Best Actress – Page 6 – This Had Oscar Buzz

177 – Secretary

After a few minor roles in American indies, Maggie Gyllenhaal broke out in a big way with Sundance hit Secretary in 2002. The story of a young woman who copes with her mental health issues while entering a BDSM relationship with her boss (played by James Spader), Secretary was praised for its dark wit and daring, and immediately put Gyllenhaal on the map. But while she earned breakthrough prizes throughout the season, the film’s risque subject matter and a notoriously competitive Best Actress race kept Gyllenhaal out of Oscar contention.

This week, we discuss how the film holds up in terms of its handling of sensitiive subject matter and its place in the filmography of (surprise THOB heavy-hitter) Erin Cressida Wilson. We also discuss Gyllenhaal’s chances this season for her directorial debut The Lost Daughter, Spader’s run as an erotic psychodrama mainstay, and how the 2002 Best Actress race was shifted by contenders campaigning for multiple roles.

Topics also include the proposed Indecent Proposal remake, what we are programming at our imaginary repertory cinema, and the MTV Movie Awards Breakthrough Female Performance category.

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Mail Bag: Vol. 2

And we’re back with the conclusion of our mailbag! This time, we are talking about a few Oscar What Ifs: what new categories should Oscar adopt? what if a different actress had won Supporting Actress in 2005? what if there was a Best Actress season of Survivor? We also answer your questions about the podcast, including our ongoing cash bets against eachother, what episodes would be on our Known For, and whether its more fun/interesting to discuss bad or good movies. Topics also include the best and worst acting winners of this century, nominee reaction shots, and character descriptions of acting nominees on the telecast.

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176 – The Holiday

Just in time for the holidays, we are doing The Holiday. Nancy Meyers followed-up her smash hit Something’s Gotta Give with this story of two women (played by Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet) who swap houses over the Christmas week in order to get away from their romantic disasters. Naturally, new love finds a way and in the form of Jude Law and Jack Black. Any initial Oscar hopes for the film were set by Meyers’ last film returning Diane Keaton to the Oscar fold for her fourth decade in a row, but the film was considered a financial disappointment and received a critical drubbing thanks to its silly premise and oddly paired costars.

This episode, we talk about the career of Nancy Meyers and what makes this film such a delight despite its many frustrations. Jude Law also joins our Six Timers Club, but we’ve also got another game around 2006 Christmas cinema. We also discuss Eli Wallach’s charming supporting turn, Kate Winslet’s enthusiasm when she wins something, and the 2006 Best Actress race that saw Helen Mirren steamroll despite a stellar lineup.

Topics also include Danny DeVito drunk on The View, upper butt cinema, and Diva Muffin Zappa.

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170 – Holy Smoke (with Jourdain Searles)

We have two exciting returns this week! First, entertainment writer and Bad Romance co-host Jourdain Searles is joining us once again. Second, we return to the work of Jane Campion, this time for 1999′s divisive and sexually charged Holy Smoke. The film premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival with a high pedigree: Campion reuniting with her The Piano castmember Harvey Keitel, with Kate Winslet center stage two years after Titanic. But the film was Campion’s most subversive yet, and its sometimes farcical approach to the subject of one woman’s forced deprogramming from getting involved in a cult made for a poor critical reception in the very crowded movie landscape of 1999.

This episode, we talk about our excitement for The Power of the Dog and look back at our favorites in Campion’s filmography. We also discuss Winslet’s post-Titanic career of daring, interesting character roles that led up to an underwhelming Oscar win with The Reader and Pam Grier’s brief performance in the film after her Oscar snub for Jackie Brown.

Topics also include the 1999 Best Actress race, Neil Diamond needle drops, and Harvey Keitel’s butt.

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166- To Die For

Nicole Kidman finally joins the THOB Six Timers Club this week with what many consider her first major critical success. In the same year that Kidman had a major blockbuster in Batman Forever, the actress joined forces with Gus Van Sant for satirical Joyce Maynard adaptation To Die For. The film starred Kidman as the fame obsessed (and possibly murderous) Suzanne Stone, earning the actress raves and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical, but stiff competition among lead actresses left the film as a headscratcher of an Oscar snub in hindsight.

To Die For was also a rebound for Van Sant from the disastrous Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, and we look back at his career balanced between big successes and major misfires. We also talk about Illeana Douglas’ burst of great supporting roles in the 1990s, the emergence of tabloid and talkshow culture, and the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.

Topics also include the late work of screenwriter Buck Henry, Goldie Hawn in Protocol, and what the plot of Vanessa Redgrave-starrer A Month By The Lake might be.

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163 – The River Wild

How do you get a studio action movie some Oscar buzz? You cast Meryl Streep in the lead role. Starring the beloved actress as a woman whose family is taken captive on a white water rafting vacation, The River Wild was a modest fall hit for director Curtis Hansen and earned Globe nominations for Streep and the film’s villain Kevin Bacon. But in a scattered Best Actress race that ultimately resulted in a steamroll for Jessica Lange for the long-shelved Blue Sky, Streep would have to continue what would become her longest period without a nomination—a whopping four years

Streep was also nominated at the first ever SAG Awards, which further compliacated the race by awarding the twice Oscared Jodie Foster for Nell. This epsiode, we dive into the film’s thrilling delights and the career of Curtis Hansen. We also discuss Bacon’s closest brushes with the awards race, David Strathairn being hot, and the most iconic movie Gails.

Topics also include which Meryl characters are tops, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and Lollapalooza hats.

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159 – The House of Mirth

This week, we are looking at the work of director Terence Davies and his 2000 literary adaptation of The House of Mirth. Based on the classic Edith Wharton novel, the film casts Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart, a woman who tragically fails to navigate the cruelties of New York high society at the turn of the century. The film earned strong reviews for Davies (rebounding from his adpatation misfire The Neon Bible) and Anderson (still flying high with her Emmy-winning performance on The X-Files), but a small late year release made this one a bigger hit with critics than it ultimately was for the Academy.

We look back at the 200 Best Actress lineup, and discuss how Anderson might have fallen victim to an Academy still too willing to categorized television stars as just television stars and how indie distributor Sony Pictures Classics (rightly) had another awards priority. We also discuss how costume dramas went out of fashion as Best Picture contenders, the film’s spectacular supporting cast, and the 2000 Costume Design nominees.

Topics also include to extinct Village Voice poll, the British Independent Film Awards, and the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival.

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158 – Stepmom (with Christina Tucker)

It has to be said that we have been waiting to do Stepmom from the very beginning, and what better excuse to finally dive in to Chris Columbus’ Christmas Day weepy than this week’s special guest Christina Tucker, co-host of the podcast Wait, Is This A Date?. Uniting the 1998 powers of America’s sweetheart Julia Roberts and recent Best Actress winner Susan Sarandon as a mother diagnosed with cancer and her ex-husband’s future wife, the film earned Sarandon a Golden Globe nomination despite critics not taking to the film’s very sentimental mood.

This episode, we unpack all of the film’s silly moments, from unwieldy real estate to photoshop, from new and various house pets to snowblowing, and all of the things in between that we love about it. We also look at Julia Roberts’ swings from successes to misfires in the 90s, Jena Malone’s return to pop culture in The Hunger Games series, and Susan Sarandon joins our 6 Timers Club!

Topics also include the 1998 Best Actress race, the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, and VH1′s I Love the 80s.

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157 – Woman in Gold

Somehow we have yet to cover a film starring Helen Mirren, but this episode, we rectify that with 2015′s Woman in Gold. Mirren stars in the true story as Maria Altmann, a woman who fled the Nazis and later sought restitution of her very famous family paintings by Gustav Klimt. The film also stars Ryan Reynolds as Altmann’s lawyer with an unexamined relationship with his own Jewish lineage and was Simon Curtis’ directorial follow-up to My Week With Marilyn. A sizable counterprogramming hit in the spring, Woman in Gold was campaigned by the financially fledgling Weinstein Company, landing Mirren sual SAG nominations for this and the abysmal Trumbo.

This week, we take a long look at Helen Mirren before and after her Oscar, including her balance between awards fare staple and ironic action star. We also discuss Reynolds’ screen persona opposite his miscasting here, movies about paintings, and the difference between “overdue” and “this is their year” narratives.

Topics also include the power of being the season’s first screener, Olga Kurlyenko’s Black Widow cameo, and the best mode of transportation in which to seek leisure.

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154 – Battle of the Sexes

One year after winning Best Actress for La La Land, Emma Stone returned with an even better performance but faced even tougher competition. In Battle of the Sexes, the recent winner starred as Billie Jean King as she faced off Bobby Riggs (played by Steve Carell) in the famed titular tennis match. Directed by Little Miss Sunshine duo Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the film had a warm festival and critical reception before quickly underwhelming at the box office and hung on with mentions for Stone and Carell during the precursors.

But Battle of the Sexes was quickly put on the backburner as two of Searchlights other contenders became Best Picture (and Best Actress) heavy hitters: The Shape of Water and Three Billboards. This episode, we discuss some reservations about the film and praise the work of Stone, who go on to again outdo herself a year later with The Favourite. We also discuss Dayton/Faris’ Ruby Sparks, Billie Jean King as that Oscar season’s Real Philomena Lee, and Sarah Silverman as a stealth player.

Topics also include 2017′s Supporting Actor fifth spot in flux, the Original Song race, and hot nepotism with Louis Pullman.

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