What movie is this?
Thursday, May 16, 2024
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.
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
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 Seven 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...
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...
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
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!
Jonny Vs The Dinosaurs
This was rumored a couple of weeks ago but Jonny Bailey's gone and announced it himself -- he is starring in the next Jurassic Park movie! If you're anything like me the last few Jurassic World movies really killed your enthusiasm for the franchise -- especially that last one which somehow wasted having Sam Neill and Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum reunited -- and I didn't think they'd get me back on-board with another Jurassic movie. That coming from a person whose entire cinemania derives from the original Jurassic Park movie says something! But then they went and hired Godzilla director Gareth Edwards and I was like... "Well, maybe." But Jonny seals the deal -- we must support our gays! One truly does feel like Bailey maybe can really become the first out gay blockbuster leading man right now -- and since I have very little interest in Wicked this is my ticket!
Yes I saw Jurassic Park fifteen times in the theater but this is still the best thing to come out of it pic.twitter.com/kgavqmpPEF
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 12, 2023
Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...
... you can learn from:
Peeping Tom (1960)
Mrs. Stephens: I visit this room every night.Mark Lewis: Visit?Mrs. Stephens: The blind always livein the rooms they live under.
Michael Powell' 1960 horror masterpiece Peeping Tom has hit 4K Criterion this very day -- if you haven't already done so go snatch up a copy of it right here, right now. A movie whose nasty reputation basically destroyed its legendary director's career, I'd honestly call it the horror movie of 1960 knowing full well that a little movie called Psycho also came out in 1960. Lord knows I love me a Psycho but Peeping Tom genuinely disturbs me every time I re-watch it in a way that Psycho doesn't -- Psycho is thrilling in its construction and performances and Hitch's attention to the most minute of its clockwork details, but I get so lost in the Master's wizardry there that I am thinking about things besides being scared when I watch Psycho now. Peeping Tom, on the other hand? It creeps me the fuck out every time. And Criterion's 4K restoration presented here is mind-blowingly gorgeous to boot. This movie is everything!
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Andy By Luca
An exciting update on that thriller called After the Hunt that Luca Guadagnino is directing and Julia Roberts is starring in -- Andrew Garfield is in talks to join its cast! (thx Mac) This movie is going to shoot this summer so it's full steam ahead! Annoyingly Deadline buries the lede that this is a Luca movie, which is what makes this news matter most! The movie is about a college professor whose past full of secrets comes back to haunt her after a star pupil accuses one of her collegues of... well something. Nobody has said what the accusation is yet but I imagine we all can imagine what it might be. Anyway it seems to me that Garfield is too old to play "a star pupil" at this point right? Will he be the collegue? Or some part of Julia's past secret? I don't know, I'm just excited that all of this is happening. It's giving me A Bigger Splash vibes, with its intertwined relationships charged with possibly erotic thriller elements... and you just know that Luca is gonna make Andy look hot as hell.
Pic of the Day
It's that annual time of year, when all of us who don't get to go to Cannes get very annoyed about all of the people who do get to go to Cannes -- at least this year I will get some pain assuaged by getting to see photos of the Three Gs together. Gerwig, Green, and Gladstone, oh my! Greta is president of the jury this year, while Eva Green and Lily Gladstone are joining her as members alongside some other people, who cares, I only care about these three. Queens, all! I demand Greta scrap her dumb Narnia movie and make a sexy thriller starring Lily and Eva as lover-assassins next!
I know it doesn't work this way but I really like the image of Greta Gerwig being handed a flip-book of people and her smacking her finger down on the Eva Green and Lily Gladstone pages
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 29, 2024
Dalton Rises
I guess it makes sense that Amazon Prime would greenlight a sequel to Jake Gyllenhaal's Road House re-do since they've been touting the streaming numbers for it ever since it came out -- it appears to've been a massive hit for them. It just didn't even occur to me for some reason -- not until I saw them announce it on Twitter this morning (see down below). Maybe because I was so indifferent to the movie that I couldn't even be bothered to write a review, save a few scant words including "meh." That said I sure did post a lot about the movie -- granted it was mainly about Jake's workout routine. But I'll gladly go through that a second time! Click here for all of our posts. Obviously we'll post more when there's more news to know. Do we think Doug Liman will return to the director's chair? He seemed so irritated with the whole streaming thing. Who would you hire to direct if not? I say let's get Luca Guadagnino in there -- he just proved he could make a sports movie worth watching with Challengers. And he and Jake almost worked together once before. Picture it: Luca Guadagninio's Road House 2. Why not? The world's gone nuts anyway.
With nearly 80 million viewers to date, Jake Gyllenhaal is set to reprise his role as Elwood Dalton in a Road House sequel. pic.twitter.com/XgpD3ScXIS
— Prime Video (@PrimeVideo) May 14, 2024
Good Morning, World
Why didn't anybody ever tell me about Xtro? How had I never seen Xtro? Cuz Xtro is, if you can believe it -- extra! Xtremely Xtra. (This is why I get paid the no bucks, everybody.) Anyway Xtro came out in 1982, the same year as Steven Spielberg's alien-kiddie sci-fi extravaganza E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and Xtro is like its evil doppleganger -- it's E.T. on a bad bad bad trip, if you will. It's about a young boy who witnesses his father get abducted by a bright light and disappear for several years, only to return... different. That's all I'll say besides that it's all disturbingly sexual (above you'll see actor David Cardy in his lovely altogether -- he plays the boy's French nanny's boyfriend and they're constantly schtupping instead of noticing what's going on, which of course works out well for them both) and it's hallucinigenic and it's just a big ol' pile of ridiciulous WTF-ery, and I am extremely (excuse me Xtremely) sad that I didn't have Xtro in my life until this week. There are apparently two sequels? Has anyone seen them? Xtro was already a cheap affair, I can only imagine it gets worse from here, but I'm tempted...
Monday, May 13, 2024
Big Cigars & Even Bigger Estates
The New York Times chatted with MNPP faves Alessandro Nivola and André Holland over the weekend on their new series The Big Cigar, about the unexpected friendship between Black Panther co-founder Huey P. Newton and Hollywood producer Bert Schneider back in the 1970s, premiering on Apple+ on May 17th -- read it here. But wait! There's more Nivola News! I wish there was enough Nivola News for us to have a weekly column titled just that -- Nivola News. I could make a logo and everything. Anyway he works enough that it feels like it sometimes, bless him. Anyway Deadline reported this morning that Mr. Nivola has joined the cast of the third Downton Abbey movie, which is happening. Not really a surprise, given that the last movie did well (and was pretty delightful to boot.) He joins the cast along with Paul Giamatti, Joely Richardson, Simon Russell Beale (who I can't believe hasn't been on the show previously) and Arty Froushan -- I knew that last name was familiar and sure enough I already followed him on Instagram because...
July Comes In May This Year
Miranda July, that is. Our favorite performance-artist director has a new book out this week! It's called All Fours and you can buy it at this link -- it's about a middle-aged female artist leaving her husband and child behind to go on an adventure of possibly sexual dimensions, and if it's not auto-biographical it sure sounds auto-fantastical to me. (July is married to the also brilliant director Mike Mills, and has a kid with him). And since most of her work has to date refracted deeply personal shit through her one-of-a-kind lens I imagine this is no different. But who cares how "real" it all is, when she turns everything into magic? It's been four years since her truly lovely and one-of-a-kind movie Kajillionaire came out and we're thirsty for her particular flavor of wonderment. This book can't stuff itself into my mailbox quick enough.
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