383 – Joker: Folie à Deux

Continuing our Oscar hangover tradition, we’re cracking the seal on the previous Oscar season’s lineup and have we got a doozy of a Class of 2024 title for you! After Joker walked away from the 2019 season with a Golden Lion and an Oscar for Joaquin Phoenix, souring opinions kicked into high gear when follow-up Joker: Folie à Deux was announced. Yes, the sequel would not only be a musical but it would star Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn, and the results were an immediate critical and box office bomb.

This episode, we talk about director Todd Phillips’ middle-finger approach to this sequel and why the original film works against making his case for genre divergence here. We also discuss Phoenix facing the heat for backing out on Todd Haynes, the film’s non-canonical take on the characters, and its off-putting musical stylings.

Topics also include the 2024 Venice Film Festival, The Bride!, and Connor Storrie’s small role in the finale.

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382 – Get Low

We keep losing movie legends, but this week we wanted to memorialize the great Robert Duvall. In 2010, the actor entered the race with Get Low, a tale (based on regional legend) of a town outcast who decides to throw his own funeral. With Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, and Lucas Black filling out the ensemble, the film is a forgiveness and guilt fable that has its humble charms, but ultimately was unable to net the career honors for Duvall that would come a few years later with (eek) The Judge.

This episode, we talk about Duvall’s Oscar history and his place in some of the most important films of the 1970s. We also discuss Spacek’s post-2000s run of brilliant supporting turns, hostile Today Show appearances, and Sony Classics many 2010 Oscar nominees.

Topics also include Murray Six Timers, video games, and the 2010 Best Actor race.

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381 – Happy Endings

After the edgy sexual comedy The Opposite of Sex made Don Roos a hot indie name and the drowsy romance of Bouncedampened the vibe, Roos returned in 2005 with ensemble dramedy Happy Endings. With a cast of Lisa Kudrow, Steve Coogan, and Laura Dern, the film looks at the secrets and sexual boundaries of a group of Los Angelenos. But it was the wayward and musical performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal that earned the biggest raves and an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

This episode, we talk about Gyllenhaal’s road to her first nomination for Crazy Heart and she joins our Six Timers Club. We also talk about Kudrow’s upcoming return in The Comeback, Tom Arnold’s critically praised performance, and the film being released in the same summer as LA ensemble Best Picture winner, Crash.

Topics also include Dern in the TEN Timers Club, aughts-y onscreen homophobia, and The Bride!.

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380 – The Company

After the tremendous success and Oscar comeback for Robert Altman with 2001’s Gosford Park, the idiosyncratic director delivered a more understated work for what would become his second-to-last film, 2003’s The Company. Set within Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet, the film follows a dance company both on and offstage, all in their sometimes less than glamour pursuit of artistry. With Neve Campbell as the star ballerina and Malcolm McDowell as the company’s boisterous artistic director, the film earned positive reviews but its subtleties make for minor Altman that seldom earned enthusiastic consensus.

This episode, we talk about Altman’s possible second place in Director for Gosford Park and his honorary Oscar in 2006. We also discuss Campbell developing the project and pursuing Altman, the payoff from the film casting real dancers, and the film’s shoehorned romance with James Franco.

Topics also include “Maloja Snake,” Diane Warren: Relentless, and dancing in the rain. 

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379 – Amsterdam

2022’s Amsterdam was a high profile box office dud from disgraced director David O. Russell with timely themes, a big budget, and a ton of stars. The film tells a (partly true) story about fascist maneuverings in America, with Christian Bale, John David Washington, and Margot as a friendship trio who sets out to thwart them after being reunited post-WWII. Though the film earned some fans like critic Richard Brody, it received a somewhat indifferent release by 20th Century Studios and was quickly out of theatres.

This episode, we talk about the film’s scattered look at timely themes and it’s very quiet release. We also discuss Robbie’s high wire performance in Babylon in the same year, Taylor Swift’s brief (and much memed) role, and Robert De Niro joins our Six Timers Club.

Topics also include Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Emmanuel Lubezki’s light resume after winning 3 Oscars, and Drunk History.

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378 – Being Flynn

Is the “buzzy literary adaptation to Oscar bonafide” pipeline kaput? This week, we’ve got a forgotten, pre-production-buzzy title on deck: 2012’s Being Flynn! Based on Nick Flynn’s memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, the film follows Paul Dano as the author grappling with addiction, grief, and an absent, addict father played by Robert De Niro. While critics praised De Niro’s work as a return to form, the film quickly died at the box office without strong reviews or the noise of a festival launch.

This episode, we talk about De Niro’s eventual Silver Linings Playbook nomination in the same year and his connection to the film’s director Paul Weitz. We also discuss post-Little Miss Sunshine Dano, Julianne Moore gets the rare Ten Timers Club, and the film’s Weitz-ian approach to heavier material.

Topics also include early aughts icon Olivia Thirlby, the film’s title downgrade, and Judd Hirsch’s The Fablemansnomination.

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377 – The Iron Claw (w/ Roxana Hadadi!)

After our Class of 2025 episode last week, we’re doing one of the most requested from the Class of 2023! After his COVID-stunted release (and beloved THOB title) The Nest, Sean Durkin’s next film would be the true and tragic story of the Von Erich wrestling family. With Zac Efron headlining the film as Kevin Von Erich, The Iron Claw compassionately details the family’s legacy of loss and became one of A24’s biggest hits. Naturally, we had to bring Vulture critic Roxana Hadadi back on to help us unpack this story of masculinity, brotherhood, and grief.

This episode, we talk about how A24 skipped the festivals for the film and made it one of the final films seen that season. We also discuss the film’s secret powerhouse Holt McCallany as the Von Erich patriarch, Harris Dickinson and Jeremy Allen White taking different position in the modern hunk hierarchy, and Durkin’s underloved work on Dead Ringers.

Topics also include reality television, The Smashing Machine, and giant onscreen breakfast.

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Class of 2025

It’s the biggest This Had Oscar Buzz episode every year! Now that we have this year’s crop of Oscar nominations, that means it’s time to welcome a whole year’s worth of films to the THOB fold. We unpack the Class of 2025 in all its glory, from the films that deserved better to the ones that didn’t, from the narratives we fell for and didn’t, from the most forgotten to the close calls. And, of course, we call it for the Valedictorian, the film that will get the first THOB episode from 2025.

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376 – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

As Rachel McAdams returns to movie screens with Sam Raimy’s horror film Send Help, we thought it a good time to look back at one of her most beloved performances to date. In 2023, Kelly Freeman Craig adapted a book beloved by (and controversial for) generations: Judy Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. With Abby Ryder Fortson as the titular Margaret and McAdams as her doting mother, the film is the story of a young woman’s coming of age, including puberty, social dynamics, and religious questioning.

This episode, we talk about McAdams’ subtle and powerful performance and the film’s struggle at the box office. We also discuss Kathy Bates as a Jewish grandmother, the film’s talented young performers, and Fremon Craig’s debut film The Edge of Seventeen.

Topics also include book fairs, our past YA reading favs, and Benny Sadie as father.

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375 – My Own Private Idaho

We’re finally pulling one of our most passionate entries to our 100 Snubs series, Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho. Adapted loosely from multiple Shakespeare plays (particularly both Henry IVs), the film follows an epileptic young sex worker named Mike (River Phoenix) as he drifts the globe with his loyal cohort Scott (Keanu Reeves). Van Sant was post-Drugstore Cowboy ascendant when the film arrived, but it’s the Venice Film Festival-anointed performance by Phoenix that got the most attention and helps the film live in bittersweet infamy.

This episode, we talk about Phoenix’s stunning performance and his Oscar nomination for Running on Empty before his tragic death. We also discuss the highlights of Van Sant’s filmography, the unfair ridicule that greeted Reeves’ Bram Stoker’s Dracula performance, and where we would place the film in the 1991 Adapted Screenplay race.

Topics also include the 1991 Venice Film Festival, nipple pulling, and New Queer Cinema.

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