Good Morning, Gratuitous Aaron Altaras

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All the boys I had crushes on in college were floppy-haired brunettes who played on the soccer team, and I went into Mario - a new Swiss gay soccer romance that's playing at NewFest this week - with some expectations. And Aaron Altaras met those expectations. Since I'll be reviewing Mario later this week officially for the fest I don't want that review to devolve into a bunch of slobbering sounds, so we'll do us here a separate post. For...

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MEIN GOTT IN HIMMEL pic.twitter.com/lrUxQp1JpF

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 25, 2018

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... slobbering. I mean I could write an entire review devoted to Aaron's butt, how the film frames his butt, and how Cinema (Not To Mention Aaron's Butt) Is A Grand Gift Sent From The Heavens Et Cetera... but you'll see on your own when the movie comes out. (There is this one shot of him naked on a bed... I tell you, readers, I rewound the film fives times.)

For now go follow Aaron on Instagram (let's get this young man some more movie roles) and keep your eyes peeled for my review of Mario very soon, and then I guess keep your eyes peeled for the movie Mario itself (I'll let you know when it gets a proper release, no doubt). Until then we hit the jump for all the Aaron I could gather up into my greedy, greedy hands...

Aaron Altaras Two Times

It's been a quiet week for magazine photo-shoots so there for our gratuitous-fix are a pair of photos from German actor Aaron Altaras, via his Instagram. You might recall he first caught our eye in the gay soccer romance Mario in 2018 (reviewed here, and which is streaming on Amazon right now) which led to a deluge of posts (you'll want to click here especially) -- then he showed up on the Netflix series Unorthodox (he was one of the Sexy German Youths that lured leading-lady Esther away from her religion), and another round of posts appeared. Whaddya know. Now it seems he's got something else of interest on the horizon...

... some sort of Fight Club looking series called Wild Republic; all I know of it is these photos that Aaron shared, but... they're enough to know I want it? Plenty, even!

Love in the Locker-room

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Heads-up, all fans of soccer players making out -- the Swiss movie Mario that I reviewed out of NewFest last week just announced it's hitting VOD here in the States tomorrow! That was fast! Actually now that I check you can also buy the film on DVD as of tomorrow too, and given the way our streaming options are turning to ash before our very eyes perhaps you want to go the physical-media route. Anyway either way you should see it, it's a nice little movie, and then there's the gratuitous subject of the actor Aaron Altaras...

Good Morning, World

Looks as if Zoo Magazine might've maybe done it again (hey Zoo Magazine -- are you MNPP readers?) -- with a new photo-shoot of our favorite butt-boy auf Deutschland Aaron Altaras for their next issue. I was literally listing off their gratuitous accomplishments only last week and now, this. But we've only got the shot of Aaron above, and the cover over here, to go by, so let's not coronate them Kings and Queens of the Magazines Scene just yet, not til we see more more more... (pic via)

NewFest Review: Mario

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There are gay players in all of the world's sports, just as there are gays in all of the world's everything. But it's taken more time for that world, so masculine in its terror towards anything but the showy theatrics of hyper-masculinity, the chest thumps and guttural man-cries, to chisel itself off a little nook for something slightly other than. Slowly it's happening though, and Mario, Swiss director Marcel Gisler's gay soccer picture, imagines a moment seemingly adjacent to now. a what-if situation. What if two soccer players fell in love?

It's not a crazy idea, in that it has no doubt already happened and we just haven't been told about it yet. And Mario isn't a crazy movie - it's a simple and straight-forward take on how this has probably already played out under our noses. The most revolutionary thing is probably how practically the film plays all of this out. Career counseling with agents, the whole wacky "bearding" experience, coming out to one's Mum (who gets the best line in the whole movie in that moment), all rendered with a degree of matter-of-fact. It's less of a lightning bolt than it is the necessary stage of acceptance.

Thankfully for something that can feel a little dry in its realism Mario's center-stage men give us a two-some to care about - it's hard not to root for Max Hubacher to help get Mario's shit together, so sweet and nerdy and terribly conflicted does he seem at times. When him and totally casual sex-bomb Leon (Aaron Altaras, who we gave some gratuitous mention to earlier today worth a look-see) bond it remains adorably low-key, gentle even. Like their romance we've got to lean into it. But it's worth a lean.
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Mario plays NewFest tomorrow - there are still some tickets, it looks like! Click here for all of our NewFest reviews, and check out the whole schedule for the fest, running thru Monday, right here.
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Amit Rahav Three Times

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Have you guys watched Unorthodox on Netflix yet? I recommended it earlier this week alongside some photos of Aaron Altaras, an actor on the show, and now I am checking back in after having binged the entire thing myself in one evening with some photos of another actor on the show -- this is Amit Rahav and he plays Yanky, the ultra-Orthodox arranged husband to the lead character Esti (a truly phenomenal Shira Haas), who the series follows as she runs away to Berlin to find herself. 

One of the finest things about this very fine show is how complicated Yanky's character ends up being -- he's not a villain, just a confused and brainwashed young man, and Rahav gives a moving performance himself as we watch him try to come to terms with this amazing woman he's found himself all tangled up with. Anyway I was surprised to find out that in real life Amit is an openly gay Israeli actor -- you should get a load of his Instagram, it's thirst trap central. Surprisingly the show ends up having a lot of queer characters too, so there's another reason to tune in. Go watch it now and tell me what you think!

Good Morning, World

Happy Monday from me and far more importantly from German actor Aaron Altaras seen here looking his prettiest for Schön! magazine (via) -- I guess he's starring in some new German series, one which I will likely never see, but at least I'm getting these photos out of it. Aaron came to my (or perhaps our) attention via the very fine gay soccer movie Mario (read my review here) and then again on that popular 2020 Netflix series Unorthodox but I haven't seen him in anything since, save a smattering of hot photos like the ones here. He works; just in Germany. Is that like having a girlfriend in Canada? Anyway happy Monday, hit the jump for a few more photos...

Good Morning, World

I do not blame if you if you have no idea who you're looking at in that photo -- for one he is a mile away, and for another it's not a super well-known actor. I just liked the atmosphere of the setting, which renders his out-of-place near-nakedness more exciting than it would be if he was standing in say a bedroom -- he's wearing tighty-whities in the middle of somebody's office! It's inappropriate, and therefore hotter. You get it. Anyway let's zoom in...

Do you recognize him? It's the German actor Aaron Altaras, who co-starred in the Netflix series Unorthodox (he was the cute guy that the lead woman crushed on in Berlin once she escaped from her Orthodox prison) -- more importantly to you and definitely to me though he was one-half of the gay soccer movie Mario, which is what inspired me to do a big gratuitous post on him back in 2018. One of my faves! His Instagram is worth a follow, as today's post makes obvious. Hope I see Aaron in more things... like perhaps my office...

Aaron Altaras Three Times

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I had expected upon its beginning that this post was only going to be me giving the stylist on this photo-shoot some of those so-called "mad props" for styling Aaron here -- who we fell hard for thanks to the gay soccer romance Mario a couple of years back -- to look like all the boys I had crushes on in mid to late 90s alternative music videos -- this look is pushing some buttons. But then I saw that Aaron has a brand new show on Netflix, one that actually looks real good, and I figured I oughta touch on that as well. But first...

... one more picture. (You really wanna see this post though.) Okay onto the show. It's called Unorthodox and it's actually a four episode limited series not a "show" but such meanings, they're meaningless now. Unorthodox tells the story of an Orthodox Jewish woman who escapes from her ultra-conservative Brooklyn family and arranged marriage to Berlin where she tries to find herself; I guess it's based on a true story. Aaron, who gets a few "hey look at this cute boy" shots in the trailer, appears to be, well, a cute boy she meets in Berlin. Here's that trailer:

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It's very Disobediance minus the lesbianism. The show's been on Netflix for a few days now so maybe one or more of you have watched it already and would like to share a thought or seven in the comments? Anyway I have every intention to binge it as soon as possible, that trailer alone made me cry, so perhaps I'll come back and say more depending on how moved I am. Speaking of something moving me, here's one more picture of Aaron for the road...

Good Morning, Great Gratuity #5

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Aaron Altaras, as the closeted soccer player Leon who becomes first a roommate and then a fuck-buddy and then maybe more to Mario (Max Hubacher) in last year's sad romance slash sports-film Mario, was one of those pops off the screen discoveries...

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MEIN GOTT IN HIMMEL pic.twitter.com/lrUxQp1JpF

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 25, 2018

... so let's hope that he keeps up this acting thing. Terrifyingly his IMDb page has nothing listed as coming up, but IMDb isn't great about listing upcoming projects for foreign actors half the time so here's to hoping Aaron is plenty busy coming to a screen near us. See plenty more of him right here, and read our review of this movie here. Oh and in summation GOOD GRIEF: