physical media sets in the business right now,. But they are pretty expensive and shipping is outrageous if you don't buy enough to get yourself over the free shipping threshold. What I do is I usually wait for several things to be announced over the course of a few months and then I get them all in one big splurge. Thankfully Umbrella also announced a box-set of Thai horror movies and the tremendous 2004 horror film Shutter (first time on 4K anywhere) so that wasn't difficult this time. These all hit in May -- when Mubi announces the U.S. version I will come back and post again!

In more immediate news -- instant gratification, baby! -- three Quentin tarantino movies hit 4K today, including his greatest film of them all 1997's Jackie Brown. That along with both of the Kill Bill films can be bought on Lionsgate's website, where they've begun putting out special editions of their films! A wonderful development for us physical media nerds when a lot of studios seem to be taking the exact opposite approach and turning their backs on physical releases so they can make you rent occasional access to them on streaming services forever and ever, isntead of woning the damn movie permanently as the movie gods truly intended. We love to see it! Coming up next from Liosgate are special editions of You're Next and The Third Man, which can also be bought at that link. Everybody give Lionsgate a hand!