And I Reviewed the TV Glow

There was some crazy stupid discourse on social media yesterday (I suppose I could full stop there) about how much personal shit should go into movie reviews -- well buckle up because I dolloped a bunch of said personal shit into my review of I Saw the TV Glow, a movie which is going wide this weekend and which you can read my review of over at Pajiba right now. But then that's nothing new for me -- I am clearly pro-personalizing reviews, and find that entire conversation dumb as hell. Obviously I am one person bringing my own shit to the movie I'm talking about -- either what I have to say resonates with you or it doesn't but I couldn't care less. There are plenty of other people to read so have at it! Anyway I saw this movie way back during Sundance and knew it was hitting me in a personal way and that I was going to need a second view to write about it, and so here we are. Hope you enjoy, but I enjoyed writing it and getting it out so that's enough for me. It's quite the movie!

The Slayer Turns 25

I wish I hadn't had my mind elsewhere (a dozen elsewheres) so I'd have realized that today is the 25th anniversary of Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, which premiered with the episode "Wecome to the Hellmouth" on the WB on March 10th, 1997. I have it written in my calendar annually, that today is the show's anniversary, but it only hit me this morning that the years add up to 25 making this one a pretty big one, anniversary-wise. 

Of course there's a reason I haven't spent a ton of time thinking about Buffy, my all-time favorite television series, lately, and I suppose you can guess -- hell I already said the name. After that interview Joss Whedon gave a few months back where he showed not just little remorse but very little understanding of the ways in which his behavior harmed people, well I've been putting the show out of my mind lately because it's complicated, and there are plenty enough other complicated things going on in the world that wrestling with Buffy just hasn't been the highest priority among them.

Still here it is, twenty-five. That's a number! As I've admitted before (MNPP has extensive Buffy archives, if you would like to have some inkling of my obsession) I didn't start watching Buffy at the start anyway -- I was in college and didn't watch much of any TV while in college. I didn't start watching the show until the 5th season. My best friend, who loved the show, tried to get me to watch earlier, but unfortunately the episode she showed me is the show's maybe worst episode, the one in the 4th season called "Beer Bad," and I was having none of it.

Anyway happy birthday, Buffy. I am going to leave it to other people to wrestle with the show's legacy today -- I don't have it in me. I haven't even watched an episode in a few years. My boyfriend's re-watching Angel while he cooks right now so I've seen glimpses of that one as of late; I just started binging The X-Files for something to kill in-between time with and that's gonna take a good while to work through. So maybe next year for 26 me and Buffy can talk. I'm sure our whole thing isn't going anywhere. If anybody wants to talk Buffy have at it in the comments!

HAPPY 25 TO BUFFY! pic.twitter.com/QBEm1oM3m0

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) March 10, 2022

The Man of Mass

People on Twitter seem to be just now discovering the fact that former Whedonverse actor Franz Kranz -- who is now a very serious writer-director thanks to Mass, his school shooting movie that won tons of accolades at Sundance earlier this year -- is also a super hot piece. And I am not here to chide them for not having known this for many years as we have here at MNPP, where we have covered this evident truth thoroughly for a good decade. I am not here to chide -- I am here to celebrate, and so to those people I direct y'all to our Fran Kranz Archives. Enjoy, discover, relish, et cetera! Now for the rest of us, the ones who knew all that for a decade, y'all can feel free to scan back through that too, but maybe you'll just wanna head over to The Film Experience where I posted the just-dropped trailer for Mass, which is also worth a look-see. Not nearly as much chest hair, but it's got its plusses. Mass is out on October 8th. 

Good Morning, World

Two more photos from James Norton's photoshoot for Man About Town magazine popped up last night and far be it from me to deny us such momentary viewing pleasure -- here's the first batch if you missed 'em. I would ask if you are caught up with The Nevers but I have no idea if I am caught up with The Nevers -- I've really lost track of that show. I know the mid-season break is happening or has happened -- that's the point where Joss Whedon stops being involved and when the show comes back it will be under the new show-runner -- but I can't even remember the last thing I saw happen. There hasn't been a glimpse of James' butt in quite some time -- that much I remember! He had to take to his Insta and show it to us himself! Bum times call for bum measures!

James Norton Ten Times

Another week, yet another James Norton photo-shoot -- this one's for The Laterals magazine and I don't have a proper link yet since the magazine itself hasn't put anything online yet; twas James who posted these snaps on his Insta. But since we're here and I gotta say something -- is anybody watching The Nevers? Anybody? I am, although I haven't watched the latest episode, and... it's gotten messy right? Like the big dramatic moment two weeks ago was like Joss 101, telegraphed from out space, and did  nothing for me. But there are good things, very good things too, and I hope whomever's coming onto the series in Joss' wake is able to sniff the right things out -- I like the world and I like the cast, I think there's a Good Show worth watching buried in there. Anyway, there. I said something. Now let's look at the pictures after the jump...

James Norton Six Times

I considered holding off posting this new photo-shoot from Man About Town magazine until I also posted a certain highlight (cough cough) regarding Mr. Norton in this most recent episode of The Nevers... but I live and die by the old adage that one can never post too many James Norton photographs on one's entertainment blog, so we'll go ahead and double both our pleasure AND our fun this week. Can ya handle it? James' cum-gutters don't make an appearance in this shoot like they did in the last one so if you survived that I think you can survive this. But please let me know if medical professionals need to be called, and hit the jump for the rest...

Good Morning, World

I know all of you spent all day yesterday on pins and needles waiting for an update after I said I hadn't yet watched but was planning on watching Joss Whedon's new show The Nevers on HBO -- well down from the bed of pins and needles you may finally stumble, because I watched the thing last night, as these right and proper gifs of James Norton naked on the show may attest. As far as pilots go I liked it well enough? I know why and agree with why Joss Whedon is persona non grata now but that doesn't actually stop his ability to write fun dialogue and to give his characters great beats to play from being any less deft -- there's a reason why he got away with so much bad behavior for so long. And now that this product is in front of me I'm not going to pretend it's not made with wit and talent. It just is. If Joss doesn't get to make anything else, at least not on this sort of scale again, it's not up to me to say whether that's suitable punishment; I am no one's judge and jury except my own; I will leave that to the people directly involved. I won't lose any sleep over it either way, though -- Joss did it to himself, and there are other voices we can hear from in his place; people who will hopefully use their power responsibly. But for now, on the basis of this first episode, I am just going to try and enjoy what we have. Like James Norton's butt! After the jump, with a couple of bonus photos from a recent photoshoot...

Good Morning, World

Hold up, hold up, before any of you say a word, no, I did not watch the premiere of The Nevers last night. I forgot. Well I remembered at 11pm and that's when I drag this ass to bed. So I'll watch it tonight. But I saw this gif of James Norton on the show floating around -- and no I'm not sure if this was from last night's episode or from a trailer, since as I just said I didn't watch the show; god aren't you listening? -- and, given that photoshoot of him I posted last Friday, well, you can excuse me for just having James on the brain no matter what. Speaking of photoshoots, I've got another new one of him, and as my "Good Morning" (and a Monday no less) treat to y'all I'll share it after the jump...

James Norton Six Times

There are still 182 days until the next James Bond movie comes out but doesn't everything sort of feel like its channeling back into the "Who will play James Bond next???" conversation for the five thousandth time? I suppose I should stop thinking there's ever a break in that conversation -- there aren't five thousand conversations, there's just one unending screech. Anyway I don't know if James Norton even mentions double-oh-anything in his British GQ interview that's attached to these photos (via)...

... because British GQ hasn't dropped that interview online yet (and it's probably mostly about Joss Whedon's The Nevers, which is hitting soon and which has him playing bisexual, huzzah!), but nevertheless every time I see James Norton I personally immediately start considering whether he'd be a good James Bond or not, so maybe it's just me? I still think I want Henry Golding in that role, but listen, James Norton, you can be anything you wanna be. Just be it with me!!! On that note hit the jump for the rest of these reminders that good goddamn is this man just ridiculously handsome and simply spectacularly coiffed... 

Quote of the Day

.

It's been awhile since I've heard much about Joss Whedon's forthcoming TV series The Nevers (about some proper Victorian ladies who just get super-powered all of a sudden) which I guess has been one of the victims of the COVID shutdown -- they shot five episodes and are currently waiting to get back to it. Anyway what with it being Whedon's birthday today today seems like an alright moment to check in, and James Norton here has given us an in with a new interview over at Collider (thx Mac). We were obviously excited last July when Norton got cast as, as the trades described, "a pansexual posh boy" -- well here's some further elaboration from the man himself:

"If you’ve read the character description, that says it for me, really. It’s the world, it’s Joss, and it’s character. The interesting thing is that I’m still yet to fully learn who Hugo Swann is ‘cause we’re only half-way through. Part of the processes is the actual making and telling of the story, and so much of his journey is still to come. I’ll be better positioned to answer that question in a few months time. The great thing about Joss is that he’s all about character, so you’ve got this incredibly larger than life, very big, playful character who’s pansexual and sex-crazed, and he runs this club. It’s all very big and delicious and gaudy. If it was in the hands of a different director or writer, I’d be a bit more wary. But the great thing about Joss is that you can be assured that he’s all about character, so there will always be a heart and a soul and a subtext underneath the fun and the theatricality. You can really chew on something fun and outlandish, and at the same time, find an inner rootedness and a quality that Joss will never, ever let you deny. Like I said, I’m still working out this madman that is Hugo Swann, but it’s been a joy so far."

Never Say Nevers

.

The wait on Joss Whedon's new one has been so stretched out that I keep forgetting it's even there -- called The Nevers it's about "a gang of Victorian women who find themselves with unusual abilities, relentless enemies, and a mission that might change the world," so basically a Steampunk Buffy of sorts, is my guess. Dr. Who meets Charlie's Angels! I'm just spitballing. Anyway EW has revealed the majority of the show's cast all of a sudden, so the wait time has snapped back -- read them all here, but the highlights for me are the perfect specimen James Norton as "a pansexual posh boy" (seems about right) and Olivia Williams as whatever the hell she's playing, she's Olivia fucking Williams. Joss already gave her a killer part once with Dollhouse; I'm glad he's bringing her back. Also in the cast of note is Edgar Wright regular Nick Frost, and then there's Tom Riley from Da Vinci's Demons, an actor who's caught my eye before...

We Need To Talk About Buffy

.

I'm sure all you fine people read the news over the weekend that Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of our most seminal shows, is getting the reboot treatment - Joss Whedon is involved as an Executive Producer but as far as we know all that means is his name will be slapped on the credits for legal purposes and also to keep the original show's fans from freaking the fuck out. Sure sure they say he's working with the reboot's showrunner-to-be - Monica Owusu-Breen, who's worked on almost all the big geek properties of the past two decades from Charmed to Alias to Lost to Fringe, but most recently she was responsible for Midnight, Texas, which I never watched but I did admire from afar its determination to get Francois Arnaud in his underpants...

... and I could see that instinct serving her well in the future on any projects. Anyway I'm sure you can sense my TONE here - I definitely have a tone and it's clearly one of skepticism. We're still unsure how rebooty - we are talking about Buffy so excuse me if I start adding "y"'s to the end of random words - it is what we're talking about here. Are they totally throwing out all of Buffy, or will this take place in the same world, just years later? The world of Buffy brings a lot of baggage, especially after the series finale's happenings, I get it. But casting a new girl as Buffy? Just drive a stake in the poor girl's heart and get it done with.

What do you guys think?

.

Meet the Hems-stache

.

Chris Hemsworth grew a mustache & now a fire-truck has to follow him because everyone who sees him bursts into sex flames (aka the flames of sex) pic.twitter.com/e3g8iGNZoK

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) March 12, 2018

.

When pictures of Chris Hemsworth with his brand new handlebar mustache popped up on the internet yesterday, right after I dumped a bottle of water over my head I asked myself what role might this sex-stache be for? Well now we know - Chris posted a video of The Stache-ening...

.

.

... on his Instagram and there alongside (once your eyesight returned) he said the stache is for his upcoming movie called Bad Times at the El Royale, which was written and is being directed by his ol' Cabin in the Woods pal Drew Goddard. Goddard is a name that should be familiar to y'all round these parts and not just for Cabin - he's an acolyte o' Joss Whedon and worked on a bunch of those TV shows including some of the best episodes of Late Buffy. As of late Goddard had been trying to get a bunch of Spider-man spin-offs made for awhile, and also worked on Daredevil and The Defenders.

(And oh yes he is freakishly tall.) Anyway I hadn't heard hide nor tail of El Royale until Chris mentioned it - turns out it also stars Jon Hamm, Dakota Johnson, and Jeff Bridges, and according to IMDB "is set in the 1960s in a dilapidated hotel in the Lake Tahoe region in California." Sign me up!
.

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... polishing Aquaman's trident.

(via) I have really got to watch the

 Justice League blu-ray extra features already.

. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:
.

Insidious (2010)

Tucker: A picture's worth a thousand words.
Specs: Words are worth a thousand words, too.

A happy 41 to director James Wan today! I still haven't seen the fourth Insidious movie; have any of you guys? I will at some point but the franchise really isn't the same without Patrick Wilson wearing DILF shorts in it. Speaking of PW, did you guys see this...

.

PATRICK WILSON I'M YELLING @patrickwilson73 pic.twitter.com/LbAzvobkIE

— bella (@verafarmingdale) February 25, 2018

.

Yes that is Patrick giving us his best Freddie Mercury, which turns out is actually a shockingly great Freddie Mercury. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked since he was trained via Broadway and all, it's just been such a long time since he reminded us of those bonafides (and also he is so different from Mercury physically). Anyway could somebody put him in another damn musical already? I don't even like musicals, but I  do like Patrick Wilson strutting around in tight white pants so it all evens out.

In other James Wan news last week whispers leaked out of some early preview screenings of Aquaman that he might've made a great movie from that most unexpected of superheroes - I haaated how they managed the character in Justice League, with all the phony baloney Ultra Masc tough-guy posturing so I hope they tone that down. You've got Jason Momoa standing there with pecs half a mile wide - you don't need to convince us he's a man. We get it. Just be fun. Show him turning sea-horses into scooters and shit. That's what we're there for.

Well that plus the half-mile-wide pecs. Keep those.

.

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 2005

.

I accidentally took a couple of weeks off from our "Siri Says" series but that's okay - I recently crossed the halfway mark on these posts and it's getting harder and harder to get Siri to randomly give me a number that she hasn't given me before. The odds are not in our favor! I usually have to ask her for a number about a dozen times now before we get a fresh 'un. And anyway it'd be a shame to run out of these posts too fast - I like doing them too much.

Anyway today Siri, after a few tries, gave us the number "5" and so today we're going to choose our favorite movies from THe Year 2005. (My apologies to the year 1905 but you know what you did.) Some very good stuff is becoming a teenager this year! Let's take a look see at my favorite thirteen-year olds...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 2005

Brokeback Mountain

(dir. Ang Lee)

-- released on December 6th 2005 --

Wolf Creek

(dir. Greg McLean)

-- released on December 25th 2005 --

A History of Violence

(dir. David Cronenberg)

-- released on September 30th 2005 --

War of the Worlds
(dir. Steven Spielberg)
-- released on 2005 --

Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

(dir. Park Chan-wook)

-- released on September 30th 2005 --

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

Runners-up: King Kong (dir. Peter Jackson), Munich (dir. Spielberg), Constantine (dir. Francis Lawrence), The 40 Year Old Virgin (dir. Judd Apatow), Pride & Prejudice (dir. Joe Wright), Cache (dir. Haneke), Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire (dir. Mike Newell), Match Point (dir. Woody Allen), Me and You and Everyone We Know (dir. Miranda July), Serenity (dir. Joss Whedon)...

... ... Jarhead (dir. Sam Mendes), The Devil's Rejects (dir. Rob Zombie), The New World (dir. Terrence Malick), Red Eye (dir. Wes Craven), Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-rabbit (dir. Nick Parker), The Constant Gardener (dir. Meirelles), In Her Shoes (dir. Hanson), A Bittersweet Life (dir. Kim Jee-woon)

Never seen: Cinderella Man (dir. Ron Howard), 

Memoirs of a Geisha (dir. Rob Marshall), 

Melissa P. (dir. Luca Guadagnino)

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

What are your favorite movies of 2005?

.

Good Morning, World

.

A post shared by Enver Gjokaj (@therealenver) on Jan 14, 2018 at 9:33pm PST

. 
A happy 38th birthday to Enver Gjokaj, who's been criminally under-used in the years since he wowed on Dollhouse... or maybe it's my fault? Maybe I have just missed him - he has plenty of credits on IMDb but the only thing he was in that I watched was Agent Carter. Which he was also wonderful on! He should have his own show, is my point. And I should watch it. We should all watch it. And we should all follow him on Instagram. 

.

A post shared by Enver Gjokaj (@therealenver) on Jan 11, 2018 at 1:49pm PST

.

One Good Thing To Say About Justice League

.

I railed against Justice League on Twitter while watching it last night (don't @ me about tweeting instead of paying attention when tweeting was the only thing keeping me watching) and you can read those tweets here, but I will say one thing in its defense - I am far more likely to want a movie about The Flash now after watching it then I was before. Ezra Miller was far and away the only good thing going on in the film.

Yes all of his dialogue consisted of jarringly-crammed-in Joss-isms, but Ezra sold 'em better than anybody else managed. (Oh my god that moment when Henry Cavill's typically mopey Superman suddenly had a laughing fit at the end felt so forced I should have called the police.) Even poor wonderful Gal Gadot was led astray (and Jason Momoa was trying way too hard). But Ezra was super...

... and most importantly of all his ass looked absolutely tremendous in his costume, so I say bring on The Flash! Or Flashpoint or whatever they're calling it. (Call it The Flash, you dopes.) And you can see more shots from this Ezra photo-shoot over on the Tumblr.

Do Dump or Marry: And Justice For All

.

Justice League is out in theaters, and I pray for both the souls and asses of all of you who are actually going to go sit through it. Not me! There's a Michael Haneke retrospective at Film Forum and Call Me By Your Name at MoMA in my immediate future! Anyway good luck with that. But since it's The Movie Of The Weekend I figure it's a good time for this, which I've been putting off until now -- let's pretend like Henry Cavill doesn't exist (not easy) and  let's pretend like Ben Affleck doesn't exist (the exact opposite of not easy)...

... and "Do Dump or Marry" the other three men-folk in this here spandex legion. That'd be Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, and Ray Fisher as Cyborg. Give us your answers in the comments, please! Wonder Woman approves!

Supes On

.

I have less than zero percent interest in seeing Justice League, even with Wonder Woman wowing earlier this year and even with Joss Whedon  coming in and tackling the thing after Zack Snyder had to leave -- this is one of those instances where I choose to believe the critics who've seen it and called it a monstrosity. But I do wish these critics had mentioned Henry Cavill's got a half-naked five-minute long fight scene in the thing! It makes me doubt their intentions! 

Anyway I know this is technically a huge spoiler but they haven't exactly kept it a secret that Superman is back, what with him being all over the promotional art-work and Henry Cavill going to every premiere, so fuck that spoiler nonsense. There's a lo-fi video of the sequence online over at Reddit (thanks Henry!) -- or just hit the jump for a couple more lo-fi gifs that I made from it...