Eric Stoltz – This Had Oscar Buzz

We’ve come up on another anniversary episode of This Had Oscar Buzz, and we’ve got another favorite that long-time listeners have heard us praise before: 2019’s Her Smell. Debuting on at TIFF 2018, the Alex Ross Perry film is a daring and ambitious take on the riot grrrls of the early 1990s. Starring Elisabeth Moss as Becky Something, an addict egomaniac who brings her own downfall, the film audaciously immerses us in Becky’s destruction (and later climb out of it) in ways that are exhausting and rewarding. Earning stratospheric praise for Moss by even the film’s most frustrated viewers, the film was cursed to a microrelease and stayed an Oscar outsider despite vocal critical support.

This episode, we talk about the audacity of both Perry’s film and Moss’ performance. We also get into the depressing state of independent distribution, Perry’s open comments regarding its release and support for Moss’ performance, and the Gotham Awards.

Topics also include the film’s fake album covers, our appreciation for difficult characters, and our superlatives for the past year of the podcast.

But perhaps most exciting is two bits of news right at the top: our new theme music by Taylor Cole and our newly launched Patreon!! Please consider subscribing and joining us for This Had Oscar Buzz: Turbulent Brilliance over at patreon.com/thishadoscarbuzz!!

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This week, we are looking at the work of director Terence Davies and his 2000 literary adaptation of The House of Mirth. Based on the classic Edith Wharton novel, the film casts Gillian Anderson as Lily Bart, a woman who tragically fails to navigate the cruelties of New York high society at the turn of the century. The film earned strong reviews for Davies (rebounding from his adpatation misfire The Neon Bible) and Anderson (still flying high with her Emmy-winning performance on The X-Files), but a small late year release made this one a bigger hit with critics than it ultimately was for the Academy.

We look back at the 200 Best Actress lineup, and discuss how Anderson might have fallen victim to an Academy still too willing to categorized television stars as just television stars and how indie distributor Sony Pictures Classics (rightly) had another awards priority. We also discuss how costume dramas went out of fashion as Best Picture contenders, the film’s spectacular supporting cast, and the 2000 Costume Design nominees.

Topics also include to extinct Village Voice poll, the British Independent Film Awards, and the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival.

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Tag: Eric Stoltz

250 – Her Smell

159 – The House of Mirth