November 2019 – This Had Oscar Buzz

071 – Pan (with Katey Rich)

This week, we welcome back our first ever returning guest: VanityFair.com deputy editor Katey Rich! And what better topic to discuss (as mutual defenders of the work of director Joe Wright) than 2015′s Pan? The film was yet another retelling of the Peter Pan story, this time arriving amidst expectations for Wright to deliver another design spectacle before receiving a savage critical drubbing.

Much as we would love to defend Wright’s honor, we unpack how Pan is an unfortunate spectacle of bizarre design, racial insensitivity, and motifs ripped off from Moulin Rouge!. Also in this trivia-packed episode, we look back at Best Picture and the PG rating, decipher the difference between our Garrett Hedlunds and Charlie Hunnams et al., and how this Neverland saga compares to that other critically reviled one, Steven Spielberg’s Hook.

And at the top of the episode, we announce something special coming to you very soon: another mailbag episode! Send your questions to us on Twitter (@Had_Oscar_Buzz) or email us at [email protected]!

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070 – Prêt-à-Porter (Ready to Wear)

Robert Altman had a major comeback in the early 90s, scoring back-to-back lone Director nominations for The Player and Short Cuts. His follow-up, 1994′s Prêt-à-Porter (that’s Ready to Wear for American audiences and fellow philistines), aimed to skewer Paris Fashion Week to comedic effect, but instead ended Altman’s Oscar hot streak that wouldn’t be reignited until 2001′s Gosford Park.

This week, we take on Altman’s improvisational style when it doesn’t work for this imprecise satire starring an underutilized Julia Roberts, Linda Hunt in Edna Mode mode, and Tracy Ullman in an Amy Sherman-Palladino hat. The film is a convergence of early 90s fashion and supermodel obsession, house music, and independent cinema stars. Still landing Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture – Musical/Comedy and Supporting Actress for Sophia Loren (in the year of her Cecil B. DeMille prize), it ultimately was too much of a disappointment to get Oscar’s favor.

We also discuss a never-better Kim Basinger, the recent history of Oscar’s lone director nominees, and one-hit-wonder Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes the Hotstepper”. It’s fruitcake time, listeners!

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069 – Ladies in Lavender (with Danita Steinberg)

A perfect example of an early, long-list Oscar prediction movie, 2005′s Ladies in Lavender arrived after multiple festivals to a successful arthouse run thanks to the presence of its Dame headliners Judi Dench and Maggie Smith. But despite coming in the era primed to reward this kind of women’s picture and both actresses in particular, the film ultimately was too early and too small (on top of being overshadowed by Dench’s Miramax picture Mrs. Henderson Presents later in the year) to make a major awards dent on the season.

This week, We Really Like Her podcast cohost Danita Steinberg joins us to talk about the aughts dominance of Dames Judi and Maggie, and their outsider potential for Supporting Actress nominations this year. Topics include the near miss Oscar potential of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, the 2005 Best Actress lineup, and Oscar resentments from costar Miriam Margoyles.

We also discuss the film’s shocking lack of the titular lavender and the one actor that Meryl Streep hating working with. And as you might expect, all roads lead back to The Hours.

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068 – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

In the fall festival season, a primo premiere status can assert a film as having major Oscar ambitions. This week’s title, 2013′s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, is a such a case – after debuting an eye-catching trailer, the film debuted as the centerpiece selection of that year’s New York Film Festival. But this typically very selective festival provided a major platform for the film that the film couldn’t measure up to, earning the film an underwhelming status it couldn’t overcome before its Christmas day release.

Directed by and starring Ben Stiller, the film struggles with the payoff of its character arc and its sense of magical realism, making for a disappointing modern remake. This week, we look at the film’s heavy-handed product placement and music cues, and the brief recent history of New York Film Festival’s world premiere gala selections.

We also discuss this year’s fascinating and defensible Golden Globe acting nominations, the film’s notoriously unruly first press screening, and we predict this year’s National Board of Review Top Ten.

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