Pic of the Day

What a beautiful sight. 

 

Alright Here's an Oscar Post

This happens every year I think, even though I block it out -- it gets to be a few days before the Oscars and they're what my movie people are talking about so I "begrudgingly" do a post about them with some of my wishes or whatever. I rightly got called out for being an exhausting hypocrite when it comes to the Oscars the last time I whined about them -- I've tried to explain the attraction / repulsion thing they bring out of me before but really there's not much to it. It's a part of the movies, love it or hate it, so I just want them to do better if they must, so I can not feel attacked while watching the show in order to indulge my fetish for staring at pretty people wearing pretty clothes. Anyway it's probably clear by now who my favorites are -- I shared my own Top 20 List of 2025 back in January, after all -- but I rattled this off-hand on Bluesky earlier so I might as well share this, my ranking of the Best Picture nominees, here on the site itself:

2026 Best Pictures nominees, as ranked by me!

1. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

2. MARTY SUPREME

3. THE SECRET AGENT

4. BUGONIA

5. SENTIMENTAL VALUE

6. SINNERS

7. FRANKENSTEIN

8. HAMNET

9. TRAIN DREAMS

10. F1

No big surprises there! And it's a better batch of nominees than it is worse, so that's nice -- really any of those Top 6 winning Best Picture wouldn't rankle me. Because of the way awards conversations twist everything into shit I do have to keep reminding myself that for the most part I really like Sinners -- nowhere near how much I like its main competetion for this award (and I think we'll all be shocked if it's not either Sinners or OBAA that wins), and some of its champions have gotten real fucking annoying in the past few weeks. But it's a fun movie full of terrific performances and one for-the-record-books sequence. I get why people love it so much. So let's just enjoy the movies and all of those pretty people wearing pretty clothes for a few hours this weekend! The barn's burning down around us otherwise, might as well. Gimme your rankings in the comments!

My Top 20 Movies of 2025

A decade or so ago I was doing gigantic elaborate awards every year here that showcased my favorite movies, my favorite performances, and on and on and on... then the last decade happened and I'm lucky I can even get out of bed anymore y'all. Who has that kind of stamina anymore? Not I. Not I! So yes these things -- The Golden Trousers, as I've been calling them since 2007 -- have considerably narrowed. Tis what its. But I do feel proud that both last year and this year I'm at least getting these locked in before I dive head-long into fresh Sundance stuff, which basically marks the start of the next year of movies. (Apologies to the first three weeks of January releases every single year but you know what you did.) I'm doing Sundance virtually again this year but that still means that I'll be mostly off-line while I do that, so it's likely there'll be no MNPP for you starting this Wednesday, lasting about a week. And so it's best I get this done immediately, before that happens! Otherwise who knows, it could be months knowing me. So let us brush off these 2025 concerns as I head into the future, with one last glance back toward the past with 20 of '25s gifts and wonders....

My 20 Favorite Movies of 2025

20 -- SIRAT

19 -- AFTER THE HUNT

-- Read my review here! -- 

18 -- LURKER

-- Read my review here! -- 

17 -- PETER HUJAR'S DAY

-- Read my review here! -- 

16 -- WAKE UP DEAD MAN

15 -- THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME

-- Read my review here! -- 

14 -- BLACK BAG

-- Read my review here! -- 

13 -- DUST BUNNY

-- Read my review here! -- 

12 -- THE SECRET AGENT

11 -- MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART 1

10 -- SENTIMENTAL VALUE

9 -- GRIFFIN IN SUMMER

-- Read my review here! -- 

8 -- BUGONIA

-- Read my review here! -- 

7-- THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE

6 -- THE HISTORY OF SOUND

-- Read my review here! -- 

5 -- NO OTHER CHOICE

-- Read my review here! -- 

4 -- PILLION

-- Read my review here! -- 

3 -- PEE-WEE AS HIMSELF

-- Read my review here! -- 

2 -- MARTY SUPREME

-- Read my review here! -- 

1 -- ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

-- Read my review here! -- 

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I have like 20 runners-up but fuck it, 

I'm done. Goodbye forever, 2025! 

Shut Up The Gays Are Talking!

The time has come for the queers to take it away! (When isn't it that time...) The queer critics guild GALECA (of which yours truly is a member) has announced the nominations for our annual Dorian Awards today, and per usual we did good, better, best than most. As ever, because I'm an old crank, I could take issue with some of the people who did get nominated -- I loathe Ethan Hawke's performance in Blue Moon, for instance -- and I could take issue with some of the people who didn't get nominated -- I can't believe we, a group of queer people, didn't have love in our hearts for the best animated movie oif the year by leaps and bounds Boys Go To Jupiter -- but I'll just shut my yap and clap my paws because overall...

... we did very good. A couple of nominations for Pillion! (Even though as I stated earlier today who could be sure which year A24 wants that movie to fall under with their weird release strategy,) A couple of nominations for Hedda, a movie which should be getting much more attention by the big guys -- I can't believe that Tessa Thompson and Nina Hoss probably won't get Oscar nominations whilst steaming crap like the Wicked sequel will. What a world, what a world, indeed. Anyway congrats to all of the nominees (except Ethan Hawke) and if you want to hit the jump I will share our press release with all of the nominations...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Support the Girls (2018)

Lisa: I can take fucking up all day, 

but I can't take not trying.

Eventually I'm going to run out of Support the Girls quotes to quote on the queen Regina Hall's birthday and have to use one from one of her other great performances, but that day is not today thank goodness! Because any day when I can bring up Support the Girls is a good one. I love this movie so fucking much! I love it so much I want to climb on the roof of the nearest gastro-titty-pub and scream it toward the nearest generic freeway! That's how much. Anyway bringing up Regina Hall just now has reminded me that when my alarm went off this morning I was in the middle of having a dream where I was winding through a maze of movie theater hallways desperately trying to get to see this year's best movie One Battle After Another again on the big screen. So that's where I'm at. For real though -- every time I re-watch the movie her performance, which is like 75% quiet reaction shots, digs deeper into my soul. We love you, Queen Regina!

A Few Small Beers

I've made no secret of the fact that Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another is my favorite movie of 2025 -- my review at Pajiba when it hit theaters contained such ecstatic frothing at the mouth somebody shoulda called a kennel. Anyway I've seen it four times in the theater now and will probably try to hit it up at least one more time before it disappears completely (I've got the added advantage of screenings for the awards guilds I'm in, which I've taken full advantage of) but all y'all who didn't make it out to the theater should know that the movie is on VOD now. You can rent it right here. I watched half of it at home last week (via awards screener) and it plays terrific at home too, although I'm sure the year's best scene car chase that caps the movie off won't feel quite so visceral from the sofa. But however you gotta see it, see it. They also announced the physical media release info recently -- the blu-ray and 4K of the film are landing on January 20th, with a limited-edition steelbook of the film coming later in the spring. That later edition will supposedly have a bunch of PTA-crafted special features that the earlier ones won't (hence the delay) but annoyingly it seems like it'll be harder to grab one of those -- it's already sold out on Amazon but some of the botique shops are still selling them for pre-order, like Orbit DVD right here. All that said if you've seen the movie and not shared your opinion with me yet that's what the comments below are for! Next week when I finally see Marty Supreme I'll have seen all of OBAA's main competition for Best Picture (unless the third Avatar movie shatters expectations) and as of right this minute I'm ready to go to war if OBAA doesn't win the top prize as well as Best Director. It's PTA's time dammit. (Jonny Greewnood's too!)

The vinyl for Jonny Greenwood's ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER score is out now!

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) November 14, 2025 at 2:26 PM

Don't You Forget About Bugonia

Yes this review went up last week when the film opened in limited release but now that it's in wide release I thought I'd remind you that you can read my thoughts on Yorgos Lanthimos' latest film Bugonia at this link if you're so inclined. It's another banger from the Dogtooth man and I hope y'all feel the same. I mean you won't change my mind but it would be nice if we didn't have to be all awkward about it around the Thanksgiving turkey when the time comes. Anyway I hope somebody dresses up as Emma Stone in it for Halloween tonight! I was going to say that "I hope I see" somebody dressed up as her but who am I kidding -- I'm not going out. I am going straight home from work and watching a couple of horror movies and going to bed at a reasonable hour like the pile of dust that I am. In related news -- Jerskin Fendrix's score for Bugonia, also a banger, is now available for pre-order on vinyl thanks to Waxwork Records, you can buy that over here. I heftily recommend, it's killer stuff. I mean Jonny Greenwood should still win the Oscar for his One Battle After Another music -- which you can also pre-order right here if you're so inclined -- but Bugonia is my number two score of 2025 as of right this minute. What scores have you loved this year?

A Brief Interlude

Okay well that's that for this nearly full day of "content" -- I'm running back into the warm embrace of NYFF press screenings now. Tomorrow is the Opening Night of the fest with Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt opening things up -- my reviews will probably start dropping next week over at Pajiba. See my preview of what I was most looking forward to right here. As for blogging here I'll be offline all day tomorrow, but I'll be back here Monday afternoon. So have a good weekend and if you're in NYC go see something at NYFF! Here's their site! There's a super-mass of incredible international cinema awaiting you. Otherwise -- go see One Battle After Another! Masterpiece, says me!

One Masterpiece After Another

Being a man of mystery (ha) I don't usually let on to my opinions on movies until I drop my full review of them -- the whole "spit out twenty words on social media the second the screening ends" thing is just not for me. I need to marinate in what I just watched -- especially when it's blown my mind. But this time there was enough of a break between the first time I saw Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another and when the social media embargo broke on it that I'd fully formed my opinion that it's a masterpiece (something a second viewing before I wrote my review only underlined) and so this time I did indeed jump on the "screaming my opinion in a few words on social media" bandwagon, as seen down below. (And that post is in actuality an entire thread so click on to read it all at Bluesky if you care for the Cliff's Notes version of my review.) That said my full on review of the film dropped yesterday -- READ IT HERE. There could still be some surprises down the road with movies I haven't seen yet but to be honest I can't imagine anything knocking OBAA off the top of the year right now. It's astonishing filmmaking from PTA. Urgent, funny, political -- if this is the movie that finally gets him on the Oscar stage I don't think anybody could possibly be angry about that. Well except for Republicans. They'll be angry. But when aren't they angry? Fuck those dirty diaper people.

I don't like doing miniature social media "reviews" when embargoes break but ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER is so mind-blowingly good I'm breaking my own rule - I felt like I was levitating upon leaving the theater. As the end credits came up I almost started whooping "CINEMA FUCK YEAH!" at the screen

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) September 9, 2025 at 10:47 AM

Twas Only a Moment For You

Okay yeah that's it, I'm off to NYFF screenings again. As I said last time I scampered off keep an eye on my socials, you'll be able to find me there (especially Bluesky). By the time I'm back... uhh Thursday morning... I'll have seen new movies by Claire Denis, Richard Linklater, Pietro Marcello, Lucretia Martel, Noah Baumbach, Bi Gan, Luca Guadagnino (!!!!) ... and Alexander Skarsgård's gay leather romance Pillion! I love the movies. Oh and as an aside keep an eye on Pajiba because my review of Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another will also be dropping soon and that -- the movie and my review -- is not something you're gonna wanna miss. Anyway bye til later! And don't forget to celebrate this:

HAPPY 30 TO SHOWGIRLS

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) September 22, 2025 at 9:36 AM

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)

------------------------------

(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)

----------------------------

What movies are y'all most looking forward to?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

No Country For Old Men (2007)

Ed Tom Bell: I was sheriff of this county when I was twenty-five years old. Hard to believe. My grandfather was a lawman; father too. Me and him was sheriffs at the same time; him up in Plano and me out here. I think he's pretty proud of that. I know I was. Some of the old time sheriffs never even wore a gun. A lotta folks find that hard to believe. Jim Scarborough'd never carried one; that's the younger Jim. Gaston Boykins wouldn't wear one up in Comanche County. I always liked to hear about the oldtimers. Never missed a chance to do so. You can't help but compare yourself against the oldtimers. Can't help but wonder how they would have operated these times. There was this boy I sent to the 'lectric chair at Huntsville Hill here a while back. My arrest and my testimony. He killt a fourteen-year-old girl. Papers said it was a crime of passion but he told me there wasn't any passion to it. Told me that he'd been planning to kill somebody for about as long as he could remember. Said that if they turned him out he'd do it again. Said he knew he was going to hell. "Be there in about fifteen minutes". I don't know what to make of that. I sure don't. The crime you see now, it's hard to even take its measure. It's not that I'm afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job. But, I don't want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don't understand. A man would have to put his soul at hazard. He'd have to say, "O.K., I'll be part of this world."

A wise movie knows that you give Tommy Lee Jones a monologue to deliver and then you just sit back and listen to Tommy Lee Jones deliver it, and No Country For Old Men is a wise movie, perhaps the wisest, because it does this twice -- at start and at finish. I was torn between which speech to quote honestly -- I do love his retelling of his dreams that closes the film -- but the above one, from the film's opening, just feels a little too meaningful to this moment in time not to highlight it here on the day that Criterion has blessed us with the Oscar-winner on 4K blu. 

Anyway I do remain of the mind that Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood is the number one movie of 2007, but this masterpiece from the Coens' is just a trifle behind it in my humble -- and I was a bit shocked when I looked back at my 2007 Top Ten list because NCFOM isn't on it at all! (Funny sidenote: 2007 is the first time I tried posting a Top 10 and other assorted year-end awards and it's amusing, in a semi-mortifying way, to look back at that link to see the state of my still relatively early blogging efforts. Phew. We've come a long way baby.) Then I noticed that I do give a note there why it's not included -- I wanted to see it a second time before deciding where I came down on it. Well I've seen it ten more times by now and baby, it's second. Which one tops for you?

online polls

Punch-Drunk Druggies Cross Delancey

Criterion Announcement Day sneaked up on us again -- and it was technically three days ago! They're late even and I didn't notice. Gosh it's almost like there are distracting things happening in the world? Well let's not focus on those, and instead focus on the movies that Criterion is releasing onto 4K blu-ray this upcoming February of the year 2025... yeah we're especially going to need some distractions right then I wager. Argh. Anyway! Criterion! First up is Gus Van Sant's 1989 druggie drama Drugstore Cowboy starring a very pretty Matt Dillon alongside Kelly Lynch, Heather Graham, and James Le Gros. Oh and William S. Burroughs! He's in this too. I haven't seen this movie in a very very long time (like at least twenty years) so it's definitely due a revisit -- I have a feeling I'll have grown to appreciate it more because I was never that much of a fan but it feels like a movie I'll get more now than I did when I was younger. 

Next up we have a pair of movies I've never seen -- Jean-Luc Godard's King Lear from 1987 starring Peter Sellers and Molly Ringwald (wtf) and Joan Macklin Silver's 1988 romance Crossing Delancey with  Amy Irving torn between two fellas in late-80s Manhattan. The Godard sounds bonkers; the JMS sounds sweet and perfect for a Saturday afternoon, and I am excited to watch them both. 

Then we've got three more movies (big month, February) which I have seen before -- there's Nicolas Roeg's brilliant 1970 film Performance with  James Fox and Mick Jagger, there's Guillermo Del Toro's first film Cronos getting a 4K upgrade, and there's Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love also doing the same. Love all three of those -- PDL was my favorite PTA movie for a long time but I can safely say that Phantom Thread has replaced it now. But I also haven't re-watched it in several years since every time I do think about it I think about how it shreds my nerves and I move on to another movie since whose nerves have needed extra shredding lately? Certainly not mine!