RIP MIchelle Trachtenberg

Incredibly shocking and sad news today as we learn that Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl, Mysterious Skin and Harriet the Spy actress Michelle Trachtenberg has passed away at the far far far too young age of 39. I only started watching Buffy regularly in its fifth season (and had to go back and watch all the earlier seasons on DVD) so Michelle's character of Dawn never felt imposed on the show to me like it did to most people who watched the show from the start (of course that was part of the knowing wink of the character) -- anyway I was vehemently pro-Dawn and was always knocking back at the character's haters. I also got to interview Michelle in 2004 for the Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly -- I tried to find the interview online but it doesn't seem to be anywhere. I've only done two interviews in my entire life (the other one being Michael Fassbender because how could I say no to that) because I am not a natural conversationalist (which should read: cripplingly shy) but I remember Michelle being lovely and sweet and funny in our phone convo. Our deepest condolences go out to all the people who knew and loved her. With the possibility of a Buffy reboot ahead we now have to wonder how they'll address this. How very very sad.

Today's Mood

What a perfect photo of James Duval on the set of Nowhere (via)

You Know I Love Surprises!

The lovely folks over at Vinegar Syndrome have been making this transition towards the 2025 hellscape land softer than it ought to thanks to their dropping OF some truly substantial physical medias upon us -- last month they brought us the forever unreleased Diane Keaton. masterpiece Looking For Mr Goodbar in 4K, and this month they're gifting us with Gregg Araki's stoner comedy Smiley Face starring Anna Faris! If you've been around here at MNPP HQ for awhile then surely you've heard me going off about my love for this movie more than once -- I'm not a "Stoner Comedy" person in the slightest but I adore this one and the shitty DVD has been out-of-print for ages. Pre-order it at this link! It's the little things that will hopefully get us through these difficult times and if I have to devour an entire plate of pot cupcakes to do it then so be it.  

Happy Birthday, Gregg Araki

Heads Up, Happy People

Heads-up, happy people! The vast library of our beloved Criterion Collection is on sale on Amazon right now at 50% off! This will presumably be for the entire month of November as they do this to compete with the same sale at Barnes & Noble that typically starts a little later in the month. That means it also includes pre-orders for movies out before the end of November, which includes Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water, the original Godzilla in 4K, and Paper Moon in 4K! And of course it includes last month's barnstormer of an excellent drop with Todd Solondz' Happiness, a Val Lewton horror double-feature, All of Us Strangers, and that to-die-for Gregg Araki trilogy! And then there's the issue of that massive 40-film 40th anniversary box-set that Criterion is releasing on November 17th -- that's not priced at the full 50% off right now but it is priced at $400, so $10 a movie, which seems like a damn good deal already. Anyway point being click on those links and treat  yourselves to some movies, it will distract you from... [gestures wildly]

Mason Gooding Wants Your Sex

Another batch of names have been added to the cast of Gregg Araki's upcoming movie I Want Your Sex, and one of them is Scream hunk and MNPP fave Mason Gooding! Yes I cannot wait for Araki's lens to frame this slab of man -- Gregg will know how to do it. This is the movie that stars Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman as a May-December pairing whose entire calendar goes outta whack due to the power of their passion. I just came up with that plot description myself, I really should work in PR. Here is the way Deadline puts it:

"A provocative film blithely exploring desire, domination, and fantasy, I Want Your Sex asks, how far is too far? When fresh-faced Elliot (Hoffman) lands an exciting job for renowned artist, icon and provocateur Erika Tracy (Wilde), his fantasies come true as Erika taps him to become her sexual muse. But Elliot soon finds himself out of his depth as Erika takes him on a journey more profound than he ever could have imagined, into a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal and murder."

Also joining the cast are Johnny Knoxville, Daveed Diggs, Charlie XCX, Margaret Cho, and Chase Sui Wonders from Bodies Bodies Bodies, which is such an Araki-esque movie I'm just now realizing? Ooh why isn't Gregg working with Rachel Sennott??? My brain just exploded. They would be amazing together. Get to work on the next one right now, Gregg! Mason can come too!

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Totally F***ed Up (1993)

Patricia: Let me tell you what the problem with the stupid fucking world is. All the stupid people are breeding like mad having tens and tens of kids, while the cool people aren't having any! So, the population just keeps getting stupider and stupider! I mean, it's no wonder the whole world's going down the toilet.

The day I really never thought would come, has come -- today Criterion has released a 4K box-set of Gregg Araki's "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy" aka his 1993 movie Totally F***ed Up, his 1995 movie The Doom Generation, and his 1997 movie Nowhere. The latter two were extremely formative for yours truly -- the earliest one I didn't see until awhile later (it was hard to find) but adore just as much as the rest now. And now I've got all of them sitting on my shelf ready to watch at any moment, looking better than they ever have! Bless you, Criterion!

But today is truly, truly a legendary day at Criterion -- also out today on 4K blu is director Todd Solondz's 1998 masterpiece Happiness! Out of print now for several years, I can barely contain my excitement about sitting down to watch this brand new restoration of one of my absolute tip-top favorite movies of all time. Needless to say...

I Want Cooper's Sex

When I heard Gregg Araki was making a new movie I was very excited -- Araki is on my Gay Mount Rushmore and it's been an entire decade since he made a movie with White Bird in a Blizzard in 2014. Which is outrageous. When I heard the movie was set to star Olivia Wilde though I will admit I was a little bit... confused about how I felt. Because I've never really been a fan of hers -- it had nothing to do with the brouhaha surrounding her relationship with whatshisface; my indifference long pre-dated that nonsense. That said Wilde fits perfectly into the kind of actress that Araki loves -- almost alien in their beauty, and kind of cold. I could see him knowing how to use her well. Anyway the details on the movie came next -- it's going to be called I Want Your Sex and it's suppoesly about a young man awakening a ferocious sexual appetite in an older woman. Sounds right up Araki's alley. (And obviously it's a casting that's leaning into that whole whatshisname kerfuffle.) Whatever hottie would Araki cast as the horndog lothario, I wondered? Well I could have wondered for ten years straight and never gotten around to who he just cast -- Cooper Hoffmann, son of Phillip Seymour Hoffmann, who was so tremndously good in Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza but who never exactly screamed this casting here at me all the same. But fuck it, I'm into it, he's proved a terrific actor in PTA's film, and I love it when somebody unearths sex appeal from somewhere you're not looking for it. Surprise sexiness is the best kind! Bring it on, Coop!

Buy! Buy! Buy!

And now, for something totally different, let's talk about me (ha) -- I did another round of culling my physical media archives this past weekend and I have listed a great big heaping helping of awesomeness onto eBay for sale, so if you'd like to own a piece of me memorabilia (one way to look at it) or just, you know, some truly incredible movies, then click on over and buy some! Or make a reasonable bid, I tend to accept them (if you're not low-balling me that is). But in all seriousness most of this stuff is stuff I am getitng rid of because I've upgraded it to 4K, not because it's not good, so if you're fine with blu-ray or DVD then there is a wealth of incredibleness on sale over there right now. (And PS I'm going to do a second round of this over Labor Day too.) Including yes my like six month old blu-ray of The Doom Generation, which I'm ditching in anticipation of Criterion releasing their Araki box-set next month. 

And all of my Peter Strickland movies because I have that Curzon box-set of his movies now. It's some really excellent stuff at excellent prices and lord knows I could use the money -- this way instead of me begging for donations (although feel free!) you get something in return. Win win. I've also got tons of art books, movie posters, and vinyl soundtracks for sale too. And with that thus concludes today's moment of solicitation. Thanks for your business!

Quote of the Day

"... It was also a role without a love interest. The only love interest was weed and her mattress. So there was this liberation in wearing, essentially, pajamas. I guess it’s changing as I get older, but there was always that requirement at that time: The girls in the audience need to want to be best friends with you, and the guys want to fuck you, or whatever. That was always the mantra. I never really fit into that framework. I don’t know who really does. Your only fallibility can be clumsiness."

Bless Vulture and writer Matt Jacobs for getting Anna Faris to reflect back on one of her greatest roles, Jane in Gregg Araki's 2007 wonderful stoner-comedy Smiley Face -- read the whole thing here. I posted about this movie a billion times when it came out and ocassionally ever since but it really should be more beloved -- it gets funnier every time I rewatch it and believe me I have rewatched the shit out of it in the seventeen years (!!!) since it came out. Hell now that we're fiiiiinnally getting a box-set of Araki's "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy" this year I can move my physical-media demands (nee threats) over to this movie, which hasn't ever gotten a blu-ray release! Just an out-of-print DVD! Come on Frank, you know I love surprises!

Happiness Is a Stranger's Apocalypse

Apologies but y'all are going to have to scrape me off the floor before I can write this post with Criterion's September announcements -- this is the most aimed-straight-at-me batch of titles imaginable. It was like one slap with a brick across the face after another as I scanned down through the email announcement -- I couldn't even believe my eyes. I ran to Twitter to immediately scream about the title seen above (which we'll get to in a second) and then when I went back to the email I saw what else was in store and was like, "Momma get me my pills." This is just three simultaneous (wet) dreams coming true at once. I am in a state of happy shock. Allow me a moment to luxuriate in this pleasure...

Okay. Let's get to it. First up! If I went back and tried to find the first time I screamed at Criterion to release a box-set of Gregg Araki's "Teen Apocalypse Trilogy" it would be impossible because it was many many many moons ago and I have done it approximately ten million times since. I probably brought it up two to three times a year. Seeing it finally come to fruition is something I'd almost given up on! But then the movies got remastered last year and I began to think it might be a real possibility... and here we are. Totally F***ed Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere, given the proper love they have long deserved. We won! You can see all of the special features over at Criterion, where you can also buy the set -- and do that, buy one for everyone you know, because we need to let them know how happy this has made us. Just know the set is loaded with extras -- they even got the rare bird of Nathan Bexton to be on one of the commentaries! 

My insides are screaming, crying, throwing up, throwing gay ass 

confetti. I could end this post there and be ecstatic, but then...

... it turns out that Criterion is releasing Andrew Haigh's 2023 masterpiece All of Us Strangers on 4K in September too! My favorite movie of last year (here is my original review), which we'd been worried wasn't getting any kind of physical media release here in the U.S. (there is a U.K. blu-ray scheduled) because it was an Amazon movie and that cruel rumor had been going around. I had not a single inkling this was going to happen and every part of me is right now tingling. What a gorgeous surprise! And yet that wasn't even the biggest surprise of all, because...

... Todd Solondz's Happiness is also hitting 4K! HOLY SHIT!!! Do you understand now why my entire self is vibrating? This movie hasn't gotten a proper release since the age of DVD, and those DVDs have been out of print and fetching good sums of money for years now. And now suddenly we're moving right on up to 4K! This is one of my favorite movies of all time, I've seen it more times than I could count -- if you've somehow never managed to see it before (because it really has been a pain to see) my god are you in for a deranged dark treat. I quote this movie at least once a week...

... it's basically everything I want from the movies. And I'm also over the moon that they used Daniel Clowes' fantastic original art-work for the set's cover because how do you top that slice of perfection? It's iconic. Anyway with those three sets (containing five movies total) September 2024 is now etched into the fabric of time and reality as Peak Criterion. My gods. My stars! Oh and I should mention that as seen below they're also dropping 4Ks of both The Long Good Friday and Repo Man which are great and all, too. But let's be honest and obvious -- I am all about the above fireworks show of awesomeness. So, so, so all about! Today is a great day, my friends! Slip something in your tuna sandwich and celebrate! 

Araki Goes Wilde For Sex

If news of a new Gregg Araki movie drops and I don't post about it, does the new Gregg Araki movie exist? Fortunately yes -- that just means I'm a piece of shit with bad time management skills. I sent the news to myself on Thursday and then Friday ended up being a half-day -- anyway what am I amking excuses for myself for? Everybody pick up your lash -- I get as many as you like. I earned them. Now, that outta the way, the good stuff -- Gregg Araki has announced a new movie! Well he's trying to sell a new movie at Cannes anyway. Hopefully somebody bites. I'd bite but I have nothing to offer. Just bites. And those don't finance movies unfortunately. Or fortunately I suppose, depending on who's getting bitten and whether they like being bitten or not. Jesus, I'm a rambling one today. Anyway! Gregg Araki! Director of the so-called "Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy" that shaped so much of my twisted brain, and other movies and television programs too. Here is the new news, I will just quote it from Variety because I clearly cannot be trusted not to get sidetracked this morning:

"Gregg Araki is set to direct Olivia Wilde in his next feature, Black Bear’s provocative thriller “I Want Your Sex.” The film features an original script penned by Araki and Karley Sciortino (“Slutever,” “Now Apocalypse”) which blithely explores desire, domination and fantasy. 

When fresh-faced Elliot lands an exciting job for renowned artist, icon and provocateur Erika Tracy (Wilde), his fantasies come true as Erika taps him to become her sexual muse. But Elliot soon finds himself out of his depth as Erika takes him on a journey more profound than he ever could have imagined, into a world of sex, obsession, power, betrayal and murder."

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)

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

What are your favorite threesome movies?

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...

Avan Jogia Three Times

These photos were supposedly for Paper magazine back in May -- the interview is here but there are only a couple of the photos that I can find posted there? (There is one, not shared here, that contains the hint of a mesh t-shirt that I would like to see more of though.) The rest must've been shared in other locations. Anyway Avan is such walking sex! My god.

Avan Jogia Six Times

Another day, another magazine I've never heard of gifting us with photos of a beautiful actor -- these photos of Now Apocalypse star Avan Jogia come at us via a thing called Grumpy magazine (via)? Sure, why not. Anyway Avan looks diabolically dreamy and that's all that matters. (I hope Gregg Araki casts Avan again the next time he directs something!) Hit the jump for them all...

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.