This Had Oscar Buzz – Page 12 – A podcast about movies the awards forgot

193 – The Da Vinci Code (EW Summer Movie Preview)

Our EW Movie Previews miniseries continues this week with a look at the summer season! After the ubiquity of the best-selling book, The Da Vinci Code was primed for a glossy movie adaptation even before it landed the Oscar pedigree pairing of Ron Howard and Tom Hanks. Considered prestigious enough to open the Cannes Film Festival, the film received middling reviews for its schlock factor and was ultimately added to the heap of another bad movie in a cursed summer movie season. Though the film stayed somewhat in awards consideration thanks to earning nominations from various crafts’ guilds, the film was quickly destined to a life on cable television.

This episode, we look at the film’s handling of controversies from an upset Catholic Church and EW’s positioning of the summer’s biggest films, including eventual Best Picture nominee Little Miss Sunshine. We also discuss Hans Zimmer’s Oscar nomination history, Hanks’ much discussed longer hairstyle for the film, and Ian McKellen leading Mary Magdalene’s stan army.

Topics also include Paul Bettany at Provincetown Catholic Week, scrunts and narfs, and forgotten studio animated films of the aughts.

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192 – Panic Room (EW Spring Movie Preview) (with Adam B. Vary)

We’re kicking off our May Miniseries on EW Movie Preview cover movies at the beginning of the calendar with the Spring Movie Preview spotlight on Panic Room. David Fincher’s post-Fight Club foray into elevating a straightforward thriller with his stylistic perfectionism, the film almost starred Nicole Kidman as a recently separated mother who hides with her daughter in the eponymous fortress when her new home is invaded by a trio of fledgling criminals. But when Kidman exited due to lingering injuries sustained during Moulin Rouge!, the extremely Oscar friendly Jodie Foster ditched Cannes jury president duties to work with Fincher. Though Foster’s name was still synonymous with Oscar after almost winning her third only a few years prior, this spring release was left in awards voters minds as a crowd pleasing thriller by year’s end.

This episode, senior entertainment writer for Variety Adam B. Vary joins us to discuss how the EW movie previews were made, including a deep dive into how movies were chosen for prime coverage, letters to the editor, and its bonanza of fonts. We also discuss the films’ mismatched brilliance of its three criminals played by Forrest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakam, its breakthrough performance for Kristen Stewart, and covering Jodie Foster’s pregnancy during filming.

Topics also include EW’s Critical Mass grid as the early Rotten Tomatoes, movies delayed because of 9/11, and Free Winona.

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BONUS – EW Movie Previews, We Love Yous

We have a special BONUS episode for you to kick off our May Miniseries looking back on Entertainment Weekly’s movie preview editions. We bid a fond farewell to the print edition of this formative, beloved publication as we set the stage for what’s to come in May: Spring Movie Preview – PANIC ROOM; Summer Movie Preview – THE DA VINCI CODE; Fall Movie Preview – RANSOM; Holiday Movie Preview – THE PELICAN BRIEF; and your Listeners’ Choice (a Summer Movie Preview) NOTTING HILL! In this bonus, we’ll discuss how we came to this May Miniseries option, how we’re playing looser with “buzz” to stick to this theme, and spare a moment for the other Listeners’ Choice options!

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191 – The Zookeeper’s Wife

This week, we are returning to the work of the recent Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain. In 2017, the actress headlined the adaptation of the popular non-fiction book The Zookeeper’s Wife, detailing Antonina Zabinska and her husband Jan’s efforts to help Polish Jews escape the Nazis by hiding them within the Warsaw Zoo. Directed by Niki Caro, who had previously guided two previous Best Actress nominees, the film held much early promise before being slated for an early year release after distributor Focus Features had its hands full with two Best Picture nominees the previous season. By the end of the year, Chastain herself would have a heavier hitting contender in Molly’s Game, leaving The Zookeeper’s Wife as a quickly forgotten prestige effort.

This episode, we look back at Niki Caro’s rise as the director of independent dramas to massive studio tentpoles and Chastain’s omnipresent arrival in the early 2010s. We also get into how the previous season resulted in her as our newest Best Actress winner, Daniel Bruhl’s typecasting in Nazi roles, and Focus Features’ upcoming lineup.

Topics also include Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Netflix’s 2022 supertrailer, and our May Miniseries starting next week!!

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190 – Love and Friendship

We’ve talked before about the shaky Oscar history with Amazon Studios, and this episode we are talking about one of their unfortunate misses that happened in the year of their biggest success: 2016′s Love and Friendship. Adapted from the scabrous Jane Austen novella Lady Susan, the film had a much-ballyhooed premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and reunited Whit Stillman with his Last Days of Disco stars Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny. A perfect marriage between Austen and Stillman’s high society wits, the film sees Beckinsale in peak comedic form as the flirtatious and scheming Lady Susan opposite a cast of those caught in her web, including the uproarious breakout supporting player Tom Bennett.

This week, we discuss our love for the film and explore the Whit Stillman vibe of socially observant comedy. We also discuss Beckinsale’s career as primarily an action star, the highly competitive Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor races that made little room for Beckinsale and Bennett, and Amazon’s summer of 2016 misfires.

Topics also include the most recent AARP Movies for Grownups ceremony, Critics’ Choice ties, and which son maybe dies in “they’ll think we’re lezzos” cinema Adore.

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189 – Margot at the Wedding (with Kyle Buchanan)

After earning an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for The Squid and the Whale, Noah Baumbach followed up that film’s success by partnering with the recently Oscar-ed Nicole Kidman for Margot at the Wedding. The film cast Kidman opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh (then married to Baumbach) as verbally warring sisters, the youngest of who is planning a quick wedding to a bumbling idiot, played by Jack Black. Those looking at the film’s on-paper Oscar prospects were greeted with a daring showcase for Kidman, but a film even more caustic and cruel than Baumbach’s previous film. To date, it remains his worst reviewed directorial effort, but maintains a cult of ardent defenders.

This episode, Kyle Buchanan from The New York Times joins us to discuss his book Blood, Sweat, and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, the Fury Road Oscar year, and what makes Margot such a brilliant Kidman performance. We also get into the botox criticisms that plagued the film’s reviews, Jennifer Jason Leigh’s close calls before her Oscar nomination, and Kidman’s cringey virtuoso book store monologue.

Topics also include which Drag Race contestant Margot is, bucket hats, and the value of Oscar clips.

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188 – Wild Mountain Thyme

We’re cracking the seal on our Class of 2020 films and somehow manage to do it without miring ourselves in the depression that was the first covid year! And as promised, we’re talking about Wild Mountain Thyme, the oddball romantic comedy from Moonstruck Oscar winner John Patrick Shanley, adapted from his Tony-nominated play Outside Mullingar. The film casts Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan as two Irish farm dwellers who have been dancing around a would-be romance since childhood, and was one of the several films bandied about among Oscar prognosticators in a year that saw few films released, much less pushed for Oscar.

This episode, we get into the film’s oddball twist and the ire inspired by the film’s… shall we say… questionable dialects. We also discuss Shanley’s less successful career as a film director, Blunt’s mighty precursor history that has led to zero Oscar nominations, and the current moment where Jamie Dornan sings in all of his movies.

Topics also include the 2020 Golden Globes, The Great Chipmunk Adventure, and Debra Messing’s Irish accent that must be heard to be believed.

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187 – Water for Elephants

Adaptations of uberpopular novels are always ripe for awards prestige, but this week’s episode is for a film that fizzled quickly. 2011′s Water for Elephants assembled an impressive crew for the circus-set period romantic drama along with a starry cast at tricky career moments: Robert Pattinson breaking from the Twilight franchise, Reese Witherspoon on a string of unsuccessful films, and Christoph Waltz as his typecast was taking shape. Each was slightly miscast, resulting in tepid romantic fireworks and familiar narrative beats that add up to a hohum movie forgotten by the time The Artist became a somewhat atypical Best Picture winner.

This episode, we discuss Pattinson career and the power of the Twihard base, along with our thoughts on The Batman. We also go into the filmography of the film’s screenwriter Richard LaGravenese and director Francis Lawrence, and look back at Witherspoon’s rebound that came shortly after this film.

Topics also include the Teen Choice Awards, why circus films stir up awe and awards prospects, and Uggie.

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186 – Danny Collins

This week, we’re looking at another surprise Golden Globe nomination that fueled minor Oscar talk, 2015′s Danny Collins. An assemblage of fedoras, silk scarves, and one catchy original song, the film stars Al Pacino as a washed up singer in the vein of Neil Diamond who ingratiates himself to the family of his estranged son. Written and directed by Dan Fogelman, the film may have all of Fogelman’s trademark cliched, but we (along with the HFPA) were quite charmed by the Pacino performance and the film as a whole. But that Globe surprise proved to not be enough for Oscar, leaving the film to be a forgotten spring release.

This episode, we go into the Fogelman ethos and examine the long period between Pacino’s Oscar win and his next nomination for The Irishman. We also discuss the cursed 2015 Original Song race that Danny Collins could have enlivened, Pacino’s string of HBO performances, and how Jennifer Garner is a more interesting supporting player than a lead.

Topics also include Dunkaccino, hanging out at the Grove, and Movies That Star Four Old Actors.

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185 – The Aeronauts

We’re taking flight this week with the “women don’t belong in balloons!” heard round the world. In 2019, The Aeronauts’ awards hopes took flight by reuniting The Theory of Everything’s Oscar winning-and-nominated duo of Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in the quasi-true story of a hot air balloon expedition that launched modern day weather forecasting. The film was originally intended for IMAX and early press promised a stunning visual display and a thrilling adventure for the ages. But when Amazon eventually canceled those IMAX plans and the film’s festival run resulted in lukewarm responses, The Aeronauts was left as a punchline for its unintend silly punchline from its trailer.

This episode, we look back at the Jones/Redmayne pairing as an unexpected one to stir a quick prestige reunion and the acting lineups during the year of Theory. We also discuss the cinematic output of Amazon Prime and their waning awards success since minimizing their theatrical strategy, the film’s divisive visual effects, and hint at what we have coming for our May miniseries.

Topics also include 1990s hottie Vincent Perez, our love of Himesh Patel in Station Eleven, and who these really good aeronauts might have bumped into in the sky.

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