Remember 127 Hours?

It's 127 days until the Oscars. Remember Danny Boyle's 127 Hours in which James Franco sliced off his own arm years before his own career was cut off by allegations of sexual misconduct. Were you into that film at the time? Do you think it deserved its six nominations: Picture, Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Score, Song)?

I believed at the timethat it was in 10th place but its nomination haul was impressive. Now that we're back to a flat 10 for Best Picture (this year will be the first set of ten since that 2010 Oscar race) we can begin wondering which film might overperform on Oscar nomination morning that wouldn't have gotten nearly as fall without the benefit of the Academy having to choose a full top ten.

Beauty vs Beast: Nanny Dearest

Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" -- today we're wishing a happy 32 to one of our absolute favorite working actresses, the great Mackenzie Davis. If you watched Halt and Catch Fire you got it the second her "Cameron" showed up and from that moment on it's just been a long slow waiting game for the rest of the world to catch up. But catch up they have, I think - I mean she is about to star in a Terminator movie so I think they have. Whether she'll have anything of actual substance to do in that we'll have to wait and see.

But we'll always have Tully! Jason Retiman's 2018 film was one of our faves (Nathaniel gave it several nominations and a win for its screenplay in his Film Bitch Awards), spinning an exquisite dissociative dramedy out of the newborn fugue state -- it reeks of new parent smell. The film's a showcase for Theron and Davis' easy charms -- one of the year's true pleasures was getting the chance to explore the constant moment of total anxiety in such capable hands. You feel a little bit saner on the far side of Tully.

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PREVIOUSLY Last week's Spring Breakers poll turned out to be closer than I anticipated, given how well James Franco's "Alien" was receieved at the time, but he won it only at 54% -- indeed nobody had anything kind to say about him or his performance in the comments. So we'll share some love for the girls, via Tom G:

"I give credit to Hudgens for trying to take risks with her career post HSM. She did Broadway as well and is generally regarded as the saving grace of the live musicals she appears in on TV."

Beauty vs Beast: Girls Gone Wildin'

Happy Monday to one and all, Jason from MNPP here with this week's brand new edition of "Beauty vs Beast" -- enfant terrible provocateur Harmoney Korine is tossing another neon grenade our way this forthcoming Friday with his film The Beach Bum (reviewed at SXSW), twisting our sexual stoner preconceptions of Matthew McConaughey to suit his perverse needs. So for this week's contest, with Britney's voice still warbling in our heads, let's toss it back seven years to Korine's last much celebrated ode to the wacky Florida lifestyle, Spring Breakers.

In one corner we've got our four bikini kill co-eds (played by Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine) and everywhere else we've got the drug-dealing pistol-fellating Alien (James Franco), owner of shit.

survey solutions

PREVIOUSLY I figured last week's Eternal Sunshine contest wouldn't be close but it really, really, wasn't close -- Kirsten Dunst walked away with 92% of the vote over Elijah Wood's mega-creep; said Fitz:

"Mary, Mary, Mary. No contest. I think Kirsten Dunst's performance, as a supporting actor, was perhaps more impressive than Kate Winslet's with the limited time she got. Mary's arc was devastating, and Dunst (no surprises) was heartbreaking in the role. Sadly—just another Oscar nod that was denied Dunst who should have at least 6 and 1 win by now (her turns in Melancholia, The Beguiled, Bachelorette, All Good Things, The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, The Cat's Meow, Eternal Sunshine, Interview with the Vampire were all Oscar-worthy performances)"

NYFF: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Jason Adams reporting from the New York Film Festival

Anthology films always have a bit of an under-cooked quality - you like a chunk of meat here, a chunk of potato there, but the stew's uneven, the broth skinned over from sitting. Even the very best ones can feel haphazard - you can and should certainly argue that Pulp Fiction is an anthology film, albeit one that's po-mo'd up in glorious fashion, but some days you're just not in the mood for Honey Bunny, ya dig?  The Coens' six-part The Ballad of Buster Scruggs maintains that streak - highs, lows, and everything in between, slapped between two fraying book covers...

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You're Tearing Me Apart, Franco!: "The Disaster Artist"

By Spencer Coile 

Tommy Wiseau's The Room is a train-wreck. This is not a unique statement to make. Ask anyone who has seen it, and you'll surely be met with a healthy mix of laughter and endless quoting from 2003's "so bad it's good" disasterpiece. For years, fans have flocked to midnight showings at local theaters or gathered with friends around their TV to enjoy the messy writing, acting, and directing -- just three of the many hats Wiseau wore throughout filming.

What many fail to address, however, is that The Room was not always comedy; it began as a labor of love -- a melodrama with strong connections to Wiseau's personal (but very private) life. Adapted from the memoir by The Room co-star Greg Sestero and journalist Tom Bissell, James Franco dramatizes Wiseau's journey from obscurity to cult stardom in The Disaster Artist. But is his portrayal of Tommy Wiseau given the same loving treatment as Wiseau intended for The Room...? 

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