Matt Keeslar Says What

No no no baby! I ain't been ignoring you! I promise. I've just been trying to get some off-blog stuff done this Monday -- one of which was sending out holiday cards (zzzz) and the other much more exciting thing was I have been listing tons and tons and more tons of movies onto eBay for sale. I spent all day yesterday on one of my pruning jags, making space for new movies by getting rid of older ones -- anyway check the eBay out if you're interested in buying some movies from me. And yes there are two, count 'em two, Gregg Araki movies listed. Also a couple of Criterion box-sets and a heap of Jake Gyllenhaal movies that I'm upgrading to 4K. Good shit to stuff yer stockings with!

A Very Important Bisexual Announcement

Gregg Araki's throuple-coded romp Splendor from 1999 and starring a perhaps never hotter Johnathon Schaech, Kathleen Robertson and Matt Keeslar (swoon), is now streamng, for the first time anywhere I believe, on Tubi! Watch it right here! Granted the man-on-man action in this movie is extremely and frustratingly limited -- Araki for all his gay cred often edged us on that front -- but the homo-tension between Schaech & Keeslar is still enough to light my socks on fire every time I watch and re-watch and rewind and pause this movie, and I think you'll enjoy it too if you've never seen it. (See my previous posts on it here.) I have been having the feeling that this movie might be getting a physical media release soon -- once Gregg''s long long long begged for "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy" finally made its way to Criterion and then Smiley Face made it to Vinegar Syndrome I figured it'd only be a matter of time before the rest of his classics got dug up. I have a feeling that The Living End might be ahead as well. Also I just realized that I think Kaboom is out of print too? WTF! And of course Araki's series Now Apocalypse is still in desperate need of any release at all. Get to it, studios!

Heads Up, Happy People

Heads-up, happy people! The vast library of our beloved Criterion Collection is on sale on Amazon right now at 50% off! This will presumably be for the entire month of November as they do this to compete with the same sale at Barnes & Noble that typically starts a little later in the month. That means it also includes pre-orders for movies out before the end of November, which includes Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water, the original Godzilla in 4K, and Paper Moon in 4K! And of course it includes last month's barnstormer of an excellent drop with Todd Solondz' Happiness, a Val Lewton horror double-feature, All of Us Strangers, and that to-die-for Gregg Araki trilogy! And then there's the issue of that massive 40-film 40th anniversary box-set that Criterion is releasing on November 17th -- that's not priced at the full 50% off right now but it is priced at $400, so $10 a movie, which seems like a damn good deal already. Anyway point being click on those links and treat  yourselves to some movies, it will distract you from... [gestures wildly]

Buy! Buy! Buy!

And now, for something totally different, let's talk about me (ha) -- I did another round of culling my physical media archives this past weekend and I have listed a great big heaping helping of awesomeness onto eBay for sale, so if you'd like to own a piece of me memorabilia (one way to look at it) or just, you know, some truly incredible movies, then click on over and buy some! Or make a reasonable bid, I tend to accept them (if you're not low-balling me that is). But in all seriousness most of this stuff is stuff I am getitng rid of because I've upgraded it to 4K, not because it's not good, so if you're fine with blu-ray or DVD then there is a wealth of incredibleness on sale over there right now. (And PS I'm going to do a second round of this over Labor Day too.) Including yes my like six month old blu-ray of The Doom Generation, which I'm ditching in anticipation of Criterion releasing their Araki box-set next month. 

And all of my Peter Strickland movies because I have that Curzon box-set of his movies now. It's some really excellent stuff at excellent prices and lord knows I could use the money -- this way instead of me begging for donations (although feel free!) you get something in return. Win win. I've also got tons of art books, movie posters, and vinyl soundtracks for sale too. And with that thus concludes today's moment of solicitation. Thanks for your business!

Happiness Is a Stranger's Apocalypse

Apologies but y'all are going to have to scrape me off the floor before I can write this post with Criterion's September announcements -- this is the most aimed-straight-at-me batch of titles imaginable. It was like one slap with a brick across the face after another as I scanned down through the email announcement -- I couldn't even believe my eyes. I ran to Twitter to immediately scream about the title seen above (which we'll get to in a second) and then when I went back to the email I saw what else was in store and was like, "Momma get me my pills." This is just three simultaneous (wet) dreams coming true at once. I am in a state of happy shock. Allow me a moment to luxuriate in this pleasure...

Okay. Let's get to it. First up! If I went back and tried to find the first time I screamed at Criterion to release a box-set of Gregg Araki's "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy" it would be impossible because it was many many many moons ago and I have done it approximately ten million times since. I probably brought it up two to three times a year. Seeing it finally come to fruition is something I'd almost given up on! But then the movies got remastered last year and I began to think it might be a real possibility... and here we are. Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere, given the proper love they have long deserved. We won! You can see all of the special features over at Criterion, where you can also buy the set -- and do that, buy one for everyone you know, because we need to let them know how happy this has made us. Just know the set is loaded with extras -- they even got the rare bird of Nathan Bexton to be on one of the commentaries! 

My insides are screaming, crying, throwing up, throwing gay ass 

confetti. I could end this post there and be ecstatic, but then...

... it turns out that Criterion is releasing Andrew Haigh's 2023 masterpiece All of Us Strangers on 4K in September too! My favorite movie of last year (here is my original review), which we'd been worried wasn't getting any kind of physical media release here in the U.S. (there is a U.K. blu-ray scheduled) because it was an Amazon movie and that cruel rumor had been going around. I had not a single inkling this was going to happen and every part of me is right now tingling. What a gorgeous surprise! And yet that wasn't even the biggest surprise of all, because...

... Todd Solondz's Happiness is also hitting 4K! HOLY SHIT!!! Do you understand now why my entire self is vibrating? This movie hasn't gotten a proper release since the age of DVD, and those DVDs have been out of print and fetching good sums of money for years now. And now suddenly we're moving right on up to 4K! This is one of my favorite movies of all time, I've seen it more times than I could count -- if you've somehow never managed to see it before (because it really has been a pain to see) my god are you in for a deranged dark treat. I quote this movie at least once a week...

... it's basically everything I want from the movies. And I'm also over the moon that they used Daniel Clowes' fantastic original art-work for the set's cover because how do you top that slice of perfection? It's iconic. Anyway with those three sets (containing five movies total) September 2024 is now etched into the fabric of time and reality as Peak Criterion. My gods. My stars! Oh and I should mention that as seen below they're also dropping 4Ks of both The Long Good Friday and Repo Man which are great and all, too. But let's be honest and obvious -- I am all about the above fireworks show of awesomeness. So, so, so all about! Today is a great day, my friends! Slip something in your tuna sandwich and celebrate! 

5 Off My Head: Threesome Movies

I know I've told this story here before but in 1994 when the movie Threesome was released I was still very much a closeted high schooler, but I had to see it. HAD to.  This was before the internet so anything with any hint of gay content coming anywhere near my small upstate New York cow town was extremely rare. And yet here was this movie opening at our recently built five theater multiplex! I had to be there! So I sneaked into a screening one night... and bumped into one of my best friends from church. There with her current boyfriend. Her current boyfriend who I had done a little light fooling around with a few years previous. And she insisted on us all sitting together. It was an utterly mortifying experience for me, and probably drove me deeper into the closet for another six months lol. Oh well! 

Anyway threesome movies! They're a good topic for today because of Luca Guadagnino's Challengers being the number one movie in the country, and also totally ruling. So here are five of my favorites!

5 of my Fave Threesome Movies

3 (Tom Tykwer, 2010) 

Design For Living (Ernst Lubitsch, 19833)

The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003) 

Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuarón, 2001)

Splendor (Gregg Araki, 1999)

---------------------------

What are your favorite threesome movies?

It's "Delicious Lovecraftian Lunacy" Time

The trailer for Joe Lynch's horror flick Suitable Flesh, 

starring Heather Graham and Johnathon Schaech...

... and Barbara f'ing Crampton arrived this morning -- it's an homage of sorts to the Lovecraft movies made by director Stuart Gordon from the 1980s and 90s (it feels more 90s to me to be honest), but it's never really trying to hard to be a straight up homage; it's its own movie. It just has that vibe. Sexually fucked up and full of goop. You know. That vibe. Or put another way...

... it's full of "Delicious Lovecraftian Lunacy." Who said that smart thing anyway? Oh, WAS IT ME? It was me, in my Pajiba review, read that right here. See, I do know things. I told you but you wouldn't listen. Here's the trailer:

Suitable Flesh is out in theaters and on VOD on October 27th 

--- it's a righteous Halloween treat, to be sure. Go see it! 

That Thing Johnathon Does

I have two reasons for writing this post. The first reason is I was looking for an excuse to post the above recent photo of noted hunk Johnathon Schaech, and writing this post gave me that excuse. And the second reason is that, as I stated in my previous post, I'm out of sorts today and I'm just trying to get my fingers tap-tap-tapping on the keyboard to get myself into practice -- I have a lot of shit to do this week and my foggy brain ain't helping anything. Now neither of those reasons are what this post is actually technically about, you see...

... what this post is actually technically about is that the soundtrack to the beloved 1996 musical That Thing You Do!, written and directed by Tom Hanks and starring Mr. Schaech alongside Tom Everett Scott, Steve Zahn, and Ethan Embry as a 1960s boy band, is being put out onto vinyl this week for the very first time! It's coming from Mondo and it goes on sale on Wednesday, click here for all the assorted sordid information. Now here's the kicker -- I have never seen this movie. Isn't that crazy? I should fix that, right? I think at the time I had little interest in Schaech all cleaned up and bubblegum -- I was deep in my Xavier Red fantasies. Looking back now... I was a fool to limit my options. Every flavor of Schaech is welcome. 

Welcome to the New Araki Age

I love how many beefcake photos there are of director Gregg Araki when you go looking. But that does beg the question -- why haven't I been looking??? All these years I've been a fan, decades now, and this is the first time I've ever seen these photos from the set of Nowhere. Harumph, I say. Anyway last night broke news I have been waiting decades indeed for -- Strand Releasing will be releasing restored versions of all 3 films in Araki's "Teen Apocalypse" trilogy! The Doom Generation already played theaters earlier this year (and it's hitting blu-ray in a month!) and we'd heard (and posted about) the news that Nowhere was coming too. But this is the first confirmation I've seen of a restoration of the first film in the trilogy, 1993's Totally F***ed Up. All masterpieces, and all deeply formative for yours truly. I don't care how they release these things -- if they release each movie one by one and then drop a box-set down the road -- I will buy every filthy fucking copy I can get my grubby mitts on. And now let's start clanging the bell for Araki's other movies -- Splendor for instance! Anyway, like, hit the jump for the official press release on this legendary and spectacular news, or whatever...

They Call Him Xavier Red

Blessing us with some vintage Johnathon Schaech this morning to grab your attention for very important news -- that 4K restoration of Gregg Araki's 1995 queer-ish masterpiece The Doom Generation that made the theatrical rounds earlier this year has gotten a 4K blu release date! Hitting on September 25th you can pre-order it right here. Another foundational film for yours truly, when I saw this movie in college I saw the light, and it looked like... well it looked like this:

What a picture! Of course we're still keeping hope alive that a boxed-set of Araki's "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy" -- which includes this movie sandwiched in between 1993's Totally F***ed Up and 1997's Nowhere -- will happen.... HELLO CRITERION -- you must be tired of me nagging at you at this point dammit! As we found out in April there is supposedly a new restoration of Nowhere that's supposed to hit theaters this fall, so that's two out of three! Patience, my fellow Araki-heads, patience...

The Flesh Is Strong

The 2023 edition of the Tribeca Film Festival has officially ended, but not my reviews! Because I am very very slow! So today at Pajiba you can read my thoughts on Joe Lynch's Lovecraftian joint Suitable Flesh, starring Heather Graham and Johnathon Schaech as the sexiest married couple ever whose lives get torn, some might say shredded, apart thanks to some sinister body-swapping shenanigans. And the film also stars horror icon Barbara Crampton, because making a Lovecraft movie without Barbara Crampton is punishable by death in every country on Earth, or should be anyway. This will be hitting Shudder later this year so keep your eyes peeled, and since this is Lovecraft I kind of mean that literally. It'll peel yer eyeballs, baby! Okay to make up for that disgusting image I will share with you this video of Mr. Schaech, being insane amounts of hot:

Schaech, rattled, rolled pic.twitter.com/IddHtrzBuC

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 16, 2023

Quote of the Day

"The movie is going to be seen how it was meant to be seen: with a bunch of drunk, hot people,... At Sundance earlier this year, Jimmy said to me that someone once told him, ‘When me and my girlfriend were watching Doom Generation, as soon as it was over, we had to go back to our condo and fuck.’ For me, that’s a five-star review.”

-- That's The Doom Generation director Gregg Araki talking (the Jimmy he mentions is James Duval, the film's star) about the new 4K restoration I told you was hitting screens here in NYC last week, and then spreading out like an STD from there. (Here is the trailer.)

Read the entire chat here, although the most important bit of information comes in the introduction where we're told that Nowhere, Araki's 1997 film that makes up another third of his "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy" (along with Totally Fucked Up) is also getting restored and that will play in theaters this fall! And that there are actually "hopeful" plans for a Criterion boxed-set ahead!

Y'all! This is the thing, The Thing, that I have spent half my fucking life hollering for! if this indeed comes to pass I don't know what I'll hoot and holler about after this. Maybe I'll have to like, go do charity-work or some shit now. Bogus!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Doom Generation (1995)

Amy: Life is lonely, boring and dumb.

I don't think I entirely understood how formative this movie was for me until I re-watched a screener of the new 4K restoration of it last weekend -- it was the first time I'd seen it in some time; long enough that I have some distance from who I was in my late teens / early 20s when I first saw Gregg Araki's films and can see that he was responsible for stamping my personality as much as Paul Reubens had been earlier in my life. The outward cynicism giving way to a creamy dreamy center; posturing as too cool for school when you're really the type to whimper like a puppy in bed. That teenage feeling that the world is collapsing around us... oh wait that one's still around. 

Indeed Araki's films still feel disarmingly immediate today. The Doom Generation is very much of its moment in the 90s -- it's highly noticeable that these characters aren't on their phones -- but also profoundly stepped outside of time too, unto a vacant lot timelessness. They wander through the Platonic Ideal version of Trash Americana, hotels and convenience-stores and pool halls, all littered with celebrity detritus and mannequin aesthetics. Everything costs six-sixty-six, and the apocalypse is nipping at their combat boots every step of the way. 

Anyway the 4K restoration is out here in NYC today -- I posted a trailer here -- and it is indeed a "Director's Cut" of the film, which hasn't been seen since it played Sundance originally back in 1995. It had been long enough since I'd seen the movie that I wasn't entirely sure of what scenes and moments are new, but they're definitely in there, sprinkled about. The film will be traveling outward from NYC so keep your eyes to the ground; and I have zero doubt this one will be getting a deluxe blu-ray treatment before the year is through. Now bring on the rest of Araki's movies!

THE PEOPLE DEMAND A TEENAGE APOCALYPSE BOXED-SET! https://t.co/kMNfifzdBT

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 6, 2023

Get Araki or Get Lost

It didn't exactly take a wall of red strings criss-crossing maps and images to figure out that when a 4K restoration of Gregg Araki's film The Doom Generation screened at Sundance earlier this year that meant a restoration for the rest of us, not at Sundance, wouldn't be too far off. And lo, our non-sleuthing was correct! IndieWire has the announcement (thx Mac) and a trailer (see below) -- the 1995 film will be premiering at BAM in Brooklyn on April 6th and then hitting the IFC Theater here in Manhattan on April 7th; after that it will tour across the seas of grain, shining seas et cetera.

And let's be real, it'll be getting a 4K blu-ray at some point after that. That's the way these things work now, thank goodness. I am just praying it doesn't stop with Doom -- I've been hollering and hooting and honking my maniac-ass off for a Criterion boxed-set of Araki's "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy" for decades now. (The trilogy also includes Totally Fucked Up and Nowhere.) Let's get the whole shebang, baby!

To call these movies "formative" for me doesn't even begin to cut it -- I didn't see them until I got to college but these were my definition of cool once I actually began caring about being cool (in high school I just wanted to survive.) The mixture of hopelessness and hope, cynical and sweet, hard and soft, ridiculousness astride dumb genuine straight sentiment... Araki's movies just got me like nobody else's at that moment when I was straining to realize myself, all while the world seemed to be collapsing around us. Realizing you were gay in the 90s, when all you saw on the news was Dying Gay People, sure was a lot! And I think these movies probably speak to our current moment more than I'd like them to. You think we're stepping forward but Doom keeps snapping back into focus.

Good Morning, World

For yesterday's "Good Morning, World" post I wished Now Apocalypse actor Avan Jogia a happy birthday and got to rambling about Gregg Araki shit, which always leads me back unto his movie The Doom Generation -- always me and Doom, forever linked! Well about ten minutes after I did that rambling yesterday I saw the above photo on the Instagram of that movie's star Johnathon Schaech, so we'll consider it a sign. A sign of what I have no idea, but if Johnathon wants to come wrap those ridiculous biceps around my throat and strangle me until I have a vision of what this sign portends I would be fine with that too. Fine! Super fine!

The Doom Generation Is Nigh

If there's one thing I have screamed onto this here internet so many times I've exhausted even myself over it it's the fact that director Gregg Araki's movies -- which were hugely formative for yours truly, along with other people I suppose but who cares about them -- have been neglected physical-media-wise for decades. Blu-rays either don't exist at all or they have gone long out of print for not just all of his so-called "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy" -- which includes his 1993 film Totally F***ed Up, his 1995 film The Doom Generation, and his 1997 film Nowhere -- but many others of his films. I've been screaming at Criterion to give a boxed-set for so long I am shocked if they haven't put out a cease-and-desist on my ass.

Anyway there amazing news on that front today! Sundance has just announced that they will be screening a brand new 4K restoration of Araki's original director's cut of The Doom Generation this January! From their press release:

"In 1995, The Doom Generation was unveiled to audiences in Park City before its wider release to the public later that year. While festivalgoers were able to witness director Gregg Araki’s entire vision, subsequent audiences were shown a truncated version. Along with a restoration to 4K by Strand Releasing, the film has been reworked to include the lost moments from almost 30 years ago. When The Doom Generation plays at the upcoming Festival, it will be the version Araki originally intended to make, and will be the first time since 1995 that the uncensored director’s cut is shown in theaters.

“There are three versions of The Doom Generation,” explains Gregg Araki, Director of The Doom Generation. “One is the edited version which was released in theaters and on video. The second is a ridiculous R-rated version made without my approval for Blockbuster Video, which has over 20 minutes chopped out and makes no sense (and I hope disappears forever after this re-release). The third is the version shown at the film’s world premiere at Sundance in 1995, which was subsequently censored per the distributor’s request (primarily in the climactic reel). This new 4K remaster is the first time this Uncensored Director’s Cut has been seen since 1995 (and also restored to 1.85 Widescreen versus the lousy pan-and-scan version which has circulated for decades). Needless to say, I’m thrilled that The Doom Generation can finally be experienced in its full glory in this remastered and restored edition.”"

Obviously ones mind turns to a 4K blu-ray for the film from here, which one imagines must be in the works if they're putting this money into it. Huzzah! I'm pretty excited to see what we've been missing all these many years -- I knew the different cuts existed. It's weird to think how tame  so much of the stuff in TDG is here just 25 years later. Any five-year-old can see far pervier stuff on Netflix with the click of a button. Anyway I'm considering going to Sundance this year in person so not to jinx it, but fingers crossed. We'll see. Tickets and packages and stuff start selling next Monday -- click here to find out more!

Quote of the Day

"When “Living End” came out, it was so polarizing in the gay community. People would tell me, “People are getting into fist fights in bars.” On the one hand it was such a punk rock movie and the attitude of it was so kind of “fuck everybody,” and at the same time it was hot guys making out. And what the movie had to say was so alienating to them that people would get so passionate about it. And Jim Stark, the producer, he’d say to me, “You make these gay movies that gay people hate. They’re too punk rock for gay people and they hate them.” So he’s like, “If you make a straight movie, I’ll produce it and get you real money for it.” And I said, “OK, sure,” because fuck it. Why not? So that’s why “Doom Generation” has a subtitle, “A Heterosexual Movie.” So I made this heterosexual movie, but in a very punk rock bratty way, made it so gay."

Today IndieWire (in the middle of a 90s Celebration Week) got Andrew Ahn, the immensely talented director of Fire Island and Spa Night and Driveways, to interview legendary queer punk director Gregg Araki! Read it all here! I love how much Araki there has been in the air this past week. I posted some photos last week and then just yesterday I retweeted out this interview with him at i-D magazine on the subject of the 30th anniversary of The Living End. (He also says in there that he is at work on a new thing.) All of that's a net positive, but that chat with Ahn really spilled this over into true bounty. Two great tastes, together at last! Now let's get his damn movies onto blu-ray.

Gonna add this photo of Gregg Araki and John Waters to my inspiration board pic.twitter.com/82CIXBYCBp

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) September 27, 2021

Vintage Johnathan Schaech Ten Times

Let's take a trip in the time machine today back to the early 1990s! See, as happens about every three point three weeks or so anyway, last night I fell down a bit of Gregg Araki hole (heh), which led to me tweeting the following tweet (which is doing impressive numbers today, toot toot my own horn):

Some vintage Gregg Araki pic.twitter.com/7zqgrCI35e

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) August 10, 2022

Anyway what set off said "hole (heh)" was Schaech sharing a link on his Instagram to this photo-shoot of himself in 1992 -- this was three years before he'd work with Araki on The Doom Generation; hell this was before he even did his stint on Models Inc! Models Inc -- now there's a flashback. Anyway I don't think I 've ever seen this shoot so in full, so I had to share. Hit the jump for the whole dang hotness...

Good Morning, World

Everybody say thank you to @JohnSchaech pic.twitter.com/eSpJnsXn5V

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 20, 2021

Hey everybody! I'm back! I hope I was missed, because 1) I, like anyone, like being missed, and 2) you're gonna need a little more of that feeling this morning to carry you through -- every time I come back from a break I got some catching up to do. I think it will be better this morning than usual, I did some catching up during my trip, but here's a photo of Johnathan Schaech (via his Insta) giving us his best Silver Daddy routine (his best is very very good) to, you know, entertain and distract or a few moments.

And thank you, Johnathan!

Johnathon Schaech Two Times

Johnathon Schaech has apparently been feeling nostalgic the past couple of days and has channeled that energy onto his Instagram, where he's been scanning in some vintage photos. And if there's anything you know about vintage photos of Johnathon Schaech it's that probably they will scorch your eyeballs right off your face. Well if you didn't know that before you do now, anyway! Maybe I will have myself an Araki-Fest over the holiday break!