Not a Bad View

Kingsman pals Edward Holcroft & Taron Egerton say hi. (via)

Good Morning, World

I think we can all extend gratitude (I said extended gratitude) to Edward Holcroft for sharing this selfie and making my return to the blogging seat all that much sweeter. As foretold I have been in NYFF screenings for the past two straight days, but today I am here! Lucky everyone. None of us as lucky as Edward, since he sees Edward in the mirror, but lucky enough anyway. Happy Hump Day! Let's try to get to it, then...

Today's Fanboy Delusion

 Today I'd rather be...

... giving Edward Holcroft's tongue 

something to focus on. (via)

Edward Holcroft One Time

I don't know why Edward Holcroft has suddenly become so active and thirsty on social media (see also) out of nowhere, but I am going to invent myself a god worth praying to just so I can pray to it that this keeps up. (via)

Which is Hotter?

Two of MNPP's favorite underrated hot pieces have taken shirtless glass-door selfies and posted them to Instagram over the past week -- a weird coincidence! But one that gives us the fun opportunity to force them to duke it out via their spectacular abdominal muscles. (And tell me you wouldn't pay good money to watch that.) Above is the actor Edward Holcroft (via), best known for the Kingsman movies (check our Eddie archives here), and below...

... is Morgan Spector (via), who's married to Rebecca Hall and is everybody's main lust object on The Gilded Age, among other notable accomplishments. (Check our Morgan archives here, but really make sure you see this post in particular.) This is Morgan's second gratuitous selfie this summer (after this one hubba hubba), and we are deeply appreciative of his newfound social media thirst. Anyway, now we make them fight:

online polls

Jack Attack the Weekend Like What

All week I have been qualifying every single post with the caveat that Nobody Should Expect Much From Me Right Now, and I think y'all got it by now -- I mean, clearly. Why would anyone? Ever? But there are actually four movies out today, all via online platforms I do believe, that I do feel the need to call your attention to, even if I don't have it in me to review them right now. So I will try to do that right now. As simply as possible. Ha, ha. 

First up! There is a horror movie called Kindred out today thanks to IFC Films -- I shared the trailer with you a few weeks back. It stars Tamara Lawrance as a young woman who has understandably gotten herself impregnated by and engaged to the gorgeous Edward Holcroft. They go to visit his estranged mum (played by living legend Fiona Shaw), who is fussed over by a personal assistant (played by a deliciously creepy Jack Lowden), and... shit goes shitty. I saw this a few weeks back and it's actually terrific, totally terrific, carried by a genuinely attained sense of paranoia and claustrophobia, and some very very fine acting from Lawrance, Shaw and Lowden. Shaw in particular has this one monologue that's riveting. Seek this out! 

Next! Our benevolent brunette queen Eva Green plays an astronaut (and a mom!) in Proxima, for Disorder directress Alice Winocour. I reviewed this movie months and months ago right here. Eva Green is great. The movie is great. Seek this out!

Next next! One of my favorite horror films of 2019 was the Swedish monstrosity Koko-di Koko-da, which I reviewed right here thanks to last year's Brooklyn Horror Fest. It's a deeply unsettling and aggressively unkind film so, you know, be forewarned going in. And I actually re-watched it on Halloween night -- a right and proper honor, that -- and it totally held up. This movie messes hard with my brain in the best of ways. Seek it out!

And finally there's the movie Morta, which I just shared the trailer with you a couple of weeks ago as well. This is the new one from Norwegian filmmaker André Øvredal, who's already gifted us with the great Trollhunter, the great Autopsy of Jane Doe, and the great Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. It feels like sort of a return to Trollhunter territory in that its actively engaged with the myths of André's homeland -- in this case (semi spoiler alert) the same Norse thunder-god shit that a certain Chris Hemsworth has been coasting on for a decade now. Mortal stars Nat Wolff as an American hitchhiker in Norway whose unexplained fire-powers start terrorizing the locals. And I hate to end this recommendation heap on a sour note but... I will. I watched this last night and didn't love it. Øvredal directs the hell out of his action sequences, it's a beautiful looking movie, but I just never fell for the leads and without you caring about their romance it's just a big empty light show. Oh well! Onto the next, André! 

Invasion of the Ginger Snatchers

First things first it seems important to share the above photo of former Dunkirk twink and current Saoirse squeeze Jack Lowden hanging out with his bearded ballet-dancing brother Calum -- you know. Important. Jack's Instagram has been fun over quarantine -- I advocate following him for your recommended daily dosage of ginger goodness. Sometimes doubled! You can't OD on Ginger!

Moving on! Jack is the co-star of a very fine horror movie that's coming out very soon! And yes that is The Great And Honorable Fiona Shaw you see in the above gif alongside him. The movie is called Kindred and IFC is dropping it on November 6th -- it stars Tamara Lawrance (a British actress seen in several TV series over there; she's also featured in one of Steve McQueen's upcoming "Small Axe" series of films) as a young woman in love with our boy Edward Holcroft...

... which marks any character automatically as "smart." Anyway they go to the country to visit his mother (Shaw) and... things get scary. I have indeed already seen this and will review it closer to its release date but I recommend you put Kindred in your calendars, is what I am saying for now. November 6th. That being said this trailer gives away too much, and you maybe shouldn't watch it. I enjoyed knowing nothing going in. But you're an adult and can make your own damn decisions, so here. Choose wisely...

Good Morning, World

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The Oscar-wannabe Mary Queen of Scots hits blu-ray today and so I figured I'd go looking for some of its queer king Jack Lowden to post -- recall we awarded him with one of our "Great Gratuities" last week for that movie -- but it turns out there ain't much to find. These gifs are from the 2014 WWI miniseries called The Passing Bells but I have to believe there's more than this hint of shoulder out there in the world? Right? He's only been acting since 2010, so we'll give him some time. He's re-teaming with Dunkirk co-star Tom Hardy in Fonzo, the Al Capone flick, and he's doing what sounds like a gothic horror flick called Corvidae with Fiona Shaw and also-crush Edward Holcroft for 2020... let's get them boys in a small sweaty room together and see what happens! You can follow Jack on Instagram here; and see more that we've posted of him here.

Edward Holcroft Thirteen Times

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I stumbled upon a few photo-shoots of the astonishingly handsome Edward Holcroft today that've somehow never been posted here on the site before - I wonder if I might have posted them on the old Tumblr before it was unceremoniously deleted? Anyway they're worthy of looking at so I'm re-posting them now, dammit. Take that!

Did any of you watch Gunpowder, the miniseries he co-starred in with Kit Harington in December? I hadn't even realized it aired! I thought it was something in the future. Was it that bad? Insanely Edward has nothing officially lined up on IMDb right now, which is blowing my mind. Give this man a job, job givers! Here's some convincing, hit the jump for the rest of the pictures...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

I Shot Andy Warhol (1996)

Paul Morrissey: You call this a groovy light show. I'd rather sit and watch the clothes dryer at the Laundromat. Oh, look. It changed color. Where's a love child? They'll get a kick outta this. Only a hippie would find this even remotely interesting, but I'll tell ya. You spend one day with the hippies, and you realize how truly refreshing and unpretentious, hard core, New York degenerates are.

I really need to re-watch this movie, I haven't seen it in such a very long time. A happy birthday to director Mary Harron today! I am going out of my way to not quote Mary Harron's Masterpiece American Psycho obviously, because that's usually my go-to, but the woman has got a stellar filmography top to bottom... even if the race from the top to the bottom of it is far too brief. Did we all watch Alias Grace by now? Thoughts? And thoughts besides, "I want to bend Edward Holcroft over a barrel" I mean...

Give Me the Grace To Accept

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Today sure is trailer heavy. Today is to trailers as what Dolly Parton is to boobs. And on that ultra feminist note, the first teaser trailer for Alias Grace has arrived! Based on the book by Margaret Atwood, directed by Mary Harron, written by Sarah Polley, and starring Sarah Gadon, this thing represents one whopper of a collection of most excellent female energy. Read our previous posts here. And watch:

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The six-part series premieres in Canada on September 25th (it';s a Canadian production) - it's airing thanks to Netflix here in the US but I'm not entirely sure the date's the same for us. Anyway as great as The Handmaid's Tale turned out to be Alias Grace has got an even loftier pedigree, with that director and that writer, so my hopes are even higher here. And that's without even mentioning that gorgeous Edward Holcroft is in it!

Pics of the Day

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Alias Grace, the new Margaret Atwood adaptation (following the currently-wowing Handmaid's Tale, of course), keeps coming up in conversation these days and I keep not remembering who's starring in the dang thing, so I'm glad I've finally got photographs (via) to aid my bumbling brain now. I kept thinking Sarah Polley was starring in the thing but she's just (just?) writing and producing, while American Psycho director Mary Harron is directing. 

But acting duties have gone to Cosmopolis star Sarah Gadon as the lowliest servant girl who stands accused of murdering her boss and his main housekeeper (played by Paul Gross and Anna Paquin). There's also a role for London Spy super-hottie Edward Holcroft...

... I'm guessing he's an inspector because he's very determinedly writing in his little booklet there. I'm getting real "Rachel McAdams, Serious Journalist" vibes from that photograph. Zahary Levi also stars, although strangely IMDb has no idea who he's playing.

Then again I've never read this book so damned if I'd know anyway.  Anybody read it? So there are more pictures at this link; the show debuts in Canada in late September but it also hits Netflix sometime this Fall - hopefully there's not too much of a break between one and the other. You've already got Justin Trudeau, Canada. How much do you need???

Edward Holcroft Four Times

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I Am Link

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--- The Hole In Holcroft - I don't know if there will even be a second season of London Spy, much less whether there's any way in which they could get Edward Holcroft onto it if there was (I suppose there could be flashbacks) so for now I'm latching onto the news that his character will return in the next Kingsman movie (thanks Mac) as my happy place. I need Pretty Eddie in everything already dammit! And with much more ass-grabbing please. It can be Taron Egerton grabbing his ass -- I am totally fine with that. 

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--- Them Winter Winds - I'm one of the dorky book-loving lameoids who's been trying to come to a decision on whether I'll be watching the 6th season of A Game of Thrones in live-time or not, since I was afraid they'd be spoiling things, but I kind of figured it'd be impossible to avoid the big shockers of the season since the noise off the show is so loud and I'd probably end up crumbling anyway, so I am happy to hear the show-runners say that the two versions of the story, theirs and GRRM's, have diverged enough that it's not really going to be a problem. Do I one hundred percent believe them? Hell no. But I'm going to grab onto it and convince myself I do for now, at least.

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--- Civil Savants - Per usual Guillermo Del Toro has spent a ton of time talking up a ton of great big projects only to wander off to something weird we didn't even know he was up to... but man does it sound promising! And fast coming, at that! I don't think it has a title yet but his new movie's described thus: "a mysterious and magical journey set against the backdrop of Cold War-era America circa 1963 with an otherworldly love story at the center of it." That's all well and good but listen to the actors he's lined up to star -- Michael Stuhlbarg, Octavia Spencer, and Sally Hawkins! Wowza! We have loved Stuhlbarg with all our heart ever since he starred in the Coens' best recent film A Serious Man.

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--- Put It Anywhere - I can't believe Nathaniel had never seen Cruel Intentions before! Over at The Film Experience Nat took the movie on, and of course since he's got no nostalgic pull for it he saw it for the piece of crap it is, which it totally is. I love it too, you guys, but it is a garbage movie. Anyway I find this conversation funny because my boyfriend just re-watched the movie earlier this week, unconnected to this happening at TFE, and we were having this conversation two days ago. The movie has not aged well, not at all, but the fun stuff in it (SMG and Ryan Phillippe's butt, probably not in that order) remain fun, and I could quote the movie til the cows come home.

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--- The Mad Ginger - Three more actors have been cast in Bryan Fuller's forthcoming adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book American Gods -- I don't know two of them but I do know and you do know Sean Harris, who got cast as Mad Sweeney, an Irish God (aka a leprechaun); Harris is the dude whose death in Ridley Scott's Prometheus (his plastic helmet got melted onto his face, suffocating him) gave me a full scale panic attack. Besides that he's been one of Those Guys lately, in absolutely everything. (We last saw him in Macbeth, opposite Fassy.)

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--- Making Mud - Carey Mulligan and Garrett Hedlund and Jason Clarke (plus Jason Mitchell from Straight Outta Compton but I never saw Straight Outta Compton so I don't know him but supposedly he's good) are teaming up with Pariah director Dee Rees to adapt the book Mudbound into a movie; it's about a Mississippian married lady who gets caught up in romance with two soldiers returning from WWII, one white and one black. Anyway Mulligan & Clarke & Hedlund hells yeah. Anyone read the book? I loved watching Carey torn between beautiful men in Far From the Madding Crowd; she needs to keep with that, she is good at it.

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--- Worst Actor Alive - I totally don't believe Henry Cavill's story about getting locked out of his hotel room in LA while drunk and naked and peeing off of a rooftop that he told on a talk show this week so I'm not giving him the time (whoops too late), so in "cute guys telling silly stories on talk shows" news I give the edge to Jake Gyllenhaal, who told a story about Peter Jackson calling him the worst actor he'd ever seen when he auditioned for the role of Frodo in Lord of the Rings. Jake's such a try-hard I could totally see him bombing like this.

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--- And Speaking of Frodo, Elijah Wood just got a new role! He's going to play the "holistic" detective Dirk Gently in a BBC miniseries of that name, based on an apparently well-regarded series of books by Douglas Adams, author of the definitely well-regarded series of books The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Strangely (I love Hitchhiker) I don't know the books -- do any of you? Anyway the series was written by Max Landis, who did pretty well with the movie Chronicle, and fairly poor with the movie Victor Frankenstien, so who knows where this will fall.

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Edward Holcroft Follows in Fassy's Big Footsteps

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Actor Edward Holcroft, known for his roles in Kingsman: The Secret Service and London Spy (mmm London Spy), is in the new issue of Interview Magazine, and besides the lovely pictures there's also, you know, words alongside. So maybe you want to like read them and stuff? There is one worthwhile bit for sure though, when he's asked why he went to the Drama Centre London for acting school and he has this to say:

"Michael Fassbender and Tom Hardy had just been there. Literally, that was the reason. I didn't know much about acting, I didn't know much about the drama schools. I knew that there were sort of four or five really good schools, like RADA and LAMDA, and Drama Centre was one of them, and I didn't know how to pick because I didn't know what I wanted from each school and I didn't know what I was doing. So I just picked actors who I had seen around that time who I thought had been brilliant. I remember I had seen Fassbender in Hunger and I thought, "Where did he go to school?" I looked it up and it said Drama Centre so I said, "Right, I'm going to go there." And that was that. I turned up and then I got in." 

We should all do exactly what Michael Fassbender and/or Tom Hardy do, honestly. Like,  Michael Fassbender and/or Tom Hardy, they each respectively handle Michael Fassbender and/or Tom Hardy's private parts -- like every day! I want in on that racket. Ahem. As for Edward if you missed it we did a big post on him right here; and for more pictures from this Interview spread, hit the jump...

Edward Holcroft One Time

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In case you missed our post on Edward & Ben Whishaw in London Spy this morning, click here -- we're nursing a brand new obsession, for sure. Can't wait for the second episode! (pic via Simon Lipman)

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Good Morning, World

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The gay sex scene in the first episode of London Spy, starring Ben Whishaw and Edward Holcroft as two lovely young men meeting in a world full of secrets, got a lot of attention this week, and for good reason -- it's hot as hell. But I'm more interested this morning in this earlier scene in the show...

... which comes right after the two have met. Holcroft's character brings Whishaw back to his house and you think it's gonna be just a hook-up, because...

... good goddamn who wouldn't just jump on Edward Holcroft if given the opportunity? But this scene, and this show, plays everything a lot more interesting than that.

Thing about this scene is it rang so much truer to life, for me at least, than any immediate bow-chicka-wah-wah scene would've - indeed I have a really fond memory of a date with a guy in college going exactly like this scene goes. We went back to his place, he took a shower...

... and nothing happened. The introduction into the situation of bedrooms and showers and all that naked-adjacent stuff adds a charge to the moment, for sure. But a lot of us are too awkward, or want more, than gay men often get painted as.

So bless this scene for its restraint. It's sexy restraint, but it's restraint nonetheless. And all of the build up makes the later scene (which calm yourselves you can find it on Tumblr in five seconds if you need it right this very moment) all the hotter.

By the way I looooved this first episode more than I have loved the first episode of anything in a long while. It is a very very good show! Ben Whishaw is, as usual, killing it. And Holcroft's great - he's got a difficult task set before him, telegraphing weirdness and mystery while remaining The Dream Guy, and he pulls it off. Plus the look of the show and the sound of the show is top notch. Seek it out!

Whisk Me Away Ben Whishaw

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Way back in February we told you about the upcoming BBC2 drama London Spy about Ben Whishaw getting embroiled in homosexuality and espionage (perhaps not in that order) with Kingsman actor and pretty pretty thing Edward Holcroft (we also posted lots of pictures of Holcroft while we were at it, natch) -- well the show premieres in the UK on November 9th so the press be coming and we've now got a couple of stills...

... and a trailer!

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(Thanks to Tara for the heads-up!)

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But Can Ya Blame Ben Whishaw?

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That is the first picture of Ben Whishaw in the upcoming BBC series London Spy, about a young homosexual who falls for a dude only to have said dude subsequently go missing, which gets our Ben (he'll be playing the young homosexual) summarily sucked into a world of espionage and intrigue. Sounds, dare I say, INTRIGUING. (Sorry.) Apparently there was some kerfuffle in the fall because the BBC loudly proclaimed that they were looking for "an immensely talented non-Caucasian actor" to play the role of the prospective boyfriend of Ben's only to end up casting a non-non-Caucasion in the form of  Edward Holcroft, who is very very white.

But he's also terribly hot! It's a conundrum! I just actually took a mental note of Mr. Holcroft two nights ago while watching Kingsman: The Secret Service...

...  that this dude is definitely going places, and whaddya know, here he is. He could suck me into intrigue any day of the week. Insist on lots of kissing scenes before he disappears, Ben. So I gathered up a few more pictures (including shots of him with his Kingsman co-star Taron Egerton as well as with his good friend Douglas Booth) and you can hit the jump for them...