Bitter Christmas, By Pedro

The first poster, the usual gorgeous design feast, for Pedro Almodovar's next movie has arrived (via) -- the movie is called Bitter Christmas (aka Amarga Navidad) and it;s hitting Spain on March 20th. After his brief sojourn over here in the States with two short films and a feature he's back to his comfort place with Spanish actors and language -- this stars Bárbara Lennie as a woman who is abandoned over the holidays by her partner (the gorgeous Leonardo Sbaraglia, who you should remember from that time...

... he made out with Antonio Banderas in Pain and Glory.) Also in this film, and tipping the Hot Dude quotient sky-high, is Quim Gutiérrez -- insanely I have only posted about Quim once here at MNPP with this photoshoot here, but my god he has deserved better. I should be posting Quim content every other day. I mean...

... the internet is overflowing with such examples. Shame on me. Well we've got several months before the movie hits Spain and then hits here whenever that happens (probably fall) so I will try to make it up in 2026. My first resolution! More Quim Gutiérrez! Say thank you to Uncle Pedro for this gift coming to you, everyone. 

Quote of the Day

I think whenever there's an new movie from Luca Guadagnino coming out -- as there is this weekend with After the Hunt, reviewed right here by yours truly -- I end up doing about five "Quote of the Day" posts involving him, because he's not shy about giving interviews and saying things I enjoy hearing. Today he spoke to GQ (thx Mac) and there are several bits inside this single interview I could've shared -- he goes on about Showgirls being a masterpiece for god's sake! But I'm choosing the bit below where the interviewer asks him about something I very much wanted the answer to after seeing After the Hunt twice -- a framed poster of Pedro Almodovar's movie The Flower of My Secret is prominently displayed in one scene, and here's what he had to say about that:

"I think Alma loves that movie. I think Alma is a cosmopolitan. I think her and Frederick have been traveling the world a lot. You see that alongside the work of art that hangs in the apartment, that belongs to the heritage of the family of Frederick, there is a lot of contemporary international art that maybe Alma has bought around the world and bought. A very smart idea that Stefano developed in the set of the apartment. 

I think she loves that movie because I think she admires Pedro the filmmaker, but I think she really loved the character of Leocadia [in the movie]. I think Alma is drawn to Leocadia’s crisis. She is drawn to the idea that she also secrets herself. And at the same time, I think that she loves the form of that movie. In fact, she listens to the soundtrack. She plays Miles Davis' “Solea,” which is one of the pieces of music that is in that movie. And lastly, because every movie that I do is about the characters, but every character in the movie in a way reflects part of myself, I love that movie. And I love Pedro Almodovar. 

One of the great, great, great moments of my life was when we were at the premiere of Queer in Venice last year, and the movie finished and we had this beautiful reception from the audience in the theater. And I was so happy, and looking around and turning to say thank you to the people. And there, I saw Pedro, and that was amazing."

Assume The Pose

As I mentioned on Friday I had a review going up over the weekend -- and it did! It did go up. And here I am directing you over to it in case you're like me and spend the two measly days of your weekends trying to not stare at the internet in terror like you do the other five. Click here and you can read my thoughts on La Pietà, the truly bizarre 2022 film from Spanish director Edurado Casanova, who I call out in the review as the place where early Almodóvar meets Todd Solondz. It's very queer, very camp, and very very aggressive, and since those are all things I love I think you can imagine where I fell down on this movie. Oh and it's on VOD so you can watch it right now! What a good way to spend today instead of watching literally anything else you might watch.

Alessandro I Want For Chistmas...

Because he has three yes count them three movies out in theaters now -- Kraven the Hunter came out last week (read my quick thoughts here) while Brady Corbet's The Brutalist (read my review here) and Pedro Almodovar's The Room Next Door (wonderful but not reviewed by me) are both out now -- we have been blessed with not just one but two count them two photoshoots of Alessandro Nivola this week! This first one is for Sharp magazine and there's a chat with him at that link as well; the same goes for Anthem magazine, and you'll see those photos down below. Before that though, an aside -- there's a chance this post will be our last until the holidays are upon us, happening, and then history. Which is to say I'm not sure if I'll be online tomorrow and after that I'm definitely off until January 2nd of the year 2025. If that's not the case I suppose you'll know when I start rambling on here tomorrow. But if not -- Happy Holidays, everyone! And consider this collection o' Nivola my gifts to you, right on after the jump...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

All About My Mother (1999)

Huma: There are people who think that children are made in a day. But it takes a long time, a very long time. That's why it's so awful to see your child's blood on the ground. A stream that flows for a minute yet costs us years. When I found my son, he was lying in the middle of the street. I soaked my hands in his blood and I licked them. Because it was mine. Animals lick their young, don't they? I'm not disgusted by my son. You don't know what it's like. In a monstrance of glass and topaz. I would put the earth soaked by his blood.

Rest in peace to the legend and icon and Almodóvarian goddess Marisa Paredes, who apparently just passed at the age of 78. What a loss! You could spend the remainder of 2024 watching her great films and not have enough time to finish them all. And hell that'd be a gorgeous way to ring out the year. I'm going to have to at least do a couple of the Almodóvars. I haven't seen The Flower of my Secret in a long time.

Happy 75, Pedro Almodóvar

If I wasn't currently buried in working on the very film festival that will allow me to see Almodovar's new movie in a week -- that would be the New York Film Festival and the movie The Room Next Door -- then I would have time to toss this Spanish king his proper laurels, and I think I'd do it with a list of my favorite movies of his. Okay I have probably done that before but whatever, things change with time. But since I am, in a fit of irony, busy with said same fest, I don't have time to figure all that out. But I'm posting this brief brithday love letter to him anyway to open the floor to you maniacs reading this -- tell me your favorites in the comments! And since this is Pedro Almodóvar we're talking about there literally isn't a single bad choice. Okay maybe I do feel weird about Kika and the rape scene that gets played for slapstick laughs. But other than that! All good here!

I Need The Room Next Door Like Yesterday

The first teaser trailer for Pedro Almodovar's English-language debut feature film The Room Next Door starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton has arrived and it's perfectly fine to watch if you're spoiler-averse like me -- it's nothing but a disconnected series of gorgeous images and music...

COLOR IN THE NEW ALMODOVAR TRAILER, PART TWO pic.twitter.com/YIKMKQv3mr

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) August 20, 2024

... that will get you right in the mood for this, this movie, this movie right here, I need this movie right here inside of my body right this fucking second. Ahem. Excuse me, I got carried away. Almodovar will do that to you. I will be seeing this in exactly 45 days at NYFF -- for those of you who won't be seeing it at any of the fall festivals (it's playing most all of them) it is hitting NYC and LA on December 20th and then it will spread out in January. Here's the teaser:

The Poster Next Door

The poster for Pedro Almodóvar's The Room Next Door has arrived and in the grand tradition of Pedro Almodóvar Movie Posters it's a work of art that any sane person should want to hang on their wall. The obvious reference is of course Bergman's Persona, with two women's faces intermingling, but them being down at the bottom laid out like a landscape, like mountains, makes me think of the poster for Rosemary's Baby as well. I'm sure that was also thought of. Anyway I'm also including the Spanish version below just to prove that the font design on these is beautiful in any language...

NYFF Ahoy!

Although it seems nuts to be onto the fall festivals already (not that I will miss this hellfire summer in the slightest, mind you) it is indeed the perfect moment for me to take stock of my hometown beloved, the New York Film Festival, since they've officially announced all three of their Gala films now. We'll start with the end, or is that the middle -- today they announced their Centerpiece film screening and it will indeed be Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language full-length film The Room Next Door starring Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, John Turturro, and Alessandro Nivola. See all my previous posts on this one here -- we've been rather excited about this for some time, because of course we have. 

This will be its U.S. premiere -- it's premiere-premiering in Venice in September. The NYFF screening is October 4th, right in the middle of the fest -- hence it being the "Centerpiece film" duh -- which runs from September 27–October 14. And speaking of those dates -- the Opening Night film that they announced a couple of weeks ago is Nickel Boys from Hale County This Morning, This Evening (a truly spectacular movie, that) director RaMell Ross -- an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer-winning novel, Nickel Boys stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, Daveed Diggs, Fred Hechinger, and two young actors named  Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson in the leads; it's about "two Black teenagers who become wards of a barbaric juvenile reformatory in Jim Crow–era Florida." Anybody read the book? 

And then there's our Closing Night movie -- Steve McQueen's Blitz! I've been jonesing for this ever since I first heard about it -- the Hunger and Shame and 12 Years a Slave director is tackling the World War II bombings that devastated London from the ground level, with Saiorse Ronan playing a working-class mum who gets seperated from her little boy in the underground. Blitz also stars, among many others, Harris Dickinson, Stephen Graham, and Hayley Squires -- I have been a massive fan of Squires ever since she wowed in Ken Loach's 2016 film I, Daniel Blake, so I hope her role is juicy too. A lot of people think this might be the movie to finally get Saoirse her Best Actress Oscar, but I don't think enough people have actually seen it yet to know that much. (Having seen her in The Outrun at Sundance though I can already tell you that this is going to be a very good fall for her.)

Anyway that's three films down, dozens more to come -- I daren't even conjecture, they always surprise me, but I find myself getting giddy thinking about it already. If you're planning on attending you can buy packages right here right now; single tickets go on sale in the middle of September. 

Pic of the Day

Alongside this new image from the set we have some very happy-making news today from Sony Classics themselves that Pedro Almodovar's The Room Next Door starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore will be out this year! I hope it premieres at NYFF -- Pedro seems to love NYFF. He's always showing up for it. That would rock. See all my previous posts on this movie, Almodovar's first full-length film in English, here -- notably the fact that it also co-stars John Turturro and Alessandro Nivola (mmm). And I see IMDb has added a few other names to the cast -- hello there, Juan Diego Botto...

Alessandro Nivola Twenty-Seven Times

It's always a blessed day when we get a new photoshoot of MNPP fave Alessandro Nivola! So the fact that this photoshoot for Mr. Feelgood magazine dropped on Friday when I was off meant I got to stretch (some might even say "edge" but those people would be perverts) this blessing out for three straight days -- huzzah indeed. My arms are exhausted! This sexy and talented fucker is doing press right now for his ongoing Appple+ TV series The Big Cigar (which I told you about previously here)...

... as well as technically his villainous role in the superhero film Kraven the Hunter but that movie doesn't come up in the interview and I'm not even sure when that's being released now. Much to my chagrin it's bounced around so damn much! (ETA I googled, it's December 13th now.) In said interview he does name-drop his work on the Almodóvar movie though (previous post here) -- wouldn't you? -- as well as his just recently announced role in the new Downton movie. Everything's coming up Alessandro and that's just the way we like it. Hit the jump for the many many more photos...

Make Room For Alessandro Nivola

Extremely happy-making news today with the word that one of our favorite actors Alessandro Nivola has just joined the cast of Pedro Almodovar's new movie The Room Next Door! He joins the previously announced trio of Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, and John Turturro -- funny enough when I last posted about this movie about a week ago, I mentioned that it was already a Gloria Bell reunion thanks to the presence of Moore & Turturro; Nivola wasn't in Gloria Bell but he did give what I consider his greatest performance in a different Sebastián Lelio film, 2017's Disobediance. So Almodóvar's English-language debut feature film is turning into a total Lelio-fest (if only Tilda had worked with him) which I am totally down for. Anyway no word on what role Nivola is playing here, but I think we can rest assured that Pedro will know what to do with him. 

It's Asters & Screams All Over

I have spent the past couple of hours fully immersed in pounding out a review (more on that later this week) so I missed until now some pretty big rounds of casting news that hit a little earlier today. Like A24 officially announced Ari Aster's next movie and its cast! It's called Eddington, it's a "contemporary western," and it will star "Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Luke Grimes, Austin Butler, Deirdre O'Connell, Micheal Ward and Clifton Collins Jr." among presumably other people with lower name recognition. That's one hell of a cast though, especially with Stone fresh of her Oscar win and Pascal fresh off his bottoming-western with Pedro Almodóvar. All they say is "Coming Soon" but I can't imagine "Soon" equals any sooner than 2025 at the soonest. Not sure if the image of the clapboard they also shared means it's starting to shoot right now or if it's been shooting:

Either way, whee new Ari! Three features down and the man can do no wrong from where I stand. But wait that news ain't all the news that broke whilst I was actually off "doing work" (yawn I know). It looks as if the shitbags who operate the Scream franchise these days have fixed one of their two recent major blunders -- our Sidney Prescott herself Neve Campbell is officially back for Scream 7 after bowing out of the last one when the bastards refused to pay her properly. She posted on Instagram a very sweet note about how much she loves playing the character yadda yadda the girl got paid and good for her. 

But it's not just that -- original Scream writer Kevin Williamson is taking over directing duties of the film! Which I guess makes it official that the directors of the last two movies, aka Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (aka Radio Silence as they liked to be called), are gone -- there was of course a huge dust-up (bringing us back to the other recent shitty blunder I alluded to above) when the studio canned nü-Scream star Melissa Barrera for making pro-Palestine comments on social media, leading to her co-star Jenna Ortega saying peace-out in solidarity. Anyway since I don't know all of the specifics of who's running things on the movie at this point but I'm keeping myself even-toned on all of this because it's bullshit that they fired Barrera and I'm somewhat hesitant to woop-woop up this Neve news if it means I'm supporting those free-speech-murdering fascists. Even though... I love my girl Sidney forever and ever. So we'll see. I will just decide how I feel later dammit!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Neve Campbell (@nevecampbell)

Pic of the (Yester) Day

Yesterday on Twitter Pedro Almodóvar's brother and producer Agustín shared this image of Pedro with the stars of his next movie, his first English-language feature film, The Room Next Door! And as if I even need to name them those stars are Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton! And yes every one of these sentences deserve an exclamation point! Every! One! of! These! Words! Deserve! An! Exclamation! Point! Anyway here is how IMDb describes the movie: "Martha's strained relationship with her mother fractures completely when a misunderstanding drives them apart. Their mutual friend Ingrid sees both sides of the rift."  TIlda is playing Martha, and Juli is the next door neighbor Ingrid. No word on who's playing Tilda's mother yet -- and after re-watching The Eternal Daughter a couple of weeks ago...

... excuse me for only being able to picture Tilda as being capable of playing TIlda's mother. I don't see Pedro going that route, though -- If I understand him (and I think I do) any excuse Pedro would have to work with an older legendary actress that he's never had the opportunity to work with before is the kind of thing one foresees him seizing. Who would you cast as Tilda's mother? 

Oh and one more thing I do want to mention on this subject -- there is one more person listed in the cast of this movie on IMDb and that person is John Turturro! I was weirdly never huge on Turturro (even despite my deep deep love for Barton Fink) until recently, thanks to the one-two punch of his performances in Sebastián Lelio's marvelous Gloria Bell (opposite Julianne Moore!) and on the show Severance. His romance with Christopher Walken of all people is one of my favorite things on T.V. these days. Who the hell had John Turturro becoming one of our great romantic actors on their bingo card? What a time to be alive.

Strange Way of Pedros

While I'm extremely happy I didn't see anybody describing Pedro Pascal as "brave" for playing gay in Pedro Almodovar's gay western short Strange Way of Life with Ethan Hawke -- since that knot of logic would've driven me off the deep end -- I also very much liked the short film, and so I will do another post on it here on the day that it's hitting both digital and DVD. Yes, DVD. I don't know why something still only get DVD releases -- it's very strange to me, but it still happens. And a lot of the time it's with gay movies -- what a coincidence. Anyway you can buy it either way at this link. It's probably too short by about an hour (it absolutely feels truncated) but what's there I did find very lovely -- like a short story it reaches a single idea and it expresses that idea with a surprising tenderness. 

Good Morning, World

I'm not sure where the internet got Pedro Pascal's nudity in Pedro Almodovar's gay cowboy short film Strange Way of Life but the internet has its ways and here are some gifs I found. The film, which just screened at NYFF, is only hitting theaters in New York and L.A. today and then some other theaters this weekend -- it's not (officially) available online, is the thing. And yet here we are and there's Pedro's butt! Honestly should just be the trailer though -- this is what gets people to watch your movie -- so I don't feel bad sharing. Go see this on the big screen y'all! The short is lovely but brief so I don't know if I have a full review in me for it -- I found the last scene and the last line deeply moving though, but do go in understanding this is very much a short film. It's not a full meal. And we all maybe wanted a full meal out of this, so you might be a little disappointed. I don't think you should be -- I think the main purpose of a short film (speaking broadly) is to get across one idea, one feeling -- it's a haiku; not even a full poem, much less a novel. And this does that. And it's lovely. All that and it also has Pedro Pascal porky-pigging it? See the thing. Hit the jump for a few more gifs...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

The Sisters Brothers (2018)

John Morris: I left my family out of hatred and that my father was the person I despised most in this world. I despised everything about him. I sincerely thought I had been freed of all that until tonight. Listening to you, what do I realize? That most of the things that I thought I'd been doing these past years, freely the opinions that I thought I had of my own volition were in fact dictated by my hatred towards that man. I'm 35 years old and my life is like an empty cylinder.

Happy 5 to this, one of my favorite movies of recent years! Jacques Audiard has made several very very very fine films (A Prophet and Dheepan and Rust and Bone, oh my!) but this one's probably always going to be my favorite -- but then it's not playing fair, having a cast I love as much as I love as this one, and seeing Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed (as Kermit Hermann Warm!) fall in love (yes this movie is a romance). 

So do yourselves a favor and watch this movie as double-feature with Kelly Richard's First Cow this weekend -- that will make for a perfect, exquisite night. I promise. (Not to mention that it will definitely prepare you for Pedro Almodovar's Strange Way of Life, which I saw last night and which belongs riding right astride this two.)

The Strange Way of Saltburn

Checking two great big gay 2023 checkmarks off tonight as I head off to a double-feature of Pedro Almodóvar's Strange Way of Life with Pedro Pascal & Ethan Hawke followed by Emerald Fennell's Saltburn starring Barry Keoghan & Jacob Elordi (seen above). Watch the trailer for the former here and the trailer for the latter here. In related news NYFF press screenings are off to the races and my schedule's about to become hella hectic -- the next couple of days aren't too bad, but next week it's going to be nigh a ghost town up in here. Just so's you don't call the police declaring me deceased or anything! I will only be dead insofar as cinema will have swallowed me whole. The best way to go! Anyway that's next week. Tonight -- gay shit. (Also tomorrow night -- gay shit -- as I'm seeing Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers with Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal tomorrow! One hell of a sudden legendary week upon me here.)

Good Morning, World

Elite actor Manu Rios has been kind enough to get this Hump Day off to a beautiful beginning (via) from whatever gorgeous tropical paradise he's currently flaunting his gorgeous tropical physique at. What a gentleman he is -- thanks, Manu! In related news -- when the heck are we going to get word on the U.S. release of Pedro Almodóvar's gay western Strange Way of Life starring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke and this beautiful young man you see leaning shirtlessly before you? Come on, Sony Pictures Classics -- give us a date! (Watch the trailer here meanwhile.) I wouldn't be surprised at all if it plays NYFF -- Almodóvar usually likes playing NYFF. Oooh - maybe Manu will come here for it? If I'm a room with Manu, y'all...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Open Your Eyes (1997)

César: We never appreciate the good moments till they're over.

Antonio: Maybe that's why they're good moments.

A happy 50th birthday to the fine (and fine) Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega today, probably best known here in the U.S. for his lead role in Guillermo Del Toro's perfect 2001 ghost story The Devil's Backbone. That is if he's not known for the movie quoted above from director Alejandro Amenábar -- who coincidentally also made a perfect ghost story in 2001 called The Others. I just don't know how well-seen Open Your Eyes is at this point here in the U.S. -- I never hear anybody talk about it anymore, even though it has gotten a blu-ray release and it is currently streaming on Prime.

Anyway it's very good and you should see it if you haven't! And if you're unaware Open Your Eyes was remade in 2001 (good grief what a convergence point that year is turning out to be for this post) as Cameron Crowe's film Vanilla Sky. And while there are things I admire about Vanilla Sky, Amenábar's film remains far superior. Anyway Noriega did a lot of great work around that time -- Amenábar's 1996 film Thesis is another one that doesn't get mentioned often enough (with The Others getting released on Criterion in October maybe more of Amenábar's movies will finally get good releases). And then there's the homoerotic spectacle of Eduardo and Leonardo Sbaraglia (recently seen in Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory)...

... in Burnt Money from 2000, which, wanna hear something nuts? I HAVE NEVER SEEN. I have posted about this movie's existence since the very beginning of this website almost twenty years ago and yet I have still never seen it! Even when images like this exist:

I have quite obviously wasted my life.