The Wise Guy

by Jason Adams

A quick shout-out to the director Robert Wise, who was born 105 years ago this very day. He passed in 2005, by then a four-time Oscar winner for a couple little movies called The Sound of Music and West Side Story (he won for both directing and producing), although he was nominated a couple other times. I mean he edited Citizen Kane! Obviously he was nominated other times. 

I do love his nomination for directing Susan Hayward's 1958 melodrama I Want To Live!, a film which looks way overcooked to modern eyes (as does most of Hayward's output) but which I love all the same. But Wise should've had several more nominations, if you ask me -- in between his two musical masterpieces he only directed one of the greatest horror films of all time, The Haunting, still effective to this day. There didn't seem to be a genre he couldn't master. How many nominations would you have given Robert Wise?

5 days til Oscar! The Sound of Music, Cuckoo's Nest and More...

The Sound of Music won exactly 5 Oscars, lost exactly 5 Oscars, and won in a year ending in the number 5Today's magic number is 5 and it's too overwhelming a number in Oscar lore for a list of trivia items since it's the 'traditional' size of Oscar shortlists in every Oscar category with the exception of Best Makeup and Hairstyling. We've harped on that one before but we consider it brazenly insulting that Oscar views those craftsmen as the bastard stepchildren of the industry since they've never been allowed more than 3 nominees despite literally every live action film using their services. Several categories have experimented with varying sizes of their nominated lists over the years (Best Picture under the current rules, being obviously the most prominent and inconsistent *sigh* but the number five can safely be called one of Oscar's favourite things...

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Beauty vs Beast: Any Way the Wind Blows

Jason from MNPP here, fresh from a weekend stuck on the sofa nursing a stomach flu, and that was even before Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody won top prizes at the Globes last night. On that sour note, I give you this week's "Beauty vs Beast" poll. Best to get these movies out of the way now, since I think (and hope and pray) that this might signify the peak of their awards run. As Nathaniel pointed out in his Globes take this morning...

"Both are films which have been accused of having their true stories of queer musicians diluted or significantly fictionalized by the people doing the telling (former bandmates in the case of Bohemian Rhapsody and the family of an employee in the case of Green Book)."

There exists in the ether of our imaginations two fascinating movies about Freddie Mercury and Dr. Don Shirley, full of sharp insights about race and sexuality in times and places that warped these men while simultaneously feeding off their talents, but those movies will have to, for the time, stay in our imagination. This is what we got.

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PREVIOUSLY Way back before the holidays we faced down Dame Julie Andrews' two most iconic roles, and even though Mary Poppins can fly the saintly Maria took it to the mountain-top and spun herself up a win with 56% of your vote. Said Joel:

"Watching the precocious Maria makes me so happy that I want to yodel-lay-hee-hoo off a damn Alp." 

Beauty vs Beast: Dame Julie, If You're Nasty

Jason Adams of MNPP here with our last "Beauty vs Beast" until the New Year, and what better way to ring out an exhausting 2018 than with a spoonful full of sugar to make all that bitter medicine go down -- the according-to-me scrumdiddlyumptious Mary Poppins Returns is hitting theaters this week and so let's get our Dame Julie Andrews on with a show-down between her two top roles, a frisky Alpine nun and a nanny from the stars... 

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PREVIOUSLY Never underestimate the power of poetry, yall -- in our re-match between Shakespease in Love and Saving Private Ryan once again twas the Bard who came out on top, with 70% of your vote. Said par:

"The pen is mightier than the sword."

15 Days Until Oscar: The habit, get into it.

15 is today's magic number. As far as I can tell -- though I am not Pope-infallible-- 15 women have been Oscar nominated over the years for playing nuns or nun apprentices... what are they called, novitiates? novices? problems-like-Maria?

Let's pray for them together after the jump. Which of these nominations do you most approve of and why is it so hard to win for playing a Sister or Mother Superior? 

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