Tom Cruise – This Had Oscar Buzz

269 – Eyes Wide Shut

Listeners have been asking for this episode for years and today, Santa is bringing it to you! Happy Holidays, it’s time for Eyes Wide Shut! In 1999, the film was hotly anticipated for many reasons: it starred Hollywood’s most famous couple, it was the final film of master of masters Stanley Kubrick, its very long production was hounded by the press, and it promised lots of onscreen sex. Adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle, the film cast Tom Cruise as a doctor who goes on an odyssey of sexual obsession after his wife (a haunting Nicole Kidman) confesses to an unrequited sexual fantasy about a stranger. A ritual orgy, Todd Field playing jazz piano, and a flirty Alan Cumming followed, and baffled audiences reacted viciously.

This episode, we discuss the film’s initial negative reaction from audiences and critics alike and its contemporary reassessment. We also talk about its formative place in Kidman’s emphasis on auteurs, how the film unpacks Cruise’s screen persona, and the film’s mystery box marketing.

Topics also include Sidney Pollack barechested in suspenders, the film’s censored orgy, and the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.

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118 – Far And Away

Plunge and scrub, listeners! We’re going back to the early 90s to look at Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and director Ron Howard for Far and Away. The film was both an intended inch toward Oscar’s embrace for Howard and a big budget romance for the recently wed stars, attempting David Lean-level grandeur with an Irish immigrant story. But middling reviews and tepid box office left this film in the dust with Oscar – and it would be nearly a decade before Howard would reap the benefit of his rising narrative.

The episode, we dive into the film’s upsetting depiction of the Oklahoma Land Rush, its place among 90s Irish cultural obsession, and its infamous bowl scene. We also discuss Kidman’s 90s evolution towards being taken seriously as an actress, the prospects for Howard’s upcoming Hillbilly Elegy, and Cruise’s current reign as death-wish movie star in the Mission: Impossible series.

But before we get into the MTV Movie Awards and Kidman yelling about her spoons, we have some news: we’re taking submissions for an end of the year Listeners’ Choice showdown! And don’t forget: you can now follow us on Spotify!

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007 – Lions For Lambs

In 2007, the movies went hard on the War in Iraq. But what happened when that righteous roar, bolstered by some of the biggest names in Oscar and cinema history, gave the weakest bleat in the barnyard?

This week we are looking at Lions for Lambs, one of several politically motivated films of its year and the one that thudded the loudest. With Robert Redford directing and starring alongside Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise, our immediately assembled Oscar expectations were dismantled even faster once its empty talking head preachiness hit movie screens. Topic also include: a pre-Social Network Andrew Garfield, the thwarted hopes of resurrecting a flailing United Artists, and the joy of a perfect Kevin Dunn line reading.

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