Best Director – Page 4 – This Had Oscar Buzz

145 – Lust, Caution (Focus Features – Part Three)

We’ve come to the midpoint of our Focus Features miniseries with a work from a modern master, 2007′s Lust,Caution from Ang Lee. An erotic thriller set in Hong Kong and Shanghai during the Japanese occupation, Lust, Caution follows a breakthrough Tang Wei as Wong Chia-Chi, a woman who joins an assassination plot where she must seducce the target, played by icon Tony Leung Chiu-Wai. Lee earned a back-to-back Golden Lion win for the film at Venice after Brokeback Mountain, but several factors likely played into Oscar overlooking the film: its NC-17 rating, Lee’s recent Brokeback success, and Oscar deeming the film ineligible for Best Foreign Language Film.

This episode, we go deep on the minutiae regarding the Foreign Language / International Feature elibigibility and nomination process in recent years, including 2007 as a beginning to Oscar adapting procedure for the category. We also look at Tang Wei’s brilliant performance, the film’s international assemblage of talent behind the camera, and Lee’s history of exploring sexual themes.

Topics also include Focus Features’ sizzle reels, the 2007 Venice Film Festival, and the surprising Focus film that unites our three THOB miniseries so far.

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137 – Live By Night

After landing a Best Picture winner that famously left him without a Best Director nomination for Argo, Ben Affleck made his director-star return in 2016 with Denis Lehane adaptation Live By Night. Affleck cast himself as a criminal caught between the Irish and Italian mobs in Tampa (with an ensemble that included Chris Messina, Zoe Saldana, and Elle Fanning) and is a muddied mess of mob movie tropes. The film shuffled release dates and opened with a whiff at the end of the year, failing to catch audiences amid a packed Oscar season and its own floundering reviews. Live By Night was forgotten and out of theatres once nominations arrived.

This episode, we talk about Affleck’s successes and stumbling blocks, including our own conflicting feelings about him as an actor, director, and celebrity. We also look back at Affleck’s shocking Best Director snub, his habitual casting of himself shirtless, and Warner Bros. disappointing 2016 which also included the introduction of Batfleck.

Topics also include our Top 10 films of 2016, Affleck’s meta casting in Gone Girl, Sienna Miller facial blindness.

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114 – Nuts

One of the most notorious snubs of Oscar history is the directors’ branch not nominating Barbra Streisand, even though The Prince of Tides received a Best Picture nomination and the Golden Globes awarded her Best Director for Yentl. This week’s episode looks at the one and only Streisand in a film between those two achievements: 1987′s Nuts. Starring the icon as a sex worker charged with the murder of one of her clients, the film is a dull adaptation of a stage play that is nevertheless watchable due to Streisand’s indefatiguable screen presence.

This week, we go deep on Barbra lore, from the misogynist perception she was given as “difficult” in comparison to her male peers to appearing on the Rosie O’Donnell Show to the old-timey mall she has in her basement. We also discuss the incredible 1987 Best Actress lineup and posit the Oscar futures if Cher hadn’t won.

Topics also include Leslie Nielsen in tiny underwear, preventative Lea Michele damage homeowner’s insurance, and Barbra singing with Judy Garland.

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