Emily Watson – This Had Oscar Buzz

360 – The Boxer

We’ve got Daniel Day-Lewis back in theaters this week with Anemone, so we’re looking back at one of his few failed Oscar bids. In 1997, Day-Lewis paired up with director Jim Sheridan for the third time in a decade for The Boxer, the tale of an IRA member and boxer released from prison in the waning days of the The Troubles. With Emily Watson as his former lover and Brian Cox as her high-ranking IRA father, the film arrived into theaters with a modest response as the world was being swept away with Titanic fever.

This episode, we talk about the Day-Lewis/Sheridan partnership and Day-Lewis’ breakout roles in the 80s before his My Left Foot Oscar. We also discuss Watson’s powerful screen presence, Cox with a full head of not-white hair, and Sheridan’s diminishing directorial returns.

Topics also include the 1997 Golden Globes, acting nominations we forget happened, and Bella Mafia.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

355 – Punch-Drunk Love (with Katie Walsh!)

We are so excited to welcome back Tribune News Service film critic Katie Walsh to discuss one of the most beloved American filmmakers! When will “Oscar for Sandman” happen? Well, in 2002, Adam Sandler had his first attempt at the Gold with an esoteric, anxious romantic comedy by Paul Thomas Anderson, Punch-Drunk Love. While the film perfectly matches Anderson’s sensibility with Sandler’s manic comedic chops, this bittersweet and left-of-center romance was ultimately more of a (still not unanimous) critical darling, too odd for the Academy’s tastes.

This week, we talk about PTA’s pivot into the film’s small-scale specificity after the sprawl of Magnolia and Boogie Nights. We also discuss how past brushes with Oscar-friendly fare position Sandler for this year’s Jay Kelly, Jack Nicholson as Sandler’s champion at the Cannes Film Festival, and the MTV Movie Awards Best Kiss.

Topics also include Jon Brion’s score, supermarket movies, and the former green color of Healthy Choice.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

264 – Everest (with Katey Rich!)

Following Thanksgiving tradition, Katey Rich returns to This Had Oscar Buzz to discussant film with indistinguishable white male actors, and this year we have chosen 2015’s Everest. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur and featuring a massive cast led by Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, and Jake Gyllenhaal, the film follows the true story of a disastrous trip up Mount Everest that left almost an entire crew dead. The prestigious cast and the film’s placement opening the Venice Film Festival led some prognosticators to suspect the film could be an Oscar player, but it ended up a straightforward disaster film that American audiences mostly dismissed.

This episode, we discuss how the film struggles to portray the reasons someone would want to climb Everest and Joe delivers his most hoot-worthy game yet. We also discuss Gyllenhaal’s recent questionable output, Elizabeth Debicki explaining things, and directors we confuse for Kormákur.

Topics also include mountain madness, author Jon Krakauer, and “wife on phone.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

062 – Miss Potter

Certainly one of the biggest Oscar narratives this season will be Renée Zellweger’s return to the big screen, starring as the timeless Judy Garland in Judy. So to mark the occasion (with Chris highly anticipatory and Joe more hesitant in how far Judy can go), we’re discussing one of the actress’ few attempts at Oscar that didn’t register with the Academy in some way: the Beatrix Potter biopic Miss Potter.

The film thrust into Oscar late in 2006 as the newly established Weinstein Company was struggling with its awards fare. Perhaps too gentle of a film to register in a season that rewarded much grimmer subjects, the film’s awards hopes ended at Zellweger’s Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy at the Globes. This week, look back at Zellweger’s trajectory from Oscar shutout to Oscar perennial to the arrival of her comeback.

We also discuss director Chris Noonan and the legacy of Babe, the wildly underrated Emily Watson, and the highly thirstable Patrick Wilson in Little Children.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS