Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from: 

Run Lola Run (1999) 

Herr Schuster: The ball is round, 

a game lasts 90 minutes, 

everything else is pure theory. Off we go!

A happy 59 to writer-director-bi-hunk Tom Tykwer today! 

It wasn't worth me doing an entire post on it the other week but also congrats to him on becoming the head of the production company X Filme earlier this month -- hopefully this doesn't keep him from writering-directoring, though. I do see that he's got a new movie in the can, at least -- it's called The Light and it stars the great Lars Eidinger, we love that sexy weirdo! Here is how IMDb describes the movie: "A family faces collapse as they deal with modern issues, searching for new beginnings in a troubled world." Well that's fucking vague. There is a little bit more info on the movie at Variety, which also shared this first image from the film:

Tykwer has been busy with his series Babylon Berlin for the past few years -- and if you haven't yet watched that, do. It's terrific. Back to Run Lola Run though -- that movie is of course one of the millions of matserpieces that dropped in that most legendary year of 1999, meaning it is turning 25 this year. Soon actually! On June 18th! And Sony's not doing nothing about it, either -- the film has gotten a fancy 4K restoration and it will be screening across the country! They're dropping it on June 7th, and below is the trailer. Seeing this movie in a theater is a religious experience y'all, you should definitely go if it's playing anywhere near you.

15 Off My Head: Siri Says 1998

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Siri is giving me the whiplash! The last few editions of our beloved far and wide "Siri Says When" series -- in which I ask the voice inside of my telephone for a number between 1 and 100 and then use that number to name my favorite movies from the corresponding year -- have taken us from the 1920s to the 1960s to the 1990s to the 1930s and now, today right on back into the 1990s again. I think the fewer numbers that remain the wilder these swings will get, but funny enough Siri gave me a number we've never done on the very first try today -- 98! So I guess Siri really wants us to look at The Movies of 1998 today! Whatever you says, Siri!

And you know, 1999 gets all the credit for being an amazing year of cinema -- which it really admittedly was, and funny enough 1999 remains the only year of the 90s I have yet to do one of these posts for -- but 1998 really should get more credit than it does, because hot damn there are a ton of movies from 1998 that rocked my face off. So many that today's list isn't the usual 5 -- it's not even the occasional stretched-out-to-10. No today we're doing a Top 15 because I couldn't possibly chop off a single one of these 15. I refuse! And unless you can find the secret sub-basement from which I am now posting this post and chop off both of my hands before I hit "publish" you can't make me! Ha!

My 15 Favorite Movies of 1998

The Truman Show

(dir. Peter Weir)

-- released on June 5th 1998-- 

Happiness

(dir. Todd Solondz)

-- released on October 16th 1998 -- 

Wild Things

(dir. John McNaughton)

-- released on March 20th 1998 -- 

The Opposite of Sex

(dir. Don Roos)

-- released on May 22nd 1998 -- 

Babe: Pig in the City

(dir. George Miller)

-- released on November 25th 1998 -- 

Hands on a Hardbody

(dir. S.R. Bindler),

-- released on July 10th 1998 -- 

Love is the Devil

(dir. John Maybury)

-- released on October 7th 1998 -- 

Velvet Goldmine

(dir. Todd Haynes)

-- released on October 23rd 1998 -- 

Dark City

(dir. Alex Proyas)

-- released on February 27th 1998 -- 

Pleasantville

(dir. Gary Ross)

-- released on October 23rd 1998 -- 

A Simple Plan

(dir. Sam Raimi)

-- released on January 22nd 1998 -- 

Out of Sight

(dir. Steven Soderbergh)

-- released on June 26th 1998 -- 

Gods & Monsters

(dir. Bill Condon)

-- released on November 4th 1998 -- 

Living Out Loud 

(dir. Richard LaGravanese)

-- released on November 6th 1998 -- 

Rushmore

(dir. Wes Anderson)

-- released on October 9th 1998 -- 

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Runners-up: Saving Private Ryan (dir. Steven Spielberg), There's Something About Mary (dir. Farrellys), A Bug's Life (dir. John Lasseter), Shakespeare in Love (dir. John Madden), Apt Pupil (dir. Bryan Singer), Great Expectations (dir. Cuarón), The Big Lebowski (dir. Coens), The Spanish Prisoner (dir. Mamet)...

... Lost in Space (dir. Stephen Hopkins), High Art (dir. Lisa Cholodenko), The Last Days of Disco (dir. Whit Stillman), The X-Files (dir. Rob Bowman), Buffalo '66 (dir. Vincent Gallo), Pi (dir. Aronofsky), Lolita (dir. Adrian Lyne), Halloween: H20 (dir. Steve Miner), Snake Eyes (dir. De Palma)...

... The Slums of Beverly Hills (dir. Tamara Jenkins), Blade (dir. Steven Norrington), Pecker (dir. John Waters), 54 (dir.), Cube (dir.), Your Friends and Neighbors (dir. Neil LaBute), Urban Legend (dir. Jamie Blanks), Beloved (dir. Demme), American History X (dir. Tony Kaye), Psycho (dir. Gus van Sant), Croupier (dir. Mike Hodges), The Faculty (dir. Robert Rodriguez), The Thin Red Line (dir. Terrence Malick)...

... Hurlyburly (dir. Anthony Drazan), I Stand Alone (dir. Gaspar Noé), Ringu (dir. Hideo Nakata), Meeting People is Easy (dir. Grant Gee), Very Bad Things (dir. Peter Berg), Beseiged (dir. Bertolucci), God Said "Ha!" (dir. Julia Sweeney), Hideous Kinky (dir. Gillies MacKinnon), The Butcher Boy (dir. Neil Jordan), Clay Pigeons (dir. David Dobkin), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (dir. Sullivan)

Never Seen: Life is Beautiful (dir. Robert Benigni), Mulan (dir. Barry Cook), Little Voice (dir. Mark Herman), Affliction (dir. Paul Schrader), The Prince of Egypt (dir. Brenda Chapman), Spice World (dir. Bob Spiers), Bulworth (dir. Warren Beatty), He Got Game (dir. Spike Lee), Clockwatchers (dir. Jill Sprecher), Sliding Doors (dir. Peter Howitt)...

... Hilary & Jackie (dir. Anand Tucker), Can't Hardly Wait (dir. Harry Elfont), The Wedding Singer (dir. Frank Coraci), The Boxer (dir. Jim Sheridan), The Celebration (dir. Thomas Vinterberg), Rounders (dir. John Dahl), Henry Fool (dir. Hal Hartley), Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss (dir. Tommy O'Haver), Practical Magic (dir. Griffin Dunne)

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What are your favorite movies of 1998?

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Coming Soon to a Tribeca Near You

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

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Who Wore It Best?

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I caught a little of Marc Forster's "Brad Pitt runs like a sissy away from zombies" movie World War Z on the TV last night - I hadn't seen it since it came out in 2013 and I remembered it being fairly decent and as I re-watched it all of a sudden it was like, "Holy shit look at all the people filling in small roles in this movie." Hey there's Moritz Bleibtreu and Ruth Negga as doctors! And hey, double and triple hey, there's James Badge Dale and Michiel Huisman playing soldiers...

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10 Off My Head: Siri Says 2001

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Hey guys, remember 2001? What a boring year, am I right? Nothing happened in 2001 that we're still shuddering through the after-pains of at all. Nothing that shook the very foundation of our democracy and planted fear and horror in the American heart, undermining our faith in our institutions and our leaders so deeply that a decade and a half later we've very nearly turned against all the values we once held dear, or anything. Nope, nothing like that. But some movies came out! And that's why we're here today. I asked my telephone to give me a number between 1 and 100 and the minx said "ONE!" this morning! Made me think of this, quite frankly...

... and that seems about right. Today's Mood, y'all! Anyway let's just go with it. At first glance The Movies of 2001 seemed kind of barren (it wasn't the best year for studio movies) but then I started looking at the low-budget and foreign films and shocker, it started getting good. So good in fact that I can't contain it to just five films like usual, I just can't. So instead here are...

My 10 Favorite Movies of 2001

Mulholland Drive

(dir. David Lynch)

-- released on October 19th, 2001 --

Donnie Darko

(dir. Richard Kelly)

-- released on October 26th, 2001 -- 

The Royal Tenenbaums

(dir. Wes Anderson)

-- released on December 14th, 2001 --

The Piano Teacher

(dir. Michael Haneke)

-- released on September 5th, 2001 -- 

Ghost World

(dir. Terry Zwigoff)

-- released on September 21st, 2001 -- 

The Devil's Backbone

(dir. Guillermo Del Toro)

-- released on April 20th, 2001 -- 

 Moulin Rouge!

(dir. Baz Luhrmann)

-- released on June 1st, 2001 -- 

The Others

(dir. Alejandro Amenábar)

-- released on August 10th, 2001 --
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Spirited Away

(dir. Hayao Miyazaki)

-- released on July 20th, 2001 -- 

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

(dir. John Cameron Mitchell)

-- released on 2001 -- 

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Runners-up:  Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (dir. Peter Jackson), Gosford Park (dir. Robert Altman), Memento (dir. Nolan), Amelie (dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet), A.I: Artificial Intelligence (dir. Spielberg), Bubble Boy (dir. Blair Hayes), Jeepers Creepers (dir. Salva), Monsters Inc. (dir. Pete Docter)...

... Das Experiment (dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel), The Happiness of the Katakuris (dir. Takashi Miike), Kairo (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa), Lovely & Amazing (dir. Holofcener), Wet Hot American Summer (dir. Wain), Storytelling (dir. Solondz), Session 9 (dir. Brad Anderson)

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 What are your favorite movies of 2001?

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Saint Moritz

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Got Moritz Bleibtreu om my mind something crazy after reading our pal Manuel's piece at The Film Experience looking back at the Sundance release of Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run in 1999. Every time that movie comes up I'm all, "I gotta re-watch Run Lola Run!" and then I forget, because my brain is riddled with holes. So let's hope Mortiz's adorable face will remind me, maybe even when I get home tonight -- I gotta re-watch Run Lola Run! (See more of this photo-shoot right here.) In related news I am so happy we've got a new Tykwer joint out this year! I hope it's good.

Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... making it rain with Nicholas Hoult.

A few weeks ago a friend of MNPP (Hi Tony!) told us about Kill Your Friends, which he'd seen -- specifically that there is a good dose of undressed Nicholas Hoult coming our way. Well now there's a trailer (thanks to The Bloody Munchkin for the heads-up) and sure enough...

... they're smartly playing up that angle. 

Here's the trailer:

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And after the jump I've capped the NSFW stuff that needed to be capped (including bonus sleazeball Moritz Bleibtreu)...