Daniel Craig – This Had Oscar Buzz

Before Bennett Miller’s Capote even arrived and made a steamroll Best Actor winner out of Philip Seymour Hoffman, there was an entire other Truman Capote biopic in the can. Charting the same portion of the legendary and controversial writer’s life as he wrote In Cold Blood, 2006′s Infamous cast Toby Jones as Capote along with a cast of more recognizable faces than the previous year’s version, including Sandra Bullock as Capote’s friend and confidante Harper Lee and new James Bond Daniel Craig. Despite Capote having played some of the very same film festivals, Infamous was welcomed into the fall festival season anyway. But this film’s emphasis on the high society gossip that was integral to the author’s persona wasn’t enough to distinguish this film from what came before, quickly dissolving from the season.

This episode, we unpack the unavoidable comparison’s between this biopic depiction and Miller’s film. We also have our first double Six Timers Club between Infamous supporting players Sigourney Weaver and Gwyneth Paltrow, and discuss Paltrow’s role as Not Peggy Lee, and Warner Independent’s other awards hopeful in 2006: For Your Consideration.

Topics also include Raja’s Diana Vreeland Snatch Game performance, “James Blonde”, and Parker Posey in The Staircase.

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We continue our month-long look at the 2003 Oscar year with what could be the poster child for bland biopics: Sylvia. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow as poet Sylvia Plath, the film paint-by-numbered its way to box office and critical failure that inappropriately obsessed over the artist’s untimely death rather than the impact of her work. A perfect on-paper prospect thanks to its famous subject and Paltrow’s recent Best Actress win, Sylvia was the 2003 failure that left us gooped.

This week, we take an extended look at 2003′s rather malleable Best Actress race and discuss the earliest predictions that ultimately fell through. We also discuss Focus Features’ slate being dominated by Lost in Translation, why Daniel Craig should never be allowed to play a brunette, and Paltrow’s greatest performance on a movie poster.

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Tag: Daniel Craig

206 – Infamous

045 – Sylvia (2003 – Part Two)