Golden Globes – This Had Oscar Buzz

282 – Music (Patreon Selects)

On top of all the horrors of the pandemic, let’s not forget that that time also gave us cringe cinema directed by Sia. This week, we come to you with another Patreon Selects, where sponsor listener Stuart has tasked us with that very film. Initially shot in 2017, Sia’s Music cast Kate Hudson as a troublesome drug dealer tasked with taking over the care of her younger autistic sister, played by Sia protege Maddie Ziegler. The ill-conceived film earned a deserved firestorm of outcry for Sia not casting a neurodivergent performer and the singer’s initial dismissive reactions to the controversy, but then earned two shock Golden Globe nominations in the Musical/Comedy categories.

This episode, we unpack all that makes this our presumed worst film we have yet to discuss. We also talk about supporting star Leslie Odom Jr.’s presence in the film in the same season as his dual Oscar nominations for One Night in Miami…, Hudson’s newfound music career, and the films that the Globes could have sensibly nominated in Music‘s place.

Topics also include whatever the hell Mary Kay Place is doing in this movie, Hudson and Odom Jr. in Glass Onion, and the current hideous Globe statue.

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278 – Annette

Coming out of the COVID-led doldrums of 2020, the Cannes Film Festival loomed large as a “movies are back!!” starting gate for global cinema. Its opening film, Annette, was a long-in-development rock opera with music by cult fave Sparks and directed by visionary auteur Leos Carax, returning to the Croisette with his first film in nearly a decade. With Adam Driver at the helm as a batboy shock jock comedian who falls in love with opera star Marion Cotillard to disastrous results, the film is a bizarre fantasia about destructive creative ego and features a puppet as the titular baby singer. Though the film drew raves and buzz around Driver and Sparks’ score, Annette was alas too freaky for the Academy.

This week, we talk about Driver’s career and how his unique physicality makes him a worthy successor to Carax’s usual collaborator Denis Lavant. We also talk about the other famous castings while the film sat in development, the 2021 Original Song contenders, and Simon Helberg’s supporting performance.

Topics also include Baby Annette in the gay stan wars, Carax’s filmography, and the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

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276 – Spanglish

This week, we are talking about one of the biggest THOB titles that we haven’t yet discussed: 2004’s Spanglish. James L. Brooks returned nearly a decade after his Oscar success with As Good As It Gets with this story of two disparate families thrust together: an immigrant single mother and the rich Los Angeles family she works for. With Adam Sandler headlining one year after earning his first bout of buzz for Punch-Drunk Love, this looked to be a chance for the Academy to honor him as a serious performer within the Academy-beloved Brooksian seriocomic glow. But the movie… has some issues!

This episode, we talk about Cloris Leachman’s stellar boozy performance and Téa Leoni’s work tried to wrangle an impossible character. We also discuss Paz Vega as the film’s attempted breakthrough performance to American audiences, Brooks’ Oscar history, and the many mystery middle names in Hollywood.

Topics also include Mitski fans, the film’s cringe-inducing sex scene, and the history of the Tristar logo.

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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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270 – Sister Act (Patreon Selects)

All January we’ll be doing a series we call Patreon Selects with episodes chosen by members of our sponsor-level tier on Patreon (and they’ll be sharing their Oscar origin stories too)! First up is 1992’s megasmash musical comedy Sister Act! Originally designed as a showcase for Bette Midler, the film became a starring vehicle for Whoopi Goldberg hot off of her Oscar win for Ghost. With Whoopi as an on-the-run lounge singer who hides out in a convent and turns the church’s choir into a sensation, the film won the affection of audiences but not an Academy with a tricky relationship with comedy.

This episode, we talk about Whoopi’s career from theatre breakthrough to movie star to Oscar host. We also talk about Dame Maggie Smith’s two Oscar wins, the career of writer Paul Rudnick (who took his name off the film), and the divine Mary Wickes.

Topics also include Hook, Nuns Having Fun, and the MTV Movie 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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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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248 – Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (with Jourdain Searles!)

We are returning to the work of Jennifer Jason Leigh this week, and Jourdain Searles is joining us once again with an underrated and underseen gem. Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle takes on the life of indelible writer Dorothy Parker, capturing her days with the insular Algonquin Circle and her later dissolution with the group, all with Jennifer Jason Leigh as the noted wit. Launched at Cannes, the film was celebrated for her performance even with a limited audience, including Golden Globe and Independent Spirit nominations for Best Actress. But even in a famously uncompetitive Best Actress lineup, Leigh was left out.

This episode, we talk about Leigh’s several close calls for a nomination in the 1990s and our feelings about the nomination that she eventually received for The Hateful Eight. We also talk about Pulp Fiction‘s domination on the independent film scene, the Cannes Film Festival, and the influence of producer Robert Altman.

Topics also include writer/director Alan Rudolph’s filmography, the film’s massive (and nepotism baby-inflected) ensemble, and the person-not-company Condé Nast.

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247 – Breakfast on Pluto

The cementing of Cillian Murphy as a major actor has been a long time in the making, possibly coming to fruition this weekend with the release of Oppenheimer. Audiences likely most know the actor for his starring role in Peaky Blinders, but his cinematic arrival began in the early 2000s with films like 28 Days Later. However, 2005 gave us a Cillian Murphy three-peat with Batman Begins, Red Eye, and this week’s film Breakfast on Pluto. With Murphy starring as a transwoman reconciling her family history in Ireland and Britain during the 1960s and 1970s, the Neil Jordan film ran the fall festival gamut and earned strong notices for Murphy (if not the film). But Murphy faced a stacked 2005 Best Actor lineup and this smaller queer film was left in the cold.

This episode, we talk about the film’s relationship to Jordan’s Oscar success The Crying Game and the director’s wide-ranging filmography. We also talk about Murphy’s career ascent as somewhere between character actor and leading man, the film’s dated presentation of queerness, and Murphy’s Golden Globe nomination.

Topics also include our Barbenheimer plans, The Borgias, and hating David Zaslav.

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