Podcast: Instant Reactions. Oscar Nom' Morning

Oscar Nomination Morning has always been like Christmas day to me. I sleep restlessly. I wake early. I tear open my presents. When I first met Nick Davis ten years ago, we knew we were kindred spirits since it's also like that for him. In some ways it can be even more exciting than Oscar Night. More to celebrate / complain about. We lean celebratory as best we can here. Congratulations to you and you and you and you... and okay, you too.

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the bottom of the post. If you haven't yet seen the nominations, we have a full chart.

podcast topics include but are not limited to... 

• Oscar as Christmas. Troubled sleep.
• "Man or Muppet?", Bret McKenzie and Original Song
• Blockbusters and how they performed in their categories.
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and War Horse overperformed while The Help underperformed
• Echo chambers and their limitations ... especially in the various craft categories. 

• Tilda Swinton's Oscar trajectories
• NINE BEST PICTURES? Spreading the wealth.
• Iron Lady's makeup and Harry Potter's nominations.
• Brad Pitt happiness.
• Congratulations to all the nominees... except you.
• Actually we breeze through everything! 

Here's our instant reaction to the nominations!
I did no editing on this one so when you hear only silence that is Nick and I both furiously reading names on a screen rather than paying homage to The Artist.

Other New Oscar Posts
Here's an FYC for next year ;)  | Virgin Oscar Nominees | What would you say if you got an Oscar nom? |  Prediction Stats

Instant Reactions

Podcast: One Last Golden Globe Gala!

You thought the Golden Globe festivities were over didn't you? Nope. There's one more left. It's time for the Film Experience Golden Globe Podcast. Katey, Nick, Joe and Nathaniel all met up for one last pre-Oscar nomination chat. We still don't agree on the movies but we all love the Globes unironically. It's always such a party for people who love celebrities and movies. We're sad it's over!

You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen right here at the bottom of the post.

Topics include...

• Crowd shots and nominee closeups.
• Introducing... Katharine McPhee!
• The unintentional eroticism of the DeMille Award
• Leonardo DiCaprio's tipping point.
• Johnny Depp, Original Song and other Unnecessaries
• Seating charts, surprise marriages
• Calista and Harrison... and Harrison's earrings. 
• No sloppy Globe seconds for Oscar.
• Uggie up to his old tricks
• What will happen with The Help at SAG?
• Viola Davis vs. Meryl Streep, the problematic narrative
• Octavia Spencer and David Fincher
• Brad vs. George and Mr CrankyPants Joe Reid
• Goodbyes

We'd love to hear your takes on any of the issues discussed in the comments.
We do a lot of theorizing and questioning!

Giddy for the Globes

A Raggedy Oscar Podcast Reunion

Surprise! The old team is back together momentarily. Clearly we need more time than 40 minutes to get into everything that's going on in the Oscar race so this one is a totally raggedy conversation... a la Margaret and Rampart, two films that are discussed.

So welcome back to Katey, Joe, Nick from Nathaniel, your host here at The Film Experience.

UPDATE: The entire podcast is embedded below but it is having some trouble playing all the way through with Google Chrome. Works perfectly in Firefox or download from iTunes. 

Topics include but are not limited to:
• Cooking tips from The Help
• The Iron Lady and Streep's hard sell for the third Oscar
• Team Margaret and Team Rampart, two wildly underseen movies that share some intuitive storytelling and vivid ensemble work.
• Critical advocacy in the age of consensus
• The silly battle lines drawn between Hugo & The Artist
• Shailene Woodley and Nick's Descendants agnosticism.

A Raggedy Oscar Reunion

Feinberg & Friends

Scott Feinberg started a podcast at the Hollywood Reporter a month back. Each week he has a different guest and it's yours truly this week. I haven't listened to it but, then, I was there during the recording so that should count. (I have the same mundane problem as most of the verbal world in that I hate hearing my own voice. Editing my own podcast --returning soon-- is enough torture in that department.)

We're discussing Best Picture, Costume Design, actresses who bare it all for the gold man, the double-supporting-actress nomination, and category placements for Carnage (everyone has officially gone supporting!) among other quick topics. Have a listen...

Thank you to Scott at the Hollywood Reporter for the conversation. We always love to talk Oscar.

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"