Independent Spirit Awards – This Had Oscar Buzz

303 – Red Rocket

With Anora anointed with the Palme d’Or this year, one of the narratives ahead in the coming season will be whether Sean Baker’s microbudgeted cinema will be embraced by the Academy in a big way. After lots of buzz for Tangerine and an acting nom for Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project, Baker was buzzed again for Red Rocket and its showcase performance for Simon Rex. With Rex as a manipulative down-and-out porn star returning to the small town that cast him out, Red Rocket‘s moral minefield and rueful comedy was ultimately not embraced by Oscar.

This week, we talk about Rex’s dynamic performance and the film’s recreation of the 2016 election cycle. We also talk about the meta elements of Rex’s casting, Baker’s rise among the ranks of independent cinema, and the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

Topics also include donuts, 2021 Best Actor, and READ posters.

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296 – Take Shelter

We return this week to one of the Oscar years we bemoan the most, 2011, to talk about Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter. After Michael Shannon landed a surprise acting nomination for Revolutionary Road, it seemed he’d somewhat cornered the market on onscreen psychosis. In this film, he plays a rural father who begins to see apocalyptic visions that may or may not be coming to fruition. As his wife, Jessica Chastain would make her debut when the film premiered to Sundance audiences, already amassing a reputation as the next big thing due to the several films she had coming, including Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life.

This episode, we talk about Shannon’s onscreen persona and how it may shade our perceptions of this film. We also talk about how The Help became the film that Chastain was Oscar nominated for in her breakthrough year, Kathy Baker in Edward Scissorhands, and the film’s divisive ending.

Topics also include Sundance 2011 movies, the Death Becomes Her musical, and cozy culture during the apocalypse.

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268 – Shattered Glass (with Richard Lawson!)

Hayden Christensen arrived seemingly out of nowhere to land the role of pre-Vader Anakin Skywalker, becoming one of Hollywood’s hottest stars overnight and largely untested as a screen presence. After a respected turn in Life As A House(see previous episode!), the Attack of the Clones reviews soured audiences on this brand new star. The very next year, he gave a terrific performance in Shattered Glass as journalist Stephen Glass who famously fabricated stories for The New Republic. But awards bodies overlooked Christensen’s work and instead nominated the rising Peter Sarsgaard as Glass’ pseudo-rival Chuck Lane.

This episode, we talk about the Entertainment Weekly It List that was Christensen’s first debut post-Star Wars casting and his return to the franchise. We also talk about director/writer Billy Ray, Sarsgaard’s near nomination here, and journalism movies that were successful with Oscar.

Topics also include working with fact checkers, college group watch television, and the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards.

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250 – Her Smell

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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249 – Love is Strange

Ahead of this week’s release of Ira Sachs’ Passages, we’re discussing perhaps Sachs’ most lauded film, 2014’s Love is Strange. The film stars John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a newly married couple forced to live apart in New York City when one of them is fired from his Catholic school job for being gay. Charting the frustrating nuances of cohabitation and the unexamined financial hardships of city life, the film is a quiet wonder filled with humane performances, including Marisa Tomei as part of the couple’s social circle. Praised at Sundance and in its late summer release, the film managed to stay in conversation due to several Independent Spirit nominations, but was shut out by Oscar.

This episode, we discuss Sachs’ underappreciated filmography and Molina’s career rise as a trustworthy supporting player. We also discuss Lithgow’s consecutive Supporting Actor nominations in the 1980s, the film’s release in the year before the Obergefell ruling, and Sony Pictures Classics’ busy 2014.

Topics also include Best Grownup Love Story, the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, and Asteroid City.

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248 – Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (with Jourdain Searles!)

We are returning to the work of Jennifer Jason Leigh this week, and Jourdain Searles is joining us once again with an underrated and underseen gem. Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle takes on the life of indelible writer Dorothy Parker, capturing her days with the insular Algonquin Circle and her later dissolution with the group, all with Jennifer Jason Leigh as the noted wit. Launched at Cannes, the film was celebrated for her performance even with a limited audience, including Golden Globe and Independent Spirit nominations for Best Actress. But even in a famously uncompetitive Best Actress lineup, Leigh was left out.

This episode, we talk about Leigh’s several close calls for a nomination in the 1990s and our feelings about the nomination that she eventually received for The Hateful Eight. We also talk about Pulp Fiction‘s domination on the independent film scene, the Cannes Film Festival, and the influence of producer Robert Altman.

Topics also include writer/director Alan Rudolph’s filmography, the film’s massive (and nepotism baby-inflected) ensemble, and the person-not-company Condé Nast.

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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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215 – Beatriz at Dinner (with Jorge Molina)

On the eve of the return of The White Lotus, we’re taking a look at the Mike White oeuvre with returning guest Jorge Molina and 2017′s Beatriz at Dinner. Starring our beloved Salma Hayek as a holistic masseuse trapped at a toxic dinner party held by her wealthy clients, the film debuted at Sundance and was immediately viewed through the lens of our outrage and despair in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s election. The dark cringe comedy had a divisive finale but a brilliant ensemble including Connie Britton, John Lithgow, and Chloe Sevigny, with Hayek giving one of her finest performances. But the 2017 Best Actress race was highly competitive, and this summer release struggled to make an awards season comeback.

This episode, we talk about the Arteta/White partnership including White’s television output and Arteta as the quintessential journeyman director. Topics also include scrubbed John Early clips, our dreams for Hayek’s deserved awards future, and comparing Beatriz at Dinner to another 2017 film that succeeded with Oscar.

Topics also include the 2002 Best Actress nominees pitching grants, Mike White’s run on Survivor and The Amazing Race, and performing Salma in Snatch Game.

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214 – Mud (with Roxana Hadadi)

What’s better than movies like this? Guys being dudes! This week, Vulture television critic Roxana Hadadi joins us to return to the McConaissance with Jeff Nichols’ Mud. Matthew McConaughey stars as the film’s eponymous criminal who befriends a young teenager (played by Ty Sheridan) grappling with the death of his town and his parents’ divorce. The film debuted at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival while Nichols’ star was on the rise and McConaughey was mid-ascendancy, but was mildly received on the global stage. When the film was released in stateside theaters the following spring, critics were much more enthusiastic about Nichols’ take on masculinity and myth, but the film was ultimately overshadowed by McConaughey’s other Best Actor bid, Dallas Buyers Club.

This episode, we discuss the filmography of Jeff Nichols, including the divisiveness of Take Shelter’s ending and projects that almost happened. We also get into Sheridan’s career as a young actor, Matt Damon’s macho crypto ad, and the Independent Spirit Awards Robert Altman prize.

Topics also include Chris Pine nearly playing the lead, Taylor Sheridan as Nichols’ tether, and irrational fears of snakes invading our everyday lives.

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209 – A Walk on the Moon (with Tara Ariano)

This week, Tara Ariano returns to us to talk about a forgotten and quite lovely independent film from 1999, A Walk on the Moon. The first feature directed by actor Tony Goldwyn, the film stars Diane Lane as a late 1960s housewife who has a sexual awakening with a hippie blouse salesman (played by Viggo Mortensen) while vacationing with her family. With Anna Paquin and Liev Schreiber respectively as daughter and husband, the film features Woodstock and the moon landing in the background of this quite potent take on female sexuality and the effect of young parenthood. The film had a quiet spring release after debuting at Sundance, but year-end critical notices kept Lane in the awards conversation.

The film also has similar shades of what Lane would turn into an Oscar nominated role just a few years later with Unfaithful. This episode, we’ll discuss Mortensen’s deep bench of pre-LOTR roles, Happy, Texas’ famous post-Sundance financial failure, and how this film avoids the typical “Woodstock movie” trappings.

Topics also include Julie Kavner as Big Brother, gay euphemisms, and the immediate cultural impact of Ghost.

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