Good Morning, World

Have any of you seen Two Hands, the 1999 Heath Ledger movie? I never have but I suddenly feel... inspired to. (Man he is hot in that photo.) The movie is turning 25 in a few days so the time seems right. I should do a Heath binge actually, there are a lot of his movies I've never seen. I feel like enough times has passed since his death now so it won't be as hard to watch him as it was once.

Brokeback Mounts a 4K Edition

We are inexplicably roaring toward the 20th anniversary of Brokeback Mountain next year and just in time to celebrate the film is getting remastered for top-shelf 4K sadness by the wonderful folks over at Kino Lorber -- click here to pre-order the disc, which is out on June 25th. I started this here website in 2005, just a few months before Brokeback came out, and I can sort of credit that movie with starting my "career" (such as it is) since writing about it was how I started making contacts and friends and gaining readers here on the internet. Hard to believe it's almost been two decades of this nonsense! But at least when movies like Brokeback or Call Me By Your Name come along they inspire me to maybe be a little less nonsensical and share something genuine with y'all. Awwww, feelings! G'bless. I haven't watched Brokeback since... well since they last screened it at FLC, I think in 2017? Honestly seeing it on the big screen is such an overwhelming experience and it'd lost none of its power -- it's not a movie I can watch often but I can't imagine this new 4K restoration won't make the big-screen rounds and I expect to be sitting there with my moist tissues all over again. 

Quote of the Day

"Back then, [‘Brokeback Mountain’] had a ceiling. We got a lot of support — up to that much... It has that feeling. I wasn’t holding a grudge or anything. It’s just how they were."

For some reason today IndieWire chatted with Ang Lee about Brokeback's bullshit Oscar loss for Best Picture to a piece of shit in 2005 -- the 20th anniversary's not til next year, guys! -- and he nails the fact that in 2005 they still weren't gonna go that gay yet. Look at all the LGBT actors who've won since then... crickets... anyway at the link he also tells a devastating story (which he laughs about now) about how a stage-hand kept him backstage after winning Best Director because everybody was assuming he was about to head right on back out for the Best Picture statue... SIGH. He might be able to laugh about it now but I am still coping.

Jake is Prime Beef

Oooh okay it's a "two Jake Gyllenhaal posts in a row" kinda day -- I can roll with that, even if it's a Monday. If we can redefine "a case of the Mondays" to mean "non-stop Jake day" then we'll have fixed the world. Anyway I am sure y'all recall that GQ Korea photo-shoot of Jake that I shared last week -- well they posted a video of the shoot over the weekend and unlike this morning when I skimped on making gifs for Aaron Taylor-Johnson, I did not skimp on the gifs this afternoon with Jake. 

It's a gif-o-rama! But gifs are not the entire reason we're here -- there is Jake News too! Well a rumor anyway, but a killer rumor we're hoping comes true. Deadline's reporting that the second season of Beef -- the show that starred Steven Yeun and Ali Wong and just spent all awards season racking up the awards -- is going to be about two warring couples, and those couples might be played by Charles Melton & Cailee Spaeny (so excellent in Priscilla) and... drumroll please... Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway!

Brokeback reunion y'all! And that's before we even get to the "Jake Gyllenhaal warring with Charles Melton" sexiness apocalypse. Funny enough I was just thinking about Jake in relation to his Brokeback cast-mates a few days ago -- specifically I was thinking I wish he'd do something with Michelle Williams again.  I feel like I haven't seen the two of them in each other's company in a long time and was worried there's a rift (as much as I can or should worry about total strangers anyway). He is the godfather to Michelle & Heath's daughter Matilda though. Maybe they just keep their shit private, and more power to them if that's the case! I just miss my Jack Nasty s'all.

Anyway Jake & Anne have of course worked together since Brokeback -- perhaps I should have called this a "Love & Other Drugs reunion"! Now there's a forgotten movie. Which is a shame because Jake is fucking fire in that -- see some memorable photos of said fire here. It's an under-appreciated movie though, and Jake & Anne obviously have wonderful chemistry, and I adore this Beef rumor. Let's make it happen. And let's pretend that we can will it into being by hitting the jump and saying a prayer to the streaming gods right now over all of my beautiful Jake gifs...

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Ennis: If you can't fix it, Jack, you gotta stand it.

Today would've been Heath Ledger's 44th birthday.

What a loss. Click here for a good piece on his legacy.

Saddle Up, Movie Lovers

Not that it's ever a good time to not think about Brokeback, but I've definitely had Ang Lee's 2005 gay cowboy masterpiece on my brain more often than not over the past few months thanks to Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog and the awards conversation surrounding that film over the past few months -- so what a wonderful coincidence that we're all about to have the opportunity to see Brokeback on a big screen again! It's the 20th anniversary of Focus Features this year, and they're going to be screening several of their classic films at AMC theaters around the U.S. to celebrate that -- from April 29th through may 5th there will be five dollar screenings of Brokeback, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Atonement, and several more magical motion pictures -- you can check out AMC's site here for more info. And there's a trailer, too!

If you hit the jump I have the full press release...

Quote of the Day

Over the weekend I shared two batches of Jake Gyllenhaal photos with y'all -- right here and right here -- which you maybe missed since I never post on the weekend and you'd be rightly inclined to not visit over the weekend due to that fact. I like to keep ya on yer toes, baby! Anyway the photos were for the Sunday Times but I hadn't been able to read the interview because paywalled -- thankfully some quotes have been snatched up by other outlets, and here's a choice bit from Mr. G on Brokeback Mountain (via), specifically whether he thinks a movie about a gay relationship could be cast with two straight actors today:

"Aaahh. I don’t know. Maybe? Part of the medicine of storytelling is that we were two straight guys playing these parts. There was a stigma about playing a part like that, you know, why would you do that? And I think it was very important to both of us to break that stigma. ... But then again I think that has led the way towards people saying, you know, people of all different experiences should be playing more roles, that it shouldn’t be limited to a small group of people. And I believe that. But at the same time, I was very proud to be in that space and to be given that opportunity. And the reaction from the majority of the gay community when the movie came out, I got this sort of — we both did, everyone in the movie — we got this overwhelming sense of open-heartedness and gratitude.”

I think we all have confused and contradictory opinions on this subject because there is no hard answer -- I think it just depends on the situation, and he's right that it was a huge deal in 2005, these name actors taking on these gay roles. You had to be there. And I wouldn't give up Jake or Heath's performances, or Timothee Chalamet's performance in Call Me By Your Name, for the world. But of course LGBT actors need better, fairer opportunities, and there's not nothing to the lived-in experience that they'd bring to these roles. I mean just think how much better the world would be without having been forced to suffer through James Corden in The Prom? 

Anyway that subject's been talked to damned death, even by me, so let's move on. Jake's new movie The Guilty is playing here in NYC right now -- I didn't go but he did a big Q&A at The Paris Theater (speaking of Call Me By Your Name) this past weekend, which is what the above photo is from -- and hits Netflix on Friday; I reviewed it right here when it played TIFF a few weeks back. He's very good in it, while the movie itself is fine. It's fine. See it for Jake, Jake's biceps, and you'll be happy. On the Netflix front there's yet another chat with Jake at that streamer's new magazine called Queue, which is what the top photo is coming at us from, and I have two more below along with some photos of him rocking his pink tux at the Tonys too!  Hit the jump for them...

And With That, Happy 40 to Jake Gyllenhaal

After a full week of celebrating Jake Gyllenhaal, this is it and it is here, folks -- it's his 40th birthday today! We've come so far! You shoulder never ever underestimate my ability to stretch my Jake Gyllenhaal obsession unto total annihilation for all parties involved. On that note, even though I recapped the entire week as it went along, it just feels right to give us a round-up of everything in one final post. So here be links to all of Jake Week!

Day 1: Jake's Finest Nutters

Day 2: Jake's Best Costumes

Day 3: Jake's Best Nudity

Day 4: Jake's Best Partners

Day 5: Jake's Best Movies, Ranked!

I also included some bonus content in the Twitter thread I kept up all week for this series, so make sure you click over and check that out. There are very important pieces of the puzzle to be seen therein. Very important! 

I truly should have made this holy rectangle of space the site's banner for this week pic.twitter.com/OmHOGO68oa

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 18, 2020

Anyway I live in abject terror every day of my life that my fanboying over Jake will ever be seen by his own big beautiful eyeballs so god forbid he read this message himself, but we here at MNPP truly do wish him the best 40th birthday. He's been my favorite actor for 19 years and counting, and I don't foresee that changing any time soon. He continues to challenge himself and do strong, interesting work, and the projects he's got lined up on IMDb (all of which we've covered in minute detail already, of course) all sound like shit I wanna watch. Good work, and Happy Birthday, You.

And now a bonus! Because I am incapable of ever stopping. And also y'all deserve a treat after all this rambling. I noticed when I worked on the nudity list on Wednesday that Jake has a nude scene I've somehow never posted here on the site, which... well, that is a truly, wildly inexplicable thing. It's from Velvet Buzzsaw, he does the cutest little "hey here's my butt" waddle, and I've got the whole thing giffed right on after the jump...

10 Off My Head: Jake the Top

If you haven't been here all week... what, you have something better to do? You know we are in the middle of a pandemic, right? We're in the middle of a pandemic, it's literally life or death out there, and you still can't come to MNPP before Friday? I mean, I am trying to not be offended here. Trying, but failing. It's fine. It's fine. Whatever. I'll carry on. So like I was saying, if you haven't been here all week to see it, because you've been, I don't know, preferring to stare at the wall then read all my hard work or whatever, then you've missed that I've spent all week celebrating the 40th birthday of the actor Jake Gyllenhaal, which is tomorrow. 

I've been celebrating with lists! Ridiculous lists! Monday I did his best nutbag roles, Tuesday I did his greatest costumes, Wednesday I went lascivious and stared at his bum a bunch, and yesterday I picked his best screen partners. For today, our final day, I figured I'd better go big or go home. I mean I'd love to go home. Did I mention the pandemic? We should all be home. But I digress. Here on our last day of list-making I challenged myself to a most painful proposition. I have decided to not just pick my ten favorite Jake movies... BUT TO RANK THEM. Oh my god this one hurt, you guys. I am bloody, my brains are battered, and all for your entertainment. Enjoy!

My 10 Favorite Jake Gyllenhaal Movies... Ranked!!!

10. Jarhead (dir. Sam Mendes)

9. Okja (dir. Bong Joon-ho)

8. Source Code (dir. Duncan Jones)

7. The Sisters Brothers (dir. Jacques Audiard)

6. Zodiac (dir. David Fincher)

5. Wildlife (dir. Paul Dano)

4. Donnie Darko (dir. Richard Kelly)

3. Nightcrawler (dir. Dan Gilroy)

2. Enemy (dir. Denis Villenueve)

1. Brokeback Mountain (dir. Ang Lee)

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That number one was obvious from outer space, I'm sure.

Now tell me yours in the comments...

5 Off My Head: Jake + Fill In The Blank

A very happy Day Four of Jake Week to everyone. It's actor and briefs-enthusiast Jake Gyllenhaal's 40th birthday on Saturday, and so we here at MNPP, aka Gyllen-Headquarters, been doing a Top 5 list every single day having to do with our favorite furriest Gyllenhaal sibling. (Hey Maggie -- the gauntlet's been thrown!) On Day One we listed Jake's Craziest Performances. On Day Two we celebrated his most iconic costumes. Yesterday it was cold and snowy here in New York and so we turned up the heat, listing Jake's best displays of his supple, handsome flesh. (As if we needed it to be snowing for us to want to post gifs of Jake's butt, ha.) 

Well today we're talking chemistry. Or better yet, as the noted physicist Dr. Paula Abdul coined it, Vibeology. What is Vibeology? Why, it's the study of the chemistry between you and me. Or in this case, it's the study of the chemistry between Jake Gyllenhaal and his co-stars. No man is an island, even one so oft brooding as Jake, and Jake has sparked off more than most. So today I'm going to give you his greatest screen partnerships, according to me. (At least until Jake and me make our movie together, in which case I will become numbers one through five, natch.)

My 5 Favorite Jake Screen Partners

Tom Holland, Spider-Man: Far From Home

Tatiana Maslany, Stronger

Riz Ahmed, Nightcrawler & The Sisters Brothers

Carey Mulligan, Wildlife

Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain

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Runners-up: Jennifer Aniston, The Good Girl; Jena Malone, Donnie Darko; Anne Hathaway, Brokeback & Love and Other Drugs; Rene Russo, Nightcrawler & Velvet Buzzsaw; Michelle Monaghan, Source Code; Sarah Gadon, Enemy; Catherine Keener, Lovely & Amazing 

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Who are your favorite partners of Jake?

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Jack Twist: Ya know it could be 

like this, just like this always.

Fifteen years ago today Ang Lee's masterpiece Brokeback Mountain had its limited opening here in New York -- you know for awards and such, which is a subject we dare not tread towards lest we go on a rampage. That aside this movie still means more to me than I could ever express, no matter how many years they give me to crow about it. Before Call Me By Your Name came around Brokeback was the movie I'd written the most on -- here is my original review at this link, which isn't the greatest; I've gotten better at this reviewing thing in the past 15 years I think. But it's passionate. As the film opened the same year I started this here website my writing about that film still made me a lot of the online friends I still have til this day, and for that I'll forever be grateful. Not just friends, but readers -- people started really coming around here because of how passionate I was, y'all were, about this movie. And for that, outside of how perfect a movie it is, I am thankful. 

But perfect it is and perfect it remains -- I really considered re-watching Brokeback this week for its anniversary but the last time I watched the film, when Film Society here in New York screened it on my favorite screen in the city, was so overwhelming to me -- it destroyed me emotionally once again -- I just couldn't muster the emotional wherewithal for it right now. 2020's been a lot of year! I am not strong, emotionally speaking -- I think y'all understand. I just don't have a Brokeback re-watch in me right this moment. But, just judging off of that last watch, the film has kept all of the power it had 15 years back, which makes me happy -- I worried its humble take on the closet of yore might feel dated, but the movie is so small and earnest and well-acted and beautifully shot and movingly scored that it remains a goddamned powerhouse. We'll always have Brokeback.

"Brokeback got us good, don't it?"

5 Off My Head: Michelle At 40

While we sit on both of our thumbs and impatiently wait for the tremendously exciting new adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's Scene From a Marriage that will star Michelle Williams and Oscar Isaac we might as well give our thumbs a momentary break from, you know, sitting upon, and use them  to wish the great and powerful Michelle an extremely happy 40th birthday today! She's been knocking our socks off and our thumbs out of places for a full two decades now, but as much good work as she's gotten across in that stretch of time I think it's not totally nuts to say she might be at the height of her powers right this minute, judging by the career-best work she just did on TV with Fosse/Verdon -- I cannot wait to see what her next spin for TV, with that Bergman joint, turns out. On that note, here are my faves...

My 5 Favorite Michelle Williams Performances

Gwen Verdon, Fosse/Verdon (2019)

"Maybe I should find a lover, too, then. 

How about that?"

Alma, Brokeback Mountain (2005)

"Jack Nasty! You didn't go up there to fish!"

Cindy, Blue Valentine (2010)

"I'm so out of love with you. I've got nothing left for you,

nothing, nothing. Nothing, there is nothing here for you."

Wendy, Wendy and Lucy (2008)

"I'm not from around here. I can't be an example."

Arlene, Dick (1999)

"Dick frightens me!"

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And some runners-up because this list could have been twice as long without me breaking a sweat: Synecdoche New York, My Week With Marilyn, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Certain Women, Take This Waltz, Meek's Cutoff, and her speech at the Golden Globes last year

What are your favorite Michelle performances?