Best Actress – Page 5 – This Had Oscar Buzz

202 – Us

Few filmmaking ascents have been as exciting and heralded as Jordan Peele’s with the arrival of Get Out in 2017. After creating lasting cultural importance and winning the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, Peele’s follow-up was one of the most eagerly awaited films before it was even announced. And in early 2019, the follow-up would be Us, a sci-fi/horror film with American societal divides on its mind and a daring performance by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o at its center. The film was an equal box office success to Peele’s debut, though it received a less unanimous response in terms of how well he pulls off its metaphors. What kept the film in awards discussion was Nyong’o performance, including SAG and Critics’ Choice nominations, but missing out on the Oscar lineup.

This episode, we discuss our feverish anticipation of Jordan Peele’s upcoming Nope and unpack the layers of Us’ allegory. We also look at the brilliant and less recognized performances from Winston Duke and Elisabeth Moss, the 2017 Oscars where Get Out faced stiff competition, and the 2019 Best Actress race.

Topics also include supposed genre bias against other actresses, critics groups as awards influencers, and our 2019 Best Actress ballots.

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200 – Gloria Bell

We’ve made it to 200 episodes! And as long-time listeners are aware, there are few THOB-eligible films as beloved as Gloria Bell. In 2013, Sebastián Lelio delivered Gloria, a delightful Chilean character study of the everyday life of a single woman entering middle age played by an incandescent Paulina García. When Julianne Moore approached Lelio about an American remake, the director decided to take over the reigns himself, remaking his own movie. The resulting Gloria Bell launched at 2018 TIFF, receiving good reviews and getting picked up by A24, leading some to see a potential Globes Comedy player. But A24 held the film until the spring, and it got lost among their already stacked awards slate.

This episode, we look back Lelio’s trifecta of films in 2017-2018, which would include an International Feature Oscar win for A Fantastic Woman and the underrated Disobedience. We also talk both Glorias perfect endings, recall our first formative friendship viewing of the film, and celebrate the 200 episode milestone with our annual look back at the past year of THOB.

Topics also include Jeanne Tripplehorn’s vape, the film’s joyous soundtrack, and (stick around after the IMDb Game) a post-credits quiz about our past post-credits song outros.

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198 – Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (with Christina Tucker)

YA-YA!! This week, Christina Tucker joins us once again to discuss popular literary adaptation and TNT staple, 2002′s Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. The directorial debut of Callie Khouri, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Thelma and Louise, the film stars Ellen Burstyn and Sandra Bullock as mother and daughter feuding over the playwright daughter’s very public interview about her very tempestuous childhood. The mother’s friends (played by Maggie Smith, Fionnula Flanagan, and Shirley Knight) then kidnap the daughter and return her to her southern home to reveal her mother’s side of the story. This made for a film of wildly conflicting tones, which critics roundly lambasted before the film became a summer disappointment.

This episode, we discuss the early 2000s for Bullock in star mode before her Oscar win and Ellen Burstyn in an unhinged mother era after her return Oscar nomination for Requiem for a Dream. We also discuss the remarkable performance by Ashley Judd as the young Burstyn, pride season, and the late career of James Garner.

Topics also include devastating Lisa Schwartzbaum pull quotes, TV’s Nashville, and the Mad Money poster.

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192 – Panic Room (EW Spring Movie Preview) (with Adam B. Vary)

We’re kicking off our May Miniseries on EW Movie Preview cover movies at the beginning of the calendar with the Spring Movie Preview spotlight on Panic Room. David Fincher’s post-Fight Club foray into elevating a straightforward thriller with his stylistic perfectionism, the film almost starred Nicole Kidman as a recently separated mother who hides with her daughter in the eponymous fortress when her new home is invaded by a trio of fledgling criminals. But when Kidman exited due to lingering injuries sustained during Moulin Rouge!, the extremely Oscar friendly Jodie Foster ditched Cannes jury president duties to work with Fincher. Though Foster’s name was still synonymous with Oscar after almost winning her third only a few years prior, this spring release was left in awards voters minds as a crowd pleasing thriller by year’s end.

This episode, senior entertainment writer for Variety Adam B. Vary joins us to discuss how the EW movie previews were made, including a deep dive into how movies were chosen for prime coverage, letters to the editor, and its bonanza of fonts. We also discuss the films’ mismatched brilliance of its three criminals played by Forrest Whitaker, Jared Leto, and Dwight Yoakam, its breakthrough performance for Kristen Stewart, and covering Jodie Foster’s pregnancy during filming.

Topics also include EW’s Critical Mass grid as the early Rotten Tomatoes, movies delayed because of 9/11, and Free Winona.

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191 – The Zookeeper’s Wife

This week, we are returning to the work of the recent Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain. In 2017, the actress headlined the adaptation of the popular non-fiction book The Zookeeper’s Wife, detailing Antonina Zabinska and her husband Jan’s efforts to help Polish Jews escape the Nazis by hiding them within the Warsaw Zoo. Directed by Niki Caro, who had previously guided two previous Best Actress nominees, the film held much early promise before being slated for an early year release after distributor Focus Features had its hands full with two Best Picture nominees the previous season. By the end of the year, Chastain herself would have a heavier hitting contender in Molly’s Game, leaving The Zookeeper’s Wife as a quickly forgotten prestige effort.

This episode, we look back at Niki Caro’s rise as the director of independent dramas to massive studio tentpoles and Chastain’s omnipresent arrival in the early 2010s. We also get into how the previous season resulted in her as our newest Best Actress winner, Daniel Bruhl’s typecasting in Nazi roles, and Focus Features’ upcoming lineup.

Topics also include Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Netflix’s 2022 supertrailer, and our May Miniseries starting next week!!

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190 – Love and Friendship

We’ve talked before about the shaky Oscar history with Amazon Studios, and this episode we are talking about one of their unfortunate misses that happened in the year of their biggest success: 2016′s Love and Friendship. Adapted from the scabrous Jane Austen novella Lady Susan, the film had a much-ballyhooed premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and reunited Whit Stillman with his Last Days of Disco stars Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny. A perfect marriage between Austen and Stillman’s high society wits, the film sees Beckinsale in peak comedic form as the flirtatious and scheming Lady Susan opposite a cast of those caught in her web, including the uproarious breakout supporting player Tom Bennett.

This week, we discuss our love for the film and explore the Whit Stillman vibe of socially observant comedy. We also discuss Beckinsale’s career as primarily an action star, the highly competitive Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor races that made little room for Beckinsale and Bennett, and Amazon’s summer of 2016 misfires.

Topics also include the most recent AARP Movies for Grownups ceremony, Critics’ Choice ties, and which son maybe dies in “they’ll think we’re lezzos” cinema Adore.

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189 – Margot at the Wedding (with Kyle Buchanan)

After earning an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for The Squid and the Whale, Noah Baumbach followed up that film’s success by partnering with the recently Oscar-ed Nicole Kidman for Margot at the Wedding. The film cast Kidman opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh (then married to Baumbach) as verbally warring sisters, the youngest of who is planning a quick wedding to a bumbling idiot, played by Jack Black. Those looking at the film’s on-paper Oscar prospects were greeted with a daring showcase for Kidman, but a film even more caustic and cruel than Baumbach’s previous film. To date, it remains his worst reviewed directorial effort, but maintains a cult of ardent defenders.

This episode, Kyle Buchanan from The New York Times joins us to discuss his book Blood, Sweat, and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, the Fury Road Oscar year, and what makes Margot such a brilliant Kidman performance. We also get into the botox criticisms that plagued the film’s reviews, Jennifer Jason Leigh’s close calls before her Oscar nomination, and Kidman’s cringey virtuoso book store monologue.

Topics also include which Drag Race contestant Margot is, bucket hats, and the value of Oscar clips.

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188 – Wild Mountain Thyme

We’re cracking the seal on our Class of 2020 films and somehow manage to do it without miring ourselves in the depression that was the first covid year! And as promised, we’re talking about Wild Mountain Thyme, the oddball romantic comedy from Moonstruck Oscar winner John Patrick Shanley, adapted from his Tony-nominated play Outside Mullingar. The film casts Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan as two Irish farm dwellers who have been dancing around a would-be romance since childhood, and was one of the several films bandied about among Oscar prognosticators in a year that saw few films released, much less pushed for Oscar.

This episode, we get into the film’s oddball twist and the ire inspired by the film’s… shall we say… questionable dialects. We also discuss Shanley’s less successful career as a film director, Blunt’s mighty precursor history that has led to zero Oscar nominations, and the current moment where Jamie Dornan sings in all of his movies.

Topics also include the 2020 Golden Globes, The Great Chipmunk Adventure, and Debra Messing’s Irish accent that must be heard to be believed.

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185 – The Aeronauts

We’re taking flight this week with the “women don’t belong in balloons!” heard round the world. In 2019, The Aeronauts’ awards hopes took flight by reuniting The Theory of Everything’s Oscar winning-and-nominated duo of Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in the quasi-true story of a hot air balloon expedition that launched modern day weather forecasting. The film was originally intended for IMAX and early press promised a stunning visual display and a thrilling adventure for the ages. But when Amazon eventually canceled those IMAX plans and the film’s festival run resulted in lukewarm responses, The Aeronauts was left as a punchline for its unintend silly punchline from its trailer.

This episode, we look back at the Jones/Redmayne pairing as an unexpected one to stir a quick prestige reunion and the acting lineups during the year of Theory. We also discuss the cinematic output of Amazon Prime and their waning awards success since minimizing their theatrical strategy, the film’s divisive visual effects, and hint at what we have coming for our May miniseries.

Topics also include 1990s hottie Vincent Perez, our love of Himesh Patel in Station Eleven, and who these really good aeronauts might have bumped into in the sky.

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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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