Host – Page 8 – This Had Oscar Buzz

257 – Kill Bill – Vol. 1

We’re here celebrating a 20th anniversary for a beloved film this week, listeners! After his longest break between movies to date, Quentin Tarantino delivered a samurai epic while trying to crack the script for another epic, Inglourious Basterds. That ultraviolent actioner, Kill Bill, would also reunite Tarantino with his Pulp Fiction star Uma Thurman, given a major showcase as an unnamed blood soaked bride bent on vengeance. But Tarantino made so much movie, it had to be split into two.

Vol. 1 arrived in 2003 and became a sizable hit, wild mild critical praise that didn’t quite know what to do with its non-stop violence, time-hopping structure, and incomplete narrative arc. This episode, we talk about Kill Bill – Vol. 1‘s excellent female ensemble, its triumph at the MTV Movie Awards, and the all-timer needle drop “Battle Without Honor or Humanity”.

Topics also include first experiencing the film’s cliffhanger, its strong performance at BAFTA, and early aughts trailer descriptions.

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256 – Burnt

This week, we’re bringing you an episode to make you yell “YA BURNT!” Back in 2015, Bradley Cooper was to headline an ensemble dreamed about an unruly addict chef trying to earn his third Michelin star. Switching from the anonymously titled Adam Jones to the equally anonymous Burnt, the film had already earned a little bit of punchline status before skipping the fall festival circuit and delivering a dud wide release. Despite Cooper’s rising star power and Academy pedigree, this one didn’t come close to the awards or audience embrace as 2014’s American Sniper.

This episode, we look back at a the rise of chef culture in pop culture at large from Top Chef to The Bear. We also talk about Alicia Vikander’s busy 2015 that led to an Oscar win, the film’s ludicrous but formulaic plotting by screenwriter Steven Knight, and the underwhelming cinematic output from director John Wells.

Topics also include Cooper’s upcoming Maestro, his Oscar nominations as a producer, and Serenity.

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Back to TIFF!

We’re back from our annual trip to the Toronto International Film Festival! Once again, we’ll be dissecting our festival experience, the films we saw, and what lies ahead for the season. We discuss the Peoples’ Choice Award winner American Fiction and its chances in the awards race, several International Feature contenders at the festival including Perfect Daysand The Teachers’ Lounge, the highs and lows of festival films by actors making their directorial debuts, and our top 5 films of the festival!

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255 – Win Win

Before Tom McCarthy would deliver an Oscar triumph with Spotlight (and a bomb with The Cobbler), his critically beloved films centering on everyday people culminated in Win Win. The film starred Paul Giamatti as a lawyer and wrestling coach who takes in the grandson of an elderly client, one who he has taken guardianship of solely to alleviate his family’s precarious financial situation. With a stellar ensemble including Amy Ryan and Melanie Lynskey, the film premiered at Sundance to strong reviews and earned screenplay mentions throughout the season ahead. But with distributor Fox Searchlight handling several bigger films, Win Win did not become McCarthy’s first Oscar nominee.

This episode, we look back at Giamatti’s notorious Oscar snub for Sideways and ahead to his chances this year with Alexander Payne reunion The Holdovers. We also discuss Ryan’s passionate and lovable performance, Spotlight‘s position in its Best Picture lineup, and Win Win‘s fellow nominees for Best Movie for Grownups.

Topics also include Melinda Doolittle on American Idol, Nina Arianda’s film roles, and McCarthy’s canned Game of Thrones pilot.

And remember to join us on This Had Oscar Buzz: Turbulent Brilliance over at patreon.com/thishadoscarbuzz!!

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254 – The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Some might call Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar ascent an unlikely one, given the oddness at the core of his films. But with the Foreign Language Feature nomination for the explicit Dogtooth and the Original Screenplay for The Lobster, the Greek auteur cemented his status in the Oscar club. A victory lap of sorts came with The Killing of a Sacred Deer in 2017, returning Lanthimos to Cannes competition with the pedigree of Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. But any expectation that the film might be another Academy affirmed oddity all but evaporated when Cannes audiences discovered a bloody and deeply strange (even for Lanthimos) modern fable about a father given an otherworldly, violent demand from a deceased patient’s son.

This episode, we talk about our anticipation for Lanthimos’ Poor Things this season and the elements that make this film so divisive. We also talk about Barry Keoghan’s brilliant breakthrough performance, Alicia Silverstone’s caramel tart, and the film career of character actor Bill Camp (new bet alert!).

Topics also include the now-defunct Executive Committee, Kidman smoking while gardening, and 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

Don’t forget to sign up for our Patreon, This Had Oscar Buzz: Turbulent Brilliance over at patreon.com/thishadoscarbuzz!!

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253 – Moby Dick (with Emily St. James!)

We’re going back further than ever before this episode and we’ve got writer/critic/author Emily St. James along for the ride! After a consecutive run as an Oscar favorite in the late 1940s to early 1950s, director John Huston gave us 1956’s Moby Dick, an adaptation of perhaps the greatest novel of all time and often seen as unadaptable. With Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab and a cameo performance by Orson Welles, the film earned Huston favor at the DGA Awards, but even with its (then) technical feats, the film did not continue Huston’s Oscar streak.

This episode, we talk about the impossible task of bringing Herman Melville’s novel to the screen and the perception of Peck as miscast. We also discuss the 1956 Oscars, Peck’s run as Academy president, and outrage over Home Alone‘s underwhelming Oscar nomination tally.

Topics also include the Grumpy Old Men blooper reel, Reba McEntire as Trish, and we also announce the return of Vulture’s Movies Fantasy League! Join the rest of the Garys with league name AllOfUsGarys!

And don’t forget to sign up for our Patreon, This Had Oscar Buzz: Turbulent Brilliance over at patreon.com/thishadoscarbuzz!!

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252 – Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

Ahead of this season’s Nyad, we are looking back at the Oscar history of Annette Bening and 2017’s Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool. One year after missing out on a nomination for 20th Century Women, Bening returned with this film, starring as actress Gloria Grahame . Told from the perspective of actor Peter Turner (played by Jamie Bell), the film tells a love story between Turner and the Oscar winner during her final days. The film received a mild festival response and limited release during New Years, with Bening and Bell getting BAFTA nominations, but no such love from Oscar.

This episode, we talk about Bening’s four previous Oscar nominations and her notorious dual losses to Hilary Swank. We also discuss actresses who have played Oscar winners, Grahame’s Oscar win for The Bad and the Beautiful, and that other Sony Pictures Classics film from 2017 that took its time to expand.

Topics also include Bell’s leading man charisma, Bening’s potential for Nyad, and the many PG-13 f*cks of The American President.

Don’t forget to sign up for This Had Oscar Buzz: Turbulent Brilliance over at patreon.com/thishadoscarbuzz!!

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251 – Love and Mercy (with Taylor Cole!)

Are you loving our new original intro music, listeners? We’re joined this week by its composer and our friend Taylor Cole to muse on the genre musical biopic with 2015’s Love and Mercy. The film follows different chapters of Brian Wilson’s life and mental wellness journey, with Paul Dano taking on Wilson’s life as he experimented with The Beach Boys’ sound and John Cusack as the later Wilson. After a debut at the 2014 TIFF, the film launched in the summer to positive reviews and a slew of precursor nominations for Dano. But much like the Academy voted with The Fablemans this past year, Dano was left out at the last moment.

This episode, we discuss how the film’s structure appropriately tells Wilson’s story while creatively twisting the standard biopic framework. We also discuss Elizabeth Banks’ performance headlining the later portions of the film, divisive feelings about Dano’s earlier performances, and 2015 Best Supporting Actor.

Topics also include Cusack strike tweeting, presenting Chicago to Social Studies class, and our relationships with the music of The Beach Boys.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our Patreon, This Had Oscar Buzz: Turbulent Brilliance, over at patreon.com/thishadoscarbuzz!!

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250 – Her Smell

We’ve come up on another anniversary episode of This Had Oscar Buzz, and we’ve got another favorite that long-time listeners have heard us praise before: 2019’s Her Smell. Debuting on at TIFF 2018, the Alex Ross Perry film is a daring and ambitious take on the riot grrrls of the early 1990s. Starring Elisabeth Moss as Becky Something, an addict egomaniac who brings her own downfall, the film audaciously immerses us in Becky’s destruction (and later climb out of it) in ways that are exhausting and rewarding. Earning stratospheric praise for Moss by even the film’s most frustrated viewers, the film was cursed to a microrelease and stayed an Oscar outsider despite vocal critical support.

This episode, we talk about the audacity of both Perry’s film and Moss’ performance. We also get into the depressing state of independent distribution, Perry’s open comments regarding its release and support for Moss’ performance, and the Gotham Awards.

Topics also include the film’s fake album covers, our appreciation for difficult characters, and our superlatives for the past year of the podcast.

But perhaps most exciting is two bits of news right at the top: our new theme music by Taylor Cole and our newly launched Patreon!! Please consider subscribing and joining us for This Had Oscar Buzz: Turbulent Brilliance over at patreon.com/thishadoscarbuzz!!

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249 – Love is Strange

Ahead of this week’s release of Ira Sachs’ Passages, we’re discussing perhaps Sachs’ most lauded film, 2014’s Love is Strange. The film stars John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a newly married couple forced to live apart in New York City when one of them is fired from his Catholic school job for being gay. Charting the frustrating nuances of cohabitation and the unexamined financial hardships of city life, the film is a quiet wonder filled with humane performances, including Marisa Tomei as part of the couple’s social circle. Praised at Sundance and in its late summer release, the film managed to stay in conversation due to several Independent Spirit nominations, but was shut out by Oscar.

This episode, we discuss Sachs’ underappreciated filmography and Molina’s career rise as a trustworthy supporting player. We also discuss Lithgow’s consecutive Supporting Actor nominations in the 1980s, the film’s release in the year before the Obergefell ruling, and Sony Pictures Classics’ busy 2014.

Topics also include Best Grownup Love Story, the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, and Asteroid City.

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