Appreciating Rachel Weisz

by Eric Blume

One of our most resourceful and intelligent actresses, Rachel Weisz, turned 50 this past weekend. At her half century mark she's currently at the height of her powers as an actor.

Weisz appeared in several smaller movies before making a big splash opposite the then-on-fire Brendan Fraser in 1999's The Mummy.  The role didn't demand much of her, but her feisty spirit brought a great deal to a stock character, and from there she was on her way.  She gave a particularly fine performance in the 2001 film versoin of Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things (I miss Neil LaBute...anyone else?).

Weisz then of course won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2005 for her fascinating performance in Fernando Mereilles' The Constant Gardner...

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Beauty vs Beast: Home is Where the Hearts Are

Jason from MNPP here with the last "Beauty vs Beast" before the Oscars. This week's poll doesn't have anything to do with the Oscars though because let's face it - the Academy, bless their shiny hearts, is never going to be as cool and adventurous as our host Nathaniel is. Nathaniel dropped his Top Ten of 2017 over the weekend and at #9 was a movie AMPAS was never going to go anywhere near - Darren Aronofsky's spectacularly divisive mother! starring Jennifer Lawrence (who's got Red Sparrow out this weekend) as a sink-bracing Suzy Homemaker under, uh, extreme duress. But we're never going to forget mother!, and we doubt you will either - even if it's just to picture Michelle Pfeiffer whenever you slip a little extra something into your lemonade...

survey service

PREVIOUSLY We wished Sidney Poitier a happy birthday last Monday, wondering why he wasn't the one who got AMPAS' attention in 1967's In the Heat of the Night - he certainly got our attention, rounding up 85% of your vote from his co-star (and statue-snatcher) Rod Steiger. Said Red:

"Watching Sydney Poitier reassured me that I could grow up into the kind of adult I wanted to be. He still had what we kids had and adults had lost. He was honest, honourable, brave and full of joy."

Blueprints: "mother!"

With the announcement of the Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations this week, we are officially in the awards race. So from now until Oscars, Jorge will be examining 2017’s most talked-about movies and their screenplays. First, he shows up uninvited at a party...

mother! is a fever dream. The stream-of-consciousness journey of a woman that just wants people to get the hell out of her space. It’s a biblical allegory, a metaphor for the destruction of the environment, a hallucination of the protagonist. It’s all of these, and it is none.

Watching the movie is a trip (take that word for whatever meaning). It’s more visceral than narrative. Trying to find a traditional, cohesive plot in it is useless, and it’s better to experience it through gut reactions of the vignettes presented. But how does the screenplay look? Exactly as you would imagine...

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FYC: mother!

by Chris Feil

Has the world already forgotten about mother!? It may not have ever been a film built to be a formidable Oscar contender, but Darren Aronofsky’s film is one to hang the year on nonetheless. Now is time for a healthy reassessment, as it arrives on streaming today!

Or maybe it might be a first watch for some, after that all-too-brief run in theatres. The film was killed by a flurry of hot takes, sink bracing jokes (guilty), dissections of its marketing, and conversations on the value of Cinemascore. But now that the dust and clickbait have settled, the film still remains one of the most audacious and purely entertaining films of the year. And also one of the very best that we should keep talking about...

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Podcast: Battle of the Sexes, Beach Rats, and mother!

Nathaniel, Nick, Joe and Chris try and catch up with movies the podcast hasn't covered

Index (42 minutes)
00:01 Battle of the Sexes
12:00 mother!, interpretations, Q & A culture
28:30 Michelle Pfeiffer and Darren Aronofsky
34:00 Beach Rats
39:15 silliness and sign-offs

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

"the sink's not braced yet!"