Beauty vs Beast: Home is Where the Hearts Are

Jason from MNPP here with the last "Beauty vs Beast" before the Oscars. This week's poll doesn't have anything to do with the Oscars though because let's face it - the Academy, bless their shiny hearts, is never going to be as cool and adventurous as our host Nathaniel is. Nathaniel dropped his Top Ten of 2017 over the weekend and at #9 was a movie AMPAS was never going to go anywhere near - Darren Aronofsky's spectacularly divisive mother! starring Jennifer Lawrence (who's got Red Sparrow out this weekend) as a sink-bracing Suzy Homemaker under, uh, extreme duress. But we're never going to forget mother!, and we doubt you will either - even if it's just to picture Michelle Pfeiffer whenever you slip a little extra something into your lemonade...

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PREVIOUSLY We wished Sidney Poitier a happy birthday last Monday, wondering why he wasn't the one who got AMPAS' attention in 1967's In the Heat of the Night - he certainly got our attention, rounding up 85% of your vote from his co-star (and statue-snatcher) Rod Steiger. Said Red:

"Watching Sydney Poitier reassured me that I could grow up into the kind of adult I wanted to be. He still had what we kids had and adults had lost. He was honest, honourable, brave and full of joy."

What did you see this weekend?

Black Panther continued gobbling up profits with another $100 million this weekend. Game Night (reviewed) and Alex Garland's sci-fi whatsit Annihilation opened to $16 and $11 million respectively, picking up the superhero's scraps. But those are pretty good scraps. Meanwhile outside the top ten all the Best Picture contenders had their last full hurrah since they're all at less than 800 theaters now and some become "losers" a week from today. Last chance to see them on the big screen people. (You can see how each of them have fared at the domestic and global box office on the Best Picture chart.) 

What did I see this weekend? I finally saw Roman J Israel Esq. the last 2017 movie I'm going to be able to see now that the Film Bitch Awards have begun. It was... interesting. And I mean that in the literal sense and in the sense of what you say when you dont really want to talk about it or don't know where to begin. 

Smackdown Tease - Reader Votes!

by Nathaniel R

UPDATED POST: To correct for a second batch of ballots as I received both comment ballots and mail ballots.

Since the annual Supporting Actress Smackdown arrives tomorrow I thought I'd share a few notes from your ballots. Thanks for getting them in so quick. The most divisive performance with everything from 1 heart to 5 hearts on reader ballots was the Oscar frontrunner, I Tonya's Allison Janney. But it was Phantom Thread's Lesley Manville and Lady Bird's Laurie Metcalf who were neck and neck all through the counting of reader ballots. I'm on pins and needles -- looks like it might be close tomorrow! 

After the jump your favorite contenders who missed the Oscar nomination...

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Nathaniel's Top Ten of 2017

by Nathaniel R

Better late than never. If you've been wondering why your TFE host has been so in and out of the proceedings this season, let's just say life has proved significantly challenging offline: the end of a decade-plus relationship, homelessness (not the dramatic kind but the sleeping on friend's couches kind), a long bout with the flu, a new side gig, etcetera). So this list carries a bit of melancholy with it as 2017 was one of the hardest years of my life. (If you also had a rough year: I feel you. Hugs in solidarity). Due to all of this I didn't see as many films as is my preference and couldn't rewatch the key films I usually would have before "voting".

But in the end you have to move forward.  Time changes everything... and time changes all top ten lists also! Some of these placements that you scratch your head about now, you'll either understand in ten years time OR I'll join you in scratching my head about them with a "what was I thinking?" blush. Top ten lists are but time capsules.

People change for better and worse. Circumstances shift dramatically or perception does. The movies of 2017 helped me understand all this, many of them zeroed in on definitive months in someone's life, others hopping around in time, and still more juxtaposing the past with the present...

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RPDR All Stars 3: E5 - Can-aroon!

by Chris Feil

Drag Race fans got a mega-serving of the ever popular show this week with an All Stars design challenge followed immediately by the announcement of the season 10 cast. The big tenth season will be following the ongoing All Stars season without a break, so in 2018 the Race is a marathon. We’ll briefly look at the new contestants, but first we have to unpack (oops) the season’s first dud episode.

Last week Shangela played up the drama for a middling Snatch Game and gave once expected frontrunner Trixie Mattel a major fakeout, ultimating sending the beloved but stuck-in-first-gear Chi Chi DeVayne. The first agenda once back in the workroom was to lay the Notegate drama to rest...

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