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)."

Podcast: The Favourite, Creed 2, and Shoplifters

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl welcome back Nick Davis to talk new films

Index (67 minutes)
00:01 Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters. Plus: Roma and Oscar talk.
20:22 Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite, directorial style, tragicomedies, and three stellar actresses: Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, and Emma Stone. Plus: Sandy Powell's costumes
39:45 Reader Q: Which film will get the most Oscar nods this year?
43:06 Reader Q: What is going on with Mary Queen of Scots? 
48:05 Reader Q: Why did Widows underperform?
52:50 Nick on Creed 2 
58:32 Randomness to wrap-up: Museo, and Ruth E. Carter's costumes for Black Panther

Further Reading / References
• Nathaniel's review of The Favourite
• Murtada's interview with Hirokazu Koreeda on Shoplifters
• Oscar Predictions, Current
• ...and this royal Angela Bassett costume in Black Panther

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 Favourite, Creed 2, Shoplifters

HMMA Honors "Black Panther" and "A Star is Born"

We're not sure why or how the Hollywood Music in Media Awards came about but they're now in their ninth year honoring musicians in a few buckets worth of categories across all visual media. Their winners are determined by committee and like the NBR, who people tease for divvying up their prizes in a way that insures each studio buys a table at their banquet, there's a little something for everyone. The only multiple winners were Black Panther (Original Score -Scifi/Fantasy, Original Song - Scifi/Fantasy & Soundtrack Album), and A Star is Born (Music Supervision & Original Song).

The winners are after the jump though we're not listing the nominees because it's one of those silly awards shows that seems to have no consistency about how many nominees each category is allowed to have. All that said, you might see some of these winners again on the Oscar nomination lists, though...

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Robbie To Ruin

by Jason Adams

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not as great as our host Nathaniel at keeping up with every single festival) but with a little digging it doesn't look like Mary, Queen of Scots is premiering at any of the Fall festivals? Perhaps that is why I've seen some people side-eying its awards chances lately? Personally I'm always down for dramatic wig acting, and with Saoirse & Margot under them wigs I'm hooked already (and that before you even get to James McArdle's Beard).

Margot is why we're here today though - she's just signed up for a new role and it's one that's got my interest right out of the gate. She is going to star opposite my beloved Matthias Schoenaerts in Ruin, the new film from Snowtown and Macbeth (and yes okay Assassin's Creed) director Justin Kurtzel. It's a World War II thriller - it actually sounds kind of similar to Paul Verhoeven's Black Book, which starred Carice Van Houten (sidenote: a happy birthday to the great Carice today!) and, hey look at that...

... Matthias Schoenaerts in a small role. First place I remember seeing him actually! Anyway Ruin is about a Holocaust survivor (Robbie) who teams up with a former SS officer (Schoenaerts) to hunt down the members of his former death squad. Tonally that could go... an awful lot of directions, so we'll have to wait and see how Kurtzel & Co take it. While we're waiting why don't we all head over to MNPP where I just posted a bunch of Matthias pictures inspired by this news? It'll help pass the time.

YNMS: Mary Queen of Scots

by Chris Feil

As promised yesterday, the Mary Queen of Scots trailer has arrived. Think of it like the less demented and much more traditional flip side of an actressy coin to the antics of that trailer for The Favourite. Becauseonce again we've got some heavily costumed fireworks on our hands.

And what take does this version of the oft rehashed history have to offer? The film jumps off from the amicable relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, played respectively by last year's Best Actress nominees Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan. Then begins a rivalry for the throne, but this film plays handily with the underpinnings of affection both women have for one another and the men underneath their power forcing their hands. As your middle school history books will tell you, it doesn't end well for all parties.

This is one of our more anticipated Oscar players of the season, so all eyes are on what Ronan and Robbie have in store as their awards stars continue to go upward. But will the movie have the goods? Take a look at the new trailer and we'll break down the Yes No Maybe So...

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