Will Oscar Hire "The Help"?

Here's a quickie conversation with Katey Rich and I about Tate Taylor's The Help and its Oscarable cast. We accidentally ran into each other outside the theater (hitting different screenings on the same day) so we decided we should have a brief chat.

How might the ladies campaign? Who really owns the film? Is this an Oscar vehicle for Viola and Emma or something more like momentum for a future Oscar?

Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer are the title characters but we also discuss the work of Emma Stone, Sissy Spacek, Bryce Dallas Howard, and an unrecognizable Jessica Chastain if The Tree of Life is all you have to go on. And that was all I had to go on going in.

The movie opens tomorrow in theaters. Have a listen.

Katey and Nathaniel on "The Help"

Podcast: Nick & Nathaniel Circa 1986

Before you ask again, please note that I have submitted the podcast to iTunes. Hopefully the submission process will take. The podcast can be heard at the end of this post.

Today, we have a special retrospective podcast for you today. Since Nick has been revisiting Cannes 1986 in all its sidebar and competitive glory and Nathaniel has been gagging on Aliens and Peggy Sue Got Married lately for their 25th anniversarieswe decided to join forces.

Topics include & spin off from:

• Robert Altman's Fool For Love (1985)
• Aliens (1986) vs. Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) vs. Platoon (1986)
  
• Sigourney Weaver's "Ripley" or Kathleen Turner's "Peggy Sue"?
• Molly Ringwald, Farrah Fawcett, Marlee Matlin, Kim Basinger, Beatrice Dalle and dozens more 80s actresses discussed
• Three French Films: The Green Ray, Betty Blue and Therese
• Spike Lee, Woody Allen, James Cameron and David Lynch
• Our favorite films of 1986 -- we share a #1 favorite which has to share the #1 spot in both our cases. 

We'd love to hear your opinions on these topics as well as your memories (constructed or actual) of the 1986 Film Year.

Podcast: Revisiting 1986

Podcast: "Midnight in Paris" and Oscar's New Rules

Since I never officially reviewed Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, I thought we'd have to at least cover it in discussion form. So for the newest podcast, Kurt from Your Movie Buddy and first-time guest Mark Blankenship from The Criticial Condition joined me to discuss Woody Allen's biggest hit in some time as well as Oscar's new "up to 10 nominees for Best Picture" ruling, which I recently discussed with Katey for her Kino Katey podcast.

But, you know, we can't ever shut up about Oscar, can we?

Other topics: Best Original Song and first and favorite Woody Allen pictures seen. Two articles that you might want to read that we mention are Fandor's list of movies about movies and Mark's investigation of the 1980s in the Best Original Song category.

As always please join the conversation in the comments.

PODCAST: Midnight in Paris

Podcast With Katey. Oscar Rule Change

Hey people. Katey Rich, who you'll remember from those old vodcasts and podcasts right here (that's us to the left when we were talking up Inglourious Basterds) has been making waves with her podcast/vodcast series "Kino Katey." I'm a guest star for the first time there to talk about the Oscar changes. Listen in!

She's also doing this fab new series "Virgin Territory" where she watches a classic she's never seen before and talks it up with a friend who loves it, the latest being Apocalypse Now.

Kino Katey. Oscar Rule Changes

Podcast: Meek's Cutoff, Early Cinephilia

In an effort to bring you more podcasts, I'm going to be switching up the guest lists, for a hopefully rotating panel. So for this week's podcast we have three first time guests: Kurt (Your Movie Buddy), Michael (Serious Film and Unsung Heroes) and Robert ("Distant Relatives") and yours truly, Nathaniel.

Topics include:

• Kelly Reichardt's invisible storytelling and Meek's Cutoff
• Is Michelle Williams America's Tilda Swinton?
• Robert Pattison and Water for Elephants
• Cinephilia: When did it begin for our guests? How do their significant others deal with their movie obsessiveness?

As always the conversation can include more voices. Join us in the comments.

Podcast: Meek's Cutoff, Water For Elephants