LGBTQ – This Had Oscar Buzz

309 – Jeffrey (Patreon Selects)

We’re back again with another episode chosen by one of our sponsor-tier subscribers from Patreon, this time with a bit of 1990s gay cinema! Thank you Lance for bringing us all to 1995’s Jeffrey! Adapted from Paul Rudnick’s Off-Broadway smash play, the concept of an “AIDS comedy” made it difficult to get produced, but ultimately unique once it reached theatre audiences. Despite playing to a limited audience on film and taking a broad comedic approach to the culture surrounding gay life in the 1990s, Patrick Stewart’s performance as an interior designer diagnosed with AIDS earned some bit of buzz.

This episode, we talk about the career of Paul Rudnick and the types of gay cinema that emerged in this moment of American independent filmmaking. We also talk about Stewart’s surprising lack of awards history, Bryan Batt’s performance as Stewart’s lover, and Christine Baranski hosting a “hoedown for AIDS.”

Topics also include TikTok smash videos, “start my orange for me,” and Debra Monk talking gay stuff.

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297 – To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

Why not derail an originally planned episode to close pride season with a beloved queer 90s film with three praised performances? In 1995, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar spun a tale of three drag queens on a road trip that get stranded in middle America. Its headliners were two macho movie stars in Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes and one emerging theatre actor in John Leguizamo, resulting in Globe nominations for Swayze and Leguizamo. One of a few of the 90s drag centric movie hits, To Wong Foo was ignored by the Academy for both its performances and its costumes, a category won by The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert the previous year.

This episode, we unpack how the film has stood the test of time in the queer canon and the performances from these straight performers. We also discuss the film’s divine female ensemble, how the film holds up to contemporary expectations for queer cinema, and title punctuation.

Topics also include favorite outfits from Snipes’ Noxeema Jackson, the drag road trip movie tradition, and 1995 Best Supporting Actor.

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291 – The Ritz (with Christina Tucker) (70s Spectacular – 1976)

We’re on to 1976 (go sign up for our Patreon for 1975 and our Exception episode on Tommy!) and Christina Tucker rejoins us to talk about the 70s Spectacular’s wildest movie, The Ritz. From the play by Terrence McNally, the film is a mob farce set in a bathhouse with Jack Weston as a straight man hiding out from Jerry Stiller’s mob boss and living legend Rita Moreno as the sex establishment’s kooky cabaret headliner. Despite the pedigree of Oscar winner Moreno and then-newly-minted theatre icon McNally, The Ritz turned out to be a little too Looney Tunes for the stiff-upper-lip (and super straight) Academy.

This episode, we tackle the film’s harmless lunacy and McNally’s legacy. We also talk about Moreno’s Tony speech from the Broadway production, Rocky‘s victory over an incredible Best Picture lineup, and William Friedkin’s dour approach to producing the Oscar ceremony.

Topics also include the Continental Baths, Challengers, and Post Malone’s 2024.

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BONUS – Sundance the Night (with Cameron Scheetz)

We’re breaking into your regular podcast schedule to bring you a special bonus episode recapping our thoughts on the films of this year’s Sundance Film Festival! And we’ve asked Queerty’s Cameron Scheetz back on to tell us what the festival was like on the ground at Park City (along with thoughts on non-virtual films like I Saw the TV Glow)! Topics include June Squibb going vigilante as Thelma, a Kieran Culkin/Jesse Eisenberg Pain-ful duet, and our favorite films of this year’s festival!

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271 – Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Patreon Selects)

Our Patreon Selects episodes continue this week with a pick from Audrey: the beloved 2019 lesbian romance Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The film launched at the Cannes Film Festival, winning the Best Screenplay prize and skyrocketing director Céline Sciamma to the names of most beloved contemporary directors. However, when the Oscar race began, France instead chose to submit Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables for the International Feature race. Sciamma’s film still gained feverish fandom on the fall festival circuit and even more critical raves, but ultimately distributor Neon focused its awards campaign energies on fanning the flames of the Parasite moment.

This episode, we talk about the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and Portrait’s delayed platform release that got abbreviated by COVID. We also discuss Adèle Haenel’s stunning enigmatic performance, the film where Noémie Merlant falls in love with a circus ride, and the case for Claire Mathon in Best Cinematography.

Topics also include Louis Ironson’s poster’s disease, 2019 films directed by women, and the 2022 Sight and Sound poll.

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265 – Brideshead Revisited

We all know that Oscar fawns over costume dramas of literary adaptations… or so we tell ourselves when forming predictions and one with a whiff of prestige arrives. In 2008, director Julian Jerrold delivered a new adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited with an up-and-coming young cast paired with Dame Emma Thompson as the devoutly religious Lady Marchmain. With Matthew Goode as the social climber Charles Ryder and Ben Whishaw and Hayley Atwell as the siblings he romances, the queer-inflected drama earned modest reviews and box office, with Thompson an outsider Supporting Actress contender through the season.

This episode, Thompson joins our six timers club and we discuss our love for the then-emerging Whishaw. We also look back at Goode’s career including the misbegotten Watchmen film, Atwell’s career outside of Marvel, and the surprising amount of time that has passed since Thompson’s last nomination.

Topics also include Brideshead riff Saltburn, pneumonia terminology, and 2008 queer cinema.

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259 – Ammonite (with Christina Tucker!)

After Francis Lee’s celebrated queer debut God’s Own Country, the director leveled up with another gay romance Ammonite, this time with Oscar-pedigreed stars. Kate Winslet stars as 19th century paleontologist Mary Anning opposite Saoirse Ronan as Charlotte Murchison; the two develop a seaside romance of opposites between the gruff Anning and the unfulfilled Murchison. But Lee’s follow-up, (originally selected for Cannes) had the unlucky fortune to come out in 2020 amidst a climate unfriendly to a romance more reserved and quiet than expected.

This episode, we talk about the film’s unceremonious world premiere at the COVID-impacted Toronto International Film Festival and the film’s theatrical run. We also discuss 2017 comparison’s between God’s Own Country and Call Me By Your Name, Winslet’s performance on Mare of Easttown, and the minor controversy over the real woman’s unknown sexuality.

Topics also include Sam Levinson’s (hypothetical!) dungeon, emotional metaphor animals, and “Harold, they’re lesbians!”

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242 – Pride

This week’s episode is one we have promised for some time: 2014′s Pride. The film tells the true story of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, a queer activist group that partnered with a Welsh town in the 1980s during the mining strike under Thatcher’s rule. Following the lives of both the straight townsfolk and the queer Londoners, the film paints a portrait of queerness, allyship, and activism that rings true today while also satisfying on a crowd-pleasing level. After launching at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight and winning the Queer Palm, the film launched in the fall of 2014 to some ardent critical fans, but didn’t cross the Oscar finish line.

This episode, we talk about the theatre career of director Matthew Warchus and the film’s comforts in this current tumultuous moment for queer people. We also talk about the film’s tremendous ensemble headlined by Imelda Staunton and Bill Nighy, gay infighting, and unofficial THOB mascot Men Trussler.

Topics also include the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Monica Bellucci bluntly listing director names, and the concept of Festival Regret.

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154 – Battle of the Sexes

One year after winning Best Actress for La La Land, Emma Stone returned with an even better performance but faced even tougher competition. In Battle of the Sexes, the recent winner starred as Billie Jean King as she faced off Bobby Riggs (played by Steve Carell) in the famed titular tennis match. Directed by Little Miss Sunshine duo Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the film had a warm festival and critical reception before quickly underwhelming at the box office and hung on with mentions for Stone and Carell during the precursors.

But Battle of the Sexes was quickly put on the backburner as two of Searchlights other contenders became Best Picture (and Best Actress) heavy hitters: The Shape of Water and Three Billboards. This episode, we discuss some reservations about the film and praise the work of Stone, who go on to again outdo herself a year later with The Favourite. We also discuss Dayton/Faris’ Ruby Sparks, Billie Jean King as that Oscar season’s Real Philomena Lee, and Sarah Silverman as a stealth player.

Topics also include 2017′s Supporting Actor fifth spot in flux, the Original Song race, and hot nepotism with Louis Pullman.

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147 – Boy Erased (Focus Features – Part Five)

Our Focus Features miniseries comes to a close with 2018′s Boy Erased. Based on the memoir by Garrard Conley, the film stars Lucas Hedges as a young man from a religious family who is subjected to conversion therapy when his parents (played by Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe) discover that he is gay. Though sensitively approached by director/star Joel Edgerton, the film is ultimately is too reserved and stumbles to get inside the head of its protagonist, resulting in a milquetoast response from awards voters and audiences.

This episode, we discuss Hedges’ busy fall of 2018, his soft coming out of sorts, and the Ben Beautiful Boy Erased is Back blur of movies in that season. We also look at Crowe’s quiet end to being considered an Oscar darling and Kidman’s dual THOB fall 2018 with Destroyer. And we get into the film’s ups (a strong cast of bit players!) and downs (that perfume ad scene!) in telling a queer story, and of course “Bloom.”

Topics also include 2018′s Original Song race, sprained ankles at TIFF, and our Top 10 favorite Focus Features films.

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