
An annual ritual returns! We are here to welcome the This Had Oscar Buzz Class of 2022! Off the top of the episode, we celebrate friend and former guest (and, spoiler alert, next week’s guest) Pamela Ribon on her Best Animated Feature Short nomination for My Year of Dicks and lament the To Leslie episode that could have been. We also get into the Riseborough situation and previous nominations that were rescinded. And of course we have our returning categories for movies we’re happiest (and saddest) to have missed out on Oscar nominations, most surprising to miss, most forgettable movie to receive Oscar buzz, and our most anticipated for a future episode.
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Class of 2022

TV & Film






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 that loosely remakes La Piscine. With a foursome of stellar performances by Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Dakota Johnson, the film earned strong notices especially for Fiennes’ bawdy dance moves, but category confusion and the spring release hindered his chances.



This week, we talk about the film’s portrayal of desire and deception, and how slyly the film weaves in themes of morality. We also discuss Tilda’s vocal acting choice, Johnson’s career emerging from 50 Shades, and the 2015 Venice jury. And we reveal the topic for the coming May miniseries!!



Topics also include poolside etiquette, adult braces, and Regina King being edited out of Beastly.



Follow Us on Twitter!@Had_Oscar_BuzzJoe: @joereidChris: @chrisvfeil

285 – A Bigger Splash






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 of a detective and a scientist (played respectively by a reunited Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed) with a plot for gold. Despite the reputation of everyone involved, the film received a mild reception at fall festivals before a quiet September release.



This episode, we talk about the struggles of Annapurna to successfully switch from being a production house to a distributor. We also discuss the career of Reilly with the hopes of a career reappraisal, our feelings about the western genre and the attempts to revive it, and Audiard’s French submission contender in A Prophet. 



Topics also include surprise Carol Kane, queercoding, and Jake going weird.



Follow Us on Twitter!@Had_Oscar_BuzzJoe: @joereidChris: @chrisvfeil

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 by Natalie Portman in an urtext manic pixie dream girl mode) who helps him reevaluate his life. The film was a Sundance sensation and unleashed a gangbusters trailer package, igniting the love of young cinephiles, if not the Academy. 



This episode, we discuss what about the film has aged poorly and its place in Fox Searchlight’s very busy 2004. We also talk about the film’s incredibly popular and definitive soundtrack, Portman’s performance and career up to her first Oscar nomination, and Jackie Hoffman’s brief performance in the film hilariously singing Lionel Ritchie.



Topics also include the personal stages of life we were in when we first saw the film, how gross it is to share headphones, and Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling winning Best Kiss.



Follow Us on Twitter!@Had_Oscar_BuzzJoe: @joereidChris: @chrisvfeil

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 dealer tasked with taking over the care of her younger autistic sister, played by Sia protege Maddie Ziegler. The ill-conceived film earned a deserved firestorm of outcry for Sia not casting a neurodivergent performer and the singer’s initial dismissive reactions to the controversy, but then earned two shock Golden Globe nominations in the Musical/Comedy categories.



This episode, we unpack all that makes this our presumed worst film we have yet to discuss. We also talk about supporting star Leslie Odom Jr.’s presence in the film in the same season as his dual Oscar nominations for One Night in Miami…, Hudson’s newfound music career, and the films that the Globes could have sensibly nominated in Music‘s place.



Topics also include whatever the hell Mary Kay Place is doing in this movie, Hudson and Odom Jr. in Glass Onion, and the current hideous Globe statue.



Follow Us on Twitter!@Had_Oscar_BuzzJoe: @joereidChris: @chrisvfeil

282 – Music (Patreon Selects)






We return to the work of Naomi Watts this week for a discussion on 2010’s Fair Game. Costarring with Sean Penn for the third time in a decade, Watts starred as outed CIA agent Valerie Plame with the film detailing the leaking of Plame’s identity amidst her husband Joseph C. Wilson’s criticisms of the Bush administration. With Doug Liman taking the director’s chair after a series of action films, the film is a surprisingly sober recounting of the Plame story and one of Hollywood’s better offerings deconstructing that era of American culture. But despite launching the film at Cannes and Watts’ solid performance, the film became yet another disappointment among the many political dramas of the period.



This week, we talk about the career of Liman, including the fraught production of The Bourne Identity. We also discuss Watts’ period between her two Oscar nominations, the general landscape of Bush era politics and how few films successfully unpacked it well, and the relative box office disappointment of Edge of Tomorrow.



Topics also include Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, Bush administration names like “Scooter,” and the National Board of Review’s Freedom of Expression award.



Follow Us on Twitter!@Had_Oscar_BuzzJoe: @joereidChris: @chrisvfeil

Class of 2022

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