Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Take This Waltz (2011)

Margot: Sometimes I'm... walking along the street and a shaft of sunlight falls in a certain way across the pavement and I just wanna cry. And then a second later, it's over. I decide because I'm an adult, to not succumb to the momentary melancholy.

A happy birthday to the great Michelle Williams today. I've been thinking this movie's demanding a re-watch -- I haven't seen it since it came out. I also need to watch MW's series Dying For Sex though -- have any of you watched that yet? I've only heard brilliant things but then, it's Michelle Williams. All there are are brilliant things. 

A Place in Andy

I wanted to like Chloe Domont's 2023 movie Fair Play a lot because it was sold as an erotic thriller starring Alden Ehrenreich and who doesn't want that? But I ended up being pretty meh on the movie in the end, finding it neither erotic nor thrilling. It was a load of straight nonsense. But that's not stopping me from being excited about Domont's next movie because how can I not be when it stars Michelle Williams, Andrew Scott, and Daisy Edgar-Jones? It's titled A Place in Hell and Neon just picked up the rights for it -- it's already been filmed and they're calling it a “thriller following two women at a high-profile criminal law firm.” Not sure where our man Andy fits into that dynamic but I hope it involves a lack of sleeves. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Cassie: I don't get you, Ennis del Mar.

Ennis: I'm sorry. Was probably no fun anyway, was I?

Cassie: Ennis, girls don't fall in love with fun!

Pretty sure that every gay man who's been closeted for any portion of their life has had some variation on this exact conversation with a girl who had a crush on them -- I remember a couple from high school and oof, those memories are excriutiating. My sincerest apologies to all of those women today. It's a fuck-ton of a situation. 

Anyway that scene is just one of many scenes in Brokeback (every single scene actually) that rings painfully true. And it seems kismet to me that I highlight it today since it's Linda Cardellini's 50th (!!!) birthday today and I was just talking (see below) about what a stunning performance she gives in her handful of scenes in this film the other day, when I saw this on the big screen over the weekend for its 20th anniversary. (There's an entire thread at Bluesky surrounding the below post, if you're so inclined.) 

Also justice for Linda Cardellini who never gets talked about giving one of the great performances in this movie but surely does

[image or embed]

— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) June 21, 2025 at 7:23 PM

Anyway the movie still stuns but I felt downright lousy I'd forgotten Cardellini's wonderful work entirely since the last time I watched the movie (which was probably about a decade ago -- it's hard to re-watch! It hurts!) -- the main foursome's turns just all loom so large. Or if I start thinking about smaller roles I wander off thinking about Jake & David Harbour eye-fucking each other as Anna Faris hilariously blathers on. Good goddamn the sexual tension in that scene is still off the charts...

Brokeback Mounts a 4K Edition

We are inexplicably roaring toward the 20th anniversary of Brokeback Mountain next year and just in time to celebrate the film is getting remastered for top-shelf 4K sadness by the wonderful folks over at Kino Lorber -- click here to pre-order the disc, which is out on June 25th. I started this here website in 2005, just a few months before Brokeback came out, and I can sort of credit that movie with starting my "career" (such as it is) since writing about it was how I started making contacts and friends and gaining readers here on the internet. Hard to believe it's almost been two decades of this nonsense! But at least when movies like Brokeback or Call Me By Your Name come along they inspire me to maybe be a little less nonsensical and share something genuine with y'all. Awwww, feelings! G'bless. I haven't watched Brokeback since... well since they last screened it at FLC, I think in 2017? Honestly seeing it on the big screen is such an overwhelming experience and it'd lost none of its power -- it's not a movie I can watch often but I can't imagine this new 4K restoration won't make the big-screen rounds and I expect to be sitting there with my moist tissues all over again. 

Quote of the Day

"Back then, [‘Brokeback Mountain’] had a ceiling. We got a lot of support — up to that much... It has that feeling. I wasn’t holding a grudge or anything. It’s just how they were."

For some reason today IndieWire chatted with Ang Lee about Brokeback's bullshit Oscar loss for Best Picture to a piece of shit in 2005 -- the 20th anniversary's not til next year, guys! -- and he nails the fact that in 2005 they still weren't gonna go that gay yet. Look at all the LGBT actors who've won since then... crickets... anyway at the link he also tells a devastating story (which he laughs about now) about how a stage-hand kept him backstage after winning Best Director because everybody was assuming he was about to head right on back out for the Best Picture statue... SIGH. He might be able to laugh about it now but I am still coping.

Jake is Prime Beef

Oooh okay it's a "two Jake Gyllenhaal posts in a row" kinda day -- I can roll with that, even if it's a Monday. If we can redefine "a case of the Mondays" to mean "non-stop Jake day" then we'll have fixed the world. Anyway I am sure y'all recall that GQ Korea photo-shoot of Jake that I shared last week -- well they posted a video of the shoot over the weekend and unlike this morning when I skimped on making gifs for Aaron Taylor-Johnson, I did not skimp on the gifs this afternoon with Jake. 

It's a gif-o-rama! But gifs are not the entire reason we're here -- there is Jake News too! Well a rumor anyway, but a killer rumor we're hoping comes true. Deadline's reporting that the second season of Beef -- the show that starred Steven Yeun and Ali Wong and just spent all awards season racking up the awards -- is going to be about two warring couples, and those couples might be played by Charles Melton & Cailee Spaeny (so excellent in Priscilla) and... drumroll please... Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway!

Brokeback reunion y'all! And that's before we even get to the "Jake Gyllenhaal warring with Charles Melton" sexiness apocalypse. Funny enough I was just thinking about Jake in relation to his Brokeback cast-mates a few days ago -- specifically I was thinking I wish he'd do something with Michelle Williams again.  I feel like I haven't seen the two of them in each other's company in a long time and was worried there's a rift (as much as I can or should worry about total strangers anyway). He is the godfather to Michelle & Heath's daughter Matilda though. Maybe they just keep their shit private, and more power to them if that's the case! I just miss my Jack Nasty s'all.

Anyway Jake & Anne have of course worked together since Brokeback -- perhaps I should have called this a "Love & Other Drugs reunion"! Now there's a forgotten movie. Which is a shame because Jake is fucking fire in that -- see some memorable photos of said fire here. It's an under-appreciated movie though, and Jake & Anne obviously have wonderful chemistry, and I adore this Beef rumor. Let's make it happen. And let's pretend that we can will it into being by hitting the jump and saying a prayer to the streaming gods right now over all of my beautiful Jake gifs...

Showing Up is Showing Up

There is the lovely poster for Kelly Reichardt's new movie Showing Up, which reunites her with muse (can we still use the word "muse"? Even if it's two women?) Michelle Williams. I saw this movie at NYFF and reviewed it over at The Film Experience -- it's glorious and wonderful and I have thought of it a dozen times since then. Maybe we'll get a trailer soon? It still doesn't have a release date that I'm aware of but they'd be smart to drop this during Michelle's Oscars run for The Fabelmans because she's even better in this and that will strengthen her case.

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!)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams)

Four From NYFF

A slew of my first reviews out of the New York Film Festival hit the 'net yesterday whilst I was in more press screenings of New York Film Festival movies all day long so I can write more reviews -- the film fest cycle is really something y'a.. Anyway I haven't been able to link to all of these reviews properly yet -- unless you keep track of my Rotten Tomatoes page -- so let's do that! First up here at Pajiba is my review of the fest's Opening Night film, Noah Baumbach's White Noise, starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig in an adaptation of Don DeLillo's "unadaptable" 1985 novel. I was a bit dazed when I walked out of this one but by the time I sat down to write about it my opinion had cemented better than I anticipated.

Next up here at The Film Experience is my review of the surgery documentary De Humani Corporis Fabrica from the duo filmmakers behind Leviathan. This movie got a lot of understandable walk-outs as it's filled with microscopic close-ups of real live human bodies being dissected and smashed and probed and everything you can imagine, but I found it hypnotic and contemplative and fascinating. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

Thirdly I will send you over to my review of Kelly Reichardt's triumphant reunion with muse Michelle Williams in the art-world observational Showing Up, which you can read right here again at The Film Experience. As I said on Twitter...

I just wanna live in the world the way Kelly Reichardt sees the world

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) September 27, 2022

I cannot overstate how much I love watching Kelly Reichardt movies, I really can't. Anyway lastly for today is another fantastic outing -- although this one far more cutting than anything Kelly Reichardt would ever, could ever, attempt -- here is my review at Pajiba of Todd Field's Tár starring a maybe never better Cate Blanchett. The rumors are true! She's astonishing in this. Given what she's gifted us with in the past it seems crazy to be contemplating a new peak, but here we are.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Synecdoche New York (2008)

Claire: Knowing that you don't know is the first

and most essential step to knowing, you know?

(This movie is getting a 4K release in November, whoo!)
A very happy 42 to the great Michelle Williams today!

I ask this question knowing very few people have seen

the movie yet (it screens this weekend at TIFF)
but do we think she might finally win an Oscar for
her role as "Sorta Spielberg's Mom" in The Fabelmans?

Speaking of here's the poster they just dropped this week:

10 Off My Head: NYFF's 60th Main Slate!

As I sit here swampy and miserable from the relentless August sun there's one bright light that's not making me shield my eyes out of exhausted horror -- the New York Film Festival has today announced their full Main Slate of movies and man oh man am I excited! And it's not just because when I think of NYFF I think of myself comfortably wearing sweaters in the autumnal cool of late September, but that don't hurt. It's also because once again this fest is offering up the auteurs I come for -- this fall is promising to be a great one for us movie-lovers and NYFF makes it a one-stop-shop every damn time. 

I'll share the full press release down below, but first I'm going to highlight the ten titles from the Main Slate that leapt right off the page at me. Please note I am not including here the four gala films, which were announced earlier this month -- those are Noah Baumbach's White Noise is the Opening Night film; Laura Poitras’s doc All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (telling the dueling tales of photographer Nan Goldin and the billionaire family Sacklers prescription drug empire) is the Centerpiece film; Closing Night goes to Elegance Bratton's film about queer soldiers called The Inspection (see my previous posts about that right here); and finally there will be a special screening of James Gray's coming-of-age drama Armageddon Time. I am going to focus on just the Main Slate titles for this list.

My Most Anticipated 10 From NYFF60's Main Slate

Decision To Leave (dir. Park Chan-wook) -- I have been posting about this movie for two full years now, ever since the first whisper of it weaved its way through rando corners the internet; I shared the first trailer right here. Sounding like a Noir only shot in vivid color it's about an inspector falling for the wife of a murdered man (played by Lust Caution's great Tang Wei). Anyway Park is a Top 5 Living Filmmaker for me so this one's The Event of the fest from where I stand. This is PCW's first movie since The Handmaiden six years back, for god's sake! I am thirsty!

The Eternal Daughter (dir. Joanna Hogg) -- I liked Hogg's Souvenir sequel better than I liked the first one, but I'm glad she's making something else this time, and a lead role for Tilda Swinton will do the trick just fine, thank you. 

Pacifiction (dir. Albert Serra) -- I'm not an expert on Serra's filmography, having still only seen Liberté, his last film, at NYFF three years back. But when i think about memorable viewing experiences at NYFF the first one that comes to mind is Liberté, which they screened for press at nine in the morning and which consists mainly of an excruciatingly drawn-out and grotesque orgy in the woods astride 17th century royal France. It stunned me in a way that was often repugnant and a week hasn't passed since where it hasn't popped into my head. (Here is my review, by the way.) Anyway this new movie stars Benoît Magimel (best known here in the US as the hockey player that Isabelle Huppert's obsessed with in The Piano Teacher) in a "gripping, atmospheric thriller" about a French bureaucrat visiting a Polynesian island that includes "a resort that caters to the prurient exoticism of foreign tourists" and yeah, this sounds like the stuff.  

Stars At Noon (dir. Claire Denis) -- I posted about this one before when it was supposed to reunite Denis with her beloved vampire boyfriend Robert Pattinson; Rob dropped out because of Bat-related responsibilities and Joe Alwyn took over the role instead. Margaret Qualley stars opposite him -- it's an erotic political thriller or something of the sort, that's set in Nicaragua? I'm picturing Denis' version of The Year of Living Dangerously, basically.

Master Gardener (dir. Paul Schrader) -- Speaking of Sigourney Weaver movies, we have ourselves a Sigourney Weaver movie! I personally consider Paul Schrader more hit-and-miss than most critics and film fans seem to but there's no denying he's a writer and a director with a vision and a voice and it feels like it's been ages since Sigourney had a real proper leading role with one of those. That said I don't know if she is a leading role actually -- she plays the owner of a fancy estate garden which is kept up by Joel Edgerton's character, and he's one of Schrader's patented "dude with a troubled past come back to haunt him" types. But let's hope Schrader feels like reminding us what Siggy's capable of!

R.M.N. (dir. Cristian Mungiu) -- Anyone who's seen 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days knows that Mungiu is obviously a great director, but I'm in this one for the plot, which is about a rural Transylvanian butcher whose wife goes mute after witnessing something horrible in the woods. I don't think it's going to be quite as horror-themed as that sounds, but it's the closest one in NYFF's line-up to horror! 

Showing Up (dir. Kelly Reichardt) -- Kelly Reichardt has never made a not great movie, full stop. And this is his first movie since her greatest movie First Cow came out in 2019. Not only that it reunites her with her favorite star actress Michelle Williams! There is no "no" here. Michelle's playing a sculptor in Portland; Hong Chao her landlord. Plot-wise it all sounds lighter than usual, but it will inevitably crack open out hearts and smash them into a million billion pieces because that's what these women do.

Scarlet (dir. Pietro Marcello) -- Per usual most of my reasons for seeing these movies are based on "I like the director's past work" and Marcello's last movie was the great great great Martin Eden -- consider me sold. And this is a French fable co-starring Louis Garrel! Consider me double!

TÁR (dir. Todd Field) -- Field hasn't made a movie since Little Children in 2006, which is totally and entirely inexplicable. But I suppose he only made one movie before that, the indelible In the Bedroom in 2001, so we don't know him well enough to know what's explicable really. All those two movies show is he's a director who should be directing more movies. This one is a big return though, starring Cate Blanchett as an orchestra conductor who loses her shit.

Triangle of Sadness (dir. Ruben Östlund) -- I shared the trailer for this movie just a few hours ago! Watch it here! Harris Dickinson is a male model on Woody Harrelson's super-yacht, cue depraved social commentary. I'm a big Östlund fan and this one seems as tailored to my specifications as The Square was a few years back.

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

The New York Film Fest runs this year from September 30th to October 16th, and you can expect lots of coverage from your truly here and on other websites, as I have been doing for something like a full decade now? I should go check and see which NYFF was my first press-accredited one. I've been going since I moved to NYC twenty-plus years ago of course, but I think I've only been official press for about a decade? Anyway it's my hometown beloved, and I can't wait. Now you may hit the jump for the full press release with the full Main Slate...

Now Alessandro's Giving Us Fever

Here is some fantastic news for this here Monday afternoon -- our boy Alessandro Nivola is in talks to star opposite Michelle Williams in Todd Haynes' upcoming biopic of the singer Peggy Lee! The movie is called Fever (we posted about it previously of course) but Deadline has this fresh Nivola-fied word, which is that he will play Dave Barbour, Lee's first husband (out of four total) and an accomplished guitarist on his own. Here is a photo of the real man:

Ever since Alessandro beautifully sang in the 2005 film Junebug I've been wanting him in a proper musical (he almost did once, although that movie seems to have fallen off) and this might not be that exactly but it's close enough -- who knows what an imagination-drunk iconoclast like Haynes will do with this material, after all? Well besides make Nivola look really good. Like, really really good. And that's a damn gift in and of itself. We deserve this!

Hail A Hardy

Thanks to the heaps and piles of everything else I have going on I didn't get to see the Venom sequel in order to review it, and so I have no personal opinion to share yet. But I can't imagine if I did see it and review I'd have come up with anything more fun than my pal Kristy did at Mashable, where she calls the character "our plague prince of crime," so go read that if you're looking for Venom 2 thoughts, I recommend. I'll see it eventually (probably on streaming at this point) but I have high hopes for a dumb fun thing. And if nothing else, Tom Hardy. I mean... fucking look at him. (pic via)

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Halloween: H20 (1998)

Laurie Strode: Molly please, do you have

any thoughts on Victor and Elizabeth?

Molly: Well, um, well I think that Victor should

have confronted the monster sooner. He's completely

responsible for Elizabeth's death because he was so

paralyzed by fear that he never did anything.

It took death for the guy to get a clue.

Laurie Strode: And why do you think he was

finally able to confront his monster?

Molly: I think that Victor had reached a point in his life 

where he had nothing left to lose. I mean the monster 

sought to that by killing off everybody that he loved. 

Victor finally had to face it. It was about redemption

... it was his fate.

One, it's Michelle Williams' birthday today, and two, I am actively avoiding any and everything regarding the screening of the new Halloween film (Halloween Kills, aka Halloween Bangs) in Venice yesterday, so why not distract ourselves with this look back at the original "Laurie Strode came back to fight her dumb brother and only got a decapitation in its sequel for her efforts" joint. (PS I am not saying I know whether she lives or dies in the new movie -- as I just said I am avoiding everything about it.) 

Anyway in H20 Laurie Strode has become an alcoholic English teacher and in a fun if thuddingly obvious throwback to the original film -- where Laurie's seen sitting in English class prattling on about "fate" in whatever book it was she was reading -- we have this "Molly" character of Michelle's spelling out the plot of the film they're currently in, via a discussion of Frankenstein. "Fate" echoes through the decades, Laurie Strode! We'll have to keep our ears peeled for mentions of this sort of thing in the new film, but I have absolutely no doubt it'll be there. And we probably won't have to strain too hard for it, either. In summation...

... Josh Hartnett in this movie.

That's all. Just Josh.

Ungodly Good

I'm not usually a big fan of using red carpet photos here on the site but I will make an exception for the above photo of actor Luke Kirby at the premiere of his new flick No Man of God at Tribeca because... well he looks real good in it, for one. And for another they haven't dropped very many photos of him in No Man of God yet, which sees him playing the serial killer Ted Bundy, probably because they want to save the reveal for how fucking uncanny he is in the film for closer to its actual release. I'll admit I haven't kept up with Kirby's career since he was terrific (and hot) in Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz way way back in 2012...

... but my boyfriend immediately recognized him as Lenny Bruce on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel; I haven't watched that program. Anyway I was in no way prepared for how strong his work here is, opposite an also-very-good Elijah Wood as the FBI profiler tasked with getting Bundy's confessions before he hits the electric chair. But I get into all of that in my review of the film which is now on Pajiba -- click on over to check it out. This is one to definitely keep an eyeball out for -- I actually think one of the shots of the year is contained in its midsection, but I won't get into that before more people have the chance to see it themselves...

Ya Gimme Fever

Big day, huge day, for us homosexuals -- not only is Pedro Almodovar reuniting with his perfect muse Penelope Cruz for a new movie in March, but the director Todd Haynes has just announced he's next making a bio-pic of the singer Peggy Lee that will star Michelle Williams! I'll admit that I don't know a ton about Lee besides being familiar with some of her music -- somebody in the comments tell me about her life, what's interesting enough about it for a bio-pic, that'll be much more fun than me going to read her Wikipedia page! I'm basically just excited because Todd Haynes + Michelle Williams! Making a period film! That's plenty, people.

Michelle Gonna Knock Us Out (Again)

A lovely little bit of movie-nerd news this Tuesday morning, as comes word that the actress (and queen) Michelle Williams will be re-teaming with the director (and queen) Kelly Reichardt for a new film! In their fourth collaboration together the two -- and we should've come up with a couple name for them by now... Reichiams? Willihardt? Melly? -- will be gifting us with a movie titled Showing Up, described thus:

"Reichardt’s latest film is a vibrant and sharply funny portrait of an artist on the verge of a career-changing exhibition. As she navigates family, friends, and colleagues in the lead up to her show, the chaos of life becomes the inspiration for great art."

No word on when this will be happening, but then there is no word on when anything, anything at all for anybody, will be happening, so we should just continue sitting in our rooms staring at the walls and today maybe dream a little about this movie happening somewhere eventually, down the road. That's called optimism! You should try it!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Jack Twist: Ya know it could be 

like this, just like this always.

Fifteen years ago today Ang Lee's masterpiece Brokeback Mountain had its limited opening here in New York -- you know for awards and such, which is a subject we dare not tread towards lest we go on a rampage. That aside this movie still means more to me than I could ever express, no matter how many years they give me to crow about it. Before Call Me By Your Name came around Brokeback was the movie I'd written the most on -- here is my original review at this link, which isn't the greatest; I've gotten better at this reviewing thing in the past 15 years I think. But it's passionate. As the film opened the same year I started this here website my writing about that film still made me a lot of the online friends I still have til this day, and for that I'll forever be grateful. Not just friends, but readers -- people started really coming around here because of how passionate I was, y'all were, about this movie. And for that, outside of how perfect a movie it is, I am thankful. 

But perfect it is and perfect it remains -- I really considered re-watching Brokeback this week for its anniversary but the last time I watched the film, when Film Society here in New York screened it on my favorite screen in the city, was so overwhelming to me -- it destroyed me emotionally once again -- I just couldn't muster the emotional wherewithal for it right now. 2020's been a lot of year! I am not strong, emotionally speaking -- I think y'all understand. I just don't have a Brokeback re-watch in me right this moment. But, just judging off of that last watch, the film has kept all of the power it had 15 years back, which makes me happy -- I worried its humble take on the closet of yore might feel dated, but the movie is so small and earnest and well-acted and beautifully shot and movingly scored that it remains a goddamned powerhouse. We'll always have Brokeback.

5 Off My Head: What's Good For the Gosling

Old Man Ryan Gosling is turning 40 today, and I suppose that calls for an assessment of the state of the Gosling. The past few years have felt sort of quiet, haven't they? He's only had one film -- the very fine First Man -- come out since 2017. He's supposedly been off enjoying being a big papa, and good for him, I say. Anybody's lucky to call Ryan Gosling "Daddy" I say. 

But that quietude's about to howl its hairy ass off because as we told you in June he's lined up his next thing and it's a re-do of The Wolfman, with recent Invisible Man re-do director Leigh Whannell again taking a silver-plated stab at updating a dusty Univeral Monster property. We wish all of that well! Especially if they go the American Werewolf route and Ryan does lots of running around in the altogether. Stamp of approval, that. Anyway as we did for his Blue Valentine co-star Michelle Williams when she turned forty two months back we will now list for you, our beloved readership, our favorite performances of Mr. Gosling, for you to yay or nay all over.

My 5 Favorite Ryan Gosling Performances

Dean, Blue Valentine

Luke, The Place Beyond the Pines

Driver, Drive

Lars, Lars and the Real Girl

Dan, Half Nelson

Runners-up: The Believer, The Notebook, Crazy Sexy Love, 

All Good Things, Murder By Numbers, First Man

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

What are your favorite Ryan Gosling performances?

5 Off My Head: Michelle At 40

While we sit on both of our thumbs and impatiently wait for the tremendously exciting new adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's Scene From a Marriage that will star Michelle Williams and Oscar Isaac we might as well give our thumbs a momentary break from, you know, sitting upon, and use them  to wish the great and powerful Michelle an extremely happy 40th birthday today! She's been knocking our socks off and our thumbs out of places for a full two decades now, but as much good work as she's gotten across in that stretch of time I think it's not totally nuts to say she might be at the height of her powers right this minute, judging by the career-best work she just did on TV with Fosse/Verdon -- I cannot wait to see what her next spin for TV, with that Bergman joint, turns out. On that note, here are my faves...

My 5 Favorite Michelle Williams Performances

Gwen Verdon, Fosse/Verdon (2019)

"Maybe I should find a lover, too, then. 

How about that?"

Alma, Brokeback Mountain (2005)

"Jack Nasty! You didn't go up there to fish!"

Cindy, Blue Valentine (2010)

"I'm so out of love with you. I've got nothing left for you,

nothing, nothing. Nothing, there is nothing here for you."

Wendy, Wendy and Lucy (2008)

"I'm not from around here. I can't be an example."

Arlene, Dick (1999)

"Dick frightens me!"

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

And some runners-up because this list could have been twice as long without me breaking a sweat: Synecdoche New York, My Week With Marilyn, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Certain Women, Take This Waltz, Meek's Cutoff, and her speech at the Golden Globes last year

What are your favorite Michelle performances?