NYFF Make My Dreams Come True

Just a couple of weeks ago I shared the poster and a teaser trailer for Park Chan-wook's new movie No Other Choice starring his ol' pal Byung-hun Lee and I said therein, and I quote, "This movie's premiering at Venice  and I am keeping all of my assorted limbs knotted up in hope that it'll head to NYFF from there." Well unknot me cuz it came true! NYFF just announced their Main Slate this morning for their 2025 edition and Master Park's movie is up in its business -- as are several other movies I am champing at me bit to gnaw right into. So why not a list? Not counting the Opening Night film (which is Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt and so obviously my jam) here are the 10 movies out of the Main Slate that I'm the most anticipating...

My 10 Most Anitipcated NYFF63 Main Slate Movies

No Other Choice -- dir. Park Chan-wook

There's really nothing I can shriek in enthusiasm about this movie that I haven't been shrieking since it was announced. Park Chan-wook is a god, period, the end.

Jay Kelly -- dir. Noah Baumbach

Normally I try to steer clear of George Clooney vehicles but I tend to love Baumbach movies whatever he throws at me and most importantly he got his gal pal Greta Gerwig acting again. Gerwig seals the deal every time. Plus Patrick WIlson, Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Jim Broadbent, Emily Mortimer, Billy Crudup and Isla Fisher! Also Emily Mortimer co-wrote this! 

The Mastermind -- dir. Kelly Reichardt

Not only is it the never-steers-me-wrong Reichardt behind the camera and not only does the movie star Josh O'Connor but the movie stars Josh o'Connor looking like the raffish lit professor everybody, including the other teachers and parents, are all trying to fuck.

The Secret Agent -- dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho 

Wagner Moura is one of the greatest (and come on, look at the picture, sexiest) on the world stage right now, and his teaming up withthe genius behind Bacurau is white hot shit. Plus Moura won Best Actor at Cannes and Mendonça Filho won Best Director so hopes are obviously big.

Sentimental Value -- dir. Joachim Trier

And speaking of Cannes this follow-up from the director and star of the masterpiece The Worst Person in the World won the Grand Prix at that fest. I will follow these two anywhere, together or seperately, but together tastes best!

Peter Hujar's Day -- dir. Ira Sachs

It's Ben fucking Whishaw playing Peter fucking Hujar -- you think I'm not all over this? Anyway I was extremely annoyed I couldn't see it at Sundance so I'm happy to have been given this second shot, even if I wasted months -- months!!! -- of my life without it. I won't hold it against you, Ben!

Miroirs No. 3 -- Christian Petzold

Since 2012 Christian Petzold has made five straight up masterpieces in a row with Barbara, Phoenix, Transit, Undine, and Afire -- I'm hoping he hasn't broken that streak by daring to make a movie with a title that has more than a single word in it, but I think we might be in safe hands. I mean he's reunited with actress Paula Beer yet again. We're gonna be fine.

The Fence -- dir. Claire Denis

I tend to swing wildly on my opinion of Denis movies, but the main thrust seems to be I like her more recent work while her earlier, typically more lauded works have left me cold. I'm such a maverick! Anyway Denis regular Isaach De Bankolé is her leading man this time, which is always a good sign, but this also co-stars Matt Dillon and Tom Blyth? Mkay.

Rose of Nevada -- dir. Mark Jenkin

Yeah yeah okay it stars Callum Turner and George MacKay

as fisherman, obviously it was gonna make my list. 

That's literally all I know or need to know. Fish me good, fellas!

Landmarks -- dir. Lucrecia Martel

Since The Headless Woman in 2008 

I've been a Lucretia ride-or-die-for-lifer.

Not even reading what this is about. Sign me up.

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Runners-up:  It Was Just an Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi), A House of Dynamite (dir. Kathryn Bigelow), Resurrection (dir. Bi Gan), Romería (dir. Carla Simón), Kontinental ’25 (dir. Radu Jude), If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (dir. Mary Bronstein), Duse (dir. Pietro Marcello)

Just a footnote on the concept of "Runners-up" here -- I literally could have listed every single other movie that didn't make my top ten. The only reason there are runners-up at all is I limited myself to a list of ten. As happens with every NYFF there are titles that come out of nowhere to slam me onto the floor in the best of way, and sometimes the ones I'm most excited about don't totally land. Usually though I always leave NYFF happy, because as I've said before they might not get all of the big exciting world premieres but year after year they do an incredible job curating the movies from around the globe that are the most worth seeing. I love my hometown fest! Click here to buy passes -- general tickets go on sale on September 18th (and earlier for FLC members). The fest runs from September 26 through October 13, 2025. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Loveless (1981)

Vance: I'm a regular Joe. I've got an itch 

between my legs and an afternoon for a heart.

What a line. I gotta use that one. There is a small collection of Kathryn Bigelow movies on the Criterion Channel right now and although I haven't done so yet I just keep wanting to re-watch her first film the homoerotic biker flick The Loveless every single night when I get home this week. And why wouldn't I? A classic. Any fans?

Abigail in 250 Words or Less

I don't watch movie trailers anymore and I especially don't watch horror movie trailers anymore, and yet I somehow still knew going into Abigail precisely one thing -- I knew that it is about a tween ballerina vampire. I can't imagine anyone going into this movie and not knowing at least that much. I suppose there are people recovering from comas as I type this, and perhaps the first thing they will do is stumble into a movie theather and just happen to walk into an Abigail screening -- anything is possible! And to them, I say enjoy!

For the rest of us however the exxxtremely drawn out first act of this movie is some seriously unwise plotting -- the revelation of tween ballerina vampire Abigail's tween-ballerina-vampirishness is teased for far, far, far too long, to the point of exasperation. And that milling-about languor mars the film's final act as well, when the film drops about four reasonable endings in a row. In short this movie should be half an hour shorter and it would be more fun. Because when it's fun, it's fun. Great fun. Game cast (Alisha Weir kills it), top-notch gore, and who doesn't love a dilapidated mansion full of dubious strangers plotline? Also lots of sly references to vampire movies of old like Fright Night and Near Dark for the nerds like me. There is a pretty perfect hour twirling smackdab in the middle of this movie, unfortunately smothered by one too many ruffles.

Thinking about him (what's new) pic.twitter.com/lpPMlw5iMK

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 18, 2024

5 Off My Head: Top Vamps

With André Øvredal's Dracula film The Last Voyage of the Demeter hitting theaters this weekend (which I wasn't able to see a screening of so no, I have no idea if it's any good or not) I've got Vampire Movies on the brain. Which is exactly where they should be, at all times. And so I made a list! Well I made it first on Twitter, but I figured this is the kind of thing that needed to be immortalized here on the site, and y'all could then tell me in the comments your picks. Anyway these were my picks today -- tomorrow I might choose differently, but today is not tomorrow. So without further ado...

My 5 Favorite Vampire Movies

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) by Francis Ford Coppola

Thirst (2009) by Park Chan-wook

Near Dark (1987) by Kathryn Bigelow

Let the Right One In (2008) by Tomas Alfredson

Daughters of Darkness (1971) by Harry Kumel

Runners-up: From Dusk Til Dawn, Blade and Blade II, Vampyr, Nosferatu 1922 and Nosferatu 1979, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Let Me In, What We Do in the Shadows, Once Bitten...

... The Fearless Vampire Killers, The Vampire Lovers, Twins of Evil, Byzantium, Shadow of the Vampire... and I am sure there are a million more that I'm forgetting. 

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What are your favorite vampire movies?

Michiel's Headed South With Luke Evans

Well this is whatever the Me version of Catnip would be -- Michiel Huisman, the actor engineered in a Dutch lab to make me feel the most simultaneously horny and garbage-like, has just joined the cast of an upcoming action-thriller series for Apple+ called Echo 3... and by "the cast of" I mean Luke Evans. It's an adaptation of an Israeli series called When Heroes Fly that's about a scientist who goes missing in South America and her husband (Huisman) and brother (Evans), who're both ex-military, going on the hunt to find her. The series will be written by Mark Boal, the dude who wrote Kathryn Bigelow's films The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, as well as Triple Frontier, which speaking of -- Boal found some excuses to get Garrett Hedlund and Charlie Hunnam and Oscar Isaac out of their clothes in that, so let's stay optimistic. Luke Evans, if he has any sense, should write that into his contract -- "If Michiel Huisman ever co-stars with me it must be at least 75% in the nude." Come on, Luke! You owe us. Hit the jump for a couple more photos of Michiel in Vogue Italia a few years back... 

Flash Me Them Puppies, Daniel Craig

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Alright that's it, another four-day summertime week behind us! I've got tomorrow off and I'm hoping to catch up on some movies I have not seen (since I've been too busy seeing amazing old science-fiction things at MoMA instead of new stuff) this weekend - stuff like Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky, out tomorrow, and starring that puppy-pawing dweeb up top. Did this whole week really go by without me making my requisite "If he doesn't wear the speedo again then the Bond movie deserves to flop" comment about Daniel Craig signing on for another double-oh flick? It did, the week did go by without that. 

Anyway I also might try and catch the Annabelle sequel because somehow it seems to have actually gotten good reviews? Anyone seen it? Should I bother, like... really? The first one was so so bad. And then there's The Glass Castle, and Detroit, and Ingrid Goes West, and... dear lord how did I get this far behind??? My MoviePass card needs to get here ASAP.

Happy weekend, everybody.

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Strange Days (1995)

Mace: This is your life, right here, right now!
It's real-time, you hear me, real time!
Time to get real, not playback. You understand me?

Just a couple of weeks ago I got to see Strange Days 

again for the first time in decades thanks 

to MoMA's ongoing gigantic sci-fi series...

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#nowwatching STRANGE DAYS (1995) on the big screen - I honestly don't think I've seen this movie in 20 years, pretty excited to see how it's held up #strangedays #kathrynbigelow #ralphfiennes #film @themuseumofmodernart

A post shared by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams) on Jul 23, 2017 at 11:57am PDT

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... (I am seeing Teknolust tonight for the first time!) and I don't know if I ever knew that these words were the same words ripped and uploaded into Fatboy Slim's song "Right Here Right Now" from 1999 but as soon as I heard Angela Bassett say them this time around I had this immediate flashback to myself in college rolling on ecstasy and dancing to that song. That song also makes me think of Doug Liman's film Go, since it was on that perfect soundtrack. 

Anyway I'm rambling - 

it's Angela Bassett's birthday today! 

Bow down to the queen, people.

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Tom Hardy, True American

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Tom Hardy, Brit though he may be, really wants to make The True American, and he'll recruit any and every top tier director he can to get 'er done! Last we'd heard Kathryn Bigelow was making it but that was way back in 2014 -- now comes word today that she's out and Jackie director Pablo Larrain is in, and as much as we dig Bigelow's work it's hard to be sad about that switch. The movie tells the true story of a Texas man who murdered two immigrants in the days following 9/11, so... yeah, it sucks that we live in a world 16 years later that this is a timely story to tell, but here we are.

Weirdly this is the second movie this year that Hardy is intent on making that Bigelow's dropped off - in January Tom attached himself to Triple Frontier, which JC Chandor picked up from her, and which will also star Channing Tatum. Said Indiewire: "The film takes place in the “la triple frontera” border zone where the Iguazu and Parana rivers meet between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, known as a tough-to-govern area and a hotbed of organized crime. The feature will reportedly require a large ensemble of cast members."

In other Tom Hardy news Tom just starred in a trio of Sky Mobile ads which you can watch over here (thanks Mac), you know, if you just need some more time staring at Tom today. I understand. And Tom looks really good in the commercials, too. All spruced up....

Tom Hardy Gives Us The Willies

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Or not! I'm angry at Tom Hardy right this minute because I just read that the scene in Taboo that they shot on location where we all saw his willy flopping got cut out of the series -- although in his favor he did say this in response:

"You’re lucky there was a loin-cloth because I didn’t want one,” he told the BBC. "It’s not a period drama until someone gets naked and covers themselves in blood."

... and well said to that, Tom. Anyway he should have "Willy Exposure" written into his damned contract by this point so even though that show drops in four days I'm illustrating this other new news with pictures of Channing Tatum, which to be fair the news also involves. And it's not like me posting shots of Channing Tatum looking like a college jock from the 40s is this huge sacrifice! 

Anyway Chan & Tom are maybe about to co-star in a movie together! It's called Triple Frontier and it's from director JC Chandor (he made A Most Violent Year with Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac most recently) and you can get all the specifics over here. Kathryn Bigelow almost made this movie a few years back; it'll apparently involve a huge cast so let's hope they're all as hot as these two.

So Ready For Stedi

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I've been sitting here staring at my computer screen stunned for the past hour or so, trying to focus my brain enough to come up with anything to say that's not THE WORLD IS ENDING ET CETERA but failing miserably... until an email just came through from the Film Society of Lincoln Center that is, announcing a new series that is, to put a finer point upon it, of a kick-ass nature. 

It's called "Going Stedi: 40 Years of Stedicam" and for the first second that sounds a little bit technical and dorky but then you look at the movies they're showing and a warm feeling washes over you (and it's not even that you peed your pants in hot anticipation either) -- they will be screening Martin Scorsese's After Hours (aka my favorite Scorsese) (and on Christmas Day no less!), they will be screening Ken Russell's Altered States, they will be screening Jonathan Glazer's Birth, they will be screening Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, they will be screening Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days, they will be screening Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia and Boogie Nights and Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, and for god's sake they will be screening XANADU.

You can read the entire press release with all the films (yes there are bunches more) over at their site. The series runs December 16th - January 3rd, so if you're in NYC over the holidays you now know where you should spend at least a couple of those hours.

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Point Break (1991)

Bodhi: If you want the ultimate, you've got to be willing to pay 

the ultimate price. It's not tragic to die doing what you love. 

 Patrick Swayze would've turned 63 today.

Who Wore It Best?

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First things first yes I am fairly certain that's a real photograph of Joel Edgerton with his bandaged fist stuffed down his boxer shorts -- it fits in with the other shots taken for Tim Palen's book of photographs taken for the movie Warrior anyway. (Check out these other shots of him and Tom Hardy and swoon.) And with that greeting, a happy birthday to Joel today! In his honor, a beard-off!
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(This is also a fine way to forget his hairless turn as Ramses in the godawful Exodus: Gods and Kings -- best forgotten for all of us.)
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Point of Some Return

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I've never really understood the fan-boy adoration for Kathryn Bigelow's Point Break - granted I haven't attempted to watch it in many a year but my recollections of it are of a bore with some Pretty Pretty Keanu ladled on top. So I've been fine with news of a remake - hell when they cast Edgar Ramirez in the Swayze role I became more than fine, I actually became interested. I say all of this because I liked the first trailer for the new film that was released last night...

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Am I crazy or do the action scenes in the #PointBreak trailer actually look at fast first glance like they kick ass? https://t.co/uTCtrXelqI

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) May 26, 2015

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... and I was a little taken aback by all of the vitriol I saw it getting on Twitter. I suppose one should never underestimate The Cult of Swayze. (And hey if this was a remake of Road House I'd get it.) But I think the stunts in this thing already look like a ton of fun! That rock avalanche doesn't look like CG shit, which is a step in the right direction. And that winged squirrel scene? I very much want to sit in a movie theater and experience it. Y'all trippin, be my point.

Blow Shit Up!

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It's Independence Day!

What's your favorite movie explosion? 
Mine's easy...

Okay, we're off until Monday.
Y'all have a great weekend!
(Try not to actually explode.)

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Let's Put Edgar Ramirez In a Wetsuit

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The word of the day is "UPGRADE." The other day we learned that Gerry Butler had dropped out of the Point Break remake and honestly we were a little bit indifferent, as we've been to the entire prospect of this movie happening (but then I was never all that huge a fan of the original movie, either). But now comes word that yup Edgar Ramirez is snapping up the part and this is a whole different ball-game we're playing. This is an entire ocean of hot half-naked dudes on long-boards' worth of yes. Take it away, Keanu...

The Moment I Fell For... Jessica Chastain

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I mean I thought she was great in Take Shelter and The Help before this (however like everyone in The Tree of Life she was only really allowed to be a beautiful prop amongst beautiful things) but ZDT took it to a whole 'nother level.

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Who Wore It Best?

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On the left, probably my favorite shot of Jessica Chastain in Kathryn Bigelow's film Zero Dark Thirty. On the right, the image they're using of Claire Danes to promote the upcoming third season of Homeland on subway posters, as snapped by yours truly. I dunno - do you think the folks at Homeland are trying to make a connection?

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poll by twiigs.com

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TGT12: Special Acheivement In Gratuity

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Not one to let all his hard work getting into insanely buff shape for his big role in the new Kathryn Bigelow film go to waste, Chris Pratt trotted out this selfie of himself in his underpants on Conan O'Brien's show because unfortunately for us all Kathryn Bigelow just couldn't see fit to toss us an underpants scene in her big serious Oscar contender about terrorism and junk. Above and beyond, Chris!

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