Tag: Golden Globes

408 – The Russia House

In the years after his Oscar win for The Untouchables, Sean Connery remained a major movie star and box office draw. The latter proved untrue in 1990 when The Russia House fizzled at the holiday box office. Based on the John le Carré novel, the film follows Connery as a publisher pulled into espionage in Russia during perestroika, only to fall in love with an informant’s wife, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. One year after The Fabulous Baker Boys, Pfeiffer earned a Globe nomination for her performance, but Oscar honored neither of these headliners.

This episode, we discuss director Fred Schepisi and the Academy’s arms-length relationship with the chillier adaptations of le Carré’s work. We also discuss Connery’s next decade as a major star, Pfeiffer’ on her 10th THOB-day (that’s a To Gillian reference for anyone paying attention)’s extensive THOB history, and director Ken Russell hiding out among the film’s ensemble.

Topics also include the 1990 EW Holiday Movie Preview, a Berlin competition lineup with two Best Picture winners, and composer Jerry Goldsmith.

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407 – Destroyer

In 2018, we were rooting for the comeback of director Karyn Kusama, emerging with the promising crime thriller Destroyer. Centering on Nicole Kidman playing against type as a grizzled investigator haunted by a previous undercover case gone wrong, the film applies a serpentine structure to its breed of hard boiled LA noir to mixed results. After receiving a mixed reaction on the festival circuit but praise for Kidman’s performance, the film was one of several 2018 Annapurna Pictures films that struggled to gain momentum.

This episode, we talk about the strength of Kidman’s performance and the unfortunate fate that met some of Kusama’s films. We also talk about the film’s baffling ending, Sebastian Stan as Kidman’s hot love interest, and Kidman going ham on Bradley Whitford and Tatiana Maslany.

Topics also include “deglam” Oscar campaigns, The Invitation, and Kidman’s Golden Globe nomination.

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389 – The Manchurian Candidate

If you make a remake to a cinema classic (and Oscar nominee), chances are the buzz starts there. But in revamping The Manchurian Candidate to the post-9/11 culture, Oscar winning director also added the pedigree of recent winner Denzel Washington and then-recent nomination record breaker Meryl Streep, the buzz multiplied. But this version of a paranoia thriller about a political candidate whose brain has been hijacked was a mild summer success, kept only in the race by Streep in villain mode.

This episode, we talk about whether or not the material comfortably fits in with the era’s concerns and the period after Washington won his second Oscar. We also discuss Liev Schreiber breaking out of Cotton Weary mold, the film’s pseudo-incestuous bath scene, and a double Six Timer hottie quiz for Washington and Schreiber.

Topics also include surprise Ann Dowd, the 2004 Supporting Actress race, and sleeper cell activation phrases.

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385 – Billy Bathgate

We’re journeying back to the early 1990s this week to discuss the forgotten failure Billy Bathgate. Adapted from E.L. Doctorow’s Pulitzer finalist, the film cast Dustin Hoffman as real-life mobster Dutch Schultz opposite a Loren Dean as the fictionalized street kid who falls under his wing. With Bruce Willis in a supporting role at the peak of his fame and Oscar-winning director Robert Benton at the helm, the film ultimately bombed at the box office but earned Nicole Kidman her first Golden Globe nomination.

This episode, we talk about the much publicized clashing between Hoffman’s ego and his reunited director and we have a (gasp) triple Six Timers quiz for Hoffman, Dean, and Stanley Tucci. We also talk about the film’s mild approach to crime material, the 1991 Supporting Actress race, and Benton’s somewhat forgotten Oscar comeback Places in the Heart.

Topics also include Highlander 2: The Quickening, Hook‘s surprising Oscar nominations, and surprise Frances Conroy.

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382 – Get Low

We keep losing movie legends, but this week we wanted to memorialize the great Robert Duvall. In 2010, the actor entered the race with Get Low, a tale (based on regional legend) of a town outcast who decides to throw his own funeral. With Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, and Lucas Black filling out the ensemble, the film is a forgiveness and guilt fable that has its humble charms, but ultimately was unable to net the career honors for Duvall that would come a few years later with (eek) The Judge.

This episode, we talk about Duvall’s Oscar history and his place in some of the most important films of the 1970s. We also discuss Spacek’s post-2000s run of brilliant supporting turns, hostile Today Show appearances, and Sony Classics many 2010 Oscar nominees.

Topics also include Murray Six Timers, video games, and the 2010 Best Actor race.

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374 – Booksmart

Happy New Year, Garys! We’re kicking off 2026 with something more bubbly and light-hearted, 2019’s Booksmart. Sold as an ultra-modern and female take on boy-led high school raunch comedies, the film stars Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein as best friends who decide to live it up after spending their entire high school experience stuck in books. After debuting at SXSW, the film generated a mountain of discussion that yielded disappointing box office results, but managed to stick around in the precursor race until the last minute.

This episode, we talk about the film’s delightful ensemble of faces of the future and Olivia Wilde’s debut directing duties that earned her a number of first film prizes that season. We also talk about Feldstein’s drubbing during the Funny Girl run on Broadway, Dever joins our Six Timers Club, and the shadow of Lady Bird unfairly set expectations for this film.

Topics also include Forte vs. Arnett, the 2019 Globe Musical/Comedy Best Actress nominees, and “I wish you luck with your trees.”

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362 – Used People

We love talking forgotten awardsy films here on This Had Oscar Buzz and this week’s episode is a doozy. In 1992, Todd Graff’s off-Broadway play The Grandma Plays was adapted into the film Used People with both a high Oscar and theatre pedigree. The Beeban Kidron film starred Shirley MacLaine as a new widow finding love (in Oscar nominee Marcello Mastroianni, no less) and repairing her strained relationship with her daughters. With brief turns from the Jessica Tandy and Sylvia Sidney, the film didn’t get much further than stray nominations for MacLaine and Mastroianni.

This episode, we make up for our forgotten Shirley MacLaine six Timers quiz. We also talk about why it might be our Most Best Actress movie ever, Marcia Gay Harden dressed up in Barbra Streisand’s Oscar win, and how mean movies are to Kathy Bates.

Topics also include the 1992 Golden Globes, “Queen of the Night,” and Camp.

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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.

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356 – The Fountain

After an indie one-two punch of Pi and Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky was riding high as one of the major emerging directors at the turn of the century. For his next film, he would graduate to big budget studio fare with The Fountain, an ambitious and era-spanning science fiction tale of love and death. The scaled-down version that reached 2006 cinemas starred Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz and remains a love-it-or-hate-it head-scratcher that nevertheless fits perfectly within Aronofsky’s continued themes of the body and soul.

This episode, we talk about all that went down with the canceled version of the film set to star Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. We also talk where we stand with Aronofsky’s work pre-Caught Stealing, Jackman breaking away from Wolverine, and our deep affection for Clint Mansell’s score.

Topics also include Eddington, tree sap, and Donna Murphy doing science.

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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.

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