Owen Wilson – This Had Oscar Buzz

334 – The French Dispatch

We’ve got a new Wes Anderson movie on the horizon, so why not revisit one of his more divisive films: 2021’s The French Dispatch. The film features a bursting murderer’s row of cast members to fill out Anderson’s ode to journalism, a triptych of stories all set within the world of a fictional magazine. Originally promised for 2020’s Cannes Film Festival and delayed more than a year by COVID, the film arrived to American audiences and a growing faction of those growing restless with Anderson’s whole deal.

This episode, we talk about our growing appreciation for the film since release and Anderson’s “nesting doll” approach to storytelling. We also discuss Jeffrey Wright’s celebrated performance, Christoph Waltz’s cameo that lands him in our Six Timers Club, and Anderson’s Oscar history.

Topics also include the 2021 Production Design nominees, Anderson’s win for Live Action short, and the weird 2021 official Globes tweets.

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201 – How Do You Know

While not known for their love for comedies, the Academy has often proven a fan for the works of James L. Brooks. This week, we’re talking about his (likely) final film, the 2010 flop How Do You Know. The film stars Reese Witherspoon as a softball player grappling with the end of her career while torn between romance with two men (played respectively by Owen Wilson and Paul Rudd): a Major League Baseball player and a man facing punishment for the corporate crimes of his fathers’ business. Also the final film of Jack Nicholson’s before his retirement, How Do You Know was savaged by critics, quickly dismissed by audiences in a packed holiday season, and even failed to land any Globes Comedy nominations in the year of The Tourist.

This episode, we discuss Brooks’ Oscar track record, including his previous misses between Oscar darlings and the two times he directed a Best Picture nominee without getting a directing nomination. We also discuss our desire for a new Witherspoon romcom, who is the Oscar ceremony’s new front mascot now that Nicholson doesn’t attend, and that time Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholson jokingly flirted.

Topics also include the current Searchlight/Hulu situation, Paul Rudd’s potential for a future Oscar nomination, and Kathryn Hahn hiding her pregnancy behind a Sony Vaio.

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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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