May 2019 – This Had Oscar Buzz

047 – In The Cut (2003 – Part Four)

For our fourth of four films in our 2003 miniseries, we placed the responsibility squarely on you: the listener. (Please try to disregard that Joe repeatedly refers to “readers” in this episode; to him, podcasts are books you read with your ears.) Out of a poll that included The Company, Shattered Glass, and The Station Agent, you chose director Jane Campion’s sex-charged thriller In the Cut, and a more notorious Oscar flop you could not have found. A decade after breaking ground as only the second woman ever nominated for Best Director, Campion was pretty much run out of town for this tonally deliberate meditation on sex, violence, and a sleaze-stached Mark Ruffalo expressing a penchant for cunnilingus and anilingus. Both!

Then of course there was Meg Ryan, who stepped in to replace Nicole Kidman and instead stepped in front of a firing squad made up of critics and audiences who were not ready for her to be playing a schoolteacher who gets off quite literally on her proximity to danger. When Harry Met Sally and Then Sally Went Looking for Mr. Goodbar was not the movie people wanted.

Chris and Joe discuss Meg, Mark, and Jane, as well as Jennifer Jason Leigh, “F” Cinemascores, and much more. You asked for this! And by “this” we mean “Mark Ruffalo’s visible penis.”

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046 – The Human Stain (2003 – Part Three)

This week we bring you the Stefon of the 2003 Oscar race: Anthony Hopkins inadvertently saying racial slurs, Nicole Kidman with curly hair, a cringeworthy adaptation of Philip Roth, holdover from the Monica Lewinsky scandal, cast members from The Real World London. It was only inevitable that we would eventually discuss The Human Stain, but for our month-long 2003 miniseries it was perfect timing.

Once thought to be Miramax’s other big 2003 player starring Kidman, the film is a poorly timed and poorly observed look at political correctness in America that critics rightfully dismissed. It would then quickly die in theatres and in the Oscar race, with Miramax succeeding to some degree with the rest of their lineup of films. This week, we discuss the film as emblematic of Miramax and Harvey Weinstein’s shuffle tactics with Oscar prospects, the film’s offensive handling of race and sexual mores, and one performance in the film we think rises above its many problems. As always, it all comes back to The Hours.

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045 – Sylvia (2003 – Part Two)

We continue our month-long look at the 2003 Oscar year with what could be the poster child for bland biopics: Sylvia. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow as poet Sylvia Plath, the film paint-by-numbered its way to box office and critical failure that inappropriately obsessed over the artist’s untimely death rather than the impact of her work. A perfect on-paper prospect thanks to its famous subject and Paltrow’s recent Best Actress win, Sylvia was the 2003 failure that left us gooped.

This week, we take an extended look at 2003′s rather malleable Best Actress race and discuss the earliest predictions that ultimately fell through. We also discuss Focus Features’ slate being dominated by Lost in Translation, why Daniel Craig should never be allowed to play a brunette, and Paltrow’s greatest performance on a movie poster.

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044 – The Missing (2003 – Part One)

With this episode, we officially begin our month-long miniseries on the 2003 Oscar year! We are beginning with a high profile failure from a major director: Ron Howard’s The Missing starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. After winning the Oscar in 2001 for A Beautiful Mind, Ron Howard aimed to cash in on that earned prestige by fulfilling his dream of making a western. After leaving Disney’s The Alamo in the dust, he settled on this story of kidnapping and father-daughter forgiveness. But audience’s had long since grown bored by the genre and the Academy similarly ignored the film.

This episode we discuss how this film represents the big studio failures from major directors within this Oscar year and how it ultimately fails to bring life to a dead genre. We also look at the legacy of Howard’s Director nomination snub for Apollo 13, the many ways westerns have been reimagined in recent years, and how The Missing blurred into the mass of the season’s period epics.

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BONUS – A 2003 Rendezvous

To kick off our 2003 miniseries, we are bringing you this special bonus episode! Here we will lay the groundwork for what the expectations were for the Oscar season before we discuss our four chosen films – The Missing, Sylvia, The Human Stain, and our first Listeners’ Choice In The Cut! Joe and Chris also share a glimpse at where they were in their Oscar obsessive journeys during the year in question and dabble in some Oscar ASMR. It was the year that Cold Mountain disappointed and The Lord of the Rings triumphed across the finish line of its multi-year narrative – and we’re here to break it all down in the month of May!

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