She Is Ann Lee, Hear Her Roar

One of last year's most slept on upon great movies was Mona Fastvold's The Testament of Ann Lee, a rapturous musical  starring Amanda Seyfried as the Shaker founder -- the film was weird and unexpected and in the words of Anya Jenkins "never going to become a breakaway pop hit." Still it made my top ten of the year and what are we doing here if we're not believing what I say??? But since the movie didn't do well at the box office or the awards bodies it seemed as if getting a physical media release of the thing was D.O.A. -- I still don't know if we'll ever get a blu-ray (there were headlines when it hit VOD that it indeed wouldn't be getting this) but thankfully one barrier's now been smashed down as Milan Records has announced the soundtrack from the great Daniel Blumberg IS getting a vinyl release, and you can pre-order it right here. Hooray! This score is absolutely gorgeous -- being a non-musical person this is exactly what I want from my "musicals" honestly. Real music! That lands in September -- and hey maybe if the thing sells well they'll give us a goddamned blu-ray of the movie itself. Sorry, Ann Lee -- a "gosh-darned" blu-ray, I meant to say. Anyway I guess THE MAN Daniel Blumberg has enough sway to get his shit released, as HE did with THE MAN Brady Corbet's The Brutalist -- THE WOMAN writer-director and WIFE of Brady Corbet Mona Fastvold should try being more of a MAN I guess. (Sexism comes in all forms, y'all.)

Good Morning, World

Did y'all see the news that right now, as of this minute, there are zero plans to give Mona Fastvold's tremendous 2025 film The Testament of Ann Lee any kind of physical media release? That right there is some high bullshit if I ever saw some high bullshit. I say we riot in the streets until not only a 4K disc is released but also that goddamned glorious soundtrack of Shaker bangers is put onto vinyl as well. "Shaker bangers" haha, what a phrase. It sounds like the name of a rowdy detective on a CBS procedural. "Nobody runs from Shaker Banger, baby!" Ahem anyway Ann Lee's gay brother himself Mr. Lewis Pullman (who could totally play Shaker Banger now that I think about it) is on the cover of the new issue of Esquire and we've got the shoot, hit the jump for it (or else we'll send Mr. Shaker Banger here on your tail)...

Welcome to the Araki-verse

Today was a great day for all of us intelligent and beautiful Gregg Araki fans, as a whole bunch of news dropped with regards to the New Queer Cinema legend and icon seen above sandwiched between Pillion star Alexander Skarsgård and director Harry Lighton (oh what a wonderful place to be sandwiched). First came word that his Sundance film I Want Your Sex starring Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman has gotten picked up by Magnolia Pictures! And they plan on releasing it... some time this year. The lack of specifics annoy me. Why not just do next week? I don't have anything going on next week. I can do next week! Pencil that in, Magnolia! Ahem. Anyway obviously we'll be refreshing the whole of the internet until we do have a release date  announcement, making it so you can just keep refreshing MNPP for the news. I got you! The other big news is that he chatted with Variety today (thx Mac) about the forthcoming 4K restoration of his masterpiece Mysterious Skin -- we already knew that was a thing happening but now we have a new trailer...

... as well as a new poster, which I'll post down at the bottom of this post. In the interview Araki really gets into the depths of what he did in restoring the film and it sounds like A LOT and I'm not sure it all sounds necessarily "good" to me but we'll see. I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm always worried when these restorations aren't just clean-up jobs and the filmmaker starts talking about how they wanted to fix things they didn't have the money or the tech for before. He even specifically makes to make sure the point that he wasn't doing what George Lucas did to the Star Wars films but... it sounds like a lot of noodling so I worry. Like the one comparative screenshot they share...

... it seems like he altered the movie's iconic angled font? (The top picture is the old version, the bottom is the new.) I don't like that! That is not how the title is supposed to look! But, deep breaths, I will wait and I will see. Anyway the part of the interview that didn't stress me out was this thrilling tidbit -- the film's soundtrack will be getting a vinyl release! That's unimpeachably exciting news. And as for the poster, seen below, the great poster shop Posteritati here in NYC is promising they'll be selling this poster as well as a "limited alternative style" which I will be jumping right on -- I have a couple of signed posters they dropped when Araki's "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy"  came out via Criterion that I cherish deeply. The one for Nowhere hangs over my bed!

Lewis Pullman Four Times

Momentarily I thought maybe it could be considered a spoiler for Mona Fastvold's magnificent film The Testament of Ann Lee to share that the character Lewis Pullman is playing in it is a big ol' 'mo. But I decided instead that one, while it's not an inconsequential note re: the film's themes it's also barely there, and sharing it won't ruin the movie for you in any way, I don't think. It's not some explosive revelation with regards to his character, but it does add to and underline the film's ideas about the Shakers as a community of misfits in their day. That said number two, and more importantly, I thought sharing this tidbit of information might get one or two of you who mightn't otherwise to go and see the two-plus hour musical about a bizarre religious sect. And that's what we want! Because I really love this movie and I'm not entirely sure I'll be properly reviewing it at this point, what with the holiday looming ahead. It's a great movie! Go see it! On a big screen if you can, as it very much demands a big screen. I watched it at home first and I liked it, but then I saw it a second time in 70mm and it blew my brain through the back of my head. With that said hit the jump for a couple more of lil' cute Lewis here...

Good Morning, World

I don't know why Document Journal decided to crop half of their new Joe Alwyn photoshoot into circular form -- all of that white space is giving my OCD agita -- but Joe looks good enough that I will try to set that aside. Right after bitching about it. Okay that's done. I wasn't sure what projects Joe had coming up here in the wake of the awards-behemoth The Brutalist and hilariously just saw that...

... he's in both Chloé Zhao's movie Hamnet (aka the Shakespeare movie starring Paul Mescal) as well as a new movie adaptation of Hamlet, the one with Riz Ahmed I'd mentioned here. (That Hamlet news is from 2017 but IMDb lists the film as being in "post-production" so I guess it's for real.) I wonder if he's the only actor in both? I love that for him.  What a talking point it will be going ahead. (And looking now it does come up in the Document Journal interview these photos are attached to, so he's getting it done already.) Speaking of getting it done, let's hit the jump and get this post done, I got things to do...

Goodbye Oscars Again

Conan O'Brien was doing such a good job putting on a good Oscars show -- along with the show's producers, who embraced the gaudy nonsense that the show should embrace, but more on that in a second -- that it wasn't until its second half that I realized I didn't give a shit about any of the movies or people winning the prizes. That they held off my annual Oscar annoyance and bitterness that long is an incredible feat! There are a couple of winners -- Flow for Best Animated film, Daniel Blumberg's incredible score for The Brutalist, No Other Land for Doc, and I'm Still Here for International Film -- that make me very happy. Several others are fine. But when you're as meh as I am about every single one of the top prize winners? Keiran Culkin is the only performance of the four acting winners I really like, but I could name twenty people I'd have handed that statue to over him including three of the other people actually nominated against him (I haven't been able to bring myself to watch The Apprentice yet). And I admit I need to re-watch Anora -- I have only seen it once at NYFF in the fall -- but y'all know...

When Conan made the joke about Anora using “the f word” 479 times I thought maybe we were gonna get a joke about its rampant homophobia for a second, haha silly me

— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 2, 2025 at 8:51 PM

... my repeatedly-expressed feelings there. And while I quite like The Brutalist I'm of the mind (apparently very very lonely of that mind) that Brody and Jones are its weakest aspects. (And JFC Brody's speech was insufferable proof that he remains insufferable.) 

I was expecting this to pop up in the middle of that speech

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 2, 2025 at 10:28 PM

Anyway I loved the production of the show, which embraced the hokey dance numbers of the past, and which really let -- for its first half anyway -- the nominees in all the craft cateegories get their due. Until they decided things were running too long and started cutting people off -- as soon as they start doing that I start getting tense and annoyed and the entire mood shifts. And then I started noticing that I wasn't liking the winners and yadda yadda Mikey Madison beat Demi and I was done. Y'all have thoughts? 

Robbed

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 2, 2025 at 10:43 PM

Finally Brutalist Vinyl!

I had mixed but mostly positive feelings about Brady Corbet's Oscar-nominated epic The Brutalist -- read my review here -- but one of its absolute tippy-top highlights of the movie is its astonishing also-nominated score from Daniel Blumberg, and I have been screaming at anyone who will listen that they need to drop the vinyl since I saw the movie all those many months ago. And today I got my wish! The pre-order for it just went up, click here and buy it and they will send you a copy on May 30th. Looks like a gorgeous perfectly designed package too -- they did right by it! 2024 was a terrific year for film music -- I think the scores for Challengers and Conclave are just as good and I've had trouble choosing between the three all awards season long. But I really think this one might win. It's so good.

Nivola in the Morning, Nivola in the Evening...

Everything is obviously shit but I woke up in a good mood this morning and I listened to this song on repeat on my commute which kept the good mood rolling so as I sit here I find myself trying to put optimism into the world. A monumnental task I have set for myself! Thankfully one of our faves actor Alessandro Nivola has done a lot of work on that front this week for us, so let's just take his lead. First off he gave us this new photoshoot via Avenue magazine -- there's also a chat with him there, click here for it. Seeing his smiling face always makes the world smile! But there's even more...

... do you remember that time he wore this tennis outfit in JC Chandor's film A Most Violent Year? I did a big post on it because DUH and hysterically the subject came up in a new chat with him at Vulture! It's mostly about The Brutalist but bless my fellow Pajibite writer Roxana Hadadi, who conducted the chat, for flipping the script over to the internet's thirst for him in these shorts. Here's what he had to say about it:

"Someone once sent me, I don’t know what you call it — a GIF, a meme, something — of that scene where I’m in my very short tennis shorts and there was some repeating thing of my ass filling up the camera frame. I figured somebody had posted it. I didn’t know that this was reaching a wider audience. [Laughs.] But I couldn’t be more thrilled."

That "someone" was me LOL and I am glad this Very Important Subject has been  carried out of this here gay ghetto and into the world at large. Give it light! Anyway I wasn't going to post about this but reader Harrison -- hey Harrison! -- messaged me, egging me on, and I figured since we have a lot of Alessandro to talk about today we might as well relive those shorts. Make a full tennis movie, Alessandro! The people demand it! 

Aaaaaanyway yes, there is even more Nivola News to share this morning -- the actor and exceptional silent screamer has just joined the crazy amazing cast of a movie called (wait for it) Diamond Shitter (lol!) that's to be directed by actor Antonia Campbell-Hughes, who you should know from Jane Campion's Bright Star or the recent terrific spy-series Black Doves. And what do those two properties I cherry-picked out of her sizable filmography have in common? They both also star Ben Whishaw, and yes our boy Ben Whishaw, the great gay hope, is also in this movie alongside Alessandro. Oh plus Eva fucking Green! My god! And also up-n-comer Raffey Cassidy who you should know from The Killing of a Sacred Deer or Vox Lux or White Noise -- Vox Lux was of course directed by Brady Corbet, director of The Brutalist (which co-starred both Cassidy and Nivola!) while White Noise co-starred Alessandro's talnted son Sam Nivola (who's about to be seen on the new season of The White Lotus) -- basically there's a lot of incestuous overlap with these folks coming together and I'm here for it! Good sexy talented people all around. And speaking of sexy people! Hit the jump for the rest of this Alessandro shoot...

Alessandro I Want For Chistmas...

Because he has three yes count them three movies out in theaters now -- Kraven the Hunter came out last week (read my quick thoughts here) while Brady Corbet's The Brutalist (read my review here) and Pedro Almodovar's The Room Next Door (wonderful but not reviewed by me) are both out now -- we have been blessed with not just one but two count them two photoshoots of Alessandro Nivola this week! This first one is for Sharp magazine and there's a chat with him at that link as well; the same goes for Anthem magazine, and you'll see those photos down below. Before that though, an aside -- there's a chance this post will be our last until the holidays are upon us, happening, and then history. Which is to say I'm not sure if I'll be online tomorrow and after that I'm definitely off until January 2nd of the year 2025. If that's not the case I suppose you'll know when I start rambling on here tomorrow. But if not -- Happy Holidays, everyone! And consider this collection o' Nivola my gifts to you, right on after the jump...

A Brutalist Man

Another day, another NYFF review -- well that's not exactly true, these have been slow coming, but we're into them now at least. I have written up my thoughts on Brady Corbet's The Brutalist today for Pajiba -- click here to read those. it is mostly all very very positive, although there are a couple of large exceptions to my praise. But still -- it feels like a good and proper big ass movie movie that I see myself watching a dozen more times (I've already seen it twice and it very much rewards repeat viewings). And the second its score is released on vinyl I will buy that shit so fast -- probably the score of the year, right here, give or take a Challengers.  

Alessandro Nivola Fourteen Times

There are many reasons to be excited about seeing Brady Corbet's epic film The Brutalist when it hits theaters in December, but I'll get into those when my review of the film from NYFF (eventually) goes up. So let me give you a small taste with these new photos of actor and longtime MNPP fave Alessandro Nivola via The Italian Reve (where they also include a very long chat with him; read that at the link)., because one thing I will say beforehand since it's frivolous all things considered and has no enormous bearing on the movie's richness and worth -- Corbet shoots the hell out of Nivola, to the point where it might be the best he's ever looked on-screen? It's up there anyway. But if that ain't a reason to be excited about the movie then I don't know cinema. Anyway not that it's hard but they also made him look like a million bucks in these photos, so you can hit the jump for a pile of these photos...

Be As Brutal As You Want, Brady

Actor turned director Brady Corbet is at it again, using his film nerd bonafides -- there's no one I've seen outside of the NYC critic's community attending film screenings here in New York more than him -- to sweep up a killer cast for his next movie. (thx Mac) His first directorial effort had Robert Pattinson, his second Natalie Portman, and now he's got (deep breath) Joel Edgerton and Sebastian Stan and Vanessa Kirby and Marion Cotillard and Mark Rylance and Stacy Martin and our boy seen above Alessandro Nivola to top it off. I mean can you even? It's called The Brutalist and here's how it's described:

"“The Brutalist” is described as “an epic saga and an unconventional love story” about a visionary artist and his wife who flee post-war Europe and come to America. And that’s when their lives are forever changed by a mysterious and wealthy new client. “Amidst a revamped cycle of populism and prejudice in the 21st Century, ‘The Brutalist’ is a film which celebrates the triumphs of the most daring and accomplished visionaries; our ancestors,” said Corbet. “It is the project which is so far the closest to my heart and family history. I so look forward to reuniting with many of our closest collaborators, as well as some exciting new ones, to realize what we all anticipate to be a vital and urgent motion picture.”"

I had mixed feelings about Vox Lux but not as mixed as many -- what I loved I really liked, and you totally get the sense that one of these times everything will click perfectly into place for Corbet and he'll knock one outta the park. And I would love for this to be the one, with this fucking cast. (And I'll add that I really hope that Brutalist Architecture is part of the focus here because I am a massive fan.)

It's Like An Angel Sighing

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Now that I have seen Vox Lux, Brady Corbet's fatalistic rumination on the pop circus that is modern living starring Natalie Portman as a vulgar train-wreck in sparkly spandex, I... I don't get what's got the other critics so upset? Full disclosure: I'm waiting until after I write this review to go read their reviews proper, so I don't too pollute my own perspective. But without trying I have been aware ever since the film premiered that it's been divisive, to put it mildly, and now that I have seen the film I can't really wrap my head around what it is that's got people angry. 

Brady Corbet might not like me saying that - it's not hard to imagine that he enjoys the "provocateur" label - but Vox Lux went down easy as a wine cooler on a hot wet afternoon for me, and knowing its rep going into it I really expected more, well, provoking. (I mean I did just watch Lars von Trier's latest a week ago.) As is I think Vox Lux ties together our culture of violence with our culture of surface pleasures in a smart, sharp, and memorable fashion, with shifting notions of identity, presentation, baked right into the spackle-painted pretty girl face of it.

It oohs and ahhs via murky compositions busted up by neon interruptions, bursts of stage flame, a flick of Natalie Portman's glittery fingernails. There's the occasional Fassbenderian flourish I dug. The Uzi of Damocles hovers over its every Chatty Cathy moment - paparazzi flashbulbs burst with ultraviolence against the dull tin casing of a movie-set city diner. It announces itself god here, a sci-fi something or other, and then just drones on and on, just like our culture do. It's a weird and aggressive little pop art tart, this Vox Lux, and I liked it well enough. Have I got a bullet lodged in my spine because of it? I wouldn't say that much. I'm not bleeding on the beach or anything. I am curious what got everybody's panties so tangled though. My panties are fine, thank you very much.

And Here We Are, Nearing The End

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Several movies worth seeing are coming out next weekend but this weekend, this one right here that today marks the start of, is kinda dry - I'm guessing that a lot of the indie stuff that's opened small so far, things like The Favourite (my review) and Boy Erased (my review), will be going wider though and that's where everyone will be, since the next two months are nothing but a mad-dash game of catch-up before the Oscars. 

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AHHHHHH LOOK AT WHAT I CAME HOME TOOOO pic.twitter.com/REKV9gvjR3

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 27, 2018

I'm doing far better than usual on this front this year now that I get real honest-to-goodness grown-up screeners thanks to having gotten happily admitted into GALECA this year (read about that here) - there are only a few of the year's big movies left that I haven't seen yet since we've got to start voting on our awards soon, and out of what is left in the next week I'm seeing Ben Is Back, Vice, Vox Lux, and that Spider-man cartoon that everybody's seeming to love. 

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I've refrained from watching a single Vox Lux trailer myself - the first images have been so bonkers what with Natalie Portman all bejeweled up and punked out that I decided to surprise myself on that front, see it all fresh when I'm sitting in the theater. Seems a good movie for that! Anyway this is all my rambling way of asking you guys here on the front-side of a slower weekend before the storm what you're all seeing this weekend, what you've seen so far out of the "awards" movies, and what you're digging?

 Share in the comments...

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I Am Link

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--- Devil Will Care - Since directing the marvelously unnerving Christine (with a marvelous performance from Rebecca Hall at its center) a couple of years ago Antonio Campos has been working on the TV show The Sinner, which I have heard good stuff about but haven't gotten around to. But now he's back to movies, and his new one has lined up a killer cast - The Devil All the Time will star Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, Chris Evans and Tracy Letts! Also, Chris Evans is playing an evil sheriff! Holy smokes sign me up.
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--- And Good Day Mommy - The seriously fucked up 2015 Austiran horror film Goodnight Mommy is apparently getting a remake, which is maybe probably a terrible idea - they're never going to make a movie as fucked up as those Austrians did. Attached to the remake is director Matt Sobel, whose 2015 film called Take Me To the River I have not seen; have you? Anyway I recently told you the Austrian duo of directors behind Goodnight Mommy are working on a US-based movie next starring Riley Keough.
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--- Wood From Pine - The big news out of Toronto yesterday was just our sort of "big" news - supposedly Chris Pine puts his Captain James T. Kirk on display in Outlaw King, the forthcoming 14th century Scottish battle movie starring him and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. (Previous post here.) Is it too much to ask for a sword-fight between Chris and Aaron then? Should I just be happy with one dick? Never! Never I say! Anyway Empire has a new image from the movie (and no before you ask it is not of his dick), which is out on Netflix (invest in a big screen HD TV stat!) on November 9th. 

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--- Hard Architecture - I guess I won't be seeing former actor Brady Corbet slumming around movie screenings much anymore like I used to, constantly, since he's gone off and become an accomplished director - his first film Childhood of a Leader got good reviews in 2015 and his latest starring Natalie Portman called Vox Lux got raves in Venice. He's just announced his next film and it's centered on one of my favorite subjects - Brutalist Architecture! (No really, I fucking adore Brutalism.) The movie is called, aptly, The Brutalist, and "follows a Hungarian-born Jewish architect in 1947 that emigrates to the United States for a better life; after his initial failures, he finds that the course of his life is changed in his new home." Okay sure, let's see who he gets for the lead.
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--- The Adam To Her - A few weeks ago there were some claims of hypocrisy being flung at Jessica Chastain (who's been a leading voice among women in Hollywood regarding gender issues) for hiring known spousal abuser Matthew Newton to direct her next movie - well Newton's quietly been fired and The Help's Tate Taylor has taken over the project, which is called Eve and stars Chastain as an assassin. And now comes word that Colin Farrell will star opposite her, which is why I am here even talking about this. Colin will play her boss.
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--- Dook Dook Dick - But speaking of movies that premiered at Venice recently, I had totally missed that Jennifer Kent's follow-up to The Babadook was playing there! It's called The Nightingale, and we've told you about it several times - it stars Aisling Franciosi from Game of Thrones and Sam Claflin from you know who Sam Claflin is. Anyway the film got some headlines because apparently some asshole in the audience shouted sexist shit about Kent, whose presence there was already somewhat tense because she was the only female director represented at the fest this year. Seriously though, fuck that dude.
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--- Quite The Sting - There are a lot of killer casts getting announced this week but this one might take the cake - Olivier Assayas next movie is called Wasp Network and it's about Cuban spies and it will star, deep breath Penélope Cruz and Gael García Bernal and Wagner Moura (mmm) and Pedro Pascal and Edgar Ramirez. That's more sex appeal than you can shake a stick at, and given how sexy Assayas movies can often be... well, we will all probably be shaking our sticks at this thing. Just like Edgar Ramirez did in Carlos! Just like that.
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--- Spice Up Your Life - I was kind of hoping that the second person who'd join the cast of Denis Villenueve's forthcoming Dune adaptation (after Timothée Chalamet in the lead, of course) would be Armie Hammer, because of course I was. But seriously, Armie would make a great Baron Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, you guys. And I don't say that just because I want to see him rock those little metal-winged-underpants that Sting did in David Lynch's film. (Not just, anyway.) But no the second name attached is Rebecca Ferguson, which is also cool, I liked her a lot in her two Mission Impossible movies. No word on who she's playing. In summation, Timmy is in Toronto right now for Beautiful Boy and is showing off his adorably dorky haircut for The King, which he is on break from filming, and awwww...

Holy Motor Mouths

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I've been meaning to do a link round-up all week and this story almost made it into that but I suddenly just decided it's too important to lose amid other stuff, so a post all yer own, news-story -- Adam Driver (pictured here) and Rooney Mara (not pictured here, but I bet you're picturing her in your head while you're reading this) are teaming up to star in a musical called Annette from French crazy-person Leos Cara, the man who made Mauvais Sang and The Lovers on the Bridge but you're probably most familiar with his last work, 2012's brilliant bug-fuck Holy Motors. 

One wonders if it was that brilliant stretch in Motors' middle with Kylie Minogue and the accordions that convinced him to go all out the next time around, but whatever it was, lucky fucking us.

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If you're keeping track this is actually the second out-of-the-mainstream musical that Rooney has signed up for in the past month or so - she's also supposed to make Vox Lux with director Brady Corbet and co-starring Jude Law, which we posted about right here. Girl wants to SING!!! As for Adam - have we heard him sing in anything before? I'm drawing a blank. I know we've seen him mean-spiritedly jerk off several times but sing? That I can't recall.