Podcast: Awards Week Blowout Special
Sunday, December 15, 2013 at 11:19PM 
Nathaniel is back from his Iceland trip and going regional with Joe, Nick, and Katey for a one hour discussion of the barrage of film critics prizes from New York, Detroit, Boston and San Diego. And another thing: are LA's "ties" okay with this panel?
Afterwards we pick on the Screen Actors Guild and their bizarre All is Lost joke (no Redford in actor but a stunt ensemble nomination when there's only one character and Redford did his own stunts?!) and the team splits on the quality of Rush, recently resurgent thanks to SAG. Then we're on to the Golden Globes for a discussion of the troublesome Comedy/Drama divide (read Joe's article for context) and we pick the best and worst of their nominees.
Also discussed: Jennifer Lawrence's backlash, Greta Gerwig's surprise, Forest Whitaker's acting, Leonardo DiCaprio's elusiveness, 12 Years a Slave's power, Philomena's luck, Dallas Buyers Club's ensemble, Wolf of Wall Street's editing, and Fruitvale Station's potential.
You can listen here or download the conversation on iTunes.
Reader Comments (19)
International Film Court. I'll be such an awesome prosecutor. Harvey Weinstein, check yo' self!!!!!
Harvey is smart never to put all his eggs in one basket. Unfortunately for him, this year he mistakenly bought a carton of cracked eggs. He ended up with three movies with critical backlash, another that is enjoyable but feels like a trifle, and another that was released on the exact weekend when its politics would be most scrutinized (even if it did quite well critically), not to mention that he has three films about race in a year where there's another better film about race. I'd say poor guy, but he has plenty of feathers in his cap already.
My fear is that next year he really plays it safe.
Harvey side-passed The Immigrant and may suppress it from ever getting a theatrical release. To me him laying an egg on a true contender is karmic justice for that. Then again, that A:OC project was DOA the moment Harvey let Clooney and Heslov pick friends and not a top director for that project.
My spare change on the comedy/drama debate - it's a double edged sword. It's great for our definition of comedy that we accept movies that have drama in them in there, that comedy doesn't have to be Adam Sandler (or even The Heat). But it's terrible for our definition of drama because it says that by definition, we can't represent all of the human experience in drama. People can be funny and ridiculous and absurd, and they're like that in the most extreme situations. The more extreme and terrible the situation is, the more likely that you're not going to get movie-drama type behaviour but a lot of absurd, 'inappropriate' and yes, funny reactions and behaviours. Taking all that and throwing this under the definition of comedy does a hell of a lot injustice to drama.
I did not get that whole talk about WOWS, being "weird" marketing. It has come late, but it seems 95% of the reactions are very positive, particularly, in relation to Leonardo. Apparently, some have just been offended by it. Which seems to make me even more curious about it. That and American Hustle, just can not wait.
I'm with Nick this week on the critics awards. I love the full nominations, I love the ties, I love reading about the fights in the voting beforehand. Not just because it makes the race to Oscar more exciting, but also because critics are often the only people in this whole awards conversations who see all of the films in the field. A lot of the time those expanded portraits of the critics' votes are the only place where you can see the amazing work being done in films that aren't getting the Weinstein/Sony/Paramount push.
San Diego going for Shailene, St. Louis repping Léa Seydoux, Chicago including James Gandolfini....these are some of the most well-deserved nominations/wins of the season. If critics are going to insist on being Oscar prognosticators, then by all means give me your full slates so I can find what you've got that's good before you toss the actual award to fecking June Squibb.
Oh, worth saying that Greta Gerwig's Globe nomination was all the sweeter for her awesome reactions. "I feel like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman but not a prostitute!"
Gerwig's response is even more apt because Osage's category fraud should make Roberts feel like a prostitute! I kid, I kid! As much as I dislike category fraud, that's way too harsh. Still, I hope the Academy does a Winslet/08 and messes up everybody's prognostications.
Loved the podcast, especially (do we do spoiler alerts for podcasts?) Nick's bit that Nathaniel had a sore throat because he was naked in Iceland. The whole Chris Hemsworth nakedness derailing the podcast was pretty hilarious, actually. Between Thor's naked body and Kathleen Quinlan's being Robert Redford's unseen wife in All is Lost, this podcast does more to upgrade Ron Howard's pop culture value than any other source on the webz (talk about niche marketing, but hey! I'm sold!). All we need now is a follow-up that Frank Langella was naked in Iceland with Nathaniel and it all comes full circle!
We really need that Court. I would love to defend that Julia is a co-lead, August is not a comedy, despite Violet's verbal assaults, and that Blue Jasmine and Orange are not dramas..
It's IMDB that has made this "film year vs. calendar year" awards distinctions such a thing. The masses go by calendar years, and "we" film/awards nuts go by the film years. Place all of the blame on IMDB!
reynolds -- CURSE THE IMDB. but really it's not just film/awards nuts. Historically Oscar ceremonies are referred to by the film year, not the year of airing. it only recently changed and now it's a fucking mess.
"Young & Beautiful" is everything! Hope it and Lana get deserved Oscar nods in ORIGINAL SONG!
Nathaniel, do you ever do any traveling?
I completely agree with Nathaniel re: Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle. To include her turn in Silver Linings (for which my affection continues to grow, even if I still wouldn't have rewarded or even nominated it) I thought that her rendering of Rosalyn turned so deliciously on her real-life persona. I'm talking about how candid she is, either wisely or unwisely, the lack of formal training/education, the firecracker personality, etc. It's a performance I can appreciate and one I enjoyed the heck out of, even while going back and forth about whether she was "good". It's a debate I suspect I'll be having internally for some time as I've still yet to land on a solid read of what I think of Sharon Stone in Casino, which feels very much like where Lawrence is at in AH.
I feel surprisingly warm towards American Hustle than I ever thought I would given how I was not super into Silver Linings Playbook. AH feels admirably cray-cray in that David O. Russell way that was sort of missing, or at least sanded down in his last effort. And of all the other films in the race (and I haven't seen Wolf of Wall Street or Saving Mr. Banks) American Hustle is the one that if it beat 12 Years a Slave, it would bother me the least. Even though I like many other films better than it. I think it's just such a strange, loose, kind of atmospheric movie and I was surprised by how it was so not the film I was expecting to get based on the advertising. I think it's more narratively ambitious than Gravity and I think it would age better as a best picture winner than Gravity, which is already looking so so so so so very thin only a few months out. Not to say that American Hustle isn't also thin, but (like Rosalyn's top coat) it wears its thinness out for the world to see.
If I were in The Bling Ring, I'd be like Santa Claus (multi-house operation) because the swapping that would be involved to correct past mistakes...it's an ordeal. First, go to Liz's estate (blasphemy, I know, I know) and take her BUtterfield 8 Oscar (she doesn't need one for that) and take it over to Shirley's house for The Apartment. At which point I would take Shirley's Terms of Endearment Oscar and give it to Meryl for Silkwood while also taking Meryl's Iron Lady and (more controversially) her Sophie's Choice trophies to gift to Viola Davis and Jessica Lange, respectively. That way I can take Jessica's supporting trophy and gift it to Teri Garr. Also, I would take Jodie's Oscar for The Accused and give it to Glenn Close for Dangerous Liaisons. I wouldn't have the balls to confront these ladies personally on the matter, but I would leave a detailed note (and maybe a diagram) at each location explaining why this needed to be done. I've maybe thought about this once or twice before.
@Pretentious: My sleigh is ready when you are. We'll also find out if Jessica Lange has a nightclub room or if Liz had pillows with her own face on them (highly possible).
TPKIA -- "i've maybe thought about this once or twice before" -- I cackled, I admit.
The San Diego Film Critics gave Emma Watson S. Actress last year, too. I say we hand them the keys to that category.
Take Robert Donat's oscar, give it to James Stewart
Take James Stewart's oscar, give it to Henry Fonda
Take Henry Fonda's oscar, give it to Burt Lancaster
Take Burt Lancaster's oscar, give it to Anthony Perkins.
In the case of the Fonda's thievery, go visit every AMPAS voter from 1939 to 1981, and wonder how the f**k they had Henry Fonda as a major actor and give him only two nominations. Seriously, that's messed up.
re: ties/nomninations
Love them. It's less the advocacy angle, though, and more the celebration side of things. To use the film bitch awards as an example - yeah, I remember the winners (Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada) and the nominees (Gretchen Mol, Laura Dern, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench), but that year was so exciting Nathaniel actually broke his own rules and expanded the finalist/semifinalist list (okay, so I don't remember all of those ones). I hate rules, admittedly. In a year like 2003, I have three best actress nominees. In 2002, I have 11. I'm totally okay with that.
I might also throw in a trip to Mira Sorvino/Mare Winningham's house on my Oscar sleigh, but the night was already pretty packed plus I suspect that Mira Sorvino protects that Oscar statue the same way Bond villains tend to protect their stolen jewels with lazer force fields and poison gas and the like...the way you protect something that you really value, but you know that you're probably not supposed to have.
Yay!!! Even amid that competition, where I'd have been delighted to see Allen or Winslet get the prize, I'm so glad to be told/reminded that someone else out there thinks that was Winningham's Oscar by rights. Even the camera kept avoiding her all night. What was going on with that?