jake gyllenhaal – This Had Oscar Buzz

284 – The Sisters Brothers

If you think we are too dismissive of westerns, allow this week’s episode to contradict that notion! In 2018, Jacques Audiard made his English language debut with an adaptation of Patrick deWitt’s novel The Sisters Brothers. John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix starred as gunslinging assassin siblings in 19th century America, with both on the pursuit of a detective and a scientist (played respectively by a reunited Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed) with a plot for gold. Despite the reputation of everyone involved, the film received a mild reception at fall festivals before a quiet September release.

This episode, we talk about the struggles of Annapurna to successfully switch from being a production house to a distributor. We also discuss the career of Reilly with the hopes of a career reappraisal, our feelings about the western genre and the attempts to revive it, and Audiard’s French submission contender in A Prophet.

Topics also include surprise Carol Kane, queercoding, and Jake going weird.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

264 – Everest (with Katey Rich!)

Following Thanksgiving tradition, Katey Rich returns to This Had Oscar Buzz to discussant film with indistinguishable white male actors, and this year we have chosen 2015’s Everest. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur and featuring a massive cast led by Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, and Jake Gyllenhaal, the film follows the true story of a disastrous trip up Mount Everest that left almost an entire crew dead. The prestigious cast and the film’s placement opening the Venice Film Festival led some prognosticators to suspect the film could be an Oscar player, but it ended up a straightforward disaster film that American audiences mostly dismissed.

This episode, we discuss how the film struggles to portray the reasons someone would want to climb Everest and Joe delivers his most hoot-worthy game yet. We also discuss Gyllenhaal’s recent questionable output, Elizabeth Debicki explaining things, and directors we confuse for Kormákur.

Topics also include mountain madness, author Jon Krakauer, and “wife on phone.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

Mailbág: Goodbye 2022

We are bidding adieu to 2022 with our annual mailbag episode!! We dive into a feast of listener questions, kicked off first with a mini 20th anniversary celebration for The Hours and THOB-adjacent questions about theme parks, Drag Race, and the Emmys. We unpack the current Oscar race, including Cate Blanchett’s default status as the performance of the year, the current Best Director and Animated Feature races, and performances we loved in movies we didn’t. Topics also include performers most likely to never win despite multiple nominations, Nora Ephron’s Oscar nominations, our favorite THR Actress roundtables, the 1996 Best Actress race almost crashed by Madonna, and This Had Figure Skating Buzz.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

178 – October Sky (with Esther Zuckerman)

Moving along from Maggie Gyllenhaal’s breakthrough last week, this week we are dis cussing her brother Jake’s! Senior Entertainment writer for Thrillist Esther Zuckerman joins us to talk about middle school classroom mainstay and union-agnostic true story, 1999′s October Sky. The film starred Jake Gyllenhaal as Homer Hickham Jr., as young West Virginian who bucked the pressure to join the mining industry to study rockets, leading to a career at NASA. With Laura Dern as his doting teacher and Chris Cooper as his gruff unsupportive father, the film was sold as a family film early in the year and gained some momentum before becoming ultimately forgotten by Oscar.

This episode, we look at Jake’s career evolutions from awkward love interest to older actresses to action to lovable weirdo and back to action star mode. We also discuss the career of director Joe Johnston, WGA nominees that were not nominated by the Academy, and Chris Cooper’s evolution from noteworthy character actor to noteworthy stern dad.

Topics also include, Universal’s 1999 awards slate and the Best Supporting Actor lineup that year, Peter Parker’s landlord, and Esther’s upcoming Oscar fashion history book Beyond the Best Dressed (Preorder HERE!).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

155 – Moonlight Mile

Jake Gyllenhaal is the latest to join our Six Timers Club this week with 2002′s Moonlight Mile. Written and directed by Brad Silberling, Gyllenhaal leads the film as a young man living with the parents (played by Susan Sarandon and Dustin Hoffman) of his fiance’s parents in the aftermath of her murder. A light dramedy with semi-autobiographical elements from Silberling, the film set expectations high with an emotional trailer but quickly died after a poor TIFF reception and even dimmer box office. With an Oscar year that leaned heavily on December releases, this film was an awards afterthought.

This week, we look back at Gyllenhaal’s THOB history and Sarandon’s stellar triptych of very different (and all buzzed) screen moms in 2002. We also discuss the true story that inspired the film, distributor Touchstone’s buzzy 2002 that also includes 25th Hour and Signs, and the film’s onslaught of needle drops.

Topics also include the iconic 2002 Best Supporting Actress lineup, Brian Cox doing McDonald’s commericals, and why Goldie Hawn should be in the hypothetical third Mamma Mia! movie.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

099 – Proof

We’re looking to the stage for this week’s episode! After being awarded the Pultizer Prize for Drama, a Tony success, and two years on Broadway, Oscar obsessives looked to the big screen adaptation of Proof to continue its slew of trophies. With Gwyneth Paltrow reprising her role from the London stage (along with that production’s director and Shakespeare in Love helmer, John Madden), this intimate drama on math and madness felt like the surest of bets on paper. But Proof’s release was delayed by a year as Miramax began to fizzle, arriving on screen as an afterthought even in a Best Actress year with fewer contenders.

This week, we look back at recent adaptations of Pulitzer Prize winning plays and what has gotten lost from stage to screen. We also look at how Proof has aged over years of being over-produced, Hope Davis’s era of an expected eventual nomination, and Mary Louise Parker’s Tony win.

Topics also include Anne Heche at stage doors, the God of Carnage puke scene, and next week’s 100th episode!!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

048 – Rendition

With the return of Big Little Lies to our television screens, we’re taking a look at a film starring one of the Monterey Five’s key players and her newly arrived nemesis. No, that outdoor coffee shop wasn’t the first time someone demanded answers between Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep – they first squared off in 2007′s Rendition. All together now: “JUST TELL ME HE’S OKAY!!”

Rendition was one of the many, many prestige titles that tried to unpack the War on Terror to underwhelming results with Oscar. But this film also had some of the highest expectations of them all due to the star wattage of Streep and newly minted tabloid staple couple Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal, plus recent Foreign Language-winning director Gavin Hood at the helm. Ultimately, this film was too dull and obvious to be embraced by a critical community already impatient with these kind of very similar films, and Oscar followed suit.

This episode, we discuss more Foreign Language director successes that sparked buzz for their first English-language films in the years to come, the impact of a poor TIFF reception, and the romance that wasn’t meant to be. Get ready to try to tell those 00s anti-war films apart, because we have a quiz coming!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

040 – Love and Other Drugs (with Nate Jones)

Can you believe that in 2010 we got Oscar buzz for a film about the rise of Viagara in the 90s that was also a sexy romance and was also about Parkinson’s AND was directed by your dad’s favorite director of macho war epics? It came true – we’re finally talking about Love and Other Drugs! Reuniting Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway after both had earned their first Oscar nominations, this film was sold on its frank depiction of sex but largely reviled for the many disjointed pieces.

This week, we have Vulture senior writer Nate Jones joining us as our tiebreaker to Joe’s hate for the film and Chris’ apologetic affection for it. We take a look back at the notorious (and misunderstood) Oscar hosting gig for Hathaway that year and Gyllenhaal’s pivot from charismatic leading man to weirdo. Topics also include examples of nudity sold to Oscar as creative risk, 2010′s stacked Oscar lineup, and just what kind of music played in mid-90s Circuit City.

Stay tuned to the very end of our episode for a special tease on an upcoming project we are doing…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS

030 – Brothers

Our episode this week is on a film that once dominated the earliest Oscar predictions for 2009: Jim Sheridan’s American remake of Brothers. Led by Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Natalie Portman, the film repurposed Susanne Bier’s film as another in a line of film’s to take on the war in Afghanistan – and like many of its predecessors, it failed with Oscar. Except this one stood in stark contrast to that year’s major Oscar story, The Hurt Locker.

Sadly, Brothers fell flat despite its promising pedigree. This week, we discuss the film’s three stars (a bug-eyed Maguire, Gyllenhaal in hottie transition, and Portman in limbo between Star Wars and Black Swan) and Sheridan’s successful Oscar history, and the HFPA’s 2000s love story with U2. And naturally, we get sidetracked on talk of kitchen and Batman soundtracks.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | RSS