November 2020 – This Had Oscar Buzz

122 – Me And Orson Welles

While cinephiles celebrate the release of Mank this week, we’re looking back at a different Citizen Kane-adjacent awards hopeful: 2009′s Me and Orson Welles. The film stars Zac Efron as a young would-be actor who is plucked from the streets and cast in Welles’ landmark stage production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. With Christian McKay as the infamous creative force and Claire Danes as Efron’s love interest, the film has its charms despite its similarities to similar films.

Directed by Richard Linklater, the film’s unconventional semi-self-distributed release generated little fanfare despite major precursor mentions for McKay. This episode, we look at the underwhelming 2009 Supporting Actor race and Linklater’s filmography, including Dazed and Confused as a formative film education movie. We also celebrate Claire Danes’ seventh entry to THOB history, holding her place as our most discussed performer.

Topics also include Zoe Kazan as a quasi-manic-pixie-dream-ghost, the 90s evolution of middle-part butt hairstyles, and the impact of Welles’ Caesar production. Send us your Mailbag questions – now through Dec. 15!!

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121 – About Time (with Katey Rich)

Richard Curtis arrived in the early 90s with his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Four Weddings and A Funeral and immediately cemented a heartwarming brand of romantic British fare. In the 2000s, he leaped to the director’s chair as well, with a streak that ended in this week’s surprise box office bomb: 2013′s About Time. Once again, deputy editor of VanityFair.com and Little Gold Men co-host Katey Rich returns as a guest to discuss the film that stars Domhnall Gleeson as lovelorn time traveler and Rachel McAdams as the object of his affection.

While we are divided on the film’s sometimes uncomfortable mechanics as a love story, About Time reveals itself as a sentimental smell-the-roses family story. But audience and critical disinterest took this one out of its season pretty quickly. This week, we discuss the Richard Curtis ethos, Gleeson’s quite charming screen persona, and the stacked lineup at the 2013 New York Film Festival.

Topics also include McAdams’ career pre and post-Oscar nomination, slight softboy British actor crushes, and the foremost question of our time: “is all lost?”

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120 – Burn After Reading

After steamrolling in the previous season with No Country for Old Men, the Coen Brothers quickly returned to movie theatres with the brilliantly silly Burn After Reading. Though financially successful, the film proved divisive over the high dosage of standard Coen misanthropy despite brilliant, off-type casting for Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, and George Clooney. A veiled satire of the Bush administration, the film had a decent showing among precursors from the Golden Globes to the AARP Movies for Grownups, but still was shown no love by Oscar.

This episode, we look broadly at the odd particulars that kept Burn After Reading from nominations, from Pitt being overshadowed by Benjamin Button and an Original Screenplay field that proved surprisingly competitive even for the Oscar-favored Coens. We also look at McDormand’s evolution into “salt of the earth” roles and the 2007 Oscar ceremony as the launch pad for this film.

Topics also include Kate Winslet competing with herself, WGA ineligibilities, and what constitutes a “buddy drama”.

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119 – Solaris

After following up his 2000 Oscar triumph with audience favorite Ocean’s 11, Steven Soderbergh pivoted into a different mode in 2002, doubling up with the low-fi Full Frontal and the subject of this week’s episode: Solaris. A revisit of Stanislaw Lem’s novel (previously canonized by Andrei Tarkovsky), the film follows George Clooney as a therapist called to a a space mission on the titular planet, only to find a ghost of his dead wife among the planet’s strange happenings.

But audiences were expecting an epic romance in space thanks to a misleading marketing campaign, turning the film into a box office bomb with an F CinemaScore. In the years since, the film has gained a reputation as Soderbergh’s misunderstood masterpiece – and we agree! This episode, we look at Soderbergh’s career of making multiple films in one year and Clooney’s rise from television star to movie hunk to prestige director with uneven returns.

Topics also include a deep dive into our 2002 personal awards ballots, Viola Davis’s underrated supporting performance, Jeremy Davies as Jeremy Davies, and, of course, Clooney’s butt onscreen.

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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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