Mike Mills Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Earlier today what I am still calling a "rumor" broke that Criterion will be releasing Alexander Payne's first and still best movie the 1996 abortion satire Citizen Ruth on 4K soon -- I thought that might come officially with their announcement for July's releases, which I knew would be landing today since it's the 15th of the month... but no. It did not. Maybe next month. We do have the slate of their July releases though and there's no reason to be disappointed -- this is a slam dunk of a month! Starting with a box-set that I literally squealed at the sight of -- on July 28th they're dropping "I'll Remind You of Everything: The Films of Mike Mills", a three-film 4K set that includes Beginners, 20th Century Women, and C'mon C'mon, which are as far as I'm concerned every single one masterpieces. (Here is my review of the latter.) None more than 20th Century Women, which is truly one of the greatest films of... well it feels like the millennium is the marker we're measuring things by now and it's that, but as far as I'm concerned it's one of the greatest films of all time, period. When I think about how Annette Bening wasn't even nominated for Best Actress, much less didn't deservedly win for the greatest performance of her career, I get hives. So let's move on...

... which is easy enough given this slate! How about a double-feature of Martin Scorsese's 1974 masterpiece Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore starring Ellen Burstyn (aka the finest tipped spear through the argument that Marty doesn't know what to do with women characters) alongside Paul Newman's greatest performance in 1963's Hud from director Martin Ritt? I somehow only saw Hud for the first time in the past decade and it's a stunner of a film. Stunning to look at -- and I don't just mean Paul Newman in those jeans...

... although I don't not mean that either -- and stunning emotionally. Newman and Patricia Neal are just absolute fire in this. And of course both of these will be the first time these classics will be on 4K -- if I stopped there July would already be a month for the record books from Criterion. But I ain't! I ain't stopping there. They've also got Neil Jordan's The Crying Game hitting 4K for the first time on July 14th! This movie really got done dirty by the press and comedians at the time, with its focus on  Jaye Davidson's genitals -- this movie is so much richer than the way its title has become synonymous with unexpected trans revelations. It's truly a great film. 

Now we come to the one film of their July's releases that I haven't seen -- Nagisa Oshima's Cruel Story of Youth from 1960, which stars Miyuki Kuwano & Yusuke Kawazu as a pair of sexy teenage criminals on the run... and yes it sounds very Bonnie & Clyde slash Badlands coded, although it came out first, one should note. Criterion's description of it as a film "bursting with vivid color, this visually scintillating, furiously nihilistic film howls with rage" sold me. 1960s era Japanese films that are described as colorful always end up being my bag -- the pop look of these films is very much my wavelength. Anybody seen this one? Moving along to the last two titles -- Hlynur Pálmason's 2025 feature The Love That Remains is getting its disc debut (I saw it last year and it is very good!) while David Lynch's masterpiece (how many times have I used that word in this post??) The Elephant Man, the blu-ray of which has been out of print for awhile now and going for enormous prices, is getting the 4K upgrade treatment on July 7th. Much needed! WHAT A MONTH!

Bring Me the Rakes

Contunuing the sometimes-successful trend of late of movies made from books getting now stretched out to multi-episode prestige miniseries' length -- think Dead Ringers, Presumed Innocent, Ripley et cetera -- we now have a third filmed version of John D. MacDonald's 1957 novel The Executioners coming our way... which we all know better by its adapted title of Cape Fear. Previously there's been the 1962 movie with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, and then of course there is Martin Scorsese's 1992 remake with Nick Nolte and Robert De Niro -- and now, landing on June 5th, we have Patrick Wilson and Javier Bardem tackling the roles of the good family man lawyer and the evil criminal who comes back to torment him. Plot twist, though -- in 2026 it's not just one but two prosecutors in the family, and so the wife character (previously played by Polly Bergen and Jessica Lange) is now co-responsible for the bad dude's imprisonment. All the better to give Amy Adams something to do in the role. Here, just watch the trailer:

The excellent news about this series is it's coming to us -- well yes it was executive produced by both Scorsese and one Steven Spielberg. That's sort of a big deal. But the actual person running this show is Nick Antosca, and we LOVE Nick Antosca thanks to a couple of series he ran several years back -- specifically the horror anthology Channel Zero as well as the too-too-short-lived series Brand New Cherry Flavor on Netflix. Channel Zero in particular is my beloved, and cemented Antosca as a person I will follow forever. That said -- hypocrisy alert -- I still haven't gotten around to watching his last project A Friend of the Family starring Jake Lacy. I kept forgetting it existed -- repeat with me my favorite refrain, "There are too many damn shows." 

Anyway. I'm a really over-the-top fan of Scorsese's film Cape Fear -- it's for real a Top 5 Scorsese movie for me, even while he himself isn't really a fan of it. It barely figured into his recent career-retrospective documentary, which irritated me. I adore how operatic and purple it goes -- I find it riveting, with Lange fluttering her hands in every direction madly and De Niro literally chomping chunks out of the scenery. This 2026 version seems to be aping a lot of that film visually -- there are shots taken straight from it in this trailer. I guess we'll see. I know I'll be watching. And I have to say I wouldn't be angry if Bardem's terrifying flirtations landed on Patrick Wilson this time. Just a thought!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

New York, New York (1977)

Francine: What's the Theory of Relativity,

that light is curved?

Jimmy: I don't know.

Francine: They say that only five people in the 

whole world, you know, know really what it's about.

Even though she's decidedly not My Thing (save brilliant Cabaret of course) I won't be Bad Gay enough to not wish Liza Minnelli a happy 80th birthday today. I've only seen New York New York one time and save Robert De Niro being hot as hell in it the movie didn't make much of an impression on me -- that said I'll probably watch it again some time since Scorsese is Scorsese. If y'all had to recommend one of her movies that wasn't the two I just mentioned which would you? I don't think I've ever even seen Arthur; if I did I was just a kid and far too young for it. Anyway -- any of you reading Liza's just-released memoir? Any good gossip?

Criterions of the Flower Moon

How is it after all these many years (cue that old Titanic lady meme) I can still be surprised when the 15th rolls around and it's suddenly New Criterion Announcement Day? And yet here we are and I'm wholly unprepared for it. For real though -- I've got a screening in an hour that I'm cutting out early for so let's see if I can pound this sucker out and still say something worthwhile about them (as if that's stopped me before). The "them" being Criterion's releases for March of next year -- these things always being three mon ths ahead of time always give me this weird tunnel telescoped idea of time; like oh okay we're already living in the spring of 2026! (Is he dead yet? Fingers and toes crossed.) Which brings us to the biggun outta this batch -- Martin Scorsese's 2023 masterpiece Killers of the Flower Moon. Yes I was very much Team This Movie, as my review at the time let on -- I know some people have other opinions but I don't care for those in general. This is a great movie and man oh man is Lily Gladstone incredible in it. 

Next up two I have never seen -- Claude Sautet's 1960 crime thriller Classe tous risques, which stars a post-Breathless Jean-Paul Belmondo as the sidekick to a fugitive slicing n' dicing his way through Paris' criminal underworld -- anybody seen it? Seeing as how Belmondo was at Peak Hotness right here you'd best believe it's just been added to my To Watch list. Then there's the 1995 Hong Kong actioner The Blade from director Tsui Hark about a one-armed sword-maker hellbent on revenge -- I guess this was a flop when it came out but is now considered an expressionist action masterpiece? Now see, when people praise action movies for being "expressionist" I get worried it's some Michael Bay butchered nonsense -- deranged people have used that term for his cinema-barf and poisoned it for me. But we'll see. I'll give it a chance. 

Next up two more 1960s classics with Claude Lelouche's 1966 romance A Man and a Woman starring Jea-Louis Trintignant and Anouk Aimée as widowed single parents falling for one another along the gorgeous Normandy coast, and Luis Buñuel’s deliciously blasphemous 1961 masterpiece Viridinia with Silvia Pinal. I only saw Viridinia a few years ago for the first time and man oh man does it live up to its reputation as So Fucking Good. Wanna know why? Becaue it is So Fucking Good! That Buñuel. Whatta guy. And then, finally, we have the sixth title for the month, another one I have never seen but which sounds incredible and I can't believe I haven't seen this -- Lynne Littman's 1983 film Testament, which stars Jane Alexander as a small-town mother of three surviving the day after a nuclear explosion. I guess Alexander was nominated for an Oscar for this? Any fans? Sounds very intriguing to me!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Pontius Pilate: It's one thing to want to change 

the way people live; but you want to change 

how they think, how they feel.

Jesus: All I'm saying is that change will happen 

with love, not with killing.

Pontius Pilate: Either way, it's dangerous. It's against Rome. 

It's against the way the world is. And killing or loving, 

it's all the same. It simply doesn't matter how you want 

to change things. We don't want them changed.

A happy 83rd birthday to the living legend Martin Scorsese! Who's watched the doc Mr. Scorsese that landed on Apple last month? I plowed through it pretty quickly once I emerged out from under all my film festival duties and I came away with two main thoughts - one, it totally could've been a couple of episodes longer. Starting with Cape Fear (which he casually dismissed, much to my Cape Fear loving chagrin) the momentum got moving too fast -- they didn't even mention Hugo! And Hugo is great! That's only a complaint insofar as wanting more of a thing can be a complaint -- otherwise it was great. 

My second main thought though -- well now I have to re-watch every Scorsese movie. I re-watch my faves like The Age of Innocence, After Hours, Taxi Driver, probably once a year. (I made a Top 5 list for Marty's birthday three years ago that hasn't changed.) But there are several that I haven't seen in a very long time, including the film quoted up top (it's been decades) and Raging Bull. So I think over the holidays I'm going to be making a project of re-watching several Scorsese movies. I actually don't think I've seen The Departed since it came out!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

Alice: I saw the "Waitress Wanted" sign. 

I said, "Why not?" So I took this job.

Flo: Well let me give you a hint.
Honey, unbutton that top button.

Alice: Really?

Flo: Yeah. If you bend over you get
more tips when you're working.

Alice: You're kidding me.

Flo: I'm not kidding. I got $50 last week.

Alice: Really?

Flo: Yeah.

Alice: Like that?

Flo: Yeah. Honey, forget what I said. 

You do that and I'm never going to get a tip again.

Terrible awful news to hear that Diane Ladd passed away today -- her daughter Laura Dern (maybe you've heard of her) released a statement saying "My amazing hero and my profound gift of a mother passed with me beside her this morning at her home in Ojai, California. She was the greatest daughter, mother, grandmother, actress, artist and empathetic spirit that only dreams could have seemingly created. We were blessed to have her. She is flying with her angels now.” I'm just going to assume that last line is a reference to Ladd's iconic role as Marietta in Wild At Heart where she recreates the Wicked Witch's broomstick flight:

I actually almost quoted that role for this post, but then I decided quoting her role as Dern's mother Helen on Mike's White's series Enlightened would be even better but I couldn't find a transcript of the script for that show's legendary episode all about Helen -- one of the great episodes of T.V. period, the end. She was so good on that show. Goddamn Enlightened was a masterpiece ahead of its time. 

Anyway from there that brought me to her lovely and hysterically funny performance in Martin Scorsese's great Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. I grew up watching the spin-off T.V. series Alice, my mom loved it, so I never saw Scorsese's film until I was an adult -- seeing Ladd's take on the grits-kissing role that Polly Holliday (who passed away earlier this year, marking a real bad year for Flos) had burned into my little brain was a surprise and a joy. She's wonderful in it. Anyway I kind of can't believe she passed away before Bruce Dern did (not to jinx anything -- sorry, Laura!) since Bruce has seemed so frail for so long, and so this came as a real surprise to me today. Rest in peace, icon.

 

Criterion Gives Birth This January

Put another checkmark in the "Fucking finally!" column because one of the great movies that hasn't gotten a proper release since the days of DVD is getting an upgrade on January 27th, 2026 -- yes obviously I speak of Jonathan Glazer's 2004 masterpiece Birth, as that enormous visage of Nicole Kidman's face with the word "Birth" scrawled across it probably let on already. (Sidenote: Birth is coming out on my mother's birthday? How fortuitous.) I'd have a hard nigh impossible time ranking Glazer's films because he's made nothing but masterpieces in his directing career -- one wants to call his a "brief" career since he's only directed four features, but those four features are spread across 25 years (beginning with Sexy Beast in 2000) and that's the opposite of brief. But depending on the day Birth might be my favorite of his. The next day it'll be Under the Skin and the day after that's it's The Zone of Interest, and so it goes. But this is triuphant news nonetheless -- a 4K disc, including a new doc on the movie's making -- now can we get Alexandre Desplat's now-legendary score released on vinyl please??? No, it's never enough. You get one thing, you need another, and then you die. And are reborn in a little boy to go stalk Nicole Kidman!

And as if Birth wasn't chilly enough -- Criterion is definitely leaning into the January-ness of January -- we'll also be getting Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man and John Huston's The Dead hitting 4k that month. I don't think I've seen either of these before? I may've seen the Huston ages and ages ago but I was certainly too young to get it and should revisit. As for Dead Man I'm hit-or-miss when it comes to Jarmusch and I'm not exactly crawling over broken glass to watch Johnny Depp movies these days, but I did really love Jarmusch's latest at NYFF so I can probably be convinced. Opinions on either?

Next up there's Jia Zhangke's tremendous latest Caught By the Tides, which I haven't seen since NYFF 2024 so it's been awhile, but it's a film that flits across my consciousness often -- Zhangke shot the film over 23 years (!!!) with actors Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin and watching them age in real time, watching China change around them -- it's an incredible experience. I suppose it must've been annoying for him when Richard Linklater beat him to the gimmick with Boyhood but I'm very much Team Zhangke on this one. It's an incredible accomplishment. And then there's the latest entry in Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project series, which honestly has long intimidated the hell out of me. I'll dive into them one day! 

And so we come to the months'f inal three releases (big batch!) -- the second more vital drop this month to my eye is their re-release of Edward Yang's Yi Yi in 4K, which I've talked about a few times since seeing it for the first time just a few months ago; an astonishing film, one of the greats. Then there's the 1985 film of Kiss of the Spider-Woman starring Raul Julia and an Oscar-winning turn from William Hurt. I should probably give this one another chance -- I remember not being nuts about it when I saw it in my 20s. And then to bring us home there's Errol Flynn's best movie says me, the enormously entertaining 1935 swashbuckler Captain Blood. Love this movie; Errol is Peak Errol here.The big sword fight on the rocks is unmissable classic cinema. 

A Pillion in New York

I always illustrate my Pillion posts with a picture of Alexander Skarsgård so let's shake it up and go with his co-star and leading man Harry Melling today, because we've come to be enormous fans of his over the past few years. Not just the biggun, our beloved Please Baby Please (which is the obvious forerunner to Pillion given that they're both about mousy dudes finding love and lust through leather daddies), but also an extremely underrated turn in The Devil All the Time -- not a perfect movie but he was amazing in it. Really any time Harry shows up we're enthused to watch his riveting face and so Pillion's been on our GIMME THAT FUCKING THING NOW list since it premiered at Cannes -- okay technically well before Cannes because I am On This Sorta Shit and posted about this movie getting made a full year before it premiered at Cannes. Anyway my great wish for NYFF came true -- today they announced that Pillion is indeed in the line-up for next month's fest, huzzah! It's part of their Spotlight Section which also includes the Springsteen biopic with Jeremy Allen White that I mentioned yesterday, along with fresh reveals -- two movies from Richard Linklater, a five-part docuseries about Martin Scorsese, the new one from Paolo Sorrentino and Daniel Day-Lewis' triumphant (one assumes) return to acting in his son's first film. Check the whole list at FLC's site. Let the countdown until Pillion commence!

Come Out Come Out Where Ever You Are

I am one of those weirdos who think that Martin Scorsese's 1991 Cape Fear remake is one of his best movies -- it's so purple and overheated and operatic and Jessica Lange is fluttering her hands all around and Juliette Lewis is biting her braces and I love it, I love it, I just love it. Nevertheless I am excited about today's news that Javier Bardem is going to star in a 10-episode series remake that has been greenlit of the property -- it doesn't hurt that Scorsese himself (with a little nobody named Steven Spielberg) are the producers behind it. But Bardem is a great choice -- assuming he's playing the maniac Max Cady character. I think he'd be wasted as the Nick Nolte in this situation. Not that they shouldn't make that character interesting too. It's just we haven't gotten Javier playing a big villain in awhile, I feel like, at least not that I've seen, and he's so very good at it. No other casting has been announced but the actual show-runner has been and it's also terrific news -- Nick Antosca, the pervert behind the Channel Zero horror anthology series (as well as Brand New Cherry Flavor, also good), will be doing the actual work. I am a huge Channel Zero head. Pretzel Jack! Ahhh just saying his name makes me shudder. One of the great under-sung horror villains of our times. If Antosca can tap into some of this chaotic energy...

Mark Ruffalo Eight Times

I mentioned this new photoshoot of Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo for GQ yesterday when I was "complaining" (not really) about there being more new photoshoots than I could handle in one day -- well I was able to rifle up a scrim's thickness worth of patience and save this one for today. Go me! If Mark wins the Oscar I'm sure he'll dedicate it to me after this feat. That said I'd love for Mark (or DeNiro, who gave my favorite performance of the nominees) to win since I think Robert Downey Jr. is the weakest part of Oppenheimer but that statue's pretty much sewn up right? A shame. Mark is so funny (and sexy) in Poor Things! Reinvigorated my crush, it did. Hit the jump for the whole shoot...

Anatomy of a Peeping Tom

Michael Powell's controversial 1960 masterpiece Peeping Tom is hitting the Criterion collection on May 14th of 2024  -- and in 4K no less! Of course I'd already snatched up a copy of Studio Canal's UK edition that came out a few weeks ago, but it's not like this isn't a movie I won't triple or quadruple dip on. It's one of the greatest movies ever made! And Criterion is bringing their own round of special features  for their disc, including (no surprise here) an intro by Martin Scorsese and an interview with Powell's wife slash Marty's editor Thelma Schoonmaker. This movie was too hard to see properly for far far far too long -- this is only right. Slide this sucker into the tippy top of the canon already!

Anyway yes indeed it's that time again -- our monthly Criterion Announcement Day! Today's news is for May and they're dropping an absolute banger of a global line-up, including two mini-sets from two  international masters: the two Floating Weeds films from Yasujiro Ozu (made two decades apart cuz that's how Ozu rolled) and a trilogy of movies from Senegalese auteur Ousmane Sembène; specifcally the movies Emitaï, Xala, and Ceddo, which were all made across the 1970s. 

But wait that's not it! We're also getting the great Karyn Kusama's 2000 lady-boxer masterpiece Girlfight on May 28th (which introduced the world to the stylings of Michi Rodriguez), as well as this year's big Oscar whodunit Anatomy of a Fall starring our queen Sandra Hüller as a bisexual writer whose husband ends up on the wrong side of a balcony. I admit I'm a little annoyed Anatomy isn't being released in 4K right off the bat -- I wanna see all of that beautiful Swiss mountain scenery looking its best! Not to mention that lawyer's beautiful hair!

MNPP's 20 Favorite Films of 2023

Since I leave for Sundance in a couple of days -- have I mentioned that I'm going to Sundance enough yet? I'm going to Sundance! -- I have decided that it'll be the best for us all if I just go ahead and drop my favorite movies of 2023 list right now without a lot (or more, anyway) hemming and hawing on it. Lord knows I could put this off for a few more weeks as I try to get around to some outstanding movies, and rearrange this list every single day as my erratic mood shifts like the breeze, but I think I'll prefer to just not have this hanging over my head as I start reviewing 2024 films. 

Anyway as I've stated already I think last year was a marvel of a year for movies -- excellence abounded. And while I'm cool on several of the ones that seem to racking up a lot of the established awards out there (Barbie is fine and The Holdovers is mediocre at best) there's a lot to love even on the mainstream stages, and several movies in my Top 20 will probably have Oscar nominations come Oscar nomination time. Hell I even like the Nolan movie -- it's only a runner-up on my list and my least favorite thing about it (Robert Downey Jr.'s performance) seems to be the thing marching straight to Oscar gold, but since we're talking one of my least favorite, most overrated filmmakers, this is something!

Yadda yadda I've put off the list as long as I can with my rambling

so let's just do it. Here are my 20 favorite movies of 2023!

20. De Humani Corporis Fabrica

(dir. Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel) -- my review

19. La Chimera (dir. Alice Rohrwacher) -- my review

18. Showing Up (dir. Kelly Reichardt) -- my review

17. El Conde (dir. Pablo Larraín) -- my review

16. Passages (dir. Ira Sachs) -- my review

15. Godland (dir. Hlynur Pálmason)

14. Past Lives (dir. Celine Song) 

13. Rotting in the Sun (dir. Sebastián Silva) -- my review

12. Beau is Afraid (dir. Ari Aster) -- my review

11. Godzilla Minus One (dir. Takashi Yamazaki) -- my review

10. Killers of the Flower Moon (dir. Martin Scorsese) -- my review 

9. Asteroid City (dir. Wes Anderson) -- my review

8. May December (dir. Todd Haynes) -- my review

7. Poor Things (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) -- my review

6. Saltburn (dir. Emerald Fennell) -- my review

5. Skinamarink (dir. Kyle Edward Ball) -- my review

4. Afire (dir. Christian Petzold) -- my review

3. The Eight Mountains

(dir. Felix van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch) -- my review

2. The Zone of Interest (dir. Jonathan Glazer) -- my review

1. All Of Us Strangers (dir. Andrew Haigh) - my review

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

Runners-up: The Killer, Anatomy of a Fall, Oppenheimer, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Eileen, A Thousand and One, Infinity Pool, You Hurt My Feelings, Silver Dollar Road, Will-o'-the-Wisp, Fallen Leaves, Full Time, Bottoms, Priscilla, Return To Seoul, Robot Dreams