Host – Page 32 – This Had Oscar Buzz

043 – The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train will likely be remembered for following in the mold that Gone Girl had previously set for it, thanks to both books literary phenomenon status. However when it came time for a movie adaptation, The Girl on the Train chased that would-be spiritual predecessor’s formula without achieving its critical success. But what the film itself will be most remember for is much more unfortunate: it’s another key reminder that Emily Blunt still hasn’t landed an Oscar nomination.

Blunt headlines the twisty murder mystery that ultimately serves no one in its largely female ensemble. Though the actress was nominated at both SAG and BAFTA, her work didn’t make a Best Actress lineup that (as the results show) didn’t stop morphing until nomination morning. This episode, we look back at the film and novel’s more troublesome aspects, what it might take for Blunt to nab that elusive nomination, and the canonically correct way to answer the central question of Indecent Proposal.

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042 – Evening (with Richard Lawson)

This Had Oscar Buzz has always been a long day’s journey into Evening! In 2007, the film strangely opened in the summer and quickly became the poster child for the “Oscar bait” moniker. Starring a massive female ensemble including [inhales sharply] Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson, Glenn Close, Mamie Gummer, Eileen Atkins and Meryl Streep, the film is an unfortunately vague journey through one dying woman’s regretful memories of a fateful wedding weekend on the coast.

Joining us for this episode is Vanity Fair’s chief critic Richard Lawson to help unpack the many, many things that make Evening such a disappointment and a dreary, sex-negative enterprise. We also discuss our accidental obsession with Claire Danes (here discussed in her fifth episode), how the film borrowed heavily from our relationship with The Hours, and the 2007 era of Focus Features. Get ready to howl like Close and chase some moths!

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041 – The Ice Storm

Hello Charles! This week, we talk about a real headscratcher: how did Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm get no Oscar nominations? Debuting at the Cannes Film Festival and Lee’s follow-up to his first Oscar success Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm is perhaps even more critically beloved than when it debuted in 1997. But this was also the year of every other movie chasing Titanic’s shadow.

The film had several potential points of entry into the Oscar race – Adapted Screenplay, its authentic period design, and especially Sigourney Weaver as a near nominee in Supporting Actress. But we discuss some of why it was shut out, whether it was the fallout for small movies caught in Titanic’s wave or fledgling indie distributor Fox Searchlight focusing its energy on The Full Monty. Topics also include BAFTA’s emerging days as an Oscar forecaster, the Oscar field that surrounded that incomparable front runner, and the injustice of Joan Allen’s Oscar narrative.

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040 – Love and Other Drugs (with Nate Jones)

Can you believe that in 2010 we got Oscar buzz for a film about the rise of Viagara in the 90s that was also a sexy romance and was also about Parkinson’s AND was directed by your dad’s favorite director of macho war epics? It came true – we’re finally talking about Love and Other Drugs! Reuniting Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway after both had earned their first Oscar nominations, this film was sold on its frank depiction of sex but largely reviled for the many disjointed pieces.

This week, we have Vulture senior writer Nate Jones joining us as our tiebreaker to Joe’s hate for the film and Chris’ apologetic affection for it. We take a look back at the notorious (and misunderstood) Oscar hosting gig for Hathaway that year and Gyllenhaal’s pivot from charismatic leading man to weirdo. Topics also include examples of nudity sold to Oscar as creative risk, 2010′s stacked Oscar lineup, and just what kind of music played in mid-90s Circuit City.

Stay tuned to the very end of our episode for a special tease on an upcoming project we are doing…

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039 – Suburbicon

2017 was a rough year for Paramount and their awards slate, but none of their films bombed as hard as George Clooney’s Suburbicon. Retooled by Clooney and his writing partner Grant Heslov from a Coen Brothers’ script that sat unproduced for 30 years, the Coens’ brand of misanthropic crime saga is infused with a very white perspective on racism in middle America. The film was DOA on the fall festival circuit and evaporated even faster with audiences.

As if his foot-in-mouth comments weren’t enough, 2017 was also a year that earned no favor for for Suburbicon’s miscast Matt Damon – particularly when he also led Paramount’s other misfire Downsizing. This week, we discuss how Damon killed his post-The Martian favor, Oscar Isaac’s inevitability as a future Oscar nominee, and Clooney’s status as a de facto pick for early predictions despite increasingly diminishing returns.

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038 – Shopgirl (with Pamela Ribon)

2005′s Shopgirl looked like a safe Oscar bet on paper – a whimsical, lighthearted romance with Claire Danes taking her ascendancy into lead roles and Steve Martin capitalizing on an Oscar shutout narrative that began in the 80s with All of Me. But its Oscar chances died once the film arrived in the May-December shadow of Lost in Translation and left our love story expectations unfulfilled. This week, Ralph Breaks The Internet and Moana screenwriter Pamela Ribon joins us to talk about this film about a sad seller of gloves who doesn’t know how special she is and the men who love her.

Shopgirl is sadly an example of aughts era romances that sacrifices its female protagonist’s sense of self to the arc of her male counterpoints, and all of the chaste shots of ladies backs to portray sex onscreen. This episode we also discuss Shopgirl’s laughable representation of parking in Los Angeles, the perfect Jason Schwartzman burn, and one early Oscar memory of a comedy performance that deserved a nomination.

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037 – The Gift

Before Sam Raimi went into the Spider-Verse, he tipped a toe into prestige waters with A Simple Plan before misfiring with The Gift. The 2000 film starred Cate Blanchett as southern clairvoyant helping solving the murder of a local woman (played by an off-type Katie Holmes) and also her damaged friends Hilary Swank and Giovanni Ribisi. This was thought of as a potential nomination for Blanchett and post-Sling Blade cash-in for screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton, but ultimately was too middling to register in a year of dominating lead actress performances.

This week we look at the post-Elizabeth (but pre-Aviator) Cate Blanchett fog of indistinguishable titles that failed to return her to the Oscar stage, and also the warring factions of actress stans on Oscar message boards. We also consider Ribisi as “Ben Foster with words”, the internet’s pervy Mr. Skin days, and the 4/5 brilliance of the 2000 Best Actress lineup.

(And again apologies on the audio this episode! Next week will be a return to better sound…)

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036 – Where the Wild Things Are

Director Spike Jonze is somewhat of an Oscar anomaly, successfully turning oddities like Being John Malkovitch, Adaptation, and Her into auteur films embraced by the Academy. This week’s episode focuses on perhaps his riskiest and most personal film: 2009′s adaptation of children’s classic Where the WIld Things Are. The film was expensive and divisive, loved by those who were moved by its vision and dismissed by those who felt it didn’t honor their childhood memories of the book.

2009 was the first year of the 10-wide Best Picture field, but voters had already moved on from Jonze’s spectacle by the time of voting. We discuss how Avatar might have sucked all of the “visionary” oxygen out of the room, how the film makes the case for a voice performance Oscar, and the brilliant and unrewarded musical work from Karen O and Carter Burwell.

(Apologies for the first ~20 minutes of audio on this episode – we thank you for your patience!)

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035 – Meet Joe Black (with Bobby Finger)

Can anyone today compare to how red hot of an actor Brad Pitt was in the 90s? After following his Oscar nomination for Twelve Monkeys with dual failed Oscar bait (The Devil’s Own and Seven Years in Tibet, for those keeping score at home), Pitt’s next headlining gig was a prestige fiasco: 1998′s Meet Joe Black.

Directed by a pre-Gigli Martin Brest, a pre-Lecter redundancy Anthony Hopkins stars as a publishing billionaire visited by Death (played to full frosted tip capacity by Pitt). Audiences who left the theatre after catching a glimpse of The Phantom Menace’s hotly awaited trailer were the lucky ones, because this failed Oscar hopeful was categorically a disaster.

This week, Bobby Finger joins us to dig through this very long and very strange film and its accidental slapstick car crash, weird sex scene, and outlandish fireworks display. However, a brilliant score from Thomas Newman inspires us to quiz eachother on composers with multiple nominations in the 90s. And yet all roads lead back to Freddie Prinze, Jr…

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034 – Riding in Cars With Boys (with Bowen Yang)

Penny Marshall’s passing last year reminded us of how unfortunately she never got her due as a respected director. Never was that more clear than the critical drubbing that was met with 2001′s Riding in Cars With Boys. On paper this one looked to capitalize on Drew Barrymore’s post Charlie’s Angels success and Penny’s previous history of missing out on directing nominations for respected films – but the immediate cultural fallout from 9/11 did not meet this film kindly.

This week, writer for Saturday Night Live and cohost of Las Culturistas Bowen Yang joins us to discuss Penny’s legacy and how Riding in Cars With Boys is underrated canon. We look at Drew Barrymore’s second coming (including her brilliant opening performance for Scream), cherish Brittany Murphy’s comedic gifts, and stolen glances with Lucy Liu. And we briefly return to that most formative of Oscar years when Titanic reigned supreme.

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