Pic of the Day

While I run off to a screening here is a photo of Meryl Streep and Jason Momoa cutting a rug at SNL's 50th soiree this past weekend that needs to be immediately iconic. May we all try to find and hold onto just a fraction of this joy in these dark times!

Buy! Buy! Buy!

And now, for something totally different, let's talk about me (ha) -- I did another round of culling my physical media archives this past weekend and I have listed a great big heaping helping of awesomeness onto eBay for sale, so if you'd like to own a piece of me memorabilia (one way to look at it) or just, you know, some truly incredible movies, then click on over and buy some! Or make a reasonable bid, I tend to accept them (if you're not low-balling me that is). But in all seriousness most of this stuff is stuff I am getitng rid of because I've upgraded it to 4K, not because it's not good, so if you're fine with blu-ray or DVD then there is a wealth of incredibleness on sale over there right now. (And PS I'm going to do a second round of this over Labor Day too.) Including yes my like six month old blu-ray of The Doom Generation, which I'm ditching in anticipation of Criterion releasing their Araki box-set next month. 

And all of my Peter Strickland movies because I have that Curzon box-set of his movies now. It's some really excellent stuff at excellent prices and lord knows I could use the money -- this way instead of me begging for donations (although feel free!) you get something in return. Win win. I've also got tons of art books, movie posters, and vinyl soundtracks for sale too. And with that thus concludes today's moment of solicitation. Thanks for your business!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Hours (2002)

Virginia Woolf: Someone has to die in order that

the rest of us should value life more. It's contrast.

Stephen Daldry's wonderful adaptation of Michael Cunningham's wonderful book (sidenote to self: go back and re-read this beautiful book already, it's been ages) is turning 20 in December, and red hot news alert: one of the most important aspects of the movie -- its gloriously insistent score by Philip Glass -- is hitting vinyl for the very first time in September to mark the occasion! You can pre-order it right here. Hopefully they also finally put this damn movie onto blu-ray as well, since it's inexplicably never been here in the U.S. There is an out-of-print Region 2 blu but that's it. This movie deserves better! Why isn't Nicole Kidman stomping into that studio in her Balenciaga high heels and demanding her Oscar-winning turn get the respect it deserves? That is how these things happen, right? I don't just watch too much Dynasty?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

In Her Shoes (2005)

Maggie: The art of losing isn't hard to master; so many things seem... f... filled... with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn't hard to master. I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster. Even losing you... the joking voice, a gesture I love... I shan't have lied. It's evident the art of losing's not too hard to master though it may look like... Write it!... like disaster.

That's a poem by the poet Elizabeth Bishop, but since the entire thing gets recited by Cameron Diaz in In Her Shoes I can quote it -- them's the rules. Granted I make the rules and I can do whatever the hell I want. but I digress. The director Curtis Hanson was born on this day in 1945 (unfortunately he passed away in 2016) and many people will presumably memorialize him with his masterpieces L.A. Confidential or Wonder Boys (love love love Wonder Boys) or his trashterpieces The Hand That Rocks the Cradle or The River Wild... 

... (and we really should talk more about David Strathairn's short shorts in The River Wild)... but me, I gotta go this year with this lovely and immensely underrated "Pink Box Movie" here that stars Diaz and Toni Collette as lightly estranged sisters getting to know the grandmother (Shirley Maclaine) they never knew they had. This movie is so much more than it appears to be on its daffy glossy mid-Aughts surface -- it's generous and sweet and really complicated in the way it digs into its knotty relationships. Cannot recommend enough if you've never given it a chance before -- think you'll be very pleasantly surprised.

Secrets & Life

Tis the 15th of the month, making it Happy Criterion Announcement Day! Today they've announced their line-up for March 202, and they've got several classics in store -- I already told you about their biggie, the long-awaited Wong Kar-wai boxed set back here. (Oh and Amazon has it up for-pre-order now!) But March has also got one of Mike Leigh's greatest films coming at us, Secrets & Lies from 1996, and it's also got Albert Brooks' lovely 1991 film Defending Your Life with Meryl Streep. Those are the two I have seen, and I recommend both films. The other two titles are Jacques Rivette's Céline and Julie Go Boating from 1974, one I have always been meaning to catch, and then one I have never heard of from a year earlier -- Djibril Diop Mambéty's Touki Bouki, a Senegalese "fantasy drama" about two young lovers who mean to run off to France. It sounds good! Will you be picking up any of these?  

What is Left in Our Wake

Betrayal is a word that pops up again and again in Steven Soderbergh's melancholic reunion film Let That All Talk, now on HBO Max, which sees a threesome (not a foursome, not a fivesome, and not even an orgy) of old friends -- played by Meryl Streep, Dianne Wiest, and Candice Bergen -- gathering together for the first time in decades for a little Transatlantic crossing. Roberta (Bergen), whose real life was mined for the book that made Alice (Streep) famous, uses it the most. But we also see Susan (Weist), the type of friend who always ends up caught in the middle of the bigger warring personalities, spell the word out on a Scrabble board -- Susan's usage is excited, gleeful; she scored a lot of points off of that word!

And betrayal is a word that's been on the tip of my tongue over the past few weeks as well, as I've come into the knowledge that one of my closest friends from college has morphed inexplicably into a full-fledged Trump-supporting Q-Anon believer. I'd been averting my eyes from the mini-quakes that were pointing towards this revelation regarding her pre-election -- just because who had the emotional strength for anything pre-election? -- but once it was safe to poke our heads out from under Our National Nightmare again I peeked back that way and found, with legitimate horror, what my friend has become. 

She's all in, on toppling the election and upending Democracy, on professing a love for the hateful and homophobic Ted Cruz, on screeching anti-Trans screeds -- this was a person who went out and danced with me at the gay clubs when I first came out, held my hand when I cried about my first break-ups, and preached more than nearly anyone I knew a gospel of love and acceptance. I don't recognize my friend anymore -- two weeks ago I asked her where that girl had gone and she said, basically, good riddance. 

So my heart, it is a little broken. I am angry, and yes I feel betrayed. The last couple of weeks, dark though they may be with disease and Republican lies, have been filled with some optimism -- with the vaccines inching forward and Biden's inauguration tip-toeing towards us a little light emerges -- but I keep finding myself dig into that word. Betrayal. It's a balloon that sets itself up in your belly and lets you blow, blow, blow, until it pushes everything else aside. I keep looking at my friend's Instagram and making myself sick about it. Her poison spreads. My memories of the happiest seasons shake just a little -- was there truth in those moments, an ineffable truth that escapes what came of them? Can I still hold them so tight?

All of this was on my mind anyway but Soderbergh's film feels deeply of this moment, this shared experience -- of a time where so many of us are being forced to look across the table, or into our pasts, and recontextualize formative, important relationships with these reams of new and boggling information. I know this is happening across the country, to thousands, hell hundreds of thousands of people, and has been for several years now. For some people it's even closer -- I can't imagine what it's been like for my friend's husband, to witness this personality transplant so very up-close. 

Let All of Them Talk is about this and it isn't -- it's very funny for one thing; I don't want y'all to think you're wandering into some despairing drama. Streep, Wiest, Bergen, Lucas Hedges, Gemma Chan, these are beautiful funny charming people to ride a beautiful boat across the ocean with, and Soderbergh leans easy and clean into all of their strengths as performers. I especially loved all of his long close-ups on Hedges just listening to people -- what an expressive and curious face that actor has; watching him react felt at times like we were learning more about what was happening then we would have gotten from listening to the people doing the talking.

But for all the film's light energy there's this undercurrent of sadness and yes, betrayal, that it is thankfully never afraid of; that it leans into with the most simple and straightforward bursts of humanity, honesty. It lets them talk, yes, but the film listens -- it really truly listens. It is openly engaged with the concept of listening to someone -- hence those close-ups on Hedges -- and how what people say, what they are truly saying, affects those who listen; who truly listen. As the popular self-help rhetoric goes "communication is a two-way street," but that doesn't mean you travel back and forth over the same patch of road forever. Quite often we're picked up and carried unto places we didn't expect or want to go, and there's just simply no way back to where we came from.

And Let Dianne Wiest Talk Most of All!

If it doesn't star Jake Gyllenhaal lord knows I'm lousy at keeping up with all the "what's coming out this year" news but did anybody actually know that Steven Soderbergh has a film starring Meryl Streep, Lucas Hedges, Gemma Chan, Candice Bergen, and DIANNE FUCKING WIEST...

... coming out next month before the trailer got dropped this past weekend? It seems like Steve to just drop this shit on us without warning. Anyway I am terribly excited for the DIANNE FUCKING WIEST alone because DIANNE FUCKING WIEST is not put in front of me nearly often enough. 

The film is called Let Them All Talk and apparently all of the dialogue was improvised and you know I would worry about that if it was like a Judd Apatow movie starring Jonah Hill or some shit but Soderbergh's title applies -- I want him to let Meryl and Candace and DIANNE FUCKING WIEST just talk! Here's the trailer:

Let Them All Talk hits HBO Max on December 10th.

One more thought, though:

Around the time I was reviewing the movie French Exit at NYFF I saw people slamming Lucas Hedges' long hair and I have to say... the exact opposite. My crush on Lucas has grown exponentially with his hair. Keep the hair, Lucas!

Thursday's Ways Not To Die

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

As long as I'm hitting up Animated Rats in my "13 Rats of Halloween" series -- yesterday I did a post about Templeton the Paul Lynde Rat in Charlotte's Web -- I might as well hit up my maybe favorite of all Animated Movie Rats (and yes I include you, Ratatouille), the one called "Rat" and voiced by the always best-in-show Willem Dafoe in Wes Anderson's stop-motion masterpiece Fantastic Mr. Fox.

"Y'all are trespassing now. Illegally."

I love everything about Rat. I love his little finger snaps and athletic swings through the cider jars, I love that he calls Meryl Streep's character "the town tart" and "pretty as a mink stole" -- I love his little red-and-white striped sweater and that he seems genuinely dangerous in the way that Wes Anderson movies always surprise you they can be, to even out all the whimsy. I would give anything for a spin-off movie about Rat's younger days... or even just an action figure. Did they make any FMF figures? Oh to own Rat would rule!

Hit the jump for links to all the Previous Ways Not To Die

Look Up Timmy

I was more concerned with getting situated at my desk this morning when I shared the great big Timmy GQ profile than I was with thinking through what I was typing and so I didn't realize there was other Chalamet news which I should have included -- thankfully I've got images from GQ's behind-the-scenes video of their photoshoot to share, to go along with this other news! I really blew my wad otherwise sharing all those pictures at once. 

Anyway the other news is Timmy got a new job! He's one among a ton of huge names to attach themselves to (ugh) Vice director Adam McKay's new movie for Netflix. It's called Don't Look Up and it's about "two low-level astronomers who embark on a media tour to warn mankind of an approaching asteroid that will destroy Earth." 

The other names attached? Just a buncha schmoes like Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, Himesh Patel, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, Matthew Perry, Tomer Sisley, and Jennifer Lawrence. (I'd never heard of Sisley before but hey he's cute.) Of course McKay gathers up gigantic casts like this every time out and then makes offensively shitty movies (see also The Big Short, or even better, don't) so I don't know how excited I am about this. Maybe if Timmy gets to act with Blanchett, that'll be cool.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Ash: What's that white stuff around his mouth?
Kylie: I think he eats soap.
Mr. Fox: That's not soap.
Kylie: Wha- why does he have that...
Mr. Fox: He's rabid. With rabies.

A happy 10 to Wes Anderson's stop-motion masterpiece!

I Promise To Kiss You Before You Die

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A sunshiny little heap of character posters for Greta Gerwig's Little Women were released today but as much as I adore every single member of the cast I only have time for posting Timmy -- you can see the rest of them over at EW though. Little Women is out for Christmas! And this is as good a place as any...

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/qyflg9mt0V

— His Name Was Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 29, 2019

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... to remind y'all that Andre Aciman's Call Me By Your Name sequel book detailing the further adventures of Oliver and Elio called Find Me was, swoon, properly released today -- in a funny stroke of coincidence as mentioned earlier I won't be getting home to get my mitts on my copy until late tonight because I'm hopefully fingers crossed seeing Little Women tonight. Trading one Timmy for another! Today will be the death of me.

Pic of the Day

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Steven Soderbergh's film The Laundromat has been playing in actual theaters here in New York for a couple of weeks now -- I managed to sneak in a screening of it last week in between film festival responsibilities and it's really very good, funny and weird and full of excellent drawn-big performances, and I recommend you watch it when it hits Netflix this Friday. Anyway the above is the first, the only, image that I've seen released of Matthias Schoenaerts in the movie -- as I'd mentioned on Twitter I'd totally forgotten he was even in the film until he popped up at its midpoint; his role's not huge but it's vital, and he spends it all rocking that suit so, you know, adjust your schedules accordingly.

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Oh lord I really dug THE LAUNDROMAT and that last scene is one for Meryl's very very very long greatest hits reel pic.twitter.com/tr80aQkLE0

— His Name Was Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 11, 2019

5 Off My Head: Timmy Women

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The trailer for Greta Gerwig's Little Women adaptation is here, as promised yesterday, and it looks a delight -- Greta's clearly brought her Gorgeous Millennial Energy to Louisa May Alcott's 150-year-old book, casting the tale of Jo & Co. through the lens of our times, and that cast, that cast, that cast. Here's the trailer itself:

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I'll leave all the studies in actressing and dialects and large draping fabrics to the other folks -- if you've come to MNPP for Little Women talk you've come here for the Timmy of it, and in this respect I have to say I think Greta is definitely One Of Us. Timothée Chalamet, who's playing the timeless fuckboi Laurie, gets more of a focus in the trailer than more than half the March sisters, if not more! And we're here for it. And so I give you...

My 5 Favorite Shots of Timmy in the Little Women Trailer

Any list of awesome things must begin where Awesome Things begin, and that is with Laura Dern. Seeing the two of them together is As Good As It Gets. Speaking of I would watch a remake of As Good As It Gets starring these two, honestly. 

This shot is an absolute paean to The Art of Loving Timmy -- Greta is clearly as smitten as any of us. It makes me think of Little Edie talking about The Marble Faun for some reason. Classical fuckboi.

As I immediately stated on Twitter upon watching the trailer -- watching James Norton stare at Timmy's hair is some sort of religious experience, I think? Thrice the fuckboi energy! And Timmy thumbing those suspenders is a lot for me, this early in the day. That said I can't figure out who Dude #3 is, anybody recognize him? And how is it not Lucas Hedges?

I mean this is what we are here for.

Timmy bringing the performance!

Timmy running!

Timmy dancing!

Oh I seem to have lost count of the Timmy pictures. Whatever -- so did whatever smart soul cut this trailer together. Timmy sells! Little Women is perfectly and exquisitely out on Christmas Day -- what do we all think of the trailer?