Louis Garrel Five Times

Major props to the photographer who decided that I needed the image of Louis Garrel flashing me old-school trenchcoat-style in front of some bookshelves today -- just what the doctor ordered, that! Anyway I lost the link for who shot these but yesterday I happened upon a French photographer's Instagram who's gifted the world with shoots of several of our favorite Frenchies recently so you should expect me to be dropping batches of these wondrous gifts regularly for the next week or so. But we kick things off with Louis, since he's Louis. Hit the jump for them...

Josh O'Connor Sixteen Times

Well here's a pleasant enough task to easing me back into blogging duties -- Josh O'Connor is covering GQ this month! I can certainly stare at these pictures for a little bit. It's like a sort of medicine. Anyway it makes sense that he's getting a big spotlight right now, what with four movies out this fall -- don't ask my tired brain to name all of them but there's the new Knives Out (which by all accounts Josh is basically a co-lead with Daniel Craig in) and the new Kelly Reichardt movie The Mastermind. And then that one where he's a cowboy. I have no idea what the fourth one is. Anyway Josh wears leather pants, Josh wears plaid pants, Josh wears NO pants in the photos, so that's what we're really here to celebrate. Hit the jump for the photos...

File Under: Keery, Hotness

I just posted on Bluesky last night about how Joe Keery's music career, even as I remain entirely ignorant of the "music" portion of it, has been an enormous gift for those of us who like staring at Joe being hot. And then today, almost like a gift given straight to me, arrive these two photos of Joe (via) in an environment even sexier than a rock-and-roll auditorium -- a library! With an adorable puppy? Come on now! Somebody get me a medic -- I'm swooning right onto the floor. Quick, Joe -- mouth to mouth! Mouth to mouth!!!

Joe Keery Six Times

Just as I was finishing up my previous post involving Tony Leung and library shelves I spotted this photoshoot of Stranger Things actor Joe Keery posing his hot fuzzy ass among some library shelves -- the universe is being kind to me today! It's seriously appreciated. I could use some kindness this week. And I assume we all could so here, I will pay it forward (hey remember when that was a revolutionary idea for five minutes) and share the photoshoot after the jump...

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

This week's big news that a bunch of Hong Kong classics that've never gotten proper releases here in the U.S. are going to be getting just that thanks to Shout Studios new sub-label called Hong Kong Studio Classics made me remember that that there shamefully are a great big pile of early John Woo action flicks I've never seen. So I decided to rectify that and I began my journey over the weekend by watching Woo's beloved 1992 flick Hard Boiled, which stars Chow Yun-fat and Tony Leung in a criss-crossy tale of cops acting criminal-like and vice versa, and wow wow wowee what an action masterclass! There's so much wildly over-the-top (in an entertaining way) violence in this movie that I could've chosen any of a number of scenes, but how could I resist a lightly homoerotic encounter between Tony Leung and a vibrantly-mustachioed mark in a library??? Tony Leung plus bookshelves plus bloodshed?? Are you kidding me? I'm in heaven. Hit the jump for the rest...

Good Morning, World

(click to embiggen) For those of you wondering if I have made time to watch Red White & Royal Blue yet the answer is no, no I have not. But every time I see a picture of Taylor Zakhar Perez -- like the one above, for instance -- my eyes grow hands and these eye-hands then slap me across the face for that oversight. (Bet you didn't think you'd read the phrase "eye-hands" today.) Anyway thanks to Taylor for keeping the flame alive. And for the eye-hands I guess, too. They come in handy! (Oh groan, somebody get the hook.)

Josh Hartnett Five Times

Yes it's the second Josh Hartnett photoshoot in as many days (see yesterday's here) but how could I resist -- he got photographed in front of bookshelves! He knows who he's talking to. I actually think these photos are from his own home -- it looks like the same spot he was photographed in last week here (Hartnett Hartnett everywhere!) and I know for a fact that was his own London home because they talked about it in that interview. It's a beautiful home, but I am not surprised -- Josh really does seem like a good dude who's got his shit together. The fun thing about this new shoot is it's for Interview Magazine and they have him chatting with his one-time O co-star Julia Stiles! 

Flashback! They mention that they haven't spoken since then, too -- I always find that so funny, how we link these people together forever but they've peaced-out decades ago. Anyway also if you're curious what movie Josh is talking about when asked in the chat how he met his wife -- he says they met together on a movie where they played husband and wife but he refuses to name the film because he says it's the worst movie either of them have ever done -- the movie is Roland Joffé's 2015 film The Lovers; I did the homework. Has anybody seen that? The photos look terrible. But not Interview's photos -- hit the jump for the rest of beautiful Josh inside his beautiful home...

Ben Whishaw + Bookshelves...

 ... was just the pick-me-up I needed this morning. (via)

Andrew Scott Five Times

Ripley is finally out today -- go watch it on Netflix the first chance you get! It's really terrific, I thought. I speak of the new Patricia Highsmith adaptation starring Andrew Scott here as Tom Ripley, her perennial grifter, the same one showcased so wonderfully in Anthony Minghella's 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley. Here is the trailer. It salso stars Dakota Fanning and Johnny Flynn (from Emma) in the Gwyneth & Jude roles repsectively, although it's unfair to compare it to that movie because they're going for something very different emotionally. It's the same story as TTMR (I don't believe it dives into any of the other books; I know people were wondering) but it has a very different feel. And I think both versions work. Anyway with that out Andrew is featured in Interview Magazine today and besides this sexy photoshoot (SHELVES!) his chat is with the one and only Oscar-winning queen Olivia Colman! I usually post these links and then go read the articles but I couldn't stop myself from reading Andrew & Olivia chatting the second I saw it was a thing and it's a delight. So read that and hit the jump for the photos...

Good Morning, Cillian

Even though I had some mixed feelings on Oppenheimer -- specifically its third act and Robert Downey Jr.'s ham-tastic performance -- I liked it far more than I have any Chris Nolan movie in a long time and I'm not feeling as terrible about the possibility (probability) of it winning a bunch of Oscars as I would''ve been had it continued my usual "uggggh" towards Nolan. I don't know what exact percentage of that you can chalk up to Cillian Murphy getting the lead and him being per usual great, but it's not a small one, and so I've very much been feeling the Cillian lately. Especially after a recent 28 Days Later re-watch...

I'm re-watching 28 DAYS LATER for the first time in a very long time and I was saying something to my bf when Cillian Murphy's shaved face was revealed and I one hundred percent lost every single thought I had in my head pic.twitter.com/JMFhU60P17

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 13, 2024

Anyway he's looking absolutely stunning in these photos for GQ UK, which he's covering this month -- you can read the interview right here. With me, since I haven't read it yet. I do hope he wins the Oscar because 1) he's excellent, he's always excellent, and he's earned it, 2) Paul Giamatti is also generally deserving of a career Oscar but I really do not like The Holdovers and I don't particularly like Giamatti's performance in it, and 3) anybody but Bradley Cooper. Please. If Colman Domingo had a chance I'd be happy about that but Rustin is too mediocre a movie. And Jeffrey Wright -- same feelings as Giamatti. Great actor giving a mediocre performance in a movie I don't like. I'm putting it all on Cillian then! And speaking of wanting to put something on Cillian, these photos got me feeling that way. Hit the jump for the whole shoot...

You Win This Round, Krasinski

There isn't a whole lot that could make me want to see a kid's movie directed by John Krasinski and starring Ryan Reynolds -- a pornographic movie, sure? But a kid's movie? Nahhh. I am of the mind that Krasinski's Quiet Place movies are politically retrograde and shoddily crafted and Ryan, bless his continued hotness, has turned himself into a brand who only churns out terrible Netflix movies. But then they went and released a trailer for their kid's movie called If -- it's about a teen girl who can see everyone's imaginary friends -- and they put Ryan in suspenders...

... and against bookshelves no less, and this is a pure and undiluted act of violence against my will, y'all. I love a man in suspenders. I've admitted this fetish before but ever since that formative photograph of shirtless Benjamin Bratt's back in suspenders appeared in my life back in the day I have had very little willpower as far as suspenders are concerned and Ryan appears to spend...

... like half of this dumb movie in a shirt and suspenders. Violence, I say! Anyway I'm not posting the trailer but you can watch it right here -- there are really good people doing (what I assume is) voice-work in this movie too. People like Maya Rudolph and Sam Rockwell and Christopher Meloni and Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Fiona f'ing Shaw! So I won't hold it against anybody if they're excited about this. I'll just be over here with these gifs feeling very unclean, is all.

James Norton Four Times

(via) This photoshoot is wickedness! Wickedness, I say! Putting James Norton in plaid tweed and having him sit against walls of bookshelves is an act of sensual violence against me. I may have to call my attorneys, or at least find out what the phone number is that those old Viagra commercials used to tell people to call if they suddenly find themselves with an erection lasting for longer than fours hours. There goes today!

Quote of the Day

"Different writers have different, what they call “the regimen of the room,” all these rules. Don’t ever go into the writing room, unless you are planning to write. Don’t go in there and do anything else. For some writers, it’s 500 words a day, no matter what. I’ve been in various writers’ rooms—Faulkner, Steinbeck, and Mishima. Mishima had an upstairs room, and he had a locked door. You unlock that door, and you go down another hallway, which was all dark, to another locked door. So he would lock both doors, and then he would be inside his room. The only thing he could do there was write. His nickname in gay circles was Cinderella, because no matter what he was doing, or what kind of sexual episode was going on, he’d check his watch, and he had to be home at midnight to write."

Because he is Paul Schrader there are about twenty different quotes from his interview in Interview Magazine today that I could offer up to you as our "Quote of the Day." But I couldn't resist him talking about that hunk Yukio Mishima...

... so that's the one that sticks. Paul would know anyway, since he made the movie about Mishima! (And a pretty good movie, at that.) The conversation, P.S., is between Paul and Oscar Isaac -- the two worked together recently on The Card Counter, of course. I wasn't nuts about that movie, but Oscar looks hot in it so it is watchable. Now excuse me while I zoom in on that top picture and try to figure out everything that Paul Schrader has on his bookshelves...

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... celebrating Austin Nichols in style.

Austin posted a birthday video on his Insta today -- these here are the choice shots I've giffed for you but you'll probably wanna check the entire thing at the link. Happy birthday, beautiful!

Great Moments in Movie Shelves #201

Ooh y'all know how hard a secret door in a library makes me! Or at least you should. Well maybe not exactly the "hard" part, that's an overshare specific to today. But I am sure I have spoken before about how much I love a secret door in a library in this extensive series now past the two-hundred mark. But maybe what you don't know is that even better than a secret door in a library is when the books then come to life and throw themselves at the person who's just come through the secret door in the library! I mean you couldn't have known that because I didn't know it myself until i saw it happen myself for the very first time in Jean Rollin's groovy 1971 weird-ass erotic-ish French horror film Shiver of the Vampires two nights ago. 

This was my first Jean Rollin movie because I was pretty sure what was in store for me going in, and it's not entirely my cuppa -- lotsa boobies, basically. I mean boobies are fine, y'all enjoy your boobies if you have them. They're just not really a drawing point for me personally when picking out movies to watch. And Shiver of the Vampires is indeed chockfulla boobies. There's not an actress in the film who doesn't wear a sheer nightgown at some point during its runtime, and many of them wear nothing but. So anyway I hadn't rushed to watch a Jean Rollin movie. But then I saw that this one was getting the 4K fancy treatment from the smart folks at Indicator -- pre-order your copy on Amazon! And then I saw it's streaming for free on Tubi and I said fuck it, let's give it a twirl. And I'm glad I did.

I love how they're literally just throwing books at this poor dude's face at one point. Being an actor is seriously the weirdest fucking job in the world -- my hat off to any of you people who do that shit because I can't even imagine. "Today we're going to lock you in a room and throw books at your face!" I mean, really. Anyway this movie is fucking bizarre in ways I did not expect. All the boobies are out in full force, but then the grand high lesbian vampire makes her grand entrance by unfurling herself from the inside of a grandfather clock?

Sure, why not. It becomes a running joke after this -- where will she pop out from the next time she arrives -- which told me that Jean Rollin wasn't just boobies. Dude was having fun. Obviously I should see more of his movies. I know that Indicator is also putting Two Orphan Vampires from 1997 out on 4K at the same time as this one, so perhaps that's next? Any recommendations? Anyway this library scene goes on too long for me to make all of the gifs I wanted to make from it so here, I uploaded it to YouTube. (Sidenote: video doesn't have any sound but who cares, you don't need it.)

Pics of the Day

Actor and sexual being Benjamin Aldridge shared some fun set photos for Knock at the Cabin over the weekend via Insta -- one of them I had previously posted but the above snap, with Jonathan Groff feeling up Ben's knee in front of some bookshelves...

... now supplants that one as my fave. Hell it supplants photos of my childhood and family and best friends as a fave. Not sure why he's sharing these now -- it's not out on blu-ray until May (you can pre-order it right here though) but whatever, it presents a good excuse to link to my piece about what the film had to say about gay trauma right here at Mashable. In case you missed it! Anyway there are a few more photos, including lots of hot hugging man-action with Dave Bautista, hit the jump for it...

Big Day For Paul Mescal Fans

No sooner had I just finished posting the above ES magazine cover on Twitter (where I kicked off what will be a year-long armpit thread because of course I did -- check it out here) than did I see Paul Mescal's also on the cover of the new issue of The Hollywood Reporter, shot by the very talented Ryan Pfluger who's always make menfolk look their best.

I mean not only is Paul wearing shorts and flashing those illustrious career-making gams of his, but he's doing it in front of SHELVES???? Photographer Ryan Pfluger you're an MNPP reader, aren't you? This was a gift for me. I accept!

I haven't read the interview in THR with Paul yet but I did skim through as I was snatching up the photos and I did see him mention Nicole Kidman going backstage at Streetcar (which he's performing in London right now) to meet him in his underwear, and let's all give Nicole another round of applause. She earned that.

Anyway I'll read that chat over lunch in a wee bit -- for now let's just be very happy that H'wood seems to have cottoned on to the Mescal heat. He really seems to be the real deal. He deserved that damn Oscar nomination for Aftersun, and even though I hated the first Gladiator I am still excited for him to star in a sequel. Okay it's the skirts. I'm in it for the skirts, what can I say? How about hit the jump for the rest of this fine-ass photoshoot...