Beauty vs Beast: Koo Koo Ka Choose

Howdy and Happy Monday it's Jason from MNPP here on this, the day that the great Dustin Hoffman is turning 79 years old. How do you think he now views the concerns of his most famous character Benjamin Braddock of The Graduate, from the opposite vantage point of age? Of course he's much older now than Anne Bancroft was as Mrs. Robinson (now that I think about it I'm actually right around Mrs. Robinson's age myself! Weird!) so he probably looks back at Ben with tired eyes at this point. Heck I do myself, although I don't know if I entirely sympathize with Mrs. Robinson's self-destructive behavior either. But where do you stand? That's right it's time for this week's "Beauty vs Beast" ...

PREVIOUSLY We are smearing our sad clown make-up off this morning and waving an over-sized glove goodbye to International Clown Week - last week's competition of clown couples in Short Cuts fell on the "Julianne Moore & Matthew Modine" side, probably because of the film's still infamous full-frontal fight scene - said Mark, speaking truth to privates:

"The genius of Moore is you watch her face in this instead of her special lady place."

Beauty vs Beast: Send in the You-Know-Whats

Howdy folks it's Jason from MNPP here wishing everybody a candy-colored start to a candy-colored week - that's right, today marks the first day of International Clown Week, held every year right at the start of August, aka the best time to make that make-up run right off your face and give you the time honored "Creepy Clown Effect." But while (in a weird but total coincidence) I may have just started re-reading Stephen King's It this week I'm not going to make you think about Scary Clowns today - oh I know for some of you there is no other kind, but I'm going to try to temper that with Auterism because...

... hey remember that scene in Robert Altman's 1993 masterpiece Short Cuts where Claire (Anne Archer), a professional clown, and her husband Stuart (Fred Ward) get blasted at dinner with new friends Marion (Julianne Moore) and Ralph (Matthew Modine), and instead of the partner-swapping you expect to happen they all just put on clown make-up and dance around instead? I sure do. It's one of the many right turns the film takes when you've braced yourself for a left. So let's face off these two couples for "Beauty vs Beast" this week...

If you need a refresher both couples are in the middle of personal crises -- Marion & Ralph (Moore & Modine) are the couple who have the long fight about her cheating whilst Juli proves she's a natural redhead, while Stuart has just told Claire (Ward & Archer) that he and his fishing buddies fished around a corpse all weekend long. In the grand tradition of Altman-esque character studies, they're all a bit beastly.

PREVIOUSLY Last week we ventured to Mortville with John Waters and his muses for a look at one of his most underappreciated efforts, Desperate Living (and the poll showed just how underappreciated the film remains, with one of our tiniest voting totals ever) - it was Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey) who was carried by her loyal litter of man-servants to the victory, taking 55% of the vote. Said Ken S:

"I'll teach you to arouse royalty! - Team Carlotta all the way!"

Appropriate Ways to Celebrate Julianne Moore's Birthday

Kieran, here taking a brief respite from the holidays (read: Oscar season) to wish a very happy birthday to Julianne Moore. Between her tribute to Todd Haynes at the Gotham Awards and her very funny “Billy on the Street" segment it’s a good week to celebrate the Academy Award-winning actress. Just glancing at her filmography, she’s gifted the world of cinema with so much to be thankful for and she’s surely got a lot more left to give. It’s far too rare that the great actors of any generation also become Oscar winners. Before Still Alice many had assumed it was over for Moore in terms of ever copping the statue. Seeing her ascend the stage to collect her Academy Award earlier this year, it never felt so good to be so wrong.

So, on this, Julianne’s birthday...

Appropriate Ways To Celebrate

1. Relax with some yoga.

 2. Bake a cake. Watch the sifting flour. "Isn't it pretty? It's just like snow."

Click to read more ...

Your Reminder That Julianne Moore is Now An Oscar Winner

We should start every morning this beautifully in 2015

a moment 20+ years in the making

It was "the foxiest bitch in the world" Amber Waves that first won Julianne Moore her legion of obsessed fans and should have won her the Oscar back when Boogie Nights (1997) first dropped its pants and entered pop culture. Sure, the ginger goddess had been fun in films before that like the trash hit The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) and the romantic comedy Benny & Joon (1993) -- her first stab at playing a bad actress, a recurring and utterly delightful subthread in her filmography -- and she even got to slap Madonna early on onscreen (Body of Evidence, 1993). And she'd been brilliant before Amber in films like Shortcuts (1993), Vanya on 42nd Street (1994) and [safe] (1995) but the latter two were slow burns, only developing their ardent fanbases later on DVD and the first was loved for reasons well beyond and usually eclipsing Julianne's work.

Julianne first truly turned heads in 1993 in a trio of "who is that?" performances: SHORT CUTS, BENNY & JOON, & THE FUGITIVEShortcuts in particular had an interesting awards history. It was one of those odd ensemble pieces, courtesy of Robert Altman, wherein noone ever settled on a favorite performance. The Golden Globes were wise, presaging the invention of SAG's ensemble prize by giving it a special award. Julianne nabbed the films sole acting nomination at a major event with Independent Spirit Awards, but the critics weren't yet in Juli's corner. The NYFCC liked Jennifer Jason Leigh best citing only her (3rd place in their prizes), the NSFC gave their actual supporting actress win to Madeleine Stowe (also my favorite performance in that particular film) as Moore's sister, and the Chicago Film Critics rallied around Andie Macdowell. Oscar didn't know what to do with it either so Robert Altman won the films only nomination for Best Director*. 

But however long it took Julianne to get there, taking her place in history as a Best Actress winner, she got there.  Over the years she continually revealed new shades, new angles, and fresh daring and mystery as a performer, and became a leading lady par excellence to compliment her early supporting genius. She's also kind to fans and visibly appreciative of her good fortune in the industry. Everyone's personal favorite performances vary with a gallery of characters this rich but for yours truly she has more than earned this Oscar.

To Julianne: for Alice, Yelena, Mia, Havana Segrand, Barbara Baekeland, Laura Brown, Linda Partridge, Maude Lebowski, Marian Wyman, Marlene Craven, Sarah Miles and especially for that holy trinity of Amber Waves, Cathy Whitaker and Carol White: thank you, god. You've earned this golden man several times over. May Laurel Hester in Freeheld, your next creation, be a worthy and compelling victory lap. Yours always, xo, Nathaniel 

I love you.

*It's another topic entirely but the films that have only one nomination and its Best Director have always been a fascinating curiousity within Oscar history: see also Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, The Last Temptation of Christ

Top Ten Best Julianne Moore Performances

abstew here for a Tuesday Top Ten. Julianne Moore is known simply as 'God' at The Film Experience. That was Nathaniel's nickname for her even before the site was launched. It's winking hyperbole, sure, but if there's any other actress working today deserving of that moniker, it's this talented redhead who has given us countless transcendent performances for more than 20 years. This past Thursday, Moore earned her 5th career Oscar nomination for her beautiful performance in Still Alice and all signs indicate that this is the year that she will finally take home the gold. Since many are seeing this eventual win as honoring her impressive body of work, I could think of no better time than to look back over Julianne Moore's 10 Previous Best Performances. With such iconic creations as Amber Waves and Cathy Whitaker over the years, Moore's divinity has already been proven, but a golden statue still seems like a worthy offering. All hail, Julianne Moore!   

10. Maps to the Stars (2014)

Director: David Cronenberg
The Role: Havana Segrand, a self-centered, ageing Hollywood actress obsessed with playing her dead movie star mother in a film.
Awards: Cannes Film Festival Best Actress, Golden Globe Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy nomination

Why this Performance: I can't say that I'm a fan of the film as a whole (too many storylines and tonal shifts that seem unfocused and chaotic), but amid the chaos is Moore's livewire, crazy-committed performance. For an actress that has been working as long as Moore has, it can sometimes be difficult to surprise your audience with something they haven't seen before. But with Havana, Moore is able to suppress her natural intelligence and compassion as an actress by playing an actress so unlike her: needy, vapid, dim-witted, and something Moore could never relate to, untalented. In scene after scene we see Moore in unflattering positions (including one on the toilet that I'm sure most Oscar-nominated actors would balk at), but perhaps the most shocking thing about Moore in the film is that even after all these years, there's an excitement in knowing that she can still astonish us.   

9. Short Cuts (1993)

Click to read more ...