Happy 75th to Four-Time Oscar Nominee Marsha Mason

by Eric Blume

Marsha Mason speaking at an event in 2015Today marks the 75th birthday of Marsha Mason, one of Hollywood’s leading ladies from the 1970s.  Celebrating her is easy because she brought a lot of light and joy to screens for a decade and a half with her toothy vibrance and warm energy.

It’s strange to think that contemporary young movie audiences don’t even know Mason, since she scored four Oscar nominations for Best Actress over nine years!  Her first nomination came in 1973 for Mark Rydell’s Cinderella Liberty, where she plays a prostitute with an 11-year-old mixed race son.  Her rapport with co-star James Caan and the young actor who plays her son has a scrappy grace to it, and it’s a winning performance. 

Mason’s other three Oscar nominations came from roles written or tailored expressly for her by her then-husband, Neil Simon...

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"Big Little Lies" Finale - The MVPs

 Previously: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, and Episode 6 

by Nathaniel R

Is Big Little Lies the richest miniseries in recent memory? Its seventh hour was burdened with extravagant expectations and seemingly far too many character arcs, story suggestions, actual plot, and general areas of concern (domestic abuse, female friendship, infidelity, emotional crises, childhood bullying, responsible parenting) to cover in sixty minutes. An impossible task in terms of satisfying its rabid fanbase, surely. And yet here we are. Jean-Marc Vallée (who directed every episode), his crew, and his astonishing actresses, pulled it all together gorgeously and even completely (no second season is necessary, thank you; leave beautiful things alone).

Spoilers obviously follow in this wrap-up list...

Top Ten Top Twelve MVPs of Big Little Lies, Episode 7
"You Get What You Need"

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Beauty vs Beast: Grande Dame Guignol

Jason from MNPP here with a new edition of "Beauty vs Beast" that was so obvious, so "sitting right there and staring me dead in the eyes," that I couldn't believe I hadn't done it already and had to do three searches just to make sure. But no, it's true, we have somehow never used What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? for this series. Perhaps our minds had blocked it off until Ryan Murphy's Feud became a reality? Well much like Emmy nominations for Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon, its moment has come. Of course now it might be tougher than ever to sort through all the extraneous on-set shenanigans to get to the ladies behind the ladies - the Blanche and the Baby Jane behind the Bette and the Joan. It's always about billing, you know. But let's try.

PREVIOUSLY The now classic rom-com My Best Friend's Wedding is celebrating its 20th very soon and you can tell the movie still works because it still has the ability to divide our sympathies among its two extremely charming leading ladies - while the numbers went back and forth over the course of the week in the end it was the pretty woman in the lead who walked away with just over 53% of your vote. Said brookesboy:

"This is one of Julia's best performances. The way she combines ruthlessness with charisma is unique. You realize how awful she is all along, but you still can't help relating to her. That's a pretty nifty trick. And this is a comedy that's actually kind of a tragedy. I hate myself, but I'm Team Jules. GAWD!"

The Furniture: Repairs for the House in "20th Century Women"

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in much more magnified detail. Here's Daniel Walber...

"The house is a character in its own right," everyone says. It’s one of our more meaningless cliches, poltergeists notwithstanding. But the sentiment behind it is understandable. A building, though hardly alive, can still offer charisma. A dynamic visual language can be built from its beams.

20th Century Women has one of these abodes. The house in question belongs to Dorothea (Annette Bening), who lives with her son Jamie (Lucas Zumann) and two boarders, Abbie (Greta Gerwig) and William (Billy Crudup). As she explains to a fireman she’s invited to a party...

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C O N S I D E R - Favorite Actresses of 2017, 1st Qtr

With the year's first quarter over, here's a listicle of noteworthy performances we'll eventually compare to what's to come. We've already listed fav male performances and favtechnical achievements thus far - from screenings and releases as of March 31st. Herewith the 17 best female performances from the year's first quarter, divvied up into three categories. Did these women speak to you?

Disclaimer: I missed The Last Word, United Kingdom, and Wilson  which all have prominent female roles for talented actors. If you've seen them give their MVPs a shout-out in the comments. 

6 LEADING ACTRESSES

Paula Beer as "Anna" in Frantz

16 more talented women after the jump...

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