Best Director – Page 2 – This Had Oscar Buzz

347 – Take This Waltz

After a career as an actress, Sarah Polley made her directorial debut with Away From Her, landing Oscar nominations for both her screenplay and Julie Christie’s performance. Her follow-up would be a slight gear shift: the intimate character study of infidelity, Take This Waltz. The film stars Michelle Williams as a writer who begins to feel a divide between her and her husband (Seth Rogen), exacerbated by her lust for her rickshaw-operating neighbor (Luke Kirby).

This episode, we talk about our love for Polley and the film’s inquisitive (if a bit divisive) portrait of marital malaise. We also discuss Sarah Silverman’s well-regarded supporting performance, Rogen’s very booked-and-busy first years of stardom, and the film’s expert use of “Video Killed the Radio Star.”

Topics also include Toronto geography, Dying for Sex, and Williams joins our Six Timers Club.

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337 – To the Wonder

With the whispers and rumors that Terrence Malick’s Jesus film The Way of the Wind maybe possibly perhaps who knows could finally premiere this year after filming in 2019, we thought it was time to discuss his work. One year after The Tree of Life earned Oscar nominations and the Palme d’Or, Malick had perhaps his fastest turnaround with To The Wonder. A semi-autobiographical tale of a cross-continental love affair souring once it reaches America, the film starred Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko and Rachel McAdams as the onscreen love triangle. But once the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, it earned some of Malick’s harshest notices to date.

This episode, we discuss the mixed reception around Malick’s post-Tree of Life work and our own divided thoughts on the film. We also discuss the several famous names left on Malick’s cutting room floor, Javier Bardem’s performance as the town priest, and Rachel McAdams joins our Six Timers Club.

Topics also include Roger Ebert’s final review, Kurylenko as an action star, and “to the wonder, to the walls.”

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320 – Matchstick Men

After his comeback stretch of high grossers Gladiator, Hannibal, and Black Hawk Down, Ridley Scott returned in 2003 with a downshift into the character focused Matchstick Men. The film starred Nicolas Cage as a conman with compounding mental health issues who is then reunited with his daughter, played by Alison Lohman. With Sam Rockwell as Cage’s partner in con, the film played both Venice and TIFF to a positive critical reception, but was ultimately forgotten by awards voters by the end of the year.

This episode, we discuss Scott’s waning Oscar chances this year for Gladiator 2 and Scott is our first director to get a Six Timers quiz. We also discuss Cage’s stretch between his Oscar win and the Adaptation nomination, Lohman’s transformation into a teenager, and Rockwell’s emergence into a beloved character actor in the early 2000s.

Topics also include the audience response to City of Angels, local bakeries, and Nutcracker and the Four Realms.

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305 – Peterloo (with Fran Hoepfner)

With the upcoming return of Mike Leigh to cinemas with Hard Truths, we invited writer and Fran Mag creator Fran Hoepfner to join us to talk about his last theatrical effort, 2019’s Peterloo. The film tells the story of the buildup to the Peterloo massacre, in which years of political movement to get parliamentary representation for the people of Manchester resulted in bloodshed. Told with the attention to detail that has long been Leigh’s trademark, the film had a cold fall festival response in 2018, which led American distributor Amazon to punt the film to an unceremonious 2019 release.

This week, we dive into the film’s underrated and underexamined merits and what contributed to its unfair reception. We also talk about our anticipation for Hard Truths, this film’s lack of marquee Leigh players, and some of Leigh’s other undervalued films.

Topics also include the film’s political timeliness, Amy Raphael’s Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh, and Leigh on the THR Director Roundtable.

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298 – A Perfect World

Early in the 1990s, two westerns emerged as Best Picture winners when the genre was first thought dead: Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves and Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. In 1993, those heralded actor-directors would unite for A Perfect World, casting Costner as an escaped convict who takes a small boy hostage and teaches him about masculinity, with Eastwood as the lawman in pursuit while also taking the directing reigns. That pedigree missed the Academy on this round, however, as the film’s downer telling was a poor fit to the holiday season to which it was launched.

This episode, we talk about the early poor reception for Costner’s new saga Horizon and our differing opinions on this film’s approach to masculinity. We also talk about Eastwood’s output in the 1990s, Laura Dern’s underserved role as a criminologist, and how the film disappointed for denying audiences an onscreen showdown between its male stars.

Topics also include Schindler’s List as the 1993 undeniable frontrunner, Costner’s sex appeal, and the Cahiers du Cinema.

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287 – Harold and Maude (with Katie Walsh) (70s Spectacular – 1971)

The 70s Spectacular continues with critic and podcaster Katie Walsh joining us to discuss 1971 and Hal Ashby. After making his directorial debut with The Landlord after a career as an editor (including an Oscar win for In the Heat of the Night), Ashby returned to the director’s chair for what might be the film that became his signature. Harold and Maude cast recent comedy breakthrough Bud Cort as a death-obsessed, disaffected youth who falls for a free spirit who just so happens to be 60 years older, played by recent Oscar winner Ruth Gordon.

This episode, we talk about Ashby’s prolific career in the 1970s, where Harold and Maude would be his only film without Oscar nominations. We also talk about Gordon’s three screenwriting Oscar nominations with her partner, Vivian Pickles’ underpraised performance as Harold’s mother, and the musical contributions of Cat Stevens.

Topics also include T-Mobile ads, the secret hotness of Norma Rae, and Charlie Chaplin’s honorary Oscar win.

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279 – Nope

With another Oscar ceremony coming to a close, it’s time to crack the seal on the Class of 2022 movies and we couldn’t wait to talk about Jordan Peele’s Nope! Priming audiences for a big summer alien invasion film, Peele also delivered a film with a lot on its mind about society’s relationship to witnessing and capturing violent spectacle, the film industry’s history of disregard for Black artists, and how we package our own traumas. With a terrific ensemble led by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer as siblings who discover an unexplainable phenomena in the skies, Nope is perhaps 2022’s biggest head-scratcher among films not recognized by the Academy.

This episode, we talk about the 2022 box office dynamic that unfairly tainted Nope as a box office disappointment and its many, rich avenues for narrative interpretation. We also talk about Kaluuya’s underrated performance, Palmer’s contrasting performance that was campaigned in supporting, and what makes the movie a monster movie vs. an alien movie.

Topics also include Gordy going off, Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography, and breakthrough star Jean Jacket.

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278 – Annette

Coming out of the COVID-led doldrums of 2020, the Cannes Film Festival loomed large as a “movies are back!!” starting gate for global cinema. Its opening film, Annette, was a long-in-development rock opera with music by cult fave Sparks and directed by visionary auteur Leos Carax, returning to the Croisette with his first film in nearly a decade. With Adam Driver at the helm as a batboy shock jock comedian who falls in love with opera star Marion Cotillard to disastrous results, the film is a bizarre fantasia about destructive creative ego and features a puppet as the titular baby singer. Though the film drew raves and buzz around Driver and Sparks’ score, Annette was alas too freaky for the Academy.

This week, we talk about Driver’s career and how his unique physicality makes him a worthy successor to Carax’s usual collaborator Denis Lavant. We also talk about the other famous castings while the film sat in development, the 2021 Original Song contenders, and Simon Helberg’s supporting performance.

Topics also include Baby Annette in the gay stan wars, Carax’s filmography, and the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

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Class of 2023

It’s here! Our most awaited and beloved episode of every year! We’re here this week to look back at the This Had Oscar Buzz Class of 2023, celebrating all of the films that had some kind of Oscar hopes that managed zero nominations last week. We’re giving our categories a minor facelift, while still discussing things like the most forgettable and most deserving films left out in the Oscar cold. Topics also include movies that make Joe and Chris argue, Madonna tardiness, and the much discussed Barbie misses in Best Actress and Best Director.

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269 – Eyes Wide Shut

Listeners have been asking for this episode for years and today, Santa is bringing it to you! Happy Holidays, it’s time for Eyes Wide Shut! In 1999, the film was hotly anticipated for many reasons: it starred Hollywood’s most famous couple, it was the final film of master of masters Stanley Kubrick, its very long production was hounded by the press, and it promised lots of onscreen sex. Adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle, the film cast Tom Cruise as a doctor who goes on an odyssey of sexual obsession after his wife (a haunting Nicole Kidman) confesses to an unrequited sexual fantasy about a stranger. A ritual orgy, Todd Field playing jazz piano, and a flirty Alan Cumming followed, and baffled audiences reacted viciously.

This episode, we discuss the film’s initial negative reaction from audiences and critics alike and its contemporary reassessment. We also talk about its formative place in Kidman’s emphasis on auteurs, how the film unpacks Cruise’s screen persona, and the film’s mystery box marketing.

Topics also include Sidney Pollack barechested in suspenders, the film’s censored orgy, and the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards.

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