Jason Bateman – This Had Oscar Buzz

It’s time to sit shiva with a slew of stars and 2014′s This Is Where I Leave You. Adapted from Jonathan Tropper from his own novel and directed by Night at the Museum’s Shawn Levy, the film casts Jason Bateman as a man whose life falls apart at the hour of his father’s death. His mother, played by Jane Fonda, then tasks the entire family to sit shiva in his honor and seriocomic hijinks ensue. Levy would cast a feast of famous and noteworthy names to fill out the friends and family (including Tina Fey, Adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Kathryn Hahn, Corey Stoll, and more), but their combined skills were not enough to lift the film’s dated humor and stuck-in-neutral emotions off the ground.

The film debuted as a TIFF gala and was critically dismissed, with audiences feeling similarly underwhelmed upon release a few weeks later. This week, we talk about how the film sidesteps around a quite non-Jewish cast and where it places in the Fonda’s late-career era. We also discuss Fey’s limitations with her many crying scenes, our favorite performances from the Girls, and the 2014 TIFF lineup.

Topics also include Fonda’s most recent Oscar nomination for The Morning After, Tonys being awarded to movie stars, and the Wine Country Film Festival.

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Adapted from the lauded UK miniseries of the same title, State of Play had a labored journey to the screen. Appearing on the 2006 Black List and originally intended as the screen reunion for Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, the American film adaptation weathered several delays, recastings, and creative setbacks, including the 2007 WGA strike. Once in production, the film mounted a cast that included Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, and Helen Mirren to unfold its political conspiracy in the attempted vein of All the President’s Men. All of this prestige put the film on awards prognosticators’ early predictions while it was still planned for a fall 2008 release, but it quickly cast aside those ambitions once in was punted one final time to a spring 2009 release.

This episode, we discuss Russell Crowe’s post-Oscar career of several Ridley Scott films and the phone-throwing incident that tainted his career. We also discuss Ben Affleck in the immediate afterglow of his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, his immediate pivot to casting himself in his own movies, and director Kevin Macdonald’s pivot from documentarries to fiction films.

Topics also include watching the original miniseries on Netflix discs, snacks that are just chemicals, and The Eagle.

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Tag: Jason Bateman

208 – This Is Where I Leave You

182 – State of Play