Over My Dead Skeleton

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Normally I would be very excited to hear that Crawl director Alexandre Aja was teaming up with Gerald's Game director Mike Flanagan and producer Steven Spielberg to make a haunted house movie. But they had to go and ruin it with a gimmick, the bastard people -- click on over to The Film Experience to hear me ramble and rant like the fogey I am about their brand new idea to get asses into movie seats this time...

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Reflecting On Skin

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Almost exactly five years ago I recommended the 1990 film The Reflecting Skin to you guys -- it was directed by the artist Phillip Ridley (who's only made three feature films in total. the last one being Heartless with Jim Sturgess) and it stars Viggo Mortensen and Lindsay Duncan, and it tells the story of a young boy (Jeremy Cooper) in the very rural American 1950s who believes that his neighbor (Duncan) is a vampire. 

That description makes it sound like a period-piece edition of Fright Night but it ain't that, not by a long shot -- it's elegiac and slow and very very strange, and I love the film dearly. Anyway it's a good time to love it because Film Movement went and put it out on blu-ray this week! You can pick up a copy at this link -- I recommend you do... and not just because Viggo is insanely beautiful (and naked, don't forget naked) in it either.

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

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"This is interesting." 

You're right, Tyler Durden. This is interesting. But it's also a bit graphic, so here's my literal Trigger Warning -- only hit the jump if you're up for some (pretend!) gun violence on this here fairly quiet Thursday afternoon...
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Cold Blue Criterion

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Criterion has just announced their releases for the month of November, and one should obviously be excited about a pair of stone cold Bette Davis classics, All About Eve and Now Voyager (some would argue those are her most essential movies of all), but I can't help but want to highlight their release of Jean-Jacques Beineix's 1986 film Betty Blue starring Jean-Hugues Anglade and Béatrice Dalle as the woman who undoes him and everything around her. I haven't seen BB in several years but I remember it as a difficult film, with Dalle going all in on making this character absolutely maddening. And yet it's all very sexy in that loose French way, and really latches itself onto something true about how a consuming love feels sometimes, I think too. And I think it's kind of great that they're pairing it with Paweł Pawlikowski's fabulous 2018 film Cold War (reviewed here), which is also about a tempestuous love affair dragging everybody down river. What a compare and contrast double-feature these two make!

Juan Barberini One Time

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Although you've kind of had to do some digging for them this year there have already been by my count -- remind me if I'm forgetting any! -- three great romances about gay men that I've seen. There's Christophe Honoré's Sorry Angel coming out of France, reviewed here, which is now out on streaming. Second there is Hari Sama's This is Not Berlin out of Mexico, reviewed here, which just opened in a few theaters last weekend. Click here to see its trailer.

And now there is End of the Century, coming at us from Spain and starring that very handsome fellow Juan Barberini you see there up top -- there's a sneak preview of End of the Century at the IFC Center tonight with director Lucio Castro being interviewed by Alan Cumming, before it opens there proper-like tomorrow. I reviewed this film back in April and think it's a really very beautiful thing, so if you get the chance to see it, see it. See its release schedule at this link, and here's the trailer:

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Red Sparrow (2018)

Dominika: I think one day you will understand.
Nate Nash: No, I don't think I will. Some things
can't be sacrificed. We don't throw people away.

I think I'm one of about ten people in the entire world who totally enjoyed the ridiculous spy fest Red Sparrow, but then I did have an awful obnoxious father with his teen girls sitting next to me and watching his world crumble as he realized this Jennifer Lawrence vehicle, full of rape and nudity and murder, was not the latest Hunger Games movie, well, that was a lot of entertainment value in itself. Funny how vividly I can recall that entire experience today! Twas a delight. 

Anyway as Mr. Nate Nash just said we don't throw people away, so -- where the heck are you, Jennifer Lawrence? The Oscar winning actress has only been seen scowling her way though Dark Phoenix under several pounds of Smurf make-up this year -- I keep asking where her X-costar Michael Fassbender's gotten himself to, I feel I should flip the script, ask about Jen here on her 29th birthday. We loved mother!, Jen!

Of course she's not really going anywhere and those of us who do like her really have nothing to worry about -- she remains a massive movie star, where Fassy's still, even with those Mutant Movies on his resume, considered a Thespian, a designation that's way more disposable in this disposable day and age than an honest to goodness movie star. Jen's got three projects lined up -- the bio-pic of psycho pretrendress Elizabeth Holmes should make for good cinema (until you see it's Vice director Adam McKay who's directing, true and total barf)...

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... but it's her Married-to-the-Mob-esque movie Mob Girl with The Great Beauty and The Young Pope genius Paolo Sorrentino that I'm most curious about. It's based on the 1992 book about real-life moll Arlyne Brickman, who ran with the Colombo crime family in the 50s and 60s and eventually turned FBI informant when the thugs threatened her daughter. It sounds like a great story, and seeing Sorrentino turn his eye on the typical Scorsese Territory of mid-century New York gangsters could really be something.

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Five Frames From ?

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What movie is this?

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Good Morning, Gratuitous Raoul Bova

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Yesterday happened to be the Italian actor and MNPP fave Raoul Bova's birthday -- he turned 48 years gorgeous -- which led me to a ridiculous discovery. "Ridiculous" because how in the ever living fuck-business had I never discovered his Instagram until now? Well since he doesn't really work in the US much anymore it's not my fault I can't always keep tabs on him, I suppose...

... but I should do better. I mean the last time we checked in on him in January he was stripping for homosexuals, so at least we know he's hard. At work. Whatever. Hit the jump for some highlights I grabbed off of his Instagram...

Hold Your Bro Close, Liam

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Oh look it's two new pictures of Liam Hemsworth getting over his break-up in his wetsuit  while standing beside his brother Chris Hemsworth... how about that? How about that, indeed. He doesn't look distraught to me. He looks, dare I say, downright perky, though. See all of the previous shots in this post here and this post here. (pics via)

Who Wore It Best?

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A sumptuously bearded Daniel Brühl just posted on his Instagram these shots of himself with his Alienist co-star slash foot-slave Luke Evans -- they're woofing it up on the set of the recently announced second season of that show, which is called Angel of Darkness after the second Caleb Carr book, and since the both of them are rocking some mighty sharp duds it seems a mighty fine moment to quiz y'all with our usual frivolous query...

polls

Pic of the Day

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Imagine my delight as I scrolled through IHJM's gallery of fans posing with Jake Gyllenhaal outside of his Broadway play Sea Wall / A Life when stashed there in between them was this shot of Jake and also-actor and partner-in-Marvel Sebastian Stan! Anyway I'm pretending that that moment above was brought to you immediately following this one below:

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Picking out a third at the club pic.twitter.com/Snbuf77eqz

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) August 14, 2019

10 Off My Head: Actor Hunter Killer

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Thrillingly for me at least David Fincher's serial killer series Mindhunter starring Jonathan Groff (showering, seen above) is back on Netflix this Friday for its second season. But that's not the only time the subject of "serial killers" has dropped itself into my lap this week -- on Monday I posted about the 1995 thriller Copycat with Sigourney Weaver, which is screening here in NYC this weekend. And on this upcoming Tuesday Arrow is releasing a stellar special edition blu-ray of Cruising, William Friedkin's controversial 1980 gay murder fantasia that stars Al Pacino. Basically, serial killing is having a real moment! (Sorry you blew your load a little bit early, Zac Efron.) 

Anyway all of this made it seem like a good moment to count down our favorite Serial Killer Movies. But then I started making a list and you know what? Depending on your definition of "Serial Killer Movies" -- do you count Slasher Films? -- I seem to like a hell of a lot of Serial Killer Movies. Too many to narrow down to just five, or even ten. My list runs into the dozens. So I decided to be a little more specific and narrow it down to performances as Serial Killers in Serial Killer Films. I still had to up the number to 10, but this is more manageable!

10 of my Favorite Serial Killer Performances

Anthony Perkins in Psycho

Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs

Charlize Theron in Monster

Christian Bale in American Psycho

Jeremy Renner in Dahmer

Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom

John Jarratt in Wolf Creek

Peter Lorre in M

Karlheinz Böhm in Peeping Tom

Juliette Lewis in Natural Born Killers

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I could name twenty more, but I'll let y'all

name some of your faves in the comments!

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Joe Alwyn Five Times

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Did you guys see The Souvenir? Joanna Hogg's semi-autobiographical film about a rich girl (played by Tilda Swinton's daughter Honor Swinton Byrne) and her dope-addicted come-and-go boyfriend is on streaming now so you've really got no excuse -- I saw it in the theater way back when... and never wrote about it because I never sussed out my opinion on it properly. There were very many things I admired about it but it also felt awfully self-indulgent at times.

That said "self-indulgent" is what's often thrown at say Sofia Coppola for the exact same basically misogynistic reasons -- treating a "rich girl"'s problems as somehow unworthy of attention -- and so I never really felt comfortable coming down on the movie that way. I mean my issues with the film really had to do with class, not sex, but Hogg does directly address that subject in a couple of ways. Anyway I wasn't enamored quite enough in any personal sort of way to really dig deep into my thoughts about the film before we'd all moved on, and here we are, several months later...

... with a lot of news coming hard on Hogg's long rumored sequel to the film. Robert Pattinson was going to star in it for her but he had to drop out and she's now replaced him with two men -- Rob's gotta feel good about that; only two men can do the job he could've! -- and they are Beach Rats star Harris Dickinson and Stranger Things actor Charlie Heaton. So why the hell am I posting pictures of Joe Alwyn then, you ask?

Joe has also joined the movie, but he's playing some other role, not the one split into two by Pattinson's departure. And when I say "joined" what I mean to say is "filmed" because according to that link Hogg's already filmed the movie, and A24 will be releasing it some time next year. Perhaps by then I'll re-watch the first one and have more concrete or complex thoughts and or feelings about it. And wouldn't that be a treat? I can hardly wait, personally. I can only imagine how y'all feel. 

I've Got A Parasite!

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This week is kicking ass trailer-wise -- yesterday we got the first spots for both Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life (watch it here) and Greta Gerwig's Timmy Tales excuse me Little Women (watch that here), and now hey look at this it's the first English-language trailer for Bong Joon-ho's hotly anticipated Parasite, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in the spring. Watch:

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I called that "the first English-language trailer" because I had actually posted the South Korean trailer for the film awhile back -- I haven't compared and contrasted them (I have shit to do, yo) but if you'd like to click here and go to town, mad-person. And I guess here is where I admit I have now SEEN this movie, with MY OWN EYES now, and I'll be reviewing it... at some point... but I kind of want to make it to a second screening before I do offer up my thoughts. And yes I'm totally gonna leave you hanging on that.

Parasite is playing at the New York Film Festival and then it opens 

in theaters on October 11th, so be patient. It's coming!

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Joel Kinnaman For Mankind

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Joel Kinnaman, as appealing as he is -- and he is very appealing -- hasn't seemed to be able ti find That Role, the breakout one. Insert your own commentary here about white dudes getting a million and one chances -- point being he's got yet another new TV show hitting soon, and I'd say this one seems promising but I thought Altered Carbon looked promising so what do I know? (The answer is super totally nothin, since I haven't even watched Altered Carbon myself, proving I am a cog in the problem.) Anyway Joel's new show is from Battlestar Galactica reboot whiz Ronald D. Moore and it's called For All Mankind and here is the first trailer:

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That trailer's actually like two months old so I'm not exactly on top of things again -- I only stumbled upon it when I stumbled upon a couple new photoshoots of Joel that are properly new. 

One of the photoshoots is for Men's Journal and they have a very fine set video on their site to go along with the shoot, plus I guess an interview with Joel or whatever, click here for all that. Anyway there's no word on when For All Mankind will drop, Apple TV is being sketchy about their slate of programming -- all we know is sometime this fall. Until then we'll have to make due with these photo-shoots of Joel, hit the jump for the rest...