Gena Rowlands – This Had Oscar Buzz

401 – Playing By Heart

Playing by Heart (1998) Directed by Willard Carroll Shown: Angelina Jolie, Ryan Phillippe

In the bygone moviegoing trend of “interconnected stories of Angelenos,” this week’s episode is a forgotten entry with a loaded cast. Playing By Heart from writer/director Willard Carroll follows multiple stories of romantic struggles, with Gena Rowlands and Sean Connery as a TV chef and her producer husband as the film’s epicenter. With themes of infidelity and HIV/AIDS throughout, the ensemble’s standout was a pre-Oscar Angelina Jolie as a manic actress chasing after a blue-haired Ryan Phillippe. While Miramax put its full weight into Shakespeare in Love, this film fell by the wayside in their awards lineup after mixed reviews.

This week, we talk about Jolie’s breakthrough years with Gia and her NBR prize for this film. We also discuss Gillian Anderson’s rare film performances, Ellen Burstyn serving Hannah Pitt, and Dennis Quaid’s deranged plot line of hoaxing strangers with sob stories at various L.A. bars.

Topics also include the original title “Dancing About Architecture,” AIDS onscreen post-Rent, and being haunted by April Grace.

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294 – The Notebook

The May miniseries is over and we’re kicking off June with a dose of movie monoculture with 2004’s The Notebook. Adapted from the Nicholas Sparks romance novel, the film’s journey to the screen attracted a range of huge Hollywood names from Steven Spielberg to Britney Spears. The tale of two lovers divided by class in the south, the film captured lightning in a bottle with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as the lovers and old school Hollywood legends James Garner and Gena Rowlands as their older versions facing dementia. Though Garner would see a SAG Supporting Actor nomination, the industry didn’t recognize what would become a beloved classic.

This week, we talk about the film’s double threat appeal between teens and their moms and how Gosling and McAdams recreated the film’s iconic kiss at the MTV Movie Awards. We also talk about Gosling and McAdams’ ascendant careers in the mid aughts, Joan Allen shouting “trash!”, and the unmissable similarities between Sparks movie posters.

Topics also include Gosling at the box office, the THOB Conference agenda, and (naturally) the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards.

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171 – The Mighty

This week, we are talking about Sharon Stone and The Mighty. Adpated from the young adult novel Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, the film follows a burgeoning friendship between a silent giant teenager Max (Elden Henson) and a King Arthur obsessed neighbor with a rare metabolic disorder Kevin (Kieran Culkin). But the film’s real awards play was a Globe-nominated Stone, inhabiting the role of Kevin’s mother Gwen shortly after her first nomination for Casino. However, a firmly locked Supporting Actress race left Stone fighting for fifth place, ultimately missing out to Rachel Griffiths in the equally forgotten Hilary and Jackie.

The film was one of Miramax’s many titles in 1998, and shifted to a awards lower priority once Shakespeare in Love and Life is Beautiful began to take off. This episode, we discuss the film’s very broad performance from Gillian Anderson, James Gandolfini joins our Six Timers Club, and we look at back at Oscar’s love for “suffering parent” roles and other adjacent tropes.

Topics also include the shared loving gaze of Redgrave/McKellen/Fraser, Lara Flynn Boyle in Wayne’s World, and Cincinnati cinema.

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