Steven Spielberg – This Had Oscar Buzz

391 – The BFG (with Kyle Amato!)

With Steven Spielberg returning to theatres with this week’s Disclosure Day, we’re taking the rare opportunity to discuss one of his films! Kyle Amato returns to talk about Spielberg’s take on Roald Dahl’s classic children’s fable The BFG. The film was a reuniting of Spielberg with his recent Oscar winning actor Mark Rylance in the role, all brought to life through ever-evolving motion capture technology. While Spielberg has found some of his greatest successes in family friendly fare, The BFG was one of his most underwhelming at the box office and went quickly forgotten.

This episode, we’re talking about Spielberg’s less well-received films and the many flaws that make this film feel like one of his weakest. We also talk about Rylance’s Tony tally prior to his Oscar win, motion capture discourse, and the dire summer offerings from 2016.

Topics also include Penelope Wilton as a Queen Elizabeth stand-in, Dahl adaptations, and Backrooms.

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219 – Always

As The Fabelmans is welcomed into theatres and Spielberg nostalgia is about to come back into conversation, we naturally are here to talk about one of his least discussed films: 1989′s Always. Based on the 1943 Victor Fleming film A Guy Named Joe, Always follows an aerial firefighter played by Richard Dreyfuss who dies saving his friend (John Goodman) in a mission, only to watch from the afterlife as his lover (Holly Hunter) grieves and finds new romance. Spielberg was a big fan of the original, turning this into a bit of a passion project that nevertheless received middling box office and reviews before becoming one of his most forgotten films.

This episode, we talk about Spielberg’s twofer years and the Oscar success of the related films. We also discuss Hunter’s slew of projects immediately after her first nomination for Broadcast News (and our wish to see her in another Spielberg film), Spielberg losing Best Director nominations to other director legends, and the era of cigarette ads and The Marlboro Man.

Topics also include Goodman’s status as a nominationless actor, bickering over the current Bake Off season, and Audrey Hepburn as an afterlife greeter named Hap.

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104 – The Terminal

Soak this one up, listeners, because this episode we’re taking one of the very few opportunities for us to talk about Steven Spielberg. The beloved director has one of the best Oscar track records in history, earning nominations for all but five of his feature films – including this week’s misfire, 2004′s The Terminal. Tom Hanks stars as a traveler from the fictional eastern European country of Krakozhia who gets trapped in JFK airport when a coup erupts mid-flight. What ensues is a too-cutesy and logic-defying fairy tale that is widely regarded as one of Spielberg’s biggest creative misses.

In this episode, we unpack all of the film’s tonal imbalances and its place in Spielberg’s post-9/11 triptych. We also look at costar Catherine Zeta-Jone’s post-Oscar (and pre-Tony) career, the one category we think The Terminal should have been nominated for, and Stanley Tucci as the film’s bland bureaucrat villain.

Other topics include Casa Zeta-Jones, Broadway billboards, and an extensive dive into all of the nominations (and wins) received by Spielberg’s films.

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