Leslie Odom Jr. – This Had Oscar Buzz

On top of all the horrors of the pandemic, let’s not forget that that time also gave us cringe cinema directed by Sia. This week, we come to you with another Patreon Selects, where sponsor listener Stuart has tasked us with that very film. Initially shot in 2017, Sia’s Music cast Kate Hudson as a troublesome drug dealer tasked with taking over the care of her younger autistic sister, played by Sia protege Maddie Ziegler. The ill-conceived film earned a deserved firestorm of outcry for Sia not casting a neurodivergent performer and the singer’s initial dismissive reactions to the controversy, but then earned two shock Golden Globe nominations in the Musical/Comedy categories.

This episode, we unpack all that makes this our presumed worst film we have yet to discuss. We also talk about supporting star Leslie Odom Jr.’s presence in the film in the same season as his dual Oscar nominations for One Night in Miami…, Hudson’s newfound music career, and the films that the Globes could have sensibly nominated in Music‘s place.

Topics also include whatever the hell Mary Kay Place is doing in this movie, Hudson and Odom Jr. in Glass Onion, and the current hideous Globe statue.

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All aboard, listeners! This week, we’re looking at Kenneth Branagh’s recent attempts to take on Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot with 2017′s Murder on the Orient Express. Directed by and starring Branagh as the French investigator, the film assembled a gobsmacking assemblage of stars (from Michelle Pfeiffer to Judi Dench to Penelope Cruz to Johnny Depp) for one of Christie’s most iconic whodunits that looked to be a splashy blockbuster. Though the film was a box office success enough to launch a new franchise, the film received a ho-hum critical response and never got close to achieving the Oscar embrace received by Sidney Lumet’s 1974 version of the material.

This episode, we talk about Branagh’s underwhelming approach to the material and how the film doesn’t give us movie stars acting opposite movie stars in the way that we want. We also discuss how Death on the Nile compares to this film’s lacking sense of fun, Michelle Pfeiffer’s acting nominations, and the 2017 Saturn Awards.

Topics also include Ingrid Bergman’s Orient Express Oscar win, the film’s odd trailer punctuated by Imagine Dragons, and the mustache.

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Tag: Leslie Odom Jr.

282 – Music (Patreon Selects)

225 – Murder on the Orient Express