So Sharp, These Knives

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Knives Out director Rian Johnson, of Brick and The Last Jedi fame (or infamy I suppose depending on your level of vitriol towards the latter, ya nerds) has spent this very day tweeting out character posters for the movie -- a lot of the time with one movie releasing twenty character posters you're like "Who cares" but...

... with Knives Out you've got a cast worth caring over, 

and it just keeps going.

All that tweed and all that shelving, 

it's a lot for me to take in at once.

Knives Out isn't out until Thanksgiving which seems like ages away but at the same time seems like the exactly the right time to release a family-based murder mystery -- when else are people going to want to fantasize about slashing their relatives to ribbons then when they've been forced to have an extremely long meal with all of them at once? I relate.
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She Knows A Little Something About Knives

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Last week I told you about Rian Johnson's next movie called Knives Out when Lakeith Stanfield was added to the cast that already included Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, and Michael Shannon. Well now Rian went and one-upped all the hot dudes by adding the queen herself Jamie Lee Curtis to the movie. Outta the way, hot dudes! Queen imminent! Also, you're welcome, everybody:

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The best thing to come out of the new HALLOWEEN would be for somebody to give Jamie Lee Curtis a great meaty role, please

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 22, 2018

Lakeith's a Man of Many Wigs

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I love how often Lakeith Stanfield is getting photographed for fashion magazines (look through our archives if you don't believe me) - he takes some fun risks and seems like a gloriously genuine weirdo, and I like that. These shots are via this magazine here, and they've got a chat with him too, if you enjoy words with your visuals.

Me I'm here to share other news - Stanfield has just joined the steadily ballooning cast of Knives Out, the new movie from Brick and The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson; he slips in alongside the already announced Daniel Craig and Chris Evans and Michael Shannon, which, uh, wow. Knives Out is apparently an Agatha Christie type murder mystery. Let's hope Rian finds some room for gay stuff, with that cast. Hit the jump for the rest of Lakeith's new shoot...

It's Knives For Raúl

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I missed posting this news last week but was reminded that I should post this news today when I saw the above photo of Mr. Raúl Castillo and his Most Marvelous Moustache on his Instagram -- Castillo has joined the cool cast of thousands attached to Brick and The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson's upcoming movie called Knives Out! (Thanks Mac) The (good) Looking star -- who's already had a stellar year thanks to the stellar film We the Animals, which he is stellar in, and which by the way is hitting home video next week! -- will co-star opposite Daniel Craig and Lakeith Stanfield and Chris Evans and Michael Shannon and Jamie Lee fuckin' Curtis, among others. We know very little about Knives Out just now, but Deadline did have this new rumor to share...

"Plot details are still under wraps on the the film. As we previously revealed the film is understood to be a modern day murder mystery in the classic whodunit style. I hear Craig’s detective character is understood to be called Benoit Blanc, which makes him sound like a Frenchman, though that is unconfirmed."

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Who Wore It Best?

No sooner did I write my post about Josh O'Connor joining the third Knives Out movie than did Andrew Scott also join the cast -- if ever there was news to force me to post twice about the same damned unmade movie in one day this is it. Andrew Scott and Daniel Craig have faced off before -- Scott was in the 007 movie Spectre...

... not that I remember anything about Spectre or who he played in Spectre or what happened in Spectre, but I know he was in it. I think he was a bad guy? Anyway I'm sure Daniel Craig has leverage when it comes to casting these movies now so I'm glad to see he's up for reuniting with Andrew! And yes obviously now I am mentally updating my post about Josh O'Connor being Benoit's love interest to this being a love triangle. Let's make it the gayest Knives Out movie ever! Come on, Rian! In summation, I must of course now ask:

online polls

Plunge Your Knives Straight Into My Face

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Well this one certainly appears to be living up to the hype I have been giving it myself since it was first announced -- we were immediately excited about Rian Johnson's forthcoming whodunit comedy (or as Chris Evans' blithely smirks, "CSI KFC") Knives Out since it stars Daniel Craig, the aforementioned Evans, Michael Shannon, a camp prepped Toni Collette...

... Jamie Lee Curtis, Lakeith Stanfield (with stache), 

Raul Castillo, Christopher Plummer, and 

several other super duper awesome folks...

... we even called it one of our ten most anticipated films for the year of the year when we listed such a list a few weeks ago. But they've just dropped the very first trailer for the film, which is out at Thanksgiving, and man alive if this thing didn't scoot from vaguely exciting straight on up to put this shit inside my fucking face and sew my face shut with it until I suffocate from happiness. Watch:

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Can you even? I can't even.

Start counting the days, y'all.

Queer Kisses For Antonio & Co.

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When I posted my five favorite nominations yesterday for the Dorian Awards -- aka the annual prizes given out to movies of merit from the LGBT critic's guild GALECA, of which I am a member -- I knew the winners announcement was imminent, but it turned out to be really really imminent, showing up about half an hour after I posted that post. I'm glad I posted it beforehand though, since if I'd posted it after it might have seemed like sour grapes given nearly none of my picks ended up winning. Good things won! (Mostly.) We had plenty of love for Portrait of a Lady on Fire and I love that we gave Antonio Banderas Best Actor for Almodovar's Pain and Glory. 

And I very much like Parasite (my review), which strolled off with five prizes including Best Film and Best Director and Best Supporting Actor -- do I think Parasite is just a liiiiiittle overrated? I have said as much previously, yes. But far worse things can float to the top when it comes to consensus, and Parasite is nobody's bad movie. Anyway I'm the most happy we gave Florence Pugh an award, which was the one of my wishes that came true. Hooray for Florence! Hit the jump for the entire list of winners, and big gay congrats to them all...

Daryl McCormack Twelve Times

I re-watched the third Knives Out movie Wake Up Dead Man for the second time a few nights ago and I'm probably not writing up a long review of it but as I've said a couple times on social media (as well as the last time that I posted several Daryl photos right here) it's wonderful and my favorite of the franchise to date. That lands on Netflix on Friday so y'all will actually really be able to see it for yourselves after Netflix gave it one of their supposed "theatrical releases" (such bullshit). A single complaint: I suppose it's not a spoiler to say that he and Josh O'Connor never make out in it, and that blows. Opportunity lost, Rian! But if you close your eyes right now I bet you can picture them making out and for that you are welcome. Anyway let's celebrate the really good movie by sharing this recent photoshoot of the ever handsome Daryl in The Financial Times of all places; it's all after the jump...

The Gang Goes Gobble Gobble

There is very nearly too much out this week for me to even keep a handle on, but lemme try real quick, before I take off for the evening. I always say before a holiday that I might pop back on here to update things and then never do -- of course now that I have said I never do I probably will because there's nothing I love better than proving myself foolish. Well that's not entirely true -- I also really love being lazy. So it's a battle between those two to see which wins out!

Anyway -- lotsa movies is my point! Many of which I have already reviewed or will have reviews going up for sometime this week. But let's start with a movie that falls into neither of those categories -- Rian Johnson's Knives Out sequel Glass Onion, which I saw last night (see down at the bottom of this post for some video of Johnson and a choice friend introducing the movie) but which I have no plans to review. It's hitting some theaters this week and y'all should go, it's fun. I'm not these movies most enthusiastic fan but they're fun enough. I thought the endless cameos in this one were a little much, but I am after all joyless and dead inside so your mileage will probably vary.

Seeing Jack O’Connell’s cock at this point is like having an old friend pop by for a spot of tea

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 29, 2022

Oh and another movie out this week that I have seen but don't plan on reviewing is the new Lady Chatterly's Lover with Jack O'Connell -- even though I'm not writing about it doesn't mean it's bad, though. I liked it well enough. And not just because what I tweeted above. Although, you know, that never hurts. Literally never.

As for movies that I have already reviewed that are hitting theaters this week -- most importantly there is Luca Guadagnino's cannibal romance Bones and All, obviously. Here is my review of that. I think it's awesomely good and think you should see it. It got some Indie Spirit nominations today which surprised me -- I really think the film will be too weird for awards. But good for the Spirits. (Also I might have a piece coming on this exact subject hitting some time soon as well.) And then also out this week -- although only here in NYC, I think -- is Noah Baumbach's White Noise, which I reviewed right here. It's also terrific! Greta Gerwig, baby! They dropped a trailer today, too:



As for movies that I have reviews posting later this week -- keep your eyes trained on Pajiba for my takes on the films Devotion with Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell, as well as Steven Spielberg's autobiographical fable called The Fabelmans. Maybe I will pop back in here and share those links this week when the links arrive... maybe not. It's the most exciting thing that will happen all week, this guessing game! Make sure you hold your breath! Even when you're eating mashed potatoes. Especially when eating your mashed potatoes. Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! (And don't forget to use MNPP's Amazon link to do your holiday shopping with!)

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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?

Pics of the Day

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You shouldn't expect too much coverage of this fall's Toronto Film Festival from yours truly here at MNPP because 2019 marks another year where I didn't apply for press accreditation because I'm a dingbat, and now that they're announcing what they're screening I just feel filled with rage and inadequacy (or I should say more rage and inadequacy than is usual) and even thinking about TIFF will make me crazy for the next few months. But they did indeed announce a bunch of line-up today, you can scan through all the movies right here -- they're screening the fall's must-see's like Justin Kurtzel's True History of the Kelly Gang (that's our boy George MacKay in the lead role up top, starring opposite Charlie Hunnam and Nicholas Hoult)...

... plus Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, Marielle Heller's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (we just posted that trailer yesterday), the Safdie Brothers Good Time follow-up Uncut Gems, The Witch director Robert Eggers' latest heavy period horror flick The Lighthouse, Cannes' ecstatically reviewed Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Rian Johnson's Knives Out (trailer here), new flicks from Almodovar and Soderbergh and Noah Baumbach and Taika Waititi and on and on and on. Whatever you guys! You're just showing off now. Check out them all at this link.

Sweet Dreams of James Bond

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The first trailer for Cary Fukunaga's James Bond film No Time To Die with the returning Daniel Craig slipping in and out of every well-tailored suit in the Northern Hemisphere has arrived this very morning, and if you haven't watched it already I have it for you here:

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My first thought upon watching it was... well, this:

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James Bond really does have it all, up to and including every gay boy's dream of a lovingly exasperated Ben Whishaw to come home to after a long day pic.twitter.com/dOXAbLaa4J

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 4, 2019

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But my second thought was gee damn it looks pretty:

That's the super talented Ana de Armas in the last shot, who most of you probably saw kicking ass in Rian Johnson's Knives Out this past weekend -- the Bond movies are sometimes so goddamned good at capturing just the right person at just the right moment, aren't they?

And then there's Rami Malek, proving the opposite. I know I know, he just won an Oscar for a movie that made a billion dollars or some shit... emphasis on shit. I'll try not to carry my continuing loathing over to this but it's been rough, for me, even here a full year later. I have fully stopped watching Mr. Robot, a show I once loved. Sigh. Well I've got until April 8th, when the movie comes out! What do y'all think of this trailer?

Good Morning, World

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A happy 38 to the great and proven true good fella Chris Evans -- now with the Marvel movies behind him (most probably) his IMDb page actually looks interesting for the first time in quite some time! First up he's got Knives Out, Rian Johnson's new flick that we told you is one of our most anticipated 2019 titles -- you can read our several series of posts on that movie here. Then there's The Red Sea Diving Resort, which Netflix just recently picked up, and which has him starring opposite Alessandro Nivola and Michiel Huisman and a shot of me hyperventilating in a movie theater. See my previous posts on that one here. Other projects include a movie from Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer that has Chris as the only living descendant of Dr. Jekyl (called Jekyl) and a limited TV series about a father trying to figure out if his son committed murder called Defending Jacob, and then also on top of that a sci-fi tinged story called Infinite about visions and past lives from director Antoine Fuqua. So Marvel gave him lots of money, and Marvel gave him the star power to get a ton of projects lined up, and on top of all of that he gets to be Chris Evans... sigh. I should just go back to bed.

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10 Off My Head -- 2019: Chapter II

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Well we're at the halfway point of the year basically, and per usual all the really good shit, movie-wise, is probably still ahead, heavily loaded onto the back-end -- Hollywood loves itself a big behind! I hear ya, Hollywood. I personally haven't done me a mental list of the 2019 movies I've loved the best so far in these here first six months, perhaps I should get around to that, but for now I just want to take stock of what we still have to look forward to (or what we might have to look forward to -- some of these don't have release dates yet, but I'd be surprised if they make us wait until 2020 for any of them.) So here are...

My 10 Most Anticipated Movies of the Rest of 2019

The Nightingale

(dir. Jennifer Kent)

releases on August 2nd -- more here

Midsommar 

(dir. Ari Aster) 

releases on July 3rd -- more here

Parasite 

(dir. Bong Joon-ho)

releases on October 11th -- more here

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

(dir. Quentin Tarantino)

releases on July 26 -- more here

Little Women

(dir. Greta Gerwig)

releases on December 25th -- more here

Knives Out

(dir. Rian Johnson)

releases on November 27th -- more here

Wounds

(dir. Babak Anvari)

release unknown -- more here

Pain & Glory

(dir. Pedro Almodovar)

releases on October 4th -- more here

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

(dir. Marielle Heller)

releases on November 22nd -- more here

The Lighthouse

(dir. Robert Eggers)

release unknown -- more here

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Runners-up: The Irishman (dir. Martin Scorsese), 1917 (dir. Sam Mendes, out on December 25th), Matthias & Maxime (dir. Xavier Dolan), Yesterday (dir. Danny Boyle, out on June 28th)...

... Joker (dir. Todd Phillips, out on October 4th), The Kitchen (dir. Andrea Berloff out on August 9th), Jojo Rabbit (dir. Taika Waititi, out on October 18th), A Hidden Life (dir. Terrence Malick), It: Chapter II (dir. Andy Muschietti, out on September 6th), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (dir. Céline Sciamma, out on December 6th)...

... Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (dir. André Øvredal, out on August 9th), The Woman in the Window (dir. Joe Wright, out on October 4th), Divine Love (dir. Gabriel Mascaro), Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (dir. Richard Linklater, out on August 16th), Lucy in the Sky (dir. Noah Hawley), Uncut Gems (dir. Safdie Brothers)...

... Waves (dir. Trey Edward Schults), Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (dir. JJ Abrams, out on December 20th), Gemini Man (dir. Ang Lee, out on October 4th), Frankie (dir. Ira Sachs), Ad Astra (dir. James Gray, out on September 20th), Spider-Man: Far From Home (dir. Jon Watts , out on July 2nd), Crawl (dir. Alexandre Aja, out on July 12th), On a Magical Night (dir. Christophe Honoré)

What are you most looking forward to in 2019?

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