I Stand With Phoenicia

Although we've had our ups and downs over the years (I still don't love Darjeeling) I've turned into a fairly staunch Wes Anderson defender, and so it's not a massive surprise I liked his latest The Phoenician Scheme even while opinions seem to be fairly mixed -- read my review that dropped over the weekend right here. I do think it's a mid-tier Anderson but as I say in the review that still means more movie magic than 90% of what we see elsewhere. Also this somehow marks his first time working with Michael Cera and even people who are mixed on the movie are like, "Well they're gonna work together again." Our little Canadian weirdo steals the movie, he does. (Except when Riz Ahmed is on-screen because Riz Ahmed is on screen.)

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Power of the Dog (2021)

Peter: Did Bronco Henry teach you to ride, Phil?

Phil: Yep. He taught me to use my eyes in ways

that other people can't. Take that hill over there.

Most people look at it and just see a hill. Where

Bronco looked at it, what do you suppose he saw?

Peter: A barking dog.

Phil: The hell, you just saw that now?

Peter: No. When I first came here. See, it

looks like a dog with its jaw wide open.

Phil: You... you just saw that?

Peter: Yeah.

A happy 27 to Kodi Smit-McPhee,

who gave the best performance of 2021.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Power of the Dog (2021)

Peter: How old were you when you met Bronco Henry?

Phil: About the age you are now.

Peter: Was he your best friend?

Phil: Yeah... he was. He was more than that. Once,

he saved my life. We were way off up in the hills shooting elk,

and the weather turned mean. Bronco kept me alive by...

lying body against body in a bedroll. Fell off to sleep that way.

Peter: Naked?

The best movie of 2021 is out on Criterion 4K blu-ray today -- Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog can be yours right now, sittin' on your shelf and everything! And lucky for y'all Amazon has it at 50% off right now (as they do many of their Criterion titles) so go'n grab it, lil' doggy. Still can't believe it lost best Picture to that forgettably adequate Lifetime movie, ugh. God the Oscars suck. Bronco Henry deserved better dammit! Anyway I love the cover-art for the disc, don't you? Tis pretty perfect.

In the Mood For Infernal Power X

I'm jumping the gun on this a wee bit since Criterion hasn't hit up their social medias with this even yet, but they probably will have by the time I finish writing the post -- the November 2022 releases have been dropped on their website though, so we have see what they have in store for us there! First and foremost they hinted yesterday on Twitter that they were releasing Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog and sure enough! Check out all the details and pre-order your copy of the best movie of 2021 right here -- it's in 4K and there are heaps of features! Hoo lil' doggy sign me up on that one. Next up...

... but hardly second-place is Spike Lee's Malcom X, baby! And also in 4K too. and I think this is already in the Collection on regular blu-ray, isn't it? I think I own it that way? But I'm sure it will stun in an upgrade. Check it out here. That hits on November 22nd. And also getting the upgrade to 4K treatment is one of the most beautiful films ever made...

... namely Won Kar-Wai's masterpiece In the Mood For Love. I was just thinking about this movie last night -- I mean there are many nights where I am thinking about ITMFL but I re-watched Everything Everywhere All at Once (what a terrific movie it is) and that film riffs directly on this one in all of those romance sections between Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan. Anyway I imagine watching In the Mood For Love in 4K will be akin to shooting heroin into one's eyeballs, only, you know, just without putting needles into your eyeballs or whatever. All the highs, with none of the needly lows!

The final pair of November flicks ain't no slouches, but I'm pairing them up because I personally haven't seen them -- there's the Hong Kong crime saga of the Infernal Affairs trilogy also with Tony Leung (no I ridiculously haven't seen these films, but that will obviously be rectified now) which are hitting disc on November 15th. And then there is the Czech New Wave classic Daisies from director Věra Chytilová, which I have seen portions of, but never from start to finish properly. My friend Daniel had a party once that was themed to the film and it played on a loop on the TV, so I've seen big chunks that way. Now I can finally watch it the way Chytilová intended. It seemed like a stunner.

Which is Hotter?

Today we wish a happy 48th birthday to the great Aussie director Justin Kurzel, who's batting a nearly perfect score from where I stand. I say "nearly" because his big foray into Hollywood, his Assassin's Creed adaptation, didn't work at all, save valiant efforts by all involved. But look at the other movies under his belt from the past eleven years -- Snowtown! Macbeth! True History of the Kelly Gang! Nitram! (I still haven't seen his segment in the anthology film The Turning.) 

Those are all terrific movies with a strong directorial voice and vision -- he has already fulfilled the promise of when Snowtown knocked me out in 2011 and then some extra left over. There sure aren't many male directors doing a better job dissecting toxic masculinity in our current moment...

... and that he does it, at least partially anyway, by shooting all of his leading men like I would shoot all of the hot leading men that he keeps hiring? And then even more, you add on the fact that he is married to the queen Essie Davis? We got ourselves a king here!

He's also got a pile of killer projects on the immediate horizon lined up -- his sci-fi flick Morning with Benedict Cumberbatch and Laura Dern! (That one is already filmed.) His limited series Shantaram with Charlie Hunnam! (I believe that's also been filmed, at least partially.) And then there's Ruin, his WWII flick with Margot Robbie and Matthias Schoenaerts -- there hasn't been an update on this one in awhile so it might not be happening, but let's will it to be! Justin Kurzel filming Matthias is a thing I definitely need in this life. Anyway in Kurzel's honor -- and to fill a distinct lack of Michael Fassbender posting recently -- let's do ourselves a poll...

online polls

In the Marvels of Madness

Raimi, Raimier, Raimiest -- those were the words that kept kicking me in the face last night during Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe offering featuring Avengers and Scarlet Witches, Wizard Supremes and several very surprising guest stars, faces old and new, that will surely set comic-book fans toes to tingling. Speaking as an old-school Raimi fan from ye horror days of the Evil Dead films you can sense the maestro's presence early on in the details, but you know that scene in Evil Dead II where an itty bitty drip-drop of liquid turns into a firehose of viscera blasted into Bruce Campbell's face? That's the way the Raimi comes at us with Multiverse -- drip, drop, kablammo, baby. By the last act we might as well be watching Army of Darkness II for how deep his deliciously dastardly vibe, big on goop and goof, has infected the typical flat-ironed and steel-bellied tone of the MCU.

I've got no big desire to dip my own toes into plot specifics but the basic gist here is that fresh hero-to-be America Chavez (a winning Xochitl Gomez) has powers flaring up beyond her control and a whole raft of big baddies (many of them many-tentacled and goopy to the max -- all the better for Raimi to slam in and squish them with windshield-like glee) are chasing her through multiple universes to suck said powers straight outta her. And in every universe which America stumbles she stumbles straight upon the good Doctor -- Strange that is -- and he helps her... or he helps her by hurting her... it all depends on the mood and emotional gradations of that slice of the multiverse's Stephen. 

So Stephen Strange helps her or he doesn't, and the Stephen Strange we're familiar with, in our own chapter of the Marvel Universe,  decides to help her by going to his friends to get some help. Enter the sly and delightful Benedict Wong as Wong the now-reigning Sorcerer Supreme, and also enter Elizabeth Olson as Wanda Maximoff, last seen nursing her emotional devastations post-WandaVision with a very big very bright red book. If you're a comics fan you know that book is called the "Darkhold" and if you're not a comics fan the movie will explain it to you, don't worry. But I think you can guess by its name that that book, in the grand tradition of "Books in Sam Raimi Movies", is problematic! Necronomicon-ho!

Anyway, as many iterations as Benedict Cumberbatch gets to play with as Doctors Strange in this movie, the Multiverse of Madness belongs for me to Olson. And as she's proven time and again, Elizabeth Olson is doing the best acting in the entirety of the MCU. This movie doesn't change that -- it only triple underlines that. While I remain resentful that an actress this talented and multifaceted seems to have been swallowed up entirely by the superhero complex, it's hard to keep that anger at its necessary boil when they keep giving her actual meaty material to work with like they did with WandaVision and like they do in this movie here. She's exceptional, delivering a three-hundred-and-sixty degree range of emotion for poor embattled Wanda, the big-eyed girl whose torments know no bounds. There's something to be said about the cruelty and pain that superhero stories seem intent on inflicting upon women in particular, something I'm not going to fall down the rabbit hole with right now, but Olson makes the experience riveting nevertheless. 

And this movie isn't just cruelty and pain obviously, but as with anything you can label "Raimiest" the director adores butting said pain up against goof and camp and the broadest sincerity, threading the world's trickiest tone like a multiverse-sized camel being jammed through the eye of a needle, a needle in a pile of needles ten pyramids tall (dare I say a "time-stack?) His Wizard of Oz movie showed what happened when the balance was off -- yikes -- but he's got all his plates spinning here, and Multiverse of Madness will send you reeling from emotional high to high like we're leap-frogging a mountain range. As much fun as the last Spider-Man was (and I dug that sucker plenty) this one's much more my jam, and this is the one I'll be re-watching, high off its giddy obscene supply. This is not Sam Raimi chained to anything -- this is the MCU chained to Sam Raimi, and swooping straight through the fires of hell and up through the stars and back, demons screeching on our tails the entire time. What a great goddamned time at the movies!

Jonathan Majors Takes A Lickin'

Leaving my desk a little early today for a couple of screenings -- I'm actually going to a theater to see the trailer (yes just the trailer) for the new Avatar movie. I liked the original Avatar a lot and am of the school that it's top-tier foolish to doubt James Cameron at this point, so I'm excited, naysayers be damned. And then I am seeing the new Doctor Strange film -- a little dispirited after Sam Raimi leveled our expectations last week when he said we should expect this to be less Sam Raimi and more typical MCU, but... it's okay. I liked the last Doctor Strange movie and I love Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch (even if I hate that she only acts in MCU projects now -- let the woman do something else dammit!) so I think I'll probably like this well enough, fingers crossed. What I'm really hoping...

... is that Jonathan Majors makes a surprise appearance as his Loki character (or some iteration thereof) before his already-expected return in the next Ant-Man -- that's my one wish. We will see. But speaking of Majors, y'all remember those beefcake-tastic photos I shared from the set of the third Creed film several weeks back? I missed him briefly talking about the shoot to Variety, so here's what he said about that experience:

"He trained for at least a year to prepare. His hands have become so big he couldn’t even squeeze on a wristband for the Chanel pre-Oscars party. 'Over time, they just got bigger and bigger,' Majors says. Despite playing a boxer in the movie, which marks Jordan’s directorial debut, Majors insists he wasn’t left with any injuries: 'I got punched in the face about 100 times, but it’s all OK!'"

Quote of the Day

“If we’re to teach our sons to be feminists, if we’re to teach our sons equality, if we’re to understand what poisons the well in men and what creates toxic masculinity we need to look under the hood of characters like Phil Burbank to see what their struggle is and why that’s there in the first place. Because otherwise it will continue to repeat itself.”

-- Real happy that Benedict Cumberbatch gave us this quote today to share instead of me ever having to highlight actor Sam Elliott's bullshit comments about The Power of the Dog, which is what Benedict was responding to. Nicer to focus on helpful, thoughtful comments, instead of just further screaming into the wind. There's a little more from BC at the link. Good dude, that one.

Benedict Cumberbatch Five Times

I think we can all, Benedict included, agree that Benedict Cumberbatch is, in the parlance of that one barfly in Fargo, kinda funny looking. Having leveraged a wildly successful career off of that face I am sure that Benedict would be fine with it -- he's ridden "funny looking" to the bank and back ten times over. Sometimes the funny works on me though, in the not-funny way, and this new shoot for Netflix Queue, the streamer's online magazine, is one of those times. He looks hot! No big surprise then when I noticed this shoot was done by Inez and Vinoodh, aka the same photographer who shot Channing Tatum's speedo romp earlier this week -- they're getting it done right now, they are. Anyway what do you guys think Benny's chances are at the Oscars? He's my pick -- I'd give the prize to every actor from Power of the Dog nominated, and yes that means Kodi Smit-McPhee would snatch the Best Actress trophy from whatever actress wins so Jesse Plemons could have the Best Supporting Actor one -- but being "my pick" is almost always a kiss of death. The supposed frontrunner Will Smith is actively my least favorite thing about  King Richard, a mediocre TV movie that I'm nevertheless glad exists because Jon Bernthal wore tennis shorts for us. That was a gift -- the rest, meh. Anyway hit the jump for the shoot...

The Multiverse of Cumberbatch

Is it weird that I don't think of "Dr. Strange" as Benedict Cumberbatch anymore? The actor and the Marvel character have become separate entities in my brain. (I suppose this is especially appropriate given the split realities of the forthcoming sequel.) When I watched The Power of the Dog, all four or five times I have done so, I never once thought of the MCU, and vice versa -- looking at the trailer for the latest Dr. Strange movie, which premiered during the Super Bowl yesterday, I have to walk my brain hand in hand to the realization that Strange is Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch is Strange! 

Who knew the power of some gray streaks and a goatee? I'll have to remember this for when I inevitably have to change my identity and go on the run. Anyway, this trailer! I only just watched it now since I plainly do not watch the Super Bowl (and even though I know it makes me a dick, well, what's new, but I also think a little less of anyone who does watch the Super Bowl -- sorry, them's just the breaks) and it's a blast. Whether you're an MCU fan or not -- and I am, even while I am fully cognizant of the limitations -- I think this is one to be excited about, because Sam Raimi, baby. Here's the trailer:

Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is out on May 6th.

Noah Jupe is in Morning

Honey Boy and A Quiet Place actor Noah Jupe, who appears to be growing up, has just joined the cast of Macbeth and Snowtown director Justin Kurzel's next science-fiction movie called Morning, and it's one hell of a cast he's joining -- Laura Dern and Benedict Cumberbatch, namely. Here's the plot via Deadline:

"The film is set in a near future where society has a pill that does away with the need to sleep. With the added help of an artificial sun, there is no end to morning daylight, living and work. However, as a young generation grows up deprived of the world of sleep, they consider rebelling to reclaim their dreams."

Kurzel's last released film was True History of the Kelly Gang, which we gave a lot of play around these parts as 1) it's very good and 2) its cast of George Mackay, Charlie Hunnam, and Nicholas Hoult (in nothing but sock garters), was of specific this-site-interest. Kurzel has another finished film in the can -- called Nitram and starring Caleb Landry Jones and Judy f'ing Davis I actually shared the trailer for it last August and IFC was said at the time to be releasing the film in the first part of this year, but I haven't heard anything since then. Anyway we dig Kurzel and we clearly dig this new cast so sign us up. As for Jupe well I found this photoshoot of the sixteen-year-old so I am posting it after the jump but nobody look unless it's appropriate for you to do so (I personally wrote this post with my eyes closed)...

Spin A Little Web Of Dreams

Did you hear the one about the spider and the man? One bit the other and wham bam web, ma'am. What about the other one about the man and the spider? Or the other? Well I hope your head's full of man spider stuffs because nine movies in (ten including that animated one that everybody loved and which gets a sly little shout-out here) we're arriving at Spider-Man: No Way Home, Tom Holland's third standalone as the character -- which doesn't count all the Avengers movies he's popped up in, of course -- and if you ask me, his best. No Way Home is a superhero smash.

And anyway you did ask me, because you're here reading this, which I take as my permission to continue. But I will be kind, generous, in return for your trust, and I will keep my mouth yapped shut on spoilers. Don't fear! I don't really give a shit when it comes to talking plot any of the time anyway -- other sites I write for demand I get into that stuff but I prefer to write about the vagaries of cinematic sensation over  mechanics whenever I can, and this spoiler-aversion gives me the opportunity to indulge myself. So let's! If you've seen the trailer you know plenty enough. Try not to know anything else and the surprises this one's got in store for you are fairly endless.

What's so great about No Way Home is it truly feels like spider-id unleashed -- like somebody decided for once they were truly gonna go all out on the comic book writer sensation that there's only you and a piece of paper and a pencil in front of you and you can make these characters do absolutely fucking anything you can think of, and this movie's gonna do it dagnabit, and it did. I'm not slighting any of the previous Spider-movies -- I rate Raimi's Spider-Man 2 with an even higher grade than I do this one still -- but Spider-Man: No Way Home lives in the place where the last couple of Avengers movies did where endless buckets of money met truly limitless CGI; it's not just the sky that's the limit, it's the furthest reaches of space, time, and all infinite dimensions.

Basically No Way Home is peak pop culture of our moment. Sure I have quibbles here and there about plot mechanics or character choices if I felt like indulging my inner-quibbler, but the deluge of because-we-can fuck-yeahs on displays in this picture are too dazzling and delightful to deny. This is Marvel & Co giving the exhausted and weary people out here the full superhero nonsense of their dreams, undiluted and gone-for-broke, and this thing deserves every damned penny it will make. It's our moment's version of Busby Berkeley put-on-a-show for the weary folks, razzle dazzle 'em, and I whizzed outta this spider-sucker feeling both razzled and dazzled deep down in my happy places. All I can say is a big thanks. I needed this.

Benedict Cumberbatch's Doggy Style

Yoohoo, you! Benedict Cumberbatch and that beautiful goldenrod sweater are here to tell you that the best movie of 2021, which is Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog, is today this very day on Netflix. For one and for all! I mean, as long as you "all" have Netflix. It's funny how we've been programmed to think that once a movie is on streaming it's literally available to everyone everywhere free and easy, as if Netflix doesn't actually cost money. Anyway I digress (as I do) -- this one's worth the money. I posted the trailer here but no, even though I have now seen it twice, once at TIFF and once at NYFF, I still haven't reviewed it even though I keep saying I am going to write something. I promise I will! Just not today. When movies this good come along I have to soak myself in them for awhile -- spitting out immediate thoughts wouldn't do it justice. I know I'm well passed the point of "immediate" even at this point, but I'm going to use that as my excuse for laziness. It's hifalutin and snooty and makes me look thoughtful instead of lazy, dammit!

The best film of the year is Jane Campion's THE POWER OF THE DOG and it's on @netflix this very day! #ThePowerOfTheDog pic.twitter.com/BIZpww3sFJ

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 1, 2021

The Power of This Dog

I promise you that I will write about Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog -- which is out in theaters today! -- at some point, as it is, of this moment, my number one film of 2021. I've seen it twice now, once at TIFF and once at NYFF, and I knew immediately it was a fave -- in the weeks since it's only grown in obsession and masterpiece-ish stature. Y'all know I stay away from the "m" word when movies are this new -- I think a vital ingredient in "masterpiece" is time -- but sometimes movies come along that feel so grand and stunning right outta the gate that you know, deep inside of your everything, your regard's only going to grow bigger and bigger with time, and this is one of those suckers for certain. 

Anyway until I manage to wrangle with the film properly and get my own thoughts down I just wanted to make sure to post that you should all figure out the soonest moment you can see the movie, and so here I am doing that. Find your nearest theater here! If it's not playing in a theater near you it is hitting Netflix on december 1st, and I've seen the movie both ways -- on the big screen for NYFF and the little screen for TIFF -- and it works both ways, but I'm really really really glad I did manage to see it on a big screen because those vistas that Campion captures... man alive. So try for a big screen if at all safe and possible, my loves. And in summation...

(Then again if I had ten minutes to talk movies with Jane Campion I would probably just cry the entire time, so)

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 17, 2021

Of Dogs & Fish Men

I don't know how many of you loved Pixar's Luca as much as I did but I really really really really loved it -- read this piece I wrote about it for Pajiba if you don't believe me! -- and so I made some very happy sounds upon seeing earlier today that they've gone and made a short film sequel called "Ciao Alberto" which they'll be debuting on Disney+ on November 12th. That's the trailer above, although to be honest maybe don't watch it? It's a short film -- a trailer seems excessive. A trailer becomes more and more large a percentage of a finished product the short the finished product gets! Anyway I just wanted you to put the release date on your calendar, so we can all bo back to Italy together. Cannot wait.

Next up that there's the full trailer for Jane Campion's upcoming movie The Power of the Dog, which hits select theaters on November 17th and then Netflix on December 1st, and which I've seen twice so far (thanks to TIFF and NYFF) and miiiiiiiight just be my favorite movie of 2021? I haven't reviewed it yet so that's a spoiler but I just feel as if I should put that out there at this point -- I've been sitting on it for weeks. Lord knows I love Jane Campion but I didn't expect this specific movie to swallow me up the way it has -- I just posted today in my very positive review of The Harder They Fall how Westerns ain't usually my jam, and yet here we are. It's been a stellar year for that genre, I guess. Dog is so much stranger and so much gayer than you're expecting, y'all.

Pics of the Day

There's a big piece on Jane Campion's forthcoming film The Power of the Dog in Vanity Fair today, including a chat with the director herself as well as several gorgeous images -- as I admitted when I posted about this film playing NYFF next month I haven't read Thomas Savage's novel on which the film is based and I don't know the plot beyond Benedict Cumberbatch is a cowboy, so color me surprised when the above photo of naked water twinks popped up (I have no idea who those actors are though) -- there's even more in the interview with Campion about the homoeroticism of her film, and this was not where I though things were going. What a thrill! That plus Kristen Dunst -- what else does one need? Hit the jump for several more photos...

Good Morning, World

I've been having a real heavy Tahar Rahim Week this week, which is a boon to any week, even one as unwieldy as this. The BBC has been airing The Serpent -- a thrilling true-crime retelling of the Charles Sobhraj saga in the mid-70s, where he lured hippie-types into his web of poison and murder for their traveler cheques and passports; I plowed through that whole thing. (And I very much recommend it -- not sure when it's getting a US release but I'll keep y'all informed.) 

Very much enjoying THE SERPENT on BBC with Tahar Rahim playing real life serial killer Charles Sobhraj pic.twitter.com/hMKB1zvLId

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 4, 2021

And I've been flirting with watching The Mauritanian, the new flick from State of Play director Kevin Macdonald (who worked with Tahar previously on The Eagle), and which stars Rahim as a Guantanamo Bay detainee fighting for his rights -- it's out properly in February (here is the trailer); it also stars Jodie Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch, Shaileene Woodley, and Zachary Levi. I wanted to finish The Serpent first though, so I'll try to watch my screener this weekend. Tahar's apparently real good in it (but when is he not?)

My brain has completely shut down for the day -- just gonna go home and finish this amazing show! #TheSerpent pic.twitter.com/rBCleujk1J

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 7, 2021

Oh and the Tahar Week continued because two photo-shoots of him made themselves known -- he's got one for British GQ (read that chat over here), which is the majority of what you see here, and then he's also got one shot for Man About Town magazine, which you'll see after the jump...

Get Lost Inside Chris Evans

.

Scott Derrickson, the director of the two Sinister movies as well as Doctor Strange, is going to make a scary movie about the Bermuda Triangle next, and it is probably going to star Chris Evans. This comes a few months after he quit (or got fired, I don't remember) the Doctor Strange sequel. You may recall that the person who's now directing the Doctor Strange sequel is none other than Sam fuckin' Raimi, movie god? Guess who was supposed to direct this Bermuda movie before? That's right -- Sam Raimi. Add on the fact that Chris Evans is you know well known for making Marvel Movies and this is all so incestuous it could be a VC Andrews book. 

Anyway this is the second time this week that I've thought about rewatching Christopher Smith's terrifically underrated brain-bending 2009 flick Triangle with Melissa George and a very young Liam Hemsworth (speaking of incest), so maybe I should do that? Anybody seen it lately? Does it hold up?

Watch Out For That Treeeee

.

I just re-watched the original 1981 Evil Dead earlier this week (once again due to my current Gaylords of Darkness obsession, mentioned earlier today) and talk about a movie that holds up. I usually always watch Part II because I dig its humor and Bruce Campbell is at his hotness peak there, but the first movie should not go under-loved -- it's a good damn time at the movies, with shocks and soul-tickles a'plenty. I was also serious when I asked this question on Twitter...

.

Do we think Scott gets raped by the trees in the forest in the original Evil Dead as well? When he bursts back into the cabin after trying to run off he is TORE UP and that possibility never occurred to me until this viewing pic.twitter.com/CcMzDw06dK

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) February 4, 2020

.

... which I didn't get any replies to, because maybe people thought I wasn't being serious? Or was maybe that I was being light about Tree Rape? I'd never be light about Tree Rape. I actually think the film might be implying that and it's not something I'd ever realized until this watch. Obviously it's not in your face like the gratuitously terrible scene with Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) since the one with Scott (Richard DeManincor) happens off-screen, and that makes a huge difference in its impact. But it does inform the Evil Dead Universe in its way. It should just be noted!
.

Come here often? pic.twitter.com/rlDiCQIxsd

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) February 4, 2020

.
Anyway! Tree Rape aside! I'm here because of yesterday's big Sam Raimi news, that he's in talks to take over the Doctor Strange sequel, subtitled In the Multiverse of Madness, after the first film's helmer Scott Derrickson dropped off the flick several months back. I am one hundred percent... well maybe ninety percent... ambivalent about this news. Mostly because there have been tons of rumors that Raimi was going to make another horror movie soon, and I want that way more than I want him to get swallowed up by the Marvel machinery. They take everything dammit! See also:
.

I am extraordinarily pissed off anew that Marvel has swallowed up and robbed us of all the great Elizabeth Olsen performances we should be getting pic.twitter.com/ZmaHhneXvW

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 31, 2020

.
(Seriously, I know those glimpses of the WandaVision show in that Superbowl trailer were hella weird but Olsen is so much better than this nonsense and should be gifting us with complex adult performances by now. She barely works besides for Marvel now!) Anyway I know that Sam only made one of, if not the, greatest superhero movies ever made. His Spider-mans are legendary.

Doc Ock forever. And admittedly his brand of cinematic nuttery is exceedingly perfect for the Doctor-Strange-verse, with its pulsing transmogrifying realities shifting on top of one another -- I have no doubt he'll find some ways to blow our minds. Plus the Multiverse story is supposedly a hardcore horror one, from what I first read about it, and that makes Raimi even perfecter. I will probably come to regret my hesitation. Except not. Except unless he takes his paycheck and makes Evil Dead 4. Then all is forgiven. As long as he finally answers my tree-on-man rape query. Make an entire sequel about that dammit!
.

And Speaking of Favourites

.

Our best bearded boy Yorgos Lanthimos has announced a new directing project, click on over to The Film Experience to read what it is and my thoughts on what it is... which won't be surprising, given my predilection towards All Things Lanthimos. I sure do like him, I mean. (Call me, Yorgos.)

.