I Know You're Criterion But What Am I

Criterion said to us that "Yes, the world is depressing right now, so we're gonna do something absolutely wonderful for you," with today's announcement of their December line-up -- Tim Burton's 1985 first film and perhaps his greatest masterpiece Pee-wee's Big Adventure is entering the Collection in 4K on December 16th. Just in time for Christmas! No I checked and Pee-wee's Christmas Special isn't included in the extras -- missed opportunity! But with such an abundant gift on its own terms who cares. I'll admit my first thought upon seeingn this news was, "Dammit I should have gotten to write the essay for that" -- if ever I was gonna write an essay for a blu-ray booklet this would've been the one. If anybody releases Muriel's Wedding without consulting me I'm gonna start setting fires dammit. But what a beautiful way to start a week! Fuck all the negativity in the news -- for at least a few minutes while we greet this. Paul Reubens has always had that effect -- pure magic.

But obviously that's not it for December -- the magic continues with, first and foremost (or rather second and second-most I suppose, after Pee-wee) a four film box-set by the artist Man Ray! Four surrealist shorts from the 1920s titled Le retour à la raison, Emak bakia, L’étoile de mer, and Les mystères du château du dé, this is no doubt related to the big show of Man Ray's art that just opened at The Met here in NYC. I think I saw some of these in film school back in the day but it's been awhile since film school (cough cough turns to dust) so these will no doubt feel new to me. I plan on going to The Met show this upcoming weekend. Love me some Man Ray surrealism. Next up there's Spike Lee's filmed version of David Byrne's American Utopia show that was on Broadway a couple of years back -- I might be one of the few Talking Heads fanatics who really wasn't into American Utopia -- generally people loved it. And I'll no doubt give it another chance at some point.

After that we've got the sweeping 1945 Scottish Highlands love story I Know Where I'm Going! from the geniuses Powell & Pressberger dropping in 4K on December 9th -- I actually can't recall if I've seen this one before or not? I went through a big P&P phase like 20 years ago and binged whatever I could get my hands on so a lot of the ones I haven't seen since then have sorta blended together. Any fans? Next comes Mira Nair's first film Salaam Bombay, which I know for certain I've never seen -- and I'm sure this was in the works well before her spectacular son Zohran Mamdani was set to be NYC's next mayor, but I love the timing anyway! And finally their fifth release for the holiday month is a 4K upgrade of the sparkling comedy masterpiece His Girl Friday starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell -- you know, just one of the greatest rom-coms ever made. 

6 Off My Head: A 2025 Peek Ahead

Inspired by the Bugonia teaser I just shared (along with the fact that it's Paul Thomas Anderson's birthday today which reminded me he has a new movie out in several weeks) I decided to go ahead and make a list of the movies left to be released in 2025 that I'm most looking forward to. I did this (as with everything I do here) mostly for myself because I've been bad about keeping an eye on what's ahead -- I can be very much in the moment; planning ahead's not my strongest suit! So I will myself probably be referring back to this list often. But perhaps this will help you along the same lines! That'd be nice! So sans further ado I give you...

My Top 6 Anticipated Movies of 2025

Bugonia (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) -- Oct 24th 

(more here)

One Battle After Another (dir. PT Anderson) -- Sept 26th

The History of Sound (dir. Oliver Hermanus) -- Sept 12th 

(more here)

After the Hunt (dir. Luca Guadagnino) -- Oct 10th 

(more here)

Sentimental Value (dir. Joachim Trier) -- Nov 7th

Pillion (dir. Harry Lighton) -- TBD

(more here)

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(Sidenote: There is no word on Gregg Araki's I Want Your Sex and any kind of release date for it yet, otherwise it would very much be listed above.) 

(Sidenote #2 - literally five minutes after I posted this list it was announced that Neon has bought Park Chan-wook's new movie No Other Choice for release and it's premiering at Venice so add that one too!)

Runners-up: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (dir. Rian Johnson), Marty Supreme (dir. Josh Safdie), Hamnet (dir. Chloé Zhao), A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (dir. Kogonada), It Was Just an Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi), The Roses (dir. Jay Roach), Avatar: Fire & Ash (dir. James Cameron), Together (dir. Michael Shanks)...

... Weapons (dir. Zach Cregger),  Jay Kelly (dir. Noah Baumbach), Caught Stealing (dir. Darren Aronofsky), Frankenstein (dir. Guillermo Del Toro), The Mastermind (dir. Kelly Reichardt), Highest 2 Lowest (dir. Spike Lee), A House of Dynamite (dir. Kathryn Bigelow), Die My Love (dir. Lynne Ramsay), The Running Man (dir. Edgar Wright)

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What movies are y'all most looking forward to?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

High and Low (1963)

Kingo Gondo: Why should you and I hate each other?

Ginjirô: I don't know. I'm not interested in self-analysis. 

I do know my room was so cold in winter and so hot in 

summer I couldn't sleep. Your house looked like heaven, 

high up there. That's how I began to hate you.

The legend Toshirô Mifune was born on this day in 1920.

What do we think about Spike Lee remaking this movie

with Denzel Washington & Jeffrey Wright? I might have

been more skeptical about remaking Kurosawa if I hadn't

completely and totally adored Oliver Hermanus' Living

just a couple years ago. And High and Low's story is timely.

(Also -- Denzel Washington & Jeffrey Wright!!)

He's Da Man

Now this, this is some news! Deadline is reporting that Jonathan Majors is in talks to star in Spike Lee's next movie! Or rather that Spike Lee is in talks to direct Jonathan Majors next movie, which seems like a big leap forward for Majors as far as H'wood power goes but then that place is nutty. Not that this news doesn't make perfect and exciting sense either way it works. Lee worked with Majors already on Da 5 Bloods, of course -- a movie that knew what it had in Jonathan's biceps before basically any other had figured that out.

This new collab will be called Da Understudy -- and clearly they're gonna have to make a "Da" trilogy together now, at this point -- and it tells the story of "life imitating art when the understudy of a Broadway production finds a role he’s willing to kill for." So it's All About Eve with dudes and murder, I guess. That brief description is also giving me the vibes of one of those great 90s thrillers a la The Hand That Rocks the Cradle or whatever, you know what I mean. Or that's what I want out of this, anyway. A trashy thriller. I bet Spike could direct the hell out of one of those. I mean Spike Lee will direct the hell out of whatever Spike Lee is directing, but I wanna see this in particular. 

In the Mood For Infernal Power X

I'm jumping the gun on this a wee bit since Criterion hasn't hit up their social medias with this even yet, but they probably will have by the time I finish writing the post -- the November 2022 releases have been dropped on their website though, so we have see what they have in store for us there! First and foremost they hinted yesterday on Twitter that they were releasing Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog and sure enough! Check out all the details and pre-order your copy of the best movie of 2021 right here -- it's in 4K and there are heaps of features! Hoo lil' doggy sign me up on that one. Next up...

... but hardly second-place is Spike Lee's Malcom X, baby! And also in 4K too. and I think this is already in the Collection on regular blu-ray, isn't it? I think I own it that way? But I'm sure it will stun in an upgrade. Check it out here. That hits on November 22nd. And also getting the upgrade to 4K treatment is one of the most beautiful films ever made...

... namely Won Kar-Wai's masterpiece In the Mood For Love. I was just thinking about this movie last night -- I mean there are many nights where I am thinking about ITMFL but I re-watched Everything Everywhere All at Once (what a terrific movie it is) and that film riffs directly on this one in all of those romance sections between Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. Anyway I imagine watching In the Mood For Love in 4K will be akin to shooting heroin into one's eyeballs, only, you know, just without putting needles into your eyeballs or whatever. All the highs, with none of the needly lows!

The final pair of November flicks ain't no slouches, but I'm pairing them up because I personally haven't seen them -- there's the Hong Kong crime saga of the Infernal Affairs trilogy also with Tony Leung (no I ridiculously haven't seen these films, but that will obviously be rectified now) which are hitting disc on November 15th. And then there is the Czech New Wave classic Daisies from director Věra Chytilová, which I have seen portions of, but never from start to finish properly. My friend Daniel had a party once that was themed to the film and it played on a loop on the TV, so I've seen big chunks that way. Now I can finally watch it the way Chytilová intended. It seemed like a stunner.

A Majors Development!

Looks like Lovecraft Country star and owner-of-my-heart Jonathan Majors doesn't want to get out of the Lovecraft business just yet -- no he hasn't signed on for a second season of that show (nobody has since it hasn't been officially announced yet) but he is apparently on the verge of signing up to star as one half of the title of a movie called Gordon Hemingway & The Realm of Cthulhu. No, sadly not Cthulhu. He'll play this Gordon fellow, and if you're getting tickles in your Indiana Jones places that's probably wise as here's how Variety describes the original screenplay:

"... the film is set in East Africa in 1928 and centers on Hemingway, a roguish Black American gunslinger, who teams up with the elite warrior Princess Zenebe of Ethiopia to rescue the country’s kidnapped regent from an ancient evil."

This sounds to me like Indiana Jones minus the colonialist artifact-raiding streak, which seems a smart way to take Movie Adventurers into the 21st century. Or maybe it's just a big goopy monster movie that will finally give Ye Elder King Cthulhu his movie due. Whatever. Majors' Da 5 Bloods director Spike Lee is a producer on this, while See You Yesterday director Stefon Bristol is directing. Majors isn't confirmed for the role yet, it's just a possibility at this point, but then he's not confirmed for Superman either but I'm still putting that energy hard out into the world...

MY SUPERMAN https://t.co/xE0eF6DyLU pic.twitter.com/fjuJo56Z3A

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) February 26, 2021

Something Thirsty, Something Majors

When the fine folks at my new home-away-from-home Pajiba asked me to participate in the "Pajiba 10" -- where we writers for the site would FYC someone (or something) to carry the Thirst Mantle for the year that was 2020, which will then be voted on by the site's readership -- I, being me, immediately made a list of about fifteen names I could've nominated. I won't get into all my runners-up (although I imagine y'all could guess several of them, if you've been here at all in 2020) because there really was no true competition for my Top Pick this year, not when it came down to it -- nobody got all my engines revving in 2020 like The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Lovecraft Country star Jonathan Majors did. The talent... the charisma... the biceps... you can scan back thru MNPP's archives on the man to truly take in the fever I fell under in real time. And then you should head on over to Pajiba, where I wrote it all up in minute, sweaty detail. Oh Jonathan...

Good Morning, World

This month's issue of L'uomo Vogue is looking good! Not only does it contain that Alexander Skarsgard photo-shoot we've been drooling on all week long, it contains this shoot of Tenet actor and Junior-Denzel John David Washington (via). So I might as well ask -- who's seen Tenet? Anybody actually seen Tenet at this point? I barely remember Tenet being a thing until something like this happens but no, in case that didn't clue you in, I have not seen Tenet. Anyway I dug JDW in BlackkKlansman so I hope he got something to actually do in Tenet besides wear a suit and run.

It's Dapper Deadwood Dick

Reading through our boyfriend Jonathan Majors' new cover story for GQ magazine -- we've come a long way, baby! -- the first thing that popped out at me was his character in the forthcoming Jay-Z-produced all-black Western The Harder They Fall that he's the lead in opposite Idris Elba is called "Deadwood Dick" and... I am smitten already. So many future post titles involving plays on the words "Dick" and "Harder" stretching towards infinity, y'all!

The other things that leapt out at me -- Balinese Mask Dancing, an experienced horse rider, his role in the  2017 When We Rise miniseries that had him playing a gay sailor (and yes I was already aware of this being a thing but no, I have not gotten a chance to watch it yet), his desire to have a black "Beautiful Boy" (as in the Chalamet movie). I find it interesting that he mentions that film specifically, since he worked with Timmy on the movie Hostiles... I wonder how my boys got along? Oh don't fight over me, you two! Don't! (Do.) Anyway go read the whole chat, and I've got the entire blessed new photo-shoot after the jump...

I Might Have Known it Would Be Red

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Today the New York Film Festival announced their "Spotlight" line-up, which includes the new film by Sofia Coppola starring Bill Murray; a documentary about voter suppression here in the US as well as one about police brutality in France; Spike Lee's concert film showcasing David Byrne's stage-show American Utopia; a doc about an unearthed conversation about filmmaking between Orson Welles and Dennis Hopper, and drumroll please Pedro Almodovar's short-film English-language debut called The Human Voice starring Tilda Swinton in an adaptation of a Jean Cocteau story. I have talked about the latter a lot! Anyway you can read all of that on the NYFF's website, but here I've got the very first, very brief, but stunningly red clip from Almodovar's film for you to check out!

It's Thursday, I'm In Love

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Please correct me if I am incorrect but I don't think there's much of anything hitting "Movie Theaters" this weekend -- I know "Movie Theaters" are no longer "A Thing" but you know what I mean, I mean streaming. The internet. I guess that the filmed-version of Hamilton is one thing hitting streaming but you've come to the wrong place for somebody who gives a shit about Hamilton. So instead I ask y'all if you've seen anything that's hit streaming recently that you recommend? Movies, TV shows, spoken word fetish videos, whatever! You decide!

I ask this accompanied by photos of my current fave dujour Jonathan Majors (via; click them they embiggen a bunch) because if you haven't watched Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods on Netflix yet that's a good one, you should. I was a little surprised I liked it as much as I did, since Vietnam movies haven't really ever been my bag, but it plays more like  say The Treasure of Sierra Madre than it does Platoon, thank goodness. Oh and did I mention Jonathan Majors is in it? HE IS!!! Anyway everybody have a good weekend (I'm off til Monday) and again, drop some streaming recs in the comments if you dare...

Something Majors Is Happening

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I am only about halfway through Spike Lee's new film Da 5 Bloods on Netflix right now and I'm digging it but the movie had to be paused, it had to be, when I just now stumbled upon this new photo-shoot of my beloved Jonathan Majors for Interview Magazine. See, I got very excited when he showed up in the film...

Seriously I love him SO MUCH you guys #Da5Bloods pic.twitter.com/C2u3mcxLLN

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 12, 2020

... and one thing scooched over to another, bada-bing here we are. If you don't recognize Mr. Majors that means you haven't seen my 5th favorite movie of 2019 The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and you need to fix that immediately -- here's my review and all that but just go watch the damn movie. It's on Prime and it is astonishing.

Anyway in the magazine he chats with Matthew McConaughey of all people (I guess they worked together previously) but surprisingly, given the McConaughey of it, it's a good chat -- click on over to read it. And then go watch Da 5 Bloods on Netflix, and then hit the jump for the rest of this goddamned sweet photo-shoot (which PS is super-duper HQ if you click on the pics too)...

Days of Heaven

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It's that blessed time of the month, kids -- Criterion has just announced their new batch of titles, this time for the month of March in the year of 2020. And shocker, they rule. Our number one choice from the month's batch is John M. Stahl's 1945 masterpiece Leave Her to Heaven, which we've loved ever since the first time we saw Gene Tierney wearing sunglasses while watching a little boy drown, throwing herself down some stairs, and all manner of horrors. It's one of the most twisted movies to ever come out of Golden Age Hollywood, with Technicolor Tierney at her most stunning -- which is saying a lot -- and sociopathic. That this movie even exists is a wonder. The blu-ray will have a brand-new 2K restoration of the film, which promises to be something given how already-stunning this film looked before.

Then there are two other titles hitting in March that are immediately molesting my eye (in a good way) -- first, Mikhail Kalatozov's 1958 classic The Cranes Are Flying, which is an absolute marvel, and second Spike Lee's Bamboozled, which I've shamefully never seen but have always meant to. I've been saving it for being in the right mood for such a thing, but this is a good excuse to force it! See all the titles they've just announced at this link here.

What are y'all excited for?

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Jonathan Majors Nine Times

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I thought so when I saw the film the first time (read my review right here) but now that I've seen it a second time I can say with utter certainty that The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a film that's going to be a part of my life for as long as I continue living, etched into my fleshy parts, and I really do recommend you get your ass out to a theater to sit with the characters of Jimmie & Monty and their one-of-a-kind big little world as soon as you can get your ass to getting. Jonathan Majors here plays Monty and gives one of this year's great performances -- this character could've gone wrong in a million different ways but Majors shapes him with warmth and intelligence into a spectacular figure, strange and immortal; I cannot wait to see what Majors does next.

Which, according to the interview attached to the photos for The Last Magazine won't be that hard, because he's about to be in everything. He's one of the stars in that Lovecraft Country horror book adaptation I told you about awhile back, which Jordan Peele is producing, plus he's in Spike Lee's next movie called Da 5 Bloods and he's playing the founder of the Black Panthers in Aaron Sorkin's next movie about the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Oh and he's in that Charlie Hunnam / Jack O'Connell boxing movie called Jungleland, too! This is a definite case of Hollywood being On It correctly, for once.

Anyway I mentioned there's an interview with Majors attached to these images I'm posting -- it's actually an interview worth reading! He talks about TLBMISF like a pro, at least, proving yes these folks really knew what the fuck they were doing when they made this extraordinary first movie. Here's a choice bit:

"That’s toxic masculinity and that’s a part of the story as well—what is it to be a man, what is it to be a black man, what is it to be a friend? That masculinity is not gender-specific, it’s an energy. Montgomery is a ferocious character, but he’s also a gentleman, and what I was interested in exploring is that gentleness. He’s not a small guy; if he wanted to, he could inflict harm and you see it come out when he gets angry sometimes, but he’s not a fighter.... That doesn’t mean he’s weak. He’s still a man even though he’s gentle and quiet and he likes art and he likes fishing and he likes isolation. He loves his buddy, he loves Jimmie—that too is masculine, that type of fraternal love.”

Again I say to you people, go see The Last Black Man in San Francisco as soon as you can, it's got the MNPP stamp of serious deep and lasting approval. (Also this reminds me I gotta get my hands on its sublime score, ASAP -- gorgeous stuff.) And now for something slightly less serious let's hit the jump to stare at the rest of these very fine and handsome shots of the rivetingly talented Majors from the photographer Stefani Pappas...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Summer of Sam (1999)

Ritchie: All right. What do you want me to
tell you? Get a fuckin' divorce, then.
Vinny: Divorce is fuckin' evil, Ritchie.
You got some fuckin' really bad advice.
Ritchie: Evil spelled backwards is live.
Vinny: You're a corny fuck, you know that?

A happy 20 to Spike Lee's serial killer drama, which I maybe haven't seen in 20 years? I don't know, I must have watched it again after the first time since I remember liking it a lot and back then, before I had the ability to watch literally any movie at any moment, if I liked something I re-watched it. I know I had this movie on VHS at one point, so I must have. But the memory's very vague. Have you re-watched Summer of Sam lately? I'm curious how it holds up, and also if I'll still feel the same way I once did about Adrien Brody...

5 Off My Head: Toon Town Forever

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With Tim Burton's live-action Dumbo re-do parading itself into movie theaters this weekend it seems a good time to look back at all the original animated films that've been inspiring these great big bloated things and take stock...

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How long until Disney works through their back-catalogue enough that we can get Spike Lee's Song of the South with Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Remus anyway? pic.twitter.com/U5BbyVZfRV

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) March 26, 2019

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... okay maybe not of that one specifically. Although now that I mention it, a list of weird director / property pairings would be fun to do, right? Like how Guillermo Del Toro's been trying to make Pinnochio for years. Well... that's not for today. Today I'm keeping it simple. Today I'm going to list my favorite -- not the best, just my favorites -- of their traditionally animated films. (Meaning no Pixar and no Jack Skellington.) 

My 5 Fave Traditionally Animated Disney Films

Beauty & the Beast (1991)

"Well, some people use their imagination."

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

"If I had a world of my own,
everything would be nonsense."

Fantasia (1940)

"So now imagine yourselves out in space billions and billions of years ago looking down on this lonely, tormented little planet spinning through an empty sea of nothingness."

The Little Mermaid (1989)

"Never underestimate the importance
of body language."

The Fox and the Hound (1981)

"Yeah, forever."

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What are your favorites?

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