Best Actress – This Had Oscar Buzz

281 – Fair Game

We return to the work of Naomi Watts this week for a discussion on 2010’s Fair Game. Costarring with Sean Penn for the third time in a decade, Watts starred as outed CIA agent Valerie Plame with the film detailing the leaking of Plame’s identity amidst her husband Joseph C. Wilson’s criticisms of the Bush administration. With Doug Liman taking the director’s chair after a series of action films, the film is a surprisingly sober recounting of the Plame story and one of Hollywood’s better offerings deconstructing that era of American culture. But despite launching the film at Cannes and Watts’ solid performance, the film became yet another disappointment among the many political dramas of the period.

This week, we talk about the career of Liman, including the fraught production of The Bourne Identity. We also discuss Watts’ period between her two Oscar nominations, the general landscape of Bush era politics and how few films successfully unpacked it well, and the relative box office disappointment of Edge of Tomorrow.

Topics also include Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, Bush administration names like “Scooter,” and the National Board of Review’s Freedom of Expression award.

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274 – Certified Copy (Patreon Selects)

Our patrons said we must stay in Tuscany! This week, we’ve got another Patreon Selects episode and it has us talking about one of our least favorite Oscar years. In 2010, Abbas Kiarostami returned to Cannes with yet another masterpiece in Certified Copy, a dense and transfixing musing on reproductions of art, authenticity, and perception. The film didn’t release stateside until 2011, but did earn Juliette Binoche Best Actress at Cannes and a wide range of critical response, from befuddled to enraptured. But Certified Copy became more of a critical favorite than Oscar hopeful, while a different Iranian filmmaker, Asghar Farhadi, would win the country’s first international Oscar for A Separation.

This episode, we talk about Binoche’s career including her mixed bag of American projects. We also talk about the film’s slippery presentation of reality and role-play, the Iranian New Wave and Iran’s Oscar history, and the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Topics also include other 2011 favorites in a bad Oscar year, coffee shop ladies, and Cannes acting prizes.

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Class of 2023

It’s here! Our most awaited and beloved episode of every year! We’re here this week to look back at the This Had Oscar Buzz Class of 2023, celebrating all of the films that had some kind of Oscar hopes that managed zero nominations last week. We’re giving our categories a minor facelift, while still discussing things like the most forgettable and most deserving films left out in the Oscar cold. Topics also include movies that make Joe and Chris argue, Madonna tardiness, and the much discussed Barbie misses in Best Actress and Best Director.

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273 – Under the Tuscan Sun (Patreon Selects)

This week, our Patreon Selects episodes continue and they’re staying in Europe! One of our sponsors has selected for us an Oscar nomination follow-up star vehicle for the divine Diane Lane, 2003’s Under the Tuscan Sun. Loosely adapted from Frances Mayes’ memoir, the film follows Lane as a new divorce gifted a Tuscan vacation who decides to feel the rain on her skin (no one else can feel it for her! only she can let it in!) and buys a Tuscan home to uproot her life. Fresh off an Unfaithful Best Actress nomination, the film launched in the fall but was quickly reduced to romcom fare unworthy of awards.

This episode, we talk about Lane’s career leading up to the critical groundswell that resulted in her Oscar nomination. We also talk about Lindsay Duncan going all La Dolce Vita, contemporary production design, and the 2003 Golden Globes Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy lineup.

Topics also include being Gay and Away at the Taco Bell hotel, Grey’s Anatomy, and the incoming Oscar nominations!

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272 – 8 Women (Patreon Selects)

Our Patreon Selects series continues with another dive into French cinema! In 2002, director Francois Ozon delivered an actress bonanza with 8 Women, an homage of Douglas Sirk and Alfred Hitchcock that’s also a musical and also murder mystery and also a celebration of the biggest French actresses of the moment. Set at Christmas, its titular ensemble tries to discover who among them has killed the family patriarch. Despite a solid run for France in the aughts with their Oscars submissions, Ozon’s treacly affair did not make it to the Oscar ball.

This episode, we talk about Ozon’s filmography and France’s current difficulties nabbing an International Feature Oscar despite their stature in the race. We also talk about the career of Chris’ fave Isabelle Huppert, the film as Harold They’re Lesbians core, and our thoughts on The Taste of Things‘ chances this year.

Topics also include Frances Fisher’s new cause celebre, Streep/Short dating rumors, and Madarin Oriental “I’m a fan” commercials.

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261 – Hereditary

Happy Halloween, listeners! Naturally, this week we are returning to the shallow well of horror films that made it into the Oscar hunt with a recent highly debated and lauded terrifier. In 2018, Ari Aster made his feature debut at Sundance with Hereditary, the story of a family invaded from within by a demon worshipping cult. Aster’s bizarre vision quickly earned the film a reputation as one of the scariest ever made, but Toni Collette’s performance as a terrified and grieving mother received some career-best notices and feverish hopes that she could crack the Best Actress lineup. As you might expect, Hereditary was simply too much for the Academy.

This episode, we talk about everything that makes the film so divisive and Ari Aster’s whole thing. We also talk about Collette’s career and our favorites in her filmography, the rise of character actress Ann Dowd, and what makes the conversation around “elevated horror” so frustrating.

Topics also include putting the Saturn Awards on notice, coin parties, and the Gotham Awards.

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260 – The Deep Blue Sea

A few weeks ago, we lost the great and greatly undervalued filmmaker Terence Davies, who listened have heard our love of on our previous episode for The House of Mirth. In 2011, Davies adapted the play The Deep Blue Sea for the screen, with Rachel Weisz taking the role of a post-WWII married woman devastated by a failed affair with a veteran pilot, played by Tom Hiddleston. The film launched at TIFF but didn’t hit US screens until the following year, with Weisz an outsider contender in Best Actress with a NYFCC win and a surprise Golden Globe nomination.

This week, we talk about Davies’ heartbreaking passing and his career that culminated with Benediction. We also talk about Weisz’ career and Best Supporting Actress win for The Constant Gardener, Hiddleston’s breakthrough year in 2011 including Thor, and Simon Russell Beale’s tender performance as Weisz’ husband.

Topics also include what a cockle is, NYFCC’s other Best Actress choices, and the under appreciation of this year’s Dead Ringers limited series.

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259 – Ammonite (with Christina Tucker!)

After Francis Lee’s celebrated queer debut God’s Own Country, the director leveled up with another gay romance Ammonite, this time with Oscar-pedigreed stars. Kate Winslet stars as 19th century paleontologist Mary Anning opposite Saoirse Ronan as Charlotte Murchison; the two develop a seaside romance of opposites between the gruff Anning and the unfulfilled Murchison. But Lee’s follow-up, (originally selected for Cannes) had the unlucky fortune to come out in 2020 amidst a climate unfriendly to a romance more reserved and quiet than expected.

This episode, we talk about the film’s unceremonious world premiere at the COVID-impacted Toronto International Film Festival and the film’s theatrical run. We also discuss 2017 comparison’s between God’s Own Country and Call Me By Your Name, Winslet’s performance on Mare of Easttown, and the minor controversy over the real woman’s unknown sexuality.

Topics also include Sam Levinson’s (hypothetical!) dungeon, emotional metaphor animals, and “Harold, they’re lesbians!”

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258 – Kill Bill – Vol. 2

Last week we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Kill Bill – Vol. 1, so naturally we had to bring you Vol. 2 this week! Six months after the release of the original (and its shafting at the Oscars), The Bride returned to finish her vengeance list and kill that Bill. Surprisingly, the finale earned stronger reviews and earned praise for David Carradine’s turn as the titular assassin. But even with Uma Thurman’s towering work coming into full focus at the story’s close, Vol. 2 marked one of the last times that Oscar would decide Tarantino wasn’t in their wheelhouse.

This episode, we look at how the two films differ and how some scenes may have played in one long film. We also talk about Daryl Hannah’s career, why we think the film received better reviews than its predecessor, and Beatrix Kiddo’s travel logistics.

Topics also include David Carradine’s position in the 2004 Supporting Actor race, Uma post-Bill, and the most recent Best Picture nominee we haven’t seen.

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257 – Kill Bill – Vol. 1

We’re here celebrating a 20th anniversary for a beloved film this week, listeners! After his longest break between movies to date, Quentin Tarantino delivered a samurai epic while trying to crack the script for another epic, Inglourious Basterds. That ultraviolent actioner, Kill Bill, would also reunite Tarantino with his Pulp Fiction star Uma Thurman, given a major showcase as an unnamed blood soaked bride bent on vengeance. But Tarantino made so much movie, it had to be split into two.

Vol. 1 arrived in 2003 and became a sizable hit, wild mild critical praise that didn’t quite know what to do with its non-stop violence, time-hopping structure, and incomplete narrative arc. This episode, we talk about Kill Bill – Vol. 1‘s excellent female ensemble, its triumph at the MTV Movie Awards, and the all-timer needle drop “Battle Without Honor or Humanity”.

Topics also include first experiencing the film’s cliffhanger, its strong performance at BAFTA, and early aughts trailer descriptions.

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