Academy Awards – Page 16 – This Had Oscar Buzz

178 – October Sky (with Esther Zuckerman)

Moving along from Maggie Gyllenhaal’s breakthrough last week, this week we are dis cussing her brother Jake’s! Senior Entertainment writer for Thrillist Esther Zuckerman joins us to talk about middle school classroom mainstay and union-agnostic true story, 1999′s October Sky. The film starred Jake Gyllenhaal as Homer Hickham Jr., as young West Virginian who bucked the pressure to join the mining industry to study rockets, leading to a career at NASA. With Laura Dern as his doting teacher and Chris Cooper as his gruff unsupportive father, the film was sold as a family film early in the year and gained some momentum before becoming ultimately forgotten by Oscar.

This episode, we look at Jake’s career evolutions from awkward love interest to older actresses to action to lovable weirdo and back to action star mode. We also discuss the career of director Joe Johnston, WGA nominees that were not nominated by the Academy, and Chris Cooper’s evolution from noteworthy character actor to noteworthy stern dad.

Topics also include, Universal’s 1999 awards slate and the Best Supporting Actor lineup that year, Peter Parker’s landlord, and Esther’s upcoming Oscar fashion history book Beyond the Best Dressed (Preorder HERE!).

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177 – Secretary

After a few minor roles in American indies, Maggie Gyllenhaal broke out in a big way with Sundance hit Secretary in 2002. The story of a young woman who copes with her mental health issues while entering a BDSM relationship with her boss (played by James Spader), Secretary was praised for its dark wit and daring, and immediately put Gyllenhaal on the map. But while she earned breakthrough prizes throughout the season, the film’s risque subject matter and a notoriously competitive Best Actress race kept Gyllenhaal out of Oscar contention.

This week, we discuss how the film holds up in terms of its handling of sensitiive subject matter and its place in the filmography of (surprise THOB heavy-hitter) Erin Cressida Wilson. We also discuss Gyllenhaal’s chances this season for her directorial debut The Lost Daughter, Spader’s run as an erotic psychodrama mainstay, and how the 2002 Best Actress race was shifted by contenders campaigning for multiple roles.

Topics also include the proposed Indecent Proposal remake, what we are programming at our imaginary repertory cinema, and the MTV Movie Awards Breakthrough Female Performance category.

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Mail Bag: Vol. 1

It’s our annual year-end tradition! You’ve sent us your questions on Oscar past and present, but this year’s mailbag brings a special surprise: you’ve asked us such fun and thoughtful questions that we’re splitting the mailbag into two instalments! [Cue “Battle Without Honor or Humanity”] This mailbag, we’ll be answering questions about what might be Glenn Close’s Oscar vehicle now that Susnet Blvd. looks unlikely, actors with the longest period between acting nominations, and our MVPs from SAG’s Best Ensemble winners. Topics also include Laura Bacall shilling for High Point Coffee, the best winners of Best Original Song, and the hubbub of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’s Best Picture nomination.

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176 – The Holiday

Just in time for the holidays, we are doing The Holiday. Nancy Meyers followed-up her smash hit Something’s Gotta Give with this story of two women (played by Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet) who swap houses over the Christmas week in order to get away from their romantic disasters. Naturally, new love finds a way and in the form of Jude Law and Jack Black. Any initial Oscar hopes for the film were set by Meyers’ last film returning Diane Keaton to the Oscar fold for her fourth decade in a row, but the film was considered a financial disappointment and received a critical drubbing thanks to its silly premise and oddly paired costars.

This episode, we talk about the career of Nancy Meyers and what makes this film such a delight despite its many frustrations. Jude Law also joins our Six Timers Club, but we’ve also got another game around 2006 Christmas cinema. We also discuss Eli Wallach’s charming supporting turn, Kate Winslet’s enthusiasm when she wins something, and the 2006 Best Actress race that saw Helen Mirren steamroll despite a stellar lineup.

Topics also include Danny DeVito drunk on The View, upper butt cinema, and Diva Muffin Zappa.

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175 – Hustlers

This is an episode about control. We’ve tallied up the votes for our Listeners’ Choice episode and in a landslide victory, 2019′s Hustlers emerged quite victorious. One of our favorite films of 2019, the film (based on Jessica Pressler’s expose in The Cut) stars Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez as two exotic dancers who team up to drug and rob their wealthy Wall Street customers in the wake of the financial crisis. A highly fictionalized adaptation, the film is a nonstop ride of entertaining moments, all given an empathic treatment by writer/director Lorene Scafaria. Though we have much to say for the film’s many merits, its awards hopes hinged on a career-best Lopez in Supporting Actress, who ran the gauntlet of being nominated at every major precursor only to miss out on an Oscar nomination.

This episode, we discuss how the film’s subject matter was met with unfair indifference despite Scafaria’s thoughtful approach and the film’s surprise $100M box office success. We also dive into its stellar performances outside of Lopez, Scafaria’s directorial career, Lopez’s career from critical praise to romcom star, the film’s deftly handled morality, and “so wait a minute actresses.”

Topics also include Lopez’s notorious 1998 interview with Movieline, the film’s perfect use of pop music, and “we love you, Gary!”

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174 – All is True

In 2018, perhaps the only audience that noticed All Is True were our belove AARP Movies for Grownups awards. The film is directed by and stars Kenneth Branagh as William Shakespeare returning home to his underappreciated wife and daughters after his Globe Theatre burned to the ground mid-production, reopening wounds of unspoken family tragedy. The period drama was given an extremely quiet qualifying release that earned Judi Dench (playing Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway) a Supporting Actress win from M4GS before a May release the following year received scarsely more attention than the previous season’s.

This episode, we discuss the surprisingly compelling film, and Branagh’s career as a director of spotty and often forgotten films and his chances this season with his autobiographical film Belfast. We also take a deep look at the history of the Movies for Grownups (including their wildest, but most correct call for Supporting Actress), Ian McKellen as a possible victim of a closed Oscar window, and the growing understanding of qualifying releases.

Topics also include frontrunners for this year’s M4Gs, abandoned M4Gs categories, and what if Dench played the other Anne Hathaway.

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173 – My Blueberry Nights

With the release of Criterion’s retrospective box set, film lovers have been revisiting the work of living master Wong Kar-wai. But this week, we’re going to be talking about his least celebrated (and one omitted from that treasured collection). His first film in the English language, My Blueberry Nights is an episodic movie about a woman who mends her broken heart by finding herself on the road, leaving behind a could-have-been romance with a pie shop man back in New York. For his lead star, Wong Kar-wai selected adult contemporary sensation Norah Jones, a few years after wracking up a bundle of Grammys and selling millions of albums for her debut Come Away With Me. But opening the 2007 Cannes Film Festival was high positioning for this slighter effort from the maestro, and largely unkind critical notices left them film as more of an afterthought once it finally saw a US release almost a year later.

More of a fascinating failure than the fiasco its reputation would lead you to believe, the film meanders through its chapters where Jones plays opposite three stars at transitional stages of their careers: Jude Law post-2004 laughing stock omnipresence, Rachel Weisz post-Oscar, and the beginning stages of Natalie Portman Doing A Voice. This episode, we get into the 2007 Cannes Film Festival (and its charming poster), the work of Wong Kar-wai, and Jones’ Grammy success.

Topics also include Starbucks CDs, the Roku City screensaver, and how this is one of the few movies where David Strathairn is NOT hot.

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172 – Money Monster (with Katey Rich)

Our Thanksgiving tradition continues this year, with Vanity Fair’s Katey Rich joining us as a guest, this time to talk about quickly forgotten prestige thriller Money Monster. Premiering out of competiton in 2016 at the Cannes Film Festival to middling reviews but embarrassing no one involved, the film stars George Clooney as a cable news financial guru, Julia Roberts as his beleagured producer, and Jack O’Connell as the man holding their studio hostage after the show’s financial advice ruins his life. Directed by Jodie Foster, the film is a strange artifact of the immediately-pre-Trump moment that misunderstands the Occupy Wall Street and fails to capitalize on its star power.

Despite the presence of the headliners reuniting post-Ocean’s, the film is perhaps most interesting as a footnote in the few years when Jack O’Connell was poised to be the next big thing. We look back at O’Connell’s roles while also discussing Catriona Balfe’s role here as Belfast primes an awards run this year, Clooney’s few acting roles in recent years, and Foster’s directorial career.

Topics also include Pat Kiernan NY1 movie cameos, Dominic West getting meme-ified, and the ghosts of Flora Plum.

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171 – The Mighty

This week, we are talking about Sharon Stone and The Mighty. Adpated from the young adult novel Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, the film follows a burgeoning friendship between a silent giant teenager Max (Elden Henson) and a King Arthur obsessed neighbor with a rare metabolic disorder Kevin (Kieran Culkin). But the film’s real awards play was a Globe-nominated Stone, inhabiting the role of Kevin’s mother Gwen shortly after her first nomination for Casino. However, a firmly locked Supporting Actress race left Stone fighting for fifth place, ultimately missing out to Rachel Griffiths in the equally forgotten Hilary and Jackie.

The film was one of Miramax’s many titles in 1998, and shifted to a awards lower priority once Shakespeare in Love and Life is Beautiful began to take off. This episode, we discuss the film’s very broad performance from Gillian Anderson, James Gandolfini joins our Six Timers Club, and we look at back at Oscar’s love for “suffering parent” roles and other adjacent tropes.

Topics also include the shared loving gaze of Redgrave/McKellen/Fraser, Lara Flynn Boyle in Wayne’s World, and Cincinnati cinema.

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170 – Holy Smoke (with Jourdain Searles)

We have two exciting returns this week! First, entertainment writer and Bad Romance co-host Jourdain Searles is joining us once again. Second, we return to the work of Jane Campion, this time for 1999′s divisive and sexually charged Holy Smoke. The film premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival with a high pedigree: Campion reuniting with her The Piano castmember Harvey Keitel, with Kate Winslet center stage two years after Titanic. But the film was Campion’s most subversive yet, and its sometimes farcical approach to the subject of one woman’s forced deprogramming from getting involved in a cult made for a poor critical reception in the very crowded movie landscape of 1999.

This episode, we talk about our excitement for The Power of the Dog and look back at our favorites in Campion’s filmography. We also discuss Winslet’s post-Titanic career of daring, interesting character roles that led up to an underwhelming Oscar win with The Reader and Pam Grier’s brief performance in the film after her Oscar snub for Jackie Brown.

Topics also include the 1999 Best Actress race, Neil Diamond needle drops, and Harvey Keitel’s butt.

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