Goodbye Oscars Again

Conan O'Brien was doing such a good job putting on a good Oscars show -- along with the show's producers, who embraced the gaudy nonsense that the show should embrace, but more on that in a second -- that it wasn't until its second half that I realized I didn't give a shit about any of the movies or people winning the prizes. That they held off my annual Oscar annoyance and bitterness that long is an incredible feat! There are a couple of winners -- Flow for Best Animated film, Daniel Blumberg's incredible score for The Brutalist, No Other Land for Doc, and I'm Still Here for International Film -- that make me very happy. Several others are fine. But when you're as meh as I am about every single one of the top prize winners? Keiran Culkin is the only performance of the four acting winners I really like, but I could name twenty people I'd have handed that statue to over him including three of the other people actually nominated against him (I haven't been able to bring myself to watch The Apprentice yet). And I admit I need to re-watch Anora -- I have only seen it once at NYFF in the fall -- but y'all know...

When Conan made the joke about Anora using “the f word” 479 times I thought maybe we were gonna get a joke about its rampant homophobia for a second, haha silly me

— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 2, 2025 at 8:51 PM

... my repeatedly-expressed feelings there. And while I quite like The Brutalist I'm of the mind (apparently very very lonely of that mind) that Brody and Jones are its weakest aspects. (And JFC Brody's speech was insufferable proof that he remains insufferable.) 

I was expecting this to pop up in the middle of that speech

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 2, 2025 at 10:28 PM

Anyway I loved the production of the show, which embraced the hokey dance numbers of the past, and which really let -- for its first half anyway -- the nominees in all the craft cateegories get their due. Until they decided things were running too long and started cutting people off -- as soon as they start doing that I start getting tense and annoyed and the entire mood shifts. And then I started noticing that I wasn't liking the winners and yadda yadda Mikey Madison beat Demi and I was done. Y'all have thoughts? 

Robbed

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— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) March 2, 2025 at 10:43 PM

Timmy Has "Words" For Us

For some reason TImothee Chalamet posted several videos of himself singing along to the song "Words" from the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack on Instagram last night, and you can watch them all here because we all deserve this mental health break. (This is the song that's playing on the radio during the scene where Elio has sex with Marzia in the attic and yes I knew this without having the check, because of course I did.) Timmy's so good at going viral (no jokes about the NYU rumors please) for the silliest of reasons. His Oscar campaign has been doppleganger flash gangs and being his own musical guest on SNL -- he delights me and remains a balm in these terrible times. Anyway hit the jump to enjoy all of the videos, which I'm not technilogically savvy enough to combine into one single video...

Good Morning, World

Anybody watch Timmy's episode of SNL this weekend? I thought it was fun (I would agree with Dustin's assessment at Pajiba) but then my Timmy bias has been prominent since 2017 and there's no letting go. Even him dating one of those people inexplicably hasn't dented it. Even a goddamned Bob Dylan movie did nothing to hurt it! He made me enjoy a Bob Dylan movie for god's sake!

Meaning he can do anything. I don't think he'll win the Oscar for it nor am I rooting for him to win it this year -- for god's sake give Ralph Fiennes the respect his damn name deserves -- but if he somehow saunters up on the stage I will just whisper "Elio, Elio, Elio" to myself and rejoice in that hallowed name.

That's My Kind of Advertising

Timmy C, the best who's ever done it.

A Complete Unknown in 350 Words or Less

As with Wicked I don't think anybody needs my thoughts on a Bob Dylan bio-pic given the fact that I have never in my life given a shit about Bob Dylan -- add on top of that the fact that I have never loved a movie by director James Mangold and we're really cooking with gas (as in flatulance). But unlike Wicked and unlike every single one of Mangold's previous movies I actually walked out of A Complete Unknown with a smile on my face and a few tears wiped from my eyes -- this is a solid, totally respectable and enjoyable movie. 

Obviously I'm one of the founders of Team Timmy so you might think me biased due to that, but honest to blog he crafts a real character here -- this movie doesn't feel exhaustingly yolked to the bio-pic conventions of "here I was born and here I died and oh I did some Forrest Gump like shit in between;" it gives us an arc, and characters, to care about. Granted the real life arc it bridges -- "Folk Music can't be Electric or the world will end, oh my gahhhhhhhh" -- is hella silly from the vantage point of now; the film, as sweet as Edward Norton's performance as Pete Seeger is, really never manages to make that line of thinking seem like anything but nonsense. So that conflict never rises above a shrug. 

But the fiery relationship triangle between Chalamet, Elle Fanning (as a semi-fictional take on a real girl that Dylan dated), and Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez (both actresses superb) is beautifully acted and surprising and truly honestly earned my heart. And the film is very good at involving us in the songwriting process -- even if I'm not a Dylan fan the movie made me appreciate his skills as a wordsmith and a world-shifting entertainer. A Complete Unknown doesn't break open the bio-pic mold but it's about as good an example of what's-to-be-expected can be. Gonna be a fine pic over the holidays for those forced to endure family time.

Good Morning, Gratuitous Josh Heuston

From one feast to another -- I hope everyone had a nice holiday! I'm still a little out of sorts from my illness (two weeks in, huzzah) but getting there, thanks for asking. Well enough to come into work and gather up dozens of photos of the latest hottest young thing, Dune Prophecy actor Josh Heuston anyway. Back in May was the first time I posted about (or heard of) Mr. Heuston -- even though you'd think he'd have caught my eye...

... when he played a character named "Zeus' Pretty Boy" in Thor: Love and Thunder). Hrm. Anyway May was when he got cast in a serial killer movie with Jai Courtney called Dangerous Animals that's been directed by The Loved Ones director Sean Byrne -- and yes these are all exciting developments to me personally still, maybe even moreso after having spent this morning staring at Josh's outrageous abdominal muscles. 

These models turned actors, yeesh. Will they ever quit murdering us??? (Also it's good to see also that that Jai movie is listed on IMDb as being in post-production, meaning I'm guessing we'll get to see it sometime in 2025. Gimme!) Anyway I haven't watched any of Dune: Prophecy yet but I have seen gifs of Josh on the show making the rounds and...

... my interest is up, up, up. I actually don't know why I haven't started the show yet, being a Dune fan -- I keep not being in the mood when I open the Max app and see Emily Watson in that great big black headdress staring back at me. Soon though. Soon. For Josh's part he's been doing his best...

... to steer me his direction, appearing on like a dozen magazine covers in the past few months in varying states of undress. Which is what brings us to this morning, this great big gratuitous post. It's a biggun! Took me all morning, it did. Hit the jump for a great big galumph of photos...

Who Wore It Best?

Timothée Chalamet is on the cover of Rolling Stone this month as he gears up to push his Bob Dylan bio-pic A Complete Unknown (out at Christmas) -- there are a couple of nice photos, including the two posted here, so click over if you want them. 

(Plus an interview which I haven't read yet so I cannot say.) But then there's also an inexplicable photo of Timmy doing the same pose that the teen daughter Holly in Troll 2 does in the middle of her big infamously much-mocked dance scene in that movie and so obviously I had to ask y'all...

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Good Morning, Queer

Good morning from the first official poster for Luca Guadagnino's Queer! A24 shared it on social media this morning along with the word that the first trailer for the movie will be coming our way next week -- I figured it'd be coming soon since the movie is out in one month and two days. Anyway that is quite the striking image and it's taken right from the film (or a variation of it is in the film anyway) -- We'd assumed that would be the font they'd be using for the film's title already because you might recall I saw Luca & Daniel & Drew & Co do a Q&A with the film a few weeks back... well if you don't recall I will share those photos and videos again below because they're always worth looking at. But anyway that font was on the big screen behind them, and it's also the font used in the movie itself. And yes it is very Call Me By Your Name right?

This movie is very much in dialogue with CMBYN -- as I mention in my review of the movie (right here) there are several hilariously aggressive pans out of the windows during the film's sex scenes which are very clearly a good natured fuck you to the people who complained about those in CMBYN. That said I'm not sure making people think they're seeing another CMBYN is a good idea because this movie is very very different, with different intentions and a very different tone. I mean I love it, a lot, but it's a different movie altogether. Anyway you'll all see soon enough. Oh and if you missed it a new photo from the movie dropped a couple of days ago as well. Here are those Q&A photos and videos I mentioned:

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Hey Look It's a Bob Dylan Movie

Whilst I was scuttled away in an NYFF screening this morning the first trailer for A Complete Unknown, the Bob Dylan biopic starring our boy Timmy C, dropped -- I'm on the record (probably more than once) in admitting I could give a shit about Bob Dylan, so I'm not the primary audience for this. But that cast is something! Besides Tim-Tim there's Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash, Scoot McNairy as Woody Gurthie, Ed Norton as Pete Seeger, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Elle Fanning as "Some Girl." (I think she's playing a made-up character? No doubt to show how the great man changes as he becomes great, like usual. God I could write the script for this movie right now, feels like. Anyway this is a trailer for this movie and I am now back at my desk from my morning screening.

A Complete Unknown is out on Christmas Day. 

Thoughts, if you care?

Today's Mood

My schedule had a wrench thrown into it this morning so unlike what I said in this morning's post I am actually not at a NYFF screening but at my desk. Which involved some activity very much like the photo above of Timothee Chalamet seen on the set of Marty Supreme, his movie with Josh Safdie (the bearded one below) that's currently filming here in NYC. The pap snaps from set have been relentless -- the suits and staches are snap worthy indeed -- and I keep hoping I will bump into the production. But that's unlikely given how I am usually in three places these days -- my office, a NYFF screening room, or the floor of my apartment gently weeping. I was kind of hoping Timmy might be at that fancypants Queer screening I attended yesterday to say hey to his pal Luca (or Josh O'Connor -- I would've taken Josh O'Connor!) but no such luck. 

Pic of the Day

The Safdies are hit or miss for me -- big huge massive fan of Good Time, while I couldn't stand Uncut Gems -- but I am (obviously) hoping for good things from Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme, his ping pong movie (made sans brother Ben) starring Timothee Chalamet (see my previous post here). Anyway the movie is filming here in NYC right now and there's Timmy on set looking geekily adorable with his wiry little pencil stache -- now we know why he was rocking that at a Dune 2 press event last week and it thankfully wasn't for fashion's sake. Since I posted about this movie's announcement the cast has grown quite a bit, adding Gwyneth Paltrow, Abel Ferrara, Penn Gillette, and Tyler the Creator -- quite a random assortment of folks up in there but we'd expect no less. The Safdies do love themselves some big characters. 

Good Morning, World

I can't believe it's taken me this long to post this shot of Josh O'Connor getting the up-shorts treatment in Luca Guadagnino's tennis smash Challengers -- the second I saw it in the movie (read my review here) I flashed right back to this perfectly similar shot...

,.. of Timmy in Call Me By Your Name, which was also filmed by genius cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom. And whether this is a kink of Luca's or one of Sayombhu's I don't care; I just hope they keep working together and making the movie magic happen.

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Behold, The Folk Fuckboi

The first trailer for James Mangold's Bob Dylan bio-pic A Complete Unknown starring Timmy, yes Timmy, has arrived -- I've said this on every ocassion when this film's come up but I just do not give a flying fuck about Bob Dylan and watching this trailer yup, still do not care. That said Timothée Chalamet does fall under my jurisdiction of consideration and sure I guess he's doing a good Dylan here. Big folk fuckboi energy. It's also nice to see Elle Fanning (big Elle fan) and I didn't notice them in the trailer (okay yes my eyes sort of glazed over watching this) but Scoot McNairy and Boyd Holbrook are in the movie somewhere too. Looks like fairly routine bio-pic stuff -- Mangold is not a director that excites me either and this looks very much like his Johnny Cash movie Walk the Line, which I couldn't describe to you a single frame from now. But gawrsh the Oscars loved it and one assumes that's what everybody's hoping for here. 

A Complete Unknown is out in December.

Timmy On Pong

Happy to see Timothee Chalamet still tackling interesting projects -- lord knows after the genuine box office success of the Dune films and Wonka he could be exclusively grabbing paychecks but our Elio wants to act! Today comes word he's starring in the new movie from Josh Safdie, one half of the Safdie Brothers who made Good Time and Uncut Gems (I think the brothers are taking some time off a la the Coens?) -- it's called Marty Supreme and it's about "professional ping pong player Marty Reisman." If you don't know who Reisman is -- and who the hell would? -- read his Wiki right here. I certainly didn't know who he was, anyway. He sounds like the New York City hustler type that the Safdies love -- Reisman's heyday was the 1940s, so it'll be a period film, which at least is new. I personally am mixed on the Safdies -- I loved Good Time but hated Uncut Gems. So we'll see. Timmy's always a good start. ETA here is a teaser poster A24 shared:

Happy InDePlaidPants Day 2024!

It's time for that goofiest of MNPP-specific holidays -- every July 4th I post photos of dudes wearing plaid pants, because why not. WHY NOT??? Really though -- if any of you can come up with a good reason why I shouldn't do this ricidulous thing every year let's hear it; it'll save me gathering up these photos all year long. I welcome one less thing to worry about in this worry-full world!

But until that happens here we are, and here they be -- dudes wearing plaid pants. It's been so long since I've owned or wore a proper pair of plaid pants. That seems a shame. You'd think I'd capitalize on the site's name and brand myself like a proper "influencer" with a look (or is that "lewk") all my own so I could become a pop culture character and perhaps then pay my bills on time. LOL. Wouldn't that shock the world. Anyway, celebration! Hit the jump for the year in plaid pants photos...

The Answer My Friend is Blowin' in Timmy's Hair

The internet was ablaze -- ablaze I tells ya! -- with photos of TImothee Chalamet out in NYC over the weekend shooting his forthcoming and long gestating baby Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown with director James Mangold. Just google them and you can find more -- I don't care. Y'all know my feelings about Timmy and I'll see this movie but I am not in the slightest a Dylan fan and kind of resent that I'm being made to care about this movie. And now even moreso, because today they've announced a heaping pile (a piling heap?) of actors who've joined the movie's cast and there are several names of import. Mainly the ones that matter to me are Boyd Holbrook, Scoot McNairy, and Gossip Girl hottie Eli Brown...

There's no word on who anybody is playing yet so don't ask. But those three snacks aren't the only names dropped -- there's also "Dan Fogler (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), Will Harrison (Daisy Jones & The Six) …... P.J. Byrne (Babylon), Nick Pupo (Halt and Catch Fire), Big Bill Morganfield, Laura Kariuki, Eric Berryman (Atlanta), David Alan Basche (Egg), Joe Tippett (Monarch) and James Austin Johnson (Saturday Night Live)." Plus the previously annouced Edward Norton and Elle Fanning. Sigh. At least I'll have nice faces to look at while I suffer through more Dylan mythologizing. And Timmy's hair looks lush. It's the little things! Or in the case of Timmy's hair, the big ones.

How You Dune, Part Two

It's a good weekend for new movies as two excellent ones are dropping -- there's Dune: Part Two of course, which is the biggie. And I am sure most if not all of you will have an opinion on that one so please share once you've watched. I wrote some scattered off-the-cuff thoughts of my own over here a couple of days ago. And yes I'm throwing Austin a bone -- so to speak -- by using his image over Timmy's on this post, since I didn't really love what he does in Dune. Keep at it, Austin! One day you'll be a successful actor!) Please realize that I am making fun of myself in that previous statement, and set aside your scorn. I think most people disagree with me. or will. Per usual. But the movie's great overall and I very much want to see it again as soon as I can (preferably if I can snag IMAX 70mm tickets, but I'm afraid to even check how far in advance they are sold out for). 

The other excellent movie out this weekend is Julio Torres' art comedy Problemista starring Tilda Swinton and himself as a painter-slash-maniac and her new assistant -- I posted the trailer for this way back in July when it was going to come out back then, so watch it here if you haven't already. Or just go see the movie, which I totally adored when I saw it at NewFest last summer. You know TIlda's 2008 thriller Julia? This is kind of that but as a comedy. They remind me of each other for some weird reason. Maybe it's just that Tilda is fucking brilliant in them both, I don't know. Anyway that's that, I am done for the week. Have a fine weekend! Perfectly, adequately fine!

Here, Some Fast Dune 2 Thoughts

I posted a shorter version of this on Twitter (see it here) but what the hell, I'll elaborate a bit here on MNPP proper just in case Twitter sinks into the muck eventually (slash tomorrow) and since it doesn't seem I'm writing up a review of Dune 2 anywhere else. But I'm still going to keep this brief though because I weirdly don't have a ton to say? Even though I quite liked the movie. It's as promised even more epic than the first one -- Villenueve's sense of scale is basically unmatched right now, and there are shots here that will take your breath away. We're truly blessed that someone with his visual eye has had this amount of money tossed at him -- nobody has made world building feel quite so definitive. 

Because watching Dune 2 you really and truly feel as if an entire fucking world has been built right in front of you. An entire fucking universe. And it feels so much bigger and more consequential than anything Marvel has ever accomplished because there are actual ideas at work here -- ideas about religion and politics and not just "I gots bad Daddy issues, wahhh." Although yes there's some Daddy issues too, for good measure. 

Though its Mommy Issues are more exciting, given how Rebecca Ferguson basically walks away with the entire film. Everything Villenueve is saying about religion here is absolutely vicious (and, you know, spot on) and Ferguson (and to a less seen but no less vicious extent Charlotte Rampling) relishes the shit out of it -- like she did in Doctor Sleep she's so good at being so cold-hearted and weird and cruel! I bow down, really and truly. She is the queen we demand.

As for the much touted Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha he certainly looks very cool but I wasn't terribly impressed by him. Ferguson, Rampling, Stellan Skarsgård, Christopher Walken, hell even Dave Bautista drip with more menace -- I just didn't buy him as intimidating no matter how hard the make-up was working. He felt like a dopey kid playing dress-up. The big duel between him and Timothée is terrifically staged and choreographed, though. 

Speaking of, Timothée is good -- like he did in The King he surprises me every time he can muster a genuine sense of command; that the waif-like frailty we all know and love doesn't snap under the pressure of screaming orders at enormous crowds. That said I found it hysterically funny how big his hair got in the last act as Paul gets more powerful -- I guess Damian in Mean Girls was right. But it's a real Sigourney in Ghostbusters Gatekeeper type glow-up, volume-wise. He got a blow out. Power blow!

Okay those were more words than I anticipated rambling off. Shout out to the score too -- an absolute banger that I keep refreshing every website to see if the vinyl has been dropped yet. And needless to say the costumes astonish -- some truly Excalibur level cornball nonsense going on, but dialed up to ten thousand -- I love it. Anyway the movie is good! Better than the last one, and I liked the last one. It's annoying that it is another unfinished story -- especially with Villenueve bitching about the movies becoming television in interviews; dude, you're just giving us super-sized episodes of a Dune show here when it comes down to it. But I will keep tuning in.

Off To Fuckboi

Okay well I'm going to go watch Dune 2 now, bye.

Like Sandworms Through the Hourglass

If you're excited about the imminent release of Denis Villenueve's Dune sequel, smartly titled Dune 2, then perhaps you might get it inside yourself a whisper sooner with a pre-order of cinematographer Greig Fraser's resplendant photography book Dune: Exposures, which collects his set photos into a grand hardcover edition that hits stands on Valentine's Day aka Wednesday of next week. Stick it in your loved one's chocolate box! (Ewww, that sentence was too far, Jason.) That's two whole weeks before the movie hits theaters so you can just press your face against the pictures of Timmy's windswept hair and toss some sand in your face and it'll be like you're right there! Pre-order your book right here. Me, I'm seeing Dune 2 in six days! So stay tuned for my opinion... as if you wouldn't. You don't do anything unless I say so, dammit!