Joe and Chris are back from the Toronto International Film Festival and it’s time to unpack everything we saw. Though we recorded prior to the announcement of this year’s People’s Choice Award winner, we talk at length about this year’s triumphant Hamnet and the word on the ground about the runners up as well. We discuss our … Continue reading "THOB does TIFF-ty"

Listeners who remember our The Place Beyond the Pines episode will remember that this is a highly pro-Derek Cianfrance podcast. As his latest Roofman makes its TIFF world premiere, we’re looking back at his most recent theatrical release, 2016’s literary adaptation The Light Between Oceans. The film starred Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender as a post-WWI couple whose isolated life … Continue reading "358 – The Light Between Oceans"

Michelle Pfeiffer is a favorite to discuss on This Had Oscar Buzz and this week we’re throwing it back to one of her late 1990s melodramas. In The Deep End of the Ocean, Pfeiffer starts as a mother whose young child goes missing. After years of traumatic aftermath, the child reappears in her family’s life, forcing … Continue reading "357 – The Deep End of the Ocean"

After an indie one-two punch of Pi and Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky was riding high as one of the major emerging directors at the turn of the century. For his next film, he would graduate to big budget studio fare with The Fountain, an ambitious and era-spanning science fiction tale of love and death. The scaled-down version … Continue reading "356 – The Fountain"

We are so excited to welcome back Tribune News Service film critic Katie Walsh to discuss one of the most beloved American filmmakers! When will “Oscar for Sandman” happen? Well, in 2002, Adam Sandler had his first attempt at the Gold with an esoteric, anxious romantic comedy by Paul Thomas Anderson, Punch-Drunk Love. While the film … Continue reading "355 – Punch-Drunk Love (with Katie Walsh!)"

Grab your half-butter-half-salt popcorn because this week, we’ve got something to make you howl! After the critically-hailed success of Waiting for Guffman, Christopher Guest returned with another improvisational comedy set in a world of deeply specific eccentrics played by an ensemble of geniuses. Best in Show is set in a world of competitive dog shows, with all the … Continue reading "354 – Best in Show"

With Meryl currently on her first film set in years, what better time than to dance, jive, and generally speaking have the time of our lives. We’ve invited our friend, writer and programmer Jorge Molina to discuss the Meryl movie that didn’t get her an Oscar nomination in 2008. A post 9/11 hit on the … Continue reading "353 – Mamma Mia! (w/ Jorge Molina!)"

You might not expect a family-friendly live action Disney movie to draw awards attention, but not all of those types of films star Jamie Lee Curtis. In 2003, JLC starred in a Freaky Friday remake starring then ascendant teen star Lindsay Lohan. The two spin comedy gold as a tenuous mother and daughter who wake one morning … Continue reading "352 – Freaky Friday"

After a pair of successful adventure movies together with Robert Zemeckis, the trio of Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito got the band back together for one last time in 1989. With DeVito in the director’s chair and adapted from the Warren Adler novel, The War of the Roses follows the disintegration of one materialistic couple … Continue reading "351 – The War of the Roses"

We’re ringing in another year on the pod with our 350TH EPISODE!! In 2006, Broadway imported the National Theatre production of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, an ensemble piece following a group of college hopeful students and their philosophically opposed teachers. The Broadway production became a Tony record-making sensation. However, prior to the transfer, the … Continue reading "350 – The History Boys"