Host – Page 19 – This Had Oscar Buzz

159 – The House of Mirth

This week, we are looking at the work of director Terence Davies and his 2000 literary adaptation of The House of Mirth. Based on the classic Edith Wharton novel, the film casts Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart, a woman who tragically fails to navigate the cruelties of New York high society at the turn of the century. The film earned strong reviews for Davies (rebounding from his adpatation misfire The Neon Bible) and Anderson (still flying high with her Emmy-winning performance on The X-Files), but a small late year release made this one a bigger hit with critics than it ultimately was for the Academy.

We look back at the 200 Best Actress lineup, and discuss how Anderson might have fallen victim to an Academy still too willing to categorized television stars as just television stars and how indie distributor Sony Pictures Classics (rightly) had another awards priority. We also discuss how costume dramas went out of fashion as Best Picture contenders, the film’s spectacular supporting cast, and the 2000 Costume Design nominees.

Topics also include to extinct Village Voice poll, the British Independent Film Awards, and the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival.

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158 – Stepmom (with Christina Tucker)

It has to be said that we have been waiting to do Stepmom from the very beginning, and what better excuse to finally dive in to Chris Columbus’ Christmas Day weepy than this week’s special guest Christina Tucker, co-host of the podcast Wait, Is This A Date?. Uniting the 1998 powers of America’s sweetheart Julia Roberts and recent Best Actress winner Susan Sarandon as a mother diagnosed with cancer and her ex-husband’s future wife, the film earned Sarandon a Golden Globe nomination despite critics not taking to the film’s very sentimental mood.

This episode, we unpack all of the film’s silly moments, from unwieldy real estate to photoshop, from new and various house pets to snowblowing, and all of the things in between that we love about it. We also look at Julia Roberts’ swings from successes to misfires in the 90s, Jena Malone’s return to pop culture in The Hunger Games series, and Susan Sarandon joins our 6 Timers Club!

Topics also include the 1998 Best Actress race, the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, and VH1′s I Love the 80s.

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157 – Woman in Gold

Somehow we have yet to cover a film starring Helen Mirren, but this episode, we rectify that with 2015′s Woman in Gold. Mirren stars in the true story as Maria Altmann, a woman who fled the Nazis and later sought restitution of her very famous family paintings by Gustav Klimt. The film also stars Ryan Reynolds as Altmann’s lawyer with an unexamined relationship with his own Jewish lineage and was Simon Curtis’ directorial follow-up to My Week With Marilyn. A sizable counterprogramming hit in the spring, Woman in Gold was campaigned by the financially fledgling Weinstein Company, landing Mirren sual SAG nominations for this and the abysmal Trumbo.

This week, we take a long look at Helen Mirren before and after her Oscar, including her balance between awards fare staple and ironic action star. We also discuss Reynolds’ screen persona opposite his miscasting here, movies about paintings, and the difference between “overdue” and “this is their year” narratives.

Topics also include the power of being the season’s first screener, Olga Kurlyenko’s Black Widow cameo, and the best mode of transportation in which to seek leisure.

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156 – A Most Violent Year (with Kevin O’Keeffe)

“This was very disrespectful.” Once again, Kevin O’Keeffe joins us to talk about the one and only Jessica Chastain for A Most Violent Year. Starring an on-the-rise Oscar Isaac as an emerging entrepreneur in the 1980s trying to avoid crime in dirty business, the film chased Oscar after writer/director J.C. Chandor’s Original Screenplay nomination for his debut Margin Call. But the film’s closest shot at Oscar was the supporting performance by Chastain as Isaac’s wife with a secret or two, which earned her Critics Choice, Independent Spirit, and Golden Globe nominations. Though many predicted Chastain, a surprise nomination went to Laura Dern for Wild, and A Most Violent Year was left out in the Oscar cold.

This episode, we talk about the Oscar Isaac performances that deserved Oscar attention, including the year where the likes of he and Tom Hanks missed out on nominations. We also discuss genius cinematographer Bradford Young, the film’s Best Picture win with the National Board of Review, and just how many people actually watched Triple Frontier.

Topics also include the value of nail acting and coat acting, this current season of Drag Race All-Stars, and who might have been second place to Patricia Arquette in 2014.

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155 – Moonlight Mile

Jake Gyllenhaal is the latest to join our Six Timers Club this week with 2002′s Moonlight Mile. Written and directed by Brad Silberling, Gyllenhaal leads the film as a young man living with the parents (played by Susan Sarandon and Dustin Hoffman) of his fiance’s parents in the aftermath of her murder. A light dramedy with semi-autobiographical elements from Silberling, the film set expectations high with an emotional trailer but quickly died after a poor TIFF reception and even dimmer box office. With an Oscar year that leaned heavily on December releases, this film was an awards afterthought.

This week, we look back at Gyllenhaal’s THOB history and Sarandon’s stellar triptych of very different (and all buzzed) screen moms in 2002. We also discuss the true story that inspired the film, distributor Touchstone’s buzzy 2002 that also includes 25th Hour and Signs, and the film’s onslaught of needle drops.

Topics also include the iconic 2002 Best Supporting Actress lineup, Brian Cox doing McDonald’s commericals, and why Goldie Hawn should be in the hypothetical third Mamma Mia! movie.

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154 – Battle of the Sexes

One year after winning Best Actress for La La Land, Emma Stone returned with an even better performance but faced even tougher competition. In Battle of the Sexes, the recent winner starred as Billie Jean King as she faced off Bobby Riggs (played by Steve Carell) in the famed titular tennis match. Directed by Little Miss Sunshine duo Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the film had a warm festival and critical reception before quickly underwhelming at the box office and hung on with mentions for Stone and Carell during the precursors.

But Battle of the Sexes was quickly put on the backburner as two of Searchlights other contenders became Best Picture (and Best Actress) heavy hitters: The Shape of Water and Three Billboards. This episode, we discuss some reservations about the film and praise the work of Stone, who go on to again outdo herself a year later with The Favourite. We also discuss Dayton/Faris’ Ruby Sparks, Billie Jean King as that Oscar season’s Real Philomena Lee, and Sarah Silverman as a stealth player.

Topics also include 2017′s Supporting Actor fifth spot in flux, the Original Song race, and hot nepotism with Louis Pullman.

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153 – A Thousand Acres

It’s time for yet another long-promised episode in This Had Oscar Buzz lore, and also from a Pulitzer Prize winner! Adapted from Jane Smiley’s novel (which itself was loosely based on Shakespeare’s King Lear), A Thousand Acres cast two-time Oscar winner Jason Robards as one town’s beloved titan farmer and a trio of dynamo actresses as his daughters: Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The daughters inherit the farm as their father’s dementia starts to take hold, leading to a struggle for control of the farm in the shadow of revelations about the sexual abuse they endured at his hand. Though the film netted a Best Actress nomination for Lange at the Globes, the film’s harsh critical drubbing pushed it out of Oscar’s view.

This episode, we get into the film’s shortcomings while discussing how it might have been more kindly received today. Also, Pfeiffer is the latest performer to join our 6 Timer’s Club while we discuss Lange’s career resurgence thanks to Ryan Murphy and Leigh’s long road to her first Oscar nomination after several attempts in the 1990s.

Topics also include the films of director Jocelyn Moorhouse, Ving Rhames passing his Golden Globe off to Jack Lemmon, and our Best Actress pick for 1997.

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152 – De-Lovely

Birds do it, bees do it; let’s do it, let’s talk De-Lovely! Reuniting Kevin Kline with his Life As A House director Irwin Winkler, the film casts Kline as the legendary songwriter Cole Porter. Also starring Ashley Judd as his devoted wife Linda, De-Lovely caught attention for its depiction of the Porters’ marriage amid his open homosexuality and also for casting a smorgasbord of adult contemporary musicians to sing the Cole Porter songbook. But the film received middling reviews despite its soundtrack success and met the end of its awards road with Globe nominations for Kline and Judd.

This episode, we discuss how De-Lovely meets all of the boring mechanics of the musical biopic genre, and compare it to another 2004 prestige film’s depiction of a marriage with gay polyamory (and another 2004 musical biopic that is even worse). We also get into the stops and starts of MGM studios over the past few decades, the trajectory of recent Bond themes, and which of the film’s musical numbers we enjoy most.

Topics also include the Lilith Fair, the Grammy soundtrack prize, and the AARP Movies for Grownups Best Time Capsule prize.

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151 – Lucy in the Sky

We’ve got another long anticipated episode this week! In 2019, Natalie Portman teamed up with Fargo creator Noah Hawley to bring to the screen a highly fictionalized account of a NASA astronaut who suffered a psychotic break and stalked her lover and co-worker across the country. The more salacious details (namely the urban legend diaper that she wore to prevent stopping her car) were ommitted and a ceaseless slew of aspect ratio shifts were added, resulting in a film that critics and audiences immediately dismissed.

But the film was dead on arrival not only because of its quality, it also released in the immediate takeover of Fox and Fox Searchlight by Disney’s acquisition. With little effort put behind the film, it was gone from theatres faster than jokes could be made about it. This episode, we talk discuss Portman’s boldness as a performer and look back at her previous episodes as she joins our 6 Timers Club! We also discuss Hawley’s flat approach to material, Jon Hamm’s lack of charisma in his movie roles, and Ellen Burstyn talking about “astronaut dick.”

Topics also include the 4DX Experience, the film’s late TIFF premiere burief at the end of the festival, and the still unawarded Saturn Awards.

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150 – The Shipping News

We’re marking a milestone this week with our 150th episode. And for such a momentous occasion, we’re finally digging in to one of the most notorious films of THOB history with Lasse Lasse Hallström’s The Shipping News. Adapted from Annie Proulx’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the film cast Kevin Spacey as a meak man who uproots his life to his Newfoundland home after the tragic death of his wife, Petal (Cate Blanchett). Also starring awards magnets Julianne Moore and Dame Judi Dench, the film had massive on-paper goods that went down in flames when the film faceplanted onto screens on Christmas Day, earning dismal reviews for its ungraceful handling of a literary work.

Especially cursed in retrospect for all of the obvious reasons, the film also met a Hallström backlash after Chocolat and The Cider Houses Rules back-to-back. This episode, we look at Miramax’s 2001 awards contender reshuffling and the film’s shockingly robust precursor tally, including a Best Picture nomination from the Critics Choice Awards. We also revisit our past Judi Dench episodes and our list of superlatives for episodes 101-150.

Topics also include the film’s absolutely bonkers character names, seal flipper pie as the best part of its love story, and Cate Blanchett’s 2001 triptych of critics prize awarded performances.

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