Pic of the Day

I'm completely forgotten that Michael Fassbender is starring in a Netflix miniseries about the Kennedy clan -- the old-timey pre-President one -- called simply Kennedy. But here's the first photo of him in character on the set as Joe Kennedy Sr. (via, thx Mac) -- this means very little to me since I have no idea what Joe Kennedy looked like nor do I particularly care; and while I'm at it I'll admit I know and care very little about the Kennedy family from then. (I can tell you right now they're never gonna be as fascinating as the Bouvier-Beales were, that's for damn sure.) Anyway I will watch the series and believe whatever it tells me since on top of Fassy it co-stars Wyatt Russell, Cole Doman, Nick Robinson, Imogen Poots, Denis O'Hare, Toby Huss and Eddie Marsan among others -- if you wanna know who they're all playing click that link up above. I imagine they're timing this photo drop to the finale of Love Story about JFK Jr and Carolyn Bessette, which dropped (like a pilot plane plummeting into the Atlantic) last night -- and before you tell me anything wait to do that until tomorrow, because I'm watching the finale tonight. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Pics of the Day

Much like his X-Men co-star Michael Fassbender, who also proved he could fill out a race-car-driver jumpsuit and then some on his spare time, Nicholas Hoult's decided to gift the world with images of him indulging in his sexy man pastime -- and he's done it while his hair's still dyed blond to boot. He is such a good boy. I think him and Fassy should tag-team. And.... I couldn't bring myself to write any more words in that sentence. That sentence had to end right there. 

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Macbeth (2015)

Macbeth: Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death.

Wanna know whose movies need to start getting 4K upgrades like yesterday? Justin fuckin' Kurzel's, that's who. This movie and True History of the Kelly Gang specifically. Both abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous movies that I need to see better dammit. Anyway Kurzel's glorious and deeply underrated version of Macbeth starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard was released ten years ago today, if you can believe that. Go re-watch it and gape in wonder at how beautiful a film it is. We need to appreciate pretty things!

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 2008

Now that the festival rush of Fall 2025 is behind me I've been feeling the nagging sensation to check back into our long long too-long running series of "Siri Says" posts -- the last one I did was back in January! These posts have gotten increasingly sporadic as the remaining years have dwindled -- when I checked what's left this morning I saw there were only five years out of one hundred left for us to do. Do what, you ask since it's been so long since I've done one? Well the idea is that I had my phone choose a random number between 1 and 100 and then I picked my five favorite movies from the year that corresponds. Once we got down to the teens the process changed a little because it took too long for Siri to get to a number I hadn't already done, so I wrote the remaining years on slips of paper and picked one with my eyes shut. And that's how we ended up with the year 2008 today.

It's the last year of the Aughts we had left to do -- another decade crossed off! And this is another year when I was actively blogging here at MNPP so there's documentation of my thoughts on 2008's movies already -- click here to see what my favorite movies were at that moment. My list now, seventeen years later, has changed a little! Not entirely, but some. So let's get to it. I give you...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 2008

Synecdoche, New York

(dir. Charlie Kaufman)

-- released on October 24th 2008 --

Let the Right One In 

(dir. Tomas Alfredson)

-- released on December 12th 2008 --

In Bruges

(dir. Martin McDonagh) 

-- released on February 29th 2008 --

The Fall 

(dir. Tarsem Singh) 

-- released on May 30th 2008

Lake Mungo 

(dir. Joel Anderson) 

-- released on June 18th 2008 --

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

Runners-up: Wall*E (dir. Andrew Snanton), The Wrestler (dir. Darren Aronofsky), Wendy & Lucy (dir. Kelly Reichardt), Mister Lonely (dir. Harmony Korine), Funny Games U.S. (dir. Michael Haneke), The Chaser (dir. Na Hong-jin), Timecrimes (dir. Nacho Vigalondo), Happy-Go-Lucky (dir. Mike Leigh), [REC] (dir. Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza)...

...  Teeth (dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein), Encounters at the End of the World (dir. Werner Herzog), The House Bunny (dir. Fred Wolf), The Ruins (dir. Carter Smith), Doomsday (dir. Neil Marshall), Cloverfield (dir. Matt Reeves), Hunger (dir. Steve McQueen), Reprise (dir. Joachim Trier)

What are your favorite movies of 2008?

Good Morning, World

A happy-ish birthday to Michael Fassbender on this the morning of him turning 48 -- oh I'm sure it's perfectly happy for him now that he's made a nice little comeback at last thanks to Steven Soderbergh's movie Black Bag totally rocking (here is my review and PS that movie hit VOD this week so go watch it if you missed it, it is super) and his series The Agency also doing well as far as I can tell. (I was a little bored by that one but he was good and more importantly looked great). I say "happy-ish" for my own reasons -- namely there are like ten workers in my office replacing and cleaning windows right this minute and alongside all of their hammering half the windows are open and it's in the 30s this morning so I am both cold and irritable. Good morning!

Paging Mister Page

This seems like the right and correct place to note that Regé-Jean Page has a shirtles sscene in Steven Soderbergh's ace spy thriller Black Bag that's in theaters today -- I didn't mention it in my review because I's respectable elsewhere, but here well here we let it all hang out. As you well know. Anyway it's a very brief moment and it's not particularly memorable as far as skin scenes go, but it is notable for being the only bit of skin we get in the movie and yet the movie manages to remain sexy as heckfire all the same! If you missed my review yesterday click over to Pajiba to read it -- I really kept it profoundly spoiler-free so no need to worry about that. I barely mention the plot at all, but then it's all Macguffins in service of hot talented actors being smooth and sexy and expensive looking. AKA Cinema! Point being y'all should go see it and let the studios know there is room for an adult entertainment like this in actual movie theaters. I promise you'll have a terrific time in exchange for your effort. Otherwise -- a very fine weekend to you all and goodbye!

Sexy Spy Time

Extremely happy to have loved Steven Soderbergh's new movie, the spy thriller Black Bag starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as a pair of married spies who find themselves doubting -- or do they? -- each other's motives when there turns out to be a mole among their agency. It's a smashing good time, sexy and stylish as hell -- head on over to Pajiba to read my thoughts. And here's a bonus photo of Fassy with his ridiculously handsome co-star Regé-Jean Page because duh:

Welcome to Michael Fassbender's Spy Era

I don't know what I was doing on Wednesday when this dropped that I didn't post about it -- that was even the day I shared with you Michael Fassbender in next to nothing on a spy show! But the first official image and the trailer for Black Bag -- Steven Soderbergh's spy thriller starring Fassy, Cate Blanchett, Naomie Harris (god I love Naomie Harris), Regé-Jean Page (hopefully he and Michael will make out), and oh right Mr. Bond, aka Pierce Brosnan himself -- all dropped that day so here is me catching up with that. Fassbender has done "spy thriller with Steven Soderbergh" before, having starred in the best scene in the director's 2011 actioner Haywire, but this looks like a very different beast (the "beast" being that asshole Gina Carano, natch -- good riddance to her). It's basically Mr. & Mrs. Smith just slightly more serious? I was going to say that it starred actors not movie stars but that shortchanges Fassbender & Blanchett on the movie star front as well as short changing Pitt & Jolie on the acting front so nevermind... but it's sort of that.

Anyway Black Bag is out on March 14th. 

Good Morning, World

Say good morning to the scooch heard round the world!!! When naked Michael Fassbender scooched up in bed on last week's episode of The Agency I dropped immediately dead -- it's been so long since I've beheld his world-class cum-gutters I burst into copious tears, I pulled my hair and tore my clothes, I threw open the windows and screamed obscenities into the night sky, I jumped into the Hudson River, swam to the bottom, and kissed the floor. All of those things can be true at once -- I know because I lived it. Ahem. In all seriousness -- how nice to have this back in our life! I might be slightly bored by The Agency -- I prefer my spy shows witty and diverting a la Black Doves these days to the deadly serious sort -- but I am happy it exists to bestow such gifts upon us. Hit the jump for a dozen more gif(t)s of our dearest Michael back in the skin game...

Good Morning, World

How good is it to see Michael Fassbender bare backside again? Granted it's no Shame but we'll take what we can get these days, given his years-long disappearing act. Let's be encouraging to our Fassy as he sneaks his way back out of his (Harry) Hole. These gifs are from his new Showtime series The Agency -- I shared the trailer for this series (which is a remake of a French show) with you back in October; it's got quite the cast! On top of Fassy! (I will just let you luxuriate in that sentiment for a moment. You good? I good.) Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner-Smith, Katherine Waterston, JOHN MAGARO, Richard f'ing Gere, HARRIET FUCKING SANSOM HARRIS. The first two episodes went up this past weekend and every time another amazing face showed up I retired to my fainting couch anew. (Which is actually just my couch and I was already there but you get my point. The show isn't anything we haven't seen before so far but I'll keep coming back for this group of people. And for promises of Fassy flesh. Speaking of, hit the jump...

Fassy's on the Hunt

I slid through my archives and came up empty-handed on The Agency -- I guess I forgot to post about it when it was announced? Anyway it's a new limited series for Paramount+ that stars our boy Michael Fassbender as a CIA agent and Richard Gere as his minder or whatever, along with Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner-Smith, Katherine Waterston (Alien Covenant reunion holla!), and as featured heavily in the just dropped trailer the queen the iucon the eternal legend Harriet Sansom Harris! Killer cast -- the show itself looks stylish but not like anything we haven't seen a thousand times before to be honest -- it's a remake of a French series, even -- but I'll still be there for this cast alone. And two episodes were directed by Joe Wright so that's something! Here's that trailer:

The Agency drops on November 29th.

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:

Soderbergh Steals All the Stars

A quick search through our archives shows a grand total of zilch posts on this forthcoming movie project, but that seems bonkers to me -- I feel as if anybody was gonna write a post about Steven Soderbergh making a movie starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett that somebody woulda been yours truly. And yet here we are and only with word that Bridgerton actor Regé-Jean Page has also joined the cast am I getting around to it. Huh. Aaaanyway the thing is called Black Bag and all we know plot-wise is that that it's a spy thriller based in London. The script was written by Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp which, well if I hadn't just been mildly disappointed by Soderbergh & Koepp's haunted house movie Presence (my review here) at Sundance last month that news would excite me more. But I can't not be excited about this. Soderbergh of course worked with Fassbender previously in Haywire, and with Blanchett in The Good German. And now one more picture of Regé-Jean looking gorgeous in a sweater for good measure:

Michael Fassbender Swings For George Clooney

I'm really annoyed by the lack of new photoshoots that accompanied the reemergence of Michael Fassbender last fall with David Fincher's The Killer and Taika Watita's Next Goal Wins -- I had to scrounge up an ancient picture to use here, and that's a crime against sexiness. Do some goddamned press, Michael! Anyway maybe next time around -- Variety is reporting he's in talks to lead George Clooney's new limited series called The Department, which is about spies and is a remake of a French series called The Bureau. (Anybody watched that?) 

Showtime gave the show an immediate greenlight, because they have apparently never watched anything George Clooney has directed before. He's famous though so he gets a greenlight, no matter how shitty he is at directing! That said the best thing he's done was his only other series, the 2019 series Catch-22, so maybe he should just direct TV. We'll see how this one goes before making a decision. And I can't possibly talk about George Clooney and Michael Fassbender without refering to that time he talked about Michael's dick on the Oscars, now can I?

Well let's hope George remembers, and puts it 

to good use on his little television series.

Three Thumbs Up: Ridley Scott

Well I haven't done one of these, my most backhanded of complimentary posts, in awhile! Indeed it's been so long that my old computer crashed and took with it the little thumb art that I made to go along with these posts but I think we can all agree that my rudimentary photoshoppery will not be missed. Anyway my "Three Thumbs Up" series is where I force myself to choose three things I like from an actor or a director or a whatever that I'm not especially a fan of. And today's lucky person is the fella I consider wildly overrated named Ridley Scott...

If only Ridley Scott’s movies were as good as his interviews

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 19, 2023

... who is turning 86 today and who has another messy slop-heap of a movie in theaters right now called Napoleon. Funny enough my last edition of this series was for Ben Affleck and one my choices was his role in Ridley's film The Last Duel -- a movie I genuinely loathe, except for Ben's performance. Funny -- right, Ridley? Hardy har. Anyway Ridley has some genuine masterpieces under his belt! I don't deny that! I just happen to think those happened many many decades ago and almost everything he's dropped since then has been stylish unfocused flim-flam. That said it's not like we're talking about someone deeply untalented. He remains an incredible crafter of images and atmosphere. I'm just of the mind that he's weirdly incapable of taking anything across the finish line anymore. His scripts are often to blame, but one gets the sense that he's chasing too many thoughts down too many tangents and (even worse) by the time the process is nearing completion he's just lost interest. (Fingers crossed he does right by Paul Mecsal in his Gladiator sequel.)

That said there are three movies he's made that I think

are genuine masterpieces. So let's focus on the good!

1. Alien

2. Blade Runner

3. Thelma and Louise

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

Runners-up: Legend has its moments (i.,e. Tim Curry), as does the homoerotica of White Squall, and I like Prometheus more than most people even while I need to specifiy that I dig it as fun trash, full stop. And I genuinely loved The Counselor, as I think it was a truly madly deeply psychotic story that benefitted from Ridley's kitchen-sink approach, but I haven't re-watched it since it came out. And I have heard that the longer cut is even better, but then that's become the drum-beat with Ridley -- "Watch the director's cut, it's better!" But that's certainly not true about Blade Runner, and I still find Kingdom of Heaven a big honking snooze however he cuts it. 

Let's hear your thoughts on Sir Ridley in the comments!

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. 

Michael Fassbender Ball Play

A brand new clip from Taika Waititi's long long long delayed soccer comedy Next Goal Wins has arrived today, because believe it or not this movie is actually really probably maybe coming out! They are saying November 17th. Here is the trailer for the movie, which we shared back in April -- if your memory has turned to dust in the time it's taken for this movie to get anywhere near release it stars Michael Fassbender in a feel-good true-story about a disgraced soccer coach who heads to American Samoa to teach a ragtag bunch of losers how to be, you guessed it, winners. I don't think I have ever seen a movie with this storyline before? So novel! Watch the clip:

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...