Good Morning, World

We have writer-director Sebastián Silva to thank slash blame for putting Jordan Firstman onto my radar with his hilarious black comedy Rotting in the Sun (my review here); Firstman's friendship with legend-in-the-making Rachel Sennott has also kept him in my sightline as well. Not that I'm mad about any of that -- I just don't know that I'd have come across (heh) his social-media-based comedy stuff otherwise. But Jordan's whole aggressively gay furball exhibitonist thing is indeed catnip to me, so I find myself happy that Interview Magazine got him to have an X-rated conversation with one of his Grindr hookups about his new comedy album -- we need this kind of horny distraction in the world right now. Or I do, at least. So thanks, Jordan! Hit the jump for a couple more photos...

MNPP's 20 Favorite Films of 2023

Since I leave for Sundance in a couple of days -- have I mentioned that I'm going to Sundance enough yet? I'm going to Sundance! -- I have decided that it'll be the best for us all if I just go ahead and drop my favorite movies of 2023 list right now without a lot (or more, anyway) hemming and hawing on it. Lord knows I could put this off for a few more weeks as I try to get around to some outstanding movies, and rearrange this list every single day as my erratic mood shifts like the breeze, but I think I'll prefer to just not have this hanging over my head as I start reviewing 2024 films. 

Anyway as I've stated already I think last year was a marvel of a year for movies -- excellence abounded. And while I'm cool on several of the ones that seem to racking up a lot of the established awards out there (Barbie is fine and The Holdovers is mediocre at best) there's a lot to love even on the mainstream stages, and several movies in my Top 20 will probably have Oscar nominations come Oscar nomination time. Hell I even like the Nolan movie -- it's only a runner-up on my list and my least favorite thing about it (Robert Downey Jr.'s performance) seems to be the thing marching straight to Oscar gold, but since we're talking one of my least favorite, most overrated filmmakers, this is something!

Yadda yadda I've put off the list as long as I can with my rambling

so let's just do it. Here are my 20 favorite movies of 2023!

20. De Humani Corporis Fabrica

(dir. Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel) -- my review

19. La Chimera (dir. Alice Rohrwacher) -- my review

18. Showing Up (dir. Kelly Reichardt) -- my review

17. El Conde (dir. Pablo Larraín) -- my review

16. Passages (dir. Ira Sachs) -- my review

15. Godland (dir. Hlynur Pálmason)

14. Past Lives (dir. Celine Song) 

13. Rotting in the Sun (dir. Sebastián Silva) -- my review

12. Beau is Afraid (dir. Ari Aster) -- my review

11. Godzilla Minus One (dir. Takashi Yamazaki) -- my review

10. Killers of the Flower Moon (dir. Martin Scorsese) -- my review 

9. Asteroid City (dir. Wes Anderson) -- my review

8. May December (dir. Todd Haynes) -- my review

7. Poor Things (dir. Yorgos Lanthimos) -- my review

6. Saltburn (dir. Emerald Fennell) -- my review

5. Skinamarink (dir. Kyle Edward Ball) -- my review

4. Afire (dir. Christian Petzold) -- my review

3. The Eight Mountains

(dir. Felix van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch) -- my review

2. The Zone of Interest (dir. Jonathan Glazer) -- my review

1. All Of Us Strangers (dir. Andrew Haigh) - my review

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Runners-up: The Killer, Anatomy of a Fall, Oppenheimer, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Eileen, A Thousand and One, Infinity Pool, You Hurt My Feelings, Silver Dollar Road, Will-o'-the-Wisp, Fallen Leaves, Full Time, Bottoms, Priscilla, Return To Seoul, Robot Dreams

The Former Year in Queer

I really didn't do much work over the holiday -- if you follow me on social media then you probably caught on that I spent the majority of my time going through the piles and piles of physical media that'd grown up around me and began the ongoing process of listing tons of stuff for sale on eBay -- but I did do one thing and it's a good important thing. I wrote up my list of favorite LGBTQ+ movies of 2023 for Pajiba -- click here and you can read that and it'll give you a good idea of where my head was at for the year since I haven't posted my actual Top 10 (or more likely 20) of the year yet. On that note I am 100% going to try and get that pounded out before I leave for Sundance in a couple of weeks, so stick around maybe.

Rot This

That there is Rotting in the Sun star and homosexual influencer Jordan Firstman summing up "Today's Mood" pretty well (especially after seeing those Christopher Abbott photos earlier) and so it's convenient Rotting in the Sun is out in theaters today -- two stones, one bird, or whatever. I saw the movie, from nasty baby director Sebastián Silva, back during Sundance at the start of this year -- you can read my review right here. It's nihilistic and mean spirited and horny and I happily slobber down every inch of it. And if you're not in a place where the movie's in theaters, do not fret -- it hits Mubi next week. And see all of my previous posts on the movie, which include the trailer and the noted-boner poster (I so need a copy of the poster), over here. I maintain that Silva is making movies today that feel dangerous and weird and gay as fuck like John Waters and Gregg Araki were back in the day -- viva cinema!

I Pecked a Pecker

MUBI needs to open a shop as forward thinking as A24 has because I would buy a copy of this poster for Sebastián Silva's Rotting in the Sun in a split fucking second. That is some hilarious and awesome art that's so perfect for the movie that I'm in awe. (Here is my review of RITS from Sundance.) I'm also kind of curious if this movie has gone before the MPA yet, because this is a movie that's much more explicit, gay-sexuality-wise, than ira Sachs' passages is, and MUBI has to release Passages unrated after the MPA gave that one an NC-17. MUBI is branding themselves as the sexytime studio, I guess! A smart business move! Anyway a new trailer for Rotting has arrived this week and it's extremely NSFW, just as the movie is, so be forewarned. This hits theaters on September 8th and it's absolutely fabulous, pitch black funny, go see it! 

Billy Do Be A Hero

Billy Magnussen is branching out! THR has word that he's about to direct his first movie (thx Mac) and it's giving me big Deliverance vibes. Never a bad vibe to get, especially if it makes me picture Billy wearing Burt Reynolds' slutty wetsuit vest thing. The movie is called The Ridge and it's about four friends (Magnussen alongside Lamorne Morris, Chace Crawford, and Jordan Firstman) who go on a Wyoming camping excursion that goes wrong. I've tweeted pictures of Billy & Chace...

If you're in L.A. you should probably know that Billy Magnussen & Chace Crawford are riding their bikes around while wearing spandex right now pic.twitter.com/Owu6UnXlvv

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) October 6, 2021

... hanging out before so maybe it was for this, and they're not the butt-buddies I'd been hoping for. Or maybe both things are true. Who's to say? Anything is possible! The other two in the cast -- I wasn't familiar with Firstman until I saw Sebastian Silva's comedy film Rotting in the Sun at Sundance back in January, which I loved. He's very funny in it as an unbearably obnoxious Insta-gay...

... but I have no idea where the fiction starts and ends there -- he seems genuinely unbearable, going by his social media presence. If it's all an Andy-Kaufman-esque character he's playing he is REAL committed. He's also unfortunately really hot, and he really knows it, which makes it all worse somehow. Anyway the only name I wasn't familiar with was Lamorne Morris, who I guess was on The New Girl and Fargo. And he is also incredibly sexy, as seen below. So Billy Magnussen continues being a hero. Thank you, Billy! Hit the jump for a trio of photos of Lamorne...

Do The Nasty

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So what are you guys planning on seeing this weekend? Steve Jobs is finally going nationwide and I highly recommend you see it, but in limited release (which might very well mean just here in New York City to be honest, I live in such a bubble I have no idea) you can maybe finally see Sebastian Silva's Nasty Baby with Silva himself (seen above) and Kristen Wiig, which lives up to its name and is really very fantastic, here's my review from way back. I wish this quote of mine had made it onto the posters:

"Girls In Extremis -- it is Hanna Horvath's Hostel."

I personally have gotten crazy behind with movies; I mean the fact that I haven't made it out to see Room yet is unspeakable, an abomination. I am overdue a face-slap, Brie Larson! Same goes for Beasts of No Nation, which has been angrily glaring at me from my Netflix account. I have a lot to do this weekend! What about you?

I Am Link

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--- Baby Maker - IndieWire has a wonderful chat with director Sebastian Silva over here - his new movie Nasty Baby, starring himself and Kristen Wiig, has apparently gotten some strange reception from the festival circuit, which he hilariously details. The movie sounds amazing, I hadn't heard anything about any of the walk-outs or anything, I'm even more excited than I was before. And I was excited before, not just because of Wiig, but because I loved Crystal Fairy tons and tons. Also he's seriously cute, who knew?

--- The Oscars Of Everything - I don't know how he finds the hours in the day for all of this but our pal Joe Reid's been on fire with the articles this week - here's a piece at The Atlantic on the disconnect between the Best Actress nominees and the movies their performances are in getting any correlating Oscar respect! Here's a piece at Slate on Joe's yearly project of seeing every single Oscar nominee wherein he ranks all of the movies from best to worst! (High placement of garbage like Birdman gives me slight agita, but I'll make due, especially with such a great number one.) And here's a piece at Vanity Fair on the nominees for Best Original Song in 1999, aka the greatest years of movies ever. Damn Joe, you're making me tired on your behalf!

--- Joke's On Us - It's amazing how quickly Jared Leto's able to make my skin crawl nowadays - in this new interview with Billboard magazine I went straight from "his beard does look lickable in that picture" to "oh my god shut that asshole up" in like half a second flat. He talks about wanting to gain weight for The Joker and then "vegan tacos" are mentioned and oh my god shut that asshole up.

--- Fall Guys - Taking a breather from the Oscars stuff for a hot second at The Film Experience Nathaniel wrote up some thoughts on a recent binge-watch of The Fall, that serial-killer starring the goddess Gillian plus that perfectly crafted set of abs with legs standing opposite her. I guess the second season is showing up on Netflix soon? They are good, you should watch them. I also wrote up some thoughts on the first season awhile back.

--- Dick Friendly - I suppose some other garbage dump for zombies will just fill in the hole that Two and a Half Men is leaving, having just aired its final episode last night, but I still feel some tension leaving the world now that it's gone. Ahhh. The air feels fresher today, doesn't it? Anyway point being here's Ashton Kutcher talking about his gigantic fake dick.

--- Serious Movie - I want to say it's been awhile since Oliver Stone's been relevant but he did flash Aaron Johnson's anus at us that one time not too long ago so me and Ollie, we're totally good. His movie about Edward Snowden starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who's clearly angling himself towards baity-roles these days (not mastur-baity, but awards-baity, that is) just picked up another hot piece, one Timothy Olyphant! I don't know if an Edward Snowden movie will find room for an anus flash, but let's cross our fingers and toes.

--- Milk The Dead - I wish I could figure out what character she played but an actress named Jill Marie Jones, who was apparently on American Horror Story: Asylum, just scored the leading lady role in Sam Raimi's upcoming Evil Dead television series. Oh wait I just googled it oh god gross I'd forgotten about this scene. You're a big pervert, Dylan McDermott.