46 Days

There is the official poster for Ti West's MaXXXine (via), the third film is what A24 is calling his "X Trilogy" but which I prefer to call the "Triple X Trilogy." It just has a better ring to me and it isn't just named after the first film. It broadens the scope. Anyway MaXXXine is out on July 5th, aka 46 days from today, hence this post's title. I have still managed to avoid watching the film's trailer -- we'll see if I can make it that whole way. Although hopefully I can weasel my way into a press screening well before that. Tomorrow would be good! I would vbe happy with seeing the movie tomorrow, A24!

Good Morning, World

I could feed off of images from Challengers for posts for a very long time -- and I think I will to some extent. Until the next shiny thing comes along anyway. And so there is that single sexy image of Mike Faist in the movie, which I told you on Friday had just hit digitial. What a sight to welcome this Monday with! (click to embiggen)

Take Us Into the Weekend, Matty...

These photos of Matt Bomer flaunting it on the set of his upcoming Hollywood satire Outcome (via) have been around for most of this week but I felt as if they'd be the perfect thing for the top of the site as we head into the weekend, so I saved them. Much like Matt Bomer exercised his glutes I exercised restraint! I'd rather have Matt's glutes than my restraint but we make do with what we do have, as ever. Outcome was written and is being directed by Jonah Hill and is a comedy about a famous actor (played by Keanu Reeves) forced to atone for his past after "bizarre video footage" from his past surfaces -- clearly Hill is tackling his own brush with cancelation and if it wasn't for these photos of Bomer my god I could not care less about this movie. But here we are! Such is the power of Matt Bomer in short shorts. Have a good weekend, everybody, and you can start it out that way if you hit the jump for several more photos of this gratuitous spectacle of perfect flesh...

And I Reviewed the TV Glow

There was some crazy stupid discourse on social media yesterday (I suppose I could full stop there) about how much personal shit should go into movie reviews -- well buckle up because I dolloped a bunch of said personal shit into my review of I Saw the TV Glow, a movie which is going wide this weekend and which you can read my review of over at Pajiba right now. But then that's nothing new for me -- I am clearly pro-personalizing reviews, and find that entire conversation dumb as hell. Obviously I am one person bringing my own shit to the movie I'm talking about -- either what I have to say resonates with you or it doesn't but I couldn't care less. There are plenty of other people to read so have at it! Anyway I saw this movie way back during Sundance and knew it was hitting me in a personal way and that I was going to need a second view to write about it, and so here we are. Hope you enjoy, but I enjoyed writing it and getting it out so that's enough for me. It's quite the movie!

I'm In My "Serve Me" Era

I did not make that mouth-watering gif myself -- I swiped it off of Twitter, a social media platform gloriously awash in Challengers gifs of this sort today thanks to Challengers hitting the online rental spots like Prime right here. Normally I would happily make this gif myself but honestly it's Friday and I'm tired and I am so glad I get to be lazy and just swipe it, just this once. That said I did make the gif at the bottom of this post myself and that's sure something! Anyway go rent Challengers, go watch Challengers, go live Challengers. Here is my review if you missed it. And as previously announced the movie hits blu-ray on June 9th and you can pre-order that right here. The only thing I need now (besides to have Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor making out in my lap, that is) is Trent Reznor's deliciously over-the-top techno score for the film to get a vinyl drop ASAP, and we'll be all over golden. Long live Challengers!

Thwack #Challengers is now available to rent!https://t.co/dQGroswjWS pic.twitter.com/hfYk8BWkqz

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) May 17, 2024

Oh Alain, You Devil

I know that I say some version of this every time anything Cannes comes up but I really do try to pay only surface-level attention to what's happening there -- enough to not be caught entirely off-guard by things existing, but beyond that I skim. That said my attention was very much caught by the name Alain Guiraudie, the director of the 2013 MNPP-fave Stranger by the Lake (and how the hell is that movie 11 years old now???) -- apparently he has a new homosexual film full of penises debuting out of competition this year titled Miséricorde, and that's happy news to me! 

They describe the film as a dark comedy, but this is where my skimming takes hold -- I now know all I personally need to know about Miséricorde. I want to see it. I need no more. That said IndieWire does interview him about the movie so read it here if you need more, and they also shared the first clip from the movie, and I'll share it (unwatched by me) below. Hopefully we will get this here in the U.S. sooner than later.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

I don't watch Bridgerton and I think it's pretty clear at this point I will never watch Bridgerton -- and that's fine! it is clearly not a show made for me. I have plenty of shows to watch. But Bridgerton does give us shots like the ones seen here (and like these, and like these) of Jonathan Bailey, and for that alone I am ecstatic that Bridgerton exists. Bless you, Bridgerton. So y'all go watch Bridgerton and keep it on the air, giving us shots like that, for years to come, please. 

Pics of the Day

I don't read reviews out of Cannes because I know it will be a very long time before I see the movie and the movie might well change a lot before I do see it and I just don't need all of that noise clouding my head for months. That said I'm having a harder time than usual with Bird, Andrea Arnold's latest which premiered today and which stars my boys Franz Rogowski and Barry Keoghan, who you can see looking swank as fuck at said event above and below. Sigh and swoon, I adore them. Andrea Arnold is SO damned good at casting her movies! Check my previous posts about this highly anticipated movie right here.

Who Wore It Best?

I contemplated needing to myself own one of the Loewe "I Told Ya" t-shirts that play a big role in Luca Guadagnino's tennis film Challengers... and then I saw that they retail for $300 and I decided no, notsomuch. I love the movie but it's a fucking t-shirt and I am too poor and too smart for that nonsense. That said actor and pretty young thing Manu Rios just posted a photo of himself wearing it (I doubt he had to pay for it) and I remembered that Loewe was ripping off a tee that noted perfect piece of ass John F. Kennedy Jr. wore back in the 90s and voila, a poll arose:

online polls

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.

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

This is kind of a weird Matryoshka kind of rabbit hole of references within references but a photography book of photos taken from the set of Jeff Nichols' upcoming biker gang movie The Bikeriders, a movie that is based on photographer Danny Lyon's 1968 photography book of the same name, was released last week and you can buy yourself a copy right here if you're so inclined. And/or buy a copy of Lyons' legendary book if you don't own it already right here.)  The new book is titled Vandals and it's from photographer Bryan Schutmaat and it's styled to ape Lyon's photography -- just with actor hotties like Tom Hardy, Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Boyd Holbrook, Karl Glusman, etc etc, inhabiting their roles in the movie, based off Lyon's photographs of midcentury Midwestern bikers. I told y'all last week that biker gang movies are suddenly a big thing! Anywayb after some delays The Bikeriders is finally hitting screens on June 21st -- having seen it ages and ages ago I can tell you upfront that it's a terrific movie full of terrific performances.

Stare Into the Distance, Meaningfully

It's a half-day here at MNPP HQ as I'm off to see a little movie called Furiosa now. And I didn't even have to fly to France and attend the Cannes Film Festival to do it! Ha! Buncha suckers. (Christ I am bitter this year.) Anyway I will be back in your faces screaming my monkey gibberish at you again in the morning tomorrow, don't worry -- unless Furiosa overwhelms me to the point of cardiac arrest of course, which is entirely possible. Fury Road nearly does every time I re-watch it. Until then y'all make like Chris here and stare meaningfully into the distance, while also being sexy. I know you can do it. I have faith in you. 

Criterion Breaks The Protective Ice

I haven't seen Albert Brooks' 1996 comedy Mother in decades and yet that joke about "the protective ice" over Debbie Reynolds' ice cream has stuck with me all this time -- that's comedy. And that's leading the Criterion release announcements for August 2024 -- in 4K no less! Somehow that seems extravagent, but I look forward to seeing it. Mother comes out on August 24th, alongside another Albert Brooks joint...

... his 1979 mockumentary Real Life. Which I have never seen. Have you? It sounds from the description that it satirized reality shows before reality shows were really a thing -- I mean An American Family had happened a few years earlier and this sounds like it was riffing on that phenomenon. In Real Life, Brooks plays a documentarian who embeds himself with a family (led by Charles Grodin and Frances Lee McCain) trying to capture the "truth" of their day-to-day existence.  

And from a funny mockumentary to a not funny at all true-story documentary -- next up is Martha Coolidge's 1975 doc Not a Pretty Picture, which has the filmmaker examining her own rape by casting an actress to play her younger self in a reenactment of the experience for her. Goddamn this one sounds rough. Rough but probably essential. Has anyone seen it? 

The August schedule is actually pretty full of new-to-me films -- I also haven't seen either Brief Encounters or The Long Farewell, the pair of films included in this double-feature set of Ukranian filmmaker Kira Muratova's work. These are her first two movies from 1967 and 1971 respectively, and they're both about women laboring under Soviet rule. Thanks goodness for those two Albert Brooks' movies because otherwise August is feeling like a heavy load! Oh and also on the docket is a 4K upgrade of Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece The Last Emperor, which hits on the 13th. And make sure to click the links to check out all of the many many special features on these discs. And to pre-order them of course. Criterion has a 30% off sale going on right now that includes pre-orders! Never a better moment to snatch 'em up than right now!

Come Fly Away With Brühl

Triangle of Sadness director Ruben Östlund is definitely in a league right now among international directors like Yorgos Lanthimos who could get any damn actor they want for their movies, and so it's no surprise that the names that have been dropping for his next have been next level -- it started with Keanu Reeves, and now today we find out that both Daniel Brühl and Kirsten Dunst will be joining him in Östlund's next, titled The Entertainment System Is Down. As I told you when Keanu was announced the movie basically sounds like Lord of the Flies on a plane -- a bunch of people get trapped on an airplane and class chaos ensues. This movie, given that plot, will probably have an Airport-sized cast -- meaning the 1970 movie Airport, not that they could fill an entire airport, although the difference between those two is merely perspective. So I imagine we'll have a lot more big name announcements ahead! Östlund has apparently bought an actual 747 to film on so he'll have the space!

Glen Powell Eight Times

I was scrolling through Instagram last night while "watching" a movie (as one does now) and the algorithm over there knows me well enough to throw random natural disaster videos in front of me, since I will become immediately hypnotized like a cat with a string -- in this case it was a montage of tornados, and when it was done I screamed for all (i.e. my boyfriend) to hear, "Oh my god I am so excited to see Twisters!" 

I've long made it known, my love of Disaster Movies, as well as my love for Jan De Bont's original 1996 movie, so this enthusiasm should surprise no one. And yet in that moment it did? The trailers haven't blown my socks off. But it doesn't matter. Not anymore. I am officially tingling with anticipation. Oh and these new photos of Glen Powell in Vanity Fair are doing their part too. Tingling-wise. Hit the jump for the rest...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Elite actor Manu Rios was kind enough to share these photos with us on his Insta yesterday -- seems he's doing some modeling for Lacoste now? It's about time some smart brand snatched this pretty young thing up and put him in their clothes (or took them out of them, even better). Hit the jump for several more photos...

So Proudly We Hailed

The upcoming queer western National Anthem, which stars the great Charlie Plummer (Lean On Pete) and which I saw at NewFest last fall and reviewed right here, will surely end up on my best of the year list for 2024 -- that's how much I loved it and how fondly I remember it and how much I am looking forward to seeing it a second time when it drops in theaters on July 12th. I just want that bonafide out there about the movie quality-wise before I say what I am going to say next -- namely that National Anthem also has one of the screen-scorchingly hottest sex scenes I've seen in some time, which you can glimpse in the just-dropped trailer...

... and which I also am looking forward to watching again, when the time duly arrives. The entire film is sexy as hell but this scene in particular, director Luke Gilford builds all this emotional tension around it, and it's just a dirty explosion of lust when it arrives and -- phew. I'm getting worked up remembering it now. Queer people just know how to do sex scenes, is my point. We're singlehandedly keeping the screen horny dammit! Here is the trailer:

Again, National Anthem is out July 12th. Go see it!