And The Podcast Goes To... The Oscars
Sunday, March 9, 2014 at 7:07PM 
Season Finale
Nathaniel R, Katey Rich, Nick Davis, and Joe Reid discuss Oscar night in detail, with lots of commentary on all the stars and a few reader questions to help guide us
00:00 Introductions & the musical performances
05:00 Liza Minnelli, Ellen DeGeneres, presenters & "relevancy"
15:00 The Selfie & how Oscar treats its own history
24:00 Our own standing ovations for Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett and more...
37:00 Reader Questions: creative casting, snubs, selfie swaps
53:00 Matthew McConaughey's speech & Randomness
1:00:00 What we did after the Oscars
Suggested Supplement Reading:
Joe on the "2013" Oscars, Katey talking to the Make-up winners, Vanity Fair's Leonardo DiCaprio piece, those Acceptance Speeches, Jennifer Lawrence's Bestie's Diary and Nathaniel's Oscar Wrap / TFE Funding Drive.
You can listen to the podcast at the bottom of the post or download the conversation on iTunes. Continue the conversation in the comments... which of our ballots most closely resembles yours?Hunger, Shame, I Heart Huckabees, Taxi Driver, King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambíen,
Reader Comments (29)
Thanks for posting - made a 4-hour car drive go by much faster :-)
Joe - I was also thinking Sandra had a weird vibe going at the many cutaways to her throughout the evening. She doesn't beat the Grumpy Clooney of 2009, though.
Also, I too once lost on a trivia category at a bar because of the Oscar year mix-up...and the worst part was it was about Colin Firth, who was nominated in back to back years.
It's weird to think Idina Menzel's profile benefited from the flub, but even Bette Midler tweeted: "Idina has had so much press over Tralovta mangling her name! I wish he had mangled mine!!"
Joe talking about interviewing the nominees and montaging that definitely did happen in the 2011-2012 year. I really loved it and wish that kind of intro to the nominees were kept of the colleagues talking about that particular artist for that particular film.
12 Years a Slave won, Spike Jonze won, Cate Blanchett won, and Robert Downey Jr. wasn't presenting. Asking for more would be greed.
Actress 2014?
• Cate Blanchett – Carol / Blackbird
• Maggie Smith – My Old Lady
• Meryl Streep – Into the Woods / The Homesman
• Kate Winslet – A Little Chaos
• Marion Cotillard – Macbeth
• Jessica Chastain – Miss Julie / The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
• Michelle Williams – Suite française
• Jennifer Lawrence – Serena
• Nicole Kidman – Grace of Monaco
I'm guessing Jessica's time has come, correct?
Montage problem solved - use Channing Tatum's Team Oscar as a competition ground for best montage, and all players get to be in a photo briefly shown. They are given the themes and the songs available to use, then create it as a work of art. The winner's prize (and you can have the president come in and chat with Tatum - hell, show clips): Presenting their montage at the Oscars with a celebrity and throwing their name out to filmmakers worldwide. Done.
Shout out to Katey for being so quiet during the DiCaprio pile-on. Awkward...
LOL and just got to the point in the podcast where Nick suggested exactly what I said... is there a delete button here?\
I understand why you wouldn't, but since I know from the "low six figures" comment that you all read it -- I would have LOVED to hear your collective thoughts on that (truly bizarre) Vulture article about "the Oscar bloggers". Not least of all the fact that no less than MELISSA LEO herself is quoted in the piece.
"Low six figures"
I once yelled at a trivia night host because "Play it again, Sam," is NOT a quote from Casablanca, so I appreciate a commitment to truth in movie trivia.
Quick correction - Unfortunately, the orchestra moving too fast was NOT the problem during "Let it Go"... Idina was singing too fast. The orchestra was trying to keep up. You can hear her singing half a second faster than the orchestra. It's a bad habit she has... She did the exact same thing during "Defying Gravity" at the Tonys. She also cracked at the climax note for both performances, so I guess the two songs have more in common than we thought.
ALSO... Did anyone else feel like the camera not cutting to Kristin Chenoweth after that performance was such a missed opportunity?! I thought that was the only reason she was there!!
Love this podcast a great way to cap off the awards season. With Joe's point about Sandy, I think we just got so many shots of her because Gravity kept winning and there was no other person they can do a reaction shot off than her seeing as Clooney was a no-show.
Ryan - Kristin' Chenoweth's partner (or husband?) is a producer on Captain Phillips and that's why she was there. Same for Kevin Spacey who was also a producer on that film :-)
The only selfie I love is the one in Thelma & Louise.
I have to disagree with Joe. The Tony Awards are marvelous and I had a ball last night watching the 1984 edition on Youtube.
Have to agree with not understanding people who hated Cate Blanchett's speech (though, for the record, most of the ones who hated it are people who hate Woody Allen, so I don't think anything would have helped her there).
@Ryan A - Rewatched the performance, and it seems to me that the orchestra was too fast (particularly after the random cut midway through), she had no time to take a breath in between "Here I stand in the light of day" and "Let the storm rage ON!" YMMV, of course.
Yavor...
Amy Adams / Big Eyes
Carey Mulligan / Far from the Madding Crowd
Keira Kinightley / The Imitation Game & Can a Song Save Your Life
Marion Cotillard / The Immigrant
MB76
I thought about Amy but I'm slightly too frightened of the fact that it's a Tim Burton film;
I think "The Immigrant" has died even before it's official release and the release date kills it further. Marion might have Macbeth chances, though;
I can't see it happen for Keira, but Carey Mulligan, definitely.
But Jessica's projects are really juicy and I feel she's our 2014 winner.
Guys, thanks so much for this and all the podcasts. What a great series of gifts!
Great podcast!
I know when you guys talked about the creative castings you were supposed to choose from the actors, actresses and directors nominated this year only, but I can't help myself: everytime I look at a Jared Leto pic with Anne Hathaway I fantasize about them in a Moulin Rouge-ish musical.
Yavor, forget the 9th actress you listed for 2014. The door closed with Rabbit Hole.
Great podcast, fun season!
I think for the dream actors/director matchup, I'd like to see Martin Scorsese do a 110 minute, scripted, funny comedy with Sandra Bullock and Amy Adams.
2nd choice: Sally Hawkins and Christian Bale directed by Alphonso Cuaron.
Great podcast! Thanks for all the hard work.
Keira & Amy have Weinstein behind them...One of them is getting nominated next year.
Dream scenario:
Sandra Bullock AND Leonardo DiCaprio in a David O. Russell film. Set it in Germany for no other reason than the two riffing in what German they know. Make it a diplomacy screwball comedy.
MB- Harvey also has Chastain in Eleanor Rigby and Michelle Williams. There is such thing as having too much on his plate and he had real trouble prioritizing this past season.
Big Eyes is easily the most accessible film. Strong script, juicy story, and from a major director. I wouldn't be surprised if that becomes Harvey's priority. The others seem aiming for shots to fill out spaces in categories and perhaps respectable box office like Can a Song Save a Life.
I'm holding off throwing any confidence at The Imitation Game. I am a skeptic of Cumberbatch and I don't care how tragic/baity the Alan Turing story is, the Keane story is just as relevant to today and Waltz is the two-time winner.
"Low six figures" was EXACTLY what I was thinking at that moment. Y'all are mind readers. Love it.
And thank you all for a great season! Frequent podcasts = great happiness in my life. (Can we get a Grand Budapest Hotel podcast? Is that too soon?)
Y'all are great together. I could listen to you talk about word formatting and I would just giggle at the way you interact.
Re: Joe's statement tat Bullock seemed upset - a friend who never watches the Oscars said she felt bad for her bc Gravity won everything else and she didn't win; could it just have been hard for her to see everyone else she worked with win while she knew Queen Cate was going to beat her?
Wow...Harvey has a lot of potential Best Actress players in 2014...doesn't he have Marion in The Immigrant and Nicole in Grace as well?
Harvey dropped Grace of Monaco. No distribution in USA.
Really feeling the idea of J-Law and Jared Leto as siblings in a Payne film. Yay Nick! And supposedly according to EW when she was presenting best actor, it was Leto that she was yelling at. Ellen was backstage mocking her fall from last year and Leto and his mom were laughing at her. J-Law took offense as she's prone to do. So there's already drama there to mine as bickering siblings either taking care of an elderly parent(s) or road trip to a funeral. Too much like "About Schmidt," perhaps?