Thursday, April 5, 2018 at 12:25PM by Nathaniel R
Nicole Kidman and Lucas Hedges in "Boy Erased"
Resarch is coming along for the April Foolish Oscar predictions and since y'all were so helpful in extending the early Best Actress possibilities list, let's do the same for Best Actor, shall we? An early alphabetical list of leading men is after the jump...
Monday, March 5, 2018 at 11:00PM by Ben Miller
Oscar clips are a fun wrinkle of a ceremony. Who could forget Cate Blanchett’s reaction to her Elizabeth: The Golden Age clip? The actors and actresses can seem mortified or proud of anywhere inbetween, and it’s part of the appeal of the clips. The clips preceding each of the categories ranged from brilliant to downright weird. Let’s rank them 20-1…
The Weird
Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 11:03PM by Nathaniel R
Kaluuya wins "Rising Star"With only 13 days left until Oscar, the race in most of the marquee categories is sadly settled. BAFTA, held today in London, cemented the frontrunners honoring the exact same actors as the Critics Choice Awards, SAG, and Golden Globes. It's Gary Oldman, Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Janney for the Oscars. Engrave the statues now. That's just too much consensus for Oscar to overthrow though we're personally baffled that none of that quartet's strong (and arguably better) competitors managed to put up a fight. What's more it's the first time in history when there's been no variation whatsoever in the prizes despite none of that foursome winning any of the top critics awards (NYFCC, LAFCA, and NSFC). Usually there's at least one 'we're-doing-our-own-thing' moment within the four categories in the televised precursors. Not this year. What happened to the tough battle we were suppose to have in Best Actress for example with Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie, and Sally Hawkins all seeming possible early on as victors.
The only real question on Oscar night given this lock-step agreement from all of the major precursors is within the rare categories wherein there wasn't total agreement...
Monday, January 15, 2018 at 3:17PM Jason from MNPP here with this week's edition of "Beauty vs Beast" -- this Thursday will mark the birth of one of the greatest movie stars of all time, Mr. Cary Grant. His filmography of course reads like a dream with classics of all stripes under his belt, but it's his four collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock (Notorious, North By Northwest, Suspicion and To Catch a Thief) that I want to focus in on today because I want to force a question upon us, an unnecessary frivolous question that nevertheless nags at my frivolous brain - know who else starred in multiple masterpieces for Alfred Hitchcock? Jimmy Stewart, who made The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rear Window, Rope, and Vertigo. And I think you know where I am going with this now... Which is the better Hitchcock Star? Choose!
PREVIOUSLY As with all things Three Billboards related last week's poll devoted to its two shitty cops played by Woody Harrelson & Sam Rockwell brought out some strong opinions, but only in the comments - the contest itself was won handily by Woody, who took 3/4s of the vote. Said Michael R, summing up my own feelings about Three Billboards:
"Write in vote : Lucas Hedges for Lady Bird. I love that performance so much!"
Monday, January 8, 2018 at 1:36PM 
Jason from MNPP here with this week's post-Globes edition of "Beauty vs Beast." And let's just get this out of the way right up front: Frances McDormand is, in the wise parlance of Groundhog Day, if not The God, A God. Every second she's on screen at any awards show ever is a gift - for the lovers, the memers, and me. I'm one of the ones who kind of can't with Three Billboards (although I fall more in the middle than most) and I don't even think Franny's doing anything near her best work in it, but trot her out in a stately pilgrim sack and have her scowl at the camera-man and my heart sings. I'll just pretend they're still giving her awards for Olive Kitteredge (while pouring one out for Sally Hawkins).
All of that is to say that if we're going to do Three Billboards for this series we can't possibly use Fran's character of Mildred because any and every one is gum on that woman's shoe. But since the film took over the night let's tackle it anyway, and with a real good fight if you ask me - Woody Harrelson gives in my opinion the film's best performance as the cancer-stricken Chief Willoughby. Sam Rockwell meanwhile is steam-rolling the awards nominations as dancing racist Dixon, giving a performance I truly cannot stand. (Oh am I biased in my introduction here? Whoops.) As problematic as the writing of Dixon is I don't think Rockwell helps it at all, leaning into his worst hammy instincts. But perhaps that is just me! What about y'all?
PREVIOUSLY Our last contest was way back before the holiday break, where we asked you to choose between Bob Clark Holiday Classics, and the "Leg Lamp" of A Christmas Story kicked the "Crystal Unicorn" of Black Christmas' butt, but in the comments kermit_the_frog singled out the latter's owner for some much-deserved love:
"Brian De Palma's "Sisters" and "Black Christmas" in consecutive years cemented Margot Kidder's place in my heart. One of the most underrated actresses of the 70s."
