movies – Page 14 – This Had Oscar Buzz

190 – Love and Friendship

We’ve talked before about the shaky Oscar history with Amazon Studios, and this episode we are talking about one of their unfortunate misses that happened in the year of their biggest success: 2016′s Love and Friendship. Adapted from the scabrous Jane Austen novella Lady Susan, the film had a much-ballyhooed premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and reunited Whit Stillman with his Last Days of Disco stars Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny. A perfect marriage between Austen and Stillman’s high society wits, the film sees Beckinsale in peak comedic form as the flirtatious and scheming Lady Susan opposite a cast of those caught in her web, including the uproarious breakout supporting player Tom Bennett.

This week, we discuss our love for the film and explore the Whit Stillman vibe of socially observant comedy. We also discuss Beckinsale’s career as primarily an action star, the highly competitive Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor races that made little room for Beckinsale and Bennett, and Amazon’s summer of 2016 misfires.

Topics also include the most recent AARP Movies for Grownups ceremony, Critics’ Choice ties, and which son maybe dies in “they’ll think we’re lezzos” cinema Adore.

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189 – Margot at the Wedding (with Kyle Buchanan)

After earning an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for The Squid and the Whale, Noah Baumbach followed up that film’s success by partnering with the recently Oscar-ed Nicole Kidman for Margot at the Wedding. The film cast Kidman opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh (then married to Baumbach) as verbally warring sisters, the youngest of who is planning a quick wedding to a bumbling idiot, played by Jack Black. Those looking at the film’s on-paper Oscar prospects were greeted with a daring showcase for Kidman, but a film even more caustic and cruel than Baumbach’s previous film. To date, it remains his worst reviewed directorial effort, but maintains a cult of ardent defenders.

This episode, Kyle Buchanan from The New York Times joins us to discuss his book Blood, Sweat, and Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road, the Fury Road Oscar year, and what makes Margot such a brilliant Kidman performance. We also get into the botox criticisms that plagued the film’s reviews, Jennifer Jason Leigh’s close calls before her Oscar nomination, and Kidman’s cringey virtuoso book store monologue.

Topics also include which Drag Race contestant Margot is, bucket hats, and the value of Oscar clips.

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188 – Wild Mountain Thyme

We’re cracking the seal on our Class of 2020 films and somehow manage to do it without miring ourselves in the depression that was the first covid year! And as promised, we’re talking about Wild Mountain Thyme, the oddball romantic comedy from Moonstruck Oscar winner John Patrick Shanley, adapted from his Tony-nominated play Outside Mullingar. The film casts Emily Blunt and Jamie Dornan as two Irish farm dwellers who have been dancing around a would-be romance since childhood, and was one of the several films bandied about among Oscar prognosticators in a year that saw few films released, much less pushed for Oscar.

This episode, we get into the film’s oddball twist and the ire inspired by the film’s… shall we say… questionable dialects. We also discuss Shanley’s less successful career as a film director, Blunt’s mighty precursor history that has led to zero Oscar nominations, and the current moment where Jamie Dornan sings in all of his movies.

Topics also include the 2020 Golden Globes, The Great Chipmunk Adventure, and Debra Messing’s Irish accent that must be heard to be believed.

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187 – Water for Elephants

Adaptations of uberpopular novels are always ripe for awards prestige, but this week’s episode is for a film that fizzled quickly. 2011′s Water for Elephants assembled an impressive crew for the circus-set period romantic drama along with a starry cast at tricky career moments: Robert Pattinson breaking from the Twilight franchise, Reese Witherspoon on a string of unsuccessful films, and Christoph Waltz as his typecast was taking shape. Each was slightly miscast, resulting in tepid romantic fireworks and familiar narrative beats that add up to a hohum movie forgotten by the time The Artist became a somewhat atypical Best Picture winner.

This episode, we discuss Pattinson career and the power of the Twihard base, along with our thoughts on The Batman. We also go into the filmography of the film’s screenwriter Richard LaGravenese and director Francis Lawrence, and look back at Witherspoon’s rebound that came shortly after this film.

Topics also include the Teen Choice Awards, why circus films stir up awe and awards prospects, and Uggie.

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186 – Danny Collins

This week, we’re looking at another surprise Golden Globe nomination that fueled minor Oscar talk, 2015′s Danny Collins. An assemblage of fedoras, silk scarves, and one catchy original song, the film stars Al Pacino as a washed up singer in the vein of Neil Diamond who ingratiates himself to the family of his estranged son. Written and directed by Dan Fogelman, the film may have all of Fogelman’s trademark cliched, but we (along with the HFPA) were quite charmed by the Pacino performance and the film as a whole. But that Globe surprise proved to not be enough for Oscar, leaving the film to be a forgotten spring release.

This episode, we go into the Fogelman ethos and examine the long period between Pacino’s Oscar win and his next nomination for The Irishman. We also discuss the cursed 2015 Original Song race that Danny Collins could have enlivened, Pacino’s string of HBO performances, and how Jennifer Garner is a more interesting supporting player than a lead.

Topics also include Dunkaccino, hanging out at the Grove, and Movies That Star Four Old Actors.

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185 – The Aeronauts

We’re taking flight this week with the “women don’t belong in balloons!” heard round the world. In 2019, The Aeronauts’ awards hopes took flight by reuniting The Theory of Everything’s Oscar winning-and-nominated duo of Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in the quasi-true story of a hot air balloon expedition that launched modern day weather forecasting. The film was originally intended for IMAX and early press promised a stunning visual display and a thrilling adventure for the ages. But when Amazon eventually canceled those IMAX plans and the film’s festival run resulted in lukewarm responses, The Aeronauts was left as a punchline for its unintend silly punchline from its trailer.

This episode, we look back at the Jones/Redmayne pairing as an unexpected one to stir a quick prestige reunion and the acting lineups during the year of Theory. We also discuss the cinematic output of Amazon Prime and their waning awards success since minimizing their theatrical strategy, the film’s divisive visual effects, and hint at what we have coming for our May miniseries.

Topics also include 1990s hottie Vincent Perez, our love of Himesh Patel in Station Eleven, and who these really good aeronauts might have bumped into in the sky.

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184 – Rumor Has It

This week, we’re looking at the less fondly remembered half of Shirley MacLaine’s 2005 buzzed grandmothers (after praising In Her Shoes in a previous episode) with Rumor Has It. Starring an immediately post-Friends Jennifer Aniston as a woman who believes her grandmother was the inspiration The Graduate’s Mrs. Robinson, the film assembled a prestigious cast for its conceptual take on movie nostalgia that made for a high-profile holiday release. But the film casts Kevin Costner as the would-be Benjamin Braddock that might become either Aniston’s love interest… or her father. Yeah, you can see why this one ultimately earned its reputation as a reviled misfire.

But the film was also plagued with production woes that saw screenwriter and original director Ted Griffin fired, only to be promptly replaced by Rob Reiner. This episode, we discuss Reiner’s later career of bad and unnoticed movies, Griffin’s career as a noteworthy screenwriter, and frustration around this year’s Oscar telecast.

Topics also include our parents’ viewing habits, Tower Heist, and who is best and least best in the Steel Magnolias ensemble.

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183 – Margaret (with Patrick Vaill)

#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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182 – State of Play

Adapted from the lauded UK miniseries of the same title, State of Play had a labored journey to the screen. Appearing on the 2006 Black List and originally intended as the screen reunion for Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, the American film adaptation weathered several delays, recastings, and creative setbacks, including the 2007 WGA strike. Once in production, the film mounted a cast that included Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, and Helen Mirren to unfold its political conspiracy in the attempted vein of All the President’s Men. All of this prestige put the film on awards prognosticators’ early predictions while it was still planned for a fall 2008 release, but it quickly cast aside those ambitions once in was punted one final time to a spring 2009 release.

This episode, we discuss Russell Crowe’s post-Oscar career of several Ridley Scott films and the phone-throwing incident that tainted his career. We also discuss Ben Affleck in the immediate afterglow of his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, his immediate pivot to casting himself in his own movies, and director Kevin Macdonald’s pivot from documentarries to fiction films.

Topics also include watching the original miniseries on Netflix discs, snacks that are just chemicals, and The Eagle.

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Class of 2021

We finally have this year’s set of Oscar nominations, so that means it’s time for our Class of 2021 episode! This episode, we look back on the almost-was of the past awards season with films that received zero Oscar nominations, including in categories of Most Forgettable, Happiest Miss, and Saddest Snub. We also add a category for films we’re bummed we can’t discuss in future episodes, and you can guess what gets a mention there! And it all ends with picking the films we vow to cover first on the podcast, and a rundown of other films that were on the Oscar hunt at some point in the year. Topics also include saying farewell to Lady Gaga’s Oscar campaigning, the two categories that voted for the same five movies for the first time in over 50 years, and a Captain Planet lineup of Reba McEntires.

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