David Strathairn – This Had Oscar Buzz

245 – Dolores Claiborne (with Louis Peitzman!)

In the small hall of Oscar-endorsed horror films, the centerpiece must be Kathy Bates brilliant and terrifying win for Best Actress in Misery. A few years after that win, Bates returned to Stephen King territory (though you can debate how much of a horror story it is) with Dolores Claiborne, the mystery of whether or not a woman killed not only her wealthy employer, but her husband decades prior. With Jennifer Jason Leigh as Bates’ estranged daughter and director Taylor Hackford at the helm, the film couldn’t return to that other King film’s Oscar anointing but endures as an intense melodrama and one of the best King adaptations.

This week, writer Louis Peitzman join us to unpack the history of King adaptations and each of our history with King’s work. We also discuss supporting player Judy Parfitt’s exquisite line readings, the differing takes on The Shining delivered by King and Stanley Kubrick, and this story’s connection to Gerald’s Game.

Topics also include the many 1995 Best Actress outsiders, Bates’ pre-Oscar theatre career, and Dead Like Me.

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173 – My Blueberry Nights

With the release of Criterion’s retrospective box set, film lovers have been revisiting the work of living master Wong Kar-wai. But this week, we’re going to be talking about his least celebrated (and one omitted from that treasured collection). His first film in the English language, My Blueberry Nights is an episodic movie about a woman who mends her broken heart by finding herself on the road, leaving behind a could-have-been romance with a pie shop man back in New York. For his lead star, Wong Kar-wai selected adult contemporary sensation Norah Jones, a few years after wracking up a bundle of Grammys and selling millions of albums for her debut Come Away With Me. But opening the 2007 Cannes Film Festival was high positioning for this slighter effort from the maestro, and largely unkind critical notices left them film as more of an afterthought once it finally saw a US release almost a year later.

More of a fascinating failure than the fiasco its reputation would lead you to believe, the film meanders through its chapters where Jones plays opposite three stars at transitional stages of their careers: Jude Law post-2004 laughing stock omnipresence, Rachel Weisz post-Oscar, and the beginning stages of Natalie Portman Doing A Voice. This episode, we get into the 2007 Cannes Film Festival (and its charming poster), the work of Wong Kar-wai, and Jones’ Grammy success.

Topics also include Starbucks CDs, the Roku City screensaver, and how this is one of the few movies where David Strathairn is NOT hot.

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164 – American Pastoral

We’ve talked before about adaptations of Pulitzer Prize winners and films that had disastrous premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival, but perhaps none as disappointing as this week’s film. From one of the most lauded novels of the modern era, American Pastoral had the heaviest burden of expectations and stop-and-start production history. With a pedigreed cast of Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, and Dakota Fanning, the film was originally intended to be brought to the screen by Phillip Noyce, only to be replaced shortly before filming by none other than McGregor himself. Critics weren’t kind to McGregor’s directorial debut, and it died as soon as it world premiered at TIFF.

The film underwent a fast re-edit, but that didn’t help it from bombing when it opened in the same weekend as eventual Best Picture winner Moonlight, the film underwent a fast re-edit. This episode, we redicover the film’s poor attempt at adapting Phillip Roth, Jennifer Connelly’s post-Oscar career, and how using Buffalo Springfield in movies about the 1960s should no longer be allowed.

Topics also include a return to David Strathairn being hot, McGregor’s screen persona, and Fanning’s rise as a go-to child actor.

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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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