will smith – This Had Oscar Buzz

300 – Collateral Beauty

We’ve hit another year of the podcast, arriving at our milestone 300th episode! No better way to celebrate that by finally revisiting one of the past decades most notorious bombs, 2016’s Collateral Beauty. Starring Will Smith as a grieving father, this all-star cast includes Edward Norton, Michael Peña, and Kate Winslet as his three friend who devise a plan to… oust Smith from their advertising firm by… hiring three struggling actors (Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, and Jacob Latimore) to… portray the concepts of Death, Love, and Time that he has been writing letters to, and make him appear mentally unstable. Yeah, this one goes some places!

This episode, we talk about how the film’s imbalance with magical realism makes it more deranged. We also talk about Smith’s Oscar-chasing dramatic roles pre-slap, Ann Dowd as a felony committing private investigator, and the previous talent attached to this buzzy but ill-begotten project.

Topics also include Winslet joining our 6 Timers Club, Rogue One, and our Best Of ballots for the last year of the show!

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148 – Concussion

Finally, we are telling the truth! In 2015, Will Smith took on another biopic with Concussion as Dr. Bennett Omalu, the forensic pathologist whose research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy experienced by football players found opposition with the NFL. After premiering at AFI Fest, the film received middling reviews and opened on Christmas Day only to be gobbled up by the storm that was The Force Awakens, resulting in one of Smith’s paltriest openings.

Will Smith’s strong performance landed him a Golden Globe nomination, but missed out of the Oscar lineup on nomination day, becoming one of the most cited performances in Oscar So White conversation. This episode, we discuss whether or the film goes easy on the NFL and their attempts to silence Dr. Omalu, and how it takes on toxic masculinity in football culture at large. We also look at the abysmal 2015 Best Actor race, how this film showed up in the Sony hack, and how Albert Brooks can sell a crass line about his anatomy.

Topics also include 5 disk CD changer technology, how Avatar 2 is just Mare of Easttown 2, and Concussion’s MTV Movie Award nominations.

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017 – Seven Pounds

Cuddle up to your jellyfish, because this week’s we’re talking about Seven Pounds. Just two years after being nominated for The Pursuit of Happyness, we thought that Will Smith’s reteaming with director Gabriele Muccino could maybe bring the Oscar that has eluded him since first being nominated for Ali. But that was before we realized what this movie actually was, let alone how painfully bad it is.

Scattered among the sacrificial flesh of the film’s thwarted Oscar dreams, we discuss Will Smith’s Oscar trajectory, Rosario Dawson’s underrated career, and the many ways this bonkers movie grinds our gears. We also take a look at 2008’s whirlwind tour to Kate Winslet’s Best Actress win and the full insanity and ramifications of how the film withholds its twist. And of course, we don’t forget to notice the collateral beauty around us.

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