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.

5 Off My Head: Threesome Movies

I know I've told this story here before but in 1994 when the movie Threesome was released I was still very much a closeted high schooler, but I had to see it. HAD to.  This was before the internet so anything with any hint of gay content coming anywhere near my small upstate New York cow town was extremely rare. And yet here was this movie opening at our recently built five theater multiplex! I had to be there! So I sneaked into a screening one night... and bumped into one of my best friends from church. There with her current boyfriend. Her current boyfriend who I had done a little light fooling around with a few years previous. And she insisted on us all sitting together. It was an utterly mortifying experience for me, and probably drove me deeper into the closet for another six months lol. Oh well! 

Anyway threesome movies! They're a good topic for today because of Luca Guadagnino's Challengers being the number one movie in the country, and also totally ruling. So here are five of my favorites!

5 of my Fave Threesome Movies

3 (Tom Tykwer, 2010) 

Design For Living (Ernst Lubitsch, 19833)

The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003) 

Y Tu Mama Tambien (Alfonso Cuarón, 2001)

Splendor (Gregg Araki, 1999)

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What are your favorite threesome movies?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Cloud Atlas (2012)

Robert Frobisher: Sixsmith. I climb the steps of the Scott Monument every morning and all becomes clear. Wish I could make you see this brightness. Don't worry, all is well. All is so perfectly, damnably well. I understand now that boundaries between noise and sound are conventions. All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended. One may transcend any convention if only one can first conceive of doing so. Moments like this, I can feel your heart beating as clearly as I feel my own, and I know that separation is an illusion. My life extends far beyond the limitations of me.

I didn't like the film of Cloud Atlas when it came out ten years ago this October, but I listen to bits of its swoon-worthy score every so often and begin to convince myself that maybe I'm a fool... well I know I'm a fool, but with regards to this particular instance maybe more than usual? Anyway post-Sense8 where I've grown a better firmer affection for the Wachowskis brand of sentimental hamminess I think maybe I'd appreciate Cloud Atlas more, and think revisiting it makes some sense. What are y'all's feelings about the movie? If nothing else...

... there's Ben Whishaw and James D'Arcy gaying it up to look forward to, right? Anyway maybe you're asking yourselves why I'm talking about this movie, if its tenth anniversary isn't until October? No it's not just so I could post that gif of Ben & James being kissy, although I clearly made sure to go there. No it's because it's the 57th birthday of the film's handsome co-director Tom Tykwer, he of Run Lola Run legend -- you know I just realized that Tykwer also made the movie Perfume: The Story of a Murderer which was I do believe the first thing I ever saw Ben Whishaw in? Which makes me realize that Tom & Ben have some history. Which makes me... think further thoughts. Oh my. On that note here after the jump are a few pictures of the two together that I'm appreciating differently in light of my new favorite fantasy...

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 1999

Well the day has finally arrived! The day I have dreaded among all my "Siri Says" series days! Today when I asked my telephone to give me a number between 1 and 100 she responded with the number "99" meaning I've finally got to dive face-first into my favorites from The Movies of 1999, aka the greatest year of filmmaking probably any of us will see in our lifetimes. (Also can I just say that it's super weird to me to think this was 22 years ago now and there are people on this here internet who weren't actually even alive to see it? WTF)

Anyway we knew pretty fast that 1999 was an insane year, quality-wise -- the first big series I did here on MNPP was about how incredible 1999 was, in 2006. Or anyway I knew. I gots my finger on the pulse, yo! Ahem. Anyway 1999 has been talked to death by this point, I don't have a lot to say about it besides, "Wowza!" But before I get to my immense list -- I am naming my 20 favorites because the year demands it -- there's one other piece of business (because this post wasn't already enough work). Whenever I finish an entire decade for our Siri Series I link to all ten years therein. (See also the 1970s, aka the only other decade I have finished.) Well with today's post I've just finished the 1990s! Here's links:

Here are my favorite movies of 1990

Here are my favorite movies of 1991

Here are my favorite movies of 1992

Here are my favorite movies of 1993

Here are my favorite movies of 1994

Here are my favorite movies of 1995

Here are my favorite movies of 1996

Here are my favorite movies of 1997

Here are my favorite movies of 1998

And now without further blathering I give you...

My Favorite Movies of 1999

Go

(dir. Doug Liman)

-- released on April 9th 1999 -- 

Being John Malkovich

(dir. Spike Jonze)

-- released on December 3rd 1999 -- 

The Blair Witch Project

(dir. Myrick & Sánchez)

-- released on July 30th 1999 -- 

The Talented Mr. Ripley

(dir. Anthony Minghella)

-- released on December 25th 1999 -- 

Magnolia

(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

-- released on December 17th 1999 -- 

Fight Club

(dir. David Fincher)

-- released on October 15th 1999 -- 

Election

(dir. Alexander Payne)

-- released on May 7th 1999 -- 

Run Lola Run

(dir. Tom Tykwer)

-- released on June 18th 1999 -- 

Galaxy Quest

(dir. Dean Parisot)

-- released on December 25th 1999 -- 

The Matrix

(dir. The Wachowskis)

-- released on March 31st 1999 -- 

The Virgin Suicides

(dir. Sofia Coppola)

-- released on May 19th 1999 -- 

Ravenous

(dir. Antonia Bird)

-- released on March 19th 1999 -- 

All About My Mother

(dir. Pedro Almodovar)

-- released on November 24th 1999 -- 

eXistenZ

(dir. David Cronenberg)

-- released on April 23rd 1999 -- 

Eyes Wide Shut

(dir. Stanley Kubrick)

-- released on July 16th 1999 -- 

Dick

(dir. Andrew Fleming)

-- released on August 4th 1999 -- 

The Straight Story

(dir. David Lynch)

-- released on October 15th 1999 -- 

The Limey

(dir. Steven Soderbergh)

-- released on October 8th 1999 -- 

Sleepy Hollow

(dir. Tim Burton)

-- released on November 19th 1999 -- 

Audition

(dir. Takashi Miike)

-- released on  October 2nd 1999 -- 

-----------------------------------------

Runners-up: The Sixth Sense (dir. M. Night Shyamalan), Toy Story 2 (dir. John Lasseter), Three Kings (dir. David O. Russell), October Sky (dir.), South Park: Bigger Longer and Uncut (dir. Trey Parker), Girl Interrupted (dir. James Mangold), The End of the Affair (dir. Neil Jordan), In Dreams (dir.Neil Jordan), Splendor (dir. Gregg Araki), Cruel Intentions (dir. Roger Kumble)...

... Jawbreaker (dir. Darren Stein), Office Space (dir. Mike Judge), A Walk on the Moon (dir. Tony Goldwyn), Notting Hill (dir. Mike Newell), Summer of Sam (dir. Spike Lee), Lake Placid (dir. Steve Miner), Drop Dead Gorgeous (dir. Michael Patrick Jann), Trick (dir. Jim Fall), Deep Blue Sea (dir. Renny Harlin)...

... The Iron Giant (dir. Brad Bird), Stir of Echoes (dir. David Koepp), House on Haunted Hill (dir. William Malone), Topsy Turvy (dir. Mike Leigh), Ride With the Devil (dir. Ang Lee), Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (dir. Shusuke Kaneko), The Mummy (dir. Stephen Sommers), But I'm a Cheerleader (dir. Jamie Babbit)

Never Seen: Mansfield Park (dir. Patricia Rozema), For the Love of the Game (dir. Sam Raimi), Man on the Moon (dir. Milos Forman), She's All That (dir. Robert iscove), 10 Things I Hate About You (dir. Gil Junger), Tarzan (dir. Chris Buck), Tumbleweeds (dir. Gavin O'Connor), The Insider (dir. Michael Mann), Never Been Kissed (dir. Raja Gosnell), An Ideal Husband (dir. Oliver Parker)...

... Buena Vista Social Club (dir. Wim Wenders), Music of the Heart (dir. Wes Craven), Bowfinger (dir. Frank Oz), Flawless (dir. Joel Schumacher), Titus (dir. Julie Taymor), Jesus' Son (dir. Alison Maclean), Ratcatcher (dir. Lynne Ramsey), Analyze This (dir. Harold Ramis), Payback (dir. Brian Helgeland), American Movie (dir. Chris Smith)

-----------------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 1999?

From Mackay To Munich

Okay okay okay, instead of refreshing Twitter for the 10,000th time today I am gonna try to write a post! Let's see how this goes! Ahem. This is me clearing my throat. Or you know, the throats in my fingers. Because I am typing. (God it's going great already.) George Mackay has had a new film announced! Moving on up from the WWI of his Best-Picture-nom last year 1917 Mackay's now primed to star in the WWII thriller Munich -- and I do hope they change the title because we already have that Munich where Eric Bana cried while orgasming, that's plenty -- for The Crown director Christian Schwochow. They might not change the title though because it's based on a book by bestseller-list-mainstay Robert Harris and they might not want to confuse his fans? 

(thx Mac) Anyway this Munich is about an emergency conference set up in 1938 by the British PM (played by Jeremy Irons) between a British civil servant (Mackay) and a German diplomat (Jannis Niewöhner) who are old friends, seeing if they can avoid The War. (Something tells me it doesn't work!) Even more exciting than those boys are the two female cast-members announced, though -- there's Toni Erdmann legend Sandra Hüller...

... and there's Babylon Berlin actress Liv Lisa Fries, and if you're unaware I am a maaaassive Babylon Berlin fan. She kicks ass. (Gah I hope we get another season soon.) Anyway in summation here are some (occasionally NSFW) photos of actor Jannis Niewöhner, who in case you were unaware you should be rooting for this film to have a gay subplot where Mackay & Niewöhner are actually former lovers who fall back into bed with great sweaty ease, after the jump...

15 Off My Head: Siri Says 1998

.

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 -- 

---------------------------------------

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)

---------------------------------------

What are your favorite movies of 1998?

.