Podcast: A Nebraskan Thanksgiving!
Sunday, November 24, 2013 at 10:00PM 
Happy Holiday Podcast!
In this week's episode, Nathaniel, Katey and Nick prepare for the impending Thanksgiving dinners by sharing our favorite turkeys (movies) and succulent hams (actors). We answer reader-submitted questions on topics ranging from Jennifer Lawrence's meteoric rise to fame, through Michael Fassbender's decision not to campaign for Oscar and on to confessions about nominated movies and performances we've never seen. Plus: Nathaniel and Katey share celebrity run-ins with Melissa Leo (Prisoners) and Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said)
But we begin by taking a black and white road trip to Best Picture hopeful Nebraska with Alexander Payne as tour guide. (Nick doesn't like the way he drives but Katey and Nathaniel enjoy the view)
You can listen at the bottom of the post or download it on iTunes. Join in the conversation in the comments.
Nathaniel and Katey (& their friend Rob in the middle) November 2012
We also briefly mention last year's Fox Searchlight Holiday party (as well as this year's) and our friend Rob so I thought I'd include this photo that Katey and I took there a year ago.
Reader Comments (27)
awesome picture! I'll listen to this when I commute tomorrow.
Agree with Nick about The Green Mile. Just a retread for Frank Darabont and so problematic.
I knew my question was too long and rhetorical! Should've just shorten it to the campaign or no campaign question that another reader had.
The Abyss isn't on Blu-ray because Cameron has to sign off on all new scans of his movies. And his priority is with the unwarranted, unnecessary Avatar sequels.
I thought Tommy Lee Jones was so wonderful in In the Valley of Elah. Not going to defend the movie because I know people were very mixed on it, but I think the performance is really really good.
"I hadn't really CONSIDERed what minefield I'd be stepping into."
I see what you did there, Nathaniel.
I loved Nick saying that Alexander Payne plays "rock paper scissors" with his characters in each scene.
This podcast is the Thanksgiving dinner of podcasts (sorry Melissa Leo!). So homey!
With the movies, I fall more on the Nick side of Nebraska which I liked just fine, but I liked it the way I like vanilla ice cream. It's sweet enough and pleasant enough, just why bother with it when there are so many more interesting things to choose from? Definitely don't get the June Squibb love though. She's got all the best lines, but I felt like she made the most obvious choices possible with them.
Re: Her, I did a Mandy Patinkin holla at Nathaniel's note on the worldbuilding in that movie, which is obviously the best thing about it. I'm curious to hear everyone's expanded thoughts on the movie whenever it ends up opening. For me, it was less than the sum of its parts. Lots of great things happening, performance-wise, direction-wise, design-wise, but they just never came together for me.
LOL at Kids Are All Right Annette in Gravity, and my mind was blown at the thought of fragile Julia Roberts. I think I assumed she showed up on the scene as fully formed blazing tornado Erin Brockovich Julia.
Turkey I love: Josie And The Pussycats. So many silly cameos and silly songs, but earnest enough to be endearing.
My favorite holiday ham: Elizabeth Taylor, always and forever.
Something I'm sweet on: Between Blue Is The Warmest Color AND her super hot red carpet campaign strategy AND today's most excellent afternoon rewatch of Sister, I'm owning my crush on Lea Seydoux. She rules. Can't wait to see what she does next.
Awesome podcast (as ever), you guys!!
Re: ScarJo in Her . I'm dying to see this and although I can't form an opinion on it yet I wouldn't be against it getting nominated if she's that good. However, I don't know if I'm missing something here, but how can she be eligible when Andy Serkins wasn't in TLOTR supposedly because he didn't actually appear on screen himself (or was that just a rumour to explain why he didn't get in). I've no idea on the actual rules about this!
Re: JLaw, have you guys seen the recently unveiled American Hustle clip? It has Lawrence, Bale and Renner in it and we actually get to see a bit of what her performance might be like. And so far I like what I see! One of the things that didn't sell her in SLP last year was she was at least 5 years too young to play her character. I think the situation's the same in AH but from that clip she almost sells it for me.
Favorite Ham: Anybody only saying/reading this Sherri Shepherd saying 'HAM!' on the 30 Rock? Probably Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad. Like, you have no idea how excited I am for Better Call Saul. Also Wallace Shawn.
Favorite Turkey: Ishtar. It's so funny. Southland Tales too. It sports the all-time weirdest assemblage of ensemble casts ever. Katey should watch this because The Rock is one of the central characters and he is really good. It's such a shame that Strange Days flopped, especially when there were corners of film criticism like Film Comment that really found value in the film. Green Hornet technically didn't flop but it probably did not lead Gondry to more studio films. In short, I really am endeared to liking flops.
What I'm Sweet On: Extremely generous pre-Black Friday deals on the internet that I am certain will bankrupt me.
Such good fun! I give you Thanks y'all!
I'm surprised no one mentioned the men's trousers as part of Her's worldbuilding. ;-)
Favorite Ham: Gary Oldman, Gary Oldman, Gary Oldman.
CMG: If Strange Days (as a 1995 release) set itself in, say, 2012 (easily predictable as the next "pop vision of the apocalypse"), it would have been a shame for it to flop. But a sci-fi movie that's, pretty much, expecting the singularity to hit in, oh, six months is still, on some level, a bad sci-fi movie. Bigelow is trying as hard as she can with the aesthetic and Bassett is giving 110%, but I can't exactly say it's THAT much of a shame to have flopped.
On the podcast: I think mine might have been the only question you didn't answer (Man of Steel sequel domain names), but I get it. It wasn't really an "on topic" question, but...I would like your view on them.
Completely disagree Volvagia about Strange Days. Bigelow adds the pulp quality to Cameron's script. It was set in the Y2K, year 2000 mindset so 5 years out. It actually won a lot of genre-based awards so it got a lot of love considering its flop status. I am talking about its box office.
CMG: I was talking about it not being a shame to be a box office flop. 2001: A Space Odyssey, at least, had the benefit of having been made in NINETEEN SIXTY-EIGHT as opposed to NINTEEN NINETY SIX. And that's pretty much the problem of Strange Days in a nutshell. Instead of setting itself on December 19-21 2012, to both 1. Make the technology feel as plausible as possible at the time of release AND 2. Justify the apocalyptic aesthetic tone, even if that would mean skipping ahead one apocalypse from the current one. Instead, they set it around New Years 1999, even if that makes it gaspingly incompetent on the predictive element that makes the best sci-fi interesting. If your predicted speed of technological development makes NO SENSE, you FAIL to be a good-great sci-fi movie. You can be an okay sci-fi movie if everyone else is trying their best (And everyone IS on Strange Days), but it could have only been a good-great one if it was set during the lead up to THE NEXT pop apocalypse event.
volvagia - - we didn't answer a lot of the questions because there were over 30. but also i didn't know what you were talking about? i dont know anything about superman domain names.
Paul -- no belts! high waists. i hope this isn't a look. everyone will have to be so slim to pull it off.
(sigh) Here they are:
Man of Steel: Beyond Darkness
Man of Steel: Darkness Falls (Oh no, watch out for the Tooth Fairy. Seriously, I imagine the Darkness Falls jokes are going to fly thick and fast if they wind up choosing this. A close second for joke fodder would be something like: So, is Superman going to be forced to not step out of the light?)
Man of Steel: The Darkness Within
Man of Steel: Black of Knight
Man of Steel: Shadow of the Night
Man of Steel: Knight Falls
Man of Steel: Battle the Knight
Man of Steel: The Blackest Hour
Yeah. Now, thoughts?
I lied, but I didn't mean to. I didn't see Primal Fear or Ghosts of Mississippi in the theater, either.
Nick -- how can ever trust you again?!
Volvagia- I just had no real problem with the time period. You seem to and seem to shame a movie for not being the sci-fi you wanted because it didn't predict technological developments or didn't set itself far distance enough to be taken seriously. It is a heightened, pulpy, alternative reality. It's still sci-fi, just not your sci-fi.
I saw The Postman for the first time this year. It startled me because it was set in 2013.
I love James Cameron as much as Katey Rich :-) I love that three of the movies you mentioned in the turkey discussion were Cameron-related: The Abyss, Strange Days, and Solaris.
I once made my friends leave dinner early to get an hour early to Inception; we were the only five people in the theatre until 10 minutes before it started when a few more trickled in. I am not allowed to plan what time we get to the theatre anymore and that was 3 years ago.
Nick Davis: But the important thing is that you saw Ghosts of Mississippi.
i love comment threads on the podcasts so much. always.
Paul Outlaw, when I think of Her's very realistic "future", I too always think of the high-waisted trousers! And it would have made for another totally relevant Project Runway reference!
Spike Jonze was cracking up in a Q&A about those trousers. Everyone found them so unsexy and slightly ridiculous, but it was just the right touch, Only added to Joaquin's adorable goofiness.
I saw Solaris when it first came out and loved it. Luckily, my friend was equally entranced. That's where I first learned who Viola Davis was, and wanted to see everything she did next.
Turkey: the movie with the greatest distance between my love for it and other people's scorn: Francis Ford Coppola's Youth Without Youth.
Favorite Ham: Alan Rickman.
Sweet On: this year, it's Tom Hiddleston in Shakespeare.