Beauty vs Beast: Lesbian Love Song
Monday, February 4, 2019 at 2:30PM 
Jason Adams from MNPP here -- at the Tribeca Film Fest last year I weirdly reviewed two movies involving Alessandro Nivola and Orthodox Judaism. The first one is called To Dust and Nivola (along with his wife actress Emily Mortimer) produced it -- it stars Son of Saul's Géza Röhrig and Matthew Broderick as an extremely odd couple grappling with the afterlife. Here is my review, and you can watch the trailer over here. To Dust is finally hitting some theaters this weekend, and I highly recommend seeking it out. I really dig it.
The other movie I reviewed at Tribeca 2018 was Sebastian Lelio's Disobedience, which came out last year and which in a just world we'd be celebrating its several Oscar nominations just about now. Hey I did my part -- Disobedience got mentions in both end-of-year polls I have a say in, The Team Experience Awards here on this site as well as the Dorian Awards for the GALECA guild of LGBT critics. But being a great film is its own reward, and Disobedience will be remembered for a very long time as such. Now let's face off its Rachels -- McAdams is Esti, the one who stayed, and Weisz is Ronit, the one who went away...
PREVIOUSLY Last week's Can You Ever Forgive Me poll was as close as two friends sweeping up cat turds could be, but Melissa McCarthy got the best of Richard E Grant in the end with 53% of the vote. Said /3rtful:
"Unprepared for how emotionally affected I would be by this movie. I think the casting of McCarthy and those initial cut trailers gave no clue of the emotional wallop this movie carries."
Reader Comments (11)
This movie made me sad. It had everything I love in movies -- lesbians, Orthodox Jews, and Rachels. I wanted so badly to love it, but I found it curiously flat.
Deborah Lipp -- not even the spitting?
An outstanding performance from Nivola and an excellent turn from Weisz. Not so keen on McAdams because her accent was a bit shit (sorry bad English accent police again) and I thought she gave a bit of a weepy performance. As a film, I thought it was decent.
I really liked this fillm; found it so heartbreaking. I thought both Rachels and Nivola were fantastic; why wasn't it in conversation for awards? Maybe too slow? In contrast to other opinions here at TFE, I was touched more by the central relationship in this than the one in Carol. Maybe because I'm increasingly becoming less of a Cate Blanchett fan?
Pam, why are you becoming less of a Blanchett fan?
@evangelina - It's hard to explain, but there's a lack of warmth emanating from her. Her recent performances are chilly, but not necessarily character-driven. Technically perfect but no heat. It's evident in her interviews too. Sharp-elbowed, sharp-cheeked, and steely, I'm just not responding to the coolness, and prefer some of her cohort--Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Amy Adams, and younger ones like Michelle Williams, or Emma Stone.
evangelina -- Please tell us your Top 5 British accents.
Weisz will probably win this in a cake walk.
I'm surprised Bafta passed her up for Lead Actress nom this yr. She was double nom at BIFA, n I was expecting her to repeat the feat at Bafta too.
Regardless, she's still gonna (finally) get her long odue Bafta this Sun! 😁
Peggy Sue: Most are terrible, but Gillian Anderson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cate Blanchett and Emma Stone are all great. Stone's American seeps through with curse words - she elongates them too much whereas Brits swear in short and snappy fashion. Other than that top marks. Nicole Kidman is not bad at all.
Pam - I know what you mean. Some of her stage technicality seems to have seeped into her work. Cinderella was a lowpoint for me but Blue Jasmine and Carol are performances tor the ages.
Rachel Weisz... love her forever, and I never foresaw her career picking up now instead of ten years ago. I love how proud she is of the love scene, which is one of the best and most specific I've ever seen. I would nominate her for Best Actress and Best Supporting this year, if I had the power!
The performance even improves on the second viewing. So does McAdams's. It's all just very subtle... I noticed on Letterboxd that almost no one I follow actually saw this. I hope it gets more viewers over time.
I gotta throw down on this Blanchett thing. Her best performance is still The Talented Mr. Ripley, and I actually thought she was great in Ocean's 8, but I agree that some of her bigger performances tend to leave me cold. I love her to death but her choices definitely don't resonate with everyone, which is respectable in itself.