Jean Reno – This Had Oscar Buzz

Our EW Movie Previews miniseries continues this week with a look at the summer season! After the ubiquity of the best-selling book, The Da Vinci Code was primed for a glossy movie adaptation even before it landed the Oscar pedigree pairing of Ron Howard and Tom Hanks. Considered prestigious enough to open the Cannes Film Festival, the film received middling reviews for its schlock factor and was ultimately added to the heap of another bad movie in a cursed summer movie season. Though the film stayed somewhat in awards consideration thanks to earning nominations from various crafts’ guilds, the film was quickly destined to a life on cable television.

This episode, we look at the film’s handling of controversies from an upset Catholic Church and EW’s positioning of the summer’s biggest films, including eventual Best Picture nominee Little Miss Sunshine. We also discuss Hans Zimmer’s Oscar nomination history, Hanks’ much discussed longer hairstyle for the film, and Ian McKellen leading Mary Magdalene’s stan army.

Topics also include Paul Bettany at Provincetown Catholic Week, scrunts and narfs, and forgotten studio animated films of the aughts.

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#TeamMargaret, your day is here! This week, we are joined by actor Patrick Vaill to discuss the contentious backstory and reemergence story that is Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret. Originally filmed in 2005, the film follows Anna Paquin as Lisa Cohen, a New York City teenager who witnesses a horrific accident and her search for restitution when she deems herself partly responsible. But Lonergan’s ambition with the film and its themes resulted in an arduous editing process, resulting in the ire of the film’s producer and Fox Searchlight. The years-long process led to lawsuits and the intervention of Martin Scorsese in the editing room, ultimately delivering a film that quietly snuck into a few theatres amidst contentiousness. Soon, a critical mass began to build along with change.org petitions and online outcry, and now Margaret is seen by some as one of the greatest films of the new century.

This episode, we discuss the various available versions of the film and Lonergan’s distillation of post-9/11 New York. We also unpack the brilliant central performance by Paquin, along with a stellar supporting cast of actresses including J. Smith-Cameron as Lisa’s actress mother, Jeannie Berlin as Lisa’s surprise confidante, and a one-scene-wonder Allison Janney (who joins our Six Timer’s Club).

Topics also include formative double features of The Apostle and Kundun, standing ovations for Andrea Martin, and what makes up J. Smith-Cameron’s “EGOT of television acting.”

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Tag: Jean Reno

193 – The Da Vinci Code (EW Summer Movie Preview)

183 – Margaret (with Patrick Vaill)