This Had Oscar Buzz

With the upcoming return of Mike Leigh to cinemas with Hard Truths, we invited writer and Fran Mag creator Fran Hoepfner to join us to talk about his last theatrical effort, 2019’s Peterloo. The film tells the story of the buildup to the Peterloo massacre, in which years of political movement to get parliamentary representation for the … Continue reading "305 – Peterloo (with Fran Hoepfner)"

Time to get controversh with with one of the most argued about films of the century, 2000’s American Psycho. Based on Bret Easton Ellis’ lightning rod novel, the film passed through multiple directors before landing in the inspired hands of Mary Harron. The independent director struck the right satirical note on Ellis’ difficult blend of consumerism … Continue reading "304 – American Psycho"

With Anora anointed with the Palme d’Or this year, one of the narratives ahead in the coming season will be whether Sean Baker’s microbudgeted cinema will be embraced by the Academy in a big way. After lots of buzz for Tangerine and an acting nom for Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project, Baker was buzzed again for Red Rocket and its showcase … Continue reading "303 – Red Rocket"

We’re talking about Gwyneth Paltrow’s red hot 1998 this week and who better to join us than author and Who? Weekly co-host Bobby Finger?! With a slew of movies to aid her ascendancy, Gwyneth Paltrow wasn’t having a moment in 1998, she was the moment. It all kicked off with the Sundance debut of romcom … Continue reading "302 – Sliding Doors (with Bobby Finger)"

our old friend Kevin O’Keeffe and Texas native for a very Texas movie. Debuting in 2011 but arriving in theaters, Richard Linklater’s Bernie accounts a real-life Texan wink wink bachelor Bernie Tiede (played by Jack Black), beloved by the church ladies and local community. However, he is taken in by the town villain Margie (Shirley MacLaine) and … Continue reading "301 – Bernie"

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 … Continue reading "300 – Collateral Beauty"

This week’s film has Joe and Chris on opposite sides of a divisive reception. The Matrix not only revolutionized genre filmmaking in 1999, but it resulted in a resounding Oscar success. Reception to its first two sequels in 2003 was decidedly unappreciative, but the franchise has received some critical reassessment in the two decades since. … Continue reading "299 – The Matrix Resurrections"

Early in the 1990s, two westerns emerged as Best Picture winners when the genre was first thought dead: Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves and Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven. In 1993, those heralded actor-directors would unite for A Perfect World, casting Costner as an escaped convict who takes a small boy hostage and teaches him about masculinity, with Eastwood as the … Continue reading "298 – A Per...

Why not derail an originally planned episode to close pride season with a beloved queer 90s film with three praised performances? In 1995, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar spun a tale of three drag queens on a road trip that get stranded in middle America. Its headliners were two macho movie stars in Patrick … Continue reading "297 – To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar...

We return this week to one of the Oscar years we bemoan the most, 2011, to talk about Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter. After Michael Shannon landed a surprise acting nomination for Revolutionary Road, it seemed he’d somewhat cornered the market on onscreen psychosis. In this film, he plays a rural father who begins to see apocalyptic visions … Continue reading "296 – Take Shelter"

Say it with us: confusion! In our episodes where we have discussed 2020, one of the major conversations we’ve yet to really tackle is the confusion around what films would be considered theatrical while most of the country’s theatres were closed. This week’s film occupied that undefined space: Steven Soderbergh’s ensemble comedy Let Them All Talk. … Continue reading "295 – Let Them All Talk"

The May miniseries is over and we’re kicking off June with a dose of movie monoculture with 2004’s The Notebook. Adapted from the Nicholas Sparks romance novel, the film’s journey to the screen attracted a range of huge Hollywood names from Steven Spielberg to Britney Spears. The tale of two lovers divided by class in the … Continue reading "294 – The Notebook"

The 70s Spectacular comes to a close this week with actress Natalie Walker joining us to discuss 1979 and Milos Forman’s adaptation of Hair. The brainchild of Galt MacDermot, Gerome Ragni, and James Redo, Hair took Broadway by storm in the late 1960s for its narrative and political audacity, presenting the free-love and anti-war hippie movement of the … Continue reading "293 – Hair (with Natalie W...

The 1977 Oscar year is famously when Annie Hall triumphed over the cultural behemoth of Star Wars, but elsewhere Martin Scorsese followed up his Taxi Driver Best Picture nomination with a big swing and a miss. The Ankler’s Katey Rich is back on the show to discuss New York, New York, Scorsese’s attempt at a movie musical. Starring then-recent Oscar winners … Continue reading "292 – New York, New Y...

We’re on to 1976 (go sign up for our Patreon for 1975 and our Exception episode on Tommy!) and Christina Tucker rejoins us to talk about the 70s Spectacular’s wildest movie, The Ritz. From the play by Terrence McNally, the film is a mob farce set in a bathhouse with Jack Weston as a straight man … Continue reading "291 – The Ritz (with Christina Tucker) (70s Spectacular – 1976)"

1974 brings us to one of the final films of Billy Wilder, which also reunited a screen duo beloved by both Oscar and audiences, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. Vulture writer Roxana Hadadi is back to the show to talk about The Front Page, an oft-adapted farce about newspapermen getting wrapped up in the case of … Continue reading "290 – The Front Page (with Roxana Hadadi) (70s Spectacular – 1974)"

In 1973, the Academy embraced horror in a big way by slapping cultural phenomenon The Exorcist with 10 nominations – but then The Sting would triumph over its success on Oscar night. Critic David Sims returns to the show to talk about a different iconic and formative horror title, Nicolas Rouge’s Don’t Look Now. With prestige stars Donald Sutherland and … Continue reading "289 – Don’t Look Now (wi...

The 70s Spectacular is dancing as fast as it can! And we’re spinning right into 1972 with one of the decade’s biggest stars, the one and only Barbra Streisand, and joining us is one of her superfans, writer Jordan Hoffman. This year saw the first films of First Artists, a production company that intended to … Continue reading "288 – Up the Sandbox (with Jordan Hoffman) (70s Spectacular – 1972)"

The 70s Spectacular continues with critic and podcaster Katie Walsh joining us to discuss 1971 and Hal Ashby. After making his directorial debut with The Landlord after a career as an editor (including an Oscar win for In the Heat of the Night), Ashby returned to the director’s chair for what might be the film that became his … Continue reading "287 – Harold and Maude (with Katie Walsh) (70s Spect...

It’s time to kick off our May miniseries – the This Had Oscar Buzz: 70s Spectacular! For 1970, television writer Chris Schleicher joins us for a forgotten tale of wealth, deception, and Bavarian castles. The directorial debut of stage legend Hal Prince (and with a screenplay by his frequent collaborator Hugh Wheeler, from the novel … Continue reading "286 – Something for Everyone (with Chris Schle...

May is upon us and that means it’s time for another May miniseries! How could we top last year’s 100 Years, 100… Snubs! success? Well, we’ll be doing a deep dive into the Oscar era that was the 1970s! In the month of May, we will be looking back at each year of the decade … Continue reading "Intro to 70s Spectacular"

We’re stoked for Challengers this week, so naturally we’re talking about one of our favorites in the Luca Guadagnino resume, 2016’s underdiscussed and hot as hell A Bigger Splash. Premiering at the 2015 Venice Film Festival and playing internationally in 2015, but opening late spring 2016 in the States, A Bigger Splash is a rock-and-roll-inflected tale of sex and ego … Continue reading "285 – A Bi...

If you think we are too dismissive of westerns, allow this week’s episode to contradict that notion! In 2018, Jacques Audiard made his English language debut with an adaptation of Patrick deWitt’s novel The Sisters Brothers. John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix starred as gunslinging assassin siblings in 19th century America, with both on the pursuit … Continue reading "284 – The Sisters Brothers"

We’re finally diving into the time capsule that is 2004’s Garden State. The writing and directing debut of Zach Braff, the film stars Braff as a depressed actor who returns to his Jersey home to attend his mother’s funeral. Once there, he reunites with former friends and maybe meets the love of his life (played … Continue reading "283 – Garden State"

On top of all the horrors of the pandemic, let’s not forget that that time also gave us cringe cinema directed by Sia. This week, we come to you with another Patreon Selects, where sponsor listener Stuart has tasked us with that very film. Initially shot in 2017, Sia’s Music cast Kate Hudson as a troublesome drug … Continue reading "282 – Music (Patreon Selects)"