Alfred Molina – This Had Oscar Buzz

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

236 – Secret In Their Eyes

After The Secret in Their Eyes won Argentina and director Juan José Campanella the 2009 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, an American remake emerged with primo screenwriter and director Billy Ray attached. Dropping the The faster than a gritty reboot, the American Secret In Their Eyes not only drew top stars but, in adaptation, turned the original’s reflection on military rule into a post-9/11 set thriller of institutional corruption. With an awards friendly cast of headliners of Chiwetel Ejiofor, Nicole Kidman, and And-credit Julia Roberts, the film’s grim but tepid examination of morals deflated by the search for justice met an indifferent critical response after skipping the fall festival season.

This episode, we talk about Billy Ray’s work as a franchise screenwriter and trio of directorial efforts, including his sensational, underrated debut Shattered Glass. We also talk about the original’s Oscar win over early season Cannes-certified films The White Ribbon and A Prophet, the headliner’s television misfires, and actor Joe Cole’s dual villain roles as A Nose and Marshall Mathers.

Topics also include Laura Linney in an upcoming “Catholic 80 for Brady,” the strong run of recent International Feature winners, and Julia Roberts’ bangs.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

221 – The Front Runner

We’ve previously discussed the work of Jason Reitman with our Men, Women, and Children episode, and this week we have another Reitman bomb: 2018′s The Front Runner. The film features Hugh Jackman as Senator Gary Hart and dramatizes Hart’s failed presidential campaign that was thwarted by an infidelity scandal. Released on Election Day after a very mild fall festival run, the film posits Hart’s case as the beginning of political muckraking in America, but fails to make a compelling case for that argument or find a pulse on the political climate in the immediate year’s following the 2016 Presidential Election.

This episode, we talk about Jackman’s prestige run in the shadow of Wolverine and his prospects this year with the reviled The Son in a weak Best Actor field. We also welcome Reitman regular J.K. Simmons into our Six Timers Club, and discuss Reitman’s other 2018 release Tully, post-Hart political sex scandals, and Vera Farmiga Phone Acting.

Topics also include Phil Hartman’s Clinton impersonation, current awards season malaise, and our upcoming mailbag episode!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS