Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Poetic Justice (1993)

Iesha: Why you don't ever wanna have no fun no more?

Justice: Please.

Iesha: Girl, don't you know the world is just 

a big place for us to go out and fuck up in it.

I'm not posting a quote from this movie starring Janet Jackson right now because Janet had the common sense and decency to say "fuck no" about being in that gross bio-pic of her brother that just made a shit-ton of money this past weekend -- it's just good timing like that. I am posting this quote because Criterion just dropped their box-set of John Singleton's "Hood Trilogy" today -- besides Poetic Justice it includes 1991's Boyz n the Hood and 2001's Baby Boy, the latter which I've still somehow never seen! But speaking for the other two this set is long-awaited and a very welcome addition to my collection. All that said -- there are so many great little Regina King performances out there waiting to be re-appreciated! I've loved her since forever -- seeing her win that Oscar for Beale Street was one of those far and few between legit triumphant times where AMPAS did the right thing. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Bring Her Back (2025)

Laura: Respect my fucking privacy.

I still kind of can't believe that there was absolutely no awards buzz for Sally Hawkins' work in Bring Her Back last year -- I guess there could have been conufsion on whether her role was Lead or Supporting? I'd personally call it a Lead -- and I'd say she deserved a nomination more than half the people who did get nominated for that statue, too. Hell I liked Hawkins' work more than I liked Buckley's steamrolling performance in Hamnet, even -- as a person who generally loves Buckley I found her work in that movie overwrought; I found Mescal more moving. But I guess there are similarities between Hawkins and Buckley's characters that I hadn't even considered until now, and perhaps they're the reason Hawkins gained no footing with precursors -- both characters are after all women lashing out in grief after the death of a child. Hawkins' work is the only one that, to me, felt truly surprising though. Not to get lost in old Oscar talk! JFC who cares! So anyway! Sally Hawkins is 50 today! She's a gem and I'm so happy we have her. The movies are 75% more interesting with her running around. 

Today's Mood

Still can't believe how subversive the video for Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" remains here at 32 years old (!!!) -- a rock god presenting himself as both a fetishized sexual object and a submissive all at once? How often have we seen this in the years since? Bless you, Trent, you foundational pervert. Anyway! Today's a big day for NIN fans as their highly anticipated new record of remixes with Boys Noize, smartly titled Nine Inch Noize, has dropped -- I didn't get to see them on tour this past year where they've been playing these bangers so this is the closest I will get to them. No physical release of the album just yet but fingers and toes and leather whips all crossed in knots that'll happen eventually. (Says the man still waiting for Trent to drop the Bones and All vinyl, sigh.) But maybe it's for the best that this record didn't drop today as I just spent a grotesque amount of money on...

... a scorpion-filled version of the soundtrack for Lee Cronin's The Mummy movie over at Waxwork. (Seeing as how it's already sold out I have a feeling this will be a good investment though.) Oh and I also bought the below gorgeous poster for Steven Soderbergh's film The Christophers via Neon's store, because look at her! She's gorgeous. Oh and this movie P.S. is terrific -- it's a really low-key performance but I would love it if we could manage to maintain some Oscar buzz for Sir Ian until next spring since he's so fucking overdue and he's genuinely wonderful in this movie. I doubt it will happen since it's not a super showy role but I still really want him to be the first out gay actor to get one of those stupid statues. It just feels right. 

Mike Mills Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Earlier today what I am still calling a "rumor" broke that Criterion will be releasing Alexander Payne's first and still best movie the 1996 abortion satire Citizen Ruth on 4K soon -- I thought that might come officially with their announcement for July's releases, which I knew would be landing today since it's the 15th of the month... but no. It did not. Maybe next month. We do have the slate of their July releases though and there's no reason to be disappointed -- this is a slam dunk of a month! Starting with a box-set that I literally squealed at the sight of -- on July 28th they're dropping "I'll Remind You of Everything: The Films of Mike Mills", a three-film 4K set that includes Beginners, 20th Century Women, and C'mon C'mon, which are as far as I'm concerned every single one masterpieces. (Here is my review of the latter.) None more than 20th Century Women, which is truly one of the greatest films of... well it feels like the millennium is the marker we're measuring things by now and it's that, but as far as I'm concerned it's one of the greatest films of all time, period. When I think about how Annette Bening wasn't even nominated for Best Actress, much less didn't deservedly win for the greatest performance of her career, I get hives. So let's move on...

... which is easy enough given this slate! How about a double-feature of Martin Scorsese's 1974 masterpiece Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore starring Ellen Burstyn (aka the finest tipped spear through the argument that Marty doesn't know what to do with women characters) alongside Paul Newman's greatest performance in 1963's Hud from director Martin Ritt? I somehow only saw Hud for the first time in the past decade and it's a stunner of a film. Stunning to look at -- and I don't just mean Paul Newman in those jeans...

... although I don't not mean that either -- and stunning emotionally. Newman and Patricia Neal are just absolute fire in this. And of course both of these will be the first time these classics will be on 4K -- if I stopped there July would already be a month for the record books from Criterion. But I ain't! I ain't stopping there. They've also got Neil Jordan's The Crying Game hitting 4K for the first time on July 14th! This movie really got done dirty by the press and comedians at the time, with its focus on  Jaye Davidson's genitals -- this movie is so much richer than the way its title has become synonymous with unexpected trans revelations. It's truly a great film. 

Now we come to the one film of their July's releases that I haven't seen -- Nagisa Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth from 1960, which stars Miyuki Kuwano & Yusuke Kawazu as a pair of sexy teenage criminals on the run... and yes it sounds very Bonnie & Clyde slash Badlands coded, although it came out first, one should note. Criterion's description of it as a film "bursting with vivid color, this visually scintillating, furiously nihilistic film howls with rage" sold me. 1960s era Japanese films that are described as colorful always end up being my bag -- the pop look of these films is very much my wavelength. Anybody seen this one? Moving along to the last two titles -- Hlynur Pálmason's 2025 feature The Love That Remains is getting its disc debut (I saw it last year and it is very good!) while David Lynch's masterpiece (how many times have I used that word in this post??) The Elephant Man, the blu-ray of which has been out of print for awhile now and going for enormous prices, is getting the 4K upgrade treatment on July 7th. Much needed! WHAT A MONTH!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Bugonia (2025)

Teddy: We're just leveling the playing field.

It's not torture. Torture is what it's done to us.

I know that Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugonia got four Oscar nominations -- including one for Best Picture -- but I still feel as if this movie walked out of 2025 somewhat underappreciated. Nobody really thought it was actually going to win any of those awards, after all. I think it's just that Yorgos has proven so consistently excellent and interesting and provocative that he's become a victim of his own awesomeness. Even if I, a person who put Bugonia at #8 on my favorite films of last year, were to rank his films, Bugonia would end up somewhere mid-tier. But that's all just a matter of infintesimal degrees because I am a hossana-singer for every damn one of them. And Bugonia's goddamned great. In fact, you know what, I might re-watch Bugonia this very evening in order to celebrate the birth of the great Jesse Plemons, which coincidentally is also the reason for this post. See -- I told you Bugonia was under-appreciated, because the great Jesse Plemons didn't deservedly get nominated for Best Actor for it. Four noms shoulda been five dammit! In summation go watch Bugonia yourselves and try to tell me I'm not correct on all of this. And then go buy the vinyl of Jerskin Fendrix's score too. That banger was second only to Jonny Greenwood's One Battle After Another music, if you ask me! We might not be lucky in much these days but we're lucky to have Yorgos making movies!   

And the BUGONIA vinyl from @waxworkrecords.bsky.social too! I say “Jerskin” you say “Fendrix” - JERSKIN!

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 31, 2026 at 9:03 PM

Good Morning, World

I know it's kinda weird that I have done two Michael B. Jordan posts this week after he beat my boy Timmy at the Oscars on Sunday but the first one saw me being magnaminous while this one... this one's much more basic in its naked thirst. This one's just me seeing a photo from 2015 before the first Creed movie came out, a photo that I'd somehow never seen until yesterday,  and which I feel deserves its place here in the hallowed gratuitous archives of MNPP. Don't you agree?

Good Morning, World

I'm sure Wagner Moura's career is going to get a great big boost from this past awards season where he was deservedly nominated for his ace turn in The Secret Agent. (How incredibly handsome did he look at the Oscars this past weekend when he was presenting and he put on those glasses? I swooned.) He's already got seven titles in his "upcoming" projects including a remake of Abbas Kiarostami's masterpiece Taste of Cherry (from the director of Jauja!) and a Star Wars project (of course) -- I'm sure much-deserved bigger projects are in the works though. I'd love to see him reunite with Secret Agent director Kleber Mendonça Filho again. That said -- I've never yet watched Narcos, the show where he played drug kingpin Pablo Escabar seen above, and... that picture is making me think I really should watch Narcos. There's also the Boyd Holbrook and Pedro Pascal of it. Hrm. Thoughts? Also if you wanna give me your answers for a Narcos-themed "Do Dump or Marry?" in the comments, those three are ready and willing...

Pic of the Day

What a beautiful sight. 

 

Jack O’Connell you will always be famous

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 15, 2026 at 10:14 PM

Good Morning, World

Congratulations to Michael B. Jordan, the deserved Oscar winner for Fruitvale Station. Hey I'm being magnanimous here. Just like how I congratulated Jessie Buckley for her win, see below. So what did we all think of the big show last night? Generally I'm happy, given my favorite movie of 2025 deservedly took home the top prize. I always forget who won the other awards within a week anyway...

Jessie Buckley, best actress for ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ yayyy

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 15, 2026 at 10:33 PM

This is Not an Oscars Post

I said all I needed to say on the Oscars yesterday at this link when I shared my ranking of the Best Picture nominees -- now I'm just saying goodbye for the Oscar Weekend, saying "See you on the other side." One of the above two fellows will probably be cradling a golden man in their strong arms come Sunday night -- y'all know who I'm rooting for but whatever will be will be. And so be it! That said my hypocrisy keeps on keeping on because have no doubt I'll be posting about the show on Bluesky as it happens, so if you do want to see me get disgruntled in real time make sure to follow me there. For some people watching me get annoyed is the real entertainment! I'll take it. Have a good weekend, stay safe and stay as sane as is possible in the year 2026. And in summation... I can't say I'd be furious if Wagner sneaked in and pulled it out (so to speak, ahem)...

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!

I Dream of Jacob

I was glancing through Tom and Lorenzo's fashion run-down of Jacob Elordi's styles choices this wards season this afternoon -- which reminded me of that astonishingly beautiful gray coat he wore to the Gothams and I swooned anew -- and suddenly I remembered what I over-shared with y'all the last time I posted about Jacob Elordi and... uhhh... now I am fatally distracted again. Funny how one can have such a vivid memory of a non-occurance -- thank the heavens for dreams, the only thing keeping us going these days. Anyway it also reminded I hadn't posted anything from this recent shoot our Oscar-nominated babygirl graced us with, so enjoy. Have a good night. Try to dream about Jacob. Trust me. It helps.

Pics of the Day

As I said just two posts down I watched some of the SAG Awards -- or The Actors, whatever, I don't care -- last night but switched over halfway through to watch the finale of my beloved Industry, which turned out to be an excellent decision. I'm on the record that I think Michael B. Jordan is the weak link in Sinners so I don't really understand that win at all, but whatever -- MBJ seems like a great guy and he's a genuine movie star so I get why people would want to reward him for such a big movie. I know the tide's turned on Timmy and it's super cool to hate on him these days but I personally think it's willful blindness to ignore how incredible he is in Marty Supreme. No Marty is not a "likable" character, but the second I start begging to watch likable people in movies is the day you can take me out behind the barn. Anyway the beautiful losers Timmy and Jacob Elordi were all over each other all night so we did win something! These photos. 

The Only Choice is Consumption

I know that we've generally agreed that the concept of a "snub" at the Oscars is kind of dumb but -- who would I be if I wasn't hating on AMPAS? I don't even know anymore. So fuck them for ignoring Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice, which is better than a good three-quarters of the movies that did get nominations. (Here is my review.) It's as timely and as funny and as gorgeously filmed as the probable Best Picture winner One Battle After Another, and it'll be long remembered after a bunch of the other titles fall away, and that's its own reward -- I'm just sick of Master Park getting the shaft. He's too good for them! But the Oscars aren't why we're here -- if they're ever why we're here you should hit the big red alarm button on the whole "pod person" thing. No we're here because there's news on the No Other Choice physical media front. What we can only assume will be a fancy limited edition 4K blu-ray a la the Oldboy release that Neon put out a couple of years ago has been dropped on Amazon for pre-release -- right here -- which will come out on April 28th. It is pricey as fuck -- $76 as of this writing -- which I can only assume will drop closer to the release date. The Oldboy release ended being fifty bucks I think? (Although I see now on Amazon it's going for truly ridiculous prices, good grief.) The annoying thing is we don't have any info yet on what this limited edition will look like or contain, but I imagine that'll be out soon. I went ahead and pre-ordered it now since I will obviously want this, but I'm keeping my eye on Neon's own shop for the information we're missing as well as a probable lower price. If I see it, I'll share!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Network (1976)

Arthur: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU... WILL... ATONE! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that... perfect world... in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

Howard: Why me?

Arthur: Because you're on television, dummy.

60 million people watch you every night of the week,
Monday through Friday.

Howard: I have seen the face of God.

Arthur: You just might be right, Mr. Beale.

Sidney Lumet's Network has been released on 4K blu-ray today thanks to the fine folks at Criterion -- watch it today and despair at how timely it remains. Everybody remembers Howard Beale's speech about getting up and screaming futilely out your windows that you're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, but it's what's done with that -- how the media and government collude to commodify and dull our rage itself -- that really makes Network tick, and stick. It's wild how long we've been driving off this cliff for y'all!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Hard Truths (2024)

Pansy: You can't go in or out of a supermarket without being harassed by those grinning, cheerful charity workers begging you for money for their stupid causes. Why they gotta skin their teeth like that? Cheerful, grinning people. Can't stand 'em. Loitering out there, demanding your hard-earned cash. It's a scam. They're scamming people. Can't trust 'em. They want your phone number, your email. I asked one of them - I, I said, "Why do you want my postcode? I might as well just give you my front door key so you can bruk into my house, tief out my things, and kill my only child." And nobody calls the police on them. Police wouldn't come anyway. They're too busy harassing Black boys walking. And him round the corner with that dog. Got it dressed up in a red coat and green booties. Why has the dog got on a coat? It's got fur, innit? It must be sweating under there, stinking. That's cruelty to animals, that is, putting it under all that plastic. I've got a mind to report him to the NSPCG or whatever they call 'em. And her over there with that fat baby. Cold, cold, cold, and she's walking up and down the street with nothing but a big pink bow on its bald head so everybody can tell it's a girl, like I care. Parading it around in the little outfit. Not dressed for the weather. Nah. With pockets. What's a baby got pockets for? What's it gonna keep in its pocket? A knife?

Funny enough the punchline of this rant just came up in conversation in my house like two days ago -- we were so seen by Pansy. So seen. And I don't even have it in me to get into how robbed Marianne Jean-Baptiste was at the Oscars -- not even nominated for this brilliant, funny, heart-rending performance. The Oscars are a fucking scam. Ahem. No not getting into it! Just wishing the legendary Mike Leigh a happy 83rd birthday today. He's got a new movie coming out this year, did you hear? It doesn't have a title yet but per usual four of his previously-used actors are showing up -- Marion Bailey (she's Leigh's partner and has been in many of his movies over the years including All or Nothing and Meantime and Vera Drake and Mr. Turner to name but a few), Paul Jesson (another many-times-used actor), Kate O’Flynn (Happy-Go-Lucky), and then Alice Bailey Johnson who was in Hard Truths -- she was the girl in the furniture store who memorably got yelled at by Pansy. We don't know anything else about it but any year with a new Mike Leigh movie is incapable of being all bad, so thank goodness for this news. We need it. 

Joe Alwyn Ten Times

The Oscar-nominated Hamnet is now on VOD so you can see what all the fuss was about -- what the fuss definitely was not about was Joe Alwyn, who once again finds himself cast in a thankless forgettable role on the sidelines which he does very little with. I say this as a person who finds Joe Alwyn very attractive and who's seen him live in person at Q&As and he's incredibly charming in the flesh! I think his best roles have probably been for Yorgos in The Favourite and Kinds of Kindness where he played hot creeps (I don't remember much about the Ang Lee movie where I first saw him), so perhaps he should just try going full villain? I don't know, I'm not his agent, but this is the second Oscars race in a row where he's riding the coattails of a big Oscar nominee while offering the final product very little, and I do wish better for him. He is hot. We must take care of our hot boys. Anyway on that note he's being hot on the cover of Fantastic Man this month and we've got those photos after the jump...

Wagner Moura Break

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My What Big Ping Pong Balls You Have

Hot off its however-many-Oscar-nominations-it-got this morning comes word from A24 that they're expanding Marty Supreme onto IMAX screens come January 30th! That'd be fun! You can check for tickets at this link. I probably won't go unless it gets extended since this will be right in the thick of Sundance for me next week (I will be covering the virtual side of the fest since I am too poor to go to Utah this year) but you should see it if you can. Just picture Timmy's little ass getting spanked in glorious IMAX y'all! The mind boggles. Here is my review of Marty Supreme -- I remain a surprised-as-anybody fan of the movie, having loathed Safdie's Uncut Gems. All of that blather aside the reason I'm really doing the post is that I love love love that poster seen above that they created specifically for this IMAX release -- it's very mid-80s looking, which makes sense given the movie's New-Wave-banger inflected soundtrack. I want a copy of the poster! Want want want! If they're giving them away in theaters I might have to find /make the time...