Oscars – Page 7 – This Had Oscar Buzz

264 – Everest (with Katey Rich!)

Following Thanksgiving tradition, Katey Rich returns to This Had Oscar Buzz to discussant film with indistinguishable white male actors, and this year we have chosen 2015’s Everest. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur and featuring a massive cast led by Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, and Jake Gyllenhaal, the film follows the true story of a disastrous trip up Mount Everest that left almost an entire crew dead. The prestigious cast and the film’s placement opening the Venice Film Festival led some prognosticators to suspect the film could be an Oscar player, but it ended up a straightforward disaster film that American audiences mostly dismissed.

This episode, we discuss how the film struggles to portray the reasons someone would want to climb Everest and Joe delivers his most hoot-worthy game yet. We also discuss Gyllenhaal’s recent questionable output, Elizabeth Debicki explaining things, and directors we confuse for Kormákur.

Topics also include mountain madness, author Jon Krakauer, and “wife on phone.”

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263 – A Good Year

After the Oscar and box office success of Gladiator, director/star duo of Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe decided to reunite in 2006 for a very different kind of film, A Good Year. Starring Crowe as a finance bro who returns to the French vineyard of his beloved but estranged and now deceased uncle (played by Albert Finney), the film offered Scott the chance to shoot a film close to home and stretch himself into comedy. With Marion Cotillard as Crowe’s love interest and Abbie Cornish as the uncle’s rightful heir, Scott’s fledgling comedy chops resulted in a misfire and one of the biggest bombs of his career.

This episode, we discuss the Ridley Scott post-Best Picture filmography and the 2006 Best Actor race. We also look at Cotillard’s Oscar win during a strike year, Cornish’s world-traveling dialects, and the 2006 TIFF Galas.

Topics also include Industry, a former lost episode, and Buffalo voice.

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262 – Inside Man

We return to the filmography of Spike Lee this week with his biggest box office success, 2006’s Inside Man. With a star-packed cast led by Denzel Washington as a hostage negotiator, Clive Owen as the bank robber opposite him, and Jodie Foster as a nefarious fixer, Lee took a standard crime thriller and made it his own to instantly rewatchable results. While the film generated the kind of “you know what was a good movie? Inside Man!” year-end critical reassessment we often talk about, it wasn’t enough to result in the snowball effect that leads to Oscar nominations.

This episode, we talk about how Lee elevates the film with his stylistic trademarks and the film’s twinship with 2006’s Best Picture winner The Departed. Topics also include Foster’s return this season with Nyad, Owen’s post-Oscar nomination slump, and Universal’s 2006 Oscar slate of The Good Shepherd and Children of Men.

Topics also include Washington’s aughts Tony Scott collaborations, whatever the hell is going on over at Gladiator 2, and the Streep/Gummer split.

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261 – Hereditary

Happy Halloween, listeners! Naturally, this week we are returning to the shallow well of horror films that made it into the Oscar hunt with a recent highly debated and lauded terrifier. In 2018, Ari Aster made his feature debut at Sundance with Hereditary, the story of a family invaded from within by a demon worshipping cult. Aster’s bizarre vision quickly earned the film a reputation as one of the scariest ever made, but Toni Collette’s performance as a terrified and grieving mother received some career-best notices and feverish hopes that she could crack the Best Actress lineup. As you might expect, Hereditary was simply too much for the Academy.

This episode, we talk about everything that makes the film so divisive and Ari Aster’s whole thing. We also talk about Collette’s career and our favorites in her filmography, the rise of character actress Ann Dowd, and what makes the conversation around “elevated horror” so frustrating.

Topics also include putting the Saturn Awards on notice, coin parties, and the Gotham Awards.

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260 – The Deep Blue Sea

A few weeks ago, we lost the great and greatly undervalued filmmaker Terence Davies, who listened have heard our love of on our previous episode for The House of Mirth. In 2011, Davies adapted the play The Deep Blue Sea for the screen, with Rachel Weisz taking the role of a post-WWII married woman devastated by a failed affair with a veteran pilot, played by Tom Hiddleston. The film launched at TIFF but didn’t hit US screens until the following year, with Weisz an outsider contender in Best Actress with a NYFCC win and a surprise Golden Globe nomination.

This week, we talk about Davies’ heartbreaking passing and his career that culminated with Benediction. We also talk about Weisz’ career and Best Supporting Actress win for The Constant Gardener, Hiddleston’s breakthrough year in 2011 including Thor, and Simon Russell Beale’s tender performance as Weisz’ husband.

Topics also include what a cockle is, NYFCC’s other Best Actress choices, and the under appreciation of this year’s Dead Ringers limited series.

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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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257 – Kill Bill – Vol. 1

We’re here celebrating a 20th anniversary for a beloved film this week, listeners! After his longest break between movies to date, Quentin Tarantino delivered a samurai epic while trying to crack the script for another epic, Inglourious Basterds. That ultraviolent actioner, Kill Bill, would also reunite Tarantino with his Pulp Fiction star Uma Thurman, given a major showcase as an unnamed blood soaked bride bent on vengeance. But Tarantino made so much movie, it had to be split into two.

Vol. 1 arrived in 2003 and became a sizable hit, wild mild critical praise that didn’t quite know what to do with its non-stop violence, time-hopping structure, and incomplete narrative arc. This episode, we talk about Kill Bill – Vol. 1‘s excellent female ensemble, its triumph at the MTV Movie Awards, and the all-timer needle drop “Battle Without Honor or Humanity”.

Topics also include first experiencing the film’s cliffhanger, its strong performance at BAFTA, and early aughts trailer descriptions.

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256 – Burnt

This week, we’re bringing you an episode to make you yell “YA BURNT!” Back in 2015, Bradley Cooper was to headline an ensemble dreamed about an unruly addict chef trying to earn his third Michelin star. Switching from the anonymously titled Adam Jones to the equally anonymous Burnt, the film had already earned a little bit of punchline status before skipping the fall festival circuit and delivering a dud wide release. Despite Cooper’s rising star power and Academy pedigree, this one didn’t come close to the awards or audience embrace as 2014’s American Sniper.

This episode, we look back at a the rise of chef culture in pop culture at large from Top Chef to The Bear. We also talk about Alicia Vikander’s busy 2015 that led to an Oscar win, the film’s ludicrous but formulaic plotting by screenwriter Steven Knight, and the underwhelming cinematic output from director John Wells.

Topics also include Cooper’s upcoming Maestro, his Oscar nominations as a producer, and Serenity.

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255 – Win Win

Before Tom McCarthy would deliver an Oscar triumph with Spotlight (and a bomb with The Cobbler), his critically beloved films centering on everyday people culminated in Win Win. The film starred Paul Giamatti as a lawyer and wrestling coach who takes in the grandson of an elderly client, one who he has taken guardianship of solely to alleviate his family’s precarious financial situation. With a stellar ensemble including Amy Ryan and Melanie Lynskey, the film premiered at Sundance to strong reviews and earned screenplay mentions throughout the season ahead. But with distributor Fox Searchlight handling several bigger films, Win Win did not become McCarthy’s first Oscar nominee.

This episode, we look back at Giamatti’s notorious Oscar snub for Sideways and ahead to his chances this year with Alexander Payne reunion The Holdovers. We also discuss Ryan’s passionate and lovable performance, Spotlight‘s position in its Best Picture lineup, and Win Win‘s fellow nominees for Best Movie for Grownups.

Topics also include Melinda Doolittle on American Idol, Nina Arianda’s film roles, and McCarthy’s canned Game of Thrones pilot.

And remember to join us on This Had Oscar Buzz: Turbulent Brilliance over at patreon.com/thishadoscarbuzz!!

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254 – The Killing of a Sacred Deer

Some might call Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar ascent an unlikely one, given the oddness at the core of his films. But with the Foreign Language Feature nomination for the explicit Dogtooth and the Original Screenplay for The Lobster, the Greek auteur cemented his status in the Oscar club. A victory lap of sorts came with The Killing of a Sacred Deer in 2017, returning Lanthimos to Cannes competition with the pedigree of Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. But any expectation that the film might be another Academy affirmed oddity all but evaporated when Cannes audiences discovered a bloody and deeply strange (even for Lanthimos) modern fable about a father given an otherworldly, violent demand from a deceased patient’s son.

This episode, we talk about our anticipation for Lanthimos’ Poor Things this season and the elements that make this film so divisive. We also talk about Barry Keoghan’s brilliant breakthrough performance, Alicia Silverstone’s caramel tart, and the film career of character actor Bill Camp (new bet alert!).

Topics also include the now-defunct Executive Committee, Kidman smoking while gardening, and 2017 Cannes Film Festival.

Don’t forget to sign up for our Patreon, This Had Oscar Buzz: Turbulent Brilliance over at patreon.com/thishadoscarbuzz!!

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