Beauty vs Beast: Our Favourite Fellas

Jason from MNPP here, wishing everyone a Happy Oscar Hangover Monday -- the mood swings last night were particularly violent, but then we live in a rollercoaster world in 2019 so the evening felt par for the course. Personally I had some villains I was rooting against last night but today in the light of day I don't feel like being particularly cruel so I'm going to go another direction with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" competition and celebrate one last time before we move on to new things my favourite red-carpet duo this season -- the fellas of The Favourite, Nicholas Hoult and Joe Alwyn, who trotted out their sharpest looks of the year on the red carpet, Nicky in Dior and Joe in Tom Ford. Nothing diabolical here, let's keep it light -- just choose!

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PREVIOUSLY Two weeks back it was the ladies of ROMA facing off for us, and leading lady Yalitza Aparicio took home your prize with 58% of the vote. Here's a selection of what Jones had to say (I recommend you click back and read the whole comment though because it's boss):

"To understand Cleo's character is necessary to not only understand existing at the margins of society but to be familiar with what it is like to exist at the margins of a household: being intimate without having a voice or autonomy. To people unfamiliar with these class structures and Mexican indigenous people this could read as blank but reflect again..."

Oscar Trivia with the 91st Annual Academy Awards now a wrap

Now that the big show has ended let's talk trivia. Please do share any cool things you noticed in the comments.

PICTURE & DIRECTING

• With Alfonso Cuarón's win we are reminded that Mexico is completely dominant for Best Director prizes in Hollywood of late. Five of the past six winners have been Mexican directors (Damien Chazelle for La La Land being the lone non-Mexican winning). The US is really lagging, and not behind Mexico -- in the ten past ceremonies only two American-born directors have won: Chazelle and Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker

• Alfonso Cuarón is the first and ONLY director to win for directing a foreign-language film. Some trivia listings suggest he's the second after Michel Hanavicius for The Artist but that was a silent film, so language isn't relevant...

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Great Moments in Kissing: "Y Tu Mama También"

We've decided to extend our 'kissing' appreciation series past Valentine's. Not that you were asking but we're having fun and it's a sexy break inbetween Oscar madness. Here's Eric Blume...

In director Alfonso Cuarón's 2001 mini-masterpiece Y Tu Mama Tambien, lifelong friends Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) spend much of the movie talking about girls and sex.  And when they begin a road trip with older, sexy Luisa (Maribel Verdu), most of their focus is on her, her body, and the idea of getting her into bed.  Which makes the climax (yep, I said it) of the film so incredibly surprising:  at the end of their journey, they finally consummate their adventure in one of the cinema's best threesomes... 

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Beauty vs Beast: Who's the Boss

Happy Monday, Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" poll -- this week we're tackling the two Oscar-moninated performances at the heart of my favorite film of 2018, Alfonso Cuarón's ROMA. Yalitza Aparicio is Cleo, whose pregnancy via local ne'er-do-well charts the course of the film; Marina de Tavira plays Senora Sofia, Cleo's boss whose own relationship is faltering. Two women ghosted, but which is your tops?

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PREVIOUSLY Rachel Weisz won a BAFTA yesterday for The Favourite but even more importantly today she officially won last week's Disobedience poll against her fellow Rachel, McAdams -- might as well toss that BAFTA in the trash, Rach! Said David S:

"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."

Beauty Break: ASC Tributes + Best Cinematography Honors

The American Society of Cinematographers will hold their annual awards dinner tonight where they'll be honoring Jeff Bridges with their Board of Governors Award, three-time Oscar winner Robert Richardson (Hugo, Aviator, JFK) with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and two time Emmy winner Jeffrey Jur (Carnivàle, Bessie) for the Career Achievement in Television Award. They'll also hand out some competitive prizes and presumably give Alfonso Cuarón yet another trophy for his mantle (let's hope he has steel reinforced shelving at home given this season's worth of hardware.) UPDATE: oops we were wrong and Cuarón lost for practically the first time this season.

Let's look at that beautiful imagery from the winners and nominees again with a few bonus gifs... 

• WINNER: Łukasz Żal, PSC for “Cold War” 

What an incredible DP Żal is. After the consecutive Pawel Pawlikowski's successes of Ida (2013) and Cold War (2018), will he be in demand in Hollywood or just stick to work across the ocean? While his best work has been in black & white in Poland he does color and cinema from other countries as well...

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