Oscar Poker Podcast

Jeff Wells and Sasha Stone for a quickie chat about recent events. What happens when someone’s career ends overnight after a hit piece in a Hollywood trade? Tune in to find out. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heplus.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.com The free version of the first half of Misfits #6 is also at www.hollywood-elsewhere.com.

During the pod I mentioned the likelihood or advisability of John Cena wearing a “sock” during his nude moment at the Oscars.  Nobody bit (one or two of my colleagues vaguely shuddered) so the subject fell by the wayside.  But the Hollywood Reporter has done the reporting.  [See below link.] Just like my having also mentioned the obvious about the advisability of Lily Gladstone, who has grown sign...

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit heplus.substack.com/subscribe

Greetings to HE fans and Oscar Poker loyalists (posted on Sunday, 2.25): Podcast-wise longtime HE partner & soulmate Sasha Stone and I have decided to politely and graciously part company, at least for the time being. HE’s “The Misfits” is the new deal — a Zoom video group discussion thing as opposed to the two-person audio chat that “Oscar Poker” was— it’s now three or four revolving participants...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.com Is Taylor Swift a high-maintenance handful or not?  Is anyone paying any attention to that slanderous Nikki Finke /James Mangold 15 Year-0ld bullshit about Jeff?  How doomed is Joe Biden, and is there any way out of the coming Binary From Hell?  Is the fix really and truly in?  And why isn’t Sasha interested in talki...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.com [#image: /photos/54cc039b0a5930502f5f6ec7]|||View more images of Kate Winslet from the pages of Vanity Fair. Above, photograph by Annie Leibovitz. ||| Without an agenda or any sense of urgency, Sasha and Jeff acknowledge that there’s nothing to discuss about the Oscars other than the Best Actress situation (i.e., Emm...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.com You know something’s up (or down) when your conversational energy keeps sputtering. One thing’s for sure and it’s this: things have changed big-time since 2009. Tech community-wise. Attractive movie star-wise. Culturally, politically, every which way. 007:00 - He’s Just Not That Into You, movies they don’t make anymo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.com What happened to poor Greta Gerwig?  How did Sterling K. Brown and Colman Domingo slip into their respective elite nominee rosters?  What happened to poor Alexander Payne?  What is the deal with everyone doing backflips over “Anatomy of a Fall,” which is a relatively decent courtroom film, but come on…what IS this? W...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.com The usual political and cultural factors in Oscar balloting are evaluated by the brilliant Sasha Stone, who knows Oscar statistics like few others.  Plus, there is the matter of  Eric Roth’s original “Killers of the Flower Moon” script, which was written seven years ago.  Plus the coming horror of the Presidential el...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.com Does Anyone Remember Diane English’s “The Women”? The ensemble farce about wealthy, ambitious women was released in 2008 (i.e., over 15 years ago), and truly represents a world that no longer exists. Sasha explains how it all changed while Jeff (who watched this remake of George Cukor’s 1939 original last night) pati...

Developing Award Trends, Forecasts (NSFC, Golden Globes) National Society of Film Critics Calls. The N.Y. Times vs. Taylor Swift. I’m a Cannibal, You’re a Cannibal. Random Golden Globe Predictions. What is life without a little suspense? NY Times story on Taylor Taylor Swift playing All Too Well The Beatles’ I Want to Hold Your Hand Past Lives trailer: Society of the Snow trailer: This is a public...

Paul Schrader on the witness stand — should he give a damn about cultural appropriation? And should he man up about his “Flower Moon” diss? Plus what’s up with the curious but apparently undeniable rejection of “Maestro” on the message boards? And will the advancing Macedonian army of Paul Giamatti take the city of Alexandria? And is there a stronger consensus out there for any contender other tha...

Even though Oscar Poker had been moribund for two weekends / sidelined by tech issues and whatnot, it was time to record again, and so  Jeff and Sasha went to own on a rainy Sunday afternoon and went to tow. All hail Adam Carolla’s spot-on analysis about sports vs. award season and politics. Points hit: How the Oscars lost their brand. Adam Corolla and Rob Schneider on the Oscars. Leave the World...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.com The first 30 minutes are free, the rest is behind the paywall. All proceeds go to keeping Hollywood-Elsewhere afloat. Jeff and Sasha actually converse within the same time zone! (Sasha is in Lakewood, Ohio — a flush lakeside suburb of Cleveland — while Jeff is in the equally flush Wilton.) The most staggering moment...

It’s a podcast on the fly, with Jeff on his phone and Sasha in a hotel room in Nebraska. —Jeff continues to grapple with Lily Gladstone and her frontrunner status. —Was Poor Things too much sex that it obliterates any deeper meaning? How does it compare to Barbie? —Is the “woke” thing forever? Is it our new normal? —The Holdovers is an unusual film in its depiction of a strong male role model for...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.com This podcast will offer a free excerpt for the first 30 minutes. The rest is behind the paywall. Jeff and Sasha again settle into the reality of things.  Alas, the topics aren’t coming to mind, but please be patient.  Most of our chat is paywalled, but you know how that goes.  We definitely discussed Best Picture and...

Jeff and Sasha recap some of his 11.3 “Maestro” screening, a turn-on event, which also included the Incredible Weeping Guy plus the (hopefully temporary) loss of his elephant-hide wallet. Plus “Anatomy of a Fall”, Best Supporting Actress contenders, a fight with an old friend…We chatter a bit about politics, then move on to whether or not the identity-focused politics of Hollywood has ruined story...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit heplus.substack.com This is our first premium episode. We plan to offer one or two free episodes and the rest behind a paywall. This will have a free version and a paid version. Matthew Perry, “Bad News Bears”, “The Killers” absent from AMC and Cinemark theatres, Dean Phillips, “Maestro” screenings, Sasha admits Trump might be a sociopa...

“Jeff and Sasha delve into two new movies — “Fair Play” on Netflix, a story about a financial realm power couple whose relationship falls apart when the woman is promoted over the dude, and “The Burial,” a story about a scrappy lawyer taking on a powerful corporation. We also talk about “Killers of the Flower Moon” hitting theaters and the reaction therein. Then we delve into Israel, Hamas, Biden,...

Jeff and Sasha express delirious love for David Fincher’s “The Killer”, Jeff enthuses about Penelope Cruz’s supporting performance in “Ferrari” and then they go down the list of supposed (or fanciful) Oscar contenders according to Gold Derby “experts.”  The lack of serious enthusiasm so far for “The Holdovers’” Paul Giamatti, an obvious Best Actor contender is appalling. To add this podcast to you...

Shaken and stirred  by Hamas vs. Israel and disagreeing about the regional history, Jeff and Sasha contemplate David Fincher’s “The Killer,” Spike Lee’s bizarre praising of Lily Gladstone, Scorsese’s dull moralizing and what critics are allowed to say(and are not allowed to stay) about Andrew Haigh’s ”All Of Us Strangers.”  Hint:  If you’re not into the sex scenes, you’re a total homophobe. 00-25:...

Jeff and Sasha considered many topics earlier today (i.e., Sunday, 10.1) including the first big NYFF viewings of Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Poor Things” (which contains, by the way, a really tasty dance sequence).  How will this imaginative, brazenly sexual Frankenstein-like film be received by the New Academy Kidz (i.e., the identity-above-quality crowd) and how will it settle in with older traditional...

Jeff and Sasha lament the Biden 2024 campaign situation, the suppression of Woody’s ‘Coup de  Chance,”  discuss Maher+ Carville, rate the leading Best Actor & Best Actress contenders, etc. Scott Feinberg’s predictions here. 06:46 - Bill Maher, James Carville10:40 - Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance17:54 - How to stop caring what other people think18:49 - Should Biden drop out?30:00 - The WGA Strike end...

Post-Toronto Oscar Poker: “American Fiction”, Lauren Boebert, Russell Brand, Sexual Behavior Then & Now, The Top Five Best Picture Contenders + the Divine Transportation of “The Pot-au-Feu.” Time code: American Fiction, TIFF: 2:44Drew Barrymore: 12:42Lauren Boebert: 18:26TIFF People’s Choice Award: 34:12Russell Brand + Me Too: 35:37Kristi Noem/Corey Lewandowski affair + Biden and Harris 50:36Best...