317 – Chappaquiddick (Patreon Selects)

This week’s episode comes selected by one of our sponsor tier patrons over at our Patreon! The 2017 festival season brought us Chappaquiddick, director John Curran’s recounting of the titular incident where Senator Ted Kennedy was responsible in the accidental death of party secretary Mary Jo Kopechne. With Jason Clarke as Kennedy and Kate Mara as Kopechne, the film earned solid festival reviews (with even stronger notices for Clarke) but a planned qualifying release before the end of the year never came to be.

This episode, we talk about the short life of Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures and the 2017 qualifying release for the film that was canceled. We also talk about Clarke’s career in grunt roles, the film’s frustrating post-script in relation to Ted Kennedy’s career, and Bill Crystal’s Oscar hosting duties.

Topics also include vague movie titles, TIFF Galas, and Frederica Kimmel’s friend.

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.”

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