Podcasts by This Had Oscar Buzz
A podcast about movies the awards forgot
Further podcasts by Joe and Chris
Podcast on the topic TV und Film
All episodes
267–Heat (with Roxana Hadadi!) (Patreon Selects) from 2023-12-11T16:31:14
This week, our first film selected by one of our sponsor-tier Patreon subscribers arrives, and we brought back Vulture’s Roxana Hadadi to celebrate. In 1995, audiences were hyped to finally see an ...
Listen266–The Nest from 2023-12-04T14:00
We who loved his debut Martha Marcy May Marlene (see previous episode!) waited eagerly for director Sean Durkin’s follow-up feature while he worked in television and produced other films. That soph...
Listen265–Brideshead Revisited from 2023-11-27T17:25:50
We all know that Oscar fawns over costume dramas of literary adaptations… or so we tell ourselves when forming predictions and one with a whiff of prestige arrives. In 2008, director Julian Jerrold...
Listen264–Everest (with Katey Rich!) from 2023-11-20T16:18:35
Following Thanksgiving tradition, Katey Rich returns to This Had Oscar Buzz to discussant film with indistinguishable white male actors, and this year we have chosen 2015’s Everest. Directed by Bal...
Listen263–A Good Year from 2023-11-13T14:00
After the Oscar and box office success of Gladiator, director/star duo of Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe decided to reunite in 2006 for a very different kind of film, A Good Year. Starring Crowe as...
Listen262–Inside Man from 2023-11-06T14:43:55
We return to the filmography of Spike Lee this week with his biggest box office success, 2006’s Inside Man. With a star-packed cast led by Denzel Washington as a hostage negotiator, Clive Owen as t...
Listen261–Hereditary from 2023-10-30T13:19:54
Happy Halloween, listeners! Naturally, this week we are returning to the shallow well of horror films that made it into the Oscar hunt with a recent highly debated and lauded terrifier. In 2018, Ar...
Listen260–The Deep Blue Sea from 2023-10-23T18:03:41
A few weeks ago, we lost the great and greatly undervalued filmmaker Terence Davies, who listened have heard our love of on our previous episode for The House of Mirth. In 2011, Davies adapted the ...
Listen259–Ammonite (with Christina Tucker!) from 2023-10-16T14:14:50
After Francis Lee’s celebrated queer debut God’s Own Country, the director leveled up with another gay romance Ammonite, this time with Oscar-pedigreed stars. Kate Winslet stars as 19th century pal...
Listen258–Kill Bill–Vol. 2 from 2023-10-09T18:36:20
Last week we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Kill Bill – Vol. 1, so naturally we had to bring you Vol. 2 this week! Six months after the release of the original (and its shafting at the Oscars),...
Listen257–Kill Bill–Vol. 1 from 2023-10-02T16:06:47
We’re here celebrating a 20th anniversary for a beloved film this week, listeners! After his longest break between movies to date, Quentin Tarantino delivered a samurai epic while trying to crack t...
ListenBack to TIFF! from 2023-09-18T17:51:43
We’re back from our annual trip to the Toronto International Film Festival! Once again, we’ll be dissecting our festival experience, the films we saw, and what lies ahead for the season. We discuss...
Listen255–Win Win from 2023-09-09T20:17:56
Before Tom McCarthy would deliver an Oscar triumph with Spotlight (and a bomb with The Cobbler), his critically beloved films centering on everyday people culminated in Win Win. The film starred Pa...
Listen254–The Killing of a Sacred Deer from 2023-09-04T17:37:13
Some might call Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar ascent an unlikely one, given the oddness at the core of his films. But with the Foreign Language Feature nomination for the explicit Dogtooth and the Origin...
Listen253–Moby Dick (with Emily St. James!) from 2023-08-28T18:49:24
We’re going back further than ever before this episode and we’ve got writer/critic/author Emily St. James along for the ride! After a consecutive run as an Oscar favorite in the late 1940s to early...
Listen252–Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool from 2023-08-21T14:55:27
Ahead of this season’s Nyad, we are looking back at the Oscar history of Annette Bening and 2017’s Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool. One year after missing out on a nomination for 20th Century Wom...
Listen251–Love and Mercy (with Taylor Cole!) from 2023-08-14T14:31:47
Are you loving our new original intro music, listeners? We’re joined this week by its composer and our friend Taylor Cole to muse on the genre musical biopic with 2015’s Love and Mercy. The film fo...
Listen250–Her Smell from 2023-08-07T12:46:01
We’ve come up on another anniversary episode of This Had Oscar Buzz, and we’ve got another favorite that long-time listeners have heard us praise before: 2019’s Her Smell. Debuting on at TIFF 2018,...
Listen249–Love is Strange from 2023-07-31T18:10:08
Ahead of this week’s release of Ira Sachs’ Passages, we’re discussing perhaps Sachs’ most lauded film, 2014’s Love is Strange. The film stars John Lithgow and Alfred Molina as a newly married coupl...
Listen248–Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (with Jourdain Searles!) from 2023-07-24T20:03:10
We are returning to the work of Jennifer Jason Leigh this week, and Jourdain Searles is joining us once again with an underrated and underseen gem. Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle takes on the l...
Listen247–Breakfast on Pluto from 2023-07-17T20:18:58
The cementing of Cillian Murphy as a major actor has been a long time in the making, possibly coming to fruition this weekend with the release of Oppenheimer. Audiences likely most know the actor f...
Listen246–First Cow from 2023-07-10T13:14:29
Though this episode brings talk of the gloom of covid lockdown, we still get to talk about one of our favorite films of the last several years. The story of two men who become friends in the harshn...
Listen245–Dolores Claiborne (with Louis Peitzman!) from 2023-07-03T19:15:46
In the small hall of Oscar-endorsed horror films, the centerpiece must be Kathy Bates brilliant and terrifying win for Best Actress in Misery. A few years after that win, Bates returned to Stephen ...
Listen244–Everything is Illuminated from 2023-06-26T20:18:15
In the early aughts, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated was an inescapable book, launching the young author’s career (and more than a few skeptics). Naturally, the film adaptation cam...
Listen243–Wonderstruck from 2023-06-19T17:50:29
We’re talking about one of our favorite filmmakers this episode and for one of his most mildly received movies. In 2017, two years after the critical success of Carol, Todd Haynes returned with a p...
Listen241–Selena (with Luis Rendon!) from 2023-06-05T20:19:16
And we’re back! We hope you all enjoyed the 100 YEARS, 100… SNUBS! May miniseries, but regular episodes are returning and did we come back with a special one! The Mixed Reviews co-host and journali...
Listen100 Years, 100…Snubs!–Part Five from 2023-05-29T14:25:57
We’ve arrived at the grand finale of our blowout May miniseries 100 Years, 100… Snubs! It’s all been leading up to this Red and Wild strawberry social with guests arriving, boots handed out with ab...
Listen100 Years, 100…Snubs!–Part Four from 2023-05-22T19:58:18
The penultimate episode of our May miniseries is here! And this week, we are returning to a few repeat boot victims and some of our favorite oft-discussed films and performances. This round of snub...
Listen100 Years, 100…Snubs!–Part Three from 2023-05-15T18:28:24
We’ve got 20 more snubs (plus guest appearances!) on deck for another installment of 100 YEARS, 100… SNUBS!, and this episode is out for blood! We dive into the much discussed 1999 Best Original So...
Listen100 Years, 100…Snubs!–Part Two from 2023-05-08T18:42:36
Our May miniseries continues this week with 20 more of our picks for the greatest snubs of Oscar history! As we march towards our pick for the single greatest snub of all time we’re talking about e...
Listen100 Years, 100…Snubs!–Part One from 2023-05-01T14:04:10
It’s May miniseries time, Garys! And we’re doing something a little different! In 1998, the AFI compiled a list of the 100 greatest American films of all time, and turned the list into a primetime ...
Listen240–Private Life from 2023-04-24T20:12:13
We have another movie we adore to discuss this week! Writer/director Tamara Jenkins has long gaps between films, but has nevertheless delivered an all-killer-no-filler lineup, beginning in the late...
Listen239–Young Adult from 2023-04-17T19:52:51
After the Oscar winning success of Juno, 2011 gave us the reunited creative force of screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman, but in a different mode that that heartwarming crowdpleaser...
Listen238–Mary Magdalene from 2023-04-10T20:25:41
We talk about awards hopes thwarted by release date pushes, and this week is the mother of all of them. Originally intended as Garth Davis’ speedy follow-up to Lion for Thanksgiving 2017, Mary Magd...
Listen237–The Last Seduction (with Karina Longworth!) from 2023-04-03T15:27:57
We are joined by none other than You Must Remember This’ Karina Longworth this week to talk about one of our most unique and most requested Oscar cases. In 1994, The Last Seduction gave a modern ri...
Listen236–Secret In Their Eyes from 2023-03-27T20:38:11
After The Secret in Their Eyes won Argentina and director Juan José Campanella the 2009 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, an American remake emerged with primo screenwriter and director Billy Ray a...
Listen235–The Upside of Anger from 2023-03-20T20:16:11
Every prestige actress overdue for an Oscar deserves her showcase, and after three Oscar nominations in under a decade, Joan Allen got hers written and directed by her The Contender costar Mike Bin...
Listen234–Dear Evan Hansen (with Adam Grosswirth!) from 2023-03-13T23:28:35
To settle your post-Oscar hangover, we’re cracking open the Class of 2021 films this week and we’ve invited Muppeturgy co-host Adam Grosswirth to join us. Dear Evan Hansen follows a titular teen ba...
Listen233–The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel from 2023-03-06T21:37:52
From Shakespeare in Love director John Madden and with a bursting prestige-y ensemble, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is one we have been saving. Led by Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, who both ...
Listen232–Waitress from 2023-02-27T21:46:09
We decided to bring you a slice of joy this week with 2007′s Waitress. Starring Keri Russell as a small town waitress and inventive pie master stuck in a harmful marriage, the heartwarming film wou...
Listen231–Force Majeure from 2023-02-20T21:33:10
We’re taking another dive into the Best International Feature category this week to talk about one of the biggest world cinema successes of the past year, Ruben Östlund. Though he made films before...
Listen230–Stage Beauty from 2023-02-13T21:29:52
Longtime listeners will know that a special space in our podcast lore is reserved for our first six timer, Claire Danes. This week, we return to her work in the opulent and forgotten Stage Beauty. ...
Listen229–Magic Mike XXL (with Pamela Ribon!) from 2023-02-06T21:35:54
Listeners, are you ready to be exalted?! This week, we welcome back author, screenwriter, Listen to Sassy co-host, and now OSCAR NOMINEE Pamela Ribon. And to welcome her back we’re going on a road ...
ListenBONUS–Sundancing On My Own from 2023-02-01T23:13:12
And we’re backbackback again with a special BONUS episode this week to talk about our experience will the films of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival! The big prize winner for US Dramatic Competition ...
ListenClass of 2022 from 2023-01-30T21:52:51
An annual ritual returns! We are here to welcome the This Had Oscar Buzz Class of 2022! Off the top of the episode, we celebrate friend and former guest (and, spoiler alert, next week’s guest) Pame...
Listen228–After Hours (with Mitchell Beaupre!) from 2023-01-23T17:23:47
Letterboxd senior editor and podcast co-host Mitchell Beaupre joins us this week and is bringing their favorite film along, and it’s our oldest film yet: Martin Scorsese’s After Hours. In the mid-8...
Listen227–The Old Man and the Gun from 2023-01-16T18:11:04
In 2018, it was reported that Robert Redford would be making his acting swan song with David Lowery’s crime caper The Old Man and the Gun. As the film received its festival debut, those retirement ...
Listen226–The Leisure Seeker from 2023-01-09T21:35:53
When the 2017 Golden Globe nominations were announce, the question on everyone’s mind was “What the hell is The Leisure Seeker?!” Starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as an aging couple havi...
Listen225–Murder on the Orient Express from 2023-01-02T18:02:32
All aboard, listeners! This week, we’re looking at Kenneth Branagh’s recent attempts to take on Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot with 2017′s Murder on the Orient Express. Directed by and starring B...
ListenMailbág: Goodbye 2022 from 2022-12-26T15:45:05
We are bidding adieu to 2022 with our annual mailbag episode!! We dive into a feast of listener questions, kicked off first with a mini 20th anniversary celebration for The Hours and THOB-adjacent ...
Listen224–The Man in the Iron Mask from 2022-12-19T21:35:45
As Titanic continued its months-long reign at the box office, its closest challenger (before Lost in Space would dethrone it, that is) at the multiplex starred none other than one of its star-cross...
Listen223–We Bought A Zoo from 2022-12-12T19:56:18
After the notorious failure of Elizabethtown, Cameron Crowe took a few years off and attempted to rebound with a warm-hearted family film, 2011’s We Bought A Zoo. The film starred Matt Damon in the...
Listen222–Away We Go from 2022-12-05T21:51:18
After winning Best Picture and Best Director for his zeitgeist-seizing debut feature American Beauty, Sam Mendes instantly became a director who generate awards chatter no matter the project. In 20...
Listen221–The Front Runner from 2022-11-28T22:32:30
We’ve previously discussed the work of Jason Reitman with our Men, Women, and Children episode, and this week we have another Reitman bomb: 2018′s The Front Runner. The film features Hugh Jackman a...
Listen220–The Lost City of Z (with Katey Rich) from 2022-11-21T22:17:49
It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a little tradition, so naturally Vanity Fair’s Katey Rich makes her annual return to us this week to discuss James Gray’s The Lost City of Z. The film had a long...
Listen219–Always from 2022-11-14T21:01:50
As The Fabelmans is welcomed into theatres and Spielberg nostalgia is about to come back into conversation, we naturally are here to talk about one of his least discussed films: 1989′s Always. Base...
Listen218–The Meddler (with Richard Lawson) from 2022-11-07T21:44:46
Vanity Fair’s chief critic Richard Lawson return to us this week to talk about a piece in a trend of films about aging women self-actualizing, Lorene Scafaria’s The Meddler. Starring Susan Sarandon...
Listen217–Mary Reilly from 2022-10-31T21:00:32
Happy Halloween, Garys! Get ready for lots of whispers and accents as we close spooky season with one of our oft-referenced favorites, 1996′s uberflop Mary Reilly. A riff on the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. ...
Listen216–Snowden from 2022-10-24T19:14:53
Welcome all our new CIA listeners, because this week we are talking about 2016′s Snowden. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as controversial whistleblower Edward Snowden, the film follows Snowden’s jou...
Listen215–Beatriz at Dinner (with Jorge Molina) from 2022-10-17T20:52:15
On the eve of the return of The White Lotus, we’re taking a look at the Mike White oeuvre with returning guest Jorge Molina and 2017′s Beatriz at Dinner. Starring our beloved Salma Hayek as a holis...
Listen214–Mud (with Roxana Hadadi) from 2022-10-10T21:33:06
What’s better than movies like this? Guys being dudes! This week, Vulture television critic Roxana Hadadi joins us to return to the McConaissance with Jeff Nichols’ Mud. Matthew McConaughey stars a...
Listen213–Where’d You Go, Bernadette from 2022-10-03T21:26:42
As Cate Blanchett inches towards a possible third acting Oscar with this week’s Tár, we look back at the quickly forgotten Where’d You Go, Bernadette. Based on the praised novel by Maria Semple abo...
Listen212–The Bling Ring (with George Civeris) from 2022-09-26T19:11:51
StaightioLab cohost and Gawker editor George Civeris returns to us this episode, and we’re going to Paris’. In 2013, Sofia Coppola delivered another tale of disaffected youth, this time ripped from...
ListenReunited at TIFF! from 2022-09-19T20:18:05
It’s an annual tradition! Joe and Chris (reunited for the first time in years!) are reporting on the films of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, including this year’s (Not Grolsch) Peopl...
Listen211–Mermaids from 2022-09-12T14:11:46
We’ve got a personal favorite coming to you today starring one of our most beloved icons! After winning her Best Actress Oscar for Moonstruck, Cher then conquered the world with the album Heart of ...
Listen210–25th Hour from 2022-09-05T21:18:14
We talk about a lot of films dealing with the social and political aftermath of 9/11 but few like this week’s episode: Spike Lee’s 25th Hour. Filmed in New York City in the months after and adapted...
Listen209–A Walk on the Moon (with Tara Ariano) from 2022-08-29T19:43:08
This week, Tara Ariano returns to us to talk about a forgotten and quite lovely independent film from 1999, A Walk on the Moon. The first feature directed by actor Tony Goldwyn, the film stars Dian...
Listen208–This Is Where I Leave You from 2022-08-22T19:59:37
It’s time to sit shiva with a slew of stars and 2014′s This Is Where I Leave You. Adapted from Jonathan Tropper from his own novel and directed by Night at the Museum’s Shawn Levy, the film casts J...
Listen207–Life Itself (with Billy Ray Brewton) from 2022-08-15T22:34:47
We don’t know if we’re equipped to episode this much, but here we are. A bomb so fiery, we brought host of The Incinerator podcast host Billy Ray Brewton to help us unpack it all: 2018′s Life Itsel...
Listen206–Infamous from 2022-08-08T21:20:22
Before Bennett Miller’s Capote even arrived and made a steamroll Best Actor winner out of Philip Seymour Hoffman, there was an entire other Truman Capote biopic in the can. Charting the same portio...
Listen205–The Four Feathers from 2022-08-01T19:48:24
Long-time listeners of the podcast will recognize this week’s episode as one promised from the very beginning! In 2002, The Four Feathers arrived with major Oscar follow-up and star-on-the-rise ped...
Listen204–A Prairie Home Companion (with Clay Keller) from 2022-07-25T19:59:28
An episode long teased has finally arrived. Screen Drafts co-host (and proud Minnesotan) Clay Keller joins us to discuss the final film from beloved auteur Robert Altman, 2006′s A Prairie Home Comp...
Listen203–Martha Marcy May Marlene from 2022-07-18T20:03:33
One of the major stories out of 2011′s Sundance Film Festival was the arrival of Elizabeth Olsen, a new actress who just happened to be the younger sibling of the Olsen twins. In Sean Durkin’s debu...
Listen201–How Do You Know from 2022-07-04T15:26:40
While not known for their love for comedies, the Academy has often proven a fan for the works of James L. Brooks. This week, we’re talking about his (likely) final film, the 2010 flop How Do You Kn...
Listen200–Gloria Bell from 2022-06-27T20:23:02
We’ve made it to 200 episodes! And as long-time listeners are aware, there are few THOB-eligible films as beloved as Gloria Bell. In 2013, Sebastián Lelio delivered Gloria, a delightful Chilean cha...
Listen199–Shutter Island from 2022-06-20T14:52:08
This episode, we return to the work of director Martin Scorsese, with one of his very few films to receive zero Oscar nominations, 2010′s Shutter Island. The film was Scorsese’s highly anticipate f...
Listen198–Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (with Christina Tucker) from 2022-06-13T19:12:41
YA-YA!! This week, Christina Tucker joins us once again to discuss popular literary adaptation and TNT staple, 2002′s Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. The directorial debut of Callie Khouri,...
Listen197–Downsizing from 2022-06-06T18:38:22
And we’re back to your regularly scheduled episodes! This week, we return to our non-EW episodes with one of the more divisive high-profile bombs in recent years, 2017′s Downsizing. A globalization...
Listen196–Notting Hill (EW Summer Movie Preview–Listeners’Choice) from 2022-05-30T17:36:20
Whoopsie daisies, we have come to the close of our May miniseries taking a deep focus look back at Entertainment Weekly’s seasonal movie preview issues. And the closer was chosen by you, listeners!...
Listen195–The Pelican Brief (EW Holiday Movie Preview) (with Bobby Finger) from 2022-05-23T20:07:17
We move forward with our May miniseries this week by looking back at the 1993 holiday season with EW’s Holiday Movie Preview and The Pelican Brief. And this week, we have returning guest and Who? W...
Listen194–Ransom (EW Fall Movie Preview) from 2022-05-16T20:34:28
What’s the one about a Best Director frontrunner who gets snubbed for a nomination only to have the star of his then-filming movie assume his frontrunner status all the way to a win. No joke, this ...
Listen193–The Da Vinci Code (EW Summer Movie Preview) from 2022-05-09T19:10:17
Our EW Movie Previews miniseries continues this week with a look at the summer season! After the ubiquity of the best-selling book, The Da Vinci Code was primed for a glossy movie adaptation even b...
Listen192–Panic Room (EW Spring Movie Preview) (with Adam B. Vary) from 2022-05-02T17:55:41
We’re kicking off our May Miniseries on EW Movie Preview cover movies at the beginning of the calendar with the Spring Movie Preview spotlight on Panic Room. David Fincher’s post-Fight Club foray i...
ListenBONUS–EW Movie Previews, We Love Yous from 2022-04-28T23:10:55
We have a special BONUS episode for you to kick off our May Miniseries looking back on Entertainment Weekly’s movie preview editions. We bid a fond farewell to the print edition of this formative, ...
Listen191–The Zookeeper’s Wife from 2022-04-25T19:16:45
This week, we are returning to the work of the recent Academy Award winner Jessica Chastain. In 2017, the actress headlined the adaptation of the popular non-fiction book The Zookeeper’s Wife, deta...
Listen190 – Love and Friendship from 2022-04-18T19:57:41
We’ve talked before about the shaky Oscar history with Amazon Studios, and this episode we are talking about one of their unfortunate misses that happened in the year of their biggest success: 2016...
Listen190–Love and Friendship from 2022-04-18T19:57:41
We’ve talked before about the shaky Oscar history with Amazon Studios, and this episode we are talking about one of their unfortunate misses that happened in the year of their biggest success: 2016...
Listen189–Margot at the Wedding (with Kyle Buchanan) from 2022-04-11T18:59:45
After earning an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for The Squid and the Whale, Noah Baumbach followed up that film’s success by partnering with the recently Oscar-ed Nicole Kidman for Margot at ...
Listen189 – Margot at the Wedding (with Kyle Buchanan) from 2022-04-11T18:59:45
After earning an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for The Squid and the Whale, Noah Baumbach followed up that film’s success by partnering with the recently Oscar-ed Nicole Kidman for Margot at ...
Listen188–Wild Mountain Thyme from 2022-04-04T20:34:19
We’re cracking the seal on our Class of 2020 films and somehow manage to do it without miring ourselves in the depression that was the first covid year! And as promised, we’re talking about Wild Mo...
Listen188 – Wild Mountain Thyme from 2022-04-04T20:34:19
We’re cracking the seal on our Class of 2020 films and somehow manage to do it without miring ourselves in the depression that was the first covid year! And as promised, we’re talking about Wild Mo...
Listen187–Water for Elephants from 2022-03-28T19:09:17
Adaptations of uberpopular novels are always ripe for awards prestige, but this week’s episode is for a film that fizzled quickly. 2011′s Water for Elephants assembled an impressive crew for the ci...
Listen187 – Water for Elephants from 2022-03-28T19:09:17
Adaptations of uberpopular novels are always ripe for awards prestige, but this week’s episode is for a film that fizzled quickly. 2011′s Water for Elephants assembled an impressive crew for the ci...
Listen186–Danny Collins from 2022-03-21T18:10:13
This week, we’re looking at another surprise Golden Globe nomination that fueled minor Oscar talk, 2015′s Danny Collins. An assemblage of fedoras, silk scarves, and one catchy original song, the fi...
Listen186 – Danny Collins from 2022-03-21T18:10:13
This week, we’re looking at another surprise Golden Globe nomination that fueled minor Oscar talk, 2015′s Danny Collins. An assemblage of fedoras, silk scarves, and one catchy original song, the fi...
Listen185–The Aeronauts from 2022-03-14T19:37:03
We’re taking flight this week with the “women don’t belong in balloons!” heard round the world. In 2019, The Aeronauts’ awards hopes took flight by reuniting The Theory of Everything’s Oscar winnin...
Listen185 – The Aeronauts from 2022-03-14T19:37:03
We’re taking flight this week with the “women don’t belong in balloons!” heard round the world. In 2019, The Aeronauts’ awards hopes took flight by reuniting The Theory of Everything’s Oscar winnin...
Listen184–Rumor Has It from 2022-03-07T20:45:24
This week, we’re looking at the less fondly remembered half of Shirley MacLaine’s 2005 buzzed grandmothers (after praising In Her Shoes in a previous episode) with Rumor Has It. Starring an immedia...
Listen184 – Rumor Has It from 2022-03-07T20:45:24
This week, we’re looking at the less fondly remembered half of Shirley MacLaine’s 2005 buzzed grandmothers (after praising In Her Shoes in a previous episode) with Rumor Has It. Starring an immedia...
Listen183–Margaret (with Patrick Vaill) from 2022-02-28T20:56:33
#TeamMargaret, your day is here! This week, we are joined by actor Patrick Vaill to discuss the contentious backstory and reemergence story that is Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret. Originally filmed in...
Listen183 – Margaret (with Patrick Vaill) from 2022-02-28T20:56:33
#TeamMargaret, your day is here! This week, we are joined by actor Patrick Vaill to discuss the contentious backstory and reemergence story that is Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret. Originally filmed in...
Listen182–State of Play from 2022-02-21T21:26:35
Adapted from the lauded UK miniseries of the same title, State of Play had a labored journey to the screen. Appearing on the 2006 Black List and originally intended as the screen reunion for Brad P...
Listen182 – State of Play from 2022-02-21T21:26:35
Adapted from the lauded UK miniseries of the same title, State of Play had a labored journey to the screen. Appearing on the 2006 Black List and originally intended as the screen reunion for Brad P...
ListenClass of 2021 from 2022-02-14T20:52:47
We finally have this year’s set of Oscar nominations, so that means it’s time for our Class of 2021 episode! This episode, we look back on the almost-was of the past awards season with films that r...
Listen181 – Leatherheads from 2022-02-07T20:37:13
This week, we are once again returning to the diminishing returns of George Clooney’s directorial career with 2008′s Leatherheads. The directing follow-up to his Oscar-nominated Good Night and Good...
Listen180 – Birth from 2022-01-31T20:53:27
We’re finally talking about one of our most requested films, Johnathan Glazer’s 2004 sophomore feature Birth. Starring Nicole Kidman as a woman grappling with a young boy’s assertion that he is her...
ListenBONUS – Sundance, I Say from 2022-01-30T16:51:05
We’re bringing you a special bonus episode to recap our time with year’s edition of the Sundance Film Festival! We discuss some of the biggest prize winners from the US Dramatic Competition winner ...
Listen179 – On Chesil Beach from 2022-01-24T17:47:37
Saoirse Ronan came on strong at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival with two films that had the opposite experience: the immediately beloved Lady Bird and the misfire On Chesil Beach, whic...
Listen178 – October Sky (with Esther Zuckerman) from 2022-01-17T19:23:32
Moving along from Maggie Gyllenhaal’s breakthrough last week, this week we are dis cussing her brother Jake’s! Senior Entertainment writer for Thrillist Esther Zuckerman joins us to talk about midd...
Listen177 – Secretary from 2022-01-10T20:42:53
After a few minor roles in American indies, Maggie Gyllenhaal broke out in a big way with Sundance hit Secretary in 2002. The story of a young woman who copes with her mental health issues while en...
ListenMail Bag: Vol. 2 from 2022-01-03T19:15:41
And we’re back with the conclusion of our mailbag! This time, we are talking about a few Oscar What Ifs: what new categories should Oscar adopt? what if a different actress had won Supporting Actre...
ListenMail Bag: Vol. 1 from 2021-12-27T19:06:43
It’s our annual year-end tradition! You’ve sent us your questions on Oscar past and present, but this year’s mailbag brings a special surprise: you’ve asked us such fun and thoughtful questions tha...
Listen176 – The Holiday from 2021-12-20T19:54:28
Just in time for the holidays, we are doing The Holiday. Nancy Meyers followed-up her smash hit Something’s Gotta Give with this story of two women (played by Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet) who swa...
Listen175 – Hustlers from 2021-12-13T20:28:51
This is an episode about control. We’ve tallied up the votes for our Listeners’ Choice episode and in a landslide victory, 2019′s Hustlers emerged quite victorious. One of our favorite films of 201...
Listen174 – All is True from 2021-12-06T20:28:37
In 2018, perhaps the only audience that noticed All Is True were our belove AARP Movies for Grownups awards. The film is directed by and stars Kenneth Branagh as William Shakespeare returning home ...
Listen173 – My Blueberry Nights from 2021-11-29T21:09:06
With the release of Criterion’s retrospective box set, film lovers have been revisiting the work of living master Wong Kar-wai. But this week, we’re going to be talking about his least celebrated (...
Listen172 – Money Monster (with Katey Rich) from 2021-11-22T19:53:01
Our Thanksgiving tradition continues this year, with Vanity Fair’s Katey Rich joining us as a guest, this time to talk about quickly forgotten prestige thriller Money Monster. Premiering out of com...
Listen171 – The Mighty from 2021-11-15T18:26:18
This week, we are talking about Sharon Stone and The Mighty. Adpated from the young adult novel Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, the film follows a burgeoning friendship between a silent giant...
Listen170 – Holy Smoke (with Jourdain Searles) from 2021-11-08T19:51:57
We have two exciting returns this week! First, entertainment writer and Bad Romance co-host Jourdain Searles is joining us once again. Second, we return to the work of Jane Campion, this time for 1...
Listen169 – Suspiria from 2021-11-01T18:05:40
“Volk” intensifies this week, because we’re talking about Luca Guadgnino’s 2018 Suspiria remake! Diverging greatly in style and story from the Dario Argento original, Luca Guadagnino followed up hi...
Listen168 – Never Let Me Go (with Tara Ariano) from 2021-10-25T17:43:29
This episode, Extra Hot Great co-host Tara Ariano returns to us to talk about another much-requested film, 2010′s Never Let Me Go. An adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s incredibly lauded science fictio...
Listen167 – The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou from 2021-10-18T18:11:20
We’ll get you a red cap and a speedo for this week’s episode, becuase we’re talking about Wes Anderson for the first time with The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. The follow-up to Anderson’s first ...
Listen166- To Die For from 2021-10-11T19:24:55
Nicole Kidman finally joins the THOB Six Timers Club this week with what many consider her first major critical success. In the same year that Kidman had a major blockbuster in Batman Forever, the ...
ListenBONUS – NYFF We Love You! We REJECT This BLASPHEMY! from 2021-10-10T13:34:34
We’re back stumping film festivals to bring you this bonus episode on our experience with this year’s New York Film Festival slate! Here Joe reflects on the Oscar potential of The Tragedy of Macbet...
Listen165 – The Counselor from 2021-10-04T19:09:48
There are few names in modern literature with more prestige than Cormac McCarthy, and his work has been adapted into the likes of Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men. For his first produced ...
Listen164 – American Pastoral from 2021-09-27T19:21:33
We’ve talked before about adaptations of Pulitzer Prize winners and films that had disastrous premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival, but perhaps none as disappointing as this week’s ...
Listen163 – The River Wild from 2021-09-20T18:47:30
How do you get a studio action movie some Oscar buzz? You cast Meryl Streep in the lead role. Starring the beloved actress as a woman whose family is taken captive on a white water rafting vacation...
ListenBONUS – Another Year, Another TIFF from 2021-09-19T18:29:32
Chris and Joe are back “at” the Toronto International Film Festival, and as we’re prone to do, we’re bringing you a bonus episode to recap the experience. We review our virtual TIFF experience from...
Listen162 – The Good Dinosaur (with Kyle Amato) from 2021-09-13T19:13:09
We’re doing something a little different this week and setting our sights on one specific Oscar category: Best Animated Feature. This episode, Kyle Amato joins us to talk about The Good Dinosaur, o...
Listen161 – The Mule from 2021-09-06T22:39:35
Many of Clint Eastwood’s most recent films have arrived in quick turnaround, going from announcement to filming to release in a head-spinningly short amount of time. In 2018, he had one of his fast...
Listen160 – Elizabethtown (with Phil Iscove) from 2021-08-30T20:15:50
Joining us this week is Podcast Like It’s 1999′s Phil Iscove to finally unpack a foundational This Had Oscar Buzz text. After winning an Oscar for Almost Famous and delivering a financially succesf...
Listen159 – The House of Mirth from 2021-08-23T17:54
This week, we are looking at the work of director Terence Davies and his 2000 literary adaptation of The House of Mirth. Based on the classic Edith Wharton novel, the film casts Gillian Anderson as...
Listen158 – Stepmom (with Christina Tucker) from 2021-08-16T18:38:30
It has to be said that we have been waiting to do Stepmom from the very beginning, and what better excuse to finally dive in to Chris Columbus’ Christmas Day weepy than this week’s special guest Ch...
Listen157 – Woman in Gold from 2021-08-09T20:00:56
Somehow we have yet to cover a film starring Helen Mirren, but this episode, we rectify that with 2015′s Woman in Gold. Mirren stars in the true story as Maria Altmann, a woman who fled the Nazis a...
Listen156 – A Most Violent Year (with Kevin O’Keeffe) from 2021-08-02T20:00:31
“This was very disrespectful.” Once again, Kevin O’Keeffe joins us to talk about the one and only Jessica Chastain for A Most Violent Year. Starring an on-the-rise Oscar Isaac as an emerging entrep...
Listen155 – Moonlight Mile from 2021-07-26T17:53:59
Jake Gyllenhaal is the latest to join our Six Timers Club this week with 2002′s Moonlight Mile. Written and directed by Brad Silberling, Gyllenhaal leads the film as a young man living with the par...
Listen154 – Battle of the Sexes from 2021-07-19T18:37:32
One year after winning Best Actress for La La Land, Emma Stone returned with an even better performance but faced even tougher competition. In Battle of the Sexes, the recent winner starred as Bill...
Listen153 – A Thousand Acres from 2021-07-12T22:28:38
It’s time for yet another long-promised episode in This Had Oscar Buzz lore, and also from a Pulitzer Prize winner! Adapted from Jane Smiley’s novel (which itself was loosely based on Shakespeare’s...
Listen152 – De-Lovely from 2021-07-05T17:05:13
Birds do it, bees do it; let’s do it, let’s talk De-Lovely! Reuniting Kevin Kline with his Life As A House director Irwin Winkler, the film casts Kline as the legendary songwriter Cole Porter. Also...
Listen151 – Lucy in the Sky from 2021-06-28T18:07:23
We’ve got another long anticipated episode this week! In 2019, Natalie Portman teamed up with Fargo creator Noah Hawley to bring to the screen a highly fictionalized account of a NASA astronaut who...
Listen150 – The Shipping News from 2021-06-21T18:19:08
We’re marking a milestone this week with our 150th episode. And for such a momentous occasion, we’re finally digging in to one of the most notorious films of THOB history with Lasse Lasse Hallström...
Listen149 – The Prize Winner of Defiance, OH from 2021-06-14T17:01:20
Can you believe it’s only our third episode discussing Julianne Moore? This episode we’re diving into the mid-00s period between nominations for Moore with 2005′s The Prize Winner of Defiance, OH. ...
Listen148 – Concussion from 2021-06-07T20:27:35
Finally, we are telling the truth! In 2015, Will Smith took on another biopic with Concussion as Dr. Bennett Omalu, the forensic pathologist whose research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy exper...
Listen147 – Boy Erased (Focus Features – Part Five) from 2021-05-31T16:34:05
Our Focus Features miniseries comes to a close with 2018′s Boy Erased. Based on the memoir by Garrard Conley, the film stars Lucas Hedges as a young man from a religious family who is subjected to ...
Listen146 – The Place Beyond the Pines (Focus Features – Part Four) from 2021-05-24T19:02:41
This week, our Focus Features miniseries brings us to The Place Beyond the Pines, Derek Dianfrance’s epic, novelistic tale of fathers and sons. The film reunited Cianfrance with his Blue Valentine ...
Listen145 – Lust, Caution (Focus Features – Part Three) from 2021-05-17T20:33:30
We’ve come to the midpoint of our Focus Features miniseries with a work from a modern master, 2007′s Lust,Caution from Ang Lee. An erotic thriller set in Hong Kong and Shanghai during the Japanese ...
Listen144 – Possession (Focus Features – Part Two) from 2021-05-10T22:17:10
Our Focus Features miniseries continues with the first official Focus release, 2002′s Possession. Adapted by Neil LaBute from A.S. Byatt’s celebrated novel, the film follows Gwyneth Paltrow and Aar...
Listen143 – The Muse (Focus Features – Part One) from 2021-05-03T16:14:32
We’re kicking off our May miniseries on Focus Features with the winner of our Listeners’ Choice poll, 1999′s The Muse. To kick things off, we’re looking at how Focus was birthed from the previous c...
Listen142 – Friends with Money from 2021-04-26T20:11:30
This episode, we are returning to the career of the great Nicole Holofcener with 2006′s enesemble comedy Friends With Money. The film stars Jennifer Aniston as the housemaid friend to three wealthy...
Listen141 – Carlito’s Way from 2021-04-19T19:47:05
We return to the filmography of Brian DePalma this week with 1993′s Carlito’s Way. The film reunited DePalma with his Scarface star Al Pacino as Carlito Brigante, a former criminal struggling to go...
Listen140 – A Home At The End Of The World from 2021-04-12T17:09:02
After the success of The Hours in 2002, author Michael Cunningham was a hot commodity in prestige cinema. At the same time, Colin Farrell emerged as the next big thing and was seemingly inescapable...
Listen139 – Carnage from 2021-04-05T20:03:29
After becoming a Broadway sensation, landing the Tony Award for Best Play and lead acting nominations for each member of its acting quartet (including a win for Marcia Gay Harden), Yasmina Reza’s G...
Listen138 – All the King’s Men from 2021-03-29T19:48:05
We’re finally getting around to one of the most notorious of aughts era failed awards plays, Steven Zaillian’s All the King’s Men. A remake of the former Best Picture winner and originally heavily ...
ListenClass of 2020 from 2021-03-28T17:36:26
It’s finally here: our This Had Oscar Buzz Class of 2020! Even in a COVID-impacted Oscar year that saw a longer eligibility calendar and much fewer trips to the theatre, we still have a slew of mov...
Listen137 – Live By Night from 2021-03-22T20:25:25
After landing a Best Picture winner that famously left him without a Best Director nomination for Argo, Ben Affleck made his director-star return in 2016 with Denis Lehane adaptation Live By Night....
Listen136 – White Oleander (with Nathaniel Rogers) from 2021-03-15T20:13:21
Pfor this week’s episode, we’ve invited The Film Experience creator and Michelle Pfeiffer superpfan Nathaniel Rogers back to discuss one of our listeners most requested films, 2002′s White Oleander...
Listen135 – The House of the Spirits from 2021-03-08T18:03:09
By today’s standards, this week’s film stands out for its gobsmacking cast of Meryl streep, Gleen Close, Jeremy Irons, Antonio Banderas, and Winona Ryder. But back in the 90s, The House of the Spir...
Listen134 – Big Eyes (with Jorge Molina) from 2021-03-01T20:03:55
After years of cast announcements, a biopic of painter Margaret Keane escaped development hell thanks to director Tim Burton and Oscar hopeful Amy Adams with 2014′s Big Eyes. A departure from Burto...
Listen133 – The Other Boleyn Girl from 2021-02-22T20:23:05
Heavily anticipated by Oscar predictors in fall 2007, Justin Chadwick’s historical fiction The Other Boleyn Girl paired Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johnasson as their Oscar stars were rising. But ...
Listen132 – Promised Land from 2021-02-15T20:52:23
Most remembered as “that movie about fracking”, this week we are talking about 2012′s Promised Land. Originally developed and written by John Krasinski and Dave Eggers, the film began as a potentia...
Listen131 – Tea with Mussolini from 2021-02-08T21:20:53
No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t keep pushing this movie aside –and Tea with Mussolini breaks through for this episode for you! The film is one of Cher’s few post-Oscar films and stars the ...
ListenBONUS – Sundancing at Lughnasa from 2021-02-05T14:01:56
We’re bringing you a special BONUS episode to talk about all the goings on at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival! Chris and Joe both just participated in the virtual festival and have some exciting fi...
Listen130 – The Station Agent from 2021-02-01T16:17:01
For this episode, we’re returning to 2003 with the film that almost won the Listeners’ Choice for our previous 2003 miniseries: Tom McCarthy’s The Station Agent. Starring Peter Dinklage in his brea...
Listen129 – When A Man Loves A Woman from 2021-01-25T20:51:20
For our third episode on Meg Ryan, we’re going back to 1994 with When A Man Loves a Woman. One year after her megasmash in Sleepless in Seattle, the film stars Ryan as a woman entering recovery for...
Listen128 – Cats from 2021-01-18T19:10:25
It’s time to finally talk about such serious things as digital fur technology and the perils of tribalism – you’ve been begging for it, we’re finally talking about Cats. Our first Class of 2019 fil...
Listen127 – Conviction from 2021-01-11T22:15:02
This episode, we’re looking at 2010′s Conviction starring Hilary Swank as Betty Anne Waters, a real life Massachusetts woman who earned a law degree to fight for the innocense of her brother wrongl...
Listen126 – Reservation Road from 2021-01-04T19:44:47
For our first episode of the new year, we’re taking things back to the very This Had Oscar Buzz beginning. Back when this old podcast was just a single service Tumblr, the first THOB entry was 2007...
ListenMailbag Fishing In The Yemen from 2020-12-28T18:34:23
Happy New Year, listeners! To close out 2020, we’ve compiled all of your questions for this special mailbag episode! We kick things off by surveying the state of the current, pandemic-delayed Oscar...
Listen125 – Widows from 2020-12-21T18:31:25
You asked for it and it’s finally here! To close the year, we are doing another Listeners’ Choice episode and the landslide victor is 2018′s Widows. The follow-up to Steve McQueen’s Best Picture wi...
Listen124 – Suffragette from 2020-12-14T20:58:20
In 2015, the ongoing efforts to champion stories told by and about women placed large awards expectations on Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette. A fictionalized telling of the women’s suffrage movement in ...
Listen123 – Life As A House (with LaToya Ferguson) from 2020-12-07T21:11:10
This week, we’re looking back at Oscar buzz molded from the success of American Beauty and the (new) hope of an incoming mega-franchise star: 2001′s Life As A House. Writer and podcaster LaToya Fer...
Listen122 – Me And Orson Welles from 2020-11-30T20:09:08
While cinephiles celebrate the release of Mank this week, we’re looking back at a different Citizen Kane-adjacent awards hopeful: 2009′s Me and Orson Welles. The film stars Zac Efron as a young wou...
Listen121 – About Time (with Katey Rich) from 2020-11-23T19:48:39
Richard Curtis arrived in the early 90s with his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Four Weddings and A Funeral and immediately cemented a heartwarming brand of romantic British fare. In the 2000s, he ...
Listen120 – Burn After Reading from 2020-11-16T21:29:45
After steamrolling in the previous season with No Country for Old Men, the Coen Brothers quickly returned to movie theatres with the brilliantly silly Burn After Reading. Though financially success...
Listen119 – Solaris from 2020-11-09T21:04:27
After following up his 2000 Oscar triumph with audience favorite Ocean’s 11, Steven Soderbergh pivoted into a different mode in 2002, doubling up with the low-fi Full Frontal and the subject of thi...
Listen118 – Far And Away from 2020-11-02T21:31:23
Plunge and scrub, listeners! We’re going back to the early 90s to look at Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and director Ron Howard for Far and Away. The film was both an intended inch toward Oscar’s embr...
Listen117 – Melancholia from 2020-10-26T18:30:38
This episode, we’re bringing you one of our most requested films starring one of our most requested performers. In 2011, Kirsten Dunst triumphantly returned from a short break to work with a direct...
Listen115 – The Death and Life of John F. Donovan from 2020-10-12T19:11:19
For his first English language film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, Cannes darling Xavier Dolan assembled a stunning prestige cast that promised a major leveling up from the filmmaker. And t...
Listen114 – Nuts from 2020-10-05T18:47:50
One of the most notorious snubs of Oscar history is the directors’ branch not nominating Barbra Streisand, even though The Prince of Tides received a Best Picture nomination and the Golden Globes a...
Listen113 – Running With Scissors from 2020-09-28T20:11:28
Annette Bening remains one of our most beloved actresses without an Oscar, and one of the most notorious (assumed) second place finalists after losing to Hilary Swank twice. This week, we’re lookin...
Listen112 – Goya’s Ghosts from 2020-09-21T20:00:42
Famous among Oscar predictors in the mid aughts, this week’s film had high sight unseen expectations that were thwarted by a prolonged release and dismal reviews. After twice winning Best Director,...
ListenBONUS – And From Canada, Virtual Festival (A TIFF ’20 Recap) from 2020-09-19T20:46:16
BONUS EPISODE ALERT! Though physically returning to the Toronto International Film Festival this year proved impossible, we are delighted to bring you a special dispatch from the virtual festival. ...
Listen111 – Much Ado About Nothing from 2020-09-14T19:33:37
We’re tackling our first Shakespeare adaptation this week with Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing. After launching immediately into Oscar’s good graces with his directorial debut Henry V, Bra...
Listen110 – The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) from 2020-09-07T17:47:34
Netflix and the Academy have had a rapidly evolving relationship in the past several years. This week, we look at the short trajectory from demonstrative shutout for Beasts of No Nation to a potent...
Listen109 – The Way Way Back from 2020-08-31T16:14:32
We decided to end the summer with another Listeners’ Choice episode and your triumphant film was 2013′s Sundance title The Way Way Back. The film was another massive Sundance buy for Fox Searchligh...
Listen108 – A Dangerous Method from 2020-08-24T19:26:16
If you look at many of the bizarre and not-safe-for-work fascinations embedded in the filmography of David Cronenberg, it might be surprising that the auteur’s work ever made it close to Oscar conv...
Listen107 – Prime from 2020-08-17T19:22:39
We’re back to discussing Meryl Streep (for the SIXTH time!) this episode for a film starring the legend opposite an actress who was overlooked for a defining work. After Oscar ignored the hyperviol...
Listen106 – Dr. T and the Women from 2020-08-10T19:31:09
This episode, we’re returning to the career of Robert Altman for one of the most bizarre films we’ve ever discussed. With a stacked female cast surrounding Richard Gere as a beloved Texan gynecolog...
Listen105 – Somewhere (with George Civeris) from 2020-08-03T18:27:16
After reaching Oscar success in 2003 with Lost in Transalation, Sofia Coppola has stayed mostly on the fringes of Oscar conversations with her distinct but understated filmography. This week, comed...
Listen104 – The Terminal from 2020-07-27T19:49:40
Soak this one up, listeners, because this episode we’re taking one of the very few opportunities for us to talk about Steven Spielberg. The beloved director has one of the best Oscar track records ...
Listen103 – Natural Born Killers from 2020-07-20T20:26:20
This week, we’re going back to the mid-90s to visit Oliver Stone’s highly controversial skewering of the muckraking, blood-thirsty media landscape. Natural Born Killers arrived in late summer 1994 ...
Listen102 – The Walk from 2020-07-13T20:04:59
Bonjour, listeners! This week, we’re returning to the work of Robert Zemeckis for a film whose buzz was built first by an Oscar winning documentary. In 2008, Man on Wire steamrolled the documentary...
Listen101 – Flawless from 2020-07-06T22:50:17
Philip Seymour Hoffman had a breakout 1999, winning critics prizes for performances in two films that just missed the Best Picture cut but landed his flashier costars with Supporting Actor nominati...
Listen100 – mother! from 2020-06-29T20:56:52
We have finally arrived at a major milestone – our 100th episode!! To commemorate the occasion, we’re looking back at the notoriously divisive 2017 discourse factory, Darren Aronofsky’s mother!. An...
Listen099 – Proof from 2020-06-22T23:13:30
We’re looking to the stage for this week’s episode! After being awarded the Pultizer Prize for Drama, a Tony success, and two years on Broadway, Oscar obsessives looked to the big screen adaptation...
Listen098 – Lee Daniels’ The Butler (with Jourdain Searles) from 2020-06-15T22:07:44
One year after giving us Nicole Kidman peeing on Zach Efron in The Paperboy, Lee Daniels delivered a late summer hit and Oscar hopeful with The Butler. Starring then-recent Best Actor winner Forres...
Listen097 – The Others from 2020-06-08T21:56:50
We are taking the rare This Had Oscar Buzz stroll through the horror genre this week and also discussing the rare case of a performer possibly splitting their own vote. The Academy rules state that...
Listen096 – Nurse Betty (with Rob Scheer) from 2020-06-01T22:25:22
Renée Zellweger’s three year run with Oscar in the early 2000s makes for oft-discussed trajectory, perhaps so much so that we don’t always remember her near nomination the year before it all began....
Listen095 – St. Vincent (Naomi Watts – Part Four) from 2020-05-25T20:39:22
Nao-May comes to a close this week with St. Vincent, the 2014 film that starred Bill Murray as an old codger who learns to love while caring for a not-quite-precocious preteen. The dramedy targeted...
Listen094 – Diana (with Richard Lawson) (Naomi Watts – Part Three) from 2020-05-18T21:25:50
As our Naomi Watts miniseries continues into its third week, we come to the biggest misfire therein: 2013’s reviled biopic Diana. With Watts taking on titular role, the film follows Princess Diana ...
Listen093 – The Painted Veil (Naomi Watts – Part Two) from 2020-05-11T19:57:57
Our second episode on the Oscar trajectory of Naomi Watts brings us to 2006’s The Painted Veil, a W. Somerset Maugham adaptation set during a cholera outbreak in 1920s China. Watts starred opposite...
Listen092 – Le Divorce (with Bobby Finger) (Naomi Watts – Part One) from 2020-05-04T19:37:21
We kick off our Nao-May miniseries this week with contemporary Merchant Ivory misfire Le Divorce. After missing out on a nomination for Mulholland Drive, Naomi Watts’ first foray with prestige film...
ListenBONUS – We Like Her With The Bonnet from 2020-05-03T19:36:56
This May, we are kicking off our second ever miniseries by taking a month-long dive into the filmography and Oscar history of Naomi Watts. Coming this month: we’re talking Le Divorce, The Painted V...
Listen091 – Zodiac from 2020-04-28T00:04:42
2007 was a stacked year for the major names in cinema offering bleak masterpieces and one that got left in the dust was David Fincher’s Zodiac. The film meticulously details the notorious serial ki...
Listen090 – Magic Mike from 2020-04-20T20:43:46
Based loosely on star Channing Tatum’s experience as an exotic dancer, 2012’s Magic Mike lured director Steven Soderbergh out of his ongoing “retirement” and became a summer smash. Women loved it, ...
Listen089 – The Rainmaker from 2020-04-13T21:55:48
Francis Ford Coppola is a legendary director among Oscar lore thanks to the Corleone family, and this week’s episode pairs him with a name that resulted in much ‘90s cinematic prestige: John Grisha...
Listen088 – Alfie (with Griffin Newman) from 2020-04-06T20:29:44
We’re taking it back to Jude Law’s infamously busy 2004 this week and we’ve got a special guest to help dissect it. Actor and cohost of the Blank Check with Griffin and David podcast Griffin Newman...
Listen087 – The Bucket List from 2020-03-30T21:12:57
This week, we’re crossing a big one off our list. Arriving at the tail end of a very serious-minded 2007, Rob Reiner gave us The Bucket List, a globetrotting buddy comedy about two eldery men with ...
Listen086 – The Bonfire of the Vanities from 2020-03-23T20:44:18
We’ve got our oldest movie yet this week and it’s a doozy! In 1990, auteur Brian DePalma gave us a prestige adaptation of the most lauded novel of the 80s and faceplanted to notorious depths. This ...
Listen085 – Exodus: Gods and Kings from 2020-03-17T00:08:18
We as Oscar watchers can’t quit predicting Ridley Scott just like Ridley Scott can’t stop making historical epics that end up underwhelming. In 2014, he gave us one of them – a retelling of Moses s...
Listen084 – Burlesque (with Oliver Sava) from 2020-03-10T10:53:02
Come Oscar nomination morning, sometimes you show a little more, sometimes you show a little less. You know we stan Diane Warren, and this week, we’re talking about Burlesque. Yes, back in 2010, ev...
Listen083 – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin from 2020-03-03T00:48:02
For this week’s episode, we have another quintessential prestige picture that flubbed with Oscar: it’s-a Captain Corelli’s Mandolin! Coming off of a Best Picture win with Shakespeare in Love, direc...
Listen082 – Stranger Than Fiction (with Kevin Jacobsen) from 2020-02-25T00:40:26
This week we’re returning to a subject that never fails to summon Oscar buzz: comedic actors going dramatic. For this round, we welcome And The Runner Up Is host and writer for Gold Derby Kevin Jac...
Listen081 – Finding Forrester from 2020-02-17T22:42:08
After the disasterous reception to his shot-for-shot remake of Psycho, Gus Van Sant returned to territory closer to his previous Oscar success with 2000′s Finding Forrester. Another tale of a prodi...
Listen080 – Enough Said (with Mathew Rodriguez) from 2020-02-11T23:15:42
One one our favorite female filmmakers to hover just outside of Oscar’s graces is Nicole Holofcener, and this week The Body’s Mathew Rodriguez joins us to talk about one of her more recent films: 2...
Listen079 – A Love Song for Bobby Long from 2020-02-03T21:50:28
The Golden Globes have a standing reputation for oddball nominations and this week we are discussing one of the peak examples: 2004′s A Love Song for Bobby Long. The film follows Scarlett Johansson...
Listen078 – One Hour Photo (with Matt Jacobs) from 2020-01-28T00:01:43
After Robin Williams finally won his Academy Award for Good Will Hunting, unfortunately the next few years were a series of less-than-well-received projects after another. But after a quick break, ...
ListenClass of 2019 from 2020-01-21T21:27:04
With last week’s announcement of this year’s Academy Award nominees, we can now discuss the episode a year in the making (or, in the case of The Current War, several years): the This Had Oscar Buzz...
Listen077 – Seven Years in Tibet from 2020-01-14T00:41:05
As Brad Pitt cements his status as a frontrunner in this year’s Oscar race for his performance in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, we decided to take another look back at his reign as prestige hottie...
Listen076 – In Her Shoes from 2020-01-06T21:49:32
Though it was not the victor of our Listeners’ Choice, the very vocal fans of In Her Shoes told us we shouldn’t make you wait for this one any longer. Starring Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette, this ...
Listen075 – Cloud Atlas from 2019-12-31T00:42:30
We’re bringing 2019 to a close with another Listeners’ Choice, and our listeners have chosen perhaps what will be our most daunting title yet: 2012′s interconnected science fiction opus from Lana&L...
ListenA Holiday Mailbag! from 2019-12-23T22:58:27
As an exciting holiday treat to show our love to our lovely listeners, Joe and Chris have wrapped up a special mailbag episode to answer all of your burning questions! This week, we’ll be unpacking...
Listen074 – Welcome to Marwen from 2019-12-17T03:02:07
We’re cracking open the lid on the coffin of the This Had Oscar Buzz Class of 2018 for the first time this week! And as promised, the first title that we’re diving into is Robert Zemeckis’s uncanny...
Listen073 – Hairspray (with Cameron Scheetz) from 2019-12-10T00:38:38
We’ve got a film notorious in the history of the IMDb Game this week: 2007′s Hairspray! After pointing out the film’s omnipresence in our trademark game during our first Mailbag episode, the nicest...
Listen072 – I Heart Huckabees from 2019-12-03T00:17:23
Fox Searchlight celebrates their 25th anniversary this year, and this week we’re looking back at their ascension to the Oscar titan that they are today. While 2004 saw Sideways become instrumental ...
Listen071 – Pan (with Katey Rich) from 2019-11-26T03:57:42
This week, we welcome back our first ever returning guest: VanityFair.com deputy editor Katey Rich! And what better topic to discuss (as mutual defenders of the work of director Joe Wright) than 20...
Listen070 – Prêt-à-Porter (Ready to Wear) from 2019-11-19T02:34:08
Robert Altman had a major comeback in the early 90s, scoring back-to-back lone Director nominations for The Player and Short Cuts. His follow-up, 1994′s Prêt-à-Porter (that’s Ready to Wear for Amer...
Listen069 – Ladies in Lavender (with Danita Steinberg) from 2019-11-12T02:01:58
A perfect example of an early, long-list Oscar prediction movie, 2005′s Ladies in Lavender arrived after multiple festivals to a successful arthouse run thanks to the presence of its Dame headliner...
Listen068 – The Secret Life of Walter Mitty from 2019-11-05T02:38:10
In the fall festival season, a primo premiere status can assert a film as having major Oscar ambitions. This week’s title, 2013′s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, is a such a case – after debuting ...
Listen067 – Cadillac Records (with Jourdain Searles) from 2019-10-29T00:29:17
This week, Bitch Media writer and Bad Romance podcast host Jourdain Searles joins us to talk about 2008′s musical multi-biopic Cadillac Records. Most famous for Beyoncé’s performance as Etta James,...
Listen066 – Bounce from 2019-10-22T02:50:02
This episode, we have another psychotic romance for you with 2000′s Bounce. One of Miramax’s 2000 awards-hopeful misfires (which ultimately led to the rise of Chocolat), the film stars Gwyneth Palt...
Listen065 – Bringing Out The Dead from 2019-10-15T02:49:41
With the incoming arrival of a new Martin Scorsese film with The Irishman, naturally we had to talk about the master, right? But rare is the film that results in no Oscar nominations for Scorsese –...
Listen064 – The Evening Star from 2019-10-07T23:25:48
Is there a faster fast track to Oscar buzz than being a sequel to a Best Picture winner? While there may not be much of a sample pool beyond The Godfather series, 1996 gave us The Evening Star, a f...
Listen063 – Morning Glory from 2019-09-30T23:35:50
What was it that placed a light comedy like Morning Glory on early Oscar predictions in 2010? Was it the potential for a morning news riff on Broadcast News brilliance? The ascendancy of Rachel McA...
Listen062 – Miss Potter from 2019-09-23T23:56:03
Certainly one of the biggest Oscar narratives this season will be Renée Zellweger’s return to the big screen, starring as the timeless Judy Garland in Judy. So to mark the occasion (with Chris high...
Listen061 – Salmon Fishing in the Yemen from 2019-09-17T01:13:10
A title that became a punchline all its own, this week we are discussing 2012′s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. A light romantic drama about project management and Western relationships with the Middl...
ListenAnd From Canada MAILBAG! from 2019-09-10T00:45:24
You asked for it and it’s finally here! While Joe and Chris are away at TIFF, we are bringing you our first ever MAILBAG EPISODE! We have been taking your questions in the recent weeks and are so e...
Listen060 – Miss Sloane (with Kevin O’Keeffe) from 2019-09-02T23:38:22
Jessica Chastain emerged nearly a decade ago with a bevy of roles in major Oscar films like The Tree of Life and The Help and immediately cemented her place as a performer destined for Oscar. After...
Listen059 – Vanity Fair from 2019-08-27T00:07:33
This week, we’re looking back at a film that arrived too early in 2004′s Oscar season and received too mild of a response to eventually make Oscar’s lineup. From the classic William Makepeace Thack...
Listen058 – Men, Women&Children from 2019-08-20T01:41:58
A film that uses Pale Blue Dot as a quasi-pickup line and features a couple aligning their sex life with 9/11, Men, Women&Children is likely one of the most maligned films we’ve ever discussed. Dir...
Listen057 – Truth from 2019-08-13T01:07:01
Not only are we Oscar historians here on This Had Oscar Buzz, we are also the Illuminati of Vanderbilts. This week, we look at the directorial debut of Zodiac screenwriter James Vanderbilt Truth. D...
Listen056 – All The Pretty Horses from 2019-08-06T01:50
This week, we have a deceptively titled film that was also sold deceptively to audiences in 2000. Billy Bob Thornton’s Cormac McCarthy adaptation All The Pretty Horses was supposed to be an old-fas...
Listen055 – The Majestic from 2019-07-30T00:43:46
This episode we arrive at two inevitable discussion points for Joe and Chris. First, a fifteen minute discussion of the Cats trailer. Second, a look at an essential This Had Oscar Buzz title: Frank...
Listen054 – J. Edgar from 2019-07-23T01:10:45
We’re taking a trip back this week to some of the darkest days in the “Get Leo an Oscar” saga: Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar. The film starred Leonardo DiCaprio and detailed the many political exploits...
Listen053 – Random Hearts from 2019-07-16T01:56:36
Get ready for another Movie That Does Not Exist – except evidence of this week’s film is provided in one of the most iconic EW Fall Movie Preview covers! Yes, in 1999 Random Hearts promised us sexy...
Listen052 – Frankie and Johnny from 2019-07-09T21:05:15
We’re going all the way back to 1991 for this week’s episode on Gary Marshall’s take on the Terrence McNally two-hander Frankie and Johnny. Here is a film that was a convergence of several Oscar na...
Listen051 – I Saw the Light (with Erica Mann) from 2019-07-02T01:30
Can you believe it’s taken us this long to discuss that genre Oscar so adores, the musical biopic? This week, Erica Mann joins us for one of the most reviled paint-by-numbers biopics and a little b...
Listen050 – Bobby from 2019-06-25T03:34:24
Can you believe we have made it to our 50TH EPISODE?! And for the occasion, we’ve allowed you the listeners to pick the film we are discussing – and you’ve chosen Bobby, Emilio Estevez’s 2006 film ...
Listen049 – Stonewall from 2019-06-17T23:58:58
This Pride season honors the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots – and here on This Had Oscar Buzz, we are taking a look at the film that only did so in lip service. From director Roland Emmeri...
Listen048 – Rendition from 2019-06-11T03:39:50
With the return of Big Little Lies to our television screens, we’re taking a look at a film starring one of the Monterey Five’s key players and her newly arrived nemesis. No, that outdoor coffee sh...
ListenBONUS – A Kiss At The End of 2003’s Rainbow from 2019-06-04T02:37:35
To wrap up our 2003 miniseries, Joe and Chris take a final look at the Oscar year that was 2003 in this special episode! We take a guess at what the remaining five films would be in a year of ten B...
Listen047 – In The Cut (2003 – Part Four) from 2019-05-27T15:56:36
For our fourth of four films in our 2003 miniseries, we placed the responsibility squarely on you: the listener. (Please try to disregard that Joe repeatedly refers to “readers” in this episode; t...
Listen046 – The Human Stain (2003 – Part Three) from 2019-05-21T00:45:24
This week we bring you the Stefon of the 2003 Oscar race: Anthony Hopkins inadvertently saying racial slurs, Nicole Kidman with curly hair, a cringeworthy adaptation of Philip Roth, holdover from t...
Listen045 – Sylvia (2003 – Part Two) from 2019-05-14T01:46:18
We continue our month-long look at the 2003 Oscar year with what could be the poster child for bland biopics: Sylvia. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow as poet Sylvia Plath, the film paint-by-numbered its w...
Listen044 – The Missing (2003 – Part One) from 2019-05-07T00:30:20
With this episode, we officially begin our month-long miniseries on the 2003 Oscar year! We are beginning with a high profile failure from a major director: Ron Howard’s The Missing starring Cate B...
ListenBONUS – A 2003 Rendezvous from 2019-05-05T23:18:33
To kick off our 2003 miniseries, we are bringing you this special bonus episode! Here we will lay the groundwork for what the expectations were for the Oscar season before we discuss our four chose...
Listen043 – The Girl on the Train from 2019-04-30T00:58
The Girl on the Train will likely be remembered for following in the mold that Gone Girl had previously set for it, thanks to both books literary phenomenon status. However when it came time for a ...
Listen042 – Evening (with Richard Lawson) from 2019-04-23T01:52:27
This Had Oscar Buzz has always been a long day’s journey into Evening! In 2007, the film strangely opened in the summer and quickly became the poster child for the “Oscar bait” moniker. Starring a ...
Listen041 – The Ice Storm from 2019-04-15T23:57:17
Hello Charles! This week, we talk about a real headscratcher: how did Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm get no Oscar nominations? Debuting at the Cannes Film Festival and Lee’s follow-up to his first Oscar s...
Listen040 – Love and Other Drugs (with Nate Jones) from 2019-04-09T01:26:30
Can you believe that in 2010 we got Oscar buzz for a film about the rise of Viagara in the 90s that was also a sexy romance and was also about Parkinson’s AND was directed by your dad’s favorite di...
Listen039 – Suburbicon from 2019-04-02T01:00:11
2017 was a rough year for Paramount and their awards slate, but none of their films bombed as hard as George Clooney’s Suburbicon. Retooled by Clooney and his writing partner Grant Heslov from a Co...
Listen038 – Shopgirl (with Pamela Ribon) from 2019-03-26T01:21:14
2005′s Shopgirl looked like a safe Oscar bet on paper – a whimsical, lighthearted romance with Claire Danes taking her ascendancy into lead roles and Steve Martin capitalizing on an Oscar shutout n...
Listen037 – The Gift from 2019-03-19T01:06:35
Before Sam Raimi went into the Spider-Verse, he tipped a toe into prestige waters with A Simple Plan before misfiring with The Gift. The 2000 film starred Cate Blanchett as southern clairvoyant hel...
Listen036 – Where the Wild Things Are from 2019-03-12T04:29
Director Spike Jonze is somewhat of an Oscar anomaly, successfully turning oddities like Being John Malkovitch, Adaptation, and Her into auteur films embraced by the Academy. This week’s episode fo...
Listen035 – Meet Joe Black (with Bobby Finger) from 2019-03-05T01:24:42
Can anyone today compare to how red hot of an actor Brad Pitt was in the 90s? After following his Oscar nomination for Twelve Monkeys with dual failed Oscar bait (The Devil’s Own and Seven Years in...
Listen034 – Riding in Cars With Boys (with Bowen Yang) from 2019-02-25T22:52:25
Penny Marshall’s passing last year reminded us of how unfortunately she never got her due as a respected director. Never was that more clear than the critical drubbing that was met with 2001′s Ridi...
Listen033 – Rent from 2019-02-19T02:18:28
Once intended to be adapted for the screen by Spike Lee, the Pulitzer-winning musical Rent made its leap to the big screen in 2005 amid impossible expectations. Having helped usher in the modern er...
Listen032 – Ricki and the Flash from 2019-02-12T01:56:23
After a string of August (yes, early buzzed) hits, Meryl Streep collaborated with two Oscar-winning names that sent Oscar obsessives to get lost in their rock and roll: director Jonathan Demme and ...
Listen031 – How to Make an American Quilt from 2019-02-04T23:44:20
Coming off of two successive Oscar nominations, Winona Ryder led an immaculate female ensemble for Jocelyn Moorhouse’s How to Make an American Quilt. But instead of furthering Ryder’s mounting Osca...
ListenClass Of 2018 from 2019-01-29T00:16:36
An episode an entire year in the making – we’re welcoming This Had Oscar Buzz’s Class of 2018 into the fold! As requested, we’re running down all of this past year’s films that had lofty Academy Aw...
Listen030 – Brothers from 2019-01-22T00:41:39
Our episode this week is on a film that once dominated the earliest Oscar predictions for 2009: Jim Sheridan’s American remake of Brothers. Led by Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Natalie Portma...
Listen029 – To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (with Gavin Mevius) from 2019-01-15T00:49:29
This week, we dive into our pfirst Pfeiffer and it’s also pforgotten Pfeiffer. To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday arrived in 1996, coasting on a triple threat of Oscar buzz: a popular stage play, adap...
Listen028 – The Paperboy from 2019-01-08T00:36:57
An episode that asks that oft-repeated eternal question: will the Academy ever be ready for a movie where Nicole Kidman pees on Zac Efron? In 2012, Lee Daniels followed up his Precious Oscar succes...
Listen027 – The Family Stone (with Tara Ariano) from 2018-12-25T00:46:18
This week, we invited over Extra Hot Great co-host Tara Ariano to discuss our problematic Christmas fav, 2005′s The Family Stone. It may be one of several love-it-or-hate it holiday movies, but spo...
Listen026 – Crazy, Stupid, Love. from 2018-12-18T03:08:07
In many ways, 2011 was the year of Ryan Gosling. This was the peak “Hey Girl” era, and this year alone gave us the critical darling hotness of Drive and what we thought would suit the more traditio...
Listen025 – Alexander (with David Sims) from 2018-12-11T02:26:14
Grab some snakes and prep that Dionysus monologue, because this week we are taking it back to 2004′s Alexander. Starring Colin Farrell filling the historic shoes of Alexander the Great, this film w...
Listen024 – Anywhere But Here from 2018-12-04T03:58:54
This week’s episode is a tale of two actresses at the opposite ends of their respective Oscar stories: 1999′s Anywhere But Here, with Natalie Portman’s kicking off her Oscar trajectory and Susan Su...
Listen023 – The Tourist (with Katey Rich) from 2018-11-27T03:58:18
Remember that time a movie where Johnny Depp explains vaping to Angelina Jolie made everyone super mad at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association? That’s right, we’re talking this week about The To...
Listen022 – Cake from 2018-11-19T23:40:15
2014 was a year of mirrored Best Actress hopefuls launched at the Toronto International Film Festival: out of nowhere, Julianne Moore capitalized on a “weak” field and finally won for Still Alice. ...
Listen021 – Tadpole from 2018-11-13T03:55:29
The Sundance Film Festival is an elusive mistress that giveth Oscar buzz only to taketh away when at lower altitudes. Case in point is this week’s would-be Oscar title: 2002′s Tadpole. The film was...
Listen020 – Secretariat from 2018-11-06T01:57:43
After landing a Best Actress nomination in a great Best Actress year for Unfaithful, we once thought Diane Lane could come back to the Oscar race by going to a horse race. This week, we’re talking ...
Listen019 – Hannibal from 2018-10-30T03:37:44
Happy Halloween, listeners! This week, we’re getting creepy with Ridley Scott’s follow-up to Best Picture winner Gladiator, the gross-out macabre sequel Hannibal. The legacy of The Silence of the L...
Listen018 – Sommersby from 2018-10-23T01:12:43
It’s time for some failed harlequin romance Oscar buzz and that means we are talking 1993′s Sommersby. A post-Civil War era love story of overtaken identity and languorous beard shaving, the presen...
Listen017 – Seven Pounds from 2018-10-16T01:33:32
Cuddle up to your jellyfish, because this week’s we’re talking about Seven Pounds. Just two years after being nominated for The Pursuit of Happyness, we thought that Will Smith’s reteaming with dir...
Listen016 – The Fifth Estate from 2018-10-09T02:36:36
If the past few weeks of movies we like had you weary, fear not for this episode we have a real stinker for you: 2013′s The Fifth Estate. This was the year that Benedict Cumberbatch was everywhere ...
Listen015 – Get Shorty from 2018-10-02T02:12:08
For a short time in the 90s, Elmore Leonard was an Oscar thing and post-Pulp Fiction John Travolta being due was also an Oscar thing. Both of those may sound confounding in today’s era of Gotti and...
Listen014 – The Door in the Floor from 2018-09-25T01:12:16
This week’s episode is the sound of something trying to not make a sound. It’s our first failed Oscar buzz movie that we genuinely love and it’s 2004’s The Door in the Floor. Adapted from the first...
ListenTIFF ’18 BONUS – We’re Far From the Scotia Now from 2018-09-18T01:54:41
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 ...
Listen013 – It’s Complicated from 2018-09-11T03:02:33
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 romanti...
Listen012 – An Unfinished Life from 2018-09-04T00:52:44
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 fan...
Listen011 – Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil from 2018-08-28T00:18:29
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...
Listen010 – Hyde Park on Hudson from 2018-08-21T00:58:48
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 T...
Listen009 – Serena from 2018-08-14T01:59:07
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 J...
Listen008 – Double Jeopardy from 2018-08-07T01:24:49
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...
Listen007 – Lions For Lambs from 2018-07-31T01:11:15
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 barny...
ListenBONUS – If Queen Street Could Talk from 2018-07-26T01:41:16
We’re going to TIFF! If you haven’t seen, the first titles for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival lineup have been revealed. Joe and Chris couldn’t wait to talk about it, so we are tre...
Listen006 – 1492: Conquest of Paradise from 2018-07-24T02:04:15
Brace yourselves for some slow motion colonialism set to the dramatics of Vangelis – this week, we are discussing 1992′s Christopher Columbus epic 1492: Conquest of Paradise. With star Gerard Depar...
Listen005 – Courage Under Fire from 2018-07-17T00:26:50
This week, we are taking you back to 1996 for Edward Zwick’s Rashomon-esque half-examination of the Gulf War and sexism in the military, Courage Under Fire. While most of the praise on release was ...
Listen004 – Ask the Dust from 2018-07-10T01:03:30
What’s that? You’re not familiar with the 2006 romantic drama Ask the Dust? Where a handsome young writer played by Colin Farrell moves to California, negs the hell out of waitress Salma Hayek, and...
Listen003 – Pay It Forward from 2018-07-03T01:06:44
This week we’re calling all angels as we discuss 2000’s major critical disaster and thwarted Oscar grab, Pay It Forward. That’s right, the one where a post-Sixth Sense Haley Joel Osment teaches the...
Listen002 – Tulip Fever from 2018-06-25T23:49:07
This week’s piece of failed awards bait is the 2017 costume drama/romantic “thriller” Tulip Fever, and by “2017,” we mean “filmed in 2014 and originally intended to be released at various times ove...
Listen001 – Mona Lisa Smile from 2018-06-19T00:44:56
Our first episode of This Had Oscar Buzz is about 2003’s Mona Lisa Smile, director Mike Newell’s Wellesley College period melodrama, starring Julia Roberts and all of the It Girls of the early Augh...
ListenIt Didn’t Come True from 2018-06-04T17:17:38
Joe Reid and Chris Feil discuss the origins of This Had Oscar Buzz, their first experiences with Oscar failures, and give a sneak peek at episodes to come…
Listen