Good Morning, World

Steven Spielberg's re-do of West Side Story -- which, to everyone's surprise especially my own, I totally dug (I've never liked the original film), here is my review -- is hitting blu-ray today! Pick up your copy right here. Anyway in that event's honor I dug up this old short film that stars WSS21's "Chino" actor Josh Andrés Rivera, who turned out to be extremely popular when I tweeted about him two weeks back.

I could spend weeks posting about all of the #WestSideStory boys but today let us give a moment to Josh Rivera, who plays Chino pic.twitter.com/GPkcXutQiE

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) March 3, 2022

Did you know that he's dating WSS21's "Maria" actress Rachel Zegler? I didn't until Zegler herself good-naturedly re-tweeted that tweet! Seems everybody walked out of WSS21 with a lil' Chino crush -- I'm curious to see who gets career opportunities out of Spielberg's film; we already know that Mike Faist is a big breakout (he's already booked a Luca Guadagnino film opposite Zendaya and Josh O'Connor, after all), but this cast is stacked with talented up-and-comers (Spielberg's always had an ace casting department) so fingers crossed some other folks breakout too.

Don't ask me the context or story behind that short -- all I know if Rivera tweeted about it himself so he's not embarrassed by it. Nor should he be -- he's goofy and adorable, all qualities that served him well in West Side Story. Anyway if y'all have any WSS21 faves that you want me to post about tell me in the comments! There are so many hot dancers in it I can hardly keep up. See also this great big post I did do about the hunk John Michael Fiumara right before the film came out.

Good Morning, Gratuitous John Michael Fiumara

After I re-posted those thirst traps of West Side Story actor Mike Faist that went around yesterday a little bird sent me over to WSS actor John Michael Fiumara's Instagram -- he plays the character named "Big Deal" in the film, and you can see why looking at his Instagram. He's a Broadway person, I know he's been in Newsies... as was Faist, so I hear -- did they raid half the Newsies cast for West Side Story? I am picturing Steven Spielberg sitting in the audience with his casting director and a penlight -- "I'll take that one! And that one! Ooh that one too!" That's a fun visual. I hope that's what happened. Anyway because 1) I want to encourage everybody to see West Side Story when they can (here's my review) and 2) he is hot, I snatched up a couple dozen of the most important (read: gratuitous) photos off of Fiumara's Insta and I have them for you after the jump...

Pics of the Day

I guess West Side Story's leading man Ansel Elgort felt the need to influence that poll I posted last week asking y'all to choose between WSS 2021's Riff (Mike Faist) and Bernardo (David Alvarez) because Ansel just dropped eight hearty gratuitous photos of Faist on his Insta (thx Sergio). Faist was already winning the poll, Ansel! Eesh. Not that we're complaining. After reading this interview with Faist yesterday I'm entirely convinced that Faist is turning out to be the big-time break-out star of the film (which I reviewed here) as well he should -- he's on fire in the movie. But for now let's hit the jump for a little bit of a different kind of fire...

They Call Him Mr. Rex

There are two important and worth-your-time movies out today  (as far as I can tell -- it's so damned hard to keep track of that kind of thing anymore), and they are Steven Spielberg's surprisingly spectacular West Side Story re-do (which I reviewed at Pajiba yesterday), and Sean Baker's porn-caper Red Rocket, which stars former VJ and amateur junk-handler Simon Rex in the role of his life. Of ten lives. I'm not going to say much about Red Rocket right now though because I'm going to be reviewing it later this month, but in exchange I will instead share with you Mr. Rex's brand new Interview Magazine photo-shoot, which will put in your the mood. Which mood? I suppose that's up to you, but it's a mood anyway. You can read the chat with him at Interview, or you can just see the photoshoot on my Tumblr. That's it for this week! Have a good safe weekend, everybody!

Smoke On Your Pipe & Put This In!

The weird year that is 20201 (typo on purpose, as 2020 and 2021 are the same year, it's just science) keeps on weirding on with Steven Spielberg's West Side Story -- or that is to say more accurately, my love for Steven Spielberg's West Side Story. Another musical got me! What's happening anymore??? I reviewed WSS for Pajiba today -- read it here -- and it's nothing but heart-eyeball-emojis shooting off my fingers. What a world. I guess I should just go buy myself some white gloves and a bowler hat and start harassing pigeons in the park with my sassy jazz moves -- I am just that guy now. 

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... suns out buns out with ...

... Ansel Elgort and pals.

(For the record I don't know where these came from!)
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Ansel Elgort Eighteen Times

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Today marks exactly 200 days until Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story is meant to come out -- if you're not a time-whizz that works out to December 18th of this year -- and so posting these recent photos of its "Tony" Ansel Elgort (via) seemed apt enough, for an afternoon treat anyway. And speaking of, treats that is, it seems pretty clear to me that Ansel's proud as heck of his Junior Officer Krupke since he keeps swinging that big thing around for photographs -- remember that shower photo his own father took a few months back? -- so perhaps, as a treat, this will be the first full frontal West Side Story. I mean I am just spitballing here but they should give Maria something to really sing about. Shooting sparks into space indeed! Hit the jump for several more photos...

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... scrubbin' Ansel's bubbles.

 (via, click to embiggen)

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Good Morning, Gratuitous Naoki Kobayashi

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This marks our third post on Naoki Kobayashi, the J-Pop star turned model turned movie actor, in as many weeks -- see the first one here and the second one here -- which lets on that I've gone and worked myself into a frenzy; hopefully now that I can actually see him act in something he'll prove worth the effort beyond just the eye candy. Don't get me wrong...

... I like the candy. But the man has got such a fantastic face (and everything out from there) that I'm hoping he gives me a good excuse to keep obsessing for the long haul. But to step back, that "something" I can see him in (almost) now is Earthquake Bird, the Netflix film that's got him romancing both Alicia Vikander and Riley Keough, to menacing effect. It will hit Netflix Midnight tonight. (ETA Netflix has changed the release to November 15th, apparently. Boo!)

Whether Naoki gets more roles here in the U.S. remains to be seen -- the movies finally seem to be catching on to the sex appeal of Asian men here in the States a thousand lifetimes after everyone with working eyes has been long standing here on this spot, and all the roles can't go to Henry Golding right? But let's watch Earthquake Bird first before we get totally ahead of ourselves on Naoki, I suppose. 

Well let's watch Earthquake Bird and let's also look at the dozens of photos that I managed to dig up for this post... and then definitely get ahead of ourselves anyway. By the way a lot of these are off Naoki's Instagram, which I recommend following. But there's more besides all here on yonder after the jump...

Who Ain't Nuthin But a Hound Dog

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While I don't think any of the five names being bandied about are right on I think you can guess my preference of the five, given the above image and my well-documented predilections, for which one I'd choose to play Elvis in Baz Luhrmann's forthcoming biopic. The five actors are Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Miles Teller, Harry Styles (I hesitate to call him an actor -- and don't yell "Dunkirk" at me, nobody had to act in that movie), Ansel Elgort, and Austin Butler. 

The only one of them I don't know is the latter, although I've seen his name around; the other three are either a firm no thank you (Teller and Elgort) or an "I suppose, if you must" (Styles). But I'm not nuts about any of them to be honest, even Aaron who feels a little old at this point? (Which is probably crazy cuz dude is only 29.) Anyway...

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Cops Rock

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They say patience is a virtue and so I must be the most virtuous piece of shit in the world, given how patient I have been waiting for Corey Stoll to take off. But the next couple of years and thereabouts finally looks to be our long-awaited reward -- we already told you that he's going to co-star  in Steven Soderbergh's film The Report as well as in the Sopranos prequel opposite Alessandro Nivola and well as in Ryan Murphy's Nurse Ratched miniseries for Netflix.

Well today there's even more -- he's going to play "Lieutenant Schrank, the New York City detective charged with quelling civic unrest in his racially-torn precinct" in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story remake! This role was played by Simon Oakland in the original -- I've only seen the original WSS once and I wasn't nuts about it. I know, I know, send your hate mail to me care of my butt. But I'm perfectly open and willing to watch a Steven Spielberg musical -- written by Tony Kushner for god's sake! -- and Corey Stoll singing at me is making it even easier a pill.
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Also joining the cast today is Brian dʼArcy James as another cop, "Sergeant Krupke, a veteran cop whose beat includes the territories of two warring street gangs, the Sharks and the Jets." Don't ask me to remember anything about the cops in the original, but the name "Sergeant Krupke" has infiltrated pop culture enough that it sounds familiar to me. Which is the bigger part?
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Baby Gotta Dance

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I'm not going to come anywhere near making a dent in all of the news-stories that I'm missing posting about this month due to fest obligations but I just had to pop in here on a relatively quiet (in that respect) day and suss out y'all's feelings on this week's news that Ansel Elgort has landed the leading man role of Tony in Steven Spielberg's remake or re-do or whatever he's calling it of West Side Story. That's the role that Richard Beymer played in the original and honestly this picture I once posted of Richard looks an awful lot like Ansel so this casting's not crazy. 

That said I didn't like Baby Driver and part of the reason I didn't like Baby Driver was I didn't like what Ansel was doing in Baby Driver, so I'm on the fence. But that that said I am not much of a fan of West Side Story in general anyway, blasphemy of blasphemies - it's a lot of Musical and you know how I feel about those, at least when they're this straightforward. (Meaning I only tend to like musicals when they've got some kind of post-modern spin to them, or they were a part of my childhood a la The Wizard of Oz that got to me before I became a cynical monster.) So who cares what I think about this news anyway? Nobody! So y'all tell me what you think, People Who Really Care, in the comments...

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I GOTCHER RIFF RIGHT HERE pic.twitter.com/8NkW9pCbXO

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 1, 2018

Good Morning, World

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I think if we all try to be one tenth of how chipper Ansel Elgort is in bed in the morning (at least according to his constant Insta-stories) then I think we'll all be doing pretty good. How about you hand out some of them goofballs to the whole class, Ansel. (thx Dennis)

Ansel Elgort Two Times

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(via)

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You Got The Wright Stuff, Baby

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I'd forgotten that Ansel Elgort is actually kind of tall - we'd be eye to eye at 6'3" - until I started looking up pictures of him with his Baby Driver director Edgar Wright today in order to wish the latter a happy birthday; Edgar looks like Frodo kneeling before Cate Blanchett in every single one, ha ha. Anyway even though we were not fans of Baby Driver we're staying bullish on this Edgar Wright fellow, given his previous output - we think he's going places. (Like to an animated movie called Shadows? Why is this the first I've heard of this when this news is four years old?) But for now let's look back to previous places and judge his Cornetto Trilogy, just cuz...

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Good Morning, World

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No offense Ansel Elgort but you'd be my third pick to wish a happy birthday today but I shot my wad too soon on birthday boy Jamie Bell yesterday with our post about Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool and there's somehow nothing I haven't posted before for other birthday boy Corey Stoll (although you might want to look back at his stint on Girls now that we're mentioning it) and so it's you, Ansel. Ansel who I still haven't made up my mind on. I didn't like Baby Driver, an anomaly when it comes to Edgar Wright Movies that I don't entirely not blame on your performance. And in the competition between LaGuardia High alums of Mr. Shifman I certainly come out Team Timmy. I guess we''l see what we think of you in that movie you're making with Nicole Kidman and decide then. Until then let's hit the jump for some more of Ansel in last year's November Criminals (and the shelves are a touch in the right direction)...

Good Afternoon, Gratuitous Sebastian Stan

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I should have posted this photo-shoot of Sebastian last week when I posted that shirtless shot of him with his trainer and admitted I hadn't yet seen Black Panther - for those keeping track I still haven't, I lose at the game of life! - but waiting a couple of days allows me to also give us this goofy mustache poll...

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... and who don't love a goofy poll about staches? Nobody, no how! Oh and I found a couple more shirtless shots of Sebastian with his trainer too, so that's a good reason to loop back around. See those and the rest of this photo-shoot plus a few dozen other various recent and not-so-recent shots after the jump...

Jake Puts The Finest in Finest Kind

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Over the weekend news broke about Jake's next project - it's called Finest Kind and... it will have Jake playing brothers with Ansel Elgort? I guess I can sort of see them as brothers. Finest Kind was written and will be directed by Brian Helgeland, whose last movie was Legend, the disappointing "Tom Hardy plays twin gangsters" flick from 2015. Here's how Finest Kind is described:

"... a crime thriller about two brothers who strike a dangerous deal with a crime syndicate that draws them into the Boston underworld. As pressures mount, sacrifices must be made and bonds — between brother and brother and between father and sons — put to the test."

Yes we have all seen that movie a hundred times before, as described there - let's hope this has something to stir the pot. The title's use of "Finest" makes me think they could possibly be playing firefighters? Oh I would love to see Jake in a firefighter uniform. Maybe Jake & Ansel can recreate the shower scene from Backdraft!

Oh any day I can bring up the shower scene from Backdraft is a good, good day. Anyway the movie will also star Zendaya, which means that Jake's totally going to be the old dude on set. Ha! Old man opposite Baby Face Elgort...

Quote of the Day

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I don't know if y'all saw the pictures (I posted one on Twitter but weirdly never posted one here, so there one is above) of Timothée hanging out with Ansel Elgort at a basketball game recently but it turns out they went to LaGuardia Performing Arts High School together (Ansel was one year above Timmy) and had some teachers in common - well Vanity Fair went and talked to their shared Drama teacher, a man named Harry Shifman (side-note: Hey Journalists why haven't you found his "Statistics" teacher Ms. Lawton???) and he tells some great stories about the two of them so the whole thing's worth reading but I liked what he had to say about seeing Call Me By Your Name the most so here's that:

"I thought, my god, that’s pure Timmy. He brought himself to that role, and revealed all the many sides of himself. It was very courageous that he could do that. I was gloriously delighted. I was moved. I was just sobbing in that last shot... You could see how active his mind is. He really goes to those places, even when he doesn’t express exactly where he is, because he has a marvelous ability to play opposite to what he’s experiencing. So you see this inner dynamic pull between what he’s feeling and what he’s willing to reveal that he’s feeling, which, of course, just provokes that emotion in the audience. That’s very sophisticated."

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Good Morning, World

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Have you guys seen the dozen Ansel Elgort pictures that his sister Sophie, a well-established photographer on her own, has uploaded onto her website as a vaguely calendar like series? Ansel for all the seasons! They're pretty adorable... and to tell the truth now that I know he and Timothee Chalamet were classmates at LaGuardia High School here in New York I'm feeling more generous to ol' Ansle then I have been at any time, so let's go with it. 

I gathered up five of my favorite pictures from the thing, including the one up tippy top and the one at the way bottom of this post, and now I shall poll you on your favorite! (Click to embiggen, and if you want to see all the pictures head over to Sophie's site.)

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