Golden Globes – Page 3 – This Had Oscar Buzz

232 – Waitress

We decided to bring you a slice of joy this week with 2007′s Waitress. Starring Keri Russell as a small town waitress and inventive pie master stuck in a harmful marriage, the heartwarming film would eventually be adapted to the megabit musical with songs from Sara Bareilles. Its beginnings, however, were marked by sadness: in the months before its Sundance premiere, the film’s writer/director/costar Adrienne Shelly was tragically murdered. Waitress won over Sundance, becoming a summer hit for Fox Searchlight and generating praise for both Russell’s performance and Shelly’s delicate tone. However, the film lingered in the shadow of the previous year’s Sundance/Searchlight Oscar success of Little Miss Sunshine despite earning fans.

This episode, we talk about Keri Russell’s career and how Waitress falls between her two definitive television success: Felicity and The Americans. We also discuss the Mickey Mouse Club, the era of movies where characters don’t have abortions, and Celine Dion’s upcoming screen debut.

Topics also include various types of pie, the Sundance Houndog controversy, and the power of Felicity cutting her hair.

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230 – Stage Beauty

Longtime listeners will know that a special space in our podcast lore is reserved for our first six timer, Claire Danes. This week, we return to her work in the opulent and forgotten Stage Beauty. The film cast Danes as a stage dresser who longs to be an actress in a time when women weren’t allowed on the stage, and opposite Billy Crudup as an actor celebrated for his performances in female roles. In an anemic year for Globes Comedy, it looked like the film could fall into a similar vein of the recently Best Picture awarded Shakespeare in Love, but this became a costume drama that the industry overlooked.

This episode, we get into the film’s surprisingly curious (if still dated) eye towards gender and Crudup’s playful performance, which might be his very best. We also dive into the gossip of Danes and Crudup’s onset affair in which Crudup left a pregnant Mary-Louise Parker, her winning Globes speech that very year, and the elusiveness of an Oscar nomination for Crudup.

Topics also include the unmissable Fleishman is In Trouble, the Tribeca Film Festival, and the National Board of Review’s Special Recognition for Excellence in Filmmaking catchall.

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228 – After Hours (with Mitchell Beaupre!)

Letterboxd senior editor and podcast co-host Mitchell Beaupre joins us this week and is bringing their favorite film along, and it’s our oldest film yet: Martin Scorsese’s After Hours. In the mid-80s Scorsese was rebounding from his closest call with Oscar yet in Raging Bull and a first attempt to make The Last Temptation of Christ falling apart. In a quick turnaround, he made what some may call his most atypical film and freaked some critics out with its dreamlike, absurd take on male ego. With Griffin Dunne leading a cast that includes a delightful female ensemble of Rosanna Arquette, Teri Garr, Linda Fiorentino, and Catherine O’Hara, the film remains one of Scorsese’s most fascinating.

This episode, we get into the film’s underrated status and the oddball first Independent Spirit Awards where the film took top honors. We also discuss the Globes Comedy races where Dunne was nominated for Best Actor, going long distances for rep screenings, and the 1986 Cannes Film Festival.

Topics also include Ordinary People beating Raging Bull, the Bridesmaids SAG drinking game, and the To Leslie Oscar season surprise campaign.

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227 – The Old Man and the Gun

In 2018, it was reported that Robert Redford would be making his acting swan song with David Lowery’s crime caper The Old Man and the Gun. As the film received its festival debut, those retirement statements were backtracked, but audiences were still given a thoughtful and surprising fable about a real “Redford type” of character and a convincing love story with Sissy Spacek. Reviews were largely positive but muted, and with the film’s early season release and the dismissal of Redford’s earlier claims that this would be his last performance, the film remained an awards season trifle with a few devoted fans but no Oscar love.

This episode, we talk about Lowery’s varied and interesting directorial career thus far and Redford’s surprisingly spare history of awards traction for his performances. We also look back at the 1980 Academy Awards when Redford and Spacek won their Oscars, the lingering distaste among film lovers for Ordinary People beating out Raging Bull, and a post-Globe win and SAG nomination state of the current race.

Topics also include Spacek’s Oscar dominance in the 1980s, Elisabeth Moss joining our Six Timers Club, and the National Board of Review’s Top Independent Films of 2018.

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226 – The Leisure Seeker

When the 2017 Golden Globe nominations were announce, the question on everyone’s mind was “What the hell is The Leisure Seeker?!” Starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as an aging couple having one last getaway in their eponymous Winnebago, the film debuted in competition at Venice before also playing a TIFF gala and went entirely under the radar. Sony Classics quietly gave the film a qualifying release, successfully netting Mirren a Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Golden Globe nomination despite so few seeing the film. The nomination was a head-scratcher to most, but was predicted by none other than our Joe Reid.

This episode, we discuss Helen Mirren’s vast history with the Golden Globes and assess the current diagnosis on the Globes and their often amusing nomination history. We also talk about Sutherland’s famously surprising lack of an acting Oscar nomination, other possible comedy leading actress contenders from 2017, and another round of Alter Egos.

Topics also include what famous festival jurors think of the movies they have to watch, the film’s half-baked look at the 2016 election, and surprise Danielle Deadwyler.

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213 – Where’d You Go, Bernadette

As Cate Blanchett inches towards a possible third acting Oscar with this week’s Tár, we look back at the quickly forgotten Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Based on the praised novel by Maria Semple about an eccentric former architect’s disappearance, the film paired Blanchett with director Richard Linklater (and reunited her with actor Billy Crudup, playing her husband) and faced numerous delays from distributor Annapurna despite its pedigree. Linklater streamlined the novel’s techno-epistolary structure, resulting in a more straightforward film that lost much of the novel’s unique comic tone and character insights. Though Blanchett would earn a Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy nomination at the Globes, the film was already long forgotten at that point of the season.

This episode, Blanchett joins our Six Timers Club and we talk about the barrier of entry to third acting Oscar wins. We also look at Crudup’s filmography and his shockingly paltry lack of awards love, Linklater as a director hard to pin down to a career narrative, and Annapurna’s bumpy and brief road from production company to distributor.

Topics also include “prepandemic” as a concept, Broadway actors telling stories at benefits, and Tyra interviewing Beyoncé.

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211 – Mermaids

We’ve got a personal favorite coming to you today starring one of our most beloved icons! After winning her Best Actress Oscar for Moonstruck, Cher then conquered the world with the album Heart of Stone, and didn’t return to the cinema until 1990′s Mermaids. With Cher as a mother of two rebuking societal expectations, the film also starred the recently Oscar nominated Bob Hoskins, Christina Ricci in her debut, and the ascendant Winona Ryder. A female-led comedy about mothers and daughters, the film earned a Golden Globe nomination for Ryder, but ultimately missed out on Oscar while being released between two Best Picture winners from the dying Orion Pictures.

This episode, we talk about the film’s fraught beginnings with several replaced directors with differing tonal visions for the film and Ryder’s fast rise as prestige actress. We also talk about odd 1990 Golden Globe choices including Ghost and Green Card, life lessons learned too early from formative cinema, and Richard Benjamin’s directorial career.

Topics also include Cher joining TikTok, marshmallow snacks, and Bob Hoskins being hot.

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201 – How Do You Know

While not known for their love for comedies, the Academy has often proven a fan for the works of James L. Brooks. This week, we’re talking about his (likely) final film, the 2010 flop How Do You Know. The film stars Reese Witherspoon as a softball player grappling with the end of her career while torn between romance with two men (played respectively by Owen Wilson and Paul Rudd): a Major League Baseball player and a man facing punishment for the corporate crimes of his fathers’ business. Also the final film of Jack Nicholson’s before his retirement, How Do You Know was savaged by critics, quickly dismissed by audiences in a packed holiday season, and even failed to land any Globes Comedy nominations in the year of The Tourist.

This episode, we discuss Brooks’ Oscar track record, including his previous misses between Oscar darlings and the two times he directed a Best Picture nominee without getting a directing nomination. We also discuss our desire for a new Witherspoon romcom, who is the Oscar ceremony’s new front mascot now that Nicholson doesn’t attend, and that time Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholson jokingly flirted.

Topics also include the current Searchlight/Hulu situation, Paul Rudd’s potential for a future Oscar nomination, and Kathryn Hahn hiding her pregnancy behind a Sony Vaio.

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196 – Notting Hill (EW Summer Movie Preview – Listeners’ Choice)

Whoopsie daisies, we have come to the close of our May miniseries taking a deep focus look back at Entertainment Weekly’s seasonal movie preview issues. And the closer was chosen by you, listeners! For your Listeners’ Choice, you have selected the Summer Movie Preview for Notting Hill. The film famously went head-to-head with grand behemoth Star Wars: Episode One – The Phantom Menace and still emerged victorious at the box office, thanks in part to Julia Roberts’ reemergent romcom power and the charms of Hugh Grant back in bumbling mop-haired mode. Notting Hill stars both respectively as the most famous actress in the world and a modest travel bookstore owner who fall in love against the odds, and it comes with all of the signatures of the combined powers of director Roger Michell and screenwriter Richard Curtis.

This episode, we look back at the oft-revisited 1999 movie year and unpack why it remains so fascinating to talk about. We also discuss Roberts’ double-header of romcom hits that summer with Runaway Bride, Pulp Fiction’s influence on films like Go, and South Park’s movie mission to wage war with the MPAA.

Topics also include capsizing in a boat with Tilda Swinton, Eyes Wide Shut’s veil of mystery before release, and VH1 Divas Live 1999.

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194 – Ransom (EW Fall Movie Preview)

What’s the one about a Best Director frontrunner who gets snubbed for a nomination only to have the star of his then-filming movie assume his frontrunner status all the way to a win. No joke, this is what happened with 1996′s Ransom, with director Ron Howard’s shockeroo miss for Apollo 13resulting in favor being showered upon (boo! hiss!) Mel Gibson. The actor would then delay filming to work on Braveheart’s Oscar campaign, resulting in Ransom from being pushed from summer to Thanksgiving, setting some speculation that it could serve an Oscar rebound for Howard. Instead, the film was a box office success a bit too schlocky (not to mention quite violent) thriller for Oscar.

This episode, we devour the Fall Movie Preview and its offering of THOB eligibles, but even more titles that underwhelmed with one or two nominations. We also discuss the film’s stellar ensemble, from the expect tone-setting from Delroy Linda, to the under appreciated Rene Russo, to the indie darling status of Lili Taylor.

Topics also include Candace Bushnell wearing a weirdly phallic chair, website reviews, and The First Wives Club.

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