Today's Mood

Jawbreaker Turned 25

Just realized I'd linked to this everywhere else but here -- yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Darren Stein's teen dark comedy classic Jawbreaker and I wrote about the movie for Mashable -- read it right here. My piece is not at all about hot actor Ethan Erickson and his popsicle skills but why not use that as the image here on MNPP? It's audience appropriate. No instead what I write about is the film's full embrace of the "bitch" archetype and how we just don't get celebrations of that character in teen comedies anymore. And that's a real damn shame!

Welcome to the New Araki Age

I love how many beefcake photos there are of director Gregg Araki when you go looking. But that does beg the question -- why haven't I been looking??? All these years I've been a fan, decades now, and this is the first time I've ever seen these photos from the set of Nowhere. Harumph, I say. Anyway last night broke news I have been waiting decades indeed for -- Strand Releasing will be releasing restored versions of all 3 films in Araki's "Teen Apocalypse" trilogy! The Doom Generation already played theaters earlier this year (and it's hitting blu-ray in a month!) and we'd heard (and posted about) the news that Nowhere was coming too. But this is the first confirmation I've seen of a restoration of the first film in the trilogy, 1993's Totally F***ed Up. All masterpieces, and all deeply formative for yours truly. I don't care how they release these things -- if they release each movie one by one and then drop a box-set down the road -- I will buy every filthy fucking copy I can get my grubby mitts on. And now let's start clanging the bell for Araki's other movies -- Splendor for instance! Anyway, like, hit the jump for the official press release on this legendary and spectacular news, or whatever...

They Call Him Xavier Red

Blessing us with some vintage Johnathon Schaech this morning to grab your attention for very important news -- that 4K restoration of Gregg Araki's 1995 queer-ish masterpiece The Doom Generation that made the theatrical rounds earlier this year has gotten a 4K blu release date! Hitting on September 25th you can pre-order it right here. Another foundational film for yours truly, when I saw this movie in college I saw the light, and it looked like... well it looked like this:

What a picture! Of course we're still keeping hope alive that a boxed-set of Araki's "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy" -- which includes this movie sandwiched in between 1993's Totally F***ed Up and 1997's Nowhere -- will happen.... HELLO CRITERION -- you must be tired of me nagging at you at this point dammit! As we found out in April there is supposedly a new restoration of Nowhere that's supposed to hit theaters this fall, so that's two out of three! Patience, my fellow Araki-heads, patience...

Quote of the Day

"The movie is going to be seen how it was meant to be seen: with a bunch of drunk, hot people,... At Sundance earlier this year, Jimmy said to me that someone once told him, ‘When me and my girlfriend were watching Doom Generation, as soon as it was over, we had to go back to our condo and fuck.’ For me, that’s a five-star review.”

-- That's The Doom Generation director Gregg Araki talking (the Jimmy he mentions is James Duval, the film's star) about the new 4K restoration I told you was hitting screens here in NYC last week, and then spreading out like an STD from there. (Here is the trailer.)

Read the entire chat here, although the most important bit of information comes in the introduction where we're told that Nowhere, Araki's 1997 film that makes up another third of his "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy" (along with Totally Fucked Up) is also getting restored and that will play in theaters this fall! And that there are actually "hopeful" plans for a Criterion boxed-set ahead!

Y'all! This is the thing, The Thing, that I have spent half my fucking life hollering for! if this indeed comes to pass I don't know what I'll hoot and holler about after this. Maybe I'll have to like, go do charity-work or some shit now. Bogus!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Doom Generation (1995)

Amy: Life is lonely, boring and dumb.

I don't think I entirely understood how formative this movie was for me until I re-watched a screener of the new 4K restoration of it last weekend -- it was the first time I'd seen it in some time; long enough that I have some distance from who I was in my late teens / early 20s when I first saw Gregg Araki's films and can see that he was responsible for stamping my personality as much as Paul Reubens had been earlier in my life. The outward cynicism giving way to a creamy dreamy center; posturing as too cool for school when you're really the type to whimper like a puppy in bed. That teenage feeling that the world is collapsing around us... oh wait that one's still around. 

Indeed Araki's films still feel disarmingly immediate today. The Doom Generation is very much of its moment in the 90s -- it's highly noticeable that these characters aren't on their phones -- but also profoundly stepped outside of time too, unto a vacant lot timelessness. They wander through the Platonic Ideal version of Trash Americana, hotels and convenience-stores and pool halls, all littered with celebrity detritus and mannequin aesthetics. Everything costs six-sixty-six, and the apocalypse is nipping at their combat boots every step of the way. 

Anyway the 4K restoration is out here in NYC today -- I posted a trailer here -- and it is indeed a "Director's Cut" of the film, which hasn't been seen since it played Sundance originally back in 1995. It had been long enough since I'd seen the movie that I wasn't entirely sure of what scenes and moments are new, but they're definitely in there, sprinkled about. The film will be traveling outward from NYC so keep your eyes to the ground; and I have zero doubt this one will be getting a deluxe blu-ray treatment before the year is through. Now bring on the rest of Araki's movies!

THE PEOPLE DEMAND A TEENAGE APOCALYPSE BOXED-SET! https://t.co/kMNfifzdBT

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) April 6, 2023

Get Araki or Get Lost

It didn't exactly take a wall of red strings criss-crossing maps and images to figure out that when a 4K restoration of Gregg Araki's film The Doom Generation screened at Sundance earlier this year that meant a restoration for the rest of us, not at Sundance, wouldn't be too far off. And lo, our non-sleuthing was correct! IndieWire has the announcement (thx Mac) and a trailer (see below) -- the 1995 film will be premiering at BAM in Brooklyn on April 6th and then hitting the IFC Theater here in Manhattan on April 7th; after that it will tour across the seas of grain, shining seas et cetera.

And let's be real, it'll be getting a 4K blu-ray at some point after that. That's the way these things work now, thank goodness. I am just praying it doesn't stop with Doom -- I've been hollering and hooting and honking my maniac-ass off for a Criterion boxed-set of Araki's "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy" for decades now. (The trilogy also includes Totally Fucked Up and Nowhere.) Let's get the whole shebang, baby!

To call these movies "formative" for me doesn't even begin to cut it -- I didn't see them until I got to college but these were my definition of cool once I actually began caring about being cool (in high school I just wanted to survive.) The mixture of hopelessness and hope, cynical and sweet, hard and soft, ridiculousness astride dumb genuine straight sentiment... Araki's movies just got me like nobody else's at that moment when I was straining to realize myself, all while the world seemed to be collapsing around us. Realizing you were gay in the 90s, when all you saw on the news was Dying Gay People, sure was a lot! And I think these movies probably speak to our current moment more than I'd like them to. You think we're stepping forward but Doom keeps snapping back into focus.

The Doom Generation Is Nigh

If there's one thing I have screamed onto this here internet so many times I've exhausted even myself over it it's the fact that director Gregg Araki's movies -- which were hugely formative for yours truly, along with other people I suppose but who cares about them -- have been neglected physical-media-wise for decades. Blu-rays either don't exist at all or they have gone long out of print for not just all of his so-called "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy" -- which includes his 1993 film Totally F***ed Up, his 1995 film The Doom Generation, and his 1997 film Nowhere -- but many others of his films. I've been screaming at Criterion to give a boxed-set for so long I am shocked if they haven't put out a cease-and-desist on my ass.

Anyway there amazing news on that front today! Sundance has just announced that they will be screening a brand new 4K restoration of Araki's original director's cut of The Doom Generation this January! From their press release:

"In 1995, The Doom Generation was unveiled to audiences in Park City before its wider release to the public later that year. While festivalgoers were able to witness director Gregg Araki’s entire vision, subsequent audiences were shown a truncated version. Along with a restoration to 4K by Strand Releasing, the film has been reworked to include the lost moments from almost 30 years ago. When The Doom Generation plays at the upcoming Festival, it will be the version Araki originally intended to make, and will be the first time since 1995 that the uncensored director’s cut is shown in theaters.

“There are three versions of The Doom Generation,” explains Gregg Araki, Director of The Doom Generation. “One is the edited version which was released in theaters and on video. The second is a ridiculous R-rated version made without my approval for Blockbuster Video, which has over 20 minutes chopped out and makes no sense (and I hope disappears forever after this re-release). The third is the version shown at the film’s world premiere at Sundance in 1995, which was subsequently censored per the distributor’s request (primarily in the climactic reel). This new 4K remaster is the first time this Uncensored Director’s Cut has been seen since 1995 (and also restored to 1.85 Widescreen versus the lousy pan-and-scan version which has circulated for decades). Needless to say, I’m thrilled that The Doom Generation can finally be experienced in its full glory in this remastered and restored edition.”"

Obviously ones mind turns to a 4K blu-ray for the film from here, which one imagines must be in the works if they're putting this money into it. Huzzah! I'm pretty excited to see what we've been missing all these many years -- I knew the different cuts existed. It's weird to think how tame  so much of the stuff in TDG is here just 25 years later. Any five-year-old can see far pervier stuff on Netflix with the click of a button. Anyway I'm considering going to Sundance this year in person so not to jinx it, but fingers crossed. We'll see. Tickets and packages and stuff start selling next Monday -- click here to find out more!

Quote of the Day

"When “Living End” came out, it was so polarizing in the gay community. People would tell me, “People are getting into fist fights in bars.” On the one hand it was such a punk rock movie and the attitude of it was so kind of “fuck everybody,” and at the same time it was hot guys making out. And what the movie had to say was so alienating to them that people would get so passionate about it. And Jim Stark, the producer, he’d say to me, “You make these gay movies that gay people hate. They’re too punk rock for gay people and they hate them.” So he’s like, “If you make a straight movie, I’ll produce it and get you real money for it.” And I said, “OK, sure,” because fuck it. Why not? So that’s why “Doom Generation” has a subtitle, “A Heterosexual Movie.” So I made this heterosexual movie, but in a very punk rock bratty way, made it so gay."

Today IndieWire (in the middle of a 90s Celebration Week) got Andrew Ahn, the immensely talented director of Fire Island and Spa Night and Driveways, to interview legendary queer punk director Gregg Araki! Read it all here! I love how much Araki there has been in the air this past week. I posted some photos last week and then just yesterday I retweeted out this interview with him at i-D magazine on the subject of the 30th anniversary of The Living End. (He also says in there that he is at work on a new thing.) All of that's a net positive, but that chat with Ahn really spilled this over into true bounty. Two great tastes, together at last! Now let's get his damn movies onto blu-ray.

Gonna add this photo of Gregg Araki and John Waters to my inspiration board pic.twitter.com/82CIXBYCBp

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) September 27, 2021

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Wasp Woman (1959)

Arthur: I'd stay away from wasps if I were you, Mrs. Starlin. Socially the queen wasp is on the level with a Black Widow spider. They're both carnivorous, they paralyze their victims and then take their time devouring them alive. And they kill their mates in the same way, too. Strictly a one-sided romance.

I was just going to wish the Wasp Woman herself Susan Cabot a happy birthday -- she was born on this day in 1927 (no she is not still alive, I'm getting to that) -- with a good quote from the movie, but when I checked our archives to see if I'd used the above "good quote" before I instead stumbled upon a sad reminder that has made me sad! I was reminded that in 2007 we came real close to getting a movie called Black Oasis about Susan Cabot, starring Rose McGowan and Rodrigo Santoro and directed by Priscilla Queen of the Desert filmmaker Stephan Elliott. 

Why would anybody make a movie about the relatively unknown lead actress of a bunch of mostly bad B-movies, you ask? Well first off they didn't make the movie, so they wouldn't, clearly. But they might have made it because Cabot had one of those "only in Hollywood" tragic endings -- she was beaten to death with a barbell by her dwarf son, who blamed the murder on a ninja. Yes, really. They need to make this movie!

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Death Proof (2007)

Dov: So is it Shawna and the girls

at the lake house this weekend?

Shanna: Shawna?

Dov: Awww fuck, I didn...

Shanna: No. Now there is one thing every girl

in the whole world whose name is Shanna

has in common with each other -

we all hate the name Shawna.

And we really hate when people call us Shawna.

Remember it's Shanna banana not Shawna banawna.

 ... or you can learn from:

Planet Terror (2007)

Cherry Darling: You're a doctor? 

Dr. Dakota Block: Hmm. I was earlier tonight. 

Cherry Darling: I always wanted to be a doctor,.

Instead, I can do this. [Cherry arches her body up 

in a bridge position] Useless talent number 66. 

I'm very pliable. 

Dr. Dakota Block: You know, my girlfriend had a theory. 

She said at some point in your life, you find a use 

for every useless talent you ever had. 

It's like connecting the dots. 

Cherry Darling: I'm not that optimistic. 

I feel like I'm sinking down a drain and I can't get out. 

Dr. Dakota Block: She'd say, "when you're stuck 

in that spiral, you reach up". 

Cherry Darling: What if there's nothing up there? 

Dr. Dakota Block: Just reach up. 

Grindhouse, the full loaded double fucking feature from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez featuring both of these movies with fake trailers by Eli Roth and Rob Zombie and Edgar Wright and Rodriguez himself bracketing them, was released ten years ago today on April 6th 2007. And it was a great big belly-flop, box-office-wise. 

Did any of you get to go see the films this way? Harvey Weinstein was a dick about the release so I know it ended up tough to find; they were released separately not long after. Anyway I did get to see the double-feature myself and I loved the hell out of it. Planet Terror is a lot of fun but I'm really glad the critical consensus seems to have finally come around on Death Proof, which is Top 3 Tarantino for me, and which I re-watch every six months or so, never getting tired of it.

I can't believe Eli Roth
never made Thanksgiving though.

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Death Proof (2009)

Stuntman Mike: You know, a bar offers 

all kind of things other than alcohol. 

Pam: Hmm. Really? Like what? 

Stuntman Mike: Women, nacho grande platters,

 the fellowships of fascinating individuals like Warren here. 

Alcohol is just a lubricant for all 

the individual encounters that a bar offers. 

Happy 65, Kurt Russell! 

He's had a pretty good year, but...

... do we all agree with that equation? 

(We should.)

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Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

The Doom Generation (1995)

Jordan: I'm worried about catching AIDS. 

Amy: But we're both virgins! 

Back in September on the occasion of Jonathan Schaech and James Duval's shared birthday I anticipated today this very day because today is the 20th anniversary of Gregg Araki's film, and I said then that we should all dress as characters from this movie for Halloween -- I hope you guys listened to me, cuz I want pictures! Especially if you look like Johnathan Schaech.

I Am Link

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--- Tom Times Two - A second longer bigger newer trailer for the Two Tom Hardys movie Legend, in which he plays the real-world mobster twin Kray brothers, has dropped - watch it over here. It looks like they fixed some of the wonky CG from the first trailer (see that one here) but they also sanded off the already-barely-there gay edges too. Whatever, it's just a trailer - I'm sure the movie won't skimp on scenes of Taron Ejerton and Tom smacking each other's bare asses, right?

--- Sassy Lady - Just before the Emmy nominations arrive (come on come on come on) Lisa Kudrow and show-runner Michael Patrick King talked to Deadline about The Comeback (thanks Mac) - they talk about its first season, its second season, and... its third season? They aren't rushing it but they sound pretty sure it will happen... when it happens. Regarding how they situate that against the way the show ended, King says:

"But you can easily hear Valerie saying, ‘Gotta win another. Wasn’t on stage. Never had my moment,’ I was at a lunch once in the middle of the afternoon, in an empty restaurant at a table for four with an Oscar-winning actress. The waiter came over and said, ‘You can’t sit at a four-top if there’s only two of you.’ That was the rule, and it didn’t matter who she was."

--- Resurrect The Cannibal - Just the other day I said that Amazon ought to pick up Hannibal since they own the show's streaming right already - well proving I am smart, that sounds like where Bryan Fuller's eyes are lasered in on, too. He talked to THR about that and where the current season's headed. Oh and Lee Pace is sad that the show was cancelled, too. We have so much in common, Lee! You should come over and we can commiserate.

--- Creed's Woman - Ex Machina actress Alicia Vikander is going to be in the new Jason Bourne movie so she will not be starring opposite her real-world boyfriend Michael Fassbender in the Assassin's Creed movie - good! She doesn't need all his damn time! Anyway some lady named Ariane Labed is taking the part; she's apparently very good in Yorgos Lanthimos' new film The Lobster, which is a movie I need right fucking now.

--- Good Girl - J'adore Francois Ozon and j'adore Romain Duris (mmm Romain Duris) so I'm pretty psyched that they've got a movie coming out together - it's called The New Girlfriend and it's coming out here in the US in September and The Playlist has the first trailer. Looks like Romain is getting his lady on. I have to admit that the thought of Romain Duris shaving his gloriously furry self makes me incredibly depressed.

--- Suffocating Dwarves - I should've linked to this one yesterday when I posted David Gordon Green talking about his aborted Suspiria remake - here is Green in another interview (he's making the rounds since his Al Pacino movie Manglehorn just came out on Friday) talking about... all kinds of nonsense, really. It's an awesomely all-over-the-place chat. but most importantly it led us all to this old interview with the director of the Garbage Pail Kids movie, which must be read to be believed. This part!

"We got dwarves-- there's plenty of them-- we got dwarves and, you know, put heads on 'em, and found out how long they could survive in there without breathing, and it turned out to be about five, seven minutes."

--- Beaster Than Ezra - I did not expect Ezra Miller to take off after We Need To Talk About Kevin - I mean I thought he was good and all but he's... not typical, ya know? And then he came out as "gay-ish" and I really figured he wouldn't be taking off. But then it was announced that he's playing the Flash for DC and that seemed big but it's getting even bigger - he's in talks to be the second lead (after Eddie Redmayne) in JK Rowling's new series of films, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Wowza! He's about to be the biggest gay-ish thing around.

--- By Any Other Name - When I read through it I thought that this interview with Rose McGowan at Gawker by Rich Juzwiak was great - they talk about her short film (which is already online in full and which you can watch over there) and her weird life and those controversial comments she made last year about gay men and parade floats and the conversation is passionate and interesting... then I made the mistake of skimming Gawker's comment section and ugh, people do not seem to agree. But then Gawker's comment section is always exhausting, so I don't know why i let my eyes wander down there in the first place.

--- And Finally, this teaser for Netflix's upcoming Wet Hot American Summer spin-off series slash prequel thing is everything I wanted it to be times ten. Gimme! Gimme gimme!
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Today's Fanboy Delusion

Today I'd rather be...

... having a protein Schaech.

Oh god, that pun. Get a load of that pun. Somebody should shoot me in the face for that pun. I should be discharged for that one. Come again? Okay, okay, I'll finish. We already climaxed anyway.

Did you guys know Gregg Araki's film The Doom Generation is turning 20 thus year? Not until October, but still - earlier today I talked about the fun I had 25 years ago seeing Gremlins 2 in a theater; who could've thought that just five years after that I'd have gone from getting my kicks with silly rubber puppets hitting each other with mallets to getting my kicks watching Johnathon Schaech lick jizz off his hand? Ahh the wondrous change our teenage years represent.

We need to start a petition to get The Doom Generation onto blu-ray. Anyway all that aside as you can see I've gotten a little bit behind with sharing Johnathon's endless Twitter selfies (and other assorted photos) so that's where all of this is actually headed. Hit the jump for more...

Quote of the Day

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Once in awhile something comes along on the internet that is so tailored to your specifics that you think maybe they made it just for you - this piece at Vulture chatting with nine actors about their famous death scenes is one of those times for me. When I was reading it in bed last night I wouldn't let my boyfriend sleep, I was so busy reciting every bit of it, it delighted me so. They talked to Betty Buckley and Piper Laurie about Carrie, they talked to PJ Soles about Halloween, they talked to Rose McGowan about Scream, they talked to the girls who get burnt up in the tanning beds in Final Destination 3... I mean, come on! The whole thing's worth your time but PJ Soles made me laugh the hardest talking about her toplessness...

"John Carpenter said, because it was a bedroom scene, "Would you be comfortable with just a flash?" He asked me very gently, "If you don't want to do it, that's fine, I understand, but if we could get some, get something ..." I don't think they needed [nudity], I think he just thought it might add to my character and be kind of cute, you know? So it seemed okay to do that, and of course my parents were horrified [laughs], but it seemed okay. Looking back on it now it's OK, because, wow, that's what I used to look like! I don't know what happened to my boobs. They got bigger + bigger, and now I look like my aunt."

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Not With A Bang

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Ooh this is nifty news right here - the Museum of Art and Design here in New York City will be doing the very first American retrospective (how is that possible?) of Gregg Araki's films at the end of September. They're showing everything, from The Living End to Kaboom, including the fabled but never aired pilot of his series This is How the World Ends, which he called "Twin Peaks for MTV." Araki will be there for a talk, too. Check out the schedule here.

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I Am Link

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--- Get Stalked - I've spoken about the "Meet the Lady" show here in NYC before - it's where I got to be in the almighty presence of Beth Grant, for starters. This Friday there's another edition all about Stalker Cinema (Fatal Attraction et al) which will no doubt be the best thing to do in NYC on Friday, you should all come. Buy tickets here! Show creator Tom Blunt talked to Fangoria all about it over here. Sad news though - the place that held the show, the 92YTribeca, is shuttering its doors, so the show post-this-week is homeless. Somebody offer up a grand space worthy of the Meet the Lady spectacle immediately! I gotta have my monthly fix!

--- Forgotten Fish - Pixar has officially announced the Finding Nemo sequel for 2015 - it's to be called Finding Dory and it will find the same ol' folks finding Dory instead of Nemo, I am supposing. All the ol' voice actors will return, no doubt.

--- Play Dirty - The Playlist has a few new pictures from Mud, director Jeff Nichols' follow-up to the brilliant Take Shelter, and I'll link you on over since shirtless McConaughey is involved. I do wanna see this though.

--- Eventual Heroism - The second Avengers movie will film by the end of 2013 slash the start of next year in the same studio in London where a bunch of the other Marvel movies - Thor 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy - are filming, too. It's not slated to come out until May of 2015 so patience will have to be our main virtue, I suppose. Slash has some Marvel-centric concept art too.

--- Darker Than Dark - So much good dashed so quickly - I was excited about Dark Places, the adaptation of the Gillian Flynn book set to star Charlize Theron. I finally read Flynn's other book Gone Girl and I very much liked it, and Charlize is Charlize. S'all good! but now that dreaded thing called Chloe Moretz has dug her claws into it and all I can do is SIGH SO HARD.

--- May Day - Over at The Film Experience Deborah is talking The Wicker Man (the original film) for (belated) Easter, and I will take note whenever anybody's talking The Wicker Man, because that is a movie worth talking about all the time.

--- Rose Hot - And speaking of belated holidays, here's Joe Reid talking about the always awesome Jawbreaker in honor of April Fool's Day yesterday.

--- And finally as I mentioned earlier, it's only two days until Hannibal starts! There's bound to be sheer tonnage of interviews with Bryan Fuller and his stars this week, but you shouldn't miss this chat with Bryan over at IndieWire where they praise the show as being possibly the best thing he's ever made (highest praise indeed) and then they get some info out of him on what his Pushing Daisies movie would look like if a Kickstarter campaign were to materialize for that. Zombies!
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Read My Lips

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What did she say?

(Also happy birthday, Rose McGowan!)

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Who Wore It Best?

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Amputee hotness?

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poll by twiigs.com

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All this banter about Angelina Jolie's wayward gam got me thinking.

It also kept reminding me of this amazing bit from Frankenhooker.
This post is dedicated to the memory of Luis Buñuel.