Academy Vs Audience

In the wake of Martin Scorsese getting nominated for his bleakest movie (pre-Silence), the Coen Brothers deliver their bleakest effort (pre-A Serious Man) with No Country For Old Men, pitting an opportunistic hunter Josh Brolin and a pragmatic sheriff Tommy Lee Jones against human Terminator Javier Bardem. Audiences, however, are torn between two threequels that fail to live up to the originals, a...

It's 2006, and get ready for the most thrilling, action packed, high quality bummers of a movie. The Oscar finally found its way to Martin Scorsese, with his tense remake of Hong Kong flick Infernal Affairs, The Departed. Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon go head to head in the Battle of the Snitches, and nobody walks away clean. Speaking of nobody being clean, audiences flocked back to Tortug...

While schedules align, Dan presents a one-man crossover between us and Recovered by asking the question... do the Best Pictures of the 20th century need or warrant a remake? From Wings to American Beauty (at which point they're all so recent it's a hard no), Dan skims through 72 years of Oscars darlings to sum up potential remakes: which could be, which should be, which must not, which a...

It's 2005, and Munsi Parker-Munroe rejoins Erin, Claire, and Dan to discuss what is often called one of if not the worst Best Picture winner ever... by people who have not seen The Broadway Melody. It's Crash time, and Paul Haggis is trying to say something about racism but not managing more than "Racism, boy I dunno." Will the box office champ improve the viewing experience? I...

In the wake of Lord of the Rings dominating the Oscars the previous year, the Academy decided to go small and serious again, while the audience remain here for fantasy good times. The Oscar went to Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood's story of three broken people bonding over boxing until boxing breaks them all the further. Meanwhile, audiences around the world had a relapse of Shrek Fever,...

It's 2003, and we reach our final Joint Champion, as after two years of being Best Picture nominees and lurking near the top of the box office, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy reached its grand finale with The Return of the King. Gina Stewart is back to help Erin, Claire, and Dan break down the full Lord of the Rings experience, novel and movie versions, as we follow Frodo and...

It's 2002, and Hollywood is swinging, be it to all that jazz, or by webs through the city. The Academy, still waiting to see if Lord of the Rings could stick the landing, gave the big prize to musical adaptation Chicago, which managed the singular achievement of blending the gritty realism Hollywood thinks prestige pictures need with the glitzy, showy song and dance numbers musicals thrive on...

While we align schedules, Erin gives us a sneak peek at next episode and beyond as she breaks down the first entries of all three live-action Spider-Man eras, from someone who never read the comics and only knows these as movies. What are the strengths and weaknesses of Sam Raimi's first go-round with the character? How does Amazing Spider-Man reassess the origin in a post-Nolan/Iron Man land...

In 2001, the question on the mind of Academy voters was "Well we can't risk just awarding Lord of the Rings three years in a row, can we?" and thus an alternate Best Picture was needed: Ron Howard's call-it-a-biopic of John Nash, genius mathematician struggling through schizophrenia, with Russell Crowe taking us from coming-of-age to espionage thriller to one man's battle...

We enter a new century by jumping back to an old trend and an adaptation of an old TV show, seems about right for 21st century Hollywood. First, the Oscar goes to Ridley Scott's Gladiator, a return to old-school sword and sandal action, only without the Jesus angle. Historical accuracy is nowhere to be found, the plot doesn't merit a lot of deep thought, but Erin, Claire, and Dan answer...

Before we enter the 21st century, Munsi Parker-Munroe returns to present their Top Ten Secret Masterpieces of the 1990s: ten films that weren't hits, didn't get Oscar love, but delight our guest to no end and they would argue are worthy of your attention just the same, because as films they're weird, they're passionate, and they're more than a little wonderful. Also Dan is...

Before we reach the 2000s and spend half an episode breaking down Dan's least favourite entry of one of his favourite franchises, he's here to get the Mission: Impossible brainrot out of his system by breaking down the evolution of the franchise and which film did what the best. From it's lower-key suspense thriller origins to its recent final (unless...) origins, best squads, best...

The decade wraps up with one beautifully crafted but disturbingly hollow Best Picture, and one beloved franchise returning with a controversial entry. Recurring guest/victim of scheduling Munsi Parker-Munroe is back for the takes, joining Claire, Erin, and Dan in being mad at how well made American Beauty is in spite of the troubling central themes and lead actor, then digging into Star Wars: The...

It's 1998, and was all fair in love and war? Some say no, as Harvey Weinstein launched an Oscar campaign of attrition to get himself an award for theatre kids' ideal romcom Shakespeare in Love, while also slandering rival Steven Spielberg's intense war movie Saving Private Ryan. Claire, Erin, Dan, and returning guest Kevin break down both, ask whether Shakespeare deserves the hate i...

While Erin and Claire are busy on a stage, Dan succumbs to his ongoing Titanic brainrot, and drags his Recovered co-host Keith along for the ride by asking: did Titanic need or warrant a remake? Not the movie... the BOAT. Dan and Keith walk through how a replica Titanic is not equipped to compete in the modern cruise market, something it was never designed or priced for, and why one right-wing Aus...

The day Erin's been waiting for arrives as she, Claire, and Dan dig into the third of three Joint Champion Juggernauts, James Cameron's Titanic. A star crossed romance between Jack and Rose is plagued by class differences, a cruel fiancé, and oh yes the boat they're on plowing into an iceberg. Records are smashed, feelings are felt, Dan's only a little bitter about one of the o...

Another year, another Oscars has come and gone, and returning guest Olav Rokne of the Hugo Book Club blog is back to help Erin, Claire, and Dan break down how each nominee did, and how they should have done. What does everything think should have won? What won too much? Can Claire, cursed by witches to watch no movies outside of this podcast, tell us anything about them? Also someone even manages...

It's 1996, and Dan is yelling "Elaine was right" as Claire, Erin, and he dissect Harvey Weinstein's first big Oscar win, The English Patient. Was this an early example of the current hip category fraud, where a co-lead ran as a supporting actress for an easier Oscar? Does cheating on young, hot Colin Firth make sense? Those questions answered, the far less clever but far more f...

1995 wasn't the best year for Hollywood. The Oscars (and only the Oscars) decided to go with Mel Gibson cosplaying a biopic in the epic of Braveheart, loved by dudes and hated by the Scottish ever since. At the box office, audiences were split, with the domestic crown going to rookie studio Pixar's story of toys come to life, while international audiences flocked to John McLane's th...

One year after Schindler's List, the Academy chose to take it easy, and go with a heartwarming crowd-pleaser, in fact the biggest hit of the year, Forrest Gump. A film beloved by millions right until it beat Pulp Fiction at the Oscars. But while the USA enjoyed this streak of boomer nostalgia, international audiences were here for Peak Disney in the form of The Lion King, a simple story buoye...

In 1993, everything was coming up Steven Spielberg! The king of blockbusters won his first Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture with his look at the Holocaust and those who survived because of two men's efforts to save who they could, teaching us that when times are dark, you do what you can and save who you can, even if it never feels like enough. But on the lighter side, Spielberg also...

Erin, Claire, and Dan look back at the films they watched over 2024, both new releases, old classics first seen, or the stuff they watched for this, for you, the listeners. Claire visits classic horror, Dan breaks down some possible Best Picture nominees and what they have going for and against them, Erin reflects on franchises she's seen for the first time, and as a bonus nobody talks about...

Season's greetings from your Academy Vs Audience film historians! While turkey was eaten and presents unwrapped and schedules attempted to align, Erin went deep into Non-Christmas Christmas Movies, movies that might not  seem to be about Christmas until you realize they (sometimes) are. Erin presents a tier ranking, and neither the top nor bottom may be what you expect. Find all of our episod...

It's Clint Eastwood vs the Disney Renaissance as we reach 1992. Clint returns to the western genre in order to deconstruct its myths and tropes with a story of the west, violence, and how the stories we tell grow beyond the truth in Unforgiven, which Dan thinks would have fit right into the Legacy Sequel Era but it's probably for the best it isn't one. Then after four years, the Dis...

Two very different classics take the titles in 1991 as traditional Oscar bait has not fully developed. The Oscar goes to classic thriller Silence of the Lambs, thanks to riveting suspense, a stellar cast, and a performance from Anthony Hopkins so iconic you forget how little he's actually in the movie. Gina Stewart is back to explore changes from the book, while Dan has a theory about why thi...