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!)

survey software

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!"

Middleburg: "Ruben Brandt" Collects and "Widows" Thrills

Day two of the Middleburg Film Festival

Friday kicked off with a special "sneak" of Stan & Ollie (which, more on tomorrow) and then two more movies which went like so...

Ruben Brandt, Collector
From the opening shot of this animated film from Hungary you know you're in for an idiosyncratic lark. We're humorously crosscutting between an ultra fast moving train and the molasses crawl of a snail on the tracks. Then we're inside the train with Ruben Brandt, a famous psychotherapist who is promptly attacked by a little girl with a very sharp bite who is dressed suspiciously like Diego Velázquez's  "Infanta Margarita Teresa in a Blue Dress". I say 'dressed like' because it's hard to make the connection at first...

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Supporting Actress - New Oscar Chart

by Nathaniel R

Continuing the chart updates to reflect this post-festival world, Supporting Actress is now redone with new images and new rankings and new text. The major change is that I've thoroughly convinced myself that Elizabeth Debicki will nab her first nomination for Widows. In some ways she has the biggest character arc, and it's a very large role that still is a supporting one (and screen time really counts as you know) and she has interesting screen chemistry of all types with her primary scene partners (Viola Davis, Lukas Haas, Jon Bernthal, and Jacki Weaver). Plus she's one of the most exciting new actresses working and there's usually someone newish in a lineup. Of course to include her I've had to drop Amy Adams out of the predictions for her Second Lady role in Vice which might be foolhardy. On the other hand, Oscar eventually falls out of obsessive love with every actor (unless their name is Meryl Streep).

Check out the new chart

ICYMI: Supporting Actor and Leading Actor are also revamped

TIFF Review: "Widows"

by Chris Feil

If you thought that Steve McQueen’s Widows would be less of a body blow as his other films simply because the genius director is dipping into the mainstream, guess again. A quaint notion that is thankfully not the case - McQueen hasn't softened a bit, and thank goodness.

Watching the film is like laying on a bed of nails, danger at every turn as you dodge its narrative and formative land mines. McQueen’s previous films such as 12 Years a Slave and Shame depicted viscerally physical experiences, making for intense films that can be felt as deeply in the body as well as the soul. Though Widows is less concerned on physical tolls taken on its characters than those efforts, that doesn’t mean you don’t still feel Widows down to your bones.

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We ❤️ Viola

So proud to have been a fan since 2002! Viola Davis gets the cover story in the current Variety as she gears up for her Widows debut at TIFF. Can't wait to see it. But damn, that Best Actress race is getting crowded. (Kris Tapley even suspects Olivia Colman will go lead)