Beauty vs Beast: Running Mates

Jason Adams from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" query -- when I saw it written in my calendar that today is the 25th anniversary of The Fugitive my first thought is I must have done that movie for this series before, but a quick skim tells me I hadn't, and so here we are! I vividly remember The Fugitive coming out in the summer of 1993, a banner year for this movie-lover - I had gone to see Jurassic Park a dozen times by then and I needed something fresh and new to feed this newly awoken beast inside me; Harrison Ford leaping out of a train-crash did the trick.

I went to see the film several times after that, but save a few minutes here and there on TV I don't think I have seen it since? Still it's an easy enough film to remember, especially after we spent that entire year's awards season getting the clip of Tommy Lee Jones saying "gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse" hammered into our heads over and over and over, until he got his Oscar for it the next spring.

bike trails

PREVIOUSLY Two weeks back we had you tackling PTA's The Master - turns out that Joaquin Pheonix holds that title, taking a precise 2/3rds of your vote. Said Devin D:

"This performance truly cemented Joaquin Phoenix as one of the irrefutable greats, and it was very nice that Philip Seymour Hoffman got to work yet again before his untimely passing with Paul Thomas Anderson in a role so sizable."

Mission Accomplished: Ranking the Mission Impossible Series

By Spencer Coile 

Anytime the latest entry in an action movie franchise is released, it is celebrated as 'the best' in the series. No film series has better exemplified this than the Mission Impossible franchise. What makes this series particularly special is that it set the standard for filmed reboots of classic television shows. It may not have been the first, but it certainly is the most consistent. Perhaps most importantly, it knows when to take a break. 

The release of Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a clever reminder in the age of comic book adaptations arriving every month that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) will always be there to save the day. But how exactly has the series evolved over time? And is Fallout actually the best in the series thus far?

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Beauty vs Beast: Live Without Masters

Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" for you people to vote yourselves silly with -- did you know that today would have been the 51st birthday of the great Philip Seymour Hoffman? He's been gone over four years now and I ache to think of all the performances we've missed out on. No I wouldn't have given him that Oscar over Heath Ledger either, but he wasn't even nominated for the greatest film of the past two decades (that would be Synecdoche New York) so the injustices, they pile up.

But we're here to talk about another film, one I have come hard around on since its release - I was cool to Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master in 2012 but my affection for it has grown with time; I'm pretty keen on it now, with its medicinal greens and hard elbows. It's only right, it taking some time - it's not the sort of film that hugs you, at least not without wanting something back, making it much like its leading men...

surveys

PREVIOUSLY Naturally the actress prevailed and then some with last week's Double Indemnity poll - crossing Barabra Stanwyck was never a good idea, not when she's got that silver pistol in her pocketbook. Said cal roth:

"That was so easy... I love Stanwyck and MacMurray reunion in There's Always Tomorrow. I love Stanwyck, the most versatile movie goddess of all time. She could go from a Hawks screwball to two masterful perfomances in Sirk melodramas to westerns by Samuel Fuller and Anthony Mann (the director who got her best best performance ever, in The Furies)."

Does 2017 = 2005 in Best Actor?

by Ben Miller

Film blogger Jordan Ruimy posited an observation a month ago on Twitter: 

In 2002 Gary Oldman would have been a cinch to win Best Actor, in 2017 he's a major question mark. The Oscars have changed.

While the awards season definitely shifted thereafter, his tweet remains at least partially true. Look at the history of the Best Actor Oscar.  From 1990 to 1997, every winner had a specific ailment (criminal insanity, alcoholism, AIDS), while 1998 to 2001 had a run of death scenes.  Of the past 16 years, starting with Adrien Brody in 2002, 10 winners have been for portrayals of real people (Casey Affleck's win last year broke a four-year run of biopic winners). There are always patterns to Oscar behavior.

This year’s slate of Best Actor nominees has an interesting parallel with the Best Actor race of 2005.  Let’s take a look back at the lineup...

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Into the Link-Verse

• Dim the House Lights a conversation about those Sondheim auditions in Lady Bird
• /Film why is Big Little Lies still competing as "Limited Series" when it has a second season order. The controversy is starting to bubble up
• Cartoon Brew I didn't even know that there was ANOTHER new awards show but come to think of it there's always another new one, isn't there? We now have the European Animation Awards and they gave their top prize to Loving Vincent. This is not to be confused with the European Film Awards which also gave Loving Vincent Best Animated Feature
• Cartoon Brew on the key points of that giant Disney/Fox deal. It's scary people. Now basically only 4 American-owned entertainment companies have control over America’s cultural identity. 

• Forbes on the teaser for Into the Spider-Verse with Miles Morales finally making it to screen...
• Indie Wire talks to the great actress Lesley Manville about Phantom Thread and Hollywood for women over 40
• The Wrap ack. I totally forgot to link to this last week. In an unprecedented move The Academy added 'Standards of Conduct' to membership details after the explosion of sexual misconduct news this past month
• Coming Soon the first poster and teaser for New Mutants
• Out January 25th is when RuPaul's Drag Race returns
• Vogue Philip Seymour Hoffman's partner Mimi pens an essay with Adam Green about living with an addict and the actor's final sad year.

List-Mania
• EW a timeline of Nicole Kidman's most iconic 2017 moments
• After Ellen a list of the best lesbian or bi movies of the year
• GQ Top ten books of the year and each author chosen gets to recommend a book, too. Fun angle! Do you have a library card? You might need one after this.
• Variety Owen Gleiberman and Peter DeBruge's top ten lists
• EW best and worst tv shows of the year
• Out most iconic looks of 2017. It's heavy on music video ladies for some reason but there's some fun surprises like "Allison Janney with a parrot on her shoulder" from I, Tonya
• CBC an A-Z guide to the year in queer: God's Own Country, Melina Matsoukas, and much more
• THR top ten movies of the year from Todd McCarthy and staff. Call Me By Your Name all over the place.