Beauty vs Beast: Only a Mother's Love

Jason from MNPP here -- it's safe to say that there isn't a week (a day, an hour) where something having to do with John Waters doesn't drift through my happily polluted brain, but this week's really turning it out. (It's good to gear ourselves up for John's new book out in May, I suppose!) For one this upcoming Saturday the 25th anniversary of his last truly great film Serial Mom, starring a deliciously unhinged Kathleen Turner as the sunny recycling-prone Jekyll & Hyde of suburbia. And for another MoMA, as part of their "What Price Hollywood" series on cinema's transgressive sexual politics, is screening Female Trouble twice this month. So with Mother's Day already in the air (and by "in the air" I mean "on the seasonal shelves of my local CVS") I ask us for this week's "Beauty vs Beast" to turn our eyes upon these two of John's most loving mothers...

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PREVIOUSLY Last week's Tully poll was relatively tight, which is as it should be with two characters so inextricable, but it was momma Margo who pulled it out at the end with 56% of the vote. Said JF:

"Charlize is straight-up one of the greatest screen actors of all time. Male, female, living, dead, any era, any genre, *tongue pop*. I have never been ready for how great she is an I hope I never am."

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."

Nathaniel's (Belated) Top Ten List of 2018

by Nathaniel R

Given that we're two months into a new year, the best cinema of 2018 is receding in our mind's eye, still shimmering but moving out of focus. But so much vivid color and feeling remains. Before we are fully blinded to its beauties (until, that is, they are "old films" and we can revisit) by a whole new batch of cinematic images to obsess over, here's one last post to honor the year that was. Here's your host's choices for the 25 best films of 2018.

This year's HONORABLE MENTIONS are a varied bunch taking us from horny self-discovery in Swedish woods to a trash-heap island in Japan. Strangely, grief was the year's most defining theme across genres as diverse as horror, tragicomedy, bopics, thrillers, character studies, and romantic dramas.

The films are listed in loosely ascending order, though we always reserve the right to change our minds where lists and rankings are concerned:

• Paddington 2 (Paul King, UK) If all franchises were crafted with this much heart and warmth and wit, Hollywood wouldn't feel souless at all.
• Border (Ali Abassi, Sweden) A refreshing oddity which totally commits to its own hybrid identity as its protagonist discovers hers.
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Ramsey, Persichetti, and Rothman, US) If all superhero movies were this fun, inclusive, and inventive, they'd deserve their now automic success in the marketplace.
• First Man (Damien Chazelle, US) A nation's epic ambitions paired with a marriage's intimate drama. So elegantly crafted.
• Burning (Lee Chang-dong) as elusive and mysterious as a cat that doesnt want to be seen, until it saunters boldy into sight to stare you down.
• First Reformed (Paul Schrader, US) The year's most disturbing drama. Hard to shake and necessary.
• Widows (Steve McQueen) Overstuffed and strangely paced, but reverberating with provocative ideas and juicy characters. 
• Capernaum (Nadine Labaki, Lebanon) For all that urgency and visceral feeling, not to mention one of the great child performances.
• Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski, US) for its ramshackle charms and subtle character-portrait
• Hereditary (Ari Aster, US) What a calling card debut, from that dollhouse opening shot all the way through that psychotic break ending, a new horror classic. 

RUNNERS UP. Oh, if there were room in the top ten for all of these...

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Film Bitch Awards: Best Kiss, Sex Scene, and Sexpot of the Year

by Nathaniel R

This past week we asked the team to pick some favourite screen kisses for Valentine's and we must thank them for reminding us of the sexy canoodling in Notorious, Last of the Mohicans, Love Simon, Spider-Man, and The Notebook. This weekend we're bringing it back to the now or at least the very recent with the 2018 Film Bitch Nominations for our three lustiest categories: Best Kiss, Best Love/Sex Scene and Sexpot of the Year. 

BEST KISS
"Esti, do you think I should go back early?"
"No... No... No, I don't you should leave at all."

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Blueprints: FYC Original Screenplays

Following the first major award nominations of the season, Jorge takes a chance to remind any Academy votes to keep in mind some of the best screenplays of the year… 

Historically, Best Original Screenplay has been the category in which the Academy takes some of its biggest risks. Or maybe where it likes to think it does. This is the place where more daring, inventive, or “non-traditional” movies tend to get a shout-out, perhaps as a recognition of the overall novelty of the film without going as far as honoring those edgier achievements with a Best Picture nod or win...

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