April 2023 – This Had Oscar Buzz

240 – Private Life

We have another movie we adore to discuss this week! Writer/director Tamara Jenkins has long gaps between films, but has nevertheless delivered an all-killer-no-filler lineup, beginning in the late 1990s with Slums of Beverly Hills and returning a decade later with the Oscar-nominated The Savages. Her next film another decade later, Private Life, starred Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti as New York creatives going through every hurdle to have a baby, including considering their adrift niece (played by Kayli Carter) as a surrogate. The film was a part of Netflix’s awards slate, but didn’t receive nearly the push as some of the streamer’s other films in their awards slate, but we will always eagerly await the next Tamara Jenkins project.

This episode, we talk about Kathryn Hahn’s formidable career of praised (and sometimes undersign) television performances, and the culmination of appreciation for the actress around WandaVision. We also discuss Giamatti’s “shady record exec” period, Netflix’s emergence as an awards player, and Hahn’s appearance in the THR Actress Roundtable and swooning for Rachel Weisz.

Topics also include the AARP Movies for Grownups qualifications for Best Grownup Love Story, Applebee’s menus, and John Carroll Lynch joins our Six Timers Club.

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239 – Young Adult

After the Oscar winning success of Juno, 2011 gave us the reunited creative force of screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman, but in a different mode that that heartwarming crowdpleaser. Young Adult cast Charlize Theron, an author and former prom queen who returns to her hometown to win back her high school boyfriend, played by Patrick Wilson. After Reitman’s Up in the Air peaked early in its Oscar season, this film skipped the festival route and performed modestly, earning an immediate reputation as a mean and caustic movie. With brilliant supporting work from Patton Oswalt, Collette Wolfe, and Elizabeth Reaser, the film has earned ardent fans since, despite missing out on Oscar.

This episode, we discuss the film’s cutting observational humor and the thorny wit that makes Mavis Gary such a memorable character and performance by Theron. We also discuss the Best Actress and Original Screenplay field of 2011, the film’s use of Teenage Fanclub’s “The Concept,” and long-suffering Pomeranian, Dulce.

Topics also include KenTacoHuts, gay people liking mean women, and hating the 2011 Oscar lineup.

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238 – Mary Magdalene

We talk about awards hopes thwarted by release date pushes, and this week is the mother of all of them. Originally intended as Garth Davis’ speedy follow-up to Lion for Thanksgiving 2017, Mary Magdalene cast Rooney Mara as the biblical woman and Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus. The film reexamines Mary Magdalene role among the disciples and how history has viewed her, and attempts a feminist perspective to biblical narratives. But shortly after it wasn’t announced for any fall festival lineups, the film was pushed to Easter 2018. When the Weinstein expose arrived, the film was then caught in US distribution limbo, arriving on schedule overseas but not seeing (few) American theatres until 2019.

This episode, we talk about Davis’ success with Lion in the 2016 season and our hopes for his upcoming Satires Ronan starrer Foe. We also discuss Joe’s Catholic upbringing and knowledge, how Jesus would’ve handled social media, and the chances Mara would have had in the Best Actress race had the film arrived in its original season.

Topics also include Phoenix’s whole vibe, MANY music references, and Hot Judas.

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237 – The Last Seduction (with Karina Longworth!)

We are joined by none other than You Must Remember This’ Karina Longworth this week to talk about one of our most unique and most requested Oscar cases. In 1994, The Last Seduction gave a modern riff on classic noir with a sexually frank femme fatale played by Linda Fiorentino who pulls a game of deception on multiple men. The film initially aired on HBO, but an enthusiastic critical response built towards October Films giving the film a theatrical release. With Fiorentino’s performance earning major critics prizes and even a BAFTA nomination, October Films sued the Academy when the film was deemed ineligible thanks to its television debut. Though nothing came from the suit, the film has continued to amass its fans in recent years.

This episode, we talk about Fiorentino’s celebrated performance and some of the more troublesome aspects of the film’s politics. We also discuss You Must Remember This’ brand new season Erotic 90s, Dirty Dancing winning Best Original Song, and the film’s infamous chain link fence sex scene.

Topics also include Fiorentino’s reputation, Tom Cruise’s 1999, and buying Playboys in Serbia.

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