Noah Baumbach – This Had Oscar Buzz

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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167 – The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

We’ll get you a red cap and a speedo for this week’s episode, becuase we’re talking about Wes Anderson for the first time with The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. The follow-up to Anderson’s first Oscar-nominated film The Royal Tenenbaums put Bill Murray front and center in the year after Murray almost won Best Actor for Lost in Translation. But critics were far less kind to this film than Anderson’s previous efforts (it remains his only rotten movie on RT), and voters looking to reward Murray for his previous loss were met with a more caustic and off-putting character than hid lauded “sad Murray” era.

This episode, we look back at how Murray was shockingly snubbed for Anderson’s Rushmore and the ebbs and flows of Anderson’s career in relation to audience/critic perceptions. And since no performance in a Wes Anderson film has ever landed an Oscar nomination, we pick our top 5 performances in his films we think are most deserving.

Topics also include Seu Jorge’s David Bowie covers in Portuguese, whether or not Ray is appropriately categorized as a musical, and which performance in The French Dispatch has the best chance at a nomination.

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110 – The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

Netflix and the Academy have had a rapidly evolving relationship in the past several years. This week, we look at the short trajectory from demonstrative shutout for Beasts of No Nation to a potential domination this season with a discussion of their 2017 awards also-ran The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected). The less heralded and less seen of Noah Baumbach’s two films for the streaming giant stars Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Elizabeth Marvel as extended siblings coping with their difficult father’s (Dustin Hoffman) waning health – and we kind of adore it.

Launched at the Cannes Film Festival (along with Okja) to boos at the sight of the Netflix logo, the film got lost in the shuffle for both critics and streamer-averse awards voters. Though Netflix would break through major categories that year with Mudbound, the streamer stigma would continue to play out in future seasons. This week, we’re talking about the whole Netflix thing, Noah Baumbach’s long break with Oscar post-The Squid and the Whale, and “Myron/Byron”.

Topics also include Marvel’s underrated performance, the 2017 Best Original Song nominees, and Sigourney Weaver introducing herself as herself.

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