TRIGGER WARNING: This episode discusses potentially triggering subjects such as sexual assault, mental health, and eating disorders. 

Today we discuss, in honor of Ezra's birthday this past week, the 2010 psychological thriller Black Swan. It makes complete sense that this is one of Ezra's favorite films because it brilliantly blurs the line between beautiful and horrific. As artists, we can relate to Academy Award winner Natalie Portman's character being tortured by herself and her art, only with the intention of being perfect. With the exception of some critiques about the dancing from our resident dancer, Claudia, we all agree that this film is pretty close to that... perfect. 

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Since the first day of 2021 fell on a Friday, we figured it was appropriate to do a special 2020 in Review episode! This episode is broken down into three segments, starting with some of our favorites of 2020! We briefly discuss some 2021 Oscar predictions, and are looking forward to when we get to record our official predictions episode! Stay tuned! 

Be sure to follow Honored to be Nominated on Instagram @htbn.podcast!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Today we discuss the 1946 heartwarming Christmas classic, It's a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart. We thought this was the perfect movie for our Christmas special, as it stands for everything we at HTBN believe Christmas should be about: people over things. We want to wish all of our listeners a happy and safe holiday season! We'll talk to you in 2021!

Today we discuss the 1990 Christmas classic, Home Alone, starring Macaulay Culkin, Catherine O'Hara, and HTBN's favorite actor, Joe Pesci! This movie is just all around fun and puts you right into the holiday spirit! John Williams was nominated for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, even though you might not be able to hum the tune. 

Today we discuss the 2002 dramedy "About a Boy" starring Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, and Nicholas Holt. This film was sadly only nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, but that didn't stop us from gushing over Hugh Grant and marveling at several of the other actors' performances, which in our opinion, definitely earned a nomination. While the only thing "Christmas-y" about this movie is a Christmas song plot point and that it ends on Christmas day, it does have a nice message that in order to truly live a full and happy life, you must fill it with people that care for you. No one man is an island. 

Today we discuss the 1992 courtroom comedy, My Cousin Vinny, starring Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio, and Academy Award winner Marisa Tomei. We go into depth about the other actresses nominated for Best Supporting Actress, as that is the only nomination/win for this film, and a find some questionable discography from Mr. Pesci. To kick off the holiday season, we also give our review on the new holiday film Happiest Season, starring Kristen Steward, Mackenzie Davis, Dan Levy, and Aubrey Plaza, during our "What Have We Been Watching?" segment!  

In honor of Thanksgiving yesterday, a holiday centered around food, we thought it would be appropriate to cover Ratatouille, about a young rat who loves food! This is the second animated film we have covered and our first Pixar film! We discussed what shorts of animation appeal to each of us most, our favorite Pixar films and why, and what we are grateful for when it comes to movies! We hope everyone had happy and safe holiday! 

Today we discuss the 2017 Best Picture nominee, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, written and directed by Martin McDonagh. This film, shockingly, received several nominations with two of the actors, Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell, taking home wins. We all agree that the weakest part of this film is the screenplay. It's not only unrealistic and doesn't follow through on any of its stylistic choices, it's also incredibly racist and offensive.  We are stunned that anyone could possibly enjoy this movie, let alone nominate it for Academy Awards. 

We're back! Today we discuss the second adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers, written and directed by Peter Jackson. We talk about what this movie means to us personally as well as what it is saying about the world in general, and specifically discuss it through the lens of nostalgia. While the three of us may disagree about some of the choices thematically and narratively, we do agree that this movie does have a bit of middle child syndrome, and a lot of the answers and things we crave come in the final film! Stay tuned! 

Today we discuss Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror film, Psycho. This movie created many waves during its release. It was the first slasher film, the first movie to ever show a toilet flushing on the big screen, and certainly set a precedent for the genre as to what or who audiences find scary. While this film certainly hasn't aged as well as we would have liked, and definitely has its problems, you cannot take away the fact that it is a visual masterpiece with an immaculate score. Hitchcock, one of the greats, unfortunately has never won an Oscar.