August 2019 – This Had Oscar Buzz

059 – Vanity Fair

This week, we’re looking back at a film that arrived too early in 2004′s Oscar season and received too mild of a response to eventually make Oscar’s lineup. From the classic William Makepeace Thackeray classic novel, Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair arrived corseted into Labor Day weekend and quickly disappeared from theatres and the conversation at large despite the presence of Reese Witherspoon at its center.

But Witherspoon and Nair’s take on the heroine Becky Sharp was also what many critics took issue with – in making a more “likeable” protagonist, many thought Vanity Fair had lost much of what defined it. This episode, we look back at the 2004 Oscar race and the ceremony that embarrassingly lined up below-the-line nominees onstage for their categories. We also discuss Witherspoon’s pre-Oscar trajectory, Nair’s filmography, baby bumps and Eileen Atkins’ rump.

Costume drama fans, soak it up because this is one of the rare times we can discuss one that hasn’t gotten a Costume Design nomination.

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058 – Men, Women & Children

A film that uses Pale Blue Dot as a quasi-pickup line and features a couple aligning their sex life with 9/11, Men, Women & Children is likely one of the most maligned films we’ve ever discussed. Directed by Jason Reitman and adapted from the novel by Chad Kultgen, the film stars a large ensemble of familiar faces as several families coping with love, sex, and identity in the age of Pornhub and Ashley Madison. Debuting at TIFF in 2014, the film faced an immediate death of scathing reviews and minimal box office, further diminishing Reitman’s once redhot Oscar profile.

This week, we discuss the film’s dated perspective and lack of nuance in its characterizations that make the film such a misfire, and whether or not we love Reitman only when Diablo Cody’s name is attached. We also take a look at the film’s ensemble of likely future nominees such as Ansel Elgort and Kaitlyn Dever, another 2014 film’s crass Oscar campaign, and Adam Sandler’s closest attempt at an Oscar-chasing role (and another performance that we both consider his best).

Last call for Mailbag questions, listeners! Send us your questions to @Had_Oscar_Buzz or [email protected]!

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057 – Truth

Not only are we Oscar historians here on This Had Oscar Buzz, we are also the Illuminati of Vanderbilts. This week, we look at the directorial debut of Zodiac screenwriter James Vanderbilt Truth. Detailing 60 Minutes’ expose on President George W. Bush’s military service that ended in Dan Rather’s demise, the film starred Cate Blanchett as producer Mary Mapes and Robert Redford as Rather and died a quick death at the box office despite being a great on-paper Oscar prospect.

Also the film’s best chance at Oscar was overshadowed by herself – Blanchett (though great in Truth) also had a little movie that year called Carol that she ultimately was nominated for and earned even higher praise. But perhaps Truth was also compared against Spotlight, another true journalism story and the eventual Best Picture winner.

This week, we discuss the 2015 Oscar race at large, Redford’s late-career Oscar close calls, and how Zodiac was underappreciated in its initial release. Last call for Mailbag episode questions! Send us your questions to [email protected] and @Had_Oscar_Buzz on Twitter!

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056 – All The Pretty Horses

This week, we have a deceptively titled film that was also sold deceptively to audiences in 2000. Billy Bob Thornton’s Cormac McCarthy adaptation All The Pretty Horses was supposed to be an old-fashioned romantic epic filled with sweeping landscapes and big emotions – but what audiences got on Christmas morning was a bleak western about cowboys who just wanna cowboy. Famously, the film was cut down from a 3.5 hour epic into two hours by Harvey Weinstein and it still makes for a very scattered and lethargic movie.

For this episode, we take a look back at both Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz’s star personas, his as a go-to leading man with a string of pre-Bourne bombs and hers as an unfairly treated tabloid figure. We also look at the back stage stories that were depicted in Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures, Lasse Hallström as unexpected benefitor of Horses’ failure, and the Oscar year that was capped brilliantly by Björk’s swan dress.

And for listeners clamoring for our thoughts on the beginning of the TIFF lineup, we spend the beginning of the episode discussing what we’re most excited for, including Harriet, Marriage Story, and Meryl in a Blossom hat.

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