Monday, March 18, 2024

Make Room For Alessandro Nivola


Extremely happy-making news today with the word that one of our favorite actors Alessandro Nivola has just joined the cast of Pedro Almodovar's new movie The Room Next Door! He joins the previously announced trio of Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, and John Turturro -- funny enough when I last posted about this movie about a week ago, I mentioned that it was already a Gloria Bell reunion thanks to the presence of Moore & Turturro; Nivola wasn't in Gloria Bell but he did give what I consider his greatest performance in a different Sebastián Lelio film, 2017's Disobediance. So Almodóvar's English-language debut feature film is turning into a total Lelio-fest (if only Tilda had worked with him) which I am totally down for. Anyway no word on what role Nivola is playing here, but I think we can rest assured that Pedro will know what to do with him. 

Josh O'Connor Serving It Up


A new behind-the-scenes video focusing on Josh O'Connor (and importantly Josh O'Connor's abs) in Luca Guadagnino's tennis romance Challengers has arrived, and I would have shared it quicker but when I saw the above shot in it I died and needed to be resuscitated. It was a whole thing. You might want to take some precuations before you watch the video yourself, but here it is:


Challengers is out on April 26 aka in 39 days!



Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker (1981)

Cheryl: College is for rich kids and
people with brains. You wouldn't fit in.

The great and terrifying Susan Tyrrell was born on this day -- funny enough my boyfriend and I were just watching a recent TCM interview with John Waters last night and they showed a shot of Susan in Cry-Baby and unheeded my boyfriend whispered, almost under his breath, "I would've been so scared of her." And if that's not a tribute to her legacy I don't know what could be! 

I assume that you did hear the news that Severin is releasing an ultra-fancy set of Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker on glorious 4K this May, right? You can pre-order it right here or at Severin's site. We truly live in blessed, cursed times, where movies like this piece of glorious trash are given such over-the-top love and affection. Of course I snatched one right up -- and one of the 4K blinking eyeball box-sets of Cathy's Curse too! I mean I'm not deeeeranged!



5 Off My Head - The Hottest Criterion Covers


They say sex sells, but the art-house media empire known as Criterion doesn't often subscribe to that notion. Sure their streaming service sometimes sluts it up with timed collections catering to such tastes. But when it comes to the actual physical media releases they put out? Let's just say they're not regularly porning up the shelves at your local neighborhood Barnes & Noble. Don't believe me? Just look at the artful but limp covers they gave us for notoriously horny movies like David Cronenberg's Crash and John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy:

Which is why last week's reveal of the cover art for Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Querelle (hitting those shelves in June) came at us like such a happy punch in the privates. Designed by the artist Astra Zero (follow them on Instagram here) the cover is appropriately horny for RWF's horny, horny final film, which we're ecstatic to see getting a proper release at last. But it got me thinking -- what other Criterion covers have stirred my (admittedly easily stirred) loins? So I made a list! And do keep in mind that I am extremely homosexual, so my list echoes those credentials. Make your own lists, straights! (Also clearly the Querelle one trumps everything else and should be considered #1 above all of these from here on out. It already won!)

The 5 Horniest Criterion Covers (Besides Querelle)

Claire Denis' Beau Travail -- I'm not as big a fan of Denis' 1999 erotic treatise on masculinity as a lot of you are, or as would typically make sense, given the film's notable focus on hard half-naked male bodies swinging around in hypnotic unison. But that doesn't mean I can argue with the shadowy visage of actor Grégoire Colin's bared, slick torso. I bought this disc even though I don't love the movie just because of the cover!

Jacques Deray's La Piscine -- I could have used any Criterion cover that has Alain Delon on it (his jawline on the Purple Noon cover could create a cult all on its own) but, even if a bit hetero to my linking, half-naked Alain & Romy Schneider clenched up in ecstacy is about  as hot and sweaty as these things get. Let's not get in the way of their erotic lifestyle!

Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho -- Two of the most beautiful and sensitive movie stars on my early teen years at the height of their beauty and sensitivity, rocking hustler ennui while strapped to one another on the back of a motorcycle -- you can't see that the motorocycle is there in the cover image but you can probably feel it, humming between your thighs all the same. And if not, well, they sure are on top of each other huh? 

Andrew Haigh's Weekend -- Seeing actor Chris New working his way down actor Tom Cullen's naked body again this rumpled mid-coitus snapshot image slams you right back there into the middle of this 2011 masterpiece of intimacy from Haigh and you realize -- oh right that's where I have wanted to be all this time. Back in bed with those two!


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Runners-up: Joyce Chopra's Smooth Talk, Yukio Mishima's Patriotism, Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers, Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien, Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood For Love, Stephen Frears' My Beautiful Laundrette

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What would be your picks for Criterion's horniest covers?

Five Frames From ?






What movie is this?


Good Morning, World


This is Russell Tovey's version of "Monday Motivation."

Friday, March 15, 2024

Matthias Schoenaerts Three Times


It's really quite ridiculous that I haven't watched any of The Regime yet on Max -- it's the A Little Chaos reunion that everybody's been waiting for! Have any of you actually ever seen A Little Chaos? The 2014 movie -- holy shit, where are all the 10-year-anniversary pieces on A Little Chaos -- about romantically entangled French landscape artists that Alan Rickman directed right before he died? I won't go so far as saying that the movie killed Alan Rickman, because it's not actually a bad movie. It's a fine movie that is vandalized by the terrible wig that they plopped down on Matthias Schoenaerts' head. 

Anyway Matthias has now re-teamed with his romantically-entangled rival landscape-artist Kate Winslet in The Regime and it's ridiculous that I haven't watched any of The Regime, is my point. It really seems like the kind of thing that will be right up my alley. Have any of you watched it? I will definitely get on that this weekend. All of that said it's basically the weekend now, so I probably won't post anything else today. So y'all have a good one! Weekend, I mean. Oh and go see Love Lies Bleeding (here is my review) now that it's in wide release! What a fucking movie that is. I mean it's no A Little Chaos but what is? (pics via)


Kinds of Yorgos-ness


This is yesterday's news, literally, but I'm gonna be real annoyed with myself in a few weeks time when I go searching to see where the post is where I shared the announcement of Yorgos Lanthimos' new movie and remember that oh right you took that day off to play hooky and go see Dune Part Two in IMAX. Anyway we've known about Yorgos' next movie for awhile now (here is my last post about it) -- it used to be called And but perhaps they realized that a movie called And would be lost unto the search engines forever (which I figured was part of the joke) so they have now officialled retitled the film Kinds of Kindess. And they have also given it a release date -- June 21st. (98 days to go!) And they have also announced a big chunk of the cast -- of course Emma Stone because I don't know if Yorgos and Emma are ever going to make another movie without each other at this point. 

I do believe they already have two more lined up after this one! But then there's Willem Dafoe (again), Joe Alwyn (again),  Margaret Qualley (again), plus the supremely talented Yorgos-newbies Jesse Plemons, Hunter Schafer, Mamoudou Athie, and Hong Chaun and god we love Hong Chau. Almost as much as we love a director who has a repertory of players. I do wish he'd work with Rachel Weisz or Colin Farrell or Ben Whishaw or Olicia Colman again. Or Mark Ruffalo. And also I have a list of about ten thousand actors he hasn't worked with I'd like to see him work with. Point being Yorgos don't you dare ever take a break!


Pic of the Day


This new picture of Josh O'Connor in Luca Guadagnino's Challengers is not helping my overwhelming anxiety about seeing this damn movie already!!! Why are they tormenting us??? Years it's been! YEARS!
 

Happy Pride From Criterion!


June is Pride Month and Criterion is hitting a home run right off the bat with their June 2024 slate of announcements -- Rainer Werner Fassbinder's final film Querelle, a surreal Jean Genet adaptation starring a sizzling hot Brad Davis that has been a real pain in the ass to get for years (out of print et cetera) is entering the collection on June 11th! We've posted a million and one times about this movie here at MNPP, it's been one of our faves since it was first introduced to us in a college class on queer cinema -- I'm a little sad they're not releasing it in 4K (just regular blu) but I will not complain! It will just be nice to replace my ancient DVD! But that's not the only gay goodness they've got in store for the month...

... as they're also dropping the Wachowski's 1996 lesbian noir masterpiece Bound! And this one IS getting the 4K treatment! If you've never seen Bound before... well don't even wait for the June 18th release date. Watch Bound tonight! You will not be disappointed. It remains my favorite Wachowski movie, and it was their first! But the hits don't stop there...

... as they've also slated Barry Jenkins seriously underappreciated 2021 masterpiece of a miniseries The Underground Railroad. I guess because the world felt like it was falling apart (not that that feeling has stopped) when this was airing it really felt like it didn't get enough attention at the time -- maybe it was also the fact that it was on Amazon Prime and lord knows the black hole that is streaming does the legacy of art no favors. But this is the best thing Jenkins has done to date and I say that as a person who felt Moonlight deserved Best Picture. Just an astonishing accomplishment, not to be missed. 

The rest of their June slate ain't no slouch -- David Lynch's 1986 masterpiece Blue Velvet is getting the 4K upgrade for one. This is probably my favorite Lynch movie? It's nigh impossible to choose given his filmography but it's the one I keep coming back to the most often anyway. And I cannot wait to see how it looks in 4K. Also getting a 4K upgrade is Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And then there's the one movie of the June bunch I am unfamliar with -- Emilio Fernandez's 1951 film Victims of Sin, which sounds like a Mexican noir melodrama? I'm in. Once I finish watching Querelle for the 50,000th time anyway...


Five Frames From ?






What movie is this?


Oh Mia, You Devil


My long time love affair from afar with Mia Wasikowska has borne more fruit this week as she's teamed up with Little Joe director Jessica Hausner to make a feircely dark (yet poppy bright) satire of "wellness" bullshit called Club Zero -- I liked it quite a bit and you can read my review over at Pajiba. This movie isn't for the faint of heart -- for those triggered by eating disorder stuff it's basically a repeated stab in the eye -- but it's not making fun of eating disorders; it's making fun of the cultishness that surrounds a lot of liberal nonsense (and please do understand this is coming from someone as liberal as they come). It's just nice to see somebody figuring out how to make fun of our extremes in ways that don't resort to MAGA mouthbreathing or anti-"woke" gibberish. This is very much a "call is coming from inside the house" sort of satire I think and I dug it, especially since it would piss off a lot of people who need to have their nonsense poked at, if they were to ever watch it anyway. It's important to remmeber there is no cow too sacred! Anyway if you've never seen Hausner's movie Little Joe I recommend that one too -- not only does it co-star Ben Whishaw, but it takes the pharmaceutical industry to task in interesting and unexpected ways.

Good Morning, World


I am going to run for President this year, and my platform is going to be "There are too many damn TV shows!" That's a winner of a platform I think, especially since I am just today hearing about a show called Apples Never Fall that stars Annette Bening, Sam Neill, and our beloved Jake Lacy? And it's about men's tennis aka the only sport I can stomach watching??? (No offense to women's tennis but... I wanna look at the men; it's a -- perhaps the -- vital ingrediant of my enjoyment.) I should be watching this show. I guess it's on Peacock, which I think I have? Anyway I made some gifs from the 5th episode for reasons that should already be clear; hit the jump for several more...

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Lucas Bravo One Time



Pic of the Day


Say hello (or something filthier, if you like) to a brand new photo of Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the upcoming The Fall Guy movie, based on the 80s TV show (I was a fan as a kid) and starring Ryan Gosling as a stuntman who works with Aaron's douchebag actor. The movie is out in theaters on May 9th but I do believe it just screened at SXSW since I saw some tweets that were like, "I just saw The Fall Guy at SXSW." I'm a real Sherlock Homo over here. Anyway I didn't pay much attention to the tweets (I try not to read too much before seeing something for myself, which is why I have also avoided everything Road-House-related out of SXSW this week) but the hype seemed generally enthusiastic. Here's the trailer released a few weeks back in case you missed it:

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Please Baby Please (2022)

Teddy: Caught ya.
Arthur: I, um, I caught you. Following me.
Teddy: Following her. That bunny lives to hop.
Arthur: Yeah. She thinks she's the bug dick 
solving some kind of great whatsit.
Teddy: Yeah, white hot thrills. 
Well, I don't got her keys, though I do have her man.

Arthur: Um, what y'all did to that girl was deranged.
Teddy: What's "dee-ranged"?
Arthur: It's, it's like whacko.

Teddy: Like unzipped. Say, wanna lose control?
Arthur: I'm, I'm, um, I'm, I'm not in control.

Teddy: You know, there's playing it cool... 

... and then there's just... being... cool.
Arthur: Yeah. Um, I, I play the clarinet.
Teddy: Play me. Play with me. See how I wail.

Arthur: Who made you? Angel... or devil?
Teddy: You gotta draw a line.

So you know where the line is... when you cross it. You
ever crossed it, Bean? Maybe with one of those boys in your band? 

Arthur: No, um... I never gave them a second thought.
Teddy: You ever given them a first thought?

Arthur: Teddy, angel, you don't have to be a killer.
Teddy: At least I'm not an artist stiff.

Arthur: I am stiff.
Teddy: You could be my favorite.

Oh my god this scene. Just rewatching it right now y'all (it's currently streaming on Mubi) ... the chemistry between Karl Glusman & Harry Melling is just absolutely off the charts. One billion fire emojis. I love this movie so much! (Here is my review.) And I love you, writer-director Amanda Kramer -- never stop making these incredible movies!!! And (now for the reason we did this post) a very happy birthday to Harry Melling today! We love you as well!