julianne moore – This Had Oscar Buzz

275 – The Woman in the Window (Patreon Selects)

We’re wrapping up our run of Patreon Selects episode with a real doozy! Originally intended for 2019, The Woman in the Window was meant as a prestige adaptation of a popular thriller, packing quite the pedigree. With the attached talents of director Joe Wright, writer Tracy Letts, and star Amy Adams (along with a stellar supporting cast), the film follows an agoraphobic who witnesses a murder across the street, setting off a mystery of mistaken identities and skewed perceptions of reality. Then, it was hit by a rapid succession of misfortunes including the Disney-Fox merger, a cringe-inducing exposé on author A.J. Finn, and, well, the pandemic.

This episode, we talk about what went wrong and what might have been watered down by the Tony Gilroy reshoots. We also discuss Adams’ recent run of disappointing roles, our hopes for Nightbitch later this year, and Jennifer Jason Leigh joins our Six Timers Club!

Topics also include the emergence of Fred Hechinger, Julianne Moore’s brief boozy performance, and the film’s somewhat unceremonious Netflix drop.

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243 – Wonderstruck

We’re talking about one of our favorite filmmakers this episode and for one of his most mildly received movies. In 2017, two years after the critical success of Carol, Todd Haynes returned with a pivot to young adult literature with Wonderstruck. Based on the book by Brian Selznick, the film follows two deaf children across decades who trek into Manhattan in search of family: Rose in 1927 and Ben in 1977, respectively played by Millicent Simmonds and Oakes Fegley. With passing observations to film history and the invention of the talkie, the film takes a heady approach to a story of familial reconciliation across generations. But when the film widely disappointed viewers early on at the Cannes Film Festival, the film struggled to gain fans over the year, becoming the first of Amazon’s many awards duds over the season.

This episode, we discuss the film’s early tepid reception at the Cannes Film Festival and all of the talk of this year’s Cannes, including the debut of Haynes’ May December. We also discuss Simmonds’ work in the A Quiet Place franchise, the challenge in marketing Haynes’ films, and Julianne Moore’s dual roles in both storylines.

Topics also include Carter Burwell’s glorious score, another round of Alter Egos, and gossip from the 2017 Cannes.

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234 – Dear Evan Hansen (with Adam Grosswirth!)

To settle your post-Oscar hangover, we’re cracking open the Class of 2021 films this week and we’ve invited Muppeturgy co-host Adam Grosswirth to join us. Dear Evan Hansen follows a titular teen battling severe social anxiety, who fabricates a friendship with his bully after he dies by suicide, and faces the consequences of his lie when he goes viral. After emerging victorious from the 2017 Tonys with a Best Musical win and cementing star Ben Platt’s performance into theatre legend, the musical was destined for a whole other kind of THOB legend. Once the trailer dropped, skepticism and mockery of the near-30 Platt playing a teen went rampant, and vicious reviews made the film DOA.

This episode, we unpack the many problems inherent to the material and the attempts to soften them on film that only… make more problems. We also discuss the 2017 Tony season, Julianne Moore attempting the risk of a singing role, Amy Adams disappointing recent years, and the origins of the songwriting oeuvre of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.

Topics also include The Politician, director Stephen Chbosky’s association to multiple failed movie musicals, and orchard confusion.

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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.

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200 – Gloria Bell

We’ve made it to 200 episodes! And as long-time listeners are aware, there are few THOB-eligible films as beloved as Gloria Bell. In 2013, Sebastián Lelio delivered Gloria, a delightful Chilean character study of the everyday life of a single woman entering middle age played by an incandescent Paulina García. When Julianne Moore approached Lelio about an American remake, the director decided to take over the reigns himself, remaking his own movie. The resulting Gloria Bell launched at 2018 TIFF, receiving good reviews and getting picked up by A24, leading some to see a potential Globes Comedy player. But A24 held the film until the spring, and it got lost among their already stacked awards slate.

This episode, we look back Lelio’s trifecta of films in 2017-2018, which would include an International Feature Oscar win for A Fantastic Woman and the underrated Disobedience. We also talk both Glorias perfect endings, recall our first formative friendship viewing of the film, and celebrate the 200 episode milestone with our annual look back at the past year of THOB.

Topics also include Jeanne Tripplehorn’s vape, the film’s joyous soundtrack, and (stick around after the IMDb Game) a post-credits quiz about our past post-credits song outros.

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150 – The Shipping News

We’re marking a milestone this week with our 150th episode. And for such a momentous occasion, we’re finally digging in to one of the most notorious films of THOB history with Lasse Lasse Hallström’s The Shipping News. Adapted from Annie Proulx’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the film cast Kevin Spacey as a meak man who uproots his life to his Newfoundland home after the tragic death of his wife, Petal (Cate Blanchett). Also starring awards magnets Julianne Moore and Dame Judi Dench, the film had massive on-paper goods that went down in flames when the film faceplanted onto screens on Christmas Day, earning dismal reviews for its ungraceful handling of a literary work.

Especially cursed in retrospect for all of the obvious reasons, the film also met a Hallström backlash after Chocolat and The Cider Houses Rules back-to-back. This episode, we look at Miramax’s 2001 awards contender reshuffling and the film’s shockingly robust precursor tally, including a Best Picture nomination from the Critics Choice Awards. We also revisit our past Judi Dench episodes and our list of superlatives for episodes 101-150.

Topics also include the film’s absolutely bonkers character names, seal flipper pie as the best part of its love story, and Cate Blanchett’s 2001 triptych of critics prize awarded performances.

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149 – The Prize Winner of Defiance, OH

Can you believe it’s only our third episode discussing Julianne Moore? This episode we’re diving into the mid-00s period between nominations for Moore with 2005′s The Prize Winner of Defiance, OH. Starring the eventual Oscar winner in the true story of Evelyn Ryan, a mother of ten who supported her family through sweepstakes contests and jingle writing, the film looked to hit the actress’s sweet spot with a plum prestige role. But due to the financial woes of Dreamworks Pictures, the awards prospects died when the film was given a release too miniscule to draw attention.

The film marks the end of two eras: Dreamworks’ solo output and Moore in the period housewife mode. This episode, we get into Moore’s downturn period between nominations, including such misses as Freedomland and The Forgotten. We also discuss the career of director Jane Anderson and what makes the film worth more than the tiny release it received.

Topics also include the Golden Satellites, Toys R Us shopping sprees, and The Chumscrubber.

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039 – Suburbicon

2017 was a rough year for Paramount and their awards slate, but none of their films bombed as hard as George Clooney’s Suburbicon. Retooled by Clooney and his writing partner Grant Heslov from a Coen Brothers’ script that sat unproduced for 30 years, the Coens’ brand of misanthropic crime saga is infused with a very white perspective on racism in middle America. The film was DOA on the fall festival circuit and evaporated even faster with audiences.

As if his foot-in-mouth comments weren’t enough, 2017 was also a year that earned no favor for for Suburbicon’s miscast Matt Damon – particularly when he also led Paramount’s other misfire Downsizing. This week, we discuss how Damon killed his post-The Martian favor, Oscar Isaac’s inevitability as a future Oscar nominee, and Clooney’s status as a de facto pick for early predictions despite increasingly diminishing returns.

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026 – Crazy, Stupid, Love.

In many ways, 2011 was the year of Ryan Gosling. This was the peak “Hey Girl” era, and this year alone gave us the critical darling hotness of Drive and what we thought would suit the more traditional Academy tastes with The Ides of March. He was so omnipresent that a weak Best Actor field had us thinking for a moment that Oscar could make room for his most charming work in the trifecta, Crazy, Stupid, Love. Add him in to a cast of other beloved performers like Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, and Emma Stone, and you have a recipe for a real guilty pleasure.

Though Gosling did nab a Globe nomination for his ab-flashing work, this one might have been wishful thinking anyway with Oscar, but then again: there’s that pesky comedy bias. And while CSL has its champions (particularly programmers of cable television networks), the film also has all the trademark contrivances in screenwriter Dan Fogelman’s wheelhouse. This week we discuss Gosling’s ascent as a major leading man, the film’s creepy sexual politics, and how romantic comedies have failed Marisa Tomei.

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019 – Hannibal

Happy Halloween, listeners! This week, we’re getting creepy with Ridley Scott’s follow-up to Best Picture winner Gladiator, the gross-out macabre sequel Hannibal. The legacy of The Silence of the Lambs made this one of the most heavily covered productions of the early 2000s and convinced that it might be similarly bound for Oscar glory. Maybe someone was just feeding us our brains.

With Jodie Foster out as Clarice Starling as well as Jonathan Demme passing off directing duties, Scott was chasing every actress in Hollywood that was also among the Academy’s favorites. Also on our mind’s this episode: producer Dino De Laurentiis, how the film (wisely) nixed its more problematic elements, and its terrifying makeup. Also Anthony Hopkins talking about poppers.

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