Rachel McAdams – This Had Oscar Buzz

337 – To the Wonder

With the whispers and rumors that Terrence Malick’s Jesus film The Way of the Wind maybe possibly perhaps who knows could finally premiere this year after filming in 2019, we thought it was time to discuss his work. One year after The Tree of Life earned Oscar nominations and the Palme d’Or, Malick had perhaps his fastest turnaround with To The Wonder. A semi-autobiographical tale of a cross-continental love affair souring once it reaches America, the film starred Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko and Rachel McAdams as the onscreen love triangle. But once the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, it earned some of Malick’s harshest notices to date.

This episode, we discuss the mixed reception around Malick’s post-Tree of Life work and our own divided thoughts on the film. We also discuss the several famous names left on Malick’s cutting room floor, Javier Bardem’s performance as the town priest, and Rachel McAdams joins our Six Timers Club.

Topics also include Roger Ebert’s final review, Kurylenko as an action star, and “to the wonder, to the walls.”

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294 – The Notebook

The May miniseries is over and we’re kicking off June with a dose of movie monoculture with 2004’s The Notebook. Adapted from the Nicholas Sparks romance novel, the film’s journey to the screen attracted a range of huge Hollywood names from Steven Spielberg to Britney Spears. The tale of two lovers divided by class in the south, the film captured lightning in a bottle with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as the lovers and old school Hollywood legends James Garner and Gena Rowlands as their older versions facing dementia. Though Garner would see a SAG Supporting Actor nomination, the industry didn’t recognize what would become a beloved classic.

This week, we talk about the film’s double threat appeal between teens and their moms and how Gosling and McAdams recreated the film’s iconic kiss at the MTV Movie Awards. We also talk about Gosling and McAdams’ ascendant careers in the mid aughts, Joan Allen shouting “trash!”, and the unmissable similarities between Sparks movie posters.

Topics also include Gosling at the box office, the THOB Conference agenda, and (naturally) the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards.

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182 – State of Play

Adapted from the lauded UK miniseries of the same title, State of Play had a labored journey to the screen. Appearing on the 2006 Black List and originally intended as the screen reunion for Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, the American film adaptation weathered several delays, recastings, and creative setbacks, including the 2007 WGA strike. Once in production, the film mounted a cast that included Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, and Helen Mirren to unfold its political conspiracy in the attempted vein of All the President’s Men. All of this prestige put the film on awards prognosticators’ early predictions while it was still planned for a fall 2008 release, but it quickly cast aside those ambitions once in was punted one final time to a spring 2009 release.

This episode, we discuss Russell Crowe’s post-Oscar career of several Ridley Scott films and the phone-throwing incident that tainted his career. We also discuss Ben Affleck in the immediate afterglow of his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, his immediate pivot to casting himself in his own movies, and director Kevin Macdonald’s pivot from documentarries to fiction films.

Topics also include watching the original miniseries on Netflix discs, snacks that are just chemicals, and The Eagle.

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121 – About Time (with Katey Rich)

Richard Curtis arrived in the early 90s with his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Four Weddings and A Funeral and immediately cemented a heartwarming brand of romantic British fare. In the 2000s, he leaped to the director’s chair as well, with a streak that ended in this week’s surprise box office bomb: 2013′s About Time. Once again, deputy editor of VanityFair.com and Little Gold Men co-host Katey Rich returns as a guest to discuss the film that stars Domhnall Gleeson as lovelorn time traveler and Rachel McAdams as the object of his affection.

While we are divided on the film’s sometimes uncomfortable mechanics as a love story, About Time reveals itself as a sentimental smell-the-roses family story. But audience and critical disinterest took this one out of its season pretty quickly. This week, we discuss the Richard Curtis ethos, Gleeson’s quite charming screen persona, and the stacked lineup at the 2013 New York Film Festival.

Topics also include McAdams’ career pre and post-Oscar nomination, slight softboy British actor crushes, and the foremost question of our time: “is all lost?”

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063 – Morning Glory

What was it that placed a light comedy like Morning Glory on early Oscar predictions in 2010? Was it the potential for a morning news riff on Broadcast News brilliance? The ascendancy of Rachel McAdams that we knew would eventually pay off with an acting nomination? Or the late career turn as journalist curmudgeon from Harrison Ford, who in recent years has generated Oscar talk for even The Force Awakens? Turns out it was a little bit of all of those things.

However, Morning Glory quickly faded from Oscar prognosticators radar when it opened to quite disappointing box office and middling reviews. Unfortunately, the film never quite satisfies on its promise, even with a winning cast that also includes an underserved Diane Keaton and pre-uberhip era Jeff Goldblum. For McAdams, it would take being in a Best Picture frontrunner to land that first nomination we had been expecting, but Morning Glory at least has a few vocal fans.

This week, we feel the rain on our skin as we talk about the specific brand of pop optimism given to us by Natasha Bedingfield, the genius of screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, and Diane Keaton open-mouth kissing a frog.

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027 – The Family Stone (with Tara Ariano)

This week, we invited over Extra Hot Great co-host Tara Ariano to discuss our problematic Christmas fav, 2005′s The Family Stone. It may be one of several love-it-or-hate it holiday movies, but spoiler alert the three of us are super fans. Oscar and critics however, were a different story. Once thought a potential play for the goodwill lingering from Diane Keaton’s Something’s Gotta Give nomination, the awards tally for the Thomas Bezucha film made its largest dent with a Globe nomination for Sarah Jessica Parker – not to mention playing into the ascendancy of Rachel McAdams.

Topics include the 2005 Supporting Actress lineup that introduced several Oscar favorites, the film’s cozy/prickly authenticity in depicting family dynamics, and the return of our favorite random movie award: the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards!

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