Academy Awards – Page 15 – This Had Oscar Buzz

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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184 – Rumor Has It

This week, we’re looking at the less fondly remembered half of Shirley MacLaine’s 2005 buzzed grandmothers (after praising In Her Shoes in a previous episode) with Rumor Has It. Starring an immediately post-Friends Jennifer Aniston as a woman who believes her grandmother was the inspiration The Graduate’s Mrs. Robinson, the film assembled a prestigious cast for its conceptual take on movie nostalgia that made for a high-profile holiday release. But the film casts Kevin Costner as the would-be Benjamin Braddock that might become either Aniston’s love interest… or her father. Yeah, you can see why this one ultimately earned its reputation as a reviled misfire.

But the film was also plagued with production woes that saw screenwriter and original director Ted Griffin fired, only to be promptly replaced by Rob Reiner. This episode, we discuss Reiner’s later career of bad and unnoticed movies, Griffin’s career as a noteworthy screenwriter, and frustration around this year’s Oscar telecast.

Topics also include our parents’ viewing habits, Tower Heist, and who is best and least best in the Steel Magnolias ensemble.

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183 – Margaret (with Patrick Vaill)

#TeamMargaret, your day is here! This week, we are joined by actor Patrick Vaill to discuss the contentious backstory and reemergence story that is Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret. Originally filmed in 2005, the film follows Anna Paquin as Lisa Cohen, a New York City teenager who witnesses a horrific accident and her search for restitution when she deems herself partly responsible. But Lonergan’s ambition with the film and its themes resulted in an arduous editing process, resulting in the ire of the film’s producer and Fox Searchlight. The years-long process led to lawsuits and the intervention of Martin Scorsese in the editing room, ultimately delivering a film that quietly snuck into a few theatres amidst contentiousness. Soon, a critical mass began to build along with change.org petitions and online outcry, and now Margaret is seen by some as one of the greatest films of the new century.

This episode, we discuss the various available versions of the film and Lonergan’s distillation of post-9/11 New York. We also unpack the brilliant central performance by Paquin, along with a stellar supporting cast of actresses including J. Smith-Cameron as Lisa’s actress mother, Jeannie Berlin as Lisa’s surprise confidante, and a one-scene-wonder Allison Janney (who joins our Six Timer’s Club).

Topics also include formative double features of The Apostle and Kundun, standing ovations for Andrea Martin, and what makes up J. Smith-Cameron’s “EGOT of television acting.”

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182 – State of Play

Adapted from the lauded UK miniseries of the same title, State of Play had a labored journey to the screen. Appearing on the 2006 Black List and originally intended as the screen reunion for Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, the American film adaptation weathered several delays, recastings, and creative setbacks, including the 2007 WGA strike. Once in production, the film mounted a cast that included Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, and Helen Mirren to unfold its political conspiracy in the attempted vein of All the President’s Men. All of this prestige put the film on awards prognosticators’ early predictions while it was still planned for a fall 2008 release, but it quickly cast aside those ambitions once in was punted one final time to a spring 2009 release.

This episode, we discuss Russell Crowe’s post-Oscar career of several Ridley Scott films and the phone-throwing incident that tainted his career. We also discuss Ben Affleck in the immediate afterglow of his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, his immediate pivot to casting himself in his own movies, and director Kevin Macdonald’s pivot from documentarries to fiction films.

Topics also include watching the original miniseries on Netflix discs, snacks that are just chemicals, and The Eagle.

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Class of 2021

We finally have this year’s set of Oscar nominations, so that means it’s time for our Class of 2021 episode! This episode, we look back on the almost-was of the past awards season with films that received zero Oscar nominations, including in categories of Most Forgettable, Happiest Miss, and Saddest Snub. We also add a category for films we’re bummed we can’t discuss in future episodes, and you can guess what gets a mention there! And it all ends with picking the films we vow to cover first on the podcast, and a rundown of other films that were on the Oscar hunt at some point in the year. Topics also include saying farewell to Lady Gaga’s Oscar campaigning, the two categories that voted for the same five movies for the first time in over 50 years, and a Captain Planet lineup of Reba McEntires.

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181 – Leatherheads

This week, we are once again returning to the diminishing returns of George Clooney’s directorial career with 2008′s Leatherheads. The directing follow-up to his Oscar-nominated Good Night and Good Luck, this lighthearted film about the early days of American pro football stars Clooney as a player opposite Renée Zellweger as a journalist trying to break the story of a college football star (John Krasinski) who falsified the war hero story that made him famous. The film was received positively by critics and mildly by audiences, but was quickly forgotten as a hodgepodge of screwball comedy, sports crowdpleaser, and post-war drama.

In this episode, we look back at Clooney’s directorial attempt to follow in the footsteps of his collaborators and the 2005 Oscars where George Clooney earned three Oscar nominations, including winning in Best Supporting Actor for the forgotten Syriana. We also discuss Zellweger’s post-Oscar career fade, a what-if scenario for Clooney not winning for Syriana, and just how unsafe early football seems.

Topics also include the Zellweger movie we call “SOS backwards”, being blocked by LightsCameraJackson, and another round of Alter Egos.

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180 – Birth

We’re finally talking about one of our most requested films, Johnathan Glazer’s 2004 sophomore feature Birth. Starring Nicole Kidman as a woman grappling with a young boy’s assertion that he is her reincarnated dead husband, the film was initially controversial and critically maligned upon release, even with stunning work from composer Alexandre Desplat and cinematographer Harris Savides. Undoubtedly a complex and confounding film, it is perhaps most notorious for the unbroken close-up of Kidman’s face that wordlessly conveys her belief in the impossible. But in the near two decade since, Birth has been reassessed as a major achievement for Glazer, but is also seen by many as one of Kidman’s finest performances.

This episode, we discuss the film’s meaning and the controversy over the bathtub scene that overshadowed its release. We also talk about the underrated Anne Heche, Kidman’s chances to win a second Oscar this year for Being The Ricardos, and Kidman’s balancing between star roles and working with auteurs.

Topics also include Lauren Bacall lovingly calling Kidman “a beginner,” our 2004 Best Actress picks, and the upcoming 20th anniversary of The Hours.

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BONUS – Sundance, I Say

We’re bringing you a special bonus episode to recap our time with year’s edition of the Sundance Film Festival! We discuss some of the biggest prize winners from the US Dramatic Competition winner Nanny and the US Dramatic Audience Award winner Cha Cha Real Smooth, and other award recipients like Descendant, Dos Estaciones, and Fire of Love. We also discuss the films that might be pushed for Oscar in the year ahead (Good Luck to You Leo Grande and Living) and other personal festival highs (After Yang and Resurrection), lows (Sharp Stick and Call Jane), and everything in between!

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179 – On Chesil Beach

Saoirse Ronan came on strong at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival with two films that had the opposite experience: the immediately beloved Lady Bird and the misfire On Chesil Beach, which cratered after world premiering on the first day of the festival. The film reunited Ronan with Ian McEwan, the author of her Oscar-nominated breakthrough performan in Atonement, and cast her as a young woman in the mid-century who experiences a disastrous honeymoon with decades worth of emotional consequences. Also starring Billy Howle (who she would quickly reunite with for The Seagull) as her hot-tempered husband, the film received a very tepid response at the festival despite its pedigree and received a very quiet release the next spring.

This episode, we’re talking about Ronan’s increasingly prolific career and the performances that brought her Oscar nominations, including Atonement, which we will defend to the death. We also discuss the history of Bleecker Street films, their difficulty in securing Oscar nominations, and our favorites of their lineup.

Topics also include that one cello piece used in all of cinema, frustrations over the term “Oscar bait”, and Bebe Zahara Benet’s Jungle Kitty.

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