Anna paquin – This Had Oscar Buzz

210 – 25th Hour

We talk about a lot of films dealing with the social and political aftermath of 9/11 but few like this week’s episode: Spike Lee’s 25th Hour. Filmed in New York City in the months after and adapted by David Benioff from his own novel, the film captures that dysphoria while following a drug dealer played by Edward Norton as he prepares to enter prison. Lee gives us several showstoppers, including the notorious “fuck you” mirror monologue from Norton and a fantasy finale told by Brian Cox. But the film was handled by Disney’s less awards-certified Touchstone Pictures and opened at the end of December 2002, famously crowded with contenders including what would make up the entire Best Picture lineup.

If 25th Hour got lost in the shuffle (and cultural-political moment), it now has its vocal fans like your two hosts! This episode, we’ll get into Lee’s long history as an Oscar outsider leading up to his recent success, Norton’s fast ascent with a trio of roles in a single year, and the prowess of Lee’s standby composer, the great Terence Blanchard.

Topics also include Cox’s scene stealing in 2002, Rosario Dawson bringing reliable realism, and 2002 Best Original Score.

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209 – A Walk on the Moon (with Tara Ariano)

This week, Tara Ariano returns to us to talk about a forgotten and quite lovely independent film from 1999, A Walk on the Moon. The first feature directed by actor Tony Goldwyn, the film stars Diane Lane as a late 1960s housewife who has a sexual awakening with a hippie blouse salesman (played by Viggo Mortensen) while vacationing with her family. With Anna Paquin and Liev Schreiber respectively as daughter and husband, the film features Woodstock and the moon landing in the background of this quite potent take on female sexuality and the effect of young parenthood. The film had a quiet spring release after debuting at Sundance, but year-end critical notices kept Lane in the awards conversation.

The film also has similar shades of what Lane would turn into an Oscar nominated role just a few years later with Unfaithful. This episode, we’ll discuss Mortensen’s deep bench of pre-LOTR roles, Happy, Texas’ famous post-Sundance financial failure, and how this film avoids the typical “Woodstock movie” trappings.

Topics also include Julie Kavner as Big Brother, gay euphemisms, and the immediate cultural impact of Ghost.

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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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162 – The Good Dinosaur (with Kyle Amato)

We’re doing something a little different this week and setting our sights on one specific Oscar category: Best Animated Feature. This episode, Kyle Amato joins us to talk about The Good Dinosaur, one of the few box office and critical disappointments in the history of Pixar. The story of a timid dinosaur and the human baby he meets on a quest for honor, The Good Dinosaur was plagued by story overhauls and creative disputes, resulting in a final film that follows too closely to Pixar’s formula for upbeat adventure. Critics were dismissive and Thanksgiving weekend moviegoers favored the final Hunger Games instalment instead, with the film ultimately becoming one of Pixar’s few entries to miss an Animated Feature nomination since the category began.

The Good Dinosaur’s biggest Oscar impact was nominated Sanjay’s Super Team as it’s pre-movie short. We talk about Pixar’s history of troubled productions and this film’s comparative failure in the year of Inside Out. We also discuss the Cars franchise as the accepted critical loser in the Pixar brand, Pixar’s unrelenting stronghold on the Animated Feature category, and the film’s stitched together elements of characters and plot elements.

Topics also include dropping hallucinogenics with a baby, our thoughts on Pixar’s 2021 release Luca, and the recent nominees in the Animated Short category.

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