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!

Happy 36 to Twin Peaks!

Tell me your favorite moment or character 

or Twin Peaks something in the coments.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Boxing Helena (1993)

Dr. Nick Cavanaugh: If you were a 

real woman,  you'd lie to me about our sex.

A very happy birthday to director Jennifer Lynch today -- I have recently been in mourning for the many many years that I went without this perfectly accursed (complimentary) movie in my life, having only seen it for the first time in 2022. I did get to see it on the big screen in 2024 though (I love living in this city!) and it fully cemented itself as one of my favorite pieces of deranged cinema. I can't even pretend it's just for reasons of camp that I love this movie anymore -- I just love it with my full body and soul. And that's me talking with all of my limbs still attached! But seriously -- if you've never seen Bill Paxton's performance in this movie, you have not lived. Same goes for Julian Sands in the tiniest running shorts ever put on-screen. Same goes for limbless Sherilyn Fenn sipping sweet tea through a straw. Oh my god I have to watch it again right now. Thank you, Jennifer Lynch! 

Good Morning, Coop

Happy Twin Peaks Day, everyone!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Straight Story (1999)

Alvin: You don't think about getting old 

when you're young... you shouldn't.

Steve: Must be something good about gettin' old?

Alvin : Well I can't imagine anything good about being 

blind and lame at the same time but, still at my age,

I've seen about all that life has to dish out. 

I know to separate the wheat from the chaff 

and let the small stuff fall away.

Rat: That's cool, man. So, uh, 

what's the worst part about being old, Alvin?

Alvin: Well, the worst part of being old 

is rememberin' when you was young.

We lost David Lynch one year ago today. 

The world misses you, my good man.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

Alice: I saw the "Waitress Wanted" sign. 

I said, "Why not?" So I took this job.

Flo: Well let me give you a hint.
Honey, unbutton that top button.

Alice: Really?

Flo: Yeah. If you bend over you get
more tips when you're working.

Alice: You're kidding me.

Flo: I'm not kidding. I got $50 last week.

Alice: Really?

Flo: Yeah.

Alice: Like that?

Flo: Yeah. Honey, forget what I said. 

You do that and I'm never going to get a tip again.

Terrible awful news to hear that Diane Ladd passed away today -- her daughter Laura Dern (maybe you've heard of her) released a statement saying "My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother passed with me beside her this morning at her home in Ojai, California. She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created. We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.” I'm just going to assume that last line is a reference to Ladd's iconic role as Marietta in Wild At Heart where she recreates the Wicked Witch's broomstick flight:

I actually almost quoted that role for this post, but then I decided quoting her role as Dern's mother Helen on Mike's White's series Enlightened would be even better but I couldn't find a transcript of the script for that show's legendary episode all about Helen -- one of the great episodes of T.V. period, the end. She was so good on that show. Goddamn Enlightened was a masterpiece ahead of its time. 

Anyway from there that brought me to her lovely and hysterically funny performance in Martin Scorsese's great Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. I grew up watching the spin-off T.V. series Alice, my mom loved it, so I never saw Scorsese's film until I was an adult -- seeing Ladd's take on the grits-kissing role that Polly Holliday (who passed away earlier this year, marking a real bad year for Flos) had burned into my little brain was a surprise and a joy. She's wonderful in it. Anyway I kind of can't believe she passed away before Bruce Dern did (not to jinx anything -- sorry, Laura!) since Bruce has seemed so frail for so long, and so this came as a real surprise to me today. Rest in peace, icon.

 

Happy Halloween!

May all your dreams come true.

 

Nightmares & Fire: Criterion's Month of Violence

Every year October always has my favorite releases from the Criterion Collection -- I think it's the meeting of them ramping up for the holidays plus lots of horror because of Halloween? Anyway they've just announced their October 2025 releases and once again -- my god it's the good shit. Kicking it off they've got Ken Russell's hallucinatory 1980 gem Altered States, which is one of my personal faves -- peak William Hurt turning into a neanderthal after dosing himself with too much psychology? What's not to love? It's Russell at his most bonkers... well okay it's hard to quanitfy "most bonkers" when it comes to Russell but this one's up there. Can't wait to take this in in 4K -- it lands on October 21st.

Next up Guillemo Del Toro's tremendous 2021 noir-carny vision Nightmare Alley is finally finally getting a physical media release (it's a Netflix joint so it hasn't before this) -- I know reactions to this were mixed but I loved it, it's one of my favorite of Del Toro's movies, and I am of the mind that Bradley Cooper gives his best performance to date in it. (aAnd given how much I soured on him otherwise over the past couple of years that's saying something.) Then there's the one title this month I'm unfamiliar with -- Mexican director Arturo Ripstein's 1996 melodrama Deep Crimson -- anyone know it?

Then there are the inevitable 4K upgrades of discs they've released before, but man oh man are these a wild duo of masterpieces -- David Lynch's Twin Peaks prequel Fire Walk With Me and  Georges Franju's 1960 horror classic Eyes Without a Face. You can't go wrong with either of those, which besides being perfect are both gorgeous to look at and will no doubt stun in 4K. Oh and then there's a double dose of David Cronenberg joints -- his most recent film The Shrouds (which hasn't gotten nearly enough love if you ask me) and his 2006 neo-noir A History of Violence. The latter has quite the surprising cover -- personally I love it but I feel as if it might be divisive? Thoughts?

Good Morning, World

After a couple of days of dreary rain it's a beautiful spring day here in NYC so I'm feeling this sunny photoshoot of Lewis Pullman for GQ that dropped this morning -- and that's before we even get to whether I'm feeling Lewis Pullman or not. (So to speak. Obviously. Unfortunately.) I will say this post graduates him onto the sidebar, as we've now done enough posts for him to have his own tag -- but truth be told I feel like I still haven't seen him in a ton. He was memorable in the Top Gun sequel in a cast of many. He's got a great ass. (What -- these are important matters!) And he certainly left an impression dancing around in itty bitty black briefs in that movie Skincare last year too. I still haven't seen Thunderbolts but I hear he's good in it? Otherwise... 

Lewis Pullman loves a photobooth!

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) May 6, 2025 at 2:27 PM

... I am a fan of his photobooth fetish. He's certainly already in his short career left more of an impression on me than his father ever did -- I know some people love him but I can't think of a Bill Pullman performance I ever connected to. Him and Patricia Arquette are far and away my least favorite David Lynch pair of protagonists in Lost Highway, and that's about as big a strike one can have against themselves. What else is there -- the President in Independence Day? The sleeping guy in While You Were Sleeping?  The fact that people ever confused Pullman with the electric wattage of Bill Paxton -- WTF. Aaaaanyway we're not here to talk about Lewis' daddy, nepo-whatever aside -- I haven't seen Lewis in enough, so I'm still making up my mind. He's cute and I don't hold the terrible Salem's Lot re-do against him. He's in the plus column right now. Any thoughts on Lewis from you, my peanut gallery? Either way hit the jump for the rest of this sunny morning photoshoot...

Eyes Up Here!

I'm sure several of you brainiacs have long been familiar with the 1956 Japanese science-fiction film Warning From Space but I only found out about it this week and watched it on Prime last night and here we are, interupting our regularly scheduled beefcake parade to recommend this wild and wackadoo piece of vintage WTF-ery. The copy that's on Prime is good, a perfectly fine way to first experience the film, but I have to wager the blu-ray that Arrow put out in 2020 is probably even better and you can buy that right here if you're a maniac like me (which yes translates to "I bought this blu ray halfway through watching it on streaming because it was rocking me so hard.") Anyway -- just what the hell is this movie? 

Glad you asked. It's about a race of starfish aliens with one big eye in their centers who beam down to Earth, immediately realize they're hideously ugly and so they then morph into a cabaret singer (I mean obviously) so they can deliver their message of imminent doom to humanity. From there it all gets a little bit Melancholia, a little bit Threads, and yes I am indeed naming some of the darkest movies you can imagine because it really gets that dark at times. But I'd also include Tin Burton's Mars Attacks! to the mix -- hell even David Lynch seems like he might've been influenced by this movie. It's super weird while also absolutely gorgeous to look at in that midcentury sci-fi kinda way.  Point being I'm 100% obsessed with it now and I am here recommending y'all take the trip yourselves if you haven't already. And if you have tell me you're obsessed too in the comments so we can bond over it please!  

Cannot believe WARNING FROM SPACE only entered my life today - I am going to have to spend every day for the rest of my life making up for its absence

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) April 24, 2025 at 9:50 PM

Damn Fine Coffee

The streaming service MUBI is bringing all three seasons of David Lynch's masterpiece Twin Peaks -- including the brain-breaking The Return, which aired on Showtime 25 years after the first two aired on ABC in 1990 -- on June 13th! This year marks the show's 30th anniversary so this is a nice way to honor that -- another nice way to honor that is to start listening to the watch-along podcast "The Detective and the Log Lady" which has been gifting us with weekly recaps for the past several months and which I'm sure I've mentioned here previously since one half of its hosting duties are performed by our forever blogging pal the Final Girl herself Stacie Ponder. The other half is the great Mike Muncer of "Evolution of Horror" fame -- Stacie's watching the show for the first time while Mike is a longtime fan and it's a lot of fun to listen to their takes on the series episode by episode. And it's given me a good excuse to re-watch the entire thing. We're in the smack-dab middle of The Return right now, so nearing the end -- just nother nine episodes to go I guess? That makes me sad! But it's not like Twin Peaks isn't made to be revisited. Now that it'll be streaming on MUBi maybe I'll just start it all over again when we finish! There are such wonders to behold...  

Quote of the Day

"A lot of people have donated to the David Lynch Foundation. It was something he was very passionate about. People can also follow Agent Cooper’s advice and give themselves a present every day. My father could not believe what was going on in the world politically, and it was very upsetting to him. People can be kind to each other. As much darkness as he was able to swim in and express, there was so much more light in his work. People can do nice things for other people in his name. That would make him very happy."

Y'all should go read Vanity Fair's interview with David Lynch's daughter, the director Jennifer Lynch today -- as sad as the subject is so many of her words moved me greatly. Above is her answer to the final question that she's asked, about what people could do in memorium of her father, and it's a perfect testament to his legacy. As she also says in the chat -- for all the darkness in his work there's just as much sweetness and light and joy. And with all the horrors we're seeing on the news every minute it's important to remember to keep those things alive and vital in your life. They can't win if we don't let them beat it out of us. Fix your hearts or die!

Pics of the Day

I thought I'd said all I needed to say about last night's Oscars in my earlier post and we could move on (as I'm always so super anxious to do with awards season) -- but then I remembered that nominee Isabella Rossellini wore a blue velvet gown to honor David Lynch and I started crying again! Just a perfect tribute -- if the show itself couldn't be bothered save a five second placard in their "In Memorium" segment to honor the most important American filmmaker of the past oh let's say fifty years, then at least Isabella and her seat partner Laura Dern got to be front and center and do their own little visual tribute. Sad they couldn't get Kyle Maclachlan and Naomi Watts beside them, but every time they cut to these two it packed a wallop. The Oscars, you might recall with the righteous fury of indignation I too carry, only ever gave Lynch an Honorary Oscar, and his acceptance of it got shuffled off to a side-show. As I've said before that was my breaking point with truly giving a shit about these awards. The break that started with Brokeback officially broke then! Anyway bless these two queens for representing.

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

Sometimes I wonder if there is still magic to be discovered in this world, but this morning I am here to tell you kiddos that yes, there is -- there is still magic! Look no further than me discovering in the year 2025 that Texas Chain Saw director Tobe Hooper made I'm Dangerous Tonight, a Made-For-TV thriller in 1990 about an evil red dress possessed by Incan Devilry that starred Twin Peaks actress Mädchen Amick, Psycho star Anthony Perkins, E.T. & Cujo icon Dee Wallace, and... R. Lee Ermey? Because why not?

You'd think I'd have read something about this movie when my beloved Peter Strickland's killer red dress classic In Fabric came out in 2018 but if somebody did mention it it completely slipped past me -- only this week did I learn of its existence when Letterboxd made a list of movies about "Cursed Objects" (thanks to the release of Oz Perkins' The Monkey) and mentioned this film. Obviously I had to watch it immediately -- I couldn't even wait for the blu-ray to arrive in the mail, I watched the shitty quality copy that you see in these gifs. And it was worth every second of squinting!

Tobe clearly knew he had to lean hard into the camp, so this thing is soapy, it's stupid, it's trash, and I loved every fucking second of it. But let's get to this death scene here --  Mädchen's sex-obsessed cousin Gloria (Daisy Hall, chewing the walls themselves) steals the dress from Mädchen and upon putting it on immediately goes into a slutty rage. Her ten foot tall actual linebacker boyfriend obviously never stood a chance! Hit the jump for the rest of the scene...

Today's Mood

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Wild at Heart (1990)

Lula: Dell said that trust in the spirit of Christmas was destroyed by ideas being controlled by aliens wearing black gloves. These aliens would get Dell to do all kinds of things. Then he'd carry on about the weather, talk about how rainfall is controlled by aliens on earth. Aunt Rootie told Dell that one day he would realize that the alien wearing the black gloves was him, and him alone.

Ain't that the truth.
A happy 58 to Laura Dern today!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Carrie (1977)

Margaret: I can see your dirty pillows. Everyone will.

Carrie: Breasts, Mama. They're called breasts, 

and every woman has them.

The grand Piper Laurie was born 93 years ago today!

Have some roadhouse whiskey in her honor!

Today's Mood

Happy birthday, David Lynch.

 

The Saddest Weekend of the Year

That is a photo fo Jonathan Bailey that I have posted before but I need a pick-me-up here on the day after David Lynch died so don't judge. I've mostly spent today reading Lynch tributes, hence the relative quiet -- although I also have a review that'll be hitting Pajiba at some point today or this weekend so stay tuned for that. See -- I haven't been completely sidelined! I am trying to hold Lynch's cheery workmanship attitude at the forefront of my mind -- he would want us to keep writing, to keep making, with every fiber of our being. Anyway the review I wrote was not of Wolf Man -- I mentioned at the beginning of this week I was seeing a screening of that but subway troubles got in the way and I missed that screening, so I haven't seen that one yet! I'm hoping to get to it this weekend even though the reviews do seem pretty limp. But unlike most weekends as of late I do actually plan on leaving the house on Sunday...

... since they're screening a new restoration of Pink Narcissus at MoMA! I cannot miss that! And since I'll be off the couch anyway why not try to be something like a human person and do some other stuff? Imagine that. I think more of that will be imperative to not collapse into total existential despair about the state of everything. Getting off the couch is a good start! (Who even am I and what I have I done with me? Spreading such statements. Filth!) Anyway each and every one of you have a great weekend. Even if it's generally stated that the third weekend of January is always the year's most depressing time. What do they know? Just go buy some of my shit off of eBay since I need to pay for the twenty David Lynch related things I bought in the past 24 hours and that will cheer you up. Oh and definitely do watch something by Lynch this weekend. If I find the time (couch-evading be damned) I'm going to try to watch his shortlived 1992 series On The Air, which has been fully uploaded onto Archive.org right here. It's one of the very few remaining Lynch works I have never seen! Actually now that I think about it that's what I'm doing tonight. Come, join me!

Pic of the Day

Fans left flowers and candles and photos memorializing David Lynch at the Bob's Big Boy statue in Burbank yesterday -- this might be the perfect Lynchian tribute. If you're not aware Lynch went to this this diner every day for seven years at 2:30 in the afternoon to have a coffee and a chocolate shake -- he said he went at that precise moment in the day because that was the time when the milkshake machine was working just right. (pic via) And here is a picture I have posted before, from happier times: