Pics of the Day

A new staging of a little something called The Rocky Horror Picture Show is hitting NYC imminently (as in two days from now) and Vogue has the first pictures of its big sexy cast, led by the one and only noted Luke Evans in the fishnets as Dr. Frank N. Furter. For those of you who only know Luke from his action-hero roles in movies like The Hobbitses and that Furious movie he was in -- or from his greatest role as "The guy who got his dick cut by Ma in Ma" -- our man Luke got his start singing on the stage in that Boy George musical in London (indeed that was where he gave the interview talking about being gay that he then tried to bury for several years as he tried to do the action-hero thing in Hollywood until finally coming out properly, again) -- point being no need to worry, he can sing. I guess those of you who saw the live-action Beauty and the Beast movie knew that too -- I only made it about 20 minutes into that abomination before I had to turn it off. Anyway! Luke's not the only hottie in this thing...

... as the dream man of the title is being played by West Side Story hunk Josh Rivera, fitting the role of "dream man" to a tee. Lord almighty, just look at him. Anyway I've never been huge on Rocky Horror, which isn;'t to say I don't like it -- as far as musicals go it's one I can and have watched several times and enjoyed.I just continue being a person who doesn't go seeking out musicals to watch when I need something to watch, it just can't be helped. But if somebody needs a plus one I'd go see this. It also stars the wonderful Harvey Guillén and Rachel Dratch and  Stephanie Hsu and Juliette Lewis and on and on, it's quite the cast y'all. Hit the jump for a couple more photos of them...

Quote of the Day

"... I’m a Halloween person, which is odd to me because I’m terrified of scary things. I can’t watch scary movies or even a scary movie trailer. But I love the aesthetic of Halloween more than most holidays. We’re not talking about Christmas, of course—let’s put Christmas aside. Anything that gets Halloweenified in orange and black, or has an occasional bat or ghost or monster, really does it for me. But just to be clear, I’m not interested in terror. I’m interested in a delightful monster or witch. I don’t care for jump scares. Don’t scare me or I will definitely punch you in the face."

Blessings unto us all, I needed some smiles this Friday and Interview Magazine has gifted us with one of their "25 Questions" features with Maya Rudolph! They work like this: 25 of Maya's famous pals asked her a question or two, and she answered them! It's not a terribly hard-to-grasp feature. Anyway the above quote comes in response to a question from author Sarah Cooper; other people doing the asking include half of the SNL casts over the years, Amy Sedaris, Paul Reubens, Natasha Lyonne, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Carol fuckin' Burnett -- endless proof that Maya is indeed that cool. And you'll definitely want to look for the Prince story.  

Do You Like To Laugh

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This post's title is dedicated to those poor sods who would harass people on street corners with that question -- "Do you like to laugh?" -- in order to get them inside of Comedy Clubs here in the pre-COVID Days of NYC. This pandemic's got me down enough that I sort of miss them! Anyway true story I seem to have become nightmarishly picky when it comes to Comedy. I have lots of old stand-by favorites from my more innocent, less jaded youth that I go back to time and time again -- Soapdish! Dirty Rotten Scoundrels! -- but it's not a genre I actively seek out very often anymore.

Truth be told I can be snobbish and weird about the genre. I guess I like Smart Dumb Comedy -- I don't mind a poop joke but you've got to give me something new and exciting with your poop joke. (Side-note: you oughta read MNPP pal Michael's terrific recent piece on the art of the poop joke with regards to Bridesmaids over at TFE.) I am simply incapable of sitting down and enjoying an episode of something as braying and needy as say The Big Bang Theory. It physically pains me, that sort of thing. 

Okay I need a laugh, and I need one now.
What’s your funniest movie ever made? pic.twitter.com/KPsHbsYpT6

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 31, 2020

Of course this pandemic has really put that snobbishness to the test -- we need a good belly laugh, an emphatic guffaw, now and then amid these darkest of days. And so in a fit of want I tweeted out the above question last week, and in return I got a million and a half fun responses that I appreciated a whole bunch. Then naturally I just ended up re-watching Christopher Guest's Best in Show for the thousandth time...

... but I've got a Go-To Laugh List for when I need it now. And if anyone has any further suggestions please do give them in the comments. That said I forward all of this to say make it clear that I have actively been thinking a lot about my weird relationship with comedy -- how I'll almost always if I want to laugh put on a bad horror flick or something Campy like Showgirls before I'll even think to put on an actual trying-to-make-me-laugh Comedy Film -- when lo, behold, a trailer for a new Comedy Series should appear.



That's the trailer for Mapleworth Murders, which stars former SNL writer Paula Pell as a Murder She Wrote type Older Lady Sleuth, and which will feature cameos from lots of Smart Dumb Comedy Now people like Wanda Sykes, Chris Parnell, Nicole Byer, Maya Rudolph, Fred Armisen, Jack McBrayer, Annie Mumolo... I have a really good friend who's a Comedy Fiend and she loves Pell -- I think a lot of Comedy Fiends do. My only interaction with Pell was in the Netflix comedy Wine Country...

... which is a good example of a recent comedy that left me totally and thoroughly cold. Except for Pell, who was its highlight I thought. But with a cast like Wine Country had -- Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph and Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch and Ana Gasteyer! -- I should've been in Chuckle Heaven! So I guess what I am getting at with all of this is... I am dead inside, right? I'm just dead inside. Mapleworth Murders premieres on Quibi on August 10th!

Wine Country in 250 Words or Less

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Wine Country is one of those movies that its defenders defend by saying it's just a pleasure to get the chance to hang out with all of these fill in the blanks -- in this instance the "fill in the blanks" are some of our finest middle-aged funny ladies, many bearing an SNL pedigree. And I agree -- it is a pleasure. So much so that I spent about sixty percent of the film wishing that that was what I was watching -- can you imagine how great a documentary about Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph and Paula Pell and Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch and Emily Spivey drinking wine in Napa and just hanging out would've been? 

Instead Wine Country strains towards uninvolving half-baked tensions and lukewarm insights -- I feel like you put a box of wine in the human being Maya Rudolph's lap and got her guard down and got her and Amy riffing on real life there could've been something profound and moving and sweet to come out of that. As is Wine Country postures towards that experience, but keeps ringing false with broad platitudes. I don't begrudge these comic wonders a paid-for-by-Netflix vacation by any means, and I'm more than glad to come along, but it's a little off-putting how Wine Country doesn't ever strain to reciprocate -- it's a one-sided window I ended up feeling left on the outside of, admiring the well-appointed drapes.

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It's Friday Night, I'm Gonna Get Drunk...

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Perhaps I'm just extra bad on the uptake these days but doesn't it feel like Netflix somehow manages to sneak their movies through production without us noticing until they release a trailer for an already finished thing and it's out in a month and you're like WHAT? I DON'T HAVE TO WAIT FOR THAT? That's the thrill I got when they dropped their trailer for Wine Country yesterday -- they managed to gather together SNL queens Maya Rudolph & Tina Fey & Amy Poehler (who directed) & Rachel Dratch & Ana Gasteyer, alongside Paula Pell & Emily Spivey (who wrote) and, uh, Jason Schwartzman...

... (who's looking particularly delicious with that big beard, I might add) for a comedy about some gals drinking wine in the country and I never noticed until this trailer and a date of May 10th (with some theatrical screenings starting two days earlier) were right in front of me? That's nutso! But I like this strategy -- it doesn't feel like we have to wait so long this way. We've got less a month for this and that works for me! Now watch the trailer, goddamit:

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Which is Hotter?

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Little Danny Radcliffe is turning 27 this weekend if you can believe it (PS we are all so old) -- you probably can because look at the sexy photoshoots he's been taking lately! Dude is growed the fuck up. 

Anyway besides trying every day to win the lottery to the currently-running stage show he is doing called Privacy (which co-stars our beloved Rachel Dratch) I have really got to force myself to make it out to Swiss Army Man this weekend, if I can still find it; I am terrifically embarrassed that I haven't found the time yet. It's so perfectly up my alley! And then while we wait for his movie with Wolf Creek director Greg McLean to get made (fingers crossed) let us ponder a ridiculous and pointless query over his birthday weekend...

Which Is Hotter?

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poll by twiigs.com

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Happy birthday, Rachel Dratch!

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Pic of the Day

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I'm totally crawling up my own ass with this one but fuck it - that snap of my own Twitter sidebar is glorious. Glorious! Freddy Krueger Toilet, Angry Miss Piggy, Debbie Downer, and Well-hatted Dorothy Malone? How can you go wrong? I mean honestly, if you were to split open my head that right there is totally exactly what you would see.

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An Excuse To Post A Cheyenne Pic, Hooray

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Cheyenne Jackson, along with Rob Lowe and some cute blond thing named Boyd Holbrook, have joined the cast (or are about to join, whatever) of Steven Soderbergh's Liberace bio-pic for HBO called Behind the Candelabra (and I will never ever stop laughing at that amazing amazing title). 

Michael Douglas has long been attached to plays Libs, and Matt Damon as his boyfriend. No word on who Cheyenne or Rob will be playing, but this Holbrook fellow is "one of Liberace's young lovers." 

Um eww, can't he be one of Cheyenne's young lovers? Why can't we ever get two attractive guys in these things? James Franco with Sean Penn, Daniel Craig with Derek Jacobi, Garrett Hedlund with Steve Buscemi - goddamnit.

Anyway while I was looking up a picture of Cheyenne for this post I found this picture, and it really is all there is to be said, in all the world, about every subject, amen.

Two Videos and Some Words On Coriolanus

I saw Ralph Fiennes directorial debut Coriolanus at The New Yorker Festival yesterday, and I have a couple things to say upon this experience. First, the trivial - Coriolanus might be the only one of ol' Bill Shakespeare's tragedies that I haven't read yet so I was pretty much unfamiliar with the story going in, which was nice! Unique, I mean - it's interesting, not knowing the twists and turns of a Shakespeare story as it plays out in front of you at this point. Ol' Bill's still got some surprises in him! But not so nice was the fact that every time anyone said "Coriolanus" all I could think of was this:

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Shame on me. But there it was, every time, with me tittering like a moron. Now perhaps I can spread that plague upon the rest of you.

Anyway the movie's solid - Vanessa Redgrave is indeed pretty terrific as Volumnia; I say this with no malice but she's basically aged into one of Ray Harryhausen's moving skeletons, which works fabulously well from a visual standpoint for the character. Jessica Chastain doesn't have much to do but tear up as the put-upon wife (and since all I've seen of her "2011 onslaught" is this and The Tree of Life it's all I've seen her do so far).

Gerard Butler puts the 'mo into homoerotic in his scenes with Ralph - the shaving scene has so much head stroking I thought we might get a full-on happy ending. And Ralph's very good as the soldier whose war gets taken away from him, and he shows real promise as a director. Ultimately the film works on you intellectually - it's an interesting exercise in playing with audience sympathies - but everyone's so unlikable that it's hard to get too emotionally swept up in it which is what I generally expect out of Shakespearean tragedy. But it does ask plenty of loaded questions. It's a strong first effort.

Fiennes was at the screening and did a Q&A after it (he flew in from London where he's playing Sexy Prospero on stage right now, fully bearded up like a mountain man or Mel Gibson) and he also read a selection from TS Eliot's "Four Quartets" - I guess he did an audio book of them - which I taped, which you can watch right here.

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Ralph Fiennes' voice gets him mad laid, yo.

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Happy 38, Missi Pyle

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I am so frigging excited that some awesome person uploaded Missi Pyle's scenes in Spring Breakdown to YouTube. You have no idea. This is funny, funny shit. She walked away with this movie. Well, she stumbled away with it, while simultaneously barfing.

"Hey miss fancy pants, this ain't the Red Lobster."
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It's Official... I Can't Have Children

After seeing Machete this weekend and seeing just how dazed and beat-up Lindsay Lohan can look I don't know that flinging her into the excessive environment of live sketch comedy is a great idea - there's a rumor afloat she might host again this season - but EW reminds us that she's been a fantastic host before...

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I Am Link

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Hey everybody the phrase "sick and tired" pretty much sums up my wherewithal this morning. I've been fighting this allergy-cold-thing for about a week and I didn't get enough sleep last night and this is not just to whine at you but to let you know I might not be blogging much today as my head feels like this. But here's links!

--- Owen & Abby - That above is the second image from the Let the Right One In remake, showing the memorable Rubiks Cube scene, via AICN. I guess we're getting an idea of what Reeves will be going for visually, and it is striking.

--- True Boo - I understand Pax's enthusiasm over discovering a horror movie that actually scares - it happens far too rarely - so he's got me interested in seeing The Possession of David O'Reilly, which he's reviewed at Billy Loves Stu.

--- Rappin' Granny - Although the writers relied on "She's so old!" jokes a little too much, I thought Betty White was a delight from sart to finish on SNL this weekend. And to see all those familiar faces surrounding her! (Whitney!) Such a treat. And there were skits we didn't get to see, including Bronx Beat! PopWrap collected the videos from the dress rehearsal.

--- Past Hacks - Buried somewhere in the boxes of childhood memories I keep in my mother's basement I have this list of Jason Voorhees kills that Cracked magazine gathered up in a convenient list form back in the day, so seeing it scanned in over at io9 just made my brain tingle.

--- I Think You're Evil - How have I not seen Birdemic yet? Argh! I missed it when it screened here in NYC so I guess I'm gonna have to watch it at home now, sans crowd participation. Oh well. By all accounts it's not to be missed. Anything that makes Troll 2 seem better by contrast has gotta be something spectacular. Final Girl reviewed it as well as The Descent Part 2 and cheapie rip-off Paranormal Entity.

--- Good Better Best - Glenn finished up his really astonishing list of his favorite things from the Aughts over here with his 25-1 bits.

--- Hey Look, it's old people getting high. Rich makes the internet 100% richer. But is it wrong that I find the following gif sexy?

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I Am Link

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--- Girls Are Golden - Not only do we have confirmation that Betty White's co-hosting SNL, we have a date - May 8th - and we have word that even more ladies are joining her than I'd been hearing. The list of former SNL females co-hosting with Betty has grown and is now thus: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Molly Shannon, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer and Rachel Dratch. The Dratch! Hooray!!! This will rock my world.

--- Get Under Ryan - That movie Buried - where we spend 90 minutes trapped in a tight space with Ryan Reynolds' crotch in our face - is being released on September 24th.

--- Gigantic Jake - Prince of Persia is gonna be released on IMAX screens, apparently. Meaning I can have Jake's stuffed codpiece a story-high all to myself, at last. And there's a new, boring poster to the right.

--- For Part Four - And finally, a fourth chapter of Club Silencio's 2010 look-ahead has been posted, and again it's well worth checking out. Coppolas and Romaneks and Cronenbergs, oh my. 2010 might very well be awesome, y'all.
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Note To Self: Watch This Later

People are saying this video's a hoot, so I'm posting it here so I can watch it later. Fascinating stuff! But I gotta take my Rachel Dratch fix whenever it pops up, since it never fucking pops up anymore. Ugh. Rachel! Why aren't you on Parks & Rec yet? Why???

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I Am Link

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--- Just Make The Effing Movie Already! - Eli Roth chatted up Variety about his big monster movie Endangered Species, marking the fifteen-billionth time he's brought up the project since last making an actual movie. Ugh. He's got time to jerk off on Twitter but not to direct anything, apparently. And yes for the record he's also still thinking he'll be using the change that slides between the couch-cushions on the ED set to finance his full-length version of his Grindhouse trailer Thanksgiving.

But lo, there is other, new news to be had therein! He's also working on a kung-fu flick (!) with RZA (!!!) called The Man With The Iron Fist. I... I just can't. And the horror flick called Cotton that he produced will be screening at Sundance. So that's something, or whatever.

--- Hell's Hounds - Over at AMC Final Girl Stacie Ponder went and pondered the heck-fire out of all those evil canines that've been salivating on horror-cinema for years now. Can I just tell you that Cujo the movie made me literally sick with fear when I was a kid? It made me so tense I had to leave the room and I almost threw up.

--- I Want Your Job, Jarett - PopWrap interviewed Rachel Dratch (here) and Thomas Jane (here) this week. Rachel Dratch and Thomas Jane! So jealous.

--- The Preacher Kane - Hey, whaddya know, apparently the film Solomon Kane - based off Robert E. Howard's fantasty-lit character - is pretty good, says this review at AICN. Hrm. Fascinating. I'm really just using this as an excuse to post that picture of James Purefoy to the right there though, since I will never ever get tired of looking at it. But anyway, Kane hasn't even been bought by a studio yet so who knows if/when we'll see it. All I wanna know is, is there time for the Puritan demon-killer to take a steam, soak, or dip of some kind?
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Speak Of The Dratch

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I missed this earlier this week but The Advocate has an interview up with the loverly Rachel Dratch due to the long delayed Spring Breakdown finally coming out this week (sidenote: I watched the film last night and really enjoyed the heck out of it. It's the kind of movie that defeats writing an actual review - it's silly and stupid but super-fun and I'll end up watching it a billion times whenever I feel like shutting my brain off and just having some fun. It'll make for an awesome double-feature with The House Bunny. Best in show: a totally hysterical Missi Pyle, who I never give the credit she is due. She's fucking awesome).

Anyway, check out Rachel's interview; she dishes some dirt on bunches of things, from lazy gay jokes to her stint on Ugly Betty (dammit how'd I miss that and dammit times two now I'll have to watch the show for her) to other assorted delightful Dratchian things. Love you, Rachel!

And as a bonus, here she is standing around with my immediately-preceding-post boy, Cheyenne Jackson. Cuz why not? Two fine flavors together at last!

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Hotness

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That's the amazing cast of Spring Breakdown, which I posted on earlier. And I was just looking at the film's IMDb page, and noticed that also listed among the stellar cast is Leslie "Mary Cherry" Grossman in the esteemed role of "Hooker" !!! Oh joy. This movie can't get here quickly enough. (via)
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Do You Remember The Time...

... when we fell in love, do you remember the time when we first met? UGH now that goddamn Michael Jackson song is stuck in my head and I'm seeing Eddie Murphy and Iman dressed like Egyptians and Michael dissolving into sand... who knew that would be what he'd actually one day turn into?

ANYWAY. That has nothing to do with anything other than I was going to ask do y'all remember that movie Spring Breakdown?


It stars Amy Poehler, Parker Posey and Rachel Dratch? I was all excited about it forever because it stars Amy Poehler, Parker Posey and Rachel Dratch for fuck's sake, but then it disappeared into nothingness because Tina Fey hates Rachel Dratch or something and we all put on sad faces and wept at the inhumanity of it all but went about our daily routines because what else can we do, there are only so many tears we can produce in a day and the milk needs to be churned and the cows need to be put away? Yeah, I'm spiraling quickly into oddness today it seems.

But anyway, Spring Breakdown is out on DVD today. It came outta nowhere, but there it is. So we can see it! I'll have it tomorrow thanks to the splendor that is Netflix. That's all I'm saying.
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I Am Link

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--- Now There's A Pair - Johnny Knoxville and Cher (!) are starring in a movie together. Um... yeah. Yeah? Yeah.

--- Download Your Daisies Fix - Apparently ABC's Entertainment President Steve McPherson said at the "Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour" over the weekend that they want to make the final three episodes of Pushing Daisies "available" which he then clarified to mean "to download online." I have no comment.

--- Individual Fishes - Horror director Alexandre Aja says his 3D Piranhas (in Piranha 3D, natch) will have separate looks and personalities like Gremlins. Mkay.

--- Break Broke At Sundance - Spring Breakdown, the "Amy Poehler & Rachel Dratch & Parker Posey go to Spring Break" comedy that's been languishing nowhere for ages is playing at Sundance this week and Defamer tells us what's up. Also not the most thrilling news. Sigh. I blame Tina Fey.

--- What You Need To Know - Joe tells us what was underrated in 2008.

--- And finally, StinkyLulu hands out the first Lulus, all in honor of the Supporting Actress performances of 2008. Love the final ballot very much.

ETA - Y'all should read Roger's Ebert's induction of Scorsese's After Hours into his Great Movies series if you haven't yet. Great stuff; it made me want to watch the movie again right this second.
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