Beauty vs Beast: Live Without Masters
Monday, July 23, 2018 at 2:40PM Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" for you people to vote yourselves silly with -- did you know that today would have been the 51st birthday of the great Philip Seymour Hoffman? He's been gone over four years now and I ache to think of all the performances we've missed out on. No I wouldn't have given him that Oscar over Heath Ledger either, but he wasn't even nominated for the greatest film of the past two decades (that would be Synecdoche New York) so the injustices, they pile up.
But we're here to talk about another film, one I have come hard around on since its release - I was cool to Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master in 2012 but my affection for it has grown with time; I'm pretty keen on it now, with its medicinal greens and hard elbows. It's only right, it taking some time - it's not the sort of film that hugs you, at least not without wanting something back, making it much like its leading men...
PREVIOUSLY Naturally the actress prevailed and then some with last week's Double Indemnity poll - crossing Barabra Stanwyck was never a good idea, not when she's got that silver pistol in her pocketbook. Said cal roth:
"That was so easy... I love Stanwyck and MacMurray reunion in There's Always Tomorrow. I love Stanwyck, the most versatile movie goddess of all time. She could go from a Hawks screwball to two masterful perfomances in Sirk melodramas to westerns by Samuel Fuller and Anthony Mann (the director who got her best best performance ever, in The Furies)."
Reader Comments (13)
The rightful 2012 Best Actor and Supporting Actor wins.
No, Mark, because PSH's nomination was clear case of C A T E G O R Y F R A U D. Same for his Doubt nomination. And I am all for his for Capote, since Ledger is still too Brando-wannabe for my tastes, with all that extra dose of grumbling in every sentence. I wish Ledger had tried a more discreet approach and not that method actor in distress routine. He plays Ennis exactly like Al Pacino would in his hammiest days. I like the performance, but PSH was way better.
2012's The Master is the highest form of film excellence people pride themselves on dismissing. Day-Lewis robbed Phoenix. Jackman and Cooper took up valuable category real estate.
The audacity to call Ledger hammy in Brokeback Mountain over Philip Seymour Hoffman....
Sorry I disagree Hoffman is supporting Freddie's journey not the other way round,I am put off by DDL too studied Lincoln Sally Field owns him in every scene they have together,I love Cooper's naturalism in SLP,I loathe anyting to do with Les Miz,I was sorry Gere missed.
Phoenix is doing a kind of method in The Master but with each yea I find him and the film more compelling.
Why can't we have both. DDL was also spectacular in Lincoln? I'd say that beyond his technical skills, it's his most soulful performance. He is skilled but never cold. He's always present, always carnal.
Joaquin Phoenix should have won the Oscar for this as he gave the best male leading performance that year. Period.
Loved it in theatres, loved it even more at home. They're both superb. Amy's nod was considered a default nomination but I think she's quite good. Sweet in the outside, dead in the inside.
I resent Lincoln for the DDL sweep and for robbing Anna Karenina.
This performance truly cemented Joaquin Phoenix as one of the irrefutable greats, and it was very nice that Philip Seymour Hoffman got to work yet again before his untimely passing with Paul Thomas Anderson in a role so sizable.
Jack Black in Bernie and Jean-Louis Trintignant in Amour are waaaaay better than Phoenix and PSH for Best Actor. But of those two, I prefer PSH, and yes, it’s major category fraud. (Phoenix should’ve won the following year for Her).
Cal Roth spilling the tea everywhere!
Completely agree that PSH in Capote is case of someone deservedly steamrolling awards season, even when considering all the independent/world cinema without campaigns (see also Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine, Mo'nique in Precious and Natalie Portman in Black Swan).
I also prefer PSH (Leading) in Doubt to Synecdoche, New York and nominate him for the former.
Can't comment on The Master as I still haven't watched it...
Cooper was a revelation in Silver Linings Playbook. Who knew he had that in him? And yes, Trintignant, who was every bit his co-star's equal, should have been nominated for Amour.
I don't have much to say about this film as I find it tedious. But I do think PSH was a lot more fun to watch than Phoenix. I wish he were still here.