Tag: Best Actor

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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003 – Pay It Forward

This week we’re calling all angels as we discuss 2000’s major critical disaster and thwarted Oscar grab, Pay It Forward. That’s right, the one where a post-Sixth Sense Haley Joel Osment teaches the world to pass on one favor to three strangers. A film notorious in This Had Oscar Buzz lore, Pay It Forward‘s awards hopes were spoiled by epic failures of miscasting and egregious emotional manipulation, not to mention the ever-changing landscape of Kevin Spacey’s burn makeup.

On this episode, we look back at the beloved Entertainment Weekly Fall Movie Preview issues, Jon Bon Jovi’s emerging acting career, and composer Thomas Newman copying himself in the span of a single Oscar season. Just one of several failed awards players from the major studios in 2000 (as well as one of several Helen Hunt movies), Pay It Forward is perhaps the most infamous.

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