Academy Vs Audience

It's 1963, and both Hollywood and the UK were starting to poke at the boundaries of film censors. First off, the best picture winner, England's Tom Jones, in which the title character tries to win his lady Sophie (whoa, She's a Lady), but can't resist saying "What's New Pussycat" to any woman with a come hither look. Our special guest, Video Vulture John Tebbutt,...

War! Huh. Good god, y'all, what is it good for? In 1962, the answer is two surprisingly good movies. First, the Academy Award goes to Lawrence of Arabia, featuring stunning cinematography, deadly deserts, amazing breakout performances from Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif, and some DEEPLY uncomfortable casting choices for Arab leadership. But by a narrow margin, the box office crown goes to...

Welcome, listeners, to the Academy Vs Audience/Recovered crossover! Dan, Erin, and Claire welcome Dan's Recovered co-host Keith Kollee to dig into 1961's Joint Champion, West Side Story, the only movie whose every film remake is an Oscar contender. The gang digs into this story of rival gangs, racial tensions, corrupt cops, amazing progressive trans representation, and if there's ti...

Welcome to the 60s, the decade that most changed Hollywood! But not quite yet. In The Apartment, Jack Lemmon is doing a sex farce while Shirley Maclaine is in a doomed romance tragedy, Billy Wilder tries to make both work at once, and the Academy was here for it. The Audience wasn't ready to give up sword and sandal epics, and turned out for Kirk Douglas' more secular take on the genre i...

Here at the end of another decade, Dan, Claire, and Erin ask a question: can a movie have too much Jesus but also way too little Jesus at the same time? It's our second biggest Joint Champion Juggernaut, Ben-Hur, in which Charlton Heston pursues vengeance via chariot while Forrest Gumping his way through the New Testament. Claire and Erin cry out for slash-fic, Dan makes his final statement o...

In our first all-musical episode (don't look at us like that, Broadway Melody doesn't count), Claire, Erin, and Dan dissect two musical movies from famous teams to see which aged worse. First, our Oscar winner, Lerner and Lowe bring us the story of a Parisian womanizer realizing he might have feelings for the teenage girl he's watched grow up... and be trained as a courtesan by her...

And we are back! It's 1957, and one film towers over some tough Oscar competition and... a lean year, box office-wise: The Bridge on the River Kwai. Claire, Erin, and Dan dig into the film's portrayal of cult-like devotion to duty, honour, and so-called principles via the film's main cast, led by our first appearance of Alec Guinness, as well as the modern feel, the criminally under...

Our Best of Munsi Triptych wraps up in 1952, as Erin, Claire, Dan, and Munsi dig into two films with questionable romance content. First, An American in Paris, the quaint, charming, whimsical tale of a middle-aged painter trying to win the hand of a teenager away from the French singer who's groomed her since childhood. With Gershwin songs! And Gene Kelley sure can dance! Then flash ALL the w...

Our hosts' various breaks continue, and we return to 1943, a year where the Academy couldn't have been more right and the Audience couldn't have been more wrong, and Munsi Parker-Munroe is back to witness both. Come to Casablanca to visit Rick's Café American, stay for the Stage Door Canteen... because there is no leaving the Stage Door Canteen. Maybe we're all still there...

We've hit a perfect storm of host conflicts, so while we recharge in our various ways, enjoy a trip down memory lane, beginning with 1933, in which eventual recurring guest Munsi Parker-Munroe joined Claire, Erin, and Dan for, perhaps, the worst combination of movies we've yet discussed: Cavalcade and Eddie Cantor's... best?... movie, Roman Scandals. Look back and laugh with us! Fin...

In 1956, two movies take their sweet time with two famous stories. Our Best Picture takes us Around the World in 80 Days (and 200 cameos) as this first film version of Jules Verne's novel loads the screen with exotic locales, familiar faces, and long, LONG shots of scenery. But 'tis but a blip next to our Box Office Champion, As Cecil B. DeMille brings the Book of Exodus to life through...

Erin and Dan are joined by returning guest and Hugo Book Club co-runner Olav Rokne to dissect the latest crop of Best Picture nominees, in the wake of learning who won what, and how many of the ten nominees went home empty-handed (Claire will be back next time). Who deserved what? Who maybe snuck onto the shortlist undeservedly? Which of these movies is Erin willing to watch recreationally, and wh...

It's 1955, and the films get simple in both a pleasant and insulting way. The Academy chooses Paddy Chayefsky's quiet romance of two people deemed unlovable finding each other in Marty, while the audience goes for the tonally confused war movie Mr. Roberts, which tries to be both a wacky wartime farce and a somber reflection on service and ultimately manages neither. Ernest Borgnine enjo...

Erin, Claire, and Dan get a break from feature-length Sunday School sermons to talk about two possible Good Actually movies! Thanks, 1950s! First, young Marlon Brando reinvents film acting for the better in the hard hitting On The Waterfront, and your hosts are here to, gush, unpack a few flaws, examine the line everyone thinks they know, and look at how the HUAC tried to ruin it. Then Bing Crosby...

It's 1953, time for what many consider a beloved classic in From Here to Eternity, and certainly some of our hosts agree. Romance, tragedy, and one heavily telegraphed surprise attack await... and then, due to poor choices by 50s audiences, it's time for more Sunday School with The Robe. Richard Burton joins the stars if Samson and Delilah and Quo Vadis as a Centurion who finds Jesus......

It's our first joint champion of the 1950s! Good news, no bible stories. Less good news, Cecil B. DeMille really wanted people to know how neat he thinks the circus is. There are love triangles that make a Hellraiser puzzle box look simple, criminals lurking in the shadows, many plot-relevant elephants, and yet all of it is somehow drowned out by monotonous circus montages and severe overacti...

Erin, Claire, Dan, and returning guest Munsi Parker-Munroe unpack some terrible leading men as the Oscars get musical while the audience goes to Sunday School. First, Gene Kelley brings us the songs of the Gershwins, some incredible dance numbers, and a romance that set gender relations back fifty years in An American in Paris. Does the dancing defy the duncery? We discuss, then jump back to the n...

It's the 1950s, and we kick off the decade with two very different movies. First, legit classic All About Eve brings us into the backstabbing world of being a woman in theatre through immortal frienemies Margo Channing and Eve Harrington; then, Cecil B. DeMille kicks off 50s Hollywood's obsession with feature length Sunday School classes in Samson and Delilah. Erin, Claire, and Dan love...

Before jumping into the 1950s, Erin, Claire, and Dan take a moment to reflect on 2022 in film. What could/should win Best Picture? What's the probable Box Office Champ? Will we see our first Joint Champion in nearly two decades? And which movies delighted us but won't be mentioned on Oscar night? Join us as we look back on 2022 in film. Find all of our episodes and the rest of Writing Th...

With the 1940s wrapped up, Dan, Claire, and Erin take some time to recharge before diving into 1950s Bible Epics, and while they do so, enjoy an outtake from back in the 30s or 40s. Back soon with some true classics, some regrettable leading men, the episode where we say "Good-bye Bing, Hello Marlon," and much more. Find all of our episodes and the rest of Writing Therapy Productions&apo...

Kevin Weir is back to dig into weirder corners of Oscar history as Academy Vs Audience wraps up the 1940s with two stories of creepy old white dudes having unfortunate levels of success. Best Picture All The King's Men brings us the uncomfortably prescient tale of Willie Stark, a good man driven to corruption by... well there's some confusion on that front... while the box office champ b...

It's 1948, and our movies are catnip for theatre kids. First up, Sir Laurence Olivier takes on what's clearly a dream project in Hamlet, and while the Oscars favoured him, Hamlet enthusiasts Claire and Erin have some notes while Dan explains which contemporary horror franchise it slots right into. Next up, The Red Shoes talks passion, obsession, and ballet, and your hosts are passionatel...

1947's box office champ is weirdly hard to track down, but we found it, so it's time to talk Welcome Stranger! Bing Crosby and Barry Fitzgerald reunite in a movie very desperate to recapture the magic of Going My Way, only with doctors instead of priests. Does letting Bing be sassier and kiss ladies make up for the relative lack of Father Chuck-style improbable do-gooding? Does an old, c...

It's 1947, and the Academy thinks it's time America had a frank talk about how many Nazis are running around two years after World War II ended. Human avatar of gravitas Gregory Peck leads Gentleman's Agreement, in which a journalist goes looking for antisemitism in New York for a story, and finds that it's very much like trying to get a sip of water from a fire hose. Erin, Cla...

It's our third joint champion in five episodes! In the wake of WWII ending, both audiences and the Academy turned out for what might be  the  coming-home-from-war-movie, The Best Years of Our Lives. Three hours' worth of three men from three military branches having three different struggles returning home, and almost all of them get some sort of resolution! Come on the journey as Erin,...