Good Morning, World

I stared at these pictures for awhile before I noticed the bracelet that he's modeling in them -- even in a hliriously bracelet-forward photo like the one above I had to actually see the headline of the article that shared the photos to realize there was a bracelet there. My brain was pretty much stuck in "Durrrrrr Elordi" mode. Anyway he was photographed by Sofia Coppola here, who already proved that she knew how to shoot the heck out of Jacob Elordi in the wonderful and totally underappreciated film Priscilla -- and there are several more photos too! And you can see them now if you hit the jump...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from: 

Priscilla (2023) 

Elvis: Don't tell me to play goddamn Beatles 

in my house. We're in America, I swear to God.

Sofia Coppola's Priscilla Presley bio-pic feels deeply underrated already to me, less than a year since its release -- if you didn't see it in the theater then now is your chance, as the blu-ray is for sale on Amazon for seven dollars and fifty fucking cents. Do your duty! Elvis served and looked hot as hell while doing it -- now it's your chance. In all seriousness it's a terrific movie, I thought -- here is my review. I doubt we need to worry about Sofia getting to make more movies -- she seems well placed enough in the cinematic firmament to be fine, even if this one under-performed. But I'd rank this one among her best to date. Not that I really think she's ever made a straight up bad movie, even if the one before this On the Rocks was slightly forgettable. But Priscilla is prime her, and should rank as such.

Here Are The Movies of Today

Heads up on the movies hitting theaters today, starting with the biopic Rustin starring Colman Domingo seen above. Telling the long overdue story of Bayard Rustin, the black homosexual who organized the march on Washington back in 1963 but got shoved to the side attention-wise because of the "homosexual" part of that Domingo gives a wonderful performance -- I do wish the movie was a little more lively and surprising though. It very much feels like a movie that will be watched respectfully in high school history classrooms for a long time and seeing as how this is a story that needs to be told that's good and all. It's just told very flat, and visually it's got that whole boring Netflix style. And I wish people would stop hiring Chris Rock to act -- he is a terrible actor. Anyway I would've written a proper review of this one when I saw it at NewFest a few weeks back but I had a nightmare audience experience with people using their phones and being total assholes so I didn't feel comfortable writing about it; all of that might've colored my opinion of the movie. It's worth watching for Colman -- just don't expect to be bowled over by the movie itself, I guess. Watch the trailer here.

Then there are two other movies out today that I have also seen -- first there is Sofia Coppola's Priscilla which I reviewed right here. Terrific movie. And second there is the documentary Subject, which I saw at Sundance but never got the chance to write about -- it interviews the subjects of multiple famous documentaries, specifically real life people from The Staircase, Hoop Dreams, Capturing the Friedmans, The Wolfpack, and The Square. And it digs into what that experience was like -- if they felt like their stories were properly served by the documentrarians' takes, and what the aftermath was like. It's all incredibly fascinating, especially if you're familiar with those films -- I'm not sure it would be if you haven't, but maybe? It does raise several questions of ethics that stand on their own. 

And the fourth movie out today is called Fingernails and it stars three of my favorite currently working actors -- Riz Ahmed and Jessie Buckley and Jeremy Allen White! You cannot go wrong with Riz and Jessie and Jeremy. That said I have not seen it yet and I have kept what it's about to a minimum because I want to be surprised by the movie when I do see it. I know it's being sold as a "sci-fi romance" and it's from Greek director Christos Nikou, who has worked with Yorgos Lanthimos and made the 2020 film Apples which... I heard great things about but also haven't seen. Anyway Fingernails is both in theaters and on streaming today so we'll see it soon enough. Here's the trailer:

Jacob Got Me All Shook Up

Having never watched Euphoria -- well I did watch the first episode and immediately knew it was Definitely Not For Me -- I didn't have many expectations talent-wise as far as Jacob Elordi was concerned. He seemed, from a distance, like this generation's Jason Priestley, which is to say the hot guy on the hot teen show of the moment who probably wouldn't really translate to the big screen. And yet I've seen Elordi give terrific big-screen performances three whole times this year? Nobody seemed to like the serial-killer-comedy He Went That Way when it screened at Sundance but I thought he was impressively magnetic and creepy in it. And then there's Saltburn, which... well I will be talking about when Saltburn comes out in a couple of weeks. But that brings us to today's review -- head on over to Pajiba where I am talking Sofia Coppola's Priscilla, which stars Cailee Spaeny in the titular role and Mr. Elordi as one Mr. Elvis Presley himself. And he's great! I admittedly wasn't hugely fond of Baz Luhrman's Elvis but I one hundred percent prefer this quieter, more introverted take on the rhinestone icon to Austin Butler's much-heralded turn. He won't be getting nominated for awards for it -- it's far less showy. But for every notch the volume was turned down my belief in this performance as an actual human being was multiplied upward. The same can be said for the whole movie... but then I do say that in my review! So go read it. 

Pics of the Day

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NYFF is rolling, rolling, ever on, and today I saw Sofia Coppola's Priscilla! More on that to come later, but above you may see a few photos and videos that I took of the film's stars Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi during the press conference. The film is screening tonight and on Sunday and it looks like it's only standy-by tickets right now but hey, try your luck -- hint hint the movie is worth seeing. There is a video included above of one of the film's producers (I am lazy, don't make me look up his name) reading a note from Sofia Coppola saying she wasn't there because she's with her mother, who the film is dedicated to -- we wish them all the best! Too much sad news this week, ugh. So happy the weekend is here. Anyway there are pictures and videos on my Insta from a few other Q&As I've attended in the past week or so -- Yorgos and Haynes and Scorsese, oh my! So do make sure you're following me on Insta!

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. 

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

What are your favorite vampire movies?

Love Her Tender

As I said yesterday from the poster for Sofia Coppola's Priscilla movie alone it really seems as if she's captured something very specific about the suburban textures of the moment when their love story takes place -- the late 50s slash early 60s powder-blue rotary-phone yellow-plastic-sofa aesthetic that I personally remember from my great-grandparents house, which remained a time-capsule of that moment all though when I was a little kid in the 1980s. I have such a vivid memory of it, and it's all over this today dropped trailer.

I double-checked Sofia's age and she's several years older than me so I'm sure she also has even more vivid recollections of this vibe, and I can't help but believe it's a big part of why she wanted to make a movie set in this world. She does love a textural vibe!

Even the logo, haha. And even besides that Priscilla Presley as a character fits right in line with her cinema of trapped well-to-do women -- the girls from The Virgin Suicides, ScarJo in Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette. It's all, as I tweeted, very Lana Del Rey. And I am here for it!

Priscilla, the movie, is out in October.

AKA Riley Keough's Grandmother

I was fairly indifferent to Baz Luhrmann's Elvis movie but I am far far far more interested in Sofia Coppola's Priscilla -- that's the first poster above and apparently we're getting a trailer tomorrow. For one Baz's film didn't have squat to say about the fact that Priscilla was fifteen when she and Elvis met, and a film in 2023 that has no opinion on that matter might as well not exist, no matter how many sequins there are on Austin Butler's swinging dick and no matter how many double-chins they put on Tom Hanks. Sofia Coppola's movie though, obviously she's gonna have things to say. Also... she's Sofia Coppola, and that beats Baz any day of the week. (I mean I love Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge too, but come on.) And third -- even though we can barely see anything in it this poster is reminding me really hard of my great-grandparents house, a 60s time-capsule of baby-blues and lemon-yellows; it smelled like powder and everything was satin-lined. That this single image feels so textured is giving me great hope here. Can't wait for the trailer. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Bling Ring (2013)

Nicki: I'm a firm believer in karma and I think this situation was attracted into my life as a huge learning lesson for me to grow and expand as a spiritual human being. I wanna lead a huge charity organization. I wanna lead a country one day, for all I know.

Happy 10 to this straight up masterpiece!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Professor Abraham Van Helsing: Civilization,

and syphilization, have advanced together.

One of the foundational films of my film-loving life, Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula, premiered in Los Angeles on this day thirty years ago. Which means that this is also give or take the thirty year anniversary of me kicking a hole in my mother's bedroom door because she refused to let me go see the R-rated movie I so desperately wanted to see. Ahhh memories!

Funny enough I only this year saw the movie for the first time on the big screen when the Paris Theater here in NYC played it -- it was as spectacular as expected, and the next time I'm home I might have to kick a hole in my mother's bedroom door again for keeping me from the experience for thirty full fucking years. What a movie! 

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She Was Always On His Mind

While the Jacob Elordi part of this news is the least interesting part of this news for me I am still going to visualize this post with a Jacob Elordi photo because I work with what sells, baby. The news being that directress Sofia Coppola has announced her next movie and it is called Priscilla and it is about Priscilla Presley. Cailee Spaeny, from Devs and Mare of Easttown, is going to play the titular woman herself, based on Elvis and Me, Priscilla's 1985 autobiographical retelling of her relationship with that singer man -- and that singer man is where Jacob Elordi comes in. Have Jacob Elordi and Austin Butler ever been in the same room together? A question for the ages. 

Anyway by all accounts -- meaning this is what Sofia is saying -- she's been meaning to tell this story for several years, well before Baz Luhrmann's film came out and became a sizable hit this year; one imagines that it's hit-stature got the engines revving on this project though, financially-speaking. Still everything having to do with Priscilla was woefully handled by Baz's movie if you ask me -- save a throwaway line about her age it seemed less than interested in exploring the fact that she was 14 when they met. Less than interested, it seemed to actively avoid that fact. And I feel like Sofia will talk about that fact! Anyway I am picturing lots of mint-green curtains swaying in Graceland windows while canister upon canister of Aqua Net is unleashed and I love it, I love every second of it already.  

Every single hair on my body is standing on end at the thought of Sofia Coppola making a movie about Priscilla Presley (this is a good thing) (a very good thing)

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) September 12, 2022

Good Morning, World

A happy 40th birthday to the terrific Jonathan Tucker today! He's been one of our faves for over half his life at this point -- the first place I would have seen him was playing neighbor boy "Tim" in Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides, and then a year later as Tilda's confused gay son in The Deep End, and tell me that two-some's not a stellar way to kick off one's career. A couple of years after that came the better-than-it-has-any-right-being Texas Chainsaw remake on 2003, which is what the above gif is from -- well it's from a making-of video anyway, which you can watch right here and I recommend you do if you're a fan and not just because...

... it's stuffed with that film's hot male cast taking their clothes off. 

But it doesn't hurt! And that's actually actor Eric Balfour seen naked both above and below by the way. I figured as long as we're here we might as well make those gifs, even if I'm talking Tucker. Anyway Tuck mostly does TV these days and he does very fine work there -- see especially his several seasons on Kingdom (although I admit his one-episode sexy gay-ish creep stint on Hannibal remains my fave) -- but when he does pop up in movies he's ever reliable; I don't think that Palm Trees and Power Lines has gotten a release yet, but I saw it at Sundance and he's phenomenal in it. Keep an eye out! Happy 40, Tuck! Here's one more Eric Balfour, let's say celebrating Tuck's birthday with his birthday suit...

Pics of the Day

Apparently Billy Magnussen is playing Robert Redford on that limited series The Offer about the making of The Godfather??? Who knew? Certainly not me because I would have mentioned this before, but Billy just shared the photos on his Instagram and...

... there he be! Reenacting some Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Right above that's director Dexter Fletcher in the middle, and we all know Miles Teller (unfortunately) who's playing producer Albert S. Ruddy in the series (and who is also the bulk of what has been keeping me from watching the series). Four episodes of the ten have aired so far -- have any of you watched it? I guess I have to now! Or at least this one (I suspect this is a cameo).

July's My Birthday & Criterion's Got My Presents

Looks like the leakers were right! Yesterday Film Twitter had a list going around of the titles that Criterion would be announcing as their July 2022 titles and it seemed as if they might be right because Criterion themselves had hinted already at two of them, but we weren't sure until just now, with the official announcement on their site. The titles for July will be Denzel in the 1995 neo-noir Devil in a Blue Dress (which, despite Denzel looking like that up above, phew, I have somehow never seen) on July 19th...

... alongside Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Oscar-winning insta-masterpiece Drive My Car, that exact same day. (Here is my review of Drive My Car, in case you never read that -- I wrote it up at NYFF forever and an age ago. What a movie.) But that's just the start -- July isn't just my birthday month, but it's apparently a chance for Criterion to be absolutely killing it! 

OOOOOOOO THAT RUMOR! pic.twitter.com/1ebJcehYq1

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 18, 2022

Because yup, they're also dropping Bong Joon-ho's Okja, aka that movie where Jake Gyllenhaal lost his damn fool mind. In a good way! This will be Okja's very first home-video release -- and in 4K no less! -- since it came out in 2017, since it's a Netflix movie and they only give physical disc releases to very rare titles. (Which makes me glad I still get critics screeners these days so I have some movies of theirs on disc anyway, haha I win.) Okja is coming out on July 5th. And yet wait, even more!

A little movie called Raging f'ing Bull from a little somebody named Martin f'ing Scorsese is hitting 4K blu-ray on July 12th, and a little movie called The Virgin f'ing Suicides from a little somebody named Sofia f'ing Coppola is also hitting 4K blu-ray on July 5th! Coppola's movie is an upgrade from the already-released regular blu-ray, but Raging Bull is inexplicably brand new to Criterion. These are some movies! But I saved my fave for last...

... David Lean's 1955 vacation-masterpiece Summertime, starring a possibly never better Katharine Hepburn as a woman who finds herself swept up in a surprise romance while visiting Venice Italy, is hitting blu-ray on July 12th, just in time for my birthday! This is one of my favorite movies -- it's such a gorgeous vibe, and makes you feel as if you've gone on vacation yourself. I already have their DVD of it but I am probably going to have to upgrade because this movie is truly breathtaking, and I need to see this remaster like I need air itself. What are y'all excited about?

Jamie Dornan Is Thirsty

Our pal Kyle Buchanan went and chatted with Jamie Dornan for the New York Times today, you can check it out here -- it's mostly all about Kenneth Branagh's perfectly lovely little film Belfast, which is out in theaters now (I reviewed it here) and which is angling for some, you know, awards. Kyle always does a good job with these things but I don't know how he even kept going after Dornan, literally thirsty for a drink of water, said "he considered making out with me 'just for the fluids.'" That's the sort of thing you get engraved on your tombstone, Kyle! I also enjoyed this passage:

"Dornan knows that because of “Fifty Shades,” his most ardent fans are women and gay men; when straight guys ask for his picture, he can still sense their skepticism. “They’re always like, ‘It’s obviously not for me, I’m a straight guy, and I have a wife’ or ‘I have a girlfriend, and she likes you, that’s why the photograph’s happening,’” he said. “What have I done, three war movies? You’d think that might help my cause out a little bit with straight men, but probably not. I think you need to be in that comic-book world to really grab their attention.”"

Straight men are so ridiculous. Dornan also talks some about his early modeling career, and whenever he does that it makes me flash back to an earlier iteration of my own day-job where I dealt with models a lot where I actually met Jamie on a casting call! Looking back I don't know how I knew who he was then though? It was probably after he did his eensy role in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette but was that really enough that I knew his name? Good grief I am a psychopath. Anyway hit the jump for two more very handsome photos from the NYT...

Good Morning, World

How does the saying go? Just when I thought I was out they pulled me back in? That's from The Godfather right? I keep randomly bringing up The Godfather movies lately, I guess I need to do a re-watch. Well a re-watch of the first two -- as I mentioned on Twitter the other day I've never actually seen the third movie -- maybe that's why I keep mentioning them, because Coppola's new cut of the third film has been coming up on Twitter a bunch. The blu-ray of it is on sale on Amazon for 10 bucks right now -- I feel as if I should watch it before I buy it but that's a good deal. Hmm. Wait what am I even talking about The Godfather for? I was quoting that line because new pictures of actor Tom Mercier in Behind the Blinds magazine have been popping up every month or so for what feels like four or five months and yet somehow there keep being more. It's because they are, as explained the last time we did this, actually releasing an entire book of photos of him. He's worthy! That's all I got on that. But let's get back to The Godfather...

Jake Gyllenhaal's Guide to Romantic Living

While the fluffy hair and velvet suit Jake rocked at his sister Maggie's movie NYFF premiere this week were a little too Jane Seymour's Guide to Romantic Living for me he still looked great, as he is Jake, and great is Jake's wont. This afternoon I was trying to figure out which one of Jake's thirteen-thousand projects he has lined up the hair could be for when the clouds split open and the answer became obvious -- this hair is clearly his hair for playing famed movie producer Robert Evans in Barry Levinson's movie about the making of The Godfather...

... and I am deeply ashamed I didn't automatically get that. Duh!! Anyway that's not why we're here, although I am glad to share that lightning bolt with y'all -- we're here because Jake's new movie The Guilty is out on Netflix today, so some of you will probably be watching it! And after you watch it you should go read my review of it at Pajiba, which I posted back when it screened at TIFF. It's a decent movie and Jake's better than decent in it -- he also, importantly and as promised, spends a lot of time flexing and flashing his biceps -- so go forth, enjoy. And have a good weekend, every one of you.

The Time For Dementia Is Now

Any fans of Dementia 13 in the house? Widely considered Francis Ford Coppola's first film (i.e. not the couple of sex flicks he worked on just before it) he was told to rip off Psycho by producer Roger Corman, and came up with this black-and-white weirdo axe-murder flick in 1963 -- it remains one of my faves of his because he's just throwing so much down at once. Not that Coppola ever didn't thrown everything he had down at the screen at once, but this one's so early it's not burdened by any claims of "seriousness" -- it is just fun and nuts. We love fun and nuts! Anyway as you can see by that cover art up top Coppola's gone back to where it all began and made a "Director's Cut" of Dementia 13 for us, and it's hitting blu-ray (and 4K digital) on September 21st! Cannot wait to see this through fresh eyes. Here's the trailer: 

Andy Garfield Got Game

Right up front I'll say that I have only heard not-great things about Mainstream from people who've seen it, but whatcha gonna do -- it stars Andrew Garfield (and the R-rating is for "some graphic nudity" so keep your fingers crossed, maybe we'll get another porky-pigging scene) and Maya Hawke, so I wanna see it, it's just that simple. It's is the second movie from writer-director-granddaughter Gia Coppola and it has Garfield and Hawke as influencer-wannabes whose viral videos taken them unto the dark places... 

... and yeah, we've seen this story a dozen times at this point now? The King of Comedy for Millennials, I mean. I think you really gotta figure out a way to make this work before you make another one of these, Young People. So far the top of the heap is Ingrid Goes West, I think? Can y'all think of a better one than that? I cannot. Anyway here's the just-dropped trailer for Mainstream:

IFC is releasing this (which also co-stars Jason Schwartzman and Nat Wolff) on May 7th -- probably in theaters, I guess? So look forward to that, or don't, whatever. That said after the jump I giffed the gratuitous Andrew Garfield stuff, of which there is probably enough to make you more than just whatever...

Good Morning, World

Videos of people getting plaster masks applied are a quick hop to Panic Attack for me -- that scene in Sofia Coppola's Somewhere remains one of the scariest scenes I've ever suffered through -- but I'll make a damn exception for Richard Madden somehow making this terrifying process sexy on his Insta today. I'm assuming this is for the miniseries Citadel, which I shared some pipin' hot fireman photos from on Twitter recently, but who knows, it could be an old video for his Marvel movie Eternals too. Not sure why he'd need a full face mask for either, though...