OscarWatch Podcast

Note: the sound on Steve's microphone is a bit messed up and at times, low. Thank you for understanding.

We see dead people this week as we begin in earnest our Octoberfestival of ReConsideration, a celebration of the very few horror and horror-ish titles to be nominated for Best Picture. Our first look is the 1999 spooktacular The Sixth Sense, the film that put Shyamalan on the map (for better and worse). We examine why it succeeds as more than just a scary movie, whether it is a scary movie and just how great an actor...Toni Collette is! (She's fabulous). Plus, we debate the logical leap one must make from your primary senses to SENSING AND INTERACTING WITH THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD. There ought to be a few others in between, yeah? And of course, did this maybe deserve Best Picture. The answer surprised us...kinda like the ending to this movie!

Thank your for your patience in waiting for this one. Sorry the audio isn't what it normally is, massive microphone issues this week. Hope to have em fixed next time. Drop us a line at [email protected] and be sure to follow us on social media @oscarwatchpod

Next week, preparest thou for a bit of the old ultra-violence...

Rebecca is a tale as old as time. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl get married. Girl is haunted by the metaphorical ghost of her husband's dead wife. Boy gets put under suspicion of murder. And so on. The great Alfred Hitchcock may never have won a competitive Oscar himself, but he did direct a Best Picture winner! This week, Matt and Steve discuss just when a movie is supposed to start - and why so few seem to ever do so, the greatest of both Olivier and Fontaine and how much of this film belongs to Hitch, and how much to his producer, David O. Selznick. Gothic, mysterious and tense, Rebecca starts off our five weeks of Octoberfestival!

Write us your thoughts at [email protected] and find us on social media @oscarwatchpod; subscribe and review on iTunes!

Next week...we see dead people.

Matt and Steve head over to Italy for a film that sums up the awfulness of the 70s pretty well: 1970's Best Foreign Language Winner, Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion, a crime drama where we follow the killer as he investigates, well, himself. A scathing satire of police corruption and what it means to be powerful, Elio Petri's film is as relevant today as it was nearly fifty years ago - if not moreso. With a command performance by Gian Maria Volante and a score by the great Ennio Morricone, the boys have a fun time getting to the universal themes, drama and tragedy of this one. Fun AND police corruption? Together? Oh yes!

Thanks for listening. Be sure to write us at [email protected] and find us on social media @oscarwatchpod

Next week, we begin our Octoberfestival of horror a little early...

This week, we're as mad as hell and we aren't going to take it any more! So, naturally, we're going to discuss the 1976 Best Picture nominee (and winner of Best Original Screenplay), Network, a film that is called a satire but in the forty years since its release, has become something more akin to prophecy. Joining Steve is Shahir Daud from The Only Podcast About Movies to discuss Paddy Chayefsky's brilliant, award winning script; one full of passion, fury, anger, ideas and maybe one too many monologues. What does the movie have to say about us - the audience - and the world at large? Nothing good, really, but it's one hell of a ride.

Drop us a line on our own little network at [email protected] and be sure to find us on social media @oscarwatchpod

Thanks for listening!

At long last, the boys of OscarWatch finally get to tackle Asghar Farhadi's stunning 2011 Best Foreign Language Film winner, A Separation. Bravura filmmaking and a dynamite script drives this story relentlessly forward, forcing Steve to consider it alongside another modern masterpiece...Mad Max? Plus, though the language and cultures are different, there are some problems that all people feel. We answer your questions and get down to the business of dismantling the patriarchy!

Also, we name drop Shahir Daud of the Only Podcast About Movies at least a dozen times. So that's cool.

Thanks for listening. Drop us a line at [email protected] and find us on social media.

Next week, we're mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore.

At long last, the boys of OscarWatch finally get to tackle Asghar Farhadi's stunning 2011 Best Foreign Language Film winner, A Separation. Bravura filmmaking and a dynamite script drives this story relentlessly forward, forcing Steve to consider it alongside another modern masterpiece...Mad Max? Plus, though the language and cultures are different, there are some problems that all people feel. We answer your questions and get down to the business of dismantling the patriarchy!

Also, we name drop Shahir Daud of the Only Podcast About Movies at least a dozen times. So that's cool.

Thanks for listening. Drop us a line at [email protected] and find us on social media.

Next week, we're mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore.

This week, Matt and Steve travel to the jungles of Vietnam for the intense and personal experience that is Oliver Stone's Platoon, the 1986 Best Picture Winner. A sobering look at the lives of infantrymen during that conflict, the film pulls no punches and has as much to say now as it did then. We talk the frenetic feel to the violence and how you never feel safe out there in the jungles of Nam. And ask, is that Barber piece used just a bit too much? (Yes, and no) Finally: just what does Platoon and Star Wars have in common?

All this and more in our latest episode!

Drop us a line at [email protected] and find us on social media, Subscribe and review us on iTunes! Thank you for listening.

This week, Matt and Steve say 'Cheese!' and take a look at the last non-CGI Best Animated Picture winner, 2005's Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit! Just what makes these two characters so delightful? Is it the animation? The voice work? There is a timelessness to the setting and stories of Were-Rabbit, and Matt gets to mine his considerable knowledge of Hammer and Universal horror films to dissect this loving homage to both. Which, despite its boundless joy and comedy, has some great 'scary movie' tropes to it. Plus, we answer your questions about animated films and this year's Oscar race!

Drop us a line at [email protected] and find us on social media @oscarwatchpod.

Next week, we travel from the idyllic English countryside to the jungles of Nam. Oh yes, it's time for Platoon.

We're taking a break from the IMPORTANT things in life for a little fun in the sun with our UNOscar Edition of OscarWatch! First up, it's the ultra-low budget indie horror film Pool Party Massacre, that perhaps like Jaws, may make you never want to get in the water again! Not that anyone at this pool party spends that much time in the, you know, pool. But that's besides the point. What's on display is love and fun and blood and gore, all under the clear blue American skies. But is there something else, some bigger message underneath the cleavage and the intestines? Steve thinks so, though he's having a hard time figuring out what!

So if you're tired of us going on about the "Best" movies, then tune in! We had fun, and so will you!

Got a recommendation for an UNOscar episode? Want to appear and talk about your own movie? Drop us a line at [email protected] and be sure to follow us on social media (@oscarwatchpod). Subscribe and review on iTunes.

Next week...Wallace & Gromit!

The soft velvety tones of the one and only Bing Crosby sings to us as we head our own way in this week's film, Going My Way. The feel good film of 1944, the year America most certainly needed to feel good...but does that really qualify a film to be called Best? The boys of OscarWatch talk the immortal Bing, just whether this is a "musical", and Steve reveals a dark secret about Hallmark movies. All this and a curious tangent about an altrock 90s band, this week on the podcast.

Thanks for listening. Drop us a line at [email protected] and find us on social media @oscarwatchpod