Call Me By Your Johnson

Well this sure is a neat-o news announcement -- Netflix is turning Call Me By Your Name author André Aciman's 2017 book Enigma Variations into a limited series, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson is set to star! I read this way back when it came out in 2017, right in the dizzying heights of CMBYN mania, but haven't read it since so my memory is hella hazy -- here is how Variety describes the book:

"The official logline states that the show follows Paul, “a man remade by the lovers who ignite and undo him across ten transformative years. It’s an intimate yet sweeping portrait of masculinity, sexuality, and modern love—and in a world of endless choices, it asks the question: will we know when we’ve found the one?”

I doubt I'll go back and read it again since it'll be nice to be slightly surprised by where the story goes as we watch, but it's about goddamned time ATJ did something directly appealing to his many many gay fans (besides all the nudity, I mean) -- we've been propping you up through many the flop, my man. We have earned this. To anybody who read the book and remembers a damn thing about it -- how much "sexuality" stuff we talking anyway? I really cannot for the life of me remember anything that happens in this. Memory-holed...

You Two Had a Nice Friendship

I have no idea why Regal is screening a certain little movie called Call Me By Your Name in theaters today -- for a second I thought we'd reached the 10th anniversary but somehow, insanely, that's next year. But I'm not complaining -- I grab at any chance to slip back into the sweet summer ryhthyms of Luca's romantic masterpiece any chance I can get, just as Elio grabs at any chance to slip back into the sweet summer rhythms of his favorite lil' fruit friend. Point being I'm leaving early today to go see CMBYN on the big screen for... well I lost track but we're definitely somewhere between 25 and 30 times now. It's been a couple of years since I've re-watched the movie at all so I'm hoping this viewing will gift me back some of the much needed escapism I luxuriated in during the similarly awful stretch of 2017 when it was released. Fingers crossed. And as always you can catch up on my writing on this movie at this link, which was... extensive. let's just call it extensive haha. See you tomorrow, peach-lovers!

GRAB THEM 🍑🍑 TODAY IS THE DAY

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) February 26, 2026 at 2:12 PM

The Boy Stache Supreme

I know you all hate Timmy now thanks to that admittedly obnoxious comment he made in his Vogue interview about having kids -- and the admittedly continued obnoxious fact that he's associating with that awful family whose name I refuse to even speak here at MNPP -- you made it extremely clear in the comments when I shared the poster for Marty Supreme yesterday. But I'm still not giving up on the boy. Sorry! He's just too talented. You might quibble over that - I know many people think he's never reached the heights of what he did in Call Me By Your Name; hell some of you don't even think he was good in CMBYN. (Although I do hope I've shamed those people sufficiently away by now, because jfc.) I disagree and think he's been terrific several times since then, but whatever -- so goes life, opinions, assholes, et cetera. I'm just here to say I think this movie here very much looks like the bee's knees and I cannot wait to see it. (Thankfully I don't have to wait until Christmas like the rest of y'all since I'm seeing it next week.) Point being -- here's the full trailer! Do enjoy.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Love on the Run (1979)

Liliane: You can't make everyone else 

pay for your rotten childhood.

Not to bring up my birthday yet again (oh who am I kidding -- I'll bring it up in every post today if I can manage it) but that quote from this movie really feels aimed straight at me today. Sigh, fine! Fine, Francois Truffaut. I'll try to keep that in mind. Anyway as foretold back in April Criterion's 4K upgrade of their box-set of Truffaut's five Antoine Doinel movies arrives today! This is very exciting for me personally because I've always wanted to see all of these but only ever seen The 400  Blows. When Luca Guadagnino was talking up doing a series of movies about Timothee Chalamet's character Elio in Call Me By Your Name he brought up this series every time -- despite the entire Armie situation I still hold out hope that could happen. Elio can exist without Oliver! Okay okay I'll set that aside for the moment. Who's seen all of these? Anybody? 

Boundless By the Time I Cried

My morning commute to work is often the shittiest time of the day for me to be trapped on a subway train because around 9am is when all sorts of things drop, and I go into a panic that said things -- I do love my things! -- will be sold out by the time I'm above ground and with service again in order to buy said things. So it went this morning when Sufjan Stevens announced a 10th anniversary re-release of his masterpiece album Carrie & Lowell -- don't fret though, I got mine! And you can get yours at this link. As you can see below the new vinyl looks like a stunner and it's got seven previously unreleased tracks... including a demo version of the Call Me By Your Name track "Mystery of Love"! And you can listen to that track above. Since I'm at work I haven't been able to listen to it myself yet so you tell me what you think in the comments. I am doubtless obsessed even unlistened.

Timmy Has "Words" For Us

For some reason TImothee Chalamet posted several videos of himself singing along to the song "Words" from the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack on Instagram last night, and you can watch them all here because we all deserve this mental health break. (This is the song that's playing on the radio during the scene where Elio has sex with Marzia in the attic and yes I knew this without having the check, because of course I did.) Timmy's so good at going viral (no jokes about the NYU rumors please) for the silliest of reasons. His Oscar campaign has been doppleganger flash gangs and being his own musical guest on SNL -- he delights me and remains a balm in these terrible times. Anyway hit the jump to enjoy all of the videos, which I'm not technilogically savvy enough to combine into one single video...

JAW Me By Your Name

Now here we see a few of my interests rubbing up on each other in a pleasurable way -- underpants model and professional chef pretender Jeremy Allen White is going to follow up his role as everybody's favorite New Jersey songstress with man-fucking! He's going to star in an limited series adaptation of Call Me By Your Name author André Aciman's bisexual tome Enigma Variations for Netflix. Here is the book's description:

"Enigma Variations charts the life of a man named Paul, whose loves remain as consuming and as covetous throughout his adulthood as they were in his adolescence. Whether the setting is southern Italy, where as a boy he has a crush on his parents’ cabinetmaker, or a snowbound campus in New England, where his enduring passion for a girl he’ll meet again and again over the years is punctuated by anonymous encounters with men―whether he’s on a tennis court in Central Park or on a New York sidewalk in early spring. Paul’s attachments are ungraspable, transient, and forever underwritten by raw desire. Ahead of every step Paul takes, his hopes, denials, fears, and regrets are always ready to lay their traps. Yet the dream of love lingers. We may not always know what we want. We may remain enigmas to ourselves and to others. But sooner or later, we discover who we’ve always known we were."

I actually weirdly can't remember if I read this book or not? My brain ain't what it used to be y'all. I don't think I did but if I did it would've been in 2019 and there was so much else going on right then who can remember shit. Anyway on top of this series starring JAW and coming from an Aciman novel it's being directed in full by Oliver Hermanus, the South African director who caught my attention with the gay military drama Moffie in yes ye olde 2019 (I remember Moffie!) and then further when he made the gorgeous Living with Bill Nighy, and then again when he made the queer princeling story Mary & George with Julianne Moore, and who's immediate next project -- a gay love story starring Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal called The History of Sound  that'll supposedly be out sometime this year -- has been capturing my interest every second since I first heard about it ages back for obvious reasons. 

Anyway Hermanus seems to smartly be following the Luca Guadagnino playbook in establishing his cinematic bonafides while remaining very very gay, and we love to see it. This project will obviously remain very much on our radar!

Good Morning, Queer

Good morning from the first official poster for Luca Guadagnino's Queer! A24 shared it on social media this morning along with the word that the first trailer for the movie will be coming our way next week -- I figured it'd be coming soon since the movie is out in one month and two days. Anyway that is quite the striking image and it's taken right from the film (or a variation of it is in the film anyway) -- We'd assumed that would be the font they'd be using for the film's title already because you might recall I saw Luca & Daniel & Drew & Co do a Q&A with the film a few weeks back... well if you don't recall I will share those photos and videos again below because they're always worth looking at. But anyway that font was on the big screen behind them, and it's also the font used in the movie itself. And yes it is very Call Me By Your Name right?

This movie is very much in dialogue with CMBYN -- as I mention in my review of the movie (right here) there are several hilariously aggressive pans out of the windows during the film's sex scenes which are very clearly a good natured fuck you to the people who complained about those in CMBYN. That said I'm not sure making people think they're seeing another CMBYN is a good idea because this movie is very very different, with different intentions and a very different tone. I mean I love it, a lot, but it's a different movie altogether. Anyway you'll all see soon enough. Oh and if you missed it a new photo from the movie dropped a couple of days ago as well. Here are those Q&A photos and videos I mentioned:

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Good Morning, World

I can't believe it's taken me this long to post this shot of Josh O'Connor getting the up-shorts treatment in Luca Guadagnino's tennis smash Challengers -- the second I saw it in the movie (read my review here) I flashed right back to this perfectly similar shot...

,.. of Timmy in Call Me By Your Name, which was also filmed by genius cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. And whether this is a kink of Luca's or one of Sayombhu's I don't care; I just hope they keep working together and making the movie magic happen.

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Dr. Stuhlbarg Reporting For Duty

I don't mean to do a new post for every single cast member that gets announced for Luca Guadaginino's next film -- the filming-this-summer thriller After the Hunt starring Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edibiri -- but when it's names like the ones I just mentioned or when it's news on the level of a reunion with his Call Me By Your Name and Bones and All actor Michael Stuhlbarg I think I can be forgiven. As explained previously in my first post about this movie it stars Julia Roberts as a college professor whose own troublesome past starts bubbling up when a colleague gets run outta town for bad behavior -- it's hard not to immediately picture Mr. Stuhlbarg playing said colleague, given how in his wheelhouse college professors are. He's performed two of my favorites of all time now, after all! 

That said I will always love Luca for casting him way way way against type in Bones and All, where he sweeps in for one scene playing a creepy redneck cannibal freakazoid type. What an unsettling pleasure that sequence is!

Okay So Who Watched Baby Reindeer?

I just finished Netflix's buzzy hit Baby Reindeer from creator and lead Richard Gadd (as seen above) last night and... I don't have much in the way of coherent and put-together thoughts on it quite yet but it hit me like ten tons of bricks, basically over and over again anew with each episode. Although nothing I experienced was as outrageously harsh as what Gadd went through the show definitely reminded me of some negative codependant experiences I went through early in my coming out journey -- one adult woman that I worked with back in high school tried really hard to get me to, uhh, inseminate her, and that was an uncomfortable one for sure. But it wasn't just the main stalker storyline that hits so hard -- it dug up a lot of the deeply self-destructive behavior one indulges one's self in before you allow yourself to come to grips with yourself. I talked about some of that when I wrote about Call Me By Your Name for the first time, but there's plenty more where that came from and this show was pinpoint precise in its excavation of that un-fun kind of self-abuse. Where you don't think you're worth any more than degradation. Just an astounding and brutally funny (emphasis on brutal) program and if you haven't watched it yet, do.

Happy CMBYN Day

As I said yesterday I'm not technically "here" today since I have NYFF screenings all day. But I did want to mark one of the most important holidays of the year -- the anniversary of me seeing Luca Guadagnino's film Call Me By Your Name for the first time. I saw it at NYFF this day in 2017. That sort of set off a chain reaction for several months where I wrote a whole lot about it -- click here for a post where I collected links to most of those writings. Have you watched CMBYN lately? Do you feel the same or differently about the movie now? (The whole "Armie Hammer situation" has been a difficult one to navigate, that's for certain.) Tell me something! And everybody go fuck a peach today in this movie's honor.

Reunited...

... and it feels reeeeeeeal good.

Quote of the Day

"He had no knowledge of tennis going into this.

And I think he had only a vague interest in certain tennis

specificities. He was more interested in the bodies and sweat."

That's actor Mike Faist speaking on his Challengers director Luca Guadagnino to Empire magazine, and triple-underlining why Luca remains the film director that I most identify with. I know a little bit about tennis since I have played tennis and it's one of the few sports I can stomach watching, but I also would direct a sports movie completely uninterested in the sports of it and more focused on the spectacle of beautiful bodies in motion. Also of note is this bit from the same article:

"In Challengers, it’s capturing that physicality and emotion that matters most. “What Luca’s really good at is finding sensuality and desire,” says Zendaya. “There’s so much in just glances. The tension builds. Not having the release is a good thing sometimes.” All of which is to say that, the action here is largely kept to the court. “The tennis is the sex,” explains O’Connor. “Those moments are so sexy. The film is dealing with the tension before and after. The sex they’re all desperate for is on the court.”"

This is definitely their way of telling us to expect less explicit sex than the trailer (watch it here) hinted at -- a criticism that's been heaped on Luca's shoulders ever since he (rightly) panned out the window in Call Me By Your Name, a criticism I have been calling bullshit on ever since. CMBYN remains one of the most intimate and sensual movies ever made, but y'all keep crying that you didn't see get to see explicit penetration and that makes me sad. Looks like we'll get to rehash that conversation all over again here!

Afire to Fantasia & Beyond

Did that photo of British actor Langston Uibel grab your attention? I hope so, it was meant to, for a couple of reasons. First and best there is the fact that Uibel is one of the leads of Afire, the new movie from Christian Petzold (Barbara, Phoenix, Transit), which is out in theaters tomorrow. (Here in NYC there is a preview screening tonight at the IFC Center with the great Mr. Petzold there in person.) Click here to look for where the film might be playing near you, and click here to read my review of the film from when it screened at Tribeca last month. The movie is fantastic, truly. Oh and I previously posted the trailer right here.  

Another reason why I was trying to grab your attention is I'm off now for the three-day-weekend. Do I mention that it's a three-day-weekend containing my birthday? Sure why not -- my birthday is Saturday. Shower me with affection. (Or even better go donate some funds to MNPP's coffers to keep us afloat, how about that.) I plan on doing a lot of nothing. Oh I am going to see Call Me By Your Name on the big screen for the 20-something-th time tomorrow! 

There is that! Oh and one last other thing -- one week from today I am going to fly to the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, Canada, for the first time. I've been covering the fest for many years now from afar -- this will be my first time there, in the flesh, and I am very excited. (Also nervous about pandemic stuff -- since COVID isn't over! -- but dealing.) Anyway that means next week will be another three day week, and the week after will be a two-day one, but we'll get to that when we get to it. Just a heads-up. But do check out the Fantasia Fest line-up to get an idea of all the wondrous stuff I'll be talking about soon! And please have a great weekend. Celebrating my birthday, however you see fit. 

Good Morning, World

I had some catching up to do on all kinds of things last week after I took a few days off, and one of those things -- the most important of those things! -- was watching the latest episodes of The Other Two on HBO. And sure enough they did not disappoint. The Other Two never disappoints. Not only was there an extended riff on the 1998 classic Pleasantville -- random as hell, but among one of my favorite movies so very geared to ME SPECIFICALLY which is what matters -- but Josh Segarra spent the majority of the episode getting in and out of the shower. 

At this point The Other Two so gets me (remember the Call Me By Your Name riff?) I'm legitimately worried that a character who spends an hour of their lives nearly every single day making gifs out of TV show scenes of half-naked men is going to show up on the show at some point, and the show will cut them / me to the quick. Okay not "worried" so much as "begging for it." I have it coming, The Other Two! Anyway happy Monday and hit the jump for how I spent an hour of my life (and I regret absolutely nothing)...

Good Morning, World

I knew I should do somebody from The White Lotus for this Friday morning before the second season finale's "Good Morning" post, and I realized that I (very oddly) haven't posted much about adorable actor Adam DiMarco who plays sweet cuck Albie on the show, so I went looking and found these (via) -- photos of him and his The Order co-star Sean Depner dressed as Elio and Oliver in Call Be By Your Name for Halloween in 2018 and, uhhhh, has there ever been anything more suited to a post from me? Nope! Not ever. Hit the jump for the full peachy set...

The Lovely Bones

Timothée Chalamet and the Bones and All crew are all on the cover of Variety this week and there's a big interview with everybody worth a read, and even better the photoshoot is a good one -- after a couple of shoots that were too much too much (see here for prime example) this basic black leather and bountiful curls look is sending me, truly. There are several choice bits from the interview that are vital, I really recommend reading the entire thing, but because I'm me I will quote Luca saying something new on the possibility of his Call Me By Your Name sequel:

"I would love to make a second and third and fourth chapter of all my movies,” Guadagnino says. “Why? Because I truly love the actors I work with, so I want to repeat the joy of doing what we did together.” However, when it comes to “Call Me by Your Name,” Guadagnino says, “there is no hypothesis, so there is no movie. It’s a wish and a desire, and I have not made up my mind about what would be the story.” When asked if the film could still include Hammer’s character, he says, “Yeah, of course.” Then he presents another potential storyline for a sequel — following Mafalda, the housekeeper, played by Vanda Capriolo, who resides in Elio’s family’s summer home. “Which is divine,” he says. “I would be very interested in seeing what is the life of Mafalda when she’s not around the family.”

The Mafalda movie! LOL this man just says anything, no filter, and I love him for it. I think like ten people, including both Luca and me, would be excited about a Mafalda movie. But I say bring it on. Anyway I've got the rest of the Variety photos alongside a couple of Bones and All set photos that Timmy posted on his Insta today for y'all after the jump...

Quote of the Day

There is a terrific chat with director Luca Guadagnino up at i-D Magazine today that's mostly about his cannibal romance Bones and All (out in theaters on November 18th, here is my review!) but also some on his upcoming tennis movie Challengers with Josh O'Connor and Zendaya and Mike Faist, and also a little about fashion, and oh he also drops this bomb:

ID: Is the festival journey of Bones and All the main thing that’s consuming you right now?

Luca: Well, I’m preparing a new movie. I’m working on my design practice. I am trying to rest. I’m producing other movies.

ID: It’s never just one thing?

Luca: No.

ID: Do you like it that way?

Luca: I think I do, but I also think that maybe one day I’ll change that. To clear my mind.

ID: The new movie you’re working on, do people know anything about it?

Luca: No, no one does. It’s very secret.

ID: At what point do you want to reveal that?

Luca: When the movie is finally done.

Okay so... there's that. Luca's attached himself to so many projects over the past few years this could be anything, up to and including his Call Me By Your Name sequel... although Timmy's schedule is a little heavy for that, so let's not get ahead of ourselves on that front.

Although (cue me getting ahead of myself on that)  all they'd need is a few squirreled away weeks, lord knows. I will flash you back now to the very first post I did on CMBYN in May of 2016 when nobody knew anything about the movie -- it hadn't been announced, nor would anybody much have cared at the time if they had since Timmy wasn't a thing (I barely paid attention to him in that post) and Luca's films were strictly art-house. It was only a blip of a rumor as it shot, and only became a thing in the following months... and yes I like to think my relentless shrieking about it maybe had a little bit of an effect. It's one of my few indulgences, although me that. But hyping my ego aside all I'm really saying here is they managed to shoot the first film without anybody noticing -- it would be harder in 2023-23 but not entirely impossible if that was what they wanted to do.

My honest guess though is this is something smaller -- could be another fashion movie like his short film The Staggering Girl, or could even be another documentary like his Ferragamo doc that came out earlier this month. We will unfortunately just have to wait and see. Still... one does get tickled, thinking about them dropping news of a finished CMBYN sequel out of nowhere. And yes as Luca's said many times his idea for a "sequel" is very different from what we normally associate with the word -- I don't foresee it having much to do with Andre Aicman's book Find Me at all, for one. He just wants to make The Further Adventures of Elio, basically.

My Babies Be Hitting 4K!

On November 22nd, just in time for them there holidays, Sony Pictures Classics will be releasing a great big fancy boxed-set of eleven movies in 4K UHD, many of them exclusives meaning only available this way in this boxed-set, and the list of titles included has got me running around the room making crazy person noises. Top of tops there's Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name, first and foremost. But there's also Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, there's also Pedro Almodovar's Volver, there's also Orlando and Run Lola Run and The Devil's Backbone and The Celluloid Closet and City of Lost Children and there is also Charlie Kaufman's mf-ing Synecdoche New York! Have I been leaving my body at night to float into another person's body who works at Sony in order to choose this selection myself or what? Is that why I am always so tired? I have a secret flip life making blu-ray boxed-sets??? You can pre-order the set at this link -- for more specifics head over to the fine folks at High Def Disc News, where I found this info first.