Sundance Film Festival – This Had Oscar Buzz

381 – Happy Endings

After the edgy sexual comedy The Opposite of Sex made Don Roos a hot indie name and the drowsy romance of Bouncedampened the vibe, Roos returned in 2005 with ensemble dramedy Happy Endings. With a cast of Lisa Kudrow, Steve Coogan, and Laura Dern, the film looks at the secrets and sexual boundaries of a group of Los Angelenos. But it was the wayward and musical performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal that earned the biggest raves and an Independent Spirit Award nomination.

This episode, we talk about Gyllenhaal’s road to her first nomination for Crazy Heart and she joins our Six Timers Club. We also talk about Kudrow’s upcoming return in The Comeback, Tom Arnold’s critically praised performance, and the film being released in the same summer as LA ensemble Best Picture winner, Crash.

Topics also include Dern in the TEN Timers Club, aughts-y onscreen homophobia, and The Bride!.

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359 – The Last Thing He Wanted

Pair the rising star director Dee Rees with a Joan Didion adaptation and the Oscar-winning Anne Hathaway and you have the kind of on-paper buzz we love talking about here on THOB. But The Last Thing He Wanted, following Hathaway as a journalist whose wayward father mires her in South American arms conflict, ended up being anything but a success. Anticipated heavily on the 2019 fall festival circuit, Netflix ultimately quietly premiered the film at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and dumped it shortly after.

This episode, we talk about the film’s narrative issues and how its timely exactly pre-COVID and Netflix’s 2020 lineup allowed the film to be quickly forgotten. We also talk about Hathaway as a steadfast committed performer, Rees’ ascendancy with Mudbound and Pariah, and both Willem Dafoe and Toby Jones enter our Six Timers.

We also discuss The Witches, Ben Affleck era of exiting Batman, and Rosie Perez as Co-Worker On Phone.

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336 – Certain Women (with Shirley Li!)

As we begin to get hyped for a new Kelly Reichardt film on the horizon with The Mastermind, The Atlantic staff writer Shirley Li joins us to discuss her 2016 triptych Certain Women. The film adapts three Maile Meloy stories into one film, with each following a different woman whose voice is stifled in their Montana circumstances. With several stars populating the ensemble including Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and Kristen Stewart, its biggest awards success was with its breakthrough star, Lily Gladstone.

This episode, we talk about our love for Reichardt’s filmography and Gladstone’s silent long take powerhouse moment in the film. We also talk about Williams as the definitive Reichardt actor, Dern’s comic subtlety in the film, and parallel universes for the Oscar ceremony envelope snafu.

Topics also include Lucy, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Reichardt as a purveyor of care.

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325 – We Don’t Live Here Anymore

And we’ve made our way to “movies that exist only as a title” royalty, We Don’t Live Here Anymore. In 2004, this marital drama arrived at Sundance boasting several indie aughts heatseekers: a post-You Can Count On Me Mark Ruffalo, a post-Oscar nom Naomi Watts, Six Feet Under‘s Peter Krause, and the always buzzy Laura Dern, all wrapped up in an adaptation of Andre Dubus. This grim look at two literary-adjacent married couples facing the abyss of infidelity earned especially strong notices for Dern, but never caught fire in a year where Sideways dominated the independent scene.

This episode, we look back at the first year of Warner Independent and Laura Dern joins our Six Timers Club. We also discuss Dern’s place in the 2004 Supporting Actress race, the work of cinematographer Maryse Alberti, and the 2004 Sundance lineup.

Topics also include director John Curran, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, and photoshop marketing.

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304 – American Psycho

Time to get controversh with with one of the most argued about films of the century, 2000’s American Psycho. Based on Bret Easton Ellis’ lightning rod novel, the film passed through multiple directors before landing in the inspired hands of Mary Harron. The independent director struck the right satirical note on Ellis’ difficult blend of consumerism and masculinity, and found a flawless muse as the titular psycho Patrick Bateman in Christian Bale. But the film’s sex, violence, and dark humor incited its own controversies and was too much for the Academy despite the praise for Bale’s performance.

This episode, we talk about the film as a launchpad for Bale’s adult career and how his lesser known status at the time almost lost him the role. We also talk about Bateman’s musical obsessions, the other casting choices for Bateman, and Reese Witherspoon joins our Six Timers Club.

Topics also include the Broadway musical version, the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, and 2000 Best Actor.

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296 – Take Shelter

We return this week to one of the Oscar years we bemoan the most, 2011, to talk about Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter. After Michael Shannon landed a surprise acting nomination for Revolutionary Road, it seemed he’d somewhat cornered the market on onscreen psychosis. In this film, he plays a rural father who begins to see apocalyptic visions that may or may not be coming to fruition. As his wife, Jessica Chastain would make her debut when the film premiered to Sundance audiences, already amassing a reputation as the next big thing due to the several films she had coming, including Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life.

This episode, we talk about Shannon’s onscreen persona and how it may shade our perceptions of this film. We also talk about how The Help became the film that Chastain was Oscar nominated for in her breakthrough year, Kathy Baker in Edward Scissorhands, and the film’s divisive ending.

Topics also include Sundance 2011 movies, the Death Becomes Her musical, and cozy culture during the apocalypse.

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BONUS – Sundance the Night (with Cameron Scheetz)

We’re breaking into your regular podcast schedule to bring you a special bonus episode recapping our thoughts on the films of this year’s Sundance Film Festival! And we’ve asked Queerty’s Cameron Scheetz back on to tell us what the festival was like on the ground at Park City (along with thoughts on non-virtual films like I Saw the TV Glow)! Topics include June Squibb going vigilante as Thelma, a Kieran Culkin/Jesse Eisenberg Pain-ful duet, and our favorite films of this year’s festival!

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266 – The Nest

We who loved his debut Martha Marcy May Marlene (see previous episode!) waited eagerly for director Sean Durkin’s follow-up feature while he worked in television and produced other films. That sophomore feature came almost a decade later with The Nest. Starring Carrie Coon and Jude Law, the film follows a married couple who move to England to follow the husband’s finance career, only to quickly get consumed by financial woes. The film also returned Durkin to the Sundance Film Festival… and then the pandemic happened.

This episode, we talk about Durkin’s upcoming The Iron Claw and Carrie Coon’s work in theatre and on The Leftovers. We also discuss how the film dabbles delicately in psychological horror, Jude Law’s playing pathetic men to perfection, and the 2020 Sundance Film Festival lineup.

Topics also include the National Board of Review’s Top 10 Independent Films of 2020, Durkin’s work on Dead Ringers, and IFC Films.

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249 – Love is Strange

Ahead of this week’s release of Ira Sachs’ Passages, we’re discussing perhaps Sachs’ most lauded film, 2014’s Love is Strange. The film stars John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a newly married couple forced to live apart in New York City when one of them is fired from his Catholic school job for being gay. Charting the frustrating nuances of cohabitation and the unexamined financial hardships of city life, the film is a quiet wonder filled with humane performances, including Marisa Tomei as part of the couple’s social circle. Praised at Sundance and in its late summer release, the film managed to stay in conversation due to several Independent Spirit nominations, but was shut out by Oscar.

This episode, we discuss Sachs’ underappreciated filmography and Molina’s career rise as a trustworthy supporting player. We also discuss Lithgow’s consecutive Supporting Actor nominations in the 1980s, the film’s release in the year before the Obergefell ruling, and Sony Pictures Classics’ busy 2014.

Topics also include Best Grownup Love Story, the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, and Asteroid City.

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232 – Waitress

We decided to bring you a slice of joy this week with 2007′s Waitress. Starring Keri Russell as a small town waitress and inventive pie master stuck in a harmful marriage, the heartwarming film would eventually be adapted to the megabit musical with songs from Sara Bareilles. Its beginnings, however, were marked by sadness: in the months before its Sundance premiere, the film’s writer/director/costar Adrienne Shelly was tragically murdered. Waitress won over Sundance, becoming a summer hit for Fox Searchlight and generating praise for both Russell’s performance and Shelly’s delicate tone. However, the film lingered in the shadow of the previous year’s Sundance/Searchlight Oscar success of Little Miss Sunshine despite earning fans.

This episode, we talk about Keri Russell’s career and how Waitress falls between her two definitive television success: Felicity and The Americans. We also discuss the Mickey Mouse Club, the era of movies where characters don’t have abortions, and Celine Dion’s upcoming screen debut.

Topics also include various types of pie, the Sundance Houndog controversy, and the power of Felicity cutting her hair.

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