Host – Page 29 – This Had Oscar Buzz

066 – Bounce

This episode, we have another psychotic romance for you with 2000′s Bounce. One of Miramax’s 2000 awards-hopeful misfires (which ultimately led to the rise of Chocolat), the film stars Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck as two would-be lovers brought together by a plane crash – only she doesn’t know that he’s the one that gave a ticket to his now-dead husband. At the time, the film was sold almost exclusively on the former relationship between the stars and ultimately that was all it got attention for.

Bounce was also somewhat of a downshift in critical affection for writer-director Don Roos after the prickly Indie Spirits favorite The Opposite of Sex. Though this film sparks with some of his sharp dialogue, Bounce suffers from too many plot contrivances to make the love story less queasy. In the end, a heavy hitter year in the lead acting categories easily shut out the two stars out already dealing with backlash after their Oscar wins.

We also take a look back at the fits and restarts of Affleck’s career from the perfect casting of Gone Girl to the almost matinee idol days of Armageddon, discuss the era that was Brunette Gwyneth, and we return to our beloved Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.

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065 – Bringing Out The Dead

With the incoming arrival of a new Martin Scorsese film with The Irishman, naturally we had to talk about the master, right? But rare is the film that results in no Oscar nominations for Scorsese – except for this week’s film which came at the end of the director’s downward trend with the Academy. Even forgotten among Scorsese diehards, we’re unpacking 1999′s Bringing Out The Dead. A strange look at a night shift insomniac paramedic played by Nicolas Cage (leading a wild ensemble that ranges from Patricia Arquette to Tom Sizemore to… Marc Anthony), this one leaves Joe and Chris divided on its merits and place in the Scorsese filmography.

The film reunited Scorsese with his Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader and served a somewhat hallucinatory, somewhat religious vision of the gritty New York City streets. Did it just get lost in the shuffle of the landmark 1999 film year or was this a victim of dwindling perceptions of Scorsese’s work before the 2000s firmly returned him to the Academy’s graces?

This episode, we look at Scorsese and Cage in their transitional stage between Oscar love, offer our own 1999 Top Ten lists, and Patricia Arquette’s little corner of horror movie history. Special shout out this week to artist Athena Currier for tributing us in Inktober!

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064 – The Evening Star

Is there a faster fast track to Oscar buzz than being a sequel to a Best Picture winner? While there may not be much of a sample pool beyond The Godfather series, 1996 gave us The Evening Star, a follow-up to Terms of Endearment and Shirley MacLaine’s Aurora Greenway. This time without writer/director James L. Brooks (replaced here by Steel Magnolias scribe Robert Harling making his directorial debut), the Academy did not give this proverbial daughter a shot.

This week, we spread the film’s ashes from a speeding beach convertible as we discuss the ways the film disappoints in the shadow of Terms of Endearment, but still has its own charms. And no, we don’t just mean Scott Wolf in his tighty whities.

We also look back at MacLaine’s legendary career (including her all-timer Oscar speech), spitballs who might be the eponymous dames of the eventual Tea With The Dames 2, and go deep on the very personality heavy 1996 Golden Globes lineup of nominees.

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063 – Morning Glory

What was it that placed a light comedy like Morning Glory on early Oscar predictions in 2010? Was it the potential for a morning news riff on Broadcast News brilliance? The ascendancy of Rachel McAdams that we knew would eventually pay off with an acting nomination? Or the late career turn as journalist curmudgeon from Harrison Ford, who in recent years has generated Oscar talk for even The Force Awakens? Turns out it was a little bit of all of those things.

However, Morning Glory quickly faded from Oscar prognosticators radar when it opened to quite disappointing box office and middling reviews. Unfortunately, the film never quite satisfies on its promise, even with a winning cast that also includes an underserved Diane Keaton and pre-uberhip era Jeff Goldblum. For McAdams, it would take being in a Best Picture frontrunner to land that first nomination we had been expecting, but Morning Glory at least has a few vocal fans.

This week, we feel the rain on our skin as we talk about the specific brand of pop optimism given to us by Natasha Bedingfield, the genius of screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, and Diane Keaton open-mouth kissing a frog.

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062 – Miss Potter

Certainly one of the biggest Oscar narratives this season will be Renée Zellweger’s return to the big screen, starring as the timeless Judy Garland in Judy. So to mark the occasion (with Chris highly anticipatory and Joe more hesitant in how far Judy can go), we’re discussing one of the actress’ few attempts at Oscar that didn’t register with the Academy in some way: the Beatrix Potter biopic Miss Potter.

The film thrust into Oscar late in 2006 as the newly established Weinstein Company was struggling with its awards fare. Perhaps too gentle of a film to register in a season that rewarded much grimmer subjects, the film’s awards hopes ended at Zellweger’s Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy at the Globes. This week, look back at Zellweger’s trajectory from Oscar shutout to Oscar perennial to the arrival of her comeback.

We also discuss director Chris Noonan and the legacy of Babe, the wildly underrated Emily Watson, and the highly thirstable Patrick Wilson in Little Children.

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061 – Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

A title that became a punchline all its own, this week we are discussing 2012′s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. A light romantic drama about project management and Western relationships with the Middle East, Lasse Hallström’s film accidentally stumbled into the Oscar race when the Golden Globes decided the film was a comedy and gave the spring release three surprise nominations.

This episode, we discuss the career and outsider awards trajectory for Salmon Fishing star Ewan McGregor and how the film’s Globes nomination tally ultimately meant nothing for the film as an awards player. Get ready for lots of Globes talk as we spotlight 2012′s most glaring comedy omission by the Globes and recall perhaps the greatest presenter duo of all time: Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell. You get outta here, listeners!

Topics also include movies narrated by dogs, left-field Globes Comedy picks both good and bad, and assassination attempts thwarted by fishing hooks.

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And From Canada MAILBAG!

You asked for it and it’s finally here! While Joe and Chris are away at TIFF, we are bringing you our first ever MAILBAG EPISODE!

We have been taking your questions in the recent weeks and are so excited to bring you this jumbo sized episode devoted just to the Oscar obsessive minutiae that you all are curious about. Right off the bat, we focus on most asked questions such as the origins of our theme music and whether or not we would ever talk about a film from before the 90s. Topics also include beloved precursor outliers that made no dent in their Oscar race, Cher as Oscar presenter, and THOB actors still awaiting their first nomination.

Thank you again for all of your questions and support! Listen listeners, we love you guys!

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060 – Miss Sloane (with Kevin O’Keeffe)

Jessica Chastain emerged nearly a decade ago with a bevy of roles in major Oscar films like The Tree of Life and The Help and immediately cemented her place as a performer destined for Oscar. After a second nomination for Zero Dark Thirty, her roles after have all garnered some Oscar talk including John Madden’s Miss Sloane. Starring Chastain as the titular lobbyist waging war with the gun rally with a few dirty tricks up her sleeve, this one ultimately couldn’t catch a late break in a very competitive Best Actress year.

This week, Kevin O’Keeffe joins us in Chastandom to talk about the film’s fun (if sometimes bonkers) depiction of Washington politicking including Nutella taxation and male prostitutes named Forde played by Jake Lacy. The film may not have registered with Oscar but it remains both an earnest and ironic delight. We also discuss the influence of Aaron Sorkin and Molly’s Game adjacencies, how Chastain’s nominated performance for The Help is unlike her other work, and the last film we all three saw before the 2016 election.

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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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