Black Hole Bounces Back

There has been talk for years and years and years and years that my favorite artist Charles Burns' masterpiece Black Hole (which began an eight issue run in 1995 and was then collected into a graphic novel in 2005) would be turned into a movie or something -- David Fincher was trying to do it for ages. It's been a long while since I've seen any news on it so I'd presumed it was dead, which honestly I was fine with -- I don't know that Burns' work is especially translatable to moving pictures. But today there's new news -- specifically that I Saw the T.V. Glow filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun is going to turn it into a series for Netflix. Which makes a world of sense, even though it hadn't occured to me when ISTTVG came out -- in retrospect that movie is totally giving major Burns vibes!

If you don't recall Black Hole tells the story of a sexually transmitted disease making its way through a high school, hideously deforming people as it goes -- honestly I haven't read Black Hole in a decade myself so I should give it another read in the wake oif this news. I am a real Burns obsessive though -- I think I own more of his work than I do any other artist. So clearly I'll be following this news closely. Even if I don't think Black Hole needs to be made into anything other than what it is right now I can see the possibilities in Schoenbrun's hands. We'll see! Netflix has already greenlit the thing straight-to-series so it's really happening happening. Prepare your body holes!

It's Another Red Rooms Post

I think I have posted about Red Rooms about three dozen times now but I don't care -- it's out on Shudder today and I feel proud of my itty bitty role in getting the word out on it! Especially once it started popping up in tons of "Best of 2024" lists. I was there when the Quebecois true-crime-obsession thriller had its North American premiere in Montreal at the Fantasia Film Festival in July of 2023, and I was immediately bowled over by it -- I wrote up my thoughts on it for Mashable right here, and yadda yadda eventually other people saw it come 2024 when it got released and they seem to've agreed with my assessment. My little quote that the movie "out-Finchers Fincher" made it into the trailer and onto the poster and onto the eventual blu-ray release, which turns out was a good move by the PR people -- amazing how a throwaway comment you're not thinking too hard about can be the one that captures people's imaginations and curiosity. Anyway I keep being tempted to post the two most memorable shots in the film (once you've seen it you'll know the ones of which I speak) but I wanna leave them for y'all to disocver if you haven't seen it yet. So go watch it. Or go watch it a second time. Talk about a movie that haunts you.  

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Fight Club (1999)

Tyler Durden: Warning -- If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think every thing you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned.

Happy 25 to another movie like American Psycho where all the wrong people that the movie is making fun of saw a movie that read to them the opposite of that. I don't think it's quite as clear in Fincher's hands as it was in Mary Harron's, but he's gone on with movies like The Killer last year to underline his points often enough about the show-offy fragility of masculinity that we know his heart's always been in the right place anyway. To be honest I haven't actually sat down and watched Fight Club start to finish in quite some time -- it'd be great if we got a 4K of this first but watching the way Fincher's been tinkering with the 4K release of Seven for a few years now, delaying its release over and over, I won't hold my breath. Dude is too tinkery! Stop tinkering and go make the next season of Mindhunter goddammit!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Killer (2023)

The Killer: Of those who like to put their faith 

in mankind's inherent goodness, I have to ask -- 

based on what, exactly?

Happy 62 to David Fincher today! Don't you feel as if this, his most recent film, remains tremendously underrated? (Here is my review of it.) A lot of people misjudged it as a simple exercise in style but I saw so much more rustling about in there and I hope it gets reappraised down the line. And when it does I will be standing there, a kind and generous smile on my face, saying, "I told you so." I really think it would be aided along if Netflix would let the movie get a physical media release though -- this movie is killing (hardy har see what I did there) to get a bells-and-whistles 4K release that would absolutely murder one's home theater system in the best of ways. Hopefully they'll let Criterion do it at some point. Anyway in summation here is a gif of Michael Fassbender taking his shirt off in the movie just because:

Kill Me Like One Of Your Fass Girls

We got a teaser trailer for David Fincher's The Killer back in August (see here) but today the movie is hitting some theaters -- not nearly enough if you ask me but Netflix certainly didn't -- and so they've dropped a full trailer on us, and I have dutifully posted it down below. I saw this and reviewed it during NYFF -- click here if you missed that. It is very good, I liked it quite a bit, and I think it's a much more complicated film than it first lets on. But then I get into all of that, rather exhaustingly, in my review. What you should mostly know is that it's very funny! In that very dark Fincher way, but I laughed my ass off. 

Anyway if you're not in a place where the movie is screening in a theater (and PS you can find out at this link) The Killer will land on Netflix on November 10th, where I plan on watching it ten more times. What a perfect holiday lark it will make! Something to fuck up the entire family!

Psych, Oh Killer

A happy last minute addition to the New York Film Festival line-up for 2023, David Fincher's The Killer starring Michael Fassbender can now be checked off my "seen" list. And it can also be checked off my "reviewed" list as my review went up today at Pajiba -- click here to read it. Spoiler alert: I already think it's one of Fincher's finest hours, and much much more than it lets on at first glance. It's going to get a lot of "style over substance" claims but I think Fincher's knowingly coils those words around his accuser's throats and twists, once you really start digging into it.

The Killer In Me

It's official! I have totally hit the wall. I have seen too many movies over the past three weeks and information is just sliding off my head now. So I am just going to give myself permission to be lazy for the rest of this afternoon and not sit here feeling bad that I'm not writing anything. There will be more NYFF and NewFest and Brooklyn Horror Fest coverage coming next week -- perhaps even something over the weekend, but that's happened about 1% of the times I've said it would so we all know better than believing me. That said even if I'm temporarily not writing I will still be seeing a pile more movies this weekend, up to and including the most exciting one of all -- I am seeing David Fincher's The Killer with Michael Fassbender's triumphant return tomorrow! It's my last NYFF screening and you will obviously -- obviously! -- be hearing my thoughts on that one. Until then, then! Have a good weekend, everybody. 

Back To Boyd

Lots of Boyd Holbrook popping up this week unexpectedly -- I re-watched both Gone Girl and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny over the past two nights (I'd totally forgotten he was in Gone Girl at all) -- and along with the fact that it's his birthday tomorrow, well why not let him have tops-of-the-blog honors before I head off for a long weekend? And somehow these two vintage photos of Boyd from his pre-acting modeling days didn't make it into the enormous gratuitous post I did of him back in 2015. (I go back to that post so often -- it soothes me.) Anyway yup, it's a four day weekend. I am off until Tuesday and there are zero movies out this weekend worth talking about so I got nothing to recommend. I'm going to spend it catching up on the quite terrifyingly large piles of blu-rays I have been buying, and going to see a couple of movies at the "Bigger & Louder" series at the Paris here in NYC, which just revamped their system. I am seeing Playtime in 70mm tomorrow, holy shit! Anyway this weekend is just the quiet before the storm of fall movie releases -- NYFF will be swallowing me up by the end of September -- so I'm going to enjoy this breath whilst I can take it. Y'all have a good one and see you in September! (And as always if you see something good, say something in the comments.)

Good Morning, Killer

As surmised when we got the poster yesterday, the trailer for David Fincher's The Killer arrived this morning -- and yes, that's a shot of Michael Fassbender from it above. As if I wasn't giffing that immediately. Although, knowing what we all know about Michael Fassbender, well... I just feel as if something has been stolen from us in that shot. Something appears to be missing! Anyway! Moving on. The trailer, unsurprisingly, kicks ass and makes me want to see this movie twice as fast as I wanted to see it before and that was already warp speed. So double warp speed please! Watch:

Quite honestly doesn't Michael Fassbender seem like the Perfect David Fincher Actor though? It didn't really occur to me until watching this -- he's handsome obviously, but in a sort of creepy, decrepit way. (This is not meant as an insult -- all of those words appeal to me.) The sinister is just baked right into him. And he seems like the kind of masochist who would welcome Fincher's infamous shoot-everything-five-thousand-times approach, too. A match made in cinema heaven, I think. The Killer is out in theaters on October 28th and then hits Netflix on November 10th so let's all assume the position...

The I in Mirder

I admittedly buy a lot of posters so I might not be the best judge of such a thing, but I want to buy this here first poster for David Fincher's The Killer immediately, do not stop go, just send me the link to buy it right this minute. LOVE IT. Does this mean we're getting a trailer soon? Oh I will die. Is that how Michael Fassbender's character kills people? He emails the trailer for his movie to them and they drop dead on the spot. It tracks! This is out in November.

Take Hope, Fassbender Lovers

While it feels as if Michael Fassbender's "comeback" is taking torturously long to arrive with David Fincher's The Killer not being released until November and Taika Waititi's soccer-comedy Next Goal Wins constantly getting kicked away from us (right now it's scheduled for September) at least there are several projects lined up, ones we'll presumably see at some point. A couple of years ago we didn't even have that. And today comes word of another, and it wasn't until I realized who the director was that I took note -- Deadline is reporting that South Korean director Na Hong-Jin will be following up his 2016 movie The Wailing with a movie called Hope and it will star both Fassy and his bride slash babymomma Alicia Vikander. I had some tonal issues with The Wailing but it's a really interesting movie and I can't believe that Hong-Jin hasn't made anything since then, so that in itself is something. They're also reporting this movie will be in South Korean mainly but that M&A's roles will be in English, so I have no idea what to expect. Here's how they describe the plot:

"The largely Korean-language film will follow the residents of Hopo Port, where a mysterious discovery is made on the outskirts of the remote harbor town. Before long, the residents find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against something they have never encountered before."

Getting Nailed By Michael Fassbender, Etc

Netflix dropped a trailer this morning teasing all of their 2023 slate and the only one we True Cineastes (TM) took notice of was David Fincher's The Killer starring Michael Fassbender -- even though we all just lived through Mank, even! (I kid, I kid, I thought Mank was fine.) But The Killer is more in tune with we tend to love about Fincher -- namely killin' and style and anti-hero shit. I was sold with the return of Michael Fassbender obviously, after an excruciatingly long absence off our screens, but the shot of him in the five seconds of Killer footage weilding a nail-gun in front of bookshelves seems as especially tailored to my interests as that worker's uniform is to Fassy's sleek form. 

Something something bookshelves something something getting nailed by Michael Fassbender #TheKiller pic.twitter.com/rfiRvlt21n

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 18, 2023

Anyway there are actually other projects of note that Netflix has coming this year -- I think The Pain Hustlers starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans and Catherine O'Hara looks good, and while the glimpses we get of A Family Affair in the trailer are really broad and wacky-seeming (that's the one starring Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron), the movie was directed by Richard LaGravenese, who blessed the world with Living Out Loud back in the day. So, you know, let's pay attention.

(See my previous post about this movie here.) Then there is Maestro, Bradley Cooper's biopic of Leonard Bernstein (see all of my previous posts on that one here), which I'm not sold on (given I fucking hated Cooper's Star is Born and all) but which will if nothing else involve Bradley and Matt Bomer kissing and possibly more. A bright side! And speaking of gay...

... there's also Rustin, the long awaited bio-pic of gay black civil rights hero Bayard Rustin starring Colman Domingo. A story extraordinarily overdue in the telling, starring one of our current best and overdue-for-his-moment actors (openly gay to boot) -- this one should be a big deal, hopefully. We love you, Colman! Bring this baby home! (In related news there's also Shirley, a bio-pic of Shirley Chisolm starring Regina King! Score! The final title from Netflix's press release (not glimsped in the trailer) that caught my eye -- "UNTITLED WES ANDERSON / ROALD DAHL FILM" with no date except 2023. Those things fall under my interests though. Anyway here's that trailer, tell me in the comments what you're looking forward to:

Fassy Full Speed

Normally when I post about Michael Fassbender's YouTube series on his racing side-career called  "Road to Le Mans" it's because he spent some of the latest episode stripping clothes off -- see here and here and here and here for fine examples of that! In the time Fassy has spent off the big screen this series has been a gift, for sure. But with the latest episode there's none of that, so why are we here? Because the episode spends some time on the set of his new movie with David Fincher, that's why! Called The Killer I wrote about the film previously of course, see that here. It's out in 2023 and this is our first look at what we can expect, visually anyway, and I am digging it all. Michael in jumpsuits -- yes please! Cannot wait for this flick. The Killer stuff begins around the two-minute mark or so; watch:

Three Thumbs Up: Ben Affleck

It's been ages since I've updated this somewhat mean-spirited series of mine! But when I saw that today is Ben Affleck's 50th birthday I knew the time had come -- you see, "Three Thumbs Up" is where I choose three good performances from an actor I generally can't stand. It's kind of mean! It's true! But in the parlance of reality-show contestants I'm not actually here to make friends, I'm here to be an honest critic, and that sometimes involves spouting off the opposite of niceties. My dislike of Ben Affleck comes and goes -- which is to say that I've never found him particularly good at his chosen profession but sometimes he can be hot, and sometimes hot is enough. He and I are really on the down-swing at the moment, though -- I try to ignore gossip and tabloid stuff but if I see one more person cheer on that tawdry spectacle of him and Jennifer Lopez's "great romance" I'll plummet off the Winter River Bridge, I will. Anyway all that said in the spirit of birthday generosity here are three roles that he's perfectly acceptable in.

1. Gone Girl (2014) -- It is the understatement of the millennium to say that David Fincher knew what he was doing with the casting of this film, which is brilliant and unexpected from top to bottom (hello Neil Patrick Harris), but this leans so perfectly into Affleck's well of douchebaggery that it achieves Douchebag Nirvana. (Indeed you'll see below that "Douchebag" is really as far as I'm concerned the only role that Ben is suited for, and the only place he succeeds.) As "Nick Dunne" the object of Rosamund Pike's psychotic derision, Fincher's entertainment knows what this film's forebear Fatal Attraction didn't, not entirely anyway -- we are here to watch these white straight sleaze-balls squirm and suffer. (Bonus points for the dong flash.)

2. Shakespeare in Love (1998) -- I haven't seen SIL in twenty years but I'm one of those people who's always been fine with it having beaten the Spielberg movie for Best Picture, and I remember Ben being very charming and funny in a caddish way in this. In my head it's a direct precursor to our final entry in this list...

3. The Last Duel (2021) -- I hated this movie a whole lot, but Affleck was by leaps and foppish little bounds the best thing about it, which... well when you're saying that about a movie you know that we're in trouble. Anyway this feels like the above two roles in this list smashed together -- he's a charming cad in a period film, only using that patented douchbaggery to poison the well. I wouldn't have nominated him for any awards as some people were clamoring for because I don't think anything about Scott's film was worth rewarding -- as there are every year there were lots of good movies worth giving awards to that year and we didn't have to go digging through dreck just because big names were attached! -- but Affleck did bring some humor to an otherwise slog.

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

What are your favorite Ben Affleck roles?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Zodiac (2007)

Robert Graysmith: Just because you can't 

prove it doesn't mean it isn't true. 

Dave Toschi: Easy, Dirty Harry.

David Fincher's Zodiac was released in U.S. theaters 15 years ago today. I have really been feeling the bug to re-watch this lately, it's been several years. Besides this here anniversary I wouldn't be surprised if lots of people are thinking of this movie generally after everybody sees The Batman, since director Matt Reeves spends so much times aping Fincher in it -- I mentioned Seven in my review but Zodiac's ripped off big-time as well. Oh excuse me, homaged. Whatever. How do we feel about Zodiac here fifteen years on? I was an immediate obsessive but then it was a Jake Gyllenhaal movie in 2007, so of course I was.

I'm on a Swinton Bender

Did you hear that crazy amazing news that Michael Fassbender's co-star in the David Fincher movie he's making -- it's called The Killer and I told you about it way way back in February -- is going to be no less than Tilda goddamned Swinton? This is news that, predictably, excites me. Normally it would excite me, but after just having hung out in the vicinity of Tilda a couple of times this week thanks to NYFF, while watching her give one of her finest freshest performances in Memoria at said same fest, well it's doubly moreso. On the Memoria tip I will have a review of that movie up in the next couple of days, but my brain officially told me to fuck off today -- I am entirely burned out now. You're not getting anything else from me today. I am done. Dunzo! Done squared zoh, even. You see what I'm working with? Nobody wants more of this anyway. Bye.

My brain to me today pic.twitter.com/KAo7lwfk8O

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 8, 2021

Murder Me, Fassy

I can't believe none of you who've already seen this news today have called to check on me -- now I know who my real friends are! And they're nobody! Cuz nobody and no one called to tell me tell me to breathe upon reading the news that David Fincher's next movie is another serial killer movie and it will star no less than Michael Fassbender, king among men. "Serial Killer" might be pushing it, it's called The Killer and it's about an assassin. Motive is everything -- I learned that from David Fincher's TV program with Jon Groff! 

Anyway The Killer is based on a French graphic novel (anybody read it?) and the screenplay was written by his Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker -- Fincher's been trying to get this made for something like a decade; at one point Brad Pitt was attached. But no longer! Now it'll be our Fassy boy playing the assassin who "begins to psychologically crack as he develops a conscience, even as his clients continue to demand his skills." I mean can you blame them? You have the money to hire Michael Fassbender, you're gonna wanna keep paying, conscience be damned.

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1999

Well the day has finally arrived! The day I have dreaded among all my "Siri Says" series days! Today when I asked my telephone to give me a number between 1 and 100 she responded with the number "99" meaning I've finally got to dive face-first into my favorites from The Movies of 1999, aka the greatest year of filmmaking probably any of us will see in our lifetimes. (Also can I just say that it's super weird to me to think this was 22 years ago now and there are people on this here internet who weren't actually even alive to see it? WTF)

Anyway we knew pretty fast that 1999 was an insane year, quality-wise -- the first big series I did here on MNPP was about how incredible 1999 was, in 2006. Or anyway I knew. I gots my finger on the pulse, yo! Ahem. Anyway 1999 has been talked to death by this point, I don't have a lot to say about it besides, "Wowza!" But before I get to my immense list -- I am naming my 20 favorites because the year demands it -- there's one other piece of business (because this post wasn't already enough work). Whenever I finish an entire decade for our Siri Series I link to all ten years therein. (See also the 1970s, aka the only other decade I have finished.) Well with today's post I've just finished the 1990s! Here's links:

Here are my favorite movies of 1990

Here are my favorite movies of 1991

Here are my favorite movies of 1992

Here are my favorite movies of 1993

Here are my favorite movies of 1994

Here are my favorite movies of 1995

Here are my favorite movies of 1996

Here are my favorite movies of 1997

Here are my favorite movies of 1998

And now without further blathering I give you...

My Favorite Movies of 1999

Go

(dir. Doug Liman)

-- released on April 9th 1999 -- 

Being John Malkovich

(dir. Spike Jonze)

-- released on December 3rd 1999 -- 

The Blair Witch Project

(dir. Myrick & Sánchez)

-- released on July 30th 1999 -- 

The Talented Mr. Ripley

(dir. Anthony Minghella)

-- released on December 25th 1999 -- 

Magnolia

(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

-- released on December 17th 1999 -- 

Fight Club

(dir. David Fincher)

-- released on October 15th 1999 -- 

Election

(dir. Alexander Payne)

-- released on May 7th 1999 -- 

Run Lola Run

(dir. Tom Tykwer)

-- released on June 18th 1999 -- 

Galaxy Quest

(dir. Dean Parisot)

-- released on December 25th 1999 -- 

The Matrix

(dir. The Wachowskis)

-- released on March 31st 1999 -- 

The Virgin Suicides

(dir. Sofia Coppola)

-- released on May 19th 1999 -- 

Ravenous

(dir. Antonia Bird)

-- released on March 19th 1999 -- 

All About My Mother

(dir. Pedro Almodovar)

-- released on November 24th 1999 -- 

eXistenZ

(dir. David Cronenberg)

-- released on April 23rd 1999 -- 

Eyes Wide Shut

(dir. Stanley Kubrick)

-- released on July 16th 1999 -- 

Dick

(dir. Andrew Fleming)

-- released on August 4th 1999 -- 

The Straight Story

(dir. David Lynch)

-- released on October 15th 1999 -- 

The Limey

(dir. Steven Soderbergh)

-- released on October 8th 1999 -- 

Sleepy Hollow

(dir. Tim Burton)

-- released on November 19th 1999 -- 

Audition

(dir. Takashi Miike)

-- released on  October 2nd 1999 -- 

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

Runners-up: The Sixth Sense (dir. M. Night Shyamalan), Toy Story 2 (dir. John Lasseter), Three Kings (dir. David O. Russell), October Sky (dir.), South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut (dir. Trey Parker), Girl Interrupted (dir. James Mangold), The End of the Affair (dir. Neil Jordan), In Dreams (dir.Neil Jordan), Splendor (dir. Gregg Araki), Cruel Intentions (dir. Roger Kumble)...

... Jawbreaker (dir. Darren Stein), Office Space (dir. Mike Judge), A Walk on the Moon (dir. Tony Goldwyn), Notting Hill (dir. Mike Newell), Summer of Sam (dir. Spike Lee), Lake Placid (dir. Steve Miner), Drop Dead Gorgeous (dir. Michael Patrick Jann), Trick (dir. Jim Fall), Deep Blue Sea (dir. Renny Harlin)...

... The Iron Giant (dir. Brad Bird), Stir of Echoes (dir. David Koepp), House on Haunted Hill (dir. William Malone), Topsy Turvy (dir. Mike Leigh), Ride With the Devil (dir. Ang Lee), Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (dir. Shusuke Kaneko), The Mummy (dir. Stephen Sommers), But I'm a Cheerleader (dir. Jamie Babbit)

Never Seen: Mansfield Park (dir. Patricia Rozema), For the Love of the Game (dir. Sam Raimi), Man on the Moon (dir. Milos Forman), She's All That (dir. Robert iscove), 10 Things I Hate About You (dir. Gil Junger), Tarzan (dir. Chris Buck), Tumbleweeds (dir. Gavin O'Connor), The Insider (dir. Michael Mann), Never Been Kissed (dir. Raja Gosnell), An Ideal Husband (dir. Oliver Parker)...

... Buena Vista Social Club (dir. Wim Wenders), Music of the Heart (dir. Wes Craven), Bowfinger (dir. Frank Oz), Flawless (dir. Joel Schumacher), Titus (dir. Julie Taymor), Jesus' Son (dir. Alison Maclean), Ratcatcher (dir. Lynne Ramsey), Analyze This (dir. Harold Ramis), Payback (dir. Brian Helgeland), American Movie (dir. Chris Smith)

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

What are your favorite movies of 1999?