Pics of the Day

I know it's unsporting of me to be such a little bitch about it but looking at the Cannes line-up every year depresses me, knowing I will never go to there, and so often I just ignore it totally. I mostly like to know about the movies that are right in front of me, ready for consumption, because I am desperately impatient and also -- once I know what the movies are I try to immediately forget everything I know so when I do sit down to watch them I can see them with the freshest eyes possible. It's not the wisest way to play things for a person who's posting about movies all day every day but I don't think any of you picture me first, second, or five-hundredth when the word "wise" comes up. 

Anyway! The Cannes 2026 line-up did indeed drop today and I couldn't help myself for some reason this year, I looked. And now I'm annoyed. But a couple of images from this year's line-up grabbed my eye and felt like they deserved a post, and here we are -- up top that's the first image of Rami Malek in Ira Sachs' new movie, an 80s-set musical called The Man I Love that is about the AIDS epidemic. Ira Sachs has never made a movie I haven't liked and he's given me no reason to date to not trust him but my god that Team-America-adjacent description, and the fact that the movie stars the man who spat on Freddie Mercury's memory and was handed an Oscar for it in turn, gives me some pause! But I want it to be good so I'll shut up. And then down below is a shot of Exxxtreme Frenchies Vincent Cassel & Pierre Niney in Asghar Farhadi's new film Parallel Tales, which also stars the extraordinary gallic triumverate of Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, and one Catherine fuckin' Deneuve. High hopes, then! We'll pretend we're not filled with hate and just be hopeful. What from the line-up grabbed your eye? 

Charles Melton Ten (Plus) Times

The second season of Beef had its premiere last night (click here to see some photos of Oscar Isaac and our half-naked boy here on the red carpet) and Charles Melton is not letting this moment get by without dropping a bomb of LOOK AT ME on us all -- this photoshoot for i-D magazine that just dropped this morning...

... practically knocked me off my chair, it did! I'll have things to say about Beef next week when it premieres (on April 16th) since I've already watched the entire thing but for now I'm just shutting up and letting these fiery fucking photos do the talking. Hit the jump for 'em all...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Our beloved French superstar Jean-Paul Belmondo would've been celebrating his 93rd birthday today if he hadn't passed in 2021 (I can't believe it's been that long honestly -- feels like it was last year) so here are a couple of photos of him back in his mid-century prime that I don't believe I've ever posted before with which we can celebrate. And of course if you dig down through our archives you can find many many many more treats with which to do the same. I'm particularly fond of this one myself. Oh Jean-Paul we miss you. What movie of his would you watch to celebrate with?

Chace Crawford Twelve Times

You'd think after decades of being a pretty hairy brunette boy in the acting business that Chace Crawford would have eked out a tag here on MNPP, but he's had the misfortune of always starring in things I ignored -- first there was Gossip Girl (where Penn Bedgley stole the hairiest boy award away from him) and then there was The Boys which I just haven't gotten around to even though I feel fairly sure I'd like it. It's not like we've never ogled Chace -- a search of his name in our archives brings up a ton -- he just never really seized onto my imagination among other options that did. I suppose that explains his career, in a microcosm sorta way! I'm surprised he's still around if I'm being honest, but good for him that he is! And looking very handsome today in Numero Netherlands magazine too. (Although we could've used more shots of the red shorts, Chace!) Hit the jump for the entire shoot...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Synonyms (2019)

Yoav: I moved to France to flee Israel. Flee a state that is nasty, obscene, ignorant, idiotic, sordid, fetid, crude, abominable, odious, lamentable, repugnant,
detestable, mean-spirited, mean-hearted... 

Emile: No country is all that at once.

Today is the 51st birthday of the rightfully outraged Israeli ex-pat filmmaker Nadav Lapid, who's weaponized his filmmaking to dissect the horrors of his homeland making one furious masterpiece after another. This includes the brilliant film above as well as 2014's The Kindergarten Teacher, 2021's Ahed's Knee, and the just-recently-released here in the U.S. film Yes. And speaking of Yes I am rather furious at myself for not reviewing that movie because I found it a total stunner, so let's throw down some words about it since the ocassion's presented itself. (I already shared the trailer right here.)

Yes tells the story of Y (Ariel Bronz) and his wife Yasmin (Efrat Dor) as they party the pain away in Tel Aviv, turning their radios up so they can drown out the sounds of the bombs dropping onto Gaza. He's a musician, she's a dance-instructor, and the two of them routinely hand off their baby son (pointedly named Noah) so they can humiliate themselves every night for the grotesque powers-that-be in order to sustain a living. Lapid gives the Israeli elite the full Beckmann & Dix treament, rendering them hideous to the point where they're literally bending over and waving their assholes in our face. It ain't sublte, nor should it be. 

Since the pair are gorgeous and entertaining and simply good at what they do (i.e. debasing themselves with extreme vigor) Y & Yasmin move pretty easily up the social ladder, until Y finds himself charged with writing a new national anthem for Israel in the wake of the October 7th attacks. For there he's shot through the cannon of a dark night of the soul as he tries to come to terms with his role as propogandist for genocide, but Lapid spares no one his visciousness; everyone is to blame for keeping the broken system afloat. Yes is brutal, brilliant, a ballistic missle shot straight at our insidious self-preservation in the face of so much unspeakable. Its farce is tragedy, all too familiar. All the punchlines are a horror; our laughter curdled, indistinguishable from screams. How au current, if you will. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this? 

Happy 36 to Twin Peaks!

Tell me your favorite moment or character 

or Twin Peaks something in the coments.

Good Morning, World

I don't know if this is the new issue of GQ's cover-shoot but I sure hope it isn't because there is exactly one exciting picture of Tom Holland at GQ today and you're looking at it there above -- we're grateful for all that gam, believe you me, but when he looks like a CEO's son playing golf with dad in matching beige in every other photo something's gone very wrong! Or probably for Tom's team "right" -- I have a feeling he's being coached to seem boring and safe or for lack of a more precise descriptor straight. I mean nothing particularly pointed by that remark, I don't know his business! But with most of the actors his age being riskier with their choices, both on-screen and fashion-wise, I do believe they've chosen a more middlebrow lane for our current webslinger du jour.  (Whither the "Umbrella" dancer in drag Tom???) But seriously no shade. He's got Zendaya, he's got those legs. Rock your beige! Hit the jump for the entire shoot (or take a Xanax, it'll have the same effect)...

Christopher Abbott One Time

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... falling head over heels for Billy Magnussen.

Our beloved Billy has a new AMC series called The Audacity coming out and the folks at Entertainment Weekly were kind enough to give him the spotlight for it -- and Billy, being Billy, did what Billy does. (He made us smile while also thinking really filthy thoughts, bless him.) You can read the entire piece about the series at that link but obviously we're focusing in on the photoshoot of our beautiful blond boy; hit the jump for that...

It's Got the Special Sauce

It's really difficult to explain the forthcoming film called Buffet Infinity -- pieced together from local low-budget lo-fi television commercials for a car dealership, a pawn shop, and the restaurant of the film's title which slowly reveals itself to maybe be some sort of portal to hell, this movie is pretty much one of a kind. One of an awesome kind! I saw it at Fantasia last year and it was probably my favorite thing at the entire fest -- here is my review -- so I'm extremely happy to see the news that it's somehow getting an actual release thanks to the fine demented folks at Yellow Veil Pictures. They're saying it'll hit "select" theaters April 24th (I think it's safe to say we're not talking about three thousand screens in every corner of the country though) and then it'll move over to VOD on May 8th. Speaking from experience (having only seen it on a small screen) you'll be fine watching it at home. Below is the freaky trailer which does a good job capturing the vibe without really giving much away -- being a movie that's entirely about the experience of feeling like your mind is unraveling from watching it, I don't know that you could spoil this just through a trailer. It's a rare exception, me saying you'll be fine watching this horror movie trailer! So seize the day, ya buncha bastards!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Boxing Helena (1993)

Dr. Nick Cavanaugh: If you were a 

real woman,  you'd lie to me about our sex.

A very happy birthday to director Jennifer Lynch today -- I have recently been in mourning for the many many years that I went without this perfectly accursed (complimentary) movie in my life, having only seen it for the first time in 2022. I did get to see it on the big screen in 2024 though (I love living in this city!) and it fully cemented itself as one of my favorite pieces of deranged cinema. I can't even pretend it's just for reasons of camp that I love this movie anymore -- I just love it with my full body and soul. And that's me talking with all of my limbs still attached! But seriously -- if you've never seen Bill Paxton's performance in this movie, you have not lived. Same goes for Julian Sands in the tiniest running shorts ever put on-screen. Same goes for limbless Sherilyn Fenn sipping sweet tea through a straw. Oh my god I have to watch it again right now. Thank you, Jennifer Lynch! 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

An Unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde Sort

I don't have a pre-order link for this yet but I just thought we could all use some good happy positive news this morning to distract from.... gestures wildly, ahem... so here's a tid o' bit: the gay Merchant-Ivory masterpiece Maurice, starring Hugh Grant, James Wilby, and Rupert "Scudder" Graves, is getting a 4K restoration and release this summer! Right now all I've got is the release date of the physical media version -- June 30th. But I'll make sure to share more info once more info arises. There! Hopefully we all smiled for a second. Now back to the real world... hold me, Scudder...

Good Morning, World

Considering how much posting I did when Benjamin Walker starred in the American Psycho musical on Broadway (to date the only time I've gone to see a Broadway show three times!) you'd think I'd have posted about Daredevil and Downton Abbey actor Arty Froushan's run by now -- I guess since it was in the U.K I will cut myself some slack, but still. Every time Arty has popped up on this season of Daredevil I felt a twinge -- well okay several competing twinges -- that I didn't get to see him give us his Patrick Bateman best on stage. SIGH. That show has now ended its run but -- and I can't believe I haven't posted about this news yet either! -- it will be staged here in New York again in 2027! It's not going to Broadway -- it's happening at some venue in Brooklyn that I am unfamiliar with but that thrills me because I can hopefully afford to go see it repeatedly again then! I have my doubts that the U.K. cast will carry over, but they can feel free to prove me wrong! I'd love to see Arty in the (bloodied) flesh. Anyway I've only posted about Arty a couple of times here on the site (see here) but I will hopefully get lots more chances to revisit the subject of him -- and he was kind enough to share some swoon-worthy behind-the-scenes photos from the show on his Instagram, which I in turn have thoughtfully curated for you (with some bonus shots because duh) after the jump...

Anthony Ramos Twenty-Eight Times

Once again I must say bless Behind the Blinds magazine -- they never do anythin g half-assed. Well unless we're talking about Anthony Ramos wearing a jockstrap, which would be more "full assed" if we could see more of the goods. But the hint of it's plenty for my purposes, especially when we're talking about as the title says 28 pictures in a photoshoot! That's wonderfull full-assed in itself. And knowing them more photos might drop any minute. I suppose I should ask if any of you watched The Beauty...

... the Ryan Murphy series Ramos was on?  I can't remember if we discussed it here. I tend to be more pro Murphy than a lot of people but by the end I was not a fan of The Beauty, besides a few bits n bobs (you can't go wrong with Isabella Rossellini in over-the-top couture). But I'm pretty sure that show's already half-forgotten at this point -- but its nudity (including a great shot of Anthony' ass!) will live on, at least. Murphy never disappoints on that front, if nothing else. Okay actual conversations about substance aisde now let's hit the jump for the new photos... 

To Have and To Hold

I kind of can't believe how quickly this three-day-weekend I just had flew by -- I did have my cousin in town so that ate up my Saturday but otherwise I got very little accomplished and now I'm sitting here at my desk in a slumped-over daze wondering how, how, HOWWWW it is Monday. Anyway as threatened on Thursday my review of the dark romance The Drama did indeed drop over the weekend, so I am now updating you with a link! You can read my -- spoilery as hell -- review right here. I suppose it was a smart move by A24 to make out like this movie has a "twist" that could be "spoiled" but it's something that happens in the movie's first third and everything thereafter is fallout, so I considered it not only impossible but dumb as hell to try to write about the movie without spoiling what it's about since what's the fucking point of writing about it if I'm going to be coy? I don't see a point. I'm not here to coddle people, I'm here to talk about the fucking movie. And no I don't know why I am suddenly writing all of this in such an aggressive tone, good grief -- like I said I'm not entirely awake or entirely happy with being back at my desk already, so excuse my sudden onset of inflamed irritability. I suppose you add on that the movie really didn't work for me and whammo, short fuse. 

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

I've spent a lot of time thinking about that first photo we posted of Phil Dunster a couple of weeks ago, as I am sure was the intent in taking such an obvious, "Hey look at my fat ass" photo, and I've come to the entirely predicatable decision that I need to see Phil Dunster in lots more things. So mission accomplished there, big buns. I guess I should start watching his new show Rooster then! Make it clear to the powers that be that Phil's powers are working. To the maximus. For now, for this Monday morning, we'll make due with this very fine Esquire photoshoot -- very fine, except we don't get to see, you know, the friend we made a couple of weeks ago. Make sure to have it written into your contract that every shoot will include one shot of the backside, Phil! Do that now before it's too late. Hit the jump for the nevertheless fine-enough photos though...