Best Actor – Page 5 – This Had Oscar Buzz

078 – One Hour Photo (with Matt Jacobs)

After Robin Williams finally won his Academy Award for Good Will Hunting, unfortunately the next few years were a series of less-than-well-received projects after another. But after a quick break, Williams transitioned from more sentimental films into a run of dark and creepy material – including this week’s film, the stalking psychodrama One Hour Photo.

This week, HuffPost movie reporter Matt Jacobs joins us to talk about Robin Williams’ pivoted into creepiness, including Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia and the completely reviled Death to Smoochy. Despite the independent thriller was a small scale success at the box office, One Hour Photo was ultimately buried in a year of December heavyweights. Though Williams received raves at the Sundance Film Festival and a Critics’ Choice award nomination (not to mention an AARP Movies for Grown-ups nomination for… Best Breakaway Performance?), the Academy did not embrace this new territory for the screen legend.

We also talk about director Mark Romanek and the generation of directors that started in music videos, movies we first watched in high school classrooms, and undiscovered Celine Dion classics.

(Apologies and thank you for your patience on this week’s audio! We had unfortunate technical difficulties that arose after the recording.)

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077 – Seven Years in Tibet

As Brad Pitt cements his status as a frontrunner in this year’s Oscar race for his performance in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, we decided to take another look back at his reign as prestige hottie in the 90s. After nearly missing a win on his first nomination for 12 Monkeys, Brad Pitt’s red hot persona yielded an Oscar expectation that was met with disappointing projects before Fight Club reignited. But one of his most prominent misfires of that era was the misguided and milquetoast Seven Years in Tibet.

The film follows Pitt as mountaineer Heinrich Harrer, who becomes tutor to the young Dalai Lama before and during the invasion of Tibet. While the film fumbles in trying to generate the kind of epic period sweep that Oscar often rewards, its biggest issues lie in a narrative that indulges in cultural tourism, pacifies its true-life protagonist’s Nazi associations, and offers one of the most underwhelming uses of Pitt’s star persona. This week, we’re looking at Pitt’s ascension as 90s peak sexpot, and the Oscar year that favored another epic (you know, the boat one) and a different handsome blond actor.

Topics also include the 90s pop culture obsession with the Dalai Lama (including Scorsese’s Kundun in the same year), the 1997 Toronto International Film Festival, and Pitt’s shaky abilities with dialects.

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055 – The Majestic

This episode we arrive at two inevitable discussion points for Joe and Chris. First, a fifteen minute discussion of the Cats trailer. Second, a look at an essential This Had Oscar Buzz title: Frank Darabont’s 2001 melodrama The Majestic.

The film arrived in theatres during the Christmas holiday with most of its awards hype trailing its star Jim Carrey. Here he would be playing the everyman in this Frank Capra-inspired look at Hollywood dreams and small town America – could this be the film that finally would land him an Oscar nomination after two Golden Globe victories for The Truman Show and Man on the Moon got shut out by Oscar? As the bad reviews and even worse box office would quickly show, the answer was no, leaving Carrey still waiting for that first dance with Oscar.

This week, we take a look at Carrey’s fast rise and what might have kept him out of Oscar’s club. We also take a look at Frank Darabont and his relationship with Stephen King, the film’s major missteps in chasing Frank Capra, and directors with multiple snubs in recent years despite their films making it to Best Picture.

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054 – J. Edgar

We’re taking a trip back this week to some of the darkest days in the “Get Leo an Oscar” saga: Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar. The film starred Leonardo DiCaprio and detailed the many political exploits of J. Edgar Hoover and his efforts to stomp out communism. The actor would get close to a nomination (after showing up for the precursor triple crown of Globes, SAG, and Critics’ Choice) but this prestigious biopic was not meant to be for Leo and his eventual Oscar.

What didn’t help the film’s case were many unfortunate elements aside its anemic box office: a wishy-washy take on Hoover’s tyranny, DiCaprio sobbing in a muumuu, and most notoriously, its laughable old age makeup. This episode, we discuss Eastwood’s overly expeditious tendencies, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, and the film as a turning point for supporting costar Armie Hammer.

And to spread some goodwill, this week we also discuss favorite performances from J. Edgar’s most cast-aside ensemble member: the one and only Naomi Watts.

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035 – Meet Joe Black (with Bobby Finger)

Can anyone today compare to how red hot of an actor Brad Pitt was in the 90s? After following his Oscar nomination for Twelve Monkeys with dual failed Oscar bait (The Devil’s Own and Seven Years in Tibet, for those keeping score at home), Pitt’s next headlining gig was a prestige fiasco: 1998′s Meet Joe Black.

Directed by a pre-Gigli Martin Brest, a pre-Lecter redundancy Anthony Hopkins stars as a publishing billionaire visited by Death (played to full frosted tip capacity by Pitt). Audiences who left the theatre after catching a glimpse of The Phantom Menace’s hotly awaited trailer were the lucky ones, because this failed Oscar hopeful was categorically a disaster.

This week, Bobby Finger joins us to dig through this very long and very strange film and its accidental slapstick car crash, weird sex scene, and outlandish fireworks display. However, a brilliant score from Thomas Newman inspires us to quiz eachother on composers with multiple nominations in the 90s. And yet all roads lead back to Freddie Prinze, Jr…

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017 – Seven Pounds

Cuddle up to your jellyfish, because this week’s we’re talking about Seven Pounds. Just two years after being nominated for The Pursuit of Happyness, we thought that Will Smith’s reteaming with director Gabriele Muccino could maybe bring the Oscar that has eluded him since first being nominated for Ali. But that was before we realized what this movie actually was, let alone how painfully bad it is.

Scattered among the sacrificial flesh of the film’s thwarted Oscar dreams, we discuss Will Smith’s Oscar trajectory, Rosario Dawson’s underrated career, and the many ways this bonkers movie grinds our gears. We also take a look at 2008’s whirlwind tour to Kate Winslet’s Best Actress win and the full insanity and ramifications of how the film withholds its twist. And of course, we don’t forget to notice the collateral beauty around us.

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016 – The Fifth Estate

If the past few weeks of movies we like had you weary, fear not for this episode we have a real stinker for you: 2013′s The Fifth Estate. This was the year that Benedict Cumberbatch was everywhere and nowhere, alone yet not alone. After the rise of Sherlock, this year saw him in four major movies including his biggest role in this film as Julian Assange, the controversial figure at the head of WikiLeaks.

This week we look at Cumberbatch’s expected Oscar rise and how The Fifth Estate quickly died when faced with competition from bigger and more beloved movies. Joe finds a perfect summation of the film through The Simpsons and Chris defends the oeuvre of Bill Condon. Other topics include Josh Singer’s oddball Wikipedia page, Daniel Bruhl’s near-miss Oscar nomination for Rush, and this film’s bizarre opening credits sequence.

But most exciting this episode: a first ever perfect score on The IMDb Game!

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014 – The Door in the Floor

This week’s episode is the sound of something trying to not make a sound. It’s our first failed Oscar buzz movie that we genuinely love and it’s 2004’s The Door in the Floor. Adapted from the first segment of John Irving’s A Widow for One Year, this film stars Jeff Bridges as a grieving novelist, Kim Basinger as his estranged wife, and Jon Foster as the young student spending the summer between them.

The Door in the Floor also introduced us to Elle Fanning and gave us what might be the best adaptation of Irving’s work. The film feels like a crucial stop on the path to Bridges’ eventual Oscar for Crazy Heart, and is best remembered for his performance. Or maybe, it’s just his muumuu caftan. Listen along as we obsess over the lore of Focus Features, gush over its underappreciated and oft-repurposed score, and gasp over the film’s cameo from a beloved Tony winner.

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005 – Courage Under Fire

This week, we are taking you back to 1996 for Edward Zwick’s Rashomon-esque half-examination of the Gulf War and sexism in the military, Courage Under Fire. While most of the praise on release was granted to star Denzel Washington and supporting player Lou Diamond Phillips, we take a look at the case for Meg Ryan and how an Oscar nomination eluded her career.

Other discussion points include Zwick filmography as consistently mild Oscar success, Matt Damon “getting” thin for his breakout role, and the constantly shifting landcape of Meg Ryan’s southern dialect. And we change up the format and add a closing trivia showdown: The IMDb Game, AKA Known 4.

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004 – Ask the Dust

What’s that? You’re not familiar with the 2006 romantic drama Ask the Dust? Where a handsome young writer played by Colin Farrell moves to California, negs the hell out of waitress Salma Hayek, and begins a torrid love affair amid the dusty environs of the Great Depression? That’s probably because the early Oscar buzz on this one — goosed by the presence of writer/director Robert Towne (Chinatown) — died a swift death. Let’s talk about it!

Topics include Salma Hayek’s very emotional 2006, whether Colin Farrell’s sex tape made him look good or bad, and whatever the hell Idina Menzel was doing here (and which Looney Tunes character she reminded us of).

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