Podcast: El Angel, The Front Runner, Oscar's Screenplay Race
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 at 1:00PM Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl talk new films and the Oscar race
Index (58 minutes)
00:01 The story of Gary Hart in The Front Runner starring Hugh Jackman
16:25 El Angel starring Lorenzo Ferro and Chino Darín which is Argentina's Oscar submission
27:22 Sidebar: My Fair Lady on Broadway
34:24 Best Adapted Screenplay: Bradley Cooper, Barry Jenkins, Gillian Flynn, Nicole Holofcener, Spike Lee, Armando Iannucci, Paul Dano & Zoe Kazan could all compete here but which of them will?
45:23 Best Original Screenplay: Roma, The Favourite and Green Book and...?
54:40 Beck claims he's recording a score for Roma... which has no score.
References / Further Reading
• The horror of Beck's Tweet about Roma
• Chris's review of The Front Runner
• Foreign Language Film Submission Chart
• Screenplays Oscar Chart
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?
Reader Comments (13)
Oh, I love El ángel! So sexy and wickedly playful.
Best Original Screenplay will be........ ROMA + THE FAVOURITE + GREEN BOOK +.... EIGHT GRADE and... A QUIET PLACE? Maybe ISLE OF DOGS??
I think I felt exactly the same way about The Front Runner as Nathaniel did. It really benefited from my several limited expectations after hearing so much bad buzz recently. And I totally agree it would have been a great candidate for some quality adult-oriented cinema in March/April.
Best Original Screenplay: and...First Reformed?
I like Eighth Grade and First Reformed very much (both are about tied for my favorite of the year, along with CYEFM and ASIB), but I would vote for First Reformed for Best Original Screenplay, because it's nonsense that Schrader has never been nominated, and Eighth Grade is only Bo Burnham's first movie. I suspect Oscar voters may feel similarly.
Green Book is not tracking so well. Of course tracking estimates may be wrong. But I am wondering if it won't be the huge hit everyone assumes it will be.
Love the podcast, guys!
Also I really liked The Front Runner (agree that the low expectations definitely helped) but hate First Reformed. I could accept a Hawke acting nomination for that film but a screenplay nomination? No. I am hoping Eighth Grade will take that slot, and I think it's chances are better (though right now I see them both getting in).
And while I appreciated the production value and performances in My Fair Lady, I was gobsmacked by how little I enjoyed it overall (I saw it with Ambrose and Rigg early in the run). I loved the movie as a kid but hadn't seen it in quite some time and could hardly believe how badly it aged, and how little sense it makes in the modern context. Felt the same way (even more strongly) about the recent Carousel revival. I am a life-long theater lover and of course feel we should honor the greats of musical theater history on Broadway, but there are some dinosaurs that just don't need to be revived. The kind of overt sexism and misogyny essential to the nature of both of those shows is just not something I think any of us need in 2018, especially when there are so many other classic productions that could be revived (I mean, I saw Hello, Dolly 5 times) which do still feel completely timeless and won't shock and offend the majority of, or send any questionable social messages to young members of, a modern audience.
Are Katey, Nick, et al going to make appearances soon?
George - Katey is notoriously hard to pin down since moving away from NYC and Nick is on a sabbatical.
I loved EL ANGEL. It was so much more homoerotic than J had expected, which only mad me enjoy it more. Cecilia Roth is heartbreaking and will easily make my personal Supporting Actress line-up.
I also was not a fan of First Reformed other than Hawke's acting.
Is Sorry to Bother You for sure going Original? Reily already published it in McSweeney’s and as a concept album - if Moonlight and Whiplash have had to switch categories, Sorry might have to as well. Maybe it’s a dark horse in Adapted? And I wonder if Hereditary might have a chance in Original too? In in that Nightcrawler “this a weird movie with a not-universally beloved star turn and a lot of interesting ideas, let’s reward to somewhere” way?
Flynn missing for Gone Girl is still such a stunningly left field “snub” I wonder if she’ll get nominated as apologia. Plus she’s just off penning another hit adaptation of one of her own novels. If she hadn’t missed with everything seemingly in court before, I think she’d look like a much surer thing.
Chino Darin is also in the Uruguayan Oscar submission: A Twelve-Year Night. He is a rising star in Spain, too. He was in 2016´s The Queen of Spain, directed by Fernando Trueba and starring Penélope Cruz.
I loved El Angel. Strong sense of style, very funny, Chino is fiiiiiine as hell.
(P.S. - it's "AHN-hel" not "ahn-HEL")