Alicia Vikander – This Had Oscar Buzz

This week, we’re bringing you an episode to make you yell “YA BURNT!” Back in 2015, Bradley Cooper was to headline an ensemble dreamed about an unruly addict chef trying to earn his third Michelin star. Switching from the anonymously titled Adam Jones to the equally anonymous Burnt, the film had already earned a little bit of punchline status before skipping the fall festival circuit and delivering a dud wide release. Despite Cooper’s rising star power and Academy pedigree, this one didn’t come close to the awards or audience embrace as 2014’s American Sniper.

This episode, we look back at a the rise of chef culture in pop culture at large from Top Chef to The Bear. We also talk about Alicia Vikander’s busy 2015 that led to an Oscar win, the film’s ludicrous but formulaic plotting by screenwriter Steven Knight, and the underwhelming cinematic output from director John Wells.

Topics also include Cooper’s upcoming Maestro, his Oscar nominations as a producer, and Serenity.

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This week’s piece of failed awards bait is the 2017 costume drama/romantic “thriller” Tulip Fever, and by “2017,” we mean “filmed in 2014 and originally intended to be released at various times over the course of the next three years, only to finally limp into theaters after several waves of frantic test screenings, horrid buzz and derisive jokes.” From the director of The Other Boleyn Girl, people! How could it have all gone so very wrong?

Topics include: Dane DeHaan and baby pandas, Judi Dench running Goldman-Sachs-for-flowers, whether we’re living in a post-costume-drama world, whether this would have been Alicia Vikander’s Norbit, and how much would have been different if DreamWorks had been able to make this movie in 2004 as originally intended.

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Tag: Alicia Vikander

256 – Burnt

002 – Tulip Fever