The Monster Demanded a Mate!

I've talked about the poster artist Akiko Stehrenberger here on the site several times as she's one of my favorites, and today the fine folks at Coda dropped her latest, a spin on The Bride of Frankenstein, and per usual I love it. She always comes up with such succinct and surprising images for her designs. (Who could forget those flames for Portrait of a Lady on Fire?) Anyway tomorrow's Halloween and our "Ways Not To Die" post previous to this one aside we haven't been dropping nearly enough horror-related stuff on the site this month dammit! I've been trying to get myself into the mood but it hasn't quite been landing. So y'all tell me what your plans are for the greatest holiday in the comments please! I wanna hear if you're dressing up, what movies you're watching -- all of it! I need mood inspiration. So rattle your bones at me, I beg of you!

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

It's always a shame when David Corenswet has to go but we do sure like watching him walk away. Hit the jump for the rest...

Jake Lacy Twelve Times

What a nice surprise treat -- Jake Lacy content! The White Lotus and Carol actor is in a new streaming series called All Her Fault opposite Succession star Sarah Snook and so he's now being featured as Bustle magazine's cover-boy this month -- there's an interview with him that I have not read right here,. But there are also twelve photos of him to go along with the unread interview and those, those I have stared at. Stared at and gathered up for our communal lunch-time consumption. So hit the jump for those...

Scares Ahoy

Let's just go all in on the horror trailers today, shall we? I shared the trailer for Scream 7 earlier, which is a biggie obviously -- let's turn our eyes towards some lower budget but extra promising stuff now with Man Finds Tape. From first-time filmmakers Peter Hall and Paul Gandersman this has played several fests (somehow I missed it at Tribeca in the spring) and gotten good notices and now Magnet is dropping it in theaters and online on December 5th. This plot actually sounds similar to the plot for Shelby Oaks (which came out last week and which I reviewed right here) in that it's about YouTube paranormal investigators getting wrapped up in real-world horrors, mixing found-footage and not-found-footage. Basically it feels as if the world finally caught onto Lake Mungo (which I mentioned yesterday among my favorite films of 2008) and that movie's influence is spreading at loast, as well it oughta. Anyway unlike the trailer for Scream 7, which I admitted to watching, I have not watched this here trailer for Man Finds Tape -- this one I wanna go into cold. But you can watch it if you want because here it is!

Amd what the hell since we're here, why not -- I'll also share the trailer for the fifth and final season of Stranger Things  since it also dropped this morning -- I don't really talk about this show on here much but I'm a pretty big fan of it and I'm very excited for this stretch of mega-budget mega-length episodes that they're promising to close things out on. (The release date for the first four episodes is November 26th, then the next three on Christmas Day, and then the finale on New Years Eve.) Have they gotten too big for their 80s britches? I guess. we'll see. I mean literally they all have since they're all like 40 with smoker's voices now and still playing 12. Anyway all I ask is for one more shower scene with Joe Keery please. Give us a furry lil' treat before you go!

Hello, Sydney... Again? Again

The trailer and poster for Scream 7 -- I guess they're just calling it that? Okay -- dropped this morning and here I am, sharing it with you. Now normally I tell y'all I don't watch trailers and I especially don't watch horror movie trailers because they always give away too much. But I couldn't help myself today so I actually watched this trailer. I was too curious, given the mangled-up route this one took to making (what with half of the reboot actors peacing-out), along with those bizarre casting announcements -- Matthew Lillard??? I couldn't help myself. But this trailer is extremely straightforward -- Sidney Prescott and her daughter are hunted by a Ghostface, the end. I feel as if Kevin Williamson (who wrote AND directed this one) has to have more up his sleeve than this -- right? But I guess we'll have to wait until February to find out. Watch:

Scream 7 drops on February 27th.

(I'm going to form a prayer circle that they shock us all 

and Melissa Berrera & Jenna Ortega are the killers.)

(Or Parker Posey. Justice for Jennifer Jolie!)

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

When I shared a handful of Louis Garrel photos last Friday I said I'd found them on a photographer's Instagram but I never mentioned the name of the photographer because I hadn't written it down and couldn't remember it. Well last night this batch of outtakes from that earlier shoot popped up in my timeline, thereby letting me on to their maker's name -- his name is Nicolas Valois and you can and should follow him right here. Especially if you like to stare at beautiful French men being photographed beautifully. And who doesn't like such things? Show them to me so I may smack them twice about the face. And now, the Louis outtakes, hit the jump...

Must Be Funny in a Rich Man's World

Well it only took me two weeks and one day from the fest's last day but I have finally dropped my last review out of this year's New York Film Festival -- please clap! It normally doesn't take me this long but you try to write about Park Chan-wook's gleefully deranged satire of capitalism while on an entire fistful of cold pills and tell me how you fare mkay? Anyway I did finally birth something, and that something is a review of director Park Chan-wook's latest movie No Other Choice at Pajiba, and you can read it right here at this link. I was incredibly lucky to be able to see the movie a second time last week, which brushed aside some of those sick day cobwebs and affirmed some ideas I had had way back when I'd seen it weeks earlier. Shorter version: terrific movie! See it!

Pierre Niney Fifteen Times

It's a day of the week that ends in "day" and so that means I've got another photoshoot of some random French boy to share! This began last Friday with Louis Garrel right here, then continued with actor Niels Schneider right here. And now it's moved on to our favorite cartoon person Pierre Niney looking like he stumbled right out of The Triplets of Belleville and into a fashion magazine. Hit the jump for 'em all...

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 2008

Now that the festival rush of Fall 2025 is behind me I've been feeling the nagging sensation to check back into our long long too-long running series of "Siri Says" posts -- the last one I did was back in January! These posts have gotten increasingly sporadic as the remaining years have dwindled -- when I checked what's left this morning I saw there were only five years out of one hundred left for us to do. Do what, you ask since it's been so long since I've done one? Well the idea is that I had my phone choose a random number between 1 and 100 and then I picked my five favorite movies from the year that corresponds. Once we got down to the teens the process changed a little because it took too long for Siri to get to a number I hadn't already done, so I wrote the remaining years on slips of paper and picked one with my eyes shut. And that's how we ended up with the year 2008 today.

It's the last year of the Aughts we had left to do -- another decade crossed off! And this is another year when I was actively blogging here at MNPP so there's documentation of my thoughts on 2008's movies already -- click here to see what my favorite movies were at that moment. My list now, seventeen years later, has changed a little! Not entirely, but some. So let's get to it. I give you...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 2008

Synecdoche, New York

(dir. Charlie Kaufman)

-- released on October 24th 2008 --

Let the Right One In 

(dir. Tomas Alfredson)

-- released on December 12th 2008 --

In Bruges

(dir. Martin McDonagh) 

-- released on February 29th 2008 --

The Fall 

(dir. Tarsem Singh) 

-- released on May 30th 2008

Lake Mungo 

(dir. Joel Anderson) 

-- released on June 18th 2008 --

-----------------------------------------

Runners-up: Wall*E (dir. Andrew Snanton), The Wrestler (dir. Darren Aronofsky), Wendy & Lucy (dir. Kelly Reichardt), Mister Lonely (dir. Harmony Korine), Funny Games U.S. (dir. Michael Haneke), The Chaser (dir. Na Hong-jin), Timecrimes (dir. Nacho Vigalondo), Happy-Go-Lucky (dir. Mike Leigh), [REC] (dir. Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza)...

...  Teeth (dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein), Encounters at the End of the World (dir. Werner Herzog), The House Bunny (dir. Fred Wolf), The Ruins (dir. Carter Smith), Doomsday (dir. Neil Marshall), Cloverfield (dir. Matt Reeves), Hunger (dir. Steve McQueen), Reprise (dir. Joachim Trier)

What are your favorite movies of 2008?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Pete: When a man believes his own lies, starts believing that he has the power, he's got shuteye. Because now he believes it's all true. And people get hurt. Good, God-fearing people. And then you lie. You lie. And when the lies end, there it is. The face of God, staring at you straight. No matter where you turn. No man can outrun God, Stan.

Guillermo Del Toro's Nightmare Alley landed in the Criterion Collection this week on glorious 4K, where this gorgeous and deeply under-appreciated gem belongs -- I hope that people will go back and realize they were incorrect in their negative critical asessments now, mainly to prove that I was right and this movie rules. But for other reasons too! Bradley Cooper gives his best performance to date in the film for one, but it's also (as the above quote suggests) a savvy  dissection of our poisoned modern-day political situation without ever being too on-the-nose about it. It's like Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria in that way. It diagnoses the rot. Anyway we also see Bradley Cooper's dick so what have you got to lose? Go watch it! (Looking forward to an upgrade on the gif below with the 4K edition, you best believe it.)

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

I don't know why I wasn't familiar with this photo of Adam Driver and Andrew Rannells on the set of Girls back in the day until this week, but I will allow it since I am at least now familiar with it. And if ever a week slash month slash year slash decade needed a boost it's this one(s). Thanks, guys.

Screening Dead Ahead

I won't tell you what movie I am going to see right now, thereby abandoning you for the remainder of today, but I will give you a couple of visual "clues." We'll see if you can put them together and suss out the movie I am seeing. I have faith in you guys! You're all real bright and I have even been told that your mothers loved some of you. Anyway it's true, I'm gone, another day is gone, our lives are gone. In three days it's Halloween and what do we have to show for it? Fat load'a nothin' that's what. On that cheerful note I will be here all day tomorrow (unless I, you know, die) AND I have one final NYFF 2025 review landing at Pajiba -- if not later today than tomorrow, but whenever it is I will make sure to link that shit up. So there is something to look forward to after all! Sunshine and gummy bears and oral sex forever!

Pic of the Day

I'm going to be so very sad when the press tour for Pillion ends and we stop getting photos of Alexander Skarsgard and director Harry Lighton rocking fetish-wear on the red carpet. Enjoy these moments while we can! This picture is from a festival in Spain -- see some of Alex's previous looks here. And if you missed my review click here. This is one reason to be happy the movie isn't coming out in the U.S. until February! Lots more Alex in leather!

Aaron Pierre Fifteen Times

Usually I don't bother reading the profiles of actors in Men's Health because -- well I mean come on this isn't Playboy, we're not reading Men's Health "for the articles." And yet I'm glad I did read the one that goes along with Aaron Pierre's new cover-shoot for the magazine because how else would I know that his career got kickstarted by Barry Jenkins sliding into his DMs? LOL it's not quite as sordid as it sounds -- Jenkins went to see Moonlight star André Holland do Othello on stage where Aaron was playing Cassio opposite him, and Jenkins immediately saw the movie star we all saw the first time each of us saw Aaron Pierre. Still -- thank you, Barry Jenkins! (The two went on to make The Underground Railroad together, which allows me to remind y'all for the dozenth time that if you still haven't watched that masterpiece, do.) Anyway let's get back to what we "read" Men's Health for -- the photos! Hit the jump for the whole shoot...

Five Frames From ?

What movie is this?

Good Morning, World

Henry Golding being a good boy.

Niels Schneider Twelve Times

On Friday I shared some new Louis Garrel photos with you -- lucky you -- and said that I'd stumbled upon a photographer's Instagram account that had hot shoots of several of our favorite Frenchies and more would be coming shortly... well welcome to shortly. I almost shared these photos of Niels Schneider because I think these are an even hotter set of photos --- indeed I've actually shared a few of these before, back in December of last year! But Niels is timeless hotness so there is no incorrect time to share. Every day is the right day! Hit the jump for the rest...