Behind The Scenes Of Bubble Boy

One of the great cinematic achievements of our time, Bubble Boy... man I can't even make an entire sentence from that nonsense. Bubble Boy is underrated though. It makes me laugh anyway. It has characters named Pushpop, Pappy, Pippy, Poonanny, Red Hot, Human Sasquatch, Flipper Boy, Dr. Phreak and Schlomo! It co-stars Swoosie Kurtz and Marley Shelton pre-Grindhouse! Awesomeness.

But then it also stars Jake and I think we all know what effect that has on my brain, so let's forgo discussing the merits of Bubble Boy. Thanks to IHJM I just caught these two behind-the-scenes stills from the 2001 film, and they are love itself, so I had to post them.

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Bubble Boy (2001)

Mrs. Livingston (Swoosie Kurtz): ... and the prince climbed up Rapunzel's hair to the top of the tower and said, "Come with me, and we'll live happily ever after." Then Rapunzel left her plastic bubble and died. The end.

Bubble Boy came up in the comments of this post at The Film Experience about the trailer for Love and Other Drugs and now I can't stop thinking about it. I have never seen any of the Dollars trilogy but I have seen Bubble Boy at least three times. How ya like them apples, Leone?

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I'll Be Praying You Get Nut Cancer

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Oh goodness look at that new picture of Jake. 

That is really something. (via)

Anyway I missed it but yesterday was the 15th anniversary of Bubble Boy! (This post's title is a quote from the movie - I hope nobody thought for an instant that I wish anything but love upon Jake Gyllenhaal's testicles.) But we do all agree that Bubble Boy is a terrific dumb comedy right? It's the movie that gave me my online avatar after all, so it has a real and profound legacy in the world.

You can scan some of our old Bubble Boy posts here if you so desire. This makes me realize that his other 2001 masterpiece, Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko, is also approaching it's 15th anniversary - that film came out in October of that year. So we'll be celebrating that soon! In summation here is a picture of Jake with John Waters in 2006 that I have never seen before, just because.

5 Off My Head: Jake Crazy

I don't know if you guys know this -- perhaps you don't have this written in your calendars four times like I do, in which case I just feel sorry for you -- but today marks the start of a very important week for us terminal case Gyllenhaalics. This Saturday, December 19th, is Jake Gyllenhaal's 40th birthday! Huzzah indeed! For those of us who've been following his career real close (over 1100 posts close, haha) for the past nineteen years, since Donnie Darko hit in 2001 basically, this feels momentous. That sweet little nutter's become a grown ass man!

Anyway I felt like I had to mark the occasion properly, so I'm going to do a Top 5 Jake list every single day this week. It only seems right after all he's given us. Starting us off today's topic will dive into one of Jake's favorite sports -- mental illness! I think you could classify a full 50% of Jake's roles as at the very least obsessive, whether he's losing years of his life trying to solve a serial killer's cryptic riddles, or dancing on stage with an adorable super-pig. Forthwith my faves!

My 5 Favorite "Jake's Nuts!" Performances

Mr. Music, John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch

Louis Bloom, Nightcrawler

Morf, Velvet Buzzsaw

Adam / Anthony, Enemy

Johnny Wilcox, Okja

Runners-up: I am classifying Donnie Darko, Bubble Boy, and Zodiac as runners-up only on the technicality that they aren't actually as messed up as these other five -- Donnie & Robert Graysmith are both basically right on about their respective obsessions, while Jimmy from Bubble Boy is just too dang harmless. 

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What are your favorites "Jake's gone nuts!" moments?

Who Wore It Best?

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I can't claim catching this on my own - John Oursler pointed it out to me that Jake's hair in Prisoners is totally a variation on what he's rocking in Bubble Boy, and it's true! And that is incredibly, incredibly hilarious. From now on I'm considering the events of Bubble Boy to be Detective Loki's twitch-inducing back-story.

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poll by twiigs.com

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Good Morning, Bubble Boy

Bubble Boy is 20 today.

10 Off My Head: Getting Into Jake's Pants

Happy Day 2 of Jake Week, where we're celebrating Jake Gyllenhaal's 40th birthday this upcoming Saturday with a different Top 5 list every single day. Yesterday I shared with you a list of my favorite crazy-pants performances from Mr. G that had him flailing his psycho-stick around for our enjoyment -- well today I am going a little simpler on the one hand, in that this is an ode to the outfits his personhood has slipped into and made iconic, and a little less simpler on the other because I couldn't pick just five. I had to double it. There are too many to choose from! (Sidenote: I tried to talk about actual memorable clothes here -- the time will come for a list of Jake being naked, don't worry.)

My 10 Favorite Jake Gyllenhaal Costumes

His skeleton hoodie costume in Donnie Darko

The Santa hat & thong combo from Jarhead

His blue-shirted Brokeback ensemble

His white boxing shorts in Stronger

His blue polo in Lovely & Amazing

The Mysterio Cape!

(Spider-twink included)

The tight-buttoned dress shirts in Prisoners

The buffalo-plaid in Nocturnal Animals

(Aaron Johnson included)

The business-to-casual red suspenders in Demolition

That open cream shawl he wore

 to showcase his Persia bosoms

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Runners-up: Jake in uniform in End of Watch, 

the Bubble in Bubble Boy, the 

art snobbery in Velvet Buzzsaw, the jean shorts in Okja

What are your favorite Jake costumes?

Ten Little Bubble Boys

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Can you believe that it's been 10 years to the day since Bubble Boy came out? Looking at it now Jake seems so young, so fresh-faced. He'd yet to face steroids and pup-tents and Anne Hathaway's sad vagina. What a simple world it was! Over at The Film Experience I took a little look back so why dontcha click over and check that out. It's Swoosieriffic!

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I Am Link

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--- I Beat Meryl - I had no idea that Jennifer Lawrence was quoting Bette Midler in The First Wives Club when she won her Golden Globe, but that's what the internet's good for - letting me know that, that is. As if I needed more JLaw love in my life. Oh and by the way, have you seen her hot brother Blaine before? That's him to the left there. Hot!

--- Whedon Wars - Joss Whedon says he would've loved to make a Star Wars movie, but he's too busy with The Avengers 2 and the SHIELD tv show. Do note that he wasn't actually asked - he just thought it would have been a neat idea if he had been asked and had been free to say yes. And that is how you keep your name in the headlines, folks!

--- Foster Care - I don't really have anything much to say about Jodie Foster's fascinating moment at the Golden Globes; I especially don't if you take into account all that's already been said. It's all been said. But Nat said what he had to say very nicely over at The Film Experience. All I need is Clarice Starling, and that I've got.

--- Fassy Assassin - A writer has been found for that video game adaptation Assassin's Creed that Michael Fassbender is going to star in - his name's Michael Leslie and he's a playwright slash short-film film-maker; he's actually never written a feature length film yet. But his other stuff's been well received, supposedly. (pic via)
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--- Funny Games - I love the fact that the real Michael Haneke is aware of that parody @Michael_Haneke twitter account that makes him seem like a deranged twelve year old. Hear what he has to say about it over here. I also appreciate the fact that the awards rounds he's making with Amour are letting the world see he's not the dour stick in the mud his movies might make you think he is.

--- Guillermo's Hitch - If you ever wanted to hear Guillermo Del Toro talk about Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (the first version, not the second version), then boy oh golly is today your lucky day.

--- Mother May I - It's about two months until the Psycho inspired tv series Bates Motel begins on A&E, and here are a few teaser posters to whet your perverted appetitie. They are very twin-Peaks-y.

--- Bubble Boy - Colin Ford, who was apparently in We Bought a Zoo (I have not seen that, shockingly) (The "shockingly" was sarcasm), is going to play Joe in the Stephen King tv adaptation of Under the Dome. I read UTD when it came out but I don't remember who Joe is; Deadline implies it's a lead so, okay. All I really remember is the, uh, dome.

--- Taming Anne - I like Anne Hathaway. I do. But the Oscar season is turning her into the person she was for that last hour she hosted the Oscars with James Franco, and it ain't pretty. So the sooner it's over, the better. I just wanted to get that out of the way before pointing out that her taking a role in a movie with "Shrew" in the title right now is probably not the best timing.
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National Underwear Day

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What a coincidence, that Eric Bana Day and National Underwear Day happen to both fall on August 9th, huh?

(Eric Bana in The Nugget)

Now, I've done gratuitous posts in the past, but I think this one may really take the cake. But who am I to argue with a National Holiday? I can only submit myself to the Will of Our Country.

So, let us begin our short, or should I say, brief tour through the wonders of men in their underpants, shall we? Okay.

Of course, our first stop will have to be the be-all and end-all of "Gratuitous Shots of Underpants-Clad Men in the Movies", Eddie Cibrian in Living Out Loud.


I don't think I've ever been able to breathe during that scene.

Now I happen to have the probably uncontroversial opinion that Ryan Phillippe is best when he forgoes undergarments (and acting) altogether, but I ain't runnin' a porno site here and anyway, this is National Underwear Day so we must celebrate the skivvies.

(left - Cruel Intentions, right - White Squall)

Say what? That pic from White Squall is practically pornographic anyway? Not in a film about a bunch of innocent, shirtless, strapping, tanned 17-year old boys rollicking on the seas without a woman in sight, I say!

Oh, and then there's Josh Duhamel in The Picture of Dorian Gray, which I've never seen save these caps:


These, wonderful, wonderful caps.

And Hugh Jackman in Someone Like You...:


Good times, good times.

And here, for that little extra bit of gratuitousness, are some pictures of actors in their underpants outside of films. Because I'm that giving!


Okay, so in that picture of Jake he's pretty much clothed, save a little exposed CKU at the waist, but I could hardly leave him off of here and the bastard has yet to give us a skivvy scene... save this distant shot in The Day After Tomorrow:


He's so selfish! Okay, so he did get naked for Jarhead... I'll give the boy that. Oh, I'll give him something alright... where was I? What am I doing?

ETA I forgot! He's briefly in what appear to be Underoos in Bubble Boy:


So, what's your favorite underpants movie-moment?
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Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... rushing Jake off to the casting couch.

(Click it to embiggen) That's a 20 year old Jake Gyllenhaal and his Bubble Boy director Blair Hayes having some fun on that movie's set back in 2000. (via) It's pretty much the exact sort of fun I'd be having if I were Jake's director (publicly) so good work, Blair. "Pappy told me about Poon but he never said anything about Poonanny, Pippy."

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Quote of the Day

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First things first, hey-oh it's a new picture from Southpaw. (via) Much like the previous pictures I've posted, sure, but it's not like we can turn our nose up at Shirtless Jake now is it? Exactly. Second things second, it's now less than a week until "Original Audrey" Ellen Greene teams up with "Original Bubble Boy" Jake to revisit Little Shop of Horrors on stage here in New York for three performances and I'm kinda hyperventilating just thinking about it. Greene spoke to TheaterMania (thanks Mac) about the shows - the past and the very near present ones - and here's a choice bit:

TM: Does the age difference between you and Jake Gyllenhaal matter? 

Ellen: Well, if I looked like sh*t. But I don't. I have my [Dorian Gray] painting further and further back in the closet. [laughs] [Audrey] was always older than [Seymour]. There are many elements [in which] I hope I don't disappoint, but I'm obviously competing with my younger self. I have been in Audrey drag [recently], for the D.C. Gay Men's Chorus, and I was shocked: It looks good still. [Scanlan] looked at all sorts of ages, but Jake, he came to Dick and said, "I want the part, and I want to do it with Ellen Greene." You can't deny it when a great actor says, "I want the part."