Beauty vs Beast: The Bigger Boys

Jason from MNPP here, ready to pop some peach champagne for the release of Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name, which finally hits theaters in New York and LA on Friday. The thing is, although I personally have already seen the film six times (if you've been to MNPP at any point in the past three months you're more than aware of my obsession but if you missed my first take on the movie out of NYFF it's one of the most meaningful pieces of writing I've ever done, says me), it seems that some of you have not seen the film six times yet. Since it's not in theaters yet, and all. So I probably can't devote this week's "Beauty vs Beast" to it then!

So we'll do the next best and look back at Luca's last movie, A Bigger Splash. When ABS came out we polled you about the film it's based on, La Piscine, but I figure enough of you have seen Luca's version by now. I'm pretty certain where you guys will fall when forced into Tilda Swinton's glamourous shoes to choose between the two men in her life, solid wall of Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) and bearded blast of noise Harry (Ralph Fiennes), but I'm asking anyway...

PREVIOUSLY Oscar season is here but we devoted one last moment of silliness to Superhero Season by tackling Thor: Ragnarok's two actresses last week - Tessa Thomspon put up a valiant fight but... well, she was going against Cate Blanchett. Cate took 58% of your vote as bigger-than-Asgard-itself Hela; said chasm301:

"Do you really think that Cate Blanchett would lose a competition on this website? Her most gif-able performance outside of Carol (2015)"

London Film Festival: Roundup and Oscar Chances

Pivotally positioned in October, the BFI London Film Festival boasts the distinction of having some of the most feted films of the year, champions newcomers and not without its stalwart festival curiosities. On the ground this year was Film Experience contributor Seán McGovern who saw only a fraction of the films on offer, but nonetheless a taste of potential Oscar contenders.

Call Me By Your Name
Worried that I would be tranquillised by the hype, I nonetheless could not resist it. Yes, it's a film about gorgeous people of immense privilege, but who can dismiss how hard it is to successfully capture the furtive horniness and confused intensity of young love? Timothée Chalamet's Elio teeters between brazenness and vulnerability, and Armie Hammer captures a strange aloofness that is hard to do on screen. It actually made me want to have children - just so I could grow up and be Micheal Stuhlbarg.

Oscar chances: Director, Picture, Best Actor (Chalamet), Supporting Actor(s) (Hammer, Stuhlbarg), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score. Whether Academy voters embrace two LGBT films in a row is another thing.

 Six more films after the jump...

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Red Carpet Prayer

Dear Cinema Gods,
Please make it so Armie Hammer & Timothée Chalamet can be together on red carpets all season.
In Meryl's Name,
Amen

Ask Nathaniel

I recently hosted a gay book club where we talked "Call Me By Your Name" (click for the cute pic) and the one guy who'd seen the movie refused to say anything about it. Argh. So that forthcoming adaptation is foremost on my mind. What's on yours? Give me some questions to answer, won'cha? Bonus points if the topics are romantic films and/or book adaptations. I'll select two handfuls to answer in forthcoming posts.

[Convalescence update: as some of you have heard I somehow threw my back out which accounts for the spare posting of late. It's hard to sit and type when you're in pain but I think I'm coming out of it now and dying to get back to movies. You can only watch so much This is Us and Younger and Defend--nah, that's too boring -- and eat so much ice cream and alternate so many heat pads and ice packs before you start to lose your GD mind.]