Podcast: The Smackdown Companion

This month's 'Smackdown' panelists: Murtada Elfadl, Chris Feil, Ginny O'Keefe, Robin Write, and Nathaniel R

 

A new season of the Supporting Actress Smackdown is kicking off, with the first installment being this year's Oscar competition. You've already read our blurbs on the five nominated performances and now a more in-depth conversation about those actresses, their films, and a few random asides to other movies and actors. You've already met the panel and here's our conversation in full!

Index (1 hour)
00:01 Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz in The Favourite, Marina de Tavira in Roma
11:00 Regina King in If Beale Street Could Talk
17:30 Amy Adams in Vice and our traditional thought-game of switching the actors around into each other's roles to see what would happen. Plus who is supporting these supporting women?
29:00 Random chatter: Vice, Bohemian Rhapsody, Never Look Away, Green Book
36:00 Other supporting women of the year: Ann Dowd, Sakura Ando, Claire Foy
45:00 Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman and BP to Black Panther? 
56:00 Where you could read, listen to, and follow the panelists. 

Referenced in the Podcast
• Smackdown blurbs
• This Had Oscar Buzz
• Filmotomy's Marina de Tavira article
• Nathaniel's Rachel Weisz interview

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? 

Smackdown: Regina, Rachel, Marina, and More...

Podcast: Oscar's Self Destruction, Guild Prizes, and Sundance Winners

with Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl 

 In this episode Murtada and Nathaniel sound off on Sundance buzz, and the current madness of the awards race and Oscar's late-life identity crisis and one shockingly ill-thought-out decision after the next, ad infinitum.

Index (58 minutes)
00:01 Sundance buzz: The Farewell, Clemency, One Child Nation, Them That Follow , and The Report
17:25 Recent guild prizes: Bryan Singer & Rami Malek's Bohemian Rhapsody and how everything keeps going wrong this awards season.
22:34 Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade's surprise DGA win
26:00 Oscar's identity crisis and its increasingly terrible decisions. Murtada tries to talk Nathaniel off the ledge.
36:00 Spike Lee and Bradley Cooper at the DGAs and guilds confusion about Best Picture
45:40 Trying to survive Oscar's dwindling sense of self and we're back to Sundance to talk about next year's Oscar possibilities, especially in regards to Clemency
56:00 Annie Awards and wrap-up

Referenced in the Podcast
• Nathaniel's "Awards Season is Killing Me" Rant
• DGA winners
• Murtada's Sundance Coverage

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? 

Sundance Glory / Oscar Doom

Podcast: On the nominations for the 91st Academy Awards

with Nathaniel R, Nick Davis, and Murtada Elfadl 

Hopefully you're not sick of talking Oscar nods, yet, since here's the last bit of the post-nomination blitz coverage... though obviously Oscar discussions will continue through Oscar night but we can diversify our attention after this one. 

Index (63 minutes)
00:01 Marina de Tavira for Roma (!) and women's stories at the Oscars
05:00 Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman & Coen brothers Buster Scruggs
12:00 Netflix and working hard for your nominations; it pays off
17:00 The joy of reaction videos: Richard E Grant and more
20:30 Best Cinematography: Caleb Deschanel for Never Look Away
23:30 Best Actor: Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale, or Rami Malek?
29:45 No more Potterverse nominations but that Elizabeth vs Mary franchise never goes away. And the same people are rewarded for it again!
32:35 Nominations we don't quite understand but aren't opposed to.
40:00 A24 Oscar fate: First Reformed and Eighth Grade
43:15 Discussions of these career moments and potential futures for the 20 acting nominees. 
57:00 Saying nice things about Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody
60:00 Random happy thoughts to wrap-up

Referenced in the Pod
• Bobby Pontillas (animated short) reaction video
• Richard E Grant (supporting actor) reaction video
• Oscar Charts
• And this Blanchett-obsessed acceptance speech from Jenny Shircore...

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? 

Deep dive into the nominations

Podcast Special: Lots and Lots of Reader Questions Answered

Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl answer your questions this week

On this special edition of the podcast we ONLY answer reader questions. As many as we could get to in an hour. We had soooo much fun doing this one so we hope you enjoy, and thank you for the diversion.

Index (60 minutes)
00:01 Who will win SAG's Supporting Actress + fixing category fraud?
06:50 Original screenplay nominations + buying DVDs
12:00 Characters wardrobe, female directors, and films that define 2018
22:30 "Shallow" + "If you saw this... than why?" + replacing Oscar lists
31:35 Nominee presentations + Oscar Hosting 
35:45 Ben is Back and Roma questions
41:40 Nomination balloting procedures + Fav scenes of the year
52:00 Mandatory Best Actress diversion
57:00 Changing opinions on previous top 10 lists?

Further Reading / References
• Nadine Labaki (Capernaum) interview
• Smackdown of 1943
• Oscar Charts
• Kyle Buchanan on the hostless Oscars article

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? 

Special Episode: Reader Questions!

Have a question for the podcast?

Sunday morning Murtada and Nathaniel will be recording a podcast. For this Sunday's podcast we'd like to have a whole episode of reader questions, so ask away in the comments and we'll pick several to answer!