Who Wore It Best?

I am ashamed to admit I didn't think of this myself first, nor in a timely fashion (i.e. when The Iron Claw came out last year), so go thank this person on Twitter for realizing that Zac Efron wears the same yellow mesh tank top in that movie that Lena Dunham wore in a memorable scene on Girls. Anyway I'm pretty sure I have a clue which way this poll will go (pretty sure!) but how could I not ask:

online polls

Let's Hear It For The Paperboy

Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman are reuniting in a movie for Netflix this weekend called A Family Affair, for the first time since Lee Daniels' The Paperboy in 2012... so naturally I had to write about The Paperboy. How could I not? Head on over to Mashable where I make the case in this movie's defense -- I genuinely think it's Daniels' best movie, and preciesly because of the way it deliberately wields camp. We should appreciate Daniels more dammit!

Good Morning, World

As I said precisely one week ago at just around this same time -- no I might not be a fan of the movie The Iron Claw but that's still not keeping me from continuing to post set photos dammit. These two come via A24's Insta -- there are a couple more there if you're curious. All I know is that (as I also said elsewhere earlier) the below photo is the 2024 energy that I am going for in a nutshell. Let's make it happen, people!

Pics of the Day

I can't recall if I'm on the record here on MNPP itself about the fact that I was pretty disappointed by Sean Durkin's new movie The Iron Claw (I did tweet about it) -- I was really looking forward to it  given Durkin's fantastic previous movies (Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest, that is) and its exciting cast, plus the trailer showcased its clearly gorgeous cinematography. Well that last part works, at least. And several members of the cast give it their all -- I personally thought Harris Dickinson and Holt McCallany were best in show, but I also thought Zac Efron was legitimately awful and that is not, very much not, a popular opinion among people who've seen the movie (he's getting cover stories about deserving awards attention ffs) -- so whadda I know? Anyway after those Jeremy Allen White photos for Calvin Klein yesterday I kind feel like staring at Jeremy Allen White again today, and I think y'all understand. So here are some gorgeous PR photos for The Iron Claw that've been making the rounds thanks to set photographer Devin Oktar Yalkin. Hit the jump for 'em...

Pic of the Day

Yet another gloriously gratuitous recreation of an original Von Erich family portrait by the actors in the forthcoming bio-pic The Iron Claw -- see the original here -- that proves how the casting of unrelated actors can get around all of those icky incest feelings we might be feeling otherwise in a movie about three wrestling brothers and their pops. I love getting the go-ahead for my pervy thoughts!

Pic of the Day

(click to embiggen) This promotional image of Harris Dickinson, Jeremy Allen White and Zac Efron in Sean Durkin's forthcoming biographical wrestling drama  The Iron Claw is exactly what this Friday needed. (via) Watch the trailer here if you missed it. This sausage fest is out on December 22nd, so we can all stuff our stockings with these three, how joyous.

The Time For Dickinson Is Now

It seems kind of like movie studios are trying to cram all of their events into this here week and a half before Thanksgiving and the holidays kick off proper, so my schedule this week is blazing crazy -- this is me giving you forewarning that I've got a couple of half-days happening and it might be a lil' ghosty round these parts. Anyway it begins tonight with me seeing Sean Durkin's The Iron Claw, the wrestling brothers movie that stars Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White and that beautiful young person Harris Dickinson seen above -- here's the trailer if you missed it, and even more importantly here's the sexy ass photoshoot of those three actors in EW last week. 

And since I love to show off (alongside that I'm always just genuinely surprised that I get to do this kind of thing now) the other movies I'm seeing before Thanksgiving will be (deep breath) Eli Roth's Thanksgiving, Ridley Scott's Napoleon, Um Tae-hwa's South Korean disaster flick Concrete Utopia starring Lee Byung-hun, Wonka with whatshisbutt, The Color Purple musical, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Godzilla Minus One (wooooo!), and J.A. Bayona's retelling of the Alive story called Society of the Snow.  That's a gigantic heap of movies y'all. By the time I'm eating turkey I'm going to be misremembering Fantasia Barrino fighting Godzilla and Joaquin Phoenix becoming a cannibal. 

Surprisingly easy to watch this without sound, huh #theironclaw pic.twitter.com/l9wOsDH3wU

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) November 13, 2023

Do Dump or Marry: 3 Wrestling Bros

This was a pretty obvious post for me to do two days ago when the photoshoot of The Iron Claw stars Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, and Harris Dickinson dropped in EW -- the fact that I didn't do it then I am blaming on Jeremy Allen White's abs. I was distracted. (See the entire photo-shoot here.) The Iron Claw, which was directed by the great Sean Durkin of Martha Marcy May Marlene fame, tells the infamous true-life story of the Von Erich pro-wrestling family -- I posted the trailer right here; it's out on December 22nd. All that said I suppose that leaves the obvious I missed two days ago -- with  Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, and Harris Dickinson standing in front of you which one would you throw against the ropes for a single spectacular night of passion (do), which would you toss out of the ring altogether (dump), and which would you slap a big belt on and strap yourself to forever (marry)? Answer in the comments!

Jeremy Allen White One Time... Plus More!

ETA and I knew I was jumping the gun with this one -- I posted it without even knowing where it'd come from (a random tweet alerted me to it) but when I saw where it did come from... hoo boy. It's from Entertainment Weekly's cover shoot for The Iron Claw, Sean Durkin's wrestling movie starring White alongside Harris Dickinson and Zac Efron, and EW shot all three of the boys together, and... hoo boy. I've got the entire shoot after the jump... hoo boy...

Drop That Claw

The trailer for Sean Durkin's family wrestling drama The Iron Claw put on its finest silken panties and was unveiled this morning -- the words "family wrestling drama" aren't typically my bag, but the words "Sean Durkin" (director of Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest) sure are. Not to mention the film stars Jeremy Allen White and Zac Efron and Harris Dickinson (who I never once recognized...

... in this trailer) as the wrestling brothers.  Also a drawing point! Those three in their lil' wrestling trunks. Also the film looks gorgeously lensed, with lots of rich blacks and golds -- Durkin is working with DP Mátyás Erdély, who also shot The Nest (one of the most underrated looking films of the past decade); as a sidenote Erdély also shot Foe with Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan, the movie that just got terrible reviews out of NYFF, but I think everybody agreed (me included) that it is a very good looking mess. Anyway obviously I'm seeing this -- y'all watch the trailer and tell me what you think:

The Iron Claw is out on December 22nd.

Pics of the Day

I have no idea if this picture is new or old but I saw it floating around on social media today and it's new to me -- that's Harris Dickinson, Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, and Stanley Simons in Sean Durkin's next movie The Iron Claw, about a pro-wrestling family of brothers -- I just did a search and apparently I somehow have never posted about this movie here even though I've been very much aware of it for many many months? I don't know. Anyway what got my attention immediately was Durkin -- I will follow the director of Martha Marcy May Marlene and The Nest anywhere (and yes I think The Nest, which unfairly fell through the cracks during the early portion of the pandemic, is equally fantastic -- here's my review). Next of importance was Dickenson, who I will also follow anywhere at this point. Then there's Efron -- the important point was the "pro-wrestler" bit with him...

... of course. Blessings if he surprises us, but I don't look to him for "performances." Anyway when I'd first heard about this movie way back I hadn't watched The Bear yet so I didn't know -- I didn't know! -- how I'd come to feel about Jeremy Allen White. But I have now watched The Bear (well everything except the finale of the 2nd season so no spoilers, I didn't have time to finish it before my trip) and now I know how I feel about Jeremy and it ain't nothing!

Yeesh! As for Stanley Simons I have no idea who he is but I am open to finding out on Christmas, which is when The Iron Claw is set to come out (via A24). But since we're here let's, uhh, share two more pictures of Jeremy out running around L.A. last week:

Getting Nailed By Michael Fassbender, Etc

Netflix dropped a trailer this morning teasing all of their 2023 slate and the only one we True Cineastes (TM) took notice of was David Fincher's The Killer starring Michael Fassbender -- even though we all just lived through Mank, even! (I kid, I kid, I thought Mank was fine.) But The Killer is more in tune with we tend to love about Fincher -- namely killin' and style and anti-hero shit. I was sold with the return of Michael Fassbender obviously, after an excruciatingly long absence off our screens, but the shot of him in the five seconds of Killer footage weilding a nail-gun in front of bookshelves seems as especially tailored to my interests as that worker's uniform is to Fassy's sleek form. 

Something something bookshelves something something getting nailed by Michael Fassbender #TheKiller pic.twitter.com/rfiRvlt21n

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 18, 2023

Anyway there are actually other projects of note that Netflix has coming this year -- I think The Pain Hustlers starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans and Catherine O'Hara looks good, and while the glimpses we get of A Family Affair in the trailer are really broad and wacky-seeming (that's the one starring Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron), the movie was directed by Richard LaGravenese, who blessed the world with Living Out Loud back in the day. So, you know, let's pay attention.

(See my previous post about this movie here.) Then there is Maestro, Bradley Cooper's biopic of Leonard Bernstein (see all of my previous posts on that one here), which I'm not sold on (given I fucking hated Cooper's Star is Born and all) but which will if nothing else involve Bradley and Matt Bomer kissing and possibly more. A bright side! And speaking of gay...

... there's also Rustin, the long awaited bio-pic of gay black civil rights hero Bayard Rustin starring Colman Domingo. A story extraordinarily overdue in the telling, starring one of our current best and overdue-for-his-moment actors (openly gay to boot) -- this one should be a big deal, hopefully. We love you, Colman! Bring this baby home! (In related news there's also Shirley, a bio-pic of Shirley Chisolm starring Regina King! Score! The final title from Netflix's press release (not glimsped in the trailer) that caught my eye -- "UNTITLED WES ANDERSON / ROALD DAHL FILM" with no date except 2023. Those things fall under my interests though. Anyway here's that trailer, tell me in the comments what you're looking forward to:

Zac Efron One Time

Does Zac have a stache?

I think Zac might have a stache. (via)

Living Out Efron

Oh I missed some amazing news yesterday! And even better -- it's amazing news that gives me an excuse to post that picture of Zac Efron! Double amazing. Although Zac and his pecs aren't the reason I'm actually excited about this news -- they're a perky perk to be sure, but not the main course of it. The main course is the news that Richard LaGravenese, the writer-director of one of my favorite movies Living Out Loud from 1998, is writing and directing a new movie! It's an as-of-now untitled rom-com about a mother and daughter  -- played by Nicole Kidman and Joey King -- and "a surprise romance" involving King's "movie star boss" who will one assumes be played by Efron. And yes if you're putting the two with the other two Kidman + Efron also makes this a Paperboy reunion too! Hot damn -- pee on me, I must be dreaming!

Good Morning, World

Blessings, salutations, happy thoughts and feelings to Interview Magazine for getting now openly-gay comedian and actor Jerrod Carmichael stripped down to his skivvies for this new photoshoot! I'll admit that I was only vaguely aware of Carmichael before he revealed he's a big ol' dick-sucker same as me in his most recent comedy special Rothaniel (now on HBO, go watch it!) but I loved that special so much he can now count me as a fan. Lucky him! Y'all suck a dick and tell me about it and I'll be your fan, too! Anyway turns out I had seen Carmichael act in a couple of things before -- he's in the two Neighbors movies, and I did see his movie On the Count of Three at Sundance last year because his co-star is Christopher Abbott and I apparently see everything starring Christopher Abbott now. Anyway that movie's pretty good and he's pretty good in it, and it's now on Apple+ if you'd like to partake. But definitely watch Rothaniel if you haven't yet -- it's a very moving piece of theater that I think has the possibility to touch a lot of people that might not have been touched otherwise. And speaking of wanting to be touched, hit the jump for more photos of Jarrod...

5 Off My Head: Siri Says 2012

Three weeks right in a row has got to be some sort of record for our "Siri Says" series -- it's been awhile since I haven't let my attention slip in between. But here we are, for the third time in as many weeks, asking the little woman inside of my telephone to give me a number between 1 and 100 and then name my favorite five movies from the corresponding year. Today, on the second try, Siri said the number 12, and so today we will skip ourselves back not too far, just to The Movies of 2012.

This year is of course recent enough that I already did this once -- you can check out our so-called "Golden Trousers" awards for 2012 at this link. Those were some substantial Pantys! 2012 represents the peak of my awards-posting -- I posted a ton that year, more than any before or since. What I remember about that is it blew me the fuck out. There's no need for almost 70 posts! I've learned to condense them, thankfully -- my sanity thanks me anyway. 

I was curious to see if my original list of favorite 2012 movies had shifted at all in the past nine years and lo, it has, although not a ton. What surprised me the most is how few 2012 movies I've re-watched since 2012? Ones that placed rather high at the time I just haven't seen since. So there's some shuffling off my head today, mostly due to my memory being hazy, but truth be told if I haven't had the desire to re-watch the movie in eight years that might say something about my love for the movie, right? Right. Anyway, the list as it stands today...

My 5 Favorite Movies of 2012

1. Moonrise Kingdom

(dir. Wes Anderson)

-- released on June 29th 2012 --

2. Holy Motors

(dir. Leoz Carax)

-- released on July 4th 2012 --

3. ParaNorman

(dir. Chris Butler & Sam Fell)

-- released on August 17th 2012 --

4. The Master

(dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

-- released on September 21st 2012 --

5. Rust and Bone

(dir. Jacques Audiard)

-- released on May 17th 2012 --

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

Runners-up: Amour (dir. Michael Haneke), The Cabin in the Woods (dir. Drew Goddard), Cosmopolis (dir. David Cronenberg), Lincoln (dir. Steven Spielberg), Magic Mike (dir. Steven Soderbergh), The Paperboy (dir. Lee Daniels), Compliance (dir. Craig Zobel), Take This Waltz (dir. Sarah Polley), The Impossible (dir. JA Bayona)...

... Wuthering Heights (dir. Andrea Arnold), Killing Them Softly (dir. Andrew Dominik), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (dir. Stephen Chbosky), Dark Horse (dir. Todd Solondz), Bullhead (dir. Michael R. Roksam), The Wise Kids (dir. Stehen Cone), The Bay (dir. Barry Levinson), Zero Dark Thirty (dir. Kathryn Bigelow)

Never seen: Hysteria (dir. Tanya Wexler), Goon (dir. Michael Dowse), Jiro Dreams of Sushi (dir. David Gelb), Hyde Park on Hudson (dir. Roger Michell), Quartet (dir. Dustin Hoffman)

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

What are your favorite movies of 2012?

Taron Egerton Four Times

.

Not that I've exactly been terribly worried about celebrities managing to stay safe during the pandemic -- if anybody's got the resources it's them -- but I do like the thought of Taron Egerton sitting at home reading a pile of books, and so I appreciate that his new chat with GQ plopped some homey images of that sort into my head. They also ask him about the rumor that he could be taking over the X-Men character of Wolverine from his buddy Hugh Jackman, which he says is all talk. He wouldn't be a bad choice? It'll probably end up being Zac Efron. Anyway hit the jump for three more photos...
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Pantys 19: The Gratuities

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Well it wouldn't be MNPP without some ogling of the menfolk, now would it? We've already taken stock of our favorite male and our favorite female performers of the year, but what about their butts? Butts, bits, in betweens. What's the movies without sex? Even David Cronenberg knows that. That said some years I've gone way overboard with listing the year's Gratuities -- I mean look how I went all out in 2010 and in 2011 -- but this year I'm keeping it, like the rest of this year's Pantys, somewhat under control. My 13 faves (I couldn't narrow it down to 10, I just couldn't) and then 10 runners-up. It's still a lot of naked guys, y'all. And let's get on 'em!

My 13 Favorite Gratuities of 2019

Aaron Taylor-Johnson, A Million Little Pieces

-- see more here --

Juan Barberini and Ramon Pujol,

End of the Century

Tom Mercier, Synonyms

Robert Pattinson, The Lighthouse

Jack Reynor, Midsommar

.

There is life before seeing this picture of Chris Evans & Alessandro Nivola & Michiel Huisman on the set of Red Sea Diving Resort, and there is life after, and I never want to go back to that horrible Before place ever ever again (pic via https://t.co/QbwjXcQNW2) pic.twitter.com/TpFxcQhv8w

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) September 30, 2019

.

Chris Evans, Michiel Huisman and 

Alessandro Nivola, Red Sea Diving Resort

-- see more here -- 

.

Felix Maritaud, Sauvage / Wild

Naoki Kobayashi, Earthquake Bird

-- see more here --

.

Andrew Garfield, Under the Silver Lake

-- see more here --

Jake Gyllenhaal, Velvet Buzzsaw

-- more here and here --

César Vicente, Pain and Glory

Kelvin Harrison Jr, Waves

Florian David Fitz and Matthias Schweighöfer, 

100 Things -- see lots more here --

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

10 Runners-up

Taron Egerton & Richard Madden, Rocketman

Christopher Abbott, Piercing 

Matthias Schoenaerts, The Mustang

CM Punk, Girl on the Third Floor

Zac Efron, Extremely Wicked...
Shia LaBeouf, Peanut Butter Falcon

Carloto Cotta, Diamantino

Juan Pablo Olyslager, Temblores

Matthew McConaughey, Serenity

Vincent Lacoste and Pierre Deladonchamps, Sorry Angel

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

What were some of your faves in 2019?

.