movies – Page 4 – This Had Oscar Buzz

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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290 – The Front Page (with Roxana Hadadi) (70s Spectacular – 1974)

1974 brings us to one of the final films of Billy Wilder, which also reunited a screen duo beloved by both Oscar and audiences, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Vulture writer Roxana Hadadi is back to the show to talk about The Front Page, an oft-adapted farce about newspapermen getting wrapped up in the case of an escaped convict. Most famously retold in a gender swapped version in His Girl Friday, this version stumbles to deliver the best of this director-star trio and missed Oscar’s good graces despite multiple nominations in the decade for Mathau and Lemmon, including Lemmon’s win the previous year.

This episode, we talk about the victory lap made by Francis Ford Coppola with The Godfather Part II and The Conversation both earning Oscar love. We also talk about the film’s apoliticism was atypical of the moment, our love for Ingrid Bergman’s Supporting Actress speech, and the hubbub over the acceptance speech for Best Documentary Feature Hearts and Minds.

Topics also include disaster movies becoming the splashy Hollywood product, The Godfather Part II Supporting Actor nominations, and Anderson Cooper talking about his mom hooking up with Marlon Brando.

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289 – Don’t Look Now (with David Sims) (70s Spectacular – 1973)

In 1973, the Academy embraced horror in a big way by slapping cultural phenomenon The Exorcist with 10 nominations – but then The Sting would triumph over its success on Oscar night. Critic David Sims returns to the show to talk about a different iconic and formative horror title, Nicolas Rouge’s Don’t Look Now. With prestige stars Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, the film follows a married couple grieving the loss of a child while working overseas in Venice. Clairvoyance, a serial killer, and disturbing visions all amount to a unique horror film that would influence many to come, but nevertheless one that the Academy was not ready to embrace.

This episode, we talk about the film’s notorious sex scene and the film as an odd middle ground between The Exorcist and Last Tango in Paris. We also talk about how the reputation of the film’s twist ending, Christie’s Oscar legacy, and how Sutherland was never nominated for an Oscar ahead of his honorary win.

Topics also include David’s favorites of 1973, Jefferson Mays on Broadway, and the Oscar streaker.

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288 – Up the Sandbox (with Jordan Hoffman) (70s Spectacular – 1972)

The 70s Spectacular is dancing as fast as it can! And we’re spinning right into 1972 with one of the decade’s biggest stars, the one and only Barbra Streisand, and joining us is one of her superfans, writer Jordan Hoffman. This year saw the first films of First Artists, a production company that intended to give more power to stars to create their passion projects the studios wouldn’t touch. Streisand’s first effort with the company was Up the Sandbox, a timely satire that cast the legend as a housewife faced with a third pregnancy, who retreats into her wild and often politically charged fantasies. Indifference from audiences and the industry made this one of Streisand’s rare flops.

This episode, we talk about our love for Barbra and this legendary Oscar year that pit Cabaret against The Godfather. We also talk about the film’s bizarre fantasy sequences, how it exists as a product of a specific moment in time, and cinematographer Gordon Willis’ shockingly slim Oscar history.

Topics also include Paul Zindel books, Harry And Walter Go To New York, and Shelley Winters in The Poseidon Adventure.

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287 – Harold and Maude (with Katie Walsh) (70s Spectacular – 1971)

The 70s Spectacular continues with critic and podcaster Katie Walsh joining us to discuss 1971 and Hal Ashby. After making his directorial debut with The Landlord after a career as an editor (including an Oscar win for In the Heat of the Night), Ashby returned to the director’s chair for what might be the film that became his signature. Harold and Maude cast recent comedy breakthrough Bud Cort as a death-obsessed, disaffected youth who falls for a free spirit who just so happens to be 60 years older, played by recent Oscar winner Ruth Gordon.

This episode, we talk about Ashby’s prolific career in the 1970s, where Harold and Maude would be his only film without Oscar nominations. We also talk about Gordon’s three screenwriting Oscar nominations with her partner, Vivian Pickles’ underpraised performance as Harold’s mother, and the musical contributions of Cat Stevens.

Topics also include T-Mobile ads, the secret hotness of Norma Rae, and Charlie Chaplin’s honorary Oscar win.

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286 – Something for Everyone (with Chris Schleicher!) (70s Spectacular – 1970)

It’s time to kick off our May miniseries – the This Had Oscar Buzz: 70s Spectacular! For 1970, television writer Chris Schleicher joins us for a forgotten tale of wealth, deception, and Bavarian castles. The directorial debut of stage legend Hal Prince (and with a screenplay by his frequent collaborator Hugh Wheeler, from the novel The Cook by Harry Kressing), Something for Everyone starred a pre-Cabaret Michael York as a young man who weasel’s his way into the good graces of a wealthy family in order to claim their family castle. As the family matriarch, Angela Lansbury earned a Golden Globe nomination that didn’t translate to Oscar.

This episode, we talk about the 1970 Oscar year dominated by controversy surrounding George C. Scott’s rejection of Oscar pomp and circumstance and this film’s very obvious similarities to Saltburn. We also talk about Lansbury’s Oscar and Tony run preceding the film, Michael York as canonical cinematic bisexual, and Prince’s directorial failure adapting A Little Night Music.

Topics also include “It Goes Like It Goes,” the supporting actresses of Five Easy Pieces, and our disdain for Love Story.

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285 – A Bigger Splash

We’re stoked for Challengers this week, so naturally we’re talking about one of our favorites in the Luca Guadagnino resume, 2016’s underdiscussed and hot as hell A Bigger Splash. Premiering at the 2015 Venice Film Festival and playing internationally in 2015, but opening late spring 2016 in the States, A Bigger Splash is a rock-and-roll-inflected tale of sex and ego that loosely remakes La Piscine. With a foursome of stellar performances by Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Dakota Johnson, the film earned strong notices especially for Fiennes’ bawdy dance moves, but category confusion and the spring release hindered his chances.

This week, we talk about the film’s portrayal of desire and deception, and how slyly the film weaves in themes of morality. We also discuss Tilda’s vocal acting choice, Johnson’s career emerging from 50 Shades, and the 2015 Venice jury. And we reveal the topic for the coming May miniseries!!

Topics also include poolside etiquette, adult braces, and Regina King being edited out of Beastly.

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284 – The Sisters Brothers

If you think we are too dismissive of westerns, allow this week’s episode to contradict that notion! In 2018, Jacques Audiard made his English language debut with an adaptation of Patrick deWitt’s novel The Sisters Brothers. John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix starred as gunslinging assassin siblings in 19th century America, with both on the pursuit of a detective and a scientist (played respectively by a reunited Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed) with a plot for gold. Despite the reputation of everyone involved, the film received a mild reception at fall festivals before a quiet September release.

This episode, we talk about the struggles of Annapurna to successfully switch from being a production house to a distributor. We also discuss the career of Reilly with the hopes of a career reappraisal, our feelings about the western genre and the attempts to revive it, and Audiard’s French submission contender in A Prophet.

Topics also include surprise Carol Kane, queercoding, and Jake going weird.

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283 – Garden State

We’re finally diving into the time capsule that is 2004’s Garden State. The writing and directing debut of Zach Braff, the film stars Braff as a depressed actor who returns to his Jersey home to attend his mother’s funeral. Once there, he reunites with former friends and maybe meets the love of his life (played by Natalie Portman in an urtext manic pixie dream girl mode) who helps him reevaluate his life. The film was a Sundance sensation and unleashed a gangbusters trailer package, igniting the love of young cinephiles, if not the Academy.

This episode, we discuss what about the film has aged poorly and its place in Fox Searchlight’s very busy 2004. We also talk about the film’s incredibly popular and definitive soundtrack, Portman’s performance and career up to her first Oscar nomination, and Jackie Hoffman’s brief performance in the film hilariously singing Lionel Ritchie.

Topics also include the personal stages of life we were in when we first saw the film, how gross it is to share headphones, and Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling winning Best Kiss.

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282 – Music (Patreon Selects)

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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