Cole Doman One Time

Seeing today this adorable sexy photo on Instagram of actor Cole Doman, formerly of the very fine movies Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (hey Stephen Cone whatcha up to?) and Mutt, reminded me of two things -- one, I don't think that his 2024 movie Haze (which co-stars Sense8 hottie Brian J. Smith and which I reviewed out of Fantasia Fest last year right here) has gotten a release yet, which is a damn shame. It's a good movie! Free Haze y'all! It would've been a smart drop for a streaming service during Pride Month but oh well. Hopefully we'll hear something soon. I'll keep my ears peeled. But this also reminds me that Cole is in the cast of Kelly Reichardt's next movie The Mastermind, which stars Josh O'Connor! That'll probably be Cole's most-seen movie to date and we can't help but root for this cute talented and out indie boy who stood in front of me in line waiting for a movie last year. Oh and this also reminds me that we got a new image of Josh in The Mastermind last week (click to embiggen) and god he looks goooood:

Cole Doman Got Me in a Haze

That is not a photo from the movie I am about to direct you to my review of, but it is a picture of the star of said movie -- it's actor Cole Doman, who you should hopefully recognize from writer-director Stephen Cone's wonderful 2015 film Henry Gamble's Birthday Party, and who stars in the queer thriller called Haze aka the movie I have now reviewed. I mentioned both Haze and Doman back in May when this film screened at NewFest but I wasn't able to catch it then -- thankfully it just screened at the Fantasia Film Fest in Montreal though, and there I did catch it. And if you head over to Pajiba you can read my review of the film, which sees Doman playing a young journalist who heads to his hometown to dig into a shuttered psychiatric hospital that left a trail of suicides in its wake. And if you really need to be sold -- the film also co-stars Sense8's own Brian J. Smith and those two go at it like gangbusters in the movie. Hot stuff!

NewFest Pride 2024 Ahoy

New York City's annual LGBTQ+ film fest NewFest became a twice-annual fest recently with an edition happening during Pride Month in June and then the usual fest in the fall, October-ish. And with the June edition rolling up on us fast somehow (what even is time anymore) today they have announced their 2024 Pride line-up and, if I do say so myself, it's looking terrific. The highlight for me is called Haze -- for one it stars actor Cole Doman seen above, who you should recognize from Stephen Cone's terrific Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (because I have been telling you to watch all of Stephen Cone's movies for years and you listened to me, right, RIGHT?) or maybe from last year's movie Mutt (which was also terrific). And for another it is from writer-director Matthew Fifer, whose film Cicada played NewFest a couple of years ago and which I very much dug. (It's on Tubi now if you so desire.) But most of all it's that plot-wise it sounds up my alley:

"A young journalist (Doman) returns home to investigate the unsolved deaths at an abandoned psychiatric center. As he dances with the shadows of his past and a mysterious new man in his life, his family history and the town's secrets begin to converge in this evocative psychological thriller. "

We do love a psychological thriller. Anyway there's plenty more o' highlights -- they're screening Sebastian, which I saw at Sundance and which I loved, and they're screening My Old Ass (with Aubrey Plaza) which I missed at Sundance but got a ton of love from other people. There's a Fire Island doc directed by Sense8 star Brian J. Smith (who PS co-stars in Haze) and they are premiering episodes of Problemista writer-director Julio Torres new HBO series Fantasmas. And there's more which you'll see in the press release down below. NewFest: Pride Edition runs  from May 30th to June 3rd -- and it should be noted that it includes virtual screenings so if you're not in NYC look anyway! And now hit the jump for the full press release...

I Am Link

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--- Hulk Out - I was supposed to see Thor Ragnarok last night but I had to abandon my ticket for a work event, boo hoo me. I have it so hard, you guys. But I'm not sure when I'll see it now - this weekend's looking pretty nuts. (See this tweet for confirmation of that.) That said Thor shuffled back up the To-Do list first when I read Chris Hemsworth talk about how many shirtless scenes he's got (apparently Taika really enjoyed getting Chris out of his clothes; use that sentence as you will) and then even more when I read Vulture's Big Breaking Important News Story that this one has Marvel's first nude scene - we get Hulk Butt! Sidenote: I love how furry they've made the Hulk's chest, in keeping with Original Ruffalo. But is Hulk's butt furry? Stay tuned!
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--- Full Cone - The early retrospective of the career of director Stephen Cone so far, which we told you about previously, kicks off today at the Museum of the Moving Image out in Queens with his terrific and lovely latest film Princess Cyd, which we've been telling you to see for several months now. We are on it! Seriously if you're in town you'd be a top shelf fool not to make it out there to something. Anyway The Film Stage chatted with Cone about... well lots of stuff, it's a great peek into a great mind, go read it.
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--- Great Gerwig - I should have linked to this when I posted that clip from Lady Bird earlier today but I spaced on it - anyway you can literally never get too much Greta Gerwig, literally - this profile on her for New York Magazine is top tier stuff, read the shit out of it. She's every ounce the delight we've come to love. In related news The Quad, which is doing that series on Lady Bird's influences that I told you about, just announced that GG will be there in person for the screenings of Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies and (wait for it) Brian DePalma's Carrie! Ahhh! Oh and I haven't read this one yet but here's Greta & Patty Jenkins talking about What Makes Female Directors Great, according to the headline. (thx Mac)
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--- We're All Queer Creeps - I found this personal essay right here about discovering and interpreting one's gayness through the lens of Michael Myers and the original Halloween film really moving and interesting, go read it. Y'all know I'm a proponent of owning the gay villain or as I've dubbed them the Queer Creep, so this fits right in our wheelhouse.
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--- Dancing Boys - First things first I've had that behind-the-scenes video of Armie Hammer (and Timothee & Esther Garrel & Victoire Du Bois, but obviously Armie's the dancing star here) practicing their dancing on the set of Call Me By Your Name for an entire week, maybe longer, and somehow managed to forget to post it - what is the world coming to??? Don't ask me where it came from - somebody posted it on Tumblr but you go try to sort through a week's worth of CMBYN Tumblr, I double peach dare you. Anyway besides that wondrous thing here's a new chat with CMBYN screenwriter and almost-director and forever-legend James Ivory on the movie. He even manages to not bad-mouth Luca's choices this time.
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--- Call Me Leslie - The unjustly ignored in its time and still unjustly overlooked 2006 film Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is getting a big fancy blu-ray edition next year thanks to the wonderful folks at Scream Factory, so maybe we can push this thing into broader consciousness besides just horror nerds then. Still pissed we never got a sequel. But in that vein I guess a comic series called Before the Mask (a prequel, duh) got funded by an online campaign last year and that is indeed coming our way. Don't know how I missed that.
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--- Beale Boys - Barry Jenkins of Moonlight fame is getting his next movie together (a James Baldwin adaptation; we told you about it here) and just hired a couple of very fine looking gentleman for supporting roles - Dave Franco and Ed Skrein will co-star in If Beale Street Could Talk, which is about a young pregnant woman named Tish (played by newcomer Kiki Layne) who is trying to save the life of her boyfriend who's been accused of a crime he didn't commit.
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--- And Finally have you seen the new speedo-stuffed teaser for the upcoming American Crime Story second season called The Assassination of Gianni Versace? Not just any speedo - Darren Criss Speedo. If you missed the pictures of Darren rocking a little red speedo on the set (I doubt you did, but just in case) click here for them. And here's that teaser:
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Cyd & Company

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It's been such a pleasure over the past couple of years to watch the low-key revelation of a fine talent like the director Stephen Cone as he's been coming into his own - his warmth and humanism surrounds you as you watch his movies, and we really desperately need voices like his beaming into the world, right now probably more than ever. (Although let's be clear - we always need kind voices like his.) Especially ones that straddle typically kept-seperate worlds of spirituality and sexuality. The first film I saw of his called The Wise Kids in 2010 remains my favorite (here's my review - it made my list of favorite movies of that year) but that's probably because its story felt the closest to my own, not to mention it also had the feeling of a secret club discovery. 

Since then I knew of and have seen Henry Gamble's Birthday Party and Princess Cyd, which are both absolutely lovely - Princess Cyd is premiering here in NYC in November and -- wow! This is a big deal! The Museum of the Moving Image is presenting a retrospective of five of Cone's films! It will run from November 3rd to the 12th, and they're showing movies I totally missed of his that apparently slipped through the festival cracks, so this will be a revelation for me too. Good things coming to good people! How nice for once!
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Gratuitous Joe Keery

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I really thought that Netflix was dropping the second season of Stranger Things sooner than they are - what with all the Comic-Con hullabaloo and the trailer being released I figured we were only a few weeks away from reuniting with Eleven & Co. But no, the show's not out until right before Halloween. Oh well. Actor David Harbour instagrammed a picture of him & Joe Keery (who plays adorable boy-next-door Steve on the show) getting friendly...

... and reminded me I had gathered up some pictures of Mr. Keery a couple of months ago and I'm just going to go ahead and post them now. And instead of this post leading us into the show we'll just use it as a temporary high to get us a little closer to when the show finally debuts. 

Besides that Netflix phenom you should also know Joe Keery from Stephen Cone's lovely little film Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (you have seen that by now, right?) and he's also a musician - he's plays in a band called Post Animal. (You'll see some pictures of them mixed in below.) Oh and he's already lined up a role in Aaron Sorkin's upcoming movie Molly's Game with Idris Elba and Jessica Chastain. Oh and he's secretly kind of a fur-ball.

Which is kind of why we're here in the first place. Anyway do we think the second season of Stranger Things can live up to the crazy hype (and general success) of the first? Personally I'm mostly hoping that they give Winona Ryder plenty to do again, and that the Emmys take notice next time around. Fingers crossed. Until then let's all take those fingers and hit the jump for more Joe...

I Am Link

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--- Fifty Inches - ET talked to Jamie Dornan about a few things, including the next season of The Fall and his upcoming horror-drama The 9th Life of Louis Drax with Sarah Gadon, but of course the takeaway is the part where they ask him if he's gonna show his dick in the Fifty Shades sequel and he pleads the fifth. Oh Jamie, we've already seen the damned thing! What can it matter now? Just walk around without any pants on all the time at this point. Seriously. Do.

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--- Wiser Kid - Stephen Cone, the director of the terrific (and queer) two-some of films The Wise Kids and Henry Gamble's Birthday Party, is currently shooting his third movie, hurray! It's called Princess Cyd and it's about a girl from South Carolina who spends the summer with her aunt in Chicago and falls for a local tomboy. Cone gives good quote about his fascination about the relationships between young people and adults at that link so don't miss it; he's such an interesting and curious filmmaker.
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--- Dead Eyes - This is a pretty nerdy bit of business about John Carpenter's classic The Thing but if you're nerdy on that movie you'll want to click on over to the Blumhouse website where they've maybe gotten a handle on the movie's ambiguous ending thanks to cinematographer Dean Cundey, who did an interview for the new blu-ray release of the film where he talks about a lighting trick they used to denote who's a Thing and who isn't a Thing.
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--- Norma Jean - Assassination of Jesse James director Andrew Dominik has that Nick Cave doc coming out so he's doing press and he's talking about his next film, which is that Marilyn Monroe movie (I hesitate to call it a bio-pic because it sounds like he's doing something more interesting than that term implies) Blonde -- Netflix has picked it up so there is forward momentum but it sounds like Jessica Chastain's off of it; no word on the lady who'll step into her place. Playing Marilyn is a tricky business, so I hope she's sturdy.

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--- Learn Me Good - Harmony Korine is now set to direct Tampa, an adaptation of Alissa Nutting's apparently darkly comedic and controversial book about a teacher getting involved with a teenage student. Anybody read it? I could've sworn I'd posted about this story before because I went out and bought the book awhile back, but I can't find that post so I don't know what inspired me to buy the book way back when. Maybe one of you encouraged me to read it? I don't know. I still haven't read it though. But hooray for Harmony!
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--- A Monster Delays - One of my most anticipated movies remaining this year, JA Barona's A Monster Calls, just got delayed a full two months from October 21st to December 23rd! Damn damn damn! It's supposedly a good sign towards the quality of the film that the studio wants the movie in awards competition or something but I could give a rat's, I just want to see the thing already. It also seems like a strange bet to me - if the movie's as good as the book it will involve some fine acting but a movie starring a great big CG tree-monster isn't exactly in the Academy's wheelhouse. Here's the trailer, if you wanna cry.

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---  And Speaking of Movies I Am Looking Forward To, the folks over at The Film Experience (except not me, I missed this one) did a list of the movies playing film festivals this fall that they're most looking forward to and I can't really disagree with anything they included, so it seems my participation was moot anyway. I wouldn't change a thing! Okay my enthusiasm for La La Land isn't quite as high as theirs is (musicals, ya know) but I still plan on seeing it. Oh and PS I am seeing one of the movies listed here tonight! Whee!

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--- And Finally I don't really know what inspired Bryan Fuller to say these things while talking to the folks on a podcast about American Gods, his forthcoming Neil Gaiman adaptation... well, besides Bryan's brilliance when it comes to massaging the internet press (of which I include myself, cuz here I am!) ... but I gotta quote these passages here because... obviously.

"We have so many visual effects that involve digital erections... We have conversations, ‘Well, should we get [a] dildo and strap it onto the actors, is that going to be more cost effective? Or is it easier just to give them digital erections?"

Bryan, Bryan, Bryan! The cheapest boner is a real boner! Boners are free, and abundant. But seriously there are several candidates in this cast that I hope he's talking about becoming members of the Boner Club but mostly I  hope we're talking about lots of Ricky Whittle boner action (oh Ricky Whittle)... and PS to myself I should really be doing a better job keeping up with Ricky's Instagram, as that picture above makes abundantly clear. Goddamn, goddamn, goddamn.
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Bend It Like Brooklyn

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The BAMcinemaFest is going strong out in Brooklyn this week - it's where I saw the fan-fucking-tastic flick Nasty Baby the other day and tonight I'll be seeing Henry Gamble's Birthday Party, which is the latest from The Wise Kids director Stephen Cone. Here is my review of The Wise Kids -- that was a great smart empathetic movie about youth and religion and sexuality (for lack of a better word), and I'm seriously looking forward to see what he has up his sleeve this time. 

Tomorrow night I'll be seeing The Invitation, which is the latest movie from Karen Kusama, who directed Girlfight (which I still have never seen) but more importantly the terrific and woefully underrated Jennifer's Body. I don't say "more importantly" because I care more about the latter film but because The Invitation's another horror flick. Oh plus it stars (amongst others) Logan Marshall-Green & Michiel Huisman. Hello, you two. Neither of them are supposed to be there for the Q&A though... boo, you two.

I Am Link

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--- True To You - I am guessing we'll hear a lot of news on the second season of True Detective this week since the flood-gates have opened, but word broke over the weekend that Colin Farrell is in talks to lead the new... trio? Quartet? I keep hearing different numbers for how many leads it'll have. There's also a less substantial rumor that Taylor Kitsch might be taking on a part. Kitsch, ass aside, I can give or take, but I adore Colin Farrell and am totally down with him being on it. I mean it can't possibly be more WTF than his last thing.

--- Tut Tut TInkerbell - The news that Christopher Walken is playing Captain Hook in the upcoming NBC live-musical (following The Sound of Music, which brought us that Hot Nazi Youth Ass) version of Peter Pan is terrific but I was super sad to hear that the lead was offered to Kristen Bell but she had to turn it down because of a conflict.

--- I See Dead People - Our pal Glenn takes on the television landscape littered with corpses and looks back and that first pretty girl in the beach-bound body-bag and how Twin Peaks influenced the state of TV violence today.

--- Space Chest - I don't know nuthin bout no Leviathan Wakes book series but I guess SyFy is turning the fantasy science-fiction story into a show and that show will star Thomas Jane, so thanks to my endless fur-appreciation for Thomas' talents I now at least know the books by name. Anybody familiar?

--- Land Ho - Hungarian director György Pálfi's 2006 flick Taxidermia (my review) is the kind of movie you remember and make a mental note to keep track of its director, but it's been so long that suddenly seeing a trailer for his new movie did get a jolt of surprise out of me today. It's called Free Fall and it's about a woman falling out of a window who witnesses a different story on each floor going down. Of course it is!

--- After Wise - In other under-appreciated filmmaker news, director Stephen Cone made 2012's wonderful The Wise Kids (my review) and thankfully we won't have to wait too much longer for new stuff - he's already got one movie finished; it's called Black Box and it's been hitting the festivals. And now he's casting another film - it will be called Henry Gamble's Birthday Party and it will star Pat Healy.
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--- RIP Spider-Bum - The fate of Spider-Man is in flux - the last movie didn't do nearly as well as the studio wanted it to and so the writer is saying he doesn't know what's up with the franchise, even while they've long had dates staked out for the third one and that Sinister Six spin-off, et cetera. But it's not like they're going to allow the Spider-Man rights to go anywhere so I have no doubts once they figure out the direction they're going, we'll hear something.

--- Forget Hell - In a Reddit chat Guillermo Del Toro has smacked the megaphone out of Ron Perlman's hand and let us all know that the chance of a third Hellboy movie happening are not good. Personally I'm not all that broken up, save some great monster designs I was never head-over for the Hellboys - I'm much more excited about a second Pacific Rim or one of the other fifty projects GDT keeps talking up.

--- And Finally the first teaser for the next season of American Horror Story, the circus one, popped up online, and it's some of the usual atmospheric pretty creepy stuff. Watch:

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TGT12: The Great Movies #20-11

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2012 was a wonderful year for movies. I could have listed a top 35 without breaking a sweat and loving every damned one of them. Breaking myself off at 20 caused some internal consternation - it illed my constitution, y'all. So my apologies to [names redacted to keep the crowd guessing], I loved you too, but I only have so much time of everybody's to waste and this is gonna have to do. Let's go!

Anna Karenina (dir. Wright) - See what I mean? In a dumpier year this would easily be top ten material, and here it is one dainty slipper, one tuft of passionately loosed hair, clinging to the top twenty. I think what Wright did was marvelous though, and Knightley marvels as well in ways I'd never seen from her before - ways that make me look forward to watching her mature even more than I had been. And the music box spins, so beautiful and suffocating. (original review)

How To Survive a Plague (dir. France) Sometimes you can't separate a film from how you saw it, and having been at the NYC premiere of this with so many of the activists and survivors I'd just watched on-screen in attendance made this already tremendously powerful movie even more resonant. I was too young when the events depicted here were happening to fully get it at the time, and now that I'm old enough to get it, this film as a document, as a testament, it awes. (original review)

The American Scream (dir. Stephenson) I wish it happened more often that before the end credits were even through with a movie I was hitting the back button and starting the movie over, watching it an immediate second time, but that's a rare bird. Bless Michael Stephenson then, for serving up the most delicious rare bird. I can't say TAS is gonna be everybody's delight-fest like it was mine, but it's so perfectly attuned to my pleasure center - it's crack for Halloween lovers. (original review) 

The Wise Kids (dir. Cone) There's always a period at the start of a new year where I'm playing catch up, trying to see the movies I missed before getting to these awards, and watching The Wise Kids is exactly the experience I'm hoping to have every time. Something that comes out of nowhere (not that Joe is nowhere!) to knock my socks off. Socks fully knocked. Faith is an iffy topic for me - I don't often have a lot of patience for it, but then movies don't often have the patience to have honest discussions about it either. The Wise Kids is wise beyond its years. (original review)

No (dir. Larraín) the first of two Gael Garcia Bernal movies on the list! He and one other fellow to be determined are the only foregrounded repeaters. No's the kind of movies that makes me mad about American movies (indeed I spent the whole of my review of it using it to bash Argo). It's just such a smart compelling take on smart compelling material filled with smart compelling characters that Hollywood seems to have so little interest in making these days, much to my chagrin. At least we've got some folks in Chile willing to make the effort. (original review)

The Kid With a Bike (dir. The Dardenne Bros.) How is this movie only 87 minutes long? Talk about a master class in efficiency - I feel as if I lived this young boy's life, from every angle. It's sincere from inside out - there's enough heartbreak and hope and horror for a lifetime, all wrapped up in one determined kid on two quick (too quick) wheels.

Bullhead (dir. Roskam) A fascinating dissection of modern masculinity, with a towering star-making performance from Matthias Schoenaerts - what makes simultaneously unmakes the man. (original review)

Cosmopolis (dir. Cronenberg) I didn't like Cosmopolis the first time I saw it, but something totally clicked into place on a second viewing. Yeah it's airless and episodic, but once I slipped into its very particular groove there was no turning back. Airless and episodic is where it's at when the movie can convince you that you never needed air to breathe - just words, tectonic shaking eruptions of them. That said I do the film a discredit by implying it's a coldly Cronenbergian intellectual exercise - that second viewing is where its heart revealed itself; a pulse, sort and sad, thrums alongside that limousine. (original review)

The Loneliest Planet (dir. Loktev) Hi Gael, again! This movie is one moment, and everything that ripples forward in time and backwards in time from it like you hear about in time travel science-fiction stories. For some people that might not be enough; I consider this a ten course feast. The before and the after, presented nearly identically, and yet it's as if we've slipped through the looking glass. I found it to be an entirely hypnotic experience. (original review) 

Wuthering Heights (dir. Andrea Arnold) I didn't even notice until just now that I put right next to each other two movies directed by women where plot's largely eschewed in favor of staring at stalks of grass moodily, but here we be. And oh such mood! And oh such staring! And oh such stalks of grass! This novel's never felt more immediate to me - more tactile, more profound. (original review)

Coming tomorrow... Numbers 10 - 1!

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The Wise Kids in 300 Words or Less

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I have such a longstanding difficult relationship towards religion that sometimes I unjustly stay away from religious themed entertainments altogether - I recall the hours upon endless hours of getting preached at in my youth, and I shudder at the thought of revisiting it. I know where I stand - I'm not a believer now, not in the slightest. But I am still entirely fascinated by religion - it was a massive part of who I was growing up and I know from experience that there are plenty of good people who mean well wrapped up in it. Considering that shift in myself, how and why it happened, is probably gonna be good for a life's worth of reflection. And it takes real honest effort to contemplate that place without being reductive.

Which is what The Wise Kids is just brimming with. Genuine respect for all of its characters, from every angle, and a deep sense of empathy - it would be really easy to slip off the tight-rope, to get preachy one way or the other, to turn these folks into saints or punchlines, and it never does. Watching it you really feel as if it knows each and every one of them to their cores, and it loves them for all of their willfull weirdnesses and foibles and good natures. And at film's end I was desperately sad to see them go - I want the adventures of Tim and Brea in New York! What happens with Austin and Cheryl? And Laura! Poor "Don't call me dumb!' Laura. The character I was most naturally inclined to resent and pick apart - she kept breaking my heart.