Podcast Finale: The Team Reflects on the 87th Academy Awards
Sunday, March 1, 2015 at 6:00PM 
Nick, Katey, Joe and Nathaniel reunite for the podcast season finale. The topic is the Oscars and these are our last words on this year's. The conversation includes but is not limited to:
• Neil Patrick Harris strong opening but then...
• Our choices for MVP from the audience
• Musical numbers - good but too many?
• Who should host next time?
• Power Trio: Canonero, Lubezki & Desplat
• Obsessing over Julianne Moore's speech
• Eddie Redmayne's glee
• Nick's John Travolta prediction
• Which of the nominees will be nominated again quickest?
And of course we play our favorite game of suggesting pairings of actors and directors.
Juli is a little embarrassed at our obsessing on her
Please to enjoy and continue the conversation in the comments. You can listen at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes.
Reader Comments (31)
I just realized that Juli sat right in front of Cate! now that's a good seating chart.
YAY!
In terms of people nominated this year who could be nominated again quickly, I can think of at least three potential returning nominees for 2015: Julianne Moore and Steve Carell for Freeheld and Eddie Redmayne for The Danish Girl.
Leave
BritneySean Penn alone!Cotillard - MacBeth
Streep - Ricki and the Flash (supporting - Suffragette?)
Moore - Freeheld
Redmayne - The Danish Girl
Cooper- Joy
Cumberbatch - Black Mass
Carrell - Freeheld
Hawke - a few baity projects
Knightley - Everest
Stone - Irrational Man
Gyllen...oh wait
Could be a lot of repeats this next year!
@ Paul Outlaw - Sean Penn is an insufferable, humorless prick. I wish he *wouldn't* show up to present. Didn't he used to be "above" the Oscars anyway?
P.S. I do love that Robin Wright (fuck Penn) has had such a lovely career renaissance since she divorced the man who didn't even thank her when he won his Oscar for Milk. She's consistently Emmy-worthy for House of Cards; maybe she can translate that to a killer role on the big screen and an Oscar nom in the (near) future?
Rambling. I think Redmayne is "the girl most likely..." next year -- Oscar is generally not keen on Shakespeare -- which makes me even more sad for Keaton. :-(
@ Mareko - Sean Penn is a sexy humanitarian hunk of a great actor (still one of my favorites) who has been attending the Oscars for over ten years.
Just think if "Ricki and the Flash" has a song worthy of nomination, Meryl Streep might just sing it during the ceremony... that's such a happy thought.
@ Paul Outlaw - He's a very good actor, no question, but also a malcontent. Let's not pretend.
I seriously hope you'll start a Facebook campaign to get Milena Canonero to host next year, a la the Betty White/SNL thing a few years ago.
How did Sunrise manage that seat after starting the night on that whole other aisle, aka Supporting Actors' Alley? And where's Ruff? We can't stop until full hermeneutic transparency has been achieved.
Ok, why can't people let the Sean Penn thing go already? It was a joke between friends and if you listen to it carefully, it's a compliment to Iñárritu, asking who gave this very talented man permission to come here and show he's better than us, but I don't believe for a second that he said it with anything other than love for Alejandro González Iñárritu. Down here in Mexico people call each other "cabrón" and "pendejo" to show their love for each other. Was it the wrong place for a comment like that? Maybe, but I'm convinced no malice was intended (in fact, most of my Mexican Facebook friends, many of whom are filmmakers, loved that comment and wear it as a badge of honor for the rise of Mexican talent all over the world)...
• Neil Patrick Harris strong opening but then...
I liked him more than most, but yeah, his opening was the best.
• Our choices for MVP from the audience
Meryl Streep for her gracious humour (state law, after all); Linklater/Miller/Innaritu's hug (though it would've been better if Anderson was there instead of Miller).
• Musical numbers - good but too many?
Eh, they were also poorly placed.
• Who should host next time?
Martin Scorsese.
• Power Trio: Canonero, Lubezki & Desplat
Heh. I have to say that I didn't care for the "Chivo" bit at all, though. I'd rather she just said the name of who won.
• Obsessing over Julianne Moore's speech
There were a tonne of great speeches that night, but I don't think hers was all that great, if I'm being honest.
• Eddie Redmayne's glee
Yeah, awesome.
• Which of the nominees will be nominated again quickest?
Meryl Streep.
Nathaniel, have you watched Milena Canonero winning her Oscar in 1982 for "Chariots of Fire"? She's quite lovely and a bit cheeky too. And the show that year did a full dance production number with performers dancing in the nominated costumes. Those were the days...
I want to see Reese WItherspoon in a Linklater film,
Rosamund Pike in a Wes Anderson film
Marion Cotillard in a Bennet Miller film,
Julianne Moore in an Innaritu film,
and Felicity Jones in a Morten Tyldum film. (OK, never mind that last one.)
Meryl Streep in a DuVernay film,
JK Simmons in a Linklater film,
Reese Witherspoon in a Chazelle film,
Keira Knightley in an Iñárritu film,
Julianne Moore in an Eastwood film,
and Robert Duvall in an Anderson film.
I just want Meryl to be in a movie with a director who isn't afraid to question her choices.
Morten Tyldum will be directing Passengers, which has Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence interested. I think he'll be fine.
I want Meryl to work with someone who would streep (haha) her away from everything she knows and does as an actress.
It's so different to win when a) it's not a sure thing and b) it's probably earlier than you'd think you'd win. That's why Redmayne had such an energetic reaction. Julianne definitely looked like someone who had considered this moment for years, and tried to be as graceful and humble as she could. It helps that she's 54 while he's 33 too.
bruno - that's so true. i'm sure she's been 'deliriously happy' for an entire month since the nomination
I suddenly really want to see a documentary short reflecting the feud between Cooper and Stone's mothers during Oscar night.
I want Meryl to work with someone who would streep (haha) her away from everything she knows and does as an actress.
Every Streep obsessive says the same thing. If she cared she would have reinvented herself decades ago.
^^In fact she did (three times): in 1989 (comedy time), 2001 (offbeat roles/directors) and 2008 (about to turn 60 and here come the musicals).
Paul -- agreed. Her career definitely has chapters.
chapter 1 mournful wasp beauty
chapter 2 dramatic chameleon
chapter 3 self-deprecating comic girl - i'll try anything!
chapter 4 return to Thespian Powers in bizarre array of projects
chapter 5 musicals
^^ I like thinking of August Osage County as one of Meryl's late-career musicals. She plays it like opera.
I guess Bradley Cooper's mother was to this year's Oscars what the real Philomena Lee was to last year's.
I second your choice for Emma Thompson as the host. I would love her or Hanks. Poehler/Fey said they would never host because of what ya'll mentioned: the Globes is a different beast, people are happy drunk not nervous drunk, and the Globes audience is just in a totally different, less-serious groove. MVP for me was Gaga, despite that I'm an East Coaster. I got chills. My family was one of those who always watched The Sound of Music together annually when ABC still showed it.
I will never be tired of hearing that Ralph was robbed this awards season.