This Had Oscar Buzz

For this week’s episode, we’re… dealing (sorry) a late 90s favorite that was meant to be a post-Oscar star vehicle and wound up a box office disappointment. After the Oscar and box office success of Good Will Hunting, the next stop on Matt Damon’s ascent to megastardom was to be Rounders, an NYC-set drama about high-stakes underground poker. Damon starred as a law student who once gave up the game but quit at the insistence of his girlfriend (Gretchen Mol), only to get pulled back in by his no-good childhood friend (Edward Norton).

This episode, we talk about the film’s status as a cult favorite of sorts and the film’s palatable brand of machismo. We also discuss Norton’s Oscar nomination in the same year for American History X, Mol’s Vanity Fair It Girl cover, and John Malkovich giving goofy Russian accent.

Topics also include Celebrity Poker Showdown, John Turturro in a bathhouse, and (eep) Famke Janssen on Nip/Tuck.

Happy Halloween! Quickly following up his paradigm-shifting Hereditary, Ari Aster took to Sweden for Midsommar. The film stars Florence Pugh as a young woman who follows her boyfriend on a study trip in the wake of a major personal tragedy. As the running-on-fumes romance disintegrates, things get very weird and very sinister in the remote town in which they’re staying. Though the film earned him the vocal respect of the likes of Martin Scorsese, its Oscar chances were swiftly cut short.

This episode, we talk about the film’s morbid (and often quite funny) depiction of cult behavior and the backlash against Aster’s cinematic sensibilities. We also talk about Pugh’s Little Women performance in the same year, how the film doesn’t completely spell out what’s happening just offscreen, and the director’s cut that has gained popularity in the year’s since.

Topics also include Joe’s current spooky watching, 2019 Best Actress, and Midsommar‘s memeability.

Post-Chicago, just about any movie musical was fodder for awards buzz, especially if they boasted a cast as stacked as Romance and Cigarettes. A jukebox musical from the mind of John Turturro, the film stars James Gandolfini as a New York construction worker whose life goes into tumult when he cheats on his wife (Susan Sarandon) with a younger redhead (Kate Winslet). Bizarrely profane and minimally plotted, the film thudded onto the festival scene in 2005 and didn’t see a theatrical release until Turturro self-distributed it in 2007.

This episode, we talk about Turturro’s Best Actor chances this season with The Only Living Pickpocket in New York and his under-rewarded career as an actor. We also discuss Gandolfini breaking away from The Sopranos with movies, the film’s strange catalog of disconnected songs, and a punk girl group of Mary-Louise Parker, Mandy Moore, and Aida Turturro.

Topics also include Film Forum, the 2005 Venice Film Festival, and Elaine Stritch: At Liberty.

In the years after his Oscar win for The Untouchables, Sean Connery remained a major movie star and box office draw. The latter proved untrue in 1990 when The Russia House fizzled at the holiday box office. Based on the John le Carré novel, the film follows Connery as a publisher pulled into espionage in Russia during perestroika, only to fall in love with an informant’s wife, played by Michelle Pfeiffer. One year after The Fabulous Baker Boys, Pfeiffer earned a Globe nomination for her performance, but Oscar honored neither of these headliners.

This episode, we discuss director Fred Schepisi and the Academy’s arms-length relationship with the chillier adaptations of le Carré’s work. We also discuss Connery’s next decade as a major star, Pfeiffer’ on her 10th THOB-day (that’s a To Gillian reference for anyone paying attention)’s extensive THOB history, and director Ken Russell hiding out among the film’s ensemble.

Topics also include the 1990 EW Holiday Movie Preview, a Berlin competition lineup with two Best Picture winners, and composer Jerry Goldsmith.

In 2018, we were rooting for the comeback of director Karyn Kusama, emerging with the promising crime thriller Destroyer. Centering on Nicole Kidman playing against type as a grizzled investigator haunted by a previous undercover case gone wrong, the film applies a serpentine structure to its breed of hard boiled LA noir to mixed results. After receiving a mixed reaction on the festival circuit but praise for Kidman’s performance, the film was one of several 2018 Annapurna Pictures films that struggled to gain momentum.

This episode, we talk about the strength of Kidman’s performance and the unfortunate fate that met some of Kusama’s films. We also talk about the film’s baffling ending, Sebastian Stan as Kidman’s hot love interest, and Kidman going ham on Bradley Whitford and Tatiana Maslany.

Topics also include “deglam” Oscar campaigns, The Invitation, and Kidman’s Golden Globe nomination.