Evan Rachel Wood – This Had Oscar Buzz

235 – The Upside of Anger

Every prestige actress overdue for an Oscar deserves her showcase, and after three Oscar nominations in under a decade, Joan Allen got hers written and directed by her The Contender costar Mike Binder. The Upside of Anger cast Allen as a mother of four whose husband suddenly abandons her, and she finds boozy solace with the former baseball player down the street. The actress earned raves for her all-out performance, along with Kevin Costner as her new lover and compatriot. But the film was a spring release and struggled to get arrested in the awards race, despite a Critics Choice nomination and regional critics wins, despite what is largely seen as an uncompetitive Best Actress field.

This episode, we talk about Joan Allen’s three Oscar nominations and other ones we think she should have received. We also talk about Costner in Baseball Kevin mode, the National Board of Review’s 2005 “excellence in filmmaking” lineup, the film’s underwhelming portrait of siblings, and the 2005 Best Actress race.

Topics also include listeners not being able to tell Chris and Joe apart, Allen’s Tony Award and theatre history, and the maligned The Mind of the Married Man.

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113 – Running With Scissors

Annette Bening remains one of our most beloved actresses without an Oscar, and one of the most notorious (assumed) second place finalists after losing to Hilary Swank twice. This week, we’re looking at her turn as a mentally ill poet and mother in 2006′s Running With Scissors, adapted from the famously outrageous memoir by Augusten Burroughs. Bening received a Golden Globe nomination, but a stacked Best Actress year combined with the film’s poor reception with critics and audiences left her work as an afterthought come nomination morning.

The film was big screen debut of none other than television legend Ryan Murphy. This episode, we unpack the Murphy ethos, from his impact on the television landscape to the mixed reception to some of his work. We also discuss the film’s off-balance mix of comedy and tragedy, Gwyneth Paltrow in Bo Derek braids, and Bening as one of the most iconic smokers in cinema.

Topics also include the age of scrutinized memoirists, an oceanside testimonial from Murphy ex Bill Condon, and the uncanny valley of butt hands.

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044 – The Missing (2003 – Part One)

With this episode, we officially begin our month-long miniseries on the 2003 Oscar year! We are beginning with a high profile failure from a major director: Ron Howard’s The Missing starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. After winning the Oscar in 2001 for A Beautiful Mind, Ron Howard aimed to cash in on that earned prestige by fulfilling his dream of making a western. After leaving Disney’s The Alamo in the dust, he settled on this story of kidnapping and father-daughter forgiveness. But audience’s had long since grown bored by the genre and the Academy similarly ignored the film.

This episode we discuss how this film represents the big studio failures from major directors within this Oscar year and how it ultimately fails to bring life to a dead genre. We also look at the legacy of Howard’s Director nomination snub for Apollo 13, the many ways westerns have been reimagined in recent years, and how The Missing blurred into the mass of the season’s period epics.

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