Tommy Lee Jones – This Had Oscar Buzz

328 – Hope Springs

It’s been a minute since we talked about Meryl Streep, so we decided what better time than Valentine’s Day and her 2012 romantic drama Hope Springs. Streep stars alongside Tommy Lee Jones as a sexually frustrated older couple who submits to a couples therapy retreat (led by Steve Carell) hoping to rekindle their spark. Summer counterprogramming to the Batmans and the Bournes, the film performed at the box office but did not prove the type of Meryl summer smash that has earned her Oscar love.

This episode, we talk about the movie’s quaint but honest depiction of generational sexual frustration and the solid work from Streep and Jones. We also discuss the underutilization of its recognizable supporting cast, Carell joins our Six Timers, and the timeless Globes presentation pairing of Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig.

Topics also include Sex Trips For Straight Women From A Gay Man, Meryl’s third Oscar, and love languages.

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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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103 – Natural Born Killers

This week, we’re going back to the mid-90s to visit Oliver Stone’s highly controversial skewering of the muckraking, blood-thirsty media landscape. Natural Born Killers arrived in late summer 1994 and immediately started a firestorm of outraged Republicans and a number of copycat killings. While an audacious and uncompromising satire, the violence of its central Mickey and Mallory paired with the bombast of Stone’s vision proved to be too daring for the Academy that previously couldn’t resist the filmmaker.

But the film also debuted in the year of Pulp Fiction, and inspired a major grudge toward Stone from original Killers screenwriter Quentin Tarantino. This episode, we praise the performances of stars Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson, and look at supporting player Robert Downey Jr.’s much-storied addiction issues during the decade.

Topics also include the 1994 Best Actress race, other movies drunk on dutch angles, and Tori Amos.

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044 – The Missing (2003 – Part One)

With this episode, we officially begin our month-long miniseries on the 2003 Oscar year! We are beginning with a high profile failure from a major director: Ron Howard’s The Missing starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. After winning the Oscar in 2001 for A Beautiful Mind, Ron Howard aimed to cash in on that earned prestige by fulfilling his dream of making a western. After leaving Disney’s The Alamo in the dust, he settled on this story of kidnapping and father-daughter forgiveness. But audience’s had long since grown bored by the genre and the Academy similarly ignored the film.

This episode we discuss how this film represents the big studio failures from major directors within this Oscar year and how it ultimately fails to bring life to a dead genre. We also look at the legacy of Howard’s Director nomination snub for Apollo 13, the many ways westerns have been reimagined in recent years, and how The Missing blurred into the mass of the season’s period epics.

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008 – Double Jeopardy

Before this year’s Oscar season kicks off, we have a cautionary tale for your early predictions: 1999′s revenge thriller smash hit Double Jeopardy!

That’s right, you may have forgotten, but leading actress Ashley Judd started pulling Oscar buzz when Double Jeopardy opened and started raking in the cash. But this blockbuster (which opened opposite eventual Best Picture winner American Beauty) was never meant to be with Oscar, even though it also starred Tommy Lee Jones in the same vein as his Oscar winning role in The Fugitive.

This week we discussed Judd’s underappreciated career, 1999′s many breakout actresses, and the badass maven of the crime procedural, Roma Maffia.

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