Happy Pride From Criterion!

June is Pride Month and Criterion is hitting a home run right off the bat with their June 2024 slate of announcements -- Rainer Werner Fassbinder's final film Querelle, a surreal Jean Genet adaptation starring a sizzling hot Brad Davis that has been a real pain in the ass to get for years (out of print et cetera) is entering the collection on June 11th! We've posted a million and one times about this movie here at MNPP, it's been one of our faves since it was first introduced to us in a college class on queer cinema -- I'm a little sad they're not releasing it in 4K (just regular blu) but I will not complain! It will just be nice to replace my ancient DVD! But that's not the only gay goodness they've got in store for the month...

... as they're also dropping the Wachowski's 1996 lesbian noir masterpiece Bound! And this one IS getting the 4K treatment! If you've never seen Bound before... well don't even wait for the June 18th release date. Watch Bound tonight! You will not be disappointed. It remains my favorite Wachowski movie, and it was their first! But the hits don't stop there...

... as they've also slated Barry Jenkins seriously underappreciated 2021 masterpiece of a miniseries The Underground Railroad. I guess because the world felt like it was falling apart (not that that feeling has stopped) when this was airing it really felt like it didn't get enough attention at the time -- maybe it was also the fact that it was on Amazon Prime and lord knows the black hole that is streaming does the legacy of art no favors. But this is the best thing Jenkins has done to date and I say that as a person who felt Moonlight deserved Best Picture. Just an astonishing accomplishment, not to be missed. 

The rest of their June slate ain't no slouch -- David Lynch's 1986 masterpiece Blue Velvet is getting the 4K upgrade for one. This is probably my favorite Lynch movie? It's nigh impossible to choose given his filmography but it's the one I keep coming back to the most often anyway. And I cannot wait to see how it looks in 4K. Also getting a 4K upgrade is Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And then there's the one movie of the June bunch I am unfamliar with -- Emilio Fernandez's 1951 film Victims of Sin, which sounds like a Mexican noir melodrama? I'm in. Once I finish watching Querelle for the 50,000th time anyway...

There Will Be No Leftovers

It only took 14 years but Eli Roth has finally gone and made Thanksgiving, the slasher movie that he made a fake trailer for 2007's Grindhouse experience. You remember, when Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez sandwiched their films Death Proof (masterpiece) and Planet Terror together into a double-feature extravaganza, complete with fake trailers and goofy advertisements? Since I had the hots for Eli at the time I was rather excited that his trailer had him in his underwear. You can watch that old trailer here, but the actual movie he made -- which stars Patrick Dempsey...

... (looking hot) and Gina Gershon and a bunch of young people I have no reference for (although I did post a photo of Disney cutie Milo Mannheim's armpits on Twitter earlier this week) -- has an actual trailer today! Thanksgiving is out on November 17th, just in time for, you guessed it, two weeks after Halloween. Anyway this looks like a lot of fun for those of us who love slasher movies and is maybe the movie that Roth was born to make, so I'm excited dammit. Watch:

I'd Really Love To Touch You

One of the greatest cult movies of all the cult movies in all the land, Paul Verhoeven's 1995 masterpiece d' sleaze Showgirls, is getting the fancy 4K treatment! This is courtesy of the ever fine folks at Vinegar Syndrome, and they've opened up the pre-orders for the disc right here as part of their "Halfway to Black Friday" flash sale, which is happening all weekend. Don't worry if you can't buy it right this minute -- they'll have it for sale again soon down the line. But if you order it now you get it much faster. Being the Physical Media Obsessive that I am I've ordered from VS a lot over the past couple of years and they rock; they're really one of the premiere sites in the boutique blu-ray business -- they haven't announced all of the extras yet but I'm sure they'll be stacked. I'm surprised they got their hands on a movie this big, honestly! I guess when they also got Road House in 4K recently we should've seen bigger things ahead. God, what a killer double-feature those two would make for. I have to force myself to hold off until I get my 4K Showgirls in the mail but I wanna double-feature that this weekend now!

Happy 5 To Permission

Today we celebrate the 5th anniversary of the release of director Brian Crano's delightful rom-com Permission, which stars Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens as a couple who've been together since high school who decide to give each other "permission" (ooh there's the title!) to sleep around for a minute before they get married and never have the chance again. Dan Stevens ends up having a fling with a very very very funny Gina Gershon, while Becky ends up boning hot perfect François Arnaud, whose nudity in the film we're posting today as our form of celebration. I did post this once before but what the hell, when in Rome (and yes in this instance "Rome" is "inside of François Arnaud's underpants"). Oh and this movie also stars Rebecca Hall's ridiculously hot husband (and Gilded Age star) Morgan Spector as a gay and he has a hot gay sex scene in it too?

In other words this movie has everything you need and I don't know why it doesn't get more love. How has Crano not made another movie since??? Granted I'm slightly biased when it comes to the movie for selfish reasons as it marked the very first time I got blurbed in a trailer -- they took a little nugget from my review at The Film Experience when I saw it at the Tribeca fest that year. Anyway the movie got a very small physical media release in the US (DVDs of it are going for a hundred bucks!) but you can watch it on Tubi right now, as well as on Prime, and I recommend you do. It's a sweet and terrifically-acted way to spend a couple of hours. And you get to stare at François Arnaud's dick. If that ain't cinema!!! And speaking of, hit the jump for more gifs...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Knock Knock (2015)

Bel: It's like destiny that we were meant to meet.

Do you believe in destiny, Evan?

Evan: I'm an architect, so obviously I believe in things

happening by your own design.

Bel: Well... I do. I don't think people just pick randomly.

I think that, if we are here together, it's because there's

something we have to learn from each other.

A happy 50th birthday to Eli Roth today! Listen, I don't miss the Aughts era of "Bro Horror" anymore than any sane person would, but I still maintain that Eli Roth's early films -- meaning the original Cabin Fever and the Hostel movies -- were smarter about the xenophobia and sexism that they've been bluntly labeled with as of late. I still think those movies were sending up our shitty American instincts more than they were being a straightforward indulgence of them. That said I'll admit I haven't watched them in a decade, so maybe a re-watch would disabuse me of my romantic notions towards them? But he still made Knock Knock in 2015 and that movie's feminist as hell, and presaged the #MeToo movement pretty smartly. Plus Cate Blanchett loves working with him -- she's re-teaming with Eli for his Borderlands video-game adaptation next, alongside Jamie Lee Curtis and Haley Bennett and Gena Gershon and Cheyenne Jackson and Edgar Ramirez! (Not to mention it was co-written by the dude who made the phenom Chernobyl series!) Oh my! So who are you to question Queen Cate? In summation...

Double Back to Demonlover

How totally odd -- less than 24 hours after I did a post about Olivier Assayas' film Demonlover for his birthday comes word that Demonlover is getting a 4K restoration re-release next month thanks to the fine folks at Janus Films (and also Film at Lincoln Center here in NYC). I managed to avoid the subject yesterday but two dips into Demonlover territory so fast forces my hand, making me admit I have not ever seen Demonlover! I know! I am repulsive! The corporate spy thriller, which stars the killer trio of Gina Gershon, Chloë Sevigny, and Connie Nielson, will hit FLC's streaming service on February 12th, and they've dropped a new trailer, seen below. I suppose I've got to finally see it this time, huh? (And I wonder if this means it's getting a Criterion release?)

Good Morning, World

I can't believe I am here typing this sentence but, here goes -- A happy 25th anniversary to Showgirls today! Paul Verhoeven's trashterpiece to end all trashterpieces was released on September 22nd 1995 to a population of human beings who had no idea whatsoever what they were in store for -- it's taken us this full 25 years to come to terms with it, I think. I mean not me -- I knew that opening weekend at the Midnight screening I attended where the three random men scattered around the theater (besides me and my bestie) started chanting "Tits! Tits! Tits!" as the lights went down, that I was in the presence of greatness. Y'all just had to catch up. 

Anyway there's probably not much I more I can say about Showgirls that I haven't said over the many, many years... except maybe I have never really given Kyle MacLachlan's character, the insanely sleazy show-manager Zach, his due? And by "his due" I mean talked about how vividly I remember people making fun of him and his swoopy little bangs at the time all the while I was sitting there like, "Please fuck me in your dolphin fountain, Kyle MacLachlan?" 

The scene you seen here comes right after that infamous pool flopping scene and you're all forgiven if you're always passed out from hyperventilating from that moment to take this one in but I love this scene, mainly because of Kyle's butt and afterglow, but also it gives us this classic Showgirls shot:

I mean there are about seventy-five shots you could point at in Showgirls and say "THAT IS THE SHOT" as in "That is the shot that exemplifies what Showgirls stands for, but I don't know if any are better than Nomi's Whorey Nails (TM) being used to scoop up cocaine off a gold plated mirror at 9am. And the hilarious thing is that this represents Character Development in Showgirls-World! Nomi has vociferously refused to do drugs before this point. so either Zack's no doubt dripping-with-cocaine dick fucked an addiction into her in that pool the night before, or Miss Nomi's not who she's been saying she is. Hmm, I wonder. POLLY ANN COSTELLO!!!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Permission (2017)

Lydia: I used to be a dental hygienist. 

I could get a dog. I could travel.

Will: Can I ask you something? The table? 

Did you really like it?

Lydia: Oh my god. The table is so beautiful.

Will: Yeah?

Lydia: I love it. It's just so honest. And I can love 

the table and I can wanna fuck you -- 

one does not diminish the other. You know?

Will: Cool.

A very happy 58th birthday to Gena Gershon today! You'd think I'd quote Showgirls today to honor her what with the Showgirls doc You Don't Nomi having hit streaming yesterday -- read my review here -- but she's so absolutely terrific and funny in Permission, the 2017 romantic-drama (reviewed here) starring Dan Stevens and Rebecca Hall as a long-term couple who decide to open up their sex life before making that dreaded Final Commitment. Gershon plays a rich lady client of Stevens' furniture maker who he ends up going home with -- this scene is part of the funniest sequence in the film where the two of them take some drugs and spend the whole day together, spilling their guts in the process.

I unabashedly love this movie, which isn't in my usual wheelhouse at all -- it just widens the scope of the typical navel-gazing enough, with strong enough performances from everybody involved (including the hot pieces of meat Morgan Spector and Francois Arnaud at their hot-meatiest), that it feels more truthful than what you necessarily expect going into it. (But then Rebecca Hall in particular couldn't play a false note if you tickled her while she recited Shakespeare.)

No You, Nomi

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I refuse to do a search because I'm afraid what it would tell me about how repetitive I get here on this website, but I'd wager a guess that at this point I've told the story about my opening night screening of Showgirls in 1995 as many times as I've actually watched Showgirls. I'd like to think that can hardly be the case -- I've easily seen Showgirls dozens of times by now here 25 years on -- but who knows. Nomi excuse me nobody knows. Anyway the story's real short so I'll indulge us again: it was a midnight screening, September 22nd 1995, and there were only five people scattered about the large theater. Me, my best friend, and three middle-aged men not sitting anywhere near each other. The lights went down, the projector started, and the three other men in the theater suddenly began chanting, as one, "Tits! Tits! Tits!" And that, my friends, was love at first Tits.

Telling a personal story about one's relationship to Paul Verhoeven's 1995 so-called "Masterpiece of Shit" here to introduce the brand new Showgirls documentary You Don't Nomi, which is out on demand today, only seems right, since that's what You Don't Nomi turns out to be -- it's not really about the making of the movie, as it doesn't talk directly to any of the talking heads involved with the film's production; You Don't Nomi is about the critic and the viewer's relationship to the movie, and how it's changed, critically and culturally, over the past 25 years. And as such it's catnip to Camp Fanatics.

I definitely also recommend checking out Adam Nayman's book It Doesn't Suck as a companion to watching You Don't Nomi -- Nayman is interviewed here and speaks at length, enough that Nomi at times feels like a straight adaptation of his book, with some added off-shoots about the midnight screenings and the off-Broadway musical version. And there's supposedly a second documentary coming from the king of queer documentarians Jeffrey Schwarz (I Am Divine, Tab Hunter Confidential) currently in post-production that's about the other stuff, Showgirls speaking -- point being set aside your need to hear Elizabeth Berkley herself ponder the film's 2020 legacy for the time being, as that'll be coming soon. ("Must be weird not having anybody come on you," the writer finds himself thinking instinctively.)

You Don't Nomi skirts fine around its lack of access to the filmmakers with plenty of clips of the players through the years though, including a touching sequence towards the end that charts Berkley's transformation from punchline to her seeming giddy embrace at one of those recent screenings -- a transformation that basically mirrors the way the film itself's trash legend has shaken and shimmied itself free of things like "logic" or "reality" to become something more -- something more spiritual, something more transcendent. 

Because make no mistake -- Showgirls is a religion. I feel as if You Don't Nomi could be updated fifty years from now with a new chapter of the story where that is actually, literally the case -- there will be Showgirls Churches, rites performed with handfuls of shiny little stripper beads and Cristal-flavored Holy Water splashed in one's face. It'll be Jesus all over again, just with the Sacred Sacrament of the Doggy Chow this time around. Goddess, indeed.

In all seriousness if you're a Showgirls disciple like me you've probably already watched this doc since it's been online this morning and you need no formal introduction. You've already dimmed the lights and began chanting the ritualized chant of "Tits! Tits! Tits!" as it was once spoken in the holy book by the Saint Joe Eszterhas of Assisi. If you haven't, well, don your robes, your biker bustiers, your Revenge Nails, open all the bags of chips and loose the chimps, cuz you're in for a damn treat.

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You can rent You Don't Nomi on Amazon now, 

and it's also going to be hitting blu-ray in July.

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Quote of the Day

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"Gina is like the coolest person to ever do a love scene with. She was playful. I would be like, 'Can you put your hand here so my cellulite doesn’t show? Can you prop my breast to make it look a little more plump?'"

This week's issue of Entertainment Weekly is all about Gay Pride Month -- they've got a bunch of gay celebrities on variant covers including Wilson Cruz (My So Called Life forever!) and Anderson Cooper. But best of all this led to a Bound reunion between Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly! The magazine gets quotes from the actresses as they re-watch the Wachowskis classic lesbo-noir for the first time in years, and they give all kinds of juicy tidbits -- I honestly could've gone with a dozen different quotes (Gina mentions Showgirls!) but Jennifer Tilly talking about her boobs in Bound is never not the right choice. Speaking of the photoshoot along with the article is amazing...

Reader, I died pic.twitter.com/xUirfydVpq

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) June 6, 2019

Coming Soon to a Tribeca Near You

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As mentioned in passing yesterday I have now delivered unto you a list of some just-announced movies playing at the Tribeca Film Festival 2019 that immediately caught my eye -- only thing is you have to click over to The Film Experience to read it. One click! It's easy! And yes one of the movies stars our favorite Dunkirk twink Fionn Whitehead -- I'm not just posting a picture of him because, you know, because. Not that "because" isn't enough! Anyway Tribeca has got some super stuff it looks like -- I barely made a dent in all I wanna see -- so click on over and check it out, yo.

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Great Gratuity of 2018 #6

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I loved Brian Crano's film Permission before they went and gave me my first critic's quote in their movie trailer -- I mean that's how I got the quote in the trailer in the first place, duh. I reviewed it at Tribeca two entire years back now, and now having watched it a couple more times since I maintain it's one of the best rom-coms to come out this decade. All of the six main actors -- Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens, Morgan Spector and David Joseph Craig, François Arnaud and especially Gina Gershon (who I just gave a spot in my Favorite Performances of 2018), are doing terrific, funny, and emotionally complicated work. The film itself just missed out on my Top 30, but as I said then 2018 was a helluva year. And to top it all off Crano's smart enough to know that if letting Rebecca Hall act in front of us is a gift, letting Rebecca Hall act in front of us while François Arnaud gets naked right behind her is like a really, really big gift. Hit the jump for a couple of them gif(t)s...

Pantys 2018 - Actor to Actor #2

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Among many things we're doing this week as part of our "Golden Trousers" awards we're taking a look at our 20 favorite performances of 2018 -- how we're doing this is we randomly selected ten pairs of names from our list and then we're imagining a moment between the two characters chosen. Ten times. You can see our previous ones here but for now here's our second random pairing from our 2018 faves...

Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) in You Were Never Really Here

meets Lydia (Gina Gershon) in Permission

Lydia: You seem tense.

Joe: I am tense.

Lydia: I have a guy for that.

Joe: A guy?

Lydia: Yeah a guy.

Joe: What kind of guy?

Lydia: Just a guy.

Joe: I'm a guy. 

Lydia: Huh. TBD, big boy.

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5 Off My Head: Rob Me Blind

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Steve McQueen's spectacular new movie Widows is out in theaters today -- read my review right here. As I get into a little in there Widows is totally a Heist Film while also undoing the usual ways of being a Heist Movie -- all the pieces are there but McQueen & Co put them together in unexpected ways. His focus on character and outward political resonances over the typical thriller beats takes the movie into emotionally strange places, I thought. Anyway that got me to thinking about other Heist Films which've used the template to undermine or twist it into weird new forms, and... well the list was long! Lots of filmmakers have done this before, sometimes by focusing on one aspect of the routine, by subverting the tone or by slicing the whole process to ribbons... there are lots of ways. So I made a little list of...

My Five Favorite Atypical Heist Movies

Jackie Brown (1997)

"My ass may be dumb, but I ain't no dumbass."

Drive (2011)

"There's no good sharks?"

Bound (1996)
"We make our own choices,
we pay our own prices."

Run Lola Run (1998)
"The ball is round, a game lasts 90 minutes,
everything else is pure theory. Off we go!"

Quick Change (1990)

"Honey, babe? You've got a gun. Shoot them."

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What are your favorite Heist Movies?

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I Now Give You Permission...

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Permission, a smart and atypical rom-com that played Tribeca last year and that I've been talking about ever since, is hitting about a dozen theaters scattered around the US tomorrow, and also dropping onto iTunes. Here's a list of where:

The movie stars Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens as high school sweethearts who decide to try strapping on some other people before they get married, just to make sure they're making the right decision. That sounds like a typical rom-com plot device but director and writer Brian Crano makes it more interesting than that, and he's helped out by a bevy of beautiful and talented actors at his command, including not just those two in the lead but also the dreamboats François Arnaud, Gena Gershon, and Morgan Spector.

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But then I have said all of this before! I reviewed the movie at Tribeca - read it here - and then we rehashed all of this in December when the trailer for the movie dropped and I got my pull-quote cherry popped. See that above! And then go see the movie this weekend if you're in any of those cities, or watch it on iTunes - it's really pretty perfect for Valentine's; not at all sappy, but honest and true about the difficulties of love stuffs.

But wait hey did I just mention François Arnaud, Dan Stevens, and Morgan Spector? It's been awhile since we've been handed a right and proper threesome like this, which has got us thinking it's time for some right and proper "Do Dump and Marry" fun...

See more Francois Arnaud right here!

See more Dan Stevens right here!

See more Morgan Spector right here!

And hit the comments and Do Dump or Marry them!

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Give Yourself Permission... To Love

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Oh god sorry for this post's title, I couldn't help myself. Anyway yesterday I told you guys about the brand new trailer for the movie called Permission, which stars Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens and Gina Gershon and Jason Sudekis and François Arnaud (and little François Arnaud) and David Joseph Craig and Raul Castillo and Bridget Everett and Morgan Spector - I didn't mention all of those names because there are a lot of good people in this movie, it takes awhile. Also I was too busy mentioning my own name since I got my very first critic blurb in the trailer (I reviewed the film at Tribeca this past spring) and I was kind of excited about that. Kind of. Anyway today they released the film's poster, which you see up top, and they put the trailer onto YouTube, so I can share it that way. Like, now:

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Permission is out on February 9th!
And if you guys see this trailer in the theater let me know!

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Hey Ma My Name In Lights

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It's a red letter day for your trusty movie blogger here, folks -- I just got my very first movie trailer blurb!  Over at The Film Experience I reviewed Brian Crano's fine romantic-drama Permission at the Tribeca Film Festival this past spring - it stars Dan Stevens & Rebecca Hall as a couple who've been together since they were little things who decide to open up their relationship before making things permanent - cue Gena Gershon & Francois Arnaud (swoon), who make that future very complicated. I thought the movie was surprisingly good; so good that in my review I actually called it...

Ahhhh! Official Blurb Whore in the house! The trailer just dropped on iTunes and you should've heard the yelp I made when my name popped up in the middle of it. This is kind of the movie-critic equivalent of those scenes in movies where a band hears their song on the radio for the first time, I guess?

The trailer's only on iTunes for the time being  so you have to click over there to watch it in full (once it's on YouTube I'll post the actual trailer here in this post). The movie is out February 9th so they're clearly gunning for the Valentine's dollars and as well they should. The movie has lots of sharp insight about relationships in it, and lord knows Rebecca Hall is literally always the best. And did I mention Francois Arnaud you guys...

For real. I hope they haven't cut anything out from the cut of this movie I saw. Ahem. Anyway can you imagine the sounds that will come out of me when/if I see this trailer inside an actual movie theater??? Happy day! ETA here it is via YouTube:
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François Arnaud Seven Times

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Three things that I learned about François Arnaud in this interview with François Arnaud in Interview Magazine. One, he loves the movie Frances Ha. (He's being interviewed by his friend and Frances Ha co-star Mickey Sumner, is how that came up.) Two, he has a tattoo of an Egon Schiele drawing on his back. (Egon Schiele, also known as my favorite artist.) 

And three, he worships the goddess Gina Gershon (who he'd just met before the interview, even though they both are in the movie Permission together.) (Sidenote: I reviewed Permission at Tribeca earlier this year - it is very good, and François is full-on naked in it. As is Morgan Spector. God I am so ready for that movie to properly come out already.) So there you basically have it. Me and François are married now. Bye, losers! Hit the jump for five more...