This Had Oscar Buzz

We’re taking a break from our usual dives into thwarted Oscar buzz this week and taking a look at all the films we saw at the Toronto International Film Festival! Not only are Joe and Chris in the same room for once, but we also have our very first guests: The Film Experience’s Nathaniel Rogers and Film Comment’s Nick Davis!

Though none of us saw the eventual winner of that bellwether of Oscar buzz, Grolsch People’s Choice Award, Green Book (from Osmosis Jones director Peter Farrelly), we still have lots to discuss regarding Oscar and festival ephemera. Listen along as the four of us dive off the deep end to talk our favorites of the festival, our disappointments, and what at the festival we think will lose Oscar steam. Topics include: the ubiquitous love for A Star is Born, Juliette Binoche’s High Life sex braid, and a stacked Foreign Language field led by Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma.

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Joe: @joereid

Chris: @chrisvfeil

Close your eyes. Picture the movie about kitchens you’ve always wanted. Now open them. Is Alec Baldwin blowing pot smoke into your face? That’s kind of what it’s like to experience the 2009 romantic comedy It’s Complicated, from celebrated (and beleaguered) director Nancy Meyers.

Since Oscar buzz follows Meryl Streep around like a heartsick ex-husband wherever she goes, this was a no-brainer of a selection for This Had Oscar Buzz. Join us for discussion of Steve Martin’s banjo commitments, the utility of Mary Kay Place as a gal pal, and whether John Krasinski was at one point a gay assistant.

Join Chris, Joe, and two very flirty Jack Ryans for our episode on It’s Complicated.

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Joe: @joereid

Chris: @chrisvfeil

This week’s episode takes you back to September 2005, when the exit of the Weinsteins from Miramax resulted in a fire sale of delayed releases finally arriving in theatres to the most modest of fanfares. Least trumpeted of all was An Unfinished Life, starring Robert Redford, Jennifer Lopez, and Morgan Freeman.

Here we have a film to fill your This Had Oscar Buzz bingo card: Lasse Hallström. An adaptation of a book about a grieving family. Scar makeup of debatable quality. A bear shows up. And of course, the oh-so-trustworthy source of test screening reactions from online message boards building up our hopes of a Camryn Manheim nomination.

What makes a life “unfinished”? As we discuss this week, it might just be having a name like Griff, living in the generalized American west, and (our favorite) winning an award we have never heard of before!

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@Had_Oscar_Buzz

Joe: @joereid

Chris: @chrisvfeil

In 1997 we celebrated a giant sinking ship with James Cameron’s Titanic, but we are here this week to talk a different cinematic capsizing that year: Clint Eastwood’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Adapted from the wildly successful work of nonfiction by John Berendt, this film opened to massive expectations its unimpressive production could never match. Riding the wave of Kevin Spacey’s first win as he stars as closeted antique meister Jim Williams, Midnight is likely more fascinating in the contemporary context of Spacey’s actions than it was at the time.

Listen along as we discuss the film’s half-hearted attempts at oddness, John Cusack’s Oscar nomination that has yet to happen, and our deep affection for the film’s greatest performer, national treasure The Lady Chablis. (Oh and we finally discuss those much-maligned Oscar changes!)

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@Had_Oscar_Buzz

Joe: @joereid

Chris: @chrisvfeil

Lend us a hand and listen along as we discuss this week’s case of failed Oscar buzz: 2012’s Hyde Park on Hudson.

Opening with the burden of Bill Murray’s mounting Oscar hopes but in the shadow of The King’s Speech success handling a shared historical figure, Hyde Park on Hudson couldn’t charm its way into Oscar’s good graces. Even with Murray playing beloved American president FDR, this film couldn’t get past its odd business of picnic food and expositional handjobs.

This week we discuss another ephemeral awards season organization, director Roger Michell’s fascinating and underacknowledged career, and the beloved ensemble of actresses including Laura Linney and the Olivias Colman and Williams – not to mention Dr. Pinder-Schloss herself, Elizabeth Wilson.

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@Had_Oscar_Buzz

Joe: @joereid

Chris: @chrisvfeil

Grab your snake-catchin’ eagle and buckle up for this week’s Oscar misstep: Susanne Bier’s literary adaptation Serena.

Set during the Great Depression, this lumber baron romantic thriller starred Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper and became a question mark lingering over multiple Oscar seasons. After a beleaguered post-production process and its struggles to find a distributor, the film immediately disappeared when it finally arrived in theatres, after both stars had delivered multiple blockbusters and two Oscar successes with David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle.

Listen in as we unpack a movie that asks “how much animal symbolism is too much?” and “what would happen if Lady Macbeth and the Monopoly guy fell in love?” The answers: “never enough” and failed Oscar buzz.

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@Had_Oscar_Buzz

Joe: @joereid

Chris: @chrisvfeil

Before this year’s Oscar season kicks off, we have a cautionary tale for your early predictions: 1999′s revenge thriller smash hit Double Jeopardy!

That’s right, you may have forgotten, but leading actress Ashley Judd started pulling Oscar buzz when Double Jeopardy opened and started raking in the cash. But this blockbuster (which opened opposite eventual Best Picture winner American Beauty) was never meant to be with Oscar, even though it also starred Tommy Lee Jones in the same vein as his Oscar winning role in The Fugitive.

This week we discussed Judd’s underappreciated career, 1999′s many breakout actresses, and the badass maven of the crime procedural, Roma Maffia.

Follow Us on Twitter!

@Had_Oscar_Buzz

Joe: @joereid

Chris: @chrisvfeil

Before this year’s Oscar season kicks off, we have a cautionary tale for your early predictions: 1999′s revenge thriller smash hit Double Jeopardy!

That’s right, you may have forgotten, but leading actress Ashley Judd started pulling Oscar buzz when Double Jeopardy opened and started raking in the cash. But this blockbuster (which opened opposite eventual Best Picture winner American Beauty) was never meant to be with Oscar, even though it also starred Tommy Lee Jones in the same vein as his Oscar winning role in The Fugitive.

This week we discussed Judd’s underappreciated career, 1999′s many breakout actresses, and the badass maven of the crime procedural, Roma Maffia.

Follow Us on Twitter!

@Had_Oscar_Buzz

Joe: @joereid

Chris: @chrisvfeil

In 2007, the movies went hard on the War in Iraq. But what happened when that righteous roar, bolstered by some of the biggest names in Oscar and cinema history, gave the weakest bleat in the barnyard?

This week we are looking at Lions for Lambs, one of several politically motivated films of its year and the one that thudded the loudest. With Robert Redford directing and starring alongside Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise, our immediately assembled Oscar expectations were dismantled even faster once its empty talking head preachiness hit movie screens. Topic also include: a pre-Social Network Andrew Garfield, the thwarted hopes of resurrecting a flailing United Artists, and the joy of a perfect Kevin Dunn line reading.

Follow Us on Twitter!

@Had_Oscar_Buzz

Joe: @joereid

Chris: @chrisvfeil

In 2007, the movies went hard on the War in Iraq. But what happened when that righteous roar, bolstered by some of the biggest names in Oscar and cinema history, gave the weakest bleat in the barnyard?

This week we are looking at Lions for Lambs, one of several politically motivated films of its year and the one that thudded the loudest. With Robert Redford directing and starring alongside Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise, our immediately assembled Oscar expectations were dismantled even faster once its empty talking head preachiness hit movie screens. Topic also include: a pre-Social Network Andrew Garfield, the thwarted hopes of resurrecting a flailing United Artists, and the joy of a perfect Kevin Dunn line reading.

Follow Us on Twitter!

@Had_Oscar_Buzz

Joe: @joereid

Chris: @chrisvfeil