Paul Thomas Anderson – This Had Oscar Buzz

CATEGORY IS… – Casting

It’s May Miniseries time!! Presenting CATEGORY IS…! We’re in a moment of the Academy Awards introducing new categories for the first time in many years, and we’ll be spending the whole month discussing the categories already announced and a few we think should be! First up: Best Casting! This episode, we discuss the Oscar’s newest category and how we felt about the nominees for 2025, how we would like to see the category evolve in the years to come, what shortlisted films we think might have deserved the nomination, and we close the episode with the most important part: we name 10 films in movie history that we would retroactively award with a Casting Oscar.

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355 – Punch-Drunk Love (with Katie Walsh!)

We are so excited to welcome back Tribune News Service film critic Katie Walsh to discuss one of the most beloved American filmmakers! When will “Oscar for Sandman” happen? Well, in 2002, Adam Sandler had his first attempt at the Gold with an esoteric, anxious romantic comedy by Paul Thomas Anderson, Punch-Drunk Love. While the film perfectly matches Anderson’s sensibility with Sandler’s manic comedic chops, this bittersweet and left-of-center romance was ultimately more of a (still not unanimous) critical darling, too odd for the Academy’s tastes.

This week, we talk about PTA’s pivot into the film’s small-scale specificity after the sprawl of Magnolia and Boogie Nights. We also discuss how past brushes with Oscar-friendly fare position Sandler for this year’s Jay Kelly, Jack Nicholson as Sandler’s champion at the Cannes Film Festival, and the MTV Movie Awards Best Kiss.

Topics also include Jon Brion’s score, supermarket movies, and the former green color of Healthy Choice.

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204 – A Prairie Home Companion (with Clay Keller)

An episode long teased has finally arrived. Screen Drafts co-host (and proud Minnesotan) Clay Keller joins us to discuss the final film from beloved auteur Robert Altman, 2006′s A Prairie Home Companion. Based on and set within the eponymous radio show, the film follows the backstage goings-on during the show’s fictionalized final live recording, with a sprawling cast of Altman regulars and newbies including Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, Maya Rudolph, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Lindsay Lohan, and Virginia Madsen as an angel of death. Altman would pass the November after its release, but sadly did not receive posthumous recognition for the film due to its somewhat divided reception.

This episode, we’re discussing the dual summer roles for Streep between this and The Devil Wears Prada, and we’re celebrating our tenth Streep episode! We also discuss Lohan’s turmoil at the time, Paul Thomas Anderson as a contractually obligated backup director, and Clay brings us stories from his experience as an extra on the set of the film.

Topics also include the Streep/Tomlin tribute to Altman at the previous ceremony, bad jokes, and a Screen Drafts-style ranking of the film’s best performances.

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