Beauty vs Beast: Saoirse and Her Sisters

Jason from MNPP here with another round of "Beauty vs Beast" for you people. This weekend Mary Queen of Scots hits theaters and I'm sure you'll hear more about it here being, you know, a movie starring two impressive young actresses being impressive once again - one of those actresses, the one called Saoirse, well she's spent 11 straight years now impressing us, and today we're looking back at the place that started, i.e. with Joe Wright's Atonement. Saoirse should face down female relatives more often - her "cousin" Queen Elizabeth, her mother Laurie Metcalf, her sister Keira Knightley... it works out well for her.

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PREVIOUSLY We tackled the parental figures of Moonlight last week (they could both use a good tackling, honestly) and y'all clearly thought the Oscars got it right, giving Mahershala Ali almost 70% of you vote. Said AlexD:

"Performance wise they're hand in hand for me. Both superb, both brilliantly adding depth and emotion to their characters. Ali shines all the dark and less flattering qualities of a character with whom we mostly sympathize on screen, while Harris humanizes a character with whom we don't (on screen)."

Beauty vs Beast: Black Boys Looking Blue

Jason from MNPP here, still a little stuffed with turkey but ready for this week's "Beauty vs Beast" poll nonetheless - Barry Jenkins' fine new film If Beale Street Could Talk is hitting screens in a couple of weeks, and so we turn our eyes upon 2016's most deserving Best Picture Winner Moonlight to prepare. It seems likely that the film's Best Supporting Actor winner Mahershala Ali will at least be nominated again this year, if not win, for his best-in-show work in Green Book, which I have few qualms with. But it does remind that I never understood why Naomie Harris' work in Moonlight went unrecognized at the Oscars, as she was best in that show for me. Granted her character is much more difficult to root for than Ali's conflicted dealer is...

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PREVIOUSLY Before the holiday we had ourselves a Fassy-Off, facing down two of Michael Fassbender's best perfomances for director Steve McQueen, and I guess TFE loves itself a sex addict because Shame's Brandon swung himself three-quarters of your vote. Said Sarah:

"I love both of these performances but I went with Hunger in the poll mostly because of the "foal" speech he gives which I love but Shame is a real powerhouse performance. It's a shame (heh) how people were so preoccupied with the full frontal that they don't give the performance (and the film and Mulligan) the credit it deserves."

Beauty vs Beast: And Then There Was Fassbender

Jason Adams from MNPP here for a new week's round of our "Beauty vs Beast" poll, wherein we ask you to choose between a "good" guy and a "bad" guy and roll and around and muck up the in between what that means. One of our modern masters in mucking up that in between has a new movie out this weekend - Steve McQueen returns with Widows, out on Friday. If you'd like my long-form thoughts on it here's my review from last week, but if you just want short-form, here: it's great! Go see it!

I will say there's one thing I was disappointed by with Widows though, and that's the absence of McQueen's lucky charm Michael Fassbender, who'd starred in every one of his movies before now. And that's where we turn for this week's contest. (I'm worried about Fassbender in general, who's all but disappeared from acting since The Snowman soiled our cinemas last year - come back, Fassy!)

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PREVIOUSLY Although we should be celebrating Parker Posey every day we really celebrated the heck out of her last week for her 50th birthday - for our poll it was her incest-minded Bouvier twist who took top honors, swallowing up 64% of the vote along with all that scenery. Said James From Ames:

"Jackie O left me awestruck. It’s such a star-making role and performance that it’s almost painful to think on, given that Hollywood never capitalized on this huge talent. My cousin, 10 years younger than me, was obsessed with the real Jackie O and wore that pink suit for Halloween. She didn’t like my suggestion to add brains to the look, and I found out she had never heard of this great film!"

Beauty vs Beast: All Hail Queen Posey

Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" contest, which this week will be marking the milestone of 50 freaking years of the eternal goddess Parker Posey. Do you recall the first place you saw her? I feel like for most people it was probably Dazed and Confused but I have a really vivid memory of her in Coneheads, for some reason. Whatever is was she's since given us half of her life and heaps of iconic characters in that time, and we're gawping in the presence of greatness today.

It seems a bit blasphemous to ignore her work with Christopher Guest ("Busy Bee!") but I'm gonna - I'm gonna go with two of her characters that ended up shaping my perception of her screen-image the most. And those two are Mary in Party Girl and Jackie O in The House of Yes...

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PREVIOUSLY Our Halloween hangovers should (hopefully) be gone by now so let's say goodbye to my favorite holiday with one last big hug to Jack Skellington, who took the Nightmare Before Christmaspoll with 74% of your vote. Said catbaskets:

"Mr. Oogie boogie says there's trouble close at hand. You better pay attention, now, 'cause he's the boogie man. Jack counters that there are few who deny that at what he does he is the best for his talents are renowned far and wide. Jack in a landslide."

Beauty vs Beast: The Battle of Halloweentown

Jason Adams from MNPP here, wishing everyone a Happy All Hallows Week as well as (thematically related) a Happy 25 to Henry Selick's now-a-holiday-classic The Nightmare Before Christmas for this week's "Beauty vs Beast" contest. It seems strange to remember that when NBC came out it only got mixed reviews but I was there, I am old, and I remember it - it's stood the test of time though, and now I can't imagine Halloween or Christmas without Zero the Dog and the rest of the colorfully spooky gang. (The annual argument over whether the film is a Halloween Movie or an Xmas Movie that I could do without.) 

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PREVIOUSLY The winner of last week's PJ Soles contest was... drum-roll please... PJ Soles! PJ Soles is always our winner. Okay okay specifically it was her Halloween character of Lynda who won over her role in Carrie, with a vote of 69% (that number would totally make Lynda giggle). Said Rob:

"Norma was horrible and got what she deserved. Lynda was a totally lovable airhead. GO LYNDA"