Beauty vs Beast: Grit's the Word

Jason from MNPP here wishing the actor Jeff Bridges a happy 68th birthday today with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" poll. What's your favorite performance from Bridges? Mine is far and away his performance in Peter Weir's wildly underrated 1993 plane-crash survivor drama Fearless, but that movie doesn't lend itself well to this series. So instead we'll go with something more recent, namely his turn as "Rooster Cogburn" in the Coens' 2010 update of True Grit. Don't you wish he'd won his Oscar for this rather than Crazy Heart? And we'll pit him against his fine co-star and co-nominee Hailee Steinfeld. Good luck with this one!

PREVIOUSLY Last week twas everybody's current favorite momma drama Lady Bird's turn in the hot seat, and daughter came out victorious - Saorsie Ronan went all Baller / Anarchist and took 55% of your vote. Said chasm301, giving me a good chuckle:

"Lady Bird is basically the most instantly iconic teen movie character since Cher in Clueless. (Ok maybe Regina George or Tracy Flick). She gave this victory to herself. It was given to her by her and me too."

Podcast: The Shape of Lady Bird

Nathaniel and Nick talk two Best Picture hopefuls, the generous funny adorable Greta Gerwig movie Lady Bird and the overstuffed visually creative Guillermo Del Toro fantasy The Shape of Water. 

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Lois Smith & Lucas Hedges and lingering moments
06:00 Greta Gerwig, Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, and Tracy Letts are all brilliant
16:00 More Lady Bird gushing
23:00 The Shape of Water -wanted to love it more
27:00 Guillermo del Toro problems and monsters
32:00 The performances in the movie
37:40 The Best Picture field, Hollywood sexism, and the atypical versus typical within the contenders

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Shape of Water & Lady Bird

Box Office: Lady Bird and Three Billboards Strike

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (Dec 1-3) UPDATED WITH ACTUALS
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1. Coco  $26.1 (cum. $108.6) REVIEW | FEELING SEEN	1.🔺 The Disaster Artist $1.2 on 19 screens
2. Justice League $16.5 (cum. $197.3) REVIEW	2.🔺 Man Who Invented Christmas $863k on 674 screens (cum. $3.1)
3. Wonder $12.5 (cum. $88)	3.🔺 Titanic (20th Anniversary) $415k on  87 screens
4. Thor Ragnarok  $9.6 (cum. $291.4) REVIEW, YOUR QUEEN	4. Call Me By Your Name $281k on 4 screens (cum. $908k) SCREENPLAY | SEX SCENES
5. Daddy's Home 2 $7.5 (cum. $82.8)	5. Loving Vincent $211k on 161 screens REVIEW

As expected Coco had no trouble keeping people's interest for another weeek. More impressive, due to lower expectations, is Wonder's continued performance. It just hit $100 million globally and if you think about it it could just as easily have been a $15-20 million grosser that few people noticed since bestselling books are hit and miss when they attempt to become bigticket movies. Kudos to the marketing team who were able to focus interest on it immediately despite so many other ostensibly family friendly movies in the marketplace.

(Maybe families are getting bored of superhero movies? Nah, that's wishful thinking since Justice League, is about to hit $200 million and will likely outperform the infinitely more beloved Wonder Woman in foreign markets if not at home). More after the jump...

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Los Angeles Film Critics Association Winners 2017

by Nathaniel R

Another day, another set of precursor awards. We heard from the New York Film Critics Circle a few days ago where Lady Bird and The Florida Project were the big winners with two prizes each. Over on the West Coast Call Me By Your Name and The Shape of Water both took three prizes. Commentary, stats, and winners list are all after the jump...

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John Waters Annual Top Ten List

by Nathaniel R

Everyone's favorite weirdo kitsch and camp-loving auteur has released his annual top ten list. Though we really wish he'd make one last movie (A Dirty Shame was a weird thing to end on 13 years ago!) at least he's still with us as a cultural voice. His lists are always so fun to read because they're reliably eclectic with a little bit of every type of movie and usually one thing we've never heard of (this time that's I, Olga Hepnarova... a black and white docudrama about a chainsmoking lesbian in Prague). Topping his 2017 list is Edgar Wright's Baby Driver. He writes:

 The best movie of the year is a popcorn thriller, an art film, and a gearhead classic that grossed over $100 million. It deserved to! Watching the star turn of Ansel Elgort was like seeing John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever for the first time.

And he gets sassy to the nation's moviegoing parents about Wonderstruck:

Want an IQ test for your cinephile children? Just take them to see this beautifully made, feel-good kids’ movie about the hearing-impaired, starring a little girl who looks exactly like Simone Signoret. If your small-fry like the film, they’re smart. If they don’t, they’re stupid.

He also likes Wonder Wheel, Lady Macbeth, and the HBO film Wizard of Lies. Check it out.