Podcast: Hillbilly Elegy, The Life Ahead, and Gotham nominations
Monday, November 16, 2020 at 10:44AM with Nathaniel R & Murtada Elfadl
We're back !
Index (60 minutes)
00:01 Gotham Award Nominations. There is lots to discuss including First Cow, The Assistant, Nicole Beharie, Riz Ahmed, and longshots in Oscar races
28:00 Sophia Loren's star vehicle The Life Ahead
35:10 Ron Howard's Hillbilly Elegy. Amy Adams stars. We still think Glenn Close as "Mamaw" has a good shot at a nomination despite the rough reviews
54:30 Randomness to wrap up + Nathaniel finally saw Mulan
Related Reading:
• Complete Gotham nominations
• Murtada's review of Miss Juneteenth
• Jason's review of First Cow
• Time interview
• Claudio's review of The Life Ahead
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 (24)
A lot of the savage reviews do seem to isolate Glenn as the best thing about the film. Vanity Fair, however, savaged it as a drag performance. Which actually jibes with what she's said herself. Not looking great for the long overdue win, unfortunately.
Go Ellen go! So happy to hear you think Burstyn has a good shot at a nomination... I'm rooting for her, sight unseen.
Not a good movie. Close did a Renee Z. OVERACTING job as
Maw maw. She will hopefully not get Oscar for this role.
She can do so much better.
Nathaniel,
Just a tiny comment. Appalachia is pronounced "Appa-latch-uh" not Appa-lay-shuh.
Glenn Close is something more than a great actor!!! Her job is magnificent! Give her the OSCAR!!!
Rdf: Yeah, with the reviews the movie has (if it happens, it would be the worst reviewed Big 8 nominee...ever?), I kind of admire Nat's boldness to assume the nomination still happens. Especially since this would be nomination 8 and she wouldn't get the win. I'm...not being that bold.
I am sad for Close shame it probably won't happen but I do dislike great actors being rewarded for the wrong role Hello Kate Winslet so maybe it's a good thing.
Sad for Close. :-( Time to make the official honorary Oscar push. "Sunset Boulevard" is never getting made, and this, yikes. 40 on Metacriric? The critics had their knives sharpened and ready for J.D. Vance as soon as the film was greenlit, but whatever. I'll judge for myself soon enough.
If I was Glenn Close, I'd either wait for an Oscar or do something extremely outrageous like a low-brow comedy where she goes all out and maybe be the underdog for the Oscars.
Unfortunately I don't have time to listen ot the podcast at the moment (I look forward to reading a review here soon, hopefully). Here is my response copied from Facebook (Canberra is my current hometown, Adelaide is where I grew up).:
"I am only at the start of the research into the backlash, but I currently suspect that most of the negative energy directed towards HILLBILLY ELEGY is from either middle-class city dwellers (like, oh I dunno, 99% of Canberra) that don't understand or haven't experienced the lives of these people, or people who have escaped those areas, are ashamed of their past and want to disown it by crying "stereotype", not recognising it as one person's story but as somehow representative of a whole sub-section of America (I don't buy the "Trump's America" interpretation of the movie).
Happy to be provided with counter-evidence, but that's what I get from the reviews I have read so far (particularly the over-wrought "worst of Ron Howard's career" types). I saw it on the weekend and quite liked it, and was also mini-triggered by some scenes that remind me very much of relatives and friends I have in my past, of growing up in a very working-class area of Adelaide and having extended family living in country NSW without secure/constant employment. Which to me says the movie actually came from a genuine place."
I want Glenn Close to win an Oscar, but please let it not be for an undeserving performance. Cringing at the thought that her win would be considered as one of the worst wins ever. She deserves better.
On a side note, would it not be crazy if she and Olivia Colman were the frontrunners for Supporting Actress next year? Deja vu and fans would be sharpening their knives again.
Travis -- this is not the reason i thought it was terrible. I think Ron Howard misjudged practically everything in his direction from the size of the score to the size of the performances, and his weirdly apolitical approach to politically charged material. i just found it so lacking in every single scene with little connective tissue in any of the arcs. If this had given me any insight into people living in Appalachia I would have been more impressed but it reads (to me) like Ron Howard had no point of view on the material (for the record I think pre-judging films based on what they're about is dangereous territory and it's an epidemic of late with everyone reacting to films entirely based on what the perceive message or even general theme is rather than the execution. I think we're in a super low point in film criticism due in large part to the foregrounded politics of everyone. Not every film can possibly be a statement on every single topic or can represent all people and all poitns of view. But for this particular film i think it's pretty bad at representing the people it chooses to look at.
goodbar -- i'm dreading that happening but thankfully i dont think it will happen. I think Colman has an easy shot at the nomination (coattails and general respect and well liked movie) but i can't imagine her winning a second Oscar so soon for a film that no one thinks is "hers".
Thanks Nathaniel. I agree with you about the pre-judging of films (just not on the assessment of the film itself. While I don't think it should be a general Oscar contender (apart from Close), I was engaged with the narrative and the structure. But it seems I am in the minority.).
I wouldn't know which is more entertaining:(or heartbreaking ow whichever)
Glenn Close nominated and then losing again
OR
Olivia Coleman beating her in Supporting.
Both combined would be my choice.
I enjoyed Glenn Close's performance here, too. I think she transcends the material to create a fully realized human being.
Ron Howard cut out the politics from the film b/c it would piss off half the country has it stayed in! Is that not obvious? Why undercut your film in that way unnecessarily? Profits don't matter, b/c yay Netflix, but not all publicity is good publicity, despite what the saying says. Sticking with the family dynamics seemed like the way to go on paper. Unfortunately, Howard is a crap director who couldn't execute the landing. Just think what Debra Granik could have done with this material!
I really don't know how I feel about Glenn Close getting an Oscar for a terrible, scenery chewing performance like HILLBILLY ELEGY. Pacino got his that way, Renée Zellweger got her first one that way. (I'll always remember Richard Roper saying she was all but running around in that movie saying "You gimme that Oscar!" And they did--and that's the only thing I'll remember Richard Roper for.) It's really horrible when that kind of win happens. I'm pretty sympathetic to actors who are overdue, getting an Oscar for something that isn't their best work--Don Ameche, COCOON? Why not? Shirley MacLaine, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, sure-- but it shouldn't be for something that's utterly embarrassing.
I’m not sure close is even lucky enough to win for one of those lifetime achievement bad performance Oscars, I don think she will be nominated and if she is she definately won’t win
Such a shame as she should have 2 already but we have spoken so much about tha before .. let’s just hope we get to see a few more classic performances
Kyle: Unfortunately, that's not how this works. Tick off whatever half of the country you're comfortable ticking off. I could imagine genuinely good versions of this from Clint Eastwood OR Debra Granik. I'd probably agree politically with Granik's take more than Eastwood's, but at least Eastwood would HAVE a perspective.
Regarding politics and HILLBILLY ELEGY, As Céline Sciamma says in a lovely interview for the Blu-ray for PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, every film is political. The ones that are seemingly non political are just the ones making the political statement, "things are fine the way they are."
@Volvagia: That is how things work in Trump's America, whether you like it or not. The sentiment of removing politics from the film is perfectly understandable in my view. Unfortunately, Howard wasn't smart enough to replace that commentary with any suitable alternative. Hence, this.
When will we have a review of Ammonite here on the blog?
Yeah if Close couldn't win for the Wife, there's no way she's winning for this. Doubt she'll be nominated and something tells me we'll be waiting a while for an honorary. Her Oscar history is peculiar. Until The Wife she was never the frontrunner and that film was the closest she's coming to having any narrative behind a possible win. And she lost. So who knows? I think Adams is going to end up in the same boat unless she's got some triumphs in her future, which of course is totally possible. But her and Close seem to have similar award trajectories going on.
Unless someone gets something I have no plans to watch this movie. I try not judge something off of the trailer, but holy moly the trailer stunk something awful. And nothing about the material makes me think "oh yes, Ron Howard will know how to put this over".
Guys... For years, I've been reading something in the comments that always made me roll my eyes... And it is today that I decide to speak up against it. As a filmmaker (a "real one" who made feature films - I directed an actress to a Best Supporting Nomination), I NEVER encounter an actor thinking about a trophy while acting. This would be going against any remotely good acting to not be present in the scene. And trust me, almost ALL of actor are way too insecure during a scene to believe that their acting will bring an Oscar... 95% of their look after they hear "Cut!" If you make a comment as banter after an excellent take : "This is where you win the Oscar", the actor will ALWAYS never believe you. Also, when an actor overact, it is NEVER because he tries to get an Award. That actor is being pushed by his director to go there OR that's how he sees the character and the director embrace the vision. So PLEASE stop saying that an actor is trying too hard to get an Oscar when overacting, it is so out of touch with the reality of actual filmmaking. Thank you.