The Big Picture - The 2022 Oscar Nominations: Snubs, Surprises, and WTFs!

Episode Date: February 8, 2022

The nominations for the 94th annual Academy Awards are here, and Amanda and Sean are breaking down all of them. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave Chang is an avid student and fan of sports, music, art, film, and of course, food. With a rotating cast of guests, they have conversations that cover everything from the creative process to his guests' guiltiest pleasures. Follow The Dave Chang Show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. I'm Sean Fennessy.

I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the Academy Awards. The nominations for the 94th Annual Academy Awards are here. Amanda and I will be breaking all of them down right now. Amanda is still here. There's no baby here. Thankfully, but not thankfully.

Just nominations and Amanda. Amanda, how are you feeling? What did you think when you woke up this morning? Nobody parties anymore, man. You know, that's, listen, these are, these are not worst case nominations for sure. And in a lot of ways, they're really nice things in here. There are some surprises, some, some deserving nominees. And I know that you and I spend like, you know, six months of the year talking about why can't the Oscars just reward

like good film, you know, And it's really important that we want like cinema to be represented at the Oscars. And then when they do, I show up and I'm ungrateful and I'm like, yo, why can't you be like, have a little fun. But this is a very, very, uh, respectable Oscar nominations, at least in the best picture categories. We're going to talk about the actors. Actors got up to some wild stuff, but they're good. And there are some genuinely exciting things. It's cool that Drive My Car got nominated. It's cool that Worst Person in the World got a screenplay nomination. There are some exciting, deserving, elevating the quality of movies nominations here. And then there are just some missed opportunities.

Yeah, I'm quite torn about this list of nominations. I don't think that this is worthy of Outrage City. And so anyone hoping to hear us scream and yell about the injustices issued this morning will be disappointed because I don't think that's really the order of the day. There are not a lot of nominations that I would say are downright awful you know there are some nominations that are stupid ones some silly ones i would say but nothing it's this is candidly

just a little little bit of a dull slate and i i mean that in a in a careful way because most of the movies certainly in best picture that got nominated i like a lot. But this voice in the back of my head that has made its way onto this podcast a handful of times in the last three months, it's getting really loud and saying like, you guys are blowing it with this show. No one's going to watch this show. No one has seen any of these movies. And obviously, we've seen them and we've tried our best to celebrate them and to talk about why they're great. And, you know, the roster, the lineup feels a little bit film Twittery. It feels a little bit film critic-y.

And the Academy historically is not necessarily always aligned with film critics. And so I'm contorting myself this morning to kind of figure out how to feel because I feel pulled by the desire to have the Academy Awards be a big and important cultural landmark every year. And I also want to celebrate incredible films like Drive My Car. So I don't know. I'm a bit flummoxed, I would say. It's like a little bit film Twittery slash film critique and there are some distinctions and i'm not trying to you know gas up film twitter ever i we talked about you tweeting on friday nights you know like you gotta stop doing that just so we can have some fun i think like the the best case version of this is that we have been avoid we have like avoided the, you know, random Saturday afternoon in a February fight about J. Edgar Hoover's legacy. You know, like there's some like,

like they're really truly stupid just in fighting did get excised from this, but it's a little bit film critically and also still, and then in an exciting way, a little bit more like international new Academy. And then it is also still a little bit like stodgy old school academy awards. Like we love craft with a capital C, you know? And it didn't go any one way, which is maybe how these things are supposed to work.

But it's sort of a confused and there's no real through line. There's like no huge narrative besides like, these are the movies that came out that not that many people saw, but relatively to the film industry, people did see and talk about. I think it's honestly an accurate reflection of what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is right now, which is to say it is a lot of people who've been making movies for a long time and are using that capital C craft thing that you're talking about as their North Star for determining nominations. It's increasingly more international, as we've seen over the last three or four years, especially in Best Director and Best Picture.

So that cadre is growing. And it's still very bound by theatrical movies. Only two nominations for Netflix and Best Picture. No nominations for Amazon and Best Picture. There were a couple of HBO Max original releases here, but still those are Warner Brothers films. They were intended to be theatrical releases. They did get theatrical releases and had box office. So this big change that we talk

about on the show all the time is still not totally reflected in the kinds of movies that are being recognized. And I'm curious to see if that holds and that will become another distinction point between movie watchers at large and the Academy. And so we've already got one where it's like, well, Spider-Man's not getting nominated. Movies like that don't get nominated. This is confirmation. If you were concerned about that issue, like I feel like the book is closed there. There is the mainstream Big Tent movie, and then there is the Academy film.

Every once in a while, you'll get a Dune,une but for the most part near the twain shall be even here though dune was nominated for best picture the embrace of dune is is not what we expected it was not so why don't we just dig right into the into the nomination so that wait can i just can i just say one more thing of course and and this is both an amanda dobbins uh personal nitpick and outrage and also i just, in a lot of ways, like just the large problem with the Oscars. For the second time in, I believe, four years, the Academy Awards have declined the opportunity

to have Jennifer Lopez at their award ceremony. You know what? Because you had two different opportunities to nominate Ben Affleck, and you just said, no, what we don't need is Jennifer Lopez. And you guys are wrong. And that is just a mistake that we just, we need movie stars. We need people. You don't even have to actually do it in the nominations.

You got to start thinking bigger. There's no strategy here. I'm, I'm, I'm outraged. Um, it's three years because they didn't nominate her for Hustlers. Oh, is it? Okay. That was 2019. Yes. So we have Hustlers the way back and now the Tender Bar for Affleck, none of which were likely to be nominated looking back on those things. But you're right. If anybody thinks this is rigged, I promise you the Academy Awards is not rigged. This is confirmation that this is an accurate accounting of the voting for each of these awards. Let's talk about those

awards. We're going to start with the biggest one. That's Best Picture. 10 films this year guaranteed in Best Picture. Here are those nominees. Belfast, Coda, Don't Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog, and West Side Story. Now, we're going to talk about quote-unquote snubs, quote-unquote surprises, and maybe some what-the-fucks here. Snubs? I don't know if you could accurately say that Tick Tick Boom being the Ricardos and Tragedy of Macbeth are snubs. You, I assume, are quite pleased to not see the first two on this list. I'm relieved. I'll say about that. You know, and there's one. I was going to be very angry if tick, tick, boom,

you know, if we had to keep doing that. And it was nominated a couple other places, but the embrace was not what, you know, certain small corners of the internet would have you believe. So I'm relieved on that. Being the Ricardos, I genuinely thought was going to happen.

So that was a little bit of like a, hey, all right, people are thinking through this and have some taste. It's interesting how far being the Ricardos made it in the acting categories, which suggests that certain guilds or voting blocs, aka actors, loved it. Not a surprise. And that it was not nominated in screenplay. Sorry, Aaron Sorkin, but also, you know, J. Edgar Hoover. And like, it's interesting to see kind of the breakdowns

in this. But yeah, listen, it was not one of the I think you were going to be pretty bad if it made it to Best Picture. It would have been by far the worst film nominated. And of course, there were three acting nominations for being the Ricardos, which we'll talk about. But I thought the best performance in the film, which was Nina Arianda, was not recognized, which is also very typically Academy Awards. So the biggest surprise here, at least for me, and I've been saying this on the show for a few months now, was that they actually nominated Drive My Car, which is Raisuke Hamaguchi's incredible three-hour epic.

And I just did not think, I could not equate this to Parasite, you know, for example, a recent international feature that was nominated in Best Picture and then went on to win Best Picture. And, you know, this is a film that is here largely on the backs

of film lovers talking it up aggressively for the last three months. Or, you know, essentially since it's played the festival circuits, it has been widely acclaimed. And Hamaguchi has been understood as like a filmmaker on the rise. But his films are not accessible genre movies at all. They're not even traditionally shaped narrative films. They really go against the grain of what we see in this category over the last hundred years.

Honestly, I'm a bit blown away that they actually did it. It says to me that the Academy is just so, so different now. In part because of that international thing. In part because it's much younger. In part because this is a group that is not afraid of something that is a little bit more formally daring or thematically daring.

This is a very quiet film, too. And it's just a very unusual thing. And I'm very happy about it because I love the movie. It was on my top 10. But it is strange. I was just surprised that enough people had actually seen it and engaged with it because it was a slower burn. And a lot of this has to do with the state of theaters and Omicron and just and its release schedule.

But it was later in the year that it was actually accessible to people and accessible as a relative, like, you know, in terms of actually just being able to watch the movie. It's still only playing art houses. It has not expanded. Yeah. the movie um it's still only playing art houses it has not expanded yeah and you know traditionally or at least in the last five years the later a movie is released the fewer people have seen it thus you know the the less chance it has of the oscars obviously everything's been turned upside down in the last two years but it's exciting it is like genuinely exciting and that's one of the things where you know you feel bad i feel bad being an asshole about you know the

nominations because when one of these when you wake up and one of these things happens it's great there are very few films in this list right now that i look at and i say like i didn't like that movie i i liked pretty much all of the films all of the 10 films nominated here we can say to what degrees we like them you know i i'm obviously over the moon about licorice pizza and sure the power of the dog i think is generally kind of undeniable in its in its excellence but um there was a there was a little bit of a micro what the fuck here which is the nightmare alley got nominated shall we talk about nightmare alley i mean i love nightmare alley and i thought i was the only one guys on letterbox yeah i thought i was the only one guys on letterbox. Yeah, I thought I was the only one and I'm not the only one.

Amanda, I have been redeemed here and Guillermo del Toro once again has been redeemed. Now there was a huge, huge push for this movie in the last six weeks. I think searchlight essentially decided we are going to go for it because we see an opening here because frankly, probably they looked at the being the Ricardos and the tick tick pooms and

they were like, our movie is definitely better than this. These movies and they were right. And, and they looked at the Being the Ricardos and the Tick-Tick Pooms and they were like, our movie is definitely better than these movies. And they were right. And they put it on, it was on HBO Max. I kept meaning to text you because I think, honestly, the day that Oscar nomination voting started, it appeared on HBO Max. I assume that was not a mistake. It not only appeared on HBO Max, it also appeared on Hulu because of this wonky deal where HBO has the rights to 20th century Fox movies. And also, so now Hulu and HBO at the same time can issue that film.

So a lot of people have seen Nightmare. I think Nightmare Alley is the most logged movie on Letterboxd in the last week for the exact reason you just cited. So I think I'm sure a lot of Academy voters finally got a chance to see this movie, which is quite good. And which is also like to your capital C craft point. Yeah. This is a film with like really, really high end production design, really,

really accomplished and esteemed members of the Academy worked on this movie. Del Toro has already been recognized in the past. It's a little bit of like a, even if you don't have a ton of passion for it, you have to respect it kind of, um, I guess installment here. so that one was i guess nice to see i mean i much prefer that to a couple of the other films that could have been

nominated here it is one though that like this movie i guess when you look at the box office it has made the fifth most amount of money out of all the films that are nominated but that doesn't really mean anything because it's only 10 million i'm just gonna read the box office accounting so far because it is by far the lowest in the history of the Oscars, barring last year. So Dune has made $107 million in America. West Side Story has made $36 million. Chugging along.

Keep West Side Story in theaters. You know, continue to make money. It got a bunch of nominations this morning. King Richard has made $14 million, which is a crime. That's a movie that would have made $150 million five years ago. Licorice licorice pizzas made 12 million probably stands to make a little bit more now that it's gotten a bunch of nominations nightmare alley's made 10 belfast has only made 7 million dollars belfast as a favorite has been softened this morning i would say uh drive my car as you mentioned only 1 million dollars in receipts and there are three streaming films that we don't

have numbers for coda which is on apple tv plus and Don't Look Up and The Power of the Dog, two films from Netflix. Any other thoughts about Best Picture? It's not surprising, but it's hard to get enthusiastic about this race. I mean, there's no real clear leader. Do you want to start with your harebrained theory right now? You want to debut it? Yeah, it's been picking up steam. Well, do you feel like

the nominations support it? I don't. I don't. Yeah. I don't. So on Friday, in the wee hours of the evening, I tweeted that I think...

It was like 6.30. I said the evening. I tweeted that I think Don't Look Up could... I felt like it was going to win Best Picture. And part of that was because Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated at the BAFTAs for Best Actor.

And if Leo was nominated this morning, and particularly if there was a Best Editing nomination for Don't Look Up, and even more so if Adam McKay found his way into Best Director, I would have said this film was getting it. And part of it was driven by a lot of talking with you about this and hearing your point of view, which is that a lot of people have seen Don't't look up there are a lot of opinions about it some very negative but some very positive and it's also a movie that allows people to essentially cast a vote against the media which is something that we know that people in hollywood like to do and so i was sensing that it was going to happen and then lo and behold allison wilmore at vulture wrote a piece just yesterday effectively saying the thing, identifying a lot of the reasons that I felt like this film could

win. I still think that it can win. My gut right now is that this comes down to The Power of the Dog versus Don't Look Up versus Drive My Car. Or excuse me, not Drive My Car versus Belfast. I think those are the top three in the race at the moment with The Power of the Dog fairly far out in front. Power of the Dog got 12 nominations this morning, which is by far the most,

it basically got as many as it could get, including two and two acting nominations in one category. I believe it got a production design nomination without even getting recognized by the production designer association in the earlier voting rounds. So power of the dogs really in the driver's seat. I don't, I just don't know if... Do people love that film?

And maybe that doesn't matter. I think they really admire and respect it and really admire and respect Jean Campion, who was nominated for Best Director for a second time, the only woman ever to do that, which we take our milestones where we can get them i guess but if we go like the respectful oscars route then power of the dog makes a lot of sense your don't look up a timeline was like chaos oscars and that reflects like the world that

we live in and certainly like film twitter and the way that we talk about things and just the way our minds work with which is sort of depressing so i like can't be mad that the oscars seem to be like steering away from chaos oscars that seems good like i'm i'm tired you know i think we're all tired and like we don't like i'm going the other way i want chaos i don't want i don't want boring predictable oscars that's terrible no i want i want fun oscars but want chaos. I don't want boring, predictable Oscars. That's terrible for the Oscars. No, I want fun Oscars. But I really honestly don't want Adam McKay tweet lecturing me about how I'm not anxious enough about climate change for another eight weeks, which seems to be his campaigning strategy. I'm plenty anxious about it, sir.

And whether or not I think your film was the best film of the year has nothing to do with what I want to do about climate change. But it's just like that is an opportunity. And I guess in a way that would get them more juice. But I honestly don't even know if Chaos Oscars timeline brings viewers and investment. It might just drive us crazy. So we might have just dodged that bullet. It's a very interesting point i'm not sure if that's true i think that the oscars need to be able to say

something at the end of the show that's like exciting and i too like the power of the dog i think i'm gonna spend a lot more time talking about the power of the dog on this show in the next couple of months because especially as it emerges as a very strong favorite it's a film that frankly we basically devoted 15 minutes of serious conversation to on the show in the next couple of months, because especially as it emerges as a very strong favorite, it's a film that, frankly, we basically devoted 15 minutes of serious conversation to on the show, and that's it. I think we were kind of hoping we would wait for people to catch on to it, but it has been, essentially since it debuted, and I guess it debuted at a European festival,

and then I saw it shortly thereafter at Telluride. It's basically been a quiet juggernaut, and it seems like it's on an inevitable collision course with victory which in some ways is wonderful and in some ways it also signals something major which would it would be the first streamer to win best picture would be netflix's first best picture oscar kind of concluding this seven-year saga of aspiring to that position. But then I feel like it also, and maybe the storyline becomes, okay, they did it.

Now what? No, listen, I agree with you that like power of the dog running the table is not the narrative that the Oscars need to save it with like all respect to everyone involved. Listen, Kirsten Dunst finally got an Oscar nomination. I'm a happy woman. But I agree.

That's like, I agree with you that that's not going to suddenly save the Oscars. I think you and I had already gotten to a place where we're like, well, I don't think we're going to save the Oscars this year. Again, there's just not, there was nothing available there. You know, Spider-Man, whatever you thought about it was a pipe dream. Dune didn't really seem to excite people. And so I'm just like, maybe it's like a small mercy that we don't, if we don't have to, if you don't have to be tweeting every weekend about, you know, the role of satire in American politics and cinema, that just might be something that's like happy for you and me from afar.

And I would say thank you to the Academy for that. I don't know. Can I tell you my biggest takeaway from the Best Picture nominations? Yeah, go. So obviously, I've been obsessed with the decision in 2009 to expand the Best Picture pool. I feel like that is the most significant decision that the Oscars have made in the last 30 years or so.

And they did so in the aftermath of The Dark Knight not being nominated. And it was understood, though not explicitly stated, that they needed to widen the pool to widen interest in the Academy Awards as they sensed ratings very softly starting to dip back in 2009. And so they did expand.

And so they started to incorporate some films and, you know, the occasional animated film or mainstream film like Black Panther would get nominated. But what they did not anticipate was Oscar So White. And Oscar So White and that campaign and that movement to essentially underline the fact that the bulk of the Academy was represented by older white men. And how the older white men and their point of view tended to nominate a very specific kind of film led to the academy expanding radically so from 2015 the academy had 6261 members they have added 33 percent more members there the academy is now 9467 people many of those people

women many of those people people of color and many of those people not living in the united states and those people are now voting on the those people, people of color, and many of those people not living in the United States. And those people are now voting on the Oscars and specifically Best Picture. And those people have a very different sense of what an Oscar movie is. And it's not Spider-Man. And it's not The Dark Knight. And it is Drive My Car. And it is Nightmare Alley.

And it is The Power of the Dog. And so what we have here is a much bigger pool of people who are working in the film industry, but not, and frankly, an industry that is already at a crossroads between box office, streamers, all that bullshit that we talk about every freaking week on this show. And ultimately, this set of nominees confirms for me that there's no going back. Like, it is over. So a couple of weeks ago, I gave my big speech, my desperate, sad, pathetic speech about why this is important and why they need to consider widening the pool. The only way forward now

to continuing to make this a show that more than 10 million people care about forever and ever is to just add more categories and change the show. And if they do not do that, fewer people are going to watch this year's show, I think, than watched it last year.

And last year's set of nominees was confounding even by Oscar standards. That was like a really bad slate of nominees. It was an asterisk year. It was a tough year for the world at large. I think there's this really strong chance that fewer people watched this year. I think 9 million people watched last year.

And that's not good. It's not good. Now, you know what? There was a really terrific piece in this newsletter called the NumLock Awards, which is written by Walt Hickey, who is a former 538 data scientist and writer, recently about kind of why the Academy doesn't seem to care about this because they have this insane amount of financial wealth right now. They have this war chest built up in the aftermath of having built this massive Academy Museum, which is this huge and valuable piece of property. And they do an incredible amount of fundraising at the Academy. And they're guaranteed a certain amount of money over the course of 10 years for their contract with ABC to put the show on.

And so they don't seem to be organizing their show around the desire to grow because they're growing financially. And I thought that was an interesting bit of light shed on the fact that they're like, you know what? This is only about one thing. It's only about shedding light on the greatest achievements in filmmaking in the world right now. And slowly, they are accomplishing that they are starting to recognize the parasites and the drive my cars and the worst persons in the world and the fleas the the films that you know not since really the late 70s the academy has not really done a great job of identifying and promoting and showing as what great filmmaking is but that thing that you

and i like that thing where the oscars is like in the center of the culture it's it's pretty much gone and yes i'm i'm now coping with that so you've moved to the acceptance phase of that i have i have yeah i i there's no more bargaining left to do i mean you're right i i think we have talked about many times of like we're just not going back to the ratings that we had which for many times of like, we're just not going back to the ratings that we had, which for a number of reasons, including the fact that if you're not an NFL game, you just don't have that type of rating for television at all. But let me just add one caveat to that. For many, many years, the number one rated show behind all of the NFL games was

the Oscars. That was always the number two thing after like 14 NFL games. And that is now no longer going to be the case. It's going to continue to slip. What it seems like is that the Oscars will become like a great advocacy tool for movies. And so people will be like, oh, this got nominated. I've never heard of this before. Or this wins. Like, can I watch Nightmare Alley or Coda or whatever on streaming and it will you know it'll kind of help find audiences and actually maybe help preserve like some aspect of the the you know cinema movies like things under like eight hours without episodes i hope so i like i do as well but it'll be sort of the reverse thing. Whereas instead of being like,

you break through in a movie and get enough people's attention and juice behind it to make it to the Oscars, the Oscars are kind of like the knighting ceremony and then you go on, which is not bad. I mean, movies could use more advocacy opportunities because otherwise people are like, what are you talking about but yeah is it you know a big party with a lot of fun and everyone arguing about it all the time not in the way it used to be certainly in the 90s um and the 2000s and i think you're right that ship has sailed and i i wish that they were still making some last gasp efforts you know but you and i just like a sense of flair you know you and i like a party i was like i i don't want this specific don't look up chaos

oscars because that seems exhausting but do i kind of want a chaos oscars just because it's fun to do yeah of course that's why i woke up and i was like damn these are so serious everyone's just like very solemn like okay well i liked this know, like give me something stupid to argue about. But I guess- You want to do it for the content. Yeah, you're looking for good content. Yeah, but is that best for movies at large? I don't know.

I don't think the Academy has much to say about that anymore. The system is so changed. Yeah. I don't think that they can really influence it the way that they once could. I think it will influence the fact that a ton more people are going to watch,

say, Nightmare Alley. Hopefully, a lot more people are going to go see Drive My Car. And I would encourage people to see it in movie theaters if they can. I know it's not playing

near very many people that are listening to this show right now. But it is a film that you don't want to be holding your phone while you're watching it. You know, it is an immersive

three-hour, very slow-burn film and you have to give yourself over to it. And so, if a film like that gets more recognition, that's great. Let's continue to go down the list of the categories. We'll get through as many of these as we can or make sense. So best director is obviously the next and most important one. This was the most, I thought, shattering snub amongst the lineup here. So thank God PTA is nominated. His name was announced third for some reason,

not first when they were going through the announcements, Tracee Ellis Ross and Leslie Jordan this morning. And I was like, oh God, did PTA not get it? And I was going to throw a brick through somebody's window, but then he did get it. So PTA is nominated for Licorice Pizza, Kenneth Branagh for Belfast, Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog,

Steven Spielberg for West Side Story, a little bit of a surprise. People thought he might be on the outside looking in. And then Raiske Hamaguchi from Drive My Car. So that means no Denis Villeneuve for Dune. It doesn't really seem like the Academy cares about Dune this year. What the fuck, though? I don't know. I'm not saying I necessarily want to knock off any of these five, but I don't think anyone saw that coming. I did not see one person predict Villeneuve getting blanked here. When we were putting together our best case Oscar scenarios in October, we were like, it's Dune.

And it's really Villeneuve as the auteur who is still making blockbusters accessible, but also high art. And honestly, the first hour and a half of Dune, I was like, holy shit, this is the best movie I've ever seen. I can't believe this looks like it. guess other people did not care I guess not I mean I think there's just a general obviously disrespect for the genre that that he's working in here and so that's a factor and science fiction is very rarely recognized but I mean what he did specifically which was like this is his passion project he had been yearning to adapt this film forever it's a massive scale film it's a film that literally requires amazing vision it's working with all

of the component parts uh the the actors the production design the score with han zimmer like it is like the signature directorial effort of 2021 in my opinion so i think this is a real shame um i don't think there are any, what the fuck's here. I think people would probably point to Kenneth Branagh as like maybe the softest of the five here, but honestly, like that movie doesn't exist without him.

He also did the same thing. I just described the Denis Villeneuve did. He basically conceived of every single moment in this film and brought something very personal to it. So it's, it's a pretty good slate of nominees. Honestly, it's slightly traditional. And it's like the a pretty good slate of nominees honestly it's slightly traditional and it's like

the i think that the quote risks they took were the opening of the the um mindset in pta and in hamaguchi is like that's what you want so i feel bad for villain new but you know they weren't willing to go as far as sci-fi, but they were willing to go towards two unbelievably accomplished, exciting films. And then also Kenneth Branagh and Steven Spielberg, because that makes people feel comfortable. Yes. I mean, also, this is a category that many people did suggest that Hamaguchi had a good chance here, because we've seen in recent years that Michael Haneke and Pavel Pavlikowsky

were both nominated in this category, even when some of their films were not nominated. I think Pavlikovsky's film was not nominated for Best Picture and made his way into Best Director anyway. So not a stunner. Okay, let's talk about Best Actress. This is the messiest of the categories, I would say. This sucks. If you're going to have some fun, have some fun. Lady Gaga was not nominated for Best Actress. She was not nominated. Jessica Chastain was nominated. Olivia Colman for The Lost Daughter.

Penelope Cruz for Parallel Mothers. Very surprising to me. Nicole Kidman for Being the Ricardos. And Kristen Stewart for Spencer. She hung on. She did. A lot of people thought she was out for sure, including myself. And she was not.

You're right. Lady Gaga was not nominated. Alana Haim was not nominated here. Rachel Zegler was not you're right lady gaga was not nominated alana heim was not nominated here rachel zegler was not nominated here jennifer hudson was not nominated here um i don't i have no idea who's gonna win this category none i've never not known less about did you partake in any of the kristen stewart bafta's uh conspiracy theory stuff meaning like did i launch a new podcast about my conspiracy theories about it? No, but are you aware of it?

Are you aware of like the royal side of it? Oh no, were they protecting the crown? There's some, I don't actually think that this is true. The real thing about the BAFTA's chaos, and it was very funny to see all of the film prognosticators just like lose their mind at the BAFTA's not reflecting all the work that you know film bloggers and Oscar bloggers have been doing for the last six months they were

so angry but the BAFTAs have like a very convoluted nomination process at this point to try to address some of the diversity issues that they have had in the past somehow they still didn't manage to give Denzel Washington a nominee the BAF baptists have literally never nominated denzel washington i don't know what to tell you um but as a result kristen stewart was not nominated um and part of the process is that there was like a selection committee instead of voting and so the conspiracy theories on like the weird instagrams that i look at are that because Prince William is the chairman or the president or some like honorary head figure of the BAFTAs that the selection committees left Kristen Stewart off of the nomination list because somehow he would be upset of the way that his mother was portrayed. And I guess he was portrayed. He's in the movie.

That's got to be pretty annoying. I just think like people didn't like Spencer that much. I'm surprised that she made it in. But because it didn't look like she was going to. But I like Kristen Stewart a lot. Just for some context, the leading actress category at the Baptist. Here are the nominees. Lady Gaga for House of Gucci.

Not nominated at the Oscars. Alana Haim for Licorice Pizza. Not nominated at the Oscars. Amelia Jones. Coda Licorice Pizza, not nominated at the Oscars. Amelia Jones, Coda, not nominated. Renata Rensvay from The Worst Person in the World, not nominated. Joanna Scanlon for After Love, not nominated. Tessa Thompson for Passing, not nominated. So the BAFTAs as an indicator in certain categories are way out of whack.

Now, basically, they're only taking like two of the top five vote getters and choosing them. And then essentially a jury chooses the remaining four nominees or five or three nominees. And what a chaotic. I mean, the BAFTAs, they need to have some sort of course correction. The idea of like addressing their diversity issues and then still not nominating Denzel, as you pointed out, is fucking insane. There's just a real issue there. Okay. Any other...

I guess, I mean, the surprises are Penelope Cruz and K-Stew. I liked Spencer more than you, and it seems like more than most people, but not the Academy. The Academy seemed to appreciate what she was doing there. What's with the Jessica Chastain thing? We all just agreed that Jessica Chastain is like a, quote, film advocate or whatever.

She hustled hard. She campaigned really, really hard. She did a lot of stuff. Jeremy Strong advocate. So she's just out there enough and people are like, oh, I like her. When I saw her post the video of like the transformation into Tammy Faye a couple days ago on Instagram and I was like,

oh, I see what you're doing. You're showing us the level of commitment you have to your craft. She's online campaigning in an effective way. Okay. Yes. I think that worked. The Penelope Cruz thing is stunning to me. Not in a bad way.

I think parallel mother is one of the best movies of 2021. Most people have not yet seen it. It's Pedro Almodovar's most recent film. She is often at her best in his films and she's terrific in this movie. She's in the center of almost every frame of the film. I didn't see it coming though. I would not have guessed. I didn't't think i didn't think most people have seen this movie but they did what they what sony pictures classics did last year with the father which is they waited until the last minute to put this movie out hoping that people would spend a little time with it in january and it seems like they did because this is not one but

two nominations for parallel mothers which also got a best original score nomination which i came out of nowhere for me i didn't see that coming at all. Also, one thing to keep in mind is that the Academy does have its own streaming service now. So all of the Academy members, I've made a lot of jokes in years past about how I don't believe that a lot of Academy voters watch all the movies. And I'm not totally ready to give that up. But I think this year it is like definitely easier for Academy voters to see movies than the rest of us. So it's not surprising that some things that aren't widely available made it through because they like finally joined the 21st century, sort of. Almodovar obviously has a big reputation in the Academy, too. And his films have been nominated many, many times over the years, although he was not even, they didn't even put this movie up for the official entry for Spain.

Nevertheless, who are you rooting for here? Olivia Colman? Yeah, I mean, I like Olivia Colman. I think she's great. I also think that's like a pretty safe bet if you're trying to make any money. Yeah, we've got a few previous winners here, right? Yes.

Colman, Cruise, and Kidman have all won. That's true. Though Cruz won for Supporting Actress, so... And Coleman did win for Best Actress. I just...

In general, I think if you're looking for a place to put your money, Olivia Coleman winning awards right now. That streak is not over, somehow. People are still really just very into her.

And that's also a great performance. Okay, let's time for Tim's. Okay, let's go to best actor. The nominees are Javier Bardem for Being the Ricardos, Benedict Cumberbatch for The Power of the Dog,

Andrew Garfield for Tick, Tick, Boom, Will Smith for King Richard, Denzel Washington for The Tragedy of Macbeth. So the super, super, super famous people barring Will Smith

and Denzel Washington, we could have had a mega famous category here, but Leonardo DiCaprio and Bradley Cooper were not nominated for their work in Don't Look Up and Nightmare Alley, respectively. And then the surprise, I guess, is Bardem, even though Bardem has been nominated,

I guess he's nominated at SAG. I think he was, was he nominated at the Globes as well? And so I feel like it's not shocking that he's here. He's been campaigning a lot and just seems like a great hang. Also, you got to love Bardem and Penelope Cruz both being nominated. That's just fun. I don't think anyone was thinking about that. And it's not quite Ben Affleck bringing Jennifer Lopez as his date, but it's a little bit of flair and narrative. But yeah, I think it just seems like actors were really, really into being the Ricardos.

I don't know what else to say. I think you're completely right. Denzel does get his 10th nomination here, which is a lot. That puts him among like the 10 most ever. And it's Will Smith's to lose. Well, is it? I don't know.

I mean, I have threatened, you know, a lot of violence if he doesn't win, but I'm getting really nervous. Also, I'm really confused where he is on the campaign trail. I think he's about to come roaring back. You think that he's just been waiting because he felt like it was a lock and he didn't want overexposure. I guess the memoir did get a little TMI. Andrew Garfield is just hustling, will show up anywhere.

He is really doing absolutely everything. Will show up anywhere. He is really doing absolutely everything. Please leave him alone. I love Andrew Garfield, but I'm just saying at some point, Will Smith's got to get back in the game because

Andrew Garfield is really, really working it. If I'm making kind of wild predictions right now, I think Cumberbatch is going to win.

You do? Oh, interesting. Because I think there's a big power of the dog wave coming. And I think thereumberbatch is going to win. You do? Oh, interesting. Because I think there's a big power of the dog wave coming. And I think there's openings here. We've seen, I mean, we just saw it last year. We just saw Hopkins over Bozeman

and it's a very similar kind of a race. So let me ask you one thing. Why does the Academy hate Leo? I didn't love this Leo performance and I'm not like, don't look up, Stan, but it's really strange. I think he is very strategic about how and when he campaigns.

And someone recently pointed out to me the fact that he was not nominated for Django Unchained, but Christoph Waltz was nominated and did win, was in part because Leo did not really campaign at all for that role because he did not want to win for best supporting actor. And I think the understanding here is that Don't Look Up is considered a big kaleidoscopic ensemble piece. And so he doesn't want to be singled out or he doesn't is not interested in spending time talking about his particular role. I don't know if that's true. Okay. Just what I've heard. I think the Academy, I don't think that they dislike him. I just think that they are less impressed

with your movie star, qua movie star. You know, like you really have to transform to win. And he transformed in The Revenant. Perhaps he didn't transform enough into a nerdy astronomer in Don't Look Up.

No, it's using the idea of leo it's just especially his work with scorsese like he is one of his like a generational talent he's your favorite movie he's the goat yeah yeah he's the guy and they just resisted at every turn uh i think it was a mistake i think i think putting leo and cooper in this category with will sm, Denzel Washington, and Benedict Cumberbatch would have just been like, that's a reason to tune in. That's like as action-packed as best actor can get.

And they didn't do it. I mean, no disrespect to Bardem or Andrew Garfield. I like them just fine. But anyway, let's go to supporting actress. Here are the nominees. Jessie Buckley. Let's go. That's great.

She did it. That's A+. That's A+. I'm so excited for her. I'm so excited for that performance. That's great. She did it. That's A+. That's A+. I'm so excited for her. I'm so excited for that performance. That's a wonderful movie, The Lost Daughter, which I also did not get a chance to get into the Best Picture race. We didn't even mention that. But she's terrific as the flashback version of Olivia Colman. Once again, one character, two nominations. How many times has that happened? Only a handful in the history of the Oscars.

Ariana DeBose, of course, is, I believe, the front runner for this one. Big surprise here. Judi Dench from Belfast in over Katrina Balfe, which I don't even I don't know how this happened. I was just going to ask you, how did this happen? I don't think she's been nominated in a single. I went searching. I couldn't find a single nomination this season for her. I don't know.

I like Judi Dench a lot but like what there are some people who have said you know she has she basically owns the final frame of the film you walk away from the movie kind of like thinking about her but if she were nominated and Kieran Hines were not nominated I probably would have been mad because I think it's Kieran Hines is really quite quite good in the film but Katrina and Katrina Bell I thought she's like she's good she's not she and jamie jordan are the two hottest parents like i've seen on film in the last 20 years you know and and i give a lot of credit to them i give a lot of credit to kenneth branoff for just like showing us some hot parents you know we all we all need some like beauty in our lives but i i would

agree that's that's the main appeal. The Judy Hedge thing, I'm just like, where did this come from? It's pretty strange. I mean, there's just, she's done this before. She's been nominated for having eight minutes

of screen time in the past. Didn't she want, she won for having like eight minutes of screen time. She did. She already did this. I don't know. I like Judy Dench.

She really loves trees. You know, good for her. It's hard to get mad, but it's weird. Your girl Kiki dunst was nominated kirsten my queen her first oscar nomination absolute queen uh i think she could upset ariana devos here i think that's possible i ariana devos is working as hard as andrew garfield is so she is but this is again what will one kirsten dunst doing a lot of press

she's been a lot of podcasts lately she's on fresh air she's on scott feinberg's podcast she's been doing a lot of work lately anjanue ellis also nominated here i was very happy to see that i was not so happy to not see ruth nega from passing here i would have probably swapped her out for judy dench that would have been my preference but jesse buckley man that's freaking awesome that's like my favorite actress it's so great. That's great. I hope we continue to have Kirsten Dunst retrospectives, you know, throughout the land. That lineup, was it at the, where was it?

Metrograph? Yes. Yes. So good. All the best movies. Melancholia, Marie Antoinette. I don't think they included Bring It On in the retrospective. That was my one note.

Bring It On is really special. Where are you at on Interview with the Vampire i mean also she's what 11 i think 13 yeah she's a very special person to me i also really recommend her architectural digest home tour if you have not been a part of it haven't spent any time with that let's go to best supporting actor uh here are the nominees kieran hines belfast Belfast, Troy Kotzer, Coda, Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog, J.K. Simmons Being the Ricardos, and Cody Smith-McPhee, The Power of the Dog.

Two actors from the same film nominated here. Plemons and Dunst. Another couple. That's really nice. Yeah, that's really nice. Two different couples. That's cute. I'm pro that. Plemons was the big surprise to me here. I guess J.K. Simmons was the surprise. No, J.K. Simmons is the big surprise to me here I guess JK Simmons was the surprise is the big surprise what are we doing guys

what would like actors this was weird here is my takeaway from these nominations is that all the actors they gotta go sit down they gotta think about their choices they gotta re-evaluate some of their priorities and I like all these people as you said in the document like I too

like JK Simmons I like Javier Bardem a lot I like i'm like nicole kidman you know and i know she had the whole thing with people really liking her amc movie i mean again people got to get a life but it's just i like i guess we all need to get outside we're literally recording an oscar nominations podcast at eight o'clock in the morning. So who really needs to get a life? I mean, people like printing out the text of promo movies to save like the, you know, a GameStop stock. Like, whatever.

I like Nicole Kidman a lot. But this is too many being the Ricardo's actors in the acting categories. It's a lot. It's really a lot. No Bradley Cooper and no Ben Affleck. And so no movie stardom in that way. It's a lot. It's really a lot. No Bradley Cooper and no Ben Affleck. And so no movie stardom in that way.

That's so stupid. Also, Cody Smith-Nafee is walking away with this so it really doesn't matter. There's almost a zero percent chance. because you could have people

on the red carpet. Also, what are the Razzies doing trying to take Ben Affleck in the last duel? Let's not, I don't even want to talk about the Razzies.

Just honestly, just don't even acknowledge them and hopefully they won't matter. Let's not. I don't even want to talk about the Razzies. Just honestly, just don't even acknowledge them and hopefully they won't matter. That's honestly how I feel about it because it's a bullshit organization. Okay. Best adapted screenplay. Not a ton of shock here.

Coda, Sean Heater, Drive My Car, Raiske Hamaguchi, and Takamasa Oh. Dune, Eric Roth, John Spates, and Denis Villeneuve. The Lost Daughter,

Maggie Gyllenhaal. Good nom. Power of the Dog, Jane Campion. Passing did not get in here, but that's not a super snub or shock. And very cool to see you drive my car here. I think that was no guarantee. You know, this is like perfectly fine.

I'm pleased to see Maggie Gyllenhaal. Yeah, me as well. I was hoping for a little bit more representation for The Lost Daughter up above and that kind of

fell to the waste. I'm not surprised by it but it's nice to get a screenplay nod. Yeah, I mean three nominations between the screenplay and two acting looks

is pretty good. Best original screenplay Belfast, Branagh, Don't Look Up, Adam McKay and David Sirota, Licorice Pizza, PTA,

King Richard, Zach Balin, and the worst person in the world, Joachim Trier and Eskil Vogt. What? Wow. Once again, the best category at the Oscars is always original screenplay. We did it. Congratulations to the writers for having some sense. Really crazy that this film got nominated

in this category. Did you see that PTA personally endorsed this film the best movie in the world yes i see what he did there that's uh it's really nice everyone seems to really enjoy it it's really dope really exciting joe keem he was delightful had him on the pod last week just wonderful guy i had a friend who went on a date to the worst person in the world it's apparently a good date movie so that actually sounds horrifying, but okay. No, listen, I know of many people who have chosen many worse date films,

including my own husband. So I think it's nice. It's life-affirming, you know, but not too cutesy. Sure it is. It's a great film for figuring out that what's best for you in life is to end up alone. That's definitely one of the takeaways from that film. Okay, best international feature.

Only one real surprise here. So the nominees are Drive My Car from Japan, Flee from Denmark, The Hand of God from Italy, Luana, A Yak in the Classroom from Bhutan, and The Worst Person in the World from Norway. The snub here is Asghar Farhadi's A Hero, which was frankly surprising. There had been, this is going to sound like a dumb thing

to say out loud, but I'm just going to say it. There has been a lot of Luana, a yak in the classroom buzz over the last few weeks. I was going to ask you about the yak in the classroom. Yeah, I mean, it's okay. I have not seen this film.

I'll be honest. It's fine. It's definitely not an Oscar Farhadi film. So, I mean, he has been recognized in this category many times. I think three or four times

and he has won twice. So, there is a little bit of, you know, winner's guilt going on where there is a little bit of you know winners guilt going on where there's so there's there's a version of this in the best documentary category as well where they just sort of overlooked something that seemed like an obvious entry because it had been recognized previously but my advice is just to watch a hero it's freaking great film and you can watch it because it's on amazon prime that's the other thing that's interesting about it is that there was a push about it and it was widely available.

And that apparently doesn't matter. Didn't matter. Best animated feature. This is very chalky, I thought. I did do predictions over the weekend. I got 79 out of a possible 105 right, but I only got two categories totally right, which is actually quite disappointing.

This was one of them. Best animated feature. The nominees are Encanto, Flea, Luca, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, and Raya and the Last Dragon. I actually don't know what's going to win here. Who are you rooting for? Well, I thought The Mitchells vs. The Machines

was pretty great. I really enjoyed that. And so I probably would want to see that crew win. Encanto is becoming a thing amongst kids and parents that's that's kind of what social media has been indicating to me but you're you're not we're not there yet alice is not ready to talk about bruno and neither am i so um that is the number one song in the world by the way she doesn't i'm just playing her like free jazz and metal right now you know we're just we're working through all the genres, so we're not up to Disney originals.

Okay, best documentary. I don't understand the best documentary category ever. This is a weird slate. A couple of really good films, but this is a really hard one to predict. I think I got three of these wrong or at least two of these wrong.

The nominees are Ascension, Attica, Flea, Summer of Soul, Writing with Fire. Shout out to Summer of Soul. My friend Joseph Patel nominated for an Oscar. Fucking unbelievable. Very proud of him. Writing with Fire, I didn't see coming.

Attica, I was surprised, though not disappointed. That's a really good film. You can watch that on Showtime right now. Flea is the first film now to be nominated in Best Documentary Feature, International Feature, and Animated Feature. That's an incredible achievement the rescue is not nominated here and i don't get it i don't either i guess it's because

the filmmakers previously won for their last film but the rescue is mind-blowing i i don't like to me it's like the pinnacle of what documentary filmmaking should be but i don't i don't know i'm not really sure that I understand the politics of this particular category. You know, I don't know what's going on in the Guild and I'm still really mad that no one thanked the octopus at the end, at the Oscars last year. You, my octopus teacher won over all of these,

I thought, truly excellent documentaries last year and no one even thanked the octopus by name. This category is just very very strange um i think summer of soul is the leader in the clubhouse at the moment and that obviously is a major achievement okay best original score don't look up nicholas pertell former guest of the show wonderful guy dune han zimmer ever heard of him and conto germaine franco parallel mothers alberto iglesias i just mentioned this and then the power of the dog johnny greenwood and what is easily one of the best scores of the last 10 years um interesting race here a couple

of few heavy hitters yeah it's like the new stalwarts of this particular category and then parallel mothers being the surprise because incanto is is the disney pics it's pixar right it's pixar yeah yeah um it'll be interesting to see how that what what happens there because bretel and greenwood are the new vanguard of film composition and hans obviously is a legend and you've got a disney movie here and then the parallel mothers was the big surprise i guess i don't know what did that knock out that i was i was banking on oh the french dispatch and alexander desplat who is also kind of like an old guard I don't know. What did that knock out that I was banking on? Oh, The French Dispatch and Alexander Desplat, who is also kind of like an old guard film composer. Okay. Original song.

This is actually the worst category historically. I don't think any of these songs are good, but that's just me. Here are the nominees. Be Alive, Beyonce Knowles-Carter, Darius Scott, Dos Orguitas from Lin-Manuel Miranda Down to Joy by Van Morrison from Belfast No Time to Die Billie Eilish and Phineas O'Connell from No Time to Die

Somehow You Do Diane Warren from Four Good Days a film that I'm not convinced exists have you seen Four Good Days? no but I did see Diane Warren at a guild screening I can't remember which movie that I was like oh there's diane warren just a part of the oscars and my oscar

season as always so that was nice diane warren has let's see how many oscar nominations does she have two four six eight ten twelve twelve nominations 13. 13 nominations for Diane Warren. Never won. I don't think this will be her year. Four Good Days is not a film that exists. So that's going to be really odd when she wins for it. You know my thoughts on this category, which is that it shouldn't exist. And I can't stand the performances. On the flip side, this seems to be the only category in which anyone at the in the academy has applied the have famous people at your show and so i think turning down an opportunity to have beyonce on your show would be stupid turning down billy eilish even though i don't really like that bond song no offense billy eilish sure shout out to the kids um you definitely had to have

beyonce and billy eilish at the show. Yeah, of course. Yeah. But I mean, then Van Morrison presents some issues that we don't need to get into. And I mean, Van Morrison is anti-vaxxing. So I don't know if he's going to be able to attend the awards. This is what I'm saying. So that's a whole other issue. And also, I don't care for the performances during the telecast.

But I've been overruled on that. It honestly would be good for the show if they did a but i've i've been overruled on that it honestly would be good for the show if they did a great incanto number you know where they did um they performed bruno and lynn was a part of the performance to yet another performance of hamilton well i don't i don't want that um let me try to run through just some some quick highlights on the rest of these categories so it won't be labor this too much. Best Cinematography, I think, is probably the most successful category in all of the nominations.

Every single one of the nominations, I feel, was worthy. There was some suggestion that Janusz Kaminski would not get in because he's not a member of the ASC. He did get in. West Side Story is nominated. Tragedy of Macbeth, Power of the Dog, Nightmare Alley, and Dune. All of those films, beautifully shot,

beautifully composed. Love those. Likewise for production design, I mean, nothing composed. Love those. Likewise for production design. I mean, nothing really too shocking here. Very similar set of nominees. In fact, it matches perfectly. Dune, Nightmare Alley, Power of the Dog, Tragedy of Macbeth, West Side Story. Costume design, your girl Cruella got in.

You excited about that? Yeah, they tried. This is the only other category that I guessed completely correct aside from animated feature, which I don't even understand. I don't know anything about costumes. So I just got lucky there. Best Cyrano call from you. I guess I give you credit for that. They definitely tried on the costumes in Cyrano as well. That's weird. Is that Cyrano's only nomination? It is. That's so weird. Cyrano really Cyrano did the opposite of what Parallel Mothers did, which is it came out way too late. Best sound Belfast, Dune, No Time to Die

The Power of the Dog, West Side Story This is usually a pretty good indicator here You could see a world in which the Power of the Dog wins here early on in the show and then that means something big is happening Everything's going its way, yeah Even more so, Best Film Editing is considered one of the key indicators of

Best Picture, Don't Look Up Dune, King Richard, Power of the Dog, tick, tick, boom. Interesting here. No Belfast, no licorice pizza, both of which I thought were going to make their way into this. This was my worst category for predictions. I only got two of these right. So shows that I don't know very much about film editing. Though the don't look up nomination does indicate that the dream is still alive for Don't Look Up Chaos Oscars.

A couple of final ones. Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Eyes of Tammy Faye, House of Gucci, Coming to America, Cruella, and Dune. Very strange category. If you're not going to honor Lady Gaga,

why even bother in makeup and hairstyling? But whatever. Let's get to the nadir of this Academy Awards, which is the best visual effects category not because i dislike visual effects but because of what was nominated so dune shang chi and the legend of the ten rings no time to die spider-man no way home and fucking

free guy was nominated free guy what are the effects even well he lives in a making it look video game world video game computery yeah should i should we tell people what we're doing with free guy now yeah we're doing we did a free guy watch along we recorded a free guy watch along me amanda and chris ryan we watched all two hours of free guy free guy much like nightmare alley is going to be available on two streaming services simultaneously at the end of february those streaming services are disney plus and hbo max which means it'll be widely available to those who subscribe to those services you can watch along with us as we explain to Amanda what video games are and what they mean to her unborn son. You know, I don't want to spend too much time on

the shorts categories because frankly, I haven't watched all of them. Maybe we'll get into it a little bit more on the show as we dig into them. But I didn't do any predictions on them because I don't really know the landscape and I don't want to pretend like i do all right so what's unsaid here a couple a couple of significant facts um well this is not a significant fact but it's important no lady gaga no jennifer lopez no ben affleck no bradley cooper no leonardo dicaprio um i don't know i'm uh this is not a very star-studded event. What are you going to be juiced about for the next six to eight weeks?

At some point, it's just like, how is the big picture going to embrace the Oscars and find its enthusiasms? Because it's on us and really on you. Because frankly, I'm not going to be here. Sorry about that. Yeah, this is your final recording for a little while. And so maybe should just ignore the oscars until march 27th i don't know i don't know what to do i mean it's not it's just not that fun i mean if there aren't any narratives

we got to create them for you but i agree that there's like no one parties you know there's not a lot to hang on to should i try to spark like a beef between Hamaguchi and Spielberg, you know, to see if I can get them tweeting at each other angrily about their feelings? What if I got really into Coda and I was like, Coda is by far the best film of the year?

You are really into Coda. Remember, you were like, this is trash. And then you had a child and then you wept and you were like, I see the beauty of the world.

Man, do you know how frequently you're doing that? Like I need to write down every single movie. Oh, Ordinary People you know how frequently you're doing that like i need to write down every single movie god oh ordinary people was another one where you're like wow i just watched this as a as a father on the rewatchables and now like here are all of my thoughts well it was specific that was specifically about the father character who i was thought was kind of a wet rag but he actually you know i it now. Honestly, every time the baby does a new thing now, like any new thing,

just like close one eye while keeping the other eye open. I'm like, this child is, was ordained from God to save me. And I must cry upon every new gesture. So yeah, I'm sorry. This is,

this is who I am now. And this is who you will be too. So get ready to deal with it. I know. Do you think I'm suddenly going to watch everything as a parent you think that's gonna happen anything where kids are in peril it's a cliche but it's so true it fucks you up it really fucks you up but that's like that's specific that's like you know there are plenty of other movies where it's not like some kids about to die and they're just like parents and children and i think instinctively i've always

watched it from the perspective of a kid as the as the as the child because i'm not a parent yet but is it really just gonna flip over and then i'm gonna be like coda i thought coda was a very you know affecting movie i i don't know i've been reflecting on it a little bit obviously because uh even my wife who is a very sensitive person like, why are you such a clown about every emotional moment in your life now? Which is fair. A fair criticism. But when I was about nine years old, I basically started acting like I was 40 years old. So I've been cynical, serious, boring adult for a long, long, long, long time.

And now this is a chance to redeem my emotions. You know, this is an opportunity to go back to something a little bit more childlike. That's what's happening. I think. All right.

So you're embracing Coda in the Best Picture race. Well, that's the only thing I could do, especially without you. I, you know, we'll have great guests. There's gonna be a ton of great folks from The Ringer coming on the show

over the course of the next few months. We'll have a lot of fun with things, but the Oscars in particular leaves us a little bit high and dry. I mean, look, we already did our Steven Spielberg episode. One thing I wanted to cite here is that he is now the first director

who's been recognized in six consecutive decades, which is just unbelievable. You know, he now has eight best director nominations to his name, which ties him for fourth all time with Billy Wilder. He's only behind Martin Scorsese. Ever heard of him with nine and William Wyler with 12 best director nominations? That's just nuts.

So maybe more time. I'm talking about Spielberg. I'd love for more people to just check out West Side Story, which is a wonderful film. That would be cool. People were like, hey, we should talk about that more. This is like, God, I mean, I agree. I loved it.

It was one of my favorite movie-going experiences last year. And it's so bizarre that what we're begging people to do in order to save Oscar season is be like, have you heard of a boutique little film called West Side Story,

a remake by, wait, did Tony Kushner not get nominated for that? He did not get nominated. Of a boutique little film called West Side Story. A remake. Wait, did Tony Kushner not get nominated for that? He did not get nominated. Yeah, I guess that is a snub that I'm just thinking about in real time. Yeah, a remake of an incredibly successful Oscar film by Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner. We're just like, check it out. Give it some time. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I liked it though. Check it out. If you haven't seen it pretty good. This is your, your final opportunity to say anything on this podcast during this phase of your life. Because listen,

okay, that is true. This phase of my life. I I'm dissociating at this point. If don't look up wins, if Will Smith does not win, I, you know, I will invade your garage on Oscar night. Kool-Aid man coming through.

It's just like, you can't keep me away. It'll be interesting to watch this and not have a microphone with which to just spout all of my opinions immediately and impulsively. But I'm going to try to still care from afar because I don't know. I got to have some connection with the outside world. So maybe I'll just send you angry text messages. immediately and impulsively, but I'm going to try to still care from afar because I don't know. I got to have some connection with the outside world. So maybe I'll just send you angry text messages. How would that be different from any other time? That's like really true, but I don't know. It'd be like you need some grist. I just, I, you know, I wish Ben Affleck were still going to be an Oscar season, but I guess it's the end of the road for Ben Affleck and it's the end of

the road for me. What if, um, what if I got Affleck to co-host the show while you're gone? I would really enjoy that. I think he's very good and I honestly couldn't host it with him. I would be too tongue-tied. So that would be fine. See if he's available. If he wants to do a movie draft though, I'm coming back. Ben, holler at me if you want to slide into amanda spot in the meantime this has been a conversation about the academy award nominations here on the big picture uh thank you to amanda for everything she has ever done for this pod and i wish her the greatest of luck in the very very near future thank you to bobby wagner for producing today's show stay tuned to the big picture later this week we'll talk maybe a little bit more about the Oscar nominations

with CR. And Chris and I have something special planned for the later part of this week. See you then. I'm terrified. you