NYFF Ahoy!

Although it seems nuts to be onto the fall festivals already (not that I will miss this hellfire summer in the slightest, mind you) it is indeed the perfect moment for me to take stock of my hometown beloved, the New York Film Festival, since they've officially announced all three of their Gala films now. We'll start with the end, or is that the middle -- today they announced their Centerpiece film screening and it will indeed be Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language full-length film The Room Next Door starring Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, and Alessandro Nivola. See all my previous posts on this one here -- we've been rather excited about this for some time, because of course we have. 

This will be its U.S. premiere -- it's premiere-premiering in Venice in September. The NYFF screening is October 4th, right in the middle of the fest -- hence it being the "Centerpiece film" duh -- which runs from September 27–October 14. And speaking of those dates -- the Opening Night film that they announced a couple of weeks ago is Nickel Boys from Hale County This Morning, This Evening (a truly spectacular movie, that) director RaMell Ross -- an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer-winning novel, Nickel Boys stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, Daveed Diggs, Fred Hechinger, and two young actors named  Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson in the leads; it's about "two Black teenagers who become wards of a barbaric juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow–era Florida." Anybody read the book? 

And then there's our Closing Night movie -- Steve McQueen's Blitz! I've been jonesing for this ever since I first heard about it -- the Hunger and Shame and 12 Years a Slave director is tackling the World War II bombings that devastated London from the ground level, with Saiorse Ronan playing a working-class mum who gets seperated from her little boy in the underground. Blitz also stars, among many others, Harris Dickinson, Stephen Graham, and Hayley Squires -- I have been a massive fan of Squires ever since she wowed in Ken Loach's 2016 film I, Daniel Blake, so I hope her role is juicy too. A lot of people think this might be the movie to finally get Saoirse her Best Actress Oscar, but I don't think enough people have actually seen it yet to know that much. (Having seen her in The Outrun at Sundance though I can already tell you that this is going to be a very good fall for her.)

Anyway that's three films down, dozens more to come -- I daren't even conjecture, they always surprise me, but I find myself getting giddy thinking about it already. If you're planning on attending you can buy packages right here right now; single tickets go on sale in the middle of September. 

A Very Merry Apocalypse

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We finally have word on when the new CBS miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand will arrive! Variety's reporting this version, which stars Alexander Skarsgard and James Marsden and literally one thousand other people, will hit CBS All Access on December 17th. They don't offer up any new photos with the announcement but if you missed the first batch click here. They say it will drop on the streaming service one episode per week, every Thursday, for eight weeks. So there's our Holiday Entertainment this year! Nothing says carved ham like...

QUARANTINE DAY 114 pic.twitter.com/h2z2QPmHax

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 5, 2020

... a made-for-TV Stephen King adaptation, after all. Oh I kid, I am hopeful this will be good! It certainly can't be worse than the 1994 version, which I re-watched over quarantine (after re-reading that monster of a book) and found, save a saving grace here and there, utterly unfathomably awful. And hey Variety says that King wrote the 2020 series' finale episode (not necessarily a good sign on its own since he also wrote the 1994 miniseries in its entirety) and that he added a post-novel coda that tells us What Happens Next, so that's something curious. A carrot on this particular stick.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Future (2011)

Sophie: We'll be forty in five years.
Jason: Uh. Forty is basically fifty and
then after fifty, the rest is just... loose change.
Sophie: Loose change?
Jason: Like... not quite enough to get
anything you really want.

How sad are you that Miranda July hasn't made a movie in seven years? I am exceptionally sad about that. The Future premiered at Sundance in 2011 and came out the following July (here is my original review) - I named it my #11 favorite movie of that year (2011 was a good year for movies, you guys). July has written some books in the eight years since - her book inspired by the making of The Future called It Chooses You is wonderful, as is her novel debut called The First Bad Man, but my favorite thing of hers (outside of movies) remains her original collection of short stories from 2008 called No One Belongs Here More Than You. 

But we're still waiting on a third movie - we did get news of that about a year ago; we posted a quote from her (from a chat with her hubby 20th Century Women director Mike Mills) in January 2017 where she said she's working on the script. Get to it, Miranda! We miss you! But you can take today, your 44th birthday, off I suppose.

Happy day!

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What Fools These Mortals Be

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HitFix has the first couple of pictures from a new film adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which stars a trio of idiosyncratically monikered MNPP All -Stars -- Fran Kranz, Hamish Linklater, and Finn Wittrock! You can see the first two of those gentlemen here; there's no picture of Wittrock yet, but this is still super-early - at that link the director says he's in post on the movie but is going to run a Kickstarter very soon to help him finish it for this Fall. Make sure you click over there - there's also video of Fran talking about the project. And, cue chest hair...

Do Dump or Marry - All of Them White Dudes

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I cannot be emphatic enough about how much I absolutely do not have any desire to see The Big Short, Anchorman director Adam McKay's upcoming "white dudes with white dude problems" movie starring all of the whites dudes under all of the wigs. It resembles no less than a fiery-nostrilled nightmare to me. I will admit that I'm surprised by this reaction to the trailers, as I was excited at first as I heard the names of all the boys signing on for it - Brad Pitt! Ryan Gosling! Steve Carell! Christian Bale! I like these folks! But somehow seeing it all slapped together inside a cloud of hair-dye and Axe Body Spray I'm compelled to retching, instantaneous retching. Oh well. But there are bright spots!

There are three whites dudes in the trailer that are acting as my anti-ipecac. There's Finn Wittrock, seen above...

... and there's Hamish Linklater, and...

... there is Billy Magnussen. For one they look like themselves and aren't trying to out-do each other in the crimp-n-curl department like whatever the hell is going on on Gosling/Pitt/Carell/Bale's heads. I mean...

... come on, Ryan Gosling. For another it's just nice to see some fresh faces getting a chance - somehow the pile-up of big established names in this movie became Too Much and it all curdled into its own Good Ol' Boys Club kinda sensation, and I am not getting the feeling that it's self-aware enough about this from the footage shown so far. (I get that this time and place looked like this but this movie's not convincing me it's a place I want to spend any time at all, is my point.) Anyway let's step aside from that and let's focus on our better angels - I am asking you guys...

... to Do Dump or Marry Finn & Hamish & Billy.

Take to it in the comments!

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Big Short Hunk Everybody

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Back in January we told you how Adam McKay's new movie called The Big Short, about the housing bubble burst, was going to star Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale. Then a couple of days later Steve Carell joined the cast. By that point, we were basically full-on swooning at the dude-storm gathering. Well as if that wasn't enough yesterday Deadline reported on the rest of the cast and I might be into some of these guys even more - Finn Wittrock! Rafe Spall! Hamish Linklater! Good grief! And apparently the film is shooting right now, as you can see in these pictures of Pitt & Finn on set. I wish I could warg myself into that dog they're walking so bad.

Good Morning, World

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I've been watching Woody Allen's latest Magic in the Moonlight (which is out on blu-ray next week) in fits and spurts over the past few days and I haven't finished it yet but seeing as how I can't at the moment think of a nicer way to start a week than by having the adorable Hamish Linklater serenade us in just a pair of old-timey swimming trunks, well this couldn't wait.

I should reserve my judgement til I finish the movie but seeing as how I did already say as much on Twitter I'm really only enjoying the movie for little moments like Hamish in swimming-trunks and also the astonishingly gorgeous cinematography by longstanding genius Darius Khondji - he's shot several of Woody's last few movies but this is clearly the gem. The art-deco jazz-age everything is to die for; I'm tempted to post a dozen caps from the movie like I just did for Enemy yesterday. Alongside the astonishingly lovely Mr. Turner from Mike Leigh (and DP Dick Pope), which I also watched this weekend, I was surrounded by some mighty fine beauty all weekend long.

Good Morning, World

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Seeing that it's Hamish Linklater's 38th birthday today just reminds me that yesterday was the last day of Much Ado About Nothing playing "Shakespeare in the Park" this Summer, which I really wanted to see, and didn't. Hamish is a regular on the boards of the Delacorte - this time around he was Benedick opposite Lily Rabe as his Beatrice, and I missed it. I missed it, dammit. Did anybody else go? I hate you if you so just shut your stupid fat fatty fat mouth. On a lighter note if you want to stare at some more Hamish click here, we adore him, especially his recent bromance with James Wolk.

Anyway did everybody have a nice holiday?
Or if you're not American, a nice weekend?
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Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... getting the nighty-night-time giggles 

with James Wolk and Hamish Linklater.

Well it's clear that The Crazy Ones is just straight up fucking with me now. First they got James in short shorts sucking on a popsicle and I thought there'd be no topping it... well actually they probably won't ever top that, but that doesn't seem to be stopping James from trying to top it... as well as Hamish. Hit the jump for more!

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... choking down...

... whatever James Wolk...

... wants to put in my mouth.

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Agents of Hamish

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I'm finally catching up on Agents of SHIELD right now so naturally I'm in the thick of a "my goodness Clark Gregg is fuckable" kick, which is good for all of us because it led me to discovering this clip of him and Hamish Linklater lock-lipping on The New Adventures of Old Christine back in the day. Everybody wins!

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Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me...

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... that my boyfriend from Miranda July's The Future Hamish Linklater was doing Shakespeare in the Park in his skivvies? Gah, must go! Has anybody actually waited in the line in the park to get tickets for these shows? What time should I get there? I have this Friday off so I could actually do it this week...

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Hamish Linklater Three Times

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(pics via) The Future actor just joined the cast of Sarah Michelle Gellar's new show from David E. Kelley. Smidge and Robin Williams (!) star as a father and daughter who run an ad agency. Also on the show will be James Wolk, who will hopefully be entirely banned from clothes this time around.

Hamish Says Hey

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That's Hamish Linklater, one half of The Future, Miranda July's wonderful second film which is out on DVD today. (Here's my review.) Today! Hooray! I should have a copy sitting at home for me right this second (along with July's husband's movie Beginners, which I haven't seen yet, and which just gobbled up a bunch of awards today that his wife's movie is too divisive to claim but totally deserves, alas).

I never told you guys about that live performance of July's new book It Chooses You that I saw a few weeks ago, did I? Oh it was marvelous. The theater didn't let me take pictures, the bastards, otherwise I'd most definitely have posted them. My love for her work (and her personally, I might add) only deepens with every new exposure I get. I worship her, y'all. Have you seen this series of pictures of her posing as extras in old movies? Add it to the list of things her touch has made incredible. Worship.

Hey look who grew a beard!

I like it. I also like him in a towel.

And I like him bare-assed in a half-off kilt. 

I just like him, basically.

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What The Hell, Hamish

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I think I can safely say that when I just now went looking for pictures of The Future's Hamish Linklater the absolutely last thing I expected to find were pictures of him walking down a runway in a kilt with his ass hanging out with Katie effing Price. This is a strange world.

Anyway today's been too crazy with other excellent stuff so I haven't gotten around to writing a review for Miranda July's The Future yet, is where I'm going here. It's a film that I could probably use another day to stew on anyway, so we'll deal with that tomorrow. Or perhaps this tweet is enough of a review for you? That might be where we are as a world now, I don't know. Hamish Linklater walking down a runway in a kilt with his ass hanging out with Katie effing Price has tossed my understanding of everything straight into a tailspin.

I Have Seen The Future...

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... actually, I've only seen the trailer for The Future. Miranda July's second weirdo-opus, after the much-loved-by-me Me and You and Everyone We Know,  is out on July 29th and you can see the trailer over at Apple. I liked it so much I took several screen-caps. That shot of July and co-star Hamish Linklater (in related news, I wish my name was Hamish Linklater) looking like twins is cracking me up for some reason.

A New July

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It's been way way way way too long since Me and You and Everyone We kKnow came out way back in 2005, so this news of a new movie by Miranda July has got me and my fellow fans of hers in a delighted tizzy. It's called The Future, it will play at Sundance, that's a shot from it above, and here's the story:

"Sophie (Miranda July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) are a thirty something couple who have hit a bit of a brick wall in their lives. They live by themselves in a one-bedroom apartment and spend a vast amount of time online. They make a decision to adopt a terminally ill cat named Paw Paw. Like a newborn baby, he’ll need around-the-clock care. Despite their good intentions, Sophie and Jason are terrified of the responsibility and the looming loss of freedom, so with just one month left, before they are due to collect the cat, they decide to quit their jobs to pursue their dreams. Sophie wants to make a dance, and Jason wants to throw his life open to the profound excitement of chance — on a whim he volunteers to be a door-todoor canvasser. As the month slips by, Sophie becomes increasingly immobilised, unable to make even the slightest progress with her dance, and in a moment of desperation, she begins an affair with someone she barely knows, Marshall (David Warshofsky) – a tough, square, fifty-year old man she met briefly at the animal shelter. Using elements of magical realism – a talking cat who narrates his own sad tale, a living tee-shirt, and strangely familiar Moon – the film bravely creates its own particular universe. With pathos and humour, it invites us to share the bitter sweetness of this moment in the lives of this young couple."

When anyone described Me and You and Everyone We Know to me before I saw it I never thought I'd love it as much as I did, so this talk here of talking cats named Paw Paw and such doesn't hit my "run away and don't look back lest ye be turned into a pillar of quirky salt" button like it would've once upon a time. Because goddamn, that ought to make me want to run away. But nope, I'm there.
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